232 BIRD LIFE THROUGHOUT THE YEAR 



we can see the garden of "the Wakes," and the 

 paddock or park-like meadow behind it, also the 

 south side of the house. Descending by the slippery 

 chalk path called " the zig-zag," which was made in 

 White's time, the hour or more which remains is spent 

 in a stroll to Woolmer, where we hope to see something 

 of the forest so often mentioned by White. The road 

 is one of the two " rocky, hollow lanes " referred to by 

 him as being amongst the singularities of Selborne, 

 the other, to Alton, being now disused. On each side 

 are high banks of loose, white freestone, amongst 

 which the ivy and the roots of trees twist curiously 

 about and the fronds of the polypody and shield fern 

 fill every little hollow formed by the overhanging 

 bank. Presently the " forest," so-called, comes in 

 sight, a bare, heathery waste, stretching away towards 

 Hindhead, and much modified, we believe, since the 

 date of our visit by its adaptation to the purposes of 

 military training. Some of its large ponds or meres, 

 to which ospreys, long-legged stilt-plovers, and other 

 rarities used to come, are drained ; others still remain. 

 A walk of five miles to Alton concludes our pilgrimage. 

 In the fields are great piles of hop-poles, ready for use 

 again next season. The poor people still, as in White's 

 time, " enjoy a second harvest in September by hop- 

 picking." 



White was the first of that school of British out-door 

 naturalists who, as close observers of birds and their 



