li 
NATURAL HISTORY 
open fields than enclosures : after harvest some fev/ land- 
rails are seen. 
The parish of Selborne, by taking in so much of the 
forest^, is a vast district. Those who tread the bounds are 
employed part of three days in the business, and are of 
opinion that the outline, in all its curves and indentings, 
does not comprise less than thirty miles. 
The village stands in a sheltered spot, secured by The 
Hanger from the strong westerly winds. The air is soft, 
but rather moist from the effluvia of so many trees ; ' yet 
perfectly healthy, and free from agues. 
The quantity of rain that falls on it is very considerable, 
as may be supposed in so woody and mountainous a 
district. As my experience in measuring the water is but 
of short date, I am not qualified to give the mean quantity.* 
I only know that 
Inch. Hnnd. 
From May 1, 1779, to the end of the year, there fell 28 37 ! 
From Jan. 1, 1780, to Jan. 1, 1781 ... 27 32 
From Jan. 1, 1781, to Jan. 1, 1782 . . . 30 71 
From Jan. 1, 1782, to Jan. 1, 1783 . . . 50 26 ! 
From Jan. 1, 1783, to Jan. 1, 1784 . . . 33 71 
From Jan. 1, 1784, to Jan. 1, 1785 . . . 33 80 
From Jan. 1, 1785, to Jan. 1, 1786 . . . 31 55 
From Jan. 1, 1786, to Jan. 1, 1787 . . . 39 57 
The village of Selborne, and large hamlet of Oakhanger, 
^ This effect of trees is fully treated of in the Letter to Daines 
Barrington, numbered XXIX. — Ed. 
2 A very intelligent gentleman [Thomas Barker, of ancient family in 
the county of Rutland — Ed.] assures me (and he speaks from upwards of 
forty years' experience) that the mean rain of any place cannot be 
ascertained till a person has measured it for a very long period. "If I 
had only measured the rain," says he, " for the four first years, from 
1740 to 1743, I should have said the mean rain at Lyndon was 16^ in. 
for the year ; if from 1740 to 1750, 18| inches. The mean rain before 
1763 was 20| ; from 1763 and since, 25^ ; from 1770 to 1780, 26. If 
only 1773, 1774, and 1775, had been measured, Lyndon mean rain 
would have been called 32 in." — G. W. 
Averaging fifty per cent, more than Lyndon, and upwards of fifty 
per cent, more than the neighbourhood of London, it may well be said 
that the quantity of rain that falls at Selborne is very considerable. 
The excess, as is stated in the text, is altogether attributable to local 
circumstances. — Ed. 
