2 
NATURAL HISTORY 
field. Being very large and extensive, it abuts on twelve 
parish oSj two of which are in Sussex, viz. Trotton and 
Rogate. If you begin from the south and proceed west- 
ward, the adjacent parishes are Emshot, Newton Valence, 
Faringdon, Harteley Mauduit,^ Great Ward le ham,"^ Kings- 
ley, Hedleigh, Bramshot, Trotton, Rogate, Lysse, and 
Greatham. The soils of this district are almost as various 
and diversified as the views and aspects. The high part to 
the south-west consists of a vast hill of chalk, rising 300 ft. 
above the village; and is divided into a sheep down, the 
high wood, and a long hanging wood called The Hanger. 
The covert of this eminence is altogether beech, the most 
lovely of all forest trees, whether we consider its smooth 
rind or bark, its glossy foliage, or graceful pendulous 
boughs. The down, or sheep-walk, is a pleasing park-like 
spot, of about one mile by half that space, jutting out on the 
verge of the hill country, where it begins to break down 
into the plains, and commanding a very engaging view, 
being an assemblage of hill, dale, woodlands, heath, and 
water. The prospect is bounded to the south-east and 
east by the vast range of mountains called the Sussex 
Downs, by Guild Down near Guildford, and by the Downs 
round Dorking and Ryegate in Surrey, to the north-east ; 
which, altogether, with the country beyond Alton and Farn- 
ham, form a noble and extensive outline. 
^ Mr. Bennett, in a foot-note to this passage, which appeared in his 
edition of the present work, published in 1837, states that in the paro- 
chial registers the orthography is Harteley Maiidytt. Mauduit, used 
by Gilbert White, is, however, a more usual reading of Malduith, the 
name of the earliest Norman lord, which was used subsequently to the 
Conquest as an adjunct to the Saxon appellation, for the purpose of dis- 
tinguishing this Harteley from the other Hartleys in the same county to 
the north of it. — Ed. 
2 The orthography in the text, though formal in appearance, was 
deliberately adopted by the author, who, in his first edition, inserted all 
deviations from it as errata ; it is, consequently, preserved throughout. 
Wordlam, according to Mr. Bennett, is a pronunciation not unfrequently 
used in the neighbourhood : but Worldham is the more ordinary name. 
And in this case he suspects that the vulgar are right ; Werildeham, 
the oldest name which he could find for it, belonging to an era prior to 
the erection in England of Norman castles. — Ed. 
