SELBORNE. 
V 
sent to be a pedestrian across the hills, or rather swelhng grounds, 
from Alton, the distance being about from four to five miles. 
From the nature of the soil, which is generally speaking very 
lough and retentive, winter travelling along the foot-path here 
must be a work of " difficulty and labour hard/^ as Milton ex- 
presses it ; and even after a summer shower the path is greasy 
withal. It is also beset with a great number of stiles, with no 
steps to facilitate the crossing ; but one journeying toward Sel- 
borne must not mind those little matters, and, as the foot-path is 
one of ups arid downs, it is never very deep, or very long in 
drying after a shower. It is first up the slope from Alton, then 
down again to Trunchion, and so gradually up another slope by 
West Wordleham and Hartley Farm, which last slope is long but 
not steep, but all the while there is no appearance of Selborne. 
After the last long slope is turned, however, and the descent, 
which is also gradual, is so far made, Selborne, of which the 
Mils have again been seen from the top of the slope, makes its 
appearance in exactly the manner which one would wish in order 
to have a general impression of it unbroken by details. A hedge 
forms the immediate fore-ground, over which the church and 
steeple, and a portion of the vicarage house, make their appear- 
ance. Clumps of trees conceal the village, but display over the 
vicarage a very finely wooded park of about twenty acres, which 
