10 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
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 
tnirty miles. 
The village stands m 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 
[nch 
Hund. 
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, with 
the single farms, and many scattered houses along the verge of 
the forest, contain upwards of six hundred and seventy inhabit- 
ants.f We abound with poor j many of whom are sober and 
south-eastern counties. I have known one to have been shot in Surrey, in January, and also an 
allied species, the speckled water-crake {crex-zapornia porzana), in the following month. A few 
quails {cotiirnir vulgaris) y also, remain throughout the winter in this country, although by far 
the greater number migrate. This last-mentioned species is by no means uncommon in summer 
upon the Surrey hills. — Ed. 
* A very intelligent gentleman assures me (and he speaks from upwards of forty years' experi- 
ence) that the mean rain of any place cannot be ascertained till a person has measured ii for a 
very long period. "If I had only measured the rain," says he, "for the first four years, from 
1/40 to 1743, I should have said the mean rain at Lyndon was sixteen inches and a half for the 
year; if from 1740 to 1/50, eighteen inches and a half. T!ie mean rain before 1/63 was twenty 
inches and a quarter, from 17^3 and since twenty-five inches and a half, from 1770 to 1/90 
twenty-six inches. If only 17/3, 1774, and 1775, had been measured, Lyndon mean rain would 
have been called thirty-two inches." 
t A STATK OF THE PARISH OF SKLBORNE, TAKEN OCTOBER 4, \7S'6 
The number of tenements or families 136. 
The number of inhabitants lu the street is 313 \ Total 676; nearly five inhabitants to each 
l.i the rest of the parish - - 363 | tenement. 
In the time of the Rev. Gilbert White, vicar, who died in 1/27-8, the numl)er of inhabitants was 
computed o about 500. 
