DESCRIPTION OF SELBORNE. 3 
At each end of the village, which runs from south-east to north- 
west, arises a small rivulet : that at the north-west end frequently 
fails, but the other is a fine perennial spring, little influenced by 
drought or wet seasons, called Well-head* This breaks out of 
some high grounds joining to Nore-hill, a noble chalk promontory, 
remarkable for sending forth two streams into two different seas. 
The one to the south becomes a branch of the Arun, running to 
Arundel, and so falling into the British Channel ; the other to the 
north. The Selborne stream makes one branch of the Wey; and 
meeting the Black-down stream at Hedleigh, and the Alton and 
Farnham stream at Tilford-bridge, swells into a considerable river, 
navigable at Godalming ; from whence it passes to Guildford, and 
so into the Thames at Weybridge ; and thus at the Nore into the 
German Ocean. 
Our wells, at an average, run to about sixty-three feet, and 
when sunk to that depth seldom fail, but produce a fine limpid 
v/ater, soft to the taste, and much commended by those who 
drink the pure element, but which does not lather well with soap. 
To the north-west, north and east of the village, is a range of 
fair enclosures, consisting of what is called a white malm, a sort 
of rotten or rubble stone, which, when turned up to the frost 
and rain, moulders to pieces, and becomes manure to itself.f 
Still on to the north-east, and a step lower, is a kind of white 
land, neither chalk nor clay, neither fit for pasture nor for the 
plough, yet kindly for hops, which root deep into the freestone, 
and have their poles and wood for charcoal growing just at hand. 
This white soil produces the brightest hops. 
As the parish still inclines down towards Wolmer-forest, at the 
juncture of the clays and sand the soil becomes a wet, sandy 
loam, remarkable for timber, and infamous for roads. The oaks 
of Temple and Blackmoor stand high in the estimation of pur- 
veyors, and have furnished much na^^al timber, while the trees 
on the freestone grow large, but are what workmen call shakey, 
and so brittle as often to fall to pieces in sawing. Beyond the 
sandy loam the soil becomes a hungry lean sand, till it mingles 
with the forest ; and will produce little without the assistance of 
lime and turnips. 
* Tliis spring protluced, September 14, ]781, after a severe hot summer, and a preceding dry 
spring and winter, nine gallons of water in a minute, whicii is five hundred and forty in an hour, 
and twelve thousand nine hundred and sixty, or two hundred and sixteen hogsheads, in twenty- 
four hours, or one natural day. At this time many of the wells failed, and ail the poK '.s in tht 
vales were dry. 
t This soil produces good wheat and clover. 
B 2 
