SELBORNE. 
ix 
pulse ; and, though White has conferred more general celebrity 
on Selborne than perhaps any other man ever conferred upon 
any other village, yet his doing so must be considered as partak- 
ing much of the nature of discharging a debt of gratitude. This 
reciprocity of advantage between Selborne and White is a subject 
well worthy the attention of all who wish to promote the know- 
ledge of nature, and those arts, and those amiable feelings of which 
the study of nature is so sure a foundation. Gilbert White did 
not possess that acuteness of critical discernment which he 
might have acquired had he been formally drawn into the vortex 
of science at this time, and there are many points upon which 
he shows a very strong leaning towards superstitions which are 
now exploded ; but still, in every thing that came fully within the 
scope of his own observation, the words of White are the express 
image of nature ; and, without the slightest straining after lofty 
figures or sounding phrases, his " Natural History of Selborne" 
is one of the most genuinely eloquent books m the English lan- 
guage. 
Immediately over the part of the vicarage which is seen, there 
appears, as already hinted, a little park finely sprinkled with 
pretty large and very thriving trees, tastefully arranged in small 
clusters, and giving depth and breadth to the rich grassy turf 
between them. This beautiful piece of ground, which extends 
upwards to the foot of the Hanger, was in the occupation of 
White. The garden of his late residence abuts upon it by a "haha," 
or sunk fence, alluded to by him ; but this is not perceived from 
the windows or the garden, so that the house has all the appear- 
ance of facing a park which extends to the Hanger. 
The Hanger, of which a small portion only is shown in the 
sketch, is one of the richest masses of foliage that can well be 
imagined, and has a very considerable eflfect upon the air at Sel- 
borne. The dry rock on which the town is situated, and the 
fields of white malmy clay, would make the summer air at Sel- 
borne intolerably hot, were it not that the Hanger sends down 
its cooling breeze, breathing freshness and health over the 
heated part of the surface, in the same manner as the sea-breeze 
fans the burning shores of tropical countries. The opposite side 
of the village answers in this respect to the call of the Hanger ; 
for the Temple Hanger, and the hanging woods, on the left hand 
of the " Liths" as one looks to them from the village, fur- 
nish their complement of cool air for the mitigation of the heat. 
