OF SELBORNE, 
It 
LETTER V. 
TO THE SAME.. 
Among the fingularities of this place the two rocky hollow lanes, 
the one to Alton, and the other to the foreft, deferve our attention. 
Thefe roads, running through the malm lands, are, by the traffick 
of ages, and the fretting of water, worn down through the firft 
ftratum of our freeftone, and partly through the fecond ; fo that 
they look more like water-courfes than roads ; and are bedded with 
naked rag for furlongs together. In many places they are reduced 
fixteen or eighteen feet beneath the level of the fields ; and after 
floods, and in frofts, exhibit very grotefque and wild appearances, 
from the tangled roots that are twifted among the ftrata, and from 
the torrents rufhing down their broken fides ; and efpecially when 
thofe cafcades are frozen into icicles, hanging in all the fanciful 
lhapes of froft-woik. Thefe rugged gloomy fcences affright the 
ladies when they peep down into them from the paths above, and 
make timid horfemen fliudder while they ride along them ; but de- 
light the naturalift with their various botany, and particularly with 
their curious flices with which they abound. 
The manor of Selborne, was it flridly looked after, with all 
it's kindly afpeds, and all it's floplng coverts, would fwarm with 
game; even now hares, partridges, and pheafants abound; and in 
old days woodcocks were as plentiful. There are few quails, be- 
caufe they more afFed open fields than enclofures; after harveft 
fome few land-rails are feen. 
The parifli of Selborne, by taking in fo much of the foreft, is 
a vaft diftrid. Thofe who tread the bounds are employed part of 
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