SELBOKNE 
205 
I had never been allowed a good view of the baby, as whenever 
it tried to leave the cradle both Mr. and Mrs. Canary would cry 
out “ Oh ! fly not yet,” and beat it back to bed with their wings. 
Being alone one evening I thought I would have a good look, 
so I lifted the hen off the nest, when to my dismay Mousey 
jumped out and darted through a hole where a seed-bottle ought 
to have been, on to the floor and away, before I could see more 
than that it was become a good sized and active mouse. I 
searched the room for a long time but to no purpose, and put 
food about in various parts, which was partly eaten for two 
nights, but whether by the runaway or its wild relations I cannot 
say. Of course the little creature had been kept unnaturally 
warm in its feather bed, and as it was very cold weather I 
suppose the change caused its death, for a few days later on, 
the curtains being shaken, down dropped the martyr to mistaken 
kindness, dead and cold, quite past reviving warmth. I was 
very sorry for the death of what I think ought to have been 
a real singing mouse. The birds would accept no apology, and 
proceeded to pull the nest to pieces in great indignation, and 
I was left a repentant and lamenting Mrs. Bluebeard. 
SELBORNE. 
ELBORNE is known to everybody : it is a spot which 
has long since passed away into the national valhalla 
as the home and last resting-place of dear old Gilbert 
White, the clerical naturalist. Its name has been 
made, not by a man of war, who by one bold stroke on the field 
of battle became enshrined as a national hero, but by the every- 
day life, the incomings and the outgoings of a man more obscure 
and more self-effaced than the most humble member of the 
clerical profession can be at the present day. But Selborne, the 
little Hampshire village, is just the place where a man, with the 
bent of mind of our old friend, would find all that he wished. 
In a moment of enthusiasm, when his heart was filled with pride 
at the glories of the place, he penned these lines : — 
See Selborne spread her boldest beauties round. 
The varied valley and the mountain grand. 
Wildly majestic ! What of all the pride 
Of flats with loads of ornament supplied ? 
Unpleasing, tasteless, impotent expense 
Compared with nature’s rude magnificence. 
When I visited the spot, a short time ago, it looked so quaint 
and old-fashioned that I fancied I had stepped out of the rush 
and hurry of the nineteenth century back into the quietude of 
our old naturalist’s daily life, over a century ago. The classic 
spot has not as yet been desecrated by the sound of a locomotive, 
and visitors who would worship at this shrine must either walk 
or drive the intervening five miles from Alton or Liss, the 
