AU. RIGHTS RESERVED.] 
IRature IRotes : 
Ubc Selbocne Soc(et\>’8 Jlbaoiisine 
No. 192. DECEMBER, 1905. Vol. XVI. 
SELBORNIANA. 
Gilbeut White’s Letters. — Mr. Andrew Rears lias pur- 
chased the twenty-five letters written by Gilbert White to his 
brother John, which were recently mentioned in these notes. 
They will be preserved at “The Wakes,” and Mr. Pears’ 
prompt action has happily prevented them from going to 
America. A statement which has appeared in the press to 
the effect that a number of unpublished letters of Gilbert 
White have now become available and will shortly be incor- 
porated in a new book, is unfortunately not correct. It is based 
on Mr. Pears’ acquisitions, which have, however, all been pub- 
lished in the “ Lite and Letters of Gilbert White.” 
The Saving of Hindhead. — The securing for the public 
of 700 acres of the most beautiful part of Surrey by the spirited 
action of a local committee of the Commons Preservation Society, 
and especially of Mrs. Thackeray Turner, has naturally evoked 
many enthusiastic articles in the press. The area purchased 
was the wastes of the manor of Witley, including Gibbet Hill 
and the Devil’s Punch-bowl, and the price paid was less than 
/”4,ooo, most of which, we understand, has been already sub- 
scribed. The Times says ; — 
“ Hindhead is perhaps the best known of all the Surrey hills. Rising to 
close upon 900 feet, it commands a w'ide pros[)ect on all sides. To the east 
lies the weald of Surrey and Sussex, bortiered on the north by the greensand 
ridges, of which Leith Hill is the culminating point, and by the North Downs. 
To the north-west and west the Aldershot country and the, rolling chalk hills 
of Hampshire, diversified by such features as Crooksbury, Farnham Castle, the 
Frensham Ponds, and Selborne Hanger ; while to the south ate the South Downs 
with the nearer heights of Marley and Blackdown. The hill falls steeply on the 
Witley side, and the thick growth of heather dotted with fine hollies breaks away 
into woods and coppices. Almost over the summit — now marked by Sir William 
Erie’s quaint cross, but from the ghastly burden it once bore still called Gibbet 
Hill —sweeps in a long curve the Portsmouth Road, while deep below lies the 
impressive combe known as the Devil’s Punch-b wl. Mr. Pepys, travelling to 
Portsmouth on Admiralty business, found little to admire and much to fear in the 
road round the Punch-bowl, and Cobbett pronounced Hindhead a God-forsaken 
place ; even Turner’s sketch gives an awesome aspect to the cloud-capped hill. 
But Professor Tyndall changed all this. Led by his love of alpine air Tyndall 
made himself a home on the highest available spot, and his example has been 
followed to such good purpose that Hindhead now boasts its scores of mansions, 
villas, and week-end cottages, its two hotels, many boarding-houses, church, and 
public-hall. All this building has been made po-sible by Parliamentary enclo- 
sures on a large scale, which took place in the middle of the last century. The 
