THE NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
LETTERS TO THOMAS PENNANT. 
LETTER I. 
HE parish of Selborne lies in the extreme eastern corner 
of the county of Hampshire, bordering on the county 
of Sussex, and not far from the county of Surrey; is about 
. fifty miles southwest of London, in latitude fifty-one, and near 
mid-way between the towns of Alton and Petersfield. Being 
very large and extensive, it abuts on twelve parishes, two of 
which are in Sussex, viz., Trotton and Rogate. The soils of 
this district are almost as various and diversified as the views 
and aspects. The high part of the southwest consists of a 
vast hill of chalk, rising three hundred feet above the village, 
and is divided into a sheep-down, the high wood and a long 
hanging wood, called the Hanger. The covert of this emi- 
nence is altogether deech, the most lovely of all forest trees, 
whether we consider its smooth rind or bark, its glossy foliage, 
or graceful pendulous boughs. ‘The down, or sheepwalk, is a 
pleasing park-like spot, of about one mile by half that space, 
jutting out on the verge of the hill-country, where it begins to 
’ break down into the plains, and commanding a very engaging 
view, being an assemblage of hill, dale, wood-lands, heath, and 
water. The prospect is bounded to the southeast and east by 
the vast range of mountains called the Sussex Downs, by Guild- 
down near Guildford, and by the downs round Dorking, and 
Ryegate in Surrey, to the northeast, which altogether, with the 
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