The Natural History of Selborne, Vol. 1 | Page 2

He wrote also a Tour in Wales and a History of London.
Daines Barrington, fourth son of the first Viscount Barrington, was a

year younger than Pennant, and died in 1800. He became Secretary to
Greenwich Hospital, a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and
President of the Royal Society. His "Miscellanies," published in 4to in
1781, deal with questions of Natural History, and of Antiquities,
including a paper first published in 1775 asserting the possibility of
approaching the North Pole. His most valued book was one of
"Observations on the more Ancient Statutes."
H.M.

LETTERS ADDRESSED TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ.
LETTER I.
The 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 south-west 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. If you begin from the
south and proceed westward, the adjacent parishes are Emshot, Newton
Valence, Faringdon, Hartley Mauduit, Great Ward le Ham, Kingsley,
Hadleigh, Bramshot, Trotton, Rogate, Lyffe, and Greatham. The soils
of this district are almost as various and diversified as the views and
aspects. The high part of the south-west 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 eminence is altogether beech, 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
sheep-walk, 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 south-east 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
north-east, which altogether, with the country beyond Alton and
Farnham, form a noble and extensive outline.
At the foot of this hill, one stage or step from the uplands, lies the
village, which consists of one single straggling street, three-quarters of
a mile in length, in a sheltered vale, and running parallel with the
Hanger. The houses are divided from the hill by a vein of stiff clay
(good wheat land), yet stand on a rock of white stone, little in
appearance removed from chalk; but seems so far from being
calcareous, that it endures extreme heat. Yet that the freestone still
preserves somewhat that is analogous to chalk, is plain from the
beeches, which descend as low as those rocks extend, and no farther,
and thrive as well on them, where the ground is steep, as on the chalks.
The cart-way of the village divides, in a remarkable manner, two very
incongruous soils. To the south-west is a rank clay, that requires the
labour of years to render it mellow; while the gardens to the north-east,
and small enclosures behind, consist of a warm, forward, crumbling
mould, called black malm, which seems highly saturated with
vegetable and animal manure; and these may perhaps have been the
original site of the town; while the woods and coverts might extend
down to the opposite bank.
At each end of the village, which runs from south-east to north-west,
arises a small rivulet: that at the north-west end frequently fails; but the
other is a fine perennial spring, little influenced by drought or wet
seasons, called Well-head. This breaks out of some high grounds
joining to Nore Hill, a noble chalk promontory, remarkable for sending
forth two streams into two different seas. The one to the south becomes
a branch of the Arun, running to Arundel, and so sailing into the British
Channel: the other to the north. The Selborne stream makes one branch
of the Wey; and, meeting the Black-down stream at Hadleigh, and the
Alton and Farnham stream at Tilford-bridge, swells into a considerable
river, navigable at Godalming; from whence it passes to Guildford, and
so into the Thames at Weybridge; and thus at the Nore into the German
Ocean.

Our wells, at an average, run to about sixty-three foot, and when sunk
to that depth seldom fail; but produce a fine limpid water, soft to the
taste, and much commended by those who drink the pure element, but
which does not lather well with soap.
To the north-west, north and east of the village, is a range of fair
enclosures, consisting