At each end of the village, which runs from south-east to northwest, 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 falling 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 Hedleigh, 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 feet, 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 of what is called a white malm, a sort of rotten or rubble stone, which, when turned up to the frost and rain, moulders to pieces, and becomes manure to itself.†

Still on to the north-east, and a step lower, is a kind of white land, neither chalk nor clay, neither fit for pasture nor for the plough, yet kindly for hops, which root deep into the freestone, and have their poles and wood for charcoal growing just at hand. This white soil produces the brightest hops.

As the parish still inclines down towards Wolmer-forest, at the juncture of the clays and sand the soil becomes a wet, sandy loam, remarkable for timber, and infamous for roads. The oaks of Temple and Blackmoor stand high in the estimation of purveyors, and have furnished much naval timber, while the trees on the freestone grow large, but are what workmen call shakey, and so brittle as often to fall to pieces in sawing. Beyond the sandy loam the soil becomes a hungry lean sand, till it mingles with the forest; and will produce little without the assistance of lime and turnips.

* This spring produced, September 14, 1781, after a severe hot summer, and a preceding dry spring and winter, nine gallons of water in a minute, which is five hundred and forty in an hour, and twelve thousand nine hundred and sixty, or two hundred and sixteen hogsheads, in twentyfour hours, or one natural day. At this time many of the wells failed, and all the ponds in the vales were dry.

†This soil produces good wheat and clover.

LETTER II. To T. PENNANT, Esq.

In the court of Norton farm-house, a manor farm to the northwest of the village, on the white malms, stood within these twenty years a broad-leaved elm, or wych hazel, ulmus folio latissimo scabro of Ray,* which, though it had lost a considerable leading bough, in the great storm in the year 1703, equal to a moderate trec, yet, when felled, contained eight loads of timber; and, being too bulky for a carriage, was sawn off at seven feet above the butt, where it measured nearly eight feet in the diameter. This elm I mention to show to what a bulk planted elms may attain, as this tree must certainly have been such from its situation.

In the centre of the village, and near the church, is a square piece of ground surrounded by houses, and vulgarly called the Plestor.† In the midst of this spot stood, in old times, a vast oak, with a short squat body, and huge horizontal arms extending almost to the extremity of the area. This venerable tree, surrounded with stone steps, and seats above them, was the delight of old and young, and a place of much resort in summer evenings, where the former sat in grave debate, while the latter frolicked and danced before them. Long might it have stood, had not the amazing tempest in 1703 overturned it at once, to the infinite regret of the inhabitants and the vicar, who bestowed several pounds in setting it in its place again: but all his care could not avail; the tree sprouted for a time, then withered and

* Ulmus montanus of botanists, the common elm of Scotland and the north of England, and which is far from being of rare occurrence in the south, is a valuable timber tree, of very different growth from the U. campestris, which latter is more generally known as the "common elm." It is a fine and handsome species, but seldom attains the magnitude of the largest specimens of U. campestris, nor is it so stately and cumbrous in its aspect. It does not usually present so fine a bole, the strength being more in the branches, which, in young specimens, are often of nearly equal size with the main stem, and, being loaded with a profusion of foliage, the sprays in consequence become pendent and "give the idea," as is well observed in KNAPP'S JOURNAL OF A NATURALIST," of luxuriance with weakness, of a growth beyond strength." Advancing in age, these boughs become in time less pensile, and project boldly into the air, whence the species has a very pleasing effect planted in an avenue, its huge arms extending across in every picturesque form, and finely contrasting with the rich green of its leaves, which, for the most part, are distributed in dense umbrageous masses. The Wych elm has however one grand defect as an ornamental tree, being generally, in exposed situations, the very first to intimate, by its denuded boughs, the unwelcome approach of winter-a character in which it remarkably differs from the common species, the latter retaining its foliage for a much longer period, and, "ere at length its season does arrive," being finely mellowed with the golden hues of autumn. The largest example of the Wych elm on record is one that grew in the park of Sir Walter Baggot, in Staffordshire, and which is mentioned in the second vol. of Evelyn's SYLVA, p. 189. This noble tree, after two men had been five days felling it, lay 120 feet in length, and was 17 feet diameter at the stool. As Mr. Evelyn remarks, "this was truly a goodly tree." Five species of elm are enumerated by Sir J. E. Smith as indigenous to Britain, and at least as many more have been introduced. They are all closely allied, and some are very difficult to distinguish.-ED.

+ Vide description in the Antiquities.

died. This oak I mention to show to what a bulk planted oaks also may arrive and planted this tree must certainly have been, as will appear from what will be said further concerning this area, when we enter on the antiquities of Selborne.*

On the Blackmoor estate there is a small wood called Losel's, of a few acres, that was lately furnished with a set of oaks of a peculiar growth and great value: they were tall and taper-like firs, but standing near together had very small heads, only a little brush without any large limbs. About twenty years ago the bridge at the Toy, near Hampton Court, being much decayed, some trees were wanted for the repairs that were fifty feet long without bough, and would measure twelve inches diameter at the little end. Twenty such trees did a purveyor find in this little wood, with this advantage, that many of them answered the description at sixty feet.† These trees were sold for twenty pounds a-piece.

In the centre of this grove there stood an oak, which, though shapely and tall on the whole, bulged out into a large excrescence about the middle of the stem. On this a pair of ravens had fixed their residence for such a series of years, that the oak was distinguished by the title of the Raven-tree. Many were the attempts of the neighbouring youths to get at this eyry: the difficulty whetted their inclinations, and each was ambitious of surmounting the arduous task. But, when they arrived at the swelling, it jutted

Raven.

out so in their way, and was so far beyond their grasp, that the most daring lads were awed, and acknowledged the undertaking to be too hazardous. So the ravens built on, nest upon nest, in perfect security, till the fatal day arrived in which the wood was to be levelled. It was in the month of February, when those birds usually sit. The saw was applied to the butt, the wedges were inserted into the opening, the woods echoed to the heavy blows of the beetle or mallet, the tree nodded to its fall; but still the dam sat on. At last, when it gave way, the bird was flung from her nest, and, though her parental affection deserved a better fate, was whipped down by the twigs, which brought her dead to the ground.

Probably the finest and most stately oak, now growing in the south-east of England, is that in the park at Pansanger, in Hertfordshire, the seat of earl Cowper.-ED.

+ An oak table of one solid plank, seventy-five feet long, and three wide in its entire length, is mentioned in Dr. Plot's Nat. Hist. of Staffordshire, as to be seen in the hall of Dudleyeastle, in that county. The tree grew in the adjoining park.-ED.

LETTER III. To T. PENNANT, Esq.

THE fossil-shells of this district, and sorts of stone, such as have fallen within my observation, must not be passed over in silence. And first I must mention, as a great curiosity, a specimen that was plowed up in the chalky fields, near the side of the Down, and given to me for the singularity of its appearance, which, to an incurious eye, seems like a petrified fish of about four inches long, the cardo passing for a head and mouth. It is in reality a

bivalve of the Linnæan genus of mytilus, and the species of crista galli; called by Lister, restellum; by Rumphius, ostream plicatum minus; by D'Argenville, auris porci, s. crista galli; and by those who make collections cock's comb. Though I applied to several such in London, I never could ineet with an entire specimen; nor could I ever find in books any engraving from a perfect one. In the superb museum at Leicester-house, permission was given me to examine for this article; and though I was disappointed as to the fossil, I was highly gratified with the sight of several of the shells themselves in high preservation. This bivalve is only known to inhabit the Indian Ocean, where it fixes itself to a zoophyte, known by the name gorgonia. The curious foldings of the sutures the one into the other, the alternate flutings or grooves, and the curved form of my specimen, being much easier expressed by the pencil than by words, I have caused it to be drawn and engraved.*

Ostrea carinata, or keeled oyster of Lamark. The author is however mistaken in the sup position that this identical species is yet in being, it having long since been satisfactorily shown that no species of organism, the remains of which are imbedded in the old limestone formations, exists at the present time; although many recent species (or those which are now living) are very closely allied to some-even of the most ancient-of those which are exclusively fossil. No species whatever is common to even the secondary and tertiary formations (as they are termed),

Cornua ammonis are very common about this village. As we were cutting an inclining path up the Hanger, the labourers found them frequently on that steep, just under the soil, in the chalk, and of a considerable size. In the lane above Well-head, in the way to Emshot, they abound in the bank, in a darkish sort of marl, and are usually very small and soft: but in Clay's Pond, a little further on, at the end of the pit, where the soil is dug out for manure, I have occasionally observed them of large dimensions, perhaps fourteen or sixteen inches in diameter. But as these did not consist of firm stone, but were formed of a kind of terra lapidosa, or hardened clay, as soon as they were exposed to the rains and frost they mouldered away. These seemed as if they were a very recent production. In the chalk-pit, at the northwest end of the Hanger, large nuutili are sometimes observed.

In the very thickest strata of our freestone, and at considerable depths, well-diggers often find large scallops or pectines, having both shells deeply striated, and ridged and furrowed alternately. They are highly impregnated with, if not wholly composed of, the stone of the quarry

LETTER IV. To T. PENNANT, Esq.

As in a former letter the freestone of this place has been only mentioned incidentally, I shall here become more particular.

This stone is in great request for hearth-stones, and the beds of ovens and in lining of lime-kilns it turns to good account; for the workmen use sandy loam instead of mortar; the sand of which fluxes,* and runs by the intense heat, and so cases over the whole face of the kiln with a strong vitrified coat like glass, that it is well preserved from injuries of weather, and endures thirty or forty years. When chiseled smooth, it makes elegant fronts for houses, equal in colour and grain to the Bath stone; and superior in one respect, that, when seasoned, it does not scale. Decent chimney-pieces are worked from it of much closer and finer grain than Portland; and rooms are floored with it, but it proves rather too soft for this purpose. It is a freestone, cutting in all directions, yet has something of a grain parallel

so that it can hardly be expected that any sort of animal, the exuviæ of which occur in the (secondary) chalk, can be still found in existence at the present time.-ED.

• There may probably be also in the chalk itself that is burnt for lime a proportion of sand, for few chalks are so pure as to have none.