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 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

*This spring produced, September 10, 1781, after a severe hot summer, and a preceding dry spring and winter, nine gallons of water in a minute, which is 540 in an hour, and 12,960, or 216 hogsheads, in twenty-four hours, or one natural day. At this time many of the wells failed, and all the ponds in the vale were dry.

The "Well-head," as represented in the vignette, "breaks out of the land at the foot of the Hanger, and spreading into a picturesque pond contracts again into a narrow stream, which flows past the village, and swells into a river at Godalming."

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 Hedleigh, and the Alton and Farnham stream at Tilford-bridge, swells into a considerable river, navigable at Godalming; from whence it passes to Guilford, 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 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 in the freestone, and have their poles and wood for charcoal growing just at hand. The 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 shaky, 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 soil produces good wheat and clover.

LETTER II.

TO THE SAME.

IN the court of Norton farm-house, a manor farm to the northwest of the village, on the white malm, 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 tree, 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 near 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 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 farther 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

Mr. White seems to have adopted no plan or rule in arranging the subjects of these letters. They are taken up as they occur or have been observed. This may have its advantages, as recording the observations when freshly made, or before the memory had failed, but a correspondence or journal kept in this way would almost require for the sake of convenience to have the subjects brought more together. Thus there are frequent observations afterwards upon the forestry of Selborne, while here we have now only some of the more remarkable trees noted.

The wych elm, the first tree alluded to, has been a subject always annotated upon, this species being far less commonly grown in England than in Scotland. In the former country it is supplanted almost entirely by the small-leaved or English elm, as it is commonly named, a tree which reaches a large size, and of which there are magnificent specimens in our public parks or promenades; but it produces a wood of inferior quality, and as it is now planted in the hedgerows of the small enclosures of the south, it must very materially injure the crops by its spreading roots, which shoot up and would soon cover the ground. The tree mentioned in this letter is the ulmus campestris, Linn. ; it yields a timber valuable for various agricultural purposes, and is esteemed for making naves for cart-wheels; it is of a more spreading character than the others, and often attains to a large size. The Selborne elm, though of less size than some others, the measurements of which have been recorded, must have been a large and very fine tree. The oak trees mentioned in the latter part of this letter gained their peculiar character by being very thickly planted, and as it might be called "neglected." According to our notion of timber management thinning is indispensable, but to obtain trees of the kind alluded to, the thicker they can be grown, the better. Beech trees with a clean stem of from fifty to seventy feet are very valuable for keel pieces, but the practice of growing wood of any kind in this way has scarcely been practised. Larch planted for hop-poles, or sweet chesnut grown for the same purpose, are treated in this manner; and what in commerce is called Norway poles, are I believe the first thinnings of the Baltic forests, which have been spindled up by the more vigorous trees to great length and uniformity of thickness, and which in all probability would have been ultimately killed,

Vide the plate in the antiquities,

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 apiece.

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 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 these birds usually sit. The saw was applied to the butt,-the wedges were inserted into the opening,-the woods echoed to the heavy blow of the beetle or malle 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.*

*We have always found the raven, whether nesting upon a rock or upon a tree, most unapproachable after she had been disturbed or alarmed.