The Natural History of Selborne Part 2

The manor of Selborne, was it strictly looked after, with its kindly aspects, and all its sloping coverts, would swarm with game; even now hares, partridges, and pheasants abound; and in old days woodc.o.c.ks were as plentiful. There are few quails, because they more affect open fields than enclosures; after harvest some few landrails are seen.

The parish of Selborne, by taking in so much of the forest, is a vast district. Those who tread the bounds are employed part of three days in the business, and are of opinion that the outline, in all its curves and indentings, does not comprise less than thirty miles.

The village stands in a sheltered spot, secured by the Hanger from the strong westerly winds. The air is soft, but rather moist from the effluvia of so many trees; yet perfectly healthy and free from agues.

The quant.i.ty of rain that falls on it is very considerable, as may be supposed in so woody and mountainous a district. As my experience in measuring the water is but of short date, I am not qualified to give the mean quant.i.ty.*

(*A very intelligent gentleman a.s.sures me (and he speaks from upwards of forty years' experience) that the mean rain of any plate cannot be ascertained till a person has measured it for a very long period. 'If I had only measured the rain,' says he, 'for the four first years from 1740 to 1743, I should have said the mean rain at Lyndon was 16 and a half inches for the year, if from 1740 to 1750, 18 and a half inches. The mean rain before 1763 was 20 and a quarter, from 1763 and since, 25 and a half; from 1770 to 1780, 26.

If only 1773, 1774 and 1775 had been measured, Lyndon mean rain would have been called 32 inches.')

I only know that:

From May 1, 1779, the end of the year, there fell 28 Inch. 37!

Hund.

From Jan. 1, 1780, to Jan. 1, 1781, there fell 27 32 From Jan. 1, 1781, to Jan. 1, 1782, there fell 30 71 From Jan. 1, 1782, to Jan. 1, 1783, there fell 50 26!

From Jan. 1, 1783, to Jan. 1, 1784, there fell 33 71 From Jan. 1, 1784, to Jan. 1, 1785, there fell 33 80 From Jan. 1, 1785, to Jan. 1, 1786, there fell 31 55 From Jan. 1, 1786, to Jan. 1, 1787, there fell 39 57

The village of Selborne, and large hamlet of Oak-hanger, with the single farms, and many scattered houses along the verge of the forest, contain upwards of six hundred and seventy inhabitants.*

We abound with poor; many of whom are sober and industrious, and live comfortably in good stone or brick cottages, which are glazed, and have chambers above stairs: mud buildings we have none. Besides the employment from husbandry the men work in hop gardens, of which we have many; and fell and bark timber. In the spring and summer the women weed the corn; and enjoy a second harvest in September by hop-picking. Formerly, in the dead months they availed themselves greatly by spinning wool, for making of barragons, a genteel corded stuff, much in vogue at that time for summer wear; and chiefly manufactured at Alton, a neighbouring town, by some of the people called Quakers: but from circ.u.mstances this trade is at an end.** The inhabitants enjoy a good share of health and longevity: and the parish swarms with children.

(* A state of the parish of Selborne, taken October 4, 1783.

The number of tenements or families, 136.

The number of inhabitants in the street is ... 313 In the rest of the parish ... 363 Total, 676; near five inhabitants to each tenement.

In the time of the Rev. Gilbert White, vicar, who died in 1727-8, the number of inhabitants was computed at about 500.)

(** Since the pa.s.sage above was written, I am happy in being able to say that the spinning employment is a little revived, to the no small comfort of the industrious housewife.)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------- Average of baptisms for 60 years.

From 1720 to 1729, both years inclusive Males 6,9 Females 6,0 12,9 From 1730 to 1739, both years inclusive Males 8,2 Females 7,1 15,3 From 1740 to 1749, inclusive Males 9,2 Females 6,6 15,8 From 1750 to 1759, inclusive Males 7,6 Females 8,1 15,7 From 1760 to 1769, inclusive Males 9,1 Females 8,9 18,0 From 1770 to 1779, inclusive Males 10,5 Females 9,8 20 3

Total baptisms of Males 515 Females 465 980 Total of baptisms from 1720 to 1779, both inclusive, 60 years 980.

Average of burials for 60 years.

From 1720 to 1729, both years inclusive Males 4,8 Females 5,1 9,9 From 1730 to 1739, both years inclusive Males 4,8 Females 5,8 10,6 From 1740 to 1749, inclusive Males 4,6 Females 3,8 8,4 From 1750 to 1759, inclusive Males 4,9 Females 5,1 10,0 From 1760 to 1769, inclusive Males 6,9 Females 6,5 13,4 From 1770 to 1779, inclusive Males 5,5 Females 6,2 11,7

Total of burials of Males 315 Females 325 640

Total of burials from 1720 to 1779 both inclusive, 60 years 640.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------- Baptisms exceed burials by more them one-third.

Baptisms of Males exceed Females by one-tenth, or one in ten.

Burials of Females exceed Males by one m thirty.

It appears that a child, born Ed bred m this parish, has Em equal chance to live above forty years.

Twins thirteen times, many of whom dying young have lessened the chance for life.

Chances for life in men and women appear to be equal.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------- A TABLE of the Baptisms, Burials, and Marriages, from January 2, 1761, to December 25, 1780, in the Parish of Selborne.

Baptisms.

1761 Males 8 Females 10 Total 18 1762 7 8 15 1763 8 10 18 1764 11 9 20 1765 12 6 18 1766 9 13 22 1767 14 5 19 1768 7 6 13 1769 9 14 23 1770 10 13 23 1771 10 6 16 1772 11 10 21 1773 8 5 13 1774 6 13 19 1775 20 7 27 1776 11 10 21 1777 8 13 21 1778 7 13 20 1779 14 8 22 1780 8 9 17 198 188 386

Burials.

1761 Males 2 Females 4 Total 6 1762 10 10 20 1763 3 4 7 1764 10 8 18 1765 9 7 16 1766 10 6 16 1767 6 5 11 1768 2 5 7 1769 6 5 11 1770 4 7 11 1771 3 4 7 1772 6 10 16 1773 7 5 12 1774 2 8 10 1775 13 8 21 1776 4 6 10 1777 7 2 9 1778 3 9 12 1779 5 6 11 1780 11 4 15 123 123 246

Marriages.

1761 3 1762 6 1763 7 1764 6 1765 6 1766 4 1767 2 1768 6 1769 2 1770 3 1771 4 1772 3 1773 3 1774 1 1775 6 1776 6 1777 4 1778 5 1779 0 1780 3 83

During this period of twenty years the births of Males exceeded those of Females 10.

The burials of each s.e.x were equal.

And the births exceeded the deaths 140.

Letter VI To Thomas Pennant, Esquire

Should I omit to describe with some exactness the forest of Wolmer, of which three-fifths perhaps lie in this parish, my account of Selborne would be very imperfect, as it is a district abounding with many curious productions, both animal and vegetable; and has often afforded me much entertainment both as a sportsman and as a naturalist.

The royal forest of Wolmer is a tract of land of about seven miles in length, by two and a half in breadth, running nearly from north to south, and is ab.u.t.ted on, to begin to the south, and so to proceed eastward, by the parishes of Greatham, Lysse, Rogate, and Trotton, in the county of Suss.e.x; by Bramshot, Hedleigh, and Kingsley.

This royalty consists entirely of sand covered with heath and fern; but is somewhat diversified with hiss and dales, without having one standing tree in the whole extent. In the bottoms, where the waters stagnate, are many bogs, which formerly abounded with subterraneous trees; though Dr. Plot says positively,* that 'there never were any fallen trees hidden in the mosses of the southern counties.' But he was mistaken: for I myself have seen cottages on the verge of this wild district, whose timbers consisted of a black hard wood, looking like oak, which the owners a.s.sured me they procured from the bogs by probing the soil with spits, or some such instruments: but the peat is so much cut out, and the moors have been so wed examined, that none has been found of late.** Besides the oak, I have also been shown pieces of fossil-wood of a paler colour, and softer nature, which the inhabitants called fir: but, upon a nice examination, and trial by fire, I could discover nothing resinous in them; and therefore rather suppose that they were parts of a willow or alder, or some such aquatic tree.

(* See his Hist. of Staffords.h.i.+re.) (** Old people have a.s.sured me, that on a winter's morning they have discovered these trees in the bogs, by the h.o.a.r frost, which lay longer over the s.p.a.ce where they were concealed, than on the surrounding mora.s.s. Nor does this seem to be a fanciful notion, but consistent with true philosophy. Dr. Hales saith, 'That the warmth of the earth, at some depth under ground, has an influence in promoting a thaw, as well as the change of the weather from a freezing to a thawing state, is manifest, from this observation, viz.

Nov. 29, 1731, a little snow having fallen in the night, it was, by eleven the next morning, mostly melted away on the surface of the earth, except in several places in Bushy Park, where there were drains dug and covered with earth, on which the snow continued to lie, whether those drains were full of water or dry; as also where elm-pipes lay under ground: a plain proof this, that those drains intercepted the warmth of the earth from ascending from greater depths below them: for the snow lay where the drain had more than four feet depth of earth over it. It continued also to lie on thatch, dies, and the tops of walls.' See Hales's Haemastatics, p. 360.

Quaere.-- Might not such observations be reduced to domestic use, by promoting the discovery of old obliterated drains and wells about houses; and in Roman stations and camps lead to the finding of pavements, baths and graves, and other hidden relics of curious antiquity ?)

This lonely domain is a very agreeable haunt for many sorts of wild fowls, which not only frequent it in the winter, but breed there in the summer; such as lapwings, snipes, wild-ducks, and, as I have discovered within these few years, teals. Partridges in vast plenty are bred in good seasons on the verge of this forest, into which they love to make excursions: and in particular, in the dry summer of 1740 and 1741, and some years after, they swarmed to such a degree, that parties of unreasonable sportsmen killed twenty and sometimes thirty brace in a day.

But there was a n.o.bler species of game in this forest, now extinct, which I have heard old people say abounded much before shooting flying became so common, and that was the heath-c.o.c.k, black- game, or grouse. When I was a little boy I recollect one coming now and then to my father's table. The last pack remembered was killed about thirty-five years ago; and within these ten years one solitary greyhen was sprung by some beagles in beating for a hare.

The sportsmen cried out, 'A hen pheasant'; but a gentleman present, who had often seen grouse in the north of England, a.s.sured me that it was a greyhen.

Nor does the loss of our black game prove the only gap in the Fauna Selborniensis; for another beautiful link in the chain of beings is wanting, I mean the red deer, which toward the beginning of this century amounted to about five hundred head, and made a stately appearance. There is an old keeper, now alive, named Adams, whose great-grandfather (mentioned in a perambulation taken in 1635), grandfather, father, and self, enjoyed the head keepers.h.i.+p of Wolmer-forest in succession for more than an hundred years. This person a.s.sures me, that his father has often told him, that Queen Anne, as she was journeying on the Portsmouth road, did not think the forest of Wolmer beneath her royal regard. For she came out of the great road at Lippock, which is just by, and reposing herself on a bank smoothed for that purpose, lying about half a mile to the east of Wolmer-pond, and still called Queen's-bank, saw with great complacency and satisfaction the whole herd of red deer brought by the keepers along the vale before her, consisting then of about five hundred head. A sight this, worthy the attention of the greatest sovereign!

But he further adds that, by means of the Waltham Hacks, or, to use his own expression, as soon as they began blacking, they were reduced to about fifty head, and so continued decreasing till the time of the late Duke of c.u.mberland. It is now more than thirty years ago that his highness sent down an huntsman, and six yeoman-p.r.i.c.kers, in scarlet jackets laced with gold, attended by the stag-hounds; ordering them to take every deer in this forest alive, and convey them in carts to Windsor. In the course of the summer they caught every stag, some of which showed extraordinary diversion; but, in the following winter, when the hinds were also carried off, such fine chases were exhibited as served the country people for matter of talk and wonder for years afterwards. I saw myself one of the yeoman-p.r.i.c.kers single out a stag from the herd, and must confess that it was the most curious feat of activity I ever beheld, superior to anything in Mr. Astley's riding-school. The exertions made by the horse and deer much exceeded all my expectations; though the former greatly excelled the latter in speed.

When the devoted deer was separated from his companions, they gave him, by their watches, law, as they called it, for twenty minutes; when, sounding their horns, the stop-dogs were permitted to pursue, and a most gallant scene ensued.

Letter VII To Thomas Pennant, Esquire

Though large herds of deer do much harm to the neighbourhood, yet the injury to the morals of the people is of more moment than the loss of their crops. The temptation is irresistible; for most men are sportsmen by const.i.tution: and there is such an inherent spirit for hunting in human nature, as scarce any inhibitions can restrain.

Hence, towards the beginning of this century, all this country was wild about deer-stealing. Unless he was a hunter, as they affected to call themselves, no young person was allowed to be possessed of manhood or gallantry. The Waltham blacks at length committed such enormities, that government was forced to interfere with that severe and sanguinary act called the Black Act,* which now comprehends more felonies than any law that ever was framed before. And, therefore, a late bishop of Winchester, when urged to re-stock Waltham-chase,** refused, from a motive worthy of a prelate, replying that 'it had done mischief enough already.'