The natural history and antiquities of Selborne : in the county of Southampton / by the Rev. Gilbert White ; the standard edition by E.T. Bennett ; thoroughly revised, with additional notes, by James Edmund Harting ; with ten letters not included in any other edition of the work ; illustrated with engravings by Thomas Bewick and others.

Gilbert White

Date:: 1889

Credit: The natural history and antiquities of Selborne : in the county of Southampton / by the Rev. Gilbert White ; the standard edition by E.T. Bennett ; thoroughly revised, with additional notes, by James Edmund Harting ; with ten letters not included in any other edition of the work ; illustrated with engravings by Thomas Bewick and others. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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open fields than enclosui-es: after harvest some few land- rails are seen. The parish of Selborne, by ta.king 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 thu-ty 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 quantity 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 quantity.* I only know that From May 1, 1779, to the end of the year, there fell Inch, 28 Hnnd, 37! From Jan. 1, 1780, to Jan. 1, 1781 27 32 From Jan. 1, 1781, to Jan. 1, 1782 30 71 From Jan. 1, 1782, to Jan. 1, 1783 50 26! From Jan. 1, 1783, to Jan. 1,1784 33 71 From Jan. 1, 1784, to Jan. 1, 1785 33 80 From Jan. 1, 1785, to Jan. 1, 1786 31 55 From Jan. 1, 1786, to Jan. 1, 1787 39 57 The village of Selborne, and large hamlet of Oakhanger, ^ This effect of trees is fully treated of in the Letter to Daines Barrington, numbered XXIX.—Ed. 2 A very intelligent gentleman [Thomas Barker, of ancient family in the county of Rutland—Ed.] assures me (and he speaks from upwards of forty years’ experience) that the mean rain of any place cannot be ascei’tained 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 16i in. for the year ; if from 1740 to 1750, 18^ inches. The mean rain before 1763 was ; fi-om 1763 and since, 25^ ; from 1770 to 1780, 26. If only 1773, 1774, and 1775, had been measured, Lyndon mean rain would have been called 32 in.”—G. W. Averaging fifty per cent, more than Lyndon, and upwards of fifty per cent, more than the neighbourhood of London, it may well be said that the quantity of rain that falls at Selborne is very considerable. The excess, as is stated in the text, is altogether attributable to local circnm.stanccs.—Ed.

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