Page:White - The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne.djvu/32

 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 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.* (*A very intelligent gentleman assures 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