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188 HAMPSHIRE FIELD CLUB BOTANICAL EXCURSION TO NOAR HILL N Wednesday, July 4th, a very successful excursion to Noar Hill in search of Orchids took place. This spot is very O little known ; it lies between Newton Valence and Empshott at an elevation of 696 feet, with beautiful views of all the country round. Old chalk diggings, overgrown with turf, form the happy hunting-ground for a large number of wild flowers.' A short local history thus speaks of it : " There was a hamlet or manor of Cures (a clerical error for Oures) lying within the Hundred of Selborne held by the wealthy Benedictine Abbey of Hyde at Winchester. In 1275, and again in 1334, it figures in the Hundred Rolls as the Manor of Ores held of the King ' in chief' by the Abbey ' in perpetual alms ' ; the little Manor remained in the possession of the Abbey till the Dissolution." Gilbert White writes of " 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, and so falling into the British Channel ; the other to the north, the Selborne stream, makes one branch of the Wey and passes .... thus at the Nore into the German Ocean." According to the local history, " in old days the Lord of the Manor alone might dig chalk from the waste, and seems to have taken full advantage of his privilege if we may judge from the pock-marks on Noar Hill. Anyone else who had a fancy to do the same was liable to a fine of £20 per load." About 50 botanically inclined members turned up, the weather was all that could be desired, orchids were there in plenty, in fact, in places we walked over masses of the Musk Orchis.
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