is obliged to find the posts and brushwood for the former; while the farms at Greatham, in rotation, furnish for the latter; and are all enjoined to cut and deliver the materials at the spot. This custom I mention, because I look upon it to be of very remote antiquity. LETTER VIII. TO THE SAME. ON the verge of the forest, as it is now circumscribed, are three considerable lakes, two in Oakhanger, of which I have nothing particular to say; and one called Bin's or Bean's Pond, which is worthy the attention of a naturalist or a sportsman. For, being crowded at the upper end with willows, and with the Carex cespitosa1, it affords such a safe and pleasing shelter to wild ducks, teals, snipes, &c. that they breed there. In the winter this covert is also frequented by foxes, and sometimes by pheasants; and the bogs produce many curious plants. [For which, consult Letter XLI. to Mr. Barrington.] By a perambulation of Wolmer Forest and The Holt, made in 1635, and in the eleventh year of Charles the First (which now lies before me), it appears that the limits of the former are much circumscribed. For, to say nothing of the farther side, with which I am not so 'I mean that sort which, rising into tall hassocks, is called by the foresters torrets; a corruption, I suppose, of turrets. Bin's Pond has been drained, and cattle graze in its bed. The covert in which wild ducks and foxes formerly haunted, has almost entirely disappeared. The place has lost much of its attraction for the sportsman; and the botanist, who might desire to search there for curious plants would now run the risk of being disappointed, as in a thousand other instances, of his expected harvest; deprived, by modern improvements, of the soil in which alone his plants would thrive.-E. T. B. D well acquainted, the bounds on this side, in old times, came into Binswood; and extended to the ditch of Ward le ham Park, in which stands the curious mount called King John's Hill, and Lodge Hill; and to the verge of Hartley Mauduit, called Mauduit-hatch; comprehending also Short-heath, Oakhanger, and Oakwoods; a large district, now private property, though once belonging to the royal domain3. It is remarkable that the term purlieu is never once mentioned in this long roll of parchment. It contains, besides the perambulation, a rough estimate of the value of the timbers, which were considerable, growing at that time in the district of The Holt'; and enumerates the officers, superior and inferior, of those joint forests, for the time being, and their ostensible fees and perquisites. In those days, as at present, there were hardly any trees in Wolmer Forest. Within the present limits of the forest are three considerable lakes, Hogmer, Cranmer, and Wolmer; all of which are stocked with carp, tench, eels, and perch: but the fish do not thrive well, because the water is hungry, and the bottoms are a naked sand3. A circumstance respecting these ponds, though by no 3 In the beginning of the summer, 1787, the royal forests of Wolmer and Holt were measured by persons sent down by government. [According to the Report of the Commissioners here referred to, the forests contain about fifteen thousand four hundred and ninety-three acres, statute measure: but of that quantity about six thousand seven hundred and ninety-nine acres belong to private proprietors; the rest, being about eight thousand six hundred and ninety-four acres, are forest lands belonging to the crown. The royal forest of The Holt, with its enclosures, comprehends two thousand seven hundred and forty-four acres. Wolmer, with but two enclosures within its precincts, extends over five thousand nine hundred and forty-nine acres.-E. T. B.] The timber of The Holt, at the time of the survey referred to in the preceding note, was valued at £.61,100.-E. T. B. 5 In the enumeration made to me by the intelligent keeper at Wolmer Pond, the voracious pike was substituted for the perch, and the eel was omitted. The harsh and unyielding nature of the bottom would be little suited either to the eels themselves, or to the softer animals on which they feed.-E. T. B. means peculiar to them, I cannot pass over in silence; and that is, that instinct by which in summer all the kine, whether oxen, cows, calves, or heifers, retire constantly to the water during the hotter hours; where, being more exempt from flies, and inhaling the coolness of that element, some belly deep, and some only to midleg, they ruminate and solace themselves from about ten in the morning till four in the afternoon, and then return to their feeding. During this great proportion of the day they drop much dung, in which insects. nestle; and so supply food for the fish, which would be poorly subsisted but from this contingency. Thus Nature, who is a great economist, converts the recreation of one animal to the support of another! Thomson, who was a nice observer of natural occurrences, did not let this pleasing circumstance escape him. He says, in his Summer, "A various group the herds and flocks compose: Some ruminating lie; while others stand Half in the flood, and often bending, sip Wolmer-pond, so called, I suppose, for eminence sake, is a vast lake for this part of the world, containing, in its whole circumference, two thousand six hundred and forty-six yards, or very near a mile and a half. The length of the north-west and opposite side is about seven hundred and four yards, and the breadth of the south-west end about four hundred and fifty-six yards. This measurement, which I caused to be made with good exactness, gives an area of about sixty-six acres, exclusive of a large irregular arm at the north-east corner, which we did not take into the reckoning. On the face of this expanse of waters, and perfectly secure from fowlers, lie all day long, in the winter season, vast flocks of ducks, teals, and widgeons, of various denominations; where they preen and solace and rest themselves, till towards sunset, when they issue forth in little parties (for in their natural state they are all birds of the night) to feed in the brooks and meadows; returning again with the dawn of the morning. Had this lake an arm or two more, and were it planted round with thick covert (for now it is perfectly naked), it might make a valuable decoy. Yet neither its extent, nor the clearness of its water, nor the resort of various and curious fowls, nor its picturesque groups of cattle, can render this mere so remarkable as the great quantity of coins that were found in its bed about forty years ago. But as such discoveries more properly belong to the Antiquities of this place, I shall suppress all particulars, for the present, till I enter professedly on my series of Letters respecting the more remote history of this village and district. LETTER IX. TO THE SAME. By way of supplement, I shall trouble you once more on this subject, to inform you that Wolmer, with her sister forest Ayles Holt, alias Alice Holt', as it is called in old records, is held by grant from the crown for a term of years. The grantees that the author remembers are Brigadier-general Emanuel Scroop Howe, and his lady, Ru In Rot. Inquisit. de statu forest. in Scaccar. 36 Ed. III. it is called Aisholt. In the same, "Tit. Woolmer & Aisholt Hantisc. Dominus Rex habet unam capellam in haia suâ de Kingesle." "Haia, sepes, sepimentum, parcus: a Gall. haie and haye." Spelman's Glossary. [Several additional documents relating to the earlier history of the forests, both that of Wolmer and The Holt, are given in a note on Letter X. of the Antiquities.] perta, who was a natural daughter of Prince Rupert by Margaret Hughs; a Mr. Mordaunt, of the Peterborough family, who married a dowager Lady Pembroke; Henry Bilson Legge and lady; and now Lord Stawel, their son2. The lady of General Howe lived to an advanced age, long surviving her husband; and, at her death, left behind her many curious pieces of mechanism of her father's constructing, who was a distinguished mechanic and artist', as well as warrior; and among the rest, a very complicated clock, lately in possession of Mr. Elmer, the celebrated game-painter at Farnham, in the county of Surrey. Though these two forests are only parted by a narrow range of enclosures, yet no two soils can be more different for The Holt consists of a strong loam, of a miry nature, carrying a good turf, and abounding with oaks that grow to be large timber; while Wolmer is nothing but a hungry, sandy, barren waste. The former, being all in the parish of Binsted, is about two miles in extent from north to south, and near as much from east to west; and contains within it many woodlands and lawns, and the great lodge where the grantees reside; and a smaller lodge called Goose Green; and is abutted on by the parishes of Kingsley, Frinsham, Farnham, and Bentley; all of which have right of common. One thing is remarkable; that, though The Holt has been of old well stocked with fallow-deer, unrestrained by any pales or fences more than a common hedge, yet they were never seen within the limits of Wolmer; nor 2 On the expiration of the grant to Lord Stawel, the Commissioners of Woods and Forests resumed possession of The Holt. All the lands held by him, and two-thirds of the formerly open Forest, have been subsequently enclosed and planted, and now contain as fine young oaks as any plantations in the kingdom.—E. T. B. * This prince was the inventor of mezzotinto. |