24 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



LETTER VIII. 



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 

 cespitosa,* it affords such a safe and pleasing shelter to wild 

 ducks, teals, snipes, etc., that they breed there. In the winter 

 this covert is also frequented by foxes, and sometimes by phea- 

 sants ; 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, an d the eleventh year of Charles I. (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 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 domain. 



It is remarkable that the term purlieu is never once mentioned 

 in this long roll of parchment. It contains, besides the perambu- 

 lation, 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. 



* I mean that sort which, rising into tall hassocks, is called by the foresters 

 torrets ; a corruption, l suppose, ot turrets. 



NOTE. In the beginning of the summer of 1787, the royal forests of Wolmer 

 and Holt were measured by persons sent down by goveinment, 



