32 WOLMER FOREST BURNING HEATH. 



are excluded, is, because, being such close grazers, 

 they would pick out all the finest grasses, and 

 hinder the deer from thriving. 



Though (by statute 4 and 5 William and Mary, 

 c. 23) "to burn on any waste, between Candlemas 

 andMidsummer, any grig, ling, heath and furze, gorse, 

 or fern, is punishable with whipping, and confine- 

 ment in the house of correction ;" yet, in this forest, 

 about March or April, according to the dryness of 

 the season, such vast heath-fires are lighted up, that 

 they often get to a masterless head, and, catching 

 the hedges, have sometimes been communicated 

 to the underwoods, woods, and coppices, where 

 great damage has ensued. The plea for these 

 burnings is, that, when the old coat of heath, &c., is 

 consumed, young will sprout up, and afford much 

 tender browse for cattle ; but where there is large 

 old furze, the fire, following the roots, consumes the 

 very ground ; so that for hundreds of acres nothing 

 is to be seen but smother and desolation, the whole 

 circuit round looking like the cinders of a volcano ; 

 and, the soil being quite exhausted, no traces of 

 vegetation are to be found for years. These con- 

 flagrations, as they take place usually with a north- 

 east or east wind, much annoy this village with 

 their smoke, and often alarm the country; and 

 once, in particular, I remember that a gentleman, 

 who lives beyond Andover, coming to my house, 

 when he got on the downs between that town and 

 Winchester, at twenty-five miles distance, was sur- 

 prised much with smoke and a hot smell of fire ; 

 and concluded that Alresford was in flames; but, 

 when he came to that town, he then had apprehen- 

 sions for the next village, and so on to the end of 

 his journey. 



On two of the most conspicuous eminences of 

 this forest, stand two arbours, or bowers, made of 



