34 FOREST OF WOLMER. 



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 cir- 

 cumscribed. 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 Mau- 

 duit, called Mauduit-hatch ; comprehending also 

 Shortheath, Oakhanger, and Oak-woods; a large 

 district, now private property, though once belong- 

 ing 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 perambulation, a rough esti- 

 mate of the value of the timbers, which were con- 

 siderable, growing at that time in the district of the 

 Holt ; and enumerates the officers, superior and in- 

 ferior, 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 sand. 



A circumstance respecting these ponds, though 

 by no 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 mid-leg, they ruminate and 



