20 THE NATURAL HISTORY 



presume, why sheep ^ 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 W. and Mary c. 23.) '* to 

 burn on any waste, between Candlemas and Midsummer, 

 any grig, ling, heath and furze, goss or fern, is punishable 

 with whipping and confinement 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 under- 

 woods, woods, and coppices, where great damage has 

 ensued. The plea for these burnings is, that, when the old 

 coat of heath, etc. is consumed, young will sprout up, and 

 afford much tender brouze 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 conflagrations, 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 surprised 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 

 apprehensions 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 the boughs 

 of oaks ; the one called Waldon-lodge, the other Brimstone- 

 lodge : these the keepers renew annually on the feast of 

 St. Barnabas, taking the old materials for a perquisite. 

 The farm called Blackmoor, in this parish, is obliged to 



^ In the Holt, where a full stock of fallow-deer has been kept up till 

 lately, no sheep are admitted to this day. 



