H THE NATURAL HISTORY [LETT. 



chiefly manufactured at Alton, a neighbouring town, by some 

 of the people called Quakers. The inhabitants enjoy a good 

 share of health and longevity, and the parish swarms with 

 children. 



LETTER VI. 



TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. 



SHOULD I omit to describe with some exactness the Forest of 

 Wolmer, of which three-fifths perhaps lie in this parish, rny 

 account of Selborne would be very imperfect, as it is a district 

 abounding with many curious productions, both animal and 

 vegetable, and has often afforded me much entertainment both 

 as a sportsman and as a naturalist. 



The royal Forest of Wolmer is a tract of land of about 

 seven miles in length by two-and-a-half in breadth, running 

 nearly from north to south, and is abutted on to begin to 

 the south, and so to proceed eastward by the parishes of 

 Greatham, Lysse, Rogate, and Trotton, in the county of Sussex ; 

 by Bramshot, Hedleigh, and Kingsley. This royalty consists 

 entirely of sand, covered with heath and fern ; but is some- 

 what diversified with hills and dales, without having one stand- 

 ing tree in the whole extent. In the bottoms, where the waters 

 stagnate, are many bogs, which formerly abounded with subter- 

 raneous trees ; though Dr. Plot says positively l that " there never 

 were any fallen trees hidden in the mosses of the southern 

 counties." But he was mistaken : for I myself have seen 

 cottages on the verge of this wild district whose timbers con- 

 sisted of a black hard wood, looking like oak, which the owners 

 assured me they procured from the bogs by probing the soil with 

 spits, or some such instruments : but the peat is so much cut 

 out, and the moors have been so well examined, that none has 

 been found of late. Old people, however, have assured me that 

 on a winter's morning they have discovered these trees in the 

 bogs by the hoar frost, which lay longer over the space where 



1 See his History of Staffordshire. 



