20 



THE NATURAL HISTORY 



[LETT. 



that sheep are 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, gorse 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 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 look- 

 ing 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 Win- 

 chester, 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. 1 



1 This description reminds the scholar of the stubble-burning described 

 in Virgil's " Georgics," i. 84, Mitford. There is no better fertilizer for the 

 eoil than the ashes of weeds and other vegetable growths, and this the poet 

 knew. 



" Ssepe etiam steriles incendere profuit agros, 



Atque levem stipulam crepitantibus urere tfuiiimis : 



Sive inde occultas vires et pabula terra- 



Pinguia concipiiint." 

 " Long practice has a sure improvement found, 



With kindled fires to burn the barren ground ; 



When the light stubble, to the flames resigned, 



Is driven along, and crackles to the wind." DRYDEX. 



