26 THE NATURAL HISTORY [LETT. 



The former, being all in the parish of Binsted, is about two 

 miles in extent from north to south, and nearly as much, from east 

 to west ; and contains within it many woodlands and lawns, and 

 the great lodge where the grantees reside ; and a smaller lodge 

 called Goose-green ; and is abutted on by the parishes of Kings- 

 ley, Frinsham, Farnham, and Bentley ; all of which have right 

 of common. 



One thing is remarkable, that though the Holt has been of 

 old well stocked with fallow-deer, unrestrained by any pales or 

 fences more than a common hedge, yet they were never seen 

 within the limits of Wolmer ; nor were the red deer of Wolmer 

 ever known to haunt the thickets or glades of the Holt. 



At present the deer of the Holt are much thinned and reduced 

 by the night-hunters, who perpetually harass them in spite of 

 the efforts of numerous keepers, and the severe penalties that 

 have been put in force against them as often as they have been 

 detected and rendered liable to the lash of the law. Neither 

 lines nor imprisonments can deter them : so impossible is it to 

 extinguish the spirit of sporting, which seems to be inherent in 

 human nature. 



General Howe turned out some German wild boars and sows 

 in his forests, to the great terror of the neighbourhood ; and, at 

 one time, a wild bull or buffalo : but the country rose upon 

 them and destroyed them. 1 



A very large fall of timber, consisting of about one thousand 

 oaks, has been cut this spring (viz. 1784) in the Holt forest ; 

 one-fifth of which, it is said, belongs to the grantee, Lord Stawel. 

 He lays claim also to the lop and top : but the poor of the 

 parishes of Binsted and Frinsham, Bentley and Kingsley, assert 

 that it belongs to them : and, assembling in a riotous manner, 

 have actually taken it all away. One man, who keeps a team, 

 has carried home, for his share, forty stacks of wood. Forty- 

 five of these people his lordship has served with actions. These 

 trees, which were very sound and in high perfection, were 

 winter-cut, viz., in February and March, before the bark would 



1 German boars and sows were also turned out in the New Forest by 

 Charles the First, which bred and increased ; and their stock is supposed to 

 exist still. MITKORD. 



