22 NATURAL HISTORY 



taking the old materials for a perquisite. The farm called 

 Blackmoor, in this parish, is obliged to find the posts and 

 brush-wood for the former ; while the farms at Greatham, in 

 rotation, furnish for the latter; and are all enjoined to cut 

 and deliver the materials at the spot. This custom I mention, 

 because I look upon it to be of very remote antiquity. 



LETTER VIII. 



TO THE SAME. 



ON the verge of the forest, as it is now circumscribed, are 

 three considerable lakes, two in Oakhanger, of which I have 

 nothing particular to say ; and one called Bin's, or Bean's 

 pond, which is worthy the attention of a naturalist or a sports- 

 man. For, being crowded at the upper end with willows, and 

 with the carex cespitosaf it affords such a safe and pleasing 

 shelter to wild ducks, teals, snipes, &c. that they breed there. 

 In the winter this covert is also frequented by foxes, and 

 sometimes by pheasants ; and the bogs produce many curious 

 plants *. [For which consult letter XLII. to Mr. Barring- 

 ton] 



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 circumscribed. 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 Mauduit, called Mauduit-hatch ; compre- 

 hending also Short-heath, Oakhanger, and Oakwoods; a large 



<i I mean that sort which, rising into tall hassocks, is called by the 

 foresters torrets j a corruption, I suppose, of turrets. 



Note, In the beginning of the summer 1787 the royal forests of 

 Wolmer and Holt were measured by persons sent down by government. 



* [See the list of plants in the Appendix. T. B.] 



