26 NATURAL HISTORY 



lawns, and the great lodge where the grantees reside ; and a 

 smaller lodge, called Goose-green ; and is abutted on by the 

 parishes of Kingsley, 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 fines 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. 



A very large fall of timber, consisting of about one thou- 

 sand 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 run. In old times The Holt was 

 estimated to be eighteen miles, computed measure, from water- 

 carriage, viz. from the town of Chertsey, on the Thames ; but 

 now it is not half that distance, since the Wey is made navi- 

 gable up to the town of Godalming in the county of Surrey. 



