NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE I/ 



exhibited as served the country people for matter of talk and 

 wonder for years afterwards. I saw myself one of the yeoman- 

 prickers single out a stag from the herd, and must confess that 

 it was the most curious feat of activity I ever beheld, superior 

 to anything in Mr. Astley's riding-school. The exertions made 

 by the horse and deer much exceeded all my expectations ; 

 though the former greatly excelled the latter in speed. When 

 the devoted deer was separated from his companions, they 

 gave him, by their watches, law, as they called it, for twenty 

 minutes ; when, sounding their horns, the stop-dogs were per- 

 mitted to pursue, and a most gallant scene ensued. 



NOTES 



1 See his " History of Staffordshire." G. W. 



2 Old people have assured me, that on a winter's morning they have dis- 

 covered these trees, in the bogs, by the hoar frost, which lay longer over the 

 space where they are concealed than in the surrounding morass. Nor does 

 this seem to be a fanciful notion, but consistent with true philosophy. Dr. 

 Hales saith, " That the warmth of the earth, at some depth under ground, 

 has an influence in promoting a thaw, as well as the change of the weather 

 from a freezing to a thawing state, is manifest from this observation, viz., 

 Nov. 29th, 1731, a little snow having fallen in the night, it was, by eleven 

 the next morning, mostly melted away on the surface of the earth, except in 

 several places in Bushy Park, where there were drains dug and covered with 

 earth, on which the snow continued to lie, whether those drains were full 

 of water or dry ; as also where elm-pipes lay under ground : a plain proof 

 this, that those drains intercepted the warmth of the earth from ascending 

 from greater depths below them ; for the snow lay where the drain had more 

 than four feet depth of earth over it. It continued also to lie on thatch, 

 tiles, and the tops of walls." See Hale's " Haemastatics," p. 360. QUERY, 

 Might not such observations be reduced to domestic use, by promoting the 

 discovery of old obliterated drains and wells about houses ; and in Roman 

 stations and camps lead to the finding of pavements, baths and graves, and 

 other hidden relics of curious antiquity? G. W. 



LETTER VII 



THOUGH large herds of deer do much harm to the neigh- 

 borhood, yet the injury to the morals of the people is of more 

 moment than the loss of their crops. The temptation is irre- 

 sistible ; for most men are sportsmen by constitution : and 

 3 



