24 WHITE 



At present the deer of the Holt are much thinned and re- 

 duced by the night hunters, who perpetually harass them in 

 spite of the efforts of numerous keepers, and the severe penal- 

 ties 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 impossi- 

 ble 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 neighborhood, 

 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 Stawell. 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. 



NOTES 



1 " In Rot. Inquisit. de statu forest, in Scaccar. 36 Edw. III., it is called 

 Aisholt." G. W. 



In the same, "Tit. Woolmer and Aisholt Hantisc. Dominus Rex habet 

 imam capellam in haia sua de Kingesle." " Haia, sepes, sepimentum, parcus ; 

 a Gall, haie and haye." SPELMAN'S Glossary. G. W. 



3 This prince was the inventor of mezzotinto. G. W. 



