36 The Natural History of Selborne 



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. 



By a perambulation of Wolmer Forest and the Holt, made in 

 1635, an d the eleventh year of Charles the First (which now lies 

 before me), it appears that the limits of the former are much cir- 

 cumscribed. 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 ; comprehending also Short Heath, Oakhanger, 

 and Oakwoods ; a large district, now private property, though once 

 belonging to the royal domain. 



It is remarkable that the term purlieu is never once mentioned in 

 this long roll of parchment. It contains, besides the perambulation, 

 a rough estimate of the value of the timbers, which were consider- 

 able, growing at that time in the district of the Holt ; and enumer- 

 ates the officers, superior and inferior, of those joint forests, for the 

 time being, and their ostensible fees and perquisites. In those days, 

 as at present, there were hardly any trees in Wolmer Forest. 



Within the present limits of the forest are three considerable 

 lakes, Hogmer, Cranmer, and Wolmer ; all of which are stocked 

 with carp, tench, eels, and perch : but the fish do not thrive well 

 because the water is hungry, and the bottoms are a naked sand. 



A circumstance respecting these ponds, though by no means 

 peculiar to them, I cannot pass over in silence ; and that is, that 

 instinct by which in summer all the kine, whether oxen, cows, 

 calves, or heifers, retire constantly to the water during the hotter 

 hours ; where, being more exempt from flies, and inhaling the 

 coolness of that element, some belly deep, and some only to mid- 

 leg, they ruminate and solace themselves from about ten in the 

 morning till four in the afternoon, and then return to their feeding. 

 During this great proportion of the day they drop much dung, in 

 which insects nestle ; and so supply food for the fish, which would 

 be poorly subsisted but from this contingency, Thus Nature, who 



