, LIMITS OF WOLMER FOREST. 19 



particular to say, and one called Bin's, or Bean's pond, which is 

 worthy the attention of a naturalist or a sportsman. For, being 

 crowded at the upper end with willows, and with the carex 

 cespitosa,* 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 phea- 

 sants ; and the bogs produce many curious plants. [For which 

 consult letter XLII. to Mr. Barrington.] 



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 further 

 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 JohnVhill, 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 peram- 

 bulation, a rough estimate of the value of the timbers, which 

 were considerable, growing at that time in the district of the 

 Holt ; and enumerates 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, tl^ere 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- 



* I mean that sort which, rising into tall hassocks, is called by the foresters torrets : a corrup- 

 tion, I suppose, of turrets. 



Note, In the beginning of the summer 1/87 the royal forests of Wolmer and Holt were mea- 

 sured by persons sent down by government. 



C 2 



