i6i The Natural Htjlory 



at Binfield and Blunds Court ? and at the latter how joyned in To 

 ftrange a mixture, as Hafel-nuts, a Stags head, and Urns ; and 

 at fom places only, with an Alabaftrine kind of fubftance ? re- 

 mains yeta knot not fo eafily loofed. However, finceattemts 

 have fomtimes pleafed, and it has always been acceptable in ma- 

 gnU voluiffe-, I fliall adventure to propound my prefent thoughts j 

 ftill referving the liberty to my felf, as well as Reader, of thinking 

 otherwife when fufficient grounds of change fliall offer themfelves 

 at any time hereafter. 



56. Firftthen, as for the timber dug at Binfield- heath, 'tis 

 likely that might be feird and buryed there when Societies of men 

 (which I guefs was not common till the days of King Alfred) un- 

 der fome Mean, or Lord Paramount, firft chofe to themfelves cer- 

 tain places of aboad, and promoted Agriculture : which that 

 they might the better do. they fell'd and buryed the timber which 

 they could not well burn with the under-wood. Thus, as I have 

 been informed by a very worthy Perfon, who had it from his 

 aged Father, did our Grand-fathers ferve their timber in the in- 

 land parts of Kent to make room for tillage, digging a trench by 

 each tree after it was fell'd, and fo tumbling it in, its fale not be- 

 ing worth the portage, even there, fo few years ago. Much ra- 

 ther therefore might the firft Planters of Binfield-hcnh throw 

 it into Ponds, or other hollow places ready at hand, to make 

 room as well for habitation as tillage, in ancienter times : which I 

 guefs might be done in the Reign of King Alfred, 1. becaufehe 

 divided the Kingdom into Shires and Hundreds; and 2. becaufe 

 Binfield gives name to the Hundred (however inconfiderable it be 

 now) in this woody part of the County. 



57. Moreover, that this Timber muft be buryed by defign, 

 and notcafually over-thrown, either by their roots being loofen'd 

 by to much wet, occafloned by the obftru&ion of Rivers, as Cam- 

 den k apprehends thofe Trees were, found in Chatmofs in Lanca- 



Jhire : Nor by the over-flowing of any Rivers, nor fall of any" 

 Torrent, as Steno would have it 1 : Nor undermined by fubterrane- 

 ou4 ftreams, or diffblution of matter underneath them, as Dr. 

 Jackson m thinks it happened about 1 8 years fince at Bilkely in 

 Hereford-Jlire, is plain and evident ; for that all the Country here- 



* Camden va Lamajkire. x Steno in P>odhwi. concerning the matter of beds. m Philcfoph.Tranf- 

 acl. Kmn-'ji. 



about 



