NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 27 



well stocked with fallow-deer, unrestrained by any pales or fences 

 more than a common hedge, yet they were never seen within the 

 limits of Woltner ; nor were the red deer of Wolmer ever known 

 to haunt the thickets or glades of the Holt. 



At present the deer of the Holt are much thinned and reduced by 

 the night hunters, who perpetually harass them in spite of the 

 efforts of numerous keepers, and the severe penalties 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 jior imprison- 

 ments can deter them ; so impossible is it to extinguish the spirit 

 of sporting which seems to be inherent in human nature. 



>;>.'* 



WILD BOAR. 



General Howe turned out some German wild boars and sows in 

 his forests, to the great terror of the neighbourhood, 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 thousand 

 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 



* " German boars and sows were also turned out by Charles I. in the New Forest, 

 which bred and increased. Their stock is supposed to exist now, remarkable for the 

 smallness of their hind-quarters." MITFORD'S Edit. 



