18 THE NATURAL HISTOEY 



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 per- 

 quisites. 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. 1 



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 is a great economist, converts the recreation of one 

 animal to the support of another ! Thomson, who was a nice 

 observer of natural occurrences, did not let this pleasing circum- 

 stance escape him. He says, in his Summer, 



1 A various group the herds and flocks compose : 



' on the grassy bank 



' Some ruminating lie ; while others stand 

 ' Half in the flood, and, often bending, sip 

 'The circling surface." 



Wolmer-pond, so called, I suppose, for eminence sake, is a vast 

 lake for this part of the world, containing, in it's whole circum- 

 ference, 2,646 yards, or very nearly a mile and an half. The length 

 of the north-west and opposite side is about 704 yards, and the 

 breadth of the south-west end about 456 yards. This measure- 

 ment, which I caused to be made with good exactness, gives an 

 area of about sixty- six acres, exclusive of a large irregular arm at 

 the north-east corner, which we did not take into the reckoning. 



1 [It is remarkable that these three ponds are named respectively after three 

 animals which, formerly indigenous in this country, are now extinct. Hogmer 

 after the wild boar, Cranmer after the crane, and Wolmer^ anciently Wolvemere, 

 after the wolf, which doubtless formerly haunted this wild district. The fish 

 mentioned in the text are now, I believe, quite extinct in these ponds. Bell.] 



