20 THE NATUEAL HISTORY 



and, among the rest, a very complicated clock, lately in pos- 

 session of Mr. Elmer, the celebrated game-painter at Farnham, 

 in the county of Surrey. 



Though these two forests are only parted by a narrow range 

 of enclosures, yet no two soils can be more different : for The 

 Holt consists of a strong loam, of a miry nature, carrying a good 

 turf, and abounding with oaks that grow to be large timber ; 

 while Wolmer is nothing but a hungry, sandy, barren waste. 1 



The former, being all in the parish of Binsted, is about two 

 miles in extent from north to south, and near as much from 

 east to west ; and contains within it many woodlands and lawns, 

 and the great lodge where the grantees reside ; and a smaller 

 lodge, called Goose-green ; and is abutted on by the parishes 

 of Kingsley, Frinsham, Farnham, and Bentley ; all of which have 

 right of common. 



One thing is remarkable ; that, though The Holt has been 

 of old 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 Wolmer ; 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 nor imprisonments can deter them : so impossible is it to 

 extinguish the spirit of sporting, which seems to be inherent 

 in human nature. 



General Horve 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 StaweL 

 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 share, forty stacks of wood. Forty- 



1 [Alice Holt lies upon gault, Wolmer on lower greensand.] 



