LETTER VI 



TO THE SAME 



SHOULD I omit to describe with some exactness the forest 

 of Wolmer, of which three-fifths perhaps lie in this parish, 

 my account of Selborne would be very imperfect, as it is 

 a district abounding with many curious productions, both 

 animal and vegetable ; and has often afforded me much 

 entertainment both as a sportsman and as a naturalist. 



The royal forest of Wolmer is a tract of land of about 

 seven miles in length, by two and a half in breadth, running 

 nearly from north to south, and is abutted on, to begin 

 to the south, and so to proceed eastward, by the parishes 

 of Greathant, Lysse 1 Rogate, and Trotton, in the county 

 of Sussex; by Bramshot, Hedleigh, and Kingsley. This 

 royalty consists entirely of sand covered with heath and 

 fern ; but is somewhat diversified with hills and dales, 

 without having one standing tree in the whole extent. 2 



1 Liss. [R. B. S.] 



2 Mr. J. E. Harting in the ' Preface ' to his third edition of White's Selbome, 

 writes in 1880 : "Wolmer Forest, which eighty years ago was 'without one 

 standing tree in the whole extent,' is now partly enclosed, and planted to the 

 extent of several hundred acres with oak, larch, and Scotch fir. Bin's Pond, a 

 'considerable lake,' which at one time 'afforded a safe and pleasing shelter to 

 wild Ducks, Teals, and Snipe,' has long since been drained, and cattle now 

 graze on its bed. The covert, ' in which Foxes and Pheasants formerly abounded,' 

 has almost entirely disappeared. At the present time (1880) nearly 1500 acres 

 are enclosed and planted, chiefly in Oak, Larch, and Scotch Fir ; and the large 

 size to which many of the firs have attained, proves how well adapted the soil 

 is for that kind of timber. Outside the enclosure seedling firs are springing up 

 rapidly ; and, year by year, as the wind scatters the seeds, the area of the wood- 

 land increases, so that in time, were the trees not felled or burned, they would 

 extend over the whole of the district comprised by the ' forest.' During the hot 

 summer of 1864 a terrible conflagration occurred, and was supposed to have been 



