22 The Natural History 



presume, why sheep ^ are excluded, is, because, being 

 such close grazers, they would pick out all the finest 

 grasses, and hinder the deer from thriving. 



Though (by statute 4 and 5 W. and Mary, c. 23.) " to 

 burn on any waste, between Candlemas and Midsummer, 

 any grig, ling, heath and furze, goss or fern, is punishable 

 with whipping and confinement in the house of cor- 

 rection " ; yet, in this forest, about March or April, 

 according to the dryness of the season, such vast heath- 

 fires are lighted up, that they often get to a masterless 

 head, and, catching the hedges, have sometimes been 

 conmiunicated to the underwoods, woods, and coppices, 

 where great damage has ensued. The plea for these 

 burnings is, that, when the old coat of heath, etc., is 

 consumed, young will sprout up, and afford much tender 

 browse for cattle ; but, where there is large old furze, the 

 fire, following the roots, consumes the very ground ; so 

 that for hundreds of acres nothing is to be seen but 

 smother and desolation, the whole circuit round looking 

 like the cinders of a volcano ; and the soil being quite 

 exhausted, no traces of vegetation are to be found for 

 years. These conflagrations, as they take place usually 

 with a north-east or east wind, much annoy this village 

 with their smoke, and often alarm the country ; and, 

 once in particular, I remember that a gentleman, who 

 lives beyond Andover, coming to my house, when he got 

 on the downs between that town and Winchester, at 

 twenty-five miles distance, was surprised much with 

 smoke and a hot smell of fire ; and concluded that Aires- 

 ford was in flames ; but, when he came to that town, he 

 then had apprehensions for the next village, and so on to 

 the end of his journey. 



On two of the most conspicuous eminences of this 

 forest, stand two arbours or bowers, made of the boughs 

 of oaks ; the one called Waldon-lodge, the other Brim- 

 stone-lodge : these the keepers renew annually on the 

 feast of St. Barnabas, taking the old materials for a 

 perquisite. The farm called Blackmoor, in this parish, is 



* In the Holt, where a full stock of fallow-deer has been kept up 

 till lately, no sheep are admitted to this day. 



