K 



24 The Natural History 



a large district, now private property, though once 

 belonging to the royal domain. 



It is remarkable that the term purlieu is never 

 once mentioned in this long roll of parchment. It 

 contains, besides the perambulation, a rough estimate 

 of the value of the timbers, which were 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 perquisites. In those days, as at present, there 

 were hardly any trees in Wolmer-forest. 



Within the present limits of the forest are three con- 

 siderable 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. 



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 con- 

 stantly 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 Siiuuner^ 



"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 

 Tlie circling surface." 



Wolmer-pond, so called, I suppose, for eminence sake, 

 is a vast lake for this part of the world, containing, in its 



