of Selborne 27 



as often as they have been detected, and rendered liable 

 to the lash of the law. Neither fines nor imprisonment 

 can deter them : so impossible is it to extinguish the 

 sj)irit of sporting, which seems to be inherent in human 

 nature. 



General Howe turned out some German wild boars and 

 sows in his forests, to the great terror of the neighbour- 

 hood ; 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 Frin- 

 sham, Bentley and Kingsley, assert that it belongs to them; 

 and, assembling in a riotous mamier, have actually taken 

 it all away. One man, who keeps a team, has carried 

 home, for his share, forty stacks of wood. Forty-five of 

 these people his lordship has served with actions. These 

 trees, which were very sound and in high perfection, were 

 winter-cut, viz., in February and March, before the bark 

 would run. In old times the Holt was estimated to be 

 eighteen miles, computed measure, from water-carriage, 

 viz., from the town of Chertsey, on the Thames ; but now 

 it is hot half that distance, since the Wey is made navig- 

 able up to the town of Godalming in the county of 

 Surrey. 



LETTER X 



TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQUIRE 



August 4, 1767. 



It has been my misfortune never to have had any 

 neighbours whose studies have led them towards the 

 pursuit of natural knowledge ; so that, for want of a com- 

 panion to quicken my industry and sharpen my attention, 

 I have made but slender progress in a kind of information 

 to which I have been attached from my childhood. 



