12 FOREST OF WOLMER. 



the women weed the corn, and enjoy a second harvest in 

 September by hop-picking. Formerly, in the dead months, 

 they availed themselves greatly by spinning wool, for making 

 of barragons, a genteel corded stuff, much in vogue at that 

 time for summer wear, and chiefly manufactured at Alton, 

 a neighbouring town, by some of the people called Quakers. 

 The inhabitants enjoy a good share of health and longevity, 

 and the parish swarms with children. 



LETTER VI. 



TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQ. 



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 royalForest 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 Greatham, 

 Lysse, 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. In the bottoms, where the waters 

 stagnate, are many bogs, which formerly abounded with 

 subterraneous trees ; though Dr Plot says positively,* that 

 " there never were any fallen trees hidden in the mosses of 

 the southern counties." But he was mistaken ; for I myself 

 have seen cottages on the verge of this wild district, whose 

 timbers consisted of a black hard wood, looking like oak, 

 which the owners assured me they procured from the bogs 

 by probing the soil with spits, or some such instruments, but 

 the peat is so much cut out, and the moors have been so well 

 examined, that none has been found of late.f Besides the 



* See his History of Staffordshire. 



f Old people have assured me, that on a winter's morning they have 

 discovered these trees, in the bogs, by the hoar frost, which lay longer 

 over the space where they were concealed, than on the surrounding 

 morass. Nor does this seem to be a fanciful notion, but consistent with 

 true philosophy. Dr Hales saith, " That the warmth of the earth, at 



