18 PONDS IN WOLMER FOREST. 



sometimes by pheasants ; and the bogs produce many curious 

 plants. * 



By a perambulation of Wolmer Forest and the Holt, made 

 in 1635, and in the eleventh year of Charles the First, (which 

 now lies before me,) it appears that the limits of the former 

 are much circumscribed. For, to say nothing of the farther 

 side, with which I am not so well acquainted, the bounds on 

 this side, in old times, came into Binswood, and extended to 

 the ditch of Ward-le-ham Park, in which stands the curious 

 mount called King John's Hill and Lodge Hill, and to the 

 verge of Hartley Mauduit, called Mauduit-hatch ; compre- 

 hending also Shortheath, Oakhanger, and Oakwoods, a large 

 district, now private property, though once belonging to the 

 royal domain. 



It is remarkable, that the term purlieu is never once men- 

 tioned 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 considerable 

 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 constantly 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 

 for this contingency. Thus Nature, who is a great econo- 

 mist, converts the recreation of one animal to the support of 

 another ! Thomson, who was a nice observer of natural 



* For which consult Letter LXXXIV. to Mr Barringtnn. 



