NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE, 21 



with whipping and confinement in the house of correction ;" 

 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 communicated to the under- 

 woods, 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 afibrd much tender brouze 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 Alresford 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 oak ; 

 the one called Waldon Lodge, the other Brimstone Lodge : 

 these the keepers renew annually on the feast of St. Barna- 

 bas, taking the old materials for a perquisite. The farm 

 called Blackmoor, in this parish, is obliged to find the 

 posts and brush-wood for the former; while the farms 

 at Greatham, in rotation, furnish for the latter ; and 



