NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 23 



Lodge Hill ; and to the verge of Hartley Mauduit, called 

 Mauduit Hatch; comprehending also Short Heath, Oak- 

 hanger, and Oak woods ; 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 

 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 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 obsen^er of natural occurrences, 



