LETTER VI. 

 To Thomas Pennant, Esq. 



Should I omit to describe with some exactness 

 the Forest of Wohner, of which three-fifths perhaps 

 He in this parish, my account of Selborne would be 

 very imperfect, as it is a district abounding with 

 many curious productions, both animal and vege- 

 table, and has often afforded me much entertainment 

 both as a sportsman and as a naturalist. 



The royal Forest 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 pro- 

 ceed 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 stas^nate, 

 are many bogs, which formerly abounded with sub- 

 terraneous trees ; though Dr. Plot says positively * 

 that '' there never were any fallen trees hidden in the 

 mosses of the southern counties." But he was mis- 

 taken : for I myself have seen cottages on the verge 



* See his History of Staffordshire, 

 17 



