NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 19 



The reason, I presume, why sheep * are excluded, is, because, bei 



close grazers, they would pick out all the finest grasses, and hinder the 



deer from thriving. 



Though (by statute 4 and 5 W. and Mary, c. 23) " to burn on any 

 waste, between Candlemas and Midsummer, any grig, ling, heath and 

 furze, goss or fern, is punishable 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 underwoods, woods, and coppices, 

 where great damage has ensued. The plea for these burnings is, that, 

 when the old coat of heath, &c., is consumed, young will sprout up, and 

 afford 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 gentle- 

 man, 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 oaks ; the one called Waldon 

 Lodge, the other Brimstone Lodge : these the keepers renew annually 

 on the feast of St. Barnabas, 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 are all enjoined to cut and deliver the 

 materials at the spot. This custom 1 mention, because I look upon it 

 to be of very remote antiquity. 



* In the Holt, where a full stock of fallow-deer has been kept up till lately, no 

 sheep are admitted to this day. 



c 2 



