544 NATURAL HISTORY 



was printed February, 1790; though never published, but 

 distributed among the members of the House of Commons, 

 from some of whom you may borrow it, as I have done. 

 This curious survey will inform you, from the best authority, 

 of all the circumstances respecting the advantages, usages, 

 abuses, &c. of our Forest of Alice Holt and Wolmer. Here 

 you will see, that the Forest now consists of 8,694 acres, 

 107 of which are in ponds ; that the present timber is esti- 

 mated at 60,000/ that it is almost all of a size, and about 

 100 years old that it is shamefully abused by the neighbour- 

 ing poor, who lop it and top it as they please ; that there is 

 no succession because all the bushes are destroyed by the 

 commoners around; 2 that your old favourite oak, the Grind- 

 stone Oak, is estimated at twenty-seven loads of timber ; 3 

 that the peat cut in Wolmer is prodigious ; in the year 

 1788 in one walk 942 loads, and in another walk the same 

 year 423 loads, besides heath and fern ; and in the same 

 year 935,000 turves; &c. &c. &c. Lord Stawell is the 

 Lieutenant or Grantee; whose lease expires in 181 1, as I have 

 said in my book. 4 That nobleman did me the honour to call 

 on me a morning or two ago, and sat with me two hours : 

 he brought me a white woodcock, milk white all over except 

 a few spots. 



My friend at Bramshot Place, where I measured the great 



1 This survey and valuation was made in 1787. Wolmer, with but 

 two enclosures within its precincts, then extended over 5,949 acres ; the 

 royal forest of the Holt, with its enclosures, was found to comprehend 2,744 

 acres. The timber of the Holt was valued at 61 ,000. See Letter VHI. 

 to Pennant, p. 27. ED. 



2 The wrong-doers in this case were the poor of the parishes of Bin- 

 stead and Frinsham, Bentley and Kingsley, who laid claim to " the 

 lop and top " in opposition to Lord Stawell, the grantee. " Forty-five 

 of these people his lordship served with actions." See Letter IX. to 

 Pennant, p. 32. ED. 



3 See antea, p. 357. ED. 



4 Letter IX. to Pennant, p. 30. On the expiration of the grant to 

 Lord Stawell, the Commissioners of Woods and Forests resumed posses- 

 sion of the Holt. All the lands held by him, and two-thirds of the former 

 open forest were subsequently enclosed and planted, ED. 



