Lord Gleubervie on the devastations of Mice^ Sfc. 433 



Art. LV. An Account of the unexampled devastations 

 committed by Field-Mice in the Forest of Dean in Glou- 

 cestershire^ and in the New Forest in Hampshire^ during 

 the years 1813 and 1814. In a letter to the late Right 

 Hon. Sir Joseph Banks, Bart. JP.R,S., from the late 

 Rt.Hon. Sylvester Douglas, Lord Glenbervie.* 



Whitehall Place^ 30th June, 1814. 



Dear Sir, 



The great devastation committed during the course of the 

 last and the present year, in our young plantations in Dean and 

 New Forests, by an unexampled number of Mice, which have 

 overspread those forests during that period, having been the sub- 

 ject of repeated communications with which I have troubled you, 

 I flatter myself that it will not be uninteresting to you, to see 

 collected together all the material facts and circumstances which I 

 have been able to obtain either from personal observation or the 

 information of others concerning this new plague ; I call it neWf 

 because, although the destruction of acorns by that vermin has 

 been always known, and mentioned by every writer treating upon 

 such subjects, from the earliest time, yet I have not found in any 

 author, from Theophrastus and Pliny downwards to Evelyn and 

 the more modern writers of our days, the smallest hint of the 

 mischief of which I iryself have been a witness to a most alarming 

 extent, which those pernicious little animals have done in our 

 plantations by devouring the bark of the young plants, all round 

 from the ground to the height of about six inches, and in many 

 instances gnawing the root itself through and through. 



The whole, both of Dean and New Forests, appears to be 

 numerously stocked »vith Mice, at least wherever the large furze- 

 brakes in the open parts have been burnt, their holes and runs are 

 perceived to cover the whole surface. This was particularly the 

 case over a district called Haywood Hill in Dean Forest, and 

 which now forms one of the new plantations in that forest, con- 

 taining about 500 acres. 



* Communicated by William Eli'ord Leach, M.D- F.R.S. F.L.S. &c. 



