12 THE NATURAL HISTORY 



an end.i The inhabitants enjoy a good share of health and 

 longevity ; and the parish swarms with children. 



LETTER VI. 



TO THE SAME. 



Should I omit to describe with some exactness the forest of 

 Wolmer, of which three fifths perhaps lie in this parish, my 

 account of Selbonie 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 

 mdes 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 proceed eastward, by the parishes of Greatham, Lysse, 

 Rogate, and Trotton, in the county of Sussex ; by Bramshol, Hed- 

 leigh, 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 stagnate, are many bogs, which 

 formerly abounded with subterraneous trees ; though Dr. Plot 

 says positively,'* that "there never were any fallen trees hidden 

 " in the mosses of the southern counties ". But he was mistaken : 

 for I myself have seen cottages on the verge of this wild district, 

 whose timbers consisted of a black hard wood, looking like oak, 

 which the owners assured me they procured from the bogs by 

 probing the soil with spits, or some such instruments : but the 

 peat is so much cut out, and the moors have been so well exa- 

 mined, that none has been found of late.* Besides the oak, I 



1 Since the passage above was written, I am happy in being able to say that the 

 spinning employment is a little revived, to the no small comfort of the industrious 

 housewife, 



2 [Much of Wolmer Forest is now enclosed and planted.} 



3 See his Hist, of Sta^ordshire. 



^Old people have assured me, that on a winter's morning they have discovered 

 these treeSj in the bogs, by the hoar frost, which lay longer over the space where 

 they were concealed, than on the surrounding morass. Nor does this seem to be 

 a fanciful notion, but consistent with true philosophy. Dr. Hales saith, ' ' That the 

 " warmth of the earth, at some depth under ground, has an influence in promoting 

 " a thaw, as well as the change of the weather from a freezing to a thawing state, 

 "is manifest, from this observation, viz., Nov. 29, 1731, a little snow ' having 

 ' ' fallen in the night, it was, by eleven the next morning, mostly melted away on the 



