OF SELBORNE 29 



the latter ; and are all enjoined to cut and deliver the 

 materials at the spot. This custom I mention, because I 

 look upon it to be of very remote antiquity. 



LETTER VIII 



On the verge of the forest, as it is now circumscribed, 

 are three considerable lakes, two in Oakhanger, of which 

 I have nothing particular to say ; and one called Bin's 

 or Bean's Pond, which is worthy the attention of a 

 naturalist or a sportsman. For, being crowded at the 

 upper end with willows, and with the carex cespitosa,* it 

 affords such a safe and pleasing shelter to wild-ducks, 

 teals, snipes, etc., that they breed there. In the winter 

 this covert is also frequented by foxes and sometimes 

 by pheasants ; and the bogs produce many curious 

 plants. [For which consult Letter XLI. to Mr. Bar- 

 rington.] 



By a perambulation of Wolmer-forest and the Holt, 

 made in 1635, and in the eleventh year of Charles the 

 First (which now lies before me), it appears that the 

 limits of the former are much circumscribed. For, to 

 say nothing of the farther side, with which I am not so 

 well acquainted, the bounds on this side, in old times, 

 came into Binswood ; and extended to the ditch of 

 Ward le ham Park, in which stands the curious mount 

 called King John's Hill, and Lodge Hill ; and to the 

 verge of Hartley Mauduit, called Mauduit-hatch ; com- 

 prehending also Short-heath, Oakhanger, and Oakwoods ; 

 a large district, now private property, though once 

 belonging to the royal domain. 



* I mean that sort which, rising into tall hassocks, is called by 

 the loresters torrets ; a corruption, I suppose, of turrets. 



