WOLMEE rOEEST. — BTXENING HEATH. 31 



The manor farm of the parish of Grreatham has an 

 admitted claim, I see, by an old record taken from the 

 Tower of London, of turning all live stock on the forest, at 

 proper seasons, hidentihus exoeptis, " sheep excepted." * 

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

 being such close grazers, they would pick out all the finest 

 grasses, and hinder the deer from thriving. 



Though (by statute 4 and 5 WiUiam and Mary, c. 23) 

 " to bum on any waste, between Candlemas and Midsummer, 

 any grig, hng, heath and furze, gorse, 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 conam.unicated to the imder- 

 woods, 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 wiU sprout up, and afford 

 much tender browse for cattle ; but where there is large old 

 furze, the fire, following the roots, consmnes 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 gentleman, who lives beyond Andover, 

 coining 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 smeU 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, 



* For this privilege the owner of that estate used to pay to the king annually 

 seven bushels of oats. 



