LETTER YI. 



To Thomas Pennant, Esq. 



Should I omit to describe with some exactness 

 the Forest of Wohiier, of which three-fifths perhaps 

 lie in this parish, my account of Selborne 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 miles 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 pro- 

 ceed eastward — by the parishes of Greatham, Lysse, 

 Rogate, and Trotton, in the county of Sussex ; by 

 Bramshot, Hedleigh, 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 sub- 

 terraneous trees ; though Dr. Plot says positively ^ 

 that there never were any fallen trees hidden in the 

 mosses of the southern counties." But he was mis- 

 taken : for I myself have seen cottages on the verge 



* See his History of Staffordshire, 

 17 



