OF SELBORNE, 
29 
(for in their natural state they are all birds of the night) 
to feed in the brooks and meadows ; returning again with 
the dawn of the morning. Had this lake an arm or two 
more, and were it planted round with thick covert (for now 
it is perfectly naked) , it might make a valuable decoy. ^ 
Yet neither its extent, nor the clearness of its water, nor 
the resort of various and curious fowls, nor its picturesque 
groups of cattle, can render this mere so remarkable as the 
great quantity of coins that were found in its bed about 
forty years ago. But as such discoveries more properly 
belong to the antiquities of this place, I shall suppress all 
particulars for the present, till I enter professedly on my 
series of Letters respecting the more remote history of this 
village and district. 
LETTER IX. 
TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQUIRE. 
Y way of supplement, I shall trouble you once 
more on this subject, to inform you that 
Wolmer, with her sister forest Ayles Holt, 
alias Alice Holt,^ as it is called in old records, 
is held by grant from the crown for a term 
' The broad expanse of Wolmer Great Pond still affords a safe retreat 
to flocks of wild-fowl during the winter season ; and wild-ducks and 
teal still breed in the forest ; the ducks in the heath, at long distances 
from the swamp ; the teal nearer to the water. But the numbers of 
both these species are yearly decreasing. — ^Ed. 
^ In Rot. Inquisit. de statu forest, in Scaccar. 36 Ed. III. it is called 
Aisholt. In the same, " Tit. Woolmer & Aisholt Hantisc. Doniinus Rex 
habit unam capellam in haia sua de Kingesle." " Haia, sepes, sepimentum, 
parens : a Gall, haie and haye."" Spelman's Glossary. Several additional 
documents relating to the earHer history of the forests, both that of 
Wolmer and The Holt, are given in a note to Letter X. of the Auti^j^ui 
ties.— G. W. 
of years. 
