NATURAL HISTORY 
as they have been detected, and rendered liable to the lash 
of the law. Neither fines nor imprisonments can deter 
them : so impossible is it to extinguish the spirit of sporting, 
which seems to be inherent in human nature. 
General Howe turned out some German wild boars and 
sows in his forests, to the great terror of the neighbour- 
hood ; and, at one time, a wild bull or bulBfalo : but the 
country rose upon them and destroyed them.^ 
A very large fall of timber, consisting of about 1,000 
oaks, has been cut this spring (viz. 1784) in The Holt 
forest ; one-fifth of which, it is said, belongs to the grantee. 
Lord Stawel. He lays claim also to the lop and top : but 
the poor of the parishes of Binstead and Frinsham, Bentley 
and Kingsley, assert that it belongs to them ; and, assembling 
in a riotous manner, have actually taken it all away. One 
man, who keeps a team, has carried home for his share 
forty sacks of wood. Forty-five of these people his lord- 
ship has served with actions.^ These trees, which were 
very sound, and in high perfection, were winter-cut, viz. in 
February and March, before the bark would run. 
In old times The Holt was estimated to be eighteen 
miles, computed measure, from water-carriage, viz. from 
the town of Chertsey, on the Thames ; but now it is not 
half that distance, since the Wey is made navigable up to 
the town of Godalming, in the county of Surrey.^ 
^ Charles the First also turned out in the New Forest German boars 
and sows, which bred and increased. An engraving of one wDl be found 
in Gilpin's "Forest Scenery," vol. ii. p. 118. — Ed. 
^ Mr. Bennett ascertained that the defendants in these actions, though 
they made a show of resistance, suffered judgment to go by default. The 
question of right had, in fact, been tried in 1741, and determined against 
the claimants. Yet notwithstanding this, so soon after as 1788, on the 
occasion of another fall of timber in The Holt, the people of Frinsham 
again assembled and carried off openly upwards of 6,000 faggots. So 
difficult is it to convince where interest opposes. — Ed. 
^ The formation of the Basingstoke Canal has again reduced the dis- 
tance of The Holt from water-carriage ; and it is now accessible, either 
at Odiham or at Bagman's Castle, within about seven miles. — Ed. 
