THE ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 
LETTER I. 
T is reasonable to suppose that in remote ages 
' this woody and mountainous district was in- 
habited only by bears and wolves. Whether 
the Britons ever thought it worthy their 
> attention, is not in our power to determine : ^ 
but we may safely conclude^ from circumstances, that it was 
not unknown to the Romans. Old people remember to 
have heard their fathers and grandfathers say that, in dry 
summers and in windy weather, pieces of money were some- 
times found round the verge of Wolmer Pond ; and tradition 
had inspired the foresters with a notion that the bottom of 
that lake contained great stores of treasure. During the 
spring and summer of 1740 there was little rain; and the 
following summer also, 1741, was so uncommonly dry, that 
many springs and ponds failed, and this lake in particular, 
whose bed became as dusty as the surrounding heaths and 
wastes. This favourable juncture induced some of the 
forest cottagers to begin a search, which was attended with 
such success, that all the labourers in the neighbourhood 
flocked to the spot, and with spades and hoes turned up 
^ Several ancient " barrows " in Wolmer Forest, which have been 
opened from time to time, have been found to contain fragments of 
human bones and pottery, and in at least one instance an urn of 
unburnt clay containing fragments of bones, tending to prove that the 
barrows in question were of British origin in Roman times. — Ed. 
