NATURAL HISTOEY OF SELBORNE. 
19 
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 W. and Mary, c. 23) ''to burn on any [ _ 
waste, between Candlemas and Midsummer, any grig, ling, heath and 
furze, goss 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 communicated to the underwoods, 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 will sprout up, and 
aflford much tender brouze for cattle ; but, where there is large old 
furze, the fire, following the roots, consumes 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 gentle- 
man, who lives beyond Andover, coming 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 smell 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, taking the old materials for a perquisite. 
The farm called Blackmoor, in this parish, is obliged to find the posts 
and brush-wood for the former ; while the farms at Greatham, in rotation, 
furnish for the latter ; and are all enjoined to cut and deliver the 
materials at the spot. This custom 1 mention, because I look upon it 
to be of very remote antiquity, 
* In the Holt, where a full stock of fallow-deer has been kept up till lately, no 
sheep are admitted to this day. 
