a6 NATURAL HISTORY 
efforts of numerous keepers, and the fevere penalties that have 
been put in force againft them as often as they have been detedted, 
and rendered liable to the lalh of the law. Neither fines nor im- 
prifonments can deter them : fo impofTible is it to extinguifli the 
fpirit of fporting, which feems to be inherent in human nature. 
General Howe turned out fome German wild boars and fows in 
his forefts, to the great terror of the neighbourhood ; and, at one 
time, a wild bull or buffalo : but the country rofe upon them and 
deftroyed them. 
A very large fall of timber, confifling of about one thoufand 
oaks, has been cut this fpring (viz. 1784) in The Holt forejl ; one 
fifth of which, it is faid, belongs to the grantee, Lord Stawel. 
He lays claim alfo to the lop and top : but the poor of the 
parifhes of Binfted and Frin/ham, Bentlej and Kingjley, alTert that it 
belongs to them; and, afTembling in a riotous manner, have ac- 
tually taken it all away. One man, who keeps a team, has 
carried home, for his lhare, forty flacks of wood. Forty-five of 
thefe people his Lordfhip has ferved with adions. Thefe trees, 
which were very found, and in high perfection, were winter-cut^ 
viz. in Fehruary and March, before the bark would run. In old 
times The Holt was eflimated to be eighteen miles, computed mea- 
fure, from water-carriage, wz. from the town of Chertfey, on the 
Thames ; but now it is not half that diflance, fince the Wey is 
made navigable up to the town of Godalming in the county of 
Surrey, 
LETTER 
