20 NATURAL HISTORY 
claim, I fee, (by an old record taken from the I'ozvcr of London') 
of turning all live ftock on the foreft, at proper feafons, hidentibus 
exceptis°. The reafon, I prefume, why IheepP are excluded, is, 
becaufe, being fuch clofe grazers, they would pick out all the 
fined graffes, and hinder th^ deer from thriving. 
Though (by ftatute 4 and 5 W. and Mary) c. 23. to burn on 
" any wafte, between Candlemas and Midfummer, any grig, ling, 
" heath and furze, gofs or fern, is punilhable with whipping 
" and confinement in the houfe of correiftion yet, in this foreft, 
about March or April, according to the drynefs of the feafon, 
fuch vaft heath-fires are lighted up, that they often get to a maf- 
terlefs head, and, catching the hedges, have fometimes been 
communicated to the underwoods, woods, and coppices, where 
great damage has enfued. The plea for thefe burnings is, that, 
when the old coat of heath, he. is confumed, young will 
fprout up, and afford much tender brouze for cattle ; but, where 
there is large old furze, the fire, following the roots, confumes 
the very ground ; fo that for hundreds of acres nothing is to be 
feen but fmother and defolation, the whole circuit round looking 
like the cinders of a volcano ; and, the foil being quite exhaufted, 
no traces of vegetation are to be found for years. Thefe confla- 
grations, as they take place ufually with a north-eaft or eaft wind, 
much annoy this village with their fmoke, and often alarm the 
country ; and, once in particular, I remember that a gentleman, 
who lives beyond Andover, coming to my houfe, when he got on 
the downs between that town and Winchejler, at twenty-five miles 
o For this privilege the owner of that eftate ufed to pay to the king annually feveri 
buftiels of oats, 
P In The Holt, where a full flock of fallow-deer has been kept up till lately, no flieep 
are admitted to this day, 
diftance. 
