OF SEL BORNE. 15 
The royal forejl of Wolmer is a trad of land of about feven miles 
in length, by two and a half in breadth, running nearly from 
North to South, and is abutted on, to begin to the South, and 
fo to proceed eaftward, by the parifhes of Greatham, Lyjfe, Rogate, 
and Trotton, in the county of Siijfex ; by Brampot, Hedleigh, and 
Kingjley. This royalty confifts entirely of fand covered with heath 
and fern ; but is fomewhat diverfified with hills and dales, without 
having one ftanding tree in the whole extent. In the bottoms, 
where the waters ftagnate, are many bogs, which formerly abound- 
ed with fubterraneous trees; though Dr. Plot fays pofitively 
that " there never were any fallen trees hidden in the mofles of the 
fouthern counties." But he was miftaken : for I myfelf have feen 
cottages on the verge of this wild diftrift, whofe timbers confifled 
of a black hard wood, looking like oak, which the owners alTured 
me they procured from the bogs by probing the foil with fpits, or 
fome fuch inftruments: but the peat is fo much cutout, and the 
moors have been fo well examined, that none has been found of 
late Befides the oak, I have alfo been fliewn pieces of foffil-wood 
of a paler colour, and fofter nature, which the inhabitants called 
fir: 
k See his Hift. of Staffordjhire. 
1 Old people have allured me, that on a winter's morning they have difcovered thefc 
trees, in the bogs, by the hoar froft, which lay longer over the fpace where they were con- 
cealed, than on the furrounding morafs. Nor does this feem to be a fanciful notion, but 
confiftent with true philofophy. Dr. Hales faith, " That the warmth of the earth, at 
" fome depth under ground, has an influence in promoting a thaw, as well as the change 
" of the weather from a freezing to a thawing Hate, is manifeft, from this obfervation, 
" viz. Nov. zg, 1731, a little fnow having fallen in the night, it was, by eleven the next 
" morning, moftly melted away on the furface of the earth, except in feveral places in 
" Bujhj-park, where there were drains dug and covered with earth, on which the fnow 
*' continued to lie, whether thofe drains were full of water or dry ; as alfo where elm-pipes 
" lay under ground ; a plain proof tliis, that thofe drains intercepted the warmth of the 
" earth 
