18 THE NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
By a perambulation of Wolmer Forest and the Holt, made 
in 1635, and the eleventh year of Charles I (which now lies 
before me), it appears that the limits of the former are much 
circumscribed. For, to say nothing of the farther side, with 
which I am not so well acquainted, the bounds on this side, in 
old times, came into Binswood; and extended to the ditch of 
Wardleham Park, in which stands the curious mount called 
King John’s Hill, and Lodge Hill; and to the verge of Hartley 
Mauduit, called Mauduit Hatch; comprehending also Short 
Heath, Oakhanger, and Oakwoods; a large district, now 
private property, though once belonging to the royal domain. 
It is remarkable that the term purlieu is never once men- 
tioned in this long roll of parchment. It contains, besides the 
perambulation, a rough estimate of the value of the timbers, 
which were considerable, growing at that time in the district 
of the Holt; and enumerates the officers, superior and inferior, 
of those joint forests, for the time being, and their ostensible 
fees and perquisites. In those days, as at present, there were 
hardly any trees in Wolmer Forest. 
Within the present limits of the Forest are three consider- 
able lakes, Hogmer, Cranmer, and Wolmer ; all of which are 
stocked with carp, tench, eels, and perch; but the fish do not 
thrive well, because the water is hungry, and the bottoms are 
a naked sand. 
A circumstance respecting these ponds, though by no means 
peculiar to them, I cannot pass over in silence; and that is 
that instinct by which in summer all the kine, whether oxen, 
cows, calves, or heifers, retire constantly to the water during 
the hotter hours; where, being more exempt from flies, and 
inhaling the coolness of that element, some belly deep, and 
some only to midleg, they ruminate and solace themselves 
from about ten in the morning till four in the afternoon, and 
then return to their feeding. ‘Thomson, who was a nice ob- 
server of natural occurrences, says in his “ Summer,” 
