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In Wolmer-forest I see but one sort of stone, called by the
workmen sand, or forest-stone. This is generally of the colour of
rusty iron, and might probably be worked as iron ore; is very hard
and heavy, and of a firm, compact texture, and composed of a
small roundish crystalline grit, cemented together by a brown,
terrene, ferruginous matter; will not cut without difficulty, nor
easily strike fire with steel. Being often found in broad flat pieces,
it makes good pavement for paths about houses, never becoming
slippery in frost or rain; is excellent for dry walls, and is sometimes
used in buildings. In many parts of that waste it lies scattered on
the surface of the ground; but is dug on Weaver's-down, a vast hill
on the eastern verge of that forest, where the pits are shallow, and
the stratum thin. This stone is imperishable.

From a notion of rendering their work the more elegant, and giving
it a finish, masons chip this stone into small fragments about the
size of the head of a large nail; and then stick the pieces into the
wet mortar along the joints of their freestone walls: this
embellishment carries an odd appearance, and has occasioned
strangers sometimes to ask us pleasantly, 'whether we fastened our
walls together with tenpenny nails.'

Letter V
To Thomas Pennant, Esquire

Among the singularities of this place the two rocky hollow lanes,
the one to Alton, and the other to the forest, deserve our attention.
These roads, running through the malm lands, are, by the traffic of
ages, and the fretting of water, worn down through the first stratum
of our freestone,
and partly through the second; so that they look more like water-
courses than roads; and are bedded with naked rag for furlongs
together. In many places they are reduced sixteen or eighteen feet
beneath the level of the fields; and after floods, and in frosts,
exhibit very grotesque and wild appearances, from the tangled
roots that are twisted among the strata, and from the torrents
rushing down their broken sides; and especially when those
cascades are frozen into icicles, hanging in all the fanciful shapes
of frost-work. These rugged gloomy scenes affright the ladies when
they peep down into them from the paths above, and make timid
horsemen shudder while they ride along them; but delight the
naturalist with their various botany, and particularly with their
curious filices with which they abound.

The manor of Selborne, was it strictly looked after, with its kindly
aspects, and all its sloping coverts, would swarm with game; even
now hares, partridges, and pheasants abound; and in old days
woodcocks were as plentiful. There are few quails, because they
more affect open fields than enclosures; after harvest some few
landrails are seen.

The parish of Selborne, by taking in so much of the forest, is a vast
district. Those who tread the bounds are employed part of three
days in the business, and are of opinion that the outline, in all its
curves and indentings, does not comprise less than thirty miles.

The village stands in a sheltered spot, secured by the Hanger from
the strong westerly winds. The air is soft, but rather moist from the
effluvia of so many trees; yet perfectly healthy and free from
agues.

The quantity of rain that falls on it is very considerable, as may be
supposed in so woody and mountainous a district. As my
experience in measuring the water is but of short date, I am not
qualified to give the mean quantity.*
(*A very intelligent gentleman assures me (and he speaks from
upwards of forty years' experience) that the mean rain of any plate
cannot be ascertained till a person has measured it for a very long
period. 'If I had only measured the rain,' says he, 'for the four first
years from 1740 to 1743, I should have said the mean rain at
Lyndon was 16 and a half inches for the year, if from 1740 to 1750,
18 and a half inches. The mean rain before 1763 was 20 and a
quarter, from 1763 and since, 25 and a half; from 1770 to 1780, 26.
If only 1773, 1774 and 1775 had been measured, Lyndon mean rain
would have been called 32 inches.')

I only know that:

From May 1, 1779, the end of the year, there fell 28 Inch. 37!
Hund.
From Jan. 1, 1780, to Jan. 1, 1781, there fell 27 32
From Jan. 1, 1781, to Jan. 1, 1782, there fell 30 71
From Jan. 1, 1782, to Jan. 1, 1783, there fell 50 26!
From Jan. 1, 1783, to Jan. 1, 1784, there fell 33 71
From Jan. 1, 1784, to Jan. 1, 1785, there fell 33 80
From Jan. 1, 1785, to Jan. 1, 1786, there fell 31 55
From Jan. 1, 1786, to Jan. 1, 1787, there fell 39 57

The village of Selborne, and large hamlet of Oak-hanger, with the
single farms, and many scattered houses along the verge of the
forest, contain upwards of six hundred and seventy inhabitants.*
We abound with poor; many of whom are sober and industrious,
and live comfortably in good stone or brick cottages, which are
glazed, and have chambers above stairs: mud buildings we have
none. Besides the employment from husbandry the men work in
hop gardens, of which we have many; and fell and bark timber. In
the spring and summer the women weed the corn; and enjoy a
second harvest in September by hop-picking. Formerly, in the dead
months they availed themselves greatly by spinning wool, for
making of barragons, a genteel corded stuff, much in vogue at that
time for summer wear; and chiefly manufactured at Alton, a
neighbouring town, by some of the people called Quakers: but
from circumstances this trade is at an end.** The inhabitants enjoy
a good share of health and longevity: and the parish swarms with
children.

(* A state of the parish of Selborne, taken October 4, 1783.

The number of tenements or families, 136.
The number of inhabitants in the street is ... 313
In the rest of the parish ... 363
Total, 676; near five inhabitants to each tenement.

In the time of the Rev. Gilbert White, vicar, who died in 1727-8,
the number of inhabitants was computed at about 500.)

(** Since the passage above was written, I am happy in being able
to say that the spinning employment is a little revived, to the no
small comfort of the industrious housewife.)

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--------------------------------------
Average of baptisms for 60 years.

From 1720 to 1729, both years inclusive Males 6,9 Females
6,0 12,9
From 1730 to 1739, both years inclusive Males 8,2 Females
7,1 15,3
From 1740 to 1749, inclusive Males 9,2 Females 6,6 15,8
From 1750 to 1759, inclusive Males 7,6 Females 8,1 15,7
From 1760 to 1769, inclusive Males 9,1 Females 8,9 18,0
From 1770 to 1779, inclusive Males 10,5 Females 9,8 20
3

Total baptisms of Males 515
Females 465 980
Total of baptisms from 1720 to 1779, both inclusive, 60 years
980.

Average of burials for 60 years.

From 1720 to 1729, both years inclusive Males 4,8 Females
5,1 9,9
From 1730 to 1739, both years inclusive Males 4,8 Females
5,8 10,6
From 1740 to 1749, inclusive Males 4,6 Females 3,8 8,4
From 1750 to 1759, inclusive Males 4,9 Females 5,1 10,0
From 1760 to 1769, inclusive Males 6,9 Females 6,5 13,4
From 1770 to 1779, inclusive Males 5,5 Females 6,2 11,7

Total of burials of Males 315
Females 325 640

Total of burials from 1720 to 1779 both inclusive, 60 years 640.
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--------------------------------------
Baptisms exceed burials by more them one-third.

Baptisms of Males exceed Females by one-tenth, or one in ten.

Burials of Females exceed Males by one m thirty.

It appears that a child, born Ed bred m this parish, has Em equal
chance to live above forty years.

Twins thirteen times, many of whom dying young have lessened
the chance for life.

Chances for life in men and women appear to be equal.
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--------------------------------------
A TABLE of the Baptisms, Burials, and Marriages, from January 2,
1761, to December 25, 1780, in the Parish of Selborne.

Baptisms.

1761 Males 8 Females 10 Total 18
1762 7 8 15
1763 8 10 18
1764 11 9 20
1765 12 6 18
1766 9 13 22
1767 14 5 19
1768 7 6 13
1769 9 14 23
1770 10 13 23
1771 10 6 16
1772 11 10 21
1773 8 5 13
1774 6 13 19
1775 20 7 27
1776 11 10 21
1777 8 13 21
1778 7 13 20
1779 14 8 22
1780 8 9 17
198 188 386

Burials.

1761 Males 2 Females 4 Total 6
1762 10 10 20
1763 3 4 7
1764 10 8 18
1765 9 7 16
1766 10 6 16
1767 6 5 11
1768 2 5 7
1769 6 5 11
1770 4 7 11
1771 3 4 7
1772 6 10 16
1773 7 5 12
1774 2 8 10
1775 13 8 21
1776 4 6 10
1777 7 2 9
1778 3 9 12
1779 5 6 11
1780 11 4 15
123 123 246

Marriages.

1761 3
1762 6
1763 7
1764 6
1765 6
1766 4
1767 2
1768 6
1769 2
1770 3
1771 4
1772 3
1773 3
1774 1
1775 6
1776 6
1777 4
1778 5
1779 0
1780 3
83

During this period of twenty years the births of Males exceeded
those of Females 10.

The burials of each sex were equal.

And the births exceeded the deaths 140.

Letter VI
To Thomas Pennant, Esquire

Should I omit to describe with some exactness the forest of
Wolmer, of which three-fifths perhaps lie in this parish, my
account of Selborne would be very imperfect, as it is a district
abounding with many curious productions, both animal and
vegetable; and has often afforded me much entertainment both as a
sportsman and as a naturalist.

The royal forest of Wolmer is a tract of land of about seven 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 so to proceed
eastward, by the parishes of Greatham, Lysse, Rogate, and Trotton,
in the county of Sussex; by Bramshot, Hedleigh, and Kingsley.
This royalty consists entirely of sand covered with heath and fern;
but is somewhat diversified with hiss and dales, without having one
standing tree in the whole extent. In the bottoms, where the waters
stagnate, are many bogs, which formerly abounded with
subterraneous trees; though Dr. Plot says positively,* that 'there
never were any fallen trees hidden in the mosses of the southern
counties.' But he was mistaken: for I myself have seen cottages on
the verge of this wild district, whose timbers consisted of a black
hard wood, looking like oak, which the owners assured me they
procured from the bogs by probing the soil with spits, or some such
instruments: but the peat is so much cut out, and the moors have
been so wed examined, that none has been found of late.** Besides
the oak, I have also been shown pieces of fossil-wood of a paler
colour, and softer nature, which the inhabitants called fir: but, upon
a nice examination, and trial by fire, I could discover nothing
resinous in them; and therefore rather suppose that they were parts
of a willow or alder, or some such aquatic tree.
(* See his Hist. of Staffordshire.)
(** Old people have assured me, that on a winter's morning they
have discovered these trees in the bogs, by the hoar frost, which lay
longer over the space where they were concealed, than on the
surrounding morass. Nor does this seem to be a fanciful notion, but
consistent with true philosophy. Dr. Hales saith, 'That the warmth
of the earth, at some depth under ground, has an influence in
promoting a thaw, as well as the change of the weather from a
freezing to a thawing state, is manifest, from this observation, viz.
Nov. 29, 1731, a little snow having fallen in the night, it was, by
eleven the next morning, mostly melted away on the surface of the
earth, except in several places in Bushy Park, where there were
drains dug and covered with earth, on which the snow continued to
lie, whether those drains were full of water or dry; as also where
elm-pipes lay under ground: a plain proof this, that those drains
intercepted the warmth of the earth from ascending from greater
depths below them: for the snow lay where the drain had more than
four feet depth of earth over it. It continued also to lie on thatch,
dies, and the tops of walls.' See Hales's Haemastatics, p. 360.
Quaere.-- Might not such observations be reduced to domestic use,
by promoting the discovery of old obliterated drains and wells
about houses; and in Roman stations and camps lead to the finding
of pavements, baths and graves, and other hidden relics of curious
antiquity ?)

This lonely domain is a very agreeable haunt for many sorts of wild
fowls, which not only frequent it in the winter, but breed there in
the summer; such as lapwings, snipes, wild-ducks, and, as I have
discovered within these few years, teals. Partridges in vast plenty
are bred in good seasons on the verge of this forest, into which they
love to make excursions: and in particular, in the dry summer of
1740 and 1741, and some years after, they swarmed to such a
degree, that parties of unreasonable sportsmen killed twenty and
sometimes thirty brace in a day.

But there was a nobler species of game in this forest, now extinct,
which I have heard old people say abounded much before shooting
flying became so common, and that was the heath-cock, black-
game, or grouse. When I was a little boy I recollect one coming
now and then to my father's table. The last pack remembered was
killed about thirty-five years ago; and within these ten years one
solitary greyhen was sprung by some beagles in beating for a hare.
The sportsmen cried out, 'A hen pheasant'; but a gentleman present,
who had often seen grouse in the north of England, assured me that
it was a greyhen.

Nor does the loss of our black game prove the only gap in the
Fauna Selborniensis; for another beautiful link in the chain of
beings is wanting, I mean the red deer, which toward the beginning
of this century amounted to about five hundred head, and made a
stately appearance. There is an old keeper, now alive, named
Adams, whose great-grandfather (mentioned in a perambulation
taken in 1635), grandfather, father, and self, enjoyed the head
keepership of Wolmer-forest in succession for more than an
hundred years. This person assures me, that his father has often
told him, that Queen Anne, as she was journeying on the
Portsmouth road, did not think the forest of Wolmer beneath her
royal regard. For she came out of the great road at Lippock, which
is just by, and reposing herself on a bank smoothed for that
purpose, lying about half a mile to the east of Wolmer-pond, and
still called Queen's-bank, saw with great complacency and
satisfaction the whole herd of red deer brought by the keepers
along the vale before her, consisting then of about five hundred
head. A sight this, worthy the attention of the greatest sovereign!
But he further adds that, by means of the Waltham Hacks, or, to
use his own expression, as soon as they began blacking, they were
reduced to about fifty head, and so continued decreasing till the
time of the late Duke of Cumberland. It is now more than thirty
years ago that his highness sent down an huntsman, and six
yeoman-prickers, in scarlet jackets laced with gold, attended by the
stag-hounds; ordering them to take every deer in this forest alive,
and convey them in carts to Windsor. In the course of the summer
they caught every stag, some of which showed extraordinary
diversion; but, in the following winter, when the hinds were also
carried off, such fine chases were exhibited as served the country
people for matter of talk and wonder for years afterwards. I saw
myself one of the yeoman-prickers single out a stag from the herd,
and must confess that it was the most curious feat of activity I ever
beheld, superior to anything in Mr. Astley's riding-school. The
exertions made by the horse and deer much exceeded all my
expectations; though the former greatly excelled the latter in speed.
When the devoted deer was separated from his companions, they
gave him, by their watches, law, as they called it, for twenty
minutes; when, sounding their horns, the stop-dogs were permitted
to pursue, and a most gallant scene ensued.

Letter VII
To Thomas Pennant, Esquire

Though large herds of deer do much harm to the neighbourhood,
yet the injury to the morals of the people is of more moment than
the loss of their crops. The temptation is irresistible; for most men
are sportsmen by constitution: and there is such an inherent spirit
for hunting in human nature, as scarce any inhibitions can restrain.
Hence, towards the beginning of this century, all this country was
wild about deer-stealing. Unless he was a hunter, as they affected
to call themselves, no young person was allowed to be possessed of
manhood or gallantry. The Waltham blacks at length committed
such enormities, that government was forced to interfere with that
severe and sanguinary act called the Black Act,* which now
comprehends more felonies than any law that ever was framed
before. And, therefore, a late bishop of Winchester, when urged to
re-stock Waltham-chase,** refused, from a motive worthy of a
prelate, replying that 'it had done mischief enough already.'
(* Statute 9 Geo. I. c. 22.)
(** This chase remains unstocked to this day; the bishop was Dr.
Hoadly.)

Our old race of deer-stealers are hardly extinct yet: it was but a
little while ago that, over their ale, they used to recount the exploits
of their youth; such as watching the pregnant hind to her lair, and,
when the calf was dropped, paring its feet with a penknife to the
quick to prevent its escape, till it was large and fat enough to be
killed; the shooting at one of their neighbours with a bullet in a
turnip-field by moonshine, mistaking him for a deer; and the losing
a dog in the following extraordinary manner: Some fellows,
suspecting that a calf new-fallen was deposited in a certain spot of
thick fern, went, with a lurcher, to surprise it; when the parent hind
rushed out of the brake, and, taking a vast spring with all her feet
close together, pitched upon the neck of the dog, and broke it short
in two.

Another temptation to idleness and sporting was a number of
rabbits, which possessed all the hillocks and dry places: but these
being inconvenient to the huntsmen, on account of their burrows,
when they came to take away the deer, they permitted the country
people to destroy them all.

Such forests and wastes, when their allurements to irregularities
are removed, are of considerable service to neighbourhoods that
verge upon them, by furnishing them with peat and turf for their
firing; with fuel for the burning their lime; and with ashes for their
grasses; and by maintaining their geese and their stock of young
cattle at little or no expense.

The manor farm of the parish of Greatham has an admitted claim, I
see (by an old record taken from the Tower of London), of turning
all live stock on the forest at proper seasons, bidentibus exceptis.*
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.
(* For the privilege the owner of that estate used to pay to the king
annually seven bushels of oats.)
(** In the Holt, where a fun stock of fallow-deer has been kept up
till lately, no sheep are admitted to this day.)

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, etc., is consumed, young will sprout up, and afford much
tender browse for cattle; but, where there is large old fume, 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 gentleman, 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 I mention,
because I look upon it to be of very remote antiquity.

Letter VIII
To Thomas Pennant, Esquire

On the verge of the forest, as it is now circumscribed, are three
considerable lakes, two in Oakhanger, of which I have nothing
particular to say; and one called Bin's or Bean's Pond, which is
worthy the attention of a naturalist or a sportsman. For, being
crowded at the upper end with willows, and with the carex
cespitosa,* it affords such a safe and pleasing shelter to wild-
ducks, teals, snipes, etc., that they breed there. In the winter this
covert is also frequented by foxes, and sometimes by pheasants;
and the bogs produce many curious plants. [For which consult
Letter XLI to Mr. Barrington.]
(* I mean that sort which, rising into tall hassocks, is called by the
foresters turrets, a corruption, I suppose, of turrets.
Note. In the beginning of the summer 1787 the royal forests of
Wolmer and Holt were measured by persons set down by
government.)

By a perambulation of Wolmer-forest and the Holt, made in 1635,
and in the eleventh year of Charles the First (which now lies before
me), it appears that the limits of the former are much
circumscribed. For, to say nothing on 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 Ward le ham
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 mentioned is,
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 Halt; 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 considerable 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 mid-
leg, they ruminate and solace themselves from about ten in the
morning till four in the afternoon, and then return to their feeding.
During this great proportion of the day they drop much dung, in
which insects nestle; and so supply food for the fish, which would
be poorly subsisted but from this contingency. Thus nature, who is
a great economist, converts the recreation of one animal to the
support of another! Thomson, who was a nice observer of natural
occurrences, did not let this pleasing circumstance escape him. He
says, in his Summer:

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