rhoods 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.

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 browze for cattle; but, where there is large old furze, 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 oak; 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
Bla