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.
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