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He was one of the keepers of Newforeft, and refided in his lodge there during a part of every hunting-feafon. But his principal refidence was Woodlands, in Dorfetfhire, where he had a capital manfion. One of his nearest neighbours was the Lord Chancellor Cooper, firft Earl of Shaftsbury. Two men could not be more oppofite in their difpofitions and purfuits. They had little communication therefore; and their occafional meetings were rendered more difagreeable to both, from their oppofite fentiments in politics. Lord Shaftsbury, who was the younger man, was the furvivor; and the following account of Mr Haftings, which I have fomewhat abridged, is faid to have been the production of his

pen.

Mr Haftings was low of ftature, but very strong, and very active; of a ruddy complexion, with flaxen hair. His cloaths were always of green cloth, His houfe was of the old fashion; in the midft of a large park, well stocked with deer, rabbits, and fifh-ponds. He had a long narrow bowling-green in it; and ufed to play with round fand-bowls. Here too he had a banqueting-room built like a ftand, that ran buck, fox, hare, otter, and badger; and had hawks of all kinds, both long and fhort winged. His great hall was commonly ftrewed with marrow-bones; and full of hawk-perches, hounds, fpaniels, and terriers. The upper end of it was hung with fox-fkins of this and the laft year's killing. Here and there a pole-cat was intermixed; and hunter's poles in great abundance. The parlour was a large room, compleat ly furnished in the fame ftyle. On a broad hearth, paved with brick, lay fome of the choiceft terriers, hounds, and fpaniels. One or two of the great chairs had litters of cats in them, which were not to be disturbed. Of these three or four always attended him at dinner; and a little white wand lay by his trencher, to

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The

door,

defend it, if they were too troublefome. In the windows, which were very large, lay his arrows, cross-bows, and other accoutrements. corners of the room were filled with his best hunting and hawking poles. His oyfter-table ftood at the lower end of the room, which was. in conftant use twice a day, all the year round; for he never failed to eat oysters both at dinner and supper, with which the neighbouring town of Pool fupplied him. At the upper end of the room ftood a fmall table with a double defk; one fide of which held a church-bible; the other, the book of martyrs. On different tables in the room lay hawk's hoods; bells; old hats, with their crowns thrust in, full of pheafant eggs; tables; dice; cards; and ftore of tobacco-pipes. At one end of this room was which opened into a clofet; where ftood bottles of ftrong beer and wine; which never came out but in fingle glaffes, which was the rule of the houfe; for he never exceeded himfelf, nor permitted others to exceed. Answering to this clofet was a door into an old chapel; which had been long difused for devotion; but in the pulpit, as the safest place, was always to be found a cold chine of beef, a venifon-pafty, a gammon of bacon, or a great apple-pye, with thick cruft, well-baked. His table coft him not much, though it was good to eat at. His fports fupplied all, but beef and mutton; except on Fridays, when he had the beft of fish. He never wanted a London pudding; and he always fang it in with, " My part lies therein-a." He drank a glafs or two of wine at meals; put fyrup of gillyflowers into his fack; and had always' a tanglafs of fmall-bear ftanding by him, which he often stirred about with rofemary. He lived to be an hundred; and never left his eye-fight, nor ufed fpectacles. He got on horfeback without help; and rode to the death of the ftag, till he was pat fourfcore.

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368

Of the prefent State of the Inhabitants of New-Foreft

AFTER the foreft had loft its taken. The trefpaffer therefore here,

great legal fupport, and reafons of ftate obliged the monarch to feek his amusements nearer home, the extent of thefe royal demens began infenfibly to diminish. New-foreft, among others, was greatly curtailed. Large portions of it were given away In grants by the crown. Many gen tlemen have houfes in its interior parts; and their tenants are in poffef fon of well-cultivated farms. For though the foil of New-foreft is, in general; poor; yet there are fome parts of it which very happily admit culture. Thus the foreft has fuffered in many places, what its ancient laws confidered as the greatest of all mischiefs, under the name of an affart; a word, which fignifies grubbing up its coverts, and copfes, and turning the harbours of deer into arable land. Aftop however is now put to all grants from the crown. The crown-lands be came public property under the care of the treasury, when the civil lift was fettled. The king can only grant leafes for thirty years; and the parliament feldom interferes in a longer extenfion, except on particular occafions.<

Befides these defalcations arifing from the bounty of the crown, the foreft is continually preyed on by the incroachments of inferiour people. There are multitudes of trefpaffers, on every fide of it, who build their little huts, and enclose their little gardens, and patches of ground, withour leave, or ceremony of any kind. The under keepers, who have conftant orders to deftroy all thefe inclofures, now and then affert the rights of the foreft, by throwing down a fence; but it re- quirés a legal process to throw down a houfe, of which poffeffion has been

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as on other waftes, is careful to rear his cottage, and get into it as quickly. as poffible. I have known all the materials of one of thefe habitations brought together the houfe built covered in the goods removed—a fire kindled and the family in poffeffion, during the courfe of a moonlight night. Sometimes indeed, where the trefpdfs is inconfiderable, the poffeffor has been allowed to pay a fine for his land in the court of Lyndhurft. But these trefpaffes are generally in the outskirts of the forest; or in the neighbourhood of fome little hamlet. They are never fuffered in the interior parts; where no lands are alienated from the crown, except in regular grants.

The many advantages which the borderers on forefts enjoy, fuch as rearing cattle and hogs, obtaining fuel at an eafy rate, and procuring little patches of land for the trouble of inclofing it, would add much, one fhould imagine, to the comfort of their lives. But in fact it is otherwife. Thefe advantages procure them not half the enjoyments of common daylabourers. In general, they are an indolent race; poor and wretched in the extreme. Inftead of having the regular returns of a week's labour to fubfift on, too many of them depend on the precarious fupply of foreft pilfer. Their oftenfible bufinefs is commonly to cut furze, and carry it to the neighbouring brick-kilns; for which purpofe they keep a team of two or three foreft-horfes: while their collateral fupport is deer-ftealing, poaching or purloining timber. In this laft occupation they are faid to have been fo expert, that, in a night's time, they would have cut down, carried off

* From the Same:

and

and lodged fafely in the hands of fome receiver, one of the largest oaks of the foreft. But the depredations, which have been made in timber, along all the fkirts of the foreft, have rendered this fpecies of theft, at prefent, but an unprofitable employment. In poaching, and deer-ftealing, they of ten find their belt account; in all the arts of which many of them are well practifed. From their earlieft youth they learn to fet the trap and the gin for hares and pheasants; to infoare deer by hanging hooks, baited with apples, from the boughs of trees; and (as they became bolder proficients,) to watch the herd with firearms, and fingle out a fat buck, as he paffes the place of their conceal

ment.

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In wild rugged countries, the mountaineer forms a very different character from the forefter. He leads a life of labour; he procures nothing with out it. He has neither time for idlenefs, and dishoneft arts; nor meets with any thing to allure him into them. But the forefter, who has the temptation of plunder on every fide, finds it easier to trefpafs, than to work. Hence, the one becomes often a rough, manly, ingenuous peafant; the other a fupple, crafty, pilfering knave. Even the very practice of following a night occupation leads to mifchief. The nightly wanderer, unless his mind be engaged in fome neceffary bufinefs, will find many temptations to take the advantage of the incautious fecurity of those who are asleep. From thefe confiderations Mr St. John draws an argument for the fale of foreft-lands. 64 Poverty, fays he, will be changed into affluence the cottager will become a farmer the wil dernefs will be converted into rich paftures, and fertile fields; furnishing provifions for the country, and employment for the poor. The borders and confines of forefts will ceafe to be nurferies for county goals; the trefpaffer will no longer prey upon 3 A VOL. XIV. No. 83.

the vert; nor the vagabond, and out-law on the venifon. Nay the very foil itself will not then be gradually lost, and ftolen, by purpreftures and affarts. Thus forefts, which were formerly the haunts of robbers, and the scenes of violence and rapine, may be converted into the receptacles of honeft induftry."

I had once fome occafional intercourfe with a forest-borderer, who had formerly been a noted deer-stealer. He had often (like the deer-stealer in the play)

-ftruck a doe,

And borne her cleanly by the keeper's nose.

Indeed he had been at the head of his profeffion; and during a reign of five years, affured me, he had killed, on an average, not fewer than an hundred bucks a year. At length he was obliged to abfcond; but compofing his affairs, he abjured his trade, and would speak of his former arts without referve. He has oftener than once confeffed the fins of his youth to me; from which an idea may be formed of the mystery of deer-ftealing, in it's highest mode of perfection. In his excurfions in the foreft he carried with him a gun, which ferewed into three parts and which he could easily conceal in the lining of his coat. Thus armed he would drink with the underkeepers without fufpicion; and when he knew them engaged, would fecurely take his ftand in fome distant part, and mark his buck. When he had killed him, he would draw him aide into the bushes, and,fpend the remaining part of the day in a neighbouring tree, that he might be fure no fpies were in the way. At night he secreted his plunder. He had boarded off a part of his cortage, (forming a rough door into it, like the reft of the partition, ftuck full of falfe nail-neads,) with fuch artifice, that the keepers on an information, have fearched his houfe again and again, and have gone off fatisfied of

his

his innocence; though his fecret larder perhaps at that very time contain ed a brace of bucks. He had always he faid a quick market for his venifon; for the country is as ready to purchase it, as thefe fellows are to procure it. It is a foreft adage of ancient date, non eft inquirendum unde venit venifon

The incroachments of trefpaffers, and the houses and fences thus raised on the borders of the foreft, though, at this time, in a degree connived at, were heretofore confidered as great nuifances by the old foreft-law, and were very feverely punished under the name of purprestures, as tend ng ad terrorem ferarum---ad nocumentum forefte-and, as might be added, at this time, by the neighbouring parishes, ad incrementum pauperum. When a ftranger therefore rears one of thefe fudden fabricks, the parith-officers make him provide a certificate from his own parish, or they remove him. But the mischief commonly arifes from a prifhioner's railing his cottage, and afterwards felling it to a ftranger, which may give him parifh-rights. Thefe encroachments, however, are evils of fo long ftanding, that at this day they hardly admit a remedy. Many of thefe little tenements have been fo long occupied, and have paffed through fo many hands, that the oc cupiers are now in fecure poffeffion.

effectual in repreffing so inveterate an evil.And yet in fome circumftances, thefe little tenements (incroachments as they are, and often the nurseries of idleness) give pleasure to a benevolent breaft. When we fee them, as we fometimes do, the habitations of innocence and industry ; and the means of providing for a large family with cafe and comfort, we are pleafed at the idea of fo much utility and happinefs, arifing from a petty trefpafs on a waste, which cannot in itself be confidered as an injury.

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I once found, in a tenement of this kind, an ancient widow, whose little ftory pleafed me,-Her folitary dwelling flood fweetly in a dell, on the edge of the foreft. Her husband had himfelf reared it, and led her to it, as the habitation of her life. He had made a garden in the front, planted an orchard at one end, and a few trees at the other, which in forty. years had now fhielded the Cottage, and almost concealed it. In her early youth fhe had been left a widow with two fons and a daughter, whose flender education (only what the herself could give them) was almost her whole employment: and the time of their youth, fhe faid, was the plea fanteft time of her life. As they grew up, and the cares of the world fubfided, a fettled piety took poffeffion of her mind. Her age was oppreffed Where the manor of Beaulieu-ab- with infirmity, ficknels, and various Bey is railed from the foreft, a large afflictions in her family. In these fettlement of this kind runs in fcat- diftreffes, her bible was her great tered cottages, at least a mile along comfort. I vifited her frequentthe rails. This neft of incroachers ly in her laft illness, and found the late Duke of Bedford, when her very intelligent in fcripture, and Lord-warden of the foreft, refolved to well verfed in all the gospel-topics of root out. But he met with fuch fur confolation. For many years the evedy, and determined oppofition from ry day read a portion of her bible, the forefters of the hamlet, who afeldom any other book; mounted to more than two hundred a

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men, that he was obliged to defift- Juft knew, and knew no more, her bible whether he took improper measures, true;

as he was a man of violent temper,~ And in that charter read with sparkling -or whether no measures, which he eyes,

could have taken, would have been

Her title to a treasure in the skies.

When

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When she met with paffages fhe did of pronouns, by confounding their cafes. This corruption prevails thro the country; but it feems to increase as we approach the fea. About the neighbourhood of New-foreft this Doric hath attained its perfection. I have oftener than once met with the following tender elegiac in churchyards.

not understand, at one time, or other, fhe faid, fhe often heard them explained at church. The story feems to evince how very fufficient plain fcripture is, unaffifted with other helps, except fuch as are publicly provided, to adminifter both the knowledge and the comforts of religion even to the loweft claffes of people.

The dialect of Hampshire has a particular tendency to the corruption

Him fhall never come again to we:
But us fhall furely, one day, go to he.

Anecdotes of General Wafhington *.

THE moment I arrived at Alex

andria I was eager to repair to Mount Vernon, a beautiful feat of General Washington, fituated ten miles lower down the river. On the road to it we pafs through a great deal of wood; and after having mounted two hills we difcover the houfe, elegant, though fimple, and of a pleafing afpect. Before it is a neat lawn

on

farmer, conftantly employed in the management of his farm, in improving his lands, and in build ng barns. He fhewed

newed me one not yet finished. It is a valt pile, about a hundred feet long, and still more in width, defigned as a forehouse for his corn, potatoes, turnips, &c. Around it are conftructed ftables for all his cattle, his horfes, his affes, the breed of one fide ftables for horfes and which, unknown in this country, he cattle on the other a green-houfe, is endeavouring to increafe. The and buildings where the negroes work. plan of the building is fo judiciously In a kind of yard are perceived docks, contrived, that a man may quickly fill geefe, turkeys, and other poultry, the racks with hay or potatoes, withTbe houfe commands a view of the out the leaft danger.The General Potowmac, and enjoys a most beauti- informed me, that he had built it afful profpe&t. On the fide towards ter a plan fent him by the celebrated that river it has a large and lofty por English hufbandman Arthur Young, tico. The plan of the houfe is well- but which he had confiderably impro conceived and convenient. With ved. This building is of brick made out, it is covered with a kind of varon the spot; and every part of it, exnish, a cement that renders it almoft cept the joifts of the roof, and the impenetrable by the rain. It It was fhingles that cover it, which for want evening when the General arrived, of time he was forced to buy, is the fatigued by a tour through a part of his produce of the estate. He told me, eftate, where he was tracing out a that it did not coft him above three road. You have frequently heard hundred pounds.-In France it would him compared to Cincinnatus: the have coft upwards of 80,000 liv. comparison is juft. The celebrated [3,3331.] That year he had plantGeneral is now no more than a good ed leven hundred bufhels of potatoes.

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From Briffot's Travels in North America

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