(The otter hath a hairy
round tail, not like the beavers. - J. RAY.)
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I come now to warrens. That at Auburn is our famous coney-warren; and
the conies there are the best, sweetest, and fattest of any in
England; a short, thick coney, and exceeding fatt The grasse there is
very short, and burnt up in the hot weather. 'Tis a saying, that
conies doe love rost-meat.
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Mr. Wace's notes, p. 62.- "We have no wild boares in England: yet it
may be thought that heretofore we had, and did not think it convenient
to preserve this game". But King Charles I. sent for some out of
France, and putt them in the New Forest, where they much encreased,
and became terrible to the travellers. In the civill warres they were
destroyed, but they have tainted all the breed of the pigges of the
neighbouring partes, which are of their colour; a kind of soot colour.
(There were wild boars in a forest in Essex formerly. I sent a
Portugal boar and sow to Wotton in Surrey, which greatly increased;
but they digged the earth so up, and did such spoyle, that the country
would not endure it: but they made incomparable bacon.- J. EVELYN.)
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In warrens are found, but rarely, some old stotes, quite white: that
is, they are ermins. My keeper of Vernditch warren hath shewn two or
three of them to me.
At Everley is a great warren for hares; and also in Bishopston parish
neer Wilton is another, where the standing is to see the race; and
an°.
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