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diff --git a/44909-0.txt b/44909-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7939a91 --- /dev/null +++ b/44909-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1453 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44909 *** + + [Illustration: GIPSIES AT COLDHARBOUR] + + + + + THE + NEW FOREST + + + Described by Elizabeth Godfrey + + Pictured by E. W. Haslehust + + + [Illustration: Sketch of a castle tower] + + + BLACKIE AND SON LIMITED + LONDON GLASGOW AND BOMBAY + 1912 + + + + + Beautiful England + + _Volumes Ready_ + + OXFORD THE HEART OF WESSEX + THE ENGLISH LAKES THE PEAK DISTRICT + CANTERBURY THE CORNISH RIVIERA + SHAKESPEARE-LAND DICKENS-LAND + THE THAMES WINCHESTER + WINDSOR CASTLE THE ISLE OF WIGHT + CAMBRIDGE CHESTER AND THE DEE + NORWICH AND THE BROADS YORK + + + _Uniform with this Series_ + + Beautiful Ireland + + LEINSTER MUNSTER + ULSTER CONNAUGHT + + + + + LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + Page + + Gipsies at Coldharbour _Frontispiece_ + + In Brockenhurst Village 12 + + Squatter's Cottage 16 + + Boldre Bridge 20 + + The Mill Pond, Beaulieu 26 + + Buckler's Hard 30 + + Lepe 34 + + "The Cathedral" 40 + + In Mallard Wood 44 + + Minstead Church 48 + + By Broomy Water 52 + + Burley Moor 58 + + + + + [Illustration: The NEW FOREST] + + +In these modern days, when towns are increasing on every side, and the +new idea of garden cities threatens to swallow up what little is left +us of the true country, it is good to remember that in one quiet +corner of Hampshire lies a sanctuary, a little region set apart with +its own laws and customs for over eight centuries for the preservation +of wild life. + +In our childhood we were taught to look upon the deed of Norman +William with horror, as an iniquity perpetrated by an inhuman +conqueror, and we spouted in the words of good Miss Smedley: + + "Oh Forest! green New Forest! Home of the bird and breeze, + With all thy soft and sweeping glades, and long, dim aisles of trees, + Like some ancestral palace thou standest proud and fair; + Yet is each tree a monument to death and wild despair." + +Now we have come to bless his name as one of the greatest of our +benefactors. Moreover, the scientific historian has been at work, and +has completely demolished the legend. The serious student may be +referred to Wise's _History of the New Forest_, where he will find the +evidence thoroughly sifted; for this slight story it will be enough to +gather up the results. To begin with, the Saxon name of Ytene, by +which the district was known before it became the New Forest, denotes +a furzy waste, as much of it is to this day--"hungry uplands and +marshy valleys"--and the fact that, although traces of Roman +occupation are found on the borders, and Roman roads seem to have +crossed it, no Roman villa has been unearthed within its precincts, +goes far to prove that this could have been no smiling land of plenty, +or the invaders would surely have settled in a spot lying so handy to +the seacoast. Buckland Camp, on its southern confines near Lymington, +shows that they had it in possession, and to this stronghold the +British general, Natan Leod, fell back when driven from Calshot Castle +by the Saxons. His Roman name of Ambrosius is found in Ampress Farm +hard by. + +Probably Canute, who had his capital at Winchester, and was much at +Southampton, had a chase here, for he, like Norman William, was a +mighty hunter, as the stringency of his forest laws testifies. +Regarding the size and nature of the district, neither churches nor +villages could have been much more numerous than at the present day, +and as some of the former, still standing, are mentioned in "Domesday +Book", the wholesale destruction of the old Chronicles must have been +grossly exaggerated. When William annexed the district to the Crown, +he most likely chose it because the greater part was wild already, and +the afforestation simply meant that he placed it under forest law with +a separate administration. Cases of hardship there doubtless were; +though there is record of compensation being paid to some dispossessed +owners, the smaller men may have suffered, and these being Saxons, +bitter feeling against the Conqueror was engendered, and as time went +on tales of cruelty grew to legends, especially after the violent +deaths of William's sons in the forest, held by the common people to +be the judgment of God. + +The whole tract taken by the king was about the size of the Isle of +Wight, a triangle, roughly speaking, lying between Southampton Water +on the east and the River Avon on the west, its base being the Solent +shore, and its apex running up into Wiltshire at Nomansland. Since +then its boundaries have been narrowed, passing a mile or two within +Southampton Water, from Cadnam through Dibden Purlieu, touching the +Solent at Stone Point and leaving it again at Pitt's Deep, cutting +the Lymington Road at Passford, and going by Meadend Bridge round by +the Avon Valley, along the rampart of high down to Breamore, where it +joins the old northern border. It has been further diminished by the +grant of manors to private owners and to Beaulieu Abbey, and by +encroachments of various sorts. + +To the town-dweller forest usually bears the prime signification of +trees; he thinks of a forest as a wood of large extent, interrupted +possibly by an occasional clearing: to the forester it means a great +tract of moorland, holding in its bosom many wooded enclosures, many +"lawns", as he calls the lightly wooded slopes, many long, marshy +"bottoms" or valleys dividing the heaths. The dictionary meaning is +just open ground reserved for the chase, and the derivation is given +as _foras_: out of doors. + +The two prime interests of the forest were "venison and vert"--deer +for the chase and wood for the dockyard--and for the due +administration of these a Lord Warden was appointed, usually a +nobleman, sometimes a royal prince, and under him two Rangers, one for +each branch of Forest Law. The fifteen Walks into which the Forest +was, and is still, divided were placed under fifteen Keepers, men of +position who inhabited the forest lodges--"elegant mansions", +according to Mr. Gilpin. Under them again were the Groom-keepers, +whose duty it was to browse the deer, to harbour a fat buck for the +chase, to impound and mark the cattle and ponies, and to present +offenders at the Swainmote, whether deer-stealers or encroachers on +forest land. They had an old distich for their guidance in the former +case: + + "Stable stand; dog draw; + Back bear and bloody hand". + +This meant that a man found lurking in a suspicious position, or one +with a dog pursuing a stricken deer, one carrying a carcass or with +blood on his hands, was liable to be haled before the Swainmote, +charged with deer-stealing. + +A Woodward, with ten Regarders under him, saw to the planting, +cutting, and preservation of the timber, and also assigned wood and +peat to those who enjoyed chimney rights. It is interesting to find +these rights extended to the forests of northern France by Henry of +Lancaster after those victories which caused him to arrogate to +himself and his successors the title of "Rex Angliæ et Franciæ". Some +of these wood rights were limited to the dead wood a man could reach +with a crooked stick: hence the expression, "by hook or by crook". A +Purveyor was also appointed on behalf of Portsmouth Dockyard to claim +the timber needed for His Majesty's ships. Besides these officials, +six Verderers were chosen by the freeholders and one by the king to +sit in the Swainmote and uphold Forest rights. + +Now, since it has become the property of the Crown instead of the +king--quite a different thing--the administration has been altered and +the officials are much fewer: it has been placed under the Department +of Woods and Forests, represented by a Deputy Surveyor, but the +Verderers still meet six times a year at the King's House to maintain +the rights of the commoners. + +And now the two main objects of the afforestation have nearly come to +an end: neither venison nor vert are of their old importance. The deer +had encroached so much on the foresters' rights, that their extinction +was decreed; a few yet linger in the north and west, but the Forest is +no longer for them. Moreover, since we have ceased to trust in the +"wooden walls of Old England", the demand for sound oak timber is +shrinking, and once in the utilitarian days of the last century it was +seriously proposed to throw the whole district open for cultivation. +Happily there were enough lovers of nature to save it, and it is still +preserved as a bit of the wild country our forefathers enjoyed. + +For the Forest has a peculiar charm which I would fain convey. Where +does it lie? Just where it is least sought; where the cheap tripper +complains there is nothing to see. Not by Rufus' Stone; not in the +drear formality of the Ornamental Drive; hardly under the big trees +where picnic parties leave their sandwich papers and banana skins: +rather where the brown rivulet winds its hidden way between the +rushes; beside the dark pool lying in the hollow of the moor with +deep, shadowy reflections of its fringe of trees and just a glint of +blue sky between; or along the green rides where the wood seems +endless; or on the high shoulder of the wide, lonely moor, sloping +away, fold beyond fold, to the distant sea, with all its wondrous +changeful hues, bronze and russet with bracken, purple with heather, +with sweeps of ling tenderly grey--yet most beautiful, perhaps, when +the amethyst dusk has swallowed up all shades, and the dark crest lies +against the fading glow of sunset. The palpitating song of the lark, +that all day filled the sky with music, is hushed, and the tawny owls, +with their soft flight like huge moths, swoop across, calling to each +other with their long tu-whoo. + + + + + BROCKENHURST AND THE MOORLAND + + +Instead of beginning with Lyndhurst in the middle of the Forest, as +most Forest books do, and branching out thence like a starfish, it has +seemed good to me to take first Brockenhurst, not only because at its +big junction many travellers arrive, but because in its infinite +variety it shows more of the characteristic features of the land. +There is the open Forest stretching away, with its wide views and its +silver border of sea, with its marshy hollows and crested heights; +there is the Boldre--_Byldwr_, or full stream--gliding through meadow +and thicket till it becomes the broad Lymington River and meets the +tide between the marshes; there are the deep green woods of the manor +climbing up from the riverside to meet other woods at Ladycross, or +opening out on the uplands at Heathy Dilton; and, lastly, the village +is still full of interest and old-world corners, though, alas! +threatened with development into villadom at the Rise and beyond. + + [Illustration: IN BROCKENHURST VILLAGE] + +Hard by the station, on a bare plot of ground, once a small village +green, stands the smithy at the meeting of the ways. It bears date +1540, and from the reign of Henry VIII till that of Edward VII a +Masters shod the horses of travellers at this spot; now it has passed +into other hands. Just beyond the forge a low-browed workshop and +thatched cottage used to stand a little back from the road, where Mr. +Pope and his forebears for many generations--one may say for many +centuries--practised a unique industry, the making of hobby horses, +for which the district has been famed time out of mind. The little old +premises with precious store of wood were burnt in a disastrous fire +one Christmas night; but the old business is still carried on, though +in new quarters, and still the traveller may see in the station yard +piles upon piles of these conventional steeds of exactly the same +pattern, beloved of our ancestors in their childhood, straight-bodied, +straight-legged, standing on four little wheels, so as to be dragged +along by a string, each adorned with a narrow strip of fur nailed +along his neck to represent a mane, and brightened with daubs of red +or blue paint, laid on with just the traditional touch. They go forth +in their hundreds--north, south, east, and west--to find a market; so +the children must love them still, and have not grown too +sophisticated to find joy in their crude suggestion. + +As we go up the village we note, with a sigh, how fast new shops are +ousting old thatched cottages, and new names replacing the old, +though still one, Purkess, said to be the lineal descendant of the +charcoal burner who conveyed the body of the slain king to Winchester, +carries on a long-established grocery business. + +Brockenhurst is hardly so much one village as a bundle of hamlets +loosely tied together, rejoicing in such names as Shark's Island, +Gulliver's Town, or the Weirs. Even the parish church is not in the +village, but stands alone on a knoll at the edge of the park, nearly a +mile away; but then it has only of late years been made a parish +church, having existed anciently as a chantry chapel, probably a +timber or wattled structure. Portions of the present building, the +nave and the beautiful south door, date from the twelfth century. The +Early English chancel is a later addition, and very much later is the +north aisle with its prim Georgian windows. It is thought the +dedication to St. Peter was made either when it was rebuilt in stone +or when the chancel was added. About the end of the eleventh century +it was placed under the charge of the vicar of Boldre, and after the +Reformation it remained attached to Boldre as a chapel-of-ease, served +by the same vicar until 1866, when it was made into a separate +ecclesiastical parish, the advowson being sold by John Peyto Shrubb to +John Morant of Brockenhurst Park. + +Though regrettable modern patchwork has marred the simple beauty of +its lines as approached from the village, yet, seen from the shady +lane on the other side, the little church is still delightful, seeming +to crouch down into its crowded graveyard with its high-shouldered +gables and its quaint steeple, surmounted by the traditional +weathercock. By the gate stands an historic yew, and another hollow +trunk is carefully shored up, showing scarce a sign of life amidst its +shrouding ivy. Big trees stand round, and about the grassy margins of +the lane the little rabbits nibble, scurrying away at the approach of +the early worshipper. + +The road follows the park paling, and at one point a double avenue +gives a fine view of the house, much of which was rebuilt in Georgian +style in the early part of the last century. Though stately, the front +is far less picturesque than the older portion facing the gardens. +These are a marvel of topiary art, with pleached alleys, arches, and +columns, not of yew merely, but of the far less tractable hornbeam. + +That Brockenhurst Manor, or the nucleus of it, existed before the +afforestation is attested by an entry in "Domesday Book": "The same +Alvic holds a hide in Broceste. His father and uncle held it in +parage. It was then assessed at one hide, now at half a hide. There is +land for one plough.... There is a church and wood worth twenty +swine." + +This mention of the church raises an interesting point. Recent writers +have referred it to Brockenhurst church, but since Boldre, of equal +antiquity, stands contiguous to the Manor of Brockenhurst--the +Broceste of "Domesday"--and was for centuries the parish church of +Brockenhurst as well as of Boldre Bridge, Pilley Street and Pilley +Bailey, East End, East Boldre, Lymington, and Sway, it is more likely +this is the one specified, whereas that at Brockenhurst was merely a +chantry attached to Boldre. In Dugdale's _Monasticon_, vi. 304, is +this entry: "Richard de Redvers, who died in 1107, confirmed to the +Priory of Christchurch, Twyneham, the church of Boldre with the chapel +of Brockenhurst. This confirmation was repeated by his son, Baldwin, +Earl of Devon, and by Henry (de Blois) Bishop of Winchester." In 1291, +by which time a vicarage had been ordained, the church of Boldre with +a chapel was assessed at £21, 6_s._ 8_d._, a pension to the Priory +being chargeable as compensation for tithes. The extent of the parish +is suggested by the saying that the blue lungwort with red buds, +called by the country folk "Joseph and Mary", is found only in Boldre +parish. Rare elsewhere, it grows freely in the south of the Forest, +most of which was comprised in that parish. + + [Illustration: SQUATTER'S COTTAGE] + +Beyond Brockenhurst Park the wide moor stretches southward to Shirley +Holms, westward till it merges in the high plateau of Sway Common +and meets the crest of Setthorns. North and east, Hinchelsey Moor +slopes down to the bogs that fringe the Weirs. The name of this +straggling line of squatters' dwellings has caused much speculation, +since of weir there is no trace, nor any water beyond ditch and +bogland. Some have been driven to the supposition of a wire fence +dividing manor and forest, but the name is old, and wire fencing is +not. Possibly the derivation from _Wer_, A.S., shelter or defence +(German, _Wehr_), may apply to refuge sought by outlaw squatters. The +_New Century Dictionary_ gives also "dikes", and as ditches abound on +both sides, this seems the most likely. Old inhabitants say that +before the digging of these ditches the district was so marshy, so +haunted, not by fever and ague only, but by will-o'-the-wisp and +colt-pixy, that it got called "the Weird", subsequently corrupted into +Weirs (pronounced "wires"). + +Shorn of much of its beauty by the disastrous burning of 1908, the +great moor has still the charm of space, of long lines of distance +only hemmed in by the blue hills above the Needles, and of an infinite +play of colour. The average lover of the picturesque fancies a moor is +brown all over alike. Let him stand here on the height and try to +count the hues. The glory of the furze will take some time yet to +recover, but already the ground gorse creeps about with trickles of +pale gold, and the heather spreads a rich crimson mantle over the +blackness, the true purple of kings. Later comes the silvery bloom of +the ling. The grass alone, poor and sparse as it is, has a gamut of +tints, through dull green and hay colour to ash grey, and in the wet +places are streaks of vivid emerald. The short growth of bracken that +clothes every rise is amber and bronze and russet, and in the rain +quite red. In the hollows spring bog-myrtle and sun-dew, sheets of +cotton-grass lie like shining pools, and in certain favoured spots +lurk the buckbean and shy blue gentian. + +No fear of losing the way on this stretch of forest, for from every +side may be seen the lofty, slender shaft of Arnewood Tower, looking +like a watch tower, and known in the country round as "Petersen's +Folly". Popular legend connects it with the Swedenborgian tenets held +by Mr. Petersen, and various tales are told to account for its +building. It is said he intended it to bear an ever-burning light, but +the Board of Trade forbade this lest it might throw ships out in their +reckoning, so it stands forlorn and purposeless, useful only as a +beacon to wayfarers by land. + +Leaving the high moor on the eastern side, a rough forest track +descends through dense pinewoods, haunt of squirrel and woodpecker. In +winter, sheltered from the wind that sweeps above, there is a hushed +stillness; but so soon as the spring sunshine has called the little +red, furry folk from their beds, one hears a continual light patter of +pine cones dropped between the needles, and earlier than the cuckoo's +call echoes the strident laughter of the yaffle. There is a singular +feature about this wood: composed for the most part of young, ugly, +and too thickly planted trees in rows painfully straight, in the midst +occur rings of fine old pines irregularly planted and surrounded by a +bank, their lofty wide-spreading tops rising above the rest of the +wood and forming what is locally known as a "hat". About them the +bracken rises breast high, its tender green catching blue lights in +summer, no less lovely when winter rains have reddened its rust colour +to match with the red tree trunks. + +At the foot of the hill by the river stands a gabled house, a short +alley of cypress and Irish yew leading to its deep porch. This is +Roydon, by some spelt "Royden", and interpreted as "the rough ground"; +but seeing that its green pastures by the river are less rough than +most parts, the sense _Roi don_, "the king's gift", is to be +preferred. For it was granted by Henry III to Netley Abbey, and, +reverting to the Crown at the Dissolution, was bestowed upon John +Cook, a "friend" of Cromwell, probably as compensation for some +subservient act of surrender. At his death, in 1587, it was acquired +by the Knapton family, who held the Manor of Broceste from 1582 to +1700. In 1771 it was bought by Mr. Edward Morant, and re-united to the +Brockenhurst property. In one of the older rooms a stone is let into +the wall bearing the initials W. H., G. N., and E. D., and the date +1692. A piece of embroidery is still preserved in the family signed +"Anna Knapton, Roydon Manor, 1685". For a quarter of a century the +house was in the occupation of Mr. Hooker, appropriately named +Sylvester, and in his time its pleasant rooms received many guests, +notably that delightful writer, Mr. W. H. Hudson, who immortalized it +in his _Hampshire Days_. Since then the alley, not pleasing modern +taste, has been reduced to six decapitated stumps. + +Along the stream lie fields lush with meadowsweet and purple +loose-strife, and the upper reaches are the haunt of the otter. +Another small, wild animal may sometimes be met with on the uplands +between Roydon and the moor. Not long ago I spied, scudding away at a +rapid trot, what looked like a queer little grey dog with almost no +ears and a bald head, by which last I recognized the shy badger. + + [Illustration: BOLDRE BRIDGE] + +The other side the river Boldre church stands on a hill, wrapped about +in woodland solitude, far from all its many villages. About a mile +beyond, on Vicar's Hill, lies the pleasant vicarage, in which a +century ago Mr. Gilpin passed his placid days and wrote his +_Picturesque Scenery of the New Forest_. He was something of a +dilettante, and modern readers may now and then smile at his rigid +canons of Taste--as it was understood in the eighteenth century. He is +very severe upon the beech tree, and one cannot help suspecting that +it annoyed him by refusing to blend with his style of sylvan +landscape. But he loved the often-unappreciated country along the +shore, and for this may be forgiven much. In the garden still stands +the mighty plane tree which he reckoned the oldest in England. + +Of his Charity School in the little cottage where the daffodils grow, +between Boldre Bridge and Pilley Street, nothing survives but the +name--Gilpin's Cottage--to keep his memory green. Not long before his +death he indited a quaint little pamphlet, recording his wishes for +its management. It deserves to be preserved for its sound good sense, +though, to be sure, its provisions seem a little out-of-date to-day. +Only the three R's are contemplated, and of arithmetic the first four +rules alone were to be taught to the boys, while for the girls neither +sums nor writing were held needful; reading, with needlework and +housewifery, were enough for a woman. Clothes as well as learning were +supplied. To our modern notions one pair of stockings a year for each +child seems a meagre allowance, till we recollect that shoes and +stockings would only be worn on Sunday. + +In his time the Foresters seem to have been a lawless race, and their +lives rough and hard; but nowadays one happy feature of life in the +Forest is the comparative prosperity of its poor. Many own their +cottages, being descended from squatters, and to most of the older +dwellings are attached Forest rights, comprising from one to ten loads +of fuel, either peat or firewood, liberty to turn out cattle or ponies +for a nominal fee, geese or donkeys free, and "pannage" for pigs--that +is, leave to browse in the enclosures in the season of acorn and +beechmast. These advantages are known as "chimney rights", and are +closely connected with the hearthstone. In old days, when lawless or +landless men often sought refuge in the Forest, a custom grew up that +an encroacher who already had a roof on and a fire burning on his +hearth could no longer be dispossessed; so often a hovel of sods, +heather-thatched, was put up in a night and the claim established. +Straggling hamlets of this kind sprang up usually on the border of a +manor, as at the Weirs, at Beaulieu Rails (properly Royal, being Crown +land), and at Hilltop. Now solid cottages in most cases replace the +hovels, and some have got into the hands of the jerrybuilder, with +lamentable results. The almost complete disappearance of the heather +thatch is much to be regretted: it makes a splendid roofing, as +impervious to heat and cold as straw, and its rich brown colour tones +in wonderfully with the moorland landscape, especially when wet with +winter fog and rain. + +I have heard the Forester criticized as "independent". Why should he +not be? He works when he needs, often for himself, and there is a +dignity about him, and a determination to stand upon his ancient +rights; he would rather give than take, and he would be affronted if +you offered payment for his little gifts of sloes, of honey, or of +"musharoons". The special forest industries are disappearing; the last +charcoal burner's hut is really only preserved as a curiosity. You +rarely see the gipsies platting mats or baskets, though there is an +old man who still goes round, and sits by the roadside, reseating your +old chairs with cane or rushes. + +One of the favourite camping grounds of the gipsies is a crest of +moor, fringed with Scotch firs, called Coldharbour, a name accounted +for by some as _Col d'arbres_, "the ridge or neck of trees". It may +well be, for the pines are a striking feature, very old and in their +grouping very lovely, shorn by the prevailing winds into harmonious +curves, bending away from the sea; for over Setley Plain the sea +winds sweep, and often the sea mists too. Lifting my eyes from my +writing, I can see as many as three caravans drawn up in the shade, +for it is fair-time, and the spot, but just aside from the high road, +affords a night's shelter to these nomads who travel from fair to +fair, pasture too for their horses, and water from a pond formed at +the bottom of an old gravel pit just below. + +It is generally the vanners who come to this spot, vagrants rather +than true gipsies ("Diddyki", the Romany calls them), and untidy in +their leavings, which the genuine gipsy seldom is. These prefer to set +up their snug little tents in the thicket of the Brake just across the +plain. Here I have found a young mother with an infant of days in a +tent on hoops, not much larger than a gig-umbrella, a fire hard by in +a bell tent with a hole at the top. Going to pay a call with a pink +flannel to wrap the baby in, I found mother and child warm, happy, and +content, the former rejoicing in the permission accorded, under these +circumstances, of a stay of two weeks. Once I ventured to condole with +a gipsy woman on wild wintry weather in such a tent. She tossed back +her jet-black plaits: "Oh, I likes it, my dear; I'm used to it, ye +see". + +If by nothing else, the gipsy may be distinguished from the ordinary +tramp by his cheerful insouciant outlook on life, as well as a sense +of humour not yet quenched by the Missioner, the Board School, and the +perpetual harass of having to move on. These three factors, especially +the second, tend to stamp out the gipsy as a race apart, or to make of +him a very unsatisfactory low-class vagrant--a poor exchange. +Unhappily the Missioner is rarely content to bring religion to the +gipsy and leave him a gipsy still. He must needs try and induce him to +abandon his way of life, to forsake his wholesome tent for an +insanitary slum, and to send his children to school. If the Board +School system is turning out a failure for our little peasants, what +can we say for it when it claims the gipsy? The gipsy child simply +cannot assimilate book-learning. He goes in sharp as a needle, cunning +as a fox, sagacious with ancient woodland lore, long-sighted, keen of +ear and scent; he comes out stupid, blear-eyed, often slightly deaf. +The new knowledge drops away from him in a month; the old has been +stamped out. You have made of him a lazy good-for-nothing, liable to +colds and ailments hitherto unknown. + +One rainy winter day I met a gipsy friend of mine and stopped to buy a +brush. A little girl of eleven was helping to carry the basket; the +wet and mud were squishing out of the poor child's boots, from the +burst sides of which a sopped rag of stocking was exuding. I +suggested that bare feet would be safer. "True it is, my lady, and +full well I know it, but what can I do? 'Tis the schoolalities, you +see; to school she must go, and I don't like for folks to pass remarks +on my children." + + + + + BEAULIEU, BETWIXT THE WOOD AND THE SEA + + +Beyond Ladycross, anciently the boundary of the Abbey right of +Sanctuary, opens another wide heath stretching every way--high, +wind-swept, looking southward to Tennyson's monolith on Beacon Down, +eastward to Portsdown Hill. At Hatchett Gate, where a pond with a bit +of white paling and some wind-bent pines breaks the monotony, a truly +modern note is struck, for close by Mr. Drexel has set up his hangars +and his School of Aviation, and on the rare occasions when the wind +drops a monoplane may be seen hovering over the waste. Thence the road +goes steeply down to the valley through which the Exe finds its way to +the sea, and over a jumble of red roofs gleams a broad water, and +beyond, on green lawns, rises the old grey Palace House, once the +residence of the abbot. This was the fair spot, the _Bellus Locus_, +which John, though he loved not monks, chose for the Cistercian Abbey +which, in a fit of compunction, he founded in 1204. + + [Illustration: THE MILL POND, BEAULIEU] + +It was no life of idle contemplation that the brethren led. On the +slopes above they had their vineyards, terraced towards the sun, with +a raised causeway to wheel the grapes down to the wine-press, where +the crumbling grey walls are still standing. Masons, too, must have +been busy building and beautifying the great church, now level with +the ground, though the foundations have been carefully traced and +marked out. As cultivated land increased, granges were built, of which +several remain: St. Leonard's, with its huge barn and portions of its +chapel yet standing, Herford, and Sowley Grange over against Sowley +pond, once called Colgrim Mere, where there were ironworks. The map in +Gilpin's _Picturesque Scenery_ shows an opening to the sea at Pitt's +Deep where the iron used to be shipped. The rival north soon carried +off the trade, but Sowley firebacks may still be picked up in the +neighbourhood. + +The name Bergery, near Park, denotes a sheepcote, and Bouvery, spelt +in the maps Beaufré, is, of course, the ox farm; there is also a +Swinesley not far off, so the industries of the monks were many and +various. But this busy, peaceful life was all too prosperous, rousing +the cupidity of the king in the troubled times of the Reformation. To +justify the spoliation, exaggerated tales of the scandal of sanctuary +rights were told, and commissioners came down with their minds made up +beforehand. Doubtless it was a matter liable to abuse, but in the rude +days of blood feud and swift vengeance it was no bad thing that the +Church should be able to stretch a sheltering arm over the criminal. +But into all these questions this is no place to enter. Suffice it +that the last abbot appointed was a creature of Cromwell's who, with +thirty of his monks, was induced to sign a deed of surrender in +consideration of a pension. The riches of the stately abbey went into +the king's coffers, the domain was conferred on Thomas Wriothesley, +Earl of Southampton, grandfather to that Henry Wriothesley who was the +friend of Shakespeare. Through marriage it passed to the Dukedom of +Montague, then to that of Buccleuch, in which family it still remains +in the person of Lord Montague of Beaulieu. + +The whole story may be found in Sir James Fowler's recently published +_History of Beaulieu Abbey_, with remarkable illustrations by Mr. F. +Fissi, reconstructing from old records the abbey as it must have +looked in its living days. The residence has, of course, known many +alterations: the old vaulted room of the great gatehouse is now the +dining-room of the Palace House, and the fine inner hall also belongs +to the original building. On the floor above, what was once the chapel +has been converted into a stately drawing-room, panelled probably in +Tudor times when it was secularized. Much, of course, has been added +at different dates. Not much more than a century ago the last Duke of +Montague erected a castellated wall with a moat, fearing the descent +of French privateers by the river. The old refectory makes a very +lovely little church, the pulpit being the raised desk for the lector, +approached by an arcade in the wall. Close by the church, in the shade +of a row of lime trees fragrant and murmurous with bees, stands the +Domus or Guest House--for hospitality was one of the prime obligations +of the monks--now happily restored by Lord Montague and made a place +of hospitality once more, the veritable centre of the social life of +the village. + +About two miles down the river, on the other shore, lies one of the +quaintest, most interesting spots in the whole neighbourhood. Coming +on it from above, it is almost startling in its oddity. It is hardly a +village, just a wide street, grass-grown and asleep, leading down +abruptly to queer and unaccountable remains of docks and stays, for +this--this little desolate hamlet--was once, and not so long ago +either, one of the important dockyards of this great seafaring nation +of ours. From this cradle issued the _Agamemnon_, which carried +Nelson at the battle of the Baltic, the _Euryalus_ and the +_Swiftsure_, which both took part in the fight at Trafalgar. The last +Duke of Montague proposed to build a town here and make it a port for +the sugar trade with the West Indies, as he owned the island of St. +Lucia; but by the Peace of 1748 this was ceded, and his scheme lapsed. +The possibilities of the place, and especially the nearness to the +Forest for the supply of oak timber, were seized upon by Henry Adams, +who set up his shipbuilding yards, and turned out several fine +frigates. In 1794 Gilpin writes: "The great number of workmen whom +this business brought together, have given birth by degrees to a +prosperous village". The end was tragic: Henry Adams was succeeded by +his two sons, who carried on the business on the same lines; they were +commissioned to build four ships by the Admiralty, and being unable to +deliver them at the time agreed, were ruined by fines and litigation. +Had this not happened, the business could not long have held its own; +as wood was superseded by iron, the advantage of the Forest would have +been lost; moreover, there is little doubt that the Exe is gradually +silting up as the Lymington river has done. + + [Illustration: BUCKLER'S HARD] + +The good days of Buckler's Hard are over, and no regular ferry plies +now between the once busy dockyard and the farther shore; but the +chances are the traveller will find an old boatman to put him across +and land him under a dense wood, where a group of tall pines rises +above a thick growth of oak and beech, and, following the road to the +beach, he will come upon a scene typical of the strip of coast that +borders the Forest, "betwixt the woods and the sea". + +Here is no glory of headland, no fierceness of breaker on the reef, +but a wide water, infinitely blue, lapping on the grassy margin where +the trees lean over, or lying far out in long, shining lines between +the flats--golden, purple, olive brown--where the white gulls stalk +and feed--ungainly birds on land--and beyond again, sapphire and +amethyst, rise the softly rounded chalk hills of the Island, ending in +the milk-white Needles. Far to the left may possibly be discerned a +dreadnought or two, just below where the escarpment on Portsdown Hill +shows like a white smudge above the harbour. + +The stones of the little beach are not worn smooth with the tide, but +are loose and rough, held together by sea-holly and yellow +horned-poppy and the coarse tawny grass that disputes the land with +the seaweed. It is a place to dream in; not this time of the building +of ships nor yet of the "White Company", but of long-past days when +the Greek merchants used to come across Gaul from Massilia +(Marseilles) and trade with Lepe for tin. A Roman road then crossed +the Forest from the port to convey merchandise to the settlements of +the Roman Provincials, and William the Norman and his Forest Laws were +not yet looming on the horizon. + +In Gilpin's day Lepe was "one of the port towns of the Forest, and, as +it lies opposite Cowes, the common place of embarkation to the +island". He also records the tradition that it was from this remote +port that the Dauphin took ship, on the death of John, after his +fruitless attempt on the English Crown. And here, also, the +unfortunate Charles was brought from Titchfield House on his way to +Carisbrooke under the ill-starred guidance of Ashburnham. "Here he was +seated in an open boat, and from these shores he bade a last farewell +to all his hopes in England." + +Well may old Gilpin have averred that this southeast corner holds some +of the loveliest bits of forest scenery, for within sight of the sea +lies an enchanted wood, hard to find, impossible of access by motor, a +place from which the cheap tripper will turn aside with the remark +that there is nothing to see. It is true; yet the initiated may not +impossibly find that the way through the wood is the way through the +ivory gates. For him it holds a charm of restful silence, a beauty of +gleam and gloom, of blue shadow sprinkled with the fairy whiteness of +the enchanter's nightshade, of spaces of sunlight lying on the golden +bracken, broad ways that must surely lead to the magician's castle, +and narrow winding paths that can but have their goal in Elfland. + +It is what in these parts we call a holm, a grove of oaks with a thick +underwood of hollies grown into weird shapes with frequent cutting. +Here and there is an aged thorn which has attained almost the size and +girth of a forest tree, and in places Scotch firs lift their stately +heads. In their tops the sea-sound murmurs, and about them is the hot +fragrance the sun draws out of their resinous branches mingling with +the tanny odour of the bracken. An alley through hollies meeting +overhead is like a tunnel; it issues on a broad sunny level where four +roads meet, each beckoning so enticingly, one is fain to sit down +awhile to weigh their claims. One source of the peculiar loveliness of +such a holm is that all the ways are green. The grass will flourish +under oaks and hollies while it perishes under the beech, and where +the fir trees stand, their roots are shrouded in bracken which in +summer takes up the tale of greenness, and when October frosts come +lights up the ways with gold. + +It is a long coppice, and so strangely shaped that it is possible to +make endless wanderings, and even to achieve the losing of one's way, +till dusk falls and the owls are hooting to each other from upland to +covert, and along the moonlit border of the wood the nightjar is +churring with tumbling flight. + +One thing only mars the harmony: over against a tumbledown thatched +cottage a pert, shallow erection in reddest of red brick and shiniest +of slate hideously obtrudes itself on the greenness. Yet the story of +it is not without pathos. An old labourer, who had never earned more +than fifteen shillings a week, saved and saved till he could buy the +old cottage and build the new one in the pride of his heart. + + + + + LYNDHURST, THE GREENWOOD + + +Big village or little country town, as it may be regarded, Lyndhurst +is not only the centre but the veritable capital of the district; for +here, at the top of the steep street, stands the King's House, still +the seat of government, and now inhabited by the Deputy Surveyor, who +succeeded to the position of the Lord Warden. There is little of the +palace of kings about the house, a solid and dignified yet homely +structure standing close upon the pavement. It was built by Charles II +on the site of an earlier one where his father often stayed for a few +days' sport. It was from here, no doubt, that Charles Louis, the young +exiled Elector Palatine, wrote to his mother of accompanying his uncle +on a hunting excursion, and dated his letter "Lindust". Of late it has +rarely been the residence of royalty. When George III on his way to +his beloved Weymouth broke his journey, he was wont to stay at +Cuffnells, with its wide park and its glory of rhododendrons, as the +guest of Mr. George Rose, the friend of Pitt. But he seems to have +honoured the King's House on one occasion. + + [Illustration: LEPE] + +Adjoining it, but with a separate entrance to the street, is the old +Court House, in which for centuries the Swainmote has been held. Still +six times a year the Verderers meet the Deputy Surveyor for the +adjustment of any differences that may arise between the rights of the +Commoners and those of the Crown. It is a fine old hall, though not +large, panelled in oak and adorned with antlers. One very curious +double pair are interlocked, the two stags having fought and become so +entangled that both died of starvation before they were found. There +is also an old stirrup iron, assigned traditionally to Rufus, but +declared by experts to be not earlier than the time of Henry VIII. +There is an oaken judge's seat and a table round which the Verderers +sit like a board meeting, and a very ancient dock, worn shiny with the +elbows and shoulders of delinquents--deer-stealers or encroachers. + +The church occupies an eminence that should have made for beauty and +impressiveness, but fritters away its advantage by a trivial little +spire, further diminished in effect by an unmeaning pattern in +coloured tiles upon the slate like the trimming on a woman's +petticoat. + +Lyndhurst stands in the very midst of the greenwood. All around it +lies, deep in shade and silence, and, turning aside from the dusty +highway, it is still possible to forget the existence of blaring motor +or hilarious chars-à-bancs. Through the long green glades one may +ramble for a whole summer day without meeting so much as a keeper to +ask one's way. As to maps, the highway once left, they are a delusion +and a snare, giving paths that lead nowhither, or worse, land the +traveller in an impassable morass. The safest rule is, follow the +widest; it is sure to bring you out somewhere, if not in the direction +you want to go, for the Forest is well intersected with roads. The +only other risk is from vipers--especially now "Brusher Mills", the +snake-catcher, is no more. + +The wanderer, if not a first-rate walker, will do well to mount a +pony--a forest pony, be it said; for they know a bog when they see +it, and will not set foot upon its promising but treacherous surface. +Moreover, they are immune from the attacks of the maddening forest +fly, and if they do not know the way, are at least likely to make a +better guess at it than a bicycle. Taking cover just beyond Millyford +Bridge from off the hot highroad, and turning through Puckpits to +Withybed Bottom, I have sighed for a four-footed beast, especially +when presently the only way goes up a steep hill between paltry +plantations of young firs, giving not the least modicum of shade, by a +track that had been bog in winter, and has become a mass of sun-baked +clods. A pony would have picked his way and carried his rider; at +least he would not have required to be shoved up the hill by main +force, like my unfortunate Lee Francis. Compensation is in store: at +the top of the hill a lovely upland opens out, shaded by detached +groups of splendid beeches in their prime, with no underwood to +obscure the modelling of their grey-green columns. It is unusual to +see the ground beneath beech trees a vivid green, since grass will not +grow at their roots, but all about was a close-growing bed of +bog-myrtle, softer and brighter than bracken in its hue. Beneath the +slope, radiant in sunshine, lies a wide misty valley, and beyond it +the eye travels to blue heights of down above Winchester. The track +across the upland would lead to Stonycross, but of this more anon; we +must return to the woodland. + +The better-known enclosures are those of Mark Ash, Knightwood, and +Rhinefield. These are all crossed by practicable roads, and, though +full of fine trees and great beauty, seem to have lost something of +the indefinable wild-wood charm that haunts the lonelier spots. The +excursionist who likes to see something definite will visit the "King +of the Forest" and the noted Knightwood Oak, which has had to be +fenced round to preserve it from the attentions of its admirers. +Across Rhinefield runs the much-visited Ornamental Drive. Heavy +Wellingtonias and dark evergreens stand in stiff rows, gloomy without +impressiveness, utterly out of keeping with the surroundings. To me +the only pleasure connected with it is the sense of escape with which +one emerges and finds oneself beneath the beeches at Vinny Ridge, +after two miles of drear and dusty formality. For the roadway, instead +of being left, like the grassy and well-trodden bridle-paths of the +forest, to Nature's keeping, has been ploughed up and cleared of the +binding roots and turf without being made into a proper road. +Pony-cart or bicycle has to plod its weary way through a foot or two +of loose sand in summer, thick mud in winter. + +One happy way of exploring these woods is to choose some stream and +follow its course as far as may be. Bolderford Bridge over Highland +Water is a good starting-point, and begins with Queen's Bower, a very +favourite spot. Fine old oaks stand about a lawn round which the brook +meanders. In late autumn or early spring I have seen it look very +beautiful, but in a parched August, the brook low, the grass worn and +burnt, adorned, moreover, with the debris of many a picnic party, it +has rather a jaded air. The actual Bower, which the country folk call +Queen Anne's, is an almost island formed by a loop of the stream, +where a grove of slender ash trees surrounds a sturdy oak. I have not +been able to discover what Queen it was connected with, but make no +doubt it must have been the golden-haired Danish princess of the +nursery game-- + + "Queen Anne, Queen Anne, she sits in the sun + As fair as a lily, as white as a swan"-- + +rather than the homely daughter of Anne Hyde. Moreover, Anne of +Denmark and her spouse, James I, both passionately loved sport and +pageants, and may well have had some little masque arranged there for +their entertainment while staying at the King's House for hunting. + +Keeping as close as may be to the stream, the way leads by a lovely +beechen avenue through Briken Wood to issue on the road to Bank, +prettiest of suburbs, where the houses stand in an irregular row on +the top of a tableland, looking northwards to more woods. But if we +cross the road and continue to follow Highland Water, climbing through +the woods again, we reach a curious and interesting little bridge, the +rough foundations of which, showing at the sides, are said to be Roman +work. Leaving the brook at this point, a seductive track will +presently emerge in a grove fitly named "The Cathedral". The exceeding +loftiness of the beech trees, their noble grouping, and the clear +space beneath, have the solemn impressiveness of the aisle of some +great sanctuary. + + [Illustration: "THE CATHEDRAL"] + +Even to name all the woods that stand round about Lyndhurst, reaching +to Burley and Hinchelsey on the one side, to Denny and Ladycross on +the other, and northward to Malwood, would exceed the measure of this +little book; to describe one-half the beauty would outrun all bounds. +For you cannot say that when you have seen one wood you have seen all; +each has its own special character, its own individual claim on our +affections. Were you dropped out of the skies into the midst of one, +you could never confuse Mark Ash with Burley Old Wood, Setthorns with +Queen's Bower, nor any one of them with Wood Fidley. This last had +always been to me a kind of mythical land--the place where they brewed +the rain--for in these parts when a cold torrent lashes our eastern +windows, we remark, as we throw a fresh peat on the fire, "It is a +Wood Fidley rain; it will last all to-day and all to-morrow". So one +day I resolved to go and find it. Being the arid summer of 1911, I +need hardly say they were not brewing any that day. Golden sunshine +bathed the slopes, planted with Scotch fir, all irregular in chance +groups or singly, mingled with silver birch, and it made a harmony in +gold and silver and bronze, for the bracken was turning already. + +It seems a pity that most of those who come from afar should see the +New Forest under its least gracious aspect. Unluckily the holiday time +is late summer, just when the full, heavy leafage takes on its most +monotonous green, dim and jaded after a dry season, gloomy in a wet +one; when flowers are few and birds are silent. In October the early +frosts will light up the woods with a rich medley of hues, ending in +the exquisite tracery of bare boughs. November has its special beauty +when the blue mists lurk in the depth of woodland ways, when the wet +bracken glows like a peat fire, and toadstools of weird and wondrous +colours adorn the damp wayside. And lovely are the rare days when the +moor lies sheeted with snow, and every spray is set with diamonds. +Presently in February comes a moment when a purple flush, like the +bloom on a ripe plum, steals over the massed woodland, though yet no +green leaf shows, and we know that life begins to stir. On the +sheltered banks snowdrops are piercing the dark mould, and soon the +early primroses peep out under last year's dead leaves, and daffodils +toss their golden heads in the pasture. So the unfolding goes on till +the "brief twenty days" of Faber's poem, when every tree is clad in +its own fresh raiment, no two alike, and scattered snow of bird cherry +or sloe and rosy flush of crab-apple lights up the dark thickets. Now +the primroses are poured out with a lavish hand, and the green glades +are turned into rivers of blue where the tall wild hyacinths stand +massed together in a sheet of amethyst and sapphire mingled; for their +changeful hue has the blue of mountains rather than of sky. But the +glory of spring flowers belongs to the coppices about Brockenhurst and +Beaulieu; Lyndhurst's proud woods have none. + + + + + THE HIGHROADS AND THE PLAYGROUNDS + + +To learn the Forest in its true inwardness we have left the king's +highway, we have crossed wide moors and marshy bottoms, we have +plunged through the greenwood and followed brooks by tangled, muddy +tracks. Now for a little we must accompany the ordinary tourist as +from his motor or his seat of vantage on a Bournemouth brake he +surveys the fringe of the Forest at his ease. + +Fine roads cross it in almost every direction, and about them cluster +the well-known spots which are the usual goal of the visitor, and may +be called the playgrounds. One of the principal routes, which +arrogates the title of the Forest Road, leads transversely by some of +the most notable points, from Southampton to Bournemouth. Entering the +Forest at Colbury near Eling, it crosses the line at Lyndhurst Road +railway station, and thousands who think they know the Forest have +only dipped into it at this point. For here lies the favourite ground +for school treats. Quite close to the station is a wide grassy lawn +with great beech trees and shady oaks, where I can remember seeing +the wild pigs nosing about for acorns and beechmast. Now through July +and August the lawns are dotted with childish cricketers, and crowds +of little folk trot about with mugs slung round their necks. The +strong oak branches lend themselves to swings, and the thickets +farther down suggest "I spy!" One does not grudge it them; for what a +comfort it must be for the teachers to collect and count their little +flock so close to the station without risk of losing some adventurous +spirit in the enticement of long Forest rides! + +Early in December the purlieus of the station are piled with +scarlet-berried holly in stacks, awaiting transport to London. This is +one of the recognized Forest industries. Licences to cut are issued to +certain gipsies and foresters, happily under limitations; they are not +permitted to cut at discretion, or the holms would soon be cleared for +the insatiable London market. + + [Illustration: IN MALLARD WOOD] + +At Lyndhurst the road divides, the main portion going by Bank, high +raised above the road, looking down through the shade of spreading +oaks, not too thickly planted. Having paid his duty to the Knightwood +oak, the tourist will probably visit the Ornamental Drive, unless he +prefer to go through Mark Ash and Bolderwood to the more northerly +road to Ringwood. The Bournemouth road, passing between the +beautiful beeches of Vinny Ridge and Burley Old Wood, crosses +Longslade Bottom by Markway Bridge over the Black Water and climbs the +hill to Wilverley Post, whence descending by Holmsley and Hinton, at +the "Cat and Fiddle", it issues from the Forest. + +The other branch goes due south to Lymington, and from the top of Clay +Hill becomes exceedingly beautiful, wide lawns on each side separating +it from the greenwood, dense on the east and sufficiently sparse on +the west to let the setting sun filter through. Dim with motor dust +the summer through, it is lovely in May in its fresh green, the great +hawthorns by the wayside clad like brides. At Holland Wood and Balmer +Lawn more school feasts and choir outings dot the ground. The wide +shady spaces afford room for games, and are near enough to +Brockenhurst station to be easy of access. + +The time to see Balmer Lawn at its fairest is on a winter morning when +the foxhounds meet at Brockenhurst Bridge. On the slope above the +river the men in pink on their fine mounts, not a few women, some +riding in the new fashion in topboots, breeches, and frockcoats, the +hounds crowding round the whip with their tails carried like +scimitars, all grouped against a background of frosted trees and +pale-blue sky, make up an oldfashioned hunting picture. + +Straight on goes the road by the level crossing, avoiding Brockenhurst +village, up Tilebarn hill, coming out on Setley Plain. Here on the +height, where the Burley Road branches off, is an interesting spot +long called Cobbler's Corner. In old days it was Hobler's Corner, for +here dwelt the Hobler, the man whose duty it was to scan the distant +line of the Isle of Wight for the flare of the Beacon, and, catching +sight of it, to mount and ride posthaste to Burley Beacon, whence the +news--whether of approach of Armada or of a French invasion--should be +flashed to Bramshaw, thence to the Old Telegraph above Winchester, and +so to London. + +From Battramsley Cross the road descends by shady trees, and at the +bottom of Passford Hill, where the brook forms the Forest boundary, +there is an avenue of oaks and beeches, raised on a bank, worthy to +rank with the "Gate of the Forest" at the northern border on the +Salisbury Road. + +The next important road leads from Romsey to Ringwood, entering the +Forest at Cadnam. A little to the south Minstead straggles along a +by-road in as yet unspoilt picturesqueness, though the inn has been +rebuilt to meet the needs of the many visitors to the neighbouring +Rufus' Stone. It still displays its ancient sign of the "Trusty +Servant", copied from the wall of the kitchen at Winchester College. + +The delightful little church is the most perfect survival of those in +which our forefathers worshipped from the eighteenth century down to +the time of the Oxford Movement. It would be nothing short of +deplorable were the hand of the restorer to be laid upon it. It +abounds in galleries, one double-tiered, and has a regular +three-decker, with the clerk's seat at the bottom. Its prime glory, +however, is the squire's pew, with a fireplace and easy chairs, railed +round with curtains, and possessing a separate entrance, so that these +high persons can go to church without mixing with the common herd. +Long may it be preserved in its integrity that we may not quite forget +one phase of our religious history. + +Returning to the main road, we find the Compton Arms at Stony Cross, +where the coaches stop and set down their trippers, who descend the +steep hill afoot to the spot where Rufus fell. Here again the +scientific historian has been busy; but far be it from me to throw any +doubt upon the tale. Standing beside the stone in the hideous iron +casing rendered necessary by the pocket knives of its admirers, one +cannot but feel some indignation against those who would explain it +all away. They are as bad as the visitors who would have whittled the +stone to nothing--and with less excuse. Walter Tyrell has already been +whitewashed; soon the share of Rufus himself will be eliminated, and +we shall be told there was no corpse to be carried bleeding to +Winchester on the charcoal burner's cart. For my own part, whether it +were plot of churchmen, private vengeance, or the deed of Saxon churls +dispossessed of their rights, I doubt not that Wat Tyrell's hand sped +the fatal shaft, whether by design or misadventure, while the king +stood shading his eyes from the westering sun. + +Then, seeing what he had done, the slayer mounted and, urging his +breathless horse up that steep hill, rode for Ringwood for all he was +worth. Else why did he terrorize the blacksmith at the ford, since +known as Tyrell's, and make him shoe his horse backward to confuse the +traces of his flight, and then kill the man? Dead men tell no tales, +but there must have been tales to be told. And if he did none of these +things, why does that forge pay a yearly fine to the Crown to this day +for compounding a felony? A matter which is recorded in Wise's +_History_. + +All the summer through the cheap tripper in hordes is deposited beside +the historic stone. He gazes at it, and finding he can neither carve +his name nor chip off a corner, he turns away, buys a postcard view in +colours, and seeks more congenial amusement in the cocoanut shies hard +by. + + [Illustration: MINSTEAD CHURCH] + +Leaving Stony Cross, the road runs by Bushy Bratley along the lofty +ridge that forms the backbone of the Forest to Picked Post and down +to the Avon valley. The northernmost road follows the Wiltshire +border, running from Bramshaw to Fordingbridge, lonesome exceedingly +and bleak, but commanding a magnificent outlook to Beacon Hill and +Salisbury spire on the one hand, and over the slopes of Ashley Walk on +the other. The spot where the Salisbury road enters the Forest at +Nomansland is marked by an archway of fine old oaks known as "the Gate +of the Forest". + +Of all the many crossroads, with all their separate charms, which +connect these main arteries with each other, I have no space to tell. +Those who have time to linger will find they must make many a day's +journey to learn them all. We must leave them now and dive once more +into wood and moorland. + + + + + BRAMSHAW, THE HILL COUNTRY + + +The wildest and loneliest, if not the most beautiful part of the +Forest is to be found in the north-west, where a hilly tract lies +between the road from Cadnam to Picked Post and that from Nomansland +to Fordingbridge, and stretches westward from Bramshaw to the rampart +of high down which parts the Forest from the Avon valley. Here there +are no crossroads to break it up; only bridle-paths or rough cart +tracks, often impassable in winter by reason of bogs, connect the +lonely Forest lodges with each other. + +And what variety is here! From dense woods, hushed in noonday +stillness, the wayfarer emerges on some unexpected crest, looking +clear away over the Wiltshire Downs. By some sudden slope from a long, +bleak, drear ridge he comes upon a still, dark pool with swans sailing +on it. A little lonely hamlet has sprung up at the edge of the pond, +and a modern gunpowder factory, put here to be well out of the way of +the public--as indeed it is. + +Transversely run two valleys with their streams, Latchmore Brook to +make its way between the downs under Gorley Hill, and Docken Water, +widening as it flows through the marshy bottom, till it joins the Avon +at Moyles Court. Coming down the broken upland through Broomy by +winding ways and chalky ledges, at dusk one may see a little troop of +deer stooping their branchy heads to drink at the brook by Holly +Hatch, here called Broomy Water. Here one may well fancy the colt-pixy +the old tales tell of, light-stepping with waving mane and tail, "in +the likeness of a filly foal", luring the horses into the bog that +spreads from the stream up to the slopes of Ibsley Common. + +From Brook, lying in a wooded hollow on the Forest border, the road +goes steeply up to Bramshaw, an unspoilt village, not grouped about +its church as an orderly village should be, but squandered all along a +mile or more of road between that and the post office. The little +sanctuary stands, as all the Forest churches do, raised upon a mound, +and is approached by a flight of steps so long and steep as to make +the tired wayfarer think of the ascent to some shrine in a Catholic +country, and wonder how much indulgence is due to him for his climb. +The quaint building has lost much of the charm that makes Minstead so +gracious. It has been to some extent brought up to date, and further +penance is imposed on the worshipper by new open sittings, hideous to +the eye, cruel to the back. Once, before a readjustment of boundaries, +it had the fascinating peculiarity of its nave being in Wiltshire and +its chancel in Hampshire. + +The church passed, the road leads on through the loveliest of +beechwoods on Bramble Hill. He would be a strange traveller who would +not forsake the dusty highway and plunge into the cool tangled glades +till all sense of direction is lost. For the special and peculiar +beauty of this, unlike most Forest enclosures, is that there are no +straight rides cutting it transversely, but the winding alleys seem of +Nature's own planting, and these make it easy to stray, one fair group +of noble trees after another beckoning along the wide green ways into +the heart of the wood. One may fancy one is following the direction of +the road, but it is far out of sight in a few minutes. Never mind! +Every path must lead somewhither, and, sticking faithfully to one, we +presently emerge upon a high, wide plateau, whence the eye may travel +to Salisbury spire on the one hand and to the downs above Winchester +on the other, though its low-lying cathedral is lost in their folds. +From here one can see the Beacon on Dean Hill and the Old Telegraph on +Longwood Warren, whence Bramshaw Telegraph close by would take its +signal and hand it on to Burley Beacon. + + [Illustration: BY BROOMY WATER] + +On the edge of the level stands a little inn, and nearer the wood +cocoanut shies and Aunt Sallies are set up for the delectation of the +Salisbury and Southampton trippers. But we are soon away from such +disturbing elements. A desperate clamber up the stoniest of hills +leads to the ridge that divides the two counties. It is curious to +observe that here the moorland seems to be laid on quite different +lines to those in the south part of the Forest, partaking more of the +nature of the Wiltshire Downs. This road must be desolate and drear +enough in winter, but it commands even finer views than the vaunted +ones at Picked Post. Following it over Deadman's Hill, the sweeps of +Ashley Walk slope steeply down to Amberwood and Island Thorns. + +Southward of these lies Sloden, which possesses special points of +interest. Along its fence, beds of nettles interrupt the bracken, and +where these occur a little grubbing may unearth some shards of Roman +pottery. This is said by experts to denote a regular factory of +earthenware, since the bits are too numerous and too invariably broken +to be the ordinary debris of a household, but must be the waste +product of the potter's wheel. Once, also, there existed here a grove +of noble yews, and of these some yet remain. One remarkable ring of +eleven together hint at what they were in their glory, and just +outside the enclosure a striking semicircle of half a dozen, standing +round some oaks, are better seen in the open. Density and solitude are +the chief characteristics of Sloden Wood. Here in its depth the ponies +can find a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, more +impervious than many a stable. Here, too, the hind may bring forth her +young and discover the thick bushes. For this is the special haunt of +the fallow deer, and, resting quiet in the shade, one may chance to +see a little company of the graceful, stately creatures pass slowly, +with dainty footsteps, across a glade at no great distance--provided, +that is, one has taken up a position to leeward, for if the breeze +bore a taint of human breath, the shy, wild things would be gone like +a flash. Less stately and less fierce than the red deer, they are +hardly less beautiful in their dun coats, palely spotted, and the +little fawns are exquisite. Legally the stag no longer exists, but +some may yet be found in these wilder coverts, either they have +lingered on or have wandered down from Cranbourne Chace, and they +afford a finer day's sport. + +People talk rather loosely of the "wild" creatures of the Forest, +including in the phrase the ponies and the pigs; but in truth nothing +larger than a fox or a badger is really wild in the sense that lions +and tigers in the jungle are--that is, masterless. The deer are the +property of the Crown, and as to the rough, shaggy, hammer-headed +ponies, though they roam at large day in, day out, winter and summer, +and find their own subsistence, their notched tails mark them as +belonging to some forester with grazing rights. At one time stallions +were turned loose in the Forest to improve the breed, but these were +Crown property, and now neither they nor bulls are allowed at large, +and boar have ceased to exist. The pigs certainly all belong to the +cottagers, and are now no longer seen in big flocks at pannage, that +is from 22 September till 25 November. There is a charming account in +one of Mr. Gilpin's volumes of the swineherd who used to take charge +of all the pigs of a large district during this season, giving them +warm food and shelter at night, so that they would collect from their +wide wanderings at the sound of his pipe. The breed of pigs which was +indigenous to the Forest has now died out--probably the make did not +lend itself to good hams. Gilpin thus describes them: "Besides these +(the domestic pigs) there are others in the more desolate parts of the +Forest, bred wild and left to themselves, descendants of the wild boar +imported by Charles I from Germany (probably at the suggestion of his +nephew, the Elector Palatine). They had broad shoulders, high crest, +bristly mane, the hinder parts light, and they were fiercer than the +common breed." Writing some fifty years later, Wise alludes to their +shaggy coats, brindled and rust colour, and I myself can remember them +as he describes them. + +By Fritham and Sloden are some of the most noteworthy of those +mysterious barrows, locally called butts, which have exercised the +curiosity of antiquaries. Others are found across the valley, on the +heights by Bushy Bratley, and there are several on Setley Plain. Wise +in his _History_ gives a very full and interesting account of the +opening of some of these tumuli both by himself and by Warner, who +wrote on _The South-western Parts of Hampshire_. Invariably there was +found burnt earth and charcoal, together with calcined human remains, +in some cases contained in urns of "rude forms and large size", which +led him to the conclusion that they are the funeral pyres of the +ancient Britons, probably long anterior to the Roman Invasion. The +hints they give of life in the Forest in far-past days are indeed +scanty, but their presence, standing age-long on remote uplands, +suggests strange visions of the long succession of races that have +dwelt here. + + + + + BURLEY, THE WESTERN BORDER + + +The western border of the New Forest is a great contrast to the +eastern. Towards Southampton Water the boundary is an arbitrary +one--the farms and woodlands on the one hand are much the same as on +the other--but on the west a natural rampart divides the wild down +country from the Avon valley, along which an elm-shaded road connects +a chain of pretty villages. From the height of Godshill and Windmill +Hill on the north the ridge runs southward by Hydes Common through the +two Gorleys, by Ibsley, sloping away to Latchmoor Bottom, till it +reaches Mockbeggar, an oddly named hamlet nestling in the downs. On +the one side are rugged uplands, on the other smiling villages, elm +trees, and orchards of red apples--for this is a fine cider country. + +At Moyles Court the downs break off to let Docken Water through to +meet the Avon. It is a fine old house, interesting as having been the +home of Lady Alice Lisle, the innocent victim of her charity to +Monmouth's defeated soldiers, though she, unlike Mrs. Knapton of +Lymington, was in no way implicated in the rebellion. Hard by stands +an oak which should have been the prime glory of the Forest; for it is +finer than any within its present precincts. + +After the ford the hills rise again steeply to Picked Post, a high +point which looks across the intervening forest, over wood beyond +wood, to Bramshaw Telegraph, a hundred feet higher still. From here by +Bushy Bratley extends a lofty plateau right away to Stony Cross, over +which roam multitudes of Forest ponies, and on a hot noonday it is a +curious sight to see a drove of them gathered together on an open +spot, locally called a "shade"--apparently from the absence of +anything of the sort--standing close in a circle, heads inward, waving +tails outward, to defend them from the Forest fly. The cows do the +same thing, but they keep to themselves. + +A little to the south Burley lies in a dip between the hills, +sheltered yet high. Its fine position has been the destruction of its +charm, for it has attracted too many residents, who have cut up the +surrounding oak groves with up-to-date "artistic" houses, and brought +the usual train of shops, motor garages, and civilization generally to +mar the village street. Unfortunately some years ago the owner of +Burley Manor found himself obliged to part with much of the land, +which was developed for building, with disastrous effect, especially +at Burley Lawn, which might really pass for a suburb of Clapham +Common. The church does nothing to redeem it. It is a mean little +structure, belonging to the worst period of ecclesiastical +architecture, when three lancet windows at the east end were +considered the acme of good taste. + + [Illustration: BURLEY MOOR] + +An interesting feature is the annual pony fair. There is one also at +Swan Green, by Lyndhurst, and another at Brockenhurst, but that at +Burley is the best, affording more space. The one at Brockenhurst, +where the ponies are penned into a dirty yard by the station, has +little charm for a looker on. At Burley one can see their paces tried +over the open lawn, and great and smart is the concourse of horsemen, +carriages, and motors. A still more interesting business, but one +not so easily seen, is the gathering them in from the Forest. Men on +clever, well-trained ponies go out, armed with long stock whips, +driving the startled creatures together, often into bogs to secure +them. + +Westward and southward towards Holmsley the moor is broken into +heights and hollows, giving a magnificently varied outline, and +diversified with wooded enclosures on the lower slopes. Here the +fallow deer may often be met with, though the red hardly come so far +south. Wilverley Post, at the crossroad, is a favourite spot for +deerhound meets as well as foxhound, and the coverts to the north-west +are seldom drawn in vain. Eastward slopes of broken ground, lightly +wooded and dotted with clumps of thorn, tangled in honeysuckle and +bramble, lead down to the chain of woods towards Lyndhurst. One of the +most beautiful of these is Burley Old Wood. This still keeps many of +its fine old oaks, besides magnificent beeches, and there is more +variety than in most of the enclosures, for besides these there are +ash, chestnut, and hornbeam, mingled with the dainty elegance of the +silver birch; some yews, too, as large and old as any at Sloden. So +fine is the grouping, that even on a grey day of drizzling rain, with +none of the dappling sun and shadow that lend such a charm to woodland +ways, it lost nothing of its magic. To pass through the gate into +Burley New Enclosure is like a sudden step from a mediæval city into a +modern industrial suburb. The trees are in straight, ruled lines, too +thick-set to admit of fair growth, and gladly we extricate ourselves +and, returning by the raised causeway that crosses the stretch of bog +at Longslade Bottom by Markway Bridge, we regain the highroad at +Wilverley Post. + +Opposite Wilverley stands the blasted tree known as the Naked Man, +holding up its bleached, appealing arms to heaven, now welcomed as a +signpost rather than shunned as a bogy. A little beyond is Setthorns, +with a small, lonely keeper's lodge at the edge of it. This wood must +have been very lovely before the intrusion of the railway that now +cuts across it, and indeed still has great charm. In Mr. Gilpin's day +it had been recently cleared of its fine oaks, and bitter are his +lamentations over their disappearance and that of the grove of yews +that flourished below. But he wrote more than a century ago, and since +then the wood has been replanted--happily before the new fashion of +straight rows of young trees, like a cabbage garden, had come in. One +of the most entrancing of bridle-paths enters the road just below the +railway bridge and, passing down by a steep descent, emerges on the +Avon Water--not to be confounded with the river Avon--which here +broadens into a pool. The stream passes under Meadend Bridge, which +forms the Forest boundary at this point, and flows on to join the sea +at Keyhaven. + +Sway, once the most picturesque of villages, perched on its high +common, is now nearly overwhelmed with red brick and vulgarity, +probably consequent on its possession of a railway station. It is only +partly within the Forest bounds. From here a road running by a ridge +of down leads to Shirley Holms, one of those primeval patches of oak +and holly, clear of undergrowth, that are specially beloved of the +gipsies for close overhead shelter and clear space beneath for tent +and fire. This road comes out on the main highway at Battramsley +Cross; but if the objective be Brockenhurst, a better way is to turn +at Marlpit Oak and go down by Latchmoor (or -mere), the pool of +corpses. This ill-omened name belongs to some great battle of long +ago, but a dark tradition of last century still hangs about the spot. + +By Marlpit Oak, a lofty landmark on the bare heath, beloved of +deer-stealers in the old poaching days, with a dense thicket round +about its knees, good to hide in, there lurked one night three men of +the outlaw type who used to haunt the Forest. They were lying in wait +for a traveller known to be returning to his home with a large sum of +money. Though they were three to one, he showed fight; so they +murdered him and dragged his body down to Latchmoor, where they threw +it into the pool. Across the moor at Setley stood a little inn of evil +repute, called the "Three Feathers" or the "Three Pigeons", or some +such name. Here they called for drinks, threw their money about +freely, and bragged in their cups; so they were taken and hanged at +Marlpit Oak. The bodies, hanging in chains, have mouldered into dust, +the gallows tree no longer adorns the spot where now the cheery +foxhounds meet on many a winter morning; but it was some time before +the inn recovered from its evil savour. People would call it the +"Three Murderers"; so at last it had to be pulled down, rebuilt, and +rechristened as the "Oddfellows Arms", under which title it has become +a respectable wayside hostelry. + +And now we find ourselves again at Setley by Brockenhurst, our brief +survey done--a few characteristic spots gleaned, yet more, I fear, +left out than included. We may be thankful for so much old-world +beauty still spared, yet are we not without a haunting sense of +menace. Though the Forest has been rescued from the utilitarian +destruction that once threatened it, it has more insidious foes. All +Forest lovers are dismayed at the advance of the Scotch fir, which +encroaches ever more and more, and bids fair to swamp the whole +woodland. There are only two valid reasons for planting a tree of such +small value. One is the need for shelter for wood better than itself +on the windy uplands; but then the firs should be weeded out as the +timber grows strong enough to hold its own. Another thing is that, +being a thirsty soul, it will quickly reclaim marshy land. But this in +itself would be matter of regret to the lovers of wild nature, for the +bogs have their special bird and plant life. It is hard to see why so +much space should be sacrificed to stiff, straight rows of firs so +densely planted that none can reach perfection or attain their one +beauty of broad, spreading heads. Perhaps small profits with quick +returns appeal to a generation that plants for itself. We no longer +plant timber for posterity, as did our forefathers. + +The new fashion of excessive game-preserving, which is practised on +the manors though not in the Forest itself, is answerable for the +destruction of much wild life. The keepers wage war on jay and magpie, +owl and hawk, and even the little harmless squirrel has been so +diminished in the last year or two, that you may take many a long +ramble through the woods and never once hear his chatter or watch his +nimble spring from tree to tree. A powerful plea for a sanctuary comes +from the pen of E. W., the writer of a series of delightful articles +on "Out of Doors," in the _Hampshire Chronicle_. After deploring the +utter extinction of many bird species and increasing rarity of others, +she goes on: + + "What we want is a sanctuary, and a sanctuary of great extent + near the South Coast; the New Forest is ready to our hand and + requires no making--wood and water, sea and moor, all are there. + We also need, when we have got our ideal sanctuary, an army of + keepers who shall be as anxious to keep alive, as the keepers of + the present time are anxious to kill." + +But the worst enemy of the Forest is its admirer. He comes, falls in +love with it, craves a house within its borders, praises it to his +friends, and invites them down. So the fashion comes, and the fashion +creates a demand. Land rises to a fancy value, and when times are so +hard for the landowners, what can they do but relinquish their fairest +sites to the speculative builder? If this goes on, our descendants may +wonder why we cared so much for an endless firwood, diversified with +"artistic" villas--or perhaps they will like it. In the country that +lies East of the Sun and West of the Moon they would doubtless pass a +law that all manors within the Forest, coming into the market, should +be resumed by the Crown and enclosed as wood or waste for ever. + + + + + PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN + _At the Villafield Press, Glasgow, Scotland_ + + + + + Transcriber's Note: + +Words in italics are enclosed by underscores, _thus_. + +Inconsistent punctuation at the end of quotations was not changed. + +Changes made from the original: Added a description to the +illustration on the title page, and capitalized 'purlieu': ... 'from +Cadnam through Dibden Purlieu' ... + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The New Forest, by Elizabeth Godfrey + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44909 *** |