The New Forest, Its History And Its Scenery - free ebook by John R. (John Richard) Wise

THE NEW FOREST: ITS History and its Scenery.

BY JOHN R. WISE. Old Oak in Boldrewood With 63 Illustrations drawn by Walter Crane, engraved by W. J. Linton, And Two Maps. LONDON: SMITH, ELDER, AND CO., 65, CORNHILL. M.DCCC.LXVII....

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PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

Some slight alterations have been made in Chapter III. in the arguments from Domesday , which, as also those upon the former condition of the district, have been strengthened. In all other respects, with the exception of some few additions and corrections, the text is unaltered. London, February, 1863. “Game of hondes he loued y nou, and of wÿlde best, And hÿs forest and hÿs wodes, and mest þe nÿwe forest.” Robert of Gloucester’s Chronicle (concerning William the Conqueror) Ed: Hearne, vol. ii.

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CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY.

View in Bushey Bratley. No person, I suppose, would now give any attention to, much less approve of, Lord Burleigh’s advice to his son—“Not to pass the Alps.” We have, on the contrary, in these days gone into an opposite extreme. We race off to explore the Rhine before we know the Thames. We have Alpine clubs, and Norway fishing, and Iceland exploring societies, but most of us are beyond measure ignorant of our own hills and valleys. Every inch of Mont Blanc has been traversed by Englishmen, but

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CHAPTER II. ITS SCENERY.

The Stream in the Queen’s Bower Wood. As I said in the last chapter, one of the main objects of this book is to dwell upon the beauty of the Forest scenery. I chose the New Forest as a subject, because, although in some points it may not be more beautiful than many other parts of England—and I am glad to think so,—it gives, more than any other place, a far greater range of subject, in sea, and moor, and valley; because too, the traveller can here go where he pleases, without any of those lets an

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CHAPTER III. ITS EARLY HISTORY.

The Cattle Ford, Liney Hill Wood. Once the New Forest occupied nearly the entire south-west angle of Hampshire, stretching, when at its largest, in the beginning of the reign of Edward I., from the Southampton Water on the east, whose waves, the legend says, reproved the courtiers of Canute, to the Avon, and even, here and there, across it, on the west; and on the north from the borders of Wiltshire to the English Channel. These natural boundaries were, as we shall see, reduced in that same reig

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CHAPTER IV. ITS LATER HISTORY.

The Millaford Brook. Haliday’s Hill Wood. We need not dwell so long upon this as the former portion of the History, for in many cases it is nothing but a bare recital of perambulations and Acts of Parliament. The true history of a forest is rather an account of its trees and its flowers and birds, than an historical narrative. Yet even here there are some important facts connected with the nation’s life, and illustrating the character of its kings. We meet with no perambulation of the New Forest

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CHAPTER V. CALSHOT CASTLE AND THE OLD SOUTH-EASTERN COAST.

Calshot Castle This corner of the Forest, once perhaps the most beautiful, is now the least known, because, to most people, so inaccessible. It lies quite by itself. No railway yet disfigures its fields and dells. The best way to see it and the whole Forest is to cross the ferry at Southampton, and land at the hard at Hythe. And as we cross, behind us, amongst a clump of trees, rises the ruined west end of Netley Abbey Church, and the modern tower on Henry VIII.’s Fort; whilst, lower down, the n

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CHAPTER VI. BEAULIEU ABBEY.

Arches of the Chapter House. I should trust that, on a fine day, twenty miles are not too much for any Englishman. If they are, and any one should think the walk along the coast too long, Beaulieu may be reached by going direct from Hythe, across Beaulieu Common. The moor stretches out on all sides, flushed in the summer with purple heather, northward to the Forest, southward to the cultivated fields round Leap and Exbury. Passing “The Nodes,” [80] the road runs quite straight to Hill Top, with

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CHAPTER VII. THE SOUTH-WESTERN PART—BROCKENHURST, BOLDRE, SWAY, HINCHELSEA, AND BURLEY.

View in Frame Wood, Brockenhurst. At present we have seen nothing of the actual Forest. It is only as we go northward that we begin to enter its woods. Instead of the old Forest track, a road now runs from Beaulieu to Brockenhurst, along which we will go. So, leaving the village, and passing a few straggling half-timbered cottages, we reach Stickland’s Hill, where, down in the valley, we can see the Exe winding round the old Abbot’s House set amongst its green elms. Farther on we come to Hatchet

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CHAPTER VIII. THE CENTRAL PART—LYNDHURST.

The Great Huntley Woods. As we leave Brockenhurst we find ourselves more and more in the Forest. The road to Lyndhurst is one long avenue of trees—beeches with their smooth trunks, oaks growing in groups, with here and there long lawns stretching far away into distant woods. Most beautiful is this road in the spring. Stand on the top of Clay Hill, about the beginning or end of May, and you shall see wood after wood, masses of colour, the birches hung with the softest green, and the oak boughs br

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CHAPTER IX. MINESTEAD AND RUFUS’S STONE.

Oaks in Boldrewood. About four miles off from Lyndhurst lie Minestead and Rufus’s Stone. There are three or four different roads to them. The most beautiful, though the longest, is over Emery Down, where, turning off to the left, you pass the woods of Kitt’s Hill, and James Hill. Then crossing Millaford Bridge, and skirting on each side of the road the beeches of Holme Hill, and passing through Boldrewood, you make your way eastward across the stream below the Withy Bed Hat, and go through the w

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CHAPTER X. THE NORTHERN PART.—STONEY-CROSS, BRAMBLE HILL, FRITHAM, BENTLEY, EYEWORTH, SLODEN.

View in Studley Wood. If any one wishes to know the beauty of the Forest in autumn, let him see the view from the high ridge at Stoney-Cross. Here the air blows off the Wiltshire Downs finer and keener than anywhere else. Here, on all sides, stretch woods and moors. Here, in the latter end of August, the three heathers, one after another, cover every plain and holt with their crimson glory, mixed with the flashes of the dwarf furze. And a little later the maples are dyed, yellow and russet, by t

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CHAPTER XI. THE VALLEY OF THE AVON.—FORDINGBRIDGE, CHARFORD, BREAMORE, IBBESLEY, ELLINGHAM, RINGWOOD, SOPLEY.

The Valley of the Avon from Castle Hill. The Valley of the Avon should certainly be seen, both because large parts of its manors and villages once stood in the Forest, as also for the contrast which it now affords to the neighbouring Forest scenery. Nothing can be so different to the moors we have just left as the Valley. Though close to them, you might imagine you were suddenly transported into one of the Midland Counties, and were walking by the side of the Warwickshire, instead of the Wiltshi

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CHAPTER XII. THE VALLEY OF THE AVON CONTINUED.—TYRREL’S FORD, SOPLEY, AND WINKTON.

Tyrrel’s Ford. After we leave Ringwood the road for a mile or two is less attractive in its scenery. Still, here, as in every part of England, there is something to be seen and learnt. The Avon flows close by, famous for a peculiar eel, locally called the “sniggle” ( Anguilla mediorostris ), which differs from its common congener ( acutirostris ) in its slender form and elongated under-jaw, and its habits of roving and feeding by day. [153] The river has, also, like some of the Norwegian streams

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CHAPTER XIII. CHRISTCHURCH.

The Priory Church from the Castle Keep. I have determined to give a chapter to Christchurch, not because it contains more than many another town, but because it is a fair representative of the generality of small English boroughs. There is not a town in England, dating from even the Middle Ages, which is not full of interest peculiarly its own, and which does not possess memorials of the past which no other place can show. It has been proposed, by a no mean authority, to teach history by paintin

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CHAPTER XIV. THE OLD SOUTH-WESTERN SEA-COAST—SOMERFORD, CHEWTON GLEN, MILFORD, HURST CASTLE, LYMINGTON.

Chewton Glen. Little has been seen of the sea, except from Calshot Castle to Leap. Though, too, the sea-coast here, as there, is no longer in the Forest, yet if we miss this walk we shall lose some of the most beautiful scenery in the district. As we leave Christchurch by the Lymington Road, Mudeford lies on the right, and Burton, with its Staple Cross, on the left. Few things are more touching than these old grey relics of the past, standing solitary in our cross-roads, the dial united with the

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CHAPTER XV. THE GIPSY AND THE WEST-SAXON.

View in Mark Ash. Many people have a vague notion that the gipsies constitute the most important element of the population of the New Forest, whereas, of course, they are mere cyphers. An amusing enough French author, in a work upon England, has devoted a special chapter to the New Forest, and there paid more attention to the gipsies than any one else, and entirely forgets the West-Saxon, whose impress is indelibly marked, not only in the language, but in the names of every town, village, and fi

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CHAPTER XVI. THE FOLK-LORE AND PROVINCIALISMS.

Anderwood Corner. Intimately bound up with the race are of course the folk-lore of a district, and what we are now pleased to call provincialisms, but which are more properly nationalisms, showing us the real texture of our language; and in every way preferable to the Latin and Greek hybridisms, which are daily coined to suit the exigencies of commerce or science. Provincialisms are, in fact, when properly looked at, not so much portions of the original foundations of a language, as the very qua

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CHAPTER XVII. THE BARROWS.

The Urns in Bratley Barrow. It is much to be regretted that Sir Walter Scott has left no account of his excavations of various barrows in the Forest. However little we may be able to determine by the evidence, or however conjectural the inferences which we may draw, there will, at least, be this value to this chapter, that it will put on record facts which otherwise could not be known. The barrows lie scattered all over the Forest, and are known to the Foresters by the name of “butts,” some of t

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CHAPTER XVIII. THE ROMAN AND ROMANO-BRITISH POTTERIES.

Wine-Flask, Drinking-Cups, and Bowls. From time to time the labourer, in draining or planting in the Forest, digs down upon pieces of earthenware, whilst in the turfy spots the mole throws up the black fragments in her mound of earth. The names, too, of Crockle—Crock Kiln—and Panshard Hill, have from time immemorial marked the site of at least two potteries. Yet even these had escaped all notice until Mr. Bartlett, in 1853, gave an account of his excavations, and showed the large scale on which

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CHAPTER XIX. PARISH REGISTERS AND CHURCHWARDENS’ BOOKS.

Boldre Church. As the monasteries of former days preserved the general records of the times, so, in a minor degree, do our churches preserve the special history of our villages. In the social life of the past our Church Books are the counterpart of our Corporation Books, performing quite as much for their own parishes as the latter for their boroughs; not only giving, in the register, a yearly census of the population, but by the Churchwardens’ Accounts the social and religious life of each peri

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CHAPTER XX. THE GEOLOGY.

The Barton Cliffs. I have endeavoured, whenever there was an opportunity, to point out the natural history of the Forest, feeling sure that, from a lack of this knowledge, so many miss the real charms of the country. “One green field is like another green field,” cried Johnson. Nothing can be so untrue. No two fields are ever the same. A brook flowing through the one, a narrow strip of chalk intersecting the other, will make them as different as Perthshire from Essex. Even Socrates could say in

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CHAPTER XXI. THE BOTANY.—THE FLOWERING PLANTS AND FERNS.

Barrow’s Moor Wood. Closely connected with the geology of the Forest are its flowers. And though mere geology could not tell us the whole Flora of a district, yet we might always be able, by its help and that of the latitude, to give the typical plants. Close to the chalk, the Forest possesses none of the chalk flowers. No bee-orchis or its congeners, although so common on all the neighbouring Wiltshire downs, bloom. No travellers’-joy trails amongst its thickets, although every hedge in Dorsets

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CHAPTER XXII. THE ORNITHOLOGY.

The Heronry at Vinney Ridge. To describe the Fauna of the Forest is beyond the purpose of this book, and would, beside, require a life-time to properly accomplish. I can only here deal with the ornithology as I have with the botany. I do not know either that the general reader will lose anything by the treatment. A scientific knowledge is not so much needed as, first of all, a sympathy with nature, and a love for all her forms of beauty. The great object in life is not to know, but to feel. But,

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APPENDICES. APPENDIX I. A GLOSSARY OF SOME OF THE PROVINCIALISMS USED IN THE NEW FOREST.

I could easily have expanded the following glossary to three times its size, but my object is to give only some specimens of those words which have not yet found their way into, or have not been fully explained in Mr. Halliwell’s or Mr. Wright’s dictionaries of provincialisms. The following collection is, I believe, the first ever made of the New Forest, or even, with the exception of the scanty list in Warner, [292] of Hampshire provincialisms, which of course to a certain extent it represents,

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APPENDIX II. THE FLOWERING PLANTS OF THE NEW FOREST DISTRICT.

These lists are not by any means put forward as exhaustive. Subsequent investigations must very much increase them. Still, I trust they will be found sufficient for botanists to generalize from, and useful as guides to beginners. To the kindness of the Rev. H. M. Wilkinson, of Bisterne, I am much indebted, as will be seen, for many new species and localities, as also for the special arrangement of the Gramineæ , Cyperaceæ , and Juncaceæ . The nature of the country will best help us to make the d

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APPENDIX III. LIST OF THE BIRDS OF THE NEW FOREST DISTRICT.

The best plan is, perhaps, to arrange the birds in groups, and to give a short analysis of each section, so that the reader may be able to see at a glance the more characteristic as well as rarer species. We will first of all take the Residents. In making out this list I have been principally guided—with of course certain exceptions—by the rule of admitting every bird whose nest has been found upon reliable evidence, as we may be sure that for one nest which is discovered a dozen or more remain

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RHOPALOCERA.

GONOPTERYX Rhamni COLIAS Edusa Hyale APORIA Cratægi PIERIS Brassicæ Rapæ Napi ANTHOCHARIS Cardamines LEUCOPHASIA Sinapis ARGE Galathea LASIOMMATA Ægeria Megæra HIPPARCHIA Semele Janira Tithonus Hyperanthus CŒNONYMPHA Pamphilus LIMENITIS Sibylla APATURA Iris VANESSA Cardui Atalanta Io Antiopa Polychloros Urticæ ARGYNNIS Paphia Adippe Aglaia Selene Euphrosyne MELITÆA Artemis NEMEOBIUS Lucina THECLA Betulæ Quercus Rubi CHRYSOPHANUS Phlœas POLYOMMATUS Argiolus Alsus Alexis Ægon Agestis THYMELE Alveo

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SPHENGINA.

PROCRIS Statices ANTHROCERA Trifolii Loniceræ Filipendulæ SMERINTHUS Ocellatus Populi Tiliæ ACHERONTIA Atropos SPHINX Convolvuli Ligustri DEILEPHILA Galii CHŒROCAMPA Elpenor Porcellus MACROGLOSSA Stellatarum SESIA Fuciformis Bombyliformis SPHECIA Bembeciformis TROCHILIUM Ichneumoniforme Cynipiforme Sphegiforme Tipuliforme Myopæforme ACHERONTIA Atropos SPHINX Convolvuli Ligustri DEILEPHILA Galii CHŒROCAMPA Elpenor Porcellus MACROGLOSSA Stellatarum SESIA Fuciformis Bombyliformis SPHECIA Bembecifor

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BOMBYCINA.

HEPIALUS Hectus Lupulinus Humuli Sylvinus ZENZERA Æsculi COSSUS Ligniperda CERURA Furcula Vinula STAUROPUS Fagi NOTODONTA Dromedarius DRYMONIA Chaonia Dodonæa LEIOCAMPA Dictæa Dictæoides LOPHOPTERYX Camelina DILOBA Cæruleocephala PETASIA Cassinia PERIDEA Trepida CLOSTERA Reclusa PYGÆRA Bucephala PSILURA Monacha DASYCHIRA Fascelina Pudibunda DEMAS Coryli ORGYIA Antiqua STILPNOTIA Salicis PORTHESIA Auriflua MILTOCHRISTA Miniata LITHOSIA Aureola Helvola Stramineola Complana Complanula Griseola ŒNIS

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NOCTUINA.

THYATIRA Derasa Batis CYMATOPHORA Duplaris Diluta Flavicornis Ridens BRYOPHILA Perla DIPHTHERA Orion ACRONYCTA Tridens Psi Leporina Megacephala Alni Ligustri Rumicis LEUCANIA Conigera Turca Lithargyria Pudorina Comma Impura Pallens NONAGRIA Despecta Fulva Typhæ GORTYNA Flavago HYDRŒCIA Nictitans Micacea AXYLIA Putris XYLOPHASIA Rurea Lithoxylea Polyodon Hepatica DIPTERYGIA Pinastri NEURIA Saponariæ HELIOPHOBUS Popularis CHARÆAS Graminis CERIGO Cytherea LUPERINA Testacea Cæspitis MAMESTRA Anceps

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GEOMETRINA.

URAPTERYX Sambucaria EPIONE Apiciaria Advenaria RUMIA Cratægata VENILIA Maculata ANGERONA Prunaria METROCAMPA Margaritaria ELLOPIA Fasciaria URYMENE Dolabraria ERICALLIA Syringaria SELENIA Illunaria Lunaria Illustraria ODONTOPERA Bidentata CROCALLIS Elinguaria ENNOMOS Tiliaria Fuscantaria Erosaria Angularia HIMERA Pennaria PHIGALIA Pilosaria NYSSIA Hispidaria AMPHIDASYS Prodromaria Betularia HEMEROPHILA Abruptaria CLEORA Viduaria Glabraria Lichenaria BOARMIA Repandaria Rhomboidaria Abietaria Cin

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PYRALIDINA.

HYPENA Proboscidalis Rostralis HYPENODES Costæstrigalis RIVULA Sericcalis HERMINIA Barbalis Tarsipennalis Nemoralis Nemoralis PYRALIS Costalis Farinalis Glaucinalis AGLOSSA Pinguinalis CLEDEOBIA Augustalis PYRAUSTA Punicealis Purpuralis Ostrinalis HERBULA Cæspitalis ENNYCHIA Cingulalis Octomaculalis ENDOTRICHA Flammealis DIASEMIA Literalis CATACLYSTA Lemnalis PARAPONY Stratiotalis HYDROCAMPA Nymphæalis Stagnalis BOTYS Pandalis Verticalis Lancealis Fuscalis Urticalis EBULEA Crocealis Sambucalis P

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TORTRICINA.

CHLOEPHORA Prasinana Quercana SAROTHRIPA Revayana HYPERMECIA Augustana EULIA Ministrana BRACHYTÆNIA Semifasciana ANTITHESIA Betuletana Ochroleucana Cynosbatella Pruniana Marginana Similana Sellana PENTHINA Salicella SIDERIA Achatana DICHELIA Grotiana CLEPSIS Rusticana TORTRIX Icterana Viburnana Forsterana Heparana Ribeana Cinnamomeana Corylana LOZOTÆNIA Sorbiana Musculana Costana Unifasciana Fulvana Roborana Xylosteana Rosana DITULA Angustiorana PTYCHOLOMA Lecheana NOTOCELIA Uddmanniana PARDIA T

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PTEROPHORINA.

PTEROPHORUS Trigonodactylus Acanthodactylus Punctidactylus Bipunctidactylus Fuscus Pterodactylus Tephradactylus Galactodactylus Tetradactylus Pentadactylus ALUCITA Polydactyla Pentadactylus ALUCITA Polydactyla...

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Postscript.

As a further addition to my list of plants, I have received the following from A. G. More, Esq., F.L.S.—those without localities being communicated to him by the late Mr. Borrer as found in the Forest:— Wahlenbergia hederacea , Reich., Ivy-leaved Bell Flower. Near Lyndhurst, 272. Sium latifolium , Lin., Broad-leaved Water Parsnep. See Bromfield, in the Phytologist , vol. iii. p. 403; 464. Trifolium medium , Lin., Zigzag Trefoil. Near Lyndhurst, 683. Utricularia intermedia , Hayne, Intermediate B

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MR. RUSKIN’S WORKS.

MODERN PAINTERS. Complete in Five Volumes, imperial 8vo. With Eighty-seven Engravings on Steel, and Two Hundred and Sixteen on Wood, chiefly from Drawings by the Author. With Index to the whole Work. £8 6s. 6d. Each Volume may be had separately. THE STONES OF VENICE. Complete in Three Volumes, imperial 8vo. With Fifty-three Plates and numerous Woodcuts, drawn by the Author. £5 15s. 6d. EXAMPLES OF THE ARCHITECTURE OF VENICE, Selected and drawn to Measurement from the Edifices. In Parts, of folio

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