Wages, average, of labourers in the New Forest, 47 (_foot-note_).
Walking, advantages of, over driving, 6.
Warbeck, Perkin, takes refuge at Beaulieu Abbey, 64.
Warwick, Countess of, takes refuge at Beaulieu Abbey, 64.
Wendover, Roger, on the afforestation of the New Forest, 25
(_foot-note_).
West-Saxons, superstitious character of, still observable, 160,
161;
love of sport, 162;
peculiarity of dress, 162;
verbal characteristics of, 167.
Westminster, Matthew of, on the death of William II., 95
(_foot-note_).
Whitebeams at Sloden, 114;
at Castle Malwood, 254.
Whiteshoot, square barrow near, 207.
Wight, Isle of, atmospheric effects on the, 15;
the Ictis of the ancients, 57, 58;
Pliny on, 57 (_foot-note_), 236.
William I., his character, 21, 22;
his right to make a forest, 23;
possessions in the Forest, 23 (_foot-note_);
his love for the chase, 34;
his cruelty and oppression, 22, 38.
William II., his dream, as recorded, on the night before his
death, 92, 93;
his speech to the monk from Gloucester, 94;
his death, 94;
his body brought to Winchester Cathedral, 95;
his brother and nephew killed in the Forest, 98;
his character, 99 (_foot-note_);
the events of his reign, 100 (_foot-note_);
the cause of his death, 101, 102, 103;
hated by his clergy, 104;
plots against his life, 104, 105;
his death read by his life, 108.
William III., his legislation for the Forest, 44;
not attended to, 45.
Wilverley Plantations, 81.
Wood, how sold for fuel in the Forest, 46.
Woodcocks, their breeding in the Forest, 269.
Woodmote, Court of, 87.
Woodpecker, great black, breeding of the, 272.
Woods, their beauty, 8;
as dwelt upon by our English poets, 9 (_foot-note_);
how valued in _Domesday_, 11, 12 (_foot-note_);
round Lyndhurst, 89, 90.
Woollen, affidavits of burials in, 232, 233.
Wootton plantations, 81;
woodcocks breed in, 269, 270.
Worcester, Florence of. _See_ Florence.
Y
Yaffingale, local name for the green woodpecker, 272.
Yarranton, his report upon making the Avon navigable, 134;
on the ironstone of the coast, 151.
“Yellow as a kite’s claw, as,” a Forest proverb, 179.
Yews, measurements of various, 78 (_foot-note_), at Sloden, 114.
Ytene, the district of, 33, 163.
Yvery, Roger de, leads the Midland barons, 105;
possessed land at Lymington, 155.
FOOTNOTES
[1]_Political Pieces and Songs relating to English History._ Edited by
Thomas Wright. Vol. ii., p. 199.
[2]It is worth noticing how, according to their natures, our English
poets have dwelt upon the meaning of the woods, from Spenser, with
his allegories, to the ballad-singer, who saw them only as a
preserve for deer. Shakspeare touches upon them with both that
joyful gladness, peculiar to him, and the deep melancholiness, which
they also inspire. Shelley and Keats, though in very different ways,
both revel in the woods. To Wordsworth they are “a map of the whole
world.” Of course, under the names of woods, and any lessons from
them, I speak only of such lowland woods as are known chiefly in
England; not dense forests shutting out light and air, without
flowers or song of birds, whose effect on national poetry and
character is quite the reverse to that of the groves and woodlands
of our own England. See what Mr. Ruskin has so well said on the
subject. _Modern Painters_, vol. v., part vi., ch. ix., § 15, pp.
89, 90; and, also in the same volume, part vii., chap. iv., § 2, 3,
pp. 137-39; and compare vol. iii., part iv., ch. xiv., § 33, pp.
217-19.
[3]In the lower part of the Forest, near the Channel, the effect is
quite painful, all the trees being strained away from the sea like
Tennyson’s thorn. It is the _Usnea barbata_ which covers them,
especially the oaks, with its hoary fringe, and gives such a
character to the whole Forest.
[4]The reader must bear in mind that the word “forest” is here used, as
it is always throughout the district, in its primitive sense of a
wild, open space. And the moors and plains are still so called,
though there may not be a single tree growing upon them. (See chap.
iii., p. 35, foot-note.)
[5]The woods, in _Domesday_, are, as we shall see, generally valued by
the number of swine they maintain.
[6]For a justification of this general picture, I must refer the reader
to the next chapter, where references to _Domesday_, as to the state
of the district before its afforestation by the Conqueror, and the
evidence supplied by the names of places, are given. I may add, as
showing the former nature of the woods, that the charcoal found in
the barrows, embankments, and the Roman potteries, is made from oak
and beech, but principally the latter. Since, too, the deer have
been destroyed, young shoots of holly are springing up in all
directions, and another generation may, perhaps, see the Forest
resembling its old condition. As a proof, beside the entry in
_Domesday_, that the Hordle Cliffs were covered with timber, the
fishermen dredging for the _septaria_ in the Channel constantly drag
up large boles of oaks, locally known as “mootes.” The existence of
the chestnut is shown by the large beams in some of the old Forest
churches, as at Fawley; but none now exist, except a few,
comparatively modern, though very fine, at Boldrewood. Further, the
Forest could never, except in the winter, have been very swampy, as
the gravelly formation of the greater part of the soil supplies it
with a natural drainage. Still, there were swamps, and in the wet
places large quantities of bog-oak have been dug up, bearing
witness, as in other countries, of an epoch of oaks, which preceded
the beech-woods. Gough, in his additions to Camden’s _Britannia_,
vol. i., p. 126, describes Godshill as being in his day covered with
thick oaks. When, too, Lewis wrote in 1811, old people could then
recollect it so densely covered with pollard oaks and hollies that
the road was easily lost. (_Historical Enquiries on the New Forest_,
p. 79, Foot-note.) No one, I suppose, now believes that wolves were
extirpated by Edgar. They and wild boars are expressly mentioned in
the Laws of Canute (_Manwood: a Treatise of the Lawes of the
Forest_, _f._ 3, § 27, 1615), and lingered in the north of England
till Henry VIII.’s reign. (See further on the subject, _The Zoology
of Ancient Europe_, by Alfred Newton, p. 24.) I have hesitated,
however, to include the beaver, though noticed by Harrison, who
wrote in 1574, as in his time frequenting the Taf, in Wales
(_Description of England_, prefixed to Holinshed’s _Chronicle_, ch.
iv. pp. 225, 226.) The eggs of cranes, bustards, and bitterns, were,
we know, protected as late as the middle of the sixteenth century.
(_Statutes of the Realm_, vol. iii., p. 445, 25^o Henry VIII., ch.
xi., § 4; and vol. iv., p. 109, 3^o, 4^o, Ed. VI., ch. vii.) The
last bustard was seen in the Forest, some twenty-five years ago, on
Butt’s Plain, near Eyeworth. It is a sad pity that the enormous
collection of birds’ bones, described as chiefly those of herons and
bitterns, found by Brander amongst the foundations of the Priory
Church at Christchurch (see _Archæologia_, vol. iv., pp. 117, 118),
were not preserved, as they might have yielded some interesting
results. We must, however, still bear in mind that there are far
more points of resemblance than of difference between the Forest of
to-day and that of the Conqueror’s time; especially in the long
tracts of fern and heath and furze, which certainly then existed,
pastured over by flocks of cattle.
[7]_Remarks on Forest Scenery, illustrated by the New Forest_, vol. ii.,
pp. 241-46; third edition. Some mention should here be made of
Gilpin, a man who, in a barren, unnatural age, partook of much of
the same spirit as Cowper and Thompson, and whose work should be
placed side by side with their poems. Unfortunately, much of his
description is now quite useless, as the Forest has been so much
altered; but the real value of the book still remains unchanged in
its pure love for Nature and its simple, unaffected tone. It is well
worth, however, noticing—as showing the enormous difficulty of
overcoming an established error—that, notwithstanding his true
appreciation of bough-forms (see vol. i., pp. 110-12, same edition),
and his hatred of pollarded shapes, and all formalism (same vol., p.
4), he had not sufficient force to break through the conventional
drawing of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth
centuries, and his trees (see, as before, pp. 252-54) are all drawn
under the impression that they are a gigantic species of cabbage.
The edition, however, published in 1834, and edited by Sir T. D.
Lauder, is, in this and many other respects, far better.
[8]The following measurements may have, perhaps, an interest for some
readers:—Girth of the Knyghtwood oak, 17 ft. 4 in.; of the Western
oak at Boldrewood, 24 ft. 9 in.; the Eastern, 16 ft.; and the
Northern, in the thickest part, 20 ft. 4 in.; though, lower down,
only 14 ft. 8 in.; beech at Studley, 21 ft.; beech at Holmy Ridge,
20 ft. The handsomest oak, however, in the district, stands a few
yards outside the Forest boundary, close to Moyle’s Court, measuring
18 ft. 8½ in.
[9]_England under the Anglo-Norman Kings._ Ed. Thorpe, p. 214.
[10]The same, p. 266.
[11]_The Chronicle._ Ed. Thorpe. Vol. i. p. 354. This, of course, must
not be too literally taken. It is one of those stock phrases which
so often recur in literature, and may be found, under rather
different forms, applied to other princes.
[12]Voltaire was the first to throw any doubt on the generally received
account (_Essai sur les Mœurs et l’Esprit des Nations_, tom. iii.
ch. xlii. p. 169. _Panthéon Littéraire._ Paris, 1836). He has in
England been followed by Warner (_Topographical Remarks on the
South-Western Parts of Hampshire_, vol. i. pp. 164-197), and Lewis,
in his _Historical Enquiries concerning the New Forest_, pp. 42-55.
[13]Concerning the King’s prerogative to make a forest wherever he
pleased, and the ancient legal maxim that all beasts of the chase
were exclusively his and his alone, see Manwood—_A Treatise of the
Lawes of the Forest_, ch. ii. ff. 25-33, and ch. iii. sect. i. f.
33, 1615. We must remember, too, that, before the afforestation,
William not only owned by right of conquest, as being King, the
large demesne lands of the Crown in the district, and also those
estates of former possessors, who had fallen at Hastings, or fled
into exile, but, as we know from _Domesday_, kept some—as at Eling,
Breamore, and Ringwood—in his own hands.
[14]Bouquet. _Recueil des Historiens des Gaules et de la France_, tom.
xi., pref., No. xii. p. 14; and tom. xii., pref., No. xlix. pp.
46-48. Some account of him may be found in tom. x. p. 184, foot-note
_a_, and in the preface of the same volume, No. xv. p. 28. See also
preface to tom. viii., No. xxxi., p. 24, as also p. 254, foot-note
_a_.
[15]_De Ducibus Normannis_, book vii. c. ix.; in Camden’s _Anglica
Scripta_, p. 674.
[16]_Chronicon ex Chronicis._ Ed. Thorpe. Vol. ii. p. 45. Published by
the English Historical Society.
[17]_Historia Ecclesiastica_, pars. iii. lib. x., in the _Patrologiæ
Cursus Completus_. Ed. J. P. Migne. Tom. clxxxviii. p. 749 c. Paris,
1855.
[18]_De Nugis Curialium Distinctiones Quinque_, distinc. v. cap. vi. p.
222. Published by the Camden Society.
[19]_De Eventibus Angliæ_, lib. ii. cap. vii., in Twysden’s _Historiæ
Anglicanæ Scriptores Decem_, p. 2373. I am almost ashamed to quote
Knyghton, but it is as well to give the most unfavourable account.
Spotswood, in his _History of the Church of Scotland_ (book ii. p.
30, fourth edition, 1577), repeats the same blunder as Walter Mapes
and Knyghton, adding that the New Forest was at Winchester, and that
Rufus destroyed thirty churches.
[20]For the sake of brevity, let me add that William of Malmesbury
(_Gesta Regum Anglorum_, vol. ii. p. 455, published by the English
Historical Society, 1840), Henry of Huntingdon (_Historiarum_, lib.
vi., in Savile’s _Rerum Anglicarum Scriptores_, p. 371), Simon of
Durham (_De Gestis Regum Anglorum_, in the _Historiæ Anglicanæ
Scriptores Decem_, p. 225), copying word for word from Florence,
Roger Hoveden (_Annalium Pars Prior, Willielmus Junior_, in the
_Rerum Anglicarum Scriptores_, p. 468), Roger of Wendover (_Flores
Historiarum_, vol. ii. pp. 25, 26, published by the English
Historical Society), Walter Hemingburgh (_De Gestis Regum Angliæ_,
vol. i. p. 33, published by the English Historical Society), and
John Ross (_Historia Regum Angliæ_, pp. 112, 113. Ed. Hearne.
Oxford, 1716), repeat, according to their different degrees of
accuracy, the general story of the Conqueror destroying villages and
exterminating the inhabitants.
[21]_The Chronicle._ Ed. Thorpe, as before quoted. Nor does the writer,
when another opportunity presents itself at Rufus’s death, mention
the matter, but passes it over in significant silence. The same
volume, p. 364.
[22]See _Domesday_ (the photo-zincographed fac-simile of the part
relating to Hampshire; published at the Ordnance Survey Office,
1861), p. xxix. b, under Bertramelei, Pistelslai, Odetune, Oxelei,
&c.
[23]See in _Domesday_, as before, p. xxvii. b, the entry under
Langelei—“Aluric Petit tenet unam virgatam in Forestâ.” See, too, p.
iii. b, under Edlinges.
[24]See in _Domesday_, under Thuinam, Holeest, Slacham, Rinwede, p. iv.
a; and Herdel, p. xxviii. b.
[25]See in _Domesday_, out of many instances, Esselei and Suei, p. xxix.
b; Bailocheslei, p. xiv. b; Wolnetune and Bedeslei, p. xxviii. a;
Hentune, p. xxviii. b; and Linhest, p. iv. a.
[26]It is possible that whilst the survey was being taken Saulf died. If
this be so, we find an instance of feeling in allowing his widow to
still rent the lands at Hubborn, which could little have been
expected. The name seems to have been misspelt in various entries.
See _Domesday_, p. xxix. b, under Sanhest and Melleford.
[27]Aluric is probably the physician of that name mentioned in
_Domesday_, p. xxix. a, as holding land in the hundred of Egheiete.
Not to take up further space, let me here only notice some few out
of the many Old-English names of persons in _Domesday_ holding lands
in places which had been more or less afforested, such as Godric
(probably Godric Malf) at Wootton, Willac in the hundred of
Egheiete, Uluric at Godshill, in the actual Forest, and Wislac at
Oxley. See _Domesday_ under the words Odetune, Godes-manes-camp, and
Oxelei, p. xxix. b. See, also, under Totintone, p. xxvii. a, where
Agemund and Alric hold lands which the former, and the latter’s
father, had held of Edward.
[28]Passing over the later and more highly-coloured accounts, we will
content ourselves with Florence of Worcester, as more trustworthy,
whose words are—“Antiquis enim temporibus, Edwardi scilicet Regis,
et aliorum Angliæ Regum predecessorum ejus, hæc regio incolis Dei et
ecclesiis nitebat uberrime.” (Thorpe’s edition, as before quoted.)
Were this, even in a limited degree, true, the Forest would present
the strange anomaly of possessing more churches then than it does
now, with a great increase of population. The _Domesday_ census, we
may add, makes the inhabitants of that portion which is called “In
Novâ Forestâ et circa eam,” a little over two hundred. See Ellis’s
_Introduction to Domesday_, vol. ii. p. 450.
[29]In support of these statements, I may quote from the Prize Essay on
the Farming of Hampshire, published in the _Journal of the Royal
Agricultural Society of England_ (vol. xxii., part ii., No. 48,
1861), and which was certainly not written with any view to
historical evidence, but simply from an agricultural point. At pp.
242, 243, the author says: “The outlying New Forest block consists
of more recent and unprofitable deposits. This tract appears to the
ordinary observer, at first sight, to be a mixed mass of clays,
marls, sands, and gravels. The apparent confusion arises from the
variety of the strata, from the confined space in which they are
deposited, and from the manner in which, on the numerous hills and
knolls, they overlie one another, or are concealed by drift gravel.”
And again, at pp. 250, 251, he continues: “Of the Burley Walk, the
part to the west of Burley Beacon, and round it, is nothing but sand
or clay growing rushes, with here and there some ‘bed furze.’... The
Upper Bagshots, about Burley Beacon, round by Rhinefield and Denney
Lodges, and so on towards Fawley, are hungry sands devoid of
staple:” and finally sums up by saying, “half of the 63,000 acres
are not worth 1_s._ 6_d._ an acre,” p. 330.
[30]In that portion under “In Novâ Forestâ et circa eam.”
[31]Warner, vol. ii. p. 33, says Hordle Church was standing when
_Domesday_ was made. This is a mistake. It was, however, built soon
after, as we know from some grants of Baldwin de Redvers.
[32]Mr. Thorpe notices, in his edition of _The Chronicle_, vol. ii. p.
94, foot-note, its early use, in a document of Eadger’s, A.D. 964,
in the sense of a town; but in the first place it certainly meant
only an inclosed spot. There appears to have been at some time, in
the south part of the Forest, a church near Wootton, the Odetune of
_Domesday_, where its memory is still preserved in the name of
Church Lytton given to a small plot of ground. Rose, in his notes to
the _Red King_, p. 205, suggests that Church Moor and Church Place
indicate other places of worship. Church Moor is a very unlikely
situation, being a large and deep morass, and could well, from its
situation, have been nothing else, and, in all probability, takes
its name, in quite modern times, from some person. But Church Place
at Sloden, like Church Green in Eyeworth Wood, is certainly merely
the embankments near which the Romano-British population employed in
the Roman potteries, once lived, and which ignorance and
superstition have turned into sacred ground. The word Lytton, at
Wootton, however, makes the former position certain, but by no means
necessitates that the church was standing at the afforestation. Thus
we know that in Leland’s time a chapel was in existence at Fritham
(_Itinerary_, ed. Hearne, vol. vi. f. 100, p. 88), which has since
his day disappeared. It would, of course, be absurd to argue that
all ruins which have been, or yet may be found, were caused by the
Conqueror. Further, with regard to the castles, had there been any,
they would most certainly have been noticed in _Domesday_, and it is
most unlikely, knowing how very few existed in England at the
Conquest, that five or six should have been clustered together in
the Forest. The fact, too, of Rose’s finding “minute fragments of
brick and mortar,” lumps of chalk, and pieces of slate bored with
holes, simply proves that persons have, subsequently to the Normans,
found the New Forest a most ungrateful soil. I may, perhaps, add
that Mr Akerman, the well-known archæologist, when, a few years
since, exploring the Roman potteries in the Forest (for which see
chapter xvii.), in vain tried there, or in other parts, to find any
traces of old buildings. (_Archæologia_, vol. xxxv. p. 97.)
[33]See Dr. Guest’s _Early English Settlements in South Britain;
Proceedings of the Archæological Institute_, Salisbury volume, p.
57.
[34]“Nova Foresta, quæ linguâ Anglorum Ytene nuncupatur,” however, says
Florence of Worcester (vol. ii. pp. 44, 45, ed. Thorpe); but the
Keltic origin of the word is better.
[35]Ashley is connected with Esk and Usk, and refers to water rather
than wood.—_errata_
[36]The names of the fields in the various farms adjoining the
Forest—Furzy Close, Heathy Close, Cold Croft, Starvesall, Hungry
Hill, Rough Pastures, &c. &c.—are not without meaning. The common
Forest proverb of “lark’s-lees,” applied to the soil, pretty
clearly, too, shows its quality.
[37]Manwood defines a forest “a certaine territorie of woody grounds and
fruitful pastures.” _A Treatise of the Lawes of the Forest._ London,
1619. Chap. i. f. 18. Wedgwood (_Dictionary of English Etymology_,
vol. ii. p. 34) shows the true meaning of the word, by connecting it
with the Welsh _gores_, _gorest_, waste, open ground, and _goresta_,
to lie open.
[38]See Mr. Davies’s paper on the Races of Lancashire, _Transactions of
the Philological Society_, 1855, p. 258. In _Domesday_, as before,
under Clatinges, p. xviii. a, we find, “Silva inutilis,” that is, a
wood which has no beech, oak, ash, nor holly, but only yews or
thorns, equivalent to the entry, “Silva sine pasnagio,” under Anne,
p. xix. a. (See, too, Ellis, _Introduction to Domesday_, vol. i. p.
99.) Whilst under Borgate, p. iv. b, we find, “Pastura quæ reddebat
xl porcos est in forestâ Regis.”
[39]See Manwood, as before, ff. 1-5.
[40]In the Charta de Forestâ of Canute (Manwood, f. 3, sect. 27) mention
is made in the forests of horses, cows, and wild goats which are all
protected; and from sect. 28 it is plain that, under certain
limitations, people might cut fuel. These, with other privileges,
such as killing game on their own lands (see sect. xxx. f. 4)—for,
by theory, all game was the King’s—were compensations given to the
forester for being subject to Forest Law.
Further, from the Charta de Forestâ of Henry III. (Manwood, ff.
6-11), we find that persons had houses and farms, and even woods, in
the very centre of the King’s forests; and the charter provides that
they may there, on their own lands, build mills on the forest
streams, sink wells, and dig marl-pits, referring, most probably, in
the last case, to the New Forest, where marl has been used, from
time immemorial, to manure the land; and, further, that in their own
woods, even though in the forest, they might keep hawks, and go
hawking. (See f. 7, sects. xii., xiii.)
It shows, too, that there was a population who gained their
livelihood, as to this day, by huckstering, buying and selling small
quantities of timber, making brushes, and dealing in bark and coal,
which last article evidently points to the Forest of Dean. (F. 7,
sect. xiv.)
We must not imagine that the Charta de Forestâ of Henry III. was
entirely a series of new privileges. They were, with some notable
exceptions, simply those rights which had been received from the
earliest times in compensation for some of the hardships of the
Forest Laws, and which had been wrested away, probably by Richard or
John, but which had never been granted to those who dwelt outside
the Forest. (On this point see especially “Ordinatio Foreste,” 33rd
Edward I., _Statutes of the Realm_, vol. i. p. 144. And again,
“Ordinatio Foreste,” 34th Edward I., sect. vi., same volume, p. 149,
where the rights of pasturage are re-allowed to those who have lost
it by the recent perambulation made in the twenty-ninth year of the
King’s reign.)
I think we may, therefore, gain from these clauses, especially when
taken in conjunction with those of the Charta de Forestâ of Canute,
a tolerably correct picture of an ancient forest—that it consisted
not merely of large timber and thick underwood, a cover for deer,
but of extensive plains,—still here preserved in the various
_leys_—grazed over by cattle, with here and there cultivated spots,
and homesteads inhabited by a poor, but industrious, population.
[41]See chapter ix. p. 97, footnote.
[42]See _Domesday_, as before, p. xxix. b., under Einforde.
[43]See chapters viii. p. 87, and x. p. 114.
[44]The following translation is made from the original in the Record
Office. Southt Plitai Foreste, A^o viii.^o E. I.^mi “The metes and
boundaries of the New Forest from the first time it was afforested.
First, from Hudeburwe to Folkewell; thence to the Redechowe; thence
to the Bredewelle; thence to Brodenok; thence to the Chertihowe;
thence to the Brygge; thence to Burnford; thence to Kademannesforde;
thence to Selney Water; thence to Orebrugge; thence to the Wade as
the water runs; thence to the Eldeburwe; thence to Meche; thence to
Redebrugge as the bank of the Terste runs; thence to Kalkesore as
the sea runs; thence to the Hurste, along the sea-shore; thence to
Christ Church Bridge as the sea flows; thence as the Avene extends,
as far as the bridge of Forthingebrugge; thence as the Avene flows
to Moletone; thence as the Avene flows to Northchardeford and
Sechemle; and so in length by a ditch, which stretches to
Herdeberwe.” It is this old natural boundary which, as stated in the
preface, we have adopted for the limits of the book. A copy of the
original may be found in the _Journals of the House of Commons_,
vol. xliv., appendix, p. 574, 1789.
[45]This may also be found, with the perambulation made in the
twenty-second year of Charles II., in the _Journal of the House of
Commons_, vol. xliv., appendix, pp. 574, 575, 1789. It is also given
in Lewis’s _Historical Enquiries upon the New Forest_, appendix ii.
pp. 174-177.
[46]This is not the place to say more on this most important chapter of
English history. See, however, on the subject, _The Great Charter:
and the Charter of the Forest_, by Blackstone, Introduction, pp.
lx.-lxxii. 1759. For the oppressions which still existed under the
shelter of the Forest Laws, see the preamble to the “Ordinatio
Foreste,” 34th Edward I. _Statutes of the Realm_, vol. i. p. 147.
[47]“Quid et quantum temporibus cujuslibet regis nullo modo eis constare
potest.” The conclusion of the perambulation. Some little difficulty
attends these perambulations. From _Domesday_, it is certain that
the Conqueror afforested land on the west of the Avon at
Holdenhurst, Breamore, and Harbridge. And amongst the MSS of
Lincoln’s Inn Library we find a copy of a charter of William of
Scotland, dated, curiously enough, “Hindhop Burnemuth, in meâ Novâ
Forestâ, 10 Kal. Junii, 1171.” (See Hunter’s “_Three Catalogues_,”
&c., p. 278, No. 78, 1838.) It would seem, from what Edward’s
commissioners say, that these afforestations, which had taken place
since Henry II’s time, were all made inside the actual boundaries of
the Forest. It has been generally supposed that the perambulation in
the eighth year of Edward I. was the first ever made of an English
forest. This is not the case, for in the Record Office, in the Plita
Foreste de Cōm. Southt LIII^tio R. H. III., No. III., may be found
the perambulation of a forest in the north of Hampshire.
[48]For a good account of all details connected with the history of the
New Forest, see the Sub-Report by the Secretary of the Royal New and
Waltham Forest Commission, _Reports from Commissioners_ (11), vol.
xxx. pp. 267-309, 1850, and also the Fifth Report of the Land
Revenue Commissioners in 1789, published July 24th of that year, to
be found also in the _Journals of the House of Commons_, vol. xliv.
pp. 552-571.
[49]See “The humble petition of Richard Spencer, Esq., Sir Gervas
Clifton, Knight and Baronet, and others, to enter upon the New
Forest and Sherwood Forest,” &c. &c. Record Office. Domestic Series,
Charles II., No. 8. f. 26, July 21st, 1660.
[50]MSS. prepared by Mr. Record-Keeper Fearnside, quoted in the
Secretary’s Sub-Report of the Royal New and Waltham Forest
Commission, _Reports from Commissioners_ (11), vol. xxx. p. 342.
[51]See Grant Book at the Record Office, 1613, vol. 141, p. 127—“4th
October, a Grant to Richard Kilborne, alias Hunt, and Thomas Tilsby
(of) the benefitt of all Morefalls within the New Forest, for the
terme of one and twenty years.”
[52]See “The humble petition of Captayne Walter Neale” for “two thousand
decayed trees out of the New Forest, in consideracion” of 460_l._,
which he had advanced to his company engaged in Count Mansfeldt’s
expedition. Record Office. Domestic Series, No. 184, Feb., 1625, f.
62.
[53]See warrant from Charles II. to the Lord Treasurer Southampton, that
“Winefred Wells may take and receive for her own use” King’s Coppice
at Fawley, and New Coppice and Iron’s Hill Coppice at Brockenhurst.
Record Office. Domestic Series, No. 96, April 1st, 1664, f. 16.
Three years before this there had been a petition from a Frances
Wells “to bestowe upon her and her children for twenty-one yeares
the Moorefall trees in three walks in the New Forest, ... and seven
or eight acres of ground, and ten or twelve timber trees, to build a
habitation.” The petition was referred to Southampton, who wrote on
the margin, “I conceive this an unfit way to gratify this
petitioner, for under pretence of such Moorefall trees much waste is
often committed.” Record Office. Domestic Series, No. 34, April 2nd,
1661, f. 14. Hence the reason of Charles’s warrant in the case of
Winefred Wells, as he knew that the Lord Treasurer was so strongly
opposed to any such grants.
[54]See the report of Peter Pett, one of the King’s master shipwrights,
“Touching the fforests of Shottover and Stowood.” Record Office.
Domestic Series, No. 216, f. 56. i. May 10th, 1632. The New Forest,
however, seems from this report to have been much better in this
respect.
[55]See “Necessarie Remembrances concerning the preservation of timber,
&c.” Record Office. Domestic Series. Charles I., No. 229, f. 114.
Without date, but some time in 1632.
[56]9th and 10th of William III., chap. xxxvi, 1693. An abstract of the
Act may be found in the _Journals of the House of Commons_, vol.
xliv., appendix, pp. 576-578.
[57]To show how for years the Forest was neglected and robbed, we find,
from a survey made in James I.’s reign, 1608, that there were no
less than 123,927 growing trees fit for felling, and decaying trees
which would yield 118,000 loads of timber; whilst in Queen Anne’s
reign, in 1707, only 12,476 are reported as serviceable. See Fifth
Report of the Land Revenue Commissioners, _Journals of the House of
Commons_, vol. xliv. p. 563. The waste in James I.’s and Charles
I.’s time must have been enormous, for from the “Necessarie
Remembrances” before quoted we find that there were not in 1632 much
above 2,000 serviceable trees in the whole Forest.
[58]See, as before, Fifth Report of the Land Revenue Commissioners, pp.
561, 562, and especially the evidence of the under-steward,
Appendix, 583. As far back as February 20th, 1619, we find that
James I. gave the Earl of Southampton 1,200_l._ a year as
compensation for the damage which the enormous quantity of deer in
the Forest caused to his land. Letter from Gerrard to Carleton, Feb.
20, 1618/1619, Record Office. Domestic Series, No. 105, f. 120.
Gilpin (vol. ii. pp. 32, 33, third edition) states that in his day
two keepers alone robbed the Forest to the value of 50,000_l._
[59]_Journals of the House of Commons_, vol. xlvii. pp. 611-792; vol.
lv. pp. 600-784.
[60]See the evidence in the _Parliamentary Papers_, 1849, Nos. 513, 538.
Of the Forest Rights and Privileges, the secretary to the New Forest
Commission writes: “The present state of the New Forest in this
respect is little less than absolute anarchy.” (_Reports of
Commissioners_ (11), vol. xxx. p. 357, 1850.) It should be
distinctly understood, as was shown in the last chapter, that these
Rights had their origin as a compensation to those whose lands had
been afforested by the King, and who were, in consequence, subject
to the Forest Laws, and the injury done by the deer. Now that the
injury is no longer sustained, and the exercise of the Prerogative
has ceased, so ought also the privileges. The Crown, however, has
not pressed this, and the Rights are thus still enjoyed. _A Register
of Decisions on Claims to Forest Rights_, with each person’s name,
and the amount of his privileges, was published in 1858.
[61]The present statistics of the Forest are—Freehold estates, being
private property, within the Forest boundaries, 27,140 acres;
copyhold, belonging to her Majesty’s manor of Lyndhurst, 125;
leasehold, under the Crown, 600; enclosures belonging to the lodges,
500; freeholds of the Crown, planted, 1,000; woods and wastes of the
Forest, 63,000: total, 92,365 acres. The value of timber supplied to
the navy during the last ten years has been, on the average, nearly
7,000_l._ a year. The receipts for the year ending 31st of March,
1860, derived from the sale of timber, bark, fagots, marl, and
gravel, and rent of farms and cottages, &c., were 23,125_l._ 6_s._
6_d._; whilst the expenses for labour, trees, carriage of timber,
and salaries, were 12,913_l._ 1_s._ 7_d._; thus showing a
considerable profit. (From the Thirty-eighth Report of the
Commissioners of her Majesty’s Woods and Forests.) The management of
the Forest is now in the hands of a deputy-surveyor, three
assistants, and eight keepers; whilst four verderers try all cases
of stealing timber, turf, and furze.
[62]See further, on the condition of the Forest population, chapters xv.
and xvi. When stripping bark and felling timber in the spring, the
men can earn considerably more than at other times. The average
wages are two shillings a day for ordinary labourers, but all work,
which can be, is done by the piece.
[63]In the _Rolls of Parliament_, vol. i. p. 125, A.D. 1293, 21st Edward
I., is an account of a vessel, the _All Saints_, “de Hethe juxta
Novam Forestam,” which, laden with wine from Rochelle, was wrecked
and plundered on the Cornish coast.
[64]A little beyond Hythe is a good example of Mr. Kemble’s test (see
the _Saxons in England_, vol. i., Appendix A, p. 481) for
recognizing the Ancient Mark. To the north lies Eling, the Mark of
the Ealingas, and in regular succession from it come the various
hursts, holts, and dens, now to be seen in Ashurst, Buckholt, and
Dibden. The last village has a very picturesque church, its roof
completely thatched with ivy, disfigured, however, by a wretched
spire. In _Domesday_ it possessed a saltern and a fishery, and a
wood with pannage for six hogs (sylva de 6 porcis). Two hydes were
taken into the Forest. Eling, at the same time, maintained two
mills, which paid twenty-five shillings, a fishery and a saltern,
both free from tax. The manor was bound, in the time of Edward the
Confessor, to find half-a-day’s entertainment (_firma_) for the
King. For a curious extract from its parish register, see chapter
xix. Staneswood (Staneude), which is more southward, also, according
to _Domesday_, possessed a mill which paid five shillings, and two
fisheries worth fifty pence. Farther north lies Redbridge, the
Rodbrige of _Domesday_, which also maintained two mills, rented,
however, at fifty shillings. This was the Hreutford and Vadum
Arundinis of Bede, where lived Cynibert the Abbot, who, failing in
his attempt to save the two sons of Arvald from Ceadwalla, delayed
their death till he had converted them to Christianity. (Bede,
_Hist. Eccl._, tom. i., lib. iv., cap. xvi., p. 284, published by
the English Historical Society.) All these places, with the
exception of Redbridge, were more or less afforested. The district,
however, seems to have been by far the most flourishing of any
adjoining the New Forest, owing, no doubt, to the immigration which
the various creeks invited, and the remains of salterns still show
its former prosperity. Next to it came the Valley of the Avon, its
mills often rented, in _Domesday_, by a payment of the eels caught
in the river.
[65]Colonel Hammond, Governor of the Isle of Wight, in a letter to the
Committee of Derby House, dated from Carisbrook Castle, June 25th,
1648, speaks of “Caushot Castle as a place of great strength.”
(Peck’s _Desiderata Curiosa_, vol. ii., book ix., p. 383.) In the
reign of Elizabeth there were stationed here a captain, with a fee
of one shilling a day; a subaltern with eightpence; four soldiers
and eight gunners with sixpence each; and a porter with eightpence.
(Peck’s _Desiderata Curiosa_, vol. i., book ii., p. 66.) And in
1567, we find the queen ordering “the mountyng of ordinance,”
probably to pay attention to Philip, who was expected to pass
through “the narrowe seas.” Record Office. Domestic Series, No. 43,
Aug. 27, 1567, f. 52.
[66]_The Chronicle._ Ed. Thorpe. Vol. i. p. 24. _Florence._ Ed. Thorpe.
Vol. i. pp. 3, 4.
[67]Compare his edition of _The Chronicle_, vol. ii. p. 13, with note 1
at p. 4, vol. i., of _Florence_.
[68]Early English Settlements in Great Britain—_The Proceedings of the
Archæological Institute_, the Salisbury volume, pp. 56-60. It is, of
course, not without much consideration that I presume to differ from
Dr. Guest; but surely the passages quoted from Bede refer to nearly
200 years after the arrival of Cerdic and his nephews, Stuf and
Wihtgar, when their descendants would have been sure to have crossed
over, finding the east side far richer than the cold, barren
district where the New Forest afterwards stood.
[69]_The Early and Middle Ages of England_, p. 56, foot-note. I may,
perhaps, add, that Camden also placed it at Yarmouth; Carte, at
Charmouth, in Dorsetshire; and Milner, at Hengistbury Head. Gibson,
with some others, in his edition of _The Chronicle_ (under _nominum
locorum explicatio_, pp. 19, 20), alone seems to have fixed on this
spot. Lappenburg, however, says that the site is no longer known.
_England under the Anglo-Saxon Kings._ Ed. Thorpe, p. 107.
[70]In a letter of Southampton’s to Cromwell, 17th September, 1539
(_State Papers_, vol. i. p. 617), it is called Calsherdes; whilst in
another letter of his, also to Cromwell (_Ellis’s Letters_, second
series; vol. ii. p. 87), he writes Calshorispoynte. Leland, in his
_Itinerary_ (Ed. Hearne, second edition, vol. iii., p. 94, f. 78),
speaks of both “Cauldshore” and “Caldshore Castelle;” and again (p.
93, f. 77), calls it Cawshot, as it is also spelt in Baptista
Boazio’s Map of the Isle of Wight, 1591; whilst in the State papers
of Elizabeth we find Calshord. (Record Office. Domestic Series, No.
43, f. 52. Aug. 27th, 1567.) I give these examples to show the
number of variations through which the name has passed. No form is
too grotesque for a corruption to assume. How names become
corrupted, let me give an instance in the word Hagthorneslad (from
the Old-English “hagaþorn;” a hawthorn), as it is written in the
perambulation of the Forest in the twenty-ninth year of Edward I.,
which in Charles II.’s time is spelt Haythorneslade, thus losing its
whole significance, although to this day the word “hag” is used in
the Forest for a “haw,” or “berry.”
[71]The simple termination “ore”—“ora,” and not “oar,” as spelt in the
Ordnance Map, may be found within a stone’s-throw of Calshot, in Ore
Creek.
[72]See previously, chapter iv. p. 40, foot-note.
[73]The derivation of Leap as given in the text is very
doubtful.—_errata_
[74]At the date of the Dauphin’s leaving England, William de Vernon was
dead, which makes his embarkation at Leap less probable. Neither
Roger of Wendover (vol. iv. p. 32. Ed. Coxe), nor Walter Hemingburgh
(vol. i. p. 259. Ed. Hamilton), nor Ralph Coggeshale (_Chronicon,
Anglicanum Bouquet Recueil des Historiens des Gaules et de la
France_, tom. xviii. p. 113 C.), nor the _Chronicon Turonense_ (in
the _Veterum Scriptorum Amplissima Collectio_ of Martène and Durand,
tom. v. p. 1059 B), nor Rymer’s _Fœdera_ (“De salvo conductu Domini
Ludovici,” tom. i. p. 222), say anything of the place of
embarkation.
[75]I believe on that of the Oglander MSS. in the possession of the Earl
of Yarborough, but which I have never seen. Neither the _Iter
Carolinum_, Herbert’s _Memoirs_ (London, 1572, p. 38), Huntington’s
account (same volume, p. 160), Berkeley’s _Memoirs_ (second edition,
1702, p. 65), _The Ashburnham Narrative_ (London, 1830, vol. ii. p.
119), nor Whalley’s letter in Peck’s _Desiderata Curiosa_ (tom. ii.,
lib. ix., pp. 374, 375), nor Hammond’s, in Rushworth’s _Collection_
(part iv., vol. ii., p. 874), mention the place, though the latter
would seem to indicate that the King sailed direct from Tichfield to
Cowes. Ashburnham and Berkeley had, we know from Berkeley
(_Memoirs_, same edition as before, p. 57) and Ludlow (_Memoirs_,
1771, p. 93), previously gone by Lymington to the Island.
[76]The road is marked in the map which accompanies Dr. Guest’s paper on
“The Belgic Ditches.” _The Archæological Journal_, vol. viii. p.
143.
[77]As the passage is so important, I give it in full:—Ἀποτυποῦντες δ’
εἰς ἀστραγάλων ῥυθµοὺς κοµίζουσιν εἴς τινα νῆσον προκειµένην µὲν τῆς
Βρεττανικῆς, ὀνοµαζοµένην δὲ Ἴκτιν. κατὰ γὰρ τὰς ἀµπώτεις
ἀναξηραινοµένου τοῦ µεταξὺ τόπου ταῖς ἁµάξαις εἰς ταύτην κοµίζουσι
δαψιλῆ τὸν καττίτερον. Ἴδιον δέ τι συµβαίνει περὶ τὰς πλησίον νήσους
τὰς µεταξὺ κειµένας τῆς τε Εὐρώπης καὶ τῆς Βρεττανικῆς. Κατὰ µὲν γὰρ
τὰς πληµµυρίδας τοῦ µεταξὺ πόρου πληρουµένου νῆσοι φαίνονται, κατὰ
δὲ τὰς ἀµπώτεις ἀποῤῥεούσης τῆς θαλάττης καὶ πολὺν τόπον
ἀναξηραινούσης θεωροῦνται χεῤῥόνησοι.—Lib. v., cap. xxii., vol. i.,
p. 438. Ed. Dindorf. Leipsic, 1828-31. Pliny, as Wesseling remarks,
in his note on this passage, quoted by Dindorf, vol. iv. p. 421, by
some mistake, makes the Isle of Wight (Mictis) six days’ sail from
England. See Sir G. C. Lewis’s _Astronomy of the Ancients_, chap.
viii., sect. iii. p. 453.
[78]As before, sect. iv. p. 462.
[79]_The South-Western Parts of Hampshire_, vol. ii. pp. 5, 6, 1793.
[80]For an account of the barrows on Beaulieu Heath, see ch. xvii.
[81]Dugdale’s _Monasticon Anglicanum_. Ed 1825, vol. v., p. 682. Num.
ii. See _Chronica de Kirkstall_. Brit. Mus. Cott. MSS. Domitian. A.
xii., ff. 85, 86. The cause of John’s enmity against the Cistercian
Order may be gathered from Ralph Coggeshale, _Chronicon Anglicanum_,
as before in Bouquet, _Recueil des Historiens des Gaules et de la
France_, tom. xviii. pp. 90, 91.
[82]_Carta Fundationis per Regem Johannem_, given in Dugdale (Ed. 1825,
vol. v. p. 683); and _Confirmacio Regis Edwardi tertii super cartas
Regis Johannis_, Brit. Mus., Bib. Cott. Nero, A. xii., No. v., ff.
8-15, quoted in Warner (_South-West Parts of Hampshire_, vol. ii.,
Appendix, pp. 7-14). There are, however, no less than three dates
given for its foundation. The _Annals of Parcolude_, according to
Tanner (_Notitia Monastica_, Ed. Nasmyth, Hampshire, No. vi.
foot-note _h_), say 1201, which is manifestly wrong; whilst John of
Oxnede, better known as the chronicler of St. Benet’s Abbey at Hulme
(_Chronica._ Ed. Ellis, p. 107), with the _Chronicon de Hayles et
Aberconwey_ (Brit. Mus., Harl. MS., No. 3725, f. 10), and Matthew
Paris, according to Dugdale, say respectively 1204 and 1205, though
I have not been able to verify the last reference.
[83]_Roger of Wendover._ English Historical Society. Ed. Coxe, vol. iii.
p. 344.
[84]See the previous chapter, pp. 57, 58, foot-note.
[85]Curiously enough, as Warner remarks (vol. i. 267), Matthew Paris
gives two dates for the dedication, the first 1246 (_Hist. Angl._,
tom. i. p. 710, Ed. Wats., London, 1640); and the second (p. 770)
1249; not, however, 1250, as Warner says, and who, followed by all
later writers, totally misunderstands the passage, which means that,
although the abbot spent so large a sum, yet the King would not
remit him the fine he had incurred by trespass in the Forest,—“Nec
tamen idcirco aliquatenus pepercit rex, quin maximum censum solveret
illi pro transgressione quam dicebatur regi fecisse in occupatione
Forestæ.”
[86]See Matthew Paris, in praise of the Cistercian Order. Same edition
as before, tom. i. p. 916.
[87]Not Margaret of Anjou, as the common accounts say, who, landing at
Weymouth, took refuge at Cerne Abbey. See _Historie of the Arrival
of Edward IV. in England_, pp. 22, 23, printed for the Camden
Society, 1838; and Hollinshed’s _Chronicles_, vol. iii. p. 685; and
_Speed_, B. ix. p. 866. Hall, however (_The Union of the Families of
Lancaster and York_, p. 219), with Grafton, in his prose
continuation of Hardyng (Ed. Ellis, 1812, p. 457), says it was to
Beaulieu that Margaret fled. But they are evidently mistaken, as
Speed and Hollinshed, and the explicit and circumstantial narrative
of the author of the _Historie_, show.
[88]The following list of books at Beaulieu, taken by Leland (_Collect.
de Rebus Brit._, vol. iv. p. 149), just before the dissolution, will
show what was in those days an average ecclesiastical
library:—“_Eadmerus de Vitâ Anselmi, et Vitâ Wilfridi Episcopi._
_Stephanus super Ecclesiasticum, Libros Regum, et Parabolas
Salomonis._ _Joannes Abbas de Fordâ super Cantica Canticorum._
_Damascenus de Gestis Barlaam eremitæ, et Josaphat regis Indiæ._
_Libellus Candidi Ariani_” (most probably the _De Generatione
Divinâ_). “_Libellus Victorini, rhetoris, contra Candidum_” (the
_Confutatorium Candidi Ariani_, written against the preceding work).
“_Tres libri Claudiani de Statu Animæ ad Sidonium Apollinarem._
_Gislebertus super Epistolas Pauli. Prosper de Vitâ contemplativâ et
activâ._”
[89]_Ellis’s Letters_, second series, vol. ii. p. 87. For Henry VIII.’s
enforcement of Wolsey’s levies on Beaulieu, see _State Papers_, vol.
i., part ii., p. 383.
[90]Accounts of this palace—probably, as Mr. Walcott says, the King’s
hunting lodge—may be found in the _Proceedings of the Archæological
Institute_, 1846, p. 32, and the Rev. Makenzie Walcott’s _Church and
Conventual Arrangement_, p. 115.
[91]Her remains were lately discovered near the high altar, with part of
the inscription on her gravestone. (See the Rev. F. W. Baker’s
account in the _Gentleman’s Magazine_, vol. ccxiv. p. 63.) A carved
head with a crown in the refectory preserves the memory of her
husband, crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle King of the Romans, and whose
heart was buried, in a marble vase, beside his wife. (Leland, as
before, iv. 149.) Tradition says that Eleanor of Acquitaine was also
buried here, but she lies with her husband at Fontevraud.
[92]Warner (vol. i. 255) mentions that in his time there was still
brandy in the steward’s cellars made from the vines growing on the
spot. _Domesday_ gives several entries of wines (see Ellis’s
_Introduction_, vol. i. pp. 116, 117), though none in the Forest
district. But the term ‘Vineyards’ is still frequently found
hereabouts as the name of fields generally marked by a southern
slope, as at Beckley and Hern, near Christchurch, showing how common
formerly was the cultivation of the vine, first introduced into
England by the Romans.
[93]In Brit. Mus., Harl. MS. 892, f. 40 _b_, is an extract from a most
interesting letter written in 1648, describing the state of the
refectory, which seems, with the exception of the alterations made
in 1746, to have been much the same as at present.
[94]Corrected from “the injunction which the Bishop of Hippo gives to
the canons of his own order”—_errata_
[95]Quoted from Dugdale’s _Monasticon Anglicanum_, by Warner, vol. i. p.
249.
[96]It is pleasant to have to add that the present noble owner, the Duke
of Buccleuch, has shown not only good taste and judgment in the
restoration of the guest-house and the excavation of the church, but
a wise liberality in throwing the grounds open to the public.
[97]In Parker’s _Glossary of Architecture_ is given a list of some of
these old barns. Vol. i. pp. 240, 241.
[98]Some curious leaden pipes, soldered only on one side, were dug up
close by, which are worth seeing, as they show how late the process
of running hollow lead pipes was invented. The earthenware pipes
found with them are as good as any which are now made. At Otterwood
Farm, on the other side of the Exe, pavement and tiles have also
been discovered.
[99]The chapel was standing in Warner’s time. _South-Western Parts of
Hampshire_, vol. i. pp. 232, 233.
[100]In Brit. Mus., Bib. Cott., Nero, A. xii., No. vii. f. 20 _a b_, is
a copy of a Bull from Alexander I., giving permission to all the
Cistercian Houses to hold service at their granges.
[101]Even Layton saw their kindness, and pleaded for the poor wretches
whom they had protected. Letter regarding Beaulieu Sanctuary from
Layton to Cromwell, _Ellis’s Letters_, third series, vol. iii. pp.
72, 73.
[102]Blount’s _Fragmenta Antiquitatis_. Ed. Beckwith, p. 80, 1815.
_Testa de Nevill_, p. 235 a (118). We know, however, that our
forefathers, long before this, possessed beds, or rather cots, hung
round with rich embroidered canopies. For their general love, too,
of comfort and personal ornament and dress, we need go no further
than to Chaucer’s description of “Richesse,” in his _Romaunt of the
Rose_. Englishmen, however, were still then, as now, ever ready to
lead a rough life if necessary, and to make their toil their
pleasure.
[103]In that portion of it which comes under the title of “In Forestâ et
circa eam.” See chap. iii. p. 31.
[104]All over England did the church towers serve as landmarks, alike in
the fen and forest districts. Lincolnshire and Yorkshire can show
plenty of such steeples. At St. Michael’s at York, to this hour, I
believe, at six every morning, is rung the bell whose sound used to
guide the traveller through the great forest of Galtres; whilst at
All Saints, in the Pavement, in the same city, is shown the lantern,
which every night used to serve as a beacon.
[105]The following measurements may have some interest, and can be
compared with those of the oaks and beeches in the Forest, given in
chap. ii. p. 16, foot-note:—Circumference of the oak, twenty-two
feet eight inches. Yew, seventeen feet. An enormous yew, completely
hollow, however, stands in Breamore churchyard, measuring
twenty-three feet four inches. There are certainly no yews in the
Forest so large as these; and their evidence would further show that
at all events the Conqueror did not destroy the churchyards. As
here, too, there remains some Norman work in the doorway of Breamore
church.
[106]For some account of these barrows, see chapter xvii.
[107]The word is from the French _merise_. At Wood Green, in the
northern part of the Forest, a “merry fair” of these half-wild
cherries is held once a week during the season, probably similar to
that of which Gower sung.
[108]An objection, that the lime-tree was not known so early in England,
has been taken to this derivation. This is certainly a mistake. In
that fine song of the Battle of Brunanburh, we find—
“Bordweal clufan
Heowan heaþolinde
Hamora lafan.”
(_The Chronicle._ Ed. Thorpe. Vol. i. p. 200.)
The “geolwe lind” was sung of in many a battle-piece. Again, as
Kemble notices (_The Saxons in England_, vol. i., Appendix A, p.
480), we read in the _Cod. Dip._, No. 1317, of a marked linden-tree.
(See, also, same volume, book i., chap. ii., p. 53, foot-note.)
Then, too, we have the Old-English word _lindecole_, the tree being
noted for making good charcoal, as both it and the dog-wood are to
this day. Any “Anglo-Saxon” dictionary will correct this notion, and
names of places, similarly compounded, are common throughout
England.
[109]The entry in _Domesday_ (facsimile of the part relating to
Hampshire, photo-zincographed at the Ordnance Survey, 1861, p. iv.
a) is as follows:—“In Bovere Hundredo. Ipse Rex tenet Linhest.
Jacuit in Ambresberie de firmâ Regis. Tunc, se defendebat pro ij
hidis. Modo, Herbertus forestarius ex his ij hidis unam virgatam
(tenet), et pro tanto geldat; aliæ sunt in forestâ. Ibi modo nichil,
nisi ij bordarii. Valet x solidos. Tempore Regis Edwardi valuit vi.
libras.” It is worth noticing that Lyndhurst is here put by itself,
and not with Brockenhurst and Minestead, and other neighbouring
places under “In Novâ Forestâ et circa eam;” a clear proof, which
might be gathered from other entries, that the survey was not
completed.
[110]Blount’s _Fragmenta Antiquitatis_. Ed. Beckwith, p. 183. 1815. Here
the place is called Lindeshull.
[111]Let me especially call attention to the exquisite carving of some
thorns and convolvuluses in the chancel. It is a sad pity that this
part of the church should be disfigured by glaring theatrical
candlesticks and coarse gaudy Birmingham candelabra.
[112]I have only seen but the slightest portion of this fresco, so that
it is impossible to properly judge of even the merits of this part.
No criticism is true which does not consider a work of Art as a
whole. At present, the angel with outstretched hands, full of
nervous power and feeling, seems to me very admirable, though the
position and meaning of the cloaked and clinging figure below is, at
the first glance, difficult to make out; but this will doubtless, as
the picture proceeds, become clear. The richness, however, of the
colouring can even now be seen under the enormous disadvantage of
being placed beneath the strong white glare of light which pours in
from the east window. Further, Mr. Leighton must be praised for his
boldness in breaking through the old conventionalities of Art, and
giving us here the owl as a symbol of sloth, and the wretchedness it
produces.
[113]_Herbert’s Memoirs of Charles I._, p. 95.
[114]William of Malmesbury: _Gesta Regum Anglorum_. Ed. Hardy, tom. ii.,
lib. iv., sect. 333, p. 508.
[115]Vitalis: _Historia Eccl._, pars. iii., lib. x., cap. xii., in
Migne: _Patrologiæ Cursus_, tom. clxxxviii. pp. 751, 752; where
occurs (pp. 750, 751) a most remarkable sermon, on the wrongs and
woes of England, preached at St. Peter’s Abbey, Shrewsbury, on St.
Peter’s Day, by Fulchered, first abbot of Shrewsbury, a man
evidently of high purpose, ending with these ominous words:—“The bow
of God’s vengeance is bent against the wicked. The arrow, swift to
wound, is already drawn out of the quiver. Soon will the blow be
struck; but the man who is wise to amend will avoid it.” Surely this
is more than a general denunciation. On the very next day William
the Red falls.
[116]Malmesbury, as before quoted, p. 509. Vitalis, however, in Migne,
as before, p. 751, says there were some others.
[117]William of Malmesbury says nothing about the tree, from which
nearly all modern historians represent the arrow as glancing.
Vitalis, as before, p. 751, expressly states that it rebounded from
the back of a beast of chase (_fera_), apparently, by the mention of
bristles (_setæ_), a wild-boar. Matthew Paris (Ed. Wats., tom. i. p.
54) first mentions the tree, but his narrative is doubtful.
[118]Malmesbury, as before, p. 509. The additions that it was a
charcoal-cart, as also the owner’s name, are merely traditional.
[119]The _Chronicle_. Ed. Thorpe, vol. i. p. 364.
[120]Vitalis, as before, p. 752. Neither William of Malmesbury nor
Vitalis, who go into details, mentions the spot where the King was
killed. The _Chronicle_ and Florence of Worcester most briefly
relate the accident, though Florence adds that William fell where
his father had destroyed a chapel. (Ed. Thorpe, vol. ii. p. 45).
Henry of Huntingdon (_Historiarum_, lib. vii., in Saville’s
_Scriptores Rerum Anglicarum_, p. 378) says but little more,
dwelling only on the King’s wickedness and the supernatural
appearance of blood. Matthew Paris brings a bishop on the scene, as
explaining another dream of the King’s, and gives the King’s speech
of “trahe arcum, diabole” to Tiril, which has a certain mad humour
about it, as also the incident of the tree, and the apparition of a
goat (_Hist. Major. Angl._ Ed. Wats., pp. 53, 54), which are not to
be found in _Roger of Wendover_ (_Flores Hist._ Ed. Coxe, tom. ii.,
pp. 157-59), and therefore open to the strongest suspicion. Matthew
of Westminster (_Flores Hist._ Ed. 1601, p. 235) follows, in most of
his details, William of Malmesbury. Simon of Durham (_De Gestis
Regum Anglorum_, in Twysden’s _Historian Anglicanæ Scriptores
Decem_, p. 225), as, too, Walter de Hemingburgh (Ed. Hamilton, vol.
i. p. 33), and Roger Hoveden (_Annalium Pars Prior_, in Saville’s
_Rerum Anglicarum Scriptores_, pp. 467, 468), copy Florence of
Worcester. So, too, in various ways, with all the later writers, who
had access to no new sources of information. Peter Blois, however,
in his continuation of _Ingulph_ (Gales’s _Rerum Anglicarum
Scriptores_, tom. i. pp. 110, 111; Oxford, 1684) is more vivid, and
adds that the dogs were chasing the stags up a hill; but his whole
book is very doubtful, and his account in this particular instance
is irreconcilable with the others. Gaimar (_L’Estorie des Engles._
Ed. Wright. Caxton Society, pp. 217-224), who says that the King was
hunting near Brockenhurst (Brokehest), gives a still more detailed
account, but we are met by the same difficulties. Of later writers,
Leland, in his _Itinerary_ (vol. vi. f. 100, p. 88) states that the
King fell at Thorougham, where in his time there was still a chapel
standing, evidently meaning Fritham, called Truham in _Domesday_.
Gilpin (_Forest Scenery_, vol. i. p. 166) mentions a similar
tradition; so that there is a very reasonable doubt as to the spot
itself being where the Stone stands, especially since, with the
exception of the vague remark of Florence, none of the best
Chroniclers say one word about the place. Thierry, in many minor
particulars, follows Knyghton, whose authority is of little value,
and I have therefore omitted all reference to him.
[121]Very much against my inclination, I give a sketch of the iron case
of the Stone, which the artist has certainly succeeded in making as
beautiful as it is possible to do. The public would not, I know,
think the book complete without it. It stands, however, rather as a
monument of the habit of that English public, who imagine that their
eyes are at their fingers’ ends, and of a taste which is on a par
with that of the designer of the post-office pillar-boxes, than of
the Red King’s death, for the spot where he fell is, as we have seen
from the previous note, by no means certain. We must, too, remember
that there is no mention made by the Chroniclers of Castle Malwood,
but the context in Vitalis, as also the late hour mentioned by
Malmesbury when William went out to hunt, show that he was at the
time staying somewhere in the Forest.
[122]See, as before, Lappenberg’s _History of England under the Norman
Kings_, pp. 266-8; and Sharon Turner’s _History of England during
the Middle Ages_, vol. iv. pp. 166-8.
[123]“Tabidi aëris nebulâ” are the words of William of Malmesbury.
(_Gesta Regum Anglorum._ Ed. Hardy, tom. ii., lib. iii., sect. 275,
pp. 454, 455.)
[124]_Gul. Gemeticensis de Ducibus Normannorum_, lib. vii., cap. ix. To
be found in Camden’s _Anglica Scripta_, p. 674.
[125]This seems to be the meaning of a not very clear passage in William
of Malmesbury. Same edition as before, p. 455. Vitalis, however,
_Historia Ecclesiastica_, pars 3, lib. x., cap. xi. (in _Migne,
Patrologiæ Cursus Completus_, tom. clxxxviii. pp. 748, 749), says he
was shot by a knight, who expiated the deed by retiring to a
monastery, and speaks in high terms both of him and his brother
William, who fell in one of the Crusades.
[126]Ed. Thorpe, vol. ii. p. 45. Lewis, in his _Topographical Remarks on
the New Forest_, pp. 57-62, is hopelessly wrong with regard to
Richard, the son of Robert, a grandson of the Conqueror, whom he
calls Henry, and confounds at p. 62 with his uncle; and makes both
William of Malmesbury and Baker (see his _Chronicle_, p. 37, Ed.
1730) say quite the reverse of what they write.
[127]As I am not writing a History of England during this period, my
space will not permit me to enter into those details which, when
viewed collectively, carry so much weight in an argument; but at all
events, it will be well for some of my readers to bear in mind the
character of William II., who in a recent work has lately been
elevated into a hero. Without any of his father’s ability or power
of statesmanship, he inherited all his vices, which he so improved
that they became rather his own. From having no occupation for his
mind, he sank more and more into licentiousness and lust. (“Omni se
immunditiâ deturpabat,” is the strong expression of John of
Salisbury. _Life of Anselm_, part ii. ch. vii., in Wharton’s _Anglia
Sacra_, tom. ii. p. 163. See, also, Suger, _Vita Lud. Grossi Regis_,
cap. i., in Bouquet: _Recueil des Historiens des Gaules et de la
France_, tom. xii. p. 12. D. E.) Being lustful, he naturally became
cruel; not as his father was, on, at least, the plea of necessity,
but that he might enjoy a cultivated pleasure in gloating over the
sufferings of others. From being cruel, too, he became, in its worst
sense, an infidel; not from any pious scruple or deep conviction,
but simply that he might indulge his passions. (See that fearful
story of the trial of forty Englishmen told in Eadmer: _Hist. Nov._,
lib. ii., p. 48, Ed. 1633, which illustrates in a twofold manner
both his cruelty and his atheism.)
To a total want of eloquence he joined the most inveterate habit of
stammering, so that, when angry, he could barely speak. His physical
appearance, too, well harmonized with his moral and mental
deformities. His description reads rather like that of a fiend than
of a man. Possessing enormous strength, he was small, thick-set, and
ill-shaped, having a large stomach. His face was redder than his
hair, and his eyes of two different colours. His vices were, in
fact, branded on his face. (Malmesbury, Ed. Hardy, tom. ii., lib.
iv., sect. 321, p. 504, whom I have literally translated.)
Let us look, too, at the events of his reign. Crime after crime
crowds upon us. His first act was to imprison those whom his father
had set free. He loaded the Forest Laws with fresh horrors.
Impartial in his cruelty, he plundered both castle and monastery
(_The Chronicle_. Ed. Thorpe, vol. i. p. 364). He burnt out the eyes
of the inhabitants of Canterbury, who had taken the part of the
monks of St Augustin’s. At the very mention of his approach the
people fled (Eadmer: _Hist. Nov._, lib. iv. p. 94). Unable himself
to be everywhere, his favourites, Robert d’Ouilly harried the
middle, and Odineau d’Omfreville the north of England; whilst his
Minister, Ralph Flambard, committed such excesses that the people
prayed for death as their only deliverance (_Annal. Eccles.
Winton._, in Wharton’s _Anglia Sacra_, tom. i. p. 295).
As _The Chronicle_ impressively says, “In his days all right fell,
and all wrong in the sight of God and of the world rose.” Norman and
English, friend and foe, priest and layman, were united by one
common bond of hatred against the tyrant. It could only be expected
that as his life was, so his death would be; that he would be
betrayed by his companions, and in his utmost need deserted by his
friends.
[128]Eadmer: _Vita Anselmi_, Ed. Paris, 1721, p. 23. John of Salisbury:
_Vita Anselmi_, cap. xi.; in Wharton’s _Anglia Sacra_, tom. ii. p.
169. William of Malmesbury: Ed. Hardy, vol. ii., b. iv., sect. 332,
p. 507; and Roger of Wendover, Ed. Coxe, vol. ii. pp. 159, 160.
[129]Vitalis: _Historia Ecclesiastica_, pars 3, lib. x.; in Migne,
_Patrologiæ Cursus Completus_, tom. clxxxviii., pp. 750 D, 751 A.
See previously, p. 94, foot-note.
[130]Eadmer: _Vita Anselmi_, Ed. Paris, 1721, p. 6.
[131]Baxter, in his Preface to his _Glossarium Antiquitatum
Britannicarum_, Ed. 1719, p. 12, entirely misquotes Alanus de
Insulis (see _Prophetica Anglicana Merlini Ambrosii cum septem
libris explanationum Alani de Insulis_. Frankfort, 1603. Lib. ii.
pp. 68, 69), and completely misunderstands the passage. Alanus,
however (p. 69), seems to have no doubt that the King fell by
treachery,—“spiculo invidiæ,” as was foretold by Merlin, though he
gives no other reason; and which by itself, resting on nothing
further, would carry no weight. His account, though, of the general
detestation of the Red King immediately before his death, as also
the conversation of Hugh, Abbot of Cluny, with Anselm (p. 68), is
very suggestive, especially by the way in which it is introduced.
Alanus must have possessed far too shrewd an intellect to have
believed in Merlin; though it might have suited his purpose to have
appeared to have so done, as a veil and a blind, so that he might
better say what his high position and authority would not in any
other form have well permitted, but which still give to many points,
as here, enormous significance and weight.
Besides Gaimar and Alanus, Nicander Nucius also hints at treachery
(_Second Book of Travels_, published by the Camden Society, pp. 34,
35), but his account is too vague to be of any service. We should,
however, constantly bear in mind, with Lappenberg, that the best
authority, _The Chronicle_, simply relates that the King was shot at
the chase by one of his friends, without any allusion to an
accident. Not one word or fact else is given, except the appearance
of a pool of blood in Berkshire (at Finchhamstead, according to
William of Malmesbury), which we know, from other sources, was
supposed to foretell some calamity, and which phenomenon science now
resolves into merely some species of _alga_, probably either
_Palmella cruenta_ or _Hæmatococcus sanguineus_. Eadmer, with some
others, in his _Historia Novorum_, lib. ii. (Migne: _Patrologiæ
Cursus Completus_, tom. clix. p. 422 B) mentions a report, prevalent
at the time, that the King accidentally stumbled on an arrow. Then
follows, in the very next book (Migne, as before, p. 423 B), a
singular passage, to be found also in his _Life of Anselm_, book ii.
ch. vi. (Migne, as before, tom. clviii. p. 108 D), where, on the
news of the Red King’s death, Anselm bursts into tears, and, with
sobs, cries, “Quod si hoc efficere posset, multo magis eligeret se
ipsum corpore, quam illud, sicut erat, mortuum esse.” Whether this
wish sprang from the effects of some pangs of conscience as to
William’s death, or from an honourable feeling of natural emotion
under the circumstances, as suggested by Sharon Turner, it is hard
to determine. From John of Salisbury (_Vita Anselmi_, pars ii., cap.
xi., in Wharton’s _Anglia Sacra_, tom. ii. p. 169), it would seem
that Anselm thought that he was the direct cause, through God, of
his death. Wace, quoted by Sharon Turner (vol. iv. p. 169), says
that a woman prophesied to Henry his speedy accession to the throne;
but I am not inclined to put any faith in this story, especially as
Wace’s account is in poetry, where a prophetical speech might after
the event be given dramatically true, without being so historically.
The same criticism must be applied to the still more detailed
account of Gaimar, who vaguely accuses Tiril of conspiracy. No one,
however, was likely to declare, for so many reasons, that the King
was murdered. We must not expect such a statement, or even look for
it in the Chroniclers; we must seek for it in the contradictions,
and absurdities, and prophecies which have gathered round the event.
[132]Let no one be startled at the fact of ecclesiastics being
assassins. We have on record during this very reign the deliberate
confessions by monks of plots to murder their abbots, deeming they
were doing God a service. We must further keep steadily in mind that
prelates then united in their own persons both sacred and military
offices. How much Henry was under the influence of the monasteries
his marriage and his various appointments show. Their power was
enormous. In fact, I believe that the Conqueror owed his success as
much to them as Rufus his death, and Henry his crown.
[133]At the time of his death he held in his hand the archbishopric of
Canterbury, the bishoprics of Winchester and Salisbury, besides
eleven abbacies, all let out to rent. _The Chronicle_. Ed. Thorpe,
vol. i. p. 364.
[134]_The Chronicle_. Ed. Thorpe, vol. i. p. 356.
[135]William of Malmesbury, Ed. Hardy, tom. ii., lib. iv., sect. 306, p.
488.
[136]The same, tom. ii., lib. iv., sect. 319, p. 502.
[137]_The Chronicle_. Ed. Thorpe, vol. i. p. 362.
[138]Suger: _Vita Lud. Grossi Regis_, cap. i. (to be found, as before,
in Bouquet, tom. xii. p. 12 E.) See, also, John of Salisbury: _Vita
Anselmi_; Migne: _Patrologiæ Cursus Completus_, tom. cxcix., cap.
xii., p. 1031 B.; or, as before, in Wharton’s _Anglia Sacra_, tom.
ii. p. 170.
[139]Quoted by Sharon Turner: _History of England_, vol. iv. p. 167.
See, as before, Migne: tom. cxcix., cap. xii., p. 1031 B.
[140]The word, however, is going out of use, and is more generally now
softened into hill. We meet with it in the perambulation of the
Forest made in the twenty-second year of Charles II.—“The same hedge
reaches Barnfarn from the right hand, right by Helclose, as far as
to a certain corner called Hell Corner.”
[141]For the geology of this part of the Forest see chapter xx.
[142]_Testa de Nevill_, p. 237 b. 130. See, also, p. 235 b. (118).
Throughout the Forest, as we have seen at Lyndhurst and
Brockenhurst, were similar feudal tenures. Some held their lands, as
the heirs of Cobbe, at Eling, by finding 50; and others, again, as
Richard de Baudet, at Redbridge, 100 arrows. _Testa de Nevill_, as
in the first reference; and p. 238 a. (132).
[143]See previous chapter, p. 96, foot-note.
[144]For some account of the contents of these barrows and potteries,
see chapters xvii. and xviii.
[145]Lewis: _Topographical Remarks on the New Forest_, p. 80, foot-note.
I have not, however, been able to find his authority. A tradition of
the sort lingers in the neighbourhood. Blount (_Fragmenta
Antiquitatis_, Ed. Beckwith, p. 115. 1815) says that Richard
Carevile held here six librates a year of land in chief of Edward
I., by finding a sergeant-at-arms for forty days every year in the
King’s army. See, also, the _Testa de Nevill_, p. 231 (101), No. 3.
[146]Dugdale: _Monasticon Anglicanum_, Ed. 1830, vol. vi., part ii., p.
761. Leland, however (_Itin._, vol. iii., f. 72, p. 88, Ed. Hearne),
says it was given to King’s College, Cambridge.
[147]_The Chronicle_. Ed. Thorpe, vol. i. p. 26. _Florence of
Worcester_, Ed. Thorpe, vol. i. p. 4.
[148]Same edition as before, p. iv. a. Its manor then belonged to that
of Rockbourne, and was held in demesne by the Conqueror, as it had
also been by Edward the Confessor. Two hydes and a half, and a wood
capable of supporting fifty swine, were taken into the Forest. From
the mention of a priest (_presbyter_), who received twenty shillings
from some land in the Isle of Wight, there may have been, though by
no means necessarily, a church, situated, as the old yew would
perhaps show, in the present churchyard, and of which the Norman
doorway may be the last remains.
The Valley of the Avon, as was mentioned in chapter v., p. 51,
foot-note, appears from its nature to have been, with the exception
of the east coast, the most flourishing district of any in the
neighbourhood of the Forest. It is worth, however, noticing that
many of its mills were rented not only by a money value, but by the
additional payment of so many eels. Thus at Charford (Cerdeford) the
mill is rented at 15_s._ and 1,250 eels, and at Burgate (Borgate)
the mill paid 10_s._ and 1,000 eels, whilst at Ibbesley (Tibeslei)
the rental was only 10_s._ and 700 eels (_Domesday_, as before, pp.
xix. a, iv. b, xviii. a). The latter place had two hydes, and
Burgate its woods and pasture, which maintained forty hogs, taken
into the Forest; but Charford with its ninety-one acres of
meadow-land, seems not to have been afforested, which, taken with
other instances, shows that the best land was, as a rule, spared.
[149]In the _Gentleman’s Magazine_ for 1828, vol. 98, part, ii., p. 17,
is a sketch of the house, taken fifty years ago, which, with the
exception of some parts now pulled down, much resembles its present
condition.
[150]Monmouth, like a second Warbeck, was in all probability on his way
through the Forest to Lymington, where Dore, the mayor, had raised
for him a troop of men, and would assist him to embark. At
Axminster, in Dorsetshire, there is a local MS. record,
“_Ecclesiastica, or the Book of Remembrance_,” made by some member
of the Axminster Independent Chapel, of the sufferings of Monmouth’s
followers, which appears to have been unknown to Macaulay.
[151]There was formerly a cell here, subordinate to the Abbey of Saint
Saviour le Vicomte in Normandy, to which it was given by William de
Solariis, A.D. 1163, but dissolved by Henry VI., and its revenues
annexed to Eton. Tanner’s _Notitia Monastica_, Hants., No. xii. See,
also, Dugdale’s _Monasticon Anglicanum_, Ed. 1830, vol. vi., part.
ii., p. 1046.
[152]Same edition as before, p. iv. a. The entry is remarkably
interesting. Out of its ten hydes, four were taken into the Forest.
In the six which were left, there dwelt fifty-six villeins,
twenty-one borderers, six serfs, and one freeman. There were here
105 acres of meadow, a mill which paid 22_s._, and a church with
half a hyde of land. On the four hydes which were taken into the
Forest, fourteen villeins, and six borderers, who had seven
ploughlands, used to dwell. How very much the woodland preponderated
over the arable we may tell by the additional entry, that the woods
maintained 189 hogs, whilst a mill in that part was only assessed at
30_d._, which facts may help us to form some opinion of the kind of
soil that was in general afforested. The meadows, as usual, were not
touched.
[153]See Yarrell’s _History of British Fishes_, vol. ii. pp. 399-401.
[154]On this phenomenon, see Lyell’s _Antiquity of Man_, p. 139.
[155]The Ordnance map here falls into an error, placing Sandford a mile
too far to the south; whilst it omits the neighbouring village of
Beckley, the Beceslei of _Domesday_, and “The Great Horse,” a clump
of firs, so called from its shape, a well-known landmark in the
Forest, and to the ships at sea, as also “Darrat,” or “Derrit” Lane.
[156]In _Archæologia_, vol. v. pp. 337-40, is a description, illustrated
with a plan of these entrenchments, together with the adjoining
barrows, most of which have been opened, but the accounts are very
scanty and unsatisfactory.
[157]See Dr. Guest on the “Belgic Ditches,” vol. viii. of the
_Archæological Journal_, p. 145.
[158]Gibson, in his edition of _The Chronicle_—in the “nominum locorum
explicatio,” p. 50, seems to think that Yttingaford, where peace was
made between the Danes and Edward, was somewhere in the New Forest,
deriving the word from Ytene, the old name of the district. Mr.
Thorpe, however, in his translation of _The Chronicle_, vol. ii. p.
77, suggests that it may be Hitchen.
[159]_The Chronicle_. Ed. Thorpe, vol. i. p. 178. _Florence of
Worcester_, Ed. Thorpe, vol. i. pp. 117, 118.
[160]Grose, in his _Antiquities_ (vol. ii., under Christchurch Castle),
gives the following curious extract from a survey, dated Oct. 1656,
concerning the duties of Sir Henry Wallop, the governor:—“Mem.: the
constable of the castle or his deputy, upon the apprehension of any
felon within the liberty of West Stowesing, to receive the said
felon, and convey him to the justice, and to the said jail, at his
own proper costs and charges; otherwise the tything-man to bring the
said felon, and chain him to the castle-gate, and there to leave
him. Cattle impounded in the castle, having hay and water, for
twenty hours, to pay fourpence per foot.” The fee of the Constable
in the reign of Elizabeth was 8_l._ 0_s._ 9_d._ Peck’s _Desiderata
Curiosa_, vol. i., book ii., part. 5, p. 71. In the Chamberlain’s
Books of Christchurch we are constantly meeting with some such entry
as, “1564, ffor the castel rent for ij yeres—xiij_s._ v_d._” “1593,
ffor the chiefe rent to the castel—vi_s._ xi_d._”
[161]Descriptions of it will be found in Hudson Turner’s _Domestic
Architecture of England_, vol. i. pp. 38, 39. Parker’s _Glossary of
Architecture_, vol. i. p. 167. Grose’s _Antiquities_, vol. ii.
Hampshire; in whose time it appears to have been cased with dressed
stones. In the Chamberlain’s Books of the Borough, under the date of
the sixth year of Edward VI., 1553, we meet with repairs “for the
house next the castle,” which entry probably refers to some
buildings belonging to the house, which, according to Grose,
stretched away in a north-westerly direction to the castle.
[162]_England’s Improvements by Sea and Land._ By Andrew Yarranton. Ed.
1677, pp. 67, 70.
[163]As we have said, the muniment chest of the Christchurch
Corporation, like that of all similar towns, is full of interest. It
contains absolutions from Archbishops to all those who assist in the
good work of making bridges;—letters from absolute patrons directing
their clients which way to vote;—bonds from others that they will
not require any payment from the burgesses, or put the borough to
any expense;—old privileges of catching eels and lampreys with
“lyer,” and “hurdells de virgis,” by all of which the past is
brought before us. So, too, the Chamberlain’s Books are most
interesting. From them we can learn, year by year, the prices of
wheat and cattle, the fluctuation of wages, the average condition of
the day, and both the minutest outward events as also the innermost
life of the town. The true social history of England is written for
us in our Chamberlain’s Books. They have unfortunately never been
made use of as they deserve. Thus let me give a few general
quotations from those of Christchurch. In 1578 lime was 6_d._ a
bushel, from which price it fell within two years to 2_d._ Stone for
building we find about 1_s._ a ton. Wages then averaged, for a
skilled mechanic, from 7_d._ to 1_s._ a day, and for a labourer,
4_d._; whilst night-watchmen, in 1597, were only paid 2_d._ Timber,
contrary to what we should have expected, was comparatively dear.
Thus in 1588 we find 9_d._ paid for two posts, and 20_d._ for a
plank and two posts, whilst a few years afterwards a shilling is
paid for making a new gate. Of course in all these calculations we
must bear in mind that money was then three times its present value.
Turning to other matters, we learn that in 1595, “a pottle of claret
wine and sugar” cost 2_s._, whilst a quart of sack is only 12_d._ In
1582, a quart of “whyte wine” is 5_d._, and twenty years before this
a barrel and a half of beer cost 4_d._ Again, in 1562, the fourth
year of Elizabeth, large salmon, whose weights are not specified,
appear to have averaged 7_d._ a piece. A load of straw for thatching
came to 2_s._ 6_d._, and in some cases 3_s._, which in 1550 had been
as low as 8_d._, and never above 20_d._ Drawing it, or passing it
through a machine, cost 4_d._; whilst a thatcher received 1_s._
4_d._ for his labour of putting it on the roof.
At the same time a load of clay, either for making mortar or for the
actual material of the walls, the “cob,” or “pug” of the provincial
dialect, was 5_d._, a price at which it had stood with some slight
variations for many years.
To conclude, the smallest things are noted. Thus a thousand “peats,”
perhaps brought from the Forest, cost, in 1562, 15_d._, whilst a
load of “fursen,” still the local plural of furse, perhaps also from
the same place, was 8_d._ Nothing in these accounts escapes notice.
In 1586 a “coking stole,” the well-known _cathedra stercoris_, the
Old-English “_scealfing-stol_,” is charged 10_d._; whilst a collar,
or, as it is elsewhere in the same book called, “an iron choker for
vagabonds,” cost 14_d._
[164]In _Archæologia_, vol. iv. pp. 117, 118, is a letter from Brander,
the geologist and antiquary, describing a quantity of spurs and
bones of herons, bitterns and cocks, found on a part of the monastic
buildings, showing that the site had been previously occupied.
[165]Holdenhurst had ten hydes and a half taken into the Forest
(_Domesday_, as before, iv. a). It then possessed a small church,
and, as we find one mentioned in the charter of Richard de Redvers
in Henry I.’s reign, we may fairly conclude that this, too, was not
destroyed by the Conqueror. There were also there fisheries for the
use of the hall.
[166]_Cartularium Monasterii de Christchurch Twinham._ Brit. Mus., Cott.
MSS., Tib. D. vi., pars ii., f. 194 a. This chartulary was much
injured in the fire of 1731, but has been restored by Sir F. Madden.
Quoted in Dugdale’s _Monasticon Anglicanum_, vol. vi. p. 303, Ed.
1830.
[167]For further information, especially on the fortunes of the De
Redvers family, and minor details, which I think would hardly
interest the general reader, see Brayley’s and Ferrey’s work on the
Priory of Christchurch, London, 1834, pp. 6, 11, 22: and Warner’s
_South-west Parts of Hampshire_, vol. ii. pp. 55-65, which,
notwithstanding some errors, is a most painstaking history.
[168]_Collectanea de Rebus Britannicis_, Ed. Hearne, vol. iv. p. 149.
[169]The possessions of the house were large, and brought in above
600_l._ a year. Yet we find that the brethren were in debt in every
direction. At Poole, Salisbury, and Christchurch, they owed 41_l._
19_s._ 6_d._ for mere necessaries. There was due 24_l._ 2_s._ 8_d._
to the Recorder of Southampton for wine; and a bill of 8_l._ 13_s._
2_d._ to a merchant of Poole, for “wine, fish, and bere.”
Certificate of Monasteries, No. 494, p. 48. Record Office. Quoted by
Brayley and Ferrey, Appendix No. vi., pp. 9, 10.
[170]Brit. Mus., Bibl. Cott., Cleopatra, E. iv., f. 324 b.
[171]“Petition of John Draper.” Amongst the Miscellaneous MSS. of the
Treasury of the Exchequer, Record Office.
[172]_Archæologia_, vol. v. pp. 224-29.
[173]I know nothing equal to this last screen in the delicacy of its
carving, seen in bracket, and canopy, and the flights of angels; in
the deep feeling especially manifest in the central bracket, with
the Saviour’s head crowned with thorns, but surrounded with fruit
and flowers, typical of His sufferings and the world’s benefits; and
in the grave humour, not out of place, as allegorical of the world’s
pursuits, which peeps forth in the figures over the two doorways.
[174]Lord Herbert’s _Life and Reyne of King Henry VIII._, p. 468. 1649.
See, however, Froude: _History of England_, vol. iv. p. 119,
foot-note.
[175]The year, as was generally the case, is not given to this letter,
but simply December 2nd. From internal evidence, however, it was
certainly written in 1539; for we know that the Priory was
surrendered Nov. 28th of that year. Why, then, two years before her
death, the commissioners should speak of the “late mother of
Raynolde pole” I know not.
[176]Below the north transept, part, perhaps, of Edward the Confessor’s
church, is a vault, which, when opened, was stacked with bones, like
the carnary crypts at Grantham, in Lincolnshire, and of the
beautiful church at Rothwell, in Northamptonshire—the “skull
houses,” to which we so often find reference in the old
churchwardens’ books.
[177]In the south choir aisle the broken sculptures represent the
Epiphany, Assumption, and Coronation of the Virgin. Little can be
said in praise of any of the modern monuments. The best are
Flaxman’s “Viscountess Fitzharris and her three Children,” and
Weekes’s “Death of Shelley.” Some of the others should never have
been permitted to be erected, especially those which disfigure the
Salisbury chapel. The new stained window at the west end adds very
much to the beauty of the church.
[178]For further details the student of architecture should consult Mr.
Brayley and Mr. Ferrey’s work, before referred to, of which a new
edition is much needed, as also Mr. Ferrey’s paper in the
_Gentleman’s Magazine_ for Dec., 1861, p. 607, on the naves of
Christchurch and Durham Cathedral, both built by Flambard, and a
paper on the rood-screen in the _Archæological Journal_, vol. v. p.
142; and also a paper read at Winchester, September, 1845, before
the Archæological Institute, on Christchurch Priory Church, by Mr.
Beresford Hope, and published in the Proceedings of the Society,
1846. An excellent little handbook, by the Rev. Makenzie Walcott,
the Honorary Secretary of the Christchurch Archæological
Association, may be obtained in the town.
[179]Scott used to admire the _Red King_; but his praise must have been
far more the result of friendship than of unbiassed criticism. The
following lines, from Rose’s MS. poem of “Gundimore” (quoted in
Lockhart’s _Life of Scott_, p. 145, foot-note), are interesting from
their subject, and at the conclusion, though the idea is borrowed,
are really fine:—
“Here Walter Scott has wooed the Northern Muse,
Here he with me has joyed to walk or cruize;
And hence has pricked through Ytene’s holt, where we
Have called to mind how under greenwood tree,
Pierced by the partner of his ‘woodland craft,’
King Rufus fell by Tiril’s random shaft.
Hence have we ranged by Keltic camps and barrows,
Or climbed the expectant bark, to thread the Narrows
Of Hurst, bound westward to the gloomy bower
Where Charles was prisoned in yon island tower.
* * * * * * *
Here, witched from summer sea and softer reign,
Foscolo courted Muse of milder strain.
On these ribbed sands was Coleridge pleased to pace
Whilst ebbing seas have hummed a rolling base
To his rapt talk.”
[180]_Antiquities_, vol. ii., where there is a sketch of the Grange as
it was in 1777.
[181]For the geology of High Cliff, Barton, and Hordle Cliffs, see
chapter xx. There are not many fossils in either the grey sand or
the green clay before you reach the “bunny.” Plenty, however, may be
found in the top part of the bed immediately above, known as the
“High Cliff Beds,” and which rise from the shore about a quarter of
a mile to the east of the stream.
[182]Chewton is not mentioned in _Domesday_. Beckley (Beceslei), which
is close by, where there was a mill which paid thirty pence, had a
quarter of its land taken into the Forest; whilst Baishley
(Bichelei) suffered in the same proportion. Fernhill lost two-thirds
of its worst land, and Milton (Mildeltune) half a hyde and its
woods, which fed forty hogs, by which its rental was reduced to
one-half.
[183]At this point the Marine Beds end, and the Brackish-Water series
crop up; and then, lastly, the true Fresh-Water shells commence—the
Paludinæ and Limnææ, with scales of fish, and plates of chelonians,
and bones of palæotheres, and teeth of dichodons. See, further,
chapter xx.
[184]See Lappenberg’s _England under the Anglo-Norman Kings_. Ed.
Thorpe, p. 89.
[185]Yarranton, in that strange but clever work, _England’s Improvement
by Land and Sea_ (Ed. 1677, pp. 43-63), dwells at length on the
quantity of iron-stone along the coast, and the advantage of the New
Forest for making charcoal to smelt the metal. He proposed to build
two forges and two furnaces for casting guns, near Ringwood, where
the ore was to be brought up the Avon.
[186]
“That narrow sea, which we the Solent term,
Where those rough ireful tides, as in her straights they meet,
With boisterous shocks and roars each other rudely greet;
Which fiercely when they charge, and sadly when they make retreat,
Upon the bulwark forts of Hurst and Calshot beat,
Then to Southampton run.
_Polyolbion_, book ii.
[187]Hall’s _Union of the Families of Lancaster and York_, xxxi. year of
King Henry VIII., ff. 234, 235, London, 1548.
[188]From Peek (_Desiderata Curiosa_, vol. i., b. ii., part iv., p. 66)
we find that in Elizabeth’s reign the captain received 1_s._ 8_d._ a
day; the officer under him, 1_s._; and the master-gunner and porter,
and eleven gunners and ten soldiers, 6_d._ each, which in Grose’s
time had been increased to 1_s._ (Grose’s _Antiquities_, vol. ii.,
where a sketch is given of the castle). Hurst, on account of its
strength, was to have been betrayed, in the Dudley conspiracy, to
the French, by Uvedale, Captain of the Isle of Wight. (Uvedale’s
Confession, _Domestic MSS._, vol. vii., quoted in Froude’s _History
of England_, vol. vi. p. 438.) Ludlow mentions the great importance
of Hurst being secured to the Commonwealth, as both commanding the
Isle of Wight and stopping communication with the mainland
(_Memoirs_, p. 323). Hammond, in a letter from Carisbrook Castle,
June 25th, 1648, says it is “of very great importance to the island.
It is a place of as great strength as any I know in England” (Peck’s
_Desiderata Curiosa_, vol. ii., b. ix., p. 383).
[189]Sir Thomas Herbert’s _Memoirs of the two last Years of the Reign of
King Charles I._, Ed. 1702, pp. 87, 88.
[190]Warwick calls the King’s rooms “dog lodgings” (_Memoirs_, p. 334);
but it is evident from Herbert (_Memoirs_, p. 94) that both Charles
and his attendants were well treated, which we know from Whitelock
(_Memorials of English Affairs_, p. 359; London, 1732) was the wish
of the army, as also from the letter of Colonel Hammond’s deputies
given in Rushworth (vol. ii., part iv., p. 1351). Of Colonel
Hammond’s own treatment of the King we learn from Charles himself,
who, besides speaking of him as a man of honour and feeling, said
“that he thought himself as safe in Hammond’s hands as in the
custody of his own son” (Whitelock, p. 321).
[191]Evidently a misprint for three-quarters of an hour.
[192]Herbert’s _Memoirs_, pp. 85-86.
[193]A Keltic derivation for both places has been proposed, but it is
not on critical grounds satisfactory.
[194]Gough possessed a brass coin inscribed Tetricus Sen. rev. Lætitia
Augg., found here; and adds that in 1744 nearly 2 cwt. of coins of
the Lower Empire were discovered in two urns. Camden’s _Britannia_,
Ed. Gough, vol. i. p. 132.
[195]The grant is given in the Appendix to Warner’s _South-West Parts of
Hampshire_, vol. ii., p. i., No. 1.
[196]Like those of Christchurch, the Corporation books of Lymington are
full of interest, though they do not commence till after 1545, the
previous records being generally supposed to have been burnt by
D’Annebault in one of his raids on the south coast. Du Bellay,
however, who, in his _Mémoires_, has so circumstantially narrated
the French movements, says nothing of Lymington having suffered, nor
can I find the fact mentioned in any of the State papers of the
time. Take, for instance, the following entries from the
Chamberlain’s books:—
“1643. Quartering 20 soldiers one daie and xvi._s._ ij._d._
night, going westward for the
Parliam^t service
1646. For bringinge the toune cheste from ij._s._
Hurst Castell
1646. Watche when the allarme was out of iiij._s._
Wareham
1646. For the sending a messenger to the xiiij._s._
Lord Hopton, when he lay att Winton
with his army, with the toune’s
consent
1648. For keeping a horse for the Lord iij._s._ x._d._
General’s man
1650. Paid to Sir Thomas Fairfax his xij._s._”
souldiers going for the isle of
Wight with their general’s passe
Such entries to an historian of the period would be invaluable, as
showing not only the state of the country but of the town, when the
town-chest had to be sent four miles for safety; and proving, too,
that here (notice the fourth entry), as elsewhere, there were two
nearly equally balanced factions—one for the King, the other for the
Commonwealth. I may add that a little book has been privately
printed, of extracts from the Lymington Corporation books, from
which the foregoing have been taken. It would be a very good plan if
those who have the leisure would render some such similar service in
other boroughs.
[197]Warner’s _Hampshire_, vol. i., sect. ii., p. 6; London, 1795. See,
too, previously, ch. xi., p. 122, foot-note.
[198]See Dugdale’s _Monasticon Anglicanum_, vol. vi., part ii., p. 800.
Tanner’s _Notitia Monastica_. Ed. Nasmyth, 1787. Hampshire. No. iv.
[199]I may seem to exaggerate both here and in the next chapter. I wish
that I did. For similar cases in the neighbouring counties of Dorset
and Sussex let the reader turn to the words “hag-rod,”
“maiden-tree,” and “viary-rings,” in Mr. Barnes’s _Glossary of the
Dorset Dialect_; and vol. ii. pp. 266, 269, 270, 278, of Mr.
Warter’s _Seaboard and the Down_. I hesitate not to say that
superstition in some sort or another is universal throughout
England. It assumes different forms: in the higher classes, just at
present, of spirit-rapping and table-turning, more gross than even
those of the lower; and I am afraid really seems constitutional in
our English nature.
[200]Of the extreme difficulty of classification of race in the New
Forest I am well aware. I have, however, taken such typical families
as Purkis, Peckham, Watton, &c., whose names are to be met in every
part of the Forest, as my guide. Often, too, certain Forest
villages, as Burley and Minestead, though far apart, have a strong
connection with each other, and a family relationship may be traced
in all the cottages. A good paper was read, touching upon the
elements of the New Forest population, by Mr. D. Mackintosh, before
the Ethnological Society, April 3rd, 1861. Of the Jute element,
which we might have expected from Bede’s account of the large Jute
settlement in the Isle of Wight, and Florence of Worcester’s
language (as before, ed. Thorpe, vol. i., p. 276), few traces are to
be found. See, however, on this point, what Latham says in his
_Ethnology of the British Isles_, pp. 238, 239.
[201]See Dr. Guest’s paper on “The Early-English Settlements in South
Britain,” _Proceedings of the Archæological Institute_, Salisbury
volume, 1851, p. 30.
[202]This, of course, is not the place to go into so difficult a
subject. I need not refer the reader to Mr. Davies’s paper in the
_Philological Society’s Transactions_, 1855, p. 210, and M. de Haan
Hettema’s _Commentary_ upon it, 1856, p. 196. On the great value of
provincialisms, see what Müller has said in _The Science of
Language_, pp. 49-59. In Appendix I., I have given a list of some of
those of the New Forest, which have never before been noticed in any
of the published glossaries.
[203]In the charter of confirmation of Baldwin de Redvers to the
Conventual House of Christchurch, quoted in Dugdale’s _Monasticon
Anglicanum_, vol. iii., part i., p. 304, and by Warner, vol. ii.,
Appendix, p. 47, it is called Hedenes Buria, which may suggest that
the word is only a corruption. I do not for one moment wish to
insist on the personal reality of Hengest, but simply to notice the
fact of the High-German word for a horse being prominent in the
topography of a people whose ancestors used so many High-German
words. See Donaldson, _Cambridge Essays_, 1856, pp. 45-48.
[204]On this word as explaining Shakspeare’s “gallow” in _King Lear_
(act iii. sc. 2), see _Transactions of the Philological Society_,
part i., 1858, pp. 123, 124.
[205]See ch. iii., p. 33.
[206]In the parish of Eling we have Netley Down and Netley Down-field,
the Nutlei of _Domesday_. Upon this word—which we find, also, in the
north of Hampshire, in the shape of Nately Scures and Upper Nately
(Nataleie in _Domesday_)—as the equivalent of Natan Leah, the old
name of the Upper portion of the New Forest, see Dr. Guest, as
before quoted, p. 31.
[207]A Keltic derivation has, I am aware, been proposed for this word.
It is to be met with under various forms in all parts of the Forest.
The Forest termination den (_denu_) must, however, be put down to
this source. See _Transactions of the Philological Society_, 1855,
p. 283.
[208]See what Mr. Cooper says with regard to the affinity of the western
dialect of Sussex, as distinguished from the eastern, to that of
Hampshire, in the preface (p. i.) to his _Glossary of Provincialisms
in the County of Sussex_. For instance, such Romance words as
appleterre, gratten, ampery, bonker, common in Sussex, are not to be
heard in the Forest; whilst many of the West-Country words, as they
are called, used daily in the Forest, as charm (a noise—see next
chapter, p. 191), moot, stool, vinney, twiddle (to chirp), are, if
Mr. Cooper’s Glossary is correct, quite unknown in Sussex.
[209]It is surprising, in looking over the musters of ships in the
reigns of Edward II. and Edward III., to see how few Northern ports
are mentioned. The importance, too, of the South-coast ports, which
were sometimes summoned by themselves, arose not only from the
reasons in the text, but from being close to the country with which
we were in a state of chronic warfare. See, too, the _State Papers_,
vol. i., p. 812, 813, where the levies of the fleets in 1545,
against D’Annebault, with the names of each vessel and its port, are
given; as also p. 827, where the neighbouring coast of Dorset is
described as deserted, in consequence of the sailors flocking to the
King’s service. I think that I have somewhere seen that our sailors
were once rated as English, Irish, Scotch, and the “West Country,”
the latter standing the highest.
[210]From an old chap-book, _The Hampshire Murderers_, with
illustrations, without date or publisher’s name, but probably
written about 1776.
[211]That is to say, the smuggled spirits were concealed either below
the fireplace or in the stable, just beneath where the horse stood.
The expression of “Hampshire and Wiltshire moon-rakers” had its
origin in the Wiltshire peasants fishing up the contraband goods at
night, brought through the Forest, and hid in the various ponds.
[212]See _Dictionary of Americanisms_, by J. R. Bartlett, who does not,
however, we think, refer nearly often enough to the mother-country
for the sources of many of the phrases and words which he gives.
Even the Old-English inflexions, as he remarks, are in some parts of
the States still used, showing what vitality, even when
transplanted, there is in our language. Boucher, too, notices in the
excellent introduction to his _Glossary of Archaic and Provincial
Words_, p. ix., that the whine and the drawl of the first Puritan
emigrants may still in places be detected.
[213]All over the world lives a similar fairy, the same in form, but
different in name. His life has been well illustrated in Dr. Bell’s
_Shakspeare’s Puck and his Folk-lore_. In England he is known by
many names—“the white witch,” “the horse-hag,” and “Fairy Hob;” and
hence, too, we here get Hob’s Hill and Hob’s Hole. For accounts of
him in different parts see especially Allies’ _Folk-lore of
Worcestershire_, ch. xii. p. 409, and _Illustrations of the Fairy
Mythology of A Midsummer Night’s Dream_, by J. O. Halliwell.
Published by the Shakspeare Society.
[214]The most popular songs which I have noticed in the Forest and on
its borders are the famous satire, “When Joan’s ale was new,” which
differs in many important points from Mr. Bell’s printed version:
“King Arthur had three sons;” “There was an old miller of
Devonshire,” which also differs from Mr Bell’s copy; and
“There were three men came from the north,
To fight the victory;”
made famous by Burns’ additions and improvements; but which, from
various expressions, seems to have been, first of all, a
West-Country song, sung at different wakes and fairs, part of the
unwritten poetry of the nation.
[215]_The Repression of Over-much Blaming the Church_, edited by
Churchill Babington, vol. i., part. ii., ch. iii., p. 155.
[216]Dr. Bell takes quite a different view of these passages in his
_Shakspeare’s Puck and his Folk-lore_. Introduction to vol. ii. p.
6. The simple explanation, however, seems to me the best.
[217]See ch. xviii. p. 197.
[218]The best cheese, the same as “rammel,” as opposed to “ommary,”
which see in Appendix I.
[219]In the Abstract of Forest Claims made in 1670 some old customs are
preserved, amongst them payments of “Hocktide money,” “moneth
money,” “wrather money” (rother, hryðer, cattle-money), “turfdele
money,” and “smoke money,” which last we shall meet in the
Churchwardens’ Books of the district. The following is taken from
the Bishop of Winchester’s payments:—“Rents at the feast of St.
Michael, 3_s._ 8_d._ For turfdeale money, 3_s._ 0_d._ Three quarters
and 4 bushels of barley at the feast of All Saints. Three bushels of
oats, and 30 eggs, at the Purification of the Virgin Mary.”—(p. 57.)
[220]Against tracking hares on the snow and killing them with “dogge or
beche bow,” was one of the statutes of Henry VIII., made 1523
(_Statutes of the Realm_, vol. iii., p. 217).
[221]In that winter 300 deer were starved to death in Boldrewood Walk.
_Journals of the House of Commons_, vol. xliv., pp. 561, 594.
[222]I have never in the Forest met the old phrase of “shaketime,” or
rather “shack-time,” as it should be written, and still used of the
pigs going in companies after grain or acorns, according to Miss
Gurney, in Norfolk. _Transactions of the Philological Society_,
1855, p. 35.
[223]On this word, see Appendix I., under “Hoar-Withey,” p. 283.
[224]By a decree of the Court of Exchequer, in the twenty-sixth year of
Elizabeth, the keepers were allowed to take all the honey found in
the trees in the Forest.
[225]A local name for a sieve, called, also, a “rudder;” which last word
is, in different forms, used throughout the West of England.
[226]For other words applied to cows of various colours, see Barnes’s
_Glossary of the Dorset Dialect_, under the words “capple-cow,” p.
323; “hawked cow,” p. 346; and “linded cow,” p. 358.
[227]_Glossary of the Provincial Words and Places in Wiltshire_, pp. 37,
38. London, 1842.
[228]See Müller’s _Science of Language_, pp. 345-351; and compare
Wedgwood, _Dictionary of English Etymology_, introduction, pp. 5-17.
[229]_Dictionary of English Etymology_, p. 260. Manwood uses “bugalles”
as a translation of _buculi_. _A Treatise of the Lawes of the
Forest_, f. iii., sect. xxvii., 1615.
[230]Cunning, I need scarcely add, is here used in its original sense of
knowing, from the Old-English _cunnan_, as we find in Psalm cxxxvii.
v. 5.
[231]See ch. xvi. p. 178.
[232]_Apology for Smectymnus_, quoted by Richardson. The word is even
used by Locke.
[233]Corrected from ”literally the raw-mouse”—_errata_
[234]Miss Gurney, in her _Glossary of Norfolk Words_, gives “ranny” as a
shrew-mouse. _Transactions of the Philological Society_, 1855, p.
35. The change of _e_ into _a_ is worth noticing, as illustrative of
what was said in the previous chapter, p. 167, of the pronunciation
of the West-Saxon.
[235]The word “more” was in good use less than a century ago; whilst the
term “morefall,” as we have seen in chapter iv. p. 43, foot-note,
was very common in the time of the Stuarts. Mr. Barnes, in his
_Glossary of the Dorset Dialect_, pp. 363, 391, gives us “mote,” and
“stramote,” as “a stalk of grass,” which serve still better to
explain St. Matthew.
[236]Thorpe’s Preface to the English translation of Pauli’s _Life of
Alfred the Great_, p. vi.
[237]Thorpe’s Preface to _The Chronicle_, vol. i., p. viii., foot-note
1. See, however, Lappenberg’s _History of England under the
Anglo-Saxon Kings_; translated by Thorpe, Literary Introduction, p.
xxxix.; and the Preface to _Monumenta Historica Britannica_, p. 75,
where, as Mr. Thorpe notices, the examples quoted, in favour of the
Mercian origin of the manuscript, are certainly, in several
instances, wrong.
[238]I may as well add that a little way from where the Bound Oak
formerly stood, near Dibden, and between it and Sandy Hill, lies a
small mound, thirty yards in circumference, and three feet high in
the centre, surrounded by an irregular moat, from which the earth
had been taken. This I opened in 1862, driving a broad trench from
the east to the centre, and another from the south to the centre,
which, as also the west side, we entirely excavated; digging below
the natural soil to the depth of four feet. Nothing, however, was
found, though I have no doubt charcoal was somewhere present.
Beyond this, in Dibden Bottom, rises a large mound, from twenty to
thirty feet high, apparently of a sepulchral character, known as
Barney Barns Hill. Proceeding, close to Butt’s Ash End Lane, and
near the Roman, or rather British, road to Leap (see chap v., p.
56), stand two barrows, the northernmost one hundred and the
southernmost eighty yards in circumference. Farther away, in Holbury
Purlieu, are three more, each with a circle of about seventy yards.
To the west of these, in the Forest, as shown in the illustration at
page 213, rise four more, the three farthest forming a triangle.
Beyond these, again, about three-quarters of a mile distant, near
Stoneyford Pond, lie four others, respectively ninety, one hundred,
and seventy yards in circumference. To the north rise three more,
known as the Nodes, the westernmost about one hundred yards in
circumference; the other two, which are ovaler and form twin
barrows, being one hundred and fifty and one hundred yards. Two more
stand on the side of the Beaulieu road to Fawley. All these, with
others on Lymington Common and near Ashurst Lodge, and on the East
Fritham Plain, still remain to be explored. For the barrows opened
by the Rev. J. Pemberton Bartlett, on Langley Heath, see farther on,
page 211.
[239]_South-Western Parts of Hampshire_, vol. i. pp. 69-79.
[240]Warner probably meant an overhanging brim, such as is common to
most of the early Keltic cinerary urns, or, perhaps, one like that
of the left-hand urn in the illustration at p. 196, which is more
contracted than the others. He unfortunately gives us no dimensions.
[241]This camp was probably, since coins of Claudius have been found
there, occupied by Vespasian, when he conquered the Isle of Wight. A
bronze celt was found here some eighty years ago, and came into the
possession of Warner. Others have been discovered, in great
quantities, in various parts of the Forest, two of which are
engraved in _Archæologia_, vol. v., plate viii., figs. 9 and 10.
Brander, too, the well-known antiquary, found others at Hinton, on
the west border of the Forest (_Archæologia_, vol. v. p. 115). Mr.
Drayson has also picked up two flint knives at Eyeworth, which are
figured, showing both the under and upper surfaces, at p. 206.
[242]As in Derbyshire all barrows are marked by the terminal low—_hlœw_,
a grave, so in the Forest they seem particularized by a reference to
the Old-English _lic_. Thus, near the Beaulieu barrows we find
Lytton Copse and Common, and at the west end of the Forest, not far
from Amberwood, meet another Latchmoor. I may notice that just
outside the Forest, in Darrat’s Lane—a word which often occurs—we
find a place, near some mounds, called “Brands,” equivalent to the
“Brund” of Derbyshire, and having reference to the burning funeral
pyre. (See Bateman’s _Ten Years’ Diggings_, Appendix, p. 290.)
[243]I certainly think that these urns were fired, though imperfectly.
As Mr. Bateman remarks, sun-baked specimens soon return to their
original clay. See Appendix to _Ten Years’ Diggings_, p. 280.
These three urns, with all the other fragments of cinerary vessels
found in the Forest, I have placed in the British Museum, where they
have been restored. The artist has represented them exactly as they
appeared on the second day of digging. The fractures in the central
urn were caused by an unlucky blow from a pick-axe. The measurements
are as follows:—
The north-eastern urn—Circumference at top 3 ft.
” ” bottom 1 ” 6 in.
” Total height 1 ” 4½ ”
The central urn—The same.
The south-western urn—Circumference at top 2 ” 9 ”
” ” bottom 1 ” 4½ ”
” Total height 1 ” 1¼ ”
[244]I am inclined to think that here, as in the similar instance on
Fritham Plain, the urns were put in the mound entire, and not, as is
sometimes the case, in fragments. The pieces had no appearance of
being burnt after the fractures had taken place, which were here
simply the result of decay. See on this point Bateman’s _Ten Years’
Diggings_, pp. 191, 192, where Mr. Keller’s letter to Sir Henry
Ellis on the subject is given.
[245]Instances have been known where the top of a Roman cinerary urn has
been taken off, and replaced; but, from the narrowness of the neck,
I hardly think this vessel was used for such a purpose. I give with
it also a late British urn found, some twenty years ago, in a barrow
outside the present Forest boundary, in a field known as Hilly
Accombs, near Darrat’s Lane, which has been previously mentioned. It
measures 6 inches in height, and has a circumference of 1 foot 9
inches round the top, and 1 foot at the base. With it was discovered
another, but I have been unable to learn in whose possession it now
is, or what has become of the Roman glass unguent bottle found in
Denney Walk (see the _Antiquities of the Priory of Christchurch_, by
B. Ferrey and E. W. Brayley, p. 2, foot-note). The two flint knives
were discovered by Mr. Drayson, near Eyeworth Wood, and somewhat
resemble the chipping found in the largest barrow at Bratley, and
were, perhaps, cotemporary. The conchoidal fracture may be well seen
in specimen on the right-hand side. The celts found by Warner and
Brander, with others in the possession of Gough, mentioned at p.
199, foot-note, were bronze.
[246]There are two large heathy tracts known as Fritham Plain; the one
to the east, where stand several large trenched barrows, which still
remain to be opened; and the West Plain, where these excavations
took place.
[247]An attempt to examine this barrow had been previously made, but the
explorers had opened a little to the south-west of the spot where
the pottery lay. It is just possible that the large square in Sloden
may be of the same character. I cut a small opening at the western
end, but it is impossible, on account of the trees, to make any
satisfactory excavation. Whatever might have been its original
purpose, it was certainly never the site of a church, as is commonly
supposed. See ch. iii., p. 32, foot-note.
[248]To assist the archæologist, I have marked on the map the sites of
all the barrows of which I am aware. In the British Museum is a
small urn, found in a barrow at Broughton, on the borders of
Hampshire, about twelve miles north of the Forest, measuring three
inches in height, and, though so much less, somewhat resembling,
with its two small ears, as also in the general character and
texture of its ware, those found in the Bratley barrow. The Rev. J.
Compton also informs me that some years ago a plain urn was
discovered in a barrow on his father’s property at Minestead, in the
Forest. I hear, too, that other urns have been found in barrows near
Burley on the west, and near Butt’s Ash Lane on the east side of the
Forest, but they have long ago been lost or destroyed, and I am
unable to learn even their general form. I trust, therefore,
permission will not be granted to open the mounds which are
unexplored, except to those who can produce some credentials that
they are fitted for the task, and are doing it from no idle
curiosity, but legitimate motives. Too much harm has been already
done, and too many barrows have been already rifled, without any
record being made of their contents. Nearly all that we know of Kelt
or Old-English we learn from their deaths. Their history is buried
in their graves.
[249]In Mr. Birch’s _Ancient Pottery_, vol. ii. pp. 382, 383, will be
found a list of the notices of the various discoveries of Keltic
urns, scattered through the different Archæological Journals and
Collections, which will save the student much time and labour. A
most valuable paper on the subject, by Kemble, was published in the
_Archæological Journal_ vol. xii. number 48, p. 309.
[250]_Archæologia_, vol. xxxv. pp. 91-93.
[251]See, too, Mr. Carrington’s “Account of a Romano-British Settlement
near Wetton, Staffordshire,” in Bateman’s _Ten Years’ Diggings_, pp.
194-200. I have never found any stone floors, but this may be
accounted for by the difficulty of procuring paving-stones in the
district. The best guide which I know for discovering any ancient
settlements is the presence of nettles and chickweed, which, like
the American “Jersey-weed,” always accompany the footsteps of man.
These plants are very conspicuous in the lower parts of Sloden, as
also at the Crockle and Island Thorn potteries.
[252]The spot where these banks intersect each other is known as Sloden
Hole, and is well worthy of notice. The annexed plan will best show
the character of the place. The largest bank is that which runs to
the south-west, measuring four yards across, and proving by its
massiveness that it is a Roman work. Upon digging, as shown in the
plan, at the point of intersection, we found pieces of iron and iron
slag, sandstone, charcoal, and Roman pottery similar to that made in
Crockle. Many of these banks run for long distances. That to the
south-east reaches the top of Sloden Green, about half a mile off,
whilst the north-east bank stretches for nearly a mile to
Whiteshoot. There are, too, other banks scattered about Sloden,
which, if examined, would doubtless yield similar results, but none
are so well defined as these. The largest bank which I know in the
district stretches from Pitt’s Enclosure, in a south-easterly
direction across Anderwood, and so through the southern parts of
Sloden.
[Illustration]
[253]The most noticeable specimens which I discovered were a strainer or
colander, a funnel, some fragments of “mock Samian” ware; part of a
lamp, with the holes to admit air, as also for suspension; and some
beads of Kimmeridge clay, proving, by being found here, their Roman
origin. The iron tools of the workmen had been dropped into the
furnace, and were a good deal melted. The wood owed its preservation
to the ferruginous soil in which it was imbedded, and was in a
semi-fossilized state. Nothing less slight than a plank could have
lasted so long. The finger-marks and impress of the hand were very
plain on one of the masses of brick-earth. The coin, I am sorry to
say, is too much worn to be recognized. These, with the other
vessels, _pateræ_, _urceoli_, _lagenæ_, _pocula_, _acetabula_, &c.,
I have placed in the British Museum, where is also Mr. Bartlett’s
rich collection. The patterns, with the necks of _ampullæ_ and
_gutti_, as also the specimens at pages 214, 225, will, I trust,
give some general idea of the beauty of the ware, and can be
compared with those given by Mr. Akerman in _Archæologia_, vol.
xxxv. p. 96, and by Mr. Franks in the _Archæological Journal_, vol.
x. p. 8. The commonest shape for a drinking-vessel is the right-hand
figure at page 225, known in the Forest, from the depressions made
by the workman’s thumb, as a “thumb pot.” Sometimes it is met with
considerably ornamented, and varies in height from three to ten
inches. The principal part of the pottery is slate-coloured and
grey, and faint yellow, but some of a fine red bronze and morone,
caused by the overheating of the ovens. The patterns are thrown up
by some white pigment, though a great many are left untouched by
anything but the workman’s tool. When chipped, the ware, by being so
well burnt, is quite siliceous. This manufactory, as its size would
show, was not confined to merely supplying the wants of the
immediate neighbourhood, but probably, with others at Alice Holt and
elsewhere, furnished a great part of the South of England with its
earthenware, for fragments of the same make, shape, and texture,
have been found at Bittern (Clausentum), and Chichester, though
doubtless a similarity of workmanship prevailed amongst many of the
potteries. The so-called crockery of the southern part of the Forest
is nothing else but the plates of turtles imbedded in the Freshwater
marls.
[254]_Archæologia_, vol. xxxv. pp. 95, 96.
[255]See _Journal of the Archæological Association_, vol. xii. pp.
141-145, where some figures of the jars are given.
[256]In Eyeworth Wood I have found pieces of Roman wine and oil flasks,
but they were left here by the former inhabitants, and not made on
the spot. The place known as Church Green is evidently the site of a
habitation. In the autumn of 1862 I made several excavations; but
there was some difficulty attending the work, as the ground had been
previously explored by the late Mr. Lewis, the author of the
_Historical Inquiries on the State of the New Forest_. The evidence,
however, of the Roman pottery was sufficient to show its occupation
during the Roman period, and to dispel the illusion that it was ever
the site of a church. On the north-east side of the wood are the
remains of a fine Roman camp, the _agger_ and _vallum_ being in one
place nearly complete.
[257]I may add that Mr. Drayson also possesses coins of Victorinus, and
Claudius Gothicus, found in various parts of the Forest, the last in
one of the “thumb-pots,” with 1700 others, perhaps, indicating the
period when the Crockle and Island Thorn Potteries were in their
most flourishing condition.
[258]In _Archæologia_, vol. xxxv. p. 99, Mr. Akerman has given a series
of patterns, which show the variety of designs according to the
fancy of each workman. The pattern on the right-hand side of our
second illustration at p. 223 is used as a border in the toga of the
later Roman empire. The height of the wine vessel at p. 214 is seven
inches and a half; of the oil-flask at p. 225, five inches; of the
largest drinking cup, five inches; and the smallest, three inches
and three-quarters; the jar, two inches.
[259]The following dates prior to 1700 of the Parish Registers in the
Forest district are taken from the _Parish Register Abstract_:
Accounts and Papers: 1833, vol. xxviii. (No. 13), p. 398:—
Eling 1537
Christchurch 1586
Milford 1594
Boldre 1596
Ellingham 1596
Bramshaw (loose leaves) 1598
Fordingbridge 1642
Beaulieu 1654
Ibbesley 1654
Milton 1654
Lymington 1662
Dibden 1665
Fawley 1673
Breamore 1675
Sopley 1678
Minestead 1682
Ringwood 1692
[260]See chapter v., p. 51, _foot-note_.
[261]Part of the Act is quoted in Burn’s _History of Parish Registers_,
second edition, pp. 26 and 27, and where, at pp. 159, 160, 161, are
given several examples of this kind of marriage—amongst them, that
of Oliver Cromwell’s daughter Frances, in 1657, from the Register of
St. Martin-in-the-Fields.
[262]Burn, in his _History of Parish Registers_, second edition, pp.
171, 172, 173, gives several similar instances of such licences.
These most valuable books at Ellingham are, notwithstanding the
incumbent’s care, in a shocking state of preservation. I trust some
transcript of them may be made before they quite fall to pieces.
Ellingham also possesses another book containing the names of the
owners of the different pews in the church in 1672, invaluable to
any local historian. In the beginning of this book are inserted a
number of law-forms of agreements, wills, and indentures, probably
for the use of the clergyman, who was, perhaps, consulted by his
parishioners in worldly as also spiritual matters. In the Register
there is, unfortunately, no mention of the death of Alice Lisle, as
the burials are torn out from 1664 to 1695.
[263]See _Notes and Queries_. First Series, vol. ii., pp. 344, 345. In
the Churchwardens’ Books of Fordingbridge we find—“1609. For
smoke-mony, for makynge and deliveringe of the bills xvj^d,” which
would confirm the first explanation given in the text.
[264]30 Car. II., cap. iii. See _Journals of the House of Commons_, vol.
viii., p. 650; ix., p. 440. In _Burn’s History of Parish Registers_,
second edition, p. 117, may be found a much more complicated
affidavit than those given in the text.
[265]See chap. v., pp. 57, 58. It is just possible that by his “τὰς
πλησίον νήσους,” Diodorus may mean the Shingle Islands, which we
have described in chapter xiv. p. 151, and whose sudden appearance
and disappearance would lead to the most extravagant reports.
[266]“On the Newer Deposits of the Sussex Coast:” _Geological Journal_,
vol. xiii. pp. 64, 65.
[267]In the coast-map at p. 148, the principal beds are marked, so that,
I trust, there will be no difficulty in finding them.
[268]For the direction of the river from east to west, see a paper “On
the Discovery of an Alligator and several New Mammalia in Hordwell
Cliff,” by Searles Wood, F.G.S.: _London Geological Journal_, No.
1., pp. 6, 7.
[269]“The Freshwater Strata of Hordwell Cliff, Beacon Cliff, and Barton
Cliff:” _Transactions of the Geological Society_, second series,
vol. ii., p. 287.
[270]“Stratigraphical Account of the Section of Hordwell, Beckton, and
Barton Cliffs:” _The Annals and Magazine of Natural History_, June,
1851. In making these measurements I was very greatly assisted by
the Rev. W. Fox, who was most untiring to ensure accuracy.
[271]See the _Geological Journal_, vol. iv., p. 17; as also, Professor
Owen’s _Monograph_ on “The Fossil Reptilia of the London Clay,”
published by the Palæontographical Society, 1850, p. 48.
[272]Some of the most characteristic shells in this bed may perhaps be
mentioned:—
Pleurotoma exorta. _Sol._
Terebellum fusiforme. _Lam._
Murex minax. _Sol._
Murex asper. _Sol._
Murex bispinosus. _Sow._
Typhis pungens. _Sol._
Voluta ambigua. _Sol._
Voluta costata. _Sol._
Voluta luctatrix. _Sol._
Dentalium striatum. _Sow._
Scalaria reticulata. _Sow._
Scalaria semicostata. _Sow._
Littorina sulcata. _Pilk._
Solarium plicatum. _Lam._
Hipponyx squamiformis. _Lam._
Fusus porrectus. _Sol._
Fusus errans. _Sol._
Fusus longævus. _Lam._
Bulla constricta. _Sow._
Bulla elliptica. _Desh._
I scarcely need, I hope, refer the reader either to Mr. Edwards’
_Monograph on the Eocene Mollusca_, 1849, 1852, 1854, 1856, or to
Mr. Searles Wood’s _Monograph_ on the same subject, both in course
of publication by the Palæontographical Society. There is an
excellent table of the Barton shells, by Mr. Prestwich, in the
_Geological Journal_, vol. xiii. pp. 118-126.
[273]For the High Cliff Beds, see Mr. Fisher’s paper on the Bracklesham
Sands of the Isle of Wight Basin, in the _Proceedings of the
Geological Society_, May, 1862, pp. 86-91, whose divisions are here
followed.
[274]All these beds are shown in the large map by the word “Fossils,”
there not being space enough to particularize each bed.
[275]These beds were discovered by Mr. Fisher in 1861, and for the
following measurements I am indebted to Mr. Keeping. We find, about
one hundred yards in a south-eastward direction from the point where
the footpath from Brook to Fritham crosses the stream, (1) the Coral
Bed, the equivalent of that at Stubbington, full of crushed
_Dentalia_ and _Serpulæ_, six inches. (2) Sandy light blue clay,
with very few fossils, seven feet. (3) Verdigris-green and
slate-coloured clay, characterized near the top by a new species of
_Dentalium_, _Serpulorbis Morchii_ (?), and _Spondylus rarispina_.
The other typical shells are _Voluta Maga_, several species of
_Arca_ and _Corbula gallica_, five feet. It is in this bed that
large roots of trees and ferns are found.
No persons, however, I should suppose, would think of examining any
of these beds without first consulting Mr. Fisher’s most valuable
paper on the Bracklesham Beds in the _Proceedings of the Geological
Society_, May, 1862. And I should further most strongly advise them,
if they wish to become practically acquainted with the beds, to
procure the assistance of Mr. Keeping, of Freshwater, in the Isle of
Wight.
I may here also mention that a well is at the present moment being
sunk at Emery Down, and which, as I learn from Mr. Keeping, gives
the following interesting measurements:—(1) Beds of marl, containing
_Voluta geminata_, discovered forty years ago, at Cutwalk Hill, by
Sir Charles Lyell, and now re-discovered, and a small _Marginella_,
seven feet. (2) Bed of bluish sandy clay, which becomes, when
weathered, excessively brown. This bed, very rich in fossils, which
are in a good state of preservation, is equivalent to what is now
called the Middle Marine Bed, at Hordle and Brockenhurst, sixteen to
nineteen feet. (3) Hordle Freshwater Beds, containing two species of
_Potanomya_, and comminuted shells, fifteen feet. (4) Upper Bagshot
Sands, measuring, as far as the workmen have gone, twenty feet, and
below which lies the water at the top of the clay. The important
point to be noticed is the extreme thinning out of the Hordle
Freshwater Beds, which, from the depth of two hundred and fifty feet
at Barton, have here shrunk to fifteen. Mr. Prestwich has suggested
that these beds, as they advance in a north-easterly direction,
become more marine, which seems here to be confirmed.
[276]I say probably, for Professor Owen, who examined the specimen,
states that it is of a bovine animal of about the same size as _Bos
longifrons_, but does not yield sufficiently distinct characters for
an exact specific identification.
[277]I had intended to have accompanied this description with a group of
some of the best fossils from this pit, including the fruit,
fish-spines, and palates, and the large _Pleurotoma attenuata_. It
was, in fact, commenced by the artist. But the specimens were
obliged to be so greatly reduced, that the drawing gave no complete
idea of their form and beauty, and would only have confused the
reader. I have, therefore, contented myself with figuring at p. 249,
in its matrix of clay, the rare _Natica cepacea_ (?), which has
passed into Mr. Edwards’ fine collection, and who has kindly allowed
me the use of it, with the characteristic _Cassidaria nodosa_, and a
lovely _Calyptræa trochiformis_, found, as mentioned, inside a
_Cardita_. At p. 244, the specimens given from the Shepherd’s Gutter
Beds are _Cerithium trilinum_ (Edw. _MS._), _Voluta uniplicata_,
and, in the centre, a shell, showing oblique folds on the
_columella_, which Mr. Edwards thinks may be identical with _Fusus
incertus_ of Deshayes.
[278]In one place only in the Forest, on some waste ground at Alum
Green, have I seen this plant.
[279]On this point see what Bromfield observes in his _Introduction to
the Flora Vectensis_, p. xxvi.
[280]In Appendix II. I have given a list of all the characteristic
plants of the New Forest to assist the collector; and, I trust,
comprehensive enough for the botanist to make generalizations.
[281]Besides these we have all over the Forest _Lastrea Filix-mas_, and
_dilatata_, and _Asplenium adiantum nigrum_, and _Polystichum
angulare_, with its varieties, _angustatum_ and _aculeatum_, found
near Fordingbridge. My friend, Mr. Rake, who discovered
_angustatum_, found also, in February, 1856, near Fordingbridge,
_Lastrea spinulosa_, but it has never since been seen in the
locality.
[282]The Forest would afford a good field for deciding the controversy
as to whether our tame pigs are descended from the European Wild
Boar. (See _Proceedings of the Zoological Society_, 1861, p. 264;
and _Annals and Magazine of Natural History_, Third Series, vol. ix.
p. 415.) Certain it is that here are some breeds distinct in their
markings. I must not, too, forget to mention _Coronella lævis_
(Boie), which is found in the Forest, as also in Dorsetshire and
Kent. This is the _Coronella austriaca_ of Laurenti, and afterwards
the _Coluber lævis_ of Lacépede. It might be mistaken for the common
viper (_Pelias berus_), but differs in not being venomous, as also
from the ringed snake (_Natrix torquata_) in having a fang at the
hinder extremity of its jaws, the peculiarity of the genus
_Coronella_. It feeds on lizards, which its fang enables it to hold;
drinks a great deal of water; and Dr. Günther, of the British
Museum, to whom I am indebted for the above information, tells me
that it crawls up the furze and low bushes to lick the rain off the
leaves. For a list of the Lepidoptera of the New Forest, see
Appendix IV.
[283]Vol. i. p. 26.
[284]_Illustrations of the Eggs of British Birds_, by W. C. Hewitson,
vol. i. p. 27.
[285]As so few opportunities occur of weighing the eggs of the
honey-buzzard and hobby, the following notes, most carefully made by
Mr. Rake and myself, may not be without interest:—
Honey-buzzard’s nest, taken June 16th, in a low fork of an
oak-tree in Anses Wood, contained two fresh-laid eggs:—
First egg (apothecaries’ weight) 1oz. 3dr. 1sc. 5gr.
Second egg (very slightly dinted) 1oz. 2dr. 2sc. 10gr.
Honey-buzzard’s nest, taken June 24th, in Ravensnest Wood, near
Brook, in the higher branches of a tall beech, overhanging the
road. This nest had been deserted, and the two eggs were very
much addled and hard set:—
First egg 1oz. 4dr. 0sc. 10gr.
Second egg 1oz. 3dr. 2sc. 10gr.
Hobby’s nest, placed in a nest which, in 1861, had been occupied
by a honey-buzzard, was taken in Prior’s Acre, June 21st, and
contained three fresh-laid eggs, now in Mr. Rake’s cabinet:—
First egg 6dr. 0sc. 0gr.
Second egg 5dr. 2sc. 10gr.
Third egg (very slightly dinted) 5dr. 2sc. 0gr.
Hobby’s nest, taken in South Bentley Wood, July 12, contained
two eggs hard sat upon and addled:—
First egg 5dr. 2sc. 15gr.
Second egg (cracked) 5dr. 0sc. 14gr.
With these weights may be compared the following:—Egg, supposed to
be that of a merlin, taken with two others which were broken, June
17th, 1862, near Alum Green, in the hole of a beech, rather sat
upon, weighed 4dr. 1sc. 10gr. Two fresh-laid eggs of kestrels, taken
at the same time, weighed 4d. 2sc. 15gr. Other eggs of kestrels,
however, have weighed considerably more; and two others, also laid
about the same time, came to 5dr. 5 gr.
[286]As the instances of the breeding of the merlin, especially under
these circumstances, will always be very rare, I may as well add my
own personal observations. In the spring of 1861 I received three
eggs taken not far from the Knyghtwood Oak, and said to have been
found in the hole of a beech. As I am not in the habit of paying any
attention to the mere stories which are so plentiful, I did not,
therefore, examine them with any attention, and put them aside as
merely kestrel’s. After, however, Mr. Farren’s communication to me,
I looked out particularly for this little hawk, but only once saw it
in the open ground, near Warwickslade Cutting, from whence it flew
up, perching for a moment on a holly, and then making off to the
woods. On June 4th, however, I observed a hen bird fly out of a
hole, about twenty feet from the ground, in an old beech in
Woolstone’s Hill, on the east side of Haliday’s Hill Enclosure.
There were, however, no eggs. On the 5th I went again, and the bird,
when I was about fifty yards from the tree, again flew off. Still,
there were no eggs. I did not return till the 9th, when the nest,
now pulled out of the hole, had been robbed. It was made of small
sticks, and a considerable quantity of feather-moss, and some fine
grass, and in general character resembled the nests of the bird
found by Mr. Hewitson in Norway. In the holes were the bones of
young rabbits, but these had, from their bleached appearance, been
brought by a brown owl, who had reared her brood there in the
previous summer. I afterwards learnt where the three eggs had been
taken in 1861; but there was nothing, with the exception of a few
sticks, in the hole, which was in this case about ten feet from the
ground, and placed also in a beech on the edge of Barrowsmoor. Great
caution, however, must be exercised regarding the merlin’s eggs; for
I am inclined to think that the kestrel, contrary to its usual
practice, sometimes also breeds in the Forest in the holes of trees.
The egg mentioned at p. 264, foot-note, brought to me on June 17th,
1862, I have every reason to believe is a merlin’s, but could not
quite satisfy myself as to the evidence.
[287]For some account of the little owl (_Strix passerina_), see
Appendix III. under the section of Stragglers, p. 314.
[288]Vol. ii. p. 57.
[289]Yarrell, vol. ii. p. 139.
[290]Passed in the twenty-fourth year of Henry VIII., 1532. _Statutes of
the Realm_, vol. iii., p. 425, 426. It should, however, be
remembered that under the term chough was in former times included
the whole of the _Corvidæ_. Shakspeare’s “russet-pated choughs” are
evidently jackdaws.
[291]In Appendix III. is given a list of all the birds hitherto observed
in the New Forest District, as also more special information, which
I thought would not interest the general reader.
[292]Collections for the _History of Hampshire_, by Richard Warner, vol.
iii., pp. 37, 38. A brief list of Hampshire words will also be found
in _Notes and Queries_, First Series, vol. x., No. 250, p. 120. Mr.
Halliwell, in his account of the English Provincial Dialects, p.
xx., prefixed to his _Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words_,
mentions a MS. glossary of the provincialisms of the Isle of Wight,
by Captain Henry Smith, of which he has made use.
[293]The numbers after a plant refer to its numerical place in the
_London Catalogue_, whose nomenclature, and arrangement have been
followed. The English synonyms have been chiefly taken from Smith.
[294]_Scirpus parvulus_ (R. and S.), mentioned by Rev. G. E. Smith as
growing “on a mud-flat near Lymington,” is now extinct. See Watson’s
_Cybele Britannica_, vol. iii. p. 78; and Bromfield, in the
_Phytologist_, vol. iii., 1028.
THE END.
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Transcriber’s Notes
—Incorporated the errata below (from page ix in the original) into
footnotes (and, if possible, changed in situ).
—Copyright notice provided as in the original—this e-text is public
domain in the country of publication.
—Silently corrected palpable typos; left non-standard spellings and
dialect unchanged.
—Corrected page numbers in the index for “Barton Cliffs, geology of”
ERRATA.
Page 33, line 12,
” 55, ” 19, The derivation of Leap as given in the text
is very doubtful.
” 69, ” 1, _for_ which the Bishop of Hippo gives to the
canons of his own order, _read_ the
injunction of their order.
” 127, ” 25, _for_ Ripley _read_ Winkton.
” 192, ” 8, Rere-mouse is derived from the Old-English
_hrere-mus_, from _hreran_ to flutter,
literally the fluttering mouse, the exact
equivalent of the German Flitter-maus.