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.

[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.

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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.