[Illustration: GIPSIES AT COLDHARBOUR] THE NEW FOREST Described by Elizabeth Godfrey Pictured by E. W. Haslehust [Illustration: Sketch of a castle tower] BLACKIE AND SON LIMITED LONDON GLASGOW AND BOMBAY 1912 Beautiful England _Volumes Ready_ OXFORD THE HEART OF WESSEX THE ENGLISH LAKES THE PEAK DISTRICT CANTERBURY THE CORNISH RIVIERA SHAKESPEARE-LAND DICKENS-LAND THE THAMES WINCHESTER WINDSOR CASTLE THE ISLE OF WIGHT CAMBRIDGE CHESTER AND THE DEE NORWICH AND THE BROADS YORK _Uniform with this Series_ Beautiful Ireland LEINSTER MUNSTER ULSTER CONNAUGHT LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Page Gipsies at Coldharbour _Frontispiece_ In Brockenhurst Village 12 Squatter's Cottage 16 Boldre Bridge 20 The Mill Pond, Beaulieu 26 Buckler's Hard 30 Lepe 34 "The Cathedral" 40 In Mallard Wood 44 Minstead Church 48 By Broomy Water 52 Burley Moor 58 [Illustration: The NEW FOREST] In these modern days, when towns are increasing on every side, and the new idea of garden cities threatens to swallow up what little is left us of the true country, it is good to remember that in one quiet corner of Hampshire lies a sanctuary, a little region set apart with its own laws and customs for over eight centuries for the preservation of wild life. In our childhood we were taught to look upon the deed of Norman William with horror, as an iniquity perpetrated by an inhuman conqueror, and we spouted in the words of good Miss Smedley: "Oh Forest! green New Forest! Home of the bird and breeze, With all thy soft and sweeping glades, and long, dim aisles of trees, Like some ancestral palace thou standest proud and fair; Yet is each tree a monument to death and wild despair."