The New Forest: Its History and Its SceneryWise, John R. (John Richard)
History
The New Forest: Its History and Its Scenery
Wise, John R. (John Richard)
New Forest (England : Forest)
Just now though, it is the southern part of the Forest we must see. So
going back again for a little way upon the Beaulieu Road, and leaving it
just above the foot-bridge for Whitley Lodge, let the reader go on to
Lady Cross. Suddenly he will come out upon the northern edge of Beaulieu
Heath, and see again the Island Hills. To the people in the Forest, the
Island is their weather-glass. If its hills look dark blue and purple,
then the weather will be fine; but if they can see the houses and the
chalk quarries on the hill sides, the rain is sure to come.
Keeping straight on, with Lady Cross Lodge to our left, we enter Frame
Wood, with its turf and its bridle roads winding under the Forest
boughs. Down in the bottom runs the railroad bending away to the north.
On the other side, the thick woods of Denny rise; and the clump of
solitary beeches on the top of the knoll shows the last remains of Wood
Fidley, so well known as having given rise to the Forest proverb of
“Wood Fidley rain,” that is, rain which lasts all the day.
Here you can wander on for miles, as far as the manor of Bishop’s Ditch,
belonging to Winchester College, which the Forest peasant will tell you
was a grant of land as much as the Bishop of Winchester could in a day
crawl round on his hands and knees. As to losing yourself, never mind.
The real plan to enjoy the Forest is to wander on, careless whether you
lose yourself or not. In fact, I believe the real method is to try and
lose yourself, finding your greatest pleasure in the unexpected scenes
of beauty into which you are led.
There are plenty of other Forest rambles round Brockenhurst which must
not be forgotten. Just at the western edge of Beaulieu Heath, about
three miles off, stands Boldre Church, with its solitary churchyard
surrounded by trees. On one side, it looks out upon the bare Forest; and
on the other, down into the cultivated valley. Most suggestful, most
peaceful is this twofold prospect, telling us alike both of work and
companionship, as, too, of solitude—all of them, in religion, so needful
for man. Its tower stands boldly out, almost away from the church, just
between the nave and the chancel, serving formerly, like Brockenhurst
steeple, as a landmark to the Forest; whilst the long outline of the
nave is broken only by the south porch, and its three dormer windows.
Here Southey married his second wife, Catharine Bowles. And close to the
north side, under the shadow of a maple, lies one of the truest lovers
of Nature—Gilpin, the author of the _Scenery of the_ _New Forest_, with
a quaint, simple inscription on his gravestone written by himself. In
the church are tablets both to him and Bromfield, the botanist, a man
like him in many ways, but who, dying abroad, was not allowed to rest
beside him in this quiet graveyard.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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