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)
About four miles off from Lyndhurst lie Minestead and Rufus’s Stone.
There are three or four different roads to them. The most beautiful,
though the longest, is over Emery Down, where, turning off to the left,
you pass the woods of Kitt’s Hill, and James Hill. Then crossing
Millaford Bridge, and skirting on each side of the road the beeches of
Holme Hill, and passing through Boldrewood, you make your way eastward
across the stream below the Withy Bed Hat, and go through the woods of
Puckpits and Stonehard.
Another road to the Stone is through Minestead by a footpath which
crosses Mr. Compton’s park, dotted with cottages, each with its garden
full in the summer and autumn of flowers—yellow Aaron-rods, pink
candy-tufts, colchicums, and marigolds, and tall sheaves of grey
Michaelmas daisies.
In the village stands “The Faithful Servant,” copied from the well-known
picture at Winchester College. A little farther on we ascend Stoneycross
Hill, the village orchards full of Mary-apples and Morrisses mingling
their blossoms, in the spring, with the green Forest oaks. As we reach
the top, suddenly there opens out one long view. On the north-east rise
the hills beyond Winchester; but the “White City” is hidden in their
valley. To the east lies Southampton, with its houses by the water-side;
and to the north, across the woods of Prior’s Acre, gleam the green
Wiltshire downs lit up by the sunlight.
Close to us, among its beeches, lies Castle Malwood, with its single
trench and Forest lodge, where tradition and poets say Rufus feasted
before his death; and down in the valley stands the Stone which marks
the spot where he is said to have fallen.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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