22 THE PURBECK SOCIETY. 



The Isle of Purbeck is boiinded on the north by the river 

 Frome and Poole Harbour, on the east and south by the Channel, 

 and on the west by two rivulets, Luckford Lake, which runs into 

 the Frome, near East Stoke, and Airish Mell stream, which 

 empties itself into the sea at Worbarrow Bay. Between the 

 sources of these streams, a distance of half a mile, the Island is 

 joined to the rest of the County. Its length from Luckford Lake 

 to Peveral Point, is about twelve miles ; its greatest breadth, from 

 Arne to St. Adhelm's Head, is ten miles. It is divided into East 

 and West Purbeck, or the Hundreds of Hasilor (West,) and 

 Eowbarrow, (East,) and contains, according* to Hutchings, 

 one town, and nine parishes. It is designated by Leland as 

 * Purbeck Forest Ground.* We read that in ancient days, the 

 Forest extended over the whole island, and that the woods were 

 well stocked with Red and Fallow Deer, and Stags. It was 

 reserved as hunting ground, especially in the Saxon times, and 

 continued so until the time of James I., who was the last of out 

 kings who hunted here, in 1625. 



Now I think I may affirm, that the true naturalist could 

 hardly find a district better calculated to gratify his every pur- 

 suit. When I speak of the true naturalist j I mean the man who 

 seeks to know the hill from its cloud-capped summit to its lowest 

 depth, which may only be examined beneath the ebbing wave, 

 who would traverse every acre, from the sea to the river, and 

 would never rest satisfied until he had discovered all which they 

 produced, whether animate or inanimate. 



Geologically, the Island presents a series of Strata unusual 

 in, comparatively speaking, so small a space. The Kimeridge 

 Clay, and the Oolite, are followed by the Purbecks, the 

 Hastings Sands, the Gault, the Green Sand, the Chalk, and 

 the Tertiaries, in quick succession : and where there is a varied 

 geology, there also will the Flora and Fauna bear a varied cha- 

 character. It will be found, though many plants are common 

 to all, that every series of Strata has its own peculiar Botany. 

 It is this which has given to the Isle of Wight the enviable 

 designation of 'the garden of England.' Here, too, in the Isle of 

 Purbeck, though not possessing so mild a climate, nevertheless 

 we have hill and valley, woods and thickets, pastures and rivulets, 

 moss, and moor, and river: no where, as I have already 

 stated, can the Botanist ramble with better prospects of success. 

 Nor will less favorable results attend the investigations of the 



