268 
Selwood Forest. 
By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A. 
may cs a bird’s eye view of it from the top of Cley Hill; only, 
the whole country before you is so thickly covered with hedgerow 
timber, that, to verify the old saying, one is hardly able to see the 
wood for the trees. But the fact is that you only see from that point 
a very small part of what was once included under the name of 
Selwood, though where it began and where it ended is not easy to 
say, owing to want of ancient maps and distinct records. We have 
no account of the original formation of any forest, except the New 
Forest, in Hampshire, and one at Hampton Court. 
I will divide my story into two periods—(1) The Dark one, and 
(2) The Lighter one. I mean by the dark one that very obscure 
time in the history of our country when we find Selwood mentioned, 
but without any precise information as to its extent ; by the lighter 
one, that in which we do get a few authentic accounts of it. 
Some of our modern historians—as the late Dr. Guest, of Cam- 
bridge—have taken infinite pains to clear the indistinct and fogg 
atmosphere of early British history. They have tried to reconcile 
conflicting statements, to explain old names, and to suggest which 
way such and such armies moved, or where such and such battles 
were fought, and to identify such and such a camp as the camp of 
Chlorus or Vespasian, or somebody else. But there is in these 
researches so much that is merely plausible, so much that is mere 
guessing and supposing, that the result cannot be called very 
satisfactory. The material to work upon often consists of little 
else than a string of obsolete names, old Welsh names, spelled 
differently in different chronicles. Sometimes there may be a 
slight resemblance to our modern names ; and, in such cases, con- 
clusions and theories are occasionally presented to us which it is not 
