67 
most of the ground, At daybreak the sky was dull and 
lowering, and looked rather unpromising for a fine day in the 
Forest. By the time, however, that breakfast was over, and the 
party had mustered on the pier ready for the sail across the bay, 
the clouds had dispersed, and Southampton Water lay before us 
sparkling in the brightest sunshine, as clear and still as the face of 
a mirror. Our numbers were about as many as the small steamer 
could accommodate at one trip over the ferry to Hythe, lying on 
the western shore of Southampton Water. At Hythe, the party 
were met by a smart four-in-hand, and nine other well-horsed 
coaches, to convey them on their tour through the New Forest. 
The members were quickly in their seats, and starting off at 
9.30 A.M., we first drove across Beaulieu Heath, a flat bleak 
common, to the charming rural village of Beaulieu, situated in a 
lovely valley at the head of Beaulieu Water, a narrow and 
picturesque creek of the Solent. For some distance after we left 
Hythe the country was cultivated and well wooded, but we were 
rather surprised to see so much Scots fir around us in this southern 
latitude. We soon learned, however, before we reached the open 
common, that it is almost the only tree that grows well upon the 
poorer soils of the Forest. The parching effects of the great 
drought abounded on every field, and lawn, and furzy common, 
and the flinty roads, hard and dusty, stretched far out before us 
across the common, with a conspicuously golden-yellow tint. The 
wide views of the landscape as we drive across the plain are of a 
diversified character. Far off on the horizon, and in the hollows, we 
see the verdant billowy tops of rich woodlands ; but nearer at hand 
there is only a wide expanse of black, hungry-looking moor, covered 
with stunted heath, the uninviting aspect of which is scarcely 
relieved by the few scrubby bushes and self-sown pines scattered 
over it at wide intervals. The numerous ancient tumuli or 
barrows, for which the Forest is noted, and the small herds of 
the shaggy Forest pony peculiar to the district, were almost the only 
objects of interest seen in crossing the dreary common. 
BEAULIEU. 
Reaching more civilised parts, at Hill Top, with its ‘Fir Garden” 
and fine clump of old Scots firs, said to have been planted by the 
Duke of Montagu in 1746, the scene quickly changes. We are 
now on Beaulieu Manor, and drive down towards the valley through 
