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interesting place, and near it are seen many relics of the earliest 
times—Celtic barrows and Roman potteries covering many acres of 
ground in Island Thorns and Crockle Wood, and also farther off at 
Sloden and Black Bar. Studeley Woods are famed for their great 
‘beeches, and Sloden Wood for its picturesque old yews, occupying 
the site of an ancient British graveyard. The King’s Garn Brook, 
which drains the district in a south-easterly direction, is celebrated 
for the rare fossils dug out of its banks, and in many parts it flows 
through very rugged and picturesque scenery. While crossing the 
bare, hunger-stricken plain of Fritham, scantily covered with short 
heath, we saw a practical illustration of the destructive method by 
which the commoners exercise their right of “turbary,” or turf 
cutting, by skinning off the thin covering of peaty turf which covers 
the otherwise absolutely sterile ground. 
OcKNELL CLuMmp oF Scots Fir. 
Before entering Bentley Woods, there was pointed out, away to 
the westward, a prominent clump—or “ Hat,” as the natives call 
small groups of trees in the New Forest, from their supposed 
resemblance to the high-crowned hats of former days—of Scots fir, 
known as “Ocknell Clump.” It was the first Scots fir plantation 
formed, by way of experiment, to ascertain how the tree would 
thrive in the worst soil and exposure in the New Forest. That was 
about the year 1776, and since then this tree, so well known in the 
north, has proved itself to be the best suited of all Conifers for the 
poor soil of these heathy wastes. It readily sows itself over the 
Forest, and it would apparently supplant all the other trees if 
allowed a free run by man and beast. Many thriving patches of 
self-sown Scots fir are seen springing up in the neighbourhood of 
where it was earliest introduced, and on many of the barren heaths 
it is seen growing well where the hardy native birch is unable to 
rear its head. 
BENTLEY Woops. 
It has already been indicated how much the soil of the New 
Forest varies. A striking illustration of this was again afforded 
in the course of our walk to-day. On the farther side of the wide 
expanse of “blasted heath” which we had just crossed, where the 
dwarf kinds of the hardy willow, and whin, and patches of heather 
