STATE AND PROSPECTS OF ARBORICULTURE IN HAMPSHIRE. 517 
then along the coast by Ryde to Watch Point. A large deposit 
is to be found at Yarmouth, southwards to Headon Hill; but 
the largest area is occupied by the Bembridge beds, which extend 
from the Foreland on the east with but little interruption to 
Yarmouth on the west, and which consist of red and green 
mottled clays, above which are beds of ragstone or impure lime- 
stone, and bands of comminuted shell-limestone used for building, 
lime, ete. 
The Hempstead beds occur in two small patches only, 
namely, from Hempstead Lodge on the Solent south-westward to 
Bouldner, and at Parkhurst Forest. It consists of laminated sandy 
clay, of red and grey clays, with some white and black layers 
between. 
Such is a general view of the geology of Hampshire and the 
Isle of Wight, from which it may be concluded that it is not only 
full of interest to the geologist, but also to the arboriculturist, 
whom it is needless to remind that the subsoil of a country is far 
more necessary to take into account than almost any other con- 
sideration, and here their variety affords an opportunity, which 
few counties can boast of, for the student of arboriculture to 
make himself acquainted with the soils and subsoils which form 
the natural habit of certain trees. 
ANCIENT FORESTS. 
The Royal Forests of Hampshire have been noted from the 
earliest records, and appear to have outnumbered those of any 
other county. They were the New Forest, the forests of Bere, 
Woolmer, Alice Holt, and Buckholt on the mainland, and Park- 
hurst in the Isle of Wight. Buckholt, which is given in a list 
of royal forests in Queen Elizabeth’s time, now only exists in 
name, but all the rest still belong to the Crown. 
The New Forest is the largest and most important of the royal 
forests, having an area within its ancient boundaries estimated at 
93,000 acres; but within this boundary there are about 28,000 
acres belonging to various owners, leaving 65,000 as belonging to 
the Crown, subject to certain rights of common pasture, pannage, 
and fuel. The ‘‘ Forest ” still presents much of the same charac- 
teristics as it did a century ago, when Gilpin wrote. He says: 
‘‘ Its woody scenery, its extended lawns, and vast sweeps of wild 
country unlimited by artificial boundaries, together with its river 
views and distant coasts, are all in a great degree magnificent. 
