518 STATE AND PROSPECTS OF ARBORICULTURE IN HAMPSHIRE. 
It must still, however, be remembered that its chief characteristic, 
and what it rests on for distinction, is not sublimity, but sylvan 
beauty.” It, however, must be stated “that all that thou seest 
is not nature’s handiwork,” for many attempts have lately been 
made to improve it, so as to increase the revenue, but fortunately 
or unfortunately with but little success, and it would be much 
better to let nature have her own sway here, unaided by the hand 
of man, except to prevent waste and pillage. 
The view from Castle Malwood looking towards Southampton 
is unequalled, except in some primeval forest ; and tradition says 
it was here that King Rufus held high festival on the night before 
the fatal first of August—now near 800 years ago—when Sir 
Walter Tyrrel’s arrow wounded him to death. 
Near Brockenhurst is a large sweep of level ground called 
Balmoor Lawn, on which may be seen almost innumerable horses 
and cattle grazing in the early morn, and retiring into the dense 
forest to avoid the heat of the noon-day sun, Following up the 
course of the Brokenhurst River you come to Queen’s Bower 
Wood, a secluded spot where the trees are of splendid proportions. 
For quiet sylvan beauty, the part around Cadnam surpasses 
any scenery in the “ forest,” being beautifully studded with oaks 
and an undergrowth of hollies, with patches of verdant lawn. At 
this place is the Cadnam Oak, celebrated in that it, on Old 
Christmas Eve, puts forth young leaves, which may be picked on 
the following morning. This is no fable, as the writer of this has 
found it to be a fact. It stands 10 yards from the north side of 
the Southampton and Salisbury Road, by the fence of Widow 
Gain’s Garden. It has a circumference of 10 ft. 6 in. at 43 ft. 
up, a bole of 17 ft., and a sheer height of 55 ft., and is apparently 
a young tree, although a good part of the trunk on the south side 
is gone—the effect, perhaps, of lightning. This is, however, being 
fast covered over by the growth of the tree ; but it is still from 1 
ft. to 18 in. broad, and extends the whole length of the trunk. 
The legends that have found their way into history,—of how 
William the Conqueror laid waste thirty-six parishes, destroying 
as many churches and a great number of villages, hamlets, and 
scattered dwellings, driving out the inhabitants, and stocking it 
with deer, boars, and other beasts of chase, to gratify his love of 
sport,—are now generally discredited. And it is something sur- 
prising to find that such a view should have ever been entertained ; 
for, apart from the fact that the sites of the churches and villages 
