The approach to Ringwood, as we leave 

 the wild heath, which gave occafion to this 

 digreffion, is woody and pleafant. Ring- 

 wood was formerly the boundary of the foreft 

 in this part ; and in times of flill more remote 

 antiquity, was a place of great note. I know 

 not whether in Saxon times, it did not claim 

 the honours of regal refidence. At prefent 

 it is a cheerful town, feated in a flat country, 

 on the banks of the Avon, which fpreads, 

 near it, into a large piece of water, full of little 

 iflands, and frequented by fwans. 



Somewhere near this part of the river the 

 duke of Monmouth is faid to have been taken, 

 in the year 1685, after his defeat at Sedgmore, 

 near Bridgwater. Thus far he had travelled 



wimed, they bent their branches, as they made flioots, and 

 inferted their extremities into the earth. Here they took root ; 

 and from thefe roots (hot into new branches. Thefe again 

 were bent into the earth, and fo on, till a fence was obtained 



of the dimenfions wanted." 1 have feen this mode, I believe, 



pra&ifed in fome parts of England. 



; VOL. ii. G in 



