16 The New Forest : its History and its Scenery. 



to the land, enveloping some stray ship in its folds, and then 

 by degrees encircling the Island, whilst the chalk cliffs melt into 

 clouds. On it still steals with its thick mist, quenching the 

 Needles Light which has been lit, till the whole island is 

 capped with fog, and neither sea nor sky is seen, — nothing but 

 a dense haze blotting everything. Then suddenly the wind lifts 

 the great cloud westward, and its black curtains drop away, 

 revealing a sky of the deepest blue, barred with lines of light : 

 and the whole bay suddenly shines out clear and glittering, 

 the Island cliffs flashing with opal and emerald, and the ship 

 once more glides out safe from the darkness. 



A few words, too, must be said about the two principal tree- 

 forms which now make the Forest. The oaks here do not grow 

 so high or so large as in many other parts of England, but they 

 are far finer in their outlines, hanging in the distance as if 

 rather suspended in the air than growing from the earth, but 

 nearer, as especially at Bramble Hill, twisting their long arms, 

 and interlacing each other into a thick roof. Now and then 

 they take to straggling ways, running out, as with the famous 

 Knyghtwood Oak, into mere awkward forks. The most striking 

 are not, perhaps, so much those in their prime, as the old ruined 

 trees at Boldrewood, their bark furrowed with age, their timber 

 quite decayed, now only braced together by the clamps of ivy to 

 which they once gave support and strength.* 



* The following measurements may have, perhaps, an interest for some 

 readers: — Girth of the Knyghtwood oak, 17 ft. 4 in. ; of the Western oak 

 at Boldrewood, 24 ft. 9 in. ; the Eastern, 16 ft. ; and the Northern, in the 

 thickest part, 20 ft. 4 in. ; though, lower down, only 14 ft. 8 in.; beech at 

 Studley, 21 ft. ; beech at Holmy Ridge, 20 ft. The handsomest oak, how- 

 ever, in the district, stands a few yards outside the Forest boundary, close 

 to Moyle's Court, measuring 18 ft. 8^ in. 

 IS 



