112 The New Forest : its History and its Scenery. 



a buttress on the north side is completely covered with the 

 lovely common spleenwort. 



Coming hack, however, to Stoney-Cross, we will now go 

 westward. Stoney-Cross itself consists of but a few tumble- 

 down cottages, inhabited principally by the Forest workmen. 

 Just beyond the last of them let us stop for a moment. To 

 the south stretch more woods — Stonehard, with its views across 

 the valley, to the oaks of Wick and the plain of Acres Down, 

 looking over Rhinefield and the valley of the Osmanby Ford, 

 beyond Wootton, to the Needle Rocks, mass upon mass of 



woods. To the right of it lies Packpits, where the badger 

 breeds, and the raven used to build, and where still on a 

 summer morning the honey buzzard comes flying up from 



112 



