126 The New Forest: its History and its Scenery. 



and its habits of roving and feeding by day.* The river has, also, 

 Hke some of the Norwegian streams, the pecuHarity of forming 

 ground ice.f For the botanist, along the hedge banks, the blue 

 and slate-coloured soapwort is growing throughout the summer 

 and autumn, with purple cat-mint and wild clary. In the 

 waste places the thorn-apple shows its white blossoms ; whilst 

 red stacks of fern and black turf ricks stand by every cottage 

 door to remind us how close we are to the Forest. 



After we pass Bisterne,| the road becomes more interesting. 

 To our right rises the range of St. Catherine's Hills, that is, the 

 fortified height, where remain the four mounds of the w^atch- 

 towers and the traces of the camp. Presently we come to Avon- 

 Tyrrel and the blacksmith's forge, built on the spot where Tiril's 

 horse is said to have been shod, and which pays a yearly fine of 

 three pounds and ten shillings to Government. 



The actual Ford itself is some little way from the road. 

 Round it stretch meadows, with strong coarse grass and sedgy 

 weeds, branches of the Avon winding here and there, fringed by 

 willows, the main stream flowing out broad and strong, with 

 islands of osiers and rushes, where still breed wild duck and 

 teal, the whole backed by the gloom of St. Catherine's Hills 

 crested by their darker pines. The old road, used now only by 

 the turf-cutters, crossing the former mill-brook, follows the bed of 

 one of the many streams, till, reaching the river at its widest 



* See Yarrell's History nf British Fishes, vol. ii. pp. 399-401. 



f On this phenomenon, see Lyell's Antiquity of Mun^ p. 139. 



X The Ordnance map here falls into an error, placing Sandford a mile 

 too far to the south ; whilst it omits the neighbouring village of Beckley, 

 the Beceslei o^ Domesday, and "The Great Horse," a clump of firs, so called 

 from its shape, a well-known landmark in the Forest, and to the ships at 

 sea, as also " Darrat," or " Derrit" Lane. 

 126 



