146 The New Forest : its History and its Scenery. 



longer in the Forest, yet if we miss this walk we shall lose 

 some of the most beautiful scenery in the district. 



As we leave Christchurch by the Lymington Road, Mudeford 

 lies on the right, and Burton, with its Staple Cross, on the left. 

 Few things are more touching than these old grey relics of the 

 past, standing solitary in our cross-roads, the dial united with 

 the Cross, to show both how short was man's life, and where 

 lay his only salvation. But we now profane them, and turn 

 them, as here, into direction posts, or break them up, as at 

 Burgate, to mend the road. 



Both villages will some day be more sought after than at 

 present, for at Burton lived Southey, with his friend Charles 

 Lloyd, and sang the praises of the valley in better verse than 

 usual. At Mudeford, Stewart Rose, the author of TJie Bed 

 King, built Gundimore, where, in 1807, Scott stayed, writing 

 Marmion, and riding over the Forest exploring the barrows. 

 In the same village Coleridge lodged during the winter of 

 1816.* 



* Scott used to admire the Red King ^ but his praise must have 

 been fiir more the result of friendship than of unbiassed criticism. The 

 following lines, from Rose's MS. poem of "Gundimore" (quoted in 

 Lockhart's Life of Scott, p. 145, foot-note), are interesting from their 

 subject, and at the conclusion, though the idea is borrowed, are really 

 fine : — 



" Here Walter Scott has wooed the Northern ]\Iuse, 

 Here he with me has joj-ed to walk or cruize ; 

 And hence has pricked through Ytene's holt, where we 

 Have called to mind how under greenwood tree, 

 Pierced by the partner of his ' woodland craft,' 

 King Rufus iell by Tiril's random shaft. 

 Hence have we ranged by Keltic camps and barrows, 

 Or climbed the expectant bark, to thread the Xarrows 



146 



