TJlc Stanlei/H, Lees, and Burtons. 159 



French author, in a work upon England, has devoted a special 

 chapter to the New Forest, and there paid more attention to the 

 gipsies than any one else, and entirely forgets the West-Saxon, 

 whose impress is indelibly marked, not only in the language, but 

 in the names of every town, village, and field. 



As, however, every one takes a romantic interest in these 

 nomads, we must not entirely pass over them. Here and there 

 still linger a few in whose veins run Indian blood, against whom 

 Henry VIII. made bad laws, and Skelton worse rhymes. The 

 principal tribes round Lyndhurst are the Stanleys, the Lees, and 

 Burtons ; and near Fordingbridge, the Snells. They live chiefly 

 in the various droves and rides of the Forest, driven from place 

 to place by the policeman, for to this complexion have things 

 come. One of their favourite halting-places is amongst the low 

 woods near Wootton, where a dozen or more brown tents are 

 always fluttering in the wind, and as the night comes on the 

 camp-fires redden the dark fir-stems. 



The kingly title formerly held by the Stanleys is now in the 

 possession of the Lees. They all still, to a certain extent, keep 

 up their old dignity, and must by no means be confounded with 

 the strolling outcasts and itinerant beggars who also dwell in the 

 Forest. Their marriages, too, are still observed with strictness, 

 and any man or woman who marries out of the caste, as recently 

 in the case of one of the Lees, who wedded a blacksmith, is 

 instantly disowned. The proverb, too, of honour among thieves 

 is also still kept, and formal meetings are every now and then 

 convened to expel any mem_ber who is guilty of cheating his 

 kinsman. 



Since the deer have been destroyed in the Forest, life is not 

 to them what it was. They are now content to live upon a stray 

 fowl, or hedgehog, or squirrel, baked whole in a coat of clay, 



159 



