The New Forest : its History and its Scenery. 



England and I am glad to think so, it gives, more than any 

 other place, a far greater range of subject, in sea, and moor, and 

 valley ; because too, the traveller can here go where he pleases, 

 without any of those lets and hindrances which take away so 

 much pleasure ; and, lastty, because here can best be seen 

 Nature's crown of glory her woods. 



And, first, for a few words of general bearing upon this 

 point. I do not think we ever estimate the woods highly 

 enough, ever know their real worth, until we find some favourite 

 retreat levelled to the ground, and then feel the void and irre- 

 parable blankness which is left. Consider, too, the use which 

 Nature makes of her woods, either softening the horrors of the 

 precipice, or adorning spaces which else would be utterly without 

 interest, or adding beauty to beauty. Consider, further, how 

 she beguiles us when we are in them, leading us forward, each 

 little rise appearing a hill, because we cannot see its full extent ; 

 how, too, the paths close behind us, shutting us out with their 

 silent doorways from all noise and turmoil, whilst the soft green 

 light fills every dim recess, and deepens each pillared aisle, the 

 floor paved with the golden mosaic of the sunlight. 



For all these things is it that the woods have been, since the 

 beginning of the world, the haunt of the flowers, the home of 

 the birds, and the temple of man. The haunt of the flowers, 

 I say, for in the early spring, before the grass is yet green in the 

 meadows, here they all flock white wood-anemones, sweet 

 primroses, sweeter violets, and hyacinths encircling each stem 

 with their blue wreaths. The home of the birds ; for when the 

 leaves at last have come, each tree is filled with song, and the 

 underwood with the first faint chirping of the nestlings learning 

 their earliest notes. As a temple for man, have they not been 

 so since the world began ? Taught by their tender beauty, and 



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