The Hordle Cliffs and the Avon. 



its buff and crimson -streaked eggs ; whilst above grey-headed 

 kites swam in circles ; and round the coast the sea-eagle slowly 

 flapped its heavy bulk. Great oaks, shorn flat by the Channel 

 winds, fringed the high Hordle cliffs, towering above the sea ; 

 and opposite, as to this day, rose the white chalk rocks of the 

 Needles, and the Isle of Wight, not bare as it now is but 

 covered, too, with a dense forest. And the sun would set as 

 it now does, but upon all this further beauty, making a broad 

 path of glory across the bay, till at last it sank down over 

 the Priory Church of Christchurch, which Flambard was then 

 building. 



Gone, too, for ever all the scenes which they must have had 

 of the Avon, glimpses of it caught among the trees as they 

 galloped through the broad lawns, or under the sides of Godshill, 

 and Castle Hill crested with yews and oaks.* 



* For a justification of this general picture, I must refer the reader to 

 the next chapter, where references to Domesday, as to the state of the dis- 

 trict before its afforestation by the Conqueror, and the evidence supplied 

 by the names of places, are given. I may add, as showing the former 

 nature of the woods, that the charcoal found in the barrows, embankments, 

 and the Roman potteries, is made from oak and beech, but principally 

 from the latter. Since, too, the deer have been destroyed, the young 

 shoots of holly are springing up in every direction, and another generation 

 may again see the Forest still more resembling its old condition. As 

 a proof that the Hordle Cliffs were covered with timber, the fishermen 

 dredging for the septaria in the Channel constantly drag up large boles 

 of oaks, which are locally known as " mootes." The existence of the 

 chestnut is shown by the large beams in some of the old Forest churches, 

 as at Fawley ; but none now exist, except a few, comparatively modern, 

 though very fine, at Boldrewood. Further, the Forest could never, except 

 in the winter, have been very swampy, as the gravelly formation of the 

 greater part of the soil supplies it with a natural drainage. Still, there 

 were swamps, and in the wet places large quantities of bog-oak have been 

 dug up, bearing witness, as in other countries, of an epoch of oaks, which 



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