View from Bramble Hill. 



the woods in every direction. Perhaps one of the prettiest is 

 over Coalmeer Brook, and then through the thick beeches of 

 Coalineer Wood, where the honey buzzard builds, till we come 

 to the King's Gairn stream, where the Bracklesham Clays, 

 teeming with fossils, may, by digging, be reached.* 



Brook Common now opens before us. At its farther end 

 stands Brook Wood, with its fine hollies and durmast oaks 

 (quercus sessiliflora) . Passing the High Beeches to our left, we 

 reach Shepherd's Gutter, a small stream, where the Brackles- 

 ham beds again crop out with their blue and slate-coloured clays. 



Going on through more woods, and then by clumps of old 

 hollies and yews, we come to Bramble Hill. Perhaps, just 

 above the Lodge, on the top of the hill, we gain the most exten- 

 sive view of the Forest. Before us spreads one vast sea of 

 woods, broken in the front by Malwood Ridge, and Brochis 

 Hill, and then rolling its flood of green over Minestead Valley, 

 and rising again wave-like, at Whitley, till lost among the moors, 

 whilst the Isle of Wight hills seam the blue sky with their dark 

 outlines. 



The village of Bramshaw, just a little way beyond, stands 

 partly in both Hampshire and Wiltshire, and forms the Forest 

 boundary. From its woods in former times the shingles for 

 roofing Salisbury Cathedral were cut. Its church, although 

 prettily situated, is scarcely worth seeing. Only an Early-Eng- 

 lish window at the east end, and an arch on the south side, 

 remain of the old building, now defaced by every variety of 

 modern ugliness. In the churchyard stands a fine yew ; and 



made in the twenty-second year of Charles II. " The same hedge reaches 

 Barnfarn from the right hand, right by Helclose, as far as to a certain 

 corner called Hell Corner." 



* For the geology of this part of the Forest see chapter xx. 



Ill 



