The Neic Forest : it* History and its Scenery. 



showed, under the Normans, a spirit of obedience and an adapt- 

 ability to changed circumstances which are above praise. Let us 

 give the West- Saxon labourer credit for it both then and to this 

 day, that though the most ill-paid and ill-fed in England, he 

 bears his heavy yoke of poverty without a murmur. 



Turning to another side of his character, we find him loving 

 the same old sports as in the days of Alfred. He still follows 

 the hounds on foot, and when there were deer in the Forest, 

 naturally killed them. Wrestling and cudgel-playing have been 

 continued till the last few years close to the northern boundaries 

 of the Forest. The old Hock-tide games were till a late period 

 kept up in the northern parts, and "Hock-tide money" was not 

 so very long ago paid as an acknowledgment for certain Forest 

 privileges. Heartiness and roughness still go hand in hand with 

 him as with his forefathers. But a heaviness of intellect is 

 always visible, and, as with all his race, a sadness oppresses 

 his mirth. His dress to this day, too, bespeaks his nation- 

 ality. He still wears what is locally called the " smicket," and 

 sometimes the " surplice," the Old-English smoc, called also 

 the tunece. It is still, too, as formerly, tied round the waist 

 with a leathern band. His legs are still cased, as we see 

 the Old-English in their drawings, with gaiters, known as 

 " vamplets," or " strogs," equivalent to the " cockers " of the 

 Midland Counties, which do not reach quite so high as the former, 

 and " mokins," which are merely made of coarse sacking. 



And now let us see how far he has made his presence felt 

 on the district and in the language. But we must beware of 

 overstraining our theory. Xo portion of our history is, in its 

 details, so difficult as the English Conquest. None, to any 

 statement which may be made, requires so many qualifications. 

 The first faint flow of the Teutonic immigration was felt long 



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