THE NEW FOREST. 71 



found in this island when its state was more suitable to 

 them than at any time since : and so our conclusion may 

 be drawn that a thousand years ago those who felt the 

 indefinable charm of capturing the wild creatures of the 

 chase, would return from the swamp and from the forest 

 with much the same rewards of their skill and toil as the 

 sportsmen of to-day. 



" The reader may miss from the list in King Edward's 

 charter the proscribed wolf; but perhaps this may be 

 taken as a sign that the price set upon his head in an 

 earlier reign had exterminated him. We find his name at 

 least in the Forest of Woolmer (Wulvemere) ; but a single 

 specimen of the kind would have been as great a prodigy 

 when Queen Anne made her royal progress across that 

 forest, and had the five hundred red deer driven into 

 sight, as such a herd now would be to the traveller on his 

 way to Portsmouth. 



" Many another of the names of the Hampshire woods 

 survives the prevalence of the creature which originated it. 

 Brockenhurst has ceased to be the haunt of the badgers ; 

 Hackwood is no longer distinguished for its hawks ; Boar- 

 hunt is not now infested by the wild boar out of the Forest 

 of Bere. The cry of a bird, all but lost to us, may no 

 more be heard at Bitterne.* But does not the very choice 

 of such names testify to that which has ever been a ruling 

 characteristic of the inhabitants of this land, a passion for 

 the sports of the field ?" 



Mr Gilpin, of whom it has been intimated that he had 

 lived many years as a clergyman within the forest, 

 gives the following graphic description of its scenery in his 

 day: 



" On looking into a map of New Forest, and drawing an 

 imaginary line from Ringwood on the Avon to Dibden on 

 the bay of Southampton, the whole forest easily divides 



* A bittern (one of a paif probably) was found close to a cottage called Stowchester in 

 Woodmancote Holt in the year 1854, near a rushy pond. The bird drew persons front 

 all quarters to hear its booming. 



