CHAPTER II 



Between the Boldre and the Exe Abuse of the New Forest- 

 Character of the population New Forest code and conscience 

 A radical change foreshadowed Tenacity of the Forest fly 

 Oak woods of Beaulieu Swallow and pike Charm of Beau- 

 lieu Instinctive love of open spaces A fragrant heath 

 Nightjars Snipe Redshanks Peewits Cause of sympathy 

 with animals Grasshopper and spider A rapacious fly 

 Melancholy moods Evening on the heath " World- strange- 

 ness" Pixie mounds Death and burial The dead in the 

 barrows Their fear of the living. 



BETWEEN the Boldre and the Exe, or Beaulieu river, 

 there is a stretch of country in most part flat and 

 featureless. It is one of those parts of the Forest 

 which have a bare and desolate aspect ; here in 

 places you can go a mile and not find a tree or 

 bush, where nothing grows but a starved - looking 

 heath, scarcely ankle-deep. Wild life in such places 

 is represented by a few meadow pipits and small 

 lizards. There is no doubt that this barrenness and 

 naked appearance is the result of the perpetual cut- 

 ting of heath and gorse, and the removal of the thin 

 surface soil for fuel. 



Those who do not know the New Forest, or know 

 it only as a collecting or happy hunting-ground of 

 eggers and " lepidopterists," or as artists in search of 

 paintable woodland scenery know it, and others who 



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