40 The Neiv Forest ; its History and its Scenery. 



a forest is rather an account of its trees and its flowers and 

 birds, than an historical narrative. Yet even here there are 

 some important facts connected with the nation's life, and illus- 

 trating the character of its kings. 



We meet with no perambulation of the New Forest until 

 the eighth year of Edward I. — the second ever made of an 

 English forest— and, by comparing it with Domesday, we may 

 see how, since the Conqueror's time, the Forest had gradually 

 taken the natural limits of the country — the Avon and the 

 Southampton Water bounding it on the east and west, and the 

 sea on the south, and the chalk of Wiltshire on the north.* 



The next perambulation in the twenty-ninth year of the 

 same reign is more noticeable, f as it disafforests so much. It is 

 the same perambulation which we find made in the twenty-second 



* The following translation is made from the original in the Record 

 Office Southt Plita Foreste, Ao viii.o E. I.""* "The metes and boundaries 

 of the New Forest from the first time it was afforested. First, from Hude- 

 burwe to Folkewell ; thence to the Redechowe ; thence to the Bredewelle , 

 thence to Brodenok ; thence to the Chertihowe ; thence to the Brygge ; 

 thence to Burnfurd , thence to Kademannesforde ; thence to Selney Water : 

 thence to Orebrugge ; thence to the Wade as the w^ater runs , thence to 

 the Elldeburwe ; thence to Meche ; thence to Redebrugge as the bank of 

 the Terste runs ; thence to Kalkesore as the sea runs ; thence to the Hurste, 

 along the sea-shore ; thence to Christ Church Bridge as the sea flows ; 

 thence as the Avene extends, as far as the bridge of Forthingebrugge ; 

 thence as the Avene flows to Moletone; thence as the Avene flows to 

 Northchardeford and Sechemle ; and so in length by a ditch, which 

 stretches to Herdeberwe." It is this old natural boundary which, as stated 

 in the pieface, we have adopted ibr the limits of the book. A copy of the 

 original may be found in the Journals of the House of Commons, vol. xliv., 

 appendix, p. 574, 1789. 



f This may also be found, with the perambulation made in the twenty- 

 second year of Charles IL, in the Journal of the House of Commons, 

 vol. xliv., appendix, pp. 574, 575, 1789. It is also given in Lewis's Histo- 

 rical Enquiries upon the New Forest, appendix ii. pp. 174-177. 



