174 Tlie New Forest : its History and its Scenery. 



stray waifs and legends of the past. In the New Forest Sir 

 Bevis of Southampton is no mythical personage, and the peasant 

 will tell how the Knight used to take his afternoon's walk, 

 across the Solent, from Leap to the Island. 



Here in the Forest still dwell fairies. The mischievous 

 sprite, Laurence, still holds men hy his spell and makes them 

 idle. If a peasant is lazy, it is proverbially said, " Laurence has 

 got upon him," or, "He has got a touch of Laurence." He 

 is still regarded with awe, and barrows are called after him. 

 Here, too, in the Forest still lives Shakspeare's Puck, a veritable 

 being, who causes the Forest colts to stray, carrying out word 

 for word Shakspeare's description, — 



" I am that merry wanderer of the night, 

 When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile 

 Neighing in likeness of a filly foal." 



(Midsummer Night's Dream, Act ii., Sc. 1.) 



This tricksy fairy, so the Forest peasant to this hour firmly 



believes, inhabits the bogs, and draws people into them, making 



merry, and laughing at their misfortunes, fulfilling his own 



roundelay — 



" Up and down, up and down, 

 I will lead them up and down ; 

 I am feared in field and town, 

 Goblin, lead them up and down." 



(Midsummer Nighfs Dream, Act iv., Sc. 2.) 



Only those who are eldest born are exempt from his spell. The 

 proverb of "as ragged as a colt Pixey " is everywhere to be 

 heard, and at which Drayton seems to hint in his Court of 



Faerie : — 



" This Puck seems but a dreaming dolt, 

 Still walking like a ragged colt." 



He does not, however, in the Forest, so much skim the milk, or 



