74 THE FORESTS OF E^TGLAiJD. 



den, where the forest is bounded by the extremity of the 

 Bay of Southampton. The want of water, however, is 

 recompensed by grand woody scenes, in which this part of 

 the forest equals, if not exceeds, any other part. In noble 

 distances, also, it excels ; for here the ground swells 

 higher than in the more maritime parts, and the distances 

 which these heights command consist often of vast exten- 

 sive forest scenes. 



" Besides the heaths, lawns, and woods, of which the 

 forest is composed, there is another kind of surface fouad 

 in many parts, which comes under none of these denomi- 

 nations, and that is the bog. Many parts of the forest 

 abound in springs ; and as these lands have ever been in 

 a state of nature, and of course undrained, the moisture 

 drains itself into the low grounds, where, as usual in other 

 rude countries, it becomes soft and spongy, and generates 

 bogs. These in some places are very extensive. In the 

 road between Brokenhurst aad Ringwood, at a place called 

 Longslade-bottom, one of these bogs extends three miles 

 without interruption, and is the common drain of all those 

 parts of the forest. In landscape, indeed, the bog is of 

 little prejudice ; it has in general the appearance of com- 

 mon verdure. But the traveller must be on his guard ;, 

 these tracts of deceitful ground are often dangerous to such 

 as leave the beaten roads and traverse the paths of forest. 

 A horse-track is not always a mark of security ; it is per- 

 haps only beaten by the little forest-horse, which will ven- 

 ture into a bog in quest of better herbage ; and his light- 

 ness secures him in a place where a larger horse, under 

 the weight of a rider, would flounder, if the traveller, 

 therefore, meet with a horse-track pointing into a swamp, ■ 

 even though he should observe it to emerge on the other 

 side, he had better relinquish it. The only track he can 

 prudently follow is that of wheels." 



It does not comport with my purpose to give details 

 here of all the forests of England ; nor does it comport 

 with my purpose to give details here of the recent history 



