[239]South-Western Parts of Hampshire, vol. i. pp. 69-79.

[240]Warner probably meant an overhanging brim, such as is common to most of the early Keltic cinerary urns, or, perhaps, one like that of the left-hand urn in the illustration at p. 196, which is more contracted than the others. He unfortunately gives us no dimensions.

[241]This camp was probably, since coins of Claudius have been found there, occupied by Vespasian, when he conquered the Isle of Wight. A bronze celt was found here some eighty years ago, and came into the possession of Warner. Others have been discovered, in great quantities, in various parts of the Forest, two of which are engraved in Archæologia, vol. v., plate viii., figs. 9 and 10. Brander, too, the well-known antiquary, found others at Hinton, on the west border of the Forest (Archæologia, vol. v. p. 115). Mr. Drayson has also picked up two flint knives at Eyeworth, which are figured, showing both the under and upper surfaces, at p. 206.

[242]As in Derbyshire all barrows are marked by the terminal low—hlœw, a grave, so in the Forest they seem particularized by a reference to the Old-English lic. Thus, near the Beaulieu barrows we find Lytton Copse and Common, and at the west end of the Forest, not far from Amberwood, meet another Latchmoor. I may notice that just outside the Forest, in Darrat’s Lane—a word which often occurs—we find a place, near some mounds, called “Brands,” equivalent to the “Brund” of Derbyshire, and having reference to the burning funeral pyre. (See Bateman’s Ten Years’ Diggings, Appendix, p. 290.)

[243]I certainly think that these urns were fired, though imperfectly. As Mr. Bateman remarks, sun-baked specimens soon return to their original clay. See Appendix to Ten Years’ Diggings, p. 280.

[244]I am inclined to think that here, as in the similar instance on Fritham Plain, the urns were put in the mound entire, and not, as is sometimes the case, in fragments. The pieces had no appearance of being burnt after the fractures had taken place, which were here simply the result of decay. See on this point Bateman’s Ten Years’ Diggings, pp. 191, 192, where Mr. Keller’s letter to Sir Henry Ellis on the subject is given.

[245]Instances have been known where the top of a Roman cinerary urn has been taken off, and replaced; but, from the narrowness of the neck, I hardly think this vessel was used for such a purpose. I give with it also a late British urn found, some twenty years ago, in a barrow outside the present Forest boundary, in a field known as Hilly Accombs, near Darrat’s Lane, which has been previously mentioned. It measures 6 inches in height, and has a circumference of 1 foot 9 inches round the top, and 1 foot at the base. With it was discovered another, but I have been unable to learn in whose possession it now is, or what has become of the Roman glass unguent bottle found in Denney Walk (see the Antiquities of the Priory of Christchurch, by B. Ferrey and E. W. Brayley, p. 2, foot-note). The two flint knives were discovered by Mr. Drayson, near Eyeworth Wood, and somewhat resemble the chipping found in the largest barrow at Bratley, and were, perhaps, cotemporary. The conchoidal fracture may be well seen in specimen on the right-hand side. The celts found by Warner and Brander, with others in the possession of Gough, mentioned at p. 199, foot-note, were bronze.

[246]There are two large heathy tracts known as Fritham Plain; the one to the east, where stand several large trenched barrows, which still remain to be opened; and the West Plain, where these excavations took place.

[247]An attempt to examine this barrow had been previously made, but the explorers had opened a little to the south-west of the spot where the pottery lay. It is just possible that the large square in Sloden may be of the same character. I cut a small opening at the western end, but it is impossible, on account of the trees, to make any satisfactory excavation. Whatever might have been its original purpose, it was certainly never the site of a church, as is commonly supposed. See ch. iii., p. 32, foot-note.

[248]To assist the archæologist, I have marked on the map the sites of all the barrows of which I am aware. In the British Museum is a small urn, found in a barrow at Broughton, on the borders of Hampshire, about twelve miles north of the Forest, measuring three inches in height, and, though so much less, somewhat resembling, with its two small ears, as also in the general character and texture of its ware, those found in the Bratley barrow. The Rev. J. Compton also informs me that some years ago a plain urn was discovered in a barrow on his father’s property at Minestead, in the Forest. I hear, too, that other urns have been found in barrows near Burley on the west, and near Butt’s Ash Lane on the east side of the Forest, but they have long ago been lost or destroyed, and I am unable to learn even their general form. I trust, therefore, permission will not be granted to open the mounds which are unexplored, except to those who can produce some credentials that they are fitted for the task, and are doing it from no idle curiosity, but legitimate motives. Too much harm has been already done, and too many barrows have been already rifled, without any record being made of their contents. Nearly all that we know of Kelt or Old-English we learn from their deaths. Their history is buried in their graves.

[249]In Mr. Birch’s Ancient Pottery, vol. ii. pp. 382, 383, will be found a list of the notices of the various discoveries of Keltic urns, scattered through the different Archæological Journals and Collections, which will save the student much time and labour. A most valuable paper on the subject, by Kemble, was published in the Archæological Journal vol. xii. number 48, p. 309.

[250]Archæologia, vol. xxxv. pp. 91-93.

[251]See, too, Mr. Carrington’s “Account of a Romano-British Settlement near Wetton, Staffordshire,” in Bateman’s Ten Years’ Diggings, pp. 194-200. I have never found any stone floors, but this may be accounted for by the difficulty of procuring paving-stones in the district. The best guide which I know for discovering any ancient settlements is the presence of nettles and chickweed, which, like the American “Jersey-weed,” always accompany the footsteps of man. These plants are very conspicuous in the lower parts of Sloden, as also at the Crockle and Island Thorn potteries.

[252]The spot where these banks intersect each other is known as Sloden Hole, and is well worthy of notice. The annexed plan will best show the character of the place. The largest bank is that which runs to the south-west, measuring four yards across, and proving by its massiveness that it is a Roman work. Upon digging, as shown in the plan, at the point of intersection, we found pieces of iron and iron slag, sandstone, charcoal, and Roman pottery similar to that made in Crockle. Many of these banks run for long distances. That to the south-east reaches the top of Sloden Green, about half a mile off, whilst the north-east bank stretches for nearly a mile to Whiteshoot. There are, too, other banks scattered about Sloden, which, if examined, would doubtless yield similar results, but none are so well defined as these. The largest bank which I know in the district stretches from Pitt’s Enclosure, in a south-easterly direction across Anderwood, and so through the southern parts of Sloden.

[253]The most noticeable specimens which I discovered were a strainer or colander, a funnel, some fragments of “mock Samian” ware; part of a lamp, with the holes to admit air, as also for suspension; and some beads of Kimmeridge clay, proving, by being found here, their Roman origin. The iron tools of the workmen had been dropped into the furnace, and were a good deal melted. The wood owed its preservation to the ferruginous soil in which it was imbedded, and was in a semi-fossilized state. Nothing less slight than a plank could have lasted so long. The finger-marks and impress of the hand were very plain on one of the masses of brick-earth. The coin, I am sorry to say, is too much worn to be recognized. These, with the other vessels, pateræ, urceoli, lagenæ, pocula, acetabula, &c., I have placed in the British Museum, where is also Mr. Bartlett’s rich collection. The patterns, with the necks of ampullæ and gutti, as also the specimens at pages 214, 225, will, I trust, give some general idea of the beauty of the ware, and can be compared with those given by Mr. Akerman in Archæologia, vol. xxxv. p. 96, and by Mr. Franks in the Archæological Journal, vol. x. p. 8. The commonest shape for a drinking-vessel is the right-hand figure at page 225, known in the Forest, from the depressions made by the workman’s thumb, as a “thumb pot.” Sometimes it is met with considerably ornamented, and varies in height from three to ten inches. The principal part of the pottery is slate-coloured and grey, and faint yellow, but some of a fine red bronze and morone, caused by the overheating of the ovens. The patterns are thrown up by some white pigment, though a great many are left untouched by anything but the workman’s tool. When chipped, the ware, by being so well burnt, is quite siliceous. This manufactory, as its size would show, was not confined to merely supplying the wants of the immediate neighbourhood, but probably, with others at Alice Holt and elsewhere, furnished a great part of the South of England with its earthenware, for fragments of the same make, shape, and texture, have been found at Bittern (Clausentum), and Chichester, though doubtless a similarity of workmanship prevailed amongst many of the potteries. The so-called crockery of the southern part of the Forest is nothing else but the plates of turtles imbedded in the Freshwater marls.

[254]Archæologia, vol. xxxv. pp. 95, 96.

[255]See Journal of the Archæological Association, vol. xii. pp. 141-145, where some figures of the jars are given.

[256]In Eyeworth Wood I have found pieces of Roman wine and oil flasks, but they were left here by the former inhabitants, and not made on the spot. The place known as Church Green is evidently the site of a habitation. In the autumn of 1862 I made several excavations; but there was some difficulty attending the work, as the ground had been previously explored by the late Mr. Lewis, the author of the Historical Inquiries on the State of the New Forest. The evidence, however, of the Roman pottery was sufficient to show its occupation during the Roman period, and to dispel the illusion that it was ever the site of a church. On the north-east side of the wood are the remains of a fine Roman camp, the agger and vallum being in one place nearly complete.

[257]I may add that Mr. Drayson also possesses coins of Victorinus, and Claudius Gothicus, found in various parts of the Forest, the last in one of the “thumb-pots,” with 1700 others, perhaps, indicating the period when the Crockle and Island Thorn Potteries were in their most flourishing condition.

[258]In Archæologia, vol. xxxv. p. 99, Mr. Akerman has given a series of patterns, which show the variety of designs according to the fancy of each workman. The pattern on the right-hand side of our second illustration at p. 223 is used as a border in the toga of the later Roman empire. The height of the wine vessel at p. 214 is seven inches and a half; of the oil-flask at p. 225, five inches; of the largest drinking cup, five inches; and the smallest, three inches and three-quarters; the jar, two inches.

[259]The following dates prior to 1700 of the Parish Registers in the Forest district are taken from the Parish Register Abstract: Accounts and Papers: 1833, vol. xxviii. (No. 13), p. 398:—

[260]See chapter v., p. 51, foot-note.

[261]Part of the Act is quoted in Burn’s History of Parish Registers, second edition, pp. 26 and 27, and where, at pp. 159, 160, 161, are given several examples of this kind of marriage—amongst them, that of Oliver Cromwell’s daughter Frances, in 1657, from the Register of St. Martin-in-the-Fields.

[262]Burn, in his History of Parish Registers, second edition, pp. 171, 172, 173, gives several similar instances of such licences. These most valuable books at Ellingham are, notwithstanding the incumbent’s care, in a shocking state of preservation. I trust some transcript of them may be made before they quite fall to pieces. Ellingham also possesses another book containing the names of the owners of the different pews in the church in 1672, invaluable to any local historian. In the beginning of this book are inserted a number of law-forms of agreements, wills, and indentures, probably for the use of the clergyman, who was, perhaps, consulted by his parishioners in worldly as also spiritual matters. In the Register there is, unfortunately, no mention of the death of Alice Lisle, as the burials are torn out from 1664 to 1695.

[263]See Notes and Queries. First Series, vol. ii., pp. 344, 345. In the Churchwardens’ Books of Fordingbridge we find—“1609. For smoke-mony, for makynge and deliveringe of the bills xvj^d,” which would confirm the first explanation given in the text.

[264]30 Car. II., cap. iii. See Journals of the House of Commons, vol. viii., p. 650; ix., p. 440. In Burn’s History of Parish Registers, second edition, p. 117, may be found a much more complicated affidavit than those given in the text.

[265]See chap. v., pp. 57, 58. It is just possible that by his “τὰς πλησίον νήσους,” Diodorus may mean the Shingle Islands, which we have described in chapter xiv. p. 151, and whose sudden appearance and disappearance would lead to the most extravagant reports.

[266]“On the Newer Deposits of the Sussex Coast:” Geological Journal, vol. xiii. pp. 64, 65.

[267]In the coast-map at p. 148, the principal beds are marked, so that, I trust, there will be no difficulty in finding them.

[268]For the direction of the river from east to west, see a paper “On the Discovery of an Alligator and several New Mammalia in Hordwell Cliff,” by Searles Wood, F.G.S.: London Geological Journal, No. 1., pp. 6, 7.

[269]“The Freshwater Strata of Hordwell Cliff, Beacon Cliff, and Barton Cliff:” Transactions of the Geological Society, second series, vol. ii., p. 287.

[270]“Stratigraphical Account of the Section of Hordwell, Beckton, and Barton Cliffs:” The Annals and Magazine of Natural History, June, 1851. In making these measurements I was very greatly assisted by the Rev. W. Fox, who was most untiring to ensure accuracy.

[271]See the Geological Journal, vol. iv., p. 17; as also, Professor Owen’s Monograph on “The Fossil Reptilia of the London Clay,” published by the Palæontographical Society, 1850, p. 48.

[272]Some of the most characteristic shells in this bed may perhaps be mentioned:—

[273]For the High Cliff Beds, see Mr. Fisher’s paper on the Bracklesham Sands of the Isle of Wight Basin, in the Proceedings of the Geological Society, May, 1862, pp. 86-91, whose divisions are here followed.

[274]All these beds are shown in the large map by the word “Fossils,” there not being space enough to particularize each bed.

[275]These beds were discovered by Mr. Fisher in 1861, and for the following measurements I am indebted to Mr. Keeping. We find, about one hundred yards in a south-eastward direction from the point where the footpath from Brook to Fritham crosses the stream, (1) the Coral Bed, the equivalent of that at Stubbington, full of crushed Dentalia and Serpulæ, six inches. (2) Sandy light blue clay, with very few fossils, seven feet. (3) Verdigris-green and slate-coloured clay, characterized near the top by a new species of Dentalium, Serpulorbis Morchii (?), and Spondylus rarispina. The other typical shells are Voluta Maga, several species of Arca and Corbula gallica, five feet. It is in this bed that large roots of trees and ferns are found.

[276]I say probably, for Professor Owen, who examined the specimen, states that it is of a bovine animal of about the same size as Bos longifrons, but does not yield sufficiently distinct characters for an exact specific identification.

[277]I had intended to have accompanied this description with a group of some of the best fossils from this pit, including the fruit, fish-spines, and palates, and the large Pleurotoma attenuata. It was, in fact, commenced by the artist. But the specimens were obliged to be so greatly reduced, that the drawing gave no complete idea of their form and beauty, and would only have confused the reader. I have, therefore, contented myself with figuring at p. 249, in its matrix of clay, the rare Natica cepacea (?), which has passed into Mr. Edwards’ fine collection, and who has kindly allowed me the use of it, with the characteristic Cassidaria nodosa, and a lovely Calyptræa trochiformis, found, as mentioned, inside a Cardita. At p. 244, the specimens given from the Shepherd’s Gutter Beds are Cerithium trilinum (Edw. MS.), Voluta uniplicata, and, in the centre, a shell, showing oblique folds on the columella, which Mr. Edwards thinks may be identical with Fusus incertus of Deshayes.

[278]In one place only in the Forest, on some waste ground at Alum Green, have I seen this plant.

[279]On this point see what Bromfield observes in his Introduction to the Flora Vectensis, p. xxvi.

[280]In Appendix II. I have given a list of all the characteristic plants of the New Forest to assist the collector; and, I trust, comprehensive enough for the botanist to make generalizations.

[281]Besides these we have all over the Forest Lastrea Filix-mas, and dilatata, and Asplenium adiantum nigrum, and Polystichum angulare, with its varieties, angustatum and aculeatum, found near Fordingbridge. My friend, Mr. Rake, who discovered angustatum, found also, in February, 1856, near Fordingbridge, Lastrea spinulosa, but it has never since been seen in the locality.

[282]The Forest would afford a good field for deciding the controversy as to whether our tame pigs are descended from the European Wild Boar. (See Proceedings of the Zoological Society, 1861, p. 264; and Annals and Magazine of Natural History, Third Series, vol. ix. p. 415.) Certain it is that here are some breeds distinct in their markings. I must not, too, forget to mention Coronella lævis (Boie), which is found in the Forest, as also in Dorsetshire and Kent. This is the Coronella austriaca of Laurenti, and afterwards the Coluber lævis of Lacépede. It might be mistaken for the common viper (Pelias berus), but differs in not being venomous, as also from the ringed snake (Natrix torquata) in having a fang at the hinder extremity of its jaws, the peculiarity of the genus Coronella. It feeds on lizards, which its fang enables it to hold; drinks a great deal of water; and Dr. Günther, of the British Museum, to whom I am indebted for the above information, tells me that it crawls up the furze and low bushes to lick the rain off the leaves. For a list of the Lepidoptera of the New Forest, see Appendix IV.

[283]Vol. i. p. 26.

[284]Illustrations of the Eggs of British Birds, by W. C. Hewitson, vol. i. p. 27.

[285]As so few opportunities occur of weighing the eggs of the honey-buzzard and hobby, the following notes, most carefully made by Mr. Rake and myself, may not be without interest:—

[286]As the instances of the breeding of the merlin, especially under these circumstances, will always be very rare, I may as well add my own personal observations. In the spring of 1861 I received three eggs taken not far from the Knyghtwood Oak, and said to have been found in the hole of a beech. As I am not in the habit of paying any attention to the mere stories which are so plentiful, I did not, therefore, examine them with any attention, and put them aside as merely kestrel’s. After, however, Mr. Farren’s communication to me, I looked out particularly for this little hawk, but only once saw it in the open ground, near Warwickslade Cutting, from whence it flew up, perching for a moment on a holly, and then making off to the woods. On June 4th, however, I observed a hen bird fly out of a hole, about twenty feet from the ground, in an old beech in Woolstone’s Hill, on the east side of Haliday’s Hill Enclosure. There were, however, no eggs. On the 5th I went again, and the bird, when I was about fifty yards from the tree, again flew off. Still, there were no eggs. I did not return till the 9th, when the nest, now pulled out of the hole, had been robbed. It was made of small sticks, and a considerable quantity of feather-moss, and some fine grass, and in general character resembled the nests of the bird found by Mr. Hewitson in Norway. In the holes were the bones of young rabbits, but these had, from their bleached appearance, been brought by a brown owl, who had reared her brood there in the previous summer. I afterwards learnt where the three eggs had been taken in 1861; but there was nothing, with the exception of a few sticks, in the hole, which was in this case about ten feet from the ground, and placed also in a beech on the edge of Barrowsmoor. Great caution, however, must be exercised regarding the merlin’s eggs; for I am inclined to think that the kestrel, contrary to its usual practice, sometimes also breeds in the Forest in the holes of trees. The egg mentioned at p. 264, foot-note, brought to me on June 17th, 1862, I have every reason to believe is a merlin’s, but could not quite satisfy myself as to the evidence.

[287]For some account of the little owl (Strix passerina), see Appendix III. under the section of Stragglers, p. 314.

[288]Vol. ii. p. 57.

[289]Yarrell, vol. ii. p. 139.

[290]Passed in the twenty-fourth year of Henry VIII., 1532. Statutes of the Realm, vol. iii., p. 425, 426. It should, however, be remembered that under the term chough was in former times included the whole of the Corvidæ. Shakspeare’s “russet-pated choughs” are evidently jackdaws.

[291]In Appendix III. is given a list of all the birds hitherto observed in the New Forest District, as also more special information, which I thought would not interest the general reader.

[292]Collections for the History of Hampshire, by Richard Warner, vol. iii., pp. 37, 38. A brief list of Hampshire words will also be found in Notes and Queries, First Series, vol. x., No. 250, p. 120. Mr. Halliwell, in his account of the English Provincial Dialects, p. xx., prefixed to his Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, mentions a MS. glossary of the provincialisms of the Isle of Wight, by Captain Henry Smith, of which he has made use.

[293]The numbers after a plant refer to its numerical place in the London Catalogue, whose nomenclature, and arrangement have been followed. The English synonyms have been chiefly taken from Smith.

[294]Scirpus parvulus (R. and S.), mentioned by Rev. G. E. Smith as growing “on a mud-flat near Lymington,” is now extinct. See Watson’s Cybele Britannica, vol. iii. p. 78; and Bromfield, in the Phytologist, vol. iii., 1028.