Aurthor: Sidney Heath (b1872)
Artist: Ernest William Haslehurst (b1866)

From the arthor:The scenery which impresses most of us is certainly that in which Nature is seen in her wild and primitive condition, telling us of growth and decay, and of the land's submission to eternal laws unchecked by the hand of man.

Yet we also feel a certain pleasure in the contemplation of those scenes which combine natural beauty with human artifice, and attest to the ability with which architectural science has developed Nature's virtues and concealed natural disadvantages.

From the arthor: The county of Hants, at the earliest period of which any reliable records exist, was occupied by a Celtic tribe called by Roman writers the Belgae, who also possessed the counties of Wiltshire and Somersetshire. The greater part of the county was covered with trackless forests, in which herds of deer and wild hogs roamed, and was very thinly inhabited by the people who hunted them.

From the text: The New Forest - According to the perambulation made in the twenty-second year of the reign of Chartes II, the Forest extended from Godshill, on the north-west, to the sea, about twenty miles ; and from Hardley, on the east, to Ringwood. on the west, about fifteen miles, the entire area comprising ninety-two thousand three hundred and sixty-five acres.

Nancy Bell (Aka - Mrs Arthur Bell)

From the author: From whatever point of view the beautiful coast district between Christchurch Estuary and Poole Harbour is considered, it is full of absorbing interest. The student of geology and prehistoric lore, the archaeologist, the historian, and the naturalist find in it an inexhaustible field of enquiry, whilst its romantic scenery affords an infinite variety of subjects for the artist.

From the text:The oldest strata now to be considered are the Bagshot sands of lacustrine or fluviatile origin beneath Poole Harbour, that extend eastwards till they are replaced near Hengistbury Head by the Bracklesham sands, which differ greatly from them. These sands were laid down in a southern sea, not in such fresh or brackish water as the earlier Bagshot beds, a sea that extended over much of what was to become Northern France, and gradually increased in depth during the formation of the deposits, layers of shells of mollusca such as could not have lived in shallow water occurring in them.

Reverend Telford Varley (1886 to 1938)

From the text: The New Forest, as might be supposed, is a remarkably good collecting-ground, not only for Lepidoptera, but also for beetles, of which there are many rare species, and several that are found nowhere else.

Wood names are numerous. Clearings are "cleres," as Kingsclere, Burghclere, and Highclere. "wood" occurs in Woodhay (Wood-hedge), Odiham (woodyham). "holt," "hurst," "shaw," all meaning wood, in Linkenholt (wood of limes), Brockenhurst (badger's wood) and Bramshaw. Woods growing down the slopes of a hill are hanging woods, or "hangers," as in Oakhanger, and wild life is reflected in "Wolvesey" (Wolves' Isle), Wolmer (wolves' mere or wolves'pond), and Brockenhurst as mentioned above.
 

William Henry Hudson (1841-1922) Author, naturalist and ornithologist.

From the author: The greater part of the matter contained in this volume has not appeared before. In the first half of the book use has been made of an article on "Summer in the Forest" from Longman's Magazine. In the second half I have drawn on articles from the same periodical, on "A Summers End on the lichen". I have also made use of an article from the Badminton Magazine.

From the text: Hornet and Bank-Vole: Wishing to see more, I spent most of that day and the day following at the spot, and saw hornet and vole meet many times. If the vole was at the sap when the hornet came he was at once driven off, and when the hornet was there first the vole was never allowed to feed....