Boldre churchyard, where a plain tomb marks the grave of himself and wife.

Boldre is an ancient village, being recorded in Doomsday Book by the name of Booreford. The church was in existence in the beginning of the twelfth century, and it still displays some interesting specimens of its original architecture, though parts of it, at subsequent periods, have been altered. The north side appears to have been added about the time of King John, as on one of the windows are the arms of Louis, the Dauphin of France, who had been invited to England during that troublesome reign. The church is finely situated on an eminence to the north of the village, and the Parsonage House, at Vicar's Hill, overlooks a wide extent of beautiful scenery. The intermediate woods gently incline towards the adjacent stream, which, widening as it proceeds, flows into the sea, at Lymington bridge. The profits which Mr. Gilpin derived from his pen and pencil were applied to the foundation of two parish schools, which adjoin each other, and are situated in an angle formed by the junction of two roads, one of which leads to Pilley, and thence to Boldre church, and the other to Vicar's Hill and Lymington. In these schools twenty boys, and as many girls, "taken as far as can be out of the daylabouring part of the parish of Boldre," are clothed and educated according to the direction of the founder. With a view to the permanent prosperity of these schools he sold most of his drawings; the first lot produced £1200, and the second, sold after his death, pursuant to his will, realised £1500. The whole of this sum was invested for the benefit of the children, and the future secure establishment of the blessings of education to the parish.

Ascending the opposite bank called Rope Hill, to Battram

sley, we have a beautiful view of the estuary of the Lymington river, which, when filled with the tide, forms a grand sweep in the sea. It is seen to most advantage from the top of the hill, a few yards out of the road on the right. The valley through which the river flows is broad; its screens are not lofty, but well varied and woody. The distance is formed by the sea and the Isle of Wight. At Battramsley we join the London road, and from hence to Brokenhurst the Forest exhibits little more than a wild heath, skirted here and there with distant wood. Brokenhurst is a pleasant forest village, lying in a valley adorned with lawns, groves and rivulets, and surrounded on the higher grounds by vast woods. The best view is from the churchyard, where an expanded prospect opens over the whole. On the left rise the woods of Hinchelsea, and adjoining to these the woods of Rhinville, whilst in the centre are the high grounds of Boldre wood. The little speck just seen among them is the Summer House, erected by Lord Delawar. The old church of Brokenhurst is evidently of Saxon origin, and the font will particularly interest the antiquary; it is a very antique and curious piece of workmanship, evidently formed when the custom of total immersion was prevalent. Watcombe House, in Brokenhurst Park, was for three years the residence of the philanthropic Howard, whose memory is still cherished by the poor inhabitants of the neighbourhood. To the southwest of Brokenhurst there is a heath called Sway Common, over which various tumuli or barrows are scattered, and these are supposed to be coeval with the earliest encounters of the Britons and Saxons.

The great avenue from Brokenhurst leads through the space of five or six miles. After we have mounted the summit o the hill, the close views in the descent on the other side are

very beautiful, consisting of little woody recesses, open groves or open glades, varied as they were before in different forms. The town of Lyndhurst makes a picturesque approach, and the delightful situation of Cuffnalls, a stately mansion to the left, strikes the eye with admiration, as thus traversing the finest part of the Forest we again reach the spot whence we first set out upon our woodland wanderings. From Lyndhurst the tourist can again return to Sonthampton, where we have one more pleasant jaunt in store, which may complete our survey of the Forest.

From Southampton the tourist may cross the water by the ferry steam-boat to Hythe, and thence proceed to Beaulieu Abbey, a distance of about five miles farther. The country round is very woody, and thickly overspread with beech, which in the pannage season, beginning about the end of September and lasting six weeks, furnish provender for thousands of hogs, which are here turned out for pasture. The river Beaulieu, taking its rise to the north-east of Lyndhurst, is an insignificant stream until it reaches the village on which it bestows its appellation, and here it expands into a lake covering many acres, and on the eastern side of which stands the Abbey. The old stone walls are in many places nearly entire, and finely mantled with ivy. It was founded for monks of the Cistercian order, in 1204, by King John, and its annual revenue at the dissolution was about £400. The visitor may still find remaining the apartments of the abbot, converted, after the suppression of monasteries, into a family seat, and having a high vaulted hall; a long building, which from its height and extent has been considered the dormitory; and the ancient kitchen and refectory, which furnish agreeable evidence of olden hospitality. This refectory, a plain stone struc

D

ture, with massive buttresses, and a curiously constructed oaken roof, now forms the parish church. The old Abbey church is entirely demolished; but there are still left some traces of the cloisters, and a gateway leading to the area enclosed by them is still standing. The privilege of sanctuary was long possessed by this Abbey, and it is recorded to have been afforded to Margaret of Anjou and her son, Prince Edward, on their landing in England at the time of the battle of Barnet, and to Perkin Warbeck, after the failure of his attempted usurpation of the throne.

There is a

The Abbey

The Knights Templars had also an hospital at Beaulieu, which they founded long before even the establishment of the Abbey. The ruins are now converted into farm buildings, and by many are mistaken for those of the Abbey. striking difference, however, in their situation. ruins are in a swampy hollow, whilst those of the Hospital are about half-a-mile distant from the water, and on rising ground, which commands views of Hurst Castle, the Needles, Spithead, and the towns of Yarmouth, Cowes, and Newport. A very delightful excursion may be made on a summer's day by sailing down the river to Exbury, a distance from Beaulieu of rather more than three miles. Disembarking here, there is a fine walk of barely five miles to Calshot Castle, with a varied panorama of inland and marine scenery the whole way. Calshot Castle, like that of Hurst, was built by Henry VIII. for the defence of the coast, and it will be seen that it occupies a commanding position at the mouth of the Southampton Water.

From Calshot we may proceed to Hythe back again by way of Fawley, or continue our excursion on to Dibden and Eling, and thence across the Southampton Water. Either way the route will be found fraught with everything that can gra

tify the eye and leave pleasurable impressions on the mind. When thousands are annually leaving our own shores for those of the Continent in search of scenic beauty, it is a matter of surprise and regret that the wild and romantic scenery of the New Forest, though now brought within so speedy a transit, should be, comparatively speaking, neglected and unexplored.

There is one peculiarity sure to strike the ear of the Londoner; he will find that the Hampshire dialect has a peculiar tendency to the corruption of pronouns by confounding their cases. This corruption prevails throughout the county, but it is in the neighbourhood of the New Forest that this Doric attains its highest perfection. Often will a pedestrian, musing among the monuments of an old churchyard, encounter some such touching elegy as the following:

Him shall never come again to we,

But us shall surely one day go to he.

And the conversational idioms of the peasantry are very much after the same fashion. We allude particularly to these provincialisms, for in making inquiries of the villagers in remote places, the replies would be in many cases incomprehensible without some such clue as that we have given.

Before concluding we must particularly invite the attention of invalids and lovers of marine pleasures to Bournemouth, one of the most delightful of sequestered watering-places, and of the future celebrity of which there can be no doubt. Dr. Granville, who has proved himself to be an excellent authority, gives Bournemouth the preference over all the bathingplaces of the southern and western coast. It enjoys a most romantic situation in the centre of a fine bay between Christchurch and Poole, with inland prospects of the New Forest,