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.

VOLUME ! - "There is no better way of rediscovering a lost but still not forgotten England than to turn to the colourful pages of William Cobbett's Rural Rides," writes Asa Briggs in the Introduction to this volume.

Already when Cobbett began to write the accounts of his journeys in 1821, the England which he had known as a boy was beginning to look and to feel different. The landscape was changing as a result of the double impact of agricultural enclosure and the growth of towns: society too was changing as a result of the combined influences of industry, finance and war.

To many of Cobbett's contemporaries the changes were good, visible signs of the " march of improvement"; to Cobbett and his followers they were bad, but it still seemed that there was time enough to reverse them. "Events are working together".

Cobbett wrote in 1825, "to make the country worth living in which, for the great body of the people, is at present hardly the case." It was for the sake of discovering the true state of affairs and appealing to others to help promote the proper remedies that Cobbett began to travel round England.

VOLUME 2 - "There is no better way of rediscovering a lost but still not forgotten England than to turn to the colourful pages of William Cobbett's Rural Rides," writes Asa Briggs in the Introduction to this volume.

Already when Cobbett began to write the accounts of his journeys in 1821, the England which he had known as a boy was beginning to look and to feel different. The landscape was changing as a result of the double impact of agricultural enclosure and the growth of towns: society too was changing as a result of the combined influences of industry, finance and war.

To many of Cobbett's contemporaries the changes were good, visible signs of the " march of improvement"; to Cobbett and his followers they were bad, but it still seemed that there was time enough to reverse them. "Events are working together".

Cobbett wrote in 1825, "to make the country worth living in which, for the great body of the people, is at present hardly the case." It was for the sake of discovering the true state of affairs and appealing to others to help promote the proper remedies that Cobbett began to travel round England.

From the author: In these modern days, when towns are increasing on every side, and the new idea of garden cities threatens to swallow up what little is left us of the true country, it is good to remember that in one quiet corner of Hampshire lies a sanctuary, a little region set apart with its own laws and customs for over eight centuries for the preservation of wild life....

....Coldharbour (Col d'arbres "The ridge or neck of trees".... It is generally the vanners who come to this spot, vagrants rather than true gipsies ("Diddyki", the Romany calls them), and untidy in their leavings, which the genuine gipsy seldom is. These prefer to set up their snug little tents in the thicket of the Brake just across the plain. Here I have found a young mother with an infant of days in a tent on hoops, not much larger than a gig-umbrella, a fire hard by in a bell tent with a hole at the top. Going to pay a call with a pink flannel to wrap the baby in, I found mother and child warm and happy....

Charles John Cornish (1858 to 1906).

1 - THE CENTRAL FOREST AND ITS CAPITAL
2 - THE CENTRAL FOREST CONTINUED
3 - THE WILD DEER AND FOREST PONIES
4 - THE NORTHERN FOREST
5 - THE SOUTHERN FOREST AND BEAULIEU

From the text: Lyndhurst - The town has no mean outskirts, or squalid surroundings. The woodlands run up to its old houses like a sea ; and the parks surrounding the fine mansions, which fringe the forest capital, are mere incidents in its scenery, lost and absorbed in the wild woods around them.

Beyond Emery Down - The only trace of man's presence was the rudest and most primitive dwelling known to civilized life. In the centre of a clearing, surrounded on three sides by a towering ring of monster beeches, was a deserted charcoal burner's hut, with the "burning circle" in front of the door.