Preface: Whether the following poem will give its author any claim to be considered a child of nature, and to have produced a poem in harmony with truth, beauty and utility, the reader must judge. Both the poet and his poem, therefore, should be children of nature, not of art.

As there are many proofs that Southampton was a place of importance in the earliest times of the Saxons, it must have been a considerable British town before the Romans left this Island, and was perhaps a British town before they attempted its conquest.

Preface: The following book is an annual register of the principal sporting events that have taken place in the county of Hants during the last century.

The information has in a great measure been derived from private diaries, and has been communicated by many old sportsmen still living.

The Author is also greatly indebted to the Editors of BelVs Life and the Hants Chronicle for allowing him free access to their back files.

Rev John Edward Kelsall (1864 to 1924) Vicar of East Boldre from 1893 to 1897.

From the author: We have collected particulars of 294 species which have occurred in the county (not including many which are of doubtful occurrence or have been introduced. These may be divided among the following classes

85 The Residents
42 The Summer Visitors
70 The Winter Visitor
36 The Occasional Visitors
61 The Accidental Visitors

A look at the minister's accounts before the black death. With details of estates relating to Winchester. Plus a chapter on the manors of Witney, Brightwell and Downton. The part played by the great pestilences of the fourteenth century in the economic evolution of England has given rise to much discussion and has been regarded, at one time, as the principal cause of the crisis in the agrarian history of the Middle Ages. 

Main Chapters:
1 - BEFORE THE BLACK DEATH
2 - THE IMMEDIATE EFFECTS OF THE BLACK DEATH
3 - SOME GENERAL CONCLUSIONS

Captain Frederick Marryat (1792 to 1848).

The date is 1647. The story is set in the time of the English Civil War and the Commonwealth. It follows the fortunes of the four Beverley children who are orphaned during the war, and hide from their Roundhead oppressors in the shelter of the New Forest where they learn to live off the land.

The Children of the New Forest was one of the first historical novels written for a young audience. It was particularly successful in fixing the image of the English Civil War as a quarrel of opposites, with dour Roundheads versus swashbuckling Cavaliers.

During two short visits to Burley, a quiet country village in the New Forest in Hampshire, I made some notes of the dialect, as spoken by the older residents, who had spent all their lives in the village. I have now put them together, in order to give some idea of the differences between that dialect and standard spoken English, in pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, and idiom.

I presume that the dialect of Burley may be taken as fairly typical of the speech of the New Forest, and as representing what remains of the language of the West Saxons.

Hampshire Details:
● Situation and Extent
● Ancient State and Remains
● Present State and Appearance
● Seats
● Populations as of 1821
● History - From 43 to 1815 AD
● Eminent Natives
● Miscellaneous Observations
● Referenced List of Works

From "The Saturday Review": It is many years since we have read a new poem so instinct with the immutable attributes of poetry, so free from current cant and trick, and animated by an inspiration so warm and native and unfailing. The drama, though classic in subject, is modem in form, and almost denuded of lyrical ornament.

There is no chorus and there are no experiments in Greek metres. Still more characteristic is the interpolation of certain humorous scenes conceived in the wanton spirit of the Elizabethan drama ; and, underlying all, runs an eccentric vein of fateful irony, which affords the most individual expression of the author's genius.

Book Introduction: Reference is made to arrangements proposed by the British Government in 1870 for the preparation and publication of a compilation of information in regard to the past history and management of English Forests and to circumstances which have led meanwhile to arrangements for the publication of this compilation.

In the absence of any previous work for the Commissioners of Woods and Forests, I prepared for myself a rough sketch of the history of British forests, and the treatment of them from the earliest times to the present ; and this having served my purpose, I have filled up the outline and revised the compilation for the press, hoping that in the lack of something better it may be acceptable to others desiring such information.

Local Notes and Queries, and other Antiquarian and Natural History Matters connected with the County of Hampshire.

From the preface: It has often been suggested that there should be some permanent record of the meetings of the Hampshire Field Club. This Club is doing much by its periodical visits to various parts of the county to make known many interesting features in out of the way corners, and to elicit an interest in local antiquities, which has already borne fruit in increased study and better preservation.

The only full and regularly published reports of these meetings are those of The Hampshire Independent, and the republication of these will doubtless be welcomed by many besides members of the Club.

This vivid biography, written by John Dickson Carr, benefits from his full access to the archives of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, to his notebooks, diaries, press clippings, and voluminous correspondence. Like his creation Sherlock Holmes, Doyle had "a horror of destroying documents," and they accumulated to vast amount throughout his house at Windlesham. They provide many of the words incorporated by Carr in this portrayal of Doyle's forays into politics, his infatuation with spiritualism, his literary ambitions, and dinner-table conversations with friends like H. G. Wells and King Edward VII.

Carr, then, in a sense collabourates with his subject to unfold a colourful narrative that takes Doyle from his school days at Stonyhurst to Edinburgh University and a medical practice at Southsea, where he conceived the idea of wedding scientific study to criminal investigation in the fictive person of Sherlock Holmes. It also explores the private tragedy of Doyle's first marriage and long-delayed second as it follows him into the arena of public activity, propaganda, and literary output that would win him both celebrity and a knighthood.

An index and explanation of various Books and miscellaneous writings from 1307 to 1884.

From the authors: Few of our provincial boroughs possess muniments (Title Deeds) of greater value to the constitutional historian than the manuscripts to which public attention is here invited. Consisting of Books, Charters and Lettern Patent, Deeds, Municipal and Private, Letters and Loose Memoranda, and Rolls all belonging to the Corporation of Southampton.

1. Charters and Letters Patent
2. Deeds, Municipal and Private
3. Letters and Loose Memoranda
4. Polls and Miscellaneous Documents

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.

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....

George Manville Fenn (1831 to 1909).

Young Walter Froy is out fishing when he discovers and rescues a mallnourished Jacobite French boy, Godfrey Boyne.

From this meeting trouble ensues as it involves the village constable and units of the army.

More info here: https://archive.org/details/GM_Fenn_The_New_Forest_Spy

John Richard de Capel Wise (1831 to 1890).

The New Forest: its History and Scenery’ was first published in 1863. The book by which all others are measured.

It ran to five editions with a number of variations in the 19th century together with a reprint in the 20th. It remains a standard work because he captured an understanding of the area by his own observations and enquiries together with enlisting help from many local specialists.

The book contained sixty-two illustrations drawn by Walter Crane and engraved by William James Linton. Wise walked through the district with Walter Crane selecting the views to illustrate. This would prove to be Wise's most successful book

Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (1859 to 1930).

The White Company. The story is set in England, France, and Spain, in the years 1366 and 1367, against the background of the campaign of Edward, the Black Prince, to restore Peter of Castile to the throne of the Kingdom of Castile.

The climax of the book occurs before the Battle of Nájera. The "White Company" of the title is a free company of archers, led by one of the main characters. The name is taken from a real-life 14th-century Italian company,

Gerald Lascelles was the 2nd Deputy Surveyor of the New Forest from 1880 to 1914. This book contains a detailed account of the author's time at The Queen's House in Lyndhurst while overseeing 92,000 acres. The The Forestry Commission was not established till 1919.

From the author: "....From the time of my appointment to that of my retirement, my leisure hours, except when on leave, were few, and had always to be made up for by working double tides. My home, however, was in the New Forest, at the old King's House (the Queen's House for all the earlier years of my service) at Lyndhurst ; and it is with my experiences there, rather than with my other work, that I propose to deal in these pages. I do not propose to attempt anything in the shape of a history of the New Forest that would be a difficult and much more serious undertaking!"

Hermann Lea (1869-1952)

From the author: The object of this book, as its title indicates, is to depict the Wessex country of Thomas Hardy, with a view to discovering the real places which served as bases for the descriptions of scenery and backgrounds given us in the novels and poems. The Wessex of the novels and poems is practically identical with the Wessex of history, and includes the counties of Berkshire, Wilts, Somerset, Hampshire, Dorset and Devon.

It is believed that Moyles Court near Ringwood was the setting for Bramhurst Court in Tess of the D'Urbervilles. On the edge of Hardy's 'Great Forest'.

A detailed desciption of Roads and their condition in 1819. Plus a list of Rivers and Lakes. Towns are detailed along with local industry, mining, fisheries, trade and commerce. A look at the agriculture for each area. Details of regular markets including the type of produce for sale. Curiosities, Antiquities and Natural History.

From the text: A COPIOUS TRAVELLING GUIDE: Exhibiting The Direct and principal Cross Heads, Inns and Distance of Stages, and Noblemen's and Gentlemen's Seats, Forming a COMPLETE COUNTY ITINERARY.

Edric Edwin Holmes (1873 to 1949).

From the author: Badgers and otters are common, as is the ubiquitous squirrel. The badger, however, is seldom seen by the chance visitor by reason of its nocturnal habits, but it is said to be more numerous than in any similar wild tract in the south. The smaller wild mammals, carnivorous and herbivorous, and a truly representative family of birds, including one or two rare visitors, have here a perfect sanctuary. The forest is obviously a happy hunting ground for the lepidopterist and botanist....

....Not far from Stoney Cross on the way to Fritham, are a number of prehistoric graves clustered closely together, and an interesting relic of the Roman occupation exists at Sloden where there are mounds of burnt earth, charcoal, and broken pottery.