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

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.

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