tiquity. It appears to have been of some consequence even in the times of the Saxons. The ancient historian Bede calls it Reodford, or the ford of reeds.

Camden

says, that its name was changed to Redbridge, on account of the erecting of a bridge over the ford.* Its present name, however, was fixed before the Norman conquest, since it is called Rodbridge in Domesday book, A monastery, founded here in the Saxon times, was probably the origin of the village; but, from unknown causes, this institution came to an end at some very remote period. No trace of its existence is left, except in an anecdote of one of the abbots, preserved by the industry of Bede.

About the year 687, Ceadwalla, king of Wessex, having subdued the isle of Wight, treated the inhabitants with unexampled rigour and inhumanity. The two young brothers of Arvandus, the petty king of the island, having escaped the tyrant's search, crossed over to the coast of Hampshire, concealing themselves at a place called "Ad Lapidem."† But, being betrayed, they were brought to the savage Ceadwalla, who ordered them to instant execution. Cynbreth, abbot of Redbridge, hearing of this, went to the king, and besought him, that, if the lads must die, they might first receive baptism. The

* In forming the causeway between Redbridge and Totton, three rows of piles were discovered; which probably belonged to an ancient foot bridge, extending from one village to the other.

+ Some writers conjecture that this was Stoneham; but it is more likely to have been a place in the parish of Fawley, still called Stone, near the sea shore, immediately opposite to the isle of Wight. See Sir Richard Worsley's History of the isle of Wight, p. 28; or Warner's History, p. 96.

king granted his request; and the abbot, (according to the author's expressions) "having instructed them in the word of truth, and washed them in the fountain of salvation, made them certain of their entrance into the kingdom of heaven; and immediately afterwards, the executioner approaching them to obey the commands of Ceadwalla, they cheerfully submitted to a temporal death, as a sure and certain passage to eternal life.”*

In the year 1795, Brigadier-general Bentham received permission from the lords of the admiralty to put into execution, at Redbridge, certain experiments in naval architecture; in which he proposed to effect so considerable a saving of timber, as not to consume more than an eighth part of that which is employed in the ordinary mode of ship building. He first built two vessels called gun schooners, and gave them the names of the Redbridge and the Millbrook. They were from 140 to 160 tons burthen: one of them carrying sixteen and the other fourteen eighteen-pounders. The next two, named the Dart and the Arrow, were of 630 tons each, carrying twenty-eight thirty-two-pounders, and being denominated sloops of war. The last two that were built very nearly resembled the first. They were named the Netley and the Eling; one of them carrying fourteen and the other twelve eighteen-pounders. Bulk heads, or partitions, were placed across these vessels, as well as fore and aft: a construction intended to render them as strong as in the ordinary way, at half the expense: and

*Bede, lib. iv. cap. 16. The lapse of twelve centuries has not sufficed to eradicate a superstitious confidence in a ritual obsery

ance.

adapted also to keep them from sinking, by confining the water in case of a leak, or of striking against a rock. Instead of the usual ballast, they were furnished with capacious tanks or reservoirs, of tinned copper, containing forty tons of water; and placed in the wings of the vessels, where they occupied but little room.*

In preparing to launch the Arrow, a singular discovery was made. A little beneath the surface of the earth, about high-water mark, the hull of a vessel was found buried. Her width at the floor heads is sixteen feet. She is clinker built, like a cutter; and, from the appearance of those parts which can be seen, she would measure at least one hundred tons. The timbers are perfectly sound, but the iron is totally decayed. How this vessel was first placed in so remarkable a situation, and how many ages she may have lain there, it is not easy to determine. Ship building, it is certain, was a part of the trade of Redbridge in very remote times. Whether any convulsion of nature, or any very great change in the river, may have taken place in distant ages, and thus contributed to fix this ancient vessel in

* It does not appear that this mode of ship building has been carried further than these specimens. With respect to the Arrow, it has been asserted in a periodical publication, as a fact communicated from an officer on board that ship, that she sprung a leak in the foremost-room, as it was called, during a cruise off the coast of France, when the water rushed in, so as to render her water-logged by the head; at the same time that it acted with such force upon the planking of the deck, as partly to blow it up: an accident that was avoided only by scuttling the other bulk-heads, and thereby permitting the water to flow freely through the ship into the pump well; where it was got under by the usual mode of the chain pump. See a letter in the New Monthly Magazine, Sept. 1814, p 123, signed Palinurus.

the situation where she was found, is a curious question for the naturalist and the antiquary.

Crossing the bridge, part of which is of considerable age, the other part of late date, and with pleasing views towards Tatchbury and Testwood on the right, and towards Eling on the left, we reach the village of TOTTON (anciently Totintone); in the middle of which we turn to the left. About the thirteenth milestone, marking the distance from Lymington, the road is very pleasing: the village of RUMBRIDGE, through which it passes, is beautifully interspersed with trees.

After passing the twelfth stone, we begin to ascend HOUNDSDOWN; a long hill, which probably receives its name from the advantage that it affords the hound in the chase of the stag, by being open country. The Hunters' inn, on the summit, is very conspicuous for a considerable distance on all sides. The prospect from this situation is extensive; the retrospect of Eling, Testwood, and various mansions, villages, and parish churches, is very pleasing.*

From Houndsdown to the eleventh stone, the road is bordered on each side by enclosures lately made by Sir Charles Mill, and Queen's college, Oxford; which are terminated at a distance by fine woody clumps, ad

*In the neighbourhood of Houndsdown, in the bounds between Sir Charles Mill's manor and New Forest, a remarkable deer leap is commemorated, by two posts fixed at the extremities of the distance which the animal leaped. He is said to have been shot by an arrow; and, in the agony of death, collecting all his force, to have sprung, at a single bound, the amazing space of fifty-two feet.

vancing and receding like the promontories and creeks of an irregular sea-coast:

"Near groups,

And high primæval woods, with darkening sweep
Retiring."

A little beyond the eleventh stone is the boundary of NEW FOREST in this quarter.

On entering this celebrated tract of country, the reader will naturally expect some account of it. He will find that he is not to affix to the term forest, when applied to this quarter of Hampshire, the idea of an unvaried series of deep and extensive woods;-what Cowper has happily denominated "a boundless contiguity of shade." He will observe, on the contrary, numerous cottages interspersed, and many considerable manors and estates, as well as villages and hamlets.

The large and variegated district called New Forest, contains no less than ninety-two thousand, three hundred and sixty-five superficial acres, and is about sixty miles in circumference. Previously, however, to the disafforestations by Henry III. its limits were still more extensive; the length being nearly thirty-four miles from south-east to north-west, and the circumference upwards of ninety miles. Its present contents are not wholly forest lands, or the property of the crown; as there are se veral manors and other freehold estates within its bounds, belonging to individuals, to the amount of about twenty-four thousand, seven hundred and ninety-seven