On the monument of a young lady, who died in her sixteenth year, are the following lines: "While health sat blooming on Eliza's face, The hovering spirit's anguish to renew.' With the exception of the second couplet, in which the order of things is improperly reversed, since the developement of the faculties must precede the prediction of future fame, (if fame, indeed, be a legitimate object of female pursuit,) and of the pagan idea in the last line, this composition is respectable. The eighth line is beautiful. Brockenhurst church is a chapel, not in charge, to the vicarage of Boldre. The population of the village, in 1801, consisted of 632 persons; in 1811, of 641 persons. The following singular tenure, by which the manor of Brockenhurst was held, about the middle of the twelfth century, will doubtless amuse the reader : "Peter Spileman held of the king one carucate* of *The carucate, (from the barbarous Latin caruca, a plough,) varied in different counties, according to the nature of the soil, and different modes of agriculture. In some places a carucate consisted of sixty acres, in others of eighty or one hundred. It was also called a plough-land, or a hide of land.-Du Fresne. land in Brockenhurst; by the sergeanty, (or feudal service,) of finding an esquire, with a hambergell, or coat of mail, for forty days in England; and of finding litter for the king's bed, and hay for the king's palfry, when the king should lie at Brockenhurst.* If the weather is such as to create no apprehension of inconvenience from indifferent roads, a circuit by Boldre church, and through the village of BOLDRE, will introduce the traveller to scenes of no ordinary beauty. We now take leave of forest scenery, and pass on through a cultivated neighbourhood. The isle of Wight rises into view, as a back ground. About the third stone is a rugged common, which has received the name of SETLEY PLAIN. In front are the white cliffs of Freshwater, at the western extremity of the isle of Wight, and the adjoining Needle rocks. Cultivation and scattered farms and cottages, an Warner's Topographical Remarks, vol. i. p. 99.– -One of our old writers, speaking of the sixteenth century, says, "That in the memory of men living in his days, was made a great amendment in lodging; for our fathers," he observes, "and we ourselves, have lyen, full oft, upon straw pallettes, covered only with a sheete, under coverlettes, made of dogswain, or hopharlots; (I use the very words of the old men from whom I received the accounts;) and a good round logge under their heades, insteade of a boulster. If it were so, that our fathers, or the good man of the house, had a matteres, or flock bed, and thereto a sack of chafe, to rest hys heade upon, he thought himself to be as well lodged as the lord of the towne; so well were they contented."-Holinshed. E nounce the village of BATRAMSLEY, between the third and second mile stones. About a mile from Lymington, by the road side, on the right, are the traces of a Roman camp, now known by the name of BUCKLAND RINGS, or CASTLE FIELD. Its form is that of a parallelogram, rather rounded at the corners, according to the Roman mode of encamping the area of this is about two hundred paces in length, and one hundred and seventy in breadth. The works are all entire, except the front towards the river; which was demolished, half a century ago, by a farmer, for the purpose of enlarging his field. It was defended by three ramparts, and as many ditches. The ramparts seem to have been about twenty feet high. An artificial mound of earth, raised on the eastern side of Lymington river, exactly opposite to it, and now called Mount Pleasant, was very probably the site of a watchtower, connected with this work. The Romans had always stations of this kind near their regular encampinents; and this situation seems well adapted, being elevated, and commanding an extensive view of the Channel and neighbouring country. Vespasian, under the emperor Claudius, was the first Roman who reduced the isle of Wight, and the maritime places in the south-western parts of this kingdom.* Hence a conjecture arises, that these earth works were raised by that general, to defend the Roman fleet, which probably was stationed in Lymington River, during the time that he was employed in subduing this part of Britain. * Sueton de Vit. Vesp. cap. iv. et v. > In proceeding, we have, on the left, pleasing views of the valley through which Lymington river flows, and of the cultivated neighbourhood. LYMINGTON, situated about a mile from the channel which separates England from the isle of Wight, (though the circuitous course of its river seems considerably to increase the distance,) is a neat little town. Seated on the brow and declivity of a gentle hill, it is dry and clean, and has also the advantage of the sea breeze. The town principally consists of one long street. The houses, especially on the side of the street nearest the coast, have views, from their windows and gardens, of the isle of Wight and the sea. The bottom of the town is washed by an arm of the channel which separates the isle of Wight from the coast of Hampshire. This, when the tide is at its height, forms a beautiful and extensive sheet of water. Ships of between two and three hundred tons burden may commodiously lie within a few feet of the quay; but should the mud continue to accumulate, as it has done within these last seventy years, it seems probable that the channel may not much longer admit them. Little more than half a century ago, vessels of five hundred tons and upwards could conveniently discharge their lading at Lymington quay. A causeway, thrown across the river, to the north of the town, appears to have occasioned this very unfavourable circumstance. The intention in forming it was to keep out the sea-water from the meadows above; but this purpose is not fully answered; and, by hindering the free current, it prevents the freshes from carrying off the mud which the tide deposits. As to the commerce of Lymington, the imports consist chiefly of coals, brought from the northern counties: and the foreign exports are confined to salt, which is the only manufacture of any consequence; various kinds, both common and medicinal, equally esteemed and excellent, being made at the works contiguous to the town. This manufacture appears to be of very considerable antiquity. Camden cites a passage from St. Ambrose, in which he conceives him to be speaking of this sea salt,* upwards of fifteen hundred years ago. However this may be, it is certain that, in the year 1147, a tithe of the Lymington salt was given to the monks of Quarr abbey, in the isle of Wight.t The superiority of this salt, to that made in any other part of the kingdom, (for the purpose of preserving,) had, for a long series of years, rendered Lymington the most considerable place both for the production and sale of this article. About forty years since, when these saltworks were at their height, it is said that they annually paid into the exchequer, for duty, no less a sum than £50,000. Since that time, being greatly undersold by the manufacturers of this commodity in the north and north-western parts of the kingdom, (who are enabled, by several local advantages, to dispose of it at a much cheaper rate,) the works have been very rapidly on the decline. The process of making salt is thus conducted. The sea-water is pumped into shallow square pits, dug in the * Camden's Britannia, Hampshire, p. 123, Gibson's edit. + Warner's Topographical Remarks, vol. ii, Appendix, No. L |