. The Argosy. in a relaxing air,surrounded by overshadowing trees and falling leaves—influences sodepressing—and all the village sounds of life and boisterous merri-ment and daily labour, that in rustic settlements stand out with suchstartling emphasis. In place of the dark pall stretching last night over the valley andrising beyond, this morning there was a magnificent sea of leaves, surging in mighty billows, glinting in sunshine and in all the tintsof autumn that are so indescribably beautiful. From the backof the inn the view was very different in character, more pastoraland cultivated. We
. The Argosy. in a relaxing air,surrounded by overshadowing trees and falling leaves—influences sodepressing—and all the village sounds of life and boisterous merri-ment and daily labour, that in rustic settlements stand out with suchstartling emphasis. In place of the dark pall stretching last night over the valley andrising beyond, this morning there was a magnificent sea of leaves, surging in mighty billows, glinting in sunshine and in all the tintsof autumn that are so indescribably beautiful. From the backof the inn the view was very different in character, more pastoraland cultivated. We looked upon rich, far-off fields and well-kept In the New Forest. 53 hedges, smooth lawns, slopes gently wooded; whilst in the distancebeyond, to the right, Southampton water lay cold and sleeping inthe sunshine. My first pilgrimage was to Rufuss Stone, which marks the spotwhere King William II. was shot by Walter Tyrrell all those centuriesago. As the spot then looked, so it looks now, save that the tree. against which the arrow glanced has disappeared. Indeed, many partsof the forest are unchanged since the days when it was first founded. Crossing the heath, passing some gravel pits, where a labourer washard at work, with whom one stopped to exchange civilities, anddescending a somewhat steep road, bounded on one side by theheath, on the other by the forest, we looked over the tops of many ofthe trees in a way that seemed to give us power and command overnature, a strange, delightful sense of soaring. In about five minutesthe stone stood out in a tolerably clear space upon the green-sward,eaeh of the three sides bearing an inscription. 54 In the Nav Forest, The original stone had been so defaced by people carving theirnames upon it, that it was encased by this iron structure, which to acertain extent defies the power of the knife, and the efforts of thosewho are too eager to leave behind them wherever they go such recordsof their folly. The very trees of the forest are n
Size: 1506px × 1659px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860, bookidargosythe31w, bookyear1865
