Page:The New Forest - its history and its scenery.djvu/144

Rh and its habits of roving and feeding by day. The river has, also, like some of the Norwegian streams, the peculiarity of forming ground ice. For the botanist, along the hedge banks, the blue and slate-coloured soapwort is growing throughout the summer and autumn, with purple cat-mint and wild clary. In the waste places the thorn-apple shows its white blossoms; whilst red stacks of fern and black turf ricks stand by every cottage door to remind us how close we are to the Forest.

After we pass Bisterne, the road becomes more interesting. To our right rises the range of St. Catherine's Hills, that is, the fortified height, where remain the four mounds of the watchtowers and the traces of the camp. Presently we come to Avon-Tyrrel and the blacksmith's forge, built on the spot where Tiril's horse is said to have been shod, and which pays a yearly fine of three pounds and ten shillings to Government.

The actual Ford itself is some little way from the road. Round it stretch meadows, with strong coarse grass and sedgy weeds, branches of the Avon winding here and there, fringed by willows, the main stream flowing out broad and strong, with islands of osiers and rushes, where still breed wild duck and teal, the whole backed by the gloom of St. Catherine's Hills crested by their darker pines. The old road, used now only by the turf-cutters, crossing the former mill-brook, follows the bed of one of the many streams, till, reaching the river at its widest 126