Page:The New Forest - its history and its scenery.djvu/164

Rh longer in the Forest, yet if we miss this walk we shall lose some of the most beautiful scenery in the district.

As we leave Christchurch by the Lymington Road, Mudeford lies on the right, and Burton, with its Staple Cross, on the left. Few things are more touching than these old grey relics of the past, standing solitary in our cross-roads, the dial united with the Cross, to show both how short was man's life, and where lay his only salvation. But we now profane them, and turn them, as here, into direction posts, or break them up, as at Burgate, to mend the road.

Both villages will some day be more sought after than at present, for at Burton lived Southey, with his friend Charles Lloyd, and sang the praises of the valley in better verse than usual. At Mudeford, Stewart Rose, the author of The Red King, built Gundimore, where, in 1807, Scott stayed, writing Marmion, and riding over the Forest exploring the barrows. In the same village Coleridge lodged during the winter of 1816.

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