CHAPTER II.

Between the Boldre and the Exe--Abuse of the New Forest--Character of the population--New Forest code and conscience--A radical change foreshadowed--Tenacity of the Forest fly--Oak woods of Beaulieu--Swallow and pike--Charm of Beaulieu--Instinctive love of open spaces--A fragrant heath--Nightjars--Snipe--Redshanks--Pewits--Cause of sympathy with animals--Grasshopper and spider--A rapacious fly--Melancholy moods--Evening on the heath--"World-strangeness"--Pixie mounds--Death and burial--The dead in the barrows--Their fear of the living.