NEWCASTLE (Duke of). See CAVENDISH.
New England. See ENGLAND (New).
New-Forest of Hampshire in England, is a tract of at least 40 miles in compass, which had many populous towns and villages, and 36 mother-churches, till it was destroyed and turned into a forest by William the Conqueror. There are nine walks in it; and to every one a keeper, under a lord-warden, besides two rangers, and a bow-bearer. As this large tract lay many ages open and exposed to invasions from foreigners, King Henry VIII. built some castles in it; and it has now several pretty towns and villages. It is situated in that part of Hampshire which is bounded on the east by Southampton river, and on the south by the British Channel. It possesses advantages of situation, with respect to the convenience of water-carriage and nearness to the dock-yards, superior to every other forest, having in its neighbourhood several ports and places of shelter for shipping timber, among which Lyngton is at the distance of only two miles, Bewley about half a mile, and Redbridge three or four miles from the Forest; and the navigation to Portsmouth, the most considerable dock yard in this kingdom, is only about 30 miles from the nearest of those places. This is the only forest belonging to the crown of which the origin is known. Domefday-book contains the most distinct account of its afforestation by William the Conqueror: the contents of every
every field, farm, or estate afforested, in hedges, caru-
cates, or virgates, by which the extent of land was
then computed, together with the names of the hun-
dreds and villages, and of the former proprietors
(which are for the most part Saxon), the rent or yearly
value of each possession, and the tax which had been
paid for it to the crown during the reign of Edward
the Confessor, before the inhabitants were expelled,
and that part of the country laid waste, are all to be
found in that most curious and venerable record.
Wishing to discover the original extent of the forest,
we extracted, for our own information, all that relates
to it in that ancient survey. The extract is far too
voluminous for insertion. The names of many of
the places having been changed since that time, it is
difficult to ascertain with precision what were then the
limits of the forest. The oldest perambulation we have
met with is among the Pleas of the Forest, in the
eighth year of King Edward I. preserved in the
Chapter-house at Westminster. The boundaries there
described include all the country from Southamp-
ton river on the east to the Avon on the west, follow-
ing the sea-coast as far as the southern boundary be-
tween those rivers, and extending northwards as far as
North Chadefford, or North Charford, on the west,
and to Wade and Orebrugg, or Owerbridge, on the
east; and the greatest part, if not the whole, of that ex-
tensive district, is mentioned in Domesday-book to be
the forest belonging to the crown. Another perambula-
tion was however made in the 29th of the same king,
which leaves out a great part of the country contain-
ed within the former. This perambulation, which
is preserved in the tower of London, confines the forest
to limits which, as far as we can trace them, appear to
have been followed in the 22d year of Charles II.
when the forest was again perambulated. By the
Charta de Foresto, all lands not belonging to the crown
which had been afforested by Henry II. Richard I.
or King John, were to be disafforested; but as no
provision was made for the reduction of the more an-
cient afforestations, it is easy to account for the great
diminution of this forest in the reign of Edward I.
who was not a prince likely to submit to any encroach-
ment on his rights. The perambulation of the 22d
of Charles II. is the last which we find on record: it
contains the present legal bounds of the forest, and
was given to the surveyors as their guide, in taking the
plan which they have made lately by direction. From
that plan, with the approbation of the lords commis-
sioners of his majesty's treasury, an engraving was made.
According to the last mentioned perambulation and the
plan, the forest extends from Godhill on the north-
west to the sea on the south-east, about 20 miles; and
from Hardley on the east to Ringwood on the west,
about 15 miles; and contains within those limits
about 92,365 acres statute measure. The whole of
that quantity, however, is not forest-land, or now the
property of the crown: there are several manors and
other considerable freehold estates within the perambu-
lation, belonging to individuals, to the amount of about
24,797 acres; about 625 acres are copyhold or custo-
mary lands belonging to his majesty's manor of Lynd-
hurst; about 1004 acres are lease-hold under the
crown, granted for certain terms of years, and forming
part of the demised land-revenue, under the manage-
ment of the surveyor-general of crown-lands; about
901 acres are purpures or encroachments on the
forest; about 1193 acres more are inclosed lands held
by the master-keepers and groom-keepers, with their
respective lodges; and the remainder, being about
63,845 acres, are woods and waste lands of the forest.
To perpetuate the spot where William Rufus was
killed by the glance of an arrow shot at a flag, a tri-
angular stone was erected in 1745. George III. vi-
sited this spot in 1789. In August 1782, a curious
ancient golden cross was found here by a labouring
man digging turf. It weighed above an ounce of
gold, and had on one side an engraving of our Saviour,
and on the other, the ladder, spear, nails, and other
emblems of his sufferings.
New Years-Gifts. Presents made on the first day
of the new year. Nonius Marcellus refers the origin
of this custom among the Romans to Tattius king of
the Sabines, who reigned at Rome conjointly with
Romulus, and who having considered as a good omen
a present of some branches cut in a wood consecrated
to Strenia, the goddess of strength, which he received
on the first day of the new year, authorised this cus-
tom afterwards, and gave to these persons the name
of strenae. However this may be, the Romans on that
day celebrated a festival in honour of Janus, and paid
their respects at the same time to Juno; but they did
not pass it in idleness, lest they should become indol-
ent during the rest of the year. They sent presents
to one another of figs, dates, honey, &c. to show their
friends that they wished for a happy and agreeable
life. Clients, that is to say, those who were under
the protection of the great, carried presents of this
kind to their patrons, adding to them a small piece of
silver. Under Augustus, the senate, the knights, and
the people, presented such gifts to him, and in his
absence deposited them in the capitol. Of the
succeeding princes some adopted this custom and
others abolished it; but it always continued among
the people. The early Christians condemned it, be-
cause it appeared to be a relic of Paganism and a
species of superstition; but when it began to have no
other object than that of being a mark of veneration
and esteem, the church ceased to disapprove of it.