NEW FOREST of Hampshire in England, is a tract of at least 42 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 Lymington is at the distance of only two miles, Beawley 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. Doomsday-book contains the most distinct account of its afforestation by William the Conqueror: the contents of every field, farm, or estate afforested, in hides, carucates, or virgates, by which the extent of land was then computed, together with the names of the hundreds 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. New Forest. Willing 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 Southampton river on the east to the Avon on the west, following the sea coast as far as the southern boundary between those rivers, and extending northwards as far as North Chaddesford, 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 extensive district, is mentioned in Doomsday book to be the forest belonging to the crown. Another perambulation was however made in the 29th of the same king, which leaves out a great part of the country contained 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 Foresta, 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 ancient afforested lands, 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 encroachment 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 commissioners of his majesty's treasury, an engraving was made. According to the last-mentioned perambulation and the plan, the forest extends from Godshill 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 perambulation, belonging to individuals, to the amount of about 24,797 acres; about 625 acres are copyhold or customary lands belonging to his majesty's manor of Lyndhurst; about 1024 acres are leasehold under the crown, granted for certain terms of years, and forming part of the demised land revenue, under the management of the surveyor-general of crown lands; about 901 acres are purprestures or encroachments on the forest; about 1193 acres more are enclosed 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 stag, a triangular stone was erected in 1745. George III. visited Newfoundland fitted 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 Holland. See HOLLAND, New.

NEW York. See YORK, New.

NEW Zealand. See ZEALAND, New.

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 Tatusius 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 Strema, the goddess of strength, which he received on the first day of the new year, authorized this custom afterwards, and gave to these presents the name of Florence. 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 indolent 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, because 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 it.