a township and chapelry in the parish of Minstead, in the county of Hampshire. It is situated in one of the most beautiful parts of the New Forest, nine miles from Southampton, and eighty-six from London. The forest is about forty miles in compass, containing several towns and villages, with thirty-six churches, and, though laid waste as a hunting ground by William the Conqueror, is in a great part now fertile and productive. The pleasing town of Lyndhurst may be considered as a kind of metropolis of the New Forest. It gives the title of a baron to a late lord chancellor. The inhabitants amounted in 1801 to 882, in 1811 to 1015, in 1821 to 1170, and in 1831 to 1236.