Page:The New Forest - its history and its scenery.djvu/146

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The New Forest: its History and its Scenery.

moment we would consider how He adorns his own house, leads the green arabesque of ivy over its walls, and brightens the roof with the silver rays of mosses, and crowns each buttress with the aureole of the lichen.

Leaving Sopley, we come to "Winkton, the Weringetone of Domesday, where stood two mills, which were rated, as we have seen was often the case, by their yield of eels.

The views here are full of quiet beauty; the river winding along between its green walls of rushes, set with white and purple comfrey and yellow loosestrife, flowing into the darkness of the trees, and then again coming out by meadows, across which rises the Priory Church of Christchurch, standing out clear and sharp against the dark mass of Hengistbury Head.

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