Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1866-06-21
Seleetea Tale.
A STORY OF NO MANS LAND,

The New Forest is almost the only large
district left in England which has not been
INVADED by the nineteenth century. You
nay drive or ride for miles over thousands
i acres, and find the country in exactly
he same state that it was left by the Nor
nan kings the roads are probably a good
sa better, and the poachers use guns in
esad Of bows and arrows but except in
ese particulars, the same wide commons
Ietch bleak and bare, with here and there
vithered stump by sullen, black, boggy
Il l, succeeded by beautiful knolls where
VI tall deer, whom the "Conqueror loved
if he were their father" enjoy themselves
then, with picturesque oaks and beauti.
green hollies dotted about as i'll park,
Dm amongst which William Rufus might
4 Ie without any sense of incongruity :;
4 willie old Perkins, who carried the Kings
Jly in a cart to Winchester, lived in Just
lcl mud hovel, dressed in much such a
lark surplice" (smock frock) and leath-
- egglngs az his descendant who now
4aOits the same spot, having neither ri
'l nor fallen in the scale during almost
5at hundred years. The very tongue has
ardly changed the Anglo-Saxon fingers
adly there.
Ihe population is a very lawless one,
'hg, Ike their ancestors, on wood-steal-
and poaching and of all the lawless
arts, district called No Mans Land
SANDS pre-eminent. The old Spartans, l
-aeye, considered theft was not fault un-
IS II were found out No Mans Land
l5ht the same. Their very houses were
@eh from the waste and built on the
.i4n Soll their cows and sheep, and pigs
'-' geese, fed on the commons whence
'4e ... their peat fuel, and there was not a
-.nS OF rent for anything paid by the
-'.e community. The late Speaker of
s House Of Commons tells how, when
-15 with the ranger "a good, easy man
VET these parts, they both took notice of
.sMarkably fine oak Three or four days
-e' they again passed the place the
e was gone, trunk, branches,-not a
l.@ OF any kind was left Hardly any
ice was taken it was considered the
s.om Of the country, though many horses
~ carts must have been required to carry
away.
Every mud cottage stood separate. In
7 whole hamlet there were not three
'TIInSs together Mud has not tempt
sound, but it is, in fact, very comforta.
wear, warm in winter, cool in summer
~' standing, as many of them did, in their
'4 little orchards and, brilliant gardens
y were much more picturesque and
'sant than the hideous red boxes, with
]. slate roofs, thin as paper, that are sue.
7lilg them. The most substantial and
aest of them all belonged to the parish
"h 1T possessed second story, and
partly built of brick for .Silas Rus
was considerable man in those parts
rich fellow enough, and fellow who
al had losses, and one who had two
FlS.' He lived nearly two miles from
httle village church, but as he was the
~ man in the hamlet at the time Of his
ointment who could read, there haG
.A no choice in the matter He was as
.ol OF his rare accomplishment as Beau
&c himself and as knowledge was pow
even IN No Mans Land, he was greatly
~Sidered for it. His house stood on the
5s OF a little hill sheltered from the
~I' with an orchard of merries (the lit
oack cherry about it, and passion
A 'eF trained over the front, for the climate
I''nost as mild as Devonshire while the
,.s .S garden made gorgeous show in June
III gIJ great red peonies, blue larkspurs, ant
IA "'en marigolds.
-,,y a. was Sunday midday, and he and hi
.a,1T a,H1Taaughter were just returning from
ra.l 'errln of his old wife He did no
la and Rachel, always rather afraid o
Jared not begin. At last they reach
,,s;, ,rg ooor the empty house-place seemed
amrn rr,Ae cold on the old man, the vacan
uey-corner where they two had sat op