England Guide
Hampshire, Dorset and Wiltshire
The New Forest
Covering about 220 square miles, the NEW FOREST is one of southern England's favourite rural playgrounds, attracting some 13.5 million day-visits annually. The forest was requisitioned by William the Conqueror in 1079 as a game reserve, and the rights of its inhabitants soon became subservient to those of his precious deer. Fences to impede their progress were forbidden and terrible punishments were meted out to those who disturbed the animals – hands were lopped off, eyes put out. Later monarchs less passionate about hunting than the Normans gradually restored the forest-dwellers' rights, and today the New Forest enjoys a unique patchwork of ancient laws and privileges alongside the regulations applying to its National Park status.
The trees of the forest are now much more varied than they were in pre-Norman times, with birch, holly, yew, Scots pine and other conifers interspersed with the ancient oaks and beeches. One of the most venerable trees is the much-visited Knightwood Oak, just a few hundred yards north of the A35 three miles southwest of Lyndhurst, which measures about 22ft in circumference at shoulder height. The most conspicuous species of New Forest fauna is the New Forest pony – you'll see them grazing nonchalantly by the roadsides and ambling through some villages. The local deer are less visible now that some of the faster roads are fenced, although several species still roam the woods, including the tiny sika deer, descendants of a pair that escaped from nearby Beaulieu in 1904.
To get the best from the region, you need to walk or ride through it, avoiding the places cars can reach. There are 150 miles of car-free gravel roads in the forest, making cycling an appealing prospect. The Ordnance Survey Leisure Map 22 of the New Forest is best for exploring, and in Lyndhurst you'll find numerous specialist walking books and natural history guides.
Lyndhurst and nearby Brockenhurst, both on train lines, have bus connections to most parts of the forest, and both have plenty of reasonably priced accommodation. Campsites in the forest include nine run by the Forestry Commission ( 
0845/130 8224, 
www.forest-holidays.com ), and there's a YHA hostel in Cottesmore House, Cott Lane, Burley, in the west of the Forest ( 0845/371 9309, www.yha.org.uk ; from £15.95), where tents and tipis can be rented.