Wanderers in the New Forest

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Clough’s move to Wigan in 2021 didn’t go down too well among sections of the Bolton fan base, but the 28-year-old insists it was the “right situation” for him at the time. The keenest claimant to family blood-ties with the painting, seemed to be a very dark Gypsy man, swearing that it was of his mother, the beautiful Selina Hughes, now dead. I hope you’re excited to see giant Sequoia trees in the UK as part of the New Forest Tall Trees Trail! If you have any questions not covered above, then please let us know in the comments below and we’ll reply asap… I wasn’t really blessed with lots of options because I hadn’t played lots of football and Wigan was probably the best club in the right situation for me. I told them that I had had fifteen of the kind once, and that Tullipan was the descendant of a strain of Afghan hounds which I had raised a while ago when I was little beyond school age, a strain of hounds which never knew disease.

From the first time that I discovered Jenny's pictures I became a sort of patron of hers. Before then she was not painting Gypsies, but even so her work was of a strange nature. Patrons should give financial help, I believe; I could give nothing more than encouragement and introductions to the Gypsies who were pleased to have the friendship of such a warm-hearted and gifted person. Indeed Jenny, having a car, was soon visiting more Gypsies than I had time to manage to do, and it was all for the good of her work. The forest Romanies loved the Vize land on Chilly Hill with its coppice of firs and its old thorn trees, a place of owls and curlews and wild pony land. Read on to find out more about this interesting witch shop and Sybil Leek. We’ll also share some other secrets and facts about Burley Village that you might not know yet.

Wanderers in the New Forest.

In the forest the Gypsy flower and plant trade is continuous through each year, for when there are no wildings for the gathering there are always forest ferns and the bay bushes which grow around old ruined cabins, and the sweet gale which grows in the bogs, both providing scented foliage which is saleable.

Would you visit Burley Village for Halloween and to see the famous Burley witch shop? What else are you excited to see? Let us know in the comments below…

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In the New Forest the Gypsy living conditions, save for those who owned their own plots of land with forest cabins, were mostly miserable and often sordid, but their presence was quite permanent and they could visit me whenever they wanted or I could go to them.

At the time of his death Robert Cooper had on him a piece of cake, given him by a lady in a nearby house, which he was keeping as always for the children, who were his delight.In company with artist friends, the Vizes and Berlins, I have had memorable evenings in the forest inns with Gypsies gathering there. The dark faces thronging, the women and men singing, perfect Gypsy singing when it was the deep mannish voices of the handsome Lamb sisters, with their father the dark Jimmy as a Romany choirmaster, helping his daughters with the words when they forgot them. Sometimes Christopher Charman came with his guitar and country songs. It’s in this shop that you can find the following story displayed in the window… Why is it so witchy in Burley?

Such a race of people, hard-working and thrifty (apart from the men's beer 'sprees' in the pubs) for the lazy Gypsy sleeping his days away in the sun, is a myth 'it can be understood what resentment is felt by the Gypsies at the accusations of child-stealing yet and frequently being directed at them, to the extent of newspaper reports about 'Gypsy-type' women, and official police searches of the compounds and even private Gypsy dwelling-places. Whenever a child is missing from its pram the local Gypsies come under suspicion, and the searches begin. Nor is this activity confined to the police. Another New Forest person who loves the Gypsies is Mrs. Walter Brown of the market garden at Frogham. I recall her praise of the forest Gypsies when she declared to me that they have a trade for every season of the year, and moreover trade mostly with Nature's materials which other people would not know how to use. Together, both of us pleased to prove her idea, we went through the Romany trades known to us, beginning with snowdrop gathering and then the wild daffodils following. Eiza told me once that, being a Gypsy, her favourite way of spending her time would be out in the forest by a big wood fire, a hook and a ball of string with her, making rabbit nets and smoking 'baccy'. Her choice seemed pathetic considering what unnatural disease had done to the forest rabbit population, and the present-day price of 'baccy' which made it almost prohibitive for the Gypsies unless they had well-paid employment, which Eiza had not, as she worked mostly by herself as a collector of rags since the death of her pony-trader husband. I observed with interest, that when they do cook indoors 'and many of them continue to cook outside in the open 'they take the tops off the usual cooking range and have the fire as open as possible for their traditional great round iron cooking pots. The treatment of the Gypsies was a constant worry in my mind all my time in the New Forest. For I often thought that if the Gypsies, amongst the truest of Nature's children, could be so confined and at least surface-tamed by official policy, what might then in time be done to the forest itself?

Walk 9: Calshot Spit

Burley Village is awash with tales of witch shops, witchcraft, smuggling treasure and dragons, which is probably why it’s such an excellent place to go to for Halloween.