(image by Jim Champion)

New Forest first appeared after Margaret returned to her childhood home after Edith got married in the beginning of the book, under the guise of Helstone (Gaskell). Helstone is mentioned on the first page (Gaskell). I think this place was chosen because of how whimsical it seems and how a child might remember their first home. Most people scoff when Margaret would tell them of her childhood home in this manner, even Mr. Henry Lennox (Gaskell). It was really the end of Margaret's childhood, when they left for Milton, and signified Margaret becoming an adult (Gaskell).

From the New Forest national park page, I learned that there are lots of historical places and historical objects found within this forest ("History & Heritage"). Over the years there have been found Roman relics and Bronze age burials ("History & Heritage"). There are many medieval settlements also as well as an eighteenth century ship building village called Buckler's Hard ("History & Heritage"). The people who lived within the New Forest, during the eighteen hundreds, would have most likely known of Buckler's Hard and probably had traded with them. The British navy ships that fought in the battle of Trafalgar were built there ("History & Heritage"). The battle of Trafalgar took place on October 21, 1805 between Britain and combined French and Spanish navies (Lambert). This battle probably wouldn't be too prominent in the local minds, but it may still come up.

With the amount of history this forest has seen, we learn of the prominent differences of the town of Milton (where Margaret moved to) and Helstone which are like day and night. Milton with its cobbled streets and its many chimneys and the smaug that hangs about on very still days, compared to the dirt paths and at times no paths as you walk through the trees and alongside the river. Margaret changed in the three years since she has left Helstone and upon returning to Helstone, she doesn't see the magic that she used to see. Which is stereotypical of how the media portrays what adults are often thought to not see magic when they grow out of it. This image shows how magical I thought Helstone/New Forest really was and is today. This was my favorite spot in the book, just because of its description. 

Champion, Jim. “Beech Trees in Mallard Wood, Part of the New Forest.” Wikipedia, 26 Apr. 2008, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Forest#/media/File:Beech_trees_in_Mall.... Accessed 20 Oct. 2021

Gaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn, and Angus Easson. North and South. Oxford University Press, 2008

“History & Heritage.” Visit The New Forest, https://www.thenewforest.co.uk/things-to-do/attractions/history-and-heri...

Lambert, Andrew. “History - British History in Depth: The Battle of Trafalgar.” BBC, BBC, 17 Feb. 2011, https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/trafalgar_01.shtml.