ELING, a parish in the hundred of REDBRIDGE,
New Forest (East) division of the county of SOUTHAMPTON,
5 miles (W.byN.) from Southampton, containing,
with Wigley, and a portion of Cadnam, 4314 inhabitants.
The living is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry
and diocese of Winchester, rated in the king's books at
£11. 18. 1. William Phillips, Esq. was patron in
1802. The church, dedicated to St. Mary, has been enlarged
at different periods, as is evident from the variety
in its architecture. Domesday-book records that at
the Norman survey Eling had a church, two mills, a
fishery, and a saltern. It is situated at the tipper end of
Southampton water, and a considerable trade in coal,
timber, and corn, is carried on, there being depth sufficient
for vessels of three hundred tons burden, to load or
unload at the quay, by the side of which numerous
granaries and warehouses have been erected, for storing
the several articles of merchandise. There are docks for
ship-building, from which, of late years, several West
Indiamen have been launched, and where vessels are
frequently repaired, the proximity of the New Forest
rendering timber plentiful, and the expense moderate.
There is a fair for toys on the 5th of July. At Marchwood,
about two miles east from Eling, is a magazine of
gunpowder, for the supply of Portsmouth garrison, with
proper accommodations for the detachment of troops
stationed for its protection. Tatchbury Mount is supposed
to have been anciently a military station, and
tradition records it as the site of a royal hunting seat;
the trenches may still be traced from the terrace that
surrounds it. The mansion and manor of Bury farm is
held of the crown, on presenting to the king a brace of
of white greyhounds in silver couples, whenever His
Majesty visits the New Forest, which tenure was last
discharged in 1789, by the late Rev. Sir C. Mill, Bart., to
George III. on his alighting from the royal carriage at
Lyndhurst. The tythings of Ower, Wade, and Wigley,
in this parish, are entitled to partake of the benefit
schools founded by John Nowes, at Romsey and Yeovil,
for teaching and clothing poor boys.