THE RECTORY GARDEN 257 



u The Study Garden," up and down which my 

 father paced bare-headed, composing sermon 

 or novel, lecture or poem ; for he never in- 

 dulged in " rough copy," every sentence being 

 thought out first, and then written or dictated 

 straight off with hardly a correction. 



On the sloping lawn between the house 

 and the road, stood, and still stand, the three 

 giant Fir trees planted at the same time that 

 James I., who was then building Bramshill 

 House, planted the Scotch Firs in the park 

 and the isolated clumps on Hartford-bridge 

 Flats and Elvetham Mounts. Though much 

 broken by gales and snow, as well as by 

 neglect, they are still the pride of the place ; 

 the present Rector of Eversley having with 

 great skill chained and braced them up to pre- 

 vent further destruction. A fine Acacia, and 

 twin Arbor-Vitae thirty feet high, completed 

 the trees on the lawn in later years. But when 

 we were small children another pair, an Arbor- 

 Vitae and a Birch, stood in the very centre 

 of the lawn. They were blown down in the 

 famous Royal Charter gale, to the great benefit 



