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Saxtt^- ? 



\ BROttENHURST 

 PARK 



HAMPSHIRE, 



. J. MORANT. |j 



T 



by its 



HERE are grand characteristics in the immediate 

 surroundings of this beautiful Hampshire house in 

 the stately form of the long hedges of ilex and yew, 

 the sequestered alleys between those walls of green, 

 the truly imperial aspect of the great court, dignified 



busts of the Cssars, the noble descent to the long 



THE WESTERN ENTRANCE TO THE DRAGON FOUNTAIN. 



water begemmed with lilies all these possessing an indi- 

 viduality quite their own. They are gardens lying in an 

 historic region of England, and so much of magnificent 

 woodland is hereabout that we cannot forget that here was 

 the great New Forest of the Norman kings the forest in 

 which the Red King fell. Time was when the vill.ige of 



Brokenhurst was almost in ihe 

 centre of the forest, but it is 

 now only a border village, con- 

 sisting of one long straggling 

 street, and possessing a church 

 with some Norman portions 

 which carry us back to the 

 earliest forest days. Mr. John 

 R. Wise, who wrote a notable 

 book upon the New Forest, 

 made the truthful remark that, 

 if the church had been some- 

 what disfigured, the approach 

 to it remained in all its beauty. 

 " For a piece of quite English 

 scenery nothing can exceed 

 this. A deep lane, its banks 

 a garden of ferns, its hedge 

 matted with honeysuckle and 

 woven together with bryony, 

 runs winding along a sid; space 

 of green to the gate, guarded by 

 an enormous oak, its limbs now 

 fast decaying, its rough bark 

 grey with the perpetual snow 

 of lichens, and here and there 

 burnished with soft streaks of 

 russet-coloured moss, whilst 

 behind it in the churchyard 

 spreads the gloom of a yew, 

 which, from the Conqueror's 

 day to this hour, has darkened 

 the graves of generations." 

 These, indeed, are old patrician 

 trees, mighty in their girth and 

 dignified in their antiquity. 

 The oak, covered with ivy, 

 has a circumference of 2ift., 

 while the enormous hollow 

 yew measures i/ft. They are 

 the immediate neighbours of 

 Brokenhurst Park, which, for 

 our descriptive purpose, they 

 bring into relation with the old 

 forest of Hampshire. 



Having thus glanced at 

 the forest surroundings of 

 Brokenhurst Park, let us 

 approach the mansion itself, 

 in order to taste the sweetness 

 of its gardens, noting first, 

 with excellent Gilpin, that 

 true lover of the New Forest, 

 who sleeps in the Boldre 

 churchyard not far away, 

 how gracious are the broad 



