AT BROC KEN HURST. 49 



The soft geniality of this autumn day the 

 wind gently stirring the foliage and making music 

 in the tree-tops and the sun burnishing into gold 

 the greenery on which it falls causes the birds 

 to sing cheerily all around us. 



Continuing onwards and upwards our lane, 

 winding under overarching shrubbery and under 

 trees whose tops meet midway and cast the path- 

 way into shadow, we soon reach Brockenhurst 

 Church, standing upon a knoll on the right-hand 

 side of the way, embowered amidst Oak and Ash 

 trees. 



Passing up some rude steps and through an 

 iron latch gate we find ourselves in the church- 

 yard, crossing which, along by way of the south 

 side of the church, we reach two enormous trees 

 an Oak and a Yew, both of which were pro- 

 bably contemporaries of William the Conqueror. 

 Measuring the Yew we find that at three feet 

 from the ground it girths sixteen feet eight inches, 

 whilst the girth of the Oak, at the same distance 

 from the ground, is twenty-one feet ; at five feet 

 from the ground one foot more in girth, and 

 twenty-three feet in girth at six feet from the 



