50 AUTUMNAL LEAVES. 



ground. Both trees are hollow and the Oak is 

 supported by props, and, though its enormous 

 limbs bear no branches, young sprays of foliage 

 grow from its ancient bole. 



Brockenhurst Church is mentioned in Domes- 

 day, and is one of the only two churches in the 

 New Forest so mentioned, the other church being 

 that of Milford. The charge against "William the 

 Conqueror repeated by various historians of 

 having destroyed many villages and some fifty 

 churches to make his royal hunting-ground has, 

 in all probability, been wildly exaggerated. At 

 any rate the mention of Brockenhurst Church 

 suggests the probability that as the two churches 

 of which it is one are the only ones in the forest 

 mentioned in Domesday, and both are still stand- 

 ing, the traditionary culpability of William the 

 Norman has been unjustly magnified. Like other 

 churches in the New Forest (the one at Boldre 

 is perhaps the most familiar illustration), the 

 church at Brockenhurst is built upon a hill, and 

 was intended to serve, as doubtless was the case 

 in similar instances, as a landmark in the imme- 

 diately surrounding forestal district. Its present 



