AT BROCKENHURST. 51 



situation is a very beautiful one. On the south- 

 west side of the churchyard, opposite to that we 

 enter from the lane we have described, we reach 

 the brow of another lane leading back to the 

 village between leafy hedgebanks bordering tree- 

 covered, undulating meadows, and overarched by 

 Oaks. At its bottom we must again cross the 

 railway, and from the other end of the village, 

 opposite that from which we started, pass through 

 its straggling street to our first point of departure. 

 When the New Forest, stretching from the 

 Southampton Water on the east to the Avon on 

 the west, trenched upon the shores of the Solent 

 in its southward range, Brockenhurst a name 

 which indicated the Badger's Wood occupied 

 part of its central area. But the area of this 

 wild and beautiful tract of country has become 

 greatly diminished. North and south, east and 

 west, the woodlands have receded, and Brocken- 

 hurst but lingers on their southern borders, 

 though it is still sufficiently within their area to 

 remain a true forest village. The time when 

 herds of deer would, in the stillness of the night, 

 walk from the forest on either side through its 



D 



