164 AUTUMNAL LEAVES. 



the Downs of Wiltshire as season or temperature 

 moves them. As we leave our comfortable inn 

 quarters, on our way to Lyndhurst, proceeding 

 for a short distance eastwards along the breezy 

 ridge of Stoneycross, we can see, away to our 

 right, if we turn our eyes southwards, a culti- 

 vated valley lying just beneath us ; away over 

 the uplands that rise from the valley a sweep of 

 far-reaching forest; and then, beyond again, 

 forming the distant horizon, the hills of the Isle 

 of Wight rising, like a great blue line, against the 

 sky and high above all the Hampshire mainland. 

 On our left, and away to the north, the eye takes 

 in a line of wood-covered hills which rise from a 

 wooded valley formed by a slope in the forest 

 that begins almost at our feet. Looking down 

 into this valley and letting the eye take a north- 

 easterly direction we get a view of the beauti- 

 fully-wooded Canterton Glen, in which stands the 

 stone supposed to mark the spot where stood the 

 Oak by which Rufus fell. The woods in this 

 romantic glen are of singular beauty and splendour 

 and as wild and weird and rugged as they could 

 ever have been in the Conqueror's day. The 



