STONEYCROSS TO LYNDHQRST. 165 



glen itself is surrounded by wood-covered up- 

 lands, and above and beyond these the eye can 

 follow, to the north-east, a long extent of pastoral 

 and agricultural country meadow, cornfield, and 

 their dividing hedges, rolling away, over undu- 

 lated country, to the far horizon. 



Turning round by the gateway which leads 

 into the enclosure of Castle Malwood we take a 

 south-easterly direction over the brow of a hill, 

 passing, immediately afterwards, on the left-hand 

 side of our way, a wild and beautiful bit of forest, 

 and then, as we make a bend in our road, getting 

 a delightful prospect, away to the east, of the 

 wooded depths of the forest below and the dis- 

 tant sweep beyond of undulating country, and, to 

 the south-east, of the town of Southampton. 



Our road still descends by orchard and fruit 

 garden by way of Minstead Green, with its clump 

 of large Oaks, through the leafy valley of Min- 

 stead a smiling region with its undulating 

 meadows and trees and its enclosures of cottage 

 and farmstead, Oaks, overspread with autumnal 

 hues, overarching the hedgebank and making 

 chequered shadows on the road. Our way leads 



