Now it was simply a large patch of green in the middle of a somewhat naked county, for Hengishire is not remarkable for woodlands.
There were rabbits and birds, badgers, stoats, and such-like wild things in it still, but the deer which the abbots had hunted were conspicuous by their absence.

Garvington looked after it about as much as he did after the rest of his estates, which was not saying much.

The fat, round little lord's heart was always in the kitchen, and he preferred eating to fulfilling his duties as a landlord.

Consequently, the Abbot's Wood was more or less public property, save when Garvington turned crusty and every now and then cleared out all interlopers.

But tramps came to sleep in the wood, and gypsies camped in its glades, while summer time brought many artists to rave about its sylvan beauties, and paint pictures of ancient trees and silent pools, and rugged lawns besprinkled with rainbow wild flowers.