Aug 16-18: Brockenhurst

My Kind of Town, Brockenhurst, by Cathy

After praising London for its clean streets, you’d think that a town littered with cow pies and horse poop would be offensive. Au contraire! Brockenhurst (which Jeff kept pronouncing Brockwurst), a little town in the New Forest (which was given the name “new” by William the Conqueror in 1079, so not new by American standards), southwest of London, close to Southampton. In the New Forest, horses, cattle, donkeys, and pigs (at a certain time of the year) are allowed to run free. They are owned by people (“Commoners”) whose land entitles them free grazing in the New Forest.  What this means in practice is that every cute little brick cottage (some with thatched roofs) has a cattle guard in the driveway and lots of low fences to keep the animals out (Jeff finds this very humorous, as usually animals are fenced IN). The town is very small, in fact the animals seemed to way outnumber the humans. There were horses, foals, and cattle just walking down the street, grazing the abundant greenery along the sidewalk and up in the canopy of trees. Like being in a petting zoo for grown-ups! Of course, you are not really supposed to pet the animals, but I couldn’t help myself when we came upon two mares with their foals on a grassy border along a narrow residential road. One foal was lying down napping (mom standing nearby, dozing herself) while the other was awake and curious. He came over to me and I’m not sure who enjoyed his ear-scratching more, he or I. Later, looking at the picture Jeff took of me nuzzling this little guy, we joked that he could cause a div-horse! Buh-dump-bump!

Our one full day in Brockenhurst, we rented mountain bikes and rode through breathtaking forest (a biking mecca) to a place called Beaulieu that I’d learned about by watching a Netflix documentary called Lord Montagu. The estate has a long history, once part of a 13th century abbey, later purchased by the 1st Earl of Southampton, and finally passed onto the Montagu family by marriage. Like many of these Victorian country houses (think Downton Abbey), it progressively became harder to keep afloat, so the 3rd Baron of Montagu came up with creative ways to generate income- one of which was turning his love of cars into what is now the National Motor Museum. Model T, Formula One, record-breaking dragsters, the car that Steve McQueen drove in La Mans – too many to name.

We took a slightly different route home, through a flat heath that had once been used as an airfield in WWII, now covered in beautiful low grasses and wildflowers and lots and lots of horses. We finished the day with outstanding Indian food in the little village and a slice of cake from the “Snug” (a cozy, small common area)  of our B&B, built in the 1600s, before drifting off to a peaceful sleep.