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It was not without some emotion that he looked upon the scene
around him, for, in spite of his secluded life, he knew enough of
the ancient greatness of his own family to be aware that the time
had been when they had held undisputed and paramount sway over
all that tract of country. His father could trace his pure Saxon
lineage back to that Godfrey Malf who had held the manors of
Bisterne and of Minstead at the time when the Norman first set
mailed foot upon English soil. The afforestation of the
district, however, and its conversion into a royal demesne had
clipped off a large section of his estate, while other parts had
been confiscated as a punishment for his supposed complicity in
an abortive Saxon rising. The fate of the ancestor had been
typical of that of his descendants. During three hundred years
their domains had gradually contracted, sometimes through royal
or feudal encroachment, and sometimes through such gifts to the
Church as that with which Alleyne's father had opened the doors
of Beaulieu Abbey to his younger son.


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