the eldest son of the late holder, who had newly been laid in the
burial ground of Beaulieu Abbey. John Birkenholt, whose mother had
been of knightly lineage, had resented his father's second marriage
with the daughter of a yeoman on the verge of the Forest, suspected
of a strain of gipsy blood, and had lived little at home, becoming a
sort of agent at Southampton for business connected with the timber
which was yearly cut in the Forest to supply material for the
shipping. He had wedded the daughter of a person engaged in law
business at Southampton, and had only been an occasional visitor at
home, ever after the death of his stepmother. She had left these
two boys, unwelcome appendages in his sight. They had obtained a
certain amount of education at Beaulieu Abbey, where a school was
kept, and where Ambrose daily studied, though for the last few
months Stephen had assisted his father in his forest duties.

Death had come suddenly to break up the household in the early
spring of 1515, and John Birkenholt had returned as if to a
patrimony, bringing his wife and children with him. The funeral
ceremonies had been conducted at Beaulieu Abbey on the extensive
scale of the sixteenth century, the requiem, the feast, and the
dole, all taking place there, leaving the Forest lodge in its
ordinary quiet.

It had always been understood that on their father's death the two
younger sons must make their own way in the world; but he had hoped
to live until they were a little older, when he might himself have
started them in life, or expressed his wishes respecting them to
their elder brother. As it was, however, there was no commendation
of them, nothing but a strip of parchment, drawn up by one of the
monks of Beaulieu, leaving each of them twenty crowns, with a few