r Wren as first surveyor of works. When he bought the island,
he began to alter the old castle and make it into a residence. The
burgesses of Poole claimed that the castle was a national defence, of
which they were the hereditary custodians. Mr. Benson replied that as he
had paid _L_300 for the entire island the castle was naturally
included. In 1720 the town authorities appealed to George II, and in
1723 Mr. Benson and his counsel appeared before the Attorney-general,
when the proceedings were adjourned, and never resumed, so that the
purchaser appears to have obtained a grant of the castle from the Crown.
Mr. Benson was an enthusiastic botanist and he planted the island with
various kinds of trees and shrubs. He also made a collection of the many
specimens of plants growing on the island.

During the next hundred and thirty years Brownsea had various owners,
including Colonel Waugh (notorious for his connection with the
disastrous failure of the British Bank) and the Right Hon. Frederick
Cavendish Bentinck, who restored the castle and imported many beautiful
specimens of Italian sculpture and works of art. At the end of 1900 the
estate was bought by Mr. Charles Van Raalte, to whose widow it still
belongs.

Shortly before his death Mr. Van Raalte wrote a brief account of his
island home, which closed with the following lines:--

"All through the island the slopes are covered with rhododendrons,
juniper, Scotch firs, insignis, macrocarpa, Corsican pines, and
many other varieties of evergreens, plentifully mingled with cedars
and deciduous forest trees. Wild fowl in great variety visit the
island, and the low-lying land within the sea-wall is the favourite
haunt of many sea-birds; and several varieties of plover, the
redshank, greenshank, sandpiper, and snipe may be found there. The
crossbill comes very often, and the green woodpecker's cry is quite
familiar. But perhaps the most beautiful little winged creature
that favours us is the kingfisher."

A prominent feature on the mainland as seen from Brownsea is the little
Early English church of Arne, standing on a promontory running out into
the mud-banks of the estuary, and terminating in a narrow tongue of land
known as Pachin's Point. At one time Arne belonged to the Abbey of
Shaftesbury, and it is said that the tenants of the estate, on paying
their rent, were given a ticket entitling them to a free dinner at the