JOHN KEBLE'S PARISHES: A HISTORY OF HURSLEY AND OTTERBOURNE

PREFACE

To explain the present undertaking, it should be mentioned that ahistory of Hursley and North Baddesley was compiled by the ReverendJohn Marsh, Curate of Hursley, in the year 1808. It was well andcarefully done, with a considerable amount of antiquarian knowledge. It reached a second edition, and a good deal of it was used inSketches of Hampshire, by John Duthy, Esq. An interleaved copyreceived many annotations from members of the Heathcote family. There was a proposal that it should be re-edited, but ninety yearscould not but make a great difference in these days of progress, sothat not only had the narrative to be brought up to date, but furtherinvestigations into the past brought facts to light which had beenunknown to Mr. Marsh. 

It was therefore judged expedient to rewrite the whole, though, whenever possible, the former Curate's work has been respected andrepeated; but he paid little attention to the history of Otterbourne, and a good deal has been since disclosed, rendering that villageinteresting. Moreover, the entire careers of John Keble and SirWilliam Heathcote needed to be recorded in their relations to theparish and county. This has, therefore, here been attempted, together with a record of the building of the three churches erectedsince 1837, and a history of the changes that have taken place;though the writer is aware that there is no incident to tempt thereader--no siege of the one castle, no battle more important than thecombat in the hayfield between Mr. Coram and the penurious steward, and, till the last generation, no striking character. But the recordof a thousand peaceful years is truly a cause of thankfulness, sharedas it is by many thousand villages, and we believe that a littleinvestigation would bring to light, in countless other places, muchthat is well worth remembrance. 

For the benefit of those who take an interest in provincial dialect, some specimens are appended, which come from personal knowledge. 

The lists of birds and of flowers are both from the actualobservation of long residents who have known the country before, inmany instances, peculiarities have faded away before the march ofprogress. 

The writer returns many warm thanks to those who have given muchindividual assistance in the undertaking, which could not have beenattempted without such aid. 

C. M. YONGE. ELDERFIELD, OTTERBOURNE, 18th June 1898. 

CHAPTER I--MERDON AND OTTERBOURNE

The South Downs of England descend at about eight miles from the seainto beds of clay, diversified by gravel and sand, and with an upperdeposit of peaty, boggy soil, all having been brought down by therivers of which the Itchen and the Test remain. 

On the western side of the Itchen, exactly at the border where thechalk gives way to the other deposits, lies the ground of which thismemoir attempts to speak. It is uneven ground, varied byundulations, with gravelly hills, rising above valleys filled withclay, and both alike favourable to the growth of woods. Fossils ofbelemnite, cockles (cardium), and lamp-shells (terebratula) have beenfound in the chalk, and numerous echini, with the pentagon star ontheir base, are picked up in the gravels and called by the countrypeople Shepherds' Crowns--or even fossil toads. Large boulder stonesare also scattered about the country, exercising the minds of someobservers, who saw in certain of them Druidical altars, with channelsfor the flow of the blood, while others discerned in these samegrooves the scraping of the ice that brought them down in the Glacialage. 

But we must pass the time when the zoophytes were at work on ourchalk, when the lamp-shells rode at anchor on shallow waves, when thecockles sat "at their doors in a rainbow frill, " and the belemnitesspread their cuttlefish arms to the sea, and darkened the water fortheir enemies with their store of ink. 

Nor can we dwell on the deer which left their bones and horns in theblack, boggy soil near the river, for unfortunately these weredisinterred before the time when diggers had learnt to preserve themfor museums, and only reported that they had seen remains. 

Of HUMAN times, a broken quern was brought to light when digging thefoundation of Otterbourne Grange; and bits of pottery have come tolight in various fields at Hursley, especially from the barrows onCranbury Common. In 1882 and 1883 the Dowager Lady Heathcote, assisted by Captain John Thorp, began to search the barrows on theleft hand side of the high road from Hursley to Southampton, andfound all had been opened in the centre, but scarcely searched at allon the sides. In July they found four or five urns of unbaked clayin one barrow--of early British make, very coarse, all either full ofblack earth or calcined bones, and all inverted and very rough inmaterial, with the exception of one which was of a finer material, red, and like a modern flower-pot in shape. Several of these urnswere deposited in the Hartley Museum, Southampton. 

Of the Roman times we know nothing but that part of the great Romanroad between Caer Gwent (or Venta Belgarum, as the Romans calledWinchester) and Sorbiodunum (Old Sarum). It can still be traced atHursley, and fragments of another leading to Clausentum (Southampton)on the slope of Otterbourne hill. 

In Dr. Milner's History of Winchester, written at the end of the lastcentury, he describes a medallion of mixed metal bearing the head ofJulius Caesar, which was dug up by a labourer at Otterbourne, in thecourse of making a new road. He thought it one of the plates carriedon the Roman standards of the maniples; but alas! on being sent, in1891, to be inspected at the British Museum, it was pronounced to beone of a cinquecento series of the twelve Caesars. 

The masters of the world have left us few traces of their possession, and in fact the whole district was probably scarcely inhabited; butthe trees and brushwood or heather of the southern country would havejoined the chalk downs, making part of what the West Saxons calledthe Jotunwald, or Giant's Wood, and the river Ytene, and so Itchenseems to have been named in like manner. 

These were the times when churches were built and the boundaries ofestates became those of parishes. The manor of Merdon, whichoccupied the whole parish of Hursley, belonged to the Bishops ofWinchester by a grant of Oynegils, first Christian King. Milner, inhis History of Winchester, wishes to bestow on Merdon thequestionable honour of having been the place where, in the year 754, the West Saxon King Cenwulf was murdered by his brother in the houseof his lady-love; but Mr. Marsh, the historian of Hursley, proves atsome length that Merton in Surrey was more likely to have been thescene of the tragedy. 

Church property being exempted from William the Conqueror's greatsurvey, neither Merdon nor Hursley appears in Domesday Book, thoughOtterbourne, and even the hundred of Boyate or Boviate, as it is inthe book, appear there. It had once belonged, as did Baddesleyfirst, at first to one named Chepney, then to Roger de Mortimer, thatfierce Norman warrior who was at first a friend and afterwards anenemy to William I. 

The entire district, except the neighbourhood of Merdon Manor on theone hand, and of the Itchen on the other, was probably either forestground or downs, but it escaped the being put under forest laws atthe time when the district of Ytene became the New Forest. Probablythe king was able to ride over down, heather, and wood, scarcelymeeting an enclosure the whole way from Winchester; and we canunderstand his impatience of the squatters in the wilder parts, though the Cistercian Abbey of Beaulieu was yet to be founded. Indeed Professor E. A. Freeman does not accept the statement thatthere could possibly have been thirty-nine village churches to bedestroyed in the whole district of "Ytene. "

The tradition lingered to the present time at Otterbourne that thecorpse of William Rufus was brought back in Purkiss's wood-cart fromMinestead to Winchester for burial in the Cathedral, along a trackleading from Hursley to Otterbourne, called at each end King's Lane, though it is not easy to see how the route could have lain throughboth points. 

The parish of Hursley lies in the hundred of Buddlesgate, anddivision of Fawley; and the village is situated on the turnpike-roadleading from Winchester to Romsey, and nearly at an equal distancefrom each of those places. 

The parishes by which Hursley is surrounded were, when Mr. Marshwrote, Sparsholt on the north; Farley on the north-west; Michelmershand Romsey on the west; Baddesley, North Stoneham, and Otterbourne onthe south; and Compton and St. Cross on the east. 

The whole parish was then upwards of twenty-eight miles incircumference, and contained 10, 590 acres of land, of which 2600 werein common, 372 in roads and lanes, about 1000 under growth ofcoppice-wood, and the rest either arable or pasture. 

The soil in the parish of Hursley, as may be supposed in so extensivea tract of land, is of several different sorts; in some parts it islight and shallow, and of a chalky nature; in others, particularly onthe east and west sides of the parish, it is what is called STRONGland, having clay for its basis; and in others, especially that ofthe commons and fields adjoining, it consists principally of sand orgravel. Towards the west, it is entirely covered with wood, not ingeneral bearing trees of large size, but some beautiful beech-trees;and breaking into peaty, boggy ground on the southern side. Thenorthern side is of good rich loam, favourable to the growth of finetrees, and likewise forms excellent arable land. This continuesalong the valley of Otterbourne, along a little brook which fallsinto the Itchen. It is for the most part of thick clay, fit forbrick-making, with occasional veins of sand, and where Otterbournehill rises, beds of gravel begin and extend to the borders of theItchen, through a wooded slope known as Otterbourne Park. 

The boundaries of estates fixed those of parishes, and Otterbournewas curiously long and narrow, touching on Compton and Twyford to thenorth and north-west, on Stoneham to the south, and Hursley to thewest, lying along the bank of the Itchen. 

The churches of both parishes were probably built in the twelfthcentury, for though Hursley Church has been twice, if not threetimes, rebuilt, remains of early Norman mouldings have been foundbuilt into the stone-work of the tower. And on the wall of the oldOtterbourne Church a very rude fresco came partially to light. Traced in red was a quatrefoil within a square, the corners filled upwith what had evidently been the four Cherubic figures, though onlythe Winged Ox was clearly traceable. Within the quatrefoil was aseated Figure, with something like scales in one hand, apparentlyrepresenting our Lord in His glory. The central compartment was muchbroken away, but there was the outline of a man whom one in a hairygarment was apparently baptizing. The rest had disappeared. 

These paintings surmounted three acutely-pointed arches, with smallpiers, and square on the side next the nave, but on the other sideslender shafts with bell-shaped capitals, carved with bold roundmouldings and deep hollows. Two corbels supporting the horizontaldrip-stone over the west window were also clear and sharply cut; andthe doorway on the south side had slender shafts and deep mouldings, in one of which is the dog-tooth moulding going even down to theground on each side. This is still preserved in the entrance to theBoys' School. 

These remnants date the original building for about the thirteenthcentury. It may have been due to King Stephen's brother, BishopHenry de Blois of Winchester, who is known to have raised the castlewhose remains still exist on his manor of Merdon, where once therehad been a Roman encampment. So far as his work can be traced, thefirst thing he would do would be to have a similar embankment thrownup, and a parapet made along the top, behind which men-at-arms wouldbe stationed, the ditch below having a stockade of sharp stakes. Inthe middle of the enclosure a well was begun, which had to go deeperand deeper through the chalk, till at last water was found at 300feet deep--a work that must have lasted a year or more. Around thewell, leaving only a small courtyard, were all the buildings of thecastle meant for the Bishop's household and soldiers. The entranceto it all was probably over a drawbridge across the great ditch(which, on this side, was not less than 60 feet deep), and through agreat gateway between two high square towers, which must have stoodwhere now there is a slope leading down from the level of the innercourt to that surrounded by a bank. This slope is probably formed bythe ruins of the gateway and tower having been pitched into theditch, as the readiest way of getting rid of them when the castle wasdismantled afterwards. We are indebted to the late Sir John Cowellfor the conjectural plan and description of the castle. 

As soon as the Bishop had completed this much he would feel tolerablysafe, but he would not be satisfied. He could hardly have room inhis castle for all his retainers, and he could not command thecountry from it, except towards the south; therefore his next workwas to make an embankment and the ditch on the outer side of it. Itwas then an unbroken semicircle, jutting out as it were from thecastle, and protecting a sufficient space of ground for troops toencamp. 

In case of an enemy forcing their way into this, the defenders couldretreat into the castle by the drawbridge. The entrance was on theeast side, and in order to protect this and the back of the castle, by which is meant the northern side, another embankment was made andfinished with a parapet. Also as, in case of this being carried bythe enemy, it would be impossible for the defenders in the northernpart of the castle to run round the castle and into shelter by themain gateway, he built a square tower (exactly opposite to the ruinwhich yet remains), and divided from it only by the great ditch. Oneither side of the tower--cutting the embankment across, therefore, at right angles--was a little ditch, spanned by a drawbridge, which, if the defenders thought it necessary to retire to the tower, couldat any time be raised (the foundations of the tower and the positionof the ditches can still be distinctly traced). Supposing, further, that it became impossible to hold the tower, the besieged couldretreat into the main body of the castle by means of anotherdrawbridge across the great ditch, which would lead them through thearch (which can still be seen in the ruins, though it is partiallyblocked up). The room on the east side of this passage was probablya guard-room. In some castles of this date there were also two orthree tunnels bored through the earth-work from the inner courtyardto the bottom of the great ditch, so as to provide additional ways ofretreat for such men as might otherwise be cut off in those partsmost distant from either of the great gates, in order to secure theoutlying defence. 

Henry de Blois must have been thinking of the many feudal castles ofhis native France. He was a magnificent prelate, though involved inthe wars of his brother and the Empress Matilda. The hospital of St. Cross, and much of the beauty of Romsey Abbey, are ascribed to him, and he even endeavoured to obtain that Winchester should be raised tothe dignity of a Metropolitan See. It does not appear that all hiselaborate defences at Merdon were ever called into practical use; andwhen his brother, King Stephen, died in 1154, he fled from England, and the young Henry II. In anger dismantled Merdon, together with hisother castles of Wolvesey and Waltham; nor were these fortificationsever restored. The king and bishop were reconciled; and the latterspent a pious and penitent old age, only taking one meal a day, andspending the surplus in charity. He died in 1174. 

CHAPTER II--MEDIAEVAL GIFTS

It was considered in the Middle Ages that tithes might be applied toany church purpose, and were not the exclusive right of the actualparish priest, provided he obtained a sufficient maintenance, whichin those days of celibacy was not very expensive. The bishops andother patrons thus assigned the great tithes of corn of many parishesto religious foundations elsewhere, only leaving the incumbent thesmaller tithe from other crops--an arrangement which has resulted inmany abuses. 

Thus in 1301, when Bishop Sawbridge or Points, or as it wasLatinised, de Pontissara, founded the college of St. Elizabeth, inSt. Stephen's, Merdon, by the Itchen at Winchester, for the educationof twelve poor boys by a provost and fellows, he endowed it in partwith the great tithe of Hursley. The small tithes having been foundinsufficient for the maintenance of the vicar, he united to Hursleythe rectory of Otterbourne, giving the great tithes to the vicar ofHursley; and in 1362 Bishop Edyngton confirmed the transaction. 

Mr. Marsh thus relates the transaction:-

"The Living of Hursley was anciently a rectory, and, as it isbelieved, wholly unconnected with any other church or parish. Unfortunately, however, for the parishioners, as well as for theminister, it was, about the year 1300, reduced to a vicarage, and thegreat tithes appropriated to the College of St. Elizabeth inWinchester. The small tithes which remained being inadequate to thesupport of the vicar and his necessary assistants, the church ofOtterbourne was consolidated with that of Hursley, and the tithes ofthat parish, both great and small, were given to them to make up asufficient maintenance--an arrangement which, in that dark age, wasthought not only justifiable but even laudable, but whichnevertheless deserves to this day to be severely censured, since notonly the minister but both the parishes and the cause of religionhave suffered a serious and continued injury from it. 

"The person by whom this appropriation was made was John dePontissara, alias Points, Bishop of Winchester, the founder of thecollege to which the tithes were granted; it was, however, afterwardsconfirmed by William de Edyngton, by whom the vicar's rights, whichbefore were probably undefined, and perhaps the subject ofcontention, were ascertained and secured to him by endowment. Thisinstrument is still in being, bearing the date of 1362. It may beseen in Bishop Edyngton's Register, part I, fol. 128, under thefollowing marginal title:- 'Ratificatio et Confirmatioappropriationis Ecclesiae de Hursleghe, et ordinationes Vicarieejusd. ' The following is a translation of it, so far as the vicar'sinterests are concerned in it:- 'The said vicar shall have andreceive all and all manner of tithes, great and small, with allofferings and other emoluments belonging to the chapel ofOtterbourne, situated within the parish of the said church (viz. OfHursley). He shall also have and receive all offerings belonging tothe church of Hursley, and all small tithes arising within the parishof the same, viz. , the tithes of cheese, milk, honey, wax, pigs, lambs, calves, eggs, chickens, geese, pigeons, flax, apples, pears, and all other tithable fruits whatsoever of curtilages or gardens. He shall also receive the tithes of mills already erected, or thatshall be erected. He shall also receive and have all personal tithesof all traders, servants, labourers, and artificers whatsoever, dueto the said church. The said Vicar shall also receive and have allmortuaries whatsoever, live and dead, of whatsoever things they mayconsist. The said Vicar shall also receive and have all profit andadvantage arising from the herbage of the churchyard. He shall alsohave and receive the tithes of all fish-ponds whatsoever, within thesaid parish, wheresoever made, or that hereafter shall be made. Thesaid Vicar shall also have for his habitation the space on the southside of the churchyard, measuring in length, from the said churchyardand the rectorial house, formerly belonging to the said church, towards the south, twenty-seven perches; and in breadth, from thehedge and ditch between the said space and the garden of theaforesaid former rectory on the west, towards the east, sixteenperches and a half, with the buildings erected thereon. '

"Besides the above, John de Pontissara allotted to the Vicar thetithes of wool, beans, and vetches; but of the first of these he wasdeprived by Bishop Edyngton's endowment, and the latter have been solittle cultivated that he has never yet derived any advantage fromthem, though his right to this species of tithes cannot, I suppose, be questioned, unless, indeed, they are comprehended under the termBladum, and are consequently to be considered as the portion of theImpropriator. The tithes given by the Endowment to the President andChaplains of St. Elizabeth College are--'Decimae Bladi cujuscunquegeneris, Foeni ac Lanae, ' and no other. 

"The church of Hursley is situated within the deanery of Winchester, and is a Peculiar; {17} a distinction which it enjoys, probably, inconsequence of its having been formerly under the patronage of thebishop. The advantages of this are, that it is not subject to thearchdeacon's jurisdiction; that the minister is not obliged to attendhis visitations; and that he has the privilege of granting letters ofadministration to wills, when the property conveyed by them lieswithin the limits of the vicarage. 

"The value of the benefice, as rated in the King's Book, is 9 poundsper annum, and the tenths are of course 18s. These the incumbent isrequired to pay annually, but he is exempted from the payment of theFirst Fruits. The land-tax with which the vicarage is charged is 14pounds: 1: 2. 5 per annum; and the procurations and diet-moneypayable on account of the Bishop's Visitation amount to 12s. 9. 5d. "

The patronage of the living, when a rectory, belonged to the bishopsof Winchester, and afterwards, when reduced to a vicarage, wasexpressly reserved to himself and his successors by William deEdyngton; and so long as they kept possession of the Manor of Merdon, they continued patrons of the vicarage. This Bishop Edyngton, thesame who began the alteration of the cathedral, is said to have builtthe second church of All Saints at Hurley, the tower of which stillremains. 

William of Wykeham, among his wider interests, seems to have hadlittle concern with Hursley or Otterbourne. 

The bishops possessed numerous manors in the diocese, and these werereally not only endowments, but stations whence the episcopal duty ofvisitation could be performed. Riding forth with his train ofclergy, chaplains, almoners, lawyers, crossbearers, and choristers, besides his household of attendants, the bishop entered a village, where the bells were rung, priest, knight, franklins, and peasantscame out with all their local display, often a guild, to receive him, and other clergy gathered in; mass was said, difficulties orcontroversies attended to, confirmation given to the young people andchildren, and, after a meal, the bishop proceeded, sometimes to anoble's castle, or a convent, but more often to another manor of hisown, where he was received by his resident steward or park-keeper, and took up his abode, the neighbouring clergy coming in to pay theirrespects, mention their grievances, and hold counsel with him. Hisdues were in the meantime collected, and his residence lasted as longas business, ecclesiastical or secular, required his presence, ortill he and his train had eaten up the dues in kind that came in. 

Whether the visit was welcome or not depended a good deal on thecharacter of the prelate, and the hold he kept on his subordinates. The great courtly bishops, like William of Wykeham, generally senttheir suffragans, titular bishops in partibus infidelium, to performtheir duties. 

One of the park-keepers of Merdon was judged worthy of a Latinepitaph, probably the work of a chaplain or of a Winchester scholarto whom he had endeared himself:

Hic in humo stratus, John Bowland est tumulatusVir pius et gratus et ab omnibus hinc peramatusCustos parcorum praestans quondam fuit horumDe Merdon, quorum et Wintoniae dominorum. Hic quinqgenis hinc octenis rite deemptis Cum plausu gentis custos erat in eis. 

Festum Clementis tempus fuerat morientisMille quadringentis annis Christi redimentis, Quadris his junctis simul et cum septuagintis. Hunc cum defunctis, protege, Christe, tuis. 

Here laid in the ground, John Bowland hath sepulture, A man of faith and kindliness, and hence by all beloved. He was aforetime the excellent guardian of this parkBelonging to certain lords of Merdon and Winchester. He for (lit. In) 50 years--(8 being taken away precisely) With the applause of all the community was guardian among them. 

The Festival of Clement was his date of dyingIn years one thousand four hundred after Christ's Redemption, Adding to these four (?) (years) and seventy. Him, O Christ, befriend with those who are thine!

Unlike Hursley, or rather the Manor of Merdon, Otterbourne had manydifferent possessors in succession, and is even at the present daydivided into various holdings on different tenures. 

In 1244 Walter and John de Brompton, sons of Sir Bryan de Brompton, lived at Hayswode, a name now lost or changed into "OtterbournePark, " the wood spreading over the east side of the hill. At thesame time Sir Henry de Capella was possessor of the manor; but in1265 it had passed, by what means we do not know, to Sir Francis deBohun--a very early specimen of this Christian name which was derivedfrom the sobriquet of the Saint of Assisi, whose Christian name wasJohn. 

From the son of Sir Francis in 1279 Simon the Draper obtained theManor of Otterbourne for 600 merks, and a quit rent of a pair of giltspurs valued at six pence! Simon seems to have assumed the giltspurs himself, for he next appears as "Sir Simon de Wynton. " Indeedit seems that knighthood might be conferred on the possessors of acertain amount of land. Wynton in two more generations haslengthened into Wynchester, when, in 1379, the manor is leased toHugh Croans, merchant, and Isabella his wife for their lives, payingafter the first twenty-five years 100 pounds per annum. And twoyears later William de Winchester conveyed the manor over to HughCroans or Crans. 

The great Bishop William of Wykeham bought it in 1386, and gave it tohis cousin, bearing the same name. It continued in the Wykehamfamily till 1458, when William Fiennes or Fenys, Lord Say and Sele, the son of him who was murdered by Jack Cade's mob, being married tothe heiress, Margaret Wykeham, sold it to Bishop Waynflete for 600pounds. 

The bishop's treasurer was Hugh Pakenham; and being one of thefeoffees to whom the manor was conveyed for the bishop, he pretendedthat he had bought it for himself, and absconded with some of thetitle deeds; but eventually he died in magna miseria in sanctuary atSt. Martin's le Grand, Westminster. His son John renounced thepretended claim, and very generously the Bishop gave him 40 pounds. 

In 1481, good Bishop Waynflete made over the property to his newly-founded College of St. Mary Magdalen at Oxford, in whose possessionit has remained ever since, except small portions which have beenenfranchised from time to time. It includes Otterbourne hill, withcommon land on the top and wood upon the slope, as well as variousmeadows and plough lands. The manor house, still bearing the name ofthe Moat House, was near the old church in the meadows, and entirelysurrounded with its own moat. It must have been a house of somepretension in the sixteenth century, for there is a handsome doublestaircase, a rough fresco in one room, and in the lowest there was apanel over the fireplace, with a painting representing apparently abattle between Turks and Austrians. The President of MagdalenCollege on progress always held his court there. The venerable Dr. Rowth in extreme old age was the last who did so. Since his time thebridge crossing the moat fell in and choked it; it became a marsh;the farm was united to another, the picture removed, and the onlyinhabitants are such a labourer's family as may be impervious to theidea that it is haunted. 

Simon the Draper, otherwise Sir Simon de Wynton, granted a plot ofland to the north-west of the Manor House to Adam de Lecke invilleinage, and later in freehold to John de Otterbourne, reservingthirteen shillings rent. By this last it was rented on his wifeAlice, from whom it passed through several hands to John Colpoys inthe year of Henry VI. , and twenty-two years later this same JohnColpoys agreed with the warden and fellows of Winchester College toenfeoff them of one messuage, four tofts, twenty acres of arableland, and eighteen acres of meadow, to the intent that they should onthe 7th day of April in every year celebrate the obits of Alice hisdeceased wife, of John Giles and Maud his wife (her parents), of SirJohn Shirborne and of Joan Parke, and of Colpoys himself and Joan histhen wife, after their respective deaths. 

These obits, namely anniversaries of deaths when masses were to beoffered for the person recollected, were to be secured by the fee ofa shilling to the warden on each occasion, sixpence to each fellowand chaplain, and likewise to the schoolmaster, twopence to each layclerk, sixpence to the sacrist for wax candles, and a mark orthirteen and fourpence to be spent in a "pittance" extra course inthe college hall. The indenture by which Colpoys hoped to secureperpetual masses in remembrance of his relations and himself is inperfect preservation, with seals attached, in the muniment chamber ofWinchester College. 

The property has continued ever since in the possession of theCollege of St. Mary, Winchester, though the masses ceased to becelebrated after the Reformation. 

In those days the rector of Hursley was John de Ralegh, probably akinsman of the bishop of that name. 

Before this, however, Bishop Richard Toclive had a dispute with theKnights of St. John, who claimed the almshouse of Noble Poverty atSt. Cross as Hospitallers. They had unfortunately a reputation foravarice, and Toclive bought them off by giving them the impropriationof Merton and Hursleigh {25} for 53 marks a year. 

PAGANUS DE LYSKERET, styled Presbyter, was collated in 1280. Itappears that at this time there was a perpetual vicar established inthe Church of Hursley as well as a rector; and that he was institutedby the bishop, had a certain fixed maintenance assigned to him, andwas independent of the rector. In the register of John dePontissera, Bishop of Winton, may now be seen what is there calledthe "Ordinatio Episcopi inter Rectorem et Vicarium de Hurslegh. " Itis therein settled that the vicar shall have a house as described andother emoluments, and that the rector shall pay to him fortyshillings per annum. The vicar at this time was Johannes de Sta. Fide. The deed of settlement was executed in Hyde Abbey, in the year1291; Philip de Barton, John de Ffleming, William de Wenling, andothers being witnesses to it. Vide Regist. De Pontissera, fol. 10. Forty shillings or five marks was, it appears, the stipend usuallyassigned to vicars and curates at this time, the vicar being REALLYwhat we now call a curate. 

HUGO DE WELEWYCK, styled Clericus, succeeded in 1296 on theresignation of Paganus and was the last rector, the benefice havingin his time been reduced to a vicarage by the appropriation of therectorial-house, tithes, and glebe to the College of St. Elizabeth. The PRETENCES assigned for this act, for true REASONS they couldscarcely be, since in all cases of appropriation and consolidationthey appear to have been almost exactly the same, were the unfinishedstate of the college buildings and the insufficiency of the revenuesfor the maintenance of the society, owing to wars, sickness, pestilence, and the like. But notwithstanding this seriousdeprivation and loss, a vicar it appears was still continued in thechurch, Hugh de Welewyck having presented two, viz. Henricus deLyskeret in 1300, and Roger de la Vere in 1302; of whom the latterwas certainly appointed after the appropriation. 

WILLIAM DE FFARLEE was collated Vicar of Hursley, on the death ofWelewyck in 1348. 

WILLIAM DE MIDDLETON was collated in 1363. 

CHAPTER III--REFORMATION TIMES

The rectorial tithe of Hursley having been given to St. Elizabeth'sCollege, and apparently some rights over Merdon, the ChancellorWriothesley obtained that, on the confiscation of monastic property, the manor should be granted to him. Stephen Gardiner had been bishopsince 1531, a man who, though he had consented to the king'sassumption of the royal supremacy, grieved over the fact as an errorall his life. He appeared at the bar of the House of Commons andpleaded the rights of his See, to which Merdon had belonged for 1300years. It was probably in consequence of his pleading thatWriothesley restored the manor, but when Gardiner was illegallydeposed by the regency of Edward VI. On 14th February 1550, JohnPoynet, a considerable scholar, but a man of disgraceful life, obtained the appointment to the see, by alienating various estates tothe Seymour family, and Merdon was resumed by the Crown. It was thengranted to Sir Philip Hobby who had been one of King Henry's privycouncillors, and had been sent on an embassy to Portugal, attended byten gentlemen of his own retinue, wearing velvet coats with chains ofgold. 

Already had come to the hamlet of Slackstead in Hursley Parishanother reformer, Thomas Sternhold, who had been gentleman of thebed-chamber to Henry VIII. , and had put thirty-seven Psalms intoEnglish verse, in hopes of improving the morals of the Court. JohnHopkins and Robert Wisdom completed the translation of the Psalms, which Fuller in his history says was at first derided and scoffed atas piety rather than poetry, adding that the good gentleman had drunkmore of Jordan than of Helicon. In his Worthies, however, he says:"He was afterwards (saith my author) ab intimo cubiculo to KingEdward the Sixth; though I am not satisfied whether thereby he meantgentleman of his privy chamber or groom of his bed-chamber. He was aprincipal instrument of translating the Psalms into English metre;the first twenty-six (and seven-and-thirty in all) {28} being by himperformed. Yet had he other assistance in that work. Many a bitterscoff hath since been passed on their endeavours by some wits, whichmight have been better employed. Some have miscalled these theirtranslations Geneva gigs (i. E. Jigs); and which is the worst, father(or mother rather) the expression on our virgin queen, as falsely asother things have been charged upon her. Some have not sticked tosay 'that David hath been as much persecuted by bungling translatorsas by Saul himself. ' Some have made libellous verses in abuse ofthem, and no wonder if songs were made on the translators of thePsalms, seeing drunkards made them on David the author thereof. 

"But let these translations be beheld by impartial eyes, and theywill be allowed to go in equipage with the best poems in that age. However, it were to be wished that some bald rhymes therein werebettered; till which time, such as sing them must endeavour to amendthem by singing them with understanding heads and gracious hearts, whereby that which is bad metre on earth will be made good music inheaven. As for our Thomas Sternhold, it was happy for him that hedied before his good master, anno 1549, in the month of August; soprobably preventing much persecution which had happened unto him ifsurviving in the reign of Queen Mary. "

Such was Fuller's judgment and that of the author he quotes, nevertheless the version of the Psalms, being printed with thePrayer-Book, took such a strong hold of the nation that in 1798Hannah More was accused of dissent, because the version of Tate andBrady was used in her schools. Mr. Keble preferred it to this latteras more like the Hebrew, and some of his versions (curiously enoughproceeding from the same parish) remind us of these simple oldtranslators. The Old Hundredth, and in some degree the 23rd and theopening of the 18th, still hold their place, probably in virtue ofthe music to which they are wedded. 

Bishop Gardiner recovered the Manor of Merdon, with his liberty, onQueen Mary's accession. Then it was that Philip of Spain rodethrough one of these villages, probably Otterbourne, soaked throughwith rain, on his way to his ill-starred marriage with Mary. 

Gardiner was no persecutor, and Sternhold's widow lived on atSlackstede. On his death, Queen Mary gave the diocese to John White, the same who preached to Elizabeth on a living dog being better thana dead lion. 

Hobby then claimed the manor, but Bishop White made a strenuousresistance, appealing to Gardiner's former plea, and supported by theAttorney General Story, who is said to have been an enemy of SirPhilip Hobby. The case was argued in the House of Lords, and givenagainst the bishop, though under the protest of several of the LordsSpiritual, who dreaded the like treatment. 

Story was prosecuted by the Commons for pleading before the Lords, fled to the Netherlands and was trepanned on board an English ship, and put to death as a traitor. 

Bishop White was deprived the next year, and retired to his sister'shouse at South Warnborough, where he died. Queen Elizabeth is saidto have visited him. 

Merdon was thus in 1558 for ever alienated from the diocese ofWinchester. Sir Philip Hobby is said to have first built the Lodge, as it was called, of Hursley Park, about a quarter of a mile fromMerdon Castle, which had become ruinous. Those were the days whenthe massive walls and minute comfortless chambers were deserted, defence being less thought of than convenience in our happy country;and indeed Sir Philip seems to have used Hursley as a residenceinstead of only a shelter on a tour. He died at Bisham aged 53, onthe 31st of May 1558, soon after his victory over the See ofWinchester, and is there buried, as well as his elder brother, SirThomas. He left no children, and was succeeded by his brotherWilliam, who had married the widow of Sternhold. On her death thefollowing memorial was erected over a stone bearing the coat, "On achevron embattled, between three griffins' heads erased, three roses;and on a brass the inscription:

 If ever chaste or honest godly lyfeMyght merit prayse . Of everlastyng fameForget not then . That worthy Sternhold's wifeOur Hobbie's make . Anne Horswell cald by nameFrom whome alas . To sone for hers here leftHath God her Soule . Deth her lyfe byreft, Anno 1559. "

His property at Hursley descended to his son Giles Hobby, Esq. , who, it appears clearly by the register and other records, was living inthe parish very early in the seventeenth century. His last wife wasAnn, the daughter of Sir Thomas Clarke, Knight of Avyngton {32} inBerkshire, to whom he sold the castle and manor of Merdon, reserving, however to himself and wife, a life-holding in the lodge and park. When this sale was made does not appear, but it is supposed to havebeen before the year 1602, as Sir Thomas was then living at Merdon, and his son married in that year at Hursley. Giles Hobby died in theyear 1626, and his wife in 1630. They were both buried at Hursley, probably in the church, but no monument appears to have been erectedto their memory. 

"Sir Thomas Clarke may be considered as the next lord of Merdon, though he was never in possession of either the lodge or the park, and held only for a few years what he did possess. So long, however, as he continued proprietor of the manor, it is said that he lived atMERDON, I suppose at the castle, a part of which was probably thenstanding and habitable. Sir Thomas, it would seem, kept the demesnelands in his own occupation, requiring the tenants or copyholders ofthe manor, according to ancient usage, to perform the customaryservice of reaping and housing his crops: (1) The days employed inthis service were called Haydobyn days; (2) and during theircontinuance the lord was obliged to provide breakfast and dinner forthe workmen. Richard Morley, in his Manuscript, gives a very curiousaccount of a quarrel which occurred on one of these occasions. 'Another time' (says he) 'upon a haydobyn-day (320 or 340 reapers)the cart brought a-field for them a hogs-head of porridge, whichstunk and had worms swimming in it. The reapers refused to workwithout better provisions. Mr. Coram of Cranbury would not sufferthem to work. Mr. Pye, Sir Thomas Clarke's steward, and Coram drewtheir daggers, and rode at each other through the wheat. At lastLady Clarke promised to dress for them two or three hogs of bacon:twenty nobles' work lost. ' He adds, that 'a heire (hire) went for aman on the haydobyn-days, if able to carry a hooke a-field. '"

This "haydobyn" is supposed by Mr. Marsh to be a corruption of theold word "haydogtime, " {34} a word signifying a country dance. Itseems that when the tenants were called on to perform work inhedging, reaping, or hay-making, upon the lands of the lord of themanor, in lieu of money rent he was bound to feed them through theday, and generally to conclude with a merry-making. So, no doubt, ithad been in the good old days of the bishops and the much loved andlamented John Bowland; but harder times had come with Sir ThomasClarke, when it required the interference of Mr. Coram of Cranbury tosecure them even an eatable meal. No doubt such stout Englishresistance saved the days of compulsory labour from becoming a burdenintolerable as in France. 

Roger Coram, gent. , rented Cranbury at 17 pounds: 2s. Cranbury is alow wooded hill, then part of the manor of Merdon, nearly two milesto the south-east of Hursley, and in that parish, though nearer toOtterbourne. Several tenements seem to have been there, those in thevalley being called Long Moor and Pot Kiln. Shoveller is the firstname connected with Cranbury, but Mr. Roger Coram, the champion ofthe haymakers, held it till his death, when it passed to Sir EdwardRichards. 

On the other hand, Brambridge, which stands in Twyford parish, butheld part of the hundred of Boyatt in Otterbourne, was in the handsof the Roman Catholic family of Welles, who seem to have had numerousretainers at Highbridge, Allbrook, and Boyatt. Swithun Welles madeBrambridge a refuge for priests, and two or three masses were said inhis house each day. One "Ben Beard, " a spy, writes in 1584 that ifcertain priests were not at Brambridge they would probably be at Mr. Strange's at Mapledurham, where was a hollow place by the liverycupboard capable of containing two men. 

Swithun Welles went later to London and took a house in Holborn, where Topcliffe the priest-catcher broke in on Father Genings sayingmass, and both he and Mr. Welles were hanged together for what wasadjudged in those days to be a treasonable offence, implyingdisaffection to the Queen. {36}

The modern house of Brambridge affords no priests' chambers. It isbelieved that an older one was burnt down, and there is a very dimreport that a priest was drowned in a stone basin in a neighbouringwood. 

The register of Twyford Church contains the record of a number of theWelles family buried in the churchyard clandestinely, by night. JohnWells, mentioned in the Athenae Oxoniensis as an able man living atDeptford, retired to Brambridge, and died there in 1634. Thisaccounts for there having been the Roman Catholic school at Twyford, whence Alexander Pope was expelled for some satirical verses on themaster. The house is still known. 

The vicars of Hursley at this period were John Hynton, presented byBishop Gardiner, but deprived in on account of his tenets. RichardFox was presented in his place by William Hobby. It must have beenowing to the reforming zeal of this vicar of Hursley that thefrescoes in Otterbourne Church were as far as possible effaced, white-washed over, and the Ten Commandments painted over them in oldEnglish lettering, part of which was still legible in 1839. Otterbourne was apparently still served by the vicar of Hursley orhis assistant. 

Parish Registers began at this date, and here are the remarkableoccurrences recorded at Hursley:

EXTRAORDINARY OCCURRENCES, ETC. 

1582. A great hail storm happened at Hursley, Baddesley, and in theneighbourhood, this year. The hail-stones measured nine inches incircumference. 

1604. The plague made its appearance at Anfield. It broke out inNovember, and continued till the following February. Many personsdied of it, and were not brought to the church, but buried in thewaste near their residence. 

1610. A person of the name of Wooll hanged himself at Gosport, inthe parish of Hursley, about this time. He was buried at the cornerof Newland's Coppice, and a stake was driven through his body. (Theplace still bears the name of Newland's Coppice. )

1621. A planked thrashing-floor first laid down in the parish thisyear, viz. At Merdon. Chalk-floors used before. It was reckoned amemorable improvement. 

1629. A great fall of snow in October. It was nearly half a footdeep, and remained on the ground three or four days. 

1635. A copyholder was hanged for murder this year. His copyholdwas seized by the lord as forfeited, but afterwards recovered, viz. In 1664. 

CHAPTER IV--PURITAN TIMES

After his dispute with the haymakers, Sir Thomas Clarke sold Merdonto William Brock, a lawyer, from whom it passed to John Arundel, andthen to Sir Nathanael Napier, whose son, Sir Gerald, parted with itagain to Richard Maijor, the son of the mayor of Southampton. Thiswas in 1638, and for some time the lodge at Hursley was lent to Mr. Kingswell, Mr. Maijor's father-in-law, who died there in 1639, afterwhich time Mr. Maijor took up his abode there. He seems to have beena shrewd, active man, and a staunch Protestant, for when there was adesire to lease out Cranbury, he, as Lord of the Manor, stipulatedthat it should be let only to a Protestant of the Church of England, not to a Papist. The neighbourhood of the Welleses at Brambridgeprobably moved him to make this condition. 

The person who applied for the lease was Dr. John Young, Dean ofWinchester, who purchased the copyhold of Cranbury before 1643, andretired thither when he was expelled from his deanery and otherpreferments in the evil times of the Commonwealth, and there died, leaving his widow in possession. 

Whether the lady was molested by Mr. Maijor we do not know. He wasno favourite with Richard Morley, who rented the forge in Hursley, the farm of Ratlake and Anvyle, as Ampfield was then spelt, andthought him a severe lord to his copyholders. Morley was born atHursley, and was sent to school at Baddesley in 1582, the year of thegreat hailstorm of the nine-inch stones. He kept valuable memoranda, which Mr. Marsh quotes, and died in 1672, when he is registered as:-

"Ricardus Morley Senex sepultus fuit, August 1672. " (Senex indeed, for he must have been 97. )

Of Maijor, Morley records, "He was very witty and thrifty, and gotmore by oppressing his tenants than did all the lords in 60 yearsbefore him. He was a justice of the peace, and raised a troop in thecause of the Parliament. " It must have been in the army that OliverCromwell made his acquaintance, and in 1647 began the first proposalsof a "Marriage treaty, " between Richard, Oliver's eldest survivingson, just twenty-one and educated for the Law, and the elder daughterof Mr. Maijor (which Carlyle always spells as Mayor). For the time, however, this passed off; but, apparently under the direction of Mr. Robertson, a minister of Southampton, and Mr. Stapylton, also aminister, the treaty was resumed; and three weeks after the King'sexecution, Oliver wrote to Mr. Maijor. 

For my very worthy friend, Richard Mayor, Esq. : These. 

LONDON, 12th February 1648. 

SIR--I received some intimations formerly, and by the last returnfrom Southampton a Letter from Mr. Robinson, concerning the revivingof the last year's motion, touching my Son and your Daughter. Mr. Robinson was also pleased to send enclosed in his, a Letter from you, bearing date the 5th of this instant, February, wherein I find yourwillingness to entertain any good means for the completing of thatbusiness. 

From whence I take encouragement to send my Son to wait upon you; andby him to let you know, that my desires are, if Providence sodispose, very full and free to the thing, --if upon an interview, there prove also a freedom in the young persons thereunto. Whatliberty you will give herein, I wholly submit to you. I thought fit, in my Letter to Mr. Robinson, to mention somewhat of expeditionbecause indeed I know not how soon I may be called into the field, orother occasions may remove me from hence; having for the present someliberty of stay in London. The Lord direct all to His glory. --Irest, Sir, your very humble servant, OLIVER CROMWELL. 

Probably this was the time when the public-house of Hursley took thename of "The King's Head, " which it has kept to the present day. Butyoung Cromwell was inclined to loyalty, and when at Cambridge used todrink "to the health of our landlord, " meaning the King! He was one-and-twenty when, with his father's friend Mr. Stapylton, he made avisit to Hursley, and was received by Mr. And Mrs. Maijor with manycivilities, also seeing their two daughters, Dorothy and Anne. In aletter of 28th February, Cromwell thanks Mr. Maijor for "Thereception of my son, in the liberty given him to wait on your worthydaughter, the report of whose virtues and godliness has so great aplace in my heart that I think fit not to neglect anything on my partwhich may consummate a close of the business, if God please todispose the young ones' hearts thereunto, and other suitable orderingof affairs towards mutual satisfaction appear in the dispensation ofProvidence. "

Mr. Stapylton was commissioned to act for General Cromwell in thematter of settlements, over which there was considerable haggling, though Oliver writes that "the report of the young lady's godlinesscauseth him to deny himself in the matter of moneys. " Morecorrespondence ensued, as to the settlement of Hursley upon Dorothyand her heirs male, and the compensation to her younger sister Anne. Cromwell was anxious to hurry on the matter so as to have itconcluded before his departure to take the command in Ireland. 

The terms were finally settled, and Richard and Dorothy were marriedat Hursley on May Day, 1649, before Cromwell's departure to crush theill-arranged risings in Ireland. Her sister Anne shortly aftermarried John Dunch of Baddesley, with 1000 pounds as her portion. Morley of Baddesley chronicles the marriage in no friendly tone:"When" (says he) "King Charles was put to death, and Oliver CromwellProtector of England, and Richard Maijor of his privy council, andNoll his eldest son Richard married to Mr. Maijor's daughter Doll, then Mr. Maijor did usurp authority over his tenants at Hursley. " Inanother place he says that "he" (i. E. Mr. Maijor) "set forth horseand man for the Parliament, and was a captain and justice of peace. Lord Richard Cromwell was also a justice of peace, and John Dunch acaptain and justice. These all lived at Lodge together in Oliver'sreign; so we had justice right or wrong by power; for if we didoffend, they had power to send us a thousand miles off, and that theyhave told us. "

Richard, having no turn for politics or warfare, preferred to live aquiet life with his father-in-law, in the lodge. There were twowalnut avenues planted about this time, leading to the lodge from thechurchyard on one side, and on the other towards Baddesley; and thefoundations of the house can still be traced on the lawn to whichboth lead. 

Oliver writes in the summer after the marriage that he is glad theyoung people have leisure to make a journey to eat cherries. Thereis little doubt but that this must have been to the gardens in Ram-Alley near Chandler's Ford, originally Chaloner's Ford, wherenumerous trees, bearing quantities of little black cherries calledmerries, used to grow, and where parties used to go as a Sundaydiversion, and eat, before the days of the station and the building. 

The elder Mrs. Cromwell paid a visit to Hursley after parting withthe Protector on his voyage to Ireland; but he never seems to havegone thither in person, though he wrote kindly paternal letters tohis son and daughter. He wishes Richard to study mathematics andcosmography, and read history, especially Sir Walter Raleigh's. "Itis a Body of history, and will add much more to your understandingthan fragments of story. " And to Dorothy, he gives advice on herhealth and religious habits. 

John Hardy had been Vicar of Hursley but was expelled, and Mr. Maijor, as patron of the living, provided persons for the ministryand kept a close account of their expenses, which is still preserved. Seven different ministers in the half year after Christmas 1645 wereremunerated "for travell and pains in preaching, " after which timeMr. Richard Webb settled for a time at Hursley, and Mr. Daniel Lloydat Otterbourne, though several more changes took place. 

A parish register at Hursley, 1653, recording births (not baptisms), mentions the opening of a chalk-pit at Hatchgate in 1655, and atOtterbourne. The children of William Downe of Otterbourne Farm aredistinguished by double black lines below their names. 

Oliver Cromwell, according to an old village tradition, sunk histreasure at the bottom of Merdon Well, in an iron chest which musthave been enchanted, for, on an endeavour to draw it up, no one wasto speak. One workman unfortunately said, "Here it comes, " when itimmediately sank to the bottom and (this is quite certain) never wasseen! The well was cleaned out in later times, and nothing was foundbut a pair of curious pattens, cut away to receive a high-heeledshoe, also a mazer-bowl, an iron flesh-hook and small cooking-pot, and a multitude of pins, thrown in to make the curious reverberatingsound when, after several seconds, they reached the water. A coupleof ducks are said to have been thrown down, and to have emerged atPool hole at Otterbourne with their feathers scraped off. 

On 3rd September 1658, the family party at Hursley was broken up bythe unexpected death of the Protector. He was not yet sixty years ofage, and had not contemplated being cut off before affairs were moresettled; and when, in his last moments, he was harassed withenquiries as to his successor, he answered, "You will find my will inSUCH a drawer of my cabinet. " Some of his counsellors thought henamed his son Richard; and no one ever found the drawer with the willin it, in which it was thought that his son-in-law Fleetwood, a muchabler man, was named. 

At any rate, Richard was accepted in his father's place by Parliamentand army, and went to much expense for the Protector's funeral. Itmust have been a great misfortune to him that his shrewd father-in-law, the witty and thrifty Mr. Maijor, was sinking under acomplication of incurable diseases, of which Morley speaks somewhatunkindly, and he died in the end of April 1660. 

Richard had never been a strong partisan of the Commonwealth, thoughhe had quietly submitted to whatever was required of him. He hadbeen member of Parliament for the county of Hants, and had beenplaced at the head of the list of his father's attempt at a House ofLords, and he allowed greatness to be thrust on him in a quietacquiescent way. He dismissed the fictitious parliament that hisfather had summoned, and then offended the strict and godly of thearmy by promoting soldiers of whom they disapproved. "Here is DickIngoldsby, " he said; "he can neither pray nor preach, and yet I trusthim before you all. "

No one had any real enthusiasm for the harmless, helpless man, "thephantom king of half a year"; and it was just as old Mr. Maijor wasdying that Richard was requested by the "Rump" to resign, and returnto Hampton Court, with the promise of a pension and of payment of thedebts incurred by his father. While packing for his departure, hesat down on a box containing all the complimentary addresses made tohim, and said, "Between my legs lie the lives and fortunes of all thegood folk in England!" He then returned to Hursley, where he foundhimself pursued by those debts of his father which the LongParliament had engaged to pay, and which swallowed up more than hispatrimony, though the manor of Merdon, having been settled upon hiswife, could not be touched. He was sufficiently alarmed, however, tomake him retreat to the continent and change his name to Clarke. 

In 1675 Mrs. Richard Cromwell died, leaving out of a numerous familyonly one son and two daughters. The son, Oliver, inherited theestates, and seems to have been on good terms with his father, who, in 1700, came to live at Cheshunt under his name of Clarke, and madesome visits to Hursley. Richard married under this assumed name, andleft some children. 

When Oliver died without heirs in 1706, his father Richard, accordingto the original settlement, succeeded to the property, but his twodaughters set up their claim, and the case was brought into court. It is said that the judge was Cowper, but this has been denied. Atany rate the judge seems to have been shocked at the undutifullitigation, and treated the old man with much respect. 

The case was decided in his favour, and he lived between Hursley andCheshunt till his death in 1712 in his 86th year. 

As Mr. Palgrave writes:-

 Him count we wise, Him also, though the chorus of the throng Be silent, though no pillar riseIn slavish adulation of the strong, But here, from blame of tongues and fame aloof, 'Neath a low chancel roof, The peace of GodHe sleeps; unconscious hero! Lowly graveBy village footsteps daily trod;Unconscious! or while silence holds the nave, And the bold robin comes, when day is dim, And pipes his heedless hymn. 

These are a poet's meditations on him, more graceful than theinscription on the monument erected to him by his two undutifuldaughters, ere, in 1718, they sold the estate. It was a large tabletof marble, surmounted by death's heads. It is of gray or veinedmarble, in the Doric style of architecture, and is in height thirteenfeet, and in breadth nearly nine. The inscription upon it is asfollows:-

This Monument was erected to the memory of Mrs. Eliz. Cromwell, spinster (by Mr. Richard Cromwell and Thomas Cromwell, herexecutors). She died the 8th day of April 1731, in the 82d yeare ofher age, and lyes interred near this place; she was the daughter ofRichard Cromwell, Esq. , by Dorothy, his wife, who was the daughter ofRichard Maijor, Esq. And the following account of her family (all ofwhom, except Mrs. Ann Gibson, lie in this chancel) is given accordingto her desire. 

Mrs. Ann Gibson, the 6th daughter, died 7th Dec. 1727, in the 69thyear of her age, and lies interred, with Dr. Thomas Gibson, herhusband, Physician General of the Army, in the church-yard belongingto St. George's Chapel, in London. 

Richard Cromwell, Esq. , father of the said Eliz. Cromwell, died 12thJuly 1712, in the 86th year of his age. 

Oliver Cromwell, Esq. , son of the said Richard Cromwell, died 11thMay 1705, in the 49th year of his age. 

Mrs. Dorothy Mortimer, a seventh daughter, wife of John Mortimer, Esq. , died 14th May 1681, in the 21st year of her age, but left noissue. 

Mrs. Dorothy Cromwell, wife of the said Richard Cromwell, died 5thJanuary 1675, in the 49th year of her age. 

Mrs. Ann Maijor, mother of the said Mrs. Dorothy Cromwell, died 13thof June 1662. 

Richard Maijor, Esq. , husband of the said Mrs. Ann Maijor, died 25thApril 1660. 

Mrs. Dorothy Cromwell, a fifth daughter, died 13th December 1658, inthe 2nd year of her age. 

A fourth daughter died 27th May 1655, in the 1st year of her age. 

Mrs. Mary Cromwell, a third daughter, died 24th September 1654, inthe 2nd year of her age. 

A son of the said Richard and Dorothy Cromwell, died 13th December1652, in the 1st year of his age. 

Mrs. Ann Cromwell, a second daughter, died 14th March 1651, in the1st year of her age. 

Mr. John Kingswell, father of the said Mrs. Ann Maijor, died 5thMarch 1639. 

The lime-trees, beautifully surrounding the churchyard, are said tohave been planted by Richard Cromwell, and there was certainly anexcellent fashion of planting them in the latter end of theseventeenth century, partly due to a French custom, partly toEvelyn's Sylva. The beautiful avenue of limes at Brambridge, inthree aisles, was probably planted at this date by one of the Wellesfamily. 

In taking down the old lodge of Merdon or Hursley, a large lump ofmetal was found, squeezed into a crevice of the wall, and was sold byMr. Heathcote as a Roman weight; but on being cleaned, it proved tobe the die of the seal of the Commonwealth. Richard had caused a newseal to be made for himself by Simon, a noted medallist, and he hadprobably thus disposed of the die as a dangerous possession. Mr. Vertue saw it in 1710, in the collection of a Mr. Roberts, but it hassince disappeared. 

There was a stone inscribed to Edward Reynell and Mary his wife, whodied respectively in 1698 and 1699. They are believed to have beenfriends of Oliver Cromwell the grandson, who certainly named them inhis will. There was a tradition in Hursley that this Reynell wasactually the executioner of King Charles. 

CHAPTER V--CUSTOMS OF THE MANOR OF MERDON

As it was just at this time that the customs of the manor of Merdonwere revised, this seems to be the fittest place for giving Mr. Marsh's summary of them. 

"The quantity of land in cultivation within the Manor of Merdon orparish of Hursley is, as I imagine, not less than three-fifths of thewhole, or about 6000 acres; of which the greater part was ancientlycopyhold, under the Bishop and Church of Winchester. The tenure bywhich it was held, was, and indeed is still, that denominated BoroughEnglish, the most singular custom of which is, that the YOUNGEST soninherits the copyhold of his father, in preference of all his elderbrothers. The origin of this tenure, according to Sir WilliamBlackstone, is very remote, it being his opinion that it was 'aremnant of Saxon liberty'; {53} and was so named in contradistinctionto the Norman customs, afterwards introduced by the Conqueror, fromthe Duchy of Normandy. The reasons commonly assigned for thepeculiar usage just mentioned are given by Blackstone, but they areevidently not satisfactory to him, and, as it should seem, notfounded on truth. His own way of accounting for it is far morerational and probable, though, it must be confessed, it is onlyconjectural. He supposes that the ancient inhabitants of this islandwere for the most part herdsmen and shepherds; that their elder sons, as soon as they arrived at manhood, received from their father acertain allotment of cattle, and removed from him, and that theyoungest son, who continued to the last with him, became naturallythe heir of the family and of the remaining property. Whether thiswere really the case or not will probably ever remain a question ofgreat uncertainty; and it is a circumstance of too trifling a natureto deserve much investigation. It is, however, worthy of remark thatto this day this custom of descent to the youngest son prevails amongthe Tartars; and that something very like it was anciently the usageamong most northern nations. {54} But whatever be its origin, or inwhatever way it be accounted for, such is the custom now existing inthis manor; and I have had frequent opportunities of observing thatit is held, especially by the inferior class of copyholders, assacred, and that they would, on no consideration, divert theirtenements out of the customary order of inheritance. 

 "But besides this custom, there are others also in this manor whichindicate great antiquity, and which, there can be but little if anydoubt, are the same as were in use before the Norman Conquest. Weare told, indeed, by Judge Blackstone, that after that event theancient Saxon system of tenure was laid aside, and that the Normans, wherever they had lands granted to them, introduced the feodalsystem; and that at length it was adopted generally, and asconstitutional, throughout the kingdom. There does not, however, Ithink, appear to be sufficient reason for supposing that this newsystem was received into this manor, the customs here in use beingevidently those of a more remote age, and in their CIRCUMSTANCES, ifnot in their NATURE, altogether unlike those which were at this timeestablished by the Normans. 

"Under the feodal system, the tenant originally held his landsentirely at the will of the lord, and at his death they reverted tothe lord again. The services to be performed for the lord wereuncertain and unlimited. The copyhold was also subject to a varietyof grievous taxes, which the lord had the privilege, upon manyoccasions, of imposing--such as aids, reliefs, primer seisin, wardship, escheats for felony and want of heirs, and many more, altogether so exorbitant and oppressive as often totally to ruin thetenant and rob him of almost all interest in his property. {56} Thedifference of the circumstances under which the lands in the manor ofMerdon are, and, as it seems, always were held, is remarkablystriking: here the copyhold is hereditary, the services are certainand limited, the fines are fixed and unchangeable, the lord has noright of wardship, neither is the copyhold liable to escheat forfelony; the widow of a tenant has also a right of inheritance, andthe tenement may be let without the lord's consent for a year. Allwhich circumstances appear to bespeak an original and fundamentaldifference of tenure from that of the feodal system, and are, Ipresume, to be considered, not as encroachments that have graduallygrown upon that system, but as being of a more liberal extraction andmuch greater antiquity. {57a} But besides these differences, thesupposition here advanced has this farther ground to rest upon, viz. That neither the name of MERDON, nor that of HURSLEY, is so much asmentioned in the great survey of the kingdom, called Domesday-Book, which, if the intention of that survey be rightly understood, {57b}it seems next to a certainty that one or other of them would havebeen had the new system been here adopted. Nor, when it isconsidered that this was CHURCH property, and that in many instancesthe alterations were not enforced, {58} out of favour as it issupposed to the landholder, who was partial to the more ancienttenure, ought it to be thought extraordinary that the customs in thismanor did not undergo the general change; since, if favour weredesirable and shown to any, who were so likely to expect and to findit as the clergy? But however this point may really be, it appearsevident that the tenants of this manor have, from the earliest timesto which we have the means of resorting for information, enjoyed manyunusual rights and immunities, and that their services were, in manyrespects, far from being so base and servile as those of the strictlyfeodal tenant. 

"When it was that disputes first arose between the lord and tenantsconcerning their respective rights is not, I believe, known withcertainty; but it appears that in the time of Mr. Maijor many of thelord's claims were complained of by the tenants as usurpations; as, on the other hand, many of theirs were by the lord as new anduncustomary. But it was in vain then for the tenants either toresist the lord's pretensions or to assert their own; such being Mr. Maijor's power and interest with the Cromwellian Government as toenable him, as they well knew, easily to defeat all their efforts. In justice, however, to Mr. Maijor, it should be mentioned that heacted, in one instance at least, with great liberality towards thetenants; as by him it was that the customary personal services werecommuted for pecuniary payments--an exchange which could not fail ofbeing peculiarly acceptable to them, as they were not only relievedby it from a service they considered as a grievance, and performedreluctantly, but had the prospect of being in the end great gainersby it. But though by this concession on the part of the lord someground of discontent was removed, yet disputes and animosities stillcontinued to subsist with respect to other customs; and no sooner wasMr. Maijor dead, and the Cromwell family dispossessed of its power, than the tenants laid aside their fears and renewed their opposition. The circumstances of the times being now in their favour, it mightperhaps have been expected that they, in their turn, should establishall their claims without contention. The case, however, was quiteotherwise, as neither Mrs. Cromwell nor her son would tamely foregoany one of their supposed privileges--on the contrary, Oliverdefended them in the true spirit of a Cromwell, and relinquished nonebut such as the decisions of a jury, which were more than onceresorted to, deprived him of. In this state of strife and litigationthings continued until the year 1692, when most of the principaltenants concurred in a determination to appeal to the Court ofChancery. A bill of complaint was accordingly presented to theCourt, stating their supposed grievances, and soliciting itsinterference. Several hearings and trials, ordered in consequence ofthis application, for the investigation of the disputed customs, thenensued; after which, though not till more than six years had elapsed, the Court finally adjudged and decreed the customs of the manor tobe, and continue for the future, as they here follow:-

"Custom 1. That all the copyholds and customary messuages, lands, and tenements within the said manor are, and have been time out ofmind, copyholds of inheritance, demised and demisable to thecopyholders or customary tenants thereof, and their heirs in feesimple by copy of Court Roll, according to the custom of the saidmanor. 

"Custom 2. That the customary tenements within the said manor dodescend, and ought to descend, as tenements of the tenure, and in thenature of Borough-English, not only to the youngest son or youngestdaughter, and for default of such issue of such customary tenant tothe youngest brother or youngest sister, but also, for default ofsuch brother and sister of such customary tenant, to the next kinsmanor kinswoman of the whole blood of the customary tenant inpossession, how far so ever remote. 

"Custom 3. That if any tenant of any copyhold die, seized of anycopyhold, his wife living, then she ought to come to the next Courtor Law-day to make her claim and election, whether she will pay apenny and hold for her widow's estate, or pay half her husband'sfine, and to keep the copyhold tenement during her life. 

"Custom 4. That the husband of any wife (as customary tenant of thesaid manor) dying, seized of any customary tenement within the saidmanor, is entitled to have such customary tenement of his wife sodying, during his life, though the said husband had no issue of thebody of his said wife. 

"Custom 5. That if any copyholder or customary tenant of the saidmanor die, and leave his heir within the age of fourteen years, thatthen the nearest of kin and farthest from the land, have had, andought to have the guardianship and custody of the body of such heirand his copyholds, held of that manor, so that at the next Court orLaw-day he come in and challengeth the same, and to keep the sameuntil the heir come to be of the age of fourteen years. 

"Custom 6. That the heir of any customary tenant within the saidmanor is compellable to pay his fine to the lord of the said manor, and be admitted tenant before he attain his age of one and twentyyears, if he come to the possession of his customary estate. 

"Custom 7. That the fine due to the lord of the said manor upon theadmission or alienation of any customary tenant, to any customarytenement within the said manor, is, and time out of mind was, doublethe quit-rent of the said customary tenement; that is to say, whenthe quit-rent of any customary tenement was twenty shillings, thetenant of such tenement did pay to the lord of the said manor fortyshillings for a fine. 

"Custom 8. That every heir and tenant of any customary lands of thesaid manor may sell his inheritance during the life of the widow ofhis ancestor, who enjoys such customary estate for life. 

"Custom 9. That it is lawful for any of the copyholders or customarytenants of the said manor, to let her, his, or their copyholds forone year, but not for any longer term, without a licence from thelord of the said manor. 

"Custom 10. 'That no CERTAIN fine is payable to the lord of the saidmanor from any customary tenant of the said manor for a licence tolet his customary tenement; but such fine may exceed a penny in thepound of the yearly value of such customary tenement. 

"Custom 11. That every copyholder of inheritance of the said manormay sell any of his coppices, under-woods, and rows, and use them atpleasure; and may dig for stone, coal, earth, marle, chalk, sand andgravel in their own grounds, to be employed thereon; and may also digany of the commons or wastes belonging to the said manor for earth orgravel in the ancient pits there, where their predecessors have done, for the improvement of their copyholds. 

"Custom 12. That all the customary tenants of the said manor, whenand as often as their old pits, where they used to dig earth, marle, chalk, sand, clay, gravel, and other mould, were deficient, and wouldnot yield the same for them, that they, the said customary tenants, may and have used to dig NEW pits in any of the wastes and commons ofthe lord within the said manor, and there dig and carry away earth, marle, chalk, sand, clay, gravel, and other mould at their pleasure, for the improvement of their customary tenements, or for othernecessary uses, without the licence of the lord of the said manor. 

"Custom 13. That the ancient customary tenants of the said manor(other than such as hold only purpresture lands) have always hadcommon of pasture and feedings in all the lord's commons belonging tothe said manor, viz. Upon Cranbury Common, Hiltingbury Common, Ampfield Common, Bishop's Wood, Pit Down, and Merdon Down, for alltheir commonable cattle, levant and couchant, upon their respectivecopyhold tenements, within the said manor. 

"Custom 14. That no customary tenant of the said manor can or oughtto plough any part of the land upon the aforesaid wastes and commons, to lay dung, or for improving their customary lands. 

"Custom 15. That the Customary tenants of the said manor have nothad, nor ought to have in every year, at all times of the year, common of pasture in the wastes, heaths, and commons of the lord ofthe said manor within the said manor, for all their commonablecattle, without number or stint, exclusive of the lord of the saidmanor. 

"Custom 16. That the hazels, furzes, maples, alders, wythies, crab-trees, fern, and bushes, growing upon the aforesaid wastes andcommons, or in either of them, as also the acorns when they therefall, do belong to the customary tenants of the said manor, notexcluding the lord of the said manor for the time being from thesame. And that the customary tenants of the said manor have had, andused and ought to have, right of cutting furzes growing upon thewastes and commons of the said manor for their firing, and to cutfern for their uses and that the said customary tenants, in likemanner, have right of cutting thorns, bushes, wythies, hazels, maples, alders, and crab-trees, growing upon the wastes and commonsof the said manor, or in either of them, for making and repairingtheir hedges and fencing of their grounds, but they are not to commitany waste to the prejudice of the breeding, nursing, and raising ofyoung trees of oak, ash, and beech, which do wholly belong to thelord of the said manor, to have, use, and fell; and that the acorns, after they are fallen, do wholly belong to the customary tenants ofthe said manor. 

"Custom 17. That the customary tenants of the said manor have rightto feed their cattle in the three coppices called South Holmes, HeleCoppice, and Holman Coppice, within the said manor, and a right tothe mast there. 

"Custom 18. That the lord of the said manor ought not to cut downthe said coppices, or one of them altogether, or at any one time, butby parts or pieces, when he pleases. 

"Custom 19. That when the lord of the said manor doth cut down any, or either of the said coppices, he, by the custom, is not compellableto fence the same for seven years after such cutting, nor to sufferthe same to lie open. 

"Custom 20. That neither Thomas Colson, William Watts, aliasWatkins, nor the customary tenants of the tenement called FieldHouse, have a right of selling or disposing sand in any of the wastesor commons of the lord of the said manor within the said manor. 

"Custom 21. That any customary tenant of the said manor seized ofany estate of inheritance, in any customary tenement within the saidmanor, may cut timber, or any other trees standing or growing in orupon his said customary tenement, for repairs of his ancientcustomary messuages, with their appurtenances, and for estovers andother necessary things to be used upon such his customary tenement, without the licence or assignment of the lord of the said manor, butnot for building new messuages for habitation. 

"Custom 22. That no customary tenant of the said manor can cut, sell, or dispose of any trees growing upon his customary tenement, without the licence of the lord of the said manor, unless forrepairs, estovers, and other necessary things to be used upon hiscustomary tenement. 

"Custom 23. That any tenant seized of any estate of inheritance inany of the customary tenements of the said manor, may cut down timbertrees or other trees, standing or growing in or upon one of hiscustomary tenements, to repair any other of his customary tenements, within the said manor. 

"Custom 24. That no tenant of any customary tenement of the saidmanor, may cut any timber trees or any other trees from off hiscustomary tenement, nor give or dispose of the same, for repairing ofany customary tenement, or any other customary tenement within thesaid manor. 

"Custom 25. That the said customary tenants, and every of them, maycut down any old trees, called decayed pollard trees, standing orgrowing in or upon his customary tenement, and sell and dispose ofthe same, at his and their will and pleasure. 

"Custom 26. That the lord of the said manor for the time being, when, and as often as his mansion-house and the outhouses calledMerdon Farm House, shall want necessary repairs, may cut, and hathused to cut down, one timber tree from off one farm or customarytenement, once only during the life of the customary tenant of suchone farm, or customary tenement, for the necessary repairs of themansion-house and outhouses called Merton Farm House. 

"Custom 27. That the lord of the said manor, for the time being, cannot cut down more trees than one, from any one customary tenementin the life-time of any customary tenant thereof, for the repairsaforesaid, nor can he take the loppings, toppings, boughs, or bark ofsuch trees so by him cut down, nor can he carry the same away. 

"Custom 28. That upon any surrender made before the reeve or beadle, with two customary tenants of the said manor, or before any twocustomary tenants of the said manor without the reeve or beadle, noherriot is due to the lord of the said manor, if the estate therebymade and surrendered be from the right heir. 

"Custom 29. That by the custom of the said manor, the jury at theCourt or Law-day held for the said manor, have yearly used to choosethe officers of and for the said manor, for the year ensuing, viz. AReeve, a Beadle, and a Hayward, and such officers have used, andought to be sworn at the said Court, to execute the said offices forone year until they are lawfully discharged. 

"Custom 30. That the Hayward's office hath been to collect and payto the lord of the said manor such custom money as was agreed for inlieu of the custom works. "

The boundaries of the manor of Merdon, including Cranbury, and up tothe brook at Chandler's Ford, have been kept up by "progresses" roundthem. Probably the "gang" or Rogation procession was discontinued byeither Sir Philip Hobby or Richard Maijor; but on the borders betweenHursley and Baddesley, at a spot called High Trees Corner, near therailway, is marked in the old map, "Here stode Gospell Oke. " It isnot far from Wool's Grave, the next corner towards the Baddesleyroad. There, no doubt, the procession halted for the reading of theGospel for Rogation week. 

There are two curious entries in the old accounts:-

Chirurchets {67} vi Hennes and Cockes as apereth }in the old customary which I had from John } 44Seymour. }

And in the old book of Fines written in 1577 -

The Reve doth gather by his scores--37 pounds 18 2. The Bedell gathers the escheats. The Reve the rents and eggs and is keeper of the West heth. 

A small farm near the church was held by Corpus Christi College, Oxford, having probably been granted by Bishop Richard Fox, thefounder, who held the See of Winchester from 1500 to 1528. Thebearing in his coat of arms was a "pelican in her piety, " and thePelican was the name of the public house and of the farm thatsucceeded it down to the present day. The title as well as that ofthe college are of course connected with the emblem of the Pelicanfeeding her young from her own breast. Little pelicans, alternatelywith Tudor portcullises, profusely adorn Fox's chantry in WinchesterCathedral. 

CHAPTER VI--CRANBURY AND BRAMBRIDGE

Great changes began at the Restoration. Robert Maunder became vicarof Hursley in 1660, on whose presentation is unknown; but that he orhis curate were scholars is probable, since the entries in the parishregisters both of Hursley and Otterbourne begin to be in Latin. Cranbury had passed from Dean Young to his brother Major GeneralYoung, and from him to his daughter, the wife or Sir Charles Wyndham, son of Sir Edmund Wyndham, Knight Marshall of England and a zealouscavalier. Brambridge, closely bordering on Otterbourne, on theopposite side of the Itchen, though in Twyford Parish, was in thepossession of the Welles family. Brambridge and Otterbourne aredivided from one another by the river Itchen, a clear and beautifultrout stream, much esteemed by fishermen. In the early years ofCharles II. A canal was dug, beside the Itchen, for the conveyance ofcoal from Southampton. It was one of the first formed in England, and for two hundred years was constantly used by barges. Theirrigation of the meadows was also much benefited, broad ditchesbeing formed--"water carriages" as they are locally called--whichconduct the streams in turn over the grass, so that even a dry seasoncauses no drought, but they always lie green and fresh while thehills above are burnt brown. 

Another work was set in hand during the reign of Charles II. , namelythe palace he designed to build in rivalry of Versailles. SirChristopher Wren was the architect. The grounds were intended tostretch over the downs to a great distance, and on the highest pointwas to stand a pharos, whose light would be visible from the Solent. Fountains were to be fed from the Itchen, and a magnificent palacewas actually begun, the bricks for it being dug from a clay pit atOtterbourne, which has ever since borne the name of Dell Copse, andbecame noted for the growth of daffodils. The king lodged atSouthampton to inspect the work, and there is a tradition (derivedfrom Dean Rennell) that being an excellent walker, he went on foot toWinchester. One of his gentlemen annoyed him by a hint to thecountry people as to who he was, whereupon a throng come out to stareat him, at one of the bridges. He escaped, and took his revenge by aflying leap over a broad "water carriage, " leaving them to follow asthey could. 

His death put an end to his design, when only one wing of thebuilding was completed. It was known as "the King's House" and wasused as barracks till 1892, when it was unfortunately burnt to theground. 

Boyat, or Bovieres, as it once was called, had been a "hundred, " andwas probably more of a village than at present, since up to 1840there was a pound and stocks opposite to the single farm-house thatremained. The lands stretched from the hill to the river, near whichwas a hamlet called Highbridge, just on the boundary between Twyfordand Otterbourne. Here was an endowed Roman Catholic chapel, a merebrick building, at the back of a cottage, only distinguished by alittle cross on the roof. There is reason to think that a good manydependants of the Brambridge family lived here, for there are entriesin the parish register that infants had been born at Highbridge, butthe curate of Otterbourne could not tell whether they had beenbaptized. 

A new parchment parish register was provided in 1690, and verycarefully kept by the curate, John Newcombe, who yearly showed it upto the magistrates at the Petty Sessions, when it was signed by twoof them. A certain Augustin Thomas was a man of some property, comprising a house and two or three fields, which were known as"Thomas's Bargain, " till one was used as a site for the Vicarage. Several surnames still extant in the parish are found in theregister, Cox, Comley, Collins, Goodchild, Woods, Wareham--Anne andAbraham were the twin children of John and Anne Diddams, a curiousconnection with the name Didymus (twin), which seems to be theorigin. 

There must have been extensive repairs, if such they may be called, of the church, probably under the influence of Sir Charles and LadyWyndham--for though Cranbury House stands in Hursley parish, it is somuch nearer to Otterbourne that the inhabitants generally attend thechurch there, --and two huge square pews in the chancel, one linedwith red baize, the other bare, were appropriated to Cranbury, andmight well have been filled by the children of Sir Charles and DameJames his wife--Jacoba in her marriage register at Hursley--for theyhad no less than seventeen children, of whom only five died ininfancy, a small proportion in those days of infant mortality. Theperiod of alteration is fixed by a great square board bearing theroyal arms, with the initials W. And M. And the date 1687. No noticewas taken of the Nassau shield, and indeed it must have been put upin a burst of enthusiasm for the glorious Revolution, for the lion, as best he can be recollected, had a most exultant expression, withhis tongue out of one side of his mouth. 

The black-letter Commandments on the chancel arch were whitewashedout, and a tablet in blue with gold lettering erected in their steadon each side of the altar. The east window had either then orpreviously been deprived of all its tracery, and was an expanse ofplain glass with only a little remains of a cusp at the top of thearch. The bells were in one of the true Hampshire weather-boardedsquare towers, of which very few still exist in theirpicturesqueness. There were the remains of an old broken font, and aneat white marble one, of which the tradition was that it was givenby a parish clerk named David Fidler, and it still exists as thelining of the present font. 

Sir Charles Wyndham died in 1706, his wife in 1720. A small monumentwas raised for them in Hursley Church, with an inscription on atablet now in the tower, purporting that the erection was by theirdaughters, Frances White and Beata Hall. 

Frances was married to a man of some note in his day, to judge by themonument she erected to his memory in Milton Church, near Lymington, where his effigy appears, an upright figure cut off at the knees, andin addition to the sword in his hand there is a metal one, with ablade waved like a Malay crease, by the side of the monument. Theinscription is thus -

THOMAS WHITE Esq. , son of

IGNATIUS WHITE Esq. Of Fiddleford in Dorsetshire. 

He served three kings and Queen Ann as a Commander in the guards, andwas much wounded. He was in the wars of Ireland and Flanders. 

He had one son who dyed before him. He departed this life on the17th of February in the year 1720. 

This monument was erected by his widow Frances, one of the daughtersof Sir Charles Wyndham, in the county of Southampton. 

Mrs. White thus lost her husband and her mother in the course of thesame year. Her brother sold the Cranbury property to JonathanConduitt, Esquire, who was a noted person in his day. He marriedCatherine Barton, the favourite niece and adopted daughter of SirIsaac Newton. It may be remembered that this great man was aposthumous child, and was bred up by his mother's second husband, Barnabas Smith, Rector of North Witham, Lincolnshire, so as to regardher children as brothers and sisters. Hannah Smith married oneThomas Barton of Brigstock, and her daughter Catherine (whose namemysteriously is found as suing for the price of property sold toCharles II. For the site of the King's house at Winchester), livedwith Sir Isaac Newton, was very beautiful, and much admired by LordHalifax for her wit and gaiety. It was even reported that she wasprivately married to him, but this of course was mere scandal, andshe became the wife of Jonathan Conduitt, educated at TrinityCollege, a friend and pupil of Newton, who had for many yearsassisted in the harder work of Master of the Mint, and wrote an essayon the gold and silver coinage of the realm. He was member ofParliament for Southampton. Sir Isaac made his home with his nieceand her husband till his death in 1727, when Mr. Conduitt succeededto his office as Master of the Mint, and intended to write his life, but was prevented by death in 1737. Among the materials which Mr. Conduitt had preserved is the record of Newton's saying, "I do notknow what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to havebeen only like a boy playing on the sea shore, and diverting myselfin now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell thanordinary, while the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered beforeme. "

A very curious relic of Sir Isaac survives in the garden at CranburyPark, viz. A sun-dial, said to have been calculated by Newton. It isin bronze, in excellent preservation, and the gnomon so perforated asto form the cypher I. C. Seen either way. The dial is divided intonine circles, the outermost divided into minutes, next, the hours, then a circle marked "Watch slow, Watch fast, " another with the namesof places shown when the hour coincides with our noonday, such asSamarcand and Aleppo, etc. , all round the world. Nearer the centreare degrees, then the months divided into days. There is a circlemarked with the points and divisions of the compass, and within, adiagram of the compass, the points alternately plain and embossed. 

There is no date, but the maker's name, John Rowley, and the arms ofMr. Conduitt, as granted in 1717. Quarterly 1st and 4th Gules, on afesse wavy argent, between three pitchers double eared or, as manybees volant proper. 

2nd and 3rd Gules, a lion rampant argent between six acorns or. Impaling argent 3 boars' heads sable for Barton. 

Crest--Two Caducean rods with wings, lying fesse ways or. Thereon apeacock's head, erased proper. 

The motto--"Cada uno es hijo de sus obras. " "Each one is son of hisdeeds"--translates the Spanish. 

The 1st and 3rd quartering belongs to the old family of Chenduite, from which Jonathan Conduitt may have been descended. Probably hecould not prove his right to their Arms, and therefore had the freshgrant. 

Mr. Conduitt died in 1737, leaving a daughter, whose guardians soldCranbury to Thomas Lee Dummer, Esquire, from whom it descended in1765 to his son of the same name. 

Catherine Conduitt married the son of Viscount Lymington, afterwardscreated Earl of Portsmouth. 

CHAPTER VII--THE BUILDING AT HURSLEY

In the year 1718, Hursley was sold by Cromwell's two survivingdaughters for 36, 000 pounds to William Heathcote, Esq. , afterwardscreated a baronet. 

The Heathcotes belonged to a family of gentle blood in Derbyshire. Gilbert Heathcote, one of the sons, was an Alderman at Chesterfield, and was the common ancestor of the Rutland as well as the Hursleyfamily. His third son, Samuel, spent some years as a merchant atDantzic, where he made a considerable fortune, and returning toEngland, married Mary the daughter of William Dawsonne of Hackney. He was an intimate friend of the great Locke, and assisted him in hiswork on preserving the standard of the gold coin of the realm. Hedied in 1708, his son William and brother Gilbert attained to wealthand civic honours. 

Sir Gilbert was Lord Mayor in 1711 and was the last who rode inprocession on the 9th of November. Both were Whigs, though theJacobite Lord Mayor, whose support was reckoned on by the Stuarts, was their cousin. 

At about twenty-seven years of age, William Heathcote marriedElizabeth, only daughter of Thomas Parker, Earl of Macclesfield, andhad in course of time six sons and three daughters. He was M. P. First for Buckingham and afterwards for Southampton. He was createda baronet in 1733. 

There were plans drawn for enlarging the old lodge in which theHobbys and Cromwells had lived, but these seem to have been foundimpracticable, and it was decided to pull the house down and erect anew one on a different site. Tradition, and Noble in his Cromwell, declared that the change was from dislike of the Cromwell opinionsand usurpations, but Mr. Marsh considers this "mean and illiberal"and combats it sharply. 

The new and much more spacious building was placed a little higher upon the hill, with a wide bowling-green on the south side, where indry summers the old foundations of the former house can be traced, the walnut avenues leading up to it. The house was in the style thatis now called Queen Anne, of red brick quoined with stone, withlarge-framed heavy sash windows and double doors to each of theprincipal rooms, some of which were tapestried with Gobelin arrasrepresenting the four elements--Juno, with all the elements of theair; Ceres presiding over the harvest, for the earth; Vulcan with theemblems of fire; and Amphitrite drawn by Tritons personifying water. 

There was then a great central entrance-hall, in the middle of thenorthern side of the house, with stone steps going up at each end, outside, but, as we see from drawings and prints of the time, with nocarriage-approach to the house, so that people must have driven up tothe front door over the grass. 

Sir William died in 1751, fifty-eight years old. His son, SirThomas, born in 1721, was the builder of old Hursley Church, whichwas begun in 1752, and completed the next year, only the tower beingleft of the former edifice. In 1808 some few capitals of the oldpillars remained in parts of the village, and were adjudged by Mr. Marsh to be Saxon. It was said that the inside was very dark, theground outside being nearly on a level with the windows, and six oreight steps descending to the floor. 

It was all swept away, and the new structure was pronounced by Mr. Marsh to be exceedingly "neat, light, and airy. " It was 82 feetlong, and 49 broad, with two aisles, and an arched ceiling, supportedon pillars. It might well be light, for the great round-headedwindows were an expanse of glass, very glaring in sunshine, thoughmitigated by the waving lime-trees. The plan and dimensions followedthose of the old church, and were ample enough, the north aisle agood deal shorter than the chancel, and all finished with gablescrow-stepped in the Dutch fashion. It was substantially pavedwithin, and was a costly and anxiously planned achievement in thetaste of the time, carefully preserving all the older monuments. Amausoleum in the same style was built for the Heathcote family in thesouth-western corner of the churchyard, and gradually the white-washed walls of the church became ornamented (?) with the hatchmentsof each successive baronet and his wife, the gentlemen's shields withthe winged globe as crest, and the motto Deus prosperat justos; theladies' lozenge finished with a death's head above, and Resurgambelow. 

Sir Thomas was twice married and had eight children. He died atsixty-five years of age on 29th of June 1787. He was succeeded byhis eldest son, the second Sir William, who was born in 1746, and wasmember for the county in three Parliaments. He was a man of greatintegrity, humanity, and charity, very affable and amiable, andunassuming in his manners, "and he died as he had lived, fearingGod. " He married Frances, daughter and co-heiress of John Thorpe ofEmbley, and had seven children. 

His eldest son, Sir Thomas, married the heiress of Thomas EdwardsFreeman, of Batsford, Gloucestershire, in 1799, and was known as SirThomas Freeman Heathcote. He was member for the county from 1808till 1820, when he retired. He is reported to have known an old manwho said he had held a gate open for Oliver Cromwell, but this musthave meant the grandson, who died in 1705. 

Sir Thomas died without issue in his fifty-sixth year on the 21st dayof February 1825. 

CHAPTER VIII--OLD OTTERBOURNE

Thomas Dummer, Esquire, who in 1765 succeeded his father in thepossession of Cranbury, was a man to whom some evil genius whispered, "Have a taste, " for in 1770 he actually purchased the City Cross ofWinchester to set it up at Cranbury, but happily the inhabitants ofthe city were more conservative than their corporation, and made sucha demonstration that the bargain was annulled, and the Cross left inits proper place. He consoled himself with erecting a tall lath andplaster obelisk in its stead, which was regarded with admiration bythe children of the parish for about sixty years, when weatherdestroyed it. 

He also transported several fragments from Netley Abbey, which formedpart of his property at Weston near Southampton, and set them up inhis park as an object from the windows. There is an arch, the baseof a pillar, and a bit of gateway tower, but no one has been able todiscover the part whence they came, so that not much damage can havebeen done. The rear of the gateway has been made into a keeper'slodge, and is known to the village of Otterbourne as "the Castle. "

He is also said to have had a kind of menagerie, and to have beenonce in danger from either a bear or a leopard; the man at Hursleywho rescued him did not seem in his old age to be clear which it was, though he considered himself to have a claim on the property. 

It would not have been easy to substantiate it, for Mr. Dummer diedwithout heirs about 1790, leaving his property at Cranbury and Netleyfirst to his widow, and after her to the Chamberlayne family. 

Mrs. Dummer lived many years after her husband, and married anartist, then of some note, Sir Nathanael Dance, who assumed the nameof Holland, and in 1800 was created a baronet. He threw up paintingas a profession, but brought several good pictures to Cranbury. Hiswife survived him till 1823-24, when William Chamberlayne, M. P. ForSouthampton, came into the property, and from him, in 1829, itdescended to his nephew, Thomas Chamberlayne, Esquire. 

Brambridge had a more eventful history. From the Welleses, it passedto the Smythes, also Roman Catholics. Walter Smythe, the first ofthese, was second son of Sir John Smythe of Acton Burnell inDerbyshire. His daughter Mary Anne was married at nineteen to one ofthe Welds of Lulworth Castle, who died within a year, and afterwardsto Thomas Fitzherbert, who left her a childless widow before she wastwenty-five. 

It was six years later that, after vehement passionate entreaties onthe part of George, Prince of Wales, and even a demonstration ofsuicide, she was wrought upon to consent to a private marriage withhim, which took place on the 21st of December 1785, at her house inPark Lane, the ceremony being performed by a clergyman of the Churchof England, in the presence of her uncle and one of her brothers. 

So testifies Jesse in his Life of George III. Nevertheless there isat Twyford a belief that the wedding took place at midnight in thebare little Roman Catholic Chapel at Highbridge, and likewise inBrambridge House, where the vicar officiated and was sworn tosecrecy. The register, it is said, was deposited at Coutts's Bankunder a lock with four keys. The connection with Twyford was kept upwhile the lady lived, but no one remains who can affirm the facts. Her first marriage, in early youth, was most probably, as described, at Brambridge. Her very small wedding ring is also extant, butneither ring nor ceremony can belong to her royal marriage. It wouldbe curious that the adjoining parish of Marwell likewise had to boast(if that is a right word) of Henry VIII. 's marriage with JaneSeymour. 

Mrs. Fitzherbert certainly visited Brambridge, for an old gardenernamed Newton, and Miss Frances Mary Bargus, who came to live atOtterbourne in 1820, remembered her, and the latter noted her finearched brows. George IV. 's love for her was a very poor thing, butshe was the only woman he ever had any real affection for, and hedesired that her miniature should be buried with him. 

She survived him for many years, and died in 1837 at eighty-one yearsold. 

Her brother Walter was one of the English who visited Paris and wasmade prisoner by Napoleon I. At the rupture of the peace of Amiens, and detained till 1814. While he was a prisoner, his brother Charlescaused all the limes in the avenue at Brambridge to be pollarded, andsold the tops for gun stocks. Nevertheless the trees are stillmagnificent, making three aisles, all the branches inwards rising upperpendicularly, those without sweeping gracefully down, and allbudding and fading simultaneously. The pity is that the modern houseshould not have been built at one end or the other, so that they formactually a passage that leads to nothing. Since his death, theproperty has been sold, and has passed into strangers' hands. Theendowment of the chapel has been transferred to one at Eastleigh, andthe house to which it was attached belongs to a market garden. 

The two parishes were near enough to the coast to be kept in anxietyby the French schemes for landing. The tenant of the WinchesterCollege property at Otterbourne is said to have kept all her goodspacked up, and to have stirred the fire with a stick all through onewinter; and as late as between 1840-50, Mr. Bailey of Hursley stillhad in his barn the seats that had been prepared to fit into thewaggons that were to carry the women into the downs in the event of abattle. 

The Rev. John Marsh, who in 1808 collected the memoranda of Hursleyand dedicated them to Sir William Heathcote, was curate of Hursleyand incumbent of Baddesley. The Vicar was the Rev. GilbertHeathcote, fifth son of Sir Thomas, second Baronet. He wasafterwards Archdeacon of Winchester and a Canon of Winchester. Hewas a man of great musical talent, and some of his chants are stillin use. The only other fact recollected of him was, that being toldthat he used hard words in his sermons, he asked a labourer if heknew what was meant by Predestination, and was answered, "Yes, sir, some'at about the innards of a pig. " He generally resided there. Mr. Marsh remained curate of Hursley and was presented to the livingof Baddesley. All this time Otterbourne had only one Sunday service, alternately matins or evensong, and the church bell was rung as soonas the clergyman could be espied riding down the lane. Old customsso far survived that the congregation turned to the east in theCreed, always stood up, if not sooner, when "Alleluia" occurred atthe end of the very peculiar anthems, and had never dropped theresponse, "Thanks be to Thee, O Lord, " at the end of the Gospel. 

The Holy Communion was celebrated four times a year, 35. 7d. Beingpaid each time for the Elements, as is recorded in beautiful writingin "the Church Raiting book, " which began to be kept in 1776. "Washan the surples" before Easter cost 4s. ; a Communion cloth, tenpence; and for washing and marking it, sixpence. A new bell cost5 pounds: 5: 10, and its "carridge" from London 11s. 10d. Whitewashing the church came to 1 pound: 1s. , and work in thegallery to 10s. 4d. Besides, there was a continual payment fordozens of sprow heads, also for fox heads at threepence apiece, for abadger's head, a "poul cat, " marten cats, and hedgehogs. These last, together with sparrows, continue to appear till 1832, when the Rev. Robert Shuckburgh, in the vestry, protested against such use of thechurch rate, and it was discontinued. Mr. Shuckburgh was the firstresident curate at Otterbourne, being appointed by the Archdeacon. He was the first to have two services on Sunday, though still theante-Communion service was read from the desk, and he there pulledoff his much iron-moulded surplice from over his gown and ascendedthe pulpit stair. The clerk limped along the aisle to thepartitioned space in the gallery to take part in the singing. 

But changes were beginning. The direct coaching road betweenWinchester and Southampton had been made, and many houses hadfollowed it. The road that crosses Colden Common and leads toPortsmouth was also made about the same time, and was long calledCobbett's road, from that remarkable self-taught peasant reformer, William Cobbett, who took part in planning the direction. 

Cobbett was a friend of Mr. Harley, a retired tradesman who boughtthe cottage that had belonged to a widow, named Science Dear, andenlarged it. Several American trees were planted in the ground byCobbett, of which only one survives, a hickory, together with somestraggling bushes of robinia, which Cobbett thought would make goodhedges, being very thorny, and throwing up suckers freely, but thebranches proved too brittle to be useful. About 1819 Mr. Harley soldhis house and the paddock adjoining to Mary Bargus, widow of the Rev. Thomas Bargus, Vicar of Barkway in Hertfordshire, and she came tolive there with her daughter Frances Mary. In 1622, Miss Bargusmarried William Crawley Yonge, youngest son of the Rev. Duke Yonge, Vicar of Cornwood, Devon, of the old family of Yonges of Puslinch. He then retired from the 52nd regiment, in which he had taken part inthe Pyrenean battles, and in those of Orthez and Toulouse, and hadhis share in the decisive charge which completed the victory ofWaterloo. They had two children, Charlotte Mary, born August 11th, 1823, and Julian Bargus, born January 31st, 1830. 

CHAPTER IX--CHURCH BUILDING

A new era began in both Hursley and Otterbourne with the accession ofSir William Heathcote, the fifth baronet, and with the marriage ofWilliam Yonge. 

Sir William was born on the 17th of May 1801, the son of the Rev. William Heathcote, Rector of Worting, Hants, and Prebendary of theCathedral of Winchester, second son of Sir William, third baronet. His mother was Elizabeth, daughter of Lovelace Bigg Wither ofManydown Park in the same county. She was early left a widow, andshe bred up her only son with the most anxious care. She livedchiefly at Winchester, and it may be interesting to note that her sonremembered being at a Twelfth-day party where Jane Austen drew thecharacter of Mrs. Candour, and assumed the part with great spirit. 

He was sent first to the private school of considerable reputation atRamsbury in Wiltshire, kept by the Rev. Edward Meyrick, and, afterfour years there, became a commoner at Winchester College, where itis said that he and Dr. William Sewell were the only boys who jointlyretarded the breaking out of the rebellion against Dr. Gabell, whichtook place after their departure. However, in April 1818 he leftWinchester, and became a commoner of Oriel College, Oxford, where histutor was the Rev. John Keble, only eight years older than himself, and not yet known to fame, but with an influence that all who came incontact with him could not fail to feel. 

In 1821 Mr. Heathcote gained a First-class in his B. A. Examination, and was elected Fellow of All Souls in November 1822. He began toread at the Temple, but in April 1825 he came into the property ofhis uncle, and in the November of the same year he married the Hon. Caroline Frances Perceval, the youngest daughter of Charles GeorgeLord Arden. Both he and his wife were deeply religious persons, witha strong sense of the duties of their station. Education andinfluence had done their best work on a character of great rectitudeand uprightness, even tending to severity, such as softened withadvancing years. Remarkably handsome, and with a high-bred tone ofmanners, he was almost an ideal country gentleman, with, however, something of stiffness and shyness in early youth, which wore off inlater years. In 1826 he became member for the county on the Toryinterest. 

As a landlord, he is remembered as excellent. His mother took up herabode at Southend House in Hursley parish, and under the auspices ofthe Heathcote family, and of the Misses Marsh, daughters of theformer curate, Sunday and weekday schools were set on foot, thelatter under Mrs. Ranger and her daughter, whose rule continuedalmost to the days of national education. One of his firstproceedings was to offer the living of Hursley to the Rev. JohnKeble, who had spent a short time there as curate in 1826. It wasactually accepted, when the death of a sister made his presencenecessary to his aged father at Fairford in Gloucestershire; and fortwo years, during which the publication of the Christian Year tookplace, he remained in charge of a small parish adjacent to his home. 

About 1824 Mrs. Yonge began to keep the first Sunday school atOtterbourne in a hired room, teaching the children, all girls, chiefly herself, and reading part of the Church Service to them atthe times when it was not held at church. The only week-day schoolwas on the hill, kept by a picturesque old dame, whose powersamounted to hindering the children from getting into mischief, butwho--with the instinct Mrs. Charles describes--never forgave theadvances that disturbed her monopoly. 

In 1826, as Mrs. Yonge was looking at the empty space of a roadwaythat had led into the paddock before it became a lawn, she said, "HowI should like to build a school here!"

"Well, " said her mother, Mrs. Bargus, "you shall have what I cangive. "

Mrs. Yonge contrived the room built of cement, with two tiny onesbehind for kitchen and bedroom for the mistress, and a brick floor;and the first mistress, Mrs. Creswick, was a former servant ofArchdeacon Heathcote's. 

She was a gentle woman, with dark eyes and a lame leg, so that shecould not walk to church with the children, who sat on low benchesalong the nave, under no discipline but the long stick Master Oxford, the clerk, brandished over them. Nor could she keep the boys in anyorder, and the big ones actually kicked a hole nearly through thecement wall behind them. At last, under the sanction of the Rev. Gilbert Wall Heathcote, who had succeeded his father as Vicar ofHursley, a rough cast room was erected in the churchyard, whereMaster Oxford kept school, with more upright goodness than learning;and Mr. Shuckburgh, the curate, and Mr. Yonge had a Sunday schoolthere. 

The riots at the time of the Reform Bill did not greatly affect thetwo parishes, though a few villagers joined the bands who went aboutasking for money at the larger houses. George, Sir William's secondson, told me that he remembered being locked into the strong room onsome alarm, but whether it came actually to the point of an attack isa question. It was also said that one man at Otterbourne hid himselfin a bog, that the rioters might not call upon him; and one otherman, James Collins, went about his work as usual, and heard nothingof any rising. 

One consequence of the riotous state of the country was the raisingof troops of volunteer yeomanry cavalry. Charles Shaw Lefevre, Esq. (afterwards Speaker and Lord Eversley), was colonel, Sir William wasmajor and captain of such a troop, Mr. Yonge a captain; but at one ofthe drills in Hursley Park a serious accident befell Sir William. His horse threw back its head, and gave him a violent blow on theforehead, which produced concussion of the brain. He was long inrecovering, and a slight deafness in one ear always remained. 

In 1835 a far greater trouble fell on him in the death of the gentleLady Heathcote, leaving him three sons and a daughter. In the midstof his grief, he was able to bring his old friend and tutor nearer tohim. Mr. Keble at the funeral gave him the poem, as yet unpublished, I thought to meet no more, which had been written after the funeral of his own sister, Mary AnneKeble. The elder Mr. Keble died in the course of the same year, andMr. Gilbert Wall Heathcote, resigning the living to become a fellowof Winchester, it was again given to the Rev. John Keble. Mr. Heathcote had brought to Otterbourne a young Fellow of New College, adeacon just twenty-three, the Reverend William Bigg Wither, who camefor six weeks and remained thirty-five years. He found only twelveCommunicants in the parish, and left seventy!

Mr. Keble was already known and revered as the author of theChristian Year, and was Professor of Poetry at Oxford, when he cameto Hursley; having married, on the 10th of October 1835, CharlotteClarke, the most perfect of helpmeets to pastor or to poet, save onlyin the frailness of her health. 

He had two years previously preached at Oxford the assize sermon onNational Apostasy, which Newman marks as the beginning of theawakening of the country to church doctrine and practice. He and hisbrother were known as contributors to the Tracts for the Times, whichwere rousing the clergy in the same direction, but which were so muchmisunderstood, and excited so much obloquy, that Mr. Norris ofHackney, himself a staunch old-fashioned churchman, who had held upthe light in evil times, said to his young friend, the Rev. RobertFrancis Wilson, a first-class Oriel man, to whom the curacy ofHursley had been offered, "Now remember if you become Keble's curate, you will lose all chance of preferment for life. "

Mr. Wilson, though a man of much talent, was willing to accept theprobability, which proved a correct augury. 

The new state of things was soon felt. Daily Services and monthlyEucharists, began; and the school teaching and cottage visiting werefull of new life. Otterbourne had, even before Mr. Keble's coming, begun to feel the need of a new church. The population was 700, greatly overflowing the old church, so that the children really hadto be excluded when the men were there. It was also at aninconvenient distance from the main body of the inhabitants, whochiefly lived along the high road. Moreover, the South WesternRailway was being made, and passed so near, that to those whose earswere unaccustomed to the sound of trains, it seemed as if the noisewould be a serious interruption to the service. 

Mr. Yonge had begun to take measures for improving and enlarging theold church, but was recommended to wait for the appointment of thenew incumbent. Mr. Keble threw himself heartily into the scheme, andit was decided that it would be far better to change the site of thechurch at once. The venerable Dr. Routh, who was then President ofSt. Mary Magdalen College, and used yearly to come on progress to theold manor house, the Moat House, to hold his court, took greatinterest in the project, and the college gave an excellent site onthe western slope of the hill, with the common crossed by the highroad in front, and backed by the woods of Cranbury Park. Also asubscription of large amount was given. Sir William Heathcote aspatron, as well as Mr. Keble, contributed largely, and Mr. BiggWither gave up his horse, and presented 25 pounds out of each paymenthe received as Fellow of New College. Other friends also gave, and, first and last, about 3000 pounds was raised. 

Church building was much more difficult in those days than in these. Ecclesiastical architecture had scarcely begun to revive, and expertswere few, if any indeed deserved the title. An architect atWinchester, Mr. Owen Carter, was employed, but almost all the ideas, and many of the drawings of the details came from Mr. Yonge, whostarted with merely the power of military drawing (acquired before hewas sixteen years old) and a great admiration for York Cathedral. 

The cruciform plan was at once decided on (traced out at first with astick on Cranbury grand drive), but the slope of the ground hinderedit from being built duly east and west; the material is brick, soburnt as to be glazed grey on one side. Hearing of a church(Corstan, Wiltshire) with a bell-turret likely to suit the means andthe two bells, Mr. Yonge and Mr. Wither rode to see it, and it wasimitated in the design. The chancel was, as in most of the newchurches built at this time, only deep enough for the sanctuary, assurpliced choirs had not been thought possible in villages, and somany old chancels had been invaded by the laity that it was an objectto keep them out. 

Mr. Yonge sought diligently for old patterns and for ancient carvingin oak, and in Wardour Street he succeeded in obtaining five panels, representing the Blessed Virgin and the four Latin Fathers, which areworked into the pulpit; also an exceedingly handsome piece ofcarving, which was then adapted as altar-rail--evidently Flemish--with scrolls containing corn and grapes, presided over by angels, andwith two groups of kneeling figures; on one side, apparently anEmperor with his crown laid down, and the collar of the Golden Fleecearound his neck, followed by a group of male figures, one with abeautiful face. On the other side kneels a lady, not an empress, with a following of others bringing flowers. At the divisions standReligious of the four Orders, one a man. The idea is that itprobably represents either the coronation of Maximilian or theabdication of Charles V. In either case there was no wife, but thecrown is not imperial, and that is in favour of Maximilian. On theother hand the four monastic Orders are in favour of Charles V. 'sembracing the religious life. 

For the stone-work, Mr. Yonge discovered that the material chieflyused in the cathedral was Caen stone, though the importation had longceased. He entered into communication with the quarrymen there, sentout a stone mason (Newman) from Winchester, and procured stone forthe windows, reredos, and font, thus opening a traffic that has goneon ever since. 

Mistakes were made from ignorance and lack of authoritativeprecedent, before ecclesiology had become a study; but whatever couldbe done by toil, intelligence, and self-devotion was done by Mr. Yonge in those two years; and the sixty years that have since elapsedhave seen many rectifications of the various errors. Even as thechurch stood when completed, it was regarded as an effort in theright direction, and a good example to church builders. The firststone was laid in Whitsun-week 1837 by Julian Bargus, Mr. Yonge'sfive-year-old son. A school for the boys was built on a corner ofthe ground intended as churchyard, and a larger room added to thegirls', the expense being partly defrayed by a bazaar held atWinchester, and in part by Charlotte Yonge's first book, The Chateaude Melville, which people were good enough to buy, though it onlyconsisted of French exercises and translations. The consecrationtook place on the 30th of July 1838, and immediately after dailymatins were commenced. So that the Church of St. Matthew has neverin sixty years been devoid of the voice of praise, except duringcasual absences. Most of the trees in the churchyard were planted byMr. Bigg Wither, especially the great Sequoia, and the holly hedgearound was grown by him from the berries of the first Christmasdecoration, which he sowed in a row under the wall of the boys'school, and transplanted when large enough. 

It was in 1839 that Mr. Keble published his Oxford Psalter, a work hehad been engaged on for years, paying strict and reverent attentionto the Hebrew original, and not thinking it right to interweaveexpressions of his own as guidance to meaning. His belief was thatHoly Scripture is so many-sided, and so fathomless in signification, that to dwell on one point more than another might be a wrong to thefull impression, and an irreverence in the translation. Thus, as apoet, he sacrificed a good deal to the duty of being literal, but histranslation is a real assistance to students, and it is on the wholeoften somewhat like to Sternhold's, whom he held in much respect forhis adherence to the originals. 

Perhaps it may be mentioned here that the parishes of Hursley andOtterbourne were in such good order under the management of SirWilliam Heathcote and Mr. Yonge, that under the new Poor Law theywere permitted to form a small Union of four, afterwards five, andnow six parishes. 

Ampfield was a hamlet lying on the western side of Hursley Park andwood, a very beautiful wood in parts, of oak and beech trees, whichformed lovely vaulted arcades, one of which Mr. Keble used to callHursley Cathedral. The place was increasing in population, andnearly two miles of woodland and park lay between it and the parishchurch. 

Sir William Heathcote, therefore, resolved to build a church for thepeople, and Mr. Yonge was again the architect and clerk of the works, profiting by the experience gained at Otterbourne, so as to aim atEarly English rather than Decorated style. A bell turret, discoveredlater at Leigh Delamere in Wiltshire, was a more graceful model thanthat of Corston. The situation was very beautiful, cut out, as itwere, of the pine plantation on a rising ground above the road toRomsey, so that when the first stone was laid by Gilbert Vyvyan, SirWilliam's third son, the Psalm, "Lo, we heard of the same at Ephrata, and found it in the wood, " sounded most applicable. St. Mark was thesaint of the dedication, which fell opportunely on 21st April 1841, very near Mr. Keble's birthday, St. Mark's day, and to many it was aspecially memorable day, as the Rev. J. H. Newman was present withhis sister, Mrs. Thomas Mozley, and her husband, then vicar ofCholderton; and the Rev. Isaac Williams, a sacred poet, whosewritings ought to be better known than they are, was also present. The endowment was provided by the chapter of Winchester giving up thegreat tithes, and a subscription of which T. White, Esq. Of Ampfieldgave 500 pounds. 

The Rev. Robert Francis Wilson was the first curate, being succeededin the curacy of Hursley by the Rev. Peter Young, then a deacon, whoinhabited the old vicarage. The present one, which had been built bySir Thomas Freeman Heathcote, was made over to the living by SirWilliam some years later. 

Immediately after the consecration, Sir William was married toSelina, daughter of Evelyn John Shirley, Esq. , of Eatington, Warwickshire, a marriage occasioning great happiness and benefit toall the parish and neighbourhood. 

CHAPTER X--HURSLEY CHURCH

In one of his prose writings Mr. Keble speaks of the faithfulshepherd going on his way though storms may be raging in theatmosphere; and such might be a description of his own course asregarded his flock, though there were several of these storms thataffected him deeply. One gust came very near home. 

The diocesan, Bishop Charles Sumner, was an excellent andconscientious man, with a much deeper sense of his duties as a bishopthan his immediate predecessors, and of great kindness andbeneficence; but he had been much alarmed and disturbed by thealleged tendencies of the Tracts for the Times, and shared in thedesire of most of the authorities to discourage their doctrines andpractice. When, therefore, the curate of Hursley came to Farnham tobe admitted to the priesthood, he was required, contrary to the usualcustom with candidates, to state categorically his views upon theHoly Eucharist. He used the expressions of the Catechism, also thoseof Bishop Ridley, but was desired to use his own individual words;and when these were sent in, he was rejected, though they did notoutrun the doctrine that had always been taught by the closefollowers of the doctrine of the Catechism. Nevertheless, in spiteof this disapproval, there was no withdrawal of his licence, and heremained at Hursley, not thinking it loyal to seek Ordination fromanother bishop, as would readily have been granted. He married Mrs. Keble's cousin, Miss Caroline Coxwell, and their young family was aninfinite source of delight to the childless vicarage. 

Their baby ways, to one who held that "where christened infantssport, the floor is holy, " and who read a mystical meaning into manyof their gestures and words, were a constant joy and inspiration; andthere grew up a store of poems upon them and other little ones, especially the children of Dr. George Moberly, then headmaster ofWinchester College (later bishop of Salisbury). These Mr. Keblethought of putting together for publication, being chiefly impelledto do so by the desire to improve Hursley Church, the eighteenthcentury arrangement of which really prevented the general inculcationof the more reverent observances which teach and imply doctrine. 

In consideration of the feelings of certain old parishioners, and theother more pressing needs, as well as of the patience with which sogreat an enterprise needed in his mind to be contemplated, nine yearshad elapsed since his incumbency had begun before he wrote: "We arestirring about our Church, and next spring I hope really to go towork; you must come and see the plans first, or else hereafter forever hold your peace in respect of alleging impediments. One feelsthat one's advanced age has not rendered one fitted to set about suchworks; but really the irreverence and other mischiefs caused by thepresent state of Hursley Church seem to leave one no choice. "

The step that had first been taken was one for which many generationsfar and wide have reason to be grateful, the arrangement andpublication of the Lyra Innocentium, to a certain degree on the linesof the Christian Year, so as to have one poem appropriated to eachSunday and holy day (though these were only fully marked off in alater edition). 

The book is perhaps less universally read than the Christian Year, and is more unequal, some poems rising higher and into greaterbeauty, some deeper and showing that the soul had made furtherprogress in these twenty years, some very simple in structure, fitfor little children, yet with a grave and solemn thought in the lastverse. 

Those that are specially full of Hursley atmosphere, on eventsconnected with the author, may be touched on here. 

"Christmas Eve Vespers" was suggested by the schoolmaster's littledaughter going into church before the decoration had been put up, andexclaiming, disappointed, "No Christmas!" "The Second Sunday inLent" recalls, in the line on "the mimic rain on poplar leaves, " thesounds made by a trembling aspen, whose leaves quivered all throughthe summer evenings, growing close to the house of Mr. Keble's life-long friend and biographer, Sir John Taylor Coleridge, at Ottery St. Mary. An engraving of Raffaelle's last picture "The Transfiguration"hung in the Vicarage drawing-room. 

"The Fourth Sunday in Lent, " on the offering of the lad with the fiveloaves, was suggested by the stained window on that subject given bythe young Marquess of Lothian--a pupil for some years of Mr. Wilsonat Ampfield--to the church at Jedburgh, built by his mother. Nowthat he has passed away, it may be remarked that he, as well as allthe children commemorated in these poems, grew up so as to leave nopainful impression connected with them. "Keep thou, dear boy, thineearly vow, " was fulfilled in him, as it was with George HerbertMoberly, the eldest son of Dr. Moberly, who, when a young childstaying at the vicarage, was unconsciously the cause of the poems"Loneliness" and "Repeating the Creed, " for Easter Sunday and LowSunday. Frightened by unwonted solitude at bedtime, he asked to hear"something true, " and was happy when Mrs. Keble produced the Bible. He was a boy of beautiful countenance, and his reverent, thoughtfullook, as he repeated the Creed, delighted Mr. Keble. It was littleexpected then that he was doomed to a life-long struggle withinvalidism, though he was able to effect much as a thinker and apriest before he, too, was taken to see in Paradise "the gloriousdream around him burst. "

It was a baby sister of his who drew herself up in her nurse's armswith a pretty gesture, like a pheasant's neck in a sort of reproof, as she said "Thank you" to her little self, when she had held out aflower to Mr. Keble, which, for once in his life, he did not notice;and his self-reproach produced the thoughts of thankfulness. One ofthe gems of the Lyra, "Bereavement, " was the thought that came to themind of the Pastor as he buried the little sister, the only childexcept the elder girl, of the bailiff at Dr. Moberly's farm. "Fire"embodied his feeling about a burnt child at Ampfield -

We miss thee from thy place at school And on thy homeward way, Where violets, by the shady pool, Peep out so shyly gay

The Lullaby, with the view of the burnished cross upon the spire, andthe girl singing the baby to sleep with the old Psalm -

In Thee I put my stedfast trust, Defend me, Lord, for Thou art just, is another Ampfield scene, inspiring noble and gentle thoughts forInnocents' Day. 

"Lifting up to the Cross" (St. James's Day) was the product of adrawing brought home from Germany of a sight beheld by Miss MariaTrench, on a journey with Sir William and Lady Heathcote. Sheafterwards became Mrs. Robert F. Wilson, and made her first weddedhome at Ampfield; and there is another commemoration of that journeyin the fountain under the bank in Ampfield churchyard, an imitationof one observed in Tyrol and with the motto -

 While cooling waters here you drink Rest not your thoughts below, Look to the sacred sign and think Whence living waters flow, Then fearlessly advance by night or day, The holy Cross stands guardian of your way. 

"More Stars" (All Saints' Day) and "Wakefulness" (The Annunciation)are reminiscences of Charles Coleridge Pode, a little nephew of Mr. Yonge, and his ecstatic joy on the first night of being out of doorslate enough to see the glory of the stars. A few months later, on asister being born, he hoped that her name would be Mary "because heliked the Virgin Mary. " And when, only a few days later, his ownmother was taken from him, he lay awake and silent, night afternight. He, too, was one who fulfilled his early promise, till, as ayoung physician, he was cut off after much patient suffering. "MoreStars" is also attributed to an exclamation of one of Mr. PeterYoung's children; but in point of fact, most little ones have brokenout in a similar joyous shout on their first conscious sight of thestarry heavens. 

Mrs. Keble used to forbear telling of the subjects of these poems, lest, as she said, there might be a sort of blight on the children inbreaking the reserve; but most of them are beyond the reach of thatdanger in publicity; and I can only further mention that the villagechildren en masse, and the curate's in detail, furnished many more ofthe subjects, while still they only regarded Mr. Keble as their bestof playmates. 

They cheered him when the great sorrow of his life befell him in thesecession of John Henry Newman, hitherto his friend and fellow-worker. It came at a time when perhaps he was most fitted to bearit, when his brother in Gloucestershire and his wife at home had justbegun to recover from a terrible typhoid fever caught at Bude. 

Words spoken in the immediate prospect of death, by Mrs. Keble, strengthened her husband's faith and made him more than everdetermined to hold fast by the Church of his fathers; and thethankfulness and exhilaration caused by the improvement in her healthcarried him the better over the first blow, though he went out aloneto a quiet deserted chalk-pit to open the letter which he knew wouldbring the final news of the reception of his friend into the RomanChurch. 

Nor did his Hursley plans stand still. Under the management of SirJohn Taylor Coleridge and other friends, the Christian Year hadbecome much more profitable, and the Lyra also brought in aconsiderable quota, so that the entire work could be undertaken atMr. Keble's expense. 

It was decided, partly by Mr. Yonge himself, that the enterprise wason too large a scale for his partial knowledge, and moreover, muchprogress had been made during these nine years in ecclesiology, sothat architects who had made it their study were to be found. Thedesign was committed to William Harrison, Esq. , a relation ofArchdeacon Harrison, a very old friend and contemporary. It followedthe lines of the existing church, which were found to be so solid andwell built as for the most part only to need casing and not renewal, nor was the old tower taken down. 

The contract with Locke and Nesham was for 3380 pounds, exclusive ofthe flooring, the wood-work, and other fittings of the interior. Forthis 1200 pounds was set aside, but the sum was much exceeded, andthere were many offerings from private friends. 

The altar of cedar-wood was the gift of Robert Williams, Esq. ; thealtar plate was given by Mrs. Heathcote; the rails by the architect;the font by the Rev. William Butler and Emma his wife, and the clergyand sisters of Wantage. Mr. Butler was then vicar of Wantage, latercanon of Worcester and dean of Lincoln. The present cedar credencetable was made long after Mr. Keble's death, the original one waswalnut, matching the chancel fittings. 

This was proposed as the inscription on the base of the font, to beentirely hidden--

Ecclesiae ParochialiSanctorum OmniumIn agro HursleienseHunc Fontem, Lavacrum Regenerationis, In honorem D. N. J. C. Gratis animisD. D. D. Presbyteri, Diacones, Lectores, SororesEcclesiae SS. Petri et PauliIndigna familiaApud Wantagium

Whether the whole was actually cut out on the under side of thegranite step must be uncertain. 

The steps of the sanctuary have in encaustic tiles these texts. Onthe lowest:

Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have a rightto the Tree of Life, and enter through the gates into the city. 

On the step on which the rails stand:

Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, forthey shall be filled. 

On the next:

Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessedare the pure in heart, for they shall see God. 

And on the highest:

Thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty, they shall behold theland that is very far off. 

The lectern was the offering of the friend of his youth, the Rev. Charles Dyson, Rector of Dogmersfield, copied from that at CorpusChristi College, where they first met. 

The corbels were carefully chosen: those by the chancel arch areheads of St. Peter and St. Paul, as exponents of the inner mysteries;those by the east window are St. Athanasius and St. Augustine aschampions of the faith. On the corbels of the north porch, lookingtowards the hills of Winchester, are Bishops Andrewes and Ken on theoutside; on the inside, Wykeham and Waynflete. On the south porch, St. Augustine of Canterbury, and the Empress Helena over the door; onthe outside, Bishop Sumner and Queen Victoria to mark the date ofbuilding. 

"How would you like to have the book boards of the seats?" wrote thearchitect; "perhaps it would suggest the idea of a prayer desk ifthey were made to slope as the chancel stalls?"

And certainly their finials do suggest kneeling, and the arrangementis such that it is nearly impossible not to assume a reallydevotional attitude. 

A stranger clergyman visited the church, measured the font and theheight to the ceiling, and in due time, in 1850, there arrived thebeautiful carved canopy, the donor never being known. 

The windows did not receive their coloured glass at first; but Mr. Keble had an earnest wish to make them follow the wonderfulemblematic series to which he had been accustomed in the reallyunique Church of Fairford, where he had grown up. The glass of thesewindows had been taken in a Flemish ship on the way to Spain by oneJohn Tame, a Gloucestershire merchant, who had proceeded to rebuildhis parish church so as fitly to receive it, and he must also haveobtained the key to their wonderful and suggestive arrangement. 

Fairford Church is much larger than Hursley, so that the plan couldnot be exactly followed, but it was always in Mr. Keble's mind. Itwas proposed that the glass should be given by the contribution offriends and lovers of the Christian Year. Two of the windows camefrom the Offertory on the Consecration day, one three-light was givenby Mrs. Heathcote (mother of Sir William), another by Sir William andLady Heathcote, one by the Marchioness of Bath, and one by theMarchioness of Lothian. The designs were more or less suggested byDyce and Copley Fielding, but the execution was carried out byWailes, under the supervision of Butterfield. The whole work was animmense delight to Mr. Keble, and so anxious was he that the wholeshould be in keeping, that the east window was actually put in threetimes before it was judged satisfactory. The plan of the whole wasMr. Keble's own; and though the colours are deeper, and what is nowcalled more crude, than suits the taste of the present day, they mustbe looked upon with reverence as the outcome of his meditations andhis great delight. I transcribe the explanation that his sisterElisabeth wrote of their arrangement:

The Hursley windows are meant to be a course of Instruction in SacredHistory from Adam to the last day the church being dedicated to AllSaints. 

The north-west window has Adam and Noah. The windows along the northaisle each represent two persons from the Old Testament. 

The three-light window on the north side, David with the ground planof the Temple, Moses with the Tables of the Law, Solomon with theModel of the Temple. The Medallion under Moses is the Altar ofIncense, and some of the Holy things. 

The whole of that window means to represent the fixing and finishingof the Old Religion. 

Then comes in the north chancel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, andDaniel, the prophets preparing for the Gospel. 

The north-east window has the Circumcision connecting the Law withthe Church, with the figures of Anna and Simeon on each side. 

East window: The Crucifixion, The Blessed Virgin and St. John oneach side, The Agony, Bearing the Cross, and the Scourging. 

The side window of the Sanctuary has St. Stephen and St. John theBaptist as the nearest Martyrs to our Lord, both before and afterHim, and their martyrdoms underneath. 

The south-east window: The Resurrection, with soldiers at theSepulchre. St. Peter and St. Paul on each side. 

The south chancel windows: The Four Evangelists; under, St. Luke, the Disciples at Emmaus; under, St. John, he and St. Peter at theSepulchre. 

The three-light south window: St. James the Less, first Bishop ofJerusalem; underneath, the Council in Acts x. 6. At his side twosuccessors of the Apostles, St. Clement of Rome, Phil. Iv. 3, and St. Dionysius of Athens, Acts xvii. 34, to show how the Church is builtupon the Apostles. 

In the west window, the Last Judgment, with St. Michael with hisscales, and answering to Adam and Noah in the west window of thenorth aisle; and as a repentance window, St. Peter and St. MaryMagdalene in the west of the south aisle. In the two windows closeto the font, St. Philip and Nicodemus, for baptism. 

So were carried out the lines in the Lyra Innocentium. 

 The Saints are there the Living Dead, The mourners glad and strong; This sacred floor their quiet bed, Their beams from every window shed Their voice in every song. 

The clerestory windows were put in somewhat later, on finding thatthe church was dark, and Mr. Keble wished to have the childrenmentioned in Scripture, in outline upon them, but this was notcarried out. 

It was first thought probable that readers of the Christian Year andthe Lyra Innocentium might have presented these stained windows, butthe plan fell through, and the only others actually given were therepentance window, representing St. Peter and St. Mary Magdalene, byMr. Harrison. Two were paid for by special offertories, and the restwere finally given by Mr. Keble, as the sums came in from hispublished writings. 

The spire, completing the work, was added to the ancient tower by SirWilliam Heathcote. 

The foundation stone, a brass plate with an inscription surrounded byoak leaves and acorns, was laid on the 29th of May 1847, but the spotis unknown. The entire cost, exclusive of the woodwork and the giftsmentioned, amounted to 6000 pounds. The large barn was used as atemporary church, and there are happy recollections connected with itand with the elm-shaded path between the Park and the vicarage field. When all sat on forms without the shade of pews, example taught alesson of reverent attitude to the congregation, who felt obliged tolay aside any bad habits which might have grown up out of sight, soas to be unconsciously prepared for the new church, where the verywidth of the open benches and the shape of their ends are suggestiveof kneeling in prayer. The period of the building was a time ofenjoyment to Mr. Keble, for it was symbolical to him of the"edifying, " building up, of the living stones of the True Church, andthe restoring her waste places. When the workmen were gone home heused to walk about the open space in the twilight silence in prayerand meditation. 

When the topmost stone was to be added, on 18th October 1848, and theweathercock finally secured, Mr. Keble ascended to the elevation thathe might set his hand to the work, and there said a thanksgiving forthe completion--"The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation ofthis house. His hands shall also finish it" (Zech. Iv. 9). 

The day of the Consecration was an exceedingly happy one, on 24thOctober 1848, the only drawback being that Sir William Heathcote wastoo unwell to be present. There was a great gathering--the twoJudges, Coleridge and Patteson, and many other warm and affectionatefriends; and Sir John Coleridge was impressed by the "sweet state ofhumble thankfulness" of the Vicar and his wife in the completion ofthe work. 

The sermon at Evensong on that day was preached by Mr. Keble himself, in which he spoke of the end of all things; and said the best fatethat could befall that new church was that it should be burnt at theJudgment Day. 

He thought, probably, of the perils of perversion from true Catholicprinciples which the course of affairs in these days made him dreadexceedingly, and hold himself ready to act like the Non-jurors, orthe Free Kirk men in Scotland, who had resigned all for the sake ofprinciple. "Nevertheless, " he wrote, "I suppose it is one's duty togo on as if all were encouraging. "

And he did go on, and supported others till, by God's Providence, thetide had turned, and much was effected of which he had only dreamt assome day possible. It was in this frame of mind that the poem wascomposed of which this is a fragment:

 The shepherd lingers on the lone hillside, In act to count his faithful flock again, Ere to a stranger's eye and arm untried He yield the rod of his old pastoral reign. He turns and round him memories throng amain, Thoughts that had seem'd for ever left behind O'ertake him, e'en as by some greenwood laneThe summer flies the passing traveller find, Keen, but not half so sharp as now thrill o'er his mind. 

For indeed every lapse in his parish turned to fill their pastor withself-blame. 

CHAPTER XI--THE GOLDEN DAYS OF HURSLEY

Those forebodings of Mr. Keble's mercifully never were realised; manymore years were granted in which Hursley saw the Church and thesecular power working together in an almost ideal way. 

To speak of what Sir William Heathcote was as a county gentlemanwould be difficult. He was for many years Chairman of the QuarterSessions, and it is worth recording that when King Frederick WilliamIV. Of Prussia wished for information on the practical working of theEnglish system of government, and sent over two jurists to enquireinto the working of the unpaid magistracy, they were advised toattend the Winchester Quarter Sessions, as one of the best regulatedto be found. They were guests at Hursley Park, and, as a domesticmatter, their interest in English dishes, and likewise their surpriseat the status of an English clergyman, were long remembered. 

Considerable county undertakings originated in these days--a new andwell-managed lunatic asylum at Fareham, a renewed jail on the thenapproved principles, and the inauguration of county police. In allthese undertakings Sir William Heathcote and Mr. Yonge were activemovers, and gave constant superintendence while they were carriedout. Ill health obliged Sir William to retire from therepresentation of North Hants in the Conservative interest in 1847, but in 1854, on the recommendation of Sir Robert Harry Inglis, he waselected member for the University of Oxford, and so remained till hisfinal retirement in 1868. What he was in both public and privatecapacities has nowhere been better expressed than by the late Earl ofCarnarvon in a letter to the editor of the Times. 

Long time a county member, and intimately acquainted with thesubjects and interests which formed the heritage of English countygentlemen, he was, as a chairman of Quarter Sessions, recognised andoften appealed to as the very representative and pattern of theclass; and when afterwards he accepted the blue riband ofParliamentary representation as member for the University of Oxford, from first to last, through all the waves and weathers of politicaland personal bitterness, he retained the trust of friend andopponent. So long as he cared to keep that seat, all men desired tokeep him. For this was his special characteristic, that in everyperiod and pursuit of life, in the public business of his county, inthe House of Commons, in the University, he not only enjoyed respectand affection, but he conciliated the confidence of all. 

It was the unconscious tribute to a whole life and character. For toa remarkable clearness and vigour of intellect, he added a fairnessof mind, a persuasiveness and courtesy of manner, with an inflexibleuprightness of purpose, which won to him friend and stranger alike. I have never known any one who was not bettered by his converse, butI think none outside his own county and society can fully appreciatethe remarkable influence which his name and character--in the lateryears it might be truly said "clarum et venerabile nomen"--exercisedon all with whom he was connected. If indeed he had a fault, it wasthat his standard of action was so high, his nature so absolutelyabove the littleness of ordinary life, that he attributed to inferiormen far purer and more unselfish objects than those that really movedthem. "Vixit enim tanquam in Platonis politeia, non tanquam inRomuli faece. "

It is the common fault of biographers to over-colour the character ofa favourite hero, but those who knew Sir William Heathcote will admitthat there is no exaggeration in what I have said. He was thehighest product of a class and school of thought which is fastdisappearing, and which will perhaps find few representatives in thenext generation. With change of time comes also change of men; andthe statesmen and politicians of the new world, whatever their meritsor demerits, will probably be of a very different order from him ofwhom I am writing. The old university culture, the fastidious taste, the independence of thought, the union of political life with countyassociations--bound up as they are in this case by a rareintelligence and a moderation of mind which trimmed, with an almostjudicial impartiality, the balance of thought on all matterssubmitted to him--are not a combination to be easily found in any ageor society; but it may be safely predicted that they will be evenless common in the coming age than they were in the generation ofwhich Sir William Heathcote was a representative and ornament. Bethis, however, as it may, I desire, by your favour, to record herethe loss of one who deserved, if ever man did, the name of an Englishworthy. 

This warm-hearted tribute is the exact truth, as all could testifywho ever had occasion to ask Sir William's advice or assistance. Another such testimony must be added, from a speech of Lord ChiefJustice Coleridge at Nobody's Club. 

I looked at him from another point of view, and I can tell you onlyhow he struck me, a man much younger, of different surroundings, differing from him in many opinions, political and religious. Yet itis my pride and sorrowful delight to recollect that Sir WilliamHeathcote gave me his friendship for nearly forty years; and it isnot presumptuous to say that his friendship deepened into affection. I could not say if I would, and I would not if I could, all that hewas to me, how much of what is best (if there is any) in my life Iowe to him, how much affection and reverence has gone with him to hisgrave. His house was open like another home; in joy, and still morein sorrow, his sympathy was always warm and ready, in trouble and indifficulty his advice was always at hand. What advice it always was!What comfort and strength there was in his company! For the time atleast he lifted one up and made one better. Inflexible integrity, stern sense of duty, stainless honour, these qualities a very slightacquaintance with Sir William Heathcote at once revealed. But he hadother great qualities too. He was one of the closest and keenestreasoners I ever knew. He was a man of the soundest and strongestjudgment; and yet full of the most perfect candour and full offorbearance and indulgence for other men. And for a man of hisintellect, and, indeed, for a man, he was wonderfully modest and shy, and of a humility which was, as I saw it, profoundly touching. Yetthere was no weakness in him. Not unbecomingly, not one whit morethan was just, he believed in himself, in his position, in hisfamily; he had dignity true and inborn without the need of self-assertion, and love and respect towards him went hand in hand. 

Mr. Keble once said, coming away from a long talk with him, that itwas like holding intercourse with some old Christian knight. And soit was . . . 

I am not one of those who believe in the degeneracy of the race, andI look forward to the future with hope rather than with dismay. Ibelieve upon the whole the world improves. It is useless to bealways looking back to be a laudator temporis acti se puero is placedby the wise and genial Horace to the discredit and not to the creditof old age. But I do think that each age has its own virtues, andits own type of excellence, and these do not return. We may havegood things, but we shall not have the same good things. We shallhave, I hope, good men, and great men, and noble men, in time tocome, but I do not think we shall see again a Sir William Heathcote. That most charming mixture of dignified self respect, with unfailinggracious courtesy to others, those manners in which frankness andrefinement mingled with and set off each other, that perfect purityof thought and utterance, and yet that thorough enjoyment of all thatwas good and racy in wit or humour--this has passed away with him. So beautiful and consistent a life in that kind of living we shallhardly see again. 

He was preserved to our time to show us of a later age a perfectspecimen of the old-fashioned, high-bred, highly cultivated countygentleman; and a finer type of Englishman it is hardly possible toconceive. 

These two portraits, they are too true to be called eulogies, thoroughly describe Sir William as he was in friendship, as he wasnot only to his original contemporaries but to their sons, so that hecame to be a generally looked up to father, as it were, to themagistracy of the county as well as the neighbourhood. A portrait ofhim by G. Richmond, Esq. , R. A. , was subscribed for by the magistracyand placed in the County Hall, which began to be newly restored underhis auspices, so as worthily to show the work of Henry III. In thebeautiful old banqueting hall. 

Already, however, a great loss had been suffered in William CrawleyYonge, who had worked by his side in all his public undertakings, carrying out all that was done in a spirit of thoroughness that neverrested till perfection had been attained as far as possible. His ownparish of Otterbourne had felt his influence, and was noted for goodorder and improvement. Both Otterbourne and Hursley had land inallotments from at least 1830, long before the arrangement was takenup by Government. Mr. Yonge's strong churchmanship and deepreligious feeling told on all around, and there was a strong sense ofhis upright justice, as much as his essential kindness. The end camesuddenly; apoplexy brought on by the hurry and confusion of sendingoff his only son, Julian Bargus Yonge, in the Rifle Brigade to theCrimean War. He died on the 26th of February 1854. "What shall wedo without him?" were the first words of Sir William Heathcote'sletter to Mr. Keble on receiving the tidings. 

It should be mentioned here that six young men from Otterbourne wereconcerned in the Crimean War--Captain Denzil Chamberlayne and JulianB. Yonge, though health obliged the latter to return from Varna, while the former took part in the famous Balaklava charge, and wasunhurt, though his horse was killed. And four of the privates, JohnHawkins, James and William Mason, and Joseph Knight, of whom onlyJames Mason lived to return. An inscription built into the wall ofthe churchyard records their names, with the inscription, suggestedby Mr. Keble, "It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in hisyouth. "

And here William Yonge's daughter must record Sir William's never-failing kindness to her mother and herself, both in matters ofbusiness and in personal criticism, and assistance in those mattersin her works in which the counsel of a man acquainted with the law isneedful to prevent mistakes. Indeed, in the discussions on characterand adventures, nothing was ever more evident to her than that shewas talking (as Mr. Keble said) to a true specimen of the most pure-minded chivalry. 

On 16th September 1868 Sir William retired from Parliament, and, onthe 9th of August 1870, was sworn of the Privy Council. Thisappointment gave him the greater satisfaction as a testimony to hisconsistent integrity through his whole parliamentary career, as itcame from the Gladstonian ministry, and he had been forced by hisdeep Church and State convictions to separate from Mr. Gladstone, thefriend and fellow-worker of his younger days. 

His last great public achievement was the rebuilding and improvementof the County Hospital. Winchester had been the first provincialcity to possess a County Hospital, and the arrangements had grownantiquated and by no means accordant with more advanced medicalpractice. A subscription was raised, and with the warm co-operationof Warden Robert S. Barter of Winchester College, the presentbuilding was erected, on Mr. Butterfield's plans, in a more healthyand airy situation, in the year 1868, with a beautiful chapel for thenurses and patients, and with the modern system of nursing carriedout. As was said, when in 1878 Sir William resigned the post ofChairman of the Committee, he was the father and the founder of theinstitution. 

Few men have earned by a lifetime so much honour, gratitude, andaffection as he by one consistent, upright course of life, or haveleft a nobler memory. 

A few words we must give to the festivals. There was the yearlydistribution of Christmas beef to all the labourers and artisansemployed on the estate, and widows. There was occasionally a grand"beating of the bounds" of the Manor of Merdon, followed by a dinnerin a tent to the tenants, at which the "Lord of the Manor" made aspeech, hoping that in times to come the days of "the Old SirWilliam" might be kindly remembered; and somewhat later there wereprivate theatricals, performed chiefly by the family, which were agreat pleasure to friends and tenants. 

What a centre of hospitality, cheerfulness, and kindness Hursley Parkwas in those days can hardly be described, though remembered by manyas a sort of golden age of Hursley. 

CHAPTER XII--HURSLEY VICARAGE

The Golden Age of Hursley did not deduce all its honour from themanor house. The vicarage was perhaps the true centre of the lightwhich the Park reflected, or rather both knew that their radiancealike came from One Source above, in whose Light they sought to walk. 

The happy, sometimes playful, intercourse between them may perhapsbest be exemplified by the petition sent up by Mr. Keble on an alarmthat the copse on Ladwell hill was about to be cut down in obedienceto the dicta of agricultural judges who much objected to trees andbroad hedgerows. 

Ladwell, or as it probably ought to be, Ladywell hill, is a steepbank, thickly clothed with trees and copsewood, with cottagesnestling under it, on the southward road from Hursley, and on the topthe pathway to Field House, the farm rented by Dr. Moberly, Headmaster of Winchester College (since Bishop of Salisbury) as theholiday resort of his family. It is a delightful place, well worthyof the plea for its preservation. 

TO THE LORD OF THE MANOR OF MERDON. 

THE PETITION OF SUNDRY LIFE-TENANTS OR HEREDITARY DENIZENS OF THESAID MANOR. 

Humbly Sheweth, -That by custom of this clime, Even from immemorial time, We, or our forefathers old(As in Withering's list enrolled)Have in occupation beenOf all nooks and corners greenWhere the swelling meadows sweetWith the waving woodlands meet. There we peep and disappear, There, in games to fairies dearAll the spring-tide hours we spend, Hiding, seeking without end. And sometimes a merry trainComes upon us from the lane:Every gleaming afternoonAll through April, May, and June, Boys and maidens, birds and bees, Airy whisperings of all trees, With their music will supplyAll we need of sympathy. Now and then a graver guestFor one moment here will restLoitering in his pastoral walk, And with us hold kindly talk. To himself we've heard him say, "Thanks that I may hither stray, Worn with age and sin and care, Here to breathe the pure, glad air, Here Faith's lesson learn anew, Of this happy vernal crew. Here the fragrant shrubs around, And the graceful shadowy ground, And the village tones afar, And the steeple with its star, And the clouds that gently move, Turn the heart to trust and love. " Thus we fared in ages past, But the nineteenth age at last, (As your suppliants are advised)Reigns, and we no more are prized. Now a giant plump and tall, Called High Farming stalks o'er all, Platforms, railings and straight lines, Are the charms for which he pines. Forms mysterious, ancient hues, He with untired hate pursues;And his cruel word and willIs, from every copse-crowned hillEvery glade in meadow deep, Us and our green bowers to sweep. Now our prayer is, Here and thereMay your Honour deign to spareShady spots and nooks, where weYet may flourish, safe and free. So old Hampshire still may own(Charm to other shires unknown)Bays and creeks of grassy lawnHalf beneath his woods withdrawn;So from many a joyous child, Many a sire and mother mild, For the sheltering boughs so sweetAnd the blossoms at their feet, Thanks with prayers shall find their way;And we flowers, if we may pray, With our very best would ownYour young floweret newly blown. 

ANEMONE NEMOROSAPRIMULA VULGARISORCHISDAFFODILCOWSLIPSTRAWBERRYVIOLET[Innumerable Signatures. ] etc. Etc. Etc. LADWELL HILL, 2nd April 1855. 

"The young flow'ret newly blown" was Sir William's son Godfrey, whofaded at seven years old. When his mind was wandering, one of hisdreamy utterances was, "I should like to fly softly. " And thereforeMr. Keble suggested that the words on his little grave (outside themausoleum) should be "Who are these that fly as a cloud?"

The intercourse of the vicarage with the Park, as with all thisneighbourhood, was affectionate, intimate, or neighbourly andfriendly, according as there was likeness of mind. The impressionleft was always a cheerful one of hospitality and of a kind of beingon holy ground. The house stands on the side of a rapid slope fromthe Park, with a terrace raised on brick arches overlooking the lawn, only separated by a low wall from the Churchyard. Here, in earlysummer, the school children from both the outlying congregations metthose of Hursley at tea, and for games in the Park, ending withstanding round in the twilight below the terrace, and singing theNational Anthem and Bishop Ken's Evening Hymn. The Anniversary ofthe Consecration Day, falling late in the autumn, was the occasion ofa feast for the elders of the parish above sixty years old. Thisfollowed, of course, on festal services, when those who heard it canhardly forget a sermon of Warden Barter's on the 134th Psalm, when, with the noble sweetness of his countenance lighted up, he spoke ofour delight in nature being the joy of a child in the beauty of hisfather's house. 

A new organ had been given, and the choir had been brought to greatimprovement during the few years that the Rev. W. Le Geyt was atHursley. Also a mission school chapel had been built at Pitt, ahamlet on the downs towards Winchester, and a second curate had beenadded to the staff. The present writer can only dwell withthankfulness too deep to be spoken on Mr. Keble's influence, not somuch friendly as fatherly, and he was the best and kindest of criticsin literary affairs. 

But throughout, the vicar was the personal minister to eachindividual of his flock--teaching in the school, catechising in thechurch, most carefully preparing for Confirmation, watching over thehomes, and, however otherwise busied, always at the beck and call ofevery one in the parish. To the old men and women of the workhousehe paid special attention, bringing them little dainties, trying tobrighten their dull minds as a means of reaching their souls, andendeavouring to raise their spirits to higher things. One who hadbeen removed to another Union, when asked how he liked Hursley, said, "It seemed as if they was saying Holy, Holy, Holy, all day long. "

During this time Mr. Keble wrote his Life of Bishop Wilson, makingtwo visits to the Isle of Man to study the situation and thedocuments there preserved; various of the "Plain Sermons"; somecontroversial pamphlets defending the cause of the Church; and aboveall, the treatise on "Eucharistic Adoration. " He assisted Dr. J. M. Neale in drawing up the Salisbury Hymnal, a precursor of HymnsAncient and Modern, and contributed several hymns, especially thosefor Rogation days, for the service for Holy Matrimony, and a verygrand one for the Feast of St. John the Evangelist, which has notfound place in Hymns Ancient and Modern. 

All this time he was the prime counsellor and assistant to manyengaged in church work or church defence, among whom may be mentionedDr. Pusey, Bishop Alexander Forbes of Brechin, Bishop Walter Hamiltonof Salisbury, the Rev. W. J. Butler of Wantage (Dean of Lincoln), andCanon Liddon. To them Hursley Vicarage was a place of holy counseland peaceful rest. 

Bishop Robert Gray of Capetown, and the great Bishop George AugustusSelwyn, were warmly welcomed there on their visits to England; andthe young son of the last-mentioned, John Richardson Selwyn, whenleft in England for education, often happily spent part of hisholidays there. No doubt this had a share in his preparation for hisfuture work in Melanesia, closed early by the failure of health thatbrought him, after a few more years, to his grave. 

Another guest was Queen Emma of the Sandwich Isles, literally theQueen of the South, come to hear the wisdom of the Saint; and last ofall, the friend and partner of his earlier work, the sharer in therevival of the Church from her torpid repose, John Henry Newman, whomet Dr. Pusey there for one last day, fulfilling the words writtenlong before -

Yet deem not on such parting sadShall dawn no welcome dear and glad. 

But neither of these two last visits took place till after thechanges of old age had begun at Hursley. 

The first great sorrow came in the death of Elisabeth, the wise, gentle, and quiet invalid sister who had been always part of Mr. Keble's life, and seemed, above all, to diffuse about her anatmosphere of peace and holiness. After a gradual, almostimperceptible decay, she sank to sleep on the 7th of August 1860. Mrs. Keble's always frail health began to fail more and more, so thatwinters in a warmer climate became necessary. Dawlish, Penzance, andTorquay were resorted to in successive winters, and Mr. Keble beganto revolve the question whether it might not become his duty toresign the living, where, to his own humble apprehension, all hisbest efforts had failed to raise the people to his own standard ofreligion. However, this was averted, and he was still at his postwhen, on the night of St. Andrew's Day, the 30th of November 1864, ashe was sitting up writing to Dean Stanley on a passage of which hedisapproved in the History of the Jewish Church, the hand of warningtouched him with a slight stroke of paralysis. With complete rest atTorquay and Penzance during the winter, he recovered to aconsiderable degree, and came home to resume many of his usualhabits, but Mrs. Keble's suffering from spasmodic asthma had becomevery frequent, and it became necessary, early in the autumn, toremove to Bournemouth. 

There they remained, she gradually sinking, and only distressed atthe thought of his being left; he bearing up in silent resignationand prayer till, on the 22nd of March, a mistake in using a coldinstead of a hot bath brought on a shock, and in four days more, onMaundy-Thursday the 29th of March 1866, the voice of Hursley andOtterbourne was, "Thy master is taken from thy head to-day. " It wasgranted to her to be at rest concerning him before she followed, sixweeks later, on the 11th of May, to the double grave. 

It was on a beautiful day, with the celandines shining like stars onthe bank, that we laid him in his grave, a concourse of sorrowingfriends being present, who could look to him as having wakened andcherished their best aspirations; and those who had come under hispersonal influence feeling that a loved father had been taken away. It was on that day that Alexander Forbes, Bishop of Brechin, Dr. Pusey, Dean Hook, Sir William Heathcote, Dean Butler, and others, decided that the most fitting memorial would be the building of theCollege at Oxford which bears his name, and is pledged to Churchprinciples, and to a scale of expenses not beyond the reach of lesswealthy students. A monument was in due time raised above thegraves, designed by Mr. Butterfield--Mr. Keble's in red granite, Mrs. Keble's in Derbyshire marble. 

The place in the chancel where the coffin of John Keble, priest ofthe parish, had been placed before the morning's Celebration, wasmarked by a brass cross given by the parishioners, who more and morefelt that they had had among them a saint of God, and can hardly failto think of him when they sing, "O ye holy and humble men of heart, bless ye the Lord, praise Him and magnify Him for ever. "

CHAPTER XIII--LATER CHANGES

In the October of 1853, the Rev. Robert F. Wilson having resigned thecuracy of Ampfield, he was replaced by the Rev. John Frewen Moor, whoon 12th January of the next year became perpetual curate and by andby vicar. 

Improvements in the church advanced in his time. The stained glassof the east and west windows of the church were given by Sir Williamand Lady Heathcote, the south-east window is a memorial of Mr. Keble, the other south windows of Mr. Moor's three sons, one of whom wasdrowned while preparing for mission work in Newfoundland, and anotherdied on his return from what was truly a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. 

On Mr. Keble's death, the Rev. James Gavin Young, brother to the muchbeloved curate, the Rev. Peter Young, was presented to the living ofHursley. 

In 1871 the Rev. William Bigg Wither, after thirty-five years'diligent work in the parish, decided on accepting the rectory ofHardwicke in Buckinghamshire. Great improvements had taken place inhis time, and he was greatly beloved by his flock, from whom, fornearly forty years, he had never been absent for a single Sunday, andduring all that time had given them the privilege of daily matins andevensong. 

As he never liked the acceptance of testimonials, it was resolvedthat, in memory of his long services, a new girls' school should bebuilt, the old one having become quite insufficient, and with it amaster's house with a tower to contain a village clock, which wasgiven out of the savings of Mrs. Smith and her sister and brotherMiss and Mr. Pink, a kind old thatcher, who will long be remembered. 

In that year, 1869, Bishop Sumner resigned the see of Winchester, andfor three years the diocese had the benefit of the great powers andeloquence of Bishop Samuel Wilberforce, whose Confirmation addressesat each of the churches will be remembered for life by hiscandidates. 

The Rev. Walter Francis Elgie became Mr. Young's curate atOtterbourne, and in 1875 the first vicar thereof, Sir WilliamHeathcote having arranged the means of undoing Bishop Pontissara'sinjustice. This was rendered practicable by the liberality of Mrs. William Gibbs, who purchased the advowson of Otterbourne for a sumthat Sir William applied to the endowment of Hursley, so as tocompensate for the loss of the tithes of Otterbourne. 

By this time a considerable industry had grown up at Allbrook with asaw mill and brick making, and the inhabitants, with a littleassistance, erected a mission chapel and school. There the kind andexcellent Rowland Jones Bateman, Esquire, of the Grange, gave heartyassistance as a teacher, and latterly as a licensed reader, beingthus appointed by Bishop Edward Harold Browne, who succeeded to theSee of Winchester on the sudden death of Bishop Wilberforce. 

He came to reconsecrate Otterbourne Church, when an apse had beenadded to the choir, and several other alterations made, with the viewof rendering it more suitable for devout worship than knowledge ormeans had made practicable when the church was built; and otheralterations have since been made in the same direction. 

The kindly and open-hearted Squire of Cranbury, Thomas Chamberlayne, Esq. , died on October 1876, being succeeded by his son TankervilleChamberlayne, Esq. ; and Brambridge, after descending from the Smythesto a niece, the Honourable Mrs. Craven, whose son sold it, has sinceseveral times changed owners. 

On the 25th February 1881, Otterbourne lost the first vicar, Mr. Elgie, and the Rev. Henry Walter Brock was presented to the vicarage, when many improvements were further carried on. 

But change and decay mark every generation in turn, and there islittle else to record. The joyous genial days at Hursley Park hadpassed away, and the days of agricultural depression had set in, causing much trouble and anxiety, with alterations met with simplebravery and cheerfulness, according with the character that couldbear adversity as nobly as prosperity. 

The Rev. Thomas Mozley, in the somewhat discursive reminiscences ofhis latter years, declares that long before, he had seen one of Mr. Keble's curates in tears at the possibility of the repeal of theCorn-Laws causing Sir William Heathcote to put down one of hisequipages. None of the curates could recollect the occasion, andcertainly they lived to see what might have been more deplored, forat the end of Sir William's life there were actually only two littleponies in his stables. 

Though never a very strong man, he preserved all his powers and hiskind interest and thorough attention to whatever was brought beforehim until the end came, as to "a shock of corn in full season, " andhe was taken to his rest on the 17th of August 1881, leaving to allwho knew him the precious recollection of emphatically "a just man"serving God in his generation. 

That simple walking funeral, devoid of all pomp or show, but attendedby at least 130 friends, did indeed show the esteem in which he washeld as the moving spring of all the best undertakings for many yearsin the county; and may Hursley never forget that she is, as it were, consecrated by having been the home of two such men as John Keble andWilliam Heathcote. 

Still there are changes to record: Julian Bargus Yonge, after longinactivity from broken health, sold the property at Otterbourne toMajor Robert Scarlett, and removed to London, where he died a fewdays later, in October 1891. 

In 1892 Mr. Brock was invited to return to his house in Guernsey tobecome rector of the parish of St. Pierre au Bois in succession tohis father and grandfather, and the Rev. Henry Albany Bowles becamevicar of Otterbourne. 

Other changes had in the meantime taken place. The Hursley estate, including not only the Manor of Merdon but recent purchases, hadbecome much encumbered from the inevitable consequences ofagricultural depression, and after the provision for the family hadbeen made, of whom there were ten survivors besides Lady Heathcote, it proved that the only way of clearing off the various liabilitieswas to sell. 

Lady Heathcote gave up her right to a life residence at Hursley Park, and after 170 years of possession, during which the family had wellmerited general affection and esteem, they resigned themselves to thesale of the greater part of the property. The Park, the advowson ofthe living, and the greater part of the parish, were bought by JosephBaxendale, Esq. , in 1888. 

The more distant portions were more gradually disposed of, andrecently the ground of Cranbury Common and Hiltingbury has risen invalue from brick-making industries, and the convenience of Chandler's(or Chaloner's) Ford Station, and a large and rising colony, on theconfines of five parishes, Otterbourne, North Stoneham, Ampfield, Hursley, and Baddesley. A school chapel was raised, but soon provedinsufficient, and there is now a church. The place has been formedinto a separate parish, Otterbourne resigning the hamlet of FryernHill; Ampfield, part of Fryern Hill and numerous houses built amongthe plantations of Cuckoo Bushes and Cranbury Common; and Stoneham, many houses placed among the trees of the former Fleming property. 

And another change took place, Mr. Frewen Moor, from increasing ageand loss of eyesight, resigned the pastoral charge he had socarefully and affectionately fulfilled for forty-four years, and wassucceeded by the Rev. Vere Awdry. 

RECTORS AND VICARS OF HURSLEY. 

John de Raleghe, Rector d. 1279Paganus de Lyskeret, Rector 1280-1296 John de Sta. Fide, VicarHugo de Welewyck, Rector 1296-1348 Henry de Lyskeret, Vicar Roger de la Vere, VicarWilliam de Ffarlee, Vicar 1348-1363William de Middleton, Vicar 1363-1392John Cove, Vicar 1392-1412Walter Cowper Vicar 1412. John Langshaw, Vicar before 1447-1454William Emery, Vicar 1454John Lovyer, Vicar 1482William Capell, Vicar about 1529John Hynton, Vicar deprived 1565Richard Foxe, Vicar 1565William Symmons, Vicar 1581-1616John Cole, Vicar 1616-1638John Hardy, Vicar 1638 ejected 1645

(Several Puritan Intruders. )

Robert Maunder, 1660-1673Thomas Pretty, 1673-1684Matthew Leadbeater, 1684-1707Edward Griffiths, 1707-1726Richard Newcome, 1726-1747William White, 1747-1780Samuel Gauntlett, 1780-1804Gilbert Heathcote, 1804-1829Gilbert Wall Heathcote, 1829-1835John Keble, 1836-1866James Gavin Young, 1866

CHAPTER XIV--A SURVEY

It may be best to conclude with a sketch of the present appearance ofthe parishes (in 1898). 

To begin at the west, where the border is on Romsey, Michelmersh andFarley, the Romsey road, formerly the direct road from Winchester toSalisbury, running through it, beside Ampfield Church and village. This is high ground, and Ampfield Wood extends along it to theborders of Hursley Park. It is chiefly of oak, fir, and beech, andon the southern side are the fine arcades of beechwood that Mr. Kebleused to call Hursley Cathedral. From one point in the wood longsight can distinguish a sort of needle which is the spire ofSalisbury Cathedral. The wood is very old, probably primeval, as itis guarded in the oldest notices of the Manor of Merdon, and itcontains a flora of its own, in which may be mentioned that rare andbeautiful Melittis Melissophyllum, bastard balm, like a purple andwhite archangel. The bilberry is plentiful there and all along thebeautiful park-like road to Romsey and Salisbury. The church, raisedabove the wayside fountain, and the churchyard full of very beautifulvarieties of pine, still nestles into the wood, and there is acharming view over the open country towards the south. 

Farley Chamberlayne, which joins the wood on the other side, risingmuch higher, has a monument viewed from all the country round, erected by one of the St. John family to a horse which leapt downwith him into a chalk-pit of considerable depth, and so alighted thatneither horse nor man was hurt, and the horse won the cup at theraces the year after, under the name of Beware Chalk-Pit. Parnholtwood, that clothes one side of the mount, is beloved by botanists forpossessing tracts of lily of the valley, Convallaria majalis, andlikewise Paris quadrifolia, a great rarity. The mount itself is barechalk down, {154} but has a wonderful view over the whole undulatingcountry--to the southward the beginning of forest land, and to thesouth-east, where the beechwoods of South Lynch begin to creep up therapid slope of chalk, there is delightful hunting ground; for beeorchis (Ophrys apifera) swarm; careful search may discover the brownvelvet blue-eyed fly, Ophrys muscifera, the quaint MAN and DWARForchis can be found; butterfly or honey-suckle orchis, Habenaria, aswe are constrained to term it, is frequent; and where the beech-treesbegin there are those curious parasites which are the only plantsthey tolerate, the Listera Nidus-avis, birds'-nest orchis, theMonotropa Hypopitys, or yellow birds'-nest, the beautiful lily-likeEpipactis Grandiflora; while helleborine and the curious andcapricious tooth-wort, Spiraea Filipendula or drop-wort, GentianaAmarella, and other distinctive chalk-down plants are found. 

On the southern side of Ampfield lies the parish of North Baddesley, which preserves the curious old Hampshire village church with atimber bell turret. This side is where there once stood a Gospeloak, marking the place where the Gospel was read, when the bounds ofthe Manor of Merdon were trod at Rogation-tide. The whole tract isan extension of the New Forest land, almost all heather and bog, undulating and, in the drier spots, growing bushes of the glisteningholly. It is forest scenery without the trees, excepting theplantations of fir made by a former generation, but presenting grandgolden fields of gorse in the spring, and of red and purple heatherin early autumn; and whereas the northern side of Hursley gives thedistinctive flora of dry chalk, here we have the growth of the blackpeaty bog, the great broom-rape, brown and leafless, growing on theroots of the gorse; the curious dodder spreading a tangled red skeinof thread over it gemmed with little round white balls, the raremarsh cinquefoil, the brilliant yellow asphodel, the delicate, exquisite, bog pimpernel, the blue skull-cap, the two weird andcurious sun-dews, and even in former times the beautiful dark blueGentiana Pneumonanthe, as well as the two pinguiculas--Vulgaris, likea violet, and the rarer Lusitanica. 

But alas! the giant called "High Farming" is an enemy to thebotanists, and had starved out many of the choicest of these, evenbefore the building of villas at Chandler's Ford put a total end tomost of them. 

Hursley Park touches on one side the forest land of Ampfield Wood, and on the other the chalk of the South Downs, and it shows itslength of having been reclaimed in the well-kept trees with theirstraight lines finishing their foliage beneath, due to the feeding ofdeer and cattle. Its chief beauty is when the thorns are like massesof snow. Moreover, there grows up from the moat at Merdon, over theback of the remains of the gateway, a traveller's joy with anenormous trunk that must be of many years' duration. Merdon Castleis just where the chalk begins, and from thence, running down to thehouse itself, there is a broad level space of deer park clear oftrees, and making a fit setting to the early Georgian red brick housewith the gardens on the other side, containing several fine old lime-trees. On all the sides, except towards Ampfield, the ground fallsaway, and the village of well-kept, picturesque cottages lies in thevalley beneath the park, the tall white spire of the church making abeautiful object looking along the walnut avenue leading from thegardens. 

The lime-trees enclose the church on three sides most fitly, exceptin the eyes of an old woman, some sixty years ago, who objected toworshipping in a grove. 

At a short distance eastward of the churchyard begin the two roads, both leading to Otterbourne; the northern one, part of which stillbears the name of King's Lane, is said to have been the way taken byPurkis's cart when bringing William Rufus's body to Winchester. 

The southern road, which is part of the Romsey and Southamptonhighway, soon rises into the height of Ladwell Hill, fields with veryfine elms bordering it on the west, and the copse of Mr. Keble'spetition on the east. At the gate of the wood is a patch of the rareGeranium Phaeun, the dusky crane's-bill, but whether wild, or a strayfrom a disused garden, is doubtful. 

After another dip, the road to Otterbourne leaves the main one, andskirts Cranbury Park, and has on the opposite side the once opencountry, since planted first with trees and later with houses, leading to Chandler's Ford. The very pretty and uncommon Linariarepens, a toad flax, white and striped with purple, is a specialitythat it is hoped may not be smothered with houses and gardens. Alane, called even in 1588 Mallibar, runs southward over the heath, and emerges into the Southampton road. It is a grand place forheath, ferns, and broom-rape, with daffodils in a field at the end. There are remains of a farm-yard and orchard, once apparently rentedby Mr. Coram of Cranbury. 

Cranbury Park is on a hill, intersected by various springs, and wherethe peaty ground soon gives way to gravel. The house, a large redbrick one, built round a court, so that it looks low in proportion toits width, is on the level ground at the top, flat as it fronts tothe south, but in the rear descending rapidly. In fact, on that sidethe grounds have the air of cresting the hill, and there is a groupof exceedingly tall pine-trees which are a land-mark of the countryon all sides, though the tallest of them was blown down a few yearsago. Near them is one of the old-fashioned orangeries, with a greatdeal of wall and very little glass, and near it stands the sundial ofNewtonian fame. 

From the ridge where the pines stand the ground descends through verysteep fields belonging to the Home Farm at Longmore to King's Lane, where Hursley parish touches upon Compton, at the hamlet ofSilkstede, which is reported to have been a priory, and has a fineold barn and a dell in the orchard full of snowdrops. No mention ofit is in Dugdale's Monasticon, and it was probably only a grange; butit still owns some very fine old trees, the bordering copses are fullof violets, and the rare Lathyrus Nissolia has been found there. 

Returning to the open park in front of Cranbury, there occurs thatfitfully blooming plant, lady's-tresses--Neottia Spiralis autumnalis--and a profusion of brown-winged orchis and cowslips. All the slopesare covered with copsewood, much of it oak, the tints of which arelovely shades of green in spring and golden-brown in early autumn. The whole is a place remarkable for masses of blossom. There aregiant garlands of white wild cherry above in spring, and equallywhite anemone below; by and by an acre of primroses growing closetogether, not large, but wonderfully thick, a golden river of king-cup between banks of dog's mercury, later on whole glades of wildhyacinth, producing a curious effect of blue beneath the buddingyellow green of the young birches with silver stems. Sheets of thescarlet sorrel by and by appear, and foxgloves of all sizes troop inthe woods, and are succeeded by the rose bay willow herb, and lastlycome perfect clouds of the little devils'-bit scabious. Ferns adornthe watery glens, and bracken spreads on the undulating ground inwild beauty of form, here and there enhanced by a bright faded tintof gold. 

At the bottom of the hill, close to Otterbourne Church, the gravelhas given place to clay. On the side of the hill, a rough hedgedivides the private ground of the copse from Otterbourne Common andHill, which is crossed by the old high road from London toSouthampton, the very steep hill having had a cutting made throughit. The Cranbury side of the road has the village cricket ground onit, though burrowed under by the concentric brick-work circles of theSouthampton Company's water works, which are entered by a littlestaircase tower, cemented over so as to be rather ornamental thanotherwise. Beside it, there is a beautiful view of a delightful homelandscape; stretching out on the south lie woods and low hills to thegleam of Southampton Water, the smoke of the steamers, and even thegray hills of the Isle of Wight. On the other side, beyond the richwater meadows of the Itchen valley, may be seen the woods of ColdenCommon rising into Concord Hill, and beyond them the view is closedby the broken outline of Longwood Warren. While more to the norththere is visible the round smooth outline of "the beech-crownedsteep" of St. Catherine's Hill. It is a charming prospect, especially on a day of sunshine and clouds, making shadows chase oneanother over the distance. Nor, except for a white thatched cottageand an extensive gravel-pit by the road, have the native charms ofthe hill been much disturbed; and gorse, heather, and honeysuckleflourish till, where the clay begins, there is a grassy slope bearinga few elms and horse-chestnuts. Perhaps loaded waggons drop some oftheir seeds, for on those cuttings through the gravel on the road-side have sprung up the dainty little yellow stonecrop, Sedum acre, and the Stork's bill, Erodium moschatum. These are plentifullyspread over the cutting; but the Trifolium arvense, which came for afew years, seems to have vanished again. 

On the eastern side of the road lies the village green. The oldcottages used to stand round in an irregular amphitheatre, some withpoplars before them, and the name of Maypole-field (now allotments)testifies to there having been sports there before the memory of thepresent man. The arrangements have been broken by modern building, but "right of common" still protects the green expanse for donkeysand children, including the more youthful cricketers, not yetpromoted to matches. 

From the top of the hill extends a large space of woodland known asOtterbourne Park. The higher part is full of a growth of beautifulling, in delicate purple spikes, almost as tall as the hazel andmountain ash are allowed to grow. On summer evenings it is a placein which to hear the nightingale, and later to see the glow-worm, andlisten to the purring of the nightjar. It is a very ancient wood, part of the original grant of St. Magdalen College, and bears plentyof the yellow cow-wheat which Kingsley holds as the mark of primevalwaste-land; but it is not exceptional in its other plants, exceptthat a spring, half-way down, has the rare Viola palustris around it. The whole tract remained untouched till a pleasant residence calledthe Grange was taken out of it to the south, at a ground rent, byRowland Jones Bateman, Esq. , whose beneficent kindness and excellentreligious influence told on all the neighbourhood, and especially onthe hamlet of Allbrook, till his death in 1897. 

The parish here borders on Bishopstoke, and the Grange commands apleasant view over the water meadows, and up the opposite BishopstokeHill. Otterbourne Park reaches down to where the meadows begin alongthe course of the Itchen. 

In these meadows, the will-of-the-wisp has undoubtedly been seen, aswell as in a wet field in the central part of the parish; but it is adisappointing phenomenon--nothing but a misty, pale bluish light, rather like the reality of a comet's tail, and if "he" was by"Friar's Lantern led, " "he" must have had a strong imagination. 

Probably drainage, sawmills, and brick-making have exorcised Jack-o'-Lantern, for Allbrook, from a hamlet of four cottages, has grown upinto a considerable village, with a school-chapel of its own, and alarge population. The two farms called Hams and Boyatt border it onthe southern or Bishopstoke side, and on the northern it extends toHighbridge (apparently so called from the lowness of the bridge), where is another small hamlet, half Otterbourne half Twyford; andthere was for many years a Roman Catholic chapel attached to a largecottage, and distinguished by a cross. It was endowed, but nearlyall the flock having faded away, the endowment was transferred toEastleigh, and it is now inhabited by a market gardener with numerousglass houses. 

It is the real Itchen that is crossed at Highbridge. The canal goesthrough Allbrook, but both serve the purpose of irrigation, and anetwork of ditches crosses the meadows. Both river and canal, too, are excellent for fishermen, who in the season can find

here and there a lusty trout, And here and there a grayling

in the clear stream, which now and then an otter inhabits, soon toserve as sport for his many enemies. 

Smooth and level, the river is still an unfailing source of enjoymentin the walks along the towing path, when moor-hens are swimming, anddipping on a glimpse of the spectator; when fish are rising, orsometimes taking a sudden "header" into the air and going down with asplash; when the water-vole rushes for his hole with head just abovethe water; when a blue flash of kingfisher darts by, and the deepblue or green dragon-flies sit on the sedges, or perhaps a tiny May-fly sits on a rail to shake off its last garment, and come forth asnow-white fairy thing with three long whisks at the tail. 

The REAL Itchen is the boundary, and beyond lies Brambridge. But oncoming to the bridge over the canal, the road leads westward, towardsOtterbourne Hill. First it skirts a stream, a tributary to theItchen, and goes between meadows till the old church is reached, nowonly a chancel in the midst of old headstones, and still borderedwith trees on the bank between it and the stream. There are squarebrick monuments covered with stone slabs. In the interstices thereused to be a great deal of Adiantum nigrum--black maidenhair, but ithas disappeared. 

The flowers are quite different from those of the peaty marshes onthe opposite side of the district, belonging to an alluvial soil, washed down from the chalk hills. The great reed-mace adorns theItchen, and going along the disused towing path of the canal there isto be found abundance of the black and golden spikes of the sedge, and the curious balls of the bur-reed, very like the horrid Germanweapon called a morning star. Also meadow-sweet, meadow-rue, andcomfrey of every shade of purple, the water avens and forget-me-not, also that loveliest plant the bog-bean, with trefoil leaves andfeathery blossoms. Orchis latifolia is in plenty, and also Orchisincarnata, sometimes called the Romsey orchis. Of late years themimulus has gilded the bank of one of the ditches. Is itcompensation for the Pinguicula vulgaris, which has been drainedaway, or the mountain pink at Highbridge, which I suspect somegardener of appropriating? Higher up the course of the river, Orchisconopsea, long-spurred and very sweet, the compact Orchispyramidalis, and the rare Epipactis palustris are to be found, aswell as Campanula Glomerata, and crow garlic, in an old chalk-pitnearly destroyed by the railway and the water works. 

Otterbourne Farm bounds the churchyard on the west side, and below, on either side of a low bridge, stand two fine yew trees where boysin the old church days used to climb and devour the waxen berrieswith impunity. Meadows lie on each side the road, and on the left isa short lane, leading up to the old manor house, the Moat-house butit is no longer even a farm-house--the moat is choked with mud andreeds, and only grows fine forget-me-nots, and the curious panelpicture of a battle, apparently between Turks and Austrians, has beenremoved. The fields beyond, bordering on Otterbourne Park, are thebest for cowslips in the parish. 

Returning into the road, whose proper name is Kiln Lane, the wayleads between two fields, oddly enough called Courtiers, rising alittle, and with a view of Otterbourne Hill, the east side of which, below the slope of Otterbourne Park, has been laid out in allotmentsfor more than fifty years, at first by Mr. Yonge, though it has nowbeen taken in hand by the Parish Council, and it makes a pleasantpicture of stripes of various shades of green and brown with peopleworking in them. The hedge sweeps round in a curve, leaving a spacewhere stands the Pound, still sometimes used for straying cattle. The Stocks were once there, but never used in the memory of man. 

The valley is of clay, strong yellow clay favourable to oaks, thoughtoo many have been cut down, whenever they came to a good size in thehedges; but in the grounds of Otterbourne House, where they have beenundisturbed for at least eighty years, there are a number of veryhandsome well-grown trees; and near them is Dell Copse, dug out forthe bricks for the "King's House, " and the home of countlessdaffodils. Half way up the hill is a small spring, where the waterrises so as to make little jets of sand. It flows down in a gutterto the green at the opening of Kiln Lane, around the Pound, and herespreads into a pool, called the Dip Hole, the resort of cows from thecommon, and long of village women, as the blue galt below the yellowclay never affords good water, but this has been remedied by waterworks. 

At this spot Kiln Lane opens into the high-road, and there is a broadspace of green at nearly the bottom of the hill, before the main bodyof the village begins. Every line in the place is a curve-hedges, roads, gardens and all, and this gives the view a peculiar grace, sothat one of the old men used to say he knew not where to find abetter or prettier view than looking down into the village from thehill, and on far beyond to Owslebury, Crowd Hill, and LongwoodWarren, a lovely home view. 

The church stands on the hillside just where the upward road toCranbury begins to branch off. The churchyard is full of crosses, alarge granite cross in memory of John Keble as rector in the midst, and there is a splendid Wellingtonia, or more properly a Sequoia, nowabout fifty years old, and overtopping the bell-turret. And theoutside space on this side is scattered with horse chestnuts andelms. 

Below are the schools, and the irregular curving street of houses, thatched, tiled, or slated, in gardens or close to the road. Herestands Otterbourne House, and, after two large fields, more cottages, and the vicarage, like the schools, with the fancy brick chimneysmoulded at Hursley. 

Not far beyond, the little stream that had crossed the meadows fromthe church is spanned by another bridge, belonging to the high-roadfrom Winchester. Thence may be seen the source of the stream, inPool Hole, said to be fed from Merdon well, and now forced to spreadinto a bed of watercresses. 

And here begins Compton, Silkstede is in sight, and the round of theparishes is completed with King's Lane, turning to the west from thehigh road to Winchester. 

CHAPTER XV--WORDS AND PHRASES

Before entirely quitting the parish, a few of the older words andforms of expression may be recorded, chiefly as remembered from theolder generation, for "the schoolmaster" and the influx of newinhabitants have changed much that was characteristic of the genuineWest Saxon. Nor, indeed, was there any very pronounced dialect, likea separate language. The speech is slow, and with a tendency to makeo like aa, as Titus Oates does in Peveril of the Peak. AnOtterbourne man going into Devonshire was told, "My son, you speakFrench. " No one ever showed the true Hampshire south-country speechand turn of expression so well as Lady Verney in her Lettice Lisle, and she has truly Hampshire characters too, such as could once easilybe matched in these villages. 

The words and phrases here set down are only what can be vouched forby those who have grown up to them

WORDS

Caddle, untidy condition. "In he comes when I'm all of a caddle. "To stabble, to walk about aimlessly, or in the wet. "Now, Miss, don't you come stabbling in and out when I am scouring. "Or, "I can't come stabbling down that there dirty lane, or I should beall of a muck. "Want, mole. Chiselbob, woodlouse; also called a cud-worm, and, rolled in a pill, put down the throat of a cow to promote the restoration of her cud, which she was supposed to have lost. Gowk, cuckoo. Fuzz-Buzz, traveller's joy. Palmer, caterpillar. Dish-washer, water-wagtail. Chink, chaffinch. Long-tailed caper, long-tailed tit. Yaffil, green woodpecker. "The yaffil laughed loud. "--See Peacock at Home. Smellfox, anemone. Dead men's fingers, orchis. Granny's night-cap, water avens. Jacob's ladder, Solomon's seal. Lady's slipper, Prunella vulgaris. Poppy, foxglove. To routle, to rummage (like a pig in straw). To terrify, to worry or disturb. "Poor old man, the children did terrify him so, he is gone into theUnion. "Wind-list, white streak of faint cloud across a blue sky, showing thedirection of the wind. Shuffler, man employed about a farmyard. Randy go, uproar. "I could not sleep for that there randy go they was making. "Pook, a haycock. All of a pummy, all of a moulter, because it was so very brow, describing the condition of a tree, which shattered as it fellbecause it was brow, i. E. Brittle. Leer, empty, generally said of hunger. --See German. Hulls, chaff. The chaff of oats; used to be in favour for stuffingmattresses. Heft, Weight. To huck, to push or pull out. Scotch (howk). Stook, the foundation of a bee hive. Pe-art, bright, lively, the original word bearht for both bright andpert. Loo (or lee), sheltered. Steady, slow. "She is so steady I can't do nothing with her. "Kickety, said of a one-sided wheel-barrow that kicked up (but thismay have been invented for the nonce). Pecty, covered with little spots of decay. Fecty, defective throughout--both used in describing apples orpotatoes. Hedge-picks, shoes. Hags or aggarts, haws. Rauch, smoke (comp. German and Scotch). Pond-keeper, dragon-fly. Stupid, ill-conditioned. To plim, to swell, as bacon boiled. To side up, to put tidy. Logie, poorly, out-of-sorts. 

VILLAGE SPECIFICS. 

Cure for Epilepsy

To wear round the neck a bag with a hair from the cross on a he-donkey. 

Or, To wear a ring made of sixpences begged from six young women whomarried without change of name. 

Cure for Whooping Cough

An infusion of mouse ear hawkweed (Hieracium Pilosella), flavouredwith thyme and honey. This is really effective, like other "yarbs"that used to be in vogue. 

Cure for Shingles

Grease off church bells. 

For Sore Throat

Rasher of fat bacon fastened round the neck. 

For Ague

To be taken to the top of a steep place, then violently pushed down. 

Or, To have gunpowder in bags round the wrists set on fire. 

Powdered chaney (china), a general specific. 

PHRASES

Singing psalms to a dead horse, exhorting a stolid subject. 

Surplice, smock-frock. 

"Ah! sir, the white surplice covers a great deal of dirt"--said by atidy woman of her old father. 

"And what be I to pay you?"

"What the Irishman shot at, " i. E. Nothing--conversation overheardbetween an old labourer and his old friend, the thatcher, who hadbeen mending his roof. 

"Well, dame, how d'ye fight it out?"--salutation overheard. 

CURATE. Have you heard the nightingale yet?

BOY. Please, sir, I don't know how he hollers. 

Everything hollers, from a church bell to a mouse in a trap. 

A tenth child, if all the former ones are living, is baptized with asprig of myrtle in his cap, and the clergyman was supposed to chargehimself with his education. 

If possible, a baby was short-coated on Good Friday, to ensure notcatching cold. 

The old custom (now gone out) was that farmers should send their mento church on Good Friday. They used all to appear in their roughdirty smock frocks and go back to work again. Some (of whom it wouldnever have been expected) would fast all day. 

The 29th of May is still called Shick-shack day--why has never beendiscovered. There must have been some observance earlier than theRestoration, though oak-apples are still worn on that day, and withtheir oak sprays are called Shick-shack. 

On St. Clement's Day, the 23rd of November, explosions of gunpowderare made on country blacksmiths' anvils. It is viewed as theblacksmiths' holiday. The accepted legend is that St. Clement wasdrowned with an anchor hung to his neck, and that his body was foundin a submarine temple, from which the sea receded every seven yearsfor the benefit of pilgrims. Thus he became the patron of anchorforgers, and thence of smiths in general. Charles Dickens, in GreatExpectations describes an Essex blacksmith as working to a chant, therefrain of which was "Old Clem. " I have heard the explosions atHursley before 1860, but more modern blacksmiths despise the custom. At Twyford, however, the festival is kept, and at the dinner a storyis read that after the Temple was finished, Solomon feasted all theartificers except the blacksmiths, but they appeared, and pointed outall that they had done in the way of necessary work, on which theywere included with high honour. 

St. Thomas's Day, 21st December, is still at Otterbourne held as theday for "gooding, " when each poor house-mother can demand sixpencefrom the well-to-do towards her Christmas dinner. 

Christmas mummers still perambulate the villages, somewhatuncertainly, as their performance depends on the lads willing toundertake it, and the willingness of some woman to undertake thebedizening of them with strips of ribbon or coloured paper; and, moreover, political allusions are sometimes introduced which spoilthe simplicity. The helmets are generally made of wallpaper, in ashape like auto-da-fe caps, with long strips hanging over so as toconceal the face, and over the shirts are sewn streamers. 

Thus tramp seven or eight lads, and stand drawn up in a row, when theforemost advances with, at the top of his hoarse voice:

Room, room, brave gallants, room, I'm just come to show you some merry sport and game, To help pass awayThis cold winter day. Old activity, new activity, such activityAs never was seen before, And perhaps never will be seen no more. 

(Alas! too probably. Thanks to the schoolmaster abroad. )

Then either he or some other, equipped with a little imitation snow, paces about announcing himself:

Here comes I, Old Father Christmas, Christmas, Christmas, Welcome or welcome not, I hope old Father Christmas Will never be forgot. All in this room, there shall be shownThe dreadfullest battle that ever was known. So walk in, St. George, with thy free heartAnd see whether thou canst claim peace for thine own part. 

So far from "claiming peace, " St. George waves (or ought to wave) hiswooden sword, as he clumps forth, exclaiming:

In comes I, St. George, St. George, that man of courage bold, With my broad sword and spear I won the crown of gold, I fought that fiery dragon, And drove him to the slaughter, And by that means I won The King of Egypt's daughter. Therefore, if any man dare enter this door I'll hack him small as dust, And after send him to the cook's shop To be made into mince-pie crust!

On this defiance another figure appears:

Here comes I, the Turkish knightJust come from Turkey land to fight;I'll fight thee, St. George, St. George, thou man of courage bold, If thy blood be too hot, I'll quickly make it cold. 

To which St. George responds, in the tone in which he would address acart-horse:

"Wo ho! My little fellow, thou talk'st very bold, Just like the little Turks, as I have been told, Therefore, thou Turkish knight, Pull out thy sword and fight, Pull out thy purse and pay, I'll have satisfaction, or thou guest away. 

Turkish Knight. 

Satisfaction, no satisfaction at all, My head is made of iron, my body lined with steel, I'll battle thee, to see which on the ground shall fall. 

The two wooden swords clatter together till the Turkish knight falls, all doubled up, even his sword, with due regard to his finery; andSt. George is so much shocked that he marches round, lamenting:

O only behold what I have been and done, Cut and slain my brother, just the evening sun. 

Then, bethinking himself, he exclaims:

I have a little bottle, called elecampane, If the man is alive, let him rise and fight again. 

The application of the elecampane so far restores the Turkish knightthat he partly rises, entreating:

O pardon me, St. George, O pardon me, I crave, O pardon me this once, and I will be thy slave. 

Very inconsistently with his late remorse, St. George replies -

I never will pardon a Turkish knight, Therefore arise, and try thy might. 

The combat is renewed, and the Turkish knight falls prostrate, onwhich the Foreign King comes forward, shouting:

St. George, St. George, what hast thou done, For thou hast slain mine only son!

But, after marching round the fallen hero, he cries:

Is there a doctor to be found, That can cure this man lies bleeding on the ground?

In response, the doctor appears:

O yes, there is a doctor to be found, That can cure this man lies bleeding on the ground. 

The anxious father asks:

Doctor, doctor, what is thy fee?

The doctor replies:

Ten guineas is my fee, But ten pounds I'll take of thee. 

The king answers:

"Take it, doctor, but what canst thou cure?"

The doctor's pretensions are high, for he says:

I can cure the ague, palsy, and the gout, And that's a roving pain that goes within and out;A broken leg or arm, I soon can cure the pain, And if thou break'st thy neck, I'll stoutly set it again. Bring me an old woman of fourscore years and ten, Without a tooth in her head, I'll bring her young again. 

The king observes:

"Thou be'st a noble doctor if that's all true thou be'st talkingabout. "

And the doctor, taking to prose, replies:

"I'm not like those little mountebank doctors that go about thestreets, and say this, that, and the other, and tell you as many liesin one half-hour as you would find in seven years; but what I does, Idoes clean before your eyes, and ladies and gentlemen, if you won'tbelieve your own eyes, 'tis a very hard case. "

The king agreeing that it is, the doctor goes to the patient, saying:

"I have a little bottle that I call golden foster drops. One drop onthe root of this man's tongue and another on his crown, will strikethe heat through his body, and raise him off the ground. "

Accordingly the Turkish knight slowly rises and decamps, St. Georgeexclaiming:

"Arise, arise, thou cowardly dog, and see how uprightly thou can'ststand. Go home into your own country and tell them what old Englandhas done for you, and how they'll fight a thousand better men thanyou. 

This last speech may have been added after the Crimean War, as thedrama was copied out in 1857; but the staple of it was known longbefore, though with variations, in different villages, and it alwaysconcludes with little Johnny Jack, the smallest of the troup, with abundle of dolls on his back, going round with a jingling money-box, saying:

Here comes I, little Johnny Jack, Wife and family at my back, My family's large though I am small, And so a little helps us all. Roast beef, plum pudding, strong beer and mince-pies, Who loves that better than Father Christmas or I?One mug of Christmas ale soon will make us merry and sing;Some money in our pockets will be a very fine thing. So, ladies and gentlemen, all at your ease, Give the Christmas boys just what you please. 

Before Christmas carols had to be reformed and regulated lest theyshould be a mere occasion of profanity and rudeness, that curious oneof Dives and Lazarus was occasionally heard, of which two lines couldnever be forgotten -

He had no strength to drive them 'way, And so they licked his sores. 

And when Lazarus afterwards sees "Divers" "sitting on a serpent'sknee. "

May Day too survived in a feeble state, with the little voicessinging:

April's gone! May's come!Come and see our garland. 

Mr. Keble improved the song into:

 April's gone, the king of showers, May is come, the queen of flowers, Give me something, gentles dear, For a blessing on the year. For my garland give, I pray, Words and smiles of cheerful May; Birds of spring, to you we come, Let us pick a little crumb. In the dew of the morning we gathered our flowersFrom the woodlands and meadows and garden bowers, And now we have twisted our garland so gay, We are come here to wish you a happy May Day. 

We cannot but here add an outline of a village character from OldTimes at Otterbourne:-

Mr. William Stainer was a baker. His bread was excellent, and he wasalso noted for what were called Otterbourne buns, the art of makingwhich seems to have gone with him. They were small fair-complexionedbuns, which stuck together in parties of three, and when soaked, expanded to twice or three times their former size. He used to sendthem once or twice a week to Winchester. But though baking was hisprofession, he did much besides. He was a real old-fashionedherbalist, and had a curious book on the virtues of plants, and hemade decoctions of many kinds, which he administered to those in wantof medicine. Before the Poor Law provided Union doctors, medicaladvice, except at the hospital, was almost out of reach of the poor. Mr. And Mrs. Yonge, like almost all other beneficent gentlefolks invillages, kept a medicine chest and book, and doctored such cases asthey could venture on, and Mr. Stainer was in great favour as apractitioner, as many of our elder people can remember. He wasexceedingly charitable and kind, and ready to give his help so far ashe could. He was a great lover of flowers, and had contrived a sortof little greenhouse over the great oven at the back of his house, and there he used to bring up lovely geraniums and other flowers, which he sometimes sold. He was a deeply religious and devout man, and during an illness of the clerk took his place in Church, whichwas more important when there was no choir and the singers sat in thegallery. He was very happy in this office, moving about on feltshoes that he might make no noise, and most reverently keeping theChurch clean, and watching over it in every way. He also continuedin the post of schoolmaster, which at first he had only takentemporarily, and quaintly managing it. He was found setting as acopy "A blind man's wife needs no paint, " which he defended as"Proverbs, sir, Proverbs. " Giving up part of his business to hisnephew, he still sat up at night baking, for the nephew, he said, wasonly in the A B C book of baking, and he also had other troubles:there was insanity in his family, and he was much harassed. Hiskindness and simplicity were sometimes abused. He never had theheart to refuse to lend money, or to deny bread on credit to hopelessdebtors; and altogether debts, distress, baking, and watching hissisters all night, and school keeping all day, were too much for him. The first hint of an examination of his school completed the mischiefand he died insane, drowning himself in the canal. It is a sadstory, but many of us will remember with affectionate regard thegood, kind, quaint, and most excellent little man. 

A few lines, half parody, half original, may be added as picturingthe old aspect of Otterbourne, about 1830:-

OLD REMEMBRANCES

I remember, I remember, Old times at Otterbourne, Before the building of the Church, And when smock frocks were worn!

I remember, I remember, When railroads there were none, When by stage coach at early dawn The journey was begun. 

And through the turnpike roads till eve Trotted the horses four, With inside passengers and out They carried near a score. 

"Red Rover" and the "Telegraph, " We knew them all by name, And Mason's and the Oxford coach, Full thirty of them came. 

The coachman wore his many capes, The guard his bugle blew;The horses were a gallant sight, Dashing upon our view. 

I remember, I remember, The posting days of old;The yellow chariot lined with blue And lace of colour gold. 

The post-boys' jackets blue or buff, The inns upon the road;The hills up which we used to walk To lighten thus the load. 

The rattling up before the inn, The horses led away, The post-boy as he touched his hat And came to ask his pay. 

The perch aloft upon the box, Delightful for the view;The turnpike gates whose keepers stood Demanding each his due. 

I remember, I remember, When ships were beauteous things, The floating castles of the deep Borne upon snow-white wings;

Ere iron-dads and turret ships, Ugly as evil dream, Became the hideous progeny Of iron and of steam. 

You crossed the Itchen ferry All in an open boat, Now, on a panting hissing bridge You scarcely seem afloat. 

Southampton docks were sheets of mud, Grim colliers at the quay. No tramway, and no slender pier To stretch into the sea. 

I remember, I remember, Long years ere Rowland Hill, When letters covered quarto sheets Writ with a grey goose quill;

Both hard to fold and hard to read, Crossed to the scarlet seal;Hardest of all to pay for, ere Their news they might reveal. 

No stamp with royal head was there, But eightpence was the sumFor every letter, all alike, That did from London come!

I remember, I remember, The mowing of the hay;Scythes sweeping through the heavy grass At breaking of the day. 

The haymakers in merry ranks Tossing the swathes so sweet, The haycocks tanning olive-brown In glowing summer heat. 

The reapers 'mid the ruddy wheat, The thumping of the flail, The winnowing within the barn By whirling round a sail. 

Long ere the whirr, and buzz, and rush Became a harvest sound, Or monsters trailed their tails of spikes, Or ploughed the fallow ground. 

Our sparks flew from the flint and steel, No lucifers were known, Snuffers with tallow candles came To prune the wick o'ergrown. 

Hands did the work of engines then, But now some new machineMust hatch the eggs, and sew the seams, And make the cakes, I ween. 

I remember, I remember, The homely village school, The dame with spelling book and rod, The sceptre of her rule. 

A black silk bonnet on her head, Buff kerchief on her neck, With spectacles upon her nose, And apron of blue check. 

Ah, then were no inspection days, No standards then were known, Children could freely make dirt pies, And learning let alone!

Those Sundays I remember too, When Service there was one;For living in the parish then Of parsons there were none. 

And oh, I can recall to mind, The Church and every pew;William and Mary's royal arms Hung up in fullest view. 

The lion smiling, with his tongue Like a pug dog's hung out;The unicorn with twisted horn, Brooding upon his rout. 

Exalted in the gallery high The tuneful village choir, With flute, bassoon, and clarionet, Their notes rose high and higher. 

They shewed the number of the Psalm In white upon a slate, And many a time the last lines sung Of Brady and of Tate. 

While far below upon the floor Along the narrow aisle, The children on their benches sat Arranged in single file. 

And there the clerk would stump along And strike with echoing blowEach idle guilty little head That chattered loud or low. 

Ah! I remember many things, Old, middle-aged, and new;Is the new better than the old, More bright, more wise, more true?

The old must ever pass away, The new must still come in;When these new things are old to you Be they unstained by sin. 

So will their memory be sweet, A treasury of blissTo be borne with us in the days When we their presence miss. 

Trifles connected with the love Of many a vanished friendWill thrill the heart and wake the sense, For memory has no end!

CHAPTER XVI--NATURAL HISTORY

Or animal life, though abundant, there is little or nothing specialto record, besides the list of birds. 

Polecats and martens only exist in the old rating book, but weaselsand stoats remain, as well as a profusion of their prey--hares andrabbits. Squirrels haunt the trees, and otters are occasionallyfound in the river. Trout, grayling, now and then a pike, as well asthe smaller fry of minnows and sticklebacks, are of course found inthe streams. Eels used to be caught there on the moonlight nights byold labourers with a taste for sport, and the quaint little rivercray-fish may be picked out of the banks of the "water-carriages. "

Toads and frogs are a matter of course. Sometimes a procession oftiny, but perfectly formed "Charley Frogs, " as the village boys callthem, just emerged from their tadpole state, may be seen making theirway up from their native pools. 

The pretty crested newt, dark brown and orange, with a gold crestalong its back like an iguana, is found in shallow ponds, also thesmooth newt. These efts, or evvets, as the people call them, areregarded with horror by the peasantry. The children speak of havingseen one as if it were a crocodile; and an abscess in the arm hasbeen ascribed to having picked up an "evvet in a bundle of grass. "

The slow-worm, in silvery coat, is too often slaughtered as a snake. Vipers come to light in the woods, also the harmless brown snake. One of these has been seen swimming across a pond, his head just outof the water, another climbing an oak tree, and one, upon the lawn, was induced to disgorge a frog, which gathered up its legs and hoppedaway as if nothing had happened. 

Of rats and mice and such small deer there are only too many, thoughit is worth while to watch rats at play round a hay-rick on Sundayevenings, when they know they will not be persecuted, and sit up likelittle kangaroos. The vole, which is not a rat, is a goodly sight, and the smooth round dormouse (or sleep-mouse, as the children callit) is a favourite gift imprisoned in an old tea-pot. 

The beautiful nest of a field-mouse has been found in a cypress'sthick foliage, and dead shrews bestrew the paths; though the magiceffects of having a "sherry mouse" die in one's hand, and thus beingenabled to stroke cattle and cure them, have never been experienced. 

The anodon or fresh water mussel used to be found in Fisher's Pond onColden Common, bordering on Otterbourne, and the green banks werestrewn with shells left by the herons, but the pond is fast drying upand the herons have been driven away by guns. 

The delicate paludina, of brown, horn-coloured, gracefully-formedshell, creeps on the water weeds, and hosts of snails may be studied. 

Of insects less can be said here, but it is worth noting that onelive purple emperor has been captured in Ampfield wood, two deaddilapidated ones picked up at Otterbourne. 

The forest fly, so called, does not often come here; but it isobservable that while strange horses are maddened by it, the nativeones do not seem disturbed, knowing that it only creeps and does notbite. It is small and brown, not so formidable looking as the largefly, popularly called a stout, as big as a hornet, which lays eggsunder the skin of cows. 

But with the blue, green, and orange dragonflies of summer, this listmust conclude, and turn to the birds and botany of the place, mostlywell known, and verified by Mr. Townsend's Flora of Hampshire. 

BIRDS

THE KITE (Milvus ictinus). --Sometimes hovering over heathlands orfarmyards, but not very common. 

SPARROW-HAWK (Accipiter fringillarius). --Taken in a trap set for ratsat Otterbourne House. 

PEREGRINE FALCON (Falco peregrinus), Hursley, 1857. --As a pair formany years had a nest on Salisbury spire, this one may have flownthus far. 

KESTREL (Falco tinnunculus)--Otterbourne, 1856. 

SHORT-EARED OWL (Otus brachyotus). --Baddesley Common, 5th March 1861. 

WHITE OWL (Strix flammea). --Nested in a barn, another year in apigeon-loft, and again in an old tub at Otterbourne. To be seenskimming softly along on summer evenings. 

BROWN OWL (Ulula stridula). --Glides over the fields like a huge moth, and on moonlight nights in August may be heard the curious huntingnote. As the eggs are hatched, not all at once, but in succession, afamily taken out of a loft and put into a sea-kale pot were ofvarious ages, the eldest nearly fledged, standing up as if to guardthe nest, the second hissing and snapping, as if a naughty boy, andtwo downy infants who died. One brown owl was kept tame, and lived14 years. The village people call this bird Screech Owl, and after asudden death always mention having heard it. 

CHIMNEY SWALLOW (Hirundo rustica). --They chase the flies under thebridges on the Itchen, and display their red throats. 

HOUSE-MARTIN (Hirundo urbica). --Twittering everywhere 'neath thestraw-built shed. 

SAND-MARTIN (Hirundo riparia). --Swarms sit in rows along the electricwires, and bore deeply into every sand-pit. 

SWIFT (Cypselus murarius). --First to come and first to go. Theirpeculiar screech and floating flight are one of the charms of thesummer evenings. 

NIGHTJAR (Caprimulgus europaeus). --All through the twilight of thelong days his purr-purr comes down from the heathery summit ofOtterbourne Hill, where he earns his other name of Fern Owl, and maybe seen flitting on silent wing in search of moths. 

KINGFISHER (Alcedo ispida). --This beautiful creature darts out of thereeds bordering the Itchen, and it used to be at Chandler's Fordbefore the place was so populated. It seems also to haunt ponds ormarshy places in woods, for a young full-fledged one was brought intoOtterbourne House by a cat, alive and apparently unhurt. Anothertook a fancy to the gold-fish in a stone basin at Cranbury, and wasshot, as the poor fish could not escape. 

SPOTTED FLYCATCHER (Muscicapa grisola). --Late in summer these daintylittle birds come whisking about the garden, perching on a rail, darting off after a fly, returning to the same post, or else feedingtheir young in nests on the side of the house. A pair built in 1897in a flower-pot close to the window of Otterbourne House. 

BUTCHER-BIRD (Lanius collurio). --Said to have been seen atOtterbourne. A slug has been found impaled on a thorn, but whetherthis was the shrike's larder, or as a charm for removing warts, isuncertain. 

MISSEL-THRUSH (Merula viscivora). --This handsome bird is frequent, and commonly called House Screech. A story told by Warden Barter maybe worth preserving. A pair of Missel Thrush seeing a peacock toonear their nest, charged full at him, and actually knocked him down. 

SONG-THRUSH (Merula musica). --Happily everywhere warbling on warmdays in autumn and winter with a sweet, powerful song, some notesmore liquid than even the nightingale's. The shells of the snails hehas devoured bestrew the garden-walks. 

BLACKBIRD (Merula vulgaris). --Out, with angry scream and chatter atthe approach of an enemy, darts the "ousel cock so black of hue, withorange-tawny bill. " How dull a lawn would be without his pertmovements when he comes down alternately with his russet wife. Oneblackbird with a broad white feather on each side of his tail hauntedElderfield for two years, but, alas! one spring day a spruce sablerival descended and captivated the faithless dame. They united, chased poor Mr. Whitetail over the high garden hedge, and he was seenno more. 

REDWING (Merula iliaca). --Not common, but noted by J. B. Y. 

RING-OUZEL (Merula torquata). --Rare, but observed by J. B. Yonge inOtterbourne Park, 14th September 1865, and it has been seen severaltimes later. 

FIELDFARE (Merula pilaris). --In flocks in winter. 

WHEATEAR (Sylvia aenanthe). --Comes to the downs. 

STONECHAT (Saxicola rubicola). --Hops about on stones. 

WHINCHAT (Saxicola rubetra). --On furze bushes on Otterbourne Hill. 

REDBREAST (Sylvia rubecula). --A whole brood, two old and four young, used to disport themselves on the quilt of an old bedridden woman onOtterbourne Hill. It is the popular belief that robins kill theirfathers in October, and the widow of a woodman declared that herhusband had seen deadly battles, also that he had seen a white robin, but she possibly romanced. 

REDSTART (Phaenicura ruticilla). --Sometimes seen, but not often. 

GRASSHOPPER-WARBLER (Salicaria locustella). --Well named, for itchirps exactly like a grasshopper in the laurels all through a summerevening. 

SEDGE-WARBLER (Salicaria fragilis). --Whoever has heard it scoldingand chattering in a ridiculous rage at a strange footstep will notwonder at the Scotch name of Blethering Jock. A pair nested in DellCopse for some years, and the curious nest has been found among thereeds on the banks of the Itchen. 

NIGHTINGALE (Sylvia luscinia). --Every year about the 18th of Aprilthe notes may be heard by the gate of Cranbury, in a larch wood onOtterbourne Hill, in the copse wood of Otterbourne House, at Oakwood, and elsewhere. For about a week there is constant song, but afternesting begins, it is less frequent. One year there was a nest inthe laurels at Otterbourne House (since taken away), and at eight inthe morning and seven at night the nightingale came on the lawn tofeed, and was every morning chased by a surly John Bull of a robin. When the young are coming out of the nest the parents chide them, orstrangers, in a peculiarly harsh chirp. 

BLACKCAP (Sylvia atricapilla). --Fair and sweet, but not veryfrequent; nested in Dell Copse. 

WHITETHROAT (Sylvia cinerea). --Darts about gardens, and is locallycalled Nettle-creeper. 

LESSER WHITETHROAT (S. Curruca). --Eggs in Dell Copse. 

WOOD-WARBLER (Sylvia sylvicola). --Eggs taken at Cranbury. 

WILLOW-WARBLER (Sylvia trochilus). --Eggs taken at Baddesley. 

CHIEFCHAFF (Sylvia hippolais). --Common in spring. 

GOLDEN-CRESTED WREN (Sylvia auricapilla). --A happy little inhabitantof the fir-trees, where it nests, and it is often to be seen dartingin and out of a quickset hedge. 

SKYLARK (Alauda arvensis). --The joy of eyes and ears in every openfield. True to the kindred points of heaven and home. 

WOODLARK (Alauda arborea). --Otterbourne Park and Cranbury. 

YELLOW-BUNTING or YELLOW-HAMMER (Emberiza citrinella). --A greatornament, especially in autumn, when it sits on rails, crying, "Alittle bit of bread and no che-e-ese!"

BLACKHEADED or REED BUNTING (Emberiza schaenidus). --Brambridge, April1896. 

SPARROW (Passer domesticus). --One curious fact about this despisedanimal is that the retired farmer, after whom Elderfield is named, made it his business to exterminate the village sparrows. He oftenbrought them down to one, but always by the next morning that sparrowhad provided himself with a mate to share his Castle Dangerous. Sparrows' (or sprows') heads make a figure in many church ratebooks. 

CHAFFINCH (Fringilla caelebs). --Chink is the Hampshire name. Thehens do not here migrate in winter, but a whole flight of them hasbeen seen in the autumn on the Winchester road, evidently on theirway; and once, after an early severe frost, about a hundred werefound dead in a haystack near Basingstoke. Thomas Chamberlayne, Esq. , who had a singular attraction for birds, used to have themcoming to eat grain from his pocket. It has the perfection of anest. 

GOLDFINCH (Carduelis elegans). --This exquisite little bird isfrequent on the borders of the chalk hills, where there is plenty ofthistledown. 

HAWFINCH (Coccothraustes vulgaris). --Sometimes seen, but not common. 

LINNET (Linota cannabina). --Fairly frequent. 

GREEN LINNET (Coccothraustes chloris). --Greenfinch, or Beanbird asthey call it in Devonshire, is a pleasant visitor, though it has agreat turn for pease. 

WREN (Sylvia troglodytes). --This brisk little being Kitty Wren is tobe seen everywhere. Whether Kingsley's theory is right that thelittle birds roll themselves into a ball in a hole in the winter, Iknow not. Single ones are certainly to be seen on a bank on afrosty, sunshiny day. Have they come out to view the world andreport on it? Those very odd, unused nests are often to be foundhanging from the thatch within outhouses. May it be recorded herethat a wren once came to peck the sprigs on Miss Keble's gown?

GREAT TITMOUSE (Parus major)--or Ox-eye, as he is here called, boldand bright, crying "Peter" in early spring, and beautiful with hiswhite cheek, and the black bar down his yellow waistcoat. 

BLUE TIT (Parus caeruleus). --Bolder and prettier is the little blue-cap, a true sprite and acrobat as Wordsworth calls him. 

MARSH-TIT (Parus palustris). --Known by less bright colouring andwhite breast. 

COLE-TIT (Parus ater). --More grey, and very graceful. All these fourwill gladly come to a window in winter for a little fat hung to astring, and will put themselves into wonderful inverse positions. 

LONG-TAILED TIT (Parus caudatus). --Long-tailed Caper, as is his localname, is more shy, and will not come to be fed; but the antics of afamily after they have left their domed nest are delightful to watch, as they play in the boughs of a fir-tree. 

HEDGE-SPARROW (Accentur modularis). --Quiet, mottled bird, to be seeneverywhere. 

PIED WAGTAIL (Motacilla lutor). --Most of these stay with us allwinter, but one March evening at least forty-three descended on thelawn at Elderfield, doubtless halting in their flight from southernlands. Most winning birds they are, with their lively hop andjerking tails. Dish-washer is their Hampshire name. 

GREY WAGTAIL (Motacilla boarula). --This pretty bird is really partlyyellow. It is not very frequent here, but is sometimes found on theItchen bank; likewise the nest in a reedy meadow. 

RAY'S WAGTAIL (Motacilla Rayi). --Ray's Wagtail was catching flies ona window at Otterbourne House in 1890. 

TREE PITT (Anthus arboreus), MEADOW PIPIT (Anthus pratensis). --Smallbrown birds, not easy to distinguish; but the eggs differ, and bothhave been found. 

BULLFINCH (Pyrrhula vulgaris). --It is charming to greet the blackhead and red waistcoat in the tops of the laurels or apple-trees, andsurely this destroyer of insect devourers does more good than harm, if he does pick the buds to pieces in the search. He is a delightfulpet, of exclusive and jealous attachments, hating every one excepthis own peculiar favourite; and his sober-coloured lady has quite asmuch character as he. One which was devoted to her own mistresswould assail another of the family with such spite as sometimes todrive her out of the room. 

STARLING (Sturnus vulgaris). --Green bedropped with gold when seenclosely, but at a distance looking more like a rusty blackbird, though its gait on the lawn always distinguishes it, being a walkinstead of a hop. Though not tuneful, no bird has such a variety ofnotes, and the clatter on the root the call-note, the impatientsummons of the brood about to be fed, make it a most amusingneighbour, when it returns to the same tree year after year. 

RAVEN (Corvus corax). --He has flown over the village several times. One lived for many years in the yard of the George Inn at Winchester. 

CROW (Corvus coronae). --Game-preserving has nearly put an end to him, but he is seen round the folds on the downs in lambing time. 

ROOK (Corvus frugilegus). --Shining and black the great birds comedown on the fields. There is a rookery at Cranbury, another at HamsFarm at Allbrook, and a considerable one in the beeches near Merdon, for which the rooks deserted some oak-trees nearer the House. Whilethese trees were still inhabited, Mr. G. W. Heathcote observed anumber of walnuts under them, and found that the rooks brought themfrom the walnut avenues. A parliament of these wise birds issometimes held on the downs, and there are woods where they assemblein great numbers in the autumn, contingents from all lesser rookeriespouring in to spend the winter, and whirling round and round inclouds before roosting. 

JACKDAW (Corvus monedula). --A very amusing, though very wicked pet. There used to be throngs of them in the tower of the old church atHursley, and their droll voices might be heard conversing in theevening. Mr. Chamberlayne had one which, after being freed, alwayscame down to greet him when he walked in the garden. 

MAGPIE (Corvus pica). --Pages might be filled with the merry mischiefof this handsome creature. Perhaps the most observablecharacteristic of the three tame ones closely observed was theirexclusive and devoted attachment to one person, whom they singled outfor no cause that could be known, and followed about from place toplace. 

JAY (Garrulus glandarius). --May be heard calling in the pineplantations on Hursley Common. It would be as amusing as the magpieif tamed. 

GREEN WOODPECKER (Picus viridis). --The laugh and the tap may be heardall through the Spring days. In 1890 Picus major, a small, black, and spotted French Magpie, as Devonians call it, was found, but wehave no other right to claim it. 

WRYNECK (Yunx torquilla), or Cuckoo's mate, squeaks all round thewoods with his head on one side just as the cuckoo comes. 

NUTHATCH (Sitta europaea). --This pretty creature will come and be fedon nuts at windows in the winter. These nuts he thrusts intocrevices of bark to hold them fast while he hammers the shell. Theremains may often be found. For many years a pair built in a holehalf-way down an old apple-tree covered with ivy at OtterbourneHouse, and the exertions of the magpie with clipped wing to swinghimself on a trail of ivy into the hole were comical, as well as hiswrath when he fell off, as he uniformly did. 

TREE-CREEPER (Certhia familiaris), winds round and round the treeslike a little mouse. 

HOOPOE (Upupa vulgaris). --Once in a frost caught alive by a shepherdon the downs, but it soon died. 

CUCKOO (Cuculus canorus). --They cuckoo till "in June he altereth histune. " Probably the stammer is the effort of the young ones to sing. One grew up in a wagtail's nest in the flints that were built intothe wall of Otterbourne Churchyard. Another, carried to the otherside of the road and caged, was still fed by its foster-parents tillit was ready to fly. 

WOOD-PIGEON (Columba palumbus) -

Take two cows, Taffy, Taffy, take two-o-o. 

Plenty of this immoral exhortation may be heard in the trees. Oneyoung pigeon taken from the nest proved incorrigibly wild and readyto flutter to death whenever any one came near it. 

TURTLE-DOVE (Columba turtur). --This pretty delicate creature withspeckled neck builds in bushes lower than the wood-pigeon, and themournful note resounds in the trees. 

PHEASANT (Phasianus colchicus). --Not a real native, but cultivated toany extent. A cock pheasant with the evening sun gilding his back isa rare picture of beauty. 

PARTRIDGE (Tetrao perdix). --Numerous. 

HERON (Ardea cinerea). --Sometimes flies far overhead, the long legsprojecting behind. 

SANDPIPER (Totanus hypoleucus). --Seen walking over a mass of weeds inthe Itchen canal. 

SNIPE (Scolopax gallinago). --Brought in by sportsmen from the watermeadows. 

WOODCOCK (Scolopax rusticola). --Not common, but sometimes shot. 

JACK-SNIPE (Scolopax gallinula). --Not common, but sometimes shot. 

LAND-RAIL (Crex pratensis). --Corn-Crake. May be heard "craking" inthe long grass in early morning before the hay is cut. 

WATER-RAIL (Rallus aquaticus). --In a meadow at Otterbourne, 22ndJanuary 1855. 

LITTLE GREBE (Podiceps minor). --Dabchick, as it is commonly called, swims in the Itchen and in Fisher's Pond (on Colden Common), dippingdown suddenly without a trace of the least alarm. 

MOOR-HEN (Gallinula chloropus). --Very similar are the ways of themoor-hen, with its brilliant beak. But once, by some extraordinarychance, a moor-hen fell down a cottage chimney, and was brought alivefor inspection by a boy, who, ignorant of natural objects, as wasalways the case in villages forty years ago, thought it a rareforeign specimen. It was a thatched cottage, but if it had beenslated the moor-hen might have taken the roof for a sheet of water bymoonlight, as the Great Water-Beetle has been known to do, and comedown the chimney in like manner. A brood comes constantly to be fedon a lawn at Bishopstoke. 

PEEWIT (Vanellus cristatus). --Otherwise the Crested Lapwing. Itfloats along in numbers when migrating, the whole flock turning atthe same time and displaying either the dark or the white side oftheir wings with a startling effect. They seem effaced for a moment, the next the white sails are shown, then gone again. When paired, and nesting in the meadows, their cry causes their local name, astheir other English title is derived from their characteristicmanoeuvres to lead the enemy from their young. Did they learn thehabit when their so-called plovers' eggs became a dainty?

GOLDEN PLOVER (Charadrius pluvialis). --Noted at Otterbourne meadowsby J. B. Yonge. 

WILD DUCK (Anas boschas). --The mallard is splendid in plumage, and inshape is far more graceful than his domesticated brother. In earlywinter the wild ducks fly overhead in a wedge-shaped phalanx, and byand by they pair, and if disturbed start up with a sudden quack, quack from the copse-wood pond. Broods of downy wild ducks have beenbrought in by boys, but it has almost always proved impossible torear them. 

TEAL (Querquedula anas). --This very pretty little duck used to buildon Cranbury Common, but may have been frightened away by increasingpopulation. 

GULL (Larus canus). --Flocks of those white-breasted birds sometimesalight on ploughed fields round Otterbourne, and even some milesfarther from the sea. They are sometimes kept in gardens to destroythe slugs. 

These birds have all been actually seen and noted down by members ofthe Yonge family. 

FLOWERS

TRAVELLER'S JOY (Clematis Vitalba). --Locally called Old Man's Beard, most appropriately, as its curling, silvery masses of seeds hang inwreaths over the hedges. There is a giant trunk growing up from themoat of Merdon Castle. 

MEADOW RUE (Thalictrum flavum). --Handsome foliage and blossoms, showing much of anthers, growing on the banks of the Itchen canal. 

WINDFLOWER (Anemone nemorosa). --Smellfoxes, as the villagers'children inelegantly term this elegant flower, spreading its pearl-white blossom, by means of its creeping root, all over the copses, and blushing purple as the season advances. 

WATER CROWFOOT (Ranunculus aquatilis). --The white flowers, withyellow eyes, make quite a sheet over the ponds of Cranbury Common, etc. Ivy-leaved (R. Hederaceus). --Not so frequent. The ivy-shapedleaves float above, the long fibrous ones go below. When there islack of moisture, leaves and flower are sometimes so small that ithas been supposed to be a different species. It was once in astagnant pond in Boyatt Lane, but is extinct again. 

BUTTERCUP or CROWFOOT -(R. Sceleratus) Highly-polished petals, which spangle(R. Acris) the fields and hedges with gold. (R. Repens) All much alike; all haunting(R. Bulbosus) kitchen-gardens and pastures, where the cattle, disliking their taste, leave the stems standing up alone. 

SPEARWORT (R. Flammula). --Flower like the others, but with narrowleaves. 

GOLDILOCKS (R. Auricomus). --More delicate, upper leaves spear-shaped, lower pinnate. In the borders of the copse wood of OtterbourneHouse. 

CORN CROWFOOT (R. Ficaria). --Small, growing between the corn withhooked capsules. 

SMALL CELANDINE (R. Bcaria). --The real buttercup of childhood, withits crown of numerous shining petals, making stars along the banks atthe first breath of spring. One of the most welcome of flowers. 

KING CUPS (Caltha palustris). --Large, gorgeous flowers, in every wetplace, making a golden river in a dell at Cranbury. 

GREEN HELLEBORE (Helleborus viridis). --Under an oak-tree, in ahedgerow leading from King's Lane, Standon, and in Hursley. 

FUMITORY (Fumaria officinalis). --The pretty purple blossoms andgraceful bluish foliage often spring up in gardens where they aretreated as weeds. 

YELLOW F. (F. Lutea). --An old wall at Hursley. 

CLIMBING F. (Corydalis claviculata). --Cuckoo bushes. Standon, and inHursley. 

COLUMBINE (Aquilegia vulgaris). --This group of purple doves, or ofTurkish slippers, does not here merit the term vulgaris, though, wherever it occurs, it is too far from a garden to be a stray. Ampfield Wood, Lincoln's Copse, King's Lane, and Crabwood have eachfurnished a specimen. 

BARBERRY (Berberis vulgaris). --This handsome shrub of yellow wood, delicate clusters of yellow flowers, and crimson fruit in long ovalbunches has been sedulously banished from an idea that it poisonsgrass in its vicinity. There used to be a bush in Otterbourne Housegrounds, but it has disappeared, and only one now remains in thehedge of Pitt Downs. 

POPPY (Papaver Rhaeas). --Making neglected fields glorious with acrimson mantle, visible for miles in the sun. 

GREATER CELANDINE (Chelidonium majus). --Yellow flowers, very frail, handsome pinnate leaf--lane at Brambridge, Standon, and in Hursley. 

CRUCIFERA

ROCKET (Diplotaxis tenuifolia). --Seen at Brambridge. 

CHARLOCK (Sinapis arvensis). --Making fields golden. 

WHITE C. (S. Alba). --Standon, Hursley. 

JACK-BY-THE-HEDGE (Sisymbrium alliaria). --Seen at Brambridge. 

LADY'S SMOCK (Cardamine pratensis). --No doubt named because thepearly flowers look on a moist meadow like linen bleaching. Sometimes double in rich ground. 

HAIRY CARDAMINE (C. Hirsuta). --Hursley. 

YELLOW ROCKET (Barbarea vulgaris). --Road near Chandler's Ford. Nearbridge over Itchen. 

WATERCRESS (Nasturtium officinale). --Everywhere in running water, andnow Poolhole is made into a nursery for it. 

SHEPHERD'S PURSE (Thlaspi Bursa-pastoris). --Even the purses are to beseen before we well know the tiny white flowers to be in blossom. 

PENNYCRESS (T. Arvense). --Larger, and uplifting a spike of rounded, fan-shaped capsules. 

WILD MIGNONETTE (Reseda lutea). --Mignonette all but the perfume--chalk-pits. 

DYER'S ROCKET (R. Luteola). --Slenderer and more spiked; more common. 

ROCK ROSE (Helianthemum vulgare). --There is an elegance and delicacyof colour about this little cistus which renders it one of the mostcharming of the many stars of the wayside, as it grows on ComptonHill. 

SWEET VIOLET (Viola odorata). --The colour, purple or white or pink, seems to depend on the soil. White are the most common on the chalkyside, blue on the gravel. 

MARSH V. (V. Palustris). --Small and pale, with round leaves. Seen ata spring in Otterbourne Park. (V. Permixta). --Pinky--Kiln-yard, Otterbourne. 

DOG V. (V. Canina). --In every wood, rich and handsome. 

SNAKE V. (V. Hirta). --More delicate and small, growing in turf--Pleasure Grounds, Cranbury. (V. Riviniana). --Hursley Park. (V. Reichenbachiana). --Dane Lane. The three last are very probablyonly sports of canina. 

CREAM-COLOURED V. (V. Lactea). --More skim-milk coloured, but known bylanceolate leaves--cuckoo bushes. 

PANSY (V. Tricolor). --Everywhere in fallow fields. In rich soil theupper petals become purple. 

SUNDEW -

(Drosera rotundifolia) The curious, hairy, dewy leaves(D. Intermedia) and flowers that never open in full day are to befound in the marshes near Hiltingbury. 

MILKWORT (Polygala vulgaris). --Small and blue on Otterbourne Hill, asa stitch in the embroidery of the turf; but larger, blue, pink, orwhite in the water-meadows beside the Itchen, deserving the Americanname of May-wings. 

CARYOPHYLLEAE

DEPTFORD PINK (Dianthus Armeria). --This used to grow in a field nearHighbridge, but has been destroyed, either purposely or by fencing. 

BLADDER CAMPION (Silene inflata). --Showing its white flowers andswelling calyxes everywhere. 

COMMON CATCHFLY (S. Anglica). --Small and insignificant among corn. 

RED CAMPION (Lychnis diurna). --Robins, as children call it, with thebright pink in every hedge and the undergrowth in every copse. 

WHITE C. (L. Vespertina). --The white flowers make a feature in fallowfields. 

RAGGED ROBIN (L. Flos-cuculi). --The curiously slashed and dividedpink flowers flourish in the water-meadows by the Itchen. 

CORN COCKLE (Agrostemma githago). --The beautiful purple blossoms, setin long graceful calyxes, adorn the paths through wheat and barleyfields everywhere. 

LESSER STITCHWORT (Maenchia erecta). -

CHICKWEED -(Cerastiurn vulgatum) Early plant. Uninteresting(C. Arvense) tiny white flowers. 

STARWORT (Stellaria Holostea). --The bright stitches of whiteembroidery on our banks. 

CHICKWEED (S. Media. )--The chickweed dear to bird-keepers. (S graminea). --Cobweb-like, almost invisible stems, and blossom witha fairy brightness over the heaths. (S. Uliginosa). --The same adapted to marshes--Cuckoo Bushes, Helmsley. 

SANDWORT (Arenaria Rubra). --The little pink flowers crop up throughthe gravel paths. 

CORN SPURREY (Spergula arvensis). --Very long-spurred, with whitesmall blossoms. 

(Alsine tenuifolia). --Roman road between Hursley and Sparsholt. 

KNAWEL (Scleranthus annuus). --Hursley. 

ST. JONN'S-WORT TRIBE

TUTSAN (Hypericum Androsaemum). --Handsome flower, and seeds--Cranburyand Allbrook. 

ST. JOHN'S-WORT (H. Perforatum). (H. Dubium). (H. Hirsutum). --All frequent in the hedges. (H. Humifusum). (H. Pulchrum). (H. Elodes). --Bogs near Cuckoo Bushes. (H. Quadrangulum). 

MALLOW (Malva sylvestris). --Everywhere by roadsides, used to beesteemed by old women as a healing "yarb. "

MUSK M. (M. Moschata). --A beautiful pink or white flower, grows allover the park at Cranbury. 

DWARF M. (M. Rotundifolia). --Flower white, with purple streaks, almost stemless, grows under a wall in Otterbourne Street. 

SMALL-LEAVED LIME (Tilia parvifolia). --Hursley Park; avenue atBrambridge, where four rows form three magnificent aisles. 

CRANESBILL TRIBE

DOVE'S-FOOT CRANE'S-BILL (Geranium Columbinum). --Roadsides. 

SHINING C. (G. Lucidum). --Heap of stones, Hursley. (G. Dissectum). --Everywhere. (G. Molle). --Otterbourne

HERB ROBERT C. (G. Robertianum). --Very common, and the crimson leavesa great winter ornament. 

BLOODY C. (G. Phaeum). --Ladwell Hill, where it may be a remnant of acottage garden. 

STORK'S-BILL (Erodium moschatum). --Otterbourne Hill. (E. Cicutarium). --Farley Mount. 

WOOD-SORREL (Oxalis Acetosella). --This exquisite plant with delicateflower and trefoil leaves grows on many mossy banks, especially onone on the Ampfield Road. 

HOLLY (Ilex Aquifolium). --The glory of the peaty woods. The peopledistinguish the berried shrubs as holly, i. E. Holy, those withoutberries being holm. 

SPINDLE-TREE (Euonymus europaeus). --Also called skewer wood. "A treethat grows on purpose, " as an old woman said of the material of herpegs. The charming berries with their crimson hearts are plentifulin King's Lane. 

BUCKTHORN (Rhamnus Frangula). --Otterbourne Hill. (R. Catharticus) . --Hursley. 

SYCAMORE (Acer Pseudo-platanus). --Road by Oakwood. 

MAPLE (A. Campestre). --Painting the hedges in autumn with its yellowleaves. 

LEGUMINOSE

FURZE (Ulex europaeus). --Brilliant on all the commons on gravel orpeat. 

DWARF FURZE (U. Nanus)--Rather less frequent. 

BROOM (Genista scoparia). --Exquisite golden spires on the peat. 

NEEDLE BROOM (G. Anglica). --Cuckoo Bushes. 

DYER'S GREENWEED (G. Tinctoria). --In a ditch in a meadow on theAmpfield Road. 

REST HARROW (Ononis arvensis). --Pretty pink and white blossoms likeminiature lady-peas on a troublesome weed. 

KIDNEY VETCH (Anthyllis Vulneraria) . --Borders of down. 

BLACK MEDICK (Medicago lupulina). --Chalk-pit. 

(M. Denticulata) . --Ampfield. 

MELILOT (Melilotus officinalis). --Kiln Lane, Otterbourne. 

BIRDSFOOT (Ornithopus perpusillus). --Otterbourne Hill. (Trigonella ornithopodioides). --Otterbourne. 

TREFOIL ( Trifulium subterraneum). (T. Pratense). 

DUTCH CLOVER (T. Repens). 

HOPDOWN (T. Procumbens). (T. Minus). (T. Hybridum). 

STRAWBERRY TREFOIL (T. Fragiferum). --Once on canal bank. 

MILK VETCH (Hippocrepis comosa). --Hursley. 

BIRD'S-FOOT TREFOIL (Lotus corniculatus). --This golden or ruddy partof the embroidery of the down is known to children as Ladies'Slippers or Ladies' Fingers. (L. Major). --A taller variety. 

TARE (Ervum hirsutum). --Tiny grey flowers. (E. Tetraspermum). 

PURPLE VETCH (Vicia Cracca). --Throwing royal purple garlands overevery hedge in the lanes. 

COMMON V. (V. Sativa). --Very common, varying from crimson to darkred. 

WOOD V. (V. Sepium). --A brilliant little red flower. 

GRASS VETCHLING (Lathyrus Nissolia). --Found once in a bank nearChandler's Ford; once at Silkstede. 

WOOD V. (L. Sylvestris). --Doubtful, but something like it grows inSparrow Grove near the waterworks. 

YELLOW V. (L. Pratensis). --Common, mixed with grass. 

HEATH PEA (Orobus tuberosus). --On the peat soil. 

ROSE TRIBE

BLACKTHORN (Prunus spinosa). --It is believed that no hurt is so hardof healing as from a blackthorn. Also blackthorn winter is supposedto bring fresh cold in spring, when the bushes almost look as ifclothed by hoar-frost. 

WILD CHERRY (P. Avium). --The fine, tall, shapely trees put on theirbridal show in the woods of Cranbury and Ampfield. 

BIRD-CHERRY (P. Padus). --Not very common. There is one in thegrounds at Otterbourne House, but it is not certainly wild. 

MEADOW-SWEET (Spiraea Ulmaria). --Raising its creamy cymes of blossomsin every ditch where there is a little moisture. 

DROPWORT (S. Filipendula). --On the borders of Pitt Down and CrabWood. 

AGRIMONY (Agrimonia Eupatoria). --Long yellow spikes in all dryhedges. 

BURNET (Sanguisorba officinalis). --Chalk-pit by Sparrow Grove, alsoDane Lane, where the green balls with tiny red blossoms may be found, and sometimes the green and crimson burnet moth. 

BARREN STRAWBERRY (Potentilla Fragariastrum). --How often has "mustn'tpick the strawberry blossom" been quoted to this delusive littlewhite cinquefoil in early spring, when it peeps out among leaves verylike strawberry-leaves in the hedge. 

TORMENTIL (P. Tormentilla). --This is now ranged among thecinquefoils, though it has only four petals, owing perhaps to thevery dry barren heathy soil it brightens with its stars. 

CINQUEFOIL (P. Repens). --A smiling pentagon star by the wayside. 

SILVER-WEED or GOOSE-GRASS (P. Anserina). --Why dedicated to geese, even in Latin, it is hard to say. Silver-weed is more appropriate tothe silver-grey leaves that border road-sides, sometimes with goldenflowers. 

MARSH CINQUEFOIL (Comarum palustre). --A prize in Baddesley bog, unless drains have banished its pure flower. 

WOOD STRAWBERRY (Fragaria vesca). --Profuse in Cranbury and on banksof railway at Sparrow Grove. 

WILD RASPBERRY (Rubus Idaeus). --Cranbury, near the road. 

WILD BLACKBERRY (R. Fruticosus). --Brambles, of course, everywhere, but it is impossible to pass them without a tribute to their beauty, in flower, in fruit, and, above all, in autumn foliage. 

DEWBERRY (R. Caesius). --What is probably dewberry grows by theroadway through Mallibar Copse. (R. Leucostratus). --Roman Road and Cranbury Common. 

HERB BENNET (Geum urbanum). --Insignificant yellow flower. 

WATER AVENS (G. Rivale). --Quaint little ruddy half-expanded blossoms, called by the villagers Granny's Night-caps. (G. Intermedium). --Really intermediate--probably hybrid. Found oncein a copse between Boyatt Lane and the Southampton Road. 

LADY'S MANTLE (Alchemilla arvensis). --Crabwood. 

SWEET-BRIAR (Rosa rubiginosa). --Copse by pond, Cranbury. 

DOG-ROSE (R. Canina). --With handsomer hips. 

WHITE DOG-ROSE (R. Arvensis). 

HAWTHORN (Crataegus monogyna). --Who does not love when the blossomscover them like snow-drift? Well are they called May. 

MOUNTAIN ASH (Pyrus Aucuparia). --This rowan-tree of Scotland has noweird horrors here, but it is the ornament of the woods, with whitecymes, red berries, and feathery leaves. 

CRAB-TREE (P. Malus). --Romsey Road, where the pinky blossoms showopposite Cranbury Gate. 

WHITEBEAM (P. Aria). --Grey or white leaves shine out in AmpfieldWood. 

PURPLE LOOSESTRIFE (Lythrum salicaria). --Ophelia's long purples adornthe water-courses in the Itchen mead. 

WILLOW-HERB TRIBE

ROSEBAY WILLOW-HERB (Epilobium angustifolium). --This splendid flower, rose-coloured, white-pistilled and red-leaved, spreads in sheets inCranbury Copse and on railway cuttings, at Cuckoo Bushes, and inAmpfield Wood. 

CODLINS-AND-CREAM (E. Hirsutum). --Adorning wet places. 

SMALL WILLOW-HERB--(E. Parvaeorurn) Troublesome though pretty weeds in the garden. (E. Tetragonum)(E. Roseum)(E. Montanum). --Found at Ampfield. 

ENCHANTER'S NIGHTSHADE (Circaea lutetiana). --A graceful, delicate-looking plant of universal occurrence. 

WATER STARWORT (Callitriche verna). --Ponds. 

MARESTAIL (Hippuris vulgaris). --Waves with the current of the streamin the Itchen. 

WHITE BRYONY (Bryonia dioica). --Vine-like leaves wreathe round in thehedges, and the pale, whitish flowers give place to graceful clustersof red berries. 

GOOSEBERRY (Ribes Grossularia). --Lane towards Brambridge. 

SAXIFRAGEA

ORPINE (Sedum Telephium). --Also called Midsummer May; grows inOtterbourne Park, and a large bunch on the Romsey Road. An old womandescribed having tried the augury, having laid the plants in pairs onMidsummer Eve, naming them after pairs of sweethearts. Those thattwisted away from each other showed inconstancy!

STONECROP (S. Anglicum). --Otterbourne Hill. (S. Acre). --Hursley. 

HOUSELEEK (Sempervivum tectorum). --Also called Sin-green, or someword so sounding. It is not permitted to blow upon the roof on whichit grows, for fear of ill-luck, which is strange, as it has beenJupiter's beard, Thor's beard, and St. George's beard, and in Germanyis thought to preserve from thunder. 

SAXIFRAGE (Saxifraga tridactylites). --Hursley. 

GOLDEN S. (Chrysosplenium oppositifolium). --Wet places in Lincoln'sCopse. 

MARSH PENNYWORT (Hydrocotyle vulgaris). --Bogs at Cuckoo Bushes. 

WOOD SANICLE (Sanicula vulgaris). --In all the copses. 

UMBELLIFERA

GOUTWEED (AEgopodium Podagra). --Handsome leaves, but a troublesomeweed. 

PIGNUT (Bunium flexuosum). --The delicate, lace-like, umbellateflowers in all the woods. 

WATER DROPWORT (OEnanthe fistulosa). --Banks of Itchen. 

WATER HEMLOCK (OE. Crocata). --Itchen banks. 

WILD CARROT (Daucus Carota). 

BURNET SAXIFRAGE (Pimpinella Sax Jraga). --Hursley. 

COW PARSLEY (Chaerophyllum sylvestre). --Boys may be seen bearing homebundles for their rabbits. 

SHEPHERD'S NEEDLE (Scandix Pecten Veneis). --In cornfields. 

HEDGE PARSLEY (Torilis infesta). --Hursley. 

HEMLOCK (Conium maculatum). 

IVY (Hedera Helix). --Everywhere. 

DOGWOOD (Cornus sanguinea). --The red and purple of the fading leavesmixed with the yellow of the maples make every hedge a study. 

MISTLETOE (Viscum album). --Grows on hawthorns in Hursley Park, and onapple-trees at Otterbourne. 

MOSCATEL (Adoxa Moschatellina). --This dainty little green-headedplant is one of the harbingers of spring. 

ELDER (Sambucus nigra). --In most hedges, though its honours are goneas the staple of elder-wine, and still better of elder-flower water, which village sages used to brew, and which was really an excellentremedy for weak eyes. 

GUELDER-ROSE (Viburnum Opulus). --Equally handsome whether white-garlanded cymes of blossoms or scarlet berries, waxen when partlyripe. 

WAYFARING-TREE (V. Lantana). --Not quite so common, but handsome, withwhite flowers and woolly leaves. 

HONEYSUCKLE (Lonicera Periclymenum). --To be seen in full glory wavingon the top of a holly-tree, and when the stem has become amalgamatedwith a bough, circling it like the staff of Esculapius, it isprecious to boys. 

(L. Caprifolium). --Noted as once found, but not lately. 

MADDER TRIBE

MADDER (Rubia peregrina). --Tiny flowers--Otterbourne Hill. 

CROSSWORT or MUGWORT (Galium Cruciatum). --Roadside, Allbrook. 

YELLOW LADY'S BEDSTRAW (G. Verum). --Everywhere. 

MARSH B. (G. Palustre). --Cuckoo Bushes. (G. Uliginosum). --Gravel-pit, Otterbourne. 

WHITE BEDSTRAW (G. Erectum). --Winchester Road. 

CLEAVERS or CLIDERS (G. Aparine). --Everywhere. 

ROUGH (G. Mollugo). --Cornfields. 

WOODRUFF (Asperula odorata). --Sparrow Grove. (A. Cynanchica). --Chalk downs. 

FIELD MADDER (Sherardia arvensis). --Otterbourne Hill. 

VALERIAN (Valeriana dioica). --Itchen meadows. 

LESSER V. (V. Officinalis). --Itchen meadows. 

LAMB'S LETTUCE (Valerianella olitorium). --Downs and stubble-fields. 

TEASEL (Dipsacus sylvestris). --Grand ornament to the hedges. On afallow field it came up in quantities, as if sown. 

DEVIL'S-BIT SCABIOUS (Scabiosa succisa). --Makes grey clouds all overCranbury Park. 

COMMON S. (S. Arvensis). --Everywhere. 

LESSER S. (S. Columbaria). --Malabar wayside. 

HARE BELL (Campanula rotundifolia). --Otterbourne Hill. 

NETTLE-LEAVED BELLFLOWER (C. Trachelium). --Road-sides. 

CLUSTERED B. (C. Glomerata). --Pitt Down. 

COMPOSITAE

THISTLES (Carduus nutans). (C. Tenuifolia). 

MILK THISTLE (Silybum marianum). --Once in Boyatt Lane. (S crispus). (Cnicus lanceolatus). (C. Palustris). (C. Arvensis). 

STEMLESS T. (C. Acaulis). --Little purple stars on the downs. 

CARLINE (Carlina vulgaris). 

BURDOCK (Arctium Lappa). --Everywhere. (A. Tomentosa). 

SAW-WORT (Serratula tinctoria). --Copses round King's Lane. 

KNAPWEED (Centaurea nigra). --Everywhere. (C. Cyanea). --In fields about Hursley occasionally. (C. Scabiosa). --Hursley. 

CORN MARIGOLD (Chrysanthemum segetum). --Sometimes plentiful, butdependent on crops. 

OX-EYE DAISY (C. Leucanthemum). --Everywhere. 

CAMOMILE (Pyrethrum inodorum). --Everywhere. 

TANSY (Tanacetum vulgaris). --King's Lane. 

COMMON CHAMOMILE (Anthemis nobilis). (A. Arvensis). (A. Cotula). 

YARROW (Achillea Millefolium). 

SNEEZEWORT (A. Ptarmica). --Southampton Road sides. 

WORMWOOD (Artemisia vulgaris). --Kiln Lane turns to Moat House. 

CUDWEED (Gnaphalium minimum). (G. Germanium). (G. Sylvaticum). 

GROUNDSEL (Senecio vulgaris). (S. Sylvaticus). 

RAGWORT (S. Jacobaea). --Often covered with black and yellowcaterpillars. (S. Viscosus). --Marked as found at Hursley. (S. Aquaticus). 

FLEABANE (Inula Conyza). --Southampton Road. (I. Pulicaria). 

DAISY (Bellis perennis). 

BLUE FLEABANE (Erigeron acris). 

GOLDENROD (Solidago Virga-aurea). --Wood-paths and road-sides. 

COLTSFOOT (Tussilago Farfara). --In all chalky fields. 

BUTTERBUR (Petasites vulgaris). --Banks of Itchen. 

BUR-MARIGOLD (Bidens cernua). --It used to be in a marsh on the RomseyRoad, but has not been seen lately. 

HEMP AGRIMONY (Eupatorium cannabinum). --In all hedges near moisture. 

CHICORY (Cichorium Intybus). --Now and then showing its pretty blueflower on the roadside. 

NIPPLEWORT (Lapsana communis). --Too frequent weed. 

DANDELION (Leontodon Taraxacum). --How can its praise for gloriousbrilliant flowers and stems fit for chains be passed by, or for the"clocks" that furnish auguries!(L. Autumnalis). --Is this a separate species, or the dandelionblowing in autumn?

GO-TO-BED AT NOON (Tragopogon pratensis). --Beautiful when open earlyin the day, beautiful when the long calyx is closed, and mostbeautiful with its handsome winged pappus--King's Lane, OtterbourneChurchyard. 

WILD LETTUCE (Lactuca muralis). --On heaps of flints. 

MOUSEAR (Thrincia hirta). --Sulphur-coloured, small, and held to be anexcellent remedy for whooping-cough. 

OX-TONGUE (Helminthia echioides). --The rough leaf is well named. 

HAWKBIT (Hieracium autumnale). (Apargia hispida). --In cornfields. 

SHEEP'S-BIT (Jasione montana). --Cranbury Common. 

SOW THISTLE (Sonchus arvensis). (S. Palustris). 

WHORTLEBERRY (Vaccinium Myrtillus). --Ampfield Wood. 

CROSS-LEAVED HEATH (Erica Tetralix) Otterbourne Hill, the glory ofearly autumn. BELL HEATHER (E. Cinerea). LING (Calluna vulgaris)BIRD'S NEST (Monotropa Hypopitys). --South Lynch Wood. 

ASH (Fraxinus excelsior). 

PRIVET (Ligustrum vulgare). --Lane leading to the Itchen. 

GENTIAN TRIBE

THE PERIWINKLE (Vinca minor). --Curiously irregular in blossoming. One spring the ground is covered with blue stars, another only withevergreen trails. Its only habitat here is Lincoln's Copse. 

YELLOWWORT (Chlora perfoliata). --Ampfield Wood. 

CENTAURY (Erythraea Centaurea). --Cranbury. 

GENTIAN (Gentiana Pneunomanthe). --Baddesley bog, Cranbury. (G. Amarella). --Pitt Down. 

BOGBEAN (Menyanthes trifolium). --This lovely flower abides in the wetbanks of the Itchen. 

BINDWEED (Convolvulus sepium). --Pure and white. (C. Minor). --In shades of pink. Called lilies by the country-folk. 

DODDER (Cuscuta Epithymum). --Red threads forming a beaded networkover the furze. 

(C. Trifolii). --Coarser fibres, smaller balls of blossom, in someyears strangling the clover. 

WOODY NIGHTSHADE (Solanum Dulcamara). --Purple flowers, red berries, beautiful everywhere. (S. Nigrum). --White-flowered, black-berried. At Cranbury, andoccasionally elsewhere. 

DEADLY NIGHTSHADE (Atropa belladonna). --Used to be near the frontdoor at Hursley Park. 

HENBANE (Hyoscyamus niger). --Formerly on the top of Compton Hill, andat the angle of the lane leading to Bunstead. 

BORAGE TRIBE

MULLEIN (Verbascum nigrum). The handsome spikes(V. Thapsus) everywhere. (V. Blattaria). --Formerly in hedge of cottage at Silkstede. 

GROMWELL (Lithospermum officinale). --Beside Winchester Road on way toTwyford. 

FORGET-ME-NOT (Myosotis palustris). --Itchen meadows. 

MOUSE-EAR, SCORPION GRASS (M. Versicolor). --Stubblefields. (M. Sylvatica). --Ampfield. (M. Arvensis). --Everywhere. 

COMFREY (Symphytum officinale). --Itchen banks. 

HOUND'S TONGUE (Cynoglossum officinale). --Merdon Hill, but it hasdisappeared from Otterbourne. 

PRIMROSE (Primula vulgaris). --Has any one observed the tiny blossomsof seedlings of the first year? Now and then there are stalked headslike oxlips, white or red varieties. 

COWSLIP (P. Veris). --Covering some few fields, and delightful forcowslip balls. Sweetest of scents. 

YELLOW LOOSESTRIFE (Lysimachia vulgaris). --A beautiful shrub by thewater-side. 

MONEYWORT (L. Nummularia). --The Creeping-Jenny of rock-work, etc. 

YELLOW PIMPERNEL (L. Nemorum). --Covering the ground in woods with itsdelicate pentagon stars. 

PIMPERNEL (Anagallis arvensis). --A beautiful blue variety once cameup in the kitchen-garden at Otterbourne House, and prevailed forseveral years. 

(A. Tenella). --In the bogs towards Cuckoo Bushes. 

LABIATAE

WATER FIGWORT -(Scrophularia Balbisii). Both common and not beautiful. (S. Nodosa)

FOXGLOVE (Digitalis purpurea). --All over the gravelly and peaty woodsin splendid congregations of spires--called by the children poppies. 

LESSER SNAPDRAGON (Antirrhinum Orontium). --Occasionally in gardens. 

WILD SAGE (Salvia Verbenaca). --Ampfield. 

SELF-HEAL (Prunella vulgaris). --Called Lady's Slipper. 

SKULLCAP (Scutellaria galericulata). --Itchen bank. (S. Minor). --Cranbury hedge on Romsey Road. 

BLACK HOREHOUND (Bellota faetida). --Hursley hedges. 

BASTARD BALM (Melittis Melissophyllum). --Ampfield Wood. 

BETONY (Stachys Betonica). (S. Palustris). (S. Sylvatica). (S. Arvensis). 

RED ARCHANGEL (Galeopsis Tetrahit). --Near Chandler's Ford. 

MOTHERWORT (Leonurus Cardiaca). --Alas, a dried specimen only remainsof this handsome flower, which was sacrificed to a pig-stye onOtterbourne Hill. 

WEASEL SNOUT or YELLOW NETTLE (Galeobdolon luteum). 

WHITE ARCHANGEL, or BLIND NETTLE (Lamium album). --sometimes with apurple flower. (L. Purpureum). --Everywhere. 

BUGLE (Ajuga reptans). --All over the woods. 

GERMANDER, WOOD-SAGE (Teucrium Scorodonia). --Cranbury Wood. 

BUGLOSS (Lycopsis arvensis). --Sand-pit, Boyatt Lane. 

VIPER'S BUGLOSS (Echium vulgare). --Chalk-pits. 

GREAT YELLOW TOADFLAX (Linaria vulgaris). --In most hedges. 

IVY-LEAVED T. (L. Cymbalaria). --Old wall of Merdon Castle. 

FLUELLEN (L. Elatine). --In stubble-fields. (L. Spuria). --In the same locality. 

CREEPING T. (L. Repens). --Chandler's Ford, and hedge of Romsey Roadby Pot Kiln. 

LESSER T. (L. Minor). --Hursley. 

SPEEDWELL (Veronica hederifolia). --Hursley, Ampfield. (V. Polita). (V. Buxbaumii). --In fallow fields all the winter and spring. (V. Arvensis). (V. Officinalis). --Cranbury. 

BIRD'S EYE (V. Chamvdrys). --Exquisite blue along the hedges on thechalk and clay. (V. Montana). --Ampfield. (V. Scutellata). 

BROOKLIME (V. Beccabunga). --Esteemed a sovereign remedy for an oldwoman's bad leg. (V. Anagallis). --Less common, but both frequent the river and themarshes. 

EYEBRIGHT (Euphrasia officinalis). --Downs and heaths. 

RED EYEBRIGHT (Bartsia Odontites). --woods. 

RED RATTLE (Pedicularis palustris). --Itchen meadows. (P. Sylvatica). --Otterbourne Hill. 

YELLOW RATTLE (Rhinanthus Crista-galli). --Itchen meadows. 

YELLOW COW-WHEAT (Melampyrum pratense). --Otterbourne Park. 

TOOTHWORT (Lathraea squamaria). --South Lynch Wood. 

BROOMRAPE (Orobanche repens). --Mallibar roadway. (O. Elatior). --Sparrow Grove. (O. Minor). --Clover-fields, Otterbourne. Wonderful brown parasites, all three. 

VERVEIN (Verbena officinalis). --Road-sides. 

GIPSYWORT (Lycopus europaerus). --Dell Copse and all bogs. 

HORSE MINT (Mentha sylvestris). (M. Hirsuta). (M. Sativa). (M. Arvensis). 

THYME (Thymus Serpyllum). --On many a bank does the wild thyme grow, with its perfume delicious. 

MARJORAM (Origanum vulgare). --Banks of Winchester Road. 

MONKEY FLOWER (Mimulus Luteus)--Bank of Itchen Canal, where it hasspread considerably, though probably a stray. 

BASIL THYME (Calamintha vulgaris). --Stubble-fields show this lovelylittle blue flower with a white crescent on the lip. (C. Menthifolia). --Merdon Castle. 

BASIL (C. Clinopodium). --Itchen. 

CAT MINT (Nepeta Cataria). --Hedge towards Stoneham. 

GROUND IVY (N. Glechoma). --Everywhere in woods. 

PLANTAIN TRIBE

KNOCKHEADS (Plantago major). 

LESSER PLANTAIN (P. Media). (P. Lanceolata). 

STAGSHORN (P. Coronopus). --Otterbourne Hill. 

GOOD KING HENRY (Chenopodium Bonus-Henricus). 

GOOSEFOOT (C. Album). (C. Urbicum). 

DOCK (Rumex sanguineus). (R. Obtusfolius). (R. Pratensis). 

WATER DOCK (R. Hydrolapathum). --Fit table-cloth for the butterfly'stable. 

SORREL (R. Acetosa). 

LESSER SORREL (R. Acetosella). --Elegant and slender, making redclouds all over Cranbury. 

BUCKWHEAT (Polygonum fagopyrum). --For several seasons in a meadow byBrooklyn. Now vanished. 

KNOTGRASS (P. Convolvulus). 

BLACK BINDWEED (P. Aviculare). 

WATER PEPPER (P. Hydropiper). 

PERSICARIA (P. Persicaria). (P. Dumetorum). --Ampfield. 

BASTARD TOADFLAX (Thesium linophyllum). --Crab Wood. 

SUN SPURGE (Euphorbia Helioscopia). --Corn-fields. 

WOOD S. (E. Amygdaloides). --Cranbury and Otterbourne Park. 

SMALL S. (E. Peplus). (E. Exigua). 

DOG'S MERCURY (Mercurialis perennis). --First to clothe the banks withfresh vernal green. 

NETTLE (Urtica dioica). 

SMALL NETTLE (U. Nana). 

HOD (Humulus Lupulus). --If not native, it has taken well to thehedges, and clothes them with graceful wreaths. 

ELM (Ulmus campestris)--Largest of spreading trees. 

OAK (Quercus Robur). --Acorns differ on many trees. Five varieties ofCynips produce different oak-apples. Oak is still worn on the 29thof May, and it is called Shik-shak Day. Why?

BEECH (Fagus sylvatica). --Beautiful at Ampfield and South Lynch, andpermitting only a select few plants to grow under its shade. 

HAZEL (Corylus Avellana). 

ALDER (Alnus glutinosa). 

BIRCH (Betula alba). --Silver-leaved and white-barked, making fairygroves. 

ASPEN (Populus tremula). --Aps, the people call it. The catkins arelike caterpillars. 

WILLOW or WITHY (Salix Caprea). --Our yellow goslings in spring, asthey shoot from their silver rabbit-tail catkins, and our palms onPalm Sunday, though it is unlucky to bring one home earlier. (S. Triandra). --Near the old church, Otterbourne. (S. Rubra). 

ROUND-LEAVED W. (S. Aurita). 

SALLOW W. (S. Cinerea). 

WHITE W. (S. Alba). (S. Fragilis). 

DWARF W. (S. Repens). --Bogs towards Baddesley. 

OSIER W. (S. Viminalis). --Ampfield. 

JUNIPER (Juniperus communis). --Above Standon on Down. 

YEW (Taxus baccata). --Scattered in hedges, or singly all over thechalk district. 

REEDMACE (Typha latifolia). --Itchen. Noble plant, commonly, butincorrectly, called bulrush. 

BUR-REED (Sparganium ramosum). --With fertile flowers like pricklyballs. 

LORDS-AND-LADIES or CUCKOO-PINT (Arum maculatum). --Showing theirheads under every hedge. The lords have a red column, the ladies awhite. 

DUCKWEED (Lemna trisulca). 

GREAT WATER PLANTAIN (Alisma Plantago). --Stately ornament of bogs. 

THE LILY TRIBE

GARLIC (Allium ursinum). --On road to Baddesley. 

CROW G. (A. Vineale). --Chalk ridges, if not destroyed by waterworks. 

FLAG (Iris pseudacorus). --Itchen banks. 

STINKING F. (I. Faetidissima). --Not common, but in two copses, one atCranbury and the other on the north of King's Lane. 

DAFFODIL (Narcissus Pseudonarcissus). --Dell Copse, which it coverswith the glory of the "dancing daffodil"; also plantation near RomseyRoad. 

BLACK BRYONY (Tamus communis). --Wreaths of shiny leaves. 

SOLOMON'S SEAL (Polygonatum multiflorum). --Cranbury Wood. 

BUTCHER'S BROOM (Ruscus aculeatus). --Otterbourne Hill. 

BLUEBELL (Hyacinthus nonscriptus). --Masses in the woods. 

WOODRUSH (Luzula sylvatica). --Graceful brown blossoms. 

PYRAMIDAL ORCHIS (Orchis pyramidalis). --Chalk-pit by Sparrow Grove. 

FOOL'S O. (O. Morio). --Cranbury. 

PURPLE O. (O. Mascula). --Local name, Dead Man's Fingers. 

ROMSEY O. (O. Incarnata). --Itchen meadows. 

BROAD-LEAVED O. (O. Latifolia). --Itchen meadows. 

SPOTTED O. (O maculata). 

DWARF O. (O. Ustulata). --Downs by South Lynch. 

SWEET O. (Gymnadenia conopsea). --Itchen meadows. 

BUTTERFLY O. (Habenaria bifolia). --Sparrow Grove. 

BEE O. (Ophrys apifera). --Railway banks and South Lynch. 

FLY O. (O. Muscifera). --South Lynch Down. 

LADY'S TRESSES (Spiranthes autumnalis). --Cranbury lawn, but fitful inappearing. 

TWAYBLADE (Listera ovata). --In hedges and woods. 

BIRD'S-NEST ORCHIS (L. Nidus-avis). --Only under beeches. 

HELLEBORINE (Epipactis latifolia). --Here and there in hedges. (E. Grandiflora). --Under beeches. (E. Palustris). --Chalk-pit. 

REEDS

BOGRUSH (L. Campestris). --Little rush. (L. Pilosa). --Ampfield Wood. 

RUSH (Juncus conglomeratus). --The days of rush-lights are gone by, but rush-baskets for flowers and helmets are made by the children, and the white pith, when pressed, is made up into devices. (F. Effusus)(F. Glaucus) All in Itchen meadows. (F. Acutiflorus)(F. Squamosus)

BEAKRUSH (Rhynchospora fusca). 

SINGLE BULRUSH (Scirpus lacustris). (S. Sylvatica). --Marsh near Baddesley Road. (S. Setaceus). 

COTTON GRASS (Eriophorum angustifolium). --The soft cottony or silkyheads are beautiful on the Itchen roads. 

SEDGES (Carex pulicaris). (C. Acuta). --Copses. (C. Paniculata). --Itchen Canal. (C. Riparia). --Dell Copse. 

STAR SEDGE (C. Stellulata). --Copses. (C. Verna). (C. Acuta). --A lovely black and yellow fringe to the Itchen Canal. (C. Pallescens). --Damp places. (C. Paludosa). --Banks of Itchen Canal. (C. Sylvatica). --Cranbury. (C. Remota). --Boyatt Lane. 

GRASSES

SWEET MEADOW GRASS (Anthoxanthum odoratum). 

CANARY G. (Phalaris canariensis). --A stray. 

FOXTAIL G. (Alopecurus pratensis). (A. Agrestis). (A. Geniculatus). 

CAT-TAIL G. (Phleum pratense). 

DOG'S G. (Agrostis canina). (A. Alba). (A. Vulgaris). 

REED (Arundo Phragmites). --Waving brown tassels, beautiful foradornments--Itchen banks, and hedge of allotments on OtterbourneHill. 

MILLET GRASS (Milium effusum). 

HAIR G. (Aira flexuosa). (A. Aespitosa). --Tufts on the hill, Otterbourne. 

WILD OATS (Avena fatua). --Grown far more common than formerly. (A. Strigosa). (A. Pratensis). (A. Flavescens). 

SOFT GRASS (Holcus mollis). 

MELICK (Melica caerulea). --Cranbury. (M. Uniflora). --Dell Copse. 

WHORL GRASS (Catabrosa aquatica). --The moat, Otterbourne. (Glyceria nutans). --The moat. 

MEADOW G. (Poa rigida). (P. Annua). (P. Nemoralis). (P. Pratensis). (P. Trivialis). 

QUAKER'S G. (Briza media). (B. Minor). 

DOG'S-TAIL G. (Cynosurus cristatus). 

COCK'S-FOOT G. (Dactylis glomerata). 

FESCUE (Festuca ovina). (F. Pratensis). (F. Lolacea). 

BROME GRASS (Bromus giganteus). --Cranbury. (B. Asper). (B. Sterilis). (B. Racemosus). (B. Mollis). (B. Arvensis). 

COUCH G. (Triticum caninum). (T. Repens). 

RYE G. Or MOUSE BARLEY (Lolium perenne). --Also Darnel. 

FERNS, ETC. 

BRACKEN (Pteris aquilina). --All over Cranbury. 

HARD FERN (Blechnum boreale). --Mallibar Road between Albrook andHighbridge. 

WALL-RUE (Asplenium Ruta-muraria). 

BLACK MAIDENHAIR (A. Trichomanes). --Used to be on tombstones in oldchurchyard, Otterbourne. 

LADY FERN (Athyrium Filix faemina). --Cranbury. (Ceterach officinale). --Merdon Castle. 

HART'S TONGUE (Scolopendrium officinale). (Polystichum angulare). --Cranbury. 

MALE FERN (Lastrea Filix-mas). (L. Spinulosa). (L. Dilatata). --Otterbourne Park. (L. Thalipteris). --Cranbury. 

HAY F. (L. Oreopteris). --Road to Baddesley. 

POLYPODY (Polypodium vulgare). 

ADDER'S TONGUE (Ophioglossum vulgare). --Field called PleasureGrounds, Otterbourne. 

HORSETAILS (Equisetum arvense). (E. Maximum). 

Footnotes:

{17} Hursley ceased to be a Peculiar about the year 1840. 

{25} Hurstleigh, as it was originally spelt, is derived from Hurst, a wood, Legh or Lea, a meadow or open place in a wood. 

{28} The General Biographer's Dictionary says 51 in all. 

{32} So says the Register, but I suspect ERRONEOUSLY. Ardington wasthe place in which the family of Clarkes was settled. Sir EdwardClarke, probably the son of Sir Thomas, was High Sheriff of Berks in1626 (Marsh). 

{34} Halliwell's dictionary gives haydiggle (Somerset) as meaninghigh spirits, and once a country dance. 

{36} From Father Gasquet's essay on the Recusants in The Old EnglishBible. 

{53} Commentaries, vol. Ii. P. 83, 8vo. 

{54} See Commentaries, as before. N. B. Among the Garrows, a peopleof Hindostan, the youngest daughter inherits the property of herfamily. See Asiatic Researches, vol. Iii. P. 34, 8vo. 

{56} Blackstone's Commentaries, vol. Ii. Chap. V. 

{57a} Blackstone's Commentaries, vol. Ii. Pp. 81, 85. 

{57b} Sir Martin Wright is of opinion that Domesday-Book was madesoon after our ancestors had agreed to tenures, i. E. The feodalsystem of tenure, for the purpose of ascertaining each man's fee; andhe supposes that as soon as the survey was completed, the greatlandholders of the kingdom were summoned to London and Sarum to dohomage to the king for their landed possessions. Now it may bepresumed, that if Merdon had been then surrendered to the king, andany alteration made in the nature of the tenure of the lands in themanor, it would have been reported and registered in the book. Butit certainly is not to be found there. May it not then be justlyconcluded that it was passed over, and that the customs nowprevailing are the same as were in use previous to the Conquest?

{58} See Commentaries, vol. Ii. Pp. 48, 81. 

{67} This word cannot be understood. It probably may be the name ofa holding, or of a family. 

{154} Robin Hood's butt, no doubt used for archery practice, lay onthis down, called Rough Borrow.