Hampshire: its past and present condition and future prospects

Front matter

H k Mi W S H ! 1 E BY ISOHEET HUME ES©! , . TWu&% FOB THE PROPSniETOR. .' HAMPSHIRE: ITS PAST AND PRESENT CONDITION AND FUTURE PROSPECTS; 11 V ROBERT MUDIE, ESQ. AUTHOR OF "THE BRITISH NATURALIST," "FEATHERED TRIBES OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS," "MAN," "THE FOUR SEASONS," "THE FOUR ELEMENTS," "ASTRONOMY," ETC. ETC. WITH MANY ILLUSTRATIONS ON STEEL AND WOOD. VOL. II. THE NORTHERN, EASTERN, AND SOUTHERN SLOPES, AND THE NEW FOREST. WINCHESTER: PUBLISHED FOR THE PROPRIETOR, JAMES ROBBINS, COLLEGE STREET BY D. E. GILMOUR, HIGH STREET. LONDON: ORR AND CO., PATERNOSTER ROW. Winchester: D E. Gilmour, Public Library High-street. ANALYSIS OF THE CONTENTS. CHAP. I. The Northern Slope. — General Characters. — Surface. — Streams. — Parishes and Seats. — Kingsclere. — Silchester. pp. 1 — 18 CHAP. II. North-eastern Slope. — General Characters and Soil. — Streams. — Atmospheric Action. — Fog on the Hills. — Town of Basingstoke. — Old Basing. — Basing House and its History. — Strathfieldsaye. — Parishes. — Odiham. pp. 19 — 62 CHAP. III.

Eastern Slope. — Position and Characters. — Strata. — Streams. — Parishes and Places. — Alton. — Petersfield. — Selborne. — Gilbert White. — Other Places in the District. pp. 63 — 94 CHAP. IV. Southern Slope. — Extent, Boundaries, and Peculiarities. — Strata. — The Chalk and Tertiary Formations of the Hampshire Basin. — Tides. — Drift of Shingle. — Marine Deposits. — Action of Sea and Land. pp. 95 — 124 CHAP. V. Physical Characters of Southern Slope. — Exposure to Different Winds. — Portsdown. — Forest of Bere. — Valley of Meon. — Valley of the Hamble. — Bays and Estuaries, and their Products. — Fishes. pp. 125—150 CHAP. VI. Historical and Topographical Details. — TheBelgæ. — The Romans. — vol. ii. b CONTENTS. Porchester. — Roman Road. — Enormities in the Forest of Bere.— Parishes and Places. — Bramdean. — Remains of a Roman Villa. — Bishop's Waltham and its Ruined Palace. — District of the Titchfield River. — South of the Forest of Bere. — North of the same. — Borders of Sussex. — Havant. — Hayling Island pp. 151 — 186 CHAP. VII.

Portsea Island. — Extent and Boundaries. — View from Portsdown. — Declivity of Portsdown. — Parishes and Places. — Particulars of Porchester Castle. — Westward of Portsmouth Harbour. — Fareham and its advantageous Situation. — Alverstoke. — Gosport. — Portsea and Portsmouth. — Parochial and" other Divisions. — Fortifications. — Harbour Line. — Portsmouth. — Government Establishment. pp. 187 — 216 CHAP. VIII. The New Forest. — General Characters. — Early History. — Examination of the Charges against the Conqueror and Rufus. — Extent and Boundaries.— Characters of the Boundaries. — Those ofthe Solent. — Story of the Fowler. — Surface, Soil, and Rivers. — Valley of the Avon, and its Divisions. — Character of the Avon — Towns on the Avon. — Fordingbridge. — Ringwood. — Christchurch. — Priory of Christchurch. — Flambard. — Singular Inscriptions on Bells. — Lymington Division. — Borough of Lymington. — Brockenhurst. — Dibden Liberty. — Beaulieu and its Abbey. — Northern Purlieu. — Manors and Holdings intheForest. — Lyndhurst. — Distribution and Appearance of the Forest. — Bailiwicks and Walks. — Views and Vistas in the Forest. — Characteristic Beauty of some of these. — Residences in the Forest. — Death of Rufus. — Remarks respecting it. — Forest Animals. — Horses. — Their Characters. — Forest Hogs. — Their peculiarities. — The Pannage Month.— Different Sections of Forest Hogs.— Officers of the Forest. pp. 207—232 HAMPSHIRE.

Chapter II. The North-eastern Slope

This natural division of Hampshire is considerably more extensive than the northern slope, of which we have en deavoured to give an outline in the "preceding chapter ; and it is also different in many of its physical characters, although at the imaginary line which we have supposed drawn from Rooksdown to Silchester, they run into each other, and the same kind of surface occurs for a little way in both. Berkshire forms the northern boundary of this division, as well as of the former — with the exception of a small part of Wilts, which lies in the fork made between the Loddon and the Blackwater rivers, before they unite into one general trunk. This part of Wilts comes in about four miles to the eastward of Silchester, and forms the boundary for about two miles ; and to the east of that there is ano ther smaller patch of Wilts, which forms the boundary for about half-a-mile.

This latter portion is to the north of Bramshill common; and the Blackwater parts the two coun ties. The same river forms the boundary all the way to very near its source, which is in the hills behind Farnham, and the length for which it does form the boundary of Hampshire is about sixteen miles. It is irregular upon the hills, at Buckbury and Farnham beacon, and at these d heights the eastern boundary of this division, which is also that of the county, may be said to terminate; the river forming a pretty regular curve, concave towards Hampshire, and, of course, making that part of the county convex, with very few flexures except near its source. The southern and south-western boundaries are by no means so definite, as there are few running streams near the summits, and the surface of the ground is very much diversified.

The heights behind Farnham are a continuation of the central chalk ridge, which forms the Guildford downs between that town and Farnham; but they do not attain any considerable elevation from the low grounds immediately adjacent to Farnham, until the heights already alluded to are arrived at ; and from them, the water-shed continues westward, in a very irregular line, until it reaches a point somewhere inter mediate between the valley of Basingstoke and to that of the Itchen. Though there is chalk in this district — more especially in the south of it, yet the greater part of it belongs to the tertiary formation, or consists of that formation worked into a calcareous loam, by an admixture of the chalk. We have already noticed that this forms one of the best natural soils, especially for plants that require much stimulus, and are at the same time of vigorous growth.

Such lands are, of course, the best for hop-gardens ; and thus, many spots of the country here, both in Hampshire and in the adjacent parts of Surrey, are celebrated both for the quantity aud quality of that production. The town of Farnham, though in Surrey, is not two miles distant from Hampshire, either northward or westward ; and this part of the county, though it lies high, and is cold and bleak in many places during the winter, is beautiful in its scenery, and rich in its pro duce. It is also well wooded ; and the swells and hollows, hanging woods, open glades, rich fields and meadows, and rustic dwellings, make a very pleasing variety. Further to the north, a large extent of country bordering on Surrey, consists of heaths and moors, which are neither beautiful nor productive, but they are spotted with richer pieces wherever there is enough of clay or loam to make the crag or sand a little retentive.

This is about the worst part of Hampshire in point of agricultural susceptibility ; but still much of it might be improved ; and, though the operation would be expensive, both to begin and to keep up, it would be fertile, and what it did produce would be of good quality. The general line or slope here is toward the river ; but in most places the surface is flat, with only sandy knolls here and there. A little south from the London road, between Blackwater, on the border of the county, and Hartley Bridge, where the same road crosses the Loddon, there are some small hills, with Hartford Bridge flats, Yadley heath, and Everley com mon, extending in dull uniformity, to the north of them. It is along these flats that the great London road to Basing stoke passes. There are, indeed, three great lines of com munication across this uninteresting part of the county : the Basingstoke canal, in the southern part of the district, pursuing an exceedingly winding course, but lying nearly on a level, and therefore requiring few locks ; the Southampton railway, proceeding in almost a straight line from Basing stoke along the middle ; and the great road from London to the southern parts of the west of England, crossing far ther north.

All these three meet together at Basingstoke, where the canal terminates, while the others continue on ward to the great ports in the south-west. Upon the Black water, or boundary of the county, the road is about three miles north of the railway, and the canal about four miles south. But the canal winds so much that it lies parallel to the river, and crosses the railway, or rather, is crossed by it, only three-quarters of a mile eastward of the point where that leaves the county. About four miles within the county, the railway passes Fleet-pond, an irregular pool of stagnant water, measuring nearly a quarter of a mile in area ; but it is dull and uninteresting, from the flatness of the surface and the poverty of the soil around it. Formerly there were but few lines of communication across these flats, — the only ones of much traffic, being the London road, already alluded to, and the Farnham one which joins that at Bagshot.

The local roads were few and bad, as there was nothing to pay for making them ; and the country was in consequence, to a very considerable extent, a wilderness. The canal, we believe, has not greatly improved the state of things ; but expectations are entertained from the railroad, and they may be, to a considerable extent, realised ; at least if we may judge from the improvements that have taken place along the great lines of turnpike road where the ground is of a similar character. Lines of communication for the transfer of passengers, necessaries, and produce, are the be ginnings of improvements in all countries ; and when they are properly kept up, improvement always follows ; nor is there any reason to apprehend that it will stand still here. From the heights behind Farnham, the line of water-shed may be taken between the valley of the Wey at Alton on the south, and the town of Odiham on the north, all the way westward to Windmill hill, where the slope to the Wey at Alton meets that to the Itchen at Alresford.

This hill is one of the most bleak and elevated spots in the county — at least of any over which a great public road passes ; and from causes afterwards to be explained, it is very subject to fogs. From Windmill hill, the natural boundary trends north-west, and in the direction of the meeting of the val leys of the Whitchurch Test and the Loddon, a little to the west of Basingstoke, being in the direction of Rooksdown, or the camp on Winklebury hill ; and thence to Silchester, the boundary is the same as that of the district noticed in the preceding chapter. Such are the natural boundaries of this district, stated with sufficient accuracy for the common purposes of 7efe rence and description ; and their length may be summed up by a rude approximation as follows ; Winklebury to Sil chester, north-eastward, about six miles ; Silchester, along the border of Berkshire, and a patch of Wiltshire to the Blackwater, eastward, about six miles ; sixteen miles along the Blackwater, with Berks and then Surrey on the opposite side — these two rivers meeting exactly where the London road crosses the river ; south-westward, for about four miles of a very irregular line, to the boundary of Surrey about two miles north-west of Farnham ; south-westward, about eleven miles, to Windmill hill ; and then north-westward, for about twelve miles, to Winklebury or Rooksdown.

These lines are however, very irregular, and cannot be made the basis of any estimate ofthe quantity of surface; but physical de scription, and not mere extent, being our present object, these statements are sufficient. We have already adverted to the extent of sandy heaths and peat bogs, situated to the westward of the Loddon in this county, as well as to the eastward of it in Berks and Surrey ; and these may be considered as one of the extre mities and extremes of character of the district, whose phy sical action, and its effects upon the climate, and the fertility of the surface, we shall endeavour to explain. The other extremity consists of the southern and western heights ; highest, as we have said, in the general level in the neighbourhood of Alton ; terminating eastward within the district, and trending north-westward toward the summit-level in the northern valley near Basingstoke.

The general slope, therefore, of the whole district, without reference to the minor diversifications of its surface, is toward the north and north-east ; and there are three principal rivers, or branches of one river, the Loddon, which flow in this direction. First, there is the Blackwater, bordering the county, but travers ing the heaths and mosses. Secondly, there is the White water, which rises a few miles south-west of Odiham, and pursues a winding course of about ten or eleven miles to where it joins the Loddon, on the boundary of the county ; and -thirdly, there is the Loddon itself, which rises a mile or two to the west of Basingstoke, and flows north-westward for fourteen or fifteen miles, including the windings ; but the other two branches do not meet this one within Hampshire. The courses of these rivers necessarily determine the positions of their several valleys, and all of them are joined by little brooks, which meet them nearly at the same angles as they meet each other.

Thus the whole surface is divided into a series of primary, and another of secondary valleys, as regards the county, but in themselves only branches, and very small branches of the great valley of the Thames. In the south-western part, there is a very considerable breadth without any perennial running water, and this may be regarded as the table-land of Hampshire, though it is very much broken by hill and dale, well clothed with wood in many places ; excellent corn-land in others ; and, generally speaking, a rich, as well as a beautiful country. The names " Blackwater," and " Whitewater," are very well descriptive of the portions of the district through which they flow ; or, at all events, they indicate the tinge given to the water by the soil. The Blackwater is a pure stream among the heights behind Farnham ; but when it reaches the flats and moors it becomes tinged with peat.

On the other hand, there is little or no peat on the course of the Whitewater ; and accordingly its colour and qualities resemble those of the rivers described in our first volume, only, perhaps, this river is not so pure and limpid. The Loddon is also a transparent river, compared with the Blackwater ; and the valley of it is, for the most part, rich and beautiful. The local action of the atmosphere is carried on be tween these elevated and generally fertile heights in the south and west parts of the district, and the flat heaths and moors on the north and east These moors of tertiary formation, even where they are composed of crags, do not drink up the water which falls upon them so thirstily as the moors on the green sand, south of this ridge of the chalk. This is the cause of the growth of mosses, the thirsty sands being in general covered with short heath only, with little or no moss upon the surface ; and the decomposed moss reacts and increases the tendency of the surface to resist the entrance of the rain which falls upon them.

This prevents the water from getting into the sand; and thus the soil is dry and warm below, which causes the rain that falls on the general surface to be rather speedily evaporated. Then, the droughts tell strongly upon them ; and at such times their dark surfaces become considerably heated; but when there is dampness upon the surface, there is a diminished radiation of heat. Accordingly, taken upon the average of the seasons, these mossy flats are rather cold ; and the surface-action of the sun upon them does not vary so much, either with the day or the season, as it does upon the dry heights. The consequence is, that there is a general tendency of the atmosphere from the moors to the heights, just as there is from the water-meadows to the downs in the southern parts of the county. As is the case there, the air steals upward to the heights during the clay, when these are heated, and remains a dry atmosphere while the heat continues ; but, as the heat subsides during the night, heavy dews are formed in the summer ; and fogs, more dense than even on the flats themselves, are produced in the winter.

There is another cause which tends to increase the winter fogs upon those heights, and that is the meeting of the atmospheric actions of the east and west sides of the county. The point of meeting, and of maximum effect of the two atmospheres, depend of course on the relative degree of their separate actions ; but upon the average, it is at or near the principal summit-levels ; because it is upon those that the cold air of the night has the greatest tendency to come down. So also, these heights, which in most places consist of a stratum of gravel or gravelly clay, more or less thick over the chalk, are both more absorbent and more radiant of heat than the chalky downs upon which there is no gravel. The radiation of heat during the night keeps the surface thus warmer than the air over it can bear ; and thus the fog forms to a considerable height ; and it is dense, in proportion to the difference of temperature between the two, and the quantity of moisture in the descending air, jointly.

In corro boration of this, it may be mentioned as the result of obser- VOL. II. E vation, that the winter fogs are always most dense upon the most elevated parts of these summits, and upon those where the situation is nearest to the parting of the eastern and the western slopes:— for instance, on the London road from Farnham to Winchester, the fogs are most dense about Wind mill hill ; and they are also very dense on the heights be tween Odiham and Alton, more so than in the interjacent hollows. These fogs are disagreeable for night travellers, and not wholly without danger to those who ride in fast going carriages over a country so very hilly, and where ascents and descents alternate with each other at such short distances. But this fog has none of the pungent qualities which the fogs of London derive from the saline and sul phureous vapours which that great city sends up, neither have they any, or at least not much, of the pestilent nature of that demon, miasma, which rides somewhat mysteriously on "the reek o' the rotten fens."

To vegetation they are decidedly favourable, as they water it in a more gentle manner, and one in which the whole plant is more completely saturated than it could be in a heavy fall of rain. They also retain the rich particles of decomposing vegetables, which heavy rains are apt to wash away, or carry down into the subsoil. Thus the fogs are a watering given to the ground, of which that ground receives the full benefit, without being injured by the receiving of it. They do not very often extend far down the valleys of the western rivers ; and so, when the fog is very dense upon the hills to the east, there is not a particle between Alresford and Winchester. Along the other lines it is much the same, the fogs being very seldom thick upon the west sides of the principal summits. The coldness of the eastern flats is one of the chief causes of the prevalence of these fogs, and also of the superiority of the crops upon the good lands in this part of the county.

In other states of the atmosphere, rain is produced upon these heights, but the rains there are not so heavy in proportion to those between the places where they fall and the sea, as they are in the central counties of England. The soil and surface- THE NO^TH-EASTERN SLOPE. vegetation change so much, however, at short distances in this diversified part of the county, that it is by no means easy to frame a general description that will apply to the whole. Before we can have a full understanding of the manner in which the atmosphere of such a district works, we must attend to the character of the grounds for some distance around it, in all directions — north and south, as well as east and west. North-west, there is the chalk ridge between the upper part of the valley of the Loddon and the northern slope of the county.

As far as this continues it forms a sort of barrier to the general current of the atmosphere ; at least to the portion of it which is nearest the surface of the ground. Hence, in all cases, excepting those of very strong general gales which sweep everything before them, and, for the time, obliterate all the minor local motions of the air, there is a play of that fluid between the chalky ridge, and the rich grounds about Basingstoke. In summer, when the hills are dry, and heated, and heating the air over them, they draw up the air from the fields, meadows, and woods below, and prevent that stagnation of the air which is un favourable to the health of plants as well as animals. We know much less of the process of aeration, or breathing, in vegetables than in animals, because we are not acquainted with any specific organ, or set of organs, by means of which the operation is carried on, — any more than we know what specific matter, obtained from the earth or the atmosphere, forms the food of plants.

There have been speculative theories formed upon both subjects ; but they are, one and all, grounded upon animal analogies ; and therefore they are of no value for practical purposes. We do know, however, that none of the plants which are valuable to man, either for himself, or for domestic animals, can live without atmos pheric air ; and that, if they have not free exposure to this air, they are always inferior in quality, whatever they may be in quantity. We also know that many living and growing things, in whose economy the air is necessary, must e have that air changed ;, for it is a general law in the breath ing of all that breathe, be the mode and the means what they may, that the residuum of air which has been once breathed, is unfit for being breathed again. It is the same with that humidity which is equally essential to vegetation.

Plants must be watered in some way or other ; but a con tinual soaking is injurious to all the more kindly land plants ; and it is especially unfavourable that the surface of a plant should be coated with a pellicle of water when the hot rays of the sun are beating upon it. Independently of the absorption of moisture by the plant, a certain quantity, varying with the nature of the plant, and with many other circumstances, must be evaporated from its surface, in order to keep it in a healthy tone. If this is not afforded, the plant shrivels up, as we find in the grass upon dry and dew less fields in the hot months of summer. The cause of this is easily seen : the plant works in its growing, by means of the properties of humidity and heat — there are others, in deed, but these are the chief ones, and all that are necessary for our purpose ; some adjustment of these to each other must be favourable to the most healthy growth of every plant; and, as there are plants suited to all situations and climates, the proportion must vary in each species.

The degree of variation is a matter of observation for the practical cultivator; but the truth of the principle is un questionable. — Water-cress, for instance, cannot be made to grow on a dry down, or wild thyme in a stream of water. The common agricultural, culinary, and timber plants, are those which are most valuable to man — and most ornamental to the country upon the large scale. Now, they are all what may be called medium plants, in respect both of solar action and of humidity ; and thus they never can grow in the most profitable manner if these are not in something like the proper ratio to each other, — or when both are in excess, or deficient. If humidity is in excess, the quality of the growth is bad ; and if the excess gets beyond a certain degree, the plant languishes, turns blanched and yellow for want of the requisite portion of carbon ; and, if matters are still pushed farther, its growth and texture are both de stroyed.

Light, as well as free air, is essential to the healthy carbonization of a plant ; and this lets us see that the plant absorbs the carbon in the form of carbonic acid gas ; because oxygen is given out by the action of light ; and as light always tends to increase the proportion of carbon, it follows, as a matter of course, that the action of the light throws off the oxygen and leaves the carbon behind. It is carbon — which in itself is one of the most incorruptible of substances — which gives strength and durability to the timber of trees, and their most nutritious quality to all vegetables which are used either as the food of man or of domestic animals. En passant, this is the reason why the sheep fed on the dry downs of the south of England, or upon the mountains of Wales or Scotland, yield mutton so supe rior in the flavour of the muscle, and especially of the fat, and so rich and racy in the juice, as compared with that which is grown upon rank pastures in the humid parts of the country ; and it is necessary to a proper understanding of the natural working of such a county as Hampshire that we keep all these little circumstances in view.

If the proportion of humidity, as compared with that of heat and light and aerial action, be but a little deficient, the quantity of growth in the plant is diminished, and the quality increased. If the deficiency is greater, the plant be comes stunted; and if carried still farther, it is parched and perishes. Farther, if all the kinds of action to which the plant is exposed, are in excess as compared with the consti tution of the plant, even though the proper balance to each other is preserved, the plant works unfavourably for agri cultural purposes ; and though it may be large in size, it is deficient in fruitfulness. For this reason, our common grain-plants cannot be grown in the rich fields of tropical countries ; for if there is humidity enough for their growth, they run up to stem, and produce little or no grain.

For a similar reason, barley and oats, especially the latter, which is the more northerly, or, at all events, the most upland na tive, are very inferior upon the low-lying and rich lands of England, to what they are upon the dry hills, or in Scot land. Bearing in mind the general facts or principles embodied in these paragraphs, let us return to the district of Hamp shire under notice, and begin with that part of it by which we were led to make these remarks — remarks of first-rate importance to every inhabitant of an agricultural county, whether proprietor, farmer, or consumer. The warm air, ascending from the top of the dry chalk ridge, when that is beaten upon by the summer sun, ascends, and draws up the more weighty and more humid air from the rich grounds to the southward. By this means, the vegetation is relieved from that excess of moisture which its leaves or other work ing structures have accumulated during the night.

This is a daily operation in the growing months, but it is a gentle one, and often imperceptible ; because, though the humidity should be in such abundance as to appear a light summer fog in the bottoms, it melts away into the more dry air over the heights, which, under such circumstances, is actually warmer than that over the hollows. This continues, as long as the strength of the sun beats upon the hill, — upon the thin and comparatively dry vegetable covering of which, it tells, of course, much more strongly than upon the corn-fields, meadows, and woods below, where there is more humidity to evaporate, and where the surface of the earth itself is much more in shadow. Sometimes, however, these light summer mists may be observed stealing slowly up the slopes ; but they never actually settle upon the summits, as is the case with those air-formed fogs which appear in clouds upon the mountain tops, as harbingers of rain.