k at his buildings. One of the gentlemen who
attended him let the people at Twyford know who was going that way. So
they all turned out to look at him, which was what the King by no means
wished. So he avoided them, and punished his indiscreet courtier by
taking a run and crossing one of the broad streams with a flying leap,
then proceeding on to Winchester, leaving his attendant to follow as best
he might.

After all only one wing of the intended palace was built. For a long
time it was called the King's House, but now it is only known as the
Barracks. The work must have led to an increase in the population, for
more baptisms are recorded in the register, though not more than six or
seven in each year, all carefully set down in Latin, though with no
officiating minister named. There is an Augustine Thomas, who seems to
have had a large family, and who probably was the owner of the ground on
which the vicarage now stands, the name of which used to be Thomas's
Bargain.

There must have been a great quickening of activity in Otterbourne soon
after the Restoration, for it was then that the Itchen canal or barge
river, as it used to be called, was dug, to convey coals from
Southampton, and, of course, this much improved the irrigation of the
water meadows. This canal was one of the first made in England, and was
very valuable for nearly two hundred years, until the time of railways.

In 1690, a larger parchment register was provided, and every two years it
appears to have been shown up to the magistrates at the Petty Sessions,
and signed by two of them.

At this time there seem to have been some repairs of the church.
Certainly, a great square board painted with the royal arms was then
erected, for it bore the date 1698, and the initials "W. M." for William
and Mary. There it was, on a beam, above the chancel arch, and the lion
and unicorn on either side, the first with a huge tongue hanging out at
the corner of his mouth, looking very complacent, as though he were
displaying the royal arms, the unicorn slim and dapper with a chain
hanging from his neck.

Several of our old surnames appear about this time, Cox, Comley, Collins,
Goodchild, Woods, Wareham. John Newcombe, Rector of Otterbourne, who
afterwards became Bishop of Llandaff, signs his register carefully, but
drops the Latin, as various names may be mentioned, Scientia, or Science
Olden, Philadelphia Comley, and Dennis Winter, who married William
Westg