ef to help out the wages was a great
shock at first, but, when the ratepayers were no longer weighed down,
they could give more work and better wages, and the labourers thus
profited in the end, and likewise began to learn more independence. Still
the times were hard then. Few families could get on unless the mother as
well as the father did field work, and thus she had no time to attend
thoroughly to making home comfortable, mending the clothes, or taking
care of the little ones. The eldest girl was kept at home dragging about
with the baby, and often grew rough as well as ignorant, and the cottage
was often very little cared for. The notion of what was comfortable and
suitable was very different then.

The country began to be intersected by railways, and the South-Western
line was marked out to Southampton. The course was dug out from Shawford
and Compton downs, and the embankment made along our valley. It was
curious to see the white line creeping on, as carts filled with chalk ran
from the diggings to the end, tipped over their contents, and returned
again. When the foundations were dug for the arch spanning the lane the
holes filled with water as fast as they were made, and nothing could be
done till the two long ditches had been dug to carry off the water to
Allbrook. In the course of making them in the light peaty earth, some
bones of animals and (I believe) stags' horns were found, but unluckily,
were thrown away, instead of being shown to anyone who would have made
out from them much of the history of the formation of the boggy earth
that forms the water meadows.

{The Old Church, Otterbourne: p32.jpg}

It is amusing to remember the kind of dread that was felt at first of
railway travelling. It was thought that the engines would blow up, and,
as an old coachman is reported to have said, "When a coach is overturned,
there you are; but when an engine blows up, where are you?" He certainly
was so far right that a coach accident was fatal to fewer persons than a
railway accident generally is.

The railway passed so near the old Church that the noise of the trains
would be inconvenient on Sundays. At least, so thought those with
inexperienced ears, though many a Church has since been built much nearer
to the line. However, this fixed the purpose that had already been
forming, of endeavouring to build a new Church. The first idea had been
of trying to raise 300 pounds to enlarge the old Church, but th