y and several side-shows such as "Cheese
Fair" and the like. It has been thought possible that Weyhill is
referred to in _The Vision of Piers Plowman_--"At Wy and at Wynchestre
I went to the Fair."

We now propose to turn eastwards for the last time and to follow the
main London road along the northern boundary of Harewood Forest
through Hurstbourne Priors ("Down Husband") and then past the wide
expanse of Hurstbourne Park, in which stands the seat of the Earl of
Portsmouth and which clothes the northern slopes of the Test valley
for more than a mile with its beautiful woods and glades. Its eastern
boundary is close to Whitchurch, seven miles from Andover. Whitchurch
was another famous posting centre and, like Andover, a rotten borough.
Here an important cross-country route from Oxford to Winchester tapped
the Exeter road and here the modern ways of the Great Western and
South Western cross each other at right angles. At the famous "White
Hart" Newman wrote the opening part of the _Lyra Apostolica_ while
awaiting the Exeter coach in December, 1832. The great tower of All
Hallows still stands, but little besides of the old building. While
the restoration was in progress a Saxon headstone was brought to
light. It bears a presentment of our Lord's head with the following
inscription:--

HIC CORPUS FRIDBURGAE REQUIESCAT
IN PACE SEPULTUM

[Illustration: WHITCHURCH.]

The old chapel of Freefolk, little more than a mile out of the town,
dates from 1265 and came into existence because the winter floods on
the infant Test prevented the good folk of the vicinity getting into
Whitchurch. The famous Laverstock Mill, where the paper for Bank of
England notes has been made for two hundred years, is not far away by
the side of the high road. The owners of the Mill, and of Laverstock
Park, are a naturalized Huguenot family named de Portal, whose
ancestors came to England and settled in Southampton during the
persecution of the Protestants that followed the revocation of the
Edict of Nantes. When Cobbett rode by the Mill he made the following
unprophetic utterance:--"We passed the mill where the Mother-Bank
paper is made! Thank God! this mill is likely soon to want employment.
Hard by is a pretty park and house belonging to 'Squire' Portal, the
_paper-maker_. The country people, who seldom want for sarcastic
shrewdness, call it 'Rag Hall!'"

Nearly four miles from Whitchurch comes Overton, once a market but now
a quiet villa