By the Rev. G. S. Master. 



241 



apportionment, is 3448, 668 of which are in Hants; that of East 

 Grimstead, 927; together, 4375, and thus divided: — 



West Dean. East Grimstead. 



Canal. 



The last item under West Dean is a memorial of the failure of an 



almost completed enterprise for carrying a canal from Southampton 



to Salisbury, which was abandoned about 1800, on account, I believe, 



of engineering difficulties among the shifting sand-beds of Alderbury. 



Population. 



The population, as far as may be judged from the number of 

 baptisms and burials recorded in the parochial registers, has not 

 varied considerably during four centuries. The returns for the 

 present one are as follows :— 



1801. 1811. 1821. 1831. 1841. 1851. 1861. 1871. 1881. 

 West Dean 221 211 258 238 292 283 310 822 316 



East Grimstead 148 118 107 122 134 125 186 129 120 



Both villages must have been sufficiently retired " a hundred years 

 ago," lying wide of the post roads from Salisbury to Winchester 

 and Southampton, From the neighbourhood of the latter no in- 

 considerable quantity of smuggled brandy and other articles found 

 its way by secluded bridle paths into the adjoining districts. 



Railway. 



A branch of the London and South-Western Railway, opened in 

 1847, and having a station at West Dean, has, since that date, 

 aflfbrded ample facilities of communication, Romsey and Salisbury 

 being accessible in a quarter-of-an-hour, Southampton in an hour, 

 and London in less than three. 



s 2 



