WALLOP. 319 



CHAPTER XLVI. 



An Arcadian Hamlet Out of the World, but not Beyond the Reach of the 

 Yankee Peddler The Cottages of the Downs Grout and Cobble-stones 



Character of .the Laboring Class of the Downs Want of Curiosity 

 Old Stockbridge, Winchester, William of Wykeham His Legacy to 

 Wayfarers The Cathedral Some Remarks on Architectural Situation 



Search for Lodgings Motherly Kindness Railroad Mismanagement 

 Waterloo Day at Portsmouth. 



TT7ALLOP, where we spend the night, is a most poetical ham- 

 let, so hidden by trees that, as we came over the downs, 

 even when within a few moments' walk of it, we had to inquire 

 where it was. It consists of a double row of cottages some miles 

 long, on the bank of a cool, silvery brook, at which, when we first 

 saw it, we rushed to drink like camels in the desert ; and the 

 water was indeed delicious. It is exceedingly quiet. As we sit 

 in our window at the " Lower George," we can hear nothing but 

 the rippling of the brook, which threads its way through the trees 

 and among the cottages across the street, the rustling of the trees 

 in the gentle air, the peeping of chickens, and the chirping of 

 small birds. There is a blacksmith's shop, but no smoke ascends 

 from it, and the anvil is silent. There is a grist-mill further 

 down ; there is a little, square, heavy-roofed school-house, and 

 there is a church and graveyard. But there is no stage-coach, 



