

AN "ANCIENT MARKET-TOWNE" 



TITCHFIELD 



SOME two miles from the mouth of the river 

 Meon in Hampshire, a low bridge of ancient work- 

 manship spans the narrow stream. It is a stone 

 structure, dating back to the fourteenth century, and 

 with nothing particular to distinguish it save its 

 curious triangular " quartering-place," which affords 

 safe shelter to the traveller from the wheels of passing 

 vehicles. A few plants of the interesting little fern, 

 the Ruta-muraria or wall-rue spleenwort, are growing 

 between the interstices of the stones, which are 

 coloured here and there with the stains of centuries. 

 Sitting on the low parapet of the bridge, in the shelter 

 of the ancient " quartering - place," one views the 

 picturesque remains of what in 1 540 Leland described as 

 " Mr. Wriothesley's righte statelie house embatayled, 

 and having a goodlie gate, and a conducte castelid in 

 the middle of the court of yt, in the very place where 

 the late monastery of the Premostratenses stood, called 

 Tichefelde." 



The "righte statelie house " is now in ruins, tenanted 

 only by owls and jackdaws, and covered by dense 

 masses of ivy in picturesque confusion. The lofty 

 grey turrets of the gatehouse still rise from among 

 the surrounding trees, together with one or two 

 columnar chimneys of red brick, and around these 



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