THE HAMPSHIRE STREAMS 99 



The true source of the Test has been described 

 by some writers as situated in the extreme north- 

 west corner of the county, by the remote Httlc 

 village of Upton, and not so very far from where the 

 Enborne takes its rise. But this stream above St. 

 Mary Bourne can only be described as an occa- 

 sional winter bourn. It is a good many years since 

 it has flowed at this point in the summer months, 

 and I scarcely care to reckon how long it is since 

 I tried for some of the big trout which had found 

 their way so high up as Hurstbourne Tarrant. 

 The perennial head waters of the Test are in Ashe 

 Park, near Overton. At Laverstock, about four 

 miles down, the stream works the mill which 

 supplies the paper for Bank of England notes, and 

 the clean and pretty little town of Whitchurch, 

 with its picturesque White Hart Inn, is hard by. 

 Cobbett, who once used to spend a good deal of 

 his time at Hurstbourne Tarrant, or Uphusbon, 

 as it was then often called, says in one of his 

 letters : " Whitchurch is a small town, but famous 

 for the place where the paper has been made for 

 the Borough Bank ! I passed by the mill on my 

 way ... I hope the time will come when there 

 will be a monument where that mill stands, and 

 when on that monument will be inscribed TJie 

 curse of England" Past Whitchurch the Test flows 

 close to Hurstbourne Park, the fine seat of the 

 Earl of Portsmouth, half a mile or so below which 

 point the stream coming from St. Mary Bourne, 

 and commonly called the Bourne, joins. Next the 

 Test, now a fine stream, flows past Longparish, the 

 home of Colonel Hawker, of shooting and fishing 

 fame, and, with the great wood called Harewood 



H 2 



