DARK HAMPSHIRE PEOPLE 253 



blonde Hampshire peasant the great contrast between 

 the small minority of persons of the Anglo-Saxon and 

 of the prevalent type. It was long ago shown by 

 Huxley that the English people generally are not 

 Saxons in the shape of the head, and in all Saxon 

 England the divergence has perhaps been greatest in 

 this southern county. The oval-faced type, as I have 

 said, is less pronounced as we approach the borders of 

 Berkshire, and although the difference is not very great, 

 it is quite perceptible ; the Berkshire people are rather 

 nearer to the common modified Saxon type of Oxford- 

 shire and the Midlands generally. 



In the southern half of Hampshire the dark-eyed, 

 black-haired people are almost as common as the 

 blonde, and in some localities they are actually in a 

 majority. Visitors to the New Forest district often 

 express astonishment at the darkness and "foreign" 

 appearance of the people, and they sometimes form the 

 mistaken idea that it is due to a strong element of gipsy 

 blood. The darkest Hampshire peasant is always in 

 shape of head and face the farthest removed from the 

 gipsy type. 



Among the dark people there are two distinct types, 

 as there are two in the blonde, and it will be understood 

 that I only mean two that are, in a measure, fixed and 

 easily recognised types ; for it must always be borne in 

 mind that, outside of these distinctive forms, there is a 

 heterogeneous crowd of persons of all shades and shapes 

 of face and of great variety in features. These two dark 



