260 HAMPSHIRE DAYS 



other bloods of so many conquering races, has not 

 only been potent to modify the entire population, 

 but is able to reproduce the old type in its pristine 

 purity ; and when we almost invariably find that these 

 ancients born again are better men than those in whom 

 other racial characters predominate more intelligent, 

 versatile, adaptive, temperate, and usually tougher and 

 longer lived, it becomes possible to believe that in the 

 remote future there' are thousands of years for this 

 little black leaven to work these islands will once 

 more be inhabited by a race of men of the Neolithic 

 type. 



In speaking of the character, physical and mental, of 

 the men of distinctly Iberian type, I must confess that 

 I write only from my own observation, and that I am 

 hardly justified in founding general statements on an 

 acquaintance with a very limited number of persons. 

 My experience is that the men of this type have, gener- 

 ally speaking, more character than their neighbours, 

 and are certainly very much more interesting. In 

 recalling individuals of the peasant class who have most 

 attracted me, with whom I have become intimate and 

 in some instances formed lasting friendships, I find 

 that of twenty-five to thirty no fewer than nine are of 

 this type. Of this number four are natives of Hamp- 

 shire, while the other five, oddly enough, belong to 

 five different counties. But I do not judge only from 

 these few individuals: a rambler about the country 

 who seldom stays many days in one village or spot 



