268 HAMPSHIRE DAYS 



Khans of the city which stare and glare at you from all 

 openings in pine woods, across wide heaths and com- 

 mons, and from hill-sides and hill-tops, produce the 

 idea that they were turned out complete at some 

 stupendous manufactory of houses at a distance, and 

 sent out by the hundred to be set up wherever wanted, 

 and where they are almost always utterly out of keep- 

 ing with their surroundings, and consequently a blot on 

 and a disfigurement of the landscape. 



Happily the downland slopes overlooking these green 

 valleys have so far been neglected by the class of 

 persons who live in mansions ; for the time being they 

 are ours, and by " ours " I mean all those who love and 

 reverence this earth. But which of the two is best I 

 cannot say. One prefers the Test and another the 

 Itchen, doubtless because in a matter of this kind the 

 earth-lover will invariably prefer the spot he knows 

 most intimately; and for this reason, much as I love 

 the Test, long as I would linger by it, I love the Itchen 

 more, having had a closer intimacy with it. I dare say 

 that some of my friends, old Wykehamists, who as boys 

 caught their first trout close by the ancient sacred city 

 and have kept up their acquaintance with its crystal 

 currents, will laugh at me for writing as I do. But 

 there are places, as there are faces, which draw the soul, 

 and with which, in a little while, one becomes strangely 

 intimate. 



The first English cathedral I ever saw was that of 

 Winchester: that was a long time ago; it was then 



