A VISIT TO SWARRATON 317 



miles above Alresford. That was in 1747. To Swarraton 

 I accordingly went, only to find what any guide-book 

 or any person would have told me, that the church no 

 longer exists. Only the old churchyard remained, 

 overgrown with nettles, the few tombstones that had 

 not been carried away so covered with ivy as to appear 

 like green mounds, A group of a dozen yews marked 

 the spot where the church had formerly stood; and 

 there were besides some very old trees, an ancient yew 

 and a giant beech, and others, and just outside the 

 ground as noble an ash-tree as I have ever seen. These 

 three, at any rate, must have been big trees a century 

 and a half ago, and well known to Gilbert White. On 

 inquiry I was told that the church had been pulled 

 down a very long time back about forty years, per- 

 haps ; that it was a very old and very pretty church, 

 covered with ivy, and that no one knew why it was 

 pulled down. The probable reason was that a vast 

 church was being or about to be built at the neighbour- 

 ing village of Northington, big enough to hold all the 

 inhabitants of the two parishes together, and about a 

 thousand persons besides. This immense church would 

 look well enough among the gigantic structures of all 

 shapes and materials in the architectural wonderland 

 of South Kensington. But I came not to see this 

 building : the little ancient village church, in which the 

 villagers had worshipped for several centuries, where 

 Gilbert White did duty for a year or so, was what I 

 wanted, and I was bitterly disappointed. Looking 



