4 IN HAMPSHIRE HIGHLANDS 



portions of roads leading from and to such 

 places as Winchester, Silchester, and Cirencester, 

 of an unmistakably Roman origin ; whilst in 

 Egbury Hill by Whitchurch, on the Test, some 

 believe they see the famous Vindomis. They 

 who live much in the past, indeed, might find 

 still greater interest in the strange remnants of 

 a race compared with which the Roman seems 

 but of yesterday, unearthed years ago at the 

 village of St. Mary Bourne, close to this same 

 Egbury, the stone implements of what is called, 

 I believe, the newer flint or neolithic age. 



This land of chalk was once, and compared 

 with many parts of the country is still, a land 

 of woods. The whole of north-west Hampshire 

 was covered with woods some centuries since, 

 though no doubt the New Forest in the south 

 even then was by far the greatest in size and 

 importance within the county. The wood with 

 which this book will deal was formerly part and 

 parcel of Chute Forest, that must have covered 

 a large portion of these Hampshire Highlands 

 as well as the north-east corner of the adjoining 

 county of Wiltshire. Even to-day, as I have 

 said, Hampshire is well furnished with woods. 



