6 IN HAMPSHIRE HIGHLANDS 



part of Wiltshire. Michael Drayton, in his Poly- 

 olbion, speaks of 'the sprightly Test arising up 

 in Chute,' thereby meaning, no doubt, what is 

 now called the Bourne, a pretty and all too short 

 tributary of the queen of Hampshire chalk 

 streams, that now has its perennial source some 

 miles from any trace of the once great forest 

 where a Stuart king had one of his hunting 

 boxes. It is at least conceivable, though I care 

 to do no more than suggest it as a possibility, 

 that the Bourne was in Drayton's time a more 

 considerable stream than it is now, with a source 

 higher up the valley. Anyhow, it is surely not 

 unreasonable to suppose that there was a greater 

 rainfall in Hampshire in those days of great woods 

 than there is now. I read only recently in a 

 State Report of New York that, by reason of the 

 felling of woods and the growing of thirsty crops, 

 a Wyoming stream, formerly quite sufficient for 

 the miller's purposes, had become useless ; and 

 other cases can be quoted where deforestation has 

 led to a lessening in the supply of water. 



The woods climb up to some six hundred and 

 forty feet above sea-level, and at about their 

 highest point they command a view of the sur- 



