IN HAMPSHIRE HIGHLANDS 7 



rounding country in a northerly direction, which 

 cannot but be a surprise and delight to the stranger 

 who, coming from the south, has for many miles 

 enjoyed nothing like scenery on a large scale. He 

 has come probably by small and well-tilled valleys 

 bounded by the most gently sloping hills, perhaps 

 up the valley of the Anton, chief tributary of 

 the Test, or down that of the idyllic trout-brook 

 Anna or Pilhill ; in any case, through villages 

 and hamlets not built on steep hillsides or nestled 

 far away in the depths of wild coombs, such 

 as we expect to find in the bolder or more 

 broken land of the west of England, but scattered 

 here and there among the towering elms, the oak 

 and hazel coppices, and the familiar fields of corn, 

 root crops, and clover, which chiefly make up a 

 North Hampshire farm. He has seen nothing 

 but landscape of a quiet, peaceful character, the 

 reverse of bold or grand. But at this point he 

 stops to look down into a real valley, seeming 

 deep indeed and well-defined compared with those 

 he has lately passed through namely, the valley 

 of the river Bourne, which, when the springs are 

 high, takes its rise by the secluded village of 

 Upton and flows eastward through Hurstbourne 



