8 IN HAMPSHIRE HIGHLANDS 



Tarrant, Stoke, St. Mary Bourne, and beautifully 

 undulating Hurstbourne Park to join the Test 

 by the last-named spot. North of the valley, 

 here, perhaps, seen at its best until Hurstbourne 

 Park is reached, lie the rolling chalk-hills which 

 crown themselves at Combe, Inkpen Beacon, and 

 Sidown. Combe and Sidown are in Hampshire, 

 but Inkpen, the giant of the chalk-hills of Great 

 Britain, lies across the border in Berkshire, at a 

 point where the three counties of Hampshire, Wilt- 

 shire, and Berkshire dovetail in with one another. 

 Sidown, which is immediately to the south of 

 Highclere Park, is well wooded ; but the hills 

 of Combe and Inkpen, bleak and treeless, give 

 to the country a suggestion of wildness which 

 must prevent even the most widely travelled man 

 from describing the scenery here as tame. Stand- 

 ing one summer evening by Tangley Clump, 

 another high point near by, I was struck by the 

 fineness of these hills. The * feel of June ' was 

 in the air beneath this lonely spot ; but up here 

 there was little sign of the abundant life and 

 brimful overflowing joy one associates with the 

 long day of that month of all months. A flame- 

 bird or two as I have heard the redstart called 



