" HILLS " 65 



To others besides Wykehamists " Hills " is a spot of 

 pleasant associations. Rising from the water-meadows 

 of the Itchen valley, within a mile of the Cathedral, it 

 affords an easy walk to the citizens of Winchester. 

 Crowned with its clump of beech-trees it is a conspicu- 

 ous landmark in the district. The trees, of course, have 

 been planted by human hands, as is the case with 

 similar clumps on the chalk hills of Sussex and Wilts 

 and Dorset. The present clump is said to have been 

 planted by a company of the Gloucestershire Militia, 

 under the direction of Lord Botecourt, the colonel of 

 the regiment, when encamped on the hill towards the 

 close of the eighteenth century. The appearance of the 

 trees would seem to corroborate the truth of the tradi- 

 tion. But that an earlier clump stood upon the 

 summit of the hill is certain. There is preserved at 

 New College, Oxford, a manuscript of the Life of Wyke- 

 ham, written by Warden Chandler about the year 1462. 

 In this manuscript there is a drawing of the college, in 

 which St Catherine's Hill is shown with a noble clump 

 of trees standing on the top. It is clear, therefore, that 

 the " three hides of land called Hille " was crowned 

 with trees some centuries before the handiwork of the 

 Gloucestershire Militia. 



The present clump, which has succeeded that of 

 Warden Chandler's illustration, consists of some forty 

 to fifty beech-trees and a few Scotch firs. The latter 

 are in a state of pitiable decay. Several are quite dead, 

 and their bare trunks, entirely destitute of bark, stand 

 out bleached and naked against the tender green foliage 

 of the beeches. On the south side of the clump, be- 

 neath the shelter of the trees, runs a low, straggling 

 thicket of brushwood, consisting mainly of cotoneaster 



