THE HAMPSHIRE ANTIQUARY & NATURALIST, 



79 



THE HAMPSHIRE INDEPENDENT, May 31, 



THE HAMPSHIRE FIELD CLUB. 



MEETING AT EAST MEON. 



The Hampshire Field Club added another chapter 

 to its exploration of the beauties and antiquities of the 

 county by its meeting at East Meon on Thursday. 

 The district comprises one of the most beautiful parts 

 of Hampshire, with its hilly lanes and varied wood- 

 land scenery, and the neighbourhood is associated 

 with the history of the country during the great Civil 

 War. To this, therefore, and to the increasing popu- 

 larity of the Club, is due the fact that a large number 

 of members (nearly 60) assembled at Alresford 

 station, under the guidance of the Rev. G. N. God- 

 win, B.D., and Mr. T. W. Shore, F.G.S., whence, on 

 account of the distance to be traversed, the party pro- 

 ceeded in brakes Passing through Bishop's 

 Sutton, which was visited last year, a stop- 

 page was made at West Tisted to inspect the 

 church. This edifice contains some features 

 of Norman date. The old church originally 

 extended only the length of the present nave, as may 

 be seen by an old piscina in the south wall near the 

 junction with the chancel. In the time of Domesday 

 (the Rev. G. N. Godwin mentioned) Tisted was held 

 by Ranulph of the Bishop of Winchester, when it 

 was assessed at seven hides, the value being 6. 

 The church was mentioned in that survey. The font 

 was pronounced to be as old as the early part of the 

 building, and in the doorway an ancient stoup was 

 pointed out. In one of the walls is an inscribed 

 tablet to one of the Tichborne family Benjamin 

 Tichborne who died in 1677. In the churchyard 

 some interest was elicited by a fine old yew, which it 

 was thought might be a thousand years old. The 

 trunk of this tree is hollow, and inside is growing a 

 newer stem, an instance, as Mr. T. W. Shore pointed 

 out, of the powers of rejuvenescence possessed by 

 the yew. It evidently has the power of renewing its 

 youth, and to this fact is due (the Rev. H. R. Fleming, 

 of Corhampton, mentioned) its selection for church- 

 yards as an emblem of immortality. Similar 

 instances of the growth of new stems inside or 

 mingled with the old ones were mentioned at Cor- 

 hampton and other places. 



Close by the church is the Jacobean manor house 

 which was in the seventeenth century occupied by a 

 branch of the Tichborne family. Permission had been 

 obtained to inspect this, and the interior disclosed a 

 fine large hall, with a great old fashion open 

 chimney, where the fire dogs are still in use for the 

 fire. Adjoining is a wainscoted room with some good 

 paneling. Here Mr. Godwin read some notes on the 

 Tichborne family, which is so intimately associated 

 with the place. The name, it appears, was 

 originally De Ytchingbourne, which became con- 



tracted to Ticeburn or Tichborne. A Sir Roger de 

 Tichborne was mentioned in the time of Henry 

 I ; and Sir John Tichborne was, temp. Edward 

 II, sheriff and knight of the shire and 

 under Edward III, a justice itinerant. Not 

 far from the old manor house is the Tichborne Oak, a 

 tree famous as having been the hiding place of Sir 

 Benjamin Tichborne after the battle of Cheriton. It 

 was noted as a curious coincidence that this meeting 

 of the Club was held on Oak-apple day, and though 

 not on the programme the party proceeded to look at 

 the tree, but owing to a somewhat peremptory indi- 

 cation from Mr. Shore that the work planned out for 

 the day would not allow a long stoppage here, the 

 party was unable to hear from Mr. Godwin the story 

 of this tree. 



A pleasant drive from here on the road to Privett 

 led to some tumuli known as the Jumps, or the 

 Devil's Jumps, where a halt was made for refresh- 

 ments. These tumuli, which are some three or four 

 in number, were stated on the programme to be of 

 Keltic origin, though Mr. W. Dale, F.G.S.,one of the 

 hon. secretaries, expressed doubt upon this point. 

 He said they resembled those at Petersfield rather 

 than those near Stonehenge. Mr. Shore drew atten- 

 tion to their position as lying along a line pointing to 

 the rising of the midsummer sun, as was the case 

 with the stones at Stonehenge, and dwelt on the 

 significance of this fact as showing that the builders 

 of these mounds paid reverence in their worship to 

 the sun. It is curious how these old remains, of the 

 origin of which our medieval ancestors could divine 

 nothing, were attributed to the Devil. Several 

 instances of the attribution to satanic origin of other 

 relics in different parts of the country were cited, and 

 the President (Mr. W. Whitaker, F.R.S.) raised a 

 humorous protest against the failure in the Ordnance 

 Maps to give the old gentleman his due by naming 

 these mounds merely The Jumps. Mr. Morris Miles 

 suggested that some of those mounds about the 

 country were made to commemorate battles, and not 

 merely as burial places, and in corroboration of this 

 the Rev. T. Woodhouse mentioned a mound in 

 Somersetshire at a place where the Danes were 

 defeated in the time of Alfred. 



Sandwiches despatched, a little business engaged 

 the attention of the Club, and the President having 

 " taken the chair " on a heap of broken road metal, 

 the Club proceeded to remedy an omission at the 

 annual meeting by the election on the committee ot 

 the Rev. G. N. Godwin, a gentleman who has done 

 useful service to the Club, and this was unanimously 

 agreed to. A recommendation was also received 

 from the committee that a limitation should be put to 

 the number of members, which was now becoming 

 inconveniently large, so that it occasioned difficul- 

 ties in the arrangement of some of the meetings. It 

 was stated that over 20 members had joined since the 

 annual meeting, bringing the number up to some 240, 

 and it was recommended that the number should be 



