On a Hampshire Common 169 



worthy, Colonel Hawker, throve during the 

 first half of the century, and the country is 

 still a thoroughly sporting one. In may-fly 

 time you will notice at the entrance of almost 

 every little inn you pass hereabouts imple- 

 ments of the angle, such as wading-stockings 

 or trousers, fishing-baskets, and many a rod 

 with gut cast fluttering in the breeze. 

 Game, too, is still plentiful, both furred and 

 feathered. I think that if the sturdy Colonel 

 could but return to his well-loved haunts 

 to-day, he would find things not altered so 

 very greatly for the worse, though, perhaps, 

 he would be a little scandalised at the con- 

 duct of the trout if he angled for them with 

 his old cast of flies. The old thatched cot- 

 tages, many of them containing the stout 

 beams which tell of a day when bricks and 

 mortar were still something of a luxury in 

 such out-of-the-world parts, must be much 

 the same as they were in his time, and their 

 gardens must be growing much the same 

 herbs and old-fashioned blooms ; nor do the 

 red-brick farmhouses and great farmyards 



