io8 THE EXETER ROAD 



market, if we may judge Ijy the basket of fowls tied 

 on to the back of the conveyance. 



Scenes so picturesque as this are not to be 

 observed in our own time, nor are the tramps who 

 yet infest the road, singly or in families, of the 

 engaging appearance of this family party. The 

 human form divine was wondrously gnarled and 

 twisted, or phenomenally fat, a hundred years ago, 

 according to Rowlandson and Gillray. Legs like 

 the trunks of contorted apple-trees, stomachs like 

 terrestrial globes, mouths resembling the mouths of 

 horses, and noses like geographical features on a 

 large scale were the commonplaces of their practice, 

 and this example forms no exception to the general 

 rule. 



XVII 



The ruin that descended upon Hartley Row in 

 common wdth other coaching towns and villages, 

 nearly sixty years ago, has long since been lived 

 down, and the long street, although quiet, has much 

 the same cheerful appearance as it must have w^orn 

 in the heyday of its prosperity. It is a very 

 wide street, fit for the evolutions of many coaches. 

 Pleasant strips of grass now occupy, more or less 

 continuously, one side, and at the western end forks 

 the road to Odiham, through a pretty common with 

 the unusual feature of being planted with oak trees. 

 These oak glades do not look particularly old ; but, 

 as it happens, we can ascertain their exact age and 



