OLD BASING 113 



It is worth while haltino; a moment to oain a sioht 

 of the little church, which is late Norman, and one 

 of the few dedicated to that Norman bishop, Saint 

 Swithun. 



Returning to the hioliway, and coming to the 

 place known to the old coachmen as Mapledurwell 

 Hatch, where that line old coaching inn, the ' King's 

 Head,' still stands, a road goes off to Old Basing, on 

 the right, while the highway continues in a straight 

 line, rising toward the town of Basingstoke. 



The hastv traveller who knows nothino; of the 

 delights that await explorers in the byeways, misses 

 a great deal here by keeping strictly to the high- 

 road. If, instead of continuino; direct to Basinsfstoke, 

 this turnino- to the rioht hand is taken, it brings one 

 in half a mile to the pretty village of Old Basing, 

 celebrated for one of the most stubborn and pro- 

 tracted defences recorded in history. It was here 

 that the equally crafty and courteous Sir William 

 Paulet, first Marquis of Winchester, and Lord 

 Treasurer during the reigns of Henry the Eighth, 

 Edward the Sixth, Mary, and Elizabeth, built an 

 immense palace on the site of Basing Castle. There 

 can be little doubt that this magnificent person, 

 who possessed no principles, and so kept place and 

 power through the troublous times that these reigns 

 comprised, must have had his hands in the Royal 

 coffers to some purpose, or else have used his position 

 for the sale of preferments. 'No oak, but an osier,' 

 as his contemporaries said, he bowed before the 

 tempests of religious persecution and the whirlwinds 

 of conspiracies which passed him harmlessly by and 



I 



