132 THE EXETER ROAD 



hollow on the Bourne, an affluent of the Anton, and 

 on the verge of the Ancient and Eoyal Forest of 

 Harewood. Not only does the village stand on the 

 banks of the stream and the edge of the woods, but it 

 also derives the first of its two names from these 

 circumstances, ' Hurstbourne ' b^ing obviously descrip- 

 tive of woodlands and brooklet, while the ' Priors ' 

 is a relic of its old lords of the manor, the abbots of 

 Saint Swithun's at Winchester. These historic and 

 geographical facts, however, are apt to be lost in the 

 local corruption of the place-name, and that of 

 Hurstbourne Tarrant, a few miles higher up the 

 stream ; for they are, according to Hampshire speech, 

 respectively ' Up Husband ' and ' Down Husband.' 



XIX 



The road between this point and Andover, ascend- 

 ino; the hio;h oround between the Ann and the Test, 

 is utterly without interest, and brings the traveller 

 down into the town at the south side of the market 

 square without any inducement to linger on the way. 

 Except on the Saturday market-day, Andover is given 

 over to a dreamy quiet. The butchers' dogs lie 

 blinking sleepily on the thresholds, or on the kerbs, 

 and regard with a pained surprise, rather than with 

 any active resentment, the intrusive passage of a stray 

 customer. Tradesmen's assistants leisurely open 

 casual crates of goods on the pavements, with long 

 intervals for gossip between the drawing of each nail, 



