By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A. 335 



three principal performers were : (1) a stupid raw youth, who repre- 

 sented Wiltshire ; (2) a short, thick-set quiet little man, who stood 

 for Somerset; and (3) the Hampshire hero (the favourite of course), a 

 thin wiry dark-featured gypsy, with aquiline nose and the eye of a 

 hawk, who skipped about as if he were made of gutta percha. They 

 fought bare-headed, with the left arm fastened to the waist,so that they 

 might not use it to ward off blows. To hit an opponent on the face 

 was against rules : but to hit him on the top of the head was the 

 grand point, and the grandest of all to hit him so as to produce 

 blood. Never shall I forget that gypsy's keen eye looking out for 

 the effect of his blow, and how joyfully, when he saw it, he called 

 out " Blood," and dropped his weapon. The Wiltshire man was 

 very soon disposed of, but when it came to the final match, the 

 steady cautious little man cracked the gypsy's head, and Somerset 

 won the day. 



The chalk down above Combe, looking northward over Berkshire, 

 is, I believe, the highest point of chalk in this part of England. A 

 gallows stands, or used to stand, at the very place where the down 

 is 1011 feet above the level of the sea. A little way off towards 

 Woodhay there is a large earthwork, called Walbury, and on the 

 side of the down under Walbury are some of those grassy rings 

 connected probably with ancient burial. 



But we must begin our walk along the Wilts side of the boundary. 



Chute. 



The first tract to be crossed is the old Chute Forest formerly be- 

 longing to the Crown. A forest in former days did not mean a large 

 wood of trees only : but a district, subject to the old severe forest 

 law : within which district, so many miles long and so many broad, 

 the forest law was enforced, and a heavy penalty levied on any 

 person who killed wild animals within ifc : especially the deer, which 

 were the King's game. Within the limits of the district there 

 might be open fields and farms, as well as woods and coppices be- 

 longing to private gentlemen, but I believe that at Chute all was 

 Crown estate. In very early times this forest and Hippingscombe 



z 2 



