Old Hampshire Mapped
Cobbett's Hampshire
Transcription (18)Hambledon
Portsdown Hill
hills
Cheriton
Kilmeston
tax eaters
Gosport
Portsea
Portsmouth
improvement
... Hambledon is a long, straggling village, lying in a little valley formed by some very pretty but not lofty hills. The environs are much prettier than the village itself, which is not far from the North side of Portsdown Hill. This must have once been a considerable place; for here is a church pretty nearly as large as that at Farnham in Surrey, which is quite sufficient for a large town. The means of living has been drawn away from these villages, and the people follow the means. Cheriton and Kilmston and Hambledon and the like have been beggared for the purpose of giving tax-eaters the means of making 'vast improvements, Ma'am'. ... Those scenes of glorious loyalty, the sea-port places, are beginning to be deserted. How many villages had that scene of all that is wicked and odious, Portsmouth, Gosport, and Portsea; how many villages has that hellish assemblage beggared! It is now being scattered itself! ... There is an absolute tumbling down taking place, where, so lately, there were such 'vast improvements Ma'am!' ...
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