| Old Hampshire Mapped
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| Cobbett's Hampshire
Transcription (22)
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Bower
Hawkley
Hawkley Hanger
hanger
turnpike road
green lane
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previous
At Bower I got instructions to go to Hawkley, but accompanied
with the most earnest advice not to go that way, for that it was
impossible to get along. The roads were represented as so bad;
the floods so much out; the hills and bogs so dangerous; that,
really, I began to doubt; and, if I had not been brought up
amongst the clays of the Holt Forest and the bogs of the
neighbouring heaths, I should certainly have turned off to my
right, to go over Hindhead, great as was my objection to going
that way. 'Well, then,' said my friend at Bower, 'if you will
go that way, by G--, you must go down Hawkley Hanger;' of which
he then gave me such a description! But, even this I found to
fall short of the reality. I inquired simply, whether people
were in the habit of going down it; and, the answer being in the
affirmative, on I went through green-lanes and bridle-ways till
I came to the turnpike-road from Petersfield to Winchester, which
I crossed, going into a narrow and almost untrodden green-lane,
on the side of which I found a cottage. Upon my asking the way
to Hawkley, the woman at the cottage said, 'Right up the lane,
Sir: you'll come to a hanger presently: you must take care, Sir:
you can't ride down: will your horses go alone?'
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green lane
hanger
Hawkley
Greatham
Selborne
hills
woods
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On we trotted up this pretty green lane; and indeed, we had been
coming gently and generally up hill for a good while. The lane
was between highish banks and pretty high stuff growing on the
banks, so that we could see no distance from us, and could
receive not the smallest hint of what was so near at hand. The
lane had a little turn towards the end; so that, out we came, all
in a moment, at the very edge of the hanger! And, never, in all
my life, was I so surprised and so delighted! I pulled up my
horse, and sat and looked; and it was like looking from the top
of a castle down into the sea, except that the valley was land
and not water. I looked at my servant to see what effect this
unexpected sight had upon him. His surprise was as great as
mine, though he had been bred among the North Hampshire hills.
Those who have so strenuously dwelt on the dirt and dangers of
this route, had said not a word about the beauties, the matchless
beauties of the scenery. These hangers are woods on the sides
of very steep hills. The trees and underwood hang, in some sort,
to the ground, instead of standing on it. Hence these places are
called Hangers. From the summit of that which I had now to
descend, I looked down upon the villages of Hawkley, Greatham,
Selborne and some others.
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hanger
hills
hops
woods
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From the south-east round southward to the north-west, the main
valley has cross-valleys running out of it, the hills on the
sides of which are very steep, and, in many parts, covered with
wood. The hills that from these cross-valleys run out into the
main valley, like piers into the sea. Two of these promontories,
of great height, are on the west side of the main valley, and
were the first objects that struck my sight when I came to the
edge of the hanger, which was on the south. The ends of these
promontories are nearly perpendicular, and their tops so high in
the air, that you cannot look at the village below without
something like a feeling of apprehension. The leaves are all
off, the hop-poles are in stack, the fields have little verdure;
but, while the spot is beautiful beyond description even now, I
must leave to imagination to suppose what it is, when the trees
and hangers and hedges are in leaf, the corn waving, the meadows
bright, and the hops upon the poles!
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heath
Woolmer Forest
Headley
Binstead
Alice Holt
hanger
woods
marl
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From the south-west, round, eastward, to the north, lie the
heaths, of which Woolmer Forest makes a part, and these go
gradually rising up to Hindhead, the crown of which is to the
north-west, leaving the rest of the circle (the part from north
to north-west) to be occupied by a continuation of the valley
towards Headley, Binstead, Frensham, and the Holt Forest. So the
event the contrast in the view from the top of the hanger is as
great as can possibly be imagined. Men, however, are not to have
such beautiful views as this without some trouble. We have had
the view; but we had to go down the hanger. ... The horses took
the lead, and crept down partly on their feet and partly upon
their hocks. It was extremely slippery too; for the soil is sort
of marle, or, as they call it here, maume, or mame, which is,
when wet, very much like grey soap. In such a case it was likely
that I should keep in the rear, which I did, and I descended by
taking hold of the branches of the underwood, and so letting
myself down. When we got to the bottom, I bid my man, when he
should go back to Uphusband, tell the people there, that
Ashmansworth Lane is not the worst piece of road in the world.
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