| Old Hampshire Mapped |
| Cobbett's HampshireTranscription (31) |
|
1823, July-August |
previous FROM THE [LONDON] WEN ACROSS SURREY, ACROSS THE WEST OF SUSSEX, AND INTO THE SOUTH EAST OF HAMPSHIRE. [July-August 1823] ... |
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corn Portsdown Hill hills Bedhampton Fareham Wymering wheat Bonniface, Mr barley turnip harvest |
But now I come to one of the great objects of my journey: that
is to say, to see the state of the corn along the South foot and
on the South side of Portsdown-hill. It is impossible that there
can be, any where, a better corn country than this. The hill is
eight miles long, and about three-fourths of a mile high [sic],
beginning at the road that runs along at the foot of the hill.
On the hill-side the corn land goes rather better than half way
up; and, on the sea-side, the corn land is about the third (it
may be half) a mile wide. Portsdown-hill is very much in the
shape of an oblong tin cover to a dish. From BEDHAMPTON, which
lies at the Eastern end of the hill, to Fareham, which is at the
Western end of it, you have brought under your eye not less than
eight square miles of corn fields, with scarcely a hedge or ditch
of any consequence, and being, on an average, from twenty to
forty acres each in extent. The land is excellent. The
situation good for manure. The spot the earliest in the whole
kingdom. Here, if the corn were backward, then the harvest must
be backward. ... I came on to WIMMERING, which is just about the
mid-way along the foot of the hill, and there I saw, at a good
distance from me, five men reaping in a field of wheat of about
40 acres. I found, upon inquiry, that they began this morning
[2 August], and that the wheat belongs to Mr. BONIFACE, of
Wimmering. Here the first sheaf is cut that is cut in England:
that the reader may depend upon. It was never known, that the
average even of Hampshire was less than ten days behind the
average of Portsdown-hill. The corn under the hill is as good
as I ever saw it, except in the year 1813. No beans here. No
peas. Scarcely any oats. Wheat, barley, and turnips. The
Swedish turnips not so good as on the South Downs and Funtington;
but the wheat full as good, rather better; and the barley as good
as it is possible to be. In looking at these crops, one wonders
whence are to come the hands to clear them off. ... next |
 
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