Old Hampshire Mapped
Cobbett's Hampshire
Transcription (54)Whitchurch
Test, River
Portal, Squire
paper maker
banknote
paper mill
mill
Hanson, Miss
From this coppice, to Whitchurch, is not more than about four miles, and we soon reached it, because here you begin to descend into the vale, in which this little town lies, and through which there runs that stream, which turns the mill of 'SQUIRE PORTAL, and which mill makes the Bank of England Note-Paper! ... the river of Whitchurch, which a man of threescore may jump across dry-shod, which moistens a quarter of a mile wide of poor, rushy meadow, which washes the skirts of the park and game-preserve of that bright patrician, who wedded the daughter of HANSON, the attorney and late solicitor to the Stamp-Office, and which is, to look at, of far less importance than any gutter in the WEN! Yet, this river, merely by turning a wheel, which wheel sets some rag-tearers and grinders and washers and recompressors in motion, has produced a greate[r] effect on the condition of men, than has been produced on that condition by all the other rivers, all the seas, all the mines and all the continents in the world.
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