Old Hampshire Mapped
Cobbett's Hampshire
Transcription (57)hare coursing
Caernarvon, Lord
Beacon Hill
Burghclere Beacon
beacon
hills
downs
Highclere Hills
Hampshire Downs
chalk
clay
geology
oak
woods
This has been with Richard, one whole week of hare-hunting, and with me, three days and a half. The weather has been amongst the finest I ever saw, and Lord Caernarvon's preserves fill the country with hares, while these hares invite us to ride about and to see his park and estate, at this fine season of the year, in every direction. We are now on the north side of that Beacon-hill for which we steered last Sunday. This makes part of a chain of lofty chalk-hills and downs, which divides all the lower part of Hampshire from Berkshire, though, the ancient ruler, owner, of the former, took a little strip all along, on the flat, on this side of the chain, in order I suppose, to make the ownership of the hills themselves the more clear of all dispute; just as the owner of a field hedge and bank owns also the ditch on his neighbour's side. From these hills you look, at one view, over the whole of Berkshire, into Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire, and you can see the Isle of Wight and the sea. On this north side the chalk soon ceases, the sand and clay begin, and the oak-woods cover a great part of the surface. Amongst these is the farm-house, in which we are, and from the warmth and good fare of which we do not mean to stir, until we can do it without the chance of a wet skin.
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