Cobbett's Hampshire, 1830

	Old Hampshire Mapped

	Cobbett's Hampshire Transcription (64)
Easton Avington Park Buckingham, Duke of garden Itchen, River duck hare pheasant woods Caernarvon, Lord pond Pope's Cock carriage stage coach	previous WE lost another day at Easton; the whole of yesterday, it having rained the whole day; so that we could not have come an inch but in the wet. We started, therefore, this morning, coming through the Duke of Buckingham's Park, at AVINGTON, which is close by EASTON, and on the same side of the Itchen. This is very beautiful place. The house is close down at the edge of the meadow land; there is a lawn before it, and a pond, supplied by the Itchen, at the end of the lawn, and bounded by the park on the other side. The high road, through the park, goes very near to this water; and we saw thousands of wild-ducks in the pond, or sitting around on the green edges of it, while, on one side of the pond, the hares and pheasants were moving about upon a gravel-walk, on the side of a very fine plantation. We looked down upon all this from a rising ground, and the water like a looking glass, showed us the trees, and even the animals. This is certainly one of the very prettiest spots in the world. The wild water-fowl seem to take particular delight in this place. There are a great many at Lord CAERNARVON'S; but, there the water is much larger, and the ground and wood about it comparatively rude and coarse. Here, at AVINGTON, every thing is in such beautiful order; the lawn, before the house, is of the finest green, and most neatly kept; and, the edge of the pond (which is of several acres) is as smooth as if it formed part of a bowling-green. To see so many wild-fowl, in a situation where every thing is in the parterre-order, has a most pleasant effect on the mind; and Richard and I, like POPE'S cock in the farm-yard, could not help thanking the DUKE and DUCHESS for having generously made such ample provision for our pleasure, and that, too, merely to please us as we were passing along. Now, this is the advantage of going about on horseback. On foot, the fatigue is too great, and you go too slowly. In any sort of carriage, you cannot get into the real country places. To travel in stage coaches is to be hurried along by force, in a box, with an air-hole in it, and constantly exposed to broken limbs, the danger being much greater than that of ship-board, and the noise much more disagreeable, while the company is frequently not a great deal more to one's liking.
Avington Itchen, River church Bishops Sutton Pitt George III Plantagenets population	From this beautiful spot [Avington] we had to mount gradually the downs to the southward; but, it is impossible to quit the vale of the Itchen without one more look back at it. To form a just estimate of its real value and that of the land near it, it is only necessary to know, that, from its source, at Bishop's Sutton, this river has, on its two banks, in the distance of nine miles (before it reaches Winchester,) thirteen parish churches. There must have been some people to erect these churches. It is not true, then, that PITT and GEORGE III. created the English nation, notwithsanding (sic) all that the Scotch feelosofers are ready to swear about the matter. In short, there can be no doubt in the mind of any rational man, that in the time of the PLANTAGENETS England was, out of all comparison, more populace than it is now. next

	Cobbett's Hampshire 1830, contents
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	Old Hampshire Mapped

Text HMCMS:B1999.483