Old Hampshire Mapped
Cobbett's Hampshire
Transcription (69)Hurstbourne Tarrant
fly
Tangley
WE set off from Uphusband on Friday, about ten o'clock, the morning having been wet. My sons came round, in the chaise, by ANDOVER and WEYHILL, while I came right across the country towards LUDGARSHALL, which lies in the road from Andover to this place [East Everley, Wiltshire]. I never knew the flies so troublesome, in England, as I found them in this ride. I was obliged to carry a great bough, and to keep it in constant motion, in order to make the horse peaceable enough to enable me to keep on his back. It is a country of fields, lanes, and high hedges; so that no wind could come to relieve my horse; and, in spite of all I could do, a great part of him was covered with foam from the sweat. In the midst of this, I got, at one time, a little out of my road, in, or near, a place called TANGLEY, I rode up to the garden-wicket of a cottage, and asked the woman, who had two children, and who seemed to be about thirty years old, which was the way to LUDGARSHALL, which I knew could not be more than about four miles off. She did not know! A very neat, smart, and pretty woman; but, she did not know the way to this rotten-borough which was, I was sure, only about four miles off! 'Well, my dear good woman,' said I, 'but you have been at LUDGERSHALL?' - 'No.' - 'Nor at ANDOVER?' (six miles another way) - 'No.' - 'Nor at MARLBOROUGH?' (nine miles another way) - 'No.' - 'Pray, were you born in this house?' - 'Yes.' - 'And, how far have you ever been from this house?' - 'Oh! I have been up in the parish, and over to Chute.' That is to say, the utmost extent of her voyages had been about two and a half miles! Let no one laugh at her, and, above all others, let not me, who am convinced, that the facilities, which now exist of moving human bodies from place to place, are amongst the curses of the country, the destroyers of industry, of morals, and, of course, of happiness. It is a great error to suppose, that people are rendered stupid by remaining always in the same place. This was a very acute woman, and as well behaved as need to be. ...
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