John Keble's Parishes Read online

  The parish here borders on Bishopstoke, and the Grange commands a pleasant view over the water meadows, and up the opposite Bishopstoke Hill. Otterbourne Park reaches down to where the meadows begin along the course of the Itchen.

  In these meadows, the will-of-the-wisp has undoubtedly been seen, as well as in a wet field in the central part of the parish; but it is a disappointing phenomenon-nothing but a misty, pale bluish light, rather like the reality of a comet's tail, and if "he" was by "Friar's Lantern led," "he" must have had a strong imagination.

  Probably drainage, sawmills, and brick-making have exorcised Jack-o'-Lantern, for Allbrook, from a hamlet of four cottages, has grown up into a considerable village, with a school-chapel of its own, and a large population. The two farms called Hams and Boyatt border it on the southern or Bishopstoke side, and on the northern it extends to Highbridge (apparently so called from the lowness of the bridge), where is another small hamlet, half Otterbourne half Twyford; and there was for many years a Roman Catholic chapel attached to a large cottage, and distinguished by a cross. It was endowed, but nearly all the flock having faded away, the endowment was transferred to Eastleigh, and it is now inhabited by a market gardener with numerous glass houses.

  It is the real Itchen that is crossed at Highbridge. The canal goes through Allbrook, but both serve the purpose of irrigation, and a network of ditches crosses the meadows. Both river and canal, too, are excellent for fishermen, who in the season can find

  here and there a lusty trout,

  And here and there a grayling

  in the clear stream, which now and then an otter inhabits, soon to serve as sport for his many enemies.

  Smooth and level, the river is still an unfailing source of enjoyment in the walks along the towing path, when moor-hens are swimming, and dipping on a glimpse of the spectator; when fish are rising, or sometimes taking a sudden "header" into the air and going down with a splash; when the water-vole rushes for his hole with head just above the water; when a blue flash of kingfisher darts by, and the deep blue or green dragon-flies sit on the sedges, or perhaps a tiny May-fly sits on a rail to shake off its last garment, and come forth a snow-white fairy thing with three long whisks at the tail.

  The real Itchen is the boundary, and beyond lies Brambridge. But on coming to the bridge over the canal, the road leads westward, towards Otterbourne Hill. First it skirts a stream, a tributary to the Itchen, and goes between meadows till the old church is reached, now only a chancel in the midst of old headstones, and still bordered with trees on the bank between it and the stream. There are square brick monuments covered with stone slabs. In the interstices there used to be a great deal of Adiantum nigrum-black maidenhair, but it has disappeared.

  The flowers are quite different from those of the peaty marshes on the opposite side of the district, belonging to an alluvial soil, washed down from the chalk hills. The great reed-mace adorns the Itchen, and going along the disused towing path of the canal there is to be found abundance of the black and golden spikes of the sedge, and the curious balls of the bur-reed, very like the horrid German weapon called a morning star. Also meadow-sweet, meadow-rue, and comfrey of every shade of purple, the water avens and forget-me-not, also that loveliest plant the bog-bean, with trefoil leaves and feathery blossoms. Orchis latifolia is in plenty, and also Orchis incarnata, sometimes called the Romsey orchis. Of late years the mimulus has gilded the bank of one of the ditches. Is it compensation for the Pinguicula vulgaris, which has been drained away, or the mountain pink at Highbridge, which I suspect some gardener of appropriating? Higher up the course of the river, Orchis conopsea, long-spurred and very sweet, the compact Orchis pyramidalis, and the rare Epipactis palustris are to be found, as well as Campanula Glomerata, and crow garlic, in an old chalk-pit nearly destroyed by the railway and the water works.

  Otterbourne Farm bounds the churchyard on the west side, and below, on either side of a low bridge, stand two fine yew trees where boys in the old church days used to climb and devour the waxen berries with impunity. Meadows lie on each side the road, and on the left is a short lane, leading up to the old manor house, the Moat-house but it is no longer even a farm-house-the moat is choked with mud and reeds, and only grows fine forget-me-nots, and the curious panel picture of a battle, apparently between Turks and Austrians, has been removed. The fields beyond, bordering on Otterbourne Park, are the best for cowslips in the parish.

  Returning into the road, whose proper name is Kiln Lane, the way leads between two fields, oddly enough called Courtiers, rising a little, and with a view of Otterbourne Hill, the east side of which, below the slope of Otterbourne Park, has been laid out in allotments for more than fifty years, at first by Mr. Yonge, though it has now been taken in hand by the Parish Council, and it makes a pleasant picture of stripes of various shades of green and brown with people working in them. The hedge sweeps round in a curve, leaving a space where stands the Pound, still sometimes used for straying cattle. The Stocks were once there, but never used in the memory of man.

  The valley is of clay, strong yellow clay favourable to oaks, though too many have been cut down, whenever they came to a good size in the hedges; but in the grounds of Otterbourne House, where they have been undisturbed for at least eighty years, there are a number of very handsome well-grown trees; and near them is Dell Copse, dug out for the bricks for the "King's House," and the home of countless daffodils. Half way up the hill is a small spring, where the water rises so as to make little jets of sand. It flows down in a gutter to the green at the opening of Kiln Lane, around the Pound, and here spreads into a pool, called the Dip Hole, the resort of cows from the common, and long of village women, as the blue galt below the yellow clay never affords good water, but this has been remedied by water works.

  At this spot Kiln Lane opens into the high-road, and there is a broad space of green at nearly the bottom of the hill, before the main body of the village begins. Every line in the place is a curve-hedges, roads, gardens and all, and this gives the view a peculiar grace, so that one of the old men used to say he knew not where to find a better or prettier view than looking down into the village from the hill, and on far beyond to Owslebury, Crowd Hill, and Longwood Warren, a lovely home view.

  The church stands on the hillside just where the upward road to Cranbury begins to branch off. The churchyard is full of crosses, a large granite cross in memory of John Keble as rector in the midst, and there is a splendid Wellingtonia, or more properly a Sequoia, now about fifty years old, and overtopping the bell-turret. And the outside space on this side is scattered with horse chestnuts and elms.

  Below are the schools, and the irregular curving street of houses, thatched, tiled, or slated, in gardens or close to the road. Here stands Otterbourne House, and, after two large fields, more cottages, and the vicarage, like the schools, with the fancy brick chimneys moulded at Hursley.

  Not far beyond, the little stream that had crossed the meadows from the church is spanned by another bridge, belonging to the high-road from Winchester. Thence may be seen the source of the stream, in Pool Hole, said to be fed from Merdon well, and now forced to spread into a bed of watercresses.

  And here begins Compton, Silkstede is in sight, and the round of the parishes is completed with King's Lane, turning to the west from the high road to Winchester.

  CHAPTER XV-WORDS AND PHRASES

  Before entirely quitting the parish, a few of the older words and forms of expression may be recorded, chiefly as remembered from the older generation, for "the schoolmaster" and the influx of new inhabitants have changed much that was characteristic of the genuine West Saxon. Nor, indeed, was there any very pronounced dialect, like a separate language. The speech is slow, and with a tendency to make o like aa, as Titus Oates does in Peveril of the Peak . An Otterbourne man going into Devonshire was told, "My son, you speak French." No one ever showed the true Hampshire south-country speech and turn of expression so well as Lady Verney in her Lettice Lisle , and she has tru
ly Hampshire characters too, such as could once easily be matched in these villages.

  The words and phrases here set down are only what can be vouched for by those who have grown up to them

  WORDS

  Caddle, untidy condition.

  "In he comes when I'm all of a caddle."

  To stabble, to walk about aimlessly, or in the wet.

  "Now, Miss, don't you come stabbling in and out when I am scouring."

  Or,

  "I can't come stabbling down that there dirty lane, or I should be all of a muck."

  Want, mole.

  Chiselbob, woodlouse; also called a cud-worm, and, rolled in a pill, put down the throat of a cow to promote the restoration of her cud, which she was supposed to have lost.

  Gowk, cuckoo.

  Fuzz-Buzz, traveller's joy.

  Palmer, caterpillar.

  Dish-washer, water-wagtail.

  Chink, chaffinch.

  Long-tailed caper, long-tailed tit.

  Yaffil, green woodpecker.

  "The yaffil laughed loud."-See Peacock at Home.

  Smellfox, anemone.

  Dead men's fingers, orchis.

  Granny's night-cap, water avens.

  Jacob's ladder, Solomon's seal.

  Lady's slipper, Prunella vulgaris.

  Poppy, foxglove.

  To routle, to rummage (like a pig in straw).

  To terrify, to worry or disturb.

  "Poor old man, the children did terrify him so, he is gone into the Union."

  Wind-list, white streak of faint cloud across a blue sky, showing the direction of the wind.

  Shuffler, man employed about a farmyard.

  Randy go, uproar.

  "I could not sleep for that there randy go they was making."

  Pook, a haycock.

  All of a pummy, all of a moulter, because it was so very brow, describing the condition of a tree, which shattered as it fell because it was brow, i.e. brittle.

  Leer, empty, generally said of hunger.-See German.

  Hulls, chaff. The chaff of oats; used to be in favour for stuffing mattresses.

  Heft, Weight.

  To huck, to push or pull out. Scotch (howk).

  Stook, the foundation of a bee hive.

  Pe-art, bright, lively, the original word bearht for both bright and pert.

  Loo (or lee), sheltered.

  Steady, slow.

  "She is so steady I can't do nothing with her."

  Kickety, said of a one-sided wheel-barrow that kicked up (but this may have been invented for the nonce).

  Pecty, covered with little spots of decay.

  Fecty, defective throughout-both used in describing apples or potatoes.

  Hedge-picks, shoes.

  Hags or aggarts, haws.

  Rauch, smoke (comp. German and Scotch).

  Pond-keeper, dragon-fly.

  Stupid, ill-conditioned.

  To plim, to swell, as bacon boiled.

  To side up, to put tidy.

  Logie, poorly, out-of-sorts.

  VILLAGE SPECIFICS.

  Cure for Epilepsy

  To wear round the neck a bag with a hair from the cross on a he-donkey.

  Or,

  To wear a ring made of sixpences begged from six young women who married without change of name.

  Cure for Whooping Cough

  An infusion of mouse ear hawkweed (Hieracium Pilosella), flavoured with thyme and honey. This is really effective, like other "yarbs" that used to be in vogue.

  Cure for Shingles

  Grease off church bells.

  For Sore Throat

  Rasher of fat bacon fastened round the neck.

  For Ague

  To be taken to the top of a steep place, then violently pushed down.

  Or,

  To have gunpowder in bags round the wrists set on fire.

  Powdered chaney (china), a general specific.

  PHRASES

  Singing psalms to a dead horse, exhorting a stolid subject.

  Surplice, smock-frock.

  "Ah! sir, the white surplice covers a great deal of dirt"-said by a tidy woman of her old father.

  "And what be I to pay you?"

  "What the Irishman shot at," i.e. nothing-conversation overheard between an old labourer and his old friend, the thatcher, who had been mending his roof.

  "Well, dame, how d'ye fight it out?"-salutation overheard.

  CURATE. Have you heard the nightingale yet?

  BOY. Please, sir, I don't know how he hollers.

  Everything hollers, from a church bell to a mouse in a trap.

  A tenth child, if all the former ones are living, is baptized with a sprig of myrtle in his cap, and the clergyman was supposed to charge himself with his education.

  If possible, a baby was short-coated on Good Friday, to ensure not catching cold.

  The old custom (now gone out) was that farmers should send their men to church on Good Friday. They used all to appear in their rough dirty smock frocks and go back to work again. Some (of whom it would never have been expected) would fast all day.

  The 29th of May is still called Shick-shack day-why has never been discovered. There must have been some observance earlier than the Restoration, though oak-apples are still worn on that day, and with their oak sprays are called Shick-shack.

  On St. Clement's Day, the 23rd of November, explosions of gunpowder are made on country blacksmiths' anvils. It is viewed as the blacksmiths' holiday. The accepted legend is that St. Clement was drowned with an anchor hung to his neck, and that his body was found in a submarine temple, from which the sea receded every seven years for the benefit of pilgrims. Thus he became the patron of anchor forgers, and thence of smiths in general. Charles Dickens, in Great Expectations describes an Essex blacksmith as working to a chant, the refrain of which was "Old Clem." I have heard the explosions at Hursley before 1860, but more modern blacksmiths despise the custom. At Twyford, however, the festival is kept, and at the dinner a story is read that after the Temple was finished, Solomon feasted all the artificers except the blacksmiths, but they appeared, and pointed out all that they had done in the way of necessary work, on which they were included with high honour.

  St. Thomas's Day, 21st December, is still at Otterbourne held as the day for "gooding," when each poor house-mother can demand sixpence from the well-to-do towards her Christmas dinner.

  Christmas mummers still perambulate the villages, somewhat uncertainly, as their performance depends on the lads willing to undertake it, and the willingness of some woman to undertake the bedizening of them with strips of ribbon or coloured paper; and, moreover, political allusions are sometimes introduced which spoil the simplicity. The helmets are generally made of wallpaper, in a shape like auto-da-fé caps, with long strips hanging over so as to conceal the face, and over the shirts are sewn streamers.

  Thus tramp seven or eight lads, and stand drawn up in a row, when the foremost advances with, at the top of his hoarse voice:

  Room, room, brave gallants, room,

  I'm just come to show you some merry sport and game,

  To help pass away

  This cold winter day.

  Old activity, new activity, such activity

  As never was seen before,

  And perhaps never will be seen no more.

  (Alas! too probably. Thanks to the schoolmaster abroad.)

  Then either he or some other, equipped with a little imitation snow, paces about announcing himself:

  Here comes I, Old Father Christmas, Christmas, Christmas,

  Welcome or welcome not,

  I hope old Father Christmas

  Will never be forgot.

  All in this room, there shall be shown

  The dreadfullest battle that ever was known.

  So walk in, St. George, with thy free heart

  And see whether thou canst claim peace for thine own part.

  So far from "claiming peace," St. George waves (or ought to wave) his wooden
sword, as he clumps forth, exclaiming:

  In comes I, St. George, St. George, that man of courage bold,

  With my broad sword and spear I won the crown of gold,

  I fought that fiery dragon,

  And drove him to the slaughter,

  And by that means I won

  The King of Egypt's daughter.

  Therefore, if any man dare enter this door

  I'll hack him small as dust,

  And after send him to the cook's shop

  To be made into mince-pie crust!

  On this defiance another figure appears:

  Here comes I, the Turkish knight

  Just come from Turkey land to fight;

  I'll fight thee, St. George, St. George, thou man of courage bold,

  If thy blood be too hot, I'll quickly make it cold.

  To which St. George responds, in the tone in which he would address a cart-horse:

  "Wo ho! My little fellow, thou talk'st very bold,

  Just like the little Turks, as I have been told,

  Therefore, thou Turkish knight,

  Pull out thy sword and fight,

  Pull out thy purse and pay,

  I'll have satisfaction, or thou guest away.

  Turkish Knight.

  Satisfaction, no satisfaction at all,

  My head is made of iron, my body lined with steel,

  I'll battle thee, to see which on the ground shall fall.

  The two wooden swords clatter together till the Turkish knight falls, all doubled up, even his sword, with due regard to his finery; and St. George is so much shocked that he marches round, lamenting:

  O only behold what I have been and done,

  Cut and slain my brother, just the evening sun.