John Keble's Parishes: A History of Hursley and Otterbourne

To explain the present undertaking, it should be mentioned that a history of Hursley and North Baddesley was compiled by the Reverend John Marsh, Curate of Hursley, in the year 1808. It was well and carefully done, with a considerable amount of antiquarian knowledge. It reached a second edition, and a good deal of it was used in Sketches of Hampshire, by John Duthy, Esq. An interleaved copy received many annotations from members of the Heathcote family. There was a proposal that it should be re-edited, but ninety years could not but make a great difference in these days of progress, so that not only had the narrative to be brought up to date, but further investigations into the past brought facts to light which had been unknown to Mr. Marsh.

It was therefore judged expedient to rewrite the whole, though, whenever possible, the former Curate’s work has been respected and repeated; but he paid little attention to the history of Otterbourne, and a good deal has been since disclosed, rendering that village interesting. Moreover, the entire careers of John Keble and Sir William Heathcote needed to be recorded in their relations to the parish and county. This has, therefore, here been attempted, together with a record of the building of the three churches erected since 1837, and a history of the changes that have taken place; though the writer is aware that there is no incident to tempt the reader—no siege of the one castle, no battle more important than the combat in the hayfield between Mr. Coram and the penurious steward, and, till the last generation, no striking character. But the record of a thousand peaceful years is truly a cause of thankfulness, shared as it is by many thousand villages, and we believe that a little investigation would bring to light, in countless other places, much that is well worth remembrance.

For the benefit of those who take an interest in provincial dialect, some specimens are appended, which come from personal knowledge.

The lists of birds and of flowers are both from the actual observation of long residents who have known the country before, in many instances, peculiarities have faded away before the march of progress.

The writer returns many warm thanks to those who have given much individual assistance in the undertaking, which could not have been attempted without such aid.

C. M. YONGE.

ELDERFIELD, OTTERBOURNE, 18th June 1898.

CONTENTS

PAGE CHAPTER I MERDON AND OTTERBOURNE 1 CHAPTER II MEDIÆVAL GIFTS 13 CHAPTER III REFORMATION TIMES 27 CHAPTER IV PURITAN TIMES 39 CHAPTER V CUSTOMS OF THE MANOR OF MERDON 53 CHAPTER VI CRANBURY AND BRAMBRIDGE 69 CHAPTER VII THE BUILDING AT HURSLEY 78 CHAPTER VIII OLD OTTERBOURNE 83 CHAPTER IX CHURCH BUILDING 92 CHAPTER X HURSLEY CHURCH 107 CHAPTER XI THE GOLDEN DAYS OF HURSLEY 125 CHAPTER XII HURSLEY VICARAGE 135 CHAPTER XIII LATER CHANGES 145 CHAPTER XIV A SURVEY 153 CHAPTER XV WORDS AND PHRASES 171 CHAPTER XVI NATURAL HISTORY 190

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

JOHN KEBLE, from the Pencil Drawing by John Frontispiece Bacon, jun., (1851), by permission of the Rev. J. B. Medley of Tyntesfield MERDON CASTLE AND WELL, HURSLEY PARK To face page 10 RICHARD CROMWELL, LORD PROTECTOR 49 THE OLD CHURCH AT HURSLEY 79 HURSLEY PARK HOUSE. N.-E. FRONT, 1867 81 EXTERIOR, OTTERBOURNE CHURCH 98 AMPFIELD CHURCH 102 FOUNTAIN AT AMPFIELD 103 HURSLEY VICARAGE AND CHURCH 122 SIR WILLIAM HEATHCOTE, Bart. After the picture 128 by George Richard, R.A., 1870; by permission of P. and D. Colnaglie and Co. HURSLEY CHURCH 141 INTERIOR, OTTERBOURNE CHURCH 144

[Picture: Map of Hursley, Otterbourne etc.]

CHAPTER I MERDON AND OTTERBOURNE

THE South Downs of England descend at about eight miles from the sea into beds of clay, diversified by gravel and sand, and with an upper deposit of peaty, boggy soil, all having been brought down by the rivers of which the Itchen and the Test remain.

On the western side of the Itchen, exactly at the border where the chalk gives way to the other deposits, lies the ground of which this memoir attempts to speak. It is uneven ground, varied by undulations, with gravelly hills, rising above valleys filled with clay, and both alike favourable to the growth of woods. Fossils of belemnite, cockles (cardium), and lamp-shells (terebratula) have been found in the chalk, and numerous echini, with the pentagon star on their base, are picked up in the gravels and called by the country people Shepherds’ Crowns—or even fossil toads. Large boulder stones are also scattered about the country, exercising the minds of some observers, who saw in certain of them Druidical altars, with channels for the flow of the blood, while others discerned in these same grooves the scraping of the ice that brought them down in the Glacial age.