makes a pleasant and very English picture as we ascend the long road to St. Catherine’s Hill, which rises directly east of St. Cross.  This hill may be the true origin of Winchester as a settlement.  It is an ideal spot for a stronghold, either for those whom the Romans displaced or for the Conquerors themselves.  Its great entrenchments look down directly upon the river flowing in its several meandering channels beneath.  On the other side of the hill from the river valley the Roman highway comes in a great curve from its straight run off Deacon Hill to distant Porchester, though by far the greater portion of that course has been lost.  The bold clump of trees on the summit, so characteristic of the chalk hills, is visible for miles and takes the place of towers and spires to the returning Wykehamist, eager for his first glimpse of Winton.  Paths may be taken to the southward across Twyford Down that eventually lead into the Southampton highways, by which a return can be made to the city.

Among the more interesting near-by villages, that will repay the traveller for the walk thither, are the “Worthy’s":—­Headbourne, King’s, Abbot’s and Martyr’s.  To reach the church at Headbourne Worthy from the road one crosses a running stream by a footbridge.  The little building is Saxon in part and won the enthusiastic regard of Bishop Wilberforce.  It is exceedingly quaint and, although restored, unspoilt in appearance.  Over the porch was once a hermit’s cell.  The clipped and much maltreated stone Rood at the west door is Saxon work and the most interesting item in the church.

A little further away is King’s Worthy, with an uninteresting and rebuilt Perpendicular church in a pretty spot on the banks of the Itchen.  At the far end of the village the Roman road to Basingstoke leaves the way taken by the pilgrims from Winchester to Canterbury at Worthy Park, and the straggling houses on its sides soon become the hamlet of Abbot’s Worthy, a name reminiscent of the time when the countryside was parcelled out among the great religious houses.  This village was once in the possession of Hyde Abbey and afterwards became the property of that Lord Capel who defended Colchester for the King during the Civil War.  Martyr’s Worthy, a mile farther, has a Norman arch to the doorway of its church, but is otherwise unremarkable.  “Martyr,” by the way, is a misspelt abbreviation for “Mortimer.”  Itchen Abbas, the goal of this short journey, is not five miles from the centre of Winchester and is a great resort of fishermen.  Here Charles Kingsley came to stay at the “Plough” and, I am told, wrote a good part of Water Babies between spells upon the trout stream near-by.  Possibly these charming chapters were planned while the author watched the placid waters before him.