[Illustration:  BASING.]

Basing church, which was used in the attack on the House, is of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and contains many memorials of the Paulet family.  Its outside is much more striking and handsome than its interior, which has a rather empty and featureless appearance.  Not far from Basing is the great entrenchment of Winklebury Castle, over 3,000 feet round.  From the edge of its commanding vallum Cromwell took the observations for his successful assault on Basing House.

Sherborne St. John, two miles north of Basingstoke, has an old church, with an ugly tower built in 1833.  The Brocas brasses and the fine Jacobean pulpit are interesting.  The Vyne, a celebrated mansion, is one mile farther along our road.  The greater part of the building is four hundred years old, though certain additions and alterations are due to Inigo Jones.  Its beautiful chapel has some old French glass, inserted in the windows in 1544, and other details of much interest.

Between the hills to the south, nearly four miles from Basingstoke, is the small village of Herriard and the neighbouring park named after it.  Its Transitional church has been much rebuilt, but still contains several items of interest, including a fine chancel arch and some old stained glass.  North-east of the park is the old and partly Saxon church of Tunworth, about four miles direct from Basingstoke.  The Herriard road continues in a little over six miles to Alton, a pleasant and out-of-the-way old town, but with little left of its former picturesque streets.  Alton is famous for its ale made from the hops grown in the immediate neighbourhood.  The church has a door covered with bullet marks, a legacy from the Civil War, when the troops of the Parliament under Waller attacked the Royalists, who had fled to the church for sanctuary.  A good deal of Norman work is visible in the base of the tower.  The Jacobean pulpit and misericords in the choir call for remark and also the interesting “memoriall” on a pillar of the nave to the “Renowned Martialist “—­Richard Boles—­who defended the church during the attack referred to above.

From Alton the Meon Valley Railway follows the high road to distant Fareham on the shores of Portsmouth Harbour, and penetrates a lonely countryside, perhaps the least-known portion of Hampshire.  For the first ten miles the railway and road traverse the uplands that are a continuation of the Sussex Downs and part of the great chalk range of southern England.  In one of the nooks of this tableland, two miles from the station at Tisted and four from Petersfield, is Selborne, made for ever famous by Gilbert White, who lived at The Wakes, the picturesque rambling old house opposite the church.  At West Meon the actual valley from which the railway takes its name is entered.  The infant stream, here a mere trickle under the hedgerows, comes down from East Meon, three miles away, where there is a cruciform church containing a black Tournai