pleasant, none, I believe, more healthy. The
fertility of this vale and of the surrounding country is best proved by
the fact that, besides the town of Alresford, and that of Southampton,
there are seventeen villages, each having its parish church, upon its
borders. When we consider these things, we are not surprised that a spot
situated about halfway down this vale should have been chosen for the
building of a city, or that that city should have been for a great
number of years the place of residence for the kings of England."

To-day the beautiful river winds in and out of the ancient streets, and
among the meadow lands, much as it did when Cobbett penned his _Rural
Rides_, although many charming examples of domestic architecture, which
then graced what was probably the most attractive High Street in
England, have been demolished or restored beyond recognition. As it
flows through the city proper, the river is divided up into a number of
small streams abounding in trout; but after a brief course these
rivulets unite just below the city, from whence the waterway is said to
be navigable all the way to Southampton. The bridge at the foot of the
High Street marks the former limit of the navigability of the river, and
is the reputed site of the legend concerning St. Swithun and the old
woman to whom the saint restored her eggs.

Before the advent of the railway, that great destroyer of our ancient
waterways, the Itchen was crowded with barges making their way from the
maritime port to the inland city; for, like so many of our old British
settlements, the site of Winchester was determined by the natural
conditions of the land which could be utilized for the purposes of
defence. Although every lock on the Itchen is now in ruins or choked by
weeds, and the last of its fleet of brown-sailed barges is derelict,
this is essentially a city whose origin goes back to the days when those
who, coming cautiously up from Southampton Water, reached at length the
practical part of the valley, where they built their stronghold under
the shelter of the downs, yet within easy reach of the sea. It was by
means of barges that much of the stone was brought for the building of
the numerous churches and monastic buildings. This was brought from the
Binstead Quarries in the Isle of Wight, from the Purbeck Quarries in
Dorset, and possibly from Portland as well.

There is ample evidence that Winchester was a British city (Caer-Gwent),
and the Ve