The Project Gutenberg eBook, Old Times at Otterbourne, by Charlotte M.
Yonge

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Title: Old Times at Otterbourne

Author: Charlotte M. Yonge

Release Date: February 19, 2008 [eBook #24651]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OLD TIMES AT OTTERBOURNE***

Transcribed from the 1891 Warren and Son edition by David Price, email
ccx074@pglaf.org

{The Keble Cross--Otterbourne Churchyard: p0.jpg}

{Picture from title page: p1.jpg}

Old Times
at Otterbourne.

BY
CHARLOTTE M. YONGE.

[SECOND EDITION.]

Winchester:
WARREN AND SON, PRINTERS AND PUBLISHERS, HIGH STREET.

London:
SIMPKIN AND CO., LIMITED, STATIONERS' HALL COURT.
1891

Old Times at Otterbourne.

Not many of us remember Otterbourne before the Railroad, the Church, or
the Penny Post. It may be pleasant to some of us to try to catch a few
recollections before all those who can tell us anything about those times
are quite gone.

To begin with the first that is known about it, or rather that is
guessed. A part of a Roman road has been traced in Otterbourne Park, and
near it was found a piece of a quern, one of the old stones of a hand
mill, such as was used in ancient times for grinding corn; so that the
place must have been inhabited at least seventeen hundred years ago. In
the last century a medallion bearing the head of a Roman Emperor was
found here, sixteen feet beneath the surface. It seems to be one of the
medallions that were placed below the Eagle on the Roman Standards, and
it is still in the possession of the family of Fitt, of Westley.

After the Roman and British times were over, this part of the country
belonged to Wessex, the kingdom of the West Saxons, of which Winchester
was the capital. Lying so near the chief town, which was the Bishop's
throne, this place was likely soon to be made into a parish, when
Archbishop Theodore divided England in dioceses and parishes, just twelve
hundred years ago, for he died 690. The name no doubt means the village
of the Otters, and even now these creatures are sometimes seen in the
Itchen, so that no doubt there were once many more of t