when it had the misfortune to be burnt.
It saw two of the Stuarts when the evil days for each were reaching
their culmination. Charles I stayed here on his way to the last battle
of Newbury, and James II slept at Priory House while retiring from
Salisbury to London just before the arrival of William of Orange. The
town returned two members to Parliament before the Reform Act, and
afterwards one until 1885. Half legendary are some of the tales of the
hustings at Andover in those days of "free and open" voting, and the
old "George" seems to have been a centre of the excitement on election
days, where most of the guineas changed hands and where most free
drinks were handed to the incorruptibles. It was here during the
candidature of Sir Francis Delaval that his attorney had occasion to
send him the following bill--

"To being thrown out of the window of the George Inn, Andover; to
my leg being broken; to surgeon's bill, and loss of time and business;
all in the service of Sir Francis Delaval
L500."

This rough treatment was in consequence of the poor lawyer having, at
his patron's instigation, invited the officers of a regiment quartered
in the town, and the mayor and corporation, to a dinner at the
"George," _each in the other's name_. At this same inn Cobbett, in one
of his _Rural Rides_, had an adventure with mine host and pushed his
opinions down the throat of the assembled company in his usual manner.
This inn, and the "Angel," were great places in the posting days, when
the Exeter Road was one of the most important arteries in England.
They are among the pleasant survivals of eighteenth-century Andover,
for there is nothing that appears on the surface older than that
period, except the Norman door of the churchyard--all that is left of
the fine building pulled down in 1840 to make way for the present
imitation Early English church--and a piece of wall on the north side,
a remnant of a cell belonging to the Benedictine Abbey of Saumur.
About three miles west of Andover is Weyhill, a village celebrated for
its fair and immortalized in _The Mayor of Casterbridge_. It at one
time claimed to be the largest in England, but in these changed days
its rural importance has diminished. The fair takes place in October
and now covers four consecutive days instead of the original six. The
first day is Sheep Fair followed by "Mop" (hiring), Pleasure, and Hop
Fairs with horses every da