The church stands on the hillside just where the upward road to Cranbury begins to branch off. The churchyard is full of crosses, a large granite cross in memory of John Keble as rector in the midst, and there is a splendid Wellingtonia, or more properly a Sequoia, now about fifty years old, and overtopping the bell-turret. And the outside space on this side is scattered with horse chestnuts and elms. Below are the schools, and the irregular curving street of houses, thatched, tiled, or slated, in gardens or close to the road. Here stands Otterbourne House, and, after two large fields, more cottages, and the vicarage, like the schools, with the fancy brick chimneys moulded at Hursley. Not far beyond, the little stream that had crossed the meadows from the church is spanned by another bridge, belonging to the high-road from Winchester. Thence may be seen the source of the stream, in Pool Hole, said to be fed from Merdon well, and now forced to spread into a bed of watercresses. And here begins Compton, Silkstede is in sight, and the round of the parishes is completed with King’s Lane, turning to the west from the high road to Winchester. CHAPTER XV WORDS AND PHRASES BEFORE entirely quitting the parish, a few of the older words and forms of expression may be recorded, chiefly as remembered from the older generation, for “the schoolmaster” and the influx of new inhabitants have changed much that was characteristic of the genuine West Saxon. Nor, indeed, was there any very pronounced dialect, like a separate language. The speech is slow, and with a tendency to make _o_ like _aa_, as Titus Oates does in _Peveril of the Peak_. An Otterbourne man going into Devonshire was told, “My son, you speak French.” No one ever showed the true Hampshire south-country speech and turn of expression so well as Lady Verney in her _Lettice Lisle_, and she has truly Hampshire characters too, such as could once easily be matched in these villages. The words and phrases here set down are only what can be vouched for by those who have grown up to them:— WORDS _Caddle_, untidy condition. “In he comes when I’m all of a caddle.” _To stabble_, to walk about aimlessly, or in the wet. “Now, Miss, don’t you come stabbling in and out when I am scouring.” Or, “I can’t come stabbling down that there dirty lane, or I should be all of a muck.” _Want_, mole. _Chiselbob_, woodlouse; also called a cud-worm, and, rolled in a pill, put down the throat of a cow to promote the restoration of her cud, which she was supposed to have lost. _Gowk_, cuckoo. _Fuzz-Buzz_, traveller’s joy. _Palmer_, caterpillar. _Dish-washer_, water-wagtail. _Chink_, chaffinch. _Long-tailed caper_, long-tailed tit. _Yaffil_, green woodpecker. “The yaffil laughed loud.”—See _Peacock at Home_. _Smellfox_, anemone. _Dead men’s fingers_, orchis. _Granny’s night-cap_, water avens. _Jacob’s ladder_, Solomon’s seal. _Lady’s slipper_, Prunella vulgaris. _Poppy_, foxglove.