Rural Life in Hampshire

Scenes of Rural Life in Hampshire among The Manors of Bramshott by W. W. Capes Rector of Bramshott and sometime Reader in Ancient History in the  University of Oxford

Published in 1901 this book comprises 356 pages with Illustrations and Map

In his preface, Rev Capes writes;  “At the close of a long period of ministerial work in Bramshott, the author has gathered up some memories of the past which may perhaps interest the friends from whom he has to part, as also possibly some others of a wider circle, who may care for illustrations of varied phases of rural life in England. Evidences for what is written in the text are given in the Appendices and Notes, but with a sparing hand, for often statements have been made after much study of family papers and of other local records, without the dry-as-dust details of references which might repel all but resolute readers with robust appetite for bristling facts.

It may be well to add that obvious inconsistencies in the spelling of personal and place names are not due to the vagaries of the writer or the printer, but represent in each case the actual practice of the times, when as yet there were no fixed standards to vex the soul of childhood, but all wrote as they pleased.”

 The contents include;

List of illustrations – Preface – Contents – Early Conditions – The formation of the parish – Manorial usages – The Royal Forests – The Religious Houses – The Old Order Changes – The Age of Enclosures – The Hookes and the Civil Wars – After the Restoration – The Eighteenth Century – Poor Laws and other Social Changes – Notes – Appendices – Map