The country people, who seldom want for sarcastic
shrewdness, call it 'Rag Hall!'"
Nearly four miles from Whitchurch comes Overton, once a market but now
a quiet village that shows signs of activity (apart from the ceaseless
procession of motor traffic) only on one day in the year, July 18,
when a great sheep fair takes place. For Overton is a centre of the
great sheep-down country of north Hampshire. The church is
unremarkable except that the nave has Norman pillars with arches of a
later date above them. The fine old manor house near the railway
station is called Quidhampton.
After passing Ashe we reach Deane, where a road to the right leads in
a mile and a half to Steventon, at the rectory of which village Jane
Austen was born in 1775, her father holding the incumbency for many
years. As we rejoin the main road Church Oakley lies to the right at
the source of the Test. Here stands a church built about 1525 by
Archbishop Warham, whose ancestors lived at Malshanger, nearly two
miles away to the north. After passing Worting, ten miles from
Whitchurch and two from Basingstoke, that we are nearing a large town
becomes apparent, and soon the gaunt and curious clock tower of
Basingstoke Town Hall comes into view, a land-mark for many miles.
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