The old beams and the large
sixteenth-century gallery have escaped "improvement." The oak pulpit
is said to date from the early fifteenth century. The most striking
feature of the interior is a canopy over the chancel arch, a relic of
the rood that once stood beneath it. Several interesting brasses of
the At Moores, and a squint at the back of a recess, or image niche,
should be noticed. George Whitfield's first ministry was in this
church. Close by is the ancient manor house, partly of the fourteenth
century, and on the Basingstoke side of the village is Kempshott Park,
a "hunting lodge" of George IV. The bare rolling Downs reach a height
of over 650 feet east of Dummer, in the neighbourhood of Farleigh
Wallop and Nutley. On the other side of the Winchester highway North
Waltham has a rebuilt church in "Norman" style. Steventon, the
birthplace of Jane Austen, already mentioned, is but a short distance
farther. East Stratton is another out-of-the-way village off the high
road to the left and just beyond Stratton House, a seat of the Earl of
Northbrook. A magnificent avenue of beech trees leads to Micheldever
village, and also, in the opposite direction to the station, to that
point on the South Western Railway where the traveller to Southampton
notes that the exhausted pant of the engine has changed to an easy
glide as the train passes the summit tunnel and rolls down to
Winchester.
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