Alresford Was A Flourishing Market-Town, And Remarkable For This--
That Though It Had No Great Trade, And Particularly Very
Little, if
any, manufactures, yet there was no collection in the town for the
poor, nor any poor low enough
To take alms of the parish, which is
what I do not think can be said of any town in England besides.
But this happy circumstance, which so distinguished Alresford from
all her neighbours, was brought to an end in the year -, when by a
sudden and surprising fire the whole town, with both the church and
the market-house, was reduced to a heap of rubbish; and, except a
few poor huts at the remotest ends of the town, not a house left
standing. The town is since that very handsomely rebuilt, and the
neighbouring gentlemen contributed largely to the relief of the
people, especially by sending in timber towards their building;
also their market-house is handsomely built, but the church not
yet, though we hear there is a fund raising likewise for that.
Here is a very large pond, or lake of water, kept up to a head by a
strong BATTER D'EAU, or dam, which the people tell us was made by
the Romans; and that it is to this day part of the great Roman
highway which leads from Winchester to Alton, and, as it is
supposed, went on to London, though we nowhere see any remains of
it, except between Winchester and Alton, and chiefly between this
town and Alton.
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