The rounded chalk hills of Hampshire have protected not only the ancient capital of Anglo-Saxon England but also the two-thousand-year-old arsenal-harbor of the Royal Navy. It was in Hampshire that the novel reached its fullest expression through the native genius of Jane Austen, where fly-fishing and cricket were first organized, and where D-day was launched. But not the least of its claims is as the birthplace of nature writing, where Gilbert White first opened up a universe of observation to the world, by confining himself to the infinite details of his Hampshire parish of Selborne. This tradition was furthered in the county by W H Hudson, and reached its apogee with the night walks of the poet Edward Thomas before his early death in the trenches. If Hampshire is revealed to be a crystallization of all quiet virtues of England, we also get to delight in the affectionate mocking attention of Beryl Bainbridge, P G Wodehouse and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
