Ruined as is the place, and for many years reduced to be a mere garden of liquorice, enough remains to interest very deeply those who are conversant with our ancient military structures, and especially such of them as are of Saxon or English foundation, and have been recast to suit the Norman fashions of defence.

PORCHESTER CASTLE, HANTS.

ALTHOUGH England is rich in Roman remains, and full of material traces of the all-pervading energy of that race of conquerors and colonists, such remains are chiefly roads, encampments, foundations of domestic buildings, and less frequently of fortresses or military works in masonry. Of these latter the chief are Burgh, Caerleon, Caerwent, Caistor, Pevensey, Richborough, and Silchester; parts of Colchester, Lincoln, Wroxeter, and York, and a few traces at Chester and Leicester. But of these, not inconsiderable remains, none are to be compared for completeness of preservation, and but few for extent of area, with Porchester.

That Porchester is a Roman work is unquestionable, though this certainty is not derived from its early history, of which little has been preserved, but from the evidence afforded by its plan, materials, and workmanship, confirmed in some measure by the relation of its walls to the additions of the Norman period; also, an undoubted Roman way connects Porchester with Venta Belgarum or Winchester.

This celebrated fortress is built upon a low point of land which projects into the inner or northern part of Portsmouth Harbour, dividing that spacious and secluded inlet into two heads, and expressing in its name both its position and its character. It is placed about 3 miles above the narrow entrance which, flanked by the towns of Portsmouth and Gosport, is the passage from the larger and exterior roadstead of Spithead.

PORCHESTER CASTLE.

In its present and tolerably perfect condition, Porchester is a walled enclosure, square or nearly so, containing within its area close upon 9 acres. The investing walls measure, by the larger Ordnance survey, 210 yards north and south, and 207 yards east and west. They range from 15 feet to 40 feet high, and from 6 feet to 10 feet thick. They were supported outside by four mural bastions on each face, and one at each angle, in all twenty, of which six have at various times been removed, two from the east, one from the north and from the west, and two from the north-west and south-east angles. Those bastions which remain are half-round, 19 feet to 20 feet in diameter, and have slightly prolonged and flattened sides. The angle bastions are of the same pattern. That to the north-west was removed to make way for the keep; that to the south-east has fallen, undermined by the sea. The two remaining are open at the gorge, as are the two upon the east front. The rest are closed, and probably all were originally so, for the interior work is very rough indeed, and seems intended to have been concealed with earth and rubbish, as was often the fashion in Roman bastions. Probably some of those now open have been cleared out by the Norman architect, to make use of the interior, but the gorge wall of one of those to the south has recently given way, and the interior is seen rough as the Roman builders left it. These bastions at present, with one exception, rise no higher than the curtain, no doubt their original condition, but it seems probable that the Normans raised a story upon them, and thus converted them into mural towers. They stand from 41 yards to 42 yards apart, from centre to centre, the distances being slightly unequal. On the west face the two bastions flanking the gate are 48 yards asunder.