PORTSMOUTH.
PORTSMOUTH POINT.
H.M.S. "VICTORY."
We will follow Southampton Water down to its entrance, where the two broad channels dividing the Isle of Wight from the mainland—the Solent and Spithead—join, and at the point jutting out on the western angle pass Calshot Castle, founded for coast-defence by Henry VIII., and now occupied by the coast-guard. Skirting along Spithead, which is a prolongation of the Southampton Water, without change of direction, at about twenty miles from Southampton we round Gillkicker Point, forming the western boundary of Portsmouth harbor. Here is Gosport, and east of it is Portsea Island, about four miles long and two and a half miles broad, on which Portsmouth is located, with its suburbs known as Portsea, Landport, and Southsea. Portsmouth is on the south-western part of the island, separated from Portsea by a small stream to the northward, both being united in a formidable fortress whose works would require thirteen thousand men to man, though the ordinary garrison is about twenty-five hundred. The royal dockyard, covering one hundred and twenty acres, is at Portsea, and at Gosport, opposite, are the storehouses, the channel between them, which extends for several miles between Portsea Island and the mainland, gradually widening until it attains three miles' breadth at its northern extremity. This channel affords anchorage for the largest vessels, and is defended by Southsea Castle on the eastern side and Moncton Fort on the western side of the entrance into Spithead, where the roadstead is sheltered by the Isle of Wight. Portsmouth was a port in the days of the Saxons, who in the sixth century called it Portsmuthe. It fitted out a fleet of nine ships to aid King Alfred defeat the Danes, and its vessels ineffectually endeavored to intercept the Normans when they landed near Hastings. In the fourteenth century the French burned the town, but were afterwards defeated with heavy loss. Ever since then the fortifications have been gradually improved, until now it is one of the strongest British fortresses. The Duke of Buckingham was murdered here in 1628, and part of the house where he was killed still remains. In 1757, Admiral Byng was executed here, and in 1782 the ship "Royal George" was sunk with Admiral Kempenfelt and "twice four hundred men." The town of Portsmouth contains little that is attractive beyond its ancient church of St. Thomas à Becket, built in the reign of Henry II., and containing on its register the record of the marriage of Charles II. with Catharine of Braganza in 1662. This marriage took place in the garrison chapel, which was originally the hospital of St. Nicholas, founded in the time of Henry III. The chief place of interest is the dockyard at Portsea, the entrance to which, by the Common Hard, or terrace fronting the harbor, bears the date of 1711. Here they have many relics of famous ships, and also vast numbers of boats, and all kinds of materials for building war-vessels, especially iron and armor-plated ships, with the docks and slips for their construction. Off the dockyard lies at anchor the most famous of the "wooden walls of old England," the "Victory," the ship in which Nelson died at Trafalgar, then the most powerful vessel of the British navy. Near her is anchored another celebrated man-of-war, the port-admiral's flag-ship, the "Duke of Wellington." The stores across the harbor at Gosport are on a large scale, and are known as the Royal Clarence Victualling Yard. In the southern part of Gosport is the Haslar Hospital for sick and disabled sailors and soldiers. From Gillkicker Point beyond, a sandbank stretches about three miles out from the shore in a south-easterly direction, and is called the Spit. This gives the name to the roadstead of Spithead, west of which is the quarantine station of Motherbank. This is the great roadstead of the British navy, and in the miles of docks, sheds, forges, basins, and shops of Portsmouth harbor that weary the tourist, who thinks he ought to dutifully go through them, are fashioned many of the monster iron-clads that modern improvements have made necessary in naval architecture.