In the reign of Henry VIII., two castles were built at the mouth of the river Medina to defend the passage to Newport. The old castle at West Cowes is still standing, but that of East Cowes has long been demolished. The castellated building seen in the engraving is a gentleman's seat, and is of modern erection, combining the interior comforts of modern civilization with the exterior grandeur of a baronial residence of the middle ages; but whether such a combination is lawful, admits of a doubt. Beheld from the sea, with its towers and battlements rising above the luxuriant plantations around it, has a fine and imposing effect. The grounds are extensive and well designed, possessing at once the scenery of a park and the cultivated beauty of a pleasure-ground.
Cowes harbour is spacious and commodious; and the roads off the mouth of the river, which afford excellent anchorage, used frequently to be crowded, in time of war, with merchant-vessels waiting for convoy; and the towns derived great advantage from supplying ships, while thus detained, with provisions and small stores. The loss of a great part of this trade, on the termination of the war, has perhaps been more than compensated by Cowes having become the rendezvous of the Royal Yacht Squadron, which was first established under the name of the Yacht Club, in 1815. The number of vessels belonging to the squadron is about a hundred, and their aggregate tonnage is nearly 9,000 tons. The members have a club-house at Cowes; and at the annual regatta, which generally takes place about the last week in August, there are usually upwards of two hundred vessels assembled in the roads, to witness the sailing for the different prizes.
The town of West Cowes is situated on the declivity, and at the base of a hill, on the summit of which stands the church. The streets are mostly narrow, and irregularly built; but recently the town and its vicinity have been much improved by the erection of several large houses and beautiful villas. There is a regular communication between Cowes and Southampton, by steam-boats, which, in summer, leave each place twice a day. East Cowes is a much smaller place than West Cowes; but, like the latter, it has been greatly enlarged within the last twenty years.
In the vicinity of East Cowes is situated Osborne House, the marine residence of her Majesty and the royal family, for whose accommodation great additions and improvements have been made to the house and grounds, and what was formerly the seat of a private gentleman, has now been rendered a palace worthy of the royalty of England. The brief limits to which our notices are confined preclude us from entering upon a description of an edifice to which we could do but very imperfect justice, and which, after all, must derive its chief interest from the illustrious family who occupy its walls, and avail themselves of its peculiarly advantageous situation as the starting point for those marine excursions in which the Queen and her Consort so frequently indulge. The presence of royalty in its neighbourhood has rendered Cowes one of the most fashionable, as nature had previously made it one of the most beautiful, of the watering places on our southern coast, while the facilities afforded by the competing lines of the London and South Western, and London and South Coast Railways, render it at all times easy of access from the metropolis.
SOUTHAMPTON.
The town of Southampton is situated in the county of the same name, or, as it is more frequently called, Hampshire. It is built on a point of land at the confluence of the river Itchin with the estuary called the Anton, but which is more generally known as Southampton Water. The origin of the name of the town—which has unquestionably given its name to the county—does not appear to have been satisfactorily ascertained; some writers supposing it to be composed of the Saxon words, ham and tun or ton—which are nearly synonymous, and each equivalent to the modern English town—with the prefix South to distinguish it more emphatically from Northampton. Others, however, consider that the name has been derived from the river Anton, on the banks of which the town is situated. "The town of Andover," says Sir Henry Englefield, "the village of Abbot's-An, the farm of Northanton, and the hamlet of Southanton, both near Overton, and not far from the eastern source of the river Anton or rather Ant, are abundant proofs of the probability of this etymology."