Southampton, as a chartered borough, may rank with the oldest in the kingdom. Madox, in his Firma Burgi, says that Henry II. "confirmed to his men, or burgesses of Southampton, their guild, and their liberties and customs by sea and land; he having regard to the great charges which the inhabitants thereof have been at in defending the sea-coasts." From a grant by the same king to the priory of St. Dionysius, it appears that there were then four churches in Southampton. While the English were in possession of Guienne, the merchants of Southampton carried on a considerable trade with Bayonne, Bordeaux, and other towns in the south of France.
In 1338 the town was assaulted and burnt by a party of French or Genoese; and in the next year an act was passed for its better fortification. Whatever injury the town might have sustained from the attack of the French or Genoese, it would seem that its trade as a port was not diminished by it; for, nine years afterwards, Southampton supplied twenty-one ships and four hundred and seventy-six mariners to the great fleet of Edward III. In consequence of another attack by the French, in the reign of Richard II., the fortifications were further strengthened. In 1415 the army of Henry V., destined for the invasion of France, assembled at Southampton, where, previous to their embarkation, the Earl of Cambridge, Lord Scrope, and Sir Thomas Grey, were executed for high treason. The result of this memorable expedition was the victory of Agincourt. While the English continued to hold possession of part of France, the trade of Southampton appears to have been very flourishing, and the port was one of the principal in the south of England for the import of wine. Camden, writing about 1586, describes it as a town famous for the number and neatness of its buildings, the wealth of its inhabitants, and the resort of merchants; "but now," adds Camden's translator, writing about a hundred years afterwards, "it is not in the same flourishing condition as formerly it was; for having lost a great part of its trade, it has lost most of its inhabitants too; and the great houses of merchants are now dropping to the ground, and only show its ancient magnificence."[8]
For the last fifty years the trade of Southampton, as a port, has been gradually reviving; and at present there is no port in the south of England in a more flourishing condition. The arrival and departure of the numerous large steamers belonging to the Oriental and Peninsular and the West India Mail Packet Companies, give it an air of activity and importance very different from the character given of it in the preceding paragraph. The splendid docks, and the facilities afforded by the railway, have induced the government of the day to select it as an eligible point for the embarkation of a large portion of the emigrants sent out with free or assisted passages to the Australian colonies.
SOUTHAMPTON.
THE WALLS.
"Of yore, Southampton, by thy briny flood,
Girt with his courtly train, great Canute stood;
And, turning from the disobedient wave,
A check severe to servile flattery gave."
The accompanying View shows a portion of those ancient fortifications within which the town of Southampton was originally enclosed. The walls are in many places quite demolished; but in others they still present a venerable, though dilapidated appearance, with the remains of several towers at regular intervals, after the manner of fortified cities. The circuit of the walls is computed at nearly two miles. With regard to the precise date at which the walls were erected, there is no certain record. The north, east, and south walls bear every mark of uniform regularity in their structure: the gates of the town are apparently of the same date with the walls, and much resemble each other in the massy, flat form of their pointed arches, which rise at an angle from their piers, being struck from centres below the level of their spring—a mode of construction chiefly used in the reign of Edward the First. Yet the remains of semicircular towers, still visible on the Bargate, and which flanked its round arch, very much resembling the towers on the north and east walls, lead us to suspect that the wall, on the land side at least, is of higher antiquity than the time of the Edwards, and that the present gates were built later than the wall. The very singular position of the Water-gate, which retires thirty feet behind the eastern part of the south wall, and the awkward position of the South-gate, at the very angle of the wall, seem to indicate that these gates were not parts of the original design. From the south-west angle of the wall, quite to the Bridle-gate, which was close to the vallum of the Castle, the whole wall is a mass of irregular and almost inexplicable construction. It is conjectured that the side of the town, protected as it was by the Castle, and covered by the sea, was not at all, or but very slightly fortified, until the fatal experience of the sack of the town by the French proved that some further defence was necessary. The line of the town wall, south of the West-gate, is irregular in its construction; and the wall between the West and Bridle-gates bears evident marks of having been built in the most hasty manner, and with the greatest economy of materials. This wall, in its present form, Sir Henry Englefield supposes to have been built about the period when, according to the old historians, Richard the Second fortified the town, and built, or probably repaired and strengthened, the Castle, for it had evidently been built several centuries before his reign.