les south-west of London, and thus shortens the sea voyage for
trade from the metropolis. The harbor is a fine one, the channel being
deep and straight, and affording good anchorage. In exploring the
antiquities of Southampton the visitor will be attracted by an ancient
house of the Plantagenet period located on St. Michael's Square, said to
have been occupied by Henry VIII. and Anne Boleyn, and the remains of
the town-walls. The old Bargate in these walls crosses the High Street,
dividing it into "Above Bar" and "Below Bar." In the ancient walls are
the antique towers known as Arundel Tower and Catch-Cold Tower, and also
a house (one of the oldest in England) built anterior to the twelfth
century, and known as King John's Palace. Southampton Park, called the
Common, is a pretty enclosure of three hundred and sixty acres just
north of the city. The picturesque ruins of Netley Abbey are about three
miles south of the city, and near them is the Royal Victoria Hospital,
established just after the Crimean War, both of them on the eastern bank
of Southampton Water.

PORTSMOUTH.

[Illustration: PORTSMOUTH POINT.]

[Illustration: 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 ext