SOUTHAMPTON (COUNTY-of), a county (maritime) on the southern coast, bounded on the east by the counties of Surrey and Sussex, on the north by that of Berks, on the west by Wiltshire and Dorsetshire, and on the south by the English Channel. Including the Isle of Wight, it extends from 50° 36' to51°23'(N. Lat.), and from 45' to 1° 53' (W. Lon.); and comprises an area of upwards of one thousand six hundred and twenty-eight square miles, or one million forty-one thousand nine hundred and twenty statute acres. The population, in 1821, was 283,298. At the period of the invasion of Britain by Cajsar, the southern parts of this district formed a portion of the territory of the Regni; and the more northern tracts, part of that of the Belgae, who had come over from Gaul, and violently dispossessed the former inhabitants. Under the Romans, it was included in the division called Britannia Prima. The Isle of Wight, called by the Roğ mans Vectis, is mentioned by Suetonius as having been conquered by Vespasian, about the year 43: no other traces of Roman occupation have, however, been at any time discovered in it than a few coins. At a subsequent period, the inhabitants of this part of the country bravely defended themselves against the fierce invasions of the Saxons. In the year 501, about fifty years after the first arrival of Hengist in Kent, Cerdic made a descent upon these shores at Charford, and a band of his allies, under Porta, effected a landing, with the crews of two ships, at Portsmouth. On the establishment of the kingdom of Wessex, by Cerdic, a great part of the county was included within the limits of that kingdom, at the same time that a part of its southern shores, together with the Isle of Wight, was comprised in the Saxon kingdom of Kent. The only British king whom the Saxons mention in the battles that preceded the establishment of this West Saxon kingdom, was Natanleod, who appears only in one great battle, fought in the tract now constituting the New Forest, in 508, in which he fell, with five thousand of his men; and such was the extent of his disaster, that all the territory near the scene of conflict was afterwards called by his name. In 519, Cerdic and his son Cynric obtained a victory over the Britons at Cer dices ford, and from this time the Saxon Chronicle dates the reign of the West Saxon kings. In 528, another conflict is mentioned at Cerdices-leah, but its issue rs not stated; and, in 530, Cerdic and his son conquered the Isle of Wight with great slaughter. This chieftain, who died in 534, appears only to have maintained himself in the district where he landed, and Mr.Whitaker thinks that all his operations were confined to this county; but his posterity enlarged his settlement into a kingdom so powerful as finally to absorb every other similar establishment in the island: its capital city was Winchester. In the year 661, the Isle of Wight was subdued by Wulfere, King of Mercia, who bestowed it upon the king of the South Saxons; but Ceadwalla, King of Wessex, a descendent of Cerdic's, retook it about fifteen years afterwards. The next remarkable occurrence upon record is, that a large fleet of the northern vikingr, or sea-kings, suddenly appeared off the coast of this county, in 860, and ravaged the country as far as Winchester, which city they plundered; but, being pursued on returning to their ships, they were overtaken, and defeated by the Earls of Hampshire and Berkshire. In 787, the Isle of Wight was seized by the Danes, who apparently designed to make it a place of retreat, whither they might retire with their plunder from the neighbouring coasts. How long they maintained themselves here is uncertain; but, in the reign of Alfred, they again landed on the island, and plundered the inhabitants. At Basing, in 870, the kings of Wessex, Ethelred and Alfred, were defeated by the North men. In 1001, in the reign of Ethelred, the Danes once more seized the Isle of Wight, and kept possession of it for many years after; and at Winchester, on November 13th, 1002, began the general massacre of that people, by Ethelred's order. In the reign of Edward the Confessor, the Isle of Wight was twice plundered by Earl Godwin, and again, in the reign of Harold, by Earl Tosti. The ancient British name of this district was Gwent, or Y Went, a term descriptive of its open downs; and hence the appellation Caer Gwent, or the city of the Gwentians, now Winchester. When the Saxon dominions in Britain were divided into shires, this district received the name of Hamtunscyre, from the ancient name of the present town of Southampton; this was afterwards corrupted into Hamptescyre, and hence its modern appellations of Hampshire and Hants. The name of the Isle of Wight is considered, by Mr. Whitaker and other antiquaries, to have been derived from the British word Guith, or Guict, signifying, the divorced or separated, and apparently indicating a supposition of its having once been connected with the main land; hence also arose its Roman name of Vectis, or the separated region: by the Saxons it was called Weet. It was off this island, in 1080, that William the Conqueror surprised his brother, the Bishop of Baieux, when setting out on his expedition to Italy; and in it he assembled the Norman chiefs, in whose presence he sentenced the bishop to imprisonment for quitting the realm without his permission. Between the period of the battle of Hastings, in 1066, and the Norman survey in 1086, William laid waste a large tract of country, in the south-western part of Hampshire, for the purpose of making a royal chase, destroying a great number of villages, together with no fewer than thirty-six parochial churches. The accidents that occurred to the family of the Conqueror in the New Forest (as this extensive waste has ever since been called) were regarded, by the oppressed Saxons, with a sort of patriotic superstition, as judgments for the cruelty of which that monarch had been guilty in forming it. In 1081, Richard, son of William, died, in consequence of having been dashed against a tree by his horse, in this forest; in 1100, Richard, son of Duke Robert, and nephew to William Rufus, was killed there by an arrow discharged inadvertently and William II. himself perished in this forest by a similar accident, in July of the same year. Winchester, from the earliest period of the Saxon kingdom of Wessex, had been the residence of the West Saxon monarchs; and, after the subjection of the other kingdoms of the Octarchy to the dominion of the sovereigns of Wessex, it continued to be one of the principal seats of the Saxon kings of England, as it was also of those of the Norman race, after the Conquest. The proximity of the New Forest to this city occasioned it to be the most frequented of the royal chases. Immediately on the death of William Rufus, his younger brother, Henry, hastened to Winchester, possessed himself of the royal treasure, and thence returned to London, where he was crowned. In 1101, however, Robert, Duke of Normandy, the Conqueror's eldest son, landed from the continent, with an army, at Portsmouth, to dispossess his brother of the crown which he had usurped, when an accommodation was. effected through the mediation of the barons. At Portsmouth also, in 1140, the Empress Maud and her brother Robert, Earl of Gloucester, landed, with only one hundred and forty attendants, designing to wrest the crown from the usurper Stephen; and, in the internal commotions that ensued, this county was the scene of much bloodshed. At Winchester, the king's forces and those of the empress carried on active military operations against each other for the space of seven weeks, the latter being ultimately compelled to retreat into the castle, which was thereupon vigorously besieged: the empress escaped by stratagem, and fled to Gloucester; but her troops, inarching out, were pursued by the royal army, and the Earl of Gloucester was taken prisoner at Stockbridge. On an exchange of prisoners (the earl being given up by one party, and King Stephen by the other), the earl again came to Winchester, but was compelled to abandon it by an army collected from the surrounding country. King John, having been compelled to sign Magna Charta, at Runymede, retired to the Isle of Wight, where he remained pending his correspondence with the pope for absolution from the oaths that he had then taken, and whilst raising, on thecontinentjthemercenarytroops which he afterwards employed to revenge himself on the barons. In 1016, in the sequel of the same contest, Odiham castle was defended for John, by only three officers and ten men, against Louis the Dauphin and his army, for the space of fifteen days. In the year 1338, the town of Southampton was plundered and burned by a force consisting of French, Spaniards, and Genoese; but the son of the king of Sicily, with three hundred of the invaders, was slain. In the year 1346, on July 6th, Edward III., and his son, Edward, the Black Prince, sailed from Southampton with the army with which they afterwards gained the victory of Crecy. In the reigns of Edward III. and Richard II., the Isle of Wight was several times assaulted by the French, and partially plundered. Carisbrooke castle, then the only fortress in it, was besieged by these invaders in the year 1377, but without success, and with great loss to the assailants. In this expedition, the French burned the village of Rye, and the towns of Yarmouth and Newtown, and levied a contribution of one thousand marks upon the inhabitants, whose non-resistance on oath they exacted in the event of their revisiting it within a year. In 1415, at Southampton, where Henry V. was preparing to embark with the army that afterwards distinguished itself on the plain of Agincourt, the conspiracy against the life of that monarch was discovered, for which the Earl of Cambridge and Sir Thomas Grey suffered death. The lordship of the Isle of Wight, in the 17th of Henry VI., came into the possession of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, to whom it had been granted in reversion, who seems to have enjoyed it until his death; although, two years previously to that event, Henry Beauchamp, Duke of Warwick, was made king of the Isle of Wight, by patent from Henry VI., the king himself assisting at the ceremony of his coronation: this nobleman died soon after, without male issue. At Beaulieu abbey, in 1471, Margaret of Anjou, and her son, Prince Edward, took sanctuary, on hearing of the defeat and death of the Earl of Warwick, until, being joined by the Duke of Somerset and other partisans, the queen was persuaded once more to enter the field. Sir Edward Widville, in the first of Henry VII., was made captain of the Isle of Wight; and, about three years afterwards, to ingratiate himself with the king, he persuaded the inhabitants to undertake an expedition to France, in aid of the Duke of Brittany, who was then in arms against the French monarch. From the numbers that flocked to his standard he selected about forty gentlemen and four hundred of the commonalty, and embarked with them for Brittany, in four vessels. In a battle fought at St. Aubin's, Sir Edward and all the English were slain, excepting one boy, who brought home the melancholy tidings. To encourage the population of the island, so much reduced by this slaughter, an act was soon afterwards passed, prohibiting any of the inhabitants from holding lands, farms, or tithes, above the annual rent of ten mai-ks. Perkin Warbeck, after his repulse before Exeter, in 1498, took sanctuary at Beaulieu, whence he surrendered himself to Henry VII., on promise of his life being spared. In 1573, the Emperor Charles V., who had been entertained at Winchester by Henry VIII., embarked at Southampton to return to Spain. In the thirty-sixth of the same reign, the French landed two thousand men in the Isle of Wight, from the fleet commanded by D'Aimebaut, who began to plunder and burn the villages, but were suddenly attacked by the captain of the island, Sir R. Worsley, and compelled to retreat to their ships, with the loss of their general and a considerable number of men: several forts were soon after constructed on different parts of the coast of this island. At Southampton, July 21st, 1554, Philip, Prince of Spain, afterwards Philip II., landed, and was united in marriage, on July 25th, at Winchester, to Mary, Queen of England. At Portsmouth, in 1628, George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, whilst preparing to embark, as commander of an expedition to relieve the Protestants of Rochelle, was assassinated by Felton. Early in the civil war of the seventeenth century, the parliament obtained possession of the Isle of Wight, by the removal of Jerome, Earl of Portland, who was attached to the royal cause; and, shortly after, Carisbrook castle was taken from the Countess of Portland and Col. Brett, to whom the king had entrusted it, by the Newport militia, aided by four hundred auxiliaries from vessels lying in the Medina river. The other forts in the island were also, in like manner, seized for the parliament, who appointed Philip, Earl of Pembroke, its governor; and it thenceforward happily escaped being a scene of that warfare which soon after desolated almost every other part of the kingdom: indeed, the security here enjoyed induced many families from the main land to take refuge in the island, until the period of the Restoration. In December 1643, in an engagement at Alton, in this county, the royalist Col. Bowles was killed, and his regiment taken prisoners, by the parliamentarian forces under Sir William Waller; and, in October 1645, Basing House, which had been heroically defended by the Marquis of Winchester, from August 1643, was at length stormed and taken by Cromwell in person. In 1647, Charles I., after his escape from Hampton Court, remained in concealment at Titchfield House, in this county, until he there surrendered himself to Col. Hammond, then Governor of the Isle of Wight, by whom he was conveyed to Carisbrook castle. After having been detained there, first as guest, and afterwards as prisoner, for the space of thirteen months, he was removed in close custody to Hurst castle, by a detachment of the parliamentarian army, on November 29th, 1648, whence he was shortly after conducted to London. At Portsmouth, on May 14th, 1662, landed Catherine, Infanta of Portugal, who was the next day given in marriage to Charles II. Bishop's Waltham and its neighbourhood, in the early part of the last century, were infested by a daring gang of depredators, who, from their custom of blacking their faces to prevent discovery, were termed "Waltham Blacks," and to repress whose excesses the famous Black Act was passed, in the 9th of George II., 1723. Shortly after the termination of the decisive campaign of 1815, His Majesty's ship Bellerophon appeared off Portsmouth, having on board Napoleon Buonaparte, who had submitted himself to the mercy of the British government. William the Conqueror, on his accession to the throne of England, granted the lordship of the Isle of Wight, with a palatine jurisdiction, to his kinsman, William Fitz-Osbert. It afterwards several times escheated to, and otherwise became vested in, the crown, and was as often granted to different noble families. Whether the Sir Edward Widville in the time of Henry VII., before mentioned, had received a grant of the lordship of it, is uncertain; but since the period of his death it has remained in the possession of the Crown, although some lands annexed to the castle at Carisbrook continue to be holden by the governor jure officii. From the time that Edward I. purchased this lordship of Isabella de Fortibus, the defence of the island was generally entrusted to some person nominated by the crown, who was at first distinguished by the appellation of warden, afterwards by that of captain and, in later times, by that of governor. This county is included in the diocese of Winchester, and province of Canterbury; the archdeaconry of Winchester is co-extensive with the county, and comprises the deaneries of Alresford, Alton, Andover, Basingstoke, Droxford, Fordingbridge, Sombourn, Southampton, Isle of Wight, and Winchester: the total number of parishes is three hundred and five, of which one hundred and fifty-four are rectories, seventy-two vicarages, and the remainder perpetual curacies. For purposes of civil government it is parcelled into the divisions of Alton (North), comprising the liberty of Airesford, and the hundreds of Alton, Bishop's Button, and Selborne; Alton (South), comprising the hundreds of East-Meon and Finch-Dean; Andover, comprising the hundreds of Andover, Barton-Stacey, King's- Sombourn, Thorngate, and Wherwell; Basingstoke, comprising the hundreds of Basingstoke, Bermondspit, Crondall, Holdshott, Mitcheldever, and Odiham Fawley, comprising the hundreds of Bountisborough, Buddlesgate, Fawley, Mainsborough, and Mansbridge; Kingsclere, comprising the hundreds of Chutely, Evingar, Kingsclere, Overton, and Pastrow; New Forest (East), comprising the liberties of Beaulieu, Dibden, and Lymington, and the hundreds of New Forest (East), New Forest (North), and Redbridge, and parts of Ringwood and Bishop's-Waltham; New Forest (West), comprising the liberties of Breamore and Westover, and the hundreds of Christchurch, Fordingbridge, and part of Ringwood; Portsdown, comprising the liberties of Alverstoke with Gosport, and Havant, and the hundreds of Bosmere, Fareham, Hambledon, Meon-Stoke, Portsdown, Titchfield, and part of Bishop's-Waltham and Isle of Wight, comprising the liberties of East and West Medina. It contains the city of Winchester the borough, market, and sea-port towns of Christchureh, Lymington, Newport, Portsmouth, Southampton, and Yarmouth; the borough and market towns of Andover, Petersfield, Stockbridge, and Whitchurch the borough and sea-port town of Newtown; the small sea-port towns of Emsworth (a dependency on the harbour of Portsmouth) and Brading; and the market-towns of New Alresford, Alton, Basingstoke, Fareham, Fordingbridge, Gosport, Havant, Kingsclere Odiham, Ringwood, Romsey, and Bishop's-Waltham. Two knights are returned to parliament for the shire, two representatives for the city of Winchester, and two for each of the boroughs: the county members are elected at Winchester. Hampshire is included in the western circuit: the assizes and quarter sessions are held at Winchester. There are one hundred and ten acting magistrates. The rates raised in the county for the year ending March 25th, 1827, amounted to £213,406.4.0., the expenditure to £210,526.13., of which, £184,928.18., was applied to the relief of the poor. The form of the county, exclusively of the Isle of Wight, approaches nearly to a square, having a triangular projection at its south-western corner. The Isle of Wight is separated from the main land by a strait of unequal breadth, formerly called the Solent Sea., now the Sound, or, more usually, the West Channel, the distance across which, at its western extremity, is only about a mile, while, towards its eastern end, it is as much as seven miles. The form of the island is somewhat rhomboidal, the greatest diagonal breadth being twenty-three miles from east to west, and the transverse diameter, from north to south, about thirteen miles. The surface of the whole county is beautifully varied by gently rising hills and fruitful vallies, and, in some parts, with extensive tracts of woodland. In the southern districts, approaching the coast, the population is much more dense than elsewherej the mildness of the seasons, the beauty of the landscapes, and the proximity to the ports, operating as strong inducements to the continued residence of many families, besides those engaged in commercial pursuits. The agricultural report drawn up by Charles Vancouver, Esq., for the consideration of the Hon. the Board of Agriculture, divides the main land into five districts. The first, called the woodland district, occupies the northern portion of the county, comprising an area of one hundred and three thousand nine hundred and fortyfour acres, and may be separated from the other parts by a line passing from the borders of Surrey, near Farnham in that county, immediately to the south of Odiham, to the north of Basingstoke, and to the south of Kingsclere and Highclere, to the confines of Berkshire, near East Woodhay: this includes the woodlands and wastes of Bagshot, &c. Its soil and substrata are various: in the eastern part of it are some darkish-coloured sands and a gravelly mould of good depth resting upon a dry subsoil, but intermingled with a stronger and wetter brown loam. The borders of the streams have narrow tracts of meadow and pasture land, the soil of which is, for the most part, a dark-coloured sandy, or gravelly, loam, lying on a variety of substrata of clay, loam, peat, and gravel, and abounding in springs, which render it of a wet and spongy nature, and cause it to produce herbage of inferior quality. The great mass of this district, however, has a strong brown and grey loam, resting upon a tough blue and yellow clay, having generally an excess of moisture, with numerous unsound and boggy places. Ascending from the woodland valley northward, the soil becomes of a rather lighter quality; but, still proceeding northward, this improvement is lost on a thin sandy and. gravelly mould, lying upon deep beds of white, red, and yellow sand and gravel, and a wet hungry loam, upon a moist, loose, white and yellow clay, which constitute the soil of part of Bagshot heath and Frimley common, in the county of Surrey. Along the southern side of this district, is a tract composed of a temperate mixed soil, situated between the heavy clays, just mentioned, and the chalk district, which will hereafter be described; upon this is found a large proportion of valuable grass land. Peat is got on the wastes, and in some of the enclosed grounds; a large quantity is annually dug on the commons of Cove, Farnborough, and Aldershot. The second district comprises the whole body of the county, from the borders of Wiltshire to those of Sussex and Surrey, being bounded, on the north, by the last-mentioned tract, and, on the south, by a line drawn from the vicinity of Sherfield-English, on the western confines of the county, near Lockerley, Mottisfont, Mitchelmarsh, and Hnrsley, to the south of Bishop's-Waltham, and to the north of Hambledon and Catherington, towards the eastern boundary; it is computed to contain four hundred and fifty-four thousand two hundred and ninety-five acres; and the higher parts of this large central district have much the appearance of an elevated plain, divided into many unequal portions, and intersected by deep hollows, through which the brooks and rivulets rising in these elevated tracts descend, for the most part in a southerly course, towards the sea. In these vallies are considerable tracts of meadow and pasture land, and by far the greater number of the habitations in this district is situated in them. The higher tracts are almost wholly in open and extensive sheep downs; the substratum is throughout a firm unbroken bed of chalk. The soil covering some of them is provincially called hazel-mould, being light; dry, friable, and arenaceous, resting npon a chalk rubble containing flint, and naturally producing a short, but excellent, pasturage for sheep: another kind of the down land consists of a black vegetable mould, resting on a nearly similar substratum; a third is a thin grey loam, lying immediately on a firm bed of chalk, and constituting a very great proportion of the downs; a fourth sort consists of a deep, strong, red, flinty loam, lying, at the various depths of from one to eight or ten feet, upon the firm chalk rock; this is usually found on the flat summits of the lesser eminences, of which the brows and acclivities are occupied by a fifth description, which is of a thin staple, and chiefly consists of decomposed chalk, being favourable to the production of turnips and sainfoin. Below these hills a deep, strong, grey loam frequently occurs, the tillage of which, together with that of the red loam, is very difficult: the crops of wheat produced upon it are great. In other parts of this district, soils of a darker colour, equally strong, are met with; and in the numerous hollows intersecting the whole, exclusively of the valleys traversed by running streams, the surface is formed of an assemblage of small flat flints, combined together by a proportionably small quantity of extremely tough loam. This is provincially termed shrave; and there is another sort of it, consisting of a coarse red pebbly gravel, mixed with a small proportion of tough red loam, or, more commonly, with a dry sand, or small gravel. The soil of the deeper valleys is a black vegetable mould, resting on a strong calcareous loam, in which occur large chasms occupied by masses of peat, which is occasionally dug for fuel, or to be burned for manuring the ground with its ashes j numerous trunks of trees are found in this earth. The third district is small, containing only forty-nine thousand five hundred and twenty-five acres, and including the forests of Woolmer and Alice-Holt, the hills of Binfield, Great and Little Worldham, Selborne, and Empshot, together with all the lower sides of the chalk hills surrounding and forming the vale of Petersfield, the soil of which is, for the most part, a grey sandy loam of good staple, lying on a kind of soft sand rock, being provincially termed malmy land. In the vale of Petersfield, formed by the chalk downs and the heaths of Woolmer Forest and its appendages, and traversed by a small branch of the river Loddon, the soil consists of a tough, brown, flinty clay, found at a certain distance from the chalk, interspersed with tracts of light sandy loam. Ascending from this valley, in a northeasterly direction from the town, from which it takes its name, is an extensive tract of sandy and gravelly heath, part of which has been applied to the culture of Scotch fir, and which extends along the borders of Sussex, within and npon the confines of Woolmer Forest. Still further, in the same direction, is found a considerable tract of convertible sandy loam, which forms good turnip land; small quantities of stronger soil are also found, while the vallies have a thin moory soil upon a clay of different colours; peat is obtained here also, chiefly upon the wastes, and in Woolmer and Alice-Holt Forests. The fourth district includes the whole southern part of the county situated on the main land (excepting a tract of twenty-six thousand eight hundred and ninety-five acres, at its south-eastern extremity), and comprises an area of three hundred and thirty-three thousand four hundred and eighty-nine acres. This large division, besides many extensive wastes and commons, comprehends the Forest of Here, the New Forest, and Waltham Chase; its soils are various, but consist chiefly of light sandy and gravelly loams, intermixed with clay and brick-earth, and resting on substrata of argillaceous and calcareous marl. The heaths and commons chiefly comprise the higher lands between Gosport and Titchfield, between Titchfield, Bursledon, and Botley, and between the two latter places and the river Itchen: the cultivated district lying north of Southampton, Millbrook, and Redbridge, is also much contracted in extent by the extensive commons of Shirley and Southampton. Descending southward from the heaths, the surrounding country preserves a smooth and uniform appearance, until broken on the south-west by Hill-common and Tatchbury Mount, beyond which occurs a considerable extent of flat low ground, including Netley marsh, and thence extending towards Eling, and, for some distance westward, into the New Forest. Along the confines of the New Forest, and bordering upon the western side of Southampton water, the surface is much broken by hills. On the western side of the Avon the country rises suddenly, and spreads into extensive heaths and commons, upon which many plantations of forest trees have been made: a portion of Poole heath, so called from the vicinity of the town of Poole, in Dorsetshire, is included within the limits of Hampshire. Much peat and turf moor is found on the heaths, low grounds, and wastes. Hayling Island, forming the south-western extremity of the county, and Portsea Island, containing the town of Portsmouth, together with the tracts on the main land immediately opposite to them, constitute the fifth district, comprising an area of twenty-six thousand eight hundred and ninety-five acres. In "the islands and low grounds of the main land, a strong flinty and a tender hazel-coloured loam prevail. The soil and substrata of Portsdown hill, in the different degrees of its elevation, are similar to those of the chalk district. A large extent of Portsea Island is occupied as garden ground, and is very productive: on the coasts of this island, particularly on its eastern side, as well as on those of Hayling Island, is much loamy marsh land, subject to occasional inundation, by spring tides, and chiefly appropriated as salterns. Its southern side is generally sandy, and the bed of shingles, on its southeastern coast, affords large supplies of ballast to the coasting vessels, as well as an inexhaustible store of materials, of a good quality, for making and repairing the roads between Fareham and Chichester. Some of the finest views in the main land are from Parley hill; Portsdown hill, on which a large fair is held on July 26th; Weyhill, on which is held another t>n October 11th; Danebury hill, Sidon hill, and Eaglehurst cliff. Through the centre of the Isle of Wight, from east to west, extends a range of lofty hills, affording only pasturage for sheep, and commanding views over every part of the island, with the ocean on the south, and the beautiful shores of Hampshire on the north. Its surface is otherwise much diversified: on the coast the land is, in some parts, very high, particularly on the south, where the cliffs are very steep, and vast fragments of rock, which the waves have at some time undermined, lie scattered below, on the northern side, the ground slopes to the water in easy declivities, excepting towards the Needles, or western extremity, where the rocks are bare, broken, and precipitous. The height of the cliffs, of which the Needles form the extreme point, is, in some places, six hundred feet above the level of the sea; in some parts they are perpendicular, and in others overhanging; they contain many deep caverns. The Needles derive their name from a lofty pointed rock rising to the height of about one hundred and twenty feet above lowwater mark, and severed, with others, from the main land, by the force of the waves; part of this rocky projection, about sixty years ago, having been undermined by the sea, fell, and totally disappeared. St. Catherine's hill, the highest point in the island, rises seven hundred and fifty feet above the level of high water mark, and commands magnificent prospects; as also do the Culver cliffs, at the eastern end of the island; Carisbrook castle, and Bernbridge down. The soil and substrata of the Isle of Wight are extremely various. It may be said, generally, however, that the soil of the enclosed and depastured marshes and low grounds bordering on the Yarmouth river, on the inlets of Shalfleet and Newtown, on the Medina river between Newport and Cowes, on the Wooton and Ryde rivers, and of the embanked marshes above Brading "haven, is composed of a tender hazel-coloured loam, lying, in some places, upon a blue, or rather black, seaclay, but from which it is most frequently separated by a bed of coarse sand, or fine gravel. The surface mould of the low grounds and meadows, bordering the higher parts of the courses of these streams, is variable, in proportion to the quantity and quality of the adventitious matter washed down from the surrounding hills. On the whole northern side of the island, and for a considerable distance along its southern shores the prevailing character of the soil is a rough strong clay, of different colours, in which are a blueish argil, laceous marl, and a pure white shell marl. In the other parts are chiefly found tender red sand, and &, gravelly mould, with argillaceous and calcareous marl chalk, and its usual accompaniments, red loam and flints; and though the superior fruitfulness of most of these soils generally corresponds with the high estimation in which'.,they are held by the inhabitants, yet some heaths and commons occur, and there are several small tracts of morass, the chief of which is on the western branch of the Medina river. The chalk downs of Brading and Arreton form an unbroken range from Culver cliff, on the eastern coast, to the valley that separates them from Staple's heath; those of Gatcombe and Shorwell are isolated from the western range by a highly-cultivated valley, extending from Shorwell to Newport, and terminating northward in the waste called Parkhurst Forest. From the vale of Shorwell to the western extremity of the island the high chalk downs are broken only by three gaps, or carriage-roads, one of which is the passage between the head of the Yarmouth river and the innermost cove of Freshwater bay. The tract of downs situated towards the southern extremity of the island terminates abruptly towards the sea, in a precipice of limestone rock,', having the appearance, particularly when seen from a distance, of an immense stone wall, and overhanging the romantic tract called the Undercliff, which extends along the seashore for a distance of nearly six miles. In the northern, or woodland, district of the county, and in that comprising the forests of Woolmer and Alice-Holt, &c., the climate is generally mild, but a considerable degree of cold damp is exhaled. The most prevalent winds in the former are from the south-west, and are frequently accompanied by fogs that last for several days. In the elevated . and extensive chalk district the air is dry, thin, and healthy, and the westerly winds, which are by far the most frequent, are often experienced with great violence. In the lower tracts, approaching the coast, the climate is very mild, and the westerly winds are by much the most common and violent. Along the borders of the Southampton water agues are still experienced, though by no means to the extent that they formerly were. In the islands of Hayling and Portsea, and upon the surrounding shores, the same malady very commonly appears towards the close of summer; but the higher parts of this south-western district have a dry, and generally a keen, air. In the Isle of Wight is experienced all the variety of climate felt in other parts of the county: the air is, however, favourable to human health; and its mildness and salubrity are particularly remarkable on the southern borders, where much advantage is annually derived by invalids resorting thither for a short period, particularly by such as are afflicted with pulmonary diseases. The southern shores are much exposed to the fury of westerly gales, while the northern side, although in a great measure exempt from the like violent visitations, is, nevertheless, later in its seasons than the southern, by the space of ten days or a fortnight. On the arable lands of the county, the rotations of crops are various: the grain generally cultivated consists of wheat, barley, oats, rye, peas, and beans. The early wheat is almost universally eaten off by sheep, in the month of March, and sometimes even a little later. The produce of this grain varies greatly: that of barley, sown after turnips, averages thirtyfive bushels, and of the same corn sown after wheat, from four and a half to five bushels less per acre. Oats are generally cultivated as food for horses only; the common produce is little above thirty bushels per acre, and frequently less: the straw, as well as that of barley, is found of much value as winter food for cattle. Rye is chiefly grown as a corn crop in the valley of the Avon, and in the parish of Christchurch; the produce is about eighteen bushels per acre: in most other parts of the county it is cultivated for the purpose of being eaten green by cattle. Peas of different sorts are in common cultivation; but beans are not so frequently met with: the produce of both' is uncertain: the bean crop is generally cut with a reaping-hook. Turnips and tares are commonly cultivated: coleseed, or rape, by which latter name this plant is here most generally designated, is cultivated as food for sheep only. Cabbages are seldom grown for the purpose of feeding cattle with them; but, as a vegetable, for supplying the large towns and the immense quantity of shipping resorting to the southern coast, they are extensively raised in all convenient situations: potatoes are largely cultivated for the like purpose. The most common artificial grasses are the common broad clover, ray-grass, trefoil, sainfoin, and lucern; burnet is a plant that forms a large portion of the herbage of the downs: a much larger and stronger species is found on many of the low grounds, and upon the cold clay loams, where, as upon the downs, it has every appearance of being indigenous. In the parish of Alton and its vicinity, upon the borders of Surrey, hops are grown to a great extent: the produce varies greatly, but may be estimated, on an average, at about five hundred weight per acre: their culture has been much encouraged by the reputation of the Farnham hops, that town, in Surrey, being situated only at the distance of a few miles. Hemp and flax are sometimes cultivated. Several of the manures employed are remarkable; the principal are, marl, which is found, of different colours and properties, in many of the parishes within, and upon the confines of, the New Forest, towards Lymiugton, and in some of the more cultivated parts, particularly on the northern side of the Isle of Wight, as well as on the wastes between Southampton water and the Beaulieu river; malme, a kind of marl, or chalky clay, found at Timsbury, above Romsey, and many other places along the valley of the Test, as high as the parish of Romsey, both of a black and of a white kind, as also in one or two other places; and chalk, which is extensively used, more especially on the strong lands, within a convenient distance of the Southampton water, to which it is brought from Fareham, from Portsdown hill, and even from the coasts of Kent and Essex. Much, chalk is also employed in the islands of Portsea and Hayling, and in the northern, or woodland district; as are also turf, peat, and coal-ashes, in situations where they can be procured; on the sea-coast, rac/c, or sea-weed, is sometimes used. The most extensive and valuable tracts of meadow land are upon the borders of the various rivers; those of the best quality produce about thirtysix hundred weight of hay per acre. This county is particularly noted for its irrigated meadows, some of the principal of which are situated on the respective courses of the Test, the Anton, the Itchen, and the stream which passes through Titchfield to the sea, at Hilt Head. The green sward of the southern side of the Isle of Wight is, in numerous places, of a very rich quality; pastures of the same description are situated on the Medina river, above Newport, and upon some of the principal branches of the Brading river. The embanked marshes of Brading and Yaverland, in this island, form a valuable tract of rich feeding land; almost all the other embanked lands on the coasts of the islands, as well as of the main land of the county, have been appropriated as salterns for the manufacture of sea and medicinal salts: many of these salt-works are now abandoned, but the brine and bitumen with which the ground is saturated, prevent their being brought into tillage. Hampshire possesses no particular breed of cattle i those of Sussex, Suffolk, Hereford, Glamorgan, and North and South Devon, are indiscriminately met with, and are generally preferred for draught: many cattle of the Leicester breed are also seen. In dairy establishments the same indiscriminate intermixture is observed. Many cows are kept, in different parts of the county, for the purpose of suckling calves to supply the markets of London, Portsmouth, Chichester, Winchester, Newbury, Reading, Salisbury, &c., with veal. The number of sheep kept is remarkably great. In the woodland district the heath sheep, or the Old Hampshire, or Wiltshire breed, were formerly the most common, but have now, in many places, given way to breeds crossed between the New Leicester and others. The South Down breed occupies a great extent of the county, particularly of the open downs of the chalk district: upon the chalk downs of the Isle of Wight it is equally prevalent, although in that island are found many of the Dorsetshire breed, sometimes intermingled with the New Leicester. Numerous hogs are fed for a few weeks, at the close of the autumn, upon the mast produced in the forest and other woodlands; and a superior mode of curing being practised, the Hampshire bacon has become famous for its excellence. The native hog is a coarse, raw-boned, flat-sided animal, now seldom met with, the common stock being either of the Berkshire breed, or of a mixed kind between that and different other breeds. The horses have generally a coarse and heavy appearance. Upon the heaths and forests vast numbers of light small horses are" bred, generally about twelve hands high, and provincially termed heath-croppers, which propagate indiscriminately upon these wastes, where they succeed in maintaining an existence throughout the year. The cliffs, at the western extremity of the Isle of Wight, are frequented by an immense number of marine birds, such as puflins, razor-bills, willcocks, gulls, cormorants, and Cornish choughs, as well as by daws, starlings, and wild pigeons, some of which come only for a certain season, while others remain the whole year. Vipers, in this island, are very numerous, and many of them are caught for medicinal purposes; great quantities of [poultry are bred for the supply of the out- ward-bound shipping. Gardening is carried on to a great extent in the vicinity of all the large towns, and Portsea island is considered to produce the finest brocoli in the kingdom. In the northern and middle parts of the county the orchards are few and small; but upon the marly and clayey substrata of the southern and south-western districts they are more numerous, and some cider is made. In the Isle of Wight most farmers make annually several hogsheads of cider, which is of excellent quality, and chiefly for home consumption. This county has long been celebrated for its honey, called heath honey and down honey, from the different districts in which the bees collect it; the latter being the more valuable. The woods are numerous and extensive: the coppices in different parts are cut at various ages; their produce is formed into hop poles, wattled hurdles, hoops, rafter poles, and bavins and fagots. From those of the southern district, a number of straight hoops are also exported to the West Indies; woods of this kind, in the northern woodland district, consist chiefly of birch, willow, alder, hazel, wild cherry, ash, and sometimes oak; in the chalk district, of hazel, willow, oak, ash, maple, white thorn, and A little beech and wild cherry; and, in the southern part of the county, of hazel, willow, alder, birch, holly, and some ash,beech, and wild cherry. The coppice wood of the north-eastern part of the Isle of Wight is overshadowed by a heavy growth of timber. In the northern district a very fine growth of oak is generally observed; but the annual produce of this timber, in the southern parts, has been greatly diminished. In almost every part of the clialk district beech woods and groves flourish with peculiar vigour; and the forests and other woodlands are found to contain large proportions of this timber. Ash is found in different parts; but elm is generally of scarce growth, although it is occasionally seen, more especially in the southern districts; the largest elms are much in demand at the Royal Dock-yard for keel-pieces. The abele and aspen poplar, the lime or linden tree, and the Turin, or Lombardy poplar, are frequently met with. Fir-trees of different kinds are seen to flourish in mixed plantations. In the Isle of Wight, the woods of Swainston are of considerable extent, and those of Wooton and Quarr occupy an area of a thousand acres. The New Forest comprises a very extensive tract in the south-western part of the county. Its ancient boundaries, according to the oldest perambulation extant, which is dated 8th of Edward I., were, the Southampton river, on the east; the Sound and the British Channel, on the south; and the river Avon, on the west: northward, it extended as far as North Charford, on the west; and to Wade and Ower bridge, on the east. Different other perambulations are on record; but, according to that made in the 22nd of Charles II, the forest extends from Godshill, on the northwest, south-eastward to the sea, a distance of about twenty-three miles; and from Hardley, on the east, to Ringwood on the west, about fifteen miles; and contains ninety-two thousand three hundred and sixty - five statute acres. The .'extent of the woods and waste lands of this tract were, however, at that time, reduced to sixty-three thousand eight hundred and forty-five acres, by several manors and other freeholds within the perambulation, amounting to twentyfour thousand seven hundred and ninety-seven acres; by six hundred and twenty-five acres of copyhold, or customary lands, belonging to the king's manor of Lyndhurst; by one thousand and four acres of leasehold, granted for certain terms of years; by nine hundred and one acres of purprestures, or encroachments on the forest; and by one thousand one hundred and ninety-three acres of enclosed lands held by the master-keepers and groom-keepers, with their respective lodges. The remainder belonged to the crown, as it does at present, and in each kind of the property above mentioned, as being included within the limits of the forest, the king has also various rights and interests: in the freeholds he has certain rights relative to the deer and game; the copyholds are sub-- ject to quit-rents and fines, and the timber trees upon such property belong to the crown. The encroachments consist chiefly of cottages bxiilt by poor per-- sons, with small parcels of enclosed land adjoining: such, however, as had been made by the proprietors of neighbouring estates, and had been held without' any acknowledgment, the crown is authorised, by a modern act of parliament, to grant on lease, for valuable considerations, and provision is made against future encroachment. The forest lands, containing, asbefore stated, sixty-three thousand eight hundred and: forty-five acres, are subject to certain rights of commonage, pasturage, pannage, and fuel, possessed by the proprietors of estates within, or adjacent to, the forest; which rights, and those of the crown, are defined by an' act of the Qth and 10th of William III., for the increase' and preservation of timber in the forest. By this act, the crown was empowered to enclose six thousand acres, as a nursery for timber, until the trees should be past danger of being injured by the deer or cattle, when the same should be thrown open, and an equal quantity might, in like manner, be enclosed, afterwards to be thrown open, in any other part of the forest. The crown has also the right of keeping deer in the unenclosed part of the forest, at all times and without limitation. In consequence of this act, the woodlands, which, according to surveys made at different periods, had been long remaining in a neglected state, received, for a while, some portion of attention; but that, ere long, was withdrawn from them, when the superintendence of the1 surveyor-general of the crown lands ceased, and the' whole fell, by degrees, under the sole direction of a surveyor-general of the woods. For local purposes the New Forest is divided into nine bailiwicks, which are subdivided into fifteen walks. It is under the government' of a lord-warden, who is appointed by letters patent under the great seal, during his Majesty's pleasure; and by his patent are granted to him the manor of Lyndhurst, and hundred of Redbridge, with various other privileges and emoluments; he appoints a steward for the king's house at Lyndhurst. A riding forester is appoint- ed in the same manner as the lord-warden, whose office it is to ride before the king when he enters the forest. A bow-bearer, and two rangers, are appointed by the lord warden, during pleasure. A wood ward is appointed by letters patent from his Majesty, during pleasure, and acts by deputy. Four verderers, the judges of the swanimote and attachment courts, are chosen by the freeholders, of the county, in pursuance of the king's writ. A high- steward, and an under-steward, are appointed by the lord-warden, during pleasure; the duty of the latter is to attend at and enrol the proceedings of the courts of attachment and swanimote, and hold the court leet for the hundred of Redbridge, and the courts baron for the manor of Lyndhurst. Twelve regarders are chosen by the freeholders of the county. There are, besides, nine foresters, or master-keepers, and an indefinite number of under-for esters, or groom-keepers, though commonly one to each walk. A purveyor of the navy acts also for the forest, whose office is a naval appointment, and whose duty is to assign timber for the navy, and to prevent any fit for that use from being cut for other purposes. The limits of the forest were finally ascertained, and disputed boundaries settled, by an act of parliament passed in the year 1800. Of the perquisites of the under-keepers, which, at the period of the investigation made in 1789, arose chiefly from deer, browse-wood, rabbits, and swine, only the first and last are now allowed them, and the rabbits are nearly destrpyed. The forest courts are regularly held by the verderers, who preside in them at Lyndhurst. The scenery is remarkable for its sylvan beauty, presenting magnificent woods, extended lawns, and vast sweeps of wild heath, unlimited by artificial boundaries, together with numerous river views and the prospect of distant shores. In some parts also are extensive bogs, the most considerable of which is at a place called Longsdale, on the road between Brockenhurst and Ringwood, which extends for about three miles. The oaks seldom rise into lofty stems, and their branches, which are more adapted to what the ship-builders call knees and elbows, are commonly twisted into the most picturesque forms: this is supposed to be owing to the nature of the soil through which their roots have to penetrate, it being generally an argillaceous loam, tempered in different degrees with sand, or gravel. The advantage of water-carriage to the various royal or private dockyards in which its produce is employed, is superior to that of any other forest in the kingdom. The forest of Bere, situated in the south-eastern part of the county, and extending northward from the Portsdown hills, which, according to the perambulation made in 1688, is now considered the boundary, comprises about sixteen thousand acres, upwards of onethird being enclosed. It is divided into two walks, named East and West, to each of which are annexed several smaller divisions, called purlieus, all of them being subject to the forest laws. Its officers are a warden, four verderers, two master-keepers, two underkeepers, a ranger, a steward of the swanimote court, twelve regarders, and two agistors. North-westward of it is the Chase of Bishop's-Waltham, containing about two thousand acres, which belongs to the see of Winchester. The forest of Alice-Holt and Woolmer, on the eastern border of the county, approaching the confines of Surrey and Sussex, and to the north-east of Petersfield, is divided into two parts by intervening private prpperty; its limits comprehend fifteen thousand four hundred and ninety-three acres, of which, eight thousand six hundred and ninety-four belong to the crown: the division called Alice-Holt contains about two thousand seven hundred and forty acres of crown land. Parkhurst, or Carisbrooke forest, lying at a short distance to the north-west of Newport, in the Isle of Wight, occurs in Domesday-book under the appellation of the King's park, and was afterwards called the King's forest: it includes about three thousand acres, nearly destitute of valuable trees. The total quantity of waste land in Hampshire, exclusively of the forests, falls little short of one hundred thousand acres. A sandy and gravelly character of soil prevails on the greater part of the heaths and commons, which produce ling, or heather, fern, coarse aquatic plants and grasses, furze, and dwarf alder; a superior kind of land occasionally found produces also a particularly sweet herbage for deer and cattle. Upon the inlets and southern coasts of the main land, as also of the Isle of Wight, are large tracts of sea mud, generally less elevated than the highest level of the spring tides, which consequently overflow them. A long range of this kind of marsh extends on the western side of Southampton river, through the parish of Fawley, and a like tract occurs between Calshot castle and the Salterns of Fawley; the extent of these, together with others situated higher up the Southampton river, is estimated at about two thousand acres. The rivers of Beaulieu and Lymington, and the harbour of Christchurch, present similar tracts; and about four thousand acres of this kind of mud are found along the shore, between Hurst castle and the mouth of the Beaulieu. river. The inlet, or harbour, of Portsmouth comprises about three thousand acres, and about five thousand five hundred are included in the harbour of Langport, and the portion of that of Emsworth which is within, the limits of this county. In the Isle of Wight, similar tracts of marsh are found bordering on the Yarmouth river, on the inlets of Shalfieet and Newtown, and in Brading haven, the area of which is stated at seven hundred and fifty acres. In this latter marsh, different small tracts have been at various periods embanked against the flow of the tide; and an attempt was made by Sir Bevis Thelwall, and Sir Hugh Middelton, the constructor of the New River, to exclude the sea entirely by an embankment thrown across its narrow outlet, which was completed; but in a wet season, when the inner part of the haven was full of water, and there was a high spring tide, the waters met under the bank, and made a breach, which was never repaired, and these marshes still remain in their ancient state, notwithstanding that the outlet is, at low water, only about twenty yards in width, and its surface appears for the most part to be more elevated than the embanked marshes lying westward of it, in the parishes of Brading and Yaverland. Throughout all the woodland parts of Hampshire the peasantry are tolerably well supplied with fuel j they obtained it formerly by a claim of snap-wood, meaning the fallen branches and such withered pieces as they could snap off by hand, or with a hook fastened at the end of a long pole, but having improperly exercised this privilege they have been deprived of it. Turf is pared on the heaths and commons, and peat is sometimes used. A vast quantity of furze is also cut on the waste lands, as fuel; and the parishes contiguous to the forests have generally a right of turbary in them; coal can only be procured, and that at a high price, at the ports, or along the canals. The mineral productions are not numerous. On its southern shores, particularly near the mouth of the Beaulieu river, iron-stone is washed up by the sea, and was formerly gathered, and conveyed to the ironworks at Sowley, but these have been discontinued. It is also occasionally found in small quantities in different other parts of the county, particularly in the cliffs near Hordwell, which are upwards of one hundred feet high, and abound with nodules of iron-ore, together with pebbles, or flints, many of them containing fossil shells, or their impressions, of various and scarce species, found in a blueish kind of clay, or marl. A thin stratum of coal discovers itself at the foot of Bembridge cliff, in the Isle of Wight, and extends through the southern part of the island, appearing again at Warden Ledge, in Freshwater parish: near it is a stratum of fullers' earth. The range of chalk hills crossing the county from east to west, and occupying the central part of it, forms a portion of the vast formation that constitutes so considerable a feature in the geology of England. The strata constituting the southern part of the main land, and the northern part of the Isle of Wight, lie upon a depressed portion of the chalk beds, which, in geological language, is termed the Chalk Basin of the Isle of Wight. The chalk raised in this county is of two kinds, white and grey, both of them burned into lime of a good quality, that from the latter being also particularly serviceable as a cement under water, for which it is extensively employed. Between Milton and Christchurch is found a hard reddish stone, of which several ancient structures in that part of the county are built. The numerous strata of various kinds and formations, and exhibiting great diversity of position, of which the Isle of Wight consists, form a remarkably rich field of study for the geologist. At Alumbay, at the north-western extremity of the island, is found a vein of white sand, in great demand for the glass-works of Bristol and Liverpool, as also for others situated on the western coasts of England and Scotland, and in Ireland. Eastward of this, along the northern foot of the downs, grist or quarry stone, of a yellowish grey colour, and very porous texture, is found in detached masses, and used for building. A strong liver-coloured building-stone, rising in cubical masses, encrusted with a brownish kind of ochre, and enclosing specimens of rich iron-stone, occurs on the southern side of the island; a rough calcareous freestone is frequently found in the marl pits, in loose detached pieces. Eastward of Staple's heath, and northward of Arreton downs, a close grey limestone is raised, the beds of which are separated from each other by small layers of marine shells, cemented together by alum, that substance being well known to pervade the western parts of the island. Freestone is sometimes found under marl in the northern districts of it.- a plum-pudding stone exists in large quantitiesnear Sandown fort, and is much used for paving and flooring. Potters' clay occurs in great variety, in different parts of the county; and ochres of divers colours in the Isle of Wight. The manufactures are various, but not extensive; ship-building, however, in addition to the works of the royal dock-yard at Portsmouth, is extensively carried on in most of the numerous creeks and harbours. The other productions are chiefly woollen goods, bed-ticking, light silk articles, sacking, leather, and a coarse kind of earthenware. At Overton are very extensive silk-mills, and the young female peasantry in the vicinity are much employed in the platting of straw for bonnets, the straw-hat manufacture being carried on at many towns in the county. There are paper-mills' in different parts of the county, those in the vicinity of Overton being of considerable importance. At Lymington is a manufacture of salt. The advantages for maritime commerce may be estimated from the following list of harbours and roadsteads viz.: Hayling and Portsmouth harbours, with their dependencies; the inlet of Southampton, with the mouths of the Itchen and Test rivers, their ship-yards, and the smaller havens of Redbridge, Eling, Hythe, Cadland, and Fawley, and of Botley, Bursledon, and Hamble, on the river Hamble; the Beaulieu river, with its dependencies, slips, and private dock-yards; Lymingtou, or Boldre water, with a number of small creeks through the salterns, including Keyhaven; and the harbour of Christchurch, with its branches, forming the mouth of the Avon and Stour rivers. In the Isle of Wight are the harbours of Hithe, Cowes, South Yarmouth, and Brading. The roadsteads separating that island from the rest of the county are those of St. Helen's, Motherbank, Spithead, Cowes, Southampton bay, and Yarmouth roads, the latter of which is terminated westward by the Needles, the passage, or channel, of which is contracted to the space of only about a mile, by a broad bank of shingles thrown up by the sea, which beats upon it with great violence: this bank, from the main land in the parish of Milton, projects south-eastward, and upon its furthest extremity stands Hurst castle, built in the reign of Henry VIII., and commanding the passage. The shores of this county, particularly of the Isle of Wight, are much resorted to during the summer for the purpose of sea-bathing, &c.; the most frequented places are, on the main land, Christchurch, Muddiford, Lymington, and Southampton; and in the Isle of Wight, Yarmouth, Cowes, Hythe, Brading, and Shanklin. Whatever may be yielded to the public by the exertions of the fishermen, a small portion only of the fish they take is consumed within the limits of the county, and that generally of an inferior quality, being such as would not pay for its carriage to the metropolis, for which purpose light vans are kept in constant use. In all the rivers and creeks that discharge their waters directly into the sea, salmon are caught: the fisheries of the Southampton water are particularly extensive, and the boats engaged in them often make long coasting voyages to procure other fish, which are taken thence to the markets of London, Oxford, Bath, &c. Several persons are employed on the flat and rocky shores of the Isle of Wight, in catching shrimps and prawns, and, on its bolder shores, in taking crabs and lobsters. Across the vallies and low places of the heaths of Farnborough, Cove, and Aldershot, the' soil of which is very retentive of water, dams have been constructed for stopping the descending waters, and thus forming ponds of various extent, which are usually stocked with carp and tench, and are very profitable to their owners, who send nearly the whole of these fish to the London market. The principal rivers are the Test, the Anton, the Itchen, the Avon, the Boldre water, and the Exe.' The Test, rising in the vicinity of Whitchurch, and being, at the distance of about a mile below Wherwell; joined by the Anton, which rises in the north-western part of the county, and flows through Andover, takes a southerly course to Stockbridge, and thence through Romsey to Redbridge, below which it expands and forms the head of the Southampton water, an arm of the sea extending from the "Above Town" of Southampton to the Sound, at Calshot castle, and rendered exceedingly picturesque by its woody and irregular shores; the general direction of the Southampton water is from north-west to south-east. The Itchen, also called the Arbre, has its source at Chilton-Cando-- ver, near Alresford, and, being soon increased by the small river Alne, flows westward to King's Worthy, where it suddenly assumes a southerly course, which it pursues by Winchester, Twyford, and Bishop's Stoke, to the Southampton water, at the distance of about half a mile eastward of the town of Southampton; this river was brought into a regular channel, and made navigable up to Winchester, by Godfrey de Lacy, Bishop of Winchester, in 1215; towards its mouth it expands considerably. The Avon, traversing, the projecting south-western portion of the county, in a direction from north to south, enters it from Wiltshire, a few miles above Fordingbridge, and meandering, frequently in separate channels, near the western border of the New Forest, is much increased by numerous rivulets rising in that district: from Fordingbridge it passes by Ringwood to Christchurch, near which town it receives the waters of the Stour, and soon falls into Christchurch bay; by an act passed in 1665, it was made navigable up to Salisbury, but the works having been swept away by a flood, the navigation was destroyed. The Boldre water is formed by several small streams rising in the New Forest, most of which unite above Brockenhurst, thence proceeding southward, by Boldre and Lymington, to the sea. The Exe, frequently called the Beaulieu river, from similar sources in the same district, flows south-eastwardly, and, beginning to expand near Beaulieu, opens into a broad eestuary to the sea, below Exbury. The principal river of the Isle of Wight is the Medina, anciently (called the Mede, which rises near the bottom of St, Catherine's down, in the southern part] of the island, and flowing directly northward, divides it into two equal parts, each constituting a liberty, which derives its name from its position on the eastern or western side of this stream; passing on the eastern side of the town of Newport, the Medina mingles its waters with those of the sea in Cowes harbour. The other principal streams of this island are the Yar, the Wooten,. and the Ear; its shores are also indented by various creeks and bays. A navigable canal has been made, along the valleys of the Test and Anton, from Andover to the head of the Southampton water; from Barlowes-Mill, near Andover, its course is by Stockbridge and Romsey to its termination at Redbridge, in the parish of Millbrook: from Redbridge a branch proceeds directly to Southampton, and a collateral branch extends from it in a westerly direction, up the valley between East Dean, Lockerley, and East Tytherley, to Alderbury common, within two miles of Salisbury, but neither of them is navigable. The Andover canal is of considerable advantage to the inland districts through which it passes. From Basingstoke a canal has been made, under the authority of an act of parliament obtained in 1/78, to the river Wey in Surrey, by which the navigation is maintained to the Thames; the total length of this canal, which from Basingstoke is carried directly eastward, in the vicinity of Odiham, and across the eastern borders of the county, is thirty-seven miles and a quarter; the cost of cutting it amounted to about £100,000, a large portion of which was expended in forming a tunnel through Grewill hill, near Odiham, which is arched with brick, and is nearly three quarters of a mile in length; the articles of traffic conveyed upon it are chiefly corn, flour, coal, and timber. The Winchester and Southampton canal is one of the oldest in the kingdom: the act for its construction was obtained in the reign of Charles I., but from the want of a suitable trade upon it, however advantageous to the city of Winchester and the surrounding country, it does not appear to have realized the expectations of the projectors. At the north-eastern angle of the county, the London road branches off in two directions, each line crossing the county somewhat diagonally: the xipper, or great western road, passing through Basingstoke, Whitchurch, and Andover, quits the county at Lobcomb Corner, seven miles east-north-east of Salisbury; from this a minor branch diverges at Basingstoke, which dividing at Popham Lane, a little beyond that town, one line proceeds through Winchester to Southampton, and the other passes through Stockbridge, and joins the great western road at Lobcomb Corner. The lower road passes through Farnham, Alton, New Alresford, and Winchester, to Southampton, whence the line is continued across the New Forest to Ringwood, a little beyond which town it quits the county. The road from London to Portsmouth enters this county at Seven Thorn, on its eastern side, and passes through Petersfield to the latter port. Various other turnpike-roads, in connexion with these, intersect the county in different directions, all of which are remarkably good. Within the limits of the county were the stations of Venta Selgarum, supposed to have been at Winchester; Findonum, at Silchester; Clausentum, at Bit- tern; Brigce, at Broughton; and Andaoreon, at Andover. The principal remains of Roman occupation discoverable are at Silchester, approaching the confines of Berkshire, where gold coins and rings, Roman bricks, and pottery, &c., have been dug up. About three-quarters of a mile north of Lymington is Buckland Rings, the remains of a Roman camp. Traces of other encampments of different periods are visible in various parts; some of the most extensive and remarkable are those of the camp on Danebury hill, to the west and north-west of which are several barrows, many more of these monuments being found in different parts of the county. Three Roman roads branch from Silchester, one of them proceeding to the northern gate of Winchester; another, by Andover, to Old Sarum; and the third, northward, across Mortimer heath; from Winchester also was a road leading to Old Sarum. The number of ancient religious establishments was about fifty-three. There are still interesting remains of the abbeys of Hide, Netley, Beaulieu, and Quarr; as also of the hospital of St. Cross, near Winchester. The cathedral of Winchester is one of the most interesting edifices in England: in that city the college, the cross, the west gate, and the episcopal palace of Wolvcscy, are also remarkable for their antiquity. Among the finest ancient churches are those of Christchurch, Romsey, and St. Michael, Southampton. The most remarkable ancient fonts are those of Winchester cathedral; of the church of St.Michael, Southampton; and of that of East Meon. Some of the gates and other parts of the fortifications of the town of Southampton are still standing; as are also the castles of Hurst, Porchester, and Carisbrooke, in the Isle of Wight: there are remains also of the castles of Christchurch, Odiham, and Warblington. The modern seats of the nobility and gentry are extremely numerous, more especially the villas. The cottages of the peasantry are in general remarkable for their comfortable appearance. In many parts of the chalk district, and in that part of the county bordering on Dorsetshire, mud, or cob walls, as they are provincially termed, are very commonly used to form enclosures. Several chalybeate springs are found in different parts of the Isle of Wight: at Pitland is a spring impregnated with sulphur; and at Shanklin another, the water of which is slightly tinctured with alum. The waters of the streams in the northern woodland part of the county are of a strong chalybeate quality; that which issues from the bogs and swampy ground is charged with a solution of iron. In the strong loam, woodland clay, and chalk, districts, the want of a regular supply of water during seasons of drought is severely felt. Fossil remains of different kinds are foxmd in some of the strata of this county; among the natural curiosities of which may also be mentioned the immense chasms near the sea-shore in the Isle of Wight, called Blackgang Chine, Luccombe Chine, and Shanklin Chine; and there is a large natural cavern at Freshwater Gate, a small creek in the centre of Freshwater bay. Samphire grows in great plenty on some of the high cliffs of the Isle of Wight, and is gathered by the inhabitants.