CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



harbour, and opposite the town of Gosport, with 

 which it communicates by means of a steam 

 bridge. It is seventy-four miles south-west of 

 London by the London and South-western Rail- 

 way. The population of the borough with its 

 suburbs, was, in 1881, 127,989. The fortress is 

 considered the strongest in Britain. Formidable 

 batteries defend the harbour, and bastioned ram- 

 parts inclose the town. Portsea, about a mile to 

 the north, is similarly fortified, the line of its land- 

 defences being distinct from that of Portsmouth. 

 The 12 docks vary from 22 to 36 feet deep. One 

 of the building-slips, roofed and covered in, is so 

 large that three or four vessels can be in process 

 of construction under it at the same time. The 

 Wood Mills contain a number of ingenious block- 

 making machines, the invention of Sir Isambard 

 Brunei, in which rough timber, introduced at one 

 end, is cut, squared, drilled, bored, and turned 

 into the required shape. About 150,000 blocks 

 are made annually, and the machines require the 

 attendance of only four men. Portsmouth har- 

 bour, about 420 yards wide at its entrance, ex- 

 pands into a spacious basin, extending inland for 

 about four miles. The breadth along the northern 

 shore is three miles. Large war-vessels can enter 

 and lie at anchor in all states of the tide. The 

 position of this harbour is highly favourable. It 

 is situated in the middle of the Channel, close to 

 the magnificent anchorage of Spithead, where 

 looo ships of the line can lie without incon- 

 venience, and it is under the shelter of the Isle 

 of Wight. In 1880, 1903 vessels, of 185,943 tons, 

 entered ; and 2020, of 206,729, left the port. 



This port only began to be considered valuable 

 in the reign of Henry VIII. Its defences were 

 strengthened by Elizabeth, and afterwards more 

 thoroughly by William III. In a house that still 

 remains in the High Street, then an inn called 

 the Spotted Dog, the Duke of Buckingham, the 

 ' Steenie ' of King James, was assassinated by 

 John Felton, in 1628. And in Portsmouth har- 

 bour, on August 29, 1782, when its commander, 

 Admiral Kempenfeldt, was writing in his cabin, 

 the Royal George sank with 800 men on board. 



Eight hundred of the brave, 

 Whose courage well was tried, 



Had made the vessel heel, 

 And laid her on her side. 



A land-breeze shook the shrouds, 



And she was overset ; 

 Down went the Royal George 



With all her crew complete. . . . 



"It was not in the battle 



No tempest gave the shock 

 She sprang no fatal leak 

 She ran upon no rock. 



His sword was in its sheath, 



His fingers held the pen, 

 When Kempenfeldt went down 



With twice four hundred men. 



Plymouth is an English sea-port and market- 

 town, and a parliamentary and municipal borough 

 in the south-west of Devonshire, 246 miles west- 

 south-west of London. It stands in the bight of 

 Plymouth Sound, between the estuaries of the 

 Plym and Tamar. To the west of it is Stone- 

 house, a township and coast-guard station; and 



240 



still further west is Devonport, the great naval 

 and military station. Plymouth proper and Stone- 

 house having become united by a continuous line 

 of houses, they, along with Devonport, are now 

 generally considered as one town. Devonport is. 

 walled, fortified, and surrounded by a moat. Mill 

 Bay and Sutton Pool are two small inlets of the 

 Sound, in which lie all the merchant-vessels bound 

 for Plymouth proper. Between these inlets and 

 running along the shore is the eminence or highs 

 plateau of land called the Hoe. From this ridge 

 it is said that the Spanish Armada was first seen, 

 from England. It commands a magnificent view- 

 by land and sea. On its eastern end stands the 

 citadel, a fortress equipped with 150 guns, com- 

 manding the entrance to the Cutwater the lower 

 estuary of the Plym and of Sutton Pool. Mill 

 Bay, on the west, is so deep that vessels of 3000^ 

 tons can lie at the pier at low-water. There are 

 the important Great Western Docks, covering an 

 area of 14 acres, and having a depth of 22 feet,, 

 constructed about the years 1855-58. Close to- 

 these docks, and connected with them by a tram- 

 line, are the termini of the South Devon, Tavis- 

 tock, and Cornwall railways. In the year i88cy 

 3401 vessels of 653,437 tons entered the port. 

 Commerce is carried on to a considerable extent 

 with the Cape of Good Hope, the West Indies,, 

 and the Mediterranean. The coasting-trade is 

 also important, and the fisheries are productive. 

 The population in 1881 was 76,080. 



Plymouth, described by Leland as being in the 

 reign of Henry II. a 'mene thing, an inhabitation 

 of fishers/ was called by the Saxons Tameorworth- 

 town on the Tamar ; and it was not till the reign, 

 of Henry VI. that it received the name of Plymouth, 

 During the I4th and 1510 centuries, it was fre- 

 quently attacked and set on fire by the French ; 

 and in 1512 an act was passed for the strengthen- 

 ing of its defences. Now, the whole shores of the 

 Sound are well defended by cannon; and a cordon, 

 of inland forts has been of late years constructed,, 

 at immense cost, surrounding the three towns, at 

 a distance of from two to three miles. Plymouth. 

 Sound claims to be the most beautiful estuary on 

 the English coast. It is two and a half miles wide,, 

 and extends inland for three miles. It penetrates 

 into the country by the harbours of Hamoaze and. 

 Cutwater, the estuaries of the Tamar and Plym 

 respectively. On its west side is Cawsand Bay- 

 The shores, which present many beautiful view's,, 

 rise in hills of from 100 to 400 feet high, and are 

 dotted over with woods and with villages, and 

 bound by coasts which are generally rocky and 

 abrupt. Mount Edgecombe Park, the beautiful 

 seat of the Earl of Mount Edgecombe, occupies- 

 the west shore of the Sound. At the mouth of the 

 Tamar is the small island of St Nicholas, or 

 Drake's Island, a pyramidal rock, strongly fortified.. 

 The Sound is open to the south-west, from which. 

 direction strong winds frequently blow, bringing 

 in violent surges from the Atlantic. To protect 

 the shipping in the harbour, a massive stone 

 breakwater, 1700 yards long, was completed in 

 1841 at a cost of about ; 1,500,000. On a sunken 

 rock, just inside the breakwater, and at its centre, 

 a strong stone fort has of recent years been 

 erected ; and an extensive series of stone bat- 

 teries has been built at Bovisand and Picklecomb- 

 on the mainland, on both sides of the entrance to> 

 the harbour. 



