OUR SOUTH COASTS 



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SOUTHAMPTON. 



CHAPTER XXI. 



SKETCHES OF OUR SOUTH COASTS. 



Southampton : its Antiquity Extensive Commerce Great Port for Leading Steamship Lines Vagaries of a Runaway 

 Steamer The Isle of Wight Terrible Loss of the Eurydice Finding of the Court-martial Raising Her from the 

 Bottom" London by the Seaside " Newhaven and Seaford Beachy Head An Attempt to Scale it A Wreck there- 

 Knowledge Useful on an Emergency Saved by Samphire The Coast-guard : Past and Present Their Compara- 

 tively Pleasant Lot To-day The Coast-guard in the Smuggler Days Sympathies of the Country against them. 



SOUTHAMPTON, one of the most important towns in the South of England, is a place of great 

 antiquity, having been in existence prior to the Conquest, while many Roman remains are 

 to be found in its neighbourhood. What schoolboy is not familiar with the story of King- 

 Canute and his courtiers, who flattered their royal master that even the winds and waves 

 would do his bidding ? The Danish monarch was made of too stern material to believe such 

 nonsense; and to convince his fawning courtiers that he did not possess attributes which 

 belong to the Creator alone, he is said to have seated himself by the seaside, and in a 

 loud voice commanded the waves to stay. But the fleecy billows obeyed him not, and 

 in due course reached the feet of the king and his obsequious court. The spot upon 

 which this memorable circumstance occurred is still pointed out in the neighbourhood of 

 Southampton. 



Nearly surrounding the town remains of the ancient buttresses and towers of the wall 

 which once environed it are still to be seen ; while on the western shore the old Water-gate, 

 from which the merchants embarked, still exists. In the old Domesday Book it is described 

 as an important burgh. Southampton grew in importance at the time of the Crusades, 

 when thousands of troops and crusaders and mailed knights embarked thence, or, weather- 

 bound, remained encamped in the place. It soon became a great port of call for Flemish and 

 other merchant-traders. 

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