PORTSDOWN HUNDRED 



PORTSMOUTH 



replaced by a modern building standing in its own 

 grounds near Cambridge Road. On the green stands 

 the GARRISON CHURCH, a building of very great 

 historical and architectural interest, which after a some- 

 what chequered career is now most efficiently cared for 

 and maintained. It has a vaulted chancel of three bays 

 with north vestries, and a nave with aisles of five bays, 

 the chancel having been the chapel, and the nave the 

 living-rooms of the hospital of St. John Baptist and 

 St Nicholas, 413 otherwise known as Domus Del, or God's 

 House, founded by Bishop Peter des Roches of Win- 

 chester (1205-1238) shortly before 1214. It was 

 brought to its present condition, after various repairs 

 mentioned below, by a thorough renovation and refi tting 

 in 1 866 under Street. The chancel is lighted by 

 triplets of lancet; on north and south, and three 

 trefoiled lancets on the east, and is covered with a 

 quadripartite ribbed vault springing from clustered 

 wall shafts which stop on the moulded string running 

 at the level of the window-sills. In the south-west 

 angle of the chancel is a small doorway leading to an 

 octagonal stair turret which gives access to the roof 

 over the vault, and the middle bay on the north of 

 the chancel is taken up by a modern organ chamber, 

 with a vestry added to the east. The nave arcades, 

 the western bay of which is entirely modern, are very 

 finely proportioned, with lofty pointed arches of two 

 chamfered orders on octagonal pillars with moulded 

 capitals and bases. The roof originally stretched in 

 one span over nave and aisles, the outer walls of the 

 latter having been heightened in modern times and 

 two-light windows of fourteenth-century style inserted, 

 but parts of the older and thicker walls are still to be 

 seen, being best preserved at the south-east angle. 

 The south doorway is in the west bay of the south 

 aisle, and with the south porch and west front of the 

 nave is entirely modern. Attached to the pillars in 

 the nave are the colours of the yth Royal Fusiliers, of 

 the Scinde Camel Corps placed in the church in 

 memory of General Sir Charles Napier, and of the 

 67th (South Hampshire) Regiment. 



After the surrender of the hospital in 1540 it was 

 handed over to the military authorities, and for a 

 time the church was used for the storing of armour, 

 while the rest of the building was used as the 

 governor's house. 414 In 1582 plans were made for 

 its repair, two of the arches being in ruin, while there 

 was a breach 50 ft. long in the wall of the house. 414 

 The latter was again repaired in 1 644 ; 416 in it took 

 place the marriage of Charles II and Catherine of 

 Portugal, and the allied sovereigns lodged there in 

 1814. The whole building except the church was 

 demolished in i826. 4 " 



Without the town, i.e. outside what was once the 

 walled town of Portsmouth, lies the extensive parish 

 of PORTSE4, which includes Kingston, Buckland, 

 Stubbington, Stamshaw, Fratton, Copnor, Milton, 

 Eastney, and Southsea. All these are now within the 

 municipal borough of Portsmouth, but before the 

 Reform Act of 1835 on ty a P art f Portsea was 

 within the liberty of Portsmouth, while the remainder 



of the parish, known as the Gildable, was included in 

 the hundred of Portsdown. 418 The men of the 

 Gildable were accustomed to do watch and ward 

 without the town, 419 and had a separate constable. 4 * 

 Buckland, Copnor, and Fratton are assigned to Portsdown 

 Hundred in the Domesday Book, but this was before 

 the existence of Portsmouth borough. Stamshaw was 

 certainly within the liberty of Portsmouth, 481 while 

 Kingston, which was apparently included in the 

 borough in 1 194, is mentioned separately on the Pipe 

 Roll of 1198."' In 1606 Richard Earnley of Gat- 

 combe, whose hall lay in Hilsea, while his parlour 

 was in Portsea parish, had to do service for the Portsea 

 half of his house at Southsea Castle. 4 " 



The town of Portsea stands on the former site 

 of Portsmouth Common, and took its present name 

 in I792. m The streets are narrow, and the houses 

 for the most part low, with tiled roofs and doors 

 approached by two steps from the street. Some 

 of the lowest houses are still known as 'garrison 

 houses,' because, it is said, the inhabitants were not 

 allowed to build them higher lest they should inter- 

 fere with the outlook from the old fortifications. Still 

 narrower, ill-paved alleys intersect the town in its 

 poorest parts. The high walls of the dockyard bound 

 it on two sides, while along the third runs the Hard, 

 a roadway leading by the harbour-side to the main 

 gates of the yard. The Portsea Extension Railway 

 connects the town station with the harbour, where a 

 new station was built on a pier in 1876. Facing the 

 harbour is a row of houses, chiefly taverns, where the 

 sailors used to be paid off, while on the wooden seats 

 opposite watermen wait to take visitors to Nelson's 

 flagship, the Victory, or round the harbour. Follow- 

 ing the dockyard wall Queen Street is reached. It is 

 the main thoroughfare of Portsea, and is lined with 

 single-windowed shops stocked with goods to suit the 

 needs of sailors and dockyard men. Indeed, it is to 

 the docks that Portsejf owes its origin, and this appears 

 most clearly in the names of the streets, which date 

 from the beginning of the eighteenth century. Queen 

 Street itself was named after Queen Anne, as appears 

 from a legend on one of the houses there, and the 

 names Marlborough Road and Orange Street are 

 significant of the date of the town. Defoe described 

 it as a suburb, or rather a new town, which promised 

 to outdo Portsmouth as to the number of inhabitants 

 and the beauty of the buildings, especially as it was 

 unencumbered by the laws of the garrison and the 

 town duties and services. 4 * 4 " Complaints of en- 

 croachments on the town common were frequent 

 after about i6go, tib when it is said to have been an 

 open field with one hovel upon it ; but by 1775 it 

 was closely built with houses for the dockyard-men, 4 " 

 and the population increased with great rapidity as the 

 dockyard rose in importance. In 1764 an Act was 

 passed for the better paving and cleansing of the 

 common, 4 " and under a new Act for the same pur- 

 pose, passed in 1792, the town was first named 

 Portsea. 4 * 8 The lighting and paving have since been 

 transferred to the Portsmouth authorities. 



418 Cal. of Clou, 1288-96, p. 439. 



414 Hist. MSS. Com. Ref. iv, App. 207. 



414 Lansd. MS. ji.fol. 178. Mention is 

 here made of the hall, kitchen, and dining- 

 chamber. 



418 Cal. S.P. Dam. 1644, p. 179. 



41 7 Story of the Domus Dei, by Arch- 

 deacon Wright. 



418 Par/. Accti. and Papers, 1835, xxiv, 

 811. 



419 Acts of P. C. (New Ser.), i, 322. 



420 L. and P. Hen. VIII, xiii (l), 

 859. 



421 Chan. Inq. p.m. 20 Edw. I, 1 5. 

 4M Pipe R. 9 Ric. I. 



423 Exch. Dep. Mi h. 4 Jas. I, 24. 



191 



424 Stat. 32 Geo. Ill, cap. 103. 

 42 Defoe, Journ (ed. 1778). 



425 Extracts from the Portsmouth Ree. 85 

 et seq. 



426 The Portsmouth Guide, 1775, p. 



39- 



W Stat. 4 Geo. Ill, cap. 92. 

 428 Ibid. 32 Geo. Ill, cap. 103. 



