BOROUGH OF SOUTHAMPTON 



' guard room." Its length is about 60 ft. ; its width, 

 exclusive of the rampart walk, about 20 ft. It is now 

 covered with weather-boarding externally, but pre- 

 serves much of the wattle-and-daub filling between 

 its original timbers. It has an open timber roof with 

 cambered tie-beams and arched windbraces. 



To the south of the ' guard room ' the wall projects 

 westward some 9 ft. and continues southward for 

 about 50 ft., and is then succeeded by a bastion 40 ft. 

 broad, behind which are remains of masonry, showing 

 that the rampart walk was here carried on arches. 

 From this bastion the wall which has been much 

 rebuilt here in consequence of the breach made in it 

 by the early eighteenth-century house of the Maretts 

 (the late Madame Maes), pulled down in 1898 con- 

 tinues for nearly 70 ft. to the vestiges of what was 

 Bugle Tower ; this stretch having been occupied by an 

 arcade of five arches, two of which, next to the Bugle 

 Tower, still remain. At this point the ancient shore 

 or quay, which commenced at the sharp re-entering 

 angle of the town wall outside Biddies' Gate, seems to 

 have ended. 



From the vestiges of Bugle Tower the wall, now ex- 

 posed, exists in ruins or is to be 

 traced south-east by east for 

 300 ft., as far as the remains of 

 what appears to be called in the 

 town books ' Square Tower ' or 

 ' Corner Tower,' at the entrance 

 to Cuckoo Lane adjoining the 

 Royal Southern Yacht Club- 

 house. Behind this wall and 

 just south of Bugle Tower was 

 the Spanish prisoners' burial 

 ground of the eighteenth cen- 

 tury, close to the garden of 

 the adjacent Roman Catholic 

 nunnery. 



A little short of ' Square 

 Tower ' were to be seen till the 

 recent clearances the arms of 

 the town under a Tudor mould- 

 ing, together with some huge 

 gun stones worked into a piece 

 of rebuilding, in memory, as was 

 supposed, of the direful French 

 invasion of the fourteenth cen- 

 tury, the foe having landed in this quarter, which 

 was formerly called the ' Gravel.' 



From ' Square Tower ' the wall passed the ends of 

 Bugle Street and French Street, joining the Water Gate 

 which crossed the High or English Street. This line 

 of walling was taken down in 1803, but a portion of 

 it appears in front of Canute Hotel near where it 

 joined the Water Gate. 



In its convex sweep of 600 ft. from Square or 

 Corner Tower, in which were included two towers, 

 St. Barbara's and Woolbridge, the wall passed some 

 notable buildings. Just behind the wall, commencing 

 at the mouth of Bugle Street and passing that of 

 French Street, ran Porter's Lane, at one time called le 

 Cheyne, and sometimes Wool Street, from wool stores 

 existing there. At its ancient mouth at the south- 

 east corner of Bugle Street stands a stone building 



about 80 ft. by 40 ft., with heavy cylindrical buttresses 

 along the west wall, called the ' wey-hous ' and ' wol- 

 hous ' in the fourteenth century. 90 It appears to be 

 of early fourteenth-century date, and was used in the 

 latter part of the eighteenth century as the ' Spanish 

 prison,' hence its more recent name. Its south front, 

 towards the harbour, has been nearly rebuilt at a late 

 date. Adjoining this building on the east and all 

 along the south quay are traces of handsome stores of 

 considerable importance. In Porter's Lane are the 

 remains of a twelfth-century house called since the 

 beginning of last century ' Canute's Palace.' It is in 

 two stories, and had originally a frontage of m ft., 

 with a central doorway and two windows on the first 

 floor. 



Water Gate crossed the High Street a few feet to the 

 rear of the machicolations still to be observed on the 

 front of Castle Hotel, and slightly to the north of the 

 present entrance to Winkle Street. It was a deep and 

 wide structure with a low pointed arch and the usual 

 defences to its opening. Above was a boldly pro- 

 jecting parapet with seven machicolations ; all the 

 windows on the second stage faced the town. 



9 D. of R. Mascall, 1365 ; R. Beche- 

 founte, 1388 (West Hall D. &c.). 



81 Pat. I Ric. II, pt. 6, m. 16 ; Quit- 

 claim from W. Brugis and Gilb. Harry, 



chaplains, to Walt. Nicoll and Elena his 21 Oct. (1396), 20 Ric. II. Corp. MSS. 



301 



THE WOOL HOUSE, SOUTHAMPTON 



This gate was probably not erected much before the 

 reign of Richard II. It is referred to in a patent of 

 his first year, but is still called new in his twentieth." 

 On its west side the gate was recessed and protected 

 by the rounded curtain or flanking tower, the machico- 

 lations of which exist, while on the east its approach 

 was completely covered, as was also much of the quay 

 outside, by the town wall, which here struck out 

 boldly to sea as a salient, south-east by south for about 

 no ft., to a lofty round tower Watch Tower on the 

 sea line. This is now marked by the bow window of 

 the Sun Hotel, which stands on its basement. 



Inside the wall was Winkle Street, entered by a 

 narrow passage to the east of the gate either through 

 the archway of the ancient custom house or that of a 

 house adjoining, the lessee " of which obtained per- 

 mission (1439) to construct solars above, provided he 



W. Soper, lease (Corp. MSS.). He 

 or his immediate descendant was possibly 

 the builder of the ships Holy Gbott and 

 Grace Dieu in 1414. 



wife, of a cellar and bakehouse ' in venella 

 jacente inter novam portam vocatam 

 Water gate et portam lanarum.' The 

 premises were thus in Porter's Lane. Date 



