592 Hints for the Improvement 



placed in the shade, in the entrance passage to a shop, varied 

 from 75° to 83°. 



The situation of the old town of Southampton is low, flat, 

 and very little raised above the water's edge ; but in that part 

 of the town which extends beyond the ancient walls the ground 

 rises considerably, though gradually. The town is approached 

 from London through a very handsome avenue of elms, on both 

 sides of which is a common of 360 acres in extent, perhaps the 

 finest thing of the kind in England. It is particularly unri- 

 valled for its scattered oak woods, which are beautifully inter- 

 spersed in some places with glades of turf, and in others with a 

 broad expanse of heathy surface, intermixed with an endless 

 variety of groups of holHes and thorns, many of the latter pro- 

 ducing scarlet blossoms. Though this common extends two 

 miles from the town gates, yet we have no doubt the time is 

 not very far distant when it will be as much surrounded by 

 houses, and, as it were, enclosed in the town, as Hyde Park and 

 the Regent's Park are enclosed in London. It would appear 

 from the newspapers that some attempts have been lately made 

 to let a part of this beautiful common for building on : but we 

 do hope that all such attempts will be defeated ; as, should an 

 encroachment of this kind be once made, no one can tell where 

 it would stop. Beyond Southampton Common is Shirley Com- 

 mon, an immense mass of gravel, high, dry, and airy, and, we 

 should think, one of the healthiest situations in England, as 

 well as a very beautiful one from the woods in the distant 

 horizon all round it. We remained a month in Southampton, 

 but we know very little of the neighbourhood, or even of the 

 town, being the whole time so much an invalid as to be able to 

 walk only in the High Street, along the shore, and in Bernard 

 Street, in which we lodged. We mention this to show on what 

 a very slight knowledge of the place the following remarks are 

 founded. We have made them, however, feeling confident that 

 they may be of some use as suggestions to those who m y have 

 occasion to study the improvement of this town, or any other 

 similarly situated. 



Covering the Bay icith Water when the Tide is at the lowest. — 

 Southampton has at present a bad reputation from the number 

 of acres of mud slightly covered with marine grass, which are 

 exposed to the action of the sun and air every time the tide is 

 out. One of the first things that ought to be done, in our 

 opinion, is to remove this mud to such a depth as would allow 

 of the whole bay being constantly covered with two or three 

 feet of water, even at the very lowest tides. This might be 

 effected in two or three ways at no great expense. First, by 

 filling small boats with the mud at low water, and during high 

 water pulling these boats ashore and emptying them by cranes. 



