138 



THE BRITISH ISLES. 



Southampton occupies so fuvounible a position between the estuaries of the Test 

 and Itchin, and at the head of its long bay, that wc need not wonder at the 

 importance into which it has grown since England has permanently entered into 

 intimate relations with the continent. Flemish refugees, driven by religious 

 intolerance from their homes in the sixteenth century, introduced several branches 

 of manufacture, including more especially that of cloth-weaving, but these indus- 

 tries deserted the town in the course of last century. The event which made South- 

 Fig. 76.— Southampton Water. 



So lie 1 : 100,000. 



•2 MQes. 



ampton what it is was the opening of the South-Western Railway. Placed thereby 

 within a two-hours' ride of the metropolis, Southampton was enabled to make the 

 most of the advantages which it offered to persons desirous of proceeding from 

 London to foreign parts. By embarking at Southampton these travellers avoided 

 the delay incidental to a passage through the Straits of Dover. That town 

 became, in fact, the starting-point of the Indian and other mail-packets, and the 

 docks excavated for their accommodation at the head of the peninsula, as well as 



