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Hampshire and Kent, contrasted and compared. 



An Extract from a lecture by 

 R. Y. Banks. 



(Delivered at the Municipal College, February 22nd, 1919.) 



SOME time ago Mr. Fawcett rather pointedly reminded us that 

 Hampshire is THE historical county, but perhaps he only 

 meant that it takes a prominent place among- the counties of Eng- 

 land, which it does. Kent is also a great historical county and 

 makes as strong a claim as Hampshire to be the home or mother 

 countv. Let us first contrast the two counties. Hampshire had 

 its British, Saxon, and Norman kings, while Kent had only its 

 British and Saxon kings. Hampshire was a pari of the great 

 kingdom of Wessex, while Kent was a kingdom in itself, although, 

 in the time of Ethelbert, its political influence extended as far 

 north as the Humber. Kent was the first English kingdom to 

 accept Christianity after the lapse into heathendom when the last 

 of the Roman legions left our shores. The influence of St. Augus- 

 tine does not seem to have extended to Hampshire, and it was not 

 till more than a quarter of a century after his death that Birenus 

 passed through Hampshire intending, as instructed, to go to the 

 heart of England. He, however, found the country in such a con- 

 dition of darkness that he got no farther than Dorchester on the 

 Thames where he set up his Bishop's stool, some years later trans- 

 ferrer to Winchester. HaA'ing contrasted the counties let us now 

 take up the more genial task of comparing them, which is our chief 

 object. Hampshire and Kent have been described as being 

 " yoked like twin oxen to the plough of England," and it seems 

 certain that these two counties did more to establish the foundation 

 and build up the fabric of this kingdom of ours than any 

 other two that could be named. The reason for this is not difficult 

 to explain if we remember that England was a western outpost of 

 the then known} world. For nearly four centuries it was the out- 

 post of the great Roman Empire and for centuries after an out- 

 post of the continent of Europe. It was natural in these circum- 

 stances that its approaches, or bridges as they are frequently 

 called, should be situated on the south and south-east coasts, and 

 it was Hampshire and Kent that provided the most convenient 

 means of access due to certain physical features both counties 

 possessed. In the case of Hampshire the chief of these are : the 

 position of the Isle of Wight forming the sheltering waters of the 

 Solent and Spithead, the numerous harbours of refuge, and the 

 great Southampton Water, For the Hampshire " bridge " a line 

 must be drawn from the peninsula on the French coast, at the 

 end of which stand Barfieur and Cherbourg, and St. Catherine's 

 Point on the Isle of Wight. It has been estimated that not more 

 than 15 or 20 miles would have to be traversed beween losing 



