200 H A M 
To enfnnre ; to inveigle ; to catch with allurements. — 
She’ll hamper thee, and dandle thee like a baby. Shake- 
fpeare. —To complicate ; to tangle; 
i Engend’ring heats, thefe one by one unbind,, 
Stretch their .fmall tubes, and hamper'd, nerves unwind. 
Blachmore. 
To perplex ; to embarrafs by many lets and troubles! 
And when th’ are hamper'd by the laws. 
Releafe the lab’rers for the caufe. Hudibras. 
HAM'PERING, f The a6l of bringing into perplex¬ 
ity ; the aft of putting in a hamper. 
HAMP'FLENj a town of Germany, in the archdu¬ 
chy of Auftria: fourteen miles fouth-weft of Steyr. 
HAMP'SHIRE, otherwife called The County of Hants , 
and County of Southampton , is a very opulent commercial 
or maritime county, bounded on the north by Berkfhire, 
on the eaft by Surry and SulTex,- on the fouth by. the 
Englifh Channel, and on the weft by the counties of 
Wilts and Dorfet. The air is healthy, and the foil in 
general fertile and produftive, but various; a large 
proportion inclining to chalk, with a great quantity of 
• fine fheep-down and rich meadows. Towards Berk¬ 
fhire, with the exception of a fmall traft on the eaft, 
which is heathy, the land is in general deep and good, 
producing great crops of corn. Towards Dorfet,fibre, 
in the fouth r weft part of the county, the land is open, 
and large traffs are covered with heath. The principal 
productions are corn, timber, and wool. The number 
of flveep in the county is eftimated at 350,000. Hamp- 
fhire is a great breeding county, and the docks in molt 
■ parifhes are very large. The planting of hops has of 
late years increafed in this County, principally on the 
borders of Surry ; the great repute of the Farnham hops 
feems to have been the caufe of this undertaking, which 
is likely to be very produftive. Hampfhire, during the 
Saxon heptarchy, belonged to the kingdom of Wetfex ; 
it is now included in the province of Canterbury, the 
diocefe of Wincheffer, and the weflern circuit. In¬ 
cluding the Ifie of Wight, it is fifty-five miles long 
from, north to fouth, forty miles broad from eaft to 
weft, and,two hundred and twenty in circumference. 
•Its figure would be nearly fquare, were it not for a tri¬ 
angular projection on the fouth-weft, which fomewhat 
refembles the baftion of a fortification. It contains 
1540 fquare miles, or 98-5,600 fquare acres, including 
alfo the Ifle of Wight; divided into 39 hundreds, hav¬ 
ing *50 parifhes, 77 vicarages,'and above 1060 villages; 
with one city, Winchefter, which fends two members 
to parliament, and gives the title of marquis to the Pow- 
lett family; and twenty market towns, viz. Southamp¬ 
ton, which fends two members to parliament, and gives 
the title of baron to the Fitzroy family ; Portsmouth, 
which fends two members to parliament, and gives the 
title of earl to the Wallop family ; Andover, which 
gives the title of vifcount to the Howard family, and 
fends two members to parliament; Lymington, which 
fends two members to parliament, and gives the title of 
vifcount to the family of Wallop; Chriftchurch fends 
two members to parliament; as does Stockbridge, 
Whitchurch, Petersfield ; with Newport, Newton, and 
Yarmouth, in the Ifle of Wight; alio the following 
market towns, which do not fend reprefentati.ves, viz. 
Bafingftoke, Alresford, Alton, Fareham, Fordingbridge, 
Havant, Kingfclere, Odiham, Ringwood, Ronvfey, and 
Bifliop’s-Waltham ; among the villages Titchfield gives 
^the title of marquis to the Bentinck family ; Portchef- 
fter, the title of baron to the Herbert family; and Ba- 
fing, the title of baron to the family of Powlett. Its 
population is eftimated at upwards of 200,000. The 
Hies of Jerf'ey and Guernfey are both fubjeCt to the ju- 
rifdiCtion of the bifhop of Winchefter, and are included 
as parts of this county ; the former of which gives the 
title of earl to the family of Villiers : and the latter that 
of baron to the Finch family. This county fends twenty- 
H A M 
fix members to .parliament, viz.-two for the fhire, and' 
the. others as mentioned abovej pays fourteen parts of 
the land-tax, and provides 960 men to the national mi¬ 
litia. Its principal rivers are the Itchen or Aire, the 
Tees or.Teft, Anton-, Avon, Stour, Wey, Loddon, and 
Auborn. Some of thefe rivers, riling on the north-eaft 
fide of Hampfhire, foon quit the county, and flow to¬ 
wards the Thame's ; but the principal of them run from 
north to fouth acrofs the county, to fall into the fea. 
The Avon, from Wiltflirre, coafts the edge of the New 
Foreft, and enters the Britifh Channel at Chriftchurch- 
bay. The Tees or Teft rifes inthe north-weftern part of 
Hampfhire ; and after pafling Stockbridge and Romfey„ 
falls into Southampton-bay. The Itchen firings nearly- 
in the centre of the county; and pafling- the town of 
New Alresford, and running through the city of Win¬ 
chefter, (where it becomes navigable,).it flows by Nor- 
tham into the Southampton water. Nearly parallel to 
this is a fmall ftream which rifes above Botley, paffes 
the village ofHamble, where it takes the name of Ham- 
ble-river, and likewife empties into the SoutliamptOR 
water, nearly oppofite to Calfhot caftle. On the fouth- 
ern fide of the county lie the noble harbours of Spit- 
head, Portfmouth, St. Helen’s, Eaft Cowes, Hampton 
water or Southampton-bay, Titchfield-bay, Langfton 
and Hamble Havens, &c. with a greaj number of pro¬ 
montories, headlands, ifles, forts, caftles, &c. This 
county ,is in, general finely wooded ; befides which it 
has the New Foreft, near thirty miles in extent, which 
was made and enlarged by William the Conqueror,, 
whofe injuftice and feverity in difpoffefling the rightful 
owners of this valuable traft of land for the mere grati¬ 
fication of his pleafures, was fuppofed to h^ye been pu- 
nifhed in the cafual death of his fons Richard and Wil¬ 
liam Rufus, who both perifhed in this foreft, and is thus 
recorded: 
Stretch’d on the lawn his fecond hope furvey. 
At once the chafer, and at once the prey. 
Lo Rufus, tugging at the deadly dart. 
Bleeds in. the foreft like a wounded hart. Hope. 
Though Mr. Warner, in his valuable Topographical. 
Remarks on Hampfhire, falls into the opinion “that this 
afforeftatio-n was made without muck injury to the fub- 
jeht, or offence to religion;’’ yet the evidence of all our 
ancients writers not only points out the meafure as a fla¬ 
grant a6t of injuftice, but ftigmatizes the cruelty of a 
, prince, who, after feizing the lands, fhould have intro¬ 
duced fo fevere a code as the foreft laws, which enforced 
the confifcation of goods, the lofs of liberty, the mutila¬ 
tion of the members of the body, for only difturbing or 
killing a wild beaft of the field! This conduct in a 
prince, Matthew Paris cenfures in thefe emphatic 
words :—“ Dreadful are the difheffes of that land, whofe 
monarch is the careful preferver of noxious animals, 
.and the unmerciful deftroyer of his own fubje&s.” See 
the article Forest, vol. vii. p. 565. 
Befides the New Foreft, Hampfhire contains the fo¬ 
reft of Bere, • fituated between Portfmouth and Bifhop’s- 
Waltham, and that of Woolmer, extending over a wide 
fpace of country between Petersfield and Alton, It has 
befides feveral other inferior forefts and chaces ; with a 
great number of parks and magnificent feats. Its chief 
produCt is corn, cattle, paftures, wood, iron, wool, fifh, 
and hops. It is noted for its honey, and the beft bacon 
in the kingdom. It has manufactures of woollen; and 
contains the ntoft extenfive magazine of naval, ftores at 
Portfmouth. The air of this county is reckoned ex¬ 
tremely fertile and healthy, and abounds with extenfive 
views and enchanting landfcapes, particularly from 
Portfdown, the neighbourhood of Lymington and of 
•Southampton, and from all the elevated points in the 
Ifle of Wight, which have furniflied inexhauftible maj 
terials to a number of poetical and profe writers. 
HAMP'SHIRE, an extenfive and wealthy county of 
the 
