The Sun.
London, England, 1864-05-20 00:00:00

THE PORTSDOWN FORTS,

Three hundred men from the 2d battalion of the
2d R-gals, sthtioned at Portsmouth, have encamped
on Portsdown-hill, where they will be employed,
under the direction of the Royal Engineer officers
superintending the construction of the forts, in
levelling the ground and removing the trees and
hedgerows from the northern .slope of the hill in
the immediate front of the line of forts now rising
along the hill's crest. By this measure the north
side of Portadown, which is nearly seven miles in
extent, will be converted into one immense glacis,
to the forts ranged along its top, open to the sweep-
ing fire from their guns from end to end, and bare
of cover for a foe.

In The Sun of Sept, 4, 1863, under the head of
"The Fortifications of Portsmouth," was given a
general description of the line of works which are
being created along the crest of Portsdown—the
base of the great pentangular plan of defence which
is rising up and encircling Portsmouth, its harbour,
shipping, dockyard, and arsenal—and it will, there-
fore, render any further notice of them at the pre-
sent time, perhaps, the more clear and interesting
to the general reader if one of those works is
selected as an illustration of the progress which has
been made in their construction, and also of the
kind of works they will be when completed.
The Portsdown forts, with the exception of the
two central forts, vary in their designs according
to the position they hold. Thus the western end
of Portsdown is held by Fort Wallington, a very
extensive work, intended to mount 56 guns on its
terre-plein, exclusive of guns in an advanced
work, and of guns in caponnieres and mortars in
batteries in rear of the caponnieres in the ditches.
The latter are 21 feet in width at the base, and
50 feet at the counterscarp. The eastern end of
the hill is held by Fort Purbrook and its two
outworks, Farlington and Crookhorn, and will
mount a total of 55 guns on the terre-plain, exclu-
sive of guns and mortars in the fosse. Three other
works— Widley, Southwick, and Nelson—occupy
positions along the intervening space between the
eastern and western works just alluded to. Nelson
stands nearest to Fort Wallingte,n, and differs from
the central works of Southaeick and Widley in hav-
ing its face constructod at an acute instead of an
obtuse angle. It will mount 30 guns on its terre
plein, and will, like the others, have its guns in ca-
ponnieres and mortar batteries in its fosse or ditch.
Widley and Southwick occupy the central position
of the line, are alike in design and extent, and stand
nearest in position to Portsmouth dockyard and ar-
senal. Widley, the easternmost of the two, indeed,
commands the high road which leads from the main-
land to the only entrance to the island of Portsea,
which contains Portsmouth and all its belongings,
which these vast fortifications are intended to assist
in protecting ; and for this reason we will select
Fort Widley for our present illustration, and aps
proach it from the north—that is, from inland, as an
enemy would approach it after having effected a
landing on some other part of the coast with the in-
tention of afterwards advancing upon Portsmouth.
Approaching Portsdown, therefore, in this manner
tram the north, and crossing the valley at its base
between the Villages of Southwick and Purbrook,
Portsdown towers upwards to a height of upwards
of 400 ft above high-water mark immediately in
front, with the huge, hammocklike appearance cap-
ping the hill at about its centre, and other ham-
mocklike appearances right and left along the hill,
showing the position of the other forte. From the
valley the hill looks like one monster fortification,
the several forts forming the bastions, and the
crest and slope the connecting curtains and cover-
ing glacis, &c. Ascending the hill's slope the reader
would, after some little fatigue, stand upon the edge
of the fosse or counterscarp of the dry moat which
surrounds Fort Widley. It is cut down into
the chalk 35ft. and 50ft. in width, the counterscarp
and escarp—i e., outer and inner walls of the meat
being vertical, the counterscarp being merely the
unsupported chalk cutting, but the escarp being a
composite wall, to which it will be necessary to refer
again presently. At each angle of the escarp wall o.
bombproof caponniere stands out into the ditch from
the fort (the counterscarp in front of each caponniere
being cut into a bay to admit of this) and sweeps the
line of moat with fire from rifle and howitzer. The
moat which surrounds the fort is thus commanded
by the caponnieres at eaeh angle of the workeinde-
pendent of any aid from its defenders from its ram-
parts, excepting that additional assistance may be
given to the defenders in the caponnieres by a rifle
from the top of the escarp. Descending from the
counterscarp into the moat it will be found that a
considerable portion of both escarp and counterscarp
walls is lying in the moat, the chalk of the counter-
scarp having fallen from the natural effects of the
weather, and the composite wall of the escarp from
its weakness and inability to support the immense
pressure of the ramp behind it. It is built up of
segmental brick arches with 18ft. bays and 3ft.
brick piers, filled in with IBin. of lint onwards, 27in.
of chalk masonry in the core, and 9in. of brick on
the inside, giving a total thickness of 4ft. Gin. At
the angles of the wall it is very weakly designed,
and large masses have fallen bodily into the moat.
At other parts the chalk where it has appeared solid
has been allowed to form part of the lower portion
of the wall, thenrick work and composite wall com-
mencing about a third of the way up the escarp. In
every instance of this kind the chalk is peeling off
in large flakes, and the composite wall must becon-
tinned to the level of the bottom of the moat, or it
must fall. Leaving the moat, however, with its
vertical walls and bombproof caponnieres, each of
the latter a complete little fortress in itself, the
reader can now ascend the 35ft. of escarp wall,
and stepping down inside the work from the coping
stone of the wall will find himself on a narrow
raised pathway that runs round the inside of the
escarp, and on which the defenders of the work
would stand when opening a rifle fire over the wall
either on an enemy on the glacis outside the
fort, or attempting to force the moat. A step lower down
again and the reader would stand on the Moan de ronde,
a pathway that goes entirely round the work, but outside
the rampart, below the line of embrasures considerably, and
covered from observation from the outside of the fort by the
top of the escarp wall, At each angle there are loop-holed
brick galleries, from which the defenders could sweep the
eh emin de ronde and face of the rampart if the escarp was
being carried by an enemy. Looking over the escarp at each
angle towards the moat, there will be seen between each
caponniere and the escarp massive brick arches over granite
platforms. These are intended for mortar batteries for
the especial benefit of any enemy who may obtain poss-s-
-sion of any part of the ground or valley in front of the posi-
tion. From the ehemin de rondo the grass-covered rampart
stretches upwards at the usual angle of inclination, and,
this surmounted, the interior of the fort is gained. The
parade level of the fort is 342 ft. above high-water mark,
the terre-plein 354 ft., and the top of the parapet 362 ft. at
its right shoulder, and 364 ft at its left. The fort is, like
all the others on the hill, of exceedingly simple trace,
though of prodigious strength. It is of horseshoe shape,
with obtuse-angled faces, and with the base line cf its
figure aLutting upan a military road, which extends as a
base line throughout the position and connects the forts