PORTSMOUTH, a town of the county of Southampton or Hampshire, within the hundred of Portsdown, and seventy-four miles from London. It stands on an island divided from the mainland by a small creek or arm of the sea. This island, called Portsea, is about fifteen miles in circumference, and contains nearly 5100 acres of land of great fertility; and, besides the borough of Portsmouth, the town formerly known as Portsmouth common, but now by the name of the island, and also what may be denominated a town called Southsea, besides many other neat houses. The last of these towns has grown up to importance within a few years, because it has become a place of great resort for sea-bathing; and hence the usual accommodations of such places have been constructed and extended.

The population appears for the four decennial enumerations to have been, in the three divisions, as follows:
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Portsea Guildable is a part of the parish of Portsea, not within the jurisdiction of the borough of Portsmouth. The limits of that borough contain within them the whole of the town of Portsea; and the right of voting for members of parliament was conferred on the inhabitants, occupiers, by the reform bill. The corporation now consists of fourteen aidermen and forty-two councillors, who elect the mayor. It is divided into seven wards, and has justices of the peace appointed by the Crown.

The statements of population are exclusive of the corps of royal marines and regular troops, as well as the seamen on board the ships in the harbour, which are estimated to amount to about 4000 persons.

The soil of the island is marshy, and was formerly found to be unhealthy; and besides, the inhabitants suffered much from the scarcity and dearness of good water. But of late years those evils have been remedied by complete draining of the moist parts, and by the construction of good sewers, which carry into the sea the impurities of the towns. Two efficient Water Companies have completed works for the supply of that necessary of life; and no town in England is now better supplied with it, or at a cheaper rate, than the inhabitants of Portsmouth and its vicinity. The returns of deaths show that forty years ago they were one in thirty annually of the population; whilst in the three years 1827, 1828, 1829, they did not exceed one in sixty.

The favourable situation of Portsmouth for a naval arsenal, led to the constructions that have since distinguished it, at the period when the sovereigns of England first began to form a naval force. Some of the fortifications were erected on the sea-side as early as the reign of King Henry the [7:18:460]Eighth; but the walls surrounding the town were first built of stone in the reign of Elizabeth. In every subsequent reign additions and improvements have been made to it.

As the town of Portsmouth is surrounded with walls, the streets are for the most part narrow, nor can it as a whole be represented as a well-built place. The High Street is of moderate breadth, and has a few good buildings; but a part of it is disfigured and contracted, by having the market house running through the middle of it. Some of the buildings are of ancient date; one especially in the High Street is worthy of observation, as having been the dwelling in which the Duke of Buckingham was assassinated, in the reign of King Charles I. It may be remarked, that the best buildings in Portsmouth are the inns and hotels, which are numerous, and proportioned to the great number and various descriptions of occasional residents arriving and departing, as passengers to and from all parts of the world. The largest pile of building is the marine barracks, capable of accommodating some thousands of soldiers; but it is absolutely without taste or ornament. The walls that surround the town are shaded with trees, and afford a good promenade to the inhabitants. Another promenade is furnished on the grand parade, where every morning the troops destined to take the guard for the day and night are assembled. From the parade, by a slope, the king’s bastion is reached, where the garrison standard is hoisted every morning at break of day. At the east end of the Grand Parade is the garrison chapel, the remnant of an ancient hospital, called Domus Dei, built in 1238. The building has recently bccn taken down, and the chapel, or rather the chancel part of it, is now the only remains of the ancient erection.

At the west end of the platform, on an ancient building, which, before the dissolution of the monasteries, had been the government house, a lofty semaphore has been erected, from which signals are made to the ships in the harbour and at Spithead. It is also connected with a chain of telegraphs, terminating at the Admiralty Office in London, and by which communications are conveyed, so that a message has been sent and an answer received in two minutes. In a niche in the wall of this ancient building is a bust of King Charles I., with an inscription underneath, stating that “after his travels through France and Spain, and having passed very many dangers both by sea and land, he arrived here the 5th October 1623.” This was on his return from the secretjourney he made in search of a bride of the Spanish royal family.

The parish church is a venerable object, said to have been built originally in 1220, and dedicated to the then recently canonized St. Thomas à Becket. The chancel is the only part left of the original building, and affords a contrast, by its numerous pillars, clustered pilasters, and ribbed pointed arches in the Saracenic style, with the architecture of the nave, built in the plain Tuscan style, the pillars of which support circular arches, and carry the roof. Few places of worship in the kingdom are superior to this church in internal beauty, which is chiefly due to the elegance of the chancel, but is increased by a few painted windows over the altar, which has been recently presented to it. At the west end is the tower, added in 1693, which is 120 feet in height. Overthis, in an octagon latticed erection called thelanthorn, is a fine peal of eight bells. Surmounting the whole, as a weather vane, is a gilt model of a ship, six feet long, which has a shifting flag on the mizen mast that moves with the slightest motion of the air, and indicates from what quarter the wind blows, when the breeze is not sufficiently strong to move the hull of the ship.

The walls of this church are adorned with a great variety of handsome ancient and modern monuments; one of the most remarkable of which is that to the memory of the Duke of Buckingham, whose assassination has already been adverted to. In the parish register is to be seen the regis tration of the marriage of king Charles II. with the Infanta of Portugal, 22d May 1662. This document, in letters of gold on vellum, is highly illuminated in the style of the old missals, and states the marriage to have been performed by Sheldon, bishop of London. Some doubts have since been suggested whether any other ceremony was used, except a private marriage by a Catholic priest.

Besides this capacious church, there is open to the inhabitants the large garrison chapel for the established worship, and four places of meeting for several sects of dissenters. In the other towns the places of worship are numerous. At Portsea, there are, for the episcopal worship, the parish church ofKingston, the dock-yard chapel, St. George’s church, St. John’s church, besides a Catholic chapel, a Jew’s Synagogue, a Wesleyan, two Independent, and two Baptist meeting houses. In Southsea is St. Paul’s church, with a Methodist and a Baptist chapel. At Landport, or a part better known as the Halfway Houses, is All Saints’ church, besides no less than nine chapels of various sects. Almost all these places ofworship have schools attached to them, some on Sundays and others for week days; and in addition to them is a large school, where reading, writing, and arithmetic are taught on Bell’s system. A philosophical institution has been established, containing a museum of natural history and curiosities, and a choice library, rapidly increasing. At the rooms lectures are delivered on physical and moral philosophy, and on the belles lettres. There is also over the market house a mechanic’s institute, where meetings are held, and weekly lectures delivered. A well endowed grammar school in Penny Street affords classical instruction to fifty boys, sons of the inhabitants of the town. The townhall, gaol, theatre, custom-house, and the other public buildings in Portsmouth, present very little attraction.

Few markets are better supplied than that of Portsmouth. A large part of the fertile island of Portsea is laid cut in kitchen and fruit gardens, from which spring crops of vegetables are grown much earlier than in other parts of the kingdom. No market produces finer meat; large quantities of poultry, hares, partridges, and eggs, are brought from France, and the extensive water communication gives facility to provide hay, corn, flour, and other articles, at very cheap rates. To this cheapness of provisions, combined with the purity of the air, and the number of comfortable houses recently built, may be attributed the great extension of Southsea which the population tables present.

The buildings in Portsea, except those belonging to the government, are by no means distinguished. The streets are regularly built, well paved and lighted, and kept generall; in a clean state, but as the greater part of the inhabitants consist of artificers andlabourersof different grades employed in the dock-yard, or otherwise in the public service, the houses are mostly small, conformably to the finances of the occupants. Southsea consists of houses of a more respectable class, forming terraces or rows mostly looking on the sea, and enjoying the prospect of the inner harbour, the fortresses that guard the entrance to it, and the building! and scenery on the opposite shore. It has one distinguish ed pile called the king’s rooms, consisting of an elegan suite of rooms, eighty feet in front. Within is the pro menade room, forty-five feet long, thirty-five feet wide, ant seventeen feet high, adapted for music or dancing; and be sides, it contains baths, both warm and cold, and gives; cheerful appearance to the spot. Besides the three town here noticed, there arc groups of houses on the island, am single dwellings of various descriptions. The largest o the groups, called the Halfway Houses, from lying midwa; between Portsea and the parish church, has many respect able houses, as well as the new church of All Saints.

The most important view in which Portsmouth can ♭ looked upon is as the great depot of the British nava power, and in this view the state of the surrounding wate [7:18:461]and of the harbour above the town, become worthy of observation and description. One of the great advantages of this place is that very fine anchorage known by the name of Spithead. It is about half way between the mainland and the Isle of Wight, but nearer to the latter. It is protected by the high land of the island from southerly winds, and from northerly and easterly winds by the mainland. It has an advantageous entrance. For, though at the east there are some dangers on what is called the Princessa shoal, and on the ranges of rocks called Bambridge’s Ledge, and Betty’s Ledge, they, as well as the Nab rock, the Long rock, the Warner, and Romansland, are so well provided with either floating lights or distinguishing buoys, that there is little risk, except in those very thick fogs when the buoys cannot be seen, nor the leading marks observed on the sea-shore. At this entrance it is a great advantage, that at St. Helen’s, at the east end of the island, there is a good anchorage, so that if the wind takes a vessel short, she can safely ride till the breeze is in her favour. The western entrance to Spithead is by Hurst Castle, and the rocks called the Needles. This passage is always safe in fair winds, on account of the definite track which is shewn by the buoys, lights, and landmarks; but it is so hazardous, that few ships attempt in a contrary wind to beat through. The passage out by the Needles is used by more vessels than come into Spithead that way.

The anchoring ground at Spithead is very good for holding, and very clear, except near the wrecks of the Royal George, the Boyne, and the Edgar, around which the tide has formed considerable banks. There is a regular depth of water in every part, varying from six to twelve fathoms, and the space is sufficient for the whole navy of England to ride at single or double anchor, without danger of falling on board each other when swinging with the changes of the tide.

Within the smooth water, between the island and the mainland, there are other very good anchorages, besides that of Spithead. The Mother-bank is one of them, which, though there are but two fathoms of water at low tides, has near to the bank from seven to nine fathoms, where in time of war merchant ships have been collected to wait for the convoy of ships of war. Stakes Bay is another anchorage, where there is from four to nine fathoms water, and where merchant ships often anchor.

The great advantages arising from so secure a rendezvous as Spithead, so near to the great national marine arsenal, are too obvious to need any elaborate remarks. The entrance to the harbour of Portsmouth is very narrow, but with sufficient depth of water for the largest ships. The channels by which vessels approach the mouth of the harbour, are commanded by batteries of such power that an enemy’s fleet, however strong, would be annihilated befo,re it could reach even the entrance. Within the narrow gut at the entrance, on one side of which is Portsmouth, and on the other side Gosport, the water spreads out into a wide basin, in which those ships of war that are under repair, or preparing for sea, are riding, and some of them lying at the wharfs of the dock which borders the harbour on the eastern side. From thence the harbour extends into the land, and contains, in one part called Rotten Row, the ships that are in ordinary, being with no other crew but a few warrant officers, to prevent them from plunder, or from injury by weather. The water here branches off in various directions, and by the help of the tide is navigable to Farnham, and to Porchester Castle, a pile of antiquity that will reward the curiosity of a visitor.

The dock-yard of Portsmouth is one of those noble objects in which every Briton feels an interest. But this has already been described under the article Dock. Yards.

The gun wharf, under the ordnance department, is an immense arsenal, consisting of various ranges of buildings for the reception of military and naval stores and artillery. Some of the storehouses are vast piles, especially two, which, with their dependencies, are fitted to contain all kinds of necessaries for the sudden equipment both of a fleet and an army. On the wharf is the grand depot for guns, carronades, and mortars, with shot and shells of almost every weight and size, all of which are arranged in immense pyramids. Here also in time of peace the guns from the ships in ordinary at the port are lodged, each ship’s guns being kept in a separate tier, whilst the carriages are deposited away in the same regular manner in the proper storehouses, so that the whole may be easily collected again and re-embarked. The small armoury is a spacious building, and the great object of admiration. Within it are upwards of 20,000 stand of arms, all placed in the same ornamental style as those of a similar description in the tower of London.* The roof of this building is covered with copper, which being oxydized by exposure to the atmosphere, when viewed on approaching it from the quay gate, conveys to the mind the idea of a green glassy slope, or a still wave of the sea.

The victualling establishment has recently been removed from Portsmouth to the opposite side of the harbour, and properly belongs to the town of Gosport. The expense of this depository is said to have amounted to half a million of money. The storehouses, of vast dimensions, are used as depositories for bread, beef, pork, and other articles of food, of rum, wine, and clothing, that are kept ready for the supply of the navy. A special object of curiosity at this establishment is the machinery substituted for manual labour in making biscuit, whereby every process, in its minutest detail, is effected, preparatory to its being ready for the oven, including kneading, rolling, forming, and stamping. Another object worthy of attention is a fine new steam corn mill, recently built an an expence of L.76,000.

Portsmouth is not merely a port for warlike purposes, but enjoys a considerable foreign and coasting trade. The custom-house is a large and convenient building, and in its stores merchandize may be kept under bond free of duty till it is sold for internal consumption, or is exported. The shipping belonging to the port, in which Gosport is included, consists of about 300 sail of vessels, registered at nearly 10,000 tons; some are engaged in the Newfoundland fishery, and since the trade with India has been laid open, a few vessels have landed cargoes here from beyond the Cape of Good Hope. There is a considerable importation of wine, and some of West India articles, but the chief business consists in timber, corn, Irish provisions, Spanish and Portuguese fruits, and the vine of both these countries. The amount of duty annually received on imported articles at the custom-house, is from L.50,000 to L.60,000.