THE PROVINCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
XXI.—HAMPSHIRE AND THE ISLE OF WIGHT.—(CONCLUSION.> MHE History of Hampshire since the Conquest concentrates; itself about that of the three towns of Winchester, South- ampton, and Portsmouth. A castle was built by King William at- the first-named place, and the Saxon Earl Waltheof was beheaded in the city, which continued to be a Royal residence, both the Conqueror and his successor Rufus constantly keeping their- Easter there with great solemnity. In 1079 the rebuilding of the- Cathedral was resumed by Walkelin, Bishop of Winchester, cousin- of the Conqueror, who stretched a Royal permission to cut down. timber for this purpose to such an extent as to greatly incense the. King. On Walkelin's death, in 1098, Rufus retained the bishopric- in his own hands till his death, which, it is well known, took place in the New Forest, his body being brought thence to Winchester: Probably this proceeding of the King's quickened the sensitive- ness of the clergy to the divine judgment on his and his father's- afforestments. On this event, Prince Henry seized the Royal Treasury in the city, and by a liberal use of it secured his succes- sion to the Crown, in place of his brother, Robert Courthose. Here- he espoused his Saxon wife, Molde, or Maud, who had been, as- we have seen, brought up in a neighbouring convent. In 1102' the Palace, Guildhall, Mint, and a number of houses were de- stroyed by a fire. Winchester suffered a good deal during the- Civil War between Matilda and Stephen, in consequence of the- vacillating policy of its Bishop, Henry de Blois, brother of the latter Prince, who, after being a principal agent in the election of Stephen, joined the Empress, andthen subsequentlyquarrelling with her, stood a siege in his Castle of Wolvesey. Stephen's partizans- hastened to his rescue. The battle which ensued was carried on for seven weeks in the heart of the city of Winchester itself, the partizans of Matilda holding that part to the north of the High Street where most of the houses of the citizens stood and the Royal' Castle, whileStephen'spartizans held the Bishop's Palace and Castle, the Cathedral, and all on the south of the High Street. The former were at last driven into the Royal Castle, and Stephen's troops are- said to have thrown fire-balls on the houses of the adverse citizens,. destroying the adjoining Abbey of St. Mary, and the whole north part of the city, with twenty churches. The Earl of Gloucester; who commanded for Matilda, resolved on this to abandon the con- test, and sending on the Empress in advance, brought up the rear- of his army on their retreat. But scarcely had they passed the gates of the city when they were attacked by the army of Stephen's partizans, and after a furious contest utterly defeated, the Empress
escaping to Ludgershall, and the Earl of Gloucester remaining a prisoner. Stephen, who thus obtained his release in exchange for the Earl, was engaged in repairing the Castle of Winchester when he was attacked by an army from without and compelled to fly. The city recovered gradually from all this ruin under the wise
rule of Henry II., who gave it a charter in 1184 for its govern- ment by a Mayor and subordinate Bailiff, with other privileges. Prince Richard on his father's death imitated the conduct of Henry I., and seized at once the Royal Treasury at Winchester. He was crowned here for the second time on his return from captivity, the first coronation having taken place in London. This shows the shifting state of its " metropolitan " character at this time. Here, in 1207, King John held an assembly which imposed a heavy tax on the people, causing much discontent; and in the same year his son Henry (afterwards the Third) was born here. In 1208 John granted a new charter of incorporation on the payment of 200 marks down and 100 marks annually ; and in the Chapter House of this city the Papal Legate absolved him from the sentence of excommunication. The city was partly restored to its consequence in the early part of the next reign, Peter de Rapibus, its Bishop,
being the second guardian of the young King ; but the citizens became corrupted by the disorderly character of the Royal merce-
naries who dwelt around him in the city. In the Civil War which ensued, Winchester suffered so greatly from both sides that it may be said to have henceforth lost its pre-eminence in England, London rising at the same time into that position. Edward I. indeed held some Parliaments here, but the Royal residence gradu- ally ceased, and although Parliaments were still occasionally held hereby succeeding Kings, Winchester virtually lost its character of capital. Its prosperity was much affected by the destruction of Ports- mouth and Southampton by the French in 1337 and 1338, and in 1348 a great plague swept off a large proportion of the inhabitants. The removal, in 1363, to Calais of the wool staple which had been settled here by Edward III, completed the downfall of Winchester. Henceforth its glories were connected with the celebrated William of Wykeham, or Wickham, who founded the College here in connec- tion with onein Oxford; and with the no less celebrated HenryBeau- fort, Bishop of Winchester, and afterwards Cardinal in the reign of Henry VI. By this time the city had so declined that 997 houses were uninhabited, and seventeen parish churches shut up. The eminence of its Bishops, however, was maintained by the well known Waynflete, and by Fox, Wolsey, and Gardiner, in the reigns of the Tudor Princes. In the Civil War of Charles' time the city and castle were taken and retaken several times, and finally by Crom- well, when the Royal Castle and the Bishop's Castle of Wolvesey, with the fortifications of the city, were demolished or dismantled. Winchester was again a terrible sufferer from the Great Plague in 1665. A fitful gleam of prosperity broke on the city in the reign of Charles II., who made it once more a Royal residence, and began a palace on a scale of great splendour. But his death destroyed the hopes of the inhabitants, and the palace was after- wards turned into barracks. The city is now simply a cathedral, public school, and county town.
The prosperity of SOUTHAMPTON began with the Conquest, the Normans taking it into especial favour, and settling here in greater number than the English. A charter was granted by John and confirmed by Henry III. "Into the harbour came the great ships' of Venice and Bayonne, laden with the rich silks of the East, - the red leather of Cordova and Tunis, and the coloured sugars of Alexandria, and it was here the merchants of Bordeaux and Rochelle landed their cargoes of wine, the importation of which was long con- fined entirely to this port." A great fair called St. Giles's was held at Winchester, and here the merchants from all parts assembled. Pilgrims also landed in numbers at Southampton on their way to the shrine of St. Thomas it Becket at Canterbury, and fleets fre- quently assembled here—part of that of Cceur de Lion on his Crusade expedition, and several in the time of the Edwards, during the expeditions to France. Here also Henry V. embarked for his invasion of that country. We have mentioned the burning of the town in 1338. The abandonment of Guienne and Aquitaine by the English was a great blow to the prosperity of Southampton, which was the port of departure for these provinces. In 1442 Hampshire contributed to the Navy only "one balyngor [a flush- decked sailing vessel], with 40 hands." Its trade with Venice, however, continued active. "A little fleet, known by the name of the 'Flanders Galleys,' sailed annually from Venice, and after touching at some of the principal ports of the Adriatic, Sicily, and Spain, passed on to 'Hampton, where the flag galley and the Commodore remained, whilst the rest proceeded to Bruges and Antwerp." The discovery of the passage round the Cape of Good Hope struck a severe blow at Southampton as well as Venice, by diverting the stream of commerce which had flowed hither through the latter city. The town, howeftr, continued in out- ward prosperity till Elizabeth's reign, when it began to decline, and continued to do so rapidly till the beginning of the reign of George III. The Duke of York then made it his occasional resi- dence, and it began to assume something of the character of a watering-place. But with the South-Western Railway in 1834 its real modem prosperity begins ; it became once more the arrival port from the East, docks were built, and the population, which in 1801 was but 7,600, in 1861 reached 46,300.
PORTSMOUTH began to assume a marked importance just when Southampton began to decline. In 1140, when the Empress Matilda landed here, "the town was as yet small, and it had no church till the Canons of Southwick, towards the end of the reign of Henry IL, founded that which now exits." Richard I. gave the town its first charter, and the first recorded oranges in England were brought here in 1290 by a Spanish vessel. The town was burnt by the French in 1372, and after that fortified for the first time. Its harbour was already exempted in 1450. Still in Henry VIII.'s time the town was "little occupied in time of peace," according to the contemporary Leland. We have mentioned the indecisive naval engagement off Portsmouth iii 1545. Elizabeth increased the strength of the fortifications, and little more was done till the reign of William III. In the reign of Edward VI. the enclosed town was considerable in extent, but there were large vacant spaces within the walls. It continued to be a gathering-place for expeditions and a rendezvous for ships, growing gradually in importance in that respect. The murder of the Duke of Buckingham by Felton and the treachery of the Governor, George Goring, at the commencement of the Civil War, are among the incidents connected with it during the reign of Charles I. In 1662 Charles H.'s marriage with Catherine of Braganza was celebrated here. In the reign of William III. the first house was built on the common to the north of the town, and in 1792 this new site was "legally recognized as the town of PORTSICA, till the close of the century still called Portsmouth Common." With its suburbs LANDPORT and SoumsEa it is now more populous than Portsmouth. The growth and importance of the latter as a Government station and a dockyard and arsenal are too well known to require farther illustration. Gosport—Gods- port –so named by Henry de Blois, the Bishop of Winchester, occupies a peninsula between two inlets of Portsmouth Harbour, and stands on higher ground than the opposite towns. This is the great storehouse and victualling yard of Portsmouth. Alto- gether, the group of towns on the peninsulas which face the Isle of Wight from the east of Southampton Water to the frontier of Sussex, are among the most striking developments of English com- merce and naval greatness.
Old Fuller records three proverbs as belonging to this Province. "Manners makes a man, quoth William Wickham ;" "Canter- bury is the higher rack, but Winchester is the better manger," a saying attributed to W. Edrington, Bishop of Winchester, as a reason of his refusal to exchange the See of Winchester for the Primacy ; and "The Isle of Wight hath no monks, lawyers, nor foxes"—a speech, says Fuller, which " hath more mirth than truth in it. That they had monks I know ; black ones at Canis- brooke, white ones at Quarre, in this island. That they have lawyers they know when they pay them their fees ; and that they have foxes their lambs know. However, because, perchance, they have fewer in proportion to places of the like extent (and few or none are often coupled in common discourse) let not that which was pleasantly spoken be frowardly taken, but pass as we found it to po.terity."
We may gather the names of the more prominent families of this Province from the lists of the Sheriffs of Hampshire. Among those families who filled that office we find, besides Turcinus and Richard, filius Turcini (the latter for nine years consecutively), Gandeville, Stratton, and Fitz-Azon, appointed by Henry II.*; Fitz-Oger, Briewere, and Bose or Base, by Richard I.; Nevill, Salvaozins, and St. John, by John ; De Molis, De Bath, Fitz-Nicholas, De Insula (De l'Isle), Passeleue, Facull, Le Savage, and Le Bolele, by Henry UI., in the early part of whose reign the Bishops of Winchester and Salisbury held the Sheriffdom frequently jointly with a layman ; Foynil, Brems- chete, Chickenhull, and Warbington, by Edward I.; Norton, In Bech, and Scares, by Edward IL; Daundelin, Palton, Sturmy, Hampton, Popham, and Gorges, by Edward Ill.; Uvedale, Warner, and Sandys, by Richard II.; Brookes, We Indicate by thin the reign In which one of the family first appears es holding theater, selecting those who served moat fraqueldly, or whose families afterwards became prominent.
Seymor, Wallop, ad Philpot, by Henry VL ; and Paulet, Whitehead, and Berkeley, by Edward IV. During the Tudor period the most prominent names are the Uvedales, Nortons, Paulets, Wallops, Lisles, Berkeleys, Tichbornes, and Philpots. The Nortons and Wallops continue prominent in the early Stuart period, and in the fifteenth and sixteenth of Charles L we find the name of Richard Mayor, of Hursley Park, Hathpshire, the father-in-law of Richard Cromwell ; from whose daughters the estate passed to the Heathcote family, who now enjoy it. The Chute family obtained a footing in the county during the Commonwealth, Challoner Chute, an eminent lawyer, being Speaker of the House of Commons in the Protectorate of Richard Cromwell. The Wriothesleys, Earls of Southampton, had gained a considerable footing in the county in the reign of Elizabeth, and the estates of Tichfield and Beaulieu Abbey and Manor, which they enjoyed, have since passed, the latter through the Montagues, to the Scotts, Dukes of Buccleuch, and the former to the Ben- tincks, Dukes of Portland. The Herberts, Earls of Carnarvon, are also among the more modern landowners, and the estate of Strath- fieldsaye, purchased with a grant of money from the nation, has placed the Wellealeys, Dukes of Wellington, in a similar position. The Baring family (the Northbrook branch) are now seated at Stratton Park, once belonging to the Wriothesley family, after- wards to the Russells. The Pelhams, as representatives of the Worsleys, till the present century held considerable property in the Isle of Wight, but it is now sold, and Sir John Simeon and Mr. Ward (both converts to Roman Catholicism, and representa- tives of its national and lUltramontane phases respectively) are now among the principal owners in that island.
The See of Winchester was comparatively free from Protestant martyrdoms in the reign of Queen Mary. This Fuller attributes to the policy of Stephen Gardiner, the Bishop, who, "like a cun- ning hunter., preserved the game fair at home, and killed it in the walks of other keepers. It was not he, but "Bloody Bonner," he continues, "who procured the death of John Philpot, son of Sir Peter Philpot, Knight, born in this county," and martyred, December 18, 1555.
, Besides King Henry III., Prince Arthur, elder brother of Henry VIIL, was born at Winchester. The celebrated William of Wyke- ham, or Wickham, the son of John Perot, was born at Wickham, in Hampshire. In St. Peter's Parish, Winchester, was born John Russell, made Bishop of Lincoln in the reign of Edward IV., Chancellor of Oxford, and Lord Chancellor of England to Richard III. There is no evidence that he had any connection with the noble family of Russell. William Warham, made Bishop of London and Archbishop of Canterbury by Henry VII., was born at Ockley, in Hampshire, "of worshipful parents." He was eclipsed by Wolsey, survived his ruin, "but never recovered his greatness, bleated with a Prtemunire, with the rest of the clergy." Sir Richard Rich, the founder of a family which for a time enjoyed the dignity of Earls of Warwick, was "a gentleman well descended and allied in this county." As Solicitor-General to Henry VIII. he was "the chiefest evidence to cut off the head of Sir Thomas More, upon words spoken to him in the Tower ;" was made Lord Chancellor under Edward VI., resigned in wise anticipation of the Duke of Northumberland's downfall, and retired on the "fair estate about Lees Abbey, in Essex," which he had contrived to accumulate as one of Thomas Cromwell's agents in the confiscation of Abbey Lands. The Wallops, an old county family of this Province, contributed several men of mark, especially Sir John Wallop, a daring seaman, and Robert Wallop, one of the High Court of Justice on Charles
I. The Earl of Portsmouth now represents the family. William Lilly,—Master of St. Paul's School, and author of the Latin grammar which was submitted to and received the corrections of Erasmus,—who died of the Plague in 1522, was born at Othham, in Hampshire. Sir William Petty was born and brought up at Romsey. John Lisle, one of the High Court of Justice on Charles I., was a member of the old family of that name in this Province, and his widow, Alicia Lisle, when upwards of seventy years of age, was tried and executed at Winchester (which city he had repre- sented in Parliament) in September, 1685, for harbouring fugi- tives from Monmouth's army. Sir John Lancaster, the celebrated navigator in the reign of Elizabeth, was born at Basingstoke, as were also Dr. Joseph Warton, the eminent scholar in the eighteenth century, and the Rev. Thomas Warton, the Poet Laureate. Edward Young, the religious poet, author of Night Thoughts, was a native of Winchester, and Dr. Isaac Watts of Southampton. Charles Dickens, the caricature-novelist of the present day, was born at Portsmouth, as well as Sir Isambard Brunel, the engineer of the Thames Tunnel. With Selborne every one at once con- nects the name of Gilbert White, the naturalist. We have described but very inadequately the characteristics and history of this important Province, and our limited space compels us to omit not a few interesting illustrations of its varying features and remarkable specialities ; but enough has been told, perhaps, to establish its character as one of the great guarded gateways of England, and one of its most distinguished "Royal countries."
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