SOUTHAMPTON
When I left Porchester I went on into Fareham to sleep, and next
morning set out by train, for it was raining, to go to Clausentum.
Before I left the railway, however, the weather began to clear, and
presently the sun broke through the clouds, so that when I came into
Clausentum the whole world was again full of joy.
Clausentum, which even to-day, is not without charm was as I understand
it, the mother of Southampton, a Roman, perhaps even a Celtic
foundation, for its name Clausentum is certainly of Celtic origin. Of
its high antiquity there can at least be no doubt, for there we may
still see parts of the Roman walls near nine feet thick and innumerable
Roman remains have been found within them.
The situation of Clausentum, too, was rather Celtic than Roman. It
stands upon a tongue of land thrust out into the Itchen from the left
bank, between Northam and St Denys on the right bank; the river washed
its walls upon three sides, north, south and west, but upon the
landward side to the east it was protected by two lines of defence, an
outer and an inner, the one nearly three hundred yards from the other.
At first this arrangement might seem rather Celtic than Roman, and in
fact, it may well be that the Romans occupied here earthworks far older
than anything built by them in Britain, and yet it seems perhaps more
probable that they are responsible for all we have here, un-Roman
though it seems, and that the true explanation is that the outer
defences, while their work, are the older of the two; that with the
decline of their administration in the fourth century, with the
building of the Stane Street and the general walling of the Roman towns
this older and larger defence was abandoned, and the place, whatever it
may have been, reduced to a mere fort to hold which upon the landward
side the inner defence was there built.
Of the fate of Clausentum in the Dark Age we know nothing; if it was a
mere fort with no life of its own it may or may not have been
abandoned; but it would seem certain that with the renewal of
civilisation in southern England, by the return of Christianity, a town
was established upon the right bank of the estuary opposite Clausentum.
This town was the first Southampton, and there Athelstane is said to
have established mints. This town, however, does not seem to have
occupied the same site as the Southampton we know, but rather to have
been gathered about St Mary's church to the north-east as Leland was
told when he visited Southampton in 1546. The place was probably burnt
by the Danes, and it is to one of them, to Canute, that we owe the
foundation of the town we know. If Canute was the founder of
Southampton, however, it was the Normans who really and finally
established it, the greatness of the place as a port really dating from
the Conquest. The Normans seem to have settled there early in
considerable numbers, and their energy and enterprise began the
development which continued throughout the Middle Age and the
Renaissance. In the seventeenth century, however, Southampton rapidly
declined, and this continued till in the time of our grandfathers it
was arrested and Southampton rose again, to become the chief port of
southern England. So extraordinary indeed has been her modern
development that it has completely engulfed the great town of the
Middle Age, which, for all that, still forms the nucleus as it were of
the modern city, though no one, I suppose would suspect it at first
sight.
Of the greatness of Southampton in the Middle Age, however, there can
be no doubt. It was the best exit out of that England into Normandy,
the natural port of the capital Winchester, and its whole record is
full of glory. It was in a very real sense the gate of England. Hither
came the great ships from the South and the East, from the ports of
Normandy and Anjou, from Bayonne and Venice, with wine and Eastern
silks, leather from Cordova, swords and daggers from Toledo, spices
from India, and coloured sugars from Egypt. Here the merchants
disembarked to trade in the capital or to attend the great fair of St
Giles; hither came the pilgrims, thousands upon thousands, to follow
the old road from Winchester to the Shrine of St Thomas at
Canterbury; while out of Southampton streamed the chivalry of the
Crusades; hence "cheerly to sea" sailed the fleets of Coeur de Lion for
Palestine, of Edward III. for France, the army that won at Crecy, the
army that won at Agincourt. All the glory of mediaeval England
Southampton has seen pass by.
That the abandonment of Guienne and Aquitaine by the English was a
severe blow to Southampton is certain, but still it had the Venice
trade, the "Flanders Galleys" laden with the spoil of the East, the
wines of the Levant, the "fashions of proud Italy"; and the real
decline of Southampton dates from the moment when Venice too was
wounded even to death by the discovery of the Cape route to the East
and the rise of Portugal.
As it happens we have at the time of her greatest prosperity a
description of the town from the hand of Leland. "There be," he writes,
"in the fair and right strong wall of New Hampton, eight gates. Over
Barr Gate by north is the _Domus Civica_, and under it the town prison.
There is a great suburb without it, and a great double dyke, well
watered on each hand without it. The East Gate is strong, not so large
as Barr Gate, and in its suburb stands St Mary's Church, to the South
Gate joins a Castelet well ordinanced to beat that quarter of the
haven. There is another mean gate a little more south called God's
house gate, of an hospital founded by two merchants joined to it; and
not far beyond it is the Water Gate, without which is a quay. There are
two more gates. The glory of the Castle is in the dungeon, that is both
fair and large and strong, both by work and the site of it. There be
five parish churches in the town. Holy Rood Church standeth in the
chief street, which is one of the fairest streets that is in any town
in England, and it is well builded for timber building. There be many
fair merchants' houses, and in the south-east part was a college of
Grey Friars. Here was also an hospital called God's House, founded by
two merchants, appropriated since to Queen's College, Oxford."
Of all this what remains? Happily more than might seem possible
considering the enormous modern development of the place. The town of
Southampton stood looking south-west upon a tongue of land thrust out
south into the water with the estuary of the Itchen upon the east, and
Southampton Water upon the west, upon the south were the vast mud-flats
swept by every tide which the great modern docks now occupy. The town
was, as we have seen, enclosed by walls, perhaps by Canute, certainly
by the Normans, and these seem to have been enlarged by King John, and
rebuilt and repaired after the French raid of 1338. They formed a rude
quadrilateral, roughly seven hundred yards from north to south, and
three hundred from east to west, were from twenty-five to thirty feet
high and of varying thickness. Something of them still remains,
especially upon the west of the town over the quays. Here we have two
great portions of the old wall which is practically continuous from the
site of the Bugle Tower upon the south, to the site of the Bigglesgate
about half-way up this western side. This portion includes two of the
old gates, the West Gate and the Blue Anchor Postern. Beyond the site
of the Bigglesgate the old wall has been destroyed as far as the
Castle, but from there it still stands all the way to the Arundel Tower
at the north-west corner of the town. So much for the western front.
Upon the north the wall is broken down at the western end, the Bargate,
which still stands, being isolated, but beyond two portions remain
complete as far as the Polymond Tower at the north-east angle. Upon the
east of the town there is very little standing until we come to the
southern corner, where God's House Tower and the South-East Gate
remain. Upon the south almost nothing is left.
Southampton in its mediaeval greatness had eight gates, of which, as we
see, four remain: two upon the west, the West Gate and the Blue Anchor
Postern; one upon the north, the Bargate; upon the east, or rather at
the south-eastern angle of the walls, God's House or South-East Gate;
upon the south none at all.
The West Gate is a plain but beautiful work of the fourteenth century,
a great square tower over a pointed arch, under which is the entry. The
tower within consists of three stages, the last being embattled and
now roofed, while the first is reached by a picturesque outside
stairway of stone, which served both it and the ramparts. Close by,
against the wall, is a timber building upon a stone basement, called
the guard-room, dating from the fifteenth century.
The best portions of the old wall run northward from the West Gate over
the western shore road. This is Norman work added to in the fourteenth
century. Here is the Blue Anchor Postern, or as it is more properly
called, simply the Postern, little more than a round archway within the
great arcading and the wall itself. Just to the south of this gate is
the twelfth-century building known as King John's Palace. We follow the
grand old wall till it ends upon the site of the Bigglesgate, where we
turn eastward a little into the town and come to the Castle, of which,
unhappily, almost nothing remains. It consisted of a great Keep in the
midst of an enclosure, entered by two gates, the Castle Gate upon the
north-east where now is Castle Lane, and the Postern over the site of
which we have entered the Castle Green. The decay of this fortress
dates, at least, from the sixteenth century, and apparently before the
Civil War it had been pulled down.
The walls still enclose the Bailey of the Castle upon the west. There,
in some sort, still stands the Castle Water Gate, a mere fragment,
within which is a great vaulted chamber some fifty feet long and
twenty-five feet high, with only one small window. From this
fragmentary gate the wall sweeps away to the salient, for the most
part Norman; but beyond the salient its character changes, two towers
appear--the Catchcold Tower of the late fourteenth and early fifteenth
century, and the fine Arundel Tower, now only a curtain of fourteenth-
century work in the Decorated style.
It is in these western walls of the town that we shall get our best
idea of what mediaeval Southampton was, and if we add to our impression
by an examination of the two remaining gates, one upon the north and
the other at the south-east angle, we may perhaps understand how
formidable it must have appeared standing up out of the sea armed at
all points.
Mediaeval Southampton had eight gates, of these, as I have said, but
four remain, the most notable of which is undoubtedly the Bargate, upon
the north. This is a fine work of various periods in two stages, the
lower consisting of a vaulted passage-way of fine proportions, a work
of the fourteenth century and the upper of a great hall, the Guildhall
now used as a court room. The original gate, of course, was Norman, and
this seems to have endured until about 1330 two towers were built on
either side, without the gate, and a new south front added. In the
first years of the fifteenth century a new north front was contrived,
and this remains more or less as we see it. Of old the gate was reached
by a drawbridge across a wide moat.
Beyond the Bargate we come to the Polymond Tower or the Tower of St
Denys, beautiful with creepers. This would seem to be in some way
connected with the Priory of St Denys which held all the churches in
the town, as we shall see. As for its other name of Polymond, it would
seem to get it from that John Polymond, who, in the fourteenth century,
from which time the tower, as we see it, dates, was nine times mayor of
Southampton.
As for the God's House Gateway, to reach it we must cross the town. It
is a plain but charming work of two periods, the gate proper being of
the thirteenth century, while the tower with the two-storied building
attached to it is of the fourteenth. From the beginning of the
eighteenth century until 1855 it was used as the town gaol.
The old town of Southampton, a town within a town, is a fascinating
study, the interest of its gates and old walls is inexhaustible, but
apart from these it has little architectural beauty to boast of. For
all that it is amusing to linger there, if only to solve the problems
that time has contrived for us. Among these not the least is that of
the first site of the town. Not one of the churches in Southampton is
of any great beauty or interest, but it is astonishing to find that the
mother church is not in the town at all, but at least half a mile
outside it upon the north. Leland, as I have already said, was told,
when he was in Southampton in 1546, that the first town did not occupy
the site of that we see but was further to the north, where St Mary's
stands. The fact that St Mary's is the mother church would seen to
confirm this. Moreover, there is no mention in the Domesday Survey of
any church at all within the borough of "Hantune," and though we may
think that the church of St John then existed, St John's was never the
mother church; this was St Mary's which possessed all the tithes of the
town. In the time of Henry II. we find the King granting to the Priory
of St Denys, founded in 1124 by Henry I., a Priory of Austin Canons,
his "chapels" of St Michael, the Holy Rood, St Laurence and All Saints,
that is all the churches save St John's already granted to the Abbey of
St Mary of Lire, in Southampton. But that these chapels had some
relation to the mother church of St Mary might seem certain. Indeed the
rector of St Mary's was continually in controversy with the canons as
to his rights, and eventually, in the thirteenth century, he won the
day. In any case the mother church of Southampton was St Mary's,
outside the walls of the town. That a Saxon church stood upon this site
is certain, and this was possibly represented in Leland's time by the
chapel of St Nicholas, "a poor and small thing," which then stood to
the East of "the great church of Our Lady," which he saw and which
probably dated from the time of Henry I. This church was, alas,
destroyed by the town only a few years later because its spire was said
to guide the French cruisers into Southampton Water, and the stones
were used to mend the roads. It may be that the chancel escaped, or it
may be that a new and much smaller church was erected in 1579. This,
whichever it was, was much neglected till in 1711 a nave was built on
to it. Then in 1723 the chancel was destroyed, and a new one built. In
1833 this was rebuilt, and then in 1878 a new church was built, in
place of the old which was pulled down, by Street. Thus in St Mary's
church, the mother church of Southampton to-day, we have only a
lifeless modern building.
Much the same fate has befallen the churches within the walls of
Southampton. The oldest, that of St John, was pulled down in the
seventeenth century, that of Holy Rood, in the High Street, was rebuilt
about fifty years ago, so was St Laurence, while All Saints was
destroyed in the eighteenth century. The only ancient church remaining
is that of St Michael, which, though not destroyed, was ruined in 1826.
It remains, however, in part, a Norman building, with an interesting
font of the twelfth century, a lectern of the fifteenth century, and a
fine tomb with the effigy of a priest in mass vestments.
The same fate which has so brutally overtaken the churches of
Southampton has, with perhaps more excuse, fallen upon the old
religious houses. The Priory of St Denys, founded by Henry I., upon
which all these churches within the walls were in a sense dependent,
has been totally destroyed, a piece of ruined wall alone remaining,
the present church of St Denys dating from 1868.
Nor does much remain of the Hospital of St Julian or God's House,
founded for the poor in the town, by Gervase le Riche, in 1197. It was
one of the most important hospitals in the diocese of Winchester, and
in 1343 the King, its protector, gave it to Queen's College, Oxford,
just founded by Queen Philippa. As the possession of this college it
survived the suppression, and was still carrying on its good work in
1560. About 1567, however, certain Walloons, refugees from the Low
Countries, settled in Southampton, and these were granted the use of St
Julian's Chapel by Queen's College.
The house should have remained to us, but that in 1861, by as black an
act of vandalism as was ever perpetrated, this seat of learning swept
away all the old domestic buildings of the hospital, which dated from
its foundation, and in their place erected what we might expect, at the
same time "restoring" the chapel of St Julian, of course, out of all
recognition. May St Julian forget Queen's College, Oxford, for ever and
ever.
[Illustration: THE TUDOR HOUSE, OPPOSITE ST MICHAEL'S CHURCH, SOUTHAMPTON]
Not far from this hospital for the poor the Grey Friars built their
house in 1237, or rather the burgesses of Southampton built it for
them, including a cloister of stone, but nothing remains at all of this
house.
For the most part, too, the great houses that of old filled
Southampton, and helped to glorify it, are gone. "The chiefest house,"
writes Leland, "is the house that Huttoft, late customer of
Southampton, builded on the west side of the town. The house that
Master Lightster, chief baron of the King's exchequer, dwelleth in, is
very fair; the house that Master Mylles, the recorder, dwelleth in, is
fair, and so be the houses of Niccotine and Guidote, Italians." Of
these, what remains? Nothing. The only noble dwelling is that called
Tudor House, in St Michael's Square, a fine half-timbered building,
and of this nothing is known.
No, the only thing to be enjoyed in Southampton to-day is the old wall
with its gateways, that upon the west still valiantly outfaces the
modern world and recalls for us all that noble great past out of which
we are come. And yet I suppose Southampton is fulfilling its purpose
to-day more wonderfully than ever before. It was once the port of
England for those dominions oversea we held in France. They are gone,
but others we have since acquired, though less fair by far, remain. It
is to these Southampton looks to-day, south and east, as of old over
how many thousand miles of blue water.