It is as though at Bosham we were able to catch a glimpse, as it were,
of all that darkness out of which we are come by the guiding of a star.
[Illustration: BOSHAM]
That Bosham was a harbour in Roman times, and that it had more than a
little to do with the founding of Regnum, and the building perhaps of
the Stane Street, I had long since convinced myself. All these creeks
and harbours were probably known and used even then, and certainly all
through the Middle Ages Bosham was of importance as a port; and the
series of creeks, the most eastern of which it served, and the most
western of which is Southampton Water, with Portsmouth Harbour between
them, was still among the greatest ports in England, easily the
greatest, I suppose, in the south country.
In order to see something of this low and muddy coast, which has seen
so much of the history of England, I set out from Bosham very early one
morning, intending to make my way through Emsworth and Havant, by the
Roman road which joins Chichester and Southampton and runs across the
north of these creeks, which may perhaps be considered as one great
port of which only the more western part is famous still.
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