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.
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