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.
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