Chronicles (1 of 6): The Description of BritaineHolinshed, Raphael
History
Chronicles (1 of 6): The Description of Britaine
Holinshed, Raphael
Great Britain -- History -- To 1485; Great Britain -- History -- Tudors, 1485-1603
Next vnto this, we come vnto those that lie betweene the Wight and the
[Sidenote: Thorne.]
maine land, of which the most easterlie is called Thorne, and to saie
truth, the verie least of all that are to be found in that knot. Being
[Sidenote: Haling.]
past the Thorne, we touched vpon the Haling, which is bigger than the
Thorne, and wherein one towne is situat of the same denomination beside
[Sidenote: Port.]
another, whose name I remember not. By west also of the Haling lieth the
Port (the greatest of the three alreadie mentioned) and in this standeth
Portsmouth and Ringstéed) whereof also our Leland, saieth thus: "Port
Ile is cut from the shore by an arme of the maine hauen, which breaketh
out about thrée miles aboue Portsmouth, and goeth vp two miles or more
by morish ground to a place called Portbridge, which is two miles from
Portsmouth." Then breaketh there out another créeke from the maine sea,
about Auant hauen, which gulleth vp almost to Portbridge, and thence is
the ground disseuered, so that Portsmouth standeth in a corner of this
Ile, which Iland is in length six miles, and three miles in bredth,
verie good for grasse and corne, not without some wood, and here and
there inclosure. Beside this, there is also another Iland north
northwest of Port Ile, which is now so worne and washed awaie with the
working of the sea, that at the spring tides it is wholie couered with
water, and thereby made vnprofitable. Finallie being past all these, and
in compassing this gulfe, we come by an other, which lieth north of
Hirst castell, & southeast of Kaie hauen, whereof I find nothing worthie
to be noted, sauing that it wanteth wood, as Ptolomie affirmeth in his
Geographicall tables of all those Ilands which enuiron our Albion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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