The accompanying View shows a portion of those ancient fortifications within which the town of Southampton was originally enclosed. The walls are in many places quite demolished; but in others they still present a venerable, though dilapidated appearance, with the remains of several towers at regular intervals, after the manner of fortified cities. The circuit of the walls is computed at nearly two miles. With regard to the precise date at which the walls were erected, there is no certain record. The north, east, and south walls bear every mark of uniform regularity in their structure: the gates of the town are apparently of the same date with the walls, and much resemble each other in the massy, flat form of their pointed arches, which rise at an angle from their piers, being struck from centres below the level of their spring--a mode of construction chiefly used in the reign of Edward the First. Yet the remains of semicircular towers, still visible on the Bargate, and which flanked its round arch, very much resembling the towers on the north and east walls, lead us to suspect that the wall, on the land side at least, is of higher antiquity than the time of the Edwards, and that the present gates were built later than the wall. The very singular position of the Water-gate, which retires thirty feet behind the eastern part of the south wall, and the awkward position of the South-gate, at the very angle of the wall, seem to indicate that these gates were not parts of the original design. From the south-west angle of the wall, quite to the Bridle-gate, which was close to the vallum of the Castle, the whole wall is a mass of irregular and almost inexplicable construction. It is conjectured that the side of the town, protected as it was by the Castle, and covered by the sea, was not at all, or but very slightly fortified, until the fatal experience of the sack of the town by the French proved that some further defence was necessary. The line of the town wall, south of the West-gate, is irregular in its construction; and the wall between the West and Bridle-gates bears evident marks of having been built in the most hasty manner, and with the greatest economy of materials. This wall, in its present form, Sir Henry Englefield supposes to have been built about the period when, according to the old historians, Richard the Second fortified the town, and built, or probably repaired and strengthened, the Castle, for it had evidently been built several centuries before his reign.