From the outset of her reign the Queen showed her interest in the first line of defence of her island kingdom, and repeatedly held Royal reviews at Spithead. The most noteworthy of these were in 1856, at the close of the Crimean War, when Britain’s sea-power was displayed in 254 vessels of all sizes--the last occasion when “the wooden walls of Old England” took a prominent part; and in 1887, the Jubilee year, when it was believed that the iron bulwarks of Britain’s shores had attained their ultimate strength and power. Great as was the fleet then shown to Her Majesty’s Royal guests and her gratified people, it was weak compared with the vast array of 26th June 1897, when no fewer than a hundred and sixty vessels flew their pennants to the breeze, and in combined strength and powers, both of defence and attack, surpassed all other fleets which have ever been gathered together at any one corner of Neptune’s domain. These splendid squadrons, ready at a few days’ notice for mobilisation for active service, should need arise, are independent of the 125 vessels which constitute the British fleets in commission in all parts of the world. [Illustration: THE NAVAL REVIEW AT SPITHEAD, JUNE 26, 1897 DISPOSITION OF THE SHIPS.--The ships were anchored, with free space to swing with the tide, in five lines, each extending to rather over five and a half sea miles. In addition to these regular lines, there were, just outside the entrance to Portsmouth Haven, flotillas of small Government craft. The first line, nearest the shore of the mainland, consisted of torpedo boats and, on its western flank, of training brigs, the latter about the only representatives of the pure sailing-ships left to our navy; the second line was composed of destroyers and gunboats; the third line, of third-class cruisers, torpedo gunboats, and gunboats; the fourth and fifth, of battleships and cruisers. A sixth line was constituted by the war-ships sent by foreign Governments in honour of the great naval event and of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee; while a seventh was composed of a representative fleet of our unsurpassed mercantile marine. If the latter be numbered with the British fleet, together with pleasure steamers and yachts which sailed and steamed in and out of the lines the whole day long, it may be reckoned that there were nearly three hundred vessels in the Solent.]