SOUTHAMPTON, stint-h:Imp/ton. A civic county. municipal and Parliameptary borough, and seaport, in the south of Hampshire, Eng land, 79 miles southwest of London (Map: Eng land, E 6). The town occupies a peninsula at the head of Southampton Water, between the estuary of the Test or Anton on the west and smith and the month of the lichen on the east.
The Hollins Dei. or God's house, dates from the end of the twelfth century, and is one of the oldest hospitals in England. In the vicinity are „the picturesque ruins of Netley Abbey, a Cistercian foundation of the thirteenth century, and the Netley Military Hospital, accommodat ing 1,000 patients. Southampton was incorporat ed by Henry I., and received several privileges confirmed by subsequent monarchs. Henry VI. constituted the town a county in itself, and its area included a 'little' place called Portsmouth. The guild merchants controlled affairs and the municipal transactions are recorded in the fa mous 'oak book,' the most treasured object in the town archives. The Mayor is Admiral of the Port and chairman of the town council's twenty committees. The town has owned its markets since its incorporation, and the water supply since 1420, and its slaughter houses since 169S. It receives a fine revenue from corporate prop erty and harbor dues, and owns Southampton Common. 300 acres in extent. The borough's boundaries were extended in 1 S95, since when much economic progress has been made. Artisans'
dwellings and a municipal lodging house have been built, sewage and draining works carried out, and an electric plant and street railways acquired. The town maintains a large isolation hospital. fine public baths, a free public library, a cemetery, and extensive parks. and makes abundant provision for technical instruc tion.
Yacht and ship building and engine-making are actively carried on, and there is an exten sive general trade. Southampton is a fash ionable summer resort. It owes its importance to its sheltered harbor and to the phenomenon of double tides, which prolong high water for three hours. (See ENGLISH CHANNEL.) There is considerable traffic between Southampton and the Channel Islands and French coast, and also a large cattle trade with Spain and Portugal. Its docks include live large dry docks, two tidal basins (16 end IS acres in area), and a closed dock. An average of 11,500 vessels enter, and clear a gross tonnage of 5.441.000 annually.
Southampton supplanted the ancient C/au sentunt, which stood one mile to the northeast, and its foundation is ascribed to the Anglo Saxons. A great part of it we way burned by the combined French, Spanish, and Genoese fleets in 1338, and in the following year its defenses were strengthened. Population, in 1901, 105,000. Consult Davis, History of Southampton (South ampton, 1883).