Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 4.djvu/19



direct passage from Southampton to the coast of Normandy rendered it, so long as our sovereigns retained their French domains, the most convenient port for their embarkation, while its favourable geographical position, appreciated in early times by the Romans, made it the chief resort of merchants from southern Europe. Its vicinity to the opulent city of Winchester, long celebrated for its annual fair on St. Giles's hill, was another attraction for mediaeval traders, who were thus enabled to dispose of their cargoes without incurring the cost and peril of a voyage, or land-journey, to London. From Southampton our first Richard sailed on his memorable crusade, and ancient accounts tell us how the sheriff supplied him ten thousand horse-shoes with double sets of nails for his chivalry, and eight hundred Hampshire hogs for the provision of his fleet. Thither came, in the infancy of English commerce, those "great ships from Bayonne," laden with Eastern products, the arrival of one of which was, even so late as the thirteenth century, an event anxiously expected by royalty; and it was there that the merchants of Bourdeaux landed their