Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/554

Rh 534 P O R P R buildings were levelled with the ground in 1710; and in 1711 the bodies (to the number, it is said, of nearly 3000) that lay buried within the desecrated precincts were disin terred and removed to other places. Port Royal de Paris continued to subsist in obscurity until 1790. See Sainte-Beuve, Port Royal (3 vols., 1842-43 ; 4th ed., 6 vols., 1878), an exhaustive work, by which all the earlier histories have been superseded. PORT SAID, a town and seaport of Lower Egypt, which owes its existence to the Suez Canal (1859-G9), and was named after Sa id Pasha, patron of the enterprise. It lies on the west side of the canal, on the low narrow, treeless, and desolate strip of land which separates the Mediter ranean from Lake Menzaleh (see plate XXXVI., vol. iv.) ; the supply of fresh water brought from the sweet-water canal at Ismailia by a conduit is barely sufficient for the wants of the town, which is regularly laid out and has some streets of substantial houses. The population rose from 12,332 in 1880 to 16,560 in 1882. Nearly half of this number reside in a miserable native suburb about 500 yards to the west of the town proper. The British subjects (405) are nearly all Maltese. Port Said, having no direct means of communication with the interior, is essentially a coaling station for steamers, and is entirely dependent on the canal trade. The steamers from Alex andria to the Syrian ports call here, and there is a daily steamboat to Ismailia. The outer harbour is formed by the terminal piers of the canal, and the inner harbour comprises three sheltered basins, the commercial dock, the arsenal dock, and the Sherif dock. The third is flanked by buildings originally erected by Prince Henry of the Netherlands as a depot for Dutch trade. Besides a Catholic and a Greek church, the town contains a hospital and five schools, one of which is maintained by the Capuchin friars, and another by the freemasons. PORT ST MARY. See PUERTO DE SANTA MAEIA. PORTSMOUTH, a municipal and parliamentary bor ough, seaport, and naval station of Hamp shire, England, consists of an aggregate of towns situated in the south-western corner of Portsea Island, opposite the Isle of Wight, 18 miles south by east of South ampton and 74 south-west of London by the London and South-Western Railway. For the general position of Portsmouth, see plate VII. vol. xi. The original town is not now nearly so populous as the suburbs comprised in the general name of Portsea (including Portsea proper) on the north and wast, Landport on the north, and Southsea on the east. Portsmouth proper is the barrack and garrison town ; at Port- sea is situated the great naval dockyard ; Landport is occupied chiefly by the houses of artisans; and Southsea, as possessing facilities for bathing, is resided in by the wealthier classes. The old High Street of Portsmouth, which is now continuous with the Commercial Road from the Landport side, forms a spacious and busy central thoroughfare 2 miles in length, with nu merous fine buildings, including the new and old post-office, the new offices of the Waterworks Company and Gas Company, the Central or Town Railway station, the new Government House with its pleasure- grounds, the quaint old building occu pied by the new free library, and the grammar-school, which was founded in 1732, though the new building was opened in 1879. Since the demolition of the ancient ramparts and unwholesome moats a few years ago there have sprung up a handsome people s park and recreation grounds for the naval and military forces, and improve ments are still being vigorously carried forward. Much of the Government work has been done by convict labour, notably at the north-east of Landport, where 1 300 convicts have been engaged in the formation of a new island (Whale Island), on which gunnery experiments are carried out in connexion with the training-ships of the gunnery school. The towns constitute one of the strongest fortresses of the kingdom, being protected by a chain of detached forts, the outer line of which on the land side north of the harbour extends along the Portsdown Ridge, the inner line protect ing the approach by Stokes Bay and Gosport on the west side, while eastwards are the Hilsea lines, within which are also the Royal Artillery and cavalry barracks of Hilsea and the powder -magazine of Tipner. On the south side the forts are built in the sea, each being provided with an Artesian well sunk into the seabed, from which a plentiful supply of fresh water can at all times be obtained. The coast to the eastward is lined by the forts of &quot;Cumberland&quot; and &quot; Southsea Castle,&quot; which complete the circle. There are 8 barracks 5 in Portsmouth, 1 in Southsea, and 2 in Portsea and at Eastney are the extensive buildings which constitute the headquarters of the Royal Marine Artillery ; on the Gosport side of the harbour are those of the Ports mouth division of the Royal Marines. In the church of St Thomas a Becket (12th cent.) the chancel and transepts form part of the original structure ; the nave and tower were erected in 1698. The garrison chapel near the grand parade, in the Early English style, formed originally a portion of the hospital of St Nicholas (1212), and was restored in 1866. Among more recent buildings may be mentioned the new jail and county lunatic asylum, both situated on the outskirts. In the centre of the town and adjoining the people s park are the new cathedral and buildings of the Roman Catholic schools, the new Pres- Plan of Portsmouth, England. byterian church, the seamen and marines orphan schools, the offices of the board of guardians and the borough overseers. At Portsea a new railway station has been