However we first went to
look at the New Docks (mud up to the knees) and truly it is a very
great work. There is to be enclosed a good number of acres of water 22
feet deep: one dock locked in, the other a tidal dock or basin with
that depth at low water. They are surrounded by brick walls eight feet
thick at top, 10 or more at bottom; and all the parts that ever can be
exposed are faced with granite. The people reckon that this work when
finished will attract a good deal of the London commerce, and I should
not be surprised at it. For it is very much easier for ships to get
into Southampton than into London, and the railway carriage will make
them almost one. A very large steamer is lying in Southampton Water:
the Oriental, which goes to Alexandria. The Lady Mary Wood, a large
steamer for Lisbon and Gibraltar, was lying at the pier. The said pier
is a very pleasant place of promenade, the water and banks are so
pretty, and there is so much liveliness of ships about it. Well I
started in a gig, in a swashing rain, which continued off and on for a
good while. Of the 21 miles, I should think that 15 were across the
New Forest. I do not much admire it. As for Norman William's
destruction of houses and churches to make it hunting ground, that is
utter nonsense which never could have been written by anybody that
ever saw it: but as to hunting, except his horses wore something like
mud-pattens or snow-shoes, it is difficult to conceive it.
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