" In earlier days, while yet the light-heartedness of youth
~181~~and active curiosity excited my boyish spirit, I had visited
Portsmouth, and the recollection of the scenes I then witnessed was
still fresh upon my memory. The olive-branch of peace now waved over
the land of my fathers; and while the internal state of the country,
benefited by its healing balm, flourished, revived, invigorated and
prosperous, Portsmouth and Gosport, and such like sea-ports, were almost
deserted, and the active bustle and variety which but now reigned among
their inhabitants had given way to desolation and abandonment: at
least such was the account I had received from recent visitors. I was,
therefore, anxious from observation to compare the present with the
past; and, with this view, readily met the invitation of my friend
Horace Eglantine. The voyage from Cowes to Portsmouth on board the
steam-boat, performed, as it now is, with certainty, in about an
hour and a half, is a delightful excursion; and the appearance of the
entrance to the harbour from sea, a most picturesque and imposing scene.
The fortifications, which are considered the most complete in the world,
stretching from east to west, on either side command the sea far as the
cannons' power can reach. Nor is the harbour less attractive, flanked on
each side by the towns of Gosport and Portsmouth, and filled with every
description of vessel from the flag-ship of England's immortal hero,
Nelson, which is here moored in the centre, a monument of past glory,
to the small craft of the trader, and the more humble ferry-boat of the
incessant applicant, who plys the passenger with his eternal note of
"Common Hard, your honour.
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