



Produced by Annie R. McGuire








[Illustration: HARPER'S ROUND TABLE]

Copyright, 1897, by HARPER & BROTHERS. All Rights Reserved.

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PUBLISHED WEEKLY. NEW YORK, TUESDAY, MARCH 23, 1897. FIVE CENTS A COPY.

VOL. XVIII.--NO. 908. TWO DOLLARS A YEAR.

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[Illustration]

OLD PORTSMOUTH.

A CHAPTER OF AUTOBIOGRAPHY.

BY SIR WALTER BESANT.


Portsmouth, as I remember the place in the days of my early youth--say,
somewhere about the years 1844 to 1850--was surely the liveliest place,
the most full of action, movement, and life, of any in her Majesty's
dominions, which were then half as wide as they are at present. Not as a
place of industry; there was never, if you please, any industry at all
carried on in that town outside the Dock-yard, except of course the
industry of fleecing the sailor. This was a merry and an exhilarating
sport, because the sailor himself enjoyed being fleeced, entered
thoroughly 