HAMPSHIRE, or Haunts, a county of England, bounded on the west by Dorsetshire and Wiltshire, on the north by Berkshire, on the east by Surrey and Sussex, and on the south by the English channel. It extends 55 miles in length from north to south, and 40 in breadth from east to west, and is about 220 miles in circumference. It is divided into 39 hundreds, and contains 9 forests, 29 parks, one city, 20 market-towns, 253 parishes, above 36,000 houses, and by the most modest computation 180,000 inhabitants, who elect 26 members of parliament, two for the county, two for the city of Winchester, and two for each of the following towns, Southampton, Portsmouth, Petersfield, Yarmouth, Newport, Stockbridge, Andover, Whitechurch, Lyngington, Christ-church, and Newton. —The air is very pure and pleasant, especially upon the downs, on which vast flocks of sheep are kept and bred. In the champaign part of the county, where it is free of wood, the soil is very fertile, producing all kinds of grain. The country is extremely well wooded and watered; for besides many woods on private estates, in which there are vast quantities of well-grown timber, there is the new forest of great extent, belonging to the crown, well stored with venerable oaks. In these woods and forests, great numbers of hogs run at large, and feed on the acorns; and hence it is that the Hampshire bacon so far exceeds that of most other countries. The rivers are the Avon, Anton, Arle, Test, Stow, and Itchin; besides several smaller streams, all abounding in fish, especially trout. As its sea-coast is of a considerable extent, it possesses many good ports and harbours, and is well supplied with salt-water fish. Much honey is produced in the country, and a great deal of mead and metheglin made. Here is also plenty of game, and on the downs is most delightful hunting. The manufacture of cloth and kerseys in this county, though not so extensive as that of some others, is yet far from being inconsiderable, and employs great numbers of the poor, as well as contributes to the enriching of the manufacturers by what is sent abroad. The new intended canal in this county, from Basingstoke to the Wye in Surrey, and from thence to the Thames, cannot but be a great advantage to the county in general, and the parishes it
is to pass through in particular; to carry which into Hampshire, execution above £86,000 have been raised amongst 150 proprietors in 1789, and it will extend 53 miles when completed.