Hampshire
Hampshire is a varied county in the south of England, with a warm, dry climate. It has a variety of landscape types, including chalk down land to the north and east, healthy wooded areas in the New Forest area to the west, and a coastline with many creeks and inlets.
Bounded by Berkshire to the north, by Dorset and Wiltshire to the west, by the Solent and the Spithead, Southampton, and Portsmouth to the south and by Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the county of Buckinghamshire covers an area of approximately 3,700 square kilometres (roughly 1,400 square miles). The county is divided by Southampton Water. It has a population of approximately 1,500,000 inhabitants and its main towns comprise the city of Winchester, Basingstoke, Portsmouth and Southampton.
Hampshire is just an hour from London and its excellent transport links make it an easy destination to reach, whether you are travelling by road, train, ferry, coach or bus.
The South coast of England has some wonderfully scenic counties and Hampshire just serves to emphasise this point.
With the ports of Southampton and Portsmouth the county has a strong nautical tradition. The 'Titanic' sailed from Southampton in 1912, for instance, and is just one of many hundreds of vessels that have embarked on their journey to the United States from that very port. Portsmouth, of course, is world famous as the home port of the Royal Navy and has been for generations.
