A considerable part of the land in the south of the county rests on a substratum of gravel which keeps the soil dry, and has in modern times assisted in attracting a large residential population. Its landlocked harbours, its double tides in South ampton Water, an estuary which stretches into the interior of the land, and leads into the long valleys of the Test and the Itchen, and the many eligible sites for occupation, must have invited settlements at as early a period as any part of Britain. The materials for the History of Hampshire are more abundant than those of most English counties, as will be seen in the following pages. No county offers a richer field for the study of prehistoric or medieval archaeology. A peculiarity in its history is the great part it has played in national history, and especially during the Saxon and Norman periods.