Portsmouth enrols 23,000 students and is ranked among the world's best modern universities. Portsmouth is also the birthplace of author Charles Dickens and engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. The Romans built Portus Adurni, a fort, at nearby Portchester in the late third century. The city's Old English name "Portesmuða" is derived from "port", meaning a haven, and "muða", the mouth of a large river or estuary. The "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" has a warrior called Port and his two sons killing a noble Briton in Portsmouth in 501. Winston Churchill, in his "A History of the English-Speaking Peoples", says that Port was a pirate
Portsmouth (instrumental) Portsmouth (instrumental) "Portsmouth" is a traditional English folk dance tune, similar to an Irish or Scottish hornpipe melody. It is sometimes referred to as the "Portsmouth Hornpipe". "Portsmouth" appeared in the 11th edition of John Playford's "The Dancing Master" in 1701. It is also one of the three arrangements on which English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams based his "Sea Songs", originally arranged for military band in 1923 as the second movement of his "English Folk Song Suite", and subsequently re-arranged for full orchestra in 1942 by the composer. In the 1950s it was used as the signature tune for BBC