HARWICH  , a municipal

borough and seaport in the Harwich parliamentary division of Essex, England, on the extremity of a small peninsula projecting into the estuary of the Stour and Orwell, 70 M . N.E. by E. of London by the Great Eastern railway . Pop . (19o1), 10,070 . It occupies an elevated situation, and a wide view is obtained from Beacon Hill at the southern end of the esplanade . The church of St Nicholas was built of brick in 1821; and there are a town hail and a custom-house . The harbour is one of the best on the east coast of England, and in stormy weather is largely used for shelter . A breakwater and sea-wall prevent the blocking of the harbour entrance and encroachments of the sea; and there is another breakwater at Landguard Point on the opposite (Suffolk) shore of the estuary . The principal imports are grain and agricultural produce, timberand coal, and the exports cement and fish . Harwich is one of the principal English ports for continental passenger traffic, steamers regularly serving the Hook of Holland, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Antwerp, Esbjerg, Copenhagen and Hamburg . The continental trains of the Great Eastern railway run to Parkeston Quay, 1 m. from Harwich up the Stour, where the passenger steamers start . The fisheries are important, principally those for shrimps and lobsters .

There are cement and

shipbuilding works The port is the headquarters of the Royal Harwich Yacht Club . There are batteries at and opposite Harwich, and modern works on Shotley Point, at the fork of the two estuaries . There are also several of the Martello towers of the Napoleonic era . At Landguard Fort there are important defence works with heavy modern guns commanding the main channel . This has been a point of coast defence since the time of James I . Between the Parkeston Quay and Town railway stations is that of Dover-court, an adjoining parish and popular watering-place . Harwich is under a mayor, 4 aldermen and 12 councillors . Area, 1541 acres . Harwich (Herewica, Herewyck) cannot be shown to have been inhabited very early, although in the 18th century remains of a camp, possibly Roman, existed there . Harwich formed part of the manor of Dovercourt . It became a borough in 1319 by a charter of Edward II., which was confirmed in 1342 and 1378, and by each of the Lancastrian kings . The exact nature and degree of its self-government is not clear .

Harwich' received charters in 1547, 1553 and 156o . In 1604 James I. gave it a charter which amounted to a new constitution, and from this charter begins the

regular parliamentary representation . Two burgesses had attended parliament in 1343, but none had been summoned since . Until 1867 Harwich returned two members; it then lost one, and in 1885 it was merged in the county . Included in the manor of Dovercourt, Harwich from 1086 was for long held by the de Vere family . In 1252 Henry III. granted to Roger Bigod a market here every Tuesday, and a fair on Ascension day, and eight days after . In 1320 a grant occurs of a Tuesday market, but no fair is mentioned . James I. granted a Friday market, and two fairs, at the feast of St Philip and St James, and on St Luke's day . The fair has died out, but markets are still held on Tuesday and Friday . Harwich has always had a considerable trade; in the 14th century merchants came even from Spain, and there was much trade in wheat and wool with Flanders . But the passenger traffic appears to have been as important at Harwich in the 14th century as it is now . Shipbuilding was a considerable industry at Harwich in the 17th century .