But perhaps the most interesting fact about Southampton is that Isaac Watts, the Christian poet, was born here in 1671.  The house in French Street is still standing, and we went to look at it.  There he passed his play-days of childhood; there the dreamy, studious boy stored up his first spoils of knowledge; there he wrote his first hymns; and thither he went to visit his parents, when he himself was old and famous.  We also went to see the remains of Saint Michael's Gaol, in which Watts' father had been confined for his nonconformity.  And as we looked on the old prison we thanked God that nowadays, in England at least, religious persecution is unknown.