Engraved in mezzotint by T. Lupton for The Ports of England, 1828 (Rawlinson No.784). For the print, see No.244. Ruskin, in his note on the mezzotint in the Harbours of England, 1856 (p.41), points out that this design uses the same view of Portsmouth from the sea as appears in the Southern Coast series (Rawlinson 120); only the shipping in the foreground is substantially different. Small but detailed pencil studies of Portsmouth from the sea appear in the London Bridge and Portsmouth' sketchbook (T.B.CCVI-Iv, 2r&v, 3v, 5v, 9r&v etc.), and a colour study for that design is T. B.CCIII-A.

The Ports of England was a series of twelve plates conceived as a sequel to the Rivers of England (see No.239), engraved, again, by Thomas Lupton and issued between 1826 and 1828; only six of the plates appeared, however, at that time (with a wrapper design etched, perhaps by Turner himself, from a drawing now in the Fitzwilliam Museum) - Rawlinson Nos.778-784. The remaining six were not published until Gambart reissued the whole set, with descriptive notes by Ruskin, in 1856 under the title The Harbours of England.