luckless mariner was in past times exposed upon this iron-bound coast,
to them was too frequently added the infamous deceptions of the
wreckers, who were accustomed to resort to the artifice of driving to
and fro an ass bearing two lanterns, so as to represent a distant vessel
in motion, and thus lured many a ship to destruction among the rocks and
sands. Numerous are the legends of fearful interest which the older
inhabitants relate descriptive of the accidents attendant upon these
murderous practices, now happily only matters of history.
The erection of lighthouses, beacons, and other means for the prevention
of shipwreck, is every year becoming an object of greater importance to
the members of that excellent corporation, the Trinity House. Within the
last thirty years, great and permanent advantages have been secured to
commerce by the vigilance and activity of that body. Much, however, is
still left to call aloud for the exercise of their high privilege,
skill, and humanity. The navigation of our coasts is still attended in
many parts with imminent danger. Rocks, and shoals, and quicksands,
indeed, cannot be obliterated by the hand of man; but the perils they
involve, in respect to the shipping, may be greatly diminished by
increasing the number of those monitory beacons to which the eye of the
mariner is so often turned with intense anxiety. The erection of the
two lighthouses which here illustrate the subject, has been attended
with the happiest consequences. Many a shipwreck, we will venture to
say, has been prevented by a timely regard to these friendly beacons.
The Bristol Channel has often been the scene of sad catastrophes in the
chronicles of seafaring life; but at present the danger to the foreign
and coasting-trade has been greatly obviated by those judicious measures
which have emanated from the above society.
The voyage up the Bristol Channel is singularly romantic and beautiful;
but the coast is exposed to all the fury of the Atlantic, and the surf
against the cliffs is distinctly visible at Swansea. The steamers now
keep close along shore, in a channel inside the Nass Sands, which form
an extensive and dangerous bank to seaward. The contrast between the
tumultuous masses of breakers over these sands, when the wind is fresh,
and the calmness of the narrow channel we are traversing in security, is
very striking. These sands, and another large shoal, called the
Skerweathers, have been fatal to many vessels. A large West Indiaman,
with a cargo of rum and other valuable produce, was lost a few years ago
on a rock called the Tusca, which disappears at high-water; and in 1831,
this coast was fatal to the steamer _Frolic_, in which all the crew and
passengers, amounting to nearly eighty persons, perished. The coast near
Porthcaul appears at Swansea to be the eastern extremity of the bay; but
the bluff point called the Nass, about eight miles further, is literally
so. The coast onwards, past the Nass-point, as observed in the admirable
Engraving annexed, is almost perpendicular, so as closely to resemble a
lofty wall, in which the limestone rock is disposed in horizontal
strata. When the sea runs high in this quarter, the scene, as may be
readily conceived, is truly terrific--
"And not one vessel 'scapes the dreadful touch
Of merchant-marring rocks."
MERCHANT OF VENICE.
[Illustration: CARDIFF.]
CARDIFF,
GLAMORGANSHIRE.
"Here British hearts the arms of Rome withstood,
Repulsed her cohorts with their native blood;
Till Caradoc and independence fell,
And freedom shrieked in CARDIFF'S citadel--
And Cambria's heroes, rushing on the glave,
Died gloriously for her they could not save!"
The county of Glamorgan, of which the principal town is represented in
the accompanying plate, abounds in historical sites well adapted for the
pencil, and furnishing the reader with many interesting facts and
traditions. The southern portion of the country is remarkably fertile,
highly cultivated, and presents to the stranger a long succession of
luxuriant corn-fields, verdant pastures, and animated pictures of rural
happiness and independence. It would be difficult to find any tract of
land in Great Britain that can surpass the Vale of Glamorgan in richness
of soil, or in soft and graceful scenery. This favoured region extends
the whole length of the county--from the base of the mountains on the
north to the shore of the Bristol Channel on the south-west. It presents
throughout a most gratifying proof of what may be accomplished by
judicious management, when soil and climate are both in favour of
agricultural operations.
As a fair proof of the mild and salubrious nature of the atmosphere, we
need only observe that the magnolia, the myrtle, and other delicate
exotics, not only live but flourish in this auspicious climate. Equally
favourable to health and longevity, this district has numerous living
testimonies in the vigorous health and protracted age of its
inhabitants, who are fully sensible of the blessings they enjoy. The
valley, at its greatest breadth, measures about eighteen miles; in
various places, however, it is contracted into less than the half of
this space, and presents in its outline a constant variety of
picturesque and graceful windings.
The town of Cardiff is built on the eastern bank of the river Taff, over
which there is a handsome bridge of five arches, leading to Swansea. It
is a thriving town, possessing considerable trade; and, by means of a
canal from Pennarth to Merthyr-Tydvil, has become the connecting medium
between these extensive iron-works and the English market, and is, in
fact, the port of the latter. The Taff, which falls into the sea at
Cardiff, forms a principal outlet for the mining districts of
Glamorganshire, the produce of which has hitherto found its way to
market through the Glamorganshire canal; but its sea-lock, constructed
about fifty years ago, has long been found inadequate to the demands for
increased accommodation, in consequence of the great prosperity of trade
since the canal was opened.
The Marquess of Bute, possessing lands in this neighbourhood, obtained,
in 1830, an act for constructing a new harbour, to be called the Bute
ship-canal, and completed the work at his own expense. The great
advantages of this enterprise are--a straight, open channel from
Cardiff-roads to the new sea-gates, which are forty-five feet wide, with
a depth of seventeen feet at neap, and thirty feet at spring-tide. On
passing the sea-gate, vessels enter a capacious basin, having an area of
about an acre and a half, sufficient to accommodate large
trading-vessels and steamers. Quays are erected along the side of the
canal, finished with strong granite coping, and comprising more than a
mile of wharfs, with ample space for warehouses, exclusive of the wharfs
at the outer basin. This great work was finished in the summer of 1839,
at an expense to the proprietor of three hundred thousand pounds.
Cardiff Castle, which stands insulated on a high mound of earth, was
partially restored and modernised by the late Marquess of Bute. This
ancient fortress is connected with several interesting events in
history. In one of its towers, or dungeons, Robert Duke of Normandy was
twenty-five years imprisoned by his younger brother, Henry the First,
who had previously usurped the throne and deprived him of his eyesight.
In the reign of Charles the First it was bombarded by the Parliamentary
forces during three successive days, and only surrendered in consequence
of treachery on the part of the garrison.
[Illustration: GLOUCESTER.]
GLOUCESTER.
"I which am the queene
Of all the British vales, and so have ever been
Since Gomer's giant brood inhabited this isle,
And that of all the rest myself may so enstyle."
DRAYTON. _Vale of Gloucester._
Caer-Glow, or the "fair city" of the ancient Britons, is a name happily
characteristic of Gloucester. The beauty of its situation, on a gentle
eminence overlooking the Severn, where its stream is divided into two
channels by the Isle of Alney; the richness and fertility of the
surrounding districts; its highly picturesque scenery; its splendid
cathedral and numerous public buildings; and latterly the tide of
prosperity occasioned by the vast improvements in regard to its inland
port, present a combination of attractions for which it would be
difficult to find a parallel in the British provinces. Commercial
enterprise has now a fixed residence in the place, and within the last
ten years has made great and important advances in the several
departments of foreign and domestic industry.
The Port of Gloucester and the Cathedral, of which the accompanying
plate gives a most correct and interesting view, are the two principal
features; and to these, in accordance with the plan of the work, our
descriptive text will be more strictly confined. The Port is of great
antiquity,--so much so as to have existed as an inland harbour long
prior to any written document of the place,--but it is only of late
years that ships of burden could be anchored in the city basin. A
century ago, as recorded in the _Magna Britannia_, the Port of
Gloucester had a large quay and wharf on the banks of the river, very
commodious for trade, to which belonged a custom-house, with officers
proper for it; but the business was not great, as the city of Bristol,
only a few miles distant, had engrossed all the foreign trade in this
part of the country. The vessels which at the period in question
navigated the Severn were generally small trading-craft, of between
fifty and two hundred tons burden, so that Gloucester was deprived of
all those advantages which have been so happily secured to it by modern
enterprise and improvement. Of these, the Berkeley ship-canal is a noble
monument. By the vast facilities thus afforded, the commerce of
Gloucester has enjoyed a course of uninterrupted prosperity, and bids
fair to eclipse even Bristol itself in the extent and ramifications of
its still increasing trade. Ships of heavy burden are now safely moored
in the basin, and discharge those cargoes in the heart of the city which
had formerly to be transhipped at Bristol, and conveyed to their
destination by means of barges and lighters.
The Gloucester Spa, which is now become a place of fashionable resort,
has contributed in no small degree to the many attractions of the city
and its vicinity. This saline chalybeate was first opened to the public
by a grand fete, in May, 1815. The establishment contains every
requisite for the health and recreation of the visitors, and vies as
much with Cheltenham and Leamington in its appropriate and tasteful
arrangements, as it does in the salubrious qualities of its spring--in
proof of which numerous testimonies are daily added as the result of
experience. There is a very handsome pump-room, with hot, cold, and
vapour baths, and an abundant supply of water. The Spa is in the centre
of grounds tastefully laid out, embellished with all the care and effect
of landscape-gardening, and presenting to the _pieton_ and equestrian a
pleasing variety of shady walks and rides,
"Mid rural scenes that fascinate the gaze,
And conjure up the deeds of other days."
The Cathedral of Gloucester is deservedly considered one of the noblest
specimens of ecclesiastical architecture in Christendom. It is a grand
object with every traveller who enters upon a tour of the English
provinces, and makes a strong impression on the mind, even after he has
visited the gorgeous temples of Rome and Milan.
In the interior of the cathedral are numerous specimens of monumental
sculpture; among which the most remarkable are those of Robert, Duke of
Normandy, and Richard the Second. The present altar, of the Corinthian
order, is placed before the rich tracery of the original high-altar,
which, except from the side-galleries of the choir, is concealed from
view. The great elevation of the vault overhead, the richness and
variety of its designs, the elaborate and minute tracery with which the
walls are adorned, added to the vast dimensions of the great
oriel--eighty-seven feet in height--render the choir an almost
unrivalled specimen of what is styled the florid Gothic, and leave an
impression upon the stranger's mind never to be obliterated.
[Illustration: BRISTOL.
(from Rownham Ferry.)]
BRISTOL,
FROM ROWNHAM FERRY.
"But Avon marched in more stately path,
Proud of his adamants[2] with which he shines,
And glistens wide; as als of wondrous Bath
And BRISTOW faire, which on his waves he buildeth hath."
SPENSER.
The city of Bristol has enjoyed a celebrity of many centuries, and is
continually adding to her power and affluence by that spirit of
enterprise which has drawn tribute from the remotest shores and peopled
her harbour with the ships of all nations. The commercial importance
which she acquired at so early a period of our history, and which gave
her for a time so preponderating an influence over the other ports and
harbours of the kingdom, has been sustained by her spirited citizens
with a skill and industry rarely equalled and never surpassed. To the
great facilities formerly enjoyed by the merchants of Bristol another
advantage has been added by the construction of the Great Western
Railway, which has opened a rapid channel of intercourse between the
Thames and the Severn,--the London docks and the harbour of Bristol.
This event has been still further advantageous in having given origin to
various ramifications of the same means of conveyance, so that the
products of our native manufactures can be thrown into this channel, and
an interchange effected, with a cheapness and facility quite
unprecedented in the history of our inland commerce. That Bristol has
recently extended her commercial interests by her connexion with the
West Indies, Russia, France, and Germany, is abundantly indicated by the
numerous traders from those countries which are to be seen lading and
unlading in her port.
Bristol possesses no less than nineteen parish churches, with a
population--not including the suburbs--considerably under sixty
thousand. The cathedral, an ancient and most venerable pile, was founded
about the middle of the twelfth century by the mayor of Bristol, and,
till the reign of Henry the Second, it served as a priory of Black
Canons. It was then converted into an abbey, and subsequently, on the
dissolution of monastic establishments, under Henry the Eighth, it
underwent the further change into a cathedral, dedicated to the Holy
Trinity. A bishop, dean, six secular canons or prebendaries, one
archdeacon, six minor canons or priests'-vicars, a deacon and subdeacon,
six lay clerks, six choristers, two grammar-schoolmasters, four almsmen,
and others, were endowed with the site, church, and greatest part of the
lands of the old monastery. The various changes it has undergone exhibit
the finest specimens of English architecture peculiar to the several
periods at which they took place. All the ornamental work is of the
purest design, and elaborately executed, but on which our limited space
will not permit us to enlarge. Several of the lateral chapels are in
fine taste and preservation, containing monuments of the founder, of
several abbots, and bishops; also those erected to the memory of Mrs.
Draper--the "Eliza" of Sterne, Mrs. Mason, and Lady Hesketh, which
awaken feelings of deep interest in every mind imbued with the literary
history of the last century.
On the east bank of the Avon is Redcliff Parade, affording a beautiful
prospect of the city, shipping, and surrounding country. The quay, which
extends from St. Giles's to Bristol Bridge, exceeds a mile in length,
and is known by the quaint names of the _Back_, the _Grove_, and the
_Gib_. On the banks of the river below the city are numerous dockyards,
as well as the merchants' floating dock. The several squares in Bristol
are handsome: Queen's-square has a spacious walk, shaded with trees, and
an equestrian statue of William III., by Rysbrach, in the centre;
King's-square is well built on an agreeable slope; on the north-west
side of the city is Brandon-hill, where the laundresses dry their linen,
as they profess, in virtue of a charter from Queen Elizabeth.
Clifton, two miles west of Bristol, is charmingly situated on the summit
of the northern cliffs above the river Avon; many of the houses are
occupied by invalids, who seek the aid of Bristol Hot Wells, situated at
the western extremity of Clifton, near the stupendous rock of St.
Vincent. From its summit above the banks of the Avon there is a fine
prospect of the river and its environs, embracing some of the most
fertile land in Somersetshire, as well as the western part of Bristol.
[2] In allusion to the crystal-brilliants, long known as "Bristol
diamonds."
[Illustration: REDCLIFFE CHURCH AND BASIN, BRISTOL.]
REDCLIFFE CHURCH AND BASIN, BRISTOL.
The church of St Mary Redcliffe's, Bristol, was founded in 1249, and not
completed till 1375, an interval of a hundred and twenty-six years. The
founder was Simon de Burton, mayor of Bristol. It is pronounced by
Camden as "on all accounts the first parish church in England." It has,
of course, undergone, in the long lapse of generations, many changes,
repairs, and perhaps improvements. In the middle of the fifteenth
century, after having been seriously damaged in a storm, it was repaired
by William Cannynge the mayor; and, owing to the extent of these
repairs, he has established a just claim to the gratitude of posterity
as the second founder, and to commemorate the restoration thus effected,
two beautiful monumental statues were erected to the memory of himself
and his wife in the church. This patriotic and pious individual was five
times mayor of Bristol, and makes a prominent figure in the Chatterton
controversy. It is to be regretted, however, that the spire was never
restored, which, with the tower, was originally two hundred and fifty
feet high. So great was the beauty of this sacred edifice, that it was
celebrated over the whole country as a masterpiece of art, and attracted
numerous visitors; nor has that admiration diminished with the lapse of
time, for there are very few individuals, curious in the mystery of
ecclesiastical architecture, who have not visited or studied the
specimen here preserved.
The church is built in the form of a cross; and the nave, which rises
above the aisles in the manner of a cathedral, is lighted by a series of
lofty windows on each side, and supported by flying-buttresses. The
tower is large and richly ornamented, like the remaining part of the
spire, with carved work, niches, and statues. The principal entrance is
from the west front; but there are porches both to the northern and
southern sides. Of the first of these the interior is very beautiful;
and it was over this porch that the room was situated in which
Chatterton, whose father was sexton of the church, pretended to have
found the poems which he attributed to Rowley. The length of the church
is two hundred and thirty-nine feet, that of the transept one hundred
and seventeen feet. It is remarkable that the transept consists of three
divisions or aisles, like the body of the church; and the effect thus
produced is fine and striking, when the spectator places himself in the
centre and looks around him. The breadth of the nave and aisles is
fifty-nine feet; the height of the nave is fifty-four feet, and that of
the aisles twenty-five feet. The roof, which is nearly sixty feet in
height, is arched with stone, and ornamented with various devices.
Although externally this church has all the appearance of a massive
structure, it has nevertheless, from its loftiness and the peculiar
beauty of its masonry, a light and airy appearance both within and
without; and justifies the high eulogium, which we have already quoted,
as pronounced upon it by Camden. Among the sepulchral treasures
contained in this church, is the tomb of Sir William Penn, father of the
celebrated founder of Pennsylvania.
The business of shipbuilding is carried on to a very considerable extent
in Bristol; and stimulated by that spirit which has always characterized
the magistrates and merchants of Bristol, added to the vast improvements
which have been so recently affected, it is confidently believed, that
this ancient city and port are now entering upon a fresh epoch in their
commercial prosperity.
The principal exports are derived from the neighbouring manufactures;
and the imports consist chiefly of sugar, rum, wine, wool, tobacco,
coffee, turpentine, hemp, and timber. The quay extends upwards of a mile
along the banks of the rivers Frome and Avon. Owing to the serious
inconvenience and frequent damage sustained by large vessels, when lying
at low water in the river, a floating harbour was formed here at great
expense in 1804. To accomplish so important a design the course of the
Avon was changed; the old channel was dammed up to form the new harbour,
which, communicating with the river, is accessible at all times, with
sufficient depth of water for vessels of the largest size. This great
work, comprising the elegant iron bridges over the Avon, was the result
of five years' labour, and an enormous expenditure; and, although much
benefit has accrued to the port from the success of so spirited an
undertaking, still the expectations to which it naturally gave rise, as
to the extension of commerce, have not been realized. This is
attributable to various local causes.
[Illustration: SUSPENSION BRIDGE AT CLIFTON.
(near Bristol.)]
CLIFTON.
THE SUSPENSION BRIDGE.
"Scared at thy presence, start the train of Death,
And hide their whips and scorpions; thee, confused,
Slow Fever creeps from; thee the meagre fiend
Consumption flies, and checks his rattling cough!"
ADDRESS TO THE BRISTOL FOUNTAIN.
The village of Clifton has long been distinguished among our native
watering-places as the Montpelier of England. In point of situation, and
the beautiful and varied scenery it commands, it is without a rival
among those numerous springs which, from their medicinal virtues, have
risen into universal repute. It occupies a very elevated position; and
from the windows of his apartment the visitor may enjoy enchanting views
of the western part of Bristol, the Avon, and the numerous vessels that
glide to and fro upon its waters. The plateau, which terminates a
gradual ascent from the river, is covered with elegant buildings, that
furnish excellent accommodation to the numerous visitors who annually
resort to these salubrious fountains. Many private families of opulence
and respectability make this their principal residence, and with
justice, for few situations in the British empire can supply more varied
and rational sources of enjoyment. Those who seek to combine the
blessings of health with rational amusement and mental cultivation, will
very rarely be disappointed in selecting the now "classic" shades of
Clifton as a residence.