earth. The whole amount of solid contents in a gallon, probably does not much exceed one hundred grains.

It is certainly surprising, that so minute a proportion of foreign matter should give to these waters any considerable degree of efficacy, and, as they are really efficacious in many diseases, we must impute a great deal to the conjoined operation of the mineral ingredients and of the temperature.

The afternoon being very pleasant, we went from the post-chaise to the top of the coach, and, within two hours, arrived at Bristol, which is twelve or thirteen miles from Bath. There was a man on the top of the coach who was with Captain Law, in the Jupiter, when that ship struck the ice and went down; he was emigrating to America, but was glad to escape back to Europe with his life. The villages of Keynsham, Brislington, &c. through which we passed, were of no great consequence; the country was hilly and picturesque, even more so than around Bath.

When we stopped at the inn in Bristol, although several of the house servants were standing by, not one of them offered to lend us any aid in descending from the top of the coach, or discovered any disposition to carry in our trunks, until they were called upon for that purpose. We were amused with the contrast which this deportment exhibited to what we had experienced, the evening before, at Trowbridge.

When we arrived there in a post-chaise, it was sounded through the house, in an instant: a chaise is come; the porter at the door first raised the hue and cry, and we could hear this short sentence repeated from one part of the house to another, like a responding echo; immediate

ly the porter, the ostler, the boots and the waiters, came trooping to our aid, and we could hardly get out of the carriage, through the crowd of arms raised for our assis

tance.

I presume you readily understand the thing without an explanation; the strangers in the post-chaise were expected to pay well, and to pay servants of every description, while the men on the top of the coach, might possibly have money, but, in all probability, rode there to save it. Thus it is, that in England, as in most other countries, the attentions which a traveller receives at the inns, are proportioned very exactly to the style in which he arrives.

No. XLVI.-BRISTOL.

The Avon-Deep mud-The hot wells-Lyttleton's description of them--Beautiful fossils-St. Vincent's rock-Prospect-A Roman camp-A lunatic-Anecdote of an author-Virulence of English jacobins-Babtist institution-Manufactures-Pins -Glass--Brass--Iron--A fair in a church-yard--Sketch of Bristol-Redcliffe church-Nuisance.

August 30.-In the morning we walked out and crossed the bridge over the Avon, at the confluence of which with the Froome (a river of inconsiderable magnitude,) Bristol stands. We went down along the quay, and observed the flag of our country flying among the ships.

The Avon is a narrow river, and the rapidity of the tide renders it very dirty at all times, except dead low water, when the channel is almost dry, and the ships rest in

the mud, which is so soft and deep, that they become perfectly imbedded in it and remain upright. We were on the quay at low water, and saw the ships in this situation. The quay is a very fine one; it is constructed of hewn stone, and extends on both sides more than a mile, but Bristol has not the bustling appearance of Liverpool.

town.

THE HOT WELLS.

We next took a coach, and proceeded to the celebrated hot wells of Bristol, which are situated a mile below the These waters do not merit the name of hot; they are merely not cold; their temperature is about 70°, or from that to 76°. They have very little taste, and their chemical qualities are not very well marked, for they contain not more than about fifty grains of solid matter to the gallon. This consists of carbonat and sulphat of lime, and muriat of soda and magnesia; the gaseous matter is a little carbonic acid. The water is remarkably soft, and so pure that it is fit for every domestic purpose, and is even in much request for long voyages, since it is not prone to putrefaction at sea.

There are pump-rooms, and baths here, and all the necessary accommodations. These waters have been much resorted to by invalids, but, when we were there, we saw very few people of any description. I looked, but in vain, for the original of that vivid picture, which the author of the letters ascribed to the younger Lord Lyttleton, has drawn of the hot wells of Bristol. He says: "I exhibited myself at a public breakfast, at the Hot Wells, and sat down at a long table, with a number of animated cadavers, who devoured their meal, as if they had not an hour to live; and, indeed, many of them seemed to be in that

doleful predicament. But this was not all. I saw three or four groups of hectic spectres engaged in cotillions; it brought instantly to my mind Holbein's Dance of Death; and methought I saw the raw-boned scarecrow, piping and tabouring to his victims. So, I proceeded to the fountain; bu', instead of rosy, blooming health, diseases of every colour and description guarded the springs. As I approached to taste them, I was fanned by the fœtid breath of gasping consumptions, stunned with expiring coughs, and suffocated with the effluvia of ulcerated lungs. Such a living Golgotha never entered into my conceptions, and I could not but look upon the stupendous rocks, that rise in rude magnificence around the place, as the wide spreading jaws of an universal sepulchre.”

The allusion to the scenery around these wells is the only part of this description which was strictly applicable to the place as I saw it; but, it was very easy to imagine the rest.

These springs boil up, on the banks of the Avon, between high and low water mark, but they have contrived to exclude the tide, so that the fresh water is at all times accessible. The place in which these wells are situated is extremely singular; the scenery is very wild on one side, where St. Vincent's rock rises with ragged and perpendicular cliffs from the banks of the Avon, and the springs are completely sheltered from the north winds, by the hills, which almost impend over them, while on the opposite side of the river, the country assumes a softer aspect, although it is still very hilly, and every where varied and picturesque.

In this vicinity are found the beautiful siliceous crystals known by the name of Bristol diamonds, for the word dia

mond appears to be almost every where applied by the common people to all crystalline bodies which are moderately transparent and beautiful.* We went into a cottage near the wells where an old man had a collection of fossils found in the neighbouring hills; he was a dealer in them, and this kind of traffic appears to be carried on in England at every place where showy minerals can be found. This old man had one specimen of uncommon beauty: it was a cornu ammonis, studded on the interior part with brilliant crystals of pyrites, but, as usually happens with specimens of great beauty, he demanded so high a price, that he will probably retain his prize a long time. Fine specimens of the sulphat of Strontites are found in this vicinity.

ST. VINCENT'S ROCK.

We ascended to the top of St. Vincent's rock. The river Avon, at this place, passes between high impending cliffs, which rise three hundred feet perpendicularly, from the water's edge.

I went to the very brink of this frightful precipice, and looked down into the abyss through which the river flows. An English and an American ship were, at that moment, passing down the stream, and appeared directly below us; their masts reached but a little way up this lofty wall of rock.

Turning to the left, we had a fine view of the green and fertile hills of Somerset, undulating in continual and varied succession, as far as the eye could distinguish them, along the horizon.

*Especially if they will cut glass.