Gothic architecture. It was filled in part by the military. The service was performed principally by chanting, which always strikes me as a caricature, and, unless habit has reconciled one to it, as rather adapted to excite ludicrous than solemn emotions.

We lodged in an ancient tavern at Bristol, where every accommodation, was under the same roof, and we were so annoyed by the effects proceeding from one, that had not our engagements called us almost constantly abroad, we should have been almost induced to change our lodgings.

The pungent odour of ammonia (hartshorne) mixed with some rather offensive effluvia, so completely pervaded the whole house, and especially the upper flats, where our bed chambers were, that tears were ready to start at every moment, although the people of the house seemed unaffected by it. This gas, it is now known, is the genuine offspring of putrefaction, being composed of hydrogen and azot, both of which exist in animal matters in abundance, and are evolved by putrefaction in such a manner as to unite and form this singular gas.

No. XLVII.-JOURNEY TO CORNWALL.

Leave Bristol-List of towns and villages-Bridgewater-Taunton-Exeter-Difference between English and American views -Stage Coach companions-One of Pindar's heroes-Launceston-An ancient castle-Mud cottages of Devonshire-Bodmin-Truro-Traits of manners.

Sept. 2.-My companion, Mr. T———, having determined on travelling north, we parted at Bristol, and it be

came my lot to journey alone. Having been up till a late hour last night, and being waked again very early this morning, I had obtained very little rest, and was but poorly prepared to encounter the fatigues of a long and rapid ride. The coach in which I had taken a seat for Exeter started with the rising sun and a very fine morning.*

We crossed the river Avon, and, as we passed along, the road was thronged for many miles, with people going to the fair. For the first six or seven miles from Bristol, we were almost continually ascending the hills of Somersetshire, and our increasing elevation gave us the finest retrospective views of Clifton, St. Vincent's Rock, Bristol, and the opposite banks of the Avon.

It was with extreme regret that I passed near the residence of Mrs. Hannah More without stopping to pay my respects to this illustrious friend of mankind and ornament of her sex. I was not possessed of any means of introduction to her, and thought it hardly consistent with decorum to go to her house without. Her residence is about twelve miles from Bristol, and is called Barley Wood. She is universally revered and beloved by all descriptions of persons from the cottage to the throne, and in fact her

* Most of the places through which we passed in the course of the day were very inconsiderable. They were, Yanley, Broadfield's Downs, Red Hill, Langford, Churchill, Cross, Weare, Rook's Bridge, High Bridge Inn, Huntsfield, Stretchel, Paulet, Puriton, Craudon Bridge, Bridgewater, North Patherton, Thurlerton, West Monckton, Taunton, Bishop's Hill, Runwell, Wellington, Rockwell Green, Maiden Down, South Appledore, Willard, Collumpton, Bradninch, Crab Tree Inn, Exeter. In the whole seventy-seven and a half miles.

writings are adapted to the instruction of the possessors of both.

We soon came to Broadfield's Downs, which is one of those extensive tracts of waste land with which England abounds; they are pastured in common, and are not without beauty from the fern, the furze, and the yellow and purple heath flowers with which they are adorned.

We now had numerous hills to descend, and so steep that we were often compelled to lock a wheel.

After travelling about ten miles, the lofty Mendip-hills appeared in view on our left, and accompanied us for many miles. They are destitute of trees and seemingly barren, but contain lead mines, which I did not stop to explore, as I had before seen such mines in Derbyshire.

On the top of one of the most lofty hills, at the foot of which we passed, we saw very deep trenches, and a high rampart, enclosing apparently many acres, and obviously the ruins of some ancient military station. I could find no notice of this remarkable object in my itineraries, and my companions were equally ignorant with myself concerning it. In this dearth of information, I inquired of the coachman, as a last resource, and he, with all the gravity of an antiquarian, informed me that the hill had been fortified by the Romans, the Saxons, or the Danes; if he had only added, or by some body else, his account of the matter would certainly have been as true as it was definite.

We breakfasted at a little village called Cross, and from this place to Bridgewater, a distance of twenty-six miles, we travelled over one continued tract of level meadow and pasture land, extending many miles on our left, till it was terminated by hills; and, on the right, reaching to Bristol

channel, which, with its islands and vessels, and the opposite coast of Wales, was often in view, as we rode sometimes within a mile or two of the shore.

Bridgewater is the first town on this morning's ride that deserves notice. It is situated a few miles from Bristol channel, on the river Parret, which is navigable at high water, for ships of two hundred tons, but, like the Avon, is drained at low water, and like the same river, is very muddy at the flood, owing to the rapid influx of the tide, which, here as well as at Bristol, rises to a great height. Bridgewater is a very ancient town, and seems to have been once walled, as the massy gateways remain to this day. The streets are narrow, the houses small and in decay, and the whole aspect of the place disagreeable.

From Bridgewater to Taunton, a distance of eleven miles, the country began to rise again, and to exhibit wheat-fields intermixed with meadows. At Taunton we dined. This is a very handsome town, the houses are constructed of brick, and, in the modern style; the two principal streets cross each other at right angles; it contains between five and six thousand inhabitants, and is remarkable in history as having been the theatre of many of the executions of Jeffreys, the sanguinary and infamous judge, in the reign of James II. Whatever veil may be drawn over the atrocities of a man, while he is surrounded by sycophants and rendered popular by success, he is almost sure to receive from the unbiassed decisions of posterity the estimation which is his due. The judicial integrity and unspotted virtue of Sir Matthew Hale, will rise in sweet remembrance through all succeeding generations, while Jeffreys, now proverbially surnamed the infamous, will be remembered only to be execrated. It was

near this town that the defeat of the Duke of Monmouth happened, which led to these executions.

At Maiden-down, nine miles from Taunton, we entered the county of Devon. We were, every where, delighted with the picturesque scenery of lofty hills clothed in green, and cultivated to their very summits.

While they were changing horses at Collumpton, a small town, the houses of which are of stone, I walked forward a mile, and gained the summit of a high hill in a field contiguous to the road, where I enjoyed a prospect of great extent and beauty, and possessing in a high degree that deepness of verdure, and that neatness, variety and finish, which are so remarkable in English views, and which more than once before, I have had occasion to mention.

The verdure of England, as I have already remarked, is much more intense than that of our country; the trees, the hedge-rows, and the fields, are so very green that, in a cloudy day, they appear almost black; the humidity and temperate nature of the climate of this island are, without doubt, principal causes of its fine verdure, for England is never scorched by such torrid suns as ours.

I was fortunate to-day in having a large coach and only two companions, who were social and obliging in their deportment. One of them bore so strong a resemblance both in countenance and manners, to a friend of ours in America, that I took no small satisfaction in looking at him, and before our day's ride was through we all became known to each other. Indeed, I find that people in Old as well as New-England, are fond of knowing something of each others private history, when they are accidentally connected in stage coaches, packets and other situations,