more than three centuries in this position, it may be regarded as secure. In this church is a curious sconce of brass with twelve branches, with figures of the Virgin Mother and the Divine Child, St. George, &c. It was probably in use in the days of the Knights Templars, whose settlement here dates from the reign of Stephen.

St. Werburgh's Church, in Clare Street, not far from the old market cross, till recently preserved the name of a Saxon saint, the daughter of Wulferus, King of Mercia. A church was built here and dedicated to her in 1190, and an elegant tower of the Decorated style was added to it in 1385. This church, however, being a great obstruction in the street, and the resident population having so entirely abandoned it that at a late census the number of residents did not amount to six, was taken down in 1878-79, and has been rebuilt, for the most part stone by stone, in one of the north-eastern suburbs of the city, retaining its old name and dedication.

The Church of St. Mary-le-Port, near the ancient city bridge, is said to date as far back as the year 1170. It shows, however, but few traces of such antiquity, and indeed is less curious than the street in which it stands. This street is picturesque through the projection of the gables of the upper storeys, which approach so nearly that you might almost shake hands across the street. In this church is the old brazen eagle, or lectern, which used to stand for more than a century in the choir of the cathedral, but was turned out by the Dean and Chapter.

St. Peter's Church has an interest of its own, as its churchyard contains the remains of the unhappy poet, Richard Savage, who died in the debtors' prison in this city. It is said that the original edifice dated from before the Conquest; but whether that be true or not, the present structure except the tower is modern, having been very much altered in 1750, and again in 1795. It contains one or two handsome monuments. The tower is very massive, and of Norman architecture. Close to it stands St. Peter's Hospital, a venerable building, with a front curiously carved and ornamented.

St. John's Church, founded early in the fourteenth century by Walter Frampton, three times Mayor of Bristol, is the smallest in Bristol. It consists of only one aisle, and very naturally, for it stands on the old city wall, the base of its tower forming one of the gates. The groove for the old portcullis is still visible. The side arches for foot-passengers were pierced as lately as 1828.

The Church of St. Philip and St. Jacob (James), which stands at the extreme east of the city, near the site of the old castle, is supposed to have been originally the chapel of a Benedictine priory, subject to the Abbey of Tewkesbury, and but little is known of its early history. It must, however, have become parochial at an early date, for William of Worcester tells us that in 1279 the Bishop of Worcester issued a process against Peter de la Mere, Constable of the Castle, and others, for infringing the privileges of the Church by arresting and beheading one William Lay, who had fled for sanctuary to the Church of St. Philip and St. Jacob. For this offence the guilty parties had to do penance, being whipped along the public streets hither from the Church of the Friars Minor in Lewin's Mead; to build a stone cross at the cost of a hundred shillings at least, and to feed a hundred poor at its foot one day in every year; and to find a priest to celebrate mass daily for

life. This stone cross is mentioned by William of Worcester; Lut all trace and memory of it have long passed away.

Of the other churches few are worthy of special mention. That of St. Michael stands, as is usual, near the top of the hill; but the tower, of the twelfth or thirteenth century, is all of the original fabric which remains. In this parish is a curious little chapel, attached to Foster's Almshouses, at the top of Steep Street and Queen Street, dedicated to the "three Kings of Cologne "-the wise men who came to Bethlehem. The old Church of St. Nicholas occupied the customary riverside situation so common to churches dedicated to the patron saint of fishermen. The crypt, however, or part of it, is all that remains. Its chancel was carried on an arch over High Street. It is said that the head of Queen Philippa was long preserved in the crypt, but this is probably only a tradition.

Many of the old streets of Bristol are highly picturesque, being narrow and lofty, and with gabled houses of timber: one such house, at the corner of Wine Street and High Street, said to have been brought over from Holland in pieces, is especially noticeable, and artists will find no lack of subjects for their pencils in the neighbourhood of Maryport Street.

We must not forget to mention here the rocky eminence betwen Bristol and a part of Clifton known as Brandon Hill, from which perhaps the finest general view of the city is gained, its churches and public buildings forming an attractive group. It is named after St. Brendan, and was occupied in 1351 and subsequently as a hermitage by Lucy de Newchirche, an anchoritess. In 1403 it is said that it was tenanted by a hermit, Reginald Taylor. The site of the hermitage was afterwards occupied by a windmill. As Brandon Hill formed part of the possessions of Tewkesbury Abbey, which had been seized by her father, Queen Elizabeth sold it to two citizens of Bristol, from whom the Corporation purchased it, with a proviso that they should keep and maintain the hedges and bushes, and admit the drying of clothes by the townswomen, as had been accustomed. To the present day the western slope is largely used as a drying-ground. From this tenure a "wicked and malicious libel" has passed into currency, most derogatory to the faces of the daughters of Bristol, to the effect that the queen gave the use of this hill to poor freemen's daughters as a dowry, because she took compassion. on the many plain faces which she saw in one of her visits. At the time of the Rebellion, this hill was fortified by the Royalist party against Fairfax and Cromwell; and a portion of the trenches then thrown up may still be traced.

Clifton, so called as "the town upon the cliff," has derived its fame as a wateringplace from some hot wells, which issue out of the lower part of St. Vincent's Rocks, by the side of the Avon. This warm spring is mentioned by William of Worcester in the fifteenth century, but it first came into public notice through some remarkable cures effected by its waters about 1680-90. Five years later the "Merchant Venturers of Bristol," as Lords of the Manor of Clifton, granted a building-lease of the spot to an enterprising citizen, who erected baths and a pump-room. These were taken down early in the present century, and

a new Hot Well House erected a little further back from the river: it is of the Tuscan order, and has a handsome front of Bath stone. The waters are said to be useful in consumptive cases.

Clifton as a watering-place thus rose into being at the foot of the cliffs, and reversed the

history of the original Caer Oder. In the course of time large mansions were erected on the edge of the Down above; two large crescents named after the Duke of York and Lord Cornwallis, and another called the Polygon, were erected; and gradually St. Vincent's Parade, Sion Hill, and Caledonian Place sprang into being. The old parish church of Clifton was pulled down about the year 1820, and replaced by a modern structure in the pseudo-Gothic style.

Clifton has gradually spread, of late years, both towards Bristol and towards Durdham Down, so that Cotham and Redland have become almost integral parts of the great city, and it is a favourite residence for those who seek health and educational advantages. A large public school was founded here in 1860, under the name of Clifton College, which has sent many good scholars to the universities. The college forms an attractive feature as the visitor wends his way towards the Downs.

St. Vincent's Rocks, as the lofty cliffs above the Avon are termed, were doubtless once the site of a Roman encampment. They were called also "Ghyston Cliffs," as being supposed to have been tenanted by a giant named "Ghyst," who, according to Chilcott, was "either a Saracen or a Jew." Some way down the face of this cliff, which rises nearly perpendicularly from the river's banks, is a recess artificially carved out of the solid rock, and which may once have been a hermitage. It is known as "the Giant's Hole." The equal height of the cliffs on either side, and the exact correspondence of their stratification, have led geologists to suppose that they were originally one mass, but were split asunder by some convulsion of nature. In the small cavities between the strata are found some crystals hard enough to cut glass, and known as "Bristol diamonds;" and the flora of these rocks is very varied and curious. The scenery here has often been compared by travellers to that of the valley of Tempe, in Thessaly. It is much to be regretted that the rich natural colouring of these cliffs is being sadly destroyed by the constant operation of blasting the rocks, in order to make lime. On the top of the cliffs are a camera-obscura and an observatory. The cave here is certainly of great antiquity, being mentioned by William of Worcester, who visited it on September 26, 1480. He writes: "The hermitage, with an oratory or chapel in the most dangerous part of the rock called Ghyston Cliffe, situated in a cave of the rock, twenty yards in depth in the said rock, above the river Avon, in honour of St. Vincent." He adds in another place the dimensions of the chapel, which correspond with those given at the present time.

The Avon is here spanned by a magnificent suspension-bridge, for the erection of which a citizen of Bristol many years ago left a sum of money to accumulate. The foundations of its towers were laid as far back as 1836; the work, however, was suspended for many years, until 1862, when the bridge which had crossed the Thames at Hungerford Market, and which was first erected there in 1845, being about to make way for a railway bridge, was purchased by a company, who thus brought the work to completion. The centre span is perhaps the largest of any existing work of the kind, being no less than 676 feet, whilst the total length of the bridge is 1,352 feet. The chains to which the suspending-roofs are fastened are double on each side of the bridge. The bridge cost very nearly £100,000 in all. On the opposite side of the river the Leigh Woods, full of oaks and evergreens, rise proudly over the sides of the Nightingale Valley.

That the citizens of Bristol and Clifton have in them some little public spirit, may be inferred from the number and variety of their public institutions and buildings. There is a Public Free Library in the neighbourhood of Queen Square, with branches in various parts. At the top of Park Street are the Museum and Library, formerly the Philosophical Institution; not far off is a new theatre; in Tyndall's Park is a handsome new Grammar School-transferred hither from Bristol, as stated above; and in Clifton are the Victoria Rooms, used for balls, lectures, and public meetings. In the White Ladies Road is a new Fine Arts Academy, in which are to be seen the pictures by Hogarth which once hung in the Church of St. Mary Redcliffe. The Zoological Gardens

on the edge of Clifton and Durdham Downs, although commenced as recently as 1836, have perhaps the finest provincial collection of animals in the whole kingdom. On the Down, a little to the north of Clifton, between Redland and Stoke Bishop, the Royal Agricultural Society held its show in the summer of 1878; the Prince of Wales was present to inaugurate it.

The neighbourhood of Bristol on every side is rich in charming and varied scenery. To say nothing of Clifton Down and St. Vincent's Rocks, united to the Leigh Woods and Nightingale Valley on the opposite side of the river Avon by the suspension bridge already described, on the north the villages of Westbury, Henbury, and King's Weston can hardly be surpassed in their distant views and pleasant walks and drives; whilst Dundry Tower rises against the sky five or six miles off towards the south, like a landmark. Long Ashton and Abbotsleigh, with their noble parks, touch the Somersetshire side of the Avon; and on the east and south-east the wooded valleys about Stoke Bishop and Stapleton,

and Bitton and Keynsham, and Brislington, present the visitor with genuine English scenery of a sober and homely type, here and there disfigured by mining operations.

Bristol has also an important source of wealth in the coal-fields in its vicinity, which, though small in comparison with those of Wales and the northern counties, are extensive enough to supply the wants of the city and its neighbourhood, and to export a large quantity besides. These beds of coal stretch on the east, south-east, and south, for nearly thirty miles; the largest supply being at Kingswood, in Gloucestershire, and at Radstock, in Somersetshire. It was among the miners of Kingswood that John Wesley and George Whitefield met with their first hearers.

It may be added, by way of conclusion, that the fair city which we have here described gives the title of Earl and also of Marquis to the Hervey family.