The Walk at the Pump-room, well planned, and kept in excellent order, is planted on each side with limes; at the end is a small square, where the Pump is situate, with a room on the left for the accommodation of the company to promenade, measuring sixty-six feet by twenty-three;—on the opposite side a reading-room, with a billiard-table over, and a house, the residence of the attendant at the Spa; beyond that, is a similar walk of three hundred and twelve feet, which leads to another serpentine walk; from the end of this, the Spire of Cheltenham Church forms a beautiful object. Near these walks, stands, on an eminence, the Seat of the Earl of Fauconberg: this was the Royal residence during their Majesties stay at this place, from July 12th to August 16, 1788.
In respect to the rides, Cleave-hill, Dowdeswell, &c. Tewkesbury and Gloucester, are most admired.
Speaking of the History of the place, we find Cheltenham was a town in the reign of William the Conqueror: Edward likewise is supposed to have marched through it, before he encamped his army on the field of Tewkesbury, previous to the battle of the Houses of York and Lancaster.
Of the efficacy of the Water, to which this town is indebted for its present celebrity, I refer my readers to a Treatise, published by Dr. Fothergill, of Bath.
GLOUCESTER.
The Pin Manufactory was established here, by John Tisley, in the year 1626, and the business is now become so extensive, that the returns from London alone are estimated at near 20,000l. per ann. Before the introduction of Pins into England (1543) skewers of brass, silver, and gold, and likewise thorns curiously scraped, called by the Welch women pin-draen, were used. Though the Pins themselves are apparently simple, yet their manufacture is not a little curious and complex. The wire in its most rough state is brought from a wire company in the neighbourhood of Bristol: till the year 1563, English iron wire was drawn out by manual strength. The first operation attending this curious process, is the fixing the circular roll of wire to the circumference of a wheel, which in its rotation throwing the wire against a board, with great violence, takes off the black external coat: vitriol is next applied to bring the brass to its common colour. The brass wire being too thick for the purpose of being cut into Pins, is reduced to any dimension the workman pleases, by forcibly drawing it through an orifice in a steel plate, of a smaller diameter. The wire, being thus reduced to its proper dimensions, is next straightened: it is then cut into portions of six inches in length, and afterwards to the size of the Pin, and each piece respectively sharpened on a grinding-stone, turned by a wheel. We now come to a distinct branch of the manufactory: the forming the heads, or, as the workmen term it, head spinning: this is accomplished by means of a spinning-wheel, which, with astonishing rapidity winds the wire round a small rod: this, when drawn out, leaves a hollow tube between the circumvolutions; every two circumvolutions, or turns, being cut with sheers, form one head. The heads, thus formed, are distributed to children, who, with great dexterity, by the assistance of an anvil, or hammer, worked by the foot, fix the point and the head together. The Pins, thus formed, are boiled in a copper, containing a solution of block-tin pulverized, and the lees of Port; and by this last process, it changes its yellow brassy colour, and assumes the appearance of silver, or tin. The labourers are all paid according to the weight of their work.
Near Gloucester, at the small island of Alney, formed by the river Severn, historians relate, that Canute and Edmund, after many bloody engagements in Essex, determined to prevent a farther effusion of blood by a single combat. Neither, however, as the story relates, obtaining a victory, peace was concluded, and the kingdom divided between them. We paid, however, little regard to the supposed place of this contest, as it was not for us, puisne antiquarians, to discuss points, on which the greatest historians had so materially differed.
I forbear to make any remarks on the Cathedral and Gaol of Gloucester, as much has already been done towards their illustration; and as ample accounts of them are given in the Gloucester Guide, which the Tourist will meet with on the spot.
The Walk from hence to