St. Mary Redcliff Church, which is supposed to be one of the most beautiful gothic structures of a parish church in England, next merits attention. The present edifice was erected by William Caning, an eminent merchant of Bristol, about the year 1456; the foundation having been commenced by his grandfather of the same name, on the site of the former church, built by Simon de Burton, in the year 1294. Caning having been rendered unhappy by the death of his wife, and being pressed by the King to a second marriage, he took holy orders to avoid an act so repugnant to his feelings; he was afterwards Dean of Westbury, to which he was likewise a great benefactor. He died in 1474, and was buried in the south end of the aisle of this church, in which are two monuments erected to his memory; in the one he is represented in his magisterial robes (he having been five times Mayor of Bristol) with his lady by his side, with a long inscription on two tables. In the other monument he is habited as a priest.
The roof, which is of stone displaying many curious devices, with much good workmanship, and the lofty pillars which support it, are beautiful; the interior, which consists of a middle and two side aisles, has a light and highly pleasing effect, and is generally much admired. The altar is very elegant and richly decorated, and over it are three capital paintings by Hogarth. The organ, which is of great size and compass, contains upwards of one thousand speaking pipes, and for richness of tone is scarcely to be equalled. It was in a room over the north porch entrance in an old chest that Chatterton, then a youth of seventeen, gave out that he found the poetical manuscripts, ascribed to Rowley and others, and said to have been written in the fifteenth century. Chatterton’s father was sexton of St. Mary’s Redcliff and master of a charity school in Pile-street, in which school, under a Mr. Love, who succeeded his father, and at the Colston Blue-coat school, he received his education.
The Exchange in Corn-street is a noble building of freestone highly finished; it cost upwards of 50,000l. The principal front is 110 feet; it is of the Corinthian order upon a rustic basement. Next to the Exchange stands the Post-office, and higher up on the opposite side of the street, the Council-house, where the mayor or some other magistrate sits daily to administer justice, from twelve till two o’clock.
The charities of this city are numerous and extensive; the Infirmary is a noble building, situate in Earl-street, St. James’s; it is conducted on the most liberal plan.
The port of Bristol has of late years been greatly enlarged and improved, principally on a plan suggested by the Rev. William Milton, Rector of Heckfield, Hants; an excellent engineer, and a man of most extensive mechanical abilities, whose only reward for so great a service rendered to this wealthy port was a present of a piece of plate; had he rendered as great a service to the merchants and corporation of Liverpool, he would most likely have obtained a handsome independence for life; for although the charities of Bristol speak highly in its favour, still its high spirit, its hospitality, or its generosity are not quite so proverbial as those of Liverpool.
The Hot-well is distant about a mile and a half to the west of Bristol, in the parish of Clifton: the water is too well known for its great efficacy in pulmonary complaints, and cases of general debility, to require any recapitulation of its virtues, in this slight sketch of the Hot-well and Clifton.
As a place of fashionable resort, not only for invalids, but for pleasure, its beautiful situation, both for walks and rides, the gentility of the company that frequent it, the easy and well regulated expence with which persons may with comfort and respectability reside here, must always ensure it an overflow of company in the season. The Avon below St. Vincent’s rocks is but little wider than it is at Bristol; but as the spring tides rise from 30 to 36 feet, the heaviest ships can navigate it at such times.
St. Vincent’s rocks, overhanging the Avon, afford to the pedestrian, and particularly to the botanist, an infinity of amusement; a great portion of the plants, if not peculiar to this spot, are but rarely to be met with elsewhere.
These rocks are chiefly composed of a species of chocolate-coloured marble, bearing a good polish; it is worked into chimney-pieces, &c., with good effect, the refuse burning into a strong and beautiful white lime. The reverberation of sound occasioned by the miners blasting these rocks, and the dreadful crash of the masses thus hurled from their native beds down the craggy precipices is grand and terrific; it is in the fissures of the rocks thus opened that those beautiful crystals, called Bristol stones, are found.