Might almost wake the dead."
N.T. Carrington.
But to proceed with our voyage:—Almost opposite the Holmes there is an extensive view on your right of Bridgewater Bay, receding inland; and on the left, Pennarth Roads, with the forest of shipping and town of Cardiff elevated in the distance, present themselves. On this side the Channel there is nothing more to mention—the thriving and very extensive port of Newport on the Uske, in Monmouthshire, about twelve miles above Cardiff, not being visible. This town has risen almost entirely within the present century. It owes its prosperity partly to the excellent quality and hardness of its coal, which is almost equal to that of Newcastle, and partly to an unjust and exclusive act of parliament, which enacts that all coals shipped eastward of the Holmes shall be free of duty, to the great injury of Cardiff, Swansea, and other ports to the westward. The annual shipments to the port of Bridgewater alone, in consequence, are 100,000 tons. You now stretch nearer the Somersetshire coast; and after passing that beautiful and much-frequented little watering-place, Weston-supra-mare, clustering on the side of a romantic declivity along shore, the flood-tide reaches you on arriving in the far-famed King-Road at the mouth of the Avon, which, in addition to the natural beauty of the surrounding scenery, generally presents an animating scene of shipping and steamers, lying off till there is sufficient tide up the river. But we have progressed gently amidst a crowd of small craft past Pill, a fishing village at its mouth; and after being entranced for five miles with the magnificent and varied scenery of that lovely river, the classic and palatial buildings of Clifton, cresting the pinnacle of the rocks, come in sight as you near Cumberland Basin, and form a fit termination to such a scene. But we must recur to this subject.
VYVYAN.
THE GATHERER.
"A snapper-up of unconsidered trifles."
SHAKSPEARE.