8 



At 1.30 we reached the mansion, a handsome building of Bath atone, com- 

 manding from its fine position varied and extensive views of surpassing beauty. 

 Here we were met by H. Clay, jun., Esq., who coaducted us to the dining-room^ 

 where a sumptuous and elegantly arranged luncheon was laid out, of which, on 

 his having taken the head of the table, he invited us to partake. This acceptable 

 repast having been fully discussed, and the kind hospitality of Mr. Clay duly 

 acknowledged by us, we were again on our legs ; but before we left the mansion some 

 of us separated to view the richly decorated suit of apartments on the ground 

 floor, while others ascended the grand staircase and examined the celebrated 

 Gobelin tapestry, once tlie property of Louis XVI., on which are represented the 

 various animal and vegetable productions of Africa. On the foreground of one 

 of the pieces the lobster is represented "ready boiled," in the same condition in 

 which that crustacean is introduced by the painter of " The Miraculous Draught 

 of Fishes," who, on having been remonstrated with for his inconsistency, replied, 

 "The greater was the miracle." After we had reassembled at the porch door, 

 we resumed our walk through the grounds, and visited on the way the Smuggler's 

 Cave, the romantic association of which vanished when the exploring party an- 

 nounced that the opening in the rock was the entrance to a heading which led to 

 a descending shaft, and was evidently the work of some miners in their search 

 of an imaginary treasure situated below the carboniferous limestone. Farther 

 on we halted at the "Lover's Leap," a spot protected by an iron railing, whence 

 the views of Pieroefield become blended with those of the Wyndcliff, and here 

 we had arrived at the end of the grounds ; so after having thanked Mr. Mynors 

 for his kind attention, we joined our carriages at the Temple gate and rode to the 

 edge of the Wyndcliff woods, where we alighted and struck off into a path which 

 brought us to the top of the hiU, then, after having descended a few yards to the 

 right, we arrived at the " Terrace." 



There 900 feet below the wooded rocks and crags which form the far-famed 

 Wyndcliff runs the Wye, now a tidal river, beyond which lies the peninsular 

 Llanwnt, a long stretch of alluvial land covered with verdant crops, and occupy- 

 ing the space which the river, by the assistance of the roadman and the lime- 

 burner, has formed in the limestone rocks which bound its channel. Beyond this 

 point the Double View and Tidenham Chase, and a long length of that sandy 

 bottomed stream, " Sabrina is her name," where her sister Vaga, true to the last 

 to her wanderisg nature, pours her accumulated treasures into her lap. Then la 

 the far distance, on one side, we noticed the flat and steep Holmes and Penarth 

 Point, and on the other, Kingroad, the mouth of the Avon, and the rocks and 

 woods about Clifton. 



While descending from the Terrace to the Moss Cottage, a good opportunity 

 was offered us to observe the different varieties of trees that form the Wyndcliff 

 woods, among which we noticed the guelder rose, Viburnum ebulus, wild service 

 tree, Pyru» torminalis, bird cherry, Prunus padus, mountain ash Viburnum Ian- 

 tana, birch, Betula alba, holly, Ilex aquifolium, privet Ligustrum, vulgare, and 

 the yew by the thousand ; most of these trees are natives of Britain, and being berry 



