310 



Mr. Williams's Tour to the Valley of Rocks. 



at n'glit, for every man to be ready in 

 one hour, and inarcii at one o'clock; 

 there we was all in a bnsllc, and off we 

 goes, and it was not liglit, tliere was no 

 moon : the orders was, that the rrencli 

 was making different movements on our 

 left, about twen(y-two lcaj;ues from us ; 

 mind tiie days of the month, — I say this 

 day, tiie 16lh, we marched till eleven 

 o'clock that night, wiiicli was twenty- 

 two hours march for us the first day, 

 and wc walked thirteen leagues in that 

 time, or thirty-nine English miles; be- 

 ing dark, General Clinton ordered us to 

 lie down on the road-side for two hours; 

 so we halted, and every man got half 

 pint of real rum to keep up iiis spirits ; 

 we set off again at ten o'clock iti the 

 morning on the 17tli June, and marched 

 nine leagues, about four o'clock in the 

 afternoon; tlK^n we was in front of the 

 enemy, but the rain fell so hard that the 

 oldest soldiers there never was the like 

 in their life, I really thought that hea- 

 ven and earth was coming together. 

 There was a few shots fired on both 

 sides that night, but the guns would not 

 go off. We was on one long high hill, 

 and the French on another, facing us ; 

 there was a large wood behind us, and 

 Lord Wellington told us to get wood, 

 and make us large fires and dry our- 

 selves, and get our guns fit by day, as 

 the enemy could not hurt us. So wc 

 made large fares, and they was about 

 four miles in length; and when the 

 I'rench saw it, they did the same, and 

 it was one of the most beautiful sights I 

 ever saw; and the next morning, as 

 ■ soou as it was light, we went at it ding- 

 dong, and drove all before us, till yester- 

 day, the 7th July, that we entered Paris; 

 but ever since the 15th June, fill 7tli 

 July, we have only laid down on the 

 ground with our cloaths on ; so leave 

 you to judge if I am not fatigued out. 



Bluchcr rode by tlie side of Lord 

 Wellington yesterday, when we entered 

 Paris. As we was on the advance after 

 the French army, every town we came 

 to the people was all fled to Paris, and 

 had taken away what they could; and 

 British, Prussian, and Russian army, 

 broke their houses open and plundered 

 what was most good, and set fire to 

 some. Wine was more plentiful than 

 water, for all their cellars was full of 

 wine, the same as Tucker's is full of 

 cyder, and that was the first place tJje 

 soldiers broke open. I have often been 

 in cellars, and what wine we could not 

 drink and carry away, broke in the 

 beads of the e^sks aud let it tuu 4ibout. 



[Nov. 1, 



We marched throu»h to\vns as large as 

 Exeter, aud not a person to be seen, 

 but all locked up and window-shutter* 

 fastened. There is, at this time, up- 

 Avards of 700,000 soldiers in Paris and 

 the suburbs: but, as for P.oney and his 

 army, it is gone, God knows where ; 

 when I have my answer to this, sliall 

 write you again. Hope to sleep sound 

 to-night, so no more from your afi'ecti- 

 onate son, .John Lewis. 



For the Monthly Magazine. 

 SKiiTCHES in a tour from Bristol f^ 

 the VALLEY of ROCKS, during- tho 

 Month of August, 1813; hj Robert 



WILLIAMS. 



LETTER IV. 

 ]Vry Dear Friend, Hunlspill. 



UPON a review of the rules of the 

 school, mentioned in the former 

 part of this letter, a liberal mind will 

 perhaps oljject ; but, as a pood olitician 

 must adapt his laws to the naluro and 

 dispositions of the community for whom 

 those laws are designed, so, in tho 

 framing of those rules, as there have 

 been, and still are, many persons here 

 who oppose the introduction of a school 

 of gratuitous instruction altogether, 

 from the misconception that such in- 

 struction will be injurious to the in- 

 terests of agriculture, it has been neces- 

 sary to frame them, as much as possible, 

 without giving room for invective ; not, 

 I am informed, that invectives are not 

 even now heard amongst a certain set 

 of grasping scramldcrs, but, as they 

 must be ill-grounded, they eaimot be 

 very lasting. The advantages of in- 

 struction amongst every class of the 

 community are now sufficiently well per- 

 ceived to want no arguments to enforce 

 them amongst the liberal aud well-in- 

 formed ; but, as there are, I understand, 

 persons of some influence here who as- 

 sert, most roundly, the doctrine, that it 

 is Tiecessary to keep a certain class of the 

 commnnittj in ignorance, we are not io 

 wonder if these rules partake, in any 

 degree, of the spirit with which some 

 part of the population appears to be 

 possessed. 



Joannah Martin, of whom the Rev. 

 Mr. Warner has drawn so lively, and, 

 in fact, interesting, a portrait in his 

 " Walks through the Western Coun- 

 ties," still resides in her cottage here, 

 and still continues the same kind of 

 trade as she carried on when Mr. War- 

 ner saw her at the Shoulder of Mutton 

 in 1800. 1 understand that her real 

 {»m« is J^aiUf and liot Martin ; Pain 



lici^g^ 



