116 



THE BRITISH ISLES. 



city in ashes, bear witness to the rouglincss of the Bristol moh.* The imports 

 include tobacco and raw sugar from the "West and East Indies and America, 

 timber from Norway and Canada, corn from Russia, spirits, and wine. The exports 

 consist principally of the manufactures of the town, such as refined sugar, tobacco 

 and cigars, metal- ware, soap, oil-cloth, machinerj^ and glass ; for though Bristol 

 does not hold the first place in any single branch of manufacturing industry, it is 

 at all events distinguished for the variety of its productions. The coal seams 

 which underlie the basin of the Avon are not very thick, but they supply the manu- 

 factories of the town with excellent fuel. The manufacture of cloth, introduced by 

 Flemish weavers in the reign of Edward III., is no longer carried on by Bristol, 

 but has been transferred to the Gloucestershire towns to the north-east of it. 



Fig. 65. — Bristol and Bath. 

 Scale 1 : 2.10,000. 



/ „ :\\„#^ 



Èië^H^ ^i. t^/->4^ .^t'4.^^#:„.,w^'^l 



2'40' 



WoPGr 2' 20' 



.2 Miles. 



Bristol proper rises on hilly ground to the north of the Avon, and, like Rome, 

 is supposed to have been built upon seven hills. The suburbs, however, spread far 

 beyond the ancient limits of the city. Bedminster, to the south, in the county of 

 Somerset, now forms part of it ; villas are scattered over the heights which separate 

 it from Horhury and Westhunj-on- Tri/m, in the north ; whilst in the west it has 

 coalesced with Clifton, which in the last century was a pretty village where the 

 merchants of Bristol sought repose from their labours. The airy heights which 

 were at that time dotted over with a few detached villas are now covered with orna- 

 mental buildings and rows of terraces, stretching round Durdham Downs, and 

 crowning the bold cliffs which here bound the narrow gorge of the Avon. Since 

 1864 this gorge has been spanned by a suspension bridge, at a height of 287 feet 



■^ Mobcrley, " Geography of Xoiihern Europe.' 



