GLOUCESTERSHIRE— HEEEFOEDSHIRE. 117 



from low water. This bridge, the numerous villas of Clifton, and their shrubberies, 

 together with the venerable cathedral, the chaste Gothic church of St. Mary 

 ItedclifFe, and the lofty square tower of St. Stephen's, built in 1472, constitute the 

 principal attractions of the town. The Bristol Museum and several country seats 

 in the vicinity, including Leigh Court and Blaise Castle, are rich in works of art. 

 Amongst the famous men born in Bristol are William Penn, Southey the poet, 

 Thomas Lawrence the painter, and Chatterton. Bristol also disputes with Venice 

 the honour of being the birthplace of Sebastian Cabot. 



There are no towns of importance in the hill district of Gloucestershire, to the 

 west of the Severn. Newent, a market town 9 miles north-west of Gloucester, 

 has collieries, and a church with a lofty spire. Westhury-on-Severn is interest- 

 ing to geologists on account of the fish and bone beds of its garden clifi". 

 Neicnham, on a hill below Westbury, exports the coal raised in its vicinity 

 and at Mitcheldean, in the interior. Half-way between these two places we pass the 

 ruins of the ancient abbey of Flaxley, whose foundation dates back to the twelfth 



century. Lyclney, lower down on the 



„ , . ' 1 i • 1 i 1 1 ï^i?- "^fi. — Clifton Susfensiox Bkidge. 



Severn, has iron and tin-plate works, and _ ^^ 



is a coal shipping port. We are now within ^ _.««==«™=i^^==.2B3s;,=,, =5=^^^ 



the manufacturing and mining districts ri ^-=â=^^ _ 



of the ancient Forest of Dean, nearly all ^ "j ^ g^^^J T 



mining towns of the forest. The Buck- 

 stone, a famous rocking-stone on a hill-slope overlooking the valley of the Wye, 

 stands near the former of these towns. 



Cirencester is the principal town in that part of the county which is drained 

 into the Thames. It is a place of great antiquity, the Corinium of the Romans, 

 and its museum contains numerous Roman antiquities found in the neighbourhood. 

 Cirencester carries on a large trade in wool and corn. Near it stands the Royal 

 Agricultural College. Lechlade, near the confluence of the Colne and Lech with 

 the Thames, and at the eastern termination of the Thames and Severn Canal, is a 

 place of some traffic, but the other market towns in the north-eastern portion of the 

 county enjoy only local importance. The chief amongst them are Northlcach, 

 Winchcombe, Chipping Campdcn, and Stoic-on-the-WoId. 



Herefordshire, an inland county, has a surface beautifully diversified by 

 hills, and set off to the greatest advantage by luxuriant woods. The Wye inter- 

 sects it from the north-west to the south-east, and is joined about the centre of the 

 county by the Lugg, draining its northern half. Agriculture and cattle-breeding 



