506 
fervant eye in a walk through this city of 
palaces, would fill more columns than, in 
@ periodical work, can be afforded to the 
toposraphical furvey of a county. + Suffice 
it to fay, we were delighted—we were fa(- 
cinated—we exclaimed in a rapture—T his 
only 1s worthy of being called a city !—all 
that we have fren before were but congre- 
gations of pig-fties! We had intended to 
have pafled through Bath poft-fpeed, as 
through a place of vulgar note (for what 
were its fplendours to us!) and to have 
haftened to the main poimt of our deftina- 
tion, and we had made our arrangements 
accordingly. But what fienified arrange- 
ments ? We had eyes, and they were maf- 
ters of us. Our habiliments, however, 
were fomewhat out of harmony with the 
{cenery arcund us: they bore the evident 
marks of pedeftrian toil; while every 
thing we beheld was ftamped with the 
character of equipage andelegance. We 
determined therefore to repair to Briftol, 
whither our portmanteau had been fent from 
London to wait for our arrival, and then 
return to fee the city of Bath, when we 
ourfelves might be not quite unfit to be 
feen. Accordingly on | 
‘Monday 10, we took a morning-walk 
to Briftol by the upper-road ; whence, 
between the fecond and third mile-ffones, 
we enjoyed a pleafant expanfive view of 
the courfe of the Avon, the furrounding 
country, and the city to which we were 
direGting our march, 
Brijtol, At this place (where we arrived 
about 2 o’clock) we had each of us fcme 
friends, with fome of whom, after dinner, 
we took a ramble to the fine rocks of St. 
Vincent’s, with the alternate beauty and 
rough fublimity of which, diyerfified as 
they are in many places by the luxuriant 
cloathing of woods and coppice, we were 
very confiderably interefted. Hence, alio, 
we commanded fome very fine views of the 
furrounding country; and purfued with 
our eye the winding courfe of the river 
that flows at the bottom of this precipitous 
chafm, till it empties itfelf. into that fine 
eftuary, the Briftel channel. One thing, 
however, feemed neceflary for the perfec- 
ticn of this fcene: it was clearnefs and 
tranfparency of water.,‘* Though deep, yet 
clear ; though gentle, yet not dull ;”’ can 
never be applied, even by hyperbele itfelf, 
to the Bath Avon. Onthe contrary, ail 
the way that we had traced it, its waters, 
in appearancs were mere liquified mud. To 
the margin of thefe waters, however, w 
{crambled down, that we might enjoy the 
Spward as well as the downward gaze, 
4 
4 
“Pedeftrian Excurfion through England and Wales. [Nov. 1, 
Here again we experienced fenfations of 
delight, the objects that excited which (as 
they alfo are familiar to the tourift) I muft 
not paufe to defcribe. For the fame reafon 
I pals over with a hafty dath of my 
pen, the Wells, the Mall, the fhops, and 
the fine buildings—*¢ tier o’er tier, high- 
piled from earth to heaven!” that rofe 
upon our view. 
could not cut obferve the very evident 
marks of the arreftihg hand of war—whofe 
trumpets and whofe cannon, though not 
heard in cur ifland, were yet felt. through 
our elfe growing neighbourhoods ; and 
which here (as at Clifton, as Briftol, at 
Bath) with a fort of filent earthquake had 
fhaken many an unfinifhed ftreet and edi- 
fice into premature. ruin, and rendered the 
taite of the architect, and the labour of the | 
builder, of no avail. Mie 
On our return from this excurfion, we 
found ourfelves trapped into a very large 
party ; with whom we kept it up, as it is 
called, till half paft twelve o’clock—fad 
hours for pedeftrian hunters ef the pictu- 
refque and fentimental ! . 
Tuefday 11. Be it known, however, to 
the credit of our temperance, that, after a 
found and refrefhing fleep, we rofe at half 
pat feven without any head-ach, and, fe- 
parating*to our diftinct breakfaft-parties, 
united again at between ten and eleven, 
in a ramble of obfervation, with fome of 
our new acquaintance, about the town. 
Onr attention of courfe was commanded, 
in no fecondary degree, by the church of 
St..Mary Radcliff. This is indeed the 
fineft objeét in the city of Briftol. The 
architecture is in the fine florid Normo- 
Gothic fiyle, lofty and light, yet majeftic 
and folid. The aifles are beautiful—the 
proportions are good. It is indeed one of 
thofe buildings, the fight of which com- 
pels me to lament, that this ftyle of archi- 
tecture fhould ever be laid afide; till, re- 
colggbbe what tame and incongruous fpe-_ 
ciméns have, in thefe cur days, been pro- 
duced eyen by the moft celebrated doers in 
this way, I became reconciled to the 
change, and content that our modern 
‘church-builders thould thew their bad tafte 
and bungling execution on_the models 
(how poorly imitated) of Greece and 
Rome,and exe!aim, in the enthufiafn of my 
devotion—Spare! fpare the facrilegious 
mockery! Let the ghoft of departed Go- 
thic-architeéture fleep undifturbed—unin- 
fulted by fuch imitations—unprophaned 
by /uch comparifons! 
‘Thefe were not the only reflections’ fug- 
gefted by our furvey of this noble, but 
| : times 
Upon thefe, however;.we | 
s 
ih 
4 
