Spenser.

The city of Bristol has enjoyed a celebrity of many centuries, and is continually adding to her power and affluence by that spirit of enterprise which has drawn tribute from the remotest shores and peopled her harbour with the ships of all nations. The commercial importance which she acquired at so early a period of our history, and which gave her for a time so preponderating an influence over the other ports and harbours of the kingdom, has been sustained by her spirited citizens with a skill and industry rarely equalled and never surpassed. To the great facilities formerly enjoyed by the merchants of Bristol another advantage has been added by the construction of the Great Western Railway, which has opened a rapid channel of intercourse between the Thames and the Severn,—the London docks and the harbour of Bristol. This event has been still further advantageous in having given origin to various ramifications of the same means of conveyance, so that the products of our native manufactures can be thrown into this channel, and an interchange effected, with a cheapness and facility quite unprecedented in the history of our inland commerce. That Bristol has recently extended her commercial interests by her connexion with the West Indies, Russia, France, and Germany, is abundantly indicated by the numerous traders from those countries which are to be seen lading and unlading in her port.

Bristol possesses no less than nineteen parish churches, with a population—not including the suburbs—considerably under sixty thousand. The cathedral, an ancient and most venerable pile, was founded about the middle of the twelfth century by the mayor of Bristol, and, till the reign of Henry the Second, it served as a priory of Black Canons. It was then converted into an abbey, and subsequently, on the dissolution of monastic establishments, under Henry the Eighth, it underwent the further change into a cathedral, dedicated to the Holy Trinity. A bishop, dean, six secular canons or prebendaries, one archdeacon, six minor canons or priests'-vicars, a deacon and subdeacon, six lay clerks, six choristers, two grammar-schoolmasters, four almsmen, and others, were endowed with the site, church, and greatest part of the lands of the old monastery. The various changes it has undergone exhibit the finest specimens of English architecture peculiar to the several periods at which they took place. All the ornamental work is of the purest design, and elaborately executed, but on which our limited space will not permit us to enlarge. Several of the lateral chapels are in fine taste and preservation, containing monuments of the founder, of several abbots, and bishops; also those erected to the memory of Mrs. Draper—the "Eliza" of Sterne, Mrs. Mason, and Lady Hesketh, which awaken feelings of deep interest in every mind imbued with the literary history of the last century.

On the east bank of the Avon is Redcliff Parade, affording a beautiful prospect of the city, shipping, and surrounding country. The quay, which extends from St. Giles's to Bristol Bridge, exceeds a mile in length, and is known by the quaint names of the Back, the Grove, and the Gib. On the banks of the river below the city are numerous dockyards, as well as the merchants' floating dock. The several squares in Bristol are handsome: Queen's-square has a spacious walk, shaded with trees, and an equestrian statue of William III., by Rysbrach, in the centre; King's-square is well built on an agreeable slope; on the north-west side of the city is Brandon-hill, where the laundresses dry their linen, as they profess, in virtue of a charter from Queen Elizabeth.

Clifton, two miles west of Bristol, is charmingly situated on the summit of the northern cliffs above the river Avon; many of the houses are occupied by invalids, who seek the aid of Bristol Hot Wells, situated at the western extremity of Clifton, near the stupendous rock of St. Vincent. From its summit above the banks of the Avon there is a fine prospect of the river and its environs, embracing some of the most fertile land in Somersetshire, as well as the western part of Bristol.