Drayton. Vale of Gloucester.

Caer-Glow, or the "fair city" of the ancient Britons, is a name happily characteristic of Gloucester. The beauty of its situation, on a gentle eminence overlooking the Severn, where its stream is divided into two channels by the Isle of Alney; the richness and fertility of the surrounding districts; its highly picturesque scenery; its splendid cathedral and numerous public buildings; and latterly the tide of prosperity occasioned by the vast improvements in regard to its inland port, present a combination of attractions for which it would be difficult to find a parallel in the British provinces. Commercial enterprise has now a fixed residence in the place, and within the last ten years has made great and important advances in the several departments of foreign and domestic industry.

The Port of Gloucester and the Cathedral, of which the accompanying plate gives a most correct and interesting view, are the two principal features; and to these, in accordance with the plan of the work, our descriptive text will be more strictly confined. The Port is of great antiquity,—so much so as to have existed as an inland harbour long prior to any written document of the place,—but it is only of late years that ships of burden could be anchored in the city basin. A century ago, as recorded in the Magna Britannia, the Port of Gloucester had a large quay and wharf on the banks of the river, very commodious for trade, to which belonged a custom-house, with officers proper for it; but the business was not great, as the city of Bristol, only a few miles distant, had engrossed all the foreign trade in this part of the country. The vessels which at the period in question navigated the Severn were generally small trading-craft, of between fifty and two hundred tons burden, so that Gloucester was deprived of all those advantages which have been so happily secured to it by modern enterprise and improvement. Of these, the Berkeley ship-canal is a noble monument. By the vast facilities thus afforded, the commerce of Gloucester has enjoyed a course of uninterrupted prosperity, and bids fair to eclipse even Bristol itself in the extent and ramifications of its still increasing trade. Ships of heavy burden are now safely moored in the basin, and discharge those cargoes in the heart of the city which had formerly to be transhipped at Bristol, and conveyed to their destination by means of barges and lighters.

The Gloucester Spa, which is now become a place of fashionable resort, has contributed in no small degree to the many attractions of the city and its vicinity. This saline chalybeate was first opened to the public by a grand fÊte, in May, 1815. The establishment contains every requisite for the health and recreation of the visitors, and vies as much with Cheltenham and Leamington in its appropriate and tasteful arrangements, as it does in the salubrious qualities of its spring—in proof of which numerous testimonies are daily added as the result of experience. There is a very handsome pump-room, with hot, cold, and vapour baths, and an abundant supply of water. The Spa is in the centre of grounds tastefully laid out, embellished with all the care and effect of landscape-gardening, and presenting to the piÉton and equestrian a pleasing variety of shady walks and rides,

The Cathedral of Gloucester is deservedly considered one of the noblest specimens of ecclesiastical architecture in Christendom. It is a grand object with every traveller who enters upon a tour of the English provinces, and makes a strong impression on the mind, even after he has visited the gorgeous temples of Rome and Milan.

In the interior of the cathedral are numerous specimens of monumental sculpture; among which the most remarkable are those of Robert, Duke of Normandy, and Richard the Second. The present altar, of the Corinthian order, is placed before the rich tracery of the original high-altar, which, except from the side-galleries of the choir, is concealed from view. The great elevation of the vault overhead, the richness and variety of its designs, the elaborate and minute tracery with which the walls are adorned, added to the vast dimensions of the great oriel—eighty-seven feet in height—render the choir an almost unrivalled specimen of what is styled the florid Gothic, and leave an impression upon the stranger's mind never to be obliterated.