A.D. 1738.

185

tower that stands close to the edge of the highest rock, and sees the stream turn quite round it; aud all the banks one way are wooded in a gentle slope for near a mile high, quite green; the other bank all inaccessible rock, of an hundred colours and odd shapes, some hundred feet perpendicular. I am told one may ride many miles farther on an even turf on a ridge that on one side views the river Severn, and the banks steeper and steeper, or quite to the open sea; and on the other side a vast woody vale as far as the eye can stretch, and all before you the opposite coast of Wales beyond the Severn. . . . . The city of Bristol itself is very unpleasant, and no civilised company in it; only the collector of customs would have brought me acquainted with merchants, of whom I hear no great character. The streets are as crowded as London, but the best image I can give you of it is, 'tis as if Wapping and Southwark were ten times as big, or all their people ran into London. Nothing is fine in it but the square, which is larger than Grosvenor square and well builded, with a very fine brass statue in the middle, of King William on horseback; and the quay, which is full of ships, and goes half-way round the square. The College green is pretty, and (like the square) is set with trees, with a very fine old cross of Gothic curious work in the middle; but spoiled with the folly of new gilding it, that takes away all the venerable antiquity. There is a cathedral, very neat, and nineteen parish churches.

13. In 1736 a public-house, the "Boar's Head and Salmon," at the corner of Frog lane, was given by Mrs. Ann Aldworth to the poor of All Saints and St. Augustine. The victims of the law who were capitally convicted were less mercifully treated than at the present time. They either stood in a cart, with the halter round their necks, and swung gently off as the vehicle was moved on, or they had to climb a ladder until the hangman could adjust the rope around their necks, from which they either swung themselves or were thrust off by the executioner; hence they died hard, being in most cases suffocated only. In this year Joshua Harding and John Vernham were hanged at Bristol for housebreaking. When cut down and put in their coffins they were both alive. The latter died, after being bled, about eleven in the evening; Harding was placed in the Bridewell, and was afterwards taken care of in "a charity-house," his life being saved.1

In 1737 "Lionel Lyde, the mayor, sued · Hart for recovery of mayor's dues, 40s. Defendant pleaded the general issue. The trial was before Leigh, chief justice, and a special jury. Verdict for plaintiff."2 Nathaniel Day being mayor, the corporation ordered the table of loan moneys and benefactions to be put up in the Council-house for public inspection."3 Trinity almshouse, north of Lawford's gate, had an additional building; and Giles Malpas, pinmaker, of Thomas street, built a charity school for the boys of Redcliff and St. Thomas in Pile street.

7th April.-In a publication by A. S. Catcott, LL.B., master of the Grammar school, dated as above, "printed

The following is a fair specimen of the versification:-
Where the small Frome his widening banks divides
To form a bay for Avon's swelling tides,
And the soft ooze receives the incumbent weight
Of thronging vessels, big with weighty freight,
By monks possessed of old, - -a fabrick stands,
By pious Thorn redeemed from greedy hands,
From error freed, from rapine snatched away,
He gave to better use the destined prey.

The doors unfold; a passage strikes your sight,
Dark, narrow, dismal with malignant light;
You try the gulf, with hands held out before,
And stumbling feet the devious way explore.

In 1738 the City Library was finished, and the land for the new Exchange was secured; it was originally occupied by Snowgale's almshouse. The poor were now removed to a new building in All Saints lane.

His Royal Highness Frederic, Prince of Wales, and Augusta, his princess, came hither from Bath, 10th November, 1738, and were met by the mayor, &c., at Temple gate, where a platform was erected for the common council, dressed in their scarlet gowns,

to salute them on their arrival, and the recorder delivered a speech to them. All the trading companies, with their flags, &c., walked in procession before their coach up High street and along the Quay to Queen square to Mr. Combe's house. After he had received the compliments of the clergy, gentlemen, &c., he was presented with the freedom of the city and of the Society of Merchants, each in a gold box; and was then conducted to the Merchants' hall, where an elegant dinner was provided at the city's expense and a ball at night. They lodged at Mr. Henry Combe's that night, and returned the next morning at ten o'clock

to Bath.

The famous convention with Spain was concluded January 14th, 1738-9, wherein the interests of Great Britain seemed to be so much neglected that a most violent clamour against the ministry was raised through the whole kingdom. Petitions against it were presented to the House of Commons from London, Bristol, Liverpool, and other places. It was at the debate on this convention that four hundred members took their seats in the House of Commons before eight o'clock in the morning. The convention was at last approved by a majority; but it was evident that Sir Robert Walpole's power was declining, for, being no longer able to withstand the clamour of the whole nation, war was declared

against Spain, October 23rd, 1739, in London, and in Bristol,

October 29th.

G 4

At the election in the year 1741 Sir Abraham Elton, bart., and Mr. Southwell were re-elected without opposition. Parties at this time were more violent perhaps than ever since the Revolution, and the elections in general more violently contested. Parliament met December 1st, and the opposition to the minister was on the whole so much strengthened by this election that within few months he retired.

Sir Abraham Elton died 19th October, 1742, and an election to supply the vacancy began 24th November, 1742, when Robert Hoblyn, esq., who had married the only daughter of our late worthy member, Thomas Coster, esq., was chosen without opposition. The mayor, Sir Abraham Elton, son of the late member, declared himself a candidate, but did not stand a poll.1

On January 5th, 1740, a poor man died of exposure from cold in Marsh street; also a woman in Milk street. "January 26th, a ship with corn from Barnstaple, whilst the navigation of the Severn is obstructed by the hard frost, has come to Bristol. The captain, without considering the condition of the poor, asks 88. 6d. per bushel; bakers won't give more than 58. 6d. Assize of bread, 58." 2

The foundation of the Bristol Exchange was laid March 10th by Henry Combe, mayor; the "Guilders' " inn, which extended back from High street to the west of All Saints lane, and the block of houses between All Saints and Cock lanes and Corn and St. Nicholas streets furnished the site. 3

In a Journal of Transactions relating to an election at Bristol, 1739, which is wholly in Mr. Edward Southwell's autograph, are detailed some interesting facts relating to Bristol. Southwell was elected M.P. on the death of Mr. Coster. In naming his arrival at Bristol on October 6th, he says:-"I drove through Bristoll at full Tholsell time, about one o'clock. Mr. Coster, the late member, was buried the night before at the Cathedral, and every bell in the city tolled for him from morning till night." Southwell kept all the printed squibs issued during the election; the rough drafts of many of his addresses to his constituents; letters from the mayor, the aldermen and chief persons in Bristol relative to the various elections in which he was concerned; petitions of merchants, instructions from the town council, and a variety of other documents; drafts of bills, &c., transmitted to their representative in Parliament; papers relative to the lighting of the city of Bristol with lamps, &c.; petitions from debtors incarcerated in Newgate in 1741-5; some interesting accounts of the forces raised by the towns-people of Bristol to repel the Pretender in 1745; letters of Robert Hoblyn, esq., M.P. for Bristol, 1747; list of ships trading from Bristol to all parts of the world; lists of his Bristol guests.

Thomas Hulm paid £50 fine for refusing to serve the office of deputy-governor of St. Peter's hospital. Under the old Act the fine was only £25, but so many persons chose rather to pay than serve that it was found necessary to double the amount of the fine. In 1765 Joseph Flower was allowed £75 to take the office for a second year. Neither was the office of governor coveted. In 1771 Jere Ames paid £50 for refusing the honour after he had been chosen by the court; and in the minute-book Burgum, Chatterton's credulous friend,

wrote:

"As chairman, Henry Burgum for the last time;
And if you catch me at it again,

I'll gee you my mother for an old man."

In 1778 Griffith Musquelina and George Watson refused to serve, and each of them paid the fine. There is also a singular entry under the date of 1771 :-" Mr. Peach, one of the guardians of the poor, discharged in consequence of his having convicted a felon." We presume the word "been" has been omitted.

The

In 1741 the men who assisted in carrying off Sir John Dinely, viz., Charles Bryan, Edward McDaniell and William Hammon, were fined 40s. each and imprisoned for one year. (See ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY, 240.) 'Mahoney was hanged in chains on the Swash; the stump of the gibbet is now [1829] standing. 'White Hart' was curiously divided. The bay window was formerly a balcony; it was on the lands of the dean and chapter. The front rooms were held on lease of the city chamber. The parlour behind, afterwards for forty years the dressing-room and surgery of Messrs. Smith and Gold, was on the boundary wall of St. Mark, and the site of the public-house was the waste or road between it and the cemetery, i.e., before St. Augustine's church was built. In the cellar were several gravestones." 1

14. In 1741 the four-sheet survey of Bristol, taken by John Roque, was published by Benjamin Hickey, bookseller. The almshouse at the south-west corner of Milk street, for five old bachelors and five old maids, was built by Thomas and Sarah Ridley, brother and sister, of Pucklechurch. John Jayne, of Temple parish, mariner, gave £140, the interest to be applied towards clothing and educating the poor girls of that parish for ever.

Letters were now despatched between London and Bristol six times a week instead of three as heretofore.

In 1742, the Bristol Oracle was first published. Admiral Vernon, on his return from the West Indies in the Boyne, struck on the rocks near St. David's Head December 27th; having got his ship off, he arrived in 1 R. Smith.

end of Paul street, on the south side of Newfoundland street. In 1798 it was sold for £1,000.1

The Exchange, which is the property of the corporation, was erected at a cost of £50,000; it was opened with great ceremony on September 27th, 1743, when the corporation, the Society of Merchant Venturers and the various trade companies met at the Guildhall and walked in procession to the new building. Large numbers of privateersmen joined the cavalcade, with bands of music, firing cannon, and other marks of rejoicing. (The adjoining markets had been previously opened for public use on March 27th.) The interior, which has been recently covered with a glass roof, is now devoted to the use of the corn merchants. Until the public nomination of members of Parliament was abolished, this was the site of the hustings. The architect was Wood, of Bath.

Bull-baiting and cock fighting were favourite amusements of the well-to-do citizens. St. Jude's church now stands in the bull-ring, and the principal cock-pit was on the west side of Back street, about 100 yards from the steps and opposite to the "Windsor Castle Man-ofWar" public-house, it was entered by an arched passage. There is little doubt but that, intellectually, the chief citizens had sunk so low as to deserve much, if not all, of the biting satire which the pens of successive satirists inflicted upon them during this half century, and to this depth of degradation their ill-gotten wealth and the inhumanity of the traffic in slaves had mainly contributed; nevertheless it became not one who had feasted at their tables and borrowed their money, to repay them when he had exhausted their kindness by bespattering them with abuse. This was the case with the unfortunate Richard Savage who, arrested for debt, died of fever this year in Newgate. About 1780 a stone stood on the right of the path in the churchyard of St. Peter's, leading to the hospital, opposite nearly to the west door, on which was recorded the parentage, &c., of the poet. It is said to have been removed at the instance of the Countess of Macclesfield; a monumental tablet in the south wall of the church has since been erected to his memory.

Savage's Satire was published this year :

"In a dark bottom sunk, O Bristol! now
With native malice lift thy low'ring brow;
Then as some hell-born sprite in mortal guise
Borrows the shape of Goodness and belies,
All fair, all smug, to yon' proud hall invite,
To feast all strangers ape an air polite;

Revere, or seem the stranger to revere; Praise, fawn, profess, be all things but sincere ; 1 R. Smith.

The editor of the Universal Magazine, in commenting on this Satire, says: "As it was wrote while Savage was in Newgate, one would think he had drawn the characters of that city from the gaolbirds he conversed with there."1

1744. The library in the Bishop's palace repaired, and partly rebuilt by Bishop Butler. Whilst these repairs were in progress, a parcel of plate fell through the floor in a corner of one of the rooms, and discovered a room underneath containing a great many human bones and instruments of iron, supposed to have been designed for torture. A private passage, too, was found, of a construction coeval with the edifice, an arched way, just large enough for one person, in the thickness of the wall, one end terminating in the dungeon, the other in an apartment of the

house which seemed to have been used as a court. Both entrances of this mural passage were so concealed as to make it appear one solid thick wall. 2

In the year 1745, when Prince Charles Stuart, with a body of Scottish Highlanders invaded England, and was advanced as far as Derby, the whole nation was thrown into confusion. Numbers of the citizens here in Bristol met at the Merchants' hall, and there signed a parchment containing their resolution to stand by King George and the royal family; and on another parchment they subscribed their names to such sums as they intended to contribute towards raising men for the king's service, which at length amounted to £36,450. They gave about £5 per man to enlist, and above 60 were sent to London to be incorporated in the king's guards. Monday, October 7th, 1745, the Trial, privateer, and her prize, which she had taken bound to Scotland with firelocks and other warlike stores, and having on board £6,000 in money, and a number of men, came into Kingroad. Two Irishmen taken on board the prize were sent to London in a coach and six horses on the following Thursday."

1746.-April 17th, the battle of Culloden. The town clerk, William Cann; his deputy, John Mitchel, and their clerk, James Briton, all three insane. Mr. Cann cut his own throat, and the other two were sent to the receptacle at the Fishponds.

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