ANNA 
 
 
 
 wmmm^^''^^- 
 
 "mtmmwwm^ 
 
 ^Mi^MMmmmm.
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 ^. a 
 
 y 
 
 
 W^ 
 
 /(//^ 
 
 ANNALS OF BRISTOL.
 
 THK 
 
 ANNALS OF BRISTOL 
 
 IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN LATIMEK, 
 
 KDITOU OF THE BRISTOL MEBCUKY, 1S58 8.'!. 
 
 Bristol : 
 W. & F. MORGAN, CLARE STREET. 
 
 1887.
 
 Butler A Tanner, 
 
 Tlie Selwood Printing Works, 
 
 Frome, and London.
 
 IDA 
 
 TO 
 
 MR. CHARLES SOMERTON, 
 
 AND 
 
 MR. GEORGE SOMERTON, 
 
 WHOSE UNFAILING KINDNESS AND CONSTANT COURTESY 
 
 DURING A LITERARY CONNECTION 
 
 EXTENDING OVER UPWARDS OF A QUARTER OF A CENTURY 
 
 HAVE BEEN AMONGST THE 
 
 PLEASANTEST INCIDENTS OF MY LIFE, 
 
 AND HAVE 
 
 ILLUSTRATED THOSE GENTLER AMENITIES OF LETTERS 
 
 WHICH IT IS 
 
 GOOD TO REMEMBER AND RECORD. 
 
 -"> r-=^ it^ ,r>
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 The collection of materials with a view to a continuation of 
 Evans's Chronological History of Bristol was begun upwards 
 of twenty years ago by the compiler of this work. The 
 pressure of other literary pursuits, hoAvever, caused the pro- 
 ject to be deferred fi'om time to time ; and it eventually 
 became a qiiestion whether, if a supplementary record were 
 to be produced at all, the story of so eventful a century was 
 not deserving of a worthier memorial than the bald epitome 
 of facts and dates which had been originally contemplated. 
 As is not unusual in such labours, the introduction of details 
 in connection with topics of prominent importance threw into 
 relief the meagreness of the rest of the narrative ; and it at 
 length seemed desirable — whilst retaining the chronological 
 form adopted at the outset — to attempt a comprehensive 
 sketch of the political, municipal, commercial, and social life 
 of the community during a period which has been hitherto 
 imperfectly treated by local writers. 
 
 To what extent the task has been satisfactorily performed 
 must be left to the judgment of the reader. Some may 
 possibly complain that events which they deem important 
 have been inadequately treated, or even omitted. Others 
 may object that incidents in their eyes trivial have received 
 an attention they did not deserve. A third class of critics, 
 again, may disapprove of the expressions of personal opinion 
 which are sometimes, though rarely, introduced. To those 
 who do not find all their conceptions realised, it can only be 
 pleaded, that the work of selecting and narrating historical 
 facts, either in a national or a local point of view, is seldom 
 accomplished so as to satisfy all tastes. Disclaiming any 
 pretension to complete success where faultlessness was per- 
 haps unattainable, the compiler trusts that few occurrences 
 of permanent interest have wholly escaped notice, that his
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 criticisms, where lie lias ventured to express aii opinion, are 
 untinctured by party or sectarian spirit, and that the volume 
 presents as broad and faithful a picture of the period under 
 review as space and materials would allow. 
 
 Though the "annals" have been for the most part compiled 
 from the local newspapers — of which many thousand copies 
 have been examined — much new and valuable matter has 
 been derived from official documents, notably from the re- 
 cords and account books of the Corporation, a perusal of 
 which was kindly permitted by Mr, Daniel Travers Burges, 
 the Town Clerk, and Mr. John Tremayne Lane, the City 
 Treasurer. Both gentlemen were also so obliging as to 
 render personal assistance in clearing up points of difficulty, 
 and the former has also contributed some interesting anec- 
 dotes of bygone celebrities. A friend who passed away 
 whilst the closing sheets of the work were in the hands of 
 the printer, the late Mr. Edward Greenfield Doggett, Clerk 
 to the Incorporation of the Poor, allowed extracts to be taken 
 from the minute books of that ancient body. Mr. John Taylor, 
 the City Librarian, offered essential service by throwing open 
 the large and curious store of local literature under his charge, 
 and by supplementing it from his private collection. Amongst 
 others to whom the compiler owes grateful thanks may be 
 mentioned the Rev. Canon Norris, Archdeacon of Bristol, the 
 Rev. S. W. Wayte, Mr. F. W. Newton, Secretary to the 
 Charity Trustees, the late Mr. Leonard Bruton, Secretary to 
 the Chamber of Commerce, the Rev. J. M. Wilson, headmaster 
 of Clifton College, the Rev. Talbot Greaves, vicar of Clifton, 
 Mr. Edward C. Sampson, Postmaster of Bristol, Mr. C. H. 
 Hunt, Clerk to the Barton Regis Board of Guardians, Mr. 
 Alderman Naish, Mr. W. Edwards George, Mr. S. H. Swayne, 
 Mr. Josiah Thomas, and Mr. John Lavars. Finally, an 
 especial acknowledgment is due to Mr. William George, an 
 indefatigable antiquary wliose knowledge of local history and 
 vast accumulation of rarities rendered his unwearied assist- 
 ance of peculiar value. 
 
 Trelawny Place, 
 
 March, 1887.
 
 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL 
 
 IN THE 
 
 NINETEENTH CENTUEY. 
 
 Before entering upon the chronological record to which the 
 following pages are devoted, a faint attempt to sketch the 
 state of Bristol and its inhabitants at the commencement of 
 the century may not be uninteresting. The great com- 
 mercial prosperity of the city down to the revolt of the 
 American colonies is a matter of history; and though the 
 subsequent war was disastrous to some distinguished local 
 firms, the vast wealth that continued to flow in from the 
 West India Islands, and the lucrative Spanish wool and wine 
 trades, contributed largely to the well-being of the com- 
 munity, and were advantages on which the merchants of 
 other ports looked with envious admiration. It is true that 
 Bristol had lost its long-cherished title to rank as second 
 city of the kingdom. The marvellous growth of the cotton 
 trade in Lancashire after 1785 had caused a corresponding 
 increase in the exports and imports of Liverpool ; and no 
 adequate efforts were made to compete with the upstart rival, 
 either by the introduction of new industries, the reduction 
 of the exorbitant duties levied upon shipping by the Corpora- 
 tion, or the removal of those difficulties in the navigation of 
 the Avon which had tempted commerce to forsake the Bristol 
 Channel for the more commodious Mersey. As is not un- 
 frequently the case in ancient and solidly-founded com- 
 munities, Bristol was too wealthy to be enterprising, and 
 many of her influential sons, having become rich in the 
 beaten paths of commerce, were opposed through selfishness 
 or indolence to the striking out of new ones. In despite, for 
 example, of the local cheapness of labour and fuel, only one 
 feeble effort was made to introduce cotton spinning. The 
 competition of Yorkshire in cheap woollen goods, which must 
 have been an uphill task against the reputation and skill of 
 the West of England, was contemptuously ignored until men 
 suddenly awoke to the fact that the bulk of the trade was 
 irrevocably lost through northern enterprise. With equally 
 
 B
 
 2 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. [1801. 
 
 disastrous consequences, tlie Avon, -which from tidal pecu- 
 liarities could not be entered in safety except by ships specially 
 built for lying on its muddy shores at low water, was left 
 with all its natural defects, as if to deter strangers from 
 venturing in to jostle the old magnates of the Exchange. 
 
 The government of the city was conducted on the same 
 narrow-minded principles. Many men of capital, paying large 
 rentals, employing many workmen, and being in every sense 
 entitled to rank as leading citizens, were not " freemen " 
 according to corporate technology ; they had consequently no 
 votes at parliamentary elections, and their influence in local 
 government could not have been less if they had been Hotten- 
 tots. Having wrested their birthright from the inhabitants, 
 the Corporation, self-elected, and repudiating all control, spent 
 a large proportion of the city revenues in the maintenance of 
 ostentatious ''state," and in luxurious entertainments to the 
 select circle which found favour in its sight. On the other 
 hand, the duties of civic government were for the most part 
 either evaded or loftily ignored. The paving, lighting, and 
 watching of the city Avere miserably imperfect. The foot- 
 ways, where they existed, were so narrow that, even a quarter 
 of a century later, the newspapers occasionally congratulated 
 their readers when a week passed away without an accident 
 to pedestrians. These casualties were largely due to what 
 a writer in the Monthly Magazine for May, 1799, termed 
 " the barbarous custom of using sledges in the public streets 
 for the conveyance of goods," which appears to have been 
 almost universal. The drivers in descending a slope dragged 
 their sledges against the edge of the pavement; and, as the 
 packages overhung the vehicles, the peril of foot-passengers 
 may be imagined. 
 
 The cleansing of all but the leading thoroughfares was 
 generally loft to the elements. One of the local newspapers 
 of Nov. 9th, 1799, complained: — "Pigs, goats, and other 
 animals are suffered to wander about the streets with im- 
 punity; at the same time the lives of the inhabitants are 
 nightly endangered by heaps of mortar, ashes, and rub- 
 bish." The sprinkling of feeble lamps, lighted by the 
 parochial authorities, often became extinct about midnight 
 through In ok of oil. From occasional broad insinuations 
 in the public press, the watchmen — frequently decrepit old 
 drunkards, and sometimes worn-out servants of members 
 of the Corporation — were not merely inefficient, but were 
 suspected of conniving at nocturnal offences. Beyond the 
 city boundaries, in Clifton, Cotham, Rcdland, and the popu-
 
 1801.] MANNERS AND CUSTOMS IN 1801. Q 
 
 lous eastern suburbs, there was not a single public lamp or a 
 single night-constable. As was natural under such circum- 
 stances, burglaries and highway robberies were of constant 
 occurrence, and a vast majority of the criminals escaped 
 detection. 
 
 The prevalence of crime, however, contributed to delay 
 that complete separation of the upper and lower classes of 
 citizens which is one of the most striking phenomena of 
 later times. In 1801, Avith comparatively few exceptions, 
 the merchant dwelt near his warehouses, as the trader lived 
 over his shop ; and many narrow and sombre-looking streets, 
 now lined with stores and offices or given up to labouring 
 families, then contained the dwellings of the rich as well as 
 the poor. Though the sanitary conditions of old-fashioned 
 town life, especially in a city which had no public water 
 supply, left much to be desired, they were accompaiiied by 
 some compensating advantages. There was not that gulf 
 between master and workman which has been deepened if 
 not created by the isolation of the capitalist from the 
 labourer, and disputes between the two classes were arranged 
 without those terrible social conflicts which are amongst the 
 greatest calamities of modern industry. A neighbourly feel- 
 ing and habit of association also existed amongst the citizens 
 to an extent unknown in our day. " Perhaps there is no 
 place in England," observed the writer in the Montldy 
 Magazine ali'eady quoted, " where public and social amuse- 
 ments are so little attended to as here." Such pleasures, 
 in fact, were limited to a short theatrical season and to the 
 rare dissipation of a ball or concert. Travelling for purposes 
 of health, relaxation, or amusement was never dreamt of 
 by the trading classes — a fact not very surprising when 
 it is remembered that the speed of stage-coaches averaged 
 only five miles an hour, that the fares were high, that 
 the traveller was almost shaken to pieces through the 
 execrable state of the roads, and that highway robberies 
 formed an inevitable item of each week's ncAvs. A holiday 
 sojourn at the seaside was practicable only to the wealthy. 
 The population of the parish of Weston-super-Mare in 1801 
 numbered 138, only twelve of whom (probably three families) 
 were not dependent on agriculture ; and the lodging-house 
 keeper was still in the future. The summer recreation of 
 prosperous tradesmen therefore chiefly consisted in an evening 
 stroll on the Grove or in Queen Square, where the noisy 
 rooks added a rural attraction to the stately mansions of 
 the merchants and to the masts of the sturdy old vessels
 
 ii THE ANNALS OF BEISTOL. [1801, 
 
 moored in the river. College Green had also its votaries, for 
 there the youth of Bristol, enrolled as volunteers, trooped 
 to drill after the labours of the day. But the most cherished 
 amusement of middle-aged citizens was an occasional visit to 
 the suburban bowling-greens kept at the Ostrich Inn, over 
 Durdham Down, Stapleton, Totterdown, Brislington, Henbury, 
 and other villages, to which parties of friends resorted to 
 enjoy their grog and tobacco in the country air, and afforded 
 each other mutual protection from footpads on their return. 
 In the long nights of winter, after the dismal tallow candles 
 in the shop windows* had been extinguished, and warerooms 
 had been carefully secured, the parlours of the principal 
 taverns were filled by neighbours eager to exchange the 
 gossip of the day. Almost every citizen had his habitual 
 evening resort ; and when a charitable or patriotic subscrip- 
 tion was on foot, " the g-entlemen frequenting " the Bush, the 
 White Lion, the Rummer, or the Mulberry Tree, would some- 
 times club upwards of fifty guineas in token of their sympathy. 
 Conviviality, as may be supposed, was often carried to 
 excess. In fact, entire sobriety was commonly regarded as 
 more contemptible than drunkenness, and there is abundant 
 evidence that a " three-bottle man " had fewer censors than 
 admirers. At the dinner of the Parent Colston Society in 
 18G5, an old member, whose father had also belonged to the 
 society, described the manner in which the anniversary was 
 celebrated about the beginning of the century. The party 
 assembled for dinner at four o'clock (an unusually late hour 
 in those days), had oysters at nine, and grilled bones at 
 four in the morning. Drinking was then resumed until 
 the time came for breakfast, which was always hot and 
 sumptuous, being made out of the presentable remains of 
 the previous day's banquet. The example of the richer 
 classes was followed, as far as their means would allow, 
 by the poor, and in spite of the multitudinous public-houses 
 few trades were so prosperous as that of the innkeeper. 
 Schools, on the other hand, were few in number and bad 
 in quality — facts which appear to have been regarded 
 witli great equanimity, for the general committee of the 
 
 • By a coniuion un<lr r-tuiuliiiK, tlie number of candles in each window was 
 limited tf) two. According to a tradition preserved by Mr. Leech, an old trader 
 who had been alarmed by the comjietition of a new rival, was relieved of appre- 
 hen.sion when the latter took to lighting up an additional dip : such reckless 
 extravagance could end only in ruin. " Open " shops — that is, shops with 
 unglazod windows — were rapidly disajipearing at the beginning of the century, 
 but there was one in High Street until 1K21; and another, at 23, Castlo btrcet, 
 kept by a brushmaker, lingered until 1827, if not later.
 
 1801.] MANNERS AND CUSTOMS IN 1801. 5 
 
 local Siinday-scliools reported in 1786 that " tlie instruction 
 to be oljtained at a Sunday-school is fully adequate to all tlie 
 purposes of the lower classes of people." Three-fourths of 
 the labouring community thus attained mature age wholly 
 illiterate, and many of the remainder gradually became so 
 owing to the literary destitution in which they liv^ed. Books 
 were so dear that few were purchased by the trading class. 
 And when the paltry little newspapers of the time cost 
 sixpence each, while the average wages of working men 
 did not reach 16^-. a week, it is not difficult to imagine the 
 scantiness of political knowledge amongst the masses. 
 
 As if the mental deprivation of the people was not suffi- 
 ciently degrading in its tendency, the legislature lent its aid 
 to make matters worse. It was at that time a capital felony 
 to pick a pocket or to steal a pewter pot; and constant 
 executions took place of men, women, and even boys and 
 girls, for crimes now deemed deserving of only a few months' 
 imprisonment. Persons merely suspected of offences were 
 treated whilst awaiting their trial with abominable cruelty ; 
 ruffianly press gangs, trampling upon the liberty of the 
 subject, seized upon unhappy sailors as they reached homo 
 after long voyages, and dragged them from their families 
 for lifelong servitude in the navy ; public whippings and 
 the punishment of the pillory took place in the principal 
 streets after almost every quarter session. 
 
 Brutalized by scenes to which the law lent its sanction, 
 the poor plunged in so-called amusements of a congenial 
 character. Bull-baiting, dog-fighting, badger-baiting, cock- 
 fighting, had their devoted admirers ; but pagilism was the 
 especial delight of Bristolians, some of whom attained national 
 fame for their tenacity and " science." It must be added 
 that these inhuman sports, so far from being disapproved, 
 were lauded and patronized by distinguished politicians and 
 men of fashion. Members of the Royal Family were not 
 ashamed to be present at a prize-fight, while the services 
 of a practised " bruiser " were in request by political agents 
 at every contested election. One more social fact of the 
 period is worthy of record. Down to 1800, nearly one- 
 tenth of all the deaths in the kingdom were due to small- 
 pox, and a large proportion of the population, in Bristol 
 as elsewhere, had their faces disfigured by that terrible 
 disease. The beneficent discovery of vaccination by a 
 Gloucestershire worthy began, however, to be largely re- 
 cognised in 1801, and in a few years the ravages of the 
 malady sank to insignificance.
 
 6 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. [1801. 
 
 The nineteentli century opened gloomily. The war with 
 France during- the previous seven years had doubled the 
 national debt and imposed a constantly increasing burden of 
 taxation on the people, whilst the extensive conquests of the 
 French on the Continent, coupled with the armed neutrality 
 organized by Russia against England, had caused great 
 embarrassment to commerce and deprived the consumer of 
 foreign supplies of corn. The latter 'circumstance was the 
 more calamitous inasmuch as the domestic crops, which had 
 been deficient for four successive years, produced scarcely 
 half of their average yield in 1800. In January, 1801, the 
 official price of wheat in Gloucestershire stood at 169s. 6d. 
 per quarter. Various measures were adopted by Parliament 
 to avert the effects of the famine. Bouiities were ofi'ered 
 upon imports of grain and fish. The distillation of corn was 
 forbidden. The manufactui'e of starch was suspended for a 
 twelvemonth. Millers were subjected to supervision by the 
 Excise and to a legal standard of profits, and they were 
 prohibited from manufacturing fine flour. Bakers were 
 allowed to make brown bread only, and penalties were im- 
 posed on those who sold bread less than twenty-four hours 
 old, or who heated stale bread for the purpose of stimulating 
 the consumer's appetite. [One Bristol baker was mulcted 
 in a fine of £19 10.s\, and a large quantity of his bread was 
 confiscated, for infringing the stale bread laws.] 
 
 Private ingenuity was racked to assist the efforts of the 
 legislature. The mayor of Bristol, following the example of 
 many of the nobility, announced that the Mansion-house dinners 
 would be restricted to a single course ; the serving of bread 
 at " afternoon tea " was given up ; pastry of every kind was 
 tabooed from the tables of the rich ; wearers of hair-powder, 
 an article which had been almost universally used by the 
 upper classes of both sexes, adopted various substitutes for 
 flour, or dropped the practice altogether ; poultices at public 
 institutions were ordered to be made of linseed or turnips; 
 persons in receipt of relief from the poor laws were forbidden 
 to keep dogs. The Corporation of Bristol, which had voted 
 £500 in the previous year for purchasing corn, offered pi'e- 
 miiiras for importations of potatoes, and ])ronnsed loans 
 without iJiterest to fishci-iiion for fitting out additional boats. 
 [Between 1800 and l8Uo inclusive, tlic bounties ])aid for fish 
 })y the Corporation amounted to over £070.] In spite of 
 every exertion the official average price of wheat in Gloucester- 
 shire for the month of Marcli reached the astonishing sum 
 of 181s. -kl. per quarter. The wages of unskilled labourers
 
 1801.] DEARTH AND DISTRESS. 7 
 
 in Bristol being only about 8s. or Q.". per week, it is needless 
 to say that when coarse bread advanced to Ls-. lOd. the 
 quartern loaf it was beyond the reach of great numbers of 
 the inhabitants. The Hour of rice, oats, barley, rye, and peas 
 was largely resorted to as a substitute ; some housewives 
 even attempted to make loaves from potatoes : while nettles 
 were gathered and cooked in lieu of ordinary vegetables. 
 
 When prices had attained their maximum, some of the poor, 
 driven almost mad by the misery of their children, made one 
 or two riotous attacks on the stall-keepers in the city markets, 
 and soldiers had to be called in to prevent further outbreaks. 
 No account of the disturbances was published by the news- 
 papers supporting the Government, on the pretext that such 
 intelligence was likely to have a bad effect, but the following 
 item appears in the Corporation accounts : " Paid expenses 
 during the market riots in the month of April, 1801, £117 
 7s. Ad." To what extent political discontent prevailed in 
 the city it is now impossible to say. The prosecution of 
 Hardy for high treason had brought out the fact that a 
 " Bristol Society for Constitutional Information,'' similar to 
 the Radical organizations in other towns, had existed in 1 794 
 [" State Trials," xxiv. 480-484] ; but the suspension of the 
 Habeas Corpus Act and other arbitrary measures of the 
 Government had suppressed every indication of popular feel- 
 ing, public meetings and even lectures being forbidden except 
 by consent of the magistrates. The extreme distress of the 
 lower classes, however, induced many half-famished men to 
 seek relief by resorting to crime, and Felix Farley's Bristol 
 Journal announced that highway robberies and burglaries in 
 and around the city were of nightly occurrence. In the hope 
 of checking the evil, justice was administered with relentless 
 severity. After the spring assizes of 1801 three criminals 
 were executed at Bristol, six at Gloucester, and nine at 
 Taunton, although in none of the cases were the malefactors 
 charged with murder. 
 
 An interesting incident of this disastrous period was 
 the first appearance of the system of co-operative trad- 
 ing. The manufacture and sale of flour and bread were 
 the objects chiefly aimed at by the societies which started 
 up, it being widely believed that millers and bakers were 
 reaping extortionate pi-ofits during the general distress. 
 Flour-mills on the co-operative principle were started* in 
 
 * A plot of ground for a mill at Baptist Mills was purchased by a few 
 philanthropists ; but the project was apparently dropped.
 
 8 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. [1801. 
 
 various parts of the country; and the Bristol Flour and 
 Bi'ead Concern is a still existing^ relic of a movement which 
 for the most part passed away with the dearth. In Bristol, 
 as elsewhere, the wealthier classes contributed largely 
 towards the relief of their famine-stricken neighbours, Mr. 
 John Weeks, the landlord of the " Bush '' Hotel, earned 
 great popularity by buying upwards of fifty tons of meat and 
 a corresponding quantity of peas, etc., which were sold to 
 the poor at moderate prices. The extreme severity of the 
 distress rapidly diminished with the advance of summer, 
 which ended in a productive harvest ; but the semi-starvation 
 suifered by the labouring classes was followed, according to 
 custom, by a tei^rible epidemic of fever. "The number of 
 cases, '^ wrote Dr. Beddoes in The Monthh/ Magazine, "was 
 prodigious. . . . Twenty-eight people lay down with fever 
 in one house in Back Street (it is believed they had very 
 little medical assistance), and eight were buried out of a 
 single house in Elbroad Street." During the dearth, the 
 Corporation of the Poor set up a coarse woollen manufac- 
 tory in St. Peter's Hospital, for the purpose of employing 
 some of the poor who were forced to apply for relief. The 
 plan, however, did not succeed, and the place was closed. 
 
 A change of Ministry took place in the spring of 1801, 
 when Mr. Addington (afterwards Lord Sidmouth) became 
 Premier in the room of Mr. Pitt. Lord Eldon is recorded to 
 have complained that although Addington's followers were 
 few in number they all claimed to be officers; and it is clear 
 that Mr. Charles Bragge, one of the members for Bristol, and 
 a brother-in-law of the new minister, was no exception to 
 the rule. Mr. Bragge was already Chairman of Waj^s and 
 Means; in November he was transferred to the Treasurership 
 of the Navy, thus vacating his seat. No opposition was 
 offered to his re-election. On the evening after his return, 
 " Brother Bragge," as he was contemptuously styled in one of 
 Canning's well-known satires, is reported by an admiring jour- 
 nalist to have treated " the freemen in general with a su])por, 
 and liquor to drink his health." Besides being returned at 
 the general election in the following year, Mr. Bragge 
 was again re-elected in 1808, when he became Secretary at 
 War. He took the name of Bathurst in 1804, on the death 
 of a relative who bequeathed to him the Lydney estate. 
 
 At a meeting of the Common Council in March, 1801, it 
 was reported that the vestry of Christ Church had ajiplied 
 for the payment of €500, tlie lust instalment of the gift of 
 £2,000 promised by the Corporation in 1784 towai'ds rebuild-
 
 1801.] CENSUS OP 1801. THE CLIFTON CRESCENTS. 9 
 
 ing the cliurch. A committeG pointed out tliat the vestry- 
 had not complied with the conditions on which the subscrip- 
 tion was granted, but suggested that if the churchwardens 
 would so far fulfil their engagements as to lay into Broad 
 Street enough ground then covered by houses to widen the 
 thoroughfare to twenty-two feet (!), the money might be paid. 
 It may be presumed that this condition was complied with, 
 as the Corporation, in 1803, ordered the remainder of their 
 gift to be paid in instalments. 
 
 The census of 1801, the first attempted in England, was 
 taken in March, greatly to the dissatisfaction of many pious 
 persons, who condemned the numbering of the people as 
 a national sin. The statistics showed that the population 
 of the ancient city was 40,814. The inhabitants of Clifton 
 numbered 4,457 ; St. George's had 4,038 ; the district of St. 
 James and St. Paul, 1,897; St. Philip's, outside the city, 
 8,406; Mangotsfield, 2,942; and Stapleton, 1,541. Adding 
 these suburban districts, the total given by the census-takers 
 was 63,645. Bedminster, which had a population of 3,278, 
 was omitted from the suburbs for reasons unexplained. 
 Much disappointment was felt at the result, local writers 
 having confidently asserted that the city was inferior only to 
 London in point of inhabitants, and that more than 100,000 
 persons dwelt within its boundaries. 
 
 About ten years before this date a project was started for 
 the erection of an imposing crescent at Clifton, and several 
 thousand pounds were expended on the undertaking. The 
 outbreak of war with France, however, had ruinous effects 
 on this and many other speculations,"^ and the scheme was 
 abandoned for some years. On the 17th of May, 1800, "the 
 pile of buildings called the Eoyal York Crescent," with the 
 land adjoining, being the sites for the unbuilt houses, was 
 offered for sale in Felix Farley's Journal, but without success. 
 In July, 1801, the newspapers announced that the Government 
 intended to buy the site of the unfinished portion of the 
 
 * Tyndall's park was sold, in 1790, for conversion into an extensive crescent, 
 and the construction of some houses had begun, when the war broke out 
 and the project collapsed (Bonner's Bristol Journal, May 24th, 1794). 
 About the same time, " Mother Pugsley's field," on which St.Matthew's Church 
 and a number of streets now stand, was sold to speculators, who sank the 
 foundation of several houses — part of an immense crescent — but the purchasers 
 were unable to complete the contract, and the turf was restored (Evans' Chron. 
 Hist., p. 202, where the owner is inaccurately styled " Freeman " instead of 
 Fremantle). Several builders became insolvent in 1793, and a great number of 
 unfinished houses in St. James's Parade, Kichmond Place, York Buildings, 
 Portland Sq.uare, the Mall, Cave Street, etc., were offered for sale.
 
 10 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1801. 
 
 crescent (about three-fourths of the whole), and to construct 
 barracks there for the accommodation of a large body of 
 troops. The ground, in fact, was actually secured for this 
 purpose, but earnest petitions were forwarded by the inhabi- 
 tants, uro-incj- that the intended buildinor would be ruinous to 
 the fame of Clifton as a watering-place, and the army autho- 
 rities abandoned the design in July, 1803.* The crescent 
 long remained in a desolate state. In May, 1809, a sale by 
 auction was announced "by order of the Barrack Depart- 
 ment," of fifteen unfinished houses, adjoining the first ten 
 already standing at the west end. In the following year 
 another sale was announced of " the remaining twenty-one 
 unfinished houses, with a long range of void ground behind 
 the same." The advertisement of 1809 was accompanied 
 by a notice, by private persons, of a sale of eleven partly 
 erected houses " in the crescent," by which, it may be pre- 
 sumed, was meant the lower or Cornwallis Crescent. This 
 row was also begun in the prosperous years before the war, 
 the first leases being granted by the Merchants' Society in 
 November, 1791, but was left in an equally forlorn condition. 
 In October, 1805, a local newspaper stated that the number 
 of permanent residents in Clifton was becoming greater every 
 season, " so that we should not be surprised if, in a very few 
 years, the present ruinous piles of unfinished houses were to 
 offer a lucrative speculation to the builder." The last gaps 
 in York Crescent, however, were not filled until about 1818. 
 Cornwallis Crescent was still longer in hand, nine of its un- 
 finished houses being advertised for sale in July, 1824. In 
 Saville Place, described in an advertisement as " in the centre 
 of the village," there were eleven houses partially finished 
 in June, 1796. Some were not completed until a much later 
 date. Richmond Terrace contained several unoccu])ied 
 houses at the close of 1799, when a gang of thieves attempted 
 to steal the lead from the roofs, " which was only prevented," 
 according to a local journalist, " by one of the gang beiug 
 caught in a man-trap, which, from the quantity of blood left 
 on the trap and premises, must have severely wounded him." 
 Another row of dwellings which remained long incomplete 
 was Bellevue. " Eight of the unfinished houses" there were 
 offered for sale in July, 1810. 
 
 * The result was disappointing to tlic liiiuor interests. The inimitos of tlio 
 Court of Aldermen for February, IHOH, record tlie jircscntation of a petition 
 from " several distillnrs, rectifiers, maltsters, etc., prayiiiK tliat the mayor and 
 aldermen would recommend to (iovernnunt the buiidiufi barracks in or near 
 tliis city. And it is agreed not to recommend the said petition."
 
 1801.] CORPORATE PENSIONS. THE PEACE. 11 
 
 On the petition of several tanners and curriers in the city, 
 the Common Council, in June, 1801, resolved on the establish- 
 ment of a market in the Back Hall for the sale, every 
 Wednesday and Saturday, of hides and skins, and every 
 Thursday of leather. 
 
 The Council at the same meeting granted a pension for life 
 of £60 per annum to Mrs. Harris, widow of Alderman John 
 Harris (mayor in 1790-91), who had died a few days before. 
 Two gentlemen, Gregory Harris and Wintour Harris, were 
 about the same time nominated to comfortable offices under 
 the Corporation. Such arrangements were not unusual under 
 the irresponsible system of government. In 1808 a pension 
 of £40 was granted to the widow of Samuel Sedgley, common 
 councillor. In 1817 the widow of Alderman Anderson was 
 granted a life annuity of £100; and a little later Charles 
 Anderson, presumably her son, resigned his seat in the 
 Council, and was elected to the well-endowed office of 
 collector of town dues. J. H. Wilcox (who twice filled the 
 ofiice of mayor) relinquished his aldermanic gown under 
 financial reverses about the same time, and became deputy- 
 chamberlain. In 1820, upon the death of Mr. Joseph Edye 
 (mayor 1801-2), his widow was voted a pension of £60 yearly. 
 Other cases occur in the minutes, and will be mentioned 
 hereafter. Another singular item occurs regularly every six 
 months in the civic accounts. The following is an example : 
 — "1800, September 29, paid sundry coachmen for attending 
 with their masters' carriages on public days ; half-year 
 to this day, £32 12*." Then there are numerous payments 
 for the robes and cocked hats of the petty officers of the 
 Corporation, who were freshly caparisoned every other year. 
 On the other hand, the Corporation declined to pay more than 
 £26 12.'?. towards lighting the city. For this sum a lamp was 
 lighted at Wine Street pump, four at the Drawbridge, as 
 many in the centre of Queen Square, and three each at the 
 Mansion House and Council House. 
 
 The tidings of the signature, at Amiens, of preliminaries 
 of peace with France were received, in October, 1801, with 
 enthusiastic tokens of joy. At Bath, the populace took the 
 horses (which on this happy occasion were ten in number) 
 out of the mail coach which brought the news, and insisted 
 on drao-ffinsf the vehicle as far as Twerton. Through the 
 delay thus caused, the intelligence reached Bristol by a stage- 
 coach, whereupon arrangements were made for meeting the 
 mail and escorting it into the city. The procession, which to 
 a later generation may have a somewhat ludicrous air, con-
 
 12 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1801. 
 
 sisted of a troop of cavalry stationed in tlie city, some civic 
 officials, Mr. Weeks of the Bush, in a gig, magniloquently 
 styled a curricle, accompanied by a " musical gentleman," the 
 " delightful sounds " of whose trumpet greatly affected the 
 newspaper chronicler, and some thousands of the commonalty, 
 whose continuous cheers were re-echoed by the spectators 
 stationed along the route. This spectacle occurred about 
 noontide on a Sunday, but the chronicler hastens to observe 
 that the demonstration '' did not trench upon the duties or 
 decencies " of the day. On Monday, however, the air was 
 rent with bell-ringing and cannon fiinng, and the irrepressible 
 Weeks appeared on the balcony of his hotel " habited as a 
 sailor, and delivered a string of appropriate toasts and senti- 
 ments, which were each of them preceded by an air from the 
 band of the Oxfordshire militia, and by the plaudits of the 
 populace." At night the city was ablaze with tar barrels, 
 oil lamps, and tallow candles, Mr. Weeks coming out again 
 triumphantly with an illuminated allegorical gi'oup repre- 
 senting Britannia, Cupid, the arts and sciences, Hercules, 
 Fortitude, Minerva, a French sansculotte, and various other 
 astonishing personages.* The popular joy broke forth afresh 
 upon the proclamation of peace in the following May. Unpre- 
 cedented crowds flocked into the city from the surrounding 
 districts to witness the ceremony, which was carried out 
 according to ancient precedent, the proclamation being 
 read on the site of the High Cross, at St. Peter's pump, at 
 St. Thomas's Church, at Queen Square, and lastly opposite the 
 Exchange. A large platform, covered with crimson cloth, 
 for the use of the civic authorities, was carried about in the 
 procession from place to place. In the evening the city 
 broke into a general illumination, Feliv Farley's Journal 
 remarking that so numerous were the emblematical trans- 
 parencies that a full detail would occupy " nearly every 
 column " of the pigmy newspaper. 
 
 • Although Mr. Weeka's demonstrations were sometimes rather grotesque, 
 his fellow-citizens bad reason to bo grateful to bim. In an advertisement pub- 
 lished in IHll, ho stated that when he entored u]ion the Busli, in 1772, there 
 was no coach from tlic city to London, Exeter, Oxford, or Birmingham which 
 performed its journey in less than two days. After ineffectually urging the 
 proprietors to (juicken their speed, Weeks started a one-day coach to Birming- 
 ham himself, and carried it on against a bitter opposition, charging the pas- 
 sengers only lOs. i'ul. and H.s. M. for inside and outside respectivi'ly, and giving 
 each of them a dinner and a jiint of wine at Gloucester into the bargain. After 
 a two years' struggle his opponents gave in, and one-day journeys to the above 
 towns became tiie establislicd rule. Anotlier of Weeks's boasts was, that he bad 
 " the honour to conduct Lord Rodney into the city in 1782," which cost him 
 the sum of £117. — Bristol Journal, inna 11, Idll.
 
 1802.] SCHEME FOR A FLOATING HAEBOUR. 13 
 
 Considerable difficulty was found in filling the civic chair 
 in 1801. Three gentlemen, Messrs. Gordon, Page, and 
 Anderson, were successively elected mayor, but each in turn 
 refused to accept the office, and paid the fine of £400. After 
 a long delay, Mr. Joseph Edye was appointed. 
 
 The urgent need of improvement in the shipping accom- 
 modation of the port had been widely felt for many years 
 before this date, and many schemes for that purpose were 
 devised during the last half of the previous century. So early 
 as 1765, Smeaton, the greatest engineer of the time, proposed 
 to convert the lower part of the Froom into a dock, the 
 estimated outlay being only about £20,000. Two years later, 
 William Champion, an ingenious Bristolian, produced a 
 scheme for damming up the Avon, the cost of which he esti- 
 mated at £35,000. This was followed by a dock project, 
 designed by John Champion. The completion of the 
 merchants' dock, near Eownham, in 1768, which was the work 
 of W. Champion, and was regarded as a great improvement, 
 temporarily shelved the question; but the complaints of ship- 
 owners gradually became pressing, and numerous fresh 
 schemes of improvement were promulgated towards the end 
 of the century. 
 
 It was not, however, until 1802 that the citizens began 
 to consider the matter seriously. Early in that year a 
 plan was laid before the Corporation and the Merchants' 
 Company, who agreed upon referring it to Mr. William 
 Jessop, an engineer who had some nine years before sug- 
 gested a floating harbour by means of a dam at Rownham. 
 That gentleman having approved of the project, it was 
 brought before the inhabitants generally; and on the 1st May 
 a subscription was started to carry out an undertaking the 
 boldness of which exceeded any engineering work hitherto 
 attempted in the kingdom. Jessop proposed to cut a new 
 course for the Avon from Prince's Street to Rownham, and 
 to form the old channel into a dock ; which he estimated 
 could be done for about £150,000. If this plan had been 
 adopted, vessels would have had the option of entering the 
 new harbour, or of taking up berths in the old river at the 
 Grove and Welsh Back, as before. But the promoters of 
 a floating harbour declined to sanction an arrangement which 
 would have allowed merchants to escape the charges intended 
 to recoup the cost of the undertaking. They preferred, at 
 a great additional expense to themselves, to monopolize the 
 whole of the ancient harbour; and their engineer was re- 
 quested to alter his plan so as to extend the float to Temple
 
 14 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. [1802. 
 
 Back, a '^ cut " for the Avon being tlius required from 
 Rownliaui to Netham. 
 
 Vast as was tlie addition tlius made to the intended 
 excavations, Mr, Jessop, with the light-heartedness of his 
 profession, estimated that the outlay for the cutting and 
 locks would still not exceed £212,000, or, including the 
 cost of the land, £300,000. It being arranged that the 
 shareholders in the proposed company should receive 4 per 
 cent, per annum for six years and 8 per cent, in perpetuity, 
 a subscription covering £250,000 of the proposed capital 
 was eventually obtained. An application to Parliament for 
 the necessary powers was made in the session of 1803, when a 
 lively opposition was manifested. The assent of the Corpora- 
 tion to the bill — which, besides imposing a tax upon every 
 ship entering the port, levied an annual rate amounting to 
 £2,400 (equal to sixpence in the pound) on the fixed pro- 
 perty within the city — had been given by a majority of only 
 one vote ; and, as was natural, the difference of opinion in 
 the Council largely prevailed out of doors. Many local ship- 
 owners, amongst whom were found the influential names of 
 Bright, Gibbs, King, Baillie, Protheroe and Pinney, urged 
 before the House of Commons' committee that at all the other 
 ports where docks had been established the use of such 
 accommodation was optional, the proprietors being content 
 to look for profit from those who voluntarily came to them, 
 whereas, if the proposed float were carried out, ships could 
 not discharge their cargoes at Bristol without been mulcted 
 for works which many of them did not require. Other 
 opponents of the scheme submitted that an impost on house 
 property for the benefit of private individuals was as unjus- 
 tifiable as it was unprecedented. The legislature thought 
 proper, however, to treat the scheme in an exceptional 
 manner, and the bill received the royal assent. Under its 
 provisions a company was incorporated under the title of the 
 Bristol Docks Company, consisting of the Corporation, the 
 Merchants' Company and the subscribers to the sum of 
 £250,000. The total capital was fixed at £300,000. 
 
 According to the original draft of the bill, approved by the 
 Common Council, the Corporation estates Avore made liable for 
 the payment of one moiety of tlu^ interest on the intended loan 
 of £50,000. The Court of Aldermen, however, denounced 
 the proposed mortgage as unjust and dangerous, and, after 
 the bill had passed the Commons, a successful appeal was 
 made to the Upper House to strike out the provision. Par- 
 liament also rejected an audacious clause levying dues on
 
 1802.] CONSTRUCTION OF THE FLOAT. 15 
 
 shipping trading to Newport. Twenty-seven directors were 
 appointed, comprising the mayor and eight meinbers of the 
 Common Council, the master and eight members of the 
 Merchants' Company, and nine gentlemen chosen by the 
 shareholders. It was stipulated in the Act that the two 
 corporate bodies were to have no interest in the dividends. 
 
 The excavation of a new bed for the Avon from St Philip's 
 Marsh to Rownham was necessarily the first portion of the 
 intended works, and was of itself an undertaking of a 
 gigantic character. The first sod of " the cut " was turned 
 in a field near Mr. Toast's shipbuilding yard, at Wapping, on 
 the 1st of May, 1804. The hour of five in the morning, then 
 the usual time at which labourers began work, was fixed for 
 the ceremony, which was performed by Mr. G. Webb Hall, 
 in the presence of the directors and many influential share- 
 holders. The tax on the city came into operation on and 
 from this date. At a meeting of the Company in the follow- 
 ing year it was reported that the directors had been unable 
 to borrow the £50,000 authorized by the Act, and that the 
 share capital was deficient by £14,500, owing to some of the 
 subscribers having withdrawn their names before the bill 
 became law. It was thereupon determined to augment the 
 amount of the existing shares from £100 to £135 each, 
 thereby supplying the required sum. (£12 9s. was after- 
 wards added to each share by dividing the forfeited capital, 
 making the total £147 9s.) As a sop to the proprietors for 
 this compulsory demand upon them, the board promised that 
 the interest named in the Act should be raised from 4 to 
 6 per cent. ; and a bill to legalize this arrangement passed 
 soon afterwards. 
 
 This, however, was but the beginning of the com- 
 pany's financial diflficulties. The estimates originally framed, 
 both as to the expense of the works and the time required 
 for their completion, proved altogether deceptive. The 
 task of constructing the lock and basin at Rownham 
 had been especially underrated, and it was at last found 
 necessary to contract the area of the basin by one-third. 
 Even after making this reduction, the time fixed for 
 the completion of the works was exceeded by a year, while 
 the original capital of £300,000 defrayed only one-half of 
 the total expenditure. To meet this formidable deficit, the 
 directors, in 1807, promoted another bill, empowering them 
 to raise fresh capital on the security of greatly enhanced 
 charges on shipping and goods : the coasting trade, which had 
 originally been exempted from dues on goods, being now
 
 16 THE AKN'ALS OF BRISTOL. [1802. 
 
 depinvecl of its immunity. Througli tlie slovenly manner in 
 which 23rivate legislation was conducted at that period, the 
 bill was presented and made some progress in the House of 
 Commons before the citizens, or even the Common Council, 
 became acquainted with its character; but the underhand 
 proceedings of the Dock Board having been at length dis- 
 covered, an opposition was organized in the city, and was 
 suppoi'ted by the Corpoi^ation and by the petitions of several 
 seaport towns. The scheme was ultimately rejected in the 
 Commons by 88 votes against 55. But in 1808 another bill, 
 deemed less objectionable in some of its details, and giving 
 powers for the erection of a toll-bridge and caisson near 
 Prince's Street, was allowed to pass unopposed. The capital 
 was raised by this Act to £500,000. Under a fourth statute, 
 obtained in 1809, the amount was increased to £600,000. 
 During the parliamentary struggle the works had been slowly 
 progressing, and it was not until January, 1809, that the 
 Avon was diverted into its new channel. On the 2nd of 
 April the first vessels passed up and entered Bathurst Basin 
 — so called in honour of one of the city members. Finally, 
 on the 1st May following, the docks were certified as com- 
 pleted.* 
 
 To commemorate this striking event in the history of 
 the city, a thousand of the labourers who had been em- 
 ployed on the works were entertained to dinner in a field 
 opposite Mardyke. The principal items of the bill of fare 
 consisted of two oxen, roasted whole, a proportionate weight 
 of potatoes, and six hundredweight of plum pudding, a 
 gallon of strong beer being also provided for each guest. 
 The excessive supply of liquor led, as might have been ex- 
 pected, to a general fight between the English and Irish 
 parties amongst the labourers, who had always been on bad 
 terms. The Irishmen, according to a reporter, attempted to 
 take possession of a cart bringing up a fresh su^iply of 
 '' stingo," and, being defeated in their attempt, ran off in 
 a rage to their head-quartors in Marsh Street, whence they 
 reappeared armed with shillelaghs. The Englishmen, equally 
 
 • At Gloucester summer assizcB in IKOO, the pro])rietois of n local brass 
 manufactory (names carefully suppressed by the newspapers) claimed £40,000 
 damages from the Dock Company for deprivinp; their factory of water during the 
 construction of tlie floating harljour. The jury awarded the plaiutiflfs £10,0(10. 
 Another dispute, which long remained unsettled, arose out of the practical 
 destruction of the water-mill on St. .Tanjes's Back, by tlio damming up of 
 the Froom. The mill, whicli belonged to the Corporation, let for £48 a year. 
 It was not until iK'j'j that tlie Dock Company couseuted to pay i'JD'i to the 
 Corporation and £50 to the tenant.
 
 1802] STRANGE SCENE AT THE INFIRMARY. 17 
 
 eager for the fray, liaving- followed them np, the hostile 
 camps met in Prince's Street, and a battle royal ensued 
 immediately. As the civic guardians of the peace were ridi- 
 culously inadequate to meet the emergency, the " press gang,'' 
 a social institution already referred to, was called in to 
 arrest the leaders of the two factions, and the tumult Avas 
 suppressed. The new " Float," eighty acres in extent, 
 entirely removed the greatest defect of the port — the 
 stranding at every ebb tide of the vessels awaiting discharge 
 or loading, a test of strength which few ships save those 
 built at Bristol were able to endure with impunity. The 
 benefit conferred on local commerce by the dock was, how- 
 ever, in the opinion of some, outweighed by the extortionate 
 dues imposed by the directors in their short-sighted and self- 
 destructive efforts to realize large dividends for the share- 
 holders. Complaints respecting this policy soon made them- 
 selves heard, and they increased from year to year ; but, as 
 will subsequently be seen, they long failed to produce the 
 least effect upon the Board. No dividend on the share 
 capital was paid until 1823.* 
 
 It has been already observed that the barbarity of the law 
 in the reign of George III. afforded some excuse for the 
 brutality which characterized the habits of the people. But 
 for the indisputable testimony on which the following state- 
 ments rest, they might well be deemed incredible by modern 
 readers. In April, 1802, two women were executed at St. 
 Michael's Hill gallows for infanticide. The bodies, according 
 to the judge's sentence, were taken for dissection to the 
 Infirmary, in an open cart, followed by an immense mob. 
 Some of the surgeons were in attendance, and after the 
 bodies had been at least partially stripped, a '^crucial in- 
 cision " was made in the breast of each, in the presence of as 
 many of the rabble as were able to crush into the room. On 
 the following day, at the request of the mayor and aldermen 
 — who were present — the brain of one of the women w^as 
 dissected and lectured upon by Mr. Richard Smith. The 
 authority for this story is a manuscript note by Mr. Smith 
 himself, who appears to have revelled in operations upon 
 malefactors. Although somewhat out of date, another inci- 
 
 * The Dock Company obtained authority in one of their Acts to employ the 
 waste water of the Float in driving mills, which were intended to be constructed 
 at the " overfall " near Cumberland Basin. An advertisement appeared in the 
 Bristol Journal of November 22, 1810, of a sale by auction of this water 
 power, and of the foundations of three " thoroughs," for powerful mills. No 
 later reference to the subject has been discovered. 
 
 • C
 
 18 THE ANNALS OP BEISTOL. [1802. 
 
 dent relating to this gentleman may as well be added. In 
 April, 1821, a man named Jolm Horwood was hanged at the 
 usual place, for the murder of a girl, and his body also fell 
 into Mr. Smith's hands. The following tradesman's account 
 is the first manuscript contained in a book in the Infirmary 
 library: — "Bristol, June, 1828. Eichard Smith, Esq., Dr. 
 to H. H. Essex. To binding, in the skin of John Horwood, a 
 variety of papers, etc., relating to him, the same being 
 lettered on each side of the book, ' Cutis vera Johannis 
 Horwood,' £1 10s." Perhaps all that can be said in excuse 
 for such an act is, that it had been surpassed in a neighbour- 
 ing county a few years previously. According to the Bridol 
 Jduriial of May 11, 1816, after a man named Marsh had 
 been hanged in Somerset for murder, his body was flayed, 
 and his skin sent to Taunton to be tanned. 
 
 At the general election in the summer of 1802, John Baker 
 Holroyd, Lord Sheffield, who had represented the city dur- 
 ing two Parliaments in the Whig interest, announced his 
 intention to retire. He had been promised an English 
 peerage, to which he was promoted a few weeks later. 
 Lord Sheffield gained much credit for his exertions in sup- 
 pressing the riots in London in 1 780, but he will be chiefly 
 remembered by posterity as the correspondent and literary 
 executor of Gibbon. Sir Frederick M. Eden, a supporter of 
 the Addington Ministry, attempted to secure the vacant 
 seat, but being unknown to the freemen, he met with a cold 
 reception and speedily withdrew. The Whig party found 
 a champion in Mr. Evan Baillie, ex-Colonel of the Bristol 
 volunteers, and a wealthy local banker. Mr. Bragge Avas 
 again the nominee of the Tories. There being no opposition, 
 the two candidates were elected on the 5th of July. 
 
 A somewhat astonishing illustration of the character and 
 conduct of ecclesiastical dignitaries in the Georgian era 
 is afi'orded by an incident which occurred in the summer of 
 this year. During some trivial reparations in the cathedral, 
 the dean and chapter resolved that the lectern, which had 
 been presented by a sub-dean in 1683, should be removed 
 and sold as an inconvenience and obstruction. A firm of 
 brassfuunders was consequently called in, and the eagle, 
 which weighed about the third of a ton, was disposed of as 
 old brass at the; rate of O^r/, per lb. The only ]H>rson who 
 a])pcars to liave been shocked by this procedure was a 
 gentleman named William Ady, residing in St. James's, who 
 rescued the eagle from the melting-jiot by offering an ad- 
 vanced price. His attempt to awaken better feelings iu the
 
 1803.] THE DUKE OF NORFOLK AT THE STONE KITCHEN. 19 
 
 chapter by proffering to return it for the sura paid down, 
 proved, however, fruitless, and in August the lectern was 
 advertised for sale by auction at the Exchange Coffee Room. 
 Clergymen, churchwardens, and persons contemplating bene- 
 factions to their parish churches were especially invited to 
 attend ; but the advertiser, apparently dubious of finding a 
 buyer in this direction, pointed out that " traders with 
 foreign parts may find it worth their while to purchase, as a 
 like opportunity may never occur again.'' It was not until 
 the scandal had reached this stage that Dean Layard and 
 his colleagues thought fit to offer an explanation to the 
 public. According to a brief statement published in FelLc 
 Farley's Bridal Journal, the eagle, which " had not been used 
 for many years," had been removed simply to accommodate 
 the congregation ; and the authorities promised the introduc- 
 tion of " something in its stead of equal or greater value and 
 ornament." There is no evidence to show that this promise 
 was ever performed. On the contrary, there is reason to 
 believe that other articles, more especially two large candel- 
 abra that once stood on the communion table, disappeared 
 about the same time. Churchmen, however, were almost as 
 indiff'erent as the chapter. At the auction Mr. Ady could 
 not get a bidder for the eagle, and he finally presented it to 
 the authorities of St. Mary-le-port, on condition that it should 
 be " placed in the chancel, there to remain for ever." The 
 conduct of the cathedral officials can scarcely have been 
 approved by the citizens, but the only audible expression of 
 censure is reported to have been uttered by one of the half- 
 witted paupers then allowed to wander about the streets. 
 Being rebuked by Dean Layard for disturbing the peace of 
 the college precincts, the vagrant made an inquiry as to 
 bird-stealers which effectually silenced the irritated dig- 
 nitary. 
 
 Felix Farleifs Bristol Journal of February 5, 1803, contains 
 the following singular paragraph : — " On Saturday last, in 
 order to decide a bet for 200 guineas which had been made 
 dependent on his grace's presence there, the Duke of Nor- 
 folk dined with a party of gentlemen at what is commonly 
 known in this city by the name of the sfoiie hitchen, at the 
 Rose and Crown, in Temple Street, where the evening was 
 spent in the utmost conviviality and good humour." From 
 another paragraph in the same paper, it appears that the 
 duke had been presented a short time previously with the 
 freedom of the city by the Corporation. " Jockey of Nor- 
 folk," as he was styled by his convivial contemporaries, had
 
 20 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. [1803. 
 
 for some reason a strong liking for the West of England, 
 and especially for the city of Gloucester, of which he was 
 elected mayor in 1798, afterwards becoming its recorder, 
 lord high steward, and on two later occasions chief magis- 
 trate. His visit to the " stone kitchen " is said to have been 
 brought about by one of his sporting friends in Herefordshire, 
 who had been invited, during a brief sojourn in Bristol, to 
 one of the tripe and beefsteak feasts given every Saturday, 
 for which the inn was famous. In despite of its name and 
 locality, the place, which is said to have been occupied by a 
 family named Sloper for nearly two centuries, until they 
 died out in 1841, was the resort of several "well-seasoned^' 
 members of the Common Council and other leading citizens, 
 amongst whom was the royal academician, Bird, who painted 
 a large rose upon the ceiling of the " kitchen," * In accord- 
 ance with the terms of the wager, no alteration was made in 
 the usual fare on the day of the duke's attendance, but his 
 grace thoroughly enjoyed the entertainment, which indeed 
 was congenial to his tastes, and is said to have " eaten like 
 Ajax, and drunk Avith twenty-aldermanic power." There is 
 a further tradition recorded by an old contributor to the 
 Bristol Times, namely, that the convivial nobleman, on his 
 departure, w^as being conducted through a narrow alley 
 which enabled visitors to avoid the front tavern, when his 
 grace, whose size was proportioned to his gastronomic capacity, 
 knocked over an oyster stall, and was objurgated by the 
 choleric virago who owned it as a pot-bellied old brute. 
 The duke, it is added, was profuse in his apologies, and 
 assisted the angry dame in gathering up her stock-in-trade. 
 
 A sad incident, peculiar to the time, occurred one Sunday 
 afternoon in March, 1803. On the previous night a large 
 press-gang had scoured the city and seized upon ujDwards of 
 two hundred able-bodied men, who were carried oil' to the 
 " rendezvous," or headquarters of the impressment service. 
 On Sunday the gang, aided by a party of marine infantry, 
 were conveying the unfortunate captives to Rownham, in 
 order to their being shipped on board a frigate lying in 
 Kingroad, Avlien a mob attacked the guard in Hotwell Road, 
 pelting the officers and soldiers with mud, stones, and broken 
 bottles. Some of the marines, injured by the missiles, re- 
 taliated by firing into the crowd, with the effect of killing a 
 boy. A woman was also shot in the breast, and a man had 
 
 • It appears from Dr. IJruce's Handliook to Ncwcastlc-npon-T.vno, tliat a 
 " Hlniio kilclieii " alao existed in that town iiliout thu same date, and that it was 
 eciually popular amongst the leading merchants.
 
 1803.] ENROLMENT OF THE BRISTOL VOLUNTEERS. 21 
 
 an ankle fractured by a l)ullet. At tlie inquest on the boy, 
 the jury, after liearing evidence as to the jjrovocation offered 
 by tlie mob, returned a verdict of justifiable liomicide. 
 
 A musical festival, extending over three days, took place in 
 Easter week. The morning- performances were given in St. 
 Paul's Chui'ch, and consisted of a selection from Handel's 
 works, and the oratorios of " The Creation " and " The 
 Messiah.'^ Two miscellaneous evening concerts were given 
 in the theatre. Mrs. Billiugton, " The British Syren," was 
 the leading vocalist, and excited general admiration. 
 
 War with France having again broken out in the summer, 
 the Bristol volunteers, who had been disbanded with scant 
 courtesy after the Peace of Amiens, forgot the affront, and 
 were forthwith reorganized, a subscription of several thousand 
 pounds being raised by the citizens in support of the move- 
 ment. Owing to the arrogant language of Napoleon, and 
 his stupendous preparations for invading England, the ardour 
 shown in defence of the country rose to enthusiasm. It was 
 at first proposed to enrol only 1,000 infantry volunteers, but 
 1,100 citizens pressed forward to join, and similar zeal was 
 shown in volunteering for "the local cavalry and artillery, the 
 total number of eff'ectives having soon reached 1,474. The 
 following gentlemen were appointed as officers : Infantry — 
 Colonel, Evan Baillie, M.P. ; lieut.-colonels, William Gore 
 and Thomas Tyndall ; majors, Thos. Kington and Thomas 
 Haynes ; adjutant, Geo. Bradshaw ; quarter-master, Stephen 
 Cave; captains, G. Goldney, S. L. Harford, R. Vaughan, junr., 
 Thos. Cole, Robert Bush, C. Payne, A. P. Collings, P. Baillie, 
 J. Gordon, and J. Haythorne. Light horse — Major com- 
 mandant, Henry Dupont ; captains, Levi Ames, junr., Robert 
 Kingsmill,* Artillery — Captain, W. Innis Pocock. Corps 
 numbering about 200 each were also formed in Clifton, West- 
 bury, and Bedminster, the two former being united in a bat- 
 talion. In a short time more than 16,000 men were enrolled 
 in Gloucestershire and Somerset — a notable fact when it is 
 remembered that the entire population of the two counties 
 was little more than half a million. In order to make use of 
 the waterside community, a corps of about 150 Sea Fencibles 
 was established, having its head-quarters at Pill. The com- 
 mandant was Captain Sotheby, R.N. The Common Council 
 voted 400 guineas towards the establishment of the various 
 corps, and also offered £300 in bounties of £3 each to the 
 
 * The cavalry corps, having become greatly dimiuished iu numbers, was dis- 
 solved in July, 1813.
 
 22 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [18C3. 
 
 first hundred sailors who volunteered to enter the Eoyal 
 Navy. Finally^ Sir John White Jervis, then living in 
 Clifton, undertook to raise at his own expense a volunteer 
 rifle corps, two companies of which were soon organized. It 
 may be observed in parenthesis that the land volunteers were 
 exempted from service in the militia, then compulsory on 
 persons capable of bearing arms, and that the pilots and 
 watermen enrolled in the Fencibles secured protection 
 against the ruthless press-gangs. The colours of the Bristol 
 infantry were consecrated by the Eev. Sir A. Elton after a 
 service in the cathedral j a " war anthem " being composed by 
 the organist for the occasion. Telegraphs and beacons were 
 erected on the principal hills of Somerset, Gloucestershire, 
 and the neighbouring counties;* and the Duke of Cumber- 
 land, who had been appointed military commandant of the 
 Severn district, visited the city to inspect the volunteers and 
 to "fix on spots best calculated for the erection of batteries 
 on the Avon." The freedom of the city was presented to 
 him on the occasion. A more lasting honour to a prince who 
 was destined to be the most unpopular of his family, was the 
 adoption of his name for the new tidal basin constructed a 
 few years later at Eownham, in connection with the floating 
 harbour. In October the "Eoyal Bristol Light Infantry'' 
 were engaged in guarding 500 French prisoners from Wells 
 to Stapleton prison [now the Bristol workhouse]. These 
 captives, who had marched from Plymouth, were followed 
 from time to time by several thousand others consigned to 
 the same place. In December a meeting was held in the 
 Guildhall, at which General Tarleton, who had succeeded to 
 the Duke of Cumberland's command, laid before the mayor 
 (Mr. D. Evans), and other leading citizens, the defenceless 
 state of the port in view of the threatened invasion. After a 
 discussion, it was resolved to provide for the security of the 
 harbour by gunboats, for the construction of which it was 
 resolved *to apply for an Act to raise £20,000, to be cleared 
 off by a tax upon the citizens. This project, however, met 
 with such decided disapproval at the parochial meetings 
 which followed, that it was promptly abandoned. The 
 volunteer regiments of each localit}^ were called upon to 
 perform permanent duty for a few weeks yearly, being 
 generally quartered in some neighbouring town. During 
 
 * The Corporation voted £200 for tlie erection of four of these sipnal posts, 
 " fifty fcf-t loiiK, with hnlyyanlH " nt " the sniilT iiiili on Clifton Kocks. Duiulry 
 tower, KinyswcHtnn Down, and liobba' Hill, above Portishead battery," for the 
 security of the city.
 
 1803.] DEATH OP THE MAYOR. 23 
 
 this period the men received military pay. In September, 
 1804, when it was believed that a French landing might 
 occur at any moment, it was arranged that the Bristol corps, 
 on receiving a signal, should march on Burford, while the 
 Somerset and Gloucestershire corps should be directed on 
 Marlborough, measures being taken for the subsequent trans- 
 port of the whole force eastwards by cai'ts, to take part in 
 the defence of London. Early in 1805, the city Guard-house 
 in Wine Street, which had been for some years in a ruinous 
 state, underwent a thorough repair in order to accommodate 
 the garrison. About the same time the War Office entered 
 into a contract for a magazine for 20,000 stand of arms, "to 
 be erected in the Gloucester Road, without Lawford's Gate." 
 This building, locally known as the Armoury, has long dis- 
 appeared, but its memory is preserved by the name of 
 Armoury Square, given to the dwellings now standing on 
 its site. 
 
 The Common Council was specially convoked in August, 
 1803, owing to a mournful event of an unusual character, — 
 the death of the mayor, Mr. Robert Castle, during his year of 
 office. According to ancient precedent, the chair was taken 
 by the senior alderman, Sir John Durbin, who announced the 
 cause of the meeting. The quaint official minutes continue 
 as follows : — " And the robes, swords, and other insiarnia 
 belonging to the office of mayoi', which the late mayor died 
 possessed of, being laid upon the table in order to be dis- 
 posed of to such person as should be elected," three gentle- 
 men were nominated, and David Evans was chosen. " Then 
 the mayor-elect, there putting on his scarlet gown and the 
 scarlet robe (always worn by the mayors pf this city at their 
 swearing), with the old sheriffs and the rest of the Common 
 Council, also in their scarlet gowns, removed out of St. 
 George's Chapel to the High Desk in the Guildhall," Avhere 
 the oaths were administered by the mayor of the preceding 
 year. "After which all the insignia were in the usual man- 
 ner delivered to Mr. Mayor, who in the scarlet robes afore- 
 said was, with the swoi'd and pearl scabbard borne before 
 him, attended by the others of the Common Council (in their 
 scarlet gowns) to the Council-house, where they separated." 
 Only four years later, the Corporation had again to regret 
 the loss of its head, Mr. Henry Bright having died in Novem- 
 ber, 1807, in the second month of his mayoralty. Mr, Samuel 
 Birch was appointed his successor in December, when the 
 above ceremonies were repeated. 
 
 Puritanic views and practices respecting the sanctity of
 
 ^ 
 
 24 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1804. 
 
 the first day of the week ling-ered lono- amonorst local g-uar- 
 dians of order. Felix Farley's Journal of Feb. 2, 1804^ 
 contained the following paragraph : — " Several boys were on 
 Sunday taken to Bridewell for playing in the streets in St. 
 James's parish during the time of morning service. " In the 
 following year the corporate accounts record a payment of 
 £1 Is. lOd. "paid George Merrick, costs in prosecuting a 
 man for prophaning the sabbath." 
 
 Down to the year 1804, the only thoroughfare from Broad 
 Street to Nelson Street, for foot-passengers as well as for 
 vehicles, was the central archway under St. John's Church 
 tower, now appropriated to carriages. Serious accidents 
 were consequently of frequent occurrence. In March of 
 this year, the Corporation purchased a lease, granted by the 
 feoffees of the parish, of the premises adjoining the west 
 wall of the tower, and opened in 1805 what a contemporary 
 journalist called a " noble " (though it was really a very 
 mean) archway as a footpath for the public. In 1827, the 
 parochial vestry resolved upon restoring the tower and re- 
 moving the cistern attached to the south side of the church 
 (the appearance of which is shown in plates in Mr. Seyer's 
 and the Rev. J. Evans's histories), with the view of opening 
 another footway on the east side of the tower. The entrance 
 to the church, previously inside the great archway — as may 
 still be seen from existing remains — was removed to the 
 spot previously occupied by the cistern and fountain, and 
 the latter was set up on its present site. AVhile those alter- 
 ations were in progress, the vestry memorialized the Common 
 Council, pointing out that the gateway under the tower had 
 been "for many years complained of as a great public nui- 
 sance, fraught with danger and difficulty from its extreme 
 narrowness and the multitude of carriages and passengers 
 passing through the same ; and that by proper and adequate 
 footways on each side of the tower the grievance would be 
 greatly diminished." To effect this, it would be necessary to 
 take down the house al)utting upon the west side of the toAver, 
 and the ])roi)erty being leased by the Corporation, the peti- 
 tioners prayed that the Common Council would surrender 
 its interests, in order that the site might be sold and the 
 proceeds deyoted to tlie im])r()voment. The Corjioration 
 liaving assented, the building, which contained some window 
 mouldings and other slight relics of the church of St. IjJIW- 
 rence (the roof, according to J. Evans, was remarkably per- 
 fect in 1821), was swept away. Tlie alterations, which were 
 generally aj)proved, were finished in 1829.
 
 1805.] TAX ON SALT. JOANNA SOUTHCOTT. 25 
 
 In February, 1805, four habitual thieves, captured under 
 pecuhar circumstances, were committed to Newgate prison 
 charged with a burglary in St. Augustine's parish. A local 
 journalist wrote : — " They had converted a cavern in Cook's 
 Folly wood, called St. John's Hole, into a kind of store-room, 
 which was well supplied with bacon, cheese, etc., and were 
 in the act of cooking when detected." Crime was exceed- 
 ingly prevalent about this time, and the Corporation had 
 made the following payment only a few weeks before : — 
 " Paid Wra. Gibbons, Esq., and Co., for 86 dozen hard Hand 
 Cuff's for city use, £130 lOs." 
 
 Amongst the ill-advised fiscal laws passed during the 
 struggle with the French, the tax on salt was probably the 
 most oppressive and injurious. In seeking to lighten its 
 severity on the poor, many of whom lived mainly on vege- 
 tables, and consequently consumed more of the condiment 
 than the wealthy. Parliament resorted to singular devices. 
 At the city quarter sessions in March, the justices, in com- 
 pliance with the statute law, fixed the price of "rock salt, 
 otherwise Bristol salt," at fivepence per pound, and 1.*;. 4cZ. 
 per quarter-peck. The penalty upon a tradesman charging 
 a hig-her price was £20 for each offence. One conviction is 
 recorded about the same date. 
 
 During the summer it was currently reported that George 
 III., Avhose most extensive journeys had previously been to 
 Cheltenham and Weymouth, intended to make a tour in the 
 West of England. The Corporation was immediately on the 
 alert, and Sir John Durbin, Alderman Noble, the two sheriffs, 
 and the town clerk were sent oft" to London with an invita- 
 tion to his Majesty to visit the city. If the king had ever 
 contemplated a ''progress," however, he had changed his 
 mind. The expenses of the deputation amounted to no less 
 a sum than £282 ; but the details are unfortunately wanting. 
 
 The religious delusions of a semi-lunatic Devonshire 
 woman, named Joanna Southcott, attracted much attention 
 about this time. Joanna had many enthusiastic followers, 
 and probably some relatives, in Bristol. In 1805 and 1806 
 her " inspii'ed writings" were advertised as on sale at ''Mr. 
 Southcott's, 69, Broad Quay." Shortly afterwards her 
 votaries announced that " there was a place in Bristol " 
 where her inspirations " were publicly read and explained ; 
 which opens every Sunday evening at 6 o'clock and every 
 Friday evening at 7." Further information Avas to be had 
 of "the expositor, the Eev. Samuel Eyre." The place 
 rented by the fanatics, at £25 a year, was a large room in
 
 26 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. [1805. 
 
 wliat lias been called Colston's house in Small Street, then 
 chiefly occupied by the printing office of the Mirror. Joanna 
 died in 1814, and the discovery of imposture upon a surgical 
 examination of her body so shook the faith of her Bristol 
 admirers that the furniture of the room was seized for rent, 
 and sold in the street. The more infatuated section of the 
 Southcottites nevertheless retained the belief that their 
 prophet would reappear; and the rent of the chamber was 
 paid until 1854, when the death of Mr. Eyre, " of Stokes 
 Croft," put an end to the occupancy. 
 
 On Sunday, the 15th of Sept., 1805, the date fixed by the 
 charter of Queen Anne, Mr. John Foy Edgar, a member of 
 the Common Council, was elected mayor, but refused to 
 accept the office, and was fined £400 for his contumacy. 
 The fine was paid, although the refusal may have been due 
 to the declining fortunes of Mr. Edgar, who had twice filled 
 the then costly office of sheriff. In 1818, he relinquished his 
 seat in the chamber, and was appointed sword-bearer. Mr. 
 Edgar, who was descended maternally from Sir Robert 
 Cann, a masterful mayor and member of Parliament occupy- 
 ing a conspicuous place in the city annals, was of a different 
 stamp from the ordinary ruck of civic officials. Ediicated at 
 Christchurch College, Oxford, he was found an acceptable 
 acquaintance by young men of high social and intellectual 
 position ; and when the Earl of Liverpool and Mr. Canning 
 paid a visit to Bristol, in 1825, they recognised and cor- 
 dially saluted their old companion at the university — the 
 Premier and his colleague, it is said, making offers of assist- 
 ance which the fallen merchant was too proud to accept. 
 Mr. Crabb Robinson, who visited Bristol in 183G, after 
 recording in his diary a call upon Joseph Cottle, wrote : — 
 " Here, too, was living a man I became acquainted with 
 through Flaxman — Edgar, a man of accomplishments and 
 taste. A merchant once enjoying wealth, he was the patron 
 of Flaxman Avhen little known. Adversity befell him, and 
 then, though he was a Conservative, and the Radicals were 
 in power,''^ they behaved, as he himself said, Avith generosity 
 towards a political adversary, allowing him to retain the 
 office of sword-bearer on terms more liberal than could have 
 been required. Ho was an F.S.A., and possessed an unusual 
 degree of anti((narian knowledge." 
 
 It would appear that the Common Council found it im- 
 
 * Tlicre is obviously somo orror in Mr. Rnl)inson's reminiscence of the facts, 
 Mr. Edgar was ijresident of the Aiiclior Society in 17'J8.
 
 1806.] THE mayor's salary, corporate presents. 27 
 
 possible to fill tlio civic chair except by promisino- to increase 
 the salary attached to it. At all events, Mr. Daniel Wait 
 had no sooner been elected in the place of Mr. Edgar, than 
 the Sinn annually granted to the mayor, which had been 
 increased from £1,200 to £1,500 in 1800, was further aug- 
 mented to £2,000. Yet a twelvemonth after, Mr. Wm. Fripp 
 refused the office, and was fined £500. Four years later, in 
 1810, Sir Henry Protheroe also paid the same fine rather than 
 accept the chief magistracy, and indicated the cause of his 
 refusal by giving notice of a motion for raising the salary to 
 £2,500, to which amount it was actually advanced in Septem- 
 ber, 1813. Two gentlemen, Levi Ames, junr., and W. Inman, 
 had declined the costly honour in 181 1, and paid a fine of 
 £500 each. 
 
 Intense public emotion was caused in November by the 
 naval victory of Trafalgar and the death of Nelson at the 
 moment of his greatest triumph. On the occasion of the 
 national thanksgiving, in December, the collections made on 
 behalf of the Patriotic Fund at the places of worship in the 
 city amounted to over £1,000. The largest gifts were made 
 at St. James's and St. Paul's Churches and Lewin's-mead 
 Chapel,* each of these collections slightly exceeding £100. 
 
 On the 20th of February, 1806, the ironwork of the bridge 
 intended to carry the Bath road over the new course of 
 the Avon suddenly collapsed when it was on the point of 
 completion. Two of the workmen were mortally injured. 
 The art of iron bridge building being then in its infancy, 
 the faultiness of the design escaped attention, and the bridge 
 was rebuilt on the original plan. As had frequently been pre- 
 dicted, it fell a second time, many years later (see March, 1 855) . 
 
 The account books of the Corporation for the month of 
 March contain the following item, which is eloquent enough 
 to speak for itself : — " Paid John Noble, Esq., for wine sent 
 as a present to the High Steward, members in Parliament, 
 and Recorder, by order of Common Council, £295 9,*." The 
 gifts, which were made every year, consisted of a butt of 
 sherry to the two members, another to the Lord High 
 Steward, and a hogshead to the Recorder. The fortunate 
 purveyor, " John Noble, Esq.," was one of the aldermen of 
 the city, and a Whig, as were the majority of the municipal 
 body at that date. Mr. Noble was appointed one of the 
 
 * The congregation of Levvin's Mead Chapel at one time consisted of so many 
 leading citizens that, with one exception, its members included the wliole 
 aldcrmanic bench. Of the feoffees of the Unitarian almshouse in Stokes Croft 
 in 1785, eight had been mayors and three sheriffs. — Bristol Times, April 9, 1853.
 
 28 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1806. 
 
 Auditors of public accounts during the ministry of Lord 
 Grenville (1806), and afterwards lived in London, but 
 retained liis aldermanic gown until liis death in 1828. 
 
 The foundation-stone of the left wing of the Infirmary was 
 laid in June by Mr. E. Protheroe. Prior to commencing the 
 work the committee had collected a fund sufficient to provide 
 for the cost of the building, and had also obtained by a 
 public subscription the sum of £10,500, which was invested 
 as an endowment for maintainino* the new wards. For some 
 inscrutable reason, the whole of the Infirmary buildings were 
 painted black, and presented a most lugubrious appearance. 
 Prince Packler Muskau, who visited the city in 1828, noted 
 the fact with astonishment, and compared the place to " an 
 enormous mausoleum." It was not until more than thirty 
 years later that the doleful aspect of the institution was 
 removed at the expense of Mr. H. A. Palmer. 
 
 A bill for amending previous local Acts relating to the 
 sewerage, cleansing, paving, and lighting of the city, received 
 the royal asseiit during the parliamentaiy session of 1806. 
 For several years previous to this date, the Corporation was 
 looked upon by the ratepayers with extreme distrust, and 
 every effort made to extend its powers over the citizens had 
 been obstinately resisted. On the present occasion the 
 Common Council, in order to carry a bill unquestionably 
 desirable, proclaimed its willingness to delegate the powers 
 of the statute to a body of commissioners. This announce- 
 ment was received with as much approval as surprise ; but 
 upon looking into the matter, the citizens found that the con- 
 cession was rendered delusive by a provision under which 
 the Corporation retained its predominance under disguise. 
 The bill provided that the ratepayers of each parish should 
 nominate ten persons, from whon\ the Council were to select 
 two at their discretion — an arrangement by which the 
 authorities doubtless expected to eliminate all who were 
 likely to be critical or hostile. An influential body of rate- 
 payers, acting as parocliial delegates, combined to oppose 
 this clause; but the corporate officials, after promising to 
 delay the measure until tlie objectors had laid their case 
 before Parliament, pushed the bill through its final stages, 
 and then coolly laughed at their dupes. The latter held an 
 inditfnation meeting' to denounce the conduct (^f tlu> author- 
 ities and protest against the blow struck at the rights and 
 interests of the citizens; but the ti-imn])li oF ihe Corporation 
 was not the less complete, the commissioners being always 
 the subservient instruments of the Common Council. A
 
 1806.] SLAVERY IN BRISTOL. ELECTION EXPENDITURE. 29 
 
 sum of £2,230 in consols, being the surplus of tlio trust for 
 repairing and lighting Bristol Bridge, was handed over to 
 the new body, which continued to exercise its functions as a 
 highway board, and to levy rates throughout the ancient 
 city until so late a date as 1851, when it was superseded by 
 the adoption of the Health of Towns Act by the Council. 
 
 The short-lived Whig Ministry of 180G succeeded in pass- 
 ing through Parliament a bill for the suppression of the 
 inhuman slave-trade between Africa and the West India 
 colonies. The measure was opposed by Mr. Bathurst, one 
 of the members for Bristol, where the trade had flourished 
 exceedingly during the previous century. Public opinion, 
 however, had nearly brought about its extinction, a paper in 
 the MuntJili/ Magazine for May, 1799, observing that it was 
 *'just expiring" in Bristol; and Mr. Protheroe, M.P., stated 
 that when the Act passed not a single slaver hailed from the 
 port. A reference to Clarkson's work on the subject will 
 prove that the conversion of local merchants had been re- 
 markably rapid. Slavery was even recognised in England. 
 In SaraJi Farleifs Bristol Journal for Jan. 9, 1768, was the 
 following advertisement : — '' To be sold, a healthy Negro 
 Slave, named Prince, 17 years of age, 5 feet 10 inches high, 
 and extremely well grown. Enquire of Joshua Springer, in 
 St. Stephen's Lane." So late as Dec. 8, 1792, a local journal 
 reported that a wealthy citizen had just sold a " black ser- 
 vant girl, who had been many years in his service," into 
 perpetual bondage, and that the price of the unhappy 
 woman, who was shipped to Jamaica, w^as £80, colonial 
 currency. When she ''put her feet into the fatal boat at 
 Lamplighters' Hall, her tears ran down her face like a 
 shower of rain." 
 
 The three election contests in 1780, 1781, and 1784 were 
 long remembered for their extreme costliness. In 1780, the 
 Prime Minister, with the consent of George III., contributed 
 £1,000 from the king's private purse with the object of 
 defeating Burke and his Whig colleague, Cruger. This gift 
 was by.t a drop in the bucket, however, and in 1781, upon 
 the death of one of the successful Tory members, the local 
 leaders, exhausted by the previous struggle, made an earnest 
 appeal for further assistance, and secretly received £5,000 
 from the royal bounty. About the same time the king's 
 income w^as drawn upon to the extent of £2,000 on behalf of 
 the Tory party in Gloucestershire (see " Correspondence of 
 George III. and Lord North," vol. ii., p. 425). Tlie still more 
 expensive struggle in 1784 ended in a drawn battle, each side
 
 30 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. [1807. 
 
 returning a candidate, and the rival camps appear to have 
 thereupon mutually agreed to avoid furtiier conflicts upon 
 the basis of a divided representation. Thus for many years 
 there was not even the semblance of a struggle, A general 
 election took place in October, 1806, when Mr. Bathurst, the 
 Tory nominee, and Colonel Baillie, the representative of the 
 Whigs, were re-elected. Parliament was again dissolved in 
 the spring of 1807, and as the old compromise remained in 
 force, Mr. Bathurst (who had just been appointed Master of 
 the Mint) and Colonel Baillie were nominated for the third 
 time. The intended unanimity of the proceedings at the 
 Guildhall, on the 5th of May, was, however, interrupted by a 
 man named Henry Hunt, who had recently started a " Clifton 
 genuine beer brewery " at Jacob's wells, and who afterwards 
 obtained national notoriety for his demagogic oratory in 
 support of annual parliaments and universal suffrage. Hunt 
 presented himself on the platform to propose Sir John Jervis, 
 a popular lawyer, and afterwards Lord Chief Justice of the 
 Common Pleas ; but the sheriffs refused to accept the nom- 
 ination, on the ground that its proposer was neither a free- 
 holder nor a free burgess of the city. During the chairing 
 of the members. Hunt's followers, who had on the previous 
 night demolished the windows of the Council House and 
 White Lion Hotel, pelted Mr. Bathurst so vigorously with 
 mud and sticks that he was forced to leave his gilded car 
 and beat a retreat. Another attack was being organized 
 against his hostelry, the White Lion, when Hunt successfully 
 diverted the attention of the mob by offering to distribute 
 two butts of beer at his brewery. In the evening, the win- 
 dows of the Council House and the neighbouring hotel were 
 again assailed by a drunken crowd. 
 
 A new hotel was opened during the summer in a large 
 mansion in College Place, for many years the residence of 
 Alderman Noble, The opening dinner of "Keeves's Hotel" 
 took place on the 25th of June, the mayor, Mr. (afterwards Sir) 
 Richard Vaughan, presiding. The company, twenty-two in 
 number, consisted chiefly of aldermen and common council- 
 lors, and the bacchanalian powers of the party nuiy bo 
 judged from the " wine bill " drawn up by the chairman, 
 and religiously preserved by Mr. Reeves.* The items were 
 as follows: — Dinners, at 25.s-., €27 lO.s-, ; 12 bottles of sherry, 
 at OS. GJ., £3 Oh.; 12 bottles of port, at bs., £3; 12 ])ottlos of 
 hock, at 10.?. 6d., £6 Gs.; 20 bottles of claret, at ll.s\, £11 ; 
 
 • " MS. Anuals," City Library, ii., 388,
 
 1808.] VISIT OF THE PKINCE OP WALES. FATAL DUELS. 31 
 
 with G bottles of cliampagne (paid for by the mayor). The 
 total was sixty-two bottles for twenty-two persons. Mr. 
 Reeves, who was famous as a caterer, made a fortune of 
 £20,000 before retiring from business. 
 
 The Prince of Wales, accompanied by the Duko of Sussex, 
 having arrived at Berkeley Castle during a short tour in the 
 West, his royal highness responded to an invitation of the 
 Corporation by paying a visit to Bristol on the 6tli of October. 
 Attended by his brother, his noble host, and a numerous 
 party of friends, he entered the city by Park Street, and was 
 conducted by the sheriffs, Sir H. Protheroe and Mr. Hay- 
 tliorne, to the Mansion House, amidst the usual tokens of 
 rejoicing. An address was there presented, in which the 
 Corporation assured the prince that while they contemplated 
 the blessings they enjoyed under the paternal reign of his 
 father, " the true principles of greatness which adorn 
 the character of your i-oyal highness encourage us to hope 
 in the prospect of their continuance." A suitable reply 
 having been made, the prince was presented with the free- 
 dom of the city in a gold box. The royal visitor explained 
 that his entrance into the city in a close carriage — which, 
 says the reporter, had greatly disappointed the spectators, 
 and especially the fair sex — was due to his suffering from a 
 swelled face, and he then condescended to inspect the guard 
 of honour in front of the house, and to show himself to the 
 populace. Having partaken of a sumptuous banquet at the 
 Merchants' Hall, the royal party left for Berkeley, the visit 
 having lasted about four hours. The entertainment cost the 
 city £1,225. The Duke of Sussex also received the freedom 
 of the city shortly afterwards, and a similar compliment was 
 conferred upon the Duke of Gloucester in the following year. 
 
 The small dome surmounting the tower of All Saints' 
 Church, — a grotesque whim of churchwardendom iii the 
 previous century, — having become dilapidated, was replaced 
 in January, 1808, by the existing structure, which is not less 
 incongruous with a Norman fabric than was its predecessor. 
 
 On the 25th March, 1808, a double duel took place amongst 
 four of the French war prisoners at Stapleton, two of whom 
 were mortally wounded. A verdict of manslaughter against 
 the two survivors was returned by the coroner's jury ; but 
 at the Gloucester assizes in the following month they were 
 acquitted. In July, 1809, another fatal duel took place in 
 the prison. Two of the captives, a naval and a military 
 officer, quarrelled over a game of marbles, by which they 
 were seeking to beguile the dreary monotony of the place,
 
 32 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1808. 
 
 wliereupon a duel was arranged to come off in the cliapel. 
 Ordinary weapons being of course out of their reach, the 
 antagonists fought with sticks, to the ends of which they 
 had contrived to fix sharp pieces of iron^ and one of the 
 men w^as mortally injured. The coroner's inquest resulted 
 in a verdict of wilful murder against the other; but at the 
 ensuing summer assizes at Gloucester the jury acquitted the 
 prisoner, who, it was deposed, acted in self-defence. A 
 contemporary local newspaper stated that not less than 150 
 duels had been fought amongst the prisoners, averaging 
 about 5,500 in number, during the previous three years. 
 Owing to the enforced idleness of the unhappy men, gaming 
 became a passion amongst them; and it was not uncommon 
 to find a prisoner reduced to nakedness through wagering 
 away the clothes upon his back. 
 
 An additional butcher market in Nicholas Street was 
 opened on the 25th of June, 1808. The building had cost the 
 Corporation upwards oJ& £5,000. 
 
 The local journals for the early weeks of September con- 
 tained an advertisement of the intended sale by auction, by 
 order of the mayor (Mr. S. Birch) and the other surveyors 
 of the city lands, of " the materials of Temple Gate, now 
 standing at the top of Temple Street." This step was deter- 
 mined upon in consequence of a petition addressed to the 
 Common Council by residents in the neighbourhood, setting 
 forth that the gate was very narrow and ruinous, a great 
 impediment to traffic, as well as dangerous and inconvenient, 
 and that its removal Avould considerably improve the street. 
 Strangely enough, none of the newspapers appear to have 
 noticed the sale itself, nor the destruction of a building which, 
 though neither ancient nor beautiful, was still identified with 
 the histoi-y of the city. From the diary of a citizen pub- 
 lished in the Times and Mirror (March 15, 1884), it appears 
 that the materials were bought by a Mr. Wilmot, carpenter, 
 for £107. The city arms were on the outside of the gate, 
 and the royal arms on the inside. The structure was re- 
 moved shortly afterwards, much to the convenience of public 
 traffic. In September, 18G9, workmen came upon some 
 remains of the gate, or possibly of its predecessor, when 
 excavating the foundations of tli(> bridge connected with the 
 harbour railway. 
 
 A proposal to establish a Commercial Coffee Room, on the 
 pattern of Ijloyd's Coffee Room in London, was circulated 
 during the autumn of this year. Tlie project having been 
 favourably received, a meeting was held in Novembei', the
 
 1809.] COMMERCIAL ROOMS. MALL ASSEMBLY ROOM. 33 
 
 mayor (Mr. J. Haytliorne) in the cliair, when it was stated 
 that £10,000 woukl be required to carry out the undertaking 
 in a manner Avorthy of the city. The vahie of the shares 
 Avas fixed at £25 each, and a subscription having been 
 started, the entire sum was guaranteed within twenty-four 
 hours. A design by a Mr. Busby having been selected, 
 the foundation stone of the building was laid in March, 1810, 
 by Mr. George Dyer, treasurer, in the presence of most of 
 the leading citizens. The rooms, which cost about £17,000, 
 were opened in September, 1811, when the original title was 
 altered, the word "coffee" being suppressed. The number 
 of members at the outset was about 500, but they increased 
 in a few months to over 600. 
 
 A heavy snowstorm occurred early in the year 1809. Being 
 followed by an unusually rapid thaw, the greatest flood ever 
 remembered took place in the valleys of the Avon and the 
 Froom, and caused great damage in the city. The water 
 spread over large portions of Newfoundland, Callowhill, 
 Milk, King, and Merchant Streets, St. James's Back, and 
 Broadmead, some houses being inundated to the depth of 
 six feet. Provisions had to be conveyed to imprisoned 
 families by means of boats. A temporary bridge over the 
 Float, for use whilst the drawbridge was under repair, was 
 carried away, some passengers having a narrow escape. 
 
 Up to this time both of the assembly rooms established 
 in Clifton for balls and entertainments were in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Dowry Square, which, through the increasing 
 number of residences on the brow of the hill, was ceasing to 
 be patronized by fashionable visitors. The need of a suit- 
 able public building in a commodious situation had been 
 recognised in 1792, when a scheme was started to build an 
 assembly room and hotel by means of a tontine, but the 
 project collapsed. Having been revived, the foundation 
 stone of the Mall Assembly Rooms, to which a new hostelry, 
 to be called the Clifton Hotel, was to be attached, was laid 
 in the spring of 1806. In January, 1809, the structure, 
 which was of an imposing character, and occupied the whole 
 east end of the Mall, was roofed in, when, says a contem- 
 porary diarist {Times and Mirror-, March 15, 1884), "the 
 proprietors had an ox roasted whole, and gave it to the 
 populace." The Assembly Room was opened in November, 
 1811, with the most brilliant ball ever known in Clifton. A 
 room attached to the York Hotel (on the site of Clifton 
 Down Hotel) which had occasionally served for balls, was 
 rarely used after this date. 
 
 D
 
 34- THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. [1809. 
 
 A fatal duel took place in a field near the Montagu Hotel 
 on the 1st of March, 1809, and caused a lively sensation in the 
 district. The parties, who, it was reported, had quarrelled 
 at the theatre, were Mr. Henry Smith, attorney, a member 
 of an old Bristol family, and Mr. Richard Priest, a tailor in 
 Clare Street. The latter was mortally wounded in the thigh, 
 and died within a few hours. [The account of the affair 
 given in the local newspapers does not occupy half a dozen 
 lines.] Smith fled to Portugal, but surrendered at the 
 assizes in April, 1810, No indictment, however, was pre- 
 sented against him, and after being arraigned upon the 
 verdict of the coroner's jury, a convenient informality was 
 found in the document, upon which he was at once dis- 
 charged. 
 
 In consequence of the occupation of Spain by the armies 
 of the French emperor, and the enormous destruction of 
 sheep by the foreign invaders, Spanish wool, which had 
 previously formed one of the largest imports into Bristol, 
 rose in this market to wholly unprecedented prices. The 
 highest rate known before the war for fine Spanish wool was 
 6s. 9d. per lb. ; but at a sale in the Exchange Coffee Room in 
 the sjjring of 1809, Mr. Lane, a broker, disposed of a lot at 
 20*. (5cL per lb. A few days later, a cloth manufacturer of 
 Wotton-nnder-Edge offered 21s. per lb. for a parcel, which 
 was refused. One large transaction took place at oOs. per lb.; 
 but the purchaser, discovering that he had been deceived 
 by false representations, forced the vendors to return him 
 a considerable sum. Some flocks of merino sheep were after- 
 wards brought from the Peninsula, and sold at exceedingly 
 high prices on being lauded at Shirehampton. The Spaniards, 
 through carelessness and blundering, subsequently allowed 
 Germany to wrest from them the supremacy they had long 
 enjoj'ed in the fine wool trade ; and Bristol suffered much by 
 the loss of this branch of her commerce. 
 
 One of the earliest railways, if not actually the first, pro- 
 jected in the West of England, was a proposed line to con- 
 nect the Bristol with the English Channel. The promoters, 
 whoso scheme is mentioned in the Jhisiol Gazette of October 
 18, doubtless contemplated the laying down of a horse tram- 
 way, similar to the colliery lines then common in Northumber- 
 land; but the severe financial exigencies of the war reudei'ed 
 the project abortive. 
 
 Notwithstanding the gloomy condition of British affairs, 
 international as well as domestic, the commencement of the 
 fiftieth year of the reign of George III. was celebrated on
 
 1810.] STATUE OF GEORGE III. THE DUKE OF PORTLAND. 35 
 
 the 23rd of October witli mucli rejoicing. A triumphal arch 
 was erected in Corn Street near St. Werburgh's Church, 
 under which the mayor and members of the Corporation 
 passed in procession on their way to the mayor's chapel. 
 Large congregations also attended divine service in the 
 various places of worship. Subsequently, as the result of a 
 liberal subscription, to which the Corporation contributed 
 £220, distributions of meat, etc., were made to several 
 thousand poor people, the children in the endowed schools 
 were treated with cake and wine, and about twenty miserable 
 debtors were liberated from Newgate. In the evening a 
 gigantic bonfire was lighted on Brandon Hill, and lighted tar- 
 barrels were kicked about in Corn Street. A more perma- 
 nent memorial of the king's " happy reign " was devised in 
 St. Paul's parish, the foundation-stone of an obelisk being 
 laid during the day in Portland Square, in the presence of 
 the volunteer corps of the city and neighbourhood. In the 
 following April the obelisk was superseded by what the 
 newspapers termed "a very fine statue of his Majesty," the 
 pedestal of which bore an inscription expressive of the grati- 
 tude of the subscribers for '' the blessings enjoyed under the 
 best of kings." The size of the figure is not recorded, but 
 the editor of the Gazette asserted that in point of execution 
 it was equal to the work of " Flaxman and NoUekens." On 
 March 23, 1813, the night after one of "Orator Hunt's" 
 demagogical performances on one of the brazen pillars at the 
 Exchange, a party of eight or ten men entered the inclosure 
 in Portland Square and flung down the statue, which was so 
 much injured that it was never replaced. One of the per- 
 petrators of this act was sentenced, at the ensuing quarter 
 sessions, to twelve months' imprisonment. 
 
 The death of the Duke of Portland, then Prime Minister, 
 in 1809, caused a vacancy in the office of Lord High Steward 
 of Bristol. The Common Council, in March, 1810, appointed 
 as his successor another eminent statesman. Lord Crenville. 
 The new High Stewai'd visited the city in May, 1811, and 
 was magnificently entertained by the Corporation on being 
 presented with the freedom of the city, the outlay, as shown 
 by the civic accounts, being no less than £1,390. Many 
 prominent citizens were excluded from this banquet because 
 of their Tory principles, much to the discredit of the ruling 
 party in the Corporation. Lord Grenville was also present 
 at a banquet given by the Whig Club. Another guest at 
 the latter feast was the Duke of Norfolk, the eccentric gas- 
 tronome already referred to [p. 19], who was toasted as "our
 
 36 ■ THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1810. 
 
 friend and fellow-citizen." Lord Grenville held the office 
 of Lord High Steward until his death^ in 1834. 
 
 Shortly after the appointment of Lord Grenville, the Whig 
 party in the Common Council lost its predominance. Some 
 old Whigs, following the example of Burke, had previously 
 changed sides, but the final defeat of the party in the civic 
 chamber seems to have been due to the reckless conduct of 
 its leaders, who lost the sympathy of the younger Whigs 
 out of doors. A strong feeling had grown up amongst the 
 citizens that the revenues of the Corporation, instead of 
 being squandered in useless pomp, should be made subser- 
 vient to purposes of public utility. The Corporation, on the 
 other hand, showed a disposition to devote a continually in- 
 creasing amount on enjoyments monopolized by themselves 
 and their friends. The advance in the mayor's salary to 
 £2,000 at a time of much national distress has been already 
 recorded. The proceeding was followed by similar liberality 
 towards the sheriffs, who had been previously allowed £420 
 each. This amount was found to be far from adequate to 
 meet the expenditure on dinners, etc., expected from the 
 functionaries in question ; and when a gentleman was patri- 
 otic enough to serve the office twice, it became the custom 
 to allow him a larger honorarium. In 1808, Sir Henry 
 Protheroe was granted £974 12,'?, 3(^., and Mr. J. Haythorne 
 £840 on this account ; they subsequently got a further vote of 
 £84 between them, being the cost of a piece of plate pre- 
 sented by them to the mayor (H. Bright), who died during 
 the municipal year. In 1811, the sheriffs' salaries were raised 
 to £630 each; yet one of the functionaries of that year, W. 
 Inman, was thought deserving of £213 186-. 4'7. additional, 
 for having served a second time. Adding to the salaries of 
 the mayor and sheriffs the expenditure on the Mansion 
 House, about £1,000 per annum, it appears that fully a 
 fourth of the civic income Avas expended on display and 
 feasting at a period when the mass of the inhabitants, in 
 common with the counti'y at large, were suffering under the 
 burdens and misfortunes of the long struggle with tlio French 
 emperor. The effect on public opinion in the city was mani- 
 fested when it became necessary to fill vacant seats in the 
 Common Council. Although a fine of £300 was imposed on 
 gentlemen refusing to accept office after being elected, the 
 repudiations became numerous after 1805. Five years later 
 the dilHculty assumed a form whicli strikingly illustrated the 
 disgust of intelligent lookers-on. In August, 1810, upon the 
 death of two common councillors, Messrs. J. B. Beuce and
 
 1810.] END OF WHIG RULE IN THE CORPORATION. 37 
 
 J. Thomson were elected, but they both refused to serve, and 
 were fined, Messrs. W. Dowell and R. Bush were next 
 chosen, only to pursue the same course. Messrs. J. Fowler 
 and J. Vaughan were thereupon elected, and the former took 
 his seat. Mr. Vaughan refused, and the gentleman elected 
 to succeed him, Mr. C. Hill, refused also. At this point 
 another councillor died, and fresh efforts were made to fill 
 the two vacancies. Remembering that the Corporation was 
 one of the wealthiest and most distinguished in the kingdom, 
 it is not a little significant that fourteen gentlemen were suc- 
 cessively appointed and successively paid the fine rather 
 than accept what was once regarded as an honour. Their 
 names were J. Cave, J, Sutton, Tim. Powell, C. Saunders, 
 Gr. Thorne, J. R. Lucas, J. Hurle, Jos. Powell, T. Stock, 
 Jer. Hill, W. Dowson, J. Nicholas, G. Gibbs, and T. Hellicar. 
 Finally, after a delay of two years, two gentlemen w^ere 
 found willing to accept the equivocal distinction — Messrs. 
 George and Abraham Hilhouse. They were supposed to be 
 Whigs by Alderman Bengough, who was then all-powerful in 
 the Corporation ; but a few months after their election they 
 joined the Tory camp, which by their help obtained a majority, 
 and Alderman Daniel, its leader, a strong-willed disciplin- 
 arian, gradually obtained so complete a predominance in civic 
 affairs as to be styled by his admirers the '^ King of Bristol.'^ 
 Bad as had been the system of local government, the change 
 of autocrats cannot be said to have wrought any improve- 
 ment. In 1812, at the close of the shrievalty of Messrs. E. 
 Brice and B. Bickley, who had served twice, they were 
 awarded £1,687 16.'*. 8r^, as well as a further sum of £150, 
 the fee paid to a barrister for acting as their assessor during 
 the first election of that year. In 1813, the salary of the 
 mayor was increased to £2,500, and in 1816, Sir W. J. 
 Struth was voted £3,346 for his second term of office.* A 
 few years later, as will be seen hereafter, the extravagance 
 of the new recjime, maintained as it was by crushing imposts 
 on the trade of the port, excited a fierce storm of indignation 
 amongst the leading Tory merchants, and the mayor's allow- 
 ance was reduced (doubtless with much unwillingness) to 
 £2,000. Returning for the present to the difficulty experienced 
 in recruiting the Council, a remarkable resolution was adopted 
 
 * Sir William claimed and received a further sum of £120 14.'?. for earthen- 
 ware left by him at the Mansion House. The breakage there must have been 
 enormous, for only a few mouths later a tradesman was paid nearly ii-40 for 
 another supply of crockery.
 
 38 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1810. 
 
 in June, 1813, at the instance of the mayor (Mr. E. Castle), 
 who moved that application be made to the Crown for a sup- 
 plementary charter to the Corporation, empowering them to 
 augment the fine for refusing to serve the office of mayor, 
 alderman, sheriff, or common councillor, to any sum not ex- 
 ceeding £2,000, exemption being gi*anted only to persons 
 willing to swear that they were not worth £8,000. It was 
 thereupon ordered that proper measures should be forthwith 
 adopted for obtaining such powers; but the only further 
 reference to the subject in the records is a payment to the 
 city solicitors of £51 17s. "for the intended new charter," 
 after which the project was abandoned owing to the deter- 
 mined opposition of influential citizens of both political 
 parties. For some years Alderman Daniel appears to have 
 easily obtained new adherents, a result probably due, in 
 some measure, to the system of admitting freemen which was 
 adopted under his rule. In the early years of the century 
 the fee imposed on "foreigners" — that is, men not free 
 burgesses — on taking up the freedom averaged about 15 
 guineas. But in 1815 the fee of Mr. Joseph Reynolds (son of 
 the philanthropist) was fixed at £84. Shortly after, Mr. R. 
 Blakemore, Mr. George Grenfell, and Mr. C. Hare were 
 severally required to pay £105 before their admission. On 
 the other hand, the fees demanded from Mr. Gabriel Goldney, 
 Mr. C. L. Walker, Mr. C. Pinney, and Mr. F. Savage, who 
 all became town councillors, and were elected mayors (the 
 last named refused the chief magistracy), were reduced to 
 12 guineas. Towards the close of the reign of George IV., 
 when the Corporation had become, if possible, more unpopular 
 than ever, it again became difficult to induce leading citizens 
 to enter the Common Council.* Several gentlemen paid the 
 fine rather than serve ; and seven seats were vacant in 
 December, 1829, of which only three could then be filkxl. 
 The Whig element in the chamber had by that time dwindled 
 away to insignificance; but Alderman Daniel was sagacious 
 enough to prevent its entire extinction, and could easily 
 afford to grant it an occasional recruit. 
 
 Great poj)ular discontent, arising partly from the distressed 
 state of industi'y and partly from the repressive measures 
 adopted by tlie Government, existed in the spring of 1810. 
 The feeling was mucli exasperated by the arrest of Sir 
 Francis Jiurdett — a refined "Orator Ilunt" — for expressions 
 
 • So curly an 1822, three ont of the eleven ftUleminnic scats long remained 
 vacant — one of them for upwards of eighteen months.
 
 1810.] A RIOT PREVENTED. FASHION IN THE I'lTHAY. 39 
 
 that in later days would pass witliont remark, and by the 
 shooting- down of several persons in the streets of London 
 whilst the frothy baronet was being conducted to the Tower. 
 Unfortunately the protests of the people against arbitrary 
 rule too often assumed a violent character. On the lOth of 
 April, 1810, the day fixed for opening the assizes, Sir Vicary 
 Gibbs, the Recorder (who, as Attorney-General, had made 
 himself highly unpopular by his informations against the 
 press), was received by the populace on his entry into the 
 city with groans and hisses ; and in the evening, whilst he 
 was being entertained at the Mansion House, the windows 
 were destroyed by stones amidst shouts of "Burdettfor ever; 
 no Tower !" The mob afterwards visited the Council House 
 and Guildhall, where the windows were also demolished. In 
 fact, but for the action of the authorities, disasters similar to 
 those of 1831 would probably have occurred. On this occa- 
 sion, however, the danger was faced with a courage and 
 firmness which should have been an example twenty-one 
 years later. The Bristol Gazette eulogizes "the temperate 
 and dignified behaviour of the mayor and aldermen, who 
 went among the people and reasoned with them on the im- 
 propriety of their conduct;" and praise is rendered to "the 
 spirited exertions of a number of gentlemen who volunteered 
 as constables," these combined efforts beiug successful in 
 suppressing the disturbance. 
 
 At this assize, Sir Henry Lippincott, bart., a somewhat 
 debauched representative of the old Bristol family of Cann, 
 was arraigned upon a charge of felonious assault upon a 
 woman, whom he was alleged to have decoyed from the 
 cathedral. Sir Vicary Gibbs summed up strongly in his 
 favour, and the jury returned a verdict of acquittal. In 
 another case two men, one of them a sheriff's officer, were 
 convicted of a disgusting offence, and were sentenced to two 
 years' imprisonment, and to stand in the pillory in Wine Street. 
 The latter part of the sentence was carried out a few days 
 later, when one of the men, according to the contemporary 
 diarist already referred to, 'Svas very near being killed." 
 
 It would require a vivid imagination on the part of any 
 one now traversing the Pithay and the sordid neighbouring 
 thoroughfares lying between Broadmead and ToAver Lane, 
 to represent to himself the locality as a place of public re- 
 creation and fashionable resort. No more singular testimony 
 of the local changes effected by time could well be adduced 
 than is to be found in an advertisement published in the 
 Bristol papers in May, 1810, announcing the sale of twenty-
 
 40 THE AXNALS OF BRISTOL. [1810. 
 
 nine Toid old houses in the Pithay and Bowling-green, in the 
 parish of Christ Church. Amongst the lots were "the 
 timber and materials of the Old City Assembly Eoom, situ- 
 ated in the Bowling-green aforesaid/' and " the timber and 
 materials of the Old City Assembly Room Tavern/' in the 
 same place. Both those buildings had been last in the 
 occupation of a basket-maker. The property belonged to 
 All Saints parish, which afterwards disposed of the ground — 
 now occupied by Wellington Street and All Saints Street. 
 
 The advantages of Weston-super-Mare as a watering-place 
 appear to have dawned upon a speculative innkeeper about 
 this time. In July, 1810, an advertisement in the Bristol 
 newspapers announced that an hotel had been opened in that 
 village for the accommodation of bathers. The house was 
 stated to have about forty bedrooms, so that it could have 
 sheltered, on an emergency, the entire population of the 
 parish, which contained less than forty families. The enter- 
 prise came speedily to ruin ; in about nine months the hotel- 
 keeper failed, and the furniture was dispersed by auction. 
 The fact was, that the mercantile and trading classes had not 
 yet acquired a taste for the seaside. Their utmost desire in 
 that direction appears to have been a stroll or sail towards 
 the mouth of the river. From an advertisement published 
 in June, 1810, it seems that Lamplighters' Hotel — a house 
 built about half a century before by one Swetman, an oil- 
 man of Small Street, out of his profits as a contractor for 
 lighting several Bristol parishes by means of oil-lamps, who 
 reared his hostelry in full view of the picturesque beauties 
 of Pill — was in especial favour ; the landlord stating that his 
 house was ''so much frequented on Sunday" that he was 
 " under the necessity of engaging additional waiters from 
 Bath." " Ordinary every Sunday at 2.s-." The Weston hotel 
 does not appear to have been reopened until the summer of 
 1814, when a couple of coaches commenced plying to and 
 from Bristol " every Saturday during the season."* 
 
 One or two aerial ascents by means of the Montgolfior 
 system of heated air had been made in Bristol a quarter of 
 a century previous to this date. The announcement hy a 
 Mr. Sadler, in September, of a balloon which was to be raised 
 by hydrogen gfis, was deemed still more astonishing, and 
 nearly 20,000 of the inhabitants thronged to the Assembly 
 
 • Clevedon did not obtain much patronnRe until a later date. The village is 
 mentioned as a " newly established " wateringijlaco in Phelps' "History of 
 Somerset," published iu Ib^iC.
 
 1810.] THE KENNET AND AVON CANAL. 41 
 
 Room to see the " macliine." On the appointed day, almost 
 the whole population, and many thousands from the suburban 
 villages, flocked to Stokes Croft and the adjoining high ground 
 to witness the marvel. Coal gas being still in the future, 
 the cost of providing the needful supply of hydrogen was 
 considerable, upwards of three tons of iron filings and a 
 proportionate quantity of sulphuric acid being placed in 
 twenty-five large casks. The arrangements, however, were 
 satisfactorily carried out, and the balloon arose about the 
 time appointed, amidst the firing of cannon and the applause 
 of the spectators, not a little astounded at the spectacle. The 
 voyage of the two aeronauts, Mr. Sadler and a citizen 
 named Clayfield, proved of a highly perilous character. 
 The balloon sailed down to near Woodspring Priory, when 
 it crossed the Channel to Cardiff; then it was again driven 
 over the sea, nearing both shores alternately, till it ap- 
 proached the coast of Devon, where a large escape of gas 
 caused it to descend rapidly, until the car floated on the 
 water, four miles from land. After remaining three-quarters 
 of an hour in this perilous plight, the voyagers were happily 
 rescued by a boat from Lynmouth. 
 
 In December of this year the Kennet and Avon Canal, 
 completing the water communication between Bristol and 
 London, was opened for traffic. The canal had been originally 
 proposed so long ago as 1661; but bills for its construction 
 were frequently rejected by Parliament, owing to the vehe- 
 ment opposition of the lauded interest and of the townspeople 
 of Chippenham, Devizes, and other places, who declared that 
 if corn, butter, and cheese reached the inland districts from 
 the ports, the country markets would be destroyed, husbandry 
 discouraged, the breed of horses deteriorated, and carriers 
 and innkeepers ruined. The undertaking was eventually 
 accomplished at a cost of a million sterling. The competition 
 which it opened with the older Thames and vSevern Canal 
 was so disastrous to the latter concern that the original £100 
 shares were sold in 1814 for £1 each. The route of the link 
 between the Kennet and Avon was not, however, well chosen, 
 the summit level being 404 feet above the basin at Bath, 
 necessitating the construction of seventy locks, exclusive of 
 forty-four more on the rivers Thames, Kennet, and Avon. 
 This obstacle greatly impeded traffic, and it was stated before 
 a committee of the House of Commons, in 1834, that the 
 average time required to pass goods from London to Bristol, 
 even in fine weather, was seven days, while during frosts 
 and floods there was generally a delay of a month, although
 
 42 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1811. 
 
 the distance to be traversed was only 150 miles. The Kennet 
 and Avon Canal was transferred to the Great Western Rail- 
 way Company in September, 1851. 
 
 In January, 1811, the Floating Hai'bour was frozen over 
 for the first time, affording the citizens an unprecedented 
 opportunity for recreation on the ice, of which numbers 
 availed themselves. The frost continued for several da,js. 
 
 The second census of the kingdom was taken early in 1811, 
 when the population of the " ancient city " was found to be 
 46,592. In the suburbs Clifton contained 6,984 (showing an 
 increase of over 50 per cent, in the previous ten years) ; 
 St. George's, 4,909; the District, 2,427; St. Philip's out 
 parish, 10,702 ; and these, with Mangotsfield, 2,901, and 
 Stapleton, 1,921, brought out a total of 76,433. Bedminster, 
 excluded by the eccentric enumerator, had 4,577 souls. The 
 increase over 1801 was greater in Bristol than in any pro- 
 vincial town except Liverpool and Manchester. In many 
 towns, and notably in Newcastle and Hull, the population 
 had diminished, owing to the effects of the war. 
 
 Nearly all the ports in Europe being at this time closed 
 against English vessels, through the despotic influence of the 
 French emperor, imports of grain became almost impracti- 
 cable, notwithstanding the urgent demand for supplies owing 
 to successive bad haiwests at home. Bread therefore ad- 
 vanced to excessive rates, the average price throughout the 
 year being l.s. per quartern loaf. Butter during the spring 
 rose to 2.V. 6d. per lb., which provoked a riot in the city 
 markets, a mob of colliers and labourers seizing the farmers' 
 baskets and selling the contents for l.'^. a pound (though 
 many of the purchasers re-sold the butter at 2.s.). Finding 
 that the attempt to regulate the price of bread made matters 
 only worse, the magistrates abandoned the system during the 
 summer. The harvest of the year was again disastrous, and 
 bread advanced to l.s. 8'/. per quartern loaf, causing terrible 
 distress amongst the poor. 
 
 During the parliamentary session of this year an Act was 
 passed for constructing a canal from Bristol — or rather from 
 Pill — to 'J'aunton. Although Avarndy supported for a time, the 
 required funds were not forthcoming, and by an Act of 1823, 
 the canal from Pill to the parish of Kcnn was abandoned. 
 The company were tlien constructing the canal between 
 Taunton and Bridgwater. 
 
 The first attem))t in Bristol to resort to coal gas for pur- 
 poses of illumination was made this year by a Mr. Briellat, a 
 dyer in Broadmead, who is supposed to have seen the gas
 
 1811.] INTRODUCTION OP GAS LIGHTING. 43 
 
 apparatus erected by Robert Murdoch, some years earlier, at 
 the Soho works, Birining-ham. The following advertisement 
 appeared in the Bristul Gazette of the Gth of September : — 
 " Lecture and Exhibition of the Gas Lights. J. Briellat re- 
 spectfully informs the nobility, gentry, and public that he 
 intends for a short time to exhibit every evening at his own 
 house a specimen of the above interesting discovery, ac- 
 companied with a descriptive lecture, this present evening, 
 Thursday, at 7 o'clock. For particulars see handbills. No. 
 56, Broadmead." After having lighted up his shop, Mr. 
 Briellat set up a few lamps in the street, thereby giving 
 Bristol precedency over London in the use of gas for 
 thoroughfares, the first experiment of the same kind in the 
 metropolis being made at Westminster Bridge in 1812. It 
 seems strange that the Bristolians who witnessed Briellat's 
 success should have been reluctant to abandon their flickering 
 and malodorous tallow candles ; but for some time the Broad- 
 mead dyer passed amongst the vulgar as a man having 
 unholy dealings with an infernal power, while the upper 
 classes treated the innovation with contemptuous indifference. 
 The aristocracy, indeed, were decidedly hostile to gaslight- 
 ing. In 1816, Lord Lauderdale, in the House of Peers, 
 protested strongly against an invention which threatened to 
 ruin the whale fisheries. Even some scientific men were not 
 less opposed to the new system. When it was proposed to 
 place gas lamps in the streets of London, Sir Humphrey 
 Davy sneeringly asked whether the promoters were going to 
 convert the dome of St. Paul's into a gasholder. It was not 
 until 1816 that the Bristol Gas Company began operations, 
 Mr. Briellat being engaged as manager. The views of the 
 promoters must have been singularly modest, for the capital 
 of the undertaking was fixed at £5,000 ; but great exertions 
 were needed to raise even that paltry sum. A serious 
 difficulty next arose with the Corporation. The company, 
 after having erected a small gasometer near Temple Back, 
 applied to the authorities for leave to lay pipes in the streets; 
 but the Court of Aldermen (October, 1816) expressed grave 
 apprehensions of danger from the proximity of the gaso- 
 meter to the city depot of gunpowder (at Tower Harritz), 
 and " considered it their imperative duty to withhold any 
 measures being taken in the streets, the gasometer being in 
 its present situation." The obstacle having been, however, 
 overcome by some means, a few shops were lighted up in 
 May, 1817, and lamps were placed in the principal streets in 
 the following December. In the same month, Le win's Mead
 
 44 THE ANNAJ.S OP BEISTOL. [1811. 
 
 chapel, tlie first public building in wbich tbe novelty found 
 favour, was opened for evening service. In March, 1818, it 
 was proposed to extend the gas pipes into the Commercial 
 Rooms, where the annual cost of oil and candles was £140. 
 As the new company asked £120 for the supply, however, 
 the members of the rooms stuck to lamps and dips until 
 1825. Although the charge for gas was lbs. per 1,000 feet, 
 the undertaking gradually won its way against prejudice, 
 and the company was incorporated by an Act passed in 1819, 
 the authorized capital being fixed in the statute at £50,000. 
 Complaints were raised from time to time, and not without 
 reason, against the offensive odour and the poor illuminating 
 power of the new agent, the purification of which was then 
 very defective ; and in September, 1822, a rival establishment 
 was started, styled the Bristol and Clifton Oil Gas Company, 
 which undertook to produce a superior article. In spite of 
 the vigorous opposition of the original company, the rival 
 concern obtained an Act of Parliament in 1824, and, its capi- 
 tal of £30,000 having been subscribed, works were started 
 near Limekiln Lane. The price of oil gas was 40s. per 1,000 
 feet; but its producers asserted, amidst the angry denials 
 of the coal gas directors, that its illuminating power was four 
 times greater than that of coal gas. Unfortunately for the 
 rival establishment, the price of oil advanced considerably, 
 and no dividend was paid for ten years. In 1835 it was 
 admitted that the system of manufacture from oil was a 
 failure; and an Act was obtained to permit distillation from 
 coal, though not until severe restrictions had been imposed 
 in the interests of the original company. Both concerns 
 then reduced the price to 12.s\ per 1,000 feet, further con- 
 cessions being made subsequently. The competition went on 
 until 1853, when the undertakings were amalgamated under 
 a new Act. By this time the a})paratus for purification had 
 greatly improved, and the rapid introduction of gas into 
 houses brought in handsome profits, notwithstanding repeated 
 reductions in price. In 1878 the company (whose capital 
 haff increased to £550,000) purcliased forty acres of land 
 nearyStaplcton Road, for the extension of their works. The 
 first contract — for one-sixth of the buildings proposed to bo 
 constructed, was let for £80,000. It included a retort liouse 
 cajialjJe of making a million cubic feet of gns daily, and .a 
 gasometer ca])iiblo of storing 1 .| million cubic feet. T]h>, old 
 works at St. IMiilip's and Limekiln Lane then yielded 5^ 
 million cubic feet daily. The foundation stone of the new 
 building was laid in March, 187'J. On its completion, the
 
 1811.] SIGN SPKING. INCLOSUEE OF COMMONS. 45 
 
 mains of the company were extended to Westbury^ Sliire- 
 hampton, and Avonnioutli. 
 
 During- the year 1811 water pipes were laid from Sion 
 Spring to most of the houses in the neighbourhood, which 
 had previously been supplied from it by means of water- 
 carts. The spring was capable of yielding 33,560 gallons 
 per day, and, as the quality was irreproachable, the owner 
 was patronised by nearly every household within the range 
 of his pipes. In 18-15, during the Health of Towns inquiry, 
 it was stated that 304 dwellings were thus supplied. The 
 spring was soon afterwards purchased by the Bristol Water 
 Company. 
 
 The practice of " stealing the common from the goose " 
 was in great vogue during the early years of the century, 
 when the landlords were rolling in wealth through the 
 high prices occasioned by the continental blockade. Large 
 tracts of commonable land in the parishes of Henbury and 
 Westbury were inclosed this year under the provisions of 
 an Act promoted by Mr. E. Sampson, solicitor, of Henbury, 
 on behalf of himself and other landowners, who appropri- 
 ated nearly the whole extent, with the utmost indiffer- 
 ence to the claims of the resident labourers and of the 
 public at large. Similar inclosures — for the most part 
 unauthorized by Parliament — had been made in other sub- 
 urban parishes, those in Clifton being especially obnoxious to 
 Bristolians; but except a few timid grumbles in the news- 
 papers, nothing was said or done in defence of public rights. 
 In 1813 another Act swept into the hands of landed gentry 
 a large extent of commonable land in the parishes of Long 
 Ashton, Wraxall, Nailsea, and Bourton, and further extensive 
 in(;losures were made at Portishead, Dundry, and Almonds- 
 bury by subsequent statutes. Even before those " convey- 
 ances" were effected, a writer in the Bristol Gazette of August 
 13, 1812, says: — "They who remember Ashton, Leigh, 
 Westbury, Kingsweston, Clifton, and Stapleton twenty 
 years ago, will need no description to recall to their minds 
 the delightful and healthy walks now untrodden by vulgar 
 feet — then open to the public for exercise or pleasure." 
 
 An Act was passed this year for authorizing the cutting of 
 a canal between Bristol and Bath, and the construction of 
 works for supplying Bristol with water. The canal was to 
 have been without locks, and the western terminus was in- 
 tended to be in Temple Meads, adjoining the Floating Harbour. 
 The proposed waterworks excited signs of life in a concern 
 which had long lain dormant and forgotten — the old company
 
 46 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1811. 
 
 formed in the seventeentli century for supplying water from 
 the Avon at Hanham. The local newspapers for June and 
 July contained announcements of an intended sale by auction 
 of " all the right, title, and privilege of the Bristol Water- 
 works Company to supply the inhabitants of Bristol with 
 fresh water, granted to them by an Act passed in the reign of 
 William III., and also all their leasehold land situate near 
 Bristol, and a small piece of leasehold land near Hanhani 
 Mills." A reservoir belonging to the company then existed 
 at Lawrence Hill; but the supply of water had ceased for 
 about half a century — it is supposed from want of funds to 
 renew the pipes, which were formed of hollow trunks of 
 trees. The projects authorized by the Act of 1811 were 
 never carried out, and the land purchased for a depot and 
 warehouses at Temple Meads was bought by the Great 
 Western Railway Company, and forms part of the site of 
 the existing terminus. 
 
 The death was announced in October of the Rev. Charles 
 Lee, who had been head-master of the Grammar School for 
 forty-seven years. Having, when a young man, married the 
 daughter of Alderman Henry Dampier, an influential member 
 of the Corporation, his father-in-law induced the Common 
 Council to remove the Grammar School from Bartholomew's 
 Hospital, Christmas Street, to the large mansion in Unity 
 Street belonging to the City School, the boys in the latter 
 being sent to dwell in the unhealthy premises near the then 
 open Froom. Mr. Lee is stated to have been a good classical 
 scholar, and during the early years of his management the 
 Grammar School was largely attended by the sons of respect- 
 able citizens. For a long period before his death, however, 
 the institution " sank into disrepute," to use the expression 
 of a contemporary newspaper; and there is a tradition that 
 for some years the head-master had only one pupil, commonly 
 known as "Lee's chick." In 1805 his friends in the Common 
 Council endeavoured to induce that body to grant him a 
 pension of £200, more than double his salary, but the pro- 
 posal was rejected, as was another to the same effect in 
 1801>. His death afforded the Corporation an oi)portnnity of 
 introducing regulations calculated to restore the school to its 
 former popularity; but the recommendations made by a com- 
 mittee a]ipointed to consider the matter were little ndn]>ted 
 f(n- such a result. The trust-deed of the founder, Nicholas 
 Thorne, in 15<)1, declared that no charge was to be made for 
 education otlier than fourpence on the admission of every 
 scholar. This fee was raised in the reign of Charles II. to
 
 1811. J ABUSES IN THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL. 47 
 
 five shilling's. It was now determined to increase it to £4. 
 By the regulations of 1(300^ each boy was required to pay ten 
 shillings yearly for firing, and the same sum for sweeping 
 the school. For these charges the committee recommended 
 the substitution of a yearly fee of £6 6s., but the Common 
 Council made no change under this head. The new master 
 was permitted to take as many boarders and day scholars 
 as he thought fit, and was left at liberty to fix his own 
 terms for such pupils. The only other regulation worthy of 
 notice was, that the scholars were, as under the old rules, to 
 answer to their names at seven o'clock in the morning in the 
 summer half year, and at eight o'clock in the winter months. 
 The person chosen in March, 1812, for the post of head- 
 master, was the Rev. John Joseph Goodenough, who, like 
 his predecessoi', had married a daughter of a member of the 
 Common Council, and who lost no time in converting the 
 institution into a private high-class school. Fortified by a 
 judgment of Lord Chancellor Eldon in the Highgate case, 
 Mi\ [afterwards Dr.] Goodenough refused to teach the 
 '' free " scholars, who were exclusively the sons of freemen, 
 anything save Greek and Latin ; and the natural, as it was 
 the intended, effect was, to reduce the endowment to a sine- 
 cure. The complacent Common Council spent upwards of 
 £220 in 1815, on the construction of a gallery in the mayor's 
 chapel " for the Grammar-school boys,'^ in other words, for 
 the head-master's private boarders, who were generally 
 thirty-five in number. In 1820, in flagrant violation of the 
 regulations, Dr. Goodenough was permitted to take a Church 
 living in Buckinghamshire, his memorial for the leave of 
 the Corporation asserting, with perhaps unintentional irony, 
 that his acceptance of the incumbency "would not in any 
 way interfere with the duties of his situation in this city." 
 In 1828, when the school — as a grammar school — was prac- 
 tically deserted, the Charity Commissioners addressed a 
 letter to the Corporation on the state of the institution, with 
 the effect of obtaining a reduction of the entrance fee to its 
 original amount. The opportunity was taken, however, to 
 shut out the sons of free burgesses living beyond the limits 
 of the " ancient city," and as the lowered charge was un- 
 accompanied by any alteration in the system of teaching, it 
 wrought no change in the condition of the school. How the 
 abuse was remedied will be narrated at a later date. 
 
 Clifton churchyard having become much too small as com- 
 pared with the population of the parish, a piece of ground 
 near Bellevue — part of the site of an old quarry — was
 
 48 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. [1811. 
 
 obtained about the close of 1811, and was laid out as an 
 additional cemetery. 
 
 Towards the end o£ 1811 the Assembly Rooms in Prince's 
 Street * underwent considerable internal alteration, and were 
 in the following year reopened under the name of the Regency 
 Theatre. For some time the entertainments consisted chiefly 
 of concerts, but during the summer it was announced that a 
 .Mr. Lawler, from London, having taken the management, a 
 company had been engaged for pantomimes and burlettas, 
 and a '' prodigious expense " had been incurred to make the 
 theatre worthy of public patronage. The first performance 
 took place on the 24th of August ; but Mr. Lawler's efforts 
 were unsuccessful, and at the end of eight weeks the house 
 was closed. A Mr. Clark became manager in November; and 
 although he complained that he sustained heavy losses, the 
 competition affected the receipts of the old theatre, which 
 had now opened for the regular season. Alarmed at the 
 attack upon their chartered rights, the proprietors and man- 
 ager of the latter applied to the magistrates in January, 
 1813, and a warrant was issued against Clark under the old 
 law placing stage-players under the category of rogues and 
 vagabonds. The public, strongly resenting this proceeding, 
 lent its patronage to the new enterprise. The law, however, 
 could not be evaded, and the Regency shut its doors. When 
 it was next noticed in the newspapers, in the following 
 autumn, it had sunk to giving entertainments on the '' musi- 
 cal glasses.^' 
 
 The social condition of the Kingswood district,t early in 
 the year 1812, is graphically illusti-ated in an address pub- 
 
 • Local annalists having overlooked the story of this building, it may be stated 
 that in March, 1754, the Corporation granted a lease of four tenements to 
 Cranfield Becher, John Heylyu, Morgan Smith, and others, at a rent of £5, 
 and a fine of £100 on renewal every fourteen years, on condition that they 
 pulled down the old buildings and erected a large room suitable for an assembly 
 room, with convenient appurtenances. The Corporation reserved a right to the 
 free use of the premises for six days every year, should they be needful for 
 the entertainment of momliers of the royal family visiting the city. 
 
 t A large part of this district lay in the parish of Bittou, a fact that explains 
 the following anecdote, tlie date of wliich is ascribed to tlio closing years of the 
 previous century. Mr. Justice Heath, wliil" sitting in tlic Crown Court at 
 Gloucester, asked a lying witness from wliat part of the county he came, and 
 being answered " From liitton, my lord." he exclaitnod; " You do seem to be of 
 the Bitton breed, but I thought I had hanged the whole of that parish long 
 ago." (CdJiipheWK TAvcunf the Cliancrllonf, \\. 151.) A Bristol newspaper of 
 April H, 17H(;, stated that, including two men then under sentence of death, ten 
 persons from the parish of Bitton had been hanged at (Jloucester within three 
 years. They had all belonged to tlie " Cock-road gang," which regularly 
 received black-mail from the ueiyhbouriug farmers at the annual fair on 
 Lansdown.
 
 1812.] TERRORISM IN KINGSWOOD. 49 
 
 lishecl in the local journals by a committee of tlie respect- 
 able inliabitants. The document stated that robberies, 
 burglaries, and other crimes were daily committed by 
 an extensive combination of villains, who extended their rav- 
 ages for miles around. " This scheme of enormity has been 
 maturing for a long series of years, and whole families are 
 dependent on this combination for their maintenance, and 
 many hundreds of the younger branches are well known to 
 be in training for the like purposes. Labourers are decoyed 
 from employment and admitted into the society,* great 
 numbers of hucksters are in alliance with them, and the 
 vendors of the [stolen] goods are seen passing with cart- 
 loads by night, none presuming to interrupt them." The 
 address goes on to say that many of the malefactors were 
 known, but that the terrorism they exercised deterred honest 
 persons from giving information, " and when it is recollected 
 that thousands are connected, by receiving and vending the 
 goods, it will not appear surprising that very few remain 
 sufficiently virtuous or courageous to unite with us." Appeals 
 were therefore made to the citizens of Bristol and Bath for 
 subscriptions to crush the gigantic conspiracy. Funds 
 having been obtained, patrols were established in the dis- 
 trict, which had a temporary effect in intimidating depre- 
 dators. Nevertheless, throughout the severe distress which 
 occurred during the winter of 1812-13, the number of rob- 
 beries and burglaries in Kingswood exceeded anything 
 before known. In 1813 the Wesleyan body, desiring to 
 strike at the roots of the evil, started a school at Cock-road, 
 in which locality seven-tenths of the children were found to 
 be ignorant of the alphabet. Owing to lack of funds, how- 
 ever, the school for several years could not be kept open on 
 week days. Improvement under such circumstances was 
 necessarily slow. In August, 1814, a Bristol journalist com- 
 pared the state of the honest population in and near Cock- 
 road to that of loyal persons in some parts of Ireland. "They 
 are frequently obliged to sit up all night with loaded muskets 
 by their side to guard against assaults, depredations, and 
 even murder." An account follows of the firing of two 
 guns into the bedroom of a constable who had been sum- 
 moned to Gloucester assizes to give evidence against some 
 captured ruffians. A few days later, Avhen a gang of robbers 
 was arrested, with a quantity of plunder in their possession, 
 the constables were nearly killed by the friends of the 
 thieves, who attempted to rescue them. 
 
 As the time drew near for the renewal of the East India 
 
 E
 
 50 THE ANNALS Or BRISTOL. [1812. 
 
 Company's cliarter, a movement sprang up in tlie leading 
 provincial ports for the abolition of the monopoly so long 
 enjoyed by the Company in the trade between India and this 
 country. The mercantile interest in Bristol bestirred itself 
 vigorously in the matter ; and the Corporation, at a meeting 
 in June, contributed £200 towards the subscription started 
 for pressing the subject upon the attention of Parliament. 
 The agitation was successful, an Act for throwing open the 
 trade being passed in 1813. The first two Bristol vessels 
 bound for Hindostan sailed in April, 1814, amidst various 
 demonstrations of rejoicing. On the 27th of October, 1818, 
 a ship arrived in Cumberland basin bringing the first East 
 Indian cargo imported into Bristol. About 5,000 spectators 
 greeted her appearance, and the bells rang merry peals when 
 she passed into the Float. The hopes entertained of a large 
 development of commerce in this direction were, however, 
 disappointed. In August, 1862, when a vessel arrived with 
 a cargo from Calcutta, it was stated in one of the local news- 
 papers that ho importation direct from India had been made 
 into Bristol for twenty-five years. 
 
 Mr. Bragge Bathurst, M.P., obtained another ministerial 
 promotion in June, 1812, being appointed Chancellor of the 
 Duchy of Lancaster, and a vacancy was thus created in the 
 representation of the city. From some unexplained cause, 
 the understanding which had long existed amongst local 
 politicians was broken up, and as a costly struggle threat- 
 ened to take place at the ensuing general election, Mr. 
 Bathurst declined to offer himself for re-election. Three 
 candidates presented themselves for the vacancy — Mr. Rich- 
 ard Hart Davis, M.P. for Colchester, who resigned that seat 
 at the request of the Bristol Tories ; Mr. Henry Hunt, the 
 former brewer at Jacob's Wells, but now a blacking maker iu 
 London; and the well-known William Cobbett. The name 
 of Cobbett was withdrawn, and the candidature of Hunt was 
 merely the idle outcome of his vanity, the respectable Whigs 
 holding aloof from him. With a recklessness that later days 
 would deem criminal, Mr. Davis's friends set no limit to the 
 corruption employed on behalf of their nominee, spending 
 over £1,000 a day during the fortnight for which the poll Avas 
 kept open. The numbers at the close of the voting were : — 
 Mr. Davis, 1907; Mr. Hunt, 235. Owing to the floods of 
 beer dispersed by the Tory coniuiittce, fights between the 
 partisans of the rival candidates were almost continuous 
 throughout the contest, and the city was kept in a state of 
 constant agitation. Hunt's mob, on the night of the first
 
 1812.] COSTLY ELECTIONS. 61 
 
 day's poll, smashed tlie doors and windows of the Council 
 House, and then proceeded to Mr. Davis's residence, Mortimer 
 House, Clifton, where similar destruction was committed. 
 The military were called out, and in the confusion one man 
 was killed and many wounded. It was deemed advisable to 
 retain a guard of soldiers at the powder magazine at Tower 
 Harratz until after the close of the polling. Amongst the 
 items of corporate expenditure caused by the conflict was one 
 of £437, " paid to J. H. Wilcox, mayor," expended in enter- 
 taining the military and peace officers, and for " beer for 
 guards mounted in the city during the election "; a further 
 sum of £158 4?. 6d. being reimbursed to the sheriifs, 
 ''what they expended for constables, etc." The repair of the 
 Guildhall and Council House windows cost £108 more. In 
 October, the general election threatened to bring a renewal 
 of disorder, and a large body of special constables was 
 enrolled at an outlay of £516. Mr. Davis was again the 
 nominee of the Tories. Mr. Baillie, the late Whig member 
 having retired, Mr. Edward Protheroe came forward in the 
 "old Whig" interest, whilst the progi-essive Whigs, or 
 Reformers as they were beginning to be called, styled Mr. 
 Protheroe a Tory in disguise, and nominated Sir Samuel 
 Romilly, the distinguished lawyer. Finally, Mr. Hunt, 
 whose hand was against all respectable parties and persons, 
 offered himself as the champion of democracy. Owing to a 
 coalition between Mr. Davis and Mr. Protheroe, or at least 
 between the two political sections of the West India interest, 
 which heartily concurred in detesting the anti-slavery prin- 
 ciples of Romilly, the latter withdrew at the close of the 
 ninth day's poll, when the numbers were : Mr. Davis, 2,895 ; 
 Mr. Protheroe, 2,435 ; Sir S. Romilly, 1,683 ; Mr. Hunt, 623. 
 This was another costly contest. To insure success, the 
 Davis and Protheroe parties were at the expense of placing 
 about 1,100 freemen on the burgess roll, at an outlay of about 
 £2,500, About 600 more freemen were entered by the 
 Romilly party. [Amongst the total were seventy-five men 
 who had obtained qualifications by means of marrying the 
 widows of deceased freemen. It was said that many of these 
 unions were merely colourable, the parties separating at the 
 church doors.] In ordinary years the average number of 
 burgesses taking up their freedom did not exceed fifty. Mr. 
 Hunt petitioned against the two members, one of his leading 
 points being that the payments for freemen were acts of 
 bribery, the value of the freedom being considerable. In 
 support of this contention before a committee of the House
 
 52 THE ANNALS OF BEISTOL. [1812. 
 
 of Commons, lie showed tliat the mayors of the two pre- 
 ceding years had been paid £42 each out of the civic purse, 
 " for not having nominated a freeman '^ during their official 
 term, as they were entitled to do by ancient custom, [This 
 item occurs in the civic accounts every year until the Cor- 
 poration was reformed.] It was unquestionable that corrup- 
 tion had also extensively prevailed. Oxen ornamented with 
 blue ribbons, had been paraded through the streets, and every 
 " blue " voter who claimed his " rights " had an allowance 
 of fourteen pounds of beef, three quartern loaves (then sell- 
 ing at about Is. 6d. each), and 7s. 6d. in money. Bludgeon 
 men, styled constables, took possession of the entrance to the 
 Guildhall on the nomination day, denying admission to all 
 but their employers' partisans, and about 1,500 bludgeons, 
 painted blue, were seen to be carried to the house of one of 
 Mr. Davis's agents. It was alleged, moreover, that charity 
 money had been corruptly dispensed by the parochial church- 
 wardens, who were all active canvassers in the "blue" 
 interest. The conduct of the Protheroe Whigs was not less 
 demoralizing than that of their allies, and the printed evidence 
 offers the reader a glimpse of Sir Henry Protheroe scattering 
 his money at the Mulberry Tree Tavern,"^ and damning 
 " French principles " — an allusion to Romilly's Huguenot 
 descent. The Commons' committee, however, declared the 
 members duly elected, to the unbounded delight of their 
 chief supporters in Bristol, who forthwith repaired to a 
 tavern, and emptied a gigantic bowl, containing twenty-eight 
 gallons of punch, ''suitably decorated with blue," in honour of 
 the victory. The Bristol Times of August 2, 1862, published 
 a detailed account of the outlay of the Tory party at the 
 above two elections. The total amounted to the sum of 
 £29,429 Us. 7c/., paid through the Steadfast Club. The first 
 election, although never in doubt, cost £14,302, of which 
 nearly £3,000 were distributed in money amongst the " con- 
 stables " (voters), and over £2,000 at public-houses in enter- 
 taining the so-called guardians of order. The cost of blue 
 ril)l)ons sup])Hed at the first contest was £3,360, yet £2,318 
 more for tlic same frippery were squandered three months 
 later. " This money," says the above authority, " seems to 
 have been distributed amongst all the constitutional mercers 
 in the city." The expenses of tlic cliiiiriug were formidable, 
 one Charles Smith, " the great physical force purveyor," 
 
 * An etcliiiiK iiiaocuratfly jjroft'Ksinn to t^'ivc a viow of tliiH lioKti^lry liaving 
 been recently jmblished, it may be UKofnl Ir) state that mmw remnants of the 
 tavern may atill bo Been at the back of Guildhall Chambers, Broad Street.
 
 1812.] ESTABLISHMENT OF THE SAVINGS BANK, 53 
 
 being alone paid £2,577. The blue umbrella held over Mr. 
 Davis's head figured for £6 13.s-., and £7 12.9. vv^ere paid for 
 the gaudy dress of the man who bore it. There were also 
 charges for " the gold banner/' gold fringe, etc. The enter- 
 tainment of the committee at the White Lion Hotel cost 
 £2,182, besides which there was a heavy disbursement for 
 the expenses of the various parochial committees. Towards 
 defraying the total charge, Mr. Davis contributed £10,000. 
 The balance was liquidated by means of subscriptions, 
 several wealthy Tories giving £500 each.* 
 
 A piece of ground at Clifton, somewhat less than ten acres 
 in extent, was sold in September for building sites, and 
 brought what was then regarded as the extraordinary sum 
 of £15,000. The houses erected upon it were called Rich- 
 mond Hill, and an advertisement in September, 1814, shows 
 that certain sanitary arrangements were limited to a short 
 sewer and a cesspool. Clifton was still, so far as the elevated 
 district was concerned, a mere village, and all its arrange- 
 ments were primitive. An aged correspondent of the Times 
 and Mirror (May 26, 1883), recalling the appearance of the 
 place in 1813, stated that the post office was near Saville 
 Place — a mere cottage with two small shop windows. The 
 postmaster was a tailor, who used to sit at his work on the 
 shopboard in one window, while his wife, at the other side, 
 sold gingerbread and sweets. There were two letter carriers, 
 one of whom was a woman, and the work of carrying the 
 letter bags to and from Bristol, and of delivering the contents, 
 was divided between them. 
 
 The Prudent Man's Friend Society, for the then novel 
 object of encouraging thrift amongst the poor, founded by 
 the philanthropic Richard Reynolds, Mr. T. Sanders, and a 
 few friends, came into existence in December. To this 
 society the city is indebted for the establishment of the 
 Bristol Savings Bank, which was opened a few weeks later 
 at No. 20, Small Street, although the title it now bears was 
 not assumed until 1815. The society made great exertions to 
 promote economy among the labouring community, but only 
 seventy-three persons opened accounts at the bank during the 
 first nine months of its existence, and as their deposits 
 averaged over £7 each, very few could have belonged to the 
 class it was designed to benefit. It was not indeed until 1817, 
 
 * Not content with his demagogic displays in this city, Hunt made excur- 
 sions to Bath, with the effect of exciting serious rioting in that city. The 
 power of choosing members for Bath was vested solely in the Corporation, con- 
 sisting of thirty persons, self-elected, and irresponsible.
 
 54 THE ANNALS OP BEISTOL. [1812. 
 
 when the first Savings Bank Act was passed, that artisans 
 and servants were attracted to the institution. Progress was 
 afterwards rapid, and by 1827 the accumulated deposits 
 amounted to over £300,000. It was not, however, until twenty- 
 six years later that the aggregate exceeded £400,000, and the 
 increase in the fund has been still slower since the introduc- 
 tion of the postal institutions. Soon after its establishment 
 the Savings Bank was removed to Bridge Street, whence it 
 again removed, in December, 1831, to St. Stephen's Avenue, 
 where a building had been specially erected for it at a cost, 
 including site, of £3,500. The premises have since been 
 reconstructed on an enlarged scale. 
 
 In the course of the year 1812, the Rev. Samuel Seyer, 
 who was then engaged upon his valuable history of the city, 
 published " The Charters and Letters Patent granted by the 
 Kings and Queens of England to the City and County of 
 Bristol, newly Translated, and accompanied by the Original 
 Latin." In the preface to the work it was stated that the 
 manuscripts forming the text were found in the Bodleian 
 collection, but that Mr. Seyer, fearing verbal errors or 
 omissions in those copies, addressed a memorial to the 
 Common Council, praying to be permitted to have access to 
 the originals for the purpose of collation. The response was 
 a point-blank refusal, although the charters were, as Mr. 
 Seyer went on to remark, " open letters," granted to the 
 burgesses generally, and for their benefit, and ought to have 
 been accessible to all of them as members of the Corporation. 
 It appears from the official minutes of the Common Council 
 that the rejection of the reverend gentleman's request was 
 due to the Recorder, Sir Vicary Gibbs, whose advice was 
 solicited by the Corporation. 
 
 A " grand gala fete," in honour of the British victories over 
 the French armies in Spain, took place in September, 1813, 
 " in the gardens of the Three Blackbirds tavern, near 
 Stapleton." In the following year the name of the place was 
 changed to the "Wellington Gardens," under which it 
 became a fashionaljle resort for many years. The galas were 
 of a somewhat exclusive character. The price of admission 
 was half a crown ; gentlemen were expected to appear in full 
 evening dress; and livery servants were excluded. The 
 gardens rcmnincnl popular notwithstanding the opening of the 
 Zoological (Jjirdciis tit Clifton, though that event greatly 
 altered tlic status of those who resorted to them. The latest 
 notice of the ])lace that has been found in the newspapers 
 occurs in 1847, when there was a largo attendance at a 
 balloon ascent.
 
 1813.] TYBURN TICKETS. THE BISHOp's INCOME. 55 
 
 A somewhat singular accident occurred in September, 
 1813, at Cumberland Basin. A heavily laden West India- 
 man, named the William Miles, was entering the basin by the 
 upper lock, when a press-gang was seen approaching for the 
 purpose of seizing the crew. After having been many 
 months absent from home, the men were by no means disposed 
 to be captured, and instantly fled. Unfortunately the ship 
 had not cleared the entrance, and as the tide rapidly ebbed, 
 she remained suspended in the lock, the weight of the cargo 
 crushing the hull out of shape and firmly fixing it between the 
 walls. The lock thus became impracticable for other vessels 
 until the obstruction was removed, which was not effected for 
 upwards of three weeks. 
 
 Mr. Bathurst, late member for the city, who had retreated 
 to the cheaper and less arduous representation of Bodmin, 
 was presented by his Bristol admirers, in September, with an 
 elegant piece of plate, valued at 700 guineas, in gratitude for 
 his lengthened services. 
 
 The Bristol Journal of September the 4th contains the 
 following advertisement : — " For sale, a Tyburn Ticket, ex- 
 empting the holder from serving the parish and ward offices 
 of the parish of St. Paul and ward of St. James. Apply to 
 Mr. Evans, Bi'idewell." The same newpaper a few weeks 
 later announced that " two Tyburn tickets for the parish 
 of Clifton^' were for disposal. These ominously named docu- 
 ments had their origin in the statute 10th William III. c. 12, 
 which enacted that, after the 20th of May, 1699, every person 
 convicted of burglary, horse stealing, or theft from a shop to 
 the value of five shillings, should be debarred from benefit of 
 clergy — that is, should be hanged; and that every person 
 who should apprehend such an offender and prosecute him to 
 conviction should be entitled to a certificate to that eff'ect 
 from the judge who tried the case, such certificate to dis- 
 charge the holder from fulfilling all manner of parish and 
 ward offices in the district where the felony was committed. 
 The ticket was capable of being assigned to another person, 
 but only once. The privilege was abolished by an Act passed 
 in June, 1818. Only three months previously, according to 
 the Stainford Mercury for March 17, 1818, a Tyburn ticket 
 was sold in Manchester for £280. A copy of one of the 
 tickets is given in Notes and Queries, 2nd series, xi. 395. 
 
 Up to this time the income of the bishopric of Bristol does 
 not appear to have exceeded £600 or £800 a year — not a 
 twentieth of the revenue of one of the episcopal prizes of the 
 English Church. The irregularities which then prevailed
 
 56 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. 1813.] 
 
 in tlie value ef the various sees were considered to '' work 
 well." A spiritual lord in the reign of George III. miglit 
 find it difficult to make ends meet at Bristol, Exeter, or 
 Llandaff; but he knew that preferment would come sooner 
 or later if he offered himself as a submissive instrument to the 
 royal or ministerial will. The distinguished Bishop Newton, 
 declining to be a "king's friend," was left in the cold at 
 Bristol for twenty-one years. But in the next twenty-seven 
 years he had eight successors, though only one vacancy was 
 caused by death. If the fact proved that the system "worked 
 well " for those who lived long enough, it was silent as to 
 those who dropped by the wayside. At a meeting of a local 
 clergy society so recently as 1860, it was stated that a former 
 bishop had left a daughter absolutely penniless, and that, 
 after having kept a small parish school until old age rendered 
 her incapable, she had applied for relief to the society, having 
 not a farthing to live upon save £5 a year granted by a 
 charity in London. Going back to 1818, it would appear 
 that the leaders of the Church were not wholly satisfied with 
 "the system." In the course of the year an arrangement 
 was effected, at the instance of the Archbishop of Can- 
 terbury, by which the rectory of Almondsbury was united to 
 the bishopric of Bristol. The effect of this union, according 
 to the contemporary press, was to increase the income of 
 the see from £600 to £2,000 per annum ; but this estimate 
 appears to have been greatly exaggerated. A significant 
 incident of the affair was, that neither the primate, the 
 bishop, the Government, nor the newspapers appear to have 
 bestowed the slightest thought on the fact that the living 
 of Almondsbury existed for the benefit of the parishioners, 
 and that the non-residence of a rector — even though a bishop 
 — was a scandalous abuse. The living was again detached 
 from the see by Order of Coujicil in July, 1851, when Bishop 
 Monk was granted, in compensation, an additional income 
 of £650 yearly. 
 
 Bristol Exchange, never very popular amongst mercantile 
 men, was entirely abandoned by them upon the opening of the 
 Commercial Rooms. The Corporation, in September, directed 
 the soutli row of the deserted (juadrangk; to be converted into 
 a corn market, an institution of which grain merchants and 
 the neighbouring farmers had long felt the want. The 
 market was opened on the 18th of October. 
 
 A Ih'istol nowspapiT editor of tliis year gravely speaks of 
 pugilism as iiu " elegant and fasliionable science." That it 
 was fashionable was beyond dispute, as the memoirs of
 
 1813.] BRISTOL PUGILISTS. SIR N. W. WRAXALL. 57 
 
 George IV.^ of Mr. Windham, and of other notabihties of the 
 time bear witness. In Bristol "the ring" was especially 
 popular, several of the leading " bruisers " being natives of 
 the city or of its environs. Of these, early in the century, 
 the Belchers, one of whom was "champion," and Nichols, the 
 " Game Chicken," another " champion," were the most con- 
 spicuous. A Bristol paper of 1805 stated that Miss Belcher, a 
 sister of the heroic brothers, had a fight with another woman 
 in one of the streets of the city, seconded by her mother, the 
 combat lasting "more than fifty minutes." Tom Belcher, 
 who won eight great battles and lost only three, retired 
 from the ring in 1814, but survived as a reputable London 
 publican until December, 1854. Another favourite pugilist 
 was William Neat, famed for many arduous victories, though, 
 being at length unsuccessful in an encounter with Spring, in 
 1823, he was denounced by his former admirers for having 
 " sold the fight." Neat was prevailed upon to quit the 
 "ring" by Mrs. Fry, the celebrated philanthropist. A local 
 annalist, in recording Neat's death, in 1858,* states that 
 30,000 persons were pi^esent at his last battle, which took place 
 near Andover. A large contingent had come from Bristol, 
 every available horse in the city, including the black horses 
 employed at funerals, being hired for the occasion. A still 
 more famous combatant was John Gully, in youth a Bristol 
 butcher. After having- won national fame in " the ring," 
 he betook himself to the congenial, though not yet so miry, 
 " turf," where he was patronized by the Duke of York, and 
 made a large fortune as a "betting man." In 1832 Gully, 
 then metamorphosed into a country gentleman, was elected 
 member of parliament for Pontefract, in the neighbourhood 
 of which town he resided. He died in 1863, aged 80 years. 
 On the 21st of December, 1813, the Prince Kegent was 
 pleased to confer the honour of a baronetcy on Mr. Nathaniel 
 William Wraxall, whose claims to such a distinction were 
 much criticized by his contemporaries. Wraxall was the son 
 of a Bristol merchant, and was born in Queen Square, on the 
 8tli of April, 1751.t At the age of eighteen he entered the 
 service of the East India Company, and sailed for Bombay ; 
 but he relinquished that employment on attaining his 
 majority, and after returning to Europe he occupied himself 
 for seven years in travelling, extending his tour from Italy 
 
 . * " Local Anuals," City Library, iii. 37. 
 
 t Another Nathaniel Wraxall, probably a cousin, was swordbearer to the 
 Bristol Council ia 1768. A third, holding the same office, died in 1781.
 
 58 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1813. 
 
 to Lapland. During a portion of liis ramblings he was em- 
 ployed by an unfortunate princess, Caroline, wife of Christian 
 VII. of Denmark, to seek the support of her brother, George 
 III., to a conspii'acy for placing the queen on the throne. 
 Wraxall afterwards alleged that the English king was so 
 pleased with his services as to order him to be presented 
 with 1,000 guineas; but it is clear from his majesty's letter 
 to Lord North ("Correspondence," ii. 359), that the nego- 
 tiator was treated with great indifference, and that his 
 mission was unsuccessful. In 1775 Wraxall published an 
 account of his travels, under the title of " Cursory Remarks," 
 the easy style of which carried the book through several 
 editions. Other works, chiefly on the history of France, fol- 
 lowed at intervals, but excited little attention. In 1815, 
 however, he produced a work in three volumes, entitled 
 " Memoirs of My Own Times," which caused some sensation 
 in political circles, and which the literary critics of the day 
 concurred in condemning as throwing equal discredit on the 
 author's head and heart. For a libel on the Russian Am- 
 bassador, printed in this book, Wraxall was fined £500 and 
 sentenced to six months' imprisonment. The general charge 
 of mendacity levelled against the author is, however, denied 
 by Carlyle in his " Life of Frederick the Great." After revis- 
 ing the " Memoirs " for a second edition, Wraxall published 
 nothing more, though he enjoyed vigorous health until his 
 eightieth year. He died on the 7th of November, 1831, whilst 
 preparing for an extensive continental tour. In 1836 was 
 published " Posthumous Memoirs of My Own Times," in 
 three volumes, which in character resembled the previous 
 work, and which, as the author virtually confessed, had been 
 held back until he should be beyond the reach of those whom 
 he assailed. A new edition of both the above works has been 
 published Avithin the last few years. One of Sir Nathaniel's 
 grandsons and successors, Sir C. F. Lascelles Wraxall, de- 
 voted himself to literature with considerable success. Hav- 
 ing served in the Crimea with the l^urkish contingent, the 
 result was a book called " Camp Life," Avhich was pei'haps 
 the best of his productions. " The Armies of the Great 
 Powers," a "Life of Caroline of Denmark," "The Second Em- 
 pire," and several novels also issued from his ]ien. On his 
 death, in his thirty-seventh year, in 1805, the title reverted 
 to his brotli(;r, Horatio Henry, who followed the vocation of a 
 "betting man," but died in a lunatic asylum in 1882, having 
 been for some time chargeable as a pauper to the Union of 
 Southwark. The baronetcy is still in existence.
 
 1814.] A DISINTERMENT. FALL OP NAPOLEON. 59 
 
 A frost of extreme severity and unusual leng-th was ex- 
 perienced in the opening months of 1814. The Floating Har- 
 bour from end to end was so thickly covered with ice as to 
 permit of general locomotion upon it, and some thousands of 
 persons are said to have enjoyed the novel experience of 
 passing under Bristol bridge on foot. Owing to heavy snow- 
 storms, the roads in all parts of the kingdom were drifted 
 up, communication by coaches was cut off, and the mails 
 were everywhere delayed for some days. So extensive a 
 dislocation of traffic had not before occurred since the estab- 
 lishment of mail coaches. 
 
 On March 16, 1814, whilst workmen were sinking a vault 
 near the vestry in St. Mary-le-port Church, under a mural 
 monument in the Early Tudor style, they came upon a lead 
 coffin, the ancient appearance of which was thoug-ht worthy 
 of the inspection of local antiquaries. A group of amateurs 
 was soon assembled, and it was forthwith decided that the 
 remains were those of Robert Yeamans, one of the " royal 
 martyrs^' executed in 1643, though there is incontestable con- 
 temporary testimony to prove that the unfortunate man was 
 buried in Christ Church. Assuming, however, that the suppo- 
 sition had been correct, its authors displayed their admiration 
 of the victim of Puritan vengeance in a remarkable manner. 
 Mr. Richard Smith, surgeon, who was always foremost in 
 such affairs, cut up the body, which was in excellent preser- 
 vation, and removed the heart as a precious addition to his 
 " anatomical museum." The incumbent, the Rev. W. Waite, 
 carried off a slice of the shirt. Mr. Henry Smith possessed 
 himself of a portion of the same garment, and further made 
 prize of part of the handkerchief that bound up the head. 
 The spoil of the other members of the party is not recorded, 
 but it is highly probable that they followed the example of 
 their leaders. Mr. Richard Smith subsequently published a 
 characteristic account of the proceedings. 
 
 A musical festival for the benefit of the Infirmary took 
 place in June, three oratorios, '' The Messiah," " The Crea- 
 tion," and " The Mount of Olives," being given in St. Paul's 
 Church, and two evening concerts at the theatre. The chief 
 vocalists were Madame Catalani, then at the summit of her 
 fame, and the equally celebrated Mr. Braham. The surplus 
 receipts, including collections, amounted to £845. 
 
 Bristolians, in common with Englishmen generally, were 
 profoundly stirred at this time by the mighty events occur- 
 ring on the Continent, The battles of Leipsic and Dresden, 
 the general rising of Germany, the successive victories of
 
 60 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. [1814. 
 
 tlie Bnglisli army on tlie Franco- Spanish frontier, and tlie 
 final downfall of Bonaparte caused repeated illuminations 
 and other tokens of rejoicing.* When the newspapers be- 
 came almost hysterical, and shouted, as did the editor of 
 Felix Farley's Bristol Journal, ''Huzza! huzza! huzza! the 
 Dutch have taken Holland ! " one may imagine the fervour 
 which animated the masses. The intelligence of the conclu- 
 sion of a definitive treaty of peace, closing a war with France 
 which had lasted, with a brief interval, for twenty-one years, 
 was received with transports of joy. The mail coach con- 
 veying the news was stopped at Totterdown by the populace, 
 who removed the horses, and dragged the vehicle through 
 the sti'eets amidst a whirlwind of cheers. The customary 
 proclamations were made by the civic authorities on the 
 27th of June, the details of the ceremony being identical with 
 those of 1801. In the evening the city was illuminated. A 
 lofty triumphal arch, erected in Corn Street in front of the 
 Commercial Rooms, was, when its pictorial embelHshments 
 were lighted up, an especial attraction ; but the inhabitants 
 of the chief streets appear to have vied with each other in 
 the production of fanciful allegories, the description of which 
 fills many columns of the newspapers. Probably the most 
 picturesque and effective displays were the illumination of 
 the battlements of the tower of St. Mary Redcliff, and the 
 huge bonfire on Brandon Hill. Immediately after the peace, 
 the volunteer infantry were disembodied by order of the 
 Government. After the final parade, when Lieut. -Colonels 
 Gore and Goldney took farewell of the regiment, the colours 
 were deposited at the house of Colonel Baillie, in Park Row, 
 and the weapons stored at the Armoury in Stapleton Road. 
 Lieut.-Colonel Gore died within a fortnight of these events, 
 deeply regretted by his regiment, which at once resolved to 
 give £3,000, part of the fund subscribed and invested for 
 the use of the corps, to the widow and five children of the 
 deceased, " in respectful testimony of his meritorious con- 
 duct." A further sum of £200 was ordered to bo spent in 
 striking silver medals to commemorate the services of the 
 regiment, one of which was given to each ofiicor and private. 
 Colonel Baillie was presented by the Common Council with 
 
 • The statiio of William III. in Qnoon Siiuaro wiis brilliantly ilhiniinateJ 
 upon the evacuation of Holland by tlio French. Tiio Corporation contributed 
 £20 towards the expense. Another item in the civic accounts is £7 (i.i. 0(/. for 
 «' r>()0 fagots, hnliiifj, etc. to IJrandon hill, to make a bonfire on the arrival of the 
 glorious intollinenco that the allies had obtained a decisive victory over the 
 enemy of mankind."
 
 1815.] A PENURIOUS MAYOR. GISt's CHARITY. Gl 
 
 a piece of plate^ value £200, for nearly twenty years' services 
 in connection with the regiment. In November, 1816, a 
 cenotaph to the memory of Colonel Gore, bearing- his portrait 
 in bassu-rllievo, was placed in the cathedral at the expense 
 of the volunteers. 
 
 During the brief sojourn of the allied sovereigns in London 
 in 1814, the Common Council sent off a deputation to invite 
 the Prince Regent and his imperial guests to visit Bristol. 
 The arrangements of the illustrious strangers rendered the 
 step abortive; but the deputation by some means succeeded 
 in spending £378 of the corporate money in performing the 
 duty imposed upon them. 
 
 The close of the mayoralty of Mr. James Fowler was 
 marked by an unusual scandal in the history of the Corpora- 
 tion. At the usual meeting in December, 1814, a motion 
 that the ex-mayor should receive such a sum as would raise 
 his receipts from fees and perquisites to £2,500 was rejected 
 in favour of an amendment to limit the payment from the 
 civic chest to such an amount " as should appear to the 
 mayor and aldermen to have been expended." The inferen- 
 tial censure having been ratified by a majority, the case was 
 investigated by the Court of Aldermen in the following 
 month, when, after an examination of the accounts and 
 vouchers, it was resolved " that the sum of £2,000 should be 
 paid to Mr. Fowler as a full and ample reimbursement for 
 the expenses incurred by him." Mr. B. Bickley was at the 
 same time voted £844 for his third shrievaltv. Some stories 
 respecting an exceedingly parsimonious mayor early in the 
 century probably date from this year. It is said that a large 
 placard was posted upon the walls of the city, notifying that 
 a cat had just brought forth kittens in the kitchen grate of 
 the Mansion House, and was doing well. " The only fear is 
 that the kittens may suffer from cold, as a fire has not been 
 for some time lighted in the said kitchen grate." A few 
 mornings later, three dead rats were found suspended to the 
 knocker of the civic residence, with the label : " Starved out 
 of the Mansion House," 
 
 On the 16th of January, 1815, the death occurred in London 
 of a Mr. Samuel Gist, a wealthy planter in Virginia, but who 
 was educated, three-quarters of a century earlier, in Queen 
 Elizabeth's Hospital. The remains of the deceased were buried, 
 at his own request, at Wormington, Gloucester. By his will 
 he left the sum of £10,000 in consols, upon trust, to maintain 
 six poor men, six poor women, and six poor boys in Queen 
 Elizabeth's Hospital, and to maintain and educate six poor
 
 62 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL, [1815. 
 
 girls. It being impossible to carry out tliis bequest in the 
 manner directed, an application was made by the Common 
 Council to the Court of Chancery, which in 1820 decreed 
 that the income should be distributed in payments to three 
 male and three female annuitants, who were to receive 
 £115 16s. amongst them ; £100 to Queen Elizabeth's Hospital, 
 for the maintenance of three boys ; and £72 to the Red Maids' 
 School for three girls. Mr. Grist's will also directed that his 
 300 slaves should have their freedom, and he devised a large 
 sum for the education and religious instruction of their 
 descendants, as well as for food and clothing to such as 
 might become destitute. 
 
 A war with the United States, which, though of brief 
 duration, had been exceedingly disastrous to English ship- 
 owners through the ravages of the enemy's privateers, was 
 brought to a close by the Treaty of Ghent, in the spring of 
 1815. A congratulatory address to the Prince Regent was 
 sent up by the Corporation, two of whose representatives, 
 Mr. W. J. Struth, then mayor, and Alderman Richard 
 Vaughan, received the honour of knighthood. The expenses 
 of the deputation were, as usual, excessive, the amount paid 
 out of the civic purse being £195 10s. 
 
 The close of the long continental struggle caused an almost 
 immediate collapse in the artificial system which had grown 
 up whilst nearly all the great foreign ports had been closed 
 against us, and whilst prices had been almost continually 
 rising under a factitious paper currency. When wheat 
 rarely sold at under 80s. per quarter, and meat advanced to 
 10/^. per lb., or three times its price before the war, the rent 
 of land naturally rose in proportion, estates more than doubled 
 in value, and the price of labour in many trades was notably 
 enhanced. The opening of the ports brought down prices of 
 food with a crash, wheat falling to 5Gs. per quarter, and 
 meat to 4id. per lb. As a natural consequence, the highly- 
 rented farmers could no longer earn a profit, and every 
 branch of industry felt the reaction. The panacea of a 
 parliament of landlords was the prohibition of imports of 
 corn whenever the domestic rates were under 80*-. per 
 quarter. ]3ristol, like all the commercial towns, strongly 
 condemned the proposed law, and a petition signed by 40,000 
 of the inhabitants prayed the Commons for its rejection ; 
 but in the then state of the popular chamber all such clibrts 
 were futile. The attempt to bolster up prices, however, 
 failed, and the first to feel the effects were the labouring 
 classes. The workmen endeavoured to combine against
 
 1815.] THE PRICE OF NEWSPAPERS. MACADAMIZATION. 63 
 
 reductions of wages, but trades unions were illegal, and 
 were sternly put down. On the other hand, it was equally- 
 illegal for employers to unite against their servants, and two 
 master plasterers in Bristol were brought to trial charged 
 with combining to lower wages. It transpired during the 
 hearing that the journeymen did not earn more than IG.s-. per 
 week throughout the year. The counsel for the two parties 
 agreed to leave the matter to the bench, which decided that 
 the old rate should be continued ; but the masters refused to 
 employ their former hands. The workmen of other trades, 
 especially the tailors, took advantage of another old law, 
 which forbade employers to hire any person who had not 
 served an apprenticeship of seven years. The effect of this 
 movement, however, was the abolition by Parliament of an 
 obnoxious restraint on natural rights. The manufacturers 
 and tradesmen of the city were so rejoiced at the relief, that 
 they presented a piece of plate to Serjeant Onslow, who had 
 framed the measure and conducted it through the House of 
 Commons. 
 
 " The newspapers of Great Britain may be reckoned among 
 its noblest spectacles," modestly observed the Bristol Journal 
 of September 9, 1815. The assertion was made in connection 
 with the Budget of the year, which increased the stamp tax 
 on newspapers from threepence-halfpenny to fourpence per 
 copy. A discount of 20 per cent, was allowed on this oppres- 
 sive impost ; but the concession was counterbalanced by 
 the duty of 3d. per lb. on printing paper, which was charged 
 in addition to the stamp. Newspaper proprietors were con- 
 sequently obliged to advance to sevenpence the price of each 
 copy, the largest of which in Bristol contained much less 
 than half the typography of the penny journals of later days. 
 The Eldon and Sidmouth party, which at that time was 
 supreme in the Cabinet, had always shown hostility towards 
 the press, and it was suspected that the tax was increased 
 not so much for the sake of the revenue, — which was only 
 slightly benefited, — as to check the circulation of political 
 intelligence amongst the people. The duty on advertise- 
 ments was raised simultaneously to 3s. 6cl. upon each an- 
 nouncement, a sum practically prohibitory to poor persons in 
 search of employment. 
 
 At a meeting of the Bristol turnpike trustees, in Decem- 
 ber, 1815, Mr. John Loudon McAdam was appointed general 
 surveyor of the roads belonging to the trust. Mr. McAdam 
 was a Scotch country gentleman, who migrated to Bristol 
 early in the century and engaged in mercantile pursuits. In
 
 ^4 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. [1815. 
 
 July, 1805, the Common Council assented to his becoming a 
 freeman on paying a fine of thirty-eight guineas. After 
 making practical experiments in road construction, at an 
 expense to himself of several thousand pounds, he invented 
 the system which is now known by his name throughout 
 the civilized world. It was long, however, before he could 
 overcome the dead weight of prejudice and the hatred 
 of innovation which have so often obstructed great public 
 improvements in this country; and the Bristol trust had 
 the credit of being the first to appreciate the value of his 
 labours. Some idea of the state of the turnpike roads prior 
 to Mc Adam's improvements is furnished by a letter in the 
 Monthly Magazine for August, 1804. "The usual method of 
 making or mending roads," says the writer, '^ consists in 
 breaking stones taken out of neighbouring quarries into 
 masses not much less than a common brick, and spreading 
 them over the line of road. It may be conceived with what 
 pain and difficulty a poor horse drags a carriage over such a 
 track." The change eff"ected by McAdam in the roads of 
 this district was too notable to be denied even by the 
 admirers of " ancient ways," and in the course of a few 
 years '' macadamization " spread into the most secluded 
 parts of the island, everywhere working a beneficent revolu- 
 tion. It is painful to add that the section of local trustees 
 representing the Corporation of Bristol, and animated by its 
 reactionary spirit, attempted, in September, 1824, to sum- 
 marily dismiss Mr. McAdam, without giving him a hint of 
 their intention, and that a motion to that effect was negatived 
 only by the casting vote of the chairman. Mr. McAdam's 
 salary from the trust barely covered his travelling expenses. 
 In an address to the trustees, he pointed out that he had 
 accepted the post with no view to profit. When he entered 
 on his work, the roads in the district were all but impassable 
 in bad weather, and the trust was on the verge of bank- 
 ruptcy. Through his exertions its funds had become flourish- 
 ing, and the roads had been made ''an example that has 
 been followed and imitated from one end of the kingdom to 
 the other." Mr. McAdam resigned his oflice in the follow- 
 ing year, protesting against what he termed the "mean 
 persecution " of his enemies in the Common Council. He 
 was then nearly eighty years of ago. About the same time, 
 the House of Commons, regarding liim as a great benefactor, 
 both to the public and to beasts of burden, voted him a grant 
 of £10,000. In 1827, the Metropolitan road trustees (who 
 had not adopted McvVdam's s^'stem until l82o) gladly
 
 1816.] SHOCKING STATE OF NEWGATE. 65 
 
 appointed him their superintendent. Mr. McAdam died in 
 1886, in comparative poverty, aged ninety years. His son, 
 many years surveyor of the Bristol roads, died in 1857. 
 
 From the time when the philanthropic Howard undertook 
 his beneficent crusade in favour of prison reform down to 
 the period now under review, numberless records exist as 
 to the abominable condition of Newgate, the Bristol gaol. 
 Howard himself describes it as white without and foul 
 within. Criminals, he says, were allowed to mix with un- 
 fortunate debtors, and men with women; and although the 
 place reeked with filth, yet the authorities made no allow- 
 ance for mops, brooms, or towels. The accommodation was 
 lamentably insufiicient for the number of prisoners ; and 
 partly from this cause, and partly for security, a place 
 called the " dungeon," or " pit," some twelve feet below 
 the level of the soil, to which scarcely a ray of light could 
 penetrate, was used for the detention of the worst class of 
 felons. Seventeen persons slept nightly in this den, which 
 was only fourteen feet square, neither straw nor rugs being 
 provided for them, and the stench arising each morning on 
 its being reopened turned the stomachs even of the warders. 
 There was no employment to break the monotony of deten- 
 tion; but the chapel, on week-days, was used as a tippling 
 room, and during the service on Sundays drinking and 
 smoking- went on in the galleries. It would appear that the 
 city authorities provided nothing in the shape of food except 
 two-pennyworth of bread daily per head. The local papers 
 consequently contained almost every week an acknowledg- 
 ment of gifts from the public to " the poor felons in New- 
 gate," who sometimes declared themselves to be " in great 
 distress for the necessaries of life." Besides numerous 
 donations of money, the journals record the receipt, between 
 1785 and 1787, of many sacks of potatoes, various cartloads 
 of coal, and doles of beef, salt fish, herrings, vegetables, 
 " 136 sixpenny loaves," and " a dozen towels." In 1792 the 
 prisoners were even allowed to affix a box near the gaol door 
 for the reception of donations; but many undoubtedly perished 
 from want and fever. Another class of unhappy wretches 
 consisted of those dragged to prison under the law of mesne 
 process, and to these were added a great number of persons 
 immured for non-payment of their debts. Under the mesne 
 process system, any man could be arrested for a debt exceed- 
 ing £10, and detained in prison until the cause was heard, 
 which might not be for several months. It was notorious 
 that this power was often used for iniquitous purposes, and 
 
 F
 
 66 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1816. 
 
 the legal abuse was rendered still more grievous by the fact 
 that, even if the victim proved at the trial that the claim was 
 unfounded, he could not obtain release except by an expen- 
 sive course of procedure beyond the means of the poor. So 
 late as 1820, nearly 3,700 persons were languishing in prison 
 under the law of mesne process; and the filthy Bristol gaol 
 contained its full share of them. As for the ordinary 
 class of prisoners for debt, the penalty to which they were 
 liable was, until 1813, detention for life. But the condition 
 of Newgate was so horrible that local philanthropists fre- 
 quently raised subscriptions for paying the debts of poor 
 labourers, and thus obtained their removal from horrible sur- 
 roundings. The state of Bridewell was no better. Howard 
 found the place shockingly offensive from open sewers, and a 
 Mr. Neild, who visited it in 1807, stated that so numerous 
 were the rats that a cat was kept in each room at night to 
 prevent the vermin from gnawing the prisoners' feet. 
 Howard's revelations having excited general disgust, the 
 Corporation, in 1792, obtained an Act to build a new gaol 
 on the site of Bristol Castle ; but as the authorities proposed 
 to levy a county rate upon the citizens for the future main- 
 tenance of the prison, the statute was threatened with 
 universal opposition, and ultimately became a dead letter. 
 In the meantime, the condition of the gaol became an ever- 
 increasing reproach to the city through the increase of the 
 population. Felons convicted of atrocious crimes and un- 
 tried striplings charged with venial offences were locked up 
 promiscuously, as if the object of the authorities was to 
 provide for an unfailing succession of housebreakers, ruffians, 
 and thieves. In April, 1813, the grand jury at quarter ses- 
 sions, having received a report from four eminent physicians 
 of the city, to the effect that " it was almost impossible for 
 any building to be worse calculated" for its purpose, drew 
 up an unanimous presentment, declaring that " any measure 
 short of rebuilding the prison would be of no effect as to 
 remedying those great evils so long and so justly complained 
 of." The Corporation soon after announced that it would 
 apply to Parliament for powers to erect a new gaol near 
 Castle Street, provided the citizens Avould consent to pay for 
 the structure and relievo the Council of the burden of main- 
 taining it ; but the proposal was indignantly scouted at meet- 
 ings held by the ratepayers. Notliing having been done, 
 Mr. J. S. Harford published a pamphlet in 1815, in which 
 the practice of herding together degraded people of both 
 sexes was denounced as monstrous. The author added : —
 
 1816.] TREATMENT OP UNTRIED PRISONERS. 67 
 
 €( 
 
 I saw the irons pnt upon a little boy ten years old, who 
 had just been brought in for stealing a pound and a half of 
 sugar ; he was then introduced into the felon's court, crowded 
 with wretches among the most abandoned of their class." 
 Yet in spite of this and other protests, it appears from an 
 incidental remark in a local newspaper that untried prisoners 
 were kept in fetters in 1817. In the following year, Mr. 
 (afterwards Sir) T. F. Buxton visited the gaol and published 
 his experiences. In the too notorious " pit/' lying in a very 
 dirty bed, was " a wretched human being who complained of 
 severe illness. This was his infirmary — a place one short 
 visit to which affected me with nausea for two days. The 
 preceding night eighteen persons had here slept, and some of 
 them were untried. A person only accused of crime may wear 
 heavy irons and sleep in the ' pit/ and this a whole year 
 before his trial." By this time, however, the scandal was in 
 process of being removed. In the session of 1816 a com- 
 mittee of citizens had promoted a bill for building a new 
 gaol on a proper site; but as the scheme repudiated the 
 claim of the Corporation to control the expenditure, it was 
 stoutly opposed by the civic oligarchy, who wrote secretly 
 to other close corporations asking their help to resist the 
 invasion on chartered " rights." The discovery of this pro- 
 ceeding caused a commotion in the House of Commons, and 
 the Common Council, dreading that further obstinacy would 
 end in a defeat, reluctantly came to terms with the promoters 
 of the bill, consenting to abandon the Castle Street scheme, 
 permitting the ratepayers to nominate some of the com- 
 missioners charged with supervising the new erection, and 
 confessing the liability of the Corporation to maintain the 
 prison establishment, as in the past. Newgate, with its site, 
 was moreover given up to the commissioners. The measure 
 received the royal assent in June, 1816. The estimated cost 
 of the new gaol, £60,000, was raised by a rate on the ancient 
 city, and the site chosen was in Bedminster parish, between 
 the new course of the river and the floating harbour. A 
 singular dispute with the revenue ofiicials arose in Novem- 
 ber, 1817, soon after the works were begun. Some of the 
 stone intended for the walls, brought from Blackrock quarry, 
 on the Avon, was seized by a customs ofiicer, who contended 
 that it was liable to the duty imposed by the Customs Con- 
 solidation Act of 1809, which imposed a tax of £20 per cent. 
 ad valorem on limestone. The customs authorities also asserted 
 that the stone brought from Hanham and Bath was liable to 
 the same duty. The claim, however, was soon afterwards
 
 68 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1816. 
 
 abandoned. On the completion of tlie new building, in 
 August, r820, the pi-i-souers in Newgate "were removed in 
 a wagon to their new quarters." The site of the old gaol 
 was thereupon re-purchased by the Corporation for £682, 
 and the materials were sold for £500. As will be seen here- 
 after, the new gaol was itself condemned as unfit for the 
 purpose for which it was constructed. 
 
 Great local rejoicing took place upon the 2nd May, 1816, 
 upon the occasion of the marriage of the Princess Charlotte 
 of Wales, heiress expectant to the throne, with Prince Leo- 
 pold of Saxe Coburg (maternal uncle of Queen Victoria). 
 The Common Council sent a deputation up to London, to 
 present an address to the Eegent on the happy event. As 
 the expense of the trip was £166 lis., the emissaries appear 
 to have enjoyed themselves. Unhappily the hopes which 
 were excited by the union were speedily blighted ; and the 
 princess's death in the following year evoked a manifestation 
 of national sorrow such as had never been witnessed since 
 the accession of the House of Brunswick. 
 
 Bull-baiting was still a popular amusement amongst the 
 lower classes. A paragraph in a local journal for June 8, 
 1816, gives the reader a brief but vivid glimpse of the 
 manners of the time : — "A poor animal was led through our 
 streets on Monday, with blue ribbons to its horns, for the 
 savage purpose of being baited on Clifton Down. One of 
 the ill effects of such an assemblage was a quarrel, in which 
 the parties agreed to fight, when a man of the name of 
 Donald was killed upon the first blow by a postboy of the 
 name of Lambert." There is no record that Lambert was 
 bi'ought to trial for the homicide. A few weeks later a 
 parochial constable complained in the newspapers that after 
 he had arrested a ruffian for an assault, the only two resident 
 aldermen, as well as the mayor, proved to be out of town, 
 and he was thus forced to release his prisoner. The latest 
 case of bull-baiting in Bristol noticed in the local press 
 occ-un-cd in 1822; but as the "s])ort" was continued at Wells 
 until 18o9 or 1840, it is not unlikely that the newspaper 
 record is defective. 
 
 On the 27tli July, the Duke of Wellington, the idolized 
 liero oF tlic time, paid a visit to Ih-istol in ri'sjionso to an 
 invitation from the Common Council, which had sent deputies 
 to Cheltenham for that purpose. His grace's entry was by 
 liedland, where the sheriffs wore in attendance to welcome 
 him to the city. In the procession which was then fornuul, 
 the duke's carriage was followed by the barouch of "that
 
 1816.] DEATH OP RICHARD REYNOLDS. 69 
 
 old veteran, Jolin Weeks," whose mode of displayinj^ his 
 enthusiasm was not less characteristic than it had been years 
 before (see p. 12), In the midst of laurels, roses, leeks, and 
 shamrocks, six ladies were seated in his vehicle, displaying 
 banners inscribed with mottoes in honour of the great captain 
 and his brother officers, while Weeks himself performed the 
 feat of bearing an Irish harp, a royal standard, and throe 
 other national flags. On arriving at a handsome triumphal 
 arch erected across Park Street, surmounted with *' a figure 
 of the genius of Bristol" — whatever that may have been,.; — 
 the horses of the noble visitor were removed by a party of 
 sixty men, whose habiliments would probably appear gro- 
 tesque to later eyes, but which, it is believed, formed the 
 customary garb of those who bore the members for Bristol 
 during the triumphal ceremony of chairing. The men were 
 *' dressed in black hats, white shirts over their waistcoats, 
 ornamented with white ribbons, black breeches and white 
 stockings." After being dragged to the Mansion House, 
 the duke was received by the mayor, aldermen, and coun- 
 cillors in the banqueting room, surrounded by the grandest 
 state paraphernalia. The mayor (Sir W. J. Struth) in a 
 brief address — the turgidness of which excited some ridicule 
 out of doors — presented his grace with the freedom of the 
 city in a gold box; and a similar gift was made, in much 
 more graceful terms, by the Merchants' Company through 
 their master. After a brief adjournment to the drawing- 
 room to gratify the curiosity of a large gathering of ladies, 
 the distinguished guest was conducted to the Merchants' Hall 
 for dinner. A sumptuous repast having been followed by a 
 few toasts, the duke left early in the evening to undergo a 
 similar reception at Gloucester. The cost of the entertain- 
 ment, including £100 for the loan of plate to decorate the 
 tables, £63 for the gold box, and £50 spent by the deputa- 
 tion to Cheltenham, was £925 17.«?. Much dissatisfaction 
 was expressed by the members of the Merchants' Society at 
 the conduct of the corporate officials, who, after borrowing 
 the Company's hall for the banquet, excluded its owners 
 from the feast. 
 
 The next public ceremonial in the city was of a more 
 touching character. On the 10th of September Richard 
 Reynolds, who has been styled '' the greatest of Bristol's 
 great philanthropists," expired at Cheltenham, where he 
 was sojourning by the advice of his physicians, and ten 
 days later his remains, which had been removed to Bristol, 
 were conveyed from his house in St, James's Square to the
 
 70 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1816. 
 
 burial-ground attached to the Friends' meeting-house in the 
 Friars. The attendance of mourners included many of the 
 resident clergy, dissenting ministers of every persuasion, 
 prominent citizens of every sect and party^ the staffs of the 
 various charitable institutions of the city, to which the 
 deceased had been a munificent patron, the children of the 
 parish schools of St. James's and St. Paul's, and great 
 numbers of the poorer classes, v^ho displayed much eager- 
 ness to pay a token of respect to the remains of their de- 
 parted friend. A more affecting ceremony was probably 
 never witnessed in the city. Mr. Eeynolds was a native of 
 Bristol, having been born in Corn Street in 1735; but he left 
 the city in early life, and his wealth was accumulated during 
 his long residence at and near Coalbrookdale. In 1804 he 
 returned to his native town, where he soon distinguished 
 himself by diffusive and universal benevolence, though from 
 his solicitude to escape notice only a few of his munificent acts 
 could be clearly traced. Of these may be mentioned a fund 
 of £10,500 invested in the hands of trustees for the benefit 
 of seven local charities, gifts of £2,000 and £4,000 for 
 augmenting the weekly payments to the inmates of Trinity 
 almshouses, and a donation of £2,600 for an extension of 
 the Infirmary. These instances, however, do little to show 
 the extent of his liberality. During one of the famine crises 
 which occurred during the great war, he remitted £20,000 to 
 an agent in London, and throughout his residence in Bristol 
 he employed four almoners charged to inquire into the state 
 of the poor and to distribute relief to the deserving. From 
 statements made by Mr. Rathbone, who published a sketch 
 of his career, Mr. Reynolds seems to have bestowed during 
 his life upwards of £200,000 in acts of charity, exclusive of 
 anonymous gifts of which no record appeared in his private 
 accounts. A few days after the funeral, a meeting was held 
 at the Guildhall, the mayor (Mr. J. Haythorne) presiding, 
 when it was resolved to establish a Reynolds' Commemo- 
 ration Society, for continuing relief to objects of his bounty, 
 for assisting the charities of the city, and especially for 
 succouring an institution founded by the deceased — tho 
 Samaritan Society. Unfortunately the support extended to 
 the Commemoration Society has never been worthy of its 
 objects. 
 
 During this year, the Freemasons of the city purchased a 
 lK)Use in JJridgc; Street for £1,600, and fitted it up for tho 
 use of the craft at a further expense of £2,000. The removal
 
 1816.] THE HOTWELL IN PROSPEROUS DAYS, 71 
 
 of the Freemasons' hall to Park Street will be recorded at a 
 later date. 
 
 An interesting paper on the declining popularity of the 
 Hotwell Spring, with suggestions for its revival, was ad- 
 dressed, in 1816, to the Society of Merchant Venturers by 
 Dr. Andrew Carrick, then one of the leading physicians of 
 Clifton. The paper did not reach the public until nearly 
 half a century later, being first published in the Bristol Times 
 o'f October 18, 1862. The following are extracts : " Seven 
 and twenty years ago (viz. 1789) when I first became ac- 
 quainted with the place, the Hotwells during summer was 
 one of the best-frequented and most crowded watering-places 
 in the kingdom. Scores of the first nobility were to be found 
 there every season, and such a crowd of invalids of all ranks 
 resorted to the waters that it was often difficult for them to 
 provide themselves with any sort of lodgings. About that 
 period a considerable number of lodging letters had in the 
 course of a few years realized very handsome fortunes, without 
 any complaint of extortionate exactions. [Matthews' Guide 
 to Bristol and Clifton, written in 1793, states that the general 
 price of lodgings was lO.s. per week in the summer and 5s. 
 per week in the winter half year; boarding 16s. per week ; 
 servants' rooms and boarding half price.] Three extensive 
 taverns were constantly full, and two spacious ballrooms were 
 profitably kept open. There was a well-attended ball, a 
 public breakfast, and a promenade every week, and often 
 twice a week. The pump-room was all day long the resort 
 of invalids, who left with the keeper of the well many 
 hundreds a year in voluntary donations, and from twelve 
 to two o'clock was generally so crowded that there was often 
 some difficulty in getting up to drink the water. The walk 
 adjoining was in the meantime filled with fashionable com- 
 pany, to whom the sublime scenery of the cliffs was enlivened 
 by the sounds of a band of music. The downs and all the 
 avenues to the Hotwells were filled with strings of carriages, 
 and with parties on horseback and on foot." Having drawn 
 this graphic sketch from personal experience. Dr. Carrick 
 proceeded to contrast it with the condition of the place in 
 1816 : " The silence of the grave, to which it seems the inlet. 
 Not a carriage to be seen once an hour, and scarcely more 
 frequently does a solitary invalid approach the neglected 
 spring. One of the ballrooms and taverns has been long ago 
 shut up, and the other with great difficulty kept open. The 
 lodging-houses, or such of them as still remain open, almost 
 entirely empty in summer, and not very profitably filled even
 
 72 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1816. 
 
 in winter." He went on to say that " not one tenth of the 
 visitors of rank and fortune,, and of invalids perhaps a still 
 smaller proportion" then resorted to the place; that the 
 letters of lodg-ing-s became " almost universally bankrupt in 
 a few years/' though visitors complained of " bad usage and 
 exorbitant charges;" and that the value of houses at the 
 Hotwells had " vastly depreciated — many houses, and even 
 whole rows, are unoccupied and as it were deserted." " With 
 great difficulty can a ball be supported once a fortnight at 
 Clifton ; no public breakfasts ; no promenades, or none de- 
 serving the name. At the Hotwells nothing of the kind." 
 Dr. Carrick attributed the declining fortunes of the spring, 
 chiefly, tp the fact that about 1790 its proprietors (the 
 Merchants Company) let the place at a price vastly beyond 
 its value, and allowed the tenant to impose an exorbitant 
 price — 26s. a month from each individual — for permission to 
 drink the water. People in health refused to pay the impost, 
 and betook themselves to other resorts. The charges thus 
 restricted the use of the water to those who were suffering 
 from consumption, and who were in fact incurable, and the 
 high rate of mortality amongst the drinkers cast discredit 
 upon the spring itself. "From the day that the Hotwell 
 became practically a fountain sealed to the lips of every one 
 but the actually moribund, the fame of the place began 
 rapidly to decline. None who drank of the Lethean waters 
 were thenceforth found to recover; because none did drink 
 of them but such as w^ere past recovery. It was now one 
 uniform black list of disappointment and death ; and in the 
 course of a very few years it became all over the kingdom 
 a source of horror and despair, instead of hope and con- 
 fidence, to be ordered to the HotAvells, from whose awful 
 bourne no traveller now returned." A subsidiary cause of 
 the decline was said to be the " difficult and dangerous " 
 descent from Clifton to the well. "To many the hire of a 
 carriage twice or thrice a day, at the increased charges of 
 such conveyances, presented an insuperable obstacle. To 
 others the fatigue and the terror of riding up and down the 
 precipitous track (for it even now scarcely deserves the name 
 of a road) of CTranl)y Hill was an objection not to be over- 
 come." Dr. Carrick concluded by suggesting that a com- 
 modious footpath might bo made from Trince's lUiiklings to 
 the bottom of Granby Hill, and that a carriage road should 
 be constructed from the Hotwell house to the downs. The 
 latter, ho urged, would not be diHicult, as " the s))ace at the 
 foot of Hi. Vincent's rocks is already ])racticable fur carriages.
 
 1817.] ROMAN RELICS. THE SILVER COINAGE. 73 
 
 or nearly so."* If this tliorouglifare were made, and the 
 tollgate [vvhicli then stood opposite the site now occupied by 
 Camp House] removed to the edg-e of the downs, Dr. Carrick 
 believed the improvements would offer " a material accom- 
 modation to that part of the parish, and a powerful incite- 
 ment to the use of the waters." The worthy doctor, however, 
 did not make allowance for the popularity of Continental 
 watering-places that arose after the conclusion of the long 
 French war, a popularity which struck a permanent blow at 
 all the English resorts of the wealthy classes. 
 
 On January 17, 1817, whilst workmen were engaged in 
 improving Leigh Down, the inclosure of which had been 
 recently eifected, they discovered a large quantity of Roman 
 coins, which had apparently been buried about six inches 
 below the turf. It was believed that about 1,000 pieces of 
 silver were found; but the labourers lost no time in disposing 
 of their booty, and about 500 coins at once disappeared. 
 The specimens seen by Mr. Seyer, who gave a lengthy 
 account of them in his history (vol. i. 164-173) ranged from 
 the reign of Nero to that of Constantius II., so that the 
 treasure was probably buried about the year 350. 
 
 From the beginning of the century the deteriorated con- 
 dition and scarcity of the silver coinage had been painfully 
 felt by the trading classes and the poor. In some districts 
 employers of labour, unable to obtain coins for the payment 
 of wages, issued cards which were equivalent to notes for 
 a given number of shillings ; and these billets passed with 
 comparative ease when confidence was placed in the issuers. 
 Forgeries, however, were often perpetrated, to the great 
 injury of the labouring community, as tradesmen made heavy 
 deductions on the value of the primitive notes to secure 
 themselves against loss. At a city meeting in Bristol, in 
 1803, it was stated, as the result of an extensive experiment, 
 that forty of the sixpences then current were not by weight 
 
 * Dr. Carrick here refers to operations which were proceeding at the time he 
 wrote. Down to 1816, St. Vincent's rocks protruded almost to the brink of the 
 Avon at high water, there being only a narrow path on the verge of the river to 
 admit of the towage of vessels. In 1816-17, when extreme distress prevailed 
 amongst the poor, owing to deficient harvests and the high price of food, a sub- 
 scription was raised for employing labourers, to which the Corporation subscribed 
 £211; and the Merchants' Society having granted permission to quarry the pro- 
 jecting rocks, a large quantity of stone was removed and broken for the roads 
 around the city. [Bedcliff Hill was lowered about three feet by another party of 
 labourers, the wages in both cases being provided out of the fund.j The 
 widening of the path continued for several years ; and it will be seen hereafter 
 that Dr. Carrick's suggested road was constructed in 1822.
 
 74 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1817. 
 
 worth more than lO.*. 9d., and twenty of the current shillingg 
 not more than 14s. bd. A memorial to the Government 
 praying for a new coinage was adopted, but nothing was 
 done ; and the old coins becoming steadily worse from year 
 to 5'ear, most of them at length became mere smooth pieces 
 of silver of less than half their assumed value. The difficulty 
 was exasperated in 1810-11 by the depreciation of bank 
 notes through excessive issues. A 20^. note being really 
 worth only about 14^. or 15.s. in gold, many who got posses- 
 sion of silver coin naturally refused to part with it in 
 exchange for paper, and thus shillings and sixpences became 
 scarcer than ever. Many persons now ventured to issue 
 " tokens," generally of about half their nominal value, un- 
 dertaking to redeem them for the sum they represented. 
 Knavish people followed this example, issuing debased 
 tokens, which were not intended to be, and which never were, 
 redeemed ; and the Government, whose short-sighted mis- 
 management had caused extreme embarrassment and distress 
 to the retail trade of the countiy, was forced to shut its 
 eyes whilst large profits were thus reaped at the expense of 
 the community. Another source of public injury was the 
 issue of 10s. notes by various persons, in spite of their 
 illegality; but several convictions took place in Bristol in 
 1815, which put an end to the system in this locality. At 
 the close of the war, when bank notes rose in value, the 
 hoarded silver money reappeared, and the currency of 
 tokens became illegal after December, 1814. Nearly all the 
 silver coin in circulation, however, was so much worn as to 
 be perfectly smooth on both sides ; and in July, 1816, owing to 
 mischievous rumours as to the intentions of the Government, 
 a panic arose in Bristol market, and rapidly spread to Bath 
 and other neighbouring towns, the refusal of many farmers 
 to accept the ''smooth shillings" in payment for thoir pro- 
 duce causing an almost complete suspension of business. 
 The Ministry at length saw the necessity of action, and a 
 largo coinage was ordered. On January 27, 1817, says the 
 diury of a contemporary citizen {Times and Mirror, April 11, 
 1885), "sixty boxes of the new silver coinage, of the value 
 of £-]C,000, were sent from the Mint to the mayor, to be 
 circulated in this city, which were deposited in the Council 
 House till the l^Jth February, when inspectors were a]ipointed 
 to examine the old silver and give the new in exchange, 
 which was done at the Council House, Guildhall, and 
 Merchants' Hall, for the space of fourteen days." Although 
 every genuine coin, however worn and defaced, was ex-
 
 1817.] INTRODUCTION OF STEAMBOATS. 75 
 
 changed at its full value^* many people, especially country- 
 folks, neglected the opportunity, and retained their hoards 
 until after the old coinage was declared an illegal tender. 
 The Bristol journals contain numerous advertisements of a 
 later date, in which tradesmen offered to allow their customers 
 Aid. for old sixpences, 9d. for shillings, and 2s. Id. for half- 
 crowns — the latter being soon scarce and curious. 
 
 The first steam vessel seen in Bristol made its appearance 
 in the Float in June, 1813, and is reported to have been 
 constructed under the direction of Mr. Theodore Lawrance, 
 one of the city coroners. It was called the Charlotte, and 
 was intended to carry passengers and goods between Bristol 
 and Bath. The boat had accommodation for twenty cabin 
 passengers, who paid half a crown each, the steerage fare 
 being Is. 6d. A few months later it was announced that the 
 journeys of the boat had been suspended during the rebuild- 
 ing of Keynsham bridge, but that it would resume work 
 shortly, a larger and quicker vessel being also promised at 
 au early date. The enterprise, however, proved a failure. 
 In the Bridal Journal of May 3, 1817, is a paragraph stat- 
 ing that the Britannia steam-packet had arrived in this port 
 from Swansea, ''making the passage against the ebb tide in 
 twelve hours." This vessel was built for the Dublin and 
 Holyhead service, and it is fair to surmise that the builders 
 sent her to Bristol in the hope of stirring up a feeling of 
 emulation amongst the citizens which might not be un- 
 profitable to themselves. If so, they were disappointed, for 
 the mercantile classes here made no efibrt to compete with 
 their northern rivals, who for several years had a monopoly 
 of steam traffic with Ireland. An advertisement in the 
 Bristol papers of July 28, 1821, at last announced that " the 
 steam-packets Talbot and Ivanhoe, so well known on the 
 Holyhead station" — where, it may be suspected, they had 
 been replaced by larger vessels — had "commenced plying 
 between Bristol and Cork;" and a paragraph of the same 
 date adds that the voyage was to be made in thirty hours. 
 The first steamboat from Bristol to Dublin started in May, 
 1822, for the summer season only, calls being made at Tenby 
 and Wexford on the outward, and at Liverpool on the return 
 voyage. A daily steamer to Newport started at the same 
 time. From inferential remarks in the contemporary press. 
 
 • The Corporation had old silver in the city chest to the larf^o amount of 
 £356 7s. 6(;. It sustained a loss in the exchange of £3 12s. ; in other words, 
 coins representing that sum proved to be counterfeit.
 
 76 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1817. 
 
 it is evident tliat many travellers refused to trust tlieir lives 
 to these dangerous novelties, in spite of difficulties and dis- 
 comforts attending the old mode of transit which seem almost 
 incredible in the present age. Mr. S. C. Hall, the well- 
 known art critic, in a little work published in 1861, wrote : — 
 ''In the year 1815 it was my lot to visit Ireland. I was 
 then a schoolboy in Bristol ; my family resided in Cork ; and 
 the voyage from one port to the other occupied just six 
 weeks. . . . The packet boat under the best circum- 
 stances was miserable enough. There was no separate 
 accommodation for ladies. To undress was out of the ques- 
 tion. Each passenger took his own sea store. Salt junk 
 and hard biscuit were the only food to be obtained if the 
 voyage lasted above three or four days. Imagine the 
 wretchedness ... of those who had to bear it for weeks ! 
 The case I have stated was by no means rare. The voyage 
 from Holyhead to Dublin often consumed a fortnight." It is 
 not surprising that in the face of such miseries old-fashioned 
 apprehensions of steam rapidly died out. In 1823 the 
 owners of the Irish steamers, in a petition to the Common 
 Council, stated that they proposed to run three vessels 
 weekly, but that the mayor's dues on the vessels would 
 amount to £359 yearly, and they prayed relief from a burden 
 which was not imposed either at Dublin or Liverpool. 
 Similar appeals were made by other companies ; and the 
 Corporation, though declining to abate the charge, voted a 
 sum of money to a committee, which practically refunded 
 the dues at the end of the season. By 1824 steamers had 
 come into general use for passenger traffic, and the Bristol 
 Steam Navigation Company, which was established in 1837, 
 soon possessed a numerous fleet. The slowness with which 
 Bristol is charged by her critics was, hoAvever, remarkably 
 exemplified in her attitude towards steam-tugs. Although 
 vessels of this class had been started on the Clyde in 1803, 
 and were soon after introduced on the Tyne, Mersey, and 
 Tliamos, and although the cost of towing by men and horses, 
 whether on entering or leaving the Avon, was £9 for a 
 vessel of only 100 tons, many years passed away before 
 I^ristol shipowners thought of resorting to steam power, by 
 wliich the cost would have ])een largely reduced. The 
 Chamber of Commerce vainly pointed out, in 182 t, that tugs 
 were succesHfully cm])loyed at all the other leading ports. 
 Two well-known Bristolians, Mr, C. Claxton and Mr. M. 
 Whitwill, showed by actual ox]ieritnont that steam power 
 was cfjually applicable here, but tlieir arguments for its
 
 1817.] FATAL SHIPWRECK. VISIT OP THE QUEEN. 77 
 
 adoption met with no response ; and the Common Council 
 passed a resolution affirming' that its members " at present 
 were not capable of forming- any accurate judgment of the 
 expediency of the proposed plan.'^ The Great Western 
 steamer was designed about ten years later for opening 
 rapid communication with America, yet local bigwigs refused 
 to admit that either time or money would be saved by sub- 
 stituting steam-tugs for men and horses on the Avon. In 
 short, it was not until 1836 that a little vessel called the 
 Fiirij was brought into operation between Kingroad and 
 Bristol. Her appearance excited disturbances at Pill amongst 
 the labourers who gained a scanty living by acting- as towers. 
 In February, 1836, the Fury was seized by a party of these 
 men, who attempted to scuttle her, but finally set her adrift 
 on the Severn. The vessel, however, soon returned to work, 
 and her success being beyond dispute, the old arrangements 
 at last became a matter of history. [The Fury was de- 
 stroyed in Kingroad, by the explosion of her boiler, on the 
 21st September, 1859.] 
 
 On the night of the 23rd October, 1817, the sailing packet 
 William and Mary, which had left Bristol a few hours 
 previously for Waterford, with a number of passengers, 
 struck on a rock near the Flat Holmes, and almost immedi- 
 ately sank. Out of about sixty persons who were on board 
 only twenty-three were saved. The night was clear, with 
 only a gentle breeze blowing, and the disaster was unques- 
 tionably due to the flagrant misconduct of the mate, who had 
 been left in charge by the captain. The inhuman criminal 
 saved his own life by forcing some ladies to quit the only 
 boat — holding four persons — belonging to the packet. Most 
 of the survivors were rescued by Pill pilots. 
 
 Queen Charlotte, wife of George III., being on a visit to 
 Bath for the purpose of drinking the waters, was invited 
 to this city by the mayor and Corporation, and responded 
 to their request by driving over on the 17th December, ac- 
 companied by the Duke of Clarence, afterwards William IV., 
 and the Princess Elizabeth. After breakfasting at the 
 Mansion House, the royal party crossed Prince's Street 
 bridge, and proceeded along the " newly formed road " by 
 the side of the New Cut to the Hotwells. They then re- 
 turned to College Green, ascended Park Street, and drove 
 through Berkeley Square to Clifton, " passing under the 
 York Crescent, up Sion Hill, and through the turnpike to 
 the Look-out (Wallis's Wall),* on Durdham Down;" returning 
 
 • Now called Sea Walls.
 
 78 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1817. 
 
 througli anotlier part of Clifton to Colonel Baillie's residence * 
 in Park Row, wliere '^ every delicacy and luxury of the 
 season " was " served up in the drawing-room on a most 
 costly service of embossed plate." On returning, the queen 
 was to have gone over the Drawbridge and through Clare 
 Street and Corn Street; but as the procession approached, 
 the rigging of a small vessel passing the bridge, which was 
 then really a drawbridge, got entangled in the lifted struc- 
 ture — an accident of common occurrence. The royal carriage 
 was consequently stopped ; and as the Float was then the 
 receptacle of the city sewage, the overpowering odour of 
 the water is said by a local poet to have forced her majesty 
 to " snuff her royal nose." [" Rhymes, Latin and English," 
 by the Rev. John Eagles.] Her majesty had at last to be 
 taken to Bristol Bridge by way of Nelson Street, Union 
 Street, and Dolphin Street, the beauties of which thorough- 
 fares she had an opportunity of admiring, as the cortege 
 proceeded at " a slow rate." The queen, who died in the 
 following year, was far from popular, and a courtly news- 
 writer in the city noted, with assumed '' surprise," that the 
 tradesmen in the principal streets manifested no tokens of 
 mourning on her demise. 
 
 An illustration of the bibulous habits of the Regency is 
 afforded by a tavern bill paid by a Bristolian in August, 
 1817, to the landlord of the Montagu Hotel (communicated 
 to the Times and Mirror, May 24, 1873). The dinner, which 
 was for twelve guests, and included venison and turtle, was 
 charged 14 guineas ; dessert, 2 guineas. The giver of the 
 feast supplied twelve bottles of wine from his private cellar. 
 Beside this, the guests drank claret costing £7 ; IMadeira, 
 £1 18,v. ; two bottles of hock, £1 8.<f. ; two bottles of cham- 
 pagne, £1 14.S'. ; and two bottles of port, 12.s. Altogether 
 the party must have swallowed about three bottles of liquor 
 per head. The hotel bill amounted to £31 7.'?., exclusive of 
 the wine privately supplied. 
 
 At a meeting of the Common Council in August, Alderman 
 Daniel announced that a citizen of iirisldl, Thomas Bonville, 
 had authorized him to express his willingness to transfer into 
 the hands of the Corporation, for charitable purposes, several 
 Bums of money invested in rJovornmont soouritios, subject to 
 the life interest of himself and others. The Council accepted 
 the proposed trust. In February, 1822, Alderman l^aniel 
 announced that Mr. Bonville proposed to hand over — subject 
 
 • Site of the Prince's Theatre.
 
 1817.] BONVILLE AND BENGOUGh's CHARITIES. 79 
 
 to a similar proviso — a further considerable sum, which was 
 also accepted. Altogether the douations amounted to about 
 £32,800 iu three per cent, stock, ten shares in the Bristol 
 Dock Company, and £1,200 in dock bonds; producing a 
 revenue of upwards of £1,000 per annum. Upon the decease 
 in April, 1842, of Mrs. Bonville, widow of the donor, the 
 Charity Trustees, who had taken the place of the Corporation, 
 came into possession of nearly all the income, and the last 
 annuitant died in 1866. The receipts, in accordance with Mr. 
 Bonville's trust deeds, are distributed yearly in sums varying 
 from £5 5.s'. to £21 amongst 124 poor housekeepers and 
 residents in the " ancient city," of a station of life superior 
 to that of recipients of parochial relief. In some remarks on 
 charitable bequests in the Bridal Times of April 4, 1874, the 
 editor said : " Benevolent deeds done to the world at large 
 while there are those of our own family who are in need can 
 scarcely be an acceptable offering either to heaven or society. 
 There is on our local list of charities one — that of Bonville's — 
 the founder of which got the money which he bequeathed 
 through marriage with a lady, some of whose relations were 
 poor when he passed them over to endow strangers." 
 
 The Common Council were informed by Mr. H. Bright in 
 December, 1817, that a member of the Corporation "taking 
 into consideration the length of time (now 400 years) since 
 any member hath endowed a hospital as a perpetual place of 
 refuge for the aged and infirm," proposed at his own charge 
 to execute a deed granting to the Corporation in perpetuity 
 the reversion and inheritance of a freehold estate purchased by 
 him for the purpose, and situate in the parishes of Nempnett 
 and Blagdon, the rack rental of which, subject to several 
 leases for lives, was estimated at £600. The donor proposed 
 that the Corporation, pending the existence of the leases, 
 should allow the income to accumulate, and that when the 
 entire property had fallen in hand an almshouse should be 
 erected for the residence of poor aged people, in the propor- 
 tion of three women to one man, half of the inmates to be 
 members of the Church of England, and the remainder 
 Dissenters. The Council, in accepting the trust, expressed 
 its opinion that the gift reflected the highest honour on the 
 Corporation. As was announced by Mr. Bright at the next 
 meeting, the benevolent donor was Alderman Bengongh — 
 long the ruling member of the civic body — who was then 
 suffering from an illness which proved fatal. On his demise, 
 in the following April, it was found that the alderman, 
 though a Unitarian, had expressed a wish in his will to be
 
 80 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1818. 
 
 buried in the Mayor's Chapel, and had left a large sum for 
 the erection of a monument there to his memory. The Court 
 of Aldermen gave the required permission for the interment, 
 and it appears from the civic records that the inscription upon 
 the monument was achieved by Mr. Bengough's former 
 colleagues. His intentions with reference to the hospital, 
 which legally were void under the statute of mortmain, were, 
 under the provisions of his will, fulfilled by his nephew and 
 heii*, George Bengough, who executed a conveyance of the 
 estate in September, 1818. The last of the leases expired in 
 1878, when the accumulated profits exceeded £11,000. The 
 trustees shortly afterwards proceeded to the erection of a 
 handsome almshouse in the Queen Anne style, a piece of 
 ground in Horfield Road being purchased for the purpose 
 from the Merchants' Society. The building cost about 
 £5,500, and the site £3,500. A peculiarity of this charity — 
 suggested by its founder — is that some of the inmates are 
 aged married couples. 
 
 At the December meeting of the Common Council it was 
 reported that the accounts of the late chamberlain, Wintour 
 Harris, who had died a few months previously, showed a 
 serious deficiency. The sureties were called upon to make 
 good the sum of £3,600, which was subsequently reduced to 
 £3,000 on the surrender by Mrs. Harris of certain securities. 
 The new chamberlain, John Langley, was deprived of his post 
 in 1822, on the ground that he had allowed his sisters to claim 
 and collect the rents of a small property in Portwall Lane, 
 which really belonged to Whitson's charities. The matter is 
 obscurely recorded in the civic minute books, and it is 
 significant that a common councillor forthwith resigned in 
 order to take the office of deputy chamberlain, in the place 
 of Mr. Garrard, promoted. The defalcations of the new 
 chamberlain will be noticed hereafter. 
 
 In January, 1818, Sir Vicary Gibbs, Lord Chief Justice 
 of the Common Pleas, resigned the office of Rccordor of 
 Bristol, owing to ill health. His lordship was notabk' in his 
 time as a stickler for the maintenance of his personal dignity, 
 and always had an officer to gallop before his carriage on his 
 to and fro journeys between Bath and Bristol. Ho was also 
 famed for an acrid temper, which earned him the name of 
 Sir Vinegar, and for extreme harshness towards offenders 
 tried before him. On one occasion a criminal named Ijowis 
 received the following sentence: — "You are to l)e whipped 
 at a cart's tail from Newgate to the Gallows Field" [the site 
 of Highbury Chapel], 'i'ho prisoner having rashly retorted : 
 
 4»!-i<«"
 
 1818.] A NEW RECORDER. SIR T. WHITe's CHARITY. 81 
 
 " Thank you, my lord, tliat is all you cau do," Sir Vicary 
 coolly added, as if he had been interrupted, " and back 
 again." Ho was a favourite, however, of the Corporation, 
 which in 181G paid Mr. Owen, R.A., £131 for painting his lord- 
 ship's portrait. The new recorder was Sir Robert Gilford, 
 then Solicitor-General, and subsequently Lord Chief Justice 
 and a peer. At this period, and down to 1827, the recorders 
 were accustomed to hold only one assize yearly, to the great 
 injury of persons committed for trial, some of whom, after 
 lying in the filthy and unwholesome gaol for nearly twelve 
 months before their cases were decided, were found guiltless 
 of the crimes imputed to them. 
 
 The Bristol Crown Fire Office, established in 1718, became 
 extinct through effluxion of time early in 1818. A new 
 company, however, was established under the name of the 
 Crown Fire Office, and an advertisement soliciting continued- 
 support appeared on the 17th January. A portion of the old 
 proprietors seceded, and started a new concern called the 
 Bristol Union Fire Office. The latter company, the last local 
 institution of the kind, resolved on discontinuing business on 
 the 3rd of May, 1844. The goodwill of the concern was 
 purchased by the Imperial Company, which had in January, 
 1840, bought up the business of the Crown office. 
 
 During the month of January, 1818, an altar tomb, bearing 
 an effigy, which had been plastered over early in the present 
 century, when the building* was repewed, was discovered in 
 a recess in the south aisle of St. James's Church. The local 
 Monkbarns of the time forthwith rushed to the conclusion 
 that the tomb was that of Robert, Earl of Gloucester, the 
 builder of Bristol Castle and founder of St. James's Priory ; 
 and an inscription to that effect, bearing the alleged arms of 
 the earl, was placed over the monument. Scientific anti- 
 quaries are agreed in repudiating the authenticity of the effigy, 
 which is of later date than the period assigned to it, and 
 clearly represents a civilian. 
 
 In the year 1818, the Attorney-General, at the instance 
 of several corporate towns interested in Sir Thomas White's 
 charities, filed an information against the Corporation of 
 Bristol in reference to its management of the estates. In 
 the year 1562, Sir Thomas White, an alderman of London, 
 gave £2,000 to be laid out in the purchase of land for 
 charitable uses, to produce " six score pounds or more,'^ the 
 Mayor and Corporation of Bristol being appointed trustees. 
 Sir Thomas ordered that, for the first ten years £100 yearly 
 were to be advanced for the benefit of poor apprentices in 
 
 G
 
 82 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1818. 
 
 Bristol, to be selected by the Council ; then, for twenty-four 
 years, the same nutober of English Corporations were in 
 succession to receive £104 each, to be applied to a similar 
 purpose ; and finally, at the end of thirty-four years, the 
 rotation was to recommence. No provision was made for 
 the application of the surplus, and it was supposed that the 
 donor intended it to provide for contiug-encies. But in the 
 course of years the estates orig-inally producing about " six 
 score pounds " were estimated to be of the value of £3,500 
 a year, and the question raised by the information was 
 whether the surplus should be appropriated by the Corpora- 
 tion of Bristol, as had hitherto been the case, or should be 
 divided amongst the Corporations benefited by the original 
 gift. The Bristol Council, contending that it was entitled 
 to the balance, raised a demurrer, which was overruled by 
 the vice-chancellor; but the cause was then carried on 
 appeal to Lord-Chancellor Eldon, whose strong sympathies 
 with Corporations overpowered his customary love of delay, 
 and led to the immediate reversal of the previous judgment. 
 
 At the general election in 1818, Mr. E. H. Davis again 
 came forward in the Tory interest. Mr. Protheroe's votes 
 in support of Lord Sidmouth's repressive system of govern- 
 ment (the Habeas Corpus Act had been again suspended in 
 the previous year) had offended many of the Whigs, and, 
 finding that they proposed to start Colonel Hiigh Baillie, who 
 was a parliamentary reformer, and an opponent of the laws 
 against Roman Catholics, he declined to offer himself. Some 
 of his supporters, however, insisted upon nominating him, 
 and after a poll of four days, ending on the 20th June, 
 during which many Tories split their votes in his favour, 
 he was elected. The numbers were: Mr. Davis, 3,377; Mr, 
 Protheroe, 2,250 ; Colonel Baillie, 1,684. The friends of the 
 rejected candidate petitioned against the return, on the 
 ground that the sheriffs, by prematurely closing the poll, 
 had prevented nearly a thousand non-resident freemen from 
 voting. The petition was unsuccessful. A few months later 
 a serious misunderstanding arose between Mr. Protheroe and 
 his comniittee (of which Mr. W. Fri])p, jun., was chairman), 
 respecting the expenses of the election, and the former 
 announced that ho should not again solicit the representation 
 of the city. Mr. Fripp's name subsequently appeared in 
 the list of Icarling Tories. 
 
 An Act of Parliament having been j)asscd this year 
 appropriating the sum of one million sterling of the national 
 funds towards the erection of additional churches in popu-
 
 1819.] FLOGGING CRIMINALS IN WINE STREET, 83 
 
 lous places, an early application was made to the Ministry 
 by the authorities of St. Augustine's parish, for a grant in 
 aid of the erection of a projxjscd church near Brandoii hill. 
 A donation, equal to one-third of the cost of the building 
 and site (£7,000), having been made in October, the work 
 was begun shortly afterwards, the workmen in the first 
 place removing seven houses partially erected on the spot 
 many years before, but never finished. [Other uncompleted 
 houses in the neighbourhood remained in ruins many years 
 after this date.] The church was consecrated in September, 
 1823. In December, 1832, a portion of St. Augustine's 
 parish was separated from the mother church, and formed 
 into an independent parish, called St. George's, the incumbent 
 of which became a vicar. The new church, as originally 
 built, Avas destitute of a chancel, but an annexe, after the 
 model of some ancient basilicas, was erected in 1871. 
 
 The punishment of whipping appears to have been still 
 highly approved by the local justices, and continued so for 
 several years. The Bristol Journal of December 4, 1819, 
 contained the following : — " A man who has been loitering 
 about our city for some days, and who was taken to the 
 Council-house charged with being a nuisance, was publicly 
 whipped on Tuesday at the pump in Wine Street, and im- 
 mediately after passed to his parish. We cannot too hig-hly 
 applaud the conduct of the magistrates." The same paper 
 of May 12, 1821, stated that "three men were flog-ged yes- 
 terday at Wine Street pump, being apprehended as rogues 
 and vagabonds." A month later, it is recorded that " a man 
 was placed in the stocks in St. James's churchyard last week 
 for drunkenness." In August, 1823, to quote the same 
 authority, a man and two boys were flogged through Bed- 
 minster for stealing fruit from a garden. To give one more 
 example, the Journal of April 22, 1826, reported that a man 
 convicted of stealing a piece of meat had received forty- 
 eight lashes at Wine Street pump. " During the exhibition 
 several persons in the crowd had their pockets picked." 
 
 The Bristolians who ventured at this early period to 'Hrans- 
 parish" themselves to Clifton must have found that subur- 
 ban enjoyments were not without a drop of bitterness. The 
 Bristol Journal of November 27, 1819, after recording several 
 highway robberies in the suburbs, added : — " The roads lead- 
 ing to Clifton are so infested at night with desperadoes that 
 few gentlemen think it safe to walk about alone or unarmed ; 
 and yet we hear that at a vestry meeting of the parish on 
 Thursday, to propose measures for lighting and watching it^
 
 84 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL, [1819. 
 
 a majority determined that it was unnecessary." Repeated 
 attempts were made witlioiit success to overcome tlie invete- 
 rate conservatism, or perhaps the parsimony, of the parish- 
 ioners. At length, however, a Watching and Lighting Act 
 was obtained during the session of 1824, and a sprinkling- of 
 gaslights and a few night-constables were establislied during 
 the ensuing winter. Another great improvement dates from 
 the year now under review. The roads in Clifton had 
 hitherto been in as unsatisfactory a state as was the police of 
 the parish. But amongst a number of roads which became 
 turnpikes under an Act obtained in 1819 were ''the road 
 from the top of Bridge Valley, along the southern side of 
 Durdham Down, to the top of Gallows Acre Lane " (Pem- 
 broke Road), and "the road from the bottom of Grranby Hill 
 to the Hot-well pumping room." The construction of several 
 new roads was authorised by the same Act, amongst them 
 being " a new road to lead from . . . the Hot-well pump- 
 ing room, to lead or pass by the river side, and up the 
 hill, into the road leading from Clifton to Pill Passage, at 
 the top of Bridge Valley." Dr. Carrick's suggestion (see 
 p. 72) was thus adopted, and the new thoroughfare, laid out 
 in 1822, afforded Cliftonians a point of view which has ever 
 since been a theme of admiration. 
 
 A few references to the coaching arrangements of this 
 
 period may not be unworthy of record. On the 6th April, 
 
 1819, a new coach began running from the Bush Hotel to 
 
 Exeter, the time occupied in the journey, 74| miles, being 
 
 fourteen hours — less than 5^ miles an hour! In June, 1820, 
 
 another new coach started for Manchester, performing the 
 
 journey in two days — the intervening night being spent at 
 
 Birmingham. To accomplish the first half of the task, the 
 
 vehicle left Bristol at half past eight in the morning, and 
 
 reached Birmingham, 85A miles, in thirteen hours. Finally, 
 
 an advertisement published in December, 1821, headed 
 
 " speed increased," informed the public that the Regulator 
 
 coach left London daily at 5 a.m., and arrived at the White 
 
 Hart, Bristol, at five minutes before nine at night — the speed 
 
 being barely seven miles an hour. 
 
 Great consternation was caused in the city and neighbour- 
 hood on the 5th July, 1819, by the failure of the Tolzey 
 Bank, tlio ])r()|)rietors of wliicli Avero Messrs. Worrall and 
 Pope. Though of recent origin, tlio bank luxd issued a great 
 number of notes for 20.«(. and 80.s. cacli, and the disaster 
 affected all classes in tlic lociiHty, "causing a "run" upon 
 sorao of the otlier banks, then eleven in uniiiber. Tlie town
 
 1819.] A BIBULOUS TOWN CLERK. 85 
 
 clerk, Mr. Samuel Worrall,* being one of the partners in the 
 Tolzey concern, was obliged to resign his office a few clays 
 later, on being declared a bankrupt. He was succeeded, on 
 the 22nd July, by Mr. Ebenezer Ludlow, afterwards a ser- 
 jeant-at-law. At a meeting of the Common Council, in 
 December, it was ordered that, in consideration of Mr. 
 Worrall's faithful services for thirty-two years, the sum of 
 £400 should be annually paid to the mayor and aldermen, in 
 trust for the use of the late town clerk and of his wife and 
 family, for the remainder of his life. Mr. Worrall, who died 
 in November, 1821, was in his prosperous days a man of 
 great entertaining powers in convivial society, which led 
 to his introduction to the Prince Regent, and he was a fre- 
 quent guest at Carlton House. On the other hand, he was 
 rude and coarse to his inferiors, and gained in some way the 
 name of " Devil Worrall," of which he seemed proud. The 
 present town clerk, Mr. D. Travers Burges, has been good 
 enough to furnish the following anecdote, preserved in one 
 of his late father's note-books, which affords an illustration 
 of the social habits of the upper middle class in the early 
 years of the century : — " Worrall lived for many years in a 
 house opposite the Council House, and on one occasion, upon 
 coming home from a party a little ' elevated,' as he was get- 
 ting out of the hackney coach his foot slipped, and he fell to 
 the ground. A crowd immediately assembled, and amongst 
 them a very harmless and quiet silk mercer who resided in 
 High Street, of the name of Camplin. Worrall, still on his 
 back, fixed his eyes on the unfortunate mercer, and pointing 
 at him said, ^ That's the man that knocked me down,' upon 
 which the crowd took part with the town clerk, and poor 
 Camplin, protesting his innocence, was obliged to run." 
 To fully realise this scene it must be remembered that the 
 bibulous official presided on the magisterial bench at every 
 quarter sessions. 
 
 In July, 1819, the Common Council increased the allow- 
 ance to the master of Queen Elizabeth's Hospital — who then 
 fed and educated the boys by contract — to £20 per head. 
 This was the last of several advances made in consequence of 
 the great rise in prices in the early years of the century. 
 Down to the outbreak of the French war, the master received 
 £12 per head for the food and instruction of the boys. In 
 
 * In addition to his high position in the Corporation and bis business as a 
 banker, Mr. Worrall held the (xovernment appointment of distributor of stamps, 
 and the patent office of publisher of the Bristol presentment in connection with 
 the custom house.
 
 86 THE AI^NALS OP BRISTOL. [1819. 
 
 tte years of scarcity which followed, the Council allowed 
 him an extra lump sum of £70. This being found inade- 
 quate, an advance of £3 per head instead of tlie gratuity was 
 made in 1805, £2 additional was voted in 1806, £1 more in 
 1813, and £2 more, as stated above, in 1819. A year or two 
 later, '^ in consequence of the reduction in the price of pro- 
 , visions," the grant was again fixed at £17 a head, but the 
 ^ master received a further allowance of £50 for instruction. 
 The contract system was also adopted in the Red Maids' 
 and Colston's Schools, and from some reminiscences of 
 " old boys," published in the Bristol Times in November, 
 1856, it appears that the fare in the latter institution down 
 to the end of the Eegency was of a somewhat Spartan char- 
 acter. On Saturdays the dinner of the boys consisted of 
 milk gruel, with bread only. On Mondays they were regaled 
 with water gruel, and bread and butter. For the rest of the 
 week they had meat, with bread or vegetables. Breakfast 
 always consisted of bread and butter ; for supper there was 
 .a double allowance of bread, with butter or cheese. Table 
 beer was given with each meal. The boys were required to 
 mop and scrub the schoolroom, dormitories, and hall, and 
 performed various other menial duties. Details are wanting 
 in reference to the Red Maids' School, but if the accomplish- 
 ments of the mistresses are to be inferred from the caligraphy 
 of one of them appointed about this time, and whose sig- 
 nature is found in the aldermanic minute book, there can 
 have been little ground for the old-fashioned complaint that 
 the girls were '' spoilt by education." 
 
 Edward Bird, the only artist resident in Bristol ever 
 honoured with the title of Royal Academician, expired after 
 a protracted illness on the 2nd November, at his house in 
 King's Parade. His interment took place a week later at 
 the cathedra], when about two hundred leading residents 
 attended to mark their respect for a man whose distinguished 
 talents had conferred honour on the city. A subscription 
 was subsequently raised for the relief of the deceased's 
 family, to which Prince Leopold, husband of the late Prin- 
 cess Charlotte, to wliom Bird was a])})ointed historical 
 painter, sent £100. The Earl of liridgwater gave £650 for 
 a picture of "the embarkation of Louis XVllL," the last 
 great work of tlio artist. In tlu^ memoir of Bird published in 
 Cunningham's " Lives of British J'ainters," strong charges 
 were made against the citizens of l^ristol for their alleged 
 neglect of the painter, but these statements were controverted 
 in nidckwood's Marjazine tor Dcccuibcr, 1S;)3, in a paper by
 
 1820.] ACCESSION OF GEORGE IV. ELECTION. 87 
 
 Bird's friend, the Rev. J. Eagles. Subsequently the charges 
 were revived by Mrs. S. C. Hall in the Art Journal, for 
 April, 1843, when Mr. Eagles again stigmatised them as 
 untruthful in the Bristol Journal of the 22nd April of the 
 same year. 
 
 The death of George TIL occurred on the 29th January, 
 1820. The proclamation of his successor took place five days 
 afterwards, and as no such event had occurred within the 
 memory of nineteen-twentieths of the population, it excited 
 some interest. The members of the Corporation assembled 
 at the Council House in their black robes, but after proclaim- 
 ing the new king at the site of the High Cross, they returned 
 to their place of meeting and donned their scarlet habili' 
 ments. A procession was then formed, the mayor (Mr. W. 
 Fripp, junr.) and sheriffs taking their places in "a splendid 
 car, carried by twenty-four men," and proclamation was 
 made at the customary sites. At three of these — St. Peter's 
 pump, St. Thomas's conduit, and the Quay pipe — a hogshead 
 of wine was distributed to tlae populace, and four hogsheads 
 of porter were given away at other places. Altogether, the 
 Corporation spent £279 over the ceremony. Drinking ap- 
 pears to have been thought the most appropriate manner of 
 inaugurating the new reign. According to the accounts of 
 the Commercial Rooms for that year, the committee spent £67 
 18.S'. llfZ. of the proprietors' money on wine "drunk on the 
 night of his majesty's accession" ! Perhaps these and other 
 excesses brought about a certain amount of reaction. Down 
 to this period it had been the custom, on the evening of the 
 king's birthday, for the mayor and aldermen to invite many 
 of their friends and acquaintances to drink his majesty's 
 health at the Council House. A company of soldiers, stand- 
 ing opposite to the building, fired salutes at intervals, and 
 a military baud, stationed on the stairs, rendered musical 
 honours to the carousal. Unseemly results had frequently 
 arisen from this custom, which was also regarded by many 
 as a gross misappropriation of the civic revenue ; and the 
 entertainment, which generally cost from £80 to £90, was 
 now abolished. 
 
 The general election caused by the demise of the crown 
 found both political parties in Bristol in a state of disorgani- 
 sation. In the previous year., Mr. R. H. Davis, the Tory 
 member, had been plunged in financial embarrassments by 
 the ill success of a funding scheme, which, it is said, the 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr. Vansittart) had adopted 
 under his advice, though some contemporaries gave the credit
 
 88 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1820. 
 
 or discredit of the sug-g-estion to Dr. Beeke, tlie Dean of 
 Bristol, another private friend of the minister. In either 
 case^ Mr. Davis, having lost heavily by speculations con- 
 nected with the scheme, had withdrawn from the local 
 banking, mercantile, and manufacturing firms of which he 
 was a partner, and the Steadfast Society (svhich claimed the 
 right of nominating the "blue" candidate), under the belief 
 that the honourable gentleman would be unable to continue 
 his former profuse expenditure at elections, did not invite 
 him to come forward. Mr. Davis, deeply hurt, consequently 
 announced his retirement, observing in his address to the 
 electors that " under the painful recollections of the past 
 year, an invitation would have poured balm into a wounded 
 mind." Mr. P. J. Miles was chosen by the Steadfast Society 
 as their champion, but his acceptance of their proposal was 
 briskly followed by a withdrawal. Much difference of opinion 
 became apparent in the party, the friends of Mr. Davis being 
 indignant at the action of the society ; and the latter at 
 length declined to nominate a candidate unless the late 
 member refused to offer himself. In the meantime, Mr. 
 Davis had found sympathisers whose " libei-ality," to use his 
 own words, had " removed the obstacles which originally 
 opposed" his candidature, and he again took the field. 
 These incidents excited much irritation, and greatly shook 
 the influence of the Steadfast Club, which had been allowed 
 for many years to nominate persons for Government appoint- 
 ments. (The value of the offices under its " patronage " was 
 estimated at upwards of £20,000 a year.) On the other hand, 
 the division caused amongst the Whigs by the contest of 
 1818 continued to rankle. Mr. Henry Bright having offered 
 himself, a discontented section of the pai'ty nominated Mr. 
 J. E. Baillio without obtaining his consent, and insisted on 
 demanding a poll. In the result Mr. Bright had 2,997 
 votes; Mr. Davis, 2,250; and Mr. Baillie, 115. Mr. Davis 
 refused to be chaired, by which he saved his friends an 
 expenditure of about £2,500. Mr. Bright, however, continued 
 the old practice, and John Evans states that " he appeared 
 in a procession of s]ilcndour without example on similar 
 occasions." \_CJtro)i. Jlisf. p. 310.] 
 
 The Common Council wore informed in Juno that Mr. 
 Ahlerman Ames, who died a few weeks previously, had 
 devised the sum of £1,200 in consols to the Corporation, 
 in trust to purchase for the night constal)le and nine night 
 watclimen of the ward of St. Mary-le-port " a good and sub- 
 stantial great coat, a good strong p;iir of boots, and a good
 
 1820,] QUEEN CAROLINE. A VOLUNTEER POLICE. 89 
 
 strong hat, every two years." Mr. Ames had been many 
 years aklorraan of the ward. On the estabhshment of the 
 present poHce force, the Corporation, on the pretext that 
 the kind-hearted gentk'man's bequest could no longer be 
 applied in accordance with his intentions, thoughtlessly threw 
 the £1,200 into the borough fund, and without doing any 
 appreciable good to anybody the donation was irrecoverably 
 lost. 
 
 Much inconvenience being caused by the want of a trust- 
 worthy public clock in the city, the Corporation ordered the 
 erection of a timepiece at the Exchange. The clock, which 
 was set up during the spring, cost £166 9s. 
 
 The forced withdrawal of the Bill of Pains and Penalties 
 against Queen Caroline was hailed by a majority of the 
 citizens with demonstrations of delight. In spite of a cir- 
 cular issued by the magistrates " earnestly recommending " 
 the inhabitants to abstain from " a measure which might 
 disturb the peace of the city," a spontaneous illumination took 
 place on the 13th November; and it was remarked by the 
 unsympathetic editor of the Bristol Journal that the display 
 extended to, and was most general in, the districts inhabited 
 by the labouring classes. " The splendour of the dwellings 
 of the out-door paupers," wrote the angry scribe, " announced 
 that the whole week's allowance from the workhouse had 
 been expended in honour of Queen Caroline." On the other 
 hand, the upper class Tories displayed their affection for 
 George IV. by keeping their houses in darkness. A con- 
 gratulatory address to the Queen on the defeat of her per- 
 secutor was afterwards adopted at a meeting in the Guildhall, 
 and this again was followed by a gathering of the king's 
 friends, at which an address expressing fidelity to the 
 monarch, and horror at the " treason and blasphemy " 
 abetted by a '^licentious press," was agreed upon with 
 enthusiasm. 
 
 The following paragraph, from the Bristol Journal of 
 December 16, 1820, indicates the miserable inefficiency of 
 the police of the city at this date : " We hear that the 
 inhabitants of College-green and its vicinity have enrolled 
 themselves, for the purpose of patrolling- the neighbourhood 
 nightly, during the winter, by an alternate watch of four 
 hours each, armed with a bludgeon, dirk, and pistol. AVere 
 this plan generally adopted, it would doubtlessly bo the 
 means of preventing many depredations." Although the 
 Common Council regarded this scandalous state of affairs 
 with perfect indifference, it allowed one of its members.
 
 90 THE ANNALS OF BEISTOL. [1821. 
 
 Mr. J. George, the exorbitant sum of £903 10s. 4-d. for serving 
 tlie office of slierifF a second time during this year. 
 
 A controversy between the Corporation and Mr. Edward 
 Griffith, steward (judge) of the Tolzey Court, broke out 
 about this time. It appeared from the complaints of the 
 Bristol solicitors that Mr. Griffith, having succeeded in ob- 
 taining an appointment as a stipendiary magistrate in London, 
 had taken up his residence in the capital, and persistently 
 neglected his duties in the Tolzey Court, although continuing 
 to receive the fees of his office. Remonstrances being with- 
 out effect, the Common Council resolved, on the 6th January, 
 1821, that as Mr. Griffith had left the city, caused great 
 inconvenience to the public by absenting himself fi-om his 
 court, and ignored the summons to attend that meeting, he 
 should be " amoved and removed " from his functions. Mr. 
 Griffith had the audacity to appeal to the superior courts in 
 support of his claim to tlie judgeship, but was unsuccessful, 
 and thenceforth dropped out of sight. 
 
 Much to the displeasure of many residents in the neighbour- 
 hood, four rows of lime trees, standing' upon that part of the 
 quay still known as the Grove, were removed about the close of 
 1820. It may be worth while to add that five or six large trees 
 remained in front of the Apple-tree Inn, Broadmead, a door 
 or two to the eastward of Union Street, so late as 1828 or 1829. 
 
 On the 28th February, 1821, the Royal Commissioners 
 appointed under an Act of 1819 to inquire into the condition 
 of the charities of the kingdom opened their investigations 
 in the Council House, the charities under the control of the 
 Corporation being the first subject of inquii-y. The Com- 
 missioners paid another visit to the city in March, 1822, 
 when they dealt with the parochial charities. The result 
 was given in two thick Blue-books, known as the sixth and 
 tenth reports of the Commissioners, of which the portions 
 relating to Bristol were locally reprinted, in two quarto 
 volumes, by Mr. T. J. Manchee, in 1831. 
 
 The Bristol Journal of March 11 stated that a few nights 
 ]u'('vioiis]y "a brother of Mr. Sonthoy, the Poet Laureate, 
 ])erformod the character of Sir Rol)ert Bramble in the comedy 
 of ' The Poor Gentleman,' at our theatre. He is from Exeter 
 theatre, and will be an acquisition to the company." No 
 further allusion to him, however, was made in the Journal. 
 About two years later the same paper had an announcement 
 of the ])ublication of "The History of the West Indies," in 
 three volumes, by Captain T. Southey, R.M., another brother 
 of the poet.
 
 1821.] CENSUS. CORONATION FESTIVITIES. 9l 
 
 The census of 1821 credited the ancient city with a popula- 
 tion of 52,889. To these figures Clifton added 8,811; 8t. 
 George's, 5,334 ; the district of St. James and St. Paul, 3,G05 ; 
 St. Philip's out-]Darish, 11,824; Mangotsfield, 3,179; and 
 Stapleton, 2,137, making a total for the city and suburbs of 
 87,779, an increase of 15 per cent, on the return for 1811. 
 The population of Bedminster was now 7,979, and the tything 
 of Stoke Bishop, in Westbury parish, was credited with 1,883. 
 
 A local journal of the 23rd June records that on the 
 Monday previous, " as some workmen were removing a 
 monument at the east end of the south aisle of our cathedral, 
 they discovered an elegant altar-piece, similar to that which 
 was lately found in the Mayor's Chapel. At the east end of 
 the north aisle was also discovered a very superb piece of 
 workmanship, the gilding and colours of which were remark- 
 ably bright, and the fluted columns very perfect. There are 
 niches on each side with small pedestals." There is no 
 appearance of an " altar-piece " in the south aisle at the 
 present time, a recess for a tomb occupying the place de- 
 signated ; but the existing work is not ancient, and as there 
 was no outrage on the integrity of a building which chapters 
 of the Georgian era were not capable of committing, the 
 above account is probably correct. As regards the altar- 
 piece, or reredos, in the north aisle, which ifi supposed to 
 have been walled up during the civil war, its relics still 
 attest the richness and beauty of the original workmanship 
 and the barbarism of the authorities by whom it was brought 
 to light. In 1821 the seventeenth century monument of the 
 Codrington family was in the chancel, near the tomb of 
 Abbot Morgan. But the chapter resolved upon fixing it to 
 the reredos in question, and a large hole was hacked in the 
 tabernacle work for the purpose ! Four tablet monuments 
 are also fixed in the reredos, little of which can now be seen. 
 
 The coronation of George IV. took place on the 19th July, 
 but was not celebrated in Bristol with the liberality that had 
 marked a similar event sixty years previously, there being 
 no record of fat oxen roasted whole, or of fountains running- 
 wine or beer. The members of the Corporation, accompanied 
 by the parochial clergy and officials, the Society of Merchants, 
 the Freemasons, and representatives of various trades * 
 walked in procession through the principal streets to the 
 
 * The incorporated companies were by this time practically extinct. The 
 Bristol Journal states that the company of wire workers and join makers was 
 the only chartered one which took part in the procession.
 
 92 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. [1821. 
 
 catliedral to attend service. The building was filled, but 
 it was believed tliat the only person who had attended a 
 similar service at the coronation of the last king, and who 
 now applied for a seat, was the Dowager Lady Smyth, who 
 had been the reigning '' toast " of her generation. The 
 procession returned to the Council House by a circuitous 
 route. The most remarkable feature of the parade was a 
 triumphal car bearing a crown, and a man cased in armour 
 of the time of Henry V. In the afternoon there was a 
 dinner at the Assembly Rooms, the Mayor presiding, after 
 which the company were called upon to drink thirty-five 
 toasts, that of " Our glorious and inestimable Constitution in 
 Church and State " being followed by the glee " With a jolly 
 full bottle." At night the Corporation gave a ball, which 
 cost upwards of £700. The public buildings and many private 
 houses were illuminated, but one gentleman dyed his candles 
 black on account of "the unmerited exclusion of my queen." 
 On the Sunday following the coronation. Prebendary Ran- 
 dolph, then in residence at the cathedral, took as the text 
 of his sermon two verses from the Book of Daniel, beginning : 
 " Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of 
 his lords," and ending with a reference to the said monarch's 
 "wives and concubines."* The prebendary, it has been 
 alleged, was a disappointed courtier ; but a more probable 
 explanation of his impropriety is, that he was a warm sym- 
 pathiser with Queen Caroline, and had been irritated, like 
 many other Whigs, by the political tergiversations of G-eorge 
 IV. 
 
 Mention having been made of one of the cathedral digni- 
 taries of the period, the opportunity may bo taken to notice 
 some of his ecclesiastical contempoi*aries. In touching upon 
 some of the abuses of the ago, however, it is only fair to observe 
 that the functionaries in question ought not to bo judged by 
 the standard of the present day, but by that of their own 
 generation. In an interview which once took place between 
 Sydney Smith and Mr. Gladstone, the witty canon frankly 
 observed to the then youthful statesman that " wlionover you 
 see a clergynuin of my agi;, you may fuel certain that lie is a 
 bad clergyman;" and allowance must be made for tlie habits 
 of a time when nearly the whole profession was apathetic, 
 slothful, aJid self-sookiug. 'i^lieso conditions being ])reinisod, 
 the ])robendary entitled to ]nH'('edonco on the ground of 
 seniority is the Rev. F. W. lilDuiborg, on whom the favours 
 
 " "Local Annals," City Library, vol. i. p. 282.
 
 1821.] CATHEDRAL DIGNITARIES. BLOMBERG's GHOST. 93 
 
 of royalty were abundantly showered. Very soon after his 
 ordination he was appointed to the valuable living of Shepton 
 Mallet, in the gift of the Prince of Wales, to whom he was 
 chaplain and private secretary, generally living at Carlton 
 House. In 1790, in his 28th year, he was appointed Pre- 
 bendary of Bristol. A few years later he became Prebendary 
 of Westminster, Vicar of Bradford, Wilts, and Vicar of Ban- 
 well. His next elevation was to a canonry of St. Paul's, 
 by right of which he obtained the vicarage of St. Giles's, 
 Cripplegate, one of the richest livings in London. In ad- 
 dition to all this preferment, — for much of which he rendered 
 no service whatever, — Felix Farley's Bristol Journal of 
 November 2, 181G, announced that he had "lately been 
 presented to a very handsome estate, which had become the 
 property of the Crown in default of an heir-at-law." Such 
 abundant favour exciting curiosity, an explanation Avas 
 offered, with the alleged approval of Dr. Blomberg himself. 
 His father, it was said, was an officer in the army, who had 
 made a secret marriage with a lady that died in a few years, 
 whereupon the two children of the union were nursed in an 
 obscure part of the country. During the wars the father 
 died abroad, but immediately afterwards his ghost presented 
 itself to a fellow ofiicer, and gave him instructions where to 
 find the children, and how to put them in possession of a 
 valuable estate. This having been done, the marvel reached 
 the ears of Queen Charlotte, who sent for the youthful Blom- 
 berg, and had him brought up and educated with the royal 
 children. If the narrators of this story obtained it from the 
 person chiefly interested, it is singular that their versions, 
 three in number, should be utterly irreconcilable respect- 
 ing the date and the place of the ghost's appearance, the 
 locality of the deceased's estate, and every other detail into 
 which they enter. Cynical people oftered a perfectly unro- 
 mantic explanation of Dr. Blomberg's good fortune. That 
 he was brought up at Windsor appears certain, and it was 
 generally agreed that in features he strikingly resembled the 
 royal family. Dr. Blomberg's successor as Prebendary of 
 Bristol was Lord W. G. H. Somerset. His lordship had 
 been an officer in a cavalry regiment during the long war, 
 but upon the army being reduced after the fall of Napoleon, 
 he applied for ordination and entered the Church, when he 
 was rapidly promoted by the head of his family to four 
 rectories— Tormarton, Llangattock, Crickhowell, and Conduc. 
 After obtaining a stall at Bristol, his income from the Church 
 was estimated at £3,000 per annum. It was stated b}' those
 
 94 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. [1821. 
 
 acquainted with him that he never wrote a sermon ; but there 
 is a tradition that he preached twice in the cathedral in the 
 course of twenty-three years. On the other hand, he had all 
 the skill of his family for di'iving a coach and four, which it 
 was his constant practice to do after morning service during 
 his periods of residence here ; and the stables he built at 
 Tormarton were much more imposing than was the rectory. 
 The Rev. John Surtees, appointed to a seat in the chapter in 
 1821, and holding two vakiable Crown rectories in Norfolk, 
 had no other claim to wealth and dignity than the fact that 
 he was a relative of Lady Eldon, wife of the Lord Chancellor. 
 He was as guiltless of sermon-writing as was his noble 
 colleague, but he preached at intervals when in Bristol. If 
 report is to be credited, he bought his discourses from one of 
 the minor canons, but eventually availed himself of a cheaper 
 market, though the reduced price and inferior quality of the 
 article did not induce him to increase the quantity. During 
 the latter half of his connection with the cathedral, which 
 extended over thirty-six years, his irregularity of attendance 
 and slovenly performance of his duties became almost pro- 
 verbial. "Belshazzar Randolph," as he was sometimes called 
 in consequence of the escapade reported above, was the son 
 of a Bristol physician, residing in Trinity Street. He was 
 forty years a prebendary, holding for much of the time the 
 lucrative rectory of St. Paul's, Covent Garden, London, the 
 gift of his friend the Duke of Bedford, and also the vicarage 
 of Banwell, Somerset. He was famous for his courtly man- 
 ners, but through having misdelivered, in early life, a letter 
 written by the Princess of Wales to a friend, sarcastically 
 commenting on the English royal family, he destroyed his 
 prospects of higher advancement in the Church. One of his 
 contemporaries, the Rev. F. Simpson, held a prebend for 
 nearly twenty years, but notliing is recorded of him save that 
 he had three rectories and a vicarage in various parts of the 
 kingdom. Another Avas the Rev. H. J. Ridley, a brother-in- 
 law to Lord Chancellor Eldon, and described by Sydney 
 Smith as " worldly-minded, vain, noisy, and perfectly good- 
 natured." Ridley was succeeded by the Rev. Edward 
 Baukes, who, having married a daughter of the Lord Chan- 
 cellor, had more than the usual share of favours extended to 
 the great lawyer's connections. In addition to his ]n*ebend 
 at Bristol, lie had another at (iloucester, and a good living in 
 Dorset. Ahhoiigli he became enormously rich upon the 
 death of his father-in-law, Mr. liankes continued to hold his 
 preferments for some years after ho was incapable of per-
 
 1821.] CATHEDKAL DIGNITARIES. 95 
 
 forming the duties attaclied to them. This was, however, 
 natural enough, seeing that he had rendered very perfunctory- 
 service when in his vigour. In a letter addressed to the 
 Archbishop of Canterbui-y, of which a copy appeared in the 
 London Sun of the 13th January, 1834, a citizen complained 
 of " the general neglect and almost total abandonment of our 
 cathedral service." " We have had," added the Avriter, 
 " neither dean nor prebendary in residence for many 
 months." The defaulting officials at this date were, it was 
 understood, Messrs. Surtees and Bankes. The dean, Dr. 
 Beeke, who was then in his 84th year, was a finished scholar, 
 and, before age disabled him, an energetic promoter of litera- 
 ture and science in the city. His only shortcoming, apparently, 
 was his stature, Sydney Smith alleging that if Bishop Gray 
 stood on the dean's shoulders their combined height would 
 not equal that of the Archbishop of Canterbury. As to 
 Sydney himself, it must be added that, although a political 
 reformer, he was a zealous champion of abuses in the Church. 
 Soon after becoming a prebendary of Bristol, he claimed by 
 rotation the chapter living of Halberton, Devon, a place he 
 is supposed to have never visited except to go through the 
 legal formalities needed to secure the income. Non-residence 
 in those days was so common as to excite little remark. 
 Hannah More, writing from Cowslip Green in 1790, remarked 
 that "thirteen adjoining parishes had not so much as one 
 resident curate, much less rector." And according to a 
 parliamentary return printed in 1829, out of the 443 clergy- 
 men holding livings in the diocese of Bath and Wells, only 
 177 were resident. Bishops were content to follow the 
 customs of their inferiors. Dr. Kaye, who held the see of 
 Bristol from 1820 to 1827, was also Master of Christ Church 
 College, Cambridge, Regius Professor of Divinity, and the 
 incumbent of a valuable rectory. So indifferent was he to 
 episcopal duties that on one occasion he is said to have com- 
 pelled the local candidates for ordination to take a journey 
 to Cambridge. His successor, Dr. Gray, was a prebendary 
 of Durham, which was more valuable than his bishopric, 
 whilst Bishop Monk held the deanery of Peterborough and 
 two or three other preferments, 
 
 A musical festival was opened on the 30th October, 1821, 
 in St. Paul's Church, when, after a sermon by the Dean of 
 Bristol, Handel's oratorio of " Esther" was performed. On 
 the following day a selection of sacred music was given, and 
 the third morning performance was devoted to " The Messiah." 
 Evening concerts also took place at the Assembly Rooms
 
 96 THE ANNALS OF BEISTOL. [1822. 
 
 aud tlieatre. Madame Catalani^ equally famous for her 
 voice and lier rapacity, was tlie "star'' of tlie festival, wliicli 
 was financially successful. The receipts from tlie first per- 
 formance, indeed, readied only £59, wliicli says little for the 
 persuasiveness of the Dean's discourse ; but " The Messiah " 
 was especially productive, and the aggregate amounted to 
 £1,856. Including the collections made at the doors, the 
 Infirmary secured £587 by the gathering. 
 
 The minutes of the Common Council for the 9th of 
 February, 1822, contain a reference to a local undertaking 
 the story of which has been strangely neglected by Bristol 
 annalists. Little more is recorded of the first Bristol Water 
 Company than that it was formed about 1695 under a special 
 Act of Parliament, that it undertook to pay the Corporation 
 a septennial sum of £166 IS.v. 4:d. for the privilege of supply- 
 ing the city, that a supply of water obtained from the Avon 
 at Hanham Mills was driven to the higher level by means of 
 a remarkable atmospheric engine near Conham, that there 
 was a reservoir at Lawrence Hill, and that the pipes into the 
 city were formed of the hollowed trunks of trees. It has 
 been stated that the company " soon failed ; " but the Act 
 of 1760 for rebuilding Bristol Bridge contained a clause 
 requiring the bridge trustees to lay down new and sufl&cient 
 pipes if they removed those belonging to the waterworks, 
 and empowered the company to repair their pipes on or near 
 to the bridge. Yet it is difiicult to imagine hoAv service 
 pipes could be attached to trunks of trees, and there is no 
 record of reservoirs for dispensing the water in another 
 manner. The sixteenth septennial payment to the Corpora- 
 tion was made in 1807. The Common Council, on the day 
 mentioned above, ordered "that the city seal should be afiixed 
 to a deed of release, from the Corporation to the proprietors 
 of the waterworks, of the payments and covenants contained 
 in a certain deed bearing date the 10th day of August, 1695, 
 in consideration of the sum of £500 to be paid by the said 
 proprietors to this Corporation." It may be presumed that 
 this release was o])tained in order to enable the ]n'oprietors 
 to dispose of their land at Lawrence Hill and other places. 
 In 1848 several trunks of elm, hollowed with a very large 
 bore, were discovered during excavations in Old Market 
 Street, and a similar pipe was disinterred in West Street in 
 March, 1886. 
 
 The West India interest was about this time in a seriously 
 dc])resscd state. In a petition of the West India merchants 
 of Bristol, presented to the House of Commons in April, 1822,
 
 1822.] EASTER AND MAY-DAY AMUSEMENTS. 97 
 
 it was stated that owing to the prohibition imposed by Par- 
 liament on intercourse between the islands and the United 
 States, the planters were compelled to ship nearly the whole 
 of their rum and molasses to this country, and that, as the 
 supply exceeded the demand, the price of rum barely cleared 
 the expense of distillation, while the low price of sugar, 
 owing to the increased imports from our eastern colonies, 
 'left no retui'n for capital after defraying the cost of pro- 
 duction. The petitioners therefore prayed for a renewal of 
 the free intercourse formerly existing between the settle- 
 ments and the continent of North America. In response to 
 this and other similar appeals, the Ministry brought in and 
 passed a Bill for abolishing the restrictions complained of, 
 the colonies being permitted to trade both with each other 
 and with the American States. This was the first great 
 inroad on the old Navigation Laws, and, although disap- 
 proved by the ultra-Tory party, was highly applauded by 
 most of the mercantile community. 
 
 The Easter holidays of 1822 were thus recorded in the 
 Bristol Journal of April 13 : "The annual scenes of rude fes- 
 tivity, and, we may add, of low debauchery, known by the 
 name of ' the Bedminster revels,' took place on Monday, as 
 usual at this period of the year ; and a fight of no interest 
 was exhibited on Durdham down, between two combatants 
 of ' little note and less skill.' " The following equally singular 
 indication of the changes effected by time is found in the 
 same paper three weeks later : " May-day was celebrated 
 this year with more than its wonted gaiety. Soon after 
 sunrise there was an unusually strong muster upon Clifton 
 down ... Ho sport the light fantastic toe.' . . . During 
 the morning kings and queens out of number paraded 
 the streets. The chimney sweeps, too, made a splendid 
 appearance. The next and most attractive ' bit of life ' was 
 on Clifton down to see the racing. Here was life in all its 
 variety. . . , The Fancy [pugilists] too, mustered pretty 
 numerously. [An account of the racing follows] . A better 
 day's sport was never witnessed. After the races, a ring 
 was formed, and Jacky Cabbage shelved to challenge Hazell 
 for a bellyful. Some interruption, however, occurred by the 
 appearance of a Deputy Beak in the ring, so it was off. 
 There was some milling afterwards. ... A [dinner and] 
 ball concluded the evening." It is rai-e to find the old- 
 fashioned editor descending from his stilts in this way to 
 notice the manners and customs of the time. In addition to 
 the above seasons of revelry, a correspondent of the Times 
 
 H
 
 98 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1822. 
 
 and Mirror, whose memory carried him to about this period, 
 recently stated that on Boxing Day a pleasure fair was held 
 " outside the gate/' and was known as the '' Horn Fair." 
 " It took its name from a grotesque-looking gingerbread cake 
 known as ' the horn/ which was made to represent a man's 
 head and shoulders, with two trumpets branching out from 
 his back ; they varied in size from a few inches to a yard 
 long. . . . The fair was held in Wade Street, Stalls 
 were pitched on the sides of the road . . , gilt horns 
 were everywhere by hundreds. It was a wild, noisy affair, 
 notable for petty gambling. . . , From morning till night 
 groups of pleasure-seekers wandered up and down amongst 
 the stalls, staking their pence viutil their pockets were 
 emptied. On New Year's Day a similar fair was held in 
 West Street, from Bullpaunch Lane [famous for bull baiters] 
 to Gloucester Lane." 
 
 Coronation Road, Bedminster, a new turnpike road from 
 Harford's Bridge to the Ashton road, Avas opened on the 
 23rd April, 1822, with some ceremony. The Dowager Lady 
 Smyth, of Clift House, in a coach and four, preceded by 
 Captain Smyth's troop of Yeomanry, took part in the in- 
 augural ceremony. The road, which had been under con- 
 struction for about a year, had received its name when the 
 workmen employed upon it were regaled on the coronation 
 day of the new king. 
 
 In July the Prince and Princess of Denmark made a brief 
 visit to the city during their incognito tour in the West of 
 England. Being waited upon by the Mayor (Mr. A. Hilhouse) 
 at their hotel in Clifton, they went down to the Mansion 
 House and were sumptuously entertained. Subsequently 
 they visited Mr.Ricketts's glass house and Mr. Hare's floor- 
 cloth factory. The prince also accompanied the Mayor to 
 the Guildhall, where I the quarter sessions were proceeding, 
 and subsequently visited the new gaol. 
 
 The parish church of St. Andrew, Clifton, a small and 
 mean edifice, rebuilt during the Commonwealth, had long 
 been inarlcqnato to accommodate even a titlio of the in- 
 haljitaiits. J\lucli dilliculty, however, was encountered in 
 obtaining funds for its reconstruction on a scale worthy of 
 the parish, and it was at length found necessary to guarantee 
 to each sul)scribor of a certain amount a freehold riglit to a 
 pew in the best ])ortions of the new church. More than two- 
 thirds of the pews on the floor of the edifice were disposed of 
 in this way. The foundation was laid in the summer of 1819, 
 another sito being selected in order that the old l)iiilding
 
 1822.] CLIFTON CHURCH. STEALING DEAD BODIES. 99 
 
 should remain until its successor was finislied. The edifice — 
 a characteristic specimen of Georgian mock Gothic — was 
 consecrated on the 12th August^ 1822, by the Bishop of 
 Bristol. An admission fee of four shillings each was de- 
 manded from all save a limited section of the poorer inhabi- 
 tants. A " capital dinner" afterwards took place, at which, 
 says the reporter, " the utmost harmony and gentlemanly 
 deportment prevailed,^' the compliment being doubtless an 
 indirect slap at the dubious amenities of Clifton parochial 
 life sixty years ago. The freehold pews — locked up against 
 the invasion of the vulgar — soon became a scandal. Many 
 of the subscribers, on leaving the parish, sold their " pro- 
 perty " by auction, and a "good family pew" was eagerly 
 bought up for from £100 to £150; others were let at heavy 
 rents. In 1844, when Mr. Leech wrote his "Church-goer," 
 he spoke of Clifton church as being " not to any extent the 
 church of the parishioners ; the rich and the non-resident 
 occupy the reserved seats, and those few that are nominally 
 free are filled with powdered footmen." Further reference 
 to the subject will be found under the year 1863. 
 
 Amongst the social incidents of the reign of George IV., 
 the pi'actice of stealing human bodies for anatomical pur- 
 poses, which was then constantly resorted to by agents of the 
 surgical profession, was perhaps the most revolting. The 
 Bristol Journal of the 26th October, 1822, narrated that, a 
 few nights previously, a body was stolen from a grave in 
 St. Augustine's churchyard, and conveyed to the " dissecting- 
 room," a chamber hired by two or three Bristol surgeons, and 
 situated in the precincts of the cathedral. A quarrel having 
 arisen betwixt the '^ resurrection men" and their employers, 
 a crowd gathered near the house, the door of which was 
 eventually forced, and the crime discovered. The church- 
 wardens were bound over to prosecute the ostensible occupier 
 of the room, but no result is recorded, the surgeons having 
 doubtless succeeded in hushing up the matter. Less than a 
 fortnight after this affair, three parish constables, in con- 
 sequence of private information, visited Bedminster church- 
 yard at midnight, and found six persons busily engaged in 
 raising the recently interred body of a young woman. A 
 severe struggle followed. " There were pistols snapped and 
 rapiers drawn, bloody noses and broken heads. The battle 
 was long and severely contested before the patrol Avas able 
 to secure five ; the sixth escaped." The prisoners wore com- 
 mitted for trial, but the result has not been found. Offences 
 of this character could not have been committed with im-
 
 100 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL, [1822. 
 
 punity in populous localities if the streets liad been adequately 
 guarded. As a matter of fact tlie police regulations were 
 farcical. In the newspaper recording the Bedminster out- 
 rage is the mock trial of a gentleman^ a stranger in the city, 
 charged with whistling in the public thoroughfares between 
 eleven at night and two in the morning, thereby preventing 
 the watchmen from enjoying their accustomed slumbers. 
 One of the injured fraternity, '' about sixty years old, and 
 decrepit in the extreme," is made to depose that " he had 
 
 originally been in the employment of a member of the 
 
 [Corporation], but his infirmities having unfitted him for 
 labour, he was appointed watchman." As regards "body 
 snatching " in rural parishes, there is evidence that it was 
 frequently practised, to the great horror of country people. 
 A ghastly aifair of this kind occurred about 1824 or 1825. 
 Three medical students connected with ''the college dissect- 
 ing room" started one dark evening in a gig for Long Ashton 
 churchyard, for the . purpose of disinterring the body of a 
 person whose malady had excited professional interest. One 
 of the youths being left in charge of the vehicle, his com- 
 panions entered the cemeteiy and began opei^ations, when 
 one of them was almost frozen with terror on seeing, or 
 imagining he saw, the ghost of the intended " subject." His 
 companion became infected with his panic, and both fled to 
 their conveyance, in which they hurried homewards. On 
 the following day, the Long Ashton authorities offered a 
 reward for the discovery of the body, which had been stolen 
 during the night; and the students are believed to have had 
 ocular evidence tliat tlioy had been frightened away by the 
 trick of a gang of professional "resurrectionists," who did 
 not relish the interference of amateurs. The youth who 
 supposed he saw a spirit, however, died shortly afterwards, 
 having never recovered from the mental shock. Ho was tho 
 son of a dissenting minister in Bristol. His companion in tho 
 churchyard, long a member of tho Infirmary staff, recounted 
 the story, under feigned names, in Once a Week for Octo- 
 Ijer, 18(30. 
 
 During tho year 1822 tho old Hotwoll house, overhanging 
 tho river, built about 109(3, and tho resort of so nuich fashion- 
 able company for several generations, was removed, to admit 
 of the construction of the new Bridge Valley road to Clifton 
 Down. A handsome pump room, in tho Tuscan style, was 
 sliortly afterwards erected, a suite of baths — the want of 
 which had always been complained of — being added to the 
 building. Tho improvement came too late, however, to
 
 1822.] THE HOTWELL. A DESTRUCTIVE RESTORATION. 101 
 
 arrest the declining popularity of the spring ; and with few 
 exceptions visitors resorted to the well rather from curiosity 
 than from belief in its medical efficacy."^ In June, 1867, the 
 new pump room was in turn closed and demolished, in order 
 to carry out Mr. Howard's plan for the removal of Hotwell 
 Point — an inconvenient prominence on the right bank of the 
 Avon. As the spring reached the surface in the projecting 
 rock, it became entirely inaccessible to the public after March-, 
 1808, and remained so for about ten years. At length, owing 
 to the reasonable complaints of the inhabitants, pipes were 
 laid down in the summer of 1877, and a pump was erected in 
 a cavern hollowed out of the neio-hbourino- cliff; but Dr. F. 
 W. Grifl&n, in a letter addressed to a local paper in July, 1880, 
 expressed his belief, as the result of analyses, that the true 
 spring had been lost, or that it was subject to variable 
 admixture from other sources. In any case, the distance 
 between the source and the pump caused the water to lose 
 its characteristic temperature before it reached the consumer, 
 and the title of " hot " well — a misnomer from the outset — 
 became wholly inapplicable. 
 
 Soon after the accession of George IV. the beautiful little 
 church of St. Mark's, College Green, commonly known as 
 the Mayor's Chapel, having been again allowed to fall into 
 ignorant and presumptuous hands, became the victim of 
 destructive " restorations " carried on for upwards of seven 
 years. Strange to say, no reference to- the subject appears 
 in the records of the Common Council; but the cash-book of 
 the city treasurer contains so many brief yet eloquent items 
 that it is possible to form a chronicle of the devastations. 
 The first payment occurred in August, 1822, when Mr. 
 Thomas Clarke, sometimes called a sculptor and sometimes a 
 mason, received £100 for " repairing vestry room, etc." From 
 an item in the following month, it appears that the renovators 
 had resolved on pulling down the great west window of the 
 church — an interesting specimen of the last era of Decorated 
 architecture. For producing and setting up a copy of the 
 original work, Mr. Clarke received £180. Tlae old masonry 
 was given to Mr. J. Cave, then or soon after a member of the 
 Common Council, who had it placed in a mock ruin in his 
 park at Brentry, where, after being buffetted by the storms 
 
 * The management ajipears to have been of an illiberal character. Three- 
 pence per glass was charged for the water, equivalent to a shilling a day for 
 average drinkers, and only paupers were allowed to draw from a tap in the 
 back yard. In 1831 this tap was removed, but in 1837 a free pump was erected 
 in CQUsei^uence of the public discontent.
 
 102 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. [1822. 
 
 of more tlian sixty years^ its sound condition still demon- 
 strates the recklessness of those who expelled it from its 
 original site. The next payment to Mr. Clarke is £25 4s. for 
 " repairing tombs." The erection, in 1815, of a gallery for 
 the accommodation of Dr. Goodenough's private pupils has 
 been already mentioned [see p. 47]. In 1823 it was deter- 
 mined to construct a new gallery, and Mr. Clarke received 
 £185 Ss. for carrying out the order. At this point Mr. 
 William Edkins, a house-painter, begins to figure often in 
 the accounts. This gentleman was entrusted with the task 
 of designing the gallery and superintending the '' sculptor's" 
 operations, for which he received £10 ; and he had £21 more 
 for " superintending the erection of the altar screen " — the 
 original work having been " restored " by Clarke after the 
 rerooval of a huge and unsightly fabric, in the Dutch style, 
 with which the church was "'beautified'' about 1721. These 
 ■ works, completed in 1824, were merely preliminary to the 
 grand " embellishment " which the authorities had been in- 
 duced to sanction through the persuasion of the city chamber- 
 lain, Mr. Thomas Garrard, a well-meaning collector of antique 
 curiosities, but as ignorant of Gothic architecture as was the 
 churchwardendom of his time. Having obtained practically 
 unlimited powers, the amateur architect's first efforts were 
 directed to the collection of stained glass of various styles 
 and dates. One lot, costing £166, was obtained at a sale of 
 the effects of Sir Paul Bagot, a Gloucestershire baronet; 
 another, for which £192 were paid, was bought at the great 
 sale at Fonthill : a third lot was purchased in London for 
 £45 ; and " the figure of a bishop," the original locality of 
 which is not mentioned, cost £8. In 1828, the so-called 
 renovation of the church began in earnest. The west window 
 of the south aisle was reconstructed, the " cieling " under- 
 went great alterations, a new gallery was built for the City 
 School boys, the church was fresh paved, and the windows 
 were " scraped." Worse than all this, however, the house- 
 painter already mentioned designed, in conjunction with Mr. 
 Garrard, an " ante-chapel," with wooden columns and mock 
 vaulting, and was allowed to introduce into the building 
 itself a mass of hith-and-plaster ornamentation, in imitation 
 of carving, bedizened with gold and colour, but in execrable 
 taste, and glaringly incongruous with the true character of 
 the fal)ric. U])()n this paltry gingerbread work alone nearly 
 £1,400 wore squandered. The entire " renovation," inchiding 
 a new organ, a picture over the communion table, by Mr. 
 King, a local artist, and a quantity of " velvet with cloth of
 
 1823.] PORT CHARaES. THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE. 103 
 
 gold fringe for the pews," entailed a cost of over £5,500. 
 The chapel was reopened in October, 1830, when the Mayor 
 and Corporation attended in great pomp. The organ at that 
 time was placed over the " ante-chapel,^' where it blocked up 
 the western window. It was removed to a more suitable 
 position in 1870, and it may be hoped that the time is not 
 far distant when the chapel will undergo a real restoration 
 in intelligent and sympathising hands. 
 
 It has been already observed that the high charges imposed 
 on shipping by the Bristol Docks Company became the 
 subject of complaint soon after the completion of the Floating 
 Harbour ; and there can be no question that those burdens, 
 aggravated as they were by the exorbitant town and mayor's 
 dues levied by the Corporation, crippled the commercial pro- 
 gress of the port, and diverted trade to places more liberally 
 managed. A striking illustration of the shortsighted rapacity 
 of the local bodies had been furnished in October, 1818, when 
 a consignment of 400 flasks of quicksilver was sent from 
 Cadiz to Bristol for a Liverpool consignee. The dock dues 
 charged were £15; the town dues, £14 lis. 4<d; and the 
 wharfage dues, £3 14.9. 9(^ ; making a total of £33 6s. Id. The 
 owner protested against the charges, observing that at 
 Liverpool the total dues demanded would have been only 
 £10 8.9.4''/.; but the authorities curtly replied that ^^ it was 
 not in their power to make any alteration." It was stated, 
 again, that Bristol might have carried on a large business in 
 indigo, which was extensively used by the west of England 
 clothiers ; but that the charges on a chest of about 3 cwt. 
 being 16s. ohd., against 2.?. 4thd. levied at Liverpool, the 
 trade was almost entirely diverted. The mayor's dues on a 
 vessel, imposed without reference to burden, were £2 5s., so 
 that an Irish trading sloop of 60 or 80 tons, making twelve 
 voyages yearly, paid £27, while a West India sugar ship of 
 ten times the tonnage paid only £2 5.9. on her annual entry. 
 With a view to pressing for relief from these and other 
 grievances, several influential firms co-operated in the spring 
 of 1823 in establishing a local Chamber of Commerce, of 
 which Mr. Joseph Reynolds was the first president, Messrs. 
 Thomas Stock and Joseph Cookson being appointed vice- 
 presidents. The new institution lost no time in appealing 
 to public opinion on the subject. A paper showing the 
 duties payable on leading imports at the chief ports, bringing 
 into rehef the enormous excess of taxation at Bristol, was 
 published by the Chamber, and made a profound impression. 
 When the new body memorialised the Common Council,
 
 104 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. [1823. 
 
 however (in September), urging for a remission of the taxes, 
 the document was contemptuously " laid on the table." The 
 Chamber soon after returned to the charge, whereupon the 
 Council, in January, 1824, passed a resolution condemning 
 the acts of its critics as " hasty, premature, and animated 
 by hostile feelings." The result was a petition to the House 
 of Commons, praying for an inquiry into the causes of the 
 languishing condition of the city. The Corporation met the 
 threatened attack by introducing a Bill into Parliament, 
 ostensibly for the purpose of enabling it to reduce its dues, 
 but really — its opponents asserted — with the object of obtain- 
 ing legislative sanction for taxation which many merchants 
 held to be illegally imposed. The Bill was withdrawn through 
 the opposition offered by the Chamber of Commerce, supported 
 by the citizens generally, who subscribed £3,000 to carry on 
 the struggle. It was, however, revived in 1825, when a 
 prolonged conflict took place between the civic authorities 
 and the mercantile and trading interests. The latter, after 
 laying bare the real motive of the promoters of the scheme, 
 and asserting that the preferred abatement in the dues still 
 left them excessive as compared with those of other leading 
 ports, made a powerful attack on the Corporation itself. It 
 was shown that the Common Council was self-elected and 
 irresponsible, that it rendered no services in return for the 
 taxes it imposed on shipping, that it published no accounts, 
 and administered the revenues of which it was trustee with 
 a wanton disregard for the opinion of the citizens. The oath 
 of secrecy imposed on its members was, it was added, a 
 practical avoAval that its proceedings would not bear the face 
 of day. What lent the greatest weight to these charges was 
 the fact that they were supported by the testimony of in- 
 fluential citizens of both political parties, some prominent 
 Tories being even moi'e zealous in the attack than were their 
 Whig colleagues. The Corporation, however, defiantly re- 
 torted through their parliamentary counsel, that the port 
 dues, as well as all their other estates, tliough applicable to 
 pu])lic purposes at their discretion, were their personal 
 l)ru])orty — " as much so as any estate belonging to any peer " 
 — and that no one had a right to demand an account as to 
 how the revenues were administered. Mr. Serjeant Ludlow, 
 the town clerk, scornfully declared to the Commons' committee 
 that it was a new thing to contend that the law courts, or 
 even Parliament itself, could control a Cor])oration in the 
 expenditure of its own money. He flatly denied that the 
 people of Bristol had any interest in the corporate funds.
 
 1823.] THE TOWN DUES. DR. WHITe's CHARITY. 105 
 
 and against such a principle^ he said, the Corporation would 
 struggle to the utmost extremity. What answer a reformed 
 House of Commons would have made to those insolent pre- 
 tensions may be left to the judgment of the reader. Even 
 the Legislature of 1825^ dominated as it was by aristocratic 
 influences, repelled the attempt of the Common Council to 
 exchange a doubtful prescriptive title for one resting on an 
 Act of Parliament. As the Chamber of Commerce had 
 suggested, power was given to reduce the dues without 
 trenching on the question of legal rights, and in this form 
 the Bill passed. A Government Commission to inquire into 
 the collection and management of the revenue having visited 
 the city in November, one of its members, the Hon. Mr. 
 Wallace, deploring the differences between the .authorities 
 and the inhabitants, offered to remain in Bristol with a view 
 to effecting a reconciliation. The Merchants' Society and 
 the Chamber of Commerce cordially accepted the overture ; 
 but the Council forwarded Mr. Wallace a resolution in 
 December, declaring that negotiation was useless, seeing that 
 the differences '' wholly consist of hostile aggression on the 
 one hand on the revenue and constitutional government of 
 the Corporation, and on the other on the necessary defence 
 and maintenance of rights established for centuries.'^ By the 
 alterations effected under the new Act, the obnoxious corporate 
 imposts * were reduced nearly two-fifths, or from £5,500 to 
 about £3,500. But the results justified the apprehensions of 
 those who had contended that the concessions would prove 
 inadequate to revive the commerce of the city, inasmuch as 
 they left the port charges in excess of those of more enter- 
 prising rival towns. The question again became a burning 
 one in 1833. 
 
 For some time previous to this date the Corporation had 
 been perplexed how to administer the increasing revenues of 
 Dr. Thomas White's charities with a due regard for the 
 wishes of the donor. According to Dr. White's will, the 
 Corporation were yearly to devote £100, part of the surplus 
 income of his estate after providing for his collegiate endow- 
 ment, to repairing the highways leading to the city of Bristol. 
 But whilst the general introduction of turnpikes rendered 
 this expenditure unnecessary, the rents of the property con- 
 tinued to increase, and though large sums were spent on 
 
 * Previous to the passing of the Bill, the dues on a packet of woollen cloths 
 exported from Bristol were £3 Ifis. 8d., whilst at Liverpool they were sixpence. 
 — MS. Annals, City Library, 182-1.
 
 106 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1823. 
 
 roads -whicli were not turnpikes, the unexpended surplus 
 accumulated from year to year. The recorder, Sir Eobert 
 Gifford, having advised the Corporation that they were not 
 justified in spending more than £100 per annum on roads, 
 it was determined in 1820 to apply for a scheme to the Court 
 of Chancery, by which they might spend £200 in that way, 
 and devote the remaining sui'plus to introducing additional 
 almspeople into Dr. White's hospital in Temple Street — the 
 inmates of which they had already increased from twelve to 
 twenty-four. The court having objected to some of the 
 details, a new scheme was suggested, which was ultimately 
 sanctioned, and which the Common Council in March, 1823, 
 formally approved, and ordered the mayor and aldermen to 
 carry into effect. By this plan the surplus applicable to 
 roads (£479) was distributed as follows: — £100 to roads; 
 £100 to loans and gifts similar to those created by Dr. White ; 
 £162 to eight additional almspeople; £83 to augmenting the 
 pay of those in the hospital ; and £34 for contingencies. The 
 fund in hand, £3,400, was to be spent in renovating and 
 extending the almshouses. To avoid recurring to the subject 
 again, it may be added that through the alterations made in 
 the laws respecting highways, the last appropriation of money 
 for the repair of roads was in 1860, when about £5 were paid 
 to the Local Board towards the cost of repairing a footway 
 to Bedminster. The fund having accumulated afresh to 
 nearly £3,900, the Charity Trustees, in 1859, obtained an Act, 
 under which £700 wore applied to augment the endowment of 
 Queen Elizabeth's Hospital, £1,200 to the Grammar School 
 endowment, about £100 towards repairs at Trinity Hospital, 
 and the balance towards the exhibition fund of the Grammar 
 School. It was further enacted that future surpluses should 
 be invested for the benefit of the last-named institution. 
 
 Much consternation was excited amongst the West India 
 interest in the spring of 1823 by an attempt of certain East 
 India merchants to obtain the abolition of the heavy extra 
 duties on sugar imported from our Eastern settlements. The 
 Common Council adopted a petition to Parliament, asserting 
 that as tlie West India trade was the most important branch 
 of local commerce, and had largely absorbed the capital of 
 the citizens, the project to deprive the sugar industry of the 
 islands of its ancient protection had excited serious alarm. 
 The Council expressed its l)elic'f that "frcnnthe ruinous prices 
 of sugar of late years, the slightest further depression would 
 lead to the total and speedy ruin of the planters, and the 
 extinction of W^'st India commerce" — with consequences
 
 1823.] DEODANDS. THE BRISTOL INSTITUTION. 107 
 
 disastrous to Bristol. [The wholesale price of raw sugar was 
 then about 4cZ. per pound.] Notwithstanding this and similar 
 protests, the Government, in 1826, admitted Mauritius sugar 
 at the West India rates, and in 18o0 reduced the extra 
 burden on Bombay sugar to 8s. per cwt., to the great grief 
 of the interest previously "protected." 
 
 Some curious illustrations of the old law of deodands occur 
 in the civic accounts about this time. According to the 
 immemorial custom of the realm, any personal chattel which 
 was the immediate occasion of the death of a man or woman 
 (but not of a child) was forfeited to the king or to the lord of 
 the manor, the value being applied, prior to the Reformation, 
 to the purchase of prayers for the soul of the person snatched 
 away. Thus, if a man fell from a ship in fresh water, and 
 was drowned, ancient legal sages had laid down that the 
 vessel and cargo were, in strictness of law, forfeited as a 
 deodand. The absurdity of the system had, however, been 
 mitigated by the juries erapannelled to inquire into the cause 
 ■ of death, who took upon themselves to fix the value of the 
 article forfeited to the lord of the franchise ; and the Corpora- 
 tion of Bristol are thus found receiving one shilling as the 
 value of a wagon and team of horses. In another case a ship 
 is valued at two shillings ; and in a third the jury assessed a 
 ship and its contents as worth only one shilling. Reformers 
 long protested against a law which practically forced coroners' 
 juries to trifle with their oaths. Deodands were not abolished 
 until 1847. 
 
 The Bristol Philosophical and Literary Institution was 
 founded in 1817 by a few public-spirited citizens who felt the 
 want of a local organisation for the promotion of science. 
 Funds having been subscribed for the construction of a build- 
 ing suitable for the purpose in view, a site was purchased in 
 Park Street, and the foundation stone was laid by the mayor 
 (Mr. W. Fripp, junr.) in February, 1820.- The edifice, which 
 was much more imposing in its appearance than commodious 
 in its arrangements, cost £11,000. It was finished and opened 
 early in 1823. A dinner was given on the occasion, and some 
 merry local gossips have recorded that, during the dubious 
 ''feast of reason" which followed the banquet, Mr. Samuel 
 Lunell, an energetic promoter of the institution, in order to 
 teach his scientific hearers humility, let an apple drop from 
 his hand, and asked why it fell rather than rose, concluding 
 with the poser : " What keeps the moon up in the sky ? " 
 The inconvenient querist received no response, save a request 
 from an alderman to " pass the decanters."
 
 108 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. [1823. 
 
 In an Act for " preventing encroachments^ annoyances^ and 
 other nuisances/^ obtained by the Corporation in 1788^ power 
 was taken for placing barriers at each end of Broad Street 
 dui-ing the time business was being transacted at assizes and 
 quarter sessions. This provision does not appear to have 
 been exercised between 1793 and 1818^ but after the election 
 to the town clerkship of Mr. Ludlow, that fretful official 
 caused the street to be blocked at every sitting of the court. 
 After submitting to the annoyance from 1819 to the summer 
 of 1823, the tradesmen of the city complained loudly of the 
 interruption to business ; and the Court of Aldermen, after a 
 brief attempt to maintain the obstruction, advised that the 
 portion of the street in front of the Guildhall should be 
 macadamised. The only subsequent occasion on which the 
 barriers were raised was in 1832, during the sitting of the 
 special commission for the trial of the I'ioters. 
 
 A new assessment of the city was laid before the Court of 
 Aldermen in May, 1823. The total annual value of the 
 property within the ancient boundaries was £186,756. 
 
 During the mayoralty of Mr. James George, 1822-3, he 
 was presented by his wife with an addition to his family. It 
 was resolved by his brother corporators to commemorate an 
 event so rare at the Mansion House by the presentation of a 
 "silver cradle," value 100 guineas; and the gift was soon 
 afterwards made through the sheriffs, Messrs. Cave and 
 Goldney. 
 
 The Council House, a modest but not ungraceful structure 
 erected in 1704, had been long condemned, as inconvenient 
 in its arrangements and unworthy of the wealthy body to 
 whom it belonged. So early as 1788 an Act had been 
 obtained for rebuilding the house on an enlarged scale by 
 the absorption of the site of the disused church of St. Ewen's 
 (the south aisle of which had been appropriated for the 
 original Council House) and by the purchase of what was 
 formerly known as Forster's Coffee House, together with an 
 adjoining dwelling in Corn Street. The church was dis- 
 mantled in 1791, Tjut for some reason the Corporation took 
 no further steps until the date now under review, when it 
 obtained from the then celebrated ai'chitcct. Sir K. Smirke, 
 a design for a spacious and stately edifice in the classical 
 style, com|)rising not only a Council House but a new Guild- 
 liall. The (lesiral)ility of throwing back the municipal 
 building in order to widen IJroad Street and Corn Street led, 
 however, to the rejection of the plan ; and it was suggested 
 tliat a Council House, assize court, etc., should be erected in
 
 1824.] THE COUNCIL HOUSE REBUILT. 109 
 
 the centre of Queen Square. Eventually Smirke produced a 
 design for a Council House only on the old spot, suggesting 
 that the streets could be widened to the extent desired by 
 the authorities if the two adjoining houses in Corn Street 
 were removed. This scheme was approved in 1823, and the 
 houses in Corn Street were afterwards bought for £2,740, 
 but only one was then demolished. The foundation stone of 
 the new civic premises was laid by the mayor (Mr. J. Barrow)* 
 in May, 1824. A grand procession, including the membei's 
 of the Corporation, the Merchants' Society, the Incorporation 
 of the Poor, the clergy, citizens, schoolchildren, etc., marched 
 from the Guildhall by Broad Street, Quay Street, St. Stephen 
 Street, and Corn Street, to the vacant ground ; and his worship, 
 after duly laying the stone, delivered an appropriate little 
 address. As the building- progressed, it became a subject of 
 general remark that the lines of Smii-ke's design did not 
 harmonise with those of Corn Street and Broad Street. 
 Amongst the epigrams to which the fact gave rise, the 
 following appeared in the high-Tory Bristol Journal : — 
 
 " Why yonder mansion stands awry, 
 Does Bristol wondering seek ? 
 Like to its councils is its site, 
 Oblique, oblique, oblique ! " 
 
 During the reconstruction of the council chamber, the Cor- 
 poration held its sittings in a lai'ge room between Small Street 
 and Broad Street, appertaining to the (former) Mulberry Tree 
 tavern.t The Council House, which cost about £16,000, was 
 completed and occupied in February, 1827, when a figure of 
 Justice by the Bristol-born sculptor, Bailey, R.A., was placed 
 over the front in Corn Street. The aldermanic body was 
 not held in much esteem, and a joke, to the effect that the 
 statue was only too faithfully symbolic of the bench, inasmuch 
 as it was armed with a sword but was destitute of a balance, 
 had widespread success. The court for magisteinal business 
 designed by Smirke w^as so badly lighted that it was con- 
 demned, and another was subsequently erected at the west 
 side of the Council House, and finished in November, 1829, at 
 a further cost of about £1,400. To improve the approach to 
 this court, " Forster's Coffee House," the second of the quaint 
 old houses in Corn Street purchased in 1823, was demolished 
 in 1834. 
 
 * Mr. (afterwards Alderman) Barrow was educated in Colston's School [MS. 
 Annals, City Library), and was, it is believed, the only Colston boy who 
 attained the chief magistracy. 
 
 t The Corporation bought the premises for about £1,500.
 
 110 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. _ [1824. 
 
 Mr. Matthew Brickclale, eighteen years Member of Parlia- 
 ment for the city, and long the senior member of the Common 
 Council, resigned his seat in the latter body in January, 1824. 
 He had been in early life a wealthy woollen draper in High 
 Street, but impoverished himself by profuse expenditure at 
 four contested elections. During the closing years of his life 
 he was chiefly supported by his daughter, who obtained the 
 modest situation of housekeeper at the Custom House. On 
 his resignation being read to the Council, it was suggested 
 that he should be granted a pension of £200. The gift was, 
 however, limited to a single vote of £200. Mr. Brickdale 
 died in 1831, aged 97. Mr. Cruger, Brickdale's Whig rival, 
 and once his colleague in the representation, surrendered his 
 aldermanic gown in 1792, when he returned to his native 
 city. New York ; but he retained the oSice of Common Coun- 
 cillor until his death in 1827. An interesting letter from 
 Cruger to Brickdale will be found in Mr. Leech's " Brief 
 Romances of Bristol History," p. 237. 
 
 In February, 1824, in the course of some reparations on 
 the first floor of the house in College Green adjoining the 
 western side of the Mayor's Chapel, a small oratory was 
 discovered in the thickness of the party wall, proving that 
 the place had originally formed part of the monastic build- 
 ings. A piscina was found intact, and remains of paintings 
 were observed on the walls, some of which were supposed 
 to represent the Nativity and the Resurrection. In one 
 corner was a double-sighted squint or hagioscope, by which 
 an inmate would have been able to see the performance of 
 Mass at the high altar of the church. 
 
 The foundation stone of the Arcade leading from St. 
 James's Barton to the Horsefair was laid in May ; and the 
 building, which was esteemed at the time as remarkably 
 ornamental and graceful, was finished and opened in 1825. 
 The Lower Arcade was completed soon after. 
 
 For the purpose of making a street improvement in the 
 neighbourhood, the Corporation during the spring purchased 
 the interest of a Mr. William Player in the Castle Mill, for 
 £453 lOs. ]0d., and tho building, wliich represented the most 
 ancient industrial institution in the city, was soon afterwards 
 removed. 
 
 Locomotive steam engines had been employed upon two 
 colliery railways near Nowcastlc-upon-Tyne for nearly ten 
 years previously to this date, but the surpassing importance 
 of tho invention of Uedley and Stephenson remained unre- 
 cognised by even the keenest and most enterprising men of
 
 1825.] PROPOSED RAILWAYS. DISTINGUISHED VISITORS. Ill 
 
 business. At length, during a speculative mania which was 
 to end in widespread disaster, the matter excited attention, 
 and in December, 1824, a prospectus appeared of the Bath 
 and Bristol Railway Company, which proposed to avail itself 
 of '^ that grand improvement, the locomotive steam engine," 
 for the conveyance of passengers and merchandise. The 
 cost of the proposed undertaking was estimated at £8,000 a 
 mile, and a pi'ospect was held out of travelling from Bristol 
 to Bath in the incredibly short space of one hour. The 
 scheme was received with much approval, and applications 
 were made for shares to the amount of double the proposed 
 capital of £100,000. Shortly afterwards a meeting was held, 
 the mayor (Mr. T. Hassell) presiding, at which it was resolved 
 to form a company, to be called the Bristol, Northern and 
 Western Railway Company, for opening communications 
 with the midland and western counties. The capital was to 
 be £800,000 in £50 shares. The capital reserved for Bristol 
 was subscribed within an hour, and equal enthusiasm was 
 shown in Birmingham and other towns. This prospectus 
 was followed by that of the London and Bristol Railroad 
 Company, with a proposed capital of £1,500,000 in £100 
 shares. The celebrated road improver, Mr. McAdam, had 
 made a preliminary survey of the country for this under- 
 taking, which he recommended should follow the course of 
 the White Horse Valley, characteristically suggesting that a 
 new turnpike road should accompany the railroad from end to 
 end, by which the distance to London would be reduced from 
 120 to 110 miles. The shares of thiscompany were taken up be- 
 fore even the prospectus was printed. Next, some enterprising 
 people at Taunton proposed the construction of the " Grand 
 Western " railway from Bristol to Exeter, the cost of which 
 was estimated at only £200,000. The whole of these magni- 
 ficent schemes, in common with hundreds of others less sub- 
 stantial, collapsed in the panic which is about to be noticed. 
 Early in the year 1825, the Earl of Liverpool, Prime 
 Minister, and Mr. Canning, Secretary of State for Foreign 
 Affairs, who were sojourning at Bath in the hope of recovering 
 health — though the life and labours of both were fast hasten- 
 ing to a close — accepted an invitation from the mayor and 
 Corporation to pay a visit to Bristol, and arrived accordingly 
 on the 12th January. The distinguished guests were first 
 presented with the freedom of the city. In reply to the 
 town clerk, who in a well-turned speech communicated the 
 intention of the corporate body. Lord Liverpool expressed 
 his thanks. He had, he observed, some patrimonial claims
 
 112 THE ANNALS OF BEISTOL. [1825. 
 
 upon tlie city which would have rendered such an honour 
 desirable to him, but he preferred receiving it as a testimony 
 of public approval. Mr. Canning having also briefly ac- 
 knowledged the compliment, the two statesmen were then 
 presented with the freedom of the Merchants' Company, and 
 afterwards received an address from the Chamber of Com- 
 merce, thanking them for the reforms recently effected in 
 the commercial code of the countiy. In his reply to the 
 latter, Mr. Canning expressed his belief that " a free and 
 liberal policy in regard to trade was increasing throughout 
 the world." In the evening the guests were entertained to 
 dinner at the Mansion House, after which twenty-eight 
 toasts were drunk. (The entertainment cost the Corporation 
 £665.) The Prime Minister returned to Bath after dinner, 
 but Mr. Canning slept in Clifton, and viewed the scenery of 
 the neighbourhood next morning, before his departure. 
 
 The early months of 1825 are memorable in English history 
 for a speculative mania as unreasoning and as widespread as 
 that which seized the nation during the South Sea frenzy in 
 the previous century. People of all classes rushed into joint- 
 stock enterprises which were expected to bring in oceans of 
 wealth ; and gambling operations in shares, fomented by the 
 madness of the hour, actually enabled some to make fortunes, 
 which they forthwith invested in new bubbles. The rage 
 could not liave extended so far had not the Bank of England, 
 in spite of continuous exportations of gold, enormously in- 
 creased its issues of paper money, in Avhich course it was 
 followed with still greater recklessness by the provincial 
 bankers, who in a few months more than doubled the previous 
 circulation of their notes by making free advances to specu- 
 lators. At length, in September, the London issues were 
 materially reduced, and the inevitable collapse which followed 
 brought al)out the most overwhelming revulsion of commerce 
 ever known in the country. In December two large London 
 banks stopped payment, and about seventy country banks 
 became insolvent within a few weeks. The only failure in 
 Bristol (December 20) was that of IMessrs. Browne, Cava- 
 nagh & Co., whose establishment — the Bullion Bank — stood 
 nearly opposite to the Exchange. Intense alarm being caused 
 by the suspension, there was a rush upon the other banks 
 to demand payment of their notes. A declaration of 
 confidence in tlieso establishments was, however, rapidly 
 signed by the leading firms of the city, and the panic sub- 
 sided. The crash nevertheless brought about a notable 
 reduction in the local banking houses. In June, 1826,
 
 1825.] mechanics' institute, the French chapel. 113 
 
 Messrs. Pitt, Powell & Fripp, Bridge Parade, retired frora 
 business. Messrs. Cave, Ames & Cave, Corn Street, about 
 the same time joined tlie Old Bank of Messrs. Elton, Baillie, 
 Tyndall & Co. A few weeks later, Messrs. Kicketts, 
 Thorne & Courtney, whose premises — the curious house 
 at the corner of Wine and High Streets — were knoAvn 
 as the Castle Bank, also withdrew, and their example was 
 immediately afterwards followed by Messrs. Worrall and 
 Gold, who had an office in the Exchange. Half the private 
 banks in Bristol thus disappeared in less than a twelvemonth. 
 In December, 1828, the firm of Savery, Towgood, Yerbury 
 & Towgood, Wine Street, also relinquished business. 
 
 In 1824, a few promoters of education amongst the poor, 
 the most prominent of whom were Dr. Birkbeck and Mr. 
 (afterwards Lord) Brougham, suggested the establishment of 
 Mechanics' Institutes in populous towns. The movement 
 found local supporters in the following year, and in June, 
 1825, an institution on a modest scale was opened in some 
 rooms in Prince's Street. Projects of this character were 
 then regarded with suspicion by old-fashioned politicians. 
 The Bridol Journal denounced the "mania for raising the 
 lower orders above their proper sphere," and gave promi- 
 nence to an article extracted from a London paper, a brief 
 extract from which may be amusing. After remarking that 
 "there only wants a few years' working of Mr. Brougham's 
 infidel college [University College, London], to enlist the 
 shopkeepers on the side of the rabble, and thus sever the 
 only remaining bond by which poverty, ignorance, and 
 numbers are held in subordination to rank, wealth, and 
 knowledge," the able editor, referring to mechanics' institu- 
 tions solemnly added : "A scheme more completely adapted 
 to the destruction of this empire could not have been in- 
 vented." Unfortunately for the working classes, their 
 educational training was so deficient at that period that com- 
 paratively few could avail themselves of the advantages of 
 the institution, which was mainly supported by tradesmen 
 and their families. In November, 18o2, it was removed to a 
 new building erected for the purpose in Broadmead, but 
 when the attraction of novelty had passed away, the sub- 
 scribers who had been gained by the change of site gradually 
 fell off. After languishing for some years, the institution 
 was dissolved, and its library was transferred to the Athe- 
 naeum, founded in February, 1845. 
 
 An interesting religious body — descendants of the Hugue- 
 nots who fled from France and settled in Bristol after the
 
 114 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1825. 
 
 revocation of the Edict of Nantes — disappeared in the summer 
 of 1825. The original fugitives were for some years per- 
 mitted to use the Mayor's Chapel for their weekly worship ; 
 but in the reign of George I. the Corporation resolved on 
 resuming occupation of the building, and offered the French 
 Protestants a plot of ground in Orchard Street at a nominal 
 rent, upon which they built a chapel of their own. It was 
 highly characteristic of the old Corporation, that the land 
 thus disposed of was not its own property, but was held in 
 trust for charitable purposes, being part of the estate of 
 Queen Elizabeth's hospital. A lease, renewable every 14 
 years at a small fine, was granted in September, 1729, to 
 Jacob Peloquin, merchant, and Peter Panon, stuff-maker, at 
 a yearly rent of £1 17s. Gd. The congregation were negligent 
 in securing renewals of the lease, but on several occasions 
 no advantage was taken of their carelessness. In 1797 the 
 lease seems to have lapsed, but the Rev. Francis de Soyres, 
 chaplain, was allowed to rent the chapel at a charge of two 
 guineas yearly. His successor, the Rev. J. S. Pons, had a 
 similar grant in 1823. The rent was paid up to June, 1825, 
 when the congregation, which, though once numerous, had 
 been constantly diminishing, was finally broken up. The 
 chapel, in 1832, was granted at the old rent to Dr. Kentish, 
 Dr. Davies, and Mr. Wm. Mortimer, who fitted it up as a 
 medical library. Having been again vacated about 1850, it 
 was taken in 1856 by a congregation of Plymouth Brethren 
 at a rent of £25 per annum. 
 
 The merchants, shipownei's, and others who had agitated 
 for the reduction of the town and mayor's dues, observing 
 the impracticable tactics of the Corporation, resolved about 
 this time upon trying whether the rights and privileges 
 claimed by the civic oligarchy were not assailable in the 
 law courts. It is noteworthy that the movers in this experi- 
 ment were for the most part leading Tories, and that they 
 were zealously supported by the Journal, one of the chief 
 organs of the party, which denounced what it called "the 
 system of favoui-itism per])etuated by a select body who have 
 by degrees elected themselves into close and tyrannical family 
 comjiacts." The Whig Ga-dte, on the other hand, was the 
 organ find apologist of the Corporation. Towards the close 
 of 1825 an application was made in the King's Bench for a 
 writ of quo wiirra)ifo, calling upon the mayor and sheriffs to 
 show by what .authority they exercised tln'ir oiHces. The 
 promoters of this proceeding contended that in the reign of 
 Edward III. the mayor and sheriffs were elected by the
 
 1826.] PORT CHARGES. INTRODUCTION OP FLYS. 115 
 
 burgesses of the town, and that this right of the inhabitants 
 generally had been filched from them by the help of an illegal 
 charter obtained from Charles II. For the Corporation it 
 was contended that the governing charter of the city was 
 that of Queen Anne, by which the right of self-election was 
 distinctly given to the Common Council ; and this defence 
 was upheld in May, 1826, by the Court of King's Bench. 
 Whilst this case was pending, the assailants of the Corpora- 
 tion commenced another action, directed against the town 
 dues. It appeared that whilst the civic archives were being 
 explored in reference to the quo warranto, a charter of 
 Edward IV. was found, which, in conferring upon the Cor- 
 poration the power to levy dues on shipping, directed that 
 the receipts should be applied to the reparation of the quays, 
 pavements, etc., of the city. In consequence of this dis- 
 covery, application was made for a mandamus against the 
 Corporation, requii-ing them to pay over to the commissioners 
 of paving, in aid of their funds, the income derived from the 
 town dues. In May, 1826, the Corporation put in the 
 technical plea that they had never been asked to do so. In 
 reply the promoters pointed out that, as all the paving com- 
 missioners were nominees of the Common Council, there was 
 no independent official capable of taking action on behalf of 
 the ratepayers ; but the judges, whose sympathy for privileged 
 bodies and vested rights was in those days carried to excess, 
 held the plea of the Corporation to be sufficient, and the 
 rule for a mandaimis was discharged. The Corporation's law 
 costs in the above cases exceeded £3,500. In November, 
 1826, the Chamber of Commerce, changing the object of its 
 attack, requested the Society of Merchants, who held a lease 
 of the wharfage dues of the Corporation for the sum of £10 
 yearly, to permit an examination of their accounts, it being 
 urged that the dues were grievous to commerce, and produced 
 a revenue enormously in excess of the expenditure incurred 
 in maintaining the quays and wharves of the port. The 
 society's emphatic refusal of this demand was warmly ap- 
 plauded by the Common Council. 
 
 " Cabriolets," or " Ays," drawn by a single horse had 'been 
 introduced into London shortly before this time, and had in 
 a large measure superseded the old lumbering " hackney 
 coach." The Common Council in March, 1826, sanctioned 
 a similar innovation in Bristol, but limited the number of the 
 new vehicles to forty.* The number was doubled four years 
 
 * The Common Council had of course no jurisdiction in Clifton, where
 
 116 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1826. 
 
 later. As anotlier novelty in locomotion, it may be stated that 
 passenger "wherries" began to ply from Cumberland Basin 
 to Prince's Street bridge in 1824, and proved so popular that 
 bye-laws fixing the fares were passed by the Common Council 
 in 1827. 
 
 Many thousand persons assembled on the banks of the 
 Avon, near the Hotwell, on the 22nd May, 1826, in conse- 
 quence of an announcement of an American, named Courtney, 
 that he would take a " flying leap " from St. Vincent's rocks 
 to the opposite side of the river. A rope stretched from the 
 highest point of the rocks, above Giant's Cave, was made fast 
 to a tree on the opposite side of the stream ; and at the time 
 fixed Courtney appeared, suspended below the rope in a 
 horizontal position, and accomplished the descent, 1,100 feet, 
 in a few seconds, amidst great applause. The feat was 
 repeated on the 5th June with equal success. It may be 
 added that it had been achieved nearly a century earlier, by 
 a man named Thomas Kidman — immortalised in Hogarth's 
 engraving of "The Fair," — who visited Clifton in April, 1736. 
 
 A general election took place in July, and promised at the 
 outset to pass off quietly in this city. The sitting members, 
 Messrs. Bright and Hart Davis, had informed their respective 
 parties that they should prefer to resign rather than bear the 
 onerous expenses of a contest; whereupon the local leaders 
 resolved to avoid a struggle by re-electing the old repre- 
 sentatives, and started private subscriptions for defraying 
 the cost. This amicable arrangement, however, was promptly 
 denounced by the more advanced section of the Whig party, 
 who were discontented with Mr. Bright's votes on religious 
 disabilities and other questions, and who determined to nomin- 
 ate Mr. Edward Protheroe. Though the latter declined to 
 stand, he was brought to the poll, to the great joy of the 
 freemen, who regarded economy in election matters as 
 "rol)bing them of their rights." A serious riot took place 
 on the nomination day, during which the J5ush Hotel, Mr. 
 Bright's liead-quarters, was partially sacked by the mob. 
 The poll (the last taken in the Guildhall) was kept o])cn for 
 a week, and resulted as follows : Mr. Davis, 3,887 ; Mr. 
 Bright, 2,815; Mr. Protheroe, 1,873. Tho names of 999 
 
 ladies chiefly depended upon sedan chairs. The Bristol Times and Mirror of 
 Octolxr .0, iy75, jmljlishcd a rcniinisconce to the ctTcct that tho chairmeu of 
 Clifton were so alarmed at tlieir interests being iniperillod by a tly wliich a 
 daring individual started, tliat they assembled at night, i)roke open the door of 
 the outhouse where the revolutionary vehicle was kcjit, and hurled it (tho 
 vehicloj over St. Vincent's rocks.
 
 1826.] SEWAGE IN THE FLOAT. THE STOCKS. 117 
 
 persons were added to the burgess roll during the contest, 
 doubtless at the expense of the candidates' committees. 
 
 The noxious condition during the summer months of the 
 Floating Harbour, which, as has been already observed, was 
 then the receptacle of nearly all the sewage of the city, 
 had for several years provoked loud complaints on the part 
 of citizens whose dwellings or places of business lay near its 
 banks. The dock directors, however, treated appeals for im- 
 provement with contemptuous indifference. In 1825, when 
 the weather was exceptionally hot, and when the Float was 
 described in one of the local journals as a '' stagnant mass of 
 putridity," the intolerable character of the nuisance at last 
 stirred up the citizens to co-operate for their own relief. In 
 February, 1826, the Attorney-General applied to the Court 
 of King's Bench for a mandamus against the Dock Company, 
 requiring them to make proper provision for carrying the 
 sewage into the tidal river, as it was held they were under 
 an obligation to do by their original Act. It was stated in 
 court that nearly six miles of sewers drained into the Float.. 
 The directors denied their liability, but a w.andanms was 
 granted in modified terms, ordering them to make such 
 alterations as were necessary. Attempting to evade this 
 requirement by delay, further proceedings were taken against 
 them in the following year, when a peremptory order was 
 issued. They then set about the construction of a culvert, 
 known as Mylne's culvert, from the name of its designer, 
 by which, at a cost of about £7,000, the filthy waters of the 
 Frome were diverted from the harbour, and conveyed by a 
 tunnel under the old bed of the Avon to the New Cut. 
 
 The latest record of punishment by the stocks in this city 
 occurs in August, 1826, and the incident throws some light on 
 the habits of the lower classes of that generation. One Sun- 
 day afternoon fourteen labourers entered St. Mary Redcliff 
 churchyard, took possession of a form which had been placed 
 at the south porch preparatory to a funeral, and carried it 
 away to the lower part of the burial ground, where they held 
 a noisy carousal. On being brought before the magistrates, 
 two of them, refusing to pay a small fine, were ordered to 
 be " exposed for tliree hours in the stocks on Redclilf Hill," 
 and the sentence was forthwith carried out.* 
 
 The recordership of the city became vacant in September 
 
 * The stocks belonging to St. James's parish were in existence in 1837, when 
 the Corporation took a lease of the ground now used as a hay market, the stocks 
 and parish watch-house being reserved.
 
 118 • THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1827. 
 
 througli the death of Lord Gilford, in whose room the Common 
 Council elected Sir John Copley, Master of the Rolls, A few 
 months later, on the break up of the Liverpool Ministry, Sir 
 John was appointed Lord Chancellor, and raised to the peer- 
 age under the title of Lord Lyndhurst. It is said that Mr. 
 Canning's despatch, offering him a seat in the Cabinet, was 
 delivered to the recorder during morning service in Henbury 
 church. The assize of 1827 was certainly held a day or two 
 before the reconstruction of the Ministry. On the election of a 
 new recorder some members of the Corporation appear to have 
 had presentiments as to the danger of appointing a violent 
 political partisan. At a meeting of the Common Council 
 on the 11th July, 1827, a resolution inviting* Sir Charles 
 Wetherell to accept the office was lost, the votes for and 
 against it (eleven) being equal. Another meeting on the 
 21st had a like result, thirteen votes being given on each 
 side. A week later, however, the opposition was withdrawn, 
 and Sir Charles was unanimously elected. 
 
 On the 28th of May, 1827, appeared the first number of 
 a daily journal of four pages (about the size of Punch), styled 
 Tlie Bristolian : Daily Local Puhlication, and published at 
 16^, Broad Street, price three-halfpence. Its proprietor and 
 conductor was a person named James A eland, who had re- 
 cently taken up his residence in the city. The contents were 
 almost exclusively of a local character, reports of police cases 
 being a prominent feature. The newspaper — for it was un- 
 questionably a newspaper — did not bear the stamp (costing 
 nearly fourpence) required by law, the editor coolly alleging 
 that the work was a pamphlet; and for a few days the Stamp 
 Office authorities were content to receive the pamphlet duty 
 of 3s. on each publication. On the 5th June, however, they 
 decided that the BristoUan was a newspaper, whereupon 
 Acland next morning produced what he called a new work, 
 'Tlie Bristolian : Daihj Literary Lnhluutfion , all the local 
 intelligence being suppressed. Though in this form it 
 escaped the duty on newspapers, it ceased to be attractive 
 to local readers, and the proprietor oji the 14th June boldly 
 revived his police intelligence. The case re])orted that day 
 is still worthy of note. A sailor named Redding, who had 
 served about twenty years in the navy, was convicted of having 
 brought with him from Ireland a two-gallon keg of whisky, 
 winch he liad bought of a spirit dealer at Cork, li-ish whisky 
 could not then l)o imported in less quantities than lUO gallons, 
 and lU'dding, convicted of the " offence," was sentenced to 
 " five years' compulsory service on board a king's ship " — the
 
 1827.] THE FIRST DAILY NEWSPAPER. 119 
 
 punishment imposed by an Act passed in 1825. The indigna- 
 tion excited ]>y the decision was not lessened by the fact that 
 Alderman Fripp, jun., one of the presiding justices, anxious 
 to prevent the case from coming to the public ear, had in- 
 sisted on expelling Acland, the only reporter present, from 
 the court. As the latter naturally made the most of the affair, 
 public feeling was so strongly stirred that Redding was event- 
 ually liberated; and the prisoner and his champion enjoyed a 
 triumphal procession through the streets. In the meantime, 
 however, Acland's newspaper had come to grief. The anger 
 of the Government officials at the infraction of the stamp 
 laws was aggravated by Redding's case, which redounded 
 so little to the credit of their employers; and on the 18th 
 June — in the nineteenth daily number of the Bri^tolian — 
 Acland announced its cessation, but promised to produce 
 a pamphlet every Wednesday and Saturday. In that form, 
 owing largely to the personality in which its compiler in- 
 dulged, the periodical attained a large circulation. Up to 
 that time no Bristol newspaper had reported the business in 
 the police court, although evidence is not wanting that the 
 aldermen sometimes conducted themselves in a manner open 
 to public criticism. To the extreme irritation of those gentle- 
 men and their officers, the cases heard at each sitting Avere 
 not only narrated at length by Acland, but were embellished 
 with remarks far from complimentary to the dispensers of 
 justice. Alderman Sir Richard Vaughan being for some time 
 an especial target for banter. Orders were at length given 
 to exclude the censor, and as, by some means, Acland still 
 contrived to get information, a sergeant was placed at the 
 door of the court, with orders to prevent the admittance of 
 every one not concerned in the day's business. This aggression 
 on public rights gave the Bristolian new matter for attack, 
 and its conductor boldly assailed the entire Corporation as 
 unjust, tyrannical, and corrupt. These chai'ges provoked the 
 Court of Aldermen to institute a criminal prosecution against 
 their author, who was tried before Mr. Justice Park at the 
 assizes in August, 1828. On being called on for his defence, 
 Mr. Acland, in a speech occupying- nearly three hours in 
 delivery, contended that the conduct of the justices had been 
 indefensible, and that he had not trespassed beyond legitimate 
 criticism. He also commented strongly, and it must be con- 
 fessed justly, on the circumstance that several of the jurymen 
 were related to members of the Corporation, or were closely 
 connected with them in business. He did not know — though 
 it is now apparent in the civic cash-book — that no less than
 
 120 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1827. 
 
 £532 had been spent in bringing bim to trial. A verdict 
 of guilty being returned, the defendant was subsequently" 
 sentenced to two months' imprisonment in Gloucester gaol. 
 In the following year Acland had the effrontery to petition 
 the Common Council to be admitted a free burgess. His 
 appeal was, of course, rejected, and the scribe revenged 
 himself by renewed libels on prominent corporators in his 
 Bristolian, which continued to appear twice a week until the 
 spring of 1831. During a portion of this period of his career 
 Acland got up a Bread Association, and one of the advertise- 
 ments in his periodical stated that " pure flour and bread 
 (4 lb. loaves at lOd.) " were sold at the Bristolian office, at 
 4, All Saints' Street. Being threatened with another prosecu- 
 tion by the aldermen, Acland removed to Hull, where he set 
 up a journal of a similar character, and where his acrimony 
 against the aldermen was quite as bitter as before. Three 
 prosecutions for libel having resulted in convictions, he was 
 sent to prison for fifteen months. Shortly afterwards his 
 wife, who had continued the Hull newspaper, was sentenced 
 to a term of imprisonment for pviblishing additional libels. 
 And no sooner was Acland at liberty than he began to print 
 another unstamped journal, for which he underwent incar- 
 ceration for half a year more. A copy of probably his last 
 local production, dated September 29, 1832, is in the City 
 Library. It is a newspaper, styled A Free Reporter. To evade 
 the stamp duty, its publisher added to the title, " Left to read 
 six months, for three-halfpence." 
 
 A branch of the Bank of England, for which premises had 
 been purchased at the east end of l^ridgo Street, was opened 
 for business on the 12th July, 1827. The institution was 
 regarded with great disfavour by the private bankers of the 
 city, and appears to have been long disliked by many 
 members of the mercantile community. In April, 1844, the 
 bank purchased two picturesque old houses in Broad Street, 
 which were pulled down, and the existing heavy-looking 
 edifice was erected on the site. 
 
 The city chamberlain's cash-book contains the following 
 curious item: "August 1st, 1827. Paid James Poole for a 
 scarlet and lilack gown and a })air of gloves, the prt)})erty of 
 Mv. George King, late a member of the Common Council, 
 £12." There is no reference to the matter in the minute 
 books, but it seems probable that the payinont was made to 
 avoid scandal. The robes were purchased three years later, 
 at tlie same price, by a new councillor, Mr. H. W. Newman. 
 
 The foundation-stone of the new asylum for orphan girls,
 
 1827.] STEAM CARRIAGES. TRAVELLING BY KITES. 121 
 
 at Hook's Mills, replacing the building in wliich the charity- 
 had been established in 1795, was laid by the mayor (Mr. T. 
 Camphn), on the 22nd August, in the presence of a numerous 
 gathering of citizens. The chapel attached to the institution 
 was consecrated a few months later by the bishop of the 
 diocese. 
 
 The Drawbridge, a cumbrous structure, raised and lowered 
 by a winch, which had been condemned by the Council so far 
 back as 1808, was replaced in August by a new bridge, on 
 the swivel principle. The opening of the latter — which cost 
 £2,000 — took place on a Sunday, the first to pass over being 
 the mayor and sheriffs as they proceeded to morning service 
 at the Mayor's Chapel. 
 
 Much public interest was aroused about this time by a Mr. 
 Gurney's invention of a steam carriage, intended to supersede 
 passenger coaches on turnpike roads. One of the vehicles, 
 which was intended to run between London and Manchester, 
 was of twelve-horse power, and carried six passengers inside 
 and fifteen outside, exclusive of the guard, the promised rate 
 of speed being from ten to twelve miles an hour. The Gentle- 
 man's Magazine for November, 1827, announced : "A steam- 
 coach company are now making arrangements for stopping 
 places on the line of road between London, Bath, and Bristol, 
 which will occur every six or seven miles, where fresh fuel 
 and water are to be supplied. There are fifteen coaches 
 built." Owing to the conservative prejudices of many turn- 
 pike trustees, who imposed inordinate tolls on steam carriages, 
 the inventor was unable to make any practical progress. The 
 threatened competition moreover stirred up the coach pro- 
 prietors, whose vehicles were still going at a jog-trot of six 
 or seven miles an hour, and a notable increase of speed took 
 place throughout the country. Mr. Gurney had also to 
 contend with the ignorant passions of the poor. On one 
 occasion, as a steam carriage was on its way from London 
 to the west, it was stopped on its arrival at Melksham by a 
 crowd of agricultural labourers, at that time greatly irritated 
 by the introduction of thrashing machines and other rural 
 apparatus. Believing* that the steam coach was likely to 
 injure manual labour, they attacked it with stones, amidst 
 shouts of " Down with machinery!" its occupants narrowly 
 escaping sei'ious injury. 
 
 A still more remarkable locomotive novelty than that of 
 Mr. Gurney excited local attention about this time. An 
 ingenious schoolmaster, Mr. George Pocock, residing near 
 St. Michael's church, discovered that by fastening a kite to
 
 122 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. [1827. 
 
 the string attached to another kite already in the air, the 
 combined power of the two toys, when elevated in a good 
 breeze, was sufficient to drag a considerable weight along 
 the surface of the ground. After many experiments, Mr. 
 Pocock invented a vehicle somewhat similar in form to the 
 modern tricyle, and found that one of these, capable of carry- 
 ing four persons, could be drawn by two kites of twelve and 
 ten feet in height respectively — the speed attained with a 
 brisk wind being about twenty-five miles an hour. With 
 kites of twenty feet and twelve feet, a carriage loaded with 
 six persons was drawn with equal rapidity. When, by further 
 developments, the kites were made capable of " tacking," 
 the carriages could be used in any wind which was not 
 directly opposed to the intended line of advance. In June, 
 1828, the novel vehicle was exhibited at Ascot races before 
 George IV. In the following month Mr. Pocock was at 
 Liverpool, and made an experiment to show the use of kites 
 for drawing a ferry boat across the Mersey. The Liverpool 
 Mercury, recording the results, observed that Avith a good 
 Avind " a boat furnished with one of the largest pairs of kites 
 would be able to make the passage from and to Birkenhead, 
 whatever might be the state or the strength of the tide," 
 thus avoiding the great detentions which frequently occurred 
 before steam power was adopted. The same paper stated 
 that the kites could draw the boat in a direction " less than 
 five points from the wind." On another occasion a yacht 
 was hired, and after the sails had been replaced by kites, a 
 numerous party cruised for three weeks in the Bristol Channel 
 off the coasts of Wales and Devon. In 18oG, during the visit 
 of the British Association to Bristol, a kite carriage was 
 shown on Clifton Down, and amongst those who tried its 
 remarkable powers was Prince George of Cumberland, after- 
 Avards King of Hanover. The local journals stated that a 
 gigantic kite, thirty feet high, capable of drawing four cars 
 with four persons in each, had been prepared, but that owing 
 to some accident to tlie tackle it could not l)e used. Mr. 
 Pocock obtained a patent for his kites and carriages, by which 
 he and his family travelled about for many years. A not 
 unimportant advantage of the vehicles, was their immunity 
 from turnpike tolls, a heavy tax upon locomotion in those 
 (lays. According to a '' Treatise on the Aeropl(>ustic Art, 
 with a Description of the Charvolant, or Kite Carriage," 
 l)ul)lislied by Longman & Co., the travelling kites were 
 shown in operation daily at Ealing, Middlesex, during the 
 Great Exhibition of 1851.
 
 1828.] FIRST LOCAL RAILWAY. CATTLE MARKET. 123 
 
 A partial revival of the project for constructing a railway 
 from Bristol to Birmingham [see p. Ill] occurred in 1828, 
 when an Act was obtained for making a colliery tramway from 
 Coalpit Heath to St. Philip's, Bristol, on the line of country- 
 laid out for the previous undertaking. The promoters of 
 this modest work adopted the name of the Bristol and 
 Grloucestershire Railway Company ; but their . energy was 
 scarcely equal to the pretentiousness of the title, for the nine 
 miles of tramway, which cost about £77,000, were not opened 
 until August, 1835. The line was worked by horses until 
 1839, when an Act was passed for adapting it to locomotive 
 engines. In the meantime another tramway, styled the Avon 
 and Gloucestershire railway, had been laid from Coalpit Heath 
 to the Avon, near Bitton, at a cost of £46,000, the promoters 
 being under the belief that they could supply coal by canal 
 boats to Bath and other inland towns at rates which would 
 defy competition. This line had been originally contemplated 
 so early as 1803, but the £23,000 then required for its forma- 
 tion could not be obtained. In 1843, after long negotiations, 
 the first-mentioned tramway was absorbed in the undertaking 
 of the Bristol and Gloucester Railway Company, which had 
 been formed to construct a narrow-gauge line between the 
 two cities. The new company, however, fell under the control, 
 of the Great Western board, in consequence of which thati 
 portion of the tramway between Lawrence Hill and Fishponds 
 was converted into a broad-gauge railway, and became part of 
 the new line to Gloucester. The Avon and Gloucestershire 
 line opened out a considerable coal traffic ; but its temporary 
 success was succeeded by complete failure, and the works 
 have long lain in ruins. 
 
 During the session of 1828 an Act was obtained, under the 
 auspices of the Corporation, for constructing a cattle market 
 at Temple Meads, power being also obtained to suppress the 
 market previously held in Thomas Street, and to build a new 
 Avool hall. Compensation was to be paid (out of the receipts 
 from tolls) to the feoffees of St. Thomas's parish for the 
 relinquishment of their rights. The new market provided 
 accommodation for 2,000 cattle, 7,000 sheep, 300 horses, and 
 500 pigs. Thomas Street market was held for the last time 
 on the 28th January, 1830, and its successor was opened a 
 week later. One of the first sales, according- to a local news- 
 paper, was that of the wife of a fellow named Gardner, of 
 Felton, who " knocked her down" for £5 10^. The market 
 cost £17,400, and the new wool hall £4,400. Towards these 
 sums the Corporation advanced to the trustees on loan £10,800,
 
 124 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. [1828. 
 
 besides selling tliem four acres of land at £600 per acre. 
 The remainder of the outlay was defrayed by the feolfees of 
 St. Thomas^ the Act providing that the interest on the loans 
 effected by them should be a first charge on the tolls. It 
 was further enacted that the feoffees should be entitled to a 
 yearly sum of £300 out of the receipts before interest was 
 paid on the Corporation debt. In the result, the profits of 
 the market failed for many years to meet the preferential 
 claims, and the Corporation received nothing. The place has 
 since undergone great alterations. Part of the site was 
 absorbed for the Bristol and Exeter railway station, and a 
 still larger portion Avas appropriated under the Act for con- 
 structing the Joint Station, the railway authorities giving up 
 other ground in the immediate neighboui'hood. The new 
 wool hall appears to have been a financial failure, and it 
 was closed in 1834. 
 
 Mr. Francis Freeling, who had filled the appointment of 
 Secretary to the Ceneral Post Office for more than thirty 
 years, was created a baronet on the 11th March, 1828, in 
 recognition of his services to the State. Sir Francis, the son 
 of a journeyman sugar-baker, is said to have been born on 
 Redcliff Hill in 1764, and was educated in Colston's School. 
 He held a subordinate position in the Bristol Post Office in 
 1784, when the introduction of mail coaches, at the instance 
 of Mr. John Palmer, of Bath, caused a mutiny amongst the 
 clerks in the London establishment, who declared that the 
 daily despatch of mails at a fixed hour was utterly impracti- 
 cable. Freeling, whose energy had been remarked, was sent 
 to the capital, where he succeeded, in spite of the antagonistic 
 attitude of all the old-fashioned superior officers, in bringing 
 the new system into successful operation. In reward for his 
 exertions he was soon afterwards placed at the head of the 
 department, and thoroughly justified the appointment by 
 indefatigable devotion to his duties for thirty-eight years. 
 The Corporation of Bristol presented him with the freedom 
 of the city in 1822. Sir Francis died on the lOtli July, 1836. 
 
 In April, 1828, the Society of Merchants granted to Mr. 
 Wm. West, a local artist, at a nominal rent, the ruins of an 
 old windmill, known as the snuff-mill, on Clifton Down, wliich 
 had Ijeon destroyed by fire, October 30, 1777. Mr. West built 
 a dwelling lious(^ on th(> sjiot, and rcconstructcHl the tower, 
 which hu fitted up in 1821) with telescopes and a caniera- 
 obscur.a, and styled an observatory. Some years later, at con- 
 siderable expense, he excavated a passage from tlie l)iiikling 
 to tho well-known " (Jiant's Cave." This was opened in July,
 
 1828.] CORPORATE IMPROVIDENCE. 125 
 
 1837. Photography appears to have been introduced to the 
 people of Bristol at Mr. West's abode. In an advertisement in 
 a Bristol newspaper of April 27, 18'J9, it was announced that 
 "various kinds of photog-onic drawing'' might be seen, and 
 that "superior photogenic paper" was sold at the observatory. 
 The Corporation about this period appears to have ex- 
 perienced alternate fits of economy and extravagance. 
 Having undertaken the re-erection of the Council House 
 without possessing funds in hand adequate to meet a fourth 
 of the expense, there was for a time a tendency towards 
 retrenchment. In June, 1824, the Common Council reduced 
 the salary of the future mayors from £2,500 to £2,000, while 
 that of the sheriffs was curtailed from £1,260 to £800; but 
 in the latter case the saving was comparatively small, the 
 Corporation undertaking charges amounting to about £200 
 which had previously been borne by the two functionaries. 
 Here, inoreover, frugality ended, and two years later, when 
 the works in hand had drained the treasury, the civic income 
 was suddenly diminished by the serious sum of £2,000 a year 
 through the reduction of the town dues. The advance 
 made by the bankers at length became so large that they 
 refused to increase it, and the Corporation, in extreme em- 
 barrassment, was obliged to borrow £5,000 from Mrs. Harford, 
 the mother of the deputy chamberlain, and nearly as much 
 more from other persons. Previous to that time the Common 
 Council had rarely allowed its expenditure to exceed its 
 income, the bonded debt in 1825 (excluding charity moneys 
 which it had no power to pay off) being only about £5,000. 
 But having once deviated from the proper path, it lost little 
 time in plunging deeper, and a further sum of £10,000 was 
 borrowed in 1827-8. Gratified by the ease with which 
 troubles were thus overcome, the Common Council adopted 
 a proposal the nature of which will be best explained by 
 an entry in the city cash-book : "May 24 [1828]. Paid the 
 first cost, freight, duty, bottling, etc., of four pipes of Madeira 
 and four pipes of port, placed under the Council House for 
 the purpose of supplying the mayor for the time being with 
 Avine on his entering into office, the cost of which is to be 
 repaid on the same being delivered, £802 0^. 10(/." In the 
 following year six pipes of port and two of Madeira were 
 added to the stock, at a cost (excluding bottling) of £554 
 7s. bd. ', in 18o0 the purchases consisted of two pipes of port 
 and two of Madeira, costing (with £113 for bottling) £393 
 4.S-. 11(/. ; and in 1832 and 1834 two butts and a hogshead 
 of sherry were obtained for £302. On the other hand, Mr.
 
 126 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1828. 
 
 Cave paid £188 19s. 5d. for a pipe of port and anotlier of 
 Madeira consumed during liis mayoralty (1828-9), and Mr. 
 Bavage, who held office for two years, paid £199 2s. 9d. 
 But the next mayor, Mr. Stanton, accounted for only £27 
 U.S. 6d., and no repayments by later mayors have been 
 found. Though the amount due for wine may have been 
 leducted from the annual honorarium of each chief magis- 
 trate, it does not seem that the new system effected any 
 saving to the city treasury. Economy, however, was less 
 than ever in fashion since the Common Council had become 
 accustomed to the easy process of borrowing. The vast 
 expenditure squandered upon the Mayor's Chapel has been 
 already mentioned. In September, 1828, the sum of £286 
 16s. Od. was paid for a new gold chain for the use of the 
 mayor, the ancient ornament being sold as old metal for £50. 
 The law expenses incurred from 1826 to 1828 inclusive, 
 amounted to over £8,500. In 1829, as will shortly be shown, 
 upwards of £5,200 were paid for an intended new Mansion 
 House, and about the same sum was soon afterwards dis- 
 bursed for building a hotel at Portishead, while the grants 
 made towards erecting new churches about this time amounted 
 to nearly £3,000. As the ordinary revenue scarcely met the 
 customary expenditure, further loans to the extent of £13,050 
 were made in 1829-30, yet the balance due to the Chamber- 
 lain's bankers frequently exceeded £10,000. One ingenious 
 mode of raising money remains to be noticed. Under a 
 pretence — wholly fictitious as will afterwards be shown — 
 that Queen Elizabeth's hospital was largely indebted to the 
 city, the Corporation, acting as trustees, made frequent raids 
 upon the income of the charity, the appropriations amounting 
 to £5,500 between 1828 and 1832, and £6,700 more between 
 the latter date and 1836. In the same manner, an estate 
 called the Bartholomew Lands was declared by the Common 
 Council to beloug to the Corporation and not, as had been 
 previously held, to a charity, and a sum of nearly £1,000, 
 accumulated income, was carried into the civic treasury. In 
 sjnte r)f these " conveyances," a financial equilibrium could 
 not 1)0 effected, and more than £16,000 were borrowed be- 
 tween 1831 and 1833. Adding to the bonded debt the 
 amount derived l)y sales of city property, it ap})ears from a 
 statement made before the reformed Council on the 22nd 
 •July, 1837, that tlie civic estate was ini])iiired to the extent 
 of £74,733 between the years 1824 and 1835, irrespective of 
 over £16,000 improperly withdrawn from the charities — an 
 aggregate exceeding £90,000.
 
 1828.] RACES. SYDNEY SMITh's FAMOUS SERMON. 127 
 
 A racecourse was improvised on Durdham Down in May, 
 1828, and a number of horses started for the prizes offered. 
 Though the quality of the animals was indifferent, the affair 
 attracted a great attendance. The meeting was continued 
 for some years, the last taking place on the 9th and 10th 
 May, 1838, when Mr. Blagden Hale and Mr. J. Coulston 
 officiated as stewards. An interesting reminiscence of these 
 gatherings is preserved in a picture by Miss Sharpies, con- 
 taining portraits of several Bristolians of the time, to be seen 
 in the permanent collection at the Fine Arts Academy. 
 
 At a meeting in September, the Common Council resolved 
 to apply to the Court of Chancery for a scheme for altering 
 the regulations of the Loan Money Fund — investments de- 
 rived from the charitable bequests of fourteen donors at 
 various dates, but which had become almost inoperative 
 owing to the smallness of the sums which the founders had 
 directed to be advanced to individuals. An order approving 
 of a scheme, by which loans varying from £50 to £300 were 
 authorised to be lent to persons cai^rying on business in the 
 *' ancient city," was confirmed by the Master of the Rolls in 
 March, 1831. 
 
 In October, 1828, the interesting crypt of St. John's 
 church, which, according to a contemporai-y newspaper, had 
 been used at intervals as an engine-house, a sugar warehouse, 
 and finally as an auctioneer's wareroom, was cleansed and 
 put in decent order at a cost of £60. 
 
 On the 5th November, the E,ev. Sydney Smith — termed 
 by Lord Macaulay the greatest master of ridicule that has 
 appeared in England since Swift — who had been appointed 
 a prebendary of Bristol by Lord Chancellor Lyndhurst in the 
 previous January, delivered a sermon in the cathedral which 
 created a sensation not merely in the city but throughout 
 the country. It had long been the custom for the Mayor 
 and Corporation to attend the cathedral in state on the Gun- 
 powder Plot anniversaiy ; and the occasion had usually been 
 seized by the dignitary in residence to pronounce a hearty 
 denunciation of popery and a denial of the political rights of 
 its adherents ; after which the ecclesiastical and civic func- 
 tionaries dined together at the Mansion House, and toasted 
 Protestant Ascendency with mutual fervour. Mr. S. J. Ileid, 
 in his memoir of Mr. Smith observes : " Writing to inform 
 one of his friends of his approaching duty on Guy Faux day, 
 the Canon states : 'AH sorts of bad theology are preached at 
 the cathedral on that da}^, and all sorts of bad toasts drunk 
 at the Mansion House. I will do neither the one nor the
 
 128 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. [1829. 
 
 other, nor bow tlie knee in tlie liouse of Rimmon,' He kept 
 his word, and preached what he styled an ' honest sermon ' 
 on those ' rules of Christian charity by which our opinions of 
 other sects should be formed.' He delivered a noble and 
 closely reasoned plea for toleration in reference to the re- 
 ligious scruples of others. The sermon, as might have been 
 expected, gave great offence, for the Corporation of Bristol 
 included at that time many rigid and uncompromising Tories, 
 and though some of them must have realised that the cause 
 of bigotry was already lost, that fact increased rather than 
 lessened their animosity towards a preacher who had com- 
 pelled them for once to listen to a clear and dispassionate 
 statement of the facts of the caee.* . . . Bristol Cathedral 
 was crowded during the delivery of Sydney Smith's sermon; 
 and so s'reat was the interest which it excited that he seldom 
 stood in that pulpit again without looking down on a sea of 
 upturned faces. The preacher became the talk of the town. 
 . . . The newspapers took up the controversy, and in leading 
 articles and letters the old warfare was waged. Sydney 
 Smith was attacked at public dinners and declaimed against 
 from the pulpit ; but when the storm was past it was appa- 
 rent that the cause of justice had been strengthened." The 
 sermon exists as a local pamphlet, four editions of which were 
 issued in about ten days. It also appeared in the collected 
 works of the author. The original manuscript of the preface, 
 with a letter to the local printer, Mr. Manchee, is preserved 
 in the City Library. 
 
 The announcement at the beginning of 1829 that the Prime 
 Minister, the Duke of Wellington, and the leader of the House 
 of Commons, Sir Robert Peel, had changed their views on 
 the long pending " Catholic question," and that the Cabinet 
 had prepared a Bill for enabling Romanists to sit in both 
 Houses of Parliament, caused much excitement amongst 
 Bristolians, a great majority of whom were opposed to the 
 scheme. On the 12th February one of the largest meetings 
 ever rememl)cred was held in Queen's Square, to denounce 
 the pro])osed concession. Tlie petition against the scheme, 
 adopted by acclamation, was forthwith signed by 25,000 in- 
 habitants. All the parochial vestries and the local clergy, with 
 only one or two exceptions, forwarded similar petitions. Even 
 many Dissenters, whilst exulting that their own rights of 
 conscience had just been secured by the repeal of the Test 
 
 * In a lottor written shortly nftorwards to a friend, S3'(lnoy Smith remarked 
 that " they looked as if they could not keep turtle on their stomachs."
 
 1829.] POPULARITY OF SIR C. WETHERELL. 129 
 
 and Corporation Acts, showed an eagerness to maintain the 
 fetters on Roman Catholics. Mr. Bright, the Whig and 
 Nonconformist member for Bristol, voted against the Bill, 
 and the Rev. W. Thorp, minister of Castle-green chapel, was 
 amongst the most active of its local opponents. Tlie friends 
 of religious liberty also addressed a petition to Parliament, 
 but could muster no more than 1,700 adhex'ents. When it 
 was seen that the measure was likely to pass both Houses, 
 the Corporation forwarded, through Lord Eldon, an address 
 to the King, denouncing his ministers for their intention to 
 subvert Protestant ascendency, and this was soon followed 
 by a second appeal to his Majesty, emanating from a public 
 meeting, begging him to dissolve Parliament, Lord Eldo;i 
 being again the intermediary. The Corporation, in the 
 meantime, stamped the ex-Chancellor's efforts at Westminster 
 with its approval by forwarding him the freedom of the 
 city in an oak box (which cost £11 6s.). Almost the only 
 member of the Ministry who refused to abandon his old 
 opinions at the behest of his leaders, was Sir Charles 
 Wetherell, then Attorney-Greneral and Recorder of Bristol. 
 He was consequently dismissed from his lucrative post in 
 the Government ; but his firmness brought him great popu- 
 larity amongst those who agreed with him in politics. In 
 April, on his arrival in Bristol to hold the gaol delivery. Sir 
 Charles was welcomed by a large crowd at Totterdown, and 
 continual shouts of "No Popery! Wetherell for ever!" 
 greeted his progress to the (jruildhall. Similar scenes took 
 place every morning and evening during the assizes. The 
 mob, not satisfied with these demonstrations, broke the 
 windows of the mayor (Mr. J. Cave) and of other prominent 
 supporters of the Bill, and committed much destruction at the 
 Roman Catholic chapel in Trenchard Street, and amongst 
 the dwellings of the Irish " Papists." How fleeting was the 
 popularity of the Recorder will shortly be seen. 
 
 Although the population of the suburban districts had 
 greatly increased during the half century previous to this 
 date, the accommodation for public worship offered by the 
 Established Church had been increased only by the chapol- 
 of-ease of St. Georg-e, near Park Street. The wants of 
 Clifton were first brought before the public, it being pointed 
 out that while the place contained nearly 12,000 inhabit- 
 ants, the only provision for public devotion consisted of 
 the parish church and a small chapel in Dowry Square. 
 A subscription having been started, Mr. T, Wlii]qiie (who 
 had given £2,000 towards the re-building of the church,
 
 130 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1829. 
 
 and subsequently built a Weslejan Chapel in Hotwell 
 Eoad at liis sole expense,) contributed £6,000 ; and £4,000 
 more were given by other benefactors. A site was obtained 
 in Hotwell Road, upon which a large church, dedicated 
 to the Trinit}', was rapidly constructed, and the edifice, 
 (the last in the city designed in a debased Italian style) was 
 consecrated by the Bishop of Llandaff on the 10th November, 
 1830. [A district was attached to this church by an Order 
 in Council in January, 1864.] In the meantime the spiritual 
 destitution of the populous out-parish of St. Philip, in which, 
 it was stated, 15,000 souls were living without a single place 
 of religious worship, had also excited attention, and assistance 
 was sought from the State grant for building new churches, 
 already referred to [p. 82] . The Commissioners charged 
 with its administration made a donation of £6,000 for the 
 erection of a church, afterwards styled Holy Trinity, St. 
 Philip's ; and the Corporation, who claimed the patronage 
 of the living, granted a site and subscribed £1,000. The cost 
 of the edifice was £8,200, of which only a trifling sum was 
 given by laymen. A similar application was made on behalf 
 of Bedminster, wdiere the parish church, of extremely narrow 
 dimensions, was absurdly inadequate to meet the require- 
 ments of twelve thousand parishioners. In this case it was 
 resolved to form a chapelry of St. Paul. The State provided 
 all but £2,000 of the cost of building (£9,796), the offering of 
 the lay element being again insignificant. The promoters had 
 even to purchase a site, at the rate of £200 per acre, from the 
 wealthiest landlord of the locality. The foundation stones 
 .of both churches were laid in September, 1829. St. Paul's 
 was consecrated in October, 1831 (five days before the Bristol 
 .riots), by Dr. Law, Bishop of Bath and Wells, who, in conse- 
 <quence of his votes against the Reform Bill, was treated with 
 much indignity by the rabble of the parish. Trinity Church 
 wns consecrated by Bishop (^ray, of Bristol, in the following 
 Fcljruary. Ecclesiastical districts were soon afterwards 
 allotted to each of the new edifices. 
 
 At a meeting of the Common Council on the 4th July, 
 1829, it was announced that Mr. William Wcare, the senior 
 councillor, and a member of a family long connected 
 with the Corporation, ]iro])()sed to pay into the city treasury 
 the sum of £10^000 as a free gift, on condition that the Cor- 
 poration should pay him £500 y(>arly for life, and the same 
 Slim to Henry Wearo for life in the event of his surviving 
 the donor. 'J'he gift having been acce])ted, its object was de- 
 clared in a deed entered into between the parties^ in which Mr.
 
 1829.] weare's gift, clifton suspension bridge. 131 
 
 Weare expressed his wish that the money should ];e applied, 
 either immediately or after his death, to the widening and 
 improving of RedclifF and Baldwin Streets, the opening of 
 a new street from St. Augustine's Place to Ti-enchard Street, 
 and the altering and improving of the thoroughfares at the 
 lower end of Park Street. The Corporation resolved upon 
 investing the money, which, as will afterwards be seen, was 
 transferred to an Improvement Fund. All the schemes 
 suggested hy Mr. Weare were eventually carried out by the 
 new Corporation. 
 
 The imposing design of another liberal-hearted citizen came 
 prominently into notice during the summer. In 175-3, seventy 
 six years before the time under review, Mr. William Vick, 
 a spirit merchant of Bristol, who is often, but erroneously, 
 styled an alderman, devised the sum of £1,000 to the 
 Merchant Venturers' Society, directing that it should be 
 invested and suffered to accumulate until it reached £10,000, 
 when it was to be devoted to the building of a bridore over 
 the gorge of the Avon at Clifton, if such a design should be 
 adjudged practicable. In 1829, when the fund had swollen 
 to about £8,000, and when Telford's recent achievement at 
 Menai Strait was one of the topics of the day, a proposal was 
 started for carrying out Mr. Vick's project by the construction 
 of a suspension bridge. The suggestion having been con- 
 sidered and approved by many influential citizens, a committee 
 was formed, comprising the mayor, the president of the 
 Chamber of Commerce, several members of the Common 
 Council and of the Merchants' Company, and others ; and as 
 it was found that a stone bridge could not be constructed for 
 less than £60,000, it was resolved to apply to Parliament 
 in the session of 18-31, for a Bill authorising the erection 
 of an iron structure, the funds required to eke out Vick's 
 bequest to be raised by loans and donations. In the mean- 
 time the committee invited engineers to send in plans for the 
 work, and one of the first to respond was Mr. Telford, who 
 produced a beautiful, but not quite satisfactory, design. Be- 
 lieving that the space from cliff to cliff was too wide to be 
 prudently spanned at a bound, he proposed the erection of two 
 enormous gothic towers on the river banks, so as to narrow 
 the central opening to 360 feet. His estimate of the cost 
 being £-52,000, the promoters solicited designs from other 
 leading engineers; and those of Messrs. Brunei, jun., Rendel, 
 Brown, and Hawkes, together with that of Telford, were sub- 
 mitted to Mr. D. Gilbert, M.P., a distinguished authority on 
 the subject of suspension bridges. Mr. Gilbert gave his
 
 132 THE ANNALS OP BEISTOL. [1829. 
 
 decision in favour of Brunei's plan, the cost of Avhicli was 
 estimated at £57,000. The Bill, which was factiously but 
 fruitlessly opposed by Mr. James Aclaud, received the royal 
 assent in May, when the trustees were chosen, and some pre- 
 liminary operations Avere begun during the summer. Owing 
 to the hostile attitude of Sir John Smyth, the under-sheriff 
 of Somerset summoned a court at Failand, to determine the 
 value of four and a quarter acres of land, required for an 
 approach to the bridge from the turnpike road to Leigh. The 
 land in question formed part of an extensive common which 
 had been enclosed by Sir John's predecessor in the baronetcy, 
 who, when the Act was obtained, alleged that its value was 
 ten shillings an acre. It was now alleged on behalf of Sir 
 John that the new road would deprive him of the private use 
 of 170 acres, which he could have thrown into his park ; and 
 one of his witnesses estimated the compensation due to him 
 at £8,775. The trustees had offered o£l,200, Avhich had been 
 ^ scornfully rejected. The jury fixed the value at £1,107. The 
 first turf for the approach on the Clifton side, the land for which 
 was given by the Merchants' Society, was cut by Lady Elton. 
 The gifts and loans promised on behalf of the undertaking 
 representing only £32,000, or £20.000 short of the amount 
 required, the trustees appointed under the Act thought it 
 advisable to proceed with circumspection; and the disastrous 
 riots of the following October caused the complete suspension 
 of the project for four years. In 1835, when the passing of 
 the Great Western Bill gave a stimulus to local spirit, Mr. 
 Brunei suggested that the outlay might be reduced to £35,000 
 by contracting the width of the bridge and dispensing with 
 some ornamental features. The trustees temporarily adopted 
 this proposal ; but in consequence of the strong disapproval 
 of the public they reversed their decision in favour of the 
 original plan. At a meeting held in January, 1836, it was re- 
 ported that a sum of £17,000, in addition to the £33,000 
 already guaranteed, would finisii the work, and as £i),000 were 
 soon after forthcoming, operations were recommenced. On 
 the 27th August, during the visit of the British Association 
 to the city, its president, the Marquis of Northain])ton, laid the 
 louiidation stone of the south ])ier in the presence of many 
 thousands of spectators; and at a breakfast which followed 
 (at the Gloucester Hotel, ou a service of china bearing views 
 of the bridge, which was eagerly bought up and divided 
 amongst the guests) it was believed tluit all diillculties were 
 sui'iuounted. For the convenience of tlu; workmen, measures 
 were taken to connect the two sides of the river by a car, sus-
 
 1829.] CLIFTON SUSPENSION BRIDGE. 133 
 
 pended from an iron bar 800 feet in length. The first attempt 
 to carry out this plan was unsuccessful. Owing to the break- 
 ing of a hawser, one end of the ponderous bar fell into the 
 river as it was being drawn into its place, blocking up the 
 navigation ; and though on the following day it was raised 
 and secured in its intended position, the iron was so much 
 bent in the middle as to be practically useless. In September 
 a new bar was passed over, and the communication was 
 opened by Mr. Brunei, accompanied by a boy named Claxton. 
 The novelty of the contrivance attracted crowds of visitors 
 desirous of making the airy journey, and the trustees found 
 it necessary to impose a toll of live shillings, subsequently 
 reduced to half a crown, and afterwards to a shilling. The 
 income received from this traffic was £142. On one occasion, 
 it is reported, a bride and bridegroom on their wedding day 
 resolved on taking a trip over the fragile bridge ; unfortu- 
 nately the hauling ropes got out of order just as they reached 
 the middle of the bar, and they were left for some hours to 
 discuss the beauty of the scenery, with a prospect — not less 
 moving, but happily avoided — of remaining suspended for the 
 night. It may be observed in parenthesis, that the bar re- 
 mained in its place until 1853, and that some political jokers 
 availed themselves of it during the general election of 1852 
 to suspend over the Avon an effigy of one of the candidates. 
 The figure being unapproachable, the services of a skilful 
 rifleman were called in to sever the rope. The construction 
 of the piers proceeded slowly, but the core of each — intended 
 for an ornamental incrustation which was never applied — was 
 finished in 1810, when a contract was entered into for a por- 
 tion of the ironwork. In February, 1843, the public were 
 informed that £40,000, including Mr. Vick's bequest, had been 
 spent, and that no less than £30,000 more would be required 
 to carry out the undertaking. The statement, which caused 
 equal surprise and dissatisfaction, was regarded as the death- 
 warrant of the project ; and though the trustees made re- 
 peated appeals to public liberality, it was found impossible to 
 obtain further subscriptions. The contractors for the chains, 
 etc., at length pressing for the balance of their claim, it was 
 i-esolved in 1851, Avhen £47,400 had been expended, to sell 
 the ironwoi-k and plant, and in February, 1853, the former 
 was purchased by the West Cornwall Railway Company, 
 nothing then remaining visible of the abortive scheme save 
 the two unsightly piers which deformed the landscape. The 
 story of the bridge for a lengthened period was of the 
 dreariest character, various plans for completing the structure
 
 134 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1829. 
 
 being produced, apathetically discussed, and incontinently 
 dropped. After a lapse of seventeen years from the collapse 
 of 1843, brighter days set in; but for the remainder of the 
 tale the reader must be referred to 1860. 
 
 About the time when the suspension bridge project was 
 first mooted, the Merchants' Society set about the improve- 
 ment of the path leading from the bank of the river near the 
 Hotwell to Clifton Down. The path, which was little more 
 than a track, was approached at the back of the Colonnade 
 by a long and steep flight of steps, and was almost impracti- 
 cable in wet weather. The new footway, termed the Zigzag, 
 was deemed a great acquisition. It was much improved in 
 the autumn of 1849. 
 
 In the closing months of 1829, a new road was formed 
 ''from the top of St. Michael's Hill, through the Gallows' 
 field, to Cotham." The road in question was afterwards 
 known as Cotham New Eoad. According to a contemporary 
 writer (MS. Annals, City Library, vol. i., p. 159), the work- 
 men found the base of Bewell's Cross in the Gallows' field (a 
 small portion of which was sold by the Corjioration), and the 
 stone was imbedded in the south wall of the road (now 
 enclosing Highbury Chapel). But Roque's large map of the 
 city, dated 1741, shows the cross to have stood nearly one 
 hundred yards farther to the north-west. 
 
 A design of the leading members of the Corporation, care- 
 fully concealed from the citizens at large, was cautiously 
 introduced into the Common Council in December, 1829, 
 when it was resolved that the mansion and grounds of Mr. 
 Richard Bright, at the southern end of Great George Street, 
 should be purchased at a cost not exceeding £5,250. At a 
 meeting in February, 1830, it was announced that the pro- 
 perty had been acquired for the above-named sum, but no 
 hint of the purpose it was intended to servo apjieared upon 
 the minutes. Three months later, on the motion of Alder- 
 man A. Hilhouse, it was resolved that the building should be 
 converted into a Mansion House, and that the City Lands' 
 Committee should make the needful additions and alterations 
 to the dwelling and provide new furniture. In June the 
 committee reported that the required additions would alone 
 cost £5,000, exclusive of furniture and stabling. Alderman 
 Hilhouse thereu])()n moved that his original jiroposal should 
 1)0 carried out in its entirety; but an ainendment, ])ro])t)S(>d 
 by Mr. E. Trotheroe, to the effect that the committee sliould 
 look out for a house which could be made serviceable at a 
 moderate expense, was approved by a majority. No further
 
 1830.] SNOWSTORM. DEATH OF SIR T. LAWRENCE. 135 
 
 mention of the subject appears in the minutes until Septem- 
 ber, 1831, when the coiinnittee recommended that as " the 
 site of the present Mansion House " was " most desirable for 
 the public convenience," the building should be retained, 
 provided some increased accommodation could be secured. 
 The adjoining house, added the committee, was offered for 
 £2,050^ and they advised that it should be bought without 
 delay. The outbreak of the riots^ a few weeks later, blew 
 the project into the air. 
 
 The month of January, 1830, was remarkable for a pro- 
 tracted snowstorm, which blocked up the roads in all parts 
 of the country, communication between many towns being 
 almost wholly suspended for several days. A local news- 
 paper, in recording the incidents of the season, stated that on 
 the 25th January a party of nineteen labourers dragged 
 into the city a wagon containing upwards of two tons of flour, 
 which they had succeeded in hauling from Melksham, a dis- 
 tance of twenty-five miles. They had been promised by a 
 baker, and received, 28,s-. 4ti (being Is. Qd. per sack) for per- 
 forming this arduous task. 
 
 Sir Thomas Lawrence, President of the Royal Academy, 
 expired on the 7th Januai-y, 1830, and his remains were 
 honoured with a stately public funeral a fortnight later in 
 St. Paul's Cathedral. Various inaccurate statements as to 
 the place of his nativity have appeared in print, but the 
 parochial records show that he was born at No. 6, Redcross 
 Street, Bristol, and was baptised at St. Philip's Church on 
 the 6th May, 1769. His father, a few months later, became 
 landlord of the White Lion Hotel, Broad Street, whence 
 he removed in 1773 to the Bear Hotel, Devizes, and after 
 his failure there, in 1780, to Bath. Whilst almost an infant, 
 the son manifested extraordinary indications of genius, and 
 some drawings executed in his eighth year, which still exist, 
 afford ample evidence to justify the admiration which he 
 excited in cultivated circles. Before he had reached the age 
 of twelve, his studio at Bath was the resort of many noble 
 and fashionable persons who then frequented the city, so 
 that he may be said to have become famous before establish- 
 ing himself in London, which he did at the age of eighteen. 
 On the death of Sir Joshua Reynolds, in 1792, Lawrence was 
 appointed to succeed him as portrait-painter in ordinary to 
 the king, and thenceforth he was never able to keep abreast 
 of the work which poured in upon him. There was scarcely 
 a single upper-class family in the kingdom which did not 
 solicit his services, and engravings of his most successful
 
 136 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1830. 
 
 portraits had an iTnexampled sale. AVhen the presidency of 
 the Eoyal Academy became vacant by the death of tSir B. 
 West, the fashionable favourite was immediately appointed 
 to the distinguished office, and received the customary 
 honour of knighthood. In 1826, when Lord Gilford resigned 
 the recordership of Bristol, the Corporation resolved upoii 
 having his portrait, and aware of the peculiarity of Lawrence, 
 who with a princely income was always in an inexplicable 
 state of impecuniosity,"^ they remitted 200 guineas with the 
 order. Lord Gifford, however, died soon afterwards, and the 
 painter eventually returned the money. 
 
 On the 15th June, Zion Chapel, Bedminster, — to which an 
 interesting story attaches — was opened with a sermon by the 
 celebrated Scotch divine, Dr. Chalmers. The chapel, which 
 cost £4,000, was erected at the sole expense of Mr. John 
 Hare, the founder of an extensive floor-cloth manufactory in 
 the city, in pursuance of a long-cherished design. In an 
 address delivered by one of his descendants at the centenary 
 of the factory in August, 1882, it was stated that Mr. Hare 
 was born at Taunton in 1753. When in his twentieth year, 
 at a time when the Government were forcing men into the 
 army in the hope of reconquering America, he left home for 
 Bristol with a few shillings in his pocket. On reaching the 
 southern suburbs of the city ho got over a dwarf wall, resolv- 
 inof to rest a few hours, and on awakeninsr was so struck with 
 the beauty of the spot that he felt he should like to build a 
 house there. By dint of patient perseverance, prudence and 
 skill, he ultimately became wealthy, but the impression 
 formed on that early morning of his youth was never ettaeed, 
 and about fifty-seven years after his arrival he erected the 
 above-mentioned edifice on the scene of his slumbers. The 
 chapel had not been occupied many years before serious dis- 
 sonsjons arose amongst the congregation. During a debate 
 in the Council, October 17, 1836, it was stated by the mayor 
 (Alderman Fripp),that the trustees of the chapel had refused 
 Mr. Hare a pew in the edifice which they owed to his liber- 
 ality. 
 
 The death of George IV. in June, 1830, was followed a 
 few days later by tlio usual civic ceremony of proclaiming 
 his successor. The proceedings Avere marked with a few 
 
 • " Cannot think what knnps him bo poor," said Gporpe IV. to Croker in 
 IH'io; " I liftVP i)fti(l liiin t'il.OOO, and liavn not Rot my pictures. Tlic Duke of 
 Wf'llinj.'ton is .iJ'i.KOO in advance to him. All the world is ready to employ hira 
 at i;i, ()()(» a picture, yi't he never has, 1 am told, a farthing." — Croker'» Corren- 
 pondencr, ii. p. HH.
 
 1830.] PROCLAMATION OF WILLIAM IV. ELECTION. 137 
 
 deviations from precedent. At noon a "large and handsome 
 car/' covered Avith a pall, was drawn by four grey horses to 
 the site of the High Cross, when the mayor and members 
 of the Corporation, in black robes, preceded by the civic 
 sword covered with crape, marched to the spot uncovered, 
 and solemnly walked round the car in testimony of their 
 respect for the deceased monarch. Their worships then 
 returned to the Council House, donned their scarlet habili- 
 ments, and set off in state to make proclamation of the new 
 king at the customary sites, the car being now stripped of its 
 mournful panoply and adorned with a gorgeous crown on a 
 velvet cushion. Two hogsheads of porter and three quarter- 
 casks of sherry were distributed to the populace, the pro- 
 ceedings of the day costing the city treasury £240. A cor- 
 porate deputation, sent to London to congratulate the new 
 monarch, spent £90 additional. 
 
 In accordance with the law at that time, there was a 
 general election in the following month. The retiring Tory 
 member, Mr. Richard Hart Davis, was again nominated by 
 his party. His Whig colleague, Mr. Bright, retired, being 
 unwilling to bear the expense of a contest, and the Liberals 
 — as they were now beginning to be called — were, as usual, 
 unable to agree upon the choice of a successor, an unbridge- 
 able gulf being still open between the slavery and anti-slavery 
 sections of the party. The West India interest nominated 
 Mr. James Evan Baillie, the candidate of 1820, Mr. C. Pin- 
 ney, who seconded that gentleman, asserting on the hustings 
 that five-eighths of the trade of the city depended upon the 
 islands. The progressive camp brought forward Mr. Edward 
 Protheroe, junr., son of a former member for the city. To 
 give a fillip to the excitement, or perhaps to his newspaper, 
 Mr. James Acland, of the Bristolian, who had just been released 
 from gaol after suffering imprisonment for libel, also made 
 his appearance in the field. The polling (which took place 
 for the first time in booths erected in Queen Square), 
 continued for five days, and was marked by violent disturb- 
 ances. On one occasion the windows of Mr. John Hare, 
 of Temple Gate, an earnest Liberal, were smashed by a 
 pro-slavery Whig mob, who entered arid did much damage 
 to the factory. The Bush Hotel, Mr. Protheroe's head 
 quarters, underwent its usual fate at elections, while on 
 another occasion the friends of the same gentleman were 
 attacked by a party of gentlemen on horseback, armed with 
 bludgeons. After one of many street affrays, twenty-seven 
 persons were so much injured as to require treatment at the
 
 138 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1830. 
 
 Infirmary. The poll closed on tlie 5tli August, when Mr. 
 Davis had received 5,012 votes, Mr. Baillie, 3^377; Mr. Pro- 
 theroe, junr., 2,840 ; and Mr. Acland, 25. It was stated at 
 the time that this election cost upwards of £34,000, and that 
 Mr. Baillie's share of the outlay was £18,000. (The Parlia- 
 ment lasted about eight months.) More than 1,500 persons 
 were placed on the list of freemen by the rival parties, in 
 order to enable them to vote. Mr. Acland petitioned against 
 Mr. Baillie's return, alleging intimidation and treating, but 
 the sureties he offered were unsatisfactory^ and the petition 
 w^as withdrawn. 
 
 Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg (soon after elected King of 
 the Belgians) paid a visit to the city in September. He had 
 been presented, whilst at Bath, with the freedom of that 
 borough in a gold box ; but for some cause the civic mag- 
 nates of Bristol appear to have ignored his presence amongst 
 them. 
 
 During the autumn, Prince Leopold's sister, her Royal 
 Highness the Duchess of Kent, accompanied by her 
 daughter, Princess Victoria, heiress presumptive to the 
 crown, also made a brief tour in the West of England. On 
 the 20th October they arrived at Clifton from Malvern, and 
 descended at the Mall Hotel amidst the cheers of a large 
 assemblage. The Corporation, acquainted with the intended 
 visit, proposed to present an address ; but the Duchess of 
 Kent, pleading the shortness of her stay, requested that the 
 compliment should be withheld. On the 21st, however, the 
 mayor (Mr. J. Savage), and several members of the Common 
 Council, proceeded in state to Clifton to express their loyalty 
 and devotion, and met with a cordial reception. During the 
 morning their royal highnesses were driven round the Downs, 
 and expressed themselves much delighted with the scenei'y. 
 In the afternoon they left for London, being loudly cheered 
 as they passed through the city on their way to ]3ath. 
 
 During this and the two following years, the trade of the 
 country was unusually depressed, causing numbers of the 
 labouring classes to fall into pau]ierism. As the city work- 
 house, St. Peter's Hospital, luid even before the distress been 
 full to repletion, the increased demands for relief plunged 
 the Corporation of the Poor in extreme embarrassment. 
 Various expedients having been discussed and rejected, it 
 was at last determined to ap])ly to the Coveriunent with a 
 view to the purchase of the Armoury or " Ordnance Bar- 
 racks " in Sta])leton Poad, to which reference has been 
 already made [see p. 23]. Negotiations followed, and the
 
 1830.] ST. Peter's nosriTAL. revolt of the paupers. 139 
 
 place was soon after acquired for £3,100. The intention to 
 fit up the building for the reception of pauper lunatics was, 
 however, first postponed, and then abandoned, it being 
 deemed inadvisable to impose further taxation whilst the 
 ratepayers were groaning under the burdens inflicted upon 
 them ]3y events about to be narrated. In the meantime, 
 pauperism, owing to the defective system of relief then in 
 force, advanced with alarming strides. From a letter pub- 
 lished in June, 1832, by Mr. W. Barrett, deputy governor of 
 the corporation, it appeared that, in the case of labourers 
 out of work, a man with a wife and five children received 
 lO.*;. Id. per week as out-door relief, the only work exacted 
 in return being a task of stone-breaking occupying about 
 eight hours a day for four days a week. At that time the 
 wages of agricultui'al labourers in the neighbouring counties 
 were in many cases only 9s. weekly for more than double 
 the quantity of work. As was natural under such circum- 
 stances, the demand for pauper relief became daily more 
 formidable, and Mr. Barrett stated that the charge on Bristol 
 ratepayers alone had increased by £5,000 in two years. The 
 guardians, in the hope of arresting the evil, gave orders that 
 the able-bodied paupers should work five days a week, and 
 ten and a half hours a day; but although an additional sum 
 of fourpence weekly was offered to the labourers, they rose 
 in revolt when the announcement was made, and for a time 
 St. Peter's Hospital was in great peril. The mayor and 
 aldermen, however, acted with promptitude and firmness. 
 The Riot Act was read, a body of troops was brought to the 
 spot, and some of the ringleaders were sent to prison. The 
 energy of the magistrates put an end to the disturbance, and 
 the paupers submitted to the new scale. The pressure upon 
 St. Peter's Hospital, however, continued, and the building, 
 gorged with six hundred inmates, became in a most un- 
 healthy condition, as well as a sink of moral contamination. 
 According to an authentic contemporary statement, fifty- 
 eight girls slept in ten beds, and between seventy and eighty 
 boys in seventeen beds. Just at this time an epidemic of 
 cholera reached the city, and it is not surprising to learn 
 that the malady nowhere worked more dreadful havoc than 
 in the workhouse. In fact, out of the first 261 cases reported 
 in the city, 168 occurred in St. Peter's Hospital. The guai'- 
 dians now found themselves compelled to set about the long- 
 needed reforms, and in 1833 another disused building be- 
 longing to the Government — the foi-mer " French prison " 
 at Stapleton — was hired from the Admiralty at a rent of £80
 
 140 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL, [1830. 
 
 a year, put in repair, and fitted up for the reception of a 
 considerable number of paupers. The experiment proving 
 satisfactory, the buikling", in 1837, was purchased for £2,000. 
 Further extensive alterations being found necessary, the 
 guardians raised £6,512 by the sale of their estate at/Shire- 
 harapton (bought in 1701 for £1,600 for the purpose of em- 
 ploying paupers as farm labourers). The Armoury, which 
 had been rented at £200 a year by the Corporation of Bristol, 
 was also disposed of, though there was a loss on this trans- 
 action of £1,100. Thanks to these windfalls, the Stapleton 
 workhouse was placed in satisfactory working order without 
 any sensible cost to the ratepayers. As time went on, the 
 propriety of removing the entire pauper establishment from 
 St. Peter's became graduallv recognised, and between 1861 
 and 1865 nearly £26,000 were spent in enlarging and im- 
 proving the buildings at Stapleton. Some four years later, 
 a fever hospital was constructed there at a further outlay of 
 £4,200. To meet a portion of the expenditure, the guar- 
 dians, in 1865, disposed of part of the premises at St. Peter's 
 for £5,195, reserving only the interesting and picturesque 
 mansion of the Nortons for their board-room and financial 
 ofiices. 
 
 The absence in Bristol of an institution capable of provid- 
 ing a complete system of higher education had long been 
 deplored by the more intelligent citizens. A movement for 
 supplying the want was started in 1829, by the distinguished 
 physician, Dr. J. C. Prichard, Mr. J. Naish Sanders, the Rev. 
 J. Eden, Mr. J. C. Swayne, Mr. S. S. Wayte, Dr. Carrick, 
 and others, who suggested the erection of a college, with an 
 efiicient staif of masters and lecturers, theological instruction 
 according to the doctrines of the Church of England being 
 also provided for such pupils as might desire to avail them- 
 selves of it. The proposed capital was £15,000, to bo raised 
 by £50 shares, the proprietors of which were to nominate a 
 student for each share. The required sum could not, how- 
 ever, be obtained from the public, — owing in a large mea- 
 sure to 'the linstih^ attitude of the liislmp of T^ristol, Dr. (<ray, 
 — and the promoters had to content themselves with hiring 
 a large house in Park Row, "formerly occupied by Matthew 
 Wright, Esq.," :uul since swept awiiy f<>r modern im])rove- 
 Tiients. A com])('t(Mit stiifF Iniving l)een engaged, " Bristol 
 College" was opened on the 17th -lannary, l^f3l, with about 
 thirty pupils, the princi])al being Dr. .1. H. Jerrard, and the 
 vice-princi]ial Mr. Charles Smith, both graduates of Cam- 
 bridge, The Rev. W. D. Conybcare, F.R.S., afterwards
 
 1831.] BRISTOL COLLEGE AND BTSHOp's COLLEGE. 141 
 
 Dean of Ijlandaff, was visitor, and undertook to preside at 
 the examinations. The terms of admission were £18 fui- 
 the nominees of shareholders, and £21 for other students. 
 Though comparatively few in number, a large proportion of 
 the youths educated at the College attested in after life the 
 value of the institution. Amongst them Avere Edward Fry, 
 afterwards Lord Justice, the Rev. S. W. Wayte, who became 
 President of Trinity College, Oxford, G. G. Stokes, senior 
 wrangler of his year, and afterwards Lucasian Professor at 
 Cambridge, Walter Bagehot, eminent as a writer on financial 
 and constitutional questions, and the Rev. G. Swayne, a well- 
 known Greek scholar. The college, in fact, might have 
 afforded the city all the advantages which were to be offered 
 by Clifton College, thirty years later. But its promoters 
 were a generation before their contemporaries, and the insti- 
 tution was of too liberal a character for the age. Although 
 great care had been taken to avoid ruffling theological pre- 
 judices, the college had not been long in operation before 
 a section of the clergy, vehemently opposed to the admission 
 of Dissenters to the Universities, began to protest against 
 the sons of Nonconformists being allowed to attend the 
 school without participating in the religious instruction pro- 
 vided for Chui-chmen. The cry of "godless education " was 
 a formidable one in that day ; and the persons who raised it 
 at length found a sufficient number of local sympathisers to 
 encourage them to set up a rival institution, from which the 
 unorthodox could be debarred. The new Bishop of Glou- 
 cester and Bristol (Dr. Monk) having lent his patronage and 
 support to this movement, a " Bishop's College " was opened 
 in August, 1840, in a house in Bellevue, Clifton, from which 
 it was removed in October, 1841, to extensive premises at 
 the top of Park Street (designed for the Red Maids' School), 
 purchased by Bishop Monk from the Charity Trustees for 
 £9,750. The competition at once proved fatal to Bristol Col- 
 lege, which closed its doors at Christmas, 1841. The suc- 
 cessor of the first principal had been the Rev. J. E. Bromby, 
 D.D., who left to establish a school in Clifton, but afterwards 
 emigrated to Australia, where he became Warden of the 
 Senate of Melbourne University. The last head master, 
 holding the office only a few months, was Dr. J. Booth. 
 Bishop's College began its course under the head master- 
 ship of the Rev. H. Dale, the second master being the Rev. 
 J. R. Woodford, one of the most eloquent preachers of his 
 time, who, before his death in 1885, became Bishop of Ely. 
 The institution was not, however, successful. At a meeting
 
 142 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1831. 
 
 of the proprietors in 1851^ it was reported that the school was 
 carried on at a loss, and that the interest due to the Bishop 
 on the purchase money was unpaid. His lordship having 
 requested the return of his loan, it was resolved that he 
 should be left to exercise his power of sale. The college 
 languished on until 1861, when the premises were purchased 
 by the promoters of a Volunteer Club. The two last head 
 ^ masters were Dr. Robertson and the Rev. T. BoAvman. 
 \/ The death, on the 21st February, 1831, of the Rev. Robert 
 
 Hall, one of the most celebrated pulpit orators of his time, 
 occasioned widespread regret amongst the members of every 
 Christian denomination. Mr. Hall, who is said to have de- 
 clined high preferment in the English Church from Mr. Pitt 
 while Prime Minister, accepted the pastorate of Broadmead 
 Baptist Chapel in 1826, and officiated until within a few days 
 of his death. His remains were removed, on the 2nd March, 
 from his residence in Ashley Place to the burial ground ad- 
 joining the chapel, in the presence of a great concourse of 
 mourners. Mr. Hall's body, with others buried at this place, 
 was removed to Arno's Vale Cemetery some years after this 
 date. 
 
 On the night of the 16th March, the steamboat Frolic, 
 plying between this city and Haverfordwest, was wrecked 
 on the Nash Sands, on the coast of Glamorganshire, whilst 
 on a return voyage to Bristol. Fifty persons, including 
 General Macleod, Colonel Gordon, Major Boyd, and several 
 respectable tradesmen of Haverfordwest lost their lives by 
 the calamity. 
 
 In consecpience of the defeat of Lord Grey's Ministry upon 
 an important detail of the Reform Bill, the Parliament of 1830 
 was dissolved in the following April, after an existence of 
 less than nine months. In Bristol, as in almost every consti- 
 tuency uncontrolled by what were called borough-mongers, 
 the current of opinion in favour of "the Bill" swept away 
 even the appearance of opposition. Mr. Davis, who in the 
 previous year had been supported by five-sixths of the voters, 
 and who solicited re-election, soon found that his resistance 
 to Rc'foni) li:ul wrecked his chances of success, and lie s])eodily 
 fjuitted the held. The Whigs and Lil)erals, divided at the 
 previous contest, had been welded together by the popular 
 passion of the hour, and their candidates, Mr. J. E. Baillio 
 .'itirl Afr. E. Prothcroc, were unanimously elected. Tlio most 
 l(!lling illustration of the general enthusiasm was furnished 
 by Dr. Lant Carpenter in the Monlhhj JfrpoKitorij of the fol- 
 lowing December. "The expenses of the'preccding election,"
 
 1831.] ELECTION. CENSUS. DEATH OF MR. BEYER. 143 
 
 he wrote, " were estimated at not short of £30,000; this time, 
 on the part of Mr. Protheroo, up to the day of election, they 
 had not amounted to £200." The ceremony of chairing-, 
 omitted in 1830, was revived, and was the occasion of an 
 unprecedented demonstration, ahnost the whole o})erative 
 class in the city, accompanied by great numbers of trades- 
 men, taking part — at their own expense — in the triumphal 
 procession of the two members. In the evening the city was 
 illuminated. This was the first occasion on which two Whigs 
 had been returned together for Bristol since 1774. 
 
 The census of 1831, taken in the spring of that year, for 
 the first time gave a population exceeding 100,000 to Bristol 
 and its suburbs. The ^' ancient city " was found to contain 
 59,074 souls. Clifton, which had nearly trebled its numbers 
 within thirty years, returned a total of 12,032 ; St. George's, 
 6,285; the District, 4,495; St. Philip's out, 15,777; Man- 
 gotsfield, 3,508 ; Stapleton, 2,715 ; making altogether 44,812, 
 and, with the city proper, 103,886. Bedminster, which through 
 some caprice was still excluded from the reckoning, had a 
 population of 13,130, being more than fourfold the numbers 
 of 1801. The ty thing of Stoke Bishop, in Westbury parish, 
 which the enumerator also ignored as a suburb, contained 
 2,328 persons. 
 
 Langton Street Chapel, built by Lady Huntingdon's con- 
 nection, was opened in August. The building, which cost 
 about £4,500, is remarkable only as being the first in Bristol 
 in which a mediaeval style was adopted for a dissenting 
 place of worship. 
 
 The death of the Eev. Samuel Seyer took place on the 
 25th August. Mr. Seyer was a native of Bristol, being the 
 son of a rector of St. Michael's parish who had been also 
 head master of the Grammar School. After being educated 
 at Oxford, he opened a school in the Eoyal Fort, at which 
 the sons of many respectable citizens enjoyed the benefit of 
 his classical attainments. His translation of the " Charters 
 and letters patent granted to Bristol " has been already 
 noticed [p. 54], In 1881, after many years' laborious study, 
 Mr. Seyer commenced the publication of his " Memoirs of 
 Bristol," two quarto volumes, comprising the history of the 
 city, illustrated with many beautiful engravings, being even- 
 tually issued from the press. Towards the expense of this 
 work the Corporation subscribed £200. The second and 
 more interesting section of the work, containing the topo- 
 graphy of Bristol, was left in manuscript, owing, it was sup- 
 posed, to apprehensions as to the pecuniary risks attendant
 
 144 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1831. 
 
 on its production. Mr. Seyer was also tlie author of a Latin 
 grammar, a few other school books, and one or two religious 
 tracts. An original member of the Bristol Library Society, 
 Mr. Seyer was its active vice-president for upwards of thirty 
 years. His useful life, however, passed away ignored by the 
 Corporation, one of whose numerous livings might have been 
 gracefully conferred on native merit of no ordinary character. 
 The reverend gentleinan, according to a friend who con- 
 tributed a brief biography of him to a local journal, was one 
 of the few surviving members "of a well known club of 
 literary gentlemen who for many years, during the winter 
 months, assembled by the sound of the mail horn in the Bush 
 Tavern," of which reunions he is said to have been a dis- 
 tinguished ornament. His remains were interred at Shire- 
 ham p ton. 
 
 The coronation of William IV. was celebrated in Bristol 
 on the 8th September with more than usual enthusiasm, his 
 Majesty being at that time very popular amongst the work- 
 ino- classes on account of his attitude towards the Eeform 
 BiTl. Shortly after midday, an imposing procession was 
 formed at the Council House, consisting of the members and 
 officials of the Corporation, of the Society of Merchant Ven- 
 turers, and of the Incorporation of the Poor, the Dean and 
 clergy of the city, the boys in the endowed schools, the 
 Freemasons of the district, and the workmen of the various 
 trades, bearing emblems of their respective crafts. With 
 these were mingled certain so-called " heralds," "knights" 
 accoutred in ancient armour, a "crown and cushion," and 
 innumerable flags and banners, the general appearance of 
 the pageant being picturesque and attractive. The pro- 
 cession made its way, by High Street, Queen Square, and 
 the Quay, to the cathedral, where the civic dignitaries 
 attended service, leaving their followers in College Green. 
 Afterwards the procession was again formed, and returned 
 by a circuitous route to the Council House, which was 
 reached about half-past five o'clock. Besides the enormous 
 crowds of citizens who lined the streets, it was calculated 
 that 30,000 persons had been attracted from the neighbour- 
 ing districts to witness the civic parade. In the evening all 
 the public buildings and a great number of private houses 
 and places of business were gaily illuminated. The civic 
 expenses on the occasion amounted to ,€257 lO.s. 10(/. 
 
 Some months previous to this date a ])n)posal had been 
 started by a few ])hiIanthropic ))ersons, chiefly members of 
 the Society of Friends, for the establishment of a medical
 
 1831.] THK GENERAL HOSPITAL. 145 
 
 and surgical institution for the southern districts of the city, 
 and at a meeting held at the Guildhall on the 21st Septem- 
 ber the creation of the General Hospital was definitely 
 resolved upon. The project was deprecated by many friends 
 of the Infirmary, who argued that the receipts of the existing 
 charity were barely able to cover the expenditure, and that a 
 fraction of the money proposed to be spent on a new building 
 and an additional staff would enable the older institution to 
 meet all the needs of the inhabitants. The promoters of the 
 Hospital, who objected to the interference of the medical 
 officers in the administration of the Infirmary, proceeded 
 with their work, and having purchased some property in 
 Guinea Street for £3,725, they had the premises suitably 
 fitted up, and opened them for the reception of patients in 
 1832. In 1850, in consequence of the dilapidated state of 
 the property, and of the insufficient accommodation available 
 for patients, it was resolved to build a large and appropriate 
 hospital near the same spot. Mr. Joseph Eaton, one of the 
 original promoters, subscribed £5,000, and upwards of £15,000 
 were offered by other friends. On the completion of the new 
 hospital, in 1858, it was found that the outlay, £28,000, had 
 exceeded the funds in hand by several thousand pounds. At 
 a meeting held in May, 1858, Mr, Eaton increased his gift to 
 £6,500 ; Mr. George Thomas, another earnest Quaker sup- 
 porter, augmented his donation to £6,000 ; Messrs. Finzell 
 gave £300, and Mr. Greville Smyth £100. These and other 
 contributions cleared off" the debt. A few days after the 
 meeting, Mr. Eaton suddenly died. He left by will £3,500 
 to the hospital, making with former gifts £10,000. [His 
 almost equally munificent friend, Mr. Thomas, died on the 
 7th December, 1869.] The patients were removed from the 
 old to the new hospital in August, 1858. In 1873 a new 
 out-patients' department was added to the building at a cost 
 of £9,000; and in 1882-3, at an outlay of £9,000 additional, 
 the hospital underwent extensive alterations to improve its 
 sanitary condition. Notwithstanding the intentions of the 
 founders, however, the medical staff of the institution have 
 succeeded in acquiring much of the power which was origin- 
 ally withheld from them. 
 
 An " affair of honour " was arranged to take place on the 
 24th September at Wimbledon, between Mr. E. Protheroe, 
 junr., M.P. for the city, and Lieut. Claxton, R.N., who aftei'- 
 wards held the office of corn meter under the Corporation. 
 The cause of the intended duel was a letter on the slavery 
 question, addressed by Mr. Protheroe to the freemen and 
 
 L
 
 146 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. [1831. 
 
 citizens, in whicli he alluded to a certain " liired agent of 
 the West India aristocracy." The seconds of the two gentle- 
 men, however, succeeded in effecting an arrangement, and 
 Mr. Protheroe, having admitted that Mr. Claxton Avas the 
 person alluded to, and declared that he had not believed the 
 lieutenant to be a '' hired agent in the common acceptation 
 of the term," the matter came to a bloodless end. 
 
 The date has now been reached of the most disastrous 
 outbreak of popular violence which has occurred in this 
 country during the present century. A few preliminary facts 
 require to be stated to explain the origin of the tumults. 
 Sir Charles Wetherell had held the office of recorder for 
 about four years, and down to 1830 had been popular with the 
 lower classes, owing to his violent opposition to the Roman 
 Catholic claims [see p. 129] . On the question of Beform 
 coming to the front. Sir Charles was found to be as vehement 
 and abusive in his condemnation of that Bill as he had been 
 of the other. If he had confined himself to attacks on the 
 general principles of the ministerial scheme, the extravagance 
 of his speeches and demeanour might not have excited more 
 attention in Bristol than elsewhere. In spite of the coarse- 
 ness of his invective, his speeches were often amusing, whilst 
 his extraordinary display of " gymnastics " in delivery, for- 
 getful of the downward shrinking of his unbraced nether 
 garments, wrought effects on his costume which caricaturists 
 were delighted to reproduce. " He had no interval of 
 lucidity," said a witty senator after one of his exhibitions, 
 " save the interval between his waistcoat and his breeches." 
 The declamation of men of this kind is seldom taken 
 seriously. But Sir Charles was indiscreet enough to perorate 
 as a self-constituted representative of Bristol. During a 
 debate in the spring of 1831, he stated that the citizens were 
 indifferent to Reform, an assertion which evoked indignant 
 d(!iiials, and which led, upon his entering the city for the 
 Aj)ril assize, to emphatic demonstrations of popular dis- 
 a})proval. Far from taking warning from this incident, how- 
 ever, the recorder, on the 27th August, assured the House 
 of Commons that "the Reform fever liad a good deal abated 
 in Bristol." Mr. Protheroe, one of the members for the city, 
 f(;rthwith rose to declare that this assertion was the very 
 reverse of the fact, inasmuch as local feeling in favour of the 
 measure had increased rather than diminished ; but Sir 
 Charles, reminding the House th.at he was the senior alder- 
 man of the city, said " he felt quite sure that the Bill did not 
 stand BO high as it did in the liristol thermometer." His
 
 1831.] THE RIOTS: SIR c. wetherell's speeches. 147 
 
 belief may have been founded on the assertions of tlie local 
 •)rgan of ultra Toryism, or on the communications of some 
 of Ris brother aldermen, who, living out of the city, and 
 keeping aloof from all but their own select circle, represented 
 facts, not as they were, but as they wished them to be. In 
 either case, the truth was, that since the recorder's previous 
 misrepresentation, as the election had borne witness, public 
 feeling in support of the Bill had become far more intensely 
 enthusiastic than before, and the news of this second and 
 wholly unjustifiable offence excited great irritation. It was 
 pointed out, that whilst Sir C. Wetherell was using every 
 device to obstruct the progress of a measure demanded 
 by the country (the Mirror of Parliament credits him with 
 180 addresses against the Bill during the two sessions of 
 1831), he was in no legitimate sense of the term a popular 
 representative at all. He was, in fact, one of four members, 
 nominally elected b}^ a small rural parish in Yorkshire, but 
 actually the nominees of the Duke of Newcastle, Avho, if he 
 had chosen to follow the example of another noble borough- 
 owner referred to by Earl Russell in the introduction to his 
 collected speeches, could have dictated the election of his 
 negro valet. The connection of Sir Charles with Bristol, 
 again, was not one to challenge public criticism. His selec- 
 tion for an office which gave him powers of life and death 
 over the prisoners brought before him was the work of a self- 
 elected coterie, entirely out of harmony with the opinions of 
 the citizens. The claim of such an official to interpret the 
 political views of Bristolians Avas therefore regarded as an 
 impertinent challenge, which the advocates of Reform were 
 called upon to take up; and it speedily became known that 
 the recordei', on his next visit, would be furnished with 
 unmistakable proofs of the inaccuracy of his assertions. 
 Matters became still more critical at the beginning of October, 
 when the House of Lords, taking the course which Sir Charles 
 had conjured them to follow, and perhaps putting faith in 
 his and other allegations about popular reaction, rejected the 
 Reform Bill by a large majority. A few days later, following 
 the course adopted in all the great towns, the local supporters 
 of the measure convened a meeting at the Guildhall (but 
 which was adjourned to Queen Square owing to the un- 
 exampled attendance), when intemperate speeches were 
 made by Mr. Protheroe, M.P., and others, amidst enthusiastic 
 cheering. The historians of the time are agreed that a large 
 majority of the middle and working classes were prepared 
 for a national convulsion rather than submit to a continuance
 
 148 THE ANNALS OF BEISTOL. [1831. 
 
 of the so-called borougli-mongering system, and tliere is no 
 evidence to show tliat Bristolians were less in earnest than 
 the rest of their countrymen. They had, moreover, special 
 reasons for discontent, which their political opponents in the 
 city, jubilant at the action of the Peers, were ill-advised 
 enough to throw into relief by taunts and defiance. The 
 .members of the Corporation, becoming alarmed at the ferment, 
 took steps which made matters only worse. After the Queen 
 Square meeting, and about a fortnight before the day fixed 
 for the assizes, Lieut. Claxton, R.N., the gentleman mentioned 
 in a former page, privately solicited signatures to a requisi- 
 tion calling' on the mayor to convene a meeting-, at which the 
 seamen of the port might " express their loyalty to the king." 
 The mayor assented to the request, and a meeting was accord- 
 ingly held on board a Westlndiaman belonging to the mayor, 
 Lieut. Claxton, and others. In the course of the proceedings, 
 however, Mr. Claxton, who had taken the chair, admitted 
 that the real object of the gathering was to organise the 
 sailors as a body-guard for Sir Charles Wetherell on his 
 approaching visit. The avowal met with a reception little 
 expected by the agent of the Corporation. The sailors present 
 refused to be employed in a manner Avhich would identify 
 them with the anti-reformers, and, being forthwith ordered 
 out of the ship by the discomfited chairman, they held another 
 meeting on shore, where they passed a resolution expressing 
 loyalty to the king, but declaring that they '' would not allow 
 themselves to be made catspaws by the Corporation or its 
 paid agents." Baffled in this direction, the aldermen thought 
 of postponing the assizes, but found that Sir Charles 
 Wetherell would not consent to such a course. Application 
 was then made to the Home Secretary (Lord Melbourne) for 
 a military force to support the civil authorities. The Sec- 
 rotary of State, before assenting to this request, asked the 
 0])inion of Mr. Protheroe, M.P., then in London, when that 
 gentleman re]:>lied that it Avas not to be supposed that the 
 reformers of the city would fail to manifest their disapproval 
 of the recorder's political conduct, since, if they remained 
 silent, the opponents of Reform would assert that the alh\ged 
 reaction was trium])hantly ])r()ved ; he would not be answer- 
 able for trancjuillity if military force were em]iloyed, but, 
 if the Corporation would assent, ho would conduct Sir C. 
 Wetherell to the Guihlhall in his own carringe. Treating 
 this ])roposal with scorn, the corporate oihcials ])ersisted 
 in their request for troops, and Lord Melbourne assented. 
 The next step of the civic body was to direct the chief con-
 
 1831.] THE RIOTS: ARRIVAL OF THE RECORDER. 149 
 
 stables of the wards to swear in 300 inhabitants as special 
 constables. The result afforded a strikinf^ illustration of 
 the feeling entertained towards the Corporation. With rare 
 exceptions, the gentlemen and ti-adesmen summoned refused 
 to attend, and almost the only persons forthcoming were 
 very young men, zealous anti-reformers, who, according to 
 a contemporary historian, " viewed the lower classes with 
 contempt, as a troublesome rabble, and rather relished an 
 occasion for defying and humbling them." Even with this 
 risky assistance, only 200 constables could be marshalled, and 
 it was necessary to have recourse to a still more questionable 
 class — the rough labourers who were hii*ed as '' bludgeon 
 men" at elections. Whilst the preparations were still pro- 
 ceeding, Mr. Alderman Daniel, who was not only the guiding 
 spirit of the Common Council, but the head of the local Tory 
 party, entered into negotiations with Mr. Wm. Herapath, the 
 president of a numerous working-class organisation known as 
 the Political Union, with the object of obtaining the help of 
 the latter body in the preservation of order. Mr. Herapath, 
 who was kept in ignorance of the approach of troops, con- 
 sented to lend his assistance ; but the arrano-ement with 
 Lord Melbourne becoming known a few hours later, the 
 committee of the Union, expressing strong censure on the 
 conduct of the authorities, refused further cooperation, re- 
 questing the Unionists, however, to assist individually in 
 maintaining the public peace. The day fixed for the opening 
 of the assize — Saturdav the 29th October — at length arrived, 
 and the state of the streets from an early hour manifested 
 the excitement of the populace. The aldermen, in the hope 
 of lightening the difficulty, had arranged with the recorder 
 that his state entrance should take place at 10 o'clock in the 
 morning, instead of at the usual hour in the afternoon; but the 
 change of time had become known to many persons on the 
 previous evening, and the gathering of the special constables 
 in the Exchange early in the day put all classes on the alert. 
 The promised ca.valry — a troop of the 3rd Dragoons and 
 another of the 14th Hussars — were known to be quartered in 
 the suburbs ; and though they were moved to the cattle 
 market and the gaol with the least possible display, their 
 presence tended to increase the excitement. At the time 
 appointed, between one and two thousand persons, chiefly 
 labourers, had assembled at Totterdown, where it was 
 customary for the recorder to leave the private carriage in 
 which he had driven from Bath, and to take his seat in the 
 state coach of the sheriffs ; and when Sir Charles made his
 
 150 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1831. 
 
 appearance lie was received with a loud burst of hisses and 
 groans. The change of vehicles having been made, however, 
 the constables closed around the civic coach in a somewhat 
 disorderly manner, and the procession started for the city, 
 accompanied by the mob, which vented its wrath in continuous 
 yells. On reaching Temple Street the crowd, increasing at 
 every step, became so dense as almost to choke up the narrow 
 thoroughfare, while a number of women of the lowest class, 
 flinging mud at the carriage, shrieked invectives at the 
 recorder, and upbraided the men around them for the 
 cowardice of their inaction. At Bristol Bi'idge another vast 
 crowd had assembled, and the groaning and hissing became 
 more furious than ever, occasional stones being flung towards 
 the carriage, but without doing any injury. Amongst ever- 
 increasing numbers and amidst whirlwinds of yells, the pro- 
 cession at length reached the Guildhall, where the constables 
 with great difficulty cleax-ed a passage and enabled the 
 recorder to alight. Sir Charles was naturally somewhat 
 agitated by so emphatic an expression of public feeling, but 
 after taking his seat in court he recovered his equanimity, 
 rebuked the tumultuous rabble that filled the gallery, and 
 threatened to commit any disturber of order. The usual pi'e- 
 liminaries of an assize having been achieved, and the court 
 adjourned to the following Monday amidst cheering for the 
 king, another critical task had to bo faced — the procession 
 to the Mansion House in Queen Square. A dense crowd 
 occupied the entire route, and the cries and groans were not 
 less boisterous than before ; but beyond the flinging of a few 
 stones by the crowd gathered in the square there was no 
 symptom of violence, and the civic residence was reached in 
 safety. 
 
 The situation at this moment was very similar to what it 
 had been twenty-one years before on the entiy of another 
 unpopular judge [see p. 39]. Unhap})ily the magistrates 
 did not now display similar vigour to that which restored 
 trancjuillity on the previous occasion. A large portion of 
 the crowd, thinking that tho protest against the recoi-der's 
 offence had been sufficiently explicit, soon dis])orsed, and 
 many more would have left the square if an ap])eal had been 
 made to their reason. Even as it was, tho connnotion so 
 much settled down that tho magistrates actually discussed 
 the propriety of ])roceeding to church in the accustomed 
 ])omp next morning. Tlio advisability of confronting and 
 remonstrating with the noisy assemblage before llu> house 
 was not thought of; and tho special constables were left tc
 
 1831.] THE RIOTS : ATTACK ON THE MANSION HOUSE. 151 
 
 exercise their discretion — or rather indiscretion — with truly 
 calamitous consequences. Some of the young- guardians of 
 order, without leadership, eager to display their zeal for the 
 established order of things, and destitute alike of prudence 
 and forbearance, had been hit by some of the missiles which 
 greeted the recorder's arrival at the Mansion House. No 
 sooner were the civic authorities in safety than the constables, 
 in retaliation for these insults, rushed into the crowd, which 
 for the most part fled at their approach, and, after belabour- 
 ing those that could be reached with their heavy staves, 
 carried off a few prisoners in triumph. Desultory incursions, 
 of the same character^ and with similar results, were made 
 at intervals by parties of constables for two or three hours, 
 and, as was to be expected, the people who were maltreated 
 by the officers were rarely the most mischievous or ill-inten- 
 tioned of the rabble. Jt was equally natural that the hap- 
 hazard administration of bludgeon law by men crying, ''We'll 
 give you ' reaction ! ' " should excite a desire for revenge ; 
 and whilst the constables were exulting over the success oi! 
 their raids, it was evident to cooler-headed observers that a 
 strong feeling of exasperation was rising in the crowd. In- 
 telligence of the situation was moreover quickly spread about 
 the city by those who fled bleeding from the scene of action, 
 while the removal of wounded men to the Infirmary, and 
 the dragging of prisoners to Bridewell, were perilous adver- 
 tisements of the strife. The captives in many cases were 
 rescued, whereupon they returned to the square, in company 
 with enraged sympathisers who added fresh elements of 
 danger. Nevertheless the situation did not cause great 
 anxiety within the Mansion House. The town clerk, Mr. 
 Serjeant Ludlow, it is true, expressed an opinion that some 
 of the troops should be brought to the spot; but Sir Charles 
 Wetherell disapproved of the suggestion, and his view of the 
 matter prevailed. A little later, when the fiercer spirits 
 amongst the crowd were searching the neighbourhood for 
 sticks and missiles, a large body of the special constables, 
 having been many hours without food, were permitted to 
 return to their homes for refreshment, but with instructions 
 to collect again in the evening at the Guildhall. Observing 
 their departure, and unacquainted with its cause, the more 
 disorderly section of the populace attributed the retreat to 
 fear, and acted as ruffians are prone to act at such a moment. 
 A rush was made against the constables remaining on duty, 
 who were quickly scattered ; the railings in front of the 
 Mansion House were then torn down ; and the whole of the
 
 152 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. [1831. 
 
 windows on the ground floor were demolished with stones 
 and brickbats. 
 
 At last thoroughly alarmed, some of the magistrates made 
 their appearance, and the mayor (Mr. C. Pinney), who, being 
 a Reformer, was not personally unpopular, with great diffi- 
 culty obtained a hearing. The earnest remonstrances he 
 addressed to the people on the folly and Avickedness of their 
 conduct, and the warnings he added as to the consequences 
 of further tumult were, however, of no avail, and his 
 entreaties to disperse were interrupted by a shower of 
 missiles. The reading of the Riot Act, which followed, was 
 received with howls of derision, whilst such of the constables 
 as had re-assembled were attacked, disarmed, and mercilessly 
 beaten — one of the luckless band being compelled by threats 
 to fling his staff through the windows of the Mansion House, - 
 whilst another was driven into the Floating Harbour, and 
 narrowly escaped with his life. Every vestige of defence 
 being swept away, a general assault was made on the 
 Mansion House, the broken railings of which became de- 
 structive weapons in the hands of the wreckers. A neigh- 
 bouring wall was soon pulled down to furnish materials for 
 the assault, and beams of timber were brought up and used as 
 battering: rams. The door and window frames being reduced 
 to splinters, the rabble made their way into the ground floor 
 of the building, the furniture, mirrors, chandeliers, and other 
 contents of which were demolished in a few minutes. The 
 kitchens, where a great civic feast was in preparation, were 
 next entered, the cooks driven away, and joints, fowls, game, 
 and pastry were carried ott" and devoured by the rioters, 
 amidst the cheers of hundreds of spectators. All that the 
 imprisoned mayor and his colleagues could do was to protect 
 themselves from missiles in the upper rooms by barricading 
 the broken casements with feather beds, the Avliole resources 
 of the establishment being applied to this ])ur])ose. Complete 
 ruin having been wrought in the basement apartments, straw 
 and faggots were collected by the mob and carried into the 
 dining room for the purpose of setting fire to tlio lionse. 
 That end, it is said, was temporarily averted by a singular 
 obstacle — the inability of the rabble to. procure a light, 
 (lucifers being still in the future). Their villanons inten- 
 tions, however, were manifested by tlu; attempts which were 
 begun to barricade the entrances to the square wit]\ planks 
 and paving stones, with the view of ])reventing the inter- 
 ference of the military. 
 
 It was about this ])oint that »Sir Charles Wetherell resolved
 
 1831.] THE RIOTS: ESCAPE OF THE RECORDER. 153 
 
 on making' liis escape. Tlie rioters, apprehensive that he 
 Avould take flight, had surrounded the Mansion House as far 
 as the adjoining dwelhngs permitted, and no doubt destined 
 him to the fate tliey were propai'ing for the building itself. 
 The recorder, however, guided by his friends, got upon the 
 flat roof of the dining room, clambered from it by a ladder 
 to a window of the next house, and ultimatel}' made his 
 way to a stable at the back. Here he changed clothes with 
 a postillion, and succeeded so easily in passing through the 
 crowd, and reaching a house at Kingsdown, that he is said 
 to have taken a voluntary stroll through the streets at a later 
 hour in the evening, to ascertain the state of the city. Find- 
 ing the disturbance showed no signs of abatement, he ordered 
 a chaise and left for Newport, which he reached early on the 
 following morning. 
 
 Ignorant of the evasion, the rioters continued their pre- 
 parations for a fire, when, about six o'clock, in response to 
 the request of the magistrates, the two troops of horse 
 soldiers were brought into the square by Lieut. -Colonel 
 Brereton, the resident Inspecting Field Officer of the Bristol 
 recruiting district, who, by virtue of his rank, had assumed 
 the command. Their arrival put an end to the attack on the 
 house, but the rioters, far from showing fear of the troops, 
 received them with cheers, and sang " God save the king ! " 
 Colonel Brereton had already had an interview with the 
 besieged mayor and aldermen. After perambulating the 
 square, he returned to the house, and a lively discussion 
 ensued as to the steps that should be taken. The aldermen 
 and the town clerk advocated the instant employment of 
 force to clear the square ; and the mayor told the officer he 
 must order his men to fire if the tumult could not otherwise 
 be suppressed. But Major (aftei^wards Sir) Digby Mack- 
 worth (aide-de-camp to Lord Hill, commander in chief), who 
 had shortly before returned from the Forest of Dean after 
 putting down some agrarian disturbances, urged that no 
 firing should take place, for the sake of the innocent who 
 would certainly sufl^er, and expressed his conviction that by 
 combining the civil and military forces the populace might 
 be dispersed. Colonel Brereton also strongly disapproved of 
 bloodshed. After again going into the square, he reported 
 on his return that the mob were in good humour, and that 
 he should be able to disperse them by simply walking his 
 troops about. This he sought to do for some hours. But 
 although, whenever he appeared, the rabble received him 
 with cheers, many of them seizing and shaking his hand, the
 
 154 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1831. 
 
 crowd continued in the square with but little diminution. 
 During one of the colonel's numerous calls at the Mansion 
 House, the town clerk, who seems to have made himself the 
 mouthpiece of the authorities, expressed much dissatisfaction 
 at the delay, and told the colonel that the magistrates re- 
 quired the square to be cleared. To this the officer more 
 than once replied that if his men were to fire he must have 
 an explicit order to that effect. In giving evidence after- 
 wards, Sei'jeant Ludlow admitted that " he was not aware 
 that any explicit orders were given." However, about an 
 hour before midnight, the situation remaining unchanged. 
 Colonel Brereton gave directions to Captain Gage, of the 
 14th Hussars, to clear the streets by force, and the troops 
 thereupon made a charge on the populace, striking only 
 with the flat of their sabres. Thoug-h the rioters instantly 
 scattered, the traditional obstinacy of a Bristol mob was 
 nevertheless visible. Many ruffians, taking refuge in narrow 
 alleys, pelted the soldiers with stones and pieces of iron, and 
 Captain Gage, retux-ning to the Mansion House, asked for 
 orders to fire. The mayor hesitated ; Colonel Brereton re- 
 fused to give the order on his own responsibility; and Captain 
 (xage, resuming" the command of his troop, had to be satisfied 
 with clearing the interior of Queen Square ; while the special 
 constables, organised by Major Mackworth, were posted 
 around the house, which now seemed secure against attack. 
 Major Mackworth subsequently stated that when he left the 
 building, about two hours later, " the crowds had nearly all 
 dispersed, and I thought the worst of the riot was over." In 
 the meantime, however, some of the ]')opulace had repaired 
 to the Council House, the doors and windows of which were 
 assailed, and Captain Gage was sent off to take such 
 measures for its protection as he deemed expedient. A scene 
 of great confusion ensued, the troo])s making dashes at the 
 crowd, while the more determined rioters, ensconcing them- 
 selves in narrow lanes which the cavalry could not enter, 
 iiurled volleys of missiles on the troops. Exas])erated by 
 their injuries, some of the soldiers at length fired, and one 
 man, a peaceful ostler returning from his stable, was killed 
 at the head of the Pithay. Sabres were also vigorously 
 wielded, and several men were wounded, one of them mor- 
 tally. The effect of the charges was, however, decisive. The 
 rioters wholly (lisa])])eared, and for some hours all was quiet. 
 l)ui-ii)g \]\(.' night carpenters were em])loyed to board u]) 
 the breaches in the Mansion House, where a few soldiers 
 remained on guard, and the work was completed without
 
 1831.] THE RIOTS: vSACK OF THE MANSION HOUSE. 155' 
 
 interruption. The mayor remained at liis post, though rest 
 was of course impossible; but the aldermen, the town clerk, 
 in fact the whole civic body with the exception of Mr. Sherilf 
 Lax, quietly disappeared. The special constables followed 
 the example, and when Major Mackworth returned early on 
 Sunday morning, the force of 250 which he had drilled the 
 night before had " dwindled to about a dozen, and were even 
 then diminishing in number." Their defection sealed the 
 fate of the civic mansion. Soon after dawn about a score of 
 the rioters gathered in the square, and by eight o'clock the 
 knot of men had increased to a ci'owd, almost wholly com- 
 ])osed of the most vicious class in the city. Through another 
 of the many blunders incidental to this deplorable affair, the 
 handful of troops patrolling the square was about this time 
 withdrawn, and the moment the stag-e was clear the rioting 
 recommenced. The newly-constructed defences of the Mansion 
 House having been quickly demolished, a number of ruffians 
 dashed into the premises, clambered to the upper rooms, and 
 threw the furniture, bedding, etc., into the square, where 
 much was carried off and the rest wantonly destroyed. 
 Amongst the articles found were Sir Charles Wetherell's 
 judicial robe and wig, which were forthwith torn to frag- 
 ments and distributed amongst the plunderers as souvenirs of 
 their triumph. 
 
 Just before the capture of the house, the mayor, accom- 
 panied by Major Mackworth, effected his escape, by getting 
 out of an attic window, crouching along between the double 
 roofs of eight or nine houses for concealment from the mob, 
 kicking out a pane of glass in the Custom House to raise a 
 sash, and then quietly leaving that building for the Guildhall. 
 Eegardless of the fate of the inmates of the Mansion House, 
 and even of Sir Charles Wetherell himself — whose escape 
 was still unknown — the rioters lost no time in making their 
 way to the wine cellars, which were reported to be well stored. 
 Several hundred bottles of port, sherry, and Madeira were 
 forthwith stolen and carried into the square, where an as- 
 tonishing orgie was soon in full swing. A crowd of men, 
 women, and boys were to be seen staggering about, madly 
 intoxicated, yelling, swearing, singing, and vociferating 
 threats against the recorder ; whilst scores, too drunk to 
 stand, were rolling on the ground, where those not already 
 insensible from their excesses were re-echoing the maledictions 
 and menaces of their companions. Intelligence of the de- 
 bauch spread with remarkable quickness into all the low-class 
 quarters of the citj, and the concourse in the square was
 
 166 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1831. 
 
 rapidly reinforced by those eager to share in tlie saturnalia. 
 Some of the cavalry having been brought back at the request 
 of the niayor^ the Riot Act was three times read by one of 
 the aldermen. No order to fire was, however, given, and 
 Colonel Brei'eton, in spite of the scene before his eyes, de- 
 clared that fire-arms should not be used, and that the troops 
 were so exhausted as to absolutely require rest. Having 
 reuiarked, moreover, that the rabble, whilst cheering the 
 dragoons, were intensely exasperated against the hussars, 
 in consequence of the charge in Wine Street on the previous 
 night, Colonel Brereton told Captain Gage that his troop 
 Avas the sole cause of the renewed disturbance, and directed 
 him to take his men out of the city, Keynsham being selected 
 as their future station. The colonel's order excited great 
 indignation, not merely in the city but throughout the country. 
 It is only fair to state that Major Mackvvorth, in his ^^ personal 
 narrative," remarked that the hussars were in absolute need 
 of rest, and that, though " they might have executed a few 
 charges, unless supported by some other description of force 
 they could have done no permanent good, and would soon 
 have been so exhausted as to leave the city wholly defence- 
 less." Their retreat was not effected Avithout bloodshed. 
 The unpopular cavalry, being first directed to their quarters 
 in College Place, Avere violently attacked Avith stones on St. 
 Augustine's Back, Avhen some of them, painfully injured, fired 
 in self-defence, killing* one rioter and Avounding seven or 
 eight others. They soon after left for Keynsham, where- 
 upon Colonel Brereton returned to Queen Square, and, in 
 response to the cheers with Avhich he Avas greeted, addressed 
 the mob, begging them to disperse, but adding that there 
 Avould be no more fii-ing, and that the hussars had been sent 
 away. 
 
 Such language Avas not calculated to discourage tlio rioters, 
 and though the dragoons prevented further plundering in 
 the wine cellars, the mob went on carousing as before. In 
 a short time the bells began to chime for Sunday morning 
 service, and, incredible as it noAV seems, the attendance at 
 the churches and cha])els was so nearly of an average cha- 
 racter that a stranger could not liave suspected the actual 
 condition of the city. 'I'll is Avas doubtless largely due to the 
 singularly isolated position of (^ue(>n S(juare, surrounded on 
 three sides by Avater, and to the ignorance of the great bulk 
 of the res))('ctable inhabitants of the events that had trans- 
 pired. l'>Mt. it was partly attributable, as will be shown, to 
 the unj)0})ularity of the Corporation. The mayor and some
 
 ISoL] THE RIOTS: THE COUPORATION DESERTED, 157 
 
 of the aldermen had assembled early at the Guildhall, where 
 they received offers of service from some of the army pen- 
 sioners. There were about 250 of those disciplined veterans 
 in the city; and if, as Major Mackwoi'th had counselled the 
 mayor, they had been called out before the recorder's arrival, 
 the tumult in Queen Square would have been suppressed at 
 the outset. Even after the experience of the previous night, 
 however, the magistrates were unable to appreciate the 
 value of these auxiliaries, who met with so cold a reception 
 that they withdrew. About eleven o'clock the mayor issued 
 a placard stating that Sir Charles Wetherell had left the 
 city, and another announcing that the Riot Act had been 
 read. Handbills were also sent to the churches and chapels, 
 describing the perilous state of affairs, and earnestly calling 
 upon the citizens to support the mayor in maintaining order. 
 His worship's appeal was made known to most of the con- 
 gregations at the close of the service ; but although Dr. 
 Carpenter estimated that some 20,000 persons were in at- 
 tendance, only about 200 gentlemen assembled at the Guild- 
 hall. Many of the absentees, according to a subsequent 
 deposition, excused themselves by asking : " Why should we 
 protect the Corporation's property ? Let them protect their 
 own property." The muncipality, it was argued, instead of 
 being a public institution for the public security, claimed to 
 be a private monopoly, and had shown itself contemptuous of 
 ]iublic opinion [see p. 104] ; it had no right to complain when 
 almost the entire community showed its discontent and dis- 
 trust by holding aloof. The gathering of citizens was so 
 small that after multitudinous plans of action had been dis- 
 cussed — " every one differing from his neighbour," according 
 to Major Mackworth — it was finally determined that each 
 gentleman should go home, endeavour to obtain the co- 
 operation of his neighbours, and return in the afternoon. 
 
 The three o'clock meeting was not more numerously 
 attended than its forerunner, owing in some degree, perhaps, 
 to thoughtless arrangements, entrance into the hall being 
 obtainable only by a side-door unknown to the general 
 pul)lic. The mayor, who presided, stated that the mob had 
 been in possession of the city for some time, and were then in 
 the act of burning down Bridewell. Being asked if he had 
 any plan to propose, his worship answered in the negative, 
 and upon further questions being put, Mr. Serjeant Ludlow, 
 with his habitual garrulity and self-sufficiency, undertook to 
 speak for the magistrates. Having delivered himself of his 
 views on political affairs^ the town clerk, however, vouchsafed
 
 158 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. [1831. 
 
 no infoi'mation or advice except that '' every man must act 
 on his own discretion and responsibility." Some of the 
 gentlemen present offered to act as constables if a few soldiers 
 were sent in company with them ; but Colonel Brereton, who 
 arrived at this point, declared that his men were then too 
 fatigued to go out. After further desultory conversation, 
 in which union and energy were as conspicuously absent as 
 in the morning, Serjeant Ludlow declared that nothing more 
 could be done, that it would shortly be dark, and that it was 
 high time to take care of themselves — a rule which the 
 learned gentleman faithfully followed throughout. The 
 mayor next observed that being without an efficient civil 
 force, and the military being untrustwortln-, the best advice 
 he could give was that each person should go home and take 
 care of his own property-. The meeting was nevertheless 
 adjourned to the Council House, and continued some hours 
 longer in a disorderly and unfruitful fashion. But it is useless 
 to dwell further on the melancholy exhibition of feebleness 
 and indecision, and the scene must be shifted to the centre 
 of the disturbance, in Queen Square. 
 
 After Colonel 13rereton's imprudent remarks already re- 
 corded, no change in the aspect of affairs occurred for two or 
 three hours. The official placard announcing that Sir Charles 
 Wetherell had left the city was followed by another to the 
 same effect, posted by the Political Union ; but the mob put 
 no faith in either document, and the Mansion House con- 
 tinued to be rigorously watched. At length, about one 
 o'clock, Mr. S. Waring, a respected Quaker merchant, ad- 
 dressed the crowd, assuring them that the recorder had 
 departed. After some hesitation, the men who assumed the 
 position of ringleaders said they would "believe the Quaker," 
 adding : " We will do no more here ; we will go to liride- 
 well, and release the prisoners taken last night; and then we 
 will go to the gaol, and release tliost- Sir Charles was to have 
 tried." Mr. Waring at once went to Alderman A. Hilhouse 
 to acf[uaint him with the purpose of the rioters, and urged 
 the necessity of immediately guarding the prisons; but the 
 alderman treated the warning very lightly, asserting that 
 the walls and gates "were strong enough." Little time was 
 lost by the rioters in carrying out their design, and a gang 
 of desperadoes was soon in front of Jiridewell. The build- 
 ings forming the ])rison at tliat time stood on both sides of 
 what was called Jiridewell Lane, the gaoler, Mr. Lvans, 
 residing on one side, while tlic jn-ison ]>roper, on the other, 
 was connected with the dwelling-house by two strong arch-
 
 1831.] THE RIOTS: DESTRUCTION OF BRIDEWELL. 151) 
 
 ways, eacli of which could be closed by a heavy gate. The 
 position was so strong that a dozen resolute men could have 
 kept an unlimited number of ragamuffins at bay; but the 
 gaoler had only himself and two under-officers to depend 
 upon. On the approach of the mob, Evans armed himself 
 and his subordinates with swords, drove the front rank of the 
 assailants from the space between the two buildings, and 
 closed the gates. The garrison, however, was too weak to 
 withstand the pressure of a multitude, and in a few minutes 
 the mob succeeded in lifting the gates from their hinges and 
 in throwing them into the Froom — then uncovered at Bride- 
 well Bridge. Evans, in spite of the threats and missiles 
 showered upon him, next appeared armed with a blunderbuss 
 at one of the windows of his house, and for a further time kept 
 the assailants at a distance. Sledge hammers had however 
 been obtained from a neighbouring smithy, an entry into the 
 gaoler's house was effected through a window, and as Evans 
 had his wife and family, as well as the wife and children of 
 the turnkey, in the building, he found himself compelled to 
 order the warder to surrender the keys. He managed, how- 
 ever, to send a messenger to the magistrates, describing the 
 peril of the prison ; and the man assured the aldermen that 
 he could still protect the place with twenty constables and 
 ten soldiers. The answer which the messenger swore to 
 having received was : — " You say they have released the 
 prisoners : pooh pooh ! there will be nothing more done." 
 The issue was very different. As soon as the criminals in 
 custody were set free, the rioters set fire to the chapel and 
 cells, which were speedily consumed. The gaoler's house 
 for the time escaped destruction. 
 
 Having carried out this part of their plan, the rioters 
 proceeded to the gaol, then only a few years old, and stand- 
 ing on the southern bank of the new river. Mr. Waring, 
 who had made another reconnoitre, had already warned Alder- 
 man A. Hilhouse that an attack was imminent, but met with 
 no better success than before. About half an hour before 
 the mob reached the prison, Mr. Humphries, the governor, 
 made his way to the Guildhall, and asked whether he was to 
 defend the place or release the prisoners. No answer was 
 given, and it was not until the question had been pressed 
 two or three times that Alderman A. Hilhouse informed the 
 governor that "he was to use his own discretion ; the magis- 
 trates gave him no directions." After further consultation, 
 however, the above alderman, accompanied by Alderman 
 Savage and a few other gentlemen, went down to the gaol to
 
 160 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1831. 
 
 see if anvtliino: could be done ; but the mob, which was 
 making for the spot, refused to listen to them, and drove the 
 party away with stones. 
 
 The reader will find it difficult to produce before his mind's 
 eye a glimmering picture of the state of the city during that 
 wet and murky October afternoon. Let him add, however, 
 to the following rapid sketch of the rioters by Dr. Carpenter 
 a few pallid and anxious spectators on the dingy pavements, 
 and he may faintly conceive the scene : — " They could not 
 have been more than from five to six hundred, and the 
 number might have been less. I saw them about a quarter 
 after two, as they were coming down Clare Street on their 
 way. They were a compact body, without stragglers or 
 attendants. They moved with great expedition; and their 
 object was well known. Most of them had bludgeons ; some 
 had hatchets; and others were armed with iron palisades, 
 from the front of the Mansion House. All I noticed were 
 the dregs of the city ; and a large part were under twenty 
 years of age. . . . The sledge hammers with which they 
 broke [the gaol] open, they procured at a neighbouring manu- 
 factory; and the proprietor told me they brought all back 
 but two." 
 
 The outer gates of the gaol were of great strength, and 
 the place was even more capable of defence than Bridewell. 
 Though no defence was attempted, the assailants had to ply 
 their hammers and iron bars for three quarters of an hour 
 before a hole was made sufficiently large to admit of the 
 entrance of one of the mob. But this once achieved, the 
 ringleaders were soon within the archway, whence they 
 attacked the inner iron gates, which were comparatively 
 weak. Resistance being hopeless, one of the warders un- 
 locked the gates, and in a few minutes about oOO of the. 
 criminal crew penetrated into every nook of the building, 
 destroyed the doors of the cells, and liberated the prisoners, 
 about 170 in number, several of whom stripped themselves of 
 their gaol dress, and ran off" to their former haunts in a state 
 of nudity. As the main object of the rioters was being 
 achieved, a body of about twenty dragoons trotted to the 
 prison, led by a young cornet named Kelson, whose account 
 of what occurred was afterwards given on oath. Ho was, 
 lie said, ordered by Lieut. -Colonel J}rereton to go with a 
 party of men to the gaol. Ho had asked the colonel what ho 
 was to do when ho got there, and was told that, as a magis- 
 trate was not to bo fouiul, ho must on no account use 
 violence, but simply go and return. The soldiers therefore
 
 1831.] BURNING OP THE PRISONS AND BISHOP's PALACE. 101 
 
 advanced to the gates^ where the officer could see the mob 
 " knocking- things to pieces," and then the troops, who had 
 been welcomed with cheers by the rioters, and had waved 
 their caps in return, were marched back to College Green, 
 where Colonel Brereton, on receiving the cornet's report, told 
 him he had acted '' perfectly right/' About the same time, 
 Mr. Herapath and other members of the Political Union 
 remonstrated with the mob, but were roughly told by its 
 leaders that they knew their own business and would attend 
 to it. After the prisoners had been set free, the governor's 
 house was sacked, a large portion of the contents, including 
 the prison records, being thrown into the Avon amidst the 
 cheers of thousands of the labouring class who lined the river 
 banks. The devastation was completed by setting fire to the 
 buildings — every part that would burn, including- the gover- 
 nor's dwelling, the chapel, and the treadmill being speedily 
 destroyed. 
 
 Whilst the flames were still raging, the ruffians held a 
 council in the gaol yard to consider their next point of 
 attack. Several public buildings were marked out for de- 
 struction, but it was eventually determined to burn the toll- 
 houses near the Floating Harbour, and then to break open the 
 Gloucestershire House of Correction at Lawford's Gate, where 
 several prisoners were known to be detained. The firing of 
 the toll-houses was the work of only a few minutes, though 
 the rioters allowed the toll-collectors a brief interval to 
 remove their furniture. About seven o'clock in the evening, 
 the rabble reached Lawford's Gate prison, the gates of which 
 were quickly demolished by hammers and other weapons ; 
 and as soon as the prisoners had been released the building 
 was set on fire, and speedily burnt down. Simultaneously 
 with this outrage, a small band of ragamuffins, not exceeding 
 thirty in number, and chiefly Irish boys, returned to Bride- 
 well, and completed the havoc in that quarter by burning the 
 gaoler's house. 
 
 The gang which committed the latter wanton piece of 
 mischief next moved towards the Bishop's Palace, situated 
 on the south side of the cathedral. Bishop Gray, who had 
 made himself unpopular amongst the working classes by his 
 speech and vote against the Reform Bill in the House of 
 Lords, had preached in the cathedral at the morning service, 
 but had left his residence dui-ing the afternoon fi-om appre- 
 hensions as to its fate, and the more valuable contents had 
 been removed. Notice of the intended attack was in this 
 case also sent to the magistrates; and several gentlemen, who 
 
 M
 
 162 THE ANNALS OF BKISTOL. [1831. 
 
 had gone to tte Council House to offer their services, ad- 
 dressed Alderman Savage, requesting liim to authorise them 
 to defend the palace. The alderman, however, replied : — 
 " AVe can give no such permission : we are advised to call 
 out the posse comifatus to-morrow morning; and can do 
 nothing until then." The first gang which entered Lower 
 College Green, according to the evidence of Jones, the 
 bishop's butler, w4io displayed much courage, consisted of 
 about a hundred men and boys; but other witnesses estimated 
 the number at not more than thii-ty. The account in the 
 Bristol Mirror describes them as " a mere handful." On 
 reaching the Green, about eight o'clock, this body, with the 
 hammers brought from Bridewell, attacked the gate leading 
 into the cloisters, which was soon broken down. The door 
 into the palace, which Jones refused to open, was next 
 demolished, and the rioters rushed into the apartments in 
 search of plunder. The arrival of a party of troops in the 
 Green, however, caused a panic; and the mob, who had flung 
 the red-hot cinders in the grates about the fine old dining 
 parlour and some of the bedrooms, took to flight, carrying off 
 such portable articles as had attracted their cupidity. Cornet 
 Kelson, in command of the cavalry, was invited by Jones to 
 dismount and enter ; but he replied that Colonel Brereton's 
 orders did not permit him to do so. A few minutes after- 
 wards he received instructions to leave for Queen Square ; 
 and no sooner had the troops departed than the rioters, re- 
 inforced by many of the gang from Lawford's Gate, burst 
 afresh into the palace, drove Jones from his post, thoroughly 
 sacked the premises from the attics to the cellars, and finally 
 kindled fires in several places at once. The bishop's wine, 
 cleared out from the cellars, is said to have been sold in the 
 Green at a penny or twopence a bottle. The chapter house 
 was next broken into, and a library of (3,000 volumes, to- 
 gether with some valuable manuscripts, was recklessly tossed 
 about, the major portion of the books being flung through 
 one of the windows into the ])uruiug palace, Avhilo a bonfire 
 was made with several hundred others in the cloisters. The 
 rest were chiefly stolen, or flung into the harbour. The rioters 
 now resolved to burn the chapter house and catliedral, but 
 were resisted for a time by Phillips, the sub-sacrist. Tho 
 exertions of that worthy official wouUl, however, have been 
 fruitless but for the courage of four or five gentlemen 
 (Dissenters) who ventured into the crowd. Mr. B. llalph, the 
 most energetic of the party, faced the ringleader of the 
 incendiaries, and told him that no Reformer would destroy
 
 1831.] THE RIOTS: BURNING OP THE MANSION HOUSE. 1(53 
 
 the people's property ; whereupon the ruffian, shouting for 
 Reform, said they would not burn the college, and the flames 
 in the chapter room were extinguished. Before they quitted 
 the neighboui'hood, the rioters had the insolence to make an 
 attack on Reeves' hotel in College Place, the head-quarters of 
 the dragoons ; but upon a few of the cavalry turning out, the 
 assailants decamped, after demolishing some windows. 
 
 Whilst those scenes were being enacted in St. Augustine's, 
 more extensive devastation had begun in Queen Square. 
 The liberation of a horde of hardened criminals from the 
 prisons had doubtless a serious influence on subsequent 
 events. Political feeling had brought about the demonstra- 
 tion of Saturday, but the mass of those who took part in it 
 had withdrawn, and the undisguised purpose of the vicious 
 crew who had succeeded them, consisting, according to the 
 Mirror, " entirely of low Irish," was outrage with a view to 
 plunder. During the attack on Lawford's Gate, a crowd had 
 remained in front of the Mansion House, for the protection 
 of which, strangely enough, the magistrates had made no 
 provision throughout the entire day, but had contented 
 themselves with removing the plate and several valuable 
 pictures. For some hours the rabble were prevented fi*om 
 doing serious mischief by a picket of seven soldiers which 
 perambulated the thoroughfare ; but the intention of the 
 ringleaders was in no doubt, for they were seen by Father 
 Edgeworth in one of the adjoining by-streets preparing balls 
 of pitch and flax, which, according to his deposition, " they 
 significantly held up to the people and the soldiers." When 
 the handful of the latter were despatched for the so-called 
 protection of the bishop's palace, a few desperadoes again 
 burst into the Mansion House wine-cellars, and ransacked 
 the cupboards etc., on the ground floor. The testimony of 
 Father Edgeworth, who had been drawn to the spot by a 
 desire to keep his Irish flock in order, affords a graphic 
 idea of the scene. The plunderers, he said, hesitated before 
 mounting to the upper floors of the house; but a boy, of about 
 thirteen years, with a candle in his hand, ran up a few of 
 the stairs and cried out, " Why do you not come on ; are you 
 afraid ? " whereupon aboiit twenty or thirty, chiefly lads of 
 about sixteen years, followed the boy with a cheer. Every- 
 thing which could be cai'ried away was then stolen ; the 
 larger pieces of furniture were knocked to pieces ; and the 
 raiders finished the work by setting fii^e to most of the 
 chambers, a quantity of wine and spirits being thrown upon 
 the straw in the cellar before it was lii^fhted. A few remained
 
 3 6-1 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1831. 
 
 upstairs in searcli of plunder until retreat was no longer 
 practicable; and tlie remains found in the ruins sliowed liow 
 deai^ly they had paid for their villany. So rapid was the 
 progress of the flames, that the dragoons directed to Lower 
 College Green saw, on arriving there, the Mansion House in 
 a blaze. Believing that the palace was no longer in danger, 
 the troops returned to Queen Squai'e — only to behold, 
 immediately afterwards, that the episcopal residence had 
 shared the same fate. A little before ten o'clock, Cornet 
 Kelson, who was left without orders, and believed that 
 nothing more could be done, ordered his slender force to 
 their quarters ; and the rioters were left to work havoc at 
 their discretion. " Not a fire engine was present," wrote Mr. 
 Somerton, proprietor of the Bridal Mercury, a spectator, 
 " nor do we hear that any made the attempt. The firemen 
 of the different companies alone, armed with their fire 
 hatchets, would have been more than sufficient to have routed 
 the mob at this or any subsequent time during the evening." 
 The special constables had disappeared early in the day; and 
 the only regular officers of police, the mayor's and sherifls' 
 sergeants, were so panic-stricken that they hid themselves in 
 their houses, taking the name-plates off their doors in order 
 to escape attention. 
 
 A new illustration of the mental condition of the authorities 
 was given about this time. The magistrates had despatched 
 expresses in various directions for military assistance. 
 Amongst others, the Dodington troop of Gloucestershire 
 Yeomanry was summoned; but no arrangements were made 
 for the quartering of that or any other body. The troop in 
 question having arrived about ten o'clock in the evening, the 
 commander, Captain Codrington, marched to the Council 
 House; but no magistrate was in attendance to give him 
 instructions. The captain next proceeded to the recruiting 
 office in College Green, in search of Colonel Brereton ; but 
 that officer declined to give him orders to act until he had 
 the co-operation of a magistrate. Later on. Captain Codring- 
 ton and liis men made their way to Queen Scjuaro Avhilo tho 
 IMansiou iiouso was in fianies ; but they could still obtain no 
 intelligence of a guardian of the law. In a letter, addressed 
 next day to tho Home Secretary, tho captain wrote : — 
 " Having paradcnl through thd principal streets of the city 
 for more than two liours, without bring able to find a 
 magistrate ; hearing that they had in fact left tho town after 
 withdrawing both his niiijesty's troops and the polic^e ; finding 
 ourselves thn.s unsupported, and without a hope of being in
 
 1831.] THE RIOTS: THE FIRES IN QUEEN SQUARE. 1G5 
 
 any way serviceable^ tlie city being actually in the uncon- 
 trolled power of the populace, I had no alternative but that 
 of Avithdrawing also my men, and we returned home about 
 five o'clock this morning." Soon after his interview with 
 Captain Codrington, Colonel Brereton retired to bed, ap- 
 parently washing his hands of all responsibility. If he 
 supposed that the rioters would be satisfied with the havoc 
 they had wrought on public property, he was soon undeceived. 
 
 The Mansion House was still burning fiercely when it be- 
 came apparent to the thousands of persons hitherto looking 
 on with indifference, that the ringleaders were preparing to 
 fire the adjoining houses. The attack commenced by beating 
 in the ground-floor windows and forcing the doors ; admis- 
 sion having been gained, the rooms were ransacked and the 
 lighter furniture and effects thrown into the thoroughfare ; 
 finally, the heavy furniture was broken to pieces, piled in a 
 heap, and set on fire. Most of the apartments being lined 
 with wainscot, and combustible articles being kindled on 
 every storey, the flames spread with astonishing rapidity. 
 Indeed, before midnight the range of dwellings between tlie 
 Mansion House and the Custom House, including several 
 houses at the back, formed one immense conflagration. The 
 occupiers, having received from the rioters a brief notice 
 to leave, had carried off" a portion of their more valuable 
 eff'ects ; but much of the salvage was deposited in other 
 houses, then supposed to be out of harm's way, and eventu- 
 ally also destroyed. 
 
 The sack and destruction of the Custom House were the 
 next flagrant incidents of the night. After an entry ha I 
 been effected, a band of wretches, including a few women, 
 allowing the officials to pack up and remove the documents 
 and books, rushed upstairs to the dwelling rooms, where, 
 finding a quantity of provisions and liquor, they deliberately 
 sat down to regale themselves, whilst a more active gang 
 pursued the work of destruction in the adjoining apartments. 
 A dreadful fate befell many of the carousers. In the midst 
 of their brutal revelry, the fires lighted by their companions 
 reached the staircase, which soon became impassable. Some 
 of the revellers slid from the balcony outside and escaped ; 
 others jumped from the windows and fell crushed on the 
 pavement ; one or two leaped upon the portico, the leaden 
 roof of which was already in a molten state, and, being held 
 fast by the viscous metal, were literally roasted to death. 
 [At the Bristol meeting of the British Association in ISoG, 
 Dr. Buckland perpetrated a grim joke on the geological
 
 166 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. [1831. 
 
 section by producing for inspection a bone, whicli lie said 
 bad just been banded to bim, and wbicb be described as part 
 of tbe rib of a mammal, found upon tbe red sandstone. Tbe 
 relic baving greatly puzzled tbe learned gatbering, tbe 
 doctor at lengtb explained, tbat it was a bone of one of tbe 
 rioters wbo perisbed at tbe Custom House. Tbe animal 
 matter bad been decomposed by intense beat, and tbe cavities 
 were filled witli melted lead.] About four or five fell back 
 into tbe flames, and tlieir bodies, balf reduced to cinders, 
 were afterwards found in tbe ruins. Their gbastly end, 
 bowever, made no impression on tbe bulk of tbe rioters. As 
 an avenue separated tbe Custom House from tbe remaining 
 dwellings on tbat side of tbe square, tbe spectators, estimated 
 at from 15,000 to 20_,000, boped tbat tbe incendiaries would 
 now be satisfied witb tbeir devastations. But tliis was far 
 from tbeir tbougbts. Tbe bouses on tbe western side of tbe 
 avenue met witb precisely tbe same fate as tbose in tbe 
 eastern wing. Tbe proceedings of tbe miscreants were of 
 tbe simplest cbaracter. A brief notice was given to tbe 
 occupants to leave. If a bouse were abandoned and sliut up, 
 it was entered by boys tbrougb the windows in tbe manner 
 already described; portable articles of value were carried 
 ofl', otbers were tbrown into tbe square to be picked up by 
 confederates ; and tben tires were ligbted in most of tbe 
 rooms. Tbe wbole row was in flames about an bour after 
 midnigbtj and from tbe tborougbly eff'ectual way in wbicb 
 tbe villains pursued their operations, tbe destruction was as 
 rapid as it was complete. Besides the property in Queen 
 Square, some warehouses were burning in King Street; and 
 from a bonded store, containing about fifty puncheons of 
 rum, tbe ignited spirit poured into tbe street, forming a 
 " hedge of fire " in front of several dwelling bouses, the 
 inmates of wliicb were saved by tbe courage of a party of 
 sailors. 
 
 Most of tbe older criminals were by tbis time in a brutal 
 state of drunkenness, from tbe quantity of liquor wbicb bad 
 been consumed during tbeir raids. But tbe fury of the 
 younger gang was insatiable, and the western side of tho 
 vast quadrangle, beginning witli tbe Excise Office, was next 
 vowed to ruin, a nuinl)er of neighbouring warehouses fronting 
 IVince's Street bi'ing destined to the same fate. Ni'arly all 
 tbe mischief in this locality was committetl by young boys, 
 whose number, according to one witness, did not exceed fifty, 
 while many respectable persons reduced tho total to about 
 thirty. Mr. Somertou wrote : — " AVe saw three ui'cbius.
 
 1831.] THE KIOTS : EXTRAORDINARY SCENES. 1G7 
 
 apparently not more than ten or eleven years of age, who, 
 when their retreat from the attic floor of one of the houses 
 had been cut off, and while the flames were bursting out 
 beneath them, coolly clambered along a coping, projecting 
 not more than three inches, and, entering an adjoining house, 
 immediately set Are to a bedstead and furniture." Language 
 cannot do justice to the extraordinary scene which the city 
 presented at this time. Almost the entire population was 
 afoot, and in spite of a continuous drizzling rain, every 
 eminence dominating the burning square was crowded with 
 a terror-stricken multitude of all ages. Charles Kingsloy, at 
 that time a boy of thirteen, residing in a boarding school on 
 St. Michael's Hill, was one of the units of this great mass, 
 and twenty-seven years afterwards narrated to a Bristol 
 audience his reminiscences of the spectacle. " One seemed," 
 he said, " to look down upon Dante's Inferno, and to hear 
 the multitudinous moan and wail of the lost spirits surging 
 to and fro amid that sea of fire." After a graphic sketch 
 of Brandon Hill, tinged with diversified tints of colour, he 
 added : — " Higher and higher the fog was scorched and 
 shrivelled by the fierce heat below, glowing through and 
 through with red reflected glare till it arched itself into one 
 vast dome of red-hot iron — fit roof for all the madness down 
 below ; and beneath it, miles away, I could see the lovely 
 tower of Dundry, shining red." How dazzling was the 
 refulgence may be imagined from the statement of an in- 
 habitant of Beachley, near Chepstow, who averred that the 
 illumination of the sky enabled him to read a book in his 
 garden. The most bewildering scenes, however, were in 
 Queen Square itself. Scores of rioters in the last stages of 
 drunkenness were rolling about in front of the burning 
 property, or carousing in groups, or grovelling on the sward ; 
 jiow and then a barrel of wine or beer was brought out of 
 one of the houses to keep up the brutal debauch ; a few lads 
 were rushing- with torches or burning brands from one 
 doomed house to another ; and about one hundred and fifty 
 older and more wily villains were engaged in gathering up 
 the plunder extracted from the dwellings — many of them 
 selling it openly in the square and adjoining streets, amidst 
 the ruddy glare from the blazing buildings. Mr. Somerton 
 saw " Avliat appeared to be a beautiful silver teapot ofl'ored 
 for a shilling, and feather beds, mahogany tables, and a 
 variety of costly and valuable articles of furniture were 
 ofl"ered at the same rate." According to the Mirror, a 
 handsome pianoforte taken out of the Mansion House was
 
 168 THE ANNALS OF BEISTOL. [1831. 
 
 bought by a gentleman for four sbillings, Tbe enormous 
 quantity of stolen goods could not, however, be got rid of in 
 this way, and a number of fellows might be seen busily piling 
 their spoil upon wagons, cars, carts, and trucks, a stream of 
 which came and went as deliberately as if they had been 
 engaged at a gigantic auction, whilst thousands of citizens 
 of all classes, apparently paralysed at the spectacle, looked 
 helplessly on. How little courage would have been needed 
 to trample down the riot, may be judged from a few facts 
 elicited during the subsequent trials. Whilst the incendiaries 
 were at the height of their triumph, a porter named Mills, 
 employed by Messi's. Bartlett & Mogg, wine merchants, 
 saw some of the gang attempting to remove the padlock 
 from one of his masters' warehouses, when he wrested a 
 hammer from one of the men, set his back against the door, 
 and threatened to knock out the brains of any one who 
 should come nigh him. The rufl&ans at once went off; and 
 the warehouse was saved for the time. In another case, 
 Martha Davis, servant to a Mr. Cross, living in Queen Square, 
 withstood the rioters who entered the house ; and though she 
 was knocked down insensible by a blow, she on recovering 
 seized one of the crew by the collar, and eventually drove 
 out the whole party, shutting the door in their faces. 
 Similar bravery was shown near Lawford's Gate prison by 
 Mrs. Mack, wife of a publican, and by her brother, William 
 Field. The mob which set fire to the prison had afterwards 
 burst into Mack's house, and attempted to burn it; but Field 
 and his sister resisted them so stoutly that Mr. Justice 
 Taunton, who tried three of the criminals at Gloucester, 
 declared that if twenty men had acted like Field, the riots 
 would have been suppressed. 
 
 It is now time to return to the doings of the authorities. 
 As already stated, the troops had been ordered to their 
 quarters, and Colonel Brereton had gone to bed. No evidence 
 is forthcoming as to what had become of the aldermen. The 
 mayor, though exhausted from want of rest, declined to leave 
 the city, but had some difficulty in obtaining shelter, being 
 refused admission at the house of Mr. SherilT Lax, in Park 
 Street, by the servants left in charge (the family, like many 
 others, had fled from the city), whilst he was virtually turned 
 out of that of INfr. Granger, a surgeon, lie Jit last found 
 refuge at Mr. Daniel Frip])'s, in Jk-rkeloy Scjuare, whence a 
 letter was sent to Colonel Brereton, notifying where ho was 
 to be found. About two o'clock on ]\Ionday morning, Mr. 
 Samuel Goldney, surgeon, a relative of one of the aldermen
 
 1831. J THE EIOTS : THE TROOPS ORDERED TO ACT. 1G9 
 
 was in Queen Square, and satisfied himself, as he afterwards 
 deposed, that the actual number of rioters was only between 
 fifty and a hundred, and that a single vigorous effort would 
 put an end to the havoc. He accordingly went to the cavalry 
 stables, where he found Cornet Kelson eager to act if he 
 could obtain a proper order to that effect. Mr. Goldney 
 then proceeded to Mr. Fripp's, where, after great hesitation, 
 that gentleman admitted him, and heard his report, which 
 he conveyed to the mayor. The latter thereupon wrote a 
 note, bearing the vague address, ''Bristol, 3 o'clock, Monday 
 morning," requiring the officer in command of the troops to 
 use the most vigorous measures to suppress the riot. Mr. 
 Fripp, in delivering this missive to Mr. Goldney, remarked, 
 " You are particularly requested not to say where the mayor 
 is." The letter was taken to Leigh's stables, and delivered 
 to Captain Warrington, who was technically in command of 
 the dragoons during Colonel Brereton's absence. The captain 
 at first declined to open the letter, on the ground that it was 
 not directed to him, but ultimately consented to do so. He 
 then said that his superior officer would return in two or 
 three hours, and that, although willing to turn out the troops 
 on the receipt of proper orders, he would not move except 
 in company with a magistrate. Mr. Goldney made no reply, 
 as he did not know where an alderman was to be found, 
 and was unwilling to mention the whereabouts of the mayor. 
 Through this unfortunate error of judgment on the part of 
 Captain Warrington, which was the ruin of his professional 
 career, the rioters remained unchecked for nearly two hours 
 longer, during- which the devastation was greatly extended. 
 About four o'clock, Mr. Alderman Camplin found his way 
 to Captain Warrington, and requested the troops to be 
 brought out ; but the captain, though expressing a desire to 
 act, would not give orders until he had seen Colonel Brereton. 
 He and the alderman, however, roused up the colonel at his 
 lodgings in Unity Street ; and although the commanding officer 
 still protested that a few jaded troops could do no g-ood against 
 such a mob, he was at last prevailed upon to order out the 
 dragoons, who arrived at the scene of ruin between five and 
 six o'clock. 
 
 At this time, a large warehouse in Prince's Street was in 
 flames, the whole of the western side of Queen Square — 
 excepting two dwellings which the rioters were pillaging* — 
 
 * The Mirror states that these houses escaped destruction through the 
 exertions of Mr. B. Kalph and a young man named Thomas. They still stand 
 iu the middle of the western side, immediately below the central avenue.
 
 170 THE AifNALS OP BRISTOL. [1831. 
 
 was burnt or burning; and an attack bad just commenced 
 ao-ainst the corner bouse on tbe soutbern side, wbicb bad 
 been sentenced to tbe same fate as tbe nortbern and western 
 fagades. Tbe dragoons bad begun to patrol tbe square, as 
 before, wben Major Mackwortb arrived. "It immediately 
 struck me," be afterwards wrote, " tbat if tbis bouse were 
 fired, tbe sbipping would soon be in a blaze, and nearly tbe 
 wbole city must inevitably be burned. It was no longer 
 time to consider numbers or await magistrates' orders. I 
 called out ' Colonel Brereton, we must instantly cbarge,' and 
 witbout waiting for bis answer (be could not but approve), 
 I called out, ' Cbarge, men, and cbarge borne.' Tbe ti'oops 
 obeyed witb tbe utmost alacrity. Colonel Brereton cbarging 
 with, great spirit at tbeir bead. . . . Numbers were cut 
 down and ridden over; some were driven into tbe burning 
 bouses, out of wbicb tbey were never seen to return ; and 
 our dragoons, after sabring all tbey could come at in tbe 
 square, collected and formed, and tben cbarged down Prince's 
 Street, and again returned to tbe square, riding at tbe miser- 
 able mob in all directions; about 120 or 130 of tbe incendi- 
 aries were killed and wounded bere." In tbe meantime a 
 party of public-spirited citizens, wbo bad gradually collected 
 (amongst wbom Mr. B. Ralpb was again prominent), offered 
 tbemselves to Colonel Brereton, wbo readily accepted tbeir 
 services. Tbey first entered tbe two unburned bouses on 
 tbe western side, from wbicb tbej'- dislodged tbe plunderers 
 by main force, one of tbe gang liaving' bis neck dislocated, 
 wbile otbers were cut down by tbe soldiers outside. Strengtb- 
 ened by a few volunteers, tbe salvage party advanced to tbe 
 bouse of ex-SberifF Claxton, at tbe west end of tbe south 
 side, wbicb was being stripped by tbe rioters in tbe usual 
 manner, prior to being set on fire. As a furtber evidence of 
 tbe astonishing weakness of tbe horde that bad perpetrated 
 so much ruin, it may be stated that tbe band found wrecking 
 tbis bouse numbered only sixteen persons, of wbom five were 
 women and young boys. After a smart conflict, during wbicb 
 Mr. Henry Smith, solicitor, received two stabs, wbile Mr. 
 Claxton's negro servant threw one of the thieves clean out 
 of an upstairs window, the villanous crew were driven off, 
 and the fires they had kindled in three rooms extinguished. 
 With tbe pertinacity they had disjjlayod throughout, bow- 
 over, the rioters, though repeatedly charged l)y the dragoons, 
 retreated into tbe little courts railed off in front of tbe houses; 
 and about half past six o'clock al)out fifty ruftians actually 
 attempted to renew tbeir work ; but the armed force, slender
 
 1831.] THE RIOTS: ATTITUDE OF THE ALDERMEN. 171 
 
 as it was (21 men), prevented further acts of violence. Major 
 Mackworth, moreover, had already galloped oft' to Keynsham, 
 bearing Colonel Brereton's order for the return of the 14tli 
 Hussars, and these troops were joined in trotting back by 
 about fourteen of the Bedminster Yeomani'y — whose " dis- 
 cretion " throughout the crisis excited some uncomplimentary 
 criticism. [It was stated in a newspaper, that they had been 
 for some time shut up in the riding-house in Portwall Lane, 
 to keep them out of harm's way.] 
 
 Before the hussars reached Bristol, effectual help had 
 arrived from another quarter. Major Beckwith, commanding 
 a portion of the same regiment stationed at Gloucester, had 
 hurried from that city on receiving a demand for assistance, 
 and reached the Council House about seven o^clock, an hour 
 and a half in advance of his troops. He was received by 
 the mayor, three or four aldermen, and the town clerk; and 
 his description of the civic authorities, afterwards given on 
 oath, is deserving of record. They appeared, he said, be- 
 wildered and stupified with terror, the mayor being the 
 most collected of the party. Having requested that one or 
 two magistrates would accompany him on horseback, they 
 individually and positively refused to do so. " One of them 
 stated it would make him unpopular ; another, that it would 
 cause his shipping to be destroyed ; another, his property. 
 They also informed me that none of them knew how to ride 
 on horseback, except one gentleman, and they pointed to 
 the tall alderman [A.] Hilhouse. Mr. Hilhouse said he had 
 not been on horseback for eighteen years, and he would hold 
 anybody responsible who said a second time that he could 
 ride." [Major Beckwith subsequently stated that he had 
 mistaken the identity of the alderman who used these ex- 
 pressions. A contemporary writer, in defending the Corpora- 
 tion, alleged that at ordinary times most of the aldei'men 
 could be seen riding into the city every morning.] The 
 major having demanded written authority sanctioning any 
 steps he might take, the required document was signed by 
 the mayor. He then went to Queen Square to have an 
 interview with Colonel Brereton, and, expressing his astonish- 
 ment at the scene before him, he asked what had become of 
 the l-lth Hussars. Colonel Brereton said that they had been 
 sent away, but were about to return ; that the magistrates 
 would not authorise him to use force ; that he had too few 
 men to put down the tumult ; and that he should go to his 
 lodgings to dress, Avhich he incontinently did. Major Beck- 
 with had a further conversation with him pending the arrival
 
 172 THE ANNALS OF BKISTOL. [1831. 
 
 of the squadron from Gloucester; and it may be presumed 
 from tlie major's subsequent acts tliat be resolved, in spite of 
 bis inferior rank, to take bis own measures for suppressing 
 tbe riot, regardless of tbe opinion of bis superior officer. 
 Colonel Brereton calmly submitted to tbis military oifence, 
 contenting bimself witb declaring tliat Major Beckwitb must 
 take tbe wbole responsibility. Just as tbe troops from 
 Gloucester readied tbe city, a report was received tbat tbe 
 cellars of the bishop's palace were being again pillaged; but 
 the charges of the fresh troops, which were made wherever 
 tbe rabble collected, and in which Colonel Brereton again 
 took part, brought tbe atrocious disorders to an end in less 
 than two hours. 
 
 Unhappily order was not restored without much bloodshed. 
 Major Mackworth stated that he saw " at least 250 rioters 
 killed or wounded " in the concluding charges. And, as is 
 usual in collisions of this kind, several innocent pedestrians, 
 unexpectedly encountering the troops, were grievously in- 
 jured. The officers of the public hospitals recorded a total 
 of twelve deaths arising from tbe riots — four from shots or 
 sword cuts, six from burns, and two from excessive drinking. 
 The wounded under treatment numbered 96, of whom 59 were 
 injured by tbe troops, and 37 from various other causes. It 
 was known, however, that these figures far from represented 
 the aggregate casualties, either fatal or otherwise. Some of 
 the mortally injured were not taken to the hospitals, and 
 some bodies, it was suspected, were secretly thrown into the 
 Avon. Probably at least a dozen rioters were burnt to ashes 
 in tbe destroyed houses. Tbe relics of five or six others 
 were dug out of the ruins. Tbey were not corpses, said Mr. 
 Kingsley, but " corpse fragments," and he added, " there 
 was one charred fragment, with a scrap of old red petticoat 
 adbering to it, which I never forgot." (One man Avas dis- 
 interred alive, but bad an arm entirely burned off.) A groat 
 number injured in the charges of the troops, again, were 
 concealed by their friends, through fear of recognition if 
 they were removed to the infirmary. Tbero is every reason 
 to believe, liowever, that Mr. Kagles' assertion, that five 
 hundred of the rioters paid for their crimes with their lives 
 is a ridiculous exaggeration. In addition to the hussars 
 from Keynsbam, some troops of the North Sonun'set Yeo- 
 manry from Frome, AVincanton, and otli(U' places soon after 
 arrived, and the magistrates, reassembled at tbe Council 
 House, resolved on calling out the jposso coviitoins, and 
 appointed a number of deputy sheriffs, amongst them Mr.
 
 1831.] THE RIOTS: RESTORATION OP ORDER. 173 
 
 Herapath, whose proffei'ed assistance of the members of the 
 Political Union was at last welcomed. By these measures 
 upwards of 4,000 citizens were soon embodied, wearing a strip 
 of white calico round the right arm as a distinguishing badge. 
 In a few hours the streets were deserted except by the 
 guardians of the peace, while the ringleaders of disorder, 
 already dreading discovery, hid themselves in obscure dens 
 — one of the Avorst of the ruffians, however, having the 
 audacity to assume the badge of a constable, which he was 
 wearing when arrested. 
 
 The restoration of order had not come a moment too soon. 
 The news of the devastation had spread far and wide, and 
 all the evil characters of the western counties were flocking 
 to the city to share in its plunder. The lower labouring 
 class in the suburbs had already become demoralised. On 
 the night of Sunday, when the city was illuminated by the 
 gigantic fires in Queen Square (which were seen for forty 
 miles around), gangs of low ruffians attacked and entered the 
 public houses in almost every part of the town, demanding 
 unlimited supplies of liquor with horrible menaces, recklessly 
 breaking open barrels and wasting more than they consumed. 
 To say nothing of many such outrages in the heart of the 
 city, Mr. Somerton stated that there was scarcely a tavern 
 from Queen Square to Easton that was not more or less 
 ravaged. " In Wine Street," he added, " the houses of 
 respectable tradesmen were visited, and money was de- 
 manded under threats of murdering the owners in case of 
 refusal ; and in some instances — such was the terror in which 
 the wretches were held — handfuls of silver coin were thrown 
 to them from the upper windows." After many of the rioters 
 had fled into the country in consequence of the charges of 
 the hussars, news was received that they were plundering 
 houses near St. Greorge's, and cavalry had to be sent there 
 before they would disperse. A despatch had been previously 
 sent to Bath for military aid; but the populace of that city 
 forthwith broke into disturbance, and did so much damage 
 at one of the hotels * that it was deemed prudent to retain 
 the troops. Again, when two or three companies of infantry 
 sent from Cardiff were about to embark in a steamer at 
 
 * The hotel in question, the White Hart, was threatened with the fate of tlie 
 Bristol Mansion House. The mob were rushing in after destroying the windows. 
 " They however met with a warm reception, a charge being made by tbe in- 
 mates with red hot pokers, previously prepared, which had an admirable effect 
 in causing the assailing party to beat a precipitate retreat." — jilainwaring's 
 " Annals of Bath," p. 375.
 
 174 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1831. 
 
 Newport, a mob in sympatliy with the Bristol rioters 
 attempted to cut the boat adrift, and even threatened a 
 regular attack on the troops. These soldiers (for whom no 
 accommodation had been provided in Bristol,* and who took 
 shelter in the Gruildhall and the White Lion dining-room) 
 had to be sent back to Wales two or three days latei', o^ving 
 to an apprehension of riots at Merthyr Tj^dvil, w^here some 
 of the Bristol fugitives were reported to have fled. Such 
 facts suffice to show the widespread peril of the crisis, and 
 the urgent need of the vigour which was so tardily displayed. 
 Until the arrival of a large body of troops, including artillery, 
 which were promptly despatched by the military authori- 
 ties, watch and ward were kept by the special constables, the 
 parish churches being lighted up nightly for use as head- 
 quarters for each district. Even so late as the 5th November 
 it was deemed advisable to close the markets at six o'clock; 
 though, from the co-operation of all supporters of order, 
 danger had then disappeared. 
 
 With the return of security came arrangements for detect- 
 ing the ringleaders, and for recovering as much of the stolen 
 property as could be traced ; and extraordinary were the 
 results of the investigation that followed. Mr. John Mills, 
 editor of the Bristol Gazette, a man thoroughly acquainted 
 with all classes of the population, stated in his journal that the 
 great bulk of the rioters had sprung from the Irish colonies 
 located in the slums of the city; and his assertion was con- 
 firmed by those engaged as searchers. In Marsh Street, the 
 denizens of which were nearly all Irish, an almost incredible 
 quantity of stolen property was discovered, many of the 
 houses being crammed with goods. Many cai'tloads were 
 collected in Lewin's Mead ; two loads were taken out of a 
 dwelling in Host Street ; and still larger stores of booty came 
 to light in the low alleys in St. James's, the Pithay, the 
 Dings, Baptist Mills, Bedminster, and Kingswood. The 
 aggregate is said to have loaded forty wagons, and occupied 
 so much space that the parish churches were opened for its 
 reception, tho quadrangle of the Excliiingo being also full of 
 recovered property of every kind, ])ilc(l up in heaps several 
 feet high. Many stratagems for secreting their prey, or for 
 getting rid of it when discovery became threatening, were 
 resorted to by tho freebooters. Some property was found 
 
 • A few flavH later the Armoury in Stapleton Tload, liivpd from the Corpo- 
 ration of tlu! Poor, waK fittod up for the nrcomniodation of tlin troo])s! ■■ont down 
 hy tlio Odvornmf'nt, and additional barnickH were temporarily formed in the 
 Wool Hall and in a warehouse in Thomas Street.
 
 1831.] THE RIOTS: RECOVERY OF THE PLUNDER. 175 
 
 buried in back yards, laid upon roofs, and lodged in water 
 cisterns and pigsties. In other houses, the constables found 
 fragments of valuable furniture burning in the grates, while 
 occasionally the thieves divested themselves of their ill- 
 gotten booty by throwing it into the Float or the Avon. 
 
 One recovery will long be memorable, the article saved — 
 a massive sixteenth century silver salver — forming an inter- 
 esting item in the collection of civic plate. The salver, 
 accidentally forgotten when the rest of the plate was removed 
 from the Mansion House, was purloined by a rioter named 
 Ives, who cut it into no less than 169 pieces. Supposing 
 its identification would thus be impossible, Ives offered a 
 portion of it for sale to Mr. Williams, a silversmith, who, 
 suspecting a robbery, asked to see the remainder before 
 making a purchase. Next day, when Ives brought the rest 
 of his spoil, he was captured, and was soon after sentenced 
 to fourteen years' transportation. The whole of the salver 
 was recovered save two minute frag*ments, and by Mr. 
 Williams's ingenuity it was so successfully riveted together 
 that its original beauty remains intact, while it has acquired 
 an additional historic value.* Of the valuable cathedral 
 library about eleven hundred volumes were rescued from 
 marine stores, old clothes shops, etc., but only two or three 
 works were recovered entire. The discoveries of stolen 
 goods led to the capture of several more of the leading 
 rioters, some of whom were caught whilst carousing on the 
 liquors they had carried off. One Irishman, when appre- 
 hended, was wearing three shirts, three jackets, and three 
 pairs of trousers, while an Irishwoman was indebted for the 
 ''interesting condition" in which she posed, to two silk waist- 
 coats and a pair of blankets wrapped around her waist. 
 About forty of the criminals who had been liberated from 
 prison were also arrested; and in a few days the gaol, having 
 undergone hasty repair, contained nearly 240 inmates com- 
 promised in the tumults. 
 
 In the then existing state of the city political party spirit 
 might well have been hushed. On the 1st December, how- 
 ever, a meeting took place of local anti-Reformers, Alderman 
 Daniel presiding, when an address to the king was adopted, 
 in which, according to the London Times, it was argued that 
 anarchists, atheists, robbers, and incendiaries were the only 
 allies of Lord Grey's Ministry. Shortly afterwards, a so- 
 
 * Ives returned to Bristol after undergoing his sentence, and had the effron- 
 tery to call at the Council House and ask permission to see the restored salver.
 
 176 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. [1831. 
 
 called history of tlie riots was published, professedly from 
 the pen of " a citizen," but really compiled by the Eev. John 
 Eagles, then living- in a secluded village in Somei-set, who 
 reproduced the most extravagant rumours and gossip of the 
 time. Ig-norinsr the oblio-ations of his sacred calling, the 
 author boldly avowed that his object was to excite a belief 
 that 'Hhe perpetrators of the [Reform] Bill" — in other 
 words the Ministry — " were in connection with the perpe- 
 trators of the plot," which "had been long in preparation, 
 and had been carried out by hirelings from Birmingham." 
 The reverend censor was of course unable to produce a vestige 
 of trustworthy evidence in support of his assertions. So far 
 from the mob being led by hired desperadoes prepared for 
 slaughter and destruction, it does not appear that a single 
 rioter was possessed of a lethal weapon until he stole one 
 during his search for plunder ; and the idle tales reproduced 
 in the book about incendiary powders, cakes, pastes, liquids, 
 and so forth, found no support in the testimony of the 
 witnesses at the trials, excepting that one fire-raiser was 
 believed to have had a pocket bottle of spirits of turpentine. 
 [It is only fair to add, that in his later years, Mr. Eagles, 
 seemingly ashamed of the work, endeavoured to escape from 
 the stigma which attached to its authorship.] 
 
 To the great indignation of the citizens, the Corporation 
 proposed that the rioters should be tried before Sir Charles 
 Wetherell ; but the Government resolved on issuing a special 
 commission directed to Lord Chief Justice Tindal, Mr. Justice 
 Taunton, Mr. Justice Bosanquet, and the Duke of Beaufort 
 (lord high steward of the city), ordering them to proceed 
 with their task on the 2nd January, 1832. The recorder was 
 indignant at being excluded from the commission, and had 
 the courage to demand, " as a matter of right," that his name 
 and that of his brother aldermen should be added to the list. 
 His request was rejected by the Government, as " simply a 
 claim by the Corporation to sit as judges on their own cause," 
 and Sir Chiirles vented his rage at the rebuff by a charac- 
 teristic outburst in the Uouse of Commons. Due preparations 
 were made for receiving the judges with a solemnity worthy 
 of the occasion. The whole of the ratepayers were again 
 sworn in as constal)les, a body of policemen Avas formed for 
 the special })rotection of the judges, and detachuionts of 
 troops were posted at various poiiits in case of emergency; 
 though, as may be supposed, there was no indication of dis- 
 respect or ill-feeling. The trials occupied twelve days, 
 during which 102 ])risoncrs were brought up. Uf these 81
 
 1831.] CONVICTION AND EXECUTION OF RIOTEKS. 177 
 
 were convicted and 21 acquitted. In addition to these cases, 
 12 indictments were rejected by the grand jury, and on 13 
 others no evidence was offered. Of the criminals convicted, 
 
 5 were left for execution ; sentence of death was recorded 
 against 26, but it was commuted to transportation for life ; 
 one was sentenced to transportation for fourteen years, and 
 
 6 for seven years ; while the remaining 43 suffered various 
 terms of imprisonment with hard labour, [Four of the 
 aldermen had the courage to take their seats on the judicial 
 bench whilst the Lord Chief Justice passed sentence on the 
 criminals. Their intrusion appears to have been looked 
 upon as a notable manifestation of bad taste.] Richard 
 Vines, one of the five capitally convicted, received a reprieve, 
 owing to his semi-idiocy. On behalf of the others — Chris- 
 topher Davis, for destroying the gaol; William Clarke, for 
 destroying the gaol and Bridewell ; and Thomas Gregory 
 and Joseph Kayes, for destroying private houses — a petition 
 for a commutation of the punishment was addressed to the 
 Crown by about 10,000 citizens, including many of the 
 highest respectability. Especial exertions were made on 
 behalf of Davis, a man who had amassed a small competence 
 in his former business as a carrier, but was addicted to 
 violent language when excited by liquor. It was pleaded 
 that he had been guilty of no act of violence, his crime con- 
 sisting in cheering on the rabble by waving his hat on an 
 umbrella, in cursing the bishops and the Corporation, and 
 in expressing hopes of their downfall. He had, however, 
 boasted that he had drunk some of the wine stolen from the 
 Mansion House. Owing to the detestable jurisprudence of 
 the age, Davis's counsel was not allowed to address the 
 jury, and the culprit had not the ability to plead for himself. 
 The Government resolved that the law must take its course, 
 and the convicts were executed at midday on the 27th 
 January, in front of the gaol, in the presence of a vast con- 
 course of spectators. Besides the prisoners tried in Bristol, 
 six men were convicted at Gloucester, of attacking" and 
 attempting to burn a public house and other premises near 
 Lawford's Gate prison. Sentence of death was recorded 
 against them, but it was commuted to transportation. 
 
 In the meantime inquiries had taken place by order of the 
 Commander-in-chief into the conduct of the officers who had 
 held the command of the troops during the tumults. The 
 court-martial in the case of Lieut. -Colonel Breroton was 
 o-pened on the 9th January, 1832, when a series of eleven 
 charges was formulated against him by General Sir Charles 
 
 N
 
 178 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1831. 
 
 Dalbiac, "wlio acted as prosecutor, and wlio described them 
 as " bearing on tlieir face every character of culpability 
 unprecedented in the case of a British officer.'^ The pro- 
 ceedings were abruptly brought to a close, after four sittings, 
 by the suicide of the unhappy defendant, whose mind gave 
 way under the weight of his misfortunes. Colonel Brereton, 
 who had been major of a West India regiment, took up his 
 residence in Clifton some years before the riots, on being 
 appointed Inspecting Field Officer of this recruiting district.- 
 He resided at the time of his death at Redfield house, St. 
 George's, and is stated to have been highly esteemed by his 
 friends and acquaintances. The trial of Captain ]^arrington, 
 who commanded the troop of dragoons, followed a few days 
 later. The chief charge against him was his refusal to 
 instantly comply with the order of the mayor, under circum- 
 stances already narrated — a refusal which unquestionably 
 enabled the incendiaries to greatly extend their devastations. 
 It was proved, however, that the defendant was so ill at the 
 time as to be almost unfit for duty. The court adjudged him 
 guilty, and ordered him to be cashiered, but accompanied 
 the sentence with a recommendation to mercy, on the ground 
 that his oifences were mere errors of judgment. The Crown 
 appi'oved the sentence, but allowed Captain Warrington to 
 dispose of his commission. 
 
 The last prosecution was that directed against the mayor 
 and aldermen for their conduct during the riots. Immediately 
 after the restoration of order, the apathetic action of the 
 magistrates was condemned by the respectable classes in the 
 city, regardless of party — a meeting of merchants, etc., at 
 the Commercial Rooms, and a still larger gathering at the 
 Assembly Rooms, being practically unanimous in their expres- 
 sion of disapproval. (Mr. J. Mills, at the former meeting, 
 endeavoured to apologise for tlie aldermen, but was stopped 
 by general cries of "off, ofi'.") The parliamentary battle on 
 the Reform Bill was, however, then raging violently, and 
 party spirit throughout the country — furious to a degree 
 unknown since tlu^ liuie of the Stewarts — speodil}'- laid liold 
 of the events in Bristol. As Liberals were vehement in their 
 accusation of the local authorities, Tories began to feel thom- 
 8(dves bound to defend the cause of the magistrates, and to 
 throw tlu! guilt of the havoc on the Ministry and their scheme 
 of Reform. Jt was oven alleged by enemies of "the Bill" 
 that the object of the Government in prosecuting the justices 
 was to strike at the indejxMidenco of the municipalities. As 
 the trials were fixed to take })lace before a jury of Jierkshiro
 
 1831.] TRIAL OF THE MAYOR. 179 
 
 landowners, a large majority of whom were known to be anti- 
 Reformers, the result was never in mucli doubt. The Cor- 
 poration, however, was more than usually prodigal in making 
 preparations to defend its incriminated members, and upwards 
 of £8,800 were paid out of the civic treasury. The trial of 
 Mr. Finney began in the Court of Queen's Bench on the 2oth 
 October, 1832, and occupied seven days, the chief counsel 
 employed being the Attorney General (Sir Thomas Denman) 
 with the Solicitor General (Sir W. Home) for the jDrosecution, 
 and Sir James Scarlett (afterwards Lord Abinger) for the 
 defence. The summing up of the judge (Mr. Justice Little- 
 dale, in the absence of Lord Tenterden, who was seized with 
 fatal illness during the trial) was criticised by the Liberal 
 press as being rather a speech for the defendant than an 
 impartial comment on the facts ; but it was highly lauded by 
 the organs of the Opposition, and was doubtless satisfactory 
 to the jury. They not merely acquitted the defendant, but 
 declared their opinion that cii-cumstanced as he was, " un- 
 supported by any adequate civil or military force, and 
 deserted by those from whom he might reasonably have 
 expected assistance," the mayor " discharged his duty with 
 zeal and personal courage." The Government thereupon 
 withdrew the indictments against the aldermen. Whatever 
 might be the opinion of the Berkshire gentry, however, the 
 ratepayers of Bristol seem to have held strong views as to 
 the conduct of the authorities. Shortly after the riots, at 
 parochial meetings held for the purpose, it was declared that 
 the Corporation had forfeited the confidence of the citizens. 
 A later generation, exempt from the party spirit of those 
 agitated times, can have little difficulty in forming a sound 
 opinion on the subject. 
 
 Immediately after the opening of Parliament, in December, 
 1831, Mr. Protheroe gave notice of his intention to introduce 
 a Bill for altering and amending the charter of the city. 
 The Reform question, however, then exclusively absorbed the 
 attention both of the House of Commons and the country, 
 and it is not improbable that the member for Bristol received 
 a hint that the work of reforming the English corporations 
 was under the consideration of the Government. His scheme 
 was at all events dropped. In the meantime the Corporation, 
 calmly ignoring its unpopularity, promoted a Bill by which 
 it was proposed to establish a police force on the system 
 introduced a year or two previously in London. The chief 
 part of the cost was to be borne by the ratepayers, while tlie 
 Common Council -^vas practically to have the control of the
 
 180 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1831. 
 
 force. Tliis project being scouted by the public, the authori- 
 ties proposed that commissioners should be elected by the 
 citizens for the management of the constabulary, and that 
 a stipendiary magistrate should be appointed for the city; 
 towards which purposes they undertook to contribute £1,500 
 a year providing the remainder were raised by a county rate. 
 The matter was earnestly discussed at meetings of each 
 parish, and delegates were appointed by those gatherings to 
 watch the proceedings of the Common Council in the interest 
 of the ratepayers, the renewed attempt to establish a county 
 rate — which by law would have been assessed by the aldermen 
 — being unanimously condemned as depriving- the ratepayers 
 of all control over their money, and as " opening an illimitable 
 field for future taxation," The relations of the rulers and 
 the ruled were not improved by an announcement that the 
 Coi'poration had Commenced an action against the city to 
 recover £25,000, the alleged value of the corporate property 
 destroyed during the riots, and that the imposition of a 
 county rate was contelnplated for the purpose of rebuilding 
 Bridewell. The ratepayers' delegates protested strongly 
 against this policy, urging that it ought first to be shown that 
 the civic revenue was insufficient to bear the proposed charge ; 
 but the Corporation haughtily denied the alleged liability, 
 and refused to permit the delegates to look into the civic 
 accounts. In answer to the demand for an abandonment of 
 the projected County rate, the authorities availed themselves 
 of a threadbare subtlety. The citizens knew that the magis- 
 terial bench was filled exclusively by the aldermen, and that 
 these aldermen were supreme in the Council Chamber. But 
 the Corporation argued that the magistrates had no control 
 over civic affairs, and that if they thought fit to establish a 
 county rate, the Council had no power to restrain them. Tho 
 controversy was still pending when an ajiparently self-elected 
 committee of influential inhabitants, nearly all of whom were 
 closely related to members of the Council, announced that 
 they had been allowed to examine the civic account books, 
 and to publish a summary of rocoi])ts and expenditure. From 
 this docunu'nt it a])])cared that the average ordinary outlay 
 for tho seven previous years had been £18,;i2S), against an 
 avernge inccjme of only £15,474, leaving a deficit of nearly 
 £3,000 per annum. The ])ul)lication of this statement merely 
 incrensod ])ul)lic dislrnst, the rat(^]inyers professing their 
 iual)ility iu understand how the Corporation could guarantee 
 a yearly contribution of £1,500 towards the cost of tho 
 proposed police, seeing that tho civic income was already
 
 1831.] COMPENSATION CLAIMS FOR DAMAGES. 181 
 
 unable to provide for ordinary expenditure. After further 
 abortive negotiations, the authorities were threatened with 
 ** universal passive resistance" against the collection of the 
 contemplated rate, and the opposition of the inhabitants 
 became so formidable that the Bill was abandoned. Another 
 Police Bill had been framed to carry out the views of the 
 ratepayers. But the King's Speech at the opening of the 
 session, after referring with regret to " the scenes of violence 
 and outrage " that had occurred in this city, intimated the 
 wish of the Ministry to improve the municipal police of the 
 kingdom generally, with a view to prevent the recurrence of 
 such commotions, and the local project was therefore with- 
 drawn. 
 
 One important legislative scheme affecting the city became 
 law, however, during that stormy session, namely, the Bill to 
 provide for the losses occasioned by the riots — afterwards 
 generally known as the Compensation Act, As originally 
 drawn under the direction of the Common Council, it con- 
 tained several clauses that were deemed objectionable by the 
 ratepayers — a renewed attempt to insinuate powers for a 
 county rate being especially unpopular. But through the 
 exertions of the parochial delegates referred to in the pre- 
 ceding paragraph, the offensive proposals were removed, and 
 the scheme, as it eventually passed, met with genei^al approval, 
 and worked to the satisfaction of all parties. Under its pro- 
 visions a board of twelve commissioners, elected by the rate- 
 payers, was empowered to make private arrangements with 
 persons entitled to damages, thus avoiding a great amount 
 of costly litigation. When the commissioners began their 
 labours, no fewer than 121 actions at law had been instituted 
 against the city, the aggregate amount of compensation de- 
 manded by the plaintiffs being nearly £150,000. Negotiations 
 were forthwith opened with the claimants, and large re- 
 ductions were soon effected. The Corporation, which had 
 first estimated its loss at £25,000, and afterwards at about 
 half the amount, consented to accept £5,000. For the 
 destroyed Custom House and Excise Office the Goveimment 
 had put in a claim for £10,500, but ultimately relinquished its 
 right to compensation. The private suitors, with a single 
 exception, came to terms with the commissioners, the total 
 sum paid in liquidation of their claims being £42,783. The 
 exception was Dr. Gray, the bishop of the diocese. His lord- 
 ship accepted an offer of £2,040 for the loss of his furniture, 
 but was unyielding in the prosecution of his claim for the 
 destroyed palace, the value of which was estimated by his
 
 182 THE ANNALS OP BEISTOL. [1831. 
 
 agents at £10^000. The case came before a jury^ empannelled 
 at Bridgwater^ when a verdict was given for £6^000, but the 
 city had to bear the heavy costs attending the trial. The net 
 result of the commissioners' labours was to reduce the original 
 total of the compensation claims from £150,000 to £55,824. 
 A sum of £7,424 was, however, expended in legal charges, 
 and £4,960 more in obtaining the Act and carrying it into 
 operation, so that the aggregate charge was £68,208. The 
 immediate liquidation of even the reduced burden would, 
 nevertheless, have been almost impracticable, seeing that it 
 would have necessitated the exaction of a tax equal to nearly 
 ten shillings in the pound on the rateable value of the 
 " ancient city." On an appeal made by the commissioners, 
 the Government proffered a loan of about £58,000, bearing 
 interest at the rate of 2^ per cent., repayments being made 
 in yearly instalments of £10,000. To clear oft' this annual 
 amount the Corporation of the Poor levied an additional rate 
 of about 1.?. 6<1. in the pound. As will be explained hereafter, 
 the passing of the Corporations' Eeform Act in 1835, by which 
 Clifton, St, Philip's out-parish, and other populous suburbs 
 were placed under the new municipality, caused a modihca- 
 tion of the above arrangement. The commissioners, whose 
 energy and skill effected so sensible a relief to the city, had 
 before that time concluded their labours, their final report 
 bearing date the 11th January, 1835, Their names were : 
 James Wood (for All Saints' Ward) ; Richard Jones (St. 
 Stephen's) ; Robert Suple (Trinity); William Herapath (St. 
 James's) ; William Watson (St, Ewen's) ; Thomas Carlisle 
 (St. Maryleport) ; William Evans (Castle Precincts); George 
 Jones (St. Michael's) ; Benjamin Ogden (St. Nicholas') ; John 
 Kerle Haberfield (Redclift) ; Edward Kidd (Temple) ;. and 
 Thomas Sanders (St, Thomas's), The committee of parochial 
 delegates, who had so largely contributed to the economy and 
 eflRciency of the system adopted, dissolved in September, 
 1835. Their expenses, during upwards of three years, had 
 been only about £200, 
 
 The following were the heaviest claims made against the 
 city — those mentioned above excepted. The amounts actually 
 paid are ap])ended in parentheses: — 
 
 r. JI. Ashwoitli, warelionse, etc., King Street, £1,000 [£'27r>); Fiilko T. 
 Barnard, furniture, etc., .S, Queen Sfjnare, £2,()()() (£722) ; JesHc Barrett, Louse 
 an'l furniture, 57, (^ucen H(iuar(:', £l,l!)0 (£8;j.')) ; lienjaiiiin liicldey, furniture 
 and stock, fj 1, Queen Sciuare and Trincc's Ktroot, £:5,r)00 (£2,012) ; CaniiiridKO 
 & WilliuniH, warehouse, etc., Avenue, 1' 1,000 (£.10i)) ; J. B. & K. AV. Clift, 
 wareliouse, etc., Kin^ Street, £1,2'I0 (t^H;")); Cooke & Turner, stock, beliind 
 51, Queen Square, £1,000 (£327) ; Thomas Crocker, furniture, 52, Queen
 
 [1831. COMPENSATIONS. THE MANSION HOUSE. 183 
 
 Square, £1,100 (£52) ; Richard T. Coombe, houses, 6 and 7, Queen Square, and 
 warehouses behind, £2,900 (£2,050) ; Daniel & Haythorne, house, 51, Queen 
 Square, lofts, etc., £1,500 (£1350) ; Fryer, Gosse & Pack, oil in warehouses. 
 Prince's Street, £1,000 (£79^) ; Joseph S. Fry & Co., cocoa in warehouse. 
 Prince's Street, £6,900 (£2,400) ; William Gibbous, houses, 54, Queen Square, 
 4, Prince's Street, and warehouses, £4,000 (£1,752); Martha Harford, house. 
 Excise Avenue, and furniture £1,600 (£908) ; William Humphries, furniture in 
 gaol, £1,.300 (£900); James Johnson, warehouses. King Street, etc., £1,500 
 (£963) ; Maria Jones, house, 50, Queen Square, £1,600 (£930) ; Richard 
 Lambert, two houses, 45, Queen Square, £1.150 (£1,005) ; Langley & 
 Arding, share in 43, 44, 52, Queen Square, and 9, Prince's Street, £1,700 
 (£660) ; Joseph Lax, spirits, etc., in warehouses, King Street, etc., £3,000 
 (£387) ; Philip John Miles, house and warehouse, 61, QuQen Square, wine, etc., 
 £3,500 (£1,312); Mogg & Bartlett, wine, etc., in warehouse. Avenue, £1,000 
 (£493) ; John Morgan, house and warehouse, 3, Queen Square, £1,690 (£1,000) ; 
 Charles Pinney, china, wine, etc.. Mansion House, £2,000 (£714) ; James lioom, 
 furniture and books, 61, Queen Square, £3,000 (£1,172) ; Henry Rumley, share 
 of house and furniture, 46, Queen Square, £1,779 (£605) ; Joseph Richardson, 
 furniture, 45, Queen Square, £2,000 (£381) ; Henry B. Smith, houses and 
 furniture, 59 and 60, Queen Square, £4,649 (£2,938) ; William C. Stephens, 
 furniture, 53, Queen Square, £1,600 (£309) ; Thomas Sheppard, furniture, 5, 
 Queen Square, £1,100 (£712) ; William Strong, furniture, 63, Queen Square, 
 £2,000 (£336) ; Robert Thomas, shares in 43, 44, 52, Queen Square, and 9, 
 Prince's Street, £1,700 (£285) ; M. M. J. & E. Vigor, furniture, 6, Queen 
 Square, £1,000 (£450) ; Thomas Webb & Co., wines, spirits, etc., 4, Queen 
 Square, £2,000 (£652) ; George Worrall, house, 5, Queen Square, £2,000 
 (£1,016) ; John Tilladam, house, 4, Queen Square, £1,000 (abated by plaintiff's 
 death) ; Samuel Webb, houses, 47 and 48, Queen Square £1,800 (abated by 
 plaintiff's death). The report to which these statistics are appended states that 
 the law prevented claimants from receiving any compensation for articles 
 stolen, when they were carried off and destroyed elsewhere, though these reduc- 
 tions pressed with great hardship on many sufferers. In other cases, abatements 
 were caused by the remission of excise duty on spirits, etc., and it is added : 
 "In justice to the plaintiffs generally, tlie commissioners expressly state that 
 blame is not imputable to them for the discrepancy between the sums claimel 
 and those accepted." 
 
 To the great indignation of many citizens, the Common 
 Council resolved, soon after the riots, upon the establishment 
 of a new Mansion House, for keeping up the convivialities 
 and entertainments previously in vogue. Notwithstanding 
 the financial distress of the city, and the recently avowed em- 
 barrassment of the civic treasury, the house in Great George 
 Street already referred to [see page 134], was fitted up and 
 furnished at a heavy cost. [After the reconstruction of the 
 corporate body under the Municipal Reform Act of 1835, the 
 new Mansion House was closed, and the furniture and stock 
 of wine were sold by auction, producing £2,232.] Some 
 attempts at retrenchment were, however, made. At a meet- 
 ing of the Common Council, in December, 1831, the customary 
 motion to present a butt or pipe of wine to the lord high 
 steward, and another to the members for the city, was 
 negatived, but Sir Charles Wethorell was voted his annual 
 hogshead. In June, 1833, the salary of the mayor was re- 
 duced from £2,000 to £1,604, his worship being recommended
 
 184 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1832. 
 
 to curtail the number of his banquets. In 1835, however, a 
 vote of £350, in addition to the usual sum of £400, was 
 passed to Mr. J. N. Franklyn, who had served the office of 
 sheriff a second time. The extra allowance granted to Mr. 
 T. Hassall in 1827, on the same ground, was only £125. 
 Amongst the very numerous items of civic expenditure caused 
 by the riots may be noticed the following : Sundry expenses 
 to April 11, 1832, £1,188, 8.s'. 11(/. ; Tolzey, keeper, for enter- 
 taining magistrates during the disturbances, £300 ; providing 
 accommodation for troops at Armoury, wool hall, warehouse 
 in Thomas Street, and pi'emises [for an hospital] in Great 
 Gardens, rent, gas, etc., £2,293. [The troops remained in 
 these temporary barracks until about September, 1833. The 
 Government refunded £326 8s. lid. of the above amount.] 
 Special constables, £437 lbs.; city solicitor's expenses, £734; 
 subscriptions on behalf of sufferers, whose losses were £30 
 or under, £500; expenses in connection with the trial of the 
 mayor, £3,871 15s. lOd. ; repairing pictures, £59 12s.; Mr. 
 Williams, for repairing the silver salver, £55 ; law proceed- 
 ings against inhabitants for compensation, £581. 
 
 On December 31, 1831, the old mill on the left bank of the 
 Avon, nearly opposite to the Hotwell House, was destroyed 
 by fire. The building was used in 1761 as a lead smelting- 
 house, but was converted at a later date into a cotton mill, 
 and afterwards to other purposes. 
 
 Upon the passing of the Reform Bill, in June, 1832, its local 
 supporters resolved upon a ''grand demonstration" to cele- 
 brate their triumph. Accordingly, on the 18th June, many 
 thousands of tradesmen and working-men belonging to tlio 
 city, reinforced by large contingents from St. George's, 
 Bitton, and other districts, assembled at Lawford's Gate, and 
 marched in procession through the principal streets, tlie 
 artisans of each trade displaying models, emblems, etc., illus- 
 trative of their respective crafts, while music and banners 
 lent further animation to the display. The date had pro- 
 bably been fixed n]')on on account of its being the anniversary 
 of the battle of ^\'atc'rloo — the yearly return of which was 
 then always hailed with bell ringing. The clergy of the city, 
 however, had been unanimously hostile to the Reform Bill; 
 and they won a siuull victory over their ]iolitical o])])onents 
 by locking up the belfries. On the 14th August the leading 
 Iteformers ])rovided a dinner for 5,500 working-men on 
 Brandon Hill. Unfortunately for the success of this affair, 
 a rough mob assembled round the tables and seized upon
 
 1832.] EXTENSION OP THE BOROUGH. ELECTION. 185 
 
 the viands, causing great tumult and confusion. Some of 
 the fireworks prepared for the evening were also stolen or 
 destroyed. 
 
 The Reform Act effected important changes in the city and 
 its constituent body. The Loundaries of the borough were 
 largely extended, the parish of Clifton, the district of the 
 out-parishes of St. James and St. Paul, the out-parish of 
 St. Philip, and parts of the parishes of Bedminster and 
 Westbury, — embracing an aggregate population of about 
 50,000, — being added to the "ancient city." Up to this 
 time the franchise had been enjoyed exclusively by free- 
 holders and fi'eemen, whose right to vote was not impaired 
 by non-residence. Those classes retained their privilege, so 
 far as concerned persons living in, or within seven miles 
 of, the city ; and to them were joined all men rated for and 
 occupying preniises of the yearly value of £10. The im- 
 mediate effect of the extensions was less than modern readers 
 might suppose, the population of the suburban parishes being 
 then insignificant as colaxpared with the central mass. Al- 
 ready, however, there was a tendency on the part of both 
 rich and poor to remove to the outlying districts; and before 
 the Reform Act had attained its jubilee, the population of the 
 added parishes was about three times greater than that of 
 the old borough. The register of electors for 1832 contained 
 the names of 5,301 freemen, 862 freeholders, and 4,215 house- 
 holders. 
 
 The passing of the Reform Act necessarily caused a fresh 
 appeal to the constituencies, and a -general election took 
 place in December. The victory of the united Liberal party 
 at the previous contest had been followed by a re-opening of 
 the old division in reference to the slavery question. Mr. 
 Baillie at first proposed to retire into private life; but the 
 West India Whigs insisted on his candidature. The anti- 
 slavery Liberals thereupon nominated, in conjunction with 
 Mr. Edward Protheroe, junr. {the former member), Mr. John 
 Williams, an eminent barrister who soon afterwards was 
 raised to the bench, both those gentlemen being ardent advo- 
 cates of slave emancipation. The Tories found a champion 
 in Sir Richard R. Vyvyan, a Cornish baronet, who had 
 manifested his uncompromising hostility to change by moving 
 the rejection of the Reform Bill. Ultimately a coalition was 
 formed between the supporters of Vyvyan and Baillie. The 
 poll at the close stood as follows : Sir R. R. Vyvyan, 3,695 ; 
 Mr. Baillie, 3,160; Mr. Protheroe, 3,028; Mr. Williams, 
 2,739. The result was alleged to have been due to unjustifiable
 
 186 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1832. 
 
 means. The Bristol Mercury of the following week published 
 a view of a house (No. 8, King Street) at which bribes were 
 said to have been distributed wholesale to the poorer classes 
 of voters after the poll ; whereupon it was jubilantly retorted 
 in the Bristol Jottnial that, according to a decision of the 
 Court of King's Bench, the giving of money to electors after 
 they had voted did not constitute bribery. A number of 
 gentlemen who petitioned against the return undertook to 
 prove that upwards of a thousand electors were paid by the 
 committees of the successful candidates for attendance at the 
 nomination proceedings, and that more than twelve hundred 
 voters received tickets at the "bribery box" in King Street, 
 entitling them to 23s. each after polling for Vyvyan and 
 Baillie. A list was also given of twenty-six public houses at 
 which liquor was distributed gratis for some weeks previous 
 to the contest. It was further asserted that a so-called 
 charity, called the Conservative Operatives' Association, had 
 enrolled 1,200 freemen by promising them, in return for their 
 votes, relief when sick or out of work, and 71b. per head of 
 " blue beef " at Christmas, the funds being provided by 
 certain " honorary " members, whose names remained a 
 secret. No proof, however, was forthcoming that the suc- 
 cessful candidates had been privy to corruption, and the 
 return was upheld by a committee of the House of Commons. 
 Mr. Richard Hart Davis, who had refused to be nominated at 
 this election, was soon afterwards presented by his admirers 
 with a service of plate valued at £750. 
 
 Indian cholera, which made its way to this country for the 
 first time in 1831, by way of the northern coal ports, 
 gradually spread over the island, to the intense terror of the 
 people, and reached Bristol in the following summer. The 
 first case was reported to have occurred on the 11th July, in 
 Greyhound Court, near the Stone Bridge, a region then reek- 
 ing with sewage and filth, and rarely free from epidemics. 
 As already stated, the malady worked deadly havoc in the 
 overcrowded wards of St. Peter's poor-house [see p. 139]. 
 The numerous burials in the neighbouring churchyard of 
 St. Philip's appear to have driven many of the poor of the 
 locality out of tlieir senses, A delusion became jjrevalent 
 that the authorities were burying paupers alive ; and on one 
 occasion a mob broke into the burial ground, and tore up 
 some of the recently interred bodies. A simihir frantic 
 occurrence took place in Temple churchyard, where thirty- 
 one victims of the disease wore buried in a single day. Owing 
 to the crowded state of the parochial cemeteries, a piece of
 
 1832.] CHOLERA. ABUSES OF THE OLD POOR LAWS. 187 
 
 ground was inclosed near the Cattle Market, and those who 
 afterwards died at St. Peter's Hospital were removed there 
 by water, so that the interments might escape public notice. 
 The disease disappeared in October, when there had been 
 1,521 cases, and 584 deaths. Clifton was almost wholly 
 deserted by the wealthier class of residents during the 
 epidemic. To prevent the influx of strangers, St. James's 
 fair was forbidden to be held this year by an Order in 
 Council. The precaution did not prevent the disease from 
 penetrating into the rural districts, in some of which it was 
 comparatively more fatal than in Bristol. At the village of 
 Paulton, for instance, there were no less than 229 cases in 
 sixteen days, and forty deaths in eight days. 
 
 The Corporation resolved during the autumn upon estab- 
 lishing a body of twelve day constables or policemen, after 
 the London model. The wages of the men were fixed at 15s. 
 weekly per head, so that the total annual charge, irrespective 
 of clothing, amounted to the modest sum of £468. The 
 night watching continued in the hands of the inefficient 
 old ^' Charleys." 
 
 Owing to the great abuses existing in the administration 
 of the poor rates, the Government appointed a Commission 
 to inquire into the subject, and sub-commissioners were 
 directed to make local investigations in various districts. 
 One of those gentlemen, the Rev. H. Bishop, visited Glou- 
 cestershire and Bristol, and a few extracts may be given 
 from his report, written on the 22nd September 1832. With 
 respect to Kingswood, it was stated that the miners seldom 
 earned 12s. a week. Boys of ten or eleven years earned 4d. 
 to 6d. a day. " During the summer months women may earn 
 above ground 10^/. a day; girls from Qd. to 8d." Agricul- 
 tural wages fluctuated between 8s. and 12,s'. a week. In 
 Clifton the administration of poor relief was described as pro- 
 fuse and corrupt. "A man who gains 10s. or even 20s. a 
 week will come, after a few days' indisposition, for relief, and 
 obtains it. , . . The overseers and select vestrymen are very 
 frequently tradesmen enjoying the custom of those who have 
 been lavishly assisted. . . . Those paupers who are in the 
 employment of the parish are paid at a public house, and are 
 expected to promote the ' good of the house ' by expending 
 in liquor a portion of their parish earnings. . . . Above the 
 age of fifty the paupers claim permanent relief, which is 
 regarded as a sort of pension, so certain that it may be sold 
 or mortgaged. It is no uncommon thing for apprentices to 
 be receiving relief for three or four children." The writer
 
 188 THE ANNALS OP BEISTOL. [1833. 
 
 goes on to detail particular instances of indiscriminate and 
 scandalous waste in the administration of parochial and 
 charitable funds. Abuses also extensively prevailed in Bed- 
 minster. The parish contained 14,000 persons, but the rates 
 were made to fall on only 831 householders, and many of 
 these escaped ; "the whole weight of local taxation is thrown 
 upon about 330 individuals." Mr. Bishop mentions inciden- 
 tally that Bristol was then taxed £1,200 a year for paying 
 the passage money of Irish vagrants sent back to their own 
 country, and this charge, he added, did not nearly represent 
 the whole expense which those paupers entailed upon the 
 citizens. 
 
 One of the earliest ameliorative measures proposed by 
 Lord Grey's Ministry to the reformed House of Commons was 
 a Bill for the abolition of slavery in the English colonies. 
 Mr. Stanley (afterwards Earl of Derby) explained the scheme 
 on the 14th May, 1833, its chief features being that the slaves 
 should undergo a period of apprenticeship, and that the 
 planters should be granted a loan of £15,000,000 to provide 
 against the loss they might sustain at the outset. To the 
 latter proposal the slave-holding interest in Bristol, as else- 
 where, refused to listen ; and as the result of the pressure 
 brought to bear on the Ministry, the loan Avas converted into 
 a gift, and was ultimately raised to £20,000,000. The Act 
 came into force in the colonies on the 1st August, 1834. 
 According to a parliamentary return issued in 1838, the 
 principal firms &,nd persons in this district owning slaves 
 received compensation as follows-: Messrs. Thos. & John 
 Daniel, £55,178; Messrs. H. J. D. E. Baillie & G. H. Ames, 
 £23,024; Sir C. Codrington, Bart., £29,867 ; Mr. James E. 
 Baillie, £12,968 ; Mr. Philip John Miles, £9,076; Mr. James 
 Cunningham, £12,357 ; Mr. Richard Bright, £8,092 ; Mr. 
 Robert Bright, £3,820 ; Messrs. Charles Pinncy & E. Case, 
 £3,572. The list does not include payments under £3,000. 
 The Bristol Times of April 8, 1854, stated that Messrs. 
 Daniel & Sons, who had a house in London as well as in 
 liristol, "obtained not nnich less than a quarter of a million " 
 in compensation for their slaves. 
 
 By this time the country had recovered from the effects of 
 the great panic of 1825-6, while the absurd alarm created 
 amongst the moneyed classes by the concession of the fran- 
 cliiso to the trading community had largely passed away. 
 With the return of conlidcnce came a revival of the railway 
 projects which had come to grief seven years before. About 
 the close of 1832, when the shares of the Liverpool and
 
 1833.] THE GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY PROJECTED. 189 
 
 Mancliester railway were selling at double, and those of the 
 Stockton and Darlington line at ti'eble, their original cost, 
 a few public-spirited Bristolians resolved upon making a 
 renewed effort for the construction of a railway to London. 
 There is a tradition that the Great Western Company was 
 projected in a small office in Temple Backs. However that 
 may be, it is certain that Messrs. George Jones, John Harford, 
 T. R. Guppy, and William Tothill were the most energetic 
 in promoting the undertaking. Animated by their appeals, 
 in January, 1833, the Corporation, the Merchant Venturers' 
 Society, the Dock Company, and the Bristol and Gloucester- 
 shire railway company severally appointed three gentlemen, 
 empowering them to inquire into the best mode of procedure, 
 and furnishing them with funds for the purpose. This com- 
 mittee* directed Mr. J. K. Brunei and Mr. Townsend to 
 make a survey of the country, and in a few months elaborate 
 plans were produced by the two engineers, who estimated the 
 cost of the undertaking at the modest sum of £2,805,000. 
 On the 30th July a meeting was held in the Guildhall to 
 evoke the sympathy of the citizens. The promoters urged 
 that if the advantages of cheapness and speed which railways 
 offered should only double the existing carriage traffic the 
 line would yield a clear yearly profit of about 14 per cent. 
 Though the response of the public does not appear to have 
 been very enthusiastic, the company was soon after formed, 
 the title of " Great Western " being assumed in the following 
 September. One half of the directors were nominated by 
 London capitalists ; the other moiety were Bristolians, whose 
 names and subscriptions were as follows : Robert Bright, 
 £25,900; John Cave, £17,900; Henry Bush, £8,000; C. B. 
 Fripp, £15,500 ; George Jones, £20,000 ; Peter Maze, £23,000; 
 Fred. Ricketts, £10,000; William Tothill, £14,000; John 
 Vining, £11,500; Charles L. Walker, £6,000 ; George Gibbs, 
 £14,000 ; Thomas R. Guppy, £14,900 ; John Harford, £11,900; 
 William S. Jacques, £12,000 ; James Lean, £1,000 ; Nicholas 
 Bush, £11,900. A Bill authoi'ising the construction of two 
 sections of the line — from London (where the station was 
 originally fixed at Vauxhall and afterwards at Brompton) 
 
 * Some of the members of this committee possessed so remarkable a foresight 
 into the future of railways that it deserves to be noted as unique in that genera- 
 tion. They recommended that a quadruple line of rails be laid down, " two 
 lines for light carriages to convey jjassengers at a rapid j^ace, and two for heavier 
 vehicles carrying goods at a slower rate," the advantage of which arrangement, 
 " as a means of preventing both delays and accidents, is too obvious to be in- 
 sisted upon." — Common Council Minutes, Feb. 1833.
 
 190 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1833. 
 
 to Reading, and from Bristol to Bath — was laid before Parlia- 
 ment in 1884. Railway projects, however, were exceedingly 
 unpopular amongst tlie aristocracy and landed gentry. Lord 
 Eldon's last speech and vote in the Upper House were against 
 what he called " the dangerous invention of railways," and 
 the old Tory chief found many of kindred views amongst 
 his hearers. The country squire, again, dreaded danger to 
 his game, farmers were afraid that the smoke of the loco- 
 motives would injure the wool of their sheep, and breeders 
 of horses predicted that they would be ruined if coaches and 
 posting carriages were superseded. In addition to the rural 
 clamour against railways generally, the Great Western Bill 
 was resisted by the canal companies and turnpike trusts of 
 the district, and encountered formidable opposition from the 
 authorities of Eton College, who alleged that the line would 
 excite revolutionary ideas in the minds of the schoolboys. 
 After an obstinate struggle of fifty-seven days in committee, 
 the Bill passed the House of Commons by a small majority, 
 but it was rejected in the Lords by 47 votes against 30. 
 Public opinion, however, became rapidly converted to the 
 arguments in favour of the new mode of travelling, and the 
 company's second Bill, authorising the construction of the 
 trunk line and branches to Bradford and Trowbridge, with 
 some modifications to soothe Eton and squirearchal suscepti- 
 bilities, received the royal assent in August, 1835. A com- 
 peting scheme, which proposed a railway from Bath to 
 Basing, was rejected ; and an attempt made in the House of 
 Commons by Mr. (afterwards Sir William) Miles to prevent 
 Great Western trains from running on Sundays was defeated 
 by a large majority. The parliamentary campaign during 
 the two years cost the company c€90,000. The line, as sanc- 
 tioned by the legislature, was to join the London and Bir- 
 mingham railway near Acton, whence the trains were to run 
 to the station of the latter undertaking in Euston Square, 
 London ; but the Great Western board subsequently resolved 
 on having an independent terminus at Paddington, for which 
 powers were obtained in the session of 1837. The land fur 
 the station at Bristol was purchased of the Corporation for 
 £12,000. Operations having been vigorously prosecuted at 
 both ends of the system, tlie section from liondon to MaidiMi- 
 liead was opened in May, 1838, and that from liristol to Jiath 
 on the 3rd July following. Intermediate sections were com- 
 pleted from time to time, and finally, on the 30th January, 
 1841, the line was o])ened tlirongliout, and the coaches, which 
 had formed so striking a feature both of town and country
 
 1833.] EARLY RAILWAY TRAVELLING. 191 
 
 life, disappeared. (In October, 1837, tliere were twenty-two 
 coaches running- daily between Bristol and London, and 
 twenty-seven others passed between this city and I5ath every 
 twenty-four hours.) One coach, however, obstinately held 
 its ground in spite of- the railway, continuing to carry pas- 
 sengers from and to London and Bristol, at the rate of a 
 penny per mile, until October, 1843. Perhaps the wretched 
 accommodation aiforded on the new line to second and third 
 class passengers may have partially accounted for this sus- 
 tained opposition. For several years the only trains carrying 
 third class passengers from Bristol started at four o'clock in 
 the morning and nine o'clock at night, offering the travellers 
 — who were wholly unprotected from the weather — an alter- 
 native of miseries. What is more surprising, the second 
 class carriages, down to May, 1845, were also open to the 
 elements, both as regards roof and sides, and according to 
 a statement in a contemporary newspaper, were " dangerous 
 not only to health but to life." In the year 1844, to the 
 intense wrath of the railway interest, Parliament insisted on 
 covered carriages being provided for third class travellers at 
 the rate of a penny per mile ; but the boards revenged them- 
 selves by inventing a " horse-box " for the obnoxious caste, 
 and by reducing the speed of the cheap trains to twelve 
 miles an hour. The first of these trains on the Great Western 
 line started on the 1st November, 1844, the journey from 
 Bristol to London being timed at nine hours and a half.* 
 A history of the Great Western Railway is not within the 
 province of this work, but a few facts concerning an enter- 
 prise so closely connected with the city may not be out of 
 place. The time has long passed away since there was any 
 difference of opinion as to the deplorable error of the original 
 board in neglecting the sober-minded, practical, and economi- 
 cal engineers of the North, already deservedly famous, and 
 in preferring to them an inexperienced theorist, enamoured 
 of novelty, prone to seek for difficulties rather than to evade 
 them, and utterly indifferent as to the outlay which his reck- 
 lessness entailed upon his employers. The evil consequences 
 of his pet crotchet, the "broad gauge" system, on the com- 
 merce of Bristol will have to be noticed hereafter. For the 
 present it will suffice to show the fallaciousness of Mr. 
 
 • The commercial classes were so dissatisfied with the charges imposed on 
 the transit of goods that in 1855 a steamer, called the Pioneer, was built for the 
 purpose of trading between London and Bristol. The vessel plied regularly 
 until February, 1865, when it was wrecked off Penzance. The average passage 
 was made in sixty-eight hours, equal to ten miles an hour.
 
 192 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1833. 
 
 Brunei's estimates. The original sliare capital was fixed by 
 his advice at £2,500,000. Before the line to London was 
 completed, the directors had to ask for votes bringing- up the 
 expenditure to £6,300,000, which did not include an}^ part of 
 the outlay for the permanent station at Paddington. In 1844 
 this vast sum was increased to £8,160,000, inclusive of loans. 
 As may be suspected from the figures, the directors were 
 even more imprudent than was their subordinate. For several 
 successive years there seemed to be no limit to their aggres- 
 sive designs. In 1845 they obtained Acts for making no 
 less than 574 miles of new railways; and in November, 1847, 
 their notices of intended applications for Acts in the following 
 session are said to have numbered forty-seven. That the 
 war against rival companies — possibly quite as pugnacious — 
 was carried on for many years with unflagging pertinacity 
 is sufiiciently proved by the fact that between 1851 and 1855 
 alone the board spent an aggregate sum of £188,421 in legal 
 and parliamentary expenses. Nor was this the worst. The 
 lines constructed in the neighbourhood of Oxford, Bir- 
 mingham, Dudley, etc., in rivalry with the North- Western 
 Company, and consequently unprofitable, cost £6,600,000, 
 while the unfruitful Shropshire lines, competing with the 
 same undertaking, required an additional capital of £3,300,000. 
 In the meantime, Bristol proprietors complained that an un- 
 dertaking intended to develop the trade and industry of their 
 own city and district was recklessly squandering its resources 
 in the construction of vast works at Plymouth, Milford Haven, 
 and Birkenhead. The consequences of this policy were such 
 as might have been expected. In its early days the Great 
 Western board was able to declare a dividend at the rate of 
 10 per cent, per annum, and the shares, when only £80 were 
 paid up, were quoted in the market at 236. On the other 
 hand, the directors' report for the first six months of 1858 
 recommended that no dividend should be declared. The 
 subsequent meeting at Bristol (the last held in the city, whose 
 moiety of directors had already vanished) was of a stormy 
 character, the exasperation of the shareholders being in- 
 creased by the fact that during the previous half year, when 
 the dividend was only bs. per share, the board had carried 
 a grant of £5,000 to the secretary, Mr. Saunders, Avho had 
 previously received a similar present, llioiigh liis salary was 
 £2,500 a year. In July, 1862, the accounts showed that the 
 net profits of the previous six months liad been only £092, 
 but a reserve l)rouglit forward ])roduced a dividend of 5.s-. 
 percent. Afi'airs iirqiroved in the following years; but for
 
 1833.] KENEWED COKFLICT AGAINST TOWN-DUES. 103 
 
 tlie last half of 186G the dividend was only 10.s\ per cent. 
 The embarrassment, it transpired, arose from a floatinfj debt 
 of about £1,250,000, which the board had allowed to grow 
 np, and upon which the interest fur the first half of the year 
 had averaged £8 76". per cent, per annum. The directors 
 appealed to the Government and to the Bank of England 
 for the loan of a million to clear off pressing obligations, bub 
 the relief was refused. An appeal was then vainly made to 
 the shareholders to take up a six per cent, stock, to prevent 
 the company from being thrown into liquidation ; and as a 
 last resource, the board issued six per cent, bonds for the 
 amount of preferential interest then due. These were offered 
 in the Stock Exchange at the rate of 16*'. in the pound, the 
 shares of the company being quoted for a considerable period 
 at 40, and sometimes lower — a memorable example of the 
 results of reckless management on a substantial and once 
 prosperous concei-n. Happily the lesson was not wasted on 
 the board, and the company have since enjoyed a career of 
 continuous prosperity. As has been already stated, the 
 original capital was under three millions; it is now [1887] 
 upwards of seventy-six millions. The line first sanctioned 
 by Parliament was 114 miles in length; the board have now 
 upwards of 2,350 miles under their control, while the em- 
 ployes, a mere handful at the outset, now number little short 
 of 30,000. 
 
 The conflict which began in 1823 between the mercantile in- 
 terest of the city and the Corporation, in reference to the heavy 
 charges imposed by the latter on the commerce of the port, 
 has been recorded in a previous page. It will be remembered 
 that after a struggle of two years, the Common Council had 
 to be content with obtaining an Act authorising it to reduce 
 the civic dues, the clause conferring a parliamentary title on 
 those imposts being struck out in the House of Commons at 
 the instance of the Chamber of Commerce. The concessions 
 made under this statute proved insufficient to bring back the 
 trade which had been blindly driven away ; and in the hope 
 of securing a larger measure of relief, Mr. Henry Bush, one 
 of the leaders of local Toryism, supported by many influential 
 firms, refused to pay the town dues, thus challenging the 
 Corporation to prove their legality in a court of law. The 
 case was heard before Lord Chief Justice Tenterden, in the 
 Court of King's Bench, in July, 1828. The judge, who had 
 a superstitious reverence for privilege and prerogative, was 
 alleged by the mercantile party to have acted throughout 
 the hearing rather as a counsel for the Corporation than as 
 

 
 194 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. [1833. 
 
 an impartial expounder of tlie law. He summed up, accord- 
 ing to the newspaper reporter, " decidedly in favour" of the 
 plaintiffs; and the jury, submitting to his influence, gave 
 the verdict he desired. But although the Common Council 
 exulted over this affirmation of a dubious title, its members 
 can scarcely have seen without misgivings the gradual and 
 continuous decline of the shipping trade of the port. The 
 value of English goods exported from Bristol, which had 
 been £315,000 in 1822, sank in 1833 to £205,000; the once 
 magnificent fleet of foreign-going ships belonging to the 
 city was reduced in number to about thirty ; whilst the ware- 
 houses, once filled with produce, offered accommodation so 
 much in excess of the demand that their formerly prosperous 
 owners could not realise one per cent, on the capital invested 
 in the buildings. The depression in fact became so severe 
 that it provoked another agitation against the port charges, 
 the Chamber of Commerce again taking the lead by forward- 
 ing memorials to the Corporation and the Dock Company, 
 pressing for a mitigation of the burdens. The dock directoi'S 
 were the first to acknowledge the reasonableness of the com- 
 plaints ; and in July, 1834, reductions were announced in the 
 dock dues on certain classes of goods. The concessions, 
 however, were regarded by the suffering interests as illusory, 
 the commodities relieved producing but a small revenue, 
 while, so far as concerned the chief branches of local 
 commerce, the dock rates still exceeded those of Liverpool 
 to the extent of about 50 per cent, on sugar, 70 per cent, 
 on tobacco, 157 per cent, on wine, 200 per cent, on foreign 
 spirits, and 1,100 per cent, on wool. The dues were still 
 more oppressive as regarded foreign goods imported coast- 
 wise ; for, whilst the Liverpool authorities contented them- 
 selves with half the rates imposed on direct foreign im])orts, 
 the Bristol board imposed the full rates. Accoi-ding to 
 another table published l)y the Chamber of Comnierce, show- 
 ing the comparative charges on all the leading articles of 
 import, the duties at Bristol were 20.s'. as compared with 
 1 Is. h(l. at Liverpool, 7.s'. 3(/. at Hull, and O.s-. 2d. at (Jlouce.stcr. 
 Tiie JJock Company, nevertheless, refused to grant any further 
 relief, urging in excuse that tlie shareholders were receiving 
 less than 2^ per cent, per annum in dividends, and held a deaf 
 ear to tlie retort tlnit the inadequate profits were the natural 
 fruit of unreasonable exactions. The pressure placed on tiie 
 Corporation had more satisfactory results. One of the last 
 important acts of tlu^ umcformed Common Council was to 
 order a large reduction in ihe town dues, which were wholly
 
 1833.] ROYAL COMMISSION ON CORPORATIONS. 195 
 
 abolished as regarded exports. Unhappily the latter con- 
 cession was not made until the export trade of the city had 
 almost disappeared, the civic receipts from this source in the 
 pi-evious year having- been only £4GG. Concurrently with 
 these remissions, the Common Council abolished the tolls on 
 fish, which were obnoxious to fishermen yet practically un- 
 productive. The mayor claimed one hundred oysters from 
 each oyster boat, and six mackerel, a pair of soles, and 
 twelve herrings from each fishing boat. The sherilfs had 
 fifty oysters from each cargo. Nearly the whole of the fish 
 collected were distributed amongst the petty officials of the 
 corporate body. 
 
 It had been understood throughout the agitation of 1831-2 
 that one of the first efforts of a reorganised House of Commons 
 would be directed to the reconstitution of the municipal 
 corporations of the country, — most of which, for more than a 
 century, had been the object of widespread complaint — 
 and the establishment of a system of local government based 
 on the opinions and interests of the urban community. With 
 a view to these ends, a royal commission was issued in the 
 summer of 1833, to inquire into the constitution and working 
 of the existing bodies. Twenty gentlemen, for the most part 
 experienced barristers, were chosen for this purpose, and in 
 order to hasten the proceedings, the corporations in England 
 and Wales were divided into nine territorial districts, in 
 which investigations took place simultaneously. The forma- 
 tion of this tribunal excited violent indignation amongst the 
 class who had monopolised authority in many towns. Protests 
 were raised against what was styled " the Radical Inquisi- 
 tion," and the Corporations of Dover, Lichfield, and a few 
 other notoriously misgoverned places, set the commissioners 
 at defiance, denying the legality of their powers, and refus- 
 ing them access to the civic archives. This coui'se was also 
 followed by the Merchant Venturers' Society of this city, and 
 by the Bristol Dock Company. In a great majority of cases, 
 however, the municipal bodies, though exceedingly ii-ritated 
 at being called upon to render an account of their proceed- 
 ings, prudently submitted to the royal request. The com- 
 missioners allotted to this district, Mr. E. J. (lambier and 
 Mr. J. E. Drinkwater, opened their court at Bristol on the 
 7th October, and continued their sittings until the 2nd 
 November. The complaints of the inhabitants against the 
 Corporation were laid before the commissioners by Messi-s. 
 Visger, Manchee, Thomas, and other prominent members of 
 the Liberal party, while the Common Council was defended
 
 196 THE ANNALS OF BKISTOL. [1833. 
 
 by the town clerk (Mr. Serjeant Ludlow), Messrs. Brice & 
 Burges, and other officials, who afforded every facility to 
 the visitors during- the progress of the inquiry. The pro- 
 ceedings were miserably reported in the local newspapers, 
 but it appears that the chief grievances adduced against the 
 corporate body were, that it was constituted on the closest 
 principles of self-election, that the members, bound together 
 by an oath of secrecy, claimed to be irresponsible in adminis- 
 tering the large public revenues entrusted to them by the 
 city charters, that they refused to produce accounts, that, as 
 was natural under such circumstances, their transactions had 
 been frequently marked with mismanagement and extrava- 
 gance, and that the declining prosperity of the port was 
 largely due to their neglectful and mischievous conduct as 
 conservators, and to their imposition of taxes on shipping 
 and goods for which they made no beneficial return. Offices 
 in the gift of the Common Council were, it was alleged, often 
 filled by decayed members of the body, or by relations and 
 connections. The legal jurisdiction of the aldermen extended 
 to life and death, but it was shown that, although the 
 residence of those functionaries in the city was compulsory 
 under the charters, only the mayor and one alderman lived 
 in Bristol, while the town clerk, with a salary of £1,000 a 
 year, was a practising barrister in London.* The result of 
 those abuses, it was asserted, had been to excite and per- 
 petuate a general distrust and contempt of the magistracy, 
 and to taint Avith suspicion the administration of justice. 
 With regard to the great charity funds vested in the Cor- 
 poration, it was complained that large sums of money were 
 distributed under the recommendation of the parish church- 
 wardens, themselves chosen by self-elected vestries, and 
 acting at parliamentary elections as canvassers and local 
 managers of the pai'ty to which most of the members of the 
 Common Council were attached. Much dissatisfaction was 
 expressed at the management of the Grammar School and of 
 Queen KHzabeth's Hospital. Finally, it was declared that the 
 establishment maintained by the Corporation, consisting of 
 upwards of forty salaried officers, was not merely ovei-grown 
 and expensive, but ineilicient ; that the civic pomp assumed 
 amidst declining prosperity was idle and iniseemly, and that 
 the confession wrung from the officials of a heavy debt offered 
 convincing evideure of ihe evil system that had ]irevailed. 
 
 • The coniniiHsioiicrs ilo not scfiii to liiivc hccii nwiuc that yorjeaul Ludlow 
 also held the office of auditor to the Duke of Beaufort.
 
 1833.] ROYAL COMMISSION ON CORPORATIONS. 197 
 
 The net result of that system was alleged to he, that the 
 Corporation was generally distrusted and unpopular, the 
 desertion of the authorities by the ratepayers at the time of 
 the riots being adduced as an unmistakable proof of the 
 feeling inspiring all classes. From the report drawn up by 
 the two commissioners, it may be inferred that they regarded 
 this indictment as substantiated. It had been shown, they 
 said, by accounts which the Corporation produced for the first 
 time in the previous year, that the civic expenditure had 
 been for a long period in excess of the receipts, the bonded 
 redeemable debt having increased from £5,140 m 1825, to 
 £54,949 in 1833. That much of the outlay was unnecessary 
 was regarded as proved by the fact that when the Corporation 
 attempted to carry their Police Bill through Parliament in 
 1832, they promised to effect such retrenchments as would 
 permit them not merely to establish a financial equilibrium, 
 but to grant £1,500 a year towards the maintenance of the 
 police. The commissioners commented severely upon the 
 transaction by which the Corporation, about half a century 
 previously, had handed over the wharfage dues — popularly 
 supposed to produce some £2,000 a year — to the Merchant 
 Venturers' Company, on a lease for 99 years, for the trivial 
 consideration of £10 per annum. The police arrangements 
 of the city were stated to be utterly insufficient even in the 
 central districts, while no protection whatever existed in the 
 southern and eastern suburbs. As to paving and lighting, 
 the Corporation denied that such matters came within their 
 province. In their concluding " general remarks," the two 
 commissioners observed that the Corporation of Bristol offered 
 a very unfavourable specimen of the results of self-election 
 and irresponsibility. Although there had been no improper 
 appropriation of public funds, the Corporation could not be 
 acquitted of mismanagement and profusion. In the face of 
 a sinking and overburdened trade, its large resources had 
 been unprofitably squandered in the maintenance of an over- 
 grown establishment and in the display of state magnificence. 
 Its ruling principle had been the desire of power, and each 
 of its applications to Parliament to extend or prop up its 
 privileges had become a topic of general discontent. So 
 intense a spirit of opposition and distrust had been aroused, 
 that it seemed doubtful whether an act of real liberality on 
 the part of the governing body would not arouse suspicion 
 and reproach. As owners and guardians of the port, the 
 conduct of the Corporation was condemned as indefensible. 
 They had suffered burdensome charges of every description
 
 198 ' THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. [1833. 
 
 to be accumulated upon trade, of which they were the last to 
 see the impolicy, and had placed out of their own control — 
 for a nominal consideration — a heavy and oppressive tax, 
 which in its beginning was at least applied to the purposes 
 of the harbour. They had procured a parliamentary title 
 for their lessees, from whom they could demand no account, 
 and had suffered the tax, imposed for public services, to be 
 absorbed in paying the debts, incui"red in other speculations, 
 of those who now claimed to be a private and irresponsible 
 company. " We are informed," added the commissioners, 
 ''that the same political party has not always held the as- 
 cendency in the Council House. We should not seek for a 
 stronger proof that the fault is inherent in the system itself." 
 [For further details the reader is referred to the Appendix 
 to the First Report of the Municipal Corporations' Commis- 
 sioners.] 
 
 The Kingsweston estate, late the property of Lord de 
 Clifford, deceased, was purchased in Julv, 1833, by Mr. 
 Philip John Miles, of Leigh Court, for- £210,000. Sir B. 
 Southwell, Lord de Clifford's ancestor, bought the estate 
 shortly before the Revolution fi-om its former owners, the 
 Hookes, a family long connected with Bristol. The story to 
 be found in some local histories, to the effect that a Avalled- 
 up room (shut up during the civil wars) was discovered in 
 the mansion durina: the last centurv, containincf records of 
 a barony granted to the Southwell family by Henry III., is 
 therefore untrustworthy. 
 
 During the summer of 1833 the trustees of the Bristol 
 turnpikes, with a view to improving the chief soutliern 
 entrance to the city, caused a deep cutting to be made at 
 Totterdown, near the junction of the Wells road with tliat 
 from Bath. A very steep hill there, much disliked by stage 
 coachmen, was thus practically removed. A similar improve- 
 ment was effected at the same time near Clifton church, a 
 new road being cut in front of Goldney House. 
 
 The death was announced, on the 7th September, of 
 Hannah More, who expired at her house in Windsor T(>rrace, 
 aged 88, having outlived not only all the celebrated literary 
 friends of lier youth, but, to a certain extent, her once con- 
 siderable reputation as an author. Her funeral was of a 
 private character, only four mourning coaches and as many 
 j)rivato carriages following the hc>arse to Wrington, where 
 the sisters of the deceased had been already interred. There 
 being no near relatives surviving, Mr. J. S. Harford and 
 Mr. J. Gwatkin acted as chief mourners. Miss More, after
 
 1834.1 THE ROMAN CATHOLIC PRO-CATHEDKAL. 199 
 
 -' * 
 
 making many charitable bequests, left the residue of lu'r 
 estate (about £3,000) to the church of Trinity, St. Pliilip's. 
 Extensive parochial schools in the neicfhbourhood of tlie 
 church were erected by subscription in 1838-9, and dedicated 
 to her memory. 
 
 The Bristol Medical School began its first session on the 
 14th October. The institution, first located in King Square, 
 but removed to Old Park in 1834, was founded upon two 
 private schools which had been in existence for some years 
 — one of which has been already noticed in connection with 
 a ghastly story [see p. 100] . 
 
 In February, 1834, the Common Council appointed the 
 sixth Duke of Beaufort Lord High Steward of Bristol, in 
 the place of Lord Grenville, deceased. His grace held the 
 office for only a brief period, having died in November, 1835. 
 His son, the seventh duke, was shortly afterwards elected to 
 the vacant dignity. 
 
 Amongst several sales of property effected by the Corpora- 
 tion about this time, the well-known island in the Bristol 
 Channel — the Steep Holmes — was disposed of to Colonel 
 Tynte, of Cefn Mably, Glamorganshire. 
 
 In the early months of 1834 the Rev. Francis Edgeworth, 
 then officiating at St. Joseph's Chapel, Trenchard Street, the 
 onl}^ Roman Catholic place of worship in the city, resolved 
 upon the erection of a gigantic church in the classical style, 
 to be dedicated to the Holy Apostles. Having purchased a 
 field lying to the east of a large quarry called Honeypen 
 Hill (on which Meridian Place then looked) , the foundation 
 stone of the intended edifice was laid in October, and the 
 mason-work slowly progressed for some years. In the mean- 
 while a small chapel was built within the area, and Mass was 
 performed there in 1842. Unfortunately for the reverend 
 promoter, two or three landslips took place, and his pecuniary 
 difficulties became at last so serious that operations were 
 suspended. Father Edgewoi-th, declared a bankrupt, fled to 
 Belgium (where he died in 1850), and the unfinished building 
 was in June, 1844, advertised for sale by auction. Although 
 saved from this fate by the exertions of the faithful, the 
 fabric long remained in a state of semi-ruin. In 1847, 
 Bishop Ullathorne purchased the land and building from the 
 mortgagees for £2,500; but it was not until 1848, when all 
 hope of completing the church according to the original plan 
 was abandoned, that a portion was fitted up for worship. 
 The opening ceremony, marked with the customary pomp of 
 the Romish Church, took place on the 21st September, the
 
 200 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1834. 
 
 officiating prelates being Bishops Hendren and Ullatliorne, 
 the existing and previous vicars-general of the western dis- 
 trict. A convent and chapel dedicated to St. Catherine of 
 Sienna, for the use of nuns of the order of St. Dominic, were 
 added in 1849. The church was termed a pro-cathedral after 
 the revival of the English episcopate by Pius IX. in 1850, 
 and shortly afterwards a mansion of mediaeval design was 
 erected near it for the "Bishop of Clifton." Several years 
 later an eastern extension of the church was made in an 
 incongruous Lombardic style. One of the most stately 
 ceremonials that have taken place in the "pro-cathedral" 
 occurred in February, 1855, on the death of the bishop at 
 Plymouth, when a chapter was held, under the presidency 
 of Cardinal AViseman, for the selection of three ecclesiastics 
 worthy of the Pope's consideration in filling the vacancy. 
 
 During the session of 1834, a measure for the amendment 
 of the poor laws passed both Houses of Parliament, and 
 received the royal assent. At the instance of the Bristol 
 Incorporation of the Poor, that body, and a few others of 
 the same character, were permitted to retain the privileges 
 granted them under their special Acts ; but this exemption, 
 as will be recorded under the year 1857, was subsequently 
 withdrawn. One effect of the Poor Law Reform Act was to 
 constitute the " Clifton Union," including, besides several 
 rural parishes, Clifton itself, the parishes of Westbury and 
 Horfield, the district of St. James and St. Paul, and the out- 
 ])arish of St. Philip*— all forming part of the municipal 
 borough of Bristol. The parish of Bedminster, similarly 
 situated, and several other parishes in vSomerset, formed 
 another new union, called after Bedminster. The title of 
 '' union " given to the confederations was somewhat of a 
 
 * Each parish, up to this time, had provided relief for the poor in its own 
 way — which was generally a bad one. In 1H2;{ the authoritios of Wintorhourne 
 offered the poor of that parish "to he let by tender" for a year to any 
 person willing to "farm"tlic?m {Brii^tol Journal, K\\<^\Ki 'M^). Tn June, 18;}5, 
 Mr. C. Mott, Assistant Poor Ijaw Coininissioner, visited St. Pliilip's workliouso, 
 in Pennywcll Road, and r(>])ort('<] on it in thrse terms : — " I was iil-i>n>i)ar('d to 
 find in a i)arish witli nearly 17,<'l)() inliuhitants, exixMulin;:; annually iJli.DOO for 
 tlie support of the poor, and inuncdiatcly a<ljoininK one of the most ciennly and 
 well-ventilated establislimonts in KnRland (St. Peter's Hospital), such a dis- 
 Rracefnl instance of neglect and niismanaKeinent. The state of tlie workhouse 
 was filthy in the extri'nie; the ai)peaninne of tlie inmates dirty and wretclied. 
 The^e was no classiticition, men, womrin, and children beitif^ indiscriminiitoly 
 Iniddlod to^,'etber." A dismal tillliy loom, as dirty as a coal cellar, contained, 
 he ailded, a poor distressed lunalif. as dirty as the lloor, (ilotlu^d in raj^'s, and 
 with feet protruding tbrouKh his shoi'S. 'I'lio jioor creatine had never <|nitted 
 the den for years. Another room contained a yonn^ lunatic, almost in a state 
 of nuditv, who bad been detained there for f'jur years.
 
 1834.] WKST OF ENGLAND BANK. RED MAIDs' SCnOOL. 201 
 
 misnomer, for each parish continued to defray the cost of its 
 out-door poor. As a necessary consequence the local rates 
 varied considerably, and the anomalies appeared the more 
 unjust inasmuch as the taxation was lowest where the in- 
 habitants were wealthy, and hig-hest where the ratepayers 
 were least able to endure the burden. For example, in 
 Bedminster, in 1849, the yearly charge was nearly 5.s-. in the 
 pound on the rental, while in Westbury it was 7^'/., and in 
 Clifton only 7d. In 1858 an agitation was started for amal- 
 gamating all the suburban parishes with the Bristol union, 
 but the movement was unsuccessful, and though it has been 
 revived in later years it has hitherto met with no better 
 success. The passing of the Union Chargeability Act, how- 
 ever, did much to remove the previous inequalities in local 
 taxation. 
 
 The prospectus of the West of England and South Wales 
 District Banking Company was published in August. The 
 shares — 50,000 of £20 each — having been subscribed for, the 
 bank opened its central office on the 29th December in the 
 Exchange, Bristol, branches being also established at Bath, 
 Bridgwater, Taunton, P^xeter, Barnstaple, Newport, Cardiff, 
 and Swansea. In 1854 the directors purchased and demol- 
 ished the once great coaching hostelry, the Bush, opposite 
 to the Exchange, together with some adjoining houses, and 
 built on the site a remarkably ornate edifice, in the Venetian 
 style, the cost of the site and building exceeding £40,000. 
 The new bank was opened for business in February, 1857. 
 A local paper stated that the Corporation of the Poor assessed 
 the building at £2,000 per annum, which was £50 more than 
 the assessment of all the other bank premises in the city put 
 together 
 
 For some years previous to this date, the Court of Alder- 
 men, which had the management of the Red Maids' School, 
 seems to have been much exercised as to the desirability of 
 removing the institution from the old premises in Denmark 
 Street. Complaints had been made as to the inconvenience 
 of the building, but the governors, in November, 18o0, re- 
 solved tljat it was inexpedient to alter the site, and plans 
 were soon after approved for reconstructing the house. 
 Three months later the position of the school w^as con- 
 demned; and in September, 1831, it was resolved to buy part 
 of the property in Great George Street which had been 
 acquired for a Mansion House [see p. 134]. The matter 
 then dropped out of sight until March, 1833, when the last 
 motion was rescinded, and it was again determined to rebuild
 
 202 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1834. 
 
 on the old site, if the adjoining premises could be obtained 
 for an extension. This condition having turned out to be 
 impracticable, the Common Council in the following Sep- 
 tember sold 1 acre and 22 poles of Tyndall's Park (part of 
 "King's Orchard"), belonging to the Corporation, to Whit- 
 son's trustees for the new school.^ The authorities then 
 selected a design of an imposing and expensive character, 
 and building operations had proceeded for some time when 
 the progress of the Municipal Reform Bill suggested the 
 desirability of suspending operations. Nothing further was 
 done until the appointment of the Charity Trustees, who 
 made an inquiiy in January, 1837, and discovered that the 
 cost of the school buildings and site would be nearly £17,000, 
 a sum which could not be raised except by disposing of part 
 of the hospital estates, and permanently reducing the income 
 of the charity. A few months later the trustees had under 
 consideration a project for removing the City School to the 
 spot in question, but this scheme was also rejected. The 
 property was at length sold to Bishop ^Monk, for the purposes 
 of the Bishop's College [see p. 141]. The Charity Trustees 
 rebuilt the school in Denmark Street in 1842. 
 
 The new Blind Asylum, adjoining the intended Red Maids' 
 School, was also progressing in 1834, the remainder of the 
 King's Orchard having been purchased of the Coi-poration 
 for £1,850, The asylum was founded in 1792 by a few 
 Quaker philanthropists, the manager and secretary being 
 Messrs. Fox and Bath. Until 1803 it was located in a dis- 
 used Quaker meeting-house in Callowhill Street; but the 
 building, together with adjoining premises called the Dove 
 House [the columbarium of the ancient friary?], was then 
 offered for sale {Felix Farley'x Bristol Journal, March 3), and 
 the asylum was removed to Lower Maudlin Street, where it 
 remained until its present habitation was hnished. The 
 chapel erected for the use of the inmates, and also designed 
 to serve as a chapel-of-ease to St. Michael's, was opened on 
 the 20th November, 1838. At a meeting held after the 
 inaugural service, it was stated that the new asylum had 
 cost £15,000, and the chapel £5,000. A new wing was 
 added to the asylum in January, 1883. 
 
 With some appreciation of the signs of the times, the 
 
 • The price fixed was £1,270. Some want of forethoiiRlit was shown in the 
 triinsaction. Tlie thoroiiKhfaic in front of tlio ))li>t was too narrow for the 
 trallic ; and some vfars later, when i\w Council wiKlicd to buy a narrow slip of 
 the land to widen Queen's Iload, the Hifles' Headqmvrters Company, who had 
 become the owners, asked JDCUO for a few H(|uare yards.
 
 1835.] GENERAL ELECTION. IMPORTS OF TEA. 203 
 
 Common Council gave an order during the yenr to Mr. 
 Pickersgill, R.A., to paint the portrait of Alderman Daniel, 
 lo commemorate the long connection of that gentleman with 
 civic affairs. Excepting four individuals, the entire hody of 
 aldermen and common councillors owed their position in the 
 municipality to the influence or passive assent of the autocrat 
 of the Corporation ; and seeing that the balance due to their 
 bankers exceeded £10,000, it would have been creditable to 
 the authorities if their manifestation of gratitude had come 
 out of their own pockets. In December, however, the artist re- 
 ceived 150 guineas for his picture, and the alderman was paid 
 his expenses in journeying to London to sit for it — £24 8s. 3(L 
 
 A general election occurred unexpectedly in January, 
 1835, owing to the summai-y dismissal of Lord Melbourne's 
 Ministry by William IV. The result in Bristol, as in many 
 other places, indicated a marked reaction in favour of the 
 Tory party — now first called Conservatives. At the formal 
 nomination of candidates, that party, desirous of avoiding a 
 contest, put forward only Sir Eichard R. Vyvyan. But in 
 consequence of the Liberals unexpectedly proposing two 
 gentlemen — Mr. J. E. Baillie and Sir John Cam Hobhouse 
 (son of a candidate of 179G, a Bristolian by birth, and a 
 member of the two previous Ministries), Mr. P. J. Miles 
 was brought forward as a second "blue'' candidate, with- 
 out being formally nominated before the sheriff. Both the 
 Conservative nominees were triumphantly returned, the 
 numbers being : Mr. Miles, 3,709 ; Sir R. R. Vyvvan, 3,312 ; 
 Mr. Baillie, 2,520; Sir J. C. Hobhouse, 1,808. 'Two Tory 
 candidates had not been elected simultaneously since 1780, 
 
 In April, 1835, the monopoly of the China trade, previously 
 held by the East India Company, having been abolished by 
 Parliament, a cargo of tea was brought into Bristol direct 
 from Canton. An attempt was afterwards made to establish 
 a Bristol Tea Company, with a capital of half a million, for 
 the purpose of carrying on an extensive trade with the 
 Celestial Empire ; but the project met with slender encourage- 
 ment from local tea merchants, and was dropped. A few 
 more cargoes were afterwards imported by the same firm — 
 Messrs. Acraman, Bush, Castle & Co. — who built extensive 
 warehouses in Prince's Street especially for this trade. 
 Subsequently a London merchant named Robertson con- 
 tinued for some time to import tea by way of Bristol. 
 Grocers, however, preferred to follow the old ruts of the 
 trade, and Mr. Robertson's enterprise proving unprofitable, 
 it was discontinued in 1843.
 
 204 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1835. 
 
 A cliarg-e of murder, wlaicli had caused intense excitement 
 in the city, was opened at the assizes on the 10th April, 18:35, 
 and occupied the court two days. The case was tried before 
 Sir Charles Wetherell, recorder, who had not held an assize 
 since the riots in 1831. It appeared that on the 23rd Octo- 
 ber, 1833, an elderly woman named Clara Ann Smith, who 
 had lodged for some time with one Mary Ann Burdock, the 
 occupier of a lodging-house in College Street, suddenly died. 
 The relatives of the deceased, having had no tidings from 
 her for upwards of a year, at last made inquiries, and finding 
 that Mrs. Burdock would not give a satisfactory account of 
 her death, or of the considerable property which she was 
 known to have possessed, application was made to the police, 
 and the body was disinterred fourteen months after the 
 burial. Identification was difficult after such a lapse of time, 
 but two fellow lodgers of the deceased swore to certain marks 
 on the stockings, and the undertaker proved that he had 
 supplied the coffin. The stomach was thereupon handed to 
 Mr. Herapath, who discovered that it contained arsenic, and 
 three medical witnesses testified that the quantity of poison 
 detected was sufficient to cause death. The purchase of 
 arsenic by a person in Burdock's house also came to light, as 
 well as the fact that Mrs. Burdock had alone administered 
 food to the deceased, and had cautioned a servant not to eat 
 of what remained after each meal. It further transpired that 
 the murdered woman had received £800 shortly before her 
 demise, and that Burdock became suddenly rich after that 
 event. Other circumstantial evidence pressing against the 
 woman was adduced, and, the jury having found her guilty, 
 she was sentenced to be hanged. Her subsequent indiffer- 
 ence to her fate was another strange feature in the case. 
 She ordered her brother not to spend more than €2 upon her 
 coffin, which she desired to have by her bedside on the night 
 before her execution, and she gave especial directions to be 
 provided with a " warm, comfortable shroud." The wretched 
 woman was hanged at the gaol on tlio 15th April, in the 
 presence, it was computed, of 50,000 spectators. 
 
 St. Mattliew's Church, Kingsdown, which had just been 
 finished at a cost of about £7,900, including a sum set apart 
 for the endowment, was consecrated by J)r. Ryder, Bishop of 
 [jicliHeld, on the 23rd April. A peal of eight bells, the gift of 
 Mr. John Hangley, a liberal contri])utor to the church, was sub- 
 sequently placed in the tower. In July, 1882, Mr. George Gay, 
 buihler, presentcMl the parish with a handsome vilhi and garden 
 in Cotham Park, for the use of the vicar and his successors.
 
 1835.] BRIDEWELL REBUILT. THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 205 
 
 Brunswick Square Chapel, built at a cost of £5,000 by some 
 seceders from the congregation of Castle Green Chapel, was 
 opened in May, when a sermon was preached by the Rev. 
 Dr. Eaffles, of Liverpool. The first mari-iage celebrated in a 
 dissenting place of worship in Bristol took place in this build- 
 ing shortly after the passing of the Marriage Act of 1837. 
 
 The Corporation cash-book contains the following item 
 dated the 14th May : " Paid John Willis for various em- 
 bazonments (.sic) to embellish the Mayors' Kalendar, £23 15s." 
 The payment can refer only to the coats of arms which have 
 been placed against the names of many of the mayors and 
 sheriffs of later times — often, it may be suspected, at the 
 fantasy of the illuminator. 
 
 The new Bridewell, entirely rebuilt after the deplorable 
 events of 1831, was finished in July, 1835, at a cost of 
 £7,800. The new prison was constructed entirely on the 
 northern side of Bridewell Lane. The ground on the opposite 
 side, — on which the old Bridewell chiefly stood, — was a few 
 years later made available for a central police station. In 
 1842 it was reported that the prison was deficient in accom- 
 modation, there being 100 prisoners confined in it, whilst the 
 cells were constructed to contain only 50. The Council sub- 
 sequently resolved to enlarge the building, and appropriated 
 some adjacent void ground for the purpose. The alterations 
 cost the city upwai'ds of £4,000, The abolition of the prison 
 will be recorded under a later date. 
 
 After having been for some time contemplated by a -few 
 public-spirited citizens, the Bristol and Clifton Zoological 
 Gardens Society was definitely established in July, 1835, the 
 capital being in the first instance fixed at £7,500 in £25 
 shares. It was originally proposed to lay out a garden at 
 Pyle Hill, Bedminster, where a plot of ten acres was actually 
 purchased, and planting commenced. A change of plans, 
 however, took place, and the present site — about twelve 
 acres — having been purchased of Mr. F. Adams for £3,456, 
 about £5,300 more were spent in laying out the ground 
 and erecting the necessary buildings. The gardens were 
 opened to the public on the 11th July, 1836. According to 
 the original proposal, annual subscribers were admitted into 
 the grounds on Sundays, in common with the proprietors. 
 A section of the latter, a few years later, endeavoured to 
 close the gardens entirely on that day, but met with a 
 decisive defeat. On directing their attack against those who 
 had no votes, however, they were quite successful, a resolu- 
 tion depriving the subscribers of their former privilege being
 
 206 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. [1835. 
 
 adopted in April, 1841. Forty-five years later, in April, 
 1886, the society returned to its original policy, a vote to 
 admit subscribers on Sundays being carried with only one 
 dissentient voice. 
 
 During this year a monument to the memory of Dr. Gray, 
 Bishop of Bristol, who died on the 28th September, 1834, 
 was erected in the cathedral at a cost of £260. 
 
 The last of the few public improvements effected by the 
 old Corporation, whose extinction is about to be recorded, 
 were made in the autumn of 1835. Maudlin Lane was 
 widened, by pulling down some old houses and removing 
 the small inclosures which stood in front of others. A more 
 important work was eiiected in Bridewell Lane, by opening 
 through it a street from Nelson Street to the Horse Fair, 
 covering over part of the Froom, and pulling down some old 
 dwellings which contracted the thoroughfare. The total cost 
 was about £3,000. The dean and chapter about the same 
 time improved the appearance of the cathedral by removing 
 some ugly houses adjoining the west end of the building, and 
 demolishing others built upon the cloisters. 
 
 In November, 1835, Lord John Russell, then Home Secre- 
 tary and leader of the House of Commons, having won 
 extensive popularity from the manner in which he had con- 
 ducted the Reform Bill and other important measures 
 through the Lower House, was entertained to dinner at the 
 Gloucester Hotel, Clifton, by his admirers- in this district. 
 The.occasion was seized to present his lordship with a hand- 
 some piece of plate, purchased by a sixpenny subscription, 
 commemorative of his services to the cause of civil and 
 religious liberty. An amusing illustration of the political 
 acrimony of the time was furnished by a local newspaper, 
 which recorded that the parochial authorities, " to their 
 honour," refused to allow the church bells to be rung on the 
 Jlome Secretary's visit to the city. 
 
 The report of the Municipal Corporations' Commission, 
 occupying five bulky folio volumes, was laid before Tarlia- 
 ment in the spring of 1835. Even before the production of 
 the entire work, the irresistible proofs of corruption, extra- 
 vagance, and inefficiency that had become public in the course 
 of the inquiry had extorted an avowal from Sir Robert Peel, 
 then Prime Minister and leader of the Tory ])arty, that it 
 would be impossible to resist a tliorough reform of abuses, 
 and the concession of popular election and control in muni- 
 cipal affairs. A change of Ministry having taken place soon 
 afterwards, tlic (juestion returned to its original hands, and
 
 1835.] MUNICirAL CORPORATIONS REFORM ACT. 207 
 
 early in June Lord John Russell, in producing a Bill, described 
 to the House of Commons the plan of municipal government 
 which the Cabinet intended to provide. So great was the 
 effect produced by the commissioners' report, that the 
 measure was read a second time without opposition ; nor was 
 any resistance offered to the principle of the Bill when it 
 underwent examination in committee. A few of the old cor- 
 porations, however, amongst which those of Bristol and 
 Liverpool were especially conspicuous, continued to maiutaiu 
 that a scheme which would deprive them of the enjoyment of 
 property and privileges derived from royal charters was both 
 oppressive and vmconstitutional ; and when the Bill reached 
 the House of Lords they petitioned to be heard against it by 
 counsel. The Ministry, opposed by an overwhelming majority 
 of peers, were forced to give way, and in July and August 
 Sir Charles Wetherell, recorder of Bristol, supported by other 
 counsel,* protested against what he termed the tyrannical 
 annihilation of ancient rights, and poured a flood of insult- 
 ing invective on the commissioners, the Government, and the 
 House of Commons. The Opposition peers next moved that 
 Sir Charles should be permitted to call evidence on behalf of 
 his clients, it being hoped that at so late a period of the 
 session (August 3rd) the Ministry would abandon the Bill, 
 rather than continue the sittings. The point having been 
 carried, Mr. Daniel Burges, one of the solicitors for the Cor- 
 poration of Bristol, Alderman Fripp, an ex-mayor of the city, 
 and officials representing about thirty other close bodies, were 
 examined, but with little other result than to show that they 
 approved of the existing system, and that the proposed 
 reforms were in their opinion unadvisable. The noble oppo- 
 nents of the Government appear to have been disappointed 
 at the emptiness of this testimony, for only the Duke of New- 
 castle and one or two other uncompromising enemies of 
 change advised the Tory majority to reject what they termed 
 an " atrocious and revolutionary Bill." But though this 
 counsel was ignored, many of the clauses were, to use Lord 
 Brougham's expression, " butchered " by the Conservative 
 peers, with the avowed purpose of checking the control 
 intended to be conferred on the ratepayers. The most 
 unpopular of those " amendments " was that reviving the body 
 of aldermen, who were to be chosen, as far as practicable, 
 from the existing aldermen, and to be elected for life. Other 
 
 * The expenses were divided amongst the petitioning Corporations. The 
 share paid by Bristol was £210 IBs. 'dd.
 
 208 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1835. 
 
 alterations, strongly opposed by the Government, were the 
 introduction of property qualifications for councillors, and 
 the rejection of the clauses conferring- power on councils 
 to nominate magistrates and to grant public-house licences. 
 The Ministry were for a time undetermined whether to 
 proceed with or to drop the Bill in what they regarded as 
 a mutilated form ; but the House of Commons was ultimately 
 invited to sanction most of the changes. The aldermanic 
 tenure was however reduced to six years, and the provision 
 in favour of the old dignitaries was rejected. The House 
 of Lords having assented to the modification, the Bill received 
 the royal assent in September. 
 
 The passing of the Act, which excited gi-eat interest 
 amongst all classes in the city, revolutionized the existing 
 system, and involved a number of initiatory steps prior to 
 the establishment of the new order of things. In the old 
 Corporation, vacancies in the Co-umon Council (of thirty 
 members) were filled by the aldermen and councillors, while 
 on the death of one of the twelve aldermen his successor was 
 appointed by the mayor and aldermen only, the opinions of 
 the citizens counting for nothing in such affairs. Under the 
 new Act the municipal boundaries of the city were made con- 
 terminous with its parliamentary limits by the inclusion 
 within the " citv and countv " of Clifton, the district of St. 
 James and St. Paul, St. Philip's, and the urban portions of 
 Westbury and Bedminster parishes, thus increasing the area 
 from 755 to 4,879 acres. The rated male inhabitants, or 
 rather such as had been rated for three years, were required 
 to elect a body of forty-eight councillors. Those councillors 
 were then to appoint sixteen aldermen — chosen either from 
 amongst themselves or from qualified ratepayers — and the 
 aggregate body of sixty-four, entitled the Council, was 
 charged with the responsible administration of municipal 
 business and of the corporate revenues. Under the old 
 system the aldermen and common councillors were elected for 
 life. The new aldermen were to sit for six yeai's, and the 
 councillors for three years, but were eligible for re-election; 
 and in order that the council might keej) touch witli public 
 opinion, it was arranged that one third of the councillors 
 should retire every year on the 1st Novembei-, and one 
 half of the aldermen every three years on the 5)th Novem- 
 ber — the day fixed for the annu.al election of the mayor. 
 Under the ancient charters, the Corporation could s]icnd its 
 revenues at the caprice of the majority, and contract debts 
 at its discretion. The new Act contained stringent provisions
 
 1835.] 
 
 CORPORATION REFORM, THE BURGESS ROLL. 
 
 209 
 
 ■.against financial abuses, and the Council was unable to borrow 
 money except with the consent of the Treasury, and for pur- 
 poses manifestly beneficial to the community. Finally, the 
 jurisdiction of the old sheriffs was preserved, but the Bristol 
 custom of appointing two such ofiicers, in puerile imitation 
 of London, was abolished. As the reformed system did not 
 come into operation until the end of the year, the old Cor- 
 poration had in the first place to appoint a mayor and two 
 sheriffs for the three months which intervened between tha 
 retirement of the existing officials at Michaelmas and the 
 creation of the Council. This was easily arranged, however, 
 by the re-appointment of the gentlemen then in office.* 
 Another indispensable work was the preparation of the 
 *' Burgess Roll " — a register of the qualified rated inhabitants 
 — a task for which there was but scanty time, owing to the 
 late date at which the Act passed. Equally urgent was the 
 division of the borough into wards, which was to be effected 
 by barristers nominated by the Government for the purpose. 
 These functionaries did not reach Bristol until the 28th 
 October, The importance of the work confided to them does 
 not appear to have been generally appreciated, and their 
 proceedings were almost ignored by the inefficient newspaper 
 reporters of the age. It was not, indeed, until the wards had 
 been created that the supporters of the new system opened 
 their eyes to the fact that the interests of the ratepayers had 
 been deeply compromised by the arrangements effected. The 
 following Avere the divisions as settled by the legal visitors. 
 
 Bristol (or Central) 
 Clifton . . 
 Eedcliff . . 
 St. Augustine's. 
 Bedminster . 
 District . . 
 St. James's . 
 St. Michael's 
 St. Paul's 
 St. Philip's. 
 
 Burgesses. 
 
 Rated value. 
 
 Councillors. 
 
 870 
 
 £41,446 
 
 9 
 
 494 
 
 25,348 
 
 9 
 
 517 
 
 27,508 
 
 6 
 
 335 
 
 20,157 
 
 6 
 
 177 
 
 8,500 
 
 3 
 
 314 
 
 18,285 
 
 3 
 
 413 
 
 14,976 
 
 3 
 
 305 
 
 7,926 
 
 3 ^ 
 
 336 
 
 15,614 
 
 3 
 
 432 
 
 15,310 
 
 3 
 
 * The last meeting of the old Common Council took place on the 9th De- 
 cember. It would have been interesting to possess some description of the 
 expiring throes of the old reciime, but the mystery which shrouded its career was 
 maintained to the last. Curiously enough, even the ofHcial minutes are defec- 
 tive. A resolution was passed to grant the sheriffs an extra allowance for their 
 additional period of service, but the amount to be paid them was never filled in ; 
 and the mayor, forgetful of invariable custom, neglected to sign the record.
 
 210 THE ANXALS OF BRISTOL. [1835. 
 
 The net result was tliat tlie first four of the above wards, 
 with just over 2^200 burgesses, had thirty representatives, 
 whilst the rest of the city, with nearly 2,000 ratepayers, was 
 allotted only eighteen. The distribution was the more extra- 
 ordinary inasmuch as it was a flagrant deviation from the 
 arrangement proposed by the Royal Commissioners on Cor- 
 porations, Avho in their report on Bristol (page 39) had 
 advised the formation of sixteen wards, with three council- 
 lors each, by which St Philip's, Bedminster, and the District 
 would each have had six representatives. The Liberal news- 
 papers — when it was too late — commented warmly on the dis- 
 proportionate number of councillors awarded to the parishes 
 where the Tory party was known to be most influential. 
 The critics admitted that the division did not seem so unjust 
 when the rateable value of the respective wards was taken 
 into account ; but on the other hand, it was pointed out that 
 while three out of the four favoured wards were practically 
 built over, the suburlian districts were certain to rapidly in- 
 crease, both in population and rateable value. Application 
 was eventually made to the Government, which admitted the 
 unfairness of the distribution, and promised redress by legis- 
 lation, but never carried out its pledge. It will afterwards 
 be seen how excessive the disproportion became before a 
 remedy was applied. The preparations for the elections 
 having been completed, the field became open for candidates, 
 of whom a great number made their appearance, including 
 many members of the old Corporation. Eventually ninety 
 went to the poll, nearly every seat being contended for by 
 representatives of both political parties. The elections took 
 place on the 26th December, and two days afterwards the 
 results were declared by the mayor (Mr. Charles Payne), 
 whose functions thereupon terminated. The following sum- 
 mary gives the results in eacli.ward, the names of meml)ers of 
 the old Common Council being distinguished by an asterisk. 
 Further evidence of the unequal distribution of representa- 
 tives is afforded by the number of voters which is appended 
 to the name of each ward. 
 
 Ukuminstku (177 voters).— Robert Phippiu iC), !'3 ; John Drake (L.), <)2 ; 
 Samuel Brown (L.), Ti). Defeated : Henry Glascodine (C), 58; James liartlett 
 (C), 5(1 ; .James Powell (L.), Kl, 
 
 Ckntiiai. (H70 voters). — James Wood (L.), 388 ; William Edward Acramau 
 (C). a7'.l ; Thoma« Stock (L.j, :<77 : Fred. Uicketts (L). 3()(); Peter Maze (C), 
 366; Charles B. Fripp (L.), 314; Henrv Bush (C), 335 ; James liean* (U.), 
 32'2 ; John KavaKC* (C), 315. Defe.ited : Kicii. Bligh (L.), 314 ; Tliomas Carlisle 
 (L.). 307; William Terrell (L.), 30'2 ; (icori?e W. Franklyn (C ), 2;»1 ; Samuel 
 Waring (L.), 2H'.) ; Samuel Morgan (iT."), 272; William Watson* (C), 2G8 
 William riummer (C), 240 ; A. J. Drewc (C), 238. ""■
 
 1836.] FIRST MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS. 211 
 
 Clifton (494 voters).— Charles Payne* (C), 274; Gabriel Goldney* (C), 2G8 ; 
 James N. Fninklyn'* (C), 258 ; Joseph Cookson (C.J. 288 ; Abruhaiu Ililliouse* 
 (C), 223; William S. Jaqaes (L.), 204 ; Robert E. Case (C), 204; James Ford 
 (C), 204 ; Michael H. Castle* (L.), 198. Defeated : John Warue (L ), 19(5 ; 
 Joseph Lax* (C), 184; John Vining (C), 184; James Johnson (L.), 177; L. 
 McBayne (L.), IGo. 
 
 District (314 voters). — James E. Lunell* (L.), 221; Thomas R. Sanders (L.), 
 181; Richard Ash (L.), 127. Defeated: Robert H. Webb (C), 124; George 
 Shapland (C), 119. 
 
 Redclikf (517 voters). — Christopher George* (L.),230; Henry Ricketts* (L.), 
 
 236 ; Richard P. King (G ), 228; George Thomas (L.), 228; Wilham O. Gwyer 
 
 (C), 222 ; George E. Sanders (L.), 222. Defeated : John Hare, jun. (L.), 213 ; 
 
 William Fripp* (C), 209; William Tothill (L.), 200; Robert Fiske (L.), 182; 
 
 T^icholas Roch* (C), 175; Henry R. Llewellyn (L.), 160. 
 
 St. Augustine's (235 voters). — Thomas Daniel* (C), 152; Charles Hare (C), 
 149 ; Richard Smith (C), 147 ; James E. Nash (C), 145 ; P. M^ize, jun.,* (C), 
 134; Thomas Powell (C), 124. Defeated: Charles Pinney*f(C.), 90; John 
 Manningford (L.), 72; James Reynolds (L.), 69; Richard Ricketts (L.), 68; 
 Joseph F. Alexander (L ), 08 ; James Jenkins (L.), 54. 
 
 St. James's (413 voters). — James Cunningham (L.) 224 ; Samuel S. Wayte 
 (L.), 214 ; John W. Hall (L.), 208. Defeated : Thomas Meulove (C), 118 ; James 
 Moore (C), 111 ; M. H. Castle* (L.), 54. 
 
 St. Michael's (305 voters).— John Howell (C), 208; James' George* (C.) 
 156 ; Charles L. Walker* (C), 136. Defeated : John Mills (L.), 115 ; John 
 Irving (L), 87. 
 
 St. Paul's (336 voters). — Nehemiah Moore (L.), 170 ; Thomas R. Guppy (L.) 
 164 ; William Harwood (L.), 137. Defeated : Robert T. Lilly (C), 129 ; Thomas 
 H. Riddle (C), 106 ; EdwardJIarley (C), 105. 
 
 St. Philip's (432 voters).— Thomas Harris (L.), 302; William Herapath, 
 (L.), 242 ; Edward B. Fripp (L.), 236. Defeated : Samuel G. Flook (Cj, 107 ; 
 John Wmwood (C), 92. 
 
 The net result of tlie struggle being tlie return of twenty- 
 four Tories and the same number of Liberals, extreme interest 
 turned upon the election of aldermen, which was fixed for 
 the 1st January, 1836, On this occasion, Mr. Thomas Daniel, 
 senior ex-alderman, was voted into the chair, as a compli- 
 ment due to his long connection with civic affairs ; after which 
 Mr. Stock, one of the leading Liberals, appealed to gentle- 
 men of both political parties to discard party feelings, and 
 to concur in the nomination of a moiety of the aldermanic 
 body from each side. His proposal, however, met with no 
 response from the Conservative ranks. Much discussion 
 followed as to the best mode of procedure, tlie Tories being 
 desirous of proposing sixteen candidates in a batch, while 
 their opponents urged that a member should be nominated 
 alternately by each party. A division took place on this 
 point, but as the numbers were equal, and the chairman had 
 no casting vote, the Council were unable to make any pro- 
 gress. It being at length determined to resort to alternate 
 nominations, Mr. Wm. Fripp was j)roposed by the Tories,
 
 212 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL, [1836. 
 
 Mr. Charles Pimiey by tlie Liberals^ Mr. T. H. Riddle by 
 the Tories, and Mr. Ricliard Ricketts by the Liberals ; and 
 in each case the election was unanimous. The third Con- 
 servative candidate was Mr. Wm. Bushel], who was also 
 chosen without opposition. But the nomination of the third 
 Liberal, Mr. Wm. Tothill, one of the most respected members 
 of the party, brought about a defection which had been 
 partially anticipated from the outset. Mr. Christopher George, 
 a member of the old Corporation, had won some popularity 
 three or four years before by his ardent advocacy of Reform 
 principles. But, as frequently occurred amongst old-fashioned 
 Whigs about that period, Mr. George's admiration of political 
 improvements came to an end when the}'' threatened to af- 
 fect his own interests and position. The abolition of rotten 
 boroughs was all well enough, but the purification of effete 
 corporations, of one of which he was a member, was not to 
 his taste. His election into the Council gave him an oppor- 
 tunity of revenging himself upon the party to which he had 
 hitherto professed attachment, and the time had arrived for 
 the blow that had been secretly concerted with his new 
 allies.^ A division was called for by the Tories, and as Mr. 
 George voted with them, Mr. Tothill was rejected by 25 
 votes against 23. Mr. Wm. Watson was next nominated by 
 the Conservatives, and elected; but when the Liberals pro- 
 posed Mr. J. Rejaiolds, son of the distinguished philanthropist, 
 he was also rejected by the vote of Mr. George. Mr. John 
 K. Haberfield (Tory) owed his election to the same gentleman. 
 Mr. J. Maningford (Liberal) and Mr. J. Gibbs (Tory) were 
 also successful. Another desertion then took place from the 
 Liberals, Mr. Henry Ricketts, the last gentleman admitted 
 into the old Corporation, following Mr. George's exam])le and 
 voting against Mr. R. Castle. After this change of sides, 
 only one gentleman on the Liberal list was elected — Mr. 
 Thomas Stock. The remaining Conservative nouiinees ap- 
 pointed were Messrs. N. Roch, Edward Harley, George W. 
 Franklyn, J. Winwood, Wm. K. Wait, and John Vining. 
 As Afr. I*inney, though ]iroposed by the Liberals, immediately 
 joined the Tory cainp, the issue of the election was the return 
 of 13 Conservatives and 3 Liberals, giving the former an 
 overwhelming preponderance in the Council. t On llie fol- 
 
 * Mr. Oeorpe Tvas a brotlirr-in-law of AMorman Fripp, who had hocomo a 
 convert to Toryism a few yoar.s curlier, ami luul now bceu selected by his party 
 for the mayoralty. 
 
 t Olio of the Liberal aldermen died; the other two were refused re-election 
 in 1838. According to an interesting scries of papers by the Rev. A. B. Beaven,
 
 1836.] ELECTION OF MAYOR. SERJEANT LUDLOW. 213 
 
 lowing day, January 2, the jubilant victors carried the 
 election of ex-Alderman Daniel as mayor, 38 votes being 
 recorded for him against 22 given for Mr. Stock. Immedi- 
 ately afterwards, Mr. D. Cave (Toi-y) was elected sheriff by 
 35 votes against 25, the latter representing the supporters of 
 Mr. G. Bengough (Liberal). [Mr. Daniel refusing — as was 
 anticipated — to accept the chief magistracy on account of 
 his advanced age, Mr. William Fripp, another alderman of 
 the old regime, was shortly afterwards appointed in his place. 
 Mr. Fripp's qualification being contested, an application was 
 made to the Court of King's Bench in the following month 
 for a writ of quo warranto; but for some reason the judges 
 did not grant the document until November, when the new 
 mayor's term had expired.] Finally, Mr. Serjeant Ludlow 
 was re-appointed town-clerk ; but upon being called in and 
 informed of his election, he stated that for the present he 
 should neither decline nor accept an office which, as defined 
 under the Act, was entirely different from that which he held 
 under the old Corporation, and he must be allowed time for 
 reflection. The learned gentleman continued to maintain 
 this attitude for some weeks. The explanation of his conduct 
 was obvious. For a great number of years Serjeant Ludlow 
 had converted his office into a practical sinecure, his only 
 service consisting in his direction of the aldermanic justices 
 at the quarter sessions. As the recorder would thenceforth 
 be required to fulfil the duties of judge, Mr. Ludlow's object 
 was to induce the Council to dismiss him, when he would be 
 entitled to compensation under the Act. According to a 
 letter he addressed to the Council, his average income from 
 the town-clerkship had been £913 per annum, and he claimed 
 a lump sum of £5,336. In the course of the controversy, 
 Mr. Ludlow, whose hastiness and impatience were as marked 
 as his legal abilities, took offence at some strictures passed 
 upon him by the ex-mayor, Mr. C. Payne, and made the 
 customary preparations for an ''affair of honour;" but the 
 explanations that were tendered were accepted as satisfactory. 
 Eventually the town-clerkship was declared vacant, owing to 
 Mr. Ludlow's refusal to fulfil the duties, and the Council 
 consented to pay him a life annuity of £533 yearly, which he 
 
 published in the Times and Mirror in 1880, the three places were filled by 
 Conservatives, and of the 52 gentlemen elected to fill vacancies between 1838 
 and 1880 there were only 4 Liberals — appointed at distant intervals — against 48 
 Tories. Of the 68 aldermen appointed up to the same date, Mr. Beaven's 
 statistics show that 27 had been rejected by the ratepayers when they oli'ered 
 themselves for the office of councillor.
 
 214 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1836. 
 
 enjoyed until his death in March, 1851. [During his 
 later career he was one of the commissioners in bankruptcy 
 for the city, and chairman of quarter sessions for Gloucester- 
 shire.] 
 
 The Council lost no time in facing the formidable labours 
 which lay before it. Committees were appointed to inquire 
 into the financial position of the Corporation, into the duties 
 and emoluments of the ofiicial staif, and into the measures 
 to be taken for the establishment of a police force ; and those 
 subjects each underwent lengthy discussion in the chamber. 
 With respect to salaries, it was resolved to reduce the amount 
 paid to the mayor from £1,60-1 to £700,* the Council also 
 providing him with a carriage. The two sheriffs had pre- 
 viously received £400 a year each ; there was now to be only 
 one sheriff, without a salary. The recorder had received 
 £105 for each assize, and a hogshead of wine ; but as he was 
 thenceforth to preside at quarter sessions, the salary was in- 
 creased to £500, and £200 more were added on his becoming 
 judge of the Tolzey Court. The chamberlain and deputy 
 chamberlain had enjoyed incomes of £1,200 and £500 re- 
 spectively ; these were reduced to £700 and £350, and the 
 title of treasurer was adopted for that of chamberlain. Mr. 
 Daniel Burges was appointed town-clerk in the place of 
 Mr. LudloWjt and Messrs. Brice & Barges Avere selected as 
 city solicitors, the salaries for these offices being fixed at 
 £2,150, which was to include the cost of providing clerks, 
 etc., while Messrs. Brice & Burges surrendered the fees 
 and other emoluments attached to their functions. This 
 arrangement, it was stated, would be productive of a con- 
 siderable saving-. Economies were effected in other depart- 
 ments. The Mansion House was given up, and many of the 
 useless officials maintained for purposes of *' state," including 
 four mayor's Serjeants, four sheriffs' serjoants, four sheriffs' 
 
 • The salary was reduced to £460 in the autumn of 1837, when the Council 
 was in financial straits, but it was apain raised to .£700 in Novenihcr, 184.'i. 
 
 t Mr. Uurf,'CH (tlie son of a Rfiitlcrnan of tlio same naiue who liad hold the 
 fifTice of city solicitor for some years when ho died in ITIU) held the a])i)oin(nient 
 of mayor's ricik, and in conjunction with Mr. Urico tliat of city solicilor, from 
 IHli) until the end of tlio old Corjioration. Ilis lonj^ experience in civic affairs 
 was of f(ieat value to tlm new body ; and it was largely througli his tact and 
 ability that the antaKonistic parties in the Council were brought into harmonious 
 action. Upon his retirement, in ISl'i — when he was succeeded by his son, 
 Daniel Purges, jiin. — he received many marks of respect both from members 
 of the Corporation and his fellow citi/ens; and a costly and beinitiful jiiece of 
 plate was presenteil to liini in recognition "of his personal worth and jinbjic 
 service during a long and honourable life." Mr. I'urges di(<l in April, 1804, 
 in his 8yth year.
 
 1836.] DEBTS AND PROPERTY OP THE CORPORATION. 215 
 
 yeomen, two mayor's marshals, the mayor's beadle, two 
 sheriffs' beadles, four wait-players, etc., were sup])ressed. 
 The aggrej^ato savings were estimated by the mayor at about 
 £6,600. With respect to finance there was an initial question 
 of considerable gravity. Under the scheme for providing 
 compensation to sufferers from the riots of 1831, the rate- 
 payers within the " ancient city " were required to pay a 
 sura of about £10,000 a year. On the other hand, the house- 
 holders in the districts added to the borough were now 
 entitled to share in the advantages derived from the city 
 estates, whilst they were exempt from taxation under the 
 Compensation Act. This arrangement being obviously in- 
 equitable, the Finance Committee recommended that an Act 
 should be obtained, empowering the Council to sell corpora- 
 tion property and apply the money to discharge the amount 
 of compensation still outstanding — about £35,000, after the 
 current year's rate had been collected. Their repoi't was 
 adopted, in despite of the opposition of some of the Clifton 
 councillors, and the proposed Bill received the royal assent. 
 The debts of the old Corporation were stated by the mayor 
 to amount to £110,000, including about £30,000 accepted on 
 condition of paying interest for charitable purposes ; and 
 nearly the whole of the total was required at once, partly 
 to meet the claims of the bankers and of bondholdei-s, and 
 partly for the pui-pose of transferring the charity estates to a 
 new body of trustees, of whom mention will shortly be made. 
 The Corporation, however, possessed large resources. Accord- 
 ing to an estimate presented to the Council, the landed estates 
 in various parts of the country (3,816 acres) were worth 
 £144,400 ; ground in the city and suburbs, £14,000 ; capital 
 value of chief rents, £39,060 ; premises in Bristol (gross 
 rental £3,620), £57,940; the city markets (producing £2,155 
 yearly)* £38,772 ; town dues (producing £1,582 per annum) 
 £31,640; reversions of property, £65,200; and the Mansion 
 House, £4,760 ; making a total of £395,772, exclusive of 
 public buildings in the city, valued at £80,000, and of the 
 advowsons belonging to the Corporation, estimated at £27,000 
 more. The work of liquidation necessarily occupied some 
 time. The advowsons, which were first offered for sale, pro- 
 duced £27,753, the separate amounts being as follows : Portis- 
 
 * Four markets, the oyster, Welch, and cheese markets and the corn market 
 on the Back, were stated to produce Httle or no income, and had no vahie atHxed 
 to them. The hist-named market, however, hngeredon until 1839. The oyster 
 market was demolished in 1844. The cheese market, after long costing more 
 than it produced, was closed about 1850, and entirely disappeared in 1885.
 
 216 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1836. 
 
 head, £8,050 ; Clirist Cliurcli, £4,555 ; St. James's, £2,555 ; 
 St. Paul's, £3,210; St. Micliael's, £1,710; Temple, £1,510 ; 
 St. George's, £2,003 ; St. Peter's, £930 ; St. John's, £605 ; 
 St. Philip's, £510 ; Trinity, St. Philip's, £1,010; Stocklaud, 
 £1,105. Two estates at Aldmondsbury brought in £16,420, 
 another at Ashton, £2,200, and certain fee-farm rents and 
 properties in Bristol nearly £12,000 ; by which the compensa- 
 tion charge was cleared off and some pressing bondholders 
 satisfied. Later on, with a view to wiping off the old debt 
 and meeting the first claims of the Charity Trustees, the 
 estate of Stoekland (708 acres) was sold for £36,368 ; the 
 rectorial estate of Nether Stowey (65 acres) for £2,677 ; the 
 fai'ms at Gaunt's Earthcott (654 acres) for £20,866 ; and the 
 estate at North Weston (521 acres) for £16,443. These 
 alienations, however, gravely reduced the income of the 
 Corporation at a moment when new and heavy expenditure 
 had to be provided for. The creation of an efficient police 
 force was obligatory on the Council, and in conformity with 
 the recommendations of the Watch Committee, the con- 
 stabulary, numbering 232, were duly enrolled, and com- 
 menced "^ their duties on the 25th June, 1836. [The first 
 superintendent was Mr. Joseph Bishop, who had becii an 
 officer in the Metropolitan police. The central station was 
 established at the Guardhouse, in Wine Street, much to the 
 discontent of the leading tradesmen there, and in 1842 the 
 building was condemned by the Council as inconvenient and 
 unhealthy. A more commodious station, erected opposite to 
 the new Bridewell, and upon the site of the old one, was 
 completed in 1844. The force, after being slightly increased 
 in strength in 1845, and again in 1857, was augmented in 
 1872 to 357 officers and men, of whom 13 were specially 
 charged with the protection of the Floating Harbour. The 
 pay of the civic army has also been raised at intervals, and 
 the annual expenditure under this head, estimated at £9,000 
 in 1836, has amounted of late years to £32,000.] It was 
 originally intended to defray the cost of the police establish- 
 ment by means of a watch rate ; but difficulties arose out of 
 the peculiar circumstances of the districts added to the city, 
 and the Council was driven to resort to a borough rate, and 
 to sul)mit to restrictions in administering llu' coriiorato 
 revenues which such a rate imjxjsed upon it unthM" the Cor- 
 porations Act. A new assessment of tlio city was therefore 
 ordered, the result of which was reported to the Council in 
 January, 1837, as follows. ['I'he town-clerk having been 
 kind enough to furnish corresponding statistics for 1886
 
 1836.] 
 
 RATEABLE VALUE OF CITY. NEW MAGISTRATES. 
 
 217 
 
 tliey are appended for the purpose of showing the progress 
 effected during half a century of representative local govern- 
 ment.] 
 
 
 183(5. 
 
 1886. 
 
 Ancient City . . . 
 Bedminster . . . 
 Clifton .... 
 St. Philip's, out . . 
 Westbury, part of . 
 District .... 
 
 £198,805 
 31,919 
 83,645 
 34,125 
 10,347 
 24,414 
 
 £377,503 
 
 101,591 
 
 196,800 
 
 133,472 
 
 92,201 
 
 71,813 
 
 £383,315 
 
 £973,380 
 
 Only one other matter arising out of the change in local 
 government remains to be noticed — the appointment of 
 borough magistrates in the place of the superseded aldermen 
 of the old Corporation. The Municipal Reform Bill originally 
 contained a clause vesting the nomination of justices in the 
 local councils, but the provision was rejected by the House 
 of Lords. Lord John liussell^ Home Secretary^ in advising 
 the Commons to assent to the alteration, promised that the 
 Ministry would receive the suggestions of the municipalities 
 with the utmost consideration, and a meeting of the Bristol 
 Council took place in February, 1836, to select a list of 
 persons deemed worthy of the local bench. At the begin- 
 ning of the discussion it was proposed that the two political 
 parties should each suggest twelve names; but some of the 
 Conservative members showed so decided a determination to 
 claim a majority that Mr. Cunningham, a leading Liberal, 
 advised his friends to leave the room and permit their oppo- 
 nents to act at their discretion. Conciliatory counsels there- 
 upon prevailed, and twelve gentlemen were selected from 
 each side of the chamber, in despite of the opposition offered 
 to three Liberal nominations by an extreme section of their 
 opponents. Shortly after the list had been forwarded to the 
 Home Office, the mayor received a notification from Lord J. 
 Russell that only eighteen names had been accepted, six of 
 the Tory candidates, Messrs T. Daniel, C. L. Walker, J. 
 George, A. Hilhouse, N. Roch, and J. N. Franklyn — com- 
 prising four of the old aldermen and two common councillors 
 — being rejected. The announcement was received with in- 
 tense indignation by the local Conservatives, and gave rise 
 to a debate in the House of Commons on the 29th March, in 
 the course of which Sir R. R. Vyvyan charged Lord J. Russell 
 
 i/
 
 218 THE AXNALS OF BRISTOL. [1836. 
 
 with corrupt practices, while his lordship stigmatised his 
 assailant as a calumniator. By order of the Speaker, the 
 two gentlemen pledged themselves to refrain from " an affair 
 of honour/' and the matter dropped. 
 
 The prospect of direct railway communication being opened 
 with London at an early date inspired an enterprising 
 Bristolian, Mr. T. E. Guppy, with the happy thought of con- 
 necting the port with the United States by means of a 
 regular service of steam vessels, which had not hitherto been 
 attempted by the most adventurous spirits on either side of 
 the Atlantic. The proposal having found many supporters, 
 a prospectus appeared, early in January, 1836, of the Great 
 Western Steamship Company, with a capital of £250,000, 
 and the project was received with a cordiality which augured 
 success. The design of the first transatlantic steamer, the 
 (iveat Western, was furnished by Mr. Brunei, and the build- 
 ing of the vessel, which was to be of 1,340 tons measure- 
 ment, having been confided to Mr. William Patterson, of 
 Wapping, the stern frame of the ship was raised on the 
 28th July amidst much rejoicing. The builder proceeded 
 with so much vigour that on the 19th July, 1837, the Great 
 Western was launched ; in the following month she left 
 for London, to be fitted with engines of 440 horse power ; 
 and in April, 1838, she returned to Bristol, having made the 
 return journey (about 670 miles) in fifty-six hours. The 
 vessel cost her owners £63,000. On the 8th April the ship, 
 big with many hopes, left Kingroad for America, seven 
 passengers risking their lives in an enterprise which many 
 scientific men and ancient mariners declared to be imprac- 
 ticable. Before her departure, however, an adroit scheme 
 was devised in other quarters to deprive the city of the 
 credit which was undoubtedly due to its undertaking. A 
 largo steamer called the Siriits, usually plying between 
 London and Cork, was despatched under Liverpool orders 
 from the Thames to the Irish port, whence, after receiving a 
 fresh store of fuel, she left for New York on the 4th April, 
 having a start over the Great Western of four days and over 
 250 miles. Notwithstanding those advantages, the race Avas 
 very close. The Sirius arrived at Sandyhook at midnight 
 on the 22nd April, but being unal)le to proceed further until 
 she had obtained coal, she did not reach New York until 
 midday on the 2;ird. The Great Western arrived two hours 
 later, with eighty tf)ns of coal on board. The result of the 
 experiment had been awaited with intense interest in America; 
 and both vessels were greeted with characteristic enthusiasm
 
 1836.] TRANSATLANTIC NAVIGATION. 219 
 
 bj the New Yorkers. The superiority of the Bristol ship was 
 manifest, and it was again attested by the return voyage. 
 The Sirius left on the 1st May and reached England on the 
 18th. The Great Wetiterii, with sixty-six passengers and 
 20,000 letters, started on the 7th May in the presence of 
 100,000 spectators, and arrived at Bristol on the 22nd, having 
 solved the great problem in spite of winds, waves, and philo- 
 sophers. Instead of consuming 1,480 tons of coal, the mini- 
 mum fixed by scientific calculators, the engines had required 
 only 392 tons on the return journey. The second voyage 
 was still more satisfactory, the outward passage being made 
 in fourteen days sixteen hours, and the homeward run in 
 twelve days fourteen hours.* The practicability of steam 
 navigation across the Atlantic being triumphantly established, 
 the policy which should have been adopted by the Bristol 
 company seems now obvious. Three or four additional 
 vessels of the Great Western type, rapidly placed on the line, 
 would have enabled the concern to establish a weekly service 
 between this port and New York, and the passenger traffic 
 between the two continents would unquestionably have flowed 
 towards the route which was not only first established but 
 which was shorter than that of Liverpool by little less than a 
 day. The merchants of the Mersey were not long in per- 
 ceiving the danger; and the construction of a fleet of steamers 
 fitted for a regular service was ordered by Mr. Cunard and 
 his friends during the autumn. It was not until late in the 
 following year that anything was resolved upon at Bristol / 
 to supplement the Great Western. And the step at length 
 taken was as imprudent as it was tardy. In lieu of pushing 
 forward two or three more Great Westerns, it was deter- 
 mined, to use a homely pi'ovei"b, to put all the company's 
 eggs into one basket — to build, in fact, a single ship nearly 
 three times the capacity of the Great Western, and to leave 
 Mr. Brunei full scope and leisure to indulge his passion for 
 experiments and novelties. The consequence was a series of 
 disasters. The Great Britain was to be constructed of iron, 
 and as no engineers could be found williug to undertake the 
 task by contract, the company were induced by their scien- 
 tific guide to establish works of their own — at a cost of 
 £52,000, and with financial results that the sagacious antici- 
 
 * A keen rivalry for early intelligence existed at this time between two 
 London journals, The Times and Morning Herald. Hoth concerns engaged 
 boats at Portishead to board the Gnat Westerv, and their messengers were 
 carried at racing speed in posting carriages from Bristol to Maidenhead, 
 where special trains were in waiting for the rest of the journey.
 
 220 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1836. 
 
 pated. The colossal ship Avas laid down in July, 1839 ; at a 
 subsequent date, Mr. Brunei determined that she should be 
 propelled by a screw instead of by paddles ; other alterations 
 followed, and it was not until four years later, July, 19th, 
 1843 — when the Cunard company had long had four steamers 
 on the transatlantic service, besides having two more nearly 
 ready — that the ship was launched. [The ceremony will be 
 noticed hereafter.] By putting the engines into the vessel 
 at the works, it was found, at the end of March, 1844, that 
 the hull was so deeply immersed as to be unable to pass out 
 of the Float, and seven months more elapsed before the 
 requisite alterations could be made for its release. It was 
 not, indeed, until December 11 — nearly seventeen months after 
 launching, and five and a half years after her inception — 
 that the Great Britain left Cumberland basin for an experi- 
 mental cruise. That she then pi^oved an excellent sea-boat 
 was nothing to the purpose. Liverpool had recovered the 
 supremacy which the Great Western had temporarily shaken, 
 and the competition of Bristol was at an end. The Great 
 Britain'' a career as an Atlantic steamer was, moreover, pre- 
 maturely cut short. In September, 1846, a few hours after 
 leaving Liverpool on her second voyage, the great ship 
 stranded on the coast of Ireland, and remained there for 
 over eleven months, which certainly proved the wonderful 
 strength of her frame — if that was any consolation to her 
 luckless proprietors, whose loss by the wreck exceeded 
 £20,000. Their works, as well as the Great Western, had 
 been already offered for sale. The Great Wextern was ulti- 
 mately disposed of for £24,750 to the West India Royal Mail 
 Company, and Messrs Gibbs, Bright & Co. bought tho 
 Great Britain in 1850 for £18,000, lier original cost to the 
 company having been £97,154. Both vessels were sent to 
 ply in the trade of rival ports. In fact, they had been driven 
 from Bristol long before. The dues charged by the Bristol 
 Dock Company on tho Great Western amounted to £106 on 
 each voyage (as much more being levied on the cargo), 
 although the ship was forced to remain in Kiugroad owing to 
 the defective accommodation in the Floating Harbour, and 
 had even to proceed to Milford for some repairs.* The Dock 
 
 • The local author of " Rambling Rhymes " [J. R. Dix] commented on the 
 Bubject as follows : — 
 
 " The WrKtcrn nn unmxtmul parent has, 
 For uU her beauty ; 
 Her mother never harhoured her, and yet 
 yhe asks for duly.
 
 1836.] THE GREAT WESTERN STEAMER DRIVEN AWAY. 221 
 
 Board was appealed to for some reduction in its demands, 
 owing to the admitted inadequacy of its works; but the cold 
 response was, that the directors had no power to make abate- 
 ments. It was then proposed to provide the required accom- 
 modation at a lower point in the Avon. A joint committee 
 Avas formed, representing the Corporation, the Merchant 
 Venturers, and the Steamship Company, and Mr. Brunei^ who 
 was called on to advise as to what should be done, suggested 
 a dock at Sea Mills and a pier at Portishead.* This, how- 
 ever, would have involved an increase in the capital of the 
 Dock Company, who were not disposed to spend money, and 
 who appear to have thought that the tolls on the Great 
 Western would continue in any case to flow into their coffers. 
 An attempt to secure a reduction of the town dues imposed 
 on the cargo having been also unsuccessful,* the proprietors 
 of the steamship resolved in February, 1842, that the vessel 
 should sail alternately from Bristol and Liverpool, and as 
 the expenses at the latter poi-t were found to be less by £200 
 per voyage, the Great Western was shortly afterwards removed 
 entirely from Bristol, as was the Great Britain from the out- 
 set of her career. The fate of the spirited company which 
 started this local enterprise may be imagined from the facts 
 already recorded. The Bristol Journal of February 14, 
 1852, remarked : ''The accounts of the company show some 
 very disastrous results. The whole of the original £100 
 shares are written off as a total loss. The loss on the Great 
 Britain alone was £107,896, and on the works £47,277." The 
 Great Western and the Severn (another Bristol built steamer) 
 were sold by the Royal Mail Steamship Company in October, 
 1856, to a shipbreaker for £11,500. 
 
 An official statement was published early in 1836 of the 
 excise duties which had been collected in Bristol durinof the 
 previous year. The figures, which illustrate not only the 
 fiscal system of the age, but also the industries of the city, 
 were as follows: — spirits, £175,980; soap, £52,304; glass, 
 £47,085; malt, £65,662; bricks, £2,003; paper, £5,660; 
 licences, £13,868; auctions, £3,452. 
 
 The popularity of the Great Western Railway scheme, 
 then in course of construction, naturally gave rise to a project 
 
 Hull, Liverpool, and other ports aloud 
 
 Cry ' Go a-head ! ' 
 A certain place that I know seems to say 
 
 ' Eeverse ! ' instead." 
 
 • " The Corporation of Bristol and its Trade and Commerce.'' By L. Bruton, 
 pp. 10, 43.
 
 222 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. 1836.] 
 
 for extending- the new system westwards. The Bristol and 
 Exeter Railway Compan}^, with a capital of £2^000^000, was 
 started under influential patronag-e ; the shares were quickly 
 taken up ; and a Bill for the construction of the undertaking 
 passed both Houses of Parliament without difficulty^ receiv- 
 ing the royal assent in May, 1836. The line, like its fore- 
 runner, was laid out by Mr. Brunei, who again adopted his 
 pet theory of the broad gauge. The work of construction 
 proceeded very slowly, the board having encountered nmcli 
 difficulty in obtaining- the necessary loans. It was indeed at 
 one time seriously discussed " whether it would not be the 
 wisest course to wind up and abandon the undertaking, or, if 
 it should be continued, whether the construction of a single 
 narrow gauge line to Bridgwater was not the extent to which 
 the works could be conducted" (Directors' Report, 1850). The 
 confidence of capitalists was, however, restored by an arrange- 
 ment made with the Great Western Company, under which 
 the latter advanced £20,000, and undertook to lease and 
 work the line for a term expiring in April, 1849. The first 
 section, between Bristol and Bridgwater, was opened on the 
 1st June, 1841, amidst much rejoicing in the district. The 
 section to Taunton was completed in July, 1842, and the 
 entire undertaking was finished and opened on the 1st May, 
 
 1844. As if to give a new illustration of the unpractical 
 mind of the engineer, the station erected in Bristol was 
 placed at a right angle with the Great Western terminus, 
 occasioning extreme annoyance to through passengers, and 
 great delay. The blunder was partially remedied under an 
 Act passed in 1845, a junction railway being then formed to 
 connect the two lines. This, however, necessitated a third 
 set of booking offices for the through trains — a monument of 
 Mr. Brunei's ingenuity which excited general derision. In 
 
 1845, the boards of the two companies came to an arrange- 
 ment for the absorption of the Bristol and Exeter line into 
 the Great Western system. But the proprietors of the former, 
 who were to receive a dividend of six per cent, in perpetuity, 
 were greatly irritated by the announcement, and when the 
 scheme was laid before them, in November, it was rejected 
 with indignation. The sliareholders had reason, however, to 
 regret tlieir decision. When the lease terminated, and the 
 line had to l)e worked iiidepiuidently, tlie first year's dividend 
 was only three per cent. ; for several years afterwards the 
 distril)ution did not exceed five per cent. ; and, as will be 
 seen hereafter, the concerns were at last amalgamnted in 
 1870 on terms which by no means recouped the shareholders
 
 183(3.] THE ASHLEY DOWN ORPHANAGES. 223 
 
 for the loss tliey liad broug-lit on themselves. It must be 
 added, that throughout its career as an independent concern, 
 the company was complained of for the extreme illiberality 
 of its system of management. So late as September, 1869, 
 only one third-class train was run from Exeter to Bristol, 
 while the second-class fare was higher than some companies 
 charged for first-class accommodation ; yet at the same time 
 the board carried Bristol excursionists to and from Weston at 
 the rate of about one farthing per mile, declaring that such 
 trains paid " as well as any they had." 
 
 The 21st April, 1836, will long be memorable as the date 
 of the foundation of the most remarkable charity of which 
 the city, and indeed the kingdom, can boast — the great 
 orphan houses at Ashley Down. The story of its author, the 
 Eev. George Miiller, has been nai-rated by himself, and it is 
 unnecessary to enter into it in detail. Born at Kroppenstaedt, 
 Prussia, in 1805, and educated at the university of Halle, 
 Mr. Miiller came to this country when in his twenty-fourth 
 year, with a desire to labour as a missionary of the Society 
 for the Conversion of the Jews. After studying for some 
 time Avith a view to fitting himself for the position, he had a 
 serious illness, and was ordered to Devonshire for change of 
 air. There he encountered Henry Craik, an able and earnest 
 minister, with whom he fox'med a life-long friendship. Be- 
 ginning to entertain doubts as to the course of life he had 
 fixed upon, Mr. Miiller resigned his studentship, and accepted 
 the ministry of an Independent congregation at Teignmouth, 
 with the modest salary of £55 a year. In a short time, how- 
 ever, he felt conscientious scruples about accepting a stipend 
 derived from pew rents, and he thereupon resolved as his 
 rule of life to place his entire reliance upon Providence, and 
 "never to ask for money from any human being." In 1832 
 he left Devonshire for Bristol, where Mr. Craik had already 
 been favourably received as a preacher, and the two friends 
 laboured together as ministers of Gideon Independent chapel, 
 in Newfoundland Street. Subsequently, Bethesda chapel, 
 near Brandon Hill, was temporarily hired as an experiment, 
 and the results were so satisfactory that it was permanently 
 retained. [In June, 1857, Mr. C. W. Finzel purchased the 
 chapel, and presented it to Messrs. Miiller and Craik's congre- 
 gation.] In 1834 Mr. Miiller established a Scriptural KnoAv- 
 ledge Institution, the objects of which were to circulate the 
 Scriptures, to ])romote education amongst the poor, to aid in 
 missionary enterprise, and — most remarkable and successful 
 of its ends — to feed, clothe, and educate destitute orphan
 
 224 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1836. 
 
 children. Mr. Miiller's diary for October, 1 835, contained tlie 
 first notice of the extraordinary undertaking he had" resolved 
 npon, for it was his purpose from the outset to ask no help 
 from the public for the immense family he was soon to draw 
 around him. He next recorded that the first donation he 
 received after intimating his purpose was a shilling, which 
 came to hand in December. Soon afterwards a friend under- 
 took to pay £50 for the rent of a house, and nearly £500 
 were soon forthcoming for fitting it up. The necessary pre- 
 parations being completed, the orphanage, furnished for 
 thirty female children, was opened on the 21st April, 1836, 
 in the house No. 6, Wilson Street, St. Paul's, near which Mr. 
 Miiller resided. Three weeks later the founder resolved 
 upon establishing another orphanage for infants, and this 
 was opened on the 15tli December following, at No. 1, Wilson 
 Street. In October, 1837, a third house in the same street 
 was hired and fitted up as an orphanage for boys, and before 
 the close of that year Mr. Miiller had seventy-five young 
 children dependent on him. " Several more are daily ex- 
 pected. During the last twelvemonth, the expenses have 
 been about £240, and the income about £840." Seven months 
 later, the fund in hand was reduced to £20, but so far from 
 feeling apprehension, "we have given notice for five children 
 to come in, and purpose to give notice for five more." The 
 entry characterises the story of the institution for several 
 of its early years, evolving an uninterrupted series of trials 
 and deliverances. Oftentimes there were not funds or stock 
 to provide for twenty-four hours in advance, yet help always 
 came in time ; a debt was never contracted ; and Mr. Miiller 
 neither doubted nor desponded. As time went on, and the 
 phenomenal character of the institution became more widely 
 known, subscriptions from distant places — in fact from all 
 parts of the world — began to flow in. The funds accumu- 
 lating, a fourth house for girls was opened in the same street 
 in July, 1843. Ordinary dwelling houses were necessarily ill- 
 adapted for Mr. Miiller's requirements ; and the inhabitants 
 of Wilson Street remonstrated against the inconveniences to 
 which the institutions exposed tlu-ni. In 1845, accordingl}'-^ 
 the philanthropist resolved on building ;in (>r])lianage large 
 enough to accommodate 300 children. The announcement 
 appears to have alarmed his usual supporters, for scarcely 
 any donations were offered for some tinu'. At length, how- 
 ever, two gifts of £1,000 each came in, and Mr. Miiller 
 entered into a contract for the purchase of seven acres of 
 ground at Ashley ITill, the ownci- of which accepted £120 an
 
 1836.] THE ASHLEY DOWN ORPHANAGES. 225 
 
 ■acre out of sympathy with the object. No further pecuniary 
 difficulty was encountered; and in June 1849, Avhen the 
 building was finished at a cost of £14,500, the whole of 
 which, with £500 to boot, had been provided, the children 
 were removed and the houses in Wilson Street abandoned. 
 The housekeeping expenses of the new institution, when it 
 became fully occupied, wei^e £70 per week; and many people 
 condemned the founder for what they termed his rashness 
 and presumption in trusting upon casual gifts for the main- 
 tenance of so great an undertaking. In point of fact, the 
 enlarged hospital was scarcely ever threatened with the 
 embarrassments that hung so long over the Wilson Street 
 establishments; and within eighteen months from its opening 
 Mr. Miiller determined on the ei^ection of a second and much 
 more spacious building, capable of accommodating seven 
 hundred additional orphans. The estimated cost was about 
 £35,000. Subsequently the plan was extended, and it was 
 determined to erect two new orphanages, one for 400 infants 
 and girls, and the other for 450 girls. The former was 
 begun in 1855, and opened in 1857 ; the other was finished 
 in 1862. Enormous as had become the responsibilities and 
 expenditure of the institution, Mr. Miiller felt an inward 
 conviction that his work was not accomplished; and he next 
 declared his intention to construct two additional houses, to 
 accommodate 900 children, about equally divided between 
 the sexes, and raising the total number of orphans to 2,050. 
 One of these was finished in 1868, and the other in 1870. 
 [Those who are unacquainted with the institution may form 
 an idea of its extent from the following figures, published in 
 1868, giving the quantity of materials consumed in the con- 
 struction of the last two orphanages only : — building stone, 
 36,000 tons; freestone, 15,000 tons; lime and ashes, 14,000 
 tons ; timber, 10,000 tons ; deal boarding, 2 acres ; paving, 
 1^ acre; plastering, 10 acres; slating, 2 acres; painting, 4^ 
 acres; glazing, ^ acre; rainwater pipes. If mile; drain 
 pipes 3 miles.] The total expenditure for buildings had 
 then been raised to about £115,000. The annual cost of the 
 establishment has since been nearly £25,000. The sole con- 
 ditions of admittance, which have never varied from the 
 outset, are that a child be a legitimate orphan, destitute, and 
 deprived of both parents by death. According to the yearly 
 report published in August, 1886, the amount forwarded to 
 Mr. Miiller for the various objects of his Scriptural Know- 
 ledge Institution then exceeded £1,086,000, of which about 
 £700jOOO were for the orphanages. No debt was ever
 
 226 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. [1836. 
 
 incurred on behalf of tlie charity, which is still, as when 
 its benevolent head began the work, entirely dependent on 
 the liberality of the Christian world. The number of children 
 confided to*^ Mr. Miiller had reached 7,294 in May, 1886. 
 The contributors are of all classes. Sometimes a poor person 
 sends a few pence ; rich sympathisers occasionally forward 
 from £1,000 to £5,000, and as much as £11,000 have been 
 presented at once. Ostentation, moreover, cannot influence 
 the givers, for their names never appear in print. Mr. Miiller 
 relinquished his personal superintendence of the orphanages 
 in 1872, when he delegated his labours to his son-in-law, 
 Mr. Wright. 
 / The population of the city at this date was probably ten 
 
 ^ or twelve times greater than it had been during the middle 
 ages. Nevertheless the extent of the parochial churchyards 
 had remained practically unaltered, the only addition of any 
 importance being the cemetery attached to Trinity Church, 
 St. Philip's ; and as only a few Dissenting bodies had made 
 provision for interments, the urgent need of increased space 
 had long been painfully known to all classes. In May, 1836, 
 the Bristol General Cemetery Company, Avith a capital of 
 £15,000 in £20 shares, was formed for supplying this want. 
 According to statistics published by the promoters, the area 
 of the existing chui'chyards, including the sites of the 
 churches, was only fourteen acres. An Act of Parliament 
 having been obtained in 1837, about twenty-eight acres of 
 ground were purchased at Arno's Vale, a moiety of which 
 was laid out as a cemetery, and a portion was consecrated in 
 October, 1840. The entire cost was £16,387. Owing to a 
 clause inserted in the Company's Act through the interference 
 of Bishop Monk, a fee of ten shillings was reserved to the 
 clergy of the city on each body interred in the consecrated 
 portion of the ground. As this cost doubled the charge on 
 every simple interment, its effect was almost prohibitive. 
 The num])er of burials in 1842 was only twenty-five, and the 
 average for the first seven years was under 100. Tlie closing 
 of the city churchyards under the Health of Towns Act, 
 however, wrought a cnmploto cliango in the ])osition of the 
 company, lu 1860 the remainijig half of the land was in- 
 cluded in the cemetery, and as this was rapidly appropriated, 
 an Act for olitaining additional ground was obtained in 1880. 
 'i'lio reorganisation of the Established Cluircli, with a 
 view to the better apj)licatiou of its revenues to the altered 
 conditions of society, was another of the great questions 
 which were pressed upon the reformed llouso of Commons
 
 183G.] THE BISHOPRIC OF BRISTOL. 227 
 
 by the constituencies. Amongst the defects most urgently 
 demanding amendment were the anomalous incomes and posi- 
 tion of the English sees. The Bishop of Durham, with the 
 supervision of two thinly populated counties, had an income 
 of about £21,000 a year, besides extensive and valuable 
 patronage. The bishopric of London was worth £15,000, and 
 the bishopric of Ely £11,000 a year, to say nothing of the 
 opportunities they afforded to their occupants of enriching 
 relatives and friends. On the other hand, the sees of Bristol, 
 Carlisle, and Gloucester were endowed with only about £2,200 
 apiece, while the Bishop of Rochester had only £1,500, and 
 the Bishop of Llandaff barely £900. The diocese of York, 
 again, contained a population of nearly a million and a half, 
 and that of Chester nearly two millions ; while Ely, with its 
 excessive wealth, embraced only 126,000 souls, and several 
 others had less than 200,000. In March, 183G, the Ecclesias- 
 tical Commissioners, to whom those gigantic anomalies had 
 been referred with a view to legislation, recommended, 
 amongst other matters, a rearrangement of dioceses and 
 the creation of two new bishoprics — Manchester and Ripon — 
 for the supervision of the swarming population of Lancashire 
 and Yorkshire. It was, however, one of the cherished 
 theories of the Churchmen of that age that every bishop must 
 be a member of the House of Peers ; and as the feeling of 
 the popular chamber was known to be decidedly hostile to 
 the increase of the ecclesiastical lords, the Commissioners 
 proposed to avoid the difficulty by suppressing two of the old 
 sees. The diocese of Bristol, it was suggested, might be 
 conveniently amalgamated with that of Llandaff (or, as it was 
 subsequently proposed, with Wells), while Bangor could be 
 united with St. Asaph. A few months later, a further report 
 recommended the blending of the sees of Bristol and Glou- 
 cester, and in despite of several local protests the plan was 
 forthwith sanctioned. A death which unluckily occurred in 
 the episcopal body allowed the Commissioners' scheme to be 
 carried out without delay. Dr. Allen, appointed Bishop of 
 Bristol in 1834, on the death of Dr. Gray, was transferred 
 to the vacant see of Ely, whereupon Dr. Monk, Bishop of 
 Gloucester, added the archdeaconry of Bristol to his former 
 diocese under the direction of an Order in Council of the 
 17th October, 183G, — the county of Dorset, the remaining part 
 of the diocese of Bristol, being added to Salisbury. [About 
 the same time the prebendaries of Bristol — thenceforth 
 styled canons — were ordered to be reduced from six to four, 
 but the existing functionaries retained their places for life or
 
 228 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1836. 
 
 until they received promotion.] The episcopal arrangement 
 was loudly condemned by Churchmen in Bristol, and, being 
 regarded as a slur on the dignity of the city, it was far from 
 approved by many Dissenters. To soften the blow, an im- 
 plied promise was made that Bishop Monk and his successors 
 should reside in or near Bristol during a part of each year; 
 and the Ecclesiastical Commissioners took measures for pro- 
 viding the bishop with a second palace for that purpose. 
 Stapleton House, the property of Isaac Elton, Esq., with 
 about sixty acres of adjoining land, was eventually selected 
 as the most convenient and desirable site, and the estate 
 was purchased in April, 1840, for £11,500. Towards the 
 payment of the purchase money the Commissioners had 
 £6,000 paid by the citizens in compensation for the palace 
 burned during the riots, and £1,450 more obtained in 1837 
 by selling the site and garden of the ruined edifice.* The 
 charge incurred for the new residence might therefore have 
 been inconsiderable. But the Commissioners, whose reckless 
 profusion in reference to episcopal palaces was frequently 
 criticised in the House of Commons, were not content to make 
 the modest alterations suggested by Bishop Monk, the cost 
 of which need not have exceeded £3,000 ; and in spite of his 
 lordship's remonstrances they set about a wholesale recon- 
 struction, designed by their London architect, who rapidly 
 raised the total expenditure on the mansion to £23,908. t 
 To put a climax to their extravagance, it was resolved, on the 
 death of Dr. Monk, to rebuild the palace at Gloucester, on 
 which £14,411 were soon afterwards squandered. The latter 
 transaction was sought to be veiled by a so-called economy, 
 — the abandonment and sale of the palace at Stapleton, in 
 defiance of the promises that had been held out to the 
 citizens of Bristol. After standino- for manv years unoccu- 
 pied, Stapleton House, with the land, was sold in October, 
 1858, to the trustees of Colston's School for £12,000— almost 
 exactly half its cost. The steps recently taken for the 
 restoration of the bishopric will be recf)rdod hereafter. 
 
 The sixth annual congress of the British Association was 
 held in Bristol in August, when upwards of 1,100 members 
 took part in the proceedings. The sections into which the 
 
 • The ConiniissionerB disjilnyod clinrnctoristio Bliortsii^lilcdnosK in disposing 
 of tliis (^'roiind. In August, IHHl, ftpprflifiisive tliiit a noisy or offcnRive factory 
 might be built on tlie jjortion (ilmtting on tlic catluclral, tlu; Coniniissiouers 
 purcliascd of the Cori)oriition (which hud rocr ntly acquired tlie Kite) a strip of 
 l.r.RO square vardR fU-ss than a fourth of the whole) for tlio puni of £1,1(10. 
 
 t Parlianif-ntary rfturn, IH17 ; Report of Coninions' Committee, 1848.
 
 1836.1 TISIT OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 229 
 
 •J 
 
 Association was divided were accommodated as follows : 
 Mathematics (President, Professor Wliowell), in the Merchants' 
 Hall. Chemistry (Professor Gumming), Grammar School. 
 Geography and Geology (Dr. Buckland), Institution. Zoology 
 (Professor Henslow), and Botany (Dr. Roget), Colston's 
 School. Statistics (Sir Charles Lemon) Cathedral Chapter 
 House. Mechanics (Mr. Davies Gilbert) Merchants' Hall. 
 Amongst the crowd of distinguished men present were the 
 Marquis of Northampton (who presided in the absence of the 
 Marquis of Lansdowne), Lord King, Sir David Bi'ewster, Sir 
 John Rennie, Sir W. Hamilton, and Messrs Faraday, Sedg- 
 wick, Murchison, Wheatstone, De la Beche, Hallani, Cubitt, 
 Lubbock, Fox Talbot, Brunei, and the poets Moore and 
 Bowles. The general committee met in the Chapter House, 
 and reunions took place nightly at the theatre. The meeting 
 was especially interesting to geologists, owing to the extensive 
 cuttings made in the district for the construction of the 
 Great Western railway. Another prominent feature of the 
 proceedings was the laying, by the President, of the founda- 
 tion stone of the south pier of the Suspension Bi'idge. In 
 order that this ceremony might not interfere with the work 
 of the sections, it took place at the unusual hour of seven in 
 the morning. The "wise week" of 1886 is now chiefly memor- 
 able for an unlucky prediction, uttered by Dr. Lardner in the 
 course of a lecture at the Institution on the subject of steam 
 communication with America. The lecturer and his audience 
 were aware that a few enterprising Bristolians were build- 
 ing a steam vessel in the hope of establishing a more rapid 
 system of transit between tlie two continents. The learned 
 doctor, however, contended that such an enterprise was 
 " Quixotic," and produced voluminous calculations to show 
 that " 2,080 miles was the longest run a steamer could 
 encounter; at the end of that distance she would require a 
 relay of coal." At the conclusion of the discourse, Mr. 
 Brunei, the designer of the new ship, briefly observed that 
 the lecturer had founded his conclusions upon the perfor- 
 mances of old vessels ; but the Doctor was not to be shaken 
 from opinions which he had repeatedly afiirmed in his 
 " Encyclopaedia " and elsewhere. In December of the 
 previous year he had lectured on the subject at Liverpool, 
 where he affirmed that the project of direct steam intercourse 
 between that port and New York was '^ perfectly chimerical ; 
 they might as well talk of making a voyage from New York 
 or Liverpool to the moon." Some half dozen years after- 
 wards, Dr. Lardner proceeded to the United States by the
 
 230 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1836. 
 
 system of navigation lie had deemed practically impossible. 
 He had previously admitted his mistake by urging the estab- 
 lishment of steam communication with India. 
 
 Amongst the local papers read during the above congress 
 Tvas one on education, by Mr. C. B. Fripp, which records 
 some noteworthy statistics. Mr. Fripp showed, that while 
 the population of the city was over 112,000, of whom 20,000 
 ought to be attending school, the actual number receiving 
 instruction in Bristol was only about 5,200. In 1882, when 
 the population had not quite doubled, the number of children 
 on the school registers was 30,000, and the average attend- 
 ance 22,170. 
 
 One of the provisions of the Municipal Corporations Act 
 having transferred the judgeship of the court of quarter 
 sessions and of the local courts of record to the Recorder, Sir 
 Charles Wetherell in his new capacity opened the ancient 
 Court of Piepoudre according to ancient forms, in the Old 
 Market, at the time of the September fair. According to 
 immemorial precedent, toast, cheese, and metheglin were 
 provided for the entertainment of the official staff and their 
 friends, beer and cider being also distributed to the common- 
 alty. The scene was, as usual, a disorderly one, a portion of 
 the victuals and hquor being thrown about in a roisterous 
 way amongst the populace. Sir Charles Wetherell, however, 
 maintained his gravest demeanour on the occasion, having 
 previously ordered that all the old customs of the court should 
 be strictly maintained. The summoning of a long roll of 
 people "to come forth and do suit and service" — although 
 they had been dead for centuries — was another farce of this 
 ancient tribunal ; but Sir Charles never relaxed a muscle 
 when, in reply to the clerk, he declined to fine the defaulters 
 for non-attendance, seeing that, as he was informed, they 
 could not be found. The yearly disturbance arising from 
 the feast ultimately led to its sup])ression, and the holding of 
 the court was discontinued after 1870. 
 
 During the parliamentary contest over the Municipal 
 Corporations liill, it was found impossible to niako arrange- 
 ments for the future administration of the charity estates 
 which the old corpf)rations, in their capacity of trustees, were 
 alleged to liave abused for political pur]X)ses. Towards the 
 end of the conflict between the two Houses, it was accordingly 
 determined to insert a clause in the Act leaving the charities 
 in the hands of their former governors until August, 1836, 
 after which date, if Parliament had not otherwise directed, 
 new trustees were to be appointed by the Lord Chancellor
 
 1836.] APPOINTMENT OF CHARITY TRUSTEES. 231 
 
 on petitions from each locality. In tlie session of 1836 a 
 Bill was brought in for the administration of the charities by 
 boards chosen by popular election, but this proposal was not 
 unjustly condemned by the Conservatives as highly objection- 
 able, and it was rejected by the House of Lords. As the 
 Ministry refused to assent to the request of the Tory peers 
 for a further delay of a year, the Lord Chancellor became 
 entitled to exercise his jurisdiction. Some Liberal members 
 of the Bristol Council thereupon petitioned his lordship for 
 the creation of a board of trustees, composed of eighteen 
 members, half of whom, it was suggested, should be Con- 
 servatives. The proposal was approved at a meeting of the 
 Council in September, and the names of nine Tories and nine 
 Liberals were forwarded to the Chancellor. At another 
 meeting, a week later, it Avas reported that the Master in 
 Chancery to whom the case had been referred wished the 
 board to consist of an uneven number of trustees, whereupon 
 the promoters of the trust requested the Conservatives to 
 increase the names on their list from nine to ten, stating that 
 they should themselves select eleven. Most of the Tories who 
 had been nominated were greatly offended at their party being 
 refused predominance in the trust, and requested that their 
 names should be withdrawn. Other members of the majority, 
 still more irritated, flung aside the dictates of prudence, and 
 a resolution was angrily passed, at the instance of Mr. Pinney, 
 by which the Council refused to take any further steps in 
 the formation of a charity board. In consequence of this 
 unfortunate resolution the matter was thrown entirely into the 
 hands of the Liberals, and the desire of the latter party to 
 avenge their treatment at the aldermanic election prompted 
 them to a policy as indefensible as was that of their oppo- 
 nents. Another petition to the Chancellor was forwarded by 
 Mr. R. Ash and Mr. C E. Sanders, and in October, 1836, his 
 lordship confirmed the appointment of the gentlemen they had 
 nominated, namely : Richard Ash, George Bengough, Samuel 
 Brown, Thomas Carlisle, Michael H. Castle, James Cunninp^- 
 ham, Thomas Davies, Robert Fiske, Charles Bowles Fripp, 
 John Kerle Haberfield, William Harwood,_William Herapath, 
 Thomas Powell, George B. Sanders/:;;^lm Savag^ Richard 
 Smith, W. P. Taunton, George ThomasTWilliam l"^hill, Har- 
 man Visger, and James Wood. Only three of those gentle- 
 men — Messrs. Haberfield, Smith, and Savage — were Conser- 
 vatives, against eighteen Liberals, a disproportion obviously 
 inequitable in every point of view. The board lost no time 
 in entering upon its work ; Mr. James Cunningham being
 
 232 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1836. 
 
 appointed chairman, and Mr. T. J. Mancliee (the compiler of 
 a useful work on Bristol charities) secretary. Inquiries were 
 forthwith set on foot with reference to the estates and 
 accounts of the various charities ; and the results soon threw 
 a singular light on the asserted honest and faithful adminis- 
 tration of the old corporate body. The manipulation of the 
 funds of Queen Elizabeth's Hospital by the Common Council 
 had provoked some strong reflections from the Royal Com- 
 missioners. But those officials, it was now discovered, had 
 been allowed a very imperfect acquaintance with the true 
 facts of the case. In the year 1767 the boys of the hospital, 
 then located in a stately house in Orchard Street, erected at 
 the expense of Colston and other benevolent citizens, were 
 / transferred to inconvenient and unhealthy premises in Christ- 
 \ / mas Street, previously appropriated to the Grammar School. 
 The pretext for this transfer was, that the Orchard Street 
 school would accommodate "twice the number of young 
 gentlemen " who attended in Christmas Street ; but the real 
 motive of the change — as has been already shown at page 46 
 — was to give a better and more fashionable domicile to 
 the head-master of the Grammar School, who had married 
 the daughter of an influential alderman. Not content with 
 depriving the charity of its " stately house," the Corporation 
 proceeded to acts still more unjustifiable. For some years 
 previous to the above transfer, the Common Council had 
 been spending more than its income, and money had been 
 borrowed from the hospital funds to supply the deficiency ; 
 " seals " (bonds) to the total amount of £4,715 being out- 
 standing in 1771. The Corporation paid no interest on this 
 debt, as it ought to have done. On the contrary, it being 
 convenient to make the most of so productive a milch cow, 
 the boys in the hospital were reduced from forty-eight to 
 forty, in order to liberate a larger portion of the yeai'ly 
 income. Matters proceeded in this way until 1781, when the 
 Corporation was in serious pecuniary embarrnssmont, and 
 owed the hosjiital £2, 100 for interest alone. The difliculty 
 was surmounted l)y the ingenuity of Alderman Harris, at 
 whose instigation the Common Council resolved on a financial 
 masterstroke. When the hospital was established, the Cor- 
 poration, to fnrtlier the designs of its benevolent founder, 
 made certain gifts, amounting to £3,000, towards the work — 
 claiming the praise of Queen Elizabeth for the munificent 
 spirit which had actuated them. Ahlerman Harris's device, 
 — cordially np^iroved by liis colhwgiica — was to treat those 
 gifts as loans, and to charge the hospital compound interest
 
 1836.] THE OLD CORPORATION AND THE CHARITIES. 233 
 
 on the so-called debt, at rates varying from ten to five per 
 cent, per annum. The result of this operation was to bring 
 the charity under enormous liabilities; and the corporate 
 body thereupon quashed the " seals " due to the hospital, 
 together with the arrears of interest, and ordered the 
 scholars to be reduced to thirty-six. As all the proceedings 
 of the Corporation were transacted in private and under an 
 oath of secrecy, nothing was publicly known of this financial 
 legerdemain until the Charity Commissioners examined the 
 accounts in 1821. The Corporation then unblushingly 
 asserted that the hospital was indebted to their treasury in 
 the sum of £46,499. Such were the facts which the Charity 
 Trustees had to deal with. It was impossible to restore the 
 ancient schoolhouse to the charity, since an Act of Parliament 
 had been astutely obtained to legalise the transfer ; but the 
 manipulation of the funds admitted of different treatment. 
 A skilful accountant, Mr. Joshua Jones, made a thorough 
 examination of the civic accounts on behalf of the trustees, 
 and he eventually reported, in October, 1837, that, so far 
 from the hospital being hugely indebted to the city, as was 
 still contended at the Council House, the Corporation owed 
 the chai'ity a capital sum of £57,916, which, if simple interest 
 were added at the rates charged by the Common Council on 
 their fictitious claim, would be increased to £240,569. The 
 Council had also engaged an 'accountant, Mr. Fletcher, and 
 that gentleman produced his version of the facts in February, 
 1839, asserting that £21,000 were due to his clients. This 
 calculation, however, appears to have been universally dis- 
 credited. Various abortive efforts were made to effect a 
 compromise, during which the local newspaper which had at 
 first ridiculed as a " mare's nest" the claim of the trustees, 
 began to violently assail them for endeavouring to " ruin the 
 ratepayers." The trustees having at length commenced 
 proceedings in the Court of Chancery, some influential 
 members of the Council, warned by legal advisers of the 
 hopelessness of the defence, entered into private negotiations 
 with the plaintiffs, who made large concessions, and the 
 matter was finally arranged in January, 1842. The basis of 
 the agreement was that — in this as in other cases — the 
 property belonging to the charity should be surrendered 
 by the Corporation, which should also refund the revenue 
 received subsequent to the Municipal Reform Act coming 
 into operation. As regarded this hospital, the Common 
 Council paid off the old bonds for £4,715 already referred 
 to, with interest from January, 1836, and returned £1,200 re-
 
 234 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1836. 
 
 ceived from rents ; two crown-rents amounting to £61 3,<;. 5(7. 
 per annum were surrendered; and "Alderman Barker's 
 gift" of £103, witli several years' arrears, was refunded. In 
 all, £7,174, and crown-rents of a capital value of £1,500 were 
 returned to tlie charity. During tlie later days of the 
 management of the old Corporation the number of boys in 
 the school was forty-two. The trustees at once increased the 
 number to 120, and afterwards augmented it to 220. — Another 
 dispute arose betAveen the Council and the trustees with 
 refei'ence to the Bartholomew Lands, which the latter body 
 held to be the property of the Grammar School. It appears 
 from the minutes of the Common Council that on the 15th 
 September, 1814, it was resolved that the rental of an estate 
 at Brislington, part of the Bartholomew Lands, and previously 
 carried into the city chest, should be thenceforth transferred 
 to Foster's Almshouse, to which the property was held to 
 belong. In July, 1827, however, an alderman, emulous of 
 the fame of Mr. Harris, moved for a committee to investigate 
 the title of the entire estate. This body, of whom the alder- 
 man in question was the guiding spirit, having produced a 
 report " after careful investigation," asserting in effect that 
 the Bartholomew Lands vested absolutely in the Corporation, 
 subject to a small payment to the Grammar School, the 
 Council, in December, 1827, again inspired by the alderman 
 aforesaid, declared the resolution of 1814 to be rescinded, 
 and decreed the funds in hand (about £4,000) to be the sole 
 property of the Corporation. It must now be added that the 
 prime mover in this transaction was Mr. Alderman Fi'ipp 
 (jun.), who testified before the House of Lords in 1835 that 
 the Corporation had piously, honoiirably, and discreetly 
 administered the charities which had been confided to its 
 control. The Charity Trustees, in 1837, commenced a legal 
 suit for the recovery of the estate; and after lengthy pro- 
 ceedings in Chancery, that court, in January, 1842, with the 
 consent of the defendants, gave judgment in favour of the 
 trustees. The Council accordingly surrendered the property, 
 and returned about £1,260, being the mesne profits from 
 January, 1836, with interest. — Another and more remai-kable 
 litigation arose out of what was known as "Codrington's gift" 
 to Trinity Hospital. Previous to the year 1572, Francis Cod- 
 rington (sheriff in 1544) bccjueathed £50 to liis friend and 
 follow merchant, ^Villiam Carr, requesting him to invest the 
 money in land, and to apply the profits to maintaining the 
 bedding in Barstaple's (Trinity) Hos]ntal, which then pro- 
 vided entertainment for poor travellers, hi pursuance of
 
 1836.] THE OLD CORPORATION AND THE CHARITIES. 235 
 
 this bequest, Carr purcliased nearly 210 acres of land at 
 Portishead for £48, and soon after leased the estate for 1,000 
 years to the Corporation of Bristol, upon trust that the 
 lessees would devote the entire receipts arising therefrom to 
 the maintenance of the hospital. This trust was fulfilled for 
 some forty years. But about 1616 the Corporation bought a 
 large estate at Portishead on its own account, and thencefor- 
 ward appropriated the rents of the whole property, Codring- 
 ton's gift included. The malfeasance escaped the notice of 
 the Chainty Commissioners in 1820; and it was not until the 
 misappropriation had continued for nearly two centuries and 
 a quarter that the Charity Trustees discovered the facts. 
 The Codrington estate then yielded over £200 a year. Ap- 
 plication for relief was made to the Court of Chancery, which 
 — by consent of the litigants — ordered the property to be 
 transferred to the Charity Trustees, its legal owners ; £708 
 being refunded in the shape of arrears. In all the above 
 cases, the vast misappropriations of the old Corporation, 
 which certainly exceeded a quarter of a million sterling, 
 including interest, were condoned in the interest of the rate- 
 payers, who had possessed no control over the Common 
 Council, and who reasonably protested against being victim- 
 ised for its misdeeds. Still another case remains to be 
 noticed. In 1553 Dr. George Owen granted certain lands in 
 Redcliff and other parts of the city to the Corporation, in 
 order to increase the number of inmates in Foster's Alms- 
 house by ten poor men, the cost being estimated by the donor 
 at £15 3.<f. per annum. In course of time the property in 
 question greatly increased in value ; but in order to diminish 
 the yearly proceeds it became the custom of the Common 
 Council to grant leases upon lives at very low annual rents, 
 while the fines on renewals, which were proportionably large, 
 were coolly carried to the corporate treasury. This estate 
 was also claimed through the Court of Chancery by the 
 Charity Trustees, and after a struggle the Council consented 
 to yield up the entire property (estimated to be worth £1,200 
 a year after the leases had expired), and also paid over 
 arrears from 1836, amounting to £1,027. [By a sclaeme con- 
 firmed by Lord Chancellor Lyndhurst in 1843, five-sixths 
 of Owen's estate were applied to the use of the Grammar 
 School, and the remainder to the support of Foster's Alms- 
 house.] This brief summary of the proceedings of the 
 Charity Trustees during the early years of their existence 
 will suffice to show the true character of that system of 
 charity administration which was described by Alderman
 
 // 
 
 236 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1836. 
 
 Fripp in liis evidence before the House of Lords as wholly 
 irreproachable. It is needless to state that the members of 
 the reformed body did no more than their duty in defending 
 the interests committed to their charge. The proposal for a 
 compromise of the disputes on the terms actually adopted 
 was informally made by the Charity Trustees about the close 
 of 1841, when the Council applied to Sir Charles Wetherell 
 for his advice upon the subject. The recorder having, on the 
 5th January following, recommended the acceptance of the 
 proposal, the corporate committee Avho had charge of the 
 matter recommended the Council to sanction the arrangement, 
 which " would terminate a painful and irritating litigation, 
 and would in its results relieve the inhabitants not only from 
 the expenditure attending its continuance, but also the risk 
 of a much larger pecuniary sacrifice." A resolution adopting 
 this report was formally passed by the Council on the 12tli 
 January, 1842, and was confirmed by the Lord Chancellor in 
 a judgment delivered on the 27th of the same month. By 
 the decree of the latter, the Corporation retained the manage- 
 ment of the ''gifts" left by the following persons — chiefly for 
 sermons or church poor : Thomasine Harrington, Alderman 
 Long, — Powell or Powl, — Silk, — Wheatley, W. Spencer, 
 W. Carr, Ijady Rogers, J. Bagod, M. Brown, P. Matthews, Sir 
 J. Young, — Fownes, J. Griffin, W. Gibbs, and E. Cross ; also 
 " the Mayor's gift." After all the disputes had been settled, 
 the Charity Trustees passed a vote of thanks to their solicitor, 
 Mr. Meshach Brittan, to Avhose unwearied zeal and judicious 
 counsel the i-ecovery of the funds was lai-goly due. In 1851, 
 when the number of trustees had been nmch diminished by 
 death, the political majority in the Council, who had long 
 repented of their hasty action in 1836, petitioned the Lord 
 Chancellor to ap]">oint nine now members, all the persons 
 suggested to him being Conservatives. The Liberal majority 
 of the trustees — to prove, perhaps, that wrongheadedness 
 was not peculiar to any political party — ap])lied to be re- 
 cruited l)y gentlemen from their own camp. In the following 
 year. Lord St. Leonards, implying a rebuke to both sides, 
 selected four names from the Council's list, and five from that 
 of the trustees. This reconstruction of the board put an end 
 to the cliargcs of party animus which had l)een frequently, 
 though groundlessly, made against the trust by exasperated 
 party writers. 
 
 The last local duel of which any record has been found in 
 tlio newspapers was fought on tlie 24th January, 1837, u])on 
 Durdham Down. The antagonists are described as " a gen-
 
 1837.] THE GREAT WESTERN COTTON COMPANY. 237 
 
 tleman of the Hotwells, and a foreigner residing in this 
 neighbourhood." After an exchange of shots, the seconds 
 succeeded in effecting an arrangement. 
 
 The manufacture of cotton cloth was established in Bristol 
 in 1793, when about 250 hands were employed in a factory 
 in Temple Street. The price of the poorly-printed goods 
 intended for ladies' dress was at that time about four shillings 
 a yard. In the Bristol Journal oi July 6, 1805, "a capital 
 cotton manufactory in Temple Street carried on for several 
 years past " was advertised to be let. There were seventy 
 looms on the premises, and the advertiser added : " There is 
 a cotton mill and bleaching-field in the neighbourhood, where 
 good twist and weft may be had." No further mention has 
 been found of this establishment, and it was probably dis- 
 continued. In 1835 another attempt was made to add cotton- 
 spinning to the industries of the city, a cotton twist and 
 cloth company being proposed, with a capital of £200,000. 
 The scheme was abandoned, owing to insufficient support; but 
 in the spring of 1837, a party of ten influential gentlemen, in 
 conjunction with a Mr. G. B. Clarke, of Manchester, started 
 a private company under the style of Clarke, Acramans, 
 Maze & Co. A little later, this concern merged into a joint- 
 stock adventure, and assumed the name of the Great Western 
 Cotton Company. A piece of land having- been purchased 
 at Barton Hill, the foundation stone of the intended factory 
 was laid on the 18th April, 1837. A twelvemonth later a 
 fete took place on the completion of the building. The first 
 piece of cotton manufactured by the company was presented 
 to the mayor (Mr. Haberfield) in January, 1839. The com- 
 pany, which had been already once or twice reorganised 
 owing to the death of its proprietors — always a limited 
 number — was again reconstructed in the spring of 1885, 
 when the capital was fixed at £100,000 in £20 shares. Mr. 
 [Sir] J, D. Weston became chairman of the new company, in 
 which several wealthy citizens held an interest. 
 
 The new Custom House, Queen Square, erected upon the 
 site of the building destroyed during the riots, was opened 
 for business purposes on the 14th March, 1837. During its 
 construction the work of the department had been conducted 
 in a large house in St. Augustine's Place, near Colston's 
 School, once the mansion of the Swymmer family, whose 
 ultimate heiress married Thomas Fane, who about the middle 
 of the eighteenth century was clerk to the Merchant Venturers' 
 Company, but afterwards succeeded to the earldom of West- 
 moreland. [This fine old house, since demolished for the
 
 238 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1837. 
 
 formation of Colston Street, contained a quantity of carved 
 oak wainscoting, etc., whicli was purchased by Mr. W. Carne 
 for beautifying some of the cliief rooms in St. Donat's Castle, 
 near Cowbridge.] 
 
 Tlie destruction of spring garden produce in 1837 by re- 
 peated frosts gave rise to a new trade between Cornwall and 
 this port. Mr, Dupen, master of a steamer plying to and 
 from Hayle, brought on one occasion about fifty Cornish 
 brocoli, which Bristolians eagerly purchased. About fifteen 
 dozen were brought in on his next trip, and sixty dozen in 
 the following week, a portion of the last being sent to Bath, 
 where they were quickly sold. Mr. Dupen carried on the 
 trade for some years, and gave a great impetus to market- 
 gardening in Cornwall. A local journal of March, 1859, in 
 stating that the quantity of brocoli received from that county 
 each spring had swollen to from 30,000 to 40,000 dozen, 
 added : '' This week the Cornubia brought 880 baskets, con- 
 taining fi'om fifteen to eighteen dozen each." 
 
 In April, 1837, the churchwardens of St. Stephen's, exercis- 
 ing the power vested in them by the law, seized part of the 
 furniture of a Mr. Brown, of Queen Square, a respectable 
 Dissenter, on account of his refusal to pay the sum of 9.s*. 
 demanded for church-rates. The seizure occasioned some 
 excitement, and so large a crowd assembled at the Albion 
 Tavern, Prince's Street, where the property was to be sold, 
 that the auctioneer was afraid to proceed. The goods were 
 disposed of privately, however, and the rate, with the costs, 
 was recovei-ed. Church-rates were then levied in nearly all 
 the parishes of the city, and the defeats of dissenting minorities 
 at the annual vestry meetings were invariably reported in 
 the Bristol Journal as " victories of the Establishment." A 
 more sagacious view of the matter, however, gradually pre- 
 vailed. The above case is the latest recorded of an enforced 
 payment by means of bailiffs, and, some years before the law 
 was altered to meet the wishes of Nonconformists, the com- 
 pulsory .system was abandoned in Bristol, except in the parish 
 of St. Augustine's. 
 
 The death of William IV. took place on the 20th June. 
 His successor, Queen Victoria, whoso majority in the pre- 
 ceding month had caused general rejoicing, was proclaimed 
 in Bristol on the 24th ; and the ceremony offered a great 
 contrast to the cold pageants which had marked the acces- 
 sion of the two previous monarchs. Much of the " state " 
 of tho old Corporation — including the "knights in armour" 
 — had, indeed, disappeared; but, in addition to tho civic
 
 1837.] THE QUEEN PROCLAIMED. ELECTION. 239 
 
 officials, a number of the local clergy and ministers, tlie 
 magistrates, the Charity Trustees, and many respectable in- 
 habitants joined in the procession, much sympathy being felt 
 for one called to the cares of sovereignty at so early an age. 
 It must be added in the interests of truth, that the attachment 
 of the people to the monarchy had been rudely shaken by 
 the experience of the previous quarter of a century; and the 
 opinion expressed about this time by Sir Robert Peel, that the 
 throne was visibly hastening to its fall, denoted the critical 
 condition of the pnblic mind. Chartism, which really meant 
 republicanism, had many supporters amongst the working 
 classes in Bristol, but there was little open manifestation of 
 hostility during the proceedings of the day. Proclamation 
 was made at the seven accustomed places from a car drawn 
 by grey horses, the red cloth-covered rostrum of Georgian 
 days being superseded. 
 
 At the general election in July, caused by the demise of 
 the king, the two Conservative members of the previous 
 Parliament retired into private life — Mr. Miles on the ground 
 of his advanced age ; Sir Richard Vyvyan from his disgust 
 at the attitude of the leaders of his party, who in his opinion 
 were pusillanimously truckling to new-fangled principles and 
 ideas. The local heads of Conservatism nominated in their 
 room Mr. Philip W. S. Miles, a youthful son of the late 
 senior member, and Mr. William Fripp, an ex-alderman of 
 the old Corporation, and first mayor under the Municipal 
 Reform Act. The Liberal party selected the Hon. Francis 
 Henry F. Berkeley. After an exciting contest, the poll was 
 declared on the 25th July, as follows : Mr. Miles, 3,838 ; Mr. 
 Berkeley, 3,312; Mr. Fripp, 3,156. In lieu of the old cere- 
 mony of chairing, the Liberals celebrated their victory by a 
 procession of the trades of the city, in which some thousands 
 of artisans took part. A petition against the return of Mr. 
 Berkeley was presented on behalf of the defeated candidate. 
 It alleged extensive bribery and treating, and further affirmed 
 that certain agents of Mr. Berkeley, being also Charity 
 Trustees, had been openly guilty of corruption and undue 
 influence, by giving or promising charity gifts in order to 
 secure votes against Mr. Fripp. On the publication of this 
 document a declaration was made by nineteen out of the 
 twenty-one trustees, including two who had voted for Mr. 
 Fripp, asserting that the charge made against them was 
 " entirely unfounded, calumnious, and false." The committee 
 of the House of Commons appointed to hear the case as- 
 sembled in February, 1838. After a three days' hearing
 
 240 THE AXXALS OF BRISTOL. [1837. 
 
 the petition was abandoned, whereupon tlie chairman of the 
 committee announced that they were unanimously of opinion 
 that nothing had been proved against the Charity Trustees. 
 Concurrently with the proceedings in Pai'liament, Mr. Fripp's 
 supporters* brought actions at law against a number of Mr. 
 Berkeley's friends, to recover penalties for bribery, and the 
 trials took place at the ensuing Gloucester assizes. The 
 juries in three cases having returned verdicts for the de- 
 fendants, the remaining actions were withdrawn. Shortly 
 aftei"wards, a woman named Verrier, who had deposed before 
 the Commons' committee to an act of bribery committed by 
 Mr. Berkeley, was tried for perjury, and convicted of the 
 offence. In commenting upon this case, the editor of the 
 Bristol Ji)nrnal, who had been for some time noted for his 
 acrimonious personal attacks, published gross charges against 
 thi'ee of the Charity Trustees. Those gentlemen retorted 
 by instituting actions for libel, and challenged their accuser 
 to prove his assertions. The trials, which took place in July, 
 1839, resulted in the defendant being cast in damages in 
 each case — for £400, £175, and £150 respectively — with 
 heavy costs. The oldest of the Bristol newspapers, and once 
 the most powerful, never recovered from the blow. It 
 lingered on for several years, but its place was taken by 
 more ably conducted Conservative organs, and on Mai'ch 26, 
 1853, after a career of one hundred and one years, Felix 
 Farley's Bristol Journal appeared for the last time. 
 
 The Bristol Teetotal Society celebrated its first anniversary 
 in June, 1837. It then boasted of about a thousand members. 
 A Temperance Society, which required a pledge from its 
 adherents to abstain from spirituous liquors, was started about 
 seven years earlier; but "mere temperance" was bitterly 
 denounced and caricatured liy the total abstinence party, 
 and the moderate camp appears to have succumbed under 
 their attacks. 
 
 At a meeting held on the 25th November, 1837, it was 
 resolved to form a comjian}-, with a capital of £25,000, for 
 the construction of a bridge across the Avon from Temple 
 Back to Queen Street, St. Philij)'s. The company paid the 
 Corporation £2,157 in compensation for the ferry which had 
 previously occupied the site, the number of passengers over 
 which had been ascertained to be 115,500 per annum. An 
 Act of Parliament to carry out tlie undertaking liaving been 
 
 • Wlio are saiil to have spent £12,000 on the petition and bubsequent trial?. 
 ^—Ma. Annalt, City Library, ii. 113.
 
 1838.] ST. riiiLir's bridge, the victoria rooms. 241 
 
 obtained in the session of 1838, a temporary bridge was 
 built and opened during the autumn, and 342,000 persons 
 passed over it during the first twelvemonths of its existence. 
 The permanent bridge was opened by the mayor (Mr. G. W. 
 Franklyn) on the 1st December, 1841. It had cost £11,000. 
 The remainder of the company's capital, and a further sum 
 raised by loan, were expended in the purchase of property 
 for, and in the construction of, the approaches. [One of the 
 buildings destroyed was a fine sixteenth century house, which 
 in its later days had been known as the Giant's Castle Inn.] 
 As the new bridge was a great improvement upon the old 
 ferry, the public spirit of the shareholders, who received 
 slender dividends for several years, was much commended 
 by the residents of the neighbourhood. In course of time, 
 however, the halfpenny toll came to be regarded as a griev- 
 ance, and a movement was started to secure its abolition. 
 The agitation gradually acquired strength, and in con- 
 sequence of memorials addressed to the Council on the sub- 
 ject, that body, in November, 1873, resolved to enter into 
 negotiations with the proprietors with a view to the purchase 
 of the bridge. Legal difficulties then arose, causing a 
 lengthened delay; but in the closing months of 1874 it was 
 agreed that the Council should lease the property in per- 
 petuity, paying the shareholders a yearly sum equivalent to 
 6 per cent, on their investments. The Corporation was also 
 to J take over the debt (£5,000) on the bridge, and to pay 
 £2,000 to cover compensations, etc. An Act of Parliament 
 having been obtained to sanction this arrangement, the toll on 
 foot-passengers was abolished on the 31st July, 1875. The 
 bridge was shortly afterwards widened at a cost of £5,000. 
 
 The first serious disaster in connection with the steamship 
 service between Bristol and Ireland occurred on the 20th 
 January, 1838, when a vessel named the Killarney, whilst on 
 her passage from Cork to this city, struck during a heav}'" 
 gale upon the Rennie rocks, near Youghal, and became a 
 total wreck. Twenty-nine of the passengers and crew were 
 drowned. The survivors, thirteen in number, succeeded in 
 clinging to the slippery rocks, where they remained for two 
 nights and a day, enduring extreme suffering from cold and 
 hunger, before means for their rescue could be devised. One 
 of the passengers, styling himself Baron Spolasco, published 
 a local pamphlet, narrating the details of the disaster. 
 
 The foundation-stone of the Victoria Rooms was laid on 
 the Queen's birthday. May 24th, 1838, by the mayor (Mr. 
 Haberfield). The building, — which is the noblest classical 
 
 s
 
 242 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1838. 
 
 erection in the city, and for the first time provided the in- 
 habitants with spacious and convenient apartments for public 
 entertainments, — "vvas built at the expense of a body of Con- 
 servative citizens, and cost about £23,000. It was opened 
 on the 24th May, 1842, with a dinner, at which the mayor 
 (Mr. Gr. W. Franklyn) presided. A fine organ was placed 
 in the large saloon about 1873. 
 
 The coronation of the youthful Queen, on the 28th June, 
 was celebrated in Bristol with many demonstrations of joy. 
 On previous occasions the expense of the festivities had been 
 borne by the Corporation. Such an expenditure of public 
 funds was no longer legal, but the voluntary subscriptions of 
 the citizens were largely offered to meet the outlay, and the 
 rejoicing was all the more genuine inasmuch as it was entirely 
 spontaneous. At noon an imposing procession started from 
 the Council House for the cathedral, headed by a troop of 
 the North Somerset Yeomanry, a "champion " on horseback 
 accoutred in full armour, and the boys of Queen Elizabeth's 
 Hospital. Then followed the officers of the Corporation, the 
 mayor and members of the Council, the foreign consuls, tlie 
 local clergy and Dissenting ministers, the boys of Colston's 
 School, the master and members of the Merchants' Society, the 
 governor and members of the Incorporation of the Poor, the 
 parochial officials, the Freemasons, and finally the workmen 
 of the various trades, with banners, devices and emblems, etc., 
 of their crafts. Two more " knig-hts in armour " were strang-e 
 fish in these modern waters, but they at least lent variety 
 to the interesting pageant, the concluding divisions of which 
 consisted of the members of the principal benefit societies, 
 the firemen, and a troop of Gloucestershire Yeomanry. The 
 procession passed through all the chief thoroughfares of the 
 ancient city. So great was its length that its two extremities 
 encountered each other in Dolphin Street, the main body 
 then occupying Peter Street, Castle Street, Lower Castle 
 Street, the Broadweir, Merchant Street, Broadmead, and 
 Union Street. Whilst the members of the Corporation at- 
 tended service at the cathedral, the procession passed up 
 Park Street, Berkeley Square, etc., and then returned to 
 the Council House, where it separated. Various public 
 dinners were held in the afternoon, and the festivities con- 
 cluded with a general illimiinalioTK 
 
 At a meeting of the Council on the Itlth 'inly, 1838, the 
 fair annually held in St. James's Churchyard in the month 
 of September, as well as the March fair held in 'iV>m})le 
 Street, was abolislied ; and fairs for the sale of live stock
 
 1838.] ABOLITION OF THE FAIRS. 243 
 
 exclusively were ordered to be held in the cattle market on 
 the two first days of March and Sei^tember. The decree put 
 an end to saturnalia of which but a faint conception can bo 
 formed in our times. That St. James's fair in the seventeenth 
 century had been very extensively resorted to is proved by 
 a letter of the Mayor of Penzance, forwarded to the Govern- 
 ment in 1636, stating that twelve Turkish men of war, bear- 
 ing English colours, were lurking in St. George's Channel to 
 capture travellers to the fair. In the same year the Corpora- 
 tion of Bristol wrote to the Privy Council, pointing out that 
 the manufacture of goods for the fair was being carried on 
 in parts of London then infected with the plague. Obtaining 
 no protection from this danger, the Corporation resolved to 
 prohibit the entry of the perilous commodities, whereupon 
 the wholesale traders of London also appealed to the Govern- 
 ment, declaring that they — " drapers, skinners, leather sellers, 
 and upholsterers " — yearly turned over " many thousand 
 pounds " at the fair, and had ''the chief part of their estates 
 owing them by chapmen who meet nowhere else but at 
 Bristol." The local inhibition was thereupon quashed. Ac- 
 cording to an official report to the Admiralty, a royal ship 
 had " convoyed all the vessels from Bristol fair to Tenby and 
 Milford," in 1657; and ten years later a Government official 
 at Bridgwater reported that the Channel had been in great 
 danger from French pickaroons, but two of the king's frigates 
 had scared them. "It was feared they would have done 
 mischief at Bristol fair." Down even to the close of the first 
 quarter of the present century, the influx of wai*e-s and 
 merchandise from all parts of the kingdom was astonishing, 
 having regard to the defective means of communication. 
 Blankets and woollens from Yorkshire, silks from Macclesfield, 
 linens from Belfast and Lancashire, carpets from Kidder- 
 minster, cutlery from Sheffield, hardware from Walsall and 
 Wolverhampton, china and earthenware from Staffordshire 
 and other counties, cotton stockings from Tewkesbury, lace 
 from Buckinghamshire and Devon, trinkets from Birmingham 
 and London, ribbons from Coventry, buck and hog skins for 
 breeches, hats and caps, millinery, haberdashery, female orna- 
 ments, sweetmeats, and multitudinous toy s from various quarters 
 arrived in heavily-laden wagons, and were joined by equally 
 large contributions from the chief industries of the district. 
 To these again were added nearly all the travelling exhibi- 
 tions and entertainments then in the country — menageries, 
 circuses, theatres, puppet shows, waxworks, flying coaches, 
 rope-dancers, acrobats, conjurors, pig-faced ladies, living
 
 244 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. [1838. 
 
 skeletons, and mummers of all sorts, wlio attracted patronage 
 by raising a feai-ful din. It need scarcely be added that the 
 scene attracted a too-plentiful supply of pickpockets, thieves, 
 thimble-riggers, and swindlers of every genus. To make 
 purchases or to gratify curiosity, the population of the sur- 
 rounding district, from the family of the Duke of Beaufort 
 down to the children of the Kingswood colliers, thronged 
 into the city, and from early morning until late in the even- 
 ing the alleys between the stalls and standing-places (which, 
 being built and covered with wood, took a month in construc- 
 tion) presented a busy and often an amusing scene. As time 
 went on, the places of business rapidly diminished, while the 
 shows, entertainments, and general disorder increased; and as 
 liquor was sold at a number of "bush'' [unlicensed] houses, 
 the fair, which by charter lasted nine days, but w^as generally 
 permitted to continue a fortnight, became a centre of corrup- 
 tion and demoralisation. Strong" vested interests were long, 
 however, arrayed in support of the nuisance. About 1813 
 Mr. E. B. Fripp, then a vestryman of the parish, made an 
 effort for its suppression, he and his friends offering £3,000 
 to the vestry as a compensation for the loss of tolls ; but the 
 receipts were so large that the proposal was contemptuously 
 rejected. In 1837, when the "foreign" tradesmen had 
 dwindled to less than a dozen, and the tolls scarcely defrayed 
 the cost of erecting standings, the vestry gladly listened to 
 terms; and Mr. George Thomas, one of the Quaker founders 
 of the General Hospital, was largely instrumental in effecting 
 an arrangement, having, with the aid of a few friends, raised 
 a sum of about £1,000 for laying out the ground for a hay 
 and coal market, and for compensating the vestry. The 
 Corporation thereupon took a lease for ninety-nine years, 
 at a rent of £150 per annum, of the open plot to the south 
 of the churchyard. To this place, in May, 1841, the Imy 
 market was removed from Broadmead. The attempt to 
 establisli a coal market on the spot seems to have failed from 
 the outset. 
 
 Up to this time, owing to the post office authorities measui'- 
 ing tlie distance between Bristol and London byway of Bath, 
 the postage of what was called a "single" letter — that is, 
 a single sheet of letter paper Avithout envel()]io or enclosure 
 — from or to the ca])ital, was tenpiMice. In September, 1838, 
 however, tlie oflicials discovered that the distance of Bristol 
 from London by way of Marshlield was not over, but under, 
 120 miles, and tho single letter postage was consequently 
 reduced to ninepencc. A letter enclosing a slip of ])apcr,
 
 1838.] THE OLD POSTAL SYSTEM. PENANCE. 245 
 
 such as a cheque, was charged Is. Gd., one enclosing two 
 cheques, 2s. 3d. ; more numerous enclosures, not' exceeding 
 an ounce in weight, 3.s-. A system of penny postage for 
 letters and small packets had been established for some years 
 between the city and a few of the neighbouring villages, but 
 the arrangement was of a very arbitrary character. For 
 example, although Oakhill and Axbridge were each eighteen 
 miles from Bristol, the charge for a four ounce packet to the 
 former place Avas a penny, while to the more important town 
 the postage was 6s. 8d. During the session of 1839, Lord 
 Melbourne's Ministry succeeded in passing an Act for carry- 
 ing out the penny postal scheme of Mr. Rowland Hill ; and 
 in December a uniform charge of fourpence per half-ounce 
 came into force as regarded all letters on which the postage 
 had previously exceeded threepence. In the following 
 January the rate was reduced to a penny per half ounce. 
 The new system was strongly condemned by the political 
 opponents of the Cabinet. The Bristol Journal of December 
 7, 1839, feared that ''this new plan of Whig Reform will be 
 a more serious evil to the country than even any one of their 
 more flagrant jobs." On the first adhesive stamp (printed 
 in black ink) and the first envelope coming into use in the 
 following year, the same paper of May 16 said: "Fortun- 
 ately those who send letters have still the option of prepay- 
 ment, and are not obliged to use the contemptible cover or 
 black patch which the Government have been asses enough 
 to sanction. Both patch and envelope are beneath criticism. 
 How long is the revenue of this once powerful country to be 
 entrusted to the hands of the nincompoops who are now 
 wasting it V The actual results of Mr. Hill's scheme, so far 
 as regards Bristol, will be shown later on. The editor's 
 shortsightedness was, however, pardonable, seeing that the 
 heads of the postal sei'vice in London predicted the certain 
 failure of the cheap system. [Li 1844 a ''national testi- 
 monial " to Rowland Hill was started, and resulted in a sub- 
 scription of about £13,000. The sum contributed in Bristol 
 was £292.] 
 
 On the 16th December, in conformity with a decision of 
 the ecclesiastical tribunal of the diocese, two persons, living 
 in Pomphrey's Court, Christmas Street, performed penance 
 in the vestry room of St. John's Church, between the hours 
 of morning and evening service. The punishment inflicted 
 was the result of a cross suit between the parties in the 
 above court. 
 
 A new survey of the city took place towards the close of
 
 246 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1838. 
 
 the year, wlien the rateable value of the various districts was 
 assessed as follows: "Ancient city, £213,818; Clifton, £69,822; 
 St. Phihp's, out, £36,364; District, £20,310; part of West- 
 bury, £10,457 ; part of Bedmiuster, £28,005. 
 
 Much discontent, arising largely from the depressed state 
 of trade, prevailed amongst the working classes at this time, 
 and Chartism had many followers in Bristol, as in other large 
 towns. On the 26th December a meeting of the party took 
 place on Brandon Hill, when Mr. Feargus O'Connor, a noisy 
 platform orator, made a violent speech. For some months 
 afterwards gatherings took place on the hill almost nightly, 
 and owing to the tumultuous character of the proceedings, 
 and the threats occasionally uttered to resort to physical 
 force, the agitation excited some anxiety amongst the citizens. 
 At length, early in May, 1839, the magistrates issued a 
 circular prohibiting further nocturnal assemblies, and a num- 
 ber of the ratepayers were sworn in as special constables. 
 This action had the desired effect, and, in spite of the un- 
 happy outbreak at Newport in the following November, the 
 peace of the city was undisturbed. 
 
 A discovery of some interest in connection with the Roman 
 occupation of this part of the island was made in January, 
 1839, at Ashton Waters, near Long Ashton, during the 
 excavation of the ground for the Bristol and Exeter railway. 
 The workmen came across the remains of a building, the 
 foundations of which extended for a considerable distance ; 
 and a number of coins, including one of Julius Caesar, another 
 of Diocletian, and several of Constantino, were disinterred. 
 Two bronze spoons, a portion of the capitals of two columns, 
 and various broken articles were also found. About the same 
 time the remains of a villa, with a large tesselated pave- 
 ment, were disinterred near Newton St. Loe. 
 
 Although two short sections of the Great Western railway 
 had been opened in 1838, the question of gauge, which from 
 the outset had excited much controversy, liad not been 
 definitively settled. On the 9th January, 1839, a great 
 meeting of the proprietors was held in liondon to consider 
 the reports of two eminent engineers, Mr. (afterwards Sir 
 John) Hawkshaw, and Mr. Nicholas Wood, and to determine 
 tho problem on which those gentlcinm li;id ])oon consulted. 
 ^Ir. Wood, whilst disuj)j)roving of Mr. Jirunel's seven feet 
 gauge, recommended that, in view of the outlay already 
 incurred, it should l)e retained. Mr. Hawkshaw, though 
 regretting the nan-owucss of tho north country gauge, 
 decidedly condemned the introduction of another, on the
 
 1839.] THE BROAD GAUGE ON RAILWAYS. 24-7 
 
 ground that it would be a serious impediment to the working 
 and development o£ the railway system of the country. The 
 directors, in a rejoort commenting upon the objections of the 
 two engineers, declared them to have " little weight," and the 
 shareholders wei'e confidently assured that Mr. Hawkshaw's 
 assertions would prove groundless. A member of the board 
 having moved that Mr. Brunei's system be adhered to, an 
 amendment was proposed condemning it as wasteful and 
 injudicious; but the result of the voting was in favour of the 
 original motion by a majority of 7,792 against 6,145. The 
 only excuse that can be offered for those who adopted a 
 shortsighted resolution is, that unlimited confidence was 
 placed by many wealthy shareholders in Mr. Brunei's genius. 
 When Mr. G-eorge Stephenson was asked about the same time 
 what gauge should be adopted on two lines, one near Leicester 
 and another near Canterbury, he at once pronounced in 
 favour of the system adopted on the Stockton and Darlington 
 and the Manchester and Liverpool railways. " Though they 
 are," he observed, '^ a long way apart fi'om each other now, 
 they will be joined together some day." Brunei, on the 
 other hand, assured the Great Western board that their 
 undertaking " could never have any connection with any 
 other of the main lines," three or four of which, he felt 
 assured, would suffice for the traffic of the country. This 
 opinion rapidly proved to be a delusion, and the natural 
 effect of the break of gauge was to excite the then existing 
 directorates to fight for the territory which lay between them. 
 A fierce war thus broke out, which lasted for several years, 
 with deplorable consequences to the shareholders. So long 
 as the two gauges were apart, the public of course felt no 
 inconvenience. But in 1844, when the Bristol and Gloucester 
 line (then broad gauge) was opened, it came in contact at 
 the latter city with the Birmingham and Gloucester narrow 
 gauge railway, and whilst through passengers complained of 
 the trouble and loss of time involved in a change of carriages 
 — often in bad weather and in the darkness of the night — the 
 stoppage in the transit of cattle, minerals, and goods through 
 the necessity of unloading and reloading the trucks excited 
 widespread discontent. The merchants of Bristol speedily 
 felt the grievance. Birmingham manufacturers, finding that 
 their wares forwarded for sliipment at this port were delayed 
 or mislaid at Gloucester, and that the distance between their 
 factories and Bristol was as difficult of ti^ansit as in the days 
 before railways, forwarded their goods to Liverpool or London, 
 where no such difficulty arose. In a lesser degree a similar
 
 248 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1839, 
 
 impediment to Bristol traffic was experienced at Worcester, 
 Warwick, Rugby, Salisbury, and Dorcliester, at eacli of wliicli 
 places broad gauge wagons came in contact with narrow gauge 
 lines, and could travel no farther. In short, the West of 
 England was as completely isolated from other parts of the 
 country as if a river too wide to be bridged lay between it 
 and the rest of the kingdom. And this, according to Mr. 
 Brunei and the Great Western board, was to go on for ever 
 along a boundary line 200 miles in length, running on both 
 sides of the railway. The grievance became the more crying 
 when Mr. Brunei himself laid out plans for several narrow 
 gauge lines, and the matter at length came to be viewed in 
 commercial circles as a public calamity. At the instance of 
 Mr. Cobden, a ro^^al commission was appointed to consider 
 the subject, and a lengthened inquiry commenced in August, 
 1845. The result was an overwhelming mass of scientific 
 testimony in condemnation of Mr. Brunei's theory, which had 
 no supporters but himself and two Great Western officials. 
 The Commissioners consequently recommended that the 
 narrow gauge should be used on all future railways, and that 
 some equitable means should be devised for producing an 
 entire uniformity of gauge throughout the kingdom. Parlia- 
 ment practically adopted the first of those suggestions, but it 
 was estimated that the alteration of the Great Western lines 
 would involve an expense of a million sterling, and the legis- 
 lature, declining to lay any burden upon the public for the 
 reparation of the company's blunder, left the directors to 
 their own devices. The board had in the long run to admit 
 that their favourite theory was deeply injurious to the 
 interests of the shareholders. In August, 1868, it was deter- 
 mined to convert all the broad gauge lines north of Oxford 
 into narrow gauge. In 1871 it Avas resolved to abandon the 
 broad gauge on the South Wales section of the railway, and 
 to lay the narrow gauge froin Didcot to Milford Haven, This 
 was obviously but the beginning of a general change in the 
 western districts. In June, 1874, a similar alteration took 
 place between Bristol and Bath, and towards the eud of the 
 same year the narrow sj^stom was extended throughout the 
 trunk line, the old gauge being retained for ex])ress trains 
 only. The Bristol and Exeter board being then forced to 
 take action, the " inixod gauge" was completed from Bristol 
 to Exeter in I^Tay, 1877. 
 
 The Royal Western Hotel, College Place, a building of 
 some architectural pretensions, but erected on an ill-chosen 
 site (previously occupied by Reeves's hotel, see p. 30), was
 
 1839.] MONUMENT TO CHATTERTON. PUGSLEy's FIELD. 249 
 
 opened on tlie 18tli April. A public dinner in celebration of 
 the event took place soon after, the mayor (Mr. Haberfield) 
 presiding. The house, built by Messrs. Rogers, ceased to be 
 an hotel in April, 1855. Some five years later, Turkish baths 
 were fitted up in the building- by Mr. Bartholomew. 
 
 A gigantic tusk of a mammoth was discovered in June by 
 some workmen engaged in excavating in St. Philip's Marsh. 
 The tusk, which was nearly six feet in length, was forwarded 
 to the museum of the Bristol Institution. 
 
 The foundation-stone of a monument dedicated to Chat- 
 terton was laid on the 13th November, 1839, in St. Mary Red- 
 cliff churchyard.* The site chosen was the angle between 
 the tower and the north porch. The statue, which was 
 universally condemned as mean in execution and absurdly 
 diminutive as comjoared with its pedestal, was erected on the 
 30tli April, 1840. In February, 1846, the vicar of the parish, 
 the Rev. M. R. Whish, whose eccentricities brought him 
 frequently before the public, suddenly gave orders for the 
 removal of the monument, asserting that it had been erected 
 without his sanction. As the reverend gentleman — whose 
 action was applauded by a few contemporary bigots — was 
 omnipotent in his churchyard, the structure was taken down, 
 and disappeared from public view for some years. In July, 
 1857, however, it was re-erected on the (unconsecrated) spot 
 where it now stands, a few members of the parochial vestry 
 having defrayed the cost of the restoration. 
 
 In the course of this year some negotiations took place 
 between the Corporation and the dock directors, with a view 
 to the purchase of the Floating Harbour by the city, and thus 
 to get rid of the shortsighted exactions by which the com- 
 merce of the port was weighed down. It was intimated 
 to the dock board that the Council were prepared to pay 
 interest at the rate of 2j per cent, on the share capital if the 
 transfer were effected ; but the offer was rejected as inade- 
 quate, and the matter was suffered to drop. 
 
 About this time the landknoAvn to all Bristolians as Mother 
 Pugsley's Field, together wnth some adjoining plots, was dis- 
 posed of in sites for building. Pedestrians had enjoyed ac- 
 cess from time immemorial to the spring in Pugsley's Field ; 
 but, to use the language of a local journalist, Sir Thomas 
 Fremantle, the owner of the land, flourished his title deeds 
 in the face of the public, and nobody had the spirit to defend 
 
 * So early as September, 1805, a movement was started in the city for the 
 erection of a " magnificent cenotaph " to the unfortunate hoy poet. The 
 scheme, however, found few supporters, and was soon dropped.
 
 250 THE AXXALS OP BRISTOL. [1840. 
 
 the riglits of the community. A builder, named Hucker, who 
 purcliased part of the property, enclosed the spring — which 
 had a reputation for healing virtues amongst the vulgar — for 
 private use at his residence, Spring Villa, Nugent Hill. 
 
 Bristol Cathedral was reopened in February, 1840, after 
 undergoing partial " restoration." The most important 
 alterations were the removal of a large screen in the Greek 
 style erected behind the communion table, and the construc- 
 tion of a richly decorated central recess corresponding with 
 those on each side. No vestiore remained of the oria-inal 
 decorative w^ork at the back of the altar, so that the arrange- 
 ment is merely the conception of a modern architect. It 
 would appear from the view of the reredos in the frontispiece 
 to Britten's account of the cathedral, that the renovator took 
 great liberties with the beautiful work of Abbot Knowle. 
 The Corinthian screen was purchased by the Irvingites for 
 their church on the Quay. Although the chapter showed an 
 improved taste in this proceeding, its ideas of seemliness 
 were still somewhat chaotic. A letter in the Bristol Journal 
 of the 5th April, 1845, stated that "a cast-iron stove, with 
 an immense black vertical flue, passing through the beautiful 
 groined roof," had just been placed in the choir of the 
 cathedral ! 
 
 The lighthouse at the mouth of the Avon, erected by the 
 Corporation of the Trinity House, was completed in April, 
 1840, and was lighted up in the following June. 
 
 In June, 1840, the royal assent Avas given to a Bill "for 
 regulating the buildings and party Avails within the city, and 
 for widening and improving certain streets." The Corpora- 
 tion by this statute obtained power to open a new street 
 [Phippen Street] , and to widen and improve the thorough- 
 fares in that neighbourhood. Power was taken to borrow 
 £15,000 for those purposes, and a sum of £10,000, given 
 some years previously by Mr. William Weare (see page 130) 
 to further various imjirovements, was ord(>red to form part 
 of a fluid, to be called "the Improvement Fund." 
 
 In Jul}^, 1840, the Society of Merchants undertook to 
 remove one of the greatest obstructions to the navigation 
 of the Avon — the Round Point, a little below St. Vincent's 
 rocks — and obtained the consent of the Corporation, as con- 
 servators of the river, to carry out the necessary work. It 
 was announced that the undertaking would involve the 
 removal of 25,000 cubic yards of rock. 'I'lic operations of 
 the Society, however, must have been of a limited nature, 
 for in March, 1852, after the Dcuicrani disaster, the removal
 
 1840,] THE ROUND POINT. THE BROADMEAD ROOMS. 251 
 
 of the Round Point was reported to the Council to be urgently 
 necessary, and in the following- September a resoluticju was 
 passed authorising the docks committee to carry out the 
 needful improvement at an expense not exceeding £5,000. 
 The Merchants' Society having been asked to contribute to 
 the cost, in consideration of the large revenue they derived 
 from the wharfage dues, subscribed £1,000. U])wards of 
 30,000 tons of rock were cut away on this occasion, and about 
 the same quantity was removed from the projection on the 
 Somerset bank, a portion of the hill on each side being also 
 taken down to open the line of sight upon the river. Even 
 after this was done the place continued to be very danger- 
 ous; and under Mr. Howard's improvement scheme of 1864 
 another and much more costly effort was made to straighten 
 the river. Bridge Valley Road, which overhung the Avon at 
 the " point," being cai'ried farther back, and many thousand 
 tons of rock being blasted aAvay under high-water mark. 
 Nevertheless, in 1884, the obstruction was still complained 
 of, and once more the Council ordered excavations, which 
 were continued for several months at low tides, the electric 
 light being employed to facilitate operations during the night. 
 In 1885 similar operations were begun on the opposite shore, 
 and are still unfinished. Even now the state of the Round 
 Point leaves much to be desired. 
 
 Another disastrous wreck of an Irish passenger steam 
 vessel occurred on the 18th November, 1840. The ship in 
 question, The City of Bristol, had left Waterford on the pre- 
 vious night, and was driven during a violent storm on the 
 Welsh coast, near Womn's Head. Of the twenty-seven 
 persons who were on board only two survived to tell the 
 lamentable story. 
 
 Up to this time the citizens were very scantily provided 
 with public rooms fitted for meetings or social gatherings. 
 With the exception, indeed, of an inconveniently situated 
 Assembly-room, in Prince's Street, and two halls of the 
 ancient trading companies, there was no place in the city 
 where the inhabitants could meet together in large bodies. 
 In December, 1840, a spacious public room, called the Hall 
 of Science — built by the admirers of the then celebrated 
 socialist, Robert Owen, and intended for the dissemination 
 of his doctrines — was opened in Broadmead, when a lecture 
 was delivered by Mr. Owen. Its founders being- unable to 
 meet the expenditure, the building was purchased in January, 
 1843, by a few members of the Liberal party, and was subse- 
 quently known as the Broadmead Rooms. Until the erection
 
 252 
 
 t^ 
 
 ^r:C 
 
 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. 
 
 [1841. 
 
 L/Yof Goiston Hall^ tliis place, in spite of its inconvenient access, 
 ' was tlie favourite spot for popular gathering-s in tlie city. 
 fl^^Lfc subsequently reverted into the hands of the Corporation, 
 *^ which in 1875 granted a lease of it at a rental of £100 per 
 annum, the lessee undertaking to build a factory on the site. 
 In December, 1840, the newly-appointed mayor, Mr. Robert 
 Phippen, revived the custom of attending the Mayor's 
 Chapel in state, which had been discontinued for some years. 
 In anticipation of the pageant his worship was presented by 
 his friends with a state robe and gauntlets, similar to those 
 worn in the old Common Council, and their use was after- 
 wards continued. The cost of maintaining divine service in 
 the Mayor's Chapel had, from 1836 to this time, been pro- 
 vided by private subscriptions, the Liberal section of the 
 Council having protested against the application of the cor- 
 porate funds to denominational purposes. In 1841, however, 
 the Conservatives formed an overwhelming majority of 
 the civic body *, and on the 22nd March it was resolved, 
 by forty votes against six, that the chapel should be " sup- 
 ported and maintained in the same manner, to the same 
 extent, and for the same purpose in all respects, as before the 
 passing of the Municipal Act." The expenditure originated 
 by this decision was set down at £2G0 in the accounts for the 
 year. As a complement to the resolution, the aldermen and 
 a large majority of the councillors revived, in December, 
 1850, the ancient custom of wearing scarlet robes when 
 attending the chapel on state occasions. 
 
 At a meeting of the Council on the 3rd February, 1841, 
 a matter was brought to light which provoked much criti- 
 cism in Dissenting circles. It appeared that a few months 
 previously an application had been made on behalf of a 
 Wesleyan congregation in the parish of Dyrham, for a lease, 
 at the full value, of a plot of ground on which it Avas in- 
 tended to erect a schoolroom, to be used occasionally for 
 religious services. The Finance Committee had at first ex- 
 pressed its willingness to assent, and had directed the 
 surveyor to fix tlie rental, whereupon the rector of Dyrham 
 forwarded an earnest request that the lease should bo refused, 
 observing that great evils would anse from the introduction 
 of schisin, and tliat there was ample acconiino(l;ition for the 
 parishioners in his ehurfh. The reverend gt>ntleman omitted 
 to state that the village of Ilinton, where it was proposed 
 
 * In October, 1813, the Council consisted, according to the Bristol Journal, 
 of fifty-three Conservatives and eleven Liberals.
 
 1841,] LOCAL TIME. 253 
 
 to build tlie schoolroorn, was nearly a milo and a half from 
 the church, and that an existing small building- used by the 
 Wesleyans was inconveniently crowded every Sunday. The 
 Finance Committee at once complied with the rector's wishes, 
 and several of its members defended its action in the Council, 
 Mr. Powell, of St. Augustine's, asserting that only two or 
 three itinerant Wesleyan preachers, who " sent the hat round 
 every Sunday, and made a good thing of it," were at the 
 bottom of the scheme. The Council having referred the 
 matter to the committee for further consideration, a report 
 was presented a month later, recommending that the lease be 
 granted ; but the Council rejected the advice by 28 votes 
 to 12. The subject was revived in 1845 ; but the application 
 for a lease, at a rental to be fixed by the Corporation, was 
 again rejected by 26 votes against 14. Yet in October, 1847, 
 when a piece of ground valued by the corporate surveyor at 
 £500 was selected as the site for St. Matthias' Church on the 
 Weir, the Council, by 24 votes against 9, resolved to reduce 
 the purchase money to £150. The Lords of the Treasury, 
 however, put a veto on this transaction, and the price was 
 ultimately fixed at £300. 
 
 The opening of the Great Western Eailway between Bristol 
 and London took place, as has been already recorded, on the 
 30th January, 1841. Amongst the incidental difficulties con- 
 nected with the introduction of rapid travelling, the question 
 of "time " was amongst the most perplexing. Down to this 
 period each provincial town kept its own time, which was 
 generally determined with accuracy by some scientific resi- 
 dent, and coaches found no trouble in accommodating them- 
 selves to local arrangements. But the railway lines starting 
 from the capital naturally fixed on Greenwich time, and 
 adopted it throughout their respective systems. There was 
 thus a difference between Bristol time and railway time of 
 about ten minutes; and a few years later, when the line 
 was extended to Plymouth, the time of that town varied 
 seventeen minutes from that of the railway station. The 
 authorities in Bristol, doubtless with an intention to accom- 
 modate the public, had two minute hands placed on the clock 
 at the Exchange, and a similar plan was adopted at Bath ; 
 but as local time continued to be recorded by the church 
 clocks, the public seem to have been more puzzled than in- 
 structed. The people of Exeter, on the other haiid, obsti- 
 nately refused for some years to recognise "cockney time." 
 As will hereafter be noted, the introduction of the electric 
 telegraph quickly routed provincial prejudices on the subject.
 
 254 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1841. 
 
 The cliiircli of St. Jolin the Evangelist^ near Redland, was 
 consecrated on the 27th April^ 1841, by the bishop of the 
 diocese. The remarkable change which has since occurred 
 in that district is illustrated by the fact that, in the appeals 
 made to the public on behalf of the building fund, it was 
 stated that the church was intended to meet the spiritual 
 destitution of a locality almost exclusively inhabited by the 
 poorest class of labourers, and that a large proportion of the 
 sittings would in consequence be free. In course of time, 
 the free seats in the choir were calmly appropriated by the 
 middle-class families Avhich had come into the disti-ict ; and 
 in 1864 a fresh set of free seats was provided in less fashion- 
 able parts of the church. Dr. Benson, Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury, is said to have preached his first sermon as a deacon 
 in this building. 
 
 At a meeting of the Council on the 5th May, a committee, 
 to whom the subject had been referred, reported that it 
 would not be advisable to make alterations in the Guildhall, 
 but that the most advantageous course would be to take down 
 the edifice, together with some adjoining houses, and to erect 
 a more commodious hall upon the site. A hope was held out 
 that the sale of the surplus ground would sensibly diminish 
 the cost of the new structure. The Council gave power to 
 the committee to carry out the recommendations of the report. 
 After the subject had been postponed for nearly two years, 
 the Guildhall committee, on the 12th April, 1843, presented 
 a fresh report, accompanied by plans prepared by Mr. R. S. 
 Pope. It was proposed that the new building should com- 
 prise, in addition to an assize court capable of containing 
 1,000 persons, two bankruptcy courts, a Court of Requests, 
 a mayor's parlour, and other apartments. The cost was esti- 
 mated at £10,000, but it was supposed that an income of £428 
 would be derived from rents. It was objected in the Council 
 that the principal hall shown in the plans would be one-third, 
 less than the Guildhall then in existence, which was often 
 found too small for election nominations and ]Mib1ic meetings. 
 Nevertheless, Mv. Pope's design was, with sh'ght mt)diiica- 
 tions, adopted, and in June workmen commenced demolish- 
 ing tlie old building. .[The large traeericd window in that 
 part of the structure known as St. George's Chajicl was 
 shortly afterwards re-erected in the grounds of " The Grove," 
 Stapleton. On removing the roof of the chapel, in the space 
 between the modern ceiling and the rafters, a row of pointed 
 window arches was found in the walls on each side, show- 
 ing that ihc buildijig had originally l)een lofty and finely
 
 1811.] REBUILDING OF THE GUILDHALL. 255 
 
 formed.] On ilic oOtli October, 1843, the foundation stone 
 of the new (luildhall was laid by the mayor (Mr. James 
 Gibbs). It had been intended to mai-k the event with nuich 
 ceremony, and the Freemasons of the district were invited 
 to take part in the proceedings; but torrents of rain fell at 
 the appointed hour, and the procession, which was to have 
 passed through the principal streets, dwindled to an undigni- 
 fied " scuttle " down Broad Street. During the construction 
 of the building the assizes and quarter sessions were held 
 in Coopers' Hall, King Street. The new court was used for 
 the first time on the 28th Jul}', 184G, when the sessions were 
 opened by Sir Charles Wetherell (who died less than three 
 weeks afterwards). The interior of the structure excited a 
 universal wail of disappointment. The feeling of the public 
 was embodied in homely but explicit doggerel : 
 
 " They pull'd down the old hall, because it was too small, 
 And now they've built a new Guildhall, with no hall at all." 
 
 Only one opinion was expressed as to the arrangements by 
 those called upon to make use of the building; and Mr. 
 Justice Coleridge's remark, that the place was " the perfec- 
 tion of inconvenience," was re-echoed by jurors, counsel, 
 litigants, witnesses, and reporters. Defective as it was, 
 the Guildhall was in some respects an improvement on its 
 predecessor. The shortcomings of the latter were described 
 from recollection by Mr. Leech in the Bristol Times of July 
 17, 1858. The writer remarked : ''Justice was at times ad- 
 ministered with anything but gravity and decorum. The 
 chief portion of the great hall was occupied by the sessions, 
 and once a year by the assizes, whilst at the lower end was 
 a smaller court, where the late Mr. A. Palmer administered 
 justice in matters whose gravity did not exceed the weight 
 of forty shillings. The division between the two courts 
 was an imaginary line, which led to an occasional collision 
 between the two jurisdictions. . . . Sometimes a message 
 would be sent down to urge the necessity of the actors in the 
 inferior tribunal conducting their proceedings sutto voce, . . . 
 and it might be that the herald would receive an answer 
 couched not merely in strong language, but actually in phrase 
 not to be repeated to ears polite. Bankruptcy was adminis- 
 tered in lofts upstairs, and the barristers robed in an old 
 garret magnificently furnished by the city with a tenpenny 
 looking-glass. Rows in the Guildhall we all remember, when 
 blue and yellow roared and fought around the door for the 
 possession of the premises on the election nomination days; and
 
 256 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1841. 
 
 tlieti, ^yllen tlie point had been carried by a column headed by 
 the Game Chicken, or some other local champion, with what 
 a rush and a bellowing up the flight of stone steps burst the 
 stragglers." The additional assize court and other buildings 
 fronting" Small Street will be referred to under 1865. 
 
 The fifth decennial census of the population was taken on 
 the 7th June, when the city of Bristol, as extended by the 
 Municipal Corporations Act, was found to contain 123,188 
 souls. For the purpose of comparison with previous returns, 
 it may be added that the ancient city had a population of 
 64266; Clifton, 14,177; the District, 6,139; St. Philip's, 
 out, 21,590; St. George's, 8,318; Mangotsfield, 3,862; 
 Stapleton, 3,944; Bedminster, 17,862; and Stoke Bishop 
 tything, 2,651. 
 
 On the dissolution of Parliament in June, 1841, the previous 
 members, Mr. P. W. S. Miles, and Mr. F. H. F. Berkeley, 
 offered themselves for re-election. The Conservatives pro- 
 posed to oust the latter by again nominating Mr. W. Fripp ; 
 but at the close of the poll, which took place on the 29th 
 June, the numbers were found to be : Mr. Miles, 4,197 ; Mr. 
 Berkeley, 3,743 ; Mr. Fripp, 3,689. Much irritation was 
 caused amongst Mr. Fripp's friends by Mr. Miles's disclaimer 
 on the hustings of a coalition, and an angry controversy took 
 place on the subject, which, as will afterwards be seen, ended 
 in a temporary disruption of the Conservative party in the 
 city. The polling had hitherto taken place in Queen Square 
 only; but on this occasion the sheriff resolved on erecting 
 forty-three booths in various parts of the borough, much to 
 the convenience of the electors. 
 
 As an illustration of the manner in which elections were 
 still conducted, the following extract from an article published 
 in the Bristol Journal on the eve of the contest is not un- 
 worthy of preservation : " Remember that a Conservative 
 Government will be the inevitable result of the coming elec- 
 tions, and that all the situations in the Customs and Excise 
 will be in their gift, on the nomination of Miles and Fri]ip.* 
 Freemen of Bristol ! The following is a list of the gifts in 
 
 • " A meeting of Mr. Miles's committee was held on Monday, Sir. J. Iv. Haber- 
 field in the chair, when the following apiiointuients were made to fill up 
 vacfincies in our Custom House : Mr. Baber, son to our well-known and re- 
 npected fellow citizen, Mr. Harry Baber, was appointed to a clerkship in the 
 Ijong Room; Mr. William Ross Davis to a weiglier's situation, and Mr. George 
 Collins as tidewaiter." — UrinUd Junriuil, May '2'2, 1H.")'2. In the same newspaper 
 for the following week it is stated that tli(' ajipointment of a postmaster for 
 Clifton by Mr. Hale (M.P. for Gloucestershire) had caused great dissatisfaction 
 amongst the dispcn.sers of Government patronage in Bristol.
 
 1841.] CHRIST CHURCH, CLIFTON. DEAF AND DUMB ASYLUM, 257 
 
 the liands of the Conservative churchwardens and vestries 
 of this city : All Saints, 19 ; St. ^Augustine's, 56 ; Christ 
 Church, 25 ; St. Evven, 5 ; St. James's, 6Q ; St. John's, 20 ; 
 St. Leonard's, 6 ; St. Maryleport, 10 ; St. Mary Redcliff, 46 ; St. 
 Michael's, 48 ; St. Nicholas' 60 ; St. Paul's, 6 ; St. Peter's, 45 ; 
 St. Philip's, 45 ; St. Stephen's 31 ; Temple, 62 ; St. Thomas's, 
 61 ; St. Werburgh's, 14 — 631. This is a goodly array of gifts 
 which are in the power of the Conservatives to bestow, and 
 will no doubt brighten the eyes of many a poor freeman." 
 It was true, continued the writer, that the Charity Trustees, 
 who were abusing the powers confided to them in the 
 interests of Liberalism, had 129 gifts at their disposal. But 
 a Conservative Government would '' displace every one of 
 these men in the very next session " of Parliament, and 
 Liberal electors "having already had such a large picking, 
 must in common justice give way to the claims of those who 
 now vote for Miles and Fripp." In the meantime the " poor 
 freemen" were assured that "our generous Conservative 
 mayoress, our Conservative Town Council, our Conservative 
 churchwardens, our Conservative vestries, our Conservative 
 Merchant Venturers would not turn a deaf ear to their sup- 
 plications." 
 
 Christ Church, Clifton, the finest example of the Early 
 English style of architecture in the city, was consecrated by 
 Bishop Monk on the 8th October. It had cost about £10,500, 
 including the purchase of the site. In 1858, the then incum- 
 bent urged that the building should be enlarged by the 
 addition of aisles, but the parishioners preferred to add the 
 tower and spire, according to the original design. These 
 graceful ornaments were completed on the 22nd November, 
 1859, at a cost of £2,400 (a workman celebrating the fixing 
 of the capstone — which weighed a quarter of a ton — by 
 standing upon it on his head, at a distance of 212 feet from 
 the ground). In 1884 the aisles were again projected, and 
 the proposal caused fresh dissension and some litigation, 
 several influential residents being of opinion that the addi- 
 tions, if carried out, would irreparably destroy the beauty of 
 the edifice. Their opponents, however, prevailed, and the 
 new aisles, which cost upwards of £4,000, were opened by 
 Bishop Ellicott in September, 1885. 
 V^ The Bristol Deaf and Dumb Institution was established in 
 the course of this year. In the case of this charity, the city 
 did not occupy its customary position amongst the great towns 
 of the country. Edinburgh founded a Deaf and Dumb 
 Institution in 1760, and the example had been largely followed 
 
 s
 
 258 THE AKNALS OF BRISTOL. [1842. 
 
 before Bristol entered the field. The charity, which was for 
 many years located in Park Row, was removed in August, 
 1874, to the entrance to Tyndall's Park, where a building in 
 the Tudor style had been erected for it at an outlay of £7,000. 
 
 Under the Cathedral Acts passed in 1841 and 1842, the 
 bishop of this diocese was authorised to appoint, at the rate 
 of two per annum, twenty-four honorary canons of Bristol. 
 An equal number was awarded to Gloucester. 
 
 In March, 1842, workmen commenced the removal of the 
 old houses which earlier generations had allowed to cluster 
 against the north side of St. Mary Redcliff Church, some 
 encroaching on the west front of the edifice being also 
 demolished, with the object of laying out a new street, which 
 was called Phippen Street, in honour of the mayor for the 
 previous year. By the destruction of several miserable dwell- 
 ings, the north front of the parish church, the details of 
 which had been concealed for two or three centuries, were 
 thrown open to public view. [The statue of Chatterton (see 
 p. 249) was re-erected on the site of one of those hovels.] 
 The cost of the property destroyed (about eighty-six tene- 
 ments), with other expenses, was upwards of £20,700; but by 
 the sale of ground rents the expenditure was reduced to 
 about £8,700. In May, 1843, a further improvement was 
 effected near the church b}' the lowering of Redcliif Hill, a 
 commencement being also made with the widening of Redclifi: 
 Street, by the setting back of one or two houses. These 
 works raised the total amount spent in the locality to £13,500. 
 
 On the 18th March, a man styling himself Signor Irving 
 walked across a rope stretched over the Floating Harbour, 
 from a warehouse on Redcliif Back to the Welsh Back. The 
 feat attracted a great concourse of spectators. Three days 
 later, the precursor of Blondin was repeating the performance, 
 when the rope broke, and he was seriously bruised by falliug 
 upon a barge. 
 
 On the 7th July, 1842, an exhibition of machinery, works 
 of art, etc., promoted by the members of the Mechanics' 
 Institute, was opened in a building at the top of Park Street, 
 and continued on view, with a short interval, until the end 
 of October. Amongst the visitors was H.R.H. the Duke 
 of Cambridge, who expressed himself much plensed. The 
 exhil)ition was very po])ular, ui^wards of 7I',00() jkm'sous 
 paying for admission; and tlie net profits, nearly £800, sufficed 
 to wipe off the debt of the Institute. 
 
 The Royal Agricultural Society opened the fourth of its 
 annual country meetings at Bristol on the 12th July. The
 
 1842.] ROYAL AGRICDLTURAL SHOW. ST, MAUY REDCLIFF. 259 
 
 site selected for the exhibition of implements is now occupied 
 by the Triaug'le, while the show ground for animals was in 
 the fields which then lay immediately behind the Victoria 
 Rooms, about six acres being enclosed for the purpose. 
 Amongst the miscellaneous articles on view was a gigantic 
 cheese, weighing nine hundredweight, made at West Pennard, 
 Somerset, and intended by the dairy farmers of the district 
 as a present to the Queen, [The cheese subsequently got 
 into the Court of Chancery.] The showyard was visited by 
 33,000 persons. The trials of implements took place in a 
 field at Sneyd Park. Amongst the crowds of distinguished 
 personages who visited the city on the occasion, were the 
 Duke of Cambridge, the Prince of Saxe Meiningen, the Dukes 
 of Richmond and Beaufort, the Marquis of Downshire, the 
 Earls of Ilchester, Somers, Ducie, Spencer, Essex, Chichester, 
 Fortescue, and Zetland, the Hon. E. Everett, United States 
 minister, H. Handley, Esq., president of the Society, etc. The 
 annual dinner of the Society was held on the 14th July in a 
 pavilion capable of accommodating about 2,500 persons. On 
 the same day a single train from London brought down 2,115 
 passengers. The receipts of the Great Western Railway for 
 the week were £20,627, which by a generation accustomed to 
 coach travelling was deemed a truly marvellous amount. 
 
 About this date a curious official seal or die of the reign 
 of Henry VIII. was found in a sewer near Castle Street. It 
 was of copper, gilt, about thi-ee inches in diameter, and bore 
 an effigy of the king in his robes, seated under a canopy, and 
 holding a sceptre and orb. The inscription was as follows : 
 " Anno Regis Henrici Octavi 34, racium (?) anno gracia, 1542." 
 
 The local journals of the 30th July published a long and 
 earnest appeal to the citizens on behalf of the venerable 
 parish church of St. Mary Redcliff, then crumbling to decay 
 through the neglect and parsimony of previous generations. 
 The appeal, which was signed by the Rev. M. R. AVhish, 
 vicar, and Thomas Proctor and John Farler, churchwardens, 
 stated that the objects to be kept in view were the solid 
 and substantial repair of the fabric, the restoration of its 
 ornamental parts, and such alterations, chiefly internal, as 
 might be necessary to restore the church to its ancient and 
 pristine beauty. The services of Mr. Britton, the eminent 
 antiquary, had been obtained for the restoration, and Mr. 
 William Hosking, professor of architecture at King's College, 
 had co-operated in the preparation of plans and drawings 
 illustrative of the work to be accomplished. The cost of the 
 restoration was estimated at "very nearly £40,000." The
 
 260 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1842. 
 
 response of the citizens to this document was of a frigid 
 character; and although the promoters of the work neverthe- 
 less persevered in pressing it upon the public, they long 
 failed to shake the apathy of the wealthier classes. At a 
 meeting in March, 1845, it was reported, that although the 
 ruinous state of the church was daily becoming more alarm- 
 ing, the total amount subscribed (less a vote of £2,000 made 
 by the vestry and £1,000 contributed by the committee) was 
 only £2,400. Urgent appeals were repeatedly made through 
 the press ; and in the following September, in the hope that 
 if the Avork were once begun it would not be suffered to 
 drop, Mr. George Godwin was appointed architect. A con- 
 tract was also entered into for the restoration of the east 
 window and of one section of the church. The foundation- 
 stone of the new works was laid on the 21st April, 1846, by 
 the mayor (Mr. Haberfield), a long masonic procession accom- 
 panying his worship to the spot. In the course of carrying 
 out this contract, which was completed in September, 1847, 
 some brickwork blocking up an arch between the chancel 
 and the Lady Chapel was removed, when a beautiful but 
 much-mutilated stone screen was exposed to view. [Another 
 interesting discovery was made some years later in the south 
 aisle of the nave, namely, the original tombs of William 
 Canynges and his wife. The face of these beautifully 
 canopied recesses had been ruthlessly cut away and wain- 
 scoted over in the reign of Queen Anne, when the church 
 was repewod. It was supposed that the effigies then lying 
 in the south transept had been removed from the recesses 
 by the perpetrators of the mutilation, and in 1852 the figures 
 were replaced in their original position.] In January, 1848, 
 the Canynges Society wfis formed for the purpose of help- 
 ing forward the restoration, directing its efforts in the first 
 instance to the chancel. In the summer of the same year an 
 anonymous contributor, signing himself '^Nil Desperandum," 
 began to forward money for the restoration of the north porch, 
 the cost of which was nearly £2,600. [On the death of 
 Alderman Proctor, in May, 1876, his executors discovered — 
 as had long been suspected — that ho had effected this work 
 at his sole expense, besides coutriljuting largely to the sub- 
 scriptions for the church]. The assistance of the public 
 continued to be rendered grudgingly for several years; and 
 Itut for the exertions of the Ctiuynges Society, and its 
 auxiliary, the Commercial Association (which rebuilt the 
 south porch), little progress could have been effected. At the 
 close of 1857, after nearly sixteen years' efforts, less than
 
 1842.] ST. MARY REDCLIFP. COLSTON's SCHOOL. 261 
 
 £13,000 had been obtained from every source. More interest, 
 however, began to be shown by the wealthier classes after 
 that date; and in 1860 a stimulus was given to the work by 
 the offer of Mr. S. W. Lucas , of Birmingham, to give £1,000 
 provided £4,000 additional were collected. The result was a 
 subscription exceeding £5,500, which enabled the committee 
 to make considerable progress during the following five years. 
 In the meantime, the freemasons of the city resolved upon 
 restoring the Lady Chapel at their sole expense. The first 
 stone of this work was laid on the 28th August, 1861, when 
 the masonic body in full regalia assembled in the Exchange, 
 and walked in procession through the streets, the unusual 
 pageant exciting much public interest. The stone was laid 
 by Mr. Henry Shute, P.G.M. At the close of 1865, when the 
 treasury was again exhausted, another subscription was set 
 on foot, Alderman Proctor, Mr. R. P. King, Mr. J. Lucas, and 
 the Rev. H. G. Randall ofi^ering £500 each, to which the 
 public added about £4,000. In 1870 it was announced that 
 this fund, which had reached £7,500, was absorbed. The 
 restoration of the Lady Chapel was completed in the same 
 year. Only £5,000 additional were now asked for to complete 
 the restoration, including the spire, and as about £2,000 
 were soon forthcoming, the committee began operations for 
 '^ crowning the edifice " in the summer of 1871. No time was 
 lost in prosecuting the task, for on the 9th May, 1872, the 
 capstone of the spire — a piece of Portland stone thirteen feet 
 in gii'th, and weighing about a ton — was laid by the mayor 
 (Alderman W. P. Baker), who was accompanied to the sum- 
 mit, 276| feet above the ground, by the mayoress, the vicar, 
 and some officials of the parish. The vane, which stands 15^ 
 feet above the capstone, was fixed a few days later. In the 
 closing months of the year an illuminated dial was placed in 
 the tower, and the peal of bells was increased from ten to 
 twelve. In October, 1874, a ''final appeal" was made by 
 the Canynges Society, who stated that up to that date 
 £45,000 had been expended in the restoration, of which sum 
 £2,000 remained as a debt. Various details were also left 
 uncompleted, and for these £4,000 more were required. The 
 incumbrance was shortly after cleared off, and the additional 
 works were undertaken and finished at intervals. 
 
 On the 1st August, 1842, Lord Langdale, Master of the 
 Rolls, gave judgment upon an information filed by the 
 Attorney-General against the Society of Merchant Venturers 
 in the matter of Colston's School. The question at issue was 
 the disposition of the surplus of the funds left by Colston
 
 2G2 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1842. 
 
 after the expenses of tlie scliool had been provided for, it 
 being argued by the Societ}-, that as they were liable for 
 deficiencies^ they ■were entitled to appropriate the surpluses 
 which might remain in hand. A particular transaction ap- 
 peared to have led to the information. The Merchants' 
 Society had demised to one Edward Bowyer and his wife a 
 portion of the Colston property on lease, at a yearly rent of 
 £315 ; but subsequently, in consideration of the lessees un- 
 dertaking to pay down £2,500, the rent was reduced to £5 
 per annum. The lessees had actually paid only £500 of the 
 promised amount; for the balance of £2,000 the Society ob- 
 tained as secvirity the manor of Stogursey, which subse- 
 quently, saving certain rights of Eton College, passed wholly 
 into their possession, when the profits were retained by 
 themselves. Lord Langdale, in giving judgment, said the 
 Society were not entitled to deal with the funds of the school 
 for their own benefit. There must be an inquiry, and the 
 Society must be charged on account of the £2,500, but the 
 inquiry was not to go further back than the date of the 
 information. There was, his lordship added, much to be 
 urged for the defendants, considering the difficulties imposed 
 upon them by Colston's executors. The Society appealed 
 against the decision, but the Lord Chancellor, in January, 
 1848, confirmed the judgment of Lord Langdale. During 
 the hearing of the case it was stated by counsel that certain 
 estates, ground-rents, etc., given by Colston to the school, 
 and producing £1,280 at the time of the foundation, had 
 become worth more than £3,000 a year, and that the surplus 
 had been retained formanv vears bv the Merchants' Societv. 
 
 The conversion, in 1786, of the Weavers' Hall, Temple 
 Street, then a Methodist chapel, into a Jewish synagogue, 
 is recorded in Barrett's historv of the citv. On the 18th 
 August, 1842, the Jews o])ened a new synagogue near the 
 same spot, having purchased and decorated a cha]iel built 
 for the Society of Friends, but which had been for some 
 years hired by the Wesleyans, who were thus twice succeeded 
 by the Jews. The Weavers' Hall, again vacated by the 
 removal of the synagogue, was bought soon after by the 
 authorities of Temple parish for the purpose of being con- 
 verted into a school. 
 
 About the end of September a local case, markfnl ])y 
 astonisliing credulity on tlio one hand and of rarely matched 
 baseness and treachery on the other, excited widespread 
 attention. The main features of the story were as follows : 
 At No. 5, Cumberland Terrace, Cumberland Koad, resided
 
 1842.] THE WOOLLEY HOAX. 263 
 
 Mr. John AYoolley, a timber merchant, considerably advanced 
 in years. After the death of his wife, in 1888, his liouso had 
 been managed by his sister-in-law, Mary Bryers, whom he 
 was said to have adopted whilst a child, and to have treated 
 with much kindness. Woolley, however, was vain, weak- 
 minded, and greedy; and the housekeeper, who was inordi- 
 nately fond of finery and display, resolved upon gratifying 
 her tastes by playing upon his weaknesses. Her first essay, 
 made about a year before this date, was to induce him to 
 believe that his personal charms and amiable disposition had 
 won the heart of a young- lady with a fortune of £5,000, and 
 large '' expectations " from a wealthy aunt, who knew of and 
 sympathised with her niece's affection. Woolley thereupon 
 began to write amorous letters to his Dulcinea, the missives 
 being placed in the hands of Bryers, who quickly concocted 
 responses calculated to keep up his delusion. The sym- 
 pathetic aunt was also made to play a part in the farce. 
 Under the pretence that her large income came in irregularly, 
 loans of money were requested in letters to Woolley, who 
 advanced some £70 on being made the custodian of a pre- 
 tended will, by which the dupe was promised a legacy 
 of £5,000. Feeling that further imposture in this direction 
 might lead to exposure, Bryers now devised a fresh and more 
 daring scheme. Her brother-in-law was informed that 
 another young lady — a Miss Poole King — with a fortune of 
 £47^000, had conceived so ardent a passion for his person, 
 through having seen him frequently passing her house in 
 Redclifi' Parade, that she was ready to throw herself and 
 fortune into his arms. Although, as in the former case, 
 Woolley was wholly unacquainted with his reputed adorer, 
 he seemed to have accepted her advances as a matter of 
 course, and the first charmer was so completely neglected 
 that Bryers was enabled to forge a letter purporting to come 
 from that lady, upbraiding him with inconstancy, and de- 
 clining further correspondence. Released from this difficulty, 
 Woolley fell eagerly into the ncAV web of fraud framed by his 
 impudent relative, who obtained a gold watch from a trades- 
 man on the credit of his name, induced him to believe that 
 it was a present from Miss King, and secured his own watch 
 for an imaginary exchange of love tokens. A correspondence 
 was next started, Bryers producing letters from the lady 
 expressing the warmest attachment — accompanied on one 
 occasion with a request for a loan of £20 to meet an 
 emergency, which met, of course, w^ith a prompt response. 
 Eventuallv, on being told that Miss King's family were
 
 264 THE ANNALS OF BKISTOL. [1842. 
 
 violently opposed to her marriage, Woolley expressed his 
 williuguess to assist iu her elopement ; and one Sunday 
 evening Bryers informed him that the lady had taken refuge 
 in his house, but declined to see him. A pretended fugitive 
 did, in fact, remain in the house until the following Wednes- 
 day, Bryers in the meanwhile obtaining money from her 
 complacent employer under various pretexts. All prepara- 
 tions having been made, Woolley was at length permitted to 
 see his intended bride ; and though the slightest perspicacity 
 would have sufficed to convince him that the alleged lady 
 was of the vulgarist materials, the gull appears to have been 
 perfectly satisfied. A post-chaise having been obtained, the 
 party set off for London, where the '' fair one," to Woolley's 
 great satisfaction, undertook to make over £27,000 of her 
 fortune. A licence being next obtained, the couple were 
 married at Southwark on the 12th September — the bride 
 being so '^ overcome " when her signature was required in the 
 vestry that Bryers had to guide her hand. A week having 
 been gaily spent at an hotel, the party returned to Bristol, 
 where, on the pretence that the lady was going to Redcliff 
 Parade to prepare her home for her husband's reception, the 
 two women took to flight, with certain luggage belonging to 
 Woolley. The wretched man soon after discovered that he 
 liad not only been robbed of his valuables, but had been 
 united to a girl of low origin, named Mary Ann Moi-gan, who 
 had earned her living as a domestic servant. About a fort- 
 night later, Bryers and her tool were captured in London, 
 and were taken before a magistrate; but Woolley, over- 
 whelmed by the roar of popular ridicule excited by his tale, 
 ultimately declined to prosecute, and was left to ponder for 
 the rest of his life over his egregious credulity. 
 
 In the autumn of this year public attention was called in 
 the local press to the destruction of the natural beauties 
 of Leigh Woods and of tlio Somerset bank of the Avon by 
 the proprietors of the property. From the statements made 
 in newspaper articles and correspondence, it appeared that 
 a portion of the ancient British camj) had been converted 
 into a potato garden ; the wood was let as a rabbit warren ; 
 many of the large trees were cut or thrown down ; and sylvan 
 spots of eminent l)oauty, o])en to the public from time 
 immemorial, were hedged off from pedestrians, who were 
 insultingly driven away by the man who had taken possession 
 of the place. All tliis was done, it was added, in order that 
 " the poor annuiil j)ittanco of some £20 sterling" might fall 
 " into colTers already overflowiTig " ; .and letters addressed
 
 184-2.] DESTRUCTION OF LEIGH WOODS. 265 
 
 to the owner of tlie estate were contemptuously ignored. On 
 the river bank, the destruction worked on another property 
 by pickaxe and bhisting powder was playing still greater 
 havoc with scenery of surpassing grandeur and beauty. A 
 Conservative editor remarked: "Of the unintelligent, un- 
 scrupulous, and merely mercenary and vulgar character 
 of the general invasion of which this fine scenery has long 
 been the victim, there can be in every generous and feeling 
 mind but one opinion." The protests of the public were, 
 however, of no effect. A toll was demanded of every one 
 entering Leigh Woods, while on the other estate every large 
 tree was cut down in the wood overhanging the river from 
 Stokeleigh camp to opposite Cook's Folly. In July, 1849, 
 the restrictions imposed upon pedestrians frequenting Leigh 
 Woods were abandoned, and the boorish potato grower dis- 
 appeared. In the summer of 1879, on the other hand, an 
 ancient foot and bridle path from Leigh road to the wood 
 overhanging the Abbot's Pond, was closed by the owner 
 of the land, and as no one felt called upon to resist his action, 
 the right of the public was surrendered. In the meantime 
 the devastation of the riverside scenery had gone on, as it 
 still goes on, without interruption. The EiiglisJi, Ilhisfrafed 
 Mar/dziiie for November, 1886, contains the indignant protest 
 of a well-known literary citizen against the destruction of 
 the '^ waving forest that had been the nursery of art to 
 W. J. Miiller, Danby,/^'y^ie{and Turner, and the scenery that 
 has given character toClif ton," which had become " only 
 a record of an utilitarian age, whose sordid spirit could con- 
 vert so choice a piece of landscape into crumbling stones for 
 the sake of their value in money." 
 
 An interesting geological discovery was made in November, 
 1842, in one of the quarries which were then worked in the 
 middle of Durdham Down, the workmen having found an 
 o])ening into a cavern containing a quantity of the remains 
 of animals for ages extinct in this country. The cavity, 
 though narrow, was of some extent,-being traceable to a depth 
 of ninetv feet. The bones had belonged to about twelve 
 hyenas, a bear, two rhinoceros, several hippopotami, numerous 
 examples of wild bulls, about five deer, and five or six 
 elephants, besides the relics of animals of later date. The 
 bones were nearly all fractured into small pieces, and the 
 proportion of teeth and horns to other parts of the body 
 greatly preponderated. Taking this fact into consideration, 
 together with the marks of gnawing on the bones, and the 
 certainty that the cave could not have accommodated more
 
 266 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1843. 
 
 than a small fraction of the animals represented by the 
 vestiges, scientific observers concluded that the den had been 
 the retreat of hyenas, which had carried to it portions of 
 their prey. By comparison of the teeth of the hyena and 
 bear with those of the present races, the larger size of the 
 early animals became strikingly apparent ; those of the 
 hyena testified that the beast had been bigger than the 
 largest known species of tiger. The appearance of the 
 remains suggested the hypothesis that a considerable move- 
 ment had taken place in the sides of the fissure since the 
 animals had lived there ; and this, it was presumed, had 
 produced the closure of the orifice, and the consequent high 
 preservation of the bones. 
 
 In February, 1843, the Grovernment purchased a plot of 
 land, part of Horfield Court Farm, the property of Mr. A. M. 
 Storey, for the purpose of erecting cavalry and infantry 
 barracks on the site, and so avoiding the quartering of troops 
 on the publicans of the city — a system which had long been 
 condemned both by the victuallers and the public. The 
 foundation-stone of the new buildings was laid with masonic 
 ceremony on the 3rd June, 1845, and the completed pre- 
 mises were handed over to the Board of Ordnance on the 26th 
 April, 1847. The barracks, which cost £57,000, were con- 
 structed to accommodate four companies of infantry and two 
 troops of cavalry. In 1873 considerable additions were made 
 to the buildings, which became a " local military centre " 
 under the Army Re-organization Act. A field opposite to the 
 barracks was also purchased, to serve as a camping ground 
 for the Gloucestershire militia during the annual period of 
 training. 
 
 Robert Sonthey, one of Bristol's most distinguished sons, 
 died on the 21st March, 1843, at Keswick, Cumberland. A 
 detailed notice of the literary labours of one of the most 
 indefatigable and voluminous of English writers would be 
 inconsistent with the chai'acter of this work, but it may be 
 interesting to record a few local facts connected with his 
 career. Born on the 12th August, 1774, at No. 0, Wine 
 Street, where his father carried on business as a draper, at 
 the sign of " The Hare," Southey received the elements of 
 instruction from various teachers in and near the city, and 
 showed at an early ago such strong indications of .ability and 
 genius that an unck', tlie liov. H. Hill, undertook to boar the 
 expense of his education at a public school. At Westminster 
 the boy soon found congenial associates, amongst whom was 
 Mr. Charles W. Wynn, afterwards for nearly half a centnry
 
 1843.] ROBERT SOUTHEY. 267 
 
 a highly esteemed member of the House of Commons, 
 Southey's career at the school was cut short by an unlucky 
 essay on corporal punishment, published in the school maga- 
 zine which he had contributed to establish, the lucubration 
 being supposed by the servile head-master to reflect upon the 
 inhuman floo-o-ing-s which were then of constant occurrence in 
 the army and navy. The punishment was expulsion; and, as 
 the elder Southey failed in business about the same date, the 
 lad's prospects would have been seriously compromised but 
 for the continued protection of his uncle, Hill, who provided 
 means for sending him to Oxford. It was during his college 
 life, 1792-4, that he encountered Coleridge, then, like him- 
 self, a Unitarian and a republican, and the new friends a 
 little later found themselves at Bristol, disgusted with scho- 
 lasticism and with the superannuated customs of old world 
 civilization, and eager to form a Utopian " Pantosocracy " in 
 America — a bubble which happily soon burst. The dreamers, 
 moreover, fell in love with two young Bristol ladies named 
 Fricker, daughters of a maker of sugar-loaf moulds at West- 
 bury, who had died in embarrassed circumstances. Being 
 themselves in sorry pecuniary plight, the amorous youths 
 resolved on giving a course of lectures in the city — Southey 
 selecting historical, and Coleridge political and moral subjects. 
 For the former's course of twelve lectures, tickets, lO.s-. 6'/. 
 each, were " to be had of Mr, Cottle, bookseller. High Street," 
 from whose published reminiscences it appears that the ex- 
 periment met with liberal patronage,* A few months later, 
 Cottle, who was himself a poet, was so pleased with " Joan 
 of Arc," Southey's first important work, that he offered £50 
 for the copyright, promising also as many gratis copies of 
 the book as the author should obtain subscriptions for. While 
 the poem was passing through the press, Southey accepted 
 an invitation of his generous uncle, who lived at Lisbon, to 
 spend six months in the Peninsula, Mr. Hill being doubtless 
 wishful to break off his nephew's love affair. On the day of 
 his departure, however (in November, 1795), the enthusiastic 
 young man effectually baffled this intention by marrying Miss 
 Edith Fricker at vSt, Mary Redcliff, the parties separating at 
 the church door. Such was the bridegroom's poverty at the 
 moment that Cottle furnished the money to buy the wedding 
 
 • Southey's fourth Ipcture was to be " On the Rise, Progress, and Decline of 
 the Roman Empire," a theme which so excited Coleridge's imagination that he 
 asked permission to deal with it himself. The room was thronged on the occa- 
 sion; but Coleridge, with customary absence of mind, never made hi.s appearance, 
 and the assembled citizens were forced to go lectureless to bed.
 
 268 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1843. 
 
 ring, and paid the fees of the ceremony ; yet no nnion was 
 ever more happy, and Southey wrote forty years later, that 
 his partner had always been "' the life of his life." On his 
 return from the Continent, in 1796, the young couple estab- 
 lished themselves in lodgings in Bristol, where Southey wrote 
 his " Letters from Spain and Portugal," Cottle, who bought 
 the copyright, advancing money on account, and thus keep- 
 ing the wolf from the door. Shortly afterwards, Mr. Wynn, 
 though not a rich man, granted Southey an annuity of £160 
 a year (which was continued until the generous giver was 
 able to obtain for him a Government pension of an equal 
 amount) ; and Southey, who had had brief flirtations with 
 the clerical, the medical, and finally the legal professions, 
 definitely resolved to devote himself to literature. In 1797, 
 out of sympathy for the sister and niece of the unfortunate 
 Chatterton, wdio had been shamefully defrauded and left 
 destitute by a literary charlatan — Sir Herbert Croft — Southey 
 undertook an edition of the works of the youthful genius. 
 The liberal-hearted Cottle was again the publisher (as he 
 had already been of two volumes of Southey's minor poems), 
 and the effort resulted in a clear profit of £300 for Chatter- 
 ton's relatives. A year later, Southey, whose health was 
 impaired, took a house at AV^estbury-on-Trym, which he styled 
 Martin Hall from the number of those summer visitors that 
 hovered around it, and there he spent, as he afterwards said, 
 "one of the happiest years of his life." " I never before or 
 since produced so much poetry in the same space of time." 
 There, too, he formed the acquaintance of Humphry Davy, 
 who, when scarce twenty years old, had come to Bristol to 
 superintend Dr. Beddocs' Pneumatic Institution, and whose 
 brilliant career was predicted by his new friend. Another 
 visit to the Peninsula and a brief official charge in Dubliii 
 followed the sojourn at Westbury. In 1802 Southey was 
 again living in Bristol; but the loss of a child while in the 
 city caused him profound grief, and in the following year, 
 having gone with his wife to see Mr. and Mrs. Coleridge at 
 Keswick, he was so charmed with the locality that what was 
 intended to be a temporary visit turned out to be a perma- 
 nent settlement for life. His labours from that date belong 
 to the literary history of the century. In 1813 ho was ap- 
 pointed poet laureate, wliicli added £90 a year to his income 
 but nothing t(i his fame. In later j^ears he was offered a seat 
 in Parliament and a baronetcy, but wisely eschewed both 
 distinctions. He accepted, liowever, a further pension of 
 £300, Avhich was gracefully offered by Sir Robert Peel in
 
 IS43.] PEN PARK HOLE. ECCLESIASTICAL SUIT. 2G0 
 
 1835. Southey's poems, deemed imperishable by himself, 
 have been long forgotten ; but as a prose writer he sometimes 
 displayed talent of the highest order; and Thackeray's eulogy 
 on the true nobility of his life, his indefatigable industry, and 
 liis self-sacrificing devotion to his relatives and dependants, 
 will remain a monument to his memory so long as the English 
 language endures. 
 
 The singular cavern known as Pen-park Hole, which ex- 
 cited mucli interest in the previous century, was explored 
 in April, 1843, by Mr. Richard Rowe, of St. Agnes, Corn- 
 wall, and a party of working miners from that county. After 
 descending about 140 feet, the party reached a large body of 
 water, and it was found necessary to take down a boat before 
 any progress could be made. The piece of water was stated 
 to be eight fathoms deep, twelve fathoms long, and fifteen 
 fathoms broad ; though on the last previous occasion on 
 which the cavern was visited — in the autumn of 1776 — Mr. 
 George Catcott estimated the pool to be " not more than four 
 yards over, and its greatest depth not above six feet." The 
 explorers obtained some fine specimens of lead ore, Avhich 
 were afterwards stated to have yielded more than 75 per cent. 
 of metal. The results were deemed so satisfactory that it 
 was proposed to form a company in Cornwall for the purpose 
 of regularly working the mine ; but from some reason the 
 project was abandoned. 
 
 On the 19th May a commission of preliminary investigation 
 was opened in the chapter house of the cathedral to inquire 
 whether there were sufficient grounds for proceeding in the 
 Episcopal court against the Rev. M. R. Whish, vicar of St. 
 Mary Redcliff, and the Rev. D. V^Irvine^ his curate, and 
 also chaplain of B ride well, ^FoFaTbreach of church discipline. 
 The alleged offence consisted in Dr^Iryine having solemnized 
 the marriage of two persons living in the parish of Nailsea, 
 the woman being a sister of the deceased wife of the man. 
 The proceedings were instituted by Archdeacon Thorp, who 
 conducted the case. After a hearing which extended over 
 two days. Dr. Phillimore, the presiding commissioner, de- 
 clared that there were sufficient grounds for instituting 
 further proceedings against Dr. Irvine, who loudly protested 
 that he was the victim of a High Church persecution. The 
 charge against Mr. Whish fell to the ground. The parties 
 having agreed that Bishop Monk should pronounce sentence 
 in Dr. Irvine's case, without further proceedings, his lordship 
 suspended the curate for a year, his licences being also re- 
 voked. Petitions in the reverend gentleman's favour were
 
 270 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1843. 
 
 presented to the bishop by the visiting justices of Bridewell 
 and the parishioners of Redcliff, but Dr. Monk refused to 
 make any remission. 
 
 Some quaint old houses in Baldwin Street (a view of which 
 is preserved in Front's Sketches) were demolished about the 
 end of May for the purpose of widening that thoroughfare, 
 ■which was in some places exceedingly narrow. The net cost 
 of the improvement was about £2,700. The premises built 
 upon the sites were tasteless in the extreme. About the 
 same time a picturesque old house was pulled down in Broad 
 Street, in order to open a communication into Small Street 
 through Albion Chambers. 
 
 The first mention of tricycles found in the newspapers of 
 this part of the kingdom occurs in the Bath Gazette of the 
 last week in May. The paragraph stated that two descrip- 
 tions of three-wheeled self-propelling machines were then 
 traversing the streets of Bath. One of them was propelled 
 by the rider " rising up and down, after the manner .of horse 
 exercise " ; the other, invented by a local artisan, was worked 
 by treadles whicli moved a crank close to the small guiding 
 wheel. *' The inventor lately came on it from Bristol to Bath 
 in an hour and a half." Bicycles came into favour about 
 1860, and caused much astonishment in the rural districts. 
 One Somerset peasant, dumbfoundered by their speed and 
 inexplicable mode of propulsion, is recorded to have de- 
 scribed a party of excursionists as being " the cheeribums as 
 Daniel seed." 
 
 The stately chapel on St. Augustine's Back, erected in 1840 
 by the Irvingite denomination at a cost of about £14,000, was 
 purchased for £5,000 in the summer of 1843 by the Roman 
 Catliolics of the city, and was consecrated, under the name of 
 St. Mary, on the 5th July, by Bishop Baines, vicar apostolic 
 of the western district. Dr. l^aines expired during tlie night 
 following the ceremonial at his residence. Prior Park, Batli. 
 In 1871 the chapel Avas purchased by the fraternity of 
 Jesuits. 
 
 Highlniry Chapel, Cotham, erected on the ground wliere 
 tliree unha])py Protestants were burned to death for their 
 religious opinions during the reign of the intolerant Mary, 
 was opened on the Gth July by the Rev. AV'illiam Jay, of 
 Bath. It had cost £3,000, exclusive of the site, which was 
 given by Mr. Richard Ash. The original design appears to 
 have included a western tower, which was never carried 
 higlier tlian tlie roof of the cliapel. During an enlargement 
 which was made in the autumn of 1803, another tower, in a
 
 1843.] LAUNCH OF THE " GREAT BRITAIN." 271 
 
 style uuconimon in this district, was erected on tlio south 
 transept of the building. The outlay on the additional 
 buildings exceeded the cost of the original edifice. 
 
 On the 19th July, the day fixed for launching the Great 
 Britain [see p. 219], his royal highness Prince Albert paid a 
 brief visit to the city, on the invitation of the proprietors of 
 the Great Western Shipbuilding Company, and was received 
 with many demonstrations of joy. The train which brought 
 the Prince down from London performed the distance in 
 what was then deemed the astonishingly short space of three 
 hours and ten and a half minutes. On arriving at Bristol 
 Terminus, the royal visitor was presented with an address by 
 the mayor (Mr. James Gibbs) on behalf of the Corporation, 
 to which he made a courteous reply. The Merchants' Society 
 also presented an address, accompanying it with the freedom 
 of the Society in a gold box. The Prince (who was accom- 
 panied by the Marquis of Exeter, Lord Wharncliffe, and the 
 Earl of Lincoln) was then conducted by Temple Street, High 
 Street, and Corn Street, College Green, Park Street, and 
 Clifton Church to the Downs, thence by Bridge Valley Road 
 to Hotwell House, and finally along Cumberland Road to the 
 shipbuilding yard at Wapping. Triumphal arches had been 
 erected at judiciously selected spots; and the visitor was 
 greatly pleased with the appeai*ance of the city and with the 
 adjacent scenery. On nearing the rude towers of the un- 
 finished suspension bridge, some men, by means of a basket- 
 car, ti'aversed the bar which united the two banks of the 
 Avon, much to the wonder of the Prince and his attendants. 
 On reaching the gigantic vessel, his royal highness inspected 
 the platform on which the ship was to descend, and expressed 
 his admiration of the " magnificent sight." A banquet fol- 
 lowed, in a saloon fitted up for the purpose, Mr. Thomas 
 Kington presiding. At its conclusion the Prince named the 
 ship the " Great Britain " in the customary manner, and the 
 colossal vessel glided into the water amidst a whirlwind of 
 cheers. The Prince's return journey was accomplished with 
 lis much celerity as his morning trip. It was estimated that, 
 in addition to the crowds which lined the sides of the Floating 
 Harboui^ about 30,000 persons assembled on Brandon Hill to 
 witness the launch. A medal was struck to commemorate 
 Prince Albert's visit to the city. Whilst the Great Britain 
 remained in the Float, a number of royal and distinguished 
 personages visited Bristol, to inspect what was then termed 
 the '^monster" vessel. Amongst them were the Duke of 
 Bordeaux ("Henry V." of France), the King of Saxony, and
 
 272 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1843. 
 
 Prince William of Prussia (afterwards Emperor of Germany) . 
 The Queen visited tlie ship when it was fitting out in the 
 Thames. 
 
 The steamer Queen, -whilst on her passage from Bristol to 
 Dublin^ was totally lost on the Welsh coast near Milford 
 Haven, during a dense fog, on the night of the 1st Septem- 
 ber. All the passengers, with the exception of one who was 
 drowned in his berth, were taken off by a passing sloop; but, 
 owing to the fog, they had to remain for twenty-four hours 
 without food or shelter before they could reach the shore. 
 The crew had previously made off in the steamer's boats. 
 The Queen belonged to the Bristol Steam Navigation Com- 
 pany, and was said to be worth about £15,000. 
 
 During the autumn of 1843, whilst alterations were being 
 made in the pews and other internal arrangements of 
 All Saints' Church, the authorities thought the opportunity 
 a favourable one for endeavouring to ascertain where the 
 remains of Edward Colston were deposited, the site of his 
 grave having been for many years in doubt. After some 
 unsuccessful attempts, the matter w^as supposed to have been 
 cleared up on the 2nd September, in the presence of the 
 vicar (the Rev. H, Rogers), the churchwardens, and a few of 
 the leading parishioners. From a memorandum written by 
 Mr. H. Penton, a churchwarden, and published in the local 
 journals, it appeared that at the suggestion of Mr. Garrard, 
 the city treasurer, who had discovered that Alderman Colston 
 (ob. 1597) was buried in a vault opposite "the little vestry 
 door" [discovered during the alterations], a search was 
 made at the place indicated. The vault in question was 
 found packed with coffins, the uppermost being within a few 
 inches of the surface. One of the last bodies interred had 
 been that of Sir Stephen Nash, LL.D., sheriff in 1785-6. 
 "The rotten remains of several wooden coffins" having l)een 
 removed, two others were found at the bottom of the vault. 
 One was supposed to be that of Sarah Colston, the philan- 
 thropist's niece, who was buried in 1721, but no name could 
 1)0 traced upon it. "The larger coffin of the two," Avrote 
 Mr. Penton, " was evidently that of a man of good stature, 
 and was on llu' left of the vault. It appeared to be found 
 necessary, when the body was interred, to excavate a portion 
 of the rock, to admit of leuLrth sufficicMit for the foot of the 
 coffin. The falling away of the wood from the sides disclosed 
 a leaden case of substantial thickness, which it was deter- 
 mined to bring to the surface, the vault Ix-ing deep. The 
 treasurer, vicar, churchwarden, and myself concluded to open
 
 1843.] SUPPOSED REMAINS OF EDWARD COLSTON. 273 
 
 the upper part of the coffin, when to our great surprise and' 
 gj:"atification, we found it was the immortal Colston himself J . / 
 lying in all the apparent tranquillity of sleep. The features! 
 were so perfect as to be readily recognised ; so much so {sic)\ 
 that it is not improbable that a cast of his head was taken for 
 the celebrated monument of him in the church, sculptured 
 by Roubillac ! The face was covered with a sheet quite 
 strong and perfect, and a diaper cap or napkin on his head: 
 his cravat and shirt exactly of the make and form of those/ 
 shown on the same admirable monument in front of th,g 
 vault. The whole was sacredly and immediately closed and 
 replaced; a leaden plate being soldered on, inscribed — 
 'Edward Colston, 1721.'" If the vicar and churchwardens 
 had, at the beginning of their operations, a fitting sense of 
 the " sacred " character of the remains, they appear to have 
 speedily lost it. A fortnight later, on the 14th September, 
 the contents of the vault were again disturbed, and Colston's 
 coffin was opened a second time to gratify the curiosity of 
 Mr. F. E. Colston, of Roundway Park, Wilts, grotesquely 
 styled by the Bristol Journal a "lineal descendant" of Colston, 
 but really the representative of a collateral branch of the 
 family. The church, in fact, was turned into a sort of show, 
 and "about a hundred gentlemen" were permitted to witness 
 the exhibition. The repulsive extent to which curiosity was 
 pushed may be divined from the account of the journalist 
 mentioned above. " The body," he says, " was clothed in a 
 shirt, drawers, and stockings [some portions of which were 
 purloined and appropriated by persons who were present], all 
 of which were yet strong and perfect; the enamel of the teeth 
 was scarcely discoloured. On a portion of the upper part of 
 the shirt being removed, the l)reast appeared almost of the 
 colour of living flesh, and was firm to the touch. The face 
 and arms were very dark ; the only portions of the grave 
 clothes that bore any marks of decay were the gloves that 
 covered the hands." The alleged discovery gave rise to 
 much controversy, it being maintained by several persons 
 that the remains could not have been those of Colston. One 
 argument adduced by the sceptics was, that, according to an 
 inscription formerly in the church, the text of which is pre- 
 served in Barrett's History, the body was laid in a vault " in 
 the first cross alley, under the reading desk " — which, down 
 to 1757, stood against the north column of the chancel arch, 
 whereas the vault near " the little vestry door " was in the 
 south aisle. It was also shown that the body of Ann Colston, 
 Edward's sister, was brought from Mortlake, and interred 
 
 T
 
 / 
 
 27-i THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1843. 
 
 witli his own, according to his express directions, but no sucli 
 coffin was in the opened vault. Finally, the head of the 
 exhumed body contained a set of teeth in excellent preserva- 
 tion, which was not to be expected in the case of a man who 
 had reached his eighty-fifth year. The question at issue was 
 never authoritatively settled. 
 
 The " Old Castle " tavern, one of the oldest buildings in 
 Castle Street, and chiefly constructed of wood, was destroyed 
 by fire on the night of the 6th September. The occupier, 
 Mr. Thomas Worthington, who was an invalid, perished in 
 the flames, and one of his relatives afterwards died from the 
 effects of her injuries. 
 
 St. Barnabas' Church, Ashley Road, was consecrated by 
 Bishop Monk on the 12th September. The building cost the 
 modest sum of £2,200, of which only £175 appear to have 
 been contributed by the citizens. St. Luke's Church, Barton 
 Hill, was consecrated on the 20th of the same month, having 
 just been finished at an outlay of £2,700. The proprietors of 
 the adjacent cotton factory, for whose workpeople it was 
 chiefly intended, contributed largely to the building fund. 
 
 The last coach between Bristol and London ceased to run 
 in October, 1843. The Bristol Journal of March 30th, 1844, 
 announced : " The Bush coach office, where an extensive 
 business has been carried on for, Ave believe, more than a 
 century, has this week closed." But in April, 1849, in con- 
 sequence of the Great Western railway board having reduced 
 the number of trains, and discontinued return tickets, two 
 coaches ran daily to and fro between Bristol and Bath, and 
 were well patronised during the summer mouths. 
 
 The Charity Trustees having resolved to remove the boys 
 of Queen Elizabeth's Hospital from the unhealthy premises in 
 Christmas Street, and to erect convenient school buildings in 
 a more salubrious locality, submitted a scheme to the Lord 
 Chancellor, praying for his assent. His lordship, in January, 
 1844, deputed a London architect to inquire into and report 
 upon the eligibility of the ])lans, and, the result being satis- 
 factory, the scheme was approved. The site selected was 
 on the north-west side of Braudou Hill, on land once used as a 
 cemetery by the Jews. The scholars took possession of the 
 new premises, which cost £1 1,000, on the 27th September, 
 1847. The abandoned hosjutal in Cliristnuis Street was 
 occupied for some time by a cooper; but in the early months 
 of 1856 it was taken by the local branch of an association 
 for improving tlie dwellings of the industrial classes ; and 
 after being jiartially rcc(jnstructed, was opened in tlio follow-
 
 1844.] TOMBS IN ST. Stephen's, sugar duties. 275 
 
 ing October as an " establisliment of model dwellings." The 
 association about the same time constructed another range 
 of buildings in Limekiln Road. The scheme, however, was 
 unprofitable, and the old '* Bartholomew's " was subsequently 
 converted into a shoo factory. 
 
 In consequence of the increasing traffic through Baldwin 
 Street, the Council, at a meeting in February, ISll-, ordered 
 the removal of the Fish Market, an ugly building standing on 
 St. Nicholas' Back, opposite to the church. The fish dealers 
 appear to have removed to the Welsh Back. [See June, 1872.] 
 Miss Ann Dimsdale, of Frenchay, who died about this time, 
 bequeatlied by will the sum of £26,000 to local charities and 
 religious societies. Miss Dimsdale was a member of an old 
 Quaker family. 
 
 During the spring of 1844, nine quaint old houses in Bi'oad 
 Street, between the Council House and the entrance to Albion 
 Chambers, had their projecting gabled fronts removed, for 
 the purpose of widening the thoroughfare. The Corporation 
 effected this improvement for £630. Three projecting houses 
 on the opposite side, adjoining Christ Church, had been 
 thrown back in 1835. The last old houses in the western row 
 were purchased, as already stated, by the Bank of England, 
 Avhose banking house, erected on the site, was opened in 
 November, 1847. 
 
 In May, whilst workmen were engaged in repewing St. 
 Stephen's Church, a richly canopied altar tomb, bearing two 
 effigies, was discovered plastered up under one of the win- 
 dows of the north aisle. The male effigy was habited in civil 
 costume, but bore a studded swordbelt of the peculiar fashion 
 of the later half of the fourteenth century. It was suggested 
 that the ^"Si^^ was that of John Shipward, elected mayor in 
 1455, who built the magnificent tower of the church ; but the 
 dress of the figure, as well as the style of the tomb, clearly 
 indicated an earlier date. A few days later, another male 
 effigy was discovered in the south wall. Both figures are 
 engraved in the ArcJiceoJogical Journal, vol. iii. pp. 82, 83. 
 [The church was repewed, in a more tasteful manner, in the 
 autumn of 1886.] 
 
 On the 14th June, the ministry of Sir Robert Peel met with 
 a severe defeat in the House of Commons, upon an amendment 
 brought forward by Mr. P. W. Miles, one of the members for 
 Bristol, on the question of the sugar duties. Up to this time, 
 the duty on foreign grown sugar was 63.s-. per cwt., while the 
 tax on our colonial product was 24.'>'. The Ministry proposed 
 to reduce the former duty to 34,s-., giving the West India
 
 276- THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1844. 
 
 interest a protection of 10s. per cwt. Mr. Miles objected to 
 this reduction as inexpedient and as wanting in finality. 
 After entering into lengthy details to show the depressed 
 condition of the colonies,, and contrasting their former jjros- 
 perity with their late decay, he said : " He wished the 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer could pay a visit to his (Mr. M.^s) 
 estates in Jamaica, and view a state of things which was the 
 sad spectre of what it once had been." Already many estates 
 had been thrown up; and he called on the agriculturists of 
 England, whose cause with that of the "West Indies was a 
 common one, to save the colonists from the very great distress 
 Avhich the ministerial proposal would create. He concluded 
 by moving that the duty on British sugars should be reduced 
 to 20s. per cwt. The Opposition, on the ground that the 
 amendment, if carried into effect, would be more advantageous 
 to the consumer than the Government proposal, supported 
 Mr. Miles, and on a division the Ministry were defeated by 
 241 votes against 221. The result caused great excitement 
 in political circles. Three days later, Sir Eobert Peel moved 
 a resolution annulling the effect of the previous vote, and 
 restoring the duty to 24s. — a proposal much condemned by 
 several speakers, and especially by Mr. Disraeli, who charged 
 the Premier with " laying down a tariff of political disgrace." 
 Mr. Miles also sharply complained of the conduct of the 
 Ministry, and declared that he should continue to defend the 
 interests of the West Indies. Sir Robert Peel's resolution 
 was however carried by 255 votes against 233. About forty 
 of the members of Mr. Miles's previous majority either 
 absented themselves or changed sides. 
 
 The Bristol and Gloucester railway, which had been under 
 construction about two years [see p. 123] was opened to the 
 shareholders on the 6th and to the public on the 8th July. 
 The first six days' traffic on the line (which was closed on 
 Sundays) amounted to £735. Of the seven coaches which 
 had been running between the two cities, six were im- 
 mediately withdrawn ; and on the 22nd July the time-hon- 
 oured " north mail " loft Bristol for tlic last time — the horses' 
 heads surmounted witli funereal phimes, and the coachman 
 and guard in ecjimllv lugubrious array. The portion of the 
 railway between Stonehouso and Gloucester had been made 
 ])y the Great Western Gom]uiny ; the rest of tlio lino (which 
 had cost about .£500, 000), tliough oi-iginally intended to bo of 
 the narrow gauge, had been laid down on the broad gauge, 
 under the advice of Mr. Brunei, tlie com])any's engineer. 
 The result of tliis arrangement was, that although the opening
 
 1844.] RAILWAY TO GLOUCESTER. MONUMENT TO SOUTHEY. 277 
 
 of the railway completed the chain of communication between 
 Bristol and Newcastle on Tyne and all the leading towns on 
 the route, every train was stopped at Gloucester as if a wall 
 had been built across the way. In the course of the year, 
 negotiations were set on foot for an amalgamation of the new 
 line with that of the Gloucester and Birmingham Company 
 (who had completed their task in December, 1840), and an 
 arransrement between the two boards was soon after efiected. 
 The united companies then received offers of alliance from 
 the Great Western and Midland directorates — each eager to 
 secure the valuable territory. The rivalry of the two great 
 concerns was close and keen; but the Midland Company, then 
 under the rule of Hudson, " the railway king," were eventu- 
 ally the successful bidders, their offer of a guaranteed divi- 
 dend of six per cent, per annum in perpetuity being accepted 
 in February, 1845. In the following yeai', to escape from 
 obligations to the Great Western board, the Midland Com- 
 pany resolved to make a new line from Gloucester to Stone- 
 house, alongside that of their competitors, but so obstinate 
 was the opposition of the latter that an Act for the purpose 
 was not obtained until 1848. Preparations were then made 
 to extend the narrow gauge system to Bristol; but further 
 obstacles were successfully raised by the Great Western 
 magnates, and for several years the passenger and goods 
 traffic between the West of England and the manufactur- 
 ing districts was brought to a dead stop at Gloucester. The 
 narrow gauge carriages did not, in fact, reach Bristol until 
 the 22nd May, 1854.* 
 
 A meeting of the friends and admirers of Robert Southey 
 was held at the Institution, Park Street, on the 13th July, 
 for the purpose of raising a subscription for the erection in 
 his native city of a monument to the memory of the dis- 
 tinguished writer. The mayor (Mr. W. L. Clarke) presided 
 over a scanty gathering, which appointed a committee to 
 carry out the project, with an understanding that the artist 
 of the memorial should be another distinguished Bristolian — 
 Mr. E. H. Baily, R. A. It was found that £500 would suffice 
 to erect a monument which would be worthy of the object 
 and creditable to the city ; but the subscriptions, excluding 
 £20 by Mr. Baily and £30 by literary men unconnected with 
 Bristol, amounted only to about £50. The subsequent dona- 
 
 • The Midland board subsequently f;ained much popularity by its cheap 
 excursion trains. On August 6, 1H55, about 7,0U0 Bristoliaus were conveyed 
 to and from Birmingham, a distance of 182 miles, for Is. Qd. each.
 
 278 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1844. 
 
 tions were so trifling that the committee abandoned tlie idea 
 of a monument in College Green, which Southey had hoped 
 for during his declining years, and contented themselves 
 with obtaining a bust of the poet, which was placed in the 
 north aisle of the cathedral in December, 1845. 
 
 About this time, the condition of the south lock at Cumber- 
 land Basin having occasioned some anxiety, the directors of 
 the Dock Company applied to Mr. Brunei for his opinion as 
 to the course to be taken. That gentleman reported that 
 repairs of a costly character were indispensable, and that, 
 considering the insufficient breadth of the lock (45 feet), it 
 was advisable to entirely reconstruct the entrance, enlarging 
 it to 52 feet, which he thought would adequately meet the 
 future requirements of the port. The cost was estimated at 
 £22,000. This report was approved by the directors, who 
 communicated their intentions to the Council. The latter 
 body, at a meeting on the 15th July, passed a resolution 
 expressive of its gratification at the liberality of the Dock 
 Company, and cordially concurring in their plan. The lock, 
 afterwards known as Brunei's lock, was constructed of a 
 width of 54 feet. 
 
 At the sale of the Chew Magna and Dundry estates of Mr. 
 John Harford, which took place in Bristol in July, the Charity 
 Trustees purchased farms and land at North Chew and 
 Littleton, of the area of 207 acres, for which £11,500 were 
 paid. 
 
 A company was formed in July, with a proposed capital of 
 £8,000 in £20 shares, for the construction of a swivel bridge 
 from Redcliff Back to the Grove. The shares were taken 
 up, but in April, 1845, a resolution disapproving of the 
 scheme was carried in the Council by 21 votes against 18. 
 The project was consequently suffered to drop. 
 
 By the Bank Charter Act, passed in the session of 1844 at 
 the instance of Sir Robert Peel, the issue of notes by pro- 
 vincial banks was limited to the average amount of their 
 circulation during the previous two years. From an official 
 return published in the London Gazetie in September, it 
 appeared that the average circulation of the local banks had 
 been as follows : Bristol Old l^ank (Messrs. Baillie, Ames & 
 Co.), £89,540; Bristol Bank (Messrs. Miles & Co.), £48,277; 
 West of Eugliuid and Soutli Wales District Bank, £88,585 ; 
 Stuck ey's Banking Com]iany, £35(3,970. 
 
 Up to this time tlie guai'diansof the Clifton poor-law union 
 had maintained three workhouses for the indoor paupers of 
 the district — at Clifton for the aged and infirm, at Peunywell
 
 1844.] NEW WORKHOUSE. WILTS AND SOMERSET RAILWAY. 279 
 
 Road for the able-bodied, and at St. George's for children, 
 A proposal was now brought forward for the erection of one 
 large establishment, with a view to economy in management. 
 At a meeting of ratepayers, at Clifton, in October, it was 
 stated that since the union was founded a new workhouse 
 had been built in the parish at a cost of £4,000. It was 
 contended that this building fulfilled the requii-ements of the 
 locality; but the Pennywell Hoad workhouse was admitted 
 to be a disgrace to the union [see p. 200] . A resolution was 
 passed to agitate for a separation of Clifton from the other 
 parishes if the guardians persisted in the new project. At a 
 meeting of the board, a few days later, however, it was 
 resolved by a large majority to negotiate for the purchase of 
 land near Stapleton, upon which to erect a workhouse capable 
 of accommodating 1,180 inmates. An area of about seventeen 
 acres was obtained for £3,500, and the builder's contract for 
 the workhouse amounted to £10,916. The premises were 
 first occupied in September, 1847, but they were at once 
 found inadequate, and in December, 1848, the Poor Law 
 Board authorised an expenditure of £25,000, including the 
 cost of site. Additional buildings have been added from 
 time to time, and the total outlay has been probably not less 
 than £40,000. In spite of these extensions, the workhouse 
 now accommodates only 1,161 inmates, recent regulations 
 insisting on an increased cubic space for each pauper. The 
 workhouse at Clifton, after its abandonment, was hired from 
 the overseers, and became the Clifton Wood Industrial School. 
 A vestry hall and parochial offices were built on part of the 
 site in Pennywell Road, the rest of which was sold, as Avas 
 the workhouse at St. George's. 
 
 In November, 1844, a prospectus appeared of the Wilts, 
 Somerset, and Weymouth Railway Company, with a capital 
 of £1,500,000 in £50 shares, for the construction of a railway 
 from Corsham to Trowbridge and Westbury, with diverging 
 lines from the last-named town to Salisbury and to Wey- 
 mouth. The Great Western board, which promoted the 
 scheme, undertook to work the line on a lease, and guaranteed 
 a minimum )''early dividend of 4 per cent. The proposal 
 excited strong disapproval amongst Bristol traders, on the 
 ground that it threatened to obstruct if not destroy their 
 extensive business in the commercial districts of Wilts and 
 East Somerset, and measures were taken to oppose it in 
 Parliament. The Great Western directors, however, under- 
 took to establish direct communication between Bristol and 
 the towns in question, and the Bill passed. Subsequently, an
 
 280 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1844. 
 
 Act was obtained to carry out the promise of the board, but 
 the construction of the additional line was postponed from 
 year to year, and the directors at last attempted to repudiate 
 their pledges. The Court of Queen's Bench was eventually 
 applied to for redress, when the construction of a railway 
 from Bathampton to the above line at Bradford was declared 
 to be obligatory on the Great Western Company. Another 
 Act was obtained in the session of 1854, and the junction line 
 was opened in February, 1857. The line to Salisbury had 
 been finished in June, 1856, and the Weymouth section was 
 completed in December of the same year. The cost of the 
 Wilts, Somerset, and Weymouth system to the concern which 
 absorbed it was over £3,000,000 — a sum exceeding the original 
 capital of the Great Western Company. 
 
 The urgent need of providing the city with an additional 
 supply of water had for some years before this time become 
 a pressing public question. The state of the poor in many 
 districts was lamentable in the extreme ; and the high rate 
 of mortality which generally prevailed was held to be largely 
 attributable to the consumption of impure water, and to the 
 dirt and squalor that prevailed amongst the labouring classes. 
 At length, in March, 1840, a meeting was held, the mayor 
 (Mr. J. N. Franklyn) presiding, when it was proposed to form 
 a Bristol and Clifton Waterworks Company, with a capital 
 of £60,000 in £50 shares. The scheme, however, failed from 
 want of support. In November, 1841, notice of an intended 
 application for parliamentary powers was given on behalf 
 of the Merchant Venturers' Company, who proposed to obtain 
 a supply from springs in various suburban parishes, though 
 it was understood that the chief source depended upon was 
 the lower hot-well spring, near Black Rock. The subject 
 was brought before the Council by a far-sighted member, who 
 urged that the work of supplying the city ought to bo under- 
 taken by the Corporation ; but the majority, sympathising 
 with the Merchants' Company, refused to take any action. 
 The Bill was shortly afterwards dropped, and notliing was 
 done for some years. In the meantime Bristol was described 
 in an official report as " worse su])plied with water than any 
 great city in England." About a hundred houses near 
 Kichmond 'JV»rraco were supplied from wells known as 
 Richmond and Buckingham springs; some 400 dwellings 
 were connected with Sion spring, while a few families in and 
 near College Green were ])rovided from Jacob's Wells, the 
 pipes from which were the property of the dean and chapter. 
 The poor, excepting those living near the })ul)lio conduits,
 
 1845.] ESTABLISHMENT OF THE WATEE COMPANY. 281 
 
 were generally without any provision. AVater-carrying was 
 therefore a common and lucrative trade, and as many thou- 
 sand poor families had to pay on an average a penny daily for 
 a scanty supply, it was not surprising that they should be 
 stigmatised as extremely dirty in their habits. Unfortunately, 
 too, much of the water drawn from private wells was affected 
 by neighbouring cesspools, and was pernicious to health. 
 Early in 1845, the Merchants' Society set about the construc- 
 tion of works for tapping the springs near Black Kock, an 
 engine-house * of somewhat fantastic design being erected 
 near what was known during the previous century as the 
 "New Hot Well," while excavations for a reservoir were made 
 in the ancient British camp on Clifton Down. It being 
 obvious that this supply would be inadequate to meet the 
 wants of the city, a company was started in April, 1845, to 
 bring in a copious provision from more distant sources. The 
 result was an obstinate and expensive struggle between the 
 rival parties before a parliamentary committee in 1846, the 
 Merchants' Society seeking to obtain exclusive powers for 
 the supply of Clifton and the adjoining parishes. The com- 
 mittee of the House of Commons eventually approved of the 
 more comprehensive scheme, and the company's Bill received 
 the royal assent on the 16th July, 1846, the capital sanc- 
 tioned being £200,000 in shares, and £66,000 in loans. [In 
 order to buy off opposition when the Bill was before Parlia- 
 ment, negotiations were opened with the proprietors of the 
 chief springs in Clifton, and the following sums were ulti- 
 mately paid : The Merchants' Society for the river-side 
 springs, machinery, and plant, £18,000; Mr. Coates, for Sion 
 House spring, £13,500; Mr. W. Hamley, for Buckingham 
 spring, £2,196 ; Mr. J. Coombe, for Richmond spring, 
 £4,950; and for Whiteladies' spring, £400; total, £39,046.] 
 Various sources of supply having been examined, it was 
 resolved to have recourse to certain springs at Barrow 
 Gurney and Harptree Combe, with others forming the head 
 of the river Chew, at Litton and Chewton Mendip, the first 
 two being about five, and the latter nearly sixteen miles 
 distant from Bristol. Operations having been begun and 
 continued with great vigour, the water from the Barrow 
 springs was brought into the city for distribution on the 
 1st October, 1847. The remoter sources necessitated more 
 
 * This building, which was a puzzle to strangers owing to its bizarre archi- 
 tecture, was removed in February, 1864, during the construction of the railway 
 to Avonmouth. It was at one time suggested that it should be converted iuto a 
 church for the use of sailors and bargemen.
 
 282 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1845. 
 
 costly operations. The springs at Litton and Chewton were 
 conveyed by several branches to a principal aqueduct, pro- 
 ceeding for upwards of two miles towards East Harptree, 
 where it entered a tunnel about a mile and a quarter in 
 length. Emerging from the rock of the hill, the aqueduct was 
 carried over Harptree Combe (where it met with a feeder) by 
 means of an iron tube supported at intervals by masonry. The 
 valley having been bridged, the water passed into a line of 
 pipes of thirty inches diameter and upwards of four miles 
 in length. At their termination was a tunnel of three- 
 quarters of a mile through Noi'th Hill, followed by stone 
 aqueducts over valleys at Leigh Down and Winford, and those 
 were succeeded by the Winford tunnel, a mile long. The 
 total length from Chewton Mendip to the Barrow reservoir 
 was eleven miles, and it will be seen that most of the route 
 necessitated costly operations. The springs brought to the 
 store reservoir were calculated to yield four million gallons 
 daily, and the reservoir being 25 acres in extent, it was 
 estimated that the works as a whole would meet more than 
 double the probable demands of the inhabitants. Three 
 service reservoirs were also constructed for maintaining a 
 constant supply throughout the city; the first at Bedminster 
 Down, for that portion of the borough south of the Float ; 
 the second near Whiteladies Eoad, for the rest of the lower 
 parishes and the suburbs ; and the third on Durdhara Down, 
 at an elevation of 300 feet above high water mark in the 
 Avon, for the service of the more elevated districts. The 
 first of these was finished in 1847, and the others came into 
 use in the following summer. The water flowed from Barrow 
 to Whiteladies Road by simple gravitation, and was then 
 driven up to Durdham Down by powerful pumps. The 
 water rates fixed by the Act were moderate ; for example, the 
 charge upon a house of £20 rental was £1 ; on £50 rental, 
 £2, and on £100 rental £3. For shops and ofiices the rate 
 was 5s. per year for rentals under £20, and 8.s. if under £50. 
 To owners of small tenements a reduction was offered on the 
 ordinary rates. The terms of the company were neverthe- 
 less far from being enthusiastically received, tlie water rents 
 during the second year of its existence amounting to under 
 £3,000. Up to February, 1850, only 3,152 houses were 
 supplied througliout the city, of which 75 per cent, were 
 rented at ujjwards of £20. The number, however, increased 
 steadily after that date. In 1854 the company encountered 
 its first serious difficulty. p]arly in the year a leakage 
 occurred in the Barrow reservoir, which had to bo emptied
 
 1845.] THE WATER COMPANY. OREAT DROUGHT. 283 
 
 before the repairs could be executed. A drought, unexampled 
 for nearly sixty years, then set in, and from May to October 
 the supply of water to the city was very limited, much to the 
 wrath of the consumers. Throughout this era of the com- 
 pany's existence, the proprietors received no dividend on their 
 capital, and it was not until March, 1856, that the directors 
 were able to recommend a distribution at the modest rate 
 of 14s. per cent. The average return of each of the three 
 following years was only 2 per cent., and the £25 shares 
 naturally sold much below par, the quotation being for some 
 time between £8 and £9. Despairing of an adequate return 
 under the original arrangement, the company, in the session 
 of 1862, under a pretext of seeking for powers to construct 
 a new reservoir at Barrow, promoted a Bill intended to 
 materially change their relations with the inhabitants. The 
 directors in applying for their first Act had undertaken to 
 furnish a constant supply of water to consumers. It was now 
 sought to cut off the supply for nine hours daily. Under the 
 plea that it was necessary to prevent waste — it being alleged 
 that through the carelessness which prevailed the whole 
 freshwater current of the Avon would not suffice for the city 
 — the scheme proposed that every family should be compelled 
 to use and pay for a meter, to be supplied by the company. 
 Finally it was proposed to levy an increased rate of 1^ per 
 cent, on the rental of houses standing 200 feet above the 
 level of Bristol Bridge. To the dissatisfaction of many 
 citizens, the parliamentary committee of the Council mani- 
 fested a marked sympathy towai'ds the proposals of the 
 company, and the Council itself was charged with indiffer- 
 ence to the interests of the inhabitants. The clause abolish- 
 ing constant service was approved with trifling modifications, 
 and an extra rent of 1 per cent, on the high level dwellings 
 was also conceded. The directors could well afford, under 
 those circumstances, to abandon the clause enforcing the use 
 of meters ; and in this form the Bill became law. The new 
 system had not been long in force, however, before the com- 
 pany had to encounter a fresh embarrassment. The spring 
 and summer months of 1864 were accompanied by an unpre- 
 cedented drought in the south and west of England. During 
 the five months ending August, the rainfall at Clifton was 
 only about 6| inches, or less than half the average of the ten 
 previous years. The company's springs produced only a 
 small fraction of their usual supply ; and as the store in 
 the reservoirs rapidly diminished, the directors were com- 
 pelled to make repeated deductions in the period of
 
 284 . THE A\NALS OF BRISTOL. [1845. 
 
 service. This was for some weeks limited to one or two hours 
 a day^ but in various parts of the city the supply ceased 
 altogether. Fortunately the drought broke up at the begin- 
 ning of September, and the Bristol Times of the 10th an- 
 nounced that, on and after the 12thj the citizens would have 
 '^at least two hours' supply daily." Additional sources were 
 tapped to alleviate the pressure, a well in the coal measures 
 at Bedminster being especially useful in supplying 160,000 
 gallons daily. Another source made available was the old 
 " boiling well " at Ashton, which yielded no less than 200,000 
 gallons daily. In spite of these aids, however, the above 
 new^spaper of the 8th October, referring to the "water 
 famine " in Clifton, said ; " Several housekeepers have been 
 driven to such straits that in some cases we have actually seen 
 Paterfamilias start in a fly with an empty barrel by the side 
 of the driver, and go in seach of a supply to the nearest 
 spring, which is in some instances a mile off." A week later 
 the same writer reported that the " boiling well " was the 
 only source of supply for Clifton and the upper districts, the 
 Mendip springs having dried up. Urged by the Corporation, 
 wdiich bore the expense, the company opened Richmond 
 spring, from which a valuable contingent could have been 
 obtained ; but the residents in the neighbouring houses, pro- 
 testing against the noise that would be caused by a steam- 
 engine, threatened to apply to Chancery for an injunction, 
 and the preparations were dropped. It was not until De- 
 cember that the board were able to extend the sup^jly to six 
 hours a day. They intimated about the same time that they 
 should insist upon payment of the full rates for the current 
 six months — an announcement which did not contribute to 
 their popularity. In the following session application was 
 made to Parliament for poAvers to appropriate additional 
 springs at Chelvey and other places, and to construct fresh 
 reservoirs at Barrow and Knowle. It was also sought to 
 largely increase the scale of charges then in force. The pro- 
 posed advance in the rates varied from 30 to 66 per cent., but 
 on this occasion the Council resolved on o]iposiugthc demands 
 of the company, and the increase in the rates was eventually 
 limited to about 20 per cent. An attempt to reduce the hours 
 of service to ten per day was also resisted and defeated. 
 That the directors were ungenerous in framing their Bill 
 was proved by the subsequent progress of the undertaking, 
 the dividends of which soon rose to ten per cent., while the 
 shares attained a premium of nearly 180 per cent. In 
 January, 1877, the Council, tardily repentant of its apathetic
 
 1845.] THE CORPORATION AND THE "WATER WORKS. 285 
 
 policy in 1811, adopted by a large majority a resolution 
 brought forward by Alderman Jones, affirming the de- 
 sii'ability of the Corporation acquiring the water works; and 
 a committee was appointed to negotiate with the company. 
 After protracted labours, the committee reported in November. 
 The directors, it appeared, had proposed that the entire 
 capital of the undertaking, including a large sum not paid up 
 in respect of new shares, and an additional £100,000 de- 
 manded in compensation for arrears of dividend, should 
 be converted into £1,400,000 four per cent, bonds. On the 
 other hand the committee had suggested that the Corporation 
 should pay 10 per cent, yearly on the ordinary stock of 
 £200,000 until 1883, and thereafter 12 per cent, on that stock 
 and 10 per cent, on later issues. The directors subsequently 
 offered concessions, and the differences were so narrowed as 
 to give hopes of a compromise, when the committee, con- 
 sidering the year too far advanced to permit of legislation 
 in the ensuing session, suspended their labours and reported 
 progress to the Council, adding as an expression of their 
 opinion that the transfer would be beneficial to the city. 
 From the outset of the negotiations a section of the citizens 
 had warmly opposed the purchase, and resolutions condemn- 
 ing the scheme had been passed at some thinly attended ward 
 meetings. Certain persons interested in a project for partially 
 supplying the city with water from old mine workings at 
 Frampton Cotterell were especially active in their hostility. 
 (A Bill for carrying out that speculation was rejected by 
 the House of Commons in 1878.) The Council, moreover, had 
 become indifferent about the matter. The report of the com- 
 mittee was simply " received," and, as the committee was not 
 re-appointed in the following year, the question dropped. In 
 March, 1882, at the request of a public meeting, the Council 
 again manifested a desire to acquire the works ; but the 
 directors peremptorily declined to reopen the negotiations. 
 During the same year the company, which by that time had 
 extended their mains to many suburban districts, finding it 
 again advisable to increase their supplies, obtained parlia- 
 mentary powers to acquire certain springs near Chewton 
 Mendip and the Sherborne springs flowing into the Chew, 
 and also to take an increased quantity from the Kenn, near 
 Chelvey. These works were expected to give an additional 
 supply of two and a half millions of gallons daily. The 
 capital of the company, by Acts of 1850, 1853, 1862, 1865, and 
 1872, had been increased to £800,000. The new Bill asked 
 for power to raise £400,000 more at the rate of 7 per cent.
 
 286 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1845. 
 
 per aBnura, by wliicli the proprietors, whose £25 shares were 
 already quoted at £70, would have been insured a luxuriant 
 bonus on the new stock. Similar powers had been obtained 
 on previous occasions, and most of the capital raised by loans 
 had been converted into shares bearing a high rate of in- 
 terest. But the Corporation, which had hitherto been 
 strangely apathetic, now awoke to the interests of the 
 citizens, and appealed to the House of Lords against the pro- 
 posed rate of profit as unreasonable and extortionate. The 
 Upper House reduced the rate of interest to 5 per cent. 
 Amongst the works undertaken under this Act was the laying 
 of a large conduit from the Sherborne springs for a distance 
 of over thirteen miles, including a tunnel about a mile in 
 length, near Whitchurch. The water from this source 
 reached the city in 1885. 
 
 The perennial discontent of the commercial classes at the 
 charges on vessels entering the port was the subject of a 
 discussion in the Council in January, 1845, when it was stated 
 on behalf of Messrs Hilhouse and Hill that the dues on 
 Australian wool were seven times greater at Bristol docks 
 than they were at London and Liverpool. Mr. N, Acraman 
 had also represented to the Finance Committee that the 
 charges on guano were 2s. id. per ton in Bristol, while they 
 were only 2^d. at Liverpool. Mr. F. Green said that the 
 local dues on shipping were Ss. a ton, against Is. 6d. in the 
 Mersey docks. The Council forthwith reduced the town dues 
 on guano from 8d. to Id!, per ton, but had no power to deal 
 with the wharfage due of 8d. levied by the Merchants' Com- 
 pany, or with the dock due of Is. imposed by the dock board. 
 At the same meeting it was announced that the Corporation 
 had no power to expend the borough funds in enforcing the 
 restoration to the public of Mother Pugsley's well [see p. 249] 
 or in resisting similar encroachments. It appeared that a 
 clause to enable the Council to make payments out of the 
 borough fund in defence of public rights to footpaths, etc., 
 would have been inserted in the last Improvement Act, but 
 that the Dock Company threatened such strenuous opposition 
 at every stage of the Bill as to render it prudent to withdraw 
 the clause in order to prevent the loss of the entire measure. 
 
 A proposed branch of the Bristol and Exeter railway, from 
 Yatton to Clevedon, received tlie ajiproval of the shareliolders 
 at a meeting on the lOth January. The line, which cost 
 about £40,000, was opened on the 4tli August, 1847. 
 
 The establishment of the Bristol Academy for the promotion 
 of the Fine Arts was announced in the local newspapers of
 
 1845.] THE FINE ARTS ACADEMY. 287 
 
 the 18th January, 1845. A hidy named Sharpies headed the 
 list of donors witli a gift of £2,000, the president, Mr. J. S. 
 Harford, and the vice-president, Mr. P. W. Miles, M.P., sub- 
 scribing £100 each. The first exhibition of pictures was 
 opened at the Institution, Park Street, in the following April. 
 The Academy met with very feeble support from the citizens, 
 and there seemed no probability that it would be furnished 
 with funds for erecting a building suitable for its intended 
 purposes. In 1848 it was suggested that the Institution 
 should give up a portion of its premises to the Fine Arts 
 Society, in consideration of a payment of £3,000 ; but the 
 proposal was strongly opposed by Mr. J. N. Nash, on account 
 of the weakness of the new organisation. It had begun, he 
 pointed out, with sixty-three subscribers of a guinea each, 
 and already they had dwindled to nineteen. The plan having 
 been abandoned, the annual exhibitions of the society were 
 held for some years in St. Augustine's Parade, in the large 
 house fronting the drawbridge. Under the will of Mrs. 
 Sharpies, who died in 1849, the society eventually came into 
 possession of the bulk of her estate, amounting to about 
 £3,500; and the construction of an Academy of Art was 
 determined upon in 1855. A building with a fagade in the 
 Italian style, but far from convenient in its internal arrange- 
 ments, was erected near the Victoria Rooms, and opened on 
 the 12th April, 1858. The society, nevertheless, did not 
 make much progress in public favour. At the annual meeting 
 in 1863, Mr. P. W. Miles observed : " It really seemed as if 
 the people of this neighboui-hood did not care in the least 
 about the fine arts. Though there was a good collection of 
 pictures on the walls, he always found the rooms perfectly 
 empty. No amount of effort to bring pictures of the first 
 class there seemed to be of any avail." The net proceeds of 
 the exhibition of that year were under £25. The situation 
 does not appear to have been much more satisfactory in 1882, 
 when Mr. R. Lang stated at the annual meeting that the total 
 amount of donations for the previous thirty years had not 
 averaged £4 annually. " That was Bristol love of art. They 
 had tried year after year to get up a fund to buy some 
 pictures, but the results had been pitiful. More recently, he 
 had endeavoured to purchase some of the late Charles Bran- 
 white's pictui-es, which it would have been an easy thing to 
 do ; but the sum promised was so ridiculous that he was 
 forced to give up the project." It ought to be added that 
 Mr. Lang had himself offered a noble example to the wealthier 
 class of citizens by presenting the institution with a number
 
 288 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1845. 
 
 of valuable paintings, chiefly by Bristol artists. His gift, 
 bowever, remains unique. 
 
 St. Andrew's Churcb, Montpelier, was consecrated by 
 
 /^ig^k)p Monk on the 31st January, 1845. It had cost only 
 
 , -/) fc2,428 in erection. The building was much enlarged in 1878, 
 
 »■ yy^iQwing to the greatly increased population of the district. 
 
 I Q«rThe ecclesiastical parish created for this church was sub- 
 
 p^ tracted from those of St. Paul and Horfield. 
 [ About this time the efforts of an Early Closing Association 
 
 1 were successful in releasing a number of young men from 
 
 business at an eai'lier hour than had previously been the rule,* 
 and the necessity of an institution in which such persons 
 could find instruction and innocent amusement soon became 
 apparent. A committee having been formed, a course of 
 lectures was delivered during the winter, and this experiment 
 having proved successful, a meeting was held on the 24th 
 February, the mayor (Mr. R. P. King) presiding, when it was 
 resolved to found a literary institution under the title of the 
 Bristol Athenaeum. Negotiations were soon afterwards opened 
 with the committees of the Mechanics' Institute and of the 
 Clergy Book Society, both of Avhich organisations were in a 
 declining state, and the overtures resulted in their consolid- 
 ation with the new body, their libraries, apparatus, etc., being 
 also taken over. The Athena)um thus came into active 
 operation in September, 1845, the rooms of the Clergy Book 
 Society, in Broad Sti-eet, being fitted up for the accommoda- 
 tion of the members. In the following year the library was 
 removed to a large room in a house in Corn Street (on the 
 site now occupied by the bank of Messrs. Stuckcy & Co.) . The 
 institution gradually became very popular; and in 1850, when 
 the members numbered nearly 1,000, and when the scantiness 
 of the accommodation provided was painfully felt, the directors 
 recommended the acquirement on lease of the Queen Bess 
 Tavern (formerly the residence of Whitson) and certain 
 adjoining property lying between Corn Street and Nicholas 
 Street, the access from the former being througli Cypher 
 Lane, and from tlic latter through Queen licss Passage. [In 
 removing these old constructions, some beautiful arcliitectural 
 remains were exposed of an edifice apparently erected at the 
 beginning of the tliirteenth century. On one side were three 
 bays of semi-circular arches, s]iriiiging from tri])lo shafts, while 
 the south wall was perforated by a Decorated two-light trefoil 
 
 • AccordinR to a statnmont in the Brintnl Joitriial, drapers' shops in 1825, and 
 doubtless for many years later, were usually kept open for fourteen hours a day, 
 and the assistants were allowed only one hour for meals.
 
 1845.] THE ATHENiEUM. STOCK EXCHANGE. 289 
 
 headed window. Two Romanesque pilasters with sculp- 
 tured capitals were also found in situ. The place had been 
 traditionally styled Alderman Whitson's Chapel, from having- 
 adjoined his mansion.] The new buildings, which, with the 
 furniture, etc., cost £6,G00, were "inaugurated" by Lord 
 John Russell, President of the Council, on the 25th October, 
 1854. His lordship spent two days in the city, in the course 
 of which he was entertained to breakfast by the mayor 
 (Mr. J. G. Shaw), to a public soiree in the Victoria Rooms, at 
 which 1,500 persons were present, and to a grand dinner by 
 the members of the Council, to which the Duke of Beaufort 
 and the Earl of Ducie were also invited. Party spirit, how- 
 ever, was still so strong that the bells of the city churches 
 were all silent, and many Conservative members of the Council 
 refused to contribute to the cost of the dinner, which was 
 about £400. The Athenasum became so popular in its new 
 quarters that in 1855 the members numbered 1,577; but after 
 a brief period of prosperity, the roll rapidly diminished, the 
 desertions being pai'tially due to a violent attack made on the 
 committee by the Rev. J. B. Cliffo rd, of St. Matthew's, because 
 they refused at his dictation to i^einTTve the Westnibister Review 
 from the library tables. Unfortunately, too, a debt of £2,000 
 had been left unprovided for ; and in 1861 the bankers 
 threatened to take possession of the property and to recoup 
 themselves by a sale. By dint of strenuous exertions, the 
 liabilities were at length wiped off. 
 
 The Bristol Stock Exchange was founded on the 17th 
 March, 1845, at a meeting of brokers, Mr. R. H. Webb pre- 
 siding. Mr. J. K. Haberfield, an honorary member, was the 
 first president and treasurer of the Exchange, which was 
 opened on the 16th April. The " railway mania," destined 
 to end in a disastrous collapse, attained its highest develop- 
 ment during this year; and amongst the extravagances to 
 which it gave rise were two schemes for linking Bristol with 
 Dover, two for railways from London to the Land's End, a 
 line from Bristol to Norwich, etc. Writing some years after 
 the fever, a contributor to the Bristol Times, who could be 
 easily identified, observed : — " Fairy legends had no wonders 
 for us like that time. You saw a man to-day in the streets of 
 Bristol whom you would not trust with the loan of a five- 
 pound note ; to-morrow he splashed you with the wheels of 
 a new Long-acre carriage. He was as suddenly transformed 
 from a twenty pound house to a mansion in the country, and 
 though small beer refreshed him during the greater part of 
 his life, he now became critical in the taste of Bordeaux. A 
 
 u
 
 290 THE AXXALS OF BRISTOL. [1845. 
 
 railway, in fact, was not a means of transport but a thing 
 to bet and gamble about. . . . Once in tlie lieiglit of tlie 
 sorrowful farce, I had occasion to call on a couple of ' bold 
 brokers ' in a certain street not a mile from the centre of 
 Bristol. The flavour of old Havannahs and new scrip filled 
 the place ; the clerks were having chops and tomato sauce, 
 and a silver-necked bottle proved they enjoyed at least a 
 reversion of the Saint Peray from the principals' apartment, 
 into which I was summoned. Softly I trod on a Turkey 
 carpet ; a tray well furnished stood on a sideboard ; and piles 
 of prospectuses flanked the fine ponderous bronze inkstand 
 of the man of projects, who sat in a richly cushioned chair. 
 Voices issued from the neighbouring room, where the second 
 principal saw others on business, and the click of plates and 
 occasional flying of corks proved how actively the business 
 of allotments was progressing. But they came like shadows, 
 and so departed." 
 
 The commercial interests of Bristol in South Wales being 
 seriously threatened by the construction of railways connect- 
 ing the Principality with London and the midland districts, 
 a prospectus was issued in April of the Bristol and South 
 Wales Junction Railway Company. The proposed capital 
 was £200,000, and so popular was the scheme, and so eager 
 the desire to invest during the mania then prevailing, that the 
 shares soon commanded a preposterous premium. Accord- 
 ing to the plan of the promoters, for which an Act was 
 obtaitied, the line was to proceed from the Great Western 
 terminus to the Old and New Passages by way of Baptist 
 mills, Horfield Down, and Almondsbury. In connection with 
 this railway, a second scheme was propounded for a railway 
 from the northern shore of the Severn to Chepstow and 
 Monmouth. Another prospectus, issued about the same time, 
 was that of the Bristol and Liverpool Railway Company, 
 with a capital of two millions, which proposed to construct a 
 bridge over the Severn. This project had the support of 
 the mayor and sheriff of Bristol, and the subscriptions for 
 shares far exceeded the number proposed to bo issued. None 
 of these designs were, however, carried out, the two latter 
 being al)andoned before application was made to Parliament. 
 In 1851, after about a third of the share capital had been 
 spent, it was acknowledged by all concerned that tho South 
 AV^alcs Junction scheme was in a hopeless condition ; but 
 difficulty was encountered in dissolving the conij)any, owing 
 to the invariable absence of a quorum when a statutory 
 meeting was convened. In October, 1853, the undertaking
 
 1845.] SOUTH WALES UNION RAILWAY. 291 
 
 was fonnally relinquished. Nevertheless, in 1854 a new 
 scheme was started, having the same end in view, but pix)- 
 posing to construct a line to the New Passage hy way of 
 Queen Square, the Hotwells, Sea-mills, and Shirehampton, 
 with a floating bridge over the Severn by which entire trains 
 were to be carried across, and unloading avoidod. The 
 capital was fixed at £000,000. The proposal was approved 
 at an influentially attended meeting, and the Council inti- 
 mated its assent, but the paucity of subscriptions and threat- 
 ened opposition led to the project being dropped. In July, 
 185G, another prospectus was issued by the party of Bristolians 
 who had all along urged the necessity of action. The original 
 line of country was, with modifications, adopted ; the capital 
 was fixed at £300,000; and ^^ floating steam bridges" were to 
 be devised by Mr. Brunei for crossing the Channel. An Act 
 authorising the project was obtained in 1857, but it was not 
 until October, 1858, that the contractor began operations, 
 the tunnel of 1,242 yards at Patchway being first undertaken. 
 The New Passage ferry was bought soon after for £2,700, 
 and the construction of the immense wooden piers followed. 
 The tunnel was completed in July, 1860, and the line was 
 formally opened on the 25th August, 1863. In 1867 an 
 arrangement was made by the directors with the Great 
 Western board, under which the railway and works at the 
 end of three years became the property of the latter company. 
 Originally constructed on the broad gauge, the line was 
 altei-ed to narrow gauge in August, 1873. 
 
 At a meeting of the Council on the 13th August, 1845, 
 the Improvement Committee presented a report strongly 
 condemning the narrow, inconvenient, and dangerous streets 
 between Bristol Bridge and the railway station, and recom- 
 mending the construction of a new thoi'oughfare, to be called 
 Victoria Street. The expenditure required for this purpose 
 was estimated at £84,510, but it was anticipated that £44,200 
 would be recovered by the resale of building sites, etc. The 
 commmittee also recommended an extensive alteration of the 
 road from Cumberland Basin to St. Augustine's Back, in- 
 cluding improvements in the Jacob's AVells road, the gross 
 expense of which was estimated at £63,900 and the net out- 
 lay at £26,250. The widening of Bristol Bridge at a cost of 
 £8,000, the improvement of the road from Park Street to 
 the Victoria Rooms at an expense of £4,200, and the arching 
 over of a part of the malodorous Froom, set down at £3,400, 
 also formed features of this report, the comprehensiveness 
 and boldness of which were without precedent in local annals. 
 
 /
 
 292 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1845. 
 
 In tlie following year the Improvement Committee suggested 
 various alterations in the scheme, and added to it a project 
 for a new street commencing in Nelson Street opposite Bride- 
 well Street, and having terminations in Wine Street and 
 Broad Street. This plan, which was intended to sweep away 
 a quantity of wretched habitations, was expected to cost 
 £38,000. A Bill to authorise this and other improvements 
 was introduced into Parliament in 1847. [At the sitting of 
 the inspectors sent down by the Government to inquire into 
 the merits of the scheme, the town clerk stated that Bristol 
 then contained 250 streets, 50 lanes, and 390 courts and 
 alleys ; the number of houses was about 20,000. In regard 
 to the number and area of places for public recreation, he 
 said that Queen Square had an area of over 6f acres. College 
 Green about 4j acres, Brunswick Square Ij acre, Portland 
 Square 2j acres^ and King Square nearly 1} acre. Brandon 
 Hill was 19^ acres in extent, and £800 had been recently 
 collected by private subscription for the purpose of forming 
 walks there.] The Bill — which empowered the Council to 
 levy a yearly Improvement Rate not exceeding twopence in 
 the pound — received the royal assent; but owing to the 
 financial charges attending the transfer of the docks to the 
 city the proposed works were not popular, and in 1849 the 
 more costly schemes were indefinitely deferred. The Council 
 resolved, however, on Avidening* portions of Hotwell Road, 
 Limekiln Lane, and Bread Street, broadening the roadway 
 at the Stone Bridge, and effecting some minor improvements 
 in the out-parish of St. Philip's. In March, 1852, when the 
 powers of the Act in reference to Victoria Street, Bristol 
 Bridge, etc., were about to expire from effluxion of time, 
 the Council determined u])on undertaking a portion of the new 
 street at a not cost of £11,300 ; but the intention was strongly 
 condemned at ward meetings of the ratepayers, and the reso- 
 lution was rescinded a few weeks later. 
 
 Queen Adelaide, widow of William IV., paid a brief visit 
 to Bristol on the 20th August, stojijnng one night at the 
 Royal Hotel, Mall, Clifton, and spending a few hours on the 
 following day at Blaize Castle and Kingsweston. 
 
 W^illiam James ^Miiller, the greatest painter to which Bristol 
 has given birth, expir(>(l at the residence of his brother, Mr. 
 E. G. Miiller, on tlie 8th Sopteml)er, aged 33. Mr. Miiller 
 was boi-n at No. 13, Hillsbridge Parade, on the 28th June, 
 1812. His father, a Prussian of good scientific abilities, had 
 fled from Germany uj)on the occupation of the country by 
 the French, and found his way to liristol, where he married
 
 1845.] i^EATlI OP W, J. MiJLLER. 203 
 
 a Miss Jam eSj a member of an old family in the city, and 
 was for some years curator of the Bristol Institution. The 
 son showed artistic talent whilst very young, and a promising 
 original j)icture, executed in his fourteenth year, was accepted 
 and shown at the Bristol annual exhibition of works of art. 
 Shortly afterwards he was apprenticed to Mr. J\ B. Py ne, a 
 meritorious artist then residing on St. Michael's Hill; but 
 the connection was broken at the end of about three years, 
 and young Miiller thenceforth became his own master. His 
 first picture exhibited at the Royal Academy, in 1833, ''The 
 destruction of old London Bridge," was painted when he was 
 little more than twenty years old. Before that date he had 
 ])roduced some hundreds of sketches, chiefly of quaint old 
 i)uildings in Bristol and picturesque spots in the neighbour- 
 hood, most of which were disposed of to local collectors at a 
 few shillings each. Eager for a wider field, he accompanied 
 another local artist,^Mr. G. Fripp, in a tour through Germany 
 and Italy. But he seems to~Iiave had an early longing for 
 the East, and as soon as his circumstances permitted, he 
 departed for Greece, following up this tour with another in 
 Egypt, and subsequently a third in Asia Minor, and producing 
 works on each occasion which gained him high repute in the 
 artistic world. One of these pictures, " Chess Players in 
 Cairo," was sold at the dispersion of the Gillott gallery for 
 upwards of 5,000 guineas. Unhappily Miiller's constitution 
 was never robust, and it is not improbable that the efi^ects of 
 an Eastern climate and the fatigues of travelling brought 
 about the malady which cut short his career. He had re- 
 moved from Bristol to London in 1839. He returned here in 
 the summer of 1845, in the hope of recovering strength in 
 his native air; but he came back only to die. His remains 
 were interred in the Unitarian cemetery in Brunswick Square. 
 Shortly afterwards his sketches, etc., were sold in London, 
 and produced £4,242. An interesting biography of Miiller, 
 written by his friend, W^ Neal Soll y, was published in 1872. 
 Upon the death, in 'September, of Dr. Law, Bishop of Bath 
 and Wells, the parish of Bedminster was detached from that 
 diocese, and came under the episcopal jurisdiction of the 
 Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol. The change did not take 
 place without manifold protests in the press and elsewhere 
 on the part of the rector, the Rev. M. R. Whish ; but when 
 that eccentric gentleman, who Avas noted for his pertinacity, 
 followed them up by reading a document from the pulpit of 
 his church, denying the jurisdiction of his new diocesan, a 
 suit was raised against him in the Prei'ogative Court of
 
 294 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL, [1845. 
 
 Canterbuiy. On liis making a formal apology, however, tlie 
 freak vras condoned. 
 
 Towards the close of Mr. King's mayoralty, and chiefly at 
 his instigation, another attempt was made by the Council to 
 purchase the rights of the Dock Company over the port and 
 harbour. At a meeting of the civic body on the 19th Novem- 
 ber, it was reported by the special committee appointed to 
 negotiate with the directors, that their efforts had been fruit- 
 less. Although the annual dividends of the company for the 
 previous twenty-three years had averaged only £2 2.s. 3(7. 
 per cent., the committee had proposed that the city should 
 guarantee the shareholders £2 lO.s-. per cent. ; but the directors 
 demanded 3 per cent. The Council approved of the steps 
 taken by the committee; and in the following February re- 
 newed its efforts for a solution by proposing to the directors 
 that the amount of dividend to be guaranteed should be fixed 
 by arbitration. The company maintaining its attitude of 
 stolid resistance, the matter again fell to the ground. 
 
 The details of a dispute which threatened to culminate in 
 an "affair of honour," were laid before the public in the 
 Bi'istol Gazette of the 10th December. It appeared that a 
 few days previously a paragraph appeared in the Bristnl 
 Thnea, stating that a situation in the Custom House had been 
 conferred upon an Irishman, and that this was the second or 
 third instance in which — probably through the remissness of 
 those who were expected to look after such matters — the 
 patronage of the Government offices had been snatched by 
 other localities. At a meeting of the True Blue Club (formed 
 in 1844 with a view to promoting unity in the Toiy party), 
 the honorary secretary, Mr. Charles Blisset, of Clifton, cha- 
 racterised this statcinent as ''a wilful and deliberate false- 
 hood." Mr. Leech, the proprietor of the Timet, forthwith 
 requested an explanation, but Mr. Blisset only replied that 
 the committee of the club were of the same o]"tinion as himself. 
 Mr. Henry Shute, the "friend" of Mr. Leech, thereupon 
 requested Mr. Blisset to a]ipoint a "friend" also, with a view 
 to a hostile encounter; whereupon Mv. Blisset wrote that he 
 " peremptorily declined the challenge ; first, because I can 
 substantiate the charge, and, secondly, because every member 
 of the committee who adopted my ojiinion would be liable to 
 a similar attack, so that ^Ir. Leech, in addition to his title as 
 a public slanderer, may have to add that of a luurderer also." 
 The writer went on to assail ^Ir. Leech's character in acrimo- 
 nious terms, and concluded by declaring that so lon<j as the 
 editor of tlio Bristol Timrs criticised the True 151ue Club, ho
 
 18iG.] CITY IMPROVEMENTS. THE CORN LAWS. 295 
 
 (]\Ir. B.) would continue to expose his treachery. The cor- 
 respondence having been pubhshed for the edification of the 
 public, Mr. Leech, in commenting upon the charges of 
 treachery and falsehood, said ''they are comprised in the 
 ofiFence of my wishing to have an independent opinion of my 
 own, and determining not to bo made the means of gratifying 
 the personal animosities of two or three individuals." His 
 explanation was briefly as follows. In November, 1844, the 
 chief promoters of the True Blue Club published a poll book 
 of the municipal election for Clifton AVard, with the avowed 
 object of depriving Liberal tradesmen of Conservative patron* 
 age. This, it appeared, Mr. Leech had condemned, where- 
 upon, " the fiat went forth, that the paper that would not 
 defend exclusive dealing was unworthy of confidence, and must 
 be crushed." This retort led to an animated correspondence 
 on the jDart of Mr. Henry Bush and others, and had doubtless 
 the effect of exasperating the discord already prevailing in 
 the party since the election of 1841, and ending, as wull 
 shortly be seen, in the complete rupture of 1847. 
 
 The old almshouses in Barrs' Lane, belonging to St. James's 
 parish, having been taken down for reconstruction, the 
 Council, in February, 184G, succeeded in purchasing the site, 
 and were thus enabled to widen the thoroughfare — after- 
 wards called Barrs' Street. About the same time the Council 
 determined on buying some houses in Barton Alley, leading 
 from St. James's Barton to the churchyard, in which, as a 
 committee reported, two persons carrying umbrellas could not 
 pass. Property was also acquired in Bridewell Street, and 
 the widening of both thoroughfares was commenced. The 
 Bridewell Street improvement was soon finished, but owing 
 to the obstinacy of one or two persons. Barton Alley was not 
 opened for vehicles until some fifteen years later. 
 
 During the memorable debates in the House of Commons 
 on Sir Ilobert Peel's proposal for the abolition of the corn- 
 laws at the end of three years, one of the members for 
 Bristol, Mr. P. W. Miles, was selected by the Protectionists 
 to resist the motion of the Ministry for going- into committee 
 on the subject. After an unusually protracted struggle, Mr. 
 Miles's amendment was defeated on the 27th February by 
 337 votes against 240. In the course of the discussion, the 
 junior member for the city, Mr. Berkeley, excited amusement 
 by reading to the House a letter to a Bristol merchant in 
 which Mr. Miles had declared that " it would be better for 
 all parties that the repeal [of the corn laws] should be imme- 
 diate," and that he should not oppose such a motion if it
 
 296 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1846. 
 
 were made. Mr. Berkeley presented a petition in favour of 
 the ministerial scheme, signed by 18,000 Bristolians, " Con- 
 servatives equally with Liberals." There was no petition 
 from the city in a contrary sense. 
 
 About the month of April, the large mansion in Dighton 
 Street, commonly known as Harford House from having been 
 formerly the residence of the Harford family, was purchased 
 by certain Roman Catholics, who established in it a convent 
 dedicated to " Our Lady of Mercy." The nuns subsequently 
 established an orphanage for sixty children, and added a 
 large school-house. 
 
 In May, the mansion known as Cotham Lodge, which had 
 been evacuated a short time before by Mr. William Fripp, 
 was razed to the ground, the estate having been purchased 
 for conversion into building sites. The place was afterwards 
 called Cotham Park. The only relic of the original buildings 
 is a lofty '' observatory " or tower, erected in 1779 on the 
 base of a windmill, and commanding a very extensive 
 prospect. 
 
 Persons Avho have grown up since the creation of educa- 
 tional machinery embracing all classes of society can with 
 difficulty realize the ignorance prevailing amongst the poor at 
 the period now under review. A year or two earlier, a com- 
 mittee had been formed in the city to promote unsectarian 
 education ; but, as the Roman Catholic priests and the Unita- 
 rian ministers were forthwith excluded from the work, the 
 chief effect of the movement was to demonstrate the pre- 
 judices of its leaders. In the summer of 1846, Miss Mary 
 Carp enter and a few kindred spirits, taking compassion on 
 tlTe^' gutter children " or " street Arabs " which prowled 
 about in great numbers, resolved upon opening a room in 
 Lewin's Mead, then notorious for the degraded character of 
 its inhabitants, and offering free instruction to the waifs who 
 would attend. On the first morning (Sunday, August 2nd), 
 three boys presented themselves, and in the afternoon the 
 attendance exceeded a dozen. A short extract from the 
 master's diary will afford an idea of the difficulties of the 
 enterprise in which he had engaged : " That afternoon I 
 shall never forget. Only thirteen or fourteen boys present ; 
 some swefiring, some fighting, some crying. One boy struck 
 another's head through the window. I tried to offin' up a 
 short prayer, but found it was iinpossil)le. The boys, instead 
 of kneeling, began to tumble over one anotlier, and to sing 
 'Jim Crow'." From one of the promoters of the school we 
 further learn that " none of the lads had shoes or stockings ;
 
 1846.] FIRST RAGGED SCHOOL AND REFORMATORY. 297 
 
 somo had no shirt and no homo, sleeping in casks on the quay 
 or on steps, and living hy petty depredations." By untiring 
 patience and kindliness, however, the teacher obtained such 
 influence over many of his reckless pupils as to secure the 
 regular and orderly attendance of thirty boys, several of 
 whom made good progress, and some, after being reclaimed 
 from moral degradation, were enabled to earn an honest 
 livelihood. A visible improvement was eifected in Lewin's 
 Mead, which had previously been the scene of almost constant 
 disorder. Gratified with the results of this experiment, the 
 promoters of the " Ragged School " hired the historic old 
 chapel in St. James's Back, to which the institution was / 
 removed in December. A night school was then added, v 
 bringing in '' a swarm of young men and women, whose 
 habits and character almost caused even the stout heart of 
 Mary Cai^enter to quail. Early in 1847 the numbers one 
 Sunday evening amounted to two hundred ; the attempt to 
 close the school with prayer was baflBed by mockery, and the 
 court beneath resounded with screams and blows." Never- 
 theless, through the devotion of Miss_Cacpenter, the institu- 
 tion gradually became a centre of enlightenment and civilisa- 
 tion, and it is difficult to overrate its eff'ects on the miserable 
 district in which it was situated. The experience gained in 
 it by its foundress led her, a few years later, to widen her 
 aims in reference to the youthful semi-criminal population, 
 and the result was the establishment in 1852 of a Reforma- 
 tory school at Kingswood — in the house once hired by John 
 Wesley. This was followed, two years later, by the creation 
 of a second institution of this class for girls, in the Red Lodge, 
 Park Row, which was purchased for the purpose by Lady 
 Byron, and placed under Miss Carpenter's sole control. For 
 an adequate account of the indefatigable eff'orts of this remark- 
 able woman on behalf of the juvenile poor, the reader must 
 be referred to the memoir written by one of her nephews. 
 In October, 1877, four months after her death, a meeting, -\ 
 notable for the total absence of sectarian spirit displayed by l 
 its promoters, was held in the Guildhall for the purpose of ( 
 taking measures to found a suitable memorial of her philan- JS 
 thropic exertions. The chief speakers were Canon Girdle- 
 stone, the Rev. Dr. Percival, the Rev. Dr. Caldicott, the Rev. 
 A. N. Blatchford (Unitarian), the Rev. U. Thomas (Indepen- 
 dent), and Mr. L. Fry (Friend). It was resolved to extend 
 the operation of the Home for boys established by Miss 
 Carpenter, to establish a Home for girls, and to erect a 
 monument to her memory in the Cathedral. The subscrip-
 
 298 THE AXNALS OF BRISTOL. [1846. 
 
 tions for tliese objects amounted to about £2,700. The 
 monument bears a profile bust of Miss Carpenter by Mr. J. 
 H. Thomas, a Bristol sculptor. 
 
 Sir__Charles__Wetherell, recorder of Bristol, died on the 
 17th August, 1856, in consequence of injuries sustained by 
 having- been thrown from a phaeton. Sir Charles was 76 
 years of age, and, according to a notice of him in the Bristol 
 Times of July 17, 1858, he was in the constant habit, for 
 some yeai's previous to his death, of going to sleep whilst 
 trying prisoners at quarter sessions. The vacant office (no 
 longer in the gift of the Corporation) was conferred by the 
 Government on Mr. Richard Budden Crowder, Q.C., who, on 
 becoming a judge in March, 1854, was succeeded by Sir 
 Alexander Cockburn, then Attorney General, the salary being 
 reduced from £700 to £600 a year. In November, 1856, the 
 office again became vacant, its occupant having been ap- 
 pointed Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. Tlie salary 
 was then further reduced to £500. Mr. Serjeant Kinglake, 
 the new recorder, held the office until his death, in July, 1870. 
 Sir Robert Collier, Attorney General, was his successor; but 
 during his re-election as Member of Parliament for Plymouth, 
 rendered necessary by the appointment, he was so severely 
 censured by his constituents for holding dual offices that he 
 forthwith resigned the post. The recordership was there- 
 upon conferred upon Mr. Montague Bere, Q.C., who relin- 
 quished it in July, 1872, and was succeeded by Mr. Thomas 
 Kingdon Kingdon, Q.C., who died in December, 1879. Mr. 
 Charles Grevile Prideaux, then recorder of Exeter, and son of 
 the late Mr. N. G. Prideaux, solicitor, Bristol, was appointed 
 to the vacancy. 
 
 The exactions of the Dock Company, and the consequent 
 depression of the commerce of the city, became the more 
 insupportable at this time from the rapid progress which was 
 taking place in the neighbouring ports. The Council having 
 shown an unwillingness to take action, notwithstanding 
 memorials from the ratepayers, a great meeting of merchants, 
 traders, and others was held on the 29th September, 1846, 
 Mr. Robert Bright presiding, when it was resolved to form 
 a Free Port Association, with the view of emancipating the 
 city from the thraldom under wliich it groaned. The move- 
 ment was cntluisiastically Avelcomctl by a largo m:ijoi'ity of the 
 inhabitants, meetings of whom were convened in each ward 
 to consider tlie question. At each of those gatherings a 
 demand f(»r an equitable arrangement was loudly urged, and 
 two gentlemen were delegated to co-operate with the pro-
 
 18i6.] rUKCHASE OF BRISTOL DOCKS. 299 
 
 meters of tlie association, while at meetings of the various 
 trades cordial su])port was offei'ed to the agitation by the 
 establishment of an Operatives' Free Port Association. Sub- 
 sequently a committee of the Council was nominated to act 
 in conjunction with Mr. Bright and his friends, and at a 
 meeting of the municipality, on the 1st January, 1847, this 
 body presented a report which displayed the wrong-headed 
 policy of the dock board in striking colours. From a table 
 showing the dock dues and charges on vessels entering inwards 
 at the leading ports, it appeared that the charges at Bristol 
 amounted to 2s. 7d. per ton, as compared with 9|J. at London, 
 Is. 7d. at Liverpool, o^r7. at Southampton, od. at Cardiff, 
 and nothing at Gloucester. As regarded the import charges 
 on the i^rincipal articles of commerce, they were found to be 
 8.<f. 8d. at Bristol, against 4.?. 6d. at Liverpool, 2.<f. lOd. at 
 Gloucester, Is. 7^d. at Hull, and Is. S^d. at Cardiff. After 
 prolonged negotiations with the dock directors a bargain was 
 at last struck, and the Council, on the 25th of October, 1847, 
 by a majority of 42 votes against 4, approved of a scheme by 
 which the dock estate was to be transferred to the Corporation, 
 on the latter undertaking to pay the proprietors a rent charge 
 of £2 12.S. 6d. per cent. * on the original shares of £147 9.s'. 
 each (redeemable at any time at the sum of £96 los. 6d.), and 
 interest at the rate of 5 per cent, per annum for the first 
 twelve years on the bonds of the company. In order to secure 
 those conditions by an unquestionable guarantee, the dock 
 board demanded that a rate should be imposed on the entire 
 fixed property of the city, and to this the Council agreed, but 
 fixed the maximum rate at fourpence in the pound. The 
 increase of 2.'>;. 6d. per cent, on the tei'ms offered to the dock 
 shareholders in 1845 was defended on the ground that the 
 company had in the meantime expended tAvo years' income 
 (£30,000) in irapi'ovements, and that the net receipts of the 
 dock had increased about £700 a year. The proposed arrange- 
 ment caused great excitement in the city. At a public meet- 
 ing on the 14th February, 1848, at which the trading classes 
 were largely represented, an approval of the transfer was 
 subjected to a condition, imposed on the motion of Mr. "W. 
 Herapath, namely, that the new dock board should consist of 
 commissioners chosen by the ratepayers, and that a fund of 
 £50,000 should be previously formed by means of subscrip- 
 tions to provide for repairs and contingencies. The con- 
 
 * The dock proprietors received no dividend down to 1822. Between 1823 and 
 18-1-1 inclusive the average distribution was £2 is. 5d. per cent. In 1845 and 
 184G no dividend was paid.
 
 300 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1846. 
 
 troversy almost wliolly monopolised local attention for many 
 months, the working classes at repeated meetings expressing 
 approval of the movement. At length, in the session of 
 1848, the Free Port Association (in which the Chamber of 
 Commerce had been merged) promoted a Bill for carrying 
 the above arrangement into effect. A petition signed by 
 19,000 Bristolians was presented in support of the scheme, 
 and others praying for its adoption were forwarded from 
 Bath, Stroud, Trowbridge, and other towns. But a formidable 
 opposition had been organised against the clause authorising 
 a rate upon household property ; and it was also urged before 
 the House of Commons Committee that it was inexpedient to 
 vest the docks in the Corporation, whose antecedents Avere 
 declared to have caused discontent amongst the majority of 
 I'atepayers. The House nevertheless followed the example 
 of 1803 in reference to the rating clause; but a provision was 
 inserted rendering it imperative on the Corporation to reduce 
 the dues to an extent equivalent to the sum charged upon the 
 ratepayers. As the opposition did not renew the struggle 
 in the Upper Chamber, the Bill received the royal assent on 
 the 30th June, 1848. On the 23rd August following, the 
 deed transferring the docks from the company to the Corpora- 
 tion was formally executed. The capital of the company at 
 that date was found to be £259,954 in shares, and £250,400 
 in '' notes " bearing interest — a sinking fund having reduced 
 the total original capital by £77,665, [In 1860, the docks' 
 committee of the Council paid off the " notes " and issued 
 bonds at a lower rate of interest, thus effecting a saving of 
 £2,500 a year. In 1882 another great financial operation 
 was completed, the rent charge of £2 12.^'. 6<J. per cent, being 
 redeemed, and the proprietors paid off in corporation bonds 
 or in cash. On the termination of this arrangement the old 
 Dock Company ceased to exist.] Under the provisions of the 
 Act the Council forthwith elected a Docks Committee for the 
 management of its new property. No time was lost by this 
 body in preparing a new tal)lo of duos, showing an average 
 reduction of upwards of 50 per cent, on vessels and of 20 per 
 cent, on goods as compared with that previously in force. 
 TIk! dues on 530 articles of merchandise were wholly 
 aV;olished, [Notwithstanding the remissions, the surplus 
 income in 1851 was reported to be £3,800, and the dues on 
 some imports were further reduced. But the aggregate 
 reductions proved to be too large, the receipts being in- 
 sufficient to provide for mainteujince and repairs, and in 
 Jaiiiiar}^, 1856, the Council slightly raised the charges, so
 
 184G.] TRANSFER OF THE DOCKS TO THE CITY. 301 
 
 as to obtain an additional incomo of £3^500. The scale was 
 reduced to its former level in 1861.] The Merchants' Society, 
 soon after the transfer, abolished the wharfage dues on Irish 
 importations, and on the general exports of the port. The 
 new tariff came into effect on the 15th November, 1848, when 
 the event was celebrated by a general holiday, and by a " free 
 port demonstration" — one of the most imposing displays ever 
 known in the city. The mayor (Mr. Haberfield), the members 
 of the Corporation, of the Merchants' Society, and of the Cor- 
 poration of the Poor, the Free Port Association, and numbers 
 of merchants and traders, assembled at the Cattle Market, 
 where they were joined by the artisans of every branch of 
 local industry, the members of the chief benefit societies, and 
 innumerable bands of music. The immense procession made 
 its way towards Clifcon Down through the principal streets, 
 amidst the acclamations of many thousands gathered to 
 witness the parade. The day concluded with numerous public 
 dinners. Notwithstanding the natural elation which charac- 
 terised the speeches of the " free port " leaders, however, it 
 could not be disguised that the object which gave the organi- 
 sation its name had not been achieved. The port was far 
 from "free." As a matter of fact, the harbour charges were 
 still higher than those existing at some other ports; and those 
 who had opposed the scheme called upon the successful party 
 to carry out their programme. In the course of the struggle 
 Mr. K. Bright and other free port men had admitted that, in 
 the face of the tax placed on the citizens, the mercantile and 
 shipowning interests ought to make a considerable sacrifice. 
 A subscription of £50,000 was suggested; but although Mr. 
 Bright offered to become responsible for a considerable sum, 
 the appeal generally fell on deaf ears. The association, 
 asserting that it had fulfilled its mission, dissolved on the 1st 
 October, 1850, and nothing more was heard of the mercantile 
 donation. Unfortunately this was not all. The expenses 
 of the association having exceeded the subscriptions by about 
 £650, an appeal was made to the commercial classes to clear 
 off the liabilities ; but the response was disappointing, only 
 about £160 being contributed. After some months' delay, 
 Mr. Bright forwarded a cheque for £500 to a member of 
 the executive, observing : '' Every effort which propriety and 
 self-respect will permit has now been made to obtain the 
 assistance of our fellow citizens with but imperfect success, 
 and I cannot allow either myself, or a body of gentlemen from 
 whom I received singular confidence, to remain longer in the 
 painful and unfit situation in which we are placed by claims
 
 302 THE ANNALS OF BKISTOL. [1846. 
 
 on tlie association remaining unsatisfied." Subsequently a 
 subscription was stax'ted foi* presenting a testimonial of public 
 gratitude to Mr. Bright as the person chiefly instrumental in 
 conducting the movement to success, and a sura exceeding 
 £700 was contributed. Mr. Bright expressed his desire that 
 the money should be bestowed upon some local institution, 
 whereupon an amusing rivaliy broke forth, a crowd of organi- 
 sations severally making eager demands for the golden prize. 
 The competition eventually led Mr. Bright to withdraw his re- 
 quest, and the fund was devoted to the purchase of a handsome 
 service of plate, the centre-piece of which bore an allegorical 
 group representing Bristol accompanied by Commerce and 
 Prosperity, and under the protection of Commercial Liberty. 
 The plate was presented to Mr. Bright by Mr. P. W. Miles, 
 M.P., at a meeting held in the Council Chamber on the 21st 
 January, 1855. Mr. Bright's portrait was also painted, and 
 presented to the Merchants' Society. Mr. Leonard__Brut^n, 
 who had acted as secretaiy of the association, was presented 
 in 1865 with a handsome piece of plate and £500 "in recog- 
 nition of his zealous, disinterested, and valuable services," the 
 subscribers to the testimonial embracing most of the leading 
 citizens. * It would be interesting to discover the precise 
 effect of the scheme by which the Corporation recovered 
 control over the port; but in adducing statistics on the subject 
 it is necessary to bear in mind that the abolition of the corn 
 and navigation laws, and the great gold discoveries in Cali- 
 fornia and Australia were contemporaneous with the early 
 years of the new system, and that the commerce of the city 
 would probably have largely increased even if no local change 
 had occurred. Keeping these facts in view, the following 
 summary of a statement made by Mr. Bruton before the 
 British Association in 1875 will be found of interest. In the 
 last twenty years of the old dock board the progressive 
 increase of the import trade of Bristol was at the avei-age 
 rate of 33 per cent.; the first ten years following the transfer 
 showed an increase of 6Q\ per cent., and in the next ten years 
 there was a further advance of over 62 per cent. Comparing 
 1848 with 1874, the foreign import trade of the port had 
 
 • Mr. Bruton became secretary to the Chamber of Commerce on the revival 
 of thitt institution in September, 1H51. In Sejitember, 1880, be was presonteil 
 witli ,L'l,OnO and an address. The bitter, which was signed by tlic mayor (Mr. 
 II. Taylor), tlif! master of tlin Meroliants' Ronicty (Aldornian Edwards), and tlio 
 President of the Cliambor (Mr. C. Wills), stated that tlio testimonial was offered 
 by nearly two hundred firms and individuals, as a token of th(^ hit;h admiration 
 in wliicli they held Mr. Bruton's " nearly forty years of untirinj.! and unselfish 
 devotion to the maritime and commercial interests of the port and city."
 
 1847.] COUNTY COURT CREATED. GENERAL ELECTION. 303 
 
 increased 300 per cent. The net rateable value of property 
 had remained almost stationary under the restrictive system; 
 but it had risen from £10(3,000 in 1841 to £720,000 in 1871. 
 Notwithstanding the reduction in dock dues, the receipts from 
 that source had increased 50 per cent., while the income from 
 town and other port charges was three times greater in 1874 
 than in 1847. 
 
 The famine which afflicted Ireland and the Scottish High- 
 lands during the year 1847 called forth liberal manifestations 
 of public sympathy in Bristol and the neighbourhood. The 
 amount subscribed in this city for the sufferers amounted to 
 upwards of £9,000. 
 
 During the autumn of this year the inhabitants of Gotham 
 and Redland appear to have become awakened to the defects 
 in the sanitary and police arrangements of the district. The 
 residents complained of the utter absence of sewers and 
 lamps; and their remonstrances on the latter point led to a 
 resolution of the Council, declaring it expedient that all parts 
 of the city should be lighted with gas, and ordering negotia- 
 tions with the gas companies with a view to a reduction in 
 their charg-es. The matter, however, was suffered to drop^ 
 and the suburbs remained as dark as before. 
 
 Under the provisions of an Act passed in tlie previous 
 session, the Bristol County Court came into existence in 1847, 
 Mr. Arthur Palmer, jun., the first judge, opening the new 
 tribunal in the Guildhall on the 15th March. The old Court 
 of Conscience, which had existed from the time of William 
 III., was superseded, but the more ancient Tolzey Court 
 was not interfered with. In 1855 Mr. Palmer resigned bis 
 judgeship from ill-health, and was succeeded by Sir Eardley 
 Wilmot, bart.^ who held the office until 18G2, when he was 
 promoted to a metropolitan court. His successor here was 
 Mr. W. H. Willes, who died a few days after his appoint- 
 ment. The next judge was Mr. Edward J. Lloyd, Q.C., Avho 
 resigned in 1874, and was followed by Mr. E. A. Fisher. The 
 latter died in 1879, and was succeeded by Mr. W. J. Metcalfe, 
 Q.C., recorder of Norwich. 
 
 Buckingham Chapel, Clifton, erected by the Baptist deno- 
 mination at a cost of £6,000, was opened on the 2nd June, 
 1847. The architecture of the building showed a marked 
 improvement upon most of the so-called Grothic erections of 
 the period; and the richness of the front excited much 
 admiration. 
 
 At the dissolution of Parliament, in July, a local contest of 
 an unusually exciting character took place. As has been
 
 304 THE AXNALS OF BRISTOL. [1847. 
 
 already recorded, tlie defeat of Mr. Fripp iu 1841 caused 
 great irritation amongst many stanch Conservatives^ who 
 contended that that gentleman had been unfairly treated by 
 some of the friends of Mr. Miles. The ill-feeling between 
 the two camps had been only aggravated by time, Mr. Miles 
 remaining a firm protectionist, whilst Mr. Fripp approved of 
 the free-trade policy of Sir Robert Peel. As another election 
 drew near, the rival sections seemed to forget their political 
 enemies, and prepared for a fierce contest for supremacy 
 between themselves. There seems to have been dissension 
 in the Liberal camp also, for a Mr. Apsley Pellatt, introduced 
 by some Nonconformists, met with a very cold reception. Mr. 
 Berkeley, the former Liberal representative, was returned 
 at the head of the poll. The numbers were : Mr. Berkeley, 
 4,381 ; Mr. Miles, 2,595; Mr. Fripp, 2,476; Mr. Pellatt, 171. 
 Mr. Miles had 970 plumpers, Mr. Fripp 912, and Mr. Berkeley 
 2,247. The friends of Mr. Fripp loudly complained of the 
 intimidation exercised by the leading supporters of Mr. Miles, 
 and the wounds given in the fratricidal conflict remained 
 unhealed for several years. 
 
 An appearance of the celebrated Swedish vocalist, Jenny 
 Lind, at the Bristol theatre, on September 27th, caused such 
 excitement in the locality that the event seems worthy of a 
 permanent record. Notwithstanding the high prices fixed 
 for admission — 25.-?. for the boxes, 20.5. for the pit, and lO.s*. for 
 the gallery — the demand for seats exceeded the supply, and 
 a portion of the stage was railed off for the accommodation, 
 at bs. each, of about 500 persons condemned to stand through- 
 out the performance. The programme consisted of selec- 
 tions from operas, an air from " The Ci'eation," and some 
 Swedish melodies. Mdlle. Lind sang at a miscellaneous 
 concert, given a few evenings later at the Victoria Rooms, at 
 which the prices of admission ranged from 5^. to 21s. 
 
 Two new churches for the populous eastern districts of the 
 city were in course of construction, and a third was resolved 
 upon, in the course of this year. That of St. Simon's, Baptist 
 Mills, was consecrated on the 22nd December; a similar 
 ceremony took place at St. INfark's, Lower Easton, on the 18th 
 May, 1848, and St. Jude's, Poyntz Pool, was opened in June, 
 1849. The three buildings cost about £2,500 each. Tho 
 ecclesiastical districts of St. Simon and of St. Judo were 
 taken out «jf Trinity parish, St. Philip's; tho other was 
 abstracted from St. George's and Staplcton. The Rev. J. R. 
 Woodford, afterwards Bishop of Ely, was the first incumbent 
 of St. Mark's.
 
 1848.] suple's prizes, the manor op horpield. 305 
 
 By the will of Mr. Robert Suple, of the Mall, Clifton (a 
 retired Bristol linen draper), wlio died in 1847, the sum of 
 £8,300 was bequeathed to various local charities. Amongst 
 the bequests was one of £1,000 to the Infirmary, for providing 
 two annual prizes to medical students in that institution for 
 the encouragement of medical and surgical science. 
 
 The parish church of Abbot's Leigh was partially destroyed 
 by fire on Sunday the 20th February, 1848. The flames 
 burst from the building soon after the conclusion of afternoon 
 service, and were attributed to the foulness of the heating 
 flues. The tower escaped with little injury. 
 
 During the spring an arrangement was effected by the 
 Improvement Committee of the Corporation and the Charity 
 Trustees, by which the former surrendered certain property 
 in Portwall Lane, formerly known as the Law Ditch, which 
 the trustees had claimed as part of the estates devised for 
 charitable purposes by Alderman Whitson. The trustees 
 gave up part of the frontage for the purpose of widening the 
 thoroughfare, on receiving £350 as compensation. 
 
 In April, 1848, Bishop Monk informed the rural deans in 
 his diocese of his intention to surrender a considerable sum 
 of money which he expected to receive from the Ecclesiastical 
 Commissioners, with a view to benefiting the poorer class of 
 livings. The money in question was to be paid for the sur- 
 render of the bishop's interest in the manor of Horfield, and 
 the matter soon afterwards excited attention in Parliament. 
 From Dr. Monk's subsequent statement, it appeared that the 
 manor of Horfield had been leased many years previously for 
 three lives. Two of these had fallen in about 1831, in the 
 episcopate of Bishop Gray, but neither that prelate nor his 
 successor. Bishop Allen, had been able to agree w^ith the 
 lessee on terms for a renewal. The matter was complicated 
 by the fact that some of the land was held under the lessee 
 by copyholders, while the double uncertainty of leasehold 
 and copyhold tenures had prevented the erection of houses 
 upon the estate, though from its contiguity to Bristol it was 
 otherwise attractive to builders. Being unwilling to per- 
 petuate the evil, Dr. Monk declined renewing the lease un- 
 less the tenures were altered, and the negotiations made 
 no progress for several years. While matters were in this 
 position, the bishop was informed, in December, 1846, that 
 the Ecclesiastical Commissioners had resolved to take posses- 
 sion of the property upon the first vacancy of the see, on the 
 ground that the average revenues of the bishopric were in 
 excess of the £5,000 a year intended to be assigned to it — a 
 
 X
 
 306 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. [1848. 
 
 statement wliich Dr. Monk warmly controverted. The deci- 
 sion of the commissioners, however, induced his lordship to 
 think of renewing the Horfield lease, which, as he explained, 
 would give him the command of a considerable sum of money, 
 and enable him to carry out certain objects which he had at 
 heart. As the lessee did not offer acceptable terms, the 
 bishop applied to the commissioners, witliAvhom he concluded 
 a bargain for the surrender of his interests for £11,587. He 
 had originally intended, he said, to present the whole of this 
 sum to the diocese. But the Bishop's College had not proved 
 successful, and the loan he had made towards its establish- 
 ment threatened to be lost. He therefore proposed to set 
 apart half of the Horfield money to secure the interests of his 
 famil}", and to devote the remainder — which, with funds re- 
 maining unexpended from his previous donations for improv- 
 ing poor livings, would be raised to £9,238 — to the erection of 
 parsonages in benefices worth under £200 a year. Obstacles, 
 however, arose to the completion of the arrangements. In 
 the course of an inquiry before a committee of the House of 
 Commons, the secretary to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners 
 insinuated that the bishop had undertaken never to renew 
 the Horfield lease; and it was alleged that the sale of his 
 interest was not consistent with his engagements. These 
 charges were indignantly denied by Dr. Monk, who stated 
 that they had been instigated by the Eev. Henry Richards, 
 perpetual curate of Horfield, the advowson of which living 
 was leased with the manor. Mr. Richards, he added, was 
 the largest copyholder in the parish, and had been solicitous 
 to obtain for himself a new lease of the manor, by which he 
 would have been able to deal with the estate, in the double 
 capacity of lord and cop3^holder, in a manner extremely to his 
 own advantage. Disappointed in this desire, wrote Dr. Monk, 
 " his indignation exhibited itself in railing against his bishop." 
 Ultimately tlie Government refused to ratify the bargain 
 made between the commissioners and the bishop, whereupon, 
 after the dropping of the life of the " lord farmer" in 1849 — 
 who had held that position for seventy-two years — Dr. Monk 
 granted a new lease for three lives to his secretary. The 
 income of the manor was then £545 a year. This proceeding, 
 thougli legal, excited much unfavourable comment in Parlia- 
 ment, it bt'ing generally held that his lordship ought to have 
 treated the manor as a trust bequeatlied to him by his 2>re- 
 decessors for public purposes. Dr. Plonk's defence was, that 
 lie wished to commute the manorial rights, to set an (\\am])le 
 of good agriculture, and to improve the living of Horfield,
 
 1848.] THE MANOR OF HORFIELD. 307 
 
 %vliicli was inadequately endowed; and that these objects 
 could be accomplished only by a lease controlled by himself. 
 In March, 1852, he executed trust deeds conveying the whole 
 of his interest in the estate to five trustees. A rent charge 
 of £192 yearly was directed to be divided, one half towards 
 increasing the income of the living of Horfield, and the other 
 moiety towards the endowment of a new church when the 
 growing population required one. The rents of the demesne 
 lands, and of 320 acres of additional land just awarded to the 
 bishop by the Copyhold Commissioners in lieu of manorial 
 rights (together about £900 a year), were to be devoted to 
 the building of parsonages in poor parishes in the arch- 
 deaconry^ and to the increase of curates' stipends in small 
 livings in the diocese. Dr. Monk expressed a hope that when 
 the lease lapsed, the Ecclesiastical Commissionei's would con- 
 tinue his disposition of the funds. All apprehension on this 
 point was removed, however, in October, 1858, when the 
 bishop's trustees purchased the reversion of the lease from 
 the commissioners for the sum of £5,000. With the eman- 
 cipation of the district from the copyhold system dates its 
 rise and rapid growth as a suburb. The Brimful Journal of 
 May 22, 1852, contained the following : " The National Free- 
 hold Land Society has purchased thirty acres of excellent 
 land near Naylor's cottages at Horfield, which will be divided 
 into about 300 allotments, and apportioned to the Bristol 
 members of the society." It was not, however, until about 
 1860 that building operations became general in the locality. 
 
 Complaint having been made respecting the decayed state 
 of the butchers' shambles in the Exchange market, the Coun- 
 cil, on the 9tli May, 1848, approved of the design of a new 
 market house for meat and vegetables, prepared by Mr. Pope, 
 the city architect. The expense of the reconstruction was 
 estimated at £3,000. The plan included the widening of a 
 portion of Nicholas Street. A restoration of the front of the 
 Exchange took place at the same time, and the works were 
 completed, and the market opened in April, 1849. Only five 
 years later, in May, 1854, the Finance Committee reported 
 to the Council that the Exchange market was not in a state 
 creditable to the city, and a vote of £2,170 was granted for 
 alterations. 
 
 The ceremony of consecrating a Roman Catholic bishop as 
 vicar apostolic of the western district took place in the church 
 of St. Mary, on the Quay, on the 10th September. The pre- 
 late was Dr. Joseph William Hendren, Bishop of Uranopolis. 
 The sermon was preached by Dr. Nicholas Wiseman, bishop
 
 308 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1848. 
 
 in imrtihuii, afterwards a cardinal, and so-called " ArcliLisliop 
 of Westminster." 
 
 At a meeting held on the 22nd September, the Dean of 
 Bristol (Dr. Lamb) presiding, it was resolved to raise a sub- 
 scription for the purpose of erecting in College Green a copy 
 of the original Bristol High Cross, of which the city was 
 scandalously deprived by a dean and chapter of the last 
 century. The cost was estimated at about £630. The 
 foundation stone of the new structure was laid on the 8th 
 August, 1850, by the mayor (Mr. Haberfield), attended by 
 the local Freemasons. The stone selected by the committee 
 was from the Nailsworth quarries; but the vaunted durability 
 of the material was not verified by experience. The cross, 
 which varied in details from the original construction [see 
 Pooley's work on Gloucestershire Crosses], was finished in 
 November, 1851, when the amount expended had been £450. 
 The cost of the eight statues of kings proposed to be intro- 
 duced was estimated at £480 ; but the money could not be 
 raised. The solitary statue of Edward III. was placed in 
 the cross in 1855 by the Freemasons of the province. 
 
 In December, 1848, to the great surprise of cathedral- 
 goers, the dean and chapter intimated to the minor canons 
 that the priest's portion of the daily services must no longer 
 be intoned, according to the usage of three centuries, but that 
 it must be read, as in all parish churches of that day. The 
 first service under this regulation took place on Sunday, 
 December 10th, when Canon Surtees officiated, the Rev. E. 
 C. Carter, the minor canon on duty, having refused to obey 
 the order on the ground that he should thereby violate the 
 oath taken on his appointment. He was thereupon excluded 
 from the cathedral by direction of the chapter. Another 
 minor canon, the Rev. Sir Charles Macgregor, who had been 
 chosen a few weeks previously, was, it turned out, unable to 
 intone, and it was currently reported that the ancient custom 
 had been abolished for the benefit of an incompetent person. 
 Mr. Carter, who had the sympathy of the precentor, the Rev. 
 R. L. Caley, shortly afterwards ap]i(>nled to the bishop as 
 visitor of the cathedral, and a memorial in his support was 
 forwarded to Dr. Monk by the mayor .and sheriff. No 
 visitation having been hold for a great number of years, 
 there was some doubt as to the ]-»ower of the diocesan, who 
 liesitatod to take action. In February, 1810, a majority of 
 the chapter rescinded the order of December; but Dean 
 I jamb, claiming to possess supreme power in such matters, 
 issued a document requiring the officiating clergyman to con-
 
 1849.] REDUCTION OF TORT DUES. BATHS FOR THE POOR. 309 
 
 tinue to read the service. The bishop consequently held a 
 court on the 27th February ; and a few days later he formally 
 declared the order of the dean to be null and void, enjoining 
 the chapter to maintain the service according to ancient 
 custom. The dean having set this judgment at defiance, a 
 memorial was presented to the bishop by a number of church- 
 men, setting forth that Dr. Lamb had set at naught the bishop's 
 order, and allowed the sei'vice to be mutilated for six months 
 out of twelve. The position becoming untenable, Sir Charles 
 Macgregor resigned in November, and the appointment of a 
 qualified successor brought the dispute to an end. Dr. Lamb, 
 who in addition to the deanery held the mastership of Corpus 
 Christi College, Cambridge, and the rectory of Olveston, died 
 in April, 1850. Down to the period of cathedral reform, the 
 minor canons had been six in number, including the pre- 
 centor. They were gradually reduced to three by death or 
 preferment, and in March, 1854, the latter number was per- 
 manently established by an Order in Council. 
 
 In the closing month of 1848, in excavating for a new 
 sewer in Quay Street, the workmen came upon the foundation 
 of the old city wall, which it is probable was once washed 
 by the tide. At a considerable depth from the surface, the 
 workmen discovered a canoe, fourteen feet long and four 
 feet wide, shaped from a single trunk of timber. Unfortu- 
 nately this relic of antiquity had to be sawn through, as it 
 was found impossible to remove it entire. 
 
 At the usual New Year's day meeting of the Council in 
 1849, Mr. Visger brought forward a resolution for the abo- 
 lition of the town dues on 325 out of the 350 articles included 
 in the schedule then in force. After stating that half the 
 foreign goods consumed in Bristol arrived coastwise from 
 London and Liverpool, he showed that the commodities he 
 proposed to relieve produced an insignificant revenue (£227), 
 and predicted that, if the duty were abolished on hides and 
 articles used in tanning, the trade of the city would be greatly 
 promoted. The resolution was carried unanimously, and 
 Mr. Visger's prophecy speedily proved to be well founded, 
 one or two large tanning firms having removed soon after to 
 Bristol from other localities, and established extensive works 
 in the city. 
 
 At a meeting of the Council on the 9th January, it was 
 resolved to establish cheap baths and washhouses on the 
 Weir, at a cost not exceeding £7,000, to be paid off in twenty 
 annual instalments. It was believed that the annual profits 
 would soon sufiice to liquidate the debt. The baths were
 
 py' 
 
 310 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1849. 
 
 opened on the 12tli August, 1850, but the hope that the 
 undertaking would be self-supporting was destined to prove 
 fallacious, the receipts having been always insufficient to 
 meet the working expenditure. The great benefit Avhich the 
 estabbshment conferred on the poor being considered to out- 
 weigh the loss to the ratepayers, the Council, in June, 1871, 
 resolved on the construction of a more complete building in 
 the Mayor's Paddock, on the north bank of the Avon, for 
 the accommodation of the working classes of Bedminster and 
 Redcliff. These baths, the first cost of which was about £15,500, 
 were opened on the 1st May, 1873, but they were even less 
 successful, financially speaking, than those on the Weir, it 
 being stated in October, 1882, that while £17,000 had been 
 then laid out upon them, and while the working staff were 
 paid £10 a week in wages, the average receipts averaged onlv 
 ' £10 Is. 2cZ. per week. t~-\xi. 1877 a swimming bath was added 
 Wi*''*^ fox^ie Weir buildings, at an outlay of about £2,400. In 
 ^ ^1^ August, 1881, the Council approved of a plan for baths and 
 ' V* washhouses at Jacob's Wells, the expense being estimated 
 at about £22,000. The design met with scanty approval 
 amongst the ratepayers, and the residents of the locality 
 intended to be benefited held an " indignation meeting-," and 
 were the loudest in condemning the extravagance of the 
 proposal. With the November elections in view, the Council 
 beat a hasty retreat, and the previous resolution Avas can- 
 celled. In October, 1885, however, a more modest plan for 
 baths at the same spot, to cost about £9,000, received the 
 sanction of the civic body. 
 
 During the summer of 1849 some judicious imjn-ovements 
 were effected on and near Clifton Down by a committee of 
 gentlemen resident in the neighbourhood. Upwards of a 
 hundred seats were erected in picturesque spots, a few path- 
 ways were laid out, trees and shrubs were planted, and a 
 band of music was engaged for the summer months. Although 
 only modest funds were entrusted to the committee, the 
 results of their labours were much appreciated. The pro- 
 moters of the movement attempted to make further efforts 
 towards increasing the attractions of the place; but the 
 "Clifton Improvement Association," which they established, 
 met with very limited support. Its designs for improvements 
 were moreover threatened with opposition on the ])art of the 
 lords of the iiianoi- of llenbury — ever jealous of their rights 
 and little regardful of the rights of others. Under these 
 discouraging circumstances, the association was dissolved 
 in January, 1855.
 
 1849,] THE MERCHANT TAYLORS' COMPANY. oil 
 
 A prospectus was issued in August, 1840, of the Clifton 
 Victoria Batlis, for which a piece of ground had been secured 
 " adjoining Oakficld House garden." The baths were opened 
 in July, 1850. 
 
 At the instance of Bishop Monk, a meeting was held in 
 the Victoria Rooms on the 7th November^ 1849, for the pur- 
 pose of promoting the establishment of a training institution 
 for schoolmistresses, as an adjunct to the training school for 
 masters which was about to be founded in the diocese of 
 Oxford, it being intended that the advantages of the two 
 schools should be equally shared between the two districts. 
 The bishop announced that donations to the amount of £4,300 
 and yearly subscriptions of about £230 had been already 
 promised. Resolutions in approval of his lordship's scheme 
 were adopted, and the executive committee soon afterwards 
 purchased a site at Fishponds, and proceeded with the build^ 
 ings, the foundations of which were laid in the spring of 
 1852. The cost of the erections was about £12^000. The 
 college was opened on the 10th September, 1853. 
 
 In the course of this year, a scheme was sanctioned by the 
 Court of Chancery for the administration of the estates of the 
 Merchant Taylors' Company of Bristol. The Company, which 
 in the previous century embraced every tailor in the city, 
 had become extinct in 1824 by the death of Mr. Isaac Amoa, 
 its only surviving member. Mr. Amos, so long as he lived, 
 carried out the ancient customs of the guild with great 
 gravity. He yearly elected himself master, and allowed him- 
 self £10 lO.s. for serving '' an extra time ;" summoned himself 
 to committee meetings, and paid himself £12 12*-. for his 
 attendances ; audited his own accounts, and rewarded himself 
 with £2 2s. therefor ; and finally put into his pocket various 
 trifling gratuities authorised by established precedents. In 
 1802 the property of the Company — producing about £100 a 
 year — had been placed by deed in the hands of a body of 
 trustees, and the surplus income was devoted to the main- 
 tenance of the almshouse in Merchant Street, erected by the 
 guild in 1701. It was feared on the extinction of the Com- 
 pany that most of the estate had escheated to the Crown ; 
 but the surviving trustees petitioned to be permitted to apply 
 the proceeds to charitable purposes, and after many years' 
 delay the rights of the sovereign were surrendered. The 
 scheme above mentioned placed the trust on a permanent 
 basis, and some eighteen pensioners are now maintained out 
 of the estate. Some curious details respecting the Company 
 may be found in Manchee's Bristol Charities, and in Mr.
 
 312 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1849. 
 
 Alderman Fox's privately printed " Account of the Ancient 
 Fraternity of Merchant Taylors of Bristol." 
 
 In the closing months of 1849 some five or six local firms 
 engaged in the corn trade resisted payment of the town dues 
 on grain imported by them, alleging that the impost was 
 illegal. A gentleman at the same time claimed exemption 
 from dues on a cargo of timber, on the ground that he was a 
 '^ Queen's tenant ;" while another demanded free entry for 
 a quantity of sugar in his quality as a freeman of London. 
 The corn merchants submitted on being threatened with 
 actions at law. The alleged '^Queen's tenant" turned out 
 to be merely an occupier under the oSice of Woods and 
 Forests, and found his claim to be untenable. The Corpora- 
 tion maintained that a freeman of London could claim 
 exemption only when he paid scot and lot in the city of 
 London, and, precedents being produced in support of this 
 position, the claimant eventually surrendered. 
 
 From the time of the great outbreak of cholera in England 
 in 1831-2, a strong suspicion had existed amongst observant 
 men that the terrible mortality caused by the disease was 
 attributable to the evil sanitary condition of the people. It 
 was not, however, until about 1840 that public opinion be- 
 came sufficiently instructed to give force to the theory that 
 bad drainage, filthy dwellings, and unwholesome water exer- 
 cised a deplorable effect, not merely in fostering epidemics, 
 but in sapping the human constitution. In 1840 a committee 
 of the House of Commons was appointed to inquire into the 
 state of the public health ; and the investigation then made 
 being deemed inadequate, a Eoyal Commission was appointed 
 in 1844 to make local inquiries into the matter. Two of the 
 commissioners, Sir H. de la Beche and Dr. Lyon Playfair, con- 
 sequently paid a visit to Bristol ; and their report, published 
 early in 1845, drew a very unflattering picture of the state 
 of the city. The mortality, it appeared, averaged 31 per 
 1,000, which was exceeded by only two towns in the king- 
 dom; while the deaths in places of average salubrity averaged 
 only 20 per 1,000. The causes of the evil were declared to 
 be obvious. Many parts of Bristol and fashionable portions 
 of Clifton were totally without sewerage ; others, which were 
 drained, daily discharged a mass of filth into the stagnant 
 harbour — forty-one sewers having no other outlet. Uouse 
 drainage in poor dwellings was almost unknown. With the 
 exception of about 400 houses, inhabited by the affluent 
 class in Clifton, and a few in the neighbourhood of College 
 Green, there was no water laid by pipes into any dwellings,
 
 1850.] THE CHOLERA. SANITARY SHORTCOMINGS. 313 
 
 and those of the poor, besides being crowded, were generally 
 filthy ; while the well water on which the inhabitants de- 
 pended was often unwholesome. In despite of the grave 
 nature of this report, little was done to remedy short- 
 comings; and in 1849 another epidemic of cholera occurred 
 in Bristol. The disease broke out in the city on the 10th 
 June, and did not disappear until the 16th October, between 
 which dates there were upwards of 15,000 cases of sickness 
 and 778 of actual cholera, the deaths from that disease being 
 444. The scourge effectually awakened the authorities to 
 the condition of the city. In consequence of a resolution 
 passed by the Council, the Government appointed Mr. Gr. T. 
 Clark, of the Board of Health, to hold another inquiry into 
 the state of the borough ; and that gentleman opened his 
 court in the Guildhall on the 13th February, 1850, and con- 
 tinued to take evidence until the 2nd March. His report is 
 a document which future generations will read with profound 
 astonishment. Many of its statements may possibly seem 
 incredible even to youthful Bristolians of the present day. 
 Not merely as an astounding picture of old-fashioned igno- 
 rance, supineness, and folly, but as an eloquent testimonial 
 to later energy and public spirit, a few of its salient features 
 are worthy of record. Mr. Clark reported that the manage- 
 ment of the paving, cleansing, and lighting of the ''old city" 
 was still in the paving commissioners constituted in 1806. 
 The parishes known as " the District " had obtained a local 
 Act in 1842, which created a similar body. But as regarded 
 the 60,000 people dwelling in Clifton, in the out-parish of 
 St. Philip, and in the urban parts of Westbury and Bed- 
 minster, there were no sanitary authorities whatever. It is 
 needless to dwell upon the state of the poorer localities in 
 the centre of the city, which, in spite of the sanitary pre- 
 cautions adopted during the then recent cholera visitation, 
 shocked every visitor. No conception of the actual facts 
 could be given without employing terms repugnant to 
 modern habits and good taste. The course of the Froom 
 through the city was simply a sewer, into which scores of 
 small sewers poured their contents ; and as a large portion 
 of the stream was uncovered, the stench which spread from 
 it every summer often sufficed to turn weak stomachs. In 
 many other localities were damp, uncleanly courts, unpaved 
 and undrained, without any decent provision for unavoidable 
 wants, and where the only water available was rank with 
 contamination. In a single house in one of the filthiest of 
 these courts^ sixty-four people were living during the cholera
 
 314 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1850. 
 
 epidemic; and it Avas of course in sucli dens that the disease 
 was most deadly. The dwellings of the poor in all the out- 
 lying parishes of the city were found to be equally deplorable, 
 in addition to Avliich, the roads were unmade in many streets ; 
 and in some cases, in wet weather, water lodged in the centre 
 of the thoroughfares to the depth of four feet. Not one of 
 the sixty-eight streets in Bedminster Avas ever cleansed by 
 a scavenger. Still more surprising is the account of the 
 localities inhabited by the middle classes. The sewage from 
 a house in Montagu (now Kingsdown) Parade ran down an 
 open gutter in Montagu Hill. The road at the back of 
 Kingsdown and St. James's Parades was almost always 
 floating with water, which occasionally ran into the dwell- 
 ings. There were no drains to carry away the filth from 
 those houses, but there were cesspools, the contents of some 
 of which filtered into neighbouring wells. At the back of 
 Highbury Place were two very large pools of sewage, giving 
 out a pestilential odour. The sewage of Clarence Place 
 drained into two great cesspools directly under the houses, 
 and required to be emptied about once a month, causing an 
 intolerable stench. Nearly all the houses in Richmond 
 Terrace, Clifton, drained into cesspools; and to this was 
 attributed a severe epidemic which had recently prevailed 
 there. At Clifton Park, Cambridge Place, Burlington Place, 
 South Parade, and in other high-class, thoroughfares, there 
 was no drainage except into cesspools. In the Black-boy 
 district, near Durdham Down, there was only surface drain- 
 age. " The Whiteladies lload has an open gutter, down 
 which the house drainage runs into a side ditch, and is most 
 offensive. [This sewer was the subject of many objurga- 
 tions in the noAvspaper correspondence of the time.] Above 
 Whiteladies Gate, in the bottom of the valley, several open 
 sewers meet, and their contents are generally complained of. 
 In a field in front of West Clifton Terrace," noAv the site of 
 Alma Road, " the sewage [from the Black-boy district and 
 West Park] escapes over a largo space. Hampton Terrace 
 suffers materially from an old ditch, in Avhich the scAvago is 
 collected. Prom tlicnco it finds its Avay to the Froom." A 
 resident at Vittoria Place deposed that, oAving to the defec- 
 tive drainage, it was almost impossible to sup])ort the stench 
 during the night. The road now known as Oak field Road 
 had only one laiiii), and was a "perfect (luagmire." "At the 
 back of Park Place is a peculiarly filthy cross-road and a 
 market garden, the stench of Avhich is much com])lained of." 
 With regard to lighting, about half the old city, Clifton, and
 
 1850.] FILTUY CONDITION OV THE SUBURBS. 31 
 
 r 
 
 the District were imperfectly lighted ; Avliilo the very popu- 
 lous parishes of St. Philip (out) aud Beduiinster, as well as 
 the Redland, Gotham, and Kingsdown districts, were not 
 lighted at all. Although numerous tollgates were within 
 the borough, the condition of the turnpike roads was 
 reported to be discreditable. They were badly drained, 
 badly repaired, and badly cleaned; and in Bedminster there 
 was a continuous bank of scrapings a quarter of a mile long 
 and about five feet high. As to the parish roads in that 
 parish and in St. Philip's, they were " scarcely worthy of 
 the name." In all the suburbs were numerous private roads, 
 some of which had been streets for ten or twenty years, 
 which were " mere troughs of mud, into which all the ashes, 
 soil, and house refuse were daily thrown and never removed." 
 Finally, in reference to cemeteries, Mr. Clark reported that 
 there were sixty-one places of burial in the city, of which 
 thirty-seven belonged to the Established Church, and five to 
 private persons (undertakers).* The great majority, being 
 full to repletion, were unfit for further interments ; and 
 burials in the vaults under parish churches were also 
 strongly condemned. The Inspector concluded by asserting 
 that the two great evils of Bristol, to which its drunkenness, 
 filth, and excessive mortality were largely attributable, were 
 want of drainage and want of water. No efiicient reform 
 was declared to be possible so long as the various outlying 
 districts were separately and irresponsibly governed. Hap- 
 pily a strong conviction prevailed in the city of the prevailing 
 evils, together with an earnest disposition to support the 
 introduction of reforms. The Council lost no time in taking 
 measures to follow out Mr. Clark's recommendations. A Bill 
 enabling the Corporation to apply the powers of the Health 
 of Towns' Act, and to abolish the paving commissioners in 
 the city, and the watching bodies in Clifton and the District, 
 received the royal assent in August, 1851. A committee of 
 the Council was forthwith appointed for sanitary purposes. 
 Under the new statute the Council, as the Local Board of 
 Health, was vested with sole jurisdiction over the city 
 streets, roads (except turnpikes), sewers, lighting, scaven- 
 ging, and watering, the removal of nuisances, the regu- 
 lation of slaughter-houses, and other analogous matters. 
 There was no longer any question of want of power, dubious 
 boundaries, or clashing administration, and the effects of 
 
 * A correspondent of the Briatol Times stated (April 30, 1853), that from 
 '■ two to three dozen " bodies were buried every Sunday in each of two private 
 burial grounds, belonging to persons named Francis and Wins.
 
 316 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1850. 
 
 concentrating antliority in a single responsible body rapidly 
 became apparent. One of the first and most striking im- 
 provements effected, was tlie efficient lighting of Clifton and 
 the other suburban districts. A survey of the municipal 
 area having been made, a well-considered plan of sewerage, 
 embracing the whole of the borough, and designed to inter- 
 cept the drains discharging into the harbour, was laid out 
 and approved. In 1855 four great arterial sewers, each 
 averaging nearly a mile and a half in length, were begun, 
 with a view to diverting the sewage of the western suburbs, 
 to a point in the Avon about a mile below Cumberland Basin. 
 [In the carrying out of this work, the contractors were 
 required to make a footpath from Clifton Down to the river, 
 thus forming a second "Zigzag," one of the most pictu- 
 resque walks in the neighbourhood.] Upwards of three 
 miles of main sewers were constructed in Bedminster, and 
 a still more extensive system was laid down for St. Philip's 
 and the District. The operations necessarily occupied many 
 years. In 1872 it was officially stated that the Corporation 
 had spent during the previous sixteen years the sum of 
 £137,000 on sewerage works alone. A further outlay of 
 about £18,000 was incurred for Bedminster in 1873. The 
 expense was amply compensated by the reduction effected in 
 sickness and mortality. In 18G6, when cholera again visited 
 the city, the fatalities from the disease numbered only 29 ; 
 and, instead of having one of the highest death rates in the 
 kingdom, Bristol has for many years vied Avith London for 
 the place of honour on the Registrar-General's returns. 
 
 In January, 1850, the death was announced of a man 
 named James Ivyleaf, supposed to have been a native of 
 Bristol,* but who resided in Southampton Row, Bloomsbury, 
 London. It soon after transpired that he had left nearly the 
 whole of his property to the trustees of Bristol lufirmai-y. 
 On making inquiries, however, the trustees were led to 
 believe that the testator died in embarrassed circumstances, 
 and they renounced probate of the will. One Evan Rees, 
 in whose house Ivyleaf had expired, then took out letters 
 of administration, on the plea that he was a creditor, a 
 person named Lloyd, a money-lender, becoming one of his 
 sureties. After a considerable lapse of time, the trustees of 
 the Infirmary, acting on private information, made a second 
 inquiry, and satisfied themselves that Rees and Lloyd had 
 
 * A Mr. Ivyleaf, linendruper, High Street, was residing ia King Square in 
 1770.
 
 1850.] PURCHASE OF THE DOWNS. 317 
 
 appropriated nearly £6,000, the proceeds of the sale of 
 Government stock held by Ivyleaf. Legal proceedings were 
 thereupon commenced, but Eees had emigrated to Australia, 
 and Lloyd, after becoming bankrupt, died. It was neverthe- 
 less discovered that Lloyd, with about £3,000 of the money, 
 had made advances to the spendthrift heir of the Earl of 
 Wicklow, receiving as security a post-obit deed for £25,000, 
 which he had transferred to his wife. The Court of Chan- 
 cery was therefore appealed to, and in February, 1855, 
 Mrs. Lloyd was ordered to pay the Infirmary £2,800. 
 
 At a meeting of the Council on the 12th February, 1850, a 
 discussion took place upon the extensive encroachments 
 which had been recently made upon the valuable common 
 land in the neighbourhood of Clifton. Mr. Visger observed 
 that measures were in progress which would eventually 
 terminate in the inclosure of Clifton Down. A considerable 
 portion, indeed, had been already built upon. '' These en- 
 croachments," he said, " had all been gradual. When lie 
 was a boy a great part of Clifton was open, and consisted 
 chiefly of sheep walks. A few rails were put up, ostensibly 
 to prevent the sheep from w^andering. These soon gave Avay 
 to iron stanchions ; by-and-by a wall was built, and then 
 houses were erected. Opposite these houses small shrubs 
 were planted, and under pretence of protecting them, posts 
 were put up. Within a few years the posts were pulled 
 down and regular plantations formed. He well remembered 
 having ridden up and down places that were now inclosed." 
 Mr. Visger's remarks called forth no contradiction; but w^hen 
 Aid. Pinney advised the purchase of the downs, Mr. Powell 
 (St. Augustine's)* protested against the Council interfering 
 with the property of others. If the Merchants' Society, he 
 said, chose to build upon Clifton Down, they would be deal- 
 ing with their own property, and the Council had no more 
 right to intervene than to pull down Badminton House. It 
 was resolved to represent to the Board of Health Inspector, 
 then holding his inquiry in the city, the great value of these 
 open spaces, and the danger to which they were exposed 
 from systematic encroachments. In the following August, 
 the lords of the manor of Henbury, " doing what they liked 
 with their own," disposed of a portion of Durdham Down to 
 ■ the authorities of St. John's district church, for the purpose 
 
 * This gentleman, who held many eccentric opinions, was accustomed to 
 '\varn the civic body at intervals that Brandon Hill was an old volcano, and 
 that it would some line morning give renewed proof of its ancient forces by till- 
 ing up the Floating Harbour.
 
 318 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1850. 
 
 of building a schoolliouse. Other encroacliments were made 
 from time to time^ and in 1856 some enterprising individual, 
 as an experiment, built a cottage in one of the fiv,e quarries 
 which were then being worked in various parts of the downs. 
 This step excited so much indignation, however, that the 
 building was forthwith removed. In the course of the fol- 
 lowing year, the Corporation succeeded in purchasing, for 
 £450, a small property at Westbui'y, to which commonable 
 rights on Durdham Down were attached, whereby it was 
 hoped a title had been obtained to resist further encroach- 
 ments in that direction. Soon afterwards Mr. Baker, as 
 owner of the Sneyd Park estate, claimed, and apparently 
 made good his claim to, a strip of ground at Sea Walls, which 
 had hitherto been a favourite promenade for pedestrians. 
 In 1859 the public were startled by another unexpected pro- 
 ceeding — the inclosure by a Mr. Samuel Worrall, descendant 
 of a former clerk of the Merchants' Society, of two large 
 pieces of common land which had been popularly considered 
 to form part of Clifton Down. His action was the subject of 
 indignant reprobation in the Council; but according to legal 
 authorities the inclosures could not be prevented, and the 
 utmost the public could claim was a footpath over the plots. 
 Further encroachments being reported as imminent, a com- 
 mittee was appointed to negotiate with the Merchants' 
 Society and the lords of Henbux-y Manor. In the result, the 
 Society, while refusing to sell their rights over either the 
 turf or the minerals of Clifton Down, expressed willingness 
 to see the public assured of the free enjoyment of the open 
 space, whilst the lords consented to sell in fee simple their 
 estate in Durdham Down, including the quarries, for £15,000. 
 A resolution empowering the committee to arrange Avith the 
 parties on those terms was passed by the Council on the 24th 
 May, 1860; and an Act of Parliament legalising the settle- 
 ment received the royal assent a year later. The lordship 
 of the manor of Henbury was divided between two persons, 
 Sir J. Greville Smyth, who held three-fourths, and who 
 therefore received £11,250; and the trustees of Mrs. Colston, 
 of Roundway, Wilts, who obtained £3,750 in right of the 
 remaining quarter. The expense of obtaining the statute 
 raised the total cost of the transaction to £16,206. The area 
 over which the public acquired a right of ])erjK'tual enjoy- 
 ment was 442 acres — 230 acres of which belong to Clifton 
 Down, and 212 to that of Durdham. In March, 1862, an 
 excited controversy arose respecting a contract made by the 
 Downs Committee — which under the Act consists of seven
 
 1850.] ARNO'S COURT. FATAL EXPLOSION. 319 
 
 members of the Council and seven of the Merchants' Society 
 — for the construction of a carriage road from Belgrave Place 
 to SneydPark, Mr. Baker, the gentleman mentioned ahove, 
 received £550 for the work, but owing to the disapproval 
 expressed by the citizens, the turf was ordered to be replaced, 
 and Mr. Baker not merely retained the contract price, but 
 got £200 more for restoring the ground to its former state. 
 The necessity of a road to Sneyd Park was nevertheless 
 obvious, and the destruction of the grass by carriages, etc., 
 at length wrought a change in public opinion. In 1875 over 
 £1,000 were raised by private subscription for making a road 
 from near Alderman Proctor's fountain to Sea Walls ; and a 
 few months later, the drive was extended to the road leading 
 to Combe Dingle. At the same time, by private arrange- 
 ment, the carriage road from near St. John's School to Down 
 House [formerly the famous summer resort known as the 
 Ostrich Inn, see p. 4], was closed and turfed. In 1879 
 these improvements were further extended, the Sea Walls 
 road being continued to the Westbury road. A footpath on 
 the site of " Baker's road " was laid down in 1880, and in 
 January, 1882, another was made in the ravine, affording 
 access to the shore of the Avon. 
 
 An ecclesiastical district, afterwards st3ded St. Matthias's 
 parish, was formed out of the parishes of St. Paul, St. Peter, 
 and St. Philip, by an Order in Council in May, 1846; but for 
 some reason the foundation-stone of the new church was not 
 laid until March, 1850. Much difficulty was encountered in 
 the construction of the edifice, owing to the marshy nature of 
 the site. The church was consecrated in November, 1851. 
 
 The large mansion known as Arno's Court, near Brisling- 
 ton, came into the market during the spring of 1850, and was 
 purchased for a Roman Catholic body called "The Sisterhood 
 of the Asylum of the Good Shepherd." The nuns established 
 in it a penitentiary, and added a large chapel to the building. 
 In 1858 the penitentiary was converted into a reformatory 
 for youthful criminals of the Romish faith. The remarkable 
 outbuildings formerly attached to the property, which have 
 obtained the local name of Black Castle, and were styled by 
 Hoi-ace Walpole " the Devil's Cathedral," were, with the 
 gardens, detached from the mansion and sold in 1821. They 
 are still decorated with the statues depicted in Mr. Seyer's 
 '' Memoirs of Bristol." 
 
 In the summer of 1849 a small steam vessel commenced to 
 ply as a passenger boat between the Drawbridge and Cum- 
 berland Basin; when the novelty and cheapness of the mode
 
 320 . THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1850. 
 
 /of transit caused tlie enterprise to be very profitable, and 
 naturally brought competitors into the field. In the summer 
 of 1850, seven additional steamers were provided for carry- 
 ing on the traffic, which had largely increased. On the 
 evening of the 22nd July, one of the vessels, the Bed Rover, 
 which was said to have carried a thousand passengers during 
 the day, was starting on her concluding voyage from Cum- 
 berland Basin, with about fifty persons on board, when the 
 boiler exploded, scattering death and destruction around. 
 Fifteen individuals were either instantly killed or died from 
 the effects of their injuries ; several others were seriously 
 maimed. The verdict given at the first coroner's inquest 
 was, ''that the deceased had met with his death in con- 
 sequence of the bursting of a boiler which at the time was 
 in an unfit state for use." 
 
 Upon the death, about October, 1850, of Mr. Charles 
 Yaughan, the office of master of the ceremonies at the balls 
 in Clifton became extinct. The want of some recognised 
 official to organize the amusements of the place was soon pro- 
 ductive of difficulties. Even in the days of the old Corpora- 
 tion, when Clifton was but a village, there had been struggles 
 on the part of some of the inhabitants to exclude others from 
 public entertainments. One lady, wife of a wealthy alder- 
 man, explained to Prebendary Sydney Smith that she and 
 her friends wished to establish a sort of Almacks, " with of 
 course due consideration for the differing circumstances of 
 the locality." " Yes," replied the canon, " the difference, 
 that is, between refined and raw sugar." Two or three 
 years after Mr. Yaiighan's death, rival coteries Avere formed, 
 one of which held its balls in the large room at the INIall, 
 while the second, which did not deem the other sufficiently 
 " exclusive," set up its camp at the Yictoria Eooms. The 
 offensive proceedings of the latter party * were productive 
 of so much ill-feeling that balls were discontinued for some 
 years. Another acrimonious controversy occurred in Decem- 
 ber, 1800, Avhen Mr. W. P. King, a member of one of the 
 leading merr-nntile houses in Bristol, published a letter com- 
 jilaining that his family, having a]i])lied for tickets for certain 
 proposed " private Clifton subscription balls," had been re- 
 
 * According to the reminiHcencos of a correspondent publishod in tlie Bristol 
 Tinieg, one of the " jiatronesses " refused to forward tickets of admission to a 
 lady until she liad been allowed a siglit of the latter's marriapje certificate. Tbe 
 response was, that the dorvnnent wonld he ]irodnced as soon as the "iiatroneas" 
 lift(l exhibited a specinu'n of tlie weekly wasliini; bills which she was accustomed 
 to forward to her customers in her younger days.
 
 1850.] QUARRELS IN CLIFTON "SOCIETY." 321 
 
 fused them by one o£ the promoters — " the son of a Loudon 
 tradesman, his father having been an undertaker." The 
 friends of this aristocratic youth rushed into print in his 
 defence ; and the Bristol Times, the organ of both the exas- 
 perated parties, felt called upon to rebuke a community 
 " composed entirely of traders or sons of traders," who were 
 ashamed of the means by which they had acquired wealth, 
 and were ridiculously "turning up their noses at each other." 
 A twelvemonth later, at a meeting of leading inhabitants, it 
 was stated that the proceedings of the supercilious under- 
 taker's son and of his youthful sujiporters had had the effect 
 of breaking up society in Clifton, and had caused some fami- 
 lies to leave the place. The balls were then arranged to be 
 held under the supervision of a committee. In the winter of 
 1862, a Mr. Henry Lucas Bean was appointed master of the 
 ceremonies, but appears to have held the post for only a 
 short period. 
 
 In October, 1850, an unwonted outburst of national feeling 
 occurred on the promulgation by Pope Pius IX. of a Bull, 
 by which England was carved into thirteen sees — an arch- 
 bishopric and twelve bishoprics — the prelates appointed to 
 which were designated by territorial titles. By this bull was 
 created the so-called " diocese of Clifton," which included 
 the three adjoining counties. The new bishop. Dr. J. W. 
 Hendren, was enthroned on the 15tli December, in the 
 Church of the Apostles, Clifton, which was thenceforth styled 
 a pro-cathedral. In the following July the bishop was trans- 
 ferred to Nottingham, and was succeeded by Dr. Burgess. 
 The Protestant excitement in Bristol was increased by the 
 fact that the Rev. J. H. Woodward, incumbent of St. James's, 
 and his two curates, Messrs. Parry and Todd, "^went over" 
 to the Romish Church about the same time. It may be noted 
 that several of the Oxford men who followed Dr. Newman in 
 the same direction came to reside in Clifton, and published 
 tracts there in defence of their conduct. 
 
 Ill the course of this yeai", during the reconstruction of the 
 house numbered 41, High Street, the remains were discovered 
 of a fifteenth century roof, resting upon corbels of demi- 
 angels. The place was supposed to have been the site of the 
 chapel of an almshouse, known to have anciently existed in 
 that locality. 
 
 In conformity with the provisions of the Mercantile Marine 
 Act of 1850, local boards to provide for the examination of 
 masters and mates were established in the principal ports of 
 the kingdom, and commenced their duties on the 1st January, 
 
 Y
 
 322 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. [1851. 
 
 1851. The first Bristol board consisted of Mr. Edward Drew 
 (Chairman), the mayor (Mr. Haberfield), and Messrs. P. W. 
 Miles, M.P., Richard Jones, Richard P. King-, William P. 
 King, William Bi-ass, Richard Rowe, William Patterson, 
 Frederick W. Green, and William Cook. 
 
 In January, 1851, Mr. J. Curnock, an able local artist, who 
 had been employed by the Corporation to clean some of tlie 
 pictures in tlie Council House, discovered a work of art the 
 disappearance of which had long puzzled the civic officials. 
 Mr. Curnock was engaged upon a poi'trait of Charles II., tlie 
 head of which was so miserably executed, compared with the 
 hands, that he was led to examine it attentively. Indications 
 of another wig beneath the surface convinced him that the 
 canvas had been tampered with, and after obtaining leave of 
 the authorities, he proceeded to remove the outer daubing, 
 with the result of bringing to light a finely painted head of 
 James II. This work — attributed to Kneller — was bought 
 by the Corporation in 1686, and is supposed to have been 
 " translated " soon after the dethronement of the Avould-be 
 despot. 
 
 Amongst the financial proposals in the Budget of 1851 was 
 a scheme, soon after sanctioned by Parliament, for the sub- 
 stitution of a house-tax for the unpopular duty imposed on 
 windows. Owing to causes for which it is somewhat difficult 
 to account, the window tax pressed grievously on Bath and 
 Bristol, which bore a share of the burden greatly in excess 
 of their proportional size and population amongst the chief 
 cities in the kingdom. According to a contemporary Parlia- 
 mentary return, the following were the ten towns which paid 
 the highest amount of duty for the year ending April, 1849 : 
 Liverpool, £28,856; Bristol, £22,176; Bath, £21,278; Man- 
 chester, £20,575; Brighton, £17,572 ; Birmingham, £14,086; 
 Plymouth, £11,029; Newcastle, £7,822; Leeds, £7,506; 
 Cheltenham, £6,767. 
 
 Seven years before this date, when the population of Clifton 
 was rajndly increasing, a demand spraug up for the estab- 
 lishment of a public market in the district, the sites proposed 
 being llonoypon If ill (Quarry, near Meridian Place, and the 
 j^i-oiind iKiw occMj)ied by tlie Triangle. The Finance Com- 
 niitt(H! of the Corporation reported in favour of the project 
 in Mav, 18 ti, but the Council refused its sanction. In 1851 
 the proposal was revived, and a strong effort was niado to 
 obtain the erection of a suitable ItniUling on a site near the 
 church, the cost being estimated at £5,000. The Council, 
 liowover, disapproved of the ])ro]K)aal. Li 1875 another at-
 
 1851.] THE merchants' society, a local knight. 323 
 
 tempt was made, a company being started to erect a market- 
 house on nichmond Mows, near York Place, and a large 
 portion of the capital (£4,000) was at once subscribed. The 
 Corporation, having requested the opinion of the recorder, 
 was advised that it could not concede to a public company- 
 its privilege of holding and regulating markets within the 
 borough. The scheme consequently fell to the ground, 
 
 A local journal of the 3rd March contained an announce- 
 ment that the Society of Merchant Venturers had reduced 
 the fee payable upon admission into the company from £200 
 to £50. This brief statement comprises the only information 
 respecting the inner working of the corporation in question 
 which has been found in the newspapers of the present cen- 
 tury. At an earlier period, it is believed, the political party 
 predominant in it, as in the Common Council, was that of the 
 Whigs; but a rapid change took place after the French 
 Bevolution. About 18G0 there was said to be only one 
 member of the society — Mr, Robert Bruce — who was not a 
 Conservative ; and the unanimity brought about by his death 
 has since remained undisturbed. 
 
 The honour of knighthood was conferred in March, 1851, 
 upon Mr. John Kerle Haberfield, who was then filling the 
 office of mayor for the sixth time. His worship had sub- 
 scribed liberally towards the local fund for promoting the 
 Exhibition of the industries of all nations, which took place 
 in London during the summer. [The total amount raised 
 by subscription throughout the kingdom in supjwrt of the 
 undertaking was over £76,000, to which Bi-istol contributed 
 £788.] A few weeks after receiving his new dignity. Sir 
 John Haberfield was presented, in recognition of his public 
 services, with a beautiful dessert service of plate, valued at 
 upwards of £800, being the result of a subscription to which 
 500 citizens of all shades of politics contributed. On the 
 centre ornament, nearly three feet in height, were the arms 
 of the city and of the mayoi', with the inscinption : " To Sir 
 John Kerle Haberfield, knight, six times Mayor of Bristol, 
 1851." Above this were emblematic figures of Justice, Com- 
 merce, and Generosity. The other portions of the sei'vico 
 were also tastefully ornamented. Some years after the death 
 of Sir John, which occurred in 1857, his widow presented 
 this handsome service to the Corporation, to be iTsed by each 
 mayor during his term of office. A bust of the knight was 
 also obtained about the same time, at the expense of a con- 
 siderable number of citizens, and was placed in the Mayor's 
 Chapel. A portrait of Sir John, painted during his first
 
 324 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. [1851. 
 
 mavoraltY, was bequeathed to the Corporation by liis widow 
 in i875. " 
 
 The census of 1851 was taken on the 31st March. The 
 population of the city and county of Bristol was found to be 
 137,328; the number of persons in the ancient city being 
 65,716. The population of Clifton Avas 17,634; the District, 
 7,935 ; St. Philip's, out, 24,961 ; St. George's, 8,905 ; Man- 
 gotsfield, 3,967 ; Stapleton, 4,840 ; Bedminster, 19,424, and 
 Stoke Bishop tything, 5,623. 
 
 In April, 1851, Messrs. Stuckey & Co., bankers, who then 
 occupied the singular old hou6e~atr~Ehe corner of High Street 
 and Wine Street, purchased premises in Corn Street, con- 
 sisting of Mr. Harril's sale-room and the apartments occu- 
 pied by the members of the Athenjeum. An old dwelling 
 standing at the corner of Nicholas Street was bought soon 
 after, and a large banking-house was constructed on the 
 sites, a portion being sold to the Corporation for the purpose 
 of widening the adjoining streets. In removing the ancient 
 buildings, the crypt of the demolished church of St. Leonard 
 — the tower of which stood over the end of Corn Street — 
 was exposed -to view, much of it being in good preserva- 
 tion. 
 
 Some ludicrous incidents in connexion with a proposed 
 *' affair of honour" occurred in the spring of 1851. In a 
 debate on the army estimates in the House of Commons dur- 
 ing the previous session, Mr. Berkeley, the senior member 
 for the city, had condemned as wasteful the vote granted for 
 the yeomanry cavalry. As an evidence of the inutility of 
 the force, he stated that during the riots at Bristol, when 
 the North Somerset corps was summoned by the mayor to 
 jiupport the cause of law and order, only about ten of the 
 '' heroes" appeared, whereupon the}' were locked up by the 
 authorities to keep them out of danger. No comment was 
 made upon this statement at the time, but a twelvemonth 
 later, when the vote was again under discussion, Mr. W. 
 Miles, M.P. for Somerset, and the colonel of the yeomanry, 
 made a reply, observing that in 1831 seventeen members of 
 the BedjniuHter troop followed Captain Shute, and that, al- 
 though they retired to the riding school during the riots on 
 Sunday, as desired by the magistrates, they came in with the 
 regular troops on the following day, and did good service. 
 !Mr. Bi-rki'ley, in defending his ])r('vious remarks, again con- 
 tended that the yeomanry, in a military point of view, were 
 impostors, and as constabulary were useless. He went on to 
 show, on the authority of the liristul Qazelte, that Captain
 
 1851.] A THREATENED DUEL. ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHS. 325 
 
 Sliute's troop had been sent for on the first day of the riots, 
 but tliat only a liandful made their appearance after a dehiy 
 of twenty-four hours, when they were locked up with the 
 consent of the captain, whose name, added the hon. gentle- 
 man, amidst much laughter, was not S-h-o-o-t, but S-h-u-t-e. 
 The discussion then dropped, after mutual explanations. 
 Upwards of a week later, Captain Shute wrote to Mr. 
 Berkeley, asking whether that gentleman intended to imply 
 any doubt of personal courage on the part of the writer. To 
 this Mr. Berkeley replied that he had spelt the name in the 
 House to avoid a mistake on the part of the reporters, and 
 that he believed his correspondent to have been " the gallant 
 leader of a miserably small number of gallant men." Cap-- 
 tain Shute, dissatisfied with the reply, proceeded to London 
 in company with Mr. Joseph Leech, and indited a second 
 epistle, repeating the inquiry made in his first. Mr. Berkeley 
 thereupon retorted that, after the explanation already given, 
 he did not think himself called upon to make further admis- 
 sions respecting a personal courage which he had never im- 
 peached, and that, if Captain Shute still continued to consider 
 his reputation injured, he might address himself to the 
 writer's " friend," Colonel Dunne. Captain Shute, however, 
 declared that he was now satisfied, and Mr. Leech, approving 
 of the decision, forwarded the correspondence to the Times 
 for publication on the 14tli April. 
 
 During the summer of 1851, the Great Western and Bristol 
 and Exeter railway boards entered into a contract with the 
 Electric Telegraph Company for the construction of a tele- 
 graphic line from London to Exeter. The Midland Company 
 had some months previously established telegraphic communi- 
 cations on their system ; but the intelligence received by the 
 public by this means was confined to the results of interesting 
 races. In February, 1852, when the line to London and the 
 West was on the eve of completion, the proprietors of the 
 Commercial Rooms consented to set apart a room in their 
 building as a telegraph ofiice. At the meeting for sanction- 
 ing this arrangement, it was stated that a telegraphic line had 
 been laid to Shirehampton, towards supporting which the 
 committee of the Commercial Rooms would give the £30 a 
 year they had previously paid to the " Pill warner." Up to 
 this date, when the arrival of a ship at Kingroad was 
 " warned" up to the rooms, notice was sent to the merchant 
 concerned, who had to pay a guinea to the messenger. The 
 intelligence was henceforth furnished for half a crown. The 
 telegraph ofiice was a few months later removed to the Broad
 
 326 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. [1851. 
 
 Quay, and subsequently to tlie Exchange. The new system 
 was for the first time used as a vehicle for conveying reports 
 of Parliamentary proceedings to the Bristol newspapers on 
 the 30th April, 1852. The rapid development of telegraphic 
 business brought into increased prominence the troublesome 
 question of " local time/' still registered by the parish clocks, 
 messages from London being received at the Bristol office 
 about ten minutes before the time at which they purported 
 to be despatched. At a meeting of the Council on the 14th 
 September, 1852, it was resolved — three inveterate admirers 
 of ancient ways protesting against the innovation — to regulate 
 the clocks by Greenwich time. The first electric apparatus 
 fitted up in the provinces for private business transactions 
 was ordered by Messrs. Wills & Co., tobacco manufacturers, 
 in February, 1859, in order to communicate between their 
 premises in Maryleport and Redcliif Streets. In a lecture 
 delivered in Bristol in December, 1859, Mr^^;,,^^ulley, local 
 superintendent of the Telegraph Company, stated that the 
 first electric telegraph line in this country was erected in 
 July, 1887, between Euston Square and Camden Town, 
 London, but that as George Stephenson and other scientific 
 men did not appreciate its value, it was soon after removed. 
 In 1839 Messrs. Wheatstone & Cook constructed a line from 
 Paddington to Slough on the Great Western railwaj^ — the 
 first on which the invention was tried. Mr. Culloy added that 
 Mr. Brunei wished to extend the line to Bristol ; but that at 
 one of the meetings of the company he was overruled, mainly 
 through one of the shareholders denouncing electric tele- 
 graphy as wild, visionary, and worthless. 
 
 A local newspaper of the 2Gth July announced that in 
 consequence of the rivalry of two steamboats plying between 
 Bristol and Cardiff, passengers were being conveyed gratis 
 from and to each town. Subsequently fares were imposed — 
 Is. for cabin and Qd. for steerage passengers. The costly 
 competition continued until April, 1855. 
 
 The annual congress of the Archaeological Institute was 
 opened in Bristol on the 29th July. Amongst the distin- 
 guished visitors were Lord Talbot de ]\falahide (the pre- 
 .sident of the Institute), Dr. Will)erforce (Bishop of Oxford), 
 Chevalier liunson, and Mr. Ilallam. A largo a]iartmont in 
 the Council House was fitted up as a reception room for the 
 guests, to whom cordial hospitality was offered by the mayor 
 (Sir John K. Ilaberfiold). The introductory meeting took 
 place in tlio fJiiihlliall, and a brilliant couvorsii/ione was 
 held at the Institution. A record of the work of the week
 
 1851.] THE CHAMBER OP COMMERCE. THE "dEMEKARA." 327 
 
 will be found in the yearly volume of tlie society's Trans- 
 actions. * 
 
 Down to this period the west end of St. James's Church, 
 with its beautiful Romauesque ornamentation, had been con- 
 cealed from public view by a number of hovels, which had 
 been permitted to accumulate around thie edifice during the 
 seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. A subscription was 
 now started by the parochial authorities for the purchase of 
 those excrescences, and, the required amount having been 
 obtained, the ground on which they stood was cleared during 
 the autumn, to the great satisfaction of persons of taste. [An 
 incongruous Corinthian altar piece was removed from the 
 church in 1847.] 
 
 A meeting of merchants, shipowners, and others was held 
 at the Commercial Rooms on the 4th September, Mr. Robert 
 Bright presiding, for considering the desirability of reviv- 
 ing the Chamber of Commerce [see page 300] . Resolutions 
 approving of the institution were adopted, but through 
 the indifference of the mercantile classes no progress was 
 effected for some time. In October, 1852, the movement was 
 again started, and, upwards of a hundred firms having offered 
 to become members, the Chamber was resuscitated in the 
 following year. In 1874 it obtained a charter of incor- 
 poration. 
 
 At a meeting of gentlemen interested in shipping and 
 commerce, held at the office of the mercantile marine board. 
 Prince's Street, on the IGth September, it was resolved to 
 establish a local Sailors' Home — an institution for raising the 
 character and promoting the comfort of seamen which had 
 been already tested with satisfactory results in other large 
 ports. Mr. P. W. Miles, M.P., was elected president. The 
 proposal having met with a large measure of support, the pur- 
 chase of convenient premises, extending from Queen Square 
 to the Grove, was effected in March, 1852, for £1,300, and 
 over £1,000 more were expended in fitting them up. The 
 home was opened in January, 1853. On the 1st January, 
 1880, a new buildings called the Sailors' Institute, erected in 
 Prince's Street, at a cost of £4,500, by Mr. W. F. Lavington, 
 was opened to seamen, and proved very popular. 
 
 An extraordinar}'- accident, which was disastrous to the 
 
 * Mr. Pryce relates that, in anticipation of this gathering, one of the church- 
 wai'dens of St. Peter's ordered the beautiful Renaissance monument of one of 
 the Newton family in that church to be bedaubed with yellow wash, observing 
 that " it was a dirty beastly thing, but was now a little decent." — Notes on 
 Ecclesiastical, etc., p. 208.
 
 328 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1851. 
 
 most skilful and enterprising shipbuilding firm in Bristol, 
 and long cast a cloud on the reputation of the port, occurred 
 in the Avon on the 10th November. Messrs. W. Patterson 
 & Co. had constructed for the West India Mail Steamship 
 Company a vessel called the Demerara, which, with the ex- 
 ception of the Great Britain, was the largest steamship that 
 had then been built, her registered burden being about 3,000 
 tons. Having been floated out of the building dock on the 
 27th September, the vessel was partially fitted for sea, and on 
 the day mentioned above she left Cumberland basin in tow 
 of a powerful Glasgow steam-tug, which was to take her to 
 the Clyde for the purpose of receiving her engines. A suc- 
 cession of blunders, however, occurred. The vessel should 
 have entered the Avon some time before high water, so that 
 the most dangerous reflches might be passed with a full tide ; 
 but delay occurred, and the current had turned before she 
 was fairly in the river. The steam-tug, again, started at the 
 rate of seven or eight miles an hour, which was much in 
 excess of the speed consonant with safety. Mr. Patterson, 
 on board the new vessel, urgently called the pilot's attention 
 to the danger of this proceeding, but the rate of speed was 
 not suflficiently reduced, and soon after passing the Round 
 Point the bow of the Demerara struck violently on the 
 rocky bank of the Gloucestershire side of the river. The 
 tide, ebbing strongly, caused the stern of the ship to swing 
 across the stream to the opposite bank, and all attempts 
 to repair the disaster proved abortive. As the water flowed 
 away the ship settled down, the bolts started, the deck 
 twisted, and there seemed every probability that the wreck 
 would become immovable and that the navigation of the Avon 
 would be wholly blocked up. Great efforts, however, were 
 made in preparation for the next flood tide, and at night, 
 amidst the blaze of tar barrels and torches, presenting a re- 
 markable spectacle to the thousands of persons who had 
 assembled, the exertion's of a largo body of workmen were 
 successful, the vessel being floated and conveyed to the shore 
 of the river in front of EglestafF's quarry. It was intended 
 that she should bo temporarily repaired at that spot; but 
 about an hour later the ship broke froju her moorings, and 
 again swung across the river, receiving further serious 
 damage. It whs not until the rising of tho tide on the 
 morning of the 11th that the vessel could again be floated mid 
 renmved to the entrance of Cumberland basin. It was at 
 first ])ebeved that the damage sustained was too great to bo 
 repaired, and tho vessel, which was insured for £48,000 (her
 
 1851.] AMATEUR THEATRICALS. QUEEn's ROAD. 329 
 
 cost, including £12,000 for stores), was abandoned to the 
 underwriters as a " total wreck," her value being then esti- 
 mated at £15,000. On the I'jth July, 1854, the Dernei-ara 
 was sold for £5,600 ; the paddle boxes were removed, and 
 she was converted into a sailing ship, which bore the name 
 of the Briflsh Empire. In September, 1859, the vessel was 
 again sold for £5,400. 
 
 On the 12th November a remarkable amateur company of 
 comedians gave a performance at the Victoria Rooms for the 
 benefit of the Giiild of Literature and Art — an institution 
 started under the auspices of Sir E. Bulwer Lytton, after- 
 wards Lord Lytton. The pieces represented were the comedy 
 of "Not so Bad as we Seem," by Sir E. Lytton, and the farce 
 of " Mr. Nightingale's Diary," by Messrs. Charles Dickens and 
 Mark Lemon. The chief performers were Charles Dickens 
 (who was manager of the ti'oop), Douglas Jerrold, John 
 Forster, Mark Lemon, Wilkie Collins, Peter Cunning'ham, 
 E. H. Home, Charles Knight, J. Tenniel, F. W. Topham, 
 Frank Stone, Dudley Costello, and A. Egg, Every seat in 
 the building had been secured several days before, and, in 
 deference to earnest appeals, the perfoi'mance was repeated 
 two days later. 
 
 Repeated complaints having been addressed to the authori- 
 ties by the inhabitants of Clifton and Redland respecting the 
 road then leading from the top of Park Street to Whiteladies 
 Road and Clifton Church, which was much too narrow to 
 accommodate the constantly increasing- traffic, the Improve- 
 ment Committee of the Council, in 1844, entered into negotia- 
 tions with Mr, Tyndall — who had announced his intention 
 to dispose of his park for building purposes — for throwing 
 back the wall of his grounds from the Bishop's College to 
 the park gates, so as to widen the thoroughfare to sixty 
 feet. But after a price had been agreed upon for the ground, 
 the owner insisted that the Corporation should rebuild his 
 wall, park gates and lodge, by which the cost of the work 
 would have exceeded £3,000. The committee, after some 
 delay, adopted an alternative scheme, and bought in 1851 a 
 triangular field opposite to the park, thus securing a sufficient 
 breadth for the thoroughfare (which in 1854 received the 
 name of Queen's Road). This arrangement also facilitated 
 the opening of a new road on an easy incline from Jacob's 
 Wells to the higher level, for which powers were obtained in 
 the Improvement Act of 1847, The Council, in 1852, agreed 
 with Mr. Tyndall for the purchase of another strip of the 
 park, in order to widen Whiteladies Road from West Park
 
 330 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1852. 
 
 to the Victoria Rooms. The line of large elms then standing 
 within the park wall was thrown into the road when the 
 improvement was carried out ; and the locality soon became 
 the favourite promenade of the youthful working classes of 
 both sexes on Sunday evenings. [The last of the noble trees 
 was removed in 1885, having become dangerous from age.] 
 Soon after the road had been altered, the neighbouring part 
 of the park was offered for sale, and a row of villas was 
 commenced. One of the first houses built was the Queen's 
 Hotel, which was opened in October, 1854. A further great 
 improvement was effected in the neighbourhood in the 
 autumn of 1857, when, by means of a subscription amounting 
 to £2,000, a number of hovels and petty shops standing on 
 the now vacant ground betAveen the Victoria Eooms and 
 Eichmond Hill were demolished, the land being transferred 
 to the Merchants' Society, who undertook to maintain it as 
 an open space. The upper portion of Whiteladies Eoad con- 
 tinued to be an extremely narrow thoroughfare until 1858, 
 when a strip of the nursery gardens extending from the end 
 of Gotham Eoad to opposite St. John's Church was thrown 
 into the street. 
 
 The tolls on foot-passengers and cattle payable under the 
 Dock Acts at the gates near Totterdown and Eedcliff were 
 abolished by the Council in April, 1852. The charge had 
 always been unpopular, and the toll-houses were burned 
 down by the mob during the riots of 1831. The tolls at 
 the Totterdown and Cumberland Basin gates were ordered 
 to be wholly abolished at a Council meeting held in June, 
 1863. 
 
 The death took place on the 7th April, 1852, of the Eev. 
 Martin Eichard Whish, M.A., Prebendary of Bcdminster in 
 Salisbury Cathedral, and, in right of that office, vicar of 
 Bcdminster, rector of St. Mary Eedcliff, perpetual curate of 
 St. Thomas, rector of Abbot's Leigh, and perpetual curate of 
 Bishopsworth. A separation of tlioso benefices took place 
 by an Order in Council of the Gth October following, each 
 district ];ecoming an independent parish. 
 
 One of the first steps taken by the new vicar of Bed- 
 minster, the Eev. H. G. Eland, was to promote a subscription 
 for rebuilding the ])arish church, a mean edifice of the seven- 
 teenth century, capable of seating only 450 persons. Ser- 
 vice was pcrf(jrmed in it for the last time on the 25th June, 
 1854, and the new church was ready for consecration in 
 August, 1855. A few weeks before the intended ceremony, 
 a novel feature in the edifice excited a violent outbreak of
 
 1852.] THE BEDMINSTER REREDOS. ELECTION. 331 
 
 antagonistic feelings in tlio two great parties in tlie English 
 Church. The structure in question was a richly sculptured 
 reredos, placed behind the communion table, and represent- 
 ing the Crucifixion, the Nativity, and the Ascension in 
 highly idealised forms. This screen — said to have been the 
 first of the kind erected in a parish chuixh since the Refor- 
 mation — had been executed at the expense of Messrs. W. 
 Fripp and R. Phippen (former mayors), and another gentle- 
 man whose name did not transpire. The '• Evangelical " 
 clergy in the city vehemently protested against the intro- 
 duction of an ornament which they termed of a papistical 
 character, while their High Church colleagues insisted on 
 the propriety and edifying- tendency of the decoration. Ex- 
 cited meetings were held, and the newspapers abounded with 
 acrimonious correspondence. Bishop Monk seems to have 
 been painfully embarrassed by the stormy memorials ad- 
 dressed to him. On the one hand, he refused to believe, 
 with the Low Church protesters, that the carved figures were 
 likely to become objects of idolatrous worship. On the other, 
 he objected to repi^esentations varying from the truth and 
 simplicity of the Gospel narrative, and occupying the space 
 on w^hich, according to law, the commandments ought to 
 have been exhibited. He would not order the removal of 
 the reredos, but he did " earnestly and affectionately re- 
 quest " the vicar and churchwardens to take away the 
 ornament. To this appeal, Mr. Phippen, the senior church- 
 warden, in an intemperate letter, refused to accede, alleging 
 that the removal of the work would throw a slur upon those 
 who had paid for its erection. The bishop reiterated his 
 " request," with no better success than before ; and his lord- 
 ship, unwilling to debar the parishioners from their church, 
 consecrated the building on the oOth October, the occasion 
 being seized by the jubilant High Church clergy to make 
 a demonstration of their local strength. 
 
 At the dissolution of Parliament in the summer of 1852, 
 the disunion which still partially existed in the Tory party in 
 consequence of the incidents of the previous contest induced 
 the Liberals to bring forward a candidate in conjunction 
 with Mr. Berkeley. The new aspirant was Mr. William H. 
 Gore Langton, who was then serving the office of mayor. 
 As it was impossible to nominate either Mr. Miles or Mr. 
 Fripp with any chance of success, the Conservatives found 
 considerable difficulty in selecting a representative, the 
 question of free trade throwing fresh fuel on the still glow- 
 ing embers of the old personal quarrel. The Tory Premier,
 
 332 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1853. 
 
 Lord Derby, liad formallj stated tliat he would not abandon 
 his hope of restoring a duty on corn until after the elections ; 
 and the result was that nearly every Conservative aspirant 
 in the counties declared himself a Protectionist, while those 
 in the boroughs were everywhere Free-traders. Mr. Forster 
 Alley ne M cGeachy, the gentleman ultimately selectedior 
 Bristol, had been an opponent of the Corn Laws, but, his 
 relatives being connected with the West Indies, he was a 
 Protectionist in reference to sugar ; and to this qualification 
 he joined the claim of being a native of Bristol. At the 
 close of the poll the numbers were : — Mr. Berkeley, 4,681 ; 
 Mr. Laugton, 4,531; Mr. McGeachy, 3,632. 
 
 A lamentable accident occurred near Ealing on the 25th 
 February, 1853, to the express train from Bristol to London, 
 in which several of the directors of the Great Western rail- 
 way were travelling to attend the weekly meeting of the 
 board. Amongst those gentlemen was Mr. James Gibbs, of 
 Clifton Park, who was killed instantaneously. Mr. Gibbs, 
 who was head of the firm of Gibbs, Ferris & Co., of Union 
 Street, and a chemical manufacturer in St. Philip's, was for 
 some time a member of the Bristol Council, and served the 
 office of mayor in 1842-3. He was subsequently Chairman of 
 the Bristol and Exeter Eailway Company, and of the Bristol 
 and South Wales Union Railway Company, and was highly 
 esteemed by his fellow-citizens. The public were never made 
 acquainted with the cause of the accident. 
 
 The Bristol Journal of March 5 contained the following 
 paragraph ; — ''Notwithstanding the many failures of the 
 steam-carriage on common I'oads, it has again made its ap- 
 pearance between Bath and Bristol ; and this time, owing 
 to several most ingenious improvements in the machinery 
 employed, has thoroughly realized the expectations of its 
 projectors. The rate of travelling is about twelve miles an 
 hour, and the cost is most trifiing — say 6(2. for the jour- 
 ney." As no further reference to the carriage has been 
 found, it may bo inferred that the " expectations of its 
 projectors " again ended in disappointment. 
 
 lu the eai'ly months of 1853, the ruinous old buildings 
 known as "Spencer's almshouse," in Levvin's Mead, opposite 
 to the Unitarian Chapel, were evacuated by the inmates, 
 who wore rrmovod to a new house, erected in Whitson 
 [properly Whitsun] Street, near the west end of St. James's 
 Church. 
 
 The Bristol Liljrary came prominently before the public 
 about tliis time. The committee of the Fine Arts Society,
 
 1853.] RECOVERY OF THE CITY LIBRARY. 333 
 
 then about to erect their building in AVliitcladies Road, 
 suggested a union of the two institutions, and the subscribers 
 to the testimonial to Mr, Bright [see p. 302], offered to give 
 £700 to the funds of the Library, on condition that a few- 
 deserving members of the working classes were adinitted to 
 the privileges of ordinary subscribers. Finally, a committee 
 of the Council suggested that the Library should be converted 
 into a free city library under the provisions of a then recent 
 Act for facilitating the establishment of such institutions. 
 The executive of the Library refused to confer with the com- 
 mittee of the Council, but assented to the two former pro- 
 positions. Difficulties subsequently arose, however, and 
 both negotiations fell through. 
 
 In the meantime, through the exertions of Mr. Charles 
 Tovey and a few other members of the Council, the position 
 of the Librai-y Society towards the city was thoroughly in- 
 vestigated, with results somewhat surprising to the inhabi- 
 tants. In a clever little work written by Mr. Tovey it was 
 shown that, in 1613, "a lodge adjoining to the town wall, 
 near the Marsh " was given to the Corporation by Robert 
 Redwood, for the purpose of being converted into a library 
 for the use of the citizens. About 1628, Tobias Matthew, 
 Archbishop of York (sou of a local mercer, and born on 
 Bristol Bridge), gave a number of books "to the merchants 
 and shopkeepers of the city " — his intention to do so being 
 apparently known to the donor of the lodge ; and the store 
 of books received additions by a legacy of Redwood himself, 
 and by purchases of the Common Council. In 1636, Richard 
 Vickris, one of Redwood's executoi's, gave a piece of ground 
 for the enlargement of the building, and in 1740 a handsome 
 library was erected by the Corporation at a cost of over 
 £1,300, exclusive of the money paid for a further addition to 
 the site. Lastly, about 1,400 volumes of books were be- 
 queathed, in 1766, by Mr. John Heylyn, a relative of the 
 well-known Peter Heylyn, for the use of the citizens. The 
 foundation of a free public library had thus been laid when, 
 in 1772, a few iivfluential individuals resolved on starting a 
 " subscription library," and shortly afterwards petitioned the 
 Common Council for " the use of the Library House and of 
 the books therein deposited." That such a request should 
 be made was perhaps not so remarkable as the fact that the 
 Corporation, entirely ignoring the rights of the citizens, 
 handed over to the memorialists the building and its contents, 
 spent several hundred pounds in renovating the rooms and 
 removing some contiguous stables, and also undertook to pay
 
 334 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. [1853. 
 
 a portion of the librarian's salary out of the city purse. 
 Such pi'oceedings were, however, a natural outcome of the 
 old system of local government ; and all surprise at the civic 
 munificence ceases when it is discovered that several pro- 
 moters of the Library Society were also members of the 
 Common Council.* In 1784 the rooms were found insufficient 
 for the convenience of the members, whereupon the Common 
 Council granted an adjacent plot of ground at a rent of 
 2s. 5(7. per 3'ear, and made a donation of £100 to the fund 
 opened for building a western wing, which was finished in 
 the following year. The Corporation further undertook to 
 pay the whole of the national and local taxes on the library, 
 which was also insured from fire and kept in repair at the 
 expense of the city. Again, in 1814, when the society pro- 
 posed to erect a gallery in the western wing for the accom- 
 modation of their books, the Common Council subscribed a 
 moiety of the cost, £200. So entirely did the society consider 
 themselves owners of the property, that in 1826 they requested 
 the Corporation to permit them " to remove the city books 
 from the city shelves, in order to make room for books be- 
 longing to the society"; but although the citizens had been 
 practically excluded for many years from their own property, 
 the Common Council was offended at the impudence of the 
 demand, and the application was "laid on the table." In 
 1836, soon after the Council came into existence, Mr. C. B. 
 Fripp moved for a catalogue of the city books (which was 
 furnished), and followed this up by obtaining the appoint- 
 ment of a committee " to consider of the best means to be 
 pursued for rendering the library useful to the public." The 
 committee, however, never presented a report. Matters 
 remained in this state until 1848, when a memorial was ad- 
 dressed to thd Council by forty respectable citizens, culling 
 attention to the usurpation of public rights by a small body 
 of private persons, and asking that the books belonging to 
 the city should be made accessible. Nothing was, however, 
 done, and the subject again slumbered until the date at 
 wliich this record has arrived. The Librnj-y Society having 
 refused, as has been already stated, to co-operate with the 
 Council, Mr. Tovey and his supporters urged the latter body 
 to give the society notice to quit the premises in order that 
 
 • The socioty appears to have been worthy of its patrons. In a letter in the 
 Prhtolian for June 12,1^27, umlnubtcilly written by , JohruJiiiinR, the city 
 cbronoloKJHt, it is stated tlmt the nivnio of Dr. Ik'ddoGS, tIToniost (TTstinguiHlied 
 local sciciitiKt of liis aj^o, was "crossed out of tho list of members" of the 
 Library Socioty because ho was " not Blue enough."
 
 1853.] Hogarth's pictures, claim of tom provis. 335 
 
 thoy miglit bo convortod to their original purpose. The 
 Council unanimously adopted this suggestion in February, 
 1854, to the great indignation of the society, which threatened 
 for a time to hold possession of the building. At the close 
 of the year wiser counsels prevailed, and the property Avas 
 surrendered, the Corporation paying the society £030 for its 
 interest in the western wing. The society, leaving behind 
 them the books belonging to the city (about 2,000 volumes), 
 removed in August, 1855, to a wing of the Bishop's College, 
 at the top of Park Street. The old building was shortly 
 afterwards fitted up for its original purpose, and was opened 
 as a free library on the 15th September, 1856, Mr. George 
 Pryce, subsequently author of a "Popular History of Bristol^" 
 having been appointed librarian. By the gifts of various 
 citizens, and the energy of Mr. Pyrce, about 4,000 volumes 
 were soon after added to the shelves, and Mr. Robert Lang 
 presented a painting by Syer, in the hope that others would 
 follow his example. The development of free libraries in the 
 city will be recorded under 1873. 
 
 A faculty was granted in August, 1853, for extensive 
 alterations in All Saints' Church. Under the powers granted 
 by this document, the west front was rebuilt, a new western 
 entrance formed, the doorway in Corn Street converted into 
 a window, and tracery placed in other windows. Further 
 alterations were made a few years later, when the roof and 
 the capitals of the columns were decorated, with colour. 
 
 On the 20th August, the vestry of St. Mary Redcliff 
 announced by advertisement in the local journals that they 
 were desirous of receiving tenders for the purchase of the 
 three pictures by Hogarth which then hung in the church. 
 The result appears to have been unsatisfactory, as the paint- 
 ings remained in their accustomed places until the spring of 
 1858, when the vestry, at the suggestion of Alderman Px-octor, 
 offered them to the trustees of the Fine Arts Academy, on 
 the latter undertaking to preserve them carefully. The 
 pictures were shortly afterwai-ds removed from the church. 
 
 A singular case of fraud and deception, bearing resemblance 
 in many points to the more notorious imposture connected 
 with the Tichborne baronetcy, was tried at Gloucester assizes 
 on the 8th, 9th, and 10th August, and excited great interest. 
 The cause Avas in the nature of an action of ejectment, the 
 plaintiff, styling himself Sir Richard Hugh Smyth, baronet, 
 seeking to establish his claim to the title and estates of the 
 Smyth family of Long Ashton. His story was that, although 
 brought up as the child of one Provis, a carpenter, at War-
 
 336 THE AKNALS OF BRISTOL. [1853. 
 
 minster, lie was really the son of Sir Hugh Smyth by a lady 
 to whom the baronet was secretly married in Ireland in 1796. 
 He further alleged that soon after discovering this fact he 
 communicated it to Sir John Smyth, who had succeeded his 
 brother Hugh through supposed default of male issue, and 
 that Sir John had immediately acknowledged the justice of 
 his claim, but was so much prostrated by the prospect of 
 being deprived of title and wealth that he died suddenly 
 during the following night. Various documents were pro- 
 duced in support of the case, amongst them being a declara- 
 tion alleged to have been written by Sir Hugh, witnessed by 
 his brother John, and sealed with the family seal, in which 
 the plaintiff was acknowledged as legitimate heir to the 
 baronetcy and estates. To account for the long delay in 
 prosecuting his case, the claimant alleged that he had been 
 taken to the Continent by one of Sir Hugh's servants ; that 
 he had long believed that Sir John was his elder brother ; 
 and that subsequently he had no funds to carry on a costly 
 litigation. While under cross-examination, in which a huge 
 web of falsehood was being gradually torn to pieces, a 
 dramatic incident occurred. A telegraphic message was 
 brought into court addressed to the defendants' leading 
 counsel, Sir F. Thesiger, who, after perusing the missive, 
 asked the plaintiff whether he had not, in the preceding 
 January, ordered a London tradesman to engrave a crest 
 upon certain rings, and a name upon a broach — the rings 
 and broach in question being alleged family relics on which 
 much of the case rested. The rogue, whose face became 
 livid, stammered out an affirmative answei', whereupon his 
 counsel, Mr. Bovill, threw up his brief, and apologised to the 
 court for having believed in the imposture. The impudent 
 trickster was forthwith committed on charges of forgexy and 
 perjury. He had been, in early life, under his true name 
 of Thomas Provis, sentenced to death at Somerset assizes 
 for horse stealing; subsequently he had picked up a mean 
 livelihood as an itinerant lecturer, and by other less reput- 
 able avocations. He was tried and convicted of forgery at 
 Gloucestershire spring assizes in 18o4, and was sentenced 
 to twenty years' transportation, but died in a convict prison 
 in the following year. The defence against the action of 
 ejectment is said to have cost the Smyth trustees upwards 
 of £6,000. 
 
 A meeting was held on the 7th November, the bishop of 
 tlio diocese presiding, for the purpose of considering the 
 ])ropriety of converting the Diocesan School iu Nelson Street
 
 1854.] TRADE SCHOOL. BURIAL GROUNDS CLOSED. 337 
 
 into a Trade Scliool. It was stated that the Diocesan School 
 was established in 1812 for the purpose of educating poor 
 children in the princij^les of the Established Church, but that 
 owing to the springing up in subsequent years of schools in 
 the various parishes, the object of its promoters had been 
 attained in other ways, and it had ceased to be successful. 
 The Rev. Canon Moseley, soon after his appointment to the 
 cathedral, suggested -the desirability of converting the build- 
 ing into a Trade School, similar to those which had been 
 largely successful in Germany and other countries ; and his 
 proposal was sanctioned by the committee, subject to the 
 approval of the subscribers. Dr. Lyon Playfair, who attended 
 the meeting, congratulated the people of Bristol on l)eing 
 the first in England to contemplate the establishment of a 
 valuable institution. Resolutions authorising the remodellino- 
 of the school were adopted unanimously. The new institu- 
 tion was opened by Earl Granville, Lord President of the 
 Council, on the 28th March, 1856. His lordship, after being 
 entertained to breakfast at the Council House, presided at 
 a meeting held in the Merchants' Hall, where he expressed 
 the deep interest felt by the Government in the new enter- 
 prise. The development of this school into the Merchant 
 Venturers' School will be recorded hereafter. 
 
 A new church in Clifton, dedicated to St. Paul, was con- 
 secrated on the 8th November. The edifice, which was a 
 tasteless specimen of gothic architecture, and cost only 
 £4,000, had an ecclesiastical district assigned to it in October, 
 1859, by Order in Council. On the night of Sunday, the 
 15th December, 1867, the building, with the exception of 
 the tower, vestry, and porch, was destroyed by fire — probabl}'- 
 from the overheating of the flues. • The church, considerably 
 enlai'ged and improved, was rapidly rebuilt at a cost of about 
 £7,000, and was reconsecrated on the 29th September, 1868. 
 
 A letter from the Home Secretary's office was on the 18th 
 January, 1854, addressed to the churchwardens of each of 
 the ancient parishes of Bristol, announcing that Lord Palmer- 
 ston, under the powers of an Act passed in the previous 
 session, had resolved on recommending the Privy Council to 
 forbid interments in the crypts or burial grounds of their 
 respective churches. In addition to the parochial cemeteries, 
 the following were also closed : Francis's burial ground. 
 West Street ; Williams's burial ground, AVest Street ; 
 Thomas's burial ground, Clarence Place, Castle Street ; 
 Dolman's burial ground, Pennywell Street ; Howland's burial 
 ground, Newfoundland Street; Infirmaiy burial ground, 
 
 z
 
 338 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1854. 
 
 Jolinny Ball Lane ; Broadmead Chapel-yard, St. James's 
 parish. Burials were also prohibited in St. Joseph's (Roman 
 Catholic) chapel, Trenchard Street, and in Counterslip Baptist 
 chapel. In the following places one body only was to be 
 buried in each grave : Quakers' burial ground. Friars ; 
 Quakers' burial ground, Redcliff Pit ; Quakers' burial ground, 
 near the workhotise ; Jews' burial ground, St. Philip's Marsh; 
 Jews' burial ground. Temple parish. No burial was to take 
 place within five yards of the adjoining buildings in the 
 cemeteries of the cathedral, St. George's, Brandon Hill, Zion 
 Independent chapel, Portland Street Wesleyan chapel, and 
 St. Paul's, and in the three burial grounds in or near Red- 
 cross Street. 
 
 Some interest was excited about this time by an effort 
 made by the Society of Friends to avert the threatened war 
 between England and Russia by means of an appeal addressed 
 directly to the Czar. The persons selected to undertake 
 this novel mission were Mr. Robert Charleton, of Bristol, 
 Mr. Joseph Sturge, of Birmingham, and Mr. Henry Pease, 
 of Darlington. On being introduced to the Emperor, at St. 
 Petersburg, on the 10th February, the deputies presented 
 him with an address fi-om their society, urging the universal 
 application of Christ's commands on all who called them- 
 selves His followers. The address added that the signatories 
 had been induced to take this course '' by the many proofs 
 of condescension and Christian kindness manifested by thy 
 late illustrious brother, Alexander, as well as by thy honoured 
 mother, to some of our brethren in religious profession." 
 The deputation was treated with great distinction by the 
 Emperor, and was introduced to the Empress and the Grand 
 Duchess Olga. It is scarcely necessary to add that the 
 mission was a failure. 
 
 On the IGth March, Henry Charles, eighth Duke of 
 Beaufort, paid a visit to the city in order to take the oath 
 on accepting the office of Lord High Steward of Bristol, in 
 succession to his father, who had died a few months before. 
 The ceremony took place in the Council chamber. After 
 his grace liad been sworn in, and some complimentary 
 speeches liad boon delivered, the company adjoui-ned to 
 another aj)artment, where a collation had been prepared. 
 The tables were brilliantly decorated, and "a gigantic ship, 
 in sugar, ])laying in a sea of whipped cream," represented 
 one of the chief elements of local commerce. In October, 
 the meml)ers of the Corporation were invited to dine at 
 Badminton, where a party of seventy was served entirely
 
 1854.] THE COUNCIL AT KADMINTON. STAPLETON CHURCH. 339 
 
 Tipon silver. According to the Bristol Times, liowevor, the 
 guests were much irritated by their frigid reception, and one 
 of them, in a published letter, complained of the huge dish 
 of " cold shoulder " with which they had been regaled. The 
 duke Avas presented with the freedom of the Merchants' 
 Company, in a gold box, in the following November. 
 
 During the month of March, an old building standing upon 
 the Welsh Back, nearly opposite the entrance to King Street, 
 and known to all Bristolians by the name of the Goose Market, 
 was demolished by order of the Council, being an impediment 
 to trajSfic. It had been used in former times for the sale of 
 Welsh products arriving by sailing vessels, but the introduc- 
 tion of steamers had diverted trade into other directions. 
 
 An advertisement in the Bristol newspapers of the 1st 
 April announced that Pile Hill, consisting of nearly thirty 
 acres of freehold land, had been laid out for building pur- 
 poses. The offer did not meet with much attention until six 
 or eight years after this date, but several hundred dwellings 
 were eventually erected in the locality. 
 
 On the 26th April, the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol, 
 then residing at Stapletort Palace, addressed a letter to the 
 incumbent and churchwardens of that parish, undertaking to 
 rebuild at his own cost the parish church, then "mean in 
 structure and of inadequate capacity." Dr. Monk explained 
 that his motive in making the offer was to put an end to 
 chronic quarrels respecting pews, and to provide accommo- 
 dation for the poor. In order to insure the latter condition, 
 his lordship forbore from reserving- a seat for his own family. 
 The representatives of the lay impropriatoi-, Mr. J. H. Greville 
 Smyth, a minor, gave notice of their intention to oppose the 
 grant of a faculty for demolishing the old church, unless Mr. 
 Smyth's rights in the chancel, including the power of selling or 
 letting pews, were acknowledged. The difficulty was avoided 
 by allowing the old chancel to remain, but it was afterwards 
 rebuilt by Mr. Smyth's trustees. Amongst the last acts of 
 Bishop Monk (who died in June, 1856, before the consecration 
 of the church) was the gift of an organ and a clock to the 
 edifice, which cost him upwards of £5,000, and is probably 
 the most beautiful modern village church in the county. In 
 1870 Sir J, Greville Smyth, bai't., restored to the pai-ish the 
 great tithes, which had belonged to his family for many 
 generations, and which amounted to £250 a year. Half the 
 sum was reserved for the ecclesiastical district of Fishponds^ 
 part of the ancient parish of Stapleton. 
 
 The once celebrated coaching-house, the Bush Hotel,
 
 340 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1854. 
 
 Corn Street; was ordered to be demolislied iu May, to make 
 way for tlie new West of England Bank. Whilst the work- 
 men were removing the flooring of one of the large rooms, 
 they discovered a canvassing card of Henry Cruger, printed 
 during the contest of 1781, in which that gentleman appealed 
 for support as "'a zealous Promoter of Trade, Peace, and 
 Harmony between Great Britain and America." 
 
 About the end of August, the Rev. Robert H. Miles, rector 
 of Bingham, Nottingham, and fourth son of the late Mr. 
 P. J. Miles, of Leig h Court, purchased a piece of ground 
 fronting the new course of ^e Avon, for the purpose of erect- 
 ing a church — which the founder intended for the use of 
 seamen frequenting the port — and also an almshouse for 
 sailors' widows. The buildings were completed and the 
 church opened in May, 1859. From the outset the religious 
 services were characterised by an ornateness and ceremonial 
 previously unknown in the city ; and in the course of a few 
 months the church became the recognised centre of fashion- 
 able '^ ritualists," the seamen for whom the building was 
 designedHBeing conspicuous from their absence. In 1865 it 
 was announced that a series of pictures, representing the 
 Roman Catholic legend of the " Stations of the Cross," had 
 been placed in the building, and at a later period a wax- 
 work representation of the Holy Family in the stable at 
 Bethlehem was set up during the Christmas festival. In 
 1877 Bishop Ellicott repeatedly urged the chaplain, the Rev. 
 j A. H. Ward, to abandon the illegal practices which he had 
 ^' adopiod^n the celebration of the Communion; but the 
 reverend gentleman replied that he could not conscientiously 
 make any alteration in the services. In March, 1878, the 
 bishop consequently revoked Mr. Ward's licence, and the 
 church, which had never been consecrated, was thenceforth 
 closed. 
 
 Another visitation of cholera occurred during the month of 
 October, 1854, but the ravages of the disease were, as com- 
 pared with former occasions, limited. Amongst the victims 
 was Robert Evans, LL.D., D.C.L., the first headmaster of the 
 reorgantsed'GramTnTrr 'School, which, through his learning 
 and ability, had be(>n already raised to great estimation. He 
 was succooded by Mr. C. T. Hiidson, who had held the post 
 of second master. 
 
 "In October, 1854, the first mission to that most hopeless 
 of all hopeless countries, Patagonia and the Tiorra del Fucgo, 
 aail(!d from the port of Bristol, in the schooner called tlio 
 Allen Gardiner, commanded by the gallant and zealous
 
 1854.] THE WAR, PARISH CLERKS AND '^ THREE DECKERS." 341 
 
 captain of tliat name, whose melanclioly fate, and that of his 
 crew, off that inhospitable coast, in the following year, filled 
 the minds of many Christians with the greatest grief. Yet, 
 notwithstanding the sad casualty which befell the captain and 
 crew, entitling them to a place on the list of martyrs for the 
 cause of religion, the little vessel, having been rescued and 
 brought home to England, and lengthened and refitted at 
 Bristol, has found another captain and crew ready to under- 
 take the responsibilities of this dangerous but gloi-ious enter- 
 prise, and is again (1862) about to sail for her destination." * 
 
 Consequent upon the outbreak of war Avith Russia, a meet- 
 ing of citizens was held in the Guildhall on the 20th Novem- 
 ber, in support of the Patriotic Fund, established under a 
 Royal Commission, for the relief of the families of soldiers and 
 sailors who should fall during the conflict. The total amount 
 collected in the city was £9,990. At a later period of the 
 war, when the deficiency of the transport service in the 
 Crimea had caused deplorable results, steps were taken for 
 the creation of a Land Transport corps, of which Bristol 
 became the headquarters. The barracks at Horfield being 
 inadequate for their accommodation, many hundreds of the 
 reci'uits, drawn from the lowest classes, were billeted upon 
 the innkeepers ; and great complaints were made as to their 
 disorderly conduct. The corps was reorganised and removed 
 from Bristol on the return of peace. 
 
 In December, the Rev. George Madan , vicar of St. Mary 
 Redcliff, a member of what was called the Puseyite party 
 amongst the clergy, made several alterations in the service 
 of his church. Amongst other innovations, he practically 
 suppressed the parish clerk, and appealed to his parishioners 
 to personally perform the part of the service that was set 
 down for them in the Common Prayer Book. It may be now 
 necessary to explain that, until about the middle of the 
 century, in Bristol as elsewhere, the morning and evening 
 services were simply dualistic performances reserved to the 
 minister and his clerk, the congregations being practically 
 silent, and that in most churches there was a monstrous 
 edifice, known as a " three decker," the lowest stage of which 
 was occupied by the clerk, whilst the second was used by 
 the clergyman during' prayers, and the sermon was preached 
 from the summit. Mr. Madan's innovation gave much offence 
 to old-fashioned people. But in July, 1856, when the parish 
 clerkship of St. Nicholas became vacant, the vicai'. Canon 
 
 * " Gloucestershire Achievements," by the Eev. S. Lysons, p. 13.
 
 342 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. [1855. 
 
 Girdlestone, anard ent Low Chu rclimaii, followed the example 
 of Ins^colleagueni Redcliff ; and as it was no longer possible 
 to brand the system as ^^ Tractarian," it eventually came into 
 favour amongst churchgoers generally, and the parish clerks, 
 with the 'Hhree deckers/' gradually disappeared. Whilst 
 Canon Girdlestone's action was still the subject of criticism, 
 the Bristol Times stated (August 30, 1856) that when the 
 Rev. J. H. Woodward [see page 321] was appointed to St. 
 James's, he nominated his brother-in-law to the clerkship of 
 the parish, and that the emoluments of the office, about £100 
 a year, after paying a small salary to a deputy, were received 
 by Mr. Woodward. This arrangement, it was added, still 
 continued, although Mr. Woodward had resigned the living 
 on joining the Romish Church. 
 
 At the usual New Year's Day meeting of the Council in 
 1855, great complaint was made by some of the Liberal 
 members at the strong political colour given to the various 
 committees by those who privately framed the lists for the 
 Conservative majority. It was pointed out that on the 
 Finance Committee there were fifteen of one party and only 
 four of the other ; on the Improvement Committee the pro- 
 portion was fourteen to four; on the Docks Committee, eight 
 to four ; on the Watch Committee thirteen to seven, and on 
 the Parliamentary Committee seven to two. ''It was now," 
 said Mr. Cole, " only for a Liberal to displace a Conservative 
 councillor, and the latter was immediately made an alderman, 
 or placed in some other post of honour." It was alleged that 
 one gentleman, whose high character and business habits were 
 unquestioned, was a councillor for six or seven years before he 
 was admitted upon any committee ; whilst some aldermen, 
 who did not enter the Council House for a year together, 
 were placed on three or four important committees. In reply 
 it was contended that the object of the majority was not to 
 select political partisans, but men who were considered to be 
 best qualified for the duties. The elections were then pro- 
 ceeded with, when the old arrangement was maintained. 
 Owing to renewed coin])laints on the subject, however, the 
 ruling party promised that two or three gentknnen from each 
 side of the chamber should thenceforth meet pi-evious to the 
 annual election of committees, with a view to effecting 
 arrangements satisfactory to both parti(^s. 
 
 On the morning of the 20th MarcOi, the iron bridge 
 spanning tlie new course of the Avon near the railway 
 terminus was totally destroyed by a Cardiff steam barge. 
 The vessel had conveyed a cargo of coko to the railway
 
 1855.] SNEYD PARK. A GLIMPSE OF OLD CLIFTON. 343 
 
 works, and was returning down the river, in whicli there was 
 a strong current, when through unskilful management it 
 struck the ribs of the bridge with great violence. The effect 
 was instantaneous, the structure collapsing, according to the 
 expression of an eyewitness, like a child's house of cards. 
 Not a vestige was left standing, and the carts and passengers 
 crossing at the time were flung into the river. Two persons 
 lost their lives, one being a wagoner whose cart was found 
 next day below Rownham. A ferry was established during 
 the rebuilding of the bridge, which was sufficiently advanced 
 on the 5th June to admit of the transit of foot passengers. 
 The new structure cost about £5,700. [See page 27.] 
 
 During the month of April, Mr. William Baker, a Bristol 
 builder, purchased an estate at Sneyd Park for the purpose 
 of erecting a superior class of villas on the picturesque site. 
 The editor of the Bristol Times, in commenting on the in- 
 tended new suburb on the 28th April, indulged in some re- 
 miniscences of which lapse of time has increased the interest. 
 " Many living," he remarked, " have made hay in Caledonia 
 Place and the Mall. Most of my readers could have done 
 the same not long since in Clifton Park, The little farm- 
 house where they sell fresh butter, near Litfield Place, will be 
 soon shut out of sight by a cordon of domestic palaces. It 
 seems but as yesterday that the Victoria Rooms and another 
 building were the only edifices in that direction north of 
 Berkeley Square; and the fanciful will, in a few years, amuse 
 themselves with wondering how things looked when a boy 
 was brought before the magistrates for ingeniously milking 
 a cow in Tyndall's Park into a pair of new boots which he 
 was taking home to his master, as we now smile over the 
 entries in the vestry books of Clifton of sums paid for killing 
 hedgehogs that infested the market gardens of Victoria 
 Square. But we need not travel so far out of town for 
 examples of the march of masons. On the left-hand side as 
 you enter Tyndall's Park from St. Michael's Hill, there is 
 a garden tower [still standing] . That which now barely 
 shows its head above the adjacent houses was the country 
 seat of a Bristol merchant of hospitable memory — Alderman 
 Muggleworth, who, within the recollection of one not long 
 dead, left his city residence in Lewin's Mead when ' the dog 
 star burned,' and travelled to his villa by the pleasant park, 
 there to abide until the late autumn made his mansion by the 
 Froom more tolerable and temperate." The population of 
 the new suburb having soon become considerable, arrange- 
 ments were made for forming the locality into an ecclesiastical
 
 o44 THE ANNALS OF BKISTOL. [1855. 
 
 district ; and tlie cliurcli of St. Mary's, the site of wliicli was 
 given by Mr. Baker, was consecrated on tlie 12tli March, 
 1860. The building-, which cost aboiit £2,300, was consider- 
 ably enlarged about the end of 1871, at a further expendi- 
 ture of £3,000. 
 
 St. Clement's Church, Newfoundland Road, was consecrated 
 
 on the 2-lth April, and an ecclesiastical district was allotted 
 
 to it in the following June, by an Order in Council. The 
 
 church, which originally cost £2,000, underwent extensive 
 
 •alterations in 1871, 
 
 Arley Chapel, Cheltenham Road, built by the Congrega- 
 tional body at a cost of upwards of £4,000, was opened in 
 June, when the inaugural sermon was preached by the Rev. 
 J. Ang ell Jame s. This was the last dissenting- chapel of any 
 importance erected in the city in the Italian style, the later 
 constructions being of a mediseval type. 
 
 The tower known as Cook's Folly, with the neighbouring 
 woods, and a small public house which had been for many 
 years a popular resort, were purchased about the beginning 
 of July by Captain H. Goodeve, who subsequently erected a 
 private mansion adjoining the " Folly." The tavern, known 
 as the Folly Cottage, was closed about 1859. [On August 
 18, 1855, a little girl named Melinda Payne, living in one of 
 the cottages which then stood on the right bank of the Avon, 
 near the ravine, was sent by her father to this house for some 
 beer, and was murdered whilst returning homewards. The 
 perpetrator of the deed was never discovered.] 
 
 On the 24tli July, the body of Field-Marshal Lord Raglan, 
 who had died in the Ci'imea whilst in command of the British 
 forces before Sebastopol, arrived in Cumberland Basin in the 
 naval steamer Caradoc. Two of his lordship's brothers hav- 
 ing been interred in the cathedral, it was expected that the 
 remains would be deposited in the same building ; but the 
 Duke of Beaufort gave directions that the burial should take 
 place in the family vault at Badminton. Great preparations 
 had been made in the city to render fitting honour to the 
 memory of tlio distinguished soldier. On the morning of the 
 25th, the colHn was transferred from the Caradoc to a small 
 8team])oat, on whicli a ])latform covered with black velvet, 
 surmounted by a canoi)y of the same material, had been 
 raised for its rcco])tion. On the coffin were placed the 
 coronet, svvord, and luit of the deceased, whili* his lordship's 
 aides-de-camp and a number of artillerymen were ranged on 
 each side. Upon the vessel entering the harbour, forty-two 
 boats, chiefly contributed by the mercluint vessels in the
 
 1855.] FUNERAL OF LORD RAGLAN. 345 
 
 port, each bearing a mourning flag, and witli crews appro- 
 priately attired, were divided into two lines^ and formed a 
 guard on each side of the steamer. In this order the pro- 
 cession made its way to the Quay head, Avhere the goods 
 sheds were draped with black cloth and feathers for the 
 reception of the body. At this point were assembled the 
 mayor (Mr. J. G. Shaw), the sheriff, and many members of 
 the Corporation, together with great numbers of the leading 
 citizens, and the children of the public schools. The cofhn 
 having been placed in a hearse, amidst the firing of minute 
 guns by a battery of artillery and the tolling of the city bells, 
 a procession was formed, headed by the Gloucestershire 
 Yeomanry and the band of the 15th Hussars, and attended 
 by a guard of honour of the Royal Horse Guards. The 
 mourning coaches containing members of the deceased's 
 family were followed by the pensioners of the district, a 
 detachment of the Land Transport corps, a troop of artillery, 
 the officers of the Corporation, the carriages of the mayor 
 and of many members of the Council, and those of the 
 members of the Merchants' Society, and finally a lengthy 
 procession of pedestrians, including the clergy, ministers, 
 citizens, and members of friendly societies. Many of the 
 houses along the line of march were hung with crape, black 
 cloth, or wreaths of laurel, some bearing flags or mourning 
 tablets with appropriate inscriptions. Altogether the spec- 
 tacle was one of an unexampled character in the city, and 
 the good taste and public spirit which marked the proceedings 
 evoked sympathetic admiration in all parts of the country. 
 
 St. Peter's Church, Clifton Wood, was consecrated on the 
 10th August. The edifice had been originally built by the 
 Wesleyans, who opened it for Divine worship in November, 
 1833. In consequence of the largely increased population of 
 the district, the accommodation of this church became in- 
 suflScient, and a large, lofty, and ornate Gothic edifice was 
 constructed on an adjoining site at a cost of £6,000, and was 
 consecrated in September, 1882. In the following year the 
 old building was bought by the Corporation for conversion 
 into a free library. 
 
 In September, 1855, while repairs were being made in the 
 house No. 10, College Green, then standing between the 
 abbey gateway and the cathedral, and occupied by Canon 
 Bankes, the workmen discovered portions of a Decorated 
 shaft, some arch moulding, and a portion of a turret staircase. 
 These relics were supposed to have formed part of the north- 
 western tower of the nave which Abbot Newland intended to
 
 346 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1855. 
 
 construct in the same style as his choir. The house has 
 since been demolished. 
 
 Down to this period the pauper lunatics of the city had 
 been maintained in St. Peter's Hospital, although the suita- 
 bility of that locality for such a purpose had long been 
 questioned. In the course of this year, after receiving re- 
 ports from official inspectors, the Government insisted upon 
 the construction of a lunatic asylum in the suburbs. As the 
 cost of the building threatened to make a heavy addition 
 to the rates, opposition to the ministerial order was very 
 generally manifested. But unfortunately the local authori- 
 ties were unable to agree upon a plan which would avert the 
 necessity of a new building. The guardians proposed that 
 the paupers at Stapleton should be brought back to St. 
 Peter's, and the lunatics sent to the vacated workhouse. 
 The Council — which, under a new Lunacy Act, had in Janu- 
 ary, 1854, taken upon itself the duty of managing the lunatic 
 asylum, previously imposed on the magistrates — contended 
 that the paupers remaining in the establishment in Peter 
 Street should be removed to Stapleton, so that additional 
 room might be at disposal for the lunatics. But the Poor 
 Law autTiorities set their faces against both suggestions. 
 In the closing months of the year, the Council, the Board of 
 Guardians, and the Chamber of Commerce severally passed 
 resolutions deprecating a large expenditure for a new asylum, 
 and meetings were held in the wards at which motions to a 
 similar effect were carried almost unanimously. Deputations 
 representing the Corporation and the citizens shortly after- 
 wards, had an interview with the Poor Law Board, and asked 
 that permission should be granted to alienate part of the 
 workhouse premises at Stapleton, so as to build an asylum 
 thereon. To this the Board refused its assent, nor would it 
 sanction the conversion of a portion of the workhouse into an 
 asylum. A couimittee of the Council was therefore appointed 
 to obtain offers of sites and estimates; and in i\larch, 1857, 
 a report was adopted recommending the purchase of 24 
 acres of ground at Stapleton, and tlie erection of an asylum 
 tlusre at a total estimated expenditure of £30,000. The 
 building, which actually cost upwards of £40,000, but was 
 said to bo the model asylum of the cotnitry, was finished in 
 February, 18(51, when it received 113 lunatics from St. 
 Peter's Hospital. In 1875-7, owing to the increased number 
 of lunatics, the asylum was enlarged at a cost of £22,000. A 
 chapel was built a few years later, at an outlay of £3,000. 
 In 1885 it was r(>p()rted to tlie Council that the asylum,
 
 1855,] LUNATIC ASYLUM. GIFT TO MR. BERKELEY^ M.P. 347 
 
 though capable of accommodating 430 patients, had become 
 seriously insufficient for its purpose, and that it was advisable 
 to make additions so as to provide for a total number of 070 
 lunatics. The expense was estimated at o€6,140 for land, 
 and no less a sum than £59,535 for buildings. The Council 
 deferred the consideration of the subject, in order to enable 
 the committee to submit an approximate estimate of the cost 
 of a new site that would permit the erection of an asylum 
 capable of meeting all demands for fifty years. On the 1st 
 June, 1886, the committee reported that in their opinion the 
 most economical course would be to carry out their pi'cvious 
 proposal, and the Council accordingly authorised the Finance 
 Committee to raise the sum of £65,675 by mortgage, for the 
 execution of the works. 
 
 In the session of 1854, the advocates of a strict observance 
 of the Lord's Day, supported by the teetotalers, succeeded in 
 obtaining the consent of Parliament to a measure by which 
 public houses were almost entirely closed on Sundays. The 
 operation of the new law having caused disturbances in 
 London, and much discontent amongst the working classes 
 generally, Mr. Berkeley, M.P., in the session of 1855, 
 obtained a select committee to inquire into the working of 
 the statute. The committee almost unanimously reported 
 that its provisions were too rigorous, having regard to the 
 wants and feelings of the labouring community; and Mr. 
 Berkeley thereupon introduced and secured the enactment of 
 a Bill by which the restrictions were relaxed. His action 
 excited much irritation amongst the advocates of total 
 abstinence ; and their organ, the AUlance, then noted for its 
 intemperance of language, published a series of articles in 
 which the senior member for Bristol was charged with gross 
 corruption, collusive conduct, and perjury. Mr. Berkeley 
 thereupon raised an action for libel ; but when the case came 
 on for trial, in February, 1856, the defendants made an 
 apology for statements they admitted to be false, consented 
 to a verdict against them of five guineas, and undertook to 
 pay the costs, estimated at nearly £1,000. In the meantime 
 a movement had been started for raising a national sub- 
 scription to recognise Mr. Berkeley's legislative exertions on 
 the subject; and on the 24th September, 1856, he was pre- 
 sented at the Athenaeum with a silver salver, a carved and 
 ornamented casket, and a purse, the whole representing an 
 offering of £1,012, contributed by about 14,000 persons 
 throughout the country. The casket was made from an oak 
 beam taken from the old north porch of St. Mary Redcliff,
 
 348 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. [1856. 
 
 and was enriched witli some large and lustrous specimens of 
 Bristol diamonds. 
 
 During the autumn of 1855 the upper part of Queen Street 
 (Christmas Steps) was widened by the removal of some old 
 buildings on the eastern side, and the stairs were made much 
 more convenient to passengers. 
 
 After an existence of twenty-two years, the Bristol Agri- 
 cultural Society, having lost many of its early and more 
 liberal supporters, and failing to meet with adequate assist- 
 ance from a new generation, was dissolved on the 12th 
 December. 
 
 In the spring of 1856 the gunboats Earnest, Escort, Hardy, 
 Havoc, and Highlander were constructed at Bristol for the 
 Royal Navy by the shipbuilding firms of Patterson & Son, 
 and Hill & Sons. These vessels formed part of a large fleet 
 of gunboats hurriedly ordered by the Government during 
 the Russian war, and built in all the leading ports of the 
 kingdom. A few years afterwards the condition of the 
 vessels was the subject of a discussion in the House of Com- 
 mons ; and on inquiry it appeared that, with the exception of 
 the Bristol boats and a few others, the builders had com- 
 mitted gross frauds in construction, and that a number of the 
 vessels Avere utterly rotten and worthless. 
 
 According to a local newspaper of the 8th March, 1856, a 
 joint-stock company, under the new Limited Liability Act, 
 was then in contemplation " for raising passengers and goods 
 from the low levels of some parts of Bristol to the more ele- 
 vated portions of Clifton by machinery." Suggestions of a 
 fixed engine at the top of Park Street, for drawing up wagons 
 and heavily laden carts, were frequently started before the 
 construction of Colston Street and Perry Road. 
 
 The BrhUd Gazette of the 12th I\farch announced, to the 
 great surprise of the city, that a defalcation of upwards of 
 £4,000 had been discovered in the accounts of the treasurer 
 of the Corporation, Mr. Thomas Garrard, who had been for 
 fifty-fr)ur years in tlie civic service. The deficiency was acci- 
 dentally brought to light whilst Mr. Garrard was temporarily 
 disabled b}' illness from attending to his duties. The sum 
 was more than covered by the guarantees of the treasurer's 
 sureties, who were themselves secured by life assurances. 
 Tlio defalcation was stated to have arisen from advances 
 made by Mr. Garrard to retrieve a relative from commercial 
 difficulties. It was understood that his successor, Mr. John 
 Harford, allowed him a handsome yearly sum during the 
 remainder of his life.
 
 185G.] PEACE WITH RUSSIA. THE QUEEN IN BRISTOL. 349 
 
 On tlio 30t]i April the ceremony of proclaiming peace willi 
 Russia took place amidst formal demonstrations of joy. The 
 mayor (Mr. J. Vining), the sheriff, and other corporate offi- 
 cials, with the boys of Colston's and the City schools, assem- 
 bled at the Council House, from the steps of which the 
 proclamation was first made at noon, after a blast from the 
 city trumpets and a peal from the neighbouring church bells. 
 Proclamation was afterwards made in the quadrangle of the 
 Exchange, the centre of Queen Square, Bristol Bridge, St. 
 Peter's Pump, and the Old Market. As the terms wrested 
 from Russia were by many people deemed inadequate, the pro- 
 ceedings did not evoke any marked enthusiasm. The same 
 may be said of the day fixed for a national celebration of the 
 peace — the 28th May. No preparations were made to do hon- 
 our to the occasion, which had little other character than that 
 of a listless holiday. A writer in the local press remarked : 
 " Some guns were fired from ships, and pistols popped off 
 in obscure corners, and men stood at the doors of jthe Commer- 
 cial Rooms, as usual, abusing Bristol for want of spirit, and, 
 as usual, they themselves, though items of this much abused 
 Bristol, doing nothing." In the evening, a few gas-lit crowns, 
 royal cyphers, etc., were exhibited on the public buildings, 
 but tlie private illuminations were few and insignificant. 
 
 Upon the death, on the 6th June, of Dr. Monk, the first 
 bishop of the united sees of Gloucester and Bristol, efforts 
 were made in various parts of the two dioceses to obtain their 
 separation. Lord Palmerston's Ministry, however, declined 
 to propose any legislative measure for that purpose ; and 
 D r. Ba rjup^ Rector of Limpsfield, Surrey, was soon after 
 named Dr. Monk's successor. The alienation of the palace at 
 Stapleton at this juncture has been already recorded [p. 228] . 
 
 TheQueen, accompanied by the Prince Consort, the Prince 
 of Wales, and her younger children, passed through Bristol 
 on August 15th on her way from Plymouth to Osborne. The 
 royal party remained twenty minutes in the refreshment 
 room of the railway station, which had been hurriedly de- 
 corated, tidings of the visit having been received on the 
 previous evening. In the autumn the Prince of Wales made 
 an incognito tour in the West of England, in the course of 
 which, on the 5th October, he attended service at Bristol 
 cathedral. Presumably from no fee having been forthcom- 
 ing,"^ the sub-sacrist conducted the stranger to a bench in one 
 
 * The greediness of cathedral underlings has always been notorious. A 
 Bristol sub-sacrist, who died whilst Sydney Smith was one of the prebendaries,
 
 350 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1856. 
 
 of the aisles^ where tlae lieir apparent remained tlirougliout 
 the service. In April, 1858, the Prince again paid a brief 
 visit to the city. Having left his yacht at Kingroad, he was 
 rowed np the river, and landed at Rownhani, whence he 
 proceeded in a public cab to the railway station, but stopped 
 at the cathedral on his way, for the purpose of inspecting the 
 Chapter House. 
 
 The first annual Conference of the National Reformatory 
 Union was held in Bristol — one of the earliest centres of the 
 reformatory movement^ — on the 20th August and two follow- 
 ing days. Amongst the many distinguished persons present 
 were Lord Robert Cecil (now Marquis of Salisbury), Lord 
 Stanley (now Earl of Derby), Sir Stafford Northcote (Earl 
 of Iddesleigh), Sir John Pakington (Lord Hampton), Mr. 
 Adderley (Lord Norton), etc. Visits were paid to the local 
 reformatories at Arno's Court, Kingswood, St. James's Back, 
 Pennywell Lane, and Hardwicke. 
 
 The primary schools existing in the city at this time being 
 greatly below the needs of the population, many thousands 
 of poor children grew up uninstructed, and frequently re- 
 venged themselves on society for its shortsighted indifference. 
 At the Michaelmas quarter sessions of 1856, Mr. J. Naish 
 .Sanders, one of the magistrates, made some remarks before 
 the recorder which afford a glimpse of the habits of the class 
 in question. " Bristol," he said, " has the unenviable repu- 
 tation of having within her walls one of the most disorderly 
 set of youths in England. Stones are continually thrown by 
 boys in our public thoroughfares, owing to which many lives 
 have been lost — five at least in Clifton parish only. Orna- 
 mental plantations, so placed as to benefit the public, are 
 constantly injured, and even the branches carried away for 
 firewood. Young thieves assemble in gangs at each end of 
 Park Street, professedly to drag wheels, but really for worse 
 purposes, as proved in many cases. If the police or private 
 individuals comphiin, they are assailed in gross and indecent 
 language, revolting to all, and especially to females." Some 
 regret was expressed by the bench at the uncultivated con- 
 dition of the youth of the lower classes, but the authorities 
 felt themselves impotent, and the matter was suffered to drop. 
 
 was fiiiid to have lioardcd £20.000, causing tho witty cleric to observe that he 
 at length understood the full force of tho text : " I had rather be a doorkeeper in 
 the house," etc. [The text is inscribed upon the tomb of a verger in Salisbury 
 cathedral.] At a (juito recent date, it was publiely stated that one of the Eng- 
 lish bishops had been treated with indignity in liristol cathedral for having 
 presumed to look at some of tho monuments without being " guided " by the 
 oflicials.
 
 1857.] BRISTOL GUARDIANS AND THE POOR LAW BOARD. 351 
 
 It lias been already stated tliat the Bristol Incorporation 
 of tlie Poor was, with a few others, exempted from the super- 
 vision of the Poor Law Board constituted by the great Act 
 of 1834. In 1844 an amending statute was passed, em- 
 powering the central authorities to combine unions into dis- 
 tricts for the audit of accounts, thus striking a mortal blow 
 at the financial independence of the privileged bodies. 
 Armed with this Act, the Board soon after issued an order 
 for forming an audit district embracing Bristol and several 
 Somerset unions. The Bristol guardians for some time 
 offered a passive resistance to this measure, and nothing was 
 done for two years. But in September, 184G, the Poor Law 
 Commissioners gave peremptory directions that the local 
 accounts should be revised by the official auditor of the dis- 
 trict ; and as the guardians refused to submit their books to 
 his inspection, the Government officials in February, 1849, 
 applied for and obtained a mandaviiis from the Court of 
 Queen's Bench. The defendants, in no wise subdued, ap- 
 pealed to the Court of Error, by which in February, 1850, 
 the action of the court below was affirmed. Although beaten 
 on the point of law, the guardians continued, to maintain that 
 they had a right to administer relief in accordance with the 
 bye-laws made under their private Act ; and though their 
 allowances were greatly at variance with the scale fixed by' 
 the central authorities, the contest on this subject was con- 
 tinued for several years. At length, in the closing months 
 of 1856, the members of the recalcitrant corporation were 
 threatened with legal proceedings for the recovery of £23,157, 
 illegally distributed in relief in defiance of the regulations, 
 and. were warned that the '^ surcharge " would be recovered, 
 by levies upon them individually. It was now felt that no 
 other course remained but to accept defeat. On the 8th Janu- 
 ary, 1857, the local bye-laws were repealed, and the "con- 
 solidated order " of the central board was adopted in their 
 place. The effect of this resolution was to terminate, for all 
 practical purposes, the existence of the ancient " Incorpora- 
 tion of the Poor," which now became an ordinary board of 
 guardians. The ancient mode of election was, however, 
 maintained. The last governor under the old system was 
 .Dr. Georgfi__K»gers. The first chairman under the new 
 regime — ]\(Jj:^__Elisha_Smith Robinson — was elected on the 
 16th January, 1857! Tlie~~latter gentleman, in a speech 
 delivered March 2nd, 1860, asserted that the saving to the 
 ratepayers brought about by the reorganisation of the union 
 was not less than £4,000 a year — a fact which the public
 
 352 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1857. 
 
 apparently regarded as outweigliing tlie old-fasliioned guar- 
 dians' anathemas against centralisation^ opjjression, and red 
 tape. It may be worth while to add that, in spite of the 
 increase of population in the city, and the tendency of the 
 poorest class to flow into the central parishes, the expenditure 
 of the board, in respect both to management and relief, has 
 remained stationary. In the year ending March, 1858, the 
 total charge Avas within a few pounds of £31,000. In the 
 twelvemonth ending March, 1886, the outlay was £30,480. 
 As the rateable value of the ancient city had in the mean- 
 time increased considerably more than 50 per cent., the rates 
 had of course diminished in a corresponding proportion. 
 
 After having remained vacant upwards of two years, the 
 Roman Catholic bishopi'ic of Clifton was conferred, in the 
 spring of 1857, on the Hon. and Rev. William Clifford, in 
 whose hands it still remains. ' "^ 
 
 At the general election in March, the members for the city 
 in the previous Parliament, Messrs. Berkeley and Langton, 
 were returned without opposition — an incident Avhich had 
 not occurred in Bristol for fifty years, with the exception of 
 the abnormal election of 1831. The dissolution had been 
 caused by a defeat of Lord Palmerston's Ministry, through a 
 coalition of Conservatives with what was called the Man- 
 chester school. The conduct of their leaders gave so much 
 umbrage to many local Tories of influence that a contest was 
 found to be impracticable. 
 
 Owing to the confusion arising from the diversified names of 
 ''places," "terraces," etc., in the chief suburban thorough- 
 fares, the Council, in April, resolved upon the following no- 
 menclature : Queen's Road (from the top of Park Street 
 to Victoria Square) ; Clifton Road (from Victoria Square to 
 Clifton turnpike-gate — now the site of Alderman Proctor's 
 fountain) ; Whiteladies Road (from the Queen's Hotel to the 
 Pound, Durdham Down) ; Redland Road (from the Pound 
 just mentioned to Cutler's Mills) ; Stokes Croft Road (from 
 North Street to Cutler's Mills) ; Cotham Road (from White- 
 ladies-gate, junction of roads, to Cutler's ^lills) ; Hotwell Road 
 (from the White Hart, Limekiln Lane, to Clifton Gate). 
 Limekiln Lane had its name changed to St. George's Road 
 in June, 1 802. 
 
 On the 18th June, at a meeting liold in the Commercial 
 Rooms, Mr. Jose, master of the Merchants' Society, in the 
 chair, resolutions were passed approving of the scheme laid 
 before those present by M. do Tjessejis for the construction 
 of tlie Suez canal, " being of opinion that it is of the greatest
 
 1857.] CLIFTON CLUB. THE RUSSIAN GUNS, 353 
 
 importance to the coiuraerce of the whole world." A few 
 days later, in the House of Commons, Mr. Berkeley asked the 
 Ministry if it would support the undertaking, to which Lord 
 Palmerston answered emphatically in the negative, declaring 
 that the project was hostile to English interests. 
 
 On the 24th of June a portion of the premises in the Mall, 
 Clifton, which at a previous period had been known as the 
 Royal Hotel (closed early in 1854-), was opened as a club- 
 house, under the name of the Clifton Subscription Rooms. 
 The remainder of the hotel premises was converted into 
 shops and dwelling houses. The cost of the conversion was 
 upwards of £4,000, In March, 1882, the association was 
 reorganised, and the property transferred to a new company, 
 with a capital of £12,000 in £75 shares, each holder of a £60 
 share in the original concern receiving a fully paid-up share. 
 
 The Council resolved, in July, to arch over the Froom from 
 St, John's Bridge to the Stone Bridge, and to devote the 
 space so obtained to the construction of a public street. The 
 new thoroughfare, which was subsequently named Rupert 
 Street, was recommended to the Council as the first instalment 
 of a new line of road from the centre of the city to Stokes 
 Croft, In July, 1859, the Council voted £2,000 for covering 
 the Froom between Union Street and Merchant Street, the 
 roadway constructed upon the site being styled Fairfax Street. 
 In 1867 the sum of £2,650 was granted for covering the last 
 open part of the Froom in the central districts — from St. 
 John's Bridge to Bridewell. Finally, in 1880, almost the 
 only remaining uncovered portion of this river within the 
 city boundaries, near Haberfield Street, was also ordered to 
 be arched over. 
 
 Soon after the arrival in this country of the Russian war 
 material captured at Sebastopol and other places, some pro- 
 vincial corporation with decorative tastes applied to the 
 Government for one or two of the cannons, proposing to 
 mount them in a conspicuous position as lasting trophies of 
 English valour. The application having been successful, a 
 great number of municipalities followed the example — some 
 of the local bodies being not a little puzzled how to dispose 
 of the prize when it came into their possession. Amongst 
 the rest, a request was addressed to the war minister by the 
 Corporation of Bristol, and at once met with a favourable 
 response, two cannons, thirty-six pounders, nine feet in 
 length, and each weighing three tons, being despatched from 
 Woolwich, together with carriages — the latter being paid for 
 by the city. On the 19th August the guns were conveyed 
 
 A A
 
 354 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1857. 
 
 from the railway station by a party of tlie Military Train 
 (originally tlie Land Transport corps) througli the principal 
 streets to Brandon Hill. Great crowds lined the route^ and 
 the spectacle was of an animated character. In the rear of 
 Berkeley Square a portion of the wall had to be broken down 
 to allow the cavalcade to pass ; and as the eight horses 
 attached to each gun were unable to drag it to the summit of 
 the hill, the populace lent enthusiastic assistance, the task 
 being soon accomplished by main force. The proceedings 
 terminated with patriotic and congratulatory speeches. 
 
 A murder which created unusual sensation in the city was 
 perpetrated in Leigh Woods, on the 10th September, by a 
 man named John William Beale, who had served as butler 
 to some respectable families in the neighbourhood. His 
 victim was a woman named Charlotte Pugsley, who had 
 occasionally been one of his fellow-servants. On the day 
 before the murder, Beale, who had left the district to serve 
 with a gentleman residing near Daventry, went, apparently 
 by appointment, to a country seat at Freshford, where Pugsley 
 was living as cook. She had previously given notice to 
 leave, and she and her companion departed soon after for 
 Bristol, informing the other servants that they were about 
 to marry and emigrate. (The woman was aware that Beale 
 had a wife living.) On the following morning they were 
 seen at Bristol railway terminus, where Beale had his com- 
 panion's boxes removed to the Midland luggage room, 
 stating that he was going to Liverpool. What became of the 
 parties during the day was not discovered, but in the evening 
 they were observed walking together in the rabbit warren 
 near the top of Nightingale Valley. Next day Beale returned 
 to his employer's at Daventry, with the woman's luggage, 
 stating that it contained the clothing of his sister, whose 
 funeral he had just attended. Tlie body of Pugsley was 
 found on the same day by one of Mv. Miles's gamekeepers. 
 The woman had been shot in the head, which was nearly 
 severed from the body by a gash in the throat, and her 
 remains had then been thrown over the precipice overhanging 
 .Nightingale Valley, but had rested on a ledge about twelve feet 
 fiom tlie summit. It was not until nearly a fortnight after 
 the murder that the friends of Charlotte Pugsley suspected 
 that she was the victim, and by that time the features of the 
 l)odv worn no longer recognisable. Identity was however 
 cstahlished l)y means of the clothing, and by a ])eculiar 
 decayed tootli. No adequate motive for the deed was dis- 
 covered. I'eale's wife lived in the neighbourhood of
 
 1857.] MR. GEEVILLE SMYTH AND THE SHRIEVALTY. 355 
 
 Daventry, and the money possessed by Pugsloy did not 
 exceed a few pounds. The murderer was tried and convicted 
 at Taunton assizes in the following December, and was 
 executed in January, 1858, refusing to admit his guilt even 
 on the scaffold. 
 
 At the annual election of corporate dignitaries on the 9th 
 November, Mr. John Henry Greville Smyth, of Long Ashton, 
 who had attained his majority in the previous January, was 
 elected sheriff of Bristol for the ensuing civic year. Tlie 
 appointment had been, as usual, determined upon by the 
 secret committee to whom the selection of officers was dele- 
 gated by the Conservative majority in the Council, and it was 
 persisted in after Mr. Smyth, who had been made acquainted 
 with the intention to nominate him, had intimated that he 
 should refuse to serve. This he formally did after the 
 election had taken place, whereupon the Council applied to 
 the law courts to compel his obedience. A mandamus was 
 issued in January, 1858, and the Court of Error consented 
 to pronounce a formal decision in order that final judgment 
 might be obtained in the House of Lords before the close of 
 the session. The law peers, however, refused to give pre- 
 cedence to the case. The Council did not re-elect Mr. Smyth 
 in the following November, and as that gentleman, by consent, 
 withdrew his appeal, a definitive decision on the matter was 
 never delivered. 
 
 About this time the authorities of the united parishes of 
 St. Nicholas and St. Leonard found themselves seriously 
 embarrassed by the increasing revenue of the estates confided 
 to them by ancient benefactors for charitable purposes. A 
 property bearing the strange name of the Forlorn Hope, 
 near Baptist Mills, being likely to fall in through the death 
 of the surviving lessees, the churchwardens had the prospect 
 of the existing charity income being raised from £450 to 
 £650 a year. Even as it was, a large portion of the funds 
 being bequeathed for distribution in doles about the Christ- 
 mas season, a crowd of worthless people were accustomed to 
 flock into the parishes towards the close of each year, and to 
 hire some miserable lodging to entitle them to share in the 
 gifts, much of the money being at once squandered in dis- 
 sipation. The competition for garrets and dirty back rooms 
 was so great that inordinate rents were freely paid, and the 
 result was simply to transfer a considerable portion of the 
 doles into the pockets of a greedy and sordid class of land- 
 lords. In November, 1857, the churchwardens and vestry, 
 urged thereto by the vicar. Canon Girdlestone, and having
 
 356 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1858. 
 
 the sanction of the Ctarity Commissioners^ resolved to abolish 
 tlie doles, to set apart £200 yearly for tlie maintenance of 
 fifteen aged women in the parish almshouse, and to apply 
 the surplus to the support of schools. An Act to authorise 
 this arrangement was passed in 1858. A new schoolhouse 
 was built by subscription in Back Street,* on a site pre- 
 viously occupied by ruinous dwellings, one of which was the 
 ancient parsonage of St. Nicholas. The adjoining Eackhay 
 burial ground, belonging to St. Nicholas' parish, was con- 
 verted into a playground for the scholars. The new schools 
 were opened in July, 1858. 
 
 In November, 1857, the Rev. J^^B^_CliffQi'd, incumbent of 
 \y St. Matthew's, somewhat astonisheH~the public by denouncing 
 from the pulpit an "institution in the city" for teaching 
 infidelity and atheism. It ultimately turned out that Mr. 
 Clifford had alluded to the Atlien£eum;"and he subsequently 
 admitted that he intended to condemn, not the institution 
 itself, but a discussion class connected with it, in which an 
 essay had been delivered — on the religions of India — which 
 several clergymen declared to contain nothing worthy of 
 reprobation. The class was warmly defended by Mr. Edlin, 
 barrister, its chairman, while Canon Girdlestone rebuked the 
 intemperance of the assailant, who was charged with intole- 
 rance in some of the local newspapers, and was significantly 
 left unsupported by his clerical brethren. In the following 
 January, Charles Dickens evinced his opinion on the subject 
 by coming down from London to read his "Christmas Carol" 
 for the benefit of the institution. 
 
 In January, 1858, in consequence of the loud complaints 
 raised by the innkeepers of the city against the army billet- 
 ing system, the War Office obtained a lease of the extensive 
 premises formerly known as the Royal Gloucester Hotel, and 
 converted the building into barracks. The step aroused 
 opposition amongst some inhabitants of Clifton ; but the 
 Secretary for War refused to assent to their appeals, and 
 the building was opened for its new purpose in April. 
 Owing to improvements effected in the recruiting system, 
 and other causes, the Government, in April, 1870, removed 
 the military staff established at this depot. 
 
 In the spring of 1858 the Franciscan monks who had 
 conducted the services at the Roman Catholic chapels in 
 Trenchard Street and on the Quay were succeeded by secular 
 
 • ThiK ancient stront, wliinli liko itB namesake, the Hue <lu Bac in Parifl, 
 owed its title to an adjacent fnrry, was in 1885 inconsiderately, if not foolishly, 
 dubbed Queen Charlotte Street.
 
 1858.] DAILY NEWSPAPERS. MARDYKE WHARF. ' 357 
 
 priests. Whilst tlio old books and manuscripts lying in the 
 monks' apartments in Tronchard Street were being examined 
 prior to removal^ a perfect copy was discovered of the 
 Hereford Missal. The book, which was stated to contain 
 the only complete ritual of the Hereford " use " extant, was 
 purchased by the trustees of the British Museum for £300. 
 
 On the night of the 30th April, the Brigand trading 
 steamer, whilst on her way from Bristol to Glasgow, with 
 eleven passengers and a crew of twenty men, got into col- 
 lision off the Irish coast with a barque called the William 
 Cavij)bell. Both vessels sank within a few minutes of the 
 disaster. Only two of the passengers in the Brigand, with 
 the captain and six of the crew, were saved. 
 
 An abortive attempt to establish a daily newspaper in 
 Bristol will be found recorded at page 118. The subsequent 
 abolition of the tax on public journals enabled a similar 
 enterprise to be undertaken with success. On the 1st June, 
 1858, the first number of the Western Daily Press, price one 
 penny, was issued by Mr. P. S. Macliver, at No 1, Broad 
 Street. The popular taste^ecoming rapTdly educated to the 
 new and cheaper system of publication, Messrs. C> & G. 
 Somerton, proprietors of the Bristol Mercury, started, in 
 January, 1860, the Bristol Daily Post, published daily from 
 Monday to Friday, the Mercury supplying the sixth day's 
 news. (In January, 1878, the two journals were incorporated, 
 and the title of Daily Post was subsequently dropped.) In 
 January, 1865, a combination was formed between the two 
 Conservative journals in the city, the Mirror, belonging 
 to Mr. T. D. Taylor, and the Times, the property of Mr. 
 J. Le ech, "the result being the appearance of the Bristol 
 Titfies^amP^irror, issued daily from Monday to Friday at a 
 penny, and on Saturdays at twopence. A still further de- 
 velopment of daily journalism was made by Mr. Macliver in 
 May, 1877, by the publication of the Bristol Evening News, 
 price one halfpenny. 
 
 A local newspaper of the 12th June announced that the 
 Docks Committee contemplated the widening of Hotwell 
 Road between Limekiln dock and Mardyke ferry, and the 
 construction of a wharf at that spot. It subsequently 
 transpired that the works, which were to extend forty feet 
 into the Floating Harbour, had been resolved upon without 
 the consent or knowledge of the Council. Operations had 
 scarcely commenced when Messrs. Hill & Co., whose ship- 
 building yard stood opposite to the proposed wharf, applied 
 to the law courts for an injunction to restrain the Corporation
 
 358 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. [1858. 
 
 from erecting woi-ks calculated to injure tlieii' property. 
 Eventually the Docks Committee were obliged to make 
 terms, Messrs. Hill & Co. accepting £1,000 and withdraw- 
 ing their opposition. The wharf, which the committee had 
 expected to complete for £1,500, actually involved an outlay 
 of about £5,700. 
 
 A small church, dedicated to St. Michael and All Angels, 
 was opened at Bishopston, Horfield, on the 20th June. The 
 quarrel of its founder, the Rev. Henry Richards, with Bishop 
 Monk has been already referred to. The prelate's successor, 
 Bishop Baring, had also to publicly protest against the con- 
 duct of the incumbent. In a letter dated February 2, 1858, 
 Dr, Baring stated that Mr. Richards had consented to the 
 formation of a new district in Horfield, of which the bishop 
 was to be the patron, but that after Dr. Monk's death he 
 had repudiated this agreement, declaring that he Avould 
 never allow a Low churchman to nominate a clergyman in 
 his parish. Subsequently, added his lordship, Mr. Richards 
 'built a church, and offered to endow it to the extent of £40 
 a year, provided the patronage was vested in him and his 
 heirs. But as the Horfield manor trustees intended to endow 
 the incumbency to a much larger extent, the bishop refused 
 his assent, to the great wrath of the vicar, who must have 
 foreseen that through the increasing population the value 
 of the living Avould soon be largely augmented. In conse- 
 quence of the disagreement, St. Michael's was not consecrated 
 until February, 1862. It was afterwards considerably en- 
 larged. By an Order in Council of July, 1862, a new parish, 
 out out of Horfield, Stapleton, and St. Andrew's, Montpelier, 
 was attached to this church. 
 
 In despite of the benefits secured by the transfer of the 
 docks to the citv, Bristolians could not but be sensible that 
 the port Lay under peculiar natural disadvantages, which 
 "handicapped" it heavily in the competition with other 
 harbours. The course of the Avon from Hungroad to Cum- 
 berland Basin being exceedingly tortuous, accidents to vessels 
 were of such frequent occurrence as to give the river an evil 
 reputation amongst shipowners; and after the lamentable 
 disaster to the Vewerara, many firms refused to accept 
 charters- which would render their vessels liable to similar 
 mishaps. Au of|iially sericuis drawback had been created by 
 tlie designer of Cumberland Basin. At the beginning of the 
 century the commerce of th^ world was carried on by vessels 
 which, while rarely cxcectling 800 tons burden, were on the 
 average of less than half that tonnage; and the depth of
 
 1858.] PROPOSED DOCKS AND DOCKISATION. 3-59 
 
 the locks had naturally been determined by those conditions. 
 But the application of steam power to ships had revolution- 
 ised former ideas on the subject, for not only were over-sea 
 steamers necessarily larger in consequence of the stock of 
 fuel they had to carry, but builders of sailing ships, to meet 
 the competition for freights, studied economy by constructing 
 vessels of double or treble the former size. The results had 
 been early felt in Bristol. The citizens had built the Great 
 Western only to find that, while they had solved the problem 
 of transatlantic navigation, they were deprived of its profits 
 by the natural defects of the port. By and by, the effects 
 which the vessel had produced on shipowners and ship- 
 builders also began to be felt. The local public were ever 
 and anon informed that a large vessel bound for Bristol had 
 arrived at Kingroad, but that owing to insufficient depth of 
 water she must remain at anchor until spring tides, perhaps 
 eight or ten days distant. The evil was constantly growing 
 more serious. The Great Western was of J, 340 tons register; 
 but the Cunard company had,, in 1848, four ships of about 
 2,000 tons ; and at the time under review Mr. Brunei had 
 under construction the Great Eastern, of 22,000 tons burden, 
 which he confidently predicted would be the model ship of 
 the future. The prospect naturally caused anxiety ; and on 
 the 24th June, 1858, a joint committee, comprising deputa- 
 tions nominated by the Docks Committee, the Merchant 
 Venturers' Society, and the Chamber of Commerce, held a 
 meeting at the dock ofiice, the mayor (Mr. I. A. Cooke) in 
 the chair, with the view of considering the question of im- 
 proved dock accommodation. After a long discussion on the 
 advisability of constructing a large dock at the mouth of the 
 river, it was resolved, by a majority of 12 votes to 4, that 
 the interests of the port would be best promoted by convert- 
 ing the Avon, throughout its tidal area, into a floating 
 harbour. On the 14th September, in compliance Avith a 
 requisition signed by upwards of 500 of the princijml citizens, 
 the mayor convened a public meeting in the Guildhall, which 
 was densely crowded on the occasion. Mr. P. W. Miles 
 having moved, and Mr. C. W. Finzel seconded, a resolution 
 declaring that further accommodation was essential to the 
 interests of the port ; Mr. J. G. Shaw, representing the 
 non-progressive party, brought forward a " rider " to the 
 motion, declaring that it would be unjust and injurious to 
 the owners of fixed property to raise additional funds by 
 local taxation. The resolution having been adopted, Mr. E. 
 S. Robinson moved that the rider should not be put, and
 
 360 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. [1858. 
 
 tliis, after an excited discussion, was also carried. An in- 
 fluential committee was then appointed to co-operate witli 
 the Chamber of Commerce in devising means for carrying 
 the resolution into effect. A special meeting of the Council 
 was held on the 7th November to consider the course recom- 
 mended by the citizens, when it was proposed to appoint a 
 committee to further the object in view. Mr. J. Gr. Shaw , 
 however, returned to the attack,* and by a majority of 25 
 against 24, an amendment was carried by the fixed property 
 party, refusing to appoint a committee to meet any repre- 
 sentatives of public bodies for promoting increased dock 
 accommodation. The committee of citizens, bereft of the 
 expected support, found it necessary to surrender all thoughts 
 of an extensive scheme, and the construction of a pier at the 
 mouth of the Avon was suggested as an advisable temporary 
 expedient. It was soon afterwards intimated, however, that 
 the Board of Admiralty, by the advice of its engineer, Mr. 
 Walker, would not allow the erection of a pier encroaching 
 upon the anchorage ground at Kiugroad, The subject thus 
 fell into abeyance for a time, but its urgency soon brought 
 it again into prominent notice. At a meeting of the Council, 
 on the 2nd August, 1859, two voluminous reports were laid 
 on the table. One of these, by Mr. William Parkes, an 
 eminent engineer, disapproved of the project for 'Mockising " 
 the Avon, and also condemned the proposal for docks near 
 Kingroad, but recommended the deepening and widening 
 of the Avon, the cutting of a new channel to avoid the 
 Horseshoe Point, and the closing of the old course of the 
 river at Dunball. The other report, by Mr. Howard, engi- 
 neer to the Docks Committee, proposed the damming up of 
 the tidal river near its mouth, and the construction of an 
 outer tidal hai'bour off the Somerset shore at Kingroad, to 
 be enclosed by two piers, the entrance to be sufficiently 
 deepened to permit steamers to enter at low water. The 
 cost of the works was estimated at £800,000. At another 
 meeting of the Council, in October, Mr. Shaw moved that 
 it was inexpedient to expend money either for docks or 
 dockisation ; but an amendment was carried by 27 votes 
 against 15, directing the whole question to be submitted to 
 Sir William Cubitt (or, as it Avas afterwards determined, 
 to Mr. John Uawkshaw) and Mr. Thomas Pago. The only 
 
 • Mr. Rliaw was nn Irisliman, and is said to liavo been not a little vain of his 
 exuberance of Rj)eech. lie was natnrally unjiopiilar ainoni^st the a<lvocate8 
 of imiirovenicnt, and it appciirH from one of liis own BpecclH<s that ho earned 
 for hiuisulf the uicknauio of "Jaw Jaw Jaw " — John Ooorge Shaw.
 
 1858.] DOCKS AND DOCKISATION. 361 
 
 actual work undertaken by tlio Corporation at this time was 
 the erection of a small stage, called a landing slip, near the 
 Lighthouse, for the accommodation of passengers arriving by 
 the Irish steamers. With an increasing foresight, however, 
 the Docks Committee purchased, in January, 1860, the island 
 of Dunball for £850. It had been bought two or three years 
 previously, at the sale of Mr. J. A. Gordon's estates, for £100, 
 by an eccentric publican named Hooper. The reports of 
 Messrs. Hawkshaw and Page were laid before the Council 
 in October, 1860. Mr. Hawkshaw, whilst strongly condemn- 
 ing the dockisation of the Avon (the cost of Avhich he 
 estimated at £1,200,000), and recommending that the bed 
 should be deepened and improved, pointed out that, what- 
 ever was done to the river, there was no likelihood that ocean 
 steamers, increasing as they were in size, would ever come 
 up to Bristol. The construction of docks near Kingroad was 
 deemed practicable, but as they would lead to a divided and 
 competitive trade, Mr. Hawkshaw recommended that, after 
 the river had been improved, the Corporation should be con- 
 tent with constructing a dock for steamers, connected by a 
 railway with the city. The expense of his proposals was 
 estimated at £1,213,000. Mr. Page, who also disapproved 
 of dockisation, on the ground of its costliness and probable 
 ill effects on Kingroad, considered that it was unnecessary 
 that ships should come up to the city if their cargoes were 
 brought to it, and advised the construction of a pier near the 
 river mouth, with a railway to Bristol quays and to the 
 through lines of communication. He further suggested that 
 when trade had developed, a dock should be constructed in 
 the channel of the Avon, between Dunball and the mainland, 
 of which the pier would form one side, the estimated cost 
 being £260,000. Finally he proposed extensive alterations 
 at Cumberland Basin, and the ''floating" of the new course 
 of the Avon. The reports, of which that of Mr. Page found 
 most supporters, gave rise to a debate in the Council extend- 
 ing over two days, Mr. E. S. Kobinson having moved that 
 steps should be taken for obtaining an Act to effect improve- 
 ments on Mr. Page's plan, at a cost not exceeding £400,000. 
 The party which obstinately resisted 'improvements, on the 
 ground that no guarantee for the interest on the amount 
 expended ought to be required from the ratepayers, were 
 ultimately defeated by 33 votes against 22. The influence 
 of the fixed property party was, however, so powerful that 
 the discussion ended in the passing of an empty resolution 
 approving of docks, and appointing a committee to frame
 
 362 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1858. 
 
 / a scheme wliicli could be accomplislied without, imposing any 
 charge on the ratepayers. Even this modest advance was 
 succeeded by a retreat in February, 1861, when a resolution 
 was proposed by Mr. K. P. King, another champion of vested 
 interests, declaring that it was " not expedient to incur any 
 further liability on the fixed property of the city for the 
 purpose of making dock accommodation at the mouth of the 
 river," and that the surplus revenue of the dock — on which 
 the " progress party " relied for effecting improvements — 
 would be best disposed of by improving the river and exist- 
 ing works, or by reducing the dues. An amendment to this 
 motion was proposed by Aid. Abbott, to the effect that the 
 cost of a well-considered scheme of dock extension, the 
 interest upon which could be provided out of the surplus 
 revenues of the harbour, might be beneficially raised upon 
 the guarantee of the borough rate ; but this was rejected 
 by 31 votes against 24; and Mr. King's resolution was 
 adopted. In pursuance of its instructions, the Docks Com- 
 mittee shortly afterwards presented a report, recommending 
 a reduction of the dues to the extent of about £6,000 a year. 
 The report^ clearly devised to tie the hands of the Council 
 as regarded the improvement of the port, was adopted, and 
 the dock dues were reduced in May, 1861. How an indis- 
 pensable work was at length accomplished by private citizens, 
 and how the Council had in the long run to retrace a selfish 
 and reactionary policy, and to buy off the competition its 
 own shortsightedness had created, will have to be related in 
 future pages. 
 
 St. James's Market, Union Street, was reopened on the 
 26th June, 1858, after undergoing a complete restoi'ation. 
 The front elevation of the new structure was deemed even be- 
 low the usual poor taste of civic erections in Bristol, and was 
 for some weeks the object of mingled ridicule and censure. 
 
 About the end of June, Messrs. Baillie, Cave & Co., of the 
 Old Bank, in extending their subterranean strong-rooms, 
 discovered a large vaulted cellar of good mediooval archi- 
 tecture. The place was supposed by some who visited it to 
 be the old crypt of St. Leonard's Church ; but that building, 
 as has been already recorded, was found under Stuckey's 
 banking promises in 1851 [see p. 824]. 
 
 At a meeting of the Merchant Venturers' Society on the 
 18th September, it was determined — subject to the approval 
 of the Charity Commissioners — to purchase the vacated 
 bishr»])'a palace at Staploton, and to convert the buildiiig into 
 a school-house for the boys of Colston's School. The removal
 
 1858.] Colston's school removed, the volunteers. 3G3 
 
 of the institution from the city was opposed by many persons 
 as a fla<^rant repudiation of the intentions of its founder, wlio 
 distinctly prescribed that the school should be maintained 
 "for ever" in the mansion which he had purchased for it; 
 and suspicions were expressed that the ulterior object of 
 those promoting- the removal was to divert the benefits of 
 the charity to individuals in a rank of life far above those 
 for whom it was designed. Especial attention was excited 
 by the remarks of one of the prime movers in the matter, Mr. 
 A. Hilhouse, who declared that the sons of working- men were 
 sufficiently provided for in national schools, and that the 
 g-reat want of the day were " schools for the poor sons of 
 decayed good livers, such as bankrupt merchants, bankers, 
 traders, deceased clergy, and other professional men." Mr. 
 Edward Colston, the representative of the family, together 
 Avith six past masters of the Merchants' Society, took the 
 lead in protesting against the projected removal, declaring 
 it to be " an entire breach of trust ; " the mayor (Mr. I. A. 
 Cooke), Mr. Langton, M.P., and many of the magistrates, 
 aldermen, and councillors also presented a memorial against 
 the design. The Charity Commissioners were, however, 
 favourable to the views of the majority of the Merchants' 
 Society, and an application to the Master of the Rolls (Sir J. 
 E,omilly) to prevent the removal was unsuccessful. Stapleton 
 house and grounds were then acquired for £12,000. The 
 Merchants' Society paid half of this amount, taking the land 
 not required for the school. A large dining room and 
 master's house were added to the premises, Avhich underwent 
 the needful modifications to fit them for the reception of 140 
 boys (an addition of twenty to the previous number) at a 
 cost of £3,000. The scholars were removed to their new 
 abode on the 21st October, 1861. The net income of the 
 charity at that time was £3,433, and the expenditure (before 
 increasing the number of boys) £2,421. Mr. Hilhouse's 
 suggestion for the misappropriation of the charity was subse- 
 quently defeated by the action of the Endowed School Com- 
 missioners, to be noticed under a later date. 
 
 At the annual dinner of the Anchor Society, on Colston's 
 day, Mr. Berkeley, M.P., at a time when a number of French 
 military officers and some Paris journals were using menacing 
 language towards this country, drew the attention of his 
 hearers to the neglected state of the national defences. He 
 contended that England ought to be always free from the 
 danger of foreign invasion, and strongly urged the economy 
 and general desirability of training the youth of the country
 
 364 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1859. 
 
 to arms, as liad been the custom amongst their forefathers. 
 Mr. Berkeley subsequently ventilated his proposal through 
 the press ; and in January, 1859, a movement was started in 
 Bristol which speedily spread to other towns, and assumed a 
 national character. On the 2nd February a preliminary 
 meeting took place in the city with the view to establishing a 
 rifle corps, and at another gathering, 18th May, the mayor 
 (Mr. J. Poole) presiding, the project assumed a definite form, 
 a series of resolutions being drawn up and forwarded to the 
 Lord Lieutenant, the Earl oJ_Ducie, who was asked, but 
 declined, to accept the office^f colonel. It was then resolved 
 that the mayor for the time being should be honorary colonel ; 
 Major Robert Bush, a retired army officer, was recommended 
 as lieutenant^colonel, and Major Savile, of the local militia, 
 as major. The corps was the first embodied in the kingdom. 
 The Ministry of Lord Derby — in deference, probably, to the 
 authorities of the Horse Guards — refused a grant for ex- 
 penses, and declined to supply the volunteers with arms and 
 clothing, although, as Mr. Berkeley observed in the House of 
 Commons, this policy necessarily deprived the country of its 
 strongest defence — the working classes. An application of 
 the volunteers to be allowed to choose their own officers was 
 declared to be inadmissible, and an attempt was made to 
 prevent the various corps from being formed into regiments, 
 the Horse Guards wishing to restrict the organisation to 
 unconnected companies. The cost of the equipment Avas £10 
 a head. Nevertheless, by the beginning of July, 275 Bristo- 
 lians had commenced drill ; dresses and rifles were ordered 
 from private firms ; and the motto of the old Bristol volunteers 
 — " In Danger Ready " — was again adopted. A pleasing 
 incident of the movement was the concession by the majority 
 of merchants, professional men, and respectable tradesmen, 
 of a weekly half-holiday on Saturdays to their employes, many 
 of whom joined the corps. The first parade took place in 
 Queen Square on the 24th September, 1859, when over 600 
 men had entered the corps. The officers, who had by that 
 time received their commissions, were as follows : — 
 
 Honorary Colonel, The Mayor of Bristol for the time being. 
 
 Lieutenant-Colonel, Major Robert Bush. 
 
 Major, Captain Henry B. O. Savilo (who resigned in December and was 
 
 succeeded by John Selwyn Payne). 
 No. 1 Company. Captain, Samuel Kdward Taylor; Lieutenant, Edward 
 
 Poole; Ensign, Kichard \V. K. Ilassall. 
 No. 2 Company. Captain, John Bates; Lieutenant, William Britton ; 
 
 Ensign, James (iibijs. 
 No. 3 Company. Captain, William Wright ; Lieutenant, Frederick F. Fox ; 
 
 Ensign, Frederick Piuney.
 
 1859.] THE RIFLE VOLUNTEERS. DRINKING FOUNTAINS. 3G5 
 
 No. 4 Company. Captain, Colston Lucas ; Lieutenant, William Fuidge ; 
 
 Ensign, George Ley King. 
 No. 5 Company. Captain, Andrew Leighton ; Lieutenant, Perigrine Ham- 
 monds ; Ensign, Edward M. Harwood. 
 No. 6 Company. Captain, Charles Ringer ; Lieutenant, Alfred R. Miller ; 
 
 Ensign, Mark Whitwill. 
 No. 7 Company. Captain, Henry Goodeve ; Lieutenant, Charles H. 
 
 Prichard ; Ensign, John C. Aiken. 
 No. 8 Company. Captain, John E. Pattenson ; Lieutenant, Philip D. 
 
 Alexander ; Ensign, Charles Bevan. 
 Staff. Adjutant, A.M.Jones; Surgeon, Henry A. Hore ; Quarter-master, 
 
 Daniel Burges, jun. 
 Two additional companies were added in the early months of ISOO. 
 
 No. 9 Company. Captain, James Ford ; Lieutenant Alfred Elton, Ensign, 
 
 Charles F. Ivens. 
 No. 10 Company. Captain, Boddam Castle ; Lieutenant, John P. Gilbert ; 
 
 Ensign, Thomas Barnes. 
 
 The first building used for drill and depot purposes was a 
 portion of the vacant Royal Western Hotel, College Street. 
 The erection of the Drill Hall in Queen's Road will be re- 
 corded under 1861. The first volunteer review before the 
 Queen took place in Hyde Park on the 23rd June, 1860, 
 when, of the 20,000 citizen soldiers present, Bristol con- 
 tributed nearly a thousand. A review of local corps was 
 held for the first time on Durdham Down on the 19th June, 
 1861. The original shooting range of the Bristol rifles was 
 temporarily formed in Sneyd Park. The more extended 
 range at Avonmouth was opened in April, 1865, in which 
 year Lieutenant Colonel Bush, who had displayed much 
 energy in the command of the regiment, resigned. He had, 
 in September, 1862, been presented by the volunteers with a 
 handsome service of plate in recognition of his services, and 
 a second testimonial was offered to him on his retirement. 
 Colonel Bush was succeeded by Colonel P. W. Taylor, who 
 died in March, 1881. The next commandant was Lieutenant- 
 Colonel S. E. Taylor, who resigned in a few months, when 
 Lieutenant-Colonel A. M. Jones, who had been adjutant for 
 several years, received the appointment. 
 
 At a meeting of the Council in January, 1859, Mr. Robert 
 Lang suggested the establishment of drinking fountains in 
 the chief thoroughfares of the city, for the accommodation of 
 pedestrians, offering a donation for that purpose of £100. 
 The suggestion met with cordial approval, and the first two 
 fountains were erected about the end of June, one at the 
 south end of Prince's Street, and the other on the Welsh 
 Back. A few days later Mr. T. P. .Jose erected a chastely 
 designed fountain in the wall of St. Augustine's clmrchyard, 
 and Mr. R. Lan g was the donor of another, opposite the 
 Bishop's College. About twenty more were given by various
 
 366 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. [1859. 
 
 citizens in tlie course of the year. In 1876 a large fountain 
 was erected on tlie Downs at a cost of 100 guineas^ contributed 
 by the local committee in connection with the local meeting 
 of the Bath and West of England Agricultural Society. The 
 most artistic fountain, however, was that constructed by 
 Alderman Proctor, in the spring of 1872, at the top of Bridge 
 Valley Road, to commemorate the liberality of the Merchant 
 Venturers' Society in connection with the transfer of the 
 Downs to the Corporation. 
 
 On the 4th January, 1859, a fire occurred in a tavern in 
 Cider-house Passage (anciently Beer Lane), Broad Street, 
 which caused the destruction of a mediseval hall, standing 
 over the passage, and then used as a concert room. An 
 etching of this building is to be found in Skelton's '' Anti- 
 quities of Bristol," where it is eri'oneously designated '' part 
 of a monastery." The roof was of wood, supported by hand- 
 some groined ribs in the style of the latter part of the 
 fifteenth century. The square-headed windows were of 
 about the same date. 
 
 In March, 1859, a number of the inhabitants of Clifton 
 resolved upon the erection of a chapel of ease to Clifton 
 Church, in commemoration of the Rev. J. Hensman's fifty 
 years' labours amongst them. The chapel, which was dedi- 
 cated to St. James, but is more commonly known as the 
 Hensman Memorial Church, was consecrated by Bishop 
 Thomson, during his brief episcopate, in December, 1862, 
 when Mr. Hensman was still incumbent of the parish. The 
 cost of the building was about £3,000. 
 
 During the spring of 1859 the local Charity Trustees 
 entered into correspondence with the Charity Commissioners 
 in reference to certain proposed alterations in the scheme 
 under which the Grammar School was governed. Although 
 the success of the school since its re-organisation exceeded 
 all hopes, yet through the slenderness of the endowment the 
 head-master and teaching staff had been inadequately re- 
 muuoratcd for their labours. It was consequently suggested 
 that the fees paid by the older class of boys should be 
 slightly raised, that admission should not be restricted to 
 youths residing in the city and suburbs, and that the head 
 and second masters should be allowed to take boarders. The 
 last-mentioned proposal was strongly condemned by a min- 
 ority of the trustees ; and, though approved by the Charity 
 Commissioners, the Master of the Rolls, on an appeal for 
 his interference, refused to givo it his sanction. Mr. C. T. 
 Hudson, the head-master, in consequence resigned his post
 
 1859.] ITALIAN PATRIOTS. BRISTOL WORKHOUSE. 367 
 
 in May, 1860. He was succeeded by the Rev. J. W. Caldi- 
 c^tt^_M^., tutor and niatliematical lecturer at Oxford Univer- 
 sity, under whom the school attained an unexampled reputa- 
 tion, the successes of its pupils in competitive examinations 
 being- in some years proportionably gi^eater than in any other 
 public school. Dr. Caldicott resigned his post in 1883, on 
 being appointed to the valuable college living of Shipston, 
 Worcester. He was succeeded by Mr. R. Leighton Leighton, 
 M.A., who had taken high classical honoursTaTUxford. 
 
 In the month of March an American merchant ship put 
 into Cork harbour, having on board Baron Poerio and sixty- 
 six other Neapolitan patriots, most of whom had suffered ten 
 years' imprisonment, without trial, in dungeons the character 
 of which had been exposed by Mr. Gladstone to the horror 
 of Europe. The exiles had been liberated by " King Bomba " 
 by virtue of what he called an act of grace, on condition that 
 they would transport themselves to America for the rest of 
 their lives. Whilst on the voyage they compelled the captain 
 to alter his course to a British port. After a short stay at 
 Cork, the patriots made their way to this country in detach- 
 ments, the first of which landed at Bristol on the 19th March, 
 and was greeted with extraordinary marks of sympathy by 
 all ranks and parties in the city. Mr. Langton, M.P., and 
 the mayor (Mr. J. Hare) personally welcomed the party, who 
 were entertained at the Angel Inn. Two further contingents, 
 which arrived during the following week, received a like 
 hospitable reception. During their brief sojourn, the fugi- 
 tives expressed their fervent thanks for the generous treat- 
 ment they had received. The incident excited great interest 
 in all parts of the island, and a subscription started for the 
 relief of the patriots produced a sum of over £10,700. 
 
 At a meeting of the Bristol Board of Guardians on the 8th 
 April, a controversy which had been long carried on in 
 reference to the desirability of building a new workhouse was 
 concluded by a vote in the affii'mative, the site selected being 
 Stapleton. The plans of a Gloucester firm, who estimated 
 the cost at £12,000, were adopted. On obtaining tenders, 
 however, it was found that the lowest was several thousand 
 pounds above the expected sum, and the opposition to the 
 scheme was renewed. Eventually, in March, 1860, it was 
 resolved to let the contract for £15,895, and the foundation 
 stone of the workhouse was laid in the following July by Mr. 
 J. Perry, governor. Large additions were made to the plans, 
 and the outlay on the building up to August 1864 was stated 
 to have exceeded £22,500.
 
 368 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1859. 
 
 The London Gazette of the 12th April announced that a 
 baronetcy had been conferred on Mr. William Miles, of Leigh 
 Court, many years M.P. for West Somerset, and chairman of 
 the Someri^ quarter sessions. Mr. Miles, who was highly 
 respected by all parties for the sterling honesty of his char- 
 acter and the conscientious performance of his public duties, 
 was by birth a native of Bristol, where he was the chief 
 partner of a large private banking company. The most 
 striking incident in his parliamentary career was his un- 
 successful attempt to impose a duty on foreign cattle and 
 meat, for the '^ protection '^ of English farmers. An anecdote 
 illustrative of his candour and sincerity was narrated in the 
 House of Commons on the 4th July, 1879, by the Eight Hon. 
 John Bright, who stated that, some years after retiring from 
 Parliament, Sir William Miles, who had been an indefatigable 
 opponent of the repeal of the Corn Laws, came up to him in 
 the lobby and said : " Well, now, I may as well make a con- 
 fession. Your friend Cobden and you are the best friends 
 that the landowners ever had." Mr. Bright replied that he 
 could tell the baronet another thing just as good was the 
 great measure of 1846 (meaning the reform of the land laws) ; 
 but Sir William, looking serious for a moment, said, " No : I 
 have no faith," and walked away. 
 
 The Parliament of 1857 having been dissolved on the 
 advice of Lord Derby's Cabinet, the nominations for Bristol 
 took place on the 28th April. The Liberal members, Messrs. 
 Berkeley and Langto n, Avere again proposed; while the Con- 
 ■Servafives, who had again become united, brought forward 
 Mr. (afterwards Sir) Frederick Wm. Slade.* The contest, 
 which was of an exciting character, resiiTEed as follows : Mr. 
 Berkeley, 4,432 ; Mr. Langton, 4,285 ; Mr. Slade, 4,205. In 
 pursuance of a new Act, the expenses of the candidates were 
 published shortly afterwards. Those of the two successful 
 candidates were returned at £1,488, and those of Mr. Slade 
 at £2,276. 
 
 On the 30th April, whilst the ceremony of declaring the 
 poll was proceeding at the Exchange, one of the most de- 
 structive fires recorded in the history of the city broke out 
 in the extensive sugar refinery of Messrs. Fuidge & Fripp, 
 near the Stone Bridge. The flames rapidly spread over the 
 
 • Mr. Slade, tliouph an able lawyer, does not appear to have sacrificed to tlie 
 Muses. In a libel ciise tried nt Bristol, ho cast much ridiculo on one of the 
 parties in the action, for having made " one Boston, a weaver, talk about roaring 
 like a sucking dove." It was clear, said the matter-of-fact counsel, that a dove 
 could not have roared.
 
 1859.] GREAT WINE SALE. THE CATHEDRAL. 3G9 
 
 building, and damage to the extent of £80,000 was done 
 before they could be subdued. The refinery was not rebuilt, 
 and 250 workmen were thrown out of employment. A local 
 paper, in recording the disaster, said, " All the sugar refineries 
 in Bristol have now been burnt down once." 
 
 A remarkable sale of wine took place at the Grove, Bris- 
 lington, in June, consequent upon the death of Alderman 
 Henry Ricketts, a member of an old Bristol family, and the 
 last survivor of a firm once extensively engaged in the manu- 
 facture of flint glass. The chief competition was for the port 
 wine, which included samples of all the celebrated vintages 
 between 1793 and 1836. ''Magnums" of 1820 brought the 
 unprecedented price of £3 8s. each. One lot of the vintage 
 of 1812 fetched £18 10s. per dozen ordinary bottles. The 
 entire stock of 180 dozen of port averaged £8 a dozen, the 
 purchasers being chiefly Lancashire manufacturers. The 
 other wines also sold at high prices. 
 
 The foundations of the first houses in what was subse- 
 quently called the Royal Promenade, Queen's Road, were laid 
 about the end of June. 
 
 Up to this time the internal arrangements of Bristol 
 cathedral, adopted in the reign of Charles II., were such as 
 to prevent more than a handful of persons from attending 
 divine service. There being no nave, the appearance of one 
 was produced by cutting olf a large portion of the space 
 originally included within the choir. The transepts and aisles 
 were also shut off, and formed mere ambulatories for strollers. 
 The area actually available was thus reduced to the propor- 
 tions of a small college chapel, and was chiefly occupied by 
 stalls and pews ; the only accommodation offered to persons 
 who did not purchase the favour of the beadles consisted of 
 narrow, unfurnished, unbacked benches — to one of which, as 
 has been noticed, the Prince of Wales was relegated on his 
 visit to the building. Dissatisfied with this arrangement, the 
 dean and chapter applied to Mr. (afterwards Sir) G.. G...Scott, 
 the celebrated architect, for his advice. Mr. Scott recom.- 
 mended the removal of the organ gallery, which blocked up 
 the centre of the church, the erection of the organ in the 
 north aisle, the construction of a light screen at the end of 
 the choir, the throwing open of the entire space east of the 
 transepts, and the introduction of chairs, by which the number 
 of persons taking part in the services might be increased 
 from 300 to 1,000. A considerable sum having been raised 
 by subscription, the work of reconstruction, which involved 
 a complete clearance of the stalls, screens, etc., was begun in 
 
 B B 
 
 1/
 
 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1859. 
 
 April, 1860. On the walls being stripped o£ the woodwork 
 and partially freed from whitewash, so beautiful a structure 
 was disclosed that the work of thoroughly cleansing and re- 
 pairing the edifice seemed a necessary consequence, though 
 it involved further appeals to the citizens for assistance. The 
 expense of the restoration was £4,600, towards which the chap- 
 ter subscribed £1,550. [Such at least were the amounts stated 
 in an official report read to a meeting of citizens in March, 
 1861. In a letter to the Cathedral Commissioners, dated 
 January, 1885, the Dean of Bristol alleged that the restora- 
 tion cost the chapter £7,393, and the public £5,474, "giving 
 a total of £12,867."] The sedilia, destroyed about 1603 to 
 make room for a monument to Sir John Young and his wife, 
 was successfully restored, enough of the original design 
 remaining to guide the carvers in reproducing the work. 
 The only early relic destroyed was the heraldic pavement in 
 the Berkeley Chapel — an inexcusable vandalism which cast 
 discredit on those concerned. It must be added that the 
 monument of Sir J. Young, which was of enormous size, was 
 removed in fragments, and that nothing has since been done 
 for its preservation. The cathedral was reopened, June 27, 
 l§61j^when_the Corporation attended in state. ^""BlilTop' 
 Barmghad been~expecteH to occupy the pulpit on the occa- 
 sion ; but his relations with the chapter were not cordial, 
 and he declined to be present. His lordship, who was trans- 
 lated to Durham a few weeks later,"^ preached only once in 
 the cathedral during his episcopate — probably through un- 
 willingness to admit the contention that his use of the pulpit 
 was conditional upon the good pleasure of the chapter. Soon 
 after the completion of the works, the condition of the central 
 
 f tower began to excite apprehension ; and the chapter having 
 set apart a sum of £6,000 for its restoration, operations began 
 in 1865 with the massive piers sup])orting the tower, which 
 
 L^^were completely renovated. The later history of tlic building 
 will be found recorded under 1866. 
 
 A chapel was built this year in St. James's Parade by the 
 Scotch Presbyterians of the city, who had not jireviously 
 possessed a special ]Jace of worship. It was opened on the 
 7th September, 1859, by the Rev. Dr. Macianlane, of Glasgow. 
 
 • Dr. BarinR, who had a larpe private fortune, displayed an amount of 
 hospitality towards his cloruy which is said to have hooii unprocedeiitod in the 
 history of the see. He resinnod the bishopric of Durham, ono of tlic great 
 prizes of the Church, in 1878, owin(? to impaired healtli. refusing to accept the 
 largf rofiring allowance tn which ho was entith'd. His successor in Oloucest.-r 
 and Bristol was the Ilev. William Tiiomson, rcctur of Marylebonc, Londou, wlio 
 was sooD afterwards truuslatcd to tlie Archbishopric of York.
 
 1859.] THE ARTILLERY VOLUNTEERS. 371 
 
 The cost of the building, including the site, was upwards of 
 £5,300. 
 
 The great popularity of the rifle volunteers led to various 
 suggestions for an extension of the movement. At length, 
 ojiZ-the Palmerston Ministry having informed the Earl of 
 '■T)uciey'Lord Lieutenant, that " an artillery corps for the city 
 woula not only receive official sanction, but would be con- 
 sidered a valuable adjunct to the volunteer force already 
 established," a meeting was held in the Guildhall, on the 
 8th November, the mayor (Mr. J. Poole) presiding, to take 
 the matter into consideration. Resolutions approving of the 
 creation of a corps, and appointing a committee for that 
 purpose, were unanimously adopted. The formal approval 
 of the Government having been obtained, about 200 men 
 were forthwith enrolled, and the first parade took place on 
 the 31st December, The motto adopted by the corps was 
 " Fidus et Audax." Captain H. B. 0. Savile, then major in 
 the rifle regiment, transferred his services to the artillery, 
 of which he was appointed major commandant. The cap- 
 tains originally appointed were J. B. Harford, W. M. Baillie, 
 H. G;:aiit, andCapt. F.P.Egertpn, R.N.; a fifth, W. H. Barlow, 
 was nominated afterwards. The lieutenants were F. Tothill, 
 S. V. Hare, H. L. ^£2Jl, G. Garrard, F. W. Savage, H. S. Ames, 
 E. G. Langton, and C. D. Cave. In "despite'of the professions 
 of the authorities in London, their real feelings towards the 
 citizen soldiers were strikingly exemplified by the material 
 which was forwarded for training purposes — four enormous \ 
 siege guns of the obsolete type of the reign of George III., 
 and utterly unfit for field practice, being sent down from Wool- 
 wich in April, 1860. Notwithstanding the disrespect evidently 
 implied in the gift, the cannon were cordially received, and 
 their removal from the railway station to the enclosure in 
 front of the Victoria Rooms was made the occasion of an 
 imposing volunteer demonstration. In the folloAving month, 
 the Secretary for War informed the town-clerk that it was 
 the intention of the Ministry to restore the old battery at 
 Portishead Point, for the protection of Bristol. Some trifling 
 repairs having been effected soon after, the battery was used 
 for ball practice by the artillery corps, which had previously 
 resorted to some earthworks thrown up near Avonmouth. 
 Buildings were constructed for stores, etc., in Whiteladies 
 road, at a cost of about £1,100, and a drill hall was added in 
 1865 at a further outlay of £1,200. In the meantime. Major 
 Savile had applied to the ordnance authorities for lighter 
 and more serviceable guns, but his appeal was peremptorily
 
 372 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1859. 
 
 refused. But in April, 1864, Mr. Berkeley indignantly com- 
 mented in the House of Commons on the stupid perversity 
 which had dictated the armament of the artillery corps, and 
 the Government thereupon undertook that the shortcoming 
 should be remedied. Some field guns of modern construction 
 were subsequently forwarded to Bristol. 
 
 A lai'ge tract of ground lying between Stokes Croft and 
 Grosvenor Place, which up to this time had been let in 
 garden allotments, was laid out during the autumn of 1859 
 for building sites. The principal street, City Road, was 
 commenced soon afterwards. A chapel at the western end 
 of this thoroughfare was built by the Baptist congregation 
 previously worshipping in the Pithay, at an outlay of £4,800. 
 It was opened in September, 1861, by the Rev. C. H. 
 Spurgeon, of London, then the most popular of dissenting 
 ministers. Whilst the city was rapidly extending in this 
 eastern suburb, building operations were proceeding on an 
 extensive scale in Clifton Wood, on an estate previously 
 belonging to Mrs. Randall, the last tenant in tail under the 
 will of a member of^the Golduey family. 
 
 The Prince of Orange, heir apparent to the throne of 
 Holland, and reputed at the time to be a suitor for the 
 hand of the Princess Alice, paid a brief visit to the city in 
 February, 1860, on his way to Badminton. The priuce was 
 received at the railway station by the mayor (Mr. J. Bates), 
 and by the newly organised volunteer rifle and artillery 
 corps. Prince Jerome Bonaparte, cousin of the French em- 
 peror, paid a visit to the city in the following September. 
 
 The death was announced, on the 27th February, of Mr. 
 James Palmer, who had held from youth until nearly the 
 close of a long life a confidential position in the Old Bank, 
 where, being of penurious habits, he accumulated a fortune 
 of about £180,000. By his will he bequeathed £20,000 
 to ten charitable institutions in the city, the residue being 
 divided between a relative, who had kept house for him, 
 and two ]irivate friends, both wealthy men. His other 
 kindred, including the needy children of an uncle who had 
 been his surety upon entering the bank, were passed over 
 unnoticed. 
 
 Altlioiigli the construction of high level reservoirs by the 
 Water Company had rendered fire engines practically un- 
 necessary in the lower portion of the city, the principal 
 insurance companies continued to maintain the old apjiaratus. 
 In March, 1860, however, the Norwich Union office availed 
 itself of a simple but efficient "hose reel," devised some
 
 I860.] ST. Stephen's tower, clipton college. 373 
 
 years before by a working fireman at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 
 and the economical arrangement was soon generally adopted. 
 
 A movement was started about this time for increasing 
 the income of the vicarage of St. John, Broad Street, the 
 value of the living being only about £50 a year. About 
 £1,500 having been contributed, an arrangement was made 
 with the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, by which a further 
 payment of £79 yearly was assured to the incumbent. 
 
 In March, the authorities of St. Stephen's parish set about 
 the renovation of the beautiful tower of the church. The 
 structure had suffered mueh from natural decay, but more 
 from the hands of ignorant churchwardens, all the delicate 
 lattice-work attached to the pinnacles, and resting upon 
 gurgoyles at the corners of the tower, having been deliber- 
 ately cut away with a mason's saw in 1822, with disastrous 
 results to the effect of the building. Plans of the original 
 work having been preserved, its faithful reproduction was 
 resolved on, and appeals were made to the public for funds 
 to restore the lower storeys of the tower. The response was 
 not sufficiently liberal to carry out the design in its entirety, 
 but the restoration of the pinnacles and of the upper storey 
 was effected in a creditable manner, the work being com" 
 pleted in September, 1862. About fourteen years later the 
 interior of the church was restored ; the walls of the aisles — 
 barbarous constructions of 1704 — were rebuilt, and an un* 
 sightly altar screen in a debased Greek style, which blocked 
 up the east window, gave place to an appropriate reredos. 
 
 At a meeting held in Clifton on the 16th May, the mayor 
 (Mr. J. Bates) presiding, it was resolved to establish, by 
 means of a company, a first class public school for the educa- 
 tion of the sons of gentlemen, members of the Established 
 Church, and a provisional committee was appointed to carry 
 out the object in view. The result of this gathering was the 
 establishment of Clifton College. The capital was fixed at 
 £10,000, in £25 shares; and a large piece of ground (includ- 
 ing a public house called the Gardeners' Arms) having been 
 purchased for £14,000, the erection of the "big school," 
 designed by Mr. C. Hansom, soon after commenced. The 
 cost of the building was £5,088. In January, 1861, the 
 Council elected as head master the Rev. C. Evans, M.A., one 
 of the masters at Rugby. After appointing several under- 
 masters, however, Mr. Evans sought for and obtained the 
 head-mastership of a school at Birmingham. The Clifton 
 authorities thereupon appointed the Rev. John Percival, 
 M.A., Fellow of Queen's College, Oxford, whose university
 
 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. [1860. 
 
 career had been of almost unsurpassed brilliancy ; and the 
 college was opened on the 30th September, 1862, with about 
 sixty boys. In 1866 a chapel was added to the buildings by 
 , t^^?« Guthrie, at an outlay of £5,000, as a memorial of her 
 
 >*1 ^liiSband, Canon Guthrie, a zealous promoter of the college. 
 
 y^ t )S»'' ' C'^^® chapel waTTin 8^1-2 considerably enlarged.] In 1866 
 n a new wing was added to the buildings, and in the following 
 
 year a physical science school and gymnasium were erected. 
 In 1869 Mr, Percival undertook to provide a library for 
 the institution at his own cost; swimming baths were also 
 built, and a sanatorium provided. In 1874 the assistant 
 masters, the bo3'S, and their friends added a museum to the 
 library, and a preparatory school was erected. Many other 
 additions were made from time to time. It was originally 
 intended to have a ''modern'^ school equal in size to the 
 '' big " school, but this was afterwards found to be un- 
 necessary. The quadrangle, which formed part of the 
 architect's design, was also given up. In 1886 a further 
 extensive addition was made by the completion of the east 
 wing, and the erection of a drawing school, laboratories, etc. 
 The progress of the college exceeded the utmost expectations 
 of its promoters; and in December, 1877, with a view to its 
 establishment on a more permanent and unsectarian basis, 
 and to place it on a level with the other great public schools, 
 it was resolved to wind up the company and to petition the 
 Crown for a charter of incorporation. This document was 
 obtained in March, 1878. In the following October, Dr. 
 Percival, on being appointed President of Triiiity College, 
 Oxford, vacant by the resignation of the Rev, S, W. Wayte, 
 relinquished the head-mastership of Clifton, and was suc- 
 ceeded by the Rev, J, M, ^ilson, M.A. (senior wrangler in 
 1860), then first mathematical roaster at Rugby, In October, 
 1879, Dr. Percival was presented with a costly and beautiful 
 service of plate in recognition of his eminent services to the 
 college, and of his successful efforts for the advancement of 
 education in Bristol. The presentation was made by the 
 Earl of Ducie. Dr. Percival was nominated to a canonry in 
 Bristol Cathedra] in 1882, but relinquished it early in 1887, 
 having been appointed head-master of Rugby. 
 
 At the midsummer quarter sessions for the city, in 1860, 
 leave Avas granted for the diversion of an ancient footpath 
 in Tyndall's Park leading into Cotliam Road, near Uillside. 
 The application was made with a view to the formation of 
 what is now known asWoodfield Hoa<l. From the legal notice 
 given of the intended deviation, it appeared that the portions
 
 I860,] COMPLETION OF THE SUSPENSION BRIDGE. 375 
 
 of the park over wliich tlie footpath ran were formerly known 
 as " Cantock's Closes, Long-leaze, Claypitts, High-raeadow, 
 and Traitor's-well." In June, 1861, a new street through 
 Tyndall's Park, connecting Whiteladies Road with Gotham 
 Road, near Highbury Chapel, was opened for foot passengers. 
 Although occasional attempts had been made from time to 
 time to revive public interest in the proposed Suspension 
 Bridge at Clifton, nothing had really been effected since the 
 abandonment of operations in 1843, caused by lack of funds, 
 down to the period now under review, and it would be tedious 
 to record the various schemes which were ventilated only to 
 be thrown aside. In the spring of I860, when it became 
 known that the Hungei^ford Suspension Bridge, in London, 
 another of Brunei's works, and of nearly the same span as 
 that proposed at Clifton, was about to be replaced by a 
 railway bridge, two well-known engineers, Mr. [Sir John] 
 Hawkshaw and Mr. Barlow, believing that the material set 
 at liberty might be successfully applied to the completion of 
 the unfinished structure, arranged for the purchase both of 
 the chains, etc., in London, and of the piers at Clifton, and 
 then laid their project before the public. The opportunity of 
 constructing the bridge at a cheap rate proved attractive, not 
 merely to many Bristolians but to distant capitalists, and the 
 shares of the proposed new company, with a capital of £35,000, 
 exclusive of borrowing powers, were soon absorbed. [The 
 sum of £2,000, in paid-up £10 shares, was accepted by the 
 old company for the piers and approaches, which cost 
 £25,000.] Sir J. Greville Smyth soon afterwards offered to 
 give £2,500 towards the undertaking, provided that the bridge 
 were increased in width from twenty-four to thirty feet, and 
 this condition was assented to. A Bill to authorise the con- 
 struction of the bridge was brought into Parliament in 1861, 
 and passed without opposition. The object which Mr. Vick 
 had in view when he made his celebrated bequest [see p. 131] 
 was not, however, forgotten by Lord Redesdale, the chairman 
 of committees in the House of Lords. Vick contemplated a 
 bridge free from toll, and a large part of the funds subscribed 
 in 1830 was given on the same understanding. Lord Redes- 
 dale therefore insisted on the insertion of a clause providing 
 a sinking fund of £50 a year ; and the promoters, much against 
 their will, were compelled to acquiesce. The design of 
 Messrs. Hawkshaw and Barlow for the structure was some- 
 what different from that of Brunei. The main chains on 
 each side were increased from two to three ; the girders 
 were all of iron, instead of a combination of iron and wood ;
 
 // 
 
 376 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1860. 
 
 and the ancliorage was bi'ouglit nearer to the piers, thereby 
 shortening the land chains. Against these improvements, 
 however, was to be set the bald, unfinished aspect of the 
 piers, which Brunei intended to have finished in the Egyptian 
 style of architecture, in the spirit of the great remains at 
 Thebes. The towers were to have been cased with iron, 
 decorated with figures illustrating the whole work of con- 
 structing the bridge and the manufacture of the material. 
 The execution of this design would have involved an outlay 
 of several thousand pounds. The works were commenced in 
 November, 1862, as soon as the chains at Hungerford were 
 set at liberty. During the following summer wire ropes were 
 carried across the river and over the east side of the piers on 
 each side, and upon these a platform of planks was laid, 
 forming an airy bridge for the use of the workmen. This 
 was finished on the 4th July, 1863. Another rope, slung 
 above this fabric, had attached to it a " traveller " capable of 
 moving a body of considerable weight to any part of the 
 chasm. The eastern main chains were thus gradually put 
 together, link by link, upon the platform, and as soon as this 
 was completed the framework was shifted to the western 
 side of the piers, where the remaining chains were laid in a 
 similar manner. The next operation was to suspend to the 
 chains the girders for the pei-manent roadway, and as this 
 task could be prosecuted from both sides, it was soon success- 
 fully accomplished. On the 2nd July, 1864, when the last 
 of the cross girders was fixed in the centre of the bridge, a 
 small party was allowed to pass over by Mr. Airey, the 
 resident engineer. In the following September a number of 
 members of the British Association (including the celebrated 
 traveller. Dr. Livingstone), then holding their annual congress 
 at Bath, also visited and passed over the bridge. The per- 
 manent roadway was then being laid down, and towards the 
 close of November the bridge was tested, preparatory to the 
 visit of the Board of Trade inspectoi-, by placing about 500 
 tons of stone on the centre of the roadway. The deflection 
 caused by this weight was only seven inches, and it at once 
 disappeared when the burden was removed. The formal 
 opening of the bridge took place on the 8th Docombor, and 
 was celol)rated with much rejoicing. A procession of trades 
 and friendly societies — more than a mile in length — marched 
 through the principal streets of the city, and then directed 
 its course to Clifton Down, where an immense crowd of 
 spectators, tliousands of wliom had thronged in from tho 
 surrounding rural districts, occupied every spot commanding
 
 18G0.] CRICKETING BY THE GRACE FAMILY. 377 
 
 the new structure. Tlie procession wliicli first passed over 
 was headed by the contractors, the resident engineer, and 
 the artisans by whom the work had been accomplished. 
 These were followed by the volunteer corps of the city, the 
 Lords Lieutenant of Somerset and Bristol, the bishop and 
 clergy, several members of Parliament, the chairman, directors 
 and engineers of the company, the mayor, Coimcil, and magis- 
 tracy, the members of the Merchants' Society and boards 
 of guardians, the local fraternity of Freemasons, and lastly 
 the procession of trades, etc. On the return of the vast party 
 to Clifton Down, prayer was offered up by the bishop of the 
 diocese ; and the two lords lieutenant, each for his own county, 
 then declared the bridge open for trafiic. A grand banquet 
 at the Victoria Rooms brought the proceedings of a memor- 
 able day to a close. [The bridge seems to possess an irre- 
 sistible attraction to persons afflicted with suicidal derange- 
 ment. The first suicide from it took place in May, 1866 ; 
 since that date the roll of fatalities has increased to up- 
 wards of twenty. The most surprising incident connected 
 with this mania occurred on the 8th May, 1885, when a 
 young woman threw herself off the bridge, but was picked 
 up uninjured on the right bank of the river.] 
 
 During the cricket season of 1860, the attention of lovers 
 of the game was drawn to the unusually large scores made 
 , by Mr. E. M. Grace, a native of Bristol, who in the course of 
 I J a year or two acquired a national reputation for his skill. In 
 1860 he played in thirty-two matches, and scored 1,372 
 runs. In 1861, in thirty-seven matches, he made 1,747 runs. 
 In 1862 he played in thirty-six matches and scored 2,190. 
 And in 1863 he was engaged in fifty matches and made 3,074 
 runs. One of his scores in those years reached 241, and 
 twenty-four others ranged between 100 and 208. In addition 
 to his batting exploits, moreover, he took 1,347 wickets, an 
 average of more than four per innings. Subsequently his 
 younger brother, Mr. W. Gr. G-race, achieved still greater 
 triumphs in the game. In 1865, when only seventeen years 
 of age, his skill was already so widely known that he was 
 selected to play in the premier match of the year — that of 
 the gentlemen against the players of England. Passing 
 over many remarkable seasons, in 1871 he made 3,696 runs 
 for sixty-three innings ; and in 1876 he made in three innings, 
 400, 344, and 318 runs, though in two of those matches he 
 was playing against the Kent and the York county clubs, 
 two of the strongest in the kingdom. Down to 1879, counting 
 only first class games, his scores reached a total of 20,832.
 
 378 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1860. 
 
 His bowling, moreover, was equally formidable, lie baving 
 between 1863 and 1879 taken 1,349 wickets in first class 
 matcbes alone, wbile in secondary games tbe results were still 
 more extraordinary. In July, 1879, upon bis partial retire- 
 ment from tbe cricket field in order to apply bimself to bis 
 profession as a surgeon, Mr, W. G. Grace was presented by 
 Lord Fitzbardinge, on bebalf of tbe cricketers of England, 
 beaded by tbe Prince of Wales, witb a purse of £1,400 (to 
 wbicb tbis district bad contributed £770) and a bandsome 
 clock, in testimony of tbeir admiration of bis acbievements — 
 wbicb, so far as batting was concerned, bad never been ap- 
 proacbed. Tbe youngest brotber of tbe family, Mr. G. F. 
 Grace, was also invited to take part in first class matcbes 
 before be bad attained bis sixteentb year. In subsequent 
 seasons be became almost as famous as bis brotbers, and 
 assisted in raising tbe fame of Gloucestersbire cricketers to 
 an unexampled lieigbt. A leading London journal, recording 
 bis premature deatb in bis 30tb year, spoke of bim as " bardly 
 second as an all round cricketer to any man in England." 
 
 In October, 1860, tbe Dcedalus, an old twenty-gun frigate, 
 was ordered by tbe Government to be fitted up and sent to 
 Bristol, for use as a training sbip by tbe recently establisbed 
 Royal Naval Eeserve. Tbe sbip arrived in tbe Floating 
 Harbour in June, 1861. 
 
 At tbe annual Colston festival, in November, a proposal 
 was started by Mr. G. W. Franklyn, M.P. (mayor in 1841-2) 
 for tbe erection in tbe city of a statue of tbe great pbilan- 
 tbropist wliose birtb was tben being celebrated, Tbe expense 
 was estimated at £500, towards wbicb Mr, Franklyn and 
 anotber citizen offered £50 eacli, Tbe proposition fell still- 
 born. In 1870, during tbe restoration of St, Mary RedclifF, 
 it was suggested tbat tbe great window in tbe nortb transept 
 migbt be appropriately filled witb stained glass in memory 
 of Colston. Tbe proposal was received witb coldness, but a 
 sufficient sum was eventually obtained to carry it into eifect. 
 
 A singular distribution of property took place in tbe city 
 in Dcceml)er. In explanation of tbe affair, it is necessary to 
 state tbat five of tbe barge family luausiuiis standing on tbe 
 east side of Brunswick Square were built by wbat was called 
 a tontine, establisbed in 1786. Tbe sum expended was 5,000 
 guineas, divided into 100 sbares of 50 guineas eacb, beld 
 by as many lives. Altbougb the s])eculation was substan- 
 tially a lottery, tbe subscribers embraced many prominent 
 Quakers, as will bo seen by iln" following names: -loliu -I, 
 Harford, Jobn !\ Fry, George Eaton, Thomas Mills, Edward
 
 I860.] HORFIELD GARDENS. THE CATHEDRAL EAGLE. 379 
 
 Ash, John Cave, John Grodwin, Edward Harwood, Abraham ^ 
 Ludlow, Joseph Were, and Matthew Wright. The number of 
 surviving Hves having been reduced to five in 18G0, it was 
 determined that a ballot should take place, when Mrs. S. P. 
 Anderson, of Henlade, became the owner of the largest 
 house, No. 7 ; Mr. R. Ash got No. 8 ; Miss F. Wright had No. 
 9 ; and Alderman R. H. Webb, representing two lives in one 
 family, was allotted Nos. 10 and 11. Brunswick Square was 
 originally planted with elms, in which a colony of rooks soon 
 established themselves. The trees, becoming old and danger- 
 ous, were cut down in December, 1858, when the birds took 
 flight to the woods near Redland Court. Many of the trees 
 in which they took refuge were destroyed in the spring of 
 1886, when the grounds formerly belonging to that mansion 
 were laid out for building purposes. 
 
 About the close of 18G0, the ancient Deanery, in College 
 Green, was abandoned as a residence by the Dean of Bristol, 
 on the ground of its alleged insalubrity. The house was 
 afterwards occupied by the Young Men's Christian Associa- 
 tion ; subsequently a large portion was removed during the 
 construction of Deanery Road. 
 
 The Bristol Pleasure Gardens Company, with a capital of 
 £10,000 in £1 shares, came into existence towards the close 
 of this year. About a twelvemonth later, the directors 
 bought from the Rev. H. Richards eight acres of agricultural 
 land at Horfield for £2,000, and converted the fields into a 
 garden for public recreation. The place was opened with a 
 fete given by the Order of Foresters on the 25th August, 
 1862, when 14,000 persons were present. The enterprise, 
 however, proved unprofitable, and in February, 1871, the site 
 of the garden was sold for £2,950. In September, 1873, the 
 estate was purchased by the Corporation for £3,875, with the 
 intention of erecting upon it a new prison for the city. The /^ 
 gaol, as will afterwards be noticed, was eventually erected 
 by the Government. 
 
 In January, 1861, an attempt was made by the Rev. 
 Precentor Caley, and a few other gentlemen interested in the 
 restoration of the cathedral, to recover for that edifice the 
 brazen eagle which Dean Layard and his colleagues thought 
 proper to sell in 1802 [see p. 18]. It appeared that the 
 lectern had never been used since its removal to St. Mar}^- 
 le-port, and that the Rev. S. A. Walker, the incumbent, had 
 emphatically declared he should never read from it. The 
 reverend gentleman, however, changed his mind on the 
 subject ; and as the inscription placed on the eagle by Mr.
 
 II 
 
 II 
 
 380 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1861. 
 
 „4dey stated that it was to remain " for ever " in the cliurcli, 
 the vestry refused to part with the ornament. Mr. Caley 
 then appealed for subscriptions to obtain a new lectern for 
 the cathedral, but died in November, 1861, before the need- 
 ful amount had been promised. An eagle was, however, 
 erected in the cathedral in August, 1862, as a memorial of 
 his services as precentor for nearly twenty-five years. 
 
 The first general collection in churches and chapels for the 
 benefit of the Infirmary and Hospital took place on the 20th 
 January, 1861. In a great number of cases the clergy and 
 ministers at first declined to respond to the movement for a 
 " hospital Sunday," and the total amount acknowledged in 
 the newspapers at the close of the week was only £637, a 
 large portion of which was contributed by the rural parishes. 
 The institution has since been generally recognised. In 
 1847 only one congregational collection was made in the city 
 on behalf of the Infirmary. 
 
 St. Bartholomew's Church, Union Street, was consecrated 
 on the 22nd January. The building, which accommodates 
 about 450 persons, cost, including the site, £3,600. By an 
 Order in Council of the following April, an ecclesiastical 
 parish, consisting of the southern portion of St. James's to the 
 Horsefair, was connected with the new church. St. Luke's 
 Church, Bedminster, was consecrated on the 23rd January. 
 It had cost about £7,000. 
 
 At a meeting held in the city in February, to support a 
 Bill then before the Hoiise of Commons for the abolition of 
 church rates, Mr. H. J. Mills produced some statistics from 
 a Parliamentary return to show, as he contended, that the 
 enforced contribution to the Church dried up the sources 
 upon which the Establishment might safely rely if they were 
 left uncontrolled. There were, he said, only three parishes 
 in Bristol where church rates were levied. In St. Augus- 
 tine's £1,160 had been obtained by compulsion in seven years, 
 while the voluntary offerings were only £150. In St. 
 George's, Brandon Hill, force had secured £1,007 in the same 
 period, while nothing had bden contributed voluntarily. In 
 Clifton, £1,942 had been levied by the tax, and nothing had 
 been given. On the other hand, taking the comparatively 
 poor parishes, St. Andrew's had obtained voluntarilv, £277 ; 
 St. Barnabas', £280; St. Clement's, £280; St. Matthias' 
 £196; St. Taul's, £154, St. Philip's, £479, and Trinity £174 : 
 " making a total of £2,500 given in the poor parishes, against 
 the solitary sum of £150 offered in the rich parishes where 
 there were church rates."
 
 \ 
 
 1861.] THE WHARFAGE DUES. CENSUS. 381 
 
 In the spring of 1861 the Charity Trustees purchased 
 some quaint old houses on the east side of Steep Street for 
 the purpose of enlarging" the adjoining almshouse, founded 
 by John Foster. Plans for the complete rebuilding of the ^/v 
 
 institution were obtained ; but as the funds in hand were . jlv \ L^ 
 insufficient to carry them out, the trustees contented them- \^ j^ J 
 selves with removing the houses in Steep Street, and with""- ^T )^ 
 erecting the western wing of the hospital on an enlarged, _^' 
 
 scale. Some years later a piece of ground at the back oft)' \\ 
 the almshouse was purchased, and laid out as a recreation 
 ground for the inmates. It was not until the summer of 
 1883 that the trustees were in a position to commence the 
 reconstruction of the south and east wings, and the renova- 
 tion of the interesting little chapel of the Three Kings of 
 Cologne, which works were effected at a cost of £5,000. \ 
 The design, which was praiseworthy, in spite of some mere- 
 tricious details of a continental character, included the con- 
 struction, under the almshouses, of four shops fronting 
 Christmas Steps. 
 
 At a meeting of the Council on the 26th March, the Dock 
 Committee reported that they had negotiated with the 
 Society of Merchant Venturers for the surrender by the 
 latter of their interest in the lease of 1764, under which the 
 wharfage dues were held of the city for 99 years, at a rent 
 of £10 a year. The Society having offered to give up the 
 lease on the payment of a sum equal to one third of the net 
 receipts during the three previous years, the committee 
 recommended that those terms be accepted, and their pro- 
 posal was approved. The Merchants' Company at the same 
 time made a donation of £2,000 towards the erection of goods 
 sheds upon the quays. These buildings, much ridiculed for 
 their tastelessness, were commenced on the Broad Quay; a 
 column bearing a sundial, which had stood there for at least 
 two centuries, being removed in March, 1862, to make way 
 for them. 
 
 The seventh national census was taken on the 8th April, 
 when the population of the "ancient city" was found to be 
 66,027 — the highest number it ever attained, later returns 
 denoting a tendency to migrate from the central districts. 
 The population of the extended city was 154,093. For pur- 
 poses of comparison it may be stated that Clifton was credited 
 with 21,735; the district of St. James and St. Paul, 9,944; 
 St. Philip's, out, 31,753 ; St. George's, 10,276; Bedminster, 
 22,346; Mangotsfield, 4,222; Stapleton, 5,355; and Stoke 
 Bishop tything, 5,623. In this census Horfield began to
 
 382 THE AJS^NALS OF BRISTOL. [1861. 
 
 assume the importance of a suburb: containing only 119 
 persons in 1801, and only 328 thirty years later, its inhabi- 
 tants had now sprung to 1,746. 
 
 The London Gazette of April 16, 1861, contained an official 
 announcement of the creation of the 2nd Gloucestershire 
 Engineer Volunteer corps. Mr. W. Harwood was appointed 
 commandant ; Mr. J. Pierson, captain ; Messrs. B. S. Cooper 
 and G. P. Marten, first lieutenants; Messrs. P. S. Prothe- 
 roe and W. P._Wall, second lieutenants. The privates 
 were at that time almost exclusively workmen in the 
 employment of the Bristol and Exeter railway; but fi'om 
 1870 the corps has been recruited from the artisan class 
 generally. The first parade took place on the 6th July, 
 1861. [About the same date Mr. Berkeley commented 
 strongly in the House of Commons on the perversity of the 
 military authorities, who asked for a vote of £90,000 for the 
 yeomanry cavalry, which Mr. Berkeley termed worse than 
 useless, while only £42,000 were granted in aid of the 
 volunteer movement throughout the kingdom.] Drills at 
 first took place in the Exchange, and subsequently in a large 
 house in Avon Street, Temple. Later on, premises were 
 rented in Trinity Street, where, in 1883, a large drill hall 
 was erected, together with an armoury and other buildings 
 required for engineering practice, the outlay being about 
 £2,500. The corps, which from its importance has been 
 granted the title of the Bristol Engineer corps, then consisted 
 of 671 officers and men, exclusive of the Clifton College 
 Cadet corps, attached to the regiment, and numbering 81. 
 
 Up to this time, no attempt having been made by the civic 
 authorities to water the streets of the borough, the nuisance 
 created by dust during the summer months Avas a source of 
 loss to many tradesmen, and of much discomfort to all classes. 
 In Clifton some of the roads had been watered by private 
 subscription ; but the refusal of mean-spirited people to con- 
 tribute to a work of which they enjoyed the benefit caused 
 discontent and failure. At length, upwards of thirty me- 
 morials were presented to the Council, ])raying for the estab- 
 lishment of a general system of watering; and in April, 1861, 
 the Board of Health Committee proposed that the main 
 thoroughfares of the city, comprising a length of nearly 
 twenty-four miles, should be dealt with, the yc^arly expendi- 
 ture being estimated at £2,500. This ]ir()])osal, which re- 
 ceived the approval of the Council, caused dissatisfaction 
 amongst the ratepayers dwelling in the non-watered thorough- 
 fares, who contended that it was unfair to tax all the city
 
 1861.] STREET WATERING. '' GENERAL " MATHIAS. 383 
 
 for tlie benefit of only a part. At the next meeting of the 
 Council, petitions signed by several thousand citizens wore 
 presented against the scheme, the people of 8t. Philip's out- 
 parish especially protesting against an arrangement by which 
 only three miles of road in their extensive district were to be 
 watei'ed, against eight miles of road in Clifton. The Council, 
 submitting to popular feeling, determined to relinquish the 
 project. The dust nuisance remaining unabated, in February, 
 18G7, the Health Committee presented another report, re- 
 commending that £2,500 a year, equivalent to a rate of little 
 more than a penny in the pound, should be voted for water- 
 ing thirty-two miles of streets, including all the leading 
 thoroughfares. The report was adopted, and the plan came 
 into operation during the summer. No concerted opposition 
 was offered on this occasion by the residents in the unwatered 
 streets, but they speedily began to press the authorities to 
 be included in the favoured area, and it was at last found 
 necessary to make the system practically universal. 
 
 In the course of the parliamentary session of 1861, an Act 
 was passed by which Cardiff, Newport, and Gloucester were 
 exempted from the provisions of the Bristol Pilotage Act of 
 1807, and the pilotage service in those ports, hitherto com- 
 pulsory, became voluntary. The Corporation of Bristol 
 stoutly_ fought for the retention of the compulsory system, 
 but without success. The management of the Bristol pilotage 
 service, which had been in the hands of the Merchants' 
 Society for about 250 years, was transferred during the 
 summer to the Docks Committee. 
 
 An exhibition of industrial and ornamental art was opened 
 on the 7th August in the Fine Arts' Academy. Although 
 the value of the articles exhibited was estimated at £150,000, 
 while the admission was fixed at sixpence, the public mani- 
 fested great apathy towards the collection, which, though 
 open nearly three months, was visited by only 24,000 persons. 
 
 An amusing action for what was legally called an assault 
 took place at Bristol assizes on the 19th August. For a 
 quarter of a century previously a contest had been waged 
 between certain persons at Clifton and Mr. William Mathias, 
 an eccentric parishioner, in reference to an alleged right of 
 way between Rodney Place and Ferney Close (now Victoria 
 Square). Mr. Mathias, the owner of the adjacent houses in 
 Boyce's Buildings, admitted that there was a footpath, but 
 denied the right of carriages to pass ; and a wall which he 
 erected to prevent the alleged invasion on his ])roperty, 
 was thrown down, rebuilt, and re-demolished on numberless
 
 384 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. [1861. 
 
 occasions. Eventually he erected an arch over the path, and 
 set up an iron gate, when the old struggle recommenced over 
 the latter construction, which was frequently removed and 
 replaced. Although Mr. Mathias was a singularly impracti- 
 cable man, his complaints of persecution against the Corpora- 
 tion and the Merchants' Society met with considerable public 
 sympathy, the repeated injuries to his property being in- 
 variably committed during the night-time, in order to prevent 
 him from tracing out and prosecuting the perpetrators, who 
 were undoubtedly hired by persons in the background. The 
 charge on which the action was brought against him was of 
 an insignificant character. A lady had, it appeared, gone 
 down the disputed path with a perambulator, which she had 
 lifted over the iron barrier, when Mr. Mathias slightly 
 pushed her on the shoulder, and ordered her to go back. 
 The action, nominally prosecuted in her name, was really 
 brought by the Corporation. The chief witness for the 
 prosecution, Mr. George Ashmead, surveyor, admitted that 
 when he made a survey of the city, thirty-seven years pre- 
 viously, there was a gate across the roadway in question, and 
 that no carriage could have passed there without boiug lifted 
 over. The vehicle stopped by Mr. Mathias being a peram- 
 bulator — then a novel invention — no precedents could be 
 adduced, and there was much legal contention as to the 
 right of such a carriage to pass along footpaths. The absurd 
 female fashion of wearing crinoline, an article which had 
 just swollen to extreme monstrosity, was also amusingly in- 
 troduced. Mr. Mathias's counsel asked if a lady whose 
 dress spread the entire width of the path was to be turned 
 back by a perambulator, upon which Mr. Justice Byles 
 thought that a baby's carriage would not be half so formid- 
 able an obstruction as the mectiug of one lady with another. 
 Eventually the jury disagreed, and were discharged. The 
 Council next resolved upon raisiug another action, though 
 a memorial signed by several thousand persons protested 
 strongly against what was termed the vindictive oppression 
 of Mr. Mathias, and alleged — not without reason — that far 
 more serious encroachments on public roads and footpaths 
 had been winked at by the civic authorities. The case was 
 set down for trial at Bristol assizes in August, 1862 ; but a 
 compromiKc was previously arranged, by wliich the defendant 
 retained liis right to set up a gate, and the record was 
 withdrawn. For several years afterwards, Mr. Mathias's 
 name came frequently before the public in connection with 
 his conflicts with tlio authorities, and ho became locally
 
 18G1.] BRISTOL BRIDGE WIDENED. POST OFFICE BANKS. 385 
 
 known as "the general/' from his astute and obstinate 
 tactics in conducting " the battle of Boyce's Buildings/' and 
 other wars of a similar character. At length, in 1873, he 
 was committed to prison for contempt of the Court of Chan- 
 cery, having disobeyed an order to restore a roadway near 
 Manor House, with which he had interfered. Mr. Mathias, 
 who was then in his 92nd year, and had been reduced from 
 affluence to poverty, was not released until he had undergone 
 six months' imprisonment. As he disposed of the wrecks 
 of his property about the same time, " the battle of Boyce's 
 Buildings " came to an end. 
 
 Reviving a suspended scheme [see p. 291], the Council, 
 during the autumn of 1861, resolved upon widening Bristol 
 Bridge to the extent of about twelve feet on the eastern 
 side, by removing the heavy stone battlement, and laying 
 a new footpath upon iron cantilevers outside the additional 
 space thus obtained. Two of the stone edifices erected for 
 toll-houses were removed during the alterations, the plan 
 of which provoked much public dissatisfaction, and even a 
 suit in Chancery against the Corporation, instituted by some 
 of the neighbouring tradesmen. Instead of following the 
 convex lines of the bridge, the new footway was constructed 
 horizontally, on the level of the highest portion of the curve, 
 so that each end was some feet above the carriage road, and 
 could be reached only by steps. The arrangement was so 
 universally condemned that the Corporation were forced to 
 remedy the unsightly blunder. Although the cost of the 
 improvement was £5,000, it was complained that the altera- 
 tions had been carried out with a striking disregard of 
 architectural proprieties, and with a reckless indifference to 
 picturesqueness of effect. The work of widening the west 
 side of the bridge was commenced in March, 1873, when the 
 two remaining toll-houses were demolished. As the stone 
 balustrade was also taken down, and replaced by cast metal 
 railing in harmony with the eastern side, the " lopsidedness " 
 of the structure disappeared, though many citizens continued 
 to complain that the bridge, in an artistic point of view, had 
 been ruined. The structui'e was completed in June, 1874. 
 
 A new Congregational chapel, erected in Redland Park, 
 was opened on the 4th September, with sermons by the Rev. 
 Dr. Raleigh and the Rev. Dr. Vaughan. The edifice cost 
 £4,700, and was described as unusually ornate in the interior, 
 but its slate-covered spire Avas characterised by some critics 
 as more px'ominent than beautiful. 
 
 The first local Post-office Savings Bank was opened at the 
 
 c c
 
 386 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1861. 
 
 Clifton office on the 16tla vSeptember. Some delay occurred 
 in providing a similar institution in tlie city, but on tlie 10th 
 March, 1862, an office was opened at the money-order office, 
 then located in a shop in Albion Chambers, Small Street. 
 
 The Council having definitively refused to undertake works 
 near the mouth of the Avon for the accommodation of large 
 vessels [see p. 362], a scheme was proposed in the autumn 
 of 1861 for initiating so urgent an improvement by means 
 of private enterprise. The project — the chief promoters of 
 which were Messrs. P. W. S. Miles, Robert Bright, and C. J. 
 Thomas — took the form of a Bristol Port Railway and Pier, 
 tKe line to commence near the Hotwell, and to terminate at 
 a pier, to be erected at the mouth of the river, opposite to 
 Dunball island. An Act to authorise the undertaking having 
 been obtained in 1862, a company was formed, with a capital 
 of £125,000 in £10 shares, very few of which, however, were 
 subscribed for by the public. The construction of the line 
 was begun by the turning of the "first sod'^ on the 19th 
 February, 1863, and the railway was opened for traffic on 
 the 6th March, 1864. The pier at ''Avonmouth" — the new 
 name given to the place — was completed about three months 
 later.* The development of this undertaking into an ex- 
 tensive dock will be recorded later on ; but it may be stated 
 here that the railway has never returned a dividend to its 
 proprietors. In 1869 a holder of a debenture bond for £10,000 
 demanded payment of his loan, which the company were 
 unable to meet, whereupon the line was placed by the Court 
 of Chancery in the hands of a receiver, and the proprietors 
 have never recovered possession. 
 
 The record of the above pier affords a convenient oppor- 
 tunity for noticing a geographical phenomenon which has 
 taken place within the memory of many persons still young, 
 namely, the removal, so to speak, of a portion of the county 
 of Somerset from the south side of the Avon, and its junction 
 with the county of Gloucester on the opposite bank of the 
 stream. In the chart of the Severn and Avon published by 
 G. Collins in 1693, a large promontory on the Somerset shore 
 of the latter river, nearly opposite to where the Lighthouse 
 now stands, forced the stream before joining the Severn to 
 make a shar]) bend towards the north. In Donn's beautiful 
 map of the environs of liristol, issued in 1770, the course of 
 the Avon is depicted as by Collins, but a thin line is figured 
 
 • Avonraouth hotel and pleasure gardens were opened on the 10th April, 
 IWri, but tlie attempt to make tlie place a popular numuier resort resulted in 
 heavy loH8 to the original projectors.
 
 1861.] A GEOGRAPHICAL PHENOMENON. 387 
 
 as cutting- across the promontory, and marked " the Swasli," 
 by which line, as we learn from ti*adition, light boats at high 
 water could make a straight course from the Severn to Pill. 
 No further change took place for nearly a century. In 1852, 
 when Mr. Howard, the Bristol docks engineer, made a survey, 
 " the only available channel for shipping was the ' North 
 Channel,' " though " the Swashway was gradually becoming 
 more used by small craft." The Swash had indeed become 
 so deep that the northern end of the promontory had practi- 
 cally become an island, and had obtained the name of the 
 Dunball. The construction of the pier mentioned in the 
 preceding paragraph shows that its promoters felt no fear of 
 the permanence of the North Channel. In fact, Mr. Howard 
 stated (British Association reports for 1875), "the depth of 
 water was good up to 1865, when the Irish and other 
 steamers used to land their passengers there. Even in 
 October, 1867, Captain Bedford, R.N., who was surveying this 
 channel, found forty-two feet of water in it." An extra- 
 ordinary change was, however, then taking place. The Swash 
 rapidly deepened, and large ships were able to pass over it 
 safely. On the other hand, the North Channel silted up with 
 marvellous celerity, and when Captain Bedford saw it again 
 in 1871, "he found only eight feet of water, showing an ac- 
 cumulation of thirty-four feet " since his survey four years 
 before. In 1875 the silting had risen to forty-one feet,* and 
 soon afterwards the North Channel disappeared altogether, 
 while " Dunball Island," — the end of the old promontory- 
 had become indissolubly joined to Grloucestershire. The 
 piece of ground in question, about twenty-five acres in extent, 
 was, and indeed is, part of the parish of St. George, or 
 Easton-in-Gordano. In March, 1886, a Local Government 
 Board inquiry took place at Bourton, under the Divided 
 Parishes Act, the result of which will probably be the separa- 
 tion of the spot from its former county and parochial con- 
 nections. 
 
 The prospectus of the Bristol and Clifton Eailway Company 
 was issued in the closing months of 1861, and was received 
 by the citizens with a wide measure of approval. The object 
 of the promoters was the extension of the trunk lines of 
 railway from Temple Meads into the city and to Clifton, and 
 the connection of the railway system with the quays and 
 Floating Harbour by means of tramways. The passenger line 
 was to have crossed over Temple and Redcliff Streets and the 
 
 * Mr. Howard estimated that a million cubic yards of silt had accumulated 
 within ten years.
 
 388 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1861. 
 
 Float to Queen Square, whicli was to have been converted 
 into a central terminus, and from which a new branch line 
 was proposed to be carried to the lower slopes of Brandon 
 Hill, near Clifton. The capital of the company was fixed at 
 £250,000, and the Great Western board undertook to sub- 
 scribe a moiety of the amount, and to guarantee a minimum 
 dividend of 4 per cent, yearly on the remainder. At a meet- 
 ing of merchants and leading citizens, the project was cordi- 
 ally welcomed by the mayor (Mr.JT^^JIare), the master of the 
 Merchants' Society (Mr. F. W^^jGcreen), and the president of 
 the Chamber of Commerce (Mr. P. W. Miles) ; an influential 
 committee was appointed to further its success ; and a petition 
 in its favour, signed by upwards of 5,000 ratepayers, was 
 presented to the Council. Its reception by the " fixed 
 
 Eroperty party " in that body was nevertheless of the most 
 ostile character. It was alleged that the scheme, in con- 
 junction with that for the port railway and pier, was an 
 insidiovTS device to divert the commerce of Bristol from the 
 city; and a resolution approving of the line was defeated 
 by the customary manoeuvre of a reference to a special 
 committee — 26 members voting for the amendment, and 
 25 for the original motion. (The obstructive nature of the 
 opposition was indicated by the fact that the appointed com- 
 mittee never even pretended to undertake the duties con- 
 ferred upon it.) Subsequently, the anti-progressive party 
 found that those tactics would not serve their end, as the 
 promoters were enabled to proceed unopposed with their Bill 
 in Parliament. The measure itself was then referred to the 
 Parliamentary Committee of the Council, which body, after 
 suggesting certain modifications in details, recommended 
 that the Bill should be allowed to pass. Their repoi't ex- 
 cited the intense wrath of the opposition. Alderman Ford — 
 an extensive owner of warehouse property — designating the 
 supporters of the scheme as " traitors to their native city." 
 Nevertheless, the report was confirmed by 34 votes against 
 23, some of the absentees at the previous meeting being 
 now present and turning the scale. The opponents of im- 
 provement next began an agitation out of doors, excited 
 appeals being made to the citizens to resist the appropriation 
 of Brandon itill and Queen Square, and the "destruction" of 
 the Fh)at. Alarming pictures were also drawn of the danger 
 of fire to Avhich sliipping and house property would be exposed 
 if locomotives were allowed to pass through the city, and 
 various other arguments of a similar character — equally 
 remote, it was alleged, from the true grounds of resistance —
 
 1861.] RIVAL RAILWAY SCHEMES. COLSTOn's HALL. 889 
 
 were incessantly urged upon the ratepayers. A large major- 
 ity of the intelligent classes remained uninfluenced by the 
 clamour, but the opposition, changing the field of battle to 
 Westminster, paraded before the committee of the House of 
 Commons as the defenders of local interests, and a crowd of 
 witnesses, including " three respectable washerwomen " from 
 Jacob's Wells, were brought forward to testify against the 
 scheme. After a prolonged inquiry, the committee refused 
 to approve of the preamble of the Bill, and the triumph of 
 the anti-improvement party, though costly, was complete^ 
 The Great Western board, which had oifered the city a great 
 boon, relinquished the idea of a central station, and a project 
 which many persons regarded as the most advantageous 
 for its purpose ever devised was irrecoverably lostw The 
 parliamentary expenses incurred by the promoters of the 
 scheme were stated to have amounted to £12,000. 
 
 Another railway project of this date was promoted by the 
 London and South Western Railway Company, who proposed 
 to connect their system with the city by the construction of 
 a new line from Gillingham, Dorset, through Frome to Temple 
 Meads, thus opening out a large district in Somerset. The 
 threatened invasion of its domain by a narrow gauge under- 
 taking was stoutly resisted by the Great Western Company, 
 which carried the war into the enemy's country by proposing 
 to construct a broad gauge line to Southampton, The board 
 also revived a plan for a railway from Radstock to Keyn- 
 sham, for which an Act had been obtained several years 
 before, but the powers of which had expired through effluxion 
 of time. After a lengthy and expensive struggle in Parlia- 
 ment, the Bills of both companies were rejected. 
 
 The want of a commodious hall for public meetings, enter- 
 tainments, etc., had long been painfully felt, the only building 
 suitable for such purposes in the commercial part of the 
 city — the Broadmead Rooms — being too small in regard to 
 the population, besides being inconvenient in its arrange- 
 ments and difficult of access. Upon the removal of Colston's 
 School from St. Augustine's Place, the vacated "great house " 
 was purchased by a few public-spirited gentlemen for £3,000 ; 
 and the Colston's Hall Company, with a capital of £12,000 in 
 £10 shares, was formed in November, 1861, for the purpose 
 of constructing an edifice worthy of the city. The demolition 
 of the great house took place in May, 1863, and shortly after- 
 wards the directors of the new company entered into a con- 
 tract for the erection of the large hall for the sum of £17,000. 
 The hall was opened on the 20th September, 1867. The cost
 
 390 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1861. 
 
 greatly e:xceeded tlie estimates, and so completely exhausted 
 Lfi^ fjC the resources of the company tliat the directors were unable 
 
 '^ \\i^ to proceed with the other portions of the building. In 1869 
 0(? J* . a fuBther sum of £15,000 was raised through the zeal and 
 
 /T^ t^ in liberality of some ten or twelve of the original promoters, 
 HjV /Al*''^^^ ^^^^ structure, in the complete form designed by the archi- 
 
 1^ n tect, was completed in February, 1873, the aggregate outlay 
 * " having been £40,000. 
 
 The Bishop's College at the top of Park Street [see p. 141] 
 was purchased in December, 1861, for £5,400, by Mr. Wm. 
 Wright and Mr. James Ford, officers in the volunteer rifle 
 corps, Avith a view to converting it into a head-quarters and 
 club house for the use of volunteers. The project was cordi- 
 ally approved by the riflemen and their friends, and further 
 expenditure being necessary to provide a drill-hall, class 
 rooms, racquet courts, etc., it was determined to form a 
 company, and to raise £10,000 by means of shares. The con- 
 cern was soon after registered as the Bristol Rifles' Head- 
 quarters Company. The apartments for the club were 
 "inaugurated" on the 27th September, 1862, and Avithin 
 a few months 440 members were enrolled. The drill-hall, 
 which cost about £2,500, and was then the largest hall in 
 the kingdom having no intermediate support, was opened in 
 October, 1862. In aid of the fund for its erection, the ladies 
 of the city contributed handsomely to a bazaar in the follow- 
 ing month, and succeeded in raising £1,300, which were 
 handed over to the company, " in consideration of which," 
 said the first report of the directors, " the corps had the use 
 of the drill-hall for five days in the week, an armoury, orderly 
 room, sergeants' room, store room, etc., at a very low rent." 
 The rent fixed for the drill-hall and appurtenances was in 
 fact £150, including gas, taxes, etc. At the outset the Head- 
 quarters Company was prosperous ; but from various causes 
 the club lost many subscribers, and at last ceased to pay 
 its way. The board, in the meantime, raised the rent for 
 the drill-hall, etc., first to £200, and then to £250. At a 
 meeting of the company in March, 1872, the directors re- 
 ported that as the expenditure was £400 in excess of the 
 income, it was advisable to let the club promises to private 
 persons for £280 a year, and to further increase the rent 
 paid by the volunteers. The sum mentioned by the chair- 
 man, liTajor Bush, as fairly chargeable to the corps was 
 £295, exclusive of repairs, gas, and taxes, or, in plain terms, 
 over £400 a year. It transpired during the sul)sequent dis- 
 cussion that the chief officers of the corps, Colonel Taylor
 
 1862.] PJFLE DRILL HALL. CHANNEL FORTIFICATIONS. 391 
 
 and Adjutant Jones, had resigned their seats at the board 
 in consequence of the decision of the majority, and that they 
 maintained that the £1,300 produced by the bazaar was still 
 the property of the volunteers — a contention which, though 
 denied by the directors, was apparently held by nearly all 
 who had taken part in the movement. Mr. Josiah Thomas, 
 city surveyor, acbnsed the regimental committee that their 
 claim to the £1,300 had been practically admitted in a 
 previous report of the directors, and that, taking this fund 
 into consideration, the fair rent of the hall and appurten- 
 ances was £210, or, if the hall were given up to the company 
 for four months in each year, £115. A lengthy controversy 
 ensued, in the course of which the company gave the corps 
 notice to quit the premises, while the latter threatened 
 legal proceedings for the recovery of the amount they held 
 to be due to them. Eventually an arrangement was made 
 in 1873, by which the officers of the regiment undertook to 
 pay £195 for the use of the hall for six months yearly, and 
 for the occupation of the offices, etc., for the entire year, the 
 company to be responsible for repairs and taxes. It was 
 mutually understood that the question at issue respecting 
 the bazaar money should be left to arbitration; but the 
 matter dropped, and was not revived. The club has been 
 twice reorganised since it fell under private management. 
 
 The unprotected state of the Bristol Channel had been for 
 some time previous to this date under the serious considera- 
 tion of the Grovernment. There was not a single effective 
 fort between Gloucester and the Land's End, nor w^as there 
 any harbour, accessible at all times of the tide, into which a 
 vessel pursued by an enemy could run for shelter. It was 
 announced, however, in January, 1862, that the Government 
 had selected, as the base for the construction of a line of 
 fortifications protecting the ports in the upper part of the 
 Channel, the hill known as Brean Down, pi^ojecting into the 
 sea near Weston-super-Mare, which was to be connected 
 with the promontory called Lavernock Point, on the opposite 
 coast, near Penarth, by means of double batteries on the tAvo 
 well-known islands, the Steep and Flat Holmes, thus securing 
 a cross fire of a formidable character, and virtually closing 
 the gates of the Severn and its tributaries. The works, for 
 which votes were granted by the House of Commons from 
 time to time, were not finished until 1872. In the spring of 
 the following year a garrison of about sixty artillerymen 
 occupied the fort upon Brean Down, which, like the others, 
 was armed with seven-ton guns. In 1874 the Bristol Artil-
 
 392 THK ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1862. 
 
 lery Yolunteers were attaclied to tlie service of the forts, 
 aud annual encampments for training have since taken place 
 on Brean Down. 
 / A new electric telegraph enterprise — the British and Irish 
 
 ^ Magnetic Telegraph Company — was started about this time 
 in competition with the Electric and International Company, 
 which had a monopoly of the railway lines. The telegraph 
 wires of the new concern were carried along the turnpike 
 roads, the first line in this district being commenced in March, 
 1862, between Bristol and Birmingham. Another under- 
 taking, the United Kingdom Telegraph Company, also made 
 its way to the city, and opened a station in Corn Street. 
 
 A public meeting" was held in the Guildhall on the 20th 
 March, to consider the propi'iety of erecting a suitable me- 
 morial to the late Prince Consort. The mayor (Mr. J. Hare) 
 presided, and, after several influential citizens had advocated 
 the movement, a committee of fifty representative inhabitants 
 was constituted to secure the erection of a statue in front of 
 the Victoria Rooms, at an estimated outlay of £3,000. The 
 subscriptions offered, however, were so small that they were 
 ultimately returned, the committee at the same time express- 
 ing regret that while Dublin, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Man- 
 chester, Birmingham, and other towns had succeeded in 
 similar projects, Bristol should be wanting in a monument 
 to adorn her streets, and to testify her admiration of an 
 illustrious prince. 
 
 The passenger steamer Mars, plying between Bristol and 
 Waterford, was wrecked on the 1st April, whilst returning 
 to this city, by striking upon Linney Head, near Milford, 
 during a heavy galo. Thirty of the passengers and twenty 
 of the crew lost their lives by this disaster. 
 
 An arrangement was concluded in June, between the dean 
 and chapter of Bristol, and the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, 
 by which the former body transferred to the latter (with a few 
 reservations) the whole of its estates, in consideration of the 
 receipt of a yearly sum of £6,796. The commissioners further 
 agreed to provide £6,000 for urgent repairs and alterations 
 in the cathedral [see p. 870]. The property retained by the 
 chapter consisted of the deanery and other dwellings adjoin- 
 ing the cathedral, four houses in Lower College Green, the 
 Upper Green and one house therein, the spring at Jacob's 
 Wells, with its pipes, etc., and a small piece of laiul at Waplcy. 
 The chapter has had reason for congratulation that the 
 transfer was negotiated before the setting in of the agri- 
 cultural depression of later years. From some cause, the
 
 1862.] VOLUNTEER REVIEW. CLIFTON DOWN HOTEL. 393 
 
 lands of the Gloucester chapter were not taken over by the 
 Commissioners, and a Bristol journal of November 6, 188G, 
 stated that, owing to the reduced value of the estates, the 
 income of the deanery of Gloucester did not exceed £200, 
 and that of each canon had sunk to £100 per annum. 
 
 On the 17th June a very brilliant military spectacle took 
 place on Durdham Down. The day had been chosen for a 
 review of the volunteer corps of Bristol and the neighbouring 
 counties, and 6,746 men partook in the manoeuvres. Amongst 
 the regiments which had agreed to be present were the 
 Gloucestershire and North Somerset Yeomanry, the Bristol, 
 Gloucester, Ne wnham, Clevedon, Weston, and Cardiff Artillery, 
 the Bristol and Gloucester Engineers, and the Bristol, Glou- 
 cester, Stroud, Tewkesbury, Cirencester, Forest of Dean, 
 Stow, Moreton, Cheltenham, Pershore, Malvern, Evesham, 
 Ombersley, Droitwich, Upton, Bromsgrove, Birmingham, 
 Saltley, Bath, Keynsham, Temple Cloud, Taunton, Bridg- 
 water, Wellington, Williton, Stogursey, Wiveliscombe, Yeovil, 
 Crewkerne, Langport, Wells, Burnham, Weston, Frome, 
 Shepton Mallet, Glastonbury, Wincanton, Somerton, Bal- 
 tonsborough, Wrington, Salisbury, Swindon, Trowbridge, 
 Chippenham, Bradford, Warminster, Melksham, Wootton 
 Basset, Old Swindon, Highworth, Hereford, Ledbuiy, Brom- 
 yard, Archinfield, Leominster, Kington, Monmouth, Chep- 
 stow, Cadoxton, Dorchester, Wareham, Poole, AYeymouth, 
 Wimborne, and Sherborne rifles. Owing to the well-ordered 
 preparations, the volunteers reached the ground at the ap- 
 pointed time and in good order ; and the review, which was 
 held before Major-General Hutchinson, passed off satisfac- 
 torily. A stand which had been constructed, capable of 
 seating 5,000 spectators, was well filled, and it was computed 
 that at least 100,000 persons witnessed the manoeuvres. 
 
 The prospectus of the Clifton Hotel Company was issued 
 in August. The capital was fixed at £40,000, in £10 shares. 
 The intention of the promoters was to build the hotel on a 
 site opposite to the post-office ; but in the autumn of the 
 following year the Bath Hotel came into the market, and 
 having been bought by the company, together with several 
 adjoining houses, the existing building was constructed on 
 the site. The new hotel was opened on the 24th July, 1865. 
 
 At a meeting held in the Guildhall on the 21st August, 
 1862, the mayor (Mr. J. Hare) presiding, a resolution was 
 passed, earnestly inviting the railway companies to recon- 
 sider the determination they were understood to have arrived 
 at in reference to an expensive enlargement of the Temple
 
 394 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1862. 
 
 Meads terminus, and to co-operate in the construction of a 
 joint station in some central situation in tlie city. A com- 
 mittee of citizens was also appointed to select an appropriate 
 site, and numerous designs were subsequently prepared and 
 submitted for approval. Of these the committee selected 
 two — one of which, favoured by the "^ fixed property" party, 
 was for a station at the Stone Bridge, while the other sug- 
 gested a terminus in Frogmore Street. At another public 
 meeting, on the 25th September, the Stone Bridge scheme 
 was approved, and a prospectus fortliAvith appeared of the 
 Bristol Central Railway and Terminus Company, with a pro- 
 posed capital of £300,000 in £10 shares. A Bill to authorise 
 the project was laid before the House of Commons in the 
 following session, and it was stated that notices had been 
 delivered to no less than 6,000 owners and occupiers of 
 property affected by the scheme. A competing proposal, 
 promoted, like the Bristol and Clifton plan of the previous 
 3^ear, with the object of uniting the trunk railways with the 
 intended line to the mouth of the Avon, by means of a tunnel 
 at Clifton, and a bridge near Cumberland Basin, was opposed 
 in Parliament by the Corporation, at the instance of the fixed 
 property party. The Stone Bridge scheme was withdrawn, 
 it being found that none of the railway boards would give it 
 either support or countenance. The other proposal was also 
 abandoned. In the session of 1864 rival Bills were again 
 introduced into the House of Commons. The promoters of 
 port extension proposed to cover over the Avon to Bi-istol 
 ]? ridge, to lay a railway over the stream, and to carry the 
 lino by Castle Street, Union Street, and the Pithay to 
 Christmas Street (where there was to be a station for the 
 city), thence under Brandon Hill to near Trinity Church 
 (where the Clifton station was fixed), and finally by a. tunnel 
 to a junction with the port railway. The rival projectors 
 proposed to cover the Float from the Drawbridge to the 
 Stone Bridge, and to build a grand terminus on the site. 
 The Bill for the latter plan was rejected by the House of 
 Commons. The other scheme received the royal assent, 
 but in consequence of the great outlay required for its 
 execution (estimated at £700,000), no steps were ever taken 
 to carry it into effect. 
 
 The civil war in the United States of America having 
 entirely cut ofl" the supply of raw cotton from tliat country, 
 the manufacturing towns of the North of England were at 
 til is time jilungod in deep distress. This district was also 
 affected by tlie " famine," the Great Western Cotton Factory
 
 18G2.] IMPROVEMENT OF THE AVON. 395 
 
 having been forced to close in October throngli lack of raw 
 material, when 600 operatives were thrown out of work. 
 Energetic efforts Avere made by the public on behalf of the 
 sufferers, and upwards of £12,000 were subscribed in a few 
 weeks, all classes contributing liberally to the fund. The 
 factory was not reopened until the spring of 1865. 
 
 At a meeting of the Council in October, the Docks Com- 
 mittee presented an important report, recommending exten- 
 sive and costly improvements in the Avon and the Floating 
 Harbour. The document was based on plans furnished by 
 Mr. Howard, the engineer to the docks, whose chief recom- 
 mendations were the deepening of the bed of the river to the 
 extent of seven and a half feet for four and a half miles 
 below Cumberland Basin, and the construction of a new basin 
 for steamers at RoAvnham, the cost of the proposed works 
 being £557,000. The committee estimated that the annual 
 interest on this sum, which would become a charge on the 
 dock estate, would be £22,300, being £16,300 in excess of the 
 actual receipts. This deficiency they proposed to meet by im- 
 posing dock dues on corn and provisions, hitherto exempt, by 
 reimposing half the dues taken off in 1861, and by charging 
 a rent on vessels lying in the harbour, the three items being 
 expected to yield £9,000. The wharfage dues about to fall 
 in were estimated to produce £3,000, and £2,000 more were 
 expected from increase of trade. The balance of £2,300 was 
 to be provided by an increased tax on the ratepayers. The 
 report caused a great sensation, for it was the production of 
 a party which had hitherto opposed every scheme of port 
 improvement on the ground that the dock dues should be 
 kept • down, and that the ratepayers should not be further 
 taxed for the maintenance of the harbour. The Council, 
 however, by a majority of 32 votes against 15, adopted 
 the report, and resolved on applying to Parliament for the 
 necessary powers. The excitement of the public, already 
 considerable, was increased upon the discovery that in the 
 Bill laid before the House of Commons the amount proposed 
 to be spent had been increased by nearly a quarter of a mil- 
 lion sterling, or to £800,000, on the plea that considerable 
 impi'ovements were needed in the Floating Harbour. Meet- 
 ings of the ratepayers were held in each ward, at which the 
 scheme was condemned by large majorities. The Chamber 
 of Commerce also vigorously opposed the measure, and the 
 minority in the Council renewed their protests. In the 
 result, the promoters reduced the intended expenditure to 
 £400,000, of which, £125,000 were to be spent in deepening
 
 396 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1863. 
 
 the river, A motion to withdraw the Bill altogether was 
 defeated in the Council by 36 votes against 24 ; another, to 
 proceed with it, was carried by 33 votes against 26. The 
 opponents of the scheme renewed their efforts before a com- 
 mittee of the House of Commons, where it was affirmed on 
 their behalf that the project had been proposed simply to 
 thwart the construction of docks at Kingroad. After a pro- 
 tracted inquiry, the committee rejected the Bill. 
 
 The church of Emmanuel, St. Philip's, was consecrated on 
 the 9th December. It had cost about £3,000 in construction, 
 exclusive of the site. 
 
 A Bill for authorising the construction of a dock near the 
 mouth of the Avon was laid before Parliament in the session 
 of 1863. The chief promoters of the intended " Bristol Port 
 and Channel Dock Company " were Messrs. Robert Bright, 
 Robert Bush, Philip W. S. Miles, Charles Nash, Henry A. 
 Palmer, Christopher J. Thomas, and Thomas T. Taylor — all 
 or nearly all of whom were promoters of the previous Port 
 Railway and Pier scheme. The share capital was fixed at 
 £295,000 in £20 shares, with power to borrow £98,000. When 
 the advocates of port improvement had proposed that a 
 Channel dock should be constructed by the Corporation, the 
 fixed property party had constantly declared that their 
 resistance was based on an unwillingness to impose fresh 
 burdens on the ratepayers, and that if a private company 
 would undertake the work it would meet with no opposition. 
 But these assertions were now repudiated, and at a meeting 
 of the Council on the 7th January a resolution to sti-enuously 
 oppose the Bill, as an attempt " to deprive the citizens of 
 their rights and privileges," was carried by the advocates of 
 a stand-still policy, an amendment in a contrary sense being 
 rejected by 28 votes against 25. After a lengthy struggle 
 before a committee of the House of Commons, the Bill was 
 rejected. 
 
 Before continuing the history of the Avonmouth project, it 
 will ho convenient to notice the early schemes in connexion 
 with Portishead, and the incidents which led to the creation 
 of a rival harliour at that place. Many years before Channel 
 docks were thought of, engineers had suggested the construc- 
 tion of a pier at Portishead for the accommodation of ship- 
 ping, Mr. Milne's plan of 1832 being fdllowod in 1839 by 
 that of Mr. (afterwards Sir) John Macneil, for which an Act 
 of Parliament was obtained, at the instance of Mr. James A. 
 Gordon, in July, 181-1. The project having proved abortive 
 through defects in the design, Mr. Brunei, in May, 1845,
 
 18G3.] AVONMOUTH AND PORTISHEAD DOCKS. 397 
 
 propounded another scheme^ for a floating- pier ncarPortbury, 
 with a railway (on the atmospheric principle) to Bristol. The 
 Portbury Pier and Railway Company, with a capital of 
 £200,000 in £50 shares, was formed to carry out this pro- 
 posal, for which an Act was obtained in 1846; but after the 
 promoters had striven earnestly to obtain the necessary funds, 
 they announced in February, 1852, that they had abandoned 
 the enterprise, and the company was wound up during the 
 following summer. In 1853 a Mr. Croome produced a scheme 
 for two gigantic docks of fifty acres each, with a canal to the 
 Avon, at Pill; a rival plan, for a dock in Portishead pill, 
 was produced in the same year by a Mr. W. R. Neale. 
 Although all these propositions were severally commended to 
 the attention of Bristolians on the ground that the Portishead 
 estate of the Corporation would be vastly increased in value 
 by the creation of a new harbour, none of them met with 
 much countenance from the advocates of port improvement, 
 and the failure of each in succession appears to have excited 
 no regret. When it was found, however, that the promoters 
 of the Port Railway and Pier were preparing to develop their 
 project into a dock, their leading opponents, including Alder- 
 men Ford and Robinson, Mr. Mich. Castle and Mr. Rich. Fry, 
 most of whom had contended that the creation of shipping 
 accommodation at Kingroad would be absolutely destructive 
 to the commerce of the city, set about the formation of the 
 Bristol and Portishead Pier and Railway Company, with the 
 view, as their critics mockingly maintained, of averting the 
 doom of Bristol by duplicating the machinery which was to 
 ruin her. The pier was proposed to be of about the same 
 dimensions as that projected by Mr. Brunei in 1845. The 
 Bill authorising the works met with little serious opposition, 
 and received the royal assent in June 1863. The construc- 
 tion of the works began in the following year. Amongst the 
 buildings removed during the laying out of the railway were 
 two or three dwellings (called in the old directories '' chocolate 
 houses ") on the shore of the Avon, nearly opposite to the 
 Hotwell, which were amongst the most favourite summer 
 resorts of working men and their families. Much apprehen- 
 sion was expressed by lovers of the picturesque that the 
 construction of the railway would destroy the beauty of the 
 Leigh Woods scenery; but Alderman Ford declared, at a 
 meeting of the company, that those fears were wholly un- 
 founded. " He believed that no better security could be 
 taken for the preservation of the beauty of the Avoods than 
 the construction of the railway, as it would put a stop to the
 
 398 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. 
 
 quarrying and blasting wliicli had so mucTi damaged tliem" 
 — an assertion wliicli can be read only with a sigh by those 
 who witness the wholesale havoc now being committed by 
 the Corporation of Bristol and other tenants of the landowner. 
 The Portishead railway was opened on the 18th April, 1867. 
 The tidal section of the pier was opened in June^ 1868, and 
 the low-water extension — for which another Act had been 
 obtained — in April, 1870. The total cost of the works up to 
 that time had been about £290,000. 
 
 Although somewhat interfering Avith the chronolos'ical 
 character of this volume, it may save the reader ti-ouble to 
 continue the narrative of the "battle of the docks" until the 
 close of the struggle. In the session of 1864 the promoters 
 of the Port and Channel Dock again applied for parliamentary 
 authority to proceed with the undertaking. Since the conflict 
 of the previous year, the annual municipal elections had 
 significantly tested the feeling of the ratepayers, six or seven 
 of the opponents of the Avonmouth Bill having been rejected 
 on soliciting re-election as councillors. Conciliatory negotia- 
 tions, moreover, had taken place between the cooler heads 
 of the two parties in the civic body. The promoters of the 
 Channel dock ofl'ered to surrender to the city a portion of the 
 dues to be levied on goods and shipping, while the inability 
 of the Floating Harbour to meet the growing requirements 
 of commerce was acknowledged by some who had hitherto 
 resisted improvement. The Parliamentary Bills Committee 
 of the Council consequently changed its attitude, and now 
 suggested that " dearly-bought experience ought to satisfy 
 all parties of the folly of prolonging a fruitless contest." 
 The advice was disregarded by the uncompromising section 
 of the "fixed property" party, an amendment with dilatory 
 objects being proposed in the Council, but the committee's 
 report was approved by 33 votes against 18. Tho Bill was 
 nevertheless obstinately resisted before a select committee of 
 the House of Commons, the opponents professing to repre- 
 sent fixed property worth £20,000 a year (out of an aggre- 
 gate annual rental of £600,000). After a long hearing, the 
 preamble of the Bill was approved by the conmiittee, and 
 the measure soon after passed the Lower House. A closing 
 effort in the Council was then made by the anti-})rogrcss 
 minority, but they were again unsuccessful, and with a final 
 protest l)y Alderman Ford, who declared that the proposed 
 docks were " fraught with the greatest peril to the trade and 
 prosperity of tho city," tlio op]iosition sulkily quitted tho 
 field, and tho Bill became law. The local controversy on the
 
 AVONMOUTH AND PORTISHEAD DOCKS. 399 
 
 question had been raging with little intermission since the 
 fierce debates of 1859 [see p. 860] ^ and it is now difficult to 
 realise the amount of ill-feeling excited during the contest. 
 The Bristol Times of May 7, 1864, remarked that the question 
 had been " like a sort of nightmare on the society of the city. 
 Worse than politics^ because more bitterly fought, more 
 personally fought, it has cooled if it has not quite destroyed 
 many friendships, and certainly broken up many associations. 
 [The struggle had been] of a character to break up 
 old acquaintances, to chill conviviality, to make men look 
 pale and spiteful at one another when it was introduced at 
 table, and to feel a personal irritation in discussing it which 
 perilled the preservation of good manners amongst a com- 
 pany." Owing to the financial collapse of 1866, the pro- 
 moters of the dock were for a long time prevented from pro- 
 ceeding with the undertaking. In 1868, however, the Bristol 
 Port and Channel Company was definitely constituted, Mr. 
 P. W. Miles becoming chairman, and Mr. Charles Nash vice- 
 chair of the board of directors, which embraced, in addition 
 to the gentlemen mentioned in a previous page, Messrs. H. 
 H. Goodeve, Wm. K_Wills, and Mark Whitwill. It was an- 
 nounced that the dock, with the surrounding^quays and ware- 
 houses, would be seventy acres in extent, and that the land 
 had been purchased at a reasonable price from the Corpo- 
 ration, Mr. P. W. Miles, Mr. G. Cox, and others. The first 
 sod of the undertaking was cut on the 26th August, 1868, 
 by the chairman of the company, and earnest appeals were 
 addressed to the citizens to assist by their subscriptions in 
 furthering the progress of the works. The attitude of the 
 promoters of the Portishead scheme, however, was well 
 calculated to deter cautious capitalists from taking such a 
 course. After promulgating many wai'nings through a 
 sympathetic newspaper, the directors of the Portishead Pier 
 and Railway Company announced in November, 1870, that 
 the time had arrived for providing a dock at Portishead for 
 the accommodation of the largest class of ocean steamers. It 
 was alleged in support of this decision that the advantages 
 of the site were unequalled, and that as the pier woi^ks had 
 been constructed with a view to their forming part of a com- 
 plete scheme, the cost of the intended dock and its accessories 
 would not exceed £160,000. The announcement of the board 
 did not surprise those who had carefully watched its move- 
 ments, for in despite of the vehement assertions of its leaders 
 that Channel docks were unnecessary, and that Bristol would 
 be ruined by their construction, it was plain that the pier was
 
 400 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. 
 
 intended only as a stepping-stone to greater tilings. In the 
 Bill laid before the House of Commons the promoters sought 
 to confer power upon the Council to contribute £100,000 
 towards the construction of the dock, undertaking to give the 
 Corporation as many directors on the board as were appointed 
 by the shareholders. By this time it had become clear that 
 the Avonmouth Dock, through lack of financial support, could 
 not be finished within the period allowed by statute, and, 
 concurrently with the Portishead measure, a Bill was pre- 
 pared by the rival board, to obtain an extension of time for 
 the completion of the work, and to empower the Council, if it 
 thought fit, to contribute to the undertaking (the Docks Com- 
 mittee having already recommended a vote of £100,000). It 
 appeared that the total amount subscribed up to that date 
 was about £120,000, the chief subscribers being Mr. P. W. S. 
 Miles, £10,000; Mr. Morley, M.P., £5,000; the Merchant 
 Venturers' Society, £2,500, and Messrs. J. W. Miles, W. H. 
 AVills, Francis Tagart, C. Norris, and Robert Bright, £1,000 
 each. Amongst the subscribers to the Portishead scheme 
 were Sir J. Greville Smyth, bart., £15,000; Messrs. J. Ford, 
 R. Fuidge, and G. R. Woodward, £6,000 each ; Mr. Lewis Fry, 
 £5,000 ; Mr. J. D. Weston, £2,500 ; Mr. T. Canning, £2,000 ; 
 Mr. R. Fry, £1,500 ; and Messrs. J. C. Wall, S. Wills, Finzel 
 & Sons, W. Fuidge, and James & Pierce, £1,000 each. " The 
 battle of the docks " was waged vigorously before commit- 
 tees of both Houses, but neither party was successful in pre- 
 venting the other from obtaining its Act. The conflict was 
 next transferred to the Bristol Council Chamber, to which 
 each company appealed for a subscription in aid of its funds. 
 The remnants of the old fixed property party were soon de- 
 feated, their resolution declaring that any grant to either dock 
 was inexpedient being rejected by 38 votes against 18. There- 
 upon, throwing aside their former arguments, the party went 
 over to the Portishead camp, and secured it an easy victory. 
 On the 1st July, 1872, Mr. E. S. Robinson moved the appoint- 
 ment of a committee with a view to the Corporation becoming 
 interested, Ijy purchase or otherwise, in the completion of the 
 Avonmouth undertaking, afiirming — with only too accurate 
 foresight — that a divided jurisdiction would revive the evils 
 created by the old Dock Company, and would be strongly 
 disapproved by the citizens. His motion was rejected by 
 33 votes against 22. Alderman Hathway then proposed that 
 £100,000 should bo subscribed by the Council to the funds 
 of the Portishead Company, and this was carried by 36 votes 
 against I'J. In order to soothe the susceptibilities of the rate-
 
 AVONMOUTH AND POKTISIIEAD DOCKS. 401 
 
 payers, the subscription was made a charge on the dock 
 estate, whicli at that time showed a large yearly surplus ; 
 though, as will be shown hereafter, the burden (from which 
 no profit was ever derived) was laid upon the backs of the 
 inhabitants in 1880. In consequence of this decision, which 
 caused much sui'prise and dissatisfaction amongst the citizens, 
 the directors of the Avonmouth scheme were plunged in 
 extreme embarrassment through lack of funds, and to the 
 delight of their opponents the work of construction was 
 practically suspended. In August, 1873, however, the 
 directors announced that they had made arrangements with 
 a contractor for completing the dock, and operations soon 
 after vigorously recommenced. In August, 1876, when on 
 the eve of completion, the dock was the scene of a. disastrous 
 landslip, caused by the treacherous bed of an old ''pill" 
 running under the east wall, about 400 feet of which collapsed, 
 together with two large warehouses. The reparation of this 
 disaster was not effected for some months. The progress of 
 the Portishead project had been also arrested by an accident. 
 After having been furnished with funds by the Corporation, 
 the directors — promising the rapid completion of the dock — 
 set about the preliminary works, the most important of which 
 was a huge dam for excluding the waters of the Channel. 
 On the 15th February, 1874, the dyke, then nearly finished, 
 gave way under the pressure of a high tide, causing extensive 
 havoc ; and the task of damming back the Severn was not 
 achieved until June, 1875. Through the delay thus occasioned, 
 the Avonmouth scheme recovered its original lead in the 
 competition ; and the dock was formally opened on the 24th 
 February, 1877. The directors obtained the use of a large 
 steamer, the Juno, to convey the mayor (Mr. G. W. Edwards) 
 the members of the Council and of other public bodies, and 
 many of the leading citizens, to the mouth of the river, the 
 party numbering about six hundred. A great concourse of 
 spectators lined the banks of the Avon for nearly two miles, 
 while about 15,000 persons assembled near the dock and 
 greeted the Juno upon her arrival with repeated cheers. 
 Having steamed around the basin, the vessel was brought up 
 in front of one of the warehouses, when a short prayer was 
 offered by the Archdeacon of Bristol (the Eev. Canon Norris). 
 The mayor then declared the dock open, and complimented 
 the directors on the successful tei'mination of their arduous 
 and public-spirited exertions. Owing to the proverbial exi- 
 gencies of the tide, the ceremony was very brief, and the 
 visitors returned immediately to Bristol. In the evening the 
 
 D D
 
 402 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1863. 
 
 mayor gave a grand banquet in the Mercliants' Hall in 
 honour of the occasion. Much rejoicing took place at Shire- 
 hampton and Pill in the course of the day. The first com- 
 mercial vessel which entered the dock was the steamer 
 Evelyn, which arrived on the 8th April, with 1,500 tons of 
 barley. It was hoped by the Portishead board that their 
 undertaking would be opened in the summer of 1878. On 
 the 18th March of that year, however, another serious disaster 
 took place, a large portion of the nearly completed dock wall 
 falling over, while a further portion showed so many rents as 
 to require reconstruction. This entailed great delay, and an 
 additional outlay of about £30,000. By dint of energetic 
 efforts, the undertaking was completed in the following year, 
 and the passenger steamer Li/n entered the basin, amidst 
 much local rejoicing, on the 28th June, 1879. The first 
 foreign arrival, about a week later, was a steamship named 
 the Mogdehurg, with a cargo of 1,100 tons of barley. Both 
 the Avonmouth and the Portishead companies undertook to 
 pay to the Bristol Dock authorities 50 per cent, of their dues 
 on all sailing vessels under 1,200 tons and on all steamers 
 under 800 tons entering their docks. It will be seen under a 
 later date that this attempt to safeguard the interests of the 
 Floating Harbour proved ineffectual. 
 
 Another of the numerous schemes which absorbed local 
 attention during the session of 1863 was the Bristol and 
 North Somerset Railway, a project for opening out a large 
 district of Somerset by means of a line from Radstock to 
 Bristol, and also for facilitating commerce in the city by 
 means of a tramway from the quays to the terminus. The 
 Bill received the royal assent, and a company to carry its 
 powers into execution was soon afterwards formed, with a 
 capital of £275,000 in £20 shares. Only about £16,000 of 
 this amount, however, was actually subscribed. The first 
 rail of the tramway was laid by the mayoress (Mrs. S. V, 
 Hare) on the 8th October, 1863. Pecuniary difficulties soon 
 after arose, and flung the company into extreme embarrass- 
 ment, The first contractors for the works quarrelled with 
 the directors and withdrew; their successors became insolvent; 
 and the financial crisis of 1866 for a third time caused a 
 lengthy suspension of operations. The company made re- 
 peated but frnitless attempts in Parliament to connect their 
 railway witli tlio narrow gauge systems on the south coast. 
 In 1866 the directors, abandoning hope in this direction, 
 concluded an agreement with the Croat Western board, by 
 which the latter undertook to work the line wlien completed.
 
 1863.] NORTH SOMERSET RAILWAY. 403 
 
 At an early period of tlie company's financial difficulties, 
 some of tlie directors, in their zeal to further the undertaking-, 
 made themselves individually responsible for a sum of about 
 £180,000 — part of the liabilities of the concern — with the 
 effect of completely ruining themselves. A report presented 
 by a committee of investigation in May, 1867, was an astound- 
 ing revelation of mismanagement, the conduct of the secretarj'-, 
 a parliamentaiy agent, named John Bingham, being especially 
 censured. Amongst the items of the company's expenditure, 
 a charge was discovered of £28,634 for legal and parlia- 
 mentary expenses, and another very heavy bill of the same 
 character remained unpaid. [Bingham, who sought to gain 
 popularity by making " Church and Queen " orations at 
 political dinners, and by delivering unctuous addresses at 
 religious gatherings, pleaded guilty in June, 1870, to a 
 charge of having forged an endorsement on a draft for 
 £536, with intent to defraud Mr. Wm. M. .Baillie, a Bristol 
 banker, and was sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment 
 with hard labour.] In 1869 an Act was obtained for reliev- 
 ing the company from its liabilities by paying off the 
 creditors in shares, power being also obtained to complete 
 the undertaking by the issue of debentures. The creditors 
 assented to this arrangement, which enabled the directors 
 to make a new contract for the completion of the railway. 
 The tramway to Wapping was definitively abandoned in 
 May, 1871, by an agreement with the Corporation. The 
 railway was opened on the 3rd September, 1873, when it 
 was worked by the Great Western staff. The receipts, 
 however, ,were disappointing to the promoters, and fresh 
 financial embarrassments arose. In 1881 a new board of 
 directors was appointed, the chairman of which stated soon 
 afterwards that the former board, which had refused to meet 
 the shareholders, and finally deserted them, had left the 
 concern in a ''state of chaos," the books having disappeared. 
 A creditor had brought an action against the company, and, 
 as there were no effects, the Court of Chancery had appointed 
 three of the new directors receivers and managers. There 
 was not a sixpence in hand, the Great Western authorities 
 retaining all the receipts. The old board had divided £9U0 
 a year amongst themselves. Shortly after those disclosures, 
 attempts were made to sell the line to the Great Western 
 Company, when the latter offered the ordinary shareholders 
 a permanent dividend of 12s. per cent, per annum. The 
 proposal was not accepted. At length, by an agreement 
 arrived at in 1884, the line was purchased by the Great
 
 y 
 
 404 THE ANNALS OF BKISTOL. [1863. 
 
 Western boards the proprietors accepting 17 per cent, on the 
 nominal value of their shares. 
 
 Dr. Wm /Thomson, Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol, having 
 been translated to the archbishopric of York, Dr. Charles 
 John Ellicott, Dean of Exeter, was in February, 1863, nomi- 
 nated as his successor. 
 
 A prospectus appeared in March of the Bristol City Hotel 
 Compam", with a capital of £30,000 in £10 shares, the in- 
 tention of the promoters being to purchase the well-known 
 White Lion establishment in Broad Street, and to build a 
 new hotel on the site. In the following July the directors, 
 being unable to obtain immediate possession of the property, 
 purchased the adjoining White Hart Hotel, in which they 
 commenced business. An ancient inn, known as the Plume 
 of Feathers, near the White Hart, was also acquired about 
 the same time. Two years later the lease of the White Lion 
 fell in, and the house was demolished. The purchase of the 
 three properties, and the cost of the cellai'S and foundations, 
 however, had exhausted the original capital, and it was found 
 that the completion of the extended design would require 
 a further expenditure of £35,000. The directors in the first 
 place proposed to create new shares to the value of £45,000, 
 but as the public declined to subscribe, the board decided 
 to issue debentures for £35,000. This fonn of investment 
 meeting with little more favour than its forerunner, the com- 
 pany were compelled, in June, 1867, to fall back upon a less 
 costly scheme, by which a row of shops was placed upon the 
 ground floor, the cost of the structure in this form being 
 estimated at £25,000. The hotel was opened in January, 
 1860, but the expense of the building had exceeded the 
 estimates by several thousand pounds, and the concern nar- 
 rowly escaped a compulsory liquidation. In 1874, when the 
 business of the hotel had become prosperous, the Plume of 
 Feathers inn was ordered to be rebuilt at a cost of £2,500. 
 The name of the hotel was at the same time altered from the 
 White Lion to the Grand Hotel. 
 
 The marriage of the Prince and Princess of AVales on the 
 10th starch was celebrated in Bristol with universal mani- 
 festations of joy. A committee had been previously ap- 
 pointed, and liberally furnished with funds to provide recrea- 
 tion and amusement for all classes; a general holiday had 
 been determined upon with one consent; and the entire 
 community seemed to give itself up to merry-making. In 
 the morning a parade of the volunteer riflemen, artillery, 
 and engineers took place on l^urdluiin Down, where the
 
 18G3.] ROYAL MARRIAGE. CLIFTON CHURCH PEWS. 405 
 
 members of tlie Oddfellows and Foresters benefit societies 
 also repaired in procession with numerous bands of music. 
 It was computed that upwards of 30,000 persons were present. 
 Rustic sports followed tlie military pageant. The children 
 of nearly all the schools in the city were gathered in various 
 suitable localities, and, after singing the national antliem, 
 each scholar received some memento of the day. Dinners 
 were given or pi'ovisions distributed to upwards of 10,000 
 poor persons, and the inmates of the almshouses were suitably 
 entertained. The most attractive features of the rejoicings, 
 however, were the firework displays and the illuminations 
 in the evening. All the public buildings and most of the 
 large places of business, as well as numbers of private houses, 
 were brilliantly lighted up with designs and transparencies 
 in almost infinite variety ; and the central streets were one 
 continuous blaze. Those thoroughfares were densely thronged 
 until midnight, and the scene was one of extreme animation 
 and gaiety. The displays of fireworks were numerous and 
 effective, and the electric light — then in its infancy — added 
 a new feature to such exhibitions. The evening concluded 
 with a ball at the Assembly Rooms. The ladies of Bristol 
 made a magnificent present on the occasion to the Princess 
 of Wales. It consisted of a large sapphire pendant, set in 
 diamonds, and valued at 800 guineas ; and was placed in an 
 elegantly carved casket of oak, taken from St. Mary Redcliif 
 Church, ornamented with ivory and gold. Speaking of this 
 casket, the Times observed that " as a work of art it was as 
 noteworthy, and quite as beautiful, an offering as the jewel 
 itself." The gift, accompanied by an appropriate address, 
 was presented to the princess by the mayoress (Mrs. S. V. 
 Hare), who was inti-oduced by the Duchess of Beaufort. 
 Her Royal Highness expressed great admiration of the 
 present, for which she gracefully returned thanks. 
 
 At the annual Easter vestry of the parish of Clifton, a 
 document produced by one of the churchwardens gave a 
 noteworthy account of the financial difficulties of the authori- 
 ties. Grreat objections, it was stated, were made to the pay- 
 ment of church rates, on the ground that the church was for 
 the most part a proprietary building, and that many owners 
 of the pews declined to contribute towards the maintenance 
 of divine worship. An appeal had been made to them on 
 the subject, but about eighty proprietors had either positively 
 refused to subscribe, or had returned no reply. The largest 
 pew owner, holding thirteen seats, declined to render any 
 assistance, because his family had invested a large sum in
 
 406 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1863. 
 
 building vaults in tlie crypt, wliicli, under tlie recent Burials 
 Act, could not be used. Another had become a Dissenter, 
 and felt '^conscientious scruples" against contributing towards 
 the services of the church, though his conscience did not 
 prevent him from collecting his pew rents. The majority of 
 the pew owners lived beyond the parish boundary; some 
 resided permanently abroad; others in various distant parts 
 of the kingdom ; and several had angrily rejected the appeal 
 for help, practically contending that the residents in the 
 parish — although unable for the most part to find accom- 
 modation in the church — were bound to keep it in repair 
 for the benefit of those who farmed out pews. The vestry 
 eventually resolved to fall back upon a voluntary church rate. 
 In some comments on the subject, the Bristol Times stated 
 that one of the pews had sold by auction for £190. In spite 
 of the scandal excited by such traffic, no attempt at reform 
 was made during the long incumbency of Bishop Anderson. 
 At length, in 1884, in consequence of the efforts of a new 
 vicar, the Rev. Talbot Greaves, several of the pews were 
 given up to the parochial authorities; and the churchwardens 
 were authorised by a vestry meeting to apply for a faculty 
 to reseat the church. But the opposition of many of the 
 pcAv owners could not be overcome except by purchasing 
 their property, for which purpose upwards of £3,000 were 
 raised by subscription, and quickly expended in buying up 
 seats. About £2,000 more were spent in the reconstruction 
 of the sitting's, which Avas soon after accomplished, and the 
 church was reopened in December, 1884. It is intended to 
 purchase the remaining proprietary sittings as funds are 
 provided, though some of the present owners demand prices 
 which will not be given. Already, through Mr. Greaves' 
 exertions, there are, he states, " about 700 good free seats 
 out of the 2,000 sittings in the church." 
 
 At a meeting of the Council in May, 1863, a resolution 
 was passed empowering the Improvement Committee to 
 carry into effect a plan suggested by them for the widening 
 of Nicholas Street, by removing the Gnr.eiic office and some 
 old houses standing near St. Nicholas' Church. The esti- 
 mated net cost of the alterations was £7,150, exclusive of 
 Corporation property valued at £1,171. The improvement 
 involved the removal, early in 1864, of a remarkably pietiir- 
 cscpio ancient house — the Angel Inn — which stood in High 
 Street, near the corner of Nicholas Street. A portion of the 
 site of this hostelry, having only 14 feet frontage in High 
 Street, and 35 feet in Nicholas Street, was sold at a ground
 
 1863.] PROPOSED DESTRUCTION OF LEIGH WOODS. 407 
 
 rent of £151 per annum. Owing to the removal of tlie 
 Angel Inn, the house in High Street adjoining it on the 
 north — a "building of about the same age — -became insecure, 
 and finally collapsed in July, 1865. 
 
 In May, 1863, whilst workmen were preparing the foun- 
 dations of the Eoyal Insurance Company's new building, at 
 the end of Bank Court, Corn Street, they laid bare portions 
 of an apparently extensive mediaeval structure. The window 
 and door quoins of the cellar walls showed remains of moulded 
 and traceried window-heads and jambs, but the worked faces 
 had been turned inwards and built into the walls. The new 
 building was completed in June, 1861. 
 
 During the autumn of 1862 an advertisement appeared 
 in the local press offering prizes for the best designs for 
 laying out about 170 acres of Leigh Woods, including Night- 
 ingale Valley, for building sites. It was subsequently an- 
 nounced that prizes had been awarded to two firms which 
 had responded to the invitation, and in the spring of 1863 
 it was understood that approval had been given to a design 
 which mapped out the locabty for 350 houses, with an ex- 
 tensive hotel, and a bridge over the valley. The prospect 
 of the destruction of the sylvan scenery occasioned deep 
 regret amongst the public, and evoked bitter comments in 
 the newspapers. After an interval, however, the mayor (Mr. 
 S. V. Hare) was informed that Sir John Greville Smyth, the 
 owner of the estate, would spare the woods, provided the 
 Corporation undertook to lease them for fourteen years at 
 a rental of £500 per annum, and a ready-money payment of 
 £300. The mayor, in reply, suggested an extension of the 
 proposed term, or a sale of the freehold to the Corporation, 
 but was informed that no alteration could be made in the 
 terms. The Finance Committee having declined to approve 
 of a short lease of unproductive land at a rental of £3 per 
 acre, the matter came to an end. In September, 1864, it 
 was stated that Sir Greville Smyth had sold the woods to a 
 London speculator for £50,000, and that the purchaser, had 
 sent down a plan of his intended operations. "The plan 
 showed," said the Bristol Times, "some 800 tenements — many 
 of them of a poor character, several of them small shops — 
 to be erected on the romantic site, thereby of course making 
 it an eyesore to Clifton. ... As might be expected, the 
 mayor and other gentlemen who saw it were appalled at the 
 threatened desecration, and a private meeting was called to 
 consider the offer of the speculator, who required £10,000 
 for his bargain — that is, that the citizens should pay him
 
 408 THE ANNALS OF BKISTOL. [1863. 
 
 £60,000." Suspicions as to the bona fide cliaracter of the 
 speculator's threats were, however, excited in many minds ; 
 in spite of the menaced devastation, it was soon clear that 
 the city would not subscribe the exorbitant amount de- 
 manded ; and the next tidings of the projector were, that he 
 had failed to pay the first instalment of the purchase money, 
 and had departed to speculate in parts unknown. It being 
 apparent that the permanent preservation of the scenery 
 depended solely upon the public spirit of the citizens, the 
 Leigh Woods Land Company was formed by a few generous- 
 minded persons, Mr. George Thomas being appointed chair- 
 man. The capital was fixed at £50,000 in £25 shares, and 
 after some negotiation the purchase of the property was 
 effected for £40,000. The extent of ground acquired was 
 about 160 acres, of which sixty were set apart for orna- 
 mental purposes, and about twenty more for roads. This 
 arrangement left an area of about eighty acres applicable to 
 building, and it was anticipated that the ground rents would 
 ultimately produce upwards of £3,000 per annum. It ought 
 to be stated that Mr. H. A. Palmer suggested a subscription 
 for purchasing the ground for the free use of the public, 
 offering to head the list with a donation of £1,000; but his 
 proposal met with insignificant supjiort. Subseqiiently, when 
 complaints were raised as to the appropriation of so large 
 a portion of the woods for building purposes, Mr. George 
 Thomas offered to give up his £500 worth of shares, and Mr. 
 Slaughter made a similar proposal as to half that amount, 
 on condition that the citizens would raise £10,000 for securing 
 a further reservation of the land ; but the liberal-hearted 
 overtures met with no response. The last instalment of the 
 purchase money due to Sir J. G. Smyth was paid in 1875. 
 Previous to that date the company had been brought to the 
 In-ink of collapse through an unfortunate building speculation, 
 by which it lost nearly £3,600 ; but the amount was paid off 
 by three or four of the loading proprietors, who were granted 
 in return 11-7 unissued shares. 
 
 Victoria Chajicl, Whitoladies Road, the most beautiful local 
 structure hitherto erected by the AVesleyan Methodists, was 
 opened in June, 1863, by the Rev. F. A. West. The building 
 and site had cost nearly £6,000. 
 
 The prospectus of the College Groon Hotel Company, with 
 a capital of £40,000 in £10 shares, appeared in October. A 
 block of property extending from College Green to Trinity 
 Street was soon afterwards purchased, and the houses were 
 demolished. One of the dwellings removed, No. 2, College
 
 1SG4.] LIFEBOATS. AGRICULTURAL SHOWS. 409 
 
 Green, containing a finely carved hall and staii-case, was the 
 residence in 1741 of Mr. Jarret Smith (afterwards Sir J. 
 Sm^'th, bart.), who was visited there by Sir John Dinely 
 Goodere, a few hours before the seizure and murder of the 
 hitter by his brother, Captain Goodere. The new hotel, styled 
 the Royal, was opened in March, 18G8. 
 
 About this time, a number of stables and coach-houses 
 fronting Queen's Road, appertaining to the houses on the 
 north side of Berkeley Square, began to be converted into 
 shops. At a later period, some of these little places of 
 business were let at a higher rent than was paid for the 
 mansions to which the old outbuildings were attached. 
 
 The Red Lion Inn, Redcliff Street, an ancient hostelry, 
 with a courtyard and galleries in the style of the fourteenth 
 or fifteenth century, was removed in 1864, and warehouses 
 were erected on the site. 
 
 In June, 1864, a lifeboat, named the Albert Edward, the 
 cost of which had been raised by a local subscription, arrived 
 in the city, and was taken through the streets in procession, 
 escorted by the volunteer corps. At a gathering on Durdham 
 Down, the mayor (Mr. Jose) handed over the boat to the 
 ofiicers of the National Lifeboat Institution. It was after- 
 wards transported to Padstow, Cornwall, for service on that 
 stormy coast. In October, 1866, another lifeboat, styled the 
 Bristol and Clifton, the cost of Avhich had been raised by the 
 exertions of the Bristol Histrionic Club, was welcomed into 
 the city with similar ceremony. The boat Avas conveyed to 
 the Zoological Gardens, where it was presented to the Lifeboat 
 Institution by Mr. Commissioner Hill. The boat Avas after- 
 Avards stationed at Lossiemouth, Scotland. In March, 1871, a 
 third boat, named the Jack-a-jacJc, paid for by Bristol merchants 
 and ship-captains trading to the West Coast of Africa, passed 
 through the city with similar honours, on its way to Morte, 
 North Devon. By the Avill of Lady Haberfield, another 
 Bristol lifeboat was presented to the institution in 1875, and 
 two others have been given by local philanthropists. 
 
 The first agricultural shoAv held in Bristol by the Bath and 
 West of England Association Avas opened on the loth June, 
 1864, under the presidency of Earl Fortescue. The exhi- 
 bition took place on Durdham Down, 25 acres of Avhich, 
 lying to the south-Avest of the Stoke Bishop road, had been 
 enclosed, and proA^ed the most successful ever oi'ganised by 
 the society. The entries of stock on the ground reached 
 545. The number of visitors was 88,138, and the receipts 
 from admissions amounted to £5,966. During the Aveek, the
 
 410 
 
 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. 
 
 [1864. 
 
 / 
 
 mayor and the local committee gave a dinner to tlie council 
 of the association at the Victoria Rooms. The society held 
 another exhibition on the same site in 1874^ when the de- 
 velopment of the institution was indicated by the increased 
 area of the show-ground, the inclosure measuring 38 acres. 
 The entries of stock numbered 7o2, and those of machinery 
 and implements marked a still greater advance over the 
 previous meeting. The president for the year was Sir 
 L. Masse}^ Lopes, bart. The attendance of visitors exceeded 
 anything recorded in the history of the association, the num- 
 ber of admissions being 110,105, and the amount received 
 £8,378. The mayoress (Mrs. Barnes) was presented by the 
 society with a beautiful screen Tn Honiton lace, in recognition 
 of the courtesy and hospitality with which the executive had 
 been received by the mayor and herself. The third visit of 
 the society took place in June, 1886, under the presidency 
 of Lord Carlingford. The show of animals showed a further 
 advance in numbers, the aggregate reaching 969, and there 
 was a still more notable increase in the exhibits in some other 
 departments. Much interest was excited by specimens of 
 ^''^nsilage from a store made at Long Ashton, under the super- 
 vision of a special committee. Although the number of 
 fens entering the showyard — 100,579 — was less than in 
 
 74, owing to the unfavourable weather, it was still greatly 
 in excess of the attendances recorded at any other meeting 
 held by the society. The total receipts amounted to £7,226. 
 The leading members of the association were again sumptu- 
 ously entertained by the mayor (Mr. Wathen) and the Society 
 of Merchant Venturers. 
 
 A vessel named th.o Royal Sovereign , the largest iron sailing 
 ship ever built at this port, was launched by Messrs. W. Patter- 
 son & Son dui-ing the summer. From this time the shi])building 
 industry in Bristol, formerly very extensive, appears to have 
 rapidly declined. 
 
 A reference to the extreme drought of the summer of 1864 
 has been made in narrating the progress of the Bristol Water 
 Company [p. 283]. The Council took active measures to alle- 
 viate the suffering of the poor, many of whom depended upon 
 private wells. Several of these becoming exhausted, 200 
 old wells were reopened and pumps erected in populous dis- 
 tricts. An arrangement was also made by which the vestry 
 of St. John's gave up to the city the parish conduit, upon 
 the Corporation undertaking to maintain it for the future. 
 A suggestion was started that the Council should ])urchase 
 Mother Pugsley's avcII [see p. 249] ; but it was ascertained
 
 1864.] A NAVAL INCIDENT. TORT IMPROVEMENT. 411 
 
 that the expense would be great, and the supply very 
 limited. 
 
 Kepi-esentations were made to the Government about this 
 time by Mr. Berkeley, M.P., of the claims of Bristol and the 
 neighbouring ports to a visit of the Channel fleet — a com- 
 pliment Avhich had been already paid to other maritime 
 towns. Although the suggestion could not be complied with, 
 the Admiralty directed that the armour-clad frigate Dt^fevce 
 should make a cruise in the Bristol Channel. Accordingly, 
 in September, the Defence dropped anchor off Clevedon, and 
 her commander, Captain Phillimore, forthwith received an 
 invitation from the mayor (Mr. T. P. Jose) offering him the 
 hospitalities of Bristol. Captain Phillimore thereupon paid 
 a visit to the city, and invited the mayor and other leading 
 residents to inspect his vessel. A small steamer having been 
 engaged, a numerous party embarked for the excursion ; but 
 unfavourable weather greatly marred the anticipated pleasure 
 of the trip, and on nearing the Defence the pitching of the 
 two vessels rendered a transit from one to the other more 
 amusing to the blue-jackets than to the guests. The visitors 
 were provided with a luxurious repast on board the frigate, 
 and were honoured with a salute of seven guns on their 
 departure. The return journey was made under as unpleasant 
 circumstances as was the trip down channel. One unlucky 
 member of the Council fell into the Avon while attempting to 
 land at Shirehampton, but fortunately sustained no injury. 
 
 At a meeting of the Council in September, the Docks 
 Committee reported that Mr. Howard, their engineer, had 
 prepared new plans for the improvement of the port, which 
 they believed could be executed without adding to the exist- 
 ing charges. The principal features of the revised designs 
 were : a new and more commodious entrance lock from the 
 Avon into Cumberland Basin, the cost of which was estimated 
 at £127,580; a new junction lock from the basin into the 
 Floating Harbour, estimated at £72,450 ; and the removal of 
 projecting obstructions on both sides of the Avon, including 
 the Hotwell House, Suspension Bridge, Round, Tea and 
 CoWeQ House, and Pheasant Quarry " Points," the outlay 
 for which was set down at £95,470. To meet the interest 
 on the expenditure — £300,000 in round numbei'S — the com- 
 mittee estimated that the annual surplus income of the dock 
 estate would be £13,000, irrespective of prospective increases; 
 while an accumulated surplus of £32,000 would be in hand 
 before the works were commenced. The plan was approved 
 by a unanimous vote of the Council. In November, 1806, a
 
 412 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. [1864. 
 
 contract was entered into with Mr. Tredwell, of Birmingliam, 
 for the entrance lock at Cumberland Basin, the removal of 
 the Round Point, and some minor improvements, for the sum 
 of £184,023. The removal of the rock at Tea and Coffee 
 House Point was then in progress.* According to Mr. 
 Howard's desisfn, the earth removed in forming- the lock 
 and in cutting oif the " points " was to have been employed 
 in filling up the "bight" in front of the Port Railway- 
 station and the opposite bay below Nightingale Valley, by 
 which the course of the Avon would have assumed a more 
 symmetrical form. But it was subsequently resolved to make 
 use of the material to fill up three of the great quarries which 
 disfigured the Downs. This necessitated the construction of 
 a tramway along the river side, the cutting of an inclined 
 plane to the Down, and the erection of an engine-house on 
 the summit of the clitF. The improvement works were in 
 full operation by the summer of 1867. In February, 1868, 
 the Council resolved to proceed with the inner lock and 
 remaining works, at an estimated cost of £157,000. It was 
 stated during the discussion, that although the dues had 
 been reduced by one half, the dock receipts had increased 
 from £28,784 in 1847 to over £30,000 in 1867. The inner 
 lock, seventeen feet wider than the old one, was completed 
 and opened on the 16th October, 1871 ; the woi"ks at Round 
 Point (which had involved the removal of a shoulder of St. 
 Vincent's Rocks) were finished soon afterwards. The new 
 entrance lock into Cumbex'land Basin, a noble work, was 
 opened on the 19th July, 1873. In the following Septem- 
 ber, the tramway on the Down was removed, after having 
 effected great improvements. The quarry near Upper Bel- 
 grave Road was not, however, completely filled up until 1880. 
 
 On the 11th October, 1864, the fourth annual Church 
 Congress was opened in Bristol under the ])residency of the 
 bishop of the diocese. The city was filled with distinguished 
 clergymen and lay-supporters of the Establishment, and the 
 proceedings, which occupied three days, excited general 
 interest. The visitors were the objects of much hospitable 
 attention on the part of loading citizens. 
 
 Amongst the incidents of the above gathering was the 
 somewhat startling appearance of a Mr. Lyne, a person in 
 deacon's orders styling himself Brother Ignatius, who had 
 
 * A pleasant and innocent place of resort was destroyed by those operations, 
 without much advantaRO to navigation, the rocky bank of the river below hiRh- 
 water mark beint? left practically undisturbed for nearly twenty years. The 
 work of removing tho ruck was at length begun iu 1U8J, and is still uutiuisbed.
 
 1864.] MOCK BENEDICTINES. 413 
 
 assumed tlie costume of a monk, and professed to have re- 
 founded in the Church of England the monastic system of 
 St. Benedict. Some of his admirers in Bristol had already 
 set up an " Order of St. Benedict," composed chiefly, if not 
 wholly, of youthful laymen, who hired a room in a house in 
 Trinity Street; and three or four clergymen — visitors during 
 the Congress — assisted at " Benedictine services " held there 
 during the week. At a later date, the local brethren of the 
 " order " removed to an unoccupied workshop in Trenchai'd 
 Street, whore their eccentric proceedings caused crowds to 
 assemble, and led to several disturbances. On one occasion 
 two of the brethren attempted to take part in the service 
 when intoxicated, and as they declined to obey the " prior," 
 a youth named Dundas, they were removed by the police. 
 On being informed of the escapade, Brother Ignatius sent 
 an order to the prior requiring the delinquents to perform 
 penance in white sheets in the ''oratory," but they proved 
 refractory, and were " excommunicated," amidst great uproar. 
 At the Romanist " feast of the Assumption," the brethren, 
 bearing candles and banners, and chanting hymns, walked in 
 procession through several streets, about two o'clock in the 
 morning. Exhibitions of this kind were frequently i-epeated, 
 and the police had much difficulty in maintaining order. 
 After several unseemly incidents, Brother Ignatius fulminated 
 a decree deposing the prior (who called himself Brother 
 Cyprian) ; but the latter repudiated the authority of the in- 
 ventor of the order, and excommunicated some of the refrac- 
 tory brothers and sisters on his own account. Subsequently 
 the " order " removed to Montpelier, where Brother Cyprian, 
 who had come into possession of a valuable estate, built a 
 chapel, established a " home," and started a newspaper. The 
 services at the chapel soon attracted a great number of pro- 
 fligate young people of both sexes, and, after many unedifying 
 scenes, the building — an iron one — was presented by Mr. 
 Dundas to the Vicar of Bedminster, who placed it at Ashton 
 Gate, and opened it in March, 1873, as a chapel of ease. [In 
 June, 1883, it was removed for the purpose of erecting on the 
 site the permanent church of St. Francis.] In 1872, through 
 pecuniary difficulties, Mr. Dundas's establishment at Mont- 
 pelier was altogether broken up. 
 
 The foundation stone of a new church in Pembroke Koad, 
 Clifton, intended to be dedicated to All Saints, was laid on 
 the 3rd November, 1864. The first portion erected was the 
 chancel, to which was attached a large temporary nave, and 
 in this form the building was consecrated in June, 1868.
 
 414 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. [1864. 
 
 Owing to the large proportions and costly details of the 
 edifice, the permanent nave was not ready for consecration 
 until August, 1872, when £27,000 had been expended. 
 Upwards of £10,000 more have been since spent on the 
 building. Sufficient funds are still lacking for the erection 
 of the tower and spire, although, from the absence of those 
 adornments, the church, viewed from a distance, presents the 
 appearance of a gigantic barn. 
 
 To increase the accommodation for worshippers in St. 
 James's Church, a new north aisle was added to the building 
 during the autumn of 1864, at a cost of £4,000. The in- 
 congruity of its style of architecture with that of the original 
 fabric provoked much criticism. 
 
 The foundation stone of a proposed harbour of refuge for 
 the Bristol Channel was laid, or rather supi^osed to have been 
 laid, off Brean Down, near Weston-super-Mare, on the 5th 
 November, by the wife of Sir John Eardley Wilmot, bart., 
 the originator of the company formed for the purpose. The 
 stone was lowered into the sea from a steamer lying off the 
 promontory, a buoy being attached to mark its whereabouts. 
 Unfortunately the rope was of insufficient length, and as the 
 buoy was capable of sustaining more than twice the weight 
 of the stone, the latter never reached the bottom ; and at the 
 rise of the next tide both buoy and stone drifted away, and 
 were lost. The incident appears to have had a depressing 
 effect on the undertaking, which was eventually abandoned. 
 The Bristol and Exeter Railway board obtained powers, iu 
 1866, to connect their main line with the proposed works, but 
 no steps in that direction were ever taken. 
 
 Oakfield Road Chapel, erected by the Unitarians of Clifton 
 and the neighbourhood at a cost of £6,000, Avas' opened in 
 November by the Rev. James Martineau, of London. 
 
 Although the opening of the Bristol and South Wales 
 Union Railway had much facilitated intercourse between 
 Bristol and the other side of the Channel, it was confessed 
 by its promoters that their hopes of its availability for heavy 
 traffic had been disappointed. The double shifting of goods 
 at the two piers was, in fact, an insuiDcrable obstacle to the 
 transit of coal and iron; and as the enormous mineral re- 
 sources of South Wales were more largely developed every 
 3'car, the urgent need of placing Ih-istol in closer connection 
 with the Princijiality was ever more widely acknowledged. 
 In November, 1864, notice was given of the intended prose- 
 cution of a Bill in the following session for diverting the 
 traffic of South Wales into a new course. Mr. Fowler,
 
 1864.] BRISTOL CHANNEL TUNNEL. 415 
 
 engineer to tlie Great Western Company, designed a railway 
 from Wootton Bassctt to the Old Passage, with a bridge over 
 the Severn — an immense structure two miles in length, 
 estimated to cost £1,800,000. This project being obviously 
 prejudicial to Bristol, notice was given of another Bill, for a 
 tunnel under the Severn near the New Passage, the construc- 
 tion of which, according to the estimates of Mr. Richardson, 
 C.E., might be effected for £750,000. A meeting of merchants 
 and traders was held on the 6th January, 1865, to consider 
 the question, when it was stated that the promoters of the 
 tunnel scheme were Messrs. C, J. Thomas, George Wills, 
 T. T. Taylor, E. S. Robinson, and M. Whitwill. Resolutions 
 in its favour were adopted unanimously; but the construction 
 of a tunnel four miles in length under an arm of the sea 
 was not an enterprise likely to commend itself to any but 
 robust-hearted investors. The parliamentary deposit was 
 not forthcoming, and the Bill was dropped. The Bill author- 
 ising the bridge obtained the royal assent, but no steps were 
 taken to carry out its powers. The whole subject, in fact, 
 was expelled from the minds of capitalists by the disastrous 
 panic of 1866, and nothing was heard of it for some years. 
 In the session of 1872, a Bill reviving the tunnel project was 
 introduced into Parliament by private persons ; and it was 
 soon afterwards announced that the Great Western Railway 
 board — moved by the aggressive designs of the Midland 
 Company in reference to South Wales — had resolved to 
 adopt the measure, which received the royal assent. Another 
 Severn bridge scheme — on this occasion at Sharpness — was 
 promoted by an independent company under the patronage 
 of the Midland board, and also received legislative sanction. 
 The first sftd of the tunnel works was cut on the 18th March, 
 1873, near Portskewet, the directors having resolved to make 
 a preliminary investigation into the nature of the strata by 
 cutting a six-feet di-iftway under the Channel. The sinking 
 of a shaft for this purpose was greatly impeded by land 
 springs, which poured into the works to such an extent that 
 powerful pumping machinery was required to overcome the 
 difficulty, and it was not until October, 1874, that tenders 
 were invited for the first section of the " heading." The 
 proposals received being much in excess of the estimates, the 
 directors resolved to carry out the experiment by their own 
 officers. Only 120 yards of the driftway remained to be 
 excavated to unite the two ends when, in October, 1879, 
 another prodigious flood of water, proceeding from land 
 springs near Portskewet, burst into the southern headway.
 
 416 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1864. 
 
 and welled up into the sliaft. A contract was now entered 
 into for the completion of the undertaking, and Sir John 
 Hawkshaw was engaged as engineer in chief. Under his 
 advice the line of the tunnel was lowered 15 feet, in order 
 to maintain more "cover" under the Channel, and in con- 
 sequence of this alteration it was subsequently found ad- 
 visable to make a second driftway beneath the original one. 
 Further additions were made as rapidly as possible to the 
 already numerous steam pumps, but more than a twelvemonth 
 passed away before the invading waters could be effectually 
 walled out. In February, 1881, the directox-s, in announcing 
 that the difficulty had been surmounted, stated that the 
 nature of the strata (principally hard rock) had proved satis- 
 factory, and that the construction of the permanent tunnel 
 had been begun. The two ends of the driftway were united 
 in the following September, when the centres were found to 
 join within three inches. In April, 1881, an irruption of 
 water took place on the Gloucestershire side of the Severn, 
 which for a time exceeded the power of the pumping ma- 
 chinery. A more serious disaster occurred in October, 1883, 
 when a third outburst of Monmouthshire land water, the 
 volume of which was estimated at 25,000 gallons per minute, 
 occurred near the site of the disaster of 1879. Although the 
 effects of the irruption were circumscribed by the Avails built 
 for the purpose, the tunnel was flooded to the extent of a mile 
 and a half, and a lengthy delay occurred before the water 
 could be overcome by the help of four additional pumping 
 engines. This was the last serious difficulty encountered, the 
 flooding of a section by a huge tidal wave in October, 1883, 
 being only a transient embarrassment. The woi'ks, on which 
 5,000 men were for some time employed, were scf far com- 
 pleted that a passenger train containing Sir Daniel Gooch, 
 chairman of the Great Western board, and several of his 
 brother directors, passed through the tunnel — which is 7,664 
 yards in length — on the 5th September, 1885. It was stated 
 that 75 millions of vitrified bricks had been used in the con- 
 struction. Much, however, remained to be done before the 
 undertaking could bo made available for traffic. The doub- 
 ling of the Bristol and South Wales Union line, involving the 
 widening of the tunnel at Patchway was i'(.)und indisjiensable, 
 and this and other alterations required considerable time. 
 An experimental train, laden with Welsh coal for Soulhanip- 
 ton, passed through the tunnel, however, on the 9th January, 
 1886. For the purpose of ventilation, a fan was afterwards 
 crocted on tlie Sudbrook side capable of discharging 2 10,000
 
 1865,] THE SEVERN BRIDGE. JOHN HAMPDEN. 417 
 
 feet of air per minute. The tunnel was opened for regular 
 passenger traffic, without any ceremony, on the 1st December. 
 The total cost of the undertaking was then estimated at about 
 two millions sterling. 
 
 As the Severn Bridge scheme has been casually mentioned 
 in the above narrative, it may be added that its promoters 
 succeeded in erecting, near Purton Passage, the longest and 
 perhaps the most remarkable structure of the kind in the 
 kingdom, consisting of twenty-two large arches extending 
 over a space of 1,387 yards. The cost of the bridge, includ- 
 ing the railways connecting it with the Great Western system 
 in the Forest of Dean and with the Midland line near 
 Berkeley, was about £400,000. It was opened amidst much 
 local rejoicing on the 17th October, 1879. 
 
 At a meeting of the Council in January, 1865, it was 
 determined to appoint a committee, to be called the Sanitary 
 Committee, for the purpose of exercising the powers of the 
 Local Government Act, under which increased facilities were 
 offered for effecting public improvements. The new body, ■ 
 Avhich took the place of the Board of Health Committee, was i. 
 itself superseded, under the provisions of the Public Health // 
 Act of 1872, by the ''Sanitary Authority," consisting of all' 
 the members of the Council. Mr. Jo^iah Thomas, about the 
 same date, became sole city surveyor. ' 
 
 Some amusement was created about this time by the lucu- 
 brations of a gentleman named John Hampden, who, having 
 convinced himself of the impending destruction of the world, 
 published a local periodical styled The Armourer, with a view 
 of awakening a thoughtless and unconverted community to 
 its approaching doom. Mr. Hampden proclaimed in Janu- 
 ary, 1865, that England had seen its last " merry Christmas ;" 
 and for several successive months his predictions of an im- 
 minent cataclysm became more positive and more gloomy. 
 Eventually he admitted that the final catastrophe might pos- 
 sibly be reserved for 1866, but this was the extreme limit 
 conceded to papacy and iufidelitj-. Even in December of 
 the latter year he stoutly repeated his prognostications ; but 
 as events were not precisely in accord with his fears — or 
 rather, apparently, with his hopes — Tlia Armourer ceased to 
 appear, and its author removed to London. Mr. Hair.pden 
 afterwards gained notoriety by first making a bet of £1,000 
 that an impartially conducted engineei'ing experiment would 
 prove the world to bo a plane, and then — when the said 
 experiment had proved the contrary — appealing to the law 
 courts to debar the gentleman who had won the wager from 
 
 £ E
 
 418 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1865, 
 
 recovering his money. In the course of the controversy he 
 was amerced in £600 damag-es for libellino" his antao-onist, 
 and was afterwards sentenced to two lengthy terms of im- 
 prisonment for repeating his annoyances. 
 
 In February, 1865, the Council entered into negotiations 
 with the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for the purchase of 
 Rownham Ferry, part of the ancient estate of the Abbey of 
 St. Augustine's, and subsequently of the Dean and Chapter 
 of Bristol. The ferry was transferred to the Corporation in 
 August, 1866, for the sum of £10,000. 
 
 Daring the later years of the reign of George IV., Sir C. 
 Wethere ll, rec order of Br istol, held two criminal assizes 
 annuaTTyTor~the city under the charter of Edward III. 
 After the events of 1831, Sir Charles discontinued this cus- 
 tom ; and in 1885 the Corporations Eefoi'm Act abolished the 
 jurisdiction of the recorder in weighty criminal cases, prisoners 
 charged with grave crimes being thenceforth remitted for 
 trial to the Gloucestershire assizes, to the great inconvenience 
 of prosecutors and witnesses. The Council, shortly after its 
 institution, and several times afterwards, addressed urgent, 
 but fruitless, appeals to the Government for the restoration of 
 the criminal assizes. Early in 1865, it was intimated to the 
 mayor that the desire of the city would at length be complied 
 with ; and the first commission was opened on the 31st Mai'ch. 
 Contrary to the custom of centuries, the name of the mayor 
 was not on this occasion associated with that of the judges in 
 the commission of oyer and terminer; but the Council pro- 
 tested against the withdrawal of an ancient privilege, and 
 the Home Secretary promised that the omission should not 
 be repeated. It now became necessary to provide a second 
 assize court, the Guildhall furnishing only a court for civil 
 cases, and the Finance Committee, to whom the matter was 
 referred, were forthwith besieged by rival projectors. In 
 addition to plans for the erection of additional buildings at 
 the rear of the Guildhall, designs were sent in for entirely 
 new law courts in Queen Square, upon the Float near the 
 Stone Bridge, on the site of Colston Hall, on the site of the 
 Upper Arcade, and other places. " The battle of the sites " 
 was fought for a time with as much obstinacy as "the battle 
 of the docks," and was marked by similar vicissitudes. The 
 Council in the first instance approved of a costly proposal to 
 build upon the Float ; but the Dock Committee having pro- 
 tested vigorously against any diminution of the harbour, the 
 vote was practically annulled. The Queen's Square site was 
 next recommended for adoption by the Finance Committee,
 
 1865.] NEW ASSIZE COURT. JOINT RAILWAY STATION. 419 
 
 but an influentially attended meeting in tlie Guildhall adopted 
 a memorial emphatically condemning the project. On the 1st 
 January, 186G, when the report of the committee was dis- 
 cussed by the Council, an amendment in favour of the Guild- 
 hall site was negatived by 29 votes against 25. Another 
 amendment, approving of the Stone Bridge site, was also 
 rejected by 31 votes against 21. Proposals in favour of 
 Colleg'e Green, the Haymai'ket, and the Exchange were suc- 
 cessively negatived without a division. Finally, the report 
 recommending the Queen Square site was rejected by 37 
 votes against 13. Still another motion, affirming the expe- 
 diency of petitioning the Government to revoke the grant of 
 an assize, was defeated by a overwhelming majority. The 
 Council is reported to have made merry over the negative 
 results of the debate, but the comments of the ratepayers on 
 the pi'oceedings were the reverse of complimentary. It soon 
 became impossible to ignore the preponderating opinion of 
 the citizens, and at another Council meeting, in March, it 
 was resolved to build the new court on property belonging 
 to the Corporation, at the back of the existing hall, plans 
 being asked for to carry out that detei*mination. When the 
 proffered designs were considered, however^ it was found that 
 a satisfactoi'y result would be impracticable unless the site of 
 a house belonging to Christ Church parish were made avail- 
 able. Much dissatisfaction was created by the bungling of 
 the authorities, while the judges, who found most incon- 
 venient provision made for the assizes, did not conceal their 
 indignation at the discomfort of the arrangements and at the 
 lethargy of the Corporation. In August, 1867, the Council at 
 length adopted the plan which was eventually carried into 
 effect. The architect succeeded in preserving two Roman- 
 esque chambers in the mansion in Small Street erroneously 
 styled "Colston's." The new building cost £16,000. A por- 
 tion of it was used by the judges for the first time at the 
 August assizes in 1870, and the second court was opened at 
 the spring assizes of the following year. The interesting 
 ancient apartments were granted to the Incorporated Law 
 Society, who fitted them up for their library. 
 
 The Council, at a meeting in February, 1865, resolved to 
 enforce the provisions of a permissive Act by which public 
 houses and refreshment rooms were required to be closed 
 between the hours of one and four o'clock in the morning. 
 The new regulation materially added to the tranquillity of 
 the streets. 
 
 During the parliamentary session of 1865, a Bill was intro-
 
 420 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1865. 
 
 duced on behalf of tlie Great Western, Midland, and Bristol 
 and Exeter Railway Companies, empowering them to co-ope- 
 rate in the erection of a new joint station at Temple Meads. 
 After the measure had become law, the companies disagreed 
 amongst themselves as to the proportionate amounts which 
 they should contribute towards the outlay, and nothing was 
 done for several years. In August, 1870, it was asserted at 
 a meeting of the Bristol and Exeter Company that their 
 Bristol station — designed by Mr. Brunei — was " the most dis- 
 graceful, dangerous, difficult, and impracticable in Europe." 
 At length, in February, 1871, the companies came to an 
 understanding, and the construction of the new building 
 commenced. The work was one of much difficulty, since the 
 structure had to be reared without interfering with the traffic 
 on the three lines. The " down " platform was opened for pas- 
 sengers on the 6th July, 1874, and the entire station — which 
 cost nearly £300,000 — was completed shortly afterwards. 
 
 The local newspapers of the 3rd June, 1865, contained an 
 appeal for subscriptions on behalf of a proposed Hospital for 
 Sick Children. [An institution for youthful sufferers, under a 
 somewhat different name, had existed in St. James's Square 
 since 1857, but treated only out-patients.] The promoters 
 intended at the outset to fit up a suitable house for the 
 reception of a few patients, and asked for only £300 a year 
 to set the establishment aa-footr-- ^^h^ appeal was signed by 
 Messrs. Mark Whitmll;^, K. Wait^:W. Turner, A. Phillips, 
 A. N. Herapath, T. (tlryj_ani-J^rr Carter. A dwelling in the 
 Royal Fort was soon afterwards purchased for £750, and was 
 opened on the 20th October, 1866. A bazaar held a few 
 weeks later yielded a profit of over £1,600. The building 
 having been found too contracted for the requirements of the 
 charity, a meeting was held in April, 1882, to promote the 
 erection of a large and commodious hospital, near the same 
 spot, in a style woi'thy of the city. A design in the Tudor style 
 having been selected, the foundation stone of the structure 
 was laid on the 5th April, 1883, by the Duchess of Beaufort, 
 who also opened the new hospital on the 1st August, 1885. 
 The outlay for the new building was nearly £20,000. 
 1^ In the course of the summer the directors of the Liverpool 
 
 vv^ . Kv*^ and London and Globe Insurance Comp.any purchased exten- 
 - . sivo promises in Corn Street, for the purpose of building 
 
 , . offices upon the site. One of the houses, some of the upper 
 r-r ^ apartments of which had been occupied by the Law Library 
 /)/ frpin its establishment in 1818, was of the sixteenth century, 
 uiid contained a stately Elizabethan chitnneypiccc, with an 
 
 K*'; 
 
 V
 
 18G5.] ELECTION. IMPORTANT STREET IMPROVEMENTS. 421 
 
 elaborately ornamented ceiling and panelling. (These relics 
 were purchased by Alderman Baker, who had them recon- 
 structed in the dining-room of Broomfield House, near Bris- 
 lington.) The new building — which surpasses all others in 
 the city as regards the richness of its front — cost £11,500. 
 The Law Library Society, as has been already recorded, found 
 accommodation in the new Law Courts, Small Street. 
 
 On the dissolution of Parliament, in July, Mr. Berkeley 
 again offered his services to the citizens. Mr. Langton retired 
 into private life, and the candidate adopted as his successor 
 by the Liberal party was Sir Samuel Morton^JVto, bart., a 
 member of a great firm of railway contractoi's. The Conserva- 
 tive aspirant was Mr. Thomas Francis Fremantle, son of Sir 
 T. F. Fremantle (afterwards Lord Cottesloe), the former owner 
 — through a Bristol ancestor — of Pugsley's field. The result 
 of the poll on the 12th July was as follows: Mr. Berkeley, 
 5,296 ; Sir S. M. Peto, 5,228 ; Mr. Fremantle, 4,269. The 
 Conservative press insinuated that the defeat of their party 
 was due to bribery; and, although no proof was offered in sup- 
 port of the charge, it was undeniable that the expenditure 
 of Sir Morton Peto was extremely profuse. According to the 
 official return, the outlay on behalf of Berkeley and Peto was 
 £4,500, against £1,614 spent by the Tory candidate. 
 
 An Industrial Exhibition was opened on the 19th Septem- 
 ber, the event being celebrated by a general holiday. The 
 Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston, had undertaken to be 
 present, but owing to severe illness, which proved fatal in the 
 following month, he was unable to fulfil his pi'omise. In the 
 morning a procession of trades marched through the principal 
 streets to the Council House, where it was joined by the mayor, 
 sheriff, and corporate officials, and the gathering then pro- 
 ceeded to the Drill Hall, at which the bishop, Mr. Berkeley, 
 M.P., the committee, and many leading citizens had already 
 assembled. The inaugural ceremony passed off amidst general 
 applause. The exhibition was highly successful, the number 
 of visitors having been nearly 117,000, and the gross receipts 
 £3,254. Out of the profits, £431 were awarded to exhibitors 
 in the shape of prizes, which were presented by Mr. Berkeley, 
 and £575 Avere distributed amongst the principal local charities. 
 The chairman of the committee, Mr. J. M. Kempster, was 
 presented with an elegant silver salver in recognition of his 
 energetic services. In 1871 Mr. Kempster presented the 
 salver to the Corporation, and it now forms part of the civic 
 plate at the Mansion House. 
 
 The revival of local trade, which became marked during
 
 422 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. [1865. 
 
 the autumn of this year, induced the authorities to recognise 
 the urgency of various street improvements which had been 
 from time to time deferred. The first work undertaken was 
 the opening of a new thoroughfare from College Green to 
 Hotwell Road, the then existing route by Cow Street (now 
 buried under Park Street viaduct) and Frog Lane being not 
 merely inconvenient but dangerous. The dean and chapter 
 co-operated in this undertaking, which included the lowering 
 of the road in front of the cathedral- — leaving the threshold 
 of the original north doorway three feet above the new level 
 — and the removal of a large portion of the deanery.''^ More 
 important operations were ordered by the Council in Septem- 
 ber. A sub-committee recommended the adoption of a plan 
 by Mr. R. S. Pope for improving the gradient of Park Street 
 from the Mayor's Chapel to Great George Street. The design 
 contemplated bridging over Unity Street as well as Frogmore 
 Street, and the purchasing of alDout forty houses, at an esti- 
 mated cost of £31,000. The Council limited the line of im- 
 provement to the space between the top of Unity Street aiid 
 the (then) Philosophical Institute, the net outlay being esti- 
 mated at £11,400. [The actual cost of the new street, opened 
 on the 4th April, 1871, was £27,000.] The second scheme — 
 for the construction of a new street from the noi'thern end of 
 Thomas Street to the railway terminus — was practically a 
 revival of the design of 1845. Mr. S. C. Fripp, who laid out 
 the later plan, estimated the net cost at £53,000. [It actually 
 cost about £46,000.] Two proposals were made by Mr. Josiali 
 Thomas, the first being for widening the roadways leading 
 from Redcross Street and Old Market Street, while the second 
 was for opening a thoroughfare from Old Market Street to 
 Stoke's Croft, the net estimated expenditure being £8,700. 
 Finally Mr. Pope proposed a new road from the western end 
 of Maudlin Street to IJpper Park Row, the expense being es- 
 timated at £9,200. [The outlay was actually £13,000.] All 
 the schemes were approved. In November, 1867, another 
 series of improvements, completing plans already partially 
 executed, was ordered to be carried out. It included further 
 alterations in and near Deanery Road, Park Row, Rodcliff 
 Street, Temple Street, Narrow Wine Street, Redcross Street, 
 Baldwi]! Street, Corn Street, and Bedniinster. In addition 
 to t]i('S(^ works it was resolved to inake a new street (Colston 
 Street) from Colston Hall to Maudlin Street, to extend 
 
 • In cnrryinp out thin improvomont, tlip rorporato ofTirials wantonly destroyed 
 a trefoilcd (iotliic puin))et on facli nidr of tlio stei)K leading into C'ollcge tjreen, 
 in front of the High Cross, and replaced it by an ugly iron Landrail.
 
 1865.] ROMAN KELICS. LOVERS' WALK. 423 
 
 Jamaica Street, and to construct a road from Victoria Square 
 to Carlton Place, another from Victoria Square to Clifton 
 Park, and a third from Clifton Park into Pembroke Road. 
 The net cost was estimated at £126,000. Parliamentary- 
 sanction having been obtained in due course, the whole of the 
 improvements were completed in a few years. 
 
 During the autumn of 1865, two pigs of lead, each bearing 
 a Koman inscription, were disinterred near Wade Street, on 
 what anciently had been the bank of the Froom before the 
 river was narrowed at that point. Both the pigs had been 
 east in a mould in which the name of the reigning emperor 
 had been mutilated, but competent antiquaries believed the 
 inscription to refer to Antoninus Pius. Being the only im- 
 portant Roman relics ever discovered in Bristol, the discovery 
 excited some interest, and a paper on the subject appeared 
 in the Archcvoloyical Jonraal for 1866. 
 
 In October, 1865, a large portion of the beautiful grove 
 known as Lovers' Walk, Redland, was sold by auction by 
 order of the executors of the late owner, Mr. James Evan 
 Baillie. One lot, consisting of two closes of land and part of 
 the avenue, altogether about 10 acres, sold for £4,620. An- 
 other lot, known as the Long-acre, and including the lower 
 part of the grove, with an area of about 4j acres, was sold 
 for £2,740 to Mr. G. 0. Edwards, who had privately bought 
 from the executors the mansion and grounds of Redland 
 Court. The first-mentioned lot was forthwith mapped out for 
 sale in building sites; but Mr. George Thomas and a few other 
 public-spirited citizens, in order to prevent the entire destruc- 
 tion of an agreeable resort, made an agreement with the new 
 owners by which one of the best parts of the avenue was pre- 
 served. In February, 1879, it was reported to the Council 
 that Mr. Francis Fry and his brother, owners of that portion 
 of the property extending from South Road to the end of 
 Cotham Grove, had offered to convey an area of four acres to 
 the Corporation for the use of the public. The offer was 
 gratefully accepted. The land adjoining the walk was subse- 
 quently enclosed and laid out as a pleasure ground, at a cost 
 of about £850. Finally, in September, 1884, it was reported 
 to the Council that Mr. W. H. Edwards, son of Mr. G. 0. 
 Edwards, had executed -ar conveyance to the Corporation of 
 that part of the avenue which extended from Redland Road 
 to near the railway bridge, for the perpetual enjoyment of 
 the public. A cordial vote of thanks was accorded to the 
 donor. About the same date, Mr. Edwards disposed of Red- 
 land Court and its surrounding grounds for £12,250. The
 
 >'^. 
 
 424 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1865. 
 
 raansion was soon afterwards acquired for the Redlaud High 
 School for girls. 
 
 The rinderpest, or cattle plague, reached this country during 
 the autumn, and spread rapidly over the island, more than 
 200,000 animals being attacked within a few months. Of 
 these over 120,000 died from the malady, while 40,000 more 
 were killed. In some localities the recoveries did not exceed 
 two or three per cent, of the animals affected. The parish of 
 Bitton especially suffered in this district. It was literally 
 swept by the pestilence, upwards of two hundred head of 
 cattle falling victims in a few days. Stringent measures were 
 taken by the local authorities to check the spread of the 
 pest. The movement of stock, at first limited to fat animals 
 ready for slaughtering, was eventually wholly pi'ohibited. 
 Butchers were consequently obliged to kill their purchases at 
 the farms where they were fed. The Bristol cattle market 
 was not re-opened for store cattle until June, 1867. 
 
 An iron church, erected in Tyndall's Park for the accom- 
 modation of the rapidly increasing residents in that locality, 
 was opened on the 13th December. Funds having gradually 
 accumulated _ for the construction of a permanent church, 
 dedicated to. St. Mary, building operations commenced about 
 the close of 1870, and part of the choir was consecrated by 
 Bishop Ellicott in June, 1874. [The iron building, become 
 unnecessary, was removed to Woolcott Park in 1875, where 
 it was again the forerunner of a permanent edifice, St. 
 Saviour's.] The western portion of St. Mary's was finished 
 about seven years later, when nearly £10,000 had been spent 
 upon the building. 
 
 On the 15th December a disturbance occurred in Clare 
 Street, the record of which will probably be regarded by 
 later generations as denoting a curious survival of lower- 
 class intolerance. A French merchant captain, whose vessel 
 was lying at the Grove, was walking down the street in com- 
 pany with his wife, when the peculiar head-dress of the latter 
 — who was probably a Breton woman — attracted the atten- 
 tion of a numl^er of boys, and a crowd rapidly gathered 
 around. A rumour then spread that the lady was a Mrs. 
 Law, who had been lecturing during the week against 
 Christianity, and the report so excited the rabble that they 
 made a violent attack on the unfortunate foreigners, who 
 had at last to beg for refuge in a neighbouring shop. After 
 keeping out of sight for some time, the refugees made an 
 attempt to return to their ship; but the populace again sur- 
 rounded them, and the captain was so brutally ill-treated
 
 18GG.] BRISTOL LIBRARY. BRISTOL INSTITUTION. 425 
 
 that he and his wife, whose life was also seriously menaced, 
 were again driven to appeal for protection. A body of 
 policemen, which at length arrived, had great difficulty in 
 reaching the luckless couple, the mob surging around the 
 place and refusing to disperse. After considerable delay, 
 the pair were removed to their vessel in a cab, followed by 
 a howling multitude. 
 
 At the close of this year, on the retirement of Mr. C. T. 
 Eales, Stamp Distributor for the city, the office, which from 
 its luci'ativeness was one of the great prizes of party patron- 
 age in ante-Reform days, was abolished, the duties being 
 afterwards performed by the Inland Revenue authorities. 
 
 The financial condition of the kindred societies at the 
 two extremities of Park Street — the Bristol Library and 
 the Institution — had for some time previous to 1866 caused 
 much anxiety to their supporters. The Library Society had 
 somewhat increased its roll of subscribers since its removal 
 from King Street, but its funds were inadequate to maintain 
 it in a state of efficiency. It now received notice from the 
 Headquarters Company that it must pay a greatly increased 
 rent, or remove elsewhere. The subscribers to the Park 
 Street Institution had been diminishing for many years, 
 and an energetic effort was evidently required to save it 
 from dissolution. In the meantime the apartments devoted 
 to the museum had become too contracted for the proper 
 display of the contents, and no funds existed for their ex- 
 tension. In the face of these embarrassments, a proposal to 
 unite the two institutions, and to place their treasures of 
 literature, science, and art under a single roof, was received 
 with much appi'oval. A joint committee having been ap- 
 pointed, steps were taken for the purchase of a piece of 
 ground adjoining the Drill Hall, and the plot was acquired 
 for £2,500. Plans for the proposed building having been 
 obtained in June, a design in the Venetian style was selected. 
 Meetings for giving legal effect to the union were held early 
 in 1867, and were practically unanimous. Financial re- 
 sources, however, continuing to be painfully deficient, a 
 meeting was held in January, 1868, the mayor (Mr. F. 
 Adams) presiding, when the committee reported that the 
 new building, even though certain portions would be post- 
 poned, could not be erected under a cost of £17,000, and an 
 urgent appeal was made to the citizens to contribute £5,000 
 towards that sum. The report went on to promise tliat, if 
 the amount in question were forthcoming, the museum should 
 be opened free on certain days of the week, and students
 
 426 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1866. 
 
 of limited means should be admitted to the library either gra- 
 tuitously or at a reduced payment. The response of the city 
 was, however, disappointing, only a few liberal contributions 
 being received, and the committee were compelled to open 
 the building in an unfinished condition. Early in 1871, when 
 about £14,000 had been expended, the two institutions took 
 possession, and started on their joint career under the style 
 of the Bristol Museum and Library. About the same time, 
 -the old Institution at the bottom of Park Street became the 
 property of the Freemasons of the district for £5,960. [After 
 .^ -undergoing internal re-construction and decoration, the build- 
 , \j^ ing was "dedicated" to the purposes of the craft by the Earl 
 Mj -of Limerick, P.G.M., on the 2nd February, 1872.] In 1873-4 
 
 ' S ' H ^ fv*^^ committee made another appeal to the public to enable 
 
 I ^p them to proceed further with the original design, by erecting 
 
 ^ /j a lecture room, a museum of antiquities and industrial pro- 
 
 yo^nr ducts, and certain much-needed offices, but the subscriptions 
 
 were far from adequate to meet the expenditure (£7,000) ; and 
 the institution was saddled with a heavy debt, the interest on 
 which has since crippled its executive and grievously impaired 
 its efficiency and usefulness. 
 
 A Bill passed through Parliament in the session of 1866, 
 authorising the construction of the Bristol Harbour Junction 
 Railway and Wharf Depot, a scheme promoted with the 
 view of lessening the traffic in over-crowded thoroughfares 
 by forwarding goods directly from the quays to the railway 
 station. The cost was estimated at £165,000, which outlay 
 was to be divided between the Great Western Company, the 
 Bristol and Exeter Company, and the Corporation — the latter 
 being required to lay out £50,000, for which it was gua- 
 ranteed £2,000 per annum as interest. The construction of 
 the railway necessitated the removal of the old vicarage of 
 St. Mary Pedcliff and nearly all one side of Guinea Street. 
 As the line passed under the burial ground of the ])arish, 
 the vestry received £2,500 in compensation, with which sura 
 land was purchased and laid out for a parochial cemetery 
 near Arno's Vale. The railway opened out a district little 
 known to the citizens in general ; and the IJyifitol Times 
 of February 9, 1867, stated that in laying out the line the 
 surveyors had lighted on a considerable withy bed, lying 
 between Redclitt" Cliurch and the station. A few weeks 
 later the local journals re{)orted the (supposed) discovery of 
 an extensive network of subterranean caves under Redcliff 
 Hill. The largest of the caverns was octagonal in foi-m, 
 about forty-five feet in diameter and about seven feet high.
 
 1866.] HARBOUR RAILWAY. TURNPIKES ABOLISHED. 427 
 
 " The vaulted roof was supported on eight columns at equal 
 distances, and a ninth in the centre of the place. A well, 
 bored from above, had passed through the central column. 
 A wide, lofty, and well-finished corridor led to the cavern 
 on the other side, but this being walled at the end, the 
 party could not explore further." Upon reading those state- 
 ments, the owner of Redcliff Wharf, Mr. Henry Charles 
 Harford, of Frenchay, addressed a letter to a Bristol news- 
 paper, stating that the caverns were well known to him. 
 They had, he said, formed part of the Redcliif Wharf 
 property, and he had when a boy explored them to an 
 immense distance, Redclift' Church standing on one of them. 
 Mr. Harford hinted that they had, at an earlier period, 
 been used for smuggling and even for worse purposes (kid- 
 napping and slave dealing). He believed they had been 
 originally dug for sandpits, and they had certainly proved 
 valuable to the owners of Redcliff Wharf . In 1812, a gen- 
 tleman (indicated as Mr. Thos. King, merchant,) had claimed 
 that portion of the caverns which existed under his property, 
 and this claim being substantiated, the wall found by the 
 workmen was built to separate the estates. — In 1869, the 
 railway companies, finding it desirable to increase their 
 waterside accommodation, applied to Parliament for further 
 powers, and obtained the assent of the Corporation to the 
 extension of the wharf by the addition of 400 feet water 
 frontage west of Prince's Street Bridge. The railway was 
 opened in March, 1872. In a few months it was found that 
 the wharves were insufficient to accommodate the trade, a 
 largely increased number of steamers frequenting the port, 
 and in 1873 parliamentary sanction was obtained for the 
 further development of the works. The new Act provided 
 that the two wharves on either side of Prince's Street Bridge 
 road, already constructed, and a third towards Wapping — 
 1,483 feet in length — were to be exclusively city property, 
 while two contiguous wharves lower down, 1,208 feet long, 
 with power of extension over 398 feet more, were to belong 
 in fee simple to the companies. The rent-charge of £2,000 
 payable to the city was to be suspended until the completion 
 of the new works. The wharves devolving on the Corpora- 
 tion by this Act were estimated to have cost £60,000. 
 
 At the annual meeting of the Bristol Turnpike trustees, 
 in March, 1866, it was reported that the mortgage debt upon 
 the entire trust — which embraced 163 miles of road, and was, 
 with one exception, the most extensive in England — had been 
 nearly paid off. The only charge remaining was one of £5,500
 
 428 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1866. 
 
 on two of tlie northern sections. As the surplus receipts 
 for a further period of eighteen months would clear off this 
 burden, it was resolved that the tolls should be abolished 
 on the 1st November, 1867. The resolution was carried by 
 the narrow majority of 26 votes against 22, many of the 
 rural trustees being opposed to a step which threw the main- 
 tenance of the roads on the local ratepayers, whilst some of 
 the Bristol trustees objected that the abolition of tolls would 
 entail a burden of £2,000 a year upon the citizens for repair- 
 ing the eighteen miles of turnpike within the borough. In 
 accordance with the resolution, the district was included in 
 the Turnpike Act of 1866, under the provisions of which the 
 powers of the trustees expired on the 1st November, 1867, 
 when all the turnpike gates were removed. Within the 
 borough there were no less than fifteen of those obstacles 
 to locomotion, namely : Whiteladies, St. Michael's, Clifton 
 Down and Grallows Acre gates in the Aust district ; Cutler's 
 Mills and Redland Road gates in the Horfield district ; St. 
 John's Lane gate in the Whitchurch district; Lawford's and 
 Baptist Mills gates in the Stapleton district; West Street 
 gate, and bars at Packhorse and Barrow Lanes in the Toghill 
 and Bitton district ; Parson Street and Luckwell Lane gates 
 in the Dundry district ; and Coronation Road gate in the 
 Ashton trust. The sites of the toll-houses wore in most cases 
 claimed by the owners of the adjoining property, and the 
 buildings were demolished.* The surplus funds of the trust 
 (£6,760) were divided amongst the local highway authorities. 
 In the spring of 1866, Mr. Thomas W. Hill, of Clifton Park, 
 acquired from the Merchants' Society a piece of ground near 
 Jacob's Wells. After clearing it of a number of cottages, 
 he built upon the site an almshouse for the residence of 
 twelve aged persons, for whom he provided a small weekly 
 income. A few months later Mr. Hill presented the In- 
 firmary with £3,000 for the erection of two additional wards, 
 and subsequently, by gift and bequest, he distributed upwards 
 of £10,000 amongst charitable and religious institutions. The 
 residue of his estate, which was very largo, was devoted to 
 his almshouses, to tho church and schools of St. Silas, Baptist 
 Mills, to tho schools of St. Luke, Bodininstcr, and to the 
 Infirmary. In consequence of this bequest, the trustees of 
 
 • Tho Clifton toll-houso at the top of Brid(?o Valley Road had a largo rustic 
 portico, under which the public were accnstomcd to take sholtor during sudden 
 showers of ruin. A member of tho Council i)roposed that tho construction 
 flhould be preserved for tho sake of its utility ; but his suggestion met with no 
 support, find promenaders aro words oft now than they wore twenty years ago.
 
 3 8GC.] ERECTION OF THE CATHEDRAL NAVE. 429 
 
 the almshouses added forty non-resident almswomen to the 
 number receiving weekly pensions, and built a large room, 
 intended for a chapel and library to the almshouse. 
 
 The local journals of July 21st contained an address to the 
 public, signed by J. P. Norris, canon and sub-dean of Bristol 
 cathedral, appealing for aid in the great work of reconstruc- 
 ting the nave of that edifice. The tower, it was stated, was 
 undergoing restoration at the expense of the chapter [see 
 p. 370], but it could not be effectually buttressed except by 
 the completion of the cathedral in its original form. (During 
 the previous year, whilst the road in front of the cathedral 
 was being lowered by the Corporation, the workmen laid bare 
 the foundations of a nave and north porch which had been 
 commenced — probably by Abbot Knowle — but never com- 
 pleted, thus disposing of the foolish legend that they were ,' 
 destroyed during the civil war. Traces of the original Roman-* 
 esque nave, which had been of small dimensions, were also 
 found during the reconstruction.) In October, a committee of 
 influential citizens was formed with a view to pressing the sub- 
 ject upon public attention ; but it soon afterwards transpired 
 that a majority of the chapter, consisting of the dean and 
 canons Bankes and Girdlestone, believing that funds would 
 not be forthcoming for a perfect reconstruction, were in favour 
 of building a truncated nave of three bays. This proposal 
 being universally condemned, the committee requested Mr. 
 Street, the Gothic architect, to advise them on the subject. 
 His report stated that Abbot Knowle's nave was intended to 
 be of six bays, and that only such a structure would properly 
 bring out the beauties of the choir. He also thought that 
 the addition of western towers would greatly improve the ap- 
 pearance of the building. The entire reconstruction accord- 
 ing to his designs was estimated to cost £52,800, but the 
 completion of the nave and towers up to the level of the roof 
 was set down at about £43,000. Subscriptions amounting 
 to £13,000* having been already promised — some leading 
 Dissenters offering handsome donations — it was resolved to 
 undertake two bays, as suggested by Mr. Street, and a con- 
 tract was signed in August, 1867, for £14,270. The founda- 
 tion stone of the new work was laid on the 17th April, 1868, 
 with masonic honours, by the Earl of Limerick, P^.M.- Early^ 
 in 1870,__:ffilienthe two bays were completed^Mr. "W^Kj," 
 Wait, then mayor^ offered to build the new nortlTp'ofch'festi- 
 
 _— -jH^ : — 
 
 * The firsFsuBscriptions — afterwards largely increased — of the five originators i 
 of the movement, Canon Norris, Sir Wm. Miles, and Messrs. Francis Adams, I 
 J. J. Mogg, and W. K. Wait, were £500 each.
 
 430 
 
 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. 
 
 [1866. 
 
 mated to cost £1,200), provided a like sum was subscribed to 
 raise tlie nortli wall of the nave for its reception. The re- 
 quired sum was soon forthcoming, and by a further effort, in 
 1872, subscriptions to a large amount were contributed for 
 the purpose of completing the nave and the lower portion of 
 the western towers. In the autumn of 1875 the state of the 
 central tower was reported to be so critical that it was deemed 
 advisable to remove the battlements, — greatly impairing the 
 former stately appearance of the building, — in which denuded 
 condition it still remains, the fund appropriated to its restora- 
 tion by the chapter having proved inadequate. The singular 
 incidents of the following year, and the completion of the 
 nave, will be noticed hereafter. 
 
 At a meeting of the Council, in September, 1866, Mr. 
 Christopher J. Thomas drew attention to the urgency of a 
 redistribution of the seats allotted to the several municipal 
 wards of the borough, the movement of population since the 
 ill-advised arrangement of 1835 having rendered the existing 
 system a mockery of the representative principle. Mr. Thomas 
 succeeded in obtaining the appointment of a committee to 
 consider the subject, but its deliberations led to no result. 
 In December, 1869, Mr. Thomas reintroduced the subject, 
 the anomalies of which had been in the meantime greatly 
 increased by an Act conferring the municipal franchise on 
 householders whose rates were paid by their landlords. Mr. 
 Thomas moved that a petition should be addressed to the 
 Crown praying for an equitable reform, reminding his oppo- 
 nents that the unfairness of the arrangement would become 
 every year more glaring. The following was then the position 
 of the seven principal wards. The figures are well worth 
 contrasting with those given at page 209. 
 
 
 Ratepayers. 
 
 Yearly Value. 
 
 Members. 
 
 St. Augustine 
 
 987 
 
 £40,956 
 
 6 
 
 St. Michael 
 
 1;594 
 
 64,090 
 
 3 
 
 Clifton 
 
 2oi8 
 
 131,706 
 
 9 
 
 St. Philip 
 
 4818 
 
 86,687 
 
 3 
 
 liviaUA 
 
 1751 
 
 98,925 
 
 ■ 9 
 
 Ik'iliiiinster 
 
 22(;7 
 
 41, 629 
 
 3 
 
 licdclili 
 
 1781 
 
 01,850 
 
 
 
 The Conservatives, who predominated in the four favoured 
 wards, met Mr. Thomas with an amendment, assorting that, 
 as it was not cstablislied that public good would result from 
 a change, it was inexpedient to make any alteration. The
 
 186G.] 
 
 REDISTEIBUTION OP COUNCILLORS. 
 
 431 
 
 amendment was adopted by 31 votes (including 12 aldermen) 
 against 22. The question was again brought before the Coun- 
 cil in June, 1875, by Mr. H. J. Mills, when the relative state 
 in the wards had become more anomalous than ever. The 
 four favoured wards, shown in the above table as returnincr 
 thirty councillors, had in 1875 only 7,565 burgesses, while the 
 remaining wards in the city, returning only eighteen coun- 
 cillors put together, had an aggregate of 15,844 burgesses. 
 The predominant party in the Council continued to defend 
 the arrangement, on the ground that it worked well and that 
 the grievance was a sentimental one. It was admitted, how- 
 ever, that the matter was deserving of further consideration, 
 and a committee was appointed to report as to what should 
 be done. The committee had the subject under discussion 
 for nearly four years, the majority being very unwilling to 
 disturb the existing arrangement. At length, in March, 1879, 
 a report was presented recommending certain reforms. The 
 large wards of Bedminster and St. Philip were each divided 
 into two wards, having three members each, the additional 
 representatives being obtained by taking three from Bristol 
 ward and three from St. Augustine's. A third new ward 
 was created out of the northern portions of Clifton and St. 
 Michael's wards, and called Westbury ward, the three mem- 
 bers for which were obtained by reducing the representatives 
 for Clifton from nine to six. Finally, the portion of St. Philip's 
 Marsh south of the Feeder was transferred to Redcliff ward, 
 which was to retain its six members. Under this rearrange- 
 ment, the wards stood as follows : — 
 
 
 Councillors. 
 
 Burgesses. 
 
 Rated Value. 
 
 Bedminster, East ... 
 
 3 
 
 2076 
 
 £30,044 
 
 Bedminster, West ... 
 
 3 
 
 1825 
 
 30,562 
 
 Central 
 
 6 
 
 1873 
 
 110,578 
 
 Clifton 
 
 6 
 
 2222 
 
 135,288 
 
 Westbury 
 
 3 
 
 1307 
 
 62,015 
 
 District 
 
 3 
 
 2014 
 
 49,408 
 
 Eedcliff 
 
 6 
 
 2289 
 
 87,903 
 
 St. Augustine 
 
 3 
 
 1030 
 
 48,619 
 
 St. James 
 
 3 
 
 1011 
 
 30,316 
 
 St. Michael 
 
 3 
 
 1210 
 
 48,670 
 
 St. Paul 
 
 3 
 
 1554 
 
 35,698 
 
 St. Philip, North ... 
 
 3 
 
 2902 
 
 43,108 
 
 St. Philip, South ... 
 
 3 
 
 2950 
 
 58,880 
 
 This plan was so distasteful to some of the Conservatives 
 that the leader of the party. Alderman Ford, moved its post- 
 ponement, to enable his friends to get " educated " on the
 
 432 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1866. 
 
 question. A delay of a fortuiglit was carried after a warm 
 discussion. At the adjourned meeting the report was adopted 
 by a majority of 46 against 6 — the latter number represent- 
 ing the " uneducated " Conservatives. A Bill to carry out the 
 reform having been approved at a statutory meeting of the 
 ratepayers, the measure was laid before Parliament in the 
 session of 1880. It was opposed in the House of Commons 
 by Mr. W. K. Wait (mayor 1869-70), a member of the Coun- 
 cil then representing the city of Gloucester, who obtained the 
 assistance of a number of Conservative members. His motion 
 for the rejection of the Bill was, however, defeated by 163 
 votes against 98 ; and the measure received the royal assent 
 on the 14th June. Shortly afterwards, three members from 
 each of the reduced wards were transferred to St. Philip's, 
 Bedminster, and Westbury — much against the wishes of some 
 of the gentlemen thus " transparished," amongst whom there 
 was much heart-burning. 
 
 At a meeting of the Bristol Board of Guardians, in October, 
 statistics were produced shomng the annual local taxation of 
 the ancient city during the previous 26 years. During that 
 period the average had been nearly 6s. Id. in the pound. 
 The rates had been about 1."?. in the pound more during the 
 later half of the term than they were in the previous moiety, 
 owing to the large expenditure for sewers incurred by the 
 Board of Health. The highest year was 1856, in which the 
 total rates amounted to 7s. 6d. in the pound, divided as 
 follows : poor rate, 3s. 4:d. ; borough rate. Is. 7d. ; harbour 
 rate, 3(Z. ; dock rate, 4-d. ; board of health rate, 2s. From a 
 table kindly furnished by Mr. Alderman Naish, it appears 
 that in 1886 the local burdens in the "ancient city" had 
 
 I, fallen to 5s. 9d. in the pound; namely, poor rates. Is. 6d.; 
 borough rates, 11(7.; dock rate, 4c£. ; harbour rate, 2d.; 
 sanitary rates, 2s. lOd. In the city portion of Bedminster 
 
 "■ the local charges in 1886 amounted to 5s. bd. ; in Clifton and 
 St. Philiji's (out), 5s. 2d. ; in Westbury (within the city), 5s., 
 and in the District, 4s. 10*/. in the pound. The rateable 
 value of the entire city in October, 1886, was £932,496. 
 
 In October, Mr. J. H. Chute, the manager of the Theatre 
 Royal, purchased of Mr. Rich, Fuidge a large house in Park 
 Row, formerly the residence of Colonel Baillie [see p. 78], 
 ^Ir. Chute soon afterwards constructed a handsome theatre on 
 the site, at a cost, including fittings, of nearly £18,000. The 
 building was intended to accommodate 340 persons in the 
 dress boxes, 100 in the orchestra stalls, 800 iu the pit, 360 in 
 the upper circle and amphitheatre, and 800 iu the gallery.
 
 186G.] SUSPECTED MURDER. 433 
 
 It was opened on the 14tli October, 1867, as the New Theatre 
 Royal, but was afterwards styled the Prince's Theatre. 
 
 Pembroke Chapel, Oakfield Road, erected by the Congre- 
 gationalists, was opened on the olst October. It took the 
 place of an iron chapel, which had been in use there for some 
 years. On the following day. Trinity Chapel, the second 
 place of worship built by the Wesleyan Methodists in AVhite- 
 ladies Road, was opened by the Rev. W. Shaw and the Rev. 
 W. M. Punshon. 
 
 Emmanuel Church, Clifton, was opened on the 18th 
 December, its erection having occupied less than thirteen nif^ u\ 
 months. In 1868 the building was considerably enlarged ;|,T,y*^ vy^ 
 it was consecrated by the bishop of the diocese on the ^th/'^i^P^ 
 January, 1869. A lofty tower was added subsequently — in^TirT 
 which a peal of eight bells was placed in September, 1884, 
 but funds have not yet been forthcoming for the construction 
 of an intended spire. 
 
 A mysteriovis affair, under which no doubt lurked a 
 villanous murder, caused great excitement towards the close 
 of the year. On the afternoon of the 6th of December, a 
 man named Charles Jones, about eighty years of age, who 
 pursued the business of a money lender, was seen to enter 
 the yard of a beerhouse called the North Somerset Railway 
 Arms, in St. Philip's Marsh, kept by one Nathaniel Ramsden. 
 Jones was never seen or heard of again. In the yard of 
 Ramsden's house was a lime-kiln and furnaces, used by the 
 occupier in his business of a lime dealer and tar distiller. 
 Ramsden owed the deceased about £330, of which Jones had 
 been endeavouring to obtain repayment for some time, and 
 Ramsden was in difficulties and had just been made a bank- 
 rupt. On the 8th December Ramsden called on Jones's 
 agent and man of business in the city, and produced a paper, 
 pui'porting to be a receipt signed by the deceased for £340, 
 alleging that he had paid £10 too much and was to receive 
 it back again. Jones's agent, however, intimated his belief 
 that the signature was not genuine, whereupon Ramsden 
 went oif, carrying the paper away with him. When ques- 
 tioned by the police, Ramsden asserted that he had paid the 
 money to his creditor, but two of the persons said by him to 
 have been present at the transaction deposed that they saw 
 no money pass. A careful search was made of the premises, 
 but no trace of the body could be discovered ; and it Avas 
 generally believed that it had been burnt in the lime-kiln. 
 Ramsden left the country a few months latei% and the affair 
 has ever since been wrapped in impenetrable mystery. 
 
 E P
 
 434 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1867. 
 
 The Duke, of Buckingham, President of the Council^ having 
 paid a visit to Bristol in January, 1867, to distribute the 
 prizes to the successful pupils in the Trade School, the 
 opportunity was seized by the Merchant Venturers' Society 
 to present him with the freedom of the incorporation. The 
 Duke was a lineal descendant of Robert Nugent, Lord Clare, 
 many years M.P. for Bristol, his grace's great-grandfather 
 having married the only daughter and heiress of that noble- 
 man. 
 
 A distinguished native of Bristol, and one of the most 
 accomplished British sculptors of the present century, Edward 
 Hodges Baily, R.A., F.R.S., died on the 22nd May, in liis 
 "eightireth year." The artist was the eldest son of Mr. William 
 Hillier Baily, of this city, and was born on the lOtli March, 
 1788. He was for about two years a pupil at the Grammar 
 School, where he is said to have been deft in carving 
 portraits of his companions, but to have shown no capacity 
 for ordinary work. Mr. Hillier Baily was a ship carver, in 
 which avocation he displayed much ability, and his figures 
 doubtless awakened a love of art in his son, who at the age 
 of 16 abandoned the mercantile desk over which he had 
 bent for a couple of years, and soon after gained admission 
 to the studio of Flaxman, A\4iere he made rapid progress. 
 At 19 he gained one of the prizes of the Society of Arts ; 
 at 21 he was awarded the first silver medal of the Royal 
 Academy; and at 23 he carried off the gold medal and 60 
 guineas which wei-e then the "blue ribbon" of the latter 
 institution. In the year following this last success, he 
 produced his grandest imaginative work — " Eve at the 
 Fountain " — which won for its creator the prize of 100 guineas 
 from the British Institution as the best specimen of British 
 sculpture. The loveliness of the work at once established his 
 reputation, and casts were eagerly purchased for the chief 
 schools of art in France and Germany. In 1819 Baily was 
 elected an Associate of the Royal Academy, and was raised 
 to the rank of Academician in 1821, being the only sculptor 
 who attained that honour during the ])rusidoncy of his fellow 
 Bristolian, Sir Thomas Lawrence. The mythological group 
 sculptured in the frieze of the portico of the Institution (now 
 the Freemasons' Hall), in Park Street, was presented by 
 Baily as a token of affection for his native city. Amongst 
 the best of tlui artist's very numerous works were : " Eve 
 Listening," "The Graces," " Motherly Love," "The Sleeping 
 Nymph," a statue of Fox at Westminster, and colossal statues 
 of Sir Robert Peel at Manchester, and of Earl Grey at Now-
 
 1867.] SUGAR REFINING IN BRISTOL, 435 
 
 castle. The statue of Nelson, on tlic column in Trafalgar 
 Square, London, was also from his chisel. " Eve at the 
 Fountain " was purchased by a local subscription for £600, 
 and was placed in the Bristol Institution — now the Museum 
 and Library, Though much profitable work was placed in 
 his hands, Baily was, like Lawrence, unthrifty ; and the later 
 years of his long life were passed in painful embarrassment. 
 
 On the 17th June, during the progress of the Reform 
 measure of 1867 through the House of Commons, a Liberal 
 member moved that the six English provincial boroughs 
 having a population of upwards of 100,000 (Bristol being one 
 of the number), should return three representatives instead 
 of two. The proposal was resisted by Mr, Disraeli on behalf 
 of the Ministry, and on a division it was rejected by 247 
 votes against 239, Subsequently, the Cabinet conceded the 
 claim for another member made on behalf of Liverpool, Man- 
 chester, Birmingham, and Leeds, whereupon Mr, Berkeley put 
 in a similar demand for Bristol, He was, however, defeated 
 by 235 votes against 136. In July, 1870, the Council unanim- 
 ously resolved to petition Parliament for an additional member 
 but the effort was without result. 
 
 At a meeting of the Docks Committee in June, it was 
 determined to erect a new and improved Drawbridge at the 
 end of Clare Street — the roadway of the bridge to be more 
 on a line with that street than was the old structure. The 
 improvement cost about £2,500. 
 
 A local newspaper of the 20th July stated that in conse- 
 quence of the Governments of France and Belgium having 
 granted a "drawback^' on exportations to the sugar refiners 
 of those countries, the loaf sugar trade in England had been 
 so largely monopolised by the foreign manufacturers that 
 some of the chief British refiners had been obliged to con- 
 tract their operations and reduce the number of their hands. 
 The making of loaf sugar appears to have been practically 
 discontinued in Bristol before this date, the manufactui'ers 
 having devoted themselves to the production of crystallised 
 sugar, in which they excelled. The Bristol Times of Sep- 
 tember 28, 1872, stated that '^ast week, sales by Messrs. 
 Finzel & Sons reached 1,800 tons, the value of which would 
 probably be £70,000." In 1876 the same firm, whose 
 premises were already amongst the largest in the country, 
 purchased Counterslip Chapel and the adjacent schools for 
 about £10,000, and converted them into warehouses. The 
 stop was not justified by the financial condition of the firm — 
 which had sustained an irreparable loss by the death {21st
 
 436 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1867. 
 
 October, 1859) of Mr. Finzel, its founder and manager"^ — and 
 the house went into liquidation in the spring of the follow- 
 ing year. It was stated at an attempted sale of the premises 
 and plant, that the outlay upon them had exceeded £400,000. 
 The agitation in reference to the foreign sugar duties con- 
 tinued for several years, and was made an instrument for the 
 promotion of the doctrines of a party calling themselves Fair 
 Traders. In 1878 the Bristol Chamber of Commerce for- 
 warded a memorial to the Government praying for the 
 imposition of a duty on foreign refined sugar equal to the 
 amount of the bounty on exports alleged to be paid by the 
 French and other Governments. But Lord Beaconsfield's 
 Ministry refused to take any legislative action which savoured 
 of protection, and an attempt of certain professional agita- 
 tors, styling themselves working men, to secure the support 
 of the Trades Union Congress, during its gathering in Bristol 
 in August, 1878, was emphatically defeated. In the autumn 
 of 1878 a few public-spirited citizens formed a company, 
 with a capital of £150,000, with the view of taking over 
 Messrs. Finzel's works — offered at £71,500 — and of reviving 
 the business. The experiment unfortunately resulted in 
 heavy loss to the promoters, and the manufactory was finally 
 closed in April, 1881. 
 
 During the summer of 1867, building operations were 
 carried on with unusual vigour in the suburban districts. In 
 July a number of fields and nursery gardens near Eedland 
 and Hampton Roads were laid out for new streets. On one 
 somewhat extensive estate, styled Woolcott Park, a great 
 number of houses was subsequently built. For several years 
 after this date, the only outlet westward from the estate was 
 an old footpath, known as Nettle Lane ; but the Corporation 
 refused to lay out a street unless the landlords interested 
 would contribute £500. This they refused to do, and the 
 ground required for the street was allowed to be built over. 
 In 1877 the Council — amidst much ridicule — admitted the 
 necessity of a thoroughfare, and was compelled, at consider- 
 able cost, to buy and demolish the houses which stood in the 
 way of the improvement. 'J'he "Goodliiud estate," near 
 Sta])loton Koad, was also sold in building lots during the 
 •autumn of 1867. 
 
 • Mr. Finzel, who wns a German liy birtli, and began liis caroor in Enpland 
 as aworkin^,' 8iit,'ar relimr, inventeil iinprovcinents in tho aiiiinriiliiK for rcfiniTiR, 
 the jiatent riglifs of wliich are said to liav(^ lirouj^lit liiiii in £10,0(10 a year. He 
 vifiH exceedingly K''"t'''0"**i 'i"'l f'"" '"ftny yt'ars in saiil lo have yiveu between 
 £5,000 and £10,000 per annum to Mr. Miillcr'a Orphanages.
 
 18G8.] THE queen's prize to riflemen, banquet. 437 
 
 At the Wimbledon rifle competitions, in July, the great 
 prize of the gathering — the Queen's gift of £250, with the 
 gold medal of the Association — was won by Sergeant Henry 
 Lane, of the Bristol volunteer rifle corps. His success was 
 hailed with much satisfaction, and he met with an enthusiastic 
 reception on his return. Mr. Lane was afterwards presented 
 with a handsome testimonial, " in recognition of the honour 
 he had gained for Bristol." At the meeting in the following 
 year, Drum-major Hutchinson, of the same corps, won the 
 silver medal, the silver badge, and £60, as the most success- 
 ful shot in the first stage of the Queen's prize. 
 
 The church of St. Silas, St. Philip's Marsh, was conse- 
 crated on the 2nd October. Owing to the spongy nature of 
 the subsoil, the church speedily began to show signs of sub- 
 sidence, and its condition at length became so perilous that it 
 was closed in March, 1872. The building was soon after- 
 wards taken down, and the foundation stone of another 
 edifice was laid on the 9th October. The new church, which 
 cost about £2,100, was opened in August, 1873. 
 
 A small church in Maudlin Street, intended to serve as a 
 chapel of ease to St. James's, and dedicated to St. James the 
 Less, was consecrated on the oOtli November. 
 
 On the 22nd Januaiy, 1868, several members of the Ministry 
 of the Earl of Dei'by were entertained to a magnificent ban- 
 quet by about 1,300 of the leading Conservatives of the dis- 
 trict. The dinner took place in the Drill Hall, the standing 
 order forbidding the use of that building for political pur- 
 poses having been rescinded for the occasion. The Duke of 
 Beaufort presided, and the chief speakers amongst the guests 
 were Lord Stanley (now Earl of Derby), Mr. 0. Hardy (Lord 
 Cranbrook), and Sir John Pakington (afterwards Lord Hamp- 
 ton) . The proceedings were marked with much enthusiasm. 
 
 The Royal Commission appointed for the purpose of re- 
 adjusting the limits of counties and boroughs after the passing 
 of the Reform Act of 1867, presented its report early in the 
 following year. In dealing with Bristol, the commissioners 
 recommended that Bishopston and St. George's parishes in 
 Gloucestershire, and a further portion of the parish of Bed- 
 minster, in Somerset, should be included within the limits of 
 the borough. The suggestion was condemned as unreasonable 
 in view of the fact that the city had been refused the third 
 member to which it Avas entitled by its population. A Com- 
 mittee of the House of Commons recommended the rejection 
 of the report so far as Bristol and some other boroughs were 
 concerned, and their advice was adopted.
 
 438 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1868. 
 
 -Kv 'In recording tlie removal, on tlie 25tli March, 1868, of the 
 ^^ 1^1 Bristol Post Office from Corn Street to Small Street, an 
 opportunity is afforded for a brief sketch of the progress of 
 the institution during the present century. The onerous 
 postal charges exacted down to 1839 have been already re- 
 corded [p. 244] . Their effect was to deter the entire com- 
 munity from making use of the office except for matters of 
 urgency ; and the postal revenue, in spite of the constant 
 growth of population, made scarcely any advance for many 
 years. The local office, when removed from Small Street to 
 Corn Street, about 1748, required only the basement floor of 
 the house on the west side of the Exchange. With the 
 addition of a small apartment at the back, the accommodation 
 remained sufficient until the days of penny postage. The 
 staff, in 1820, consisted of 17 persons ; it had risen only to 
 19 (6 clerks and 13 postmen) in 1837. The number of letters 
 delivered at the latter date is unknown, but did not probably 
 exceed 16,000 weekly, while, owing to the charge imposed on 
 money orders (eightpence in the pound on small sums, and a 
 higher rate on remittances above £2) the entire amount of 
 the transactions in Bristol averaged only about c€500 a year. 
 A rapid development followed the reduction in charges, and 
 besides an absorption of rooms on the upper floors, large 
 extensions of the premises were made in the reai', a corner of 
 the vegetable market being appropriated. But the work of 
 the office expanded more rapidly than the space allotted to 
 the staff, the number of which in 1855 had risen to 93 (42 
 clerks, 51 carriers). More elbow-room being then indispen- 
 sable, a separate office for money orders was opened in Sep- 
 tember in a shop in Small Street. In February, 1856, the 
 introduction of jjillar letter-boxes led to a further growth of 
 correspondence. Until nearly the close of the eighteenth 
 century three mails a week from London were considered 
 adequate. Thanks to the railways, the public were accom- 
 modated Avitli three mails daily, and increased facilities were 
 offered in various other directions, with satisfactory results. 
 The time at length arrived Avhen it was no longer practicable to 
 conduct the work of the office in the old premises. In 1865 
 a site was purchased in Small Street, then occupied by Messrs. 
 Freeman and the Brass and Co])])er Comjiany; and a largo 
 l)tiilding was erected at a cost of ,£10,000. [While the 
 gi-()UTi(l was being cleared, says the Ih-isiol Times of November 
 18, 1865, the workmen came upon an old safe, falling to 
 pieces, which, from some papers found in it, had belonged to 
 the long extinct Ijanking firm of Vaughan, Maxse & Co. An
 
 1868.] NEW POST OFFICE. AN ELECTION. 439 
 
 ancient mulberry tree, tlie last of several that once grew in 
 the city, was destroyed about the same time.] When the 
 new office was opened for business, the staff had augmented 
 to 141 ; the weekly average of letters, etc., delivered in Bristol 
 exceeded 157,000, and the transactions of the money order 
 department represented upwards of £400,000 a year. The 
 marvellous development eilbctcd under the new system, how- 
 ever, did not warn the authorities to make reasonable pro- 
 vision for future growth. Only the ground floor of the 
 building was reserved for the postal officials, — the first and 
 second flats being appropriated to the Inland Revenue staff, 
 who removed there from Queen Square. The transfer of the 
 telegraphs to the Government (see January, 1870,) hastened 
 the breaking up of an arrangement which was from the out- |i 
 set injudicious. Before the close of 1871 the Inland Revenue! 
 officers returned to their old quarters, and the evacuated'/ 
 apartments were soon after occupied by the telegraphists. 
 A few years later the money-order and savings-bank branch 
 was again removed to a separate building, to make room for 
 the growing needs of the postal service. Yet in spite of the 
 relief afforded by successive migrations, the new office, before 
 it was fifteen years old, was condemned as inadequate. The 
 question of removing the institution to another site was 
 brought before the Council in 1885, at the instance of the 
 authorities in London, but the suggestion was not approved. 
 In the autumn of 1886 the Government purchased a block of 
 offices in Small Street, known as New Buildings, and some 
 warehouses in the rear, with a view to an extensive enlarge- 
 ment, the cost of which was estimated at £15,000. The postal 
 staff had then swollen to 356 persons (127 clerks and 229 
 carriers), to which were added 214 telegraphists and mes- 
 sengers. The average number of letters, etc., delivered 
 weekly was 438,040 ; the yearly number of telegraphs trans- 
 mitted and deHvered was nearly 620,000 ; the transactions in 
 postal orders and notes marked a total of nearly 300,000 
 annually, while the sum turned over in the savings bank 
 reached nearly £100,000 a year. 
 
 In consequence of the failure of Messrs. Peto, Betts & Co., 
 the great contractors, through the financial panic of 1866, \\ 
 Sir Morton Peto, M.P., in April, 1868, made use of the usual /,' 
 procedure for resigning his seat. His action having been fore- 
 seen, both political parties were prepared, and a smart contest 
 ensued. The Conservative candidate Avas Mr. John William 
 Miles, of Kingsweston, brother of a former member for the 
 city. The Liberals were at first threatened with a division in
 
 440 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1868. 
 
 their ranks, Mr. E. S. Eobinson offering himself against the 
 wishes of the leaders of the party, who brought forward a 
 Mr. Bowring ; but eventually both of the gentlemen withdrew, 
 and a new" selection was made in the person of Mr. Samuel 
 Morley, a Nottingham manufacturer distinguished for munifi- 
 cent philanthropy. The polling took place on the 29th April, 
 and the figures at the close were as follows : Mr. Miles, 
 Si. 5,173; Mr. Morley, 4,977. At the declaration of the poll on 
 
 v^^, ^ the 30th April, Mr. Morley affirmed that his defeat was due 
 ^jh" p "to an undue use of money, beer, and intimidation," and a 
 
 •v^ . ■'^ ' petition against the return was forthwith presented to the 
 ^ r^ House of Commons. In the course of the subsequent investi- 
 
 gation, evidence was given charging the Conservative com- 
 mittee with hiring a number of "roughs," with wholesale 
 treating, with paj'ing non-voters to personate electors, and 
 with several cases of bribery. The petitioner's counsel also 
 pointed out that the secretary to Mr. Miles's central committee 
 and two other prominent agents had absented themselves 
 from Bristol to avoid being summoned as witnesses. In the 
 result, the committee, of whom a majority were Conservatives, 
 declared that the election was void, and that Mr. Miles was, 
 by his agents, guilty of bribery. Mr. P. W. S. Miles, brother 
 of the unseated member, having immediately offered himself 
 for the vacancy, repeated motions were made in the Commons 
 for the issue of a new writ; but, as a general election was 
 imminent, the House refused its assent. The election and its 
 consequences excited considerable irritation in both political 
 camps. 
 
 The death was announced, on the 1 1th June, of the Rev. 
 obert Vaughan, D.D., one of the most eminent Nonconfor- 
 mists~of~irr§Time7 Dr. Vaughan was born in Bristol in 1795, 
 of poor parentage, and in early life worked as a carpenter. 
 By dint of energy and ability he overcame the difficulties 
 of his position, and ultimately became Professor of History 
 in University College, London, and afterwards Principal of 
 the Lancashire Independent College. His best known works 
 are a biogrnphy of AVycliffe, a history of FiUgland under the 
 Stewarts, " Pevolutious of English History," and " The Age 
 of Great Cities." He was also the founder and many years 
 editor of the British Qiiarterli/ Review. In May, 1806, Dr. 
 Vaughan was presented by ]\Ir. S. ^Morley, as chairman of a 
 meeting o£ prominent Dissenters, with a cheque for 13,000, 
 in recognition of his distinguished services as a minister, a 
 teacher, and a man of letters. 
 
 'J'he now thoroughfare connecting Park How with Maudlin
 
 1868.] STREET IMPROVEMENTS. 441 
 
 Street was formally opened by the mayor (Mr. F. Adams) 
 on the 20th August, with some state, a civic procession wend- 
 ing its way from the Council House to the place fixed for 
 the ceremony. The mayor, in a brief address, stated that the 
 street would thenceforth be called " Perry Road," in honour 
 of the chairman of the Streets Improvement Committee. In 
 the construction of the new thoroughfare, which cost upwards 
 of £13,o00, or nearly 50 per cent, in excess of the estimates, 
 a great number of crowded and ill-constructed dwellings were 
 cleared away, one side of Lower St. Michael's Hill being en- 
 tirely demolished. Amongst the old structures removed was 
 an octangular tower, which was embedded in an old house 
 neai'ly opposite to the southern front of the King David Inn. 
 This tower was the only relic of the White Lodge, built in the 
 sixteenth century upon the northern extremity of the garden 
 of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, Christmas Street. Subse- 
 quently, at an expenditure of £37,600, Upper Park Row and 
 Maudlin Street were widened, nearly the whole of the south 
 side of the latter thoroughfare being rebuilt. Lower Maudlin 
 Street was also improved, and the result was a spacious road 
 from Clifton to St. James's Churchyard, and also to Stokes 
 Croft. In September, 1872, the new street named after Col- 
 ston, extending from St. Augustine's Place to Lower Maudlin 
 Street, where it forms a junction with Pei"ry Road, was com- 
 pleted, and offered an easy communication from the fashion- 
 able suburbs to the centre of the city. 
 
 The Baptist denomination erected this year a handsome 
 place of worship in Whiteladies Road, which was opened by 
 the Hon. and Rev. Baptist Noel on the 30th September, under 
 the name of Tyndale Chapel. The original outlay, £7,500, 
 was increased by upwards of £5,000 in 1880, through the 
 addition of lecture rooms and schools. NL 
 
 A French Roman Catholic Sisterhood, styled the Little 
 Sisters of the Poor, which about 1861 took up their residence ' 
 in Bedminster, and subsequently removed to Trinity Street, .-•. 
 and then to Park Row, having been compelled to leave tlieir* 
 last-named dwelling by the improvements in progress there, 
 purchased a house on Cotham Hill, to which they now re- 
 moved. pThey afterwards built, in connexion with their con- 
 vent, an asylum for the reception of about one hundred sick 
 and aged poor, means for the maintenance of whom they 
 obtained by soliciting alms from door to door. A chapel was 
 added to the asylum in 1876, when about £7,000 had been 
 expended on the institution. 
 
 A large boarding-house in Sion Row, once the pump-room
 
 fir^]^ 
 
 1' 
 
 r 
 
 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1868. 
 
 . tj^l of tlie Sion spring, was purchased during the year by a joint 
 
 ^ stock company, and was opened in October under the name 
 
 of the StpVincent's Rocks Hotel. 
 
 At the general election in November, the political events 
 which had occurred in the city a few months before added 
 greatly to the excitement customary on such occasions. Mr. 
 John William Miles was again nominated by the Conservatives, 
 who expressed confidence in his triumph, owing to the gain 
 of 579 votes on the new register claimed by their Association. 
 The Liberal candidates were Mr. Berkeley and Mr. Samuel 
 Morley. The poll, which took place on the 17th November, 
 resulted as follows :— Mr. Berkeley, 8,759 ; Mr. Morley, 8,714 ; 
 Mr. Miles, 6,694. The figures show a great increase over 
 those recorded at the contest seven months before ; and it is 
 necessary to explain that the household suffrage conferred by 
 the Reform Act of 1867 had added about 7,000 electors to the 
 constituency, which was thus enlarged nearly 50 per cent. 
 The election was marked by disorder to an extent unknown 
 for many years. During the proceedings Mr. Morley was 
 twice attacked in the streets with stones, and was painfully 
 wounded in the face. Much destruction of property was 
 committed on the nomination and polling days by "red" and 
 "blue" mobs, which rivalled each other in brutality and 
 violence. It was asserted in the Conservative organ that the 
 city Avas " sacked and wrecked " by a rabble organised for 
 the purpose by the Liberal committee. Major Bus h further 
 declared before a committee of the Commons, in 1869, that 
 intimidation prevailed to a great extent, and that organised 
 mobs, hired as he believed by the Reform League, were 
 turned loose to prevent Conservatives from voting. He esti- 
 mated that about 900 voters Avere deterred from going to the 
 poll. Mr. IJe rbcrt Tl i pmas, a leading Liberal, gave evidence 
 of a flatly contradictory character. Tlie Liberals, he deposed, 
 hii'ed no " roughs," though to his knowledge as many as 1,200 
 were paid in April, 1868, by the Conservatives, who opened 
 200 public-houses, and obtained a three days' holiday for 
 the labourers employed on the rivor improvement works, in 
 order that they might act against the Liberals at the nomin- 
 ation. Witli regard to the disturbances in November, Mr. 
 Thomas added that out of the 17 ruilians punished for rioting 
 by the magistrates, 15 were wearing blue colours when arrested. 
 In consequence of the outrages, the Council ])etitioned Bar- 
 liament, by a unanimous vote, to abolish the system of public 
 nominations, which liad evoryvvhcro degenerated into a dis- 
 orderly and useless farce.
 
 1868.] CLIFTON COLLEGE MISSION. 443 
 
 Clifton Down Chapel^ erected by the Congregationalists 
 wlio had long worshipped in Bridge Street Chapel, was 
 opened on the 11th November by the Rev. S. Martin, of 
 London. The new building, which is in the fourteenth cen- 
 tury style, cost nearly £10,000. Funds were not available 
 for raising a highly ornamental spire. The congregation 
 traces its existence to 1682, Avhen a licence from Charles II. 
 (still exhibited in the vestry) was granted to John Weeks to 
 preach in a room in St. James's Back. Subsequently the 
 congregation removed to a building erected for a theatre in 
 Tucker Street; and upon that place being demolished for the 
 construction of Bath Street, a migration took place to Bridge 
 Street, where the basement of the chapel Avas leased to a wine 
 merchant for cellarage. The arrangement, of which there 
 have been other local examples — one in fact still exists — 
 gave rise to the following lines : — 
 
 " There's a spirit above and a spirit below, 
 A spirit of weal and a spirit of woe ; 
 The spirit above is the Spirit Divine, 
 The spirit below is the spirit of wine." 
 
 During the year 1868 the two bells of Clifton Church were 
 increased to a peal of eight, at the expense of Miss Clay, a 
 resident in the parish. ~ ' 
 
 During this year a novel and interesting movement was 
 started by Dr. Percival, in co-operation with the teaching 
 staff and the elder students of Clifton College. A ragged 
 school was established in one of the poorest eastern districts 
 of the city — on the borders of the parishes of St. Emmanuel 
 and St. Silas — and in a short time about one hundred and 
 twenty children were receiving instruction. After the pass- 
 ing of the Education Act of 1870, it was felt that the School 
 Board might be safely left to provide secular teaching in the 
 locality, and Dr. Percival addressed a communication to the 
 commissioners for church extension purposes, appointed by 
 Bishop Ellicott, offering to maintain a mission in any district 
 they should select. The result was the establishment in 
 1875 of a mission in Newfoundland Road (St. Barnabas' 
 parish), and an invitation to the boys of the College to 
 co-operate in the movement met with a cordial response. 
 A large workshop was converted into a mission room, and 
 two adjoining houses were afterwards taken for the pui^poses 
 of the work. The accommodation being found insufficient, 
 about £2,000 were subscribed, and a new mission room, with 
 class rooms, soup kitchen, etc., was opened in May, 1882. 
 An additional building, used as a workmen's club and library,
 
 444 THE AXNALS OF BRISTOL. [1869. 
 
 was added sTiortly afterwards. The institution proved of 
 great service to the sufferers from the disastrous inundation 
 of 1882, when the College, assisted by friends, raised an 
 extra subscription of £618. In the following year the dis- 
 trict undertaken by the mission was separated from St. Bar- 
 nabas' parish, and constituted the ecclesiastical district of 
 St. Agnes, and a new church was built at a cost of upwards 
 of £5,000, of which the College and its friends provided one 
 half. The building was consecrated on the 2nd March, 
 1886. It ought to be added that the example of the College 
 stirred up some of the Clifton parishes to establish similar 
 missions in the eastern districts. 
 
 Under the will of Miss Hannah Ludlow, a Quaker lady, 
 who died in February, 1869, aged about ninety years, the 
 Charity Trustees came into possession of about £20,000, the 
 interest upon whicli was ordered by the testatrix to be di- 
 vided into annuities of £30 each, for the benefit of women 
 of respectable character and -position, but impoverished by 
 unavoidable circumstances. The wealth of Miss Ludlow, 
 who was a native of the city, came to her from a brother, 
 who was for many years an ironmonger in Old Market Street. 
 
 An iniluentially attended meeting was held on the 8th 
 April, the mayor (Mr. F. Adams) presiding, for the purpose 
 of promoting the establishment of a training ship for the 
 reception of homeless and destitute boys. The subscriptions 
 announced at the close of the proceedings amounted to nearly 
 £1,500. In the following August, the Lords of the Admiralty 
 granted the loan of an old man-of-war, the Fortnidah} c , 
 pierced for eighty-four guns, which arrived at Kingroad in 
 September, when Commander E. Pouldcn, R.N., was ap- 
 pointed captain-superintendent. About 1,200 homeless boys 
 have since been rescued from misery, trained as sailors, and 
 passed into active life, whore the vast majority have con- 
 ducted themselves worthily. In 1874 a tender, the PuUij, 
 intended to take about thirty of the elder lads on cruises for 
 practical training, was purchased at a cost of about £1,000. 
 
 The merchants attending the corn market in the Exchange 
 having presented a memorial praying for protection from the 
 weather, the Council, at a meeting in June, resolved to ex- 
 pend £2,800 in covering the open quadrangle with glass. 
 The proposal was opposed by many members, the most anni- 
 sing objection being that of Alderman \Vc'bb, who contended 
 that if the market were made " too comfortable, the farmers, 
 a dilatory set of men, would keep the corn merchants there 
 much longer." The resolution was carried by a majority of
 
 1869.] THE EXCHANGE QUADRANGLE. LORD BROUGHTON. 445 
 
 20 votes against 18. Subsequently, the Council requested a 
 committee to consult with an architect as to the propriety of 
 the proposed design. As shrewd observers anticipated, tlie 
 selected architect lost no time in producing a plan of his 
 own, and although the estimated cost was increased to £4,000, 
 his proposal was adopted. The new design entailed consider- 
 able alteration in the details of the interior, a number of 
 offices being built upon the top of the colonnade, and much 
 allegorical enrichment introduced. The actual cost of the 
 improvement, which was completed in August, 1872, was 
 little short of £7,000. 
 
 The Eight Honourable Sir John Cam Hobhouso, Lord 
 Broughton, G.C.B,, F.K.S., died at his residence in London 
 on the 3rd June, 1869. The son of a Bristolian — Sir Ben- 
 jamin Hobhouse, bart. — he was born at Redland on the 27th 
 June, 1786, and received his early education on St. Michael's 
 Hill, at a school of great repute kept by the Rev. Dr. fJstlin, 
 minister of Lewin's Mead Chapel. Having formed a friend- 
 ship with Lord Byron at Cambridge, he accompanied the 
 poet in his travels in 1809, and on his return published an 
 interesting narrative entitled " A Journey through Albania. ^^ 
 He had previously produced a volume of poems and trans- 
 lations; and the fourth canto of '^ Childe Harold" was dedi- 
 cated to him by the author. Mr. Hobhouse, who took 
 advanced views as a politician, was one of the few who then 
 advocated a reform of the House of Commons, and having 
 ]iublished in 1819 a biting pamphlet, entitled "A Trifling 
 Mistake," he was committed to Newgate for a breach of 
 parliamentary privilege, but recovered his liberty a few 
 weeks later, on the death of George III. He was immedi- 
 ately afterwards elected one of the members for Westminster, 
 which he represented for several years. In 1832 he entered 
 Lord Grey's Ministry as Secretary of War, which office he 
 exchanged in 1833 for that of Irish Secretary ; a twelve- 
 month later he became Chief Commissioner of Woods and 
 Forests. His candidature and rejection for Bristol in 1835 
 have been already recorded [p. 203] . On the return of his 
 party to power in the same year, he became President of the 
 Board of Control, and filled the post for more than six years. 
 In 1846 he was again nominated to that office, in which he 
 continued until 1852. For his distinguished public services 
 he was raised to the peerage in February, 1851. After re- 
 tiring from public aflairs, he occupied his leisure in composing 
 " Recollections of a Long Life," privately printed in five 
 octavo volumes, and stated by the Jjjdinhurglt Review (vol.
 
 446 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1869. 
 
 133) to be replete witli interesting anecdotes relating to 
 political, literary, and social life. 
 
 During the summer of 1869 a memorial was addressed to 
 tlie Poor Law Board by a number of local magistrates, mem- 
 bers of tlie Council, and guardians of the poor, pointing out 
 the anomalies that had arisen in the constitution of the Bris- 
 tol board in consequence of the changes eifected by time in 
 the ancient wards. Each of those districts was represented 
 at the board by four members, but while All Saints', St. 
 Ewen's, and St. Mary-le-port each contained less than 200 
 ratepayers, the assessments in St. Michael's numbered 2,586, 
 and those in St. James's 4,152. The memorialists further 
 complained that the guardians representing the ratepayers 
 were generally outvoted on important questions by the nine- 
 teen churchwardens who were guardians ex-officio, and non- 
 representative.* The memorial having been sent to the Board 
 of Guardians, a motion was brought forward in November, 
 recommending a reconstruction of the body. To this an 
 amendment was moved, asserting that the ratepayers had a 
 sufficient control over the board, and were generally satisfied 
 with the old system. On a division the ratepayers' guardians 
 were outvoted, and the amendment was adopted. 
 
 The branch railway from Yatton to Axbridge, Cheddar, 
 and the neighbouring district was opened for traffic on the 
 3rd August. The new line, which was originally projected 
 by the Somerset and Dorset Company, was extended to Wells 
 in the following April. 
 
 On the 4th August, the Midland Eailway Company offered 
 the public an alternative route between Bristol and Bath, by 
 opening a branch from Mangotsfield to the latter city. The 
 line had been originally proposed by Hudson, " the Railway 
 King," in January, 1846, For the accommodation of the 
 passengers on this railway, the Company soon afterwards 
 constructed an independent station near their goods dc])ot at 
 Whip])ing-cat Hill, St. Philip's (erected in 1866), and it was 
 opened early in 1870. 
 
 The National Association for the Promotion of Social 
 Science opened its thirteenth annual congress in Bristol on 
 the 2i>th September, under the presidency of Sir StalTord 
 Northcote, bart. (Earl of Iddesleigh). The congress was very 
 
 • Spcnkinp of thrso clmrohwardoii guardians at a TiioctiiiR of tho Council, 
 January 2, 1H7H, Mr. II. J. Mills saiil : "He romcnilicrcd one ward where the 
 chnroliwarden would call a vestry meftinR — it was a close vestry — would be the 
 only i)<rson ])rcHcnt, would vote liiniself into tho chair, elect liiinsolf guardian, 
 paas the usual vote of thaukH to the chairuiau, and vote himself out again."
 
 18G9.] MR. GEORGE THOMAS. ACCIDENT AT THE THEATRE. 4i7 
 
 numerously attended by social reformers and philanthropists 
 from all parts of the kingdom. In addition to an inaugural 
 address^ the president delivered a speech at a crowded meet- 
 ing of working nieii in Colston Hall. 
 
 Under the provisions of an Act recently passed, conferring 
 the municipal franchise upon women, the burgess i-oll for this 
 year was considerably enlarged, the names of 2,465 female 
 ratepayers appearing upon it. The addition was strikingly 
 conspicuous in the Clifton list, in which were the names of 
 641 female and 1,907 male bargesses. A large majority of 
 the new electors evincing Conservative sympathies, the three 
 Libei-al councillors for Clifton successively lost their seats. 
 
 Daring the autumn, to the regret of many residents in the 
 neighbourhood, a number of the fine old elms which decorated 
 Queen's Square were cut down, their partial decay awaken- 
 ing a dread of accidents in heavy gales. As in the case of 
 Brunswick Square, whose deprivation of sylvan ornaments 
 has been already noticed, a colony of rooks, an interesting 
 feature of city life, was left homeless. Many of the Queen 
 Square birds appear to have quitted the city, but a few be- 
 took themselves to the neighbourhood of Tyndall's Park and 
 Cotham. 
 
 The Deanery Road, affording a new route from College 
 Green to the Hotwells and Clifton, was opened on the 29th 
 November by the mayor (Mr. W. K. Wait), accompanied by 
 a large civic procession. The road had cost the Corporation 
 about £20,000. 
 
 The death of Mr. George Thomas, which took place at his 
 residence at Brislington, in December, excited general re- 
 gret, and his funeral was the occasion of almost unexampled 
 manifestations of respect. Upon the hearse entering the 
 city on its way to the Friends' burial ground in Rosemary 
 Street, the carriages of the mayor, sheriff, and other mem- 
 bers of the Corporation joined the procession ; and at the 
 cemetery about five thousand citizens, including the Dean of 
 Bristol, several clergymen and ministers, and members of 
 every public body, were present to testify their sympathy. 
 Mr. Thomas had during his life made many munificent gifts 
 to public institutions. By his will about £lo,000 were be- 
 queathed to various charities and religious societies. 
 
 The most tragical accident recorded in the modern history 
 of the city occurred at the New Theatre, Pai-k Row, on the 
 26th December. Being ''boxing day," a great crowd had 
 assembled previous to the opening of the doors, to witness 
 the Christmas pantomime. Unfortunately the avenue lead-
 
 448 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1870. 
 
 ing to tlie low-priced departments of the house sloped from 
 the level of the street for about 50 feet, and the roadway 
 outside being densely packed with people, there was a heavy 
 pressure upon those below. After the doors were opened, 
 the pressure became greater, and eventually it became so 
 excessive that some of the weaker persons in the crowd, be- 
 coming exhausted, fell, and were trodden under foot. Their 
 cries were drowned by the shouts of the stronger portion of 
 the multitude ; and it was a remarkable fact that their bodies 
 were walked over by many persons who, forced on from be- 
 hind, entered the house and enjoyed the performance in 
 ignorance of what had occurred. Reports of the disaster, 
 however, reached the ears of the police, who by great exer- 
 tion forced back the crowd, and partially cleared the avenufe. 
 A fearful sight then presented itself. Upwards of forty 
 U victims were found upon the ground, some dead, others 
 '■ insensible from injuries. Fourteen dead bodies, mostly of 
 women and youths, were soon after laid in the lower refresh- 
 ment room of the theatre, where the performance was still 
 going on, it being deemed perilous to make an announcement 
 of the facts to the audience, which might have brought about 
 a panic, and perhaps a still greater catastrophe. Four more 
 of the sufferers expired after being rescued. The coroner's 
 jury which inquired into the case returned a verdict of 
 " accidental death," but recommended that separate en- 
 trances should be constructed for the pit and gallery, so as 
 to divide the pressure in the avenues. The calamity had long 
 a disastrous effect upon the fortunes of the New Theatre. 
 
 On the 1st January, 1870, the telegraphic business of the 
 country was transferred fi'om the private companies by whom 
 it had been pi'eviously conducted to the Post Office. Some 
 alterations were made in the new building in Small Street 
 in order to accommodate a portion of the telcgraiih officials ; 
 but it was not until January, 1872, that room was found there 
 for the entire staff, which then consisted of 90 clerks and 50 
 messengers. Soon after the new system came into force, the 
 telegraphic system in the district was extended to all the 
 small towns and rural villages. 
 
 On tlic 1st January, in accordance with a Bankruptcy Act 
 passed in the previous year, imprisonment for debt ceased 
 throughout Fugland. The bankru]itcy statute of 1861 had 
 already reduced the number of debtors in prison to an in- 
 significant number, and there was only one to be liberated 
 from Jiristol gaol when the later Act came into o])eration. A 
 local journal, commenting upon the fact, stated that at a time
 
 1870.] DEATH OF MR. BEBKELEY. ELECTION. 449 
 
 within tlie experience of the then governor of the prison, the 
 total liabilities of those detained had amounted to over 
 £200,000. Various small bequests had been made from time 
 to time for the benefit of destitute debtors. They were trans- 
 ferred, in 1875, to the endowments of the Grammar School. 
 
 The Court of Bankruptcy also ceased at the above date, 
 the business being ti-ansferred to the County Court. Mr. M. 
 D. Hill, who had been a])pointed commissioner on the death 
 of Serjeant Ludlow in 1851, and who had gained a wide-spread 
 reputation for his exertions on behalf of reformatory institu- 
 tions and prison reform, retired into private life amidst many 
 tokens of x'espect. 
 
 A vacancy in the representation of the city was caused on 
 the 10th March by the death of Mr. Henry Berkeley, who had 
 held his seat in no less than eight Parliaments. His friends 
 expressed much regret that he was not spared to witness the 
 success of a measure with which his name will be associated 
 in history. The Ballot Bill received the royal assent during 
 the session of 1872, and those who had poured ridicule upon 
 Mr. Berkeley's advocacy of its principle were soon found 
 practically admitting that they had miscalculated its effects. 
 Mr. Berkeley's demise caused a division in the Liberal party, 
 Mr. Kirkman D. Hodgson, a London merchant, being selected 
 by the Liberal Association, while Mr. Elisha S. Eobinson put 
 forward his claims as a '' local man," and a section of the 
 working classes supported the pretensions of Mr. George 
 Odger, of London, who had been a journeyman shoemaker. 
 As none of the fractions showed a disposition to give way, it 
 was suggested, and finally determined, that a '' test ballot " 
 of the constituency — excluding those known to be Conserva- 
 tives — should be taken, and that the successful aspirant at 
 that stage should have the united support of the party. This 
 novel procedure accordingly took place on the 22nd and 23ri 
 March, when 8,G98 electors took part in the voting ; the result 
 showing that Mr. Robinson had 4,502 supporters, Mr. Hodg- 
 son 2,861, and Mr. Odger 1,335. Reckoning upon a certain 
 amount of irritation amongst the friends of the defeated can- 
 didates, the Conservatives now entered the field, their cham- 
 pion being Alderman Sholto Vere Hare (mayor in 1802-3). 
 The election took place on the 28th March, and the sheriff 
 declared the poll as follows : Mr. Robinson, 7,832 ; Mr. 
 Hare, 7,002. About a thousand Liberals declined to support 
 Mr. Robinson. Shortly afterwards the Conservatives peti- 
 tioned against the return; and on the 23rd May Mr. Baron 
 Bramwell opened a court of inquiry at the Guildhall. The 
 
 G G
 
 450 THE ANNALS OF BEISTOL. [1870. 
 
 case turned out to be of au iinprecedented character. Some 
 cases of alleged corrupt practices at the election were adduced 
 against Mr. Eobinson, but the judge held them to be un- 
 founded. It was proved, however, that before and during the 
 test ballot a sum of between £8 and £10 had been spent in 
 treating electors by two agents employed by Mr. Robinson, 
 with the object of inducing voters to select him in preference to 
 his competitors. The learned judge refused to decide whether 
 those acts voided the election, and the case was remitted to 
 the Court of Common Pleas, which was unanimously of opinion 
 that the test ballot was one of the steps in the election, and 
 that the treating was within the provisions of the Corrupt 
 Practices Act. Mr. Baron Bramwell thereupon unseated Mr. 
 Robinson, but refused to grant costs to the petitioners. 
 Another writ having been issued, Mr. K. D. Hodgson was 
 brought forward by the Liberals — Mr. Odger withdrawing in 
 his favour — and Alderman S. V. Hare was again nominated 
 by the opposite party. The nomination — the last of the many 
 tumultuous scenes enacted in the Exchange previous to the 
 passing of the Ballot Act — took place on the 24th June, and 
 the polling followed on the 25th. The number of votes re- 
 corded was: for Mr. Hodgson, 7,810; for Mr. Hare, 7,238. 
 This was the fourth parliamentary contest in the city within 
 a period of twenty-six months. 
 
 The church of St. Gabriel, Upper Easton, erected at a cost 
 of £4,400, was consecrated on the 14th March. An ecclesiasti- 
 cal parish, subtracted from Trinity, St. Philip's, was created 
 for this church by an Order in Council. 
 
 An Act for reforming and reorganising the endowed schools 
 of the kingdom having passed in ISGO, the commissioners 
 appointed under the statute sent Mr. Fitch, a sub-com- 
 missioner, to Bristol, to inquire into and report upon the 
 schools of the city. Whilst the measure was passing through 
 Parliament, the local authorities had appealed to the Govern- 
 ment to exempt Bristol from its provisions, whereupon Mr. 
 Forster, the minister who had charge of the scheme, in 
 declining to comply with the request, assured the applicants 
 that, as the Bristol endowments wore admirably managed, the 
 Bill was not intended to interfere with them. In spite of this 
 assurance, Mr. Fitch speedily published suggestions the 
 character of which excited much local indignation. Colston's 
 School, Qnoon Eb'zabcth's Hospital, and the Red Maids' 
 School, which had an aggregate income of about €10,300 a 
 year, were practically to bo swept away, in order to found, 
 by means of their property, a series of first, second, and third
 
 1870.] REORGANISATION OF THE ENDOWED SCHOOLS. 451 
 
 class scliools, in wliicli education was to bo offered to both 
 sexes, though at rates which the working classes could not 
 afford to pay. The intention of the founders of the three 
 charities to assist poor and deserving parents was condemned 
 by the sub-commissioner as the root of an immense mass of 
 mischief and abuse that should be wholly cut away. To the 
 objection, that the pi'oposed changes would deprive the poor 
 of institutions expressly founded for their benefit, and divert 
 the funds to classes able to provide for themselves, Mr. Fitch 
 retorted, that while the benefit of the charities was mono- 
 polised by about 400 families, and those perhaps not the most 
 deserving, the entire population would reap the advantage of 
 a system better fitted for the age; that in the primary schools 
 ''for twopence or threepence a week, every working man 
 would have within his reach the most appropriate education 
 he could desire for his children" ; and that the endowments 
 would be more beneficially spent in ''creating a ladder to the 
 universities," the approach to which would be an object of 
 general emulation. The details of the draft scheme of the 
 commissioners, issued in December, were in accordance with 
 the principles formulated by Mr. Fitch, and evoked a general 
 expression of disapproval, the only voice raised in favour of 
 the plan being that of the Rev. J. Percival, the headmaster 
 of Clifton College. The exception was not calculated to allay 
 local dissatisfaction, for it further appeared that the com- 
 missioners had not merely adopted the sweeping proposals 
 of their subordinate in reference to Colston's, Carr's, and 
 Whitson's endowments for the poor, but had also sanctioned 
 his scheme for crippling if not degrading the Grammar 
 School, in order, as Mr. Fitch avowed, that it might not 
 interfere with the development of Clifton College — at that 
 time a denominational class school belonging to a joint 
 stock company. The features of the commissioners' plan 
 underwent great modifications. It will therefore suffice to 
 say that Queen Elizabeth's School was to retain 200 boarders, 
 whose parents were to pay from twenty-five to thirty guineas 
 per head yearly ; the Red Maids' School was to have 250 
 boarders, the annual fee for each being from eighteen to 
 twenty-five guineas ; whilst Colston's School, degraded to the 
 third class, was to contain 300 boys, the charge for whom 
 was also to range from eighteen to twenty-five guineas a 
 head. Other childi'en might attend the schools, but they 
 were to be simply day pupils. Out of the endowments set 
 free by this arrangement, the commissioners proposed to 
 create an institution styled the Queen's School, for girls of
 
 452 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1870. 
 
 the upper classes^ togetlier witli some inferior scliools. A 
 few free scliolarships were provided in each of the boarding- 
 schools as prizes for meritorious children drawn from the 
 primary schools ; but those gifts were to be open to competi- 
 tors from all parts of the kingdom. In M.aj, 1871, the 
 Charity Trustees, on behalf of the two great schools under 
 their charge, proposed alternative schemes, introducing im- 
 portant changes in the existing regulations, but maintain- 
 ing the local and charitable objects of the endoAvments. In 
 August the commissioners abandoned the features of Mr, 
 Fitch's plan which had excited wide-spread objection, and 
 made various other concessions to local opinion, the attack on 
 the Grammar School being entirely defeated. They insisted, 
 however, that forty free scholarships in Queen Elizabeth's 
 Hospital and twenty in Whitson's School should be reserved 
 for children selected by competition from the elementary 
 schools of Gloucestershire and Somerset, and that two 
 members of the governing body should be appointed by the 
 members of Parliament for those counties. In March, 1872, 
 the Merchants' Society proposed an alternative scheme on 
 behalf of Colston's School, rejecting the commissioners' sug- 
 gestion of day schools, and proposing to render liberal 
 assistance to the Trades School. Under this arrangement 
 the boys in Colston's School were to be reduced from 120 to 
 100 ; and the patronage as to nominations — which it was 
 admitted had been sometimes exercised without reference to 
 fitness or merit — was to be surrendered ; on the other hand, 
 the right of preferring a certain number of orphans was 
 reserved. The Society added, that if its proposals were ac- 
 cepted it would endow the reorganised institutions with the 
 sum of £10,000 (including certain debts due to it by Colston's 
 Hospital). This scheme, with some modifications as to details, 
 was agreed to in 1874 by the commissioners, who at the same 
 time relinf[uished their attempt to open the City and Red 
 Maids' Scliools to children from the country districts. It was 
 determined that the foundation boarders in the City School 
 should not exceed IGO, and that the surplus income should be 
 applied to the endowment of day schools. The boarders were 
 to be preferentially elected as follows: sixty poor orjihans 
 or children of inca])acitated parents, residents of i5ristol and 
 Congresbury ; fifty boys chosen by examination from the 
 Bristol elementary scliools, and fifty selected from the new 
 day schools to be created under tlu^ scheme. The boarders 
 in the Kcd Maids' ScIkjoI were fixed at eighty, as bi'fore, of 
 whom fifty were to be orphans or children of incapacitated
 
 1870.] THE ENDOWED SCHOOLS. RAILWAY TO CLIFTON. 453 
 
 parents ; fifteen to be chosen from the elementary schools in 
 the cit}^; and fifteen to be drawn from new day schools to bo 
 established and supported out of Whitson's endowment, aided 
 by a sum of £5,000 drawn from Peloquin's charity. The 
 boarding school in Denmark Street was to be eventually 
 removed to a more appropriate site, and the old building 
 converted into one of the day schools just referred to. As 
 regarded the Grammar School, the scheme provided that the 
 existing endowment, which was very limited, should be sup- 
 plemented by £5,000, a further part of Mrs. Peloquin's 
 bequest for doles to the poor, by £4,250 of the local Loan 
 Money charity, and also by £855 left for the redemption or 
 relief of poor debtors in prison. A new school was also to 
 be erected in a suitable locality. Finally, the governing body 
 of the three foundations was to comprise the existing Charity 
 Trustees and six gentlemen elected by certain local constituent 
 bodies, with an addition, in the case of the Hed Maids' school, 
 of four ladies, to be appointed by the other governors. The 
 scheme received the approval of the Crown on May 13, 
 1875. By the scheme dealing with Colston's endowment the 
 Merchants' Society and the Colston nominees lost their pa- 
 tronage as regarded the admission of boys, who were there- 
 after to be selected by order of merit, 80 from the elementary 
 schools in Bristol, and 20 from those of Gloucestershire, Wilts, 
 and Somerset. In addition to the foundation boys, the gover- 
 nors were to admit others, on payment of about £30 a year, 
 to all the advantages of the school. Exhibitions to the value 
 of £100 a year were to be created, to enable meritorious boys 
 to finish their education at a grammar school. In accordance 
 with the founder's injunctions, all the pupils were to be in- 
 structed in the doctrines of the English Church. The gover- 
 nors were to consist of the bishop of the diocese, the rector of 
 Stapleton, eleven persons nominated by the Merchants' Society, 
 two by the magistrates of Somerset and Gloucestershire, three 
 by the Bristol School Board, and three by co-optation. The 
 management of the Trades School was transferred to the 
 governors of the school, who were also charged with the 
 establishment of a school for girls when funds were available. 
 The scheme received the Queen's approval on the 4th Feb- 
 ruary, 1875. 
 
 In the Parliamentary session of 1870, a Bill was promoted 
 for an extension of the Port and Pier railway from Sea-mills 
 to the South Wales Union line, near Ashley Hill, by which 
 the dock at Avonmouth would, when finished, be brought 
 into communication with the great trunk railways. The Port
 
 454 THE ANNALS OP BEISTOL. [1870. 
 
 and Pier Company liad no funds to carry out tlie "work, and 
 upon the Great Western board discovering that a refusal to 
 support the scheme would throw it exclusively into the hands 
 of the Midland Company, the two directorates entered into 
 nesrotiations. The result was an arrang'ement under which 
 another Bill, for the construction of the extension line by the 
 two companies jointly, was presented to Parliament, and 
 received the royal assent in 1871. The works were com- 
 menced in the following August. The Clifton station was 
 built upon a portion of the nursery grounds of Messrs. 
 Garraway & Co., and the line from the Joint Station to that 
 point was opened on the 1st October, 1874. The driving of the 
 tunnel under the Downs, almost exactly a mile in length, was 
 an arduous operation, but was completed in February, 1875. 
 The cost of the line had been estimated at £225,000, but the 
 actual outlay was £450,000. Its joint proprietors were at 
 that time anxious to open the line for passenger traffic, but 
 the Govei'nment inspector withheld the needful certificate, 
 contending that a station should be constructed at the junc- 
 tion near Sneyd Pai-k, and his objection was upheld by the 
 Court of Appeal in January, 1877. Subsequently the com- 
 panies became unwilling to carry passengers beyond Clifton 
 station, and in spite of repeated remonstrances, the western 
 section of the line remained closed to passengers for upwards 
 of ten yeai'S, although the additional works required by the 
 Board of Trade would not have cost more than about £600. 
 It must be added that the debenture holders of the Port and 
 Pier line, who had thrown it into the hands of a receiver 
 [see p. 386], were equally obstinate in refusing to supply the 
 deficiency. In 1884 the Midland board obtained parliamen- 
 tary powers to provide the required signal station, etc., and 
 to charge the expense on the receipts of the Port and Pier 
 Company. The necessary works were soon after completed, 
 but the receiver of the Port line then refused to provide one 
 or two servants to work the signals. At last, in August, 
 1885, his resistance was overcome by a judgment of the High 
 Court of Justice, and the railway was opened throughout on 
 the 1st September following. 
 
 A meeting of the Council was convened in December, for 
 the purpose of considering what steps should be taken in 
 reference to the Elementary Education Act of the previous 
 session. According to statistics prepared under tlio super- 
 vision of the town clerk, the number of elementary schools 
 in the city wag 236, but 38 of them had not sent in a return 
 of their pupils. With regard to the remaining 198 schools.
 
 1870.] ESTABLISHMENT OF A SCHOOL BOARD. 455 
 
 70 were Church of England schools, with 10,028 scliolars; 36 
 belonged to Nonconformists, and had G,32G pupils; 7 wore 
 Roman Catholic, with 1,057 children; and 5 were endowed 
 schools, having 421 inmates. There were also nine ragged 
 schools, six industrial schools, and two orphanages, in which 
 were altogether 3,205 children. The total number of scholars 
 in attendance was nominally 23,280. Finally, 11 schools 
 were being built, with accommodation for 3,252 children. 
 This left a deficiency in the accommodation required by the 
 Act of 0,591 ; but the insufficiency was in fact much greater, 
 the central and Clifton districts being over-supplied with 
 buildings, while there was a general lack of accommodation 
 in the poorer parishes. The Council unanimously resolved to 
 apply to the Government for the formation of a School Board. 
 The request having been complied with immediately, the 
 election of a board of fifteen members took place in January, 
 1871, and the proceedings, through their novelty, excited 
 much interest. The Conservatives nominated seven church- 
 men, hoping, with the assistance of the Roman Catholics, who 
 accumulated their fifteen votes upon a single candidate, to 
 secure a majority in favour of denominational education. 
 The Liberals nominated only five gentlemen, but counted 
 upon the aid of candidates representing the chief dissenting 
 bodies to maintain their principle of unsectarian teaching. 
 Four additional Conservative candidates were brought for- 
 ward by the Orangemen, the High Church party, and the 
 Conservative Working Men's Association. The school- 
 masters, the secularists, and some other interests also brought 
 nominees into the field. The election, which was by ballot, 
 occupied two days, and resulted in the return of three of the 
 Conservative and of all the Liberal list. The entire board 
 consisted of nine unsectarian and of six denominational mem- 
 bers. The chairman, elected at the first meeting, was Mr. 
 Lewis Fry. An educational census was next taken, from 
 which it appeared that 5,300 children between 5 and 12 years 
 of a_ge — being nearly a fifth of that class in the city — were 
 not attending any school. On further inquiry, it turned out 
 that the estimate was too favourable, upwards of 4,000 
 children alleged by their parents to be at school being un- 
 known at the respective institutions. The actual number not 
 in attendance was thus 9,392, or one-thii'd of the children of 
 school age. A newspaper critic nevertheless continued to 
 speak of the School Board as a ''white elephant," and to 
 censure the Council for having needlessly added to the tax- 
 iation of the ratepayers. The compulsory clauses of the Act
 
 456 
 
 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. 
 
 [1870. 
 
 were put in force ; but, in spite of numerous prosecutions of 
 careless parents, tlie daily absentees from school were for 
 some time rarely under 7,000. The first building operations 
 of the board were in the St. Philip's district, schools in Free- 
 stone Road for 650 children being opened in August, 1874, 
 and at Barton Hill, for 750 children, in September, 1875. 
 Six schools were transferred to the board about the same 
 time. Subsequently, large school buildings were erected to 
 ^ accommodate the districts of Ashton Gate,'^he Hotwells, 
 /Kedland, Baptist Mills, etc. ; and within a few years the 
 jatrthorities were enabled to boast that the names of practically 
 all the children of school age were upon the registers of 
 eflficient schools ; though in point of regular attendance there 
 was still much to be desired. A considerable addition to the 
 educational machinery of the city has been made since 1870 
 through the eiforts of voluntary bodies. Elections for the 
 School Board have been held triennially, but the principle of 
 unsectarian teaching which predominated at the first election, 
 though often attacked, has not been overthrown. 
 
 During the year 1870 efforts were made by various philan- 
 thropic persons to enable working men to enjoy social inter- 
 course during their hours of leisure in places where they might 
 have the conveniences of the public house without its disad- 
 vantages. One of the first of those institutions in Bristol was 
 the " British Workman," established in College Street ; and 
 although the class for which it was designed were somewhat 
 slow in conferring their patronage, the new system steadily 
 made way. The necessity of a reform in the licensing laws 
 was at this period generally acknowledged. Beer licences 
 being obtainable by almost any one at a ti^ifling cost, beer 
 shops spraug up in excessive numbers. As an illustration of 
 the evil, it was stated at a Council meeting in February, 
 1871, that in Hotwcll Road between ''J'rinity and St. Peter's 
 churches — a distance of about a quarter of a mile — there 
 were thirty drinking establishments. (The number of inns, 
 taverns, and boor-shops in the whole borough had increased 
 from 400 in 1820, and 650 in 1840, to about 1,250.) The 
 ojieration of the Licensing Act of 1872 gradually effected a 
 reduction of the public houses in over supplied localities. 
 Under this measure the time of closingf on Sundavs was fixed 
 at ten o'clock, and one hour later on week days. In 1876, 
 another temperance organization, called the Bristol Tavern 
 and Club Company, was formed for carrying out the system 
 of " public houses without the drink," and several such 
 taverns wore opened. The increasing enlightenment of the
 
 1871.] CENSUS. SALES OP BRISTOL CHINA. ^57 
 
 ■working classes has also greatly promoted temperance and 
 thrifty the growth of which^ to those who remember the 
 social habits of the labourer half a century ago^ is one of the 
 most gratifying features of the age. 
 
 The decennial census of the kingdom was taken on the 3rd 
 April, 1871. Owing to the demolition of dwellings for street 
 improvements in the ancient city, there was a considerable 
 decrease of population in some of the parishes, especially in 
 St. James's, St. Nicholas', Redcliff, and Temple. The aggre- 
 gate was 62,662. The population of the entire borough was 
 182,552. St. Philip's out-parish (42,287), Clifton (26,364), 
 St. George's (16,209), and the District (13,841), showed a 
 great advance. The other parishes stood as follows : Stoke 
 Bishop tything (within the borough), 9,211 ; Bedminster, 
 32,488 (of which 23,522 were within the borough) ; Horfield, 
 2,985 ; Stapleton, 6,960 ; Mangotsfield, 4,533. 
 
 Greenbank Cemetery, an extensive burial place for the 
 out-parish of St. Philip, laid out by the Burial Board of the 
 district at a cost of about £11,500, was consecrated on the 
 14th April, 1871. Owing to the rapid growth of population, 
 it was deemed advisable to extend the limits of the cemetery 
 in 1880. 
 
 The story of the famous Bristol porcelain factory ofRichard 
 ChampioiLdoes not come within the chronological limits of 
 this work. Those desirous of information on the subject may 
 be referred to Mr. Owen's beautiful and trustworthy " Two 
 Centuries of Ceramic Art in Bristol." It may be stated, 
 however, that at an auction in London, in April, 1871; some 
 pieces of the magnificent service presented by Champion to 
 l^urke, soon after that statesman's election for the city, sold as 
 follows : the teapot (the beautiful decorations of which were 
 attributed to Henry Bone, R.A., one of Champion's appren- 
 tices), 190 guineas; cream-jug and cover, 115 guineas; a 
 chocolate cup and saucer, 90 guineas ; two teacups and 
 saucers, 70 and 40 guineas ; the cover of the sugar basin, 60 
 guineas. A fine Bristol vase was bought in at over £200. 
 At another sale, in February, 1875, a cup and saucer of the 
 Burke set brought £83, and a set of three jiigs £120. In 
 July, 1876, at the sale of Mr. W. R. Callendar's collection, 
 the Burke teapot sold for £215 5s., and a chocolate cup and 
 saucer of the same set brought £91. Another famous Bristol 
 service was that ordered by Burke for presentation to his 
 friend Mr. Joseph Smith, of Queen Square. The teapot of 
 this set sold, in 1876, for £74 lO^-., and a teacup and saucer 
 have brought £55. On the dispersion of the Edkins' collec-
 
 458 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1871. 
 
 tioUj in 1874^ a Bristol vase, witli landscape, sold for £300-; 
 four figures emblematic of tlie quarters of the world brought 
 £610; and a pair of compotiers £270. 
 
 In consequence of the complaints of some of the inhabitants, 
 a Government order was issued in July for the closing of the 
 three burial grounds connected with Clifton parish church, 
 and of the cemetery attached to Dowry Chapel, subject to 
 certain reservations as regarded surviving relatives of those 
 already interred there. 
 
 The Odd-Fellows' Hall, Rupert Street, was commenced 
 during the summer, and opened in the following January. 
 The building cost aboat £2,000. In February, 1873, the 
 local Foresters, with a similar purpose in view, purchased a 
 house in Broadmead known as the Alhambra Music Hall. A 
 portion of the building continued to be used for public enter- 
 tainments, and in June, 1874, after an evening concert, it was 
 desti'oyed by fire. The Foresters appear to have relinquished 
 the property in 1880. 
 
 The foundation stone of Cotham Grove (Baptist) Chapel 
 was laid on the 22nd June, and the building was opened for 
 public worship in the following j^ear. 
 
 After many years interruption, regular steam communica- 
 tion between Bristol and New York was revived this summer 
 by Messrs. Mark Whitwi ll & Son. The first vessel of the 
 new line, the iron sere w- sieaTffe r Arnujon, 1,500 tons register, 
 sailed from Bristol on the 1st July, with forty-four passengers 
 and a general cargo. The vessel returned to the Avon on the 
 11th August. In March, 1872, another steamship, the Great 
 Western, was placed on the service, which took the name of 
 the Great Western Steamship Line. Other vessels were 
 added at intervals. The Great Western was wrecked near 
 New York, through a collision, in March, 1876. In May, 
 1878, the first cargo of live American cattle arrived in this 
 port, and an active trade in meat subsequently sprang up. lu 
 1881 the Great Western Steamship Company was formed, 
 with a capital of about £300,000, for purchasing the above 
 lino and extending the business. The development, how- 
 ever, was followed by a reaction ; and the transatlantic trade 
 became so unprofitable, except as regarded vessels of great 
 burden, that several of the ships ceased to run. In February, 
 1886, it was announced that four vessels, the Cornwall, the 
 Somerset, the Devon, and the Gloucester, which were too small 
 for the American trade, had been sold to the Turkish Govern- 
 ment for £30,000. The Warwick and the Dorset , each, of about 
 4,000 tons, were then trading regularly between Avonmouth
 
 1871.] AMERICAN STEAMERS. ST. WEKBURGH's REMOVED. 459 
 
 and New York ; and the Bristol, tlie only remaining small 
 boat, was laid up. At the annual meeting, a few weeks 
 later, it was stated that a large part of the capital was lost ; 
 but the directors expressed confidence that if additional large 
 vessels were purchased, and weekly sailings re-established, 
 the concern would work through its difficulties. In 1879 
 another line of steamers, called, after the first vessel, the 
 Bristol City Line, was started by Messrs. Charles Hill & 
 Sons, and is still continued. The Bristol Gitij, after leaving 
 New York on the 28th December, 1880, Avith a crew of 
 twenty-six men, was never heard of again. The Bath City 
 was lost off the coast of Newfoundland in November, 1881. 
 The crew suffered dreadfully from the frost, and the captain 
 and several men perished. The Gloucester Gltij foundered at 
 sea on the 23rd February, 1883. The Wells City, of the same 
 line, was sunk in New York harbour on the 10th February, 
 1887, through an accidental collision with another steamer. 
 There was no loss of life in the last two disasters. 
 
 During the summer the ancient thoroughfare bearing the 
 appropriate name of Steep Street, up and down which the 
 Welsh mail once crawled on its to-and-fro journey, was en- 
 tirely swept away by the Streets Improvement Committee. 
 A fierce hand-to-hand struggle between the Eoyalists and 
 the Parliamentarians is recorded to have taken place in this 
 thoroughfare after the surrender by Fiennes to Prince Rupert. 
 The street contained a notable seventeenth century house, 
 long known as the Ship Inn. 
 
 A small wooden chapel of ease to Bedminster was erected 
 at Knowle early in 1865. The attendance increasing, the 
 chancel of a permanent church, in brick, dedicated to the 
 Nativity, was erected, and the building was consecrated on 
 14th September, 1871. A large portion of the permanent nave 
 was added in 1883 ; but Bishop Ellicott, before its consecra- 
 tion in June of that year, required the removal of a structure 
 called a baldacchino, surmounting the Communion-table, and 
 the incumbent, with much lamentation, complied with the 
 demand. The church, which was soon after reported to be 
 fitted up with " confessional boxes," had cost £6,000 up to 
 that date. 
 
 The Jewish synagogue in Park Row, constructed upon a 
 portion of the site evacuated by the Little Sisters of the Poor 
 [see p. 441], was consecrated with much ceremony on the 7th 
 September, 1871. The building cost about £4,000. 
 
 Upon the death, in 1871, of the Rev. John Hall, for many 
 years rector of St. Werburgh's, the Council represented to the
 
 460 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1871. 
 
 Lord Chancellor, tlie patron of the living, the desirability of 
 removino- the church to one of the necessitous districts in the 
 suburbs, by which a great public improvement would be 
 effected in the city. It was shown that the number of par- 
 ishioners was only eighteen — not one of whom was a rate- 
 payer — and that the congregation attending divine service 
 was extremely limited. The carriage way in front of part of 
 the church — one of the most crowded thoroughfares in Bristol 
 — was only 18 feet wide. Lord Hatherley consented to sus- 
 pend his presentation, provided that a new church were built 
 in a suitable position; and the Council thereupon resolved to 
 apply for powers to remove the edifice, and to widen Corn 
 and Small streets. Advantage was taken of the opportunity 
 to apply for powers to make a new street from Lower Maudlin 
 Street to Broadmead, to effect some improvements at Mont- 
 pelier, and to improve a road from Regent Street to Victoria 
 Square opened by the Merchants' Society, the total expendi- 
 ture being estimated at £30,000. No measures, however, 
 were taken for a considerable time to carry out the removal 
 of St. Werburgh's, which in the meanwhile had been sup- 
 plied with a new rector; and in the session of 1875 a Bill 
 was privately promoted in Parliament for transferring the 
 church and its revenues to another district. The lovers 
 of ancient monuments warmly disapproved of the scheme, 
 but finding that resistance to the improvement of Corn 
 and Small streets had no prospect of success, they con- 
 tented themselves by agitating for the preservation of 
 the tower of the church, as a graceful ornament as well 
 as an historical feature of the city. They were defeated 
 in the Council, however, by a large majority. The Cor- 
 poration subsequently resolved to acquire the site of the 
 church and churchyard ; but the promoters of the Bill, plead- 
 ing the cost of carrying it to success, withdrew it from 
 Parliament. In 1876, when a second Bill received the royal 
 assent, the Council approved of an agreement with the 
 parish authorities for the purchase of the site for the sum of 
 £11,900, being £2,400 in excess of the price asked by the 
 parish in 1872. Another agitation now s])raug up for the 
 maintenance of the tower, which the Council at one meeting 
 resolved to preserve ; afterwards Teversed its decision ; and 
 again rescinded the latter vote on the antiquaries offering to 
 contril)iito upwards of £1,000, the estimated value of the site. 
 In consequence of these changes of policy, and of the neces- 
 sity of ascertaining wliether the ecclesiastical authorities 
 would allow the tower to bo separated from the church, the
 
 1871.] REMOVAL OF ST. WERBURGh's CHURCH. 461 
 
 signature of a positive contract for the purchase of the ground 
 was deferred from time to time. At length, in March, 1877, 
 it was ascertained that the bishop and archdeacon would 
 permit the tower to remain, provided the Corporation would 
 hold itself responsible for accidents which might occur if the 
 fabric fell when deprived of support. To this condition the 
 Council demurred, and the matter threatened to be again 
 indefinitely postponed, when the London and South Western 
 Banking Company offered to buy of the Corporation as much 
 of the site of the church as was not required for widening the 
 streets, undertaking to retain the tower, to make a thoroughfare 
 through its base for foot passengers, to keep the structure in 
 repair, and to be responsible for accidents. As the Council 
 had not completed the purchase, it could not have dealt 
 immediately with the bank's proposal, even if it had felt a 
 wish to do so. What it really did, was to again reverse its 
 decision with respect to the tower, which was finally con- 
 demned by a great majority. It was further resolved to 
 complete the long suspended contract. In the meantime, the 
 churchwardens of the parish had received a direct application 
 from the Southwestern Bank, and at a meeting of the vestry 
 it was resolved that, as the Corporation had allowed more than 
 a year to elapse without definitively accepting the proposal 
 made by the parish, the negotiation should be considered at 
 an end. The bank then purchased the site for £15,130, and 
 gave £3,120 additional for the old parsonage on the north 
 side of the passage leading from Small Street to the Com- 
 mercial Rooms, The church, in which divine service was per- 
 formed for the last time on the 12th August, 1877, was taken 
 down in the spring of 1878,^ when forty large chests of human 
 remains, and about a hundred leaden cofiins, were removed 
 to G-reenbank Cemetery at an outlay of about £700. The 
 monuments in the church were placed in the new St. Wer- 
 burgh's (erected in Miua Road, Baptist Mills), which was, or 
 rather professed to be, a reproduction of the ancient edifice, 
 and which was consecrated on the 30th September, 1879. 
 The foundations of the new bank were carried down to an 
 unusual depth, and bones were found at such a distance from 
 the surface as to lead to a belief that the cemetery of the 
 original church was fully twelve feet below the level of the 
 fifteenth century edifice. The purchasers of the site adopted 
 a design for a lofty building, occupying the whole of the 
 
 * With the removal of the tower the citizens also lost the notes of the curfew 
 bell, which rang nightly at eight o'clock. The nine o'clock curfew of St. 
 Nicholas is now the only one remaining in the city.
 
 462 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1871. 
 
 ground purchased, excepting tliat reserved for widening the 
 streets, and extending over tlie passage leading to tlie 
 Commercial Rooms. But tlie committee of the latter insti- 
 tution obtained injunctions restraining the company not 
 only from covering the passage but from raising their new- 
 premises to a height which would obscure the lights of the 
 reading room. After three years of costly litigation, the 
 proprietors of the Commercial Rooms succeeded in maintain- 
 ing their rights, and the great structure contemplated by 
 the bank was left unfinished. The closing incident in this 
 protracted affair occurred in the Council in August, 1881, 
 when, as the result of an arbitration, the sum of £9,639 was 
 ordered to be paid to the banking company for the value of 
 two small slices of ground given up for the improvement of 
 Corn and Small Streets, a further sum of £1,200 being paid 
 in the shape of costs. As the Corporation had thus to give 
 considerably more for an insignificant fraction of the site 
 than was asked for the entire plot nine years before, its 
 vacillating and dilatory conduct provoked much angry and 
 derisive criticism. 
 
 During a heavy gale on the 20th December, 1871, the spire 
 of the Church of St. Mary, Stoke Bishop, was entirely de- 
 molished by the wind. It was a wooden structure, 90 feet 
 in height, and had just been completed. The spire was soou 
 afterwards rebuilt in a more substantial manner. 
 
 A private company, unconnected with the city, having 
 brought forward a scheme for furnishing Bristol with a series 
 of street tramways for the accommodation of passengers, the 
 subject engaged the attention of the Council for some time, 
 there being much difference of opinion as to whether the new 
 system of commmunication should be allowed to pass into 
 the hands of private persons, or should be dealt with by the 
 Corporation. A committee recommended the former course, 
 but at a meeting in October, 1871, a resolution was carried 
 desiring the Local Board of Health to obtain plans for a 
 tramway from St. Augustine's Place to Redland, and also for 
 another from Castle Street to Lawrence Hill. The necessary 
 powers wore obtained in duo course, but owing to the inflated 
 price to which iron soon after advanced, the lowest tender 
 for constructing the lines amounted to £25,356, .being more 
 than double the estimate made by the civic surveyor. The 
 Council at first resolved on a postponement of the und(M'tak- 
 ing, but subsequently determined to lay down the Rcdlund 
 lino, reserving the other for a later period. In the meantime, 
 preparations were made for the eastern route by the widening
 
 1871.] CONSTRUCTION OF CITY TRAMWAYS. 463 
 
 of West Street, wliich was effected at a cost of upwards of 
 £7,500. Nothing was done towards the construction of the 
 Eedland line until July, 1873, when the term granted by law 
 for the execution of the works was drawing to a close. Ex- 
 cavations were then made in Whitehxdies Road, but the first 
 rail was not laid until the 19th November, and as the needful 
 supplies of iron were unobtainable, the road continued in a 
 half blocked condition for upwards of six months, to the great 
 wrath of those using the carriage way. When at length the 
 work was finished, in the spring of 1874, at an outlay of 
 £14,200, a new difiiculty was encountered by the Corporation — 
 the Tramways Committee could not obtain a reasonable offer 
 for working the line. In July, a few responsible citizens 
 suggested the formation of a company for the purpose, but 
 they required in the first place certain concessions from the 
 Corporation, amongst them being a claim for the use of 
 the tramway free of charge for seven years. No better offer 
 was forthcoming, but at a Council meeting in August a great 
 majority refused to entertain the proposition. The promoters 
 of the intended company thereupon abated their demands, 
 and in October an arrangement was entered into, by which 
 the Council granted a lease of the tramway for twenty-one 
 years, the first three [afterwards extended to five] years free 
 of charge, and the rent for the remainder of the term rising 
 at intervals from £360 to a maximum of £600 per annum. 
 The Council also sanctioned the construction by the company 
 of a line from Old Market Street to St. George's, with a 
 branch to Eastville, and of another line from Castle Street 
 to Perry Road. Those schemes were resisted in Parliament 
 by certain tradesmen in the suburbs, and also by the advo- 
 cates of '^Sabbath" observances, who strongly objected to 
 Sunday travelling, while a few persons avowedly opposed 
 the lines from a dread of the influx into the fashionable 
 suburbs of working men and their families on holidays. The 
 tramways were, however, sanctioned. The line from Perry 
 Road to Redland was opened on the 9th August, 1875. The 
 first three cars used on the occasion contained the mayor (Mr. 
 C. J. Thomas), several members of the Council, the directors 
 of the company, and a number of friends, the pai'ty subse- 
 quently dining together to celebrate the event. So great 
 was the popularity of the line that upwards of 115,000 persons 
 were carried during the first month, although only three cars 
 were at work dviring part of the time. The dividend for the 
 first half year was at the rate of 15 per cent, per annum. In 
 September a prospectus was issued of the Bristol Tramways
 
 464 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. [1871. 
 
 Company, with a capital of £50,000 in £10 shares, with a 
 view to the farther development of the system. The tramway 
 from St. Augustine's Place to Perry Eoad was opened on the 
 4th December, and a few weeks later the Council was asked 
 to sanction the extension of the rails from the Victoria Rooms 
 to Victoria Square, and from the Drawbindge to Bristol Bridge 
 and Totterdown. The former of those projects was warmly 
 opposed by influential residents in Clifton, and was rejected 
 by a large majority of the Council. The other scheme having 
 being referred to a committee, it was resolved, by 30 votes 
 against 17, that no additional tramway should be sanctioned 
 unless the company undertook to suspend traflic during the 
 hours of worship on Sunday mornings and evenings. In 
 February, 1876, a tramway from Bristol Bridge to Totterdown 
 was sanctioned, subject to the condition just mentioned, to 
 which the company objected. The line to Eastville was 
 opened in June, that from Old Market Street to Perry Road 
 in September, and a section of that to St. George's in October, 
 1876. The completion of the last-named line was pi'evented 
 by the opposition of Messrs. Garton & Co., of Lawrence Hill, 
 who contended that the thoroughfare was not wide enough 
 to admit of the construction of a tramway in accordance with 
 legal requirements. The obstruction was ultimately overcome 
 by the Corporation giving Messrs. Garton £8,500 for setting 
 back their premises, by which the width of the street was 
 increased to forty feet. The Tramway Company (which 
 daring the year increased its capital to £150,000) subscribed 
 £2,000 towards the improvement. In November, 1876, the 
 Council approved of two new schemes — for a line from the 
 Talbot Hotel to Totterdown, and from the Old Market to 
 Victoria Street. A revulsion of opinion was observable on 
 the Sanday question, for an attempt to prevent the cars run- 
 ning on these lines during the hours of service in the evening 
 was defeated by 31 votes against 12. In October, 1878, the 
 company applied for permission to make five new lines, 
 namely, from the Victoria Rooms to Clifton Saspension Bridge; 
 from the Drawbridge to the Port Railway station; from the 
 Drawbridge, by way of New Baldwin Street, to the joint rail- 
 way station ; from Old Market Street to Victoria Street, and 
 thence to Bodminster; and from St. James's Churchyard to 
 a spot near Bisliopston church. The directors subsequently 
 proposed a sixth line — from St. Augustine's Place, by way of 
 J 'ark Street, to a junction with the existing tramway in 
 Queen's Road ; but this, as well as the Suspension Bridge 
 line, was withdrawn. As the extensions were calculated to
 
 1872.] TRAMWAYS, THIRD CLASS RAILWAY FARES. 465 
 
 throw much additional traffic on the corporation tramway, 
 and thus enhance the cost of its maintenance, borne by the 
 ratepayers, it was agreed that the rental should be increased 
 £100 a year. The Council thereupon sanctioned all the plaiLS, 
 save those withdrawn ; and again rejected a motion requiring 
 the suspension of traffic on Sunday evenings. Early in 1880 
 the Corporation assented to the construction of a line from 
 St. James's Churchyard to the Drawbridge, bringing all the 
 routes into communication with each other; but though it was 
 soon after laid down, one or two punctilious persons in the 
 neighbourhood raised legal objections against its being worked.. 
 The company also applied for powers to construct tramways; 
 on the quays in connection with the Harbour Railway; but the 
 Council, after approving of the plan, subsequently reversed 
 its decision. The tramway to the Hotwell was opened in 
 June, 1880 ; and the Bedminster and Horfield lines came into 
 operation in the following November. The last named was- 
 worked by steam ; but the engines were neither economical 
 to the company nor agreeable to passengers, and were- re- 
 moved after. a year's trial. The Baldwin Street extension; 
 was opened in April, 1881, in which year powers were ob- 
 tained, but never exercised, for extensions to Fishponds, Kings- 
 wood, and Horfield barracks. In January, 1882, the Council 
 sold to the company, for £8,000, the original tramway of 1873, 
 the construction and maintenance of which had cost the rate- 
 payers at least double the money. In 1887 the company 
 applied for parliamentary powers to make various improve- 
 ments in their system, including the substitution of steam or 
 other mechanical power instead of horses. The introduction 
 of tramways has in no wise prejudiced previous modes of 
 conveyance — omnibuses excepted. The report of the local 
 inspector of public carriages for 1886 stated that the number 
 of licensed vehicles was as follows : tram-cars, 60, four- 
 wheel cabs, 214; hansom cabs, 99; breaks, 56; omnibuses, 
 9 ; wagonettes, 38 ; wheel-chairs, 50. The total, 526, was 
 129 in excess of the licences of the previous year. 
 
 On the 1st April, 1872, the second class railway carriages 
 on all the Midland lines, except a few " through " vehicles 
 running in connection with the trains of other companies, 
 were withdrawn, and third class carriages were added to all 
 the trains upon the system. The maximum fare for the 
 latter class was fixed at a penny per mile. This bold 
 measure, which gave deep offence to other great railway 
 boards, was received with applause by the public, and proved 
 profitable to the company, who, in the first three months, 
 
 H H
 
 466 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1872. 
 
 affected by the change, had, as compared with the same 
 period in 1871, an increase of 38,000 first class and of 
 1,185,000 third class passengers, against a decrease of 
 266,000 in the second class. The augmented first class re- 
 ceipts were stated to have covered the loss on the second 
 class, whilst there was an enhanced receipt of £70,000 from 
 the third class. The action of the company forced the Great 
 Western board to add third class carriages to some Bristol 
 trains from which they had been excluded, with the effect 
 of greatly increasing the number of travellers. At a 
 meeting in February, 1873, the chairman, Sir Daniel Gooch, 
 stated that during the previous half year they had carried 
 106,000 more first class and 3,594,000 more third class 
 passeng-ers, ag*ainst a decrease of 1,109,000 in the second 
 class — results which did not deter him from lamenting over 
 the revolutionary policy of the Midland board. The latter 
 company, on the 1st January, 1875, discontinued running 
 second class carriages on all their trains. A sensible 
 abatement was also announced in first class fares; but the 
 Great Western board, under the provisions of an old agree- 
 ment, placed an interdict upon any reduction in the districts 
 in which the two companies had competitive lines. One of 
 the consequences of this intervention was, that the Midland 
 Company's first class fare from Bristol to Birmingham was 
 maintained at 16.<?. 6d., whilst a similar ticket issued at 
 Clifton Down station (opened after the agreement was signed) 
 cost only 12s. 6d. The matter having been remitted to the 
 Railway Commissioners, the agreement was abrogated as 
 regarded most of the lines in this district. The liberal policy 
 of the Midland directorate necessarily had an influence upon 
 the directors of the Great Western, who made concessions 
 from time to time. In June, 1878, third class carriages were 
 added to the first morning express train from Bristol to 
 London, thereby enabling Bristolians to transact business in 
 the capital and return home on the same day. Tlio citizens, 
 however, still complained of tho treatment they received 
 from a company expressly formed to promote their interests. 
 Before a committee of tho House of Commons, in 1882, Mr. 
 C. Wills, President of the Chamber of Commerce, stated that 
 the company carried third class passongors from London to 
 towns westward of Bristol by certain trains, but refused to 
 extend this privilege to Bristolians. As to the first and 
 second class faros, ho added, they were from 43 to 50 per 
 cent, higher betwotiu Fjondon and Hi-istol than they wore be- 
 tween London and equally distant northern towns. A year or
 
 1872.] Cromwell's batteries, coal famine. 467 
 
 two later, the board, bending to public opinion, remitted the 
 excess fares imposed on travellers by express trains, and 
 added third class carriages to all the trains passing through 
 Bristol, save one or two of unusual speed. 
 
 The foundation stone of St. Nathanael's Church, Eedland jj 
 Road, was laid on the 8th April, 1872. The edifice was con- " 
 secratod by Bishop Ellicott in the following year. 
 
 At a meeting of the Council in June, it was resolved to 
 convert the carcase market in Nicholas Street into a fish 
 market, in order to remove the latter from its exposed 
 situation on the Welsh Back. The alterations entailed an out- 
 lay of about £2,300. The market, which was opened on the 1st 
 May, 1874, proved too large for its requirements, and became 
 the resort of a worthless class who deterred respectable 
 persons from entering the building. The Council at length 
 gave orders for its reconstruction ; and a smaller but more 
 convenient market was opened on the 1st July, 1884. 
 
 Several pieces of land near Montpelier, on which were the 
 field works thrown up by the Parliamentary army at the 
 second siege of Bristol, and the farm house in which Cromwell 
 is said to have slept on the eve of the assault, were purchased 
 at this time for building purposes. The field works were 
 subsequently levelled. A neighbouring mansion, Ashley 
 Court, was demolished about 1876, and the site and adjoining 
 land were converted into building plots, the demand for 
 which was then very active. 
 
 The Midland Railway Company's branch line to Thornbury 
 was opened on the 2nd September. 
 
 The latter half of the year 1872 was remarkable for an 
 unusual activity of trade and industry, especially in connec- 
 tion with coal and iron works. The price of coal advanced 
 with " leaps and bounds," owing in part to the unexampled 
 demand, but still more to the conduct of the colliers, who not 
 only insisted on repeated advances in wages, but refused to 
 work more than a few hours a day for three or four days a 
 week. Under the operation of this " stint," — on which the 
 masters, who were reaping unparalleled profits, were said to 
 look with secret satisfaction, — a certain description of coal 
 required for making gas, pi-eviously sold at about 5s. per ton, 
 advanced to 25.s'. The Bristol Gas Company, in order to 
 maintain their 10 per cent, dividend, twice advanced their 
 prices to consumers. As an example of the speculative spirit 
 excited by the inflation, the BrUtol Times of May 3rd, 1873, 
 stated that a suspended colliery within fifteen miles of the 
 city, which had been offered before the "fever" for £1,000,
 
 468 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. . [1872. 
 
 had been bonglit by two mining agents, who fortliwitli started 
 a company with £30,000 capital, to which they disposed of 
 their pui'chase for £6,000 in debentures and £15,500 in paid- 
 up shares. In October, 1874, some collieries at Nailsea, 
 which had not been worked for sixty years, were re-opened ; 
 but the tide of prosperity was then fast ebbing, and the 
 speculation was unsuccessful. In consequence of the in- 
 ordinate prices of coal, the demand for iron at length fell off, 
 while the opening of many new collieries brought fresh sup- 
 plies into an already glutted market, thereby greatly de- 
 pressing values and wages. For two winters, however, the 
 /dearth of fuel caused much suffering amongst the poor. 
 For several years previous to 1872 communications had 
 been addressed from time to time to the Corporation by the 
 Home Secretary, complaining that the condition of the gaol 
 and of the house of correction was not in accordance Avith 
 the requirements of the Prisons Act ; to which the city 
 authorities had repeatedly responded that the subject should 
 receive earnest attention. In September, a more peremptory 
 missive was received from the Home Office, declaring that 
 the buildings in question were unfit for their purposes, and 
 that immediate steps must be taken to comply with the law. 
 A deputation was appointed to wait upon the Minister, to 
 acquaint him with the heavy pecuniary burdens of the rate- 
 payers, and to point out that the gaol, notwithstanding ad- 
 mitted shortcomings, was in a healthy condition and fairly 
 adequate for its object. The mission proving fruitless, the 
 Council, in June, 187o, determined to build a gaol upon a 
 new site, it being anticipated that the sale of the ground 
 occupied by the two prisons would go far to cover the expense 
 of another building. In the following September, the Cor- 
 poration gave £3,875 for Horfield Hardens [see p. 379], and 
 in 1874 the Home Secretai'y approved of the Council's plans 
 for the intended erection, the estimated cost of which was 
 £65,000. A contract was entered into for the boundary walls, 
 which were to cost about £4,000. But when tenders were 
 invited for building the gaol, tlio lowest offer, owing to the 
 abnormal rise in prices and wages, was £32,000 in excess of 
 the estimate. It appearing probable that the engineering 
 works, furnishing, etc., would raise the total cost to nearly 
 £120,000, strong protests wore made .ngainst such an outlay 
 for the retention of criminals wliose average number did not 
 exceed 150. Whilst the subject was still under consideration, 
 it transpired that the Ministry of Mr. Disraeli contemplated 
 legislation for transferring the gaols of the kingdom from
 
 1872.] ANOTHKIl NEW QAOL. THE NEPTUNE STATUE. 469 
 
 the local authorities to the Government ; and the Corporation 
 prudently kept the question in suspense until 1877, when an 
 Act was passed to carry out the Ministerial policy. The last 
 gaol delivery under the old system took place in April, 187^, 
 in which month the Government entered upon the ownership 
 and management of the prisons. Bridewell was closed in the 
 following May, and the Home Secretary at that time intended 
 to abolish the gaol also, and to remove Bristol prisoners to 
 another district. This design was afterwards dropped. In 
 the meantime, the Council was called upon to pay £17,101, 
 as compensation for the certified cell accommodation which 
 it had neglected to provide in the gaol, and a further sum of 
 £4,320 on account of similar deficiencies in Bridewell. The 
 latter building was thereupon reconveyed to the Corporation, 
 which, saved about £4,500 a year by being relieved of the 
 management of the prisons. At a later date, the Government 
 entered into an exchange of property with the Council, by 
 which the latter again became possessed of the condemned 
 gaol, upon surrendering the ground purchased at Horfield. 
 The site of Bridewell, saving a portion required for the ex- 
 tension of E-upert Street, was granted on lease, at £600 a year, 
 to Messrs. Budgett & Co., who built warehouses on part of the 
 site. The prison at Horfield was sufficiently completed in April, 
 1883, to receive the prisoners detained in the old gaol, which 
 was thenceforth deserted. 
 
 The curious statue of Neptune, said by some local writers 
 to have been cast in 1588, and presented to the city by a 
 resident in Temple parish to commemorate the defeat of the 
 Spanish Armada, but which Sarah Farleifs Journal of Decem- 
 ber 22, 1787, alleges to have been cast by one Randall and 
 erected in 1723, was bronzed and burnished during the 
 autumn, and " inaugurated '^ as a drinking fountain on the 
 26th November, by the chairman of the Sanitary Authority, 
 Mr. F. Terrell. The site now occupied by the figure is the 
 fourth which it has occupied in the locality ; it having origi- 
 nally stood near the bottom of Temple Street, next near the 
 site of Dr. White's almshouse, and thirdly near the parish 
 church. 
 
 The rainfall of the year 1872 in this city was believed to 
 have been the greatest that had occurred for upwards of half 
 a century. The quantity collected at Clifton reached a total 
 of 42'36 inches. The statistics of 1870 recorded a fall of less 
 than 23^ inches. During the second half of the year rain fell 
 in Bristol on twenty-five Saturdays in succession. Amongst 
 many newspaper notices of the farming adversities of the
 
 470 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1873. 
 
 season, was one stating that a field of clover grass, mown at 
 Doynton in September, was not stacked until the following 
 March. 
 
 From about the close of 1870 many citizens had been 
 annoyed by the adoption, at a factory in St. Philip's, of an 
 American invention called a "hooter," devised for the purpose 
 of arousing operatives from their morning slumbers. The 
 instrument created so violent a vibration of the atmosphere 
 that the sound was sometimes heard at a distance of twelve 
 miles, and its effect within the limits of the borough proved 
 extremely distressing to invalids and nervous persons. The 
 invention being popular amongst labourers, however, it was 
 rapidly adopted in various parts of the kingdom, several being 
 frequently set up in a single town. The nuisance at last be- 
 came so intolerable that an Act of Parliament was passed in 
 1872, forbidding the use of the instrument except with the 
 consent of the local authorities. In Bristol the Health Com- 
 mittee refused to sanction it ; but upon the question being 
 brought before the Council, in January, 1873, the decision Avas 
 overruled by 21 votes to 18. The vote was significant of the 
 increasing influence of the labouring classes on corporate 
 affairs, for the majority made no attempt to answer the argu- 
 ments advanced against the nuisance, but contented themselves 
 with asserting that the comfort and convenience of a minority 
 of the inhabitants should not be allowed to override the desire 
 of the masses. In compliance with an order of the corporation, 
 the noise made by the instrument was afterwards greatly 
 diminished. 
 
 On the 18th January, 1873, a meeting was held in the 
 Guildhall to consider the desirability of establishing a period- 
 ical series of musical festivals in Bristol. The mayor (Mr. 
 Hathway) presided, and resolutions approving of the move- 
 ment were carried unanimously. About 250 gentlemen, who 
 had offered to guarantee £50 each in the event of a deficiency 
 in the receipts of the first festival, were appointed a provisional 
 committee. An executive committee was afterwards formed, 
 of which l\Tr. Alderman Baker was elected chairman and Mr. 
 Willia m Sm idi vice-chairman. Mr. Alfred Stone was appointed 
 chorus master, and a choir of 290 voices was soon in training. 
 Mr. Charles Hallo was chosen to conduct the public perform- 
 ances. The first festival opened on the 21st October in Colston 
 Hall, to which galleries had been added by the festival commit- 
 tee, and the building was filled with one of the most brilliant 
 audiences ever assembled in the city. The first oratorio given 
 was "The Creation," the leading parts being sustained by
 
 1873.] MUSICAL FESTIVALS. 471 
 
 Messrs. Sims Reeves and Santley, and Mcsdames Sherrington, 
 Alvsleben, etc. "Elijah" was performed on the 22nd, Ros- 
 sini's '^ Stabat Mater" and Macfarren's '^John the Baptist" 
 were given on the 23rd, and " The Messiah," on the 24th, 
 completed the series. Evening miscellaneous concerts also 
 formed part of the programme. The total receipts amounted 
 to £5784. The surplus after paying expenses was made up by 
 the committee to £250, which sum was divided between the 
 two great medical charities. The second festival was held in 
 October, 1876, for which the oratorios selected were "Elijah," 
 "Israel in Egypt," the "Fall of Babylon," "Engedi,"and "The 
 Messiah;" evening concerts being given as before. The chief 
 vocalists were Messrs. E. Lloyd, W. H. Cummings, Kearton, 
 Pope, Maybrick, and Behrens, Mdlles. TitlenslimrAlbani, and 
 Mesdames Wynne, Patey, and Trebelli. Though the receipts 
 (£6473) showed an increase, the guarantors were called upon 
 to pay a guinea each to cover the expenditure. Collections, 
 amounting to £210, were divided as before. The third festival 
 commenced on the 14th October, 1879, and extended over the 
 three following days. The chief works given were " Samson," 
 "Elijah," Mozart's "Requiem," Rossini's "Stabat Mater," and 
 "The Messiah." The leading vocalists were Mesdames Albani, 
 Trebelli, and Patey, Miss Emma Thursby,and Messrs. Santley, 
 Lloyd, and McGruckin. The chorus had at this festival increased 
 to 346. The receipts amounted to £6136, and the accounts 
 showed a surplus of £402, exclusive of £208 collected at the 
 doors. The Infirmary and Hospital received £250 each, the 
 balance being reserved. The fourth festival was opened on 
 the 17th October, 1882, and, being under the presidency of 
 H.R.H. the Duke of Edinburgh, the proceedings excited more 
 than usual public interest, though, singularly enough, the 
 aggregate attendances showed a falling off. The oratorios 
 performed were "Elijah," (jounod's "Redemption," Macken- 
 zie's "Jason" (written for the festival), and "The Messiah." 
 The leading vocalists at the morning and evening performances 
 were Messrs. Lloyd, Santley, Maas, Kearton, and Warlock, 
 Miss Williams, and Mesdames Albani, Patey, and Trebelli. 
 The performance on the 19th was attended by the royal duke 
 and duchess, who were welcomed into the city with great cordi- 
 ality. Their Royal Highnesses were met at the railway station 
 by the mayor (Mr. Weston) and members of the corporation; 
 and the prince was presented with an address, for which he 
 gracefully returned thanks. The streets were gaily decorated, 
 and the volunteers supplied an efficient guard of honour. [A 
 local reporter records that on the arrival of the distinguished
 
 472 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. [1873. 
 
 visitors at Colston Hall, a prominent member of the Council, 
 who was also a very active member of the festival committee, 
 observing that the path from the carriage to the vestibule was 
 somewhat dirty, pulled off his overcoat and placed it on the 
 ground for the duchess to walk over, which she did.] The 
 duke, before leaving, thanked the committee for their intention 
 to devote the surplus of the receipts to a fund for establishing 
 a Bristol scholarship in the new College of Music; and he also 
 accepted the office of president of the Festival Society. The 
 receipts of the week (£6,263) left a balance over expenditure 
 of £148, which were forwarded to the College. The collections 
 (£215) were divided in the usual manner. The festival of 1886 
 •opened on the 20th October with Handel's " Belshazzar," 
 the other oratorios of the Aveek being " Elijah," Berlioz's 
 " Faust," and " The Messiah." The chief singers were Mes- 
 dames Albani, Trebelli, and Patey, Miss Williams and Messrs. 
 Santley, Lloyd, Hilton, and Maas. The chorus, numbering 360 
 voices, excelled all its previous performances. The attend- 
 •ances, however, were below the average, and the guarantors 
 were called on for a guinea and a half each to supply the 
 deficiency in the receipts. The collections for the hospitals 
 produced £146. 
 
 The new church of St. JMatthew's, Mooi-fields, was conse- 
 crated on the 28th January, 1873, by the Bishop of the 
 diocese. 
 
 A report on the charities of Bristol was published in 
 February by the Charity Commissioners. The following is a 
 summary of the yearly value of the endowments then belong- 
 ing to the city : — For education, £19,986 12*-. 6(i Ap- 
 prenticing and advancing the young, £803 lO*- lOcZ. Clergy, 
 lectures, and sermons, £702 17-s". \ld. Church purposes, 
 £4,727 14.V. lOt?. Dissenting chapels and ministers, £983 
 19.V. 3^/. Education of Dissenters, £308 4-s-. ^d. Public uses, 
 £143 8s. Almshouses and pensioners, £12,176 12.s-. \d. Doles 
 in money and goods, £3,336 11. v. General uses of the poor, 
 £4,998 O'.s-. 6-/. Total, £48,167 17.s-. 'Id. In January, 1875, the 
 Rev. J. Percival, head master of Clifton College, observed 
 that many of the gifts to the poor, instead of alleviating 
 ])uverty, ])erpetuated a spirit of dependence and im])rovi- 
 dence, and suggested that £1,000 yearly of the doles should 
 l)e employed to encourage the regular attendance of children 
 at school, by the ])ayment of the fees of orphans, providing 
 clothes for the offspring of distressed parents, and establish- 
 ing prizes. Mr. Percival offered, if his i^roposal were ac- 
 cepted, to guarantee £100 a year for similar purposes from
 
 1873.] THE PRINCE OF WALES AT BRISTOL RACES. 473 
 
 the offertory of Clifton College. There was, however, uo 
 response. 
 
 A local journal of the 1st March stated that, in excavating 
 for a Roman Catholic School adjoining Victoria Street, a 
 discovery had been made of the foundations of an old 
 religious house. Some old coins and a monastic token were 
 said to have been found in the rubbish. 
 
 On the 19th March the opening of a new Bristol racecourse, 
 at Knowle, took place under the patronage of the Prince of 
 Wales. The ground had been laid out, and a grand stand, 
 accommodating 3,000 persons, built bytheBristol and Western 
 Counties Racecourse Company, which had been established in 
 the previous year, with a capital of £8,000 in £100 shares. 
 The first meeting was chiefly devoted to steeple-chasing, but 
 there was some flat racing on a course of a mile and three 
 quarters. The attractiveness of the gathering, which extended 
 over three days, was much increased by the fact that the 
 National Hunt Steeplechase Association had determined that 
 its annual prize should be competed for on the ground. The 
 Prince of Wales, who was a guest at Berkeley Castle, pro- 
 ceeded to the course each morning with a numerous party of 
 friends. The attendance of the public on each of the first 
 two days was estimated at 100,000. The money given in 
 prizes during the meeting exceeded £2,000, the most notable 
 gifts being- the Bristol Grand Steeplechase prize of £500 ; 
 the Association prize of £350 ; the City Hurdle Race of £200 ; 
 the Ashton Court Steeplechase of £200 ; and the Clifton cup 
 of £200. At the close of the last day^s sport, the Prince of 
 Wales was driven to the ofiices of Messrs. Miles Brothers & 
 Co., Queen Square, where tea was provided. At the railway 
 station, a great crowd assembled to cheer the departing 
 visitor. In 1874, besides the spring steeplechase meeting of 
 three days, there was a September meeting of the same 
 duration for ordinary races, the prizes for which were also 
 on a munificent scale. The company sustained a heavy loss 
 on the two gatherings, and the autumn meeting was after- 
 wards relinquished. The last spring races under the 
 management of the company took place in 1878, in Novem- 
 ber of which year, owing to repeated heavy losses, it was 
 resolved to wind up the concern. The races were continued 
 by private enterprise in the spring and winter of 1879, and 
 ag-ain in the spring of 1880 ; but the results were so un- 
 satisfactory that the ground was given up. Subsequently the 
 grand stand and other buildings were demolished, and the 
 materials sold by auction.
 
 474 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. [1873. 
 
 In the spring of 1873 the faculty of the Medical School in 
 Old Park were taking steps to remove to more convenient 
 premises, when a proposal was started for founding a Tech- 
 nical College of Science, of which the school might form a 
 department. An appeal was soon afterwards made to the 
 public for pecuniary assistance towards carrying out the de- 
 sign. At this stage of the movement, a communication was 
 received from the master of Balliol College, Oxford, stating 
 that his College, and px'obably at least one other, would be 
 disposed to co-operate in the work. This led to further 
 neo'otiations, resulting;' in a definite offer from Balliol and 
 New Colleges to continbute £300 a year each for three years 
 tinder certain conditions, the chief of which were that the 
 instruction given should be literary as well as scientific, that 
 the requirements of adult education should be specially con- 
 sidered, and that the College (the medical classes excepted) 
 should be open to women. This proposal having been 
 assented to, the promoters of the movement again addressed 
 themselves to the public, dwelling upon the importance of 
 such an institution to the West of England, and the urgency 
 of establishing it upon a creditable basis. On the 11th June, 
 1874, a meeting in aid of the project was held in the Victoria 
 Rooms, the mayor (Aid. Barnes) presiding, when addresses 
 in approval of the scheme were made by Professor William- 
 son, then president of the British Association, Professor 
 Jowett, master of Balliol, the Bishop of Exeter (Dr. Temple), 
 Mr. E. A. Freeman, the Rev. J. E. Sewell, warden of New 
 College, the members of Parliament for the city, and others. 
 It was estimated that £40,000 would be required to establish 
 the College, and that £3,000 a year would be needed for its 
 maintenance. In July, 1875, a meeting of peers and mem- 
 bers of the House of Commons connected with the West of 
 England and South Wales was held at Westminster, the 
 Earl of Cork, Lord Lieutenant of Somerset, presiding, for the 
 promotion of the Institution. A similar meeting was held in 
 Bristol a few weeks later, during the sittings of the British 
 Association, when the value of the proposed College was 
 strongly urged by Sir John Hawkshaw, president of the 
 Association, Sir AVilliam Thompson, Professor Jowett, and 
 other eminent visitors. In December it was announced that 
 £22,000 of the required capital had been promised (£li),000 
 by Jiristcjlians) ; and ste])s were then taken for the incorpora- 
 tion of tlie College. Soon afterwards the Clothworkers' Com- 
 pany, of London, offered a subscription of £500 a year for 
 iive years to assist in the establishment of a dei)artmcnt of
 
 1873.] UNIVERSITY COLLEGE. 475 
 
 textile industries. A staff of two professors and four lecturers 
 having been selected (Professor Mar-sliall* being subsequently 
 appointed Principal), the work of the College commenced on 
 the 10th October, 1876, a large house in Park Row, vacated 
 by the Deaf and Dumb Institution, having- been temporarily 
 engaged. In 1880 the council, though inadequately sup- 
 ported by wealthy Bristolians, ventured upon building a 
 portion of the north wing of the proposed quadrangle in 
 Tyndall's Pai'k, at a cost of £5,000. This was opened for 
 certain classes at the beginning of the winter term of that 
 year. About the same time, £800, the fruit of a subscription 
 for a memorial to Miss Catherine Winkworth, of Clifton, an 
 earnest advocate of female educatfon, were invested as a fund 
 for providing scholarships for women ; while the Anchor 
 Society offered £300 per annum for three years to found an 
 additional professorship. The College continuing to progress, 
 another wing of the building was erected, at a cost of about 
 £6,000 ; and on its completion, in January, 1883, the house in 
 Park Row was given up. The annual subscriptions then 
 amounted to about £1,200, and the receipts from students to 
 £2,200, while the yearly expenses were £4,600. The two Ox- 
 ford colleges still continued to support the institution. A few 
 words must be added with reference to the Medical School, 
 whose needs originated the College movement. The opening 
 of the winter session of 1879-80 took place in a plain but 
 serviceable building situated near the College. The removal 
 from Old Park was accompanied by an extension of the curri- 
 culum. The management of the school had shortly before 
 been placed by the faculty in the hands of an independent 
 governing body, elected by the council of University College, 
 the leading officials of the Infirmary and Hospital, and the 
 faculty of the school. The effect of those changes was to 
 nearly treble the number of students. 
 
 On"^ the 31st March, 1873, while some excavations were 
 being made in an orchard at Little Sneyd, overlooking Sea 
 Mills, the workmen found, a few inches below the surface, a 
 gravestone of pentagonal form. It bore a rude representation 
 of a head with rays, on one side of which was the figure of a 
 dog, and on the other of a cock, while below was a deeply 
 cut inscription in Roman letters, SPES C. SENTI. The dis- 
 covery excited much interest, some antiquaries believing that 
 the stone marked the resting-place of a Roman Christian ; but 
 the weight of authority was against this supposition. 
 
 * Professor Marshall resigned in the autumn of 1881, and was succeeded by 
 Professor William llamsay, Ph.D.
 
 476 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. [1873. 
 
 The success of wood pavements for carriag'e roads in Lon- 
 don induced the Council, at a meeting- in March, to order a 
 trial of the system in some of the central thorouofhfares in the 
 city. A contract was soon afterwards entered into with the 
 Improved Woodpaving Company for laying down the roadway 
 in Wine Street, at a cost of £960. The expei-iment was 
 deemed so satisfactory that the pavement was extended to 
 Corn Street and part of Broad Street before the close of the 
 year. 
 
 The old building known as Dowry Chapel having been 
 removed in 1872, a new church, dedicated to St. Andrew the 
 Less, was erected on the site, at a cost of about £2,700, and 
 was consecrated on the 24th September, 1873. 
 
 During the autumn Narrow Wine Street, until then appro- 
 priately named, was widened by the demolition of several 
 })rojecting houses at the western entrance. 
 
 At a meeting of the Council in November, it was announced 
 that Alderman Proctor had expressed his willingness to plant 
 trees along the riverside footpath in Coronation Road, from 
 near Bath Bridge to Vauxhall Ferry. The expense was esti- 
 mated at £500. A vote of thanks was passed to the alderman 
 for his liberal gift. A foolish attempt has been made to style 
 this parade a " boulevard," but the public have declined to 
 adopt tlie misnomer. 
 
 The recovery by the city of its ancient library has been 
 recorded under a previous year [see p. 333] . At a meeting 
 of the Council on the 28th November, Mr. J. D. Weston 
 moved that the corporation should take measures for the 
 proper maintenance of the institution under the provisions of 
 the Public Libraries Act. Only one councillor disapproved 
 of the resolution. The question was laid before the rate- 
 payers at a public meeting held in May, 1874, the mayor 
 (Alderman Barnes) presiding, when Mr. Weston moved that 
 the powers of the Act should be brought into o])eration; and 
 he was as successful with the citizens as ho had been with 
 the Council, only three dissentient hands being raised against 
 the proposal. Mr. Weston offered to give £1,000, provided 
 £10,000 were raised by subscription, towards building a 
 structure worthy of the end in view ; and other donations, 
 amounting altogether to £1,100, were promised at the meet- 
 ing. Nothing further, however, was done in tliis direction. 
 In May, 1875, tlu^ Council resolved on the purchase, for £400, 
 of the building known as the St. JMiilij)'s Literary Listitute, 
 whicli liad been founded by a few ])hilanthropic inhabitants, 
 but had proved unsuccessful. The place was opened as a
 
 1874.] FREE LIBRARIES. ELECTION. 477 
 
 branch library by the mayor (Aid, J. A. Jones) in July, 1876. 
 A house in King Square, bought for £1,070, and fitted up 
 as a branch for the northern parts of the city, was opened 
 in March, 1877, by the mayor (Alderman Edwards). The 
 Library Committee also purchased, for £1,650, the premises 
 of a defunct Conservative Institute in Bedminster, and a well 
 appointed branch library was opened there in the following 
 September. In May, 1883, the Council sanctioned the crea- 
 tion of a new branch, in Whiteladies Road, for Redland and 
 West Clifton. A plot of 666 square yards was bought for 
 £650, and a building having been erected thereon at a cost of 
 £2,400, and 10,000 volumes placed on the shelves, the building 
 was opened by the mayor (Mr. Weston) in June, 1885. Two 
 months later, the Council resolved on purchasing the aban- 
 doned Church of St. Peter, Jacob's Wells [see p. 345] ^ and 
 on converting it into a branch library for Hotwells and St. 
 Augustine's. The building, with alterations, cost about £3,000. 
 
 In the course of the year 1873, the committee of the 
 Children's Hospital appointed a female physician. Dr. Eliza 
 Walter, to the office of house surgeon ; but the lady was 
 conTpeTled to relinquish the post a few weeks later, in conse- 
 quence of the hostile action of the rest of the medical staff, 
 who succeeded in their object by resigning in a body. In 
 referring to the subject in a letter read at a public meeting 
 in Gloucester, Mr. Wait, M.P. (mayor 1869-70), said, he had 
 become a convert to the agitation for female suffrage, " its 
 necessity having been driven home by a trades' union com- 
 bination among a section of the medical men at Bristol to 
 prevent a woman earning her bread in their profession." 
 
 At the general election, which took place in February, 
 1874, the candidates nominated were Messrs. Morley and 
 Hodgson, the Liberal Members in the previous Parliament, 
 and Messrs. S. V. Hare and George Henry Chambers, who 
 were brought forward by the Conservatives. The latter were 
 sanguine of success, as Mr. Hare had been defeated by a 
 small majority in 1870, and in the four registration courts 
 which had subsequently been held the Conservative Associa- 
 tion claimed an aggregate gain of 1,614 votes. This was the 
 first Bristol election held under the Ballot Act; and the good 
 order which reigned during the struggle offered a marked 
 contrast to the disturbances which were almost chronic under 
 the old system. The counting of the votes on the evening of 
 the poll (February 2) occupied many hours, and the result 
 could not be announced until nearly three hours after mid- 
 night; yet, though many thousand persons remained in the
 
 478 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1874. 
 
 streets, there was no symptom of tumult. The return was as 
 follows :— Mr. K. D. Hodgson, 8,888 ; Mr. S. Morley, 8,732 ; 
 Mr. S. V. Hare, 8,552 ; Mr. G. H. Chambers, 7,626. The last 
 mentioned gentleman, in the course of one of his electioneer- 
 ing addresses, made a singular avowal of his regret at the 
 abolition of slavery in the West India colonies. 
 
 A fourth volunteer organisation was started in February, 
 under the name of the Royal Navy Artillery Volunteers. 
 The 22 persons first enrolled paid all the expenses attending 
 the launching of the Corps. In August, Mr. Ward Hunt, 
 first Lord of the Admiralty, visited Bristol with a view to 
 promoting the movement, in which, Mr. Hunt stated, the 
 Admiralty felt much interest. At a public meeting, held a 
 few weeks later, the Corps was definitely constituted. Captain 
 Dunn, R.N., being recommended to the Admiralty as the 
 commanding oflficer. 
 
 During the spring the Cattle Market was reconstructed by 
 the local railway companies [see p. 123], at a cost of nearly 
 £10,000. The new market afforded accommodation for 9,700 
 animals. 
 
 The most serious disaster which had happened in the 
 Avon since the stranding of the Demerara occui-red on the 
 1st April to the Kron Prinz, a steamer which had arrived 
 from the Danube with a cargo of 7,000 quarters of barley. 
 In proceeding up the river at high water, the vessel struck 
 on the right bank, near the Horseshoe Point, and became 
 practically a wreck. Her removal was not eff'ected until the 
 20th April, when the damage was estimated at £34,000. A 
 somewhat similar disaster occurred in the beginning of May, 
 1878, to the Gipxy steamer, said to be worth £15,000, which 
 struck on the right bank of the Avon, near Black-rock quarry, 
 as she was proceeding to Waterford, and became a total wreck. 
 
 At a meeting of the Council on the 28th April, 1874, the 
 town clerk stated that he was instructed by Alderman Proctor 
 to offer as a free gift to the city the mansion in which he 
 lived — Elmdale House, Clifton Down, to be dedicated to the 
 use of the mayor for the time being. The house was charged 
 with a ground rent of £50 per annum, but the donor had 
 taken measures to redeem this burden. The value of the 
 property was estimated at £16,000. It transpired that Mr. 
 Proctor had had the object in view for several years, and had 
 in fact constructed the house for this especial purpose. At 
 the request of Mrs. Proctor the transfer of the property took 
 place on the 1st May — the anniversary of the wedding of the 
 estimable couple. The deed of gift was executed on tho 20th
 
 1874.] GIFT OF A MANSION HOUSE. NEW STREETS. 479 
 
 June, when Alderman Proctor presented the city with the 
 fittings of the house, and a cheque for £500 for effecting 
 decorations and repairs. Mr. Robert Lang presented the 
 Corporation with a cabinet of Bristol china, valued at £750, 
 for the drawing-room of the house. The mayor (Mr. Thomas) 
 presented a picture by C. Brauwhite, a local artist; and 
 similar gifts have been made by many of his successors. Mr. 
 T. Canning (mayor 1870-1) gave a portrait of the late Mr. R. 
 H. Davis, M.P.; Mr. Cruger Miles forwarded two pictures 
 by Danby, R.A., another Bristol artist; and. other handsome 
 presents were made by Alderman Edwards (mayor ] 876-9) 
 and Mr. Mundy. The furnishing of tTie Mansion House cost 
 the Corporation £8,263, and the permanent charge for its 
 maintenance was estimated at about £1,000 a year. It was 
 hoped that the establishment would effect a saving in the 
 yearly charge incurred for the entertainment of the judges 
 of assize, for whom private lodgings had been provided since 
 1831. Their lordships, however, would not take up their 
 quarters in the civic building. In June, 1875, Alderman 
 Proctor added another to his various gifts to the city, in the 
 shape of a recreation ground at Fishponds, which he fitted 
 up for the entertainment of school children, some thousands 
 of whom are taken there yearly on summer excursions. 
 
 The Council, in July, resolved upon another extensive 
 series of street improvements. For many years the ever in- 
 creasing flow of traffic through Corn and Clare Streets had 
 been strengthening the arguments of those who urged the 
 necessity of a new thoroughfare between the central districts 
 and Clifton. Various plans had been proposed to supply the 
 want, but the great expense involved in all of them had de- 
 terred the Council from taking action. The city surveyor, 
 Mr. Josiah Thomas, now proposed a scheme for obtaining the 
 desired relief at a comparatively limited outlay, namely the 
 widening of Baldwin Street from Back Street to Baldwin 
 Street Hall, and the continuance of the thoroughfare from 
 the latter spot to the west end of Clare Street. The esti- 
 mated net cost was £62,000. The plan was adopted by a 
 large majority. The Streets Improvement Committee further 
 recommended alterations in the following localities, at the 
 estimated expenditure affixed, to each : — Black-boy Hill, Red- 
 land, £16,000; Narrow Plain and Unity Street to the Old 
 Market, £20,000 ; the widening of Redcliff Street, £45,000 ; 
 two new thoroughfares near Kingsland Road, £6,500 ; Lower 
 Ashley Road, Brigstock Road, and Montpelier, £8,550 ; 
 Stratton Street to Lawson Street, £5,000 ; Back Street,
 
 480 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1874. 
 
 £13,500; West Street, Bedminster, £4,500 ; Granby Hill to 
 Hotwell Road, £3,000. The whole of these schemes were 
 approved with little or no opposition. The total expenditure 
 voted during the sitting was £184,050. Mr. Spark, the chair- 
 man of the Committee, stated that between 1854 and 1864, 
 before extensive improvements were effected, the rateable 
 value of the city increased only from £455,000 to £503,000, 
 while the advance in the ten subsequent years marked by 
 improvements had been from £503,000 to £727,000. He 
 added that the estimated cost of the properties taken under 
 previous improvement schemes had been £280,300, but that 
 the actual outlay had been only £226,000. The Baldwin 
 Street scheme was afterwards warmly opposed by influential 
 citizens possessing property in the locality ; and the subject 
 remained in suspense for some time. Early in 1877, how- 
 ever, the Council obtained power from Parliament to borrow 
 £194,000 (afterwards increased to £214,000) for carrying out 
 the schemes, and orders were given to proceed with the plans 
 relating to Baldwin Street, Back Street, and Redcliff Street, 
 the last-named thoroughfare being described by Mr. Spark 
 as " a disgrace to the city." New Baldwin Street was opened 
 with some ceremony on the 1st March, 1881, by the mayor 
 (Mr. Weston). The gross cost of the improvement was 
 £120,000. The surplus lands not having been disposed of, 
 the net cost has not been ascertained. 
 
 The members of the British Archteological Association 
 assembled in Bristol in August, to hold their thirty-first 
 annual congress. Mr. K. D. Hodgson, M.P., was the presi- 
 dent for the year. The proceedings extended over a week, 
 visits being paid to all the important historical monuments of 
 the district. A local committee, of which the mayor (Aid. 
 Barnes) was chairman, was indefatigable in its attentions to 
 the visitors, who were also hospitably entertained by the 
 mayor, the Society of Merchants, the vestry of Redcliff, and 
 other bodies. The Association's "Transactions" for 1874 
 contain a full record of the proceedings. 
 
 A scheme of the Endowed School Commissioners for re- 
 organizing the Cathedral School received the assent of the 
 dean and chapter in August. The school formed part of the 
 cathedral corporation as established by Henry VIII. ; but the 
 chapter fr)r many generations manifested indifference to the 
 original purposes of the foundation. In the statutes of Henry 
 the^'salary of the head-master was fixed at £8 8.-?. M. ; of each 
 prebend, £7 17«. 8(/. ; of each minor canon, £5 2.<f. ; and of the 
 dean, £27. In our own time, the dean has an income of £1,500,
 
 1874.] BURGES MEMORIAL. HABERFIELd's ALMSHOUSE. 481 
 
 while the canons receive about £700 each. But the head- 
 master's yearly share of the cathedral revenues in 1874 
 amounted to only £120. Under the scheme, the dividends 
 on a sum of £12,000, furnished by the Ecclesiastical Com- 
 missioners, were devoted to the establishment of a training 
 college and a grammar school. In the latter, eighteen chori- 
 sters were to be instructed free of charge. The new system 
 came into operation in January, 1876, but the college proved 
 a complete failure. In May, 1882, the institution was again 
 reorganised, the college being suppressed. 
 
 The first Cabmen's Rest in Bristol, constructed at the ex- 
 pense of Mr. Henry Taylor (mayor, 1879-80), was opened 
 near the Drawbridge stand on the 7th November. Mr. Tay- 
 lor's example was soon afterwards followed by Mr. Hodgson, 
 M.P., and several citizens, and altogether fifteen Rests have 
 been provided. Some "Chairmen's Rests" were setup in 1876. 
 
 A special meeting of the Council was convened on the 20th 
 November, in consequence of the sudden death, ten days pre- 
 viously, of the town-clerk, Mr. Daniel Burges. Mr. William 
 Brice was unanimously elected to the vacant office. The 
 friends of Mr. Burges subsequently resolved on establishing 
 a lasting memorial of that gentleman's services, and subscrip- 
 tions amounting to upwards of £1,200 having been received, 
 a scholarship called the Daniel Burges Scholarship, tenable 
 at Oxford or Cambridge, was founded in connection with the 
 Grammar School. The first holder of the scholarship was 
 Mr. Cyril Travers Burges, then a student at St. John's 
 College, Oxford. The Charity Trustees gi'ant the income 
 (about £53) for four years to a pupil educated at the Grammar 
 School. — Mr. Brice having relinquished the town-clerkship 
 after holding it nearly six years, the Council, on the 28tli 
 September, 1880, elected Mr. Daniel Travers Burges to the 
 post, which had been successively held by his grandfather 
 and father. 
 
 Upon the death, on the 5th December, of Lady Haberfield, 
 widow of Sir John Kerle Haberfield, it became known that her 
 ladyship, some time before her demise, had executed a deed 
 by which she transferred a considerable real estate to trustees, 
 who were charged with the erection and endowment of alms- 
 houses for twenty-four poor persons. The building- was to be 
 erected on ground at Jacob's Wells, which Lady Haberfield 
 had bought for that purpose. The deceased also bequeathed 
 £5,000 to the Infirmary, £500 to the Charity Trustees for 
 establishing doles to poor women, and handsome sums to 
 various charities. The trustees for the almshouse resolved 
 
 I I
 
 482 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. [1874. 
 
 to delay tlie erection of tlie building until tlie expiration of 
 certain life interests in the estate, which exceeds £40,000. 
 In the meanwhile, the piece of ground bought by Lady 
 Haberfield has been acquired by the Corporation for street 
 improvement purposes. 
 
 An extraordinary ecclesiastical case, said to be the first of 
 the kind which had arisen since the Reformation, came on 
 the 8th December before commissioners appointed by Bishop 
 Ellicott, sitting in the Chapter House. It appeared that, a 
 considerable time before this date, a gentleman named Henry 
 Jenkins, of Vyvyan Terrace, Clifton, entertaining doubts as 
 to The existence of demoniacal spirits, and deeming certain 
 passages in the Bible concerning them unfit to be read in the 
 presence of children, published a selection of passages from the 
 Old and New Testaments for use in family devotion. Copies 
 of the book were sent to various persons, amongst others to 
 the incumbent of the parish, the Rev. Flavel S. Cook, Vicar 
 of Christ Church, who took no notice of it. During the month 
 of July, 1874, however, Mr. Cook preached a course of sermons 
 against Ritualism, which Mr. Jenkins sharply criticised in a 
 private letter ; whereupon the irritated vicar, calling to mind 
 that his correspondent had written a book, proceeded to its 
 examination — probably with a view to returning his parish- 
 ioner's compliment. To use the expression of his counsel, he 
 then " discovered to his extreme sorrow that the volume was 
 a systematic and wicked mutilation of the Bible." The 
 reverend gentleman forthwith called upon Mr. Jenkins to 
 expostulate upon his conduct. And as Mr. Jenkins declined 
 to hold any communication with him, and even claimed the 
 right of using his book in the devotions of his own family, 
 Mr. Cook, professing profound grief, informed him by letter 
 that so long as he refused to disavow his mutilation of the 
 Scriptures he could not " be received at the Lord's Table in 
 my church." Mr. Jenkins retorted that if the church was 
 the minister's it was also the parishioners', and gave notice 
 that on a certain day he should present himself at the Com- 
 munion Table. Ho did accordingly attend, but Mr. Cook re- 
 fused to let him comnumicate. An appeal was tlien made to 
 the bishop, who issued the above commission of inquiry. Mr. 
 Cook's counsel contended that the promoter, having been 
 guilty of slandering tlie Word of Cod, was properly rejected 
 from the Table. The commissioners were of opinion that the 
 matter ought to be decided in the ecclesiastical courts, and 
 the case thereupon proceeded. In the course of the subse- 
 (juent arguments before Sir R. Phillimoro, Dean of Arches,
 
 1874.] JENKINS F. COOK. BIRKIN's CHARITY. 483 
 
 it transpired that the vicar, before repelling Mr. Jenkins from 
 the Communion, had consulted the bishop of the diocese, Dr. 
 Ellicott, who had dictated the letter addressed to the promoter 
 of the suit. His Honour, in giving judgment, held that Mr. 
 Cook was justified in practically excommunicating a person 
 who held sceptical views as to the personality of the devil. 
 An appeal having been lodged, the parties were heard before 
 the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, and Lord 
 Chancellor Cairns gave definitive judgment in February, 
 1876, reversing the previous decision, admonishing Mr. Cook 
 for his illegal act, and warning him against its repetition. 
 The vicar then intimated that if Mr. Jenkins insisted on 
 communicating at Christ Church he should resign the living, 
 and as Mr. Jenkins replied that he should exercise a right 
 which it had cost him a large sum to vindicate, Mr. Cook 
 carried out his intention, and quitted the parish. The heavy 
 law costs incurred by the reverend gentleman were defrayed 
 by his admirers, who also presented him with testimonials to 
 the value of upwards of £4,500. /" 
 
 Another remarkable instance of growth in the value of ^ 
 ancient charitable bequests was brought before the Charity 
 Commissioners during 1874. One Abraham Birkin, by a will 
 dated in 1668, bequeathed six acres of land in the hundred of 
 Barton Regis, then worth £10 a year, to the feoffees of St. 
 Mary-le-Port church lands, upon trust to distribute 40^. 
 yearly amongst four poor people of that parish, and a similar 
 amount amongst poor in St. Nicholas', St. James', and Temple 
 parishes respectively. £1 was to be paid for a yearly ser- 
 mon, lO.s. for bread given to the poor after the sermon was 
 preached, 9s. 6t/. to the collector of the rents, and 6(i. to the 
 lord of the manor for chief rent. For upwards of a century 
 and a half the estate brought in only sufficient to provide for 
 the bequests ; but about 1820 the ground was let on building 
 leases, and, when the leases began to fall in, the yearly pro- 
 ceeds rose to £400, with the prospect of advancing to £600, 
 or sixty times the original value. The testator having left 
 no directions as to the appropriation of a surplus, an appli- 
 cation was made to the Charity Conamissioners, which re- 
 sulted in the settlement of a scheme. After providing for 
 the 40.9. gifts, it was oi'dered that seven-twelfths of the sur- 
 plus should be employed in promoting education amongst 
 the children residing in the parishes of St. Mary-le-Port, St. 
 Nicholas, St. James, Temple, St. Philip, and St. Paul, in the 
 elementary schools of those parishes, and in granting bur- 
 saries at the same schools, or in assisting children of both
 
 484 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1875. 
 
 sexes to obtain instruction in technical subjects. Out of the 
 remaining five-twelfths, £50 were to be paid in augmentation 
 of the living of St. Mary-le-Port, half of the residue to be 
 applied to repairing the church, and the remainder to the 
 purposes to which the seven-twelfths had been devoted, the 
 poor of St. Mary's having a preferential claim to this portion. 
 The scheme was ordered to come into operation on the 25th 
 March, 1875. Some fifty bursaries have since been esta- 
 blished for the benefit of meritorious poor children. 
 
 Early in the year 1875, the Right Honourable Stephen Cave, 
 M.P., a member of an old Bristol family, purchased of a lady 
 living at Cheltenham a curious goblet, called the Colston 
 Cup, the history of which is unknown. It was elaborately 
 carved, and bore figures of members of the Colston family, 
 with representations of the arms of Bristol and of a ship 
 entering the port. 
 
 At a meeting of the Council in March, the inconvenience 
 and unwholesomeness of the police court [see p. 109] were 
 strongly represented by the mayor (Mr. Thomas) on behalf 
 of the magistrates. The Finance Committee shortly after- 
 wards recommended the construction of a new court in 
 BridcAvell Street, extending into St. James's Back. Three 
 houses in the former street were bought for £2,540 ; most of 
 the tenements in the latter, inhabited by a dissolute class, 
 J^ ^.^longed to the Corporation. The design was subsequently 
 
 '}\'^\ a)v^' extended, accommodation being provided for the city fire 
 .•** brigade ; and the total outlay amounted td £17,000. Through 
 
 r'* one of those unlucky freaks by which the Council is some- 
 
 times tempted to deal with ancient names [see p. 356, note], 
 St. James's Back was ordered to be called Silver Street — the 
 name of an old thoroughfare swept away by recent improve- 
 ments. The new court was opened for magisterial business 
 in March, 1880. 
 
 The tendency of a centralising system of government to be 
 made ridiculous by routine and " red tape " was illustrated 
 about this time l)y a dispute between the Local Government 
 Board and the Bristol Board of Guardians. In 1701, Alder- 
 man Samuel Wallis l)equeathod a sum of money to the In- 
 corporatioiT'of Ihe Toor, on condition that they should pay 
 20.V. yearly to the incuml)ent of St. Peter's, for a sermon to 
 be preached on the election of each governor. A year or two 
 earlier than tin's bequest, the Incorporation had Ix'gnn to pay 
 2{).s'. to the incumbent and clerk of St. Stej)hen's (or of St. 
 Nicholas) for an annual service, Dr. Edward Tyson having 
 made the guardians a gift untk'r tliat condition. The two
 
 1875.] RED-TAPISM. ARCIIiEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 485 
 
 payments were made for upwards of a hundred and seventy 
 years as a simple matter of course. At the revision of the 
 accounts in 1875^ however^ a punctilious auditor refused to 
 allow the items ; and the chairman, who had signed the 
 cheques, was ordered to refund the amount. An appeal was 
 made to the Local Government authorities, but they affirmed 
 the decision of the auditor. After submitting to two years' 
 surcharges, the guardians discontinued the payments in 1877, 
 whereupon one of the clergymen interested in the gifts sued 
 for his money, and obtained a verdict. The auditor, never- 
 theless, still refused to pass the items, and after the fees had 
 been defrayed on two or three occasions by the chairman, the 
 board again ordered the payments to be stopped. In Febru- 
 ary, 1882, as the result of another action, the bailiffs entered 
 St. Peter's Hospital, and seized four antique chairs, which 
 were put up by auction (they were purchased by the chair- 
 man), and produced sufficient to satisfy the clergyman's claim, 
 with costs. Notwithstanding the scandal, the auditor again 
 made a surcharge on his next visit. The guardians were by 
 this time resolved on obtaining relief from petty official per- 
 secution, and being about to apply to Parliament for the 
 abolition of the Harbour rate, they introduced clauses into 
 their Bill to legalise the disputed payments. The clauses 
 having become law in 1883, the unseemly controversy might 
 have been expected to terminate ; but the pedantic auditor, 
 on discovering that a yeai'ly payment had been made before 
 the Act came into force, made another surcharge. His 
 superiors at the Local Grovei-nment Board were, however, 
 tired of the controversy, and the item received their sanction 
 in the following September. 
 
 Soon after the reorganisation of Colston's School, the new 
 governing body resolved upon the abolition of the uncomely 
 and irksome gai-b in which the boys had been hitherto 
 arrayed. In lieu of a long gown, short breeches, and flat 
 cap, each lad received a uniform of modern cut, the badge of 
 the dolphin being placed on a peaked cap. The action of 
 the governors was not lost upon the authorities of the City 
 School, who also, for a time, clothed their boys in a costume 
 consistent with modern ideas and with the requirements of 
 youth. Finding, however, that jackets and trousers were 
 slightly more expensive than gowns and breeches, the 
 governors ordered the revival of the grotesque old habili- 
 ments. 
 
 At a meeting held in July, Dr. Beddoe, F.R.S., presiding, 
 it was resolved to establish an association for promoting
 
 486 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1875. 
 
 . antiquarian pursuits, under the title of the Bristol and Glou- 
 ^ cestershire Archaeological Society, Many of the local nobility 
 and gentry and other influential inhabitants had previously 
 promised their support to the movement. The society was 
 "inaugurated'^ at another gathering, in February, 1876, at 
 which the Earl of Ducie, Lord Lieutenant, took the chair. 
 The first general meeting was held at Grioucester, the presi- 
 dent being Sir William V. Guise, bart. The third annual 
 gathering took place at Bristol in July, 1878, Mr. C. J. 
 Th oma s being the president of that year. A winter meeting 
 was also held here in January, 1880, under the presidency 
 of Mr. T. G. Parry. The society has published an annual 
 volume of '^Transactions." 
 
 The forty-fifth annual congress of the British Association 
 was opened in this city on the 25th August, when the presi- 
 dent for the year, Sir John Hawkshaw, delivered his in- 
 augural address in the Victoria Booms. The vice-presidents 
 were the Earl of Ducie, Sir S. Northcote (late Earl of Iddes- 
 leigh), the mayor (Mr. C. J. Thomas), Sir Henry Bawlinson, 
 Dr. W. B. Carpenter, and Mr. W. Sanders, F.R.S. Although 
 the gathering did not kindle the enthusiasm which greeted 
 the association on its former visit, the proceedings excited 
 much interest, and a hospitable reception was offered to the 
 guests. The work of the week Avas divided amongst seven 
 sections. Mathematical and Physical Science (presided over 
 by Professor Balfour Stewart) had its quarters in the Fine 
 Arts Academy; Chemistry (Mr. A. G. V. Harcourt, F.R.S.) 
 at the Freemasons' Hall ; Geology (Dr. T. Wright) at the 
 lecture room of the Museum; Biology, three departments 
 (Dr. P. L. Sclater), at the Royal Hotel, the Grammar School, 
 and rooms in Park Street; Geography (General Strachey, 
 C.S.I.) at the Blind Asylum; Economic Science (Mr. J. Hey-^ 
 _woodj F.R.S.) at Victoria Chapel schoolroom ; Mechanical 
 Science (Mr. W. Froude, F.R.S.) at the Fine Arts Academy. 
 Lectures and conversaziones took place in the evenings at 
 Colston Hall. With one exception, the meeting places of the 
 previous congress were abandoned, and the list of new build- 
 ings made available illustrated the local progress that had been 
 made in forty years. At the close of the proceedings, the 
 courtesy and hospitality of the inhabitants, and the energetic 
 services of the local secretaries, Mr. W. L. Carpenter and 
 Mr. J. U. Clarke, were the themes of much eulogistic comment. 
 
 Owing to complaints as to the unhealthy condition of the 
 Infirmary, the committee resolved, in September, upon closing 
 the Iniilding with a view to extensive alterations. A range
 
 1875.] workmen's dwellings, railway amalgamation. 487 
 
 of warehouses in Colston Street was hired and fitted up for 
 the accommodation of about seventy patients whose cases 
 might be considered of an urgent nature. The alterations, 
 which entailed a cost of nearly £15,000, were completed in 
 about a twelvemonth, and the institution was reopened in 
 October, 1876. 
 
 In October, 1875, a meeting was held under the presidency 
 of the mayor (Mr. Thomas), with the object of promoting a 
 movement, originated by Canon Norris, for the erection of a 
 memorial in the city to Bishop Butler. It was suggested 
 that the north-west tower of the cathedral should be raised 
 in honour of the bishop, and a donation of £50 was an- 
 nounced from a gentleman at New York. The subscriptions 
 promised at the meeting did not amount to £400, and the 
 proposal met with a cheerless reception out of doors. A 
 suggestion, made about the same time, that the companion 
 tower of the cathedral should be erected as a memorial of 
 Colston, fell still-born. In October, 1886, however, Mr. J. 
 W. Dod, of Clifton, offered a donation of £5,000 towards the 
 construction of the towers, under conditions which, it may be 
 hoped, will be realised. 
 
 During the autumn a company was formed, under the title "^ 
 of the Bristol Industrial Dwellings Company, with a capital /^^^^ 
 of £20,000 in £50 shares. A lease was obtained from the ""-^^^ 
 Merchant Venturers' Society of a plot of ground at Jacob's / 
 
 Wells, and, ^ a preliminary effort, the company erected, h>; 
 
 at a cost of £8,000, three blocks of buildings, containing 
 altogether eighty tenements, provided with all appropriate 
 sanitary arrangements. The experiment proving popular' 
 amongst the working classes, another large block, containing 
 fifty-one tenements, was erected, and the company secured 
 additional land adjoining, with a view to future extensions. 
 The movement was started by Miss Susannah Winkworth, 
 who for many years had taken a deep interest in solving the 
 problem as to the better housing of the poor, and had begun 
 the work by a practical experiment in Dowry Square, where 
 she hired two or three large houses, and let them to poor 
 families at low rentals. The results there were so satisfac- 
 tory that Mr. George Wills, Mr. W. K. Wait, Mr. W. H. 
 Budgett, Mr. L. Fry, and a few other philanthropic citizens 
 assisted in the promotion of the more extensive project 
 described above. 
 
 It was announced in October that an agreement had been 
 entered into for the purchase of the Bristol and Exeter Rail- 
 way by the Great Western Company. The terms agreed
 
 488 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. [1875. 
 
 upon provided for a yearly dividend on tlie ordinary stock of 
 the Bristol and Exeter Company at the rate of 6 per cent, 
 for seven years, and thereafter at the rate of 6h per cent. 
 The amalgamation took effect on the 1st August, 1876. Four 
 days before that date, an accident happened near Long Ash- 
 ton to the express train known as " the Flying Dutchman," 
 which left the rails whilst on its journey towards Bristol, the 
 two men on the engine being killed and several of the pas- 
 sengers seriously injured. At the coroner's inquest, the 
 jury declared that the fatality was attributable to the defec- 
 tive condition of the permanent way, as represented to them 
 by the Government inspector, and "great blame" was passed 
 on those officials who were responsible for the default. On 
 winding up the accounts of the Bristol and Exeter under- 
 taking, upwards of £14,000 were distributed amongst the old 
 officers and servants of the company. 
 
 During the autumn and winter of 1875, which were marked 
 by excessive rains, the eastern parishes of Bristol bordering 
 on the Froom suffered severely from inundations. For some 
 years the population had rapidly increased in that neighbour- 
 hood, and a number of houses were built on low-lying ground 
 which had been at all times liable to be flooded. In many of 
 these dwellings the floors of the lower rooms were occasionally 
 from three to four feet under water; and the poor tenants 
 were reduced to extreme misery. In February, 1876, the 
 Council voted £10,500 for repairing the banks of the river 
 from Ashley Road bridge to Wade Street, and for clearing 
 the bed of the stream, A still more disastrous inundation 
 occurred in October, 1882 [see p. 520]. 
 
 An attempt to form a social centre for the mercantile 
 classes in the city was started about the close of 1875, when 
 a large new house in Quay Street was fitted up at a cost of 
 £3,500, and opened as the Bristol and County Club. About 
 250 members, paying a yearly subscription of three guineas, 
 were enrolled ; but the expenditure largely exceeded the 
 receipts, and repeated additional demands on the subscribers 
 led to withdrawals, and, after a four years' trial, to the 
 closing of the premises. 
 
 The excitement caused by the theological lawsuit of Jen- 
 kins V. Cook [see p. '182] had not wholly subsided when a 
 new and more acrimonious controversy arose with res])oct to 
 certain decorations erected in front of the catliedral. Accord- 
 ing to the architect's designs for the new north porch, statues 
 of tlie four great doctors of the Western Church — Gregory, 
 Jerome, Ambrose, and Augustine — were to adorn the portal.
 
 1876.] THE CATHEDRAL PORCH CONTROVERSY. 489 
 
 The figures were in consequence executed, at a cost of about 
 £450, and they were elevated to the niches constructed for 
 them about the middle of February, 1876. For some days 
 they occasioned as little remark as had similar statues of the 
 same personages when erected, shortly before this date, at 
 Gloucester and Salisbury cathedrals. At length, however, a 
 vigilant Protestant, signing himself " No Pope and No 
 Popery," published a letter in the newspapers, and his pro- 
 test was forthwith re-echoed by still more vehement dispu- 
 tants of the same school. A few days later, the local journals 
 were authorised by Canon Girdlestone to assert that the 
 statues had been erected without the consent of the dean 
 (who was in Italy) or of the chapter, whereupon ]\Ir^Wait, 
 M.P., at whose expense the porch had been built, retorted 
 that the plans, including the figures, were submitted to, and 
 approved by, the capitular body in 1867. [Mr. Wait subse- 
 quently admitted that this statement was " stronger than 
 was warranted by the facts of the case."] At an excited 
 meeting — " one of the absurdest meetings," said an influen- 
 tial London journal, " that British citizens ever attended " — 
 after violent speeches by some Low Church clergymen, it was 
 resolved that the images were insulting to English Protestant- 
 ism and ought to be immediately removed. Dr. Percival 
 and Mr. J. H. Mills, almost the only cool-headed persons 
 present, being interrupted and insulted whilst deprecating 
 the passionate proceedings. On the return of the dean, 
 early in April, a chapter was held, at which it was resolved 
 — Canons Norris and Wade protesting — that the dean should 
 take measures for the removal of the figures. The dean 
 having been informed that the restoration committee would 
 resist this step until the figures had been pronounced illegal 
 by a judicial tribunal, a band of workmen was secretly en- 
 gaged, who carried out their orders at an early hour. After 
 the large statues had been torn from the niches, ''a couple 
 of masons," according to the Bristol Times, " went on with 
 the work of demolition, splintering off the lesser saints that 
 enriched the moulding of the doorway ; so that the passer-by 
 was for a moment beguiled by the fancy that he was back in 
 old commonwealth times." The Daili/ Press stated that the 
 figure of St. Grregory was injured, and that ''the day's work 
 concluded with the excision of the Virgin Mary, who was 
 one of the two top figures on the outside of the arch." This 
 figure was broken to pieces by the workmen. In defence of 
 his action, the dean informed Mr. Wait that the chapter had 
 not sanctioned the subjects of the figures, and had taken the
 
 490 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1876. 
 
 sketclies in tlie design to represent the Evangelists. It ap- 
 peared that the restoration committee were not responsible 
 for the artistic treatment of the statues, and did not approve 
 of the papal tiara, cardinal's hat, and other insignia intro- 
 duced by the sculptor (Mr. Redfern), which gave so much 
 offence. It was also admitted that those decorations were as 
 much in contradiction to historical truth as they were op- 
 posed to Protestant sentiments. The anachronisms might 
 easily have been removed ; but the dean, who became more 
 uncouciliatory and peremptory as the matter proceeded, at 
 length objected to the erection of any figures save those of 
 scriptural personages. For excluding the Virgin from this 
 category he pleaded an iconoclastic Act of Edward YI. On 
 the 18th April the restoration committee resolved that, as Dr. 
 Elliott had " expressed no regret for the outi-age, or for the 
 discourtesy offered to the donor and architect of the porch," 
 they felt that their only course was to discontinue their work. 
 The committee also addressed a letter to the dean, in which 
 they contrasted the indifference he had all along exhibited 
 in reference to the restoration with the vigour he had shown 
 in defacing " a very beautiful work of art." As they had no 
 security, they added, that this conduct might not be followed 
 by other mutilations, they repudiated further responsibility. 
 The dean, rendered uneasy by this issue, appealed to Canon 
 Norris, asking for his endeavours to influence the committee 
 to acquiesce in the removal of the figures, and to accept scrip- 
 tural subjects in their place ; but the canon replied, that after 
 the affronting resolution of the chapter, and the indecorous 
 way in which effect had been given to it, the committee 
 naturally expected some expression of regret for the steps 
 which had been taken. Dr. Elliott, retorting that the only 
 persons in the wrong were the committee, thereupon appealed 
 to the public, stating that the chapter would accept the re- 
 sponsibility of completing the building, and asking for 
 pecuniary help on behalf of a new committee, which would 
 finish the works "under the presidency of the dean." If 
 that dignitary anticipated that the response would be such 
 as to prove that public opinion applauded his proceedings, 
 the result must have been mortifying. The original com- 
 mittee had obtained about £43,000 from the public; but the 
 appeal of the cliaptor for £1,500 to enable them to open the 
 nave was somewhat coldly received, although the dean and 
 his supporters in the capitular body (Canon Girdlestono and 
 Canon Jleeve) subscril)ed £200 of the amount. What was 
 still more edifying, the entire sum contributed by those who
 
 187G.] COMPLETION OF THE CATHEDRAL. FIUE. 491 
 
 had excited tlie " No Popery " agitation did not exceed £300. 
 After considerable delay, and some further expenditure, the 
 new nave was opened on the 23rd October, 1877, when the 
 mayor (Aid. Edwards) and the members of the Council 
 attended in state. The bishop of the diocese, the liishop of 
 Bath and Wells, and the Deans of Canterbury and Westmin- 
 ster took part in the opening services, which extended over 
 two days. About £48,000 had been expended on the recon- 
 struction at that date. In January, 1885, the dean, in a 
 report addressed to the Cathedral Commissioners, stated that 
 the sum disbursed in the renovation of the cathedral, between 
 1860 and 1884 inclusive, was £77,447, of which £14,508 had 
 been contributed by the chapter. Figures of the four Evan- 
 gelists, said to have cost fifty guineas each, but of slender 
 artistic merit, were placed in the vacant niches during the 
 summer of 1878. The rejected statues are now in the tower 
 of East Heslerton Church, Yorkshire. 
 
 The most extensive fire which had occurred in the city for 
 nearly half a century broke out during the night of the 24th 
 May, in the premises of Messrs. Clutterbuck & Grifiin, dry- 
 salters, Christmas Street. The flames rapidly spread to the 
 warehouses of Messrs. Couzens & Co., clothiers; Messrs. 
 Leonard & Co., drysalters ; Messrs. Gardner & Thomas, whole- 
 sale grocers ; and Mr. S. Hunt, provision merchant ; as well as 
 to an old-established inn, the Old Globe. The destruction in 
 those buildings was in most cases complete, and the entire loss 
 was estimated at upwards of £80,000. 
 
 A friendly suit in Chancery, between the governors of Col- 
 ston's School and the trustees of Colston's Free Schools in the 
 parish of Temple, was occasioned during the summer through 
 a bequest of £5,000 having been made by a Mr. McGhie to 
 " Colston's School, Bristol." A suggestion of the Master of 
 the Rolls, that the money should be divided between the two 
 institutions, being accepted by the parties, a formal judgment 
 was given to that elfect. 
 
 In consequence of the Government having introduced a Bill 
 into Pai'liament for preventing the pollution of rivers — a 
 measure which, when passed, turned out to be utterly value- 
 less — the Council, at a meeting in August, determined upon 
 the purchase, for £6,000, of Clift House, Coronation Road, 
 with about seven acres of land adjoining, for the purpose of 
 establishing works on the spot for deodorising part of the 
 sewage of the city. The latter project excited so much oppo- 
 sition in Clifton that it was never carried into execution. 
 
 The passenger toll at Prince's Street Bridge having been
 
 492 THE ANNALS OP BKISTOL. [1877. 
 
 long regarded as a grievance, negotiations were opened dur- 
 ing the autumn by the Corporation with the Great Western 
 Railway Company, which had purchased the bridge when the 
 Harbour Railway was constructed ; and at a meeting of the 
 Council, in November, it was agreed to give £15,000 for the 
 property, to abolish the tolls, and to build a more convenient 
 bridge. The tolls had previously been let for £1,100 a year. 
 Parliamentary powers were obtained in the following session, 
 and the new bridge, made to open and close by hydraulic ma- 
 chinery, came into use on the 27th January, 1879. 
 
 A scheme for the improvement of Jacob Street, Tower Hill, 
 Ashley Road, Castle Mill Street, and Newfoundland Road, 
 and for making a new street on the north side of the Froom, 
 was recommended by the Streets Improvement Committee and 
 sanctioned by the Council on the 9th November. The esti- 
 mated outlay for carrying out the design was only £6,000. 
 
 Upon an announcement being made that the Ministry of 
 Lord Beaconsfield were resolved upon recommending Parlia- 
 ment to create four additional English bishoprics, a movement 
 was started in Bristol for obtaining a restoration of the privi- 
 leges withdrawn some forty years before. At a meeting held 
 in January, 1877, the mayor (Alderman Edwards) presiding, 
 a memorial to the Home Secretary was adopted, pointing out 
 that £1,500 — half of the income proposed to be conferred on 
 each of the new prelates — could be secured by uniting the 
 ofl&ce of dean with that of bishop. It was added that Dr. 
 Ellicott was prepared to surrender £500 a year of his income 
 if the united dioceses were separated, and that the remainder 
 of the endowment would be speedily furnished by the public, 
 provided the Government would aid in restoring the see. 
 Several large subscriptions were promised at the meeting, 
 and the contributions soon exceeded £8,000. The Ministry, 
 however, refused to countenance the movement. During the 
 autumn of 1883 some influential citizens, then promoting a 
 scheme of church extension which will bo noticed in a later 
 page, placed themselves in communication Avith the Prime 
 Minister, Mr. Gladstone, in reference to the question of the 
 bishopric. It was soon after intimated that the Ministry 
 would render assistance in carrying out the wishes of local 
 Churchmen. The chief conditions imposed were that the old 
 see of Gloucester should be left in its integrity, and that £1,500 
 a year should be provided by the public towards the income of 
 the new bishop, in addition to the £500 offered by Dr. Ellicott. 
 At a meeting in January, 1884, the mayor (Mr. Weston) in tho 
 chair, thanks were voted to Mr. Gladstone, and a subscription
 
 1877.] REVIVAL OP THE BISHOPEIC. FIRE BRIGADE. 493 
 
 was started, Canon Norris, tlie Merchants' Society, Miles & 
 Co., Sir J. G. Smyth, Mr. H. C. Miles, Mr. A. Gibbs, Alder- 
 man Edwards, Messrs. Daniel & Sons, and two anonymous 
 donors contributing £1,000 each. In July, the £20,000 required 
 by the Government preliminary to taking action having been 
 subscribed, a Bill for the creation of a new diocese of Bristol 
 (to consist of the deaneries of Bristol — with slight modifica- 
 tions to include the docks at the mouth of the Avon — and the 
 three deaneries of North Wilts) was brought into the House 
 of Lords by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Special facilities 
 were granted by the Ministry for the progress of the measure 
 in the Commons ; and Mr. Gladstone, on the 9th August, upon 
 the motion that the House should go into committee on the 
 Bill, delivered a brilliant address in its favour, declaring that 
 it would be '^hardly compatible with the dignity of Parlia- 
 ment " to refuse the city what it was seeking to obtain. The 
 Prime Minister's intervention practically put an end to oppo- 
 sition, and the Bill received the royal assent on the 14th August. 
 Mr. Gladstone, on the day on which he addressed the Com- 
 mons, forwarded to the Archdeacon of Bristol a donation of 
 £50 in aid of the bishopric fund, being desirous, he said, " to 
 render a tribute, however small, of gratitude as well as ad- 
 miration to the illustrious memory of Bishop Butler, Avhose 
 episcopal career was chiefly passed at Bristol." An anony- 
 mous friend has promised £10,000 towards the endowment 
 fund, provided an equal sum (in addition to the subscriptions 
 previously offered) be raised before June, 1888. The amount 
 subscribed in March, 1887, was about £24,000. 
 
 The insurance offices, which up to this time had maintained 
 fire engines in the city (the Imperial office excepted), having 
 given notice of their intention to discontinue their establish- 
 ments, the Council, in March, 1877, unanimously affirmed the 
 desirability of founding a city fire brigade. The Watch Com- 
 mittee soon afterwards recommended that the brigade should 
 form part of the police force, that the staff should consist of a 
 superintendent and twelve additional policemen, and that a 
 powerful fire-engine should be purchased, and stationed at 
 the central police station. The report was adopted, and, as / 
 already recorded, offices for the brigade were built in St. ^' 
 James's Back. 
 
 For some years previous to this date, the reputation of 
 Clifton as a watering-place had been injured by the quar- 
 terly returns of mortality issued by the Registrar-General, 
 whose statistics were founded on the deaths reported in the 
 entire Union of Clifton — a district embracing a large popu-
 
 494 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. [1877. 
 
 ,/ lation residing in the poorest parislies of eastern Bristol. 
 Repeated remonstrances having been made on the injustice 
 of the arrangement, the Local Government Board at length 
 ordered that, from the 14th March, 1877, the name of the 
 Union should be changed to Barton Eegis. The mortality in 
 Clifton alone is now included in the Registrar's returns of 
 ■watering-places, with the effect of proving the parish to be 
 amongst the most salubrious in the kingdom. 
 
 The steam vessels and business of the Bristol Steam Navi- 
 gation Company were sold during the spring to certain 
 capitalists in Cork. The price given for the concern was 
 £120,000, half of which amount was accepted in shares of a 
 new company bearing the same name, which started in July 
 with a capital of £150,000. 
 
 Arrangements were made during the spring for the amal- 
 gamation of the banking firms of Messrs. Baillie, Cave & 
 Co. (the Old Bank) and of Sir William Miles, bart., & Co. 
 The union took effect on the 1st May, the business of the new 
 firm being carried on in the premises of the Old Bank. The 
 partners Avere Messrs. Charles D. Cave, George 0. Edwards, 
 Hon. H. Baillie, and George Bright from the Old Bank, and 
 Sir Wm. Miles and Messrs. John Miles, W. H. Harford, 
 W. H. Miles, and Fenton Miles from the other concern. The 
 latter thereupon ceased to issue bank notes, a step which had 
 been adopted by the Old Bank some years before. 
 
 At a Council meeting in June, the desirability of obtaining 
 a park for the eastern districts of the city was affirmed, and 
 a committee was appointed to choose a site and to consider 
 the best means of meeting the expense. The site suggested 
 by Mr. L. Fry, the mover of the resolution, was certain fields, 
 about sixty-five acres in extent, situated between Fishponds 
 and Stapleton roads, and bounded by the Froom on the 
 north. It was ascertained that the owner. Sir J. Greville 
 Smyth, bart., required, as a condition of sale, that the land 
 should be settled for all future time as a park, and that the 
 Corporation should, under no contingency, sell any portion 
 for building sites. As the price demanded for the ground 
 (£25,000) was nearly double its value as agricultural land, 
 the Council declined to pursue the negotiation. 
 
 At a meeting of the Council in September, it was resolved 
 that the Black-rock quarry, which had been worked since 
 18(38 for road material, should be closed, as the excavations 
 were attcndcul with danger to the surface of Durdham Down, 
 and tended to destroy the beauty of the scenery. The Sani- 
 tary Committee, encountering difficulty in obtaining supplies
 
 1877.] THE COMPETITION OF THE DOCKS. 495 
 
 of stone elsewhere, entered into negotiations -with Sir Philip 
 Miles, bart., for opening- a quarry on the Somerset shore of 
 the Avon; and in February, 1879, a lease was concluded, for 
 twenty-one years, at a rent of £250 per annum, with a royalty 
 of 6d. per ton on all rock quarried beyond 10,000 tons a year. 
 Another hideous gash was consequently made in the sylvan 
 prospect ; and the destruction necessarily became more ex- 
 tensive from year to year. Towards the close of 1883, the 
 Council passed a resolution for closing the great quarry at 
 the top of Pembroke Road — the only one remaining open on 
 Clifton Down. But in the Februaiy following the vote was 
 rescinded, the Sanitary Committee having reported that if the 
 7,300 tons of stone obtained annually had to be purchased 
 elsewhere, the additional cost would be £714 per annum. 
 
 Towards the close of the year considerable uneasiness be- 
 gan to be felt by many citizens respecting the future pros- 
 pects of the port. The results predicted by Sir John 
 Hawkshaw, and foreseen by thoughtful persons in the city, 
 had, in fact, arrived ; for the business of the city docks was 
 seriously affected by the competition for trade arising from 
 the opening of accommodation at the mouth of the river. 
 The diminished arrivals in the Float led to various sugges- 
 tions. The Chamber of Commerce expressed itself strongly 
 in favour of the " dockisation " of the Avon ; but while the 
 vast estimated cost of the undertaking deterred most of the 
 ratepayers from lending it their support, it was pointed out 
 that, even if it were executed, the competition of the Channel 
 docks would continue unabated. Another section of the 
 citizens was of opinion that the Corporation should purchase 
 the works at Avonmouth and Portishead, thus fulfilling the 
 warnings of those who had prophesied that the Corporation's 
 refusal to provide for indispensable wants would have a simi- 
 lar costly result to that which followed its supineness seventy 
 years before. Eventually, at a meeting of the Council in 
 January, 1878, a committee was appointed to consider as to 
 the measures which should be adopted. In November of the 
 same year, at the instance of Alderman Baker, the Council 
 resolved that directors of the two Channel docks should be 
 ineligible to sit on the Docks Committee, a motion which 
 had the effect of expelling from the board four eminent 
 members of the civic body — Messrs. C. J. Thomas, C. Nash, 
 T. T. Taylor, and M. Whitwill — who were shareholders in the 
 Avonmouth Company. In the summer of 1879, the Docks 
 Committee reported to the Council that, with a view to 
 obviate competition, it was expedient to purchase the Avon-
 
 496 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. 
 
 moutli undertaking on equitable terms. At a meeting on tlie 
 1st July, liowever, the Council unanimously resolved that the 
 matter should be deferred until the Avonmouth Company 
 made an offer to negotiate. The river dockisation scheme 
 was discussed at the same meeting, Mr. Howard, the docks 
 engineer, having produced two plans for carrying it out — 
 one proposing locks at the mouth of the Avon, at an esti- 
 mated cost of £850,000 ; the other for a dam below the 
 Horseshoe Point, the outlay for which was set down at about 
 £700,000. The expense of constructing quays and of divert- 
 ing the sewage of the city was not included in either sum ; 
 but Mr, Ashmead reported in favour of carrying the sewage 
 to Charlcombe Bay, near Clevedon, a distance of nearly ten 
 miles, at an approximative cost of £280,000. The Council, 
 dismayed by the costliness of the project, resolved that 
 dockisation was, under existing circumstances, inexpedient. 
 The competition of the rival docks, in the meantime, con- 
 tinued unabated, and the diminished receipts of the Floating 
 Harbour caused much dissatisfaction in the Council. At a 
 meeting in August, 1880, a resolution was passed, condemn- 
 ing the rivalry of the three concerns, and urging the direct- 
 ors representing the Corporation on the Portishead board to 
 effect an arrangement by means of a sub-committee emanat- 
 ing from the three undertakings. The Avonmouth board, 
 it appeared, had agreed to act in concert with the civic 
 authorities ; but the arrangement had broken down through 
 the action taken at Portishead, which was spoken of as " a 
 daughter seeking to cut the throat of her mother." At a 
 subsequent meeting, the Docks Committee recommended, 
 with the view of meeting the competition, that the town duos 
 levied on grain in the Float should be reduced to a nominal 
 sum, that the wharfage dues should be suspended, and that 
 the expense of discharging grain cargoes should be defrayed 
 out of the dock estate, so as to encourage corn merchants 
 to bring vessels to Bristol. Alderman Baker, in moving the 
 adoption of those recommendations, asserted that the grain 
 trade had ])vvn diverted to the new docks by means of bribes, 
 and tliat vigorous retaliatory measures could alone restore 
 matters to a right footing. The resolution was condemned 
 by other speakers as a further outcome of the huckstering 
 and senile system which it was alleged had long characterised 
 the management of the docks. 'J^ho op])osition ]iointed out 
 that the timber and sugar arrivals had falliMi olf still more 
 largely than those of grain, although tliere had been no 
 competition in those trades ; and they strongly censured a
 
 CONDUCT OP THE PORTISIIEAD DOCK BOARD. 497 
 
 scheme by which poor ratepayers would be saddled with in- 
 creased burdens in order that a few corn merchants might put 
 £5,000 a year into their own pockets. The motion, however, 
 was carried by an overwhelming majority, and similar boun- 
 ties were afterwards conferred upon other importations. 
 The dockisation party had by this time recovered courage. 
 At a meeting of the Chamber of Commerce in September, 
 a motion recommending that the three dock properties 
 should be vested in a single governing body was met by an 
 amendment in favour of dockising the river, and the latter 
 was carried by a large majority. Similar resolutions having 
 been passed at various ward meetings, the Council appointed 
 a committee to make an inquiry into the practicability of the 
 project. In October the Docks Committee reported that 
 although the Avonmouth board were willing to agree to a 
 non-competitive tariff, the Portishead authorities had again 
 positively refused to enter into an arrangement. Mach in- 
 dignation was expressed at the policy of an undertaking 
 which was deeply indebted to the liberality of the Corpora- 
 tion; but the representatives of the Council on the Portishead 
 board contended that it was their duty to maintain the in- 
 terests of the dock. The Council next proposed to apply the 
 principle of arbitration to the purchase of the rival concerns ; 
 but the Portishead board, asserting that the interests of 
 their railway were inseparably identified with the dock, ad- 
 vanced conditions which rendered negotiations impossible. 
 This attitude — not a little irritating to many who had voted 
 for the grant of £100,000 in 1872— strengthened the predomi- 
 nant party in the Council, which determined upon applying 
 for parliamentary powers to reduce the charges on shi])piug 
 and goods entering Bristol dock as the Corporation might see 
 fit, to levy dues upon ships and goods entering within the 
 port of Bristol (thus including the Channel docks), to impose 
 dues and wharfage rates on goods conveyed from the rival 
 docks to Bristol, to spend £48,000 in erecting free warehouses 
 to be maintained out of the rates, and to provide free steam- 
 tugs for vessels coming up the Avon. The injustice of levy- 
 ing taxes for the benefit of the city on shipping entering 
 the Channel docks, thereby ruining the two companies, and 
 enabling the Corporation to buy up the concerns at an insig- 
 nificant fraction of their cost, which was the supposed object 
 of the scheme, was denounced by Alderman Ford in the 
 Council as " worse than the worst description of communism"; 
 and the same argument was strongly urged before the select 
 committee of the House of Commons by whom the Bill was 
 
 K K
 
 498 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. 
 
 considered. In tlie result, the latter body struck out the 
 clause for levying dues in the Channel docks, as well as those 
 permitting a system of rebates at Bristol and the establish- 
 ment of free steam-tugs. Soon after the Bill, in its re- 
 stricted form, had become law, the Council, with the view of 
 crippling the competing docks, and in despite of the decision 
 V of the House of Commons, made further reductions in the 
 town and wharfage dues on timber, sugar, and other imports, 
 the increased charge thereby imposed on the ratepayers being 
 estimated at £5,000 a year. This policy, by which, according 
 to Alderman Ford's statement in the Council, over £20,000 
 per annum were taken out of the purses of the citizens for 
 the benefit of particular trades, was disapproved in many 
 quarters; and the position of its author and most vigorous 
 advocate. Alderman Baker, the head of a firm which reaped 
 large profits from the system, occasionally gave rise to in- 
 sinuations which he indignantly repudiated. At length a 
 citizen, Mr. Henry White, disputing the legality of the 
 Council's proceedings, laid the facts before the Attorney 
 General, who applied for an injunction against the Corpora- 
 tion in the High Court of Justice. The case was not heard 
 till May, 1884, before Mr. Justice Field, who delivered judg- 
 ment against the civic authorities. His lordship held that the 
 Council, as trustees of the ancient town and wharfage dues, 
 had acted illegally in practically abolishing those charges, the 
 revenues of which ought to have been applied to the benefit 
 of the ratepayers. The act complained of was, he added, 
 as illegal as if the Corporation Irad given up the rents of the 
 city property, or relieved certain inhabitants from the pay- 
 ment of rates; and the fact that an attempt had been made 
 — unsuccessfully — to obtain parliamentary approval of the 
 system, showed that the Council was aware that its action 
 was unwarrantable. He did not doubt, however, that the 
 members had intended to protect the interests of the city. 
 "Whilst these legal proceedings were in their infancy, eighty 
 influential merchants and tradesmen proposed the formation 
 of a Harbour Trust Association, with the object of uniting 
 the docks into one projierty, under the supervision of a 
 board. A Bill for effecting that object was introduced into 
 Parliament in 1882; but although the Council was memorial- 
 ised by upwards of six thousand ratejiayers to co-o])erate in 
 settling the details of a satisfactory scheme, the Chamber 
 resolved, in February, 1882, to strenuously oppose tho Bill. 
 A motion declaring that the docks ought to bo under one 
 management was defeated by 23 votes against J 9. The advo-
 
 AN ARRANGEMENT EFFECTED. 491) 
 
 cates of an uncompromising policy of " beggar my neigh- 
 bour " began, however, to yield to the influence of pul>lic 
 opinion, and, at a subsequent meeting. Alderman Fox, de- 
 scribing the competition between the three docks and the 
 squandering of £25,000 a year as a scandal and reproach to 
 all, moved that the mayor (Mr. AYeston) be requested to 
 communicate with the belligerents with a view to an equit- 
 able arrangement. The mayor having expressed his willing- 
 ness to attempt a reconciliation, Alderman Fox's resolution 
 was adopted unanimously. When the Harbour Bill was re- 
 mitted to a committee of the House of Lords, it encountered 
 a rival scheme of a similar character, ostensibly promoted 
 by obscure persons in London ; but their lordships summarily 
 rejected both measures. The mayor's intervention put an 
 end to a conflict which had never been creditable to the 
 practical sagacity of those concerned in it, and which had 
 become almost universally unpopular owing to the certainty 
 that the reckless waste of money would have in the end 
 to be borne by the public. At a Council meeting on the 
 9th May, 1882, the mayor was enabled to report a provisional 
 arrangement for a year, which he had successfully effected. 
 Its chief points were, that the dues on foreign arrivals were 
 to be 2^d. per ton less at Bristol than at the Channel docks ; 
 that the town and wharfage dues, equal to I5'/. per quarter 
 on grain, should be reimposed in the Float upon a due of a 
 similar amount being levied at the other docks ; and that the 
 reductions in dues made to old lines of steamers should not 
 exceed 25 per cent, until the same concession was made to 
 new lines. His worship added that the Sharpness dock board 
 — which had been compelled to reduce its rates through the 
 competition — had promised that the dues of that undertaking 
 should again be raised. The action of the mayor was unani- 
 mously confirmed. Shortly afterwards the Docks Committee 
 reported that arrangements had been made with the Avon- 
 mouth and Portishead companies, under which a uniform 
 tariff of charges would be established at the three docks. 
 This was expected to increase the income of the Corporation 
 by about £4,000 a year. The opportunity was taken to con- 
 solidate the Bristol charges, so that a single payment super- 
 seded the three imposts known as dock, town, and wharfage 
 dues, whilst ships were in future to pay one due instead of 
 five. The working of the new arrangement gave general 
 satisfaction, but its temporary character caused uneasiness 
 a,s to the future, and the desirability of consolidating the un- 
 dertakings began to be acknowledged on all hands. As Mr.
 
 500 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. 
 
 Weston had been so successful in tlie last negotiation^ it was 
 suggested in November, 1883 (when he was again re-elected 
 mayor), that he should undertake another, Avith a view to 
 arriving at a definitive settlement. His worship accordingly 
 addressed himself to the two boards, and after making a 
 thorough investigation into the pecuniary position of the 
 companies, he advised the Council to promote a Bill for 
 powers to purchase the two undertakings. His suggestion 
 was adopted by 47 votes against 3. The main difficulty 
 encountered at this stage arose out of the attitude of the 
 Portishead board, which refused to sell the dock without also 
 disposing of the pier and railway. The mayor appealed to 
 the Great Western Eailway Company to assist the city in the 
 emergency, and his application was successful, an arrange- 
 ment being soon after made for the absorption of the railway 
 and pier into the Great Western system. The issue of the 
 whole negotiations was communicated by the mayor to the 
 Council at a meeting on the 19th February, 1884. The 
 amount of capital expended at Avonmouth on the dock, 
 warehouses, and land was (nominally) £718,000, but the 
 directors expressed their willingness to transfer the property 
 for £550,000, of which £450,000 were to be paid on the 1st 
 September, 1884, in Corporation bonds, bearing 3| per cent, 
 interest ; £75,000 more were to be taken in deferred bonds, 
 bearing no interest for five years, and the remaining £25,000 
 in bonds to bear interest in seven years. The nominal 
 amount expended in constructing the dock and warehouses 
 at Portishead was stated to have been £375,000, but the 
 undertaking was offered for £250,000, of which £25,000 were 
 to be accepted in deferred bonds, bearing no interest for the 
 first five years. The mayor stated that the charge on the 
 city incurred by the purchases would be £23,550 a year, 
 while the income of the two com^mnies was only about 
 £18,000. But by raising certain small dues and rates to the 
 amount charged previous to the competition, £'4,710 yearly 
 would be realised, so that the direct annual loss to the city 
 would be only about £000; and as the citizens had been los- 
 ing £10,000 a year during the rivalry, he thought there wore 
 good grounds for making the existing conditions permanent. 
 [Some alterations having been subsequently made in the ar- 
 rangements, Mr, Weston produced a revised estimate in July, 
 showing that the loss to the city at the outset would be about 
 £"5,()00 a year, exclusive of a sinking fund of i'2,800 per 
 annum, also to be provided for.] AUor a brief discussion, 
 in which the m.ayor's exertions received unqualified eulogy,
 
 PURCHASE OF THE EIVAL DOCKS. 501 
 
 a resolution approving- of the purchaso was passed by a 
 unanimous vote. Outside the Council the feeling in favour 
 of the compact was equally cordial, and the statutory meet- 
 ing of ratepayers convened to consider the Bill manifested 
 enthusiasm in expressing its approval. The measure re- 
 ceived the royal assent in due course, and the formal trans- 
 fer of the two docks to the Corporation took place on the 
 1st September, 1884, when the sums above mentioned were 
 paid over to the companies. A few weeks later a banquet 
 was given to Mr. Weston by the leading citizens, when he 
 was presented with a massive and elegant piece of plate, in 
 recognition of his valuable public services in connection with 
 the purchase of the docks. In the division of the sum paid 
 for the Avonmouth property, certain classes of debenture 
 holders received bonds for the full amount of their claims, 
 while other categories received 60 and 80 per cent, of their 
 respective (nominal) advances ; and the shareholders in the 
 warehouse company were paid £14 for each £20 share. The 
 balance, about £35,000, remained for distribution amongst the 
 ordinaiy shareholders. In respect to Portishead, the deben- 
 tures were paid in full ; the preference shareholders re- 
 ceived about 62 per cent., and the ordinary shareholders, 
 both in the dock and in the railway, obtained about 25 per 
 cent, on their investments. The £100,000 advanced by the 
 Corporation ranked in the last category, so that three-fourths 
 of the money were lost. The Docks Act of 1884 abolished 
 the fourpenny rate imposed in 1848. No real relief, however, 
 was afforded by the abolition; on the contrary, the annual 
 deficiency of the dock revenue to meet the expenditure Avas 
 made a charge on the borough rate, and the burden on the 
 inhabitants was increased. But against this was to be set 
 the marked improvement which soon became visible in the 
 trade of the port. In 1885 the tonnage of vessels entering 
 the three docks from foreign and colonial ports was 653,594 
 tons against 566,100 in the previous year ; while the coasting 
 tonnage also increased from 642,198 to 684,494; and this in 
 despite of a mai'ked depression in the trade of the kingdom. 
 The report of the Docks Committee for the year ending 
 April 30th, 1886, stated that the revenue from all sources, 
 including a borough rate of £14,500, amounted to £148,637, 
 while the expenditux-e, inclusive of £5,559 devoted to a sink- 
 ing fund for discharging the debt, had been £148,547. 
 There had been a profit of £4,063 on the Floating Harbour, 
 and a loss of £1,322 at Avonmouth, and of £2,651 at Portis- 
 head. For the year 1886-7, the committee anticipated that.
 
 502 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1878. 
 
 owing to further outlay on the works, tlie receipts would be 
 insufficient to meet the expenditure by i.'18^3o9, and, to avoid 
 increased taxation on the citizens, they proposed that a small 
 due should be levied on goods landed coastwise, which up 
 to that time were exempt from dock charges, and a trifling 
 addition made to the charge on certain foreign imports. The 
 tax on the coasting trade excited so much opposition out of 
 doors that the matter was deferred ; but at a meeting in 
 October the Council resolved that the dues on foreign goods, 
 reduced in 1881 during the competition between the docks, 
 should be raised to their former amount. 
 
 Although the scheme for dockising the Avon ceased to 
 interest the public after the amalgamation of the docks, it is 
 necessary to complete the story of the committee appointed 
 in 1880. In June, 1882, that body presented a preliminary 
 report, stating that, in order to prevent disasters from floods, 
 it would be needful, before carrying out dockisation, to con- 
 struct a culvert from the Froom at Stapleton to the Avon 
 near Cook's Folly, at an estimated cost of £200,000. The 
 outlay for the proposed dam at Avonmouth was put down at 
 £790,000 ; and these sums, added to the expenses involved in 
 Mr. Ashmead's sewer scheme, raised the estimated charge 
 for dockisation to £1,270,000. The committee, which had 
 spent £900 on the inquiry, asked for a further grant, and the 
 Council voted £1,500 more. In May, 1883, the committee 
 reported that the cost of the scheme would be about 
 £1,750,000, the payment of interest on which would entail 
 an additional borough rate of 2.s\ in the pound, unless the 
 trade of the port should increase. A further grant of £3,000 
 was asked for, to make a new survey and further investi- 
 gations. The Council, however, was almost unanimous in 
 regarding dockisation as beyond the range of practical 
 projects, and, by a majority of 34 votes against 8, it was 
 declared to be inexpedient to pursue the inquiry further. 
 
 A prospectus Avas issued in June, 1878, of the North Clifton 
 Hotel Company, Avith a capital of £20,000 in £10 shares. 
 The directors purchased a portion of the nursery garden 
 fronting Whitehidies Road, and erected an hotel, at a cost, 
 including furniture, of about £18,000. The "Imperial Hotel" 
 was opened in the following year. 
 
 The Royal Agricultural Society having undertaken to hold 
 
 "its annual exhiliition in JJristol in 1878, and the Prince of 
 
 f,,, fv^A^Wryes having intimated liis intention to visit the city on 
 
 AX '^'tho occasion, great preparations were made for the fitting 
 
 " '*'^recention of the expected guests. A subscription amounting
 
 1878.] GRAND RECEPTION OF THE PRINCE OF WALES. 503 
 
 to upwards of £4,000 was placed at the disposal of a local / 
 comiiiittco, to make additions to the prize list and meet the 
 incidental expenses of the show. A further sum of £1,000 
 was contributed for the decoration of the streets through 
 which the royal visitor was to be conducted. The show-yard 
 on Durdham Down occupied nearly the entire space between 
 the Stoke Bishop and the Westbury and Combe Dingle roads, 
 the hoarding being nearly a mile and a half in length. The 
 exhibition was one of the largest ever held by the society. 
 The progress of scientific agriculture since the show held in 
 1842 was strikingly manifested by a comparison of the entries 
 made on each occasion. In 1878 the number of horses 
 entered was 350 against 60 in 1842; of cattle the figures 
 were 443 against 213 ; of sheep, 397 against 134 ; and of pigs, 
 164 against 95. The development was still more remarkable 
 in the mechanical department. In 1842 the number of imple- 
 ments shown was 455, whereas in 1878 the collection exceeded 
 6,000. In point of value the advance was still more con- 
 siderable. The exhibits in 1878 of a single manufacturer — 
 Mr. Fowler, of Leeds — were stated to be worth £60,000, and 
 the whole of them were sold in the show-yard. Ample 
 accommodation was afforded in 1842 by an enclosure of six 
 acres, while the area required thirty-five years later was 67 
 acres. The pi'esident on the latter occasion was Colonel 
 Kingscote, M.P. (one of whose short-horned calves was sold 
 during the exhibition for a thousand guineas). The attend- 
 ance was very large, the aggregate admissions to the yard 
 numbering 121,851, and £10,825 were received at the gates. 
 
 The visit of the Prince of Wales took place on the 13th 
 July, the fourth day of the meeting, his Royal Highness 
 reaching the city by special train from London, accompanied 
 by his suite and the chairman and vice-chairman of the Great 
 Western railway. On his arrival he was received in state 
 by the mayor (Aid. Edwards) and the members of the 
 Council, in the presence of a large gathering of leading 
 citizens. About a thousand of the local volunteers formed 
 an imposing guard of honour. An address having been 
 presented by the mayor, the Prince briefly returned thanks, 
 expressing his regret that he could devote only a very brief 
 period to the inspection of the objects of interest for which 
 the city was so deservedly renowned. He was well aware, 
 he added, of the highly favourable impression produced on 
 other members of his family by the noble town, the splendour 
 of its public and private buildings, and the good disposition 
 of its inhabitants ; and it would be his privilege to report to
 
 504 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1878. 
 
 the Queen the loyal terms which had been used towards her 
 Majesty in the address. The Prince was then conducted to 
 an open carriage, in which he was accompanied by the mayor, 
 Lord Skelmersdale, and Colonel Kino^scote. Other carriaofes 
 followed, containing the Prince's attendants, the sheriff (Mr. 
 W. H. Wills), Mr. Morley, M.P., and others, two squadrons 
 of Lancers forming the guard of the cortege. The streets 
 through which the heir apparent passed had been decorated 
 in a manner unprecedented in local annals. Victoria Street 
 was lined throughout with Venetian masts, flags, trophies, 
 and floral devices, the general effect of which was highly 
 picturesque. At Bristol Bridge, an arch in the Tudor Gothic 
 style had been erected, representing an old city gate, with 
 side arches, battlements, towers, and portcullis, the centre 
 being emblazoned with heraldic devices. About a hundred 
 persons Avere accommodated in galleries over the fabric, which 
 was one of the most effective designed for the occasion. 
 High Street was plentifully decorated with cordons of flags 
 stretched across the roadway. At the entrance into Corn 
 Street was another triumphal arch, the effect of which was 
 heightened by the decorations of the adjoining Council House. 
 Corn Street and Clare Street were one long blaze of brilliant 
 drapery ; and at the approach to the Drawbridge ranges of 
 Venetian masts, trophies, etc., imparted additional animation 
 to the scene. The decorations reached their climax in College 
 Green, which was "transfigured into a garden worthy of 
 Aladdin's palace." Two Gothic arches were raised to the 
 right and left of the restored High Cross, and through the 
 co-operation of the principal tradesmen the roadway was 
 densely hung with festoons of flowers, banners, and streamers, 
 interspersed with richly coloured trophies. Park Street was 
 also elaborately beautified by the concerted action of the 
 inhabitants. The Prince's colours — red, white, and blue — 
 artistically clothed the fronts of the houses, and at the top 
 of the street was an arch of Saracenic typo, with a dome and 
 minarets, the colours of which harmonised with the surround- 
 ing objects. The general effect was much admired by the 
 Prince as he ascended the hill. The J^tyal Promenade and 
 the Triangle had also received artistic attention, and White- 
 ladies Road, thougli less copiously decorated, was set off by 
 the brilliant dresses of the ladies assem])lod in balconies 
 before nearly every house. Another triumphal arch, situated 
 on Black-boy Hill (just cleared of its old hovels by the Council 
 at an outlay of £11,000), was of largo dimensions, the central 
 span being 30 feet, and the two side arches 20 feet each in
 
 1878.] DISASTROUS BANK FAILURE. 505 
 
 width. Tho spandrils were adorned with heraldic shields, 
 and from the summit waved a gigantic royal standard. Red- 
 land was richly caparisoned, no less than 3,700 pennons 
 and streamers being counted in that locality alone. The 
 Prince of Wales, who was enthusiastically greeted along the 
 route by an enormous crowd of spectators, expressed himself 
 as equally surprised and gratified by the splendour of the 
 display which his visit had evoked. His Royal Highness, 
 who reached the show-yard in somewhat less than an hour, 
 on his arrival was entertained to luncheon in a beautiful 
 pavilion. He afterwards made a rapid survey of the chief 
 features of the exhibition, accompanied by the Earl of Ducie, 
 Lord Fitzhardinge, Colonel Kingscote, and the sheriff of 
 Bristol. He then left the ground, and was driven slowly 
 along the Downs to the Suspension Bridge, and thence to 
 Clifton-bridge station. A special train being in readiness 
 there, the Prince cordially bade farewell to tiie mayor and 
 other officials. 
 
 A new iron bridge over the Froom, connecting Monk 
 Street with Paul Street, Pennywell Road, was opened for 
 traffic in September. 
 
 On the 9th September, great consternation was excited in 
 the city and the adjoining counties by an announcement that 
 the West of England and South Wales District Bank had 
 suspended payments. This financial catastrophe was stated 
 to be due to adverse rumours circulated for some weeks pre- 
 viously, causing so rapid a drain that the directors had not 
 time to realise the assets ; but it was added that the bank 
 was still solvent as a going concern. On the books being 
 handed over to official liquidators, however, it was discovered ^ 
 that the paid-up capital (£750,000), and the reserve fund )1 
 (£156,000) had entirely disappeared, and that against the lia- 
 bilities, about £3,500,000, there was a further estimated deii- 
 ciency of assets exceeding £300,000. These calamitous results ^^ 
 were found to be attributable to the imprudent advances made N ^ 
 to two iron firms in South Wales, begun upwards of thirty years r^ ^ 
 previously, and afterwards enormously increased from time ^ /I 
 to time in the vain hope of ultimately extricating the bank * . * * 
 from the difficulty. The collapse of the concern was ruinous ^ 
 
 to the bulk of the shareholders, several of whom had invested ^ ^ ^ \! 
 their entire capital in the establishment. As these sufferers . ^ 
 were unable to provide their share of the deficiency, the '~^ p 
 
 wealthier proprietors had to sustain a double burden, under 
 which some of them succumbed. The calls of the liquidators 
 amounted to £12 per share. A resolute effort was made to 
 
 <>»
 
 506 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. [1878. 
 
 resuscitate the bank, with the view of preserving the profit- 
 able business which it possessed in Bristol and Somerset; and 
 a new company, entitled the Bristol and West of England 
 Bank, was formed on the limited liability principle, with a 
 capital of £300,000 in £20 shares, of which £7 10.?. were paid 
 up. In August, 1879, the Home Secretary (Sir Richard Cross) 
 ordered a prosecution to be instituted against the chairman 
 (Mr. Jerom Murch) and five directors of the original company 
 (Messrs. Gr. H. Leonard, J. Coates, A. Allen, C. Lucas, and 
 the Rev. H. B. G-eorge), and also against the general manager 
 (Mr. J. P. Gilbert), the defendants being charged with pub- 
 lishing fraudulent balance sheets with intent to deceive. 
 The trial began in London in April, 1880, and resulted, after 
 an eight days' hearing, in the acquittal of all the accused. 
 The liquidation of the bank was not concluded until 1887, 
 although repeated complaints as to its tardiness were made 
 in the House of Commons. Dividends amounting to 16s. 6 J. 
 in the pound on the debts were, however, paid within eleven 
 months of the failure. The ci'editors who consented to re- 
 linquish interest on their claims were satisfied in April, 1880 ; 
 and the remaining liabilities were discharged in March, 1881. 
 The sum of £2 10s. per share was afterwards returned to the 
 proprietors who had paid the calls, and it was announced in 
 January, 1887, that a final sum of bs. or G.s. per share would 
 shortly be distributed. 
 
 An election for the city was rendered necessary in Decem- 
 ber, 1878, by the retirement of Mr. K. D. Hodgson, owing 
 to a severe illness (which soon after proved fatal) . The can- 
 didates were Mr. Lewis Fry, a member of an old Liberal 
 Bristol family, and Sir Ivor B. Guest, bart., a Conservative 
 connected with the South Wales iron trade. On this occasion, 
 for the first time, the Liberals made choice of their candidate 
 by means of an organisation called the Four Hundred — or, 
 as their opponents styled it, the Caucus — chosen by the voters 
 at district meetings. Mr. Fry had a majority of nearly two- 
 thirds in this body, and his competitor, Mr. E. S. Robinson, 
 withdrew. The contest excited interest throughout the king- 
 dom from its l)cing the first of any moment after the signature 
 of the peace of Berlin. Sir Ivor Guest strove, indeed, for local 
 sympathies byrecalling thofact that his maternal grandmother 
 [a daughter of Dean Ijayard] lived in ]'»ristol in her younger 
 days. The polling took place on the l-tth December; and the 
 declaration, made by the sheriff' shortly before midnight, was 
 as follows : Mr. Fry, 9,342 ; Sir I. B. Guest, 7,795. 
 
 The parish church of St. George was totally destroyed by
 
 1879.] CHURCHYARD GARDENS. CIVIC DEBT. 507 
 
 fire on the morning of Sunday, the 22nd December. The 
 disaster was attributed to the overheating of the stoves. 
 The church was insured for £3,000, and no time was lost in 
 setting about its reconstruction, which was completed at a 
 cost of about £6,000. The new edifice, the tower of which is 
 finished in a bizarre foreign style, was reopened in May, 1880. 
 
 Towards the close of 1 878 a movement started in London for 
 converting disused churchyards into ornamental gardens spread 
 to this city. The authotnties of Temple parish spent £800 in 
 removing the unsightly walls of the extensive churchyard, and 
 converting the dilapidated enclosure into a pleasant place of 
 recreation, which was opened in July, 1880, by the mayor 
 (Mr. H. Taylor). The burial ground of St. Nicholas' parish, 
 on the Welsh Back, and also that adjacent to the church, 
 were repaired and planted with shrubs. A most successful 
 improvement of the same character was effected in 1881-2 by 
 the authorities of St. James's, who laid out upwards of £600 
 in converting the parochial cemetery into an agreeable j^ro- 
 menade and garden for the use of the crowded population of 
 the locality. The ground was opened by the mayor (Mr. 
 Weston) on the 30th June, 1882. In 1884 the churchyard 
 of St. Philip — in a closely packed district still more destitute 
 of open spaces — was similarly transformed at an outlay of 
 £1,150, chiefly borne by a few philanthropic citizens con- 
 nected with the parish. It was opened on the 5th of 
 November by the mayor (Mr. Weston), who warmly congratu- 
 lated the authorities on the results. 
 
 At a meeting of the Council in February, 1870, the town 
 clerk produced a return of the indebtedness of the Corporation 
 up to the 31st of December of the pi-evious year. The bonds 
 outstanding amounted to £123,263. The unredeemed debt of 
 the Bristol Docks was £690,113. The sums owing by the Sani- 
 tary Authority, expended on public improvements, amounted 
 in the aggregate to £461,481 (the gross cost of these works had 
 been about £700,000). The total indebtedness of the civic 
 body was upwards of a million and a quarter. The amount 
 was increased to upwards of two millions by the subsequent 
 purchase of the Channel Docks. 
 
 The Corporation, at a meeting in March, determined upon 
 opening out a street at the back of the abandoned Bridewell, 
 over the covered course of the Froom, with the view of 
 facilitating traffic from the quays to the northern parts of the 
 city. The improvement was completed soon afterwards. 
 The Docks Committee, about the same time, ordered the 
 construction of a shed on the quay at the bottom of Clare
 
 508 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. [1879. 
 
 Street — an erection -wliicli was strongly condemned as taste- 
 less and unsightly, and as destroying the picturesque view 
 previously obtainable from St. Augustine's. An extensive 
 range of cattle sheds, erected at Cumberland Basin for the 
 accommodation of foreign stock, was opened in May. The 
 buildings entailed an outlay of £5,000. The Council in 
 August, 1882, voted a further sum of £7,000 for the erection 
 of sheds on the quays. 
 
 In accordance with the scheme of the Endowed School 
 Commissioners for the future management of the Grammar 
 School [see p. 453] , the new governors took measures for the 
 removal of the institution to a more convenient site. A piece 
 of ground was purchased in Tyndall's Park, and an imposing 
 building in the late Perpendicular style was erected for the 
 school, adjoining which was placed a residence for the head- 
 master. The outlay for the land and buildings was about 
 £20,000. Mr. W. H. Wills gave an organ, which cost about 
 £1,000, and the same gentleman, with other members of his 
 family, contributed a clock and chimes ; while generous gifts 
 were made by Mr. Herbert Thomas (chairman), and other 
 governors for launching the school in a manner worthy of 
 its high reputation. The new school buildings were first 
 occupied by the boys on the 15th February ; but the formal 
 opening ceremony was deferred until the 17tli May, when an 
 address was delivered to an influential gathering of citizens 
 by the Right Honourable W. E. Forster, who expressed him- 
 self as much struck by the magnificence of the schoolroom.* 
 
 At the Wimbledon Rifle competitions in July, Captain Sam 
 Lang, of the local Engineer corps, won the prize for the 
 highest aggregate score at the meeting, thereby enabling his 
 corps to hold for the ensuing j-^ear the Dominion of Canada 
 trophy — a splendid shield given by Canadian riflemen in 1877. 
 Captain Lang's score was then the highest ever made at 
 Wimbledon. The shield was deposited at the Mansion House. 
 
 During the summer, a well, which had once been in or 
 adjacent to the keep of Bristol Castle, was discovered in Castle 
 
 • By a vexatious inadvertence, a paragraph recording the reorganisation of 
 this school by the Charity Trustees was omitted under its proper date. It must 
 now sudice to say that the trustees were for some years held at defiance by 
 Dr. (ioodeuough [see p. 47], wbo persisted in re^'ardiiig liis post as a sinecure, 
 and that lie was not ejected until September, IHll. His claim for a pension 
 was defeated, but his obstinate litigation cost the trustees .t:;^,2i0 in law costs. 
 A new scheme for the mana<,'emont of the school, sanctioned by the Lord Chan- 
 cellor in 1H17, gave the right of admission to boys resident within two miles of 
 the Kxchange, the maxinnun yearly fee being fixed at £(). Dr. Robert Evans 
 having been appointed headmaster, the school was re-opened, January, 24, 1818, 
 with about 200 boys.
 
 1880.] lawpord's gate prison, general election. 509 
 
 Green. It had probably been closed when the castle wa.s 
 demolished, and contained several cannon balls of stone, in- 
 cluding some cut for " cannon royal/' the largest siege guns 
 of the seventeenth century. 
 
 A Telephone Exchange was opened in the city in Novem- 
 ber. The value of the new invention was so little appreciated 
 at the outset that only twenty subscribers to the Exchange 
 were obtained during the first three months of its existence. 
 
 Although the Gloucestershire house of correction at 
 Lawford's Gate had been disused as a prison some twenty 
 years previous to this time, the justices had taken no steps 
 for disposing of the site. Early in 1880 the subject was 
 considered at quarter sessions, when it was resolved to sell 
 the garden ground at the back of the building. But the 
 Corporation of Bristol at once claimed to be the owners of 
 the land, the rents of which, in fact, had been paid to the city 
 treasurer. At the Michaelmas sessions at Gloucester, it was 
 reported that the right of the county to the ground could not 
 be established, there having been an adverse possession of 
 more than twenty years. It was determined to confer with 
 Mr. Fry, M.P., with the view of getting the land appropriated 
 to the purposes of public recreation. No further reference to 
 the suljject has been found. It would appear that the city 
 authorities denied the claim of the county to dictate con- 
 ditions as to the future disposition of the property; but its 
 ultimate appropriation to recreative purposes is highly 
 probable. 
 
 Mr. Charles Branwhite, an eminent painter in water 
 colours, died on the 15tli February, 1880, aged 62 years. 
 Mr. Branwhite, who was born in Bristol, and was the son of a 
 portrait painter of some standing, gained wide repute for his 
 pictures of winter scenery. 
 
 An exciting struggle took place at the general election in 
 April. Owing to the defeat sustained by the Conservatives 
 in 1878, they were unprepared with a candidate ; and possibly, 
 if the Liberal party had continued united, no opposition 
 would have been offered to Messrs. Morley and Fry, who 
 solicited re-election. But Mr. Elisha S. Robinson, who had 
 taken umbrage at what he deemed the neglect of his 
 pretensions, entered the field as an " independent " candi- 
 date, avowing himself a partisan of what was called the 
 " Imperialist " policy of Lord Beaconsfield ; and the Conser- 
 vatives, inspirited by the incident, induced Sir Ivor B. Guest 
 to re-enter the field. The polling, which took place on the 
 2nd April, resulted as follows : Mr. Morley, 10,704; Mr. Fry,
 
 510 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1880. 
 
 10,070; Sir I. Guest, 9,395 ; Mr. Robinson, 4,100. Nearly 
 nine-tentlis of Mr. Robinson's poll consisted of split votes 
 given to him by Conservatives. This was Sir Ivor Guest's 
 fourtli unsuccessful attempt to win a seat. Lord Beacons- 
 field, a few months later, rewarded the baronet's zeal by 
 conferring upon him the title of Baron Wimborne. The 
 Bristol Conservatives subsequently presented his lordship 
 with his portrait, which cost about £2,000. 
 
 The Council, at a meeting in April, gave its consent to the 
 closing of the Guard House Passage, Wine Street, the owner of 
 the adjoining property havingofferedtoopen a more convenient 
 thoroughfare, and to set back his houses without demanding 
 compensation. A beautiful Perpendicular archway at the 
 entrance of the passage, of which a representation is given in 
 Seyer's Bristol, was consequently removed. The arch was 
 re-erected by Mr. Henry Stevens, at Cheltenham House, 
 Bishopston. The guard house had disappeared several years 
 previously. 
 
 Immediately after the election for the city of Gloucester, 
 which resulted in the return of two Liberals, Alderman 
 Thomas Robinson (brother of Mr. E. S. Robinson, of Bristol) 
 and Mr. Monk, son of the late Bishop Monk, a petition to 
 the House of Commons, asserting that the issue was due 
 to bribery, was forwarded by a supporter of the defeated 
 Conservative candidates, Mr. W. K. Wait (mayor of Bristol, 
 1869-70) and Mr. Ackers. The petition caused as much 
 dismay in the political camp from which it proceeded as in 
 the other ; but the step taken was irrevocable, and a judicial 
 inquiry was opened on the 9th June. The proceedings were 
 significantly brief. The petitioner's counsel withdrew the 
 charges against Mr. Monk ; on the other hand, Mr. Robinson 
 declined to defend his seat ; and evidence having been 
 adduced that a servant of the latter had bribed two or three 
 voters, the election as regarded Mr. Robinson was forthwith 
 declared void. It subsequently transpired that the proceed- 
 ings before the judges were the outcome of an arrangement 
 between tlie local leaders of the two parties, who had further 
 agreed that Mr. Wait should iill the vacant seat without 
 opposition. But the report of the judges stated that exten- 
 sive corruption had prevailed, and a second investigation was 
 ordered to be made by special commissioners. Before this 
 tribunal, Mr. John Bernard, a magistrate of (iloucestcr, and 
 a partner of Mr. Wait, deposed that, on learning that money 
 would be required to secure the success of his friend, he 
 wrote — unknown to ^Mr. Wait — to another partner in the
 
 1880.] SALVATION AKMY. BEDMINSTER BRIDGE. 511 
 
 firm, Mr. J. W. Dod, of Clifton, who forwarded liirn £1,500 
 in small notes, and that the money was handed over to the 
 secret agents of corruption. A further sum of £500 was 
 obtained from Mr. Wait, who, while admitting that Bernard 
 had told him that the £1,500 wouhl be wanted before it was 
 sent for, declared that he did not know in what manner the 
 two sums were expended. But he confessed to having paid 
 between £600 and £700 after the election of 1874, knowing 
 that the money had been spent in bribery. At the election 
 under review, it was discovered that bribes to the amount of 
 £1,300 had been distributed by the Liberals, that 2,756 
 burgesses out of the 4,904 who polled were paid for their 
 votes (some of them by both parties), and that upwards of 
 200 citizens, including twenty men holding the offices of 
 magistrate, alderman, or councillor, had acted as bribers. In 
 the result the writ for the vacant seat was never issued, and 
 the ratepayers were compelled to pay £4,400 for the expenses 
 of the commission. 
 
 The centenary of the establishment of Sunday schools was 
 celebrated in many of the parish churches on the 27th June, 
 1880, and a meeting of clergy, laity, teachers, and scholars 
 took place on the following day in Colston Hall. On the 8th 
 July about 16,000 children attending schools maintained by 
 dissenting congregations Avalked in procession, accompanied 
 by their 2,000 teachers, to the Zoological Gardens, where 
 they spent an agreeable holiday. 
 
 At a meeting of the Council on the 20th July the Dock 
 Committee reported that, in the existing state of the revenues 
 under their control, they could no longer undertake to pay 
 the interest on the sum of £100,000, borrowed for the pur- 
 pose of subscribing towards the construction of Portishead 
 Dock [see p. 400] . They therefore requested the Council to 
 provide for the charge. The interest — £4,000 — thereupon 
 became a charge upon the borough rate. 
 
 A new religious denomination styled the Salvation Army, 
 founded by a person styling himself " General " Booth, rose 
 into notoriety during the summer, and gained many ad- 
 herents amongst the poorer classes. An old circus near 
 North Street was hired by the local leaders, and opened as a 
 chapel on the 21st of August. The noisy parades of the 
 "Army" in the streets provoked for some time antagonistic 
 displays amongst the lower orders. 
 
 The Council, at a meeting in September, resolved to remove 
 Bedminster Bridge, which had become insufiicient for the 
 traffic of that district, and to erect a more commodious struc-
 
 512 THE ANNALS OF BKISTOL. [1881, 
 
 tare. After a tedious delay, contracts were obtained in tte 
 spring of 1882^ and about £16,000 were borrowed to carry- 
 out the works. The new bridge was opened by the mayor 
 (Mr. Weston) on the 1st February, 1884, though it had been 
 partially available for traffic from the previous November. 
 A temporary foot-bridge, used during the reconstruction, 
 was permanently erected in May, 1884, opposite St. Luke's 
 Church, and was found very serviceable. 
 
 A large steamship called the Ailsea, trading between 
 Bristol and Glasgow, was totally wrecked on the IGtli 
 November, 1880, near Milford Haven, while on her way to 
 Scotland. The crew, twenty in number, and seven passen- 
 gers, perished with the vessel. 
 
 Owing to the activity of speculative builders, the erection 
 of new houses in the suburbs for some years previous to this 
 date had been largely in excess of the demand. A collapse 
 at length occurred, and during the winter of 1880 there was 
 great distress amongst the families of workmen connected 
 with the building trades. The extent to which speculation 
 had been carried was shown by the fact that, in the spring of 
 1881, the unoccupied houses within the limits of the iDorough 
 were officially reported to number 3,567, exclusive of 308 
 then in course of construction. If the uninhabited houses in 
 the suburbs had been added, the aggregate would have 
 exceeded 5,000. 
 
 An unusually intense frost, accompanied by a great fall of 
 snow, commenced on the 13th elanuary, 1881, and the low 
 temperature continued for about a fortnight. During the 
 snowstorm, a fast train, which left Bristol for London at half- 
 past five in the evening, did not reach its destination until 
 seven o'clock on the following evening, having been snowed 
 up near Didcot. The chairman of the Great Western Kail- 
 way Company, at the half-yearly meeting held soon after- 
 wards, stated that 111 miles of their lines had been drifted 
 up, and that 64 of their trains were buried in the drifts, 
 exclusive of 141 temporary blocks sustained by others. The 
 clearing away of the snow added many thousand ])ounds to 
 the working expenses of the company. Postal coninuniication 
 in some parts of the country was suspended for three days. 
 
 Early in January, when proposals for substituting the 
 elect ric light for gas were exciting national interest, the 
 Council ordered an experiment on the subject to be made in 
 the city ; and seven lamps, constructed on the " Brush " 
 system, were placed on the 17th January in the four great 
 business thoroughfares converging at the Council House.
 
 1881.] ELECTKIC LIGHTING. GENERAL ROBERTS. 613 
 
 Owing to the defective apparatus by wliicli electricity was 
 generated, the experiment was not deemed satisfactory, and 
 the lamps were withdrawn in a few weeks.* The chief objec- 
 tion to the new illuminant was the enhanced cost of electric 
 motors as compared with gas. In November a novel proposal 
 for surmounting the difficulty was laid before the Council by 
 Mr. William Smith, who suggested that the ebb and flow of 
 the tide might be made available for generating electricity, 
 and expressed his belief that the adoption of the course pro- 
 posed would effect a saving to the city of about £6,000 a 
 year. According to calculations made for Mr. Smith by 
 Professor Sylvanus Thompson, upon data supplied by Mr. 
 Howard, the engineer of the docks, the available tidal power 
 at Totterdown was over 6^ billions of foot pounds per annum; 
 equal to 279,389 horse power per tide. At Rownham the 
 power was estimated to be more than threefold greater; 
 while at the mouth of the river it was 50 billions of foot 
 pounds per annum, or considerably more than 2 million 
 horse power per tide. The power required to light by elec- 
 tricity the 4,274 existing street lamps was, by Swan's system 
 4i- billions, by Edison's system 3^ billions, and by the arc 
 light on the Brush system 2 billions of foot pounds yearly. 
 A committee of inquiry was appointed, but the investigation 
 led to no practical results. 
 
 On the 25th January, 1881, a dinner was given in the 
 Victoria Rooms to Major-Greneral Sir Frederick Roberts, 
 Gr.C.B. (who passed his early boyhood and received part of 
 his education in Bristol), in honour of his distinguished 
 military services. The mayor (Mr. Weston) presided over a 
 large party, and the health of the gallant guest was drunk 
 with enthusiasm. On the following day Sir Frederick was 
 presented by the mayor, on behalf of a number of leading 
 citizens, with a service of plate, valued at £350. In the 
 evening the Merchant Venturers' Society gave a grand ball 
 in honour of the general, at which upwards of five hundred 
 persons were present. 
 
 On the 30th March opening services were held in a new 
 Congregational place of worship at Bishopston, styled the 
 David Thomas Memorial Church, in memory of a distinguished 
 minister of Highbury Chapel, Cotham. The cost of the 
 building was about £6,300, and nearly the entire amount was 
 contributed at or before the opening services, 
 
 • More than two years before this date—on the 28th November, 1878— the 
 electric light had been tried in Bristol cathedral, the first ecclesiastical edifice 
 in which its power was tested. The effect was exceedingly fine. 
 
 L L
 
 514 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. [1881. 
 
 The census of 1881, taken on the 4th April, showed a 
 further large decrease in the population of the "ancient city," 
 whose numbers were returned at 56,964. The extended city, 
 on the other hand, had largely increased, the aggregate for 
 the borough being 206,874. The population of the suburban 
 parishes was: Clifton, 28,695; the District, 19,114; St. 
 Philip's out, 50,108; St. George's, 26,423; Bedminster, 
 44,759; Mangotsfield, 5,707; Stapleton, 10,833; Stoke Bis- 
 hop tything, 13,347; and Horfield, 5,739. 
 
 The remains of the mansion of the Canynges' family, in 
 Redcliif Street, occupied by Messrs. Jefferies & Sons, book- 
 sg llers, were seriously damaged by a fire wliich occurred^n 
 '^he premises on the 9th October. The woodwork of the 
 " oratory " was almost entirely destroyed, but the fine roof 
 was preserved. 
 
 A religious census of the city was taken by the Western 
 Daily Press on the 30th October. According to the published 
 statistics, it appeared that out of a population of about 
 210,000, there were 48,596 persons present at the morning, 
 and 60,856 at the evening services on the day in question. 
 
 The Council, in October, resolved upon redeeming the rent 
 charge of £6,734 15s. 6c?. payable under the provisions of the 
 Docks Transfer Act of 1848. The sum required for this pur- 
 pose Avas £168,381 5.s, The Corporation had also borrowed 
 £636,400 for dock purposes, including the subscription to 
 Portishead Dock, and it was resolved to issue 3| per cent, 
 bonds in lieu of the old securities, whereby a saving of £4,000 
 per annum would be effected. In August, 1882, Alderman 
 Baker informed the Council that bonds to the amount of 
 £283,660 had been taken up, at an average price of £98 8.s.4i. , 
 per cent., which was considered satisfactory. Further con- 
 versions took place as the old bonds expired. 
 
 The Corporation gave notice in November of its intention 
 to introduce a Bill into Parliament to strengthen the hands 
 of the police in dealing with disorderly houses, gambling, 
 street nuisances, and other matters. The more important 
 clauses of the Bill were copied from the Police Acts of 
 Manchester and other cities ; but they were obnoxious to cer- 
 tain classes of tradesmen, and an agitation was excited on the 
 pretext that the measure would be injurious to the liberty of 
 the subject. At the statutory meeting of citizens convened 
 to consider the proposal, it was almost unanimously con- 
 demned. After two years' delay, the Council resolved, in 
 November, 1883, to make another effort of the same character. 
 With the view of disarming the leading opponents of the
 
 18S1.] POLICE BILLS DEFEATED. SAD FATALITY. 515 
 
 previous Bill, the clause prohibiting overhanging signboards 
 was omitted, and traracars Avere exempted from the regula- 
 tions for street traffic. Nevertheless, at the public meeting 
 convoked to give assent to the scheme, an excited crowd 
 refused to listen to the explanations of the mayor (Mr. 
 Weston), and the Bill was condemned by a large majority. A 
 poll was then demanded, the result being a definitive disap- 
 proval of the project by 15,409 votes against 6,798. 
 
 The Dolphin Society, which for about a century had at- 
 tended morning service at the cathedral on the Colston 
 anniversaries, suspended that custom in 1881, owing to the 
 action of the dean. It appeared that Dr. Elliott, on receipt 
 of the usual application, had consented to a sermon being 
 preached on Colston's Day, and that the preacher should be 
 the Rev. R. W. Randall, of All Saints', Clifton. But Canon 
 Girdlestone, who was in residence, having protested against 
 the admission into the cathedral pulpit of Mr. Randall, on 
 account of his obstinate defiance of the orders of the bishop 
 in reference to ritualistic practices at All Saints', the dean 
 thereupon withdrew his permission. The society attended 
 service at St. Mary RedclifF, where Mr. Randall preached. 
 
 Whilst some alterations were being made, during the 
 autumn, in the premises No. 19, Maryleport Street, a hand- 
 some mantelpiece was exhumed from a thick covering of 
 mortar. The mantelpiece was elaborately sculptured, and 
 bore a shield of arms — on a chevron, between three pairs of 
 garbs saltierwise, three barrels. These arms, which occur on 
 the fronts of two houses in the same street and of a house in 
 the Pithay, were borne by George Harrington, mayor in 1617. 
 They were at all events placed on his monument. Being 
 really the coat of the Brewers' Company of London, it is pro- 
 bable that the local brewers adopted the bearings, and that 
 Harrington, who was a brewer, used them with some trifling 
 *^ difference," just as his contemporary, Robert Aldworth, 
 adopted the arms of the Merchants' Society. Curiously 
 enough, the monuments of the two men — both toa proud to 
 claim heraldic devices to which they were not entitled — are 
 to be found almost close together, in St. Peter's Church. 
 
 The Duke of Edinburgh visited Bristol in November, for 
 the purpose of inspecting the Royal Naval Reserve and the 
 local brigade of Naval Volunteers. The visit was purely of 
 an official character, and at the duke's request there was no 
 public reception. 
 
 An appalling catastrophe occurred on the 15th November 
 in the steamship Solway, trading between Bristol, Belfast, and
 
 516 THE ANNALS OF BEISTOL. [1882. 
 
 Glasgow. During a storm in tlie Irish Channel, a barrel of 
 naphtha broke loose and was burst by concussion, when by- 
 some means the contents became ignited. The result was the 
 partial destruction of the ship, and the death of eighteen 
 persons, most of whom perished in the flames. 
 
 About the close of 1881, when the carving of the west front 
 of Bristol cathedral had just been completed, the dean and 
 chapter ordered the removal of the chapter-office, a mean 
 structure which had partially concealed that portion of the 
 cathedral. An older and more interesting building- near the 
 abbey gateway — the minster-house — the roof and walls of 
 which anciently formed part of the Prior's lodgings, was 
 removed shortly afterwards. Its demolition evoked some 
 protests, but certainly improved the appearance of the 
 western front. Nothing now remained of the unsightly 
 modern constructions between the cathedral and the grand 
 gateway except the house partially incorporated with the 
 latter, and occupied by the precentor. Fears were enter- 
 tained that this excrescence could not be removed without 
 endangering the gateway, some of the upper portions of 
 which were in the last stage of decay. At a meeting in 
 October, 1883, a committee was appointed to consider what 
 steps should be taken ; and after careful consideration of the 
 remains, it was determined to restore the archway and the 
 fifteenth-century building above it, to remove the precentor's 
 house, and to rebuild the tower which had previously abutted 
 upon the south-east corner of the gate ; the estimated outlay 
 being £3,100. The precentor's house was demolished in May, 
 1885, when some interesting relics of the old tower were 
 brought to light. 
 
 About the beginning of 1882 Mr. [Sir] J. D. Weston, who 
 had purchased Manilla Hall, Clifton (the mansion built by 
 Sir William Draper and subsequently possessed by the Gordon 
 and Miles families), detached from it a portion of the grounds 
 for the purpose of converting them into building sites. In 
 the following September the hall was bought by a French 
 Roman Catholic sisterhood styled the " Dames do la Mere de 
 Dieu," who established a school there. Tlie nuns ordered the 
 removal of the cenotaph erected by Sir Wm. Draper ; but it 
 was rescued from destruction by the exertions of Dr. Beddoe, 
 F.R.S., and was, tngothcr with the obelisk to the elder Pitt, 
 re-erected upon Clifton Down, not far distant from the original 
 site, by means of a private subscription. 
 
 The dearth of religious agencies amongst the rapidly in- 
 creasing suburban population having impressed itself upon
 
 1882.] SIX NEW PARISHES CREATED. 517 
 
 the bisliop of the diocese, his lordship entered into con- 
 ferences with several prominent citizens, and eventually 
 issued a commission to consider what remedies should be 
 attempted. An investigation having been made, a public 
 meeting was convened at the Guildhall in February, 1882, at 
 which Bishop Ellicott stated the results of the inquiry. It 
 was proposed to build and endow six new churches in the 
 following parishes : St. Andrew's (which had a population 
 of 8,340) ; St. Barnabas (10,232) ; Trinity, St. Philip's 
 (13,450); St. Luke's, Barton Hill (9,851) ; St. Silas (6,700), 
 and in Bedminster (20,847). The church of St. Matthew, 
 Moorfields (6,989), was proposed to be enlarged, and it was 
 recommended that sites should be secured in the districts 
 of St. Mark's, Easton, Downside, and Windmill Hill, Bed- 
 minster, where the growth of population was considerable. 
 The commissioners further advised the building of three 
 mission chapels, and the provision of nine curates or mis- 
 sionaries. At a meeting in the Merchants' Hall, in March, 
 resolutions approving of the scheme were adopted, and 
 subscriptions amounting to over £19,000 were announced, 
 the bishop contributing £1,000, Mr. A. Gibbs, £3,000, the 
 Merchants' Society, £2,500, Messrs. Baker & Son, £1,000, 
 and the Old Bank, £1,000. The foundation of Christ Church, 
 Barton Hill, the first undertaken, was laid by the mayor (Mr. 
 Weston) in July, 1883. During the course of that year four 
 new parishes were constituted by Orders in Council, namely, 
 St. Francis, Ashton Gate ; Holy Nativity, Knowle ; St. Agnes, 
 Newfoundland Road ; and St. Lawrence, Lawrence Hill. 
 Within about two years, the commission received nearly 
 £27,000 from the public, and building opei-ations were pro- 
 secuted with great vigour. Christ Church, Barton Hill, was 
 consecrated on the 12th November, 1885. On the 16th 
 November, 1886, Bishop Ellicott consecrated a church dedi- 
 cated to St. Michael, near Bedminster railway station. The 
 only portion then finished was the chancel, but a temporary 
 nave had been constructed of timber. Two mission chapels 
 had been built in the same district, where the total outlay 
 had been £3,645. Towards the church of St, Agnes [see p. 
 444] the commission contributed £2,500 and the site, besides 
 giving £3,000 to the endowment fund. 
 
 During the early weeks of 1882 a temperance movement 
 was started in Bristol by Mr. R. T. Booth, by whom great 
 crowds were attracted to Colston Hall. The public were 
 invited to assume " the blue ribbon," which Mr. Booth had 
 selected as the badge of total abstinence, and 36,000 persons
 
 518 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. [1882. 
 
 followed the example of Mr. Morley, M.P., in accepting this 
 decoration, 21,000 of the recipients being, it was said, con- 
 verts to teetotalism. The agitation materially affected the 
 consumption of liquor in the city, and some publicans and 
 beershop-keepers withdrew from the business. 
 
 In the parliamentary session of 1882 the Incorporation of 
 the Poor promoted a Bill, the chief object of which was to 
 secure the abolition of the Harbour rate imposed on the 
 " ancient city" by the Dock Act of 1803 [see p. 14]. The 
 charge of £2,400 per annum had at the outset involved the 
 imposition of a rate of sixpence in the pound. Through the 
 increased rateable value of the city, the burden had fallen to 
 one-third of its original amount, but the guardians had long 
 regarded as a grievance the immunity enjoyed by the sub- 
 urban parishes, and now sought to include them within the 
 rateable area. The Bill was opposed by the Corporation on 
 the ground that property in the ancient parishes was largely 
 enhanced in value by the construction of the Float. It was 
 also contended that the rate was the result of what was con- 
 sidered, in 1803, a fair agreement between the city parishes 
 and the dock promoters, and that it would be unjust to alter its 
 incidence in the interest of one party only. The House of Lords 
 approved of these arguments by rejecting that portion of the 
 Bill. The remaining clauses received the royal assent. 
 
 St. Saviour's Church, Woolcott Park (which had been 
 preceded by an iron construction removed from Tyndall's 
 Park in 1875), was consecrated on the 30th May. The build- 
 ing cost upwards of £4,000. 
 
 For some time previous to this date, the members of the 
 Bedminster board of guardians who represented rural 
 parishes had repeatedly urged that the urban district of the 
 union, whore pauperism was always prevalent, should be 
 separated from the country districts. Arguments of a like 
 character had occasionally been advanced at the Bristol 
 board, some members contending that the city ought to form 
 a single union instead of being divided into three ; but as 
 the change would have involved the abolition of the Incor- 
 poration of the Poor and of the system of churchwarden 
 guardians, it had been always deprecated by a majority. In 
 consequence of the complaints of the Somerset guardians, the 
 Local Government Board sent down an official inspector, who 
 opened an inquiry at St. Peter's Hospital on the 19th June. 
 Tlie Barton Bcgis gunrdinns being, most of them, opposed to 
 an amalgamated hoard, refused to take part in the j)roceed- 
 ings, which extended over two days, and elicited wide
 
 1882.] GIFT OF A PARK. NEW PLEASURE GROUNDS. 519 
 
 differences of opinion. In tlie following January another 
 inquiry took place in the same building, the Board in London 
 having in the meantime approved of the principle of a union 
 conterminous with the municipal borough. The Council had 
 discussed the subject previous to the inquiry, and had deter- 
 mined, though only by 25 votes against 23, that the proposal 
 was inopportune. A similar diversity of views was manifested 
 amongst those who attended the renewed investigation. In 
 April a committee of the Bristol guardians, believing a con- 
 solidated union to be inevitable, drew up a scheme to carry 
 it into effect, under which the churchwarden guardians were 
 to be abolished. The plan was rejected by their colleagues. 
 After lengthy deliberation, the Local Government Board an- 
 nounced in September, 1883, that " it was not prepared at 
 the present time to proceed further in the matter." 
 
 At a meeting of the Council on the 15th June, the Sanitary 
 Committee reported that, with a view to providing open spaces 
 for public recreation, they had inspected a piece of land near 
 Clift House, Bedminster, the property of Sir J. Greville 
 Smyth, having an area of rather more than twenty-one acres; 
 and they recommended that it should be purchased for a pub- 
 lic park. The report having been adopted, the chairman of 
 the committee, Mr. Low, read a letter from Sir J. G. Smyth's 
 agent, stating that the owner of the land, having read the 
 committee's report in the newspapers, would have great plea- 
 sure in presenting the ground to the city for the purpose of 
 forming a pleasure ground, but expressed a hope that a por- 
 tion would be reserved for the Bedminster Cricket Club. A 
 vote of thanks to Sir Greville for his gift was passed by 
 acclamation. In September, 1884, after the ground had 
 become legally vested in the Corporation, a sum of £3,000 
 was voted by the Council for works to protect the park from 
 inundations, to which it was liable in winter, and for en- 
 trance gates, etc. At the same meeting £1,500 were granted 
 for laying out two pieces of ground near Newfoundland Road 
 — for which the Corporation had given £2,358 to the feoffees 
 of St. James's parish — one piece to be asphalted as a play- 
 ground for children, and the other planted as a pleasure 
 ground. A plot of land near Baptist Mills, adjoining Mina 
 Eoad and Cowmead Walk, having been offered as a recreation 
 ground by Mr. WiUiam Hunt, the Council voted £1,480 for 
 laying it out. Another plot, left after making a new street 
 from the Broadweir to Redcross Street, and valued at £2,700, 
 was devoted to a similar purpose. For these iinprovements, 
 and for alterations at Lovers' Walk and the Tabernacle bury-
 
 520 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1882, 
 
 ing ground, referred to elsewhere, the Council proposed to 
 borrow £12,100 on mortgage of the rates; but the Local 
 Government Board, being aware that the Eedcross Street 
 ground already belonged to the Streets Improvement Com- 
 mittee, reduced the amount to £9,400. In April, 1886, the 
 Council resolved to purchase, for £1,800, two acres of ground 
 belonging to the vestry of St. Mary Redcliff, for the purpose 
 of adding the land to the Bedminster park. The price de- 
 manded was deemed extravagant by many ratepayers, and the 
 Council soon afterwards rescinded the resolution. The Mina 
 Road and Broadweir recreation grounds were opened by the 
 mayor (Mr. Wathen) on the 30th June, 1886. In January, 
 1887, the Council resolved to purchase, for £450, a quarter 
 of an acre of ground in St. Philip's Marsh, to be converted 
 into a playground, and it was reported that negotiations were 
 pending for the acquisition of plots of land, for a similar pur- 
 pose, in the eastern district of Bedminster and at Barton Hill, 
 On the 10th July a meeting was held in the Council House 
 to receive a deputation from the Royal College of Music, who 
 attended to urge the claims of the institution on the cultivated 
 classes. The mayor (Mr, Weston) presided. The deputation 
 having advocated the interests of the college, it was resolved 
 to raise £3,000, the amount required to found a Bristol scholar- 
 ship. About £350 were subscribed in the room, but the move- 
 ment met with slender support out of doors. 
 
 The sheriff of the city (Mr, W. E. George) having had an 
 addition to his family during his term of office, was presented 
 in August by the committee of the Grateful Society, of which 
 ho was then president, with an elegant piece of plate in the 
 form of a silver cradle, as a memorial of the double functions 
 which he had fulfilled during the year. The presentation 
 was made by the mayor (Mr. Weston). 
 
 Owing to unusually heavy rains during the month of Octo- 
 ber, which attained their maximum on the 22nd and 23rd, 
 when u})wards of tlireo inches of rainfall were measured 
 within forty-eight hours, a large area of country around 
 Bristol was deeply flooded, and much property was de- 
 stroyed. Ilio damage in the city was still more serious, 
 tliousands of houses being flooded at and near ]3aptist Mills, 
 Stapleton Road, and Bedminster. On the evening of the 
 23rd a portion of Stapleton Road was about four feet under 
 water, and as the Froom continued to rise during the niglit, 
 the district near its l)anks ])rescnted an extraordinary aspect 
 on the following morning, when traffic was entirely stopped. 
 At the Black Swan Inn, Stapleton Road, the water mounted
 
 1882.] DISASTROUS FLOODS. 521 
 
 nearly to the signboard over the door of the premises. The 
 only means of communicating with a great number of houses 
 in the locality was by means of rafts and boats, by which pro- 
 visions and necessaries were supplied to many of the impri- 
 soned inhabitants. In the afternoon, the accumulated waters 
 spread in an immense lake along Newfoundland Road and 
 Newfoundland Street to Paul Street, Portland Square. All 
 the low-lying streets in that district were submerged several 
 feet. When the flood receded on the following day, a de- 
 plorable sight was presented in the neighbouring dwellings, 
 the basement floors of which were thickly covered with mud. 
 The disaster was attended with fatal results to a young baker, 
 named Foot, who, while delivering bread in a cart in Mina 
 Road, was swept away by the torrent, both man and horse 
 being drowned. A brewer's dray was carried off near the 
 same place, but the driver escaped. Two houses in that road 
 were undermined by the water, and fell into ruins ; but the 
 inhabitants, about twenty in number, warned by some pre- 
 monitory Grumblings, had escaped on rafts. Some idea of 
 the extent of the calamity may be formed from the fact that 
 in the single district of St, Agnes 372 houses, inhabited by 
 twice that number of families, suffered from the inundation, 
 the furniture of many of the inmates being irreparably dam- 
 aged. The low-lying districts of Bedminster were devastated 
 in a similar manner. In Hereford Street, the flood was nearly 
 eight feet in depth, and the dwellings in many other thorough- 
 fares were submerged fully three feet. Altogether upwards 
 of a thousand houses suffered in that locality, the effects 
 being quite as deplorable as those recorded in the eastern 
 suburbs. The clergy and other citizens made devoted eff'orts 
 on behalf of the poor who were practically ruined by the 
 disaster, and a large fund was raised; but many of the 
 families nevertheless suffered from sickness during the win- 
 ter owing to the soaked condition of their dwellings. Several 
 houses became totally unfit for habitation, and their ruins 
 still remain as memorials of the flood. At a meeting of the 
 Council, in May, 1883, the town clerk stated that he had 
 been served with 194 notices of claims for compensation for 
 damages, by persons owning property in the Froom district, 
 who alleged that the disaster was mainly due to the negli- 
 gence of the authorities. The claims amounted to £44,890, 
 but no attempt was made to prosecute them. It was notorious, 
 indeed, that many of the houses ravaged by the flood had 
 been erected by unscrupulous speculators on land which was 
 more or less under water every winter. The Council, on the
 
 522 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1883. 
 
 28tli September, 1886, with a view to mitigating the effects of 
 future inundations, resolved to apply for parliamentary powers 
 to construct a culvert from the Froom, near the Broadweir, to 
 the Floating Harbour, near St. Philip's Bridge. The outlay 
 was estimated at £13,000, but the Bill, as finally approved, 
 sought for power to expend £52,500. The scheme was sanc- 
 tioned by a practically unanimous vote of the ratepayers. 
 
 At a meeting of the Council on the 28th October, 1882, a 
 report was read from the Sanitary Committee, explaining the 
 provisions of the new Electric Lighting Act, and stating that 
 ten companies had given notice of their intention to apply for 
 powers to supply the new illuminating agent in the city. The 
 Council was recommended to defeat attempts to create a pri- 
 vate monopoly by claiming its right to put in operation the 
 provisions of the Act. Application was accordingly made for 
 a legislative order authorising the Council to supply elec- 
 tricity within the borough. The order, which was granted in 
 the session of 1883, required the Council to light the main 
 thoroughfares within two years. Motives of economy de- 
 terred the authorities from exercising the powers. 
 
 Much local interest was created in 1883 by the introduc- 
 tion into Parliament of a Bill for authorising the construction 
 of a railway to connect the London and South Western line, 
 near Andover, with the North Somerset line at Radstock, 
 and thus to open out a new communication between Bristol 
 and London. The capital of the proposed company was 
 £1,866,000. The contemplated works in Bristol were of a 
 gigantic character, the projected line being intended to run 
 through a dense mass of property between St. Philip's Marsh 
 and the Stone Bridge, while a site for the city terminus was 
 to be obtained by covering over the Float from the Stone 
 Bridge to the Drawbridge. The scheme met an amount of 
 approval rarely accorded to local plans of improvement, the 
 provisional committee formed for promoting the Bill com- 
 prising a majority of the Council and of the leading mer- 
 cantile firms, while the Merchants' Society made a liberal 
 grant towards the expenses ; the Chamber of Commerce 
 forwarded petitions in favour of the scheme, and meetings in 
 its support were held in every ward. In fact, as was observed 
 at the time, Bristolians presented the rare spectacle of being 
 unanimous. The public satisfaction was visibly diminished 
 by an announcement that the proposed station was to be 
 indofiuitoly postponofl. The junction with the North Somor- 
 Rct lino was also abandoned through the opposition of the 
 ^Midland Company, and the promoters had to fall back upon
 
 1883.] TABERNACLE BURIAL GROUND.' 520 
 
 a proposed railway to join the Midland system at Bath, thus 
 diverting Bristol traflSc by way of Mangotsfield. After a long 
 struggle with the Great Western Company before a com- 
 mittee of the House of Commons, the Bill Avas rejected. 
 Shortly afterwards the Great Western and South Western 
 boards entered into a compact, by which they mutually 
 undertook to refrain for ten years from an aggressive policy 
 towards each other. The agreement raised an insuperable 
 bar against the revival of the above scheme. 
 
 Some years before this date, the Corporation, in obtaining 
 powers for the construction of new streets, had " scheduled " 
 a portion of the Redcross Street burial ground belonging to 
 the Tabernacle congregation, with the intention of opening a 
 thoroughfare from Redcross Street to the Weir. Negotia- 
 tions for the purchase of the ground had subsequently taken 
 place ; but as the trustees insisted that the human remains 
 should be removed to another cemetery, while the civic 
 authorities believed that they could not legally spend money 
 for that purpose, the matter remained in abeyance. About 
 four o'clock one morning in June, 1883, however, a number 
 of labourers, employed by no one knew whom, broke down 
 the wall of the cemetery, fenced off a portion for the proposed 
 road, and began to dig and cart away the mould, which was 
 largely mingled with the relics of the dead, the tombstones 
 being, it was said, buried. As soon as these proceedings 
 became known, the trustees lost no time in applying for, and 
 obtaining, an injunction from the High Court, restraining the 
 Corporation from further proceedings until the case had been 
 judicially heard. At a special meeting of the Council, a few 
 days later, some members of the Streets Improvement Com- 
 mittee defended the measures that had been taken ; but a 
 resolution was adopted regretting the course pursued, and 
 directing operations to be suspended until an arrangement 
 was effected. The Corporation eventually purchased the 
 cemetery for £300, and paid £187 for removing the remains. 
 The portion not required for the street was laid out as an 
 ornamental garden at a further cost of £600. The Council 
 had also to defray the legal expenses arising out of the affair, 
 which had excited great disapproval. 
 
 Much discussion arose during the spring in reference to the 
 announced intention of the Docks Committee, which had pur- 
 chased a property known as Green's dock, St. Augustine's, 
 to close that place, in consequence of the expense incurred 
 in maintaining a bridge which crossed the entrance. The 
 Council, at a meeting in June, approved of the committee's
 
 / 
 
 524 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1883. 
 
 decision, and resolved on purchasing, for £10,000, another 
 property known as the Albert dock, which it was stated 
 could be converted into a graving dock capable of accommo- 
 dating the largest class of vessels entering the Float. 
 
 In response to an appeal made to the Government by the 
 civic authorities, an Order in Council was issued in July, by 
 which the practice in the Bristol Tolzey and Piepoudre courts 
 was reorganised and amended, portions of 1 and 2 William 
 IV., c. 58, and of the Common Law Procedure Act, 1860, 
 relating to interpleader summonses, being applied to the 
 ancient institutions. 
 
 The dilapidated old building known as Dr. White's alms- 
 house, in Temple Street, was removed during the summer by 
 order of the trustees, and a block of dwellings was constructed 
 on the site for the accommodation of 32 inmates. The cost 
 of the new buildings, which were opened by the mayor (Mr. 
 Weston), on the 22nd December, was £3,250. 
 
 At a meeting of the Council in October, a number of minor 
 improvement schemes, recommended by the Streets Improve- 
 ment Committee, and estimated to cost about £50,000, were 
 approved. They included alterations in Hotwell Road, near 
 Dowry Square ; at Blackboy Hill and Ellenborough Buildings, 
 Redland; Highbury Place, Gotham; St. Michael's Park; 
 Rupert Street ; Lewin's Mead ; Lower Maudlin Street ; Rich- 
 mond Road, Montpelier ; East Street to Church Lane, Bed- 
 minster; Redclilf Mead Lane ; Redcliff Street; Thunderbolt 
 Street ; and Leek Lane. Two schemes affecting Clifton were 
 rejected, but a strong feeling was excited out of doors in 
 reference to one of them — for opening a thoroughfare from 
 Pembroke Road to Worcester Terrace — which was obnoxious 
 to some members of the Council living in the vicinity. Public 
 opinion was so strongly manifested that the original vote was 
 reversed. The schemes received legislative sanction in the 
 following year, but some of them still remain unexecuted. 
 
 About this time an interesting panel-fronted house in King 
 Street, built by John Romsey, town clerk, in 166 t, was de- 
 molished without any apparent reason. The site still remains 
 unoccupied. It was in tliis house that Judge Jeffreys was 
 entertained by Romsey, who furnished him with the facts on 
 which he founded his famous invective against the mayor 
 and aldermen for "kidnapping," 
 
 The Prince of Wales arrivo(l in Bristol on the 28th January, 
 1884, on a visit to Sir Philij) and Lady Miles, at Leigh Court. 
 In accordance with his desire there was no public reception. 
 On the evening of the following day, the Prince attended a
 
 1884.] HOESE PARADE. THE PRICE OP GAS. 525 
 
 concert in Colston Hall, given by liis liosts in aid of the funds 
 of the Infirmary and Hospital. The attendance was much 
 below expectations,but£110 were handed over to the charities. 
 The Prince left for London on the 31st. 
 
 At a meeting of the Council in February, the Docks Com- 
 mittee presented a report disapproving of a proposal for the 
 construction of graving docks, which it was stated would 
 involve an outlay of £60,000 ; while the construction of a grid- 
 iron, at a small fraction of that expense, would adequately 
 supply the wants of the shipping interest. It was accord- 
 ingly determined to construct a gridiron near Cumberland 
 Basin, at an estimated cost of £6,000. A floating fire-engine 
 was also ordered at an outlay of £2,500. The gridiron was 
 completed in April, 1885. 
 
 The Whitsuntide of 1884 was fixed for the first parade of 
 draught horses employed in the city, an experiment pro- 
 moted by several influential residents. About 600 animals 
 were brought together at the cattle market, and passed in 
 procession through the principal streets to Clifton Down, 
 where prizes were awarded. The exhibition met with so much 
 approval that it was repeated a twelvemonth later, when 
 nearly 750 horses (valued at over £40,000) entered into the 
 competition, and a dinner was subsequently given to about 
 600 carters. In 1886 the number of horses exhibited was 
 775. The show has now become a local institution. . 
 
 At the quarter sessions in July, the Corporation, acting as ^ 
 the local Sanitary Authority, and Mr. T. D. Sibly, a rate- 
 payer, applied to the recorder to put in force the provisions 
 of a clause in the Gasworks Act of 1847, by which the 
 court was enabled, on the petition of two ratepayers, to 
 appoint an accountant to examine into the accounts of the 
 Gas Company, with a view to discover whether their financial 
 condition did not admit of a reduction in the price of gas. 
 The directors of the Gas Company contended that the Sani- 
 tary Authority, although immeasurably their largest cus- 
 tomer, was not a ratepayer within the meaning of the Act ; 
 but the recorder at once made the order, and Mr. E. H. 
 Carter, of Birmingham, was appointed as accountant. Mr. 
 Carter presented his report early in the following year. He 
 stated that in 1880 the company had applied upwards of 
 £6,000 out of their reserve to erecting works, instead of 
 charging the amount to capital. A somewhat similar error, 
 and for about the same amount, was committed in 1875. The 
 company had further maintained a contingency as well as a 
 reserve fund, which they were not entitled to do, and the
 
 526 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [188 1. 
 
 aggregate of these funds was about £9,200 above tbe legal 
 maximum. Mr. Carter thought that the working expenses 
 might be considerably reduced. He was also of opinion that 
 the meter rents were excessive. The company had made a 
 reduction in the price of gas since his appointment, and the 
 state of the accounts did not warrant another. The capital 
 account stood after his correction at £721,000. The company 
 were ordered to pay the cost of the inquiry. 
 
 A new hall, attached to the premises of the Young Men's 
 Christian Association in St. James's Square, was opened at the 
 end of June. The building had cost about £4,000, the whole 
 of which was provided by the friends of the institution. 
 
 A prospectus was issued in August of the Bristol Joint Stock 
 Bank. The company commenced business in Corn Street in 
 the following December. 
 
 An Industrial and Fine Arts Exhibition for Bristol and the 
 adjoining counties — on a scale never before attempted in the 
 city — was opened on the 2nd September in the Eifle Drill 
 Hall. On the platform were the mayor (Mr. Weston), the 
 Bishop of Bath and Wells, several members of Parliament, 
 and the mayors of Gloucester, Bath, Wells, Taunton, Yeovil, 
 Chard, Tewkesbury, and Glastonbury. In addition to the ac- 
 commodation afforded by the Drill Hall and its appurtenances, 
 the committee had erected extensive temporary buildings for 
 the exhibition of machinery, working models, and manufac- 
 tured products, the result being a satisfactory representation 
 of the industries of the district. A valuable collection of 
 works of art was an attractive feature of the affair, which was 
 admirably organised throughout. Shortly after the close of 
 the exhibition, at the end of November, it was announced that 
 the admissions had reached 210,000, and that although the 
 expenses had amounted to £7,889, there was a surplus of 
 £1,520. The money was handed over to Bristol University 
 College, for whose benefit the exhibition had been promoted. 
 
 In anticipation of the Redistribution of Seats Bill, intro- 
 duced into Parliament in 1885, Mr. Gladstone's Ministry pre- 
 pared plans for the extension of the parliamentary lionndaries 
 of the city by the abstraction from Gloucestershire of the local 
 government district of Horfield and of the parishes of Staple- 
 ton and St. George, and by the appropriation from Somerset 
 of the Knowle and Totterdown districts of the old ]iarish of 
 Bed minster. The representatives of the city were increased 
 by the Bill from two to four, but the electors, instead of voting 
 for the whole number according to ancient custom, were 
 dividiMl into four constituencies, named after the cardinal
 
 1885.] NEW PARLIAMENTARY DIVISIONS. 527 
 
 points, and having- one member each. At a court of inquiry 
 held at the Gruildhall, on the 15th January, 1885, before Mr. 
 J. J. Henley and General P. Carey, R.E., boundary commis- 
 sioners, an application was made on behalf of the Council for 
 the inclusion within the borough of the Sneyd Park district 
 of Westbury parish; but this was energetically opposed by 
 the inhabitants and disapproved by the commissioners. The 
 following arrangement — which had the assent of the local 
 leaders of both political parties — was approved. 
 
 Western Division. Population, 60,874 ; comprising the 
 municipal wards of Clifton (22,915), Westbury (13,324), St. 
 Michael (10,712), and St. Augustine (9,147), and the local 
 district of Horfield (4,766). 
 
 Northern Division. Population, 64,713 ; comprising the mu- 
 nicipal wards of the District (19,114), St. Paul (15,083), and 
 St. James (8,420), so much of the ward of St. Philip North as 
 is bounded by Wade Street on the west and Stapleton Road 
 on the south (11,263), and the parish of Stapleton (10,833). 
 
 Eastern Division. Population, 61,986; comprising so much 
 of the ward of St. Philip North as is bounded by Wade Street 
 on the east and Stapleton Road on the north (13,202), the 
 municipal ward of St. Philip South (22,351), and the parish 
 of St. George (26,433). 
 
 Southern Division. Population, 65,633 ; including the 
 municipal wards of Bristol (10,022), Redcliff (17,274), Bed- 
 minster East (13,014), and Bedminster West (20,737), and so 
 much of the Somerset portion of Bedminster parish as extends 
 from the municipal boundary to Redcatch and Knowle lanes 
 (4,306). 
 
 These divisions were subsequently embodied in the Redis- 
 tribution Bill, which was passed in the following session. 
 
 A steam vessel, called the Bulldog, designed for river im- 
 provement purposes by Mr. J. W. Girdlestone, recently ap- 
 pointed engineer to the Docks Committee, was brought into 
 use in March, 1885. Amongst the apparatus belonging to the 
 boat was a centrifugal pumping engine, capable of raising 
 6,000 gallons per minute from a depth of 30 feet, or 10,000 
 gallons per minute from a depth of 10 feet; a crane lifting 5 
 tons; a large dredger bucket, and an electric dynamo machine, 
 generating a light of 6,000 candle power. 
 
 A public room, styled St. James's Hall, erected in Cumber- 
 land Street by the Bristol Public Hall Company, and capable 
 of seating an audience of 1,200, was opened in April. 
 
 A meeting was held in the Council House on the 1st June, 
 the mayor (Mr. Wathen) presiding, to consider the desira-
 
 628 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [1885. 
 
 bility of raising a memorial to Mr. Frederick John Fargus, 
 a Bristolian whose premature death, on the 7th May, at the 
 outset of what promised to be a brilliant literary career, had 
 caused wide-spread regret. It was determined to erect a 
 tablet and bust in the cathedral, and to found a literary 
 scholarship at University College. Upwards of £750 were 
 subscribed on behalf of those objects. The monument in the 
 cathedral, executed by Mr. J. Havard Thomas, was erected 
 in March, 1886. 
 
 On the evening of the first Sunday in June, a band of forty 
 musicians, engaged by " a number of gentlemen interested in 
 the welfare of the working classes," assembled on Durdham 
 Down, and played a selection of pieces from the works of 
 Handel and other eminent masters. There was a large at- 
 tendance, and the newspapers estimated the numbers present 
 on subsequent fine evenings at upwards of twenty thousand. 
 The concerts excited great indignation in certain circles ; and 
 upon the supporters of the movement announcing that they 
 would be continued throughout the summer, the Council 
 passed a resolution declaring Sunday bands inexpedient, and 
 instructing the town clerk to request their patrons to discon- 
 tinue them. The promoters having declined to acquiesce, a 
 special mooting of the Council was convened by their oppo- 
 nents, who intended to have a bye-law enacted, expressly 
 prohibiting Sunday bands. On second thoughts, however, 
 the leader of the anti-band party contented himself with 
 moving an instruction to the Downs Committee to draft bye- 
 laws for the regulation of the public property. By this time 
 the action of the promoters of the concerts had been defended 
 by Canon Percival and other clergymen; and, as the Downs 
 Committee took no action, the programme of the band com- 
 mittee was successfully carried out. The performances were 
 revived in tho summer of 188G, when the attendances of the 
 public were greater than ever. But the expectation of the 
 promoters that the sale of programmes would go far to meet 
 the expenses was disappointed, the public purchasing a very 
 limited number. After tho experiment had been continued 
 for about two months, tho committee found their funds ex- 
 hausted, and discontinued their efforts. 
 
 Tho advisability of giving a more permanent character to 
 the composition of tho liartou Regis board of guardians hav- 
 ing conuuonded itself to many of tho members, it was resolved 
 to take a vote of tho ratepayers in June, upon the question 
 whether future elections should be annual or triennial. A 
 majority declared in favour of the triennial system, and the
 
 1885.] Phillips's charity, dock improvements. 529 
 
 alteration was approved by tlio Local Governmont Board. 
 The first election under the new regulation took place in 
 April, 188G. 
 
 Shortly after the death, on the 29th April, 1885, o£ Mr. 
 Edward Pliillips, who, previous to his retirement from busi- 
 ness, had been a wine merchant in Broad Street, the Charity 
 Trustees were informed that they had a large reversionary 
 interest in his will. Mr. Phillips devised his personal estate, 
 subject to the payment of certain legacies, and of a life 
 annuity to his wife, to the trustees, ''for the relief of deserv- 
 ing needy persons, either by gifts, apprenticing boys and girls 
 to learn trades, or by granting annuities to widows, or for 
 such other charitable purposes as may be consistent with the 
 above directions." A sum of about £4,600 was received from 
 the testator's solicitors, with an intimation that about £24,000 
 more would be available upon the death of Mrs. Phillips. The 
 interest of the sum in hand is dispensed by the trustees in 
 pensions to aged gentlewomen of good education, born in 
 Bristol, or resident in the city for at least ten years. 
 
 At a meeting of the Council in July, a report was presented 
 by the Docks Committee, urging the necessity of taking fur- 
 ther measures for improving the accommodation of the port. 
 One of the most pressing requirements, it was alleged, was 
 the provision of facilities for the shipment of steam coal. The 
 committee were of opinion that existing wants might be sup- 
 plied by the erection of coal '•' tips " at Avonmoutli, at an 
 outlay of £60,000. They further recommended the construc- 
 tion of a new entrance lock to Avonmouth dock (estimated at 
 £20,000), and of a new graving dock there (£45,000), the con- 
 struction of a deep-water whai'f at Canon's Marsh, on the site 
 of Liverpool wharf, with storage accommodation on the city 
 quays (£85,000), the reconstruction of buildings at Avon- 
 mouth to the extent of £100,000, and the purchase of a power- 
 ful dredger at an outlay of alDOut £30,000; the total estimated 
 expenditure being £340,000. The chairman, Mr. Low, in 
 moving the adoption of this report, which would have taken 
 away the breath of any previous generation of civic senators, 
 congratulated his hearers upon the results of their recent dock 
 policy. Future prospects, he added, had been improved by 
 the starting of a fortnightly service of large steamers from 
 the Avon to Montreal. There was practically no opposition 
 to the motion. The meeting of the ratepayers to consider the 
 Bill for obtaining the necessary powers sanctioned the scheme 
 by a unanimous vote, and the measure received the royal 
 assent on the 25th June, 1886. 
 
 M M
 
 530 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. [1885. 
 
 The inclusion of the Trades School in the scheme for the 
 future management of Colston's School has been already re- 
 corded [see p. 453] . On the 25th July, the former institu- 
 tion, under the name of the Merchant Venturers' School, was 
 installed in a vast pile of buildings in Unity Street (on the 
 site of the old Grammar School), erected and fitted up by 
 the Merchants' Society at a cost of upwards of £40,000.'^ 
 Amongst those who took part in the ceremony were the bishop 
 of the diocese. Sir Frederick Bramwell, C.E., and Mr. S. 
 Morley, M.P. The visitors, after inspecting the great hall, 
 the engineering workshops, library, laboratories, lecture rooms, 
 class rooms, etc., were entertained to a luncheon, provided by 
 the master of the Company (Alderman Butterworth). 
 
 The death was announced on the 29th August of Mr. Elisha 
 Smith Robinson, for many years an active member of the 
 Council and of the Corporation of the Poor. Entering the 
 city in humble circumstances, he succeeded by energy and 
 skill in founding a highly prosperous business, whilst by his 
 public spirit he won the approval of his fellow citizens, and 
 filled the highest offices they could bestow with general satis- 
 faction. His funeral was attended by the mayor, the mem- 
 bers of the Council, and representatives of many religious and 
 charitable institutions, the procession comprising upwards of 
 fifty private carriages. A bust of Mr. Robinson was shortly 
 afterwards placed in Colston Hall. 
 
 The dissolution of Parliament, consequent upon the conces- 
 sion of household suffrage to counties and a redistribution 
 of seats, took place in November. The event having been 
 long foreseen, both political parties were prepared for the 
 struggle, and much curiosity was felt as to the result. Owing 
 to the extension of the parliamentary borough, and to the in- 
 creased facilities given to persons claiming the lodger fran- 
 chise, the constituency had largely increased, the total number 
 of electors being 30,549, of whom 33,233 were householders^ 
 1,930 freeholders, 939 lodgers, and 447 freemen. The nomin- 
 
 • The profuse liberality of the Society was reparded with mingled feehngs by 
 many friends of education. Dr. Beddoe, F.R.S., in a letter published in the local 
 journals in July, 1881, wrote: " It is the curse of Bristol and of Bristolians 
 that, instead of helping on and devolojtiiiK whatever tlicy possess that is good 
 and capable! of iiiij)ri>vemcnt, they think jirnuress consists in the starting of 
 several institutions 'Thus, wliib^ wo have a (iramniar School and a University 
 College, both ailniirably f)niccr('d, and doinjj groat good, but sadly hindered and 
 hampered by want of funds, we see a gigantic Trade Sc^hool arising to be a rival 
 to them both. The result will be that all the three will bo crippled in tlu'ir use- 
 fulness for years ; whereas half the money that is being expended on the new 
 Trade Hohool would have placed the success of the University College beyond 
 question."
 
 1886.] GENERAL ELECTION. SEWERAGE SCHEME. 531 
 
 ations took place on tlio 23rd and tlio pollinj^ on the 25tli 
 November. It will bo convenient to record the issue under 
 separate heads : — 
 
 In Bristol West (with 7,657 electors) the Conservatives 
 nominated Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, bart., then Chancellor 
 of the Exchequer. The Liberal nominee was Mr. Brinsley de 
 Coucy Nixon, of Westward Ho, Devon, banker. The poll was 
 declared as follows: Sir M. H. Beach, 8,876; Mr. Nixon, 2,463. 
 
 In Bristol North (9,002 electors) the Liberals brought for- 
 ward Mr, Lewis Fry, one of the former members for the 
 city (his colleague, Mr. Morley, retired into private life). 
 The Conservative candidate was Mr. Charles Edward H. A. 
 Colston, of Roundway, Wilts. The numbers polled in this 
 division were: Mr. Fry, 4,110 ; Mr. Colston, 3,046. 
 
 Bristol East (9,506 electors). Mr. James Broad Bissell, of 
 Diptford, Devon, was the Conservative aspirant, and was 
 opposed in the Liberal interest by Mr. Handel Cossham, of 
 St. Greorge's and Bath, an extensive colliery owner in the 
 district. The deputy sheriff's declaration was as follows : 
 Mr. Cossham, 4,647 ; Mr. Bissell, 2,383. 
 
 Bristol South (10,384 electors). This was the most exciting 
 conflict of the day. The Liberals brought forward Mr. Joseph 
 Dodge Weston, of Clifton, who had served the ofiice of mayor 
 for four successive years, and had gained universal applause 
 for his solution of the docks difficulty. The Conservatives 
 nominated Lieut.-Colonel Hill, C.B., of Cardiff and Bristol, 
 shipowner. The polling resulted as follows : Mr. Weston, 
 4,217; Lieut.-Col. Hill, 4,121. 
 
 The total poll for the city credited the Liberals with 
 15,437, and the Conservatives with 13,426 votes. The poll- 
 ing booths, under the new law, remained open until eight 
 o'clock in the evening. Although immense crowds thronged 
 the streets until after midnight, awaiting the declarations, the 
 proceedings passed off with perfect tranquillity. 
 
 The Council applied for parliamentary powers during the 
 session of 1886 for the erection of a bridge from St. Philip's 
 Marsh to Totterdown. The estimated cost of the structure 
 was originally stated at £12,870, but it was subsequently 
 deemed advisable to acquire additional ground at a further 
 cost of £8,000, an expectation being held out that a re-sale 
 of the surplus plots for building purposes would more than 
 cover the extra outlay. The Act received the royal assent in 
 April ; and the Council, on the 1st June, authorised the Streets 
 Improvement Committee to carry its provisions into effect. 
 
 It has been already recorded [see p. 496] that Mr. Ash-
 
 532 THE ANNALS OF BRISTOL. [188G. 
 
 mead, the city engineer, prepared a plan in 1879 for carrying- 
 the sewage of Bristol to the Channel, at a cost of £280,000, 
 His proposal was referred to Sir Joseph Bazalgette, who, in 
 January, 1886, reported favourably upon the project, but 
 estimated the expenditure at £300,000. Sir Joseph was of 
 opinion that the Avorks might be deferred for several years, 
 provided the sewer outlets Avere removed beyond the city 
 boundaries, the locality indicated being Sea Mills, and the 
 cost £85,000. At a meeting of the Council in May, it was 
 resolved, by a majority of 24 to 20, that it was inexpedient 
 at that time to proceed further in the matter. 
 
 In March, the Princess Beatrice was presented with an 
 elaborately carved marriage chest and an embroidered cover- 
 let by " the women of Bristol," in testimony of their affec- 
 tionate interest in her recent marriage. The chest, which 
 was chiefly made from ancient oak taken from Redclilf Church, 
 was richly carved by Mr. C. Trapnell, the lid having a repre- 
 sentation of Queen Elizabeth's visit to Bristol, while the front 
 • displayed Henry VII. presenting his sword to the mayor on 
 confirming the city charters. The Princess expressed much 
 admiration of the gift in acknowledging its reception. 
 
 An elaborately decorated suite of offices in Queen Square, 
 erected for the use of the staff of the Bristol Docks, was 
 opened on the 10th May. The cost of the site and buildings 
 was £9,200, but, as portions of the premises Avere let to private 
 persons, it was stated that the rent fairly chargeable to the 
 dock estate Avould not exceed £150 per annum. 
 
 Another dissolution of Parliament took place in June, 1886^ 
 in consequence of the defeat of Mr. Gladstone's Ministry on 
 the question of Irish Home Rule. The Bill introduced by 
 the Premier had caused a disruption of the Liberal party in 
 the House of Commons, Mr. Fry being one of several mem- 
 bers Avho AvithdreAV their support from the Cabinet. Much 
 difference of opinion also prevailed amongst the Liberal elec- 
 tors in all parts of the kingdom. The nominations in Bristol 
 were made on the 1st July, and the polling took place on the 
 following day. 
 
 In Bristol West the Conservatives again nominated Sir M. 
 Hicks-Beach, while the Liberals brouglit forward Mr. James 
 Judd, of Upper NorAvood, Jjondon, piinter. The contest re- 
 flultod as follows : Sir M. H. Beach, 3,819; ]\lr. Judd, 1,801. 
 [Another election for this district took place in August, con- 
 sequent upon the appointment of Sir M. Hicks-l^each as 
 Secretary for Ireland, The right hon. gentleman Avas returned 
 without opposition.]
 
 188G.] GENERAL ELECTION. DEATH OF MK. MoKLEY. b'd-i 
 
 In Bristol North, Mr. Lewis Fry again offered liimself ; and 
 the Conservatives, instead of opposing- his re-election, lent 
 him their support. The Liberal Association nominated Dr. 
 Alfred Carpenter, of Croydon, London. Mr. J. D. Marshall, 
 a labour candidate, entered the field, but AvithdrOw on the 
 eve of the nomination. The polling was as follows : Mr. 
 Fry, 8,587 ; Dr. Carpenter, 2,737. 
 
 In Bristol East, the re-election of Mr. Handel Cossham 
 was opposed by Mr. James Inskip, a solicitor in the city, but 
 without success, the voting being : Mr. Cossham, 3,672 ; Mr. 
 Inskip, 1,930. 
 
 Bristol South. Mr. Weston, who had supported the Govern- 
 ment Bill for Ireland, lost the support of several influential 
 Liberals in this district, with the effect of reversing the 
 decision of the previous November in favour of Lieut.-Col. 
 Hill, the Conservative candidate. The declaration of the 
 poll was as follows : Lieut.-Col. Hill, 4,447 ; Mr. Weston, 
 3,423. [The latter gentleman, on the 26th November follow- 
 ing, received the honour of knighthood.] 
 
 The total poll for the city was 25,422, or 3,441 less than on 
 the previous occasion upon the same register. 
 
 During the great Indian and Colonial Exhibition in London 
 in the summer of this year, a local movement was started for 
 inviting representatives of the various dependencies to pay 
 a visit to Bristol. The invitation was accepted with much 
 cordiality by the colonists, about 150 of whom arrived in the 
 city on the 6th September, and were welcomed at the railway 
 station by the mayor (Mr. Wathen), the members of the Cor- 
 poration, and many leading citizens. The visitors inspected 
 the chief local objects of interest, and various entertainments 
 were provided in their honour, including a dinner at the 
 Mansion House, luncheons by the Chamber of Commerce and 
 Society of Merchants respectively, a concert by the Madrigal 
 Society, and a grand ball and supper. The colonists departed 
 on the 8th September, expressing themselves highly gratified 
 with their hospitable reception. 
 
 Mr. Samuel Morley, who had represented the city in three 
 Parliaments, expired on the 5th September, aged 77, to the 
 general regret of charitable and religious circles, as well as 
 of the political party of which he was an earnest supporter. 
 In some of the notices of his career which appeared in the 
 newspapers, it was stated that Mr. Morley had for many years 
 dispensed between £20,000 and £30,000 of his large income 
 annually in the support of pious and philanthropic objects. 
 Some months before his decease, a movement had been
 
 534 
 
 THE ANNALS OF BKISTOL. [1883. 
 
 started amongst the. Liberals of Bristol with a view to erect- 
 ing some permanent memorial of his connection with the city. 
 Upon his demise, a feeling was evinced by many citizens of 
 both political parties that the work of commemorating his 
 memory was worthy of being assumed by the inhabitants 
 generally; and a meeting held at the Guildhall on the 1st 
 October, the maj^or presiding, was attended by representatives 
 of every school of religious and political opinion. Addresses 
 were delivered by the bishop of the diocese, Mr. Fry, M.P., 
 Mr. Cossham, M.P., the vicar of Temple, and several other 
 gentlemen, and it was resolved to start a subscription for the 
 purpose of securing the erection of a statue of the deceased, 
 in testimony of his distinguished charity and public services. 
 The commission was confided to Mr. J. Havard Thomas. 
 The subscriptions in a few weeks exceeded £1,100. 
 
 At the triennial election of aldermen in November, Mr. 
 Charles Nash, who had represented St. Augustine's ward for 
 thirty-five years, was raised to the aldermanic dignity. Mr. 
 Nash was the first councillor on whom this honour had been 
 conferred during the existence of the reformed Corporation — 
 a period of more than half a century. 
 
 A scheme for supplying the city with water from certain 
 mines near Frampton Cotterell was noticed at page 285. Sub- 
 sequently, a company styled the West Gloucestershire Water 
 Company, with a capital of i! 100,000, obtained an Act ena- 
 bling them to supply a district extending from Wotton-under- 
 Edge to the suburbs of Bristol and Bath. The mains to 
 Frenchay were completed in September. 
 
 A meeting was held in the Guildhall on the 29th Septem- 
 ber, the mayor (Aid. Edwards) presiding, for the purpose of 
 considering the desirability of improving the water supply of 
 the city. Many influential citizens took part in the proceed- 
 ings. It was resolved that an increased supply of i)ure water 
 was urgently required, and that such a supply could be best 
 obtained by utilising the Severn tunnel springs [p. -IIG], which 
 were stated to produce 11,000,000 gallons daily. It was 
 further determined to support a Bill for this purpose pro- 
 moted by a now undertaking styled the Bristol Consumers' 
 Water Company, which had bound itself to transfer the 
 works to the Corporation if required so to do ; and the 
 Council was requested to avail itself of this provision, and 
 also to reopen negotiations with the existing company for the 
 purchase of its property on ecpiitable terms. At a meeting 
 of the Council on the 7th January, 1887, a resolution a])prov- 
 ing of the JJill, and appointing a committee to consider tho
 
 1886.] THE QUEEN'S JUBILEE, 535 
 
 whole question in tlie interests of the Corporation, was adopted 
 by a larg-e majority. At another meeting, on the 1st March, 
 a report was presented by the committee, stating that the 
 existing company had declined to negotiate for a transfer of 
 their property whilst the Bill for the new project was pending 
 in Parliament. With respect to the Sudbrook springs, the 
 committee had obtained a report from an eminent analyst, who 
 stated that he had never met with a purer water, but that for 
 household purposes it was of an undesirable " hardness." The 
 above estimate as to the supply was deemed correct. The 
 Council, on the motion of Mr. Charles Townsend, adopted the 
 report, and resolved to petition the House of Lords in favour 
 of the Bill promoted by the Consumers' Water Company ; an 
 amendment deprecating that step being defeated by 29 votes 
 against 19. 
 
 On the invitation of the mayor (Aid. Edwards), a meeting 
 of influential citizens took place in the Guildhall on the 20th 
 December, to consider what steps should be taken to com- 
 memorate the approaching jubilee of the reign of Queen 
 Victoria. A proposal for the erection of a statue of Her 
 Majesty had been previously started by the mayor, who sub- 
 scribed iilOO; and his suggestion to the meeting that this 
 project should be carried out was generally approved. A 
 proposition had also been made for the founding of a Mater- 
 nity Hospital, but considerable diversity of opinion was evinced 
 on this subject ; and eventually a committee was appointed 
 to consider the whole question. The committee, at a meeting 
 on February 24th, 1887, adopted a resolution recommending 
 that subscriptions should be invited for thi-ee purposes : the 
 erection of a statue at a cost not exceeding £2,000, the contri- 
 bution of not less than £2,000 towards the establishment of an 
 Imperial Institute in London, and the celebration of the jubilee 
 in the city by public rejoicings and entertainments to the poor. 
 These suggestions were unanimously approved at a public 
 meeting held in the following week.
 
 536 THE ANNALS OP BRISTOL. 
 
 CATHEDRAL AND CIVIC DIGNITARIES. 1801-1887. 
 
 1797 
 1803 
 1807 
 1808 
 1820 
 1827 
 1834 
 1836 
 1856 
 1861 
 1863 
 
 BISHOPS. 
 April, FoUiot Herbert Walker Cornwall, translated to Hereford, 1802. 
 February, Hon. George Pelham, translated to Exeter, 1807. 
 August, John Luxmore, translated to Hereford, 1808. 
 September, William Lort Mansel, died June 27, 1820. 
 July, John Kaye, translated to Lincoln, 1827. 
 February, Robert Gray, died September 28, 1834. 
 October, Joseph Allen, translated to Ely, 1836. 
 
 October, James Henry Monk, Bishop of Gloucester, died June 6, 1856. 
 July, Charles Baring, translated to Durham, 1861. 
 December, William Thomson, translated to York, 1863. 
 March, Charles John Ellicott. 
 
 DEANS. 
 1800 February, Charles Peter Layard, died April 11, 1803. 
 1803 May, Bowyer Edward Sparke, appointed Bishop of Chester, 1809. 
 1810 February, John Parsons, appointed Bishop of Peterborough, 1813. 
 1814 January, Henry Beeke, died March 9, 1837. 
 1837 May, Thomas Musgiave, appointed Bishop of Hereford, 1837. 
 1837 October, John Lamb, died April 19, 1850. 
 1850 May, Gilbert Elliott. 
 
 MAYORS AND SHERIFFS. 
 The civic year, under the old charters, begin and ended on the 29th Septem- 
 ber. The first election of mayors under the Municipal Reform Act took place 
 in January, 1836, and all since that date on the 9th November. 
 
 Mayors. 
 
 1800 William Gibbons . 
 
 1801 Joseph Edye 
 
 1802 Robert Castle,* David Evans 
 
 1803 David Evans 
 
 1804 Edward Protheroe 
 
 1805 Daniel Wait . 
 
 1806 Richard Vaughan, jun. 
 
 1807 Henry Bright,* Samuel Eire 
 
 1808 John Haythorne . 
 
 1809 John Hilhouse Wilcox . 
 
 1810 Philip Protheroe . 
 IHII John Hilbouse Wilcox . 
 
 1812 Michael Castle . 
 
 1813 James Fowler 
 
 1814 William John Struth . 
 
 1815 Sir Williuni John Struth 
 18K) John Haytiiorne . 
 1H17 John Haythorne . 
 
 1818 Henry Brooke 
 
 1819 William I'ripp, jun. 
 
 1820 George Hilliouse . 
 1H21 Abraham Hilhouso 
 1h22 James (irorge 
 1H23 Jolm IJarrow 
 1H24 Tlionia.s Hasscll . 
 1H25 John Haythorne . 
 1826 Thomas Camplin . 
 1H27 Gabriel Goldney . 
 1828 John Cave . 
 
 Sheriffs. 
 Robert Castle, Sanmel Hirch. 
 Samuel Span, Richard Vaughan, jun. 
 John Foy Edgur, Henry Protheroe. 
 Samuel Henderson, jun., John Haythorne. 
 Levi Ames, jun., Philip Protheroe. 
 William Inman, John Hilhouse Wilcox. 
 Henry Brooke, Edward Brice, jun. 
 Sir Henry Protheroe, John Haythorne. 
 Benjamin Bickley, Philip George. 
 Michael Castle, George King. 
 William Inman, James Fowler. 
 Edward Brice, Benj;imiu Bickley. 
 George Hilhouse, Abraham Hilhouse. 
 Benjamin Bickley, Philip George. 
 William Fripji, jun., James George, jun. 
 Benjamin Bickley, Philip George. 
 Edward I)aniel, John Barrow. 
 George Hilhouso, Abraliam Hilhouse. 
 Thomas Hassell, Nicholas Roch. 
 James George, jun., Jolin Gardiner. 
 Tiiomas Hassell, Robert Jenkins. 
 Nicliolas Roch, Tiiomas Camplin. 
 (iabriid Goldney, .lolin Cave. 
 Jiilin Savage, Cliarlcs Pinney. 
 John Gardnier, Charlis Ludlow Walker. 
 ( iabriel Goldney, Jolin Savage. 
 Thomas Hassell, Daniel Stanton. 
 Charles Payne, Henry Weuman Newman. 
 Charles L. Walker, Thomas Hooper Riddle. 
 
 Seo page 23.
 
 MAYORS AND SlIEKIl'TS. 
 
 537 
 
 Mayors. 
 1820 John Savage 
 
 1830 John Savage 
 
 1831 Charles Pinney 
 
 1832 Dauicl Stanton 
 
 1833 Charles Ludlow Walker 
 
 1834 Cliarles Payne 
 
 Shehiffb. 
 Hugh William Dauson, John Evans Lunell. 
 George Protheroe, WilHam Claxton. 
 George Bengough, Joseph Lax. 
 Jas. Norro way Frankly n, Mich. Hinton Castle. 
 James Tjoan, Peter Maze, jun. 
 James N. Franklyn, William Killigrew Wait. 
 
 1836 
 183G 
 1837 
 1838 
 183i) 
 1840 
 1841 
 1842 
 1843 
 1844 
 1845 
 1846 
 1847 
 1848 
 1849 
 1850 
 1851 
 1852 
 1853 
 1854 
 1855 
 1856 
 1857 
 1858 
 1859 
 1860 
 1861 
 1862 
 1863 
 1864 
 1865 
 1866 
 1867 
 1868 
 1869 
 1870 
 1871 
 1872 
 1873 
 1874 
 1875 
 1876 
 1877 
 1878 
 1879 
 1880 
 1881 
 1882 
 1883 
 1884 
 1885 
 1«86 
 
 January, William Fripp 
 November, James George 
 John Kerle Habertield . 
 John Kerle Haberfield . 
 James Norroway Franklyn 
 Eobert Pliippen . 
 George Woodroffe Frankly 
 James Gibbs. 
 William Lewton Clarke 
 Richard Poole King 
 John Kerle Habertield . 
 William Goldney . 
 John Decimus Pountney 
 John Kerle Habertield . 
 John Kerle Habertield . 
 John Kerle Haberfield . 
 William Henry Gore Lang 
 llobert Giiy Barrow 
 John George Shaw 
 John George Shaw 
 John Vining . 
 John Vining. 
 Isaac Allan Cooke 
 James Poole 
 Jolm Bates . 
 Odiarne Coates Lane . 
 John Hare . 
 Sholto Vere Hare. 
 Tbomas Porter Jofe 
 William Naish 
 Joseph Abraham . 
 Elisha Smith Kobinsou 
 Francis Adams 
 Francis Adams 
 William Killigrew Wait 
 Thomas Canning . 
 William Proctor Baker. 
 William Hathway 
 Thomas Barnes . 
 Christopher James Thoma 
 John Averav Jones 
 George William Edwards 
 George William Edwards 
 George William Edwards 
 Henry Taylor 
 Josei)h Dodge Weston . 
 Joseph Uodge Weston . 
 Joseph Dodge Weston . 
 Joseph Dodge Weston . 
 Charles Wathen . 
 Charles Wathen . 
 George William Edwards 
 
 Daniel Cave. 
 
 Thomas Kington. 
 
 Thomas Kington Baily. 
 
 Francis Savage. 
 
 Kicbard Vanghan. 
 
 Hugh Vaughan. 
 n. Thomas Jones. 
 
 Jeremiah Hill. 
 
 Thomas Wadham. 
 
 John Harding. 
 
 Thomas Hill. 
 
 Abraham Gray Harford Battersby. 
 
 Edward Sampson, jun. 
 
 Peter Maze, jun. 
 
 John Jasper Leigh Baily. 
 
 Joseph Walters Daubeny. 
 ton John Battersby Harford. 
 
 llobert Bright. 
 
 Phihp John William Miles. 
 
 Robert Phijipen. 
 
 Albany Bourchier Savile. 
 
 George Oldham Edwards. 
 
 J. H. G. Smyth (see p. 355). 
 
 William Henry Harford. 
 
 William Montague Baillie. 
 
 Joshua Saunders. 
 
 George Rocke Woodward. 
 
 Charles Daniel Cave. 
 
 William Wright. 
 
 Henry Cruger William Miles. 
 
 Joseph Cooke Hurle. 
 
 William Henry Miles. 
 
 Wilham Gale Coles. 
 
 Robert Phippen (died July, 1869). 
 
 Tbomas Proctor. 
 
 John Fisher. 
 
 William Thomas Poole King. 
 
 Tbomas Todd Walton. 
 
 Thomas Todd Walton. 
 
 Charles Hill. 
 
 George Bright. 
 
 William Smith. 
 
 William Henry Wills, 
 
 Charles Bowles Hare. 
 
 Robert Low Grant Vassall. 
 
 Francis Frederick Fox. 
 
 William Edwards George. 
 
 John Lysaght. 
 
 Henry Bourchier Osborne Savile. 
 
 John Harvey. 
 
 Reginald Wyndham Butterworth. 
 
 Francis James Fry.
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 Pap;e CI, line 4th, for " hax:<o " read " alto." 
 
 ,, 109, ,, 17th from bottom, for " Bailey " read " Baily." 
 
 ,, 22H, ,, 5th, add " daily " after " train." 
 
 ,, 228, ,, 4th from bottom, for " Commissioners " read "Dean and 
 
 Chapter." 
 ,, 287, ,, 12th, for " Nash " read " Sanders." 
 ,, 288, „ 17th from bottom, for " Stncky " read " Stuckey." 
 ,, 421, ,, 3rd, for "Broomfield" read " Broomwell."
 
 INDEX 
 
 Accidents : Fall of Hill's bridge, 27, 
 342 ; tliG William Miles, 55 ; ex- 
 plosion, lied Rover, 319 ; the Deme- 
 rara, 327 ; Mr. J. Gibbs killed, 332 ; 
 at New Theatre, 447 ; the AVo7t 
 Frinz, 478 ; the Gipsij, 478 ; to 
 "Flying Dutchman," 488 ; Solwaij 
 burnt, 515 ; death through floods, 521. 
 
 Aclaud, James, 118, 137. 
 
 Act, first Improvement, 250. 
 
 Adams, Francis, 421) note. 
 
 Advowsons, corporate, sold, 215. 
 
 Ady, William, 18. 
 
 African trade lifeboat, 409. 
 
 Agricultural shows, Royal, 258, 502 ; 
 Bath and West of England, 409. 
 
 Agricultural Society, 348. 
 
 Albert dock, 524. 
 
 Albion Chambers, 270. 
 
 Alhambra music-hall, 458. 
 
 Allen, Bishop, 227. [216. 
 
 Almondsbury, rectory, 56 ; estate at. 
 
 Almshouses: Bengough's, 79; Foster's, 
 235,381; Haberfield's, 481 ; Hills', 
 428 ; St. James's, 295 ; Miles's, 310 ; 
 Spencer's, 332 ; Tailors', 311 ; Trin- 
 ity, 234; Dr. White's, 106,524. [329. 
 
 Amateur theatricals (C. Dickens & Co.), 
 
 America, peace, 62 ; steam to, 218, 458. 
 
 Ames, Aid. Levi, charity, 88. 
 
 Amos, Isaac, 311. 
 
 Amusements, lack of, 3 ; brutal, 68 ; 
 Easter, 97. 
 
 Antiquities: Bewell'sCross, 134; Castle 
 well, 508 ; vaulted cellars, 362 ; city 
 wall, 309 ; coins, 73 ; chapel. High 
 Street, 321 ; chapel, Nicholas Street, 
 288; Canynges' tomb, 260; St. 
 George's chapel, 254 ; seal of Henry 
 VIII., 259; tomb, St. James's, 81; 
 St. Lawrence's church, 24 ; St. 
 Leonard's crypt, 324 ; mediaeval 
 buildings, 366, 407, 473; Mayor's 
 Chapel oratory, 110 ; mantelpiece, 
 515 ; minster house, 516 ; Roman 
 gravestone, 475 ; Roman lead, 423 ; 
 Roman villas, 246 ; tombs, St. 
 Stephen's, 275 ; White Lodge, 441. 
 
 Arcades, the, 110. 
 
 Archaeological Congresses, 326, 480. 
 
 Archffiologiual Society, Bristol, 485. 
 
 Armourer, The, 417. 
 
 Armoury, the, 23, 60, 133, 140, 174. 
 
 Arno'3 Court, 319 ; Vale, 226, 426. 
 
 Art, indifference towards, 287, 383. 
 
 Ash, Richard, 231, 270. 
 
 Ashley Hill, orphanages, 223 ; boiling 
 well, 284 ; Court, 467. 
 
 Ashmead, George, 384, 496, 531. 
 
 Ashton, Long, common, 45; ghastly 
 story, 100 ; Roman villa, 240. 
 
 Ashton Gate, 413, 45(). 
 
 Assembly Rooms, Mall, 33; old City, 
 39 ; Prince's Street, 48. 
 
 Assizes, criminal, granted, 418 ; new 
 court, 418. [441. 
 
 Asylum, Lunatic, 346 ; Roman Catholic, 
 
 Athenaeum, 288, 356. 
 
 Avon: unimproved state, 1, 13; New 
 Cut, 15 ; perils of, 358 ; proposed 
 dockisation, 359, 496-7, 502 ; altera- 
 tion of mouth, 386 ; proposed deepen- 
 ing, 395 ; removal of points, 250, 
 411 ; old tea gardens, 397, 412 ; 
 power for electric purposes, 513 ; 
 destruction of scenery, 265, 397. 495. 
 
 Avonmonth pier, 386 ; ritle range, 365 ; 
 and see Docks. 
 
 Back Street, 356, 479. 
 
 Badminton, the Council at, 338. 
 
 Baillie, Evan, 18, 21, 30, 51; Hugh, 
 82 ; James Evan, 88, 137, 142, 185, 
 188, 203, 423. r434. 
 
 Baily, Edward Hodges, R.A.. 109, 277, 
 
 Baker, William, 318, 319, 343. 
 
 Baker, William Proctor, 261, 421, 470, 
 
 Baker's Road, 319. [495-8. 
 
 Baldwin Street, 270, 275 ; New, 479. 
 
 Balloon, perilous voyage, 40. [477. 
 
 Ballot, a test, 449; first election by, 
 
 Bankes, Edward. 94, 429. 
 
 Bankruptcy Court, 449. 
 
 Banks : Tolzey, 84 ; Bullion, 112 ; old 
 firms, 113, 438; Miles & Co. and 
 Old Bank, 494 ; Stuckey's, 324 ; West 
 of England, 201, 278, 340, 505 ; Bank 
 of England, 120,275 ; circulation of 
 local, 278 ; South Western, 461 ; 
 Bristol, 526. 
 
 Baptist Mills, floods, 488, 520. 
 
 Baring, Bishop, 349. 358, 370. 
 
 Barracks, pro])osed, 10 ; Horlield, 266 ; 
 Hotwella, 356. 
 
 Barrow, John, 109. 
 
 S39
 
 5i0 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Barrs Street, 295. 
 
 Bartholomew lands, the, 126, 23i. 
 
 Barton Alley, 295. 
 
 Barton Hill, 456 ; playground, 520. 
 
 Barton Regis Union, 493, 528. 
 
 Bath, 11, 53 note, 75, 77, 173, 190, 
 270, 446. 
 
 Baths, Turkish, 249 ; public, 309 ; 
 Victoria, 311. [50, 55. 
 
 Bathurst, Charles Bragge, 8, 18, 80, 
 
 Bathurst Basin, 16. [532. 
 
 Beach, Sir Michael Edward Hicks, 531, 
 
 Beacons, war, 22. 
 
 Beale, John William, executed, 855. 
 
 Beatrice, Princess, present to, 532. 
 
 Beaufort, Duchess of, 405, 420. 
 
 Beaufort, Dukes of, 199, 338, 437. 
 
 Beaven, Rev. Alfred Beaven, 212 note. 
 
 Beckwith, Major, 171. 
 
 Beddoe, Dr. John, F.R. S. , 485, 516, 530. 
 
 Beddoes, Dr. Thomas, 8, 268, 334 note. 
 
 Bedminster: included in borough, 185, 
 526; in city, 208; and in diocese, 
 293 ; union, 200 ; volunteers, 21 ; 
 yeomanry, 171, 824 ; revels, 97 ; 
 body - snatching, 99 ; poor relief 
 abuses, 188 ; springs at, 284 ; sani- 
 tary defects, 313 ; sewage, 316 ; 
 parish church, 830 ; reredos dispute, 
 331 ; tramway, 463 ; trees planted, 
 476 ; branch librarv, 477 ; parks, 
 519, 520; floods, 520; local taxa- 
 tion, 2U1. 
 
 Beeke, Dean, 95. 
 
 Belcher, Thomas, 57. 
 
 Belleviie, 10. 
 
 Benedictines, mock, 413. 
 
 Bengough, Henry. 37 ; almshouse, 79. 
 
 Bere, Montague, 298. 
 
 Berkeley, Francis Henry Fitzhardingo, 
 239, 256, 295, 304, 324, 331, 347, 
 352, 363, 368, 372, 382, 411, 421, 
 435, 442, 449. 
 
 Berkeley S(juare, 409. 
 
 Beweil's Cro.ss, 134. 
 
 Bicycles invented, 270. 
 
 Binghiim, John, 403. 
 
 Bird, Edward, K.A., 86. 
 
 Birkiu, Abraliam, charity, 483. 
 
 Bishopric, income of, 55, 227 ; united 
 to Gloucester, 227, 349 ; restoration 
 of see, 349, 492. 
 
 Bisliops, list of, 536 ; rapid succession 
 of, 56. 
 
 Bisliop's palace burnt, 161, 181 ; site 
 sold, 228 note ; new, at Stnpletoii, 
 228 ; sold, 362. 1321, 352. 
 
 BishojiH, Roman Catholic, 199, 307, 
 
 BiKh()|iHt()n church, 307, 358. 
 
 Bisscil, James Broad, 531. 
 
 Bitton, 48 note, 424. 
 
 Blackboy Hill, 314, 479, 504. 
 
 Black Castle, 319. 
 
 Black-rock quarry, 494. 
 
 Blind Asylum, 202. 
 
 Blisset, Charles, 294. 
 
 Blomberg, Rev. Frederick WiUiam, 92 ; 
 ghost story, 93. 
 
 Blue Ribbon movement, 517. 
 
 Bodies, stealing dead, 99. 
 
 Boiling well, 284. 
 
 Bonaparte, fall of, 60. 
 
 Bonville, Thomas, charity, 78. 
 
 Borough, parliamentary, 185,526; di- 
 vided, 526. 
 
 Borough rate imposed, 216. 
 
 Bowling greens, 4 ; in Pithay, 40. 
 
 Bowriug, Edgar, 440. 
 
 Boyce's Buildings, battle of, 883. 
 
 Bragge, Charles, see Bathurst, 
 
 Brandon Hill, 292, 354. 
 
 Branwhite, Charles, 287, 509. 
 
 Bread, high prices, 6, 42 ; Bread Con- 
 cern, 8. 
 
 Brean Down forts, 391 ; harbour, 414. 
 
 Brereton, Lieut. -Col. Thomas, 153 et 
 seq. 111. 
 
 Bribery, actions for, 240. 
 
 " Bribery Box," 186. 
 
 Brice, William, 481. 
 
 Brickdale, Matthew, 110. 
 
 Bridewell, state of 66 ; burnt, 158 ; 
 rebuilt, 205 ; sold, 469. 
 
 Bridewell Lane, 206, 295. 
 
 Bridges : Bedminster, 511; Drawbridge, 
 78, 121, 435 ; Bristol, 291, 385 ; 
 Hill's, 27, 342; St. Philip's, 240; 
 St. Philip's Marsh, 531; Prince's 
 Street,491 ; Stone, 292 ; Froom,505 ; 
 proposed, at Rcdcliff, 278 ; suspen- 
 sion, 131. 229, 375. 
 
 Bridge-valley Road, 84. 
 
 Briellat, John, 42. 
 
 Bright, Henry, 23; Henry, 88, 116; 
 Richard, 134, 188 ; Robert, 188, 189, 
 298, 301-2, 386, 396. 
 
 Brigstock estate, 372. 
 
 British Association, 228, 486. 
 
 Brittan, Meshach, 236. 
 
 Broad gauge railways, 191, 246. 
 
 Broadmead, Rooms, 251 ; trees in, 90. 
 
 Broad Street, 9, 109, 270, 275 ; barriers 
 in, lOS. 
 
 Broiid Weir playground, 5 P.). 
 
 Broughton, Lord, 203, 445. 
 
 Browne, Cavanagh .t Co., failure, 112. 
 
 Brunei, Isambard Kingdom, 131, 189, 
 192, 21H, 222, 216, 276, 278, 291, 
 326, 359, .397, 420. 
 
 Brunswick Square, 378.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 541 
 
 ISruton, Leonard, 302. 
 
 Buckingham spring, 281. 
 
 Building mania, elitcts of, 512. 
 
 Bull-baiting, G8. 
 
 Bulldoij steamer, 527. 
 
 Burges, Daniel, 214 ; Daniel, jun., 
 214 note, 481 ; Daniel Travers, 481. 
 
 Burgess, Bishop, 321. [447. 
 
 Burgesses, number of, 185,530; female. 
 
 Burial grounds, 220, 315, 420 ; closed, 
 337, 350, 458 ; Tabernacle, 523. 
 
 Burke, Edmund, 2'J, 457. [390, 442. 
 
 Bush, Henry, 193, 295; Eobert, 304, 
 
 Butler, Bishop, memorial, 487. 
 
 Buxton, [Sir] T. F., on the gaol, 07. 
 
 Byron, Lady, 297. 
 
 Cabmen's Rests, 481. 
 
 Caldicott, Bev. John Wm., D.D., 307. 
 
 Caley, Rev. Robert Llewellyn, 308, 379. 
 
 Canadian trophy, 508. 
 
 Canals, Kennct and Avon, 41 ; pro- 
 posed, 42, 45. 
 
 Canning, Thomas, 400, 479. 
 
 Canons, number of, 227 ; honorary, 
 258; minor, 309 ; marsh, 529. 
 
 Canynges' Society, 200 ; mansion, 514 ; 
 tomb, 200. 
 
 Cardiff, rival steamers to, 320. [92. 
 
 Caroline, Queen, sympathy with, 89, 
 
 Carpenter, Dr. Lant, 100 ; Mary, 
 290-8 ; Dr. Alfred, 533. 
 
 Carriages, see Coaches. 
 
 Carrick, Andrew, M.D., 71, 84, 140. 
 
 Carter, Rev. Eccles C, 308. 
 
 Castle Mill, 110 ; well in, 508. 
 
 Castle, Robert, 23 ; Michael, 397. 
 
 Cathedral : lectern sold, 18 ; new, 379 ; 
 altars found, 91 ; remarkable ser- 
 mons, 92, 127 ; neglected services, 
 95 ; intoning suspended, 308 ; par- 
 tial restorations, 200, 250, 309 ; 
 relics of old naves, 345, 429 ; Prince 
 of Wales at, 349 ; central tower, 
 370, 430 ; restoration of nave, 429. 
 490; north porch, 488; Minster house, 
 510 ; Abbey gate, 510 ; towers, 487. 
 
 Cathedral Grammar School, 480. 
 
 Cathedral, Romanist Pro-, 199, 321. 
 
 " Catholic Question," the, 127, 128. 
 
 Cattle. American, trade in, 458. 
 
 Cattle Market, 123, 478 ; suspended 
 during plague, 424. 
 
 " Caucus," the, 500. 
 
 Cave, Right Hon. Stephen, 484. 
 
 Caverns at Redcliff, 426. 
 
 Cemcteri.'s, Arno's Vale, 220. 421',; 
 Greenbank, 457. [457, 514. 
 
 Census, 9, 42, 91, 143, 256, 324, 381, 
 
 Census, religious, 514. 
 
 Chain, mayor's, 126. 
 
 Chairing members, 52, 09, 143. 
 
 Chamber of Commerce, 103, 115, 30), 
 327, 430, 495-7. 
 
 Chambers, George Henry, 477. 
 
 Champion, Richard, 457. 
 
 Cbannel (Bristol) forts, 391 ; tunnel, 
 415. 
 
 Chapels : Arley, 344 ; Bethesda, 223 ; 
 Bridge Street, 443 : Brunswick, 205 ; 
 Buckingham, 303 ; City Road, 372 ; 
 Clifton Down, 443 ; Cotham (irove, 
 458 ; Counterslip, 435 ; Prcnch, 113; 
 Grenville, 130; Highbury, 270; 
 Irvingite (St. Mary's, R.C.),250, 270, 
 350 ; St. Joseph's, R.C., 350 ; Lang- 
 ton Street, 143; Lewin's Mead, 27, 
 43 ; Oaklield Road, 414 ; Pembroke, 
 433 ; Presbyterian, 370 ; Quakers', 
 202, 262; Redland Park, mH ; D. 
 Thomas Memorial, 513; Trinity, 433 ; 
 Tyndale, 441 ; Victoria, 408, Ziou, 
 130. 
 
 Charities, see Almshouses. Ames's, 
 88; Bartholomew lands, 126, 234; 
 Birkin's, 483 ; BonviUe's, 78 ; Cod- 
 rington's, 234 ; Dimsdale's, 275 ; 
 Gist's, 61 ; Loan Bloney, 127, 453 ; 
 Ludlow's, 444 ; minor, 236; Owen's, 
 235 ; parochial, misapplied, 256 ; 
 St. Nicholas', 355 ; Peloiiuiu's, 453 ; 
 Phillips', 529 ; Sir T. White's, 81 ; 
 value of local, 472. 
 
 Charity Commission, 90, 233, 472. 
 
 Charity Trustees, 231, 236, 239, 257, 
 278, 452. 
 
 Charleton, Robert, 338. 
 
 Charlotte, Queen, 77 ; Princess, 68. 
 
 Charters, city, 38, 54. 
 
 Chartism, 239, 246. 
 
 Chatterton monument, 249, 258 ; 
 poems, 268. 
 
 Children's Hospital, 420, 477. 
 
 China, Bristol, 457. 
 
 Cholera visitations, 180, 313, 316, 340. 
 
 Christmas Steps, 348, 381. 
 
 Church Congress, 412. 
 
 Church Rates, 238, 380, 405. 
 
 Churches, old: All Saints', 31, 272, 
 335 ; Christ Church, 8, 216 ; St. 
 George's chapel, 23, 254 ; St. James', 
 81, 216, 327, 414; St. John's, 24, 
 127, 216, 373, 410 ; St. Lawrence, 
 24 ; St. Leonard's, 324 ; St. Mark's 
 (Mayor's) chapel, 101 ; St. Mary-le- 
 port, 59, 484 ; St. Mary Redcliff, 258, 
 259, 335, 378, 426 ; St. Michael's, 
 216; St. Paul's, 210; St. Peter's, 
 210; St. Philip's, 210; St. Stephen's, 
 275, 373; Temple, 210; St. Wer- 
 burgh's, 459.
 
 542 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Churches, new : St. Agnes, 414, 517 ; 
 All Saints', Clifton, 413 ; St. An- 
 drew's, Montpelier, 288; St. Andrew- 
 the-Less, 476 ; St. Barnabas, 274 ; 
 St. Bartholomew, 380 ; Blind Asy- 
 lum, 202 ; Christ Church, Chfton, 
 257, 482; Christ Church, Barton 
 Hill, 517; St. Clement's, 344; Em- 
 manuel, Clifton, 433; Emmanuel, 
 S. Philip's, 396 ; S. Francis, 413, 517; 
 St. Gabriel's, 450 ; St. George's, 83, 
 216; Hensmau memorial, 366 ; Holy 
 Nativity, 45!) 517; S.James-the-Less, 
 437 ; St. John's, 254 ; St. Jude's, 
 3U4 ; St. Lawrence, 517 ; St. Luke's, 
 Barton Hill, 274 ; St. Luke's, Bed- 
 minster, 380, 408 ; St. Mark's 304 ; 
 St. Mary's, 424 ; St. Mary's, Stoke 
 Bishop, 344, 462 ; St. Matthew's, 
 204; St. Matthew's, Moorfields, 
 472, 517; St. Matthias, 253, 319; 
 St. Michael's, Bedminster, 517 ; 
 St. Michael's, Bishopston, 358 ; 
 St. Nathanael's, 467 ; St. Paul's, 
 Clifton, 337 ; St. Paul's, Bedmin- 
 ster, 130; St. Peter's, Clifton, 345; 
 St. Kaphael's, 340 ; St.Savioi:r, 421, 
 518; St. Silas, 428. 437; St. Simon's, 
 304 ; Trinity, Hotwells, 130 ; Trin- 
 ity, St. Philip's, 130, 216; St. Wer- 
 bur^'h's, Miiia Road, 461. 
 
 Churchyards. 226, 315, 337, 458 ; 
 gardens, 507. 
 
 Chute, John Henry, 432. 
 
 City; boundaries, 185,208, 526; extent 
 of, 292; claims three M.P.s, 435, 
 437 ; divided, 526. 
 
 City Boad, 372. 
 
 Clare Street, strange scene in, 424. 
 
 Claxton, Christopher, 145, 148. 
 
 Clergy, old-fashioned, 93, 184, 206, 289. 
 
 Clevedon, 40 note, 411 ; railway, 286. 
 
 Clifford, Bishop, 352 ; Eev. John 
 Bryant, 289, 356. 
 
 Clift House, 491. 
 
 Clifton : included in the borough, 185 ; 
 included in tlie city, 208 ; poor law 
 union, 200, 278, 493 ; its village con- 
 dition, 2, 10, 53, 71, 72, 83, 84, 343 ; 
 enclosures of common land 45, 317 ; 
 assembly rooms, 33, 320 ; squabbles 
 in " society," 320 ; churchyards, 47, 
 458; cliurch rebuilt, pew system, 
 98, 405; bells, 443; first fly, 116 
 note; haymaking in, 343 ; Improve- 
 ment Association, 310; local taxa- 
 tion, 201, 4:f2; libraries, 477; pro- 
 posed marlfcts, 322 ; observatory, 
 124 ; poor law abuses, 187 ; roads, 
 84, 198; sanitary defects, 312-5; 
 
 Subscription Rooms, 353 ; street 
 
 watering, 382 ; female voters, 447 ; 
 
 volunteers, 21 ; water supply, 45, 
 
 281, 284 ; watching and lighting, 84, 
 
 315; workhouse, 278. 
 Clifton College, 373, 451 ; cadets, 382 ; 
 
 mission, 443. 
 Clifton Down, 97, 124, 281, 310, 317, 
 
 purchased by the city, 318 ; roads, 
 
 319 ; quarries, 412, 495 ; tunnel, 
 
 454. 
 Clifton Wood, 372, 477 ; road, 352 ; 
 
 park. 423. 
 Clock, Exchange, 89. 
 Clubs, volunteer, 390 ; literary, 144 ; 
 
 Bristol, 488. 
 Coaches, slow speed, 3, 12 note, 84 ; 
 
 steam, 121, 332; kite, 122; last 
 
 stage, 191, 276, Bush office, 274. 
 Coal, excessive price of, 467. 
 Cockburn, Sir Alexander, 298. [164. 
 Codrington, [Sir] Christopher William, 
 Coffee House, Forster's, 109. 
 Coinage, debased state of, 73 ; new, 74. 
 Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 267. 
 Colleges: Bristol, 140; Bishop's, 141, 
 
 202, 390; Chfton, 373, 382, 443, 
 
 451 ; University, 474. 
 Collier, Sir Robert, 298. 
 Colston, Edward, his remains (?), 272 ; 
 
 "house," 419; cup, 484 ; proposed 
 
 monument, 378, 487 ; Charles Ed- 
 ward H. A., 531. 
 Colston Hall, 389. 
 Colston's School, 86, 491 ; estates, 261 ; 
 
 removed, 362 ; reorganised, 450 ; 
 
 boys' dress, 485. 
 Colston Street, 422, 441. 
 Combinations, trade, 63. 
 Commercial Rooms, 32, 44, 87, 462. 
 Commons, inclosure of, 45. 
 Companies, trading, 91 note ; 311. 
 Compensation (Riots) Act, 181, 215. 
 Conservative banquet, 437. 
 Convents, 200, 296, 319, 441, 516. 
 Conviviality, old habits of, 4, 30, 78, 
 
 87, 92. 
 Cook, Rev. Flavel Smith, 482. 
 Cook's Folly, 25, 344. 
 Copley, Sir John Singleton, 118. 
 Corn, enormous price of, 6; tax on, 
 
 62, 295. 
 Corn Market, 50, Hi ; Street, 462. 
 Cornwall, now trade with, 238. 
 Cornwallis Crescent, 10. 
 Coronation Road, 98. 
 Corporation, old: lethargy of, 2, 11; 
 
 pension systi^m, 11, 85, 110, 196; 
 
 gifts of wine, 27 ; end of Whig ruin 
 
 in, 36; costly feasts, 31, 35, 69;
 
 INDEX. 
 
 inordinate salaries, 36, 37, 90; re- 
 fusals to servo in, 13, 36, 38 ; ex- 
 pensive (lopiitations, 25, 61, 62, 68 ; 
 persecution of McAdam, 64 ; non- 
 resident justicps, 68, 196 ; excessive 
 port charges, 103, 115, 193 ; insolence 
 of its claims, 104 ; town dues re- 
 duced, 105, 194 ; quo warranto 
 against, 114 ; prosecutes Acland, 
 119 ; robes, 120 ; heavy debts, 125 ; 
 extravagent gifts, 126 ; dealings with 
 charity funds, 126, 232 ; new mansion 
 house, 134, 183; its claims after 
 riots, 180 ; accounts published, 180 ; 
 expenditure alter riots, 184 ; day 
 police, 187 ; condemned by Royal 
 Commissioners, 195-7 ; opposes Cor- 
 porations Reform Bill, 207 ; its last 
 meeting, 209 note ; its treatment of 
 City Library, 333. 
 Corporation, reformed : extended 
 boundaries, 208 ; new and old 
 systems, 208; representation of 
 wards, 209, 430 ; first elections, 210 ; 
 selection of aldermen, 211, 342, 534 ; 
 and of mayor, 213 ; retrenchment, 
 214 ; sales of property, 215 ; borough 
 rate, 216 ; new magistrates, 217 ; 
 Charity Trustees, 231 ; litigation re- 
 specting charities, 237 et seq. ; treat- 
 ment of dissent, 252 ; water supply 
 of city, 280 ; port charges, 286, 309 ; 
 purchase of dock, 249, 294, 299; 
 Health Acts applied, 315, 417 ; pur- 
 chase of Downs, 318; complaints of 
 party spirit, 342; lunatic asylum, 
 346 ; case of Mr.Greville Smytb,355; 
 opposes Channel docks, 302, 396 ; 
 vote to Portishead, 400,511 ; Harbour 
 Railway, 426 ; local taxation, 432 ; 
 School Board, 454 ; the story of St. 
 Werburgh's, 400; tramways, 462; 
 free library, 333, 476 ; sewerage, 316, 
 531 ; the battle of the docks, 495 ; 
 bounties to merchants, 496 ; re- 
 action against corporate policy, 499 ; 
 an arrangement, 499 ; purchase of 
 rival docks, 500 ; corporate debt, 507; 
 Police Bills, 5 14 ; new parks, etc. ,519 ; 
 Tabernacle cemetery,523 ; dry docks, 
 524-5 ; action against Gas Co., 525 ; 
 dock improvements, 529. 
 Cossham, Handel, 531, 533. 
 Cotham, uulighted, 303, 313; Road, 
 
 134, 352 ; Park, 296 ; Tower, 296. 
 Cottle, Joseph, 26, 267. 
 Cotton factories, 237 ; famine, 394. 
 Council House rebuilt, 108 ; attacked, 
 
 154. 
 County Court Judges, 303. 
 
 Court of Conscience, 255, 303 ; Pie- 
 poudre, 230, 524. 
 Cow Street, 422. 
 Cradles, silver, 108, 520. 
 Cricketers, local, 377. 
 Crime, excessive, 7. 
 Crinoline, 384. 
 
 Cross, High, 308; Bewell's, 134. 
 Crowder, Richard Budden, 298. 
 Cruger, Henry, 110,340. 
 Cumberland Basin, 15, 22, 55, 278, 
 
 411, 508; Road, 77. 
 Cunningham, .Tames, 188, 231. 
 Curfew, the, 461 note. 
 Curnock, James, 322. 
 Custom House burnt, 165, 181 ; rebuilt, 
 
 237. 
 Customs, strange law, 118 ; political 
 
 patronage, 256, 294. 
 Cut, New, 15. 
 Cyprian, Brother, 413. 
 Dcedalus training ship, 378. 
 Daniel, Thomas, 37, 149, 175, 188, 
 
 203, 211, 213. 
 Davis, Richard Hart, 50, 51, 82, 87, 
 
 116, 137, 142, 186. 
 Davy, [Sir] Humphry, 268. 
 Dead bodies stolen, 99. 
 Deaf and Dumb Asylum, 257. 
 Dean and Chapter estates, 392, 480. 
 Deanery, 379 ; Road, 422, 447. 
 Deans, list of, 536 ; Dr. Layard, 19 ; 
 Dr. Beeke, 95. [303. 
 
 Dearth, national, 6, 42, 73 note ; Irish, 
 Debt, prisoners for, 66, 448 ; charity, 
 
 453 ; of the city, 507. 
 Defence, ironclad, visit, 411. 
 Demerara. stranded, 327. 
 Deodands, law of, 107. 
 Dickens, Charles, 329, 356. 
 Dimsdale, Ann, charity, 275. 
 Dinner bills, old, 30, 78. 
 Diocese, see Bishopric. 
 Dix, John Ross, 220 note. 
 Dock office, new, 532. 
 Dockisation of Avon, 359, 495-6, 502. 
 Docks, Bristol, projects for, 13 ; oppo- 
 sition to, 14 ; tax on city, 14 ; cost 
 of works, 15 ; comi:)letion of, 16 ; 
 heavy taxation, 17, 103, 194, 286, 
 299 ; viandavtus against Co., 117 ; 
 Great Wisteni steamer, 220 ; pro- 
 posals to purchase, 249, 294, 299 ; 
 transferred to city, 300; reduction 
 of dues, 300 ; effects, 302 ; insuf- 
 ficiency of, 358 ; agitation for ex- 
 tensions, 359 ; dues reduced to pre- 
 vent im]U'ovements, 362; reversal 
 of this policy, 395 ; new locks, 411 ; 
 consequences of rival docks, 495 ;
 
 >44 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 bounties on goods landed in city, 496 ; 
 this policy forbidden by law courts, 
 498 ; arrangement effected, 499 ; the 
 dock estates united, 500 ; effects on 
 trade, 501 ; improvements, 529, 532. 
 
 Docks, Avonmouth : pier and railway, 
 38(5 ; dock projected, 396-8 ; chief 
 promoters, 400 ; completed and 
 opened, 401 ; rivalry with city docks, 
 495 ; treatment of directors, 495 ; 
 bitter struggle, 496 ; arrangement 
 and purchase by Council, 499; dis- 
 tribution of assets, 5Ul ; improve- 
 ments, 529. 
 
 Docks, Portishead : early projects, 221, 
 396 ; pier and railway, 398 ; dock 
 projected, 399 ; promoters, 400 ; 
 Council grants a subsidy, 400; works 
 completed, 402 ; rivalry with city 
 docks, 495 ; conduct of corporate 
 directors, 497 ; bitter struggle, 496 ; 
 arrangement and purchase by 
 Council, 499 ; distribution of assets, 
 
 Docks, Green's and Albert, 523. [ 529 
 
 Dod, John Woodwell, 487, 511. 
 
 Dolphin Society, 515. [516. 
 
 Draper, Sir William, liis monuments, 
 
 Dredger, powerful, 529. 
 
 Drill Hall, Rifles', 390, 437. 
 
 Drinking customs, 4, 30, 78, 85, 87, 
 92 ; decline of, 450. 
 
 Drinking fountains, 365, 469. 
 
 Droughts, great, 283, ib., 410. 
 
 Duels, 31, 32, 34, 236; intended, 145, 
 213, 294, 324. [386. 
 
 Dunball island, 361 ; disappearance of, 
 
 Dundas, Charles A. Whitley, 413. 
 
 Durdham Down : pugilism on, 97 ; 
 races, 127 ; cavern, 265 ; reservoir, 
 282 ; encroachments, 317 ; pur- 
 chased by city, 318 ; roads, 319 ; 
 quarries, 412. 
 
 Eagles, Rev. John, 78, 87, 176. 
 
 Eales, Charles Thomas, 425. 
 
 Early Closing Association, 288. 
 
 Earthcott, Gaunt's, estate, 216. 
 
 East India trade, opening of, 50. 
 
 Eaton, Joseph, 145. [482. 
 
 Ecclesiastical Court, local, 245, 269, 
 
 Eden, Sir Fred. M., 18 ; Rev. Jolm, 140. 
 
 Edgar, Jolin Foy, 26. 
 
 Edgcworth, Rev. Francis, 163, 199. 
 
 Education, low state of, 4, 230, 350, 
 455. 
 
 Edwards, George Oldham, 423; George 
 William, 479, 493; W. H., 423. 
 
 Election, Municipal, first, 210. 
 
 Elections, cost of, 52, 13H, lUi ; litera- 
 turn of, 'i56 ; action of vestries at, 
 196, 266. 
 
 Elections, Parliamentary (1801), 8 
 (1802), 18; (1806), 30; (1812), 50 
 (ib.), 51; (18181, 82; (1820), 87 
 (1826), 116; (1830), 137; (1831) 
 142 ; (1832), 185 ; (1835), 203 
 (1837), 239; (1841), 256; (1847) 
 303; (1852), 331; (1857), 352 
 (1859), 368; (1865), 421; (1868) 
 440; (do.), 442; (1870), 449; (do.) 
 450; (1874), |477; (1878), 506 ; (1880) 
 509; (1885), 530 ; (1886|, 532. 
 
 Elections, petitions against, (1812), 52 ; 
 (1818), 82; (1830), 138; (1832), 186; 
 (1837), 239; (1868|,440; (1870), 449. 
 
 Electric light, the, 405, 512, 522. 
 
 Electric telegraphs, 325, 392, 448. 
 
 Ellicott, Bishop, 340,404. 459,482, 516. 
 
 Elliott, Dean, 429, 489, 515. 
 
 Endowed Schools Commission, 450. 
 
 Fair, St. James's, 187, 242. 
 
 Fairfax Street, 353. 
 
 Famine, 6, 42, 73 note ; Irish, 303. 
 
 Fargus, Frederick John, 528. 
 
 Ferney Close, 383. 
 
 Fine Arts Academy, 286. 
 
 Finzel, Courad William, 223, 435 ; re- 
 finery, 436. 
 
 Fire offices, local, 81; fire reels, 372 ; 
 brigade,484,493; floating engine, 525. 
 
 Fires: Old Mill, Hotwells, 184; Old 
 Castle Inn, 274 ; Cider House Pas- 
 sage, 366 ; Canynges' house, 514 ; 
 Christmas Street, 491 ; Fuidge's 
 sugar house, 368 ; St. George's 
 church, 506 ; Leigh church, 305 ; 
 music hall, 458 ; St. Paul's church, 
 337. 
 
 Fish, bounty for, 6 ; tolls on* 195. 
 
 Fisher, Robert Alexander, 303. 
 
 Fishponds, racreation ground at, 479 ; 
 college, 311. 
 
 Fitch, Joshua Girling, 450. 
 
 Floating Harbour, sec Docks ; frozen 
 over, 42, 59 ; sewage in, 78, 117, 312 ; 
 tight rope feat, 258; explosion in, 319. 
 
 Floods, great, 33, 488, 520. 
 
 Flour and Bread Concern, 8. 
 
 Flys established, 115. 
 
 Ford, James, 38S, 390, 397, 400, 431. 
 
 Foresters' Hall, 458. 
 
 Forlorn Ilojie estate, 355. 
 
 Formidithle training ship, 444. 
 
 Fortifications of Severn, 391. 
 
 " Four Hundred," the, 506. 
 
 Fowler, James, 61. 
 
 Fox, Francis Frederick, 312, 499. 
 
 Freemasons' halls, 70, 421). 
 
 Freemen : lines on admission, 38 ; 
 number of, 1H5, 530. 
 
 Freemen, honorary : George, Prince of
 
 INDEX. 
 
 545 
 
 Wales, Duke of Suffolk, and Duke of 
 Gloucester, 31 ; Duke of Cumber- 
 land, 22; George Canninf,', 111; 
 Earl of Eldon, 129; Sir Francis 
 Freeling, 124 ; Lord Grenville, 35 ; 
 Earl of Liverpool, 111; Duke of 
 Wellington, G9. 
 
 Free Port Association, 298, 301 ; holi- 
 day, 301. 
 
 Fremantle, Sir Thos. F., 249 ; Thos. 
 F., 421. 
 
 French chapel, 113. [139. 
 
 French prisoners, 22, 31 ; prison sold, 
 
 Fripp, William, 82, 119, 207, 213, 234, 
 239, 256, 304, 331 ; Edward Bowles, 
 244; Charles Bowles, 230, 334; 
 Samuel Charles, 422. [522. 
 
 Froom, river, 291, 313, 353, 488, 520, 
 
 Frosts, great, 42, 59. 
 
 Fry, Sir Edward (Lord Justice), 141 ; 
 Lewis, 400, 455, 494, 506, 509, 531-3; 
 Francis, 423 ; Richd., 397, 400, 423. 
 
 Fuidge, Richard, 400, 432. 
 
 Gallows Acre Lane, 84, 428. 
 
 Gallows Field, 134. 
 
 Gaol, horrors of old, 65-7 ; new, 67, 468. 
 
 Gardens, public, 423. 
 
 Gardiner, Allen, 341. 
 
 Garrard, Thomas, 80, 102, 348. 
 
 Gas introduced, 42 ; history of com- 
 pany, 43, 467; Oil Gas Co., 44; 
 price of, 525. 
 
 Gateways, St. John's, 24 ; Temple, 32 ; 
 Abbey, 516. 
 
 Gauge of railways, 191, 246. 
 
 Gay, George, 204. 
 
 Geographical phenomenon, 386. 
 
 Geological discoveries, 249, 265. 
 
 George IIL, 25, and Bristol elections, 
 29 ; Jubilee, 34 ; statue of, 35. 
 
 George IV. proclaimed, 87 ; corona- 
 tion, 91. 
 
 George, James, 108 ; Christopher, 212; 
 William Edwards, 520. 
 
 Georg -'s, St., chapel, 254 ; church, 506 ; 
 road, 352 ; tramway, 464 ; included 
 in borough, 526. 
 
 Ghost, Blomberg's, 93 ; at Long Ash- 
 ton, 100. 
 
 Gibbs, Antony, 493, 517 ; James, 332 ; 
 Sir Vicary, 39, 54, 80. 
 
 Gifford, Lord, 81, 118, 136. 
 
 Gipsij steamer stranded, 478. 
 
 Girdiestone, Canon, 342, 355, 429, 515. 
 
 Gist, Samuel, his charity, 61. 
 
 Gladstone, Wra. Ewart, 493. 
 
 Gloucester, 393, 510. 
 
 Gloucestershire, land added to, 386. 
 
 Goldney, Samuel, 168. 
 
 Goodenough, Dr. John Joseph, 47, 508. 
 
 Goodere murder, the, 409. 
 Goodeve, Henry Hurry, 344, 399. 
 Goodhind estate, 436. 
 Gore, Lieut. -Col. William, 21, 60, 61. 
 Government oflices, patronage of, 256, 
 
 294. [378. 
 
 Grace, E. M. and W. G., 377 ; G. F, 
 Grammar School, perversion of, 46 ; 
 
 funds of, 106, 235, 453 ; headmasters, 
 
 340, 367, 508 ; reorganised, 451 ; new 
 
 school. 508. 
 Graving docks, 524, 525, 529. 
 Gray, Bishop, 95, 140, 161, 181, 20G. 
 Great Britain steamship, 219, 271. 
 Great Western Cotton Works, 237,274, 
 
 394. 
 Great Western Steamship Co., 218, 
 
 271 ; (second), 458. [458. 
 
 Great Western, the, 218, 221 ; (second), 
 Greaves, Rev. Talbot A. L. G., 406. 
 Greenbank cemetery, 457. 
 Green's dock, 523. 
 Grenville, Lord, 35. 
 Gridiron, 525. 
 Griffith, Edward, 90. 
 Grove, trees on the, 90. [510. 
 
 Guardhouse, the, 23, 216; Passage, 
 Guest, Sir Ivor Bertie, 506, 509. 
 Guild of Literature, 329. [255. 
 
 Guildhall rebuilt, 254; scenes in old, 
 Guinea Stieet, 426. 
 Gully, John, 57. [348. 
 
 Gun-boat^, proposed local, 22 ; built, 
 Guppy, Thomas Richard. 189, 218. 
 Gurney's steam coach, 121. 
 Guthrie, John, memorial chapel, 374. 
 Haberfield, Sir John Kerle, 323 ; Lady, 
 
 323, 409, 481. 
 Hall, Rev. Robert, 142. 
 Hampden, John, 417. 
 Harbour of Refuge, proposed, 414. 
 Harbour Railway and wharves, 426. 
 Harbour rate, 14, 518. 
 Harbour Trust Association, 498. 
 Hare, John, 136; Sholto Vere, 449, 
 
 450, 477. 
 Harford, John, 189, 278; Henry 
 
 Charles, 427. 
 Harris, Wintour, 80. 
 Harwood, William. 3S2. 
 Hathway, William, 400. [495. 
 
 Hawkshaw, Sir John, 361, 375, 416, 486, 
 Health, inquiries on, 312, 313 ; Acts 
 
 apphed, 315, 417. 
 Henbury, Lords of, 310, 317, 318; 
 
 common. 45. 
 Hendren, Bishop, 312. 
 Henry VIII., seal of, 259. 
 Hensman, Rev. John, 366. [299. 
 
 Herapath, WiUiam, 149, 161, 173, 204, 
 
 N N
 
 546 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 High Street Improvement, 406. 
 Hilhouse, Abraham, 37, VSi, 158-9, 
 
 171, 363. 
 Hill, Charles, & Sous, 459 ; Matthew 
 
 Devonport, 449 ; Rowland, 245 ; 
 
 Echvard Stock, 531, 533 ; Thomas 
 
 William, 428. 
 Hinton, jDroposed chapel at, 252. 
 Histrionic Club lifeboat, 409. 
 " Hoax, the Bristol," 262. 
 Hobhonse, Sir John Cam (Lord 
 
 Broughton), 203, 445. 
 Hodgson, Kirkman David, 449, 450, 
 
 477. 480, 506. 
 Hogarth, pictures by, 335. 
 Holiday customs, 97 ; weekly half- 
 holiday, 364. 
 Holmes, Steep, 199 ; forts, 391. 
 Homes for destitute children, 297. 
 Honeypen Hill, 199, 322. 
 Hooter, the, 470. 
 Horfield, Manor of, 305 ; barracks, 
 
 266 ; growth of suburb, 307, 381 ; 
 
 pleasure gardens, 379, 468 ; included 
 
 in borough, 526 ; gaol, 469. 
 Horn Fair, 98. 
 Horse parades, 525. 
 Hospital, General, 144 ; children's, 
 
 420, 477. 
 Hospital Sunday, 380. 
 Hotels, Reeves', 30, 163; Bush, 12, 
 
 201, 340; Royal Western, 248; 
 
 Queen's, 330 ; I3ath, 393 ; Imperial, 
 
 502 ; Royal (Clifton), 353 ; Royal 
 
 Gloucester, 356 ; Clifton Down, 393 ; 
 
 White Lion, 404 ; White Hart, 404 ; 
 
 Grand, 404 ; Royal (College Green), 
 
 408 ; St. Vincent's Rocks, 442. 
 Hotwell, new, 280. [357. 
 
 Hotwell Loint, 101, 411; Eoad, 352, 
 Hotwells, rank and fashion at, 71 ; 
 
 decline, 72 ; pump room removed, 
 
 100, 101 ; loss of spring, 101. 
 Houses, ancient, removed, 237, 241, 
 
 270, 275, 288, 406, 409, 420, 459, 524. 
 Houses unoccupied, 1881, 512. [496. 
 Howard, Thomas, 360, 387, 395, 411, 
 Hudson, Dr. Charlew Thomas, 340, 366. 
 Hunt, Henry, 30, 35, 50, 51, 53 note. 
 Illuminations, public, 12, ib., GO, 89, 
 
 92, 143, 144, 212, 349, 405. 
 Imprisonment for debt, 65, 4-18. 
 Improvement Act, first, 250 ; rate 
 
 created, 292 ; schemes, tee names of 
 
 streets. 
 India!) and Cdloriial visitors, 533. 
 Industrial exhibitions, 258, 383,421, 
 
 526; scliooi,279; Dwoliiugs Co., 1H7. 
 Infirmary eiilarKcd, i!8 ; renovated, 
 
 486 ; bequcbt, 310. 
 
 Inland Revenue oflBces, 439. 
 
 Inns, 4 ; Sunday regulations, 347 ; 
 
 restricted hours, 419, 456 ; Angel, 
 
 406 ; Giant's Castle, 241 ; Mulberry 
 
 Tree, 52, 109 ; Old Castle, 274 ; Old 
 
 Globe, 491 ; Plume of Feathers, 404; 
 
 Queen Bess, 288 ; Red Lion, 409 ; 
 
 Rose and Crown, 19 ; Ship, 459 ; 
 
 Three Blackbirds, 54. 
 Inskip, James, 533. 
 Institution, Literary, 107, 425. — 
 Intolerance, outbreak of, 424. 
 Irish packets, 75 ; a long voyage, 76 ; 
 
 vagrants, 188 ; and see wrecks. 
 Irvine, Rev. G. M. D'Arcy, 269. 
 Italian exiles, 367. 
 
 Ivyleaf, James, 316. [487. 
 
 Jacob's Wells, 280, 291, 310, 329, 392, 
 Jamaica Street, 423. 
 James II., picture of, 322. 
 James's, St., Fair, 187, 242; Back, 
 
 297, 484 ; Hall, 527. 
 Jenkins, Henry, 482. 
 Jervis, Sir John White, 22. 
 Jessop, William, 13. 
 John's, St., gateway, 24 ; conduit, 410. 
 John's, St., Hole, 25. 
 Jones, Charles, supposed murder, 433 ; 
 
 George, 189 ; Josbua, 233. 
 Jose, Thomas Porter, 365. 
 Judd, James, 532. 
 Juvenile ruffianism, 296, 350. 
 Kaye, Bishop, 95. 
 
 Keinpster, John Mills, 421. [362. 
 
 King, Wui. Poole, 320 ; Richard Poole, 
 Kingdon, Thomas Kingdon, 298. 
 Kinglake, John Alexander, 298. 
 Kingsley, Charles, on riots, 167, 172. 
 King's birthday revels, 87. 
 King's Orchard, 202, ib. 
 King's Square library, 477. 
 Kingswestou estate, 198. 
 Kingswood, lawlessness, 48 ; wages, 
 
 187 ; reformatory, 297. 
 Kites, travelling by, 121. [526. 
 
 Knowh',4.'J9, 473; included in borough, 
 Kion I'liiiz strunded, 478. 
 Lamb, Dean, 308, 309. 
 Lampligliter.s' Hotel, 40. 
 Land 'transport corps, 341. 
 Lane, Henry, 437. 
 Lang, Robert, 287, 335, 365, 479; 
 
 Sam, 508. 
 Langley, John, 80. 
 Langton, Wm. Henry Gore, 331, 352, 
 
 368, 421. 
 Lardner, Dr. Dionysius, 229. 
 Lavington, William Frederick, ;!27. 
 I^aw, lii.shoj), i;)0, 293. 
 Law Ditch, 305.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 547 
 
 Law Library, 410, 42L 
 Lawford's-pate prison, 101, 500. 
 Lawraiice, Theodore, 75. 
 Lawrence, Sir Thomas, 135. 
 Lawrence Hill improvement, 464. 
 Layard, Dean, 19. 
 Lee, Rev. Charles, 46. 
 Leech, Joseph, 110, 255, 280, 204, 357. 
 Leigh, Abbot's, church bui-nt, 305. 
 Leigh Court, Prince of. Wales at, 521. 
 Leigh Down, 73, 132. 
 Leigh Woods, desecration of, 264, 307, 
 
 407 ; murder in, 354 ; Land Co., 408. 
 Leighton, Robert Leighton, 307. 
 Lewin's Mead, 296, 343. 
 Library Society, ,332-5, 425 ; City, his- 
 tory of. 333, 476 ; branches, 476. 
 Licensing Act, 456. 
 Lifeboats, Bristol, 400. 
 Lighthouse erected, 250. 
 Lighting of city, defective, 2, 11, 313, 
 
 315 ; of shops. 4 ; Acts, 28, 84. 
 Lind, Jennv, 304. 
 
 Lippincott,"Sir Henry, 39. [420. 
 
 Liverpool & London & Globe ofiices, 
 Lloyd, Edward John, 303. 
 Loan Money Fund, 127, 453. 
 Local Government Act applied, 417. 
 London freeman, claim of a, 312. 
 Long Ashton, see Ashton. 
 Lover's Walk, 423. 
 Ludlow, Ebenezer, 85, 104, 108, 153-8, 
 
 190, 213 ; Hannah, 444. 
 Lunatic Asylum, 346. 
 Lunell, Samuel, 107. 
 McAdam, James Loudon, 63, 111. 
 Macadamisation, 64. 
 McGeachy, Forster Alleyne, 133, 332. 
 McGhie, — , 401. 
 
 Macgregor, Rev. Sir Charles, 308. 
 Mackworth, [Sir] Digby, 153, 156, 170, 
 Macliver, Peter Stewart, 357. [172. 
 Madan, Rev. George, 341. 
 Magistrates, appointment of, 217. 
 Mauchee, Thomas John, 90, 105,232. 
 Manias, speculative, 111, 112, 280,467. 
 Manilla Hall, 510. 
 Mansion House, 01, 135 ; proposed 
 
 new, 134, 201 ; destroyed, 152-5 ; 
 
 revived, 183 ; suppressed, 214; gift 
 
 of new, 478. 
 Man-trap, thief in a, 10. 
 Mardyke Wharf, 357. 
 Marine Board, local, 321. 
 Markets: riots, 7 ; leather, 11 ; butcher, 
 
 32, 307 ; corn, 56, 414 ; cattle, 123, 
 
 424, 478 ; hay, 244 ; fish, 275, 407 ; 
 
 goose, 330 ; St. James's, 362. [205. 
 Marriages, Royal, 68, 404 ; Dissenters', 
 Marshall, Alfred, 475 ; J. D., 533. 
 
 Mary-lc-Port, St., charities, 483. 
 
 Mathias, William, 383. 
 
 Matthew. Archbishop Tobias, 333. 
 
 Maudlin Street, 206, 441. 
 
 Mayday amusements, 97. 
 
 Mayor's Chapel, mutilated, 101 ; 
 oratory, 110; 252. 
 
 Mayors' Kalendar, 205 ; paddock, 310 ; 
 tolls on fish, 196 ; robes, 252 ; dues, 
 see Port charges. 
 
 Mayors, list of, 536 ; deaths of, 23 ; 
 salaries of, 27, 125, 183, 214; re- 
 fusals to serve as, 13, 27, 213 ; a 
 parsimonious, 61 ; on commissions 
 of assize, 418. 
 
 Meat, foreign imports of, 458. 
 
 Mechanics' Institute, 113, 258, 288. 
 
 Medical Library, 114. 
 
 Medical School, 199, 474-5. 
 
 Mercantile Marine Board, 321. 
 
 Merchant Taylors' Company, 311. 
 
 Merchant Venturers' School, 530. 
 
 Merchant Venturers' Society, 115, 132, 
 134, 195, 197, 250, 261, 280, 286, 301, 
 318, 323, 362, 381, 383, 400, 434, 452. 
 
 Metcalf. William James, 303. 
 
 Miles, Henry Cruger William, 479, 
 493 ; John William, 430, 442 ; Philip 
 John, 88, 188, 198, 203, 239, 265; 
 Philip William Skynner, 239, 256, 
 275, 287, 295, 304, 386, 396. 399, 
 400, 440 ; Sir Philip John William, 
 265, 495, 524 ; Robert Henry Wm., 
 340; Sir WiUiam, 190, 324, 368, 
 429 note. 
 
 Mill, at St. James's Back, 16 note; 
 pro^DOsed, on Float, 17 note ; oppo- 
 site Hotwells, 184. 
 
 Mills, John, 174; Henry John, 380, 
 431, 446 note, 489. 
 
 Miua Road, 519, 520, 521. 
 
 Missal, curious, 357. 
 
 Mission, Clifton College, 443. 
 
 Mission to Patagonia, 340. 
 
 Model dwellings, 274-5. 
 
 Mogg, John Jenner, 429 note. 
 
 Monk, Bishop, 56, 95, 141, 202, 226, 
 227, 269, 305, 309, 311, 331, 339, 349. 
 
 Montpelier, 413, 460, 467, 479. 
 
 Monuments : George III., 35 ; Colonel 
 Gore, 61; Bishop Gray, 206; Chatter- 
 ton, 249, 258 ; Mary Carpenter, 297 ; 
 Fred. John Fargus, 528 ; Sir J. K. 
 Haberfield, 323 ; Samuel Morley, 
 534 ; Robert Southey, 277 ; Queen 
 Victoria, 535. 
 
 More, Hannah, 198. [533. 
 
 Morley, Samuel, 400, 440,442,477,509, 
 
 Mortality, rate of (1844), 312 ; recent, 
 316.
 
 548 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Mulberry trees in city, 439. 
 Miiller, Eev. George, 223. 
 Miiller, William James, 292. 
 Murders : Clara A. Smith, 204 ; Me- 
 
 linda Payne, 344 ; Charlotte Pugsley, 
 
 354 ; Charles Jones, 433. 
 Museum and Library, 426. 
 Music, Eoyal College of, 472, 520. 
 Musical Festivals, 21, 59, 95, 470. 
 Mylnes' Culvert, 117. 
 Naish, William, 432. 
 Napoleon, fall of, 60. 
 Narrow Wine Street, 476. 
 Nash, Charles, 396, 399, 534. 
 Naval Eeserve, 378. 
 Neat, William, 57. 
 Neptune statue, 469. 
 New Passage pier, 291. 
 New York, steamers to, 218, 458. 
 Newfoundland Eoad playground, 519. 
 Newgate, horrors of, 65. 
 Newspapers, price of, 5,63 ; first daily, 
 
 118 ; Bristol Journal, 240 ; existing 
 
 papers, 357. 
 Nicholas, St., abuse of charities, 355. 
 Nicholas Street, improved, 307, 406. 
 Nixon, Brinsley de Coucy, 531. 
 Noble, John, 27, 30. 
 Norfolk, Duke of, 19, 35. [490, 493. 
 Norris, John Pilkington, D.D., 429,487, 
 Oakfield Eoad. 314. 
 Oddfellows' Hall, 458. 
 Odger, George, 449. 
 Old Market, improvements, 422, 479. 
 Onslow, Serjeant, 63. 
 Orphanages: Hook's Mills, 120; Ashley 
 
 Down, 223 ; Dighton Street, 296. 
 Ostrich Inn, Durdham Down, 4, 319. 
 Page, Thomas, 361. 
 Palmer, Henry Andrews, 28, 396, 408 ; 
 
 James, 372; Arthur, 255, 303. 
 Parish clerks suppressed, 341. 
 Park for east end, 494. 
 Park How widened, 441. 
 Park Street, improvement of, 131, 422 ; 
 
 proposed engine at, 348. [527. 
 
 Parliamentary boundaries of city, 185, 
 Parochial charities, 256. 
 Patagonian mission, 340. 
 Patchway tunnel, 291, 416. 
 Patriotic Funds, 27,341. 
 Patterson, William, 218, 328, 410. 
 Pauperism, excessive, 138. 
 Paving and Lighting Acts, 28, 313, 315. 
 Payne, Charles, 210, 213; Melinda, 
 Peace rejoicings, 11, 60, 349. [344. 
 
 Pcllatt, Ap^iey, 304. 
 Penance, jjunishment of, 215. 
 Pen Park Hole explored, 269. 
 Pontoh, Henry, 272. 
 
 Perambulators, 383. 
 
 Percival. Eev. Jolm, D.D., 373, 443, 
 451, 472, 489, 528. 
 
 Perry Eoad, 422, 441. 
 
 Peter's, St., Hospital : bad state of, 
 139 ; portion sold, 140 ; lunatics at, 
 346. 
 
 Peto, Sir Samuel Morton, 421, 439. 
 
 Philip's, St. (out), included in borough, 
 185 ; and in city, 208 ; in Clifton 
 union, 200 ; bridges, 240, 531 ; 
 railway station, 446 ; library, 476 ; 
 playground, 520. 
 
 Phillips', Edward, charity, 529. 
 
 Phippen, Eobert, 252, 331. 
 
 Phippen Street, 250, 258. 
 
 Piepoudre Court, 230, 524. 
 
 Piers, see Docks. 
 
 Pile Hill, 339. 
 
 Pill Warner, the, 325. 
 
 Pillory, punishment of the, 39. 
 
 Pilotage, compulsory, 383. [212. 
 
 Pinney, Charles, 152 et seq., 179, 188, 
 
 Pithay, fashion in the, 39. 
 
 Pleasure grounds, 423, 519. 
 
 Pocock, George, his kites, 121. 
 
 Poerio, Baron, 367. 
 
 Police, defective, 2, 89 ; Bills, 179, 181 ; 
 first day, 187 ; regular force, 216. 
 
 Police Bills disapproved, 514. 
 
 Police courts, new, 109, 484. 
 
 Police station, central, 216. 
 
 Polling-booths, district, 256. 
 
 Poor, Corporation of the : woollen 
 factory, 8 ; lavish relief, 138 ; pur- 
 chases French prison, 139 ; new 
 workhouse, 140, 367 ; lunatics, 346 ; 
 struggle with Poor Law Board, 351 ; 
 end of old system, 351 ; expenditure. 
 352 ; unequal wards, 446 ; sermons 
 dispute, 484 ; Harbour Eate Bill, 
 518 ; proposed amalgamation of 
 unions, 518. 
 
 Poor Laws, abuses of old, 187 ; unions, 
 200, 493. 
 
 Poor rates, inequality of, 201 ; present 
 charge, 432. 
 
 Pope, Eichard Shackelton, 422. 
 
 Population, see Census. 
 
 Port charges, 17, 103, 105, 114, 193, 
 286, 300, 309, 3r)2, 499, 502. 
 
 Portishead : hotel, 126 ; advowson, 
 215 ; battery, 371 ; proposed piers, 
 221, 396; "railway and pier, 397; 
 dock, see Docks. 
 
 Portlatid, Duke of, 35. 
 
 Post oflice, 43H, 418. 
 
 Postage, old rates of, 214 ; stamps, 245. 
 
 Powell, Thomas ("Volcano"), 253,317. 
 
 Prebendaries, 92, 227.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 549 
 
 Press gangs, 5, 20, 55. 
 
 Phchaid, James Coles, M.D., 140. 
 
 Prideaux, Charles Grevile, 298. 
 
 Priest, liichard, shot, 34. 
 
 Prince Consort, proposed monument 
 to, 392. 
 
 Prisoners, old treatment of, 65, 81. 
 
 Proctor, Thomas, 259, 200, 335, 366, 
 470, 478. 
 
 Promenade, Royal, 369. 
 
 Protheroe, Edward, 51, 82, 116; Ed- 
 ward, juu.. 134, 137, 142, 145, 148, 
 179, 185 ; Sir Henry, 27, 52. 
 
 Provis, Thomas, trial of, 335. 
 
 Prudent Man's Friend Society, 53. 
 
 Pryce, George, 335. 
 
 Public houses, number of, 456. 
 
 Pugilism, popularity of, 5, 56, 97. 
 
 Pugilists, famous, 57. 
 
 Pugsley's field, 249, 286, 410. 
 
 Quarries on Downs, 2G5, 318, 412. 
 
 Quay, sheds on, 381. 
 
 Queen, the : in Bristol, 138, 349 ; jubi- 
 lee, 535; rifle prize, 437. 
 
 Queen Elizabeth's Hospital, 85, 106; 
 estates misappropriated, 126, 232, 
 234; new school, 274; reorganised, 
 450. [369, 409. 
 
 Queen's Road, 202 note, 291, 329, 352, 
 
 Queen's Square, 109, 150 et seq., 418 ; 
 rooks, 447. 
 
 Queen's tenant, claim of a, 312. 
 
 Races, Durdham Down, 127 ; Knowle, 
 473. 
 
 Rackhay, the, 356. 
 
 Ragged school, first, 296. 
 
 Raglan, Lord, funeral of, 344. 
 
 Railway manias. 111, 289 ; gaugfs, 
 246, 276. 
 
 Railway station, proposed central, 387, 
 393 ; joint, 420. 
 
 Railways: first projects, 34, 110; to 
 Coalpit Heath, 123 ; Great Western, 
 189, 191, 246, 276, 279, 291. 326, 
 388, 415, 420, 426, 454, 466 ; Bristol 
 and Exeter, 222, 248, 286, 420, 426, 
 446, 487 ; Bristol & Gloucester (Mid- 
 land), 276, 420, 440, 454, 465, 467; 
 Wilts and Somerset, 279; South 
 Wales Junction, 290, 414 ; Port and 
 Pier, 386, 453 ; Brisbd and Clifton 
 (proposed), 387 ; South Western Co. 
 schemes, 389, 522; Harbour, 426; 
 Portishead, 398 ; North Somerset, 
 402; Wells, 446; Bath (Midland), 
 446; Clifton and Sea Mills, 453; 
 Thornbury, 467. 
 
 Railways snowed up, 512 ; 3rd class 
 trains, 405. 
 
 Rainfall, excessive, 469, 488, 520. 
 
 Ralph, Benjamin, 102, 169, 170. 
 
 Ramsay, William, Pli.D., 475 note. 
 
 Randolph, Francis, D.D., 92, 94. 
 
 Rateable value of city, 108, 209, 21C, 
 246, 432. 
 
 Ravine, footpath in, 319. 
 
 Recorders: Sir V. Gibbs, 80; Sir R. 
 Gifford, 81, 118, 130 ; Sir J. S. 
 Coplev, 118; Sir C. Wetherell, 118, 
 129, 140-153, 170, 207, 214, 230, 
 230, 255, 298 ; subsequent, 298. 
 
 Recreation, places of, 292, 423, 479, 519. 
 
 Red Lodge Reformatory, 297. 
 
 Red Maids' School, 86,' 450. 
 
 Red Rover, explosion of boiler, 319. 
 
 Redcliff Hill, 73 note, 258 ; caverns, 
 426. [426. 
 
 Redcliff Street, 258, 479 ; vicarage, 
 
 Redcross Street burial ground, 523 ; 
 pleasure ground, 520. 
 
 Redlaud, unlighted, 303 ; undrained, 
 314. 
 
 Redlaud Road, 352 ; Court, 379, 423 ; 
 High School, 424. 
 
 Redwood, Robert, 333. 
 
 Reform Bill (1832), 142, 146, 175, 184 ; 
 effect of, 185 ; effect of Act of 1867, 
 437,442; (1885), 526. 
 
 Reformatory Congress, 350. 
 
 Register, Parliamentary, 185, 442. 
 
 Religious destitution, 616 ; census, 514. 
 
 " Resurrection men," 99. [103. 
 
 Reynolds, Richard, 53, 69 ; Joseph, 38, 
 
 Richards, Rev. Henry, 300, 358. 
 
 Richmond Hill, 53, 330 ; Terrace, 10, 
 314 ; Spring, 281, 284. 
 
 Ricketts, Heurv, 212, 369. 
 
 Ridley, Henry John, 94. [425. 
 
 Rifles' Headquarters Co., 202 note, 390, 
 
 Riots, the great : causes of, 146-8 ; 
 special constables, 149-151 ; arrival 
 of recorder, 149 ; disturbance in 
 Queen's Square, 150 ; Mansion 
 House attacked, 152 ; flight of re- 
 corder, 153 ; Colonel Brereton, 153 
 et seq. ; second day's riot, 155 ; 
 escape of mayor, 155 ; Mansion 
 House plundered, 155 ; conflict in 
 St. Augustine's, 150 ; the churches 
 on Sunday, 150 ; apathy of public, 
 157; burning of Bridewell, 158, of 
 the gaol, 159-161, of Lawford'e 
 Gate prison, 161, of the bishop's 
 palace, KJl, and of the Mansion 
 House, 103 ; conduct of magistrates, 
 164, 108, 171 ; destruction of half 
 of Queen's Square, 105 ; ap])earauce 
 of city, 107 ; scenes in Queen's 
 Square, 107 ; the mayor orders 
 action of troops, 169 ; their decisive
 
 550 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 charge, 170 ; volunteer constables, 
 170 ; the riot suppressed, 172 ; the 
 loss of life, 172; recovery of plunder, 
 174 ; the silver salver, 175 ; cathe- 
 dral library, 162, 175 ; trial of ri- 
 oters, 176 ; executions, 177 ; courts 
 martial, 177 ; prosecution of the 
 mayor, 178 ; Compensation Act, 
 181 ; tax on city, 182 ; debt paid 
 off, 215. 
 
 Eiots : market, 7, 42 ; of dock work- 
 men, 16 ; serious, 39 ; election, 51, 
 137,412; no popery, 129; of paupers, 
 139; "religious." 424. 
 
 Road money charity, 105. 
 
 Roads, bad state of, 64, 315. 
 
 Roberts, Sir Fred., dinner to, 513. 
 
 Robes, civic, 120 ; revived, 252. 
 
 Robinson, Elisha Smith, 351, 400, 415, 
 440, 449. 450, 506, 509, 530 ; Robt., 
 
 Roman relics, 423. [397. 
 
 Romilly, Sir Samuel, 51. 
 
 Rooks," city, 379, 447. 
 
 Round Point imi^roved, 250, 412. 
 
 Rowuham Ferry, 418. 
 
 Royal Siirereiiin launched, 410. 
 
 Royal York Crescent, 9. 
 
 Rupert Street, 353, 507. 
 
 Russell, Lord John, 206, 289. 
 
 Russian vrar, 338, 341, 348; peace, 
 349 ; guns, 353. 
 
 Sailors' Home and Institute, 327. 
 
 Salt, high price of, 25. 
 
 Salvation Aimy, 511. 
 
 Salver, sinjiular recovery of a, 175, 184. 
 
 Sanders, John Naish, 140, 350 ; George 
 Eddie, 231. 
 
 Sanitary Authority, 417. 
 
 Sanitary state of city, 312, 813, 316. 
 
 Saturday half holiday, 364. 
 
 Savile, Henry Rourchier Osborne, 371. 
 
 Saville I'lace, 10. 
 
 Savings Bank, 53 ; Post-office, 385. 
 
 School Ronrd established, 455. 
 
 Schools : City (Qnceu Eliz ), 85, 106, 
 126, 2.32, 234, 274, 450 ; Colston's, 
 86, 261, 362, 450, 485; Diocesan, 
 336; Grammar, 46, 47, 106, 235, 
 340, 366. 451, 508 ; St. Nicholas', 
 355; Red Maids', 201,450; Trade, 
 3.36, 4:!4, 452; Board, 456; Mer- 
 chant Veiitnr.rs', 530; Cathedral, 48U. 
 
 Sea Mills, ]{(iman gravestone at, 475. 
 
 Sea AValls, 318. 
 
 Severn Bridge schemes, 290, 415, 417. 
 
 Severn Tunnel, 415. 
 
 Sewerage works, 316 ; Clift house, 491 ; 
 proj)osed sea outlet, 496, 531. 
 
 Soyer, Rev. Samuel, 54, 143. 
 
 Sharpies, Miss, 127; Mrs., 287. 
 
 Shaw, Jolm George, 359, 360. 
 
 Sheffield, Lord, 18. 
 
 Sheriffs, list of. 536 ; salaries of, 36, 
 37, 90, 125, 184 ; refusal to serve. 
 
 Shipbuilding, decline of, 410. [355. 
 
 Shipwrecks, see Wrecks. 
 
 Shirehampton, telegrajih to, 325. 
 
 Shops, open, 4 note ; long hours in, 
 288 note. 
 
 Shute, Captain Henry, 324. 
 
 Silver Street, 484. 
 
 Simpson, Rev. Francis, 94. 
 
 Sion Spring, 45, 281, 441. 
 
 Slade, [Sir] Fred. William, 368. 
 
 Slaughter, Edward, 408. 
 
 Slave Trade, abolition of, 29. 
 
 Slaveowners, local, 188. 
 
 Slaves in Bristol, 29. 
 
 Sledges in the streets, 2. 
 
 Small Street, improvement of, 460. 
 
 Small-pox, fatality of, 5. 
 
 Smith, Henry, 34, 59, 170; Richard, 
 17, 18, .59; Rev. Sydnev, 95, 127, 
 320; William, 513. 
 
 Smvth, Lady, 92, 98; Sir John, 130, 
 132, 264 ; trustees, 310, 317, 335, 
 339 ; [Sir] John Grevillc, 145, 318, 
 339, 355, 375, 400, 407, 403, 494, 519. 
 
 Sneyd Park, 343, 462. 
 
 Snowstorm, great, 59, 135, 512. 
 
 Social Science Congress, 446. 
 
 " Society," Squabbles in. 320. [93. 
 
 Somerset, Rev. Lord Wm. Geo. Henry, 
 
 Sonicrton, Wm. Henry, 164, 166 ; 
 Charles and George, 357. 
 
 Southcott, Joanna, followers of, 25. 
 
 Southcy, Robert, 266 ; monument, 277 ; 
 family, 90. 
 
 Spolasco, Baron, 241. 
 
 Stamp distributor, office of, 425. 
 
 Stajileton : bishop's palace, 228 ; Col- 
 ston's school, 362 ; workhouses, 140, 
 279, 367 ; church, 339 ; becomes 
 part of borough, 526. 
 
 Stapleton Road, Hoods, 488, 620, 
 
 Steadfast Club, 52, 88. 
 
 Steam Navigation Company, 494. 
 
 Steamboat, first, 75 ; Irish trade, 75 ; 
 to London, 190 note ; to America, 
 218, 229, 458 ; explosion, 319 ; com- 
 petition, 326. 
 
 Steam-tug, fiist, 77. 
 
 Steep Street, 3sl, -l.-.O. 
 
 Stewards, Lord High, 35, 199, 338. 
 
 Stock Exchange, 2H9. 
 
 Stocks, the, 83, 117. 
 
 Stokes, George Gabriel, 141. 
 
 Stokes Croft Road, 352. 
 
 Stone Kitchen, the, 19. 
 
 Stone, tax on, 67.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 OO 
 
 1 
 
 Streets, state of, 2 ; wateriug, 382 ; 
 
 great improvement scliemes, 2U], 
 
 422, 47'J, 4!)2, 524. 
 Strutli, Sir Williiim John, 02. 
 Suez Canal, 352. 
 
 Sugar duties, protective, 100, 275. 
 Sugar refining, decline of, 435. 
 Sunday, observance of, 24, 347, 403 ; 
 
 band, 528. 
 Sunday-school centenary, 511. 
 Sun-dial, old, 381. 
 Supk', Robert, 305. 
 Surtees, Prebendary John, 94. 
 Suspension Bridge, 131, 229; com- 
 pleted, 375 ; suicides, 377. 
 Swash, the, 387. 
 Swayne, John Champeny, 140. 
 Synagoj^ues, Jews', 202, 459. 
 Tabernacle burial ground, 523. 
 Tanning a convict's skin, 18. 
 Tanning trade, increase of, 309. 
 Tavern bills, 30, 78. 
 Taverns, temperance, 450. 
 Taxation, local, 432. 
 Taylor, John, 205 ; Thomas Terrett, 
 
 390, 415 ; TliomasDavid,357 ; Henry, 
 Taylors' Company, 311. [481. 
 
 Tea, imports of, 203. 
 Teetotal Society, 240 ; Alliance, 347 ; 
 
 temperance taverns, 450 ; blue 
 
 ribbon movement, 517. [448. 
 
 Telegraphs, electric, 325, 392, 439, 
 Telephone Exchange, 509. 
 Temple Gate, 32. [447. 
 
 Theatres, Regency, 48 ; Prince's, 432, 
 Thomas, Christopher James, 380, 390; 
 
 415, 430, 479, 480; George, 145, 
 
 244, 408, 423, 447; Herbert, 442, 
 
 508 ; Josiah, 417, 422, 479. 
 Thomson, Bishop, 370 note, 404. 
 " Three deckers " in churches, 341. 
 Time, regulation, 253, 320. 
 Tokens, local, 74. 
 Toll houses burnt, 101 ; abolished, 
 
 330, 427. 
 Tolzey Biink, failure of, 84. 
 Tolzey Court, 90, 524. 
 Tontine property distributed, 378. 
 Tothill, William, 189. 
 Totterdown, 198, 330, 403 ; included in 
 
 borou<j:h, 520. 
 Tovey, Charles, 333. 
 Town dues, see Port charges ; refusals 
 
 to pay, 312. 
 Trade, export, 194, 302, 501. 
 Trade Unions, 03 ; Congress, 430. 
 Trades School, 330, 434, 452, 530. 
 Training ship for boys, 444. 
 Tramway, projectud, 402 ; on Downs, 
 
 412 ; history of street, 402. 
 
 Transatlantic steamers, 218, 458. 
 
 Travelling, di.scomforts of, 3, 75, 84, 
 
 Tricycles invented, 270. [191. 
 
 True Hlue Club, 294. 
 
 Turnpike tolls al)olished, 427. 
 
 Tyburn tickets, 55. 
 
 Tyndail's Park, 202, 329, 343, 374. 
 
 Ullathorne, Bishop, 199. 
 
 Union Street, extension of, 400. 
 
 Unions, poor law, 200, 493, 518. 
 
 University College, 474, 528. 
 
 Vau^'hau, Sir llichard, 02, 119 ; Charles, 
 320 ; Dr. Robert, 440. 
 
 Vegetables, Cornish trade, 238. 
 
 Vehicles, public, number of, 405. 
 
 Vestries, action at elections, 190, 256 ; 
 close, 440. 
 
 Vick, Wm., gift for a bridge, 131, 375. 
 
 Victoria, Princess, 138 ; Queen, pro- 
 clamation, 238; coronation, 242; 
 in Bristol, 349; Jubilee. 535. 
 
 Victoria Rooms, 241,330 ; Square, 383, 
 423, 400 ; Street, 291, 422. 
 
 Vincent's, St., Rocks, 72 ; flving leap, 
 
 Visgar, Harman, 195, 309, 317. [110. 
 
 Visitors : the Queen, 138, 349 ; Queen 
 Adelaide, 292 ; Prince Albert, 271 ; 
 Duke of Beaufort, 338 ; Prince 
 Jerome Bonaparte, 372 ; Duke of 
 Buckingham, 434 ; Duke of Cam- 
 bridge, 258; George Canning, 111: 
 Queen Charlotte, 77 ; Duke of Cla- 
 rence [William IV.], 77; Duke of 
 Cumberland, 22 ; Prince of Den- 
 mark, 98 ; Duke of Edinburgh, 471, 
 515; William E. Forster, 508; 
 Prince William of Prussia [Emperor 
 of Germany] , 272 ; Earl Granville, 
 337 ; Lord Grenville, 35 ; " Henry 
 v.," 271 ; Ward Hunt, 478 ; Indians 
 ami Colonials, 533 ; Italian exiles, 
 307; Duchess of Kent, 138; Prince 
 Leopold, 138; M. de Lesseps, 352; 
 Earl of Liverpool, 111 ; Dr. Living- 
 stone, 370 ; Prince Puckler Muskau, 
 28 ; Duke of Norfolk, 19, 35 ; Mar- 
 quis of Northampton. 228 ; Sir Staf- 
 ford Northcote, 440 ; Prince of 
 Orange, 372 ; Lord John Ilussell, 
 200, 289; King of Saxony, 271; 
 Lord Stanley [Earl of Derby] , 437 ; 
 George, Prince of Wales, and Duke 
 of Sussex, 31 ; Albert Edward, Prince 
 of Wales, 349, 473, 503, 524 ; Duke 
 of Wellington, 08 ; Cardinal Wise- 
 man, 200, 307. 
 
 Volunteers, Bristol, 21, CO; Rifle 
 corps, 304, 390 ; Artillery, 371 ; En- 
 gineers, 382 ; Naval Artillery, 478 ; 
 reviews, 217, 239.
 
 552 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Wade Street fair, 98. 
 
 WaRes, rate of, 5, 7, 63, 187. [510. 
 
 Wait, Wm. K, 420, 429, 432, 477, 489, 
 
 Wales, Albert Edward, Prince of, 349, 
 473, 503, 524 ; marriage of, 404. 
 
 Wales, George, Prince of, 31. 
 
 Wales, Princess of, present to, 405. 
 
 Walker, Dr. Eliza, 477. 
 
 Ward, Eev. Arthur Hawkins, 340. 
 
 Wards, municipal, 209, 430. 
 
 Warrington, Captain, 169, 178. 
 
 Watchmen, the old, 2, 100. 
 
 Watering the streets, 382. 
 
 Waterworks, old, 46, 96 ; new pro- 
 posed, 45, 280 ; company formed, 
 280 ; progress of, 281 ; Frampton 
 Cotterell springs, 285, 534 ; Sud- 
 brook springs, 534. 
 
 Wa-v'te, Samuel Simon, 140 ; Rev. 
 Samuel William, 141, 374. 
 
 Weare, WiUiam, his gift, 130, 250. 
 
 Weavers' Hall, 262. 
 
 Weddings, Royal, festivities, 68, 404. 
 
 Weeks, John, 8, 12, 69. 
 
 Wellington, Duke of, visit, 68. 
 
 Wellington Gardens, 54. [232. 
 
 West India interest, 96, 106, 137, 275, 
 
 West Street : fair, 98 ; improved, 463. 
 
 West, WiUiam, 124. [313. 
 
 Westbury-on-Trym, 21, 45, 185, 208, 
 
 Weston [Sir] , Joseph Dodge, 237, 400, 
 476, 499, 501, 516, 531, 533. 
 
 Weston, North, estate at, 216. 
 
 Weston-super-Mare, 3, 40, 223. 
 
 Wetherell, Sir Charles, 118, 129, 146- 
 153, 176, 207, 214, 230, 236, 255,298. 
 
 Wharfage dues, 115, 197, 301, 381. 
 
 Wlierries, passenger, 116. 
 
 Whippie, Thomns, 129. 
 
 Wliipping, punishment by, 5, 80, 83. 
 
 Whish, Rev. Martin Richard, 249, 259, 
 209, 293, 330. 
 
 Whiskv, restrictions on import, 118. 
 
 White Lodge, 441. 
 
 Wliito, Sir T., his charitv, 81 ; Dr., 
 charity, 105, 524 ; Henry, 498. 
 
 Whiteladies Road, 314, 329, 352, 463 ; 
 spring, 281 ; library, 477. 
 
 Whitson's mansion, 288 ; estate, 305. 
 
 Whitwill, Mark, 399, 415, 420, 458. 
 
 Wife, sale of a, 123. 
 
 WiUes, William Henry, 303. 
 
 Willirtm IV., proclaimed, 136 ; crowned, 
 
 Williams, John, 185. [144. 
 
 Wills, William Henry, 399. 508; 
 George, 415, 487 ; Charles, 466. 
 
 Wilmot, Sir John Eardley, 303, 414. 
 
 Wilson, Rev. James Mauiice, 374. 
 
 Window tax abolished, 322. 
 
 Wine, Corporate gifts of. 27, 183; 
 purchases of, 125 ; Aid. Ricketts' 
 sale, 369. 
 
 Winkworth, Catherine, 475 ; Susan- 
 nah, 487. 
 
 Withy-bed in the city, 426. 
 
 Women, municipal voters, 447. 
 
 Wood pavements, 476. 
 
 Woodford, John Russell, 141, 304. 
 
 Woodward, Rev. Jonathan Henry, 321, 
 342 ; George Rocke, 400. 
 
 Wool-hall, 123, 174 note. 
 
 Wool, Spanish, high price of, 34. 
 
 Woolcott Park, 436. 
 
 Woollev, John, love adventures of. 262. 
 
 Workhouses, 139, 140, 200, 278, 367. 
 
 Working-class dwellings, 274, 275, 487. 
 
 Worrall, Samuel, 85 ; Samuel, 318. 
 
 Wraxall, Sir Nathaniel William, 57. 
 
 Wrecks : Williavi and Mart/, 77 ; 
 Frolic, 142 ; Killarney, 241 ; 'City of 
 Ji;-2.vto/, 251 ; Qneev, 272; Brigand, 
 357; Mars, 392; AUsea, 512; Sol- 
 u-ay (burnt), 515 ; Great ](V.stci7i, 
 458; Bristol City, Bath City, Glou- 
 cester City, and Wells City, 459. 
 
 Wright, William, 390. 
 
 Yeamans, Robert, supposed body of, 59. 
 
 Young Men's Christian Association, 
 379, 520. 
 
 Zigzag constructed, 134 ; Becond, 316. 
 
 Zoological Gardens, 205. 
 
 Ilnitrr k Tnnittr. Die Belwuutl I'rlLitlng Wurkfc, Frome, and London
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 Los Angeles 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
 Mi -:i .WAY 5 1964 
 JUL 1 6 \^^^ 
 
 * %i «P 
 
 Form L9-100m-9,'52(A3105)444
 
 mmim 
 
 -4 
 
 .'Bl^aKiT 
 
 -i^i^-'r^:
 
 ^M^^efii^ 
 
 
 
 ^-#f# 
 
 
 m