Читать книгу The Cambrian Tourist, or, Post-Chaise Companion through Wales: 1834 онлайн

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Near Gloucester, at the small island of Alney, formed by the river Severn dividing itself into two branches, historians relate that Canute and Edmund, after many bloody engagements in Essex, determined to prevent a farther effusion of blood by a single combat. Neither, however, as the story relates, obtaining a victory, peace was concluded, and the kingdom divided between them. We paid, however, little regard to the supposed place of this contest, as it was not for us puisne antiquarians to discuss points on which the greatest historians had so materially differed.

The roads round Gloucester have been greatly improved of late years, more particularly the one to Ross and Hereford, which was hilly, rocky, and generally dangerous: their texture and surface are now totally changed, and, winding the hills, the gradual ascent removes both danger and difficulty; the expense must have been enormous, and the traveller pays proportionably in turnpike tolls; they are, generally speaking, round Gloucester and Hereford, the highest in England. Nothing can surpass the excellence of the road from Gloucester to Bristol, to which conveyances are constantly going; and to such parties as have not visited that eager bustling mart of trade, two or three days may be afforded with a certainty of meeting with the most ample return for the trouble and expense bestowed. The Church of St. Mary Redcliff, which is both ancient and beautiful; the Abbey Church or cathedral: the docks; the charities, and particularly that for teaching the blind to work; the hot wells at Clifton; St. Vincent’s rocks, and the diminished vessels gliding on the Avon; the beautiful views, mansions, villas, and pleasure grounds in every direction in its vicinity, evincing at once the taste and opulence of its merchants and citizens, but particularly those going to and returning from King’s Weston, the view of Lord de Clifford’s mansion, and the varied prospects it commands, as well as those from the park and plantations, which are open to the public, constantly varying the scenery on the Avon, Kingroad, and the distant Cambrian Alps, afforded pleasure so exquisite to my romantic fancy, that for ten times the labour and expense bestowed, I would not have debarred myself of them. Here most happily are blended commercial riches and the life of trade with all that nature’s bounty can bestow to please the fancy or delight the sight.