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 XTbe Cabote 
 
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 Edward Thornley, 
 
 1 4 3. CLARK STREET. 
 
 ... Bristol, 
 
 HOSIER. HATTER. A TAILOR. 
 
 KIND ORDERS ARE RESPECTFULLY SOLICITED. 
 
 *--,. 
 
 v., 
 
XTbe Cabots 
 
 anb tbe 
 
 2)i8co\>er^ of Bmedca* 
 
 WITH A 
 
 BRIEF DESCRIPTION AND HISTORY 
 
 OF BRANDON HILL, THE SITE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 CABOT MEMORIAL TOWER. 
 
 By EUZABETH HODGES. 
 
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 Illustrated by S. LOXTON. 
 
 Xondon: 
 ERNEST NISTER, 28, Paternoster Row. 
 
 J8ri6tol : 
 
 W. F. MACK & CO., 52, Park Row. 
 
 And of all Booksellers. 
 
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 £ii0tol : 
 
 TKH. If. /IDacft 51 do., 
 
 Crown iprtnting TKRorhs, 
 
 52, paih 1fiow. 
 
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TO THE RIGHT HON. THE 
 
 MARQUESS OF DUFFERIN & AVA, 
 
 K.P., G.C.B., F.R.S., etc., 
 WHOSE ADMINISTRATION FROM 18/2 TO 1 8/8 
 AS GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF 
 THE LAND DISCOVERED BY THE CABOTS 
 WILL EVER RANK AMONGST THE HIGHEST, 
 THIS BROCHURE IS, 
 BY HIS KIND PERMISSION, 
 RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED. 
 
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 UK 
 
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 jif 
 
 Cabot Aemorfal ^ower* 
 
 WM. V. OOUGH, ARCHITECT. 
 
 LOVE A WAITE, BUILDERS. 
 
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an& tbe 
 
 Discovev^ of Hmerica* 
 
 By EI.IZABETH HODGES. 
 
 aHIEF among the attractions of Bristol has been 
 for centuries past the church of St. Mary 
 Redcliffe ; while few names on her roll of fame are 
 more widely known than that of the ancient citizen 
 to whom the stately fabric owes so much of its grace 
 and beauty. •' 
 
 And we grudge not the mead of praise. He who 
 gives of his best to the service of God and his fellow 
 men deserves high honour. But, when all is said, the 
 work of William Canynge was as a drop in the ocean 
 compared with that accomplished by the merchant- 
 pilot, his contemporary and probable neighbour. 
 Canynge helped to re-build a church ; John Cabot 
 discovered a continent, and secured it for all time to 
 the English-speaking race. Yet the one has been 
 remembered and revered ; the other neglected and 
 forgotten. An anomaly, perhaps accounted for by the 
 

 fact that Bristol has ever been slow to recognise merit 
 outside her borders, and John Cabot was an alien, 
 while the claims of Sebastian, his son, to citizenship 
 are still hotly contested ; which is not surprising, as 
 the evidence so far obtainable rests mainly upon the 
 
 contradictory accounts of 
 Sebastian himself. 
 
 To an unprejudiced mind, 
 however, the assertion made 
 
 (, JU . ' . by him to his friend Eden in 
 
 ■^ mW ; old age, when he had no pur- 
 
 pose in view and nothing to 
 gain by it, "that 
 he was borne 
 in Bristowe, 
 andatiiii.yeare 
 ould he was 
 carried with 
 his father to 
 Venice, and 
 so returned 
 agayne to 
 England with 
 his father after 
 ccrtayne years, whereby he was thought to have been 
 borne in Venice," appears far more likely to be true 
 than his statement in middle life to Contarini, the 
 Venetian Ambassador, by which he sought to c Jcain 
 
 St ilbate 'RedclitCe Cbutcb* 
 
 
 / 
 
 / 
 
 
/ 
 
 / 
 
 of little moment, even to Bristolians; nor the question 
 of earlier voyages, so long as the great fact remains — 
 That it was from Bristol port, in a Bristol ship, 
 
 St. Su0U0tlne'0 Xti^QC at f>eaO of tbe Quay. 
 
 manned by Bristol sailors, on the initiative of Bristol 
 merchants, that John Cabot sailed on that memorable 
 May morning four hundred years ago; and that to 
 
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 SB 
 
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 eastern-most point of Cape Breton, in the Dominion of 
 Canada, and taken possession of that great northern 
 continent for the King of England ! — An achievement, 
 be it remembered, preceding by more than a year the 
 
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 _(Q^■^■^U^.^^VTS^\^VV^^^^'v^^^^^^^^^^ 
 
 FROM THIS P©I!ST 
 
 JOMM CABOT, 
 
 AND HIS S©N 
 
 BASTIAM,, 
 s mwM m beistol) 
 
 SAILED IN THE SUP MATTHEW 
 
 A.B. 1497. 
 ANP DISCOVEIEB 
 TME CO¥TIMENT OF 
 
 AMERICA 
 
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 Cablet on St. Bugu0tine'0 J((rid0e. 
 
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 landing of Columbus on the Southern continent. 
 
 That land across the wide Atlantic had been 
 discovered long before Cabot sighted it is now 
 generally admitted. Setting aside the claims of 
 
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ii'liirniWiiIirtriTWf>lPi't>i«3t 
 
 «BP><*iH!3|. 
 
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 Madoc the Welshman and the Irish sailor-saint 
 Brendan as not yet proven, it is certain that the 
 Icelanders planted a colony in Greenland as early 
 as the tenth century. The colony perished, but its 
 traditions remained and were the inciting cause of 
 later voyages ; for Bristol merchants trading with 
 Iceland, heard thereof and sent out ships in search of 
 the "new land" for seven successive years before the 
 the sailing of the "Matthew" — thinking to get by 
 way of it to the Indies, or " far Cathay," the name 
 given to all countries east of the Persian Gulf 
 
 Unfortunately for the future historian, Sebastian 
 Cabot not only "romanced" concerning his birth-place, 
 but also concerning his voyages ; in consequence of 
 which he has been, for centuries, honoured as the 
 commander of the " Matthew " and the discoverer 
 of America. Thanks, however, to modern research 
 among musty rolls and ancient charters, it has been 
 proved beyond a doubt that the commander of the 
 Bristol ship and discoverer of the Continent was 
 John Cabot. Whether Sebastian ever sailed at all 
 on that first voyage is entirely conjectural. The 
 evidence that he did rests mainly upon a reported 
 conversation held with a stranger at Seville, in which 
 he appears to have mixed up the discoveries of the 
 first expedition with those of later ones, and ignoring 
 his father's share, himself claimed credit for the 
 whole I 
 
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 A modern writer suggests in excuse that he feared 
 to excite the jealous displeasure of the King of 
 Spain, in whose service he then was, by attracting 
 attention to the prior discovery of a continent which 
 his Catholic majesty would fain claim as his own. 
 Perhaps, however, as the conversation was transcribed 
 not at second, but at third hand, the indictment may 
 be best taken with the proverbial grain of salt ; and, 
 certainly, both on Sebastian's portrait and on his 
 famous " Mappamundi," the claims of the elder Cabot 
 are acknowledged. 
 
 Of John Cabot's birthplace no record exists, though 
 some writers claim the honour for Bristol. Recent 
 research, however, has proved him to have been of 
 Norman extraction, descended from the Jersey 
 Cabots or Chabots. In 1476, for purposes of 
 commerce, he became a Venetian citizen. When he 
 first came to London " to follow the trade of mer- 
 chandise " is uncertain ; but he ultimately found his 
 way to Bristol, which he appears to have made his 
 home for some years. As strangers were not allowed 
 to remain within the city to trade longer than forty 
 days, in all probability he resided with his Venetian 
 wife, among others of her nation, in the eastern 
 suburb (the north and ivest were occupied by Jews) 
 near to St Mary .^edcliffe, where a district still 
 bears the suggestive name of "Cathay." 
 
 An enterprising and wealtiiy merchant, Cabot was 
 
-'-&«wwii, ana Durnino" fi^ «•«! ^ "* 
 
 *osegoHen,a„dsSt;-'-;;"'-ea,chro, 
 existence mariners of .11 .• " °''^^"' ^^ose 
 
 attempts to reach the T^l ^ '" "'^ "'^n 
 
 en the goal, such a man was sure of 
 
 Sb* Of cabove ffime. 
 
 V"- a charter, iou" T ""'^'"'"^ '■'°'» "^n-y 
 Ws sons. Lew;. SeCt ; ! T " "' "'"'^'^ -^ 
 «™ and those ^^Z\t '''"^'"^' -P°-ring 
 
 --o-..rne: = -;-:s:S 
 
It 
 
 of them in the name of the King, he and his heirs to 
 occupy such lands as Henry's vassals and trade 
 therein. 
 
 The " Matthew," a small vessel, was accordingly 
 fitted out, sixteen Bristol men and a Burgundian 
 forming the crew, and in her Cabot set sail from the 
 ancient f ort, May 2nd, 1497. 
 
 Voyaging nearly due west, he, to quote from the 
 contemporary letter of Lorenzo Pasqualigo, "wandered 
 about a long time, and at length hit land" — not 
 Bonavista, Newfoundland, nor Cape Chidley, Labrador, 
 whose shores are ice-bound at that season ; but Cape 
 Breton, the easternmost point of Nova Scotia ; — " he 
 coasted 300 leagues and landed ; saw no human 
 beings, but brought to the King certain snares which 
 had been set to catch game, and a needle for making 
 nets ; he also found some felled trees, wherefore 
 supposing there were inhabitants, he returned to his 
 ship in alarm." Two islands were subsequently 
 sighted (St. John's and Newfoundland), but shortness 
 of provisions compelled Cabot to return homewards 
 without landing. 
 
 And so, after an absence of three months, the little 
 ship, having safely braved the perils of those unknown 
 seas and inhospitable shores, sailed 
 
 "Up the Avon's gentle flood and under Clifton's height" 
 to her old anchorage beside the Quay. 
 
 On the loth of August, her captain was in London 
 
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 relating his discoveries to the King. Henry was so 
 pleased with Cabot's success that he gave him a 
 pension of ;^20 for life, and " ;^io to him who found 
 (first sighted) the new isle." Pasqualigo tells how he 
 was styled the " Great Admiral," dressed in rich silks, 
 €i'£///. and had vast honours paid 
 
 him, the English running 
 after him " like mad people." 
 y^'^ In these rejoicings 
 Bristolians, we may be sure, 
 took a prominent part, and 
 many a city father and 
 wealthy merchant, when 
 office and shop were closed 
 for the day, would wend his 
 way across the ancient bridge 
 and up Redcliffe Street to 
 Cabot's home in "Cathay," 
 to hear his stories of those 
 distant lands, and see the 
 wondrous things he had 
 brought therefrom. 
 
 One relic, and one only, 
 of that voyage Bristol still 
 retains — the famous rib of 
 
 1>(i> ot the Wlbale *^ °"" <^°* " (^"'■whal^) 
 
 In St. /ISarg 'RedcUfTe preserved with religious care 
 
 Cburcb. in Redcliffe Church; the 
 
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covered in recent times among the City records. 
 " 1497 — Item. Paid for settynge upp ye bone of ye 
 bigge fyshe and . . . (writing illegible) hys worke brote 
 over seas, vid. For two rings of iron iiijd." 
 
 According to Socino, who wrote on Dec. i8th of 
 this same year, Cabot recorded his discoveries on a 
 map and also on a globe ; but no trace of either has 
 been found, although La Cosa must have had access 
 to them for his map. 
 
 In the following year, 1498, the King granted a 
 supplementary charter in the name of John Cabot 
 only, authorising him to take out six ships to the 
 " lande and isles of late founde by the said John," at 
 his own cost, to trade and colonize; giving him for the 
 latter purpose " 300 prisoners " — doubtless glad enough 
 to be rid of them, the gaols being full to overflowing 
 just then in consequence of Perkin Warbeck's rebellion. 
 Bounties were also allowed to "James Carter, Thos. 
 Bradley, and Lancelot Thirkill, of Bristowe," for 
 fitting out three of the ships. 
 
 The expedition sailed, made further discoveries, 
 and returned ; but whether it was under the control 
 of John Cabot is not known, for here all record 
 of the elder Cabot ceases. 
 
 Sebastian says his father died about this time, but 
 he gives neither date or place of burial. It seems 
 

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 FIRST VOYAGE 
 
 
 
 or JOHN CABOT 
 
 
 
 PROBABLE EXTENT 
 
 
 
 OF DISCOVERY 
 
 
 
 SHEWN — — — *--. 
 
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 4 
 
contested — accompanied him on this voyage, returned 
 in command. Strangely enough, no account of the 
 expedition appears to exist among English records ; 
 the sole fact of its return being gathered from the 
 presence in London of Lancelot Thirkill, June 6, 
 1 501, and his repayment of the loan he had had 
 of the King. From foreign sources, however, we 
 know that it was John Cabot's intention in this 
 expedition to follow the shore from his former dis- 
 covery till he reached the equinoctial regions ; and 
 we also know that (whether under his command 
 or that of Sebastian) the plan was pursued until 
 lack of provisions compelled its abandonment. 
 
 The second expedition, taking a more northerly 
 course than the first, visited Iceland, and then 
 steering west, made the coast of Labrador, named 
 by Cabot *' De la Terra de los Baccalaos," " The 
 Land of the Cod-fish," from the immense shoals of 
 those fish which they encountered. Landing the 
 colonists, though whereabouts in that inhospitable 
 region is not stated, they sailed still farther to 
 the north-west — through Hudson's Straits — until 
 " affrighted by the monstrous heaps of ice swimming 
 in the sea, and the continual daylight," they dared 
 go no further. 
 
 Retracing their courr^ they found many of the 
 
i 
 
 SECOND VOYAGE 
 orJOHM CABOT. 
 
 PROBABLE E.XTENT 
 
v/'\o had freighted the vessels deemed, for they 
 had not found the golden goal of Cathay nor even 
 established a trading colony ! But in reality successful 
 beyond the wildest dreams of King or people, for 
 there is no doubt that the Cabot charter and the 
 voyages made pursuant to it, were always regarded 
 as the root of England's title to her American 
 possessions, and that, "to the daring and genius 
 of Cabot is owing the occupation of the northern 
 continent by an F.nglish-speaking race, with their 
 vast energies and wealth. But for the Cabots Spain 
 might have monopolized discovery in North as well 
 as in South America." 
 
 Eschewing the " trade of merchandise," Sebastian 
 Cabot appears to have devoted himself entirely to 
 nautical science ; attaitj'ng such eminence that, on 
 the death of Columbus, the King of Spain engaged 
 his services as Cartographer, at a salary of 30,000 
 maravedas, intending to send him on another voyage. 
 Before the design could be carried out, Ferdinand 
 died, and Sebastian returned to England. 
 
 Under the auspices of Henry VIII., he is said 
 
90 
 
 
 the variations of the magnetic needle, Cabot returned. 
 
 A few years later he was again in the service of 
 Spain, engaged under the young Emperor, Charles V., 
 as Pilot-major, at a largely increased salary. This 
 post he retained during the greater part of Charles' 
 reign. It was while holding it that he made to 
 Contarini those dishonest offers of information ... ^ 
 those misleading statements concerning his , 
 which have proved so prolific in controversy to his 
 biographers. 
 
 In 1526, Cabot commanded a Spanish expedition 
 to Brazil, which although he penetrated some distance 
 into the interior, ended disastrously, and resulted in 
 his being imprisoned for a year on the charge of 
 " mismanagement and excesses." 
 
 The first count of the indictment may have been 
 true. Very probably the great cartographer was not 
 skilled in the management of men. As Oviedo, the 
 Spanish historian, sapiently remarked, " it is not the 
 same thing to command and govern people as to 
 point a quadrant or an astrolabe " ; but the " excesses " 
 charged against him were far more likely to have 
 been committed by the Portugese, who had sent out 
 a rival expedition, and to whose malicious intrigues 
 and jealous interference the disasters of the Spaniards 
 were mainly due. Untruthful and covetous of honours 
 and gold, Sebastian has been proved ; but that he 
 was also kindly, gentle, and humane, there is no 
 
 ■i-i 
 
While in the employ of Spain, Cabot made his 
 " Mappamundi," or Map of the World. This famous 
 map, which not only presented his own and his 
 father's discoveries, but those of Spain and Portugal 
 down to his own time, was drawn on parchment 
 and illuminated with gold and colours. The original 
 was sold on the death of the President of the Council 
 of the Indies in 1575, and has never since been 
 heard of Several engravings of it were made, only 
 one of which is now known ; that in the Galerie 
 de G^ographie, Paris. 
 
 Soon after Henry VIII. death, the Council of the 
 young King, Edward, induced Cabot to return to 
 EnglanHI, and, according to Strype, he settled in 
 Bristol, 1548. 
 
 Charles V., through his ambassador, commanded 
 his return ; but the Privy Council replied that " he 
 refused to go either into Spain or to the Emperor, 
 and that, being of that mind, and the Kin^s subject^ 
 no reason or equity would that he should be forced 
 against his will." 
 
 Charles immediately stopped his pension, but 
 
 T> A 1 1 1 iL 1 _r _-^ 1 -»-,J /^«U^4- 
 
I 
 
 22 
 
 maritime affairs of the Kingdom, and adding to his 
 store of charts and "discourses." 
 
 In 1 55 1, a general stagnation of trade pervaded 
 England, and the London merchants consulted Cabot, 
 who had just succeeded in breaking the monopoly of 
 the German " Merchants of the Steelyard," as to what 
 steps could be taken to revive it. Through his 
 
 ft t^op>'a>'»- 
 
 DaU of tbe Aercbant Venturers' Societs, JSrtetol* 
 
 advice they formed themselves into the " Company of 
 Merchant Adventurers of London" (of which the 
 Bristol " Merchant Venturers " is an outcome) for the 
 search and discovery of the northern part of the 
 world by sea, and to open a way and passage to 
 Cathay by the north-east. 
 
 Cabot, in recognition of his services, was made 
 Governor for lite, and immediately set about building 
 
 m.: 
 
 |**«^,, 
 
 ',%* 
 
'^ ozt0.fi Xtoy\»ii>l 
 
 Poxta Mj ^tC^ 
 
 plan ot ancient JSriatoI. 
 
 Great was the rejoicing when the first expedit 
 put to sea, May 20th, 1553. The ships were to\ 
 
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 24 
 
 to Greenwich, where the Court then lay, the courtiers 
 came running out, and the common people flocked 
 together upon the shores in crowdes ; the Privy 
 Council they lookt out of the windowes of the Court, 
 and the rest ranne up to the toppes of the towers," 
 while the " skies rang agayne with the shouts of the 
 mariners and the firing of the shippe's ordnance." 
 But, alas ! the young king who would have taken so 
 keen an interest in the show, being well learned in all 
 matters pertaining to the sea, was lying sick unto 
 death in his room in the Palace, and e'er the ships 
 were well on their way he had breathed his last. 
 
 The expedition, and others that followed, succeeded 
 in opening up Russia and extending English trade 
 across the Caspian Sea into Central Asia — to the 
 jubilant delight of the organiser of them ! Stephen 
 Boroughs, who commanded the last of these expedi- 
 tions '(a little pinnace called the "Swiftsure") gives 
 the following quaint picture of the Ancient Mariner, 
 who came aboard the pinnace to see them off : — 
 
 " The goode olde gentleman. Master Cabota, gave 
 to the poore most liberall almes, wishing them to 
 praye for the good fortune and prosperous successe of 
 the * Serchthrift,' our pinnesse. And then, at the sign 
 of the Christopher, he and his friends banketted, and 
 made me and them that were in the companie great 
 cheere ; and, for very joy that he had to see the 
 ^towardness of our intended discovery, he enter'd into 
 
 ;/ 
 
 1 
 
governance of Almighty God." 
 
 This is the last public appearance of Cabot of 
 which we have any record. How long he lived, or 
 where he died, is not known, and can only be inferred 
 from the facts that his pension ceased to be drawn 
 after 1557, and that Eden, who lived in London, was 
 present at his deathbed. 
 
 The only literary relics of Cabot known to exist 
 are the engraved map of 1 544 and its facsimile. Of 
 his other "remains," voluminous though they must 
 have been, there is no trace. Hakluyt, writing of 
 Cabot in 1582, says, "Shortly shall come out in 
 print all his own mappes and discourses drawne and 
 written by himselfe, which are in the custody of the 
 Worshipful Master William Worthington." The 
 publication was never made, and no one knows what 
 has become of them. It is, however, strongly sus- 
 pected that they found their way to Spain, through 
 the instrumentality of the said " Master Worthington " 
 (Cabot's associate in office;, who seems to have been 
 but indifferent honest. If ' * were so, there is hope 
 that they are still in existei j and may some day be 
 restored. 
 
 One relic we had of Cabot — the famous portrait, 
 
1 4 
 
 ,\ 
 
 Effigies Sebastiani Caboti Angli 
 Filii Johanis Caboti Vene 
 Ti Militis Avrati Primi 
 Invet Oris Terroe Novasvb 
 Herico VII. Angl. Icb Rege. 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 ■■B^W iTfrili" 'iiil¥iWgBT>i« tm 
 
2; 
 
 hung in the King's gallery at Whitehall. In 1792, 
 this picture was presented to Charles J. Harford, 
 Esquire, of Bristol, who discovered it while in 
 Scotland ; but, unfortunately for Bristolians, he sold 
 it to Mr. John Biddle of Pittsburg, and it perished 
 in the destruction of tJiat gentleman's house by fire 
 in 1848. Several copies exist in America, and an 
 excellent engraving of the picture was made by 
 Rawle of Bristol. Cabot is represented in his robe 
 and chain as Governor of the Merchant Adventurers. 
 There is also a painting of John Cabot and his three 
 sons in the Ducal Palace, Venice. 
 
 Although the maps and charts of the Cabots are 
 so far, lost to us whom they most concern, clear 
 traces of them exist in the work of foreign cosmo- 
 graphers, and especially in the famous map of Juan de la 
 Cosa, published in 1501, only three years after the 
 voyage of John Cabot ; where the row of British flags, 
 commencing at the southern end with Mar descu- 
 bierta por inglese^ "sea discovered by the English;" 
 and ending at the north with Cavo de ynglaterra, 
 " Cape of England," mark unmistakably the dis- 
 coveries of Cabot, and could have been obtained 
 only from his map. 
 
 The most curious evidence, however, comes from 
 
28 
 
 !«*■ , 
 
 In the British Museum is a facsimile, by Wm. 
 Griggs, of the original " Carta Universal," or Chart of 
 the World, preserved in the " Propaganda " at Rome, 
 by which Pope Alexander VI. divided the unclaimed 
 lands of the globe between Spain and Portugal. On 
 this unique "hart the Northern Continent ends at 
 Labrador, which is described as a country " which was 
 discovered by t le English of the town of Bristol, and 
 which is of no use ! " 
 
 Truly, 
 
 "When a thing's beyond our power, 
 We say in scorn, ' fAe grapes are sour ! ' " 
 
 X 
 
 J-i' - 1' 
 
Ube Site ot tbe Cabot nDemorial. 
 
 Brandon Hill, the site of Bristol's memorial to tt 
 Cabots, lies between the north-west portion of tl 
 city and the wooded heights of Clifton. 
 
 A fringe of houses encircles the base, but tl: 
 remainder of its twenty-five acres, up to the roundc 
 summit, 250 feet high, is open greensward, wit 
 gravelled paths, and seats under shady hawthorr 
 bushes — the happy haunt of 
 children from all parts of the 
 city; and, as evening spreads 
 her dusky mantle around, of 
 whispering lovers, every seat 
 accommodating a pair, some- 
 times two I 
 
 The Hill takes its name from 
 the Irish saint, Brendan, 
 a chapel and hermitage 
 dedicated to him having 
 once stood on its summit. 
 
 This St. Brendan is said 
 to have been a great sailor, 
 
. r 
 
 30 
 
 discovered land across the Atlantic. Whether the 
 claim be true or false, certain it is that the story of 
 his "voyages," and the golden legends connected 
 therewith, aroused men's curiosity and incited to 
 subsequent expeditions, which, nearly a thousand 
 years after Brendan's death, resulted in the discovery 
 of the Northern Continent. The choice, therefore, 
 of " St. Brendon's Hill " for the site of the memorial 
 
 of that discovery is peculiarly appropriate; more 
 especially as Brendan was the patron saint of sailors, 
 and his chapel much frequented by Bristol mariners. 
 The first known occupant of the hermitage, in 
 1 35 1, was "Lucy de Newchurch," who, tired of the 
 world, begged permission to immure herself therein. 
 Fifty years later it was tenanted by a hermit, 
 Reginald Taylor. Bluff King Hal, however, made 
 short work of both chapel and hermitage, and 
 
 ,] 
 
 wmm 
 
$t 
 
 in the troubled times of the Civil War a fort took 
 their place, traces of which still remain. It is upon 
 the site of this fort, recently occupied by two Russian 
 cannon, that the memorial tower will stand. In 
 digging out the foundations was discovered, beneath 
 the soft concrete of the chapel, a grave containing 
 human bones, which, in all probability, are those of 
 the ancient denizens of the spot 1 
 
 No finer view of Bristol and its environs can 
 
 be obtained 
 anywhere 
 than from the 
 Hill. On the 
 right rise the 
 woods and 
 mansions of 
 Clifton, and 
 its Parish 
 Church, "sev- 
 erely simple!" In the valley between is Jacobs Wells, 
 the old Jewish quarter. The City schools were built 
 on the ancient burial ground, which gave rise to the 
 witty if gruesome remark that, " whatever the boys 
 might lack they were always sure of a good Hebrew 
 foundation." Thanks to Queen Elizabeth, the boys' 
 mothers have been always sure of a good "drying 
 ground ! " Her Majesty having secured to them for 
 
 « ▼ •*! 
 
k 
 
 11- 
 
 la 
 
 purposes ; in recognition, it is said, of the faultless style 
 in which their progenitors "got up" the immense 
 ruffles worn by herself when visiting the City. 
 Immediately on the left is St. Michael's Hill, the site 
 of another large fort; and Tyndall's Park and mansion* 
 still possessed by a branch of the family whence 
 sprang William Tyndall, the translator of the Bible, 
 the only perfect copy of whose first edition is still 
 preserved in the Baptist College hard by. Beyond, 
 and spreading for miles along the valley, bounded on 
 its opposite side by Bedminster Downs and Dundry 
 Hill, lies the City with its churches and schools, 
 its ancient buildings (now, alas ! rapidly disappearing), 
 its modern warehouses and factories, its venerable 
 cathedral and historic " green," encircled by avenues 
 of limes. And, intersecting its southern side, the 
 floating harbour, formed by the Avon and Frome, 
 and bearing on its capacious bosom the merchandise 
 of many lands, carried in craft of all sizes, from 
 the tiny coasting lugger to the huge, perfectly 
 equipped Atlantic steamer. 
 
 And not a ship among them all, going or coming, 
 but must pass within full view of Brandon Hill, 
 whose long southern slope stretches to within a few 
 hundred yards of the water'^ edge ! 
 
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