Page:A tour through the northern counties of England, and the borders of Scotland - Volume I.djvu/23

 early season of the year, when the tide, whose influence is perceived as far up as Keynsham, comes accompanied thither by that delicious little fish called the elver.

On passing through Brislington, two miles from Bristol, we could not help smiling at an instance of modern credulity which an inscription on an ancient stone in the church-yard hands down to posterity. About thirty years ago, the active churchwardens of Brislington, in clearing the church-yard and its accompaniments, discovered on an old tomb the following notification of a remarkable instance of longevity: "1542. Thomas Newman, aged 153." With due regard to the preservation of so curious a fact, they had the tomb repaired and brushed up, and the following inscription added to the original one: "This stone was new faced in the year 1771, to perpetuate the great age of the deceased" It was not till their official authority to repair and beautify, pull down and remove, had ceased, that they understood the figure 1 had been prefixed by a wicked wit; and themselves duped by this false addition, which gave an antediluvian age to an honest man who died before he had reached his grand climacteric!

Frequent evidences of the wealth of Bristol occur on all sides as we approach that city, in