Page:The National Gazetteer - A Topographical Dictionary of the British Islands, Volume 1.djvu/388

Rh I'.IIISKKN. 378 BRISTOL. South Wales, 4 miles to the X. . I < ':. M. 1 1- Llwehwr. It is seated mi th'- luniks nf the river Llwchwr. par. of Llanfynyild.hund. j, in the co. of Carmarthen, South Wales, 6 miles to th. N.V. of Llandilofawr. I'. 1; I SI, I 'IV, i par. in tho hund. of Lannditch, in the co. of Norfolk, 6 miles to th- N. of East Dcreham. It is ii"t far from tin' lien ham, l-'aki nham, ami branch railway. The living is a reel.* in the dioc. of Norwich, of the v:il. with the vie. of Gately annexed to it, of IKCi, in the patron, of the Master and Fellows of Christ's College, Cambridge. The church id dedicated t" St. Bartholomew. The parochial charities consist of tin i he town lands. BRISI.IN<;'1'< 'N, a par. in the hund. of Kcynsham, in the co. of Somerset, 3 miles to the S.E. of Bristol. It is situated on the border of Gloucestershire, on the south bank of the river Avon, and is intersected by tin- Great Western railway. No remains exist of an ancient chapel dedicated to St. Anne, which was founded here at an early period. The living is a perpet. cur. in the dioc. of Bath and Wells, of the val. of 170, in the patron, of E. W. L. Popham, Esq. The church is dedicated to St. Luke. The charitable endowments of the parish are worth about 12 a year. There are several scats of the gentry in the neighbourhood. Brislington House is a lunatic asylum, originally founded and conducted by Dr. Fox on an admirable system. BRISTOL, a city, seaport, municipal and parlia- mentary borough, forming a co. of itself, on the borders of Gloucestershire, and .Somersetshire, 12 miles to the X.V. of Bath, 38 to the S.W. of Gloucester, and 118$ to the W. of London. It is situated on the riven Avon and Frome, 8 miles above the junction of those rivers with that great arm of the Atlantic, the Bristol Channel. It has canal communication with tho Severn and the Thames, and thus with all England ; it is also the terminus of tho Great Western railway, which con- nects it, through Bath and Reading, with the metro- polis. This railway was formed between the years 1834 and 1838, according to the plans of Isambard King- dom Brunei, and was tho first of the broad gauge lines constructed in this country. Numerous branch lines have subsequently been added, connecting it with all the principal towns in the West. At Box, about 20 miles from Bristol, the rail is carried through a tun- nel 30 feet wide and above 2 miles long. The cost of the line was above 56,730 per mile. A section of the Midland railway connects Bristol, through Gloucester, with Birmingham, the Midland counties, and tho north ; and another line connects it with Exeter and tho south- western districts. From Yatton, a station on the latter line, a short branch runs to Clc vedon, a pleasant watering- place on the coast of the Bristol Channel. A town has existed on or near the site of Bristol from a remote anti- quity. It was called by the ancient Britons Catr Srito, or Vatr Oder, the latter signifying " town of the chasm," and denoting its position by the " rifted rock " tli which the river here takes its course. Among tho : conjectures hazarded as to the origin of the present of the city, the balance of probability seems to incline in favour of that which deduces it from the Saxon com- pound, flrite-itou> ; a name having the recommend " imagination, of a kindred meaning with the old I!i iti-h naiiii'. ami pointing to the same natural fact in the situation "I' tin town. After tho departure of the Romans, who had surrounded the town with walls, it was again undi r tin- dominion of tlir n.-itivo princes, and I ..!' the territory of the Cornish Britons. It is enumerated by Gildas and N. imins in their lists of fortified ami and was taken in 58 1 by Cridn, king of the West Saxons. It was visited by Jordan, one of the monks accompanying Augustin from K' in", ami it is conjectured liy some that thr us conference between tin Uomish missionary and i 003, took place here. About the pen' English ftlavts to In -laii'l was carri< d ' i. is cx- eminent churchmen, tho traffic was prohibited by a de- cree of the Conqueror. At the time of the Domesday Survey the town, then called Brixtoic, was a royal bui>;h, and had for its governor llurdinge, a merchant, ta bo of Danish origin, whose son, liobcrt h'itzhardinge, first lord of Berkeley, held the government after him. In the reign of William Rufus tho fur Mrs strengthened, and troops were collected here by Ilishop Godfrey, who supported the cause of Robert, the king's elder brother. About 1 140 a monastery of the A uy : order was founded by Robert Fitzhardinge, which wu made an abbey by Henry II., and flourished till the Dissolution, when its revenue amounted to 7D7. Th abbey church is now the cathedral. Fit/.hai also the founder of the priory of St. J:r of which was afterwards made parochial. was founded by Eva his widow. In the n ijrn of St. Bristol was taken and held for Maud, by !. the Earl of Gloucester, and the castle was nlbnJIt^^H larged, and made one of the most formidable in the country. The walls are said to have been thickness, and to have enclosed an area Stephen himself was for a short time a priso: as was also Eleanor, the beautiful princess of I'.riti During the reign of Henry II. the trade of tho was considerable with Ireland, Norway, and other j of Europe. In 1175 the king took possession "t castle, having, by a charter granted ten years ] increased the commercial privileges of the tov. were still further extended by a subsequent charter grai by the same king. The town was visited by King Jo in 1209, and by Henry III. early in his reign, this period that the cutting of a new channel for th. riv and the construction of a new quay on an extensive I adapted to the immense and growing trade, was i taken and accomplished in 1239. This was a able engineering work for that time, as the chM made 1 8 feet deep and 1 20 feet wi. ; . nil visited Bristol, and again two yeai n In held * II parliament there. It was the seat of a i following reign, and hold out for four yean royal authority and forces. The manu I cloth, and glass had been established I half of the 13th century; and in 1353E<hv.nd 111. i Bristol one of tho staple towns for wool, which augmented its commerce. The same i yeara later, constituted the city a county in declared it free from all feudal obli, trilmted 22 vessels and 608 seamen, 1 London, to the fleet sent to the siege of Calais, taken immediately after tho victory at I'n-cy. _ weavers came over from Flanders and settled in town during this reign, which greatly c"ntii prosperity, and made it a principal - manufacture. The town was besiege. 1 1399 by Henry, Duke of Lancaster, who asce throne as Henry IV. the same year. In 111G it i by Henry VI., and in 1469 by his 1 ; Margaret of Anjou. Kdward IV. ar of his accession, and after somi dill h the citi/ins. in which Villian nynges, one of tho chief merchants, disting If, confirmed them in tho enjoyment of privileges. II. my VII. visited 1 himself of (lie pretext that the ladies dressM too costly a style, for imposing a fine on su illi tJO. It wa- in : live of the town. ages of discovery to tin sic- tho Cod Banks of Newfoundland, which contribute v., althot Bristol. On the dissoli of the monasteries by Henry VIII., Hristol. till 1. d in Ilie ilj. o, of Salisbury, was a bishopric, ami tine was eji- .thedral. In 1.571 the town i 'i ; and, in the app the Spanish Armada in l-iss, |. n; de _ to join the lleot sent to oppose it. In the of Charles I. the inhabitants, especially concerned in 1
 * ' port, but, at the instance of some