he Downs are covered
with verdure all the year, and the turf abounds with aromatic plants,
growing wild, which are not to be met with elsewhere in England. Here
are also discernible ancient fortifications and intrenchments; and coins
of the later Roman emperors have frequently been found about the camp;
there are other military works opposite, on the Somersetshire side of
the Avon. Besides the above remains, on Clifton Downs, is an old tower
with a brick floor, but without any roof. (_See the Engraving._) From
three open spaces, formerly doors, are exquisite views: in front an
extensive prospect of Gloucestershire; on the right, part of Clifton,
and in the background Dundry Hill; and on the left, King's Road, with
the ships at anchor, the Bristol Channel, and the mountains of South
Wales. At the end of the Downs stands the mansion of Sir William Draper,
once so conspicuous in the public mind from the severe chastisement he
received from Junius. To the left is an expensive monument erected by
Sir William, who was colonel of the 79th regiment, to the memory of his
soldiers who fell in the East Indies, in 1768; and to the right is a
pillared tribute to the patriotic Earl of Chatham, with a brief Latin
inscription by Sir William Draper.

Our view of Clifton is from the Ferry, and is from an effective
lithograph, of very recent date.

Added to the charms of the romantic scenery of Clifton are the
attractions of the Bristol Hot Wells, in the vicinity; upon which
fashion has conferred too great celebrity to render description needful.
The richness and grandeur of the scenery of the Hot Wells are almost
inconceivable; in some places the rocks, venerably majestic, rise
perpendicularly, or overhanging, craggy and bare; and in others they are
clothed with luxuriant shrubs and stately trees. From the bottom of
these cliffs, on the east bank of the river, issues the Bristol Hot Well
water. The spring rises out of an aperture in the solid rocks and is
computed to discharge about forty gallons in a minute.

The author of the _History and Beauties of Clifton Hot Wells_, in
describing this scenery, says, "One of the sublimest and most beautiful
scenes in nature is exhibited by those bold and rugged eminences behind
the crescent, known by the name of _St. Vincent's Rocks_, which appear
to have been rent asunder by some violent convulsion of nature." They
are misshapen and massy projections, nearly 300 feet in height. Pieces
of this ro