a seaport-town in the west of England, situated in Long. 2° 35'. 286° W. Lat. 51° 27'. 63° N., 108 miles from London, and 12 miles N.W. of Bath. It lies partly in the county of Somerset, partly in that of Gloucester, and was by Edward III. erected into an independent city and a county of itself. The rivers Avon and Frome run through it. The situation of Bristol is very delightful, in the midst of a rich and healthy country, surrounded by verdant hills; and in its immediate vicinity are many handsome and pleasantly situated villages, interspersed with seats of the nobility and gentry. The site of the town is very unequal. Some parts of it are built on steep activities; King's Down, St Michael's Hill, and Brandon Hill, rising nearly 250 feet perpendicular above the bed of the river. Bristol is nearly eight miles in circumference, and is supposed to cover about 1600 acres, containing with its suburbs nearly 800 streets and ten market-places.

Bristol contains thirty-seven churches, besides a considerable number of chapels belonging to various bodies of Dissenters. The cathedral was originally a monastery dedicated to St Augustine. The gateway is to be considered the only vestige of the original structure, and, from its great beauty, has attracted much notice. The present building consists of a neat choir, fitted up in the Gothic style, with part of the nave and the two side aisles, all os equal height. Bristol was erected into a bishop's see by Henry VIII, who annexed to its jurisdiction the whole of the county of Dorset, part of Gloucestershire, and three churches formerly in the see of Wells. Several eminent men have held the bishopric of Bristol, amongst whom may be mentioned the names of Secker, Butler, and Newton. Bishop Warburton was once dean of this cathedral. The church of St Mary Redcliff is built on a red sandy rock or cliff, from which it derives its name. The majestic and venerable appearance of this edifice, its lofty vaulted roof of stone, everywhere carved with devices of curious workmanship, and the tower nearly two hundred feet in height, and richly ornamented with a variety of carved work, fully justify the statement which has often been made—that it is the finest parish church in England. Over the north porch there is a kind of monument-room, in which were deposited six or seven chests, in one of which Chatterton pretended that the papers which he endeavoured to pass off as the manuscripts of Rowley were found. Of the other churches, the Mayor's chapel is celebrated for the beauty of its architecture, and the splendour of its internal decorations.

The public buildings of Bristol, taken as a whole, are in nowise remarkable, the most important of them having been destroyed by fire during the Bristol riots in 1831. The exchange is a fine quadrangle, with a piazza. It was erected in 1740-41, at the expense of the chamber of Bristol, and cost nearly £50,000.

The public schools and educational societies of Bristol are both numerous and flourishing. The most important of these institutions is the Bristol College, the object of which is to afford a classical and scientific education on the most moderate terms. There are two societies in Bristol for the purpose of educating young men for the ministry; the one in connection with the Church of England, and the other with the Baptist denomination. The Philosophical and Literary Institution, though only recently established, possesses a library, a room for the exhibition of paintings, a lecture-room with chemical apparatus, and a large museum with a good mineralogical cabinet. By the union of the Bristol Mechanics' Institute with the Church of England Book Society, and the Bristol Athenæum, the institution now known under that latter name was organized. It possesses an extensive library of books on all subjects; and the shareholders have recently erected a handsome building at a cost of more than £5000. It has lecture and reading rooms, lending and reference libraries, and several classes for the study of languages, elocution, &c. The Bristol Library, founded in 1772, now contains about 18,000 volumes, and has three hundred subscribers. The Bristol Law Library possesses 495 sets of books, including complete copies of all the reports, and the best professional treatises. There are about thirty charity day-schools in Bristol, twelve of which are endowed, and their income amounts to nearly £7000. The Bristol Adult School Society is especially deserving of notice. In the course of twenty-one years 120 schools have been opened, 13,000 scholars admitted, and nearly 700 are now receiving instruction, without preference to any religious sect or party.

Bristol abounds in hospitals, alms-houses, and other charitable institutions. The Bristol Infirmary is an excellent institution, possessing accommodation for about 200 patients, and is supported by subscriptions and donations. The Bristol Dispensary, the General Hospital, and the Asylum for the Blind, are also institutions deserving of notice. The endowed charities are estimated at £23,000 per annum. There are likewise about forty voluntary charitable societies, which collect and distribute annually, in various forms, amongst the poor, about £15,000. Bristol Hot Well has long been celebrated. The spring rises from the bottom of rocks overhanging the picturesque village of Clifton, and is pumped up in the Hot Well House, at temp. 74°. The water is slightly saline, and contains free carbonic acid. Its sp.gr. = 1·00077. A pint contains 3·5 cubic inches of carbonic acid, 1·5 grain of sulphate of soda, 1·5 gr. sulphate of lime, 0·5 gr. muriate of soda, 1 gr. muriate of magnesia, or 6 grains of solid contents.

Bristol carries on a considerable foreign trade with the British colonies in the West Indies, Australia, America, and Newfoundland, and also with France, Spain, and Portugal. Large quantities of foreign corn are brought into this port. The imports consist chiefly of grain, sugar, wine, rum, brandy, hides, colonial and Baltic timber, tallow, hemp, dye-woods, fruits, &c. In former years the trade of the port was much restricted by the heavy and unwise taxation imposed upon ships and imported goods; but since the removal of this in 1848, it has immensely increased. In 1845 the customs receipts were £919,149, while in 1853 they rose to the sum of £1,194,921, notwithstanding the great reductions which have taken place in duties, &c.; and this latter amount, there is little doubt, might be enormously increased but for the entire absence of dock accommodation at the mouth of the river, owing to which steamers and other large ships are compelled to incur the dangers of the Irish Channel by proceeding to Liverpool. Bristol has also a very large inland trade, especially with the western counties, and with North and South Wales, though the want of direct railway connection with the latter district materially interferes with this important branch of her trade, and is very favourable to the growth of other ports on the western side of the Bristol Channel. The tonnage of the port has increased so greatly of late years that it is difficult to give any average. It may be stated as follows:

| Year | Vessels | Tons | |------|---------|------| | 1849 | 541 | 124,340 | | 1850 | 646 | 129,022 | | 1851 | 728 | 137,642 | | 1852 | 665 | 139,582 | | 1853 | 631 | 134,739 | | 1854 | 788 | 175,571 |

The same account outward is as follows:

| Year | Ships | Tons | |------|-------|------| | 1849 | 137 | 34,674 | | 1850 | 177 | 47,793 | | 1851 | 190 | 52,188 | | 1852 | 209 | 64,065 | | 1853 | 191 | 63,104 | | 1854 | 262 | 87,190 | Besides the above, a very large coasting and Irish trade is carried on, amounting in the aggregate to upwards of 600,000 tons per annum. The increase in the number of ships belonging to this port has been very remarkable, having risen from 299 ships, with a tonnage of 38,939 tons in 1849, to 424 ships, with a total of 70,364 tons in 1853. Among the imports of 1853 we find 610,429 cwt. of sugar, 102,480 hides, 203,000 qrs. of corn, 56,000 cwt. of flour, nearly 90,000 loads of timber, &c.

A large amount of emigration has likewise taken place from this place to Australia and America during the last few years. The principal exports are manufactured goods, refined sugar, bricks, iron, tin, cotton goods, and glass bottles. The principal local manufactures are glass, sugar, iron, brass, copper, lead, zinc, floor-cloth, earthenware, tobacco, &c. The Bristol docks, which were originally formed in pursuance of the act 43d Geo. III., c. 142, at an expense of L600,000, were purchased in 1847-8 by the corporation, and are now the property of the citizens, the charges being greatly reduced by the aid of a rate of 4d. in the pound on fixed property.

Bristol is directly connected with the metropolis by means of the Great Western Railway, the capital of which has risen from L2,500,000 to upwards of 11 millions. There is also a railway from Bristol to Gloucester, and another from Bristol to Exeter, thus connecting it with every part of the United Kingdom. The city is supplied with water by a water company, who draw their supply from springs in the Mendip Hills. The water is considered very good, but the concern is not yet remunerative in a financial sense. There is also a gas-company formed by the junction of the Bristol and Clifton Gas Companies, with a united capital of L179,500. There are six banking establishments in Bristol, including a branch of the Bank of England; and there is also a savings bank. Some of the largest vessels ever launched have been built in Bristol; among which may be noticed the Great Western, the first of the large ocean steamers, upwards of 2000 tons burthen, and the Great Britain of 3500 tons.

Bristol is divided for municipal purposes into ten wards, and its government is vested in a mayor, 16 aldermen, and 48 councillors. It returns 2 members to parliament. The population in 1811 amounted to 76,952; in 1821 to 95,758; in 1831 to 117,016; and in 1851 to 137,328.

Bristol is a city of great antiquity. There is indeed good reason to believe that it was an inhabited place as early as the time of the Roman invasion; though scarcely any notice is taken of it until about the era of the Norman conquest, when a powerful fortress was erected there by the Earls of Gloucester, which, after it had stood about six centuries, was demolished in 1655, by order of Oliver Cromwell. During the contest between King Stephen and the Empress Maude, Bristol became a mere stronghold of banditti, who plundered the neighbouring counties, and were guilty of great excesses and cruelties. The son of Maude, Henry II., was educated at Bristol, having been brought thither when nine years of age; and when he afterwards came to the crown, he created Robert Fitzharding, at that time governor of Bristol, Lord of Berkeley. King John, having become Lord of Bristol by marrying Isabel, daughter of William Earl of Gloucester, renewed the Bristol charters, and pointed out the limits of the city. In 1312 a violent commotion took place in Bristol, and hostilities were carried on between the castle and the town for a period of upwards of two years, when the latter submitted to the royal authority. On the 8th of August 1373, Edward III., rewarded the loyalty of the inhabitants of Bristol to his father, by bestowing on them a charter which conferred peculiar immunities, and constituted the town a county of itself. As a memorial of gratitude, the corporation of Bristol erected a cross in High Street, 39 feet 6 inches in height, adorned with rich Gothic ornaments, and having the statues of King John, Henry III., and Edward III., placed in niches. When the Duke of Lancaster, afterwards Henry IV., invaded England, he marched to Bristol, besieged the castle, took it, and ordered Lord Scroop, Sir John Busby, and Sir Henry Greene, three of the king's counsellors, to be beheaded without a trial. Henry VII. frequently visited Bristol; and in 1550 he granted it a new charter, and also presented his own sword to be borne before the mayor. On the breaking out of the civil war in the reign of Charles I., Bristol was garrisoned for the parliament; but being a place of great importance, from commanding the western counties, the king was desirous to obtain possession of it; and Prince Maurice, the Marquis of Hertford, and Prince Rupert, having united their forces, invested it on the 24th of July 1643, and after a vigorous resistance, carried it by storm. After the defeat of Charles at Naseby, Prince Rupert threw himself into Bristol, and it was confidently expected that he would make a vigorous defence; but when Sir Thomas Fairfax besieged the city, the prince capitulated after a resistance of only twenty-one days. At this period the city suffered severely from the combined effects of war and pestilence. In 1749, and again in 1792, several riots took place, which were not quelled without much bloodshed. But the most memorable event in the modern annals of Bristol, is the celebrated riot which took place in October 1831, during the excitement created by the reform bill. When Sir Charles Wetherell, recorder of Bristol, went to make the usual jail delivery in that city, the populace rose in great numbers, and having succeeded in gaining possession of the city, burned the bishop's palace, the mansion-house, the custom-house, the excise-office, the jails, bridewell, and nearly fifty private houses and warehouses. Many lives were lost during these unhappy tumults, and the damage done to property was estimated at L70,000. A special commission was appointed to try the prisoners, 114 in number, charged with being concerned in these riots. Eighty-one were found guilty, four of whom were executed, and of the rest some were sentenced to transportation, others to imprisonment and hard labour for various periods. Subsequently to the riot, a bill was introduced into parliament for the purpose of providing compensation for the sufferers. The property destroyed was valued by twelve commissioners at L68,208, which was borrowed from government upon a mortgage of the poor-rates of the city.

seaport-town of Rhode island, capital of a county of the same name. It has a considerable coasting trade and extensive fisheries. The shipping belonging to the port amounts to 13,198 tons. Pop. 4616. It is situated on the east side of Narragansett bay, 18 miles S.S.E. of Providence. Mount Hope, which lies about two miles north-east of Bristol, within the township, is a hill of a conical form, famous for having been the residence of the Indian king, Philip, who for so long a period retarded the progress of the young colony by his repeated and sometimes successful attacks.

town of the United States in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, 11 miles S.S.E. from Newton, and twenty N.E. from Philadelphia.

There are several other smaller towns of this name in the United States.