The History and Beauties of Clifton Hot-Wells, and Vicinity (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1806. Excerpt: ... CLIFTON. "By brave Romans form'd for high command "Be thefe thy afls, from thy victorious hand."-I HE admirable attention paid by the Romans, in the choice of situation, and to render their fortified positions impregnable, has been the subject of universal panegyric, and perhaps, no place exhibits the correctness of that eulogium, more than is witnessed on the hill at Clifton, and on the opposite side of the Avon, which "still awes in ruins, and commands when dead. The subject world took from her their fate." These fortified eminences are considered as links in that chain of posts erected by Ostorius, in the year 50, when the banks of the rivers, Severn, and Avon, were defended, as positions best adapted for stationary purposes, security of conquest, awing the subjected British, and re?isting the manner of warfare of those days, when the battle was not won by gunpowder, but by dint of personal bravery; thus they were rendered impossible to be dislodged, nor were these stations of less consideration, for the advantage of throwing missive weapons at their assailants, and for the use of the catapulta and Balistae, from which heights those engines could command the river, subject every vessel to destruction, that dared to approach, as well as hurl large fragments of stone on those beneath. No advantageous situation remained unobserved or unoccupied by that great and politic people, which appears by the vestiges of their prudence, on every elevated situation, for though many were not of sufficient importance to make a powerful resistance, they were rendered highly advantageous for look-out posts, and made it impossible for an enemy (however cautious) to approach unobserved; thus remaining in peaceful security from their inaccessible stations, while their repo...