Mendip Range; while at the foot of the rich champagne valley below
you, which gradually descends for about five miles, lies the city of
Bristol with its numerous fine churches; and a splendid view of Clifton
completed the scene. This may be said to be a succession of truly
English landscapes.

The recollection of such a moment as this, is treasured up in the memory
as a green spot in the oasis of existence. Fancies come thickly crowding
on the mind, which banish for the moment, all feelings of the drear
realities of life; if one may be pardoned for being sometimes romantic,
it is surely on such occasions as these. We descended the tower--"Please
remember the Sexton----!"

The church of Dundry is of great antiquity, and the tower, which is one
of the most extraordinary in England, is a fine specimen of early church
architecture.

There is another tower, remarkable for the beauty of its situation,
which overlooks the Avon, about two miles west of Clifton, at the
extremity of the Downs. It is of an octagonal shape, and its name
(Cooke's Folly) is said to be derived from the following circumstance:--
Several centuries since, the proprietor of the land, a gentleman named
Cooke, dreamed that his only son was destined to be killed by the sting
of an adder. This idea took such hold of his mind, that in order to
avert the dreaded catastrophe, he built this tower, to which he rigidly
confined his son. The tradition goes on to relate the futility of all
human precautions against the decrees of fate: for a short period after
the erection of the tower, an attendant happening to bring in some
bundles of fagots in which an adder was coiled, the youth was stung by
it and died in consequence.

There has been a beautiful lithographic engraving, published in Bristol,
of Cooke's Folly, which includes a view of King's Road.

VYVYAN.

* * * * *

MANNERS & CUSTOMS OF ALL NATIONS.

* * * * *

THE GERMANS AND GERMANY.

_Translated from a German Work, in the Foreign Review, No. 8._

Pope Ganganelli compared the Italians with the fire, the French with the
air, the English with the water, and us Germans with the earth, _omne
simile claudicat_. The German is not so nimble, brisk, and witty as the
Frenchman; the latter gallops _ventre a terre_, whilst the German at the
utmost trots, but holds out longer. The German is not so proud,
humoursome, and dry as the Englis