Description
Bristol antique print. This steel engraved antique print, published in 1845, of the ‘City of Bristol,’ is from ‘Curiosities of Great Britain. England and Wales Delineated. Historical, Entertaining & Commercial, Alphabetically Arranged by Thomas Dugdale, Antiquarian. Assisted by William Burnett.’ (Dugdale was a professional artist, whilst Burnett was a civil engineer by profession.) Together they produced a series of steel engraved prints of English and Welsh architectural and topographical features, together with County Maps.
Bristol is a city and county in South West England. It is England’s sixth most populous city, and the most populous in Southern England after London. The city borders North Somerset and South Gloucestershire, with the cities of Bath and Gloucester to the south-east and north-east, respectively. Iron Age hill forts and Roman villas were built near the confluence of the rivers Frome and Avon, and around the beginning of the 11th century the settlement was known as Brycgstow (Old English “the place at the bridge”). Bristol received a royal charter in 1155 and was historically divided between Gloucestershire and Somerset until 1373, when it became a county of itself. From the 13th to the 18th century, Bristol was among the top three English cities after London in tax receipts.