ADVERTISEMENT. SEVEN years having elapsed since the commencement of the Bristol Memorialist, it is perhaps necessary to address a few words to the reader on the subject. Attachment to his native city, and a fondness for inquiries into its history, induced the publisher to believe that a work of this kind would be interesting to many of its inhabitants. He therefore drew up the prospectus: but fearful that he should be unable to devote so much of his attention to it as would be necessary, he proposed to a literary friend to join him in the undertaking. From circumstances which would be uninteresting to narrate, the publication was suspended with the third number. Feeling anxious, however, that the work should assume a collected form, he recently determined on preparing a fourth number, by which he has, in some degree, completed his design. Though by no means satisfied with the manner in which his intentions have been carried into effect, he is still confident that a similar publication, but perhaps with some modification of the plan, would be supported in this city; and from the facilities and the resources which he now possesses, he intends shortly to submit a Prospectus of such a work to the Bristol public. Clifton, 15th June, 1823. In consequence of restricting communications for the first department of our work to local contributors, it may sometimes contain the productions of men unknown to fame; but it is presumed that the execution of this part of the plan will create an interest among our fellow-citizens, and excite no small degree of curiosity in the minds of strangers. We conceive it an object of much importance, that this division of the work will present a criterion of the taste and judgment as well as of the literary talent existing in a considerable provincial district. We would wish the second department to become a repository of Original Communications from those persons who have made the History and Antiquities of Bristol objects of their pursuit, and also from those who are acquainted with facts and circumstances which, if recorded, may become the materials of future history. The Editors experience fresh motives to regret the death of some old and valued friends, in the loss of that knowledge which would have been imparted on this subject; but while anxious to be informed of any vestige of the place in which our forefathers lived, and moved, and had their being,' and of circumstances connected with their existence, we would gladly receive any particulars relative to the present state of the city, as well as sketches of its customs, characters, &c. that are not of a trifling or merely temporary nature. Original Memoirs or additional Anecdotes of Eminent Natives and Residents of Bristol, will form an interesting portion of this department. 6 In the last division of our publication will be collected, Scarce Tracts relative to Bristol, and such scattered Notices as are not contained in the collection of materials for its history compiled by Mr. Barrett, or in any of the recent publications on the subject. We will only add, that we now offer our Fellow-Citizens an opportunity of disproving the invidious assertions so frequently made, to the discredit of our tastes and dispositions; and we have no doubt that THE BRISTOL MEMORIALIST, if properly supported, will confound and silence the voice of calumny. January 1, 1816. |