St. Mary Redcliff Church, which is supposed to be one of the most beautiful gothic structures for a parish church in England, next merits attention. The present edifice was erected by William Canning, an eminent merchant of Bristol, about the year 1456; the foundation having been commenced by his grandfather of the same name, on the site of the former church, built by Simon de Burton, in the year 1294. Canning having been rendered unhappy by the death of his wife, and being pressed by the King to a second marriage, he took holy orders to avoid an act so repugnant to his feelings: he was afterwards Dean of Westbury, to which he was likewise a great benefactor. He died in 1474, and was buried in the south end of the aisle of this church, in which are two monuments erected to his memory; in the one he is represented in his magisterial robes (he having been five times Mayor of Bristol), with his lady by his side, with a long inscription on two tables. In the other monument he is habited as a priest. The roof, which is of stone, displaying many curious devices, with much good workmanship, and the lofty pillars which support it, are beautiful; the interior, which consists of a middle and two side aisles, has a light and highly pleasing effect, and is generally much admired. The altar is very elegant and richly decorated, and over it are three capital paintings by Hogarth. The organ, which is of great size and compass, contains upwards of one thousand speaking pipes, and for richness of tone is scarcely to be equalled. It was in a room over the north porch entrance, in an old chest, that Chatterton, then a youth of seventeen, gave out that he found the poetical manuscripts, ascribed to Rowley and others, and said to have been written in the fifteenth century. Chatterton’s father was sexton of St. Mary’s Redcliff and master of a charity school in Pile-street, in which school, under a Mr. Love, who succeeded his father, and at the Colston Blue-coat school, he received his education. The Exchange in Corn-street is a noble building of free-stone highly finished; it cost upwards of 50,000_l._ The principal front is 110 feet; it is of the Corinthian order, upon a rustic basement. Next to the Exchange stands the Post-office, and higher up, on the opposite side of the street, the Council-house, where the mayor or some other magistrate sits daily to administer justice, from twelve till two o’clock. The charities of this city are numerous and extensive; the Infirmary is a noble building, situate in Earl-street, St. James’s; it is conducted on the most liberal plan.