Ann Yearsley's topographical poem 'Clifton Hill, written in January 1785' describes, in various stages, Yearsley's connections with and thoughts on the environs. She describes the route up Clifton Hill to St Andrew's Church at the top, in the graveyard of which her mother is buried:
As o'er the upland hills I take my way,
My eyes in transport boundless scenes survey:
Here the neat dome where sacred raptures rise,
From whence the contrite groan shall pierce the skies;
Where sin-struck souls bend low in humble prayer,
And waft that sigh which ne'er is lost in air.
Ah! sacred turf! here a fond Parent lies,
How my soul melts while dreadful scenes arise!
The past! Ah! shield me, Mercy! from that thought,
My aching brain now whirls, with horror fraught.
Dead! can it be? 'twas here we frequent stray'd,
And these sad records mournfully survey'd. (ll. 67-78)
Charlotte Turner Smith’s daughter, Augusta, died in Bristol on the 23rd of April, 1795, and is buried in St. Andrew’s Churchyard. Augusta had come to Hot Wells on doctor’s orders. It is thought she died of tuberculosis. Whilst in Bristol, during her daughter’s illness, Smith composed SONNET LXIV. WRITTEN AT BRISTOL IN THE SUMMER OF 1794:
1 Here from the restless bed of lingering pain 2 The languid sufferer seeks the tepid wave, 3 And feels returning health and hope again 4 Disperse ‘the gathering shadows of the grave!’ 5 And here romantic rocks that boldly swell, 6 Fringed with green woods, or stain’d with veins of ore, 7 Call’d native Genius forth, whose Heav’n-taught skill 8 Charm’d the deep echos of the rifted shore. 9 But tepid waves, wild scenes, or summer air, 10 Restore they palsied Fancy, woe-deprest? 11 Check they the torpid influence of Despair, 12 Or bid warm Health re-animate the breast; 13 Where Hope’s soft visions have no longer part, 14 And whose sad inmate is---a broken heart?
Charlotte Smith is praised by John Thelwall in ‘An Essay on the English Sonnet’ (1792) for her estimable revival of the poetic form.
