This is birthplace of Mary Robinson, born in1758. Robinson attended Hannah More’s academy in Bristol and caught the attention of David Garrick, actor. In her book, Perdita: the Memoirs of Mary Robinson (1801), Robinson describes how, on the night of her birth, ‘the wind whistled round the dark pinnacles of the minster tower, and the rain beat in torrents against the casements of her chamber.’  She describes the surroundings of Bristol Cathedral as ‘awe-inspiring’, ‘the mouldering arches of the cloisters; dark; Gothic’ and recalls the ‘brass eagle in the middle aisle, under which, when an infant, I used to sit and join in the loud anthem, or chant the morning service, most sensibly attached me. I longed again to occupy my place beneath its expanding wings, and once I went before the service began to gratify my inclination (p. 55). When Mary’s mother was abandoned by her father, they were forced to leave their house on Clifton Hill, which Robinson had described as: ‘elegantly arranged; all the luxuries of plate, silk furniture, foreign wines, &c., evinced his knowledge of what was worth enjoying, and displayed that warm hospitality which is often the characteristic of a British merchant. This disposition for the good things of the world influenced even the disposal of his children’s comforts. The bed in which I slept was of the richest crimson damask; the dresses which we wore were of the finest cambric; during the summer months we were sent to Clifton Hill for the advantages of a purer air. (p. 18) In 1800, Cottle and Biggs’ publishing house of St Augustine’s Back, Bristol published Robinson’s Lyrical Tales.