The east-west track leads through an informal avenue of European limes dating from the 1700s westwards to Penpole Point which has wide views over the Bristol Channel and the River Avon. At the end is a mid-17th-century compass which was used by merchants to watch shipping movements on the River Severn and Avon. Ships would lie up in the safe anchorage of King Road, the gateway of the Port of Bristol, before attempting the difficult journey up the Avon to the quays in the city centre.  Joseph Cottle, visiting the site in the 1790s, wrote the poem ‘Severn, Sunset, Written at King's Weston Point, Near Bristol’ in contemplation of the view: 1  IF hour there be when pleasure fills the breast,  2     As Nature, robed in beauty, sleeps profound;  3     When woods and streams, in fairy vision round,  4  Reflect the peaceful splendours of the west,  5  That hour is this.---In pomp austerer drest,  6     Now Severn kindles through his ample bound,  7  And Cambria's lordly hills in glory lie,  8  O'er-canopied by clouds of gorgeous dye;  9     Whilst sea-birds sport amid the sapphire wave,  10  Rolling the line eternal to the strand;  11     And many a distant skiff, and vessel brave,  12  Glides glowing on, by fostering zephyrs fann'd.  13     Our Empress Isle, profuse of pearl and gem,  14     Here wears her proud, and matchless diadem.