the Christian-and therefore Romanized-Britons. In connection with this remark, we may be permitted to observe that the situation of the site, midway-as we shall afterward endeavour to prove between the stations of Alnacestre and Ad Antonam, may not improbably have rendered it a halting-place in marching or travelling from one to the other. But this is merely a suggestion, which we do not undertake to establish. For though coins of the emperors have frequently been found within the modern borough and its immediate neighbourhood,-as where have they not?—we are indisposed by the employment of such material to weave an elaborated theory.

Before the foundation of the monastery, the name of the placeas stated in the abbey registers-was Ethomme, and also Homme. The latter is peculiarly appropriate to its peninsular form; being a word still used in the Scottish dialect-which is singularly exact in connection with natural objects—to indicate the low or level ground on the banks of a stream or river. After the erection of the monastery the spot was called Eoves' Holme from a swineherd named Eoves, who had been employed on it, and whose verbal representations to the diocesan had resulted in the foundation of the convent. From Eoves-holme the name would readily be contracted to Evesham as still employed.

The assumed sanctity of the spot, and the importance of its monastery soon identified its name with the whole country round. For the fruitful valley in which it is seated is styled 'the Vale of Evesham,' both far and near. The circuit of this extended district is defined by an observant resident as reaching from the Cotteswold Hills to the Malvern range;2 and from the former eminence, immediately above the village of Mickleton, a rich and comprehensive

2 The writer to whom we have alluded, incumbent of Mickleton at the time, thus describes the scene.-"There was an extensive prospect of the rich vale of Evesham, bounded at a distance by the Malvern hills. The towers and spires, which rose among the tufted trees, were strongly illuminated by the sloping rays of the sun; and the whole scene was enlivened by the music of the birds, the responsive notes of the thrushes from the neighbouring hawthorns, and the thrilling strains of the skylark, who, as she soared towards the heavens, seemed to be chanting forth her matins to the great Creator of the universe."-REV. RICHARD GRAVES. Spiritual Quixote, book ii. chap. 5.

view of the entire level is obtained. A more varied, and thus far superior, prospect of the whole is gained from the top of Broadway Hill, from whence the expanse presents itself as overspread by culture and fertility. A more cheering spectacle can perhaps hardly be stumbled on than that which suddenly bursts from hence on a bright morning in the summer tide, upon the wearied traveller, as he journeys hitherward from London. Then the very tameness of the preceding Oxford flat will by its dull contrast augment the soft luxuriance of this undulating vale. And should he have passed the night upon a coach-roof, and that a slow coach too-he will indeed admit, as he looks across this bright descent at sun-rise, as we once gazed upon it in a high-summer morn-that nothing surely can surpass it as a teeming specimen of home fertility.

But the present appearance of the district is very different from that which it presented some fifty years ago. Then the land lay in cultivated open and common fields, bounded only by the several parishes. Within these the property of various individuals was diffused, without any other distinction than the number of their “yard-lands:” for neither hedge-row nor trees intervened. during the present century these spacious tracks of cultivated ground have, under local Acts of Parliament, been severally enclosed, thus furnishing suitable divisions for the advancing operations of modern agriculture.

But

The Vale being situated upon the lias strata, there are, especially in the neighbourhood of the town, springs of saline and mineral character analagous to those of Cheltenham, which is also seated on the lias, being in fact a continuation of the strata here. In the parish of Hampton, adjoining Evesham at the south-west, springs of this character, abandoned as unfit for ordinary purposes, have been immemorially known; and from the Register of Domesday we learn that there was here, in the reign of William the Norman, salt work, yielding three ora" at that time. The prosperity of Cheltenham having been caused entirely by its mineral springs, this circumstance directed local attention to those of Hampton, in the autumn of 1821; and at a public meeting held in the town, a com

a

3Salina redd. iii. oras."-Survey of Lands of Urso D'Abitot, in Hampton; noticed in the Survey as formerly held by the Abbot of Evesham.

mittee was appointed, under whose direction fresh wells were sunk, and a new and very copious saline spring was found. This, upon analysis by Mr. Hume, in November of the same year, yielded from a pint wine measure,—

Hence, though from the extreme wetness of that season the water must have been in some degree deteriorated, it will be seen by comparing this analysis with that of the pure saline spring at Cheltenham, made by Messrs. Parkes and Brande, that the Hampton water contains less of common salt and more of medicinal, than the Cheltenham spring; and, referring to this water, Dr. Hastings, in his Illustrations of the Natural History of the county, thus remarks: "We only require some accidental circumstance to tempt fashionable visitors to resort to the neighbourhood of Evesham, in order that the springs of this spot may vie with those of the two former celebrated watering places, [Cheltenham and Leamington] in their far-famed restorative virtues."

In 1832, upon sinking a well on the Bengeworth side of the town, in a meadow belonging to T. C. Porter, of Birlingham, esq. a copious saline spring was discovered. This on being subjected to analysis by Mr. Hodgson, of Apothecaries' Hall, in June 1834, contained in one imperial pint—

From hence it will appear that the properties of this water most closely resemble those of the Cheltenham saline spring; principally on account of the chloride of sodium, or common salt, which it contains. In this particular the Bengeworth well differs from the neighbouring spring at Hampton, where only about half the quantity of this ingredient is found: so that either or both of the Evesham waters may be beneficially employed, at the option of the visitor; each being situated at an easy distance, and readily attained.

The peculiar position of the town, seated amidst so fertile and beautiful a district, presents a variety of charming walks and drives. As regards the former, the inmates are unusually privileged, in the readiness with which they may immediately step into the open country. From the very centre of the town, where most compacted, the indweller may instantly walk forth upon the verdant bank above the river, which forms the abbey site; from hence he may pass along the adjacent meadows, once the abbey park; and if he cross the ferry, he stands on the shelving elevation of the Vineyard Hill; where, from the Norman Conquest down to the overthrow of monasteries, the vine was cultivated in the open ground. The platform here has long been a favorite resort of the townspeople; not only from its nearness to their dwellings, but on account of the view that it commands, looking into the bosom of the Vale

"Where little purling winds like wantons seem to dally—"

tracking the winding course of the river, and glancing onward to the Cotteswold range in front and the rich isolated eminence of Bredon in the rear. Well may we from hence exclaim with Chamberlayne—

"Here nature in her unaffected dress

Plaited with valleys, and emboss'd with hills,

Enchas'd with silver streams, and fring'd with woods,
Sits lovely in her native russet clad." 5

The approach to Evesham from the Northern road, still more effectively displays the character of its locality. Here, at the termination of a descending vista, its tower and spires first fall upon the eye; and then the town, emerging from a belt of garden-ground

5 Love's Victory, by William Chamberlayne, A. D. 1658.

and backed by hills, appears in sight; the Avon sparkles in the middle distance, relieved by the bold outline, to the right, of Bredon hill; and still further west, the undulating heights of Malvern close the well-grouped scene. We gaze upon the picture, and cannot but applaud the taste of him who fixed on such a spot, therein to found a temple, where—no meaner was his intent-the praise of the Eternal should resound till time for ever ceased.