E Q 11 ta H, THE WORCESTER B.0gal ^amlain Wlarks, NEAR THE CATHEDRAL. LATE FLIGHT & BARR & CHAMBERLAINS. Established The SHOW-ROOMS (which are at the WORKS), are Open for the reception of VISITORS, and the various processes of may be seen in operation daily, from 10 till 5, Satur- days excepted, when the Workshops close at 1, and the Show-Rooms at 4 o’clock. The Wokks’ Museum, containing a collection of Old Worcester and Japanese Pottery, can also be seen on presentation of address card in the Show-Room. The Productions of these Works may be obtained of the Principal China Dealers throughout the World. COOMBE HOUSE COOMBE WOOD, SURREY ( Ten Miles S W, of London,) COOMBE HOUSE formerly (Lord Liverpool’s) is close to Wimbledon Common, and South Side of Bichmond Park. This magnificent Mansion (which has been visited by Her Majesty the Queen and the Prince and Princess op Wales), IS Now Open as a First-Class Hydropathic Establishment. FIFTY ACRES PARK & PLEASURE GROUNDS OP UNRIVALLED BEAUTY. CONSERVATORIES OF GREAT EXTENT. Rosery, Fernery, Azalea, Tropical and Orange Houses, connected with the House, and Recreation and Lecture Rooms, FORMING AN EXTENSIVE SUMMER AND WINTER GARDEN AND PROMENADE OF A QUARTER OF A MILE. IN WINTER HEATED THROUGHOUT, Charming Shady Walks and Groves. Pure bracing air from the Surrey Hills. Water from the celebrated “ Coombe Springs.” DELIGHTFUL SUMMER OR WINTER RESIDENCE, Recommended by more than Twenty of the Chief London Physicians as a Health Resort. TURKISH, ELECTRIC, & HYDROPATHIC BATHS, Resident Physician— FOSTER MACGEAGH, M.D., M.R.G.?., L.S,^. WRITE SECRETARY for PROSPECTUS. N.B.— Coombs House is on a level with the Cross of St. Paul's Cathedral. WARWICK HOUSE, MALVERN. . Established 1833. Enlarged 1868 and 1875. COX & PAINTER, pmevis Mil lamilji Respectfully invite the attention of Visitors to the extensive ami valuable stock they hold in their various departments, and solicit an in.=;pection of the constant succession of Novelties they are daily receiving throughout the season. Spacious Show Rooms are devoted to the display of MILimERT. MANTLES, COSTUMES, LADIES’ AND CHILDEEK’i OUTFITS, BABY LINEN, MADE-UP LACE GOODS, DRESSMAKING. Wedding and Indian Orders carefully and promptly executed. The Dpholstery and Furnishing Departments Will be found replete with CARPETS in NEW and ARTISTIC DESIGNS, Linoleum, Coeticine, and every description of Floor Coverings. CURTAIN MATERIALS and BLINDS in great variety. HOUSEHOLD LINENS, &c., &c. The Show Rooms for Cabinet Goods Are an'anged with a large selection of Furniture for Reception Rooms, Library, Hall, Bed Rooms, &c., of superior quality ; also of IRON AND BRASS BEDSTEADS AND BEDDING of every description. INVALID COUCHES AND GARDEN LOUNGES. Detailed Circulars and Price Lists on application. WARWICK HOUSE, MALVERN, XLhc /Iftalvern Springs NOTICE. HE PURE WATER of these famous Springs ^|) is Bottled in GLASS-STOPPER WINE ^ BOTTLES by Messrs. W. & J. BURROW, the Proprietors and Lessees, and forwarded by them to all parts of the kingdom. Terms may be had on application at Messrs. Burrow’s Offices, Belle Vue Terrace, Malvern. The Water of these famous Springs is the purest Table Water known. Valuable for its healthful qualities, and as a preventative of gout and calcareous deposits in the system, its remarkable solvent properties clearing away these and similar injurious obstructions.” Messrs. Burrow are the Manufacturers of the well-known “ Malvern Seltzer,” Soda, Potash, and Lithia Waters, which are all bottled at the celebrated springs. Patentees of the ‘‘ Slider ” Wine Bins and Mineral Water Racks. THE 4 - An entirely new shape of Photograph introduced by Norman May, OP This Photograph has somewhat the proportions of the older Promenade Portrait, which it seems destined to supersede. Albums are made in great variety for the new size, and a number of Frames of various designs are kept in stock. Very favourably criticised by the Photographic and Local Papers. Specimens may be seen at the Studio, Malvern. The Malvern Portrait” is now made by all the leading Photographers in England, on the Continent, and America. Ik • ■ \ .tc '■ • p '-■ > ■ M' W' : ^ -■:■ : . [* ■ '"■ ■" -* f’f:’*'":-, ' PHOTOGRAPHED FROM LIFE. NORMAN MAY, MALVERN. ENLAKGEMENTS IN OIL ON CANVAS. MINIATURES IN WATER COLOUR ON IVORY, PERMANENT PHOTOGRAPHS ON PORCELAIN. RED OR BLACK CHALK ENLARGEMENTS. PHOTOGRAPHS BURNT-IN ON TILES. OLD AND VALUABLE MSS. FAITHFULLY COPIED. PHOTOGRAPHS ON SILK. PERMANENT PHOTOGRAPHS ON PAPER. BOOKS ILLUSTRATED BY PHOTOGRAPHY. Norman May, Malvern. NORMAN MAY, MALVERN. UNDER THE PATRONAGE OF H. E. H. The Prince of Wales. The Eight Hon. The Earl of Shannon. The Eight ^on. The Earl of Coventry. The Right Hon. The Earl of Lathom. The Eight Hon. The Earl Beauchamp. The Marquis de Lys. Viscount Carnpden. Lord Claude Hamilton, M.P. Lord Walter Scott. Lord Fitzhardinge. Lord Elmley. His Excellency Baker Pasha. His Excellency The Count D’Albecca. The Eight Rev. The Lord Bishop of Quebec. The Lord Bishop of Hereford. Sir Dighton Probyn. General Sir John Hawkins. Sir Harry Lambert. The Hon. and Eev. Canon Lyttelton. The Hon. Hugh Massy. The Hon. Robert Lygon. The Hon. L. E. Lowther. General Tnlloh. General Conway. General Hichens. General Hailes. General White. General Moore. Colonel Venner. Colonel Stall ard. Colonel Wake. Colonel Walpole. Colonel Thompson. Colonel Pears. Colonel Pilkington. Colonel VVebb. Colonel Bell. Eev. Canon Wheeler. Eev. Canon Malone. Eev. Canon Preedy, Eev. Canon Yeomans. Eev. Canon Murray. J. Brinton, Esq., M.P. The Countess Manvers. The Countess of Shannon. The Countess Beauchamp. The Countess Kersenbrock. The Lady Fitzhardinge. The Lady Walter Scott. The Lady Claude Hamilton. The Lady Mary Lygon. The Lady Susan Lygon. The Lady Margaret Lygon. The Lady Headley. Lady Lambert. Lady Temple. Lady Georgiana Vernon. Lady Stevenson. Lady Wake. Lady Heathcote Amory. Lady De Burgho. Lady Causton. Lady Hope. The Hon. Mrs. Wellesley. The Hon. Mrs. H anbury. The Hon. Mrs. Hewitt. The Hon. Mrs. Wilbraham. The Hon. Mrs. Stuart Menzies The Hon. Mrs. Livingstone. The Hon. Mrs. Peel. The Hon. Mrs. Bagot. The Hon. Evelyn Hanbury. The Hon. Maud Hanbury. THE ABBEY HOTEL. This Hotel has undergone extensive alteration and embellishment. It is now thoroughly welUwarmed^ making it a most desirable residence during the colder months of the year. It is situate in the most fashionable quarter of Great Malvern, and is in every respect suitable for the reception of the best Families. cofnE-mou for ladies and gentlemen. WILLIAM ARCHER, Proprietor. Letters Addressed “Manager” ensure a Reply by First Post. THE FOLEY ARMS HOTEL, jVI:^ Ili-V-E 3^3:^ - Established more than 70 years, during which period it has at various times been honoured with the Patronage of the Royal Family, and also with many English and Foreign distinguished personages. This Hotel has recently been greatly Enlarged, entirely rearranged, and handsomely Furnished. It has the ac- knowledged advantage of being in the best situation, standing on the slope of the Hills, in the higher part of the Town, and from its numerous Suites of Apartments, Terrace, and Pleasure Garden, the most extensive and beautiful views are obtained. Coffee-Eoom for Ladies and Gentlemen. ALL ATTENDANCE CHARGED. POST-HORSES AND CARRIAGES OF ALL DESCRIPTIONS. LIVERY STABLES. EDWARD ARCHER, Proprietor. APARTMENTS. Permanent or temporary, with or without board. Sitting and bedrooms en suite, newly decorated. Excellent cooking, and every possible comfort in the best situation, within five minutes walk of Abbey Church, Post Office, and Railway Station. ADDRESS— C. BUGGINS, Proprietor. MALVERN HOMEOPATHIC PHARMACY 2, BEAUCHAMP TEEEAOE, (Opposite Foley Arms Hotel). JAMES HILL, Chemist. MALVERN FREE ADMISSION TO VISITORS. Visitors residing in Hotels, Lodging Houses, or Boarding Establishments, whose PROPRIETORS ARE SUBSCRIBERS TO THE GARDENS, ARE ADMITTED FREE on all ordinary days. Flower Shows, Fetes, Concerts, &c., by Ticket only. THE BAND Plays in th^ Gardens twice a day during the Sunimer, -IBBERD & )ON, CHURCH STREET, MALVERN. ^ DEPARTMENTS.-^- DRESSES CASHMERE SILKS TRIMMINGS PRINTS HABERDASHERY HOSIERY FANCY DRAPERY LACE RIBBONS GLOVES UMBRELLAS CORSETS UNDERCLOTHING DRESSMAKING. Xilnen Dvapers, AND Manchester Warehousemen. Gibbkrd & Son, CHURCH STREET, MALVERN. DAVID KENDALL, Ttfl CHURCH STREET, MALVERN. Millinery, Mantle, and Costume Showrooms DREssM:^K:i:N^a. LADIES’ & CHILDREN’S OUTFITTING. A large and well-assorted Stock of Dress Materials • in all the New Shades. IRibbona, Xace, 1 b 06 ier^, (Bloves, dc., dc. Household Linens^ Lace and Muslin Curtains^ Calicoes^ Blankets, Flannels, Quilts, Every Requisite for the Hydropathic Treatment. Ladies’ and Children’s Boots and Shoes by the best French and English Makers. replete with the IjAv-TEST D^TO'VEZjTIES. FAMILY MOURNING. FUNERALS FURNISHED. And at Scotland House, North Malvern. Visitors to Malvern. The favour of your patronage is respectfully solicited by THOMAS DRIHKWATER, Coott Confectioner, From the Palais Boyal, the Restaurant Philippe^ Paris, and the Carlton Club, London, » BE4UCHAMP TERRACE, MALVERN. (OPPOSITE THE FOLEY HOTEL.) ^ 0 up, Jqfs, 3muht|ons and ginnp. Every description of Superior Confectionery. BRIDE, CHRISTENING AND OTHER CARES Always ready to be finished on the shortest notice. Plate, Cutlery, and all necessary Table Requirements on Hire. WINES, SPIRITS, LIQUEURS, &c. DAVIS & SONS, CO W K D H a s oo pci W C-O pE^ C/S W «3 h pci PPI PPI PP5 oo PPI »«=Ih PP| PQ ►-=*3 WATERLOO HOUSE, MALVERN. Messrs. J.B. HARPERS SONS, MALVERN. Estate, House, AND Ij^3iT3D -A-a-ZBISTTS, ^urtiomsrs & ‘Valam, SUEVEYOES FOE DILAPIDATIOMS, {Vsiluations promptly made for Administration.) Agents to the Lancashire Fire and Life Insurance Company. “THE MALVERN AND WESTERN COUNTIES REGISTER ’’ of Estates, Private Residences, and Land for Sals or to be Let, issued monthly. The largest and most comprehensive pubiished in the country. ESTABLISHED 1841. WORCESTER : PRINTED BY ALFRED M, BAYLIS, NEW STREET. MALVERN. photographer. 5 HAYNES & CO. Musical Instrument Merchants, IMPORTERS, EXPORTERS, d SHIPPERS, PROFESSIONAL TUNERS & REPAIRERS, CECILIA HALL, MALVERN, and 123, HIGH STREET, TEWKESBURY, AT CIVIL SERVICE CASH PRICES, Packing and carriage included. The Discounts are allowed from the MANUFACTURERS’ PUBLISHED LISTS, THUS PROVING INDISPUTABLY THE GENUINENESS and LIBERALITY of the deductions. Every Instrument GUARANTEED, and subject to free exchange. americatTorgans AND HARMONIUPVIS, At pricet beyond Co-Operative and ALL OTHER competition. TIlNTNr Tuners (from Broadwood’s, Collard’s, (fee.), lUilliWi visit every part of the surrounding Country. (Send for Testimonial List.) RPPlTRTNr branch done on the premises by skilled RljrnlUlriUi experienced hands. Estimates free by post. SEND for FKEE ILLUSTKATED CATALOGUE. HALVE EN. “ Cultured slopes, Wild tracts of forest ground, and scattered groves, And mountains bare, or clothed with ancient woods, Surrounded us ; and with the change of place. From kindred features, diversely combined. Producing change of beauty, ever new.” [iCTURESQUELY situated on the eastern declivity of the fine group of hills rising out of the fiat land of Worcestershire and Here- fordshire, Malvern enjoys an undisputed pre-eminence amongst English watering places for the unique loveli- ness of its varied scenery, the healing properties of its springs, the purity and salubrity of its air, and the longevity of its inhabitants. From a small village of fifty or sixty houses, at the commencement of the present century, Malvern has rapidly risen into a fiourishing and splendid town with a population of 8,000. Its modest predecessor, 6 with its cluster of thatched cottages, old-world inns, squire’s mansion, and sparse habitations of a better class, has vanished from the shady wood in w^hich it nestled, and the sheltering hills now look down on truly palatial residences, crescents and terraces, long ranges of villas in their spacious grounds, each ‘'set in much greenerie and abundance ; ” churches in every variety of ecclesiastical art, chapels, college, museum, and club, together with stately hotels which emulate in size, and greatly exceed in accommodation, better service and more reasonable charges, their famous American and Continental rivals. Nor ought we in this enumeration to omit the magnificent Hydropathic Establishments created by the enterprising genius and sound discernment of Dr. Wilson and Dr. Gully, who, appreciating at its true value the discovery of Preissnitz, by the successful application of his principles made Malvern the " Metropolis of Hydropathy,” and the favourite resort of many of the first men of the age. But widely as The Malvern of to-day differs from the peaceful retreat whose romantic solitudes charmed the fastidious taste of Horace Walpole and elicited Miss Berry’s warmest praise, whose friendly memories inspired Southey’s muse, and linger in the mournful retrospects of Byron, it still relies for attraction rather on the unrivalled natural charms of its surroundings, than on the increased grandeur of its buildings or the superior luxuries it can now offer to the noblest or wealthiest of visitors. 7 The town is set in the centre of what was once the Royal Forest and afterwards the Chase of Malvern. This Chase extending from the river Terae in the north to Corse Forest on the south, and from the Severn on the east to the top of Malvern Hill on the west, covered 6000 acres of land in Worcestershire, 600 in Hereford- shire, 100 in Gloucestershire, and formed a continuous line of thick, woody, marshy wilderness from near Tewkesbury beyond Bewdley, a distance of between thirty and forty miles. A considerable proportion of this vast domain remains as unenclosed commons and affords drives of matchless beauty all around Malvern. On every side, the lover of nature will find at Malvern abundant gratification. From its elevated ;^ituation, it commands innumerable landscapes of exquisite and varied loveliness. Dr. Nash, iu his excellent description of Worcester- shire, says : “ It is beyond the power of an antiquary to describe the beautiful prospects from this hill (Malvern). If a distant view delights, here you may see the counties of Monmouth, Hereford, Eadnoi, Brecknock, Salop, Worcester, Gloucester, Stafford, Warwick, &c., and the three Cathedrals of Worcester, Gloucester, and Hereford, together with many market towns. If you are pleased with a nearer view, the pear-trees of Worcestershire, when in blossom furnish such a scene as the world cannot equal. On the west- ern side, the apple trees of Herefordshire, with their 8 purple hue, make an agreeable diversity ; add to this the varied ground, the beautiful little hills, and rich woods which improve the Herefordshire prospect. If to the beauty of the situation, we add the purity and salubrity of the air, we may venture to report, that, at least for summer months, Malvern is as desir- able a residence as any in England.” That well-known authority on English and Conti- nental Spas, Dr. Granville, adds his testimony, thus : The attractions of Malvern are its scope and facility for exercise, the opportunities of scrambling up breezy , mountain-sides, so as to put every muscle of the body in action, and test the strength and elasticity of the lungs. At the same time the frequent inhaling of the purest air in a lofty region.” ^ The Malvern hills lie in the counties of Worcester, Gloucester, and Hereford, and are nine miles in length and one to two broad. The principal summits are the North Hill, 1151 feet above the Severn, the Worcester- shire Beacon 1444 feet, and the Herefordshire Beacon 1870 feet. Upon the crest of the latter, are the remains of one of the strongest and most important hill-fortresses in the kingdom, commanding what was anciently the only pass through the Malvern Hills. The Worcestershire Beacon, as its name implies, was doubtless used in times of invasion or disaster, to signal the people to arms. Macaulay sings in spirited verse, how when the country was threatened with a Spanish invasion. 9 “ Twelve fair counties saw the blaze “ From Malvern’s lonely height.” Starting from the centre of the Town, half-an-hour sufiices to reach “ the summit of perfection,” as this peak has been termed by an enthusiastic admirer, and to bring the visitor face to face with half a kingdom bathed in light,” which as Mary Howitt poetically phrases it, lies stretching out below.” However, to particularize all the delightful views that may be obtained from the Malvern Heights would exceed the limits of our introductory chapter, and we will therefore proceed to describe the objects of greatest interest in the town itself “ As now-a-days we build monuments to great men, so in the middle ages they built shrines or chapels on the spots which saints had made holy, and communities of pious persons, beginning with the personal friends the saint had left behind him, to try to live as he had lived, to do good as he had done good, and to die as he had died. Thus arose religious fraterni- ties ; companies of men who desired to devote themselves to goodness, to give up pleasure and amusement and self-indul- gence, and to spend their lives in prayer and works of charity. J. A. Froude. 0 the faith and courage of a humble Saxon monk, who, impelled by celestial vision, braved the mysterious perils of pathless d treacherous morass, that he might haply find some peaceful haven, far from the world’s tumul- tuous strife, wherein to dedicate his days to God, we owe the erection of our majestic and venerable Abbey Church, almost the only monument that, in Malvern, 11 escaped the shipwreck of the Dissolution, to recall to a more commonplace posterity the perished splendours of the vast and wealthy religious foundation which gradually expanded fi’om the lowly cell of the hermit Werstan. The Priory’s lofty tower still holds possession of the centre of the landscape, and displays the glories of traceried battlement and pinnacle to the admiring gaze of the approaching travellers ; while, such is the vanity of earthly fame, the history of the man whose distinguished sanctity was the seed-corn which ripened into such noble and abiding fruit, has faded into obscure and shadowy tradition. The Romish Cal- endar ignores him altogether. By such glimmering light as has flickered upon his saintly figure down through the centuries, we will endeavour to exhibit him to the kindly reader. In Werstan’s day the Malvern district was a vast wilderness of dense forest and tangled underwood, unless where a wide expanse of marsh, between Severn and the Hills, broke the weird monotony of the scene. The wild boar and wolf ranged its solitudes unmo- lested, save when, on rare occasions, they may have been startled in their lairs by the fleet shuddering footfall of fugitive slave, or hunted outlaw. Through this gloomy waste, Werstan, in obedience to a divine call, threaded his lonely way. For us, who live under mental and material conditions so different to the dwellers in the eleventh century, it is difficult to form 12 a just estimate of the immense moral courage implied in this undertaking. The monk’s lot was cast on the border land of an expiring faith, which had lent many of its grossest superstitions to its dawning rival. For him the darkness was peopled with the spectral forms of departed generations, demons lurked in the dim recesses of the ancient woods, the powers of hell rode on the stormy wind and hurled the forked lightning. The meanings of the spirits in torment came to him on the midnight blast. They warned him back, but in the strength of the Lord he pressed forward, and the appointed goal was reached at last. Then, on the eastern declivity of the Malvern Hills, he constructed for himself an oratory, and, in course of time, a chapel, and to this spot, drawn by the fame of Werstan’s superior holiness, men similarly minded gathered, and sought to lead a child-like life in imitation of him. As their numbers grew, a house was built for them, and endowed by the munificent piety of Edward the Confessor. This endowment led, in the succeeding reign, to the foundation of an important Christian institution, the seat of learning and a centre of good works. The site of St. Werstan’s Chapel is now generally identified with a place formerly known as The Hermit- age^ now called indifferently II Bello Squardo^ or Holg Walk, Many interesting relics were discovered on removing the earth behind The Hermitage. These- included curiously inscribed tiles, which had evidently 13 formed part of the pavement of the ancient chapel ; a fine stone \vith mouldings, and pipes constructed so as to slide into one another, for the purpose of con- veying the water from St. Ann’s Well for the use of the anchorites. How, when, and by whose hands St. Werstan died, cannot now be ascertained. That he sealed his faith with his blood, shed by heathen miscreants, is univer- sally admitted, and his martyrdom still testifies to succeeding generations from the painted legend of a window on the northern side of the Choir. Amongst other authorities for the statement that a religious house existed at Malvern prior to the con- quest, is Thomas, who in the reign of the first James, wrote an account of the antiquities and church of Malvern, in Latin. He says, A Priory or Hermitage was founded here in the wulde forest, anterior to the Norman Invasion.” Thomas is confirmed by Tanner, who adds, that this ‘‘ religious house was endowed by gift of Edward the Confessor, as is stated more than once in the second charter of King Henry I.” In Leland’s Itinerary, is also a passage to this eflect, Bede maketh mention that yn his tyme there was a notable Abbey at Deerhurst ; it was destroyed by the Danes. Werstanus fiedde thence, it is sayde, to Malvern.” And again, “Nigh the Priory stood the Chapel of St. John, where St. Werstan suffered martyrdom.” 14 As Bede fell asleep in the Lord in the year of grace 735, Leland must have been mistaken as to his authority. Certain it is, nevertheless, that beyond the Severn, amidst scenery of as bold and solemn grandeur as Malvern, many monasteries had arisen, in the hope, doubtless, of sheltering themselves, in impenetrable seclusion, from the hand of the spoiler. This calcula- tion was not justified by the event. Deerhurst, near Tewkesbury, one of these foundations, was destroyed by the Danes in the reign of Edward the Confessor. So far Leland is correct. The honour of founding the Abbey has by some been ascribed to one Alurm, Aldwin, or Aldewine, Werstan’s successor. Habyngdon, who wrote an account of the Priory, printed in 1596, and dedicated to Queen Elizabeth, conjectures that Aldwin has mis- takenly been called the founder from the fact of his having ^'begged the charity of others as much as perfected the foundation of the Priory, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and some say, St. Michael.’’ Dr. Nash, following William of Malmesbury, calls Aldwin the founder. ‘‘Before the conquest some monks from the Priory of Worcester, who aspired to greater sanctity, retired to the thickly-w'ooded wilder- ness of Malvern, and became hermits. The enthusiasm spread so rapidly, that their number soon increased to three hundred, when, forming themselves into a society, they agreed to live according to the Order of St. Benedict, and elected Aldwin, one of their company. 15 to be superior.” In regard to the number of monks, Nash quotes incorrectly. Usque ad tricenarium nu- merum, that is thirty, is Malmesbury’s version; not irecenarium, or three hundred. Whether Aid win were a monk of Worcestor, or one of the Malvern anchorites that gathered round Wer- stan, signifies little. He was a man of no ordinary type, and under his wise and zealous rule the Abbey rapidly grew into wealth, importance, and the reputa- tion of sanctity and learning, Aldwin’s elevation was due to Wulstan, the last Saxon bishop of Worcester, a prelate at once eloquent, spiritual minded, and a keen discerner of character. He clearly foresaw Aldwin’s future, and when the monk, fired by an ardent wish to visit the scenes of our Lord’s life and sufferings, sought Wulstan’s permission for himself and his friend, Guilio, to depart, it was withheld. Goe not thou unto Palestine,” Wulstan admonished him, ‘^for thou shall see that God will doe great things for Malverne.” Aldwin submitted, and the prediction soon passed into fulfilment. The benefactions he collected enabled him to build a house for thirty monks, and a church, of which nothing now remains except the massive columns and arches of the nave. He likewise secured the sympathy and co-operation of two powerful patrons — the famous pontiff, Gregory VII, from whom he obtained letters patent, and William the Conqueror^ who not only renewed the charter of The Confessor, 16 but became a liberal benefactor to the Benedictine fraternity. Nor was Wulstan backv/ard with his gifts, endowing the nascent foundation with sundry lands in Powick, Brauncefoot, and Leigh. Chiefest however, amongst all the princely and noble contributors, was Urso d’Abitot, or d’ Ah tot, a largely- estated Norman baron in this county. Nay, so much did he give, that by some, he too, has been styled the founder. A curious grant is still extant, made by him to the Malvern brotherhood, and witnessed, among others, by Athelisa, Yicecountissa, Urso’s wife. No mention, however, is made of Urso in the two charters granted by Henry I to the Abbey. Like his father, Henry was a generous friend to the Priory, to which he gave the towns of Jongen, Qnat, Fulford, and Hathfield. It would be tedious to enumerate all the pious donors who swelled the revenues of the Priory by the gifts of fair manors and estates. Amongst the more notable are — Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester, the Bed Knight, lord of the royal Chase of Malvern, and son-in-law to Edward I, whose daughter, Joan d’ Acres, he married ; Osborne and Richard Fitzpont, or De Pontibus. Last, but not least, Gislibertus* Crispinus, abbot of Westminster, who, with the con- sent of his convent, assigned several estates and manors to the new foundation, stipulating apparently * Gi&libertus was elected Abbot of Westminster 1082, and died December 6th, 1114. 17 that the future patronage of the Priory should be vested in his own establishment. Hence the abbots of Westminster always claimed the approval and confirmation of the Priors of Malvern — a claim fre- quently and angrily contested — and regarded Malvern us a subordinate cell to the Abbey Church at West- minster. In the reign of Edward I, a dispute, which bad long and violently subsisted between Eichard Ware, abbot of Westminster, and Godfrey Giffard, Bishop of Worcester, concerning the subordination of the Abbey of Malvern, was settled thus — the Bishop was to have the manor of Knightwick, hitherto the property of the Abbey ; and the Abbey was to be subordinate to Westminster. Up to the present day the Dean and Chapter of Westminster possess lands in the vicinity of Malvern. Aldwin was gathered to his fathers, and found a worthy successor in Walcher, a native of Lorraine. Walcher was a man of exalted piety, and his attain- ments were remarkable, even in the age that produced St. Bernard and Abelard. Eeligion and learning in him were blended with kindliness of heart, and winning courtesy of demeanour. To know Walcher was to love him, and, to use the words of an old chronicle — To disbelieve the words of Walcher was to do injury to religion.” Walcher died a.d. 1135, and was buried at Malvern, His tombstone, with an inscription in Latin, written by the monks, was discovered in the Abbey Garden, 18 near where the cloisters formerly stood, May, 171 L It may now be seen in the recess in the South ChapeL The epitaph, translated, is as follows : — IN THIS TOMB LIES THE BODY OF DE. WALCHER, A NATIVE OF THE DUKEDOM OF LORRAINE, AND PRIOR OF THIS CONVENT. HE WAS AN ACUTE PHILOSOPHER, AN ABLE ASTROLOGER, A GEOMETRICIAN AND MATHEMATICIAN, A PIOUS CHRISTIAN AND HUMBLE MONK. HIS DEATH IS UNIVERSALLY REGRETTED, BOTH BY CLERGY AND LAITY. HE DIED THE IST OP OCTOBER, IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 1135. LET EVERY FAITHFUL CHRISTIAN EARNESTLY PRAY THAT HIS SOUL MAY REST IN HEAVEN. As the prosperity of the house increased, other cells were founded in subordination to Malvern. One, in 1159, at Aucott, in Warwickshire, for four monks. This was endowed by William Burdell, who gave to ‘^God and St. Mary of Malvern, and to the monks serving God there, all the land he had in Ancott, with the mill, &c., and other possessions.’’ A second cell was founded at Brockbury, in the parish of Colwall, in Herefordshire. We may here notice the foundation of a smaller Benedictine Priory at Little Malvern, about 1171, by two brothers, Joceline and Edred, who, desirous of passing their lives in austerity and penance, withdrew themselves from the monkish community at Worcester, and sought the deeper solitudes of Malvern. Here 19 they were joined by a few other monks from the isame Priory, to which this cell became subordinate. The new establishment was dedicated to St. Giles, and continued till the dissolution of the lesser religious houses in 1538. Its possessions were granted to Eichard Andrews and Nichols Temple. The manner of life in a well regulated monastery may be gathered from the account giyen by Thomas a Kempis, of the Augustinian Society in which he was educated. ‘‘ Much was I delighted,’’ he says, with the devout conversation, the irreproachable manners, and the humility of the brethren. I had never seen such piety and charity. Taking no concern in what passed beyond their walls, they remained at home, •employed in prayer and study, or in copying out use- ful books, and sanctifying this occupation by short, but frequent ejaculations of devotion. They appeared to have but one heart and one soul. Their dress was homely ; their diet spare ; their obedience to their superiors without reserve ; their prayer continual. By degrees the uniform tenor of their unpretending lives gained for them general good will, and they became universally respected as true disciples of Christ, and true lovers of their neighbour.” In a sermon, in which a Kempis exhorts his hearers to the copying of useful books, he exclaims, “ Blessed are the hands of such transcribers ! Which of the writings of our ancestors would be remembered, if there had been no pious hand to transcribe them.” ^^In this enconium,” 20 says Dr. Challoner, there is no exaggeration. In all that has been preserved to us of the writers of Greece and Rome, and Avhat is of more consequence, for all the monuments of our holy religion, and even for the- sacred pages that contain the Word of God, we are indebted to their useful and unwearied labours.” After Walcher’s death, little is known of the affairs of the Abbey until the 13th century ; when the criminal licentiousness of the Prior, William of Ledbury^ brought them into unenviable notoriety. He was^ unfrocked, and deprived of his post. The monks were wild and undisciplined, and the Bishop’s attention w^as too deeply engrossed in a law suit with the Red Earl, Gilbert de Clare, respecting the encroachments^ made on his lands by the enlarging of the trench on the top of Malvern Hill, to pay any heed to monkish derelictions of duty. The Accursed Shadow of the- Ragged-Stone Hill borrows one of its legends from the scandalous fraternity of Malvern. An evil monk^ who had been frequently doomed, by way of penance,, to crawl on hands and knees from the convent to the top of Ragged-Stone Hill, turned round when he had reached tlie summit, and with embittered venom, uttered an awful and withering curse on whomsoever the accursed shadow of that hill should cast itself. Mr. Kay conjectures that the origin of this superstition is of much older date. He pictures the Druids, after the- contest at Caer-Caradoc, chased by the victorious^ legions of Ostorious Scapula, from the British Camp 21 on the Herefordshire Beacon, and from the fastnesses of Midsummer Hill, making a last stand on the heights of Ragged-Stone Hill, and in the frenzy of impotent despair, beseeching their deities that the blessings of the genii, which are curses, might rest upon all on whom the Accursed Shadow of the Ragged- Stone Hill should ever fall. The instances in which the curse has been fulfilled do not come within the scope of this chapter. It is clear that the Malvern Abbey was rapidly undergoing the process of deterioration and decay inherent to every human institution, however sublime in its inception. Holy poverty, the parent of virtue,, had perished under a load of benefactions. Spiritual life was dead, and had been replaced by ignorance and superstition. Lust, gluttony, and sloth ran riot with- in the sacred precincts, which had witnessed the saintly austerities and learned labours of the first inmates. The magnificent Refectory, which was completed about 1330, and decorated with rare and costly carved work, is a proof of the changed temper of the times. Langlands, our earliest poet, who wrote about 1352,. is supposed to have satirized the vices of the Malvern clergy, in his ‘‘Vision of Piers Plowman;” a poem, whose lessons re-echoed from the lips of many succeed- ing reformers, until the disruption of the monastic system, foretold by it nearly two hundred years before,, became a reality at last. Neither the faithful mirror held up to monastic backslidiugs by Langland’s pitiless hand, the more solemn denunciations of Wycliffe, nor the contemp- tuous mockery of Chaucer, availed anything to wean the Malvern monks from the myslyvyiug and disso- lute governaunce, the vagabunde demeanaunce, the non-observance of the rules of holy religion, that were,’’ as Bishop Alcock writes, notory knowen through all my diocyse.” They hunted and hawked, and squandered the revenues of the foundation in riotous living, while the venerable and beautiful church was suffered to fall into ruin and decay. This state of things continued until the reign of Henry VI, when John of Malvern, who, like Langlands, was a native of the place, was elected Prior. He loved the sacred edifice under whose shadow he was born, and devoted himself earnestly to the task of enlarging, repairing, and restoring it to its pristine splendour. Unfortunately he did not live long enough to rejoice in the completion of his pious labours. The Choir w^as not finished until 1460, and Prior John died in 1449 or 1450. In the ten years’ interval between 1450 and 1460, great changes had taken place. The Red Rose ” had been vanquished by its paler rival. The meek Henry of Lancaster was a captive, and the house of York filled the vacant throne. The monks commemorated fortune’s caprices by ornamenting the encaustic tiles, which were the special manufacture of the Abbey, with suns and roses, the badge of Edward 23 IV. The kiln from which these tiles were made has been found within 200 yards of the church gate. At this time the upper division of the Clerestory, near the Jesus Chapel, was erected. The Clerestory Win- dows illustrate the legend of St. Werstan, and have been minutely described in the journal of the Arch- aeological Institute for 1845, by Albert Way, Esq. In the first pane,” he says, ‘Ms to be observed a representation, apparently composed of two pictures, forming one subject ; in the upper part are seen four angels, with golden-coloured wings, vested in amices and albs, the apparels of the former being conspicuous, and presenting the appearance of a standing collar. Each of these angels has the right hand elevated in the Latin gesture of benediction, and they rest their left hands on the boundary stones placed on the four angles of a square verdant plot, which appears in that manner to be set out and defined, being a more green and verdant spot than the adjacent ground, which seems to represent a part of the Malvern Hills. In the centre of this piece ol ground thus marked out by the angels, appears a large white key. In the lower division of the same pane appears a figure kneeling, and looking towards heaven ; a hill, formed of several banks or terraces one above another, appears as the back-ground, and over his head is a scroll thus inscribed, ^'^anctug Mr. Way concludes that this first subject was intended to represent a celestial vision which indicated to the hermit 24 the spot where he should construct an oratory. In the next pane there is the same two-fold distribution of the subject ; the lower one is still occupied by the kneeling figures, but the superior division dis- plays an oratory, which may be supposed to have been erected on the site miraculously indicated to St. Werstan, The angels elevate their right hands as before in benediction ; one bears a processional cross ; another, who approaches the closed entrance of the chapel, bears the thurible, and seems prepared to knock against the door, and cry aloud, according to the im- pressive ancient ritual of the Latin Church, ‘ Lift up your heads, 0 ye gates, and be ye lifted up, ye ever- lasting doors, that the King of Glory may come in.’ A third angel bears the cross-staff, and raises the asper gillum, or hyssop, as if about to sprinkle with holy water, the newly completed edifice ; whilst the fourth touches a bell, which is suspended in an open turret.” In the third pane is the crowned figure of The Confessor, arrayed in kingly garments, holding in his left hand a sceptre, and in the right hand a sealed charter, which he is conferring on a kneeling suppliant, whose diminutive stature seems to mark the vast disproportion between his lowly estate and the exalted rank of his royal patron. An inscribed scroll springing from the head-piece instructs us that the monarch is ‘‘St. Edwardus Eex.” On a second scroll we read “ WilFm Edwardus.” The fourth subject of the series depicts the martyrdom of St. Werstan. We 25 have the chapel again. The bleeding head of Werstan protrudes from one of the windows, while outside two murderers, with drawn swords, stand ready to decapi- tate him. Beneath this representation is a second building, inside of which we see three acolytes, book in hand, in the act of chanting, while outside, two persecutors, armed with rods, are preparing to torment the Saint’s unfortunate disciples. The nave of the church was completed under the auspices of the same John Alcock, Bishop of Worcester, whose threatening admonitions to the erring brethren of Little Malvern, have been quoted above. From the same letter we gather, that if the worthy prelate was sharp in rebuke, he was liberal in assistance, and care- ful to point out and lead them to the better way. Like the monks of Great Malvern, they had let their church fall into ^^grete ruyne.” In 1476 it was rebuilt by John Alcock’s munificence. By His grace and mercy ” he tells them, I have bylded your church,, your place of your lodging is sutticient repaired, and as I suppose, a grete part of the dette of the seyd place be content, and for that cause, and by the cause ye shuld better understand your religion, ye have been ther ii yeres yn worshippfull and holye places of religion.” And he adds, that supposing them to be sufficiently instructed, they have leve to return to Littel Malverne, there to abide and live after their holye profession.” Let us hope they did so. The western window is believed to have been the- 26 gift of Richard III, and contains his armorial bearings. He may well have bestowed on Malvern Abbey a small portion of the vast inheritance he had torn from the noble house of Warwick. Did he believe thereby to atone for the bloody deed that stained the laurels of Tewkesbury, or to conciliate the fair, ill-starred widow of his victim, whom he had compelled into a loathed union with himself, and who, in her happier days of childhood, must often have knelt near her parents before its sacred shrines ? Last of the long lists of princely and noble bene- factors, who, through five centuries, had eagerly lavished their treasures, in adding beauty to beauty, and splendour to splendour on the famous pile, are Henry VII and his Queen, Elizabeth of York. The costly embellishments that were carried out under the able superintendence of Henry’s trusty friend and counsellor. Sir Reginald Bray, made Malvern, says the Lichfield Manuscript, one of the proudest ornaments of the nation.” This was the last burst of sunshine that bathed the august structure in a flood of golden radiance, before the tempest burst, which in its undiscriminating fury, swept all the noblest monuments of the genius and piety of past ages, into one common destruction. In the days of his bright and promising boyhood, Henry VIII had frequently accompanied his royal parents and his elder brother, Arthur, to Malvern. He is credited with having shared their enthusiastic 27 admiration for the Abbey church, but no relenting^ memory of his boy feelings, and his gentle dreams, as he then dreamt them, saved the monastery from the universal doom of confiscation and spoliation. Bishop Latimer earnestly prayed the King’s secretary to spare it and two or three other religious houses in every shyre,” for the sake of the poor, who were daily fed on the monks’ charity. He calls the Prior of Grett Malverne ‘^an honest man,” old and a good housekeeper. ‘‘ He fedyth many and that dayly, for the contreth ys poor and full of penurye.” Kay, so conformable was the aged Prior to the kyng’s hynesse plesure, that he was willing to become an humble sewtere to your lordship, and by the same to the kyng’s good grace for the upstandynge of hiss forsayde house, contynuance of the same to many good perpassesse, not in monkyre, he mayneth nott soo, God forbyd, but any other ways, as shuld be thought and seyme good to the kyng’s majestye, as to mayntayne techynge, prechynge, studye with prayynge, and (to the which he is much gyvyne) good housekepynge, for to the vertu of hospitalyte he hath byn gretlly inclynd from hys begynnynge, and ys very much commendyd in thes partees for the same, so that if ccccc marks to the kyng’s hynesse, with cc marks to yourselffe for your good wylle might occasione the promotione of hys intentt, att leste for the tyme of his lyfife, he doubtyth nott to make his frends for the same, yf so lytull cold bringe soo much to passe.” This pathetic appeal failed to touch either king or 28 minister. Of what importance were teaching, preaching, praying, almsgiving, and hospitality, compared with the replenishment of an exhausted exchequer, and the gratification of those rapacious courtiers, w^hose greed subserved his tyranny. So the monastery was suppressed j and the demesne gi-anted to one William Pinnock, who J again transferred it to John Knotesford, servant to Henry VIII, Sergeant-at-arms, &c. In the reign of Elizabeth, the inhabitants of Malvern purchased the Abbey Church, for £200, a sum representing £3000 in the present day — thenceforward it became the Parish Church. Thou hast a famous church, And rarelie builded, No countrie town hath such, Most men have yieldedd. For pillars stoute and strong. And windowes large and longe, Kemember in thy songe. To Prayse the Lord. There is Godd’s service rede. With reverence dulie, There is his words prechedd, Lerned and trulie. And everie Sabbath daie, Syngyng of psalms they saie, Is sure the onlie waie, To Prayse the Lord. HE only event connected with the purchase of the Abbey and its transformation into a Protestant place of worship, was the simul- taneous taking down of the former parish church, dedicated to St. Thomas, the Apostle, which stood at the north-west corner of what is now the churchyard. 30 We lose sight of it altogether until the commencement of James I’s reigm when one of the many tragic episodes connected with the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot, gave Malvern a diligent and appreciative chronicler in Thomas Abyngdon or Habyngton, the owner of Hindlip Hall. This gentleman’s sympathies with the ancient faith were notorious. In Queen Elizabeth’s time he had been sent to the Tower on suspicion of having involved himself in an attempt to release Mary, Queen of Scots. The Queen’s favour, whose godson he was, saved him from the scaffold, and he retired to Hindlip, which had recently been rebuilt by his father, and occupied himself in fitting it up with cunningly devised hiding-places, that might shelter and conceal the proscribed and persecuted members of his creed. Scarcely an apartment but had invisible means of exit and entrance, staircases were contrived inside the walls, chimneys had their secret recesses, and trap doors opened upon mysterious retreats. Two priests. Father Garnet and Father Hall, whom government suspected of a treasonable knowledge of the plot, fled for refuge to Hindlip, and would have escaped detection, in spite of the treacherous betrayal of a fellow-conspirator, had not the want of air and space forced them into a voluntary surrender of themselves to Sir Henry Bromley, who, for ten days, had invested the house, and searched it unceasingly from yard to cellar. For the shelter he had afforded them, Mr. Habyngdon was again sent to the Tower, and again condemned to 31 expiate his oflPence by death. By the influence of powerful friends, amongst whom was his father-in-law, Lord Monteagle, his life was spared, and he was permitted to return to his native county, on condition that he should never again pass beyond its limits.*^ His future life was spent in exploring the ancient churches, castles, and domains of Worcestershire, and in recording the result of his researches. The Abbey of Malvern was a peculiar object of interest to him, and to his elaborate descriptions we ow^e much that is known of its former magnificence. When Habyngdon laid aside his loving pen, no other historian resumed the task, and a long period of silence broods over the fortunes of the Abbey. We infer, because tradition tells us nothing to the contrary, that it escaped the fierce iconoclasm of Cromwell’s troopers, and the levelling tendencies of the Puritanism of the iron time, which placed music aud church architecture under an equal condemnation. Judging from the dilapidated state of the building in 1788, the Abbey only escaped the hand of violence, to crumble into more gradual but certain ruin, through the culpable neglect of everything connected wich religion and religious edifices, that disgraced the restoration, under the profligate Charles II. The stolid indifference of the first Georges was equally fatal to it. The church fell into such complete decay, that it was unsafe to enter it, the tottering * Mrs. Habyngdon is conjectured to have been the writer of the famous letter which led to the discovery of the plot. 32 walls threatened to collapse, water streamed through the fissures in the roof, the seats were mouldy and decayed, the walls and floor dreadfully damp. Some parts of the church were subject to be flooded, the boys of the village were suffered to throw stones at the beautiful figures delineated on the stained glass of the windows, ivy pierced through the shattered panes and covered a large portion of the eastern end of the fabric. Birds built their nests within the house of G-od, dogs were kennelled within its sacred precincts, the tesselated pavement was littered with the dung of horses who were stabled there for cheapness. In this shameful and deplorable condition it remained until 1812, when an unknown benefactor initiated a subscription, which sufficed to repair the roof and restore the ceiling to cleanliness, although ruin and devastation, rubbish and lumber remained below. Lady Lyttelton exerted herself indefatigably to collect funds towards further repair, but her laudable efforts did not meet with the response they merited, and the donations she received were so inconsiderable, that the work of reparation remained in abeyance until 1815, when her ladyship met with an energetic coadjutor in Dr. Card, who, in that year, was inducted to the living of Malvern. The new vicar’s scholarly tastes enabled him to grasp the architectural value of the noble fabric over which he had been chosen to preside, and he set about remedying the destruction and decay that met his eye on every side. He aimed at no less than 33 restoring the church to its ancient dignity and grandeur. His father, Mr. John Card, shared his aspirations, and in their eagerness to carry out the great work, they anticipated public bounty by advancing large sums of money out of their private purse. The movement spread, and a sum of £1672, to which the lamented Princess Charlotte and Prince Leopold contributed fifty pounds, though very inadequate to the purpose of thorough renovation, was enough to clean away the accumulated dust, dirt, and rubbish, and to give the church a long-lost appearance of decency and order. It is easy to say now that mistakes were made, that the funds might have been better applied, and that the vicar sinned unpardonably against good taste, by placing the arms of the subscribers in stained glass, in a window of the northern aisle. We ought rather to remember that ecclesiastical architecture in his day was a lost art, and had been buried under the accumulated carelessness, ignorance, and contempt of three successive centuries, that difficulties apparently insuperable had to be overcome, and that without Dr. Card’s boundless devotion, the building might have passed beyond the possibility of future restoration or criticism. Something was effected towards the restoration of the tower by the Kev. John Eashdall, but the Priory Church still fell far short of the ecclesiological perfection whose pursuit dates from the Oxford movements. The opinion of these enthusiasts may be gathered from Welby Pugin’s Satirical Strictures on the state of the 84 building in 1838. ‘‘A few years ago, a meeting of the fashionables of Malvern was called to subscribe towards the repair of the dilapidated building, and by the help of raffles, &c., a few pounds were collected. Two hod- fuls of mortar were got to repair the church, and the remainder of the money expended in putting, in a window of the aisle, the arms of the subscribers in stained glass, with their names in full, a monument of their folly and arrogance. The very mullions in which the glass is placed, are rotten and falling. The church itself is in dreadful repair, fall it must, and all that is to be hoped is, that in its fall it may annihilate those whose duty it was to have restored it.” The church has not fallen, and those whose duty it was to restore it,” have performed the duty nobly. During the incumbency of the Rev. George Fisk, a sum of £7000 was raised by voluntary subscriptions, and £4000 more upon the security of the church rates. The work of restoration was entrusted to the late Sir Gilbert Scott, and most judiciously and effectively carried out. The high pitched roofs of the aisles have given place to flat lead ones, thereby rendering the whole length of the clerestory windows visible. The flat panelled ceiling of the nave has been painted by Messrs. Clayton and Bell. The older work has been preserved, so that the exact line at which the 15th century rebuilding commenced, viz., at a few feet above the nave arcade, may at once be distinguished. The venerable pile stands once more majestically on 35 the Malvern Hills challenging our admiration by the exquisite beauty and grandeur of its proportions, and vividly realizing to the imagination of the present generation the glories of its old-world magnificence and splendour. Dr. Booker’s wish has become a fact — Beauty with holiness now paces its courts, and all its pristine honours are revived.” Its Windows, Tiles, and Monuments. Hail ! time-worn structure ! happily transform’d From what thou wert. How solemn ! how august ! As should be House of God and Gate of Heaven ! The soul thou fill’st with reverential awe ! Dr. Booher'^s Malvern. HE Abbey Church is a spacious cruciform structure, having a lofty central tower, with pierced battlements and ornamental pinnacles, rising to the elevation of 124 feet from the intersection of the nave and transept. Two chapels w^ere formerly attached to the church, one on the southern side, and the other at the eastern end, dedi- cated to the Virgin Mary. The architecture is a mixture of Early Norman and the florid Gothic style of Henry VII’s reign. The THE ABBEY CHURCH. photographer. 37 nave has very short massive piers, with semi-circular arches, which are distinctly Norman, and doubtless, coeval with the Abbey. Only one Norman aisle re- mains, that on the south side of the nave. The exterior of the building is a mixture of Norman and Perpendicular ; the tower and other parts so nearly resemble Gloucester cathedral, that they are conjectur- ed to be an imitation. Few traces remain of the Lady Chapel, with crypt, which was added to the church at the beginning of the thirteenth century, under the east window, and subsequently enlarged and altered. The church is one hundred and seventy-one feet long, and sixty-three feet broad ; the height of the nave is likewise sixty-three feet. The tower has a peal of six bells. Elegant tracery adorns the windows, which still contain many excellent specimens of the richly painted glass which was once the greatest glory of the church . Here,” says Mr. Pugin, is a church in w^hich the I stained glass has not fallen a victim to Protestant zeal. It is truly magnificent, and the drawing of the [figures is correct and beautiful, the colouring rich and tvaried. These windows may be rated among the finest specimens of English glass of the fifteenth century.” Much of this richly-tinted glass adorns the Abbey through the munificence of Henry VII, who was warmly attached to Malvern, and a liberal benefactor to the monastery. Accompanied by his 88 Queen, the fair Elizabeth of York, and their sons, Prince Arthur of Wales and Prince Henry, who are said to have shared his admiration for the picturesque beauties of the neighbourhood, Henry often sought a refuge from the cares of state amidst the ‘^blue steeps” and verdant glades of Malvern. A great portion of the present pile is conjectured to have been erected at this king’s cost, under the superintendence of his faithful adherent and trusty friend and counsellor, Sir Reginald Bray, the same who is said to have designed Henry VII’s chapel in Westminster Abbey, and to have superintended the building of St. George’s Chapel, Windsor. We may as well mention here that Sir Reginald was a native of Worcestershire, and born either at St. John’s, Bedwardine, Worcester, or at Great Mal- vern. He fought by his master’s side at Bosworth, negociated the marriage with Edward IV’s daughter, that united the conflicting claims of York and Lan- caster, and was rewarded with Henry’s entire confidence and the post of Lord Treasurer. Hollinshed describes him as a verie father to his countrie ; and for his high wisdom and singular love to justice, well worthie to beare that title. If anie thinge had been done amisse, contrarie to la we and equitie, he would, after an humble sort, plainlie blame the king, and give him good advertisement that he should not onlie reforme the same, but also be more circumspecte in anie other the like case.” Under the joint auspices of the monarch and his 39 able and highly cultivated minister, Malvern Abbey attained a degree of magnificence, ‘‘that made it,” says the Lichfield manuscript, “one of the proudest ornaments of the nation. The windows form a mirror, wherein we may see how to believe, to live, and to die.” How little Henry could have imagined that the imposing splendour he had called into existence, would have been marred and laid waste by his own son’s hand. Few of the windows, however rich in colouring, exhibit their original perfection of design ; some have been blown down by the wind, others wantonly de- molished by stone-throwing, and many exhibit strange medleys of subjects, from the custom that once pre- vailed of replacing the fissures in the larger windows by incongruous figures taken from less conspicuous parts of the edifice. “ Some, by the gusty wind, Or striplings, thoughtless in their boyish sport, Fractured, and heedlessly, by hand uncouth, With ill according workmanship repaired.” Booker, The large North Window in the Jesus Chapel was perfect until the year 1720, when it was blown down by a violent storm, and several of the compartments broken. In the upper compartment we may still discern traces of the Trinity placing a crown on the head of the Virgin Mary. Around them are the angelic choir, praising God on various instruments. In one division to the right of the circle is the Offering 40 of the Magi^ to the left, Adam and Eve fraying in the midst of infernal spirits, and our Saviour leading them out of Hell. Other figures, not now decipherable, represented Christ received into Heaven and St. Michael fighting Satan. Christ in the Temple, and the miracle of Turning the Water into Wine may still be distin- guished. This window formerly exhibited Henry VII, armed and crowned, his Queen, their Sons, Sir Eegi- nald Bray, K.G., Sir John Savage, and Thomas Lovell, Esq., Henry's privy councillors. They were all on their knees, praying, and under was this inscription — Orate pro bono statu nobilissimi et excellentissimi regis, Henrici septimi et Elizabethae reginae ac domini Arthuri principis filli eorundem, nec non predilect, issime consortis sue et suorum trium militum." Only the figures of the King, prince Arthur, and Sir Eeginald Bray remain entire. Henry is kneeling on two cushions under a canopy of state : before him, upon a desk or table, covered with tapestry, is an open book, and upon the book, a sceptre. He wears a shirt of mail, but is otherwise in plate armour. Upon the breast of his surcoat are the arms of France and England, quartered, the same arms are on his right shoulder ; round his neck is a file of three points, argent. His hair descends in long ringlets from beneath an open coronet. The canopy is surrounded by angels, playing on sackbuts, citherns, &c. Sir Eeginald Bray kneels on a crimson cushion, under a rich Gothic canopy. He w^ears plate armour 41 and a shirt of mail. Before him, on a desk and cushion, is an open book. His name is embroidered in Latin on the fringed and tasselled cushion. Upon the breast and shoulder of his surcoat are his arms, bearing in a shield argent, a chevron between three eagles erased sable. At his back is a richly-wrought shrine or reliquary. The noble East Window is a very fine Perpendicular composition, with large clerestory windows. In the upper division the Annunciation is treated. The Twelve Apostles are seen in two compartments at the top of the windows, six in each space. Peter may be recognised by a sword, book, and keys ; John by a golden ship, and Andrew by the cross which is named after him. The sixteen lower compartments are filled with scenes from the Life and Passion of our Lord. Of these only a few fragments remain. The least injured of the series is Our Lord^s triumphal entry into Jerusalem, The ass, on which Jesus is seated, in accordance with the rules of mediaeval monastic art, is painted blue. In The Last Supper, the faces of our Lord and the Twelve Apostles are still entire, and marked by a strict individuality of treatment. The Lord's Betrayal exhibits a characteristic painting of Judas, accompanied by Roman soldiers. Then comes The Scourging of Jesus, The countenances and attitudes of the scourgers are remarkably striking and expressive. Christ raised on the Cross is equally well conceived. The fine picture of The Descent from the Cross fitly closes these illustrations. 42 The West Window formerly contained a representa- tion of The Day of Judgment, which in grandeur and boldness of design, is said to have been worthy of Michael Angelo. No trace remains of this painting, thanks to the terrible havoc made by throwing stones at the windows. It has been replaced by a singular combination of popes, cardinals, saints, confessors and ma.rtyrs, brought from less observable parts of the church. The principal figures are St. Lawrence hold- ing a gridiron ; St. George, standing on a dragon, brandishing his lance, and St. Michael, the archangel, in a coat of armour, clothed with glory, trampling Lucifer, in the semblance of a huge monster, under his feet. A South Window once contained several incidents in the Life of Abraham, but all that can now be traced are — God appearing to Abraham; Abraham taking Sarah to wife ; The casting out of Hagar ; The journeying to Mount Moriah ; and Isaac sending Esau for venison. In a 7th South Window was the story of Joseph. Little is now intelligible beyond Joseph's Dream, with the sun, moon, and stars making obeisance to him, and his brethren selling him to the Midianites. The 8th South Window was occupied with The Wanderings of the Israelites. This is a mere wreck, but we can still discover the manna in the form of small loaves of bread. The first window in St. Ann’s Chapel is noteworthy. 43 It treats of The Creation and Fall of Man, in twelve separate pictures. In the first pane we have the Almighty forming the world out of a chaos of confused atoms. In the second, the creation of the moon and stars. In the third, fourth, and fifth, plants arise, and the fowls of the air, the beasts of the field, and trees, are formed at God’s command. In the sixth, w'e behold God creating man out of the dust of the ground. Seventh, Adam in a deep sleep, and God taking a rib from his side to create woman. Eighth, God leading Adam and Eve into Paradise. Ninth, The eating of the forbidden fruit. Tenth, Adam and Eve hiding themselves amongst the trees of the garden. Eleventh, the Angel of the Lord driving our first parents out of Paradise. Twelfth, Adam tilling the ground and Eve nursing the infant Cain. The Legend of St. Werstan is in the upper or clerestory window on the north of the Choir. Imme- diately below we see Aldwin kneeling, either to Pope Gregory or Bishop Wulstan, and presenting letters, praying for a grant to build a church at Malvern. In the next compartment he is supplicating the Conqueror to the same effect. In another he is receiving gifts from various benefactors. The arms of Westminster are in the same window. In another clerestory window we read “ Orate pro anima domini Johannis Malverne, qui istam fenestram fieri fecit. In a second window are representations of saints, 44 and two monks, praying, with this inscription — ‘‘Orate pro animabus Johannis West et Thome Lye, monachis hujus loci/’ In the fourth window, we see The Crucifixion delin- eated in three divisions. In the centre is the Saviour nailed to the Cross, with blood streaming from his wounded hands and side ; on the right is St. John the Evangelist and the Virgin Mary ; on the left, the Centurion addressing his soldiers. A label proceeds out of his mouth, “ Truly this was the Son of the all- powerful God.” A window, representing Faith, Hope, and Charity, commemorates the Eev. Dr. Card. The last stained glass window that has been added to the Abbey Church was erected in honour of Prince Albert, the lamented consort of Her Majesty Queen Victoria. Tiles. The tiles, for which the church is remarkable, were made under the superintendence of the monks at a kiln on the Abbey farm. The kiln, as well as the clay and marl pit used in their manufacture, were discover- ed in 1833, within 200 yards from the church. A similar kiln was found in 1837, at Droitwich. Few churches possess such a number of encaustic tiles. Many of them date from the restoration of the church inaugurated by Prior John of Malvern, in 1450, under Henry VI., and completed in 1460, when Edward IV had driven Henry from the throne. 45 Pugin declares the paving-tiles to be decidedly the finest in the kingdom, such a variety of patterns, and such a quantity of tiles I never saw anywhere.” Albert Way deciphered more than a hundred of the devices, and bore a similar testimony to the abundance of these decorations. They are in sets of various patterns, shields, emblems, texts, &c. Many contain the armorial bearings of benefactors ; amongst others, are the arms and shields of Edward the Confessor ; Bohun, earl of Hereford ; Gilbert Clare, earl of Glou- cester ; Beauchamp, earl of Warwick; Beauchamp of Powick ; Despencer, earl of Gloucester ; Scull, and Stafford of Grafton. Clare, Beauchamp, and Des- pencer were lords of the Boyal Chase of Malvern ; the Warwick Beauchamps had their seat at the neigh- bouring castle of Hanley ; Beauchamp of Powyke, who was Lord Treasurer to Henry VI, was raised to the peerage in 1447, and Sir W. Scull flourished in the reign of Edward 4th. One favourite symbol was the Pelican restoring her young to life by the blood drawn from her self-inflicted wounds, with a Latin legend — ""As the pelican is made whole by its mother’s blood, so are we healed by the blood of the Son, that is, of Christ.” Another emblem of the Lord, the Fish, frequently recurred, though one specimen only now remains. The instruments of our Lord’s Passion are also represented: — the cross, surmounted by a crown of thorns, the hammer and nails, the scourge, the reed 46 and sponge, the vessels that held the vinegar and gall, the spear that pierced His side, the dice which were used in casting lots for His garments, the ladder employed in taking down the crucified Redeemer. The tiles are of a reddish-brown, and the devices on them cream coloured. One tile, fixed in the cylindrical pillar near the north entrance, has greatly attracted the attention of antiquarians, and been the subject of some con- troversy. It bears no ornamental device, but simply a rhyming inscription in eight lines, in the old English character. Cf)mfee ♦ inon ♦ si ♦ liffe mat ♦ not . eu . enhure^ gat ♦ gob) . hO)St * gt ♦ self of . gat ♦ gou ♦ art ♦ sure, iSut ♦ gat ♦ gou . feepist unto ♦ gt . seetur . eure, 2lnh ♦ eu * l^it . abatle . ge $it ♦ IS ♦ but . abenture. The Rev. J. Rudd, formerly of Kempsey, in his Reflections relating to the Malvern Hills,” deciphers it thus : — Think, man, thy life cannot for ever endure, that which thou dost thyself, of that thou art sure, but that which thou keepest (reservest) for the cure (office) of thy executors, or of thy successors, it is but a chance if it ever shall avail thee, for it is uncertain whether it ever will be done.” It is probable,” adds 47 Mr. Rudd, that this inscription, which was repeated iu so many parts of the church, was intended to stimulate the readers to pious and charitable dona- tions, which might avail them in another life ; and chiefly, perhaps, it was designed to excite them to benefactions in repairing and adorning this very church, so many instances of which are on record, and to induce them to do this in their lives, instead of trusting it in their testaments to others.’’ The tile is about five inches and a quarter square, and is supposed to be of the same date as the tiles in the choir, 1453. A similar tile was found in the old church at Stan- ford, which may, very likely, have found its way there from Malvern. It is now lost. The Monuments, Stalls, Altaks, Font, &c. In a recess at the northern end of the Jesus Chapel, is a monument of indubitable antiquity. It is the mutilated statue of a knight, and is supposed to represent Walter Corbet, a Templar. Carter, in his ‘‘Ancient Sculpture and Painting,” states that no similar figure had ever come under his notice. It is arrayed in mail armour of the Conqueror’s time, and over it is a long surcoat. The right hand is armed with a battle axe ; the left hand holds a circular shield or target, and from under it hangs a sword. Stothard considers it as contemporary with Earl Longestree’s figure at Salisbury (temp. Henry III). The feet were 48 formerly wanting, but having been discovered during some excavations, they were joined to the eflBgy, which is now perfect. In another recess is a coffin-shaped stone in memory of Walcher. On the southern side of the choir, upon a curious alabaster tomb, is the figure of John Knotesford, to whom the Abbey passed, by transfer, after the dissolu- tion. Beside him, lies his wife. On the right side of the tomb are his daughters, Mary and Eleanor ; on the left, Elizabeth and Frances, and kneeling at her parent’s head, Anne, the eldest daughter, who erected the monument. On a pillar adjoining is this inscrip- tion : — Here lies the body of John Knotesford, Esquire, servant to King Henry the Eyght, and Jane, his wife ; daughter to Sir Richard Knightly, Knight, who being first married to William Lumley, had issue, John, Lord Lumley, and by John Knotesford, had issue, five daughters and co-heirs. He died in the year 1589, Novem. 23. Upon a flat stone, under the organ gallery, to the memory of Joseph Baylis, and Elizabeth, his wife, are these quaint lines : — They were so one, that none could truly say Which of them ruled, or whether did obey ; He ruled, because she would obey, and she In so obeying, ruled as weU as he. Among the more modern monuments, is one to the memory of the wufe of Robert Thompson, Esq. It consists of a female figure, the size of life, half rising from a recumbent position, and supposed to be utter- ing the words inscribed in the marble below, Even so, come. Lord Jesus ! ” 49 This touching and beautiful specimen of sculpture is the work of Robert Hollins, Esq., of Birmingham. The Lambert Memorial, after designs by Sir G. G. Scott, is a splendid piece of workmanship, and covers a division of the west wall of the church. The Stalls. The monks’ stalls are very ancient, and deserve a careful examination. They are placed on either side of the chancel, and the sub-sella, or under-seats, ex- hibit various grotesque carvings, highly finished. Among them are — I. A man, on the point of death, with a priest at his head and a doctor at his feet, to whom he is offering his money bags to secure their aid. — II. A monk driving away the devil with a pair of bellows. — III. A man with a bear, the animal sitting in an erect posture. — IV. A sower of grain between two birds. — V. A reaper with a scythe. — VI. A gardener holding a staff and garden-hook, with plants by his side. — VII. A man with a basket of fruit on his right arm ; in his left he holds up a pine. — VIII. A man beating acorns from an oak with a long stick, with swine on each side of him. — IX. Three rats hanging a cat ; on either side, an owl. — X. A male figure, sustaining a large goblet in each hand. — XI. An angel playing on a cithern. — XII. A naked man, covered with net, riding a goat, with a hare under his arm. — XIII. A seated figure, stirring a pot on the fire, with the dead carcases of animals on either side ; to symbolize gluttony, (fee. 50 The Font Is of Norman date. On a brass plate is this inscrip- tion : — Qvod . Devs . Bene . Vortat . Fons . Hvivs . Ecclesiae . Prorvtvs . Annorvm . Inivria . Eestavratvs . Est . A. S . cioiocccxxxvm . Qvoniam . Placvervnt . Servis . Tvis . Lapides . Eivs , et , Terrae .*Eivs . Miserebvntvr . Ps. CII. Altars. The high altar, dedicated in honour of the Virgin Mary, St. Michael, St. John the Evangelist, St. Peter, St. Paul, and St. Benedict, stood formerly in the same position as the present communion table. There were, besides, two altars in the choir, one dedicated to St. Edward the Confessor and St. Giles ; the other to St. Wulstan of Worcester and St. Thomas of Here- ford. A fourth altar, in one of the transepts, was dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul. The fifth altar stood in the Lady Chapel, which, as we have already mentioned, has entirely disappeared ; the sixth, in St. Ann’s Chapel. This beautiful Chapel, more fortunate than the Lady Chapel and St. Ursula’s, has survived the wreck of the monastic foundation and the destruc- tion that overtook other portions of the sacred fabric. PHOTO-MECHANICAL PRINT BY NORMAN MAY. 51 The southern transept, of which not a vestige remains, was known as the Chapel of St. Ursula, and had its altar likewise, dedicated in honour of the Saviour, St. Ursula, and the Eleven Thousand Virgins. The saintly relics of this British princess and her virgin train, may still be seen and handled by the faithful who make a pilgrimage to the church which bears her name, in the ancient cathedral city of Cologne. The uses to which the Hagioscopes or perforations under the great west window were put by the monks, is still a moot point. Some incline to the belief that these slits were intended for the accommodation of sick monks who were unable to take their part in the usual services ; others that they were made use of by excommunicated members of the church. In St. Ann’s Chapel there is a circular arch, richly decorated internally with delicate fan tracery, and externally panelled with quatrefoils. Beyond it are two figures, bearing shields. Antiquarians are again divided as to w’hether this was anciently a confessional, or whether it contained a tomb which has subsequently been removed. The latter opinion seems the more plausible. The Abbey Gateway (See Photograph) Is interesting as the last relic that now remains of the ancient monastic buildings, and as the probable home of Langland, the author of "‘Piers Plowman’s Vision.” The south side is plain, but the north side deserves a 52 careful inspection, being richly embellished by carved work in the perpendicular style of architecture. Its mediseval appearance cannot fail to impress the visitor who approaches it from the centre of the town. The Eefectory or Guesten Hall, Which Mr. J. Severne Walker, a high archseological authority, has pronounced it to be ^'one of the finest examples in Europe of a timber hall of the decorated style,” existed until 1836. Its owner had degraded it into a barn and stable. How little those degenerate monks, who, in the 14th and 15th centuries esteemed the refectory far above the house of prayer, could have foreseen the ultimate destination of this cherished building. The patron of the living of Malvern, is the Lady Emily Foley, Stoke Edith Park, Herefordshire. The present vicar is the Rev. I. Gregory Smith, M.A., sometime a Fellow of Brazenose College, Oxford, and the Bampton Lecturer of 1873. 4 of QUafSetn* But now I turn, Erom hills, that in the distance die away. To mark the memorable chase. In vain the eye inquires for that great track Of forest, thickly strew’d with giant elms. That once adorned the circling plain beneath- — Thy woods are levelled, thy tall trees That dared the blast, and check’d e’en Malvern’s pride. Are now no more. Cottle's Malvern, ORCESTERSHIRE, says the author of ‘^Worcestershire Relics/’ to whom I am chiefly indebted for the information con- tained in the following chapter — was almost entirely included in four great forests, viz ; Feckenham (includ- ing Pypende Forest), Ombersley,Horewell and Malverr. Besides which, portions of the Forests of Wyre, Kinver, 54 Arden, and Corse, belonging to the adjacent counties of Salop, Stafford, Warwick, and Gloucester, impinged more or less on various parts of the margin of Worces- tershire. Nearly all the country between the Rivers Avon and Severn was a thick and wild woodland. Arden Forest joined that of Feckenham, which, with the Forest of Ombersley included all the northern part of the county between Stowe and the Severn, quite down to Worcester. The Forest of Horewell extended southwards from Worcester to within a mile of Tewkes- bury, while that of Malvern stretched from Teme in the north, to Corse Forest in the south, and from Severn to the top of Malvern Hill. So densely wooded was the primeval forest around Malvern, that William of Malmesbury styles it a wilder- ness. About Longdon was a wide expanse of marsh, which has only been reclaimed and enclosed in our own days ; indeed, at the close of the last century, a horse- man might have ridden from Malvern to Bredon without meeting with any enclosure or impediment, barring the river, which could be crossed at Upton Bridge. The Malvern Forest was computed to contain 7115 acres in Worcestershire, besides 241 called the Prior’s Land ; 619 acres in Herefordshire, and 103 in Glouces- tershire. The parishes following were reputed to be within the liberties and precincts of the Chase : the parish of Hanley Castle, a parcel of Upton-on-Severn, the parish of Welland, part of Longdon, Castle Morton, 55 Birt alias Birch Morton, the Berrow, Bromsberrow, Malvern Parva, Malvern Magna, part of Leigh, called Hawswell, Mathon, and Colwall, Herefordshire. The Chase of Malvern,” says Leland, is bigger than either Wire or Feckenham, and occupieth a greate parte of Malvern Hilles, Great and Little Malvern are also in the Chase, which is in length, in some places, twenty miles.” In Leland’s time, the forest must have con- siderably diminished in extent from that unthinned continuity of umbrageous trees, under whose dense foliage, Celt, Saxon, and Dane pursued the beasts of chase, and awe-inspiring Druids celebrated the mysteri- ous rites of their religion. With the progress of civilization and the increase of population, a large expenditure of wood was necessitated for fuel and building purposes, in addition to which the woodman's axe was constantly employed in felling timber for consumption in the iron works in the north of the county, and to supply the vast number of cart loads which were yearly set apart in each manor to exchange for the salt of Droitwich and Bromsgrove. The salt works of Droitwich were the principal cause of the destruction of Feckenham Forest. Leland, writing in the time of Henry YIII, says — The lack of wood is now perceived in places near the Wyche (Droitwich). I asked a saulter how much wood he supposed yearly to be spent at the furnaces, and he answered, that by estimation, there was spent 6000 loads yearly, that is yonge pole wood, easy to be cloven.” 56 All forests were royal, forasmuch as a forest could only be in the hands of the king, except by special grant. He alone could constitute the commissions necessary to the existence of a forest, appoint a lord justice in eyre, and the various courts held therein. The wild beasts that dwelt in the woods were under the king’s protection, for his recreation and delight, and the law punished with barbarous severity every infringement of the royal privilege of the chase. The first appearance of forest laws in a tangible form was under Canute. They pressed heavily on the poor, but the rich were not affected by them, the Danish and Saxon Kings contenting themselves with the exclusive right of hunting in the royal forests par excellence, whereas the Norman Conqueror, contended that all the forests in the kingdom were the king s, and that no one might hunt in them without his sanction. So jealously was this right guarded in this and suc- ceeding reigns, that permission to hunt or hawk was the subject of royal grants. Only kings, earls, barons, knights of high degree, and great ecclesiastical digni- taries were allowed to indulge in the noble art and pastime of venery. Even these great personages, when hunting on their own demesnes, were subjected to certain limitations and restrictions. No hunting was allowed for forty days before and after the king’s hunt, so that the wild beasts may not by any means be disquieted of their rest and peace,” and Abyngdon, writing of Han- 57 bury Park, reports, ‘^The Bishop of Worcester was here lord and patron, but had not, as far as I can yet see, charter warren, because beinge in the myddest of the king's forest, it myght have byn prejudicial! to hys game." All the residents in a forest above twelve years of age were compelled to take an oath to be of good behaviour towards his majesty's wild beasts." It ran thus : — You shall true liegemen be unto the king’s majesty. You shall no hurt do to the beasts of the forest, Nor to anything that doth belong thereto. The offences of others you shall not conceal, But to the uttermost of your power you shall them reveal Unto the officers of the forest. Or to them that may see the same redressed. All these things you shall see done. So help your God at holie dome. Game," was said to be dainty meat for the king and best sort of men of the realm." The only oppor- tunity enjoyed by the baser sort of testing its dainti- ness was in the following instance. If a deer were found dead in the forest, after due inquest held on the manner of its death, if the flesh were not ^‘meate and sweete," it was to be given to the nearest hospital or shared amongst the lame and poor of the neighbourhood. Meane men of no accompt," as Manwood, writing in James I's time, styles them, ‘‘killed, spoyled, and caryed away " the wild beasts “ that had been made to have showed a prince pastime, and also meate for a prince’s dish, at their extreme risk and peril." The forest laws were strict and cruel, and those who broke 58 them, tempted by the irresistible love of adventure or the cravings of hunger, were liable to death and mutilation. He who slew a man might be forgiven, not so he who slew a deer.” The Norman William, who loved the tall stags as if he had been their father, ordered ‘‘ w^hoever killed a hart or a hind, to be blinded.” Rufus made the oflFence a hanging matter. Henry I. thought it no less culpable, more so probably, than homicide, and punished the poacher accordingly either with death, expatriation, or the more infamous expedi- ents of gouging and mutilation. Heavy fines were levied for trivial causes, and the miserable peasant who failed to bribe or propitiate the various foresters and underkeepers, might be arrested on suspicion and fiung into a fetid dungeon ‘^during the king’s pleasure,” — a sentence equivalent to the death-penalty. When we learn that within a few years of the conquest, sixty-eight forests were enclosed, we can form a faint idea of the tyranny and oppression under which the rural population groaned. ‘^Husbandry diminished, and population decayed” says an old writer. A forester might kill a resisting offender within the forest without its being a felony. How many a detected poacher has been hurried to trial at the Rhydd Green, and thence conveyed along Hang- man’s Lane, to the gibbet on the Malvern Hills. But despite vigilant precautions, and prompt punishment, depredations were committed in the king’s forests, as may be inferred from an old verse prescribing the 59 manners to be observed when venison was placed on the table : It is not to be inquired whence venison cometh, For if by chance it stolen be, A good belief sufficeth thee.” Dogs were the objects of a special enactment. A •dweller in the forest might keep one for protection, provided the dog was lawfully expeditated, i.e. three •claws of its forefeet struck oflF. An executioner w^as appointed at the Court of Attachments to expeditate all dogs found in unlawful possession of their claws, which were by him struck off with a mallet and chisel on a block of wood, and the owner had to pay a fine called ‘‘ Foot-geld.” Cutting the dog’s hams was like- wise practised, and termed hambling ” or hoxing.” Let us thank heaven that the kynge’s vast forrests, reaching far re and wyde, a large walke for savage beasts,” arc now, as Habyngdon puts it, ^^more como- dyously changed to the civil habitations of many gentellmen, the freehoulders of wealthy yeomen and •dwellinges of industrious husbandmen.” But to return to Malvern Forest. The last Saxon owner of it was Brihtric, lord of the manor of Gloucester. This nobleman, unfortunately for himself, was sent as ambassador to the court of Baldwin, Count of Flanders, .and attracted the attention of Maude, the Count’s daughter, a lady who subsequently married William, Duke of Normandy. Her love was not reciprocated, and she furnishes another proof, that a woman slighted 60 never forgives. After the conquest of England, Maude induced her consort to put Brihtric to death, and to confiscate his possessions in her favour. In this way the forest became crown property, and continued as such until the reign of Edward I, who presented it with Corse Forest, to Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Glou- cester, on the occasion of his marriage with Joan d’ Acres, the king's daughter. As no subject might own a forest, Malvern Forest was henceforward called a Chase, and Corse, a lawn. It contained wild beasts as well as deer, probably wolves, for we find that Edward I. issued a royal mandate to Peter Corbet, a mighty hunter, that in all the royal forests, parks, and other places in Worcestershire, Gloucestershire, Here- ford, Salop, and Stafford, he was to ‘‘ hunt wolves, with men, dogs, and engines, to destroy them." The Red Earl, as Gilbert was called, not content with the princely portion he had received with his bride, speedily laid claim to the Chase on the western slopes of the Malvern range, which had hitherto been held by the Bishop of Hereford. A jury decided in favour of the latter, and a trench was made along the ridge of the hill, traces of which remain to the present day. Another version of the story states that a dispute arose between de Clare and the Bishop of Worcester, whose lands were encroached upon by the fosse on the top of Malvern Hill. This was settled by the Earl's promising to pay to the Bishop and his successors a brace of bucks and does yearly at the Bishop's manor 61 house of Kempsey, or, if the see were vacant, to the prior and convent of Worcester, at the Castle of Hanley. The deed executed by the Earl and Bishop for the payment of the bucks and does is still in the possession of Sir E. Lechmere. It was confirmed by Edward I. at Norham, in the 19th year of his reign. The land in question consisted of 300 acres in the Forest of Malvern near to Wenland or Welland mill. They were granted to John de Constantiis, Bishop of Worcester, in the 8th year of Richard I, for the use of the church of St. Mary Wigorn, to hold to him and his successors for ever, to do therewith what they would, free of the exactions of foresters. Ecclesiastics were as ardent lovers of field sports, and pursued them with as keen a zeal as any other class. There are many instances of the vigilance and energy exhibited by the bishops and priors of Worces- ter in maintaining their rights in the forest, even when they came in collision with the royal prerogative of the chase. In most cases, the mitre prevailed against the crown, but there is one instance in which the former had to succumb. Henry III. had confirmed the forest privileges of the Prior and Convent of Worcester, on condition that the foresters appointed by the Prior and Monks took an oath to the king not to destroy his game. The oath was evidently ill-kept, for Dr. Thomas informs us that on the eve of Lady Day, 1289-90, a court was held at Feckenham, to enquire who had transgressed in hunting in the king’s 62 forest. Many were found guilty and imprisoned, the principal offenders had to find six sureties for their appearance before the king at Woodstock, on the nones of April, to receive his sentence of mercy or judgment, and because there was no other equity than the king's will. The bishop of Worcester’s redemption was taxed at 500 marks, and the prior’s at 200. Great was the rejoicing of the royal foresters at having triumphed over these dignitaries ; it emboldened them to insult the prior as he was travelling along the road near Evesham, by robbing his servants of their bows and arrows, and sounding their horns on all sides against him, as if to bring in the country to their aid against trespassers and poachers. Other disturbances of the bishop’s right of chase occurred in 1315, 1346, and 1414 ; but they all resulted in the confirmation of them, without molestation from the royal keeper and his retainers.” The canon law prohibited bishops from hunting for the sake of pleasure ( voluptatis causa ), although they might do so for recreation, or for health, or for the necessity of the body — a fine distinction, which must have been lost sight of when Reginald Brian, bishop of Worcester, penned a letter in 1352, to his brother prelate of St. David’s, reminding him of a promise he had made to send him six brace of excellent hunting dogs, the best he had ever seen,” and that he had been in daily expectation, so that his ‘‘heart languished for their arrival.” “Let them come,” he continued, “0 63 reverend father, without delay. Let my woods re-echo with the music of their cry and the cheerful notes of the horn, and let the walls of my palace, be decorated with the trophies of the chase.” The monks likewise kept packs of hounds, and emulated the sporting achievements of the superior clergy. Let us not blame them. The princes of the church were before all things, great noblemen, men of the world, statesmen, diplomatists, courtiers, — and they shared in all the patrician tastes and amusements of the age. Literature was at a low ebb and slightly esteemed, newspapers were not, and the innumerable societies for the general amelioration and evangelization of poor humanity, which occupy so much of the time and attention of the modern ecclesiastic, had not yet been invented or thought of. Besides this, hunting and hounds were profitable and necessary in turning into account the wild stock abounding upon the manors attached to every see and monastic institution. The practice was uncensured, and was imitated by their Protestant successors of the Church of England, until the fatal chance that mis-sped Archbishop Abbot’s shaft into the keeper’s breast at Branzill Park, Hants, in the reign of the first James. Hanley Castle might be called the capital of the Forest or Chase of Malvern. The lord of that lordship appointed the constable of the castle, the park-keeper of Blackmore, the steward, bailiff, and master of the game, four foresters and rangers of the chase, and was 64 to have all snow-falls and tempest wood, which means timber that either fell or was blown down. There was a ^‘law-day” and sessions once a year and a court- baron every three weeks, to determine all pleas of trespass, debt, or detinue, not exceeding 40s. The Abbots of Pershore and Westminster, the Priors of Great and Little Malvern, Lord Clifford for Severn Stoke, and the lords of Madresfield, Bromsberrow, and Birtsmorton were free-suitors at this court. These free-suitors acted as arbiters on an appeal court and had power to reform the decisions of the law-days and at other courts in all such matters as were done wrong- fully to them or their tenants. No sheriflp, escheator, or other officer had power to meddle within the said lordship. It was an imperium in imperio, whose laws were administered by its own officers. The bailiff of Hanley was to execute and serve all precepts and to return the same at his jeopardy. No warrant from a justice was to be obeyed or executed, but only the constables of the lordship were to sue and arrest and commit to ward. The foresters only had authority to arrest for murder and felony within the chase, and were to bring the accused before the chief forester, who had power to sit in judg- ment, as also execute the office of a coroner. If the accused were found guilty by the verdict of twelve men from the four nearest lordships to where the crime was committed, his head was struck off with a forestePs axe at a place called Sweet Oaks, in the said chase, 65 ^ where they always sat in judgment upon such persons. Sometimes the body was carried to the top of Malvern Hill to a place called Baldgate and hanged on a gallows, there to remain till the chief forester gave a license for its removal. There was a limit over which this judg- ment extended ; but as far as the franchise of Hanley reached this power of judgment belonged to the con- stable of the castle of Hanley, and the accused was brought before the steward at Hanley and there indicted, if guilty he was executed at Ehydd Green. The chief forester held of the lord in fee by rent of an axe and a horn and found bondsmen to constantly perambulate the chase. He was sworn to be true to the vert and venison,” that is, to take due care of all trees and other green things growing in the chase, as well as the deer. If he found anyone hunting or with the manner,” he could attach and confine him in the castle, until he found sureties in the sum of £5. This term, with the manner, had four parts, each of which was a distinct offence. 1st — Stable-stand,” or when a man was found with his bow ready to shoot. 2nd — Dog-draw,” where the beast had been struck and the dog was drawing after it. 3rd— Backbear,” bearing the game away ; and 4th — Bloody-hand,” when a person was found in the forest with hands imbrued in blood. Besides foresters, there were verderers, viewers, and riders, who had power to perambulate the township and soil of every lord of the manor from Charmey’s 66 Pool to Powyck and Bransford Bridges, to oversee the highways and watercourses, and to see that the hedges were made of a proper height for the preserva- tion of the deer, and when this was not the case, the owners were to be fined according to the conscience of the said viewers.’’ They had also the oversight and correction of the ‘^hombling of dogs, and all dogs found to be unlawful, i.e., which could not be drawn through a certain measure (sterop) of 18 inches and a barleycorn in length and breadth, their farther joints of the two middle claws were to be cut clean away, and the master and owner of the dogs was to be fined 3s. Id.” In the reign of Henry VI, the lord of the Chase and Manor of Malvern was the renowned earl of Warwick, ^Hast of the barons,” who made and unmade kings. He derived this dignity from his countess, Anne Beauchamp, a lineal descendant from Gilbert de Clare. This nobleman’s only son, Gilbert, having been slain at Bannockburn, without leaving issue, the Chase passed to Hugh le Despencer, the husband of the red earl’s eldest daughter, Elianore. Despencer perished in the civil strife that desolated Edward II’s feeble reign, and it is not unlikely that the Chase was administered for a brief period by Queen Isabella’s minion, Eoger Mortimer, Edward III restored it to the rightful heir, and after three generations, it came by marriage to Kichard Beauchamp, earl of Warwick. By the death of his only son, Henry, in 1422, his 67 daughter, Anne, became sole heiress. Her husband was created earl of Warwick in 1449. This pair had two daughters, and the haughty and powerful peer who had placed Edward IV on the throne of the meek Henry of Lancaster, hoped to see one of them Queen-consort. Isabel married George, duke of Clarence, Edward’s second brother; and after Ed- ward’s union with Elizabeth Wydville had permanently alienated Warwick from the Yorkist cause, the hand of the younger daughter, Ann, was bestowed on the heir of Lancaster. The disastrous ending of these royal alliances is well known. George of Clarence met his death in the Tower, Isabel died shortly after him, as it is said by poison ; Edward of Lancaster was barbarously assassinated in his rival’s tent after the fatal defeat at Tewkesbury ; Anne, after a vain resistance, became the wife of her husband’s murderer, and was, in her turn, made away with to enable Richard to consolidate his rule by a marriage with his niece Elizabeth, Edward IV’s heir. By Richard’s marriage with Anne, Malvern again became royal property. After his death, and the execution of Edward, Earl of Warwick, Isabel’s son and heir, it reverted to the crown. In the 37th year of Henry VIII, we And that monarch bestowing a large part of the forfeited estates upon Lord Clinton, who again disposed of them to the same William Pinnock on whom Henry had conferred the spoils of the Priory of Malvern. Queen Elizabeth enriched her chancellor, t 68 Sir Thomas Bromley, by conveying to him a consider- able portion of what was yet left of the Chase ; and to John Hornyold, of Standow, in Hertfordshire, and Katherine, his wife, she gave the Manor of Hanley, reserving to herself, her heirs and successors, the Chase, called Malvern Chase, and the liberties thereof.” In the 32nd of Elizabeth’s reign, an in- quiry was held at Hanley Hall as to the boundaries of the Chase ; why instituted and with what result is not known. The palmy days of forests were over. Hanley Castle was in ruins, the Chase was over-run with squatters, the commoners made havoc with the timber, and the barbarous rule over these vast en- closures was being relaxed, in obedience to the growing popular will. Some mitigation of their rigour had already been wrested from the necessities of various monarchs. John was compelled to promise a Carta de Foresta, and what he promised, his son, Henry III performed, 1217, on condition that the people should pay him a 15th-penny in value of all their movable goods, to enable him to carry on a war with France. The charter was revoked in 1227, as being granted when he was a minor, and the old oppressions were renewed with increased severity. In 1236 the people loudly demanded redress before furnishing supplies, and the charter once more became law, and was con- firmed 1253 and 1300, in which latter year Magna Charta and the Carta de Foresta were finally 69 established, after the fluctuations of nearly a century. Many tracts of land were disafforested, and killing deer was no longer a capital offence. Still the owners 9 of property within a forest had no powder over the disposition of that property. Not a tree might be cut down without the royal permission. In 1408 the Bishop of Worcester obtained a license from Henry IV to cut as many oaks out of his own woods as would enable him to repair the manor houses of his bishopric. It was not until Elizabeth’s time that the ancient Saxon privilege of hunting on their owm grounds was restored to the people, and even the sovereign claimed the right of hunting and shooting in the subjects’ parks. No more is heard of the Chase until the reign of Charles I. The king intended to sell the Chase as a means of replenishing his treasury. The proposal excited the most furious indignation amongst the inhabitants of the Chase, who had enjoyed the privi- leges of commoning; rioting ensued, and the cause of the malcontents was supported by many men of influence. Charles at last consented to surrender two- thirds of the Chase to the commoners, and one-third he granted to his attorney-general. Sir E. Heath, and to Sir Cornelius Vermuyden, a Dutch knight. The latter is supposed to have purchased his share of the Chase. The division gave rise to fresh disorders, the commoners accused Sir Cornelius of exercising more than his rights, and Sir Cornelius retorting that the 70 commoners refused to allow him the rights he had purchased of the king. In the 7th of Charles I’s reign, a decree was made for disafforesting the Chase. Legal difficulties arising, the king’s council (1682) ordered that none of the forest should be enclosed except his majesty’s one third, and that the other two third parts shall be left open and free for the free- holders and tenants and commoners to take their common of pasture and common of estovers therein, as heretofore they have been accustomed. No mesne lords of fees or manors whatsoever shall be permitted to enclose any of the two thirds of the said Chase, or to fall the woods and trees growing thereon, whereby the commoners may be hindered of their estovers.” No new cottage was to be erected on the part allotted to his majesty, and no house with less than twenty acres of land, nor any new cottage, on the portion given to the commoners. Near Upton, the majority of farm-houses were erected at this time ; form and material betoken the earlier half of the 17 th century. The Commons now form one of the greatest attrac- tions of Malvern — Barnard’s Green, Sherrard’s Green, Malvern Common, the Wells Common, Link Common, and numerous other commons within a few miles, are all worth visiting, and present endless varieties of subjects to the artist’s pencil. I cannot. conclude this chapter better than by quot- ing the words of Mr. Noake, in his Worcestershire 71 Kelics/’ — ‘‘There are pleasant and lovely views now on Hook Common and Brotheridge Green, and from the Ledbury road, — views of a far-stretching and un- dulating country, rich with orchards and hedge-rows, farms and hamlets, and bounded by the Malverns, and Bredon, and the Cotswolds. “ Three centuries ago, there was little of this beauty of cultivation, but the scenery was exceedingly beauti- ful with a wilder sort of loveliness. There were great masses of foliage, stretching for many miles, brightened here and there by lawns and commons of velvet-like turf; there were avenues of noble trees, and little dells and valleys of greenery; and round the forest pools, and by the margin of the brooks, ferns and wild flowers grew luxuriantly. With the exception of a woodman’s cottage here and there, and perhaps a small farm or two on the edge of the Chase, the dis- trict was quite uninhabited, save by the beautiful wild creatures, the stags, the hares, the squirrels, and the myriads of birds which found shelter in the forest.” i of (yUafS^tn+ Great Malverit, Malvern Link, North Malvern, West Malvern, Malvern Wells, and Little Malvern. ‘‘ What precious gifts Do other regions boast, that are not thine ? How bless’d with fruits, Ripen’d by temperate suns, and fed with showers Sent by the favouring moon ! How richly bless’d With these o’er-shadowing mountains lifting high Their hoary summits ; where unnumbered flocks Range free to pasture ; and whence softly flow Streams, salutary streams to bless mankind.” Booker's Malvern, j OW changed is the Malvern of our day from the romantic retreat, half hidden amidst umbrageous woods, that, at once, sheltered it from the fury of western gales, and clothed its sloping side with liveliest green.” Where are the 73 scattered mansions/’ the sparse rural cots, whited and decked with woodbine and with rose/’ whose idyllic loveliness was the theme of many a poet’s song ? The mountains, huge, august, and high,” dominate the landscape in undiminished prominence and gran- deur, their brows ‘‘ Sometimes dark frowning, and anon serene, Wrapt now in clouds invisible, and now Glowing in golden sunshine.” The vales are as abundant, the fields as fertile, the trees bloom as luxuriantly as of yore, but the tiny, sequestered hamlet, with its sixty dwelling places, its scanty population and primitive arrangements, is a thing of the past. In its room there has arisen — equally unique in character and charm — the large, populous and important town of Great Malvern, with its palatial mansions, its noble terraces and stately villas, framed in foliage and fiowers ; its college, — which already holds its own with the more ancient and wealthier kindred foundations of Eton, Winchester, Harrow, and Rugby, — its churches, chapels, and chari- table endowments ; its famous hydropathic establish- ments, its magnificent hotels, and last, not least, the excellent and convenient system of roads and railways that contribute in so marked a degree to the comfort and enjoyment of the visitor. Other Malverns have grouped themselves round their elder sister, each vying with the other in beauty, salubrity, and attractive ness. 74 Great Malvern in no wise resembles the ordinary conception of a town. Here are no formal squares, no miles of sullen streets, house ranged against house in chilling monotony and precision, no dingy and dilapidated alleys and lanes, the haunt of crime and fever. Malvern, on the contrary, consists of separate and distinct residences, solid and costly, embowered in pleasure-grounds and shrubberies. Every caprice and style of architecture, every variety of colour, form, and material has been pressed into their creation, Tudor houses, Elizabethan, Jacobean, Gothic, Byzan- tine, Corinthian, Swiss, Italian, Oriental, all are here. One might fancy a flight or swarm of goodlye man- sions ’’ from all parts of the civilised globe, settled for the nonce on Malvern heights, each camped on its coign of vantage, overlooking mountain, dale, and plain. Seriously, however, neither chance or confusion have any share in the careless grace that flings so potent a charm over the architectural arrangements of Great Malvern. There is a method in the irregularity, an order in the disorder, and not a building is to be found that does not blend in picturesque harmony with the natural and artificial features of the surround- iug scene. The sanitary advantages gained by the scattered formation of the town, are too obvious to need comment. Streets, properly speaking, Malvern has none, only spacious roads, such as the Graham, the Victoria and Albert Roads, &c., stretching their noble length 75 between imposing mansions, terraces, and public buildings. Eange upon range of villas encircle the hills, and tier upon tier of carriage roads climb from foot to brow. Trees spread their gieen foliage in every direction, and are a principal feature in the romantic and peculiar beauty which distinguishes Malvern above all other towns. The first object that strikes the eye, on emerging from the railway station, is the splendid pile of build- ings known as the Imperial Hotel, six stories high, and surmounted by a commanding tower. This hotel, which stands in three acres of pleasure grounds, has ready access to the Great Western Railway by means of a covered archway carried right upon the down platform. Close to this is Christ Church, a handsome Gothic structure, raised to the memory of the late Rev. George Fisk, Vicar of Malvern, to whom the town is indebted for the thorough restoration of the Abbey Church. Proceeding towards the centre of Malvern by the Avenue Road, we pass a series of villas and handsome blocks of buildings, bearing characteristic and fanciful designations, which recall every period of history, and every country and clime on the known face of the earth. Nearer the town, a little way down the hill, at the end of Church Street, is the Beauchamp Hotel, a good family and commercial house. The centre of the town contains the handsome Club House, the Post Office, Grafenberg House, remarkable as the first place 76 in which Hydropathy was practised in Malvern, the * Royal and Foley Arms Hotel, lately patronised by Prince and Princess Christian, and that excellent first- class hotel, Belle Vue. The Abbey Hotel, a well- managed house, is situated in the Abbey Road, and enjoys an excellent view of the new Promenade Gardens. The Graham Road, nearly a mile in length, running from Church Street on the south to the Worcester Road on the north, is a favourite drive. Charming residences border it on either side, and the views it commands are equally extensive and delightful. Mon- trose House, pleasantly situated on this road, is a very superior and recommendable lodging house. The district lying between the Abbey Church and the College, is known as Southfields, and here -may be found many of the most elegant and extensive build- ings in Malvern. The approach to this aristocratic quarter is through the beautiful old Abbey Gateway. The princely hydropathic establishments which adorn this neighbourhood, are a proof of the efficacy of the system, and compare advantageously with the modest house on Belle Vue Terrace, where the water doctors first carried on their cures. ^^The Establishment,’^ near the Gateway, is presided over by Dr. Rayner ; Malvernbury, by Dr. Johnson, and Townshend House, by Dr. Grindrod. In connection with the latter establishment is a geological and palaeontological museum, exceptionally 77 rich in fossils and diagrams. All the fossils of the Malvern district, from the earliest to the most recent formations, are represented in their several stages of development in the cases of this priceless institution. The Promenade Gardens. Through the disinterested kindness of Mrs. Wilmot, of Eose Bank (who met the lessees in a most generous spirit), the pleasantly situated garden between that lady’s residence and the Abbey Gateway has been obtained for a most desirable public improvement in the shape of Promenade Gardens, the control and management of which has been vested in the lessees, who undertake that they shall be conducted in accordance with Mrs. Wilmot’s wishes for the benefit of the to^yn, and the pleasure and healthful recreation of the visitors. The grounds, though small, are very tastefully laid out in winding walks, turf lawns, rockeries, flower borders, shrubs and roses, &c. There is an upper terrace walk on the western side of the gardens, seventy feet or so of its length being covered by an ample verandah, furnished with seats, where those who wish may rest in shade and shelter, listen to the fine band, and enjoy the pure Malvern air without fatigue or disturbance. A central walk or promenade of ample width extends the* whole length of the Gardens, and is fur- nished with seats. A fountain, ornamental stand for the band, rustic summer-houses, gate-keeper’s lodge, &c., show that, with taste and judgment, much may 78 be done to render beautiful and attractive a compara- tively small space. The first cost was met entirely by voluntary contri- butions, which came in very liberally, over £300 being subscribed within a week, and the Gardens are main- tained by annual subscriptions entitling the subscriber to admission whenever they are open, and also to a certain number of tickets for friends and visitors. Single tickets may also be obtained at the lodging and hotels. The days on which flower shows, &c., are held, are alone reserved by the lessees, when admission is obtained by special ticket. The Gardens were opened on Monday, June 21st, the day being showery, but on the whole, propitious, and the attendance was very large. The band, radiant in the glory of their new uniform of scarlet and blue, played the National Anthem, followed by a choice selection of music, and without further ceremony the gardens were declared open. The lessees are bound by the conditions of the lease to keep the management of the Gardens in their own hands, and they discharge an onerous duty with great tact and ability. The prices of residents’ tickets are — Single Yearly Ticket, Half Guinea. Double „ „ One Guinea. Family „ „ Two Guineas. The lessees are Mr. Edward Archer, Mr. W. Burrow, Mr. J. S. Burrow, and Mr. T. Cox, junior. 79 The College, a very conspicuous and ornamental building, occupies all the noble slope between Eadnor Eoad and the Great Western line. The ground plan resembles the letter E, of which the lofty entrance tower forms the centre. The site has been admirably selected, both as regards purity of air and extent of prospect. In the immediate back-ground to the west, rise the Malvern Hills, and from the quadrangle we gain a view of the Ankerdine and Abberley Hills on the north ; to the east the Yale of Evesham fades in the dim distance, and towards the south we catch glimpses of the Cotswolds. The Abbey Church towers proudly over the land- scape in every direction, but it is seen to particular advantage from the north. From the Albert Eoad the view embraces nearly the whole of Malvern, with its glorious church rising in the centre, and lower down, at the foot of North Hill, Holly Mount,” the residence of the Duchess of Kent and Princess Victoria, meets our gaze. In the distance we see Malvern Link, and a succession of charming villas scattered along the side of the road between Malvern Link and Malvern. Belle Vue Terrace, from Warwick House to the Fine Art Galleries of the Messrs. W. and J. Burrow, may be considered the business quarter, and contains shops and warehouses of every description, adapted to every possible want and income. Churches, whose services fulfil the requirements of 80 every school of religious thought, are to be met with in and around Malvern. Besides the Abbey and Christ Church, North Malvern, Malvern Link, West Mahern, and Cowleigh have each churches of their own. High Church ritual has its most advanced expression in the exquisite church at Newland, and Evangelicalism has its home in the church at Barnard’s Green. There are also beautiful village churches at Welland, Guarlford, Madresfield, and Hanley. The Dissenting Communions are likewise fully rep- resented. There is a Wesleyan Chapel at Lansdowne Crescent, a Congregational Chapel at North Malvern, and a second has been erected towards the centre of Great Malvern; a Primitive Methodist Chapel at Newtown, and two churches in connection with Lady Huntingdon’s Trust, one in the Wells Road, the other at the Link ; two Roman Catholic Churches, St. Joseph’s at Malvern, and St. Wulstan’s at Malvern Wells. Baptists, Friends, and Plymouth Brethren have also their several places of worship. Emmanuel Church (Wells Road) was rebuilt in 1874, at an outlay of between £3,000 and £4,000, is a neat and internally comfortable edifice, seating between 500 and 600 persons. The property is in the hands of trustees, who have the power of appointing the chaplain, and is endowed with thirty guineas per annum. The services are supported, beyond this, entirely by pew rents and offertories. The Trust, which is that of the late Countess of Huntingdon, 81 provides that the minister shall sign the fifteen Doctrinal Articles of the Church of England, and use the Liturgy. In other respects the Church is un- sectarian, and the pulpit may be opened to the clergy of any Evangelical denomination. According to repeated public statements, this church maintains an attitude of uncompromising Protestan- tism, and in it are preached the doctrines of grace, substantially as they were held by the late Eev. Charles Simeon, of Cambridge. The trustees leave the chap- lain free as to the purely Ecclesiastical associations he may form, and the present chaplain (Dr. Richardson) holds a high position in the Reformed Episcopal Church. Malvern has its Archery and Cricket Clubs, as well as a Rifle Volunteer Corps and a Volunteer Artillery Battery, which, during the summer months, drill weekly on the commons. It has also its Rural Hospital and Dispensary, its Samaritan Charity, its National, Infant, and other Schools, its Masonic Lodge and its Clubs, the Gentlemen’s Club in Church Street, and the Tradesmen’s Club, Lyttleton Rooms, in the same locality. There are also two Banks in the centre of the town. The Local Board Ofiices are in Church Street, and the Court House and Police Station in the Worcester Road, opposite to Trinity Church. 82 Little Malvern. “Just peeping from a woody covert near, The Lesser Malvern stands. Sequestered church ! The spot around thee speaks of quietness. Down at the mountain’s base thou long hast brav’d The vernal tempest and December’s storms ; Yet at this tranquil time most fair thou art. The aged oaks around, and towering elms. In wild luxuriance spread their stately limbs ; And, true to friendship, ward each angry blast, That, howling through the valley, sweeps along, To thy dark battlements.” Cottle. The road to Little Malvern is through the charming village of Malvern Wells. It is situated near the Herefordshire Beacon, and the return drive can be made by way of the Beacon, Wind’s Point, and the Wyche. Here, as at Great Malvern, a Hermitage developed into a Priory. In this, case, two hermits, brothers by birth as by religious enthusiasm, sought the retire- ment of the wilderness for purposes of uninterrupted prayer and penance, and here they founded, under the auspices of Simon, bishop of Worcester, a.d. 1171, a Benedictine Priory, in subordination to the parent house at Worcester. At the dissolution of the lesser monasteries in 1538, this Priory was granted to Henry Bussell, Esq., of Strensham, and passed in 1734, by marriage, to the Beringtons. Little Malvern Court, the seat of C. M. Berington, Esq., is placed upon the site of the old Priory. The original building has been worked up into the present mansion, and forms 83 a quaint group of gables with a tower in the corner, at the summit of which is a secret room, difficult of access, intended, doubtless, as a refuge from religious or political persecution. In front of Priory Court is an artificial piece of water, and the grounds are remarkable for the luxuriant and majestic growth of the trees in them. The original Norman Church, which had been suffered to fall into decay by the cul- pable negligence of the monks, was rebuilt in 1482, by John Alcock, bishop of Worcester, in the form of a cress, with an embattled tower rising from the centre. The transept has long been in ruins, the naye is entirely gone, and the tower is covered with a tiled roof. Although shorn of its battlements, it retains traces of original beauty. The belfry is elegantly pannelled, there is a carved beam exhibiting foliage, the remains of the rood loft, and some grotesque car- ving near the stalls on the northern side. The eastern window is ornamented with very elegant tracery, dividing it into numerous lights. In the lower com- partments are the remains of some figures, conjectured to have been the Queen of Edward IV and some of the royal children. The painted glass and armorial blazoning of this once splendid edifice, are said to have surpassed those of Great Malvern Church. There is a large hagioscope in both north and south w^alls of the chancel. Of ancient monuments none remain. In Habyngdon’s time, there lay in the south aisle a knight, or crusader, all armed, saving his face, under 84 his head, an helmet, with his crest, a lion’s head, at his feet, a lion ; on his right hand lay his ladye, richly apparalled, with her arms crossed, at her head, two angels, at her feet, a little dog, with collar and bells.” The crossed arms of the lady, indicated, in Habyngdon’s judgment, that she had accompanied her husband in his crusading pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The scenery around Little Malvern is extremely beautiful and picturesque. Seated on a richly-wooded slope, and backed by lofty hills, in which the Hereford- shire Beacon forms a conspicuous object, the mingled loveliness and sublimity of the landscape affords end- less subjects for the artist’s pencil. From Little Malvern Church the road descends to Hanley Castle, or keeping close under the shadow of the hills, a rugged but extremely romantic drive brings us to Holly Bush Hill ; that sacred seat of magic science, where the Druids investigated the secrets of the stars, and sought by auspices and sacrifices to forecast the future, and to penetrate the designs of the gods. Malvern Wells. The lower slopes and hollows of the hills at Malvern Wells are extensively and beautifully wooded, and have walks peculiarly attractive from the cool shade they afford during all parts of the day. Those on the eastern side of the hill, near the Old Well Boarding 85 House, are singularly charming and easy of access. From the terrace of this excellent and commodious establishment there are magnificent views of the plain and the picturesque scenery in the distance. Essington’s Hotel, on the same side of the hill, enjoys an equal advantage in the extensive prospect it commands. Between this hotel and the crest of the hill, is situated, amidst beautiful walks, Holy Well,'' ‘‘fountain of health, and purest spring that fiows," according to the Malvern miter. Dr. Booker. This opinion is shared by the chemists of the county, who frequently make use of it, instead of distilled water, in their medicinal preparations. The Church, an unpretending building, in the Early English style, was erected in 1837, and accommodates 600 worshippers. The exterior walls are luxuriantly garlanded with ivy, and the interior has been adorned with delicate carvings, executed by the hand of the late incumbent, the Kev. D. Hopkinson. The carved work on the pulpit, lectern, and font is particularly admirable. The stained glass windows in the chancel were the gift of this gentleman, and his liberality, furthermore, entirely re-pewed the church. Amongst other inducements to visit the Wells, there is a large hydropathic establishment, and several excellent schools for pupils of either sex. Close and open carriages and saddle-horses are on hire in the village. In addition to the Essington, — already ad- verted to, — there is the Hornyold Arms Hotel. 80 Opposite the former, the road descends to Hanley Swan, where it branches off in three directions ; to the right, over Welland Common ; to the left, past Black- more Park to the Ehydd ; and by Barnard’s Green to Upton-on-Severn. Upton has the curious distinction of having had for its rector. Dr. Dee, astrologer, philosopher, rosicrucian, and secret political agent and friend to the great Queen Elizabeth, of immortal memory. West Malvern Is a picturesque assemblage of houses and splendid villas, gathered together at the base of the Worcester- shire Beacon, towards its western extremity. In addition to its romantic situation, the walks around afford a series of the most beautiful and extensive views. The eye ranges over the finely-wooded knolls of Herefordshire, the mountains of Wales, and the pleasant plains of Shropshire. A geological explorer, in a description of his wanderings amongst the Mal- vern Hills, says, A few days, nay, a few weeks, may be pleasantly passed here, and the best resting place is West Malvern, which is 200 feet higher than Great Malvern, and thus the tourist is saved some labour in the ascent, and is much sooner in the midst of the attractive scenery. He will find a good hotel (the Westminster Arms), with moderate charges ; and there are, too, several comfortable lodging houses.” And again, he writes, the hills have verdure, a fine green- 87 sward, with protruding rocks to the very summit, and they are traversed by well-made paths in every direc- tion. Without contradiction, this district is the most pleasurable walking ground in England.” The drive to West Malvern, by North Malvern, and the return drive through the Wyche, unfolds a scene of unsurpassable beauty. At every curve and winding of the undulating road, unexpected contrasts surprise the enraptured eye, visions of loveliness, to linger on the memory, a delight for ever.” The pretty and commodious Church is a recent erection in the Perpendicular style of architecture. It is built of Cradley stone, with Bath stone dressings. Proceeding from Great Malvern northward along the Graham or Worcester Road, we come to Link Common, Where are a few detached houses, chiefly occupied by residents. The Rural Hospital, an excellent charity, of the greatest benefit and utility to the poor in the neighbourhood of Malvern, stands on a rising ground to the left of the road, and at the lower end of the Common, not far from the Link Railway Station, we remark a handsome mansion, standing in its own grounds. This is the Link School House for the sons of gentlemen, of which Mr. Henry Wilson, M.A., Cath. Coll., Cambridge, is head master. Malvern Link is on the other side of the railway. This neigh- bourhood is rapidly increasing in size and importance. 88 and from the character of the dwellings we readily gather that it is a favourite resort of wealthy visitors. The Church is dedicated to St. Mathias, and stands, together with the Parochial Schools, a slight distance on the left from the main roads. Not far from them we meet with Lady Huntingdon’s Chapel, with a British School adjoining. North Malvern Has a very beautiful Church in the Early English style, dedicated to the Holy Trinity. The west win- dow of stained glass is a memorial to Charles Morris, Esq., a gentleman who was a public benefactor to North Malvern, and to whose liberal contributions the church greatly owed its existence and endowment. The subjects depicted illustrate the words of Scripture, I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat ; thirsty, and ye gave me drink ; naked, and ye clothed me.” This merited eulogium, the late Mr. Morris shares with his sister. Miss Morris, who cordially co-operated with her brother in every movement for the benefit of North Malvern. The Morris School ” was founded by them, and another lasting monument to their beneficence are The Tanks Under the eastern side of the North Hill. In 1835, Mr. Morris erected, entirely at his own cost, the first and smaller tank, and finding the supply of pure water 89 still unequal to the demand, in 1836, he caused a second tank to be constructed, capable of containing upwards of 50,000 gallons of water. The beautiful ivy-grown clock tower, near the large tank, was sub- sequently added by Mr. Morris's nnwearied liberality, which extended itself in similar benefactions of sub- stantial tanks to the Lower Wyche and West Malvern. The following inscription over the entrance to the large tank commemorates the gratitude of the dwellers in North Malvern. The Inhabitants of North Malvern have placed This Stone to record that these Tanks were Erected at the Sole Expense of Charles Morris, Jun., Esq., Of Portman Square, London, 1835 and 1836. Ye young and aged Poor Pray That the blessing of God May be abundantly poured upon him who has Here poured abundant blessings upon you. A valuable clock, with chimes, was subscribed for in memoriam, and placed in the Abbey Church. “ Happy is England ! I could be content To see no other verdure than its own ; To feel no other breezes than are blown Through its tall woods with high romances blent ! ” QUafSetrn (Coffege* “ Hard by, for the pursuit of knowledge, Some pious people built a college. Wherein Britannia’s youth might pore On Latin, Greek and antique lore, And each become a sapient wight, Well skilled to cypher, read and write.” Old Satire. T is only natural that, in a place so renowned for its salubrity and bracing atmosphere as Malvern, there should be many educational nents. Of these, by far the largest and most important is Malvern College. The visitor, who taking his walks abroad chooses one of the paths which skirt the eastern side of the hills, and lead in the direction of Malvern Wells, cannot fail to be struck by the handsome pile of Gothic architecture which will meet his gaze on the left, as he approaches the limits of Malvern proper. The first stone of this building was laid in 1863 by 91 the Bishop of Worcester, and in 1865 it was completed and opened under the head mastership of the Rev. Arthur Faber, M.A., Fellow and Tutor of New College, Oxford. Mr. Faber has however recently resigned, and has been succeeded by the Rev. C. T. Cruttwell, M.A., Fellow and late Tutor of Merton College, Oxford, and late Head Master of Bradfield College. The College was started with less than thirty boys, and as the building was of a size to accommodate 600, we are told that the head master of a college in a neighbouring county took the opportunity of facetiously remarking that the new school at Malvern reversed the common saying of muUum in parvo, being a parvum in mulio. It is superfluous to say that the college has vastly increased since that time, though it has not yet reached the limits for which its present accommodation is calculated. Malvern College has this advantage over most public schools of the same character, viz., that it is, so to speak, a little world in itself. No boys are lodged in the main building, but the masters’ houses, instead of being, as is often the case, scattered over the town, are all contained within the college bounds, and form, as it were, a kind of fringe to the playground. The •convenience of this arrangement is obvious, as the pupils can never have an excuse for being beyond the limits of the college without leave, and are, conse- quently much more under the immediate eye and control of the authorities. 92 The governing body of the college is constituted as follows : President and Visitor : The Lord Bishop of Worcester. Vice-Presidents : The Right Hon. Earl Beauchamp, Lord Lieut, of Worcestershire. The Rt. Hon. Lord Hampton. Sir E. A. H. Lechmere, Bart, M.P. The Vicar of Malvern. Harry Foley Vernon, Esq. Council : Osman Ricardo, Esq. Gr. D. Wingfield Digby, Esq. Charles W. Lea, Esq. The Right Hon. Earl Beauchamp, Chairman. Edward Chance, Esq. W. E. Dowdeswell, Esq. G. W. Hastings, Esq. The Rt. Hon. Lord Lyttleton. G. E. Martin, Esq. J. D. Perrins, Esq. Rev. I. Gregory Smith. Dr. West. J. W. B. Willis-Bund, Esq, We will now proceed to give in some detail an account of the building of the college, of its play- ground, its system, and of anything else connected with it, which may be of interest to the reader. And first, we will take what may be called the educational building proper. This edifice is con- structed from designs of Mr. C. F. Hansom, of Clifton, somewhat in the form of the letter E, and as we said before, in the Gothic style. To the lower part of the building a certain picturesqueness has been added by the ivy with which it is overgrown, and which forms a framework of verdure to the windows. The front of the college faces westwards, and is 210 feet in length. The exterior frontage of the north and south ends is 140 feet. In the centre of the west front rises a tower. 98 100 feet high, 85 feet long and 25 feet broad. Beginn- ing at the north end, we have, on the upper floor the large schoolroom, well lighted with an open roof, and of elegant proportions. It is about 110 feet long. This room, besides its use for classes, is also the scene of the College Concert, every Christmas, and of the Speeches and Special Prize Distribution at Midsummer. At the east end of it, and separated from it by large sliding doors, is another large class-room, which was long regarded as dedicated particularly to the Modern Division, and which now, in addition to its every day use as a classroom, is the scene of the terminal exam- inations of the Upper School. Below these two rooms are several smaller class-rooms, all of them, however, of good size, and admirably adapted to their purpose. Access to these is gained by a corridor or cloister, which runs indeed all round the building. Below, in the basement story, are the lavatories and offices, and it is here that the pupils’ entrance is situated. Between the north wing and the central tower, there is a staircase leading to the head master’s class-room and his private room on the upper floor. Below the class-room is the master’s common room, a room plainly but sufficiently furnished, and recently adorned with stags’ heads and antlers, the gift of old Malvernians. It is in this room that the staff of the college meet for discussion of business, hearing reports, and the like. Next to the common room comes the porter’s den, forming a very comfortable sanctum for that estimable 94 functionary. In addition to his private room at the college, the porter has also a picturesque little house at the south-west corner of the grounds. We have now reached the tower, the lowest floor of which forms the entrance hall to the building. On the floor above is the council chamber, lighted by two handsome oriel windows, and used for special meetings of the council, for the Christmas Scholarship Examina- tions, and occasionally for lectures. Above the council room is situated the college library, whose shelves are well stocked with books of reference, and which is continually added to by means of funds arising from a small annual subscription made by each pupil. The walls are adorned with photographs and lists of foot- ball elevens of former years. This room is also used for a considerable part of such instruction as is con- veyed in the form of lectures. Descending again to the ground floor, and continuing our tour round the college, we have on the south side of the entrance hall, first the Prefects’ room, a well- furnished apartment, containing a portrait gallery of large photographs of past and present masters, and next to this, the Secretary’s private room, where the financial business of the college is transacted, and which is also used as an emporium from which new books are given out to the pupils as required. Above the Prefects’ room is a small chamber used for music lessons, and next to that, the Second Master’s class- room. At this point a staircase intervenes, and then 95 we have on the upper floor a large schoolroom which is at ]3resent used as the College Chapel. In the course of time, as soon as the college funds or liberality of donations will permit, a separate chapel, for which plans were drawn up in the original design, will be erected at the south end of the building and joined to fche present ediflce by a short cloister. The temporary chapel is well fitted up, and contains two memorial windows, one to the memory of a son of Mr. Bell, of the firm of Clayton and Bell, and the other, put up by the subscriptions of the pupils to the memory of Mrs. Faber, wife of the late Head Master. There are also two memorial tablets, one to a boy named Drew, who died just after gaining a scholarship at Oxford at an unusually early age, and the other to a pupil who accidentally shot himself on his w^ay back to school after the Christmas holidays of 1875-6. The services on Sundays take place at eleven a.m. and five pm., and visitors are admitted by tickets, which can readily be obtained by application at the college. Below the chapel are two class-rooms and a chemical laboratory, which, though small, is very well provided with all appliances necessary for the study of chemistry, electricity, &c. Finally, under the extreme west end of the chapel, are situated the Mathematical Master’s class-room and the College Museum. The latter com tains a very good geological collection, several collec- tions of butterflies, moths, birds’ eggs, and dried plants. 96 There are also many stuflFed zoological specimens and a quantity of curiosities from every quarter of the globe. Strangers are admitted to the Museum on application to the Curator. The only portion of the main edifice which is left for us to mention is the Sanatorium. This is situated in the south-east corner of the building, and is excellently suited to its purpose of isolating boys who may be afflicted with mumps or any other catching schoolboy complaint. It consists of two suites, con- taining airy and well-fitted bedrooms, and a spacious convalescent room. There are also a small dispensary and a library, the whole being under the superin- tendence of a matron. It should be mentioned that in the central tower is contained the college clock. This does not keep time with any success, but its face is very well suited to the general architecture of the building, and that is some- thing. Passing out at the back of the college we descend into the playground by two ample terraces, from which on a fine day, an extensive and very beautiful view can be obtained. Stretching before one lies part of the great central plain of England. Eastwards, the view extends to the V'ale of Evesham ; on the north, the Ankerdine and Abberley Hills bound the horizon ; south-east rise the Bredon Hills, and to the south extend in long line the Cotswold Hills. Nearer home, the spires of Madresfield, Hanley, and Upton churches 97 can be descried ; in the distance again, under certain and rare effects of light and shade, one can see, or at least, fancy one can see, Cheltenham. The Boarding Houses next demand our attention. Of these, there are at present six, five of them con- structed to accommodate between forty and fifty boys, and the Head Master’s, capable of lodging seventy, or even more. The last-mentioned house is built of stone in the same style as the college buildings, at the north end of which it is situated. One forms the best idea of the stupendous proportions of this huge edifice by seeing it at night when the windows are lighted up, when the effect is really very striking and remarkable. The other houses are situated, two on the north and three on the south side of the playground. It is not toQ much to say that nothing that could be desired for the comfort of the boarders, according to the best modern principles, has been omitted in the arrangements of the boarding houses of Malvern College. The boys’ quarters, both studies and dormi- tories, are thoroughly warmed by hot water apparatus, and the dormitories are arranged on the cubicle system, by which each boy has, so to speak, a separate little bedroom to himself. In each house the dining hall is adorned with shields commemorating the names of those of its members, who have reflected lustre on the house and the college, by their achievements in the school or universities, or their prowess in the playing- fields. 98 It is to these playing-fields that we will now turn our attention. For some years after the foundation of the college, the play-ground formed a gentle slope extending from the main building nearly to the line of the Great Western Railway. This was, of course, extremely inconvenient for cricket and such games as require a level surface, and accordingly, a large portion of the play-ground has been levelled at considerable trouble and expense, and at present, Malvern College possesses a cricket pitch, unsurpassed by that of any other public school, and kept in admirable order by the indefatigable exertions of Mr. G. Arber, the much esteemed cricket professional of the college. In addition to the central space, called par excellence — the turf, — there are plots levelled for the use of the junior clubs. There are no less than seven lawn tennis courts, and it is in allusion to this circumstance, coupled with the fact that several trees have been cut down, as inter- fering with the games, that a member of the college wrote some amusing Latin verses, representing one of the sheep, who occasionally browse about the play- ground, complaining of the scantier shade and dimi- nished supply of grass. We can remember only one stanza, which ran somewhat thus : — “ Jam nunc maligno gramine pascimur, Defendit sestus umbra malignior, O Arber immitis, per omnes Parce decs ovibus precamur.” 90 In the north-east corner of the play-ground, is a block of buildings, including a Gymnasium, Workshop, Cricket Pavilion, with dressing-rooms and galleries, and attached to it are several Fives’ Courts, which have lately been covered in, and last, but perhaps in the estimation of some, not least, an establishment popularly known as the Grub Shop,” where, for a consideration, a luxurious youth can obtain such com- forting comestibles and potables as his soul delighteth in. Both gymnasium and workshops are well supplied with the apparatus required for the pursuits carried on in them respectively, and, for the encouragement of invention and skill in the latter, a prize has been lately established. It is intended shortly to build a Racquet Court on the south side of the ground. It would be beyond the scope of the present work to enter into an elaborate discussion of the me riis of the old and the modern systems of education. SuflSce it to say, that at no school can the advantages of the two systems be more successfully blended than they are at Malvern College. There are two main divisions in the school, called respectively, the Classical and the Modern Department. The junior school, for the youngest and smallest boys, from nine years of age upwards, is preparatory to either of the other depart- ments. The experience of ages has proved that the study of the classical languages, which the would-be modern Utilitarian is given to decry, as producing no tangible results, is really, by far the best medium for 100 performing the proper functions of education, viz that of training the intellect, of teaching the mind to learn, of cultivating the capacity for acquiring know- ledge, and it is, for this reason, that Greek and Latin form the basis of instruction on the classical side. But while, in the older system, the study of these languages was carried on to the exclusion of every other branch of learning, it is not so here. Due weight is given to the study of modern languages and of English, whether in the form of History, Literature, Geography, or, if that may be included under the same head. Divinity. Chemistry is taught all through the modern department, and to all of the classical side, who wish to learn it. The modern department may be said, briefly, to resemble the classical in all respects except that Greek is discontinued, and rather more predominance is given to modern languages and English. There is also another arrangement at Malvern College, by which boys who have a taste for Botany, Geology, or similar subjects, not usually included in a school curriculum, can receive instruction in these sciences. That the study of mathe- matics is not neglected in this school, is attested by the number of scholarships and other like distinctions, which have been gained by pupils in this branch of learning. To give a detailed list of these, would take up too much space, but we may certainly say, that the roll of mathematical honours, gained by Malvern College pupils, may stand a very fair comparison with those gained in the classics, and that is saying a good 101 deal, when we reflect on the number of open scholar- ships and honours in flnal schools, which have been obtained lately at both Universities by pupils of the college. It should be mentioned, that in connection with both the departments of the college, there is a Military Class, in which those pupils who intend to present themselves for the Woolwich, Sandhurst, or any similar competitive examinations, can receive special instruc- tion in mathematics, natural science, and such other subjects as may conduce to promote their success. It is hardly necessary to state, that here, as in most of our large public schools, the Prefectorial system is established. It is perhaps hardly possible to exaggerate the advantages of this admirable system. It is obviously good for the school in general, that there should be in its midst, a privileged class, which is interested in the maintenance of order, and it is no less evidently beneflcial to the Prefects themselves, that, just at the period they are leaving school, either for the university, or for launching out on their own career in life, a certain authority and responsibility should be put upon them, which cannot fail to increase their self-respect, and foster such manly qualities as they may naturally possess. In fact, the reflection that any boy of average intelligence and industry, can, in the course of time, attain this post of honour, would, we should think, be a sufficient inducement, if none other existed, for parents to send their sons to a public school. 102 The question of corporal punishment is one which has excited much attention of late years. In most schools it has been retained, as it has been found decidedly beneficial, when put under wise and careful restrictions, as is the case at Malvern College. Indeed, we could point to schools, founded with the idea of the abolition of corporal punishment, where it has been found salutary, if not necessary, to introduce it. At Malvern College, the rule is strictly laid down, and as rigidly observed, that no caning can be administered without previous communication with the Head Master, nor without a certain time having elapsed between the commission of the offence and the infliction of the punishment. Moreover, it is resorted to only on rare occasions, and for great offences. Pupils are admitted to Malvern College on the nominations of Shareholders, but persons, who are unable to obtain a nomination otherwise, can always make arrangements with the secretary of the college for the entry of a pupil. In such a case £6 per annum extra is paid for the use of a nomination. Special advantages, are, however, offered to the sons of clergymen, who are allowed free nominations, and are admitted to the boarding houses at a reduced fee. It should also be mentioned, that day boys, residing with their parents, or other responsible person, approved of by the Head Master, are admitted to the college, on the payment of the tuition fees. These tuition fees are £30 a year for pupils above fourteen years old, and 103 £20 for those under that age. The boarding fee is £60 a year. There is a small extra charge for instruc- tion in Experimental Chemistry, Drawing, and Music, and a trifling terminal subscription is expected of each boy for the various Athletic Clubs, and it should be added, that instruction in Gymnastics, Drilling, Fen- cing, Swimming, and the like, can be obtained on payment of a terminal fee of a few shillings. The fees are apportioned between the three school terms, and the tuition fees are payable in advance. The vacations take place at the usual periods, that is to say, the Easter holidays begin about the middle of April, the Summer holidays about the end of July, and the Christmas vacation a few days before Christmas Day. It now remains for us to speak of the Endowments, Scholarships, and Prizes which Malvern College possesses. The Scholarship examination takes place annually at Christmas. There are seven house scholarships of the value of £80 each, for one or for two years, open to classical candidates under seven- teen years of age on December 1st, and to mathematical candidates under eighteen. These are tenable only in the Masters’ houses, and previous holders of classical scholarships are eligible for re-election. It should also be remarked, that, in the examination, considerable allowance is made for age. In addition to these scholarships, and awarded under the same conditions, are two of £30 each, given respectively by the Bishop of Worcester, the President, and the Right Hon. Earl 104 Beauchamp, Vice-President and Chairman of the Council. These latter scholarships are in the case of boarders, increased to £50 each by the Council. An Exhibition, of the value of £30, also increased to £50, if held in a Master’s house, has been endowed by C. W. Lea, Esq., of Worcester, in memory of his father, the late J. W. Lea, Esq. Again, there are two Head Master’s Scholarships of the value of £50 each, held in the School-house. And finally, there are several entrance exhibitions of £30 each, awarded to candi- dates, who, in the December examination have only not gained scholarships and give promise of future excel- lence. The Council and Masters’ prizes are given at Mid- summer and Christmas. In addition to the ordinary class prizes, there are many special ones, afforded by private liberality. Lord Beauchamp gives annually for merit in Divinity and Composition, prizes to the value of £10, and the same amount is given every year by Dr. West. Other prizes of the value of £5 each are given by W. E. Dowdeswell, Esq., G. E. Martin, Esq., E. Chance, Esq., and J. D. Perrins, Esq., while proficiency in Latin prose composition is en- couraged by the Vicar of Malvern with an annual prize. When we have said that there is a flourishing Debating Society in the college, and that there is a school paper called the Malvernian,” well written and carefully edited, appearing three times a term, and THE COLLEGE 105 which may bear favourable comparison both as to quality and quantity with the similar productions of any of our other public schools, we shall have ended our account of Malvern College, of which we may unhesitatingly say, that the town has good reason to be proud, and which, though young, has already taken a distinguished position among the English schoo Is and seminaries of sound learning and religious education. T)7affi0+ anb ®tiSe0 In the Neighboubhood of Malvebn. “ Oh ! ever could I wander o’er those lawns, Beside thy stream, thou purest stream that flows ! Climb each bold eminence and daily find Some object new for wonder, the deep glades Traverse embroidered by intertwining trees ; Drink at the rill that murmurs at my feet And think it luxury ; for ever gaze On the wild scene around me ; where conspire Nature’s all generous offspring to exalt And warm the soul.” Booker's or Brooke's ? Malvern, E have seen that two-thirds of the chase were surrendered by Charles I for the benefit of the parishes in which it lay, with the express restrictions that no part soever of this two- thirds should ever be enclosed. The king’s declaration 107 has not been uniformly observed, but notwithstanding the ruthless enclosure of the common lands about Malvern in recent years, a sufficiently considerable proportion of the ancient forest remains as unenclosed commons, to furnish the visitor to Malvern with rides and drives of unrivalled variety and beauty. The lover of the sublime and glorious works of nature will find his taste abundantly gratified on every side. Whether he climbs the hills or explore the plains around, his eye will rest on scenery as exquisitely enchanting as ever inspired a poet’s verse, or occupied an artist’s pencil. Little, it is true, of the original forest survives ; yet still a vast number of solemn woods, embosomed in foliage, and dense gloomy thickets recall the selfish tyranny, that in the days of old, despite their false glamour of romance, made the royal sport and pastime of hunting everything, and the people’s welfare, nothing. We can transport our- selves in imagination to the mis-called age of chivalry, hear the deep baying of the hounds, listen to the inspiriting notes of the huntsmen’s horns, and picture to ourselves a courtly cavalcade emerging suddenly from the deep forest glades, monarch and baron bold, proud prelate, abbot and prior, belted knight and ladye faire, sweeping in long glittering array, under the tall overshadowing trees. Such scenes with their pomp and cruelty belong to the vanished past, the present exhibits prospects hap- pier and more peaceful, if less dazzling ; sunny vales, 108 cool shadowy dells, the loveliest sylvan recesses, se- questered pools in solitary dingles and in endless nooks and corners of the breezy hills, surprise and delight the wanderer in whatever direction he may turn his steps. Here and there too, he comes upon grand old patrician trees, whose seamed and wrinkled trunks ^ have breasted the storms and tempests of a thousand years. Mr. Lees, in his valuable and interesting paper on The Forest and Chase of Malvern,” particularizes several of the most noteworthy patriarchs of the primeval woods. Two of the largest oaks are to be found near a fish pool in the middle of a pasture, that centuries ago, formed part of a park belonging to the bishops of Hereford. They are known as the Colwall Oaks, and are probably 800 or 900 years old. ^^Yet,” says Mr. Lees, 900 years will not carry us back into Druidical times, and probably, no tree exists in the precincts of Malvern Chase that stood in its leafy amplitude at the invasion of Julius Caesar.” There is another tree called The Devifs Oak, near Sherard’s Green, and a singular bur-oak of undoubted antiquity between Powick and Bransford. A variegated oak, of ancient growth, having its leaves blotched with white, stands at the entrance of Cowleigh Park, the solitary survivor, it may be, of the valley of the white-leaved oak, in whose sheltered bosom the Druids celebrated their rites and ceremonies, ^^fit shrine for humble worshipper to hold communion with his maker.” 109 Hollies, many of whose trunks are of extraordinary girth, scarred aud rugged with hoar age, ornament the heights of Holly Hill, and are doubtless some of the original stock, dating from Saxon times. Among the many gigantic and spreading yew trees in the vicinity, is a very singular looking one, standing on Conygree Hill, Bromsberrow. The base of the trunk is gnarled and twisted, and the branches are so numerous and thick, that it is not easy to say which is the main stem. Its age is estimated at about 1000 years.” (Mr. Lees.) A maple of unusual dimensions (Acer Campestris) standing in a field near Powick, is about 700 years old. In Wyre Forest, there stood, until 1862, when it was wantonly burnt down, the unique Sorb Tree ( Pyrus domestica ), the only free of the species believed to be wild in Great Britain. It was an object of great superstition, and was used as a protection against witchcraft. The slopes of the Bagged Stone and Chase End (Keysend) Hill, says Mr. McKay, in his charming and instructive Essays on The British Camp on the Herefordshire Beacon,” would yet afibrd good lairs for the wolf and wild boar,” and beyond them to the south, are w^oodlands, dense and impenetrable, with here and there, a giant tree ; one lime tree attaining a circumference of 48 feet. In short, Malvern boasts of — “ Trees, hiUs and dales, Glistening with countless sunbeams, while high heaven Assumes an aspect more magnificent So thronged with all unutterable things.” Cottle’s Malvern. 110 The Victoria Drive. Starting from the Library, two or three minutes’ walk brings the pedestrian to the Victoria Drive*, so named from its having been formally inaugurated by Her Majesty the Queen, then Princess Victoria, who, with her mother, the late Duchess of Kent, was the first to ascend by it, during her visit to Malvern, in 1830. St. Ann’s Well. Is about a third of the distance to the top of the Worcestershire Beacon. The ascent is easy and pleasant, lovely prospects charm the eye all the way up, and seats have been conveniently placed in the nooks and recesses of the roads, by the thoughtful liberality of Lady Emily Foley, Lady of the Manor. Arrived at the Well, the visitor can refresh himself with a draught of the beautifully-transparent water. No charge is made for it at the well-house, but a box is placed for voluntary contributions towards the repairs of the footpaths and welcome seats. From St. Ann’s Well, a road sufficiently wide to admit of mule-chairs and carriages being driven to the top of the hill, leads by an easy zig-zag course to the summit of the Worcestershire Beacon. Standing on the Beacon’s towering head,” the view is truly magnificent. The eye ranges over the fertile plains of Worcester and Gloucester, and the finely Ill wooded knolls of Herefordshire, bounded by the moun- tains of Monmouth and Wales. On the north-east the view melts away in the hazy Salopian Hills. On the south-east the eye rests on the Cotswolds. We may trace the course of the queenly Severn” winding like a silver thread through woodland, greensward, hill and valley, until it loses itself southwards in the glistening estuary that borrows its name. Soft-flowing Avon and gentle Teme glide peacefully through the varied landscape. Malvern itself lies immediately beneath. The cathedral towers and church steeples of Worcester are distinctly visible, Gloucester, Chelten- ham, Tewkesbury, and Evesham may also be discerned, and in a line beyond the faithful city,” rise the tall chimneys of Droit wich. Whichever way we turn, the view is studded with hill and dale, woods and mansions, cities, towns, and hamlets. Perry Wood, near Wor- cester, recalls the memorable battle, the last of the civil wars fought between the forces of king and parliament, under Charles II and Oliver Cromwell, September 3rd, 1651. The royalists were defeated, and his majesty, after various adventures, found shelter in Boscobel. At Spetchley, three miles from Worcester, Cromwell flxed his head quarters previous to the battle. At Evesham upon the 4th of August, 1263, the victorious army of Prince Edward, son of Henry III, defeated Simon de Montfort, who was slain, together with most of the barons, his adherents. The remnant of the vanquished army retreated in dismay to 112 Kenilworth Castle, and Henry, released from captivity, was restored to the throne. The meadow near Tewkes- bury witnessed the bloody conflict which annihilated the fortunes of the red rose of Lancaster. A brass plate in the noble Abbey Church of Tewkesbury perpetuates the memory of Margaret of Angou’s hapless son, and the bones of many who perished on that fatal 4th of May, 1471, rest within its sacred precincts. Turning southwards we can see the Somersetshire hills, ‘‘The Quantock high lands, and Mendip’s sunless caves.’’ Directly to the westward the view is grander and more diversified, the valleys are deeper and more wooded, and the bold mountains of North Wales fringe the horizon. We look into Eadnor and Brecknock with their forests, the Black Mountains and Blorenge. Southward along the range, the Herefordshire Beacon rears its lofty crest and the obelisk in Eastnor Park forms a prominent object. The city of Hereford and Wall Hill, near Ledbury, may also be seen. Due west, May Hill, near the Forest of Dean, Brecon Beacon, the Skyrid Vawr, the Sugar Loaf, the Wrekin, the Warren Mountains, Clee Hills, Bromyard Downs, Abberley Hills, Woodbury Hill, and Eobin Hood’s Butts, greet the beholder. The trench or fosse made by Gilbert de Clare is visible along the whole length of the ridge of the hill. In descending the Beacon, the visitor can select his route in various directions if he is not deterred by 113 difficulties, which are, however, unattended by any danger. A favourite walk leads eastward to the brink of a deep ravine which affords a picturesque ’view of the North Hills and the adjacent heights. The Sugar Loaf Hill May easily be reached from St. Anne’s Well by follow- ing a pathway running in a parallel line with the valley which separates the North Hill from the west of the Beacon. It is situate at the top of the valley and forms a connecting link between the two hills. From its summit we obtain a view of Gallows Hill, Barnard’s Green, and the pretty villages of Colwall, Mathon, Cradley, and West Malvern nestling amid woodland scenery and luxuriant fruit gardens. The North Hill Can be reached from the Sugar Loaf Hill by an expert climber, or by way of the Ivy Scar Eock. Visitors generally elect to ascend by the one way and to descend by the other. The clearly defined, precipitous outline of the North Hill conveys an impression of superior altitude to the neighbouring Beacon, particu- larly when seen from Malvern Link. The prospect from the summit embraces a wide expanse of landscape, and is not surpassed by any the hills afford. We can see the Abberley Hills, in Worcestershire, and the Wrekin, in Shropshire. An immense tumulus, known as the Giant’s Grave, was until quite recently, distinctly visible on the summit of the hill. Its appearance 114 was peculiar, and by it side was a rude cross, of antique pattern. Two principal walks, Lady Mary Talbot’s and Lady Lambert’s, lead to the summit of North Hill. Lady Mary Talbot’s Walk Was enlarged and improved by her ladyship from a mere sheep track into a broad firm path, extending from the base of the serpentine valley, near Shrubbery House, to the end of North Hill. It is provided with seats, like so many of the other walks round Malvern. The favourite resting place is under the Ivy Scar Rock, so named from the clustering ivy, with which the hand of time has crowned its head. This rugged, cavernous cliff, splintered in parts almost perpendicu- larly, and overgrown with lichens, moss, and weeds, resembles a mediaeval stronghold, crumbling into ruins. Nowhere are the Church and Abbey Gateway seen to so much advantage, as from the plateau on the south side of Ivy Scar Rock. A short distance to the left of this ivy-mantled rock is Lambert’s Walk, which leads, by a circuitous route to the summit of the North Hill. It was named half a century ago in honor of the lady of the then Sir Henry Lambert, and who was sister to Edward Foley, Esq., of Stoke Edith Park. Although this walk is the most picturesque and interesting of any in the Hill Country round Malvern, it is the least attended to, and the 115 pedestrian, stumbles over loose stones exactly in the same manner as his predecessors did, half a century ago. So serpentine is the ascent that the climber can admire a south, north, or east prospect within a few minutes. The Shropshire Hills and the Link Common are conspicuous objects from this walk, which like Lady Mary Talbot’s, is provided with seats at con- venient intervals. At the summit it blends with Grenville’s Walk, Thus distinguished to commemorate the bounty of a Lord Grenville, by whom it was formed. This path passes through the lovely valley that intervenes between the North Hill and the Worcestershire Beacon and winds thence round the Table Hill to the Sugar Loaf. From this elevation we have a good view of Upton-upon-Severn, with the river passing under the arch-way of the bridge, the plain country east of the Severn, the Shropshire Hills, and the Uplands of Herefordshire. Table Hill Derives its name from a fanciful likeness between a plateau and a large table. A cross, in size and appearance like that by the Giant’s Grave, stood formerly in the centre. Eeturning to the Sugar Loaf Hill we can descend either by Merrick’s Walk or Buchanan’s Walk to St. Anne’s Well. Buchanan’s Walk Was named in honour of General Buchanan, a very 116 popular resident in Malvern, and who was particularly fond of this line of march. From a point in the road we have a very pleasing view of the church, and opposite to it is Holly Mount, interesting as the temporary abode of Her Majesty, in the early years of her girlhood, when Princess Victoria. The Foley Terrace Walk Was made at the expense of Edward Foley, Esq., for the accommodation of visitors whose health forbids them to asceud the higher part of the hills. It is a fine carriage road and commands an extensive view of the vale beneath. One of the houses that we pass when walking or driving along this road, is built on the site of Werstan’s Hermitage, and was named II bello Sguardo,” after the famous residence of the Duke of Florence. Nearly in the centre of the terrace, there is a projecting semi-circular piece of ground, known by the name of Card's View,” in memory of the benefi- cent vicar, who inaugurated the restoration of the Priory Church, and to whose suggestion, the formation of the Foley Terrace Walk is likewise considered to be due. Tl 7 af 60 + (^ibe0+ anb (pti5Je0 In the Vicinity of Malvern — continued. “ Soldiers, I had arms. Had neighing steeds to whirl my iron cars ; Had wealth, dominion. Dost thou wonder, I sought to save them ? What if Csesar aims To lord universal o’er the world. Shall the world tamely crouch at Caesar’s footstool ? ” Speech hy Caractacus, parajphrased hy Mason. The British Camp on The Herefordshire Beacon. HE whole of the Malvern district is replete with attraction to the antiquarian, the historian, and the man of science. Each L peak and valley, each castle and hamlet has its historical reminiscence and its traditional romance. 118 embodied in poem, legend, or story. No one spot, however, has such unique and commanding claims on our interest and inquiry, as the British Camp on the Herefordshire Beacon, entrenched within whose amaz- ing belts of ramparts and ditches, Caractacus and his brave Silures bade defiance to the conquering legions of imperial Borne. To our Oeltish forefathers, the Beacon was more than a fortified stronghold. It was the august seat of council and judgment, the fountain of the divine oracles, and a sacred temple, wherein to practice the awful mysteries of the Druidical religion. Hither they fled, with their families, their flocks and herds, in case of war or invasion ; here they assembled to listen to the decrees of their law-givers and judges, here their armies mustered before marching to battle, here they bent in adoration before the glorious orb of day, and here too, they witnessed — with what mingled feelings, who can tell ? — their sons and daughters breathing out their young lives under the Druid’s sacrificial knife. This almost impregnable fortress is 1100 yards in length, 2970 yards in circumference, and covers an area of nearly 44 acres. Its singular irregularity of form, and dissimilarity from the modes of fortification common to the Danes and Saxons, lead us unquestion- ably to ascribe the origin and execution of these stupendous fences to the military genius of the ancient Britons. Here and there, as in the citadel, which bears a striking resemblance to the Pretorium of a 119 Roman Camp, we find reason to conjecture that the British methods of castramentation had been modified after Latin models. The citadel is surrounded by its Latera Prmtorii, in front is the Prmtentura, with its Porta Pretoria, and a third division on the south represents the Retentura. So far, there is a marked imitation ; but when we take the details of these three divisions, we find them essentially of the type of the old Britons, and especially in regard to the entrances or gates. For instance, the chariot gate ; this is the western gate, with an inclined approach exterior to the fortress, and it is an example of the others, not only in this camp, but also of those on Midsummer Hill. On leaving the gate we find the road swerves in a sudden curve to the left, thus compelling an advancing foe to approach with his right hand towards the defenders, his shield arm useless.” (Mr. H. Lines, of Worcester.) The eastern gate was elaborately protected, and the southern gate, the Roman Porta Decumana, or a gate for extraordinary purposes,” quite in harmony with its Latin name, opens on to a zig-zag road, where no enemy would venture, except under the most urgent necessity. Near the eastern gate was a kind of amphitheatre, oval in form and about 100 feet in length, where the troops were probably marshalled in order for expedition. Following the zig-zag road, leading from the southern gate, we find ourselves in a deep and awful glen, where as the central object of 120 surrounding arrangements, is an elliptically-shaped rock, or monolith, ten feet in length, six feet in breadth, and seven feet in height, with a cavity, four feet wide, and 6 feet high, scooped out in front, evidently used for purposes of sacrifice or divination. The situation of the camp was exceedingly well chosen, and commanded what was anciently the only pass through the Malvern Hills. The immense labour employed in its construction evinces that it was not intended for temporary purposes ; but rather for per- manent security. The general shape of the hill, at least of that portion occupied by the works, approaches to an ellipsis, and the disposition of the banks and ditches correspond with that figure. Three great divisions are protected by as many deep ditches, and still lower on the acclivity, are successive ranges of ramparts and ditches, very steep, deep and high, encircling the sides of the mountain, and rendering it nearly, if not utterly inaccessible. Another British Camp occupies the summits of the Midsummer and the Holly Bush Hills, and the inter- vening glen, and is remarkable for an entire absence of Eoman arrangements. On the eastern declivity of Midsummer Hill, ten or eleven ranges of terraces extend from foot to brow. On these terraces 214 hut hollows are visible, and 30 others are concealed under exuberant brushwood. On Holly Bush Hill we find an entrenched circle, and 200 feet below the circle, a burial mound, 150 feet by 25, surrounded by a fosse 121 mound. Lower down still, is the site of the ancient city of Dyn Mawr, occupying the glen at the base of the hill. It was 1100 feet long, and was protected on the north and east by the enclosing wings of the fortress, and on the west by a low wall of earth and stones. Two springs, one inside and one outside the defences dis- charged their waters into four large tanks which still retain their old dams. Mr. Lines is of opinion that the fortress on Midsummer Hill is far earlier than the Roman Conquest. A great breach of 140 feet in the outer vallum on the west of the British Camp has been discovered, extending straight up to the citadel, and a breach of 600 feet on the western vallum of Midsummer Hill. This renders it probable that the two forts were dismantled at the same time, and by the same enemy, who must have come from the west, where, at the distance of fourteen miles, was the site of operations during the Silurian campaign. The storming of the British Camp, we may conclude, either immediately preceded, or followed the battle of Caer Caradoc, when Ostorius Scapula defeated the British forces, and sent their general, the brave and noble Caractacus, prisoner to Rome. Before quitting the Beacon, we may be permitted to quote the eloquent w^ords of Mr. McKay. Here, we have every opportunity of vividly realizing the sur- roundings and manners of our Celtic ancestors ; here are their strong places, their lonely huts, their hallowed circles, their sacred trees, their cairns, their barrows. 122 their beacons, their hunting grounds, and the awful canopy of heaven lit up by those sublime bodies to which they paid religious riles, is still as unpolluted by smoke and noise as when they left them.” The view from the Beacon is extremely beautiful and varied, embracing Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Gloucestershire, the Hills of Eadnorshire, and the Black Mountains. A fire kindled on its majestic summit could be distinctly seen in seven English counties, and as far as Wales. In a glen at the base of the Beacon are the ruins of Bronsil Castle, Once the residence of Lord Beauchamp, of Powyke, Lord Treasurer to Henry VI. A portion of one round tower, and the foundations of some others remain. It is encompassed by a deep moat, over which some ancient yew trees, supposed to be four centuries old, extend their dark-hued branches. From the British Camp, a short drive brings you to the entrance of Eastnor Park. The approach to Eastnor Castle Is through a finely wooded avenue and raised road, called The Ridgway,” which is supposed to have been made by the Silurians. The castle, the seat of Earl Somers, is situated on a gentle eminence, and partly surrounded by a fine sheet of water, crossed by a 123 bridge. It was rebuilt from designs by Smirke, in the style of Edward I’s reign, and combines the aspect of an old baronial castle, with the internal arrangements and comforts of a modern mansion. The walls are hung with many fine works of art from the best masters, and exhibit some beautiful specimens of tapestry. The church was rebuilt, with the exception of the tower, in 1852, by Sir G-. Scott, and contains many elaborate monuments to the Cocks’ family, which deserve attention, particularly one to the memory of John, second Earl ; executed by Philip, from designs by Sir G. Scott. The tomb is of the choicest alabaster, under a recessed arch of cornstone. On the frontal are sculptured alto relievi^ representing the Entomb- ment of our Lord,” and the Holy Women at the Sepulchre.” On an elevated ridge above Bronsil stands The Obelisk, Ninety feet high, erected in memory of various dis- tinguished members of the house of Somers ; John, Earl Somers, Lord High Chancellor of England, in the reign of William III ; Ensign Cocks, who feU in the battle of St. Cas, 1768; and Major the Hon. E. C. Cocks, killed at the assault of Burgos, 1812. Visitors are admitted to the Castle every Tuesday and Friday. About one mile from Eastnor and eight miles (by road) fi’om Great Malvern, is the old market town of 124 Ledbury, Picturesquely situated on the small river Ledden. It has a curious old timber-framed market house, elevated on sixteen oak pillars, composed of timber and lath, plastered and white-washed, the beams coloured black. Near it is the Hospital of St. Katha- rine, founded in 1282, by Bishop Hugh Folliott, for six single men, 2 widows, and 2 men and their wives. The Church, which is extremely interesting, exhibits a gradual transition from Eomanesque to Perpendicular. The monuments and windows, particularly those in the chapel on the north side deserve close attention. Eeturning from Ledbury, the drive may be varied by taking the road to the right through Eastnor Park, or to the left up Colwall Green to the Wyche, and so back by way of West Malvern. The Wyche Is a deep artifical cutting made through the solid rock of the hill, and now forming a part of the turnpike road to Ledbury. It is 900 feet above the level of the sea, and throughout its whole extent supplies a series of the most varied and romantic scenery. On one side the landscape is all of a uniform smoothness, on the other rugged and mountainous. To the east, we have commanding views of Worcestershire, to the west, on emerging from the pass on the opposite side, we 125 perceive the Herefordshire Hills, and beyond them, the mountains of South Wales. ‘‘ Pleasant Siluria, land of various views ! HiUs, rivers, woods, and lawns, and purple groves, Pomaceous, mingling with the circling growth Of tendril hops, that flaunt upon the poles ! ” The Fleece, CoLWALL Church, A pleasant drive of a little more than four miles, brings us by way of the Wyche to Colwall Church. We pass by the old palace of the Bishops of Hereford, and can examine the eight-centuries-old oaks in the episcopal park. The church, which has been partly restored, has some ancient monuments, and a cross, in the churchyard, displays the remains of richly- carved tracery. In this parish is Burstner’s Cross, so named from the preaching cross set up by Moorall and W'alm, the first Silurian missionaries. Here, in the very heart of Druidical worship, they proclaimed the evangel of glad tidings to their Celtish countrymen, and to this spot came, as a believer in the word, Bran, the father of Caractacus, to lend these brave men the authority and support of his venerable presence. Mooralfs Well, and Walm’s Well, are still resorted to by the country people for their curative virtues. In 1650, a cottager, working in his garden at Burst- ner’s Cross, found a coronet, deeply inlaid with precious stones, supposed to have been dropped, either in action or flight by some early British chieftain. After passing 126 through several hands, it was ultimately sold to a jeweller in London, who picked out the stones, and realised for them £1,500. Through his ignorant cupidity, an invaluable historical relic has thus been irremediably lost to the nation. A little farther on, Hope End, an oriental looking mansion with minarets, claims our attention from being the early home of the distinguished poetess, Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Proceeding on our drive, we come to the quaint, old- fashioned village of Bosbury, once the seat of the Knights Hospitalers, a place fraught with interest to the archmologist. The church has a massive detached tower of three stages at 80 feet south of the chancel. Magnificent timber houses with ornamental barge boards, lend a peculiar old-world air, to this primitive hamlet. CowLEiGH Pakk. Turning to the north from Malvern, and proceeding by the lower road through North Malvern, the visitor is transported to a scene of wondrous sylvan loveliness. A wealth of wild fiowers, graceful ferns and lowly mosses deck his path in rich profusion. The great hill of Malvern is almost lost to view, the busy hum and din of town life completely hushed ; beyond the gentle whispering of the summer breeze among the trees, the song of birds, and the cool plashing and rippling of the woodland rill stealing its course along its pebbly bed, nothing breaks the silence of this en- chanted solitude. 127 The park, which Mr. Lees styles oasis of beauty,” amidst the deformities of cultivation,” is a favourite resort for pedestrians, and pic-nic parties, who can prolong their enjoyment by strolling through the shady lanes, the trellised hop gardens, and wavy corn fields, by which it is environed. On the eastern side of the park we meet with an old timbered farm house, with turreted chimneys, and the remains of a moat. Barnard’s Green. Starting from Great Malvern, and pursuing an easterly direction for about a mile, we reach Barnard’s Green, It consists of a long straight road, bordered widely on either side by turf, and planted with trees. On the left side, is a fine old elm tree, known as the ‘‘ Friar’s Elm,” or sometimes as the Bread Tree,” from the fact of the poor of the parish having been weekly relieved there. Following the Barnard’s Green Bead, and passing Sherrard’s Green and the Moat Farm, we come to Madresfield Court. The seat of Earl Beauchamp. This moated Eliza- bethan mansion, to which extensive additions have been made by the present Earl, is approached on one side by an avenue of stately elms. The long gallery contains a valuable collection of miniatures, antiques, and works of art. In a bedroom over the gate-house. 128 there is a quilt of flowered damask, embroidered in silk by Queen Anne and the Duchess of Marlborough. Madresfleld was the property of the Bracys until 1321, when it passed by marriage to the Lygons, whose descendant married the heiress of Lord Beauchamp of Powyke. In the civil wars of Charles I’s time, Col. Lygon sided with the parliament, and his house was alternately occupied by both the contending parties. Charles II is said to have slept here on the eve of the battle of Worcester, 1651. The church was rebuilt 1867. It has a spire 130 feet high, and a massive tower, containing a peal of six bells and a set of chimes. The monuments of the Beauchamp family have been removed from the old church to the present ediflce. The return drive may be made by way of Newland, Where our attention is drawn to a handsome row of brick almshouses, erected and endowed for the benefit of men and women who have been engaged in agri- culture, by the munificence of John, Earl Beauchamp, who bequeathed £60,000 for this purpose. When the almshouses were completed, the curious old wooden church, dating from Henry V’s reign, was taken down, and replaced by its modern successor. Trinity Church, a very fine example of the early decorated style. This church well repays inspection, the interior being fitted 129 up in the most costly manner, with alabaster, granite, stained glass and encaustic tiles. The stalls in the chancel are of richly carved English oak ; each stall bears as a legend an appropriate Christian virtue. There are likewise, beautifully carved misereres under the stalls set apart for the officiating clergy. The drive to Madresfield and back affords delightful views of Malvern and its neighbourhood. The Rhydd. Four miles eastwards, on the banks of the Severn, is Rhydd Court, the residence of Sir E. A. H. Lechmere. The house stands on an eminence, and has been rebuilt in the Italian style. The cliff overhanging the river is thickly wooded. The Lechmeres have lived in the neighbourhood of Malvern since the conquest. Sir Nicholas fought in the ranks of Cromwell’s army at Worcester ; he succeeded however, in making his peace with Charles II by supplying that monarch with funds during his exile in France and Holland. The house contains many valuable paintings by Rembrandt, Vandyke, Murillo, Wouverman, &c., and some minia- tures of rare interest. Henry VII and his Queen, after Holbein, Queen Elizabeth, by Oliver, and two oval and very diminutive ones of Charles I, dug up at Hanley, supposed to be for rings or pendant ornaments, worn by royalists. 130 The ancient abode of the Lechmeres is at Severn End, And was given to them at the conquest. It is a very interesting specimen of a timber grained house, having carved barge boards and ornamented brick chimneys. The embossed ceilings and oak panelling in the interior of the mansion, are of the time of Henry VII,, and are in excellent preservation. It contains also, a valuable collection of antique armour. The drive to the Ehydd by Barnard’s Green, and return by Blackmore Park, through the pretty village of Hanley Castle, is exceedingly pleasant and interesting. Blackmore Park, The seat of J. Y. Hornyold, Esq., a fine mansion in the Tudor style, was unfortunately destroyed by fire in February of the present year (1880). The Hornyold family, who in Queen Elizabeth’s time became part proprietors of Malvern Chase, have been connected with Worcestershire since Edward Ill’s time. The Hornyold of Charles I’s reign had his estates seques- tered, and £3,000 of timber cut down, for bringing a troop of horse to the assistance of his majesty. A Roman Catholic chapel, elaborately decorated, stands in the grounds, and a monastery, with its school and chapel, was opened on this estate in 1846. The monks are of the Order of the Redemption, founded by Alphonsus Signori. This is the first community of the order established in England. 181 Hanley Castle. With the exception of some portions of the ancient moats, which may still be found near a farm house, laiown as the Castle,” not a vestige remains of the large and stately quadrangular structure, having towers at each angle,” where the Earls of Gloucester ‘^ay much,” and in which, Henry, Duke of Warwick died. Its fortunes declined with those of the princely house of Nevill- Warwick, the castle became gradually dilapidated, and in Leland’s time was ‘^cleane defaced.” “ Where Hanley Castle stood, Now not one stone remains to claim the sigh Of passing man ; save when the hollow winds, Bending the nightshade’s head, or nettle rank. Disclose some sculptured fragments, green and damp, And half immured in earth. All is gone ! Past like a dream ! and Beauchamp too is gone ! The great, the gallant Beauchamp known no more.” Cottle's Malvern, Edward Bonner, Bishop of London, is by some thought to have been born in Hanley Castle, others are of opinion that his birth-place was a house called Bonner’s Place, the property of the Lechmeres. Croome Court, The residence of the Earl of Coventry is well worthy of a visit. It is situated not far from Ehydd, on the opposite bank of the Severn. The best approach to Croome is through Severn Stoke. The place was long 182 known by the name of Croome Abetot, from its having been formerly the property of the Priory’s great bene- factor, Urso d’Abetot. Nothing can exceed the skill displayed in the laying out of the grounds by ‘^Capability Brown,” under the superintendence of the 6th Earl. From a mere level morass, they have been metamorphosed into a scene of the most diversified beauty and grandeur. Water has been commanded to fiow, dales to sink, and hills to rise.” Near the banks of the river, a marshy piece of ground has been worked into a beautiful sheet of water, with several small islands interspersed. On one of these a pavilion has been erected, which can be reached by means of two bridges. Enchanting and extensive views are obtained from various points in the grounds, especially from a temple known as the Panorama, and likewise fi’om the Rotunda, a small building standing on an eminence, and reached from the house through a thickly wooded shrubbery. Nature has in this prospect poured out the profusion of her bounties, — hill, river, wood, and dale, lend richness and variety to the scene. Con- tinuing;along the shrubbery we arrive at the church, a Gothic structure, rebuik in 1768, and interesting Irom the well -executed marble monuments to the Coventry family within its walls. Sir Thomas, to whom the estate came by marriage, 1598 ; Charles I’s Lord Keeper, first baron Coventry ; the second baron in his peer’s robes, the Lady Margaret, his wife, &c. 183 The Coventry family is descended from John Coventry, Lord Mayor of London, temp. Henry II, one of the executors of the far-famed Sir Richard Whittington. The mansion, which is rather substan- tial and comfortable looking, than splendid and imposing, is rich in original portraits and works of art, besides most exquisitely wrought tapestry from the Gobelin looms. From a gallery opening out of the Long Room, we have charmingly diversified views of the park, its lawns, lakes, shrubberies, pavilions, statues, &c., and wandering through the grounds, we see in the distance, the Bredon, the Broadway, and the Cotswold Hills. Our account of the rides, drives, and walks about Malvern and its vicinity might be multiplied ad infinitum ; but we ought not to close it without advett- ing to that loveliest of lovely excursions, through the Wyche cutting to Mathon and Cradley. The picturesque old church of Mathon, with its ivy-mantled walls, has many points of interest. The tower contains a peal of six bells, noted for their musical sound, the timbered roof of the nave is considered an excellent specimen of the decorated work of the 14th century, the carved oak hexagonal pulpit is more than three centuries old, and walls and windows are filled with memorials of de- parted county magnates. Continuing a mile, past cornfields and hop gardens, we come to Cradley church. A fine old yew tree, several centuries old. stretches its aged boughs over the God’s acre. If it could speak. 134 what a striking tale it might unfold of the vicissitudes it has witnessed, standing there, the while, in solemn and unruffled majesty. What successive generations have defiled past it, bearing with them their hopes and fears, their joys and sorrows, their loves and strifes to one common bourne — the grave. Further on, to the left, we pass Bear’s Wood Hill, whose summit w^as once crowned by a Druid temple, and next we perceive the heights of Storridge, where the Italian monk, Augustine, met and conferred with the bishops of the primitive British Church. Below, is the beautiful church of Storridge, a memorial of the late Dean of St. Asaph and his only son. Half-a-mile brings us to en- chanting Cowleigh, — ‘‘that Switzerland in miniature,” as Sir Roderick Murchison termed it, — nestling at the base of lofty, wooded hills, whose verdant slopes are musical wfith the trickling of innumerable rivulets, and high above our heads, we see houses perched on pro- jecting ledges of rock. The Worcester road brings us back to Malvern again. Pickersleigh, Leigh, and Suckley, Birtsmorton and many other drives might be described ; but we abstain for fear of fatiguing the reader, who, after the indica- tions already afforded, will be sure to lengthen his investigations, wandering at his own sweet will amon^- the breezy hills, whose exhilarating charms made the gifted Lytton confess that amongst all his brilliant recollections, he could recall no periods of enjoyment so hilarious and serene, as the hours spent among the lonely hills of Malvern. 135 Kailway Excursions. Of the many interesting towns within a day's journey are, Cheltenham, 22 miles ; Evesham, 21 ; Gloucester, 26 ; Hereford, 24 ; Leamington, 44 ; Warwick, 42 ; Kenilworth, 47 ; Birmingham, 34 ; Coventry, 40 ; Ledbury, 8 ; Ludlow, 40 ; Monmouth. 32 ; Ross, 21 ; Stratford-on-Avon, 32 ; and Tewkesbury, 16. Worcester, Wigorna-ceaster (the warrior's abode), is only 8 miles distant from Malvern. It is not within the scope and limits of this work to describe its mag- nificent cathedral, lately restored by Sir G. G. Scott, but we may mention that tw^o of Malvern's benefactors sleep within its sacred walls, Arthur, Prince of Wales, son of Henry VII, who died at Ludlow, 1502, and Bishop William de Blois, died 1236. The cathedral is dedicated, among others, to St. Wulstan of Worcester, Prior Aldwin's patron and adviser. Amongst places of note that can be easily and pleasantly reached from Malvern, are Pershore, whose exquisite church of the Holy Cross has recently been restored by Sir G. Scott ; Tickershill, where the Court of the Marches was alternately held with Ludlow. Here was formerly a fayre manour, standing in a goodly park, erected," says Leland, ‘‘ by Henry VII for Prince Arthur," and in this mansion, the prince was married by proxy to Katherine of Aragon ; Hartlebury, where the Bishop of Worcester has his palace ; Ombersley Court, the seat of Lord Sandys, and its neat village. I 136 with its rows of timber houses, coloured black and white ; Hagley Park, the seat of Lord Lyttleton, the beauty of whose park and grounds was so enthusiasti- cally extolled by Horace Walpole ; Stoke Edith Park, the residence of Lady Emily Foley, supposed to derive its name from Edith, the daughter of King Egbert ; Holm Lacy House, the property of Sir E. Scudamore Stanhope, and one of the most picturesque seats in the county. Many of the rooms exhibit beautiful wood carving, by Grinling Gibbons ; Enville Hall, the seat of the Earl of Stamford, erected temp. Henry VIII, underwent extensive alterations, 1760, under the super- vision of the poet Shenstone ; Dudley Castle and Witley Court, the princely abode of Earl Dudley. Longmynd Hills and Caer Caradoc, may be visited by taking the railway to Church Stretton. Tintern Abbey, Ross, Goodrich Castle, Monmouth, and Chep- stow are conveniently reached by means of the Ross and Chepstow Railway. T)7efte* “ What first inspired a bard of old to sing Narcissus pining o’er the untainted spring ? In some delicious ramble, he had found A little space, with boughs all woven round ; And in the midst of all, a clearer pool Than e’er reflected in its pleasant cool The blue sky, here and there serenely peeping, Through tendril wreaths fantastically creeping.” Keats. HE Malvern Hills/’ writes an old author^ possess the advantage of a most salubrious air, and famish innumerable picturesque ntic scenes ; their principal celebrity however, rises from their wells, which have their source, on the eastern side, at some distance from the village of Great Malvern. The water obtained from these wells is remarkable for its purity.” Mr. Pitt in his ‘^Survey of Worcestershire” like- wise remarks that the medical effects of the Malvern Wells are much assisted by the pure air, the elevated situation, and the delightful landscapes around. The justice of these conclusions, is confirmed by the following extract from one of the earliest works on I 188 the benefits of Hydropathy. Pure water, pure air, proper diet, and regulated exercise are the great agents effecting the cure of disease, by aiding the natural effects of the body through the instrumentality of the nervous system. In the pure water of Malvern, the purest in England, the entire of our pharmacopoeia is comprised.” Dr. John Wall, an eminent physician of Worcester, who, about the middle of the last century, brought the healing virtues of the Malvern waters prominently before the public, affirms that they have been found beneficial in scrofulous cases, cutaneous eruptions and nephritic complaints, and remarks that the temperate warmth of the air, with the great purity of the water at Malvern, induced him to consider that place peculiarly favourable for patients aSlicted with nervous disorders, or inclined to consumption, particularly in the summer and autumnal months. The pure and health giving streams which sprang from the hidden depths of the hills round the old Abbey, were endowed, in the belief of the people with a miraculous sanctity. The most famous of the holy wells which gave Malvern its early reputation as a sanitary resort, are two in number, are St. Ann’s Well and the Holy Well, so named from the traditional belief in the supernatural efiicacy of its stream. The height of St. Ann’s Well is 820 feet, and that of the Holy Well 740 feet. From the most remote times, the maimed, the lame, the halt, the blind, the leper sought to lave in the health-giving waters, and to be made whole. Mr. Lees, in his Botany of Malvern,” has sketched a vivid picture of the scene that was anciently witnessed in the vicinity of the wells. Baths ” he says were formed at all the celebrated wells, open to everybody, and much frequented by the lower orders especially. Here, under rude sheds, raised for the occasion, poor people, as the old song says, literally lay in the bushes, waiting for their turn to wash their ulcered sores in the open public baths.” Dr. Martin Wall published seventy-six cases out of his father’s book to prove the efficacy of the waters in various complaints. If we note the manner of the cure we shall confess that hydropathy was in vogue long before Preissnitz brought it prominently before the public, or Drs. Wilson and Gully made Malvern the English head quarters of the Water cure. ^‘Scorbutic ulcers of long standing,” ^^sore legs of sixteen years standing,” scrofulous swellings and ulcers in the neck,” “a putrid ulcer which was black, foul, and extremely foetid,” fistulous ulcers, &c., were cured by constantly keeping the diseased parts wetted with water, the patients lay every night with their limbs wrapped up in linen wet with Malvern Water, and yet never caught a cold,” a boy continued it^ at the well for three months, and was constantly kept wet over the whole body, and went home cured of a leprosy he he had from his birth”; ^^a man from Cripplegate, Worcester, suffering from a dry leprosy that caused 140 him to leave a double handful of scales in his bed nightly, by dipping his shirt in the water and putting it on wet, in time he was cured a woman from Droitwich, afflicted with leprosy, by dressing upon her wet linen, and drinking freely of the water, was completely cured.” The usual practice,” says Dr. Wall, ^‘in cutaneous foulness, was to go into the water with the linen on, and dress upon it wet.” This method, continues he, ‘^has never yet been attended with any ill consequences,” though he had known it used by very tender persons.” In the treatment of diseases of the eye,” Dr. Wall was equally successful. A little more I’ll of their curying telle, How theye help sore eyes with a new founde welle ; Greete speeche of Malverne Hilles was late reported, Untoe which spring people in troopes resorted.” Banister's Breviary of the Eyef pub. 1622. St. Anne’s Well. “ Out of thy famous hille. There daylie springyeth, A water passynge stiUe, That alwayes bringyeth Grete comfort to all them That are diseased men. And makes them well again To prayse the Lord. ” Hast thou a wound to heale. The wyche doth greve thee ; Come thenn unto this weUe; It will relieve thee, Nolie me tangeries, And other maladies. Have there theyr remedies, Prays’d be the Lord.” 141 ‘^One of the most celebrated objects in the Malvern range,” says Mr. McKay, is St. Ann’s Well, high on the side of the Worcestershire Beacon, and we rather incline to believe that before the English language was formed, or the country divided into counties St. Ann’s Hill ” or ‘‘ Tan Hill ” was the name of this particular peak. Tan Hills, Tan Woods, and Tan Fields abound in parishes round Malvern. Taran was the Celtic god of thunder, and Tan, — the great object of Belgic worship, — the god of fire, and the sanctity long attributed to our own St. Ann’s Well, is probably a remnant of the religious regard in which the hill from which it fiowed was held, just as the annual fair on the Wiltshire St. Ann’s Hill is, very likely, a remnant of some Celtic religious festival. We know that pagan Kome, far from destroying the idols of the nations she conquered, incorporated them into her own mythology, and the spiritual power that succeeded to the universal dominion of Rome, has always shown herself equally skilful in adapting the superstitions of her converts to the exigencies of her own creed. It was easy to change Tan Hill to St. Ann’s Hill, and to divert to a catholic Saint, the miraculous powers attributed to the Celtic fire-god. St. Ann’s Well is enclosed in a picturesque Swiss building, in a delightful situation. The singular purity of the water is its great recommendation. Dr. Sheridan Muspratt, president of the Liverpool School of Chemistry, by whom the waters have been analyzed, 142 states the water flowing from the well is extremely bright and cold, having a mean temperature of 48'^. It is very agreeable to the taste. The speciflc gravity of the water is 1*0013, and the composition, tabulated from results obtained in my laboratory is appended : — In the Imp. Gallon. Carbonate of Lime (Ca O, CO 2 ) ... 0'4310 Carbon^ite of Magnesia ... (Mg O, CO. 2 ) ... 0-4111 Carbonate of Iron (Fe O, CO 2 ) .. 0‘0331 Carbonate of Soda (Na O, CO 3 ) ... 0 2844 Sulphate of Lime (Ca O, SO 2 ) ... 1*1521 Sulphate of Soda .. ... (Na O, SO 3 ) ... 0*4382 Chloride of Sodium (Na ci) ... 0*8768 Chloride of Magnesium .. (Mg Cl) ... 0,1448 Iodide of Potassium ... (K I) ... Traces. Silicic Acid (Si O 3 ) ... 0*2057 3*9772 Speaking of the result of this analysis. Dr. Muspratt said ^^one can only look to results, and from the beneflcial effects the water has had for such a number of years upon various individuals labouring under all manner of complaints, and from the good derived by myself, I can strongly recommend it as one of the best waters I am acquainted with ; and one, which in the small quantity of matter it holds in chemical solution, cannot be excelled by any spring in the kingdom.” The Holy Well Is distant two miles southward from Great Malvern, midway between the turnpike road, near the Essington 143 Hotel and the crest of the hill. The following analysis of the water of the Holy Well made by A. N. Tate, Esq., Student in the Liverpool College of Chemistry, shows that there is very little material difference between the waters of this spring and those of St. Ann’s Well. The water is very pure, containing only 6*4182 grains of solid matter in the gallon. It is beautifully clear and transparent, and its taste cool and pleasant. The temperature is 46<> Fahr., and the flow of water from the spring is two gallons a minute. It has an alkaline reaction upon reddened litmus paper. Its specific gravity is 1*0012. The following table gives the quantity of each ingredient contained in 1000 parts, and in one gallon respectively. Total Amount of the sevekal Ingredients. Total Besidue. Water Residue Amount in employed. obtained. 1000 parts. 1*28’000 grains. 2’600 grains. *0928 2-28-000 2-531 -0903 Mean ... 0*9155 = 6* 4185 grains. The following table gives the amounts of the different salts in 1000 parts and one gallon re- spectively : — Amount in One Gallon. 144 Carbonate of Lime . . . Carbonate of Magnesia Carbonate of Iron Carbonate of Soda ... Sulphate of Lime Sulphate of Soda Chloride of Sodium ... Iodide of Sodium Silica Alumina Organic Matter In 1000 parts. (Ca O, CQ2) *014640 (MgO, C02) *021200 (Fe O, CQ2) *003110 (Na O, CQ2) *013330 (Ca O, SO^) *023670 (Na O, SO=^) *001380 (Na Cl) *013510 (Nal) (Si 03) *002750 (AF 03) Traces Traces In One Gallon 70,000 grains. 1*02480 grs. 1*48400 „ 0*22470 „ 0*93310 „ 1*65690 „ 0*09660 „ 0*94570 „ 0*00029 „ 0*19250 „ Traces Traces *093732 6*55859 Speaking of an analysis he had made of the waters of St. Ann’s Well, Dr. Sheridan Muspratt said, It has revealed the cause of its world-famous efPects. The iodide of sodium, though present in very small quantities, nevertheless, when taken in a tumbler of water, four or five times a day, besides being used externally for weeks, must exert its infiuence ; the carbonate of soda then, in cases of acidity and dyspepsia, acts its ameliorative part ; while the cai*- bonate of magnesia, chloride of magnesium, and sul- phate of soda, will have an aperient tendency. Further, and which recommends it in a very eminent degree is its entire freedom from organic matter. One can only look to results ; and from the beneficial effects the water has had for such a number of years upon various individuals labouring under all manner of complaints, and from the good derived by myself, I can strongly recommend it as one of the best waters I am acquainted with and one which, in the small quantity of 145 matter ic holds in chemical solution, cannot be excelled by any other spring in the kingdom. I know of no Mineral Water in Great Britain containing less inorganic salts. In indigestions that are caused by the weakness or irritability of the stomach, or by the unnatural acrimony of the fluids, the sovereign remedy is pure water ; two or three glasses of which on rising, or an hour or so after dinner, is the most excellent preventive against all internal maladies.” The same observations apply to the water of the Holy Well, though St. Ann’s Well is slightly freer from solid constituents. Messrs. Burrow of Great Malvern, have right of access to these famous springs for the purpose of bottling the waters. All communications should be addressed to them. Hay Well Is private property. It is a very powerful and prolific spring, and was formerly utilized by the monks of the Abbey for their domestic supply. This fact has recently been brought to light by the discovery of pipes laid direct between this well and the Abbey. Whether in winter or summer, the water always remains at an even temperature of 50 ® Fahrenheit. Moorall’s Well and Walm’s Well Recall the self-denying labours of “ Moorall and Walm, the Silurian Missionaries to Dyn Mawr, the great city 146 of the Holly Bush Ravine, and to the Romans and Celts contained in the fastnesses of the British Camp or the Herefordshire Beacon ” (McKay). These wells were anciently in hi^h repute, on account of the healing virtues attributed to them. The former is nearly abandoned and forgotten, the latter still maintains its traditional celebrity among the country people, for the efficacy of its waters in cases of eye disease. The Royal Malvern Well Was only recently discovered at West Malvern, near the Wyche Pass. It has a very copious flow of water, which equals in purity that of the older and better known springs. It received the designation Royal ” by express permission of Her Majesty. The Chalybeate Sprino Rises at Spa Cottage near the Swan Pool, is less known than it deserves to be, considering the valuable tonic properties of its waters, which are eminently suitable to persons of delicate and feeble health. Dr. Addison, in his Dissertation on the Malvern Waters, remarks ‘^The Chalybeate Spring at Great Malvern is a light, pleasant, and valuable tonic, invigorating the stomach, and giving tone to the system generally. The iron exists in the state of a proto-carbonate chiefly, a form the least likely to prove heating or injurious even to the most delicate habits ; whilst a small quantity of magnesia and of muriate of 147 soda, with which it is combined, must tend very much to increase its alterative and tonic ejBfects. Of all natural medicinal waters, a chalybeate is perhaps the most valuable, not only because it is eminently serviceable in many of those disorders incident to human nature, because of the diflBculty of compound- ing it artificially, and of preserving for any time those efficacious combinations of iron which nature afibrds.” “ Oh comfortable streams ! with eager lips And trembling hand, the languid thirsty quaff New life in you ; fresh vigour fills their veins.” Ai'mstrong^ “ To one who has bee;i long in city pent, ’Tis very sweet to look into the fair And open- face of heaven — to breathe a prayer Full in the smile of the blue firmament. Who is more happy, when, with heart’s content, Fatigued he sinks into some pleasant lair Of wavy grass, and reads a debonaire And gentle tale of love and languishment ? [Returning home at evening, with an ear Catching the notes of Philomel, — an eye Watching the sailing cloudlet’s bright career, He mourns that day so soon has glided by ; E’en like the passage of an angel’s tear That falls through the clear ether silently.” Keats, HE climate of Malvern is so pure and invigorating, so dry and elastic, that the bleak winds of autumn, and the biting snow and ice-laden blasts of winter are less sensibly felt in this favoured region than in any other part of England. An idea prevailed, at one time, that the 149 elevated situation of Malvern exposed it to the winds, and rendered the winter sojourn here undesirable for invalids or persons in delicate health. This fallacy has long been dispelled by the experience of every one who has resided here during the winter and early spring. In an atmosphere so perfectly dry and free from damps and marshy exhalations, cold of every degree is easily borne. The natural beauties of the surrounding scene combines with the elasticity of the air to give a joyous and exhilarating tone to the spirits. The visitor can say with the poet— “ Keen fitful gusts are whispering here and there Among the bushes, leafless half and dry ; The stars look very cold about the sky, Yet feel I little of the cold bleak air, Or of the dead leaves rustling drearily. Or of those silver lamps that burn on high,” Keats, Dr. James Williams, of Malvern, in a book entitled “ Observations on Malvern Winter Weather, at remark- able periods,’’ writing in 1860, expresses himself thus, — ‘^Dryness of atmosphere, and moderate elevation, generally tend to an increase of temperature, and a decrease of atmospheric variation ; consequently, we may reasonably expect Malvern to enjoy a comparative exemption from extreme cold. Nor is the fact other- wise. And having compared observations made in Malvern during the winter, with various localities in 150 England, I am convinced that Malvern is warmer than others, to which result, the dry atmosphere, elevated position, and perfect system of drainage greatly contribute.” In proof of this statement, Dr. Williams appends the table inserted below. December 25th. Minimum Temperature. Malvern . . ... 9^ or 23 degrees of frost. Appleby, Leicestershire 5® or 27 „ „ Berks ... ... ... 2^ or 30 „ „ Wallingford ... ...Zero or 32 „ „ Birmingham, 1 below Zero or 33 „ „ West Hartlepool ... 2 or 34 ,, „ New Radnor ... ... 3 or 35 „ „ Poles, Ware ... ... 4 or 36 „ „ Chatteris, Cambridge ... 5 or 37 „ „ Highfield, Notts .. 8 or 40 „ „ If Malvern cannot boast of the orange and lemon groves of Cannes, Mce, and Mentone, neither has the visitor to fear the sudden and deadly chill of the mistral so fatal in its effects to the sufferers from pulmonary disease. The architects of Malvern Abbey, the parent building, from which the town progressively developed itself, displayed the same wisdom and prescience in their choice of site, which is so conspicuously admirable in the religious foundations everywhere throughout Europe, and the entire world. The monastery arose in a happy valley, crowned by high woodlands, and sheltered securely from the rude western gales by the grand old hills at whose feet it nestled. 151 “ When western hills do rock Both town and countrie, Thy hiUe doth break the shock, They cannot hurt thee ; When waters grete abounde, And many a countrie’s drown’d Thou standyest safe and sound. O prayse the Lord. From the gusts of the north wind, Malvern is effectually protected by the bend of the North Hill, and although apparently exposed defenceless to the keen and cutting east wind, it has been repeatedly demon- strated that the effects of this wind are felt much more severely a few miles from Malvern than in the town. Dr. Addison, indeed goes so far as to assert, “ that the houses in Great Malvern are more sheltered from the winds blowing from the eastern quarter than any other,” and the reason is this, that the narrow line of the hills acting precisely as a dam in a current of water would do, destroying the motion below, and allowing the stream to rush over the top. Professor Phillips says very singular is the calm which Great Malvern frequently experiences with the wind blowing from the east, which on the plain may be strong, on the mountain ridge violent, and yet, near the foot of the slope comparatively gentle. These effects depend on the steepness in front of the hills, for these act in deflecting the currents nearly as houses are known to do.” 152 In proof of the comparative mildness of the winter in Malvern, Mr. Lees, in his valuable work on The Botany of Malvern Hills,’’ observes that exotics will flourish through the winter in the open air at Malvern, which would perish by the night frosts in the open country.” Longevity is, in Malvern and its neighbourhood, the rule, not the exception. There is an old proverb, that — “ All round the Malvern Hill, A man may live as long as he will.” Lord Bacon, in his Sylva Sylvanum, instances the noteworthy circumstances of a morrice dance of eight men, whose years put together made up 800 ; that which was wanting of a hundred in some, super- abounding in others.” These patriarchs held their festival at Cradley, four miles from Malvern. Centen- arians are still plentiful in the district, one of them died, not long ago, on the west side of the hill, at the good old age of 106, and others are living who have celebrated their hundredth birthday. Dr. Addison, in 1834, computed, that in the parishes on the eastern side of the Malvern Hills, there were then living, at 80 years of age, nearly double the num- ber in all England ; and at 90, three times the number, without taking into account still older persons. Dr. Grindrod, of Malvern, writing to the British Medical Journal, of November 23rd, 1872, claims for 153 Malvern the lowest average rate of mortality of any watering place, inland or marine, in England.” Eegarding the comparative temperature of the Malverns, Dr. Williams observes, ‘‘ Great Malvern has a dry, bracing and tonic atmosphere. West Malvern a cooler and moister atmosphere. North Malvern a cold, sharp and bracing atmosphere, while Malvern Wells is a degree warmer and moister than Great Malvern.” % Angling. “ The meadows fair, where Flora’s gifts among Are intermixed, with verdant grass between, The silver-scaled fish that softly swim Within the sweet brook’s crystal watery stream. All these, and many more of His creation That made the heavens, the angler oft doth see ; Taking therein no little delectation, To think how strange, how wonderful they be.” /. Davors, 0 Thus sang Izaak Walton’s friend and fellow angler, but with the exception of pond fishing, the disciples of the gentle craft” will find little employment for their lines before they reach the small trout streams of Cradley and Madresfield. The walk to either of those places is truly delightful and vindicates Dame Juliana Barnes’ eulogy of those incidental pleasures of the anglers which exist quite independently of his taking fish. ‘‘ Atte the leest his holsom walke, and mery at his ease, a swete ayre of the swete savoure of the meede flowers that makyth him hungry ; he hereth the 154 melodyous armony of fowles, he seelh the yonge swannes, heerons, ducks, cotes, and many other fowles, wyth their brodes ; whyche me semyth better than alle the noyse of houndys, the blastes of hornys, and the scrye of foulis, that hunters, fawkeners and fowlers can make. And if the angler take fysshe, surely then is there noo man merier than he is in his spyryte.” Dame Juliana was Prioress to the Nunnery of Sope- well, near St. Alban’s, and her tract was part of a book known by the title of the Book of St. Alban’s. Emprented at Westminster by Wynkyn de Worde, in 1496, in small folio. The Severn, three miles distant, affords good sport for the angler ; carp, perch, dace, roach, chub, and eels are plentiful in the navigable parts, and grayling like- wise are occasionally to be met with in the river. Salmon and trout of excellent quality have been taken in the Severn. The best places for fishing are Cleve- lode, the Rhydd, and Severn Bank, the two former four miles, and the latter six miles distant from the town. The Teme is a more favoured resort of piscatorians. It contains trout, pike, salmon, and the ‘‘gilded grayling,” “ That feeds on gold, and sheds unmixed delight, Sweet to the smell, the palate, and the sight.” The banks of the Teme afford endless views of lovely and romantic scenery, an additional source of gratifi- cation, not likely to be overlooked by the true fisherman 155 who almost invariably combines with the love of angling, a relish for the general charms of nature. Hunting. Numerous facilities exist for hunting. Earl Coven- try’s, the Worcestershire, the Herefordshire, and the Ledbury hounds meet — the latter at least three times a week — within an easy distance of Malvern, during the hunting season. Foxes are plentiful, and sport, consequently excellent. “ Good God ! how sweet are all things here ? How beautiful the fields appear ! How cleanly do we feed and lie ! Lord ! what good hours do we keep ! How quietly we sleep ! What peace ! what unanimity 1 How innocent from the lewd fashion Is all our business, all our recreation ! ” Charles Cotton, HE ancients were undoubtedly acquainted with the remedial and recuperative powers of water. The knowledge had however fallen into oblivion or lay buried beneath the ponderous folios of later medical erudition, until the earlier half of the present century, when attention was drawn to Preissnitz’s alleged discovery of the curative properties 157 of pure spring waters. The discovery was received by society in general with amused scepticism, and by orthodox science with disdainful contempt. The rise consequently of the first institution for the practice of Hydropathy was watched with intense interest, as on its success or failure depended the discrediting or confirmation of a theory so novel, heterodox and revolutionizing. The apostle of the water cure was a Silesian peasant, untaught in the medical schools, ignorant of thera- peutics or physiology ; but gifted, on the other hand, by nature, with shrewd observant and inductive facul- ties that compensated for the absence of professional training and experience. The efficacy of this mode of treatment, which he had tested in his own family, impressed itself forcibly upon him, in a case of accidental injury, and secondly, of fever. Tentative experiments amongst his neighbours confirmed the first results, and Preissnitz, having the courage of his convictions, resolved to make them widely knowm, and to set up in practice as a Hydropat hist. With this end in view he opened an establishment at G-rafenberg, amidst the delightful scenery, the cool springs and the health- giving breezes of the Bavarian Highlands. The movement was not suffered to pass unchallenged, similarly with the earliest practitioners of inoculation and vaccination, the daring innovation encountered a storm of obloquy and derision, but as wisdom is said to be justified of her children, so the multiplicity of 158 well authenticated cures, raised Hydropathy to the rank of an accomplished fact, and attracted to Grafen- berg hundreds of the most prominent men and women in Europe. Malvern was the first scene of the water treatment in England, by natural selection,” one might assert, recollecting how the people formerly resorted in troops ” to Malvern Spring. So strongly,” Mr. Lees tells us, was popular opinion in favour of the healing powers of Malvern water, that baths were formed at all the celebrated wells, open to everybody, and much fre- quented by the lower classes especially. But of late years these common baths have been pulled down, and the halt, the blind, and scorbutic, preferred the parish doctor” to the ^‘holy well.” ^^The water system,” continues Mr. Lees, ‘^has now, however, resumed a newer and a brighter phase, and people in troops, but of a higher class than formerly, come to Malvern for the aid of its fashionable hydropathic physicians.” The first medical men to introduce the water cure into Malvern, were Dr. Wilson and Dr. Gully, names which will henceforth remain indissolubly connected with a system, whose success converted Malvern from a straggling village, into a prosperous, splendid, and ever expanding town. Dr. Wilson had studied the methods of treatment under Preissnitz himself, and Dr. Gully was not slow to adopt a system which supplemented a want he had only recently expressed in his work on The Simple Treatment of Disease.” Both these gentlemen were practitioners of repute, who had graduated in our Medi cal Universities, Dr. Gully, moreover had studied in Paris, under the famous French operator, Dupuytren, and was well known as the author of several standard works, the editor of the London Medical and Surgical Journal, and the translator of many valuable contribu- tions to medical literature from the French and German. The first hydropathic establishment, opened 1842, was the unpretending looking Grafenberg House, on Belle Vue Terrace, a singular contrast to the magnifi- cent buildings which are now devoted to the same purposes. The water cure had conquered public opinion in Germany, but in Malvern the battle had to be fought over again. All the bitterness of conservative pre- judice, the animosity and virulence of attack, the wit and ridicule which it had evoked in Germany, raged in undiminished violence around the kindred institu- tions in Malvern, only to be as efiectually silenced. Dr. Gully’s widely circulated work on “The Water Cure in Chronic Diseases,” contributed powerfully to this result. After its publication, many of the master- minds of the age hastened to Malvern and placed themselves under Dr. Gully’s care: — Carlyle, Tennyson, Bulwer Lytton, Nassau Senior, Eoebuck, the late Bishop Wilberforce, and other stars, literary, ecclesias- tical, military, political, and musical, too numerous to recapitulate in these pages. 160 It must not be imagined that the indiscriminate use of water, pure and simple, is an unfailing panacea for all the ills that flesh is heir to.” On the contrary, the water cure cannot be attempted with impunity, except under skilled guidance and supervision. Rest, diet, exercises, sweating, and bathing require to be regulated in accordance with the constitution and previous habits of the patient, and the peculiar nature of the case under treatment. Symptoms must be care- fully watched, and the application of hydropathic remedies, varied with the varying effects produced on the system. ^^The water cure is dangerous,” says an early authority on the subject, when the efforts of the system to throw disease from the internal organs are interfered with by irritation of those organs, in the shape of spiced and stimulating food, alcoholic liquors of any kind, and drugs of whatever sort. All the processes of the water cure having in view to assist nature in her fight, we proceed — 1st — To measure the amount of internal disease to be removed, and the capabilities of the system to remove it, which is done by an accurate investigation of the previous history of the case, and the present condition of the body in general, and in the detail of its functions. 2nd — To withdraw all unnatural irritants from the minor organs, and to substitute the natural stimulus of water at an appropriate temperature, and plain, appropriate food. 161 3rd — To adapt the amount of external stimulation by water and sweating to the capabilities of the system. It does not enter into the scope of the present work to describe the various processes of the water cure, some of which have a soothing and others a tonic effect on the body. Patients are divided into two classes, out and in patients. The former are attended to at home or in lodgings by their physicians, and the latter reside in the establishment of the physician under whose care they have placed themselves. The following is a list of the hydropathic practi- tioners and establishments in Malvern. Dr. Fernie, The Nook. Dr. Grindrod, Townshend House. Dr. Henderson, Cranfield. Dr. Walter Johnson, Malvernbury. Dr. Eayner, The Establishment, Abbey Road. The whole of these luxurious establishments are provided with every necessary comfort and accommo- dation ; baths of all kinds, exercise rooms, and pleasure grounds. (Beofogj an^> (piinetafogj^ ‘‘ When were thy shoulders mantled in huge streams '( When, from the sun, was thy broad forehead hid ? How long is’t since the mighty power bid Thee heave to airy sleep from fathom dreams ? Sleep in the lap of thunder or sun-beams, Or when grey clouds are thy cold cover-lid ! Thou answerest not, for thou art dead asleep ! Thy life is but two dead eternities — The last in air, the former in the deep ; First with the whales, last with the eagle skies — Drown’d wast thou till an earthquake made thee steep, Another cannot wake thy giant size.” Keatfi. HE fine chain of the Malvern Hills, so rich in interest and instruction to the students of geology, rises out of the flat land of Worcestershire and Herefordshire, divides the valleys of the Severn and the Wye, and forms a narrow undulating ridge between the two counties, rather more than nine miles in length, running due N. and S. ; but inclining in its course to the S.W. This range 163 begins about seven-and-a-half miles S.W. of Worces- ter, and terminates within nine miles N.N.W. of Gloucester. Its average height abo ve the sea is 1,000 feet, and its loftiest peak does not reach an altitude of 1,500 feet. From the latest barometrical observations, it would appear that the hills are diminishing in height, and ^'that the Worcestershire Beacon can only be considered as about 1,400 feet high, or 44 feet less than made by the trigonometrical admeasurement of Colonel Mudge, more than half a century ago.” (Mr. Lees.) Its Herefordshire namesake is 1,156 feet, the North Hill, 1,366 feet, and the Sugar Loaf Hill 1,169 feet. There are altogether about twenty diiBferent crests to the ridge, whose abrupt eminences, clothed with verdure to their highest points, present a most picturesque appearance, from far and near. The whole ridge is composed of intruded rocks, Avhich have burst through and lifted up the crust of level sedimentary formations, Silurian and new red sandstone, which constitute the surrounding plain. This plutonic ridge,” remarks Mr. Strickland, '' seems to have been forced up in a solid state, on a line of fracture, am.ounting to 14,000 feet, between two sides of the great fault ; an amount of dislocation greater perhaps than can be paralleled in any other instance of a single fault the world can produce.” Mr. Symonds considers that ^Hhe syenitic ridge of the Malverns was formerly a plutonic mass of lava-like rock in the interior of the planet, and that it constituted a portion 164 II of the sea bed of a primeval ocean, after it had become cool, crystallized, consolidated, and npheaved to the surface. I have never, he exclaims, passed through the Malvern Eailway Tunnel without a feeling of awe, knowing, as I did, that in examining the syenitic nucleus of the hills, I was contemplating a record as ancient as aught we know of in our planet’s existence, — a portion of the ciystallized skeleton of this globe, a fragment of the planet’s crust, v/hich was consolidated before the deposition of those sedimentary deposits in which we first detect evidence of the existence of living beings.” On the eastern side of the hills, the geologist will find shingle beds and fragments of marine shells, such as now frequent our coasts. The inference arrived at by Sir R. I. Murchison is this : that the vale of the Severn was a strait of the sea, ages before the lake and river periods, and that the valleys of the Severn and Avon were gradually scooped out by marine currents and weaves, during the long epoch, when the present land, on which now stand populous towns and cities, was being slowly elevated. strait,” writes Professor Bnckman, absolutely connected the British Channel with the Irish Sea ; ” and so fully has this been recog- nised by the author of the Silurian System (Sir R. I. Murchison), as to induce him to name the line of connection. The Straits of Malvern, The view from the Malverns during the period of the ' Northern Drift,’ must have been very different < 165 from the present. Not only did a sea-strait stretch far away over the vales of Worcestershire, but the eye must have rested, on the Herefordshire side, on many an inland frith and narrow strait. The glacial drift lies in the valley of Cradley, between Malvern and Ledbury, while where now we see only cultivated fields, pastures and orchards, the valleys of the Wye, the Lug, and Frome must have gleamed with waves.” Symonds, Some of the high level marine drifts deposited during the glacial periods have yielded the remains of elephas antiquus, and rhinoceros tichinorus, of bos primigenius and the mammoth. The long-haired elephant,” says Mr. Symonds, ^^and the long-haired rhinoceros roamed over the lands of the Cotswolds, the Malverns, and Siluria, while doubtless the vegetation was of Arctic type, and included such plants as the herbaceous willow, the alpine gentian {Gentiana nivalis) as well as snow saxifrages and veronicas.” We are informed by Professor Phillips, that a line strongly marked by nature, connects the the estuary of the Dee with that of the Severn. On the west of this line, the region is mountainous, composed of the older marine strata, mixed with various coeval rocks, the efiects of local igneous action ; on the east of it extend immense breadths of less ancient deposits, pierced at a few detached points by similar rocks to those that spread more widely to the westward. The country on the west belongs generally to the Palmzoic^ that on the east to the Mesozoic ages of geology. Dr. Harvey Holl, after a careful investigation of the Malvern Hills, expresses his belief that the rocks hitherto treated as erupted syenite^ and supposed to form the axis of the hills, were in reality of metamorphio origin, and belonged to the Pre-Cambrian, or the Laurentian age.” This theory pre-supposes a far greater antiquity than has hitherto been assigned to the range. Mineral Composition of the Rocks — Quartz, mica, hornblende, felspar, chlorite, and epidote are the mineralogical ingredients of Malvern rocks. Granite is much less abundant than syenite in the Malvern Hills, apparently because its micaceous element is less abundant than the hornblende. In the Worcestershire Beacon, varieties of rock may be collected from a very narrow area, some of which, speaking mineralogical ly, are syenite and others granite, just as in the crystal- lization of the mass, the element of potash or oxide of iron, was locally prevalent. In general these granite rocks are to be regarded as local segregations in the syenitic masses, closely allied in nature and mode of appearance to the felspathic veins which appear in almost every excavation, ramifying amidst the horn- blende masses. — Phillips, The following excellent and valuable works may be consulted on the subject. The Silurian System,” by Sir E. I. Murchison. The Ancient Straits of Mal- vern,” by Professor Buckman. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Great Britain,” by Professor 167 Phillips. Essay on the Geological Structure of the Malvern Hills and adjacent districts/' by Dr. H. B. Holl. Old Stones/' ‘‘Stones of the Valley" and “ Geology of Herefordshire Railway/' by Rev. W. S. Symonds. “The Botany and Geology of the Malvern Hills,” and “The Geology of the Valley of the Thames," by E. Lees, F.L.S., F.G.S., &c. There is a quiet spirit in these woods, That dwells where’er the gentle south wind blows, Where, underneath the white thorn in the glade. The wild flowers bloom, or kissing the soft air. The leaves above their sunny palms outspread. There is an eloquent voice in all The sylvan pomp of woods, the golden sun, The flowers, the leaves, the river on its way, Blue skies, and silver clouds, and gentle winds, — The swelling upland, where the sidelong sun Aslant the wooded slope, at evening goes, — Groves, through whose broken roof the sky looks in, Mountain, and shattered cliff and sunny vale, The distant lake, fountains, and mighty trees In many a lazy syllable, repeating Their old poetic legends to the wind.” Longfellow. I HE Malvern range is peculiarly rich in its botany. In a small tract of country, six- teen miles in length, and about eight or ten in breadth, the Flora is above 2,000, including 1,084 Cryptogamic and 945 Phanerogamic plants. Eare and remarkable plants occur on the hills and in the valleys, more particularly in the latter. What 169 spot indeed, in this paradise of botanists, is barren of distinguishing growths, localized and luxuriating there only ! The hills are rich to their very summits, in floral treasures ; syenite rock and limestone quarry, has each its pomp of flowers. The emblazoned meadows revel, during spring-time, summer, and autumn, in a glowing exuberance of variegated blooms; flowers mirror their loveliness in woodland rivulet, and mountain stream ; they wreathe themselves round sequestered pools in solitary dingle and dell, hang on the brink of the tiny rills that trickle down the hill side, lend their charm to sullen ditches, and fling a blaze of summer radiance over the flat marshes between Severn and the Malvern range. Flowers are everywhere “ DweUing by still rivers Or solitary mere, Or where the sluggish water-brook delivers Its waters to the weir.’' Longfellow, Roses, fairest of the fair children of earth,” adorn the country in beautiful variety and profusion. Nearly twenty different species are found in the neigh- bourhood of Malvern ; the spinous burnet-leaved rose ( rosa spinosissima ), with its cream-coloured blossoms ; the red- tin ted willow rose (rosa villosaj, the rosa doniana, a rare variety, beautifully mottled red and white, the rosa lorreri, Borrer’s rose, still more rare, with three or four roses in a cluster, found chiefly in woods, the rosa tommlella^ silvery-leaved-inodorous rose, the rosa arvensis, trailing field-rose, the rosa 170 luteiana, common dog-rose, most sweetly scented of all British wild roses, &c., besides three varieties of the sweet-briar, with its minute flowers and odorous leaves. Wild snowdrops are among the earliest harbingers of spring, “ When earth, exulting from her wintry tomb, Breaks forth with flowers.” They deck with their milk-white blossoms a little meadow at the base of the Herefordshire Beacon, between Wind^s Point and the entrance to Eastnor Park, and clusters also of this welcome flower stud the greensward of the adjoining wood. Not however, until the thick tufts of the primrose are seen, do we feel that spring has really come. The starry blossoms of this lovely flower, so fresh and pure, spread a lemon- coloured sheet over meadow and copse, and our walks are gladdened by the presence of the delicate wood anemone, with its dark finely-cut leaves and simple white flowers. The sweet-scented violet, viola odorata, its purple blossoms gleaming like amethysts in the dewy grass ” fills the balmy air with its welcome fra- grance, and the modest white violet sheds an equally delicious perfume. Then we have the viola Mrta, or hairy violet, the viola tricolor, or three-coloured violet, and the deceitful ” dog violet, in all its scentless varieties. 171 “ The smell of violets hidden in the grass Poureth back into my empty soul and frame The times when I remember to have been Joyful and free of blame.” Tennyson. The water violet, hottonia palustris, frequents watery spots. Its lovely flowers are to be seen in the meadows between Upton Bridge and Southend Farm, and in broad ditches near the footpath. Masses of blue hyacinths, Endymion, or Scilla Nutans grow in sheltered places, under the spreading branches of trees, and carpet with their blue blossoms, the shady nooks of the vernal woods. The Pseudonarcissus, daffodil or affo dyle '‘that which cometh early/’ abounds in New’s Wood, and several others about Little Malvern, and covers, with its beautiful pale-yellow blossoms, acres of flat meadows southward to the end of the Malvern range. It spreads also, in exuberant profusion over the meadows of Cradley, as well as between Chance’s Pitch and Ledbury, and near the High Grove, Mathon. The pale two-flowered narcissus (Narcissus iiflorus), although rare, is met with in orchards at the Berrow and near Ledbury, in Bromsberrow and on the banks of Sapey Brook. Mathon is an excellent locality for botanizing. Many plants are found in the woods on the western side of the hills, or about the limestone quarries. From the c'alcareous soil of one of these, wild yellow tulips open their gorgeous petals to the sun ; the 172 exquisite A nagalUs mrulea, blue pimperel, is found in the CO rnfields by the Croft limeworks, and the elegant Lathyrus Nissotia, crimson grass vetch, grows on the edge of the wood near the same limeworks. The rare Gagea Lutea^ yellow star of Bethlehem, is met with by the side of a brook at the bottom of Purlin Lane. The Viola hirta, Gentian a Amarella, Chlora'perfoliata, Orchis pyramidaliSy Ophyris apifera, Listera-Nidus- Avis, &c., are peculiar to the western woods. Innumerable local plants grow on the margin of Longdon Marsh, or in the wide watery ditches there, as well as in the marshy flab meadows leading down from Castle Morton. In the spring, the latter are resplendent with the golden radiance of the marsh marigold ( Caltha palustris). The exquisite turquoise flowerets of the Myosotis palustris, ‘^hope’s gentle gem, the sweet forget-me-not,” grow luxuriously beside brooks, on the brink of wayside streams, and even in stagnant ditches, moisture being the only requisite to develop their loveliness. The orchis family is largely represented round Malvern. In spring-time the meadows about Colwall, the base of the Old Storrage and the pastures below Malvern Wells are covered with the green- winged meadow orchis. Orchis morio. Then we have the purple-spotted orchis, Orchis mascu- la, and the milk-white bloom of the Orchis Imma- culata, the rare dwarf dark-winged orchis. Orchis ustulata, the marsh orchis. Orchis Latifolia, growing abundantly in Longdon Marsh, and in the dingle 178 between Midsummer and Holly-bush Hill, the spotted palmate orchis, the pyramidal orchis, the fragrant conops-like orchis, the large and the small butterfly oichis, the bee, the bird’s nest, the frog orchis, &c. Of wild geraniums, there are eleven varieties. The elegant geranium lucidim has flowers of a rose -pink and stalks as red as sealing wax, lucid and polished. The Digitalis Purpurea, purple foxglove, ^^a very characteristic and beautiful Malvern plant,” spreads over the hills in magniflcent profusion in June and July. A few white-flowered specimens are also occa- sionally found. The Frag aria vesca, wood strawberry, is very plentiful, especially in one of the buttresses of the Herefordshire Beacon, known as Strawberry Hill.” The flavour of this wild fruit is delicious. Wild plums, cherries, apples, gooseberries, and red and black currants are also found in the country round Malvern . The mistletoe, viscum album, so revered by the Druids, grows chiefly on the following trees : apple, pear, hawthorn, maple, lime, ash, willow, mountain ash, service, white poplar, aspen, elm, hazel, and oak, on the three latter, very rarely. One of the mistletoe oaks stands by the side of the drive leading from Eastnor Castle towards the Herefordshire Beacon. Space forbids us to continue a description of the Flora of a country which has been pronounced to resemble a vast garden, all the lanes being full of all kinds of trees, and enriched with large old apple trees. 174 that hang over from one hedge to the other.” We refer the reader to the source from whence all the information contained in the foregoing notice has been derived, ‘^The Botany of Malvern,” by Mr. Edwin Lees. Guided by this pleasant companion, he can ramble at will among “ The lofty woods, the forests wide and long, Adorned with leaves and branches, fresh and green. In whose cool bowers the birds with many a song Do welcome with their quire the Summer’s Queen. The meadows fair, where Flora’s gifts among Are intermixed with verdant grass between.” And gather the while, with delightful ease, from Mr. Lees’ instructive pages — so eloquent, learned, and loving, — the local habitations and the name ” of each of the 2,000 plants, grasses, ferns, mosses, lichens, algm, and fungi that constitute the magnificent Flora of the Malvern Hills. PAGE. Inteoductory Notice 6 The Abbey 10 The Abbey as a Parish Church 29 The Abbey — Its Windows, Monuments, &c. ... 36 The Chase 53 The Towns of Malvern 72 The College ... 90 Walks, Rides, Drives, &c 106 „ „ „ (continued) ... ... ... 117 The Malvern Wells .. 137 Climate, Angling, Hunting ... 148 Hydropathy and Hydropathists .. 156 Geology and Mineralogy ... 162 Botany 168 4 cd ■ — I tu H O o K HI c/T UJ H- 1 o o I— I • ; H •• { W ( KI :• l> / w ;■ •. ft i 0068, SATSUMA, KAGA, CLOISONNE, JAPANESE PORCELAIN AND METAL WORK OF ALL KINDS. IPersian anii Arabian |lttgs ^nd FABRICS. Cabinets, Inlaid Boxes, and Lacquer Trays. Carvcb Sandal UCloob :®ores, anb (3love anfe Ibanbftcrcbief Sets. j-lAND pCPyEENS, J^ANTEF^NS, UmB^ELLAS. Parcels of above will be sent on selection ofi condition that a certain proportion is kept. Xiorman (2n&iDept.). importer of Japanese anO Eastern 6oo0s parcels of above sent for selection. NORMAN MAY, ^ IjDtograpljic ^ublislljir. MANUFACTURER OF Photographic & Hand-Painted Xmas. Cards, IMPORTER OF JAPANESE AND EASTERN CARDS. j Manufacturer and Exporter of Jtiailini’, f Hh iind Jirthaa]) ana (KIiristntar> Cards. A large selection of CARDS, by Marcus Ward, De .a Rue, Rothe, Prang, and all eminent Makers kept n stock, and large or small parcels sent at Christmas ime for selection. ■ourteen Id. Cards will be sent post free on receipt of ONE SHILLING. SPECIALTY.— PHOTOGRAPHS of LOCAL SCENERY, mounted on Ornamental Cabinet Cards, and delicately Decorated with Hand-Painted Flowers, is. ; Post Free 13 Stamps. A List of the Malvern Views will be sent on application. o c/) w d in in in W CZ2 W t-q > 1-^ H. w cb Pi 1^ H yO ra g g § g W 12 h O (—1 EH O P [i] hi <1 P p 3 R m W 0 P 3 h W 0 o €C O c« w o iO o cc 4-^ cs /::> o €« s I O I ^ JO c: cs iO o 4W O O o o C2f CO Uj Qr- Q. bC CD Uj -J Uj h- o Q:: 0=: Uj Qi CO o Cl ::d T3 C c o c3 Ph P T3 Cj !:/5 c^ *S bb oS ^ M cj ^ S 4-^ 4-) P P rs o p > O 1861 . SEASIDE EDUCATION. Edmonstone House Collegiate Scbool, Pkincipal — DR. PIERRE HARRIS, {Author of the Etymological Class Booh and French Student's Assistant), The Routine comprises the usual branches of a liberal English education, together with the Classics, Modern Languages, and Mathematics. There is a resident foreign Professor of French and German. Edmonstone House is situated between the South Downs and the Sea, and is within five minutes’ walk of the beach. The climate of Worthing is particularly adapted to boys of delicate constitution. TERMS MODERATE, VISITORS TO CHELTENHAM. CHELTENHAM. HOT and COLD LUNCHEONS and DINNERS, From 12 till 3 o’clock. SOUPS, CHOPS, STEAKS, &c„ &c., At any Hour. JOSEPH BAYLEY, Proprietor. CROWN HOTEL, W H CO W o O PROVISION STORES, 39, HIGH STREET, WORCESTER. n. XiOjxcm Always has the Largest and Best Stock to select from within 50 miles of his Establishment. Special Feature in FINE OLD STILTON GORGONZOLA, CHEDDAR, CHESHIRE, DERBY, Double & Single GLOUCESTER, &c., &c. LARGK AND SMALL, SMOKED AND PLAIN. All kinds and qualities of BACON, BUTTER, LARD, AND AMERICAN TINNED GOODS. Universally acknowledged that I CAN and DO sell cheaper and better than any Stores in London or the Provinces. 6. Mason 6ol>IoIns, IPE, C 1?IO JLXj S0CatcIj anh -i- Cllark MAKER, JEWELLER AND OPTICIAN. A Large and Varied Stock of ®atc|es, €kth ^ |etoelrg. SPECTACLES TO SUIT ALL SIGHTS. Experienced WorTcmen sent to Malvern and neighbourhood to repair Glochs, Address— O. M. OOLLIlSrS, (LATE MASON), 22, THE CROSS, WORCESTER. ClocTc Maker to Her Majesty's Government. JAMES A. WALKER, ( Associate of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales ), Cljartmb Accountant, HIOTJSE, ESTABLISHED 1870. Estimates given for the Periodical Audit of Accounts by Contract, the Opening of Sets of Books, and keeping the same posted by the Month or Quarter. Personal attention given to Gentlemen’s Private Accounts, also to Schools — strict privacy observed. Receiver, Manager, and Trustee in Liquidation or Bankruptcy. Compositions and Private Arrangements made with Creditors without the publicity or expense attending Liquida- tions. BUSINESSES DISPOSED OF. PARTNERS INTRODUCED. Rents and Debts Collected. In all parts of the Kingdom, Mr. Walker having Agents in every town in England. AGENT TO THE COUNTY FIRE OFFICE, Established 1806 . THE SCOTTISH WIDOW’S LIFE FUND, Established 1815 . THE NORWICH AND LONDON ACCIDENT AND PLATE GLASS INSURANCE ASSOCIATION, Established 1 ' 656 . R. C. PURNELL & SON, LOWESMOOR HOUSE, WOI^OESTH]!^. ♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦ R emovals conducted under the personal superin- tendence of R. C. Purnell, Sen , whose experience of the past thirty years is a sufficient guarantee that due care will be taken of the goods entrusted to his firm. Unsurpassed Storing Accommodation. PURNELL & SON have now (Jnne, 1882), in course of construction, and nearing completion, one of the LARGEST and BEST STORES in tie COUNTY WATER-TIBHT. DAMP-PROOF. DUST-PROOF. PURNELL & SON will be pleased to send all par- ticulars by post and give Estimates Free. PURNELL & SON’S horses are well kept and power- ful, a necessity in traversing the Hilly Roads of Malvern. ItKP’iCRKnsrCJKS SENX. PDMELL & SON, LOWESMOOR HOUSE, WORCESTER. !B3:TiiiiS, XiGmxs PERMANENT pHOTOGRAPMS ON PORCELAIN ARE A SPECIALITY OF Norman Mays, and he has pleasure in referring to the following unsolicited OPINIONS as samples of hundreds he has received : — M Court. Lady B. is extremely pleased with the Photograph of the youngest boy and also of the baby. Ladbroke Square, N. Lady C. begs to inform Mr. Norman May she has received the Portrait quite safely and is very much pleased with it. The underlining in above is copied from the original letters. EDWARD ARCHER, WTN^ MERCHANT, . OREUT MALVERN. IMPORTER OF ALL WINES it SPIRITS, NOTABLY OF OLD COGNAC BRANDIES. AGENT FOR ALLSOPP’S AND BASS’ ALES. Guinness’ Dublin Stout. NOURISHING STOUT of EXTRA QUALITY, &c., in Casks & Bottles. SPARKLING CYDER AND PERRY. EDITH HOUSE RESTAURANT. ELLIOTT <&- CO.. CONFECTIONERS, &c. SOUPS, ICES, LUNCHEONS, DINNERS, Ac. VIENNA & HOME-MADE BREAD. N.B.-AGENTS FOE HORNIMAN’S TEA. r\GHARD SMffH <6 CO >. In these Nurseries 12 ACRES ifle devoted exclusively^ , to the cuitivation of Rose Trees; 91 ACRES to Conifers, ■ •Evergreens, and Ornamental Shrubs; 74 ACRES tc . ■ , Fruit Trees alone, and a proportionally large space to < ^ each other division of useful and Ornamental Shrutrs,, ■ Forest Trees, &c., requiring 40 MILES of vvalks for thr, convenience of attending to the Stock, and ,3 AORES ’/ , . of Glass to rear the Young Plants. ‘ ' ; ' ^ Fruit Trees, Roses, Conifers, Evergreens, Climbers, ‘ ; stove, Greenhouse,' and Bedding Plants, Herbaceous, . , ; ;; and Alpine Plants and Ferns. Nurseries and O^ces: ST. JOHN’S. , ;• Seed Warehouse .' Corner of HIGH ST. d BROAD ST. Grass (7 /id filler Farm Seeds ; Garden and Fi.jwn Seeds : Duich Bulbs'y Snc. ; Descriptive Lists tc be had gratis on application; , * The NiFTsfrifdi a,re wilhih ten minutesi ivalh,of,ihe. I^enu'icl’ ' . m the Malvern and IJcrefiTd'liailtiHLy, v, ' 3