although that side of its original quadrangle which fronted the street has, at some comparatively recent period, been taken down. Bridge-street continues to sustain its original superiority-it being still the principal street of our unobtrusive trade. Branching out from this, as inhabitants augmented, Cowl-street, Ode-street, and parts adjacent, gradually rose; and last of all, we may presume, the spacious High-street was completed, the upper part of which is built upon what was once a wood appropriated to the almonry of the abbey, and called the Almenwood.371 The unusual width of the last street seems to have been occasioned by the desultory manner in which, we cannot but fancy that, it must have been built. At first, a dwelling here and there appears to have been erected, thrown back from the road, and leaving a space as gardenground or homestead at the front and sides,-as still observable in villages, the intermediate spaces being then gradually built over, the gardens in front, upon an increased communication with other towns, became absorbed into the street; and thus its present width, so very remarkable in an ancient town, appears most naturally to be accounted for. We would add that the irregular stack of buildings thrown out into the road-way at the commencement of this street-as too often the case in similar instances in ancient towns, where otherwise the air and light of heaven might be freely breathed and seen,-would long ere this have been removed, had the local authorities adopted measures to purchase each tenement as successively offered for sale; this having, we believe, happened to all of them within the last twelve years. And whenever the inhabitants shall desire seriously to rid themselves of the encroachment, this we conceive must be the method to proceed. The unincorporated resiants of Pershore, only six miles distant, have already set a most laudable example in this respect, by removing a similar excrescence from the centre of their town; and why the municipality of Evesham should thus lag behind we are really unable to explain.

The antiquary Leland, who was commissioned by Henry VIII. to make a survey of the antiquities of his country, and who accordingly spent more than six years "in rambling to and fro in this

371 So termed in sir Philip Hoby's grant from Henry VIII. and styled such in later title-deeds.

nation, and in making researches into the bowels of antiquity,”must have visited Evesham and its then dismantled monastery about the year 1540.372 He thus describes in his Itinerary the appearance of the town and its vicinity at that period.—“I roade from Aulcester towardes Eovesham about 2 miles by woody and enclosed ground; and then a mile by ground less enclosed but having more corn than wood, thence about 4 miles by clean champion [champaign]. Some woode about Eovesham on the right ripe [bank] of Avon. The towne of Eovesham is meetly large and well builded with tymbre. The market-sted is fayre and large. There be divers praty streets in the towne. The market is very celebrate. In the towne is noe hospitall or other famous foundation but the late abbey. There was noe towene at Eovesham before the foundation of the abbey."373 Hence we learn, from one who had travelled England through, that at the middle of the sixteenth century the town itself was by no means inferior in extent, appearance, and construction, to other places; and that it also claimed at that time, a degree of superiority in these respects. But there is something touching, as well as instructive, conveyed by the notice that there "is noe hospitall,” now that there is 'no abbey'. The condition of the inhabitants must at the time of Leland's visit have been much depressed. Of that ecclesiastical institution with which their town had flourished and by which it had chiefly been sustained-dismantled walls, broken arches, prostrate columns, violated sepulchres, were then the only vestiges. Its local revenue no longer passed through the hands of the conventual officers, to circulate in various channels through the town; but its estates being distributed among courtiers, the rental was dissipated elsewhere. Even the town itself had, up to this period, belonged to the convent; the inhabitants holding their dwellings from the abbot, grinding at his mills, and baking in his

373"Afterwards he [Leland] became library keeper to the king, and had a commission from him under the broad seal, A.D. 1533, whereby he was impowered to make a search after England's antiquities, and peruse the libraries of all cathedrals, abbies, priories, colleges, &c.; as also all places wherein records, writings, and secrets of antiquity were reposed. Whereupon, in few years (after obtaining a special dispensation, A.D. 1536), he spent more than six years in rambling to and fro in this nation, and in making researches into the bowels of antiquity."— Wood's Athenæ, i, 67. 373 Leland's Itinerary, vol. iv. page 69, edition 1764.

ovens, as lord of the fee. But now that paternal landlord-living in their midst, often too their adviser, helper, and friend-was exchanged for a new and strange superior, upon whom their dwellings had recently been conferred by wholesale from the crown. 374 The condition of the more dependent inhabitants must therefore have become peculiarly trying. In time of need they had hitherto repaired to the almonry of the abbey, where the hungry were daily fed; and when sick they had been visited at their houses by the almoner himself, whose office was not merely to relieve applicants, but to seek after the afflicted, to minister to their wants, to listen to their complaints and "kindly and charitably to condole with them."375

But after a while, the inhabitants, left thus to themselves, began to exercise more vigorously their individual energy, and a better state of things appeared. Their dwellings, no longer vested in the church, were transferable from the lay grantee; and as they passed from one family to another, the inmates took opportunity to purchase the fee, and thus became owners of their several residences, subject only to a trifling chief-rent to the crown. 376 About the same time they appear to have improved their native manufacture of woollen cloths, and in about sixty years after the dissolution of their monastery they had become an incorporated town.

And now in the same century,-that which immediately succeeded the monastic overthrow-the unconstitutional imposition termed "ship-money," in withstanding which Hampden and his fellows fought and fell-furnishes us with means of ascertaining the relative importance of this town during the reign of Charles the First. In the schedules to the assessment made in 1636, we find the borough of Evesham ranked among the nine highest-rated corporate towns in the kingdom, county towns and cities excepted; it being

374 The grants from Henry VIII. to Sir Philip Hoby confer tenements in Evesham by masses of seventy at a time.

375"It is the almoner's office either to enquire himself, or procure proper persons to enquire for him, and that with the utmost care and solicitude, where any sick or infirm persons reside who have not a sufficient support. Having entered the

house, he must kindly and charitably condole with the sick person and offer him the best of what he has and whatever he may understand shall be necessary to him."— Abbey Register, Harleian MS. 3763, folio 205; translated in Tindal, p. 188.

376 The last of these have during living memory been redeemed by the holders.

on account of its importance proportionably taxed with a payment of £74 toward the king's despotic measure.377

Since the before-mentioned survey made by Leland, the streets of Evesham have been from time to time the subjects of much improvement. Its "tymbre" tenements are now, with few exceptions, supplanted by more uniform structures of brick or stone; its carriage-ways are steyned; its foot-paths paved; and its thoroughfares are well lighted with gas. Above all, the general aspect of the town is distinguished by an air of cleanliness and respectability, which visitors universally remark.

At the lower end of Bridge-street, an ancient stone bridge of eight arches crosses the river, and communicates with the opposite side of the town. The earliest mention of a bridge here, occurs in the monastic chronicles,378 during the abbacy of William de Andeville, in 1159. From this and other authority we learn, that at its foot the Beauchamps earls of Warwick had intrenched themselves in a castle on the Bengeworth side; whither their lawless bands emerged from time to time to plunder or destroy the property of the convent and its tenants.379 The site of this castle is still clearly pointed out by the name attached to a plot of ground contiguous to the bridge at its north-east angle, which continues to be termed "the castle." Considerable traces of the moat were also recently to be seen here, though at present arched over; from the relative situation of which, this defence must have commenced at the river's brink, and have returned in the opposite direction. So that the Avon defended the stronghold in front, and the moat in flank and in rear; while the barbican, or chief port of the castle, commanding the bridge by its situation near the present street, most probably conferred on that the ancient name of Port-street; which appella

377 Among cities and county towns (distinguished from the above class), the ancient cities of Rochester and Bath, as also the county town of Buckingham, are rated at only £70 each. The important city of Chichester is only rated at £3 78. 8d. above Evesham while Birmingham and Manchester were then considered too insignificant to be assessed at all.-See copy of Schedule in Lord Nugent's Life of Hampden— varying slightly from that in Rushworth's Collections; though Evesham stands the same in both.

378 Harleian MS. in British Museum, before referred to: see page 103.

379 Compare MS. Harleian 229, folio 17; MS. Cottonian, Vesp. B. xv. folio 17; also Fabyan's Chronicle, by Ellis, cited on page 122, in a former chapter.

tion it still retains. As at the period of Domesday no castle existed here, this fortress doubtless originated with those numerous strongholds erected by the Norman barons during the reign of Stephen. The existence of such was, however, in the present as in other instances, but of brief duration; its destruction having been effected by the bold abbot De Andeville-as mentioned in our previous notice of that dignitary-very near the close of Stephen's reign.

Port-street-the original appearance of which is most materially improved at present extends continuously from the bridge to the rising ground on which the church is seated. This street-in the neatness of its houses, the condition of its road and flagways, and the refreshing accompaniment of a pellucid stream murmuring on either side-now yields not, in the cheerful cleanliness of its appearance, to any other portion of the town,-through which the reader has thus been cursorily conveyed.