Draughtsman in the neighbourhood,-Mr. Colson of Pershore-the happy execution of whose pencil is sustained by its uniform truthfulness while the manner in which his sketches are perpetuated by the graver is as spirited as the names-in particular-of Mr. S. Williams, and Mr. Sly, would lead us to expect. In conclusion, he heartily expresses his thanks to those of his townsmen, and others, who, prior to the appearance of the Work, encouraged him by engaging copies. It is with pleasure that he appends to this volume, the names of those Individuals, who by this expression of their confidence have augmented his exertions by the cheering pre-assurance of their approval. CHAPTER I. SITUATION OF EVESHAM, AND ORIGIN OF ITS NAME. VESHAM is seated in the bosom of the vale that sweeps from the bases of the Cotteswold Hills on the east and south, and is guarded at the west by Bredon Hill. Geologically considered, it stands upon a lias plain at the foot of an oölitic range; and thus its vicinage-as students of the science prove-must once have been a vast abyss sunk in primeval ocean, the muddy floor of which is now blue clay, retaining in its bed the fossilized remains of animals, insects, and vegetables, that lived and flourished in the earliest ages of our world. The town, of which we are to write, is situated upon a peninsula formed by the Avon, at the south-eastern part of Worcestershire, bordering upon the counties of Warwick and Gloucester. It is within the hundred of Blakenhurste; a name, which from its Saxon compounds, may be considered equivalent to Black Forest. The hundred was originally called that of Fisseberge, being so recorded in Domesday book. Bp. Thomas supposes the latter name to have originated in the legend connected with the founder of the monastery, which asserts that a key thrown by him into the Avon, here, was found in the stomach of a fish, at Rome. When the name was altered does not appear: but Henry I. gave to the abbey a charter conferring jurisdiction over the hundred of Blakenhurste; the seal |