Gloucester and Birmingham line, and the first-class station at Spetchley upon the same line, about twelve miles north-west of the town. The station at present nearest to us upon the London and Birmingham line is at Warwick, and that upon the Great Western at Cheltenham. Both the latter companies have, however, bills now before parliament to connect their lines with Worcester, passing close to Evesham as a first-class station; and up to this time10th April, 1845-appearances are rather in favor of the former. Having thus completed our account of the various roads in the vicinity, we have now to notice the condition of the streets within the town. These we may presume to have been, during the middle ages, much neglected. Royal grants were however occasionally obtained, most probably through the influence of the abbots of the monastery, for remedying this evil. The earliest with which we are acquainted is of the first of Edward the Third, tested at Nottingham, 6th January 1328, and preserved in the Tower, by which the bailiffs and resiants of Evesham are empowered to exact certain additional tolls upon all provisions, wares, and merchandize vended in the market-place, during a period of three years; in aid of the paving of the town.676 But this apparently proving insufficient, a second grant was made by the same king, tested at Windsor, October 24th, in the third year of his reign, for a continuation of these tolls during two additional years. A third grant of similar tolls, during a period of four years, was made by Henry IV. tested at Westminster February 14th, in the second year of his reign. After the dissolution of the monastery, the influx of strangers who visited that establishment would necessarily cease; and the town then lying somewhat off the principal road, the streets became subject to encroachment and neglect. Thus, early in the seventeenth century we find it to have been usual to pile stone, lay timber, and heap up offal in the open streets. The kennels thus became clogged, and the pitching being unattended to, pools of stagnant water and holes of mire were the result. To augment these evils, the swine then kept by the inhabitants-who since the days of Eoves seem to have been given to the sustentation of these quadrupeds-were permitted to wallow in the garbage at their will. As a general 676 In auxilium ville p'd'ce paviande." result, the plague burst forth here in 1610. We cannot give any statement of the number who died: but so alarming was the visitation that the wealthier inhabitants fled from the town; so that fines were levied by the corporation upon such as thus deserted their homes, thereby increasing the distresses of the poor who needed their assistance. Attention was at length directed to the condition of the streets; and by orders on the corporate books, swine found at large were now to be impounded; stones, timber, dunghills, and "carrion" were to be removed; and the inhabitants were to repair the paving before their dwellings, and cleanse it weekly. These measures, originating in an emergency, soon fell into neglect; and some of the nuisances recapitulated had, we believe, continued till comparatively recent times. The two principal streets were during the last century occasionally repaired, as forming portions of districts referred to in the local turnpike acts; but the branch roads, or back streets, together with the footways throughout the town, continued in a neglected condition, till the public attention was seriously directed to improvements, in unison with the examples of other boroughs and the advanced spirit of the times. During the year 1823 various meetings were held, and a fund of £879 having been voluntarily subscribed, it was resolved at a meeting held on the 28th of August, to obtain an act of parliament for the improvement of the town. In 1824 an act was obtained for paving, cleansing, lighting, watching, regulating, and improving the borough, including the bridge; conferring also powers for the sale of certain commonable lands upon Green-hill and other places, and for appropriating the proceeds toward the purposes therein named. Under this act the town has been underdrained and paved, and was in the first instance lighted by oil-lamps. But in January, 1836, it was entirely lighted with gas: for which advantage the public are indebted to the enterprise of a private individual, Mr. John Gibbs, late of Stretton, but now of Norville, Offenham. The fronts of the houses have, in a similar spirit of improvement, been mostly rebuilt; and the entire appearance of the borough is consequently metamorphosed from that confined, irregular, and sombre aspect, which it had long previously borne. CHAPTER XIX. DISTINGUISHED INDIVIDUALS, NATIVES OF, OR RESIDENTS IN, EVESHAM. IN this chapter we shall present, in chronological order, notices of such individuals as are not included in our account of the abbots in a preceding chapter; and who likewise do not appear, or else appear but incidentally, among other chapters of the work. ST. WULSTAN, the last Saxon bishop of Worcester, was born at Long Ichington about the year 1008, and was placed in his first school at Evesham "to learn to read."677 He was further instructed at Peterborough, and then became a monk at Worcester. There he rose to be prior; and in 1062 was consecrated bishop. Wulstan assisted at the dedication of St. Peter's at Westminster, by Edward the Confessor; and after submitting to William the Conqueror, was present at his coronation; and in 1087 he assisted in crowning William Rufus, his successor. Bishop Wulstan began to rebuild the Cathedral of Worcester in 1084, and finished it in 1092. He is said to have been a persuasive and powerful preacher, and to have evinced a remarkably humble disposition. He died on the 19th of January, 1095, aged about 87, and was canonized by pope Innocent the Third. WALTER ODINGTON, a member of this monastery in 1240, was remarkable for his attainments in music, astronomy, and mathematics. Stevens, in his Supplement to Dugdale's Monasticon, says that he was a man of a facetious wit, who applying himself to literature "lest he should sink under the labor of the day, the watching at night, and continued observance of regular discipline, used at 677 Wharton's Anglia Sacra, pt. ii. p. 244, in Thomas's Bishops of Worcester, p. 73. spare hours to divert himself with the decent and commendable diversion of music, to render himself the more cheerful for other duties."678 The quaint Fuller, also, in his "Worthies," characteristically informs us that "his harmonious mind expressed itself in his love of music; wherein he attained to great eminency, and wrote a learned book in that faculty." This work is extant in Ben'et library, Cambridge, and is entitled "Walterus Monachus Eveshamiæ de Speculatione Musicæ." The manuscript is a little impaired in the first page only, and is divided into six books. 679 The chapter "De organis componendi," treats on the proportion of organ pipes, and includes some account of the introduction of that instrument into Europe; observing that "in the year 757, an instrument of the kind was first of all sent into France, to king Pepin, by the Greek emperor." The chapter "De cymbalis faciendis" or casting of bells, contains, according to Dr. Burney, the first instructions of the kind that have been met with in the manuscripts of the middle ages. Though Walter, in his final chapter, observes that he writes not so much to invent rules of his own, as to collect the opinions and precepts of his predecessors, yet he appears to have been the first who suggested a shorter note than the semibreve, though he did not give it a form. He thus expresses himself: "I, first of all, have divided the semibreve into three parts, which I call minimis; still retaining the figure of the semibreve, lest I should seem to depart from the doctrine of others." Odington wrote also on the motion of the planets, and of the changes of the atmosphere. 680 Cardinal HUGH DE EVESHAM, called from his complexion Hugo Atratus, or Hugh the Dark, was originally a monk here. In 1279 he was prebend of York, and in the following year was proctor for the archbishop of that province at Rome. Being accounted the greatest proficient in medicine of the age, and a dispute having occurred upon some medical question during his stay at Rome, his opinion was requested by the pope, Martin IV., who in token of his satisfaction with his attainments, created him cardinal of St. 678 Stevens's Additions to Dugdale's Monasticon, vol. i. page 205. 680 Tindal's Evesham, p. 254. |