PLACES OF INTEREST ON THE ROUTE
Cheltenham.—A watering-place dating from the eighteenth century. Spa; promenades; St. Mary's Church, Decorated.
Northleach.—Picturesque Cotswold village-town. Perpendicular church, with famous brasses of wool-merchants and remarkably fine porch.
Burford.—A very interesting and picturesque old town; several old houses; market hall; church, large and irregular, Norman, Early English, and Perpendicular; Priory ruins.
Asthall Barrow.—A prominent prehistoric mound.
Witney.—A pleasant and unusually charming old town, famous for blankets. Church very picturesque, chiefly Early English; old market house.
Eynsham.—A quaint old village with old market house, church, and picturesque houses. Red Lion Inn with quaint sign.
(Trunk) No. 10. GLOUCESTER TO OXFORD.
(Trunk) No. 10. GLOUCESTER TO OXFORD.
At Wotton St. Mary, Churchdown Hill is a prominent feature on the right. Some picturesque old cottages stand beside the road, while the general aspect of the country is pastoral, broken up by large orchards, a delightful feature of the county. The road rises slightly as Cheltenham is approached.
Town Plan No. 11—Cheltenham.
CHELTENHAM
Cheltenham stands close to the steep, north-west face of the Cotswold Hills, and until the springs were discovered in 1716 it was but a struggling hamlet. It is now an aggregation of imposing squares, crescents, promenades, and villas, interspersed with beautiful parks. As may be expected, there are few antiquities to be found in a town of such mushroom growth, the only exception being the Parish Church of St. Mary, standing just off the High Street. The prevailing style of the building is early Decorated, and it contains a piscina believed to be one of the largest and most perfect in England. To those interested in modern architecture the Church of St. Stephen may be mentioned, but All Saints', the parish church of Pittville, is the best modern expression of architectural ideals in Cheltenham, although the Roman Catholic Church of St. Gregory is a formidable rival. The public buildings are on a level with the importance of the town. The merits and uses of the chalybeate and other waters are easily discovered locally, and no one who remembers the oft-repeated epitaph of the individual who with three daughters 'died from drinking the Cheltenham waters' should be prejudiced against their good properties, which for certain ailments are not to be despised. Cheltenham is a famous educational centre for girls, and Gloucestershire, as a whole, has been in the van in educational matters from quite early times.
Cheltenham is the 'Coltham' in 'John Halifax, Gentleman,' where John and Phineas saw Mrs. Siddons act.
The road to Oxford from Cheltenham crosses the beautiful Cotswolds, climbing up to 800 feet at the Puesdown Inn. From this point there are wide expanses visible in nearly every direction; but such views do not give one the real charm of the Cotswolds. To become intimate with the exquisite valleys and secluded upland villages, one must be in a mood to potter and loiter, and be content to desert the car at intervals in order to plunge into some beautiful beech-wood, falling steeply down a declivity, and revealing glimpses between the tall smooth trunks of the Vale of Severn, or some sleepy hollow wherein a silver-grey village nestles. The beautiful architecture of the Cotswolds, in conjunction with its lovely scenery, is a joy to all who know these oolite hills. Cottages, farms, mills, and manor-houses, all with steep roofs of grey stone like the walls, stately gables, mullioned windows, and picturesque chimneys, are all one can desire.
Even if there is no time to wander from the direct road, one cannot avoid seeing an exceedingly pleasing little Cotswold town. This is
NORTHLEACH,
a place of some importance when the woollen industry of these hills was flourishing. There is a subtle charm in the greyness of the old houses, relieved by the dark green of yew and the lighter tones of deciduous trees and grass banks here and there. The quaint little shops add other touches of colour, and wherever one turns there are pictures of simple Cotswold life, not much altered by the rapid changes of recent years. The old fellow standing meditatively by the churchyard gate may talk of the great changes since his youth, when the cloth industry had not ebbed away from the hills, but to outward appearances Northleach is, one suspects, little altered since the days of our great-grandparents, if, indeed, anything has materially changed the town since the beautiful Perpendicular church was put up. The date of its building was about the year 1489, when Cotswold wool was one of the chief industries of England. One may admire the embattled spire and the graceful delicacy of the whole building, but it is by its porch that one remembers Northleach Church. It is illustrated here; but, good as the drawing is, it does not do justice to the wonderful beauty of that noble piece of Perpendicular craftsmanship surmounted by its parvise.
On the floor of the nave are a series of brasses to the memory of some of the most successful of the wool-merchants of the town. They belong to the fifteenth century, and are exceptionally fine examples of brasses of the period, giving the details of costume with the greatest faithfulness. It is pleasant to find that the wealthy men of the Cotswold wool industry seem to have devoted their surplus riches to such public works as schools, almshouses, and churches.
At Northleach the Roman Foss Way is crossed coming from Cirencester in a north-easterly direction.
A few miles beyond Northleach, Sherborne Park, the residence of Lord Sherborne, is passed on the left. It is a dignified house, situated in open country, many portions of which are well wooded.
From this point all the way to Witney the road falls steadily, with the shallow, but always pleasing, valley of the Windrush just below on the left. This pretty stream coming out of the heart of the Cotswolds is one of the chief feeders of the Thames, which it meets a dozen miles above Oxford. Actually on the road there are no villages except Little Minster between Northleach and Witney, but just below the highway, on the banks of the little river, there are several. The first three—Windrush and Great and Little Barrington—are in Gloucestershire, and the rest are in Oxfordshire. It is tempting to describe all these places, but one must be content with pointing out the particular charm of
BURFORD,
one of the most delightful of the old-world towns of the county. There is a town hall, probably of the fifteenth century, and adjoining it are some of the best of the old houses in the town. Close to the stream stands the splendid cruciform church, with its tower and west door dating back to the Norman period. In Early English times nearly the whole building appears to have been changed into the Gothic style, and another transformation took place in the fifteenth century, when the Perpendicular phase had set in. Owing to the Sylvester aisle and several chapels, the church is of curious shape, and this helps to give that indescribable atmosphere of pre-Reformation days entirely vanished from so many old churches in this country.
Both the school and the almshouses are old foundations, and the Priory, now a partial ruin, although preserving no ecclesiastical remains, is a picturesque Elizabethan building to some extent rebuilt in 1808.
A mile or two beyond Burford one passes Asthall Barrow on the right-hand side of the road, and only a few yards away across a field. It is a prehistoric mound of earth, now kept in position by a circular retaining wall of stone, thus preventing degradation. The trees surmounting it form a prominent landmark. About three miles farther on is the fine old manor-house of Minster Lovell, about a mile to the left, on the Windrush.
WITNEY
Soon after turning to the right the road enters the main street of picturesque old Witney at right angles. Extending away some distance to the right is the pleasant elongated belt of green, giving much charm and distinction to the place, and at the end of the grassy perspective, rising in stately dignity from old trees, appears the tower and spire of the cruciform church. This is one of those peculiarly fascinating buildings one finds it hard to leave. It is mainly an Early English church, but there are features of other periods, and among them a Decorated window on the north side, which is the finest in the whole county. The spire is an Early English masterpiece. In the middle of the little town stands the quaint Butter Cross, dated 1683. On the west side of the green is the Grammar School (1663), with an avenue of elms.
The blanket industry is still in existence, for in spite of modern competition the little place holds its own on account of some particular benefit the wool derives from the water of the neighbourhood.
EYNSHAM
is the last village passed on the way to Oxford. It is a sleepy and picturesque little place with a small market hall, the shaft of a fifteenth-century cross, and an inn-sign of the drollest order. This sign hangs outside the Red Lion, and the King of Beasts is painted on one side, but the draughtsman had difficulty in accommodating the tail, and he solved it by the original plan of painting the caudal appendage on the opposite face of the sign!
Just below Eynsham the road crosses the Thames at Swinford Bridge, where the beautiful hanging woods of Wytham Hill are on the left, and a couple of miles farther on the spires and towers of Oxford are in sight.
THE CHURCH PORCH AT NORTHLEACH.
A rare example of the stateliness of Perpendicular architecture in a village church.