The Warwickshire Avon

by Arthur Quiller-Couch

lightness on its scarred, indomitable face, but only strength. The same strength is repeated within the church by the fourteen huge cylindrical columns from which the arches spring to bear the heavy roof of the nave. In spite of the groining and elaborate traceries above, the rich eastern windows, the luxuriant decoration of the chantry chapels and their monuments, these fourteen columns give the note of the edifice. To them we return, and, standing beside them, are able to ignore the mutilations of years, and see the old church as it was on a certain spring day in 1471, when its painted windows colored the white faces, and its ceilings echoed the cries, of the beaten Lancastrians that clung to its altar for sanctuary.

OLD HOUSE, TEWKESBURY

For “in the field by Tewkesbury,” a little to the south, beside the highway that runs to Gloucester and Cheltenham, the crown of England has been won and lost. There, on the 4th of May, 1471, the troops of Queen Margaret and the young Prince Edward, led by the Duke of Somerset from Exeter to join another army that the Earl of Pembroke was raising in Wales, were overtaken by Edward IV., who had hurried out from Windsor to intercept them. Footsore and bedraggled, they had reached Tewkesbury on the 3d, and “pight their field in a close euen hard at the towne’s end, hauing the towne and abbeie at their backes; and directlie before them, and upon each side of them, they were defended with cumbersome lanes, deepe ditches, and manie hedges, besides hils and dales, so as the place seemed as noisome as might be to approach unto.” From this secure position they were drawn by a ruse of the Crookback’s, and slaughtered like sheep. Many, we know, fled to the abbey, were seized there and executed by dozens at Tewkesbury Cross, where High Street and Burton Street divide. Others were chased into the river by the Abbey Mill and drowned. A house in Church Street is pointed out as the place where Edward, Prince of Wales, was slain, and some stains in the floor boards of one of the upper rooms are still held to be his blood-marks. Tradition has marked his burial-place in the Abbey Church, and written above it, “Eheu, hominum furor: matris tu sola lux es, et gregis ultima spes.” The dust of his enemy Clarence—“false, fleeting, perjured Clarence”—lies but a little way off, behind the altar-screen.

There is a narrow field, one of the last that Avon washes, down the centre of which runs a narrow, withy-bordered watercourse. It is called the “Bloody Meadow,” after the carnage of that day, when, as the story goes, blood enough lay at its foot to float a boat; and just beyond our river is gathered to the greater Severn.

INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS

[A], [B], [C], [D], [E], [F], [G], [H], [L], [M], [N], [O], [P], [R], [S], [T], [U], [W], [Y].

Ann Hathaway’s Cottage, [73].
Arrow-heads, near Tewkesbury, [131].
Ashow, [41].
Avon from Nasebyfield to Wolston, The, facing [10].
Avon Inn, Rugby, [22].
Barford Bridge, [54].
Bidford Bridge, [84].
Blakedown Mill, [44].
Bowling-green, Tewkesbury, The, [137].
Bredon, [125].
Bretford, [29].
Bubbenhall, [37].
Cæsar’s Tower, Warwick Castle, [50].
Catthorpe Church, [19].
Chadbury Mill, [104].
Chadbury Weir, [105].
Charlcote, [63].
Chesford Bridge, [43].
Church Lawford, [27].
Cleeve Mill—An Autumn Flood, [87].
Clopton Bridge, Stratford-upon-Avon, [69].
Cropthorne Mill, [112].
Dove-cote, Wasperton, [60].
Dow Bridge on Watling Street, [20].
Eckington Bridge, [122].
Eckington, Near, [127].
Elms by Bidford Grange, [81].
Evesham Bell-tower and Old Abbey Gateway, [102].
Evesham, from the River, [96].
Fladbury Mill, [108].
Gig Seat, The, [109].
Gleaners, [33].
Great Comberton, [121].
Guy’s Cliffe, [47].
Guy’s Cliffe Mill, [45].
Hampton Ferry, [103].
Hampton Lucy, from the Meadows, [61].
Hampton Lucy to Harvington, From, facing [60].
Harvington Weir, [92].
Hillborough, [83].
Holbrook Court, [24].
Hospital of Robert Earl of Leycester in Warwick, [51].
Lawford Mill, [25].
Lock and Church, The, [75].
Market-garden near Evesham, A, [99].
Meadows by the Avon, [89].
Meadowsweet, [65].
Mill Street, Tewkesbury, [139].
Mouth of the Stour, The, [74].
Mythe Bridge, Tewkesbury, [134].
Nafford Mill, [122].
Naseby Monument, [10].
Nets Drying at Wyre, [117].
Newbold-upon-Avon, [24].
Offenham, Near, [95].
Offenham to Tewkesbury, From, facing [96].
Old Bridge, Warwick, [49].
Old House, Tewkesbury, [141].
Old Pear-Trees at Pershore, [115].
Old Thorns, Marcleeve Hill, [85].
Pershore Bridge, [119].
Pershore Water-gate, [123].
Reed-cutters, [101].
Roman Camp, Lilburne, [15].
Rugby, from Brownsover Mill, [21].
Ruins of Newnham Regis Church, [28].
Ryton-on-Dunsmore, [32].
Sherborne, [58].
Site of Brandon Castle, [31].
Standford Church, [17].
Standford Hall, [14].
Stoneleigh Abbey, Oct. [15], 1884, [40].
Stoneleigh Deer Park, In, [36].
Stratford Church, [71].
Strensham Church, [129].
Strensham Mill, [130].
Sulby Abbey, [11].
Summer-house on Bredon Hill, The, [118].
Swing-Bridge near Welford, [13].
Tewkesbury, from the Severn, [138].
Tithe Barn, Bredon, [126].
Twining Ferry, [135].
Under the Willows, [67].
Warwick Castle, from the Park, [55].
Wasperton, At, [59].
Weir Brake, [77].
Welford Canal House, [12].
Welford Weir and Church, [80].
Weston-upon-Avon, [78].
Willows by Cropthorne, [113].
Willow Pollarding, [93].
Wolston Priory, [32].
Wolston to Wasperton, From, facing [28].
Wyre, At, [114].
Wyre Lock, [117].
Yew Hedge, The—Cleeve Prior Manor-house, [83].

THE END