Although the level road from Gloucester to Stroud by Hardwicke is to be recommended to those who would avoid a long, stiff climb, the way through the Cotswolds is so much more interesting and so vastly more picturesque that it should by all means be taken if the hill is of no consequence.
The easiest ascent of the face of the Cotswolds is by the road through the village of Brookthorpe, descending into the Painswick valley near the secluded and quite typical Cotswold hamlet of Pitchcombe.
A still more beautiful road goes through Sneedham's Green, near Upton St. Leonards, and winds up a long steady ascent among beeches. This road is well engineered, and the views from it, first over the Vale of Severn and then into the Painswick and Sheepscombe valleys, are full of exquisite charm at all times of the year.
PAINSWICK
is one of those little stone towns with that peculiarly foreign flavour so frequently experienced in the Cotswolds. Perched on a steep hill-side and dominated by the tall tower and spire of its stately church, the place is the centre of the life of a lovely valley. Every other house in the town is a picture by itself, and when grouped with others and backed by the emeralds and blues of the opposite side of the valley, the stranger can hardly be prevented from exclaiming aloud as each corner brings some new composition before him.
In the centre of the town stands the fine church, with a unique churchyard, wherein a wonderful array of richly carved altar-tombs of delicate classic design are scattered in picturesque irregularity under the sombre shade of rows of closely trimmed yews. The stems of these trees are kept clear of twigs and branches, and the masses of green are shaped into great round-topped cylindrical forms. Just below the church, beyond a group of magnificent elms, stands Painswick Court, a stone, many-gabled house of such reposeful dignity that one seems to find in it as nearly as possible the ideal English manor-house of modest proportions. The title 'Court' came to the house, not in connection with the manor, but through a visit paid to it by Charles I. in 1643. The King slept in the house, and issued a proclamation 'given at our Court at Paynewicke.'
Whether one decides to go through Painswick or Pitchcombe, or even if one keeps below the hills, all the roads meet at
STROUD
This is a hilly town abounding in very steep streets, and possessing, as all Cotswold towns do, a number of good old stone houses of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. It is, nevertheless, a place without much appeal to the passing motorist, for the church has been rebuilt in recent times, with the exception of the tower, which is Early English. The Town Hall, formerly the market-house, was built in the fifteenth century by John Throckmorton of Lypiatt.
Stroud still maintains its woollen industry, and thousands of people are employed in the mills in the town and in the valley to the east.