Among the diocesan records of Worcester there is one concerning a marriage license for "William Shagspere and Anne Hathwey of Stratford," in the twenty-eighth year of the reign of Elizabeth. Of course the most important monument in Worcester Cathedral is that of King John, but there is little enthusiasm kindled in one's breast at the thought of this monarch. Although John actually signed Magna Charta, he was such a mean man, and did it with such a bad grace, that the credit really goes to the Barons whose pluck and determination forced his hand. Another monument of interest in Worcester is that of the renowned Countess of Salisbury who figures so prominently in heraldic legend owing to the fact of her having dropped her garter while dancing with Edward III. Of course every one knows the story; how the king picked it up, amid the unrefined jeers of the highest society, and exclaimed, "Honi soit qui mal y pense." It has been stated that this was the origin of the motto thenceforth adopted by the Order of the Garter, but it is more probable that, this being already the motto of the Knights, the king used the extremely apt quotation with a genuine sense of humour. At any rate, there must be some truth in the story, for the monument of the lady is adorned with angels strewing complimentary garters over the tomb. The German, Paul Hentzner, relates the incident as he found it, without question, gracefully remarking that the king, "with a most serious and honourable purpose dedicated it to the legs of the most distinguished nobility," as he snatched up the garter which had thus fallen. It is sad to see so much skill and labour devoid of artistic sense as is exhibited at the porcelain works at Worcester. The designs usually rendered in Royal Worcester are as a general thing inexpressive and vapid. But some of the old underglaze blue is still made there, and the simpler patterns and forms are good. The chief ingredients used in its manufacture are granite, flint, and ox-bone, with a certain white clay. This is reduced to a state of fluid cream in a very primitive vat with rotary grinding by means of great rocks of very hard granite working on a granite paving, and it takes ten days to reduce the paste to the proper consistency to work with. The firing occupies a week, three days of baking and three days to cool. The Worcester Beacon is at a height of thirteen hundred and ninety-six feet above the sea level, and was used to signal from at the time. when the Spanish Armada was contemplating attacking the coast. This is probably the highest point in the Malvern Hills. One of the most splendid old Norman monuments is Tewkesbury Abbey, which is in a good state of preservation, and full of interest. There is a curious institution in Tewkesbury known as the Italian Tea Garden. This spot immediately adjoins the abbey, and nothing could be more comically incongruous than to sit at a little white iron table in a small garden filled with the most execrable white plaster statues, pirouetting against a background furnished by the hoary Norman tower and the grey stateliness of the apsidal chapels. This meretricious spot has had the boldness to perpetrate photographs of itself in this relation, and the pictures are most amusing as illustrating how thoroughly independent the vulgar mind can be of its environment. One old gentleman who is buried at Tewkesbury was morbid enough to erect his own cenotaph during his life-time. It represents him after death lying quite divested of clothing, with snakes and toads disporting themselves about his person, while a rat assumes a similar relation to that of the vulture to Prometheus. It must have been singularly enlivening for him to visit this monument from time to time. I found a photograph in a little shop in Tewkesbury, portraying one of the monuments which I did not recognize. I asked the proprietor whose portrait bust it was that I there beheld? All the caste and prejudice of a monarchy was summed up and thrown in with his reply: "Absolutely nobody! A brewer!" The Battle of Tewkesbury was fought between King Edward IV and Margaret, the Queen of Henry VI, who was trying to reinstate her son, Prince Edward, as heir to the throne. The pathetic incident which is the chief episode in this battle is thus related by Holinshed: "After the field was ended, proclamation was made that whosoever should bring forth Prince Edward, alive or dead, should have an annuity of a hundred pounds during his life, and the Prince's life to be spared if he were brought forth alive. Sir Richard Crofts, nothing mistrusting the King's promise, brought forth his prisoner, whom, when King Edward had well advised, he demanded of him how he durst so presumptuously enter into his realm with banner displayed. Whereupon the Prince boldly answered, sayingTo recover my father's kingdom and heritage, from his grandfather to him, and from him after him to me lineally descended.' At which words the King Edward said nothing, but with his hand thrust him from him, or as some say, stroke him with his gauntlet; whom directly George, Duke of Clarence, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, Thomas Grey, Marquis Dorset, and William, Lord Hastings that stood by, cruelly murdered, for the which cruel act the more part of the doers in their latter day drank of the like cup, by the righteous justice and due punishment of God. His body was homely interred in the church of the monastery of the Black Monks at Tewkesbury." The vision of Clarence, in after years, as given by Shakespeare, is most graphic: A shadow like an angel with bright hair Malvern lies about half-way between the Severn and the Wye, but belongs properly in this |