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The Church at Tewkesbury is perhaps the finest and most interesting Parochial Church in the kingdom. This magnificent structure once formed part of the Abbey of Benedictine monks, which was first established in this place; in 715, to the honour of the Blessed Virgin, and continued to flourish till the dissolution of the Religious Houses in the reign of Henry the Eighth, when this Abbey shared the common fate of others; but the inhabitants purchased the Church of the King's Commissioners, and it was then made parochial. The building displays a complete example of early Norman architecture, combined with some happy specimens of later styles, and is built in the cathedral form. The large window at the west end, which is perhaps the most modern part of this interesting fabric, has always justly been an object of admiration. The numerous ancient monuments here are well wor thy of inspection. There are some remains of the cloisters, which appear to have been of the highly ornamented style; and near the west end of the Church stands the Abbey Gateway, which is embattled and ornamented with grotesque figures.

There are several neat Dissenting Places of Worship in this town. The Independent Meeting House is situated at the top of Barton street, and has recently been modernized and beautified at a considerable expense: the Rev. Henry Welsford is the present Minister.-The Baptists have a very elegant and modern-built Chapel also in the Barton-street, and the Rev. Daniel Trotman has long been the Pastor thereof.— The Wesleyan Methodists have a new and convenient Chapel in the Guest or Tolsey-lane, and the Rev. Benjamin Andrews is the resident Minister.-There is also a very appropriate and substantial modern-built Meeting House in the Barton-street, used by the Society of Friends.

Few towns can boast of better public buildings than Tewkesbury. The Town-hall is a very handsome edifice, built in 1788, at the expense of Sir William Codrington, Bart. The

ground-floor is appropriated for holding the Quarter Sessions, and the upper floor consists of a banqueting or ball-room, and a council-chamber for the meetings of the Corporation.-The Market-house is a very commodious and convenient building, and admirably regulated.-A new Gaol has just been completed at a very considerable expense, and the internal management thereof reflects great credit upon the magistracy of the borough. A large and suitable School-room has lately been built near the church-yard, for the education of poor children on the plan of Dr. Bell; and another extensive building has been erected at the top of Barton street, for the instruction of children of the lower classes in the Lancasterian system.There is also a Free Grammar-school, which is conducted with much ability; a Blue-coat School; and numerous Almshouses.

The House of Industry is an extensive building, and stands in a healthy situation, near the entrance to the town from Gloucester. The management of this establishment, as well as the care of the poor generally, is entrusted to the superintendance of nine intelligent and respectable inhabitants, who are styled “Directors of the Poor," and who with the guardians are incorporated by Act of Parliament. Three of them retire annually in rotation, and three others are then elected to fill their situations. A governor and matron are appointed, with liberal salaries; and the attention paid to the morals, cleanliness, and industrious habits of the indigent inhabitants, deserves the highest commendation. The present Directors are, Messrs. Wm. Ricketts, Skearington, Kingsbury, Arkell, Humphrey Brown, Thos. Andrews, George Davis, Wm. Andrews, and Joseph Hegnill.

TETBURY is esteemed one of the best towns in Gloucestershire; its streets being large, and in general well built. It possesses a fertile soil, and is reckoned one of the most cele

brated in England for the salubrity of its air.* It lies five miles N. from Malmesbury, ten W. from Cirencester, 25 E.N.E. from Bristol, 20 S. from Gloucester, 100 W. of London, and 22 from Bath. It is most pleasantly seated on the verge of the Cotswold Hills, on that part of the county next to Wilts, on the great turnpike road leading from Gloucester to Salisbury, and from Oxford to Bath and Bristol : this road was in the year 1775 greatly improved by a bridge, upwards of 600 feet long, which has four large arches, and was erected by the commissioners of the turnpike roads, whereby the entrance to the town, from being steep and narrow, is now on a broad easy ascent, and kept in most exellent order.

In 1749, the incumbent Vicar (Rev. John Wight, M.A.) made the inhabitants a present of a pump, the town then being very ill supplied with water, which was afterwards sunk under the Market House, by a subscription, to the depth of 104 feet; and the spring of water is so remarkably fine and plentiful as to be almost sufficient for every domestic purpose. There are also many other excellent wells, and large reservoirs for rain water.

The town is governed by the Feoffees, of whom there are seven, and by a number of Gentlemen called the Thirteens, from whom the Feoffees are elected according to seniority. A Town Bailiff is chosen annually out of the said Thirteens. The pavement has lately been repaired, at a very considerable expense, partly by subscription, and partly from the profits arising from the Town Lands.

The parish Church is extremely elegant, is 120 feet long, 62 feet wide, and 42 feet high; annexed to which is a lofty

* The most extraordinary instance of longevity to be produced in this country, is of one Henry West, who, in the reign of King James I. resided at Upton Hamlet, in this parish. He lived to the age of 152 years; and one of his descendants has a bible in his possession, wherein it is written, that he had five wives, by four he had no children, but by the fifth he had ten; and lived to see a hundred grand-children, to each of whom he gave a brass pot or kettle.-Vide the Register of Tetbury Parish.

spire, 186 feet high, built about the year 1088, containing a musical ring of eight bells, and a set of chimes, given by the above named Rev. John Wight, who had in many respects contributed to the general convenience of this town.

A large and elegant organ was erected in the church a few years since, towards which the present Vicar, and J. P. Paul, Esq. were great contributors.

There is a very spacious and well-built Market House, and a most commodious Town Hall, where the neighbouring Magistrates hold their meetings.

The town was formerly noted for its woollen manufactory, which has been much on the decline.

The number of inhabitants taken at the last census was about 2,533; but Rudder says in his History of Gloucestershire, that about 100 years since it was 3,500. The parish contains (exclusive of houses, private gardens, &c.) about 4,359 acres, as per admeasurement, taken in the year 1811.

The Bristol Avon river takes its rise in this parish, which it quits immediately, and passing by Brokenborough, Malmesbury, Chippenham, Bradford, and Bath, (where it becomes navigable) runs to Bristol, and thence on to the Channel.

DURSLEY is delightfully situated on the Cam, from which a village, four miles further down the river, derives it name. It is 15 miles S. W. of Gloucester, 107 W. of London, and 25 N. of Bristol: from the Severn it is distant about seven miles. It returns no Members to Parliament, though it is a corporate town. The government is in the hands of a Bailiff and four Constables. This town carries on a considerable trade in the clothing line, and supplies to a wide extent the manufacturers with wire cards. Its neighbourhood, and indeed the whole of the clothing district, including Painswick, Stroud, Minchinhampton, Rodborough, Uley, Nailsworth, Wotton-under-Edge,

and Frocester, perhaps is not surpassed in rich and varied scenery by any county in the kingdom. It appears to have been at some period capable of defence, (though neither history nor tradition supplies any thing satisfactory as to its military importance) for there is at present extant the remains of a fortification, and the field contiguous still continues to bear the name of Castle-field.

The Manor and Castle of this town were given to Roger de Berkeley, in the reign of William the Conqueror, and continued without intermission in that family till the reign of King Edward the fourth, when it decended to the Weeks's from an heiress of the Berkeley's. Robert Weeks sold it to the Estcourts, of Lashborough, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth; and Thomas Estcourt, Esq. of Shipton, is the present Lord of the manor, but it gives the title of Viscount to the Earl of Berkeley, whose eldest son is always called Lord Dursley. Near this town is a rock of stone, extremely soft to cut, but after being exposed some time to the action of the air, it becomes incredibly hard. It is called by the inhabitants puffstone; the walls of Berkeley Castle have been built with it for nearly seven hundred years, and no decay is found in them. The churches and public buildings in the neighbourhood are mostly built with the same stone. We are informed by a friend that the vaulting of Gloucester Cathedral, between the ribs and the arches, is also made from the same kind of stone, and no doubt it came from Dursley, as the Rectory of Dursley formerly belonged to Gloucester Abbey, until it was annexed to the Archdeaconry, in 1447.

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