DOI Heft:
No. 64 (July, 1898)
DOI Artikel:Paterson, Alfred: Evesham as a sketching ground
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21969#0108
Evesham as a Sketching Ground
Evesham as a sketching
GROUND. BY ALFRED
PATERSON. WITH ILLUS-
TRATIONS BY E. H. NEW.
Whilst Evesham must attract every
one who visits it by the natural beauty of its
situation, the fertility of its soil, its historic
interest, and the picturesque quaintness of its
old buildings, and yet older ruins, it is to the
man of artistic temperament that its charms
must chiefly appeal.
Mr. A. T. Quiller-Couch, in The Wanvick-
shire Avon, writes of Evesham thus: “To re-
member Evesham is to call up a broad and
smiling vale; a river looped about a green hill
and returning almost on itself; on the lower
slope of the hill, beside the river, a little town ;
and above its mills and roofs, two spires and one
pre-eminent tower, all set in the same church-
yard. The vale itself, as we dropped down
towards Evesham, was insensibly changing.
Unawares we left the pastures behind, and
drifted into a land of orchards and market-
gardens—no Devonshire orchards, with carpets
of vivid grass, but stiff regiments of plum-trees,
and between their files asparagus growing, and
sage and winter lettuce under hand-glasses, and
cabbages splashed with mauve and crimson.
We had crossed, in fact, the frontier of a fruit-
growing country that in England has no rival
but Kent.”
At once the most prominent and most beauti-
ful building now standing in Evesham is the
Bell Tower, built by Clement Lichfield, who was
abbot here from December 1514 until July 15 39-
This tower is twenty-eight feet square at its
base, and one hundred and ten feet high. It
is a beautiful piece of architecture, standing
by itself, although close to the two parish
churches, and in the same churchyard. As
viewed from across the river, standing on the
slope above the water meadows, the tower
and its attendant spires form a fine and stately
group. When the monastery was destroyed
this tower, which had only recently been
erected, was spared, probably on account of
its usefulness as a bell and clock tower, and,
I would gladly think, in part owing to its
exceptional beauty.
The two churches are All Saints and St.
Lawrence, each interesting and possessing
various architectural beauties. They look the
more picturesque from being situated side
by side and close to the stately Bell Tower
87
Evesham as a sketching
GROUND. BY ALFRED
PATERSON. WITH ILLUS-
TRATIONS BY E. H. NEW.
Whilst Evesham must attract every
one who visits it by the natural beauty of its
situation, the fertility of its soil, its historic
interest, and the picturesque quaintness of its
old buildings, and yet older ruins, it is to the
man of artistic temperament that its charms
must chiefly appeal.
Mr. A. T. Quiller-Couch, in The Wanvick-
shire Avon, writes of Evesham thus: “To re-
member Evesham is to call up a broad and
smiling vale; a river looped about a green hill
and returning almost on itself; on the lower
slope of the hill, beside the river, a little town ;
and above its mills and roofs, two spires and one
pre-eminent tower, all set in the same church-
yard. The vale itself, as we dropped down
towards Evesham, was insensibly changing.
Unawares we left the pastures behind, and
drifted into a land of orchards and market-
gardens—no Devonshire orchards, with carpets
of vivid grass, but stiff regiments of plum-trees,
and between their files asparagus growing, and
sage and winter lettuce under hand-glasses, and
cabbages splashed with mauve and crimson.
We had crossed, in fact, the frontier of a fruit-
growing country that in England has no rival
but Kent.”
At once the most prominent and most beauti-
ful building now standing in Evesham is the
Bell Tower, built by Clement Lichfield, who was
abbot here from December 1514 until July 15 39-
This tower is twenty-eight feet square at its
base, and one hundred and ten feet high. It
is a beautiful piece of architecture, standing
by itself, although close to the two parish
churches, and in the same churchyard. As
viewed from across the river, standing on the
slope above the water meadows, the tower
and its attendant spires form a fine and stately
group. When the monastery was destroyed
this tower, which had only recently been
erected, was spared, probably on account of
its usefulness as a bell and clock tower, and,
I would gladly think, in part owing to its
exceptional beauty.
The two churches are All Saints and St.
Lawrence, each interesting and possessing
various architectural beauties. They look the
more picturesque from being situated side
by side and close to the stately Bell Tower
87