und a fine parish church,
with a high embattled tower, and a remarkable south porch with parvise.
The church is mainly Perpendicular, and among its numerous chapels that
of St Catherine has a beautiful roof of fan-tracery in stone dated 1508.
Of the abbey founded in 1117 by Henry I. there remain a Norman gateway
and a few capitals. There are two good museums containing mosaics,
inscriptions, carved and sculptured stones, and many smaller remains,
for the town was the Roman _Corinium_ or _Durocornovium Dobunorum_.
Little trace of Corinium, however, can be seen _in situ_, except the
amphitheatre and some indications of the walls. To the west of the town
is Cirencester House, the seat of Earl Bathurst. The first Lord Bathurst
(1684-1775) devoted himself to beautifying the fine demesne of Oakley
Park, which he planted and adorned with remarkable artificial ruins.
This nobleman, who became baron in 1711 and earl in 1772, was a patron
of art and literature no less than a statesman; and Pope, a frequent
visitor here, was allowed to design the building known as Pope's Seat,
in the park, commanding a splendid prospect of woods and avenues. Swift
was another appreciative visitor. The house contains portraits by
Lawrence, Gainsborough, Romney, Lely, Reynolds, Hoppner, Kneller and
many others. A mile west of the town is the Royal Agricultural College,
incorporated by charter in 1845. Its buildings include a chapel, a
dining hall, a library, a lecture theatre, laboratories, classrooms,
private studies and dormitories for the students, apartments for
resident professors, and servants' offices; also a museum containing a
collection of anatomical and pathological preparations, and
mineralogical, botanical and geological specimens. The college farm
comprises 500 acres, 450 of which are arable; and on it are the
well-appointed farm-buildings and the veterinary hospital. Besides
agriculture, the course of instruction at the college includes
chemistry, natural and mechanical philosophy, natural history,
mensuration, surveying and drawing, and other subjects of practical
importance to the farmer, proficiency in which is tested by means of
sessional examinations. The industries of Cirencester comprise various
branches of agriculture. It has connexion by a branch canal with the
Thames and Severn canal.

Corinium was a flourishing Romano-British town, at first perhaps a
cavalry post, but afterwards, for the greater part of the Roman period,
p