together, and with
vastly increased bulk to frown upon the darkening vale.

[Illustration: EVESHAM AND BREDON HILL FROM THE PARKS]

At each end of the Cotswold range, as seen from Evesham, stands,
sentinel like, an isolated elevation, and in early times, as present
remains testify, both these were occupied as fortified posts. To the
east is Meon Hill, and to the south-west stands Bredon, the nearest
and most prominent of the group. In the south-east the position of
Broadway is decisively marked by its pseudo-Norman tower, and due
south the level outline ended by an abrupt escarpment to the eastward
is Cleeve Cloud, carrying the range on towards Cheltenham and Bristol.

But the chief glory of the vale, so far as its background is
concerned, is the truly mountainous outline of the Malvern Hills, the
whole length of which is seen bounding the western horizon. The
breadth of the valley here is more than twenty miles from hill to
hill, and includes both the Severn and its tributary stream. To how
many does the thought of sunrise not recall this undulating range
illuminated and glorified by the clear beams of the early sun striking
across the vale and thrown back in glittering fragments by the long
line of houses at its base! And few more beautiful associations will
gather round the sunset than those in which Malvern plays its part,
the rocky skyline standing up sharp and clear against the
ever-changing brilliance. As we recall the scene the dazzling
effulgence fades into a glow, the glow diminishes almost imperceptibly
into twilight, and, as we watch, a line of twinkling lights becomes
visible beneath the hill, and one by one the stars appear in the
deepening sky.

Northward there are no striking elevations, the ground sloping
gradually upward by the Lench Hills and the Ridge Way towards the
great central tableland; but opposite Malvern, continuing the horizon
to the north of Meon, can be seen, when the air is clear, beyond the
flat Stour valley, the outline of Edgehill, recalling as we gaze the
years of civil strife, full of terror and bloodshed, yet round which
Time has thrown his mantle of romance.

So far we have been able to dwell on the broad features of the country
which it takes many ages to change or modify. From the earliest times
we can record the settlers on this chosen spot must have looked out on
the same hills and the same broad valley with its overarching sky. But
then, instead of the "crown of gold" of