in the service
of Church and State--of men whose names were household words in
the England of our fathers; that close to him were once stately
cloisters, great monastic buildings, including refectories,
dormitories, chapter-house, chapels, infirmary, granaries,
kitchens--all the varied piles of buildings which used to make up
the hive of a great monastery."

It was commenced by Bishop Egwin, of Worcester, in 702 A.D., but the
era of its great prosperity set in after the battle of Evesham when
Simon de Montford was slain, and his body buried in the monastic
church. There was his shrine to which was great pilgrimage, crowds
flocking to lay their offerings there; and riches poured into the
treasury of the monks, who made great additions to their house, and
reared noble buildings. Little is left of its former grandeur. You can
discover part of the piers of the great central tower, the cloister
arch of Decorated work of great beauty erected in 1317, and the abbey
fishponds. The bell tower is one of the glories of Evesham. It was
built by the last abbot, Abbot Lichfield, and was not quite completed
before the destruction of the great abbey church adjacent to it. It is
a grand specimen of Perpendicular architecture.

[Illustration: Fifteenth-century House, Market Place, Evesham]

At the corner of the Market Place there is a picturesque old house
with gable and carved barge-boards and timber-framed arch, and we see
the old Norman gateway named Abbot Reginald's Gateway, after the name
of its builder, who also erected part of the wall enclosing the
monastic buildings. A timber-framed structure now stretches across the
arcade, but a recent restoration has exposed the Norman columns which
support the arch. The Church House, always an interesting building in
old towns and villages, wherein church ales and semi-ecclesiastical
functions took place, has been restored. Passing under the arch we see
the two churches in one churchyard--All Saints and St. Laurence. The
former has some Norman work at the inner door of the porch, but its
main construction is Decorated and Perpendicular. Its most
interesting feature is the Lichfield Chapel, erected by the last
abbot, whose initials and the arms of the abbey appear on escutcheons
on the roof. The fan-tracery roof is especially noticeable, and the
good modern glass. The church of St. Laurence is entirely
Perpendicular, and the chantry of Abbot Lichneld, with its fan-tracery
vaul