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 which Drayton sings, or the
silver sheen which in springtime now glorifies the gardens, the face
of the country was, we are told, one vast thicket of brushwood and
forest trees. In Blakenhurst, meaning black forest, the name of the
hundred in which the town is situated, we have an indication of the
former character of this region. Only here and there was a clearing
with a few huts giving shelter to a scanty population of herdsmen and
hunters. In those shadowy times the river was broad and shallow,
unconfined to one course, here swift and clear, there sluggish and
thick, feeding creeks and marshes by the way, and overgrown with
rushes and water weeds; of no use probably as a water-way but prolific
in fish and fowl.

During historic times the vale has been hallowed by many events, and
is sacred to many memories: there is hardly an acre which does not
bear evidence of the doings of our forefathers through the long ages
of which we have knowledge. The site of the town was apparently
unoccupied by the Romans though their thoroughfares run not far
distant, and their camps are numerous on the neighbouring hills. Not
until Saxon times do we hear of this fertile peninsula being
inhabited, and then we are told by the chroniclers of a village called
Homme near this spot, the home of only a few peasants. Like many other
towns and cities, in England, Evesham is said to have had a monastic