agricultural trading centre, but progress was slow, and life free from
incident. But the change from those days of leisure to these in which
we live is great. Now the river has ceased to be utilised for
commerce: two railways connect the town with every other place of note
in the country, and the whole aspect of things is altered. The Evesham
of to-day is with us; over the past a glamour is spread.

It may be that, even if we had the chance, we would not return to the
past, but over many of us few other studies exercise so great a
fascination as the contemplation of the "good old days" which are
gone.




CHAPTER III

THE ABBEY

_Eoves here dwelt and was a swain,_
_Wherefore men call this Eovesholme_.

--LEGEND ON MONASTIC SEAL.
(_Modernised_.)


THE FOUNDING OF THE ABBEY


In the dim ages of antiquity, when the face of the country, now busy