Page:The National Gazetteer - A Topographical Dictionary of the British Islands, Volume 3.djvu/883

WORCESTERSHIRE. 871 WORCESTERSHIRE. form of hospitals, as St. Oswald's, in the Tything; Hask's, in New-street ; Berkeley's, in the Foregato ; Wyatt's, in Friar-street ; Inglethorpc's, in Foregate- Mrret; Goulding's and Shrcwsing's, in the Tything; Moore's, in Silver-street. They maintain collectively 10<5 poor men or women, who receive allowances of from 3s. 6d. to 8s. a week, and in some instances coals and clothing. Walsgrave's almshousos for 8 occupants are in Powick-street. Queen Elizabeth's charity, in the Trinity, maintains 29 women. Worcester partici- pates in White's yearly gift of 100 in rotation with 23 other towns ; it is disposed of in the form of a loan for 10 years of 25 for each of four young freemen. Worcester possesses a Dorcas society, mendicity society, lying-in charity, and many other benevolent institu- tions. Worcester has three banks : the Worcester Old Bank, the National and Provincial, and the City and County ; the latter company have erected a magnificent pile of buildings of the Italian order, with granite columns, at Doveway, in the Cross. Tlio savings-bank is in Shaw-street, as ali>3 the post-office. There is n swimming-bath in Sansome-walk. Worcester is a polling place, and place of nomination for the western division of the county, possesses county, borough, and ecclesiastical courts ; assizes, quarter sessions, and petty sessions are held here. The race-course is on Pitehcroft ; the races are held in July and end of October or be- ginning of November. Fairs are held the third Mon- days in January, February, March, and April, the second Monday in May, first Tuesday in June, second Monday in July, first Tuesday in August, 19th of September, 8th of October, first Monday in November, and the second Friday in December. The market days are Wednesday and Saturday. The following weekly newspapers are published at Worcester: Chronicle, Wednesday ; Herald, Saturday ; Journal, Saturday ; Nncs, Saturday ; Adver- tiser, Saturday. The Journal dates from 1709, and the Herald from 1794. Tho old cemetery is on Tallow Hill, and the new one on Rainbow Hill, 1J mile from the city. The lunatic, asylum is at Powick. The borough magistrates, aided by a stipendiary, sit daily. WORCESTERSHIRE, an inland co." in the W. Midland district of England, near the Welsh border, bounded on the W. by Herefordshire, en the S. and S.E. by Gloucestershire, on the E. and N.E. by War- wickshire, on the N. by Staffordshire, and on the N.W. by Salop, which entirely surrounds a small detached portion. It extends from 52 0' to 62 30' N. hit., and from 2 14' to 3 0' W. long., being 35 miles in length from N. to S., and 40 miles in extreme breadth, but the average does not exceed 17 miles. It is irregular in outline, having a circuit of about 220 miles, with 9 de- tached pieces. It contains 472,165 statute acres, of which about two-thirds are arable, and 100,000 acres in pasture and meadow ; the waste lands not exceeding 20,000 acres at the utmost. When viewed from the Malvern hills on the Herefordshire border, which is the highest point in the county, the surface presents the appearance of one vast, fertile plain, two-thirds of which lie to the E. of the Severn, and is varied chiefly by the vales of Worcester and Evesham, the former stretching N. and S. for at least 30 miles, and the latter, watered by the Avon, occupies the south-eastern part of the county. In the earliest historical period it was in- habited by the British tribes, Cornavii and Dobtmi, neigh- bours of the Silurei, and under the Roman dominion formed part of the province flavia ] Cfcsaricnsii. There are traces of the Roman roads called Upper Saltway and Bycknield Street, which traversed the county, but being then for the most part low and woody, it received hut little attention from the Romans. On the complete conquest of the island by the Saxons, it was occupied by the powerful tribe of the Wicking, or Hwickians, who at first established a separate commonwealth, but soon came under the kings of the Mercians, or Middle Eng- lish. Tho Saxons soon discovered the advantages of this county for agricultural pursuits, and reduced the whole of the surface under cultivation. In the 9th and 10th centuries it suffered from the predatory incursions of the Danes, but was at an early period very populous, as implied by the comparatively small size of the county, and its extending on both banks of tho Severn, then evidently spanned by bridges. In the reign of Henry III. it was the scene of the battle of Evesham, in which Simon do Montfort and tho barons were overthrown by Prince Edward, afterwards Edward I. During the civil war of Charles I. it was the scene of many stirring incidents, and at Worcester, on tho 3rd of September, 1651, Oliver Cromwell routed the Scotch army under Prince Charles. The land is rich, varied in hill and dale, and well wooded and watered. Tho extensive vales, particularly that of Worcester, extending through it from N. to S., a dis'.ance of about 30 miles, and from a quarter of a mile to a mile in breadth, consist of meadows and pas- tures of rich quality, which may be mown at pleasure ; other large tracts are in hop-grounds and orchards, for which the county lias been long famous. The quantity of cider and perry made is suflicient not only for domes- tic consumption, but for exportation to other parts of the kingdom, together with quantities of raw fruit. In various parts ot tho county are tracts of oak and ash timber, with numerous oak coppices, and many of tho heights bordering the Severn are ornamented with plan- tations of fir. The hedge-rows, too, are stocked with valuable elm timber. The most important produce of tho underwoods, which are supposed to be the remains of the ancient forest with which this county was onco covered, are poles for the hop-yards and charcoal for tho iron-works. Of the hilly wastes tho principal arc tho upper parts of tho Malvern hills, with tho Worcester- shire Beacon on tho S.W., which are the highest points in the county, rising to the height of 1,444 feet above sea level, or 1,313 above the Severn; and in a HMO N. from them are the Abberley lulls, with the Liclay and Clcnt hills in the eastern, and tho Brcedon hills in tho southern part of the county, being oll'shoots of tho Cots- wolds, tho summits of which are unenclosed, ailbrding only rocky sheep-walks. The Malvern and Lickey hills are of igneous origin, consisting of granite, sicnilc, and greenstone, intermixed with quartz. The precipi- tous swells of Bromsgrove Lickey are composed ch icily of quartz, and the Cawney and Tansloy hills chicily of basalt. The hills to tho N. of Dudley consist of moun- tain limestone of the lias formation, which forms tho substratum of nearly the whole south-eastern portion of the county. Tho remainder of the county, including the extensive vales of Worcester and Evesham, belongs mostly to tho Xow Ked sandstone formation, called triassic. In the N.W. is the Bewdley coal basin, and in the N. the Dudley basin, at which latter place are likewise beds of ironstone. In the vale of Eveshum, in the parishes of Badscy, tho three Littletons, and Prior's Cleeve, are quarries of a calcareous llagstone, capable of receiving a high polish ; freestone for building is ob- tained in various places; and the limestone hills upon which stand the castle and part of the town of Dudley are completely undermined by quarries, in which tho rare fossil called tho sea-louse, or Dudley locust, is found. Common rock salt, and a species of gypsum, occur near Droitwich and Stoke Prior, famed lor their brine springs, which are 80 feet down ; and at Stourhnuge is fine clay for crucibles, and sand for glass. The soil in the vale is fertile, and in parts alluvial, consisting of a deep rich sediment, which has been deposited by floods during a long series of ages. In the middle, southern, and western districts, tho soil is chieily a rich clay or loam, but in the N. a rich loamy sand, and in the E. there are some light soils. Brick earth is found nearly everywhere, and clay for fire-bricks, chiefly in the northern part of the county. The mines employ about 2,000 persons, the produce consisting of coals, iron, and salt. In the rivers salmon, grayling, shad, and lampreys abound. The principal river, the Severn, traverses the county from N. to S. by Bewdloy, Stour- port, Worcester, and Upton, to Tuwkesbury, where is the last of a series of locks. It is navigable for ves- sels of 80 tons as high as Worcester, and of CO tons ns high as Bcwdley, or ISO miles from tho sea. Its tribu-