The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-08-05
THE OLD TOWER OF TEwKEsBURY
A Relic of the Middle Ages Which Was
Prominent In Englaud's Wars.

If to one who follows the windings OF
| Avon the recurrent suggestion of its seen
| cry be that of permanence, here fifty, II
| the old tower of Tewkesbury, he finds thai
/ permanence embodied monumentally IL
stone. No building that | know in Eng
| land-not Westminster abbey, with all is
sleeping generations-conveys the impress
siop Of durability in the same degree as
does this Norman tower, which fer eight
centuries has stood foursquare to the
storms Of heaven and tn frenzy Of men.
Though it rises 132 feet from the ground
to the coping of its battlements, and though
its upper stages contain much exquisite
carving, there is no lightness on its SCARED
| indomitable face, but only strength. The
same strength is repeated within the
church by the fourteen huge cylindrical
columns from which the arches spring to
bear the heavy roof of the nave. In spite
of the groining and elaborate traceries
above, the rich eastern windows, the luxu-
rant decoration of the chantry chapels and
their monuments, these fourteen columns
give the note of the edifce.
To them we return, aud standing beside
them are able to ignore the mutilation OF
years and see the old church as it was on
painted windows colored the white faces,
and its ceilings echoed the cries of the
beaten Lancastrians that chung to its altar
for sanctuary.
For ''in the field by Tewkesbury," lit
tie to the south beside the highway that
runs to Gloucester and Cheltenham, the
crown of England has been won and lost.
There on May 4, 1471, the troops of Queen
Margaret and the young Prince Edward,
led by the Duke of Somerset from Exeter
to join another army that the Earl of Penn
broke was raising in Wales. were over
taken by Edward ", who had hurried out
from Windsor to intercept them.
Footsore and bedraggled they had
reached Tewkesbury on the Sd, and plight
their field in close euen hard at the
townes end, having the towne and abbeie
at their backes; and directlie before them,
and upon each side of them, they were de-
Tended with cumbersome lanes, deepe
bitches and mamie hedges, besides hills
and dales, so as the place seemed as
noisome as might be to approach unto"
From this secure position they were drawn
by ruse OF the Crookback's and slaugh
tered like sheep. Many, we know, fed to
the abbey, were seized there and executed
by dozens at Tewkesbury Cross, where
High street and Burton street divide.
Others were chased into the river by the
Abbey mill and drowned.
A house in Church street is pointed out
as the place where Edward. prince OF
Wales, was slain, and some stains in the
floor boards Of one Of the upper rooms are
still held TO be his blood marks. Tradition
has marked his burial place in the Abbey
church and written above IL, 'Eheu, homi.
mum Juror; matris tn sola lux Is, ct gregis
ultima spes." The dust of his enemy
Clarence-"false, feeting, perjured Clsr-
ence"-lies but little way OFT. behind the
altar screen.
There Is a narrow field, one of the last
that Avon washes, down the center Of
which runs a narrow witty bOrdered water
course. 1t is called the Bloody Meadow"
after the carnage of that day, when, as the
story goes, blood enough lay at it, foot to
float boat; and just beyond our river is
gathered into the greater Severn.-A I.
CUTLER Couch in Harper's.