's
"glassy, cool, translucent wave," as the poet has it, flows through a
land of meadows, orchards, and cornfields, with the hills of the Forest
of Dean rising on the western horizon. Alongside the river is the
cathedral city of Gloucester, the depot for a rich agricultural region
and for the mining wealth of Dean Forest, the Berkeley Canal leading
from its docks for sixteen miles down the Severn until the deep water of
the estuary is reached. The Romans early saw the importance of this
place as a military post, and founded Glevum here, upon their Ermine
Street road, as an outpost fortress upon the border-land of the
Silures. Fragments of tessellated pavements, coins, and other relics
from time to time exhumed attest the extent of the Roman settlement.
When the Britons succeeded the Romans, this settlement became gradually
transformed into Gleawecesore, forming part of the kingdom of Mercia,
and in the seventh century AEthelred bestowed it upon Osric, who founded
a monastery here. Athelstan died here in 941, and a few years afterwards
the Danes, who overrun and devastated almost the whole of England,
burned the town and monastery. The history of Gloucester, however, was
without stirring incidents, excepting an occasional destructive fire,
until the siege took place in the Civil War, its people devoting
themselves more to commerce than to politics, and in the early part of
the seventeenth century engaging extensively in the manufacture of pins.
Gloucester, however, gave the title to several earls and dukes,
generally men not much envied; as, for instance, Richard Crookback, who
sent from Gloucester the order for the murder of his nephews, the young
princes, in the Tower. But the town never took kindly to him, and warmly
welcomed Richmond on his avenging march to Bosworth Field. The siege of
Gloucester was made by King Charles's troops, the citizens having warmly
espoused the cause of the Parliament and strongly fortified their city,
mounting guns for its defence which they got from London. A polygonal
line of fortifications surrounded Gloucester, which was then much
smaller than now, and the bastions came down to the river, with outlying
works to defend a small suburb on the opposite bank. The Cavaliers were
in great strength in Western England, and the malignity of the
Gloucester pin-makers seriously embarrassed them. On August 10, 1643,
the siege began with a summons to surrender, which the authorities
refused. Parts of