he had been
imprisoned in a dungeon in the keep, in 1327, his remains were brought
to the abbey church at Gloucester for interment, a shrine being raised
over them by the monks. The king was murdered with fiendish cruelty.
Lord Berkeley at the castle would willingly have protected him, but he
fell sick; and one dark September night Edward was given over to two
villains named Gurney and Ogle. The ancient chronicler says that the
"screams and shrieks of anguish were heard even so far as the town, so
that many, being awakened therewith from their sleep, as they themselves
confessed, prayed heartily to God to receive his soul, for they
understood by those cries what the matter meant." The king's shrine in
Gloucester naturally attracted many pilgrims, and the New Inn was built
about 1450 for their accommodation. It is a brick-and-timber house, with
corridors leading to the chambers running along the sides of the inner
court and reached by outside stairways, as was the common construction
of houses of public entertainment three or four centuries ago. The inn
remains almost as it was then, having been but slightly modernized. Most
of the pilgrims to the shrine brought offerings with them, and hence the
pains taken for their accommodation. The usual tale is told about a
subterranean passage connecting this inn with the cathedral. New Inn is
enormously strong and massive, and covers a broad surface, being
constructed around two courtyards.

[Illustration: NEW INN, GLOUCESTER.]

Gloucester has many churches in proportion to its size--in fact, so many
that "as sure as God is in Gloucester" used to be a proverb. Oliver
Cromwell, though the city had stood sturdily by him, differed with this,
however, for a saying of his is still quoted, that "there be more
churches than godliness in Gloucester." In later days the first
Sunday-school in England was opened here, and just outside the city are
the fragmentary remains of the branch of Llanthony Priory to which the
monks migrated from the Welsh Border. The chief attraction of
Gloucester, however, is the cathedral, and the ruins of the Benedictine
monastery to which it was formerly attached. The cathedral is of
considerable size, being four hundred and twenty feet long, and is
surmounted by a much-admired central tower. The light and graceful
tracery of its parapets and pinnacles gives especial character to the
exterior of Gloucester Cathedral, and when the open-work tracery is
projected