rade. Passing
onward towards the bridge we shall see to the best advantage the full
effect of this most picturesque of streets.

Alas! that modern enterprise and modern requirements should have
demanded the removal of such a bridge as fifty years ago spanned the
stream in eight irregular arches. Here we have convenience, but will
this condone for the charm of picturesqueness and long association? We
cannot but mourn over the loss. From the bridge we look up the river
to the weir, mill and water-meadows. On the right, by the yard not far
up the stream, stood, in the troublous reign of King Stephen a castle;
and from this fortress William de Beauchamp sallied forth, forcibly
entered the Abbey, and carried away the goods of the Church. But an
abbot in those days was quite equal to meeting a hereditary sheriff on
his own ground. Abbot William de Andeville descended on the castle,
took it, razed it to the ground, and consecrated the site as a
cemetery; no vestige of either castle or cemetery now remains. Old
Bengeworth is hardly more than one long street, and there is little
now to claim our attention. On the right side of the street, set back
behind some iron railings, is a school founded early in the eighteenth
century by John Deacle, a man of humble origin and a native of
Bengeworth, who, moving to London became a wealthy woollen draper with
a shop in Saint Paul's churchyard, and finally an Alderman of the
City. In the new church is his tomb with an elaborate effigy in the
costume of the period. Passing up the street we should turn before
coming to the Talbot Inn and look back: from this point the irregular
houses and roofs with the Bell Tower rising beyond make an attractive
vignette. The old churchyard can be seen behind the Talbot Inn. The
church is gone in favour of the modern and "handsome" structure which
we saw before us as we turned out of the main street. Here are only
the graves and the base of the old tower. Opposite the remains of the
tower is an old stone house, once the manor, where a little chapel can
still be seen in an upper room. Except the monument to John Deacle
there is nothing in the new church to call forth our interest.

[Illustration: THE BELL TOWER FROM BENGEWORTH]

By pursuing our way past the old burial-ground, and taking the turn to
the right we find ourselves in Cooper's Lane, associated with a family
long connected with the borough. To our left is a pretty cottage, and
beyond, seen among