RAMBLES BY RIVERS. THE AVON. CHAPTER I. THE SOURCE. In the following pages it will be my aim to point out the various objects and places of interest that occur along the banks of the Avon; to call attention to whatever is deserving of regard either in art or nature; and to add such information respecting them as may seem necessary to illustrate their character, or as promises to amuse or guide one who will either in fact or fancy accompany the author in a ramble beside this stream. I shall, then, assume the position of a companion who has before travelled over the road, and is ready to talk of the several places as he comes to them, of the people who have dwelt, and of the events that have occurred in them. Adopting a companionable manner and licence, I shall speak freely of whatever subject arises, without much heeding whether the tone be serious or sportive, fully confiding in your candour and patience; and I shall, I fear, much need both for rambling beside a river we B must touch on many things; we cannot confine ourselves to any one class or range of objects, and we are likely to differ in opinion upon some of them. However, I am disposed to account this necessity for looking at a diversity of matters an advantage more than counterbalancing any danger of a disagreement about them. We are all too apt to let our thoughts move in a circle. We too often attend merely to what interests our class, or sect, or party. Now, all party spectacles produce a slight refraction, or aberration; every object seen through them is a little a-twist, or out of its place. Some tiny feature, at the least, will be a little enlarged, or else pushed out of sight altogether. Our river may teach us better than this: he has no antipathies; he has his likings, but he turns aside from none. "But, when his fair course is not hindered, He makes sweet music with the enamell'd stones, He overtaketh in his pilgrimage." Our ramble is not to be a very short one, nor, as we shall find, are the subjects that will arise of slight consideration. Let us, as travellers should before commencing their journey, look whither our course lies. The Avon rises at Naseby, in Northamptonshire, touches on Leicestershire, then winds away through a good portion of the counties of Warwick and Worcester, and unites with the Severn at Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire. Tewkesbury is, in a direct line, about fifty-five miles southwest of Naseby. But the course of the river is very devious; and though it flows, on the whole, in a south-westerly direction, it does so by no means uniformly. On its way it passes by Rugby, Warwick, Stratford-upon-Avon, Evesham, and Pershore, before it arrives at Tewkesbury. Although the Avon is one of the most famous of our rivers, it is by no means one of the most beautiful. Its interest arises mainly from its associations, but in them it is alone among English rivers -perhaps among the rivers of the world. Some there are-wise men too in their generations-who look with contempt upon such associations, and would almost deem themselves degraded were they to permit their feelings to be excited by visiting the birth-places or the graves of the mighty, or the spots that have been sanctified by noble deeds. May such apathy never be ours! Rather let us cherish every feeling that leads the mind to venerate the intellectually or morally beautiful or great, as among the worthiest in the human breast; and cast aside none of the aids to a closer union with them. There is a real tangible advantage, too, in such associations. To stand thus where one, who has done so nobly, was born, dwelt, or acted, seems to bring us into closer contact with him. A livelier and vivider conception of the man seems to arise; and we not only come near, but hold converse—a closer converse than in his pages, though perhaps an humbler-with the master mind; because we, in a manner, approach his human nature, his homely state. It is not a shadow or a name only, but a real human being, we now see. It is the next thing to knowing the living man; and what freshness and life are imparted to the page by being conversant with its author, all know who have had experience of it. And who has not experienced |