Nearer,
and to the right, Cheltenham stretches out under Cleeve Hill,
the highest of the Cotteswolds; and to the left Gloucester,
with its Cathedral dwarfing all the buildings round it. This
wooded plain before us dies away in the north into two of
the great Forests of ancient Britain; Wyre, on the left, from
which Worcester takes its name; and Feckenham, on the right,
with Droitwich as its present centre. Everywhere through
this area we come upon beautiful old timber-framed houses
of the Tudor time or earlier; Roman of origin, and still met
with in towns the Romans garrisoned, such as Chester and Gloucester,
though they have modernized their roofs, and changed their
diamond window panes for squares, as in the old house of Charles
Hoar's, previously mentioned.
Now if we turn from the north view to the west, we get a different
landscape. Right before us, a mile off, is Robin's Wood Hill,
a Cotteswold outlier; in Saxon times called "Mattisdun" or
"Meadow-hill," for it is grassed to the top, among its trees.
"Matson" House, there at its foot, was the abode of Charles
I.
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