In the Cotswolds is the castle of Sudeley, its ruins being in rather
good preservation. It was an extensive work, built in the reign of Henry
VI., and was destroyed in the Civil Wars; it was a famous place in the
olden time, and was regarded as one of the most magnificent castles in
England when Queen Elizabeth made her celebrated progress thither in
1592. After the death of Henry VIII., his queen, Catharine Parr, married
Lord Seymour of Sudeley, and she died and was buried in this castle: it
is related that her leaden coffin was exhumed in 1782, two hundred and
eighty years after her death, and the remains were found in excellent
preservation. Among the records of the castle is a manuscript stating
that Catharine Parr was told by an astrologer who calculated her
nativity that she was born to sit in the "highest state of imperial
majesty," and that she had all the eminent stars and planets in her
house: this worked such lofty conceit in the lady that "her mother could
never make her sew or do any small work, saying her hands were ordained
to touch crowns and sceptres, not needles and thimbles." Near Tatbury,
and also in the Cotswolds, is the source of the classic river Avon, and
north-west of the town is the fine Elizabethan mansion of Chavenage,
with its attractive hall and chapel. The original furniture, armor, and
weapons are still preserved. This was the old manor-house of the family
of Stephens, and Nathaniel represented Gloucestershire in Parliament at
the time of the conviction of Charles I.: it is related that he was only
persuaded to agree to the condemnation by the impetuous Ireton, who came
there and sat up all night in urgent argument "to whet his almost
blunted purpose." Stephens died in May, 1649, expressing regret for
having participated in the execution of his sovereign. We are further
told in the traditions of the house that when all the relatives were
assembled for the funeral, and the courtyard was crowded with equipages,
another coach, gorgeously ornamented and drawn by black horses, solemnly
approached the porch: when it halted, the door opened, and, clad in his
shroud, the shade of Stephens glided into the carriage; the door was
closed by an unseen hand, and the coach moved off, the driver being a
beheaded man, arrayed in royal vestments and wearing the insignia of the
Star and Garter. Passing the gateway of the courtyard, the equipage
vanished in flames. Tradition maintains also that every lord of
Chavenage dying in the manor-house since has departed in the same awful
manner.
The Thames flows on after its junction with the Churn, and receives
other pretty streams, all coming out of the Cotswolds. The Coln and the
Leche, coming in near Lechlade, swell its waters sufficiently to make it
navigable for barges, and the river sets up a towing-path, for here the
canal from the Severn joins it. The river passes in solitude out of
Gloucestershire, and then for miles becomes the boundary between
Oxfordshire on the north and Berkshire on the south. The canal has been
almost superseded by the railway, so that passing barges are rare, but
the towing-path and the locks remain, with an occasional rustic dam
thrown across the gradually widening river. In this almost deserted
region is the isolated hamlet of Shifford, where King Alfred held a
parliament a thousand years ago. Near it is the New Bridge, a solid
structure, but the oldest bridge that crosses the Thames, for it was
"new" just six hundred years ago. The Thames then receives the Windrush
and the Evenlode, and it passes over frequent weirs that have become
miniature rapids, yet not too dangerous for an expert oarsman to guide
his boat through safely. Thus the famous river comes to Bablock Hythe
Ferry, and at once enters an historic region.