The broad valley of the Severn is bounded on its western side by the
boldly-rising Malvern range of hills, which are elevated so steeply and
so suddenly above the plain that they produce an impression of size and
height much greater than they really possess, and are more imposing than
many summits that far surpass them in magnitude. There is reason,
therefore, in Mrs. Browning's poetic expression:
"Malvern Hills, for mountains counted
Not unduly, form a row."
The Malvern range is a ridge running nearly north and south, with a
series of smooth, steep summits, the breadth of the range being barely
half a mile. Their slopes are of turf and furze, often as steep as the
pitched roof of a house, with crags projecting here and there. The
chief summits are the North Hill, rising eleven hundred and fifty-one
feet above the Severn, the Worcestershire Beacon, fourteen hundred and
forty-four feet, and the Herefordshire Beacon, thirteen hundred and
seventy feet. Their highest parts are covered with verdure, and nearly
seventeen hundred different varieties of plants have been found on the
range. These hills stand as one of Nature's bulwarks, an outwork of the
mountain-region of Wales, dividing an upland from a lowland district,
each furnishing totally different characteristics. They were the
boundary between the Romans and the Britons, and their summits present
some remarkable remains of ancient fortifications. The Worcestershire
Beacon rises directly above the town of Great Malvern, and south of it a
fissure called the Wyche sinks down to about nine hundred feet
elevation, enabling a road to be carried across the ridge. Some distance
south of this there is an even lower depression, by which the high-road
crosses from Worcester to Hereford. Then to the southward is the
Herefordshire Beacon, and beyond it several lower summits. These two
gaps or gateways in this natural wall of defence are both guarded by
ancient camps of unusual strength and still in good preservation. One of
these camps on the Herefordshire Beacon, with ditches, ramparts, and a
keep, encloses forty-four acres. Also on top of the ridge are found
traces of the ditch that was dug to mark the dividing-lines between the
hunting-grounds of the bishops who ruled on either hand in Hereford and
in Worcester. The bishops in the olden time appear to have been as keen
sportsmen as the nobles.
The town of Great Malvern, on the eastern slope of the hills, is
elevated five hundred and twenty feet, and is in high repute as a
watering-place. It had its origin in a priory, of which there still
remains the fine old church, with a surmounting gray tower and an
entrance-gateway which have escaped the general ruin of the monastery.
Within this ancient church the ornaments of some of the old stalls in
the choir are very quaint, representing a man leading a bear, a dying
miser handing his money-bags to the priest and doctor, and three rats
solemnly hanging a cat on a gallows. The priory was the nucleus about
which gathered the town, or, properly speaking, the towns, for there are
a series of them, all well-known watering-places. Great Malvern has
North Malvern alongside it and Malvern Link on the lower hills, while to
the southward are Malvern Wells and Little Malvern, with West Malvern
over on the Hereford side of the ridge. They are aggregations of pretty
villas, and the many invalids who seek their relief are drawn about in
Bath-chairs by little donkeys. The view from the Worcestershire Beacon
is grand, extending over a broad surface in all directions, for we are
told that when the beacon-fires that were lighted upon this elevated
ridge warned England of the approach of the Spanish Armada,
"Twelve fair counties saw the blaze
From Malvern's lonely height."
The advantages the Malvern range offers as a sanitarium are pure air and
pure water. The towns are elevated above the fogs of the valleys, and
the rainfall is small, while both winter's cold and summer's heat are
tempered. St. Anne's Well and the Holy Well are the great sources of
pure water. The latter is at Malvern Wells, and the former on the side
of the Worcestershire Beacon, at an elevation of eight hundred and
twenty feet. Both are slightly alkaline, but St. Anne's Well is the most
famous, and is tastefully enclosed. Water-cure establishments abound
here, and with such air, such water, and such magnificent scenery it is
no wonder that the Malvern Hills are among the most popular resorts of
England.
[Illustration: ST. ANNE'S WELL.]