346 THE TOPOGRAPHY OF WORCESTERSHIRE. 



hospital. The House of Industry, Worcester, is said to be " delightfully 

 situated, built 1724," whereas it was not erected till near the close of 

 the 18th century. 



We now arrive at what are denominated ** Miscellaneous Observa- 

 tions" or curious remarks worthy of notice relative to the county. We 

 shall soon ascertain from these " observations" the acquaintance of Mr. 

 Tymms with the county. At Droitwich we are informed of a " chapel 

 on the bridge" through which the carriage-road passes, the pulpit and 

 reading desk being on one side of the road, and the congregation on the 

 other. Fancy, good reader, the Bristol mail passing through this chapel, 

 during service, and the guard sounding his horn. But this " chapel on 

 the bridge," as any traveller on the road could have told Mr. Tymms, has 

 long since disappeared. "At Lower Swinford," observes Mr. Tymms, 

 *' a thatched cottage is shown as the birth-place of the actress, Mrs. 

 Siddons, who is said to have made her ' very first ' debut in a barn at 

 Bell Lane, at the coronation of George III." Under Herefordshire, 

 we are told, however, that Mrs. Siddons made her first debut at Kington. 

 ** At Madresfield, in the king's room, Charles II. slept the night before 

 the battle of Worcester." Impossible ! unless he had been taken 

 prisoner by the enemy, as Cromwell's forces occupied Madresfield House 

 at that time, as may be seen on referring to ** Cromwelliana," or 

 Florence's " Guide to Worcester." The house at the corner of the 

 north end of New-street [Worcester], on its east side, was inhabited by 

 Charles during the battle of Worcester, 1651. An instance of inattentive 

 composition, for if Charles had really kept under cover *^ during the 

 battle''^ he would have deserved shooting on the spot ; but the fact is he 

 was present in the heat of the action. " In Overbury church is an 

 elegant epitaph from the pen of Burke, displaying the virtues of his 

 friend William Dowdeswell, Esq." The Rt. Hon. W. Dowdeswell, at 

 one time Chancellor of the Exchequer, was buried in Bushley church, 

 where the epitaph in question is placed, and not at Overbury. West- 

 wood House, the ancient seat of the Pakington family, is stated to be " a 

 beautiful specimen of Norman architecture." Shades of the Pakingtons ! 

 your characteristic Tudor mansion, with its pyramidal towers, and 

 sculptured stars and wheatsheafs ranged along the jroof, instead of 

 battlements, your timbered gateway, court, and achievement of arms 

 above the entrance, all of the truly old English manufacture, referred to 

 the robber Normans ! Oh Mr. Tymms ! 



Finding ourselves thus deceived at every step, we quite despair of 

 obtaining accurate information in topographical works, and will conclude 

 our task by putting the statistics of Mr. Tymms to the test. On turning 

 to ascertain the value of property in Worcestershire, we find the startling 

 assertion that the "Annual Value of Real Property, as assessed in April, 

 1815, is £7,999,605!" This is a goodly revenue for the country gentle- 

 men of Worcestershire, and we consequently feel quite certain there 

 can be no ground for any complaint on their part. The *' Annual value 

 of Real Property in Herefordshire" is, however, said to be only £604,614, 

 and even StaflTordshire, including the great mining district, amounts but to 

 £1,150,285. Can Worcestershire, in reality, have a revenue seven 

 times as great as Staffordshire ? Surely not, and some very egregious 

 blunder has found admittance even here. 



We have no knowledge of the authors whose productions we have thus 

 descanted upon, but we have felt it to be a duty we owe to the public not 

 to let errors of the flagrant kind we have detected, pass unnoticed. 

 While the *' march of intellect" is daily sounded in our ears, and know- 

 ledge is confessedly progressing in almost every branch of science. 



