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12.30. After a stroll through the main streets to view the 
picturesque old black and white timbered houses, some of which 
seem in rather a perilous condition, a visit was paid to the Swan 
Hotel, which supplied the party with an excellent luncheon. An 
instructive paper was read by the Rev. C. W. Shickle on the 
decisive battle of Tewkesbury, fought between the Yorkists and 
Lancastrians on May 4, 1471, after which Edward Prince of 
Wales was literally hacked to pieces by the Dukes of Gloucester 
and Clarence, and all the Lancastrian nobles were hung, drawn, 
and quartered, including the Duke of Somerset, Lord John 
Seymour, the Earl of Devonshire, and Lords Wenlock and St. 
John. The Prior of St. John of Jerusalem, Sir Thomas Tresham 
and Sir Gervais Clifton, with many other Knights and Esquires 
who had sought the sanctuary of the Abbey, met the same fate. 
Queen Margaret was subsequently apprehended in a monastery 
near Worcester, and carried prisoner to London. 
A start was then made for the famed Abbey Church, opposite 
the North entrance of which stands a large black and white house, 
called the Bell Inn, which has a shield attached to the front 
stating that it was the house described in “John Halifax, 
Gentleman ” as the residence of a tanner, and at its rear is an 
ancient bowling green. 
Admission to the Abbey is obtained by the North porch, and 
after payment of the usual capitation tax, a Verger, who had the 
whole Abbey, its tombs and history at his finger ends, conducted 
the Members round the Ambulatory of the Abbey with its 
‘* chevet”’ of chapels and magnificent tombs. 
Much of the Norman structure of Robert Fitz Hamon still 
remains in this Abbey. He rebuilt the whole Abbey in 1102, 
the previous structure, erected by Dukes Dodo and Odo of Mercia 
in 715, being very insignificant. The good fortune of this Abbey 
was in having a succession of wealthy and noble patrons. The 
manor was successively held by Robert Fitz-Roy, created by his 
reputed father, Henry III., Earl of Gloucester, on his marriage 
