114 



THE BRITISH ISLES. 



proprietary colleges, both for boys and girls, take a high rank, and are supplemented 

 by numerous private schools. 



Stroud, to the south of Gloucester, in a valley of the Cotswolds, is one of the 

 principal seats of the clothing trade of the county, an industry which employs 

 likewise many of the inhabitants of the small towns of JJislcf/ and Blinchin- 

 hampton, the one to the east, the other to the south-east of it. At Lypiatt Park, 

 an old monastic establishment, half-way on the road to Bisley, the Gunpowder 

 l*lot is said to have been concocted. 



Berkeley, in the centre of a fertile grazing country, exports real Gloucester 

 cheese. Its castle, with a keep erected in 1093, is still inhabited, and* the dungeon 



Fig. 64. — Cheltenham. 

 Scale 1 : 175,000. 





2'I0 



Vy.ofGr. 



2 Miles. 



over the gatehouse, in which King Edward II. was murdered in 1327, is 

 pointed out to curious visitors. Dursley and Wotton-uncler-Edge, both prettily 

 situated towns on the slope of the Cotswolds, to the south-east of Berkeley, are 

 engaged in the clothing trade. Near Dursley there are valuable quarries of Bath 

 stone, which hardens on exposure to the air, but is not very durable. Tetlury, 

 still farther to the east, on an eminence overlooking the source of the Avon, is 

 famous for its corn market. Of the many towns in the valley of the Avon, Malmes- 

 bury, Chippenham, Melksham, and Bradford belong to the county of Wiltshire, 

 and Bath lies within Somersetshire ; but Bristol, the most important of all, only 

 7 miles above the mouth of the river, is situated almost wholly within the borders 

 of Gloucestershire. 



