No such dangers awaited them at Bath. With their reception there by the bishop[83]--whom the healing virtues of its waters had induced first to remove his bishopstool thither from its lowlier seat at Wells, and then to buy the whole city of King Henry for the sum of five hundred pounds[84]--their itinerary comes to an abrupt end. If they penetrated no further up the Severn valley than Bristol they turned back from the gates of a region which was then reckoned the fairest and wealthiest in England. The vale of Gloucester is described as a sort of earthly paradise, where the soil brought forth of its own accord the most abundant and choicest fruits, where from one year’s end to another the trees were never bare, where the apples hung within reach of the traveller’s hand as he walked along the roads;--above all, where the fruit of the vine, which in other parts of England was mostly sour, yielded a juice scarcely inferior to the wines of Gaul. Another source of wealth was supplied by the fisheries of the great river, the fertilizer as well as the highway of this favoured district. Religion and industry, abbeys and towns, grew and flourished by Severn-side.[85] Worcester was still the head of the diocese; but in political rank it had had to give way to Gloucester. Standing lower down the river, Gloucester was more accessible for trade, while its special importance as the key of the South-Welsh border had made it one of the recognized places for assemblies of the court from the time of the Danish kings. The chief town of the neighbouring valley of the Wye, Hereford, had once been a border-post of yet greater importance; but despite its castle and its bishop’s see, it was now a city “of no great size,” whose broken-down ramparts told the story of a greatness which had passed away.[86] [83] _Ib._ l. ii. c. 22 (p. 541). [84] Will. Malm. _Gesta Pontiff._, l. ii. c. 90 (Hamilton, p. 194). The grant of the city is in Rymer, _Fœdera_, vol. i. pt. i. p. 8; date, August 1111. [85] Will. Malm. _Gesta Pontiff._, l. iv. c. 153 (Hamilton, pp. 291, 292). [86] Will. Malm. _Gesta Pontiff._, l. iv. c. 163 (Hamilton, p. 298).