<g>Domesday Survey.</g>--In Teodechesberie were fourscore and fifteen hides in the time of King Edward. Of these forty-five were in demean, and free from all royal service and tax, except the service due to the lord of the manor. The manor was in _capite_. There were in demean twelve plough-tillages, and fifty between the _servi_ and _ancillæ_, and sixteen _bordars_ in waiting about the hall, and two mills of 20 _sol._, and one fishery, and a salt-pit at Wich, belonging to the manor.... In all Teodechesberie there are 120 acres of meadow, and a wood one mile and a half long, and as much broad.... There are now thirteen burgesses paying 20 _sol._ a-year; a market, established by the queen,[188] pays 11 _sol._ and 8 _den._ And there is one plough-tillage more, and twenty-two between the _servi_ and _ancillæ_, a fishery, and a salt-pit, &c.... This manor of Tewkesbury, when entire in the time of King Edward, was worth 100 _lib._ Whereas Radulf received 12 _lib._ because it was spoiled and disordered.... Brictric, the son of Algar, held this manor in the time of King Edward; and at that time had the underwritten estates of other thanes under his jurisdiction, &c. &c.--Dyde, 135. [The Norman pound or _lib._ equal to 12 ounces solid silver = £3 2_s._ sterling; the _sol._ = 3 shillings sterling; 48 Saxon shillings = £1 sterling.[189]--Ibid.]--See References and Authorities. <g>Environs.</g>--The first locality in the immediate neighbourhood to which the stranger’s attention is directed is the ancient battle-field, or, as it is now emphatically called, the “Bloody Meadow.” It was on this spot--the “field of Tewkesbury,”--that, on the 4th of May, 1471, the grand question between the rival houses of York and Lancaster was finally decided. The subject is familiar to every reader of history and the drama. It is commemorated, with many interesting details, by the old chroniclers; it is chosen by Shakspeare himself as the closing scene of one of his most powerful dramas; while the fair author of “Margaret of Anjou” has made it the theme of a spirited and graceful poem, in which the morning of the battle is thus introduced:-- “’Tis May--a bright and cloudless morn Smiles on the world--on every thorn The newly-open’d blossom glows, And rich the woodland music flows; Each hails the promise for his own, As if the beam on nature’s face Shone forth his single crest to grace, And spake to him alone. Alas! the welkin’s dazzling eye But mocks the fleeting pageantry.” [Illustration]