Visits to Fields of Battle, in England, of the Fifteenth Century: to which are added, some miscellaneous tracts and papers upon archæological subjectsBrooke, Richard
History
Visits to Fields of Battle, in England, of the Fifteenth Century: to which are added, some miscellaneous tracts and papers upon archæological subjects
Brooke, Richard
Battlefields -- England; Great Britain -- History -- Wars of the Roses, 1455-1485
{149c} It is occasionally spelt “Home.” Some parts of the elevated
ground are now called Holme Ground, or Holme Hill. “Ther was at the
south-west ende of the Abbay a Castel caullid Holme. The tyme of the
Building of it is oncerteyne.” {149d}
“There hath beene yn tyme of mynd sum Partes of the Castel stonding
now sum ruines of the Botoms of Waulles appere. Now it is caullid
Holme Hylle. George Duke of Clarence, Brother to King Edward, had
thought to have brought Avon aboute the Towne and to have enlarged
the Town.” {149d}
{149d} Lel. _Itinerary_, vol. vi. fo. 96 [84].
{150a} The elevated ground above mentioned, which includes the place
called “Margaret’s Camp,” seems to be the same which (although it has no
very great pretensions to be called a hill) is alluded to by Holinshed,
when he states that the Lancastrian forces were driven up towards the
hill from whence they descended.
{150b} The winding or circuitous state of the old road, seems in some
degree to corroborate the statement of Holinshed, as to the Lancastrian
camp being defended with “cumbersome lanes, deep ditches,” &c. &c.;
indeed it is remarkable, that even now, there are ditches of very awkward
size and depth, on the north and west sides of the garden at Gupshill
Farm.
{150c} It is called from that circumstance by the country people “the
Island.”
{151} It seems strange, that Mr. Dyde, in his _History of Tewkesbury_,
suggests, that Margaret’s encampment was at a place adjoining the town
and abbey, called the Vineyard. Little as we may truly think of the Duke
of Somerset’s talents as a military commander, he could scarcely have
made so ridiculous a mistake, as to have fixed upon so low and insecure a
spot, as the Vineyard, commanded by the high ground of Holme Hill, and
with the little river the Swilgate not in his front, but in his rear.
What Mr. Dyde has mistaken for intrenchments, are nothing more than some
trifling inequalities in a spot of ground close to the abbey, which in
all probability, was formerly used as a garden or vineyard, as its name
implies.
{152} There are two hamlets in the parish of Tewkesbury, viz., one
called the Mythe, and the other Southwick and the Park, situated on the
westward of the town, and on the road leading towards Cheltenham; and it
is in the latter portion of the parish that Margaret’s Camp is situated.
{153a} The ball is almost a perfect globe, except at one spot, where it
is rather defective, and may perhaps have been eaten into by rust.
{153b} Holinshed.
{153c} Hall’s _Chronicles_, fo. 31.
{154a} Holinshed.
{154b} _MS. Chronicle_ of John Warkworth, printed by the Camden Society,
p. 18.
{154c} vol. vi. fo. 92 and 93.
{154d} The fact of that part of the elevated ground where Margaret’s
Camp is situated, being even now called “Gupshill,” may also be well
worthy of notice; because it is far from improbable, that it may be only
a corruption of the other word “Gastons.”
{154e} Holinshed.
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