The bell tower is indeed Evesham’s chief glory, from some standpoints her principal cause for pride.  Unique in its character, it strikes every beholder with surprise and pleasure in proportion to his capacity for the appreciation of stately form and exquisite workmanship.  Built by the accomplished and learned Lichfield in the pure perpendicular style, at a time when Gothic architecture was fast sinking in its decline, it would seem to be, not only one of the triumphs of mediaeval art, but one of the very last efforts of a dying tradition; in it we see embodied the lofty thought of one of our noblest abbots.  Though it has not witnessed the beginnings of the conventual life, the early struggles, nor the palmy days of monasticism, it forms a connecting link between the dim past and this present time.  It is, as it were, a monument perpetuating the memory of a great period and a great institution.

If the atmosphere be clear we should ascend the spiral staircase, and from the summit, no great height indeed, we shall gain a view of the town with the encircling river, and the vale with the surrounding hills.  The tower still performs its function, and every day the chimes play a different tune, all familiar airs that never tire, but with repetition seem rather to gain in association and charm.

If we take the path from the tower which brings us to the left side of Saint Lawrence’s church, we skirt an old wall which bounded the great courtyard of the Abbey, and joined the great church to the gate-house.  We soon come to a door of fifteenth century workmanship, and close by is a curious Gothic chimney of about the same date.  On the inner side was the porter’s lodge, and from here to the adjacent church of Saint Lawrence ran a covered way, probably a vaulted passage like a cloister walk, through which the officiating priest would enter.  If we proceed we soon find ourselves at the bottom of Vine Street, and looking across Merstow Green; and over the house-tops, bounding the horizon we see Clark’s Hill, a steep bank on the opposite side of the river, traditionally said to have been planted by the monks as a vineyard.  On our left is a large plastered building enclosed within substantial iron railings.  This was once the great gatehouse of the Monastery, and was built in the fourteenth century by Abbot Chiriton, who obtained a special licence from King Edward the Third to fortify the abbey precincts.  The windows and the wing projecting outwards are comparatively modern, but a Gothic window may be seen in the wall facing the churchyard, and the original arches can be traced on the garden front.  Close by, and possibly adjoining, was the Barton Gate which led to the stables and outhouses.  The long low building of stone and timber, washed over in the old manner with lime, which rises from the grass on our left was once the Almonry of the Abbey.  It is now occupied as offices and separate dwellings.  The front is extremely picturesque with its buttresses,