Description
Cheltenham, a municipal and parliamentary borough, the head of a poor law union and county court district, and a parish in Gloucestershire. The town stands on the river Chelt, 9 miles ENE of Gloucester, 9 S of Tewkes-bury, and 94 distant by road and 120 by rail from London. It has stations on the M.E. and G.W.R. The site of the town is a fertile valley sheltered on the north and east by the Cotswold Hills; the climate is comparatively mild and equable, and the environs show charming features of wood and mansion on the plain, and include brilliant scenery and noble prospects among the Cotswolds. The town is supposed to be of Saxon origin, but it remained a small straggling place at the close of the 17th century, and it owed its present consequence to the discovery of medicinal springs in 1716, and to an invalid sojourn at it of George III. in 1788. It is now one of the finest and most fashionable towns in the kingdom, a great resort of visitors in quest of health or pleasure, and a chosen permanent residence of many wealthy people and retired military men. Golf is played on the splendid links on Cleeve Hill. The streets are spacious and well planned, and so profusely lined with trees as to have gained for Cheltenham the title of the "Garden Town of England." The Promenade is a fine street with rows of trees along the footpaths, planted as long ago as 1818, and shops and ten-aces at either side, with an elaborately designed fountain and Italian garden in the centre.
Villages, Hamlets, &c.
Arle, a tithing in the parish, and within the borough of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.
Barton, a tithing in Cirencester parish and borough, Gloucestershire, 1 mile NW of Cirencester.
