THE FINEST VIEW IN THE SOUTH OF ENGLAND.
[TO THE EDITOR 01 THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIB,—In your list of the "Finest Views in the South of England " (Spectator, August 3rd) I think you should add the view of the "Vale of Gloucester" or "Severn Valley" as seen from the Cheltenham golf course, on the summit of Cleave Hill, the highest of the Cotswolds. A rich valley twenty miles in width by forty in length, with the abbey church of Tewkesbury and the cathedral of Gloucester in the middle distance, is bounded to the right by the clearly cut outline of the Malvern range, which, being of mountain lime- stone, has the genuine mountain form ; to the left the high ridges of the Forest of Dean are lost in the shining entrance of the Bristol Channel or " Severn Sea," and in the farthest distance beyond, and between the Malverns and the Forest, rise the summits of the mountains of South Wales. To right and left of the spectator, on his side of the valley, are the varied and picturesque forms of the Cotswold range of
hills, every summit crowned by British and Roman camps, the ancient line of defence for mid-Britain against the tribes of the west. Experienced travellers have often declared that
this view for richness and beauty equals any valley in the world. It has been favourably compared with the " Carle of Stirling," as seen from Stirling Castle. and it at any rate deserves to rank with the best in the South of England.—I
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