ASTLEY. 21

Among the lions of Astley are the Prior's Well, the only remaining relic of the Priory before mentioned, and the hermitages by Severn-side. It is well known that Worcestershire possesses many specimens of these retreats - holes in the rocky banks of our famous river—where religious recluses whiled away their time in physical if not spiritual misery; but this specimen at Astley is the most interesting we have, the excavations being extensive, including a chapel, refectory, dormitories, arched ways, &c. From this spot the hermits uttered benedictions on the traffickers up and down the Severn, and obtained their "coppers" in return. The place, though partly in flood's way and most unfit for human habitation, was recently occupied by poor folk, and one portion was once an ale-house and another a school! At the Dissolution, Bishop Latimer, in a letter from Hartlebury to Lord Cromwell, alludes to this place as a pest to the neighbourhood. "Hereby (says he) is an hermitage in a rock by Severn, able to lodge 500 men, and as ready for thieves and traitors as true men. I would not have hermits masters of such dens, but rather that some faithful man had it." Here is the Redstone ford or ferry, once the high road from North Wales to London, the mails being conveyed across the river through Hartlebury as late as the building of Stourport bridge, about 1774; and no doubt the body of Prince Arthur, when brought from Ludlow for interment at Worcester Cathedral, was taken across this ford.

An ancient British celt was found in the cleft of a rock by the Severn, in this parish, in 1843. There are also peculiar names in this locality, as Sitch Meadow, Peril Cop, Hell Hole, The Burf, Deep Den, The Yield, &c. Near the church tradition points out a site where vines were anciently cultivated ; and to the west of the church the road leading down the hill to a picturesque corn-mill has always been called "The Tout," or "Toot," very frequently applied to eminences of this kind. On the breast of this hill is a mass of