CHAPTER IX.
THE RIVER _There is a willow grows aslant a brook,_ _That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream;_ _There with fantastic garlands did she come,_ _Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples._ -- SHAKESPEARE: Hamlet.
In tracing the history of our little town from its origin it has often been observed how important a part has been played in its fortunes by the river that flows through and partly encircles it.

It is to the river that the town owes its position, and its very existence probably depended upon the advantages which the stream provided.

To the early settlers a good supply of water and natural means of protection were necessary to life, and both these were offered by this narrow tongue of land.
For a long period the river was of little use for traffic, and not until the seventeenth century was it made properly navigable.

Now, through the neglect of the owners of the navigation rights, it is once more reverting in places to its primitive character.

From Evesham to Tewkesbury the stream is still in good order, but for a short distance only towards Stratford-on-Avon.
Apart from the fascination exercised on the mind by the ever changing surface of water, varied and rippled by motion and by wind, the beauty of this river is mainly due to the delicate and varied foliage of the willows and other trees which grow freely beside it, the luxuriant growth of flowers along its banks--"of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples"-- and the variety of blossoming water plants.