MALVERN, GREAT and LITTLE, with the Chace and the Hills, (Worcestershire) In the two Ts. were formerly two abbeys, about 2
m. asunder. Since the Diss. nothing remains of the abbey of Great-Malvern, but the Ch. now parochial. Little-Malvern
stands in a dismal cavity of the hills, which are great lofty mountains, rising like stairs, one higher than another, for
about 7 m. and divide this Co. from Herefordshire. There is a ditch here very much admired, which Gilbert de la Clare Earl
of Glocester anciently cast up, to part his lands on the E. side of these hills from those bel. to the Co. of Hereford on
the W. side. On these hills are two medicinal springs, called Holy Wells, one good for the eyes and putrid foetid livers,
and the other for cancers. At Litchfield there is a MS. which shews, that the priory of Great-Malvern was first founded by
K. Henry III. and Edward his son, and that it was endowed with lands by Gilbert, the Earl of Glocester above-mentioned,
who was Ld. of the forest; but that Henry VII. his Q. and his two sons, Prince Arthur and Prince Henry, were so delighted
with this place, and so beautified the Ch. and windows, that it is to this day one of the great ornaments of the nation;
for, says the MS. the glass windows are a mirror, wherein we may see how to believe, live and die; there being in the
lofty S. windows of the Ch. the historical passages of the Old Testament, which are types of the New, and in the N.
windows the pictures of the Holy Family, the Nativity and Circumcision of our Saviour, the Adoration of the Shepherds and
the Kings, his Presentation in the Temple, his Baptism, Fasting and Temptation, his Miracles, his Last Supper with his
Disciples, his Prayer in the Garden, his Passion, Death and Burial, his Descent into Hell, his Resurrection and Ascension,
and the Coming of the Holy Ghost. The history of our Saviour's Passion is painted differently, in the E. window of the
choir, at the great expence of Henry VII. whose figure is therefore often represented here, as is that of his Q. In the W.
window is that bold piece of the Day of Judgment, not inferior to the paintings of Michael Angelo.