or EVESHOLM, commonly called E-sam, a town of Worcestershire, seated on a gentle ascent from the river Avon, over which there is a bridge of seven arches. It is 95 miles from London, 14 miles from Worcester, and has a harbour for barges. It is an old borough, reckoned the second in the county; and sends two members to parliament. It had formerly an abbey with a mitred abbot; which abbey when standing was one of the largest and most stately of any in the kingdom. It was governed by a bailiff, till king James I. at the request of his son Prince Henry, gave it a charter for a mayor, 7 aldermen, 12 capital burgesses, a recorder, and chamberlain, who are all of the common council, with 24 other burgesses called assistants. Four of the aldermen, and the mayor for the time being, are justices of the peace; and of oyer and terminer, and of gaol delivery, for all offences in the corporation, except high treason; and the corporation has power to try and execute felons within the borough. Here are two parish-churches; but the bells of both have been removed to a beautiful old tower which was one of the gates of the abbey. This town is noted for the great victory obtained near it by Prince Edward, afterwards King Edward I., over Simon Montfort, the great earl of Leicester, who was killed in the battle. There is an open prospect from hence of the spacious valley called the vale of Evesham or vale of Gloucester, which so abounds with the best of corn, as well as pasture for sheep, that it is reckoned the granary of all these parts. The vale runs all along the banks of the Avon, from Tewkesbury to Perihore, and to Stratford in Warwickshire, and the river is so far navigable. It has a weekly market and four fairs. The market-house built by Sir Edward Hobby has its upper apartments used by the corporation for a sessions-house, and formerly for the assizes of the county. There are considerable garden-grounds around the place, the produce of which supplies the adjacent towns.