Note 151 — Chapter VII · THE FIELD OF THE BATTLE OF TEWKESBURY. [131a]

It seems strange, that Mr. Dyde, in his History of Tewkesbury, suggests, that Margaret’s encampment was at a place adjoining the town and abbey, called the Vineyard. Little as we may truly think of the Duke of Somerset’s talents as a military commander, he could scarcely have made so ridiculous a mistake, as to have fixed upon so low and insecure a spot, as the Vineyard, commanded by the high ground of Holme Hill, and with the little river the Swilgate not in his front, but in his rear. What Mr. Dyde has mistaken for intrenchments, are nothing more than some trifling inequalities in a spot of ground close to the abbey, which in all probability, was formerly used as a garden or vineyard, as its name implies.