COTTESWOLD HILLS, or COTSWOLDS  , a range of hills in the western midlands of

England . The greater part lies in Gloucestershire, but the system covered by the name also extends into Worcestershire, Warwickshire, Oxfordshire, Wiltshire and . Somersetshire . It extends on a line from N.E. to S.W., forming a part of the great Oolitic belt extending through the English midlands . On the west the hills overlook the vales of Evesham, Gloucester and Berkeley (valleys of the Worcestershire Avon and the Severn), with a bold escarpment broken only by a few abrupt spurs, such as Bredon hill, between Tewkesbury and Evesham . On the east they slope more gently towards the basins of the upper Thames and the Bristol Avon . The watershed lies close 'to the western line, except where the Stroud valley, with the Frome, draining to the Severn, strikes deep into the heart of the hills . The principal valleys are those of the Windrush, Lech, Coln and Churn, feeders of the Thames, the Thames itself, and the Bristol Avon . The last, wherein lie Bath and Bristol, forms the southern boundary of the Cotteswolds; the northern is formed by the valleys of the Evenlode (draining to the Thames) and the Stour (to the Worcestershire Avon), with the low divide between them . The crest-line from Bath at the south to Meon Hill at the north measures 57 M . The breadth varies from 6 m. in the south to 28 towards the north, and the area is some 300 sq. m . The features are those of a pleasant sequestered pastoral region, rolling plateaus or wolds and bare uplands alternating with deep narrow valleys, well wooded and traversed by shallow, rapid streams .

The

average elevation is about 600 ft., but Cleeve'COTTIN 253 Cloud above Cheltenham in the Vale of Gloucester reaches 1134 ft., and Broadway Hill, in the north, io86 ft . These heights command splendid views over the rich vales towards the distant hills of Herefordshire and the Forest of Dean . The picturesque village of Broadway at the foot of the hill ofthat name is much in favour with artists . In the soil of the hill country is so much lime that a liberal supply of manure is required . With this good crops of barley and oats are obtained, and even of wheat, if the soil is mixed with clay . But the poorest land of the hill country affords excellent pasturage for sheep, the staple commodity of the district; and the sainfoin, which grows wild, yields abundantly under cultivation . The Cotteswolds have been famous for the breed of sheep named from them since the early part of the 15th century, a breed hardy and prolific, with lambs that quickly put on fleece, and become hardened to the bracing cold of the hills, where vegetation is a month later than in the vales . Improved by judicious crossing with the Leicester sheep, the modern Cotteswold has attained 'high perfection of weight, shape, fleece and quality . An impulse was given to Cotteswold farming by the chartering in 1845 of the Royal Agricultural College at Cirencester . A number of small market-towns or large villages lie on the outskirts of the hills, but in the inner parts of the district villages are few . The " capital of the Cotteswolds " is Cirencester, in the east . In the north is Chipping Campden, its great Perpendicular church and the picturesque houses of its wide street commemorating the wealth of its wool-merchants between the 14th and 17th centuries .

Near this

town, in the parish of Weston-sub-Edge, Robert Dover, an attorney, founded the once famous Cotteswold games early in the 17th century . Horse-racing and coursing were included with every sort of athletic exercise from quoits and skittles to wrestling, cudgels and singlestick . The games were suppressed by act of parliament in 1851 . See Proceedings of the Cotteswold Naturalists' Field Club, passim; W . H . Hutton, By Thames and Cotswold (London, 1903) .