MALVERN  , an inland watering-

place in the Bewdley parliamentary division of Worcestershire, England, 128 .m . W.N.W. from London by the Great Western railway, served also by a branch of the Midland railway from Ashchurch on the Bristol-Birmingham line . Pop. of urban district(19o1), 16,449 . It is beautifully situated on the eastern slopes of the Malvern Hills, which rise abruptly from the flat valley of the Severn to a height of 1395 ft. in the Worcestershire Beacon . The district still bears the name of Malvern Chase, originally a Crown-land and forest, though it was granted to the earldom of Gloucester by Edward I . A ditch along the summit of the hills determined the ancient boundary . Becoming a notorious haunt of criminals, the tract was disafforested by Charles I., with the exception of a portion known as the King's Chase, part of which is included in the present common-land formed under the Malvern Hills Act of 1884 . - Malvern was in early times an important ecclesiastical settlement, but its modern fame rests on its fine situation, pure air, and chalybeate and bituminous springs . The open-air cure for consumptive patients is here extensively practised . The name Malvern is collectively applied to a line of small towns and villages, extending along the foot of the hills for 5 M . The principal is GREAT MALVERN, lying beneath the Worcester-shire Beacon . It has a joint station of the Great Western and Midland railways .

Here was the

Benedictine priory which arose in 1083 out of a hermitage endowed by Edward the Confessor . The priory church of SS . Mary and Michael is a fine cruciform Perpendicular building, with an ornate central tower, embodying the original Norman nave, and containing much early glass andcarved choir-stalls . The abbey gate and the refectory also remain . There are here several hydropathic establishments, and beautiful pleasure gardens . Malvern College, founded in 1862, is an important English public school . A museum is attached to it . Mineral waters are manufactured . At MALVERN WELLS, 21 M . S., are the principal medicinal springs, also the celebrated Holy Well, the water of which is of perfect purity . There are extensive fishponds and hatcheries; and golf-links . The Great Western railway has a station, and the Midland one at Hanley Road .

LITTLE MALVERN lies at the foot of the

Herefordshire Beacon, which is crowned by a British camp, r2 m . S. of Malvern Wells . There was a Benedictine priory here, of which traces remain in the church . MALVERN LINK, I M . N.E. of Great Malvern, of which it forms a suburb, has a station on the Great Western railway . WEST MALVERN and NORTH MALVERN, named from their position relative to Great Malvern, are pleasant residential quarters on the higher slopes of the hills .