CHELTENHAM. elU.Pruant (village on the C'helt1. A municipal and Parliamentary bor ough and fashionable watering-place in Glouces tershire, England. eight miles northeast of the city of Gloucester (Map: England, E It lies in a picturesque valley, on the Chelt, a small stream which rises in the adjacent hills and flows into the Severn. It is sheltered on the east and southeast by a semicircle of the Cotswold Hills. The town is regularly laid out and well built, and has fine public promenades. gardens, ter races, and squares. Among its numerous churches. the Parish Church of Saint Ma•y's, dat ing from the Fourteenth Century. is a fine example of Gothic architecture. The town was incorporated in IS76. It returns one member to Parliament. The town authorities have shown a desire to give it all modern improvements by installing electric lighting, providing an excel lent water-supply and a modern system of sewerage in connection with three large sewage farms. They also maintain a public library, an art school. baths, a cattle market. and slaughter houses. Cheltenham has become famous for its colleges and schools, among which are the grammar school (founded in 1574), Cheltenham College. training colleges for school-teachers,
and many private schools. Its popularity, how ever, is chiefly due to its mineral springs, con sidered to be specially efficacious in erases of dyspepsia and affections of the liver. In conse quence• such a large proportion of the resident population consists of Anglo-Indians that the town has been nicknamed 'Asia Minor.' The Cotswold Hunt holds its meets here, and draws many visitors during the hunting season. Ro man remains have been discovered on the site of the town. It is mentioned in Domesday Book. but it was not until the discovery of its mineral springs, in 1716, that it began to rise into im portance. The visit of George III. in 1788 set upon it the seal of fashion. Its growth in popu lation in the Nineteenth Century was very rapid. In 1804 it numbered only 3000: in 1841 it bad increased to 31,000; in 1891 it was 47,121; and 1901, 49,439.