fpear, who was maintained for the exprefs purpofe of taking thefe offenders. If any Englishman was caught on the Welsh fide of this line, he fuffered a fimilar fate from them.

The Welsh people esteemed every thing that they could fteal from their English neighbours as lawful prize. On this account many of the latter were compelled to have their dwellings moated round, and to have palifadoes, or stakes, on the edge of the moat; and these inhabitants every night, for better fecurity, drove their cattle within the fence. If a Weishman could but get a horfe or cow over the boundary line, he had only to cry out " my own," to prevent the claims of his countrymen, for the horseman could not dare to follow, left he should be hanged.

After the conqueft of Wales by Edward I., the baronies marchers were continued, but under regulations fomewhat different from the former. In the reign of Edward IV. they were governed by a lord prefident, and a council, confifting of the chief juftice of Chester, and three juftices of the peace of Wales. In cafes of emergency, other perfons were allowed to be called in.

By a ftatute paffed in the reign of Henry VIII., the principality and dominion of Wales became formally annexed to the realm of England; and the fame jurisdiction and government, and a fimilar administration of justice, was adopted. All the Welsh laws, and most of their peculiar cuftoms and tenures,

were

By this

were by this ftatute entirely abolished. ftatute alfo four new counties were made, Radnorfhire, Brecknockshire, Montgomeryfhire, and Denbighshire. The marches became annexed partly to England, and partly to these new counties of Wales. The president and council of the marches were, however, allowed to continue as before, and their general court was holden at Ludlow.

A ftatute, however, was paffed in the year 1689, the fecond of William III., after the death of the earl of Macclesfield, the last lord prefident, by which the government of the entire principality was divided between two peers of the realm, who had the titles of lords lieutenant of North and South Wales. From this period the marches were entirely abolished *.

* Cotton MSS. in the British Museum; Vitellius, C. i. Phillips's Shrewsbury, note, p. 27.

C H A P. XII.

OSWESTRY TO RUABON.

Chirk Aquedu&t.-Church. - Memoranda of Dr. Sacheverell.→ Chirk Cafle, and extensive View.-Anecdote respecting a whimfical Painting of Pityll Rhaiadr.- Hiftory of Chirk Castle.Memoranda of Sir John Trevor, formerly Masier of the Rolis Beautiful Scene at New Bridge.--Ruabon.-Church and Monuments.-Dr. David Powel.

THE village of Chirk is fituated on the brow of a hill; and from the numerous coal-works and other undertakings in the neighbourhood, it appears to be a place of fome business.

The Ellesmere canal paffes within half a mile of the village, and is carried over the river and vale of Ceiriog by a long aqueduct.

In the church at Chirk there are feveral marble monuments in memory of the Middletons of Chirk castle: the best of thefe was erected for fir Thomas Middleton, one of the commanders in the army the parliament during the civil wars.

MEMORANDA OF DR. SACHEVERELL.

of

This well known character, whose history affords a striking instance of the folly and madness of party,

exalting an obscure individual, possessed but of moderate talents, to the greatest height of popularity, was inducted to the living of Chirk in 1709.

Sacheverell feems to have little talent, learning, virtue, or religion. Furious in high church principles, he courted the popular favour by impe tuoufly, and without intermiffion, exerting himself in the moft outrageous and inflammatory discourses against the perfons then in power, and against the diffenters, in defence of the doctrines of non-resist. ance and paffive obedience.-A fermon that he preached at St. Paul's was of fuch a nature as immediately to attract the attention of the public; and a fhort time after it was printed, upwards of 40,000 copies were circulated over the kingdom.

The clergy in general were ftaunch in his defence, and, to filence the rifing difcontent, it was thought neceffary for the House of Commons to impeach the author of high crimes and mifdemeanors. His trial was heard in Westminster hall, and lafted three weeks. During this time Sacheverel was every day conveyed thither in a coach, attended by the most tumultuous crowds, who all expreffed the greatest concern for his caufe. He was found guilty, but fuch was the popular fury against his enemies, that the House thought it expedient to proceed no further than merely to fufpend him from preaching for three years, ordering his fermon to be publicly burnt.

It was before the expiration of this period that he was prefented with the living of Chirk, for his fentence had not precluded him from taking prefer ment. In his journey hither he was escorted through the different towns and villages on the road by fuch multitudes of people, and treated all the way with fuch magnificence, that during the progrefs even of our princes fcarcely greater attentions have been fhewn.-At Wrexham above two thousand perfons, many of them of family and fortune, met and conducted him; and in his return to Oxford he was brought into Shrewsbury by nearly five thoufand horsemen, befides an immenfe concourfe of people on foot. Near Bridgenorth he was met by four thousand perfons on horseback and three thousand footmen, moft of them wearing in their hats white knots edged with gold, and three gilded leaves of laurel: the hedges for two miles from the town were dreffed with flowers; and each of the churches was adorned with flags and colours that coft a confiderable fum of money.

These attentions were highly flattering to Sacheverel; but the favour he had thus obtained at length fubfided, except at thofe times when the populace was momentarily roufed, by his inflammatory difcourses, to acts of violence against the principles of juftice and good government.-He died on the 25th of June 1724, perfevering in the fame fentiments to the last.

CHIRK