Shrewsbury Cafle.-Walls.- County Gaol.-Bridges.- Shrewf bury Abbey-Ancient Oratory.-St. Giles's Church.-St. Alkmund's Church.-Daring Feats on the Point of the Spire.A fingular traditional Story.-St. Mary's Church.-Account of a Man killed in fliding down a Rope from the Spire, to a Field, across the River.-St. Julian's Church.-Old St. Chad's. New St. Chad's. The Quarry.-Account of the House of Industry.The Ruins of the Three Friaries.-Public Buildings.-Hiftory of Shrewsbury.-Lift of remarkable Events.

SHREWSBURY is a town of confiderable magnitude and importance, fituated on a floping ground, and nearly furrounded by the Severn. The streets are irregular, and many of the buildings very ancient. —This place once formed the capital of Powisland, and was for fome years a feat of the Welsh princes.

CASTLE.

In my tour through the town and fuburbs I first visited the castle. This is built of a red stone, and fituated on an eminence above the river, just in that part of the town where the river leaves it undefended. Its foundation has been afcribed to Roger de Montgomery, the great earl of Shrewsbury, who

lived in the reign of William the Conqueror, but of the ancient structure there is not at this time much remaining. It is the property, and forms one of the refidences of fir William Pulteney, in right of his lady, Henrietta, baronefs of Bath. The owner, however, very seldom vifits the place.-The keep ftood on a large artificial mount, which feems to prove it of Saxon or British origin.

The caftle continued in poffeffion of the two fons of the founder till the reign of Henry I., when that monarch chofe to take it into his own hands. After the restoration of Charles II. it was granted to Francis, lord Newport, afterwards earl of Bradford; and fome time confequent to this grant it became the property of the Pulteney family.

WALLS.

Robert de Belesme, fon to Roger de Montgomery, was the first who attempted to defend the town by walls. This he did, by building from the castle down each fide of the river for a confiderable diftance; and thus he fecured himself for a while from the attacks of his enemy, Henry I. The remaining part of the walls was erected in the reign of Henry III., at the request of the inhabitants, to fortify the place against the inroads of the Welsh. So great, however, was the want of money for the completion of the undertaking, that thirty-two years elapfed before they could be finished.-A very small portion of the walls is now left. From one fituation near them

them I had a good profpect of part of the suburbs

of the town.

COUNTY GAOL.

At a little distance beyond the castle, and, like that building, on the elevated bank of the Dee, I faw the county gaol, a large and handsome structure. It is built of brick, and in a fituation that cannot be furpassed for the purity, and confequent healthiness, of its atmosphere. In a niche over the entrance there is a buft of Howard. The outer walls were begun in the year 1789, and fome of the apartments were ready for the reception of prisoners in 1796, but the building is fcarcely yet finished.

I proceeded along a pleasant terrace walk to the end of the building, whence descending to the river, I found a foot-path which led me to the English bridge. From hence the castle, the river, and the town, partly hidden by trees, with the fpires of St. Mary's and St. Alkmund's churches, formed a beautiful and picturesque scene.

THE STONE Bridge,

Called also the East bridge, the English bridge, and the New bridge, is an elegant structure, of seven arches, which was built about thirty years ago.— Near the middle of it are the water-works, from which the town receives its fupply of that very effential article of life.-On the weft fide of the

town, in a direction nearly oppofite to this, is the other, called the Welsh bridge. This is a late erection. The ancient bridge had a gate, and towers at each end, a neceffary defence against the turbulent neighbours on that side of the water.

SHREWSBURY ABBEY

Is fituated in the fuburbs of the town, a little beyond the flone bridge. The prefent remains confift of only the welt part, from the cross ifle to the west tower. The choir, the cloifter, and chapter-house, are entirely deftroyed. Of the fide ifles, the arches are yet left, and the eaft end of the prefent church is a modern wall that has been run up betwixt two of the ancient columns. It is fuppofed to have been made parochial; and to have received this addition in the reign of queen Elizabeth. The great tower is fill left, and contains a fine gothic window, over which is a ftatue, fuppofed to reprefent the founder, Roger de Montgomery. The whole building is of the fame kind of red ftone as the caftle, and, except the weft window, is in the Norman gothic ftile of architecture, with plain arches, and nafly columns.-On the fouth fide of the altar there is a recumbent figure, in a coat of mail, and in the act of drawing a fword, which is believed to have been the monument of Montgomery. An infcription intimates that it was difcovered among the ruins of the abbey, and that, in 1622, it had been'

directed by the heralds at arms to be carefully preferved, in confequence of which it was placed in its present situation.

The hiftory of the abbey is fhort. It was founded by Roger de Montgomery, and his countefs Adeliffa, in the year 1083, and dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul. Its monks were of the Benedictine order, and first brought over from Seez, in Normandy; and the earl, by permiffion of his lady, became himself one of the religious of his own abbey. He endowed it largely, and encouraged all who were dependant on him to become benefactors. At his death, about nine years afterwards, he received here an honourable interment.-Robert, the fourth abbot, procured, though with much difficulty, the bones of St. Wenefred, and had them enshrined here. The property of the abbey at the diffolution was valued by Speed at about five hundred pounds per annum. On the church being made parochial by queen Elizabeth, it received the name of St. Crux, or the Holy Cross, in the abbey of Shrewsbury, which name it ftill retains.

In the garden of fir Charles Oakely, on the south fide of the church, is a small, but elegant octagonal building, the remains of an ancient oratory belonging to the abbey, now called St. Wenefred's Pulpit.

CHURCHES.