THE BUTTER CROSS,
intended for the accommodation of persons bringing Butter, Eggs, and Poultry to the markets. The old cross, a heavy, inconvenient brick building, with a large reservoir on its top for supplying the upper parts of the town with water, stood nearly in the centre of the thoroughfare, whence it was removed in 1818, and another erected at the expense of the Corporation, on the present site; which also proving insufficient and inconvenient, was taken down, and the present structure, on an enlarged scale, built in 1844, by the Corporation, aided by the subscriptions of the town and neighbourhood.
On part of the site of the present Cross stood, previously, an ancient timber structure, probably part of the collegiate buildings of the adjacent church of St. Mary.
Nearly opposite the Butter Cross, on the left-hand side of the street, is an old mansion, now new-fronted, modernised, partially rebuilt, and divided, once, it is believed, the residence of the opulent and ancient, but now extinct, family of the Prides, who gave their name to the street “Pride Hill.” Some idea of its former splendour may have been collected from the ornamented plaster ceilings, which remained in several of the rooms, but which, by recent alterations, are probably now removed.
Proceeding onwards, we shortly reach, on the left,
THE RAVEN INN,
where the ingenious George Farquhar wrote his sprightly but licentious comedy of “The Recruiting Officer,” during his residence in our town in 1704, in that capacity. The scene of the play is laid in Shrewsbury, and though the plot may not have had any foundation in reality, it has been ascertained, on indubitable evidence, that the author took for the originals of his characters, many distinguished persons, living or well known at that time, in the town and neighbourhood. The window of the room, which tradition points out as that in which the drama was composed, still exists, and may be seen from the yard of the Inn.
At the end of Castle Street, on the right side, the remains of