(Trunk) No. 4. SHREWSBURY TO CORWEN.
Shrewsbury.—To pass through Shropshire without seeing Shrewsbury would be tantamount to journeying through Italy without visiting Rome. Its physical features are strikingly picturesque, and it has almost as many antiquities as Chester. Fortunately, too, the objects of interest are grouped together.
Town Plan No. 3—Shrewsbury.
The town lies in a loop of the Severn, with the castle protecting the opening. It is of red sandstone, and dates in part from the time of Edward I. The grounds are open, but the building is private. The free library and museum, opposite the castle, occupy the old buildings of Shrewsbury School, founded in the reign of Edward VI. The museum contains many 'finds' from Uriconium. The school now occupies magnificent buildings south of the town. Passing up Castle Street, the old Council House gateway is upon the left, and soon after a turn to the left at the post office brings one to St. Mary's Church, a noble building, of which the base of the tower and the nave are Norman, the transept Early English, and the aisles Perpendicular, and other portions late Perpendicular. The tower, with its spire 222 feet high, is the third loftiest in the kingdom. The general appearance of the interior is very beautiful, and the Jesse window of fourteenth-century glass should be especially noticed; it was originally in the Grey Friars' monastery. The glass as a whole excels that of any other English parish church; the St. Bernard window, for example, on the north side of the altar, attributed to Albert Dürer, came from a church at Cologne. St. Alkmund's Church can be seen from St. Mary's, and passing that, and also St. Julian's Church, the old Wyle Cop may be reached. Among the ancient timbered houses there is one in which Henry VII. stayed prior to Bosworth in 1485. Passing over the English Bridge, the Abbey Church is reached, with its imposing west front and great Perpendicular window, and the tower, the base of which is Norman, rising from the west end of the nave. Internally the latter possesses three massive Norman bays, and two of the Early English period, a fine arch in the latter style dividing it from the tower. The chancel and clerestory have been rebuilt recently in good taste. There are some interesting monumental effigies; one in the south aisle is supposed to represent the founder, Roger, Earl of Shrewsbury, died 1094. In this church, then the Chapel of the Monastery of the Holy Cross, Richard II. held the 'great Parliament' in 1377.
Returning to the town, the road by Beeches Lane will lead by way of the old walls to Murivance Tower, the only one remaining of the twenty which once guarded the town. A short distance farther on, the 'Quarry,' with its beautiful avenues of lime-trees by the river, is reached, one of the spots of which Shrewsbury is justly proud.
Having safely negotiated the dangerous hill in Shrewsbury, the road to Oswestry is easily found, and, as nothing of supreme importance is encountered before that town appears, the beauties of the Holyhead Road may be appreciated.
OSWESTRY