[188] To the left of the turnpike is the Baschurch road, on which, at the distance of one mile, are the beautiful Gates leading to Berwick House; a short distance beyond is the neat structure of Berwick Chapel, re-built at the close of the 17th century.—The town may be regained by a walk through Almond Park, rich in sylvan beauty.
[190] In 1604 a great plague began in Salop, on the 2d of June, and raged until April following, in which time 657 persons had died of it in the several parishes, and the streets were so little frequented as to be covered with grass. The two bailiffs died.—MS. Chronicle.
[200] Pure muriate of soda does not contain any water in its crystallized state except what lodges in the interstices of the crystals, therefore the weight of that, as it exists in the water, would not exceed the weight above given; 30 grains muriate of lime indicate 51 grains crystallized muriate, 8.81 grains muriate magnesia indicate 15½ grains.
[204] “Why, brother Wilful of Salop, you may be as short as a Shrewsbury Cake, if you please.”—Way of the World, 1735, by W. Congreve.
[212] Mr. Williams possessed acquirements of no ordinary description, and was an accomplished scholar. He had studied much of botany, was an excellent draughtsman, and in early life devoted considerable attention to the study of antiquities, particularly those connected with his native county. His collection of materials relating to the History of Shropshire were most extensive, and although he did not favour the world with any publication shewing the result of his researches, he has, nevertheless, left behind a surprising proof of his perseverance in original drawings of all the churches, parochial chapels, monastic remains, castles, monuments, and tablets, in Shropshire, besides sketches of most of the mansions of the nobility and gentry in the same county.
[215] Etbrighton, a Saxon manor in Domesday.
[216] Mr. Thomas Barker, author of a work on angling, was born at this village. From the singular vein of humour which runs through his book, he appears to have been a good-humoured gossiping old man. In the dedication he states, “I have written no more but my own experience and practice, and have set forth the true ground of angling, which I have been gathering these three-score years; having spent many pounds in the gaining of it, as is well known in the place where I was born and educated, which is Bracemeale, in the liberty of Salop, being a freeman and burgess of the same city.”—‘Barker’s Delight, or the Art of Angling,’ was published a few years after Izaak Walton’s Complete Angler (1659), to which Mr. Barker appears to have contributed the greater part of what is said on Fly Fishing.
[219] Longner, the ancient seat of the Burtons, is about one mile N.W. of this village, and forms part of the parish of St. Chad. In 1558 it was the residence of Edward Burton, Esq. a zealous protestant, who expired suddenly with Joy on hearing of the accession of Queen Elizabeth. His body was refused interment in the church of St. Chad by the popish priest, owing to some stipulations made either in his will, or by the zeal of his surviving friends, that the popish service should not be celebrated over his remains, which were in consequence buried in his own garden, over which a plain altar has been erected, with a quaint poetical inscription.
[221] A great battle seems to have been fought near this hill; for in 1833 a quantity of spear heads and celts, formed of brass, or some other composition of copper, and of rather elegant workmanship, were found near the Wrekin Farm.