The stately Homes of England,
How beautiful they stand!
Amidst their tall ancestral trees,
O’er all the pleasant land.
Further eastward are the venerable and truly picturesque ruins of Haghmond Monastery, founded in the year 1100, for canons of the order of St. Augustine. Near the remains of this once more noble pile is the wooded ascent of Haghmond Hill, and its conspicuously placed Shooting Tower, beneath which is the retired village of Uffington and its primitive church.
Direct east stands exalted in noble majesty the isolated Wrekin, the natural Heart of Shropshire, in front of which appears the exuberant foliage surrounding Longner Hall. Directing the eye southwards, is Charlton Hill, bounded by the towering summit of the Brown Clee (1820 feet in height), and the Lawley, Acton Burnell Park, Frodesley, and other Shropshire hills, among which is the lofty Caerdoc, otherwise Caer Caradoc, where Caractacus (the last of the original British princes) is said to have displayed his patriotism and daring spirit against the united efforts of the Roman forces.
Onward in the horizon, beyond a remote cultivated country, is the Longmynd with its straight outline, and the Stiperstones, topped by rocks, similar to the august relics of castellated grandeur; these are connected by the Bromlow and Long Mountain; and the panorama terminates with the lofty mountains of Breidden, Cefn y Cayster, and Moelygolfa, which, with more distant eminences, form a fine back-ground to a portion of the town, while the middle distance all around is unequalled for richness and fertility.
Nor, whilst extolling the environs and distant scenes around, let us forget the immediate vicinity of the Column: its verdant pastures, sequestered lanes, stately trees, and rural scenery, are surpassed by none so near a populous county town.
THE TOWN AND COUNTY GAOL
Is situated on a dry, beautiful, and salubrious eminence, a short distance from the Castle.
The front of the prison displays rather a bold appearance, having two rusticated stone lodges and a gateway in the centre; over the latter is a bust of the philanthropic Howard, by Bacon.
The interior possesses every necessary convenience appropriate to its purpose that sagacity and humanity can devise. It is spacious, airy, and well supplied with water, by means of a pump worked by the prisoners.
The governor’s house faces the gateway, and forms the southern front of the building. The chapel stands in the centre of the whole, and is lighted by a lantern surmounted by a gilt cross. It is octagonal, and contrived that while all the prisoners may see the clergyman, every class is so separated as to be hid from each other.