To the south-east of this is the Abbot’s Lodging; of which the only remnant is a portion of the cloister, consisting of three pointed arches, on the piers of which, are indications of the corbels and springers of an elegant groined roof. A similar fragment adjoins this at right angles.
North of the Abbey Church is the beautiful
HOSPITAL OF THE HOLY CROSS,
erected and endowed in 1852, by Daniel Rowland, Esq., in memory of his brother, the late Rev. W. G. Rowland, M.A., a native of Shrewsbury, who resided during a long life, in a house on the spot, and who for 32 years officiated as Curate of the Abbey Church, until his subsequent appointment to the living of St. Mary, which he held until his death, November 28th, 1851. The edifice comprises five houses, and was designed and executed by Mr. S. P. Smith. The appointment is vested in the Ministers of the Abbey and St. Mary, and the Head Master of the Free School, as Trustees. The Hospitallers must be widows, those residing in the Abbey and St. Mary’s parishes having a preference, and receive from the endowment an annual sum of £10. 8s. 0d.
A raised walk, formerly overshadowed by a venerable avenue of umbrageous horse-chesnut trees, but now flanked with modern houses, and called “Whitehall Place,” and “Tankerville Place,” conducts us to The White Hall.
This stately mansion acquired this appellation from the conspicuous appearance which its white-washed walls present from many points of the adjacent neighbourhood. It is, constructed of freestone; in plan is square and lofty, the summits of the walls broken into numerous pointed gables, and the roof adorned with highly ornamented chimneys, and crowned with a central octagonal turret. The gatehouse still remains, and opens through its arched portal to a small court in front of the house. The interior is spacious, and adapted by subsequent alterations to the modern notions of comfort and convenience. The walls of the extensive gardens are clothed with many curious and choice fruit trees; and at the back of the house is a fine Walnut-tree, magnificent in umbrageous expanse, apparently coeval with the mansion. This fine and perfect specimen of the domestic architecture of the reign of Queen Elizabeth was built in 1578, by Richard Prince, Esq. a native of Shrewsbury, who, by skill and integrity in the honourable and lucrative profession of the law, raised himself and his family to distinguished eminence.
THE RACE COURSE,
formed in 1833.