Some Account of the Ancient and Present THE first thing we looked for, on opening this volume, was a plan of the town; we could find none:-nor any general view of the town, nor of the principal churches, nor of the town hall. To be sure, it is not the first time we have looked into a book for what it ought to contain, without finding it; but such disappointments, be it known, add very little to the good humour of a corps of reviewWe found indeed, a plate or two of seals, and with these ended our findings, in the illustrative department. ers. Nevertheless, this volume is creditable to the diligence and perseverance of its author. That we could have willingly exchanged some parts of it, which we think rather long, for information on others which are little more than mentioned by the writer, is true: but if he could not obtain satisfactory accounts of these, he has incurred no blame by his conciseness. numbers, congregations, &c. That which he calls " a Moravian meeting held in Cole Hall," is a society of Sandemanian baptists: and he has omitted a small chapel in Hill's Lane, occupied by Welsh methodists: it was originally in the Wesleyan interest. The baptist congregation in Shrewsbury is supposed to be the oldest in the kingdom: the principals of that persuasion believe that it was established in the reign of Elizabeth. The first minister is supposed to have been a Mr. Penry, who died for his principles in 1578. A Mr. Thompson was their minister in 1618; in 1628 they built their meeting-house in Golden Cross Street. We return to the work before us. Shrewsbury was by the Saxons called Scrobbesbyrig, or Scrobbesbyri, and by the Britons Pen-gwerre; both signify nearly the same; "the head [-land, or knoll,] of the Alder Groves." The Britons built here a city, which became the capital of that division of Wales called Powis; the palace stood on the spot lately occupied by St. Chad's church. The Saxons after their conquest, changed its name. Ethelred kept his Christmas here, in 1006. In the time of Edward the Confessor it contained 252 houses: a mint had been established by Edward the Elder: it was under the direction of three officers, who were obliged to pay the king twenty shil lings at the end of fifteen days, while the money was current. The fortune of Shrewsbury followed the vicissitudes of war or peace, with the Welsh its neighbours, till the union of the princi pality to the English crown. In p. 35. we meet with a very proper correction of a point of English history. The greater part of our writers make Salisbury the scene of the Duke of Buckingham's execution by order of Richard III. The Duke was taken in the neighbourhood of Shrewsbury; Richard was at Coventry: Shrewsbury therefore was the place of the Duke's punishment: since there was but a week between his apprehension and death.” During the length of time which this work has been in the press (as the author himself acknowledges) Shrewsbury has rapidly increased in population; and notwithstanding the war, in commerce, also. We learn, that there are at this time many more applicants, for houses, than can be accommodated: and that the committee of inhabitants are so conscious of the present defective state of the pavement, lighting, watching, &c. of their town, that they intend applying to parliament for an act to authorise intended improvements. The same protraction at the press, we presume, accounts for the omission of several commercial concerns: as that of the cotton manufactory in Coleham, by Messrs. Hulberts, in 1803: the very extensive linen manufactory of Messrs. Benyons and Bage, who separated from Mr. Marshall in 1805; and the Salopian brewery of Sir John Heathcote and Co. in 1806. The external appearance of Shrewsbury Our author is a churchman; his account is highly prepossessing its interior is a of the dissenting places of worship is specimen of an ancient English town: contained in a few lines, for each: he does the streets are narrow, irregular, badly not mention the names of the present mi-paved, the gable ends of the houses turned nisters; nor hint at any eminent men toward the street; and "the close woodenknown among them, whether protestant, built alley, called "a Shut" [shoot, or or catholic; he forms no estimate of their branching off] in the provincial dialect of : the place, is everywhere seen connecting that some of the citizens have formerly the principal streets with each other." mistaken marvellously, may be inferred The population in 1695 was about 7,383 from their misnomers on natural history: persons; in 1750 about 8,141; in 1801, a whale and a dolphin at Shrewsbury! A it was 18,479. The trade of the town sturgeon is extraordinary enough! What a was formerly very great in Welsh flan- prodigy would this furnish to the Chronels: they were thirty years ago sold for nicle of some future Baker! 23. to 2s. 6d. per yard; they now produce 4s. 6d. to 5s. The following is an instance of very commendable precaution against conflagration. In the year 1796, a considerable manufactory of linen yarn was established at the end of the suburb called Castle-Foregate, by Messrs. Benyons and Bage, of this place, and Mr. Marshall of Leeds. This has already attained to great perfection under the spirited and skilful management of those gentlemen, who are entitled to just praise for their humane and judicious attentions to the healthy and morals of the numerous young persons whom they employ. The buildings are very extensive, and are secured from the ravages of fire by the exclusion of timber from almost every part of their construction, the roofs and Hoors are supported on brick vaults, the window frames, and all other parts where wood is used in buildings, are here of cast-iron The machinery, which is of wonderful contrivance, is worked by two steam engines. We cannot introduce our author's account of the festivals, still maintained by the corporation, the companies, &c. ; they are gaudy and amusing; but their spirit declines. The castle, the walls, the gates, the abbey, the churches, the bridge, &c. are attended to in their order: and the eminent men of the town are duly commemorated. It is fit the present inhabitants of Shrewsbury should know, that, In the yeare 1533, uppon twelffe daye in Shrowsbury, the dyvyll appearyd in saint Alkmond's churche there, when the preest was at highe masse, with greate tempeste and darkeness, so that as he passyd through the churche, he mountyd up the steeple in the sayde churche, teringe the wyers of the sayde clock, and put the prynt of hys clawes uppon the 4th bell, and tooke one of the pynnacles awaye with hym, and for the tyme stayed all the bells in the churches within the sayde towne that they could neyther toll nor rynge. Taylor's MSS. To attribute this infernal devastation to the electric fluid, would be to deprive the Salopians of the honour due to the exemplariness of that devotion, which could excite such a prodigious gust of Satanic wrath in opposition to it. However, In a small museum is the dried body of a sturgeon, which was caught September 12th, 1802, in a wear adjoining the island a quarter of a mile below the castle. When alive, it weighed 192 pounds, and was nine feet long, and three feet four inches round. It was healthy and full of spawn; and although in struggling, the bones of the head, which were very thick, were fractured, it lived on a bench a day and a night after it was taken from the water. When the great distance from the sea is considered, perhaps not less than 300 miles, and the various barriers it had to surmount, especially the formidable wear near Gloucester, it is really wonderful how a fish of such a size could have forced his way in safety so very far up the stream, or what could have been the stimulus to so great an exertion. Similar instances, however, occur in former years. We learn that in 1637, a small whale was taken near the town, and in 1748, a dolphin, in a wear below the castle; both probably were sturgeons, the latter measured three feet four inches in length. Two enormous turtle shells remain as monuments of the good living of Salopians in former days. By way of specimen of the author's manner, we select his account of the domestic habitations of our forefathers; as they are drawn from extant authorities, that abound in the town of Shrewsbury, which has not for many centuries suffered extensively by fire, they are entitled to peculiar confidence. The town houses of our forefathers, as far as they relate to the present subject, may be divided into the kernelled or embattled mansion, the hall or unembattled gentleman's house, and the tradesman's habitation. The embattled mansion partook both of the castellated and collegiate forms. Like the former, it was crowned with embrasures, and surrounded always in the country, and sometimes even in towns, with a moat, but had seldom more than one tower, placed at the point of most strength, which consisted of three or four stories, containing on each: floor a single room. These were doubtless built on the principles of the keeps of castles. Like col *The bishop's palace at Wells, a magnificent specimen of this kind of house, has a moat. pact. Of the great square windows in such houses, it is a well-known complaint of Lord Bacon, "that one knows not where to become to be out of the sun." The characteristic accompaniments of these houses within, were huge aroled fire-places in their balls, and kitchens; chimney-pieces in their chambers of state, richly carved and adorned with armorial bearings mixed with grotesque figures in wood, stone, or alabaster; raised hearths, long and massy tables of oak, from their bulk calculate to last for centuries. One apartment seldom omitted in houses of this rank and date, but never found in those of higher antiquity, was a long gallery for music and dancing, sometimes 150 feet long, a proof that the hall was now beginning to be deserted; at all events, the practice of dining in these great apartments at different tables, according to the rank of the guests was scarcely continued below the restoration. leges, the embattled houses were uniformly | dows, and the other lofty, square, and comconstructed round a quadrangle with a tur reted gate-house of entrance, though not fortified with the massive round towers and portcullis of the castle gate. The principal apartments were the hall, the great chamber, kitchen, and chapel. The hall was a copy of those in colleges, which in their turn were of conventual origin. Here the master, with his family and superior guests, dined every day at a long oak table, elevated on two or three steps, called the highdees, at the upper end, whilst the tenants and those of inferior rank, were seated at a table below, at right angles with the former. The hall was lighted by one or more gothic windows and a long bow window, forming a recess, near the high table. It had no fire-place, but was warmed by a brazier of live coals in the middle, the smoke escaping from a hole at the top, this apartment being anciently always open to the roof, the timbers of which were formed into a pointed arch, carved and adorned with armis, rebusses, and quaterfoils. At the lower end was a wooden screen of latticed work, which supported a gallery for the minstrelsy, on great days. Under it ran a narrow lobby with a passage through, which communicated with a buttery hatch, where the butler at tended to administer ale to the numerous applicants at all times of the day; and beyond these were the offices. The great chamber adjoined the hall at the upper end. In this apartment was the luxury of a fire-place, if the wide open chimney-pieces of our ancestors deserve to be called luxuries, and it was the usual resort of the family when not at their meals: it is conceived also, that, as in the combination room of colleges, and the locutorium or parlour of monasteries, the master with his chief guests often retired soon after dinner, from the cold atmosphere of the hall, to the social comfort of its hearth; while the inferior visitors were left to carouse by the dying embers of the brazier they had left. The chapel was a small room often over the gate way, and sometimes adjoining it, and was rather an oratory for private devotion than for the assembling of a congregation. Our town does not now possess one perfect mansion of this early kind, but the ruins of Charlton Hall will give some idea of them.* To these ancient fortified houses, succeeded the embauled mansion of Queen Elizabeth or Janies 1. This was of two kinds, the greater and the less; one an improvement spon the ride quadrangle, the other an expansion of the ancient castlet; one luminous imagnificent, with deep projecting bow, win Stoke castle near Ludlow, improperly called a castle, is a very curious and entire specimen of the castellated mansion of early ધર્મને 5. The unembattled gentleman's house in towns partook of the general features of the above but was of smaller diniensions,' and without any fortifications. These were in general retired from the street, by a small court two or three sides of which were inclosed by the house and offices, the rest with walls, and shut up with a gate, usually without any lodge or apartment over it. The most ancient of such houses consisted of a thorough lobby with a parlour beyond it on one side, with a stone floor, the kitchens and offices, on the other. The partitions were of rude oak, the chimnies wide and open, and the rooms, except the hall and great parlour, low and small. Vaughan's Place was originally a fine house of this sort. These comfortless habitations were succeeded by the houses of Queen Elizabeth's days. In them the original form was retained, though with considerable improvement. The entrance was by an inclosed projecting porch, which led to the hall. This was lighted generally by one great square window with cross mullions, a massy oak table beneath, at the lower end a gallery for music, or to connect the apartments above, and a fire-place embracing in its ample space almost all the width of the room, the Christmas scene of rude and boisterous festivity; beyond was uniformily a parlour, and on the other side, the great chamber, or withdrawing room, sometimes up three or four steps. In the windows of such houses and those of a rank above them, are found the remains of painted glass in a style which seems to have been fashionable in the seventeenth century; they consist of arois, cyphers, figures of animals, and scripture histories, or others, in small round and. oval pieces. Of these the drawing is extremely correct, but the colours feint and dingy, very unlike the deep and glowing tints of the foregoing cen turies. These were probably of Flemish manufacture. Of this kind of mansion, the White Hall and Bell Stone are good specimens. city of Westminster, the county of Middlesex, and four deaneries in Hertfordshire and Essex, containing nearly one hundred and sixty parishes, exclusive of the peculiars,—I have inet with very few churches in such an advanced state of decay as to occasion a charge upon the parish for their restoration that can be thought in any degree burthensome; whilst in numberless instances this seasonable exer tion, and opened a way to the knowledge of some important particulars and latent defects, which, had they been suffered to remain much longer unattended to, would have proved highly injurious, and even hazardous to the existence of many neglected and decaying structures. The tradesman's house was one or sometimes two long ranges united, terminating with gables in the street. The shop occupied the whole breadth next the street, and was entirely without glass, like our present unsightly butchers' shops. Behind was a kitch-cise of my authority has awakened attenen, and beyond a small open yard round which were the warehouses and offices. The pride of the owners were their signs, which denoted the trade or craft by some animal or device': these either projected far into the street from the house, or were stuck upon high timbers opposite the door. In former days cur towns must have exhibited the appearance of the streets of Pekin, rather than of the open and lively air of a modern European city. The barber's solitary pole, and here and there a heavy gilt sign projecting from an ion in an old town, are the only remains of these clumsy and inconvenient ornaments. Messrs. Stanier and Meire's house in the market-place, and some of the butcher's houses, are good specimens of these ancient dwellings. My jurisdiction, whilst it includes some of the largest, the most populous, and wealthy parishes in the kingdom, also compre hends many others of very limited income; and small extent. When we consider the state of the large parishes in the western part of the metropolis, I have no hesitation in pronouncing, that great and important benefits would follow,if better accommodation could be provided, and more effectual encouragement given, to We understand that the author is the the middle and lower classes of the inhaRev. Hugh Owen, of Shrewsbury. His bitants to frequent the worship of the estatownsmen are obliged to him for his blished church, by the erection of free labours; and the public for his illustra-churches, or by allotting to them a larger tions of various interesting particulars in share of accommodation in the churches our national manners and history. and chapels already established. A Charge delivered to the Clergy of the Archdeaconry of Middlesex, at the Vi. sitation in May and June, 1808. George Owen Cambridge, A.M. F.A.S. Archdeacon of Middlesex; and Prebendary of Ely. Cadell and Davies. London, 180s. The archdeacon proceeds to notice the most prominent causes of premature injury and decay-such as burying within the walls of the church-this has proved fatal to many churches ;-why not render By it exceedingly difficult, if not forbid it altogether? The injuries occasioned by injudicious repairs and improvements, ale strongly and justly pointed out. To ob tain more light, better glass in the winCasements that dows is recommended. will open to permit a thorough draught of air;-why not sashes? The churchyard receives a share of the visitor's notice-the fence-the grave-stones, &c. THIS tract forms no improper companion to the statements of the venerable diocesan, given in p. 540. The observations contained in it, are highly important, and cannot be too generally disseminated in our country. We are sorry to be obliged to present them in a contracted form. They are the result of personal visitation, throughout the parishes of the archdeaconry. The parish officers are commended generally for their ready assistance. The worthy author directs to the choice of such officers, especially churchwardens, from among the most respectable inhabitants. He proceeds to say, After completing the inspection of the whole of this archdeaconry, including the The state of the Parish Registers was a subject of too much consequence to be overlooked. As these are records of high legal authority, which are always open to be resorted to for the determination of questions of great moment to the parties interested, a suitable attention should be paid to them, and they are to be regarded by the incumbent as an important document, placed under his immediate care, for the accuracy of which he is personally responsible; and from whence he should always be able to furnish a satisfactory and authentic extract; but how can this be done, or how can he answer for the fidelity of this record, unless the entries are correctly and faithfully made with his own hand, and the books preserved in his own custody? Such personal attention is the only sure method effectually to secure them from that disorder and confusion which has sometimes been severely animadverted upon in the courts of law, when unsuccessfully resorted to for the Establishment of doubtful and litigated claims. Instances of this, I am reluctantly compelled to remark, have recently occurred within this archdeaconry; and my late examination of the register-books obliges me, in truth, to acknowledge, that if further proofs of similar neglect are not brought to light, it would be more owing to good fortune than to the care of some of the clergy, who appear to leave the performance of this duty to their parish clerk. Duplicates should be regularly transmitted to the bishop's registry. Many excellent parsonage houses have been recently built, while others have undergone extensive repairs and improvements. Means are taking for rearing such a growth of timber upon the glebes [in some instances] as cannot fail to prove a valuable appendage to the benefice, and an acceptable legacy to successors. an intelligent and decorous person to fill that situation. tion that a competent parish clerk, in We add the expression of our convic respect to the comfort of public worship, approaches more nearly than is usually thought, to the importance of a coinpetent incumbent, The Propriety of the Time of Christ's Ap- An Address, delivered at Worship Street, W place these articles together, because we learn, from an account prefixed to the latter, that Mr. Littleter being In the course of my parochial visits more struck with Mr. Evans's explanation of than one or two instances occurred of applica- the seventy weeks of Daniel, in the first tions from the parish clerk for my inter- of these discourses, requested an interference to obtain an augmentation of his sa- view with the author, and after sundry tary. The very small pittance they now in conversations, publicly professed his general receive from the parish was probably faith in Jesus as sufficient, when it was first granted, to the Messiah, and engage the service of persons in respectable was baptized. Mr. E. considers the situations, and of competent abilities; but "doctrine of the Divine Unity," as havfrom the alteration in the value of money ing produced the most beneficial effects the profits of the appointment are so much on this occasion. As we fully agree with reduced as to be hardly worth the acceptance this converted Jew that "the unity of of a day labourer; whilst the additional fees God is as much a doctrine of the New, which he receives as the sexton, being fixed at a time when the price of labour was so as it is of the Old Testament," we abanmuch lower than it is at present, are but a don to his censure all who explain the bare equivalent for the interruption of his doctrine of three distinctions, (of some ordinary occupation. It would be attended kind) in the Deity, in such a manner as to with very beneficial effects, if the respect impeach his unity. They are "workdue to this very useful, though subordinate men who need to be ashamed of their office, were maintained beyond what it is, work." Whether the principal impedi. at present, by the appointment of men of ments to the conversion of the Jews do rather a superior description to those who not arise from the doctrine of the resurnow generally fill it; and that their accept-rection, deserves Mr. E.'s further conside'ance of the office were insured by a liberal addition to the salary, which the parish would not fail to find their account in grant ing to persons of worthy characters and suitable attainments; whilst the parochial minister, with whom the appointment absolutely rests, would receive much accommodation; and even the solemnity of divine worship be materially promoted by having ratiou. In former days, the Jews certainly were" grieved that the resurrection from the dead was taught in the instance of Jesus:" and when the gentiles heard of the resurrection," some mocked," and others deferred the investigation of the matter. It may be said with great truth," the assertion of the |