the wooded steep of Haughmond,
Shakspere's "bosky hill." It commands the field where Falstaff fought
"an hour by the Shrewsbury clock;" and has still a thicket, called the
Bower, from which Queen Eleanor is said to have watched the battle in
which the fortunes of her husband were involved. A castellated turret
crowns the summit of the rock next the Severn; beyond, is Sundorne Castle
and the ruins of Haughmond Abbey.

SHREWSBURY.

[Shrewsbury: 42.jpg]

The Severn Valley Railway affords a very interesting approach to the old
Salopian capital, by bringing before the traveller its striking features,
its singular situation, and its most pleasing aspect. On one side are
groups of villa-looking residences, the little church of St. Giles, the
column raised to Lord Hill, and the Abbey Church and buildings. On the
other is the town, with its spires and towers and red-stone castle rising
from an eminence above the river. The station occupies a narrow isthmus
of the latter within the precincts of the castle, and is a handsome
structure, of the Gothic style of architecture. The castle was built by
the first Earl of Shrewsbury, who obtained so many favours of a like kind
from the Conqueror. Among portions which the old Norman masons raised,
is the inner gateway, through which, it is said, the last Norman earl, in
token of submission, carried the keys to Henry I. From its position upon
a troubled frontier, it changed masters many times, and suffered much
from the attacks of assailants. It was fortified by William Fitz-Alan
when he espoused the cause of the Empress Maude; and in favour of Henry
IV., in his quarrel with the Earl of Northumberland, when the Shrewsbury
abbot went forth from its gates to offer pardon to Hotspur, on condition
that he would lay down his arms; and it was taken by storm by the
Parliamentary army in 1644. It now belongs to the Duke of Cleveland, and
has been converted into a dwelling-house, the present drawing-room having
been the guard chamber in the reign of Charles. To the right of the
castle gates is the Royal Grammar School, founded in 1551 by King Edward
VI., and subsequently endowed with exhibitions, fellowships, and
scholarships connected with Oxford and Cambridge, to the number of twenty-
six. A little higher is the Chapel of St. Nicholas, an old Norman
structure, which belonged to the outer court of the castle, but is now
used as a coach-house and stable.

[Shrewsbury: 43.jpg]