e pictures and furnishings of rare interest to
the connoisseur--but these things one may find in the museums.

Over a main road, almost level and as nearly straight as any English
road merits such a description, we covered the forty miles from Chester
to Shrewsbury without incident. The most trying grade given in the
road-book is one in twenty-five, and all conditions are favorable for
record time--in absence of police traps. Four miles out of Chester we
passed Rowton Station, lying adjacent to Rowton Moor, where King
Charles, standing on the tower of Chester Wall which bears his name, saw
his army defeated by the Parliamentarians. We made a late start from
Chester, but reached Shrewsbury in time to visit many parts of the town
after dinner. We found it indeed a delightful old place, rich in
historic traditions, and the center of a country full of interesting
places. The town is built on a lofty peninsula, surrounded on three
sides by the River Severn, and the main streets lead up exceedingly
steep hills. In fact, many of the steepest and most dangerous hills
which we found in our travels were in the towns themselves, where grades
had been fixed by buildings long ago. The clean macadam in Shrewsbury
made it possible to drive our car without chains, though it rained
incessantly, but so steep and winding are some of the streets that the
greatest caution was necessary.

Shrewsbury is described by an English writer as a "sweet-aired, genuine,
dignified and proud old market town, the resort of squires, parsons and
farmers, and mainly inhabited by those who minister to their wants. It
never dreams of itself as a show-place." He also adds another strong
point in its claim to distinction: "Some years ago a book was published
by a zealous antiquarian, enumerating with much detail all the families
of England of a certain consequence who still occupied either the same
estate or estates contiguous to those upon which they were living in the
Fifteenth Century. The shire of which Shrewsbury is the capital very
easily headed the list in this honorable competition and thereby
justified the title of 'proud Salopians,' which the more consequential
of its people submit to with much complacency, even though it be not
always applied in a wholly serious way."

It is a genuine old border town, so far unspoiled by commercialism.
Modern improvements have not invaded its quaint streets to any great
extent, and many of these still retain their