loo W'ELSH POOL TO OSWESTRT*- 



" Tlicy liacke not long about tlie tiling they fell. 

 For price is knownc of eacli thing that is bought : 

 Poor fol!tc,r God wot; in townc no longer dwells 

 7han money had, perhajjs a thing of nought. 

 So trudge they home, both barelegge and unfhod. 

 With fong in WeHh, cr tls in prayfing God. 

 O fweete content, O mevri^ mind and mood. 

 With fvTcate of brows, thou lov'll to g'it thy food, 



'* plaine good folke, that have no craftie braincs, 

 O confcience clcere, thou knowlt no cunning knacks-: 

 O harmlefs hearts, where feare of God remaines, 

 O fuTipIe foules, as fweete as virgin waxe. 

 O happie heads, and labouring bodies bleft^ 

 O filfie doves of holy Abraham's breft : 

 You fleepe in peace, and rICrin joye and blifTcj 

 For fieavcn hence, for you prepared is." 



Oswestry Casti.e. 



On an artificial mount, at the outfide of the 

 t(3\vn, are the remains of this fortrefs ; but they are 

 at prefent little more than a confufed heap of fhat- 

 tered walls and rubbiih. 



According to the Welfh hiftorians, it was founded 

 in 1 148 by Madoc ap Meredith ap Bleddyn, prince 

 of Powis, an ally of Henry II. * The Englifli re* 

 cords, however, afli gn to it a more ancient date. 

 They inform us that it was in being before the 

 Norman conqueft, and that Wiliiani the Conqueror, 

 fhortly after that event, beftowed it on Alan, one of 

 his Norman friends. The artificial mount on which 

 it was placed, indicates it to have been eai-lier than 



* Powel, 201. 



the 



