lo6 WELSH POOL TO OSWESTRY. 



Till about the end of the fixteenth century there 

 was a very confiderable market at Ofweflry for 

 Welfh flannels : Shrewfbury, however, foon after 

 this period, deprived it of the principal part of this 

 trade. 



Ofweftry and its hundred, at the making of 

 Domefday, formed a part of Wales. They were 

 taken thence, and annexed to England in the eighth 

 year of the reign of Edward I. 



The Welsh Marches. 



As the place I am mentioning was one of the 

 principal tov\T.s of the marches, and at different 

 times fulFered very greatly from that circumflance, 

 it is proper that I fliould here fay fomething of their 

 nature and government. 



It appears from various ancient- documents, that 

 after the conqueft of England by the Normans, 

 king AVilliam placed feveral of his Norman nobility 

 on the confines of Wales, and gave them pov/er to 

 make fuch conquefts in that country as they were 

 able. Bv this piece of policy a double end was 

 anfwered : thofe whom he had brought over into 

 England were thus left to provide territory for 

 ihemfelves ; and their power tended in fome degree 

 to reduce the Welih people into fubjedion. The 

 lands thus feized were holden, in capitc, of the 

 crown of England : feveral of the EngliHi nobility, 

 who pofTefied property on the borders of Wales, 



fouad 



/ 



