SHREWSBURY. 21^ 



dire£led by the heralds at arms to be carefully 

 preferved, in confequence of which it was placed in 

 its prefent ntuation. 



The hiftory of the abbey is fhort. It w~as founded 

 by Roger de Montgomery, and his countefs Ade- 

 lilTa, in the year 1083, and dedicated to St. Peter 

 and St. Paul. Its monks were of the Benedictine 

 order, and firfl brought over from Seez, in Nor- 

 mandy; and the earl, by permiffion of his lady, 

 became himfelf one of the religious of his own 

 abbey. Fie endowed it largely, and encouraged all 

 who were dependant on him to become benefadors. 

 At his death, about nine years afterwards, he re- 

 ceived here an honourable interment. — Robert, the 

 fourth abbot, procured, though with much difficulty, 

 the bones of St. Wenefred, and had them enlhrined 

 here. — The property of the abbey at the diifolulion 

 was valued by Speed at about five hundred pounds 

 per anmmu — On the church bekig made parochial 

 by queen Elizabeth, it received the name of St. Crux, 

 or the Holy Crofs, in the abbey of Shrewibury, which 

 name it ftill retains. 



In the garden of fir Charles Oakely,- on the fouth 

 fide of the church, is a fmall, but elegant oQagonal 

 building, the remains of an ancient oratory belong- 

 ing to the abbey, novx called St. Wenefred's Pul- 

 pit, 



Churches. 



