1821.] 



Excursion through North Wales. 



31 



strolled out to view the town. The 

 objects which principally attracted our 

 attention were the castle, the abbey. 

 Lord Hill's fine statue, the beautiful 

 Severn, and the quarry. The castle is 

 situated on an eminence by the river 

 side, and presents a good specimen of 

 cumbrous. Norman aichitecture. It 

 was built by the famous Roger de Mont- 

 gomery, Earl of Shrewsbury, in the reign 

 of William the Conqueror, and conti- 

 nued in the possession of this noble- 

 man's descendants till the reign of 

 Heniy the First, when it became an- 

 nexed to the English crown, in conse- 

 quence of the contumacy of its pos- 

 sessor. It is now, we believe, the pro- 

 perty of the Pulteney family. The 

 abbey, of which the architecture is of 

 a grand and bold Norman style, is in 

 the eastern suburbs of the town. It 

 was founded by the same nobleman 

 who erected the castle, and his coun- 

 tess, Adelissa, in 1083, and dedicated 

 to the saints Peter and Paul. Its monks 

 were of the benedictine order, and first 

 brought over from Seez in Normandy. 

 It contains amongst many other curious 

 relicts, a recumbent figure in a coat of 

 mail, and in the act of drawing a sword; 

 this is supposed'to represent the founder; 

 and if the gallant Roger bore any re- 

 semblance to this piece of sculpture, he 

 must have been a veiy grim looking 

 fellow indeed, Shrewsbury Abbey 

 was made parochial by Queen Eliza- 

 l)eth, when it received the name of St. 

 Croix, or Holy Cross, which it still re- 

 tains. But the most valuable treasure 

 which this abbey formerly contained, 

 were the bones of the far famed St. 

 Winifred, which Robert, the fourth 

 abbot, procured with much peril and 

 difficulty, and had them enshrined. 

 Many were the salutary miracles which 

 they wrought, and numerous were the 

 herds of pious pilgrims which they 

 attracted, and costly were the offerings 

 presented at the shrine of the lovely 

 and virtuous Saint Winifred.* Shrews- 



Talbot or Lion ; but the accomniodations are 

 good ; and what is much better, the land- 

 lady, Mrs. Cartwright, is exceedingly civil, 

 comely, and attentive. 



• What Welshman is a stranger to the 

 tale of the chaste and charming Winifred ? 

 Our renders however, are not all " of the 

 land of the Cymry." For the edification, 

 therefore, of our metropolitan friends, and 

 of some of our provincial ones also, we 

 present them with a brief outline of the le- 

 genJ. Winifred, then, " was a beautiful 

 and devout virgin of nobla and ancient de- 



bui-y is the mart to which a very con- 

 siderable portion of the produce and 

 manufactures of Wales is brought for 

 sale ; and for the purpose of disposing 

 of the commodities, a fair is held every 

 fortnight. But it is not merely in a 

 commercial point of view that Shrews- 

 bury is to be considered. The man of 

 sensibility will recall to his imagination 

 the scenes which Salopia has witnessed 

 in the "olden time," when the court of 

 one of the three divisions of Wales* 

 (Powisland, namely) was held there ; 

 and when all the gaiety and rough 

 splendour incidental to so rude a go- 

 vernment, was practised within her 

 walls. When aspiring valour was re- 

 warded with the hand and heart of 



scent." Virgo formosa et religiosfi, ab 

 stirpe illustrissima et antiqua demissa. A 

 young prince, named Caradoe, struck with 

 her charms attempted her virtue, and find- 

 ing her inexorable, added force to his entrea- 

 ties. But she fled from him towards tha 

 church, whither the rest of the family had 

 repaired to pray. Before she could reach 

 the sanctuary, he overtook her, and struck 

 oit" her head. This, like an elastic ball, 

 bounced iato the church, and proceeded up 

 one of the ailes to the altar, where her 

 friends were assembled at their devotions ; 

 resting here, a clear and copious fountain 

 immediately gushed out. St. Beuno, who 

 was fortunately present, snatched up tho 

 head, and, joining it to the body, it was to 

 the surprise of all present, inslantlyre-united ; 

 the place of separation being only marked 

 by a white line encircling the neck. Cara- 

 doe dropped down lifeless on the spot where 

 he had perpetrated the atrocious deed, and 

 (says the legend) it was not rightly known 

 whether the earth opeued to received his im- 

 pious carcase, or whether his master, the 

 devil, carried it off. Away, however, it went, 

 and was never seen afterward. Winifred sur- 

 vived her decapitation about 15 years ; and 

 having, towards the latter end of that time 

 received the veil from St. Elerius at Gwy- 

 therin, in Denbighshire, she died abbess of 

 that monastery. The well, which is at Holy- 

 well in Flintshire, is still held in some little 

 reverence by the peasantry. Not many 

 years ago its sanctity was doubted by few 

 of the North Wales folk, and various were 

 the virtues ascribed to it. Among others, 

 it healed the diseases of all who bathed in it, 

 and old Drayton sajs, that no animal could 

 be drowned in it. 



• Wales was anciently divided into three 

 distinct sovereignties ; North Wales, South 

 Wales, and Powisland ; the latter compre- 

 hending a tract of land, extending from 

 Chester to Shrewsbury ; from thence to 

 Montgomeryshire, and including part of the 

 several counties of Merioneth, Radnor, 

 Brecknock, Denbigh and Flint. 



youth 



