~ 130 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
Excursion through Nortu Wats. 
‘(Continued from Vol. 59, p. 423.) 
q rE set off for Oswestry the fol- 
!< lowing morning, and arrived 
there a little after one o’clock. The 
best inn is the Cross Foxes. Oswestry 
was one of the chief border towns on 
thé Welch frontier, and witnessed much 
of the barbarous ferocity of the rough 
mountaineers, at a period when their 
actions were but little influenced by 
any moral obligations. Being, also, 
one of the principal manors of the 
Marches of Wales, its inhabitants, 
during that period of gloom and anar- 
chy which intervened between the con- 
quest and the union of the principality, 
were in a state of continual peril, from 
the wild and daring incursions of the 
Welch borderers. And even long sub- 
sequent to the Union (26 of Henry 
VIII.), the Oswestrians, and their con- 
tumacious neighbours, actuated by that 
terrible enmity, which burnt so long 
unquenched between them, took every 
opportunity of plundering one another. 
Nay, this system of mutual robbery 
and rapine became generally prevalent 
throughout the whole extent of the 
Marches; and it appears to have con- 
tinued, without any material interrup- 
tion, to a comparatively late period. 
Indeed, -the merciless laws enacted 
against the Welch, after the conquest 
of the country, and the unendurable op- 
pression which the Lords Marchers so 
freely exercised, were not calculated 
to allay the proud and impetuous ani- 
mosity of the mountaineers, Thus cir- 
cumstanced, both parties considered, as 
goods lawfully. possessed, every thing 
which they could steal, or otherwise 
obtain: they, therefore, took such pre- 
cautions, on both sides, as were most 
conducive to the preservation of their 
at The dwellings of the Eng- 
ish .were surrounded by moats, and 
defended by palisadoes ; and their cattle 
driven every night into the -fence 
thus constructed. For the intimidation 
of their predatory opponents, a gallows 
was erected in every frontier manor; 
and if any Welchman was luckless 
enough to be captured by the English, 
he was immediately hanged on the said 
gallows, and there suspended, in ter- 
rorenm, ‘till another victim was procured 
to supply his place, Every town within 
the Marches had also a horseman ready 
equipped “ with sworde, buckler and 
speare,” who was maintained for the 
Excursion through North Wales. 
(Sept. 1, 
express purpose of apprehending these 
marauders. On the other hand, the 
Welch trusted for their defence to the 
intricacies of their deep woods, and to 
the ruggedness of their mountain ‘fast- 
nesses ; and put in force the /ea talionis 
whenever opportunity occurred. 
These contests and robberies were 
in full vogue so late as the sixteenth 
century; and, in 1534, the stewards 
and constables of Oswestry and Powis 
Castles entered into a compact, to en- 
deavour to restrain, in their own dis- 
tricts, these “ detestable malefacts.” 
It was accordingly agreed, that if, after 
a certain day then appointed, any per- 
son of the one lordship committed 
felony in the other, he should’ be de- 
livered up fordue punishment. It does 
not appear, however, that the exertions 
of these officers effectually annihilated 
these licentious practices; for in, the 
records of the Draper’s Company, at 
Shrewsbury, there is the following mi- 
nute :—‘* 25 Elizabeth, anno 1583. 
Ordered, that no draper set out, for 
Oswestry market, on Mondays, before 
six o’clock in the morning, on for- 
feiture of 6s. 8d.; and that they wear 
their weapons all the way, and go in 
company. Not to go over the Welch 
bridge* till the bell toll six.” It is fur- 
ther stated, that William Jones, Esq. 
left to the said company £1. 6s. 8d., to 
be paid annually, to the vicar of St. 
Alkmund’s, for reading prayers on Mon- 
day mornings before the drapers set out 
for Oswestry market. 
In this barbarous and turbulent state 
did the Welch continue long after the 
reign of Henry VIII., although a sta- 
tute was then enacted; which admitted 
them to an equal participation in the 
laws and privileges of the English. But 
although the Welch were, at first, obsti- 
nately adverse to the adoption of the 
milder manners of their conquerors, 
the abolition ‘of the severe laws enacted 
against them in former reigns led them 
to think more favourably of the Eng- 
lish, and finally, by associating more 
amicably with them, to adopt their 
manners, and imitate their customs. 
The page of the historian, and the tra- 
ditions of the country, are now, the 
_, only 
* This was an old bridge over, the 
Severn, at the west entrance. to Shreys- 
bury. It was defended by a tower at each 
end, for the prevention of any sudden at- 
tack from the Welchmen. Its place isnow 
supplied by a neat modern structure. 
Eee 
