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wiay in a body on the stage, and there, to the amusement 

 and delight of the audience, in their top-boots and 

 scarlet coats, gave the view-halloo with the proper 

 volume of sound, and showed the startled Londoners 

 what Shropshire lungs could do. 



Squire Forester survived his old servant by fifteen 

 years. He had been elected member for Wenlock in 

 1757, and held the seat for thirty years, always voting 

 straight and saying what he had to say in the House 

 in a blunt, forcible, straightforward way, that left no 

 mistake as to his meaning. At the time of the Invasion 

 Panic the squire and his fox-hunting friends raised 

 The Wenlock Loyal Volunteers, a corps of which he 

 was Major, and on which he spent much time and 

 money. There was open house at Willey Hall for these 

 gallant scarlet-coated defenders of their country, and 

 the old place rang day and night to the clash of arms, 

 the tramp of recruits at drill, and the martial music of 

 the regimental band. In that dire time of storm and 

 stress the squire's purse was ever open to relieve the 

 destitute. He bought up all the provisions he could 

 lay his hands upon, and fed half the countryside for 

 months, when starvation stared the nation in the face. 

 Deep and sincere was the grief all over Shropshire when 

 the great-hearted Squire of Willey Hall breathed his 

 last on the 13th of July 181 1, at the age of seventy- 

 three. His will was characteristic of him, as the follow- 

 ing extracts will show : — 



' I desire that my body may be interred in a grave 

 near the Communion Table in the Parish Church of 

 Willey, in a plain and decent manner. And it is my 

 will that eight of my servants or workmen be employed 

 as bearers of my body to the grave, to each of whom 



