MORFE FOEEST. 19 



evidence tlie name of Stratford supplies as to Roman 

 occupation, to which. Mr. Eyton refers, as well as 

 the rude fortifications of Burf Castle, constructed by 

 the Danes when they came to recruit after being out- 

 manoeuvred by Alfred on the Thames, remain. At 

 Quatford, a mile and a half west, on three sides of 

 a rock overhanging the Severn, near to Danesford, 

 are trenches cut out of the soKd sandstone which, 

 whether Danish or jSTorman, or in part both, 

 shewed by the vast number of wild boar and red 

 deer remains disclosed a few years ago the success 

 with which the chase had here at one time been 

 pursued. 



Within the forest were four manors, the con- 

 tinuous estate in Saxon times of Algar, Earl of 

 Mercia, which after the Conquest were granted in 

 their integrity to the first Norman Earl of Shrews- 

 bury, and which in 1086 were held wholly in de- 

 mesne by his son Hugh. The predilections of the 

 first Norman Earl of Shrewsbury for this vast forest, 

 lying between those of Kinver, Wyre, and Shirlot, 

 — the whole of which wide wooded district seems to 

 have been comprehended under the old British name 

 of Coed — are shown by the fact that he built his 

 famous castle on the Severn close by, and founded 



