74 WILLEY. 



Forester close by, the remains shown in our engrav- 

 ing look like a stranded wreck, past which, cen- 

 turies of English life have gone sweeping by. Some 

 of the walls are three feet in thickness, and the 

 buttressed chimneys, and small-paned windows — 

 " set deep in the grey old tower " — make it a fair 

 type of country mansions and a realisation of ideas 

 such as the mind associates with the homes of the 

 early owners of Willey. 



Although occupying a slight eminence, it reallj^ 

 nestles in the hollow, and in its buff-coloured livery 

 it stands pleasingly relieved by the high ground of 

 Shirlot and its woods beyond. In looking upon its 

 quaint gables, shafts, and chimneys, one feels that 

 when it was complete it must have had something of 

 the poetry of ancient art about it. Its irregularities 

 of outline must have fitted in, as it were, with the 

 undulating landscape, with which its walls are now 

 tinted into harmony, by brown and yellow lichens. 

 There was nothing assuming or pretentious about 

 it ; it was content to stand close neighbour to the 

 public old coach road, which came winding by 

 from Bridgnorth to Wenlock, and passed beneath 

 the arch which now connects the high-walled 

 gardens with the shaded walk leading to its 



