322 EXCAVATIONS AT WROXETER. TART VIII. 



with ridicule, and the vestry called in another person, a 

 mason of the town, directing him to cut away the injured 

 part of the pillar, in order to underbuild it. On the 

 second evening after the commencement of these opera- 

 tions, the sexton was alarmed at the fall of lime-dust and 

 mortar when he attempted to toll the great bell, on which 

 he immediately desisted and left the church. Early 

 next morning (on the 9th of July), while the workmen 

 were waiting at the church door for the key, the bell 

 struck four, and the vibration at once brought down 

 the tower, which overwhelmed the nave, demolishing 

 all the pillars along the north side, and shattering the 

 rest. " The very parts I had pointed out," says Telford, 

 " were those which gave way, and down tumbled the 

 tower, forming a very remarkable ruin, which astonished 

 and surprised the vestry, and roused them from their 

 infatuation, though they have not yet recovered from 

 the shock." l 



The other circumstance to which we have above re- 

 ferred was the discovery of the Roman city of Uriconium, 

 near Wroxeter, about five miles from Shrewsbury, in the 

 year 1788. The situation of the place is extremely beau- 

 tiful, the river Severn flowing along its western margin, 

 and forming a barrier against what were once the hostile 

 districts of West Britain. For many centuries the dead 

 city had slept under the irregular mounds of earth which 

 covered it, like those of Mossul and Nineveh. Farmers 

 raised heavy crops of turnips and grain from the surface ; 

 and they scarcely ever ploughed or harrowed the ground 

 without turning up Roman coins or pieces of pottery. 

 They also observed that in certain places the corn was 

 more apt to be scorched in dry weather than in others 

 a sure sign to them that there were ruins underneath ; 

 and their practice, when they wished to find stones for 

 building, was to set a mark upon the scorched places 



1 Letter to Mr. Andrew Little, Langholm, dated 16th July, 1788. 



