Part 14

The Mercers were incorporated by Edward IV., on condition that they should maintain a priest to sing at the altar of St. Michael in the collegiate church of St. Chad; that they should give a penny a week to thirteen poor men, to pray for the good estate of the king, his family, and themselves; and also find a wax taper to be carried before the holy sacrament on the procession of Corpus Christi, on the celebration of which day it was customary for all the companies to unite as their grand anniversary, and preceded by their masters and wardens, ornamented with colours and curious devices they attended the bailiffs and members of the corporation, who, with the friars of the convents and the parochial clergy, followed the holy sacrament, which was borne by priests under a rich canopy of velvet, to a stone cross without the town (probably that now called the Weeping Cross). Here all joined in bewailing their sins, and in chanting forth petitions for a plentiful harvest; they then returned in the same order to the church of St. Chad, when a grand mass was celebrated. Three days of unbounded jollity and recreation followed this magnificent festival. These were held on a piece of ground called “KINGSLAND,” where each company had its “arbour,” and the several incorporated communities, accompanied by bands of music, flags, and devices emblematical of their craft, preceded by a “King” or some other principal personage, assembled at their respective arbours and spent the time with much festivity. After the reformation the religions ceremony was abolished, but one day of entertainment is still observed under the denomination of the SHREWSBURY SHOW, now held on the second Monday after Trinity Sunday. Each company has still its arbour or pavilion, adorned with the arms of the company, in which refreshments are provided. These are visited by the mayor and corporation, who used formerly to wear their robes of office upon this occasion. The following is an entry from the books kept by the bailiffs, dated 1521:—“Wine to the Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, president of our lord the king’s council in the marches of Wales at the general procession of Corpus Christi, 3s. 8d.” The show was revived and kept up with much pageantry in 1850. The ancient _Tailors’ Hall_ formerly stood on College Hill; the _Weavers’ Hall_ on Wyle Cop; the _Cloth Workers’ Hall_ in High-street, and the _Mercers’ Hall_ in the King’s Head Shutt. The chief manufactories at the present time in Shrewsbury are the extensive establishment of Messrs. Marshall and Co., for flax spinning and the manufacture of linen thread, where upwards of 800 operatives are employed. The factory is a spacious and lofty building, situated in St. Michael-street; the aggregate amount of steam power employed is equal to 116 horses. Linen was formerly extensively manufactured here; a linen and flax mill was taken down about fifteen years ago; there are now only about half a dozen hands employed in weaving linen. The cotton manufacture was introduced into Shrewsbury in 1790, when several factories were built at Coleham, and the trade was carried on in a spirited manner. In 1817 the proprietor, in consequence of a great depression in trade, declined business, since which the mills have been closed, and some portion of them converted into cottage tenements. _Malting_ is very extensively carried on, as will be seen in reference to the trades’ list, which will show thirty different firms. _Glass Staining_ has been brought to the highest state of perfection by Mr. David Evans, whose ingenious talents and consummate skill have raised the art to a degree of perfection unequalled in modern times. The beautiful specimens visible in the restorations of Winchester and Lichfield cathedrals, in most of the churches of Shrewsbury, and in churches almost in all parts of the kingdom, will compare with some of the finest works of the ancient masters, and speak his merits more forcibly to the refined taste than whole volumes of feeble encomiums. There are several _Iron-founderies_, and the manufacture of _Agricultural Implements_ is carried onto a considerable extent, with _Tanning_ and other branches of trade as will be seen on reference to the trades’ directory. Among the delicacies for which the town is noted is the _Shrewsbury Cake_, a delicious sweet cake, which the poet Shenstone speaks of as “Rend’ring through Britain’s isle Salopian’s praises known.” The _Simnel Cake_ is also much admired, and great quantities are made about the season of Christmas. It consists of an exterior crust or shell deeply tinged with saffron, enclosing a compound of rich fruit. _The Shrewsbury Brawn_ is highly celebrated among the connoisseurs of this ancient Christmas dish.

THE QUARRY.—This fine public promenade occupies a rich sloping meadow of about twenty acres, on the west side of the town, and derives its name from a disused stone quarry nearly in the centre, which supplied a considerable part of the red sand stone visible in the older portions of the walls and churches of Shrewsbury. An avenue of lofty lime trees, more than five hundred yards in length, follows the windings of the Severn; to the middle and at each end of which, three other shaded walks lead from various parts of the town. “The still retirement and pleasing gloom of this delightful grove, from which the noise of the busy town, and even a prospect of its buildings, are almost entirely excluded—the refreshing coolness of its shade—the rich verdure which ever clothes its meadow—the fine sweep of its umbrageous arch—and the majestic flow of the river, which here combine to render it the favourite and constant resort of the inhabitants, and a principal attraction to the stranger.” The opposite bank of the Severn rises abruptly, and is crowned with the House of Industry, an extensive and handsome building, and some modern plantations, contribute greatly to embellish the scene, and render it one of the finest public walks in the kingdom. The ground was planted and laid out during the mayoralty of Henry Jenks, Esq., in the year, 1719, previous to which it was a waste plot of land, where the inhabitants were used to indulge in feats of wrestling, tilting and other sports. In a place called the Dingle, planted with a clump of magnificent trees, are the remains of a rude amphitheatre, with ascending seats cut in the bank, where the friars of the adjacent convent entertained the Salopians with those ancient, sacred dramas, called mysteries or Whitsun plays, so famous in the days of our ancestors. Here, also, during the reign of Elizabeth, many plays were exhibited, in which the scholars of the free school sustained the principal characters; among which, in 1565, was a play called Julian the Apostate, and two years afterwards was exhibited the passion of Christ. It is said that the Queen herself intended to have honoured the last with her presence, and had even arrived as far as Coventry on her way, but hearing that it was over she returned to London. The corporation in the year 1569 leased the quarry to three persons for ten years, for the consideration of a red rose yearly, on condition that they should bring the water from Broadwell, near Crow Meole, in leaden pipes as high as it would run into the town of Shrewsbury. By this means the water was first brought into the town; the work was completed in the year 1574, and then the conduits were first opened.

THE HORSE RACES are held annually in the second week in May, and continue for two days; they attract a considerable influx of visitors to the town, but are not so celebrated as they were in former times. The race course is situated a quarter of a mile N.N.E. from the Abbey Church, on the road leading to Monk Moor. It also bears the name of “the soldiers’ piece,” and is pointed out by tradition as the spot on which the unfortunate Charles I., when at Shrewsbury in 1642, drew up his army and addressed the assembled gentry of the county on the subject of his distresses.

THE ASSEMBLY ROOM was erected in 1777, at the back of the Lion Hotel; the room is commodious and suitably decorated, and the balls are usually attended by the rank and fashion of the county.

THE BILLIARD ROOMS are situated in the Market-square; the third story of the Music Hall has been divided into convenient apartments, which are now occupied as billiard rooms, of which Mr. Edward Vaughan is the proprietor.

AQUATIC EXCURSIONS.—Much pleasure and healthy exercise is afforded on the Severn during the summer months, and an emulation of skill is frequently excited among the rowers. Boats may be hired at a moderate charge, and pleasure parties frequently take an excursion up the river to the picturesque and shady banks of Berwick and the Isle, or to the rural village of Uffington. The Severn also affords much pleasure to the votaries of the “gentle craft,” the river being celebrated for the excellency of its salmon, besides which trout, pike, grayling, perch, and many other sorts of fish are caught.

KINGSLAND is a plot of ground covering twenty-seven acres on the south west side of the town, the common property of the burgesses, thirty of whom in rotation receive annually 4s. 6d. from its produce, in lieu for a “turn for their kine.” It is studded with small enclosures and “arbours,” to which the several incorporated trading companies of the town annually resort in procession on the Monday after Trinity Sunday, accompanied by bands of music and devices emblematical of their craft; a more particular account of which has been noticed with the various guilds.

MONASTIC FOUNDATIONS.—_The Abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul_, which stood on the eastern banks of the Severn, in the suburb which still bears its name, owes its foundation to Roger de Montgomery, the first Norman Earl of Shrewsbury. In the time of the Saxons it is said a church stood on or near this spot, and a community of monks was in all probability united to it. The Danes, during their ravages in the ninth century, plundered and depopulated monastic institutions, and this it is conjectured fell with the rest. The kingdom becoming more settled under the reign of Edgar, many of the abbey churches which had till then laid desolate were taken possession of by secular priests, who, swerving from the strictness of monastic life, engaged in the active concerns of society. Such, apparently, was the state of the monastery of Shrewsbury at the time of the Norman invasion. The church, then a rude edifice of wood, was governed by Odelirius, a priest, who as archpresbyter, presided over a college of married secular clergy. Its district was called the parish of the city. From the fact that the portion of each prebend, at the death of the incumbent, should revert to the monks of a new abbey, there can be no doubt that at this period it was collegiate. This was the cause of much litigation, it being customary for ecclesiastical livings to descend as by inheritance to the next of blood. These claims were, however, abolished during the reign of Henry I. In the seminary belonging to this ancient church, a priest named Seward is mentioned as an eminent teacher, and to him the historian Ordericus Vitalis owed his education.

When Roger de Montgomery took possession of his territories in Shropshire, he determined to refound the monastery, and to introduce into it the monks of his favourite order, St. Benedict, whom he invited over from a religious house founded on the estates of Mabel, his first Countess, at Sees, in Normandy. He obtained the land on which the monastery of Shrewsbury stood from Siward, a Saxon nobleman, and in 1083 laid the foundation of a magnificent abbey, which, when finished, was re-dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul, the patrons of the ancient monastery. With the consent of his Countess, Adelaisa, he retired to the holy solitude of his monastery and received the tonsure and habit of a monk, on which occasion he presented the fraternity with the tunic of Hugh, the sainted abbot of Clugin, in Burgundy, which vestment he occasionally wore, doubtless in anxious hope of its communicating some portion of the sanctity of its former possessor. In the immediate prospect of his dissolution he invested himself with this precious relic, thus exemplifying the pitiable superstition of those who “put on the weeds of Dominic or Franciscan and think to pass disguised.” He was buried in the Lady Chapel, between the two altars.

His second son, Hugh, succeeded to the Earldom of Shrewsbury, soon after which he paid a solemn visit to the abbey, to do homage to the tomb of his father, on which occasion, though of a profligate and cruel character, he added greatly to the endowments of the institution; and, among other things, conferred on the monks the tithe of all the venison of his forests in Shropshire, that of Wenlock excepted. The barons who attended Earl Hugh, imitated his munificence and conferred large estates on the abbey. By these and other acquisitions the revenues of the house were greatly enriched, and the abbot obtained the honour of ranking among those spiritual barons who sat and voted in parliament, had the authority of bishops within their houses, wore the mitre, sandals, and gloves, carried silver crosiers in their hands, gave their episcopal benediction, conferred the lesser orders, and in some instances were exempt from all authority of the diocesan. It is uncertain when these high functions were first exercised, but the abbot of Shrewsbury is mentioned among the spiritual lords who voted in parliament in the 49th of Henry III.

In the days of King Stephen, when the popular passion for relics had attained an unbounded extravagance, the monks of Shrewsbury determined not to be behindhand with their brethren in availing themselves of so fruitful a source of opulence; therefore, during the abbacy of Herbert, the third abbot, they commenced business on their own account. After ransacking the legends of Wales for a subject, they at length had the good fortune to pitch upon one sufficiently absurd for their purpose, in the bones of the martyred Virgin St. Wenefrede, which lay interred in the churchyard at Gwytherin, in Denbighshire. After much fruitless negotiation with the priest and the people of Gwytherin, the abbot of Shrewsbury procured an order from Henry I. for the translation of the sacred dust to his monastery. The Welshmen honoured their saint more than their king, and turned a deaf ear alike to entreaties and menace. The Salopian monks persevering in their purpose, held a chapter, in which Robert Pennant, their prior, a Denbighshire man, who is supposed to have fabricated the legend, was commissioned to make a pilgrimage to Gwytherin, and to leave no expedients untried for obtaining possession of the relics. Assisted by a priest in Wales, two clever monks of his abbey, and the prior of Chester, he practised on the credulity of the Welsh by pretended visions and divine warnings. The prize was given up, and the delegates returned with it in triumph to Shrewsbury, where it was enshrined with great pomp and solemnity, near the high altar of St. Peter and St. Paul. The speculation of the monks was completely successful; multitudes of pilgrims flocked with gifts to the shrine, and even nobles contended who should offer the richest donations. In addition to these treasured bones the monks in after times appear to have possessed a most extensive and varied assortment of other relics, doubtless of equal value and efficacy. In 1486 the abbot Thomas Mynde incorporated the devotees of St. Wenefrede into a religions guild or fraternity, founded by him in her honour. A great bell was also dedicated to her memory. One of the most remarkable persons this house produced was Robert of Shrewsbury, a monk, who was promoted to the see of Bangor, in the reign of Henry II. His influence in Wales excited the jealously of King John, who imprisoned him in his own cathedral, and for his ransom obliged him to pay three hundred hawks. This eminent prelate, it is said by his will, ordered his body to be buried, not in his cathedral church, but in the middle of the market place of Shrewsbury. At the various visits with which the English sovereigns honoured Shrewsbury, it is highly probable that they took up their residence in the abbey, and there can be little doubt that the parliament of Edward I., 1283, and that of Richard II., 1398, called the Great Parliament, were held within the monastery. At the dissolution of 1513, when the property and possessions of this monastery fell to the crown, the burgesses of Shrewsbury presented a petition that the abbey might be converted into a college or free school, to which request Henry refused to accede, alleging as a reason his intention of erecting Shrewsbury into a bishopric, the diocese of which was to include the counties of Salop and Staffordshire, and the endowments to consist of the monastic revenues. Dr. Bouchier, the last abbot of Leicester, was actually nominated Bishop of Shrewsbury, and hence it is said arose the appellation “Proud Salopians,” founded on the tradition that the inhabitants rejected the offer of having their borough converted into a city. The bailiffs and principal inhabitants of the city in vain petitioned their monarch to spare the buildings of the monastery. On the 22nd of July, 1546, Henry VIII. granted the site of the dissolved abbey to Edward Watson and Henry Henderson, who the next day conveyed the same to William Langley, a tailor, in whose family it continued for five generations, until 1701, when Jonathan Langley, Esq., devised it to Edward Baldwyn, Esq., and he in like manner in 1726 passed it to his sister Bridget, wife of Thomas Powys, Esq. In 1810 the premises were sold by the trustees of the wife of Thomas Jelf Powys, Esq., to Mr. Simon Hiles, in whose devisees they are now vested. The property with which the abbey had been endowed at various periods, comprised seventy manors, twenty-four churches, and the tithes of thirty-seven parishes, besides very extensive and valuable privileges and immunities of various kinds. In 26 Henry VIII., their possessions were found of the yearly value of £572. 15s. 5¾d., equal to £4700 in the present day. Pensions were assigned to the late abbot, Thomas Boteler, and the seventeen monks.

The abbey presents few features of its ancient grandeur, the chapter house, cloister, and refectory are entirely destroyed. In the stately chapter house occurred the early authorised assembly of that popular representation in the constitution of this kingdom, to which, under Providence, Englishmen have been indebted for much of their subsequent prosperity. From the important state affairs which were transacted here in 1307–8 it was denominated the Great Parliament. The cross of Canterbury was brought here, upon which the lords spiritual and temporal were sworn to observe and keep all the statutes which were then made. Here too, Richard II., attended by a numerous guard of Cheshire men, entertained the members of his parliament with a sumptuous feast. The site of the abbey embraced upwards of ten acres, but it is no longer possible to trace the wide circuit of the ancient embattled walls. In 1836, on excavating near the site of the chapter house, a leaden seal was found, which had once been appended to a bull from the pope, whose name is thus inscribed on it:—INNOCENTUS. P.P. IIII. The most interesting portions of the ruins is a little octagonal structure, six feet in diameter, which is generally called the Stone Pulpit, the admiration of every antiquary and person of taste. Some broken steps lead to the interior through a narrow flat arched door on each side. The south part stands upon a portion of a ruined wall, and originally looked into one of the outer courts. The corresponding moiety projected considerably within the hall, and rests upon a single corbel, terminating in a head. From this point it gradually spreads, with a variety of delicately ribbed mouldings, until it forms the basement under the floor. The whole is crowned with a dome of stone work, at about eight feet from the base, supported on six narrow pointed arches, rising from pillars similar to the mullions of the windows. One of the remaining sides of the octagon is a solid blank wall, and the other contains the door. The roof within is vaulted on eight delicate ribs springing out of the wall, and adorned at their intersection in the centre, by a boss representing an open flower, on which is displayed a delicate sculpture of the crucifixion. The spaces between the divisions of the three northern arches, are filled up four feet above the base, with stone panels, over which they are entirely open, and the light thus introduced is productive of a beautiful effect. On the centre panel is a rich piece of sculpture designed to represent the annunciation. The right hand panel bears the images of St. Peter and St. Paul; that on the left St. Wenefrede and the abbot Beuno. The architecture of this interesting structure is referred to the time of Henry VIII. Much conjecture has arisen among antiquaries respecting its probable use, but there can be little doubt that it originally projected from the wall of the refectory, and was used as a pulpit, from which one of the junior brethren of the monastery, in compliance with the rule of the Benedictine order, daily read or recited aloud, during meal times, a subject of divinity to the monks during dinner. Southward from the pulpit is a range of red sand stone building, now incorporated with the abbey house. To the south east is the abbot lodge, of which the only remnant is a portion of the cloister, consisting of three pointed arches. The dormitory was cut through on the formation of a new line of road in 1836.

SHREWSBURY CASTLE.—The events which belong to the Castle are intimately connected with the history of the town, where they are more fully noticed. Its founder, Roger de Montgomery, made it his residence soon after the Conquest, and it became the chief seat of his baronial power. As his new possessions had been acquired by the sword, Earl Roger considered the inhabitants as his property; therefore, to afford an eligible site for his new buildings, he is stated to have destroyed fifty houses; a fifth part of the town at that period. After the fall of the great house of Montgomery, in the reign of Henry I., on the forfeiture of Earl Robert de Belesme, the Castle became a royal fortress. Its defence was entrusted to a constable, usually the sheriff, who maintained the prison of the county within its walls; and the vast possessions annexed to it were parcelled out among various knights, on the condition of their keeping castle-ward for a certain number of days during war. During the turbulent reign of Henry III. the castle fell into great dilapidation; but his son, Edward I., immediately on his accession, almost entirely rebuilt the structure. The stronger portion of the castle now remaining was probably erected by direction of that monarch, being in the style generally adopted during his reign.