Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/871

Rh S H R S H R 845 SHREWSBURY, an old market-town, a municipal and parliamentary borough, and the county and assize town of Shropshire, England, is situated on a slightly elevated peninsula formed by a bend of the Severn, and on various railway lines, 30 miles south of Chester, and 163 north- west of London by the London and North-Western Railway, the distance by the Great Western being 171 miles. The Severn is crossed by three stone bridges, the English bridge (re-erected 1774), on the east, consisting of seven semicircular arches; the Welsh bridge (re-erected 1795), of five arches, on the west ; and the Kingsland bridge (opened in 1882), of iron on the bow and girder principle. The streets are hilly and irregular, but strikingly pictur- esque from their number of antique timber houses, among which may be mentioned that in Butcher Row formerly the town residence of the abbot of Lilleshall, and the old council-house overlooking the Severn, erected in 1502 for the presidents of the council of the Welsh marches. Of the town ramparts built in the reign of Henry III. the principal remains are a small portion on the north side called the Roushill walls, and another portion on the south- west, used as a public walk, on which stands a square embattled tower. The castle built by Roger de Montgomery was dismantled in the reign of James II., but there still remain the archway of the interior gateway, the walls of the inner court, and two large round towers of the time of Edward I. Roger de Montgomery also founded in 1083 the abbey of St Peter and St Paul, which was of great extent and very richly endowed. At the dissolution it was destroyed, except part of the nave and the western tower of the church, which have been converted into a parish church, under the name of the church of the Holy Cross. The other churches of special interest are St Mary's, founded in. the 10th century, a fine cruciform structure with a tower and spire 222 feet in height, displaying examples of various styles of architecture from Early Norman to Perpendicular, the base of the tower, the nave, and the doorways being Norman, the transept Early English, and the aisles 15th century, while the interior is specially worthy of notice for its elaborate details, its stained glass, and its ancient monuments; St Julian's, originally built before the Conquest, but rebuilt in 1748, except the tower, the older portion of which is Norman and the upper part 15th century; St Alkmond's, also dating from the 10th century, but rebuilt towards the close of the 18th century, with the exception of the tower and spire ; and St Giles's, dating from the time of Henry I., much altered at various periods, but still retaining its ancient nave and chancel. The old church of St Chad, supposed to have occupied the site of a palace of the princes of Powis, was destroyed by the fall of the tower in 1788, and of the ancient building the bishop's chancel alone remains. The new church of St Chad was built on another site in 1792. There are still slight remains of the abbey of Greyfriars founded in 1291, and of the Augus- tine friary founded in 1255. The old buildings completed in 1630 for the free grammar-school of Edward VI., founded in 1551, are now occupied by the county museum and free library, the school having been removed in 1882 to new buildings at Kingsland. Among the principal secular buildings of the town are the fine market-house in the Elizabethan style (completed according to an inscription over the northern arch in 1595), the shire hall (rebuilt in 1837, and again, after a fire, in 1883), the music-hall build- ings (1840), the general market and corn exchange (1869), the working-men's hall (1863), the drapers' hall (an old timbered structure dating from the 16th century), the theatre (1834), and the post-office (1877). The principal benevolent institutions are the county infirmary (1747), Millington's hospital (1734), and the eye, ear, and throat hospital (1881). A monument to Lord Clive was erected in the market-place in 1860, and a Doric memorial pillar to General Lord Hill in 1816 at the top of the Abbey Foregate. The town racecourse occupies a portion of the "Soldiers' Piece," where Charles I. addressed his army in 1642. To the south-west of the town is a fine park, 23 acres in extent, known as the Quarry, adorned by a beauti- ful avenue of lime trees. Formerly Shrewsbury was one of the principal marts for Welsh flannel, but this trade has now in great part ceased. Glass-staining, the spinning of flax and linen yarn, iron-founding, brewing, malting, the preparation of brawn, and the manufacture of the well- known Shrewsbury cakes are now the principal industries. The population of the municipal and parliamentary borough (area, 3674 acres) in 1871 was 23,406, and in 1881 it was 26,478. Shrewsbury, anciently called Pengwerne, was founded in the 5th century as a defence against the inroads of the Saxons, and became the seat of the princes of Fowis. After its conquest by the Saxons its name was changed to Scrobbesbyrig, altered gradually into Sloppesbury, Shrewsbury, and Salop. It became one of the princi- pal cities of the Saxon kingdom, and a mint was established there by Athelstan about 925. After the Norman Conquest it was in- cluded in the earldom of Shrewsbury bestowed by William I. on Roger de Montgomery, who erected a strong castle on the site of the ancient Saxon fortress. But in 1067 it was besieged by Owen Gwynedd, prince of Wales, till relieved by William, who marched specially to its assistance from York. On the rebellion of Robert de Belesme, son of the first earl of Shrewsbury, the castle and town were attacked by Henry I. and surrendered in 1102. During the wars of the next two centuries the town was frequently attacked and plundered by the Welsh, being captured by Llewelyn in 1215, surrendered to the English in 1221, plundered by the earl of Pem- broke in 1223, burnt by Llewelyn ap Jorwerth in January 1234, taken by Simon de Montfort in 1264, and restored to the crown in 1265. In 1267 Henry III. assembled his army there, to threaten the Welsh, but peace was restored without bloodshed, after which he strengthened its fortifications. Edward I. in 1277 made it the seat of hia government, and removed to it the Courts of Exchequer and King's Bench. In 1283 he held a parliament there for the trial of David, the last of the royal princes of Wales, who was dragged through the streets of the town and afterwards hanged and quartered. At a parliament held in Shrewsbury in January 1398 Richard II. assumed the title of Earl of Chester. Near the town was fought, 23d July 1403, the battle of Shrewsbury, described in Shakespeare's Ifeiiry IV., when the king defeated the earl of Northumberland with great slaughter, Hotspur, the earl's son, being among the slain. It became the headquarters of Charles I., 20th September 1642, but was taken by the Parliamentarians in February 1645. The town from the reign of William I. to that of James II. received no less than thirty-two charters, its first governing charter being obtained from Richard I. It returned two members to parliament from the reign of Edward I. until 1885, when it was allowed only one. See Phillips, History and Antiquities of Shrewsbury, 1779; Owen and Blake- nay, History of Shrewsbury, 1825; Pidgeon, Memorials of Shrewsbury, 1857. SHREWSBURY, EARLS OF. See TALBOT. SHRIKE, a bird's name so given by Turner (1544), but solely on the authority of Sir Francis Lovell, for Turner had seen the bird but twice in England, though in Ger- many often, and could not find any one else who so called it. However, the word 1 was caught up by succeeding writers; and, though hardly used except in books for Butcher-bird is its vernacular synonym it not only retains its first position in literary English, but has been largely extended so as to apply in general to all birds of the Family Laniidx and others besides. The name Lanius, in this sense, originated with Gesner 2 (1555), who thought that the birds to which he gave it had not been mentioned by the ancients. Sundevall, however, considers that the Malacocraneus of Aristotle was one of them, as indeed Turner had before suggested, though repelling the latter's 1 Few birds enjoy such a wealth of local names as the Shrikes. M. Holland (Faune Pop. de la France, ii. pp. 146-151) enumerates up- wards of ninety applied to them in France and Savoy ; but not one of these has any affinity to our word "Shrike." 3 He does not seem, however, to have known that Butcher-bird was an English name ; indeed it may not have been so at the time, but subsequently introduced.