Page:The National Gazetteer - A Topographical Dictionary of the British Islands, Volume 3.djvu/478

Rh SHROPSHIRE. 466 SHROPSHIRE. Part of the land is in fen and common. The living is a vie. in the dioc. of Norwich, val. 298, in the patron, of the mayor and chapter. The church is dedicated to St. Peter. The parochial charities produce about 48 per annum, realised from allotments. There is a school for both sexes. The Primitive Methodists have a place of worship. SHROPSHIRE, or SALOP, an inland co. in the W. of England, is bounded on the X. by Cheshire, E. by Staffordshire, S. by Worcestershire and Herefordshire, and W. by the Welsh counties of Radnor, Montgomery, and Denbigh. It lies between 52 18' and 53" 0' M. lat. and between 2 14' and 3 12' W. long. Its extreme length from N. to S. is 48 miles, and its greatest breadth from E. to W. is 40 miles. The area of the county is 1,343 square miles, or 859,520 acres, of which 790,000 acres are arable, meadow, and pasture. The population at the commencement of the century was 169,248; in 1851 it was 229,341 ; and in 1861, 240,959, or 42 per cent, over the number in 1801. At the time of the Roman invasion the county was chiefly inhabited by the Ordwices and Cornavii, whose territory was divided by the Severn, and was subsequently included in the Roman province Flavia Ccesariensis. The Romans appear to have been stoutly opposed by the Britons in this part of the country, as evidenced by the camp called Caer Caradoc, supposed to be that of Caractacus, and the earthworks at Caer Ditches, near Clun, where Camden and others are of opinion the great battle was fought between this chief and Ostorius Scapula, which effected the subjugation of the W. of the island. The principal Roman station was at Wroxeter, on the Severn, called by Latin writers Uriconium, where a wall, rampart, and ditch still mark the extent of the Roman city. There are besides Roman remains at Rowton, Market-Drayton, The Walls, Bury Ditches, and other places in this count)'. For many centuries it formed part of the kingdom of Powisland, with Pengwern for its capital, but the Saxons under Penda succeeded in conquering it in 626, and it became incorporated with the kingdom of Mcreia, which extended to the base of the Welsh moun- tains, and was known as Myrcna-rice, the kingdom of the borderers ; this was Latinised into Memo, and finally was corrupted into the Marches of Wales. For the protection of his territory from the inroads of the Welsh, Offii made a dyke or rampart 100 miles long, which still bears his name, and extended along the confines of Wales, from Flintshire on the N. to the Bristol Channel on the S., with the Severn for an inner boundary. Shortly after the union of the Saxon kingdoms under Egbert, this part of the country became a prey to the ravages of the Danes, who arrived here in great force in 849, and pushed on to Wales. At Cleobury Mortimer is a camp, supposed to have been formed by this people, and near Bridgnorth are traces of a fortifi- cation. When Alfred the Great had expelled the Danes he formed this district into a county under the name of Scrobbesbyriy shire, after its capital, then a city of much importance, of which its present name is a corruption. During the two following centuries the county was frequently invaded by the Welsh, and at the Norman conquest was given by William I., with the adjoining county of Montgomery, and the title of the Earl of Shrewsbury, to Roger de Montgomery for his services in the reduction of Edric the Forester. About this period most of the castles in the county were erected by the Norman nobles, who obtained grants of land on condition of maintaining their castles garrisoned against the Welsh, and were appointed Lords Marchers, with power to decide all questions of grievance between the English and Welsh, establish courts of judicature, build towns, &c., but the Welsh continuing to harass the border, Edward I. determined on their subjugation, and having taken David-ap-Llowellyn, the last prince of Wales, sum- moned a parliament to meet at Shrewsbury in 1283, by which the prince was declared guilty of treason, and condemned to be hanged and quartered, which was accordingly done. A parliament was again appointed I to meet here by Richard II. in 1397. During the revolt of Owain Glyndwr in the reign of Henry IV., the county was the scene of many lesser conflicts, and the final battle was fought at Shrewsbury in 1403, when the Prince of Wales, afterwards Henry V., with a portion of the king's army, defeated the joint forces of Glyndwr and the Percys, and slew Harry Hotspur, son of the Earl of Northumberland, which terminated the war. In the struggle between the rival houses of York and Lancaster the county was again engaged, and many important events took place. On the landing of the Duke of Richmond in 1485 he was proclaimed as Henry VII., and joined by the tenants of the Earl of Shrewsbury, and many others, who rendered him signal service in the battle of Bosworth Field. When Charles I. became obnoxious to a portion of his subjects he retired to Shrewsbury, and many of the towns in this county declared in his favour, but in 1644 the parliamentarians gained the ascendency, and con- tinued to hold it, notwithstanding the unavailing efforts of the royalists, who rose in arms in 1655, and again in 1659. The county is remarkable for the variety and beauty of its scenery, which in some places displays itself in rugged mountainous districts, and in others in rich and well-cultivated tracts, diversified by gently rising elevations with intersecting valleys. The county is divided by the Severn into two almost equal parts, the southern portion assuming the mountainous character of the adjoining counties of Montgomery and Denbigbj while the northern district is nearly level, relieved only by a few solitary hills and finely-wooded valleys. The elevated summits on the S.E. are for the most part extensions of the great western, or Welsh, range of mountains. The highest points are Brown Glee Hill, 1,805 feet above the sea-level, and Titterstone Glee Hill, 1,750 feet; W. of the Glee hills is the mountainous district called Clun Forest, formerly a wooded tract, but now well cultivated and divided into small freehold properties. Separating these two districts is a moun- tainous tract which stretches to the N.W. in a range of hills, the loftiest of which is Longmynd, 1,674 feet high, and still further N. is Stiperstones, a very peculiar mass of rocks. The remaining most important mountain ranges are the Berwyn range, which enters from Mont- gomery and terminates in this county in Selattyn Hill, 1,300 feet high ; the Breddin hills, extending for about 4 miles, but in no place of considerable altitude ; and the Wrekin, an isolated elevation of 1,320 feet, near Wellington, which forms a conspicuous object, being much higher than the neighbouring hills. It is con- nected with the Caer Caradoc hills, which border on the Longmynd. The principal river is the Severn, which is noticed in a separate article. Its course through this county is winding and navigable through its entire extent of 70 miles, during which it receives from the E. the waters of the Tern, and its tributary the Roden, and of several small streams from the W. The S. is also watered by the Teme, which is joined by a number of small tributaries, and after forming part of the boun- dary between Herefordshire and Shropshire, falls into the Severn below Worcester. The Dee washes the N.E. corner of the county, separating it from Cheshire. The only lake of any size is Ellesmere, near the town of that name, which covers an area of 116 acres. The canal accommodation is very excellent, all the lines being to the N. of the Severn ; the principal are the Donnington, which extends from Donnington Wood to the neighbourhood of Newport, where it is joined by the Shropshire canal of about the same length, which runs into the Severn below Coalbrookdale ; a branch communicates with Ketley. The Shrewsbury canal, starting from the Severn at Shrewsbury, runs along the left bank of the river, and then, turning to the N.E., joins the Shropshire and Donnington canals near Wel- lington. It is 17 miles long ; at Atcham it passes through a tunnel 970 yards in length, and it crosses the valley of the Tern by the first cast-iron aqueduct that was ever made ; besides several other minor canals. The county is well supplied with railways ; Shrewsbury, its