.

Ston

SHROPSHIRE

Is an inland county, that prior to the arrival of the Romans was included in the

principality of Cornavii, of the Britons; and after the arrival of the Romans,
was comprifed in their province of Flavia Cæfarienfis. During the Heptarchy it
belonged to the kingdom of Mercia, the last established, which began in 582, and
ended in 827, having had 18 kings. It is now included in the Oxford circuit,
belongs to the diocese of Hereford, and is in the province of Canterbury. It is
bounded on the N. by Cheshire and Flintshire; S. by Herefordshire and Worces-
tershire; E. by Staffordshire, and W. by Montgomery, Radnor, and Denbeighshire
in North Wales; and is of an oval form, being 44 miles long from N. to S. and
28 broad from E. to W. and is 134 in circumference; containing 890,000 fquare
acres, or, 1106 fquare miles, 140,000 inhabitants, 23,284 houfes; is divided into
15
hundreds, 170 parishes, 52 vicarages, 615 villages, and 15 market-towns, viz.
Shrewsbury, the county-town, which has above 900 houses, Ludlow, Bridgenorth,
Wenlock, Bishop's-Caftle, Drayton, Wem, Ófweftry, Whitchurch, Church-
Atretton, Clebury, Newport, Ellifimere, Shefnall and Wellington. It fends 12
members to parliament, pays 7 parts of the land-tax, and provides 640 men to the

VOL. V.

national

Eaft

national militia. Its principal rivers are the Severn, Tweed, Teem, Clud, Ony, Warren, Tern, Corve, Rea, Kemlot, and Mele. The air is wholesome, pleasant and good; and produces corn, barley, pastures, hay, cattle, fruits, river-fish, pitcoal, lead and iron mines, pitch and tar. It has Wire, Morf, and Hockstock forests; with the hills of St. Gilbert, Caradock, Wrekin, Superfton, Browncle, Brethen, and Clebury-mount. There is a burning well near Wenlock. It is noted for flannel and friezes, Welch cottons, and white broad-cloth, befides remarkably fine gun-stocks.

The Roman, Danish, or Saxon encampments in this county, are Wroxeter; the Gair, at the junction of the rivers Clun and Teem; Brandon near Caer Craddock; upon Tongley Hill, and Bishop's-Mote, near Bishop's-Caftle; upon Brown Clee Hill, near Ludlow, and Old Ofweftry, near Ofweftry.

There is but one station of the Romans in this county, and that is Rutunium, now Wroxeter, which stands 12 miles, agreeable to the Itinerary of Antoninus, from Mediolanum, now Knightly, in Staffordshire; and 11 miles from Uriconium, now Wrottefley, in the fame county.