Handbook to the Severn Valley Railway | Page 8

waxed hottest near the north gate, and in the old churchyard,
where the leader of the loyalists fell. That the adherents of the king
were not "all on one side," would appear from the fact that the town's
defenders were pelted upon retiring to the castle by the inhabitants,
treatment which they seem to have deserved in setting fire to the town,
bombarding St. Leonard's, burning the adjoining buildings and driving
the wretched population in search of such shelter as the rocks and
woods afforded.
The garrison capitulated on the 26th of April, 1646, in consequence of
a mine, by which the Parliamentary leader proposed to blow up the
castle and set fire to their magazine, then in St. Mary's Church, which
stood within the castle walls. Ecclesiastical dignitaries often then wore
coats of mail as well as cassocks, and daggers in addition to their
girdles; and this old church being collegiate, had for one of its deans
Rivallis, who forged the charter and seal of Henry III., by which the
Irish possessions of the Earl of Pembroke were invaded, and that
nobleman cruelly treated and killed. The more distinguished William of
Wykeham, who held the Great Seal in the reign of Edward III., and
exercised considerable influence in his day, both in church and state,
was also a dean of St. Mary's.
St. Leonard's occupies a position at the opposite extremity of the town.
Its crumbling tower, shattered by the cannon of Charles' army, remains,
but the nave and side aisles have recently been restored--that on the
south side at the sole expense of John Pritchard, Esq., M.P., in memory
of his brother. The celebrated divine, Richard Baxter, began his
ministry at St. Leonard's, apparently with little success, as he is said to
have shook the dust from his feet upon leaving, declaring the hearts of
the inhabitants to have been harder than the rock on which their town
was built. Nevertheless, he afterwards dedicated his well-known book,
"The Saint's Rest," to them. Adjoining the churchyard is a hospital for
ten poor widows, built and endowed, as a brass plate over the entrance
informs us, by a relative of Colonel Billingsly, who fell in the service
of "King Charles ye First," and whose sword is said now to be in the
possession of a descendant of the family, in the parish of Astley

Abbots.
[Old House, Bridgnorth: 22.jpg]
Like other ancient towns, Bridgnorth had places founded for the relief
of the poor, the destitute, and the diseased. The house of the monks of
the "Friars of the Order Grey," stands near where a dilapidated sign of
the Preaching Friar still swings over the entrance of a public-house. It
forms part of the carpet works of Mr. Martin Southwell, who uses its
oak panelled hall, and a number of cells carved out of the solid rock, as
storerooms. In making some alterations recently the little cemetery was
disturbed, and skeletons of several of the monks, embedded in spaces
cut out of the rock, in the form of a sarcophagus, were exposed. In the
Cartway is the "Old House" in which Bishop Percy, author of the
"Relics of Ancient English Poetry," was born, a fine specimen of the
domestic architecture of the 16th century; and in the entrance-hall of
which are the following words in large letters in relief, "Except the
Lord BVILD THE OWSE The Labourers Thereof Evail Nothing.
Erected by R. For * 1580." Another of these quaint old structures,
called Cann Hall, contains some curious unlighted double dormitories
in the roof; one is called King Charles' Room, and another is pointed
out as that in which his nephew, Prince Rupert, is said to have slept.
The house is supposed to be haunted, and the present tenant is not loth
to admit that he sometimes hears strange noises, a fact, if such it be, at
which one can scarcely wonder, seeing that the wind and the bats have
undisputed sway. The Townhall, in the Market Square, built in the
place of the one destroyed during the civil wars, is thus noticed in the
"Common Hall Order Book" of the Corporation: "The New Hall set up
in the Market Place of the High Street of Bridgnorth was begun, and
the stone arches thereof made, when Mr. Francis Preen and Mr. Symon
Beauchamp were Bayliffs, in Summer, 1650; and the timber work and
building upon the same stone arches was set up when Mr. Thomas
Burne and Mr. Roger Taylor were Bayliffs of the said town of
Bridgnorth, in July and August, 1652." The new Market Hall, with the
Assembly Room, the rooms of the Mechanics' Institution, &c., is a
handsome building, situated at the lower end of the same large open
square.

The grand promenade round the Castle Hill, which King Charles