One of the most pleasant walks in the kingdom. It consists of a tract of
meadow ground, twenty-three acres in extent. Its situation, its
surroundings, its scenery are extremely beautiful, and constitute it a
most attractive and delightful promenade. The bank which skirts the
Severn is adorned with a graceful avenue of lime trees, extending 450
yards in length, and forming in the intertwining of their lofty branches
a natural arcade. The Quarry, which should be a thing of beauty and a
joy for ever to the inhabitants, is resorted to, as a rule, only by a few
of the residents, most of whom, from their familiarity with it, do not
appreciate its charms, but from the stranger the spectacle of so
enjoyable and poetic a spot always elicits expressions of admiration.
The beauty that every day lies at our own door is often no beauty at all.
The Quarry derives its name from a small quarry of red sandstone,
formerly worked in what is now called the Dingle. The trees in the lower
walk were planted by Mr. Henry Jenks, Mayor, in 1719. The three walks,
graced in a similar manner, serve as approaches from the town. In 1569
the Quarry was leased to three burgesses for ten years at a nominal rent
upon their undertaking to bring the water from near Crow Meole to
Shrewsbury. They fulfilled the condition by laying down leaden pipes,
and the work was completed in 1574, in which year Shrewsbury was first
supplied with what is now popularly known as “conduit water.” In that
year the conduits at Mardol Head, Market Square, High Street, and Wyle
Cop were erected and opened. The Quarry has been used for various
purposes. In the reign of James I. it was used “for agisting of cattle,
for musters of soldiers, and other laudable exercises and recreations.”
It is easy to infer from the brutal and coarse pastimes of the period
what the “laudable exercises” were, but in truth, the uncertainty of
inference is removed by the positiveness of fact, for in the same reign
the Quarry was used for “bull-baitings, stage-plays, &c., by consent of
the bailiffs,” who, of course, found in this corrupt and debased taste a
source of profit to the borough revenue. The stage plays performed
here—in that portion which is in the shape of an amphitheatre and is
styled the Dingle—were of the nature of those common in the early age of
the English theatre. They belonged to the class of Mysteries—a class of
a low, vicious, profane, and often blasphemous character. Amongst others
_Julian the Apostate_ was performed here in 1565, and it is said that,
notwithstanding its utter grossness, it was “listened to with admiration
and devotion.” Two years later, in 1567, there was given a
representation of the Passion and Crucifixion of Christ, and the actor
who took the principal part was killed by being speared in the heart by
mistake. An horrible barbarity was committed in the Dingle in 1647,
when, on December 24th, a woman was burned to death for having poisoned
her husband. Very considerable improvements have been recently made in
the Quarry by the erection of a Band Stand, new Entrance Gates, and the
transformation of the Dingle into a well ordered pleasure garden, with
seats, grottos, ornamental water, &c., the cost of these great
improvements has been mainly defrayed by the Horticultural Society whose
annual _fêtes_ are looked forward to with the “sweet pleasures of
anticipation” by thousands.
The fine brick building on the eminence opposite the Quarry on the other
side of the Severn is the new premises for SHREWSBURY SCHOOL, fronted by
a wide terrace, and commanding an extensive landscape in both front and
rear. The building which cost £12,000, was commenced in 1760, and opened
in 1765 for the reception of orphans from the Foundling Hospital in
London. It has been appropriated for different purposes from time to
time. Becoming disused by the managers of the Foundling Hospital it was
for some time uninhabited. A portion of it was then taken as a woollen
manufactory, and while one section was thus devoted to business, another
was let out in apartments to valetudinarians who in the summer months
retired from the town to seek pleasure and health in this beautiful
district. It was also used as a place of confinement for Dutch prisoners
captured in the American war; and then, in 1784, it was converted to
something approaching its original purpose by being purchased under an
Act of Parliament for incorporating the town parishes and that of Meole
Brace with the object of maintaining the poor. At the rear of the
buildings is