SHREWSBURY

_"High the vanes of Shrewsbury gleam

Islanded in Severn stream;

The bridges from the steepled crest

Cross the water east and west._

_The flag of morn in conqueror's state

Enters at the English gate;

The vanquished eve, as night prevails,

Bleeds upon the road to Wales."_

So sang the "Shropshire Lad" (A. E. Housman) concerning that fair city

of the Welsh Marches, high-perched Shrewsbury. Most picturesque is the

fashion in which the river Severn knots itself about the foot of the

high peninsula upon which the town has been built, and to which access

is given by the two ancient bridges, named English and Welsh from the

direction in which they lead. The Kirkland Bridge is an addition of

modern times. Thoroughly mediaeval is the impression one receives as he

approaches and enters Shrewsbury. In the first place, the passage of a

bridge always affords an excellent adjustment of the traveller's mental

attitude; it lends a certain aloofness to the town on the other side.

It seems to say, "We are letting you across the natural barrier

established for us by this river; but remember, it is a privilege, and

not a right!" Directly we are arrived on the other side, there commences

the ascent of the steep streets, and on the way up there is unfolded

before us a series of old white and black half-timbered houses, which

will serve to complete the mental picture of those distant days when

protecting rivers and steep streets were not eschewed on the grounds of

inconveniencing the city's prospective growth. Safety was then vastly

more important than commercial convenience. That features hampering to

modern commerce were exactly suited to a border stronghold was proved by

the way this town withstood shock after shock of warring tribes, or

nations, or factions. In his play of _Henry IV._, Shakespeare tells how

the Prince of Wales here made his sudden transformation from dissolute

youth to resolute manhood by defeating and slaying Harry Hotspur, thus

in one day quelling the mutinous combination of the Scotch, the Welsh

under Owen Glendower, and the rebellious English Archbishop Scrope of

York. Quaint and ancient to the last degree is the flavour of this old

city, which has owned, first and last, thirty-one charters. Those

interested in half-timbered dwellings will do well to come here and

inspect their number, variety, and excellent state of preservation.

Perhaps the best are around Wye Cop, passed on the way up the steep

streets. The remains of the ancient castle and walls add still other

picturesque features to this artistically noteworthy town. An inspection

of St. Mary's Church brings home to us the fact that as this was a

fortress city, ground could not be spared to provide the usual Close

which so pleasantly surrounds most English churches; in fact, this

modest sanctuary is so set upon by other buildings that it seems almost

to shrink from public gaze. An outpost occupying a strategic position on

an embattled frontier required every foot of ground within its walls,

and could devote no space to artistic surroundings, even for a church.

St. Mary's is very rich in glass, and that, too, of varied epochs and

styles. Fortunately alike for that church and for us, the Rev. W. G.

Rowlands (Vicar from 1825 to 1850), was a discriminating collector of

stained glass. He secured not only the great St. Bernard window (of

which we will speak later), but also much of the other glass that

decorates the interior. We will begin our examination by inspecting the

large east window, which displays a fourteenth century Tree of Jesse in

the usual Decorated manner, of which we shall see prototypes at Ludlow,

Bristol, and Wells. Jesse is reclining across the bottom of three of the

lancets, the convolutions of the vine arising from him forming series

of oval enclosures in which appear his descendants. Note the skilful use

of the leads in providing the black outlines needed to draw the figure

of Jesse. In the row of panels below appear small figures of the donors.

The fine reds and blues are hurt by the use of too much green--a common

fault at that time. We must look to the nave windows (all of three

lancets) for the other glazing of that period. The middle embrasure on

the northerly side is beautified by the tasteful use of written scrolls,

which wind about the figures and the columns of simulated architecture.

Scrolls are also used in the next one to the east, but there they are

not so important a part of the decoration. On the southerly side of the

nave the embrasures nearest to the west and to the east have single

figures in canopy. That to the east displays shields below the figures,

a decoration which is absent in the western one. The central window on

this side dates from the sixteenth century, and is the best of that

period here. It contains three subjects in each side lancet, and two in

the central one. Such intelligent use has been made of the leads that

one concludes that the men who made the designs, and they who

constructed the window, were either identical or else worked side by

side. The result forms a pleasing contrast to the usual disregard during

the Renaissance for the decorative and useful purposes of the leads.

The most interesting and pleasing of all the windows is the large one of

three lancets on the north side of the choir showing fourteen scenes

from the life of St. Bernard, six in the central lancet, and four in

each of the side ones. Four more episodes from the same life are to be

seen in the middle one of the south aisle. This glass, originally in the

German Abbey of Altenberg, and then for many years in the vaults of St.

Severin at Cologne, was finally brought to London, where it was secured

for St. Mary's by the Rev. Mr. Rowlands. The designs are attributed to

Albrecht Duerer, but this is a common claim for German glass of that

time. The perspective throughout is good, and the colouring very

satisfactory. An unusual charm is added to the little figures by the use

of Latin labels issuing from their mouths. There are also inscriptions

below most of them, but these are frequently mutilated and misplaced. If

proof were needed that this glass was not specially constructed for its

present location, it is provided by the fact that the scenes do not

follow in their proper order. A field-glass can be had on application to

the clerk, and the use of it reveals many interesting and amusing

details. The second window on the east in the chapel, south of the

choir, has in its tracery-lights written music carried by angels. The

pilgrim will later observe a great deal of this in the Beauchamp

Chapel at Warwick. Although rare in England, it is rarer still in

France. A fine sixteenth-century Crucifixion scene, covering three

lancets, decorates the north window just off the north transept.

In the modest-sized east window of this transept are twelve small

sixteenth-century enamel panels placed on white, a demonstration of yet

another style of that later period. The rest of the glazing in St.

Mary's is either modern or so completely repaired with new glass as to

have lost all its ancient feeling. An inspection of this church would

not be complete without observing the fine wooden ceilings of both the

nave and the choir.

Devotees of the Ingoldsby Legends will remember that when the Great Dog

in the castle of "Bloudie Jacke of Shrewsberrie" was about to seize upon

Mary Anne, she vicariously appeased him with:

"A Shrewsbury cake, of Pallin's own make,

Which she happened to take

Ere her run she begun,

She'd been used to a luncheon at One."

Mindful of this dainty's historic existence, the traveller will

doubtless regale himself therewith, that product of the town being as

excellent and famous to-day as ever it was of yore.

From Shrewsbury our route lies southward over that centuries-old

battle-ground, the Welsh Marches. We shall find not only much

architectural beauty and fine glass, but also many inspiring memories of

the border warfare whose bitterness lasted so many centuries.