where stood the suburban mansion of the Myttons of Halston, in which that
family resided after vacating their town house of Vaughan’s Place.
North-west of the turnpike was
ST. CATHARINE’s CHAPEL,
in a pasture still called the Chapel Yard. {188}
Coton appears at a remote period to have been connected with the Suburb
of Frankwell by a bank, which caused the river to spread over the meadows
called the “Purditches,” forcing its waters from thence under Hencot and
Cross Hill in a channel still strongly marked by its rising banks, and
discernible at all times, especially during floods, until the stream
found its way into the present channel near the Royal Baths. This is
particularly evident at the foot of Cross Hill, one mile on the Ellesmere
road, to the right of which a toll bar communicates with a pleasant lane,
the ancient road to Berwick. From the brow of this lane, the old course
of the Severn may be easily defined. From hence, also, the town unfolds
itself with peculiar beauty backed by the frontier of Salopian and
Cambrian mountains, increasing in variety and picturesque effect
throughout this delightful rural walk, until we arrive at Marshall’s
Factory, where a wooden bridge over the canal conducts again to the
suburb of