[Picture: Stone Pulpit]
from which one of the junior monks was accustomed to read to his brethren
while seated at their meals. Its situation, one half resting on the
ruined wall of the Refectory, indisputably proves this; looking outward
of the site of that building it forms a small bay window, while the other
portion, once inside the hall, is supported on a moulded bracket, which
springs from a corbel originally carved as a head. From hence it
projects to the basement of the floor, twelve feet from which rises a
conical roof sustained on six narrow pointed arches, having trefoil
heads.
The interior forms a beautiful oriel, the roof being vaulted on eight
delicate ribs, at the intersection of which in the centre is a boss of
comparatively large dimensions; on this is beautifully sculptured The
Crucifixion, with St. John and the Virgin Mary at the foot of the cross,
enclosed under a trefoil arch flanked by buttresses. The spaces of the
three northern arches, looking inwards, are filled with embattled stone
panels about three feet high, on which are enshrined several figures of
saints, &c.
This interesting relic is approached from the garden by a flight of steps
through a small doorway worked originally, it is considered, within the
thickness of the wall of the refectory.
The south wing of what is supposed to have been part of the monk’s
infirmary, chapel, &c. remains south-west of the church. It is now
appropriated as a malthouse, and may be distinguished by its lofty
gables. A similar building converted into dwellings stood near the
street, and was connected with the above by an embattled ruin flanked by
massive piers, between which were square windows divided by a transom.
This was an imposing feature to our monastic remains, and truly venerable
from its antiquity, having braved the storms and tempests of nearly one
thousand years, but was taken down without a feeling of forbearance in
1836, and the materials applied for the foundations of two houses
adjoining its site.
The present Abbey house is supposed to have been the guest hall, or
hospitium, to the east of which three pointed arches, once forming part
of a groined ceiling, denote the abbot’s lodging.
Of the chapter house, where the members of the monastery assembled to
transact their official business, not a relic is left; but in excavating
near its site, in 1836, a leaden seal was found, which had been once
appended to a bull from the Pope, whose name is thus inscribed on it,
INNOCENTIVS. PP. IIII.
The monks of this Abbey, in the third year of Pope Innocent IV. i.e.
1246, obtained a bull, setting forth the injuries committed against their
lands, tithes, possessions, &c. by the monastery of Lilleshull, by which
the dean and precentor of Lichfield were directed to convoke the parties
and hear the cause.
The dormitory was attached to the south-west side of the church, and was
cut through in the formation of a new line of road in 1836.
What a train of reflections, loudly bespeaking the vicissitudes of life,
may be called forth during our walk along this new thoroughfare. Who is
there, it may be asked, with a mind to think and a heart to feel, that
can thoughtlessly pass over ground which has been distinguished in
history, without a momentary reflection upon its former importance?
Within the Chapter House, which stood on a portion of this road, occurred
the earliest authorized assembly of that popular representation in the
constitution of this kingdom, to which, under Providence, Englishmen have
been indebted for all their subsequent prosperity,—all their energies,
and that noble independence which have characterized us as a people among
nations. {196}
Here, too, Richard the Second gratified his fondness for magnificence, by
entertaining the members of his parliament with a sumptuous feast, and,
as if to dazzle by the splendour of monarchy, and to awe by military
display, he was attired in his royal robes, and attended by a numerous
guard of Cheshire men.
The fervent orisons of a grateful heart have here been uplifted—divinity
and other important subjects discussed—and on this spot the nobility,
gentry, abbots, priors, deans, &c. of Shropshire, have frequently
congregated, and banished for a time the gloomy silence and sable garb of
the brotherhood, and exchanged the sober gravity of the refectory, and
its austere monkish repast, for wine and wassail, minstrelsey and song.
Before quitting these scattered ruins, the present remains of the Abbey
church must excite feelings of regret in the breast of every admirer of
our ancient architecture, at the mistaken zeal which caused its partial
and barbarous demolition.
An embattled wall encompassed the northern and eastern sides of the
precinct, beyond which is the FOREGATE, a respectable open street, nearly
one mile in length, and chiefly occupied by private residences. The
houses to the south have gardens which extend to the Reabrook, and
command delightful prospects of the adjacent country. This suburb (April
1st, 1774) suffered considerably from a fire, which destroyed 47
dwellings, 16 barns, 15 stables, 4 shops, and several stacks of hay,
beside damaging other property.