My work completed, I may be permitted to add a few words by way of envoi.
'Nooks and Corners' is the outcome of many prolonged sketching rambles
in Shropshire, where, as I roamed about the County, in search of
subjects for pen and pencil, I succeeded in gleaning a good deal of
original information anent the places I visited; and I was greeted by
all sorts and conditions of Salopians with that hospitality for which
they are proverbial, and which has left me their grateful debtor.
Though the more important places here illustrated are probably familiar
to many of my readers, there are certain scenes and objects in the
course of this work which have never been pictured or described before,
and which will, I trust, prove of interest to Salopians. Amidst such an
embarras de richesses, I have of necessity been obliged to pick and
choose the subjects dealt with; for in matter antiquarian the locality
is well-nigh inexhaustible.
But if the gentle reader, in perusing the following pages, should share
in some degree my own pleasure and interest in compiling them, I shall
have the satisfaction of feeling that I have not rambled in vain amidst
the Nooks and Corners of Shropshire.
H. THORNHILL TIMMINS.
HARROW,
_November_, 1899.