to make a castle of his house at Middle, which lay less exposed to the incursions of the Welsh than his castles of Knockin and Ruyton, which often felt the fury of that people. In the third of Edward the Third he had a grant of free warren, the view of frankpledge and waif in this manor. In the sixteenth of Edward the Third, John Le Strange, and in the forty-eighth of Edward the Third, Roger Le Strange, levied fines of the manor of Middle. A settlement made by Richard Le Strange may be found in the Chancery rolls, the eighteenth of Henry the Sixth. In the sixth of Edward the Fourth Roger Kynaston de Middle, Esq. late sheriff of Shropshire, obtained the king's general pardon. In the thirteenth of Edward the Fourth John Molineaux died seized of Middle. In the thirty-ninth of Elizabeth the queen gives licence to Thomas Barnston, Gent. and Elizabeth, his wife, to sell lands in Middle to Robert Cherleton and his heirs. As to the present state of Middle, it is merely a straggling hamlet, of very little thoroughfare, pleasantly situated on a hill, with a few ruins, and one prominent tower of the castle.*

While Lord Strange was Lord of Middle he lived there part of the year, and the other part at Knockin' Castle; but when these lordships came into the family of the Earl of Derby, there was a constable or castle-keeper appointed for the Castle of Middle. Gough, in his manuscript history of Middle, gives the names of several of these keepers: at length we come to that of Sir Roger Kynaston, of Hordley, made keeper by commission, and after him his youngest son Humphrey Kynaston, who, from his dissolute and riotous manner of life, was surnamed The Wild. He had two wives, but of so low parentage that they would lay claim to any coat of arms, as appears by the card of the Kynastons' arms. There is a tradition that his first

wife

Mr. Dovaston has in his collection a copy of the manuscripts of Mr. Gough of Middle (called in this country Gough's History of Middle, but more talked of than read) containing some strange anecdotes in quaint, but not unpleasing language; with here and there some trite latin quota. tions, very incorrectly quoted and oddly translated.

wife was Elizabeth, daughter of Meredith ap Howel ap Morice, of Oswestry, and another that she was Margaret, daughter of William Griffith, of Oswestry, called Coch-William, or The Red; and that his second wife was by name Isabella. (Kynaston's will bears date 1534). No record appears of any children he ever had. The enormous debts he contracted by his imprudent life and conduct caused him to be declared an outlaw; upon which he fled from Middle Castle, which he had by neglect suffered to fall to ruins, and sheltered himself in a cave in the west point of Nescliffe Rock, called to this day Kynaston's Cave, and shewn to travellers by a facetious old dame who inhabits it, and entertains visitors with strange romantic tales relative to the adventures and exploits of her great predecessor.

The cave is reached by a very high flight of steps, and is in that part of the rock which is quite perpendicular: close beneath is a fine thick wood of oak and birch, over which it commands a very extensive prospect to the west, bounded by the Welsh mountains. From this point, perhaps, the majestic Breidden mountains are seen to most advantage, with the Rivers Severn and Vyrnwy gleaming in the sun beneath. The cave is spacious and even comfortable, being divided into two rooms by a strong pillar of the rock, upon which is carved H. K. 1564. The place now containing the old dame's bed was the stall of the outlaw's celebrated horse, whom the vulgar to this day hereabouts believe to have been the Devil. This horse was turned to graze in the neighbouring fields, and, on his master's whistling, would instantly ascend the steps of the cave; it would also kneel and do various tricks at command.-All this may be very possible from the well known docility of the horse; and it must be remembered, and is very apparent, that the steps to the cave were then more than twice the present width, and have been since cut away for building-stones, on the precipice side. In all his depredatory adventures he seems to have regarded a sort of justice; for what he took from the rich he gave freely to the poor, by whom he was as much beloved, as he was dreaded by

the

the wealthy. On the road, if he saw a cart with one horse and another with three, he made them equal, by taking the fore horse from the latter and hooking it to the former. Most of the adventures ascribed to him, whether probable or improbable, seem to have been more dictated by whim than a desire of plunder. He had a plentiful supply of hay, corn, and other necessaries from the people around; the rich paying him tribute through fear, and the poor from gratitude,

The place on Dovaston Common, called Kynaston's HorseLeap to this day, received that name from the following circumstance:-Kynaston having been observed to go over Montford Bridge to Shrewsbury, the sheriff, intending to take him, caused one of the divisions of the bridge (which was then formed of planks laid upon stone pillars) to be taken up, and placed a quantity of men in ambush. When Kynaston had advanced on the bridge, the men came forth and blocked up his retreat, upon which he put spurs to his horse, who bore him safely over the wide breach, and brought him to his cave at Nescliffe :--though some say the horse leaped into the Severn and carried him across. The length of this leap was afterwards measured on the common near the village of Dovaston, with an H cut at one end, and a K at the other. There are many people in the village now living who remember these letters; but the common has since been enclosed, and the initials ploughed up, though there was sixpence a year left to keep them open, "as as long (says the old woman of the cave) as the sun shines or the wa ter runs."-The letters were an ell long, a spade's graffe wide, and a spade deep, and were generally cleansed annually by order of Mr. Kynaston of Kington (as honest Gough says, in his quaint, though not unpleasing account of Middle). Frequent applications have been made to the old people about Dovaston for the distance of the letters, but no accurate account could be obtained: the vulgar are so fond of the marvellous that they ever enlarge, and scruple not to say forty yards; if so, the bridge planks must have been of an enormous length, and trees, as well as men

and