were amassed, and his exigencies soon compelled him to abandon this as well as other measures of public benefit which he had projected. The bailiffs and principal inhabitants of Shrewsbury in vain petitioned him to spare the buildings of the monastery; Langley, a tailor of the town, who had purchased them, in order to make the most of his property, demolished the greater part of the fabric, and sold its materials. He is said even to have stripped the nave of its lead, and to have attempted to sell the bells in the western tower; but these were claimed by the parishioners, who at length recovered them by legal process.

There are very few remains of the Abbey. Its cloister, refectory, chapter-house, &c. are entirely destroyed. The ancient embattled wall, which encircles the precinct, is nearly entire on the eastern and northern sides, and presents a venerable appearance on the approach to Shrewsbury by the London road. A mansion house, with its gardens and fishpond, occupies the space within the ancient inclosure, containing about nine acres. The house itself consists partly of monastic remains, and, by modern improvements, has been converted into a handsome residence. There are some remains of out-buildings near the Meole Brook, and on the side of the street, which were probably the inferior appendages of this religious establishment.

The most interesting portion of the ruins is a little octagonal structure, six feet in diameter, which is generally called the STONE PULPIT. It stands on the south side of the garden. Some broken steps which did not originally belong to it, lead through a narrow flat-arched door to the inside. The south part stands upon a portion of the ruined wall, from which the corresponding side, projecting considerably, rests upon a single corbeil, terminating in a head. From this point it gradually spreads, with a variety of delicately ribbed mouldings, until it forms the basement under the floor. The whole is crowned by an obtuse dome of stone-work at about eight feet from

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the base, supported on six narrow-pointed arches, rising from pillars similar to the mullions of windows. One of the remaining sides of the octagon is a solid blank wall, and the other contains the door. The roof, within, is vaulted on eight ribs which spring from the wall immediately under the cavity of the dome. At their crossing in the centre is a boss, bearing a representation of the crucifixion, considerably relieved. The spaces between the divisions of the three northern arches, are filled up, four feet above the base, with stone pannels, over which they are entirely open, and the light thus introduced is productive of a beautiful effect. On the centre pannel is a rich piece of sculpture, seemingly designed to represent the annunciation. right-hand pannel bears the images of St. Peter and St. Paul, with appropriate symbols; that on the left has two figures in monastic habits; one a female, the other a monk. The arches. on the southern side are without ornaments, and are now quite open to within two feet of the floor. The beauty of this singular fragment, which is conceived not to be older than the time of Henry the Seventh, is much heightened by its thick mantle of luxuriant ivy, and by the mellow tint of its grey stone, distinguishing it from the deep red hue of the other remains of the Abbey.

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The most probable of the many conjectures respecting the use of this structure, is, that it was the pulpit of the refectory, from which, by the rule of St. Benedict, one of the junior brethren was enjoined to read or recite aloud a subject of divinity to the monks during dinner, a custom which still prevails in some of our college-halls at the universities. The fragment on which it rests, is conceived to have been the south wall of the refectory, from which it projected into the interior. There is a stone pulpit somewhat similar to this in the refectory of the abbey of Beaulieu.

The abbey church in its present state presents few features of its ancient grandeur. Three-fourths of it were demolished at the dissolution; and of the choir, chapels, transept, and

centre

centre steeple, scarcely a wreck remains. The nave, the western tower, and the northern porch, are still standing, but in a deplorable state of mutilation. The nave, or great western aisle, was in very early times appropriated to the use of the neighbouring inhabitants, who were in general servants of the Abbey. It was called the parish church of the Holy Cross, within the monastery of St. Peter of Salop. For this reason it was spared in the general destruction of the fabric, and is now one of the parochial churches of the town, retaining its denomination of the Holy Cross. Though the beauty of the church has suffered equally from dilapidation and repair, yet it may be traced in some of its parts. The great western tower is a plain but well proportioned structure. Its portal has a round Norman arch, deeply recessed, and another of a pointed form, inserted within it at a subsequent period. Above this, is a noble window which occupies the entire breadth, and nearly the whole height, of the tower. Its arched head is sharp pointed, and filled with a profusion of uncommon and delicate tracery. Between the double bell-window in front, is the figure of an armed knight, within a nich, supposed to represent Edward the Third. The enriched parapet and pinnacles, which once crowned the tower, are now vilely supplied by a mean battlement of brick work.

The interior of the church has an air of majestic simplicity. The ancient nave has five arches on each side, all of which, except the two nearest the tower, are semicircular, and rest on huge, round, short pillars, quite plain. There is an east window of painted glass, of late erection, in the center compartments of which are figures of St. Peter and St. Paul; above are the arms of the see of Lichfield, of the founder of the Abbey, and of Lord Berwick, the munificent donor of the window; on each side are escutcheons of the vicars from the year 1500. An organ placed on a handsome Gothic screen adorns the western end. Within an arch, which once led to the south wing of the transept, is an ancient figure clad in mail, recovered from the ruins of the monastery, and placed in its present situation by order of

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