At the bottom of Mardol are extensive Quays and Warehouses, at which the numerous vessels which navigate the Severn load and unload their burdens. Here also is THE CIRCUS, a spacious building, used occasionally for equestrian performances, but more constantly as a depository for the immense quantities of butter and cheese which are brought to the town for sale at the monthly fairs. THE WELSH BRIDGE, [Picture: Welsh Bridge] called also in old times St. George’s Bridge, from the hospital of Saint George, which once stood adjacent to it, crosses the Severn at this point. It is a convenient, substantial, and handsome structure, consisting of five elegant arches, the length being 266 feet, the breadth thirty, and the height thirty, and was erected in 1795, after a design by Messrs. Tilly and Carline of this town, at an expense of £8,000, raised by subscription. The old bridge which formerly stood here was removed on the erection of the present one, and though highly inconvenient and ruinous, was a most interesting monument of antiquity, and consisted of seven arches, with massive gate towers at each extremity, in the finest style of castellated building. It is described in his usual quaint style by the accurate Leland, who visited Shrewsbury in 1539, “as the greatest, fayrest, and highest upon the stream, having 6 great arches of stone.” “This bridge,” he further says, “standeth on the west syde of the towne, and hath at the one end of it a great gate to enter by into the towne; and at the other end towardes Wales a mighty stronge towre to prohibit enemies to enter on the bridge.” Having passed the Welsh Bridge we enter “An auncient streate cal’d Franckwell many a day: To Ozestri, the people passe through this, And unto Wales, it is the reddie way.” The suburb of Frankwell, was in 1234, during the wars of Henry III. and Llewellin Prince of Wales, reduced to ashes by the Welsh army. Shrewsbury was the first place in England in which that dreadful epidemic, the Sweating Sickness, broke out in the year 1551; and there is a tradition that it made its first appearance in a passage in Frankwell, called the White Horse Shut. This disease again appeared in this suburb in the early part of June 1650, and continued its ravages throughout the town until the middle of the January following. It is said that the Butchers escaped the pestilence; and the fact of there being fewer entries of burials in the register of St. Alkmund’s, the parish in which they chiefly resided during that time, tends greatly to confirm the tradition. About the middle of Frankwell on the right hand side, stands ST. GEORGE’S CHURCH. [Picture: St. George’s Church]