Douglas Jerrold said that there are some men who walk half-an-inch higher to heaven by what they tread upon. If Jerrold is right Shrewsbury people should be nearer to heaven than most folk, for, according to general opinion, we stand with extreme erectness on our self. And well we may. The town itself stands high, and the character generously attributed to us is in harmony therewith. It is situated on two hills of gentle ascent, which gradually rise from the bed of the river Severn. Who has not heard of Sabrina? The Welsh had the good taste to call it “The queen of rivers.” Its name is chronicled in history, and its beauty has been sung by poets. Leland says— _Built on a hill fair Salop greets the eye_, _While Severn forms a crescent gliding by_. Shakespeare alludes to it as “the gentle Severn with the sedgy-bank,” “the sandy-bottomed Severn.” It is an important river of England. It is the chief river of Wales. It has its cradle on Plinlimmon Hill on the verge alike of Montgomeryshire and Cardiganshire, not far from the coast of Cardigan Bay. It glides on between the everlasting rocks and fairy valleys, the fields and forests, where the wind, that “grand old harper, harps on his thunder-harp of pines.” It enters Shropshire at Melverley, and receives the waters of the Verniew at a ferry with an unpronounceable Welsh name; forms a crescent near Montford Bridge and Fitz; surrounds the Isle; then gracefully twines round Shrewsbury on all sides except the north; streams on through Uffington, skirting Haughmond Hill, and presenting with the outstretched landscape a beautiful edge to the grand old rocks; proceeds on its course to Atcham, where it receives the waters of the Tern: runs on placidly near Cound; noiselessly steals by Coalbrookdale, which, celebrated for its iron manufactures, presents a mingled picture of utility and poetry; passes then by Coalport, famous for its china works; glides through Bridgnorth; washes a narrow slip of land in the county of Stafford; flows on to Bewdley, Upton, Tewkesbury, and Gloucester; receives the Stroudwater at Framilode; joins the Hereford and Gloucester canal opposite Gloucester; and becomes absorbed in the sea at the Bristol Channel, about twelve miles from Bristol. Formerly the Severn ran in five channels at the eastern side of Shrewsbury, and spread into a marshy lake, which extended from the foot of the Wyle Cop to the site of the Abbey. The river abounds—or did abound—with salmon, trout, pike, shad, flounders, and carp. The river was free, because there was no Board of Conservators, and salmon was not a dish exclusively for the aristocracy. The distance of the Severn from its source to its entrance into the sea is about 250 miles. In point of celebrity it ranks next to the Thames; in magnificence it is excelled, in beauty and diversity of scenery it is equalled by none in our land.