a company which was incorporated in the reign of Edward IV. The feast day was on June 6th, and the apprentices up to the year 1588 used to set up a green tree “decked with garlands gay” before the hall, around which there was great rejoicing, coquetting, vowing, dancing and other festive proceedings. But in 1588 the custom ceased. The “green tree,” or Maypole was not enough. A bon-fire was added, and a disturbance ensued among the crowd. The Rev. Mr. Tomkies, a minister of St. Mary’s, appeared among the excited company, but his persuasions to peace only exasperated them. The Bailiffs were compelled to interfere, and henceforth the practice was discontinued. In the time of Elizabeth six hundred shearmen were employed here in dressing the wool on one side of a coarse material called Welsh webs, which were brought, chiefly from Montgomeryshire, to a market then held every week in the town. The process having been found to weaken the texture of the cloths, the occupation of the company was gone. From manufacturing purposes the hall was turned into a theatre, then converted to a Wesleyan place of worship, then secularized into an assembly room, then elevated into an assize court, then utilized into a shop, and, lastly, transformed into an auction mart. Proceeding up the street we presently see OLD ST. CHAD’S CHURCH. The foundation is attributed to one of the Mercian kings who built it upon the site of a palace belonging to the Princes of Powis which was burned down by the Saxons. It was a collegiate church, and had a dean and ten prebendaries. It was partially destroyed by fire in 1393 through the negligence of one John Plomer, a workman, who carelessly left his fire while he was engaged in repairing the leads. Plomer, seeing the result of his thoughtlessness, endeavoured to make his escape, but in running near the Severn was drowned—as a judgment? In consideration of the damage thus sustained Richard II. graciously granted to the inhabitants a remission of their fee-farm rent, and exemption for three years from the payment of taxes upon the understanding that they should re-build the edifice. This they did. In 1547, by order of the bailiffs of the town, the pictures of Mary Magdalene and of St. Chad were removed from the church and burned in the Market Square. On July 9th, 1788, another disaster befell this unfortunate structure. Its decayed tower, shaken by the vibrations occasioned by the chimes, suddenly fell down, and crushed the nave and transepts into fearful desolation. Some masons who were at work upon it fortunately escaped. The church was restored in 1796. The interior, which contains a number of monuments, one to the memory of the celebrated Rev. Job Orton amongst others, has recently been improved and modernised. In the churchyard several members of well-known county families have received interment, such as Lyster, Vincent Corbett of Moreton Corbett, Hugh Owen, M.D., Mytton, Burton, Ireland, Dr. Rowland