Prospectuses have been issued showing the eligibility of the plan, and the position in which the trade and general intercourse of the town will be placed if unprovided with those facilities of cheap and expeditious conveyance enjoyed by other large towns; and when it is considered that a great portion of the provisions which supply the thickly-populated neighbourhoods of Wolverhampton, Bilston, Birmingham, &c. are purchased at our weekly markets and monthly fairs, and the deficient and expensive means of transit on this line, a Railway would produce incalculable benefit to the town by an increased traffic, and thereby contribute to reinstate it in that important situation which it once held as THE EMPORIUM OF NORTH WALES. The chief manufactories at present are the extensive concern of Messrs. Marshall for thread and linen yarns, three iron foundries, and Messrs. Jones and Pidgeon’s for tobacco and snuff. The vicinity being a good barley country, the malting business is carried on to a considerable extent, and divided among sixty maltsters. Glass-staining has been brought to the highest state of perfection in this town, completely disproving assertions made some few years since that the powers of this ancient science had then extended almost beyond the hope of eventual excellence. The gothic chain, however, which for so long a period had confined the mystery of this beautiful art, once, indeed, considered as entirely lost, has been effectively broken by our townsman, Mr. D. Evans, of whose productions our churches and many other ecclesiastical buildings and noblemen’s mansions in different parts of the kingdom afford specimens, contending in effect with some of the finest works of the ancient masters. Among the _delicacies_ for which our town is so deservedly celebrated may be mentioned a most delicious CAKE, {204} of which but few strangers in passing through fail to partake, especially if they have read the encomium of the poet Shenstone: “For here each season do these cakes abide, Whose honoured names th’ inventive city own, Rend’ring through Britain’s isle Salopia’s praises known.” SHREWSBURY CAKES appear to have been presented to distinguished personages on their visit to this town as early as the reign of Elizabeth; and when their Royal Highnesses the Duchess of Kent and the Princess Victoria arrived here in 1832, they were graciously pleased to accept a box of them from the Mayor.