In the year 1832, the most lively enthusiasm was displayed on the entrance into Shrewsbury of Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent and the Princess Victoria, heir presumptive to the British throne. From the foregoing cursory glance given to the leading events of our ancient history, it may be necessary to remark that it would have been less difficult to the writer could he have extended his observations as to particular occurrences; but the nature of the work being a notice of the _present_ rather than of the _past_ state of the place, brevity of description in this, as in some other portions, will be indispensible. But the numerous features of historical and antiquarian interest which the town affords, its BRITISH and SAXON state, the destiny of its NORMAN EARLS, its SIEGE BY STEPHEN, the UNION OF WALES to the English Crown, the Formation of Parliaments, the BATTLE OF SHREWSBURY and Fall of Hotspur, the numerous VISITS OF ROYALTY, the Entrance and PROCLAMATION OF HENRY VII. the Commencement of the CIVIL WAR in the Time of Charles I. and Meetings of the COUNCIL OF THE MARCHES OF WALES, while forming constituent parts of our national story, are especially connected with this town, and will be found amply detailed in the valuable History of Shrewsbury published by the late Reverend Messrs. Owen and Blakeway, where everything difficult in civil and ecclesiastical localities is explained in a scientific and masterly manner, and with the greatest discrimination. THE CASTLE. “But time * * * Has seen this ruin’d pile complete, Big with the vanity of state.” DYER. The civil history of the town being somewhat connected with the Castle, a notice of that edifice will properly occupy this place. After the Earldom of Shrewsbury had been given by William the Conqueror to Roger de Montgomery, one of his first works was the building of a stately Castle, or, rather, the enlargement of a previous one, which it is certain existed here anterior to the Norman Conquest, on that narrow isthmus where the town is undefended by the river. This is supposed to have taken place about the year 1070, on a site previously occupied by fifty-one houses, and was a measure of necessity, in order to restrain the hostile incursions of the Welsh, to which the town, from its situation near the borders, was frequently exposed; and having probably received injury from the siege two years previous, and being also limited in size, was inadequate to the dignity of a wealthy earl, who enjoyed the feudal supremacy of nearly the whole of Shropshire. The Castle, in succession, was possessed by the two sons of the founder, until the reign of Henry I. when it became a royal fortress, under the custody of a constable.