At the south end of the room are four sepulchral stones found at Wroxeter, near this town, three of which are fully described by Pennant, in his North Wales. A small museum likewise contains other Roman antiquities from the same place, with fossils and other curiosities. The windows are embellished with escutcheons of the arms of Edward VI. Queen Elizabeth, St. John’s College, Cambridge, the See of Lichfield, and the town, in stained glass. In front and at the back of the schools is a spacious area, used as a promenade or play-ground for the scholars; contiguous to which are houses for the head, second, and assistant masters, and ample halls for the accommodation of boarders, who are numerous, and from all parts of the kingdom. Several exhibitions of £70 and £80 a-year belong to this school, to which the freemen’s sons are entitled for a certain number of years. At a meeting of the trustees, held 23d May, 1836, it was resolved, in order more fully to testify their own sense, and to perpetuate the memory, of the unremitting assiduity and eminent ability with which Dr. Butler has performed the duties of head-master of this school for a period of thirty-eight years, restoring and augmenting by his energy and learning the utility and celebrity of this ancient and royal foundation, to found an additional exhibition of £100 per annum, to be called for ever “DR. BUTLER’S EXHIBITION,” and to be tenable by the sons of freemen entering at either University. LOCAL GOVERNMENT, CHARTERS, &c. [Picture: Town Arms] SHREWSBURY has received a succession of thirty-two royal charters from the time of King William the First to the first year of the reign of James the Second. The earliest charter preserved in the corporation archives is dated Nov. 11, 1189, being the first year of King Richard the First, which recites that a previous corporation had existed. The last governing charter of the town was granted the 16th of June, 1639, by Charles the First. The component parts of the corporation were a mayor, recorder, steward, common clerk, twenty-four aldermen, forty-eight assistants or common councilmen, two chamberlains, sword-bearer, serjeants at mace, &c. The mayor was elected annually by the majority of aldermen and assistants, in council assembled, on the first Friday after the feast of St. Bartholomew, and sworn into office the first Friday after Michaelmas-day. Robert Burton, jun. Esq. was the last mayor chosen under the old charter. The aldermen were elected by the mayor and aldermen from the assistants, and the latter from the burgesses at large. Burgesses obtained their freedom by descent, or birth, or by serving a bona fide apprenticeship of seven years within the ancient limits of the borough to a freeman of one of the ancient incorporated companies. According to the Municipal Act, which received the royal assent in 1835, the town was divided into five wards. {106}