If our dramatist had any warrant for this representation, of which I have no doubt, the town of Bridgnorth must have witnessed on this occasion a fine military muster, and have had the privilege of receiving into its Castle one who has been ranked among the greatest of England’s heroes—Henry, Prince of Wales. He was just at that time beginning to emerge from the state of wild and thoughtless profligacy in which he had wasted his early years, and was about to exhibit those qualities, which have since made his name so illustrious in English History. The battle of Shrewsbury, at which he did some service, was very decisive; and the confederate army of the rebels, under Glendwyr, Hotspur, and Douglas, was completely routed. Nevertheless our county continued for years after to be ravaged by the Welsh insurgents, nor was it till the reign of Henry V., when the death of Glendwyr took place, that there was any security for life and property in the Borders. In the succeeding reign of Henry VI. commenced that most destructive series of Civil Wars, known by the name of the Wars of the Roses, between the rival houses of York and Lancaster, which laid waste for many years the fairest provinces of the land. “It was not finished in less than a course of thirty years: was signalized by twelve pitched battles: opened a scene of extraordinary violence: is computed to have cost the lives of eighty Princes of the blood, and to have almost entirely annihilated the ancient nobility of England.”—_History of Shrewsbury, Vol. 1, p. 166._