It would seem, however, scarcely natural for me to close these pages, without expressing a wish for the future welfare of a place, the scattered notices of whose past history I have here collected. I have been too long, and too intimately connected with it, not to feel the wish. In Bridgnorth I have passed more than twenty years. I reckon them the happiest of my life. I have good reason for doing so. Many domestic blessings—many social pleasures—many natural enjoyments—have here been allotted to me. Here “the lines have fallen to me in pleasant places,” and in the fair scenes of nature which surround us, there has been open to me a source of “unreproved pleasures,” of which it is my own fault if I have not largely partaken. Here too I have formed acquaintances, which have ripened into friendships—friendships which have yielded me something more than mere enjoyment—and which I have reason to hope will last as long as life itself. But still closer ties bind me to this place. Here I have been entrusted with the care of souls, and have been called to minister in the Church of God. This consideration necessarily outweighs every other, and prompts me with the most earnest wishes for the welfare of a place, between many of the inhabitants of which and myself there is so strict and sacred a fellowship. And not from these alone, but from those also with whom I am not thus officially connected—from the inhabitants of St. Mary’s parish, as well as from those of St. Leonard’s, I have received such proofs of kindness and regard during my ministry here, as make me feel an interest in everything that can concern their well-being. May they prosper in every way—as a community, and as individuals—in their civil and commercial interests—in their social, moral, and religious condition. May they secure to themselves that which has “the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come:” that when things temporal shall give place to things eternal—when the changes and chances of this mortal life shall cease—and all the vicissitudes which so painfully diversify the history of this world have passed away—they may have their lot and part in that kingdom which cannot be moved, and “of whose government and peace there shall be no end.” _Finis._ [Illustration: A COPY of an OLD MAP of the BOROUGH OF BRIDGENORTH IN POSSESSION OF THE CORPORATION.] APPENDIX. A. (_Page 7._) MORF FOREST. There are so many references to the Forest of Morf in the early history of Bridgnorth, that it may be well, for the information of the reader, to append the following interesting description of it, given by Mr. Eyton, in the 3rd. Vol. of his _Antiquities_, p. 212.