Transcribed from the [1855] George Lewis edition by David Price. [Picture: The Cross Market] THE HISTORY OF OSWESTRY, COMPRISING THE BRITISH, SAXON, NORMAN, AND ENGLISH ERAS; THE TOPOGRAPHY OF THE BOROUGH; AND ITS ECCLESIASTICAL AND CIVIC HISTORY: WITH NOTICES OF BOTANY, GEOLOGY, STATISTICS, ANGLING, AND BIOGRAPHY: TO WHICH ARE ADDED SKETCHES OF THE ENVIRONS. * * * * * ILLUSTRATED WITH WOOD-ENGRAVINGS, By MR. PERCY CRUIKSHANK, after Sketches by MR. ROBERT CRUIKSHANK. [Picture: Ancient seal of Oswestry] WRITTEN AND COMPILED BY WILLIAM CATHRALL, AUTHOR OF “THE HISTORY OF NORTH WALES,” “WANDERINGS IN NORTH WALES,” &c. * * * * * OSWESTRY: PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY GEORGE LEWIS. * * * * * ENTERED AT STATIONERS’ HALL. * * * * * Preface. THE issue of this volume has been “the accident of an accident.” I was called by commercial business last autumn to Oswestry, where I found, temporarily located, a man with humour at his finger-ends, and of “infinite jest” on paper. I allude to Mr. ROBERT CRUIKSHANK, an artist scarcely inferior to his celebrated brother, Mr. GEORGE CRUIKSHANK—_par nobile fratrum_, who have both successfully laboured in their vocation to —“Shoot folly as it flies, And catch the living manners as they rise.” Mr. Robert Cruikshank, pleased with the rich and diversified scenery of the neighbourhood of Oswestry, undertook to illustrate the present book. To be thus pictorially aided was a distinction, and I therefore cheerfully complied with the wish of the respectable publisher, to try my “’prentice hand” at a History of the Borough. Mr. Cruikshank has well executed his task. What may be _my_ portion of merit will be determined by the judgment, not critically severe, I hope, of my readers.