The proposition for building the Dispensary with the addition of Baths originated with Edward Williams, Esq., of Lloran House; and his efficient and zealous efforts were used in promoting the benevolent design, which was most successfully accomplished in the end. In the prosperity of so valuable an institution all classes in the town and populous neighbourhood, who are blessed with this world’s goods, should consider it a Christian privilege to take a lively interest, by contributing to its funds, and thus extending its usefulness among the labouring poor who have few to help them. THE HOUSE OF INDUSTRY, Situated on elevated ground near the river Morda, on the road from Oswestry to Welshpool, was erected by virtue of an Act of Parliament obtained in the year 1790, and opened for the reception of inmates April 28th, 1791. The first steward and matron were Mr. Thos. Cooper and Mrs. Cooper, who held those responsible situations for the long period of nearly thirty years. Directors were appointed, under the Act, to manage the affairs of the institution, on behalf of Oswestry town and parish, and the other parishes also thereby incorporated: namely, Saint Martins, Selattyn, Whittington, West Felton, Ruyton, Kinnerley, Knockin, and Llanyblodwel, in the hundred of Oswestry, and county of Salop; that part of the parish of Llanymynech which lies in the hundred of Oswestry; the parish of Chirk, in the county of Denbigh; and the parish of Llansilin, in the counties of Salop and Denbigh. The Directors held their first meeting on Monday, August 11th, 1791: Chairman, John Lovett, Esq., Mayor of Oswestry. The building, of red brick, which still looks fresh and fair, cost £12,000. It has ever excited the attention of strangers, on account of its imposing stateliness of architecture, the exterior presenting, at the first view, the appearance of a fine old English baronial residence. Nicholson, in describing it thirty years ago, says, “it is a ridiculously-splendid brick building, intended, not for a purpose which its exterior seems to prompt, but for the abode of the indigent and wretched.”