“There is nothing,” he remarks, “in the appearance of this Hill very imposing or very remarkable. It is a somewhat abrupt mound, with some rude fragmentary remains of the castle, with which it was formerly surmounted. It has long been a moot question whether this mound is natural, or whether it has been raised by artificial means. Its appearance would seem to indicate that it is the work of man; but an examination of its geological composition, and a comparison of it with similar surrounding elevations, lead to the conclusion that it is the accumulated deposit of ages during a period in which the district has probably been the area of obstructed and pent-up waters, which, having been set at liberty, have left exposed the present undulated portions of the district, of which this mound forms one of the most prominent. Its present abrupt character—abrupt as compared with some of the more shelving banks—is easily and obviously accounted for by manifold encroachments, and by the military necessity for making the Castle as inaccessible as possible to hostile attacks. But if there is nothing in the appearance of the Castle Hill of Oswestry that is remarkable, this cannot be said of its history; for if there can be one fact topographically of greater interest than another in the history of a kingdom, it is that which is connected with the origin of its reigning monarch. To say nothing, then, of the numerous battle scenes of which Oswestry Castle has been the witness, and of which, it might say with Æneas, ‘_Quorum pars magna fui_,’ a note of Sir Walter Scott’s to the “Monastery” will be a sufficient warrant for saying that Oswestry, in point of historic interest, is second to no town in the united kingdom. ‘The acute pen of Lord Hailes (says the author of Waverley), which, like the spear of Ithuriel, conjured up so many shadows from Scottish history, had dismissed among the rest those of Banquo and Fleance, the rejection of which fables left the illustrious family of Stewart without an ancestor, beyond WALTER, THE SON OF ALAN. The researches of our late learned Antiquary detected in this Walter the descendant of Alan, the son of Flaald, who obtained from William the Conqueror THE CASTLE OF OSWESTRY, IN SHROPSHIRE; and who was the father of an illustrious line of English nobles, by his first son, William, and by his second son, Walter, the progenitor of the royal family of Stewart.’ Few will be bold enough, even if so disposed, to question the authority of such an antiquarian as Sir Walter Scott, especially in matters relating to his own country. Assuming, then, that Alan Fitz-Flaald is the stirp of the Stewart House, a genealogical table may not be uninteresting to the readers of this work:— [Picture: Genealogical table] {178}