“That Sir Walter Scott is as indubitable an authority in early English or Welsh History as in that of his own country may not be admitted by all. According to the Welsh records Oswestry belonged to Madog, Prince of Powys, who resided at Oswestry, and built the Castle there about the year 1140. His second wife, Maud Vernon, an English lady of noble birth, on the death of Madog, married William Fitz-Alan, Lord of Clun, who in right of his wife obtained the Town and Castle of Oswestry. This William was a descendant of Alan who (says the Welsh Historian) came over with William the Conqueror, and was the first of the Fitz-Alans that was Baron of Oswestry. Again, the English historians assign to Oswestry Castle a more ancient date than 1140. They inform us that it was in being before the Norman conquest; and that Alan, a noble Norman, had the Town and Castle bestowed upon him by the Conqueror, soon after his accession. But whether Walter the Steward was the grandson of Flaald, and of Welsh descent, or whether his father came over from Normandy with the Conqueror, it may be taken as a fact that Walter, the son of Alan, the younger brother of William Fitz-Alan, went from Oswestry Castle, of which his father was Governor, into the service of David I., King of Scotland, as that monarch’s Steward, and was the founder of the house of Stewart. The following extract from _Chambers’ Journal_ is concurrent in testimony with the main features of the above, and is fraught with additional interest, as it shows how greatly Scotland was indebted to the old Town of Oswestry for its progress in civilization:—