possible that the ill meaning of the French word “Salop” has forbidden the use? The town presents a hold front from this side of the river, crossed in these peaceful times without let or hindrance by the English Bridge, a beautiful seven-arched stone structure built in 1774. It looks not a little foreign when viewed from the river-banks, with the osier-grown islands in mid-stream; houses and church spires clustered beyond, and the Castle turrets closing the view on the right; while the approach over the bridge discloses a street so steep that it fills the untravelled Londoner with as much astonishment as it did the lawyer come to Shrewsbury for the first time by the “Wonder” coach. “I think I’ll get off,” he said nervously, touching Hayward on the arm. [Illustration: THE ENGLISH BRIDGE.] “You be d——d!” shortly replied that past master of the whip and ribbons, as, springing his team up the hill, he brought the coach round in a circular course, and, shooting his wheelers and pointing his leaders, made with the certainty of an arrow through the archway, and into the stony courtyard of the “Lion.” The hill leading in this astonishing fashion into Shrewsbury is Wyle Cop, the main thoroughfare in old days. Its name, meaning “Hilltop,” is sufficiently descriptive. The “Lion” still stands on the summit, on the left hand, its coach-entrance yawning as of old; the streets, as narrow as ever, giving point to Sam Hayward’s clever feat of coachmanship. “Pleasant and chatty,” says one who frequented the Holyhead Road in those days, “was Ash, the guard of the ‘Wonder’ coach, but the coachman, one of two brothers, Hayward[1] by name, could by no means be so called. The other brother drove the Holyhead Mail. The coachman of the ‘Wonder’ was grimly silent. ‘I will wager,’ said one of this taciturn Jehu’s passengers to another, ‘that you don’t get a word out of him from the “Hen and Chickens” at Birmingham to the “Lion” at Shrewsbury, barring a pure answer to a question.’” The bet was won, for Hayward kept silence all the way. Footnote 1: The authority here quoted says “Hodgson,” but that is an error. Nor even was there a Hodgson driving the Holyhead Mail, but a guard of that name who accompanied it on to Holyhead. Many of the statements made by writers on old coaching days are, indeed, surprisingly inaccurate, even when they have been contemporary with those times. Thus, Colonel Corbet sanctions the frontispiece to his _Old Coachman’s Chatter_, showing the “Wonder” from London ascending Wyle Cop at one minute to twelve, noon. The “Wonder” reached Shrewsbury at 10.30 every night; the midday coach was the Holyhead Mail.