Leland, the antiquary and poet, in his description of the town, thus accounts for its name:— Built on a hill, fair Salop greets the eye, While Severn forms a crescent gliding by; Two bridges cross the navigable stream, And British Alders gave the town a name. Although much doubt remains relative to the founder of Shrewsbury, it is certain that “it was repaired about the year 552 by Maelgwyn, king of North Wales;” and the most probable conjecture is, that it was erected between the years 520 and 594 by the Britons, in order to protect themselves from the bloody ravages and harrassing incursions of the Saxons who had previously levelled the Roman Uriconium (the present Wroxeter) and its fortress with the ground, and forced them to retreat beyond the Severn, which then became the boundary of the kingdom of Mercia. The Britons having established themselves on the hill Pengwerne, founded a city, which became the metropolis of that part of Wales called Powis, one of the princes of which, Brochwell Ysithroc, had his residence here in 617, and thence it was named Pengwerne Powis.—The blood-thirsty spirit of their Saxon invaders still pursued them: after several dreadful and sanguinary contests with the merciless Offa, the British Prince was at length compelled to abandon the patrimony of his ancestors and retire to Mathrafal, amidst the mountains of Montgomeryshire, after witnessing the destruction of his princely mansion, which stood on the spot lately occupied by the church of St. Chad; and finally, in 777, to surrender that part of the country situated between the Severn and a deep dyke and high rampart, extending 100 miles over roads and mountains and across deep vallies and rivers, which Offa threw up as a new boundary between them and Mercia. In the reign of Alfred, Shrewsbury was numbered among the British cities, by the name of Caer Pengwerne; and during that of Edward the elder, a mint was established here, as appears from a piece of coin now in preservation, with this inscription, _Edward Rex Angliæ_, and on the reverse _Aelmaer on Scrobe_. Ethelred, with his court, kept the Christmas of 1006 at Shrewsbury, and being unable to resist the perpetual attacks of the Danes, then invading England under Swaine, he summoned a council here, by whose advice he paid £30,000, to procure a temporary and inglorious peace. About the same time Alfhelm, a prince of the blood, was invited to a banquet here by Edric, duke of Mercia and whilst hunting in the neighbourhood was murdered by one Godwin Porthund, a butcher, at the instigation of Edric, and from whence it is supposed arose the custom, recited in Doomsday Book, that whenever the king was here, twelve of the chief citizens should guard his person during his residence in the city, and attend him when he enjoyed himself with the pleasures of the chase.