The plain of Shropshire, in which the town is situated, is of considerable extent, divided by the Severn into two unequal portions, and though flat, when compared with the surrounding hills, of a very varied surface. Its greatest length from N. to S. is about 30 miles, comprehending the space between Whitchurch and Church Stretton; its breadth from Oswestry to Coalbrookdale, is about 28 miles. Shrewsbury, when viewed from any of its adjacent eminences, presents a beautiful and interesting scene, and the eye of the spectator is led to survey the most extensive amphitheatre of mountains which perhaps the island can boast. The Wrekin is connected by the gentle hills of Acton Burnel and Frodesley, (over which the gigantic summit of Brown Clee is conspicuous,) with the Lawley and Coredock, generally called the Stretton Hills, from whence the Longmynd, Stiperstones, and Long Mountain, from an uninterrupted chain, with the bold and precipitous cliffs of the Kefn y Castyr, Moel y Golfa, and Breyddin, surmounted by an obelisk in honour of the late gallant Lord Rodney; thence the horizon is bounded by the stupendous Berwin range, losing their blue summits in the clouds; while the northern view is terminated by the humbler but beautiful eminences of Grinshill, Pymhill, Hawkstone, Haughmond, &c., round to the Wrekin. The whole of this vast circle incloses a finely wooded and beautifully diversified champaign country, of gentle hill and dale, studded with numerous gentlemen’s seats—watered with various streams—eminently fertile in arable, meadow, and pasture; and amply justifying the eulogium of an ancient British poet, who, after gazing, as he tells us, on the plain of Shropshire, from the height of Charlton Hill, calls it the paradise of _Cymru_. {33} The glittering rays of the Sun gilding the lofty spires of the town—the bold and ancient appearance of its ivy-mantled castle—the lovely pleasure and garden grounds which nearly surround it and gently slope from the mouldering ruins of its once warlike walls to the majestic Severn, which, fringed with lofty tufts of trees of various foliages, “proudly rolls its crystal stream along;” altogether form one of the most picturesque and enchanting prospects any where to be met with. Added to this, the well known salubrity of its air, and the many agreeable promenades which on every side of the town present themselves; and the compiler thinks he will not be esteemed too vain in asserting, that his native town is not surpassed, (though, for aught he knows, it may be equalled,) in point of situation, wholesomeness, and picturesque scenery, by any place of equal size in Great Britain.