The Stranger in Shrewsbury: or, an historical and descriptive view of Shrewsbury and its environsHowell, Thomas J.
History
The Stranger in Shrewsbury: or, an historical and descriptive view of Shrewsbury and its environs
Howell, Thomas J.
Shrewsbury (England) -- Description and travel
Called also St. John’s Chapel, is situate on St. John’s Hill, and
previous to the erection of a house in front of part of it, was a great
ornament to the street. It is a neat and extensive brick building of an
oblong form, and is calculated to accommodate a large congregation.
Behind the chapel is a vestry, in which are placed the stairs leading to
the pulpit, which in consequence, has rather a novel appearance to a
stranger, no steps being visible in the chapel. The congregation is
numerous and respectable.
The Baptist Chapel
Is in Dog Lane; with a well-finished interior, it is, perhaps, from the
awkward situation of the pulpit and its extreme lowness, one of the most
unpleasant chapels in the town, especially when crowded, which is often
the case on particular occasions. It is a plain respectable brick
building, and has a numerous congregation. The Baptists were established
here in 1780.
The Quaker’s or Friends Meeting House
Is situate on St. John’s Hill, and, like the respectable body who
assemble within its walls, is a plain unadorned building.
The SANDEMANIANS and WELSH METHODISTS, also have Chapels in Hill’s Lane;
and the ROMAN CATHOLICS a neat one near the Town Walls at the back of the
Lion Inn.
CHARITABLE ERECTIONS & INSTITUTIONS.
The Free Schools.
EDUCATION is, in the British empire, an object of national concern. Our
various universities and public schools are splendid monuments of the
attention paid by our ancestors to the important object of training and
enlightening the youthful mind. The provision made for the support of
these establishments, especially in England and Ireland, is, generally
speaking, munificent. At the same time, it is not sufficient to afford a
temptation to the indulgence of idleness, by the conversion of
respectable offices into sinecures. The dignity hence accruing to their
teachers and professors, invests them with high authority, and imparts
additional weight to their instructions; while the respect in which they
are habitually held by long established prescription, gives a powerful
sanction to the system of their discipline.
This observation applies with peculiar force to the munificent edifice of
the Royal Free School of King Edward VI. which is situate at the northern
extremity of Castle Street. Its erection was completed in 1630, the
ancient school-room, which was composed of timber, having been removed in
order to the completion of the present spacious and convenient structure
of free-stone. The building surrounds two sides of the court with a
square pinnacled tower in the angle. In the centre of the front is a
gateway, adorned on each side with a Corinthian column, very rudely
designed, upon which stand the statues of a scholar and a graduate,
bareheaded, and in the dress of the times. Over the arch is a Greek
sentence from Isocrates,
’Εὰν ῆς φιλομαθὴς ἔσῃ πολυμαθής.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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