• History, .Antiquities, &c.—Previous to the Roman invasion, the district of which this county is now a part was inhabited by the Cor Devil and the Ordovices, their territory being divided by the Severn. It is probable that part of the south of Shropshire was possessed by the Silures. After the subjugation of Britain this county formed part of the Roman province of Flavia Cmsariensis. The western side of the county bears numerous traces of this remote period. There are remains of various British camps. The Geer ditches near Chin, which bear traces of an ancient fortification, have been assigned by Camden and others as the spot where Caractacus encountered Ostorius Scapula and was vanquished. On a hill called Toogley, near Walcot, the seat of the Earl of Pewit:, are vestiges of a British encampment called Bury Ditches. Other British remains may be traced at Brocard'a Castle, near Church Stretton ; at Old Port (a corruption of Old Fort), near Oswestry; and on the 1Vrekin and Clee Hills. Of Roman stations, one of the principal was Uriconium, or Viriconium, now Wroxeter, a village on the Severn, about 6 miles S.E. from Shrews bury. A rampart and ditch, with remains of walls, 3 miles in cir cumference, mark the ancient boundaries of the city. Another Roman station was Mediolauum, supposed by some to have been near Market-Drayton, by others near Meivod ; and a third was Itutuniurn, at Rowton. There were also Bravinium at Rushbury, Saricouium at Bury Hill, and Uricona at Sheriff-Hales. Near the village of Chesterton, in the neighbourhood of Bridgenorth, are the remains of a Roman camp called the Walls : the form is nearly square, and comprises upwards of 20 acres. The Roman road known as Watling-street traversed this county from east to south-west, as far as Church Strctton, whence it took a more southerly course, crossed the Onny at Little Stretton, and entered Herefordshire at the village of Leintwardine.
In the contests between the British and Roman inhabitants and the new invaders, the Saxons, the latter destroyed the Roman towns, Uriconium among. the rest; they soon however built another city, to which they gave the name of Scrobbes-burg, the town of shrubs' (from the wooded appearance of the neighbourhood), now softened to Shrewsbury. These contests lasted for nearly a century and a half, when the Saxons ultimately succeeded in subduing the inland Britons. The district thus occupied by the Saxon chiefs extended as far as the base of the Welsh mountains, and became one extensive Saxon state, known by the name of Myrcnaland, or Myrena-rice, 'the laud or kingdom of the borderers; Latiuised into Me:cia, and subsequently corrupted into the Marches of Wales, which were united to the kingdom of Mercia by Penda in 626. In consequence of attacks upon this portion of his territory by the Welsh princes, Offa, king of Mereia, formed the dyke or rampart which still bears his name, extending from Flintsbire on the north to the Bristol Channel on the south, and which seems to have been intended as a defence as well as a boundary between the Saxons and the Britons. It crosses several portions of
the western part of this county, and may be traced on the high ground where cultivation and the ploughshare have not levelled it. In 849 the Danes penetrated as fan- as the Severn, and in the following year reached Wales. In 396 they established themselves at Cwatbricge (Quatford) on the Severn, south of Bridgenurth, where they built a fortress, and passed the whiter. At Cleobury Mortimer are the remains of what is supposed to have been a Danish camp. When Alfred succeeded in subduing the Danes, and uniting the seven Saxon kingdoms into one, Scrohbesburg was one of his principal cities, and he gave the same name to the shire of which it is the capital : from this name, Scrobbesburg-scire, has come the present designation, Shropshire.
William the Conqueror granted to his relative Roger de Montgomery nearly the whole of the county, and to many of his followers all the lands they might conquer from the Welsh; the consequence was, that a bitter warfare was carried on against the ancient possessors of tho soil for upwards of three centuries. These Lords Marchers in course of time established a court of their own to settle disputes among themselves. They built towns and erected castles, and to them may be attributed the greater portion of the numerous castles iu this county.
In consequence of repeated incursions of the Welsh, Edward I., in order to bo near the seat of war, removed the courts of Kitig's Bench and Exchequer to Shrewsbury, where they wore held for some time. In 1397 Richard II. adjourned his parliament from Westmiuster to Shrewebury, where it was held with great splendour. In the revolt of Owen Glyudwr, in the reign of Henry IV., this county was tho theatre of several contests. The memorable conflict between Henry IV. and the Percies, known as the Battle of Shrewsbury, took place on the 21st of July, 1403, at Berwick, within three miles of Shrewsbury, and terminated in the defeat and death of Hotspur.
In the contests between the houses of York and Lancaster, Shrews bury, Ludlow, and the border country in general, espoused the cause of the former ; and it was perhaps in gratitude for these services that Edward IV. re-established the court of the resident and council of the marches of North Wales, which was held at Ludlow till its abolition by act of Parliament in the reign of William III. The Duke of Rich mond, afterwards Henry VII., having assembled his army on the Long Mountain on the borders of this county, marched to Shrewsbury, where, after some hesitation on the part of the bailiff he was %Aim siestically received by the inhabitants, and joined by the tenants of the Earl of Shrewsbury, who accompanied him to Bosworth Field.
The most important of the old castles of Shropshire are mentioned in the notices of the towns referred to in a previous part of this article. It remains to notice briefly a few others of which remains still exist.