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There in life's calm evening amidst the fragrant
Shades of oaks, while smoothly the hours flow onward,
Thou shalt weave thy chaplets of lyric verse with
Tuneful iambics.

In the peaceful sunset of life reposing,

Thou, perchance, wilt turn to thy wayward poet,
Nor disdain to glance at his rhyme bi-lingual,
Cymric and Latin.

While with baldric girt bide the noble Herberts,
And the Severn glides by their lordly towers,

Youth and maid my lauds to thy name shall chaunt through
Long generations.

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SOME ACCOUNT OF THE

CHURCH OF ST. OSWALD, OSWESTRY,

BY ASKEW ROBERTS, CROESWYLAN.

OSWESTRY Old Church has occupied so prominent a place in Border history, and is in itself so interesting an object, that some notice of it will perhaps not be unacceptable in a collection of papers relating to Powysland. Mr. Stanley Leighton has already alluded to the extensive restorations the church has recently undergone in his very interesting introduction to the List of Monumental Inscriptions, and the object of the present paper is, chiefly, to describe those restorations, and to give, as far as space will allow, some facts connected with the history of the church itself.

The Rev. D. R. Thomas has given so concise an outline of the early history of the church that we cannot do better than quote his account :

"The parish church of St. Oswald (August 5th) is first definitely mentioned in 1086 in the Grant of Warin, Vicecomes, already quoted, to the abbot and monks of Shrewsbury Abbey, ' dedit eis Ecclesium Sancti Oswaldi cum decima ejusdem ville;' but there is a belief that there was a still earlier one elsewhere than on the present site, which may be due partly to the fact that the town was originally built on some other site, partly to the circumstance that several of the earlier mission stations are still indicated by such names as Maen Tysilio, Croes-Wylan, Cae Groes, and Croes Oswallt, or The Cross; and to the tradition which Leland records, that at Llanforda was a church now decaid. Sum say this was the paroche churche of Oswestre.' From the foundation charter of St. John's

Hospital (1200-1210), and from the claim of Madog ap Gruffyd in 1217, we further learn that up to that time the church had followed the ordinary rule of all early foundations and was collegiate. But after the institution of a vicar in 1223 it was to be served by himself and two chaplains or curates. During the time the church was in the possession of Shrewsbury Abbey it appears to have been enlarged by the addition of a chapel dedicated, as was the usual custom of the Cistercians, in the name of the Virgin. This chapel, no doubt, occupied the space between the tower and the transept on the south of the south aisle, where in Leland's day still stood the 'Monumenta Monachorum,' or tombs of the monks. The same writer, who visited Oswestry about the year 1540, adds that the cloister had been standing within memory;' and that the chirche of St. Oswald was a very faire leddid chirche with a great tourrid steeple;' and further records that there be chapelles clene without the suburbs. One between Stratllan and Porth de, viz., Sacellum S. Joannis Baptist. The second without the same suburbe, within a bowshot of St. Oswalde, viz., S. Oswaldi Sacellum, ubi et Fons Oswaldi,' where ther is a chapelle of tymber and the fountein environed with a stone wall. The third N.E. towards Chester and called S. Edithæ Sacellum.' A fourth has already been alluded to as that of St. Nicholas in the castle."

The site of the chapel dedicated to the Virgin, we should say, is a vexed question, and was discussed in Bye-Gones about the time Mr. Thomas's volume was published. Early in this century the Rev. Peter Roberts, in Price's History of Oswestry, stated that the church itself was dedicated to St. Mary, and from that time it was commonly called "St. Mary's Church"; especially later on to distinguish it from Trinity Church, which was consecrated in 1837. That there was a chapel dedicated to the Virgin we know, but whether it was on the south or north side is a matter of doubt. The Rev. T. Salwey, who became vicar in 1823, was told by the clerk that "the north aisle of the chancel used to be so called", and that, we believe, was the opinion of the "oldest inhabitants" last century. And now, since Mr. Thomas has issued his book he has dis

Hist. of the Diocese of St. Asaph, p. 650.

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