DOI Heft:
No. 17 (August, 1895)
DOI Artikel:Harper, C. G.: Letters from artists to artists, [9], Shrewsbury as a sketching ground
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17190#0154
Sketching Grounds.—No. IX. Shrewsbury
L_ t^n/^n/r a nTinr -t-/-. resorted hither as their best and most instant mart,
ETTERS FROM ARTISTS TO
,__,.„_„ T„ _,TT__T1[r„ and stunned the English with their hideous tongue.
ARTISTS. NO. IX. SHREWS- Tir . f . , 6
BURY AS A SKETCHING- oWe/ame f° the town-shall I say• ,t?-on
GROUND. BY C. G. HARPER. a Sun/ay' and'™8 "Pon th* English Bridge,
stared, astonished, at the number of inns that
Dear M.,—-Here we are, amongst the proud fronted us, upon Wyle Cop. We regarded all
Salopians, who, in these inns doubtfully, and, observing an old man,
truth, are not less dressed in the blackest and glossiest of Sunday-
hospitable than best, sought of him what we considered would be
haughty. But really the specialised opinion of an old inhabitant as to
their pride, though the individual merits of these hostelries. For I
proverbial, is nothing must tell you that the very best way of fleeting a
more than a just sketching tour is to lodge at an old-fashioned inn
valuation of them- when you are staying in the towns, and to rusticate
selves and their de- in the villages at the likeliest farmhouse to which
lightful county, the Providence may direct your steps. So shall you
most fertile, the fare well and find delight where others find but the
most varied, and manners of the town at a sordid second-hand.
—think of it !—at But to return to our ancient. He turned a sour,
once the most pic- Puritanical face towards us, and said, in a provincial
turesque and un- accent, more Salopia, " I canna tell ye nohow; I
known of the mid- dinna frequent no such places myself." We wished
land shires. him a convivial day, and turned upon our heels,
We came into rebuked, but not contrite, still true to our prefer-
Shrewsbury, the ences for licensed houses over temperance hotels
capital of this un- or private dwellings.
pulpit in station yard known land, in quite We were, on this occasion, travellers beyond
the bestand most un- doubt or question, and readily found suitable
conventional way : walking into its curiously narrow quarters at an old-fashioned inn, bearing the
and crooked streets from the lovely meads and pyra- most incongruous title of the Lion and Pheasant,
midal hills of South Shropshire ;
fromLudlow,where the romantic
Teme flows in a deep gorge
between that old town and the
Herefordshire village of Lud-
ford, through Stretton valley to
these purlieus, where the Severn
rolls a yellow flood round three
sides of the town, beneath four
bridges and past the Norman
keep that frowns across the tide
to the still more significant and
lowering Gaol, standing beyond
the outmost walls. Two only
of these bridges are old, the
Welsh Bridge and its English
fellow, so called because they
afford the " reddie waye" to
England and to Wales.
For, indeed, we are close upon
the Welsh borders, and it is not
long since Cymru was spoken
here in the market-place, when
the flannel-makers of Welshpool ludford bridge
138
L_ t^n/^n/r a nTinr -t-/-. resorted hither as their best and most instant mart,
ETTERS FROM ARTISTS TO
,__,.„_„ T„ _,TT__T1[r„ and stunned the English with their hideous tongue.
ARTISTS. NO. IX. SHREWS- Tir . f . , 6
BURY AS A SKETCHING- oWe/ame f° the town-shall I say• ,t?-on
GROUND. BY C. G. HARPER. a Sun/ay' and'™8 "Pon th* English Bridge,
stared, astonished, at the number of inns that
Dear M.,—-Here we are, amongst the proud fronted us, upon Wyle Cop. We regarded all
Salopians, who, in these inns doubtfully, and, observing an old man,
truth, are not less dressed in the blackest and glossiest of Sunday-
hospitable than best, sought of him what we considered would be
haughty. But really the specialised opinion of an old inhabitant as to
their pride, though the individual merits of these hostelries. For I
proverbial, is nothing must tell you that the very best way of fleeting a
more than a just sketching tour is to lodge at an old-fashioned inn
valuation of them- when you are staying in the towns, and to rusticate
selves and their de- in the villages at the likeliest farmhouse to which
lightful county, the Providence may direct your steps. So shall you
most fertile, the fare well and find delight where others find but the
most varied, and manners of the town at a sordid second-hand.
—think of it !—at But to return to our ancient. He turned a sour,
once the most pic- Puritanical face towards us, and said, in a provincial
turesque and un- accent, more Salopia, " I canna tell ye nohow; I
known of the mid- dinna frequent no such places myself." We wished
land shires. him a convivial day, and turned upon our heels,
We came into rebuked, but not contrite, still true to our prefer-
Shrewsbury, the ences for licensed houses over temperance hotels
capital of this un- or private dwellings.
pulpit in station yard known land, in quite We were, on this occasion, travellers beyond
the bestand most un- doubt or question, and readily found suitable
conventional way : walking into its curiously narrow quarters at an old-fashioned inn, bearing the
and crooked streets from the lovely meads and pyra- most incongruous title of the Lion and Pheasant,
midal hills of South Shropshire ;
fromLudlow,where the romantic
Teme flows in a deep gorge
between that old town and the
Herefordshire village of Lud-
ford, through Stretton valley to
these purlieus, where the Severn
rolls a yellow flood round three
sides of the town, beneath four
bridges and past the Norman
keep that frowns across the tide
to the still more significant and
lowering Gaol, standing beyond
the outmost walls. Two only
of these bridges are old, the
Welsh Bridge and its English
fellow, so called because they
afford the " reddie waye" to
England and to Wales.
For, indeed, we are close upon
the Welsh borders, and it is not
long since Cymru was spoken
here in the market-place, when
the flannel-makers of Welshpool ludford bridge
138