Shrewsburii. By Thomas Auden. (Methuen and Co. 4s. 6d. net.)
—This is one of the "Ancient Cities" Series. Shrewsbury is well entitled to be ranked in the class, as far as any cities in the British Isles may be so. There was no Roman settlement here, it is true, but it is not improbable that Pengwern—that ii the old name—existed in Roman times. We hear of it at the fall of Uriconium in 584. About 800 it passed definitely into Saxon hands, and was known as Scrobbesbyffig, the "settlement among the shrubs," " accipiens patris. sibi lingua nomen ab alris," as Leland puts it. In Domesdailinok it is recorded as containing, temp. Edw. Regis, two hundred and fifty houses. After the Con- quest it became the seat of Roger de Montgomery, the first Earl. As long as the Welsh wars lasted it was an important place. When they came to an end it naturally declined. The recrudeleence of the old strife in the days of Henry IV. brought it into fame again. Mr. Auden, it will be seen, has plenty of material from which to draw, and he makes good use of it. Something more about the school would have been welcome ; but possibly con- siderations of space forbade, and we are glad to have what it was found possible to give. •
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