Читать книгу Memorials of Shrewsbury - Henry Pidgeon - Страница 10

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of Shrewsbury carries with it associations of imposing importance;—seated upon a hill rising from a noble ambient river, it was thus doubly fortified by nature; while art, with no unsparing hand, had raised an almost impregnable rampart of stone, flanked by many towers and gates. [18]

The imagination will thus readily picture Caer Pengwern: the woody eminence, with its curiously wrought buildings and domestic mansions ranged in irregular groups, surmounted by lofty spires and embattled turrets, irradiated by the effulgence of the meridian sun, or catching the last smiles of his departing ray,—a commanding castle on the narrow isthmus, with its stately towers and formidable walls, frowning in august pride high above the surrounding plain,—solitary convents, crested with pinnacles and gables, in the verdant meadows on the margin of the rolling stream, over which strongly fortified bridges with massive portcullis and towers, afforded a defence from hostile invaders.

This faint retrospect must kindle in the mind considerations of the progress and fluctuations of science and taste,—the character, condition, and habits of men in these times,—with the works done “in their days and in the old time before them;”—while the contemplation thereof cannot fail of exciting gratitude to the Supreme Giver, for the security we now enjoy, without the precaution of barbican and battlements.