The statue is older than the market-house,
having been moved thither from one of the demolished towers of the city
wall in 1795. The market-house was erected in 1595. There are other
curious sculptures and carvings and quirks of architecture about this
building; and the houses that stand about the square are, many of them,
very striking specimens of what dwelling-houses used to be in Elizabeth's
time, and earlier. I have seen no such stately houses, in that style, as
we found here in Shrewsbury. There were no such fine ones in Coventry,
Stratford, Warwick, Chester, nor anywhere else where we have been. Their
stately height and spaciousness seem to have been owing to the fact that
Shrewsbury was a sort of metropolis of the country round about, and
therefore the neighboring gentry had their town-houses there, when London
was several days' journey off, instead of a very few hours; and, besides,
it was once much the resort of kings, and the centre-point of great
schemes of war and policy. One such house, formerly belonging to a now
extinct family, that of Ireland, rises to the height of four stories, and
has a front consisting of what look like four projecting towers. There
are ranges of embowered windows, one above another, to the full height of
the house, and these are surmounted by peaked gables. The people of
those times certainly did not deny themselves light; and while
window-glass was an article of no very remote introduction, it was
probably a point of magnificence and wealthy display to have enough of
it.
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