J. M. Gaskell, Esq., M.P., the present proprietor of the estate. The
parish church has several points of interest, one of which is its fine
Norman front, hidden from the street by the present tower. To this may
also be added the arches which separate the nave and side aisles, rising
from clustering pillars of great beauty; also the one dividing the nave
from the chancel, where there is an elegant sedilia. Wenlock grew up
beneath the patronage and protection of its Priory, by means of which it
received many royal favours, and was protected by many royal charters,
one of which conferred the right, at a very early period, of
representation in the Commons House of Parliament.

[The Chapter-House of Wenlock Abbey: 32.jpg]

The Guildhall is an ancient building of timber and plaster, with a
projecting upper story resting on piazzas. The room used for quarter
sessions has the arms of Charles II. over the recorder's chair, and the
Inner or Municipal Court is beautifully furnished with elaborately-carved
oak panellings and furniture. The borough is nearly the same now as
formerly, the modern franchise extending over the ancient possessions of
the church, wherein the prior of the monastery had jurisdiction over
eighteen parishes.

BUILDWAS.

In descending the dingle between Wenlock and Buildwas, at a point
described by an old writer as the boundary of the domains of the two
abbeys, is Lawless Cross, formerly one of those ancient sanctuaries, the
resort of outlaws who, having committed crime, availed themselves of that
security from punishment such places afforded. The monks, in the
exercise of that excessive influence they had in those days, provided
places, deemed sacred, which should serve for refuge for criminals. A
cross was erected for the _lawless_; from which even the monarch had no
power to take them. Villains doubly dyed in crime were wont to rush out
from such hiding-places, commit crimes with impunity, and return. The
evil, indeed, had become so great, that the Courts of Westminster, in
Hilary Term, 1221, were employed in considering the expediency of
altering "a certain _pass_ in the Royal Forest near to Buldewas," from
its having become "the haunts of malefactors, and from its notoriety for
the constant commission of crime." Below this is the Abbey Mill, and
lower still is the Abbey. The line passes through what was once the
cemetery, and over ground formerly occupied by the industrial courts of
t