TO THE READER.

THIS Volume of sketches needs no introduction nor explanation. Each part will speak for itself, and the concluding article indicates sufficiently what of unity there may be in the collection. The writer makes neither pretension nor apology. If he has written well, it is what he has aimed to do, and if his manner is below mediocrity, he knows he will be plainly told of it when the volume is before the public. He asks only a candid criticism; and if he asks for the volume to be read through before it is thrown aside, he asks for little, as it is not large.

To that portion of his readers who so promptly and liberally responded to his circular before going to press, he takes this opportunity to return his sincere thanks, and to

inform them that his object in issuing the circular was

abundantly answered, the number of subscribers being such

as to prevent all risk of pecuniary loss.

Wigan, Dec. 1st, 1865.

REDSTAN:

A TALE OF THE WELSH BORDER.

THE Country stretching southward from the Mersey to the Severn is known to geographers as the plain of Shropshire, though it includes only half of that county and the whole of Cheshire. It is bounded on the east by the southern portion of the Pennine range and the moorlands of Staffordshire, while its western limit is formed by a series of ridges of long plain-ward slope and considerable elevation, extending, in nearly a direct line from the mouth of the Dee, forty miles southward.

From the heights of this range, the whole extent of this sea-like plain is visible in clear weather, and often has the writer looked upon it in the silver light of the summer moon, and when the starry dome of winter has bent above it, and mused on its strange eventful history. When looked upon in the broad sunlight, it is seen that it is not all plain, but broken in places by eminences, whose steepness seems to give them considerable altitude. Of these are Cloud End and Nesscliffe, while in the south-east the giant Wrekin rises to a height of 1,000 feet from the general level, and seems like an outpost, as it really is, of those rugged hills that, on the other side of Severn, form the southern boundary of the plain.

This plain and its surroundings are highly interesting to the geologist, for here are found a succession of rocks in the

most desirable order for examination.

The plain itself contains, in its Triassic formations, those remarkable ornithicnites, and not less wonderful deposits of salt-rock, while the coal measures on all its boundaries teem with the remains of the old world flora; while on the west the millstone grit is fossiliferous, and the mountain limestone has its unending variety of ores, crystals, and fossils; and then stretch away in grand confusion the mountains of the Silurian system. South Shropshire is the typical district of many of the formations of this series, containing as it does the towns of Wenlock and Ludlow, and the heights bearing the names of Longmynd, Stiperstones, and Caer Caradoc. The south-west corner of the plain is prolonged southwards to form what is called by geologists the Bay of Welshpool; and the two promontories of the western and southern ridges that approach each other as if to guard this opening, are named respectively Llanymynech Hill and the Breiddyn (sound dd like th in then). The former is situate some six miles from the town of Oswestry, and is the southern terminus of the ridge of carboniferous limestone that extends to the Irish Sea, while the latter is a vast mass of eruptive rock, cast up a million years ago, to mark the introduction of some new era and the beginning of a new creation. From Llanymynech to Breiddyn, across the alluvium deposited by the Severn and its tributary, the Vyrniew, is a distance of about three miles, and with this district our tale is somewhat concerned.

Like the plain of Esdraelon, in Syria, this Shropshire plain has often been the "battle ground of nations," for here Roman has fought with Briton, Briton with Saxon, Saxon with Dane, and Norman with Welsh. Here castles