ONIBURY AND . 259

'VooLTON is a township of Stanton I.Jacy, but is detached from that parish, and forms part of Onibury for church, postal, and all other purposes, and includes part of the village of Onibury. Letters arrive from at 7 35 a.m. ; dispatched at 6 p.m. Railway Station, 'V1lliam 'Vatson, station master. Onibury. Edwa1ds John, miller, Wooton Evans Tho~as, joir:er and builder Hodges Tiev. John Julius, M.A. [rector] H odges Miss, \ Yh tty Tree I 1 yce ~amuel Parson", fa~ mer, Duxmoor Lucas Mr. Thomas vVellings Richard, shopkeeper Amies F1 ancis. G1 iflhi inn Wells \Y alter, agent & farmer, The Pat k Anson \\ illia111, blacksmith Walton 1 ach F1 ancis. farm et· Blakeway \Yilliam and Mary and Eliza­ Blakeway Anne, farmer, White house beth, farmers, Lower W alton farm Blakeway \\ illiam, farmer, \\ ootton Botfield Samuel, shoe maker Coston Francis, farmer, Upper Onibury Hotchhiss John, farmer, Upp. "~alton farm farm Davies John, wheelwright

OSWESTRY is a borongh, corporate, market, and railway town, polling place for the Northern division of the county, and parish, having separate jurisdiction, locally in the hundred and rural deanery of its name, and archdeaconry and diocese of St. Asaph, 171 miles from London, eighteen from , 4 7 from , sixteen from "'\Y elshpool, fifteen from W rexbam, twelve from Llangollen, seven from Ellesmere, eighteen from "\Vhitchurch, twenty-eight and a half from 'Vellington, and six from Llanymynech junction; it is one of the principal towns on the Welsh border, and lies on the main road from London to Holyhead, on a gentle eminence, and the country around is delightfully varied, and exhibits some fine and picturesque scenery; the prospects from the high ground above the town and from the race-course are most pleasing. The rich and luxuriant vale of lies as it were a map be:.1eath the feet, while N esscliffe and the \\' rekin and the Staffordshire hills are seen in the distance ; and turning the eye southwards towards :Montgomery, and north-west towards the county of Denhigh, the Apline heights and lovely vales are seen in rich profusion. Oswestry is of great antiquity, and its present appellation (which is said to be a corruption of Oswald's-tree), was derived from the name of St. Oswald, King of Northumberland, who was defeated and slain here by Penda, King of 1\fercia, iu the year 642. Subsequently, when the great Offa constructed the barrier which still bears his name (Offa's Dyke), Oswestry stood between it and Watt's Dyke, which ran parallel to the former, at a distance of two miles ; it was thus rendered a border town, and con­ sequently became frequently the scene of contest ; first, between the Saxons and the Britons, and, at a later period, between the Britons and the Normans. In the year 1212 (under its Lord, Fitz-Alan) it was