subjects passing to and from the marches of Wales," looking to the
preservation of sundry bridges and lords, as well as repair of "two
greate stone brydges," &c., &c. The Guild owned considerable portion of
the land on which the present town is built, when Henry VIII., after
confiscating the revenues and possessions of the monastic institutions,
laid hands on the property of such semi-religious establishments as the
Guild of the Holy Cross. It has never appeared that our local Guild had
done anything to offend the King, and possibly it was but the name that
he disliked. Be that as it may, his son, Edward VI., in 1552, at the
petition of the inhabitants, returned somewhat more than half of the
property, then valued at £21 per annum, for the support and maintenance
of a Free Grammar School, and it is this property from which the income
of the present King Edward VI.'s Grammar Schools is now derived,
amounting to nearly twice as many thousands as pounds were first
granted. The Guild Hall or Town's Hall in New Street (then only a bye
street), was not _quite_ so large as either our present Town Hall or the
Council House, but was doubtless considered at the time a very fine
building, with its antique carvings and stained glass windows emblazoned
with figures and armorial bearings of the Lords right Ferrers and
others. As the Guild had an organist in its pay, it may be presumed that
such an instrument was also there, and that alone goes far to prove the
fraternity were tolerably well off, as organs in those times were costly
and scarce. The old building, for more than a century after King
Edward's grant, was used as the school, but even when rebuilt it
retained its name as the Guild Hall.

~Guns.~--Handguns, as they were once termed, were first introduced into
this country by the Flemings whom Edward IV. brought over in 1471, but
(though doubtless occasional specimens were made by our townsmen before
then) the manufacture of small arms at Birmingham does not date further