The village is on the great London and Holyhead road, and also, on the turnpike road leading from Oswestry to Ellesmere. It consists of a considerable collection of houses thinly scattered, a church, a school for each sex, and the remains of the castle before mentioned. In ancient records we find it called Chwytunton, Wititone, Whittentonne, and Vica Alba. It is situated in latitude 52° 55' 30 north, and longitude 2° 57' 30 west. The church is a rectory, valued in the king’s books at £25. 4s.; it was originally designed, as before stated, as a chapel to the castle, and was dedicated to St. John the Baptist. The body of the church was rebuilt in 1806, from a design of Mr. Harrison, of Chester; it is a large brick building of sixty feet by fifty, and cost £1500.: to lessen the expense, two briefs were procured that raised £703. 15s. 1d. but of this sum, only £42. 2s. 1d. was received for the intended purpose. It is much to be regretted that this evil is not amended, a grievance so universally complained of, and so frequently practised, should not be tolerated by such an enlightened legislature as that of the English, but still it remains a nuisance to the very interests of religion itself. In the body of the church are three aisles and six rows of seats, all faced with Dantzic oak; the ceiling is neatly executed, being made of wood, and consequently very pleasant to the officiating minister. In the gallery stands a barrel organ, placed there by subscription, in 1810; it was built by England, and is considered a good instrument.

In 1761, the church-yard contained several venerable yew trees, which Mr. Roberts, the then rector, had the bad taste to destroy and replace with lime trees. In the garden at the Rectory is an uncommonly fine yew tree; it is seventeen and a half feet in circumference at the distance of four feet from the ground, about forty feet in height, and the space of ground under the branches is one hundred and forty-two feet and a half in circumference: it is very healthy and in a growing state. Evelyn says, that the reason yew trees were so universally planted in church-yards was, doubtless, from its being thought a symbol of immortality, the tree being so lasting and always green.In 1810, the church-yard wall being in bad repair, was rebuilt with stone, and the gates removed opposite to the entrance to the steeple.

In the Register we find the following curious Epitaphs:

March 13th, 1766, died,
THOMAS EVANS,
Parish Clarke, aged 72.

“Old Sternhold’s lines, or Vicar of Bray,
Which he tun’d best ’twas hard to say.”

SAMUEL PEATE,
of Whittington Castle died,
aged 84.

“Here lies Governor Peate
Whom no man did hate,
At the age of four-score
And four years more,
He pretended to wrestle
With Death for his Castle;
But was soon out of breath
And surrender’d to Death,
Who away did him take,
At the eve of our wake,
One morn about seven
To keep wake in heaven.”

ANDREW WILLIAMS,
WAS
Born A.D. 1690, and died April, 18, 1776,
Aged 84.

OF WHICH TIME HE LIVED UNDER

The Aston Family as Decoyman 60 Years.

“Here lies the Decoyman who liv’d like an otter,
Dividing his time betwixt land and water!
His hide he oft soak’d in the waters of Perry, [39]
Whilst Aston old beer his spirits kept cheery;
Amphibious his trim, Death was puzzle’d they say,
How to dust to reduce such well-moisten’d clay.
So Death turned Decoyman and decoy’d him to land,
Where he fix’d his abode ’till quite dried to the hand;
He then found him fitting for crumbling to dust,
And here he lies mouldering as you and I must.”

“He retired to Whittington upon a freehold he had purchased with the perquisites of his place for a few years before his death.”

1783.

“A severe winter,—the frost set in the day before Christmas-day, and continued to introduce the new year.”

“And I may here add, as there is a vacancy, that the frost continued till March, 1784.”“I sore forebode these frosty times
Will nip my nob; and then my rhymes
In puff complete, in richness big,
And full and flowery as my wig,
Will future bards and priests explore,
Till Taste and Talent are no more.
While dull, tho’ disembodied I
Jump up a Gnome ’twixt earth and sky;
Perch on the pen of rhyming elf,
And squat a squabby rhyme myself.
A brat I boast, hight Pudding Billy,
Whom tho’ the witless world calls silly,
And tho’ but lame in hie hÆc hoe
Is a right chip of the old block.”

W. Roberts, Rector.

N.B. Mr. Roberts died a few months after writing this epitaph on himself.

The Registers are quite complete from the year 1591, to the present time, with the exception of that of marriages, from the 1654, to 1659.

The following is a copy of the Terrier of 1630, mentioned by Mr. Pennant, excepting the part of it which relates to the glebe lands:

“We find all the tythes falling within the forest of Bafin’s Wood are * * * * * * * * [40] Itm an English bible, a Welsh bible, a communion silver patara, a prayer-book in English, and a prayer-book in Welsh, a homely [41] book in English, and a homely book in Welsh,

Itm a linen cloth and napkin, two surplices, two chests, a velvet cushion and hangings for the pulpit, three pair of armour, two pikes and two head pieces, a flagon, a pewter plate, and a stone font.”

(Signed)

Edward Williams, Rector.
Edward Edwards,
John Rogers,
Edward ap Thomas,
Hugh ap John Lewis,
John Benion,
Richard ap Edd.

FINIS.

Decorative graphic of crown

Edwards, Printer, Oswestry.