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Grand Junction Line.
71

built and endowed by the Marquis of Stafford and Lord Grenville. This town has had no slight influence on the destinies of the country, in giving birth to two of the most staunch supporters of the regicide Cromwell; viz., John Goodwin, whose powerful talents and pen were always at his service; and Major General Harrison, who contributed much to his military progress.

The town is said to have had a singular mode of taming a shrew; we only mention it from a thorough persuasion that there is not such a being in existence, and that, at the present time, it would be considered a lusus nature, it would, however, appear that such did exist in days of yore, for here the remedy has often been practised, which is as follows:—"A bridle was placed in the scold's mouth, she was then led through the town, and exposed to public shame in the marketplace, until a promise of amendment was extracted." Newcastle gives the title of Duke to the noble family of Clinton. (For Races, see Index.)

Betley, a parish in the hundred of Pirehill, county of Stafford; Pop. 870, principally agricultural; An. As. Val. £2,804; it formerly had a market, but it has been discontinued, and the produce of the neighbourhood is sent to Newcastle. It has still an annual fair on the 31st of July. The church is dedicated to St. Margaret. The living is a perpetual curacy, not in charge, in the archdeaconry of Stafford and diocese of Lichfield and Coventry, endowed with £1,200, be-