HUMPHREY KYNASTON, surnamed _The Wild_.—This remarkable man, whose exploits would furnish skilful romance-writers with materials for at least three entertaining volumes, was not a native of Oswestry, but as there is a tradition that his first wife was Elizabeth, daughter of Meredydd ab Hywel ab Morris, of Oswestry, and another that she was Margaret, daughter of William Griffith, of Oswestry, called Coch-William, or the _Red_, we have deemed his history worthy of brief narration in this volume. Kynaston was son of Sir Roger Kynaston, of Hordley, by Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Grey, Earl of Tankerville, by Antigony, daughter of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester. The enormous debts he contracted by his imprudent life and conduct caused him to be outlawed, upon which he fled from Middle Castle, his usual place of residence, but which he had so neglected that it was falling into ruins, and sheltered himself in a cave in the western point of Nesscliff Rock, called to this day _Kynaston’s Cave_. The cave is large, and divided into two rooms by a pillar of the rock, upon which is carved “H. K. 1564.” Yorke says of him, that “he was a gentleman of many strange pranks, still the talk of the neighbouring peasantry. The cave in the rock, at Nesscliff, called Kynaston’s Cave, was the retreat of himself and mad companions. He was outlawed the sixth of Henry VII., pardoned the next year, and died in 1531.” Kynaston’s career was brief, but his exploits and vagaries within the short period of twelve months filled the country round with enthusiastic reports of his courage and semi-madness. His horse, somewhat resembling the notorious Turpin’s “Black Bess,” seemed to have an instinctive knowledge of his master’s love of daring adventure. Tradition states that this animal was stalled in the cave, the ascent to which was by a flight of steps, and that when he was grazing in any of the fields below, on hearing his master’s whistle, he would immediately attend to the summons, ascend the steps of the cave, and kneel at Humphrey’s bidding. Kynaston is represented as no common outlaw, and that in all his depredatory warfare he ever regarded a sort of justice, giving freely to the poor, by whom he was idolized, a portion of the “black mail” he had levied from the rich. On the road, if he saw a cart with one horse, and another with three, he made them equal, by taking the fore-horse from the latter and hooking it to the former. Most of the adventures ascribed to him seem to have been more dictated by whim than a desire of plunder. He had a plentiful supply of necessaries from the people around, the rich paying him tribute through fear, and the poor from gratitude. _Kynaston’s Horse-leap_, a place thus named on Dovaston Common, received its name from the following circumstance: Kynaston having been observed to go over Montford Bridge to Shrewsbury, the Sheriff, intending to take him, caused one of the divisions of the bridge (then formed of planks laid upon stone pillars,) to be taken up, and placed a number of men in ambush. When Kynaston had advanced on the bridge, the men came up and blocked up his retreat, upon which he put spurs to his horse, which bore him safely over the wide breach, and carried him to his cave at Nesscliff; some say the horse leaped into the Severn, and carried him across! The length of this leap was afterwards measured on Dovaston Common, with an H cut at one end and a K at the other. The letters were an ell long, a spade’s graffe wide, and a spade deep, and were generally cleansed annually by order of Mr. Kynaston, of Kington, as Gough, the historian of Middle, informs us. Camden merely mentions Nesscliff and its cave, but says not a word about Kynaston. Wild Humphrey’s adventures were probably much exaggerated by the vulgar people of the district, some of whom have not scrupled to declare that his leap was forty yards! Kynaston, being a desperate man, would not hesitate much at daring feats, but a forty yards’ leap is fit only for record in the pages of Major Longbow.