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Lord Mayor of London, in the year 1668. Besides this school, there are two charity ones for fifty boys and forty girls. An hospital for a priest and six old women was erected here under the sanction of the royal licence about the year 1394, by Clement Lusen, and William Waterfall. The Workhouse is an inconvenient structure, with small windows, low rooms, and dark staircases.

Some curious customs are mentioned by Mr. Shaw and several other writers, as having prevailed here even so late as the commencement of the last century. Among these was the practice of processioning. On the Monday and Tuesday of ro gation week the Sacrist, resident prebendaries, and the members of the choir assembled, at morning prayers with the cha, rity children, each of whom carried a long pole decked with a profusion of different kinds of flowers. Prayers being finished, the whole assembly marched through the streets with great solemnity, the clergy, singing men, and boys, arrayed in their sacred robes, bringing up the rear. The origin of this ceremony is referred to very high antiquity, and would appear to have been a continuation of the Roman offerings of the Primitia, adapted to our purer worship by the early Christians. Another custom was that of certain officers patrolling through the fair dressed in antique armour, and preceded by a band of musicians, playing the Fair tune.

In the skirts of the town are ranged, at determinate distances, a number of large trees, which serve to mark the limits between the township and the parish. These are denominated by the inhabitants Gospel trees, from the practice of reading the Gos pel under them, when the clergy were wont to perambulate the boundaries. Every part of this vicinity is covered with gardens, and when the eye is directed to any considerable dis tance, the country presents a scene sufficiently indicative of its agricultural prosperity.

The village of Bilston lying to the east of Wolverhampton, and comprehended within the boundaries of that parish, though

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a distinct

a distinct township as to all parochial purposes, is one of the most extensive villages in this country. It contains upwards of 1000 houses, and stands upon rising ground at a short distance from the north bank of the Birmingham canal. The great London road to Holyhead passes through it at the distance of one hundred and twenty-one miles from the metropolis, with which it keeps up a constant and active communication. Its manufactures consist chiefly of japanned and enamelled goods and buckle-chapes, which are wrought in great perfection. Furnaces for smelting iron ore, forges, and stilling mills worked by steam, are frequent in this neighbourhood, which abounds with vast mines of coal, iron stone, quarry stone, and clay. Here is also found a particular species of sand, much used in the casting of metals.

The chapel of Bilston is a neat modern structure fitted up in a very elegant style. The living is a perpetual curacy, within the exempt jurisdiction of the dean of Wolverhampton ; but the right of nomination and presentation is vested in the inhabitants at large. Here are besides two places of worship for Dissenters, and a very excellent charity school.

At Bradley, a hamlet immediately adjoining to this village, there is a very extraordinary phenomenon. A fire in the earth has now continued burning for upwards of forty years, defeating every attempt which has been made to extinguish it. This fire has already reduced nearly six acres of land to a mere calx. It arises from a burning stratum of coal, about four feet thick, and eight or ten yards deep, to which the air has free access, in consequence of the main coal having been dug out from under it. The calx affords a very excellent material for the repair of roads; and the workmen, in collecting it, frequently find large beds of alum, of an excellent quality. What is likewise curious, the surface is sometimes covered with sulphur for many yards, in such quantities as to be easily gathered.

Tatenhill is a small village, picturesquely placed on the declivity of a steep eminence, and lying at the distance of two

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miles north from Wolverhampton. Etymologically considered its name is a corruption of Theotenhall, i. e. the hall of nations or of pagans.* A severe battle was fought in this neighbourhood, between the Danes and Edward the elder, at the commencement of the tenth century.† Leland calls "Tetenhaul a village and a college about a myle from Wulnerhampton."

The college was founded previous to the Norman conquest, and had a dean and five prebends, till the period of its dissolution by Henry the eighth. This building, as Mr. Shaw informs us, stood at the east end of the present church, which is not improbably itself a part of the original foundation. At present the church is a royal chapel dedicated to St. Michael, and enjoys all the privileges of such peculiars. The inscription on the seal is "Sigillum Commune Ecclesiæ Collegiatæ de Tetenhall." The eastern window of this building is a very curious ancient one, containing a painting on glass, which represents the archangel trampling on a dragon. The font is of an octangular shape, and beautifully ornamented with Gothic sculpture work.

Wrottesley, a village in this parish, is distinguished by some very extensive remains of antiquity, concerning which various ideas have been adopted by different antiquaries, and even at different times by the same enquirer. From the appearance of these remains, there seems to be little doubt, but that they are the ruins of an ancient city, and not simply a fortified station, or encampment. Of this the parallel partitions within the outwall, like streets running different ways, are regarded by Dr. Plot, as sufficient evidence. This author first conceives them to be the vestiges of a British town, but upon reconsideration inclines to think them, "the true remains of the old Theoten

hall

• Gough's Camden, Vol. II. 495. Plot's Hist. Stafford, p. 394, 895, 415, + Henry of Huntingdon describes this battle as so terrible and bloody, that a just idea of it could scarcely be conveyed by the most exquisite pen. Hen. Hunt. Hist. Lib. V. cap. 5. Vide ante, p. 721.

Leland's Itin. Vol. VII. p. 36.

Plott's Staffordshire, p. 395.

hall of the Danes," which he supposes was finally raised by Edward the elder, after his signal victory already mentioned.†. Mr. Salmon, in his Survey of England, opposes these sentiments, and maintains that this is the Uriconium of the Romans; and it must be confessed that the square stones, large hinges, and apparent regularity of the streets, give no small degree of weight to this opinion; which appears to have met with the approbation of the learned Gough, in his additions to Camden.§ These gentlemen, however, do not deny that it might be occupied by the British, Saxons, and Danes, successively after the departure of the illustrious conquerors of the ancient world. Dr. Plot mentions some enormous stones as having been dug up here, one of which made an 100 loads, and another, after suffering a diminution of 10 loads, still required 36 oxen to draw it.

The surface of this parish is generally level; and, together with the country immediately around it, is adorned with many handsome seats and hamlets. There is here a peculiar species of pear, which Mr. Pitt says, is not to be found at any considerable distance elsewhere. The tree on which it grows is large, and for the most part uncommonly prolific. This fruit is of excellent flavour, and bakes and boils well; but will not admit of being kept above the period of a month. In consequence of these circumstances, and its making but an indifferent perry, it frequently happens that in plentiful seasons, large quantities are given to the hogs, the price brought by them in the market being scarcely adequate to defray the expense of picking and carrying in.

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• Plott's Staffordshire, p. 415.

North

Mr. Salmon says that the present name of this place may not improbably be derived from the Saxon term Wrotan, signifying to root or turn up as swine do, and the word ley, denoting a field. the field in which the ruined city stood.

Wrotan ley then would signify Salmon's Survey, Vol. II. p. 523. hereabout seems, indeed, extremely

That the Romans had some action probable, from the existence of a Roman work at Morton, east of it. Gough's Camden, Vol. II. p. 500.

Pitt's Survey Staff. p. 120.

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North east from Wolverhampton lies Bushbury or Byshbury, near the northern extremity of this hundred. The situation of the village is pleasant, though much sequestered, being sheltered by a lofty hill; covered with a profusion of ancient. yews. Its ancient appellation Biscopesburie would seem to point it out, as having been the residence, or chief seat, of some of the Mercian bishops.

The manor of Byshbury was long the property of the Goughs, ancestors to the celebrated antiquary of that name. In the hall is still kept the chair in which Charles the second sat, when here, among other places, during the period of his concealment in this county. There are, likewise, in this house several spoons of solid gold, discovered under the soil, which had probably belonged to the Byshbury family; but they bore no crest, or other mark whereby to ascertain the fact. A skeleton in complete armour was found about the same time when cleansing a pit in an adjoining field. From the dress, Mr. Shaw supposes the deceased to have been a cuirassier in king Charles's service.

The church, dedicated to the assumption of the blessed Mary, formerly belonged to the priory of St. Thomas's juxta Stafford. It is an ancient stone edifice, in the pointed style of architecture, surmounted by a massy embattled tower. The nave is spacious, and rests upon two handsome arches. The chancel, more modern than the rest of the building, is of excellent workmanship, particularly the roof which is constructed of oak, and is supported by flying buttresses curiously carved with the arms of Byshbury and Grosvenor. Several paintings on glass serve to ornament the windows of this division of the church. One of these represents a man in sacerdotal robes, kneeling to a lady carrying a babe. The monument of Hugh Byshbury, who is said to have built the chancel, is situated here. It was opened about 50 years ago, and found to contain a stone coffin

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• According to tradition the great London road to Chester passed over this hill, upon which are to be seen the vestiges of several moats.

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