assume. Having got out of the train at one of these last stations, I could take a nearer view of things in general, and the people in particular.

Among the lower classes of this district there are singular inflections of the voice, besides a way of contracting their negatives which appear strange at first. Such words as "shall not," "will not," and "cannot," they would abbreviate into "shay," "wo," and "caw."

Making a remark on the length of the platform to a puddler, who was muffled up round the neck as though he was sadly afraid of catching a sore throat, he replied, "Lung! why, gaffer, o' haliday toime there ay (is not) room to stir on these boords, yo' ca'(nt) but just wink your oie, aisy loike; but I reckon yo' bay (be not) out o' these parts ?"

Being Saturday evening, I find at many of the pits they have finished their work for the week, and men, women, and children are clustered round the hovel waiting to receive their wages, and passing many a friendly joke to while away the time. Some of them are all black and dirty, having but just left their work, while others are cleaned up, the women often with a basket on their arm ready to go to market with the money. I am sorry to find that the truck system, or "tommying," as they call it here, is not yet abolished; a shop being connected with many even of the respectable firms for the purpose of furnishing the workmen with part of their wages in goods, instead of all cash payment. "It is an ill wind which blows nobody any good," and I certainly did find a person who preferred this system. It was a woman with a large family, who said that if she could not go to the shop now and then for some "tommy," her children would be but badly off; for if their Jack (her husband) received all his wages in money at the reckoning, he would spend most of it in drink.

Going by one or two forges, we found some of them still working, the ponderous hammer pounding away at the huge lumps of red-hot iron, and the "shinglers" twisting them about equably to receive those mighty thumps, as easy, apparently, as though they were but snowballs. These shinglers, with big iron boots encasing their legs armorially, have a peculiar and dignified way of walking about. The weight of these metallic overalls, used for protection from the weighty sparks of hot iron and refuse flying from the blow of the forge-hammer, is in part the cause of their heavy style of locomotion; but besides this, being chosen for strength and efficiency, owing to the severe nature of their work, they are in general remarkably fine specimens of the British workman. They wear, too, in front of their caps, a piece of iron gauze, and whilst working they lower this over their eyes, like a vizor, adding still further to their warlike appearance. As many men are not physically strong enough to follow this employment, the shinglers feel their importance, and think no small beer of themselves.

Near to the forge are ovens, where the hammered iron is re-heated, and then, passing many times through the rolls, it is soon converted from a squarish lump into a long thin bar. The men and boys on each side of

the rolls seem to guide these heavy bars in and out in such a light touchand-go sort of style, that it seems quite a nice easy job, but I doubt a stranger would find out his mistake if he took their place.

Monstrous shears are hard by, moving regularly up and down, like the jaws of some huge crocodile, while precocious little lads are supplying them with pieces of iron, which require cutting up into scraps preparatory to their being piled into "billets," heated once more, and rolled again into sheets or bars. It is amusing to see the stolid manner in which this machine slices up bits of iron as thin as paper, or cuts in two with equal indifference heavy bars an inch or two thick and several inches broad. The boys, with apparent carelessness, put their tiny fingers much closer than a stranger would think safe; and I could not but think how some tender mothers would be terrified to have their darlings continually feeding such a relentless monster. The office at some of these works does not seem far removed in size and cleanliness from the pit-cabin we passed just now, and with the bumping of the hammer, which shakes the ground. far and near, the vibratory din of the rolls, and clank of engines and workmen, the clerks at work in them cannot have a very delectable time of it. There is always a notable odour of burnt grease about the mills and forges, caused by the hot necks of the rolls heating the dirty-looking composition put upon them, and of which "the fat in the fire" will give you but a poor idea.

Puddlers who had finished their work, with muscular development worthy of the Grecian Athletæ, were washing themselves in the canal, passing their jokes, and splashing each other with water in high glee.

An old woman passing along the road, with her donkey laden with sand and scouring-stones, was a picture to look at, and wanted Mr. Leech's pencil to portray her. An old jim-crow hat was on her head, and hung partly over her face, as if to hide a black eye and a short black pipe seen underneath. The remains of a coat that was originally blue were held together by large flat brass buttons, and beneath this and the tattered shreds of a dirty nondescript gown were a ragged pair of worsted stockings, sadly in need of the washing-tub. She carried a thick stick in her hand, which she occasionally dropped on the crupper of her poor donkey, accompanied by a grunt either of anathema or encouragement. The beast seemed accustomed to this, and shaking his tail by way of acknowledgment, went on still at the same rate. I was told that the donkey and its driver came from a neighbouring district called Gornall, which was very prolific in both kinds of specimens.

After a short absence of a few years from this neighbourhood, the energy of the people is seen to great advantage in the new mineral "fields" that are opened out, and the large number of additional ironworks which have sprung up in every direction. You walked before, perhaps, to some well-known favourite spot, along green fields and through rural lanes, and now you find all this rustic simplicity completely swept away, and the site occupied by blast-furnaces, coke-fires, pits, and brickyards,

with a few iron tramways intersecting them and connecting all together. We may admire now the advance of commercial enterprise in it all; but one cannot help a feeling of regret at losing our favourite walk, and knowing that the violets and primroses we used to admire on the hedgerow side are deeply buried in dust and ashes.

Even the very streets are intruded upon, and the forge-hammer resounds close into the highway, with unmusical din invading the privacy of the oldest inhabitant. On a Saturday evening, it wants but a short visit to the adjacent town to show there is plenty of money got by the work people, and also that it is freely spent. Provision shops, butohers, bakers, grocers, and the like, are very numerous, and also well filled with customers. The drapers, too, and "slop shops" seem to drive a good trade; but fancy-shops, jewellers, and dealers in articles of vertu do not seem by any means so numerous.

There is usually here a good market on Saturday night, even if the customary market is held on another day; for the men being mostly paid on a Saturday evening, money is more plentiful then; and as all the works, excepting blast-furnaces, stand on the Sunday, most of the men are able to attend. Cheap-Johns and such-like itinerant tradesmen find this a good place of resort; and there are usually several of them vociferating in the streets, vieing with the fishmongers in coarse humour and clamorous opposition to each other. Looking into a pork-butcher's shop, I was struck with the large supply of meat laid in, there being from twenty to thirty pigs hanging up around the walls of this one shop. Expressing my surprise to a stout butcher-boy on a spry wiry pony, who, as equerryin-waiting, was executing the orders of the knight of the cleaver, he seemed sorry for my ignorance. "Why," said he, "bless your loife, if you look in o' Monday noight, there wo' be enough left to graise your shoes."

Inns and beer-houses are very numerous, and do a good stroke of business, towards night especially, when the men, having seen their "old waman's" basket well loaded with marketings, just call in for "one pint" before they go home.

Judging from the general appearance of the people, the smoke and dirt does not seem to affect their health, and make them at all melancholy; on the other hand, there appears to be a munificence of animal spirits, and a jolly-heartiness of manner in their intercourse with each other which we hardly see equalled even at a country fair. "Money in both pockets," and a self-approving feeling of competence to gain more, may have something to do with this, a workman in South Staffordshire not being at all diffident and retiring, but rather fond of showing that he is no "under-hand," and quite able to do his part.

With the young men this feeling of independence is very conspicuous; and nowhere have I seen more precocious airs of manhood exhibited than here, where many of the youngsters, with flaming-coloured waistcoats and swaggering gait, look as if they would hardly own the prince for a brother.

Looking back little more than twenty years, we should find far different scenes enacted in this neighbourhood. Policemen were then more of a novelty; and cock-fighting in out-of-the-way places, and pugilistic encounters in the streets, were carried on almost with impunity. More attractive still were the bull-baitings; and these were so frequent at one time, that almost every large public-house in the colliery districts had its bull, which was tied up for baiting with dogs sometimes several days before it was slaughtered. The publicans found this brutal source of amusement a great lure for attracting numbers of low characters to their houses; and it was suppressed with difficulty.

The only relics we now see of these disgusting pastimes are, a few game-cocks picking about among the heaps of ashes in the back streets, and occasionally a bull-dog, of sinister aspect, following the heels of its master, and looking as though it would be glad of an excuse for grappling with any living thing.

After seeing the workmen engaged at their varied employments,―the collier a hundred fathoms down, with his body bent to occupy as little space as possible, holing under the coal, or driving with his pick-axe a way straight ahead through the living rock; the puddler laboriously stirring at the molten metal in the furnace before him, until he is almost melted before his "heat" is done; and the forgemen round the great hammer, twining about the red-hot balls of iron till the perspiration streams from their swarthy faces, no one, I think, would grudge these hard-working fellows a holiday now and then, if they would use it properly.

There certainly is a marked improvement in the different recreations offered to workmen at the present time; for the cock-pit, the bull-ring, and the prize-fight have given way before exhibitions, excursion-trains, and rural fêtes. Gentlemen, too, have made the discovery that the public may be admitted into their parks and flower-gardens without fear of any serious damage being done. No one can have witnessed the crowds of people going from the "Black Country" I am describing to spend their holiday at Enville Hall, Chillington Pool, or Hagley Park, without feeling deeply what a boon the proprietors have bestowed upon the lower classes by occasionally throwing open their grounds. The places named, being all contiguous to the mining districts, are often thronged with miners, colliers, puddlers, and nailors; and if these classes can be admitted with impunity, other proprietors in less populous localities need not hesitate in following so good an example.

Dudley Castle and Hill is a famous place of resort, being close into one of the most densely populated localities. The vast limestone caverns which are near to this place are upon some extraordinary occasions brilliantly lighted up with fireworks, making a scene of unusual grandeur and sublimity, and attracting many strangers from a distance, to mingle with the crowd flowing in from the vicinity. These extensive quarries of limestone having been worked in a great measure for the supply of the iron-works around, the men employed at these works, as well as those who

VOL. III.

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have been actually engaged in quarrying the limestone, feel a sort of personal interest in this display, and take pride in it as something in a measure belonging to themselves. Here are found numerous specimens of Trilobites, or "Dudley Beetles," as they are familiarly called; and a visitor with a keen eye may possibly have the pleasure of picking one out of the solid rock, or finding one among the loose stones lying about.

From the castle hill there is a grand view of the adjacent country and the coal-fields of South Staffordshire. It is not all smoke either; for looking to the west, towards the Wrekin, a beautiful agricultural country opens widely before us, and the borders of Staffordshire and Shropshire are seen as yet in all their pristine purity. How long this will last is doubtful, as geologists are of opinion that the coal-fields extend under the new red sandstone from one county to the other, though probably lying at a great depth. On looking out from this eminence, one cannot help admiring the close proximity of all the materials necessary for the making of iron. At a short distance before us lie the beds of iron-ore, and above and below them are placed different seams of coal, as if they were put there just in readiness for smelting the ironstone on the spot; while at our feet are disposed the strata of limestone for fluxing the metal, by separating it from earthy combinations when in an incandescent

state.

After visiting the great limestone caverns, it would be well if a stranger could go down into one of the pits where they are getting the thick coal, for the sake of the strong contrast in the appearance of the two minerals. Better still if he can find a pit where they are getting the coal in the old style, and leaving huge black columns for supporting the roof. After seeing the light reflected from the vaulted roof of the limestone workings, and the fretted pendants shining with almost crystalline splendour, the darkness of the deep coal-mine seems almost palpable. The few candles glimmering here and there receive little or no reflected light from the walls; and in places where the coal has been got at a great thickness, and the roof is lofty, we hardly know, in looking upwards at the sable crypt, whether we are resting our eyes on a rayless ceiling of coal, or peering into impenetrable darkness. Owing to the great thickness of this measure of coal, which is in some places more than ten yards, it is considered more dangerous for the men to work in; and colliers employed in getting it have been accustomed to receive a higher rate of wages than those who work in the thinner seams of coal.

The thick coal was found so near the surface in the neighbourhood of Dudley, that it was got in "open work," without sinking shafts. It is many years ago since I paid a visit to this "open work," which was considered one of the "lions" of the place; but I remember walking along green pastures, where there seemed no trace of the vast body of carbon underneath, until all at once we came to the face of the coal, which was opened out like a large stone quarry, and had scarcely a foot of soil separating the main body of coal from the greensward above.