HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE. 173 



handsome brick building, "'erected by the Merchant Taylors Com- 

 pany in 1794, with houses for two masters : the Rev. William 

 Tindall is the present head-master. There are also two charity- 

 schools, and an hospital for a priest and six old women. 



The increasing communication between England and Ireland has 

 of late years rendered Wolverhampton a great thoroughfare, it 

 lying in the direct road from London to Holyhead, and about mid- 

 distance. The intercourse with Manchester and Liverpool is also 

 considerable, owing to constant conveyances between those towns 

 and Birmingham. 



Grazeley, situated near the road leading from Wolverhampton to 

 Stourbridge, is the property of James Perry, Esq. The field called 

 Ab-low-field took its name from a low or tumulus near Grazeley- 

 brook, on which was planted a bush called Iseley-cross. 



Near Grazeley is a very ancient place called the Lea, occupied 

 for many generations by the family of Waring, but now part of 

 the Grazely estate. A short distance from Lea is Merrydale, the 

 seat of William Hayrick, Esq. and nearer Wolverhampton, on the 

 road to Worcester, stand the newly-erected mansion of the Rev. 

 G. W. Kempson, one of the Magistrates for this county, and an 

 elegant villa lately built by Mr. Jno. Mander, of Wolverhampton. 



Dunstall Hall, an ancient castellated mansion, with a moat and 

 gateway, one mile north-west of Wolverhampton, was formerly the 

 property of the Wightwicks, but has been many years occupied as 

 a farm-house : J.ames Hordern, Esq. of Wolverhampton, lately pur- 

 chased it with the demesne of 260 acres. 



Stow-keath Manor, which comprehends the east part of the town- 

 ship of Wolverhampton, with Bilston, and part of Willenhall, was 

 an ancient domain of the Crown, but now belongs to the Giffard and 

 Leveson Gower families.* 



BILSTON is a large and populous place, three miles south-east of 

 Wolverhampton, and though generally comprehended within that 

 parish, is a distinct township as to all parochial purposes : it is prin- 

 cipally inhabited by manufacturers of japanned and other wares, 

 and colliers and workmen employed in the extensive iron-works 

 established here. A branch of the Tame passes through Bilston, 

 and a long line of the Birmingham canal intersects the parish, by 

 which an active and constant communication is kept up with all 



* The detached hamlets and prebends generally connected with Wolverhamp- 

 ton, are merely so by some manorial and ecclesiastical ties, having distinct 

 places of worship, parochial and other assessments. 



