196 A TOPOGRAPHICAL 



Should I reveal the source of every grief, 



If soft humanity e'er touch'd your breast, 

 Your hands would not withhold the kind relief, 



And tears of pity could not be represt. 



Heav'n sends misfortune why should we repine ? 



'Tis Heav'n has brought me to the state you see ; 

 And your condition may be soon like mine, 



The child of sorrow and of misery. 



A little farm was my paternal lot, 



Then like the lark I sprightly hail'd the morn ; 

 But, ah ! oppression forc'd me from my cot, 

 My cattle dy'd, and blighted was my corn. 



My daughter ! once the comfort of my age ! 



Lur'd by a villain from lier native home, 

 Is cast abaudon'd on the world's wide stage, 



And doom'd in scanty poverty to roam. 



My tender wife ! sweet soother of my care ! 

 Struck with sad anguish at the stern decree, 

 Fell lingering fell, a victim to despair, 

 And left the world to wretchedness and me. 



Pity the sorrows of a poor old man, 



Whose trembling limbs have borne him to your door ; 

 Whose days are dwindled to the shortest span, 



Oh ! give relief, and Heav'n will bless your store ! 



A vast trade in glass, &c. is carried on in the neighbourhood, 

 which has heen greatly promoted by the Stourbridge canal. 



KINFARE or KINVER is a pleasant village on the west bank of the 

 Stour, and chiefly consists of one spacious and well-paved street, 

 containing many handsome and well-built houses. Kinver stands 

 at the foot of an high hill or mountain called Kinfare-edge, and 

 was formerly a market town of some importance : there is still a 

 market-house or town-hall, though the market is now discontinued. 

 Two fairs are annually held here on the 1st of May and 15th of 

 December. The parish is situated near the south edge of the 

 county, and adjoins Worcestershire: the Stour, and the Staffordshire 

 and Worcestershire canal, pass through it. The soil is generally 

 light, sandy, or gravelly, with a range of meadows on the Stour. 

 The Foleys, of Prestwood, are lords of the manor. Here is a well- 

 endowed free school, but the name of the founder is unknown. 



On the south of Kinfare-edge is a small plain covered with 

 sand, where are the remains of a camp of an oblong form, 300 

 yards long and 200 wide, with a single graff or ditch : tra- 

 dition attributes it to the Danes. Mr. Shaw thinks it the work 

 of Wulfer King of Mercia (659 to 675), on account of its posi- 



