PIHEHILL HUNDRED. 



THIS division of Staffordshire, equally remarkable for fertility 

 of soil, beauty of landscape, numerous population, and valuable 

 productions of nature and art, is bounded on the north-east by 

 Totmanslow hundred ; on the east and south by Ofilow and Cut- 

 tlestone; and on the west and north- west by Shropshire and 

 Cheshire. 



Pirehill Hundred is divided into two parts, the North and the 

 South, and contains six market-towns, many populous villages, 

 and 74,603 inhabitants. The extensive district of the POTTERIES 

 is included in this hundred. 



STAFFORD, 



The principal town, from which the county takes its name, and 

 where the Assizes are held, is in Pirehill South, and situated on 

 the northern bank of the river Sow, 135 miles distant from London, 

 16 from Lichfield, 16 from Wolverhampton, and 16 from Newcastle. 

 Much fanciful conjecture has been advanced by antiquaries in 

 tracing the origin of the name of Stafford; but hitherto they have 

 been obliged to derive all their information on this subject from 

 mere tradition. Respecting this place, Plot says (ch. x. sec. 28.) 

 "About this time [705] the place or island where the town of Staf- 

 ford now stands, anciently calPd Bcthnei, began first to be inhabited 

 by St.Bertelline, the son of a king of this country, and scholar to 

 St. Guthlac, with whom he tarryed till his death : after which, tho* 

 now unknown to his father, he begg'd this island of him, where he 

 led a hermit's life for divers years, till disturbed by some that en- 

 vyed his happiness, when he removed into some desert mountanous 

 places, where he ended his life ; leaving Belknei to others, who 

 afterwards built it, and called it Stafford, there being a shallow 

 place in the river hereabout that could easily be pass't with the 

 help of a staff only. Now whereabout this desert place should be, 



