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206 the subject of a poem, under the title of "THE SONG OF THE TEA-KETTLE." This he promised to do; and I have no doubt will bring out the music and mission of that hot-water piano of the poor man's home fully; so I will say nothing more about it here.

After an appetising tea-supper on the little round table before the pleasant fire, we bade our hostess "Good night," and returned by an early evening train to Birmingham, with most enjoyable recollections of the day's excursion and incidents.

As the largest manufactory of door locks and fittings in America is that of my old neighbours in New Britain, Connecticut, Russell, Erwin, & Co., I had a particular desire to see what may be called a rival establishment in Willenhall, about ten miles north of Birmingham. This is one of the oldest and most extensive lock factories in the kingdom, and is called The Summerford Works; Messrs. Carpenter & Tildesley are the proprietors, and the father of the former was the founder in 1795. Mr. J. C. Tildesley is perhaps the best authority on locks to be found anywhere, having written up their history through four thousand years of record. In the valuable paper he contributed to that coöperative work of literature, "Birmingham and the Midland Hardware District," he has quoted Aratus, Ariston, Eustathius, Callimachus, Homer, and other Greek poets and writers from their days