Page:Walks in the Black Country and its green border-land.pdf/328

314 a common-sized township. Understanding that access to the hall and park was barred by rather rigid restrictions, we did not diverge to get a better view of them than the road could command. When we reached Wolverhampton, the town was brimful of the music of the old church bells, which were playing their gladdest chimes in honour of the first anniversary of the Queen's visit at the inauguration or unveiling of Prince Albert's equestrian statue. The grand, massive tower, that had vibrated to Sunday chines for six hundred years, was now thrilled through all its thick walls with the silvery retintabulation of as many bells as would supply all the steeples of a large American town with one apiece.

Wolverhampton was a goodly and important town when Staffordshire was as green as any other county in England. It has a good Saxon name and history. Some of the antiquarians, with Druidical predilection, have tried to discover a British origin for its earliest name. One says it was first called "Hautune," which he thinks came from Huan, a deity of the ancient Britons. But if this were ever its name, it was doubtless a word of Danish or Saxon origin, like Hawton or Hoiton, meaning, high-town. This would designate its location. It stands on high ground, commanding a good view of the surrounding country. But a pious Saxon lady gave to the