Page:Walks in the Black Country and its green border-land.pdf/350

336 such a deep impression upon me in 1846. The stained windows and other features were admirable; but here I saw other objects for the first time and with wonder. They were whole families of lords and ladies lying side by side on marble or stone beds as large as life. There they lay with their pale hands folded so meekly as in prayer, while the flush of tinted light from the painted windows suffused their faces, giving them a pleasant look, as if their prayers were heard hopefully. I had read of effigies but had never seen one before, and never knew what manner of men and women they were in marble. The town itself is built chiefly on one long street, and is quite a bustling place of business. It is one of the principal nail-making centres of the district, and has a respectable variety of other trades. The Free Grammar School, founded by Edward VI, is its most salient and distinguishing feature. This is one of the institutions established in the reign of that excellent prince, which may be called the Edward or Educational Age of England, just as the time of the best of the Cæsars was called the Augustan Age in Rome. He inspired the movement and gave his name to establishments which afterwards were munificently endowed by benevolent and wealthy men who followed his example. Thus, Sir Thomas Cookes supplemented the royal gift to this school with a fund sufficient to pay for