e years ago when extensive excavations were being made.

So far the scientific aspect of this once famous Well. The popular view
of a much frequented mineral spring which had "long been celebrated for
disease of the eye and skin" opens out an even wider aspect. As
previously mentioned, the brook flowing past it ran from west to east; a
stream so directed was always accounted by the Druids of old as a sacred
watercourse. Being thus from the earliest dawn of history within sacred
precincts, there can be little doubt the Willenhall fountain enjoyed the
reputation of a "Holy well" for many centuries. As such it came in for
the annual custom of "well dressing," a vestige of the old pagan practice
of well worship. Respecting this ancient custom, Dr. Plot, writing in
1686 in his "Natural History of Staffordshire," says:--

"They have a custom in this county, which I observed on Holy Thursday
at Brewood and Bilbrook, of adorning their Wells with boughs and
flowers; this it seems they do at all gospel places, whether wells,
trees, or hills, which being now observed only for decency and
custom's sake, is innocent enough. Heretofore, too, it was usual to
pay their respect to such wells as were eminent for curing distempers
(one of which was at Wolverhampton in a narrow lane leading to a
house, called Sea-well; another at Willenhall; others at Monmore
Green, near Wolverhampton; at Codsall and many other parts of
Staffordshire) on the saint's day whose name the well bore; diverting
themselves with cakes and ale, and a little music and dancing; which,
whilst within bound, was also an innocent recreation."

Dr. Oliver says the beautiful spring at Dunstall was the favourite resort
of the Lady Wulfruna, and from contact with her sanctity acquired a
reputation for possessing healing virtues of a miraculous character, and
that this fountain was long known among its devotees as Wulfruna's Well.

Pitt's "History of Staffordshire," issued in 1817, gives a long list of
local wells bearing at that time some similar repute for their remedial
waters. Among them was Codsall Well, near Codsall Wood, supposed in
olden times to be efficacious in cases of leprosy, and adjacent to which
once stood a Leper House, replaced at a later period by a "Brimstone
Ale-house," so-called because the water was sulphureous. The waters of
the Monmore Green Well are described as containing "sulphur combined wit