tituency.

For communication with the outer world Willenhall has had the advantage
of the London and North-Western Railway from the earliest possible
time--since the "Grand Junction Railway" (commenced in 1835) was opened
to public traffic on July 4th, 1837. Great were the rejoicings, and
prodigious the wonderment when the first train passed through on that
memorable day. Since the later decades of the last century the Midland
Railway has also tapped Willenhall.

The town is equally well supplied with tramways; the Wolverhampton
District Electric Tramways, Limited, controlling three lines, to
Wolverhampton, to Bilston, and Darlaston respectively; while the Walsall
Corporation afford facilities for communication with their thriving and
go-ahead borough. It is worthy of note that the old-fashioned carrier's
cart is not obsolete in Willenhall; this is probably because its staple
industries provide so many small parcels for transmission to
Wolverhampton, Birmingham, and other centres not too far distant.

The Wyrley and Essington Canal for heavy traffic was made in 1792, and is
still a useful highway, particularly to the Cannock Chase Collieries.

[Picture: Decorative design]

XXVII.--The Town of Locks and Keys.

Willenhall is "the town of locks and keys"; its staple industry has been
described in such graceful and felicitous terms by Elihu Burritt (see his
"Walks in the Black Country," pp. 206-214, written in 1868) that the
present writer at once confesses the inadequacy of his poor pen to say
anything new on the subject, engaging as it is.

The great American writer, be it noted, does not fail at the very outset
to pay a well-deserved tribute to James Carpenter Tildesley, as the
foremost authority on the subject, and compliments him on the versatility
displayed in his article on Locks and Keys, contributed to that
co-operative literary work, "Birmingham and the Midland Hardware
District," which was specially issued for the British Association meeting
at Birmingham in 1865.

The lockmakers of antiquity worked in wood and not in metal, a key
consisting of hard wood pegs being made to turn in a wooden lock of loose
pegs. The Romans first introduced the iron key with wards instead of
pegs.

The subject is full of interest; for lock-making is among the most
ancient of the mechanical crafts, and has for centuries afforded a wide
and ample scope as one of the branches of industrial ar