tly studied this side of the Black Country at close
quarters. It occurs in his novel, "Sybil," the time of action being
about 1837.

The distinguished novelist discovered the well-known fact that many of
the common people hereabout were ignorant of their own names, and that if
they knew them few indeed were able to spell them. Of nicknames, which
were then not merely prevalent, but practically universal, he gives us
such choice examples as Devilsdust, Chatting Jack, and Dandy Mick; while
in "Shuttle and Screw's Mill," and the firm of "Truck and Trett," we
recognise names significant of the methods of employment then in vogue.

But worse perhaps than the "truck system" of paying wages in kind instead
of in coin, was the prevailing system of utilising an inordinate number
of apprentices; and as these were almost invariably "parish apprentices,"
the output of the local workhouses, the tendency was not only to lower
the rate of wages, but to lower the morale of the people.

How this tendency worked out in everyday life is best seen in the
following extract from "Sybil." Under the fictional name "Wemsbury" may
perhaps be read Wednesbury; "Hell House Yard" is evidently meant for Hell
Lane, near Sedgley; and as to "Wodgate," there can be no doubt about its
interpretation as Wednesfield. This is Disraeli's description of life
here seventy years ago, no doubt viewed as it was approached from the
Wolverhampton side:--

Wodgate, or Wogate, as it was called on the map, was a district that
in old days had been consecrated to Woden, and which appeared
destined through successive ages to retain its heathen character.

At the beginning of the revolutionary war Wodgate was a sort of
squatting district of the great mining region to which it was
contiguous, a place where adventurers in the industry which was
rapidly developed settled themselves; for though the great veins of
coal and ironstone cropped up, as they phrase it, before they reached
this bare and barren land, and it was thus deficient in those mineral
and metallic treasures which had enriched its neighbourhood, Wodgate
had advantages of its own, and of a kind which touch the fancy of the
lawless.

It was land without an owner; no one claimed any manorial right over
it; they could build cottages without paying rent. It was a district
recognised by no parish; so there were no tithes and no meddlesome
super