place-name which originated not from any connection
with the local industries, as one might be led to expect, but from
nothing more serious than a nickname of derision. The tradition is that
many years ago an inhabitant from the centre of the town was strolling
out that way, when he was thus accosted by an acquaintance living in one
of the few cottages which then comprised the neighbourhood, and who was
standing on his own doorstep to enjoy the cool of the evening: "I say,
Bill, hast seen my new invention?" "No, lad; what is it?" "That's it!"
said the self-satisfied householder, pointing up to a hawthorn bush which
was pushed out of the top of his chimney. "That's it! It's stopped our
o'd chimdy smokin', I can tell thee!" And ever after that the locality
which this worthy honoured with his ingenious presence was slyly dubbed
by his amused neighbours the "New Invention," by which name it afterwards
became generally known.

Portobello, on the outskirts of Willenhall, is said to have borrowed its
name from that second-hand Portobello near Leith, which was named after
Admiral Vernon's famous victory of 1739. At the Scottish suburb a bed of
rich clay, discovered in 1765, led to the development of the place
through the establishment of brick and tile works; a similar discovery of
a thick bed of clay outside Willenhall, and its subsequent industrial
development on parallel lines led to the copying of that patriotic name,
more particularly because a neighbouring coal-pit was already rejoicing
in the name of Bunker's Hill, conferred upon it by local patriots after
the American victory of 1775. The Willenhall wags, however, have given
quite another derivation. A man once passing a solitary farmhouse in
that locality, say they, called and inquired if the farmer had any beer
on tap. The reply was, as the man pointed cellarwards, "No--only porter
below!"

Little London seems to be a locality which attempts to shine by the
reflected glory of the capital's borrowed name, and is appropriately
approached by a thoroughfare called Temple Bar; but which of these
metropolitan names suggested the other, the oldest inhabitant fails to
recollect.

Among the old inns and taverns of the town the chief were the Neptune
Inn, Walsall Street; the Bull's Head, Wolverhampton Street; the Hope and
Anchor, Little London; the Bell Inn, Market Place; and the Waterglade
Tavern, Waterglade. The Neptune, situated on the main road between
Wolver