hampton and Walsall, and almost opposite the church, was formerly a
posting-house kept in the 18th and early part of the 19th century by
Isaac Hartill, one of those typical hosts of the coaching period; active,
genial, and obliging, a man of good conversational powers, and one who
instantly made his guests feel at home, and was extremely popular with
all the local gentry and regular travellers along the road. With the
advent of the railway the character of the Neptune Inn gradually
altered--the railway, by the way, was cut through the crescent,
overlooking Bentley Hall, a property which had belonged to and had been
the residence of the Hartill family since 1704, and part of which is now
The Robin Hood Grounds, used for sports and recreations and other
out-door assemblies.

It was from the balcony above the entry of the Neptune Inn, over which
was then the public drawing-room, that the Right Hon. Charles P. Villiers
first addressed the electors of the newly-enfranchised borough of
Wolverhampton in 1835, and subsequently made many of his fervent Free
Trade speeches; and in fact, from this place all public announcements
were wont to be made. The room behind the balcony was formerly used as a
Court Room, in which the magistrates administered justice; here too, the
Willenhall Court Leet was held, and to this day Lord Barnard's agents
receive the tithes there.

The Neptune once served all the purposes of a lending inn as an
acknowledged place of public rendezvous; and when the Stowheath farmers
were accustomed to ride or drive in to attend church, its spacious
stableyard was a scene of animation, even on Sundays.

The Bell Inn, in the Market Place, is perhaps the oldest in the market
taverns, though the date 1660 painted upon its sign can scarcely refer to
the projecting wing which bears it. The back portion of the house is
unquestionably old; in fact, the family of Wakelam who kept the inn 25
years ago, were identified with this house and the Bull's Head Inn for
upwards of two centuries.

The Plough Inn, Stafford Street, is less old than the others, and of more
doubtful interest. It has been completely altered within recent years;
in the old days when prisoners consigned to Stafford Gaol had to walk, it
was the place of the final drink before starting, and marked the limits
of the town till Little London began.

The Bull's head Inn, Wolverhampton Street, is supposed to be the alehouse
referred to in Borrow's romanti