the attorney
sets up a turnpike upon it and takes toll; and, if dispute arises as to the
right of road, however the contest be decided, it ends in two attornies
taking toll. In chancery, in the laws affecting patents of inventions, in
the law affecting canals, in railways, a standing army of lawyers are
constantly engaged in fighting battles, which end in our bearing the wounds
and their sharing the spoil. So it was in these battles of the gauges.

But to return to Wolverhampton, the name of which recalled battles wherein so
much useful money has been wasted, the town, although of rising importance in
a commercial point, offers no other attraction to the curious traveller than
its numerous manufactories of hardware, and machinery of various kinds,
including firearms, tinned ware, locks and keys, of extraordinary cheapness,
gun locks, files, screws, and japanned ware.

The tea trays, and other japanned ware of Wolverhampton, are equal in taste
and execution to anything produced in Birmingham; indeed, it was at the
manufactory of the Messrs. Walton that the plan of skilfully copying the
landscapes of our best artists on japan were originated. The first tea-tray
of the kind was copied from one of Turner's Rivers of France, by a gentleman
who has since taken up a very important position in applying the true
principles of art to British manufactures.

Wolverhampton, and all the towns and villages in the coal and iron district,
are only so many branch-Birminghams; in that hardware metropolis the greater
part of the goods made are ordered and sold.

The town is of great antiquity, although with as few remains as most
flourishing towns built of brick, where manufactures have chased away
mansions. The name is derived from Walfrana, a sister of King Edgar, who
founded a monastery there in A.D. 996, and collected a village round it named
Walfrana Hampton, which was eventually corrupted into Wolverhampton. In the
oldest Church, St. Peter's, there is a pulpit formed of a single stone,
elaborately sculptured, and a font, with curious bas-relief figures of
saints. The Church is collegiate, and the College consists of a dean, who
holds the prebend of Wolverhampton, which was annexed by Edward IV. to his
free chapel of St. George, within the Castle of Windsor.

A Free Grammar School, supported by endowments, affords a head master 400
pounds a-year; the second master 200 pounds; and a third master 120 pounds.
Some years ago thes