e gentlemen had only seventy scholars to teach, but we
trust this is, or will be, amended.

Wolverhampton was made a Parliamentary borough by the Reform Act, returning
two members from boundaries which include the townships of Bilston,
Willenhall, Wednesfield, and the parish of Sedgeley. The population has
increased more than five fold in the last forty years.

Bird, the artist, Congreve, inventor of the rockets which bear his name, and
Abernethy, the eminent surgeon, were natives of Wolverhampton; Huskisson, who
began the commercial reforms which Peel finished, was born at Oxley Hall, in
the immediate neighbourhood.

Close to the town is a good racecourse, well frequented once a year, formerly
one of the most fashionable meetings in the country. The ladies' division of
the Grand Stand used to be a complete parterre of the gayest flowers; but
railroads, which have added to the quantity, have very much deteriorated the
quality of the frequenters of races, and unless a change takes place, a Grand
Stand will soon be as dark, as busy, and as dull as the Stock Exchange.

From Wolverhampton a line nineteen miles in length, through Albrighton (where
Staffordshire ends and Shropshire begins) and Shifnal to Wellington, shortens
the route to Shrewsbury by cutting off an angle; but as there is nothing to
be said about this route except that at Albrighton are the kennels of the
hunt of that name, (a hunt in which the greater or less luxury in horseflesh
of the young ironmasters affords a thermometer of the state of the iron
trade,) we shall on this occasion take the Stafford line.

Within an easy distance of Wolverhampton are a very large number of the
noblemen's and gentlemen's seats, in which Staffordshire is so rich; more
than one ancient and dilapidated family has been restored by the progress of
smoke-creating manufactures, which have added to the wealth even more than
they destroyed the picturesqueness of the country.

If we were conducting a foreigner over England with the view of showing him
the wealth, the power, and the beauties of our country, we should follow
exactly the course we have hitherto pursued, and after an exhausting
inspection of the manufactories of the coal country, should turn off the
rail, after leaving Wolverhampton on our road to Stafford, and visit some of
the beautiful mansions surrounded by that rich combination of nature and art
which so eminently distinguishes the "stately homes of England."