Page:Walks in the Black Country and its green border-land.pdf/182

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168
Walks in the Black Country

seeks to compensate the community for these literary and unproductive recreations by real, downright labour for the public good, in practical efforts for the education and elevation of the masses. He is Lord-Lieutenant of Worcestershire, and that and every other public duty devolving upon him he performs with assiduous devotion and ability. It may be gratifying to all interested in a name so intimately connected with classical literature to learn the fact, that its present noble incumbent has made ample provision for its perpetuation. I believe he has no less than eight sons and four daughters living, most of them grown up to young manhood and womanhood.

On going from Dudley to Hagley, the main road passes through Stourbridge, or Sturbridge, as it is generally pronounced by the common people of the town and vicinity. The early settlers of Massachusetts, in reproducing the central counties of England in that State in name, called a goodly town in their Worcester county Sturbridge, after this on the Stour. So that must have been the usual pronunciation two centuries ago. Stourbridge sustains a very important relation not only to all the iron and other metal works of England, but of the United States and other countries. Its fire-clay is the best yet found in the world, and its value to furnace and forge can hardly be over-estimated. Its fire-bricks and crucibles are