CHAPTER VI.
ENVILLE GARDENS: THEIR RELATION AND VALUE TO THE BLACKCOUNTRY—WOLVERHAMPTON: ITS HISTORICAL MONUMENTS AND ASSOCIATIONS AND ITS LEADING MANUFACTURES.
IN carrying out the programme of this volume—first, a dip into the Black Country, then one into its Green Border-Land—I commence this chapter with a few notes on a visit to the Enville Gardens, the seat of Lord Stamford, near Stourbridge. On a beautiful afternoon of the last of November, Capern accepted the challenge, and, having measured walking-sticks, we set out to see a segment of the border-land between Stourbridge and Wolverhampton in order to complete the western semicircle of the Black Country. It was one of the shortest days of the year, and at two o'clock the sun had nearly finished the small arc it was describing a little way above the southern horizon; but it was shining its best and loveliest. We only stopped for a hasty lunch at Stourbridge, and staffed on vigorously to Enville Gardens, hoping to see them before the dark set in.
