narrowing space, until it was delivered at the right, a compact, elongated roll ready for the trip-hammer or rolling machine.
The chemical works of the Messrs. Chance, and other large establishments, are situated in Oldbury, and, embracing all these, it is a very important industrial centre in the district. West Bromwich, an adjoining town, is a place of much growth and vigour, with a goodly antiquity for a historical basis. It was a country village in the reign of Edward I, and was taxed to furnish that sovereign with the sinews of war in the Holy Land. As one of the social productions of society, it gave ladder-footing for the ascent of an old county family to the English peerage. This was the Legge family, which, by successive stages, culminated in the title of the Earl of Dartmouth. Sandwell Hall, near the town, was their seat and residence for several centuries. They have now converted it into a very useful institution, or a training college for farm and domestic servants, and a goodly and comfortable place it makes for the education of agricultural foremen or labourers, who seldom have such baronial halls for their outfitting. Colonel Legge, who fought with and for Charles II, and was wounded in the Worcester battle, was one of the family, and escaped the gallows only through the devotion and ingenuity of his wife, who exchanged dresses
