Wanley would have mourned their departure; they were the aristocracy of the neighbourhood, and to have them ousted by a name which no one knew, a name connected only with blast-furnaces, would have made a distinct fall in the tone of Wanley society.

Fortunately no changes were made in the structure by its new owner.

Not far from it you see the church and the vicarage, these also unmolested in their quiet age.

Wanley, it is to be feared, lags far behind the times--painfully so, when one knows for a certainty that the valley upon which it looks conceals treasures of coal, of ironstone--blackband, to be technical--and of fireclay.

Some ten years ago it seemed as if better things were in store; there was a chance that the vale might for ever cast off its foolish greenery, and begin vomiting smoke and flames in humble imitation of its metropolis beyond the hills.