The Church, dedicated to St. Mary, formerly collegiate, is an ancient and spacious cruciform structure, in the early style of English architecture, with a lofty octagonal tower rising from the intersection. The north entrance is richly ornamented, and the interior beautifully arranged, the piers and arches are of the early English, passing into the decorated style. The east window is an elegant specimen of the later English. In the north transept is an ancient font of great beauty, highly ornamented with sculptured figures and animals. There are many ancient monuments; amongst the most conspicuous, are those of the family of Aston, of Tixall. There are two other Churches, one, St. Chadd’s, originally in the Norman style, but much and incongruously altered; also, places of worship for the Society of Friends, Independents, Wesleyan Methodists, and Roman Catholics. The Free Grammar School was refounded by Edward VI.; there are also National and other Schools, and a variety of Public Institutions, among which the Infirmary, and Lunatic Asylum are the chief. * * * * * In olden times, a Priory of Black Canons existed here, founded in 1151; a small part of whose ruined abode remains, in the shape of a farm house, two miles east of the town. There were likewise, a House of Friars Eremites; a Priory of Franciscan Friars, and other monastic establishments, all dismantled at the dissolution. The most celebrated native of Stafford, is Isaac Walton, the angler, a name well-beloved by all votaries of the (so called) “_gentle_ sport,” though there are and have been many who rather think with the Poet, that “The quaint, old, cruel coxcomb, in his gullet Should have a hook, and a small trout to pull it.” BYRON. CHAPTER IV. STAFFORD TO WHITMORE, Fourteen Miles. IN leaving Stafford station, the Castle appears to the W. and the Town, E. of the line. Beacon Hill is seen immediately over the latter. On proceeding a short distance through a flat country, the little village of Aston is passed on the W., and Creswell Hall, (Rev. T. Whitley,) on the E., which, encompassed by richly wooded grounds, and overlooking the meanderings of the little river Sow, forms a fine object in the general landscape. The house is a plain, neat structure. Much of the ground here is marshy, and abounds with willows, whose light silvery foliage agreeably diversifies the meadow and woodland scenery; amid which, on the W., peeps the pretty tower of Seighford Church. * * * * * Passing two successive cuttings of no great depth, and through a marshy district adorned by poplar and willow trees, we arrive at Bridgeford Station. Distance to Birmingham, 32¾—Liverpool and Manchester, 64¾ miles. DISTANCES BY ROADS FROM THIS STATION TO THE FOLLOWING PLACES:—