We remained with my brother-in-law about a week, visiting the various places and buildings whose antiquity or public character clothed them with especial interest. The town itself contains about eleven hundred inhabitants, and is the shire town of the county of Staffordshire. Its chief business is the manufacture of shoes. Among its ancient buildings, are the remains of a baronial castle, whose moss-covered battlements insensibly conduct the meditations of the beholder back to the days of feudal grandeur and knightly chivalry. St. Mary’s Church is also a venerable Gothic structure, of solid masonry, whose walls have withstood the storms and changes of about ten centuries. They were about to expend £10,000 in repairing the dilapidations of time. I heard one discourse from the curate, and was especially delighted with the grandeur and sublimity of the music from its magnificent organ, as it pealed along the aisles of the time-worn building, with an effect never witnessed in our smaller and more modern structures in America. Here also is the county prison, modelled, in most of its arrangements, after the state-prisons of America. It contained five hundred prisoners. A lunatic asylum and a hospital, or infirmary, for the poor, are found among the products of its benevolence: the former contained three hundred unfortunate occupants. The poor-house is a large commodious building, constructed of brick and stone, surrounded with large airy yards and gardens. It has also yards or courts within its walls, used as play-grounds for the children. The order within was excellent; every room looked remarkably neat and clean; the children were comfortably clothed, and wore an air of satisfaction and contentment. The whole house was under the control of a governor and matron who were subject to the inspection of the board of overseers, chosen by the people. One excellent rule of the house struck me as being very useful: it provided for the admission of poor travellers to a supper and lodging; requiring them, if dirty, to undergo a thorough ablution and to change their linen. In the morning two or three hours’ work was exacted as payment, and they were suffered to depart. The house had its teacher and chaplain; and altogether I thought that a great improvement had taken place in the poor-laws of the country.