making of Iron with Pit-cole, Sea-cole, &c. So that being with Law-Suites and Riots wearied and disable to prosecute his Art and Invention at present, even until the first Pattent was extinct."
Such is part of the story of Dud Dudley, told in his own words. Such was the angry opposition he met in his attempt to utilize the vast deposits of coal, ten yards deep, in the Black Country, in working its iron mines. And this persecution from ironmasters and their men he suffered, when the wood of the district had nearly all been consumed, and when there was not a mile of canal or railway for the importation of charcoal from a distance. Such a sturdy hero, who fought one of the great decisive battles against the forces of pig-headed ignorance, stupidity, and prejudice, deserves a monument. But until he receives that richly-deserved tribute from a grateful and appreciating generation, enriched by his self-sacrifice, we would commend all interested in his memory to the tablet erected in its honour in St. Helen's Church, Worcester. The record of his life and worth is written in epigrammatic Latin, and although it does not refer to his "Pit-cole and Inventions," it gives incisively a few facts of his stormy experience, which we here cite from the original inscription, which might lose some of its covert meanings by translation:
"Dodo Dudley chiliarchi nobilis Edwardi nuper domini de Dudley filius, patri charus et regiæ Majestatis fidissimus sublitus et
