Page:Walks in the Black Country and its green border-land.pdf/293

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and its Green Border-Land.
279

same rank of officers in modern armies. The day, let us hope, will come when the latter will be as proud of having perforated Central Africa or Asia with a Watling Street as with a pathway of fire and blood.

We reached the Spread Eagle station just a minute before the train for Birmingham arrived; an accidental coincidence, for we had no Bradshaw with us, and knew not how long we should have to wait at this point. This was one of our most enjoyable walks in the green border-land of the Black Country, and we returned home much richer in satisfaction than we had anticipated; for neither of us had heard anything of Tong church and its monuments.

The Glass Works of the Messrs. Chance constitute one of the most remarkable establishments in the world, both for extent and character of their operations and productions. They embrace a small, compact town of edifices difficult to represent in any familiar simile. If seen from a certain distance by moonlight, when quiet and smokeless, they might look to an imaginative eye like a great nest of cathedrals and Turkish mosques. You have all the features of both, with a little exercise of the fancy. Clustering in the moonlight, you will see lofty brick spires tapering all the way but not to a point; towers and turrets of all dimensions; conical domes