Page:A tour through the northern counties of England, and the borders of Scotland - Volume II.djvu/212

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Three miles from Wrottesley we descended a hill, on the eastern brow and declivity of which Tettenhall is happily placed. It is one of those few villages which can be called picturesque, in a country whose surface is, for the most part, flat and uniform; and where manufactories wage eternal war with rural beauty. A few neat houses, scattered irregularly over the nice of the descent, introduce the agreeable appearance of soc'al happiness; whilst the noble ranks of elms that rise over. its green, the venerable yew-trees which shade its church-yard, and the pleasing groundsbelonging to Mrs.Pearson'shouse, (planted and disposed with superior simplicity and judgment, gently descending the hill, and uniting with the fertile meads below) keep alive the equally inte- resting ideas of rural quiet and rational retirement. These beautiful combinations are best seen from the Wolverhampton road, half a mile from Tetten- hall, towards that town; where all the features fall at once into the picture, aaled by the village church, and form a most beautiful whole. This sacred j 'brie is dedicated to St. Michael, and being a royal

v. chapel or peculiar, has exempt jurisdiction, and

various other privileges. The seal for stamping I he doeaunenrs which issue from its courts, bears the Wryttesiey arms, and this inscription: " Sigillum

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