Wolverhampton (Wol- as Wool'-), a municipal, parliamentary, and county borough, the ' metropolis of the Black Country,' stands on a gentle eminence amid a network of railways and canals, 13 miles NW. of Birmingham, 15 S. of Stafford, and 126 NW. of London. It was first called 'Hamton,' and then 'Wulfrunishamton,' after Wulfruna, King Edgar's sister, had founded in 996 St Peter's Church, which continued collegiate till 1846. Rebuilt during the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries, and enlarged and elaborately restored in 1859-65 at a cost of £10,000, that church is a fine cruciform Gothic edifice, with a rude stone cross in the churchyard, a carved stone pulpit of 1480, and monuments to Admiral Sir Richard Leveson (1570-1605) and Colonel Lane (d. 1667), who assisted Charles II. in his escape from Worcester. Otherwise the public buildings are all modern - the town-hall (1868), in the Italian style, corn exchange (1853), market-hall (1853), agricultural hall (1863), hospital (1849), post-office (1873), art gallery (1885), drill-hall (1886), etc. A bronze equestrian statue of the Prince Consort was inaugurated by Queen Victoria in 1866; and there is also a statue (1879) of the Right Hon. C. P. Villiers of Corn-law fame, first returned as M.P. for Wolverhampton in 1835, and re-elected in 1892. The public park (1881) was laid out at a cost of £16,000. The free grammar-school, which was founded in 1512 by Sir Stephen Jenyns, Lord Mayor of London, and at which Abernethy and Sir W. Congreve were educated, occupies handsome new buildings of 1876; and there are also a blue-coat school (1710) and an orphanage (1850). Sir Stephen was a native; so too was the great Mr Jonathan Wild. Bishop Pococke described Wolverhampton in 1757 as 'a great manufacturing town in all sorts of toys, and particularly of locks in the greatest perfection;' and locks - some two million yearly - are still its specialty, the Messrs Chubb's works being here. The other manufactures include tinplate, japanned goods, enamelled hollow wares, edge tools, gas and water tubes, electro-plate, papier-mache, chemicals, etc. The town stands on the western edge of the great coal and iron mining district of South Staffordshire, so that the vicinity on the south and east is all covered with collieries, ironstone mines, blast-furnaces, forges, iron-foundries, and rolling-mills, whilst on the north and west there is pleasant green country - Boscobel (q.v.) is only 8 miles distant. Wolverhampton was enfranchised in 1832, returning two members to parliament (three since 1885), and it was made a municipal borough in 1848, a county borough in 1888. The Wednesday market is held under a charter of 1258. Pop. of parliamentary borough (1851) 119,748; (1881) 164,334; (1901) 174,365, of whom 94,187 were within the municipal and county borough. See works by G. Oliver (1836), F. Hall (1865), Steen (1871), and J. Fullwood (1880).