the county town of Staffordshire, a municipal and parliamentary borough and market-town of England, on the left bank of the Sow, 123 miles N.W. by W. of London. It was anciently walled, and defended by a castle; the latter, about a mile and a half to the south-west, has been recently rebuilt; but of the walls, which were destroyed by the parliamentary forces in the 17th century, few vestiges remain. The houses are for the most part built of brick and slated, and most of the buildings stand in two main streets, called Green Gate Street and Gaol Gate Street, which extend to the north-west of a bridge spanning the Sow. There are also two squares, in one of which, the Market Square, stands the County Hall, a spacious building of stone, containing court-rooms, an assembly-room, and other handsome apartments. But the finest buildings in Stafford are the Established churches, two of which are parochial and of considerable antiquity, while two others, Christ Church and St Paul's, have been recently built. St Mary's is a large cruciform edifice, with a lofty octagonal tower in the centre. Its architecture is chiefly of the early English style, but some portions have more resemblance to the Norman and the perpendicular. In 1847 the church was repaired and restored at considerable expense. The church of St Chad is of smaller size; it has a Norman chancel, but is partly of modern date. There are other places of worship in the town for Presbyterians, Independents, Methodists, Quakers, Baptists, and Roman Catholics. The educational establishments in Stafford comprise a grammar school of ancient date, much enlarged by Edward VI., National, British, and Ragged schools. The town has also a Mechanics' Institute, a public library, almshouses, an infirmary, two lunatic asylums, and a county jail. Tanning is carried on to some extent in the town and neighbourhood; and the principal articles manufactured in the town are shoes, which are exported in considerable quantities. Markets are held weekly, and there are five annual fairs. The borough is governed by a mayor, 5 aldermen, and 18 councillors, and it returns two members to the House of Commons. Assizes and quarter sessions for the county are held at Stafford. The town seems to have grown up round a castle, which was built here in 913 by Ethelfleda, sister of King Edward the Elder, and at the time of the Norman conquest it was a borough, called by the name of Stafford or Stafford. In the civil war of the 17th century, Stafford was occupied by the king's forces, after the capture of Lichfield by their adversaries. An indecisive battle was fought at Hopton Heath, in the vicinity, in 1643, and at a later period the town was taken by the Roundheads, under Sir William Brereton. The castle was also taken shortly after, and at the close of the war was entirely demolished. Stafford was the birth-place of the celebrated Isaac Walton. It com- Staffordshire—municates with London by the Trent Valley and London and North-Western Railways, and has also easy intercourse by railway with Liverpool, Manchester, and other towns in the north. Pop. (1851), 11,829.