ies who chose it for their residence
ages ago. It is supposed the old church was erected prior to the year
1500, a tower being added to it in Henry VIII.'s reign, but the parish
register dates only from the middle of last century, possibly older
entries being made at King's Norton (from which Moseley was
ecclesiastically divided in 1852). Moseley does not appear to have been
named from, or to have given name to, any particular family, the
earliest we have any note about being Greves, or Grevis, whose tombs are
in King's Norton Church, one of the epitaphs being this:--

"Ascension day on ninth of May,
Third year of King James' reine,
To end my time and steal my coin,
I William Greves was slain. 1605."

Hutton says that the old custom of "heriot" was practised here; which is
not improbable, as instances have occurred in neighbourhood of
Bromsgrove and other parts of the county within the past few years. This
relic of feudalism, or barbarism, consists of the demanding for the lord
of the manor the best movable article, live or dead, that any tenant
happens to be possessed of at the time of his death.

~Moseley Hall.~--Hutton relates that on July 21, 1786, one Henshaw
Grevis came before him in the court of Requests, as a poor debtor, who,
thirty years before, he had seen "completely mounted and dressed in
green velvet, with a hunter's cap and girdle, at the head of the pack."
This poor fellow was the last member of a family who had held the
Moseley Hall estate from the time of the Conquest. In the riots of 1791
the Hall was burnt down, being rebuilt ten years after.

~Mothering Sunday~, or Mid-Lent Sunday, has its peculiarities according
to districts. In Birmingham the good people who like to keep up old
customs sit down to veal and custard. At Draycot-le-Moors they eat pies
made of figs. The practice of visiting the parents' home on this day was
one of those old-time customs so popular in the days of our grandfathers
and great-grandfathers (but which, with many others have fallen into
disuse), and this is supposed to have given rise to the "Mothering
Sunday" name. Prior to the Reformation, the Catholics kept the day as a
holy day, in honour of the Mother of Jesus, it being a Protestant
invention to turn the fast-day into one of feasting.

~Mount Misery.~--At the close of the great war, which culminated at
Waterloo, it was long before the blessings of peace brought comfort to
the homes of the poor. The f