hem well in the stream,
but a slight washing will not produce the desired effect.

The church is an ancient stone building, dedicated to the Holy
Trinity, and the present rector is the Rev. John Riland, who is also
patron of the living. Within the church there is an organ, and some
monuments deserving of attention; there are also three vaults, two
of which having been opened, the coffins and their contents were
mouldered into dust, although they had been deposited there within the
memory of man.

This town was incorporated by the eighth Henry, at the solicitation of
Vesey, bishop of Exeter, who was his chancellor, and a native of this
place. It is denominated a corporate body, by the name of the warden
and society of the king's town of Sutton Coldfield, and consists of
twenty-four members besides the warden, with a grant to them of the
whole manor and lordship of the parish, together with a tract of waste
ground, called the park, containing about 3500 acres, wherein is
great abundance of valuable timber, on condition of paying into the
exchequer a fee farm rent of fifty-eight pounds per annum.

The said Bishop Vesey erected fifty-one stone houses in the parish and
also a free grammar school, which he liberally endowed with land, and
ordained by the statutes, that the master should be a layman, which is
strictly adhered to. He also procured for the inhabitants a market,
and the extraordinary privilege that every person who erected a house
in Sutton, should be entitled to sixty acres of land in the park.

Here are two fairs annually, for horses, neat cattle, and sheep; the
one on Trinity Monday and the other on the 8th of November; when, for
every horse that is sold, a toll must be paid of four-pence, and a
reputable voucher produced by the person who sells it; the marks
and age of the animal being registered. By the same charter, the
inhabitants of Sutton are exempt from toll in all fairs and markets.
The deputy steward or town clerk holds a court of record every three
weeks, for the trial of civil actions, and holds to bail for forty
shillings and upwards.

Sessions, court leet, and other customary courts are held, and the
charter expressly says, that they shall have and exercise as much
privilege and power as the city of Coventry; but this they do not
practise, for they commit felons to the county gaol. Every inhabitant
is a landed man, which is drawn by ballot every four years; and no
county officer can enter th