by its own springs; and, like that, as
complete as earth and water can make it.

This was part of Coleshill, and vested in the crown before the conquest,
but soon after granted with that to Clinton, who gave it with a daughter
to Verdon; and he, with another, to Anselm de Scheldon, who kept it till
the reign of Edward the Third: it afterwards passed through several
families, till the reign of Henry the Seventh, when it came into that of
De Gray, Earl of Kent, whence the name; though, perhaps, the works were
erected by Scheldon.

It is now, with Coleshill, the property of Lord Digby; but the building
has been so long gone, that tradition herself has lost it.

SHELDON.

One mile east is Sheldon-hall, which anciently bore the name of
East-hall, in contradistinction from Kent's-moat, which was West-hall.
This, in 1379, was the property of Sir Hugh le Despenser, afterwards of
the family of Devereux, ancestor of the present Viscount Hereford, who
resided here till about 1710. In 1751, it was purchased by John Taylor,
Esq; and is now possessed by his tenant.

The moat, like others on an eminence, has but one trench, fed by the
land springs; is filled up in the front of the hall, as there is not
much need of water protection. The house, which gives an idea of former
gentility, seems the first erected on the spot; is irregular, agreeable
to the taste of the times, and must have been built many centuries. All
the ancient furniture fled with its owners, except an hatchment in the
hall, with sixteen coats of arms, specifying the families into which
they married.

KING'S-HURST.

Two furlongs east of Sheldon-hall, and one mile south of Castle
Bromwich, is _Kings-hurst_; which, though now a dwelling in tenancy,
was once the capital of a large track of land, consisting of its own
manor, Coleshill, and Sheldon; the demesne of the crown, under the Saxon
kings, from whom we trace the name.

The Conqueror, or his son William, granted it; but whether for money,
service, caprice, or favour, is uncertain; for he who wears a crown acts
as whimsically as he who does not.

Mountfort came over with William, as a knight, and an officer of rank;
but, perhaps, did not immediately receive the grant, for the king would
act again much like other people, _give away their property, before he
would give away his own_.

If this unfortunate family were not the first grantees, they were lords,
and probably residents of King's-hurst, lon