under the crown,
added, in 1363, the manor of Duddeston; and, in 1367, that of Alton. But
for what purpose did I add them? To display the folly of a
successor."--A dejected spectre would seem to step forward, whose face
carried the wrinkles of eighty-four, and the shadow of tear; "I, in
1611, brought the title of baronet among us, first tarnished by you;
which, if your own imbecility could not procure issue to support, you
ought to have supported it by purchase. I also, in 1620, erected the
mansion at Afton, then, and even now, the most superb in that
neighbourhood, fit to grace the leading title of nobility; but you
forbad my successors to enter. I joined, in 1647, to our vast fortune,
the manor of Erdington.--Thus the fabric we have been rearing for ages,
you overthrew in one fatal moment."--The last angry spectre would appear
in the bloom of life. "I left you an estate which you did not deserve:
you had no more right to leave it from your successor, than I to leave
it from you: one man may ruin the family of another, but he seldom ruins
his own. We blame him who wrongs his neighbour, but what does he deserve
who wrongs himself?--You have done both, for by cutting off the
succession, your name will be lost. The ungenerous attorney, instead of
making your absurd will, ought to have apprized you of our sentiments,
which exactly coincide with those of the world, or how could the tale
affect a stranger? Why did not some generous friend guide your crazy
vessel, and save a sinking family? Degenerate son, he who destroys the
peace of another, should forfeit his own--we leave you to remorse, may
she quickly _find, and weep over you_."

SALTLEY.

A mile east of Duddeston is _Saltley-hall_, which, with an extensive
track of ground, was, in the Saxon times, the freehold of a person whom
we should now call Allen; the same who was Lord of Birmingham. But at
the conquest, when justice was laid asleep, and property possessed by
him who could seize it, this manor, with many others, fell into the
hands of William Fitz-Ausculf, Baron of Dudley-castle, who granted it in
knight's-service to Henry de Rokeby.

A daughter of Rokeby carried it by marriage to Sir John Goband, whose
descendants, in 1332, sold it to Walter de Clodshale; an heiress of
Clodshale, in 1426, brought it into the ancient family of Arden, and a
daughter of this house, to that of Adderley, where it now rests.

The castle, I have reason to think, was erected by R