plimentary epithets were freely used. Suffice it to say here,
that his property was most unequally, if not unfairly, divided amongst
his family, and that he did not leave a farthing to the Charities of
the town of his birth--the town which had done so much for him, and
for which he had always professed so much attachment.

JOSEPH GILLOTT.

About a hundred and fifty years ago, a gentleman, whose name I have
not been able to ascertain, owned the premises in Icknield Street
West, now known as Monument House, and in his garden, near the
house, he built the tall octagonal tower, now known as the Monument,
respecting the origin of which so many various legendary stories are
current. It was, no doubt, erected to enable its owner, who was an
astronomer, to obtain from its upper chamber a more extensive field of
view for his instruments, and thus to enable him to make observations
of the heavenly bodies when they were very low down in the horizon.
I am informed, however, by an old inhabitant of Edgbaston, that his
father told him, when a little boy, that it, was built by a gentleman
named Parrott, who formerly lived in the top house in Bull Street, at
the corner of Steelhouse Lane. This gentleman had removed to the house
now called Monument House, and built the "Monument" in his garden to
enable him--when from age he became too much enfeebled to enjoy it
himself--to watch from its upper storeys the sport of coursing, which
was extensively practised in the pleasant fields and meadows which
then surrounded the house. Be that as it may, it is certain that the
tower was, a century ago, known by the name of "Parrott's Folly."[A]

[Footnote A: In a Directory for the year 1800, Monument House is named
as the residence of Mr. Parrott Noel.]

From the top storey of this lofty building there was a very extensive
range of vision, but when first built there was little to be seen but
green fields and open country. Of the few buildings visible, Ladywood
House, still standing, occupied the foreground, and was surrounded by
a pleasant park. Apparently just beyond was the fine old mansion known
as New Hall, which stood where now Great Charles Street intersects
Newhall Street, the present roadway being the very site which the
house then occupied. St. Philip's Church was being built, and the
scaffold of its unfinished tower and dome looked like a huge net of
wickerwork. A little to the left, Aston Hall, in the clear atmosphere,
seemed