Four furlongs north-east of Birmingham, is _Duddeston_ (Dud's-town) from
Dud, the Saxon proprietor, Lord of Dudley, who probably had a seat here;
once a considerable village, but long reduced to the manor-house, till
Birmingham, swelling beyond its bounds, in 1764, verged upon this
lordship; and we now, in 1783, behold about eighty houses, under the
names of Duke-street, Prospect-row, and Woodcock-lane.
It afterwards descended to the Paganalls, the Sumeris, then to the
Bottetourts, and was, in 1323, enjoyed by Joan Bottetourt, lady of
Weoley castle, a daughter of the house of Sumeri.
Sir Thomas de Erdington held it of this lady, by a chief-rent, which was
a pair of gilt spurs, or six-pence, at the option of the tenant.
Erdington sold it, in 1327, to Thomas de Maidenhache, by whose daughter,
Sibell, it came in marriage to Adam de Grymforwe; whose posterity, in
1363, conveyed it for 26_l_. 13s. 4d. now worth 20,000_l_. to John atte
Holt; and his successors made it their residence, till the erection of
Aston-hall, in the reign of James I.
It is now converted into beautiful gardens, as a public resort of
pleasure, and dignified with the London name of Vauxhall. The demolished
fish-ponds, and the old foundations, which repel the spade, declare its
former grandeur.
In 1782 it quitted, by one of the most unaccountable alignments that
ever resulted from human weakness, the ancient name of Holte, familiar
during four hundred and nineteen years, for that of Legge.
Could the ghost of Sir Lister re-visit his departed property, one might
ask, What reception might you meet with, Sir Lister, in 1770, among your
venerable ancestors in the shades, for barring, unprovoked, an infant
heiress of 7000_l_. a year, and giving it, unsolicited, to a stranger?
Perhaps you experience repeated buffetings; a sturdy figure, with iron
aspect, would be apt to accost you--"I with nervous arm, and many a
bended back, drew 40_l_. from the Birmingham forge, with which, in 1330,
I purchased the park and manor of Nechels, now worth four hundred times
that sum. I planted that family which you have plucked up by the roots:
in the sweat of my brow, I laid a foundation for greatness; many of my
successors built on that foundation--but you, by starving your brother,
Sir Charles, into compliance, wantonly cut off the entail, and gave away
the estate, after passing through seventeen descents, merely to shew you
had a power to give it. We concluded here, that a son of his daughter,
the last hope of the family, would change his own name to preserve ours,
and not the estate change its possessor."--"I," another would be apt to
say, "with frugal hand, and lucrative employments 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_."