Four miles west of Birmingham, in the parish of Northfield, are the
small, but extensive ruins of _Weoley-castle_, whose appendages command
a track of seventeen acres, situate in a park of eighteen hundred.
These moats usually extend from half an acre to two acres, are generally
square, and the trenches from eight yards over to twenty.
This is large, the walls massy; they form the allies of a garden, and
the rooms, the beds; the whole display the remains of excellent
workmanship. One may nearly guess at a man's consequence, even after a
lapse of 500 years, by the ruins of his house.
The steward told me, "they pulled down the walls as they wanted the
stone." Unfeeling projectors: there is not so much to pull down. Does
not time bring destruction fast enough without assistance? The head
which cannot contemplate, offers its hand to destroy. The insensible
taste, unable itself to relish the dry fruits of antiquity, throws them
away to prevent another. May the fingers _smart_ which injure the
venerable walls of Dudley, or of Kenilworth. Noble remains of ancient
grandeur! copious indexes, that point to former usage! We survey them
with awful pleasure. The mouldering walls, as if ashamed of their humble
state, hide themselves under the ivies; the generous ivies, as if
conscious of the precious relics, cover them from the injuries of time.
When land frequently undergoes a conveyance, necessity, we suppose, is
the lot of the owner, but the lawyer fattens: _To have and to hold_ are
words of singular import; they charm beyond music; are the quintessence
of language; the leading figure in rhetoric. But how would he fare if
land was never conveyed? He must starve upon quarrels.
Instances may be given of land which knows no title, except those of
conquest and descent: Weoley Castle comes nearly under this
description. _To sign, seal, and deliver_, were wholly unknown to our
ancestors. Could a Saxon freeholder rise from the dead, and visit the
land, once his own, now held by as many writings as would half spread
over it, he might exclaim, "Evil increases with time, and parchment with
both. You deprive the poor of their breeches; I covered the ground with
sheep, you with their skins; I thought, as you were at variance with
France, Spain, Holland, and America, those numerous deeds were a heap of
drum heads, and the internal writing, the _articles of war_. In one
instance, however, there is a similarity between us; we unjustly took
this land from the Britons, you as unjustly took it from us; and a time
may come, when another will take it from you. Thus, the Spaniards
founded the Peruvian empire in butchery, now tottering towards a fall;
you, following their example, seized the northern coast of America; you
neither bought it nor begged it, you took it from the natives; and thus
your children, the Americans, with equal violence, have taken it from
you: No law binds like that of arms. The question has been, whether they
shall pay taxes? which, after a dispute of eight years, was lost in
another, _to whom_ they shall pay taxes? The result, in a future day
will be, domestic struggles for sovereignty will stain the ground
with blood."
When the proud Norman cut his way to the throne, his imperious followers
seized the lands, kicked out the rightful possessors, and treated them
with a dignity rather beneath that practiced to a dog.--This is the most
summary title yet discovered.
Northfield was the fee-simple of Alwold (Allwood) but, at the conquest,
Fitz-Ausculf seized it, with a multitude of other manors: it does not
appear that he granted it in knight's-service to the injured Allwood,
but kept it for his private use, Paganall married his heiress, and
Sumeri married Paganall's, who, in the beginning of the 13th century,
erected the castle. In 1322, the line of Sumeri expired.
Bottetourt, one of the needy squires, who, like Sancho Panza, attended
William his master, in his mad, but _fortunate_ enterprize, procured
lands which enabled him to _live_ in England, which was preferable to
starving in Normandy. His descendant became, in right of his wife,
coheir of the house of Sumeri, vested in Weoley-castle. He had, in
1307, sprung into peerage, and was one of our powerful barons, till
1385, when the male line dropt. The vast estate of Bottetourt, was then
divided among females; Thomas Barkley, married the eldest, and this
ancient barony was, in 1761, revived in his descendant, Norborne
Barkley, the present Lord Bottetourt; Sir Hugh Burnel married another,
and Sir John St. Leger a third.
Weoley-castle was, for many years, the undivided estate of the three
families; but Edward Sutton, Lord Dudley, having married a daughter of
Barkley, became possessed of that castle, which was erected by Sumeri,
their common ancestor, about nine generations before.
In 1551, he sold it to William Jervoise, of London, mercer, whose
descendant, Jervoise Clark Jervoise, Esq; now enjoys it.
Fond of ranging, I have travelled a circuit round Birmingham, without
being many miles from it. I wish to penetrate farther from the center,
but my subject forbids. _Having therefore finished my discourse, I
shall_, like my friends, the pulpitarians, many of whom, and of several
denominations, are characters I revere, _apply what has been said_.
We learn, that the land I have gone over, with the land I have not,
changed its owners at the conquest: this shuts the door of inquiry into
pedigree, the old families chiefly became extinct, and few of the
present can be traced higher.--Destruction then overspread the kingdom.
The seniors of every age exclaim against the growing corruption of the
times: my father, and perhaps every father, dwelt on the propriety of
his conduct in younger life, and placed it in counter-view with that of
the following generation. However, while I knew him, it was much like
other people's--But I could tell him, that he gave us the bright side of
his character; that he was, probably, a piece of human nature, as well
as his son; that nature varies but little, and that the age of William
the Conqueror was the most rascally in the British annals. One age may
be marked for the golden, another for the iron, but this for plunder.
We farther learn, there is not one instance in this neighbourhood, where
an estate has continued till now in the male line, very few in the
female. I am acquainted with only one family near Birmingham, whose
ancestor entered with William, and who yet enjoy the land granted at
that period: the male line has been once broken--perhaps this land was
never conveyed. They shone with splendour near six hundred years. In the
sixteenth century, their estate was about 1400_l_. a year; great for
that time, but is now, exclusive of a few _pepper-corns_ and _red
roses_, long since withered, reduced to one little farm, tilled for
bread by the owner. This setting glympse of a shining family, is as
indifferent about the matter, and almost as ignorant, as the team
he drives.
Lastly, we learn that none of the lords, as formerly, reside on the
above premises: that in four instances out of twenty-one, the buildings
are now as left by the lords, Sheldon, Coleshill, Pipe, and Blakeley:
two have undergone some alteration, as Duddeston and Erdington: five
others are re-erected, as Black Greves, Ulverley, King's-hurst, Castle
Bromwich, and Witton; which, with all the above, are held in tenancy: in
eight others all the buildings are swept away, and their moats left
naked, as Hogg's-moat, Yardley, Kent's-moat, Saltley, Ward-end,
Park-hall, Berwood, and Weoley; and in two instances the moats
themselves are vanished, that of King's-norton is filled up to make way
for the plough, and that of Aston demolished by the floods. Thus the
scenes of hospitality and grandeur, become the scenes of antiquity, and
then disappear.