You leave Birmingham, through Aston-street and the adjacent buildings in the parish of Aston, which extend for a considerable distance along the road.  Having passed the buildings, you soon after cross a small stream of water, that has performed its office of turning a corn mill, which you perceive on your left hand.  This mill was within memory a forge, for the making of bar iron.—­There is another mill upon the same stream, a short distance above, known by the name of Aston furnace, which was a blast furnace for the purpose of making pig iron to supply the forge below, and must have been made use of as such for a prodigious number of years, the slag or refuse from it forming an immense heap only a few years back, which has been conveyed away to make and repair the roads, and in some instances to erect buildings.[9] This mill has been considerably enlarged, and a steam engine erected contiguous to it, and is now used as a paper mill.  From an adjacent hill there is a good view over the town of Birmingham.

[Footnote 9:  See Hockley abbey, on the road to Wolverhampton.]

A lofty brick wall now presents itself to view, by which the park belonging to Aston hall is surrounded:  it being by computation three miles in circumference; within which there is a great abundance of valuable timber, and it is also well stocked with deer.  When the wall recedes from the high road, keep by the side of it, which leads you to the parish church, and also to the mansion house or hall, which is a brick building, erected by Sir Thomas Holt, about the year 1636, at the same time that he enclosed the park.  He also erected alms houses, for five men and five women, which he endowed, with eighty-eight pounds per annum, out of the manor of Erdington.  The hall has of late years been in the possession of Heneage Legge, Esq. but is at present unoccupied, and the whole estate is upon sale.[10]

[Footnote 10:  Since writing the above, the mansion of Aston, together with the park, has been purchased by Messrs. Greenway and Whitehead, of Warwick, who have converted the house into two tenements, disposed of the deer, turned the park into enclosures, and fallen the timber.]

The church which is dedicated to St. Peter and Paul, is a stone building, with a lofty spire, and contains several monuments of the Holt family; it is also ornamented with two windows of stained glass, by Eginton.  In the church-yard there is a remarkable grave stone, which is fixed east and west.[11] The present incumbant is the Rev. Benjamin Spencer, L.L.D.

Sir Lister Holt, the late proprietor of this estate, not having any children, and being at variance with his only brother, (who succeeded to the title), he entailed the estate upon four different families, none of whom had or are likely to have any children, although they have been in possession of it for the space of near forty years.

[Footnote 11:  It is a thick stone, about two foot in height, on which is the following inscription:—­