Maxstoke Castle

Is situated about one mile east of Coleshill, and is erected in the form of a parallelogram, encompassed by a moat.  At each corner is an hexagonal tower, with embattled parapets.  The entrance is by an august and machicolated gateway, strengthened on each side by a tower of hexagonal form.  The gates are covered with plates of iron, and the marks of the useless portcullis are yet visible.  A portion of this edifice was accidentally destroyed by fire, but the greatest part of the ancient building still remains, and is an interesting specimen of the architectural arrangements in the 14th and 15th centuries.  Among other apartments, are the spacious hall, an extensive dining room, with a door and chimney piece, which are carved in a very curious manner, and also the chapel.  In the walls of the great court, there are yet remaining the caserns or lodgments for the soldiers.  This venerable pile of building is now the habitation of Mrs. Dilke.  A short distance from the castle are the remains of a priory, whose ruins are rendered mournfully picturesque, by the varieties of ever-green foliage with which they are cloathed in almost every direction.

To Hat-borne, in Staffordshire, distant three miles.

Passing up Broad-street and Islington, when you are through the Five-ways[12] toll-gate, the centre road leads to Harborne.  On the left is a neat white building, called Greenfield-house, the properly and abode of Hyla Holden, Esq. and a little farther on the same side of the road is the parsonage-house of Edgbaston; the resilience of the Rev. Charles Pixell.

[Footnote 12:  There are now six ways, Calthorpe’s road being opened in the year 1845.]

Passing by Harborne heath cottage, when you arrive at the summit of the hill, is an excellent house, where Mr. Richard Smith resides; from whose premises there is an extensive view over the adjacent country, particularly Edgbaston and King’s Norton.

A short distance beyond, on the right, there is a delightful view of enclosed ground, and the Lightwoods; with a white-fronted house, called the Ravenhurst, in the centre, the residence of Mr. Daniel Ledsam, which altogether forms a beautiful landscape.  Where the roads divide pass on the left, leaving the village, called Harborne Town, which is principally inhabited by men who obtain a livelihood by forging of nails, and proceed down the road which leads to Bromsgrove, where on the left is a preparatory school, for boys under ten years of age, which is conducted by Mrs. Startin.  This house commands a pleasant view over the grounds that have been laid into a paddock by Mr. Price, whose neat and elegant residence, with its beautiful undulated grounds, are also on the left.

A few paces below Mr. Price’s, you arrive at a small triangular grass plot, which is called the cottage green, and is surrounded by cottages, superior in neatness of appearance to what are usually met with.  From hence there is a most delightful landscape of Mrs. Careless’s house, which is surrounded with verdant meadows, having a considerable sheet of water in front, and in the back ground are Frankley Beeches, with the adjacent hills of Cofton and the Lickey.