There is nothing easier than to coin excuses for a fault;—­there is nothing harder than to make them pass.

What must be his state of mind, who is in continual apprehensions of a disgraceful discovery?  No profits can compensate his feelings.

Had the deviser been less charitable, William and John had been less guilty:  the gift of one man becomes a temptation to another.  These nine acres, from which the donor was to spring upwards, lay like a mountain on the breasts of William and John, tending to press them downwards.  Although poverty makes many a rogue, yet had William and John been more poor, they would have been more innocent.  The children themselves would have been the least gainers by the bequest, for, without this legacy, they could just as well have procured trades; the profit would have centered in the inhabitants, by softening their levies.—­Thus a donation runs through many a private channel, unseen by the giver.

Matters continued in this torpid state till 1782, when a quarrel between the brothers and a tenant, broke the enchantment, and shewed the actors in real view.

The officers, in behalf of the town, filed a bill in Chancery, and recovered the dormant property, which was committed in trust to

     John Dymock Griffith,
     John Harwood,
     Thomas Archer, > Overseers, 1781. 
     William Hunt,
     Joseph Robinson,
     James Rollason,

     John Holmes, > Constables, 1782. 
     Thomas Barrs,
     Joseph Sheldon,
     Charles Primer, > Church-wardens,
     William Dickenson,
     Edmund Tompkins,

     Claud Johnson,
     Nathaniel Lawrence,
     Edward Homer, > Overseers, 1782. 
     Thomas Cock,
     Samuel Stretch,
     Joseph Townsend,
     John Startin.

The presentation of St. Martin’s was vested in the family of Birmingham, until the year 1537, since which it has passed through the Dudleys, the Crown, the Marrows, the Smiths, and now rests in the family of Tennant.

RECTORS.

1300 Thomas de Hinckleigh. 1304 Stephen de Segrave. 1304 John de Ayleston. 1336 Robert de Shuteford. 1349 William de Seggeley. 1354 Thomas de Dumbleton. 1369 Hugh de Wolvesey. 1396 Thomas Darnall. 1412 William Thomas. 1414 Richard Slowther. 1428 John Waryn. 1432 William Hyde. 1433 John Armstrong. 1433 John Wardale. 1436 Henry Symon. 1444 Humphrey Jurdan. 1504 Richard Button. 1536 Richard Myddlemore. 1544 William Wrixam. 1578 Lucus Smith.

     Thus far Dugdale.

----   ------ Smith
1641   Samuel Wills.
1654   ------ Slater.
1660   John Riland.
1672   Henry Grove.
——­   William Daggett.
——­   Thomas Tyrer.
1732   Richard Dovey.
1771   ------ Chase.
1772   John Parsons.
1779   William Hinton, D.D.
1781   Charles Curtis.