BERWOOD.

Crossing the river, one mile farther east, is Berwood-hall, where the forsaken moat, at this day, guards—­nothing.  This, with the manor to which it belongs, was also the property of the Ardens; one of which in the reign of Henry the Second, granted it to the canons of Leicester; who added a chapel, which went to decay four hundred years ago.  After the grant, the Ardens seem to have become tenants to the canons for the land, once their own:  we frequently observe a man pay rent for what he sells, but seldom for what he gives.

At the dissolution of abbies, in 1537, Thomas Arden, the head of the family, purchased it of Henry the Eighth, for 272_l_. 10s. uniting it again to his estate, after a separation of three hundred and fifty years, in whose posterity it continued till their fall.

Thus, the father first purchased what the son gave away, and his offspring re-purchased again.  The father lays a tax on his successor; or, climbs to heaven at the expence of the son.  In one age it is meritorious to give to the church, in another, to take from her.

ERDINGTON.

Three miles north-east of Birmingham, is Erdington-hall, which boasts a long antiquity.  The manor was the property of the old Earls of Mercia:  Edwin possessed it at the conquest, but lost it in favour of William Fitz-Ausculf, who no doubt granted it in knight’s service to his friend and relation, of Norman race, who erected the hall; the moat, took his residence in, and his name Erdington, from the place.  His descendants seem to have resided here with great opulence near 400 years.

Dugdale mentions a circumstance of Sir Thomas de Erdington, little noticed by our historians.  He was a faithful adherent to King John, who conferred on him many valuable favours:  harrassed by the Pope on one side, and his angry Barons on the other, he privately sent Sir Thomas to Murmeli, the powerful King of Africa, Morocco, and Spain; with offers to forsake the christian faith, turn mahometan, deliver up his kingdom, and hold it of him in tribute, for his assistance against his enemies.  But it does not appear the ambassador succeeded:  the Moorish Monarch did not chuse to unite his prosperous fortune with that of a random prince; he might also consider, the man who could destroy his nephew and his sovereign, could not be an honour to any profession.

The manor left the Erdington family in 1472, and, during a course of 175 years, acknowledged for its owners, George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence, Sir William Harcourt, Robert Wright, Sir Reginald Bray, Francis Englefield, Humphry Dimock, Walter Earl, Sir Walter Devereux, and was, in 1647, purchased by Sir Thomas Holte, in whose family it continued till 1782, when Henage Legge, Esq; became seised of the manor.

As none of the Lords seem to have resided upon the premises since the departure of the Erdingtons, it must be expected they have gradually tended to decay.