them.  They asked the favor intended; the King readily granted it:  They bowed:  The stranger bowed also.  By this time, the stranger perceiving there was a valuable prize in the question, claimed his thirds; they denied his having anything to do with the matter:  He answered, he had done as much as they, for they only asked and bowed, and he did the same.  The dispute grew warm, and both parties agreed to appeal to the King, who answered, He took them for joint beggars, therefore had made them a joint present.  They were then obliged to divide the land with the stranger, whose share amounted to 240_l_. per annum.”

The land formerly used for the priory of Birmingham, is now the property of many persons.  Upon that spot, whereon stood one solitary house, now stand about four hundred.  Upon that ground, where about thirty persons lived upon the industry of others, about three thousand live upon their own:  The place, which lay as a heavy burden upon the community, now tends to enrich it, by adding its mite to the national commerce, and the national treasury.

In 1775, I took down an old house of wood and plaister, which had stood 208 years, having been erected in 1567, thirty-one years after the dissolution of abbies.  The foundation of this old house seemed to have been built chiefly with stones from the priory; perhaps more than twenty wagon loads:  These appeared in a variety of forms and sizes, highly finished in the gothic taste, parts of porticos, arches, windows, ceilings, etc. some fluted, some cyphered, and otherwise ornamented, yet complete as in the first day they were left by the chizel.  The greatest, part of them were destroyed by the workmen:  Some others I used again in the fireplace of an under kitchen.  Perhaps they are the only perfect fragments that remain of that venerable edifice, which once stood the monument of ancient piety, the ornament of the town, and the envy of the priest out of place.

JOHN A DEAN’S HOLE.

At the bottom of Digbeth, about thirty yards North of the bridge, on the left, is a water-course that takes in a small drain from Digbeth, but more from the adjacent meadows, and which divides the parishes of Aston and Birmingham, called John a Dean’s Hole; from a person of that name who is said to have lost his life there, and which, I think, is the only name of antiquity among us.

The particle de, between the christian and surname, is of French extraction, and came over with William the First:  It continued tolerably pure for about three centuries, when it in some degree assumed an English garb, in the particle of:  The a, therefore is only a corruption of the latter.  Hence the time of this unhappy man’s misfortune may be fixed about the reign of Edward the Third.

LENCH’S TRUST.

In the reign of Henry the Eighth, William Lench, a native of this place, bequeathed his estate for the purpose of erecting alms houses, which are those at the bottom of Steelhouse-lane, for the benefit of poor widows, but chiefly for repairing the streets of Birmingham.  Afterwards others granted smaller donations for the same use, but all were included under the name of Lench; and I believe did not unitedly amount, at that time, to fifteen pounds per annum.