Aston

“ Aston has now its Public Buildings. Free Library, &c., as well as an energetic School Board, and, though unsuccessful in its attempt in 1876 to obtain a charter of incorporation, there can be little doubt but that it will ultimately bloom forth in all the glories of a Mayor. Aldermen, and Burgesses. Aston parish, which extends in several directions into the borough of Birmingham, has an area of 13,786 acres. ”

“ ASTON MANOR, a municipal and parliamentary borough of Warwickshire, England, adjoining Birmingham on the north-east. Pop. (1901) 77,326. There are extensive manufactures, including those of motors and cycles with their accessories, also paper-mills, breweries, &c., and the population is largely industrial. Aston Hall, erected by Sir Thomas Holte in 1618–1635, is an admirable architectural example of its period, built of red brick. It stands in a large park, the whole property being acquired by the corporation of Birmingham in 1864, when the mansion became a museum and art gallery. ”

“ Such is Aston Hall, near Birmingham, which has the curved gables, the turrets, the chimneys, the mullioned windows, the ribbed ceilings, the busy [212] staircase, which had been customary in fine houses for the last fifty years. Yet Aston Hall was not completed till 1635. The most significant sign of change at Aston is the disposition of the hall, which, as already stated, is no longer intended as a living room, and is entered in the middle of its length instead of at one end through the customary screens. ”

“ Aston is mentioned as a sort of half wit in some of the lampoons of the day; but I have not been able to trace any thing of his history, except that he seems to have been a courtier of the period; perhaps the same Colonel Aston, whom the reader will find in a subsequent note, acting as Mulgrave's second, in an intended duel with Rochester. ”

“ ASTON, Sir THOMAS (1600–1645) , royalist, was the heir of an ancient Cheshire family which had been settled at Aston in that county for many generations, and showed undoubted descent from the time of Henry II. Several of these early Astons were knighted, and one of them was treasurer to Philippa, the wife of Edward III, and joined in the wars in Spain. Thomas Aston was born on 29 Sept. 1600. His father, John Aston, who had been sewer to the wife of James I, died in 1615, and presumably his children remained under the care of his widow. Thomas was educated at Brasenose College, Oxford. ”

“ Aston has a stronger case. It is situate between Wallingford and Ilsley. The range of chalk hills rises just above it, and one detached hill is here thrown out into the vale, on which are still visible considerable earthworks. There is a chapel called Thorn Chapel on the eastern slope of this hill, and I am told there is a tradition that this chapel was built on the spot where some Saxon king heard mass on the morning of a battle. It is suggested by Mr. Lousley and others, that the Saxons occupied this outlying hill, the Danes the opposite range ”

“ ASTON, ANTHONY (fl. 1712–1731) , dramatist and actor, was the son of a gentleman who had been master of the Plea Office in the King's Bench, and was educated as an attorney. He is said to have played in all the London theatres, but never continued long in any. ”

“ Thus the time wore on, with frequent meetings, always crowded with doubts and fears, hopes, joys, displeasures in a tangled heap together, till the drying winds of March set in and cleared off the last of the fever, which had by now worn itself away, and by degrees the things of North Aston went back to their normal condition. The families came into residence again, and save for the widow's wail and the orphan's cry in the desolated village below, life passed as it had always passed, and the strong did not spend their strength in bearing the burdens of the weak. ”

“ Fourthly, Æthelred and Alfred would have kept to the hills in their retreat, and never have allowed the Danes to push them out into the Thames-valley, where the Pagan cavalry would have been invaluable; but this must have been the case, if we suppose Aston to be the site of the battle. Lastly, all the above sites are too near to Reading, the farthest being only sixteen miles from that town. But Æthelred and Alfred had [316] been retreating three days, and would therefore much more probably be found at Ashdown by White Horse Hill, which is ten miles farther along the range of hills. ”

“ Tony Aston (A Brief Supplement to Colley Cibber his Lives of the late Famous Actors and Actresses) says that when Lord Rochester took her on the stage ‘she was woman to Lady Shelton of Norfolk.’ To those familiar with the anxiety of actresses of the stamp of Mrs. Barry to furnish themselves with respectable antecedents the story of Aston will commend itself. The statements of Curll and Aston are, however, not irreconcilable. On one point all testimony is concurrent. The would-be actress showed at first little promise. ”

“ As noon approached, train after train deposited at the Aston station hundreds and thousands of gaily-attired Black Country people. Special trains ran from New Street as fast as they could be got in order; all the approaches to the park were crammed with serried lines—three or four abreast—of omnibuses, waggons, cabs, carts, and every other imaginable vehicle; whilst thousands upon thousands of dusty pedestrians jostled each other in the crowded roads. ”

“ ASTON, JOSEPH (1762–1844) , journalist, dramatist, and miscellaneous writer, was born in 1762, the son of William Aston, gunsmith, of Deansgate, in Manchester. In 1803 he opened a stationer's shop at 84 Deansgate, where, on 1 Jan. 1805, he issued the prospectus of the 'Manchester Mail,' published at sixpence, and professing 'no political creed.' From 1809 till 1825 he was publisher and editor of the 'Manchester Exchange Herald,' a conservative journal. ”

“ In Lord Bagot's house, at Blithfield, about eight miles from Tixall, there is a portrait of the first Lord Aston painted on board. He has a firm, but pleasing countenance; short, light-coloured hair, and whiskers; his dress is black, laced with gold; and round his neck is a triple gold chain, which is said to have been a present from King Charles I.
P. 94. These lines were composed on the marriage of Walter, second Lord Aston, with the Lady Mary Weston, daughter of Richard Weston, Earl of Portland, which took place in the year 1629. ”

“ ASTON, WILLIAM (1735–1800) , a Jesuit, whom Dr. Oliver believed to be the son of Edward Aston, by Ann Bayley his wife, was born in London 22 April, 1735. He made his early studies in the college at St. Omer, and at the age of sixteen he joined the Society of Jesus at Watten (7 Sept., 1751) . In 1761 he was professor of poetry at St. Omer. ”

“ The [Mill] mount was very strong of itself and manned with 250 of their principal men, Sir Arthur Aston being in it, who was governor of the town;which when they thought it vain to make any further resistance, which, if they had, would have killed some hundreds of our men before we could have taken it. ”

“ This is almost the only society of woodmen now in the kingdom. At Meriden there is a commodious inn, adjacent to which are delightful gardens, and the accommodation for travellers are excellent.
To Sutton, distant eight miles, on the road to Lichfield.
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. ”

“ At Astons Play, who had beheld this then,
Might well have seene there twentie thousand men. In the margin he comments, ‘Maister Aston was a good and godly Preacher’. A ‘ludus in quarell’ is noted in 1495, and this was ‘where the plases [? playes] have bine accustomyd to be usyd’ in 1570 (Mediaeval Stage, ii. 251, 255) . Ashton resigned his Mastership about 1571 and was in the service of the Earl of Essex at Chartley in 1573. ”

“ In 1854 Everitt completed an important series of drawings of Aston Hall, which were used to illustrate Davidson's ‘History of the Holtes of Aston, with a Description of the Family Mansion,’ published in the same year. ”

“ Walsall, Willenhall, Darlaston, Wolverhampton two churches, Bilstone, Sedgley, Dudley, two churches and the ruins of the castle, West-bromwich, Tipton, Wednesfield, Brierly-hill, and Rushall; in addition to the above, by ascending the roof of the church, you command Birmingham and Aston, together with numerous engines that are at work in its vicinity; the whole when combined form such a rich and variegated scene as probably cannot be equalled in any other situation. ”

“ On leaving Birmingham, the railway almost immediately passes from Warwickshire into Staffordshire, through two parishes, Handsworth and Aston, which, presenting nothing picturesque in natural scenery or remarkable in ancient or modern buildings, with one exception, yet cannot be passed over without notice, because they were residences of three remarkable men, to whom we are largely indebted for our use of the inventions which have most contributed to the civilisation and advance of social comfort in the nineteenth century. ”

“ Aston Lower Grounds, the most beautiful pleasure grounds in the Midland counties, cover 31 acres, and were originally nothing more than the kitchen and private gardens and the fish-ponds belonging to Aston Hall, and were purchased at the sale in 1818 by the Warwick bankers, who let them to Mr. H. G. Quilter, at the time an attempt was made to purchase the Hall and Park "by the people." Adding to its attractions year by year. Mr. ”

“ The most remarkable increase of population in any of these districts is in the case of Aston Manor, where in fifty years the inhabitants have increased from less than one thousand to considerably more than fifty thousand. ”

“ II. Sir Walter Aston, of Tixall, near Stafford, married, about the year 1607, Gertrude Sadler, the grand-daughter, and finally the heiress of Sir Ralph Sadler. [2] In the year 1627, he was raised to the dignity of the peerage, by the title of Lord Aston, Baron of Forfar, in Scotland, and died in 1639. His widow, Lady Aston, had an only brother, Ralph Sadler, Esq. of Standon Lordship, near Ware, in Hertfordshire; an estate, which was granted to Sir Ralph Sadler, by King Henry VIII. and on which he erected a stately mansion. Ralph Sadler, Esq. ”

“ Besides an additional packet of letters, which had belonged to Sir Ralph Sadler, and which contain some further particulars, respecting the confinement of the Queen of Scotland, in Tutbury Castle, I discovered, 1. All the poems which I now offer to the public, under the title of Tixall Poetry; 2. A large quantity of letters, and other papers, relating to the Aston family; 3. A complete collection of the state papers, and letters, of Sir Walter Aston, during his two embassies in Spain. ”

“ In 1331 Simon del Holte, styled of Birmingham, purchased the manor of Nechells "in consideration of xl li of silver." In 1365 John atte Holte purchased for "forty marks" the manor of Duddeston, and two years later he became possessed by gift of the manor of Aston. For many generations the family residence was at Duddeston, though their burial place was at Aston, in which church are many of their monuments, the oldest being that of Wm. Holte, who died September 28, 1514. ”

“ Aston Church was probably built about the year 1170, the nave and part of chancel being added in 1231, the east end and arch of chancel in 1310, and the tower and spire in 1440. The old building, which contained an interesting collection of monuments in memory of the Holtes, the Ardens, the Erdingtons, and other county families, has been lately enlarged by the extension of the nave and aisles eastward, and widening the chancel so as to accommodate about 1,200 people, instead of 500. ”

“ Bellamore, (which I prefer) from the Italian, Bel Amore, or Bellamour, from the French.
Herbert Aston's house, "founded on the rock Good Love," is still standing, but greatly altered, and now converted into offices. An elegant, and very commodious modern mansion, was built close by it, a few years ago, by my aunt, the late Honourable Dowager Lady Blount, and is now the property, and seat of Edward Blount, Esq. her second son. ”

“ To Aston of Tixall, has succeeded Thomas Clifford, Esq. who is great grandson of Walter, fourth Lord Aston, great grandson of Sir Walter Aston, the friend of Drayton. (3.) To Aston of Bellamore, has succeeded Edward Blount, Esq., who stands in the same degree of relationship to Sir Walter Aston; through his mother, the late Honourable Lady Blount, eldest daughter of James, fifth Lord Aston. (4.) To Persall of Canwell has succeeded Sir Robert Lawley, Bart. The old house no longer exists. (5.) To Thimelby of Irnham has succeeded the Right Honourable Lady Clifford. ”

“ A short distance beyond, on the summit of the hill, commands an extensive view of Birmingham, the venerable trees in Aston park, the spire of that church, and Barr-beacon. As you pass along the road, this delightful prospect varies every step you take for a considerable distance. These lands, formerly known by the name of Washwood heath, being inclosed in the year 1803, now let from forty to fifty shillings per acre. At the four mile stone, there is on the right a cheerful prospect over the country, with the lofty spire of Yardley church in full view. ”

“ An author has the following notice respecting sir Roger Aston, frequently the bearer of these curious-415-
-vol ii- epistles. "He was an Englishman born, but had his breeding wholly in Scotland, and had served the king many years as his barber; an honest and free-hearted man, and of an ancient family in Cheshire, but of no breeding answerable to his birth. Yet was he the only man ever employed as a messenger from the king to queen Elizabeth, as a letter-carrier only, which expressed their own intentions without any help from him, besides the delivery ”