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.