I have known the man of opulence direct his gilt chariot _out_ of
Birmingham, who first approached her an helpless orphan in rags. I have
known the chief magistrate of fifty thousand people, fall from his
phaeton, and humbly ask bread at a parish vestry.

Frequently the wheel of capricious fortune describes a circle, in the
rotation of which, a family experiences alternately, the heighth of
prosperity and the depth of distress; but more frequently, like a
pendulum, it describes only the arc of a circle, and that always at
the bottom.

Many fine estates have been struck out of the anvil, valuable
possessions raised by the tongs, and superb houses, in a two-fold sense,
erected by the trowel.

The paternal ancestor of the late Sir Charles Holte was a native of this
place, and purchaser, in the beginning of Edward the Third, of the
several manors, which have been the honour and the support of his house
to the present time.

Walter Clodshale was another native of Birmingham, who, in 1332,
purchased the manor of Saltley, now enjoyed by his maternal descendant,
Charles Bowyer Adderley, Esq.

Charles Colmore, Esq; holds a considerable estate in the parish; his
predecessor is said to have occupied, in the reign of Henry the Eighth,
that house, now No. 1, in the High-street, as a mercer, and general
receiver of the taxes.