182 A TOPOGRAPHICAL 



Humanity and honour join'd in grief, 

 Where they dejected lost thy dear relief. 

 Paying to virtue their acknowledg'd debt, 

 Gave thee a foreign grave with fond regret. 

 A brother who in thee could once rejoice, 

 (His bosom-friend by Nature and by choice,) 

 Feels and records on this thy vacant tomb, 

 Pride in thy worth, and anguish in thy doom. 



Byshbtiry is a vicarage in the patronage of some respectable 

 families in the neighbourhood : in the year 1800, it was presented 

 to the Rev. John Clare, A. M. who is also a Magistrate of the 

 county : the Rev. Gentleman resides in the vicarage-house, erected 

 by himself in a pleasant part of Byshbury-field. 



This village is sheltered on the east by a lofty hill, covered with 

 a profusion of yew and other trees, over which, tradition asserts, 

 the great London road to Chester once passed: from the summit of 

 this hill (which is 650 feet above the level of the sea), is a very rich 

 and extensive prospect. Byshbury has been much improved of late 

 years : the soil is gravelly, with a dry and pure air. 



Byshbury liberty is chiefly occupied by opulent freeholders, who 

 cultivate their own estates, which are in a high state of improve- 

 ment. Richard Phillips, Esq. has a handsome house and offices on 

 the upper or south part of the hill ; Oxley is the property of James 

 Hordern, Esq. who purchased it of the Huskisson family in 1793 ; 

 Wobaston, which gives name to one of the prebends of Wolver- 

 hampton, has been a possession of the Forsters for several gene- 

 rations ; Ford-houses, a newly-erected mansion, the residence of 

 the owner, Lewis Clutterbuck, Esq. ; and Low-hill, a neat and 

 modern villa, the property and residence of Richard Pountney, 

 Esq. all deserve notice as so many objects of rural beauty, inde- 

 pendent of their pre-eminence in agricultural improvement. There 

 are several other ancient seats within the lordship of Byshbury, 

 and amongst them Old -fallings, occasionally occupied by John 

 Gough, Esq. 



A great Low or tumulus (says Huntbach) is still visible here ; 

 and Plott has fixed another of these places of sepulture (of Roman 

 erection), in a field called Gun-birch, anciently Birchen Leasow, 

 from the circumstance of part of the bolt of a catapulta having been 

 found in its vicinity, before alluded to. 



Moseley is a constablewick in the parish of Byshbury, and con- 

 tains between five and six hundred acres. Here is a neat mansion, 

 the property of Mrs. Horton, who owns part of the estate. The other 





