House and Garden 
with it, and yet it is 
associated chiefly with 
in o d e r n times a n d 
prosperous manufac¬ 
tories in the minds of 
those who know of it 
casually and have not 
gone hack into its past. 
In the first part of 
the seventeenth cen- 
t u r y, Sir "k h o m a s 
Holte commenced the 
huilding of Aston 
Hall, the largest and 
most imposing struc¬ 
ture m the neighbor¬ 
hood of Birmingham. 
The architect is not 
known, hut supposi¬ 
tion has it that he was 
Inigo Jones, also the 
designer of Crewe and 
Dorfold Halls. 
It was so situated as 
to command an exten¬ 
sive view in every di¬ 
rection, and the heaut\ of the position was greatly 
enhanced hy the magnificent avenue of Spanish 
chestnuts which led from the Lichfield road to the 
eastern entrance of the Hall. Out of compliment to 
the much petted and courted (jiieen who was then 
THE HALL—HIGHBURY 
THE I.TBRARY—HIGHBURY 
reigning, it was built in the form of the letter li, facing 
the east, and enclosing three sides of a courtyard. 
Lhe interior contains superb staircases and fire- 
jilaces, and rooms of beautiful proportions which 
have served as models for many modern huildings. 
Worthy of notice is 
the original entrance of 
the park, known as 
“Church Lodge,” on 
account of being op¬ 
posite the old Parish 
Church, and consisting 
of a central gateway 
between two smaller 
ones, which, in their 
turn, are flanked hy 
low, nuillioned win¬ 
dowed huildings. 
In 1642, King 
Charles visited Aston 
Hall, on his march 
from Shrewsbury to 
relieve Banhurv Cas¬ 
tle, and the family 
historian thus de¬ 
scribes the scene: 
‘‘That Sabbath 
evening,” he says, “ was 
a memorable season in 
the annals of Aston 
Hall. We see, in imag¬ 
ination, the last rays 
74 
