in his "Worthies," has also noticed them, in the following remarkable expressions: "I have not met with a more noble family, measuring on the level of flat, and unadvantaged antiquity. They have ever borne a good respect to the church, and to learned men."[1]
Sir Walter Aston, eldest son and heir of Sir Edward Aston, Kt. by Anne Lucy, only daughter of Sir Thomas Lucy, Kt. of Charlecote, in the county of Warwick, was born at Tixall, about the year
1580.[2]
- ↑ Art. Staffordshire.
- ↑ There is a little book in the library at Tixall, entitled "The Poems of Ben Jonson,
junior, being a Miscelanie of Seriousness, Wit, Mirth, and Mysterie, &c. Composed by
W. S. Gent. 1672."
On the back of the title-page is the following dedication.
"To the Right Honourable Walter, Lord Aston.
Aston, a stone cut from the marble quar,
Framed to out-live the flames of civil war;
With all the bounties of the heavens befriended.
Nineteen brave knights, two princely lords, descended
From this great stem, laden with honour's spoil,
That now o'erspreads Great Britain's fruitful isle.
Tixal, the fountain whence these heroes flow,
Where hospitality and bounty grow.
Here I my noble ancestors of old,
Tracing the steps of charity, behold,
By love's fair hand to mine own cradle led,
Aston and Lucy joined in one bed."On the opposite page is as follows:
