CLENT. 91

many other features of marvellous interest, render the locality one of the most attractive in the county. During the last year or two, however, a few objectionable houses have been erected, which by no means improve the appearance of the village; they were built up cheaply and the occupants are constantly changing. The owners must have been wanting in public spirit thus to have opposed the best interests of the place - and their own.

From the Clent hills the spires and chimneys of Birmingham, the monument at Edgbaston, the Lickey monument, the towns of Bromsgrove, Droitwich, and Worcester, Dudley and " The Black Country," the Malverns, Cotswolds, and Welsh hills, Kinver Edge, and the Wrekin, and much more than can be described, may be seen. Drayton in his " Polyalbion " celebrated these hills, and with very good reason. There is a tradition that the Britons encamped here when the Romans were opposite to them on Wichbury.

Lord Lyttelton is lord of the manor, and the principal landowners are his lordship, John Amphlett, Esq., Mrs. Durant, and C. Roberts, Esq. Wheat, barley, and oats, are the chief crops grown, and the principal employment of the people is farm labour. The soil is light gravel and grows good wheat; the acreage of the parish is 2,365; population, 966 (there were forty-six families in the time of Elizabeth). The Lord Chancellor is patron of the living; value, £350; Rev. G. Halls, vicar. Church accommodation, 450; free seats, 150. The old church was in a deplorable condition, but was rebuilt in 1865, at a cost of about 3,000. It is mainly a Norman and Early English building, with some Perpendicular work in it, having a chancel, nave, aisles, and western tower.

Clent belonged to the church of Worcester in Saxon times, but became separated from Worcestershire during the violent commotions between Saxon and Dane. The king held Clent at the Conquest, and it afterwards fell into private hands. The patronage belonged to Hales Owen Abbey, but at the Dissolution it was given to Sir John Dudley; it afterwards