God have mercy upon us, for the sake of our
Lord Jesus Christ! Amen!"
This was probably nearly the last letter Johnson wrote, for on the 13th
of the following month, just twenty-seven days after his arrival in
London from Birmingham, oppressed with disease, he was numbered with the
dead.
~Hinkleys.~--Otherwise, and for very many years, known as "The Inkleys,"
the generally-accepted derivation of the name being taken from the fact
that one Hinks at one time was a tenant or occupier, under the Smalbroke
family, of the fields or "leys" in that locality, the two first narrow
roads across the said farm being respectively named the Upper and the
Nether Inkleys, afterwards changed to the Old and New Inkleys. Possibly,
however, the source may be found in the family name of Hinckley, as seen
in the register of Harborne. A third writer suggests that the character
of its denizens being about as black as could be painted, the place was
naturally called Ink Leys. Be that as it may, from the earliest days of
their existence, these places seem to have been the abode and habitation
of the queerest of the queer people, the most aristocratic resident in
our local records having been "Beau Green," the dandy--[see
"_Eccentrics_"]--who, for some years, occupied the chief building in the
Inkleys, nicknamed "Rag Castle," otherwise Hinkley Hall.
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