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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13926 ***
+
+AN
+
+HISTORY
+
+OF
+
+BIRMINGHAM.
+
+[Illustration: the-text-caption]
+
+
+
+
+THE SECOND EDITION,
+
+WITH CONSIDERABLE ADDITIONS.
+
+
+By W. HUTTON.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+A preface rather induces a man to speak of himself, which is deemed the
+worst subject upon which he _can_ speak. In history we become acquainted
+with things, but in a preface with the author; and, for a man to treat
+of himself, may be the most _difficult_ talk of the two: for in history,
+facts are produced ready to the hand of the historian, which give birth
+to thought, and it is easy to cloath that thought in words. But in a
+preface, an author is obliged to forge from the brain, where he is
+sometimes known to forge without fire. In one, he only reduces a
+substance into form; but in the other, he must create that substance.
+
+As I am not an author by profession, it is no wonder if I am
+unacquainted with the modes of authorship; but I apprehend, the usual
+method of conducting the pen, is to polish up a founding title-page,
+dignified with scraps of Latin, and then, to hammer up a work to fit it,
+as nearly as genius, or want of genius, will allow.
+
+We next _turn over a new leaf_, and open upon a pompous dedication,
+which answers many laudable purposes: if a coat of arms, correctly
+engraven, should step first into view, we consider it a singular
+advantage gained over a reader, like the first blow in a combat. The
+dedication itself becomes a pair of stilts, which advance an author
+something higher.
+
+As a horse-shoe, nailed upon the threshold of a cottage, prevents the
+influence of the witch; so a first-rate name, at the head of a
+dedication, is a total bar against the critic; but this great name, like
+a great officer, sometimes unfortunately stands at the head of
+wretched troops.
+
+When an author is too _heavy_ to swim of himself, it serves as a pair of
+bladders, to prevent his sinking.
+
+It is farther productive of a _solid_ advantage, that of a present from
+the patron, more valuable than that from the bookseller, which prevents
+his sinking under the pressure of famine.
+
+But, being wholly unknown to the great names of literary consequence, I
+shall not attempt a dedication, therefore must lose the benefit of the
+stilt, the bladder, and the horse-shoe.
+
+Were I to enter upon a dedication, I should certainly address myself,
+"_To the Inhabitants of Birmingham_." For to them I not only owe much,
+but all; and I think, among that congregated mass, there is not one
+person to whom I wish ill. I have the pleasure of calling many of those
+inhabitants _Friends_, and some of them share my warm affections equally
+with myself. Birmingham, like a compassionate nurse, not only draws our
+persons, but our esteem, from the place of our nativity, and fixes it
+upon herself: I might add, _I was hungry, and she fed me_; _thirsty, and
+she gave me drink_; _a stranger, and she took me in_. I approached her
+with reluctance, because I did not know her; I shall leave her with
+reluctance, because I do.
+
+Whether it is perfectly confident in an author, to solicit the
+indulgence of the public, though it may stand first in his wishes,
+admits a doubt; for, if his productions will not bear the light, it may
+be said, why does he publish? but, if they will, there is no need to ask
+a favor; the world receives one from him. Will not a piece everlastingly
+be tried by its merit? Shall we esteem it the higher, because it was
+written at the age of thirteen? because it was the effort of a week?
+delivered extempore? hatched while the author stood upon one leg? or
+cobbled, while he cobbled a shoe? or will it be a recommendation, that
+it issues forth in gilt binding? The judicious world will not be
+deceived by the tinselled purse, but will examine whether the _contents_
+are sterling.
+
+Will it augment the value of this history, or cover its blunders, to
+say, that I have never seen _Oxford?_ That the thick fogs of penury,
+prevented the sun of science from beaming upon the mind? That necessity
+obliged me to lay down the battledore, before I was master of the
+letters? And that, instead of handling systems of knowledge, my hands,
+at the early period of seven, became callous with labour?
+
+But, though a whole group of pretences will have no effect with the
+impartial eye, yet one reason pleads strongly in my favor--no such thing
+ever appeared as _An History of Birmingham_. It is remarkable, that one
+of the most singular places in the universe is without an historian:
+that she never manufactured an history of herself, who has manufactured
+almost every thing else; that so many ages should elapse, and not one
+among her numerous sons of industry, snatch the manners of the day from
+oblivion, group them in design, with the touches of his pen, and exhibit
+the picture to posterity. If such a production had ever seen the light,
+mine most certainly would never have been written; a temporary bridge
+therefore may satisfy the impatient traveller, till a more skilful
+architect shall accommodate him with a complete production of elegance,
+of use, and of duration.--Although works of genius ought to come out of
+the mint doubly refined, yet history admits of a much greater latitude
+to the author. The best upon the subject, though defective, may meet
+with regard.
+
+It has long been a complaint, that local history is much wanted. This
+will appear obvious, if we examine the places we know, with the
+histories that treat of them. Many an author has become a cripple, by
+historically travelling through _all England_, who might have made a
+tolerable figure, had he staid at home. The subject is too copious for
+one performance, or even the life of one man. The design of history is
+knowledge: but, if simply to tell a tale, be all the duty of an
+historian, he has no irksome task before him; for there is nothing more
+easy than to relate a fact; but, perhaps, nothing more difficult than to
+relate it well.
+
+The situation of an author is rather precarious--if the smiles of the
+world chance to meet his labours, he is apt to forget himself; if
+otherwise, he is soon forgot. The efforts of the critic may be necessary
+to clip the wings of a presuming author, lest his rising vanity becomes
+insupportable: but I pity the man, who writes a book which none will
+peruse a second time; critical exertions are not necessary to pull him
+down, he will fall of himself. The sin of writing carries its own
+punishment, the tumultuous passions of anxiety and expectation, like
+the jarring elements in October, disturb his repose, and, like them, are
+followed by stirility: his cold productions, injured by no hand but that
+of time, are found sleeping on the shelf unmolested. It is easy to
+describe his fears before publication, but who can tell his feelings
+after judgment is passed upon his works? His only consolation is
+accusing the critic of injustice, and thinking the world in the wrong.
+But if repentence should not follow the culprit, hardened in scribbling,
+it follows, his bookseller, oppressed with _dead works_. However, if all
+the evils in Pandora's box are emptied on a blasted author, this one
+comfort remains behind--The keeper of a circulating library, or the
+steward of a reading society can tell him, "His book is more _durable_
+than the others."
+
+Having, many years ago, entertained an idea of this undertaking, I made
+some trifling preparations; but, in 1775, a circumstance of a private
+nature occurring, which engaged my attention for several years, I
+relinquished the design, destroyed the materials, and meant to give up
+the thought for ever. But the intention revived in 1780, and the
+work followed.
+
+I may be accused of quitting the regular trammels of history, and
+sporting in the fields of remark: but, although our habitation justly
+stands first in our esteem, in return for rest, content, and protection;
+does it follow that we should never stray from it? If I happen to veer a
+moment from the polar point of Birmingham, I shall certainly vibrate
+again to the center. Every author has a manner peculiar to himself, nor
+can he well forsake it. I should be exceedingly hurt to omit a
+necessary part of intelligence, but more, to offend a reader.
+
+If GRANDEUR should censure me for sometimes recording the men of mean
+life, let me ask, _Which is preferable_, he who thunders at the anvil,
+or in the senate? The man who earnestly wishes the significant letters,
+ESQ. spliced to the end of his name, will despise the question; but the
+philosopher will answer, "They are equal."
+
+Lucrative views have no part in this production: I cannot solicit a kind
+people to grant what they have already granted; but if another finds
+that pleasure in reading, which I have done in writing, I am paid.
+
+As no history is extant, to inform me of this famous nursery of the
+arts, perfection in mine must not be expected. Though I have
+endeavoured to pursue the road to truth; yet, having no light to guide,
+or hand to direct me, it is no wonder if I mistake it: but we do not
+_condemn_, so much as _pity_ the man for losing his way, who first
+travels an unbeaten road.
+
+Birmingham, for want of the recording hand, may be said to live but one
+generation; the transactions of the last age, die in this; memory is the
+sole historian, which being defective, I embalm the present generation,
+for the inspection of the future.
+
+It is unnecessary to attempt a general character, for if the attentive
+reader is himself of Birmingham, he is equally apprized of that
+character; and, if a stranger, he will find a variety of touches
+scattered through the piece, which, taken in a collective view, form a
+picture of that generous people, who _merit his_ esteem, and
+_possess mine_.
+
+
+
+THE
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+
+_Some Account of the Derivation of the Name of
+Birmingham_, ..................................... page 1
+_Situation_, .....................................      3
+_Soil_, ..........................................      6
+_Water_, .........................................      7
+_Baths_, .........................................      8
+_Air_, ...........................................     *8
+_Longevity_, .....................................      9
+_Ancient State of Birmingham_, ...................     13
+_Battle of Camp-hill_, ...........................    *41
+_Modern State of Birmingham_, ....................     40
+_Streets, and their Names_, ......................     53
+_Trade_, .........................................     57
+  _Button_, ......................................     75
+  _Buckle_, ......................................     76
+  _Guns_, ........................................     78
+  _Leather_, .....................................     79
+  _Steel_, .......................................     80
+  _Nails_, .......................................    *83
+  _Bellows_, .....................................    *85
+  _Thread_, ......................................    *89
+  _Printing, by John Baskerville_, ...............    *90
+  _Brass foundry_, ...............................    *94
+  _Hackney Coaches_, .............................     81
+_Bank_, ..........................................     83
+_Government_, ....................................   ibid
+  _Constables_, ..................................     92
+  _Bailiffs_, ....................................     94
+_Court of Requests_, .............................    *99
+_Lamp Act_, ......................................     99
+_Religion and Politics_, .........................    105
+_Places of Worship_, .............................    111
+  _St. John's Chapel, Deritend_, .................    112
+  _St. Bartholomew's_, ...........................    113
+  _St. Mary's_, ..................................    115
+  _St. Paul's_, ..................................   ibid
+  _Old Meeting_, .................................    116
+  _New Meeting_, .................................    117
+  _Carr's-lane Meeting_, .........................    118
+  _Baptist Meeting_, .............................   ibid
+  _Quaker's Meeting_, ............................    120
+  _Methodist Meeting_, ...........................    121
+  _Romish Chapel_, ...............................   *125
+  _Jewish Synagogue_, ............................   *128
+_Theatres_, ......................................    123
+_Amusements_, ....................................    127
+_Hotel_, .........................................   *132
+_Wakes_, .........................................    132
+_Clubs_, .........................................    135
+_Ikenield street_, ...............................    140
+_Lords of the Manor_, ............................    153
+  _Uluuine_, 1050, ...............................    156
+  _Richard_, 1066, ...............................   ibid
+  _William_, 1130, ...............................    161
+  _Peter de Birmingham_, 1154, ...................    161
+  _William de Birmingham_, 1216, .................    163
+  _William de Birmingham_, 1246, .................    164
+  _William de Birmingham_, 1265, .................    165
+  _William de Birmingham_, 1306, .................    166
+  _Sir Fouk de Birmingham_, 1340, ................    168
+  _Sir John de Birmingham_, 1376, ................    169
+  _Lord Clinton_, ................................   ibid
+  _Edmund, Lord Ferrers_, ........................    170
+  _William de Birmingham_, 1430, .................   ibid
+  _Sir William Birmingham_, 1479, ................    171
+  _Edward Birmingham_, 1500, .....................    172
+  _John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland_, 1537, ...    177
+  _Thomas Marrow_, 1555, .........................    180
+  _Thomas Archer_, 1746, .........................    181
+  _Andrew, Lord Archer_, .........................    181
+  _Sarah, Lady Archer_, 1781, ....................   ibid
+_Manor house_, ...................................    182
+_Pudding-brook_, .................................    186
+_Priory_, ........................................    187
+_John à Dean's Hole_, ............................    195
+_Lench's Trust_, .................................    196
+_Fentbam's Trust_, ...............................    200
+_Crowley's Trust_, ...............................    201
+_Scott's Trust_, .................................    202
+_Free School_, ...................................    203
+_Charity School_, ................................    209
+_Dissenting Charity School_, .....................    214
+_Workhouse_, .....................................    215
+_Old Cross_, .....................................    227
+_Welch Cross_, ...................................    229
+_St. Martin's_, ..................................    232
+_St. Philip's_, ..................................    246
+_Births and Burials_, ............................    253
+_General Hospital_, ..............................    256
+_Public Roads_, ..................................    259
+_Canal_, .........................................    266
+_Deritend Bridge_, ...............................    269
+_Soho_, ..........................................    271
+_Danes Camp, Danes Bank, or Bury Fields_, ........    272
+_Gentlemen's Seats_, .............................    273
+  _The Moats_, ...................................    276
+  _Black Greves_, ................................   ibid
+  _Ulverley, or Culverley_, ......................    277
+  _Hogg's Moat_, .................................    278
+  _Yardley_, .....................................    281
+  _Kent's Moat_, .................................    282
+  _Sheldon_, .....................................    283
+  _King's hurst_, ................................   ibid
+  _Coleshill_, ...................................    287
+  _Duddeston_, ...................................    289
+  _Saltley_, .....................................    292
+  _Ward-end_ .....................................    293
+  _Castle Bromwich_, .............................    295
+  _Park hall_, ...................................    299
+  _Berwood_, .....................................    300
+  _Erdington_, ...................................    301
+  _Pipe_, ........................................    303
+  _Aston_, .......................................    306
+  _Witton_, ......................................    309
+  _Blakeley_, ....................................    312
+  _Weoley_, ......................................    313
+_Sutton Coldfield_, ..............................    320
+_Petition for a Corporation_, ....................    324
+_Brass Works_, ...................................    329
+_Prison_, ........................................    332
+_Clodshale's Chantry_, ...........................    336
+_Occurrences_, ...................................    340
+  _Earthquake_, ..................................   ibid
+  _Pitmore and Hammond_, .........................    343
+  _Riots_, .......................................    345
+  _The Conjurers_, ...............................    350
+_Military Association_, ..........................    353
+_Bilston Canal Act_, .............................    357
+_Workhouse Bill_, ................................    361
+_The Camp_, ......................................    370
+_Mortimer's Bank_, ...............................    372
+
+
+
+DIRECTIONS
+
+TO THE
+
+BINDERS,
+
+FOR PLACING THE
+
+COPPER-PLATES.
+
+Prospect of Birmingham,          to face the Title.
+Plan, ........................................   43
+Alm's-houses, ................................  *58
+St. John's Chapel, Deritend, .................  111
+St. Bartholomew's, ...........................  113
+St. Mary's, ..................................  115
+St. Paul's, ..................................  116
+Old and New Meetings, ........................  117
+New Theatre, .................................  123
+Hotel, .......................................  130
+Free School, .................................  203
+Charity School, ..............................  209
+Workhouse, ...................................  215
+Old and Welch Cross, .........................  229
+St. Martin's Church, .........................  232
+St. Philip's, ................................  246
+General Hospital, ............................  256
+Canal, .......................................  265
+Navigation Office, ...........................  267
+Brass Works, .................................  329
+
+
+
+AN
+
+HISTORY &c.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Some account of the derivation of the name of Birmingham_.
+
+The word Birmingham, is too remote for certain explanation. During the
+last four centuries it has been variously written _Brumwycheham,
+Bermyngeham, Bromwycham, Burmyngham, Bermyngham, Byrmyngham_, and
+_Birmingham_; nay, even so late as the seventeenth century it was
+written _Bromicham_. Dugdale supposes the name to have been given by the
+planter, or owner, in the time of the Saxons; but, I suppose it much
+older than any Saxon, date: besides, it is not so common for a man to
+give a name to, as to take one from, a place. A man seldom gives his
+name except he is the founder, as Petersburg from Peter the Great.
+
+Towns, as well as every thing in nature, have exceedingly minute
+beginnings, and generally take a name from situation, or local
+circumstances. Would the Lord of a manor think it an honour to give his
+name to two or three miserable huts? But, if in a succession of ages
+these huts swell into opulence, they confer upon the lord an honour, a
+residence, and a name. The terminations of _sted_, _ham_, and _hurst_,
+are evidently Saxon, and mean the same thing, a home.
+
+The word, in later ages reduced to a certainty, hath undergone various
+mutations; but the original seems to have been _Bromwych_; _Brom_
+perhaps, from broom a shrub, for the growth of which the soil is
+extremely favourable; _Wych_, a descent, this exactly corresponds with
+the declivity from the High Street to Digbeth. Two other places also in
+the neigbourhood bear the same name, which serves to strengthen
+the opinion.
+
+This infant colony, for many centuries after the first buddings of
+existence, perhaps, had no other appellation than that of Bromwych. Its
+center, for many reasons that might be urged, was the Old Cross, and its
+increase, in those early ages of time must have been very small.
+
+A series of prosperity attending it, its lord might assume its name,
+reside in it, and the particle _ham_ would naturally follow. This very
+probably happened under the Saxon Heptarchy, and the name was no other
+than _Bromwycham_.
+
+
+
+SITUATION.
+
+It lies near the centre of the kingdom, in the north-west extremity of
+the county of Warwick, in a kind of peninsula, the northern part of
+which is bounded by Handsworth, in the county of Stafford, and the
+southern by King's-norton, in the county of Worcester; it is also in the
+diocese of Lichfield and Coventry, and in the deanery of Arden.
+
+Let us perambulate the parish from the bottom of Digbeth, thirty yards
+north of the bridge. We will proceed south-west up the bed of the river,
+with Deritend, in the parish of Aston, on our left. Before we come to
+the Floodgates, near Vaughton's Hole, we pass by the Longmores, a small
+part of King's-norton. Crossing the river Rea, we enter the vestiges of
+a small rivulet, yet visible, though the stream hath been turned,
+perhaps, a thousand years, to supply the moat. We now bear rather west,
+nearly in a straight line for three miles, to Shirland brook, with
+Edgbaston on the left. At the top of the first meadow from the river
+Rea, we meet the little stream above-mentioned, in the pursuit of which,
+we cross the Bromsgrove road a little east of the first mile stone.
+Leaving Banner's marlpit to the left, we proceed up a narrow lane
+crossing the old Bromsgrove road, and up to the turnpike at the five
+ways in the road to Hales Owen. Leaving this road also to the left we
+proceed down the lane towards Ladywood, cross the Icknield street, a
+stone's cast east of the observatory, to the north extremity of Rotton
+Park. We now meet with Shirland Brook, which leads us east, and across
+the Dudley road, at the seven mile stone, having Smethwick in the county
+of Stafford, on the left, down to Pigmill. We now leave Handsworth on
+the left, following the stream through Hockley great pool; cross the
+Wolverhampton road, and the Ikenield-street at the same time down to
+Aston furnace, with that parish on the left. At the bottom of
+Walmer-lane we leave the water, move over the fields, nearly in a line
+to the post by the Peacock upon Gosty-green. We now cross the Lichfield
+road, down Duke-street, then the Coleshill road at the A B house. From
+thence down the meadows, to Cooper's mill; up the river to the foot of
+Deritend bridge; and then turn sharp to the right, keeping the course of
+a drain in the form of a sickle, through John a Dean's hole, into
+Digbeth, from whence we set out. In marching along Duke-street, we leave
+about seventy houses to the left, and up the river Rea, about four
+hundred more in Deritend, reputed part of Birmingham, though not in
+the parish.
+
+This little journey, nearly of an oval form, is about seven miles. The
+longest diameter from Shirland brook to Deritend bridge is about three,
+and the widest, from the bottom of Walmer Lane to the rivulet, near the
+mile-stone, upon the Bromsgrove road, more than two.
+
+The superficial contents of the parish may be upwards of four miles,
+about three thousand acres.
+
+Birmingham is by much the smallest parish in the neighbourhood, those of
+Aston and Sutton are each about five times as large, Yardley four, and
+King's-Norton eight.
+
+When Alfred, that great master of legislation, parished out his kingdom,
+or rather, put the finishing hand to that important work; where he met
+with a town, he allotted a smaller quantity of land, because the
+inhabitants chiefly depended upon commerce; but where there was only a
+village, he allotted a larger, because they depended upon agriculture.
+
+This observation goes far in proving the antiquity of the place, for it
+is nine hundred years since this division took effect.
+
+The buildings occupy the south east part of the parish; perhaps, with
+their appendages, about six hundred acres.
+
+This south east part, being insufficient for the extraordinary increase
+of the inhabitants, she has of late extended her buildings along the
+Bromsgrove road, near the boundaries of Edgbaston; and actually on the
+other side planted three of her streets in the parish of Aston. Could
+the sagacious Alfred have seen into futurity, he would have augmented
+her borders.
+
+As no part of the town lies flat, the showers promote both cleanliness
+and health, by removing obstructions.
+
+The approach is on every side by ascent, except that from Hales-Owen,
+north west, which gives a free access of air, even to the most secret
+recesses of habitation.
+
+Thus eminently situated, the sun can exercise his full powers of
+exhalation.
+
+The foundation upon which this mistress of the arts is erected, is one
+solid mass of dry reddish sand.
+
+The vapours that rise from the earth are the great promoters of disease;
+but here, instead of the moisture ascending to the prejudice of the
+inhabitant, the contrary is evident; for the water descends through the
+pores of the sand, so that even our very cellars are habitable.
+
+This accounts for the almost total extinction of the ague among
+us:--During a residence of thirty years, I have never seen one person
+afflicted with it, though, by the opportunities of office, I have
+frequently visited the repositories of the sick.
+
+Thus peculiarly favoured, this happy spot, enjoys four of the greatest
+benefits that can attend human existence--water, air, the fun, and a
+situation free from damps.
+
+All the _past_ writers upon Birmingham have viewed her as low and
+watery, and with reason; because Digbeth, then the chief street, bears
+that description. But all the future writers will view her on an
+eminence, and with as much reason; because, for one low street, we have
+now fifty elevated.
+
+Birmingham, like the empire to which she belongs, has been, for many
+centuries, travelling _up hill_; and, like that, rising in consequence.
+
+
+
+SOIL.
+
+The soil is rather light, sandy, and weak; and though metals, of various
+sorts, are found in great plenty, _above_ the surface, we know of
+nothing below, except sand and gravel, stone and water. All the riches
+of the place, like those of an empiric, in laced cloaths, appear on the
+_outside_.
+
+The northern part of the parish, for about four hundred acres, to the
+disgrace of the age, is yet a shameful waste.
+
+A small part of the land near the town, is parcelled out into little
+gardens, at ten or twenty shillings each, amounting to about sixteen
+pounds per acre.
+
+These are not intended so much for profit, as health and amusement.
+
+Others are let in detached pieces for private use, at about four pounds
+per acre. So that this small parish cannot boast of more than six or
+eight farms, and these of the smaller size, at about two pounds per
+acre. Manure from the sty brings about 16s. per waggon load, that from
+the stable about 12, and that from the fire and the street, five.
+
+
+
+WATER.
+
+I think there is not any natural river runs through the parish, but
+there are three that mark the boundaries of it, for about half its
+circumference, described above; none of these supply family use. After
+penetrating into a body of sand, interspersed with a small strata of
+soft Rock, and sometimes of gravel; at the depth of about twenty yards,
+we come to plenty of water, rather hard. There are in the lower parts of
+the town, two excellent springs of soft water, suitable for most
+purposes; one at the top of Digbeth, the other, Lady-Well. Or rather,
+one spring, or bed of water, with many out-lets, continuing its course
+along the bottom of the hill, parallel with Small-brook-street,
+Edgbaston street, St. Martin's-lane, and Park-street; sufficiently
+copious to supply the whole city of London. Water is of the first
+consequence, it often influences disease, always the habit of body: that
+of Birmingham is in general productive of salutary effects.
+
+That dreadful disorder, the stone, is seldom found among us. I can
+recollect but very few, in my time, under this severe complaint, which
+is perhaps owing to that valuable element. I mentioned this remark to an
+eminent surgeon, who assured me, that, in his long course of practice,
+he had never been concerned in one operation in that unhappy disorder.
+
+
+
+BATHS.
+
+At Lady-Well, are the most complete baths in the whole Island. There are
+seven in number; erected at the expence of 2000_l_. Accommodation is
+ever ready for hot or cold bathing; for immersion or amusement; with
+conveniency for sweating. That, appropriated for swimming, is eighteen
+Yards by thirty-six, situated in the centre of a garden, in which are
+twenty four private undressing-houses, the whole surrounded by a wall 10
+feet high. Pleasure and health are the guardians of the place. The
+gloomy horrors of a bath, sometimes deter us from its use, particularly,
+if aided by complaint; but the appearance of these is rather inviting.
+We read of painted sepulchres, whose _outsides_ are richly ornamented,
+but _within_ are full of corruption and death. The reverse is before us.
+No elegance appears without, but within are the Springs of life! The
+expence was great, the utility greater.
+
+I do not know any author, who has reckoned man among the amphibious race
+of animals, neither do I know any animal who better deserves it. Man is
+lord of the little ball on which he treads, one half of which, at least,
+is water. If we do not allow him to be amphibious, we deprive him of
+half his sovereignty. He justly bears that name, who can _live_ in the
+water. Many of the disorders incident to the human frame are prevented,
+and others cured, both by fresh and salt bathing; so that we may
+properly remark, "_He lives in the water_, who can find life, nay, even
+_health_ in that friendly element."
+
+The greatest treasure on earth is health; but, a treasure, of all
+others, the least valued by the owner. Other property is best rated when
+in possession, but this, can only be rated when lost. We sometimes
+observe a man, who, having lost this inestimable jewel, seeks it with an
+ardour equal to its worth; but when every research by land, is eluded,
+he fortunately finds it in the water. Like the fish, he pines away upon
+shore, but like that, recovers again in the deep.
+
+Perhaps Venus is represented as rising from the ocean, which is no other
+then a bath of the larger size, to denote, that bathing is the refiner
+of health, consequently, of beauty; and Neptune being figured in
+advanced life, indicates, that it is a preservative to old age.
+
+The cure of disease among the Romans, by bathing, is supported by many
+authorities; among others, by the number of baths frequently discovered,
+in which, pleasure, in that warm climate, bore a part. But this practice
+seemed to decline with Roman freedom, and never after held the eminence
+it deserved. Can we suppose, the physician stept between disease and the
+bath, to hinder their junction; or, that he lawfully holds, by
+prescription, the tenure of sickness, in _fee_?
+
+The knowledge of this singular _art of healing_, is at present only in
+infancy. How far it may prevent, or conquer disease; to what measure it
+may be applied, in particular cases, and the degrees of use, in
+different constitutions, are enquiries that will be better understood by
+a future generation.
+
+
+
+AIR.
+
+As we have passed through the water, let us now investigate her sister
+fluid, the air. They are both necessary to life, and the purity of both
+to the prolongation of it; this small difference lies between them, a
+man may live a day without water, but not an hour without air: If a man
+wants better water, it may be removed from a distant place for his
+benefit; but if he wants air, he must remove himself.--The natural air
+of Birmingham, perhaps, cannot be excelled in this climate, the moderate
+elevation and dry soil evinces this truth; but it receives an alloy from
+the congregated body of fifty thousand people; also from the smoke of an
+extraordinary number of fires used in business; and perhaps, more from
+the various effluvia arising from particular trades. It is not uncommon
+to see a man with green hair or a yellow wig, from his constant
+employment in brass; if he reads, the green vestiges of his occupation
+remain on every leaf, never to be expunged. The inside of his body, no
+doubt, receives the same tincture, but is kept clean by being often
+washed with ale. Some of the fair sex, likewise are subject to the same
+inconvenience, but find relief in the same remedy.
+
+
+
+LONGEVITY.
+
+Man is a time-piece. He measures out a certain space, then stops for
+ever. We see him move upon the earth, hear him click, and perceive in
+his face the uses of intelligence. His external appearance will inform
+us whether he is old-fashioned, in which case, he is less valuable upon
+every gambling calculation. His face also will generally inform us
+whether all is right within. This curious machine is filled with a
+complication of movements, very unfit to be regulated by the rough hand
+of ignorance, which sometimes leaves a mark not to be obliterated even
+by the hand of an artist. If the works are directed by violence,
+destruction is not far off. If we load it with the oil of luxury, it
+will give an additional vigor, but in the end, clog and impede the
+motion. But if the machine is under the influence of prudence, she will
+guide it with an even, and a delicate hand, and perhaps the piece may
+move on 'till it is fairly worn out by a long course of fourscore years.
+
+There are a set of people who expect to find that health in medicine,
+which possibly might be found in regimen, in air, exercise, or
+serenity of mind.
+
+There is another class amongst us, and that rather numerous, whose
+employment is laborious, and whose conduct is irregular. Their time is
+divided between hard working, and hard drinking, and both by a fire. It
+is no uncommon thing to see one of these, at forty, wear the aspect of
+sixty, and finish a life of violence at fifty, which the hand of
+prudence would have directed to eighty.
+
+The strength of a kingdom consists in the multitude of its inhabitants;
+success in trade depends upon the manufacturer; the support and
+direction of a family, upon the head of it. When this useful part of
+mankind, therefore, are cut off in the active part of life, the
+community sustains a loss, whether we take the matter in a national, a
+commercial, or a private view.
+
+We have a third class, who shun the rock upon which these last fall, but
+wreck upon another; they run upon scylla though they have missed
+charybdis; they escape the liquid destruction, but split upon the solid.
+These are proficients in good eating; adepts in culling of delicacies,
+and the modes of dressing them. Matters of the whole art of cookery;
+each carries a kitchen in his head. Thus an excellent constitution may
+be stabbed by the spit. Nature never designed us to live well, and
+continue well; the stomach is too weak a vessel to be richly and deeply
+laden. Perhaps more injury is done by eating than by drinking; one is a
+secret, the other an open enemy: the secret is always supposed the most
+dangerous. Drinking attacks by assault, but eating by sap: luxury is
+seldom visited by old age. The best antidote yet discovered against this
+kind of slow poison is exercise; but the advantages of elevation, air,
+and water, on one hand, and disadvantages of crowd, smoke, and effluvia
+on the other, are trifles compared to intemperance.
+
+We have a fourth class, and with these I shall shut up the clock. If
+this valuable machine comes finished from the hand of nature; if the
+rough blasts of fortune only attack the outward case, without affecting
+the internal works, and if reason conduces the piece, it may move on,
+with a calm, steady, and uninterrupted pace to a great extent of years,
+'till time only annihilates the motion.
+
+I personally know amongst us a Mrs. Dallaway, aged near 90; George
+Davis, 85; John Baddally, Esq; and his two brothers, all between 80 and
+and 90; Mrs. Allen, 92; Mrs. Silk, 84; John Burbury, 84; Thomas Rutter,
+88; Elizabeth Bentley, 88; John Harrison and his wife, one 86, the other
+88; Mrs. Floyd, 87; Elizabeth Simms, 88; Sarah Aston, 98; Isaac Spooner,
+Esq; 89; Joseph Scott, Esq; 94; all at this day, January 9, 1780, I
+believe enjoy health and capacity. This is not designed as a complete
+list of the aged, but of such only as immediately occur to memory. I
+also knew a John England who died at the age of 89; Hugh Vincent, 94;
+John Pitt, 100; George Bridgens, 103; Mrs. More, 104. An old fellow
+assured me he had kept the market 77 years: he kept it for several years
+after to my knowledge. At 90 he was attacked by an acute disorder, but,
+fortunately for himself, being too poor to purchase medical assistance,
+he was left to the care of nature, who opened that door to health which
+the physician would have locked for ever. At 106 I heard him swear with
+all the fervency of a recruit: at 107 he died. It is easy to give
+instances of people who have breathed the smoak of Birmingham for
+threescore years, and yet have scarcely left the precincts of of youth.
+Such are the happy effects of constitution, temper, and conduct!
+
+
+
+_Ancient State of Birmingham_.
+
+We have now to pass through the very remote ages of time, without staff
+to support us, without light to conduct us, or hand to guide us. The way
+is long, dark, and slippery. The credit of an historian is built upon
+truth; he cannot assert, without giving his facts; he cannot surmise,
+without giving his reasons; he must relate things as they are, not as he
+would have them. The fabric founded in error will moulder of itself, but
+that founded in reality will stand the age and the critic.
+
+Except half a dozen pages in Dugdale, I know of no author who hath
+professedly treated of Birmingham. None of the histories which I have
+seen bestow upon it more than a few lines, in which we are sure to be
+treated with the noise of hammers and anvils; as if the historian
+thought us a race of dealers in thunder, lightning, and wind; or
+infernals, puffing in blast and smoak.
+
+Suffer me to transcribe a passage from Leland, one of our most
+celebrated writers, employed by Henry the VIIIth to form an itinerary of
+Britain, whose works have stood the test of 250 years. We shall observe
+how much he erred for want of information, and how natural for his
+successors to copy him.
+
+"I came through a pretty street as ever I entered, into Birmingham town.
+This street, as I remember, is called Dirtey (Deritend). In it dwells
+smithes and cutlers, and there is a brook that divides this street from
+Birmingham, an hamlet, or member, belonging to the parish therebye.
+
+"There is at the end of Dirtey a propper chappel and mansion-house of
+timber, (the moat) hard on the ripe, as the brook runneth down; and as I
+went through the ford, by the bridge, the water came down on the right
+hand, and a few miles below goeth into Tame. This brook, above Dirtey,
+breaketh in two arms, that a little beneath the bridge close again. This
+brook riseth, as some say, four or five miles above Birmingham, towards
+Black-hills.
+
+"The beauty of Birmingham, a good market-town in the extreme parts of
+Warwickshire, is one street going up alonge, almost from the left ripe
+of the brook, up a meane hill, by the length of a quarter of a mile, I
+saw but one parish-church in the town.
+
+"There be many smithes in the town that use to make knives and all
+manner of cutting tools, and many loriners that make bittes, and a
+great many naylers; so that a great part of the town is maintained by
+smithes, who have their iron and sea-coal out of Staffordshire."
+
+Here we find some intelligence, and more mistake, cloathed in the dress
+of antique diction, which plainly evinces the necessity of
+modern history.
+
+It is matter of surprise that none of those religious drones, the monks,
+who hived in the priory for fifteen or twenty generations, ever thought
+of indulging posterity with an history of Birmingham. They could not
+want opportunity, for they lived a life of indolence; nor materials, for
+they were nearer the infancy of time, and were possessed of historical
+fads now totally lost. Besides, nearly all the little learning in the
+kingdom was possessed by this class of people; and the place, in their
+day, must have enjoyed an eminent degree of prosperity.
+
+Though the town has a modern appearance, there is reason to believe it
+of great antiquity; my Birmingham reader, therefore, must suffer me to
+carry him back into the remote ages of the Ancient Britons to visit his
+fable ancestors.
+
+We have no histories of those times but what are left by the Romans, and
+these we ought to read with caution, because they were parties in the
+dispute. If two antagonists write each his own history, the discerning
+reader will sometimes draw the line of justice between them; but where
+there is only one, partiality is expected. The Romans were obliged to
+make the Britons war-like, or there would have been no merit in
+conquering them: they must also sound forth their ignorance, or there
+would have been none in improving them. If the Britons were that
+wretched people they are represented by the Romans, they could not be
+worth conquering: no man subdues a people to improve them, but to profit
+by them. Though the Romans at that time were in their meridian of
+splendor, they pursued Britain a whole century before they reduced it;
+which indicates that they considered it as a valuable prize. Though the
+Britons were not masters of science, like the Romans; though the fine
+arts did not flourish here, as in Rome, because never planted; yet by
+many testimonies it is evident they were masters of plain life; that
+many of the simple arts were practiced in that day, as well as in this;
+that assemblages of people composed cities, the same as now, but in an
+inferior degree; and that the country was populous is plain from the
+immense army Boadicia brought into the field, except the Romans
+increased that army that their merit might be greater in defeating it.
+Nay, I believe we may with propriety carry them beyond plain life, and
+charge them with a degree of elegance: the Romans themselves allow the
+Britons were complete masters of the chariot; that when the scythe was
+fixed at each end of the axle-tree, they drove with great dexterity into
+the midst of the enemy, broke their ranks, and mowed them down. The
+chariot, therefore, could not be made altogether for war, but, when the
+scythes were removed, it still remained an emblem of pride, became
+useful in peace, was a badge of high-life, and continues so with their
+descendants to this day.
+
+We know the instruments of war used by the Britons were a sword, spear,
+shield and scythe. If they were not the manufacturers, how came they by
+these instruments? We cannot allow either they or the chariots were
+imported, because that will give them a much greater consequence: they
+must also have been well acquainted with the tools used in husbandry,
+for they were masters of the field in a double sense. Bad also as their
+houses were, a chest of carpentry tools would be necessary to complete
+them. We cannot doubt, therefore, from these evidences, and others which
+might be adduced, that the Britons understood the manufactory of iron.
+Perhaps history cannot produce an instance of any place in an improving
+country, like England, where the coarse manufactory of iron has been
+carried on, that ever that laborious art went to decay, except the
+materials failed; and as we know of no place where such materials have
+failed, there is the utmost reason to believe our fore-fathers, the
+Britons, were supplied with those necessary implements by the black
+artists of the Birmingham forge. Iron-stone and coal are the materials
+for this production, both which are found in the neighbourhood in great
+plenty. I asked a gentleman of knowledge, if there was a probability of
+the delphs failing? He answered, "Not in five thousand years."
+
+The two following circumstances strongly evince this ancient British
+manufactory:--
+
+Upon the borders of the parish stands Aston-furnace, appropriated for
+melting ironstone, and reducing it into pigs: this has the appearance of
+great antiquity. From the melted ore, in this subterranean region of
+infernal aspect, is produced a calx, or cinder, of which there is an
+enormous mountain. From an attentive survey, the observer would suppose
+so prodigious a heap could not accumulate in one hundred generations;
+however, it shows no perceptible addition in the age of man.
+
+There is also a common of vast extent, called Wednesbury-old-field, in
+which are the vestiges of many hundreds of coal-pits, long in disuse,
+which the curious antiquarian would deem as long in sinking, as the
+mountain of cinders in rising.
+
+The minute sprig of Birmingham, no doubt first took root in this black
+soil, which, in a succession of ages, hath grown to its present
+opulence. At what time this prosperous plant was set, is very uncertain;
+perhaps as long before the days of Caesar as it is since. Thus the mines
+of Wednesbury empty their riches into the lap of Birmingham, and thus
+she draws nurture from the bowels of the earth.
+
+The chief, if not the only manufactory of Birmingham, from its first
+existence to the restoration of Charles the Second, was in iron: of this
+was produced instruments of war and of husbandry, furniture for the
+kitchen, and tools for the whole system of carpentry.
+
+The places where our athletic ancestors performed these curious
+productions of art, were in the shops fronting the street: some small
+remains of this very ancient custom are yet visible, chiefly in Digbeth,
+where about a dozen shops still exhibit the original music of anvil
+and hammer.
+
+As there is the highest probability that Birmingham produced her
+manufactures long before the landing of Caesar, it would give pleasure
+to the curious enquirer, could he be informed of her size in those very
+early ages; but this information is for ever hid from the historian, and
+the reader. Perhaps there never was a period in which she saw a decline,
+but that her progress has been certain, though slow, during the long
+space of two or three thousand years before Charles the Second.
+
+The very roads that proceed from Birmingham, are also additional
+indications of her great antiquity and commercial influence.
+
+Where any of these roads lead up an eminence, they were worn by the long
+practice of ages into deep holloways, some of them twelve or fourteen
+yards below the surface of the banks, with which they were once even,
+and so narrow as to admit only one passenger.
+
+Though modern industry, assisted by various turnpike acts, has widened
+the upper part and filled up the lower, yet they were all visible in the
+days of our fathers, and are traceable even in ours. Some of these, no
+doubt, were formed by the spade, to soften the fatigue of climbing the
+hill, but many were owing to the pure efforts of time, the horse, and
+the showers. As inland trade was small, prior to the fifteenth century,
+the use of the wagon, that great destroyer of the road, was but little
+known. The horse was the chief conveyor of burthen among the Britons,
+and for centuries after: if we, therefore, consider the great length of
+time it would take for the rains to form these deep ravages, we must
+place the origin of Birmingham, at a very early date.
+
+One of these subterranean passages, in part filled up, will convey its
+name to posterity in that of a street, called Holloway-head, 'till
+lately the way to Bromsgrove and to Bewdley, but not now the chief road
+to either. Dale-end, once a deep road, has the same derivation. Another
+at Summer-hill, in the Dudley road, altered in 1753. A remarkable one is
+also between the Salutation and the Turnpike, in the Wolverhampton road.
+A fifth at the top of Walmer-lane, changed into its present form in
+1764. Another between Gosta-green and Aston-brook, reduced in 1752.
+
+All the way from Dale-end to Duddeston, of which Coleshill-street now
+makes a part, was sunk five or six feet, though nearly upon a flat,
+'till filled up in 1756 by act of Parliament: but the most singular is
+that between Deritend and Camp-hill, in the way to Stratford, which is,
+even now, many yards below the banks; yet the seniors of the last age
+took a pleasure in telling us, they could remember when it would have
+buried a wagon load of hay beneath its present surface.
+
+Thus the traveller of old, who came to purchase the produce of
+Birmingham, or to sell his own, seemed to approach her by sap.
+
+British traces are, no doubt, discoverable in the old Dudley-road, down
+Easy-hill, under the canal; at the eight mile-stone, and at Smethwick:
+also in many of the private roads near Birmingham, which were never
+thought to merit a repair, particularly at Good-knaves-end, towards
+Harborne; the Green-lane, leading to the Garrison; and that beyond
+Long-bridge, in the road to Yardley; all of them deep holloways, which
+carry evident tokens of antiquity. Let the curious calculator determine
+what an amazing length of time would elapse in wearing the deep roads
+along Saltleyfield, Shaw-hill, Allum-rock, and the remainder of the way
+to Stichford, only a pitiful hamlet of a dozen houses.
+
+The ancient centre of Birmingham seems to have been the Old Cross, from
+the number of streets pointing towards it. Wherever the narrow end of a
+street enters a great thorough-fare, it indicates antiquity, this is the
+case with Philip-street, Bell-street, Spiceal-street, Park-street, and
+Moor-street, which not only incline to the centre above-mentioned, but
+all terminate with their narrow ends into the grand passage. These
+streets are narrow at the entrance, and widen as you proceed: the narrow
+ends were formed with the main street at first, and were not, at that
+time, intended for streets themselves. As the town increased, other
+blunders of the same kind were committed, witness the gateway late at
+the east end of New-street, the two ends of Worcester-street,
+Smallbrook-street, Cannon-street, New-meeting-streer, and Bull street;
+it is easy to see which end of a street was formed first; perhaps the
+south end of Moor street is two thousand years older than the north; the
+same errors are also committing in our day, as in Hill and Vale streets,
+the two Hinkleys and Catharine-street. One generation, for want of
+foresight, forms a narrow entrance, and another widens it by Act of
+Parliament.
+
+Every word in the English language carries an idea: when a word,
+therefore, strikes the ear, the mind immediately forms a picture, which
+represents it as faithfully as the looking-glass the face.--Thus, when
+the word Birmingham occurs, a superb picture instantly expands in the
+mind, which is best explained by the other words grand, populous,
+extensive, active, commercial and humane. This painting is an exact
+counter-part of the word at this day; but it does not correspond with
+its appearance, in the days of the ancient Britons--We must, therefore,
+for a moment, detach the idea from the word.
+
+Let us suppose, then, this centre surrounded with less than one hundred
+stragling huts, without order, which we will dignify with the name of
+houses; built of timber, the interfaces wattled with sticks, and
+plaistered with mud, covered with thatch, boards or sods; none of them
+higher than the ground story. The meaner sort only one room, which
+served for three uses, shop, kitchen, and lodging room; the door for
+two, it admitted the people and the light. The better sort two rooms,
+and some three, for work, for the kitchen, and for rest; all three in a
+line, and sometimes fronting the street.
+
+If the curious reader chooses to see a picture of Birmingham, in the
+time of the Britons, he will find one in the turnpike road, between
+Hales-owen and Stourbridge, called the Lie Waste, alias Mud City. The
+houses stand in every direction, composed of one large and ill-formed
+brick, scoped into a tenement, burnt by the sun, and often destroyed by
+the frost: the males naked; the females accomplished breeders. The
+children, at the age of three months, take a singular hue from the sun
+and the soil, which continues for life. The rags which cover them leave
+no room for the observer to guess at the sex. Only one person upon the
+premisses presumes to carry a belly, and he a landlord. We might as well
+look for the moon in a coal-pit, as for stays or white linen in the City
+of Mud. The principal tool in business is the hammer, and the beast of
+burden, the ass.
+
+The extent of our little colony of artists, perhaps reached nearly as
+high as the east end of New-street, occupied the upper part of
+Spiceal-street, and penetrated down the hill to the top of Digbeth,
+chiefly on the east.
+
+Success, which ever waits on Industry, produced a gradual, but very slow
+increase: perhaps a thousand years elapsed without adding half that
+number of houses.
+
+Thus our favourite plantation having taken such firm root, that she was
+able to stand the wintry blasts of fortune, we shall digress for a
+moment, while she wields her sparkling heat, according to the fashion of
+the day, in executing the orders of the sturdy Briton; then of the
+polite and heroic Roman; afterwards of our mild ancestors, the Saxons.
+Whether she raised her hammer for the plundering Dane is uncertain, his
+reign being short; and, lastly, for the resolute and surly Norman.
+
+It does not appear that Birmingham, from its first formation, to the
+present day, was ever the habitation of a gentleman, the lords of the
+manor excepted. But if there are no originals among us, we can produce
+many striking likenesses--The smoke of Birmingham has been very
+propitious to their growth, but not to their maturity.
+
+Gentlemen, as well as buttons, have been stamped here; but, like them,
+when finished, are moved off.
+
+They both originate from a very uncouth state, _without form or
+comeliness_; and pass through various stages, uncertain of success. Some
+of them, at length, receive the last polish, and arrive at perfection;
+while others, ruined by a flaw, are deemed _wasters_.
+
+I have known the man of opulence direct his gilt chariot _out_ of
+Birmingham, who first approached her an helpless orphan in rags. I have
+known the chief magistrate of fifty thousand people, fall from his
+phaeton, and humbly ask bread at a parish vestry.
+
+Frequently the wheel of capricious fortune describes a circle, in the
+rotation of which, a family experiences alternately, the heighth of
+prosperity and the depth of distress; but more frequently, like a
+pendulum, it describes only the arc of a circle, and that always at
+the bottom.
+
+Many fine estates have been struck out of the anvil, valuable
+possessions raised by the tongs, and superb houses, in a two-fold sense,
+erected by the trowel.
+
+The paternal ancestor of the late Sir Charles Holte was a native of this
+place, and purchaser, in the beginning of Edward the Third, of the
+several manors, which have been the honour and the support of his house
+to the present time.
+
+Walter Clodshale was another native of Birmingham, who, in 1332,
+purchased the manor of Saltley, now enjoyed by his maternal descendant,
+Charles Bowyer Adderley, Esq.
+
+Charles Colmore, Esq; holds a considerable estate in the parish; his
+predecessor is said to have occupied, in the reign of Henry the Eighth,
+that house, now No. 1, in the High-street, as a mercer, and general
+receiver of the taxes.
+
+A numerous branch of this ancient family flourishes in Birmingham at
+this day.
+
+The head of it, in the reign of James the First, erected New-hall, and
+himself into a gentleman. On this desirable eminence, about half a mile
+from the buildings, they resided till time, fashion, and success,
+removed them, like their predecessors, the sons of fortune, to a
+greater distance.
+
+The place was then possessed by a tenant, as a farm; but Birmingham, a
+speedy traveller, marched over the premises, and covered them with
+twelve hundred houses, on building leases; the farmer was converted into
+a steward: his brown hempen frock, which guarded the _outside_ of his
+waistcoat, became white holland, edged with ruffles, and took its
+station _within_: the pitchfork was metamorphosed into a pen, and his
+ancient practice of breeding up sheep, was changed into that of
+_dressing their skins_.
+
+Robert Philips, Esq; acquired a valuable property in the seventeenth
+century; now possessed by his descendant, William Theodore
+Inge, Esquire.
+
+A gentleman of the name of Foxall, assured me, that the head of his
+family resided upon the spot, now No. 101, in Digbeth, about four
+hundred years ago, in the capacity of a tanner.
+
+Richard Smallbroke, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, in the reign of
+George II. was a native of Birmingham, as his ancestors were for many
+ages, with reputation: he is said to have been born at number 2 in the
+High-street, had great property in the town, now enjoyed by his
+descendants, though they have left the place. The families also of
+Weaman, Jennings, Whalley, etc. have acquired vast property, and quitted
+the meridian of Birmingham; and some others are at this day ripe for
+removal. Let me close this bright scene of prosperity, and open another,
+which can only be viewed with a melancholy eye. We cannot behold the
+distresses of man without compassion; but that distress which follows
+affluence, comes with double effect.
+
+We have amongst us a family of the name of Middlemore, of great
+antiquity, deducible from the conquest; who held the chief possessions,
+and the chief offices in the county, and who matched into the first
+families in the kingdom, but fell with the interest of Charles the
+First; and are now in that low ebb of fortune, that I have frequently,
+with a gloomy pleasure, relieved them at the common charity-board of the
+town. Such is the tottering point of human greatness.
+
+Another of the name of Bracebridge, who for more than six hundred years,
+figured in the first ranks of life.
+
+A third of the name of Mountfort, who shone with meridian splendor,
+through a long train of ages. As genealogy was ever a favourite
+amusement, I have often conversed with these solitary remains of
+tarnished lustre, but find in all of them, the pride of their family
+buried with its greatness:--they pay no more attention to the arms of
+their ancestors, than to a scrap of paper, with which they would light
+their pipe. Upon consulting one of the name of Elwall, said to be
+descended from the Britons, I found him so amazingly defective, that he
+could not stretch his pedigree even so high as his grandfather.
+
+A fifth family amongst us, of the name of Arden, stood upon the pinnacle
+of fame in the days of Alfred the Great, where perhaps they had stood
+for ages before: they continued the elevation about seven hundred years
+after; but having treasonable charges brought against them, in the days
+of Queen Elizabeth, about two hundred years ago, they were thrown from
+this exalted eminence, and dashed to pieces in the fall. In various
+consultations with a member of this honourable house, I found the
+greatness of his family not only lost, but the memory of it also. I
+assured him, that his family stood higher in the scale of honour, than
+any private one within my knowledge: that his paternal ancestors, for
+about seven generations, were successively Earls of Warwick, before the
+Norman conquest: that, though he could not boast a descent from the
+famous Guy, he was related to him: that, though Turchell, Earl of
+Warwick at the conquest, his direct ancestor, lost the Earldom in favour
+of Roger Newburgh, a favourite of William's; yet, as the Earl did not
+appear in arms, against the Conqueror, at the battle of Hastings, nor
+oppose the new interest, he was allowed to keep forty-six of his manors:
+that he retired upon his own vast estate, which he held in dependence,
+where the family resided with great opulence, in one house, for many
+centuries, 'till their reduction above-mentioned. He received the
+information with some degree of amazement, and replied with a serious
+face,--"Perhaps there may have been something great in my predecessors,
+for my grandfather kept several cows in Birmingham and sold milk."
+
+The families of those ancient heroes, of Saxon and Norman race, are,
+chiefly by the mutations of time, and of state, either become extinct,
+or as above, reduced to the lowest verge of fortune. Those few
+therefore, whose descent is traceable, may be carried higher than that
+of the present nobility; for I know none of these last, who claim
+peerage beyond Edward the first, about 1295. Hence it follows, that for
+antiquity, alliance, and blood, the advantage is evidently in favour of
+the lowest class.
+
+Could one of those illustrious shades return to the earth and inspect
+human actions, he might behold one of his descendants, dancing at the
+lathe; another tippling with his dark brethren of the apron; a third
+humbly soliciting from other families such favours as were formerly
+granted by his own; a fourth imitating modern grandeur, by contracting
+debts he never designs to pay; and a fifth snuff of departed light,
+poaching, like a thief in the night, upon the very manors, possessed by
+his ancestors.
+
+Whence is it that title, pedigree, and alliance, in superior life, are
+esteemed of the highest value; while in the inferior, who have a prior
+claim, are totally neglected? The grand design of every creature upon
+earth, is to supply the wants of nature. No amusements of body or mind
+can be adopted, till hunger is served. When the appetite calls, the
+whole attention of the animal, with all its powers, is bound to answer.
+Hence arise those dreadful contests in the brute creation, from the lion
+in the woods, to the dog, who seizes the bone. Hence the ship, when her
+provisions are spent, and she becalmed, casts a savage eye, upon human
+sacrifices; and hence, the attention of the lower ranks of men, are too
+far engrossed for mental pursuit. They see, like Esau, the honours of
+their family devoured with a ravenous appetite. A man with an empty
+cupboard would make but a wretched philosopher. But if fortune should
+smile upon one of the lower race, raise him a step above his original
+standing, and give him a prospect of independence, he immediately begins
+to eye the arms upon carriages, examines old records for his name, and
+inquires where the Herald's office is kept. Thus, when the urgency of
+nature is set at liberty, the bird can whistle upon the branch, the fish
+play upon the surface, the goat skip upon the mountain, and even man
+himself, can bask in the sunshine of science. I digress no farther.
+
+The situation of St. Martin's church is another reason for fixing the
+original centre of Birmingham at the Old Cross. Christianity made an
+early and a swift progress in this kingdom; persecution, as might be
+expected, followed her footsteps, increased her votaries, and, as was
+ever the case, in all new religions, her proselytes were very devout.
+
+The religious fervor of the christians displayed itself in building
+churches. Most of those in England are of Saxon original, and were
+erected between the fourth and the tenth century; that of St. Martin's
+is ancient beyond the reach of historical knowledge, and probably rose
+in the early reigns of the Saxon kings.
+
+It was the custom of those times, to place the church, if there was but
+one, out of the precincts of the town; this is visible at the present
+day in those places which have received no increase.
+
+Perhaps it will not be an unreasonable supposition to fix the erection
+of St. Martin's, in the eighth century; and if the inquisitive reader
+chooses to traverse the town a second time, he may find its boundaries
+something like the following. We cannot allow its extension northward
+beyond the east end of New-street; that it included the narrow parts of
+Philip street, Bell street, Spiceal street, Moor street, and Park
+street. That the houses at this period were more compact than
+heretofore; that Digbeth and Deritend, lying in the road to Stratford,
+Warwick, and Coventry, all places of antiquity, were now formed. Thus
+the church stood in the environs of the town, unincumbered with
+buildings. Possibly this famous nursery of arts might, by this time,
+produce six hundred houses. A town must increase before its appendages
+are formed; those appendages also must increase before there is a
+necessity for an additional chapel, and after that increase, the
+inhabitants may wait long before that necessity is removed. Deritend is
+an appendage to Birmingham; the inhabitants of this hamlet having long
+laboured under the inconveniency of being remote from the parish church
+of Aston, and too numerous for admission into that of Birmingham,
+procured a grant in 1381 to erect a chapel of their own. If we,
+therefore, allow three hundred years for the infancy of Deritend, three
+hundred more for her maturity, and four hundred since the erection of
+her chapel, which is a very reasonable allowance. It will bring us to
+the time I mentioned.
+
+It does not appear that Deritend was attended with any considerable
+augmentation, from the Norman conquest to the year 1767, when a
+turnpike-road was opened to Alcester, and when Henry Bradford publicly
+offered a freehold to the man who should first build upon his estate;
+since which time Deritend has made a rapid progress: and this dusky
+offspring of Birmingham is now travelling apace along her new
+formed road.
+
+I must again recline upon Dugdale.--In 1309, William de Birmingham, Lord
+of the Manor, took a distress of the inhabitants of Bromsgrove and
+King's-norton, for refusing to pay the customary tolls of the market.
+The inhabitants, therefore, brought their action and recovered damage,
+because it was said, their lands being the ancient demesne of the crown,
+they had a right to sell their produce in any market in the King's
+dominions.
+
+It appeared in the course of the trial, that the ancestors of William de
+Birmingham had a MARKET HERE before the Norman conquest! I shall have
+occasion, in future, to resume this remarkable expression. I have also
+met with an old author, who observes, that Birmingham was governed by
+two Constables in the time of the Saxons; small places have seldom more
+than one. These evidences prove much in favour of the government,
+population, and antiquity of the place.
+
+In Domesday-book it is rated at four hides of land. A hide was as much
+as a team could conveniently plough in a year; perhaps at that time
+about fifty acres: I think there is not now, more than two hundred
+ploughed in the parish.
+
+It was also said to contain woods of half a mile in length, and four
+furlongs in breadth. What difference subsisted between half a mile and
+four furlongs, in ancient time, is uncertain; we know of none now. The
+mile was reduced to its present standard in the reign of Queen
+Elizabeth: neither are there the least traces of those woods, for at
+this day it is difficult to find a stick that deserves the name of a
+tree, in the whole manor.--Timber is no part of the manufactory of
+Birmingham.
+
+Let us survey the town a third time, as we may reasonably suppose it
+stood in the most remarkable period of English history, that of the
+conquest.
+
+We cannot yet go farther North of the centre than before, that is, along
+the High-street, 'till we meet the East end of New street. We shall
+penetrate rather farther into Moor-street, none into Park-street, take
+in Digbeth, Deritend, Edgbaston-street, as being the road to Dudley,
+Bromsgrove, and the whole West of England; Spiceal-street, the Shambles,
+a larger part of Bell street, and Philip-street.
+
+The ancient increase of the town was towards the South, because of the
+great road, the conveniency of water, the church, and the manor-house,
+all which lay in that quarter: but the modern extension was chiefly
+towards the North, owing to the scions of her trades being transplanted
+all over the country, in that direction, as far as Wednesbury, Walsall,
+and Wolverhampton. But particularly her vicinity to the coal delphs,
+which were ever considered as the soul of her prosperity. Perhaps by
+this time the number of houses might have been augmented to seven
+hundred: but whatever was her number, either in this or any other
+period, we cannot doubt her being populous in every æra of her
+existence.
+
+The following small extract from the register, will show a gradual
+increase, even before the restoration:
+
+     Year.  Christenings. Weddings.  Burials
+     1555,  37,           15,        27.
+     1558,  48,           10,        47.
+     1603,  65,           14,        40.
+     1625,  76,           18,        47.
+     1660,  76, from April to Dec. inclusive.
+
+In 1251, William de Birmingham, Lord of the Manor, procured an
+additional charter from Henry the Third, reviving some decayed
+privileges and granting others; among the last was that of the
+Whitsuntide fair, to begin on the eve of Holy Thursday, and to continue
+four days. At the alteration of the style, in 1752, it was prudently
+changed to the Thursday in Whitsun week; that less time might be lost to
+the injury of work and the workman. He also procured another fair, to
+begin on the eve of St. Michael, and continue for three days. Both which
+fairs are at this day in great repute.
+
+By the interest of Audomore de Valance, earl of Pembroke, a licence was
+obtained from the crown, in 1319 to charge an additional toll upon every
+article sold in the market for three years, towards paving the town.
+Every quarter of corn to pay one farthing, and other things in
+proportion.
+
+We have no reason to believe that either the town or the market were
+small at that time, however, at the expiration of the term, the toll
+was found inadequate to the expence, and the work lay dormant for
+eighteen years, till 1337, when a second licence was obtained, equal to
+the first, which completed the intention.
+
+Those streets, thus dignified with a pavement, or rather their sides, to
+accommodate the foot passenger, probably were High-street, the
+Bull-ring, Corn-cheaping, Digbeth, St. Martin's-lane, Moat-lane,
+Edgbaston-street, Spiceal-street, and part of Moor-street.
+
+It was the practice, in those early days, to leave the center of a
+street unpaved, for the easier passage of carriages and horses; the
+consequence was, in flat streets the road became extremely dirty, almost
+impassable, and in a descent, the soil was quickly worn away, and left a
+causeway on each side. Many instances of this ancient practice are
+within memory.
+
+The streets, no doubt, in which the fairs were held, mark the boundaries
+of the town in the thirteenth century. Though smaller wares were sold
+upon the spot used for the market, the rougher articles, such as cattle,
+were exposed to sale in what were then the _out-streets_. The fair for
+horses was held in Edgbaston-street, and that for beasts in the
+High-street, tending towards the Welch Cross.
+
+Inconvenient as these streets seem for the purpose, our dark ancestors,
+of peaceable memory, found no detriment, during the infant state of
+population, in keeping them there. But we, their crowded sons, for want
+of accommodation, have wisely removed both; the horse-fair, in 1777, to
+Brick-kiln-lane, now the extreme part of the town; and that for beasts,
+in 1769, into the open part of Dale-end.
+
+Whatever veneration we may entertain for ancient custom, there is
+sometimes a necessity to break it. Were we now to solicit the crown for
+a fair, those streets would be the last we should fix on.
+
+If we survey Birmingham in the twelfth century, we shall find her
+crowded with timber, within and without; her streets dirty and narrow;
+but considering the distant period, much trodden, yet, compared with her
+present rising state, but little.
+
+The inhabitant became an early encroacher upon nor narrow streets, and
+sometimes the lord was the greatest. Her houses were mean and low, but
+few reaching higher than one story, perhaps none more than two;
+composed of wood and plaister--she was a stranger to brick. Her public
+buildings consisted solely of one, _the church_.
+
+If we behold her in the fourteenth century, we shall observe her private
+buildings multiplied more than improved; her narrow streets, by
+trespass, become narrower, for she was ever chargeable with neglect; her
+public buildings increased to four, two in the town, and two at a
+distance, the Priory, of stone, founded by contribution, at the head of
+which stood her lord; the Guild, of timber, now the Free School; and
+Deritend Chapel, of the same materials, resembling a barn, with
+something like an awkward dove-coat, at the west end, by way of steeple.
+All these will be noticed in due course.
+
+If we take a view of the inhabitants, we shall find them industrious,
+plain, and honest; the more of the former, generally, the less of
+dishonesty, if their superiors lived in an homelier stile in that
+period, it is no wonder _they_ did. Perhaps our ancestors acquired more
+money than their neighbours, and not much of that; but what they had was
+extremely valuable: diligence will accumulate. In curious operations,
+known only to a few, we may suppose the artist was amply paid.
+
+Nash, in his History of Worcestershire, gives us a curious list of
+anecdotes, from the church-wardens ledger, of Hales-Owen. I shall
+transcribe two, nearly three hundred years old. "_Paid for bread and
+ale, to make my Lord Abbot drink, in Rogation week, 2d._" What should we
+now think of an ecclesiastical nobleman, accepting a two-penny treat
+from a country church-warden?
+
+This displays an instance of moderation in a class of people famous for
+luxury. It shows also the amazing reduction of money: the same sum which
+served my Lord Abbot four days, would now be devoured in four
+minutes.--"1498, _paid for repeyling the organs, to the organmaker at
+Bromicham_, 10_s_." Birmingham then, we find, discovered the powers of
+genius in the finer arts, as well as in iron. By '_the_ organmaker,' we
+mould suppose there was but one.
+
+It appears that the art of acquiring riches was as well understood by
+our fathers, as by us; while an artist could receive as much money for
+tuning an organ, as would purchase an acre of land, or treat near half a
+gross of Lord Abbots.
+
+
+
+BATTLE OF CAMP-HILL.
+
+1643.
+
+Clarendon reproaches with virulence, our spirited ancestors, for
+disloyalty to Charles the First.--The day after the King left
+Birmingham, on his march from Shrewsbury, in 1642, they seized his
+carriages, containing the royal plate and furniture, which they
+conveyed, for security, to Warwick Castle. They apprehended all
+messengers and suspected persons; frequently attacked, and reduced small
+parties of the royalists, whom they sent prisoners to Coventry.--Hence
+the proverbial expression of a refractory person, _Send him to
+Coventry_.
+
+In 1643, the King ordered Prince Rupert, with a detachment of two
+thousand men, to open a communication between Oxford and York. In his
+march to Birmingham, he found a company of foot, kept for the
+parliament, lately reinforced by a troop of horse from the garrison at
+Lichfield: but, supposing they would not resist a power of ten to one,
+sent his quarter masters to demand lodging, and offer protection.
+
+But the sturdy sons of freedom, having cast up slight works at each end
+of the town, and barricaded the lesser avenues, rejected the offer and
+the officers. The military uniting in one small and compact body,
+assisted by the inhabitants, were determined the King's forces mould not
+enter. Their little fire opened on the Prince: but bravery itself,
+though possessed of an excellent spot of ground for defence, was obliged
+to give way to numbers. The Prince quickly put them to silence; yet,
+under the success of his own arms, he was not able to enter the town,
+for the inhabitants had choaked up, with carriages, the deep and narrow
+road, then between Deritend and Camp-hill, which obliged the Prince to
+alter his route to the left, and proceed towards Long-bridge.
+
+The spirit of resistance was not yet broken; they sustained a second
+attack, but to no purpose, except that of laughter. A running fight
+continued through the town; victory declared loudly for the Prince; the
+retreat became general: part of the vanquished took the way to Oldbury.
+
+William Fielding, Earl of Denbigh, a volunteer under the Prince, being
+in close pursuit of an officer in the service of the parliament, and
+both upon the full gallop, up Shirland-lane, in the manor of Smethwick,
+the officer instantly turning, discharged a pistol at the Earl, and
+mortally wounded him with a random shot.
+
+The parliament troops were animated in the engagement by a clergyman,
+who acted as governor, but being taken in the defeat, and refusing
+quarter, was killed in the Red Lion-inn.
+
+The Prince, provoked at the resistance, in revenge, set fire to the
+town. His wrath is said to have kindled in Bull-street, and consumed
+several houses near the spot, now No. 12.
+
+He obliged the inhabitants to quench the flames with a heavy fine, to
+prevent farther military execution. Part of the fine is said to have
+been shoes and stockings for his people.
+
+The parliament forces had formed their camp in that well chosen angle,
+which divides the Stratford and Warwick roads, upon Camp-hill.
+
+The victorious Prince left no garrison, because their insignificant
+works were untenable; but left an humbled people, and marched to the
+reduction of Lichfield.
+
+In 1665, London was not only visited with the plague, but many other
+parts of England, among which, Birmingham felt this dreadful mark of the
+divine judgment.
+
+The infection is said to have been caught by a box of clothes, brought
+by the carrier, and lodged at the White-hart. Depopulation ensued. The
+church-yard was insufficient for the reception of the dead, who were
+conveyed to Ladywood-green, one acre of waste land, then denominated the
+Pelt Ground.
+
+The charter for the market has evidently been repeated by divers kings,
+both Saxon and Norman, but when first granted is uncertain, perhaps at
+an early Saxon date; and the day seems never to have been changed
+from Thursday.
+
+The lords were tenacious of their privileges; or, one would think, there
+was no need to renew their charter. Prescription, necessity, and
+increasing numbers, would establish the right.
+
+Perhaps, in a Saxon period, there was room sufficient in our
+circumscribed market-place, for the people and their weekly supplies;
+but now, their supplies would fill it, exclusive of the people.
+
+Thus by a steady and a persevering hand, she kept a constant and uniform
+stroke at the anvil, through a vast succession of ages: rising superior
+to the frowns of fortune: establishing a variety of productions from
+iron: ever improving her inventive powers, and perhaps, changing a
+number of her people, equal to her whole inhabitants, every sixteen
+years, till she arrived at another important period, the end of the
+civil wars of Charles the first.
+
+
+
+MODERN STATE
+
+OF
+
+BIRMINGHAM.
+
+It is the practice of the historian, to divide ancient history from
+modern, at the fall of the Roman Empire. For, during a course of about
+seven hundred years, while the Roman name beamed in meridian splendour,
+the lustre of her arms and political conduct influenced, more or less,
+every country in Europe. But at the fall of that mighty empire, which
+happened in the fifth century, every one of the conquered provinces was
+left to stand upon its own basis. From this period, therefore, the
+history of nations takes a material turn. The English historian divides
+his ancient account from the modern, at the extinction of the house of
+Plantagenet, in 1485, the fall of Richard the Third. For, by the
+introduction of letters, an amazing degree of light was thrown upon
+science, and also, by a new system of politics, adopted by Henry the
+Seventh, the British constitution, occasioned by one little act of
+parliament, that of allowing liberty to sell land, took a very
+different, and an important course.
+
+But the ancient and modern state of Birmingham, must divide at the
+restoration of Charles the Second. For though she had before, held a
+considerable degree of eminence; yet at this period, the curious arts
+began to take root, and were cultivated by the hand of genius. Building
+leases, also, began to take effect, extension followed, and numbers of
+people crowded upon each other, as into a Paradise.
+
+As a kind tree, perfectly adapted for growth, and planted in a suitable
+soil, draws nourishment from the circumjacent ground, to a great extent,
+and robs the neighbouring plants of their support, that nothing can
+thrive within its influence; so Birmingham, half whose inhabitants above
+the age of ten, perhaps, are not natives, draws her annual supply of
+hands, and is constantly fed by the towns that surround her, where her
+trades are not practised. Preventing every increase to those neighbours
+who kindly contribute to her wants. This is the case with Bromsgrove,
+Dudley, Stourbridge, Sutton, Lichfield, Tamworth, Coleshill,
+and Solihull.
+
+We have taken a view of Birmingham in several periods of existence,
+during the long course of perhaps three thousand years. Standing
+sometimes upon presumptive ground. If the prospect has been a little
+clouded, it only caused us to be more attentive, that we might not be
+deceived. But, though we have attended her through so immense a space,
+we have only seen her in infancy. Comparatively small in her size,
+homely in her person, and coarse in her dress. Her ornaments, wholly of
+iron, from her own forge.
+
+But now, her growths will be amazing; her expansion rapid, perhaps not
+to be paralleled in history. We shall see her rise in all the beauty of
+youth, of grace, of elegance, and attract the notice of the commercial
+world. She will also add to her iron ornaments, the lustre of every
+metal, that the whole earth can produce, with all their illustrious race
+of compounds, heightened by fancy, and garnished with jewels. She will
+draw from the fossil, and the vegetable kingdoms; press the ocean for
+shell, skin and coral. She will also tax the animal, for horn, bone, and
+ivory, and she will decorate the whole with the touches of her pencil.
+
+I have met with some remarks, published in 1743, wherein the author
+observes, "That Birmingham, at the restoration, probably consisted only
+of three streets." But it is more probable it consisted of fifteen,
+though not all finished, and about nine hundred houses.
+
+I am sensible, when an author strings a parcel of streets together, he
+furnishes but a dry entertainment for his reader, especially to a
+stranger. But, as necessity demands intelligence from the historian, I
+must beg leave to mention the streets and their supposed number
+of houses.
+
+     Digbeth, nearly the same as now, except
+       the twenty-tree houses between the two
+       Mill-lanes, which are of a modern date,
+       about                                      110
+     Moat-lane (Court-lane)                        12
+     Corn-market and Shambles                      40
+     Spiceal-street                                50
+     Dudley-street                                 50
+     Bell-street                                   50
+     Philip-street                                 30
+     St. Martin's-lane                             15
+     Edgbaston-street                              70
+     Lee's-lane                                    10
+     Park-street, extending from Digbeth nearly
+       to the East end of Freeman-street           80
+     More-street, to the bottom of Castle-street,  70
+     Bull-street, not so high as the Minories,     50
+     High-street,                                 100
+     Deritend;                                    120
+     Odd houses scattered round the verge of
+       the town                                    50
+                                                 ----
+                                                  907
+         The number of inhabitants,   5,472.
+
+The same author farther observes, "That from the Restoration to the year
+1700, the streets of Birmingham were increased to thirty one." But I can
+make their number only twenty-eight, and many of these far from
+complete. Also, that the whole number of houses were 2,504, and the
+inhabitants 15,032. The additional streets therefore seem to have been
+Castle-street, Carr's-lane, Dale-end, Stafford-street, Bull lane,
+Pinfold-street, Colmore-street, the Froggery, Old Meeting-street,
+Worcester-street, Peck-lane, New-street, (a small part,) Lower
+Mill-lane.
+
+From the year 1700 to 1731, there is said to have been a farther
+addition of twenty-five streets, I know of only twenty-three: and also
+of 1,215 houses, and 8,250 inhabitants. Their names we offer as
+under;--Freeman-street, New Meeting-street, Moor-street, (the North
+part), Wood-street, the Butts, Lichfield-street; Thomas's-street,
+John's-street, London-'prentice street, Lower priory, The Square,
+Upper-priory, Minories, Steel-house-lane, Cherry-street, Cannon-street,
+Needless-alley, Temple-street, King's street, Queen-street, Old
+Hinkleys, Smallbrook-street, and the East part of Hill-street.
+
+I first saw Birmingham July 14, 1741, and will therefore perambulate its
+boundaries at that time with my traveller, beginning at the top of
+Snow-hill, keeping the town on our left, and the fields that then were,
+on our right.
+
+Through Bull-lane we proceed to Temple-street; down Peck lane, to the
+top of Pinfold-street; Dudley-street, the Old Hinkleys to the top of
+Smallbrook street, back through Edgbaston-street, Digbeth, to the upper
+end of Deritend. We shall return through Park-street, Mass-house-lane,
+the North of Dale end, Stafford-street, Steel-house-lane, to the top of
+Snow-hill, from whence we set out.
+
+If we compare this account with that of 1731, we shall not find any
+great addition of streets; but those that were formed before, were much
+better filled up. The new streets erected during these ten years were
+Temple-row, except about six houses. The North of Park-street, and of
+Dale-end; also, Slaney-street, and a small part of the East side of
+Snow hill.
+
+From 1741, to the present year 1780, Birmingham seems to have acquired
+the amazing augmentation of seventy one streets, 4172 houses, and
+25,032 inhabitants.
+
+Thus her internal property is covered with new-erected buildings, tier
+within tier. Thus she opens annually, a new aspect to the traveller; and
+thus she penetrates along the roads that surround her, as if to unite
+with the neighbouring towns, for their improvement in commerce, in arts,
+and in civilization.
+
+I have often led my curious enquirer round Birmingham, but, like the
+thread round the swelling clue, never twice in the same tract. We shall
+therefore, for the last time, examine her present boundaries. Our former
+journey commenced at the top of Snow-hill, we now set off from
+the bottom.
+
+The present buildings extend about forty yards beyond the Salutation, on
+the Wolverhampton road. We now turn up Lionel-street, leaving St.
+Paul's, and about three new erected houses, on the right[1]; pass close
+to New-Hall, leaving it on the left, to the top of Great Charles-street,
+along Easy-hill: we now leave the Wharf to the right, down
+Suffolk-street, in which are seventy houses, leaving two infant streets
+also to the right, in which are about twelve houses each: up to
+Holloway-head, thence to Windmill-hill, Bow-street, Brick-kiln-lane,
+down to Lady-well, along Pudding-brook, to the Moat, Lloyd's
+Slitting-mill, Digbeth, over Deritend bridge, thence to the right, for
+Cheapside; cross the top of Bradford-street, return by the Bridge to
+Floodgate-street, Park-street, Bartholomew's-chapel, Grosvenor-street,
+Nova scotia-street, Woodcock-lane, Aston-street, Lancaster-street,
+Walmer-lane, Price's-street, Bath-street, to the bottom of Snow-hill.
+
+[Footnote 1: The above was written in May 1780, and the three houses are
+now, March 14, 1781, multiplied into fifty-five.]
+
+The circle I have described is about five miles, in which is much ground
+to be filled up. There are also beyond this crooked line, five clumps of
+houses belonging to Birmingham, which may be deemed hamlets.
+
+At the Sand-pits upon the Dudley-road, about three furlongs from the
+buildings, are fourteen houses.
+
+Four furlongs from the Navigation-office, upon the road to Hales-owen,
+are twenty-nine.
+
+One furlong from Exeter row, towards the hand, are thirty-four.
+
+Upon Camp-hill, 130 yards from the junction of the Warwick and Coventry
+roads, which is the extremity of the present buildings, are thirty-one.
+
+And two furlongs from the town, in Walmer-lane, are seventeen more.
+
+I shall comprize, in one view, the state of Birmingham in eight
+different periods of time. And though some are imaginary, perhaps they
+are not far from real.
+
+                               Streets.   Houses.    Souls.
+       In the time of the ancient
+     Britons,                                 80       400
+      A.D.     750,                  8       600      3000
+              1066,                  9       700      3500
+              1650,                 15       900      5472
+              1700,                 28      2504     15032
+              1731,                 51      3717     23286
+              1741,                 54      4114     24660
+              1780,                125      8382     50295
+
+In 1778, Birmingham, exclusive of the appendages, contained 8042 houses,
+48252 inhabitants.
+
+At the same time, Manchester consisted of 3402, houses, and 22440
+people.
+
+In 1779, Nottingham contained 3191 houses, and 17711 souls.
+
+It is easy to see, without the spirit of prophecy, that Birmingham hath
+not yet arrived at her zenith, neither is she likely to reach it for
+ages to come. Her increase will depend upon her manufactures; her
+manufactures will depend upon the national commerce; national commerce,
+will depend upon a superiority at sea; and this superiority may be
+extended to a long futurity.
+
+The interior parts of the town, are like those of other places,
+parcelled out into small free-holds, perhaps, originally purchased of
+the Lords of the Manor; but, since its amazing increase, which began
+about the restoration, large tracts of land have been huxtered out upon
+building leases.
+
+Some of the first that were granted, seem to have been about Worcester
+and Colmore streets, at the trifling annual price of one farthing per
+yard, or under.
+
+The market ran so much against the lesor, that the lessee had liberty to
+build in what manner he pleased; and, at the expiration of the term,
+could remove the buildings unless the other chose to purchase them. But
+the market, at this day, is so altered, that the lessee gives four-pence
+per yard; is tied to the mode of building, and obliged to leave the
+premisses in repair.
+
+The itch for building is predominant: we dip our fingers into mortar
+almost as soon as into business. It is not wonderful that a person
+should be hurt by the _falling_ of a house; but, with us, a man
+sometimes breaks his back by _raising_ one.
+
+This private injury, however, is attended with a public benefit of the
+first magnitude; for every "_House to be Let_," holds forth a kind of
+invitation to the stranger to settle in it, who, being of the laborious
+class, promotes the manufactures.
+
+If we cannot produce many houses of the highest orders in architecture,
+we make out the defect in numbers. Perhaps _more_ are erected here, in a
+given time, than in any place in the whole island, London excepted.
+
+It is remarkable, that in a town like Birmingham, where so many houses
+are built, the art of building is so little understood. The stile of
+architecture in the inferior sort, is rather showy than lasting.
+
+The proprietor generally contracts for a house of certain dimensions, at
+a stipulated price: this induces the artist to use some ingredients of
+the cheaper kind, and sometimes to try whether he can cement the
+materials with sand, instead of lime.
+
+But a house is not the only thing spoilt by the builder; he frequently
+spoils himself: out of many successions of house-makers, I cannot
+recollect one who made a fortune.
+
+Many of these edifices have been brought forth, answered the purposes
+for which they were created, and been buried in the dust, during my
+short acquaintance with Birmingham. One would think, if a man can
+survive a house, he has no great reason to complain of the shortness
+of life.
+
+From the external genteel appearance of a house, the stranger would be
+tempted to think the inhabitant possessed at least a thousand pounds;
+but, if he looks within, he sees only the ensigns of beggary.
+
+We have people who enjoy four or five hundred pounds a year in houses,
+none of which, perhaps, exceed six pounds per annum. It may excite a
+smile, to say, I have known two houses erected, one occupied by a man,
+his wife, and three children; the other pair had four; and twelve
+guineas covered every expence.
+
+Pardon, my dear reader, the omission of a pompous encomium on their
+beauty, or duration.
+
+I am inclined to think two thirds of the houses in Birmingham stand upon
+new foundations, and all the places of worship, except Deritend Chapel.
+
+About the year 1730, Thomas Sherlock, late Bishop of London, purchased
+the private estate of the ladies of the manor, chiefly land, about four
+hundred per annum.
+
+In 1758, the steward told me it had increased to twice the original
+value. The pious old Bishop was frequently solicited to grant building
+leases, but answered, "His land was valuable, and if built upon, his
+successor, at the expiration of the term, would have the rubbish to
+carry off:" he therefore not only refused, but prohibited his successor
+from granting such leases.
+
+But Sir Thomas Gooch, who succeeded him, seeing the great improvement of
+the neighbouring estates, and wisely judging fifty pounds per acre
+preferable to five, procured an act in about 1766, to set aside the
+prohibiting clause in the Bishop's will.
+
+Since which, a considerable town may be said to have been erected upon
+his property, now about 1600_l_. per annum.
+
+An acquaintance assured me, that in 1756 he could have purchased the
+house he then occupied for 400_l_. but refused. In 1770, the same house
+was sold for 600_l_. and in 1772, I purchased it for eight hundred and
+thirty-five guineas, without any alteration, but what time had made for
+the worse: and for this enormous price I had only an old house, which I
+was obliged to take down. Such is the rapid improvement in value, of
+landed property, in a commercial country.
+
+Suffer me to add, though foreign to my subject, that these premises were
+the property of an ancient family of the name of Smith, now in decay;
+where many centuries ago one of the first inns in Birmingham, and well
+known by the name of the Garland House, perhaps from the sign; but
+within memory, Potter's Coffee-house.
+
+Under one part was a room about forty-five feet long, and fifteen wide,
+used for the town prison.
+
+In sinking a cellar we found a large quantity of tobacco-pipes of a
+angular construction, with some very antique earthen ware, but no coin;
+also loads of broken bottles, which refutes the complaint of our pulpits
+against modern degeneracy, and indicates, the vociferous arts of getting
+drunk and breaking glass, were well understood by our ancestors.
+
+In penetrating a bed of sand, upon which had stood a work-shop, about
+two feet below the surface we came to a tumolus six feet long, three
+wide, and five deep, built very neat, with tiles laid flat, but no
+cement. The contents were mouldered wood, and pieces of human bone.
+
+I know of no house in Birmingham, the inns excepted, whose annual rent
+exceeds eighty pounds. By the lamp books, the united rents appear to be
+about seventy thousand, which if we take at twenty years purchase, will
+compose a freehold of 1,400,000_l_. value.
+
+If we allow the contents of the manor to be three thousand acres, and
+deduct six hundred for the town, five hundred more for roads, water, and
+waste land; and rate the remaining nineteen hundred, at the average rent
+of 2_l_. 10s. per acre; we shall raise an additional freehold of
+4,750_l_. per ann.
+
+If we value this landed property at thirty years purchase, it will
+produce 142,500_l_. and, united with the value of the buildings, the
+fee-simple of this happy region of genius, will amount to 1,542,500_l_.
+
+
+
+OF THE STREETS,
+
+AND
+
+THEIR NAMES.
+
+We accuse our short-sighted ancestors, and with reason, for leaving us
+almost without a church-yard and a market-place; for forming some of our
+streets nearly without width, and without light. One would think they
+intended a street without a passage, when they erected Moor-street; and
+that their successors should light their candles at noon.
+
+Something, however, may be pleaded in excuse, by observing the concourse
+of people was small, therefore a little room would suffice; and the
+buildings were low, so that light would be less obstructed: besides, we
+cannot guess at the future but by the present. As the increase of the
+town was slow, the modern augmentation could not then be discovered
+through the dark medium of time; but the prospect into futurity is at
+this day rather brighter, for we plainly see, and perhaps with more
+reason, succeeding generations will blame us for neglect. We occupy the
+power to reform, without the will; why else do we suffer enormities to
+grow, which will have taken deep root in another age? If utility and
+beauty can _be joined together_ in the street, why are they ever _put
+asunder_? It is easy for Birmingham to be as rapid in her improvement,
+as in her growth.
+
+The town consists of about 125 streets, some of which acquired their
+names from a variety of causes, but some from no cause, and others, have
+not yet acquired a name.
+
+Those of Bull street, Cannon street, London Prentice street, and Bell
+street, from the signs of their respective names.
+
+Some receive theirs from the proprietors of the land, as Smallbrook
+street, Freeman street, Colmore street, Slaney street, Weaman street,
+Bradford street, and Colmore row.
+
+Digbeth, or Ducks Bath, from the Pools for accommodating that animal,
+was originally Well street, from the many springs in its neighbourhood.
+
+Others derive a name from caprice, as Jamaica row, John, Thomas, and
+Philip streets.
+
+Some, from a desire of imitating the metropolis, as, Fleet-street,
+Snow-hill, Ludgate-hill, Cheapside, and Friday-street.
+
+Some again, from local causes, as High-street, from its elevation, St.
+Martin's-lane, Church-street, Cherry-street, originally an orchard,
+Chapel-street, Bartholomew-row, Mass-house-lane, Old and New
+Meeting-streets, Steelhouse-lane, Temple-row and Temple-street, also
+Pinfold-street, from a pinfold at No. 85, removed in 1752.
+
+Moor-street, anciently Mole-street, from the eminence on one side, or
+the declivity on the other.
+
+Park-street seems to have acquired its name by being appropriated to the
+private use of the lord of the manor, and, except at the narrow end next
+Digbeth, contained only the corner house to the south, entering
+Shut-lane, No. 82, lately taken down, which was called The Lodge.
+
+Spiceal-street, anciently Mercer-street, from the number of mercers
+shops; and as the professors of that trade dealt in grocery, it was
+promiscuously called Spicer-street. The present name is only a
+corruption of the last.
+
+The spot, now the Old Hinkleys, was a close, till about 1720, in which
+horses were shown at the fair, then held in Edgbaston-street. It was
+since a brick-yard, and contained only one hut, in which the
+brick-maker slept.
+
+The tincture of the smoky shops, with all their _black furniture_, for
+weilding gun-barrels, which afterwards appeared on the back of
+Small-brooke-street, might occasion the original name _Inkleys_; ink is
+well known; leys, is of British derivation, and means grazing ground; so
+that the etymology perhaps is _Black pasture_.
+
+The Butts; a mark to shoot at, when the bow was the fashionable
+instrument of war, which the artist of Birmingham knew well how to make,
+and to use.
+
+Gosta Green (Goose-stead-Green) a name of great antiquity, now in
+decline; once a track of commons, circumscribed by the Stafford road,
+now Stafford-street, the roads to Lichfield and Coleshill, now Aston and
+Coleshill-streets, and extending to Duke-street, the boundary of
+the manor.
+
+Perhaps, many ages after, it was converted into a farm, and was, within
+memory, possessed by a person of the name of Tanter, whence,
+Tanter-street.
+
+Sometimes a street fluctuates between two names, as that of Catharine
+and Wittal, which at length terminated in favour of the former.
+
+Thus the names of great George and great Charles stood candidates for
+one of the finest streets in Birmingham, which after a contest of two or
+three years, was carried in favour of the latter.
+
+Others receive a name from the places to which they direct, as
+Worcester-street, Edgbaston-street, Dudley-street, Lichfield-street,
+Aston-street, Stafford-street, Coleshill-street, and Alcester-street.
+
+A John Cooper, the same person who stands in the list of donors in St.
+Martin's church, and who, I apprehend, lived about two hundred and fifty
+years ago, at the Talbot, now No. 20, in the High-street, left about
+four acres of land, between Steelhouse-lane, St. Paul's chapel, and
+Walmer-lane, to make love-days for the people of Birmingham; hence,
+_Love-day-croft_.
+
+Various sounds from the trowel upon the premises, in 1758, produced the
+name of _Love-day-street_ (corrupted into Lovely-street.)
+
+This croft is part of an estate under the care of Lench's Trust; and, at
+the time of the bequest, was probably worth no more than ten shillings
+per annum.
+
+At the top of Walmer-lane, which is the north east corner of this croft,
+stood about half a dozen old alms-houses, perhaps erected in the
+beginning of the seventeenth century, then at a considerable distance
+from the town. These were taken down in 1764, and the present
+alms-houses, which are thirty-six, erected near the spot, at the expence
+of the trust, to accommodate the same number of poor widows, who have
+each a small annual stipend, for the supply of coals.
+
+This John Cooper, for some services rendered to the lord of the manor,
+obtained three privileges, That of regulating the goodness and price of
+beer, consequently he stands in the front of the whole liquid race of
+high tasters; that he should, whenever he pleased, beat a bull in the
+Bull-ring, whence arises the name; and, that he should be allowed
+interment in the south porch of St. Martin's church. His memory ought to
+be transmitted with honor, to posterity, for promoting the harmony of
+his neighbourhood, but he ought to have been buried in a dunghill, for
+punishing an innocent animal.--His wife seems to have survived him, who
+also became a benefactress, is recorded in the same list, and their
+monument, in antique sculpture, is yet visible in the porch.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+TRADE.
+
+Perhaps there is not by nature so much difference in the capacities of
+men, as by education. The efforts of nature will produce a ten-fold crop
+in the field, but those of art, fifty.
+
+Perhaps too, the seeds of every virtue, vice, inclination, and habit,
+are sown in the breast of every human being, though not in an equal
+degree. Some of these lie dormant for ever, no hand inviting their
+cultivation. Some are called into existence by their own internal
+strength, and others by the external powers that surround them. Some of
+these seeds flourish more, some less, according to the aptness of the
+soil, and the modes of assistance. We are not to suppose infancy the
+only time in which these scions spring, no part of life is exempt. I
+knew a man who lived to the age of forty, totally regardless of music. A
+fidler happening to have apartments near his abode, attracted his ear,
+by frequent exhibitions, which produced a growing inclination for that
+favourite science, and he became a proficient himself. Thus in advanced
+periods a man may fall in love with a science, a woman, or a bottle.
+Thus avarice is said to shoot up in ancient soil, and thus, I myself
+bud forth in history at fifty-six.
+
+The cameleon is said to receive a tincture from the colour of the object
+that is nearest him; but the human mind in reality receives a bias from
+its connections. Link a man to the pulpit, and he cannot proceed to any
+great lengths in profligate life. Enter him into the army, and he will
+endeavour to swear himself into consequence. Make the man of humanity an
+overseer of the poor, and he will quickly find the tender feelings of
+commiseration hardened. Make him a physician, and he will be the only
+person upon the premises, the heir excepted, unconcerned at the prospect
+of death. Make him a surgeon, and he will amputate a leg with the same
+indifference with which a cutler saws a piece of bone for a knife
+handle. You commit a rascal to prison because he merits transportation,
+but by the time he comes out he merits a halter. By uniting also with
+industry, we become industrious. It is easy to give instances of people
+whose distinguishing characteristic was idleness, but when they breathed
+the air of Birmingham, diligence became the predominant feature. The
+view of profit, like the view of corn to the hungry horse, excites
+to action.
+
+Thus the various seeds scattered by nature into the soul at its first
+formation, either lie neglected, are urged into increase by their own
+powers, or are drawn towards maturity by the concurring circumstances
+that attend them.
+
+The late Mr. Grenville observed, in the House of Commons, "That commerce
+tended to corrupt the morals of a people." If we examine the expression,
+we shall find it true in a certain degree, beyond which, it tends to
+improve them.
+
+Perhaps every tradesman can furnish out numberless instances of small
+deceit. His conduct is marked with a littleness, which though allowed by
+general consent, is not strictly just. A person with whom I have long
+been connected in business, asked, if I had dealt with his relation,
+whom he had brought up, and who had lately entered into commercial life.
+I answered in the affirmative. He replied, "He is a very honest fellow."
+I told him I saw all the finesse of a tradesman about him. "Oh, rejoined
+my friend, a man has a right to say all he can in favour of his own
+goods." Nor is the seller alone culpable. The buyer takes an equal share
+in the deception. Though neither of them speak their sentiments, they
+well understand each other. Whilst the treaty is agitating, the profit
+of the tradesman vanishes, yet the buyer pronounces against the article;
+but when finished, the seller whispers his friend, "It is well sold,"
+and the buyer smiles if a bargain.
+
+Thus is the commercial track a line of minute deceits.
+
+But, on the other hand, it does not seem possible for a man in trade to
+pass this line, without wrecking his reputation; which, if once broken,
+can never be made whole. The character of a tradesman is valuable, it is
+his all; therefore, whatever seeds of the vicious kind shoot forth in
+the mind, are carefully watched and nipped in the bud, that they may
+never blossom into action.
+
+Thus having slated the accounts between morality and trade, I shall
+leave the reader to draw the ballance. I shall not pronounce after so
+great a master, and upon so delicate a subject, but shall only ask,
+"Whether the people in trade are more corrupt than those out?"
+
+If the curious reader will lend an attentive ear to a pair of farmers in
+the market, bartering for a cow, he will find as much dissimulation as
+at St. James's, or at any other saint's, but couched in homelier phrase.
+The man of well-bred deceit is '_infinitely_ your friend--It would give
+him _immense_ pleasure to serve you!' while the man in the frock 'Will
+be ---- if he tells you a word of a lye!' Deception is an innate
+principle of the human heart, not peculiar to one man, or one
+profession.
+
+Having occasion for a horse, in 1759, I mentioned it to an acquaintance,
+and informed him of the uses: he assured me, he had one that would
+exactly suit; which he showed in the stable, and held the candle pretty
+high, _for fear of affecting the straw_. I told him it was needless to
+examine him, for I should rely upon his word, being conscious he was too
+much my friend to deceive me; therefore bargained, and caused him to be
+sent home. But by the light of the sun, which next morning illumined the
+heavens, I perceived the horse was _greased_ on all fours. I therefore,
+in gentle terms, upbraided my friend with duplicity, when he replied
+with some warmth, "I would cheat my own brother in a horse." Had this
+honourable friend stood a chance of selling me a horse once a week, his
+own interest would have prevented him from deceiving me.
+
+A man enters into business with a view of acquiring a fortune--A
+laudable motive! That property which rises from honest industry, is an
+honour to its owner; the repose of his age; the reward of a life of
+attention: but, great as the advantage seems, yet, being of a private
+nature, it is one of the least in the mercantile walk. For the
+intercourse occasioned by traffic, gives a man a view of the world, and
+of himself; removes the narrow limits that confine his judgment; expands
+the mind; opens his understanding; removes his prejudices; and polishes
+his manners. Civility and humanity are ever the companions of trade;
+the man of business is the man of liberal sentiment; a barbarous and
+commercial people, is a contradiction; if he is not the philosopher of
+nature, he is the friend of his country, and well understands her
+interest. Even the men of inferior life among us, whose occupations, one
+would think, tend to produce minds as callous as the mettle they work;
+lay a stronger claim to civilization, than in any other place with which
+I am acquainted. I am sorry to mutilate the compliment, when I mention
+the lower race of the other sex: no lady ought to be publicly insulted,
+let her appear in what dress she pleases. Both sexes, however, agree in
+exhibiting a mistaken pity, in cases of punishment, particularly by
+preventing that for misconduct in the military profession.
+
+It is singular, that a predilection for Birmingham, is entertained by
+every denomination of visitants, from Edward Duke of York, who saw us in
+1765, down to the presuming quack, who, griped with necessity, boldly
+discharges his filth from the stage. A paviour, of the name of Obrien,
+assured me in 1750, that he only meant to sleep one night in Birmingham,
+in his way from London to Dublin. But instead of pursuing his journey
+next morning, as intended, he had continued in the place thirty-five
+years: and though fortune had never elevated him above the pebbles of
+the street, yet he had never repented his stay.
+
+It has already been remarked that I first saw Birmingham in 1741,
+accidentally cast into those regions of civility; equally unknown to
+every inhabitant, nor having the least idea of becoming one myself.
+Though the reflections of an untaught youth of seventeen cannot be
+striking, yet, as they were purely natural, permit me to describe them.
+
+I had been before acquainted with two or three principal towns. The
+environs of all I had seen were composed of wretched dwellings, replete
+with dirt and poverty; but the buildings in the exterior of Birmingham
+rose in a style of elegance. Thatch, so plentiful in other towns, was
+not to be met with in this. I was surprised at the place, but more so at
+the people: They were a species I had never seen: They possessed a
+vivacity I had never beheld: I had been among dreamers, but now I saw
+men awake: Their very step along the street showed alacrity: Every man
+seemed to know and prosecute his own affairs: The town was large, and
+full of inhabitants, and those inhabitants full of industry. I had seen
+faces elsewhere tinctured with an idle gloom void of meaning, but here,
+with a pleasing alertness: Their appearance was strongly marked with the
+modes of civil life: I mixed a variety of company, chiefly of the lower
+ranks, and rather as a silent spectator: I was treated with an easy
+freedom by all, and with marks of favour by some: Hospitality seemed to
+claim this happy people for her own, though I knew not at that time from
+what cause.
+
+I did not meet with this treatment in 1770, twenty nine years after, at
+Bosworth, where I accompanied a gentleman, with no other intent, than to
+view the field celebrated for the fall of Richard the third. The
+inhabitants enjoyed the cruel satisfaction of setting their dogs at us
+in the street, merely because we were strangers. Human figures, not
+their own, are seldom seen in those inhospitable regions: Surrounded
+with impassable roads, no intercourse with man to humanise the mind, no
+commerce to smooth their rugged manners, they continue the boors
+of nature.
+
+Thus it appears, that characters are influenced by profession. That the
+great advantage of private fortune, and the greater to society, of
+softening and forming the mind, are the result of trade. But these are
+not the only benefits that flow from this desirable spring. It opens the
+hand of charity to the assistance of distress; witness the Hospital and
+the two Charity Schools, supported by annual donation: It adds to the
+national security, by supplying the taxes for internal use, and, for
+the prosecution of war. It adds to that security, by furnishing the
+inhabitants with riches, which they are ever anxious to preserve, even
+at the risk of their lives; for the preservation of private wealth,
+tends to the preservation of the state.
+
+It augments the value of landed property, by multiplying the number of
+purchasers: It produces money to improve that land into a higher state
+of cultivation, which ultimately redounds to the general benefit, by
+affording plenty.
+
+It unites bodies of men in social compact, for their mutual interest: It
+adds to the credit and pleasure of individuals, by enabling them to
+purchase entertainment and improvement, both of the corporeal and
+intellectual kind.
+
+It finds employment for the hand that would otherwise be found in
+mischief: And it elevates the character of a nation in the scale of
+government.
+
+Birmingham, by her commercial consequence, has, of late, justly assumed
+the liberty of nominating one of the representatives for the county;
+and, to her honor, the elective body never regretted her choice.
+
+In that memorable contest of 1774, we were almost to a man of one mind:
+if an _odd dozen_ among us, of a different _mould_, did not assimulate
+with the rest, they were treated, as men of free judgment should ever be
+treated, _with civility_, and the line of harmony was not broken.
+
+If this little treatise happens to travel into some of our corporate
+places, where the fire of contention, blown by the breath of party, is
+kept alive during seven years, let them cast a second glance over the
+above remark.
+
+Some of the first words after the creation, _increase and multiply_, are
+applicable to Birmingham; but as her own people are insufficient for the
+manufactures, she demands assistance for two or three miles round her.
+In our early morning walks, on every road proceeding from the town, we
+meet the sons of diligence returning to business, and bringing _in_ the
+same dusky smuts, which the evening before they took out. And though
+they appear of a darkish complexion, we may consider it is the property
+of every metal to sully the user; money itself has the same effect, and
+yet he deems it no disgrace who is daubed by fingering it; the disgrace
+lies with him who has none to finger.
+
+The profits arising from labour, to the lower orders of men, seem to
+surpass those of other mercantile places. This is not only visible in
+the manufactures peculiar to Birmingham, but in the more common
+occupations of the barber, taylor, shoe-maker, etc. who bask in the rays
+of plenty.
+
+It is entertaining to the curious observer, to contemplate the variation
+of things. We know of nothing, either in the natural or moral world,
+that continues in the same state: From a number of instances that might
+be adduced, permit me to name one--that of money. This, considered in
+the abstract, is of little or no value; but, by the common consent of
+mankind, is erected into a general arbitrator, to fix a value upon all
+others: a medium through which every thing passes: a balance by which
+they must be weighed: a touchstone to which they must be applied to find
+their worth: though we can neither eat nor drink it, we can neither eat
+nor drink without it.--He that has none best knows its use.
+
+It has long been a complaint, that the same quantity of that medium,
+money, will not produce so much of the necessaries of life, particularly
+food, as heretofore; or, in other words, that provisions have been
+gradually rising for many ages, and that the milling, which formerly
+supported the laborious family a whole week, will not now support it
+one day.
+
+In times of remarkable scarcity, such as those in 1728, 41, 56, 66, and
+74, the press abounded with publications on the subject; but none, which
+I have seen, reached the question, though short.
+
+It is of no consequence, whether a bushel of corn sells for six _pence_,
+or six _shillings_, but, what _time_ a man must labour before he
+can earn one?
+
+If, by the moderate labour of thirty-six hours, in the reign of Henry
+the Third, he could acquire a groat, which would purchase a bushel of
+wheat; and if, in the reign of George the Third, he works the same
+number of hours for eight shillings, which will make the same purchase,
+the balance is exactly even. If, by our commercial concerns with the
+eastern and the western worlds, the kingdom abounds with bullion, money
+must be cheaper; therefore a larger quantity is required to perform the
+same use. If money would go as far now as in the days of Henry the
+Third, a journeyman in Birmingham might amass a ministerial fortune.
+
+Whether provisions abound more or less? And whether the poor fare better
+or worse, in this period than in the other? are also questions dependant
+upon trade, and therefore worth investigating.
+
+If the necessaries of life abound more in this reign, than in that of
+Henry the Third, we cannot pronounce them dearer.
+
+Perhaps it will not be absurd to suppose, that the same quantity of
+land, directed by the superior hand of cultivation, in the eighteenth
+century, will yield twice the produce, as by the ignorant management of
+the thirteenth. We may suppose also, by the vast number of new
+inclosures which have annually taken place since the revolution, that
+twice the quantity of land is brought into cultivation: It follows, that
+four times the quantity of provisions is raised from the earth, than was
+raised under Henry the Third; which will leave a large surplus in hand,
+after we have deducted for additional luxury, a greater number of
+consumers, and also for exportation.
+
+This extraordinary stock is also a security against famine, which our
+forefathers severely felt.
+
+It will be granted, that in both periods the worst of the meat was used
+by the poor. By the improvements in agriculture, the art of feeding
+cattle is well understood, and much in practice; as the land improves,
+so will the beast that feeds upon it: if the productions, therefore, of
+the slaughter house, in this age, surpass those of Henry the Third, then
+the fare of the poor is at least as much superior now, as the worst of
+fat meat is superior to the worst of lean.
+
+The poor inhabitants in that day, found it difficult to procure bread;
+but in this, they sometimes add cream and butter.
+
+Thus it appears, that through the variation of things a balance is
+preserved: That provisions have not advanced in price, but are more
+plentiful: And that the lower class of men have found in trade, that
+intricate, but beneficial clue, which guides them into the confines
+of luxury.
+
+Provisions and the manufactures, like a pair of scales, will not
+preponderate together; but as weight is applied to the one, the other
+will advance.
+
+As labour is irksome to the body, a man will perform no more of it than
+necessity obliges him; it follows, that in those times when plenty
+preponderates, the manufactures tend to decay: For if a man can support
+his family with three days labour, he will not work six.
+
+As the generality of men will perform no more work than produces a
+maintenance, reduce that maintenance to half the price, and they will
+perform but half the work: Hence half the commerce of a nation is
+destroyed at one blow, and what is lost by one kingdom will be recovered
+by another, in rivalship.
+
+A commercial people, therefore, will endeavour to keep provisions at a
+superior rate, yet within reach of the poor.
+
+It follows also, that luxury is no way detrimental to trade; for we
+frequently observe ability and industry exerted to support it.
+
+The practice of the Birmingham manufacturer, for, perhaps, a hundred
+generations, was to keep within the warmth of his own forge.
+
+The foreign customer, therefore, applied to him for the execution of
+orders, and regularly made his appearance twice a year; and though this
+mode of business is not totally extinguished, yet a very different one
+is adopted.
+
+The merchant stands at the head of the manufacturer, purchases his
+produce, and travels the whole island to promote the sale: A practice
+that would have astonished our fore fathers. The commercial spirit of
+the age, hath also penetrated beyond the confines of Britain, and
+explored the whole continent of Europe; nor does it stop there, for the
+West-Indies, and the American world, are intimately acquainted with the
+Birmingham merchant; and nothing but the exclusive command of the
+East-India Company, over the Asiatic trade, prevents our riders from
+treading upon the heels of each other, in the streets of Calcutta.
+
+To this modern conduct of Birmingham, in sending her sons to the foreign
+market, I ascribe the chief cause of her rapid increase.
+
+By the poor's books it appears, there are not three thousand houses in
+Birmingham, that pay the parochial rates; whilst there are more then
+five thousand that do not, chiefly through inability. Hence we see what
+an amazing number of the laborious class of mankind is among us. This
+valuable part of the creation, is the prop of the remainder. They are
+the rise and support of our commerce. From this fountain we draw our
+luxuries and our pleasures. They spread our tables, and oil the wheels
+of our carriages. They are also the riches and the defence of
+the country.
+
+How necessary then, is it to direct with prudence, the rough passions of
+this important race, and make them subservient to the great end of civil
+society. The deficiency of conduct in this useful part of our species
+ought to be supplied by the superior.
+
+Let not the religious reader be surprised if I say, their follies, and
+even their vices, under certain restrictions, are beneficial. Corruption
+in the community, as well as in the natural body, accelerates vital
+existence.
+
+Let us survey one of the men, who begin life at the lowest ebb; without
+property, or any other advantage but that of his own prudence.
+
+He comes, by length of time and very minute degrees, from being directed
+himself, to have the direction of others. He quits the precincts of
+servitude, and enters the dominions of command: He laboured for others,
+but now others labour for him. Should the whole race, therefore, possess
+the same prudence, they would all become masters. Where then could be
+found the servant? Who is to perform the manual part? Who to execute the
+orders of the merchant? A world consisting only of masters, is like a
+monster consisting only of a head. We know that the head is no more than
+the leading power, the members are equally necessary. And, as one member
+is placed in a more elevated state than another, so are the ranks of
+men, that no void may be left. The hands and the feet, were designed to
+execute the drudgery of life; the head for direction, and all are
+suitable in their sphere.
+
+If we turn the other side of the picture, we shall see a man born in
+affluence, take the reins of direction; but like Phæton, not being able
+to guide them, blunders on from mischief to mischief, till he involves
+himself in destruction, comes prone to the earth, and many are injured
+by his fall. From directing the bridle, he submits to the bit; seeks for
+bread in the shops, the line designed him by nature; where his hands
+become callous with the file, and where, for the first time in his life,
+he becomes useful to an injured society.
+
+Thus, from imprudence, folly, and vice, is produced poverty;--poverty
+produces labour; from labour, arise the manufactures; and from these,
+the riches of a country, with all their train of benefits.
+
+It would be difficult to enumerate the great variety of trades practised
+in Birmingham, neither would it give pleasure to the reader. Some of
+them, spring up with the expedition of a blade of grass, and, like that,
+wither in a summer. If some are lasting, like the sun, others seem to
+change with the moon. Invention is ever at work. Idleness; the
+manufactory of scandal, with the numerous occupations connected with the
+cotton; the linen, the silk, and the woollen trades, are little
+known among us.
+
+Birmingham begun with the productions of the anvil, and probably will
+end with them. The sons of the hammer, were once her chief inhabitants;
+but that great croud of artists is now lost in a greater: Genius seems
+to increase with multitude.
+
+Part of the riches, extension, and improvement of Birmingham, are owing
+to the late John Taylor, Esq; who possessed the singular powers of
+perceiving things as they really were. The spring, and consequence of
+action, were open to his view; whom we may justly deem the Shakespear
+or the Newton of his day. He rose from minute beginnings, to
+shine in the commercial hemisphere, as they in the poetical and
+philosophical--Imitation is part of the human character. An example of
+such eminence in himself, promoted exertion in others; which, when
+prudence guided the helm, led on to fortune: But the bold adventurer who
+crouded sail, without ballast and without rudder, has been known to
+overset the vessel, and sink insolvent.
+
+To this uncommon genius we owe the gilt-button, the japanned and gilt
+snuff-boxes, with the numerous race of enamels--From the same fountain
+also issued the paper snuff-box, at which one servant earned three
+pounds ten shillings per week, by painting them at a farthing each.
+
+In his shop were weekly manufactured buttons to the amount of 800_l_
+exclusive of other valuable productions.
+
+One of the present nobility, of distinguished taste, examining the
+works, with the master, purchased some of the articles, amongst others,
+a toy of eighty guineas value, and, while paying for them, observed with
+a smile, "he plainly saw he could not reside in Birmingham for less than
+two hundred pounds a day."
+
+The toy trades first made their appearance in Birmingham, in the
+beginning of Charles the second, in an amazing variety, attended with
+all their beauties and their graces. The first in pre-eminence is
+
+
+
+The BUTTON.
+
+This beautiful ornament appears with infinite variation; and though the
+original date is rather uncertain, yet we well remember the long coats
+of our grandfathers covered with half a gross of high-tops, and the
+cloaks of our grandmothers, ornamented with a horn button nearly the
+size of a crown piece, a watch, or a John apple, curiously wrought, as
+having passed through the Birmingham press.
+
+Though the common round button keeps on with the steady pace of the day,
+yet we sometimes see the oval, the square, the pea, and the pyramid,
+flash into existence. In some branches of traffic the wearer calls
+loudly for new fashions; but in this, the fashions tread upon each
+other, and crowd upon the wearer. The consumption of this article is
+astonishing. There seem to be hidden treasures couched within this magic
+circle, known only to a few, who extract prodigious fortunes out of
+this useful toy, whilst a far greater number, submit to a statute of
+bankruptcy.
+
+Trade, like a restive horse, can rarely be managed; for, where one is
+carried to the end of a successful journey, many are thrown off by the
+way. The next that calls our attention is
+
+
+
+The BUCKLE.
+
+Perhaps the shoe, in one form or other, is nearly as ancient as the
+foot. It originally appeared under the name of, sandal; this was no
+other than a sole without an upper-leather. That fashion hath since been
+inverted, and we now, sometimes, see an upper-leather nearly without a
+sole. But, whatever was the cut of the shoe, it always demanded a
+fastening. Under the house of Plantagenet, it shot horizontally from the
+foot, like a Dutch scait, to an enormous length, so that the extremity
+was fattened to the knee, sometimes, with a silver chain, a silk lace,
+or even a pack-thread string, rather than avoid _genteel taste_.
+
+This thriving beak, drew the attention of the legislature, who were
+determined to prune the exorbitant shoot. For in 1465 we find an order
+of council, prohibiting the growth of the shoe toe, to more than two
+inches, under the penalty of a dreadful curse from the priest, and,
+which was worse, the payment of twenty shillings to the king.
+
+This fashion, like every other, gave way to time, and in its stead, the
+rose began to bud upon the foot. Which under the house of Tudor, opened
+in great perfection. No shoe was fashionable, without being fattened
+with a full-blown rose. Under the house of Stuart, the rose withered,
+which gave rise to the shoe-string.
+
+The beaus of that age, ornamented their lower tier with double laces of
+silk, tagged with silver, and the extremities beautified with a small
+fringe of the same metal. The inferior class, wore laces of plain silk,
+linen, or even a thong of leather; which last is yet to be met with in
+the humble plains of rural life. But I am inclined to think, the artists
+of Birmingham had no great hand in fitting out the beau of the
+last century.
+
+The revolution was remarkable, for the introduction of William, of
+liberty, and the minute buckle; not differing much in size and shape
+from the horse bean.
+
+This offspring of fancy, like the clouds, is ever changing. The fashion
+of to-day, is thrown into the casting pot to-morrow.
+
+The buckle seems to have undergone every figure, size and shape of
+geometrical invention: It has passed through every form in the whole
+zodiac of Euclid. The large square buckle is the _ton_ of the present
+day. The ladies also, have adopted the reigning taste: It is difficult
+to discover their beautiful little feet, covered with an enormous shield
+of buckle; and we wonder to see the active motion under the massive
+load. Thus the British fair support the manufactures of Birmingham, and
+thus they kill by weight of metal.
+
+
+
+GUNS.
+
+Though the sword and the gun are equal companions in war, it does not
+appear they are of equal original. I have already observed, that the
+sword was the manufacture of Birmingham, in the time of the Britons.
+
+But tradition tells us, King William was once lamenting "That guns were
+not manufactured in his dominions, but that he was obliged to procure
+them from Holland at a great expence, and greater difficulty."
+
+One of the Members for Warwickshire being present, told the King, "He
+thought his constituents could answer his Majesty's wishes."--The King
+was pleased with the remark, and the Member posted to Birmingham. Upon
+application to a person in Digbeth, whose name I forget, the pattern was
+executed with precision, which, when presented to the royal board, gave
+entire satisfaction. Orders were immediately issued for large numbers,
+which have been so frequently repeated that they never lost their road;
+and the ingenious artists have been so amply rewarded, that they have
+rolled in their carriages to this day.--Thus the same instrument which
+is death to one man, is genteel life to another.
+
+
+
+LEATHER.
+
+It may seem singular to a modern eye, to view this place in the light of
+one vast tan-yard.--Though there is no appearance of that necessary
+article among us, yet Birmingham was once a famous market for leather.
+Digbeth not only abounded with tanners, but large numbers of hides
+arrived weekly for sale, where the whole country found a supply. When
+the weather would allow, they were ranged in columns in the High-street,
+and at other times deposited in the Leather-hall, at the East end of
+New-street, appropriated for their reception.
+
+This market was of great antiquity, perhaps not less than seven hundred
+years, and continued till the beginning of the present century. We have
+two officers, annually chosen, by the name of _leather-sealers_, from a
+power given them by ancient charter, to mark the vendible hides; but now
+the leather-sealers have no duty, but that of taking an elegant dinner.
+Shops are erected upon tan-fats; the Leather-hall is gone to
+destruction, and we are reduced to one solitary tanner.
+
+
+
+STEEL.
+
+The progress of the arts, is equal to the progress of time; they began,
+and will end together. Though some of both are lost, yet they both
+accumulate.
+
+The manufacture of iron, in Birmingham, is ancient beyond research; that
+of steel is of modern date.
+
+Pride is inseparable from the human character, the man without it, is
+the man without breath: we trace it in various forms, through every
+degree of people; but like those objects about us, it is best
+discovered in our own sphere; those above, and those below us, rather
+escape our notice; envy attacks an equal.
+
+Pride induced the Pope to look with contempt on the European Princes,
+and now induces them to return the compliment; it taught insolence to
+the Spaniard, selfishness to the Dutch; it teaches the rival nations of
+France and England to contend for power.
+
+Pride preserves a man from mean actions, it throws him upon meaner; it
+whets the sword for destruction; it urges the laudable acts of humanity;
+it is the universal hinge on which we move; it glides the gentle stream
+of usefulness, it overflows the mounds of reason, and swells into a
+destructive flood; like the sun, in his milder rays, it animates and
+draws us towards perfection; but, like him, in his fiercer beams, it
+scorches and destroys.
+
+Money is not the necessary attendant of pride, for it abounds no where
+more than in the lowest ranks. It adds a sprucer air to a sunday dress;
+casts a look of disdain from a bundle of rags; it boasts the _honor_ of
+a family, while poverty unites a sole and upper-leather with a bandage
+of shop-thread. There are people who even _pride_ themselves in
+humility.
+
+This dangerous _good_, this necessary _evil_, supports the female
+character; without it, the brightest part of the creation would
+degenerate.
+
+It will be asked, "What portion may be allowed?" Prudence will answer,
+"As much as you please, but _not_ to disgust."
+
+It is equally found in the senate-house, or the button-shop; the scene
+of action is the scene of pride; and I, unable to adorn this work with
+erudition, take a pride in cloathing a worn-out subject afresh, and that
+pride will increase, should the world smi ---- "But why, says my friend,
+do you forsake the title of your chapter, and lead us a dance through
+the mazes of pride? Can there be any connexion between that sovereign
+passion, and forging a bar of steel?" Yes, he who makes steel prides
+himself in carrying the art one step higher than he who makes iron.
+
+This art appeared among us in the seventeenth century; was introduced by
+the family of Kettle. The name of Steelhouse-lane will convey to
+posterity the situation of the works, the commercial spirit of
+Birmingham, will convey the produce to the Antipodes.
+
+From this warm, but dismal climate, issues the button, which shines on
+the breast, and the bayonet, intended to pierce it; the lancet, which
+bleeds the man, and the rowel, the horse; the lock, which preserves the
+beloved bottle, and the screw, to uncork it; the needle, equally
+obedient to the thimble and the pole.
+
+
+
+NAILS.
+
+In most occupations, the profit of the master and the journeyman bear a
+proportion: if the former is able to figure in genteel life, the latter
+is able to figure in silk stockings. If the matter can afford to allow
+upon his goods ten per cent. discount for money, the servant can afford
+to squander half his wages. In a worn-down trade, where the tides of
+profit are reduced to a low ebb, and where imprudence sets her foot upon
+the premises, the matter and the man starve together. Only _half_ this
+is our present case.
+
+The art of nail-making is one of the most ancient among us; we may
+safely charge its antiquity with four figures.
+
+We cannot consider it a trade _in_, so much as _of_ Birmingham; for we
+have but few nail-makers left in the town: our nailers are chiefly
+masters, and rather opulent. The manufacturers are so scattered round
+the country, that we cannot travel far, in any direction, out of the
+sound of the nail-hammer. But Birmingham, like a powerful magnet, draws
+the produce of the anvil to herself.
+
+When I first approached her, from Walsall, in 1741, I was surprized at
+the prodigious number of blacksmiths shops upon the road; and could not
+conceive how a country, though populous, could support so many people of
+the same occupation. In some of these shops I observed one, or more
+females, stript of their upper garment, and not overcharged with their
+lower, wielding the hammer with all the grace of the sex. The beauties
+of their face were rather eclipsed by the smut of the anvil; or, in
+poetical phrase, the tincture of the forge had taken possession of those
+lips, which might have been taken by the kiss.
+
+Struck with the novelty, I inquired, "Whether the ladies in this country
+shod horses?" but was answered, with a smile, "They are nailers."
+
+A fire without heat, a nailer of a fair complexion, or one who despises
+the tankard, are equally rare among them. His whole system of faith may
+be comprised in one article--That the slender two-penny mug, used in a
+public house, _is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked_.
+
+While the master reaps the harvest of plenty, the workman submits to the
+scanty gleanings of penury, a thin habit, an early old age, and a
+figure bending towards the earth. Plenty comes not near his dwelling,
+except of rags, and of children. But few recruits arise from his
+nail-shop, except for the army. His hammer is worn into deep hollows,
+fitting the fingers of a dark and plump hand, hard as the timber it
+wears. His face, like the moon, is often seen through a cloud.
+
+
+
+BELLOWS.
+
+Man first catches the profession; the profession afterwards moulds the
+man.
+
+In whatever profession we engage, we assume its character, become a part
+of it, vindicate its honor, its eminence, its antiquity; or feel a wound
+through its sides.
+
+Though there may be no more pride in a minister of state, who opens a
+budget, than in a tinker who carries one, yet they equally contend for
+the honor of their trade.
+
+Every man, from the attorney's clerk to the butcher's apprentice, feels
+his own honor, with that of his profession, wounded by travelling on
+foot. To be caught on his feet, is nearly the same as to be caught in a
+crime. The man who has gathered up his limbs, and hung them on a horse,
+looks _down_ with dignity on him who has not; while the man on foot
+offers his humble bow, afraid to look up--If providence favours us with
+feet, is it a disgrace to use them?--I could instance a person who
+condescended to quit London, that center of trick, lace, and equipage;
+and in 1761, open a draper's shop in Birmingham: but his feet, or his
+_pride_, were so much hurt by walking, that he could scarcely travel ten
+doors from his own without a post-chaise--the result was, he became such
+an adept in riding, that in a few months, he rode triumphant into the
+Gazette. Being quickly scoured bright by the ill-judged laws of
+bankruptcy, he rode, for the last time, _out_ of Birmingham, where he
+had so often rode _in_: but his injured creditors were obliged to _walk_
+after the slender dividend of eighteen pence in the pound. The man who
+_can_ use his feet, is envied by him who _cannot_; and he, in turn,
+envies him who _will_ not. Our health and our feet, in a double sense,
+go together. The human body has been justly compared to a musical
+instrument; I add, this instrument was never perfectly in tune, without
+a due portion of exercise.
+
+The man of military character, puts on, with his scarlet, that martial
+air, which tells us, "he has formed a resolution to kill:" and we
+naturally ask, "Which sex?"
+
+Some "_pert and affected author_" with anxiety on his brow, will be apt
+to step forward, and say, "Will you celebrate the man of the sword, who
+transfers the blush of his face to his back, and neglect the man of the
+quill, who, like the pelican, portions out his vitals to feed others?
+Which is preferable, he who lights up the mental powers, or he who puts
+them out? the man who stores the head with knowledge, or he who stores
+it with a bullet?"
+
+The antiquarian supports his dignity with a solemn aspect; he treats a
+sin and a smile as synonimous; one half of which has been discarded from
+his childhood. If a smile in the house of religion, or of mourning, be
+absurd, is there any reason to expel it from those places where it is
+not? A tale will generally allow of two ingredients, _information_ and
+_amusement_: but the historian and the antiquarian have, from time
+immemorial, used but _one_. Every smile, except that of contempt, is
+beneficial to the constitution; they tend to promote long life, and
+pleasure while that life lasts. Much may be said in favour of tears of
+joy, but more on joy without tears. I wonder the lively fancy of Hogarth
+never sketched the _dull_ historian, in the figure of an ass, plodding
+to market under his panniers, laden with the fruits of antiquity, and
+old time driving up the _rear_, with his scythe converted into an
+hedge-stake.
+
+The bellows-maker proclaims the _honor_ of his art, by observing, he
+alone produces that instrument which commands the winds; his soft
+breeze, like that of the south, counter-acts the chill blasts of winter:
+by his efforts, like those of the sun, the world receives light: he
+creates when he pleases, and gives _breath_ when he creates. In his
+caverns the winds deep at pleasure; and by his _orders_ they set Europe
+in flames.
+
+He pretends, that a gentle puff in the eyes of a _reviewer_, from a pair
+of his bellows, would tend to clear the sight, and enable him to
+distinguish between a smile and a serious face: that his circular board,
+like a ferula, applied by the handle to an inferior part, would induce
+him to peruse the _whole treatise_, and not partially pronounce from
+the preface.
+
+He farther pretends, that the _antiquity_ of his occupation will appear
+from the plenty of elm, once in the neighbourhood, but long cut up for
+his use: that the leather-market in Birmingham, for many ages, furnished
+him with sides; and though the manufacture of iron is allowed to be
+extremely ancient, yet the smith could not procure his heat without a
+blast, nor could that blast be raised without the bellows.
+
+Two inferences arise from these remarks, that the antiquarian will frown
+on this little history; and that bellows-making is one of the oldest
+trades in Birmingham.
+
+
+
+THREAD.
+
+We, who reside in the interior parts of the kingdom, may observe the
+first traces of a river issue from its fountain; the current so
+extremely small, that if a bottle of liquor, distilled through the
+urinary vessels, was discharged into its course, it would manifestly
+augment the water, and quicken the stream: the reviving bottle, having
+added spirits to the man, seems to add spirits to the river.--If we
+pursue this river, winding through one hundred and thirty miles, we
+shall observe it collect strength as it runs, expand its borders, swell
+into consequence, employ multitudes of people, carry wealth in its
+bosom, and exactly resemble _thread-making_ in Birmingham.
+
+If we represent to our idea, a man able to employ three or four people,
+himself in an apron, one of the number; but being _unable_ to write his
+name, shows his attachment to the christian religion, by signing the
+_cross_ to receipts; whose method of book-keeping, like that of the
+publican, is _a door and a lump of chalk;_ producing a book which none
+can peruse but himself: who, having manufactured 40lb. weight of thread,
+of divers colours, and rammed it into a pair of leather bags, something
+larger than a pair of boots, which we might deem the arms of his trade
+_empaled_; flung them on a horse, and placed himself on the top, by way
+of a _crest_; visits an adjacent market, to starve with his goods at a
+stall, or retail them to the mercer, nor return without the money--we
+shall see a thread-maker of 1652.
+
+If we pursue this occupation, winding through the mazes of one hundred
+and thirty _years_, we shall see it enlarge its boundaries, multiply its
+people, increase its consequence and wealth, till 1782, when we behold
+the matter in possession of correct accounts, the apron thrown aside,
+the stall kicked over, the bags tossed into the garret, and the mercer
+overlooked in the grand prospect of exportation. We farther behold him
+take the lead in provincial concerns, step into his own carriage, and
+hold the king's commission as a magistrate.
+
+
+
+PRINTING,
+
+By JOHN BASKERVILLE.
+
+The pen of an historian rejoices in the actions of the great; the fame
+of the deserving, like an oak tree, is of sluggish growth; and, like the
+man himself, they are not matured in a day. The present generation
+becomes debtor to him who excels, but the future will discharge that
+debt with more than simple interest. The still voice of fame may warble
+in his ears towards the close of life, but her trumpet seldom sounds in
+full clarion, till those ears are stopped with the finger of death.
+
+This son of genius was born at Wolverley, in the county of Worcester, in
+1706; heir to a paternal estate of 60_l_. per annum, which, fifty years
+after, while in his own possession, had increased to 90_l_. He was
+trained to no occupation; but, in 1726, became a writing-matter in
+Birmingham.--In 1737, he taught school in the Bull-ring, and is said to
+have written an excellent hand.
+
+As painting suited his talents, he entered into the lucrative branch of
+japanning, and resided at No. 22, in Moor-street.
+
+He took, in 1745, a building lease of eight acres, two furlongs north
+west of the town, to which he gave the name of _Easy-hill_, converted it
+into a little Eden, and built a house in the center: but the town, as if
+conscious of his merit, followed his retreat, and surrounded it with
+buildings.--Here he continued the business of a japanner for life: his
+carriage, each pannel of which was a distinct picture, might be
+considered _the pattern-card of his trade_, and was drawn by a beautiful
+pair of cream-coloured horses.
+
+His inclination for letters induced him, in 1750, to turn his thoughts
+towards the press. He spent many years in the uncertain pursuit; sunk
+600_l_. before he could produce one letter to please himself, and some
+thousands before the shallow stream of profit began to flow.
+
+His first attempt, in 1756, was a quarto edition of Virgil, price one
+guinea, now worth several.--He afterwards printed Paradise Lost, the
+Bible, Common Prayer, Roman and English Classics, etc. in various sizes,
+with more satisfaction to the literary world than emolument to himself.
+
+In 1765, he applied to his friend, Dr. Franklin, then at Paris, and now
+Ambassador from America, to sound the literati, respecting the purchase
+of his types; but received for answer, "That the French, reduced by the
+war of 1756, were so far from pursuing schemes of taste, that they were
+unable to repair their public buildings, but suffered the scaffolding to
+rot before them."
+
+In private life he was a humorist; idle in the extreme; but his
+invention was of the true Birmingham model, active. He could well
+design, but procured others to execute; wherever he found merit he
+caressed it: he was remarkably polite to the stranger; fond of show: a
+figure rather of the smaller size, and delighted to adorn that figure
+with gold lace.--Although constructed with the light timbers of a
+frigate, his movement was solemn as a ship of the line.
+
+During the twenty-five years I knew him, though in the decline of life,
+he retained the singular traces of a handsome man. If he exhibited a
+peevish temper, we may consider good-nature and intense thinking are
+not always found together.
+
+Taste accompanied him through the different walks of agriculture,
+architecture, and the finer arts. Whatever passed through his fingers,
+bore the lively marks of John Baskerville.
+
+His aversion to christianity would not suffer him to lie among
+christians; he therefore erected a mausoleum in his own grounds for his
+remains, and died without issue, in 1775, at the age of 69.--Many
+efforts were used after his death, to dispose of the types; but, to the
+lading discredit of the British nation, no purchaser could be found in
+the whole commonwealth of letters. The universities coldly rejected the
+offer. The London booksellers understood no science like that of profit.
+The valuable property, therefore, lay a dead weight, till purchased by a
+literary society at Paris, in 1779, for 3700_l_.
+
+It is an old remark, that no country abounds with genius so much as this
+island; and it is a remark nearly as old, that genius is no where so
+little rewarded; how else came Dryden, Goldsmith, and Chatterton to want
+bread? Is merit, like a flower of the field, too common to attract
+notice? or is the use of money beneath the care of exalted talents?
+
+Invention seldom pays the inventor. If you ask, what fortune Baskerville
+ought to have been rewarded with? "The _most_ which can be comprised in
+five figures." If you farther ask, what he possessed? "The _least_;" but
+none of it squeezed from the press. What will the shade of this great
+man think, if capable of thinking, that he has spent a fortune of
+opulence, and a life of genius, in carrying to perfection the greatest
+of all human inventions; and his productions, slighted by his country,
+were hawked over Europe, in quest of a bidder?
+
+We must _revere_, if we do not _imitate_, the taste and economy of the
+French nation, who, brought by the British arms, in 1762, to the verge
+of ruin, rising above distress, were able, in 17 years, to purchase
+Baskerville's elegant types, refused by his own country, and expend an
+hundred thousand pounds in printing the works of Voltaire!
+
+
+
+BRASS FOUNDRY.
+
+The curious art before us is perhaps less ancient than profitable, and
+less healthful than either. I shall not enquire whose grandfather was
+the first brass-founder here, but shall leave their grandsons to settle
+that important point with my successor who shall next write the History
+of Birmingham. Whoever was the first, I believe he figured in the reign
+of King William; but, though he sold his productions at an excessive
+price, he did not, like the moderns, possess the art of acquiring a
+fortune: but now the master knows the way to affluence, and the servant
+to liquor.
+
+To enumerate the great variety of occupations amongst us, would be as
+useless, and as unentertaining to the reader, perhaps to the writer, as
+to count the pebbles in the street.
+
+Having therefore visited a few, by way of specimen, I shall desist from
+farther pursuit, and wheel off in a
+
+
+
+HACKNEY COACH.
+
+Wherever the view of profit opens, the eyes of a Birmingham man are open
+to see it.
+
+In 1775, a person was determined to try if a Hackney Coach would take
+with the inhabitants. He had not mounted the box many times before he
+inadvertently dropped the expression, "Thirty shillings a day!" The word
+was attended with all the powers of magic, for instantly a second rolled
+into the circus.
+
+And these elevated sons of the lash are now augmented to fifteen, whom
+we may justly denominate a club of tippling deities, who preside over
+weddings, christenings, and pleasurable excursions.
+
+It would give satisfaction to the curious calculator, could any mode be
+found of discovering the returns of trade, made by the united
+inhabitants. But the question is complicated. It only admits of surmise.
+From comparing many instances in various ranks of life among us, I have
+been led to suppose, that the weekly returns exceed the annual rent of
+the buildings. And as these rents are nearly ascertained, perhaps, we
+may conclude, that those returns are about 80,000. If we deduct for four
+weeks holidays, the annual returns will be--3,840,000_l_.
+
+Now we have entered the visionary regions of fancy, let us pursue the
+thought a stage farther; and consider Birmingham as one great family,
+possessed of a capital of Eight Millions. Her annual returns in trade as
+above, from which we will deduct for the purchase of
+
+     Raw materials  -   -   -   -   -   -   -    1,920,000
+     House rent, repairs and taxes  -   -   -      100,000
+     Losses in trade    -   -   -   -   -   -       50,000
+     Maintenance, clothing, and pleasurable
+       expences, for 50,000 people, at 10_s_.
+       per week     -   -   -   -   -   -   -    1,300,000
+                                                 ---------
+                                                 3,370,000
+                                                 ---------
+     Annual addition to the capital -   -   -      470,000
+
+Should a future antagonist arise, and attack me in numbers, I promise
+beforehand to relinquish the field; for I profess only, to stand upon
+ideal ground.
+
+
+
+BANK.
+
+Perhaps a public bank is as necessary to the health of the commercial
+body, as exercise to the natural. The circulation of the blood and
+spirits are promoted by one, so are cash and bills by the other; and a
+stagnation is equally detrimental to both. Few places are without: Yet
+Birmingham, famous in the annals of traffic, could boast no such claim.
+To remedy this defect therefore, about every tenth trader was a banker,
+or, a retailer of cash. At the head of whom were marshalled the whole
+train of drapers and grocers, till the year 1765, when a regular bank
+was established by Messrs. Taylor and Lloyd, two opulent tradesmen,
+whose credit being equal to that of the bank of England, quickly
+collected the shining rays of sterling property into its focus.
+
+
+
+GOVERNMENT.
+
+Have you, my dear reader, seen a sword hilt, of curious, and of
+Birmingham manufactory, covered with spangles of various sizes, every
+one of which carries a separate lustre, but, when united, has a dazzling
+effect? Or, have you seen a ring, from the same origin, set with
+diamonds of many dimensions, the least of which, sparkles with amazing
+beauty, but, when beheld in cluster, surprize the beholder? Or, have
+you, in a frosty evening, seen the heavens bespangled with refulgent
+splendor, each stud shining with intrinsic excellence, but, viewed in
+the aggregate, reflect honour upon the maker, and enliven the
+hemisphere? Such is the British government. Such is that excellent
+system of polity, which shines, the envy of the stranger, and the
+protector of the native.
+
+Every city, town and village in the English hemisphere, hath a separate
+jurisdiction of its own, and may justly be deemed _a stud in the
+grand lustre_.
+
+Though the British Constitution is as far from perfection, as the glory
+of the ring and the hilt is from that of the sun which causes it, or the
+stars from the day; yet perhaps it stands higher in the scale of
+excellence, than that of its neighbours. We may, with propriety, allow
+that body to shine with splendor, which hath been polishing for
+seventeen hundred years. Much honour is due to the patriotic merit
+which advanced it to its present eminence.
+
+Though Birmingham is but one sparkle of the brilliant clustre, yet she
+is a sparkle of the first _water_, and of the first _magnitude_.
+
+The more perfect any system of government, the happier the people. A
+wise government will punish for the commission of crimes, but a wiser
+will endeavour to prevent them. Man is an active animal: If he is not
+employed in some useful pursuit, he will employ himself in mischief.
+Example is also prevalent: If one man falls into error, he often draws
+another. Though heaven, for wise purposes, suffers a people to fulfil
+the measure of their iniquities, a prudent state will nip them in
+the bud.
+
+It is easy to point out some places, only one third the magnitude of
+Birmingham, whose frequent breaches of the law, and quarrels among
+themselves, find employment for half a dozen magistrates, and four times
+that number of constables; whilst the business of this, was for many
+years conducted by a single Justice, the late John Wyrley, Esq. If the
+reader should think I am mistaken and object, that parish affairs cannot
+be conducted without a second? Let me reply, He conducted that
+second also.
+
+As human nature is nearly the same, whether in or out of Birmingham; and
+as enormities seem more prevalent out than in, we may reasonably ascribe
+the cause to the extraordinary industry of the inhabitants, not allowing
+time to brood over, and bring forth mischief, equal to places of
+inferior diligence.
+
+We have at present two acting magistrates to hold the beam of justice,
+the Rev. Benjamin Spencer, and Joseph Carles, Esq; who both reside at
+a distance.
+
+Many of our corporate towns received their charters from that amiable,
+but unfortunate prince, Henry the Second. These were the first dawnings
+of British liberty, after fixing the Norman yoke. They were afterwards
+ratified and improved by the subsequent Kings of England; granting not
+only the manors, but many exclusive privileges. But at this day, those
+places which were so remarkably favoured with the smiles of royalty, are
+not quite so free as those that were not. The prosperity of this happy
+place proves the assertion, of which every man is free the moment
+he enters.
+
+We often behold a pompous corporation, which sounds well in history,
+over something like a dirty village--This is a head without a body. The
+very reverse is our case--We are a body without a head. For though
+Birmingham has undergone an amazing alteration in extension, riches and
+population, yet the government is nearly the same as the Saxons left it.
+This part of my important history therefore must suffer an eclipse: This
+illustrious chapter, that rose in dazling brightness, must be veiled in
+the thick clouds of obscurity: I shall figure with my corporation in a
+despicable light. I am not able to bring upon the stage, a mayor and a
+group of aldermen, dressed in antique scarlet, bordered with fur,
+drawing a train of attendants; the meanest of which, even the pinder, is
+badged with silver: Nor treat my guest with a band of music, in scarlet
+cloaks with broad laces. I can grace the hand of my Birmingham fidler
+with only a rusty instrument, and his back with barely a whole coat;
+neither have I a mace for the inaugeration of the chief magistrate. The
+reader, therefore, must either quit the place, or be satisfied with such
+entertainment as the company affords.
+
+The officers, who are annually chosen, to direct in this prosperous feat
+of fortune, are
+
+     An High Bailiff.   Two High Tasters.
+     Low Bailiff.       Two Low Tasters.
+     Two Constables.    Two Asseirers. And
+     Headborough.       Two Leather Sealers.
+
+All which, the constables excepted, are no more than servants to the
+lord of the manor; and whose duty extends no farther, than to the
+preservation of the manorial rights.
+
+The high bailiff is to inspect the market, and see that justice takes
+place between buyer and seller; to rectify the weights and dry measures
+used in the manor.
+
+The low bailiff summons a jury, who choose all the other officers, and
+generally with prudence. But the most important part of his office is,
+to treat his friends at the expence of about Seventy Pounds.
+
+The headborough is only an assistant to the constables, chiefly in time
+of absence.
+
+High tasters examine the goodness of beer, and its measure.
+
+Low tasters inspect the meat exposed to sale, and cause that to be
+destroyed which is unfit for use.
+
+Asseirers ratify the chief rent and amercements, between the lord and
+the inhabitant. And the
+
+Leather sealers, stamped a public seal upon the hides, when Birmingham
+was a market for leather.
+
+These manorial servants, instituted by ancient charter, chiefly possess
+a name, without an office. Thus order seems assisted by industry, and
+thus a numerous body of inhabitants are governed without a governor.
+
+Exclusive of the choice of officers, the jury impannelled by the low
+bailiff, have the presentation of all encroachments upon the lord's
+waste, which has long been neglected.
+
+The duties of office are little known, except that of taking a generous
+dinner, which is punctually observed. It is too early to begin business
+till the table is well stored with bottles, and too late afterwards.
+
+During the existence of the house of Birmingham, the court-leet was held
+at the Moat, in what we should now think a large and shabby room,
+conducted under the eye of the low bailiff, at the expence of the lord.
+
+The jury, twice a year, were witnesses, that the famous dish of roast
+beef, ancient as the family who gave it, demanded the head of the table.
+The court was afterwards held at the Leather-hall, and the expence,
+which was trifling, borne by the bailiff. Time, prosperity, and
+emulation, are able to effect considerable changes. The jury, in the
+beginning of the present century, were impannelled in the Old Cross,
+then newly erected, from whence they adjourned to the house of the
+bailiff, and were feasted at the growing charge of _two or
+three pounds_.
+
+This practice continued till about the year 1735, when the company,
+grown too bulky for a private house, assembled at a tavern, and the
+bailiff enjoyed the singular privilege of consuming ten pounds upon
+his guests.
+
+It is easier to advance in expences than to retreat. In 1760, they had
+increased to forty pounds, and in the next edition of this work, we may
+expect to see the word _hundred_.
+
+The lord was anciently founder of the feast, and treated his bailiff;
+but now that custom is inverted, and the bailiff treats his lord.
+
+The proclamation of our two fairs, is performed by the high bailiff, in
+the name of the Lord of the Manor; this was done a century ago, without
+the least expence. The strength of his liquor, a silver tankard, and the
+pride of shewing it, perhaps induced him, in process of time, to treat
+his attendants.
+
+His ale, without a miracle, was, in a few years, converted into wine,
+and that of various sorts; to which was added, a small collation; and
+now his friends are complimented with a card, to meet him at the Hotel,
+where he incurs an expence of twenty pounds.
+
+While the spirit of the people refines by intercourse, industry, and the
+singular jurisdiction among us, this insignificant pimple, on our head
+of government, swells into a wen.
+
+Habits approved are soon acquired: a third entertainment has, of late
+years, sprung up, termed _the constables feast_, with this difference,
+_it is charged to the public_. We may consider it a wart on the
+political body, which merits the caustic.
+
+Deritend, being a hamlet of Birmingham, sends her inhabitants to the
+court-leet, where they perform suit and service, and where her constable
+is chosen by the same jury.
+
+I shall here exhibit a defective list of our principal officers during
+the last century. If it should be objected, that a petty constable is
+too insignificant, being the lowest officer of the crown, for admission
+into history; I answer, by whatever appellation an officer is accepted,
+he cannot be insignificant who stands at the head of 50,000 people.
+Perhaps, therefore, the office of constable may be sought for in
+future, and the officer himself assume a superior consequence.
+
+The dates are the years in which they were chosen, fixed by charter,
+within thirty days after Michaelmas.
+
+
+
+CONSTABLES.
+
+1680   John Simco          John Cottrill
+1681   John Wallaxall      William Guest
+1682   George Abel         Samuel White
+1683   Thomas Russell      Abraham Spooner
+1684   Roger Macham        William Wheely
+1685   Thomas Cox          John Green
+1686   Henry Porter        Samuel Carless
+1687   Samuel Banner       John Jesson
+1690   Joseph Robinson     John Birch
+1691   John Rogers         Richard Leather
+1692   Thomas Robins       Corbet Bushell
+1693   Joseph Rann         William Sarjeant
+1694   Rowland Hall        John Bryerly
+1695   Richard Scott       George Wells
+1696   Joseph Haddock      Robert Mansell
+1697   James Greir         John Foster
+1698   John Baker          Henry Camden
+1699   William Kettle      Thomas Gisborn
+1700   John Wilson         Joseph Allen
+1701   Nicholas Bakewell   Richard Banner
+1702   William Collins     Robert Groves
+1703   Henry Parrot        Benjamin Carless
+1704   William Brierly     John Hunt
+1705   Jonathan Seeley     Thomas Holloway
+1706   Robert Moore        John Savage
+1707   Isaac Spooner       Samuel Hervey
+1708   Richard Weston      Thomas Cope
+1709   Samuel Walford      Thomas Green
+1710   John Foxall         William Norton
+1711   Stephen Newton      John Taylor
+1712   William Russel      John Cotterell
+1713   John Shaw           Thomas Hallford
+1714   Randall Bradburn    Joseph May
+1715   Stephen Newton      Samuel Russell
+1716   Stephen Newton      Joseph Carless
+1717   Abraham Foxall      William Spilsbury
+1718   John Gisborn        Henry Carver
+1719   Samuel Hays         Joseph Smith
+1720   John Barnsley       John Humphrys
+1721   William Bennett     Thomas Wilson
+1722   John Harrison       Simon Harris
+
+
+
+A LIST
+
+OF THE
+
+HIGH BAILIFFS, LOW BAILIFFS, AND CONSTABLES,
+
+Of the TOWN of BIRMINGHAM, from 1732, to 1782.
+
+     HIGH BAILIFFS.      LOW BAILIFFS.          CONSTABLES.
+
+1732  Thomas Wilson    John Webster      Joseph Bradnock    John Wilson
+1733  John Webster     Joseph Kettle     Thomas Nickin      James Baker
+1734  John Wickins     Thomas Lakin   [2]Joseph Scott, esq; James Taylor
+1735  Joseph Marston   John Russell      John Webster       Thomas Ashfield
+1736  Joseph Bradnock  Robert Moore      Thomas Wickins     Joseph Fullelove
+1737  James Baker      Isaac Ingram      John Kettle        Richard Porter
+1738  Joseph Smith     William Mason     William Hunt       Henry Hun
+1739  Thomas Wickens   William Harvey    Edward Burton      John England
+1740  Simon Harris     Thomas Russel     Joseph Richards    T. Honeyborn
+1741  Daniel Gill      George Abney      Thomas Turner      John Bedford
+1742
+1743  Josiah Jefferys  William Kettle    John Russel        Thomas
+1744  George Davies    J. Humphrys, Jr.  William Mason      William Ward
+1745  Edward Burton    Robert Moore      Joseph Wollaston   John Turner
+1746
+1747  Thomas Ashwell   J. Taylor, esq;   Joseph Walker      Josiah Hunt
+1748  Thomas Wickens   John Roe          Robert Moore       John Horton
+1749  Joseph Fullelove Richard Brett     Henry Hunt         Joseph Ruston
+1750  Thomas Lakin     Joseph Smith      John Gill          Luke Bell
+1751  Thomas Turner    Benj. Mansell     John Walters       W. Walsingham
+1752  James Baker      John Taylor       Price Thomas       Joseph Thomas
+1753  E. Jordan, esq;  Samuel Harvey     Samuel Birch       Samuel Richards
+1754  Thomas Cottrell  Joseph Richards   John Bellears      John Camden
+1755  Joseph Walker    John Wells[3]     Stephen Colmore    John Powell
+1756  John Bellears    J. Kettle, esq;   Ambrose Foxall     John Gray
+1757  William Patteson Joseph Webster    J. Darbyshire      Richard Brett
+1758  James Horton     T. Lawrence       Thomas Richards    Sam. Pemberton
+1759  John Walker      Thomas Abney      G. Spilsbury       Edward Weston
+1760  John Turner      Abel Humphrys     Richard Dingley    Web Marriott
+1761  John Baskerville Stephen Bedford   Michael Lakin      Nehemiah Bague
+1762  Joseph Thomas    James Jackson     George Birch       John Green
+1763  John Gold        John Lee          William Parks      John Daws
+1764  Richard Hicks    J. Ryland         S. Bradburn, esq;  Geo. Anderton
+1765  Thomas Vallant   Sam. Richards     Ed. H. Noble       Elias Wallin
+1766  John Lane        Henry Venour      John Lane          Joseph Adams
+1767  John Horn        Jo. Wilkinson     Richard Rabone     Thomas Care
+1768  Gregory Hicks    W. Russell, esq;  Thomas Bingham     John Moody
+1769  James Male       Samuel Ray        Thomas Gisborne    William Mansell
+1770  Joshua Glover    Thomas Russell    T. Lutwyche        Thomas Barker
+1771  John Harris      J. Hornblower     Thomas Cooper      Walter Salt
+1772  William Holden   Jos. Tyndall      R. Anderton        T. Hunt
+1773  Thomas Westley   John Richards     Ob. Bellamy        John Smart
+1774  John Ward        John Francis      W. Hodgkins        Thomas Wight
+1775  Thomas Hurd      John Taylor, esq; John Startin       T. Everton
+1776  E.W. Patteson    Josiah Rogers     Thomas Corden      Joseph Wright
+1777  Ed. Thomason     S. Pemberton      Joseph Jukes       Joseph Sheldon
+1778  Joseph Green     William Hunt      Thomas Wright      John Allen[4]
+1779  T. Faulconbridge W. Humphrys       John Guest         Jonathan Wigley
+1780  Daniel Winwood   William Scott     William Thomas     John Bird
+1781  William Hicks    W. Taylor, esq;   John Dallaway      Richard Porter
+1782  Thomas Carless   G. Humphrys       John Holmes        Thomas Barrs
+
+[Footnote 2: Joseph Scott, Esq; not choosing the official part, procured
+a substitute to perform it, in the person of the late Constable
+James Baker.]
+
+[Footnote 3: in office, Benjamin Mansell was chosen in his stead.]
+
+[Footnote 4: was charged with a fine of 25_l_. by the lady of the manor,
+and John Miles chosen in his stead.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Three of the Inhabitants have, since I knew the place, served the Office
+of SHERIFF for the County, viz.
+
+     John Taylor, Esquire, in - - - - 1756.
+     Edward Jordan, Esquire, in - - - 1757.
+     And Isaac Spooner, Esquire, in - 1763.
+
+
+
+COURT OF REQUESTS.
+
+Law is the very basis of civil society, without it man would quickly
+return to his original rudeness; the result would be, robbery and
+blood:--and even laws themselves are of little moment, without a due
+execution of them--there is a necessity to annex punishment.
+
+But there is no necessity to punish the living, who are innocent, by
+hanging the dead bodies of criminals in the air. This indecent and
+inhuman custom, which originated from the days of barbarism, reflects an
+indelible disgrace upon a civilized age. The intention, no doubt, was
+laudable; to prevent the commission of crimes, but does it answer that
+intention?
+
+In 1759, two brothers, of the name of Darby, were hung in chains near
+Hales-Owen, since which time there has been only one murder committed in
+the whole neighbourhood, and that under the very gibbet upon which
+they hung[5].
+
+[Footnote 5: Joseph Skidmore, a carrier of Stourbridge, having Ann
+Mansfield, a young woman of Birmingham, under his care, ravished and
+murdered her in the evening of December 10, 1774.]
+
+Justice, however, points out a way wherein the dead body, by conveying
+chirurgical knowledge, may be serviceable to the living.
+
+Laws generally tend, either directly, or remotely, to the protection of
+property.
+
+All wise legislators have endeavoured to proportion the punishment to
+the crime, but never to exceed it: a well conducted state holds forth a
+scale of punishments for transgressions of every dimension, beginning
+with the simple reprimand, and proceeding downwards even to
+death itself.
+
+It will be granted, that the line of equity ought to be drawn with
+critical exactness.
+
+If by fair trade, persuasion, or finesse, I get the property of another
+into my hands, even to the trifling value of a shilling, my effects
+ought to be responsible for that sum.
+
+If I possess no effects, he certainly retains a right of punishing to
+that amount: for if we do not lay this line in the boundaries of strict
+justice, it will not lie upon any other ground. And if I am allowed
+fraud in one shilling, I am allowed it in a greater sum. How far
+punishment may be softened by concurring circumstances, is
+another question.
+
+It therefore follows of course, that if my creditor has a right to
+recover his unfortunate property, those laws are the nearest to
+perfection, that will enable him to recover it with the most expedition,
+and the least expence and trouble to us both.
+
+If the charge of recovery is likely to exceed the debt, he will be apt
+to desist, I to laugh at him, and to try my skill at a second
+enterprize.
+
+Trade and credit cannot be well separated; they are as closely connected
+as the wax and the paper. The laws of credit, therefore, ought to rest
+upon a permanent foundation: neither is law necessary to restrain
+credit; for if, in a commercial state, it becomes detrimental by its
+over growth, it finds itself a remedy.
+
+Much has been said, and perhaps more than has been thought, concerning
+the court before us. The loser is expected to complain, and his friends
+to give him a partial hearing; and though he breathes _vengeance_
+against his antagonist, it ends in a _breath_.
+
+The looker-on can easily spy an error in the actor. If a fault is
+committed, we are glad it was done by another; besides, it is no new
+thing for the _outs_ to complain of the _ins_. It will plead strongly in
+excuse, to say, the intention was right, if the judgment was wrong. If
+perfection is required, she does not reside upon earth.
+
+But if these pleadings are not found a balance against prejudice, and a
+man suffers his wrath to kindle against a valuable institution, because
+perfection does not preside over it, let him peruse an old author, who
+asks, "What shall we think of the folly of that man, who throws away the
+apple, because it contains a core? despises the nut, for the shell? or
+casts the diamond into the sea, because it has a flaw?"
+
+Decision is usually established upon oath, both in criminal courts, and
+in those at Westminster, through which the oath is seen to pass with
+free currency.
+
+A judge is sometimes fond of sheltering himself behind an oath; it may
+be had at an easy rate. Each of the contending parties wishes to win his
+cause by an oath: but though oaths would be willingly taken, they ought
+to be sparingly given.--They may be considered what they generally are
+not, _of the last importance_.
+
+We may observe, that two opponents are ready to swear directly contrary
+to each other; that if a man asserts a thing, he can do no less than
+swear it; and that, after all, an oath proves nothing.
+
+The commissioners, therefore, wish rather to establish _fact_ upon
+_proof_; but, if this is wanting, then upon circumstantial evidence; and
+if this support fails, they chuse to finish a quarrel by a moderate,
+though a random judgment.
+
+Much honor is due to that judicial luminary, William Murray, Earl of
+Mansfield, who presides over the King's-Bench, for introducing equity
+into the courts of law, where she had long been a stranger.
+
+The Court of Requests may justly be charged with weakness, and what
+court may not? It is inseparable from man.
+
+A person cannot chuse his capacity, but he may chuse to be a rogue; one
+is an act of nature, the other of the will. The greater the temptation
+to go astray, the greater must be the resolution to conquer it.
+
+One of the suitors presented a commissioner with a couple of chickens,
+as a powerful argument to strengthen a feeble case; but the commissioner
+returned his present, and the plaintiff lost his cause; and no wonder,
+he sent a chicken to plead it.
+
+The defendant, by disobeying the orders of the court, falls under the
+power of the plaintiff, who can cause execution to issue against his
+goods, and reimburse himself; or, against his body, and confine him
+forty days, unless paid his demand.
+
+There is no cause that can be brought before the Court of Requests, but
+may be brought before a higher court, and at a higher expence.
+
+A cause passes through this court for seventeen-pence; and cannot well,
+by chicanery or neglect, amount to more than two shillings and
+nine-pence: So that ruin is not one of its imperfections.
+
+Though law is said to produce quarrels among friends, yet the contending
+parties often go out of that court better friends than when they
+came in.
+
+It has been objected, that the publicans give credit to the lower class,
+in expectation of relief from the court. But the debtor is equally
+apprized of the remedy, and often drinks deeper, in expectation of a
+mild sentence from the commissioners; besides, is not all credit founded
+on the laws of recovery?
+
+It has also been urged, that while punishment pursues the debtor, for
+neglect of orders, his family falls upon the community.
+
+But the community would not wish to put a bar between a man and his
+property--The precedent would be dangerous: Justice is no respector of
+persons. A culprit will soon procure a family, if they are able to plead
+his excuse: It would follow, that single men only would be obliged to be
+honest. She does not save the criminal, because he is an handsome man.
+If she did, beauty would increase in value; but honesty, seldom be its
+companion.
+
+But can accusation lie against a fair tribunal of rectitude? The man
+does not exist that can quarrel with equity, and treat her as the
+offspring of fraud---The most amiable character in the creation, and the
+immediate representative of supreme excellence. She will be revered,
+even by the sons of plunder!
+
+Many of the causes that pass this court, are of a disputable nature, and
+if not terminated there, would take a different turn.
+
+From distant views of relief here, even sickness herself finds credit in
+the day of distress.
+
+The use of the court is also favourable to trade, for, to oblige a man
+to pay his debts, is to oblige him to labour, which improves the
+manufactures.
+
+Birmingham, in no period of her existence, has increased with such
+rapidity, in people, buildings and commerce, as since the erection of
+that court; so that depopulation is not one of its inconveniencies.
+
+From a consideration of the prodigious intercourse subsisting in so vast
+a body of people, and the credit consequent thereon, it was wisely
+judged necessary to establish an easy, and expeditious method of ending
+dispute, and securing property.
+
+The inhabitants of Birmingham, therefore, in 1752, procured an act for
+the recovery of debts under Forty Shillings; constituting seventy-two
+commissioners, three to be a quorum. They sit for the dispatch of
+business in the chamber over the Old Cross every Friday morning, and
+there usually appear before them between eighty and one hundred causes:
+Their determinations are final. Two clerks also, constituted by the act,
+attend the court to give judicial assistance; are always of the law,
+chosen alternately by the lord of the manor, and the commissioners, and
+to continue for life. Once in every two years, ten of the commissioners
+are ballotted out, and ten others of the inhabitants chosen in
+their stead.
+
+
+
+LAMP ACT.
+
+Order, is preserved by industry. In 1769 an act was obtained, and in
+1773 an amendment of the act, for lighting and cleaning the streets of
+Birmingham, and for removing obstructions that were prejudicial to the
+health or convenience of the inhabitants.
+
+These acts were committed to the care of about seventy-six irresolute
+commissioners, with farther powers of preventing encroachments upon
+public ground; for it was justly observed, that robbery was a work of
+darkness, therefore to introduce light would, in some measure, protect
+property. That in a town like Birmingham, full of commerce and
+inhabitants, where necessity leads to continual action, no part of the
+twenty four hours ought to be dark. That, to avoid darkness, is
+sometimes to avoid insult; and that by the light of 700 lamps, many
+unfortunate accidents would be prevented.
+
+It was also observed, that in a course of time, the buildings in some of
+the ancient streets had encroached upon the path, four or five feet on
+each side; which caused an irregular line, and made those streets eight
+or ten feet narrower, that are now used by 50,000 people, than they
+were, when used only by a tenth part of that number; and, that their
+confined width rendered the passage dangerous to children, women, and
+feeble age, particularly on the market day and Saturday evening.
+
+That if former encroachments could not be recovered, future ought to be
+prevented.
+
+And farther, that necessity pleads for a wider street now, than
+heretofore, not only because the inhabitants, being more numerous,
+require more room, but the buildings being more elevated, obstruct the
+light, the sun, and the air, which obstructions tend to sickness and
+inconveniency.
+
+Narrow streets with modern buildings are generally dirty, for want of
+these natural helps; as Digbeth, St. Martin's-lane, Swan-alley,
+Carr's-lane, &c. The narrower the street, the less it can be influenced
+by the sun and the wind, consequently, the more the dirt will abound;
+and by experimental observations upon stagnate water in the street, it
+is found extremely prejudicial to health. And also, the larger the
+number of people, the more necessity to watch over their interest with a
+guardian eye.
+
+It may farther be remarked, that an act of parliament ought to
+distribute justice with an impartial hand, in which case, content and
+obedience may reasonably be expected. But the acts before us carry a
+manifest partiality, one man claims a right to an encroachment into the
+street, of three or four feet, whilst another is restricted to
+twelve inches.
+
+This inactive body of seventy-six, who wisely argue against the
+annihilation of one evil, because another will remain; had also powers
+to borrow a thousand pounds, to purchase and remove some obstructive
+buildings; and to defray the expence by a rate on the inhabitants,
+which, after deducting about one hundred and twenty pounds per ann. for
+deficiencies, amounted in
+
+     1774, to   912_l_.
+     1775, --   902_l_.
+     1776, --   947_l_.
+     1777, --   965_l_.
+     1778, -- 1,012_l_.
+     1779, -- 1,022_l_.
+     1780, -- 1,021_l_.
+
+Though the town was averse to the measure, as an innovation, they
+quickly saw its utility, and seemed to wish a more vigorous exertion of
+the commissioners; but numbers sometimes procrastinate design. If it is
+difficult to find five men of one mind, it is more difficult to find a
+superior number. That business which would run currently through the
+hands of five, stagnates at fifteen, the number required.
+
+It is curious to observe a body of commissioners, every one of whom
+conducts his own private affairs with propriety and success, attack a
+question by the hour, which is as plain as the simplest proposition in
+the mathematicks, when not being able to reduce it, and their
+ammunition spent, leave the matter undetermined, and retreat in silence.
+
+In works of manual operation a large number may be necessary, but in
+works of direction a small one facilitates dispatch.
+
+Birmingham, a capacious field, by long neglect is over-grown with
+encroaching weeds. The gentle commissioners, appointed to reduce them,
+behold it an arduous work, are divided in opinion, and some withdraw the
+hand from the plough; certainly, _the harvest is great, and the
+labourers are few_. The manorial powers, which alone could preserve
+order, have slept for ages. Regularity has been long extinct. The desire
+of trespass is so prevalent, that I have been tempted to question; if it
+were not for the powers of the lamp act, feeble as they are, whether the
+many-headed-public, ever watchful of prey, would not in another century,
+devour whole streets, and totally prevent the passenger. Thus a supine
+jurisdiction abounds with _street-robbers_.
+
+There are cases where the line of the street should inviolably be
+preserved, as in a common range of houses; therefore all projections
+above a given dimension infringe this rule.
+
+There are other cases where taste would direct this line to be broken,
+as in buildings of singular size and construction, which should be
+viewed in recess. Those of a public nature generally come under this
+description, as the free-school, and the hotel, which ought to have
+fallen two or three yards back. What pity, that so noble an edifice as
+the theatre in New-street, should lose any of its beauty, by the
+prominence of its situation!
+
+As Birmingham abounds with new streets, that were once private property,
+it is a question often discussed, In what point of time the land
+appropriated for such streets, ceases to be private? But as this
+question was never determined, and as it naturally rises before me, and
+is of importance, suffer me to examine it.
+
+When building leases are granted, if the road be narrow, as was lately
+the case at the West end of New-street, the proprietor engages to give a
+certain portion of land to widen it. From that moment, therefore, it
+falls to the lot of the public, and is under the controul of the
+commissioners, as guardians of public property. I allow, if within
+memory, the grantor and the lessees should agree to cancel the leases,
+which is just as likely to happen as the powers of attraction to cease,
+and the moon to descend from the heavens; in this case, the land reverts
+again to its original proprietor.
+
+Though the streets of Birmingham have for many ages been exposed to the
+hand of the encroacher, yet, by a little care, and less expence, they
+might in about one century be reduced to a considerable degree of use
+and beauty. In what light then shall we be viewed by the future eye, if
+we neglect the interest of posterity?
+
+
+
+RELIGION AND POLITICS.
+
+Although these two threads, like the warp and the woof, are very
+distinct things; yet, like them, they are usually woven together. Each
+possesses a strength of its own, but when united, have often become
+extremely powerful, as in the case of Henry the Third and the clergy.
+This union, at times, subsisted from a very early date.
+
+Power is the idol of man; we not only wish to acquire it, but also to
+increase and preserve it. If the magistrate has been too weak to execute
+his designs, he has backed his schemes with the aid of the church; this
+occurred with King Stephen and the Bishops.
+
+Likewise, if a churchman finds his power ascendant in the human mind, he
+still wishes an addition to that power, by uniting another. Thus the
+Bishop of Rome, being master of the spiritual chair, stept also into
+the temporal.
+
+Sometimes the ecclesiastical and civil governors appear in malign
+aspect, or in modern phrase, like a quarrel between the squire and the
+rector, which is seldom detrimental to the people. This was the case
+with Henry the Eighth and the church.
+
+The curses of a priest hath sometimes brought a people into obedience to
+the King, when he was not able to bring them himself. One could not
+refrain from smiling, to hear a Bishop curse the people for obeying
+their Sovereign, and in a few months after, curse them again if they did
+not; which happened in the reign of King John. But, happy for the world,
+that these retail dealers in the wrath of heaven are become extinct, and
+the market is over.
+
+Birmingham, in those remote periods of time, does not seem to have
+attended so much to religious and political dispute, as to the course
+music of her hammer. Peace seems to have been her characteristic--She
+paid obedience to that Prince had the good fortune to possess the
+throne, and regularly paid divine honours in St. Martin's, because
+there was no other church. Thus, through the long ages of Saxon, Danish,
+and Norman government, we hear of no noise but that of the anvil, till
+the reign of Henry the Third, when her Lord joined the Barons against
+the Crown, and drew after him some of his mechanics, to exercise the
+very arms they had been taught to make; and where, at the battle of
+Evesham, he staked his life and his fortune, and lost both.
+
+Things quickly returning into their former channel, she stood a silent
+spectator during that dreadful contest between the two roses, pursuing
+the tenor of still life till the civil wars of Charles I. when she took
+part with the Parliament, some of whose troops were stationed here,
+particularly at the Garrison and Camp-hill; the names of both
+originating in that circumstance.
+
+Prince Rupert, as hinted before, approaching Birmingham in 1643 with a
+superior power, forced the lines, and as a punishment set fire to the
+town. His vengeance burned fiercely in Bull-street, and the affrighted
+inhabitants quenched the flames with a heavy fine.
+
+In 1660, she joined the wish of the kingdom, in the restoration of the
+Stuart family. About this time, many of the curious manufactures began
+to blossom in this prosperous garden of the arts.
+
+In 1688, when the nation chose to expel a race of Kings, though replete
+with good nature, because they had forgot the limits of justice; our
+peaceable sons of art, wisely considering, that oppression and commerce,
+like oil and water, could never unite, smiled with the rest of the
+kingdom at the landing of the Prince of Orange, and exerted their little
+assistance towards effecting the Revolution, notwithstanding the lessons
+of _divine right_ had been taught near ninety years.
+
+In the reign of Queen Anne, when that flaming luminary, Dr. Sacheverel,
+set half the kingdom in blaze, the inhabitants of this region of
+industry caught the spark of the day, and grew warm for the church--They
+had always been inured to _fire_, but now we behold them between _two_.
+
+As the doctor rode in triumph through the streets of Birmingham, this
+flimsy idol of party snuffed up the incense of the populace, but the
+more sensible with held their homage; and when he preached at Sutton
+Coldfield, where he had family connections, the people of Birmingham
+crowded in multitudes round his pulpit. But it does not appear that he
+taught his hearers to _build up Zion_, but perhaps to pull her down;
+for they immediately went and gutted a meeting-house.
+
+It is easy to point out a time when it was dangerous to have been of the
+established church, and I have here pointed out one, when it was
+dangerous to profess any other.
+
+We are apt to think the zeal of our fathers died with them, for I have
+frequently beheld with pleasure, the churchman, the presbyterian, and
+the quaker uniting their efforts, like brethren, to carry on a work of
+utility. The bigot of the last age casts a malicious sneer upon the
+religion of another, but the man of this passes a joke upon his own.
+
+A sameness in religious sentiment is no more to be expected, than a
+sameness of face. If the human judgment varies in almost every subject
+of plain knowledge, how can it be fixed in this, composed of mystery?
+
+As the true religion is ever that which a man professes himself, it is
+necessary to enquire, What means, he that is right may use, to convert
+him that is wrong?
+
+As the whole generations of faggot and torture, are extinct in this age
+of light, there seems only to remain fair arguments founded in reason,
+and these can only be brought as evidences upon the trial: The culprit
+himself, _by indefeasible right divine_, will preside as the judge. Upon
+a close enquiry it will be found, that his sentiments are as much his
+private property, as the coat that covers him, or the life which that
+coat incloses.
+
+Is there not as much reason to punish my neighbour for differing in
+opinion from me, as to punish me, because I differ from him? Or, is
+there any to punish either?
+
+If a man's sentiments and practice in religious matters, appear even
+absurd, provided society is not injured, what right hath the magistrate
+to interfere?
+
+The task is as easy to make the stream run upwards, as to form a nation
+of one mind. We may pronounce with confidence, an age of bigotry is no
+age of philosophy.
+
+The gentle hand of Brunswick, had swayed the British sceptre near half a
+century, ere all the sons of science in this meridian, were compleatly
+reconciled to this favourite line.
+
+But unanimity, with benign aspect, seems now the predominant star of the
+zenith: A friendly intercourse succeeds suspicion. The difference of
+sentiment, that once created jealousy, now excites a smile; and the
+narrow views of our forefathers are prudently expanded.
+
+[Illustration: _St. John's Chapel, Deritend_.]
+
+
+
+PLACES OF WORSHIP.
+
+In a town like Birmingham, unfettered with charteral laws; which gives
+access to the stranger of every denomination, for he here finds a
+freedom by birthright; and where the principles of toleration are well
+understood, it is no wonder we find various modes of worship. The wonder
+consists in finding such _agreement_, in such variety.
+
+We have fourteen places for religious exercise, six of the established
+church, three dissenting meeting houses, a quakers, baptist, methodist,
+roman catholic, and jewish. Two of these only are churches, of which
+elsewhere.
+
+
+
+SAINT JOHN'S CHAPEL, DERITEND.
+
+This, tho' joining to the parish of Birmingham, is a chapel of ease
+belonging to Aston, two miles distant. Founded in the fifth of Richard
+the Second, 1382.
+
+This chapel does not, like others in Birmingham, seem to have been
+erected first, and the houses brought round it: It appears, by its
+extreme circumscribed latitude, to have been founded upon the scite of
+other buildings, which were purchased, or rather given, by Sir John de
+Birmingham, Lord of Deritend, and situated upon the boundaries of the
+manor, perhaps to accommodate in some measure the people of Digbeth;
+because the church in Birmingham must, for many-ages, have been too
+small for the inhabitants.
+
+Time seems to have worn out that building of 1382; in the windows of
+which were the arms of Lord Dudley, and Dudley empaling Barckley, both
+knights of the garter, descended from the Somery's, Barons of
+Dudley-castle: Also a whole figure of Walter Arden, Esq; of ancient
+family, often mentioned, Lord of Bordesley.
+
+The present building was erected in 1735, and the steeple in 1762. In
+1777 eight of the most musical bells, together with a clock, entered the
+steeple. The present chaplain, the Rev. Thomas Cox--Income 80_l_.
+
+[Illustration: _St. Bartholomew's Chapel_.]
+
+
+
+SAINT BARTHOLOMEW'S.
+
+Built in 1749, on the east side of the town, will accommodate about 800
+hearers; is neat and elegant. The land was the gift of John Jennens,
+Esq; of Copsal, in the county of Leicester, possessor of a considerable
+estate in and near Birmingham.
+
+By the solicitation of Mrs. Weaman, Mrs. Jennens gave 1000_l_. and the
+remainder was raised by contribution to accomplish the building.
+
+Wherever a chapel is erected, the houses immediately, as if touched by
+the wand of magic, spring into existence. Here is a spacious area for
+interment, amply furnished by death. The infant steeple, if it will bear
+the name, is very small but beautiful.
+
+The chancel hath this singular difference from others--that it veres
+towards the North. Whether the projector committed an error, I leave to
+the critics.
+
+It was the general practice of the Pagan church to fix their altar, upon
+which they sacrificed, in the East, towards the rising sun, the object
+of worship.
+
+The Christian church, in the time of the Romans, immediately succeeded
+the Pagan, and scrupulously adopted the same method; which has been
+strictly adhered to.
+
+By what obligation the Christian is bound to follow the Pagan, or
+wherein a church would be injured by being directed to any of the
+thirty-two points in the compass, is doubtful. Certain it is, if the
+chancel of Bartholomew's had tended due East, the eye would have been
+exceedingly hurt, and the builder would have raised an object of
+ridicule for ages. The ground will admit of no situation but that in
+which the church now stands. But the inconsiderate architect of Deritend
+chapel, anxious to catch the Eastern point, lost the line of the street:
+we may therefore justly pronounce, _be sacrificed to the East_. Other
+enormities also, of little moment, have issued from the same fountain.
+
+The altar piece was the gift of Basil Earl of Denbigh; and the communion
+plate, consisting of 182 ounces, that of Mary Carless. Income
+100_l_.--Rev. William Jabbitt, chaplain.
+
+[Illustration: St. Mary's Chapel.]
+
+
+
+SAINT MARY's.
+
+Though the houses for divine worship were multiplied in Birmingham, yet
+the inhabitants increased in a greater proportion; so that in 1772 an
+act was obtained for two additional chapels.
+
+St. Mary's, therefore, was erected in 1774, in the octagon form, not
+overcharged with light nor strength; in an airy situation and taste, but
+shews too little steeple, and too much roof. If a light balustrade was
+raised over the parapet, with an urn in the centre of the roof, the eye
+of the observer would be relieved.
+
+The clock was seldom seen to go right, but the wonder ceases if there
+are NO WORKS within.
+
+The land was the gift of Mary Weaman, in whom is the presentation, who
+inducted the Rev. John Riland. Annual income about 200_l_.
+
+
+
+SAINT PAUL'S.
+
+The act was procured for this chapel at the same time as for that of St.
+Mary's; but it was not erected till 1779, upon a spot of ground given
+by Charles Colmore, Esq; upon the declivity of a hill, not altogether
+suitable for the elegant building it sustains, which is of stone--plain
+beauty unites with strength.
+
+This roof, like that of St. Mary's, appears also too full. The steeple
+intended for this useful edifice, will do honour to the modern stile of
+architecture, whenever money can be procured to erect it; which at
+present is only delineated upon paper.
+
+Chaplain, the Rev. William Toy Young.--Income nearly as St. Mary's.
+
+
+
+OLD MEETING.
+
+After the extinction of the Stuart race, who bore an invincible hatred
+to presbyterianism, the dissenters from the establishment procured a
+licence for a meeting at the bottom of Digbeth, which yet bears the name
+of Meeting-house-yard. Here the rigid sons of worship paid a weekly
+attendance. The place is now a work-shop: The sound of the pulpit is
+changed into that of the bellows: Instead of an impression upon the
+heart, it is now stamped upon the button. The visitants used to
+appear in a variety of colours, but now always in black.
+
+[Illustration: _St. Paul's Chapel_.]
+
+[Illustration: New Meeting.]
+
+[Illustration: Old Meeting.]
+
+Another was erected in the reign of King William, now denominated The
+Old Meeting, and from whence the street in which it stands derives a
+name. This is large, and much attended.
+
+Pastor, the Rev. Radcliff Scoldfield.
+
+
+
+NEW MEETING.
+
+Erected in the year 1730, at which time that in Digbeth went into
+disuse. This is in a stile of elegance, and has few equals. The Rev.
+Samuel Blyth, and the Rev. William Hawkes preside over it.
+
+In December 1780, Mr. Hawkes declining the pastoral care, the
+congregation judiciously turned their thoughts towards the celebrated
+Doctor Priestley, F.R.S. one of the first philosophers of the age; whose
+merit seems obvious to every eye but his own.
+
+
+
+CARR's LANE MEETING.
+
+A scion of the Old Meeting, transplanted in 1748--The building cost
+about 700_l_. This society hath been favoured with two donations; one
+the interest of 800_l_. by the will of John England, in 1771: The other
+Scott's Trust, mentioned in another part.
+
+This residence of divine light is totally eclipsed, by being surrounded
+with about forty families of paupers, crouded almost within the compass
+of a giant's span, which amply furnish the congregation with noise,
+smoak, dirt and dispute. If the place itself is the road to heaven, the
+stranger would imagine, that the road to the place led to something
+worse: The words, _Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way_, are here
+literally verified.--Pastor, the Rev. John Punfield.
+
+
+
+BAPTIST MEETING.
+
+Founded in Cannon-street, 1738. This hill of Zion is also hid from the
+public eye, but situated in a purer air.--The minister was the late
+Rev. James Turner.
+
+Some trifling differences arising in the congregation, to which the
+human mind is everlastingly prone, caused discontent: Individuals began
+to sting each other, which in 1745, produced a swarm.
+
+The destitute wanderers therefore, erected for themselves a small cell
+in Freeman-street, where they hived in expectation of harmony. Over this
+little society of separatists presided a journeyman woolcomber: What
+elevation he bore in the comb-shop, during six days of the week, history
+is silent; but having the good fortune to procure a black coat and a
+white wig, he figured on the seventh with parsonic elegance.
+
+Whether _he_ fed his people best, or _they_ him, is uncertain; but
+whether they starved one another, is not. Disgust, which ever waits upon
+disappointment, appeared among them.
+
+Though the preacher was certainly warmed in the shop, _with a live coal
+from the altar_; yet unfortunately, Sunday was the only day in which his
+_fire_ was extinguished; _then_ the priest and the people hit the taste
+of the day, and slumbered together; a priviledge never granted by a
+_reader_ to an _author_. Thus the boasted _liberty of the press_
+submits to that of the pulpit.
+
+This exalted shepherd dwelt upon the words of Paul, _He that preaches
+the gospel, ought to subsist by the gospel;_ and _they_ did not forget a
+portion in John, _Feed my sheep_. The word, he well knew, promised both
+wine and _oil_, but he was obliged to be satisfied with the latter.
+
+Although the teacher might possess some _shining qualities_ at the
+combe-pot, he did not possess that of protecting his flock, who in 1752,
+silently retreated to their original fold in Cannon-street; and the
+place was soon after converted into a dwelling, No. 16, when for the
+first time it produced _profit_.
+
+The growing numbers of this prosperous society induced them, in 1780, to
+enlarge the place of worship, at the expence of about 800_l_. in which
+is observable some beauty, but more conveniency.
+
+
+
+QUAKER's MEETING
+
+In Bull-street. A large convenient place, and notwithstanding the
+plainness of the profession rather elegant. The congregation is very
+flourishing, rich, and peaceable. Chandler tells us, to the everlasting
+honour of the Quakers, that they are the only christian sect who have
+never exercised the cruel weapon of persecution.
+
+
+
+METHODIST's MEETING.
+
+We learn from ecclesiastical history, that the people in high life are
+always _followers_ in religion. Though they are the best leaders in
+political and social concerns, yet all religions seem to originate from
+the lowest class. Every religion is first obstructed by violence, passes
+through the insults of an age, then rests in peace, and often takes up
+the rod against another.
+
+The first preachers of the christian faith, the short-sighted apostles,
+were men of the meanest occupations, and their church, a wretched room
+in a miserable tenement. The superb buildings of St. Peter's in Rome,
+and St. Paul's in London, used by their followers, were not within the
+reach of their penetration. They were also totally ignorant of tripple
+crowns, red hats, mitres, crosiers, robes, and rochets, well known to
+their successors.
+
+The religion of a private room, soon became the religion of a country:
+the church acquired affluence, for all churches hate poverty; and this
+humble church, disturbed for ages, became the church of Rome, the
+disturber of Europe.
+
+John Wickliff, in 1377, began to renew her disturbance: this able
+theologist planted our present national church, which underwent severe
+persecutions, from its mother church at Rome; but, rising superior to
+the rod, and advancing to maturity, she became the mother of a numerous
+offspring, which she afterwards persecuted herself; and this offspring,
+like _their_ mother, were much inclined to persecution.
+
+Puritanism, her first born, groaned under the pressure of her hand. The
+Baptists, founded by a taylor, followed, and were buffeted by
+both.--Independency appeared, ponderous as an elephant, and trampled
+upon all three.
+
+John Fox, a composition of the oddest matter, and of the meanest
+original, formed a numerous band of disciples, who suffered the insults
+of an age, but have carried the arts of prudence to the highest pitch.
+
+The Muglitonians, the Prophets, the Superlapsarians, &c. like untimely
+births, just saw the light and disappeared.
+
+The Moravians, under the influence of Zinzendorf, rose about 1740, but
+are not in a flourishing state; their circumscribed rules, like those
+of the cloister, being too much shackled to thrive in a land of freedom.
+
+James Sandiman introduced a religion, about 1750, but, though eclipsed
+himself by poverty, he taught his preachers to shine; for he allowed
+them to grace the pulpit with ruffles, lace, and a cueque. Birmingham
+cannot produce one professor of the two last churches.
+
+The christian religion has branched into more sectaries in the last two
+hundred years, than in the fifteen hundred before--the reason is
+obvious. During the tedious reign of the Romish priest, before the
+introduction of letters, knowledge was small, and he wished to confine
+that knowledge to himself: he substituted mystery for science, and led
+the people blindfold. But the printing-press, though dark in itself, and
+surrounded with yet _darker_ materials, diffused a ray of light through
+the world, which enabled every man to read, think, and judge for
+himself; hence diversity of opinion, and the absurdity of reducing a
+nation to one faith, vainly attempted by Henry VIII.
+
+In those distant ages, the priest had great influence, with little
+knowledge; but in these, great knowledge, with little influence. He was
+then revered according to his authority; but now, according to his
+merit: he shone in a borrowed, but now in a real lustre: then he was
+less deserving; but now less esteemed. The humble christian, in the
+strictest sense, worked out his salvation with fear and trembling, and
+with tools furnished by the priest: he built upon his opinions, but now
+he lays a foundation for his own.
+
+Though we acknowledge the scriptures our guide, we take the liberty to
+guide them; we torture them to our own sentiments. Though we allow their
+_equal_ weight, we suffer one portion to weigh down another. If we
+attend to twenty disputants, not one of them will quote a text which
+militates against his sentiments.
+
+The artillery of vengeance was pointed at Methodism for thirty years;
+but, fixed as a rock, it could never be beaten down, and its professors
+now enjoy their sentiments in quiet.
+
+After the institution of this sect by George Whitfield, in 1738, they
+were first covered by the heavens, equally exposed to the rain and the
+rabble, and afterwards they occupied, for many years, a place in
+Steelhouse-lane, where the wags of the age observed, "they were eat out
+by the bugs."--They therefore procured a cast off theatre in
+Moor-street, where they continued to exhibit till 1782; when, quitting
+the stage, they erected a superb meeting-house, in Cherry-street, at the
+expence of 1200_l_. This was opened, July 7, by John Wesley, the chief
+priest, whose extensive knowledge, and unblemished manners, give us a
+tolerable picture of apostolic purity; who _believes_, as if he were to
+be saved by faith; and who _labours_, as if he were to be saved
+by works.
+
+Thus our composite order of religion, an assemblage of the Episcopalian,
+the Presbyterian, the Independent, and the Baptist; fled from the
+buffetings of the vulgar, and now take peaceable shelter from the dews
+of heaven.
+
+
+
+ROMISH CHAPEL.
+
+I have already remarked, there is nothing which continues in the same
+state: the code of manners, habits of thinking, and of expression, modes
+of living, articles of learning; the ways of acquiring wealth, or
+knowledge; our dress, diet, recreations, &c. change in every age.
+
+But why is there a change in religion? eternal truth, once fixed, is
+everlastingly the same. Religion is purity, which, one would think,
+admits of no change; if it changes, we should doubt whether it is
+religion. But a little attention to facts will inform us, _there is
+nothing more changable:_ nor need we wonder, because, man himself being
+changable, every thing committed to his care will change with him. We
+may plead his excuse, by observing, his sight is defective: he may be
+deceived by viewing an object in one light, or attitude, to-day, and
+another, to-morrow. This propensity to change might lead us to suspect
+the authenticity of our own sentiments.
+
+The apostles certainly formed the church of Rome; but she, having
+undergone the variations of seventeen hundred years, St. Peter himself,
+should he return to the earth, could not discover one linament in her
+aspect; but would be apt to reject her as a changling.
+
+The church of England has not only undergone a change since the
+reformation, but wishes a greater.
+
+We should suppose the puritan of 1583, and the dissenter of 1783, were
+the same: but although substance and shadow exactly resemble each other,
+no two things differ more.
+
+When pride sends a man in quest of a religion, if he does not discover
+something new, he might as well stay at home: nothing near the present
+standard can take. Two requisites are necessary to found a religion,
+capacity, and singularity: no fool ever succeeded. If his talents are
+not above mediocrity, he will not be able to draw the crowd; and if his
+doctrines are not singular, the crowd will not be drawn--novelty
+pleases.
+
+Having collected, and brightened up a set of doctrines, wide of every
+other church, he fixes at a distance from all. But time, and unavoidable
+intercourse with the world, promote a nearer approximation; and, mixing
+with men, we act like men. Thus the Quaker under George III. shews but
+little of the Quaker under George Fox.
+
+In two congregations of the same profession, as in two twins of the same
+family, though there is a striking likeness, the curious observer will
+trace a considerable difference.
+
+In a religion, as well as a man, _there is a time to be born, and a time
+to die_. They both vary in aspect, according to the length of their
+existence, carry the marks of decline, and sink into obscurity.
+
+We are well informed how much the Romish religion has declined in this
+country: three hundred years ago Birmingham did not produce one person
+of another persuasion; but now, out of 50,000 people, we have not 300
+of this.
+
+The Roman Catholics formerly enjoyed a place for religious worship near
+St. Bartholomew's-chapel, still called Masshouse-lane; but the rude
+hands of irreligion destroyed it. There is now none nearer than
+Edgbaston, two miles distant; yet the congregation is chiefly supplied
+from Birmingham.
+
+If the Roman Catholics are not so powerful as in the sixteenth century,
+they seem as quiet, and as little addicted to knowledge; perhaps they
+have not yet learned to see through any eyes but those of the
+priest.--There appears, however, as much devotion in their public
+worship, as among any denomination of christians.
+
+
+
+JEWISH SYNAGOGUE.
+
+We have also among us a remnant of Israel. A people who, when masters of
+their own country, were scarcely ever known to travel, and who are now
+seldom employed in any thing else. But, though they are ever moving,
+they are ever at home: who once lived the favourites of heaven, and fed
+upon the cream of the earth; but now are little regarded by either:
+whose society is entirely confined to themselves, except in the
+commercial line.
+
+[ILLUSTRATION: Birmingham Theatre, Hotel and Tavern.]
+
+In the Synagogue, situated in the Froggery, they still preserve the
+faint resemblence of the ancient worship. Their whole apparatus being no
+more than the drooping ensigns of poverty. The place is rather small,
+but tolerably filled; where there appears less decorum than in the
+christian churches. The proverbial expression "as rich as a jew," is not
+altogether verified in Birmingham, but perhaps, time is transfering it
+to the Quakers.
+
+It is rather singular, that the honesty of a jew, is seldom pleaded but
+by the jew himself.
+
+
+
+THEATRES.
+
+The practice of the Theatre is of great antiquity. We find it in great
+repute among the Greeks; we also find, the more a nation is civilized,
+the more they have supported the stage. It seems designed for two
+purposes, improvement and entertainment.
+
+There are certain exuberances that naturally grow in religion,
+government, and private life which may with propriety be attacked by the
+poet and the comedian, but which can scarcely be reduced by any other
+power. While the stage therefore keeps this great end in view, it
+answers a valuable purpose to the community. The poet should use his pen
+to reform, not to indulge a corrupt age, as was the case in the days of
+Charles the Second, when indecency was brought on to raise the laugh.
+
+Perhaps there is no period of time in which the stage was less polluted,
+owing to the inimitable Garrick, than the present: notwithstanding there
+is yet room for improvement.
+
+Tragedy is to melt the heart, by exhibiting the unfortunate; satiate
+revenge, by punishing the unjust tyrant: To discard vice, and to keep
+undue passions within bounds.
+
+Comedy holds up folly in a ridiculous light: Whatever conduct or
+character is found in the regions of absurdity, furnishes proper
+materials for the stage; and out of these, the pen of a master will draw
+many useful lessons.
+
+The pulpit and the stage have nearly the same use, but not in the same
+line--That of improving the man.
+
+The English stage opened about the conquest, and was wholly confined to
+religion; in whose service it continued, with very little intermission,
+to the extinction of the Plantagenets. The play-houses were the
+churches, the principal actors the priests, and the performances taken
+from scripture; such as the Fall of Man, the Story of Joseph, Sampson,
+Histories of the Saints, the Sufferings of Christ, Resurrection, Day of
+Judgment, &c.
+
+Theatrical exhibition in Birmingham, is rather of a modern date. As far
+as memory can penetrate, the stroller occupied, occasionally, a shed of
+boards in the fields, now Temple-street: Here he acted the part of
+Distress, in a double capacity. The situation was afterwards changed,
+but not the eminence, and the Hinkleys dignified the performers booth!
+
+In about 1730, the amusements of the stage rose in a superior stile of
+elegance, and entered something like a stable in Castle-street. Here the
+comedian strutted in painted rags, ornamented with tinsel: The audience
+raised a noisy laugh, half real and half forced, at three-pence a head.
+
+In about 1740, a theatre was erected in Moor-street, which rather gave a
+spring to the amusement; in the day time the comedian beat up for
+volunteers for the night, delivered his bills of fare, and roared out an
+encomium on the excellence of the entertainment, which had not always
+the desired effect.
+
+In 1751, a company arrived, which anounced themselves, "His Majesty's
+servants, from the theatres-royal in London; and hoped the public would
+excuse the ceremony of the drum, as beneath the dignity of a London
+company." The novelty had a surprising effect; the performers had
+merit; the house was continually crouded; the general conversation
+turned upon theatrical exhibition, and the town was converted into one
+vast theatre.
+
+In 1752 it was found necessary to erect a larger theatre, that in King
+Street, and we multiplied into two London companies.
+
+The pulpits took the alarm, and in turn, roared after their customers:
+But the pious teachers forgot it was only the fervour of a day, which
+would cool of itself; that the fiercer the fire burns, the sooner it
+will burn out.
+
+This declaration of war, fortunately happening at the latter end of
+summer, the campaign was over, and the company retreated into winter
+quarters, without hostilities.
+
+It was afterwards found, that two theatres were more than the town chose
+to support; therefore that in Moor-street was set for a methodist
+meeting, where, it was said, though it changed its audience, it kept its
+primeval use, continuing the theatre of farce.
+
+In 1774, the theatre in King-street was enlarged, beautified, and made
+more convenient; so that it hath very few equals.
+
+About the same time that in New-street was erected upon a suitable spot,
+an extensive plan, and richly ornamented with paintings and
+scenery.--Expence seems the least object in consideration.
+
+An additional and superb portico, was erected in 1780, which perhaps may
+cause it to be pronounced, "One of the first theatres in Europe."
+
+Two busts, in relief, of excellent workmanship, are elevated over the
+attic windows; one is the father, and the other the refiner of the
+British, stage--Shakespear and Garrick.
+
+Also two figures eight feet high, are said to be under the chissel, one
+of Thalia, and the other of Melpomene, the comic and the tragic muses;
+the value one hundred and sixty guineas. Places are reserved for their
+reception, to augment the beauty of the front, and shew the taste of
+the age.
+
+
+
+AMUSEMENTS.
+
+Man seems formed for variety, whether we view him in a rational or an
+animal light. A sameness of temper, habit, diet, pursuit, or pleasure,
+is no part of his character. The different ages of his life, also
+produce different sentiments; that which gives us the highest relish in
+one period, is totally flat in another. The rattle that pleases at
+three, would be cast into the fire at threescore: The same hand that
+empties the purse at twenty, would fill it at fifty: In age, he bends
+his knee to the same religion, which he laughed at in youth: The prayer
+book, that holds the attention of seventy, holds the lottery pictures of
+seven: And the amorous tale that awakes the ideas of twenty five, lulls
+old age to sleep.
+
+Not only life is productive of change, but also every day in it. If a
+man would take a minute survey of his thoughts and employments, for only
+twenty-four hours, he would be astonished at their infinite variety.
+
+Though industry be the ruling passion of this ingenious race, yet
+relaxation must follow, as one period to another. Society is therefore
+justly esteemed an everlasting fund of amusement, which is found at the
+tavern, in the winter evening: Intoxication is seldom met with, except
+in the inferior ranks, where it is visible in both sexes.
+
+A regular concert is established, where the music is allowed to excel.
+This harmonious science, like other productions of taste, though it be
+not the general study of the inhabitants, hath made an amazing progress
+during the last thirty years.
+
+In 1777, a coffee-house was opened at the East end of New-street, the
+first in this department; which, drawing into its vortex the
+transactions of Europe, finds employment for the politician.
+
+Assemblies are held weekly, which give room for beauty to figure at
+cards, in conversation, and in the dance.
+
+The pleasures of the field claim their votaries, but, in a populous
+country, like that of Birmingham, plenty of game is not to be expected;
+for want of wild fowl, therefore, the shooter has been sometimes known
+to attack the tame.
+
+However, the farmer need not be under any great concern for his
+property; the sportsman seldom does any thing with his arms--but--_carry
+them_. We are more famous for _making_, than _using_ the gun.
+
+A pack of hounds have sometimes been kept by subscription, termed, The
+Birmingham Hunt; but, as the sound of the dogs and the anvil never
+harmonised together, they have been long in disuse: the jocund tribe,
+therefore, having no scent of their own, fall into that of the
+neighbouring gentry, many of whom support a pack.
+
+The man of reflection finds amusement in domestic resources; and, in his
+own mind, if unoppressed. Here the treasures collected from men, books,
+and observation, _are laid up for many years_, from which he draws
+pleasure, without diminishing the flock. The universal riches of nature
+and of art; the part, the present, and a glympse of the future, lie open
+to his eye.
+
+Two obstructions only bound his ideas, _time_ and _space_. He steps from
+planet to planet, and if he cannot enter immensity, he can verge upon
+its borders.
+
+I pity the man, who through poverty, cannot find warmth by his own
+fire-side; but I pity him more, who, through poverty of thought, cannot
+find happiness.
+
+For the entertainment of summer, exclusive of the two theatres, there
+are five greens, where the gentlemen are amused with bowls, and the
+ladies with tea.
+
+There are also great variety of public gardens, suited to every class of
+people, or which Duddeston, the ancient seat of the Holte family, claims
+the pre-eminence.
+
+The fishing-rod, that instrument which _destroys in peace_, must find a
+place: other animals are followed with fire and tumult, but the fishes
+are entrapped with deceit. Of all the sportsmen, we charge the angler
+alone with _killing in cold blood_.
+
+Just as a pursuit abounds with pleasure, so will it abound with
+votaries. The pleasure of angling depends on the success of the line:
+this art is but little practised here, and less known. Our rivers are
+small, and thinly stored; our pools are guarded as private property: the
+Birmingham spirit is rather too active for the sleepy amusement
+of fishing.
+
+Patience seems the highest accomplishment of an angler. We behold him,
+fixed as a statue, on the bank; his head inclining towards the river,
+his attention upon the water, his eye upon the float; he often draws,
+and draws only his hook! But although he gets no bite, it may fairly be
+said _he is bit:_ of the two, the fish display the most cunning.--He,
+surprized that he has _caught nothing_, and I, that he has kept his rod
+and his patience.
+
+Party excursion is held in considerable esteem, in which are included
+Enville, the seat of Lord Stamford; Hagley, that of the late Lord
+Lyttelton; and the Leasowes, the property of the late Wm. Shenstone,
+Esq. We will omit the journey to London, a tour which some of us have
+made all our lives _without seeing it_.
+
+Cards and the visit are linked together, nor is the billiard table
+totally forsaken. One man amuses himself in amassing a fortune, and
+another in dissolving one.
+
+About thirty-six of the inhabitants keep carriages for their own private
+use; and near fifty have country houses. The relaxations of the humbler
+class, are fives, quoits, skittles, and ale.
+
+Health and amusement are found in the prodigious number of private
+gardens scattered round Birmingham, from which we often behold the
+father returning with a cabbage, and the daughter with a nosegay.
+
+
+
+HOTEL.
+
+The spot where our great-grandmothers smiled in the lively dance, when
+they possessed the flower of beauty in the spring of life, is lost in
+forgetfulness. The floor that trembled under that foot which was covered
+with a leather shoe tied with a silken string, and which supported a
+stocking of dark blue worsted, not of the finest texture, is now buried
+in oblivion.
+
+[Illustration: Hotel.]
+
+In 1750 we had two assembly rooms; one at No. 11. in the Square, the
+other No. 85. in Bull-street. This last was not much in use afterwards.
+That in the Square continued in repute till in the course of that
+evening which happened in October 1765, when Edward Duke of York had the
+honour of leading up the dance, and the ladies of Birmingham enjoyed
+that of the Duke's hand, He remarked, "That a town of such magnitude as
+Birmingham, and adorned with so much beauty, deserved a superior
+accomodation:--That the room itself was mean, but the entrance
+still meaner."
+
+Truth is ever the same, whether it comes from a prince or a peasant; but
+its effects are not. Whether some secret charm attended the Duke's
+expression, that blasted the room, is uncertain, but it never after held
+its former eminence.
+
+In 1772 a building was erected by subscription, upon the Tontine
+principle, at the head of Temple row, and was dignified with the French
+name of Hotel: From a handsome, entrance the ladies are now led through
+a spacious saloon, at the extremity of which the eye is struck with a
+grand flight of steps, opening into an assembly-room, which would not
+disgrace even the royal presence of the Duke's brother.
+
+The pile itself is large, plain, and elegant, but standing in the same
+line with the other buildings, which before were really genteel,
+eclipses them by its superiority: Whereas, if the Hotel had fallen a few
+feet back, it would, by breaking the line, have preserved the beauty of
+the row, without losing its own.
+
+
+
+WAKES.
+
+This ancient custom was left us by the Saxons. Time, that makes
+alteration only in other customs, has totally inverted this.
+
+When a church was erected, it was immediately called after a saint, put
+under his protection, and the day belonging to that saint kept in the
+church as an high festival. In the evening preceding the day, the
+inhabitants, with lights, approached the church, and kept a continual
+devotion during the whole night; hence the name _wake_: After which
+they entered into festivity.
+
+But now the devotional part is forgot, the church is deserted, and the
+festivity turned into riot, drunkenness, and mischief.
+
+Without searching into the mouldy records of time, for evidence to
+support our assertion, we may safely pronounce the wake the lowest of
+all low amusements, and compleatly suited to the lowest of tempers.
+
+Wakes have been deemed a public concern, and legislature, more than
+once, been obliged to interpose for the sake of that order which private
+conduct could never boast.
+
+In the reign of Henry the Sixth, every consideration, whether of a
+public or a private nature, gave way to the wake: The harvest in
+particular was neglected. An order therefore issued, confining the wakes
+to the first Sunday in October, consequently the whole nation run mad
+at once.
+
+Wakes in Birmingham are not ancient: Why St. Martin's, then the only
+church, was neglected, is uncertain.
+
+Although we have no wakes for the town, there are three kept in its
+borders, called Deritend, Chapel, and Bell wakes. The two first are in
+the spring of existence, the last in the falling leaf of autumn.
+
+Deritend wake probably took its rise at the erection of her chapel, in
+1382.
+
+Chapel wake, in 1750, from St. Bartholomew's chapel, is held in the
+meridian of Coleshill-street; was hatched and fostered by the publicans,
+for the benefit of the spiggot.
+
+Amongst other important amusements, was that of bull-baiting, till the
+year 1773, when the commissioners of lamps, in the amendment of their
+act, wisely broke the chain, and procured a reprieve for the
+unfortunate animal.
+
+Another was the horse-race, 'till a few years ago a person being killed,
+rather slackened the entertainment. What singular genius introduced the
+horse-race into a crowded street, I am yet to learn.
+
+In the evening the passenger cannot proceed without danger; in the
+morning, he may discover which houses are public, without other
+intelligence than the copious streams that have issued from the wall.
+The blind may also distinguish the same thing, by the strong scent
+of the tap.
+
+Bell wake is the junior by one year, originating from the same cause, in
+1751, in consequence of ten bells being hung up in St Philip's
+steeple.--'Till within these few years, we were at this wake struck with
+a singular exhibition, that of a number of boys running a race through
+the streets naked. Some of the inhabitants, seeing so fair a mark for
+chastisement, applied the rod with success, put a period to the sport,
+and obliged the young runners to run under cover.
+
+
+
+CLUBS.
+
+It may be expected, from the title of this chapter, that I shall
+introduce a set of ruffians armed with missive weapons; or, having named
+a trump, a set of gamblers shuffling and dealing out the cards: But
+whatever veneration I may entertain for these two fag ends of our
+species, I shall certainly introduce a class of people, which, though of
+the lower orders, are preferable to both.
+
+Social compact is a distinguishing mark of civilization: The whole
+British empire may be justly considered as one grand alliance, united
+for public and private interest, and this vast body of people are
+subdivided into an infinity of smaller fraternities, for
+individual benefit.
+
+Perhaps there are hundreds of these societies in Birmingham under the
+name of clubs; some of them boast the antiquity of a century, and by
+prudent direction have acquired a capital, at accumulating interest.
+Thousands of the inhabitants are thus connected, nay, to be otherwise is
+rather unfashionable, and some are people of sentiment and property.
+
+A variety of purposes are intended by these laudable institutions, but
+the principal one is that of supporting the sick.
+
+Each society is governed by a code of laws of its own making, which have
+at least the honour of _resembling_ those of legislature, for words
+without sense are found in both, and we sometimes stumble upon
+contradiction.
+
+The poor's-rates, enormous as they appear, are softened by these
+brotherly aids. They tend also to keep the mind at rest, for a man will
+enjoy the day of health, with double relish, when he considers he has a
+treasure laid up for that of sickness.
+
+If a _member_ only of a poor family be sick, the _head_ still remains to
+procure necessaries; but if that head be disordered, the whole source of
+supply is dried up, which evinces the utility of such institutions.
+
+The general custom is to meet at the public every fortnight, spend a
+trifle, and each contribute six-pence, or any stated sum, to the common
+stock. The landlord is always treasurer, or father, and is assisted by
+two stewards, annually or monthly chosen.
+
+As honour and low life are not always found together, we sometimes see a
+man who is rather _idle_, wish the society may suppose him _sick_, that
+he may rob them with more security. Or, if a member hangs long upon the
+box, his brethren seek a pretence to expel him. On the other hand, we
+frequently observe a man silently retreat from the club, if another
+falls upon the box, and fondly suppose himself no longer a member; or if
+the box be loaded with sickness, the whole club has been known to
+dissolve, that they may rid themselves of the burthen; but the Court of
+Requests finds an easy remedy for these evils, and at a
+trifling expence.
+
+The charity of the club, is also extended beyond the grave, and
+terminates with a present to the widow.
+
+The philosophers tell us, "There is no good without its kindred evil."
+This amiable body of men, therefore, marshalled to expel disease, hath
+one small alloy, and perhaps but one. As liquor and labour are
+inseparable, the imprudent member is apt to forget to quit the club
+room when he has spent his necessary two-pence, but continues there to
+the injury of his family.
+
+Another of these institutions is the _rent club_, where, from the weekly
+sums deposited by the members, a sop is regularly served up twice a
+year, to prevent the growlings of a landlord.
+
+In the _breeches club_ every member ballots for a pair, value a guinea,
+_promised_ of more value by the maker. This club dissolves when all the
+members are served.
+
+The intentions of the _book club_ are well known, to catch the
+productions of the press as they rise.
+
+The _watch club_ has generally a watchmaker for its president, is
+composed of young men, and is always temporary.
+
+If a taylor be short of employment, he has only to consult a landlord
+over a bottle, who, by their joint powers, can give birth to a _cloaths
+club_; where every member is supplied with a suit to his taste, of a
+stipulated price. These are chiefly composed of batchelors, who wish to
+shine in the eye of the fair.
+
+Thus a bricklayer stands at the head of the _building club_, where every
+member perhaps subscribes two guineas per month, and each house, value
+about one hundred pounds, is balloted for, as soon as erected. As a
+house is a weighty concern, every member is obliged to produce two
+bondsmen for the performance of covenants.
+
+I will venture to pronounce another the _capital club_, for when the
+contributions amount to 50_l_. the members ballot for this capital, to
+bring into business: Here also securities are necessary. It is easy to
+conceive the two last clubs are extremely beneficial to building and
+to commerce.
+
+The last I shall enumerate is the _clock club_: When the weekly deposits
+of the members amount to about 4_l_. they call lots who shall be first
+served with a clock of that value, and continue the same method till the
+whole club is supplied; after which, the clockmaker and landlord cast
+about for another set, who are chiefly composed of young house-keepers.
+Hence the beginner ornaments his premises with furniture, the artist
+finds employment and profit, and the publican empties his barrel.
+
+Thus we have taken a transient survey of this rising colony of arts,
+uniting observation with fact: We have seen her dark manufactures, in
+darker times: We have attended her through her commercial, religious,
+political, and pleasurable walks: Have viewed her in many points of
+light, but never in decline; 'till we have now set her in the fair
+sunshine of the present day.
+
+Perhaps I shall not be charged with prolixity, that unpardonable sin
+against the reader, when it is considered, that three thousand years are
+deposited in the compass of one hundred and forty little pages.
+
+Some other circumstances deserve attention, which could not be
+introduced without breaking the thread of history: But as that thread is
+now drawn to an end, I must, before I resume it, step back into the
+recesses of time, and slumber through the long ages of seventeen hundred
+years; if the active reader, therefore, has no inclination for a nod of
+that length, or, in simple phrase, no relish for antiquity, I advise him
+to pass over the five ensuing chapters.
+
+
+
+IKENIELD STREET.
+
+About five furlongs North of the Navigation Bridge, in Great Charles
+street, which is the boundary of the present buildings, runs the
+Ikenield-street; one of those famous pretorian roads which mark the
+Romans with conquest, and the Britons with slavery.
+
+By that time a century had elapsed, from the first landing of Caesar in
+Britain the victorious Romans had carried their arms through the
+southern part of the isle. They therefore endeavoured to secure the
+conquered provinces by opening four roads, which should each rise in the
+shore, communicate with, and cross each other, form different angles,
+extend over the island several ways, and terminate in the opposite sea.
+
+These are the Watling-street, which rises near Dover, and running
+North-west through London, Atherstone, and Shropshire, in the
+neighbourhood of Chester, ends in the Irish sea.
+
+The Foss begins in Devonshlre, extends South-east through
+Leicestershire, continuing its course through Lincolnshire, to the verge
+of the German ocean.
+
+These two roads, crossing each other at right angles, form a figure
+resembling the letter X, whose centre is the High Cross, which divides
+the counties of Warwick and Leicester.
+
+The Ermine-street extends along the southern part of the island; near
+the British channel; and the Ikenield-street, which I cannot so soon
+quit, rises near Southampton, extends nearly North, through Winchester,
+Wallingford, and over the Isis, at New-bridge; thence to Burford,
+crossing the Foss at Stow in the Woulds, over Bitford-bridge, in the
+County of Warwick, to Alcester; by Studley, Ipsley, Beely,
+Wetherick-hill, Stutley-street; crosses the road from Birmingham to
+Bromsgrove, at Selley oak, leaving Harborne a mile to the left, also the
+Hales Owen road a mile West of Birmingham: Thence by the Observatory in
+Lady-wood-lane, where it enters the parish of Birmingham, crossing the
+Dudley road at the Sand-pits; along Worstone-lane; through the little
+pool, and Hockley-brook, where it quits the parish: Thence over
+Handsworth-heath, entering a little lane on the right of
+Bristle-lands-end, and over the river Tame, at Offord-mill,
+(Oldford-mill) directly to Sutton Coldfield. It passes the Ridgeway a
+few yards East of King's-standing, a little artificial mount, on which
+Charles the First is said to have stood when he harangued the troops he
+brought out of Shropshire, at the opening of the civil wars, in 1642.
+From thence the road proceeds through Sutton park, and the remainder of
+the Coldfield; over Radley-moor; from thence to Wall, a Roman station,
+where it meets the Watling-street: Leaving Lichfield a mile to the left,
+it leads through Street-hay; over Fradley-heath; thence through Alderwas
+hays, crossing the river Trent, at Wichnor-bridge, to Branson-turnpike:
+over Burton-moor, leaving the town half a mile to the right: thence to
+Monk's-bridge, upon the river Dove; along Egington-heath, Little-over,
+the Rue-dyches, Stepping-lane, Nun-green, and Darley-slade, to the river
+Derwent, one mile above Derby; upon the eastern banks of which stands
+Little Chester, built by the Romans.
+
+If the traveller is tired with this tedious journey, and dull
+description, which admits of no variety, we will stop for a moment, and
+refresh in this Roman city.
+
+In drawing the flewks of his oar along the bed of the river, as he boats
+over it, he may feel the foundations of a Roman bridge, nearly level
+with its bottom. Joining the water are the vestiges of a castle, now an
+orchard. Roman coins are frequently discovered--In 1765, I was presented
+with one of Vespasian's, found the year before in scowering a ditch; but
+I am sorry to observe, it has suffered more during the fifteen years in
+my possession, than during the fifteen hundred it lay in the earth.
+
+The inhabitants being in want of materials to form a turnpike road,
+attempted to pull up this renowned military way, for the sake of those
+materials, but found them too strongly cemented to admit of an easy
+separation, and therefore desisted when they had taken up a few loads.
+
+I saw the section of this road cut up from the bottom: the Romans seem
+to have formed it with infinite labour and expence. They took out the
+soil for about twenty yards wide, and one deep, perhaps, till they came
+to a firm bottom; and filled up the whole with stones of all sizes,
+brought from Duffield, four miles up the river; cemented with
+coarse mortar.
+
+The road here is only discoverable by its barren track, along the
+cultivated meadows. It then proceeds over Morley-moor, through
+Scarsdale, by Chesterfield, Balsover, through Yorkshire, Northumberland,
+and terminates upon the banks of the Tine, near Tinmouth.
+
+There are many roads in England formed by the Romans: they were of two
+kinds, the military, which crossed the island; and the smaller, which
+extended from one town to another. The four I have mentioned come under
+the first class: they rather avoided, than led through a town, that they
+might not be injured by traffic.
+
+Two of these four, the Watling-street, and the Ikenield-street, are
+thought, by their names, to be British, and with some reason; neither of
+the words are derived from the Latin: but whatever were their origin,
+they are certainly of Roman construction.
+
+These great roads were begun as soon as the island was subdued, to
+employ the military, and awe the natives, and were divided into stages,
+at the end of each was a fort, or station, to accommodate the guard, for
+the reception of stores, the conveniency of marching parties, and to
+prevent the soldiers from mixing with the Britons.
+
+The stations upon the Ikenield-street, in our neighbourhood, are Little
+Chester (Derventione) a square fort, nearly half an acre; joining the
+road to the south, and the Derwent to the west.
+
+The next is Burton upon Trent (Ad Trivonam) thirteen miles south. Here I
+find no remains of a station.
+
+Then Wall (Etocetum) near Lichfield, which I have examined with great
+labour, or rather with great pleasure: Here the two famous consular
+roads cross each other. We should expect a fort in the angle, commanding
+both, which is not the case. The Watling-street is lost for about half a
+mile, leading over a morass, only the line is faintly preserved, by a
+blind path over the inclosures: the Ikenield-street crosses it in this
+morass, not the least traces of which remain. But, by a strict
+attention, I could point out their junction to a few yards.
+
+Six furlongs west of this junction, and one hundred yards north of the
+Watling-street, in a close, now about three acres, are the remains of
+the Roman fortress. This building, of strength and terror, is reduced to
+one piece of thick wall, visibly of Roman workmanship, from whence the
+place derives its modern name.
+
+Can you, says I to a senior peasant, for I love to appeal to old age,
+tell the origin of that building?
+
+"No; but we suppose it has been a church. The ruins were much larger in
+my memory; but they were lately destroyed, to bring the land into that
+improved state of cultivation in which you see it."--And so you reduced
+a fortress in four years, which the Britons never could in four hundred.
+For a trifling profit, you eraze the work of the ancients, and prevent
+the wonder of the moderns.--Are you apprised of any old walls under
+the surface?
+
+"Yes; the close is full of them: I have broke three ploughs in one day;
+no tool will stand against them. It has been more expensive to bring the
+land into its present condition, than the freehold is worth." Why, you
+seem more willing to destroy than your tools; and more able than time.
+The works which were the admiration of ages, you bury under ground. What
+the traveller comes many miles to see, you assiduously hide.
+
+What could be the meaning that the Romans erected their station on the
+declivity of this hill, when the summit, two hundred yards distant, is
+much more eligible; are there no foundations upon it? "None."
+
+The commandry is preferable: the Watling-street runs by it, and it is
+nearer the Ikenield-street. Pray, are you acquainted with another Roman
+road which crosses it? "No."
+
+Do you know any close about the village, where a narrow bed of gravel,
+which runs a considerable length, has impeded the plough?
+
+"Yes; there is a place, half a mile distant, where, when a child, I
+drove the plough; we penetrated a land of gravel, and my companion's
+grandfather told us, it had been an old road."--That is the place I
+want, lead me to it. Being already master of both ends of the road, like
+a broken line, with the center worn out, the gravel bed enabled me to
+recover it.
+
+The next station upon the Ikenield-street is Birmingham (Bremenium) I
+have examined this country with care; but find no vestiges of a station:
+nor shall we wonder; dissolation is the preserver of antiquity, nothing
+of which reigns here; the most likely place is Wor-ston (Wall-stone)
+which a younger brother of Birmingham might afterwards convert into the
+fashionable moat of the times, and erect a castle. The next station is
+Alcester (Alauna) all which are nearly at equal distances.
+
+In forming these grand roads, a strait direction seems to have been
+their leading maxim. Though curiosity has lead me to travel many hundred
+miles upon their roads, with the eye of an enquirer, I cannot recollect
+one instance, where they ever broke the line to avoid a hill, a swamp, a
+rock, or a river.
+
+They were well acquainted with the propriety of an old English adage,
+_Once well done is twice done_; an idea new cloathed by Lord
+Chesterfield, _If a a thing be worth doing at all, it is worth
+doing well_.
+
+For their roads were so durably constructed, that, had they been
+appropriated only to the use intended, they might have withstood the
+efforts of time, and bid fair for eternity.--Why is this useful art so
+lost among the moderns?
+
+When time and intercourse had so far united the Romans and the Britons,
+that they approached nearly to one people, the Romans formed, or rather
+_improved_, many of the smaller roads; placed stones of intelligence
+upon them; hence, London Stone, Stony Stratford (the stone at the
+Street-ford) Atherstone, stone (hither, near, or first stone from
+Witherly-bridge, a Roman camp) and fixed their stations in the places to
+which these roads tended.
+
+The great roads, as observed before, were chiefly appropriated for
+military purposes, and instituted in the beginning of their government;
+but the smaller were of later date, and designed for common use. As
+these came more in practice, there was less occasion for the military;
+which, not leading to their towns, were, in process of time, nearly
+laid aside.
+
+Antonine, and his numerous train of commentators, have not bestowed that
+attention on the roads they deserve: a curious acquaintance with the
+roads of a country, brings us acquainted with the manners of the people:
+in one, like a mirror, is exactly represented the other. Their state,
+like a master key, unlocks many apartments.
+
+The authors I have seen are _all in the wrong_; and as my researches are
+confined, it is a mortification, I am not able to set them right. They
+have confounded the two classes together, which were very distinct in
+chronology, the manner of making, and their use. If an author treats of
+one old road, he supposes himself bound to treat of all in the kingdom,
+a task no man can execute: by undertaking much, we do nothing well; the
+journey of an antiquarian mould never be rapid. If fortune offers a
+small discovery, let him think, and compare. Neither will they ever be
+set right, but continue to build a mouldering fabric, with untempered
+mortar, till a number of intelligent residents, by local enquiries can
+produce solid materials for a lasting monument.
+
+The Romans properly termed their ways streets, a name retained by many
+of them to this day; one of the smaller roads, issuing from London,
+penetrates through Stratford upon Avon (Street-ford) Monks-path-street,
+and Shirley-street, to Birmingham, which proves it of great antiquity,
+and the Ikenield-street running by it, proves it of greater. We may from
+hence safely conclude, Birmingham was a place of note in the time of
+Caesar, because she merited legislative regard in forming their roads;
+which will send us far back among the Britons, to find her first
+existence.
+
+Though we are certain the Ikenield-street passes about a mile in length
+through this parish, as described above; yet, as there are no Roman
+traces to be seen, I must take the curious traveller to that vast waste,
+called Sutton-Coldfield, about four miles distant, where he will, in the
+same road, find the footsteps of those great mailers of the world,
+marked in lasting characters.
+
+He will plainly see its straight line pass over the Ridgeway, through
+Sutton Park, leaving the West hedge about 200 yards to the left; through
+the remainder of the Coldfield, till lost in cultivation.
+
+This track is more than three miles in length, and is no where else
+visible in these parts. I must apprize him that its highest beauty is
+only discovered by an horizontal sun in the winter months.
+
+I first saw it in 1762, relieved by the transverse rays, in a clear
+evening in November; I had a perfect view upon the Ridgeway, near
+King's-standing of this delightful scene: Had I been attacked by the
+chill blasts of winter, upon this bleak mountain, the sensation would
+have been lost in the transport. The eye, at one view, takes in more
+than two miles. Struck with astonishment, I thought it the grandest
+sight I had ever beheld; and was amazed, so noble a monument of
+antiquity should be so little regarded.
+
+The poets have long contended for the line of beauty--they may find it
+here. I was fixed as by enchantment till the sun dropt, my prospect with
+it, and I left the place with regret.
+
+If the industrious traveller chooses to wade up to the middle in gorse,
+as I did, he may find a roughish journey along this famous
+military way.
+
+Perhaps this is the only road in which money is of no use to the
+traveller; for upon this barren wild he can neither spend it, nor
+give it away.
+
+He will perceive the Coldfield to be one vast bed of gravel, covered
+with a moderate depth of soil of eight or ten inches: During this
+journey of three miles, he will observe all the way, on each side, a
+number of pits, perhaps more than a thousand, out of which the Romans
+procured the gravel to form the road; none of them many yards from it.
+This great number of pits, tends to prove two points--That the country
+was full of timber, which they not choosing to fall, procured the gravel
+in the interstices; for the road is composed of nothing else--And, that
+a great number of people were employed in its formation: They would
+also, with the trees properly disposed, which the Romans must inevitably
+cut to procure a passage, form a barrier to the road.
+
+This noble production was designed by a master, is every where straight,
+and executed with labour and judgement.
+
+Here he perceives the date of his own conquest, and of his civilization.
+Thus the Romans humbled a ferocious people.
+
+If he chooses to measure it he will find it exactly sixty feet wide,
+divided into three lands, resembling those in a ploughed field. The
+centre land thirty-six feet, and raised from one to three, according to
+the nature of the ground. The side lands, twelve each, and rising seldom
+more than one foot.
+
+This centre land no doubt was appropriated for the march of the troops,
+and the small one, on each side, for the out-guards, who preserved their
+ranks, for fear of a surprize from the vigilant and angry Britons.
+
+The Romans held these roads in great esteem, and were severe in their
+laws for their preservation.
+
+This famous road is visible all the way, but in some parts greatly hurt,
+and in others, compleat as in the first day the Romans made it. Perhaps
+the inquisitive traveller may find here, the only monument in the whole
+island left us by the Romans, that _time_ hath not injured.
+
+The philosophical traveller may make some curious observations in the
+line of agriculture, yet in its infancy.
+
+The only growth upon this wild, is gorse and ling: The vegetation upon
+the road and the adjacent lands, seem equal: The pits are all covered
+with a tolerable turf.
+
+As this road has been made about 1720 years, and, as at the time of
+making, both that and the pits must have been surfaces of neat gravel;
+he will be led to examine, what degree of soil they have acquired in
+that long course of years, and by what means?
+
+He well knows, that the surface of the earth is very far from being a
+fixed body: That there is a continual motion in every part, stone
+excepted: That the operations of the sun, the air, the frost, the dews,
+the winds, and the rain, produce a constant agitation, which changes the
+particles and the pores, tends to promote vegetation, and to increase
+the soil to a certain depth.
+
+This progress is too minute for the human eye, but the effects are
+visible. The powers above mentioned operate nearly as yeast in a lump of
+dough, that enlivens the whole. Nature seems to wish that the foot would
+leave the path, that she may cover it with grass. He will find this
+vegetative power so strong, that it even attends the small detached
+parts of the soil where-ever they go, provided they are within reach of
+air and moisture: He will not only observe it in the small pots,
+appropriated for garden use, but on the tops of houses, remote from any
+road, where the wind has carried any small dust. He will also observe it
+in cracks of the rocks; but in an amazing degree in the thick walls of
+ruined castles, where, by a long course of time, the decayed materials
+are converted into a kind of soil, and so well covered with grass, that
+if one of our old castle builders could return to his possessions, he
+might mow his house as well as his field, and procure a tolerable crop
+from both.
+
+In those pits, upon an eminence, the soil will be found deep enough for
+any mode of husbandry. In those of the vallies, which take in the small
+drain of the adjacent parts, it is much deeper. That upon the road,
+which rather gives than receives any addition from drain, the average
+depth is about four inches.
+
+The soil is not only increased by the causes above, but also by the
+constant decays of the growth upon it. The present vegetable generation
+falling to decay, adds to the soil, and also, assists the next
+generation, which in a short time follows the same course.
+
+The author of the History of Sutton says, "The poor inhabitants are
+supplied with fuel from a magazine of peat, near the Roman road,
+composed of thousands of fir trees cut down by the Romans, to enable
+them to pass over a morass. The bodies of the trees are sometimes dug up
+found, with the marks of the axe upon them."
+
+Are we then to suppose, by this curious historical anecdote, that the
+inhabitants of Sutton have run away with this celebrated piece of
+antiquity? That the cart, instead of rolling _over_ the military way,
+has rolled _under_ it, and that they have boiled the pot with the
+Roman road?
+
+Upon inquiry, they seemed more inclined to credit the fact, than able to
+prove it; but I can find no such morass, neither is the road any where
+broken up. Perhaps it would be as difficult to find the trees, as the
+axe that cut them: Besides, the fir is not a native of Britain, but of
+Russia; and I believe our forefathers, the Britons, were not complete
+masters of the art of transplanting. The park of Sutton was probably a
+bed of oaks, the natural weed of the country, long before Moses figured
+in history.
+
+Whilst the political traveller is contemplating this extraordinary
+production of antiquity, of art, and of labour, his thoughts will
+naturally recur to the authors of it.
+
+He will find them proficients in science, in ambition, in taste: They
+added dominion to conquest, 'till their original territory became too
+narrow a basis to support the vast fabric acquired by the success of
+their arms: The monstrous bulk fell to destruction by its own
+weight.--Man was not made for universality; if he grasps at little, he
+may retain it; if at much, he may lose all.
+
+The confusion, natural on such occasions, produced anarchy: At that
+moment, the military stept into the government, and the people
+became slaves.
+
+Upon the ruins of this brave race, the Bishop of Rome founded an
+ecclesiastical jurisdiction. His power increasing with his votaries, he
+found means to link all christendom to the triple crown, and acquired an
+unaccountable ascendency over the human mind: The princes of Europe were
+harnessed, like so many coach horses. The pontiff directed the bridle.
+He sometimes used the whip, and sometimes the curse. The thunder of his
+throne rattled through the world with astonishing effect, 'till that
+most useful discovery, the art of printing, in the fifteenth century,
+dissolved the charm, and set the oppressed cattle at liberty; who began
+to kick their driver. Henry the Eighth of England, was the first unruly
+animal in the papal team, and the sagacious Cranmer assisted in breaking
+the shackles.
+
+We have, in our day, seen an order of priesthood in the church of Rome,
+annihilated by the consent of the European princes, which the Pope
+beheld in silence.
+
+"There is an ultimate point of exaltation, and reduction, beyond which
+human affairs cannot proceed." Rome, seems to have experienced both, for
+she is at this day one of the most contemptible states in the scale
+of empire.
+
+This will of course lead the traveller's thoughts towards Britain, where
+he will find her sons by nature inclined to a love of arms, of liberty,
+and of commerce. These are the strong outlines of national character,
+the interior parts of which are finished with the softer touches of
+humanity, of science, and of luxury. He will also find, that there is a
+natural boundary to every country, beyond which it is dangerous to add
+dominion. That the boundary of Britain is the sea: That her external
+strength is her navy, which protects her frontiers, and her commerce:
+That her internal is unanimity: That when her strength is united within
+herself, she is invincible, and the balance of Europe will be fixed in
+her hand, which she ought never to let go.
+
+But if she accumulates territory, though she may profit at first, she
+weakens her power by dividing it; for the more she fends abroad, the
+less will remain at home; and, instead of giving law to the tyrant, she
+may be obliged to receive law from him.
+
+That, by a multiplicity of additions, her little isles will be lost in
+the great map of dominion.
+
+That, if she attempts to draw that vast and growing empire, America, she
+may herself be drawn to destruction; for, by every law of attraction,
+the greater draws the less--The mouse was never meant to direct the ox.
+That the military and the ecclesiastical powers are necessary in their
+places, that is, subordinate to the civil.
+
+But my companion will remember that Birmingham is our historical mark,
+therefore we must retreat to that happy abode of the smiling arts. If he
+has no taste for antiquity, I have detained him too long upon this
+hungry, though delightful spot. If he has, he will leave the enchanted
+ground with reluctance; will often turn his head to repeat the view,
+'till the prospect is totally lost.
+
+
+
+LORDS OF THE MANOR.
+
+By the united voice of our historians, it appears, that as the Saxons
+conquered province after province, which was effected in about one
+hundred and thirty years, the unfortunate Britons retreated into Wales:
+But we are not to suppose that all the inhabitants ran away, and left a
+desolate region to the victor; this would have been of little more value
+to the conqueror, than the possession of Sutton Coldfield or Bromsgrove
+Lickey. The mechanic and the peasant were left, which are by far the
+greatest number; they are also the riches of a country; stamp a value
+upon property, and it becomes current. As they have nothing to lose, so
+they have nothing to fear; for let who will be master, they must be
+drudges: Their safety consists in their servitude; the victor is ever
+conscious of their utility, therefore their protection is certain.
+
+But the danger lies with the man of substance, and the greater that
+substance, the greater his anxiety to preserve it, and the more danger
+to himself if conquered: These were the people who retreated into Wales.
+Neither must we consider the wealth of that day to consist of bags of
+cash, bills of exchange, India bonds, bank stock, etc. no such thing
+existed. Property lay in the land, and the herds that fed upon it. And
+here I must congratulate our Welch neighbours, who are most certainly
+descended from gentlemen; and I make no doubt but the Cambrian reader
+will readily unite in the same sentiment.
+
+The Saxons, as conquerors, were too proud to follow the modes of the
+conquered, therefore they introduced government, laws, language,
+customs and habits of their own. Hence we date the division of the
+kingdom into manors.
+
+Human nature is nearly the same in all ages. Where value is marked upon
+property or power, it will find its votaries: Whoever was the most
+deserving, or rather could make the most interest, procured land
+sufficient for an Elderman, now Earl; the next class, a Manor; and the
+inferior, who had borne the heat and burthen of the day--nothing.
+
+I must now introduce an expression which I promised not to forget.--In
+the course of a trial between William de Birmingham, and the inhabitants
+of Bromsgrove and King's-norton, in 1309, concerning the right of
+tollage; it appeared, That the ANCESTORS of the said William had a
+market here before the Norman conquest. This proves, that the family of
+Birmingham were of Saxon race, and Lords of the Manor prior to
+that period.
+
+Mercia was not only the largest, but also the last of the seven
+conquered kingdoms--It was bounded on the North by the Humber, on the
+West by the Severn, on the South by the Thames, and on the East by the
+German ocean. Birmingham lies nearly in the centre. Cridda, a Saxon,
+came over with a body of troops, and reduced it in 582; therefore, as
+no after revolution happened that could cause Birmingham to change its
+owner, and as land was not in a very saleable state at that time, there
+is the greatest reason to suppose the founder of the house of Birmingham
+Came over with Cridda, as an officer in his army, and procured this
+little flourishing dominion as a reward for his service.
+
+The succeeding generations of this illustrious family are too remote for
+historical penetration, 'till the reign of Edward the Confessor, the
+last of the Saxon Kings, when we find, in 1050,
+
+
+
+ULUUINE, (since ALWYNE, now ALLEN,)
+
+master of this improving spot.
+
+RICHARD,
+
+1066,
+
+seems to have succeeded him, and to have lived in that unfortunate
+period for property, the conquest.
+
+The time was now arrived when this ancient family, with the rest of the
+English gentry, who had lived under the benign climate of Saxon
+government, and in the affluence of fortune, must quit the happy
+regions of hospitality, and enter the gloomy precincts of penury--From
+givers, they were to become beggars.
+
+The whole conduct of William seems to have carried the strongest marks
+of conquest. Many of the English lost their lives, some their liberty,
+and nearly all their estates. The whole land in the kingdom was
+insufficient to satisfy the hungry Normans.
+
+Perhaps William took the wisest method to secure the conquered country
+that could be devised by human wisdom; he parcelled out the kingdom
+among his greater Barons; the whole county of Chester is said to have
+fallen to the share of Hugh Lupus: and these were subdivided into 62,000
+Knight's-sees, which were held under the great Barons by military
+service. Thus the Sovereign by only signifying his pleasure to the
+Barons, could instantly raise an army for any purpose. We cannot produce
+a stronger indication of arbitrary government: But, it is happy for the
+world, that perfection is not found even in human wisdom; for this well
+laid scheme destroyed itself. Instead of making the crown absolute, as
+was intended, it threw the balance into the hands of the Barons, who
+became so many petty Sovereigns, and a scourge to the King in after
+ages, 'till Henry the Seventh sapped their power, and raised the third
+estate, the Commons, which quickly eclipsed the other two.
+
+The English gentry suffered great distress: Their complaints rung loud
+in the royal ear, some of them therefore, who had been peaceable and
+never opposed the Normans, were suffered to enjoy their estates in
+dependance upon the great Barons.
+
+This was the case with Richard, Lord of Birmingham, who held this manor
+by knight's-service of William Fitz-Ausculf, Lord of Dudley castle, and
+perhaps all the land between the two places.
+
+Thus Birmingham, now rising towards the meridian of opulence, was a
+dependant upon Dudley castle, now in ruins; and thus an honourable
+family, who had enjoyed a valuable freehold, perhaps near 500 years,
+were obliged to pay rent, homage, suit and service, attend the Lord's
+court at Dudley every three weeks, be called into the field at pleasure,
+and after all, possess a precarious tenure in villainage.
+
+The blood of the ancient English was not only tainted with the breath of
+that destructive age, but their lands also. The powerful blast destroyed
+their ancient freehold tenures, reducing them into wretched copyholds:
+and to the disgrace of succeeding ages, many of them retain this mark of
+Norman slavery to the present day. How defective are those laws, which
+give one man power over another in neutral cases? That tend to promote
+quarrels, prevent cultivation, and which cannot draw the line between
+property and property?
+
+Though a spirit of bravery is certainly a part of the British character,
+yet there are two or three periods in English history, when this noble
+flame was totally extinguished. Every degree of resolution seems to have
+been cut off at the battle of Hastings. The English acted contrary to
+their usual manner:--Danger had often made them desperate, but now it
+made them humble. This conquest is one of the most extraordinary held
+forth in history; the flower of nobility was wholly nipped off; the
+spirit of the English depressed, and having no head to direct, or hand
+to cultivate the courage of the people and lead it into action, it
+dwindled at the root, was trampled under the foot of tyranny, and,
+according to _Smollet_, several generations elapsed before any one of
+the old English stock blossomed into peerage.
+
+It is curious to contemplate the revolution of things--Though the
+conquering Romans flood first in the annals of same at the beginning of
+the Christian era, yet they were a whole century in carrying their
+illustrious arms over the island, occupied only by a despicable race of
+Britons. Though the Saxons were invited, by one false step in politics,
+to assist the Britons in expelling an enemy, which gave them an
+opportunity of becoming enemies themselves; yet it was 130 years before
+they could complete their conquest. And though the industrious Dane
+poured incessant numbers of people into Britain, yet it cost them 200
+years, and 150,000 men before they reduced it. But William, at one blow,
+finished the dreadful work, shackled her sons to his throne, and
+governed them with a sceptre of iron. Normandy, a petty dukedom, very
+little larger than Yorkshire, conquered a mighty nation in one day.
+England seems to have been taken by storm, and her liberties put to the
+sword: Nor did the miseries of this ill-fated kingdom end here, for the
+continental dominions, which William annexed to the crown, proved a
+whirlpool for 400 years, which drew the blood and treasure of the nation
+into its vortex, 'till those dominions were fortunately lost in the
+reign of Mary the First.
+
+Thus the Romans spent one century in acquiring a kingdom, which they
+governed for four. The Saxons spent 130 years, and ruled for 459. The
+Danes spent 200 and reigned for 25--But the Norman spent one day only,
+for a reign of 700 years: They continue to reign still.
+
+It is easy to point out some families of Norman race, who yet enjoy the
+estates won by their ancestors at the battle of Hastings.
+
+
+
+WILLIAM,
+
+1130,
+
+Like his unfortunate father, was in a state of vassalage. The male line
+of the Fitz-Ausculfs soon became extinct, and Gervase Paganell marrying
+the heiress, became Baron of Dudley-castle.
+
+
+
+PETER DE BIRMINGHAM,
+
+1154.
+
+It is common in every class of life, for the inferior to imitate the
+superior: If the real lady claims a head-dress sixteen inches high, that
+of the imaginary lady will immediately begin to thrive. The family, or
+surname, entered with William the First, and was soon the reigning taste
+of the day: A person was thought of no consequence without a surname,
+and even the depressed English, crept into the fashion, in imitation of
+their masters. I have already mentioned the Earl of Warwick, father of a
+numerous race now in Birmingham; whose name before the conquest was
+simply Turchill, but after, Turchill de Arden, (Matter of the Woods)
+from his own estate.
+
+Thus the family of whom I speak, chose to dignify themselves with the
+name of _de Birmingham_.
+
+Peter wisely consulted his own interest, kept fair with Paganall his
+Lord, and obtained from him, in 1166, nine Knight's-fees, which he held
+by military service.
+
+A Knight's-fee, though uncommon now, was a word well understood 600
+years ago. It did not mean, as some have imagined, fifteen pounds per
+annum, nor any determinate sum; but as much land as would support a
+gentleman. This Peter was fewer to Paganall, (waited at his table)
+though a man of great property.
+
+The splendor in which the great Barons of that age lived, was little
+inferior to royalty.
+
+The party distinctions also of Saxon and Norman, in the twelfth century,
+began to die away, as the people became united by interest or marriage,
+like that of Whig and Tory, in the eighteenth. And perhaps there is not
+at present a native that does not carry in his veins the blood of the
+four nations that were grafted upon the Britons.
+
+Peter himself lived in affluence at his castle, then near Birmingham,
+now the Moat, of which in the next section. He also obtained from Henry
+the Second, as well as from Paganall the Lord paramount, several
+valuable privileges for his favourite inheritance of Birmingham. He bore
+for his arms, _azure, a bend lozenge_, of five points, _or_; the coat of
+his ancestors.
+
+
+
+WILLIAM DE BIRMINGHAM,
+
+1216.
+
+At the reduction of Ireland, in the reign of Henry the Second, a branch
+of this family, and perhaps uncle to William, was very instrumental
+under Richard Strongbow, Earl of Pembroke, in accomplishing that great
+end; for which he was rewarded with a large estate, and the title of
+Earl of Lowth, both which continue in his family. Perhaps they are the
+only remains of this honorable house.
+
+
+
+WILLIAM DE BIRMINGHAM,
+
+1246.
+
+By this time, the male line of the Paganalls was worn out, and Roger de
+Someri marrying the heiress, became Baron of Dudley, with all its
+dependencies; but Someri and Birmingham did not keep peace, as their
+fathers had done. William, being very rich, forgot to ride to Dudley
+every three weeks, to perform suit and service at Someri's court.
+
+Whereupon a contest commenced to enforce the performance. But, in 1262,
+it was agreed between the contending parties--That William should attend
+the Lord's court only twice a year, Easter and Michaelmas, and at such
+other times, as the Lord chose to command by special summons. This
+William, having married the daughter of Thomas de Astley, a man of great
+eminence, and both joining with the Barons under Simon Mountfort, Earl
+of Leicester, against Henry the Third, William fell, in 1265, at the
+battle of Evesham; and as the loser is ever the rebel, the Barons were
+prescribed, and their estates confiscated.
+
+The manor of Birmingham, therefore, valued at forty pounds per annum,
+was seized by the King, and given to his favorite, Roger de Clifford.
+
+
+
+WILLIAM DE BIRMINGHAM,
+
+1265.
+
+By a law called the statute of Kenilworth, every man who had forfeited
+his estate to the crown, by having taken up arms, had liberty to redeem
+his lands, by a certain fine: William therefore paid that fine, and
+recovered the inheritance of his family. He also, in 1283 strengthened
+his title by a charter from Edward the First, and likewise to the other
+manors he possessed, such as Stockton, in the County of Worcester;
+Shetford, in Oxfordshire; Maidencoat, in Berkshire; Hoggeston, in the
+county of Bucks; and Christleton, in Cheshire.
+
+In 1285, Edward brought his writ of quo warranto, whereby every holder
+of land was obliged to show by what title he held it. The consequence
+would have been dreadful to a Prince of less prudence than Edward. Some
+showed great unwillingness; for a dormant title will not always bear
+examination--But William producing divers charters, clearly proved his
+right to every manorial privilege, such as market, toll, tem, sack, sok,
+insangenthief, weyfs, gallows, court-leet, and pillory, with a right to
+fix the standard for bread and beer; all which were allowed.
+
+William, Lord of Birmingham, being a military tenant, was obliged to
+attend the King into Gascoigne, 1297, where he lost his liberty at the
+siege of Bellgard, and was carried prisoner in triumph to Paris.
+
+
+
+WILLIAM DE BIRMINGHAM,
+
+1306.
+
+This is the man who tried the right of tollage with the people of
+Bromsgrove and King's norton.
+
+
+
+WILLIAM DE BIRMINGHAM,
+
+LORD BIRMINGHAM.
+
+1316.
+
+Was knighted in 1325; well affected to Edward the Second, for whose
+service he raised four hundred foot. Time seems to have put a period to
+the family of Someri, Lords of Dudley, as well as to those of their
+predecessors, the Paganalls, and the Fitz-Ausculfs.
+
+In 1327, the first of Edward the Third, Sir William was summoned to
+Parliament, by the title of William Lord Birmingham, but not after.
+
+It was not the fashion of that day to fill the House of Peers by patent.
+The greater Barons held a local title from their Baronies; the possessor
+of one of these, claimed a seat among the Lords.
+
+I think, they are now all extinct, except Arundel, the property of the
+Norfolk family, and whoever is proprietor of Arundel castle, is Earl
+thereof by ancient prescription.
+
+The lesser Barons were called up to the House by writ, which did not
+confer an hereditary title. Of this class was the Lord of Birmingham.
+
+Hugh Spencer, the favourite of the weak Edward the Second, had procured
+the custody of Dudley-castle, with all its appendages, for his friend
+William, Lord Birmingham.
+
+Thus the family who had travelled from Birmingham to Dudley every three
+weeks, to perform humble suit at the Lord's court, held that very court
+by royal appointment, to receive the fealty of others.
+
+By the patent which constituted William keeper of Dudley-castle, he was
+obliged to account for the annual profits arising from that vast estate
+into the King's exchequer. When, therefore, in 1334, he delivered in his
+accounts, the Barons refused to admit them, because the money was
+defective. But he had interest enough with the crown to cause a mandamus
+to be issued, commanding the Barons to admit them.
+
+
+
+SIR FOUK DE BIRMINGHAM,
+
+1340.
+
+This man advanced to Sir Baldwin Freville, Lord of Tamworth, forty eight
+marks, upon mortgage of five mills. The ancient coat of the _bend
+lozenge_, was now changed for the _partie per pale, indented, or,
+and gules_.
+
+In 1352, and 1362 he was returned a member for the county of Warwick;
+also, in three or four succeeding Parliaments.
+
+
+
+SIR JOHN DE BIRMINGHAM,
+
+1376.
+
+Served the office of Sheriff for the county of Warwick, in 1379, and was
+successively returned to serve in Parliament for the counties of
+Warwick, Bedford, and Buckingham. He married the daughter of William de
+la Planch, by whom he had no issue. She afterwards married the Lord
+Clinton, retained the manor of Birmingham as her dower, and lived to the
+year 1424.
+
+It does not appear in this illustrious family, that the regular line of
+descent, from father to son, was ever broken, from the time of the
+Saxons, 'till 1390. This Sir John left a brother, Sir Thomas de
+Birmingham, heir at law, who enjoyed the bulk of his brother's fortune;
+but was not to possess the manor of Birmingham 'till the widow's death,
+which not happening 'till after his own, he never enjoyed it.
+
+The Lord Clinton and his Lady seem to have occupied the Manor-house; and
+Sir Thomas, unwilling to quit the place of his affections and of his
+nativity, erected a castle for himself at Worstone, near the Sand-pits,
+joining the Ikenield-street; street; where, though the building is
+totally gone, the vestiges of its liquid security are yet complete. This
+Sir Thomas enjoyed several public offices, and figured in the style of
+his ancestors. He left a daughter, who married Thomas de la Roche, and
+from this marriage sprang two daughters; the eldest of which married
+Edmund, Lord Ferrers of Chartley, who, at the decease of Sir John's
+widow, inherited the manor, and occupied the Manor house. There yet
+stands a building on the North-east side of the Moat, erected by this
+Lord Ferrers, with his arms in the timbers of the ceiling, and the
+crest, a horse-shoe.
+
+I take this house to be the oldest in Birmingham, though it hath not
+that appearance; having stood about 350 years.
+
+By an entail of the manor upon the male line, the Lady Ferrers seems to
+have quitted her title in favor of a second cousin, a descendant of
+William de Birmingham, brother to Sir Fouk.
+
+
+
+WILLIAM DE BIRMINGHAM,
+
+1430.
+
+In the 19th of Henry the Sixth, 1441, is said to have held his manor of
+Birmingham, of Sir John Sutton, Lord of Dudley, by military service;
+but instead of paying homage, fealty, escuage, &c. as his ancestors had
+done, which was very troublesome to the tenant, and brought only empty
+honour to the Lord: and, as sometimes the Lord's necessities taught him
+to think that money was more _Solid_ than suit and service; an agreement
+was entered into, for money instead of homage, between the Lord and the
+tenant--Such agreements now became common. Thus land became a kind of
+bastard freehold:--The tenant held a certainty, while he conformed to
+the agreement; or, in other words, the custom of the manor--And the Lord
+still possessed a material control. He died in 1479, leaving a son,
+
+
+
+SIR WILLIAM BIRMINGHAM,
+
+1479,
+
+Aged thirty at the decease of his father. He married Isabella, heiress
+of William Hilton, by whom he had a son, William, who died before his
+father, June 7, 1500, leaving a son,
+
+
+
+EDWARD BIRMINGHAM,
+
+1500,
+
+Born in 1497, and succeeded his grandfather at the age of three. During
+his minority, Henry the Seventh, 1502, granted the wardship to Edward,
+Lord Dudley.
+
+The family estate then consisted of the manors of Birmingham, Over
+Warton, Nether Warton, Mock Tew, Little Tew, and Shutford in the county
+of Oxford, Hoggeston in Bucks, and Billesley in the county of Worcester.
+Edward afterwards married Elizabeth, widow of William Ludford, of
+Annesley, by whom he had one daughter, who married a person of the name
+of Atkinson.
+
+But after the peaceable possession of a valuable estate, for thirty
+seven years; the time was now arrived, when the mounds of justice must
+be broken down by the weight of power, a whole deluge of destruction
+enter, and overwhelm an ancient and illustrious family, in the person of
+an innocent man. The world would view the diabolical transaction with
+amazement, none daring to lend assistance to the unfortunate; not
+considering, that property should ever be under the protection of law;
+and, what was Edward's case to-day, might be that of any other man
+to-morrow. But the oppressor kept fair with the crown, and the crown
+held a rod of iron over the people.--Suffer me to tell the mournful tale
+from Dugdale's Antiquities of Warwickshire.
+
+
+
+1537,
+
+John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, a man of great wealth, unbounded
+ambition, and one of the basest characters of the age, was possessor of
+Dudley-castle, and the fine estate belonging to it:--He wished to add
+Birmingham to his vast domain. Edward Birmingham therefore was privately
+founded, respecting the disposal of his manor; but as money was not
+wanted, and as the place had been the honor and the residence of his
+family for many centuries, it was out of the reach of purchase.
+
+Northumberland was so charmed with its beauty, he was determined to
+possess it; and perhaps the manner in which he accomplished his design,
+cannot be paralleled in the annals of infamy.
+
+He procured two or three rascals of his own temper, and rather of mean
+appearance, to avoid suspicion, to take up their quarters for a night or
+two in Birmingham, and gain secret intelligence when Edward Birmingham
+should ride out, and what road: This done, one of the rascals was to
+keep before the others, but all took care that Edward should easily
+overtake them. Upon his arrival at the first class, the villains joined
+him, entered into chat, and all moved soberly together 'till they
+reached the first man; when, on a sudden, the strangers with Edward drew
+their pistols and robbed their brother villain, who no doubt lost a
+considerable sum after a decent resistance. Edward was easily known,
+apprehended, and committed as one of the robbers; the others were not
+to be found.
+
+Edward immediately saw himself on the verge of destruction. He could
+only _alledge_, but not _prove_ his innocence: All the proof the case
+could admit of, was against him.
+
+Northumberland (then only Lord L'Isle) hitherto had succeeded to his
+wish; nor was Edward long in suspence--Private hints were given him,
+that the only way to save his life, was to make Northumberland his
+friend; and this probably might be done, by resigning to him his manor
+of Birmingham; with which the unfortunate Edward reluctantly complied.
+
+Northumberland thinking a common conveyance insufficient, caused Edward
+to yield his estate into the hands of the King, and had interest enough
+in that age of injustice to procure a ratification from a weak
+Parliament, by which means he endeavoured to throw the odium off his own
+character, and fix it upon theirs, and also, procure to himself a
+safer title.
+
+An extract from that base act is as follows:--
+
+"Whereas Edward Byrmingham, late of Byrmingham in the countie of
+Warwick, Esquire, otherwise callid Edward Byrmingham, Esquire, ys and
+standyth lawfully indettid to our soverene Lord the Kinge, in diverse
+grete summes of money; and also standyth at the mercy of his Highness,
+for that the same Edward ys at this present convected of felony: Our
+seide soverene Lord the Kinge ys contentid and pleasid, that for and in
+recompence and satisfaction to his Grace of the seyde summes of money,
+to accept and take of the seyde Edward the mannour and lordship of
+Byrmingham, otherwise callid Byrmincham, with the appurtinances, lying
+and being in the countie of Warwick, and all and singuler other lands
+and tenements, reversions, rents, services, and hereditaments of the
+same Edward Byrmingham, set, lying and beying in the countie of Warwick
+aforesaid. Be yt therefore ordeyned and enacted, by the authoritie of
+this present Parliament, that our seyde soverene Lord the Kinge shall
+have, hold, and enjoy, to him and his heires and assignes for ever, the
+seyde mannour and lordship of Byrmingham, &c."
+
+In the act there is a reservation of 40_l_. per annum, during the lives
+only of the said Edward and his wife.
+
+It appears also, by an expression in the act, that Edward was brought to
+trial, and found guilty. Thus innocence is depressed for want of
+support; property is wrested for want of the protection of the law; and
+a vile minister, in a corrupt age, can carry an infamous point through a
+court of justice, the two Houses of Parliament, and complete his horrid
+design by the sanction of a tyrant.
+
+The place where tradition tells us this diabolical transaction happened,
+is the middle of Sandy-lane, in the Sutton road; the upper part of which
+begins at the North east corner of Aston park wall; at the bottom, you
+bear to the left, for Sawford-bridge, or to the right, for
+Nachell's-green; about two miles from the Moat, the place of
+Edward's abode.
+
+Except that branch which proceeded from this original stem, about 600
+years ago, of which the Earl of Lowth is head, I know of no male
+descendant from this honourable stock; who, if we allow the founder to
+have come over with Cridda, the Saxon, in 582, must have commanded this
+little Sovereignty 955 years.
+
+I met with a person sometime ago of the name of Birmingham, and was
+pleased with the hope of finding a member of that ancient and honorable
+house; but he proved so amasingly ignorant, he could not tell whether he
+was from the clouds, the sea, or the dunghill: instead of traceing the
+existence of his ancestors, even so high as his father, he was scarcely
+conscious of his own.
+
+As this house did not much abound with daughters, I cannot at present
+recollect any families among us, except that of Bracebridge, who are
+descended from this illustrious origin, by a female line; and Sir John
+Talbot Dillon, who is descended from the ancient Earls of Lowth, as he
+is from the De Veres, the more ancient Earls of Oxford.
+
+Here, then, I unwillingly extinguish that long range of lights, which
+for many ages illuminated the house of Birmingham.
+
+But I cannot extinguish the rascallity of the line of Northumberland.
+This unworthy race, proved a scourge to the world, at least during three
+generations. Each, in his turn, presided in the British cabinet; and
+each seems to have possessed the villainy of his predecessor, united
+with his own. The first, only _served_ a throne; but the second and the
+third intended to _fill_ one. A small degree of ambition warms the mind
+in pursuit of fame, through the paths of honor; while too large a
+portion tends to unfavorable directions, kindles to a flame, consumes
+the finer sensations of rectitude, and leaves a stench behind.
+
+Edmund, the father of this John, was the voracious leech, with Empson,
+who sucked the vitals of the people, to feed the avarice of Henry
+the Seventh.
+
+It is singular that Henry, the most sagacious prince since the conquest,
+loaded him with honours for filling the royal coffers with wealth, which
+the penurious monarch durst never enjoy: but his successor, Henry the
+Eighth, enjoyed the pleasure of consuming that wealth, and _executed_
+the father for collecting it! How much are our best laid schemes
+defective? How little does expectation and event coincide? It is no
+disgrace to a man that he died on the scaffold; the question is--What
+brought him there? Some of the most inoffensive, and others the most
+exalted characters of the age in which they lived, have been cut off by
+the axe, as Edward Plantagenet, Earl of Warwick, for being the last male
+heir of the Anjouvin Kings; John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, Sir Thomas
+Moore, Sir Walter Raleigh, Algernon Sidney, William Lord Russell, &c.
+whose blood ornamented the scaffold on which they fell.
+
+The son of this man, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, favorite of Queen
+Elizabeth, is held up by our historians as a master-piece of
+dissimulation, pride, and cruelty. He married three wives, all which he
+is charged with sending to the grave by untimely deaths; one of them, to
+open a passage to the Queen's bed, to which he aspired. It is
+surprising, that he should deceive the penetrating eye of Elizabeth: but
+I am much inclined to think she _knew him_ better than the world; and
+they knew him rather to well. He ruined many of the English gentry,
+particularly the ancient family of Arden, of Park-hall, in this
+neighbourhood: he afterwards ruined his own family by disinheriting a
+son, more worthy than himself.--If he did not fall by the executioner,
+it is no proof that he did not deserve it.--We now behold
+
+
+
+JOHN, DUKE OF NORTHUMBERLAND, 1537,
+
+Lord of the manor of Birmingham; a man, who of all others the least
+deserved that honor; or rather, deserved the axe for being so.
+
+Some have asserted, "That property acquired by dishonesty cannot
+prosper." But I shall leave the philosopher and the enthusiast to settle
+that important point, while I go on to observe, That that the lordship
+of Birmingham did not prosper with the Duke. Though he had, in some
+degree, the powers of government in his hands, he had also the clamours
+of the people in his ears. What were his inward feelings, is uncertain
+at this distance--Fear seems to have prevented him from acknowledging
+Birmingham for his property. Though he exercised every act of ownership,
+yet he suffered the fee-simple to rest in the crown, 'till nine years
+had elapsed, and those clamours subsided, before he ventured to accept
+the grant, in 1546.
+
+As the execution of this grant was one of the last acts of Henry's life,
+we should be apt to suspect the Duke carried it in his pocket ready for
+signing, but deferred the matter as long as he could with safety, that
+distance of time might annihilate reflection; and that the King's death,
+which happened a few weeks after, might draw the attention of the world
+too much, by the importance of the event, to regard the Duke's conduct.
+
+The next six years, which carries us through the reign of Edward the
+Sixth, is replete with the intrigues of this illustrious knave. He
+sought connections with the principal families: He sought honours for
+his own: He procured a match between his son, the Lord Guildford Dudley,
+and the Lady Jane Gray, daughter of the Duke of Suffolk, and a
+descendant from Henry the Seventh, with intent of fixing the crown in
+his family, but failing in the attempt, he brought ruin upon the Suffolk
+family, and himself to the block, in the first of Queen Mary, 1553.
+
+Though a man be guilty of many atrocious acts that deserve death, yet in
+the hour of distress humanity demands the tear of compassion; but the
+case was otherwise at the execution of John, Duke of Northumberland, for
+a woman near the scaffold held forth a bloody handkerchief and
+exclaimed, "Behold the blood of the Duke of Somerset, shed by your
+means, and which cries for vengeance against you."
+
+Thus Northumberland kept a short and rough possession of glory; thus he
+fell unlamented; and thus the manor of Birmingham reverted to the crown
+a second time, the Duke himself having first taught it the way.
+
+Birmingham continued two years in the crown, 'till the third of Queen
+Mary, when she granted it to
+
+
+
+THOMAS MARROW,
+
+1555,
+
+Whose family, for many descents, resided at Berkeswell, in this county.
+
+In the possession of the High Bailiff is a bushel measure, cast in
+brass, of some value; round which in relief is, SAMUEL MARROW, LORD OF
+THE MANOR OF BIRMINGHAM, 1664.
+
+The Lordship continued in this family about 191 years, 'till the male
+line failing, it became the joint property of four coheirs--Ann, married
+to Sir Arthur Kaye; Mary, the wife of John Knightley, Esq; Ursulla, the
+wife of Sir Robert Wilmot; and Arabella, unmarried; who, in about 1730,
+disposed of the private estate in the manor, amounting to about 400_l_.
+per annum, to Thomas Sherlock, Bishop of London, as before observed, and
+the manor itself to
+
+
+
+THOMAS ARCHER, ESQ.
+
+for 1,700_l_. in 1746,
+
+Of an ancient family, who have resided at Umberslade in this county more
+than 600 years--from him it descended to
+
+
+
+ANDREW, LORD ARCHER,
+
+And is now enjoyed by his relict,
+
+
+
+SARAH, LADY ARCHER,
+
+1781,
+
+Possessing no more in the parish than the royalty; as it does not appear
+that the subsequent Lords, after the extinction of the house of
+Birmingham, were resident upon the manor, I omit particulars.
+
+Let me remark, this place yet gives title to the present Lord Viscount
+Dudley and Ward, as descended, by the female line, from the great
+Norman Barons, the Fitz-Ausculfs, the Paganalls, the Somerys, the
+Suttons, and the Dudleys, successively Lords paramount, whose original
+power is reduced to a name.
+
+
+
+MANOR HOUSE.
+
+(The Moat.)
+
+The natural temper of the human mind, like that of the brute, is given
+to plunder: This temper is very apt to break forth into action. In all
+societies of men, therefore, restraints have been discovered, under the
+name of laws, attended with punishment, to deter people from infringing
+each others property. Every thing that a man can possess, falls under
+the denomination of property; whether it be life, liberty, wealth or
+character.
+
+The less perfect these laws are, the less a people are removed from the
+rude state of nature, and the more necessity there is for a man to be
+constantly in a state of defence, that he may be able to repel any force
+that shall rise up against him.
+
+It is easy to discover, by the laws of a country, how far the people are
+advanced in civilization. If the laws are defective, or the magistrate
+too weak to execute them, it is dangerous for a man to possess property.
+
+But when a nation is pretty far advanced in social existence; when the
+laws agree with reason, and are executed with firmness, a man need not
+trouble himself concerning the protection of his property--his country
+will protect it for him.
+
+The laws of England have, for many ages, been gradually refining; and
+are capable of that protection which violence never was.
+
+But if we penetrate back into the recesses of time, we shall find the
+laws inadequate, the manners savage, force occupy the place of justice,
+and property unprotected. In those barbarous ages, therefore, men sought
+security by intrenching themselves from a world they could not trust.
+This was done by opening a large ditch round their habitation, which
+they filled with water, and which was only approachable by a
+draw-bridge. This, in some degree, supplied the defect of the law, and
+the want of power in the magistrate. It also, during the iron reign of
+priesthood, furnished that table in lent, which it guarded all the year.
+
+The Britons had a very slender knowledge of fortification. The camps
+they left us, are chiefly upon eminences, girt by a shallow ditch,
+bordered with stone, earth, or timber, but never with water. The moat,
+therefore, was introduced by the Romans; their camps are often in
+marshes; some wholly, and some in part surrounded by water.
+
+These liquid barriers were begun in England early in the christian æra,
+they were in the zenith of their glory at the barons wars, in the reign
+of king John, and continued to be the mode of fortification till the
+introduction of guns, in the reign of Edward the fourth, which shook
+their foundation; and the civil wars of Charles the first totally
+annihilated their use, after an existence of twelve hundred years.
+
+Perhaps few parishes, that have been the ancient habitation of a
+gentleman, are void of some traces of these fluid bulwarks. That of
+Birmingham has three; one of these, of a square form, at Warstone,
+erected by a younger brother of the house of Birmingham, hath already
+been mentioned; it is fed by a small rivulet from Rotton Park, which
+crosses the Dudley Road, near the Sand pits.
+
+Another is the Parsonage house, belonging to St. Martin's, formerly
+situated in the road to Bromsgrove, now Smallbrook street, of a circular
+figure, and supplied by a neighbouring spring. If we allow this watery
+circle to be a proof of the great antiquity of the house, it is a much
+greater with regard to the antiquity of the church.
+
+The third is what we simply denominate the Moat, and was the residence
+of the ancient lords of Birmingham, situated about sixty yards south of
+the church, and twenty west of Digbeth; this is also circular, and
+supplied by a small stream that crosses the road to Bromsgrove, near the
+first mile stone; it originally ran into the river Rea, near Vaughton's
+hole, dividing the parishes of Birmingham and Edgbaston all the way, but
+at the formation of the Moat, was diverted from its course, into which
+it never returned.
+
+No certain evidence remains to inform us when this liquid work was
+accomplished: perhaps in the Saxon heptarchy, when there were few or no
+buildings south of the church. Digbeth seems to have been one of the
+first streets added to this important school of arts; the upper part of
+that street must of course have been formed first: but, that the Moat
+was completed prior to the erection of any buildings between that and
+Digbeth, is evident, because those buildings stand upon the very soil
+thrown out in forming the Moat.
+
+The first certain account that we meet with of this guardian circle, is
+in the reign of Henry the Second, 1154, when Peter de Birmingham, then
+lord of the see, had a cattle here, and lived in splendor. All the
+succeeding Lords resided upon the same island, till their cruel
+expulsion by John Duke of Northumberland in 1537.
+
+The old castle followed its lords, and is buried in the ruins of time.
+Upon the spot, about forty years ago, rose a house in the modern style,
+occupied by a manufacturer (John Francis;) in one of the out-buildings
+is shewn, the apartment where the ancient lords kept their court leet;
+another out-building which stands to the east, I have already observed,
+was the work of Edmund Lord Ferrers.
+
+The ditch being filled with water, has nearly the same appearance now as
+perhaps a thousand years ago, but not altogether the same use. It then
+served to protect its master, but now, to turn a thread-mill.
+
+
+
+PUDDING BROOK.
+
+Near the place where the small rivulet discharges itself into the Moat,
+another of the same size is carried over it, called Pudding Brook, and
+proceeds from the town as this advances towards it, producing a
+curiosity seldom met with; one river running South, and the other North,
+for half a mile, yet only a path-road of three feet asunder; which
+surprised Brindley the famous engineer.
+
+
+
+THE PRIORY.
+
+The site of this ancient edifice is now the Square; some small remains
+of the old foundations are yet visible in the cellars, chiefly on the
+South-east. The out-buildings and pleasure-grounds perhaps occupied the
+whole North east side of Bull-street, then uninhabited, and only the
+highway to Wolverhampton; bounded on the North-west by Steelhouse-lane;
+on the North-east by Newton and John's-street; and on the South-east by
+Dale-end, which also was no other than the highway to Lichfield--The
+whole, about fourteen acres.
+
+The building upon this delightful eminence, which at that time commanded
+the small but beautiful prospect of Bristland-fields, Rowley-hills,
+Oldbury, Smethewick, Handsworth, Sutton-Coldfield, Erdington, Saltley,
+the Garrison, and Camp-hill, and which then stood at a distance from the
+town, though now near its centre; was founded by the house of
+Birmingham, in the early reigns of the Norman Kings, and called the
+Hospital of Saint Thomas,--The priest being bound to pray for the souls
+of the founders every day, to the end of the world.
+
+In 1285, Thomas de Madenhache, Lord of the manor of Aston, gave ten
+acres of land in his manor. William de Birmingham ten, which I take to
+be the land where the Priory stood; and Ranulph de Rakeby three acres,
+in Saltley: About the same time, sundry others gave houses and land in
+smaller quantities: William de Birmingham gave afterwards twenty-two
+acres more. The same active spirit seems to have operated in our
+ancestors, 500 years ago, that does in their descendants at this day: If
+a new scheme strikes the fancy, it is pursued with vigor.
+
+The religious fervor of that day ran high: It was unfashionable to leave
+the world, and not remember the Priory. Donations crowded in so fast,
+that the prohibiting act was forgot; so that in 1311, the brotherhood
+were prosecuted by the crown, for appropriating lands contrary to the
+act of mortmain; But these interested priests, like their sagacious
+brethren, knew as well how to preserve as to gain property; for upon
+their humble petition to the throne, Edward the Second put a stop to the
+judicial proceedings, and granted a special pardon.
+
+In 1351, Fouk de Birmingham, and Richard Spencer, jointly gave to the
+priory one hundred acres of land, part lying in Aston, and part in
+Birmingham, to maintain another priest, who should celebrate divine
+service daily at the altar of the Virgin Mary, in the church of the
+hospital, for the souls of William la Mercer, and his wife. The church
+is supposed to have stood upon the spot now No. 27, in Bull-street.
+
+In the premises belonging to the Red Bull, No. 83, nearly opposite, have
+been discovered human bones, which has caused some to suppose it the
+place of interment for the religious, belonging to the priory, which I
+rather doubt.
+
+At the dissolution of the abbies, in 1536, the King's visitors valued
+the annual income at the trifling sum of 8_l_. 8s. 9d.
+
+The patronage continued chiefly in the head of the Birmingham family.
+Dugdale gives us a list of some of the Priors, who held dominion in this
+little common wealth, from 1326, 'till the total annihilation, being
+210 years.
+
+     Robert Marmion,
+     Robert Cappe,
+     Thomas Edmunds,
+     John Frothward,
+     Robert Browne,
+     John Port,
+     William Priestwood,
+     Henry Drayton,
+     John Cheyne,
+     Henry Bradley,
+     Thomas Salpin,
+     Sir Edward Toste,
+          AND
+     Henry Hody.
+
+Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex, a man of much honour, more capacity, and
+yet more spirit, was the instrument with which Henry the Eighth
+destroyed the abbies; but Henry, like a true politician of the house of
+Tudor, wisely threw the blame upon the instrument, held it forth to the
+public in an odious light, and then sacrificed it to appease an
+angry people.
+
+This destructive measure against the religious houses, originated from
+royal letchery, and was replete with consequence.
+
+It opened the fountains of learning, at that day confined to the
+monastry, and the streams diffused themselves through various ranks of
+men. The revival of letters and of science made a rapid progress: It
+soon appeared, that the stagnate knowledge of the priest, was abundantly
+mixed with error; but now, running through the laity, who had no private
+interest to serve, it became more pure.
+
+It removed great numbers of men, who lay as a dead weight upon the
+community, and they became useful members of society: When younger sons
+could no longer find an asylum within the gloomy walls of a convent,
+they sought a livelihood in trade. Commerce, therefore, was taught to
+crowd her sails, cross the western ocean, fill the country with riches,
+and change an idle spirit into that of industry.
+
+By the destruction of religious houses, architecture sustained a
+temporary wound: They were by far the most magnificent and expensive
+buildings in the kingdoms, far surpassing those of the nobility; some of
+these structures are yet habitable, though the major part are gone to
+decay. But modern architecture hath since out-done the former splendor
+of the abbey, in use and elegance and sometimes with the profits arising
+from the abbey lands.
+
+It also shut the door of charity against the impostor, the helpless, and
+the idle, who had found here their chief supply; and gave rise to one of
+the best laws ever invented by human wisdom that of each parish
+supporting its own poor.
+
+By the annihilation of abbots, the church lost its weight in Parliament,
+and the vote was thrown into the hands of the temporal Lords.
+
+It prevented, in some degree, the extinction of families; for, instead
+of younger branches becoming the votaries of a monastic life, they
+became the votaries of hymen: Hence the kingdom was enriched by
+population. It eased the people of a set of masters, who had for ages
+ruled them with a rod of iron.
+
+The hands of superstition were also weakened, for the important sciences
+of astrology, miracle, and divination, supported by the cell, have been
+losing ground ever since.
+
+It likewise recovered vast tracts of land out of dead hands, and gave an
+additional vigor to agriculture, unknown to former ages. The monk, who
+had only a temporary tenancy, could not give a permanant one; therefore,
+the lands were neglected, and the produce was small: But these lands
+falling into the hands of the gentry, acquired an hereditary title. It
+was their interest; to grant leases, for a superior rent; and it was the
+tenant's interest to give that rent, for the sake of security: Hence the
+produce of land is become one of the most advantageous branches of
+British commerce.
+
+Henry, by this seisure, had more property to give away, than any King of
+England since William the Conqueror, and he generously gave away that
+which was never his own. It is curious to survey the foundation of some
+of the principal religions that have taken the lead among men.
+
+Moses founded a religion upon morals and ceremonies, one half of which
+continues with his people to this day.
+
+Christ founded one upon _love_ and _purity_; words of the simplest
+import, yet we sometimes mistake their meaning.
+
+The Bishop of Rome erected his, upon deceit and oppression; hence the
+treasures of knowledge were locked up, an inundation of riches and power
+flowed into the church, with destructive tendency.
+
+And Henry the Eighth, built his reformation upon revenge and plunder: He
+deprived the _head_ of the Romish see, of an unjust power, for
+pronouncing a just decision; and robbed the _members_, for being annexed
+to that head. Henry wished the world to believe, what he believed
+himself, that he acted from a religious principle; but his motive seems
+to have been _savage love_.
+
+Had equity directed when Henry divided this vast property, he would have
+restored it to the descendants of those persons, whose mistaken zeal had
+injured their families; but his disposal of it was ludicrous--sometimes
+he made a free gift, at others he exchanged a better estate for a a
+worse, and then gave that worse to another.
+
+I have met with a little anecdote which says, "That Henry being upon a
+tour in Devonshire, two men waited on him to beg certain lands in that
+county; while they attended in the anti-room for the royal presence, a
+stranger approached, and asked them a trifling question; they answered,
+they wished to be alone--at that moment the King entered: They fell at
+his feet: The stranger seeing them kneel, kneelt with them. They asked
+the favor intended; the King readily granted it: They bowed: The
+stranger bowed also. By this time, the stranger perceiving there was a
+valuable prize in the question, claimed his thirds; they denied his
+having anything to do with the matter: He answered, he had done as much
+as they, for they only asked and bowed, and he did the same. The dispute
+grew warm, and both parties agreed to appeal to the King, who answered,
+He took them for joint beggars, therefore had made them a joint present.
+They were then obliged to divide the land with the stranger, whose share
+amounted to 240_l_. per annum."
+
+The land formerly used for the priory of Birmingham, is now the property
+of many persons. Upon that spot, whereon stood one solitary house, now
+stand about four hundred. Upon that ground, where about thirty persons
+lived upon the industry of others, about three thousand live upon their
+own: The place, which lay as a heavy burden upon the community, now
+tends to enrich it, by adding its mite to the national commerce, and the
+national treasury.
+
+In 1775, I took down an old house of wood and plaister, which had stood
+208 years, having been erected in 1567, thirty-one years after the
+dissolution of abbies. The foundation of this old house seemed to have
+been built chiefly with stones from the priory; perhaps more than twenty
+wagon loads: These appeared in a variety of forms and sizes, highly
+finished in the gothic taste, parts of porticos, arches, windows,
+ceilings, etc. some fluted, some cyphered, and otherwise ornamented, yet
+complete as in the first day they were left by the chizel. The greatest,
+part of them were destroyed by the workmen: Some others I used again in
+the fireplace of an under kitchen. Perhaps they are the only perfect
+fragments that remain of that venerable edifice, which once stood the
+monument of ancient piety, the ornament of the town, and the envy of the
+priest out of place.
+
+
+
+JOHN A DEAN'S HOLE.
+
+At the bottom of Digbeth, about thirty yards North of the bridge, on the
+left, is a water-course that takes in a small drain from Digbeth, but
+more from the adjacent meadows, and which divides the parishes of Aston
+and Birmingham, called John a Dean's Hole; from a person of that name
+who is said to have lost his life there, and which, I think, is the only
+name of antiquity among us.
+
+The particle _de_, between the christian and surname, is of French
+extraction, and came over with William the First: It continued tolerably
+pure for about three centuries, when it in some degree assumed an
+English garb, in the particle _of_: The _a_, therefore is only a
+corruption of the latter. Hence the time of this unhappy man's
+misfortune may be fixed about the reign of Edward the Third.
+
+
+
+LENCH'S TRUST.
+
+In the reign of Henry the Eighth, William Lench, a native of this place,
+bequeathed his estate for the purpose of erecting alms houses, which are
+those at the bottom of Steelhouse-lane, for the benefit of poor widows,
+but chiefly for repairing the streets of Birmingham. Afterwards others
+granted smaller donations for the same use, but all were included under
+the name of Lench; and I believe did not unitedly amount, at that time,
+to fifteen pounds per annum.
+
+Over this scattered inheritance was erected a trust, consisting of
+gentlemen in the neighborhood of Birmingham.
+
+All human affairs tend to confusion: The hand of care is ever necessary
+to keep order. The gentlemen, therefore at the head of this charity,
+having too many modes of pleasure of their own, to pay attention to this
+little jurisdiction, disorder crept in apace; some of the lands were
+lost for want of inspection; the rents ran in arrear, and were never
+recovered; the streets were neglected, and the people complained.
+
+Misconduct, particularly of a public nature, silently grows for years,
+and sometimes for ages, 'till it becomes too bulky for support, falls in
+pieces by its own weight, and out of its very destruction rises a
+remedy. An order, therefore, from the Court of Chancery was obtained,
+for vesting the property in other hands, consisting of twenty persons,
+all of Birmingham, who have directed this valuable estate, now 227_l_.
+5s. per annum, to useful purposes. The man who can guide his own private
+concerns with success, stands the fairest chance of guiding those of
+the public.
+
+If the former trust went widely astray, perhaps their successors have
+not exactly kept the line, by advancing the leases to a rack rent: It is
+worth considering, whether the tenant of an expiring lease, hath not in
+equity, a kind of reversionary right, which ought to favour him with the
+refusal of another term, at one third under the value, in houses, and
+one fourth in land; this would give stability to the title, secure the
+rents, and cause the lessee more chearfully to improve the premises,
+which in time would enhance their value, both with regard to property
+and esteem.
+
+But where business is well conducted, complaint should cease; for
+perfection is not to be expected on this side the grave.
+
+Exclusive of a pittance to the poor widows above, the trust have a power
+of distributing money to the necessitous at Christmas and Easter, which
+is punctually performed.
+
+I think there is an excellent clause in the devisor's will, ordering his
+bailiff to pay half a crown to any two persons, who, having quarreled
+and entered into law, shall stop judicial proceedings, and make peace by
+agreement--He might have added, "And half a crown to the lawyer that
+will suffer them." I know the sum has been demanded, but am sorry I do
+_not_ know that it was ever paid.
+
+If money be reduced to one fourth its value, since the days of Lench, it
+follows, that four times the sum ought to be paid in ours; and perhaps
+ten shillings cannot be better laid out, than in the purchase of that
+peace, which tends to harmonise the community, and weed a brotherhood
+not the most amicable among us.
+
+The members choose annually, out of their own body a steward, by the
+name of bailiff Lench: The present fraternity, who direct this useful
+charity, are
+
+     Thomas Colmore, _bailiff_.
+     George Davis,
+     Win. Walsingham, _dead_,
+     Michael Lakin,
+     Benjamin May,
+     Michael Lakin, _jun_.
+     James Bedford,
+     Samuel Ray,
+     John Ryland,
+     James Jackson,
+     Stephen Bedford, _dead_,
+     Joseph Tyndall,
+     Joseph Smith,
+     Robert Mason,
+     Joseph Webster, _dead_,
+     Abel Humphreys,
+     Thomas Lawrence,
+     Samuel Pemberton,
+     Joseph Webster, _jun_.
+     John Richards.
+
+
+
+FENTHAM'S TRUST.
+
+In 1712, George Fentham, of Birmingham, devised his estate by will,
+consisting of about one hundred acres, in Erdington and Handsworth, of
+the value then, of 20_l_. per annum, vesting the same in a trust, of
+which no person could be chosen who resided more than one hundred yards
+from the Old Cross. We should be inclined to think the devisor
+entertained a singular predilection for the Old Cross, then in the pride
+of youth. But if we unfold this whimsical clause, we shall find it
+contains a shrewd intention. The choice was limited within one hundred
+yards, because the town itself, in his day, did not in some directions
+extend farther. Fentham had spent a life in Birmingham, knew well her
+inhabitants, and like some others, had found honour as well as riches
+among them: He knew also, he could with safety deposit his property in
+their hands, and was determined it should never go out,--The scheme will
+answer his purpose.
+
+The uses of this estate, now about 100_l_. per annum, are for teaching
+children to read, and for clothing ten poor widows of Birmingham: Those
+children belonging to the charity school, in green, are upon this
+foundation.
+
+     The present trust are
+     Francis Coales, and Edmund Wace Pattison.
+
+
+
+CROWLEY'S TRUST.
+
+Ann Crowley bequeathed, by her last will, in 1733, six houses in
+Steelhouse-lane, amounting to eighteen pounds per annum, for the purpose
+of supporting a school, consisting of ten children. From an attachment
+to her own sex, she constituted over this infant colony of letters a
+female teacher: Perhaps we should have seen a female trust, had they
+been equally capable of defending the property. The income of the estate
+increasing, the children are now augmented to twelve.
+
+By a subsequent clause in the devisor's will, twenty shillings a year,
+forever, issues out of two houses in the Lower Priory, to be disposed of
+at discretion of the trust.
+
+The governors of this female charity are
+
+     Thomas Colmore, _bailiff_,
+     Joseph Cartwright,
+     Thomas Lee,
+     John Francis,
+     Samuel Colmore,
+     William Russell, _esq_.
+     Josiah Rogers,
+     Joseph Hornblower,
+     John Rogers.
+
+
+
+SCOTT'S TRUST.
+
+Joseph Scott, Esq; yet living, assigned, July 7, 1779, certain messuages
+and lands in and near Walmer-lane, in Birmingham, of the present rent of
+40_l_. 18s. part of the said premises to be appropriated for the
+interment of protestant dissenters; part of the profits to be applied to
+the use of a religious society in Carr's lane, at the discretion of the
+trust; and the remainder, for the institution of a school to teach the
+mother tongue.
+
+[Illustration: _Free School_.]
+
+That part of the demise, designed for the reception of the dead, is
+about three acres, upon, which stands one messuage, now the Golden
+Fleece, joining Summer-lane on the west, and Walmer-lane on the east;
+the other, which hath Aston-street on the south, and Walmer-lane on the
+west, contains about four acres, upon which now stand ninety-one houses.
+A building lease, in 1778, was granted of these last premises, for 120
+years, at 30_l_. per annum; at the expiration of which, the rents
+will probably amount to twenty times the present income. The trust, to
+whose direction this charity is committed, are
+
+     Abel Humphrys, _bailiff_,
+     John Allen,
+     John Parteridge,
+     William Aitkins,
+     Joseph Rogers,
+     Thomas Cock,
+     John Berry,
+     William Hutton,
+     Thomas Cheek Lea,
+     Durant Hidson,
+     Samuel Tutin.
+
+
+
+FREE SCHOOL.
+
+It is entertaining to contemplate the generations of fashion, which not
+only influences our dress and manner of living, but most of the common
+actions of life, and even the modes of thinking. Some of these fashions,
+not meeting with the taste of the day, are of short duration, and
+retreat out of life as soon as they are well brought in; others take a
+longer space; but whatever fashions predominate, though ever so absurd,
+they carry an imaginary beauty, which pleases the fancy, 'till they
+become ridiculous with age, are succeeded by others, when their very
+memory becomes disgusting.
+
+Custom gives a sanction to fashion, and reconciles us even to its
+inconveniency. The fashion of this year is laughed at the next.
+
+There are fashions of every date, from five hundred years, even to one
+day; of the first, was that of erecting religious houses; of the last,
+was that of destroying them.
+
+Our ancestors, the Saxons, after their conversion to christianity,
+displayed their zeal in building churches: though the kingdom in a few
+centuries was amply supplied, yet that zeal was no way abated; it
+therefore exerted itself in the abbey.--When a man of fortune had nearly
+done with time, he began to peep into eternity through the windows of an
+abbey; or, if a villian had committed a piece of butchery, or had
+cheated the world for sixty years, there was no doubt but he could
+burrow his way to glory through the foundations of an abbey.
+
+In 1383, the sixth of Richard the Second, before the religious fervor
+subsided that had erected Deritend-chapel, Thomas de Sheldon, John
+Coleshill, John Goldsmith, and William att Slowe, all of Birmingham,
+obtained a patent from the crown to erect a building upon the spot where
+the Free School now stands in New-street, to be called _The Gild of the
+Holy Cross_; to endow it with lands in Birmingham and Edgbaston, of the
+annual value of twenty marks, for the maintenance of two priests, who
+were to perform divine service to the honor of God, our blessed Lady his
+Mother, the Holy Cross, St. Thomas, and St. Catharine.
+
+The fashion seemed to take with the inhabitants, many of whom wished to
+join the four happy men, who had obtained the patent for so pious a
+work; so that, in 1393, a second patent was procured by the bailiff and
+inhabitants of Birmingham, for confirming the gild, and making the
+addition of a brotherhood in honor of the Holy Cross, consisting of both
+sexes, with power to constitute a master and wardens, and also to erect
+a chantry of priests to celebrate divine service in the chapel of the
+gild, for the souls of the founders, and all the fraternity; for whose
+support there were given, by divers persons, eighteen messuages, three
+tofts, (pieces of ground) six acres of land, and forty shillings rent,
+lying in Birmingham and Edgbaston aforesaid.
+
+But, in the 27th of Henry the Eighth, 1536, when it was the fashion of
+that day, to multiply destruction against the religious, and their
+habitations, the annual income of the gild was valued, by the King's
+random visitors, at the sum of 31_l_. 2s. 10d. out of which, three
+priests who sung mass, had 5_l_. 6s. 8d. each; an organist, 3_l_. 13s.
+4d. the common midwife, 4s. the bell-man, 6s. 8d. with other salaries of
+inferior note.
+
+These lands continued in the crown 'till 1552, the fifth of Edward the
+Sixth, when, at the humble suit of the inhabitants, they were
+assigned to
+
+     William Symmons, _gent_.
+     Richard Smallbrook, _bailiff of the town_,
+     John Shilton,
+     William Colmore,
+     Henry Foxall,
+     William Bogee,
+     Thomas Cooper,
+     Richard Swifte,
+     Thomas Marshall,
+     John Veysy,
+     John King,
+     John Wylles,
+     William Paynton,
+     William Aschrig,
+     Robert Rastall,
+     Thomas Snowden,
+     John Eyliat,
+     William Colmore, _jun_.
+           AND
+     William Mychell,
+
+all inhabitants of Birmingham, and their successors, to be chosen upon
+death or removal, by the appellation of the Bailiff and Governors of the
+Free Grammar School of King Edward the Sixth, for the instruction of
+children in grammar; to be held of the crown in common soccage, paying
+for ever twenty shillings per annum. Over this seminary of learning were
+to preside a master and usher, whose united income seems to have been
+only twenty pounds per annum. Both are of the clergy. The hall of the
+gild was used for a school-room. In the glass of the windows was
+painted the figure of Edmund Lord Ferrers; who, marrying, about 350
+years ago, the heiress of the house of Birmingham, resided upon the
+manor, and seems to have been a benefactor to the gild, with his arms,
+empaling Belknap; and also, those of Stafford, of Grafton, of
+Birmingham, and Bryon.
+
+The gild stood at that time at a distance from the town, surrounded with
+inclosures; the highway to Hales Owen, now New-street, running by the
+north. No house could be nearer than those in the High-street.
+
+The first erection, wood and plaister, which had stood about 320 years,
+was taken down in 1707, to make way for the present flat building. In
+1756, a set of urns were placed upon the parapet, which give relief to
+that stiff air, so hurtful to the view: at the same time, the front was
+_intended_ to have been decorated, by erecting half a dozen dreadful
+pillars, like so many over-grown giants marshalled in battalia, to guard
+the entrance, which the boys wish to shun; and, being sufficiently
+tarnished with Birmingham smoak, may become dangerous to pregnancy. Had
+the wings of this building fallen two or three yards back, and the line
+of the street been preserved by a light palisade, it would have risen in
+the scale of beauty, and removed the gloomy aspect of the area.
+
+The tower is in a good taste, except being rather too narrow in the
+base, and is ornamented with a sleepy figure of the donor, Edward the
+Sixth, dressed in a royal mantle, with the ensigns of the Garter;
+holding a bible and sceptre.
+
+The lands that support this foundation, and were in the reign of Henry
+the Eighth, valued at thirty-one pounds per annum, are now, by the
+advance of landed property, the reduction of money, and the increase of
+commerce, about 600_l_.
+
+The present governors of this royal donation are
+
+     John Whateley, _bailiff_,
+     _Rev_. Charles Newling,
+     Abraham Spooner, _esq_;
+     Thomas Russell,
+     John Ash, _M.D._
+     Richard Rabone,
+     Francis Goodall,
+     Francis Parrott, _esq_;
+     William Russell, _esq_;
+     John Cope, _dead_,
+     Thomas Hurd,
+     Thomas Westley,
+     Wm. John Banner,
+     Thomas Salt,
+     William Holden,
+     Thomas Carless,
+     John Ward,
+     Edward Palmer, _esq_;
+     Francis Coales,
+          AND
+     Robert Coales.
+
+[Illustration: _Charity School_.]
+
+Over this nursery of science presides a chief master, with an annual
+salary of one hundred and twenty pounds; a second master sixty; two
+ushers; a master in the art of writing, and another in that of drawing,
+at forty pounds each: a librarian, ten: seven exhibitioners at the
+University of Oxford, twenty-five pounds each. Also, eight inferior
+schools in various parts of the town, are constituted and fed by this
+grand reservoir, at fifteen pounds each, which begin the first rudiments
+of learning.
+
+CHIEF MASTERS.
+
+     John Brooksby,            1685.
+     ---- Tonkinson.
+     John Husted.
+     Edward Mainwaring,        1730.
+     John Wilkinson,           1746
+     Thomas Green,             1759.
+     William Brailsford,       1766.
+     Rev. Thomas Price,        1776.
+
+
+
+CHARITY SCHOOL:
+
+COMMONLY,
+
+The BLUE SCHOOL.
+
+There seems to be three clases of people, who demand the care of
+society; infancy, old age, and casual infirmity. When a man cannot
+assist himself, it is necessary he should be assisted. The first of
+these only is before us. The direction of youth seems one of the
+greatest concerns in moral life, and one that is the least understood:
+to form the generation to come, is of the last importance. If an
+ingenious master hath flogged the a b c into an innocent child, he
+thinks himself worthy of praise. A lad is too much terrified to march
+that path, which is marked out by the rod. If the way to learning
+abounds with punishment, he will quickly detest it; if we make his duty
+a task, we lay a stumbling-block before him that he cannot surmount.
+
+We rarely know a tutor succeed in training up youth, who is a friend to
+harsh treatment.
+
+Whence is it, that we so seldom find affection subsisting between master
+and scholar? From the moment they unite, to the end of their lives,
+disgust, like a cloud, rises in the mind, which reason herself can
+never dispel.
+
+The boy may pass the precincts of childhood, and tread the stage of life
+upon an equality with every man in it, except his old school-master; the
+dread of him seldom wears off; the name of Busby founded with horror for
+half a century after he had laid down the rod. I have often been
+delighted when I have seen a school of boys break up; the joy that
+diffuses itself over every face and action, shews infant nature in her
+gayest form--the only care remaining is, to forget on one side of the
+walls what was taught on the other.
+
+One would think, if _coming out_ gives so much satisfaction, there must
+be something very detestable _within_.
+
+If the master thinks he has performed his task when he has taught the
+boy a few words, he as much mistakes his duty, as he does the road to
+learning: this is only the first stage of his journey. He has the man to
+form for society with ten thousand sentiments.
+
+It is curious to enter one of these prisons of science, and observe the
+children not under the least government: the master without authority,
+the children without order; the master scolding, the children riotous.
+We never _harden_ the wax to receive the impression. They act in a
+natural sphere, but he in opposition: he seems the only person in the
+school who merits correction; he, unfit to teach, is making them unfit
+to be taught.
+
+A man does not consider whether his talents are adapted for teaching, so
+much, as whether he can _profit_ by teaching: thus, when a man hath
+taught for twenty years, he may be only fit to go to school.
+
+To that vast group of instructors, therefore, whether in, or out of
+petticoats, who teach, without having been taught; who mistake the tail
+for the feat of learning, instead of the head; who can neither direct
+the passions of others nor their own; it may be said, "Quit the trade,
+if bread can be procured out of it. It is useless to pursue a work of
+error: the ingenious architect must take up your rotten foundation,
+before he can lay one that is solid."
+
+But, to the discerning few, who can penetrate the secret windings of the
+heart; who know that nature may be directed, but can never be inverted;
+that instruction should ever coincide with the temper of the instructed,
+or we sail against the wind; that it is necessary the pupil should
+relish both the teacher and the lesson; which, if accepted like a bitter
+draught, may easily be sweetened to his taste: to these valuable few,
+who, like the prudent florist, possessed of a choice root, which he
+cultivates with care, adding improvement to every generation; it may be
+said, "Banish tyranny out of the little dominions over which you are
+absolute sovereigns; introduce in its stead two of the highest ornaments
+of humanity, love and reason." Through the medium of the first, the
+master and the lesson may be viewed without horror; when the teacher and
+the learner are upon friendly terms, the scholar will rather invite than
+repel the assistance of the master. By the second, reason, the teacher
+will support his full authority. Every period of life in which a man is
+capable of attending to instruction, he is capable of attending to
+reason: this will answer every end of punishment, and something more.
+
+Thus, an irksome task will be changed into a friendly intercourse.
+
+This School, by a date in the front, was erected in 1724, in St.
+Philip's church-yard; is a plain, airy, and useful building, ornamented
+over the door with the figures of a boy and a girl in the uniform of the
+school, and executed with a degree of elegance, that a Roman statuary
+would not have blushed to own.
+
+This artificial family consists of about ninety scholars, of both sexes;
+over which preside a governor and governess, both single. Behind the
+apartments, is a large area appropriated for the amusement of the infant
+race, necessary as their food. Great decorum is preserved in this little
+society; who are supported by annual contribution, and by a collection
+made after sermon twice a year.
+
+At twelve, or fourteen, the children are removed into the commercial
+world, and often acquire an affluence that enables them to support that
+foundation, which formerly supported them.
+
+It is worthy of remark, that those institutions which are immediately
+upheld by the temporary hand of the giver, flourish in continual spring,
+and become real benefits to society; while those which enjoy a perpetual
+income, are often tinctured with supineness, and dwindle into
+obscurity.--The first, usually answer the purpose of the living; the
+last, seldom that of the dead.
+
+
+
+DISSENTING CHARITY-SCHOOL.
+
+About twenty years ago, the Dissenters established a school, upon nearly
+the same plan as the former, consisting of about eighteen boys and eight
+girls; with this improvement, that the boys are innured to moderate
+labour, and the girls to house-work.
+
+The annual subscriptions seem to be willingly paid, thankfully received,
+and judiciously expended.
+
+[Illustration: _Work House_.]
+
+
+
+WORKHOUSE.
+
+During the long reign of the Plantagenets in England, there do not seem
+many laws in the code then existing for the regulation of the poor:
+distress was obliged to wander for a temporary and uncertain
+relief:--idleness usually mixed with it.
+
+The nobility then kept plain and hospitable houses, where want
+frequently procured a supply; but, as these were thinly scattered, they
+were inadequate to the purpose.
+
+As the abbey was much more frequent, and as a great part of the riches
+of the kingdom passed through the hands of the monk, and charity being
+consonant to the profession of that order, the weight of the poor
+chiefly lay upon the religious houses; this was the general mark for the
+indigent, the idle, and the impostor, who carried meanness in their
+aspect, and the words _Christ Jesus_ in their mouth. Hence arise the
+epithets of stroller, vagrant, and sturdy beggar, with which modern law
+is intimately acquainted.
+
+It was too frequently observed, that there was but a slender barrier
+between begging and stealing, that necessity seldom marks the limits of
+honesty, and that a country abounding with beggars, abounds also with
+plunderers. A remnant of this urgent race, so justly complained of,
+which disgrace society, and lay the country under contribution, are
+still suffered, by the supineness of the magistrate.
+
+When the religious houses, and all their property, in 1536, fell a
+sacrifice to the vindictive wrath of Henry the Eighth, the poor lost
+their dependence, and as want knows no law, robbery became frequent;
+justice called loudly for punishment, and the hungry for bread; which
+gave rise, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, to that most excellent
+institution, of erecting every parish into a distinct fraternity, and
+obliging them to support their own members; therefore, it is difficult
+to assign a reason, why the blind should go abroad to _see_ fresh
+countries, or the man _without feet to travel_.
+
+Though the poor were nursed by parochial law, yet workhouses did not
+become general 'till 1730: that of Birmingham was erected in 1733, at
+the expence of 1173_l_. 3s. 5d. and which, the stranger would rather
+suppose, was the residence of a gentleman, than that of four hundred
+paupers. The left wing, called the infirmary, was added in 1766, at the
+charge of 400_l_. and the right, a place for labour, in 1779, at the
+expence of 700_l_. more.
+
+Let us a second time, consider the 50,000 people who occupy this _grand
+toy shop of Europe_[6] as one great family, where, though the property
+of individuals is ascertained and secured, yet a close and beneficial
+compact subsists. We behold the members of this vast family marked with
+every style of character. Forlorn infancy, accidental calamity, casual
+sickness, old age, and even inadvertent distress, all find support from
+that charitable fund erected by industry. No part of the family is
+neglected: he that cannot find bread for himself, finds a ready supply;
+he that can, ought to do so. By cultivating the young suckers of
+infancy, we prudently establish the ensuing generation, which will, in
+the commercial walk, abundantly repay the expence: temporary affliction
+of every kind also merits pity; even those distresses which arise from
+folly ought not to be neglected: the parish hath done well to many a
+man, who would not do well to himself; if imprudence cannot be banished
+out of the world, companion ought not: he that cannot direct himself,
+must be under the direction of another.--If the parish supported none
+but the prudent, she would have but few to support. The last stage of
+human life demands, as well as the first, the help of the family. The
+care of infancy arises from an expectation of a return; that of old age
+from benefits already received. Though a man may have passed through
+life without growing rich, he may, by his labour, have contributed to
+make others so; though he could not pursue the road to affluence
+himself, he may have been the means of directing others to find it.
+
+[Footnote 6: Burke.]
+
+The number of persons depending upon this weekly charity in Birmingham
+were, April 14, 1781, about 5240.
+
+Whether the mode of distributing the bounty of the community, is
+agreeable to the intentions of legislature, or the ideas of humanity, is
+a doubt. For in some parishes the unfortunate paupers have the
+additional misery of being sold to a mercenary wretch to starve upon
+twelve pence a head. It is matter of surprise that the magistrate should
+wink at this cruelty; but it is matter of pleasure, that no accusation
+comes within the verge of my historical remarks, for the wretched of
+Birmingham are not made more so by ill treatment, but meet with a
+kindness acceptable to distress. One would think _that_ situation could
+not be despicable, which is often _wished for_, and often _sought_, that
+of becoming one of the poor of Birmingham.
+
+We cannot be conversant in parochial business, without observing a
+littleness predominant in most parishes, by using every finesse to
+relieve themselves of paupers, and throwing them upon others. Thus the
+oppressed, like the child between two fathers, is supported by neither.
+
+There is also an enormity, which, though agreeable to law, can never be
+justified by the rules of equity--That a man should spend the principal
+part of his life in a parish, add wealth to it by his labour, form
+connexions in it, bring up a family which shall all belong to it, but
+having never gained a settlement himself, shall, in old age be removed
+by an order, to perish among strangers. In 1768, a small property fell
+into my hands, situated in a neighbouring village; I found the tenant
+had entered upon the premises at the age of twenty-two; that he had
+resided upon them, with poverty and a fair character, during the long
+space of forty six years--I told him he was welcome to spend the residue
+of his life upon the spot gratis. He continued there ten years after,
+when finding an inability to procure support from labour, and meeting
+with no assistance from the parish in which he had been resident for an
+age, he resigned the place with tears, in 1778, after an occupation of
+fifty six years, and was obliged to recoil upon his own parish, about
+twelve miles distant; to be farmed with the rest of the poor; and
+where, he afterwards assured me, "They were murdering him by inches." --
+But no complaint of this ungrateful kind lies against that people whose
+character I draw.
+
+Perhaps it may be a wise measure, in a place like Birmingham, where the
+manufactures flourish in continual sunshine, not to be over strict with
+regard to removals. Though it may be burdensome to support the poor of
+another parish, yet perhaps it is the least of two evils: to remove old
+age which hath spent a life among us, is ungenerous; to remove temporary
+sickness, is injurious to trade; and to remove infancy is impolitic,
+being upon the verge of accommodating the town with a life of labour. It
+may be more prudent to remove a rascal than a pauper. Forty pounds hath
+been spent in removing a family, which would not otherwise have cost
+forty shillings, and whose future industry might have added many times
+that sum to the common capital. The highest pitch of charity, is that of
+directing inability to support itself. Idleness suits no part of a
+people, neither does it find a place here; every individual ought to
+contribute to the general benefit, by his head or his hands: if he is
+arrived at the western verge of life, when the powers of usefulness
+decline, let him repose upon his fortune; if no such thing exists, let
+him rest upon his friends, and if this prop fail, let the public nurse
+him, with a tenderness becoming humanity.
+
+We may observe, that the manufactures, the laborious part of mankind,
+the poor's rates, and the number of paupers, will everlastingly go hand
+in hand; they will increase and decrease together; we cannot annihilate
+one, but the others will follow, and odd as the expression may sound, we
+become rich by payment and poverty. If we discharge the poor, who shall
+act the laborious part? Stop the going out of one shilling, and it will
+prevent the coming in of two.
+
+At the introduction of the poor's laws, under Elizabeth, two pence
+halfpenny in the pound rent was collected every fortnight, for future
+support: time has made an alteration in the system, which is now
+six-pence in the pound, and collected as often as found necessary. The
+present levy amounts to above 10,000_l_. per ann. but is not wholly
+collected.
+
+As the overseers are generally people of property, payment in advance is
+not scrupulously observed.
+
+It was customary, at the beginning of this admirable system of
+jurisprudence, to constitute two overseers in each parish; but the
+magnitude of Birmingham pleaded for four, which continued 'till the year
+1720, when a fifth was established: in 1729 they were augmented to half
+a dozen; the wishes of some, who are frighted at office, rise to the
+word _dozen_, a number very familiar in the Birmingham art of reckoning:
+but let it be remembered, that a vestry filled with overseers is not
+calculated for the meridian of business; that the larger the body, the
+slower the motion; and that the time and the necessities of the poor
+demand dispatch.
+
+From the annual disbursements in assisting the poor, which I shall here
+exhibit from undoubted evidence, the curious will draw some useful
+lessons respecting the increase of manufactures, of population, and
+of property.
+
+No memoirs are found prior to 1676.
+
+     Year.        Disbursed.             Year.       Disbursed.
+
+                l.     s.    d.                    l.     s.    d.
+
+     1676       328    17    7           1684     451     0     5-1/2
+     1677       347     9   10-1/2       1685     324     2     8
+     1678       398     8    0-1/2       1686     338    12    11
+     1679            omitted             1687     343    15     6
+     1680       342    11    2-1/2       1688     308    17     9-1/2
+     1681       363    15    7           1689     395    14    11
+     1682       337     2    8-1/2       1690     396    15     2-1/2
+     1683       410    12    1           1691     354     1     5-1/2
+     1691       360     0    4-1/2       1720     950    14     0
+     1693       376    12    3-1/2       1721    1024     6     6-1/2
+     1694       423    12    1-1/2       1722     939    18     0-1/2
+     1695       454     2    1-1/2       1739     678     8     5
+     1696       385     8   11-1/2       1740     938     0     6
+     1697       446    11    5           1742     888     1     1-1/2
+     1698       505     0    2-1/2       1743     799     6     1
+     1699       592    11    2           1744     851    12     5-1/2
+     1700       661     7    4-1/2       1745     746     2     7
+     1701       487    13    0           1746    1003    14     9-1/2
+     1702       413    14    0-1/2       1747    1071     7     3
+     1703       476    13   10           1748    1175     8     7-1/2
+     1704       555    11   11-1/2       1749    1132    11     7-1/2
+     1705       510     0   10           1750    1167    16     6
+     1706       519     3    6           1751    1352     0     8-1/2
+     1707       609     0    4-1/2       1752    1355     6     4
+     1708       649    15    9           1756    3255    18     3-1/4
+     1709       744    17    0-1/2       1757    3402     7     2-1/2
+     1710       960     8    8-1/2       1758    3306    12     5
+     1711      1055     2   10           1759    2708     9     5-3/4
+     1712       734     0   11           1760    3221    18     7
+     1713       674     7    6           1761    2935     4     1-1/2
+     1714       722    15    6-1/2       1762    3078    18     2-1/2
+     1715       718     2    1           1763    3330    13    11-1/2
+     1716       788     3    2-1/2       1764    3963    11     0-1/2
+     1717       764     0    6-1/2       1765    3884    18     9
+     1718       751     2    4           1766    4716     2    10-1/2
+     1719      1094    10    7           1767    4940     2     2
+     1768      4798     2    5           1775    6509    10    10
+     1769      5082     0    9           1776    5203     4     9-1/2
+     1770      5125    13    2-1/4       1777    6012     5     5
+     1771      6132     5   10           1778    6866    10     8-1/2
+     1772      6139     6    5-1/2       1779    8081    19     7-1/2
+     1773      5584    18    8-1/2       1780    9910     4    11-3/4
+     1774      6115    17   11
+
+We cannot pass through this spacious edifice without being pleased with
+its internal oeconomy; order influences the whole, nor can the
+cleanliness be exceeded: but I am extremely concerned, that I cannot
+pass through without complaint.
+
+There are evils in common life which admit of no remedy; but there are
+very few which may not be lessened by prudence.
+
+The modes of nursing infancy in this little dominion of poverty, are
+truly defective. It is to be feared the method intended to train up
+inhabitants for the earth, annually furnishes the regions of the grave.
+
+Why is so little attention paid to the generation who are to tread the
+stage after us? as if we suffered them to be cut off that we might keep
+possession for ever. The unfortunate orphan that none will own, none
+will regard: distress, in whatever form it appears, excites compassion,
+but particularly in the helpless. Whoever puts an infant into the arms
+of decrepit old age, passes upon it a sentence of death, and happy is
+that infant who finds a reprieve. The tender sprig is not likely to
+prosper under the influence of the tree which attracts its nurture;
+applies that nurture to itself, where the calls occasioned by decay are
+the most powerful--An old woman and a sprightly nurse, are characters as
+opposite as the antipodes.
+
+If we could but exercise a proper care during the first two years, the
+child would afterwards nurse itself; there is not a more active animal
+in the creation, no part of its time, while awake, is unemployed: why
+then do we invert nature, and confine an animal to still life, in what
+is called a school, who is designed for action?
+
+We cannot with indifference behold infants crouded into a room by the
+hundred, commanded perhaps by some disbanded soldier, termed a
+school-master, who having changed the sword for the rod, continues much
+inclined to draw blood with his arms; where every individual not only re
+breathes his own air, but that of another: the whole assembly is
+composed of the feeble, the afflicted, the maimed, and the orphan; the
+result of whose confinement, is a fallow aspect, and a sickly frame: but
+the paltry grains of knowledge gleaned up by the child in this barren
+field of learning, will never profit him two-pence in future; whereas,
+if we could introduce a robust habit, he would one day be a treasure to
+the community, and a greater to himself. Till he is initiated into
+labour, a good foundation for health may be laid in air and exercise.
+
+Whenever I see half a dozen of these forlorn innocents quartered upon a
+farm house, a group of them taking the air under the conduct of a
+senior, or marshalled in rank and file to attend public worship, I
+consider the overseer who directed it, as possessed of tender feelings:
+their orderly attire, and simplicity of manners, convey a degree of
+pleasure to the mind; and I behold in them, the future support of that
+commercial interest; upon which they now lie as a burden.
+
+If I have dwelt long upon the little part of our species, let it plead
+my excuse to say, I cannot view a human being, however diminutive in
+stature, or depressed in fortune, without considering, _I view
+an equal_.
+
+
+
+OLD CROSS,
+
+So called, because prior to the Welch Cross; before the erection of this
+last, it was simply called, The Cross.
+
+The use of the market cross is very ancient, though not equal to the
+market, for this began with civilization.
+
+Christianity first appeared in Britain under the Romans; but in the
+sixth century, under the Saxon government, it had made such an amazing
+progress, that every man seemed to be not only _almost a Christian_, but
+it was unfashionable not to have been a zealous one. The cross of Christ
+was frequently mentioned in conversation, and afterwards became an oath.
+It was hacknied about the streets, sometimes in the pocket, or about the
+neck; sometimes it was fixed upon the church, which we see at this day,
+and always hoisted to the top of the steeple. The rudiments of learning
+began with the cross; hence it stands to this moment as a frontispiece
+to the battledore, which likewise bears its name.
+
+This important article of religion was thought to answer two valuable
+purposes, that of collecting the people; and containing a charm against
+ghosts, evil spirits, etc. with the idea of which, that age was
+much infested.
+
+To accomplish these singular ends, it was blended into the common
+actions of life, and at that period it entered the market-place. A few
+circular steps from the centre of which issued an elevated pillar,
+terminating in a cross, was the general fashion throughout the kingdom;
+and perhaps our Vulcanian ancestors knew no other for twelve hundred
+years, this being renewed about once every century, 'till the year 1702,
+when the present cross was erected, at the expence of 80_l_. 9s. 1d.
+This was the first upon that spot, ever honoured with a roof: the under
+part was found a useful shelter for the market-people. The room over it
+was designed for the court leet, and other public business, which during
+the residence of the lords upon the manor, had been transacted in one of
+their detached apartments, yet in being: but after the removal of the
+lords, in 1537, the business was done in the Leather-hall, which
+occupied the whole east end of New-street, a covered gateway of twelve
+feet excepted, and afterwards in the Old Cross.
+
+[Illustration: _Welch Cross_.]
+
+[Illustration: _Old Cross_.]
+
+
+
+WELCH CROSS.
+
+If a reader, fond of antiquity, should object, that I have comprized the
+_Ancient state of Birmingham_ in too small a compass, and that I ought
+to have extended it beyond the 39th page; I answer, when a man has not
+much to say, he ought to be hissed out of authorship, if he picks the
+pocket of his friend, by saying much; neither does antiquity end with
+that page, for in some of the chapters, I have led him through the mazes
+of time, to present him with a modern prospect.
+
+In erecting a new building, we generally use the few materials of the
+old, as far as they will extend. Birmingham may be considered as one
+vast and modern edifice, of which the ancient materials make but a very
+small part: the extensive _new_, seems to surround the minute _old_, as
+if to protect it.
+
+Upon the spot where the Welch Cross now stands, probably stood a
+finger-post, to direct the stranger that could read, for there were not
+many, the roads to Wolverhampton and Lichfield.
+
+Though the ancient post, and the modern cross, might succeed each other,
+yet this difference was between them, one stood at a distance from the
+town, the other stands near its centre.
+
+By some antique writings it appears, that 200 years ago this spot bore
+the name of the Welch End, perhaps from the number of Welch in its
+neighbourhood; or rather, from its being the great road to that
+principality, and was at that time the extremity of the town, odd houses
+excepted. This is corroborated by a circumstance I have twice mentioned
+already, that when Birmingham unfortunately fell under the frowns of
+Prince Rupert, 137 years ago, and he determined to reduce it to ashes
+for succouring an enemy, it is reasonable to suppose he began at the
+exterior, which was then in Bull-street, about twelve houses above
+the cross.
+
+If we were ignorant of the date of this cross, the style of the building
+itself would inform us, that it rose in the beginning of the present
+century, and was designed, as population encreased, for a Saturday
+market; yet, although it is used in some degree for that purpose, the
+people never heartily adopted the measure.
+
+In a town like Birmingham, a commodious market-place, for we have
+nothing that bears the name, would be extremely useful. Efforts have
+been used to make one, of a large area, now a bowling-green, in
+Corbet's-alley; but I am persuaded the market-people would suffer the
+grass to grow in it, as peaceably as in their own fields. We are not
+easily drawn from ancient custom, except by interest.
+
+For want of a convenient place where the sellers may be collected into
+one point, they are scattered into various parts of the town. Corn is
+sold by sample, in the Bull-ring; the eatable productions of the garden,
+in the same place: butchers stalls occupy Spiceal-street; one would
+think a narrow street was preferred, that no customer should be suffered
+to pass by. Flowers, shrubs, etc. at the ends of Philip-street and
+Moor-street: beds of earthen-ware lie in the middle of the foot ways;
+and a double range of insignificant stalls, in the front of the
+shambles, choak up the passage: the beast market is kept in Dale-end:
+that for pigs, sheep and horses in New-street: cheese issues from one of
+our principal inns: fruit, fowls and butter are sold at the Old Cross:
+nay, it is difficult to mention a place where they are not. We may
+observe, if a man hath an article to sell which another wants to buy,
+they will quickly find each other out.
+
+Though the market-inconveniencies are great, a man seldom brings a
+commodity for the support of life, or of luxury, and returns without a
+customer. Yet even this crowded state of the market, dangerous to the
+feeble, hath its advantages: much business is transacted in a little
+time; the first customer is obliged to use dispatch, before he is
+justled out by a second: to _stand all the day idle in the market
+place_, is not known among us.
+
+The upper room of this cross is appropriated for a military guard-house.
+We find, December 16, 1723, an order made at a public meeting, that "A
+guard house should be erected in a convenient part of the town, because
+neither of the crosses were eligible." But this old order, like some of
+the new, was never carried into execution. As no complaint lies against
+the cross, in our time, we may suppose it suitable for the purpose; and
+I know none but its prisoners that pronounce against it.
+
+
+
+SAINT MARTIN's.
+
+It has been remarked, that the antiquity of this church is too remote
+for historical light.
+
+The curious records of those dark ages, not being multiplied, and
+preserved by the art of printing, have fallen a prey to time, and the
+revolution of things.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+There is reason for fixing the foundation in the eighth century, perhaps
+rather sooner, and it then was at a small distance from the buildings.
+The town stood upon the hill, whose centre was the Old Cross;
+consequently, the ring of houses that now surrounds the church, from the
+bottom of Edgbaston-street, part of Spiceal-street, the Bull-ring,
+Corn-cheaping, and St. Martin's-lane, could not exist.
+
+I am inclined to think that the precincts of St. Martin's have undergone
+a mutilation, and that the place which has obtained the modern name of
+Bull-ring, and which is used as a market for corn and herbs, was once an
+appropriation of the church, though not used for internment; because the
+church is evidently calculated for a town of some size, to which the
+present church-yard no way agrees, being so extremely small that the
+ancient dead must have been continually disturbed, to make way for the
+modern, that little spot being their only receptacle for 900 years.
+
+A son not only succeeds his father in the possession of his property and
+habitation, but also in the grave, where he can scarcely enter without
+expelling half a dozen of his ancestors.
+
+The antiquity of St. Martin's will appear by surveying the adjacent
+ground. From the eminence upon which the High-street stands, proceeds a
+steep, and regular descent into Moor-street, Digbeth, down
+Spiceal-street, Lee's-lane, and Worcester-street. This descent is broken
+only by the church-yard; which, through a long course of internment, for
+ages, is augmented into a considerable hill, chiefly composed of the
+refuse of life. We may, therefore, safely remark, in this place, _the
+dead are raised up_. Nor shall we be surprised at the rapid growth of
+the hill, when we consider this little point of land was alone that
+hungry grave which devoured the whole inhabitants, during the long ages
+of existence, till the year 1715, when St. Philip's was opened. The
+curious observer will easily discover, the fabric has lost that symmetry
+which should ever attend architecture, by the growth of the soil about
+it, causing a low appearance in the building, so that instead of the
+church burying the dead, the dead would, in time, have buried
+the church.
+
+It is reasonable to allow, the original approach into this place was by
+a flight of steps, not by descent, as is the present case; and that the
+church-yard was surrounded by a low wall. As the ground swelled by the
+accumulation of the dead, wall after wall was added to support the
+growing soil; thus the fence and the hill sprang up together; but this
+was demonstrated, August 27, 1781, when, in removing two or three old
+houses, to widen St. Martin's Lane, they took down the church-yard wall,
+which was fifteen feet high without, and three within. This proved to be
+only an outward case, that covered another wall twelve feet high; in the
+front of which was a stone, elevated eight feet, and inscribed, "Robert
+Dallaway, Francis Burton." Church-wardens, anno dom. (supposed) "1310."
+As there is certain evidence, that the church is, much older then the
+above date, we should suspect there had been another fence many ages
+prior to this. But it was put beyond a doubt, when the workmen came to a
+third wall, four feet high, covered with antique coping, probably
+erected with the fabric itself, which would lead us far back into the
+Saxon times.
+
+The removal of the buildings to accommodate the street, the construction
+of the wall, beautified with pallisades, is _half_ an elegant plan, well
+executed. If we can persuade ourselves to perform the other half, by
+removing the remainder of the buildings, and continuing the line to the
+steps, at the bottom of Spiceal-street, the work will stand in the front
+of modern improvement.
+
+In the south-east part of the wall, covered by the engine-house, upon
+another stone, nearly obliterated, is, John Enser, Richard Higginson,
+Church-wardens, 1709.
+
+Other church-yards are ornamented with the front of the buildings, but
+that of St. Martin submits to the rear.
+
+The present church is of stone; the first upon the premises; and perhaps
+the oldest building in these parts.
+
+As the country does not produce stone of a lasting texture, and as the
+rough blasts of 900 years, had made inroads upon the fabric, it was
+thought necessary, in 1690, to case both church and steeple with brick,
+except the spire, which is an elegant one. The bricks and the
+workmanship are excellent.
+
+Though the fabric is not void of beauty, yet being closely surrounded
+with houses, which destroy the medium of view, that beauty is
+totally hid.
+
+The steeple has, within memory, been three times injured by lightning.
+Forty feet of the spire, in a decayed state, was taken down and rebuilt
+in 1781, with stone from Attleborough, near Nuneaton; and strengthened
+by a spindle of iron, running up its centre 105 feet long, secured to
+the side walls every ten feet, by braces--the expence, 165_l_. 16s.
+
+Inclosed is a ring of twelve musical bells, and though I am not master
+of the bob major and tripple-grandfire, yet am well informed, the
+ringers are masters of the bell-rope: but to excel in Birmingham is
+not new.
+
+The seats in the church would disgrace a meaner parish than that of
+Birmingham; one should be tempted to think, they are the first ever
+erected upon the spot, without taste or order: the timber is become hard
+with age, and to the honour of the inhabitants, bright with use. Each
+sitting is a private freehold, and is farther disgraced, like the coffin
+of a pauper, with the paltry initials of the owner's name. These divine
+abodes are secured with the coarse padlocks of a field gate.
+
+By an attentive survey of the seats, we plainly discover the increasing
+population of Birmingham. When the church was erected, there was
+doubtless sufficient room for the inhabitants, and it was probably the
+only place for public worship during 800 years: as the town increased,
+gallery after gallery was erected, 'till no conveniency was found for
+more. Invention was afterwards exerted to augment the number of
+sittings; every recess capable only of admitting the body of an infant,
+was converted into a seat, which indicates, the continual increase of
+people, and, that a spirit of devotion was prevalent among them.
+
+The floor of the church is greatly injured by internment, as is also the
+light, by the near approach of the buildings, notwithstanding, in 1733,
+the middle roof of the chancel was taken off, and the side walls raised
+about nine feet, to admit a double range of windows.
+
+Dugdale, who wrote in 1640, gives us twenty-two drawings of the arms, in
+the windows, of those gentry who had connection with Birmingham.
+
+     1.  Astley.                     10.  Freville.
+     2.  Sumeri.                     11.  Ancient Birmingham.
+     3.  Ancient Birmingham.         12.  Knell.
+     4.  Ancient Birmingham,         13.  Fitz-Warrer.
+        the 2nd house.               14.  Montalt.
+     5.  Seagreve.                   15.  Modern Birmingham.
+     6.  Modern Birmingham.          16.  Hampden.
+     7.  Ancient and modern          17.  Burdet.
+        Birmingham,                  18.  Montalt.
+        quartered.                   19.  Modern Birmingham.
+     8.  Peshale quartering          20.  Beauchamp.
+        Bottetort.                   21.  Ferrers.
+     9.  Birmingham quartering       22.  Latimere.
+        Wyrley.
+
+These twenty-two coats are now reduced to three, which are,
+
+Number two, in the east window of the chancel, which is _or, two lions
+passant azure_, the arms of the family of Someri, Lords of
+Dudley-castle, and superior Lords of Birmingham; which having been
+extinct about 450 years, the coat of arms must have been there at least
+during that period.
+
+Number three, in the south window of the chancel, _azure, a bend lozenge
+of five points, or_, the ancient arms of the family of Birmingham, which
+perhaps is upwards of 400 years old, as that coat was not used after the
+days of Edward the First, except in quarterings.
+
+And number ten, in the north window, _or, a cross, indented gules_;
+also, _five fleurs de lis_, the ancient arms of Freville, Lords of
+Tamworth, whose ancestor, Marmion, received a grant of that castle from
+William the Conqueror, and whose descendant, Lord Viscount Townshend, is
+the present proprietor. Perhaps this coat hath been there 400 years, for
+the male line of the Freville family, was extinct in the reign of Henry
+the Fourth.
+
+Under the south window of the chancel, by the door, are two monuments
+a-breast, of white marble, much injured by the hand of rude time, and
+more by that of the ruder boys. The left figure, which is very ancient,
+I take to be William de Birmingham, who was made prisoner by the French,
+at the siege of Bellegard, in the 25th of Edward the First, 1297. He
+wears a short mantle, which was the dress of that time, a sword,
+expressive of the military order, and he also bears a shield with the
+bend lozenge, which seems never to have been borne after the above date.
+
+The right hand figure, next the wall, is visibly marked with a much
+older date, perhaps about the conquest. The effigy does not appear in a
+military character, neither did the Lords of that period. The value of
+these ancient relicts have long claimed the care of the wardens, to
+preserve them from the injurious hand of the boys, and the foot of the
+window cleaner, by securing them with a pallisade. Even Westminster
+abbey, famous for departed glory, cannot produce a monument of equal
+antiquity.
+
+At the foot of these, is another of the same materials, belonging to one
+of the Marrows, Lords of Birmingham.
+
+Under the north east window, is a monument of white marble, belonging to
+one of the Lords of the house of Birmingham: but this is of modern date
+compared with the others, perhaps not more than 300 years; he bearing
+the _parte per pale, indented or, and gules_.
+
+In the church is an excellent organ, and in the steeple a set of chimes,
+where the ingenious artist treats us with a fresh tune every day of
+the week.
+
+
+
+Upon one of the CENTRE PILLARS.
+
+Here lieth the bodies of William Colmore, Gent. who died in 1607, and
+Ann his wife, in 1591: also the body of Henry Willoughby, Esq; father to
+Frances, wife of William Colmore, now living; he died 1609.
+
+
+
+NORTH GALLERY.
+
+John Crowley, in 1709, gave twenty shillings per annum, payable out of
+the lowermost house in the Priory, to be distributed in bread, in the
+church on St. John's day, to house-keepers in Birmingham, who receive
+no pay.
+
+Joseph Hopkins died in 1683, who gave 200_l_. with which an estate was
+purchased in Sutton Coldfield; the rents to be laid out in coats, gowns,
+and other relief for the poor of Birmingham: he also gave 200_l_. for
+the poor of Wednesbury: 200_l_. to distresed quakers: 5_l_. 10s. to the
+poor of Birmingham, and the same sum to those of Wednesbury, at
+his death.
+
+
+
+SAME GALLERY.
+
+Whereas the church of St. Martin's, in Birmingham, had only 52 ounces of
+plate, in 1708, for the use of the communion table; it was, by a
+voluntary subscription of the inhabitants, increased to 275--Two
+flaggons, two cups, two covers and pattens, with cases: the whole,
+80_l_. 16s. 6d.
+
+Richard Banner ordered one hundred pounds to be laid out in lands within
+ten miles of Birmingham; which sum, lying at interest, and other small
+donations being added, amounted to 170_l_. with which an estate at
+Erdington, value 81. 10s. per annum, was purchased for the poor of
+Birmingham.
+
+Richard Kilcup gave a house and garden at Spark-brook, for the church
+and poor.
+
+John Cooper gave a croft for making of love-days (merriments) among
+Birmingham men.
+
+William Rixam gave a house in Spiceal-street, No. 26, for the use of the
+poor, in 1568.
+
+John Ward, in 1591, gave a house and lands in Marston Culey.
+
+William Colmore gave ten shillings per ann. payable out of the house,
+No. 1, High-street.
+
+John Shelton gave ten shillings per annum, issuing out of a house
+occupied by Martin Day.
+
+Several of the above donations are included in Lench's trust.
+
+John Peak gave a chest bound with iron for the use of the church;
+seemingly about 200 years old, and of 200 lb. weight.
+
+Edward Smith gave 20_l_. per ann. to the poor, in 1612, and also erected
+the pulpit.
+
+John Billingsley, in 1629, gave 26 shillings yearly, chargeable upon a
+house in Dale-end, to be given in bread, by six-pence every Sunday.
+
+One croft to find bell-ropes.
+
+Richard Dukesayle, in 1630, gave the utensils belonging to the communion
+table.
+
+Barnaby Smith, 1633, gave 20_l_. to be lent to ten poor tradesmen, at
+the discretion of the church-wardens for two or three years.
+
+Catharine Roberts, wife of Barnaby Smith, in 1642, gave 20_l_. the
+interest of which was to be given to the poor, the first Friday in Lent.
+
+John Jennens, 1651, gave 2_l_. 10s. for the use of the poor, born and
+living in Birmingham; and also 20s. on St. Thomas's day.
+
+John Milward gave 26_l_ per annum, lying in Bordesley: one third to the
+school-master of Birmingham, (Free-school); one third to the Principal
+of Brazen nose College, Oxford, for the maintenance of one scholar from
+Birmingham or Haverfordwest, and the remainder to the poor.
+
+Joseph Pemberton gave 40s. per annum, payable out of an estate at
+Tamworth, and 20s. out of an estate in Harbourne.
+
+Richard Smallbrook gave to the poor of Birmingham 10s. per annum,
+arising out of a salt vat in Droitwich.
+
+Robert Whittall gave the pall, or beere cloth.
+
+Widow Cooper, of the Talbot, No. 20, in High-street, gave one towel and
+one sheet, to wrap the poor in the grave.
+
+Mrs. Jennens gave 10_l_. per annum to support a lecture, the second and
+third Thursday in every month.
+
+The following offspring of charity seems to have expired at its birth,
+but rose from the dead a few months ago, after an internment of
+fifty-four years.
+
+The numerous family of Piddock flourished in great opulence for many
+ages, and though they were not lords of a manor, they were as rich as
+those who were: they yet boast, that their ancestors could walk seven
+miles upon their own land. It sometimes may be prudent, however, to
+believe only _half_ what a man says; besides, a person with tolerable
+vigour of limb, might contrive to walk seven miles upon his own land, if
+he has but one acre--a lawyer is not the only man who can double.
+
+Perhaps they were possessed of the northern part of this parish, from
+Birmingham-heath to Shirland-brook, exclusive of many estates in the
+manors of Smethwick and Oldbury.
+
+Their decline continued many years, till one of them, in 1771,
+extinguished their greatness by a single dash of his pen, in selling the
+last foot of land.--I know some of them now in distress.
+
+William Piddock, in 1728, devised his farm at Winson-green, about nine
+acres, to his wife Sarah, during life, and at her death, to his nephews
+and executors William and John Riddall, their heirs and assigns for
+ever, in trust, for educating and putting out poor boys of Birmingham;
+or other discretional charities in the same parish.
+
+But William and John wisely considered, that they could not put the
+money into any pocket sooner than their own; that as the estate was in
+the family it was needless to disturb it; that as the will was not known
+to the world, there was no necessity to publish it; and, as it gave them
+a discretional power of disposal, they might as well consider themselves
+_the poor_, for they were both in the parish.
+
+There is nothing easier than to coin excuses for a fault;--there is
+nothing harder than to make them pass.
+
+What must be his state of mind, who is in continual apprehensions of a
+disgraceful discovery? No profits can compensate his feelings.
+
+Had the deviser been less charitable, William and John had been less
+guilty: the gift of one man becomes a temptation to another. These nine
+acres, from which the donor was to spring upwards, lay like a mountain
+on the breasts of William and John, tending to press them downwards.
+Although poverty makes many a rogue, yet had William and John been more
+poor, they would have been more innocent. The children themselves would
+have been the least gainers by the bequest, for, without this legacy,
+they could just as well have procured trades; the profit would have
+centered in the inhabitants, by softening their levies.--Thus a donation
+runs through many a private channel, unseen by the giver.
+
+Matters continued in this torpid state till 1782, when a quarrel between
+the brothers and a tenant, broke the enchantment, and shewed the actors
+in real view.
+
+The officers, in behalf of the town, filed a bill in Chancery, and
+recovered the dormant property, which was committed in trust to
+
+     John Dymock Griffith,
+     John Harwood,
+     Thomas Archer,         > Overseers, 1781.
+     William Hunt,
+     Joseph Robinson,
+     James Rollason,
+
+     John Holmes,           > Constables, 1782.
+     Thomas Barrs,
+     Joseph Sheldon,
+     Charles Primer,        > Church-wardens,
+     William Dickenson,
+     Edmund Tompkins,
+
+     Claud Johnson,
+     Nathaniel Lawrence,
+     Edward Homer,          > Overseers, 1782.
+     Thomas Cock,
+     Samuel Stretch,
+     Joseph Townsend,
+     John Startin.
+
+The presentation of St. Martin's was vested in the family of Birmingham,
+until the year 1537, since which it has passed through the Dudleys, the
+Crown, the Marrows, the Smiths, and now rests in the family of Tennant.
+
+
+
+RECTORS.
+
+     1300   Thomas de Hinckleigh.
+     1304   Stephen de Segrave.
+     1304   John de Ayleston.
+     1336   Robert de Shuteford.
+     1349   William de Seggeley.
+     1354   Thomas de Dumbleton.
+     1369   Hugh de Wolvesey.
+     1396   Thomas Darnall.
+     1412   William Thomas.
+     1414   Richard Slowther.
+     1428   John Waryn.
+     1432   William Hyde.
+     1433   John Armstrong.
+     1433   John Wardale.
+     1436   Henry Symon.
+     1444   Humphrey Jurdan.
+     1504   Richard Button.
+     1536   Richard Myddlemore.
+     1544   William Wrixam.
+     1578   Lucus Smith.
+
+     _Thus far Dugdale_.
+
+     ----   ------ Smith
+     1641   Samuel Wills.
+     1654   ------ Slater.
+     1660   John Riland.
+     1672   Henry Grove.
+     ----   William Daggett.
+     ----   Thomas Tyrer.
+     1732   Richard Dovey.
+     1771   ------ Chase.
+     1772   John Parsons.
+     1779   William Hinton, D.D.
+     1781   Charles Curtis.
+
+During Cromwell's government, ---- Slater, a broken apothecary of this
+place, having been unsuccessful in curing the body, resolved to attempt
+curing the soul. He therefore, to repair his misfortunes, assumed the
+clerical character, and cast an eye on the rectory of St. Martin's; but
+he had many powerful opponents: among others were Jennens, an
+iron-master, possessor of Aston-furnace; Smallbroke, another wealthy
+inhabitant, and Sir Thomas Holt.
+
+However, he with difficulty, triumphed over his enemies, stept into the
+pulpit, and held the rectory till the restoration.
+
+Being determined, in his first sermon, to lash his enemies with the whip
+of those times, he told his people, "The Lord had carried him through
+many troubles; for he had passed, like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,
+through the _fiery furnace_. And as the Lord had enabled the children of
+Israel to pass over the Red Sea, so he had assisted him in passing over
+the _Small-brooks_, and to overcome the strong _Holts_ of sin
+and satan."
+
+At the restoration, suspecting the approach of the proper officers to
+expel him from the Parsonage-house, he crept into a hiding-place under
+the stairs; but, being discovered, was drawn out by force, and the
+place ever after, bore the name of _Slater's Hole_.
+
+John Riland succeeded him, who is celebrated for piety, learning, and a
+steady adherence to the interest of Charles the First; in whose cause he
+seems to have lost every thing he possessed, but his life. He was
+remarkable for compromising quarrels among his neighbours, often at an
+expence to himself; also for constantly carrying a charity box, to
+relieve the distress of others; and, though robbed of all himself, never
+thought he was poor, except when his box was empty.--He died in
+1672, aged 53.
+
+A succeeding rector, William Daggett, is said to have understood the art
+of boxing, better than that of preaching: his clerk often felt the
+weightier argument of his hand. Meeting a quaker, whose profession, then
+in infancy, did not stand high in esteem, he offered some insults, which
+the other resenting, told him, "If he was not protected by his cloth, he
+would make him repent the indignity." Dagget immediately stripped,
+"There, now I have thrown off my protection."
+
+They fought--but the spiritual bruiser proved too hard for the injured
+quaker.
+
+Among the rectors we sometimes behold a magistrate; at others, those who
+for misconduct ought to have been taken before one.
+
+The rectory, in the King's books, was valued, in 1291, at 5_l_. per
+annum; and, in 1536, at 19_l_. 3s. 6d.
+
+
+
+_A terrier of the rectory, written by the rector, about 1680_.
+
+A house wherein the present rector, Mr. Dagget, resides.
+[Parsonage-house.]
+
+Two other houses in Birmingham, [now three, at No. 15, Spiceal-street.]
+
+Three pieces of glebe land, nineteen acres, between the school land and
+Sheepcoat-lane.
+
+Three pieces, called the Five-way-closes twenty-one acres, bounded by
+the lands of Samuel Smallbroke, Esq; and Josiah Porter.
+
+One close, two acres, bounded by Lady-wood-lane.
+
+Parsons-meadow, two acres, bounded by the lands of Thomas Smith, Sir
+Richard Gough, and Sir Arthur Kaye.
+
+Horse pool-croft, half an acre, bounded by Bell's-barn-lane,
+[Brickiln-lane] the lands of Robert Phillips and Samuel
+Smallbrook, Esqrs.
+
+Tythe of all kinds of grain: but instead of hay, wool and lamb, a due of
+12d. in the pound rent, called herbage, in all the parish, except
+foreign, wherein the custom is 4d. per acre for meadow land; 3d. per
+acre for leas; 3d. for each lamb; 1d. 1/2 for a cow and calf: and except
+part of the estate of William Colmore, Esq; with the Hall-ring,
+Tanter-butts, Bell's-barns, [No. 1, Exeter-row] and Rings; for the
+herbage of which is paid annually 13s. 4d. and also, except part of the
+estate of Samuel Smallbrook, Esq; for which he pays 8s. per annum; and,
+except the estate of Thomas Weaman, called Whittall's-farm,
+[Catharine-street] for which he pays 2s. 8d.
+
+All the above estates pay the customary modus, whether in or out of
+tillage.
+
+
+
+SURPLICE FEES.
+
+                                          Rector. Clerk,
+                                          s. d.     s. d.
+     For burying in the church,           1  0      1  0
+     Ditto church-yard,                   0  6      0  6
+     Churching a woman,                   0  4      0  4
+     Marrying by licence,                 5  0      2  6
+     Ditto without,                       2  6      1  0
+     Tythe pig, if seven or upwards,      0  4      0  0
+     Easter dues, man and wife,           0  4      0  0
+     ---- each person above sixteen,      0  4      0  0
+     Clerk's salary 20s. paid by the wardens; also 2d.
+       from each house keeper at Easter.
+
+From the above terrier, I am inclined to value the income at about
+90_l_. per annum.
+
+The benefice, in 1771, was about 350_l_. per annum: the late Rector,
+John Parsons, procured an act, in 1773, to enable the incumbent to grant
+building leases; the grant of a single lease, in 1777, brought the
+annual addition of about 170_l_. The income is now about 700_l_. and is
+expected, at the expiration of the leases, to exceed 2000_l_.
+
+The repairs of the chancel belong to the rector, and the remainder of
+the building to the parish.
+
+
+
+SAINT PHILLIP's.
+
+We have touched upon various objects in our peregrinations through
+Birmingham, which meet with approbation, though viewed through the
+medium of smoke; some of these, being covered with the rust of time,
+command our veneration; but the prospect before us is wholly modern.
+
+We have mounted, by imperceptable gradations, from beauty to beauty,
+'till we are now arrived at the summit.
+
+If an historian had written in the last century, he would have recorded
+but two places of worship; I am now recording the fourteenth: but my
+successor, if not prevented by our own imprudence, in driving away the
+spirit of commerce, may record the four-and-twentieth. The artist, who
+carries the manufactures among foreigners, or the overseer, who wantonly
+loads the people with burdens, draws the wrath of the place upon his
+own head.
+
+This curious piece of architecture, the steeple of which is erected
+after the model of St. Paul's, in London, but without its weight, does
+honour to the age that raised it, and to the place that contains it.
+Perhaps the eye of the critic cannot point out a fault, which the hand
+of the artist can mend: perhaps too, the attentive eye cannot survey
+this pile of building, without communicating to the mind a small degree
+of pleasure. If the materials are not proof against time, it is rather
+a misfortune to be lamented, than an error to be complained of, the
+country producing no better.
+
+Yet, amidst all the excellencies we boast, I am sorry to charge this
+chief ornament with an evil which admits no cure, that of not ranging
+with its own coemetery, or the adjacent buildings: out of seven streets,
+with which it is connected, it lines with none.--Like Deritend chapel,
+of which I have already complained, from a strong attachment to a point
+of religion, or of the compass, it appears twisted out of its place. We
+may be delighted with a human figure, complete in stature, exactly
+moulded with symmetry, and set off with the graces of dress; but we
+should be disgusted, if his right side seemed to attempt to out-walk
+his left.
+
+This defect, in religious architecture, arises from a strict adherence
+to the custom of the ancients, who fixed their altars towards the east.
+It is amasing, that even weakness itself, by long practice, becomes
+canonical; it gains credit by its age and its company. Hence, Sternhold
+and Hopkins, by being long bound up with scripture, acquired a kind of
+scripture authority.
+
+The ground, originally, was part of a farm, and bore the name of the
+Horse-close; afterwards _Barley-close_.--Thus a benign spot of earth,
+gave additional spirits to a man when living, and kindly covered him in
+its bosom when dead.
+
+This well chosen spot, is the summit of the highest eminence in
+Birmingham, with a descent every way; and, when the church was erected,
+there were not any buildings nearer than those in Bull-street.
+
+The land was the gift of Robert Phillips, Esq; whence the name, ancestor
+to William Theodore Inge, Esquire.
+
+In all degrees of people, from the bishop to the beadle, there seems a
+propensity in the mind to arrive at the honours of Sainthood: by joining
+our names in partnership with a faint, we share with him a red letter in
+the almanack.
+
+Out of six churches in Birmingham, three bear the names of the donors.
+St. Bartholomew's would, probably, have taken that of its founder, John
+Jennens, Esq; but that name happened to be anticipated by Sir John de
+Birmingham, who conferred it upon Deritend chapel. St. Mary's could
+readily perpetuate the name of its benefactress, because we had no place
+of worship that bore it. But as neither the popish, nor the protestant
+kalendar produced a St. Charles, the founder of St. Paul's was
+unfortunately excluded.
+
+The gifts, which the benefactor himself believes are charitable, and
+expects the world to believe the same, if scrutinized, will be found to
+originate from various causes--counterfeits are apt to be offered in
+currency for sterling.
+
+Perhaps _ostentation_ has brought forth more acts of beneficence than
+charity herself; but, like an unkind parent, she disowns her offspring,
+and charges them upon charity.
+
+Ostentation is the root of charity; why else are we told, in capitals,
+by a large stone in the front of a building--"This hospital was erected
+by William Bilby, in the sixty-third year of his age, 1709." Or, "That
+John Moore, yeoman, of Worley Wigorn, built this school, in 1730."--Nay,
+pride even tempts us to strut in a second-hand robe of charity, left by
+another; or why do we read--"These alms-houses were erected by Lench's
+trust, in 1764. W. WALSINGHAM, BAILIFF."
+
+Another utters the word _charity_, and we rejoice in the echo. If we
+miss the substance, we grasp at the shadow.
+
+Sometimes we assign our property for religious uses, late in the evening
+of life, when _enjoyment_ is over, and almost _possession_. Thus we
+bequeath to piety, what we can keep no longer. We convey our name to
+posterity at the expence of our successor, and scaffold our way towards
+heaven up the walls of a steeple.
+
+Will charity chalk up one additional score in our favour, because we
+grant a small portion of our land to found a church, which enables us to
+augment the remainder treble its value, by granting building leases? a
+man seldom makes a bargain for heaven, and forgets himself. Charity and
+self-interest, like the apple and the rind, are closely connected, and,
+like them, we cannot separate one without trespassing on the other.
+
+In contributions of the lesser kind, the giver examines the quantum
+given by those of his own station; _pride_ will not suffer him to appear
+less than his neighbour.
+
+Sometimes he surrenders merely through importunity, which indicates as
+much _charity_, as the garrison does _merit_, which surrenders when
+closely besieged. Neither do we fear _our left hand knowing what our
+right hand doth_, our only fear is, left the world should _not_
+know it.
+
+This superb edifice was begun by act of Parliament, in 1711, under a
+commission consisting of twenty of the neighbouring gentry, appointed by
+the bishop of the diocese, under his episcopal seal. Their commission
+was to end twelve months after the erection of the church.
+
+Though Birmingham ever was, and perhaps ever will be considered as one
+parish, yet a portion of land, about one hundred acres, nearly
+triangular, and about three fourths built up, was taken out of the
+centre of St. Martin's, like a shred of cloth out of a great coat, to
+make a less, and constituted a separate parish, by the appellation of
+St Philip's.
+
+We shall describe this new boundary by an imaginary journey, for a real
+one perhaps was never taken since the land was first laid out, nor ever
+will to the end of time.
+
+We include the warehouse, then of John Jenens, Esq; now No. 26, in
+High-street, penetrate through the buildings, till we come within twenty
+yards, of Moor-street, turn sharp to the left, cross the lower part of
+Castle-street, Carr's-lane, and New Meeting-street; pass close by the
+front of the Meeting-house, through Bank-alley, into Hen's-walk, having
+kept Moor-street about twenty yards to the right, all the way; we now
+enter that street, at the bottom of Hen's-walk, pass through the east
+part of Dale-end, through Stafford-street, Steelhouse-lane (then called
+Whittal-lane) Bull-lane (then New-hall-lane) and Mount-pleasant.
+
+Our journey now leads us on the west of Pinfold-street, keeping it about
+twenty yards on our left; up Peck-lane, till we come near the top, when
+we turn to the right, keeping the buildings, with the Free-school in New
+street, on our left, into Swan-alley. We now turn up the Alley into
+New-street, then to the right, which leads us to the Party-wall, between
+No. 25 and 26, in High-street, late Jennens's, where we began.
+
+In the new parish I have described, and during the journey, kept on the
+left, there seems to have been, at passing the act, twelve closes, all
+which are filled with buildings, except the land between New-street and
+Mount-pleasant, which only waits a word from the owner, to speak the
+houses into being.
+
+The church was consecrated in 1715, and finished in 1719, the work of
+eight years; at which time the commissioners resigned their powers into
+the hands of the diocesan, in whom is the presentation, after having
+paid, it is said, the trifling sum of 5012_l_.--but perhaps such a work
+could not be completed for 20,000_l_.
+
+Three reasons may be assigned, why so small a sum was expended; many of
+the materials were given; more of the carriage, and some heavy debts
+were contracted.
+
+The urns upon the parapet of the church, which are highly ornamental,
+were fixed at the same time with those of the school, in about 1756.
+
+When I first saw St. Philip's, in the year 1741, at a proper distance,
+uncrowded with houses, for there were none to the north, New-hall
+excepted, untarnished with smoke, and illuminated by a western sun, I
+was delighted with its appearance, and thought it then, what I do now,
+and what others will in future, _the pride of the place_.
+
+If we assemble the beauties of the edifice, which cover a rood of
+ground; the spacious area of the church-yard, occupying four acres;
+ornamented with walks in great perfection; shaded with trees in double
+and treble ranks; and surrounded with buildings in elegant taste:
+perhaps its equal cannot be found in the British dominions.
+
+The steeple, 'till the year 1751, contained a peal of six bells, which
+were then augmented to ten; at which time St. Martin's, the mother
+church, having only eight, could not bear to be out-numbered by a
+junior, though of superior elegance, therefore ordered twelve into her
+own steeple: but as room was insufficient for the admission of bells by
+the dozen, means were found to hoist them tier over tier. Though the
+round dozen is a complete number in the counting-house, it is not
+altogether so in the belfry: the octave is the most perfect concord in
+music, but diminishes by rising to an octave and a half; neither can
+that dozen well be crowded into the peal.
+
+But perhaps the artist had another grand scheme in view, that of
+accommodating the town with the additional harmony of the chimes; for
+only a few tunes can be played on the octave, whilst the dozen will
+compass nearly all.
+
+Whether we are entertained even by this _exalted_ style of music, admits
+a doubt; for instead of the curious ear being charmed with distinct
+notes, we only hear a bustle of confused sounds, which baffle the
+attention too much to keep pace with the tune.
+
+These two steeples, are our _public_ band of music: they are the only
+_standing_ Waits of the place. Two thousand people may be accommodated
+in the church, but, at times, it has contained near three thousand.
+
+In the vestry is a theological library, bequeathed by the first rector,
+William Higgs, for the use of the clergy in Birmingham and its
+neighbourhood; who left 200_l_. for future purchase.
+
+Under the centre isle runs a vault, the whole length of the church, for
+the reception of those who chuse to pay an additional guinea.
+
+The organ excels; the paintings, mouldings and gildings are superb:
+whether the stranger takes an external or an internal survey, the eye is
+struck with delight, and he pronounces the whole the work of a matter.
+Its conveniency also, can only be equalled by its elegance.
+
+
+
+In the FRONT GALLERY.
+
+Upon application of Sir Richard Gough, to Sir Robert Walpole, then in
+power, George the First gave 600_l_. in 1725, towards finishing
+this church.
+
+Three remarks naturally arise from this declaration; That the prodigious
+sums expended upon this pious undertaking, were beyond the ability of
+the inhabitants; that the debts contracted, were many years in
+discharging; and that one of the best of Kings, the head of the
+Brunswick line, bestowed a liberal benefaction upon a people not
+compleatly reconciled to his house.
+
+Whether monumental decoration adds beauty to a place already beautiful,
+is a question. There are three very small and very elegant monuments in
+this church. Upon one of the south pillars, is that of the above William
+Higgs, who died in 1733. Upon another is that of William Vyse, the
+second rector, who died in 1770, at the age of 61. And, upon a north
+pillar, that of Girton Peak, Esq; an humane magistrate, who died in
+1770, aged 48.
+
+Internment in the church is wisely prohibited; an indecency incompatible
+with a civilized people. The foreigner will be apt to hold forth the
+barbarity of the English nation, by observing, "They introduce
+corruption in their very churches, and pay divine adoration upon the
+graves of their ancestors."
+
+Places of worship were designed for the living, the dead give up their
+title with their life: besides, even small degrees of putrefaction,
+confined in a room where the air cannot circulate, may become
+prejudicial to health: it also ruins the pavement, as is done at St.
+Martin's. Our first inhabitants, therefore, lie contented in the church
+yard, by their unfortunate equals; having private sepulchres
+appropriated for family use--Perhaps at the last day, no inquiry will be
+made whether they lay on the in, or the outside of the walls.
+
+It is difficult to traverse the elegant walks that surround this gulf of
+death, without contemplating, that time is drawing us towards the same
+focus, and that we shall shortly fall into the centre: that this
+irregular circle contains what was once generous and beautiful, opulent
+and humane. The arts took their rise in this fruitful soil: this is the
+grave of invention and of industry; here those who figured upon the
+stage are fallen, to make way for others, who must follow: though
+multitudes unite with the dead, the numbers of the living increase; the
+inhabitants change, while the genius improves. We cannot pass on without
+reading upon the stones, the short existence of our departed friends,
+perusing the end of a life with which we were well acquainted. The
+active motion that veered with the rude blasts of seventy years, slops
+in this point for ever.
+
+The present rector, who is the third, is the Rev. Charles Newling, and
+the benefice something like the following:
+
+     A prebendal stall in the cathedral      l.  s.  d.
+      church of Lichfield,                    6   0   0
+     Eight acres and a half of glebe land,
+      at Long bridge, near Birmingham,       32   0   0
+     Emoluments arising from the seats of
+      the church,                           140   0   0
+     Surplice fees,                          50   0   0
+     Easter offerings,                       10   0   0
+     An estate at Sawley, in the county of
+      Derby, under lease for three lives,
+      renewable by fine, at the annual
+      rent of                                66  13   4
+                                           ------------
+                                            304  13   4
+     Out of which is paid to the rector
+      of St. Martin's, in consideration
+      fees and offerings once appropriated
+      to that church,                        15   0   0
+                                            -----------
+                                            289  13   4
+
+
+
+BIRTHS AND BURIALS.
+
+There are many inducements for an author to take up the pen, but the
+leading motives, however disguised, seem to be pride and poverty;
+hence, two of the most despicable things among men, furnish the world
+with knowledge.
+
+One would think, however, there can be no great inducement for a man to
+write what he is conscious will never be read. Under this class may be
+comprehended alphabetical collections, chronological tables, books of
+figures, occasional devotions, etc. here also I range the lists of
+officers in Birmingham, the annual sums expended upon the poor, and the
+present chapter of numbers. These are intended for occasional
+inspection, rather than for regular perusal: we may consider them as
+deserts served up for a taste only, not a dinner; yet even this rule may
+be broken by a resolute reader, for the late Joseph Scott, Esq; founder
+of the trust before-mentioned, assured me, in 1751, that he had perused
+Bailey's Dictionary as methodically as he had done Tom Jones; and,
+though a dissenter, he continued to read the Common Prayer Book from end
+to end, about twice a year; which is more than, perhaps, the greatest
+lover of that excellent composition can boast.
+
+I shall, to avoid prolixity in a barren chapter of the two extremes of
+life, select about every tenth year from the register. Those years at
+the time of the plague, make no addition to the burials, because the
+unhappy victims were conveyed to Lady-wood for internment.
+
+These lists inform us, that the number of streets, houses, inhabitants,
+births, burials, poor's rates, and commercial productions, increase with
+equal rapidity. It appears also from the register, that there were more
+christenings lately at St. Martin's, in one day, than the whole town
+produced in a year, in the 16th century--The same may be found in that
+of St. Phillip's.
+
+The deaths in Deritend are omitted, being involved with those of Aston.
+
+      Year.   Births.   Burials.     Year.    Births.    Burials.
+
+     1555         37         27      1667         146         140
+     1560         --         37      1668         113         102
+     1571         48         26      1681         251         139
+     1580         37         25      1690         127         150
+     1590         52         47      1700         172         171
+     1600         62         32      1719         334         270
+     1610         70         45      1720         423         355
+     1623         81         66      1730         449         415
+     1628        100         96      1740         520         573
+     1653         --         47      1750         860        1020
+     1660         --         75      1760         984        1143
+     1665         --        109      1770        1329         899
+     1666        144        121      1780        1636        1340
+
+
+
+GENERAL HOSPITAL.
+
+Though charity is one of the most amiable qualities of humanity, yet,
+like Cupid, she ought to be represented blind; or, like Justice,
+hood-winked. None of the virtues have been so much misapplied; giving to
+the _hungry_, is sometimes only another word for giving to the _idle_.
+We know of but two ways in which this excellence can exert itself;
+improving the _mind_, and nourishing the _body_. To help him who _will
+not _help himself; or, indiscriminately to relieve those that want, is
+totally to mistake the end; for want is often met with: but to supply
+those who _cannot_ supply themselves, becomes real charity. Some worthy
+Christians have taken it into their heads to relieve _all_, for fear of
+omitting the right. What should we think of the constable who seizes
+every person he meets with, for fear of missing the thief? Between the
+simple words, therefore, of WILL NOT and CANNOT, runs the fine barrier
+between real and mistaken charity.
+
+This virtue, so strongly inculcated by the christian system, hath,
+during the last seventeen centuries, appeared in a variety of forms, and
+some of them have been detrimental to the interest they were meant to
+serve: _Such was the cloister_. Man is not born altogether to serve
+himself, but the community; if he cannot exist without the assistance of
+others, it follows, that others ought to be assisted by him: but if
+condemned to obscurity in the cell, he is then fed by the aid of the
+public, while that public derives none from him.
+
+[Illustration: _General Hospital_.]
+
+Estates have sometimes been devised in trust for particular uses, meant
+as charities by the giver, but have, in a few years, been diverted out
+of their original channel to other purposes.
+
+The trust themselves, like so many contending princes, ardently druggie
+for sovereignty; hence, _legacy_ and _discord_ are intimate companions.
+
+The plantation of many of our English schools sprang up from the will of
+the dead; but it is observable, that sterility quickly takes place; the
+establishment of the master being properly secured, supineness enters,
+and the young scions of learning are retarded in their growth.
+
+It therefore admits a doubt, whether charitable donation is beneficial
+to the world; nay, the estate itself becomes blasted when bequeathed to
+public use, for, being the freehold of none, none will improve it:
+besides, the more dead land, the less scope for industry.
+
+At the reformation, under Queen Elizabeth, charity seemed to take a
+different appearance: employment was found for the idle; he that was
+able, was obliged to labour, and the parish was obliged to assist him
+who could not. Hence the kingdom became replete with workhouses: these
+are the laudable repositories of distress.
+
+It has already been observed, that three classes of people merit the
+care of society: forlorn infancy, which is too weak for its own support;
+old age, which has served the community, without serving itself; and
+accidental calamity: the two first, fall under the eye of the parish,
+the last, under the modern institution of the General Hospital.
+
+The shell of this plain, but noble edifice, was erected in 1766, upon a
+situation very unsuitable for its elegant front, in a narrow dirty lane,
+with an aspect directing up the hill, which should ever be avoided.
+
+The amiable desire of doing good in the inhabitants, seemed to have
+exceeded their ability; and, to the grief of many, it lay dormant for
+twelve years. In 1778, the matter was revived with vigor; subscriptions
+filled apace, and by the next year the hospital was finished, at the
+expence of 7137_l_. 10s. Though the benefactions might not amount to
+this enormous sum, yet they were noble, and truly characteristic of a
+generous people. The annual subscriptions, as they stood at Michaelmas,
+1779, were 901_l_. 19s. and, at Midsummer, 1780, 932_l_. 8s. During
+these nine months, 529 patients were admitted, of which, 303 were cured,
+93 relieved, 112 remained on the books, only 5 died, and but _one_ was
+discharged as incurable; an incontestible proof of the _skill_ of the
+faculty, which is at least equalled by their _humanity_, in giving their
+attendance gratis.
+
+The rules by which this excellent charity is conducted, are worthy of
+its authors: success hath fully answered expectation, and the building
+will probably stand for ages, to tell posterity a favourable tale of the
+present generation.
+
+
+
+PUBLIC ROADS.
+
+Man is evidently formed for society; the intercourse of one with
+another, like two blocks of marble in friction, reduces the rough
+prominences of behaviour, and gives a polish to the manners.
+
+Whatever tends to promote social connection, improve commerce, or stamp
+an additional value upon property, is worthy of attention.
+
+Perhaps, there is not a circumstance that points more favourably towards
+these great designs, than commodious roads.
+
+According as a country is improved in her roads, so will she stand in
+the scale of civilization. It is a characteristic by which we may
+pronounce with safety. The manners and the roads of the English, have
+been refining together for about 1700 years. If any period of time is
+distinguished with a more rapid improvement in one, it is also in
+the other.
+
+Our Saxons ancestors, of dusky memory, seldom stepped from under the
+smoke of Birmingham. We have a common observation among us, that even so
+late as William the Third, the roads were in so dangerous a state, that
+a man usually made his will, and took a formal fare-well of his friends,
+before he durst venture upon a journey to London; which, perhaps, was
+thought then, of as much consequence as a voyage to America now.
+
+A dangerous road is unfavourable both to commerce and to friendship; a
+man is unwilling to venture his neck to sell his productions, or even
+visit his friend: if a dreadful road lies between them, it will be apt
+to annihilate friendship.
+
+Landed property in particular, improves with the road. If a farmer
+cannot bring his produce to market, he cannot give much for his land,
+neither can that land well be improved, or the market properly supplied.
+Upon a well formed road, therefore, might, with propriety, be placed the
+figures of commerce, of friendship, and of agriculture, as
+presiding over it.
+
+There are but very few observations necessary in forming a road, and
+those few are very simple; to expel whatever is hurtful, and invite
+whatever is beneficial.
+
+The breaking up of a long frost, by loosening the foundations, is
+injurious, and very heavy carriages ought to be prevented, 'till the
+weather unites the disjointed particles, which will soon happen.
+
+But the grand enemy is water; and as this will inevitably fall, every
+means should be used to discharge it: drains ought to be frequent, that
+the water may not lie upon the road.
+
+The great benefits are _the sun_ and the _wind:_ the surveyor should use
+every method for the admission of these friendly aids, that they may
+dispel the moisture which cannot run off.
+
+For this purpose, all public roads ought to be sixty feet wide; all
+trees and hedges within thirty feet of the centre, be under the
+controul of the commissioners, with full liberty of drawing off the
+water in what manner they judge necessary.
+
+The Romans were the most accomplished masters we know of in this useful
+art; yet even they seem to have forgot the under drain, for it is
+evident at this day, where their road runs along the declivity of a
+hill, the water dams up, flows over, and injures the road.
+
+Care should be taken, in properly forming a road at first, otherwise you
+may botch it for a whole century, and at the end of that long period, it
+will be only a botch itself.
+
+A wide road will put the innocent traveller out of fear of the
+waggoners; not the most civilized of the human race.
+
+From Birmingham, as from a grand centre, issues twelve roads, that point
+to as many towns; some of these, within memory, have scarcely been
+passable; all are mended, but though much is done, more is wanted. In an
+upland country, like that about Birmingham, where there is no river of
+size, and where the heads only of the streams show themselves: the
+stranger would be surprised to hear, that through most of these twelve
+roads he cannot travel in a flood with safety. For want of causeways
+and bridges, the water is suffered to flow over the road, higher than
+the stirrup: every stream, though only the size of a tobacco-pipe, ought
+to be carried through an under drain, never to run over the road.
+
+At Saltley, in the way to Coleshill, which is ten miles, for want of a
+causeway, with an arch or two, every flood annoys the passenger and the
+road: at Coleshill-hall, 'till the year 1779, he had to pass a
+dangerous river.
+
+One mile from Birmingham, upon the Lichfield road, sixteen miles, to the
+disgrace of the community, is yet a river without a bridge. In 1777, the
+country was inclined to solicit Parliament for a turnpike-act, but the
+matter fell to the ground through private views: one would think, that
+the penny can never be ill laid out, which carries a man ten miles with
+pleasure and safety. The hand of nature hath been more beneficent, both
+to this, and to the Stafford road, which is twenty-eight miles, than
+that of art.
+
+The road to Walfall, ten miles, is rather _below indifferent_.
+
+That to Wolverhampton, thirteen miles, is much improved since the
+coal-teams left it.
+
+The road to Dudley, ten miles, is despicable beyond description. The
+unwilling traveller is obliged to go two miles about, through a bad
+road, to avoid a worse.
+
+That to Hales-Owen, eight miles, like the life of man, is checkered with
+good and evil; chiefly the latter.
+
+To Bromsgrove, thirteen miles, made extremely commodious for the first
+four, under the patronage of John Kettle, Esq; in 1772, at the expence
+of near 5000_l_. but afterwards is so confined, that two horses cannot
+pass without danger; the sun and the winds are excluded, the rivers lie
+open to the stranger, and he travels through dirt 'till Midsummer.
+
+To Alcester, about twenty, formed in 1767, upon a tolerable plan, but is
+rather too narrow, through a desolate country, which at present scarcely
+defrays the expence; but that country seems to improve with the road.
+
+Those to Stratford and Warwick, about twenty miles each, are much used
+and much neglected.
+
+That to Coventry, about the same distance, can only be equalled by the
+Dudley road. The genius of the age has forgot, in some of these roads to
+accommodate the foot passenger with a causeway.
+
+The surveyor will be inclined to ask, How can a capital be raised to
+defray this enormous expence? Suffer me to reply with an expression in
+the life of Oliver Cromwell, "He that lays out money when necessary, and
+only then, will accomplish matters beyond the reach of imagination."
+
+Government long practised the impolitic mode of transporting vast
+numbers of her people to America, under the character of felons; these,
+who are generally in the prime of life, might be made extremely useful
+to that country which they formerly robbed, and against which, they are
+at this moment carrying arms. It would be easy to reduce this ferocious
+race under a kind of martial discipline; to badge them with a mark only
+removeable by the governors, for hope should ever be left for
+repentance, and to employ them in the rougher arts of life, according to
+the nature of the crime, and the ability of body; such as working the
+coal mines in Northumberland, the lead mines in Derbyshire, the tin
+mines in Cornwall, cultivating waste lands, banking after inundations,
+forming canals, cleansing the beds of rivers, assisting in harvest, and
+in FORMING and MENDING the ROADS: _these hewers of wood and drawers of
+water_ would be a corps of reserve against any emergency. From this
+magazine of villiany, the British navy might be equipped with,
+considerable advantage.
+
+
+
+CANAL.
+
+An act was obtained, in 1767, to open a cut between Birmingham and the
+coal delphs about Wednesbury.
+
+The necessary article of coal, before this act, was brought by land, at
+about thirteen shillings per ton, but now at seven.
+
+It was common to see a train of carriages for miles, to the great
+destruction of the road, and the annoyance of travellers.
+
+This dust is extended in the whole to about twenty-two miles in length,
+'till it unites with what we may justly term the grand artery, or
+Staffordshire Canal; which, eroding the island, communicates with Hull,
+Bristol and Liverpool. The expence was about 70,000_l_. divided into
+shares 140_l_. each, of which no man can purchase more than ten, and
+which now sell for about 370_l_.
+
+The proprietors took a perpetual lease of six acres of land, of Sir
+Thomas Gooch, at 47_l_. per annum, which is converted into a wharf, upon
+the front of which is erected an handsome office for the dispatch
+of business.
+
+[ILLUSTRATION: A Plan of the Navigable Canal from Birmingham to
+Autherley]
+
+[ILLUSTRATION: Navigation Office]
+
+This watery passage, exclusive of loading the proprietors with wealth,
+tends greatly to the improvement of some branches of trade, by
+introducing heavy materials at a small expence, such as pig iron for the
+founderies, lime-stone, articles for the manufacture of brass and steel,
+also stone, brick, slate, timber, &c.
+
+It is happy for the world, that public interest is grafted upon private,
+and that both flourish together.
+
+This grand work, like other productions of Birmingham birth, was rather
+hasty; the managers, not being able to find patience to worm round the
+hill at Smethwick, or cut through, have wisely travelled over it by the
+help of twelve locks, with six they mount the summit, and with six more
+descend to the former level; forgetting the great waste of water, and
+the small supply from the rivulets, and also, the amazing loss of of
+time in climbing this curious ladder, consisting of twelve liquid steps.
+It is worthy of remark, that the level of the earth, is nearly the same
+at Birmingham as at the pits: what benefit then would accrue to
+commerce, could the boats travel a dead flat of fourteen miles without
+interruption? The use of the canal would increase, great variety of
+goods be brought which are now excluded, and these delivered with more
+expedition, with less expence, and the waste of water never felt; but,
+by the introduction of twelve unnecessary locks, the company may
+experience five plagues more than fell on Egypt.
+
+The boats are nearly alike, constructed to fit the locks, carry about
+twenty-five tons, and are each drawn by something like the skeleton of a
+horse, covered with skin: whether he subsists upon the scent of the
+water, is a doubt; but whether his life is a scene of affliction, is
+not; for the unfeeling driver has no employment but to whip him from one
+end of the canal to the other. While the teams practised the turnpike
+road, the lash was divided among five unfortunate animals, but now the
+whole wrath of the driver falls upon one.
+
+We can scarcely view a boat travelling this liquid road, without raising
+opposite sensations--pleased to think of its great benefit to the
+community, and grieved to behold wanton punishment.
+
+I see a large field of cruelty expanding before me, which I could easily
+prevail with myself to enter; in which we behold the child plucking a
+wing and a leg off a fly, to try how the poor insect can perform with
+half his limbs; or running a pin through the posteriors of a locust, to
+observe it spinning through the air, like a comet, drawing a tail of
+thread. If we allow, man has a right to destroy noxious animals, we
+cannot allow he has a right to protract their pain by a lingering death.
+By fine gradations the modes of cruelty improve with years, in pinching
+the tail of a cat for the music of her voice, kicking a dog because we
+have trod upon his foot, or hanging him for _fun_, 'till we arrive at
+the priests in the church of Rome, who burnt people for opinion; or to
+the painter, who begged the life of a criminal, that he might torture
+him to death with the severest pangs, to catch the agonizing feature,
+and transfer it into his favourite piece, of a dying Saviour. But did
+that Saviour teach such doctrine? Humanity would wish rather to have
+lost the piece, than have heard of the cruelty. What, if the injured
+ghost of the criminal is at this moment torturing that of the painter?--
+
+But as this capacious field is beyond the line I profess, and, as I have
+no direct accusation against the people of my regard, I shall not enter.
+
+
+
+DERITEND BRIDGE.
+
+Cooper's-mill, situated upon the verge of the parishes of Afton and
+Birmingham, 400 yards below this bridge, was probably first erected in
+the the peaceable ages of Saxon influence, and continued a part of the
+manorial estate 'till the disposal of it in 1730.
+
+Before the water was pounded up to supply the mill, it must have been so
+shallow, as to admit a passage between Digbeth and Deritend, over a few
+stepping stones; and a gate seems to have been placed upon the verge of
+the river, to prevent encroachments of the cattle.
+
+This accounts for the original name, which Dugdale tells us was
+_Derry-yate-end:_ derry, low; yate, gate; end, extremity of the parish;
+with which it perfectly agrees.
+
+The mill afterwards causing the water to be dammed up, gave rise to a
+succession of paltry bridges, chiefly of timber, to preserve a
+communication between the two streets.
+
+But in later ages, the passage was dignified with those of stone. In
+1750, a wretched one was taken down, and the present bridge erected by
+Henry Bradford and John Collins, overseers of the highway, consisting of
+five arches; but the homely style, the deep ascent, and the
+circumscribed width prevents encomium.
+
+
+
+ADJACENT REMARKS.
+
+SOHO.
+
+If we travel two miles from the centre of Birmingham, upon the
+Wolverhampton road, which may be called, the road to taste, and is daily
+travelled by the nobility and gentry, we shall arrive at the epitome
+of the arts.
+
+Though this little spot lies in the county of Stafford, we must accept
+it as part of Birmingham; neither is it many yards distant from
+the parish.
+
+The proprietor, invited by a genius, a fortune of 30,000_l_. and a
+little stream, which promised to facilitate business, has erected the
+most elegant works in these parts, said to accommodate seven hundred
+persons. Upon that hungry ground, where, in 1758 stood one paltry
+cottage, we now behold, a city in miniature.
+
+From this nursery of ingenuity, originated the Soho button, the single
+wheel clock, the improvement of the steam engine, the platina button,
+the method of taking exact copies of painting, writing, &c. also, the
+productions of fancy, in great variety; with which some of the European
+princes are well acquainted.
+
+To the genius of the place is owing the assay-office, for marking
+standard wrought plate, which, prior to the year 1773, was conveyed to
+London to receive the sanction of that office; but by an act then
+obtained, the business is done here by an assay master, superintended by
+four wardens: these are annually chosen out of thirty-six guardians,
+whose chief duty consists in dining together, at least once a year; for
+it appears from the chapter upon government, that feasting makes a
+principal part of a Birmingham office; and, however unwilling a man may
+seem to _enter in_ we generally find him pleased when he _is in_.
+
+
+
+DANES CAMP:
+
+DANES BANK, OR BURY FIELDS.
+
+About five miles south of Birmingham, and five furlongs off Solihull
+Lodge, is a place called _The Danes Camp_. But although neither history
+nor tradition speak of this particular event, it probably was raised in
+the ninth century.
+
+The situation is well chosen, upon an eminence, about nine acres, nearly
+triangular, is yet in tolerable perfection; the ditch is about twenty
+feet wide; the base of the bank about the same; admits but of one
+entrance, and is capable of being secured by water. From the bottom of
+the ditch, to the top of the mound, was, when made, about twenty feet;
+and is a production of great labour.
+
+
+
+GENTLEMEN'S SEATS.
+
+This neighbourhood may justly be deemed the seat of the arts, but not
+the seat of the gentry.
+
+None of the nobility are near us, except William Legge, Earl of
+Dartmouth, at Sandwell, four miles from Birmingham. The principal houses
+in our environs, are those of Sir Charles Holte, late member for the
+county, at Aston; Sir Henry Gough, member for Bamber, at Edgbaston;
+George Birch, Esq; at Handsworth; John Gough, Esq; at Perry; and John
+Taylor, Esq; at Bordesley and at Moseley; all joining to the manor of
+Birmingham. Exclusive of these, are many elegant retreats of our first
+inhabitants, acquired by commercial success.
+
+Full fed with vanity is an author, when two readers strive to catch up
+his work, for the pleasure of perusing it:--but, perchance, if two
+readers dip into this chapter, they may strive to lay it down.
+
+I have hitherto written to the _world_, but now to a small part, _the
+antiquarians_; nay, a small part of the sensible part; for a fool and an
+antiquary is a contradiction: they are, to a man, people of letters and
+penetration. If their judgment is sometimes erroneous, we may consider,
+man was never designed for perfection; there is also less light to guide
+them in this, than in other researches. If the traveller slips upon
+common ground, how will he fare if he treads upon ice?--Besides, in dark
+questions, as in intricate journies, there are many erroneous ways for
+one right.
+
+If, like the mathematician, he can establish one point, it ascertains
+another. We may deem his pursuit one of the most arduous, and attended
+with the least profit: his emoluments consist in the returns of pleasure
+to his own mind.
+
+The historian only collects the matter of the day, and hands it to
+posterity; but the antiquarian brings his treasures from remote ages,
+and presents them to this: he examines forgotten repositories, calls
+things back into existence, which are past; counter-acts the efforts of
+time, and of death; possesses something like a re-creative power;
+collects the dust of departed matter, moulds it into its prestine state,
+exhibits the figure to view, and stamps it with a kind of immortality.
+
+Every thing has its day, whether it be a nation, a city, a castle, a
+man, or an insect; the difference is, one is a winter's day, the other
+may be extended to the length of a summer's--an _end_ waits upon all.
+But we cannot contemplate the end of grandeur, without gloomy ideas.
+
+Birmingham is surrounded with the melancholy remains of extinguished
+greatness; the decayed habitations of decayed gentry, fill the mind with
+sorrowful reflections. Here the feet of those marked the ground, whose
+actions marked the page of history. Their arms glistened in the field;
+their eloquence moved the senate. Born to command, their influence was
+extensive; but who now rest in peace among the paupers, fed with the
+crumbs of their table. The very land which, for ages, was witness to the
+hospitality of its master, is itself doomed to stirility. The spot
+which drew the adjacent country, is neglected by all; is often in a
+wretched state of cultivation, sets for a trifle; the glory is departed;
+it demands a tear from the traveller, and the winds teem, to sigh
+over it.
+
+
+
+THE MOATS.
+
+In the parish of King's-norton, four miles south west of Birmingham, is
+_The Moats_, upon which long resided the ancient family of Field. The
+numerous buildings, which almost formed a village, are totally erased,
+and barley grows where the beer was drank.
+
+
+
+BLACK GREVES.
+
+Eight miles south west of Birmingham, in the same parish, near Withod
+Chapel, is _Black Greves_ (Black Groves) another seat of the Fields;
+which, though a family of opulence, were so far from being lords of the
+manor, that they were in vassalage to them.
+
+The whole of that extensive parish is in the crown, which holds the
+detestable badge of ancient slavery over every tenant, of demanding
+under the name of harriot, the best moveable he dies possessed of--Thus
+death and the bailiff make their inroads together; they rob the family
+in a double capacity, each taking the best moveable.
+
+As the human body descends into the regions of sickness, much sooner
+than it can return into health; so a family can decline into poverty by
+hastier steps, than rise into affluence. One generation of extravagance
+puts a period to many of greatness.
+
+A branch of the Fields, in 1777, finished their ancient grandeur, by
+signing away the last estate of his family.--Thus he blotted out the
+name of his ancestors by writing his own.
+
+
+
+ULVERLEY, OR CULVERLEY.
+
+Four miles from Birmingham, upon the Warwick road, entering the parish
+of Solihull, in Castle-lane, is Ulverle, in doom's-day Ulverlei.
+Trifling as this place now seems, it must have been the manor-house of
+Solihull, under the Saxon heptarchy; but went to decay so long ago as
+the conquest.
+
+The manor was the property of the Earls of Mercia, but whether their
+residence is uncertain.--The traces of a moat yet remain, which are
+triangular, and encircle a wretched farm-house of no note: one of the
+angles of this moat is filled up, and become part of Castle-lane; which
+proves that Ulverley went into disuse when Hogg's-moat was erected: it
+also proves that the lane terminated here, which is about two hundred
+yards from the turnpike road. The great width of the lane, from the road
+to Ulverley, and the singular narrowness from thence to Hogg's-moat, is
+another proof of its prior antiquity.
+
+If we pursue our journey half a mile Farther along this lane, which by
+the way is scarcely passable, it will bring us to
+
+
+
+HOGG'S-MOAT.
+
+At Oltenend (Old Town) originally Odingsell's-moat, now Hobb's-moat, the
+ancient manor-house of Solihull, after it had changed its lords at the
+conquest. The property, as before observed, of Edwin Earl of Mercia, in
+the reign of Edward the the Confessor.
+
+William the First granted the manor to a favourite lady, named Cristina,
+probably a handsome lass, of the same complexion as his mother; thus we
+err when we say William gave all the land in the kingdom to his
+followers--some little was given to those _he_ followed.
+
+This lady, like many of her successors, having tired the arms of
+royalty, was conveyed into those of an humble favourite; Ralph de
+Limesie married her, who became lord of the place, but despising
+Ulverley, erected this castle.
+
+The line of Limesie continued proprietors four descents; when, in the
+reign of King John, it became the property of Hugh de Odingsells, by
+marrying a co-heiress.
+
+The last of the Odingsells, in 1294, left four daughters, one of whom,
+with the lordship, fell into the hands of John de Clinton; but it is
+probable the castle was not inhabited after the above date, therefore
+would quickly fall to decay.
+
+The moat is upon a much larger plan than Ulverley, takes in a compass of
+five acres, had two trenches; the outer is nearly obliterated, but the
+inner is marked with the strongest lines we meet with. This trench is
+about twenty feet deep, and about thirty yards from the crown of one
+bank to the other.
+
+When Dugdale saw it, about a hundred and fifty years ago, the center,
+which is about two acres, where the castle stood, was covered with old
+oaks; round this center are now some thousands, the oldest of which is
+not more than a century; so that the timber is changed since the days of
+Dugdale, but not the appearance of the land.
+
+The center is bare of timber, and exhibits the marks of the plough. The
+late Benjamin Palmer, Esq; a few years ago, planted it with trees, which
+are in that dwindling state, that they are not likely to grow so tall as
+their master[7].
+
+[Footnote 7: He measured about six feet five inches, but was singularly
+short in the lower parts: his step was not larger than a child's of ten
+years old. His carriage, by its extraordinary height, looked at a
+distance like a moving steeple; he sat as high in a common chair, as a
+man of the middle-size stands: he was as immoderately heavy as he was
+tall, and as remarkable for good-nature as either. As a man, he shone by
+his bulk; as a magistrate, in a dull but honest light--his decisions
+were _intended_ to be just. He seemingly dozed as he walked; but if his
+own eyes were half shut, those of every other person were open to
+see him.]
+
+It lies in a pleasant situation, upon a descent, so that the trench in
+one part is dry, and in another three or four yards deep in water.
+
+A place of such desolation, one would think, was a place of
+silence--just the reverse. When I saw it, Feb. 23, 1783, the trees were
+tall, the winds high, and the roar tremendous.
+
+Exclusive of Ulverley and Hogg's-moat, there are many old foundations in
+Solihull, once the residence of gentry now extinct; as Solihull-hall,
+the Moat-house, and Kynton, the property of the Botolers; Bury-hall,
+that of the Warings; who both came over with William: Henwood, belonging
+to the Hugfords; Hillfield-hall, the ancient seat of the Greswolds, as
+Malvern was their modern.
+
+
+
+YARDLEY.
+
+At Yardley church, four miles east of Birmingham, is _The Moat_, now a
+pasture; the trench still retains its water, as a remembrance of its
+former use.
+
+This was anciently the property of the Allestrees, lords of Witton; but
+about thirty years ago, the building and the family expired together.
+
+
+
+KENT'S-MOAT.
+
+One mile farther east is Kent's-moat, in which no noise is heard but the
+singing of birds, as if for joy that their enemy is fled, and they have
+regained their former habitation.
+
+This is situate on an eminence, like that of Park-hall, is capacious,
+has but one trench, supplied by its own springs; and, like that, as
+complete as earth and water can make it.
+
+This was part of Coleshill, and vested in the crown before the conquest,
+but soon after granted with that to Clinton, who gave it with a daughter
+to Verdon; and he, with another, to Anselm de Scheldon, who kept it till
+the reign of Edward the Third: it afterwards passed through several
+families, till the reign of Henry the Seventh, when it came into that of
+De Gray, Earl of Kent, whence the name; though, perhaps, the works were
+erected by Scheldon.
+
+It is now, with Coleshill, the property of Lord Digby; but the building
+has been so long gone, that tradition herself has lost it.
+
+
+
+SHELDON.
+
+One mile east is Sheldon-hall, which anciently bore the name of
+East-hall, in contradistinction from Kent's-moat, which was West-hall.
+This, in 1379, was the property of Sir Hugh le Despenser, afterwards of
+the family of Devereux, ancestor of the present Viscount Hereford, who
+resided here till about 1710. In 1751, it was purchased by John Taylor,
+Esq; and is now possessed by his tenant.
+
+The moat, like others on an eminence, has but one trench, fed by the
+land springs; is filled up in the front of the hall, as there is not
+much need of water protection. The house, which gives an idea of former
+gentility, seems the first erected on the spot; is irregular, agreeable
+to the taste of the times, and must have been built many centuries. All
+the ancient furniture fled with its owners, except an hatchment in the
+hall, with sixteen coats of arms, specifying the families into which
+they married.
+
+
+
+KING'S-HURST.
+
+Two furlongs east of Sheldon-hall, and one mile south of Castle
+Bromwich, is _Kings-hurst_; which, though now a dwelling in tenancy,
+was once the capital of a large track of land, consisting of its own
+manor, Coleshill, and Sheldon; the demesne of the crown, under the Saxon
+kings, from whom we trace the name.
+
+The Conqueror, or his son William, granted it; but whether for money,
+service, caprice, or favour, is uncertain; for he who wears a crown acts
+as whimsically as he who does not.
+
+Mountfort came over with William, as a knight, and an officer of rank;
+but, perhaps, did not immediately receive the grant, for the king would
+act again much like other people, _give away their property, before he
+would give away his own_.
+
+If this unfortunate family were not the first grantees, they were lords,
+and probably residents of King's-hurst, long before their possession of
+Coleshill, in 1332, and by a younger branch, long after the unhappy
+attainder of Sir Simon, in 1497.
+
+Sir William Mountfort, in 1390, augmented the buildings, erected a
+chapel, and inclosed the manor. His grandson, Sir Edmund, in 1447, paled
+in some of the land, and dignified it with the fashionable name
+of _park_.
+
+This prevailing humour of imparking was unknown to the Saxons, it crept
+in with the Norman: some of the first we meet with are those of
+Nottingham, Wedgnock, and Woodstock--Nottingham, by William Peveral,
+illegitimate son of the Conqueror; Wedgnock, by Newburg, the first
+Norman Earl of Warwick; and Woodstock, by Henry the First. So that the
+Duke of Marlborough perhaps may congratulate himself with possessing the
+oldest park in use.
+
+The modern park is worth attention; some are delightful in the extreme:
+they are the beauties of creation, terrestrial paradises; they are just
+what they ought to be, nature cautiously assisted by invisible art. We
+envy the little being who presides over one--but why mould we envy him?
+the pleasure consists in _seeing_, and one man may _see_ as well as
+another: nay, the stranger holds a privilege beyond him; for the
+proprietor, by often seeing, sees away the beauties, while he who looks
+but seldom, sees with full effect. Besides, one is liable to be fretted
+by the mischievous hand of injury, which the stranger seldom sees; he
+looks for excellence, the owner for defect, and they both find.
+
+These proud inclosures, guarded by the growth within, first appeared
+under the dimension of one or two hundred acres; but fashion, emulation,
+and the park, grew up together, till the last swelled into one or
+two thousand.
+
+If religions rise from the lowest ranks, the fashions generally descend
+from the higher, who are at once blamed, and imitated by their
+inferiors.
+
+The highest orders of men lead up a fashion, the next class tread upon
+their heels, the third quickly follow, then the fourth, fifth, &c.
+immediately figure after them. But as a man who had an inclination for a
+park, could not always spare a thousand acres, he must submit to less,
+for a park must be had: thus Bond, of Ward-end, set up with thirty; some
+with one half, till the very word became a burlesque upon the idea. The
+design was a display of lawns, hills, water, clumps, &c. as if ordered
+by the voice of nature; and furnished with herds of deer. But some of
+our modern parks contain none of these beauties, nor scarcely land
+enough to support a rabbit.
+
+I am possessed of one of these jokes of a park, something less than an
+acre:--he that has none, might think it a _good_ joke, and wish it his
+own; he that has more would despise it: that it never was larger,
+appears from its being surrounded by Sutton Coldfield; and that it has
+retained the name for ages, appears from the old timber upon it.
+
+The manor of King's-hurst was disposed of by the Mountforts, about two
+hundred years ago, to the Digbys, where it remains.
+
+
+
+COLESHILL.
+
+One mile farther east is _Coleshill-hall_, vested in the crown before,
+and after the conquest; purchased, perhaps, of William Rufus, by
+Geoffrey de Clinton, ancestor to the present Duke of Newcastle. In 1352,
+an heiress of the house of Clinton, gave it, with herself, to Sir John
+de Mountfort, of the same family with Simon, the great Earl of
+Leicester, who fell, in 1265, at Evesham, in that remarkable contest
+with Henry the Third.
+
+With them it continued till 1497, when Sir Simon Mountfort, charged, but
+perhaps unjustly, with assisting Perkin Warbeck with 30_l_. was brought
+to trial at Guildhall, condemned as a traitor, executed at Tyburn, his
+large fortune confiscated, and his family ruined. Some of his
+descendants I well know in Birmingham; and _they_ are well known to
+poverty, and the vice.
+
+In the reign of Henry the Seventh, it was almost dangerous, particularly
+for a rich man, even to _think_ against a crafty and avaricious
+monarch.--What is singular, the man who accused Sir Simon at the bar,
+succeeded him in his estate.
+
+Simon Digby procured a grant of the place, in whose line it still
+continues. The hall is inhabited, but has been left about thirty years
+by the family; was probably erected by the Mountforts, is extensive, and
+its antique aspect without, gives a venerable pleasure to the beholder,
+like the half admitted light diffused within. Every spot of the park is
+delightful, except that in which the hall stands: our ancestors built in
+the vallies, for the sake of water; their successors on the hills, for
+the sake of air.
+
+From this uncouth swamp sprung the philosopher, the statesman, and
+tradition says, the gunpowder-plot.
+
+
+
+DUDDESTON.
+
+Four furlongs north-east of Birmingham, is _Duddeston_ (Dud's-town) from
+Dud, the Saxon proprietor, Lord of Dudley, who probably had a seat here;
+once a considerable village, but long reduced to the manor-house, till
+Birmingham, swelling beyond its bounds, in 1764, verged upon this
+lordship; and we now, in 1783, behold about eighty houses, under the
+names of Duke-street, Prospect-row, and Woodcock-lane.
+
+It afterwards descended to the Paganalls, the Sumeris, then to the
+Bottetourts, and was, in 1323, enjoyed by Joan Bottetourt, lady of
+Weoley castle, a daughter of the house of Sumeri.
+
+Sir Thomas de Erdington held it of this lady, by a chief-rent, which was
+a pair of gilt spurs, or six-pence, at the option of the tenant.
+
+Erdington sold it, in 1327, to Thomas de Maidenhache, by whose daughter,
+Sibell, it came in marriage to Adam de Grymforwe; whose posterity, in
+1363, conveyed it for 26_l_. 13s. 4d. now worth 20,000_l_. to John atte
+Holt; and his successors made it their residence, till the erection of
+Aston-hall, in the reign of James I.
+
+It is now converted into beautiful gardens, as a public resort of
+pleasure, and dignified with the London name of Vauxhall. The demolished
+fish-ponds, and the old foundations, which repel the spade, declare its
+former grandeur.
+
+In 1782 it quitted, by one of the most unaccountable alignments that
+ever resulted from human weakness, the ancient name of Holte, familiar
+during four hundred and nineteen years, for that of Legge.
+
+Could the ghost of Sir Lister re-visit his departed property, one might
+ask, What reception might you meet with, Sir Lister, in 1770, among your
+venerable ancestors in the shades, for barring, unprovoked, an infant
+heiress of 7000_l_. a year, and giving it, unsolicited, to a stranger?
+Perhaps you experience repeated buffetings; a sturdy figure, with iron
+aspect, would be apt to accost you--"I with nervous arm, and many a
+bended back, drew 40_l_. from the Birmingham forge, with which, in 1330,
+I purchased the park and manor of Nechels, now worth four hundred times
+that sum. I planted that family which you have plucked up by the roots:
+in the sweat of my brow, I laid a foundation for greatness; many of my
+successors built on that foundation--but you, by starving your brother,
+Sir Charles, into compliance, wantonly cut off the entail, and gave away
+the estate, after passing through seventeen descents, merely to shew you
+had a power to give it. We concluded here, that a son of his daughter,
+the last hope of the family, would change his own name to preserve ours,
+and not the estate change its possessor."--"I," another would be apt to
+say, "with frugal hand, and lucrative employments under the crown,
+added, in 1363, the manor of Duddeston; and, in 1367, that of Alton. But
+for what purpose did I add them? To display the folly of a
+successor."--A dejected spectre would seem to step forward, whose face
+carried the wrinkles of eighty-four, and the shadow of tear; "I, in
+1611, brought the title of baronet among us, first tarnished by you;
+which, if your own imbecility could not procure issue to support, you
+ought to have supported it by purchase. I also, in 1620, erected the
+mansion at Afton, then, and even now, the most superb in that
+neighbourhood, fit to grace the leading title of nobility; but you
+forbad my successors to enter. I joined, in 1647, to our vast fortune,
+the manor of Erdington.--Thus the fabric we have been rearing for ages,
+you overthrew in one fatal moment."--The last angry spectre would appear
+in the bloom of life. "I left you an estate which you did not deserve:
+you had no more right to leave it from your successor, than I to leave
+it from you: one man may ruin the family of another, but he seldom ruins
+his own. We blame him who wrongs his neighbour, but what does he deserve
+who wrongs himself?--You have done both, for by cutting off the
+succession, your name will be lost. The ungenerous attorney, instead of
+making your absurd will, ought to have apprized you of our sentiments,
+which exactly coincide with those of the world, or how could the tale
+affect a stranger? Why did not some generous friend guide your crazy
+vessel, and save a sinking family? Degenerate son, he who destroys the
+peace of another, should forfeit his own--we leave you to remorse, may
+she quickly _find, and weep over you_."
+
+
+
+SALTLEY.
+
+A mile east of Duddeston is _Saltley-hall_, which, with an extensive
+track of ground, was, in the Saxon times, the freehold of a person whom
+we should now call Allen; the same who was Lord of Birmingham. But at
+the conquest, when justice was laid asleep, and property possessed by
+him who could seize it, this manor, with many others, fell into the
+hands of William Fitz-Ausculf, Baron of Dudley-castle, who granted it in
+knight's-service to Henry de Rokeby.
+
+A daughter of Rokeby carried it by marriage to Sir John Goband, whose
+descendants, in 1332, sold it to Walter de Clodshale; an heiress of
+Clodshale, in 1426, brought it into the ancient family of Arden, and a
+daughter of this house, to that of Adderley, where it now rests.
+
+The castle, I have reason to think, was erected by Rokeby, in which all
+the lords resided till the extinction of the Clodshales.--It has been
+gone to ruin about three hundred years, and the solitary platform seems
+to mourn its loss.
+
+
+
+WARD-END.
+
+Three miles from Birmingham, in the same direction, is _Wart-end_,
+anciently _Little Bromwich_; a name derived from the plenty of broom,
+and is retained to this day by part of the precincts, _Broomford_
+(Bromford).
+
+This manor was claimed by that favourite of the conqueror, Fitz-Ausculf,
+and granted by him to a second-hand favourite, who took its name.
+
+The old castle has been gone about a century; the works are nearly
+complete, cover about nine acres, the most capacious in this
+neighbourhood, those of Weoley-castle excepted. The central area is now
+an orchard, and the water, which guarded the castle, guards the fruit.
+This is surrounded with three mounds, and three trenches, one of them
+fifty yards over, which, having lost its master, guards the fish.
+
+The place afterwards passed through several families, till the reign of
+Henry the Seventh. One of them bearing the name of _Ward_, changed the
+name to _Ward-end_.
+
+In 1512, it was the property of John Bond, who, fond of his little
+hamlet, inclosed a park of thirty acres, stocked it with deer; and, in
+1517, erected a chapel for the conveniency of his tenants, being two
+miles from the parish church of Afton. The skeleton of this chapel, in
+the form of a cross, the fashion of the times, is yet standing on the
+outward mound: its floor is the only religious one I have seen laid with
+horse-dung; the pulpit is converted into a manger--it formerly furnished
+husks for the man, but now corn for the horse. Like the first christian
+church, it has experienced a double use, a church and a stable; but with
+this difference, _that_ in Bethlehem, was a stable advanced into a
+church; this, on the contrary, is reduced into a stable.
+
+The manor, by a female, passed through the Kinardsleys, and is now
+possessed by the Brand-woods; but the hall, erected in 1710, and its
+environs, are the property of Abraham Spooner, Esq.
+
+
+
+CASTLE BROMWICH.
+
+Simply _Bromwich_, because the soil is productive of broom.
+
+My subject often leads me back to the conquest, an enterprize, wild
+without parallel: we are astonished at the undertaking, because William
+was certainly a man of sense, and a politician. Harold, his competitor,
+was a prince much superior in power, a consummate general, and beloved
+by his people. The odds were so much against the invader, that out of
+one hundred such imprudent attempts, ninety-nine would miscarry: all the
+excuse in his favour is, _it succeeded_. Many causes concurred in this
+success, such as his own ambition, aided by his valour; the desperate
+fortune of his followers, very few of whom were men of property, for to
+the appearance of gentlemen, they added the realities of want; a
+situation to which any change is thought preferable; but, above all,
+_chance_. A man may dispute for religion, he may contend for liberty, he
+may run for his life, but he will _fight_ for property.
+
+By the contest between William and Harold, the unhappy English lost all
+they had to lose; and though this all centered in the Normans, they did
+not acquire sufficient to content them.
+
+History does not inform us who was then the proprietor of Castle
+Bromwich, but that it belonged to the Mercian Earls scarcely admits a
+doubt; as Edwin owned some adjoining manors, he probably owned this.
+Fitz-Ausculf was his fortunate successor, who procured many lordships in
+the neighhood of Birmingham; Castle Bromwich was one. He granted it to
+an inferior Norman, in military tenure; who, agreeable to the fashion of
+those times, took the surname of Bromwich.
+
+Henry de Castel was a subsequent proprietor. Dugdale supposes the
+village took its name from a castle, once on the premises; and that the
+castle-hill yet remains: but this hill is too small, even to admit a
+shelter for a Lilliputian, and is evidently an artificial trifle,
+designed for a monument. It might hold, for its ancient furniture, a
+turret, termed a castle--perhaps it held nothing in Dugdale's time: the
+modern is a gladiator, in the attitude of fighting, supported by a
+pedestal, containing the Bridgeman arms.
+
+_Castle_, probably, was added by the family of that name, lords of the
+place, to distinguish it from _woody_ and _little_ Bromwich. They bore
+for their arms, three castles and a chevron.
+
+Lord Ferrers of Chartley, who was proprietor of Birmingham in the reign
+of Henry the Sixth, enjoyed it by marriage; and his grand daughter
+brought it, by the same channel, into the family of Devereux, Lords of
+Sheldon. Edward, about the latter end of Queen Elizabeth's reign,
+erected the present building, which is capacious, is in a stile between
+ancient and modern, and has a pleasing appearance.
+
+The Bridgeman family acceded to possession about eighty years ago, by
+purchase, and made it their residence till about 1768. We should
+naturally enquire, Why Sir Harry quitted a place so delightfully
+situated? Perhaps it is not excelled in this country, in the junction of
+three great roads, a a desirable neighbourhood, the river Tame at its
+back, and within five miles of the plentiful market of Bimingham--but,
+alas, _it has no park_.
+
+The gentry seem to have resided in our vicinity, when there was the
+greatest inducement to leave it, _impassable roads_: they seem also to
+have quitted the country, now there is the greatest inducement to reside
+there; roads, which improve their estates, and may be travelled with
+pleasure. It may be objected, that "the buildings become ancient." But
+there is no more disgrace in an old house, than in an old man; they may
+both be dressed in character, and look well. A gentleman, by residing in
+the family seat, pays a compliment to his ancestors.
+
+
+
+PARK-HALL.
+
+Six miles north-east of Birmingham, and one from Castle Bromwich chapel,
+is a spacious moat, with one trench, which, for many centuries guarded
+_Park-hall_. This is another of those desolate islands, from which every
+creature is fled, and every sound, except that of the winds; nay, even
+the very clouds seem to lament the desolation with tears.
+
+This was possessed by none but the Ardens, being part of their vast
+estate long before the conquest, and five hundred years after. A
+delightful situation on the banks of the Tame; to which we are led
+through a dirty road.
+
+We may consider this island, the treasury into which forty-six lordships
+paid their tribute. The riches of the country were drawn to this center,
+and commands were issued from it. The growth of these manors supplied
+that spot, which now grows for another. The lordships are in forty-six
+hands; the country is in silence; the island ploughed up, and the family
+distressed--At the remembrance of their name, the smile quits the face
+of history; she records their sad tale with a sigh; while their arms
+are yet displayed in some of the old halls in the neighbourhood.
+
+
+
+BERWOOD.
+
+Crossing the river, one mile farther east, is _Berwood-hall_, where the
+forsaken moat, at this day, guards--nothing. This, with the manor to
+which it belongs, was also the property of the Ardens; one of which in
+the reign of Henry the Second, granted it to the canons of Leicester;
+who added a chapel, which went to decay four hundred years ago. After
+the grant, the Ardens seem to have become tenants to the canons for the
+land, once their own: we frequently observe a man pay rent for what he
+_sells_, but seldom for what he _gives_.
+
+At the dissolution of abbies, in 1537, Thomas Arden, the head of the
+family, purchased it of Henry the Eighth, for 272_l_. 10s. uniting it
+again to his estate, after a separation of three hundred and fifty
+years, in whose posterity it continued till their fall.
+
+Thus, the father first purchased what the son gave away, and his
+offspring re-purchased again. The father lays a tax on his successor;
+or, climbs to heaven at the expence of the son. In one age it is
+meritorious to _give_ to the church, in another, to _take_ from her.
+
+
+
+ERDINGTON.
+
+Three miles north-east of Birmingham, is _Erdington-hall_, which boasts
+a long antiquity. The manor was the property of the old Earls of Mercia:
+Edwin possessed it at the conquest, but lost it in favour of William
+Fitz-Ausculf, who no doubt granted it in knight's service to his friend
+and relation, of Norman race, who erected the hall; the moat, took his
+residence in, and his name Erdington, from the place. His descendants
+seem to have resided here with great opulence near 400 years.
+
+Dugdale mentions a circumstance of Sir Thomas de Erdington, little
+noticed by our historians. He was a faithful adherent to King John, who
+conferred on him many valuable favours: harrassed by the Pope on one
+side, and his angry Barons on the other, he privately sent Sir Thomas to
+Murmeli, the powerful King of Africa, Morocco, and Spain; with offers
+to forsake the christian faith, turn mahometan, deliver up his kingdom,
+and hold it of him in tribute, for his assistance against his enemies.
+But it does not appear the ambassador succeeded: the Moorish Monarch did
+not chuse to unite his prosperous fortune with that of a random prince;
+he might also consider, the man who could destroy his nephew and his
+sovereign, could not be an honour to any profession.
+
+The manor left the Erdington family in 1472, and, during a course of 175
+years, acknowledged for its owners, George Plantagenet, Duke of
+Clarence, Sir William Harcourt, Robert Wright, Sir Reginald Bray,
+Francis Englefield, Humphry Dimock, Walter Earl, Sir Walter Devereux,
+and was, in 1647, purchased by Sir Thomas Holte, in whose family it
+continued till 1782, when Henage Legge, Esq; became seised of the manor.
+
+As none of the Lords seem to have resided upon the premises since the
+departure of the Erdingtons, it must be expected they have gradually
+tended to decay.
+
+We may with some reason conclude, that as Erdington was the freehold of
+the Earls of Mercia, it was not the residence of its owners, therefore
+could not derive its name from them. That as the word _Arden_ signifies
+a wood, the etymology of that populous village is, _a town in the wood_.
+That one of the first proprietors, after the conquest, struck with the
+security offered by the river, erected the present fortifications, which
+cover three parts of the hall, and the river itself the fourth. Hence it
+follows, that the neighbouring work, which we now call Bromford-forge,
+was a mill prior to the conquest; because the stream is evidently turned
+out of its bed to feed it. That the present hall is the second on the
+premises, and was erected by the Erdingtons, with some later additions.
+
+
+
+PIPE.
+
+One mile north-east of Erdington, is _Pipe-hall_; which, with its manor,
+like the neighbouring land, became at the conquest the property of
+Fitz-Ausculf; and afterwards of his defendants, Paganall, Sumeri,
+Bottetort, and St. Leger.
+
+It was common at that fatal period, for one of these great barons, or
+rather great robbers, to procure a large quantity of land for himself;
+some of them two or three hundred thousand acres--too much for one man
+to grasp. He therefore kept what he pleased for his private use, and
+granted the other in knight's-service, reserving annually a rent. These
+rents were generally small, so as never to hurt the tenant: however, the
+lord could order him to arms whenever he pleased.
+
+A few of the grants were procured by the disinherited English, but
+chiefly by the officers of William's army, being more respected, and
+more proper to be trusted: they were often relations, or favourites of
+the great barons. The lord could not conveniently sell, without the
+consent of the crown, but he could set at what price he pleased. Time
+made this chief-rent permanent, and gave the tenant stability of title.
+
+The manor of Pipe, with some others, was granted to William Mansell, who
+resided in the hall, and executed some of the chief offices of
+the county.
+
+The last of the name, in the reign of Henry the Third, left a daughter,
+who married Henry de Harcourt; and his daughter married John de Pipe,
+who seems to have taken its name.
+
+Henry, his descendant, had many children, all of whom, with his lady,
+died of the plague, except a daughter, Margery. He afterwards married,
+in 1363, Matilda, the daughter of George de Castell, of Castle Bromwich;
+but soon after the happy wedding, he perceived his bride was pregnant,
+which proved, on enquiry, the effect of an intrigue with her father's
+menial servant; a striking instance of female treachery, which can only
+be equalled by--male.
+
+The shock proving too great for his constitution, brought on a decline,
+and himself to the grave, before the birth of the child.
+
+John was the fruit of this unlawful amour, whose guardian, to prevent
+his inheriting the estate, made him a canon of Ouston, in
+Leicestershire; and afterwards persuaded the unhappy Margery to grant
+the manor to the abbot of Stonely.
+
+Thomas de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, afterwards purchased it for
+133_l_. 6s. 8d. It came to the crown by attainder, in the reign of Henry
+the Seventh; then to Sir William Staunford, one of his judges, John
+Buttler; Edward Holte, in 1568; Francis Dimock, whose daughter married
+Walter Earl; then to Walter Devereux, by marrying Earl's daughter;
+afterwards to Sir Thomas Holte, by purchase; and is now in the family
+of Bagot.
+
+Though the hall is antique, its front is covered in the modern barbarous
+stile, by a clump of venerable trees; which would become any situation
+but that in which they stand. It is now inhabited by a gentleman of
+Birmingham, who has experienced the smiles of commerce.
+
+
+
+ASTON.
+
+Two miles north of Birmingham, is Aston (East-town) being east of
+Westbury (Wednesbury) it lies on a steep descent towards the river Tame.
+
+This place, like that of Erdington, belonged to the Earls of Mercia in
+the Saxon times; and, at the conquest, was the property of the
+unfortunate Edwin. Fitz-Ausculf became his successor in this, and in
+other lands: the survey calls it eight hides, valued at 5_l_. per annum;
+a mill, 3s. and a wood, three miles long, and half a mile broad. The
+mill, I make no doubt, stood where a mill now stands, near
+Sawford-bridge; but neither the hides, nor the wood, could be confined
+within the boundary of Afton; the manor is too little for either. The
+lordship extends about a square mile, and that part which is now the
+park, I have reason to think, was then a common, and for ages after.
+
+A Saxon, of the name of Godmund, held it under the Mercian Earls, and
+found means, at the conquest, to hold it under the Norman.
+
+One hundred yards north of the church, in a perfect swamp, stood the
+hall; probably erected by Godmund, or his family: the situation shews
+the extreme of bad taste--one would think, he endeavoured to lay his
+house under the water. The trenches are obliterated by the floods, so as
+to render the place unobserved by the stranger: it is difficult to chuse
+a worse, except he had put his house under the earth. I believe there
+never was more than one house erected on the spot, and that was one
+too much.
+
+Whether this Saxon family of Godmund became extinct, or had lost their
+right, is uncertain; but Sumeri, Fitz-Ausculf's successor, about 1203,
+granted the manor to Sir Thomas de Erdington, Ambassador to King John,
+mentioned before, who had married his sister; paying annually a pair of
+spurs, or six-pence, as a nominal rent, but meant, in reality, as a
+portion for the lady.
+
+The family of Erdington, about 1275, sold it to Thomas de Maidenhache,
+who did not seem to live upon friendly terms with his neighbour, William
+de Birmingham; for, in 1290, he brought an action against him for
+fishing in his water, called Moysich (Dead-branch) leading into Tame,
+towards Scarford-bridge (Shareford, dividing the shares, or parts of the
+parish, Aston manor from Erdington, now Sawford-bridge) which implies a
+degree of unkindness; because William could not amuse himself in his own
+manor of Birmingham, for he might as well have angled in one of his
+streets, as in the river Rea. The two lords had, probably, four years
+before been on friendly terms, when they jointly lent their assistance
+to the hospital of St. Thomas, in Birmingham.
+
+Maidenhache left four daughters; Sibel, married Adam de Grymsorwe, who
+took with her the manor of Aston; a daughter of this house, in 1367,
+sold it to John atte Holte, of Birmingham, in whose family it continued
+415 years, till 1782, when Henage Legge, Esq; acceded to possession.
+
+This wretched bog was the habitation of all the lords, from Godmund to
+the Holtes, the Erdington's excepted; for Maud Grymsorwe executing the
+conveyance at Aston, indicates that she resided there; and Thomas Holte,
+being possessed of Duddeston, proves that he did not: therefore I
+conclude, that the building, as it ought, went to decay soon after; so
+that desolation has claimed the place for her own near four hundred
+years. This is corroberated by some old timber trees, long since upon
+the spot where the building stood.
+
+The extensive parish of Aston takes in the two extremes of Birmingham,
+which supplies her with more christenings, weddings, and burials, than
+were, a few years ago, supplied by the whole parish of Birmingham.
+
+
+
+WITTON.
+
+Three miles north of Birmingham, and one from Aston, is _Witton_,
+(Wicton) from the bend of the river, according to Dugdale: the property
+of a person at the conquest whose name was Staunchel. Fitz-Ausculf
+seized it, and Staunchel, more fortunate than the chief of his country
+men, became his tenant; valued in the conqueror's survey at 20s.
+per ann.
+
+It was afterwards vested in the crown: in 1240, Henry the third granted
+it to Andrew de Wicton, who took his name from the place, for in
+Dooms-day it is Witone; therefore the name being prior, proves
+the remark.
+
+Andrew, anxious after the boundary of his new purchase, brought an
+action against his neighbour, William de Pyrie (Perry) for infringing
+his property. Great disputes arise from small beginnings; perhaps a
+lawyer blew the flame.
+
+The king issued his precept to the Sheriff of Staffordshire, in which
+Perry lies, to bring with him twelve lawful and discreet knights; and
+the same to the Sheriff of Warwickshire, of which Witton is part, to
+ascertain the bounds between them.
+
+Which was the aggressor, is hard to determine, but I should rather
+suppose Squire Perry, because _man_ is ever apt to trespass; he resided
+on the premises, and the crown is but a sleepy landlord; not so likely
+to rob, as be robbed.
+
+There is a road, where foot seldom treads, mounded on each side, leading
+over the Coldfield, from Perry-bridge towards the Newlands, undoubtedly
+the work of this venerable band of discreet knights.
+
+The stranger, of course, would deem the property between the contending
+parties, of great value, which, twenty-four of the principal characters
+of the age, the flower of two counties, marshalled by two chief
+officers, were to determine. But what will he think of the quarrelsome
+spirit of the times, when, I tell him, it was only a few acres, which
+is, even at this day, waste land, and scarcely worth owning by either.
+
+In 1290, Witton was the property of William Dixley; in 1340, that of
+Richard de Pyrie, descendant of him, who, a hundred years before, held
+the contest. In 1426, Thomas East, of Hay-hall, in Yardley, was owner;
+who sold it to John Bond, of Ward-end, of whose descendants William
+Booth purchased it, in 1620: an heiress of Booth brought it by marriage
+to Allestree, of Yardley, who enjoyed it in our days; it was sold to
+John Wyrley, and is now possessed by George Birch, Esq; of Handsworth.
+
+The house, left by its owners, is in that low, or rather boggy
+situation, suitable to the fashion of those times. I can discover no
+traces of a moat, though there is every conveniency for one: We are
+doubly hurt by seeing a house in a miserable hole, when joining an
+elegible spot.
+
+
+
+BLAKELEY.
+
+Five miles north-west of Birmingham, is _Blakely-hall_, the manor house
+of Oldbury. If we see a venerable edifice without a moat, we cannot from
+thence conclude, it was never the residence of a gentleman, but wherever
+we find one, we may conclude it was.
+
+Anciently, this manor, with those of Smethwick and Harborn, belonged to
+the family of Cornwallis, whose habitation was Blakeley-hall: the
+present building seems about 300 years old.
+
+The extinction of the male line, threw the property into the hands of
+two coheirs; one of whom married into the family of Grimshaw, the other
+into that of Wright, who jointly held it. The family of Grimshaw
+failing, Wright became then, and is now, possessed of the whole.
+
+I am unacquainted with the principal characters who acted the farce of
+life on this island, but it has long been in the tenancy of a poor
+farmer, who, the proprietor allured me, was _best_ able to stock the
+place with children. In 1769, the Birmingham canal passing over the
+premises, robbed the trench of its water. Whether it endangers the
+safety is a doubt, for _poverty_ is the best security against violence.
+
+
+
+WEOLEY
+
+Four miles west of Birmingham, in the parish of Northfield, are the
+small, but extensive ruins of _Weoley-castle_, whose appendages command
+a track of seventeen acres, situate in a park of eighteen hundred.
+
+These moats usually extend from half an acre to two acres, are generally
+square, and the trenches from eight yards over to twenty.
+
+This is large, the walls massy; they form the allies of a garden, and
+the rooms, the beds; the whole display the remains of excellent
+workmanship. One may nearly guess at a man's consequence, even after a
+lapse of 500 years, by the ruins of his house.
+
+The steward told me, "they pulled down the walls as they wanted the
+stone." Unfeeling projectors: there is not so much to pull down. Does
+not time bring destruction fast enough without assistance? The head
+which cannot contemplate, offers its hand to destroy. The insensible
+taste, unable itself to relish the dry fruits of antiquity, throws them
+away to prevent another. May the fingers _smart_ which injure the
+venerable walls of Dudley, or of Kenilworth. Noble remains of ancient
+grandeur! copious indexes, that point to former usage! We survey them
+with awful pleasure. The mouldering walls, as if ashamed of their humble
+state, hide themselves under the ivies; the generous ivies, as if
+conscious of the precious relics, cover them from the injuries of time.
+
+When land frequently undergoes a conveyance, necessity, we suppose, is
+the lot of the owner, but the lawyer fattens: _To have and to hold_ are
+words of singular import; they charm beyond music; are the quintessence
+of language; the leading figure in rhetoric. But how would he fare if
+land was never conveyed? He must starve upon quarrels.
+
+Instances may be given of land which knows no title, except those of
+conquest and descent: Weoley Castle comes nearly under this
+description. _To sign, seal, and deliver_, were wholly unknown to our
+ancestors. Could a Saxon freeholder rise from the dead, and visit the
+land, once his own, now held by as many writings as would half spread
+over it, he might exclaim, "Evil increases with time, and parchment with
+both. You deprive the poor of their breeches; I covered the ground with
+sheep, you with their skins; I thought, as you were at variance with
+France, Spain, Holland, and America, those numerous deeds were a heap of
+drum heads, and the internal writing, the _articles of war_. In one
+instance, however, there is a similarity between us; we unjustly took
+this land from the Britons, you as unjustly took it from us; and a time
+may come, when another will take it from you. Thus, the Spaniards
+founded the Peruvian empire in butchery, now tottering towards a fall;
+you, following their example, seized the northern coast of America; you
+neither bought it nor begged it, you took it from the natives; and thus
+your children, the Americans, with equal violence, have taken it from
+you: No law binds like that of arms. The question has been, whether they
+shall pay taxes? which, after a dispute of eight years, was lost in
+another, _to whom_ they shall pay taxes? The result, in a future day
+will be, domestic struggles for sovereignty will stain the ground
+with blood."
+
+When the proud Norman cut his way to the throne, his imperious followers
+seized the lands, kicked out the rightful possessors, and treated them
+with a dignity rather beneath that practiced to a dog.--This is the most
+summary title yet discovered.
+
+Northfield was the fee-simple of Alwold (Allwood) but, at the conquest,
+Fitz-Ausculf seized it, with a multitude of other manors: it does not
+appear that he granted it in knight's-service to the injured Allwood,
+but kept it for his private use, Paganall married his heiress, and
+Sumeri married Paganall's, who, in the beginning of the 13th century,
+erected the castle. In 1322, the line of Sumeri expired.
+
+Bottetourt, one of the needy squires, who, like Sancho Panza, attended
+William his master, in his mad, but _fortunate_ enterprize, procured
+lands which enabled him to _live_ in England, which was preferable to
+starving in Normandy. His descendant became, in right of his wife,
+coheir of the house of Sumeri, vested in Weoley-castle. He had, in
+1307, sprung into peerage, and was one of our powerful barons, till
+1385, when the male line dropt. The vast estate of Bottetourt, was then
+divided among females; Thomas Barkley, married the eldest, and this
+ancient barony was, in 1761, revived in his descendant, Norborne
+Barkley, the present Lord Bottetourt; Sir Hugh Burnel married another,
+and Sir John St. Leger a third.
+
+Weoley-castle was, for many years, the undivided estate of the three
+families; but Edward Sutton, Lord Dudley, having married a daughter of
+Barkley, became possessed of that castle, which was erected by Sumeri,
+their common ancestor, about nine generations before.
+
+In 1551, he sold it to William Jervoise, of London, mercer, whose
+descendant, Jervoise Clark Jervoise, Esq; now enjoys it.
+
+Fond of ranging, I have travelled a circuit round Birmingham, without
+being many miles from it. I wish to penetrate farther from the center,
+but my subject forbids. _Having therefore finished my discourse, I
+shall_, like my friends, the pulpitarians, many of whom, and of several
+denominations, are characters I revere, _apply what has been said_.
+
+We learn, that the land I have gone over, with the land I have not,
+changed its owners at the conquest: this shuts the door of inquiry into
+pedigree, the old families chiefly became extinct, and few of the
+present can be traced higher.--Destruction then overspread the kingdom.
+
+The seniors of every age exclaim against the growing corruption of the
+times: my father, and perhaps every father, dwelt on the propriety of
+his conduct in younger life, and placed it in counter-view with that of
+the following generation. However, while I knew him, it was much like
+other people's--But I could tell him, that he gave us the bright side of
+his character; that he was, probably, a piece of human nature, as well
+as his son; that nature varies but little, and that the age of William
+the Conqueror was the most rascally in the British annals. One age may
+be marked for the golden, another for the iron, but this for plunder.
+
+We farther learn, there is not one instance in this neighbourhood, where
+an estate has continued till now in the male line, very few in the
+female. I am acquainted with only one family near Birmingham, whose
+ancestor entered with William, and who yet enjoy the land granted at
+that period: the male line has been once broken--perhaps this land was
+never conveyed. They shone with splendour near six hundred years. In the
+sixteenth century, their estate was about 1400_l_. a year; great for
+that time, but is now, exclusive of a few _pepper-corns_ and _red
+roses_, long since withered, reduced to one little farm, tilled for
+bread by the owner. This setting glympse of a shining family, is as
+indifferent about the matter, and almost as ignorant, as the team
+he drives.
+
+Lastly, we learn that none of the lords, as formerly, reside on the
+above premises: that in four instances out of twenty-one, the buildings
+are now as left by the lords, Sheldon, Coleshill, Pipe, and Blakeley:
+two have undergone some alteration, as Duddeston and Erdington: five
+others are re-erected, as Black Greves, Ulverley, King's-hurst, Castle
+Bromwich, and Witton; which, with all the above, are held in tenancy: in
+eight others all the buildings are swept away, and their moats left
+naked, as Hogg's-moat, Yardley, Kent's-moat, Saltley, Ward-end,
+Park-hall, Berwood, and Weoley; and in two instances the moats
+themselves are vanished, that of King's-norton is filled up to make way
+for the plough, and that of Aston demolished by the floods. Thus the
+scenes of hospitality and grandeur, become the scenes of antiquity, and
+then disappear.
+
+
+
+SUTTON COLDFIELD.
+
+Though the topographical historian, who resides upon the premises, is
+most likely to be correct; yet if _he_, with all his care, is apt to be
+mistaken, what can be expected from him who trots his horse over the
+scenes of antiquity?
+
+I have visited, for twenty years, some singular places in this
+neighbourhood, yet, without being master of their history; thus a man
+may spend an age in conning his lesson, and never learn it.
+
+When the farmer observes me on his territories, he eyes me _ascance_;
+suspecting a design to purchase his farm, or take it out of his
+hands.--I endeavour to remove his apprehensions, by approaching him; and
+introduce a conversation tending to my pursuit, which he understands as
+well as if, like the sons of Jacob, I addressed him in Hebrew; yet,
+notwithstanding his total ignorance of the matter, he has sometimes
+dropt an accidental word, which has thrown more light on the subject,
+than all my researches for a twelvemonth. If an honest farmer, in
+future, should see upon his premises a plumpish figure, five feet six,
+with one third of his hair on, a cane in his left hand, a glove upon
+each, and a Pomeranian dog at his heels, let him fear no evil; his farm
+will not be additionally tythed, his sheep worried, nor his hedges
+broken--it is only a solitary animal, in quest of a Roman phantom.
+
+Upon the north west extremity of Sutton Coldfield, joining the Chester
+road, is _The Bowen Pool_; at the tail of which, one hundred yards west
+of the road, on a small eminence, or swell of the earth, are the remains
+of a fortification, called _Loaches Banks_; but of what use or original
+is uncertain, no author having mentioned it.
+
+Four hundred yards farther west, in the same flat, is a hill of some
+magnitude, deemed, by the curious, a tumolus--it is a common thing for
+an historian to be lost, but not quite so common to acknowledge it. In
+attempting to visit this tumolus, I soon found myself in the center of a
+morass; and here, my dear reader might have seen the historian set fast
+in a double sense. I was obliged, for that evening, February 16, 1783,
+to retreat, as the sun had just done before me. I made my approaches
+from another quarter, April 13, when the hill appeared the work of
+nature, upon too broad a base for a tumolus; covering about three acres,
+perfectly round, rising gradually to the center, which is about sixteen
+feet above the level, surrounded by a ditch, perhaps made for some
+private purpose by the owner.
+
+The Roman tumoli were of two sorts, the small for the reception of a
+general, or great man, as that at Cloudsley-bush, near the High Cross,
+the tomb of Claudius; and the large, as at Seckington, near Tamworth,
+for the reception of the dead, after a battle: they are both of the same
+shape, rather high than broad. That before us comes under the
+description of neither; nor could the dead well be conveyed over
+the morass.
+
+The ground-plot, in the center of the fort, at Loaches Banks, is about
+two acres, surrounded by three mounds, which are large, and three
+trenches, which are small; the whole forming a square of four acres.
+Each corner directs to a cardinal point, but perhaps not with design;
+for the situation of the ground would invite the operator to chuse the
+present form. The north-west joins to, and is secured by the pool.
+
+As the works are much in the Roman taste, I might, at first view, deem
+it the residence of an opulent lord of the manor; but, the adjacent
+lands carrying no marks of cultivation, destroys the argument; it is
+also too large for the fashion; besides, all these manorial foundations
+have been in use since the conquest, therefore tradition assists the
+historian; but here, tradition being lost, proves the place of greater
+antiquity.
+
+One might judge it of Danish extraction, but here again, tradition will
+generally lend her assistance; neither are the trenches large enough for
+that people: of themselves they are no security, whether full or empty;
+for an active young fellow might easily skip from one bank to another.
+Nor can we view it as the work of some whimsical lord, to excite the
+wonder of the moderns; it could never pay for the trouble. We must,
+therefore, travel back among the ancient Britons, for a solution, and
+here we shall travel over solid ground.
+
+It is, probably, the remains of a British camp, for near these premises
+are Drude-heath (Druid's-heath) and Drude-fields, which we may
+reasonably suppose was the residence of a British priest: the military
+would naturally shelter themselves under the wing of the church, and the
+priest with the protection of the military. The narrowness of the
+trenches is another proof of its being British; they exactly correspond
+with the stile of that people. The name of the pool, _Bowen_, is of
+British derivation, which is a farther proof that the work originated
+from the Britons. They did not place their security so much in the
+trenches, as in the mounds, which they barracaded with timber. This camp
+is secured on three sides by a morass, and is only approachable on the
+fourth, that from the Coldfield. The first mound on this weak side, is
+twenty-four yards over, twice the size of any other; which, allowing an
+ample security, is a farther evidence of its being British, and
+tradition being silent is another.
+
+
+
+PETITION FOR A CORPORATION.
+
+Every man upon earth seems fond of two things, riches and power: this
+fondness necessarily springs from the heart, otherwise order would
+cease. Without the desire of riches, a man would not preserve what he
+has, nor provide for the future. "My thoughts," says a worthy christian,
+"are not of this world; I desire but one guinea to carry me through it."
+Supply him with that guinea, and he wishes another, lest the first
+should be defective.
+
+If it is necessary a man mould possess property, it is just as necessary
+he should possess a power to protect it, or the world would quickly
+bully him out of it: this power is founded on the laws of his country,
+to which he adds, by way of supplement, bye-laws, founded upon his own
+prudence. Those who possess riches, well know they are furnished with
+wings, and can scarcely be kept from flying.
+
+The man who has power to secure his wealth, seldom stops there; he, in
+turn, is apt to triumph over him who has less. Riches and power are
+often seen to go hand in hand.
+
+Industry produces property; which, when a little matured, looks out for
+command; thus the inhabitants of Birmingham, who have generally
+something upon the anvil besides iron, near seventy years ago having
+derived wealth from diligence, wished to derive power from charter;
+therefore, petitioned the crown that Birmingham might be erected into a
+corporation. Tickled with the title of alderman, dazzled with the
+splendour of a silver mace, a furred gown, and a magisterial chair, they
+could not see the interest of the place: had they succeeded, that
+amazing growth would have been crippled, which has since astonished the
+world, and those trades have been fettered which have proved the
+greatest benefit.
+
+When a man loudly pleads for public good, we shrewdly suspect a private
+emolument lurking beneath. There is nothing more detrimental to good
+neighbourhood, than men in power, where power is unnecessary: free as
+the air we breathe, we subsist by our freedom; no command is exercised
+among us, but that of the laws, to which every discreet citizen pays
+attention--the magistrate who distributes justice, tinctured with mercy,
+merits the thanks of society. A train of attendants, a white wand, and a
+few fiddles, are only the fringe, lace, and trappings of
+charteral office.
+
+Birmingham, exclusive of her market, ranks among the very lowest order
+of townships; every petty village claims the honour of being a
+constable-wick--we are no more. Our immunities are only the trifling
+privileges anciently granted to the lords; and two thirds of these are
+lost. But, notwithstanding this seemingly forlorn state, perhaps there
+is not a place in the British dominions, where so many people are
+governed by so few officers; nor a place better governed: pride,
+therefore, must have dictated the humble petition before us.
+
+I have seen a copy of this petition, signed by eighty-four of the
+inhabitants; and though without a date, seems to have been addressed to
+King George the First, about 1716: it alledges, "That Birmingham is, of
+late years, become very populous, from its great increase of trade; is
+much superior to any town in the county, and but little inferior to any
+inland town in the kingdom: that it is governed only by a constable, and
+enjoys no more privileges than a village: that there is no justice of
+peace in the town; nor any in the neighbourhood, who dares act with
+vigour: that the country abounds with rioters, who, knowing the place to
+be void of magistrates, assemble in it, pull down the meeting-houses,
+defy the king, openly avow the pretender, threaten the inhabitants, and
+oblige them to keep watch in their own houses: that the trade decays,
+and will stagnate, if not relieved. To remedy these evils, they beseech
+his majesty to incorporate the town, and grant such privileges as will
+enable them to support their trade, the king's interest, and destroy the
+villainous attempts of the jacobites. In consideration of the requested
+charter, they make the usual offering of _lives_ and _fortunes_".
+
+A petition and the petitioner, like Janus with his two faces, looks
+different ways; it is often treated as if it said one thing, and meant
+another; or as if it said any thing but truth. Its use, in some places,
+is to _lie on the table_. Our humble petition, by some means, met with
+the fate it deserved.
+
+We may remark, a town without a charter, is a town without a shackle. If
+there was then a necessity to erect a corporation, because the town was
+large, there is none now, though larger: the place was not better
+governed a thousand years ago, when only a tenth of its present
+magnitude; it may also be governed as well a thousand years hence, if it
+should swell to ten times its size.
+
+The _pride_ of our ancestors was hurt by a petty constable; the
+_interest_ of us, their successors, would be hurt by a mayor: a more
+simple government cannot be instituted, or one more efficacious: that of
+some places is designed for parade, ours for use; and both answers their
+end. A town governed by a multitude of governors, is the most likely to
+be ill-governed.
+
+[Illustration: The New Brass Works]
+
+
+
+BRASS WORKS.
+
+The manufacture of brass was introduced by the family of Turner, about
+1740, who erected those works at the south end of Coleshill-street;
+then, near two hundred yards beyond the buildings, but now the buildings
+extend about five hundred beyond them.
+
+Under the black clouds which arose from this corpulent tunnel, some of
+the trades collected their daily supply of brass; but the major part was
+drawn from the Macclesfield, Cheadle, and Bristol companies.
+
+'Causes are known by their effects;' the fine feelings of the heart are
+easily read in the features of the face: the still operations of the
+mind, are discovered by the rougher operations of the hand.
+
+Every creature is fond of power, from that noble head of the creation,
+man, who devours man, down to that insignificant mite, who devours his
+cheese: every man strives to be free himself, and to shackle another.
+
+Where there is power of any kind, whether in the hands of a prince, a
+people, a body of men, or a private person, there is a propensity to
+abuse it: abuse of power will everlastingly seek itself a remedy, and
+frequently find it; nay, even this remedy may in time degenerate to
+abuse, and call loudly for another.
+
+Brass is an object of some magnitude, in the trades of Birmingham; the
+consumption is said to be a thousand tons per annum. The manufacture of
+this useful article had long been in few, and opulent hands; who,
+instead of making the humble bow, for favours received, acted with
+despotic sovereignty, established their own laws, chose their customers,
+directed the price, and governed the market.
+
+In 1780, the article rose, either through caprice, or necessity, perhaps
+the _former_, from 72_l_. a ton to 84_l_. the result was, an advance
+upon the goods manufactured, followed by a number of counter-orders,
+and a stagnation of business.
+
+In 1781, a person, from affection to the user, or resentment to the
+maker, perhaps, the _latter_, harangued the public in the weekly papers;
+censured the arbitrary measures of the brazen sovereigns, shewed their
+dangerous influence over the trades of the town, and the easy manner in
+which works of our own might be constructed--good often arises out of
+evil; this fiery match, dipt in brimstone, quickly kindled another
+furnace in Birmingham. Public meetings were advertised, a committee
+appointed, and subscriptions opened to fill two hundred shares, of
+100_l_. each, deemed a sufficient capital: each proprietor of a share,
+to purchase one ton of brass, annually. Works were immediately erected
+upon the banks of the canal, for the advantage of water carriage, and
+the whole was conducted with the true spirit of Birmingham freedom.
+
+If a man can worm himself _into_ a lucrative branch, he will use every
+method to keep another _out_. All his powers may prove ineffectual; for
+if that other smells the sweet profits of the first, _he_ will endeavour
+to worm himself _in_: both may suffer by the contest, and the public
+be gainers.
+
+The old companies, which we may justly consider the directors of a south
+sea bubble in miniature, sunk the price from 84_l_. to 56_l_. Two
+inferences arise from this measure; that their profits were once very
+high, or are now very low; and, like some former monarchs, in the abuse
+of power, they repented one day too late.
+
+Schemes are generally proclaimed, _for public good!_ but as often meant,
+_for private interest_.--This, however, varied from that rule, and
+seemed less calculated to benefit those immediately, than those remotely
+concerned: they chose to sustain a smaller injury from making brass,
+than a greater from the makers.
+
+
+
+PRISON.
+
+If the subject is little, but little can be said upon it; I shall shine
+as dimly in this chapter on confinement, as in that on government. The
+traveller who sets out lame, will probably limp through the journey.
+
+Many of my friends have assured me, "That I must have experienced much
+trouble in writing the history of Birmingham." But I assure them in
+return, that I range those hours among the happiest of my life; and part
+of that happiness may consist in delineating the bright side of human
+nature. Pictures of deformity, whether of body or of mind, disgust--the
+more they approach towards beauty, the more they charm.
+
+All the chapters which compose this work, were formed with pleasure,
+except the latter part of that upon _births and burials_; there, being
+forced to apply to the parish books, I _figured_ with some obstruction.
+Poor _Allsop_, full of good-nature and affliction, fearful lest I should
+sap the church, could not receive me with kindness. When a man's
+resources lie within himself, he draws at pleasure; but when necessity
+throws him upon the parish, he draws in small sums, and with difficulty.
+
+I either _have_, or _shall_ remark, for I know not in what nich I shall
+exhibit this posthumous chapter, drawn like one of our sluggish bills,
+_three months after date_, "That Birmingham does not abound in villainy,
+equal to some other places: that the hand employed in business, has less
+time, and less temptation, to be employed in mischief; and that one
+magistrate alone, corrected the enormities of this numerous people,
+many years before I knew them, and twenty-five after." I add, that the
+ancient lords of Birmingham, among their manorial privileges, had the
+grant of a gallows, for capital punishment; but as there are no traces
+even of the name, in the whole manor, I am persuaded no such thing was
+ever erected, and perhaps the _anvil_ prevented it.
+
+Many of the rogues among us are not of our own growth, but are drawn
+hither, as in London, to shelter in a crowd, and the easier in that
+crowd to pursue their game. Some of them fortunately catch, from
+example, the arts of industry, and become useful: others continue to
+cheat for one or two years, till frightened by the grim aspect of
+justice, they decamp.
+
+Our vile and obscure prison, termed _The Dungeon_, is a farther proof
+how little that prison has been an object of notice, consequently
+of use.
+
+Anciently the lord of a manor exercised a sovereign power in his little
+dominion; held a tribunal on his premises, to which was annexed a
+prison, furnished with implements for punishment; these were claimed by
+the lords of Birmingham. This crippled species of jurisprudence, which
+sometimes made a man judge in his own cause, from which there was no
+appeal, prevailed in the highlands of Scotland, so late as the rebellion
+in 1745, when the peasantry, by act of parliament, were restored
+to freedom.
+
+Early perhaps in the sixteenth century, when the house of Birmingham,
+who had been chief gaolers, were fallen, a building was erected, which
+covered the east end of New-street, called the Leather-hall: the upper
+part consisted of a room about fifty feet long, where the public
+business of the manor was transacted. The under part was divided into
+several: one of these small rooms was used for a prison: but about the
+year 1728, _while men slept an enemy came_, a private agent to the lord
+of the manor, and erazed the Leather-hall and the Dungeon, erected three
+houses on the spot, and received their rents till 1776, when the town
+purchased them for 500_l_. to open the way. A narrow passage on the
+south will be remembered for half a century to come, by the name of the
+_dungeon-entry_.
+
+A dry cellar, opposite the demolished hall, was then appropriated for a
+prison, till the town of all bad places chose the worst, the bottom of
+Peck-lane; dark, narrow, and unwholesome within; crowded with dwellings,
+filth and distress without, the circulation of air is prevented.
+
+As a growing taste for public buildings has for some time appeared among
+us, we might, in the construction of a prison, unite elegance and use;
+and the west angle of that land between New-street and Mount-pleasant,
+might be suitable for the purpose; an airy spot in the junction of six
+streets. The proprietor of the land, from his known attachment to
+Birmingham, would, I doubt not, be much inclined to grant a
+favour.--Thus, I have expended ten _score_ words, to tell the world what
+another would have told them in _ten_--"That our prison is wretched, and
+we want a better."
+
+
+
+CLODSHALES CHANTRY.
+
+It is an ancient remark, "The world is a farce." Every generation, and
+perhaps every individual, acts a part in disguise; but when the curtain
+falls, the hand of the historian pulls off the mask, and displays the
+character in its native light. Every generation differs from the other,
+_yet all are right_. Time, fashion, and sentiment change together. We
+laugh at the oddity of our fore-fathers--our successors will laugh
+at us.
+
+The prosperous anvil of Walter de Clodshale, a native of this place, had
+enabled him to acquire several estates in Birmingham, to purchase the
+lordship of Saltley, commence gentleman, and reside in the manor-house,
+now gone to decay, though its traces remain, and are termed by common
+people, _the Giant's Castle_. This man, having well provided for the
+_present_, thought it prudent, at the close of life, to provide for the
+_future_: he therefore procured a licence, in 1331, from William de
+Birmingham, lord of the see, and another from the crown, to found a
+chantry at the altar in St. Martin's church, for one priest, to pray for
+his soul, and that of his wife.
+
+He gave, that he might be safely wafted into the arms of felicity, by
+the breath of a priest, four houses, twenty acres of land, and
+eighteen-pence rent, issuing out of his estates in Birmingham.
+
+The same righteous motive induced his son Richard, in 1348, to grant
+five houses, ten acres of land, and ten shillings rent, from the
+Birmingham estates, to maintain a second priest, who was to secure the
+souls of himself and his wife. The declaration of Christ, in that pious
+age, seems to have been inverted; for instead of its being difficult for
+a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, it was difficult for him to
+miss it. We are not told what became of him who had nothing to give! If
+the profits of the estate tended the right way, perhaps there was no
+great concern which way either _Walter_ or _Richard_ tended.
+
+The chantorial music continued two hundred and four years, till 1535,
+when Henry the Eighth closed the book, turned out the priests, who were
+Sir Thomas Allen and Sir John Green, and seized the property, valued at
+5_l_. 1s. per annum. Permit me again to moralize upon this fashionable
+practice of ruining the family, for the health of the soul: except some
+lawful creditor puts in a claim, which justice ought to allow, a son has
+the same right to an estate, after the death of his father, as that
+father had before him.
+
+Had Walter and Richard taken _equal_ care of their souls, and their
+estate, the first might have been as safe as in the hands of a priest,
+and the last, at this day, have been the property of that ancient, and
+once noble race of Arden, long since in distress; who, in 1426, married
+the heiress of their house.--Thus, a family, benefited by the hammer,
+was injured by the church.
+
+Had the hands of these two priests ministered to their wants, in the
+construction of tents and fishing-nets, like those of their
+predecessors, St. Paul and St. Peter, though their pride would have been
+eclipsed, their usefulness would have shone, and the world have been
+gainers by their labour. Two other lessons may be learnt from this
+little ecclesiastical history--
+
+The astonishing advance of landed property in Birmingham: nine houses,
+and thirty acres of land, two hundred and fifty years ago, were valued
+at the trifling rent of 4_l_. 9s. 6d. per annum; one of the acres, or
+one of the houses, would at this day bring more. We may reasonably
+suppose they were under-rated; yet, even then, the difference is
+amasing. An acre, within a mile of Birmingham, now sells for about one
+hundred pounds, and lets from three pounds to five, some as high
+as seven.
+
+And, the nation so overswarmed with ecclesiastics, that the spiritual
+honours were quickly devoured, and the race left hungry; they therefore
+fastened upon the temporal--hence we boast of two knighted priests.
+
+
+
+OCCURRENCES.
+
+EARTHQUAKE, &c.
+
+It is a doctrine singular and barbarous, but it is nevertheless true,
+that _destruction is necessary_. Every species of animals would multiply
+beyond their bounds in the creation, were not means devised to thin
+their race.
+
+I perused an author in 1738, who asserts, "The world might maintain
+sixty times the number of its present inhabitants." Two able disputants,
+like those in religion, might maintain sixty arguments on the subject,
+and like them, leave the matter where they found it. But if restraint
+was removed, the present number would be multiplied into sixty, in much
+less than one century.
+
+Those animals appropriated for use, are suffered, or rather invited, to
+multiply without limitation. But _luxury_ cuts off the beast, the pig,
+the sheep, and the fowl, and ill treatment the horse: vermin of every
+kind, from the lion to the louse, are hunted to death; a perpetual
+contest seems to exist between them and us; they for their preservation,
+and we for their extinction. The kitten and the puppy are cast _into_
+the water, to end their lives; _out_ of which the fishes are drawn to
+end theirs--animals are every were devoured by animals.
+
+Their grand governor, man himself, is under controul; some by religious,
+others by interested motives. Even the fond parent, seldom wishes to
+increase the number of those objects, which of all others he
+values most!
+
+In civilized nations the superior class are restrained by the laws of
+honour, the inferior by those of bastardy; but, notwithstanding these
+restraints, the human race would increase beyond measure, were they not
+taken off by casualties. It is in our species alone, that we often
+behold the infant flame extinguished by the wretched nurse.
+
+Three dreadful calamities attending existence, are inundations, fires,
+and earthquakes; devestation follows their footsteps, But _one_
+calamity, more destructive than them all, rises from man
+himself, _war_.
+
+Birmingham, from its elevation, is nearly exempt from the flood; our
+inundations, instead of sweeping away life and fortune, sweep away the
+filth from the kennel.
+
+It is amasing, in a place crowded with people, that so _much_ business,
+and so _little_ mischief is done by fire: we abound more with party
+walls, than with timber buildings. Utensils are ever ready to extinguish
+the flames, and a generous spirit to use them. I am not certain that a
+conflagration of 50_l_. damage, has happened within memory.
+
+I have only one earthquake to record, felt Nov. 15, 1772, at four in the
+morning; it extended about eight miles in length, from Hall-green to
+Erdington, and four in breadth, of which Birmingham was part. The
+shaking of the earth continued about five seconds, with unequal
+vibration, sufficient to awake a gentle sleeper, throw down a knife
+carelessly reared up, or rattle the brass drops of a chest of drawers. A
+flock of sheep, in a field near Yardley, frightened at the trembling,
+ran away.--No damage was sustained.
+
+
+
+PITMORE AND HAMMOND.
+
+Thomas Pitmore, a native of Cheshire, after consuming a fortune of
+700_l_. was corporal in the second regiment of foot; and John Hammond,
+an American by birth, was drummer in the thirty-sixth; both of
+recruiting parties in Birmingham.
+
+Having procured a brace of pistols, they committed several robberies in
+the dark, on the highways.
+
+At eight in the evening of November 22, 1780, about five hundred yards
+short of the four mile-stone, in the Coleshill road, they met three
+butchers of Birmingham, who closely followed each other in their return
+from Rugby fair. One of the robbers attempted the bridle of the first
+man, but his horse, being young, started out of the road, and ran away.
+The drummer then attacked the second, Wilfred Barwick, with "Stop your
+horse," and that moment, through the agitation of a timorous mind,
+discharged a pistol, and lodged a brace of slugs in the bowels of the
+unfortunate Barwick, who exclaimed, "I am a dead man!" and fell.
+
+The corporal instantly disappeared, and was afterwards, by the light of
+the show upon the ground, seen retreating to Birmingham. The drummer ran
+forwards about forty yards, and over a stile into Ward-end field. A
+fourth butcher of their company, and a lad, by this time came up, who,
+having heard the report of a pistol, seen the flash, and the drummer
+enter the field, leaped over the hedge in pursuit of the murderer. A
+frey ensued, in which the drummer was seized, who desired them not to
+take his life, but leave him to the laws of his country.
+
+Within half an hour, the deceased and the captive appeared together in
+the same room, at the Horse-shoe. What must then be the feelings of a
+mind, susceptible of impression by nature, but weakly calloused over by
+art? This is one instance, among many, which shews us, a life of
+innocence, is alone a life of happiness.
+
+The drummer impeached his companion, who was perhaps the most guilty of
+the two, and they were both that night lodged in the dungeon.
+
+Upon the trial, March 31, 1781, the matter was too plain to be
+controverted. The criminals were executed, and hung in chains at
+Washwood-heath, April 2; the corporal at the age of 25, and the
+drummer 22.
+
+
+
+RIOTS.
+
+Three principal causes of riot are, the low state of wages, the
+difference in political sentiment, and the rise of provisions: these
+causes, like inundations, produce dreadful effects, and like them,
+return at uncertain periods.
+
+The journeyman in Birmingham is under no temptation to demand an
+additional price for his labour, which is already higher than the
+usual mark.
+
+There is no nation fonder of their king than the English; which is a
+proof that monarchy suits the genius of the people: there is no nation
+more jealous of his power, which proves that liberty is a favourite
+maxim. Though the laws have complimented him with _much_, yet he well
+knows, a prerogative upon the stretch, is a prerogative in a
+dangerous state.
+
+The more a people value their prince, the more willing are they to
+contend in his favour.
+
+The people of England revered the memory of their beloved Saxon kings,
+and doubly lamented their fall, with that of their liberties.
+
+They taxed themselves into beggary, to raise the amasing sum of
+100,000_l_. to release Richard the First, unjustly taken captive
+by Leopold.
+
+They protected Henry the Fifth from death, at Agincourt, and received
+that death themselves.
+
+They covered the extreme weakness of Henry the Sixth, who _never said a
+good thing, or did a bad one_, with the mantle of royalty; when a
+character like his, without a crown, would have been hunted through
+life: they gave him the title of _good king Henry_, which would well
+have suited, had the word _king_ been omitted; they sought him a place
+in the kalendar of saints, and made _him_ perform the miracles of an
+angel when dead, who could never perform the works of a man,
+when living.
+
+The people shewed their attachment to Henry the Eighth, by submitting to
+the faggot and the block, at his command; and with their last breath,
+praying for their butcher.
+
+Affection for Charles the First, induced four of his friends to offer
+their own heads, to save his.--The wrath, and the tears of the people,
+succeeded his melancholy exit.
+
+When James the Second eloped from the throne, and was casually picked up
+at Feversham, by his injured subjects, _they remembered he was
+their king_.
+
+The church and Queen Anne, like a joyous co-partnership, were toasted
+together. The barrel was willingly emptied to honour the queen, and the
+toaster lamented he could honour her no more.
+
+The nation displayed their love to Charles the Second, by latticing the
+forests. His climbing the oak at Boscobel, has been the destruction of
+more timber than would have filled the harbour of Portsmouth; the tree
+which flourished in the field, was brought to die in the street.
+Birmingham, for ninety years, honoured him with her vengeance against
+the woods; and she is, at this day, surrounded with mutilated oaks,
+which stand as martyrs to royalty.
+
+It is singular, that the oak, which assisted the devotion of the
+Britons, composed habitations for the people, and furniture for those
+habitations; that, while standing, was an ornament to the country that
+bore it; and afterwards guarded the land which nursed it, should be the
+cause of continual riots, in the reign of George the First. We could not
+readily accede to a line of strangers, in preference to our ancient race
+of kings, though loudly charged with oppression.
+
+Clubs and tumults supported the spirit of contention till 1745, when, as
+our last act of animosity, we crowned an ass with turnips, in derision
+of one of the worthiest families that ever eat them.
+
+Power, in the hand of ignorance, is an edge-tool of the most dangerous
+kind. The scarcity of provisions, in 1766, excited the murmurs of the
+poor. They began to breathe vengeance against the farmer, miller, and
+baker, for doing what they do themselves, procure the greatest price for
+their property.
+
+On the market day, a common labourer, like Massenello of Naples, formed
+the resolution to lead a mob.
+
+He therefore erected his standard, which was a mop inverted, assembled
+the crowd, and roared out the old note, "Redress of Grievances." The
+colliers, with all their dark retinue, were to bring destruction from
+Wednesbury. Amazement seised the town! the people of fortune trembled:
+John Wyrley, an able magistrate, for the first time frightened in
+office, with quivering lips, and a pale aspect, swore in about eighty
+constables, to oppose the rising storm, armed each of them with a staff
+of authority, warm from the turning-lathe, and applied to the War-office
+for a military force.
+
+The lime-powdered monarch began to fabricate his own laws, direct the
+price of every article, which was punctually obeyed.
+
+Port, or power, soon overcome a weak head; the more copious the draught,
+the more quick intoxication: he entered many of the shops, and was every
+where treated with the utmost reverence; took whatever goods he pleased,
+and distributed them among his followers; till one of the inhabitants,
+provoked beyond measure at his insolence, gave him a hearty kick on the
+posteriors, when the hero and his consequence, like that of Wat Tyler,
+fell together.--Thus ended a reign of seven hours; the sovereign was
+committed to prison, as sovereigns ought, in the abuse of power, and
+harmony was restored without blood.
+
+
+
+THE CONJURERS.
+
+No _head_ is a vacuum. Some, like a paltry cottage, are ill
+accommodated, dark, and circumscribed; others are capacious as
+Westminster-Hall. Though none are immense, yet they are capable of
+immense furniture. The more room is taken up by knowledge, the less
+remains for credulity. The more a man is acquainted with things, the
+more willing to _give up the ghost_. Every town and village, within my
+knowledge, has been pestered with spirits; which appear in horrid forms
+to the imagination in the winter night--but the spirits which haunt
+Birmingham, are those of industry and luxury.
+
+If we examine the whole parish, we cannot produce one _old_ witch; but
+we have plenty of young, who exercise a powerful influence over us.
+Should the ladies accuse the harsh epithet, they will please to
+consider, I allow them, what of all things they most wish for, _power_,
+therefore the balance is in my favor.
+
+If we pass through the planitary worlds, we shall be able to muster up
+two conjurers, who endeavoured to _shine with the stars_. The first,
+John Walton, who was so busy in calling the nativity of others, he
+forgot his own.
+
+Conscious of an application to himself, for the discovery of stolen
+goods, he employed his people to steal them. And though, for many years
+confined to his bed by infirmity, he could conjure away the property of
+others, and, for a reward, reconjure it again.
+
+The prevalence of this evil, induced the legislature, in 1725, to make
+the _reception_ of stolen goods capital. The first sacrifice to this law
+was the noted Jonathan Wild.
+
+The officers of justice, in 1732, pulled Walton out of his bed, in an
+obscure cottage, one furlong from the town, now Brickhill-Lane, carried
+him to prison, and from thence to the gallows--they had better have
+carried him to the workhouse, and his followers to the anvil.
+
+To him succeeded Francis Kimberley, the only reasoning animal, who
+resided at No. 60, in Dale-End, from his early youth to extreme
+age.--An hermit in a crowd! The windows of his house were strangers to
+light! The shutters forgot to open; the chimney to smoak. His cellar,
+though amply furnished, never knew moisture.
+
+He spent threescore years in filling six rooms with such trumpery as is
+just too good to be thrown away, and too bad to be kept. His life was as
+inoffensive as long. Instead of _stealing_ the goods which other people
+use, he _purchased_ what he could not use himself. He was not anxious
+what kind of property entered his house; if there was _bulk_ he was
+satisfied.
+
+His dark house, and his dark figure corresponded with each other. The
+apartments, choaked up with lumber, scarcely admitted his body, though
+of the skeleton order. Perhaps leanness is an appendage to the science,
+for I never knew a corpulent conjurer.
+
+His diet, regular, plain, and slender, shewed at how little expence life
+may be sustained.
+
+His library consisted of several thousand volumes, not one of which, I
+believe, he ever read: having written, in characters unknown to all but
+himself, his name, price, and date, in the title-page, he laid them by
+for ever. The highest pitch of his erudition was the annual almanack.
+
+He never wished to approach a woman, or be approached by one. Should the
+rest of men, for half a century, pay no more attention to the fair, some
+angelic hand might stick up a note, like the artic circle over one of
+our continents, _this world to be let_.
+
+If he did not cultivate the human species, the spiders, more numerous
+than his books, enjoyed an uninterrupted reign of quiet. The silence of
+the place was not broken: the broom, the book, the dust, or the web, was
+not disturbed. Mercury and his shirt, changed their revolutions
+together; and Saturn changed _his_, with his coat.
+
+He died, in 1756, as conjurers usually die, unlamented.
+
+
+
+MILITARY ASSOCIATION.
+
+The use of arms is necessary to every man who has something to lose, or
+something to gain. No property will protect itself. The English have
+liberty and property to lose, but nothing to win. As every man is born
+free, the West-Indian slaves have liberty to gain, but nothing to lose.
+If a rascally African prince attempts to sell his people, he ought to be
+first sold himself; and the buyer, who acts so daringly opposite to the
+Christian precept, is yet more blameable. He ought to have the first
+whip, often mended, worn out upon his own back.
+
+It may seem unnecessary to tell the world, what they already know;
+recent transactions come under this description; but they are not known
+to the stranger, nor to posterity.
+
+Upon a change of the Northean ministry, in 1782, the new premier, in a
+circular letter, advised the nation to arm, as the dangers of invasion
+threatened us with dreadful aspect. Intelligence from a quarter so
+authentic, locked up the door of private judgment, or we might have
+considered, that even without alliance, and with four principal powers
+upon our hands, we were rather gaining ground; that the Americans were
+so far from attacking us, that they wished us to run ourselves out of
+breath to attack them; that Spain had slumbered over a seven years war;
+that the Dutch, provoked at their governors, for the loss of their
+commerce, were more inclinable to invade themselves than us; and that as
+France bore the weight of the contest, we found employment for her arms,
+without invasion; but, perhaps, the letter was only an artifice of the
+new state doctor, to represent his patient in a most deplorable state,
+as a complement to his own merit in recovering her.
+
+Whatever was the cause, nothing could be more agreeable than this letter
+to the active spirit of Birmingham. Public meetings were held. The
+rockets of war were squibbed off in the news-papers. The plodding
+tradesman and the lively hero assembled together in arms, and many a
+trophy was won in thought.
+
+Each man purchased a genteel blue uniform, decorated with epaulets of
+gold, which, together with his accoutrements, cost about 17_l_. The
+gentleman, the apprentice, &c. to the number of seventy, united in a
+body, termed by themselves, _The Birmingham Association_; by the wag,
+_the brazen walls of the town_. Each was to be officer and private by
+ballet, which gives an idea of equality, and was called to exercise
+once a week.
+
+The high price of provisions, and the 17th of October, brought a
+dangerous mob into Birmingham. They wanted bread: so did we. But little
+conference passed between them and the inhabitants. They were quiet; we
+were pleased; and, after an hour or two's stay, they retreated in peace.
+
+In the evening, after the enemy were fled, our champions beat to arms,
+breathing vengeance against the hungry crew; and, had they returned,
+some people verily thought our valiant heroes would have _discharged_
+at them.
+
+However laudable a system, if built upon a false basis, it will not
+stand. Equality and command, in the same person, are incompatiable;
+therefore, cannot exist together. Subordination is necessary in every
+class of life, but particularly in the military. Nothing but severe
+discipline can regulate the boisterous spirit of an army.
+
+A man may be bound to another, but if he commands the bandage, he will
+quickly set himself free. This was the case with the military
+association. As their uniform resembled that of a commander, so did
+their temper. There were none to submit. The result was, the farce
+ended, and the curtain dropt in December, by a quarrel with each other;
+and, like _John_ and _Lilborn_, almost with themselves.
+
+
+
+BILSTON CANAL ACT.
+
+Envy, like a dark shadow, follows closely the footsteps of prosperity;
+success in any undertaking, out of the circle of genius, produces a
+rival.--This I have instanced in our hackney coaches.
+
+Profits, like a round-bellied bottle, may seem bulky, which, like that,
+will not bear dividing: Thus Orator Jones, in 1774, opened a debating
+society at the Red Lion; he quickly filled a large room with customers,
+and his pockets with money, but he had not prudence to keep either. His
+success opened a rival society at the King's-head, which, in a few
+weeks, annihilated both.
+
+The growing profits of our canal company, already mentioned, had
+increased the shares from 140_l_. in 1768, to 400 guineas, in 1782.
+These emoluments being thought enormous, a rival company sprung up,
+which, in 1783, petitioned Parliament to partake of those emoluments, by
+opening a parallel cut from some of the neighbouring coal-pits; to
+proceed along the lower level, and terminate in Digbeth.
+
+A stranger might ask, "How the water in our upland country, which had
+never supplied one canal, could supply two? Whether the second canal was
+not likely to rob the first? Whether one able canal is not preferable to
+two lame ones? If a man sells me an article cheaper than I can purchase
+it elsewhere, whether it is of consequence to me what are his profits?
+And whether two companies in rivalship would destroy that harmony which
+has long subsisted in Birmingham."
+
+The new company urged, "The necessity of another canal, lest the old
+should not perform the business of the town; that twenty per cent. are
+unreasonable returns; that they could afford coals under the present
+price; that the south country teams would procure a readier supply from
+Digbeth, than from the present wharf, and not passing through the
+streets, would be prevented from injuring the pavement; and that the
+goods from the Trent would come to their wharf by a run of eighteen
+miles nearer than to the other."
+
+The old company alledged, "That they ventured their property in an
+uncertain pursuit, which, had it not succeeded, would have ruined many
+individuals; therefore the present gains were only a recompense for
+former hazard: that this property was expended upon the faith of
+Parliament, who were obliged in honour to protect it, otherwise no man
+would risk his fortune upon a public undertaking; for should they allow
+a second canal, why not a third; which would become a wanton destruction
+of right, without benefit; that although the profit of the original
+subscribers might seem large, those subscribers are but few; many have
+bought at a subsequent price, which barely pays common interest, and
+this is all their support; therefore a reduction would be barbarous on
+one side, and sensibly felt on the other: and, as the present canal
+amply supplies the town and country, it would be ridiculous to cut away
+good land to make another, which would ruin both."
+
+I shall not examine the reasons of either, but leave the disinterested
+reader to weigh both in his own balance.
+
+When two opponents have said all that is true, they generally say
+something more; rancour holds the place of argument.
+
+Both parties beat up for volunteers in the town, to strengthen their
+forces; from words of acrimony, they came to those of virulence; then
+the powerful batteries of hand-bills, and news-papers were opened: every
+town within fifty miles, interested, on either side, was moved to
+petition, and both prepared for a grand attack, confident of victory.
+
+Perhaps a contest among friends, in matters of property, will remove
+that peace of mind, which twenty per cent. will not replace.
+
+Each party possessed that activity of spirit, for which Birmingham is
+famous, and seemed to divide between them the legislative strength of
+the nation: every corner of the two houses was ransacked for a vote; the
+throne was the only power unsolicited. Perhaps at the reading, when both
+parties had marshalled their forces, there was the fullest House of
+Commons ever remembered on a private bill.
+
+The new company promised much, for besides the cut from Wednesbury to
+Digbeth, they would open another to join the two canals of Stafford and
+Coventry, in which a large track of country was interested.
+
+As the old company were the first adventurers, the house gave them the
+option to perform this Herculean labour, which they accepted.
+
+As parliament have not yet given their determination, and as the printer
+this moment raps at my door, "Sir, the press waits, more copy if you
+please," I cannot stay to tell the world the result of the bill; but
+perhaps, the new proprietors, by losing, will save 50,000_l_. and the
+old, by winning, become sufferers.
+
+
+
+WORKHOUSE BILL.
+
+I have often mentioned an active spirit, as the characteristic of the
+inhabitants of Birmingham. This spirit never forsakes them. It displays
+itself in industry, commerce, invention, humanity, and internal
+government. A singular vivacity attends every pursuit till compleated,
+or discarded for a second.
+
+The bubble of the day, like that at the end of a tobacco-pipe, dances in
+air, exhibits divers beauties, pleases the eye, bursts in a moment, and
+is followed up by another.
+
+There is no place in the British dominions easier to be governed than
+Birmingham; and yet we are fond of forging acts of parliament to
+govern her.
+
+There is seldom a point of time in which an act is not in agitation; we
+fabricate them with such expedition, that we could employ a parliament
+of our own to pass them. But, to the honor of our ladies, not one of
+these acts is directed against them. Neither is there an instance upon
+record, that the torch of Hymen was ever extinguished by the breath of
+Marriot in Doctors-Commons.
+
+In the present spring of 1783, we have four acts upon the anvil: every
+man, of the least consequence, becomes a legislator, and wishes to lend
+his assistance in framing an act; so that instead of one lord, as
+formerly, we now, like the Philistines, have three thousand.
+
+An act of parliament, abstractedly considered, is a dead matter: it
+cannot operate of itself: like a plaister, it must be applied to the
+evil, or that evil will remain. We vainly expect a law to perform the
+intended work; if it does not, we procure another to make it. Thus the
+canal, by one act in 1767, hobbled on, like a man with one leg; but a
+second, in 1770, furnished a pair. The lamp act, procured in 1769, was
+worn to rags, and mended with another in 1773; and this second has been
+long out of repair, and waits for a third.
+
+We carry the same spirit into our bye-laws, and with the same success.
+Schemes have been devised, to oblige every man to pay levies; but it was
+found difficult to extract money from him who had none.
+
+In 1754, we brought the manufacture of pack-thread into the workhouse,
+to reduce the levies; the levies increased. A spirited overseer
+afterwards, for the same reason, as if poverty was not a sufficient
+stigma, badged the poor; the levies still increased.
+
+The advance of bread in 1756, induced the officers to step out of the
+common track, perhaps, out of their knowledge; and, at the expence of
+half a levy, fit up an apparatus for grinding corn in the house: thus,
+by sacrificing half _one levy, many would be saved_. However, in the
+pursuit, many happened to be lost. In 1761, the apparatus was sold at a
+farther loss; and the overseers sheltered themselves under the charge of
+idleness against the paupers.
+
+In 1766, the spinning of mop-yarn was introduced, which might, with
+attention, have turned to account; but unfortunately, the yarn proved of
+less value than the wool.
+
+Others, with equal wisdom, were to ease the levies, by feeding a drove
+of pigs, which, agreeable to their own nature--ran backwards.--Renting a
+piece of ground, by way of garden, which supplied the house with a
+pennyworth of vegetables, for two-pence, adding a few cows, and a
+pasture; but as the end of all was _loss_, the levies increased.
+
+In 1780, two collectors were appointed, at fifty guineas each, which
+would save the town _many a hundred_; still the levies increased.
+
+A petition is this sessions presented, for an Act to overturn the whole
+pauper system (for our heads are as fond of new fashions, in parochial
+government, as in the hats which cover them) to erect a superb
+workhouse, at the expence of 10,000_l_. with powers to borrow 15,000_l_.
+which grand design is to reduce the levies _one third_.--The levies will
+increase.
+
+The reasons _openly_ alledged are, "The Out-pensioners, which cost
+7000_l_. a year, are the chief foundation of our public grievances: that
+the poor ought to be employed _in_ the house, lest their morals become
+injured by the shops; which prevents them from being taken into family
+service; and, the crowded state of the workhouse."--But whether the
+pride of an overseer, in perpetuating his name, is not the pendulum
+which set the machine in motion? Or, whether a man, as well as a spider,
+may not create a _place_, and, like that--_fill it with himself_?
+
+The bill directs, That the inhabitants mall chuse a number of guardians
+by ballot, who shall erect a workhouse, on Birmingham-heath--a spot as
+airy as the scheme; conduct a manufacture, and the poor; dispose of the
+present workhouse; seize and confine idle or disorderly persons, and
+keep them to labour, till they have reimbursed the parish all expences.
+
+But it may be asked, Whether spending 15,000_l_. is likely to reduce the
+levies?
+
+Whether we shall be laughed at, for throwing by a building, the last
+wing of which cost a thousand pounds, after using it only three years?
+
+Our commerce is carried on by reciprocal obligation. Every overseer has
+his friends, whom he cannot refuse to serve; nay, whom he may even wish
+to serve, if that service costs him nothing: hence, that over-grown
+monster so justly complains of, _The Weekly Tickets_; it follows,
+whether _sixty_ guardians are not likely to have more friends to serve,
+than six overseers?
+
+Whether the trades of the town, by a considerable manufacture
+established at the workhouse, will not be deprived of their most
+useful hands?
+
+Whether it is not a maxim of the wisest men who have filled the office,
+"to endeavour to keep the poor _out_ of the house, for if they are
+admitted, they become more chargeable; nor will they leave it without
+clothing?"
+
+A workhouse is a kind of prison, and a dreadful one to those of tender
+feelings--Whether the health of an individual, the ideas of rectitude,
+or the natural right of our species, would not be infringed by a cruel
+imprisonment.
+
+If a man has followed an occupation forty years, and necessity sends him
+to the parish, whether is it preferable to teach him a new trade, or
+suffer him to earn what he can at his old? If we decide for the latter,
+whether he had better walk four hundred yards to business, or four
+miles? His own infirmity will determine this question.
+
+If a young widow be left with two children, shall she pay a girl
+six-pence a week to tend them, while she earns five shillings at the
+mops, and is allowed two by the parish, or shall all three reside in the
+house, at the weekly expence of six, and she be employed in nursing
+them? If we again declare for the latter, it follows, that the parish
+will not only have four shillings a week, but the community may gain
+half a crown by her labour.
+
+Whether the morals of the children are more likely to be injured by the
+shops, than the morals of half the children in town; many of whom labour
+to procure levies for the workhouse?
+
+Whether the morals of a child will be more corrupted in a small shop,
+consisting of a few persons, or in a large one at the workhouse,
+consisting of hundreds?
+
+Whether the grand shop at Birmingham-heath, or at any heath, will train
+girls for service, preferable to others?
+
+Shall we, because the house has been crowded a few weeks, throw away
+15000_l_. followed by a train of evils? A few months ago, I saw in it a
+large number of vacant beds. Besides, at a small expence, and without
+impeding the circulation of air, conveniency may be made for one
+hundred more.
+
+Did a manufacture ever prosper under a multitude of inspectors, not one
+of which is to taste the least benefit?
+
+As public business, which admits no profit, such as vestry assemblies,
+commissions of lamps, turnpike meetings, &c. are thinly attended, even
+in town; what reason is there to expect a board two miles in
+the country?
+
+The workhouse may be deemed _The Nursery of Birmingham_, in which she
+deposits her infants, for future service: the unfortunate and the idle,
+till they can be set upon their own basis; and the decrepid, during the
+few remaining sands in their glass. If we therefore carry the workhouse
+to a distance, whether we shall not interrupt that necessary intercourse
+which ought to subsist between a mother and her offspring? As sudden
+sickness, indications of child-birth, &c. require immediate assistance,
+a life in extreme danger may chance to be lost by the length of
+the road.
+
+If we keep the disorderly till they have reimbursed the parish, whether
+we do not acquire an inheritance for life?
+
+We censure the officer who pursues a phantom at the expence of others;
+we praise him who _teaches the poor to live_.
+
+All the evils complained of, may be removed by _attention in the man_;
+the remedy is not in an act. He therefore accuses his own want of
+application, in soliciting government to _do_ what he might do
+himself--Expences are saved by private acts of oeconomy, not by public
+Acts of Parliament.
+
+It has long been said, _think_ and _act_; but as our internal
+legislators chuse to reverse the maxim by fitting up an expensive shop;
+then seeking a trade to bring in, perhaps they may place over the grand
+entrance, _act_ and _think_.
+
+One remark should never be lost sight of, _The more we tax the
+inhabitants, the sooner they leave us, and carry off the trades_.
+
+
+
+THE CAMP.
+
+I have already remarked, _a spirit of bravery is part of the British
+character_. The perpetual contests for power, among the Britons, the
+many roads formed by the Romans, to convey their military force, the
+prodigious number of camps, moats, and broken castles, left us by the
+Saxons, Danes, and Normans, our common ancestors, indicate _a martial
+temper_. The names of those heroic sovereigns, Edward the Third, and
+Henry the Fifth, who brought their people to the fields of conquest,
+descend to posterity with the highest applause, though they brought
+their kingdom to the brink of ruin; while those quiet princes, Henry the
+Seventh, and James the First, who cultivated the arts of peace, are but
+little esteemed, though under their sceptre, England experienced the
+greatest improvement.--The man who dare face an enemy, is the most
+likely to gain a friend. A nation versed in arms, stands the fairest
+chance to protect its property, and secure its peace: war itself may be
+hurtful, the knowledge of it useful.
+
+In Mitchly-park, three miles west of Birmingham, in the parish of
+Edgbaston, is _The Camp_; which might be ascribed to the Romans, lying
+within two or three stones cast of their Ikenield-street, where it
+divides the counties of Warwick and Worcester, but is too extensive for
+that people, being about thirty acres: I know none of their camps more
+than four, some much less; it must, therefore, have been the work of
+those pilfering vermin the Danes, better acquainted with other peoples
+property than their own; who first swarmed on the shores, then over-ran
+the interior parts of the kingdom, and, in two hundred years, devoured
+the whole.
+
+No part of this fortification is wholly obliterated, though, in many
+places, it is nearly levelled by modern cultivation, that dreadful enemy
+to the antiquary. Pieces of armour are frequently ploughed up,
+particularly parts of the sword and the battle-axe, instruments much
+used by those destructive sons of the raven.
+
+The platform is quadrangular, every side nearly four hundred yards; the
+center is about six acres, surrounded by three ditches, each about eight
+yards over, at unequal distances; though upon a descent, it is amply
+furnished with water. An undertaking of such immense labour, could not
+have been designed for temporary use.
+
+The propriety of the spot, and the rage of the day for fortification,
+seem to have induced the Middlemores, lords of the place for many
+centuries, and celebrated for riches, but in the beginning of this work,
+for poverty, to erect a park, and a lodge; nothing of either exist, but
+the names.
+
+
+
+MORTIMER's BANK.
+
+The traveller who undertakes an extensive journey, cannot chuse his
+road, or his weather: sometimes the prospect brightens, with a serene
+sky, a smooth path, and a smiling sun; all within and without him
+is chearful.
+
+Anon he is assailed by the tempests, stumbles over the ridges, is
+bemired in the hollows, the sun hides his face, and his own is
+sorrowful--this is the lot of the historian; he has no choice of
+subject, merry or mournful, he must submit to the changes which offer;
+delighted with the prosperous tale, depressed with the gloomy.
+
+I am told, this work has often drawn a smile from the reader; it has
+often drawn a sigh from me. A celebrated painter fell in love with the
+picture he drew; I have wept at mine--Such is the chapter of the Lords,
+and the Workhouse. We are not always proof against a melancholy or a
+tender sentiment.
+
+Having pursued our several stages, with various fortune, through fifty
+chapters, at the close of this last tragic scene, emotion and the
+journey cease together.
+
+Upon King's-wood, five miles from Birmingham, and two hundred yards east
+of the Alcester-road, runs a bank for near a mile in length, unless
+obliterated by the new inclosure; for I saw it complete in 1775. This
+was raised by the famous Roger Mortimer, Earl of March, about 1324, to
+inclose a wood, from whence the place derives its name.
+
+Then that feeble monarch, Edward the Second, governed the kingdom; the
+amorous Isabella, his wife, governed the king, and the gallant Mortimer
+governed the queen.
+
+The parishes of King's-norton, Solihull, Yardley, uniting in this wood,
+and enjoying a right of commons, the inhabitants conceived themselves
+injured by the inclosure, assembled in a body, threw down the fence, and
+murdered the Earl's bailiff.
+
+Mortimer, in revenge, procured a special writ from the Court of Common
+Pleas, and caused the matter to be tried at Bromsgrove, where the
+affrighted inhabitants, over-awed with power, durst not appear in their
+own vindication. The Earl, therefore, recovered a verdict, and the
+enormous sum of 300_l_. damage. A sum nearly equal, at that time, to the
+fee-simple of the three parishes.
+
+The confusion of the times, and the poverty of the people, protracted
+payment, till the unhappy Mortimer, overpowered by his enemies, was
+seized as a criminal in Nottingham-castle; and, without being heard,
+executed at Tyburn, in 1328.
+
+The distressed inhabitants of our three parishes humbly petitioned the
+crown, for a reduction of the fine; when Edward the Third was pleased to
+remit about 260_l_.
+
+We can assign no reason for this imprudent step of inclosing the wood,
+unless the Earl intended to procure a grant of the manor, then in the
+crown, for his family. But what he could not accomplish by family, was
+accomplished by fortune; for George the Third, King of Great Britain, is
+lord of the manor of King's-norton, and a descendant from the house
+of Mortimer.
+
+
+
+F I N I S.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's An History of Birmingham (1783), by William Hutton
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13926 ***
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+<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13926 ***</div>
+
+<h3>AN</h3>
+<h2>HISTORY</h2>
+<h3>OF</h3>
+<h1>BIRMINGHAM.</h1>
+<a name="image01.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image01.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image01.jpg" width="100%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b>A South View of BIRMINGHAM <i>from the Summer House, Cheapside,
+Bordsley.</i></b></p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h3>THE SECOND EDITION,</h3>
+<h4>WITH CONSIDERABLE ADDITIONS.</h4>
+<br>
+<h3>By W. HUTTON.</h3>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>PREFACE.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>A preface rather induces a man to speak of himself, which is
+deemed the worst subject upon which he <i>can</i> speak. In history
+we become acquainted with things, but in a preface with the author;
+and, for a man to treat of himself, may be the most
+<i>difficult</i> talk of the two: for in history, facts are
+produced ready to the hand of the historian, which give birth to
+thought, and it is easy to cloath that thought in words. But in a
+preface, an author is obliged to forge from the brain, where he is
+sometimes known to forge without fire. In one, he only reduces a
+substance into form; but in the other, he must create that
+substance.</p>
+<p>As I am not an author by profession, it is no wonder if I am
+unacquainted with the modes of authorship; but I apprehend, the
+usual method of conducting the pen, is to polish up a founding
+title-page, dignified with scraps of Latin, and then, to hammer up
+a work to fit it, as nearly as genius, or want of genius, will
+allow.</p>
+<p>We next <i>turn over a new leaf</i>, and open upon a pompous
+dedication, which answers many laudable purposes: if a coat of
+arms, correctly engraven, should step first into view, we consider
+it a singular advantage gained over a reader, like the first blow
+in a combat. The dedication itself becomes a pair of stilts, which
+advance an author something higher.</p>
+<p>As a horse-shoe, nailed upon the threshold of a cottage,
+prevents the influence of the witch; so a first-rate name, at the
+head of a dedication, is a total bar against the critic; but this
+great name, like a great officer, sometimes unfortunately stands at
+the head of wretched troops.</p>
+<p>When an author is too <i>heavy</i> to swim of himself, it serves
+as a pair of bladders, to prevent his sinking.</p>
+<p>It is farther productive of a <i>solid</i> advantage, that of a
+present from the patron, more valuable than that from the
+bookseller, which prevents his sinking under the pressure of
+famine.</p>
+<p>But, being wholly unknown to the great names of literary
+consequence, I shall not attempt a dedication, therefore must lose
+the benefit of the stilt, the bladder, and the horse-shoe.</p>
+<p>Were I to enter upon a dedication, I should certainly address
+myself, "<i>To the Inhabitants of Birmingham</i>." For to them I
+not only owe much, but all; and I think, among that congregated
+mass, there is not one person to whom I wish ill. I have the
+pleasure of calling many of those inhabitants <i>Friends</i>, and
+some of them share my warm affections equally with myself.
+Birmingham, like a compassionate nurse, not only draws our persons,
+but our esteem, from the place of our nativity, and fixes it upon
+herself: I might add, <i>I was hungry, and she fed me</i>;
+<i>thirsty, and she gave me drink</i>; <i>a stranger, and she took
+me in</i>. I approached her with reluctance, because I did not know
+her; I shall leave her with reluctance, because I do.</p>
+<p>Whether it is perfectly confident in an author, to solicit the
+indulgence of the public, though it may stand first in his wishes,
+admits a doubt; for, if his productions will not bear the light, it
+may be said, why does he publish? but, if they will, there is no
+need to ask a favor; the world receives one from him. Will not a
+piece everlastingly be tried by its merit? Shall we esteem it the
+higher, because it was written at the age of thirteen? because it
+was the effort of a week? delivered extempore? hatched while the
+author stood upon one leg? or cobbled, while he cobbled a shoe? or
+will it be a recommendation, that it issues forth in gilt binding?
+The judicious world will not be deceived by the tinselled purse,
+but will examine whether the <i>contents</i> are sterling.</p>
+<p>Will it augment the value of this history, or cover its
+blunders, to say, that I have never seen <i>Oxford?</i> That the
+thick fogs of penury, prevented the sun of science from beaming
+upon the mind? That necessity obliged me to lay down the
+battledore, before I was master of the letters? And that, instead
+of handling systems of knowledge, my hands, at the early period of
+seven, became callous with labour?</p>
+<p>But, though a whole group of pretences will have no effect with
+the impartial eye, yet one reason pleads strongly in my favor--no
+such thing ever appeared as <i>An History of Birmingham</i>. It is
+remarkable, that one of the most singular places in the universe is
+without an historian: that she never manufactured an history of
+herself, who has manufactured almost every thing else; that so many
+ages should elapse, and not one among her numerous sons of
+industry, snatch the manners of the day from oblivion, group them
+in design, with the touches of his pen, and exhibit the picture to
+posterity. If such a production had ever seen the light, mine most
+certainly would never have been written; a temporary bridge
+therefore may satisfy the impatient traveller, till a more skilful
+architect shall accommodate him with a complete production of
+elegance, of use, and of duration.--Although works of genius ought
+to come out of the mint doubly refined, yet history admits of a
+much greater latitude to the author. The best upon the subject,
+though defective, may meet with regard.</p>
+<p>It has long been a complaint, that local history is much wanted.
+This will appear obvious, if we examine the places we know, with
+the histories that treat of them. Many an author has become a
+cripple, by historically travelling through <i>all England</i>, who
+might have made a tolerable figure, had he staid at home. The
+subject is too copious for one performance, or even the life of one
+man. The design of history is knowledge: but, if simply to tell a
+tale, be all the duty of an historian, he has no irksome task
+before him; for there is nothing more easy than to relate a fact;
+but, perhaps, nothing more difficult than to relate it well.</p>
+<p>The situation of an author is rather precarious--if the smiles
+of the world chance to meet his labours, he is apt to forget
+himself; if otherwise, he is soon forgot. The efforts of the critic
+may be necessary to clip the wings of a presuming author, lest his
+rising vanity becomes insupportable: but I pity the man, who writes
+a book which none will peruse a second time; critical exertions are
+not necessary to pull him down, he will fall of himself. The sin of
+writing carries its own punishment, the tumultuous passions of
+anxiety and expectation, like the jarring elements in October,
+disturb his repose, and, like them, are followed by stirility: his
+cold productions, injured by no hand but that of time, are found
+sleeping on the shelf unmolested. It is easy to describe his fears
+before publication, but who can tell his feelings after judgment is
+passed upon his works? His only consolation is accusing the critic
+of injustice, and thinking the world in the wrong. But if
+repentence should not follow the culprit, hardened in scribbling,
+it follows, his bookseller, oppressed with <i>dead works</i>.
+However, if all the evils in Pandora's box are emptied on a blasted
+author, this one comfort remains behind--The keeper of a
+circulating library, or the steward of a reading society can tell
+him, "His book is more <i>durable</i> than the others."</p>
+<p>Having, many years ago, entertained an idea of this undertaking,
+I made some trifling preparations; but, in 1775, a circumstance of
+a private nature occurring, which engaged my attention for several
+years, I relinquished the design, destroyed the materials, and
+meant to give up the thought for ever. But the intention revived in
+1780, and the work followed.</p>
+<p>I may be accused of quitting the regular trammels of history,
+and sporting in the fields of remark: but, although our habitation
+justly stands first in our esteem, in return for rest, content, and
+protection; does it follow that we should never stray from it? If I
+happen to veer a moment from the polar point of Birmingham, I shall
+certainly vibrate again to the center. Every author has a manner
+peculiar to himself, nor can he well forsake it. I should be
+exceedingly hurt to omit a necessary part of intelligence, but
+more, to offend a reader.</p>
+<p>If GRANDEUR should censure me for sometimes recording the men of
+mean life, let me ask, <i>Which is preferable</i>, he who thunders
+at the anvil, or in the senate? The man who earnestly wishes the
+significant letters, ESQ. spliced to the end of his name, will
+despise the question; but the philosopher will answer, "They are
+equal."</p>
+<p>Lucrative views have no part in this production: I cannot
+solicit a kind people to grant what they have already granted; but
+if another finds that pleasure in reading, which I have done in
+writing, I am paid.</p>
+<p>As no history is extant, to inform me of this famous nursery of
+the arts, perfection in mine must not be expected. Though I have
+endeavoured to pursue the road to truth; yet, having no light to
+guide, or hand to direct me, it is no wonder if I mistake it: but
+we do not <i>condemn</i>, so much as <i>pity</i> the man for losing
+his way, who first travels an unbeaten road.</p>
+<p>Birmingham, for want of the recording hand, may be said to live
+but one generation; the transactions of the last age, die in this;
+memory is the sole historian, which being defective, I embalm the
+present generation, for the inspection of the future.</p>
+<p>It is unnecessary to attempt a general character, for if the
+attentive reader is himself of Birmingham, he is equally apprized
+of that character; and, if a stranger, he will find a variety of
+touches scattered through the piece, which, taken in a collective
+view, form a picture of that generous people, who <i>merit his</i>
+esteem, and <i>possess mine</i>.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>THE</h2>
+<h2>CONTENTS.</h2>
+<center>
+<table summary="">
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#Page001">Some Account of the Derivation of the Name of Birmingham</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><i>page</i> <a href="#Page001">1</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#SITUATION.">Situation</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#SITUATION.">3</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#SOIL.">Soil</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#SOIL.">6</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#WATER.">Water</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#WATER.">7</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#BATHS.">Baths</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#BATHS.">8</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#AIR.">Air</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#AIR.">*8</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#LONGEVITY.">Longevity</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#LONGEVITY.">9</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#Ancient_State_of_Birmingham">Ancient State of Birmingham</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Ancient_State_of_Birmingham">13</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#BATTLE_OF_CAMP-HILL.">Battle of Camp-hill</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#BATTLE_OF_CAMP-HILL.">*41</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#MODERN_STATE">Modern State of Birmingham</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#MODERN_STATE">40</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#OF_THE_STREETS">Streets, and their Names</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#OF_THE_STREETS">53</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#TRADE.">Trade</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#TRADE.">57</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#The_BUTTON.">Button</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#The_BUTTON.">75</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#The_BUCKLE.">Buckle</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#The_BUCKLE.">76</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#GUNS.">Guns</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#GUNS.">78</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#LEATHER.">Leather</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#LEATHER.">79</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#STEEL.">Steel</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#STEEL.">80</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#NAILS.">Nails</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#NAILS.">*83</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#BELLOWS.">Bellows</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#BELLOWS.">*85</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#THREAD.">Thread</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#THREAD.">*89</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#PRINTING">Printing, by John Baskerville</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#PRINTING">*90</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#BRASS_FOUNDRY.">Brass foundry</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#BRASS_FOUNDRY.">*94</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#HACKNEY_COACH.">Hackney Coaches</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#HACKNEY_COACH.">81</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#BANK.">Bank</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#BANK.">83</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#GOVERNMENT.">Government</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#GOVERNMENT.">ibid</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#CONSTABLES.">Constables</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#CONSTABLES.">92</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#Bailiffs">Bailiffs</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Bailiffs">94</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#COURT_OF_REQUESTS.">Court of Requests</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#COURT_OF_REQUESTS.">*99</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#LAMP_ACT.">Lamp Act</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#LAMP_ACT.">99</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#RELIGION_AND_POLITICS.">Religion and Politics</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#RELIGION_AND_POLITICS.">105</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#PLACES_OF_WORSHIP.">Places of Worship</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#PLACES_OF_WORSHIP.">111</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#SAINT_JOHNS_CHAPEL">St. John's Chapel, Deritend</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#SAINT_JOHNS_CHAPEL">112</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#SAINT_BARTHOLOMEWS">St. Bartholomew's</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#SAINT_BARTHOLOMEWS">113</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#SAINT_MARYS">St. Mary's</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#SAINT_MARYS">115</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#SAINT_PAULS">St. Paul's</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#SAINT_PAULS">ibid</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#OLD_MEETING.">Old Meeting</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#OLD_MEETING.">116</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#NEW_MEETING.">New Meeting</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#NEW_MEETING.">117</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#CARRS_LANE_MEETING">Carr's-lane Meeting</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#CARRS_LANE_MEETING">118</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#BAPTIST_MEETING.">Baptist Meeting</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#BAPTIST_MEETING.">ibid</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#QUAKERS_MEETING">Quaker's Meeting</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#QUAKERS_MEETING">120</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#METHODISTS_MEETING">Methodist Meeting</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#METHODISTS_MEETING">121</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#ROMISH_CHAPEL.">Romish Chapel</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#ROMISH_CHAPEL.">*125</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#JEWISH_SYNAGOGUE.">Jewish Synagogue</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#JEWISH_SYNAGOGUE.">*128</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#THEATRES.">Theatres</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#THEATRES.">123</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#AMUSEMENTS.">Amusements</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#AMUSEMENTS.">127</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#HOTEL.">Hotel</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#HOTEL.">*132</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#WAKES.">Wakes</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#WAKES.">132</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#CLUBS.">Club</a>s</i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#CLUBS.">135</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#IKENIELD_STREET.">Ikenield street</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#IKENIELD_STREET.">140</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#LORDS_OF_THE_MANOR.">Lords of the Manor</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#LORDS_OF_THE_MANOR.">153</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#ULUUINE">Uluuine</a></i>, 1050,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#ULUUINE">156</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#RICHARD">Richard</a></i>, 1066,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#RICHARD">ibid</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#WILLIAM">William</a></i>, 1130,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#WILLIAM">161</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#PETER_DE_BIRMINGHAM">Peter de Birmingham</a></i>, 1154,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#PETER_DE_BIRMINGHAM">161</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#WILLIAM_DE_BIRMINGHAM1">William de Birmingham</a></i>, 1216,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#WILLIAM_DE_BIRMINGHAM1">163</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#WILLIAM_DE_BIRMINGHAM2">William de Birmingham</a></i>, 1246,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#WILLIAM_DE_BIRMINGHAM2">164</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#WILLIAM_DE_BIRMINGHAM3">William de Birmingham</a></i>, 1265,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#WILLIAM_DE_BIRMINGHAM3">165</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#WILLIAM_DE_BIRMINGHAM4">William de Birmingham</a></i>, 1306,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#WILLIAM_DE_BIRMINGHAM4">166</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#SIR_FOUK_DE_BIRMINGHAM">Sir Fouk de Birmingham</a></i>, 1340,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#SIR_FOUK_DE_BIRMINGHAM">168</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#SIR_JOHN_DE_BIRMINGHAM">Sir John de Birmingham</a></i>, 1376,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#SIR_JOHN_DE_BIRMINGHAM">169</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#SIR_JOHN_DE_BIRMINGHAM">Lord Clinton</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#SIR_JOHN_DE_BIRMINGHAM">ibid</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#SIR_JOHN_DE_BIRMINGHAM">Edmund, Lord Ferrers</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#SIR_JOHN_DE_BIRMINGHAM">170</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#WILLIAM_DE_BIRMINGHAM5">William de Birmingham</a></i>, 1430,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#WILLIAM_DE_BIRMINGHAM5">ibid</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#SIR_WILLIAM_BIRMINGHAM">Sir William Birmingham</a></i>, 1479,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#SIR_WILLIAM_BIRMINGHAM">171</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#EDWARD_BIRMINGHAM">Edward Birmingham</a></i>, 1500,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#EDWARD_BIRMINGHAM">172</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#JOHN_DUKE_OF_NORTHUMBERLAND">John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland</a></i>, 1537,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#JOHN_DUKE_OF_NORTHUMBERLAND">177</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#THOMAS_MARROW">Thomas Marrow</a></i>, 1555,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#THOMAS_MARROW">180</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#THOMAS_ARCHER_ESQ">Thomas Archer</a></i>, 1746,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#THOMAS_ARCHER_ESQ">181</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#ANDREW_LORD_ARCHER">Andrew, Lord Archer</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#ANDREW_LORD_ARCHER">181</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#SARAH_LADY_ARCHER">Sarah, Lady Archer</a></i>, 1781,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#SARAH_LADY_ARCHER">ibid</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#MANOR_HOUSE.">Manor house</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#MANOR_HOUSE.">182</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#PUDDING_BROOK.">Pudding-brook</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#PUDDING_BROOK.">186</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#THE_PRIORY.">Priory</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#THE_PRIORY.">187</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#JOHN_A_DEANS_HOLE">John à Dean's Hole</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#JOHN_A_DEANS_HOLE">195</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#LENCHS_TRUST">Lench's Trust</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#LENCHS_TRUST">196</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#FENTHAMS_TRUST">Fentbam's Trust</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#FENTHAMS_TRUST">200</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#CROWLEYS_TRUST">Crowley's Trust</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#CROWLEYS_TRUST">201</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#SCOTTS_TRUST">Scott's Trust</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#SCOTTS_TRUST">202</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#FREE_SCHOOL.">Free School</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#FREE_SCHOOL.">203</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#CHARITY_SCHOOL:">Charity School</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#CHARITY_SCHOOL:">209</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#DISSENTING_CHARITY-SCHOOL.">Dissenting Charity School</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#DISSENTING_CHARITY-SCHOOL.">214</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#WORKHOUSE.">Workhouse</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#WORKHOUSE.">215</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#OLD_CROSS">Old Cross</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#OLD_CROSS">227</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#WELCH_CROSS.">Welch Cross</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#WELCH_CROSS.">229</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#SAINT_MARTINS">St. Martin's</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#SAINT_MARTINS">232</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#SAINT_PHILLIPS">St. Philip's</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#SAINT_PHILLIPS">246</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#BIRTHS_AND_BURIALS.">Births and Burials</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#BIRTHS_AND_BURIALS.">253</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#GENERAL_HOSPITAL.">General Hospital</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#GENERAL_HOSPITAL.">256</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#PUBLIC_ROADS.">Public Roads</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#PUBLIC_ROADS.">259</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#CANAL.">Canal</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#CANAL.">266</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#DERITEND_BRIDGE.">Deritend Bridge</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#DERITEND_BRIDGE.">269</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#SOHO">Soho</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#SOHO">271</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#DANES_CAMP:">Danes Camp, Danes Bank, or Bury Fields</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#DANES_CAMP:">272</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#GENTLEMENS_SEATS">Gentlemen's Seats</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#GENTLEMENS_SEATS">273</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#THE_MOATS.">The Moats</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#THE_MOATS.">276</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#BLACK_GREVES.">Black Greves</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#BLACK_GREVES.">ibid</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#ULVERLEY_OR_CULVERLEY">Ulverley, or Culverley</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#ULVERLEY_OR_CULVERLEY">277</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#HOGGS-MOAT">Hogg's Moat</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#HOGGS-MOAT">278</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#YARDLEY.">Yardley</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#YARDLEY.">281</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#KENTS-MOAT">Kent's Moat</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#KENTS-MOAT">282</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#SHELDON.">Sheldon</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#SHELDON.">283</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#KINGS-HURST">King's hurst</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#KINGS-HURST">ibid</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#COLESHILL.">Coleshill</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#COLESHILL.">287</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#DUDDESTON.">Duddeston</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#DUDDESTON.">289</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#SALTLEY.">Saltley</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#SALTLEY.">292</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#WARD-END.">Ward-end</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#WARD-END.">293</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#CASTLE_BROMWICH.">Castle Bromwich</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#CASTLE_BROMWICH.">295</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#PARK-HALL.">Park hall</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#PARK-HALL.">299</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#BERWOOD.">Berwood</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#BERWOOD.">300</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#ERDINGTON.">Erdington</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#ERDINGTON.">301</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#PIPE.">Pipe</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#PIPE.">303</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#ASTON.">Aston</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#ASTON.">306</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#WITTON.">Witton</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#WITTON.">309</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#BLAKELEY.">Blakeley</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#BLAKELEY.">312</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#WEOLEY">Weoley</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#WEOLEY">313</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#SUTTON_COLDFIELD.">Sutton Coldfield</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#SUTTON_COLDFIELD.">320</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#PETITION_FOR_A_CORPORATION.">Petition for a Corporation</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#PETITION_FOR_A_CORPORATION.">324</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#BRASS_WORKS.">Brass Works</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#BRASS_WORKS.">329</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#PRISON.">Prison</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#PRISON.">332</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#CLODSHALES_CHANTRY.">Clodshale's Chantry</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#CLODSHALES_CHANTRY.">336</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#OCCURRENCES.">Occurrences</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#OCCURRENCES.">340</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#OCCURRENCES.">Earthquake</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#OCCURRENCES.">ibid</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#PITMORE_AND_HAMMOND.">Pitmore and Hammond</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#PITMORE_AND_HAMMOND.">343</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#RIOTS.">Riots</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#RIOTS.">345</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#THE_CONJURERS.">The Conjurers</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#THE_CONJURERS.">350</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#MILITARY_ASSOCIATION.">Military Association</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#MILITARY_ASSOCIATION.">353</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#BILSTON_CANAL_ACT.">Bilston Canal Act</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#BILSTON_CANAL_ACT.">357</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#WORKHOUSE_BILL.">Workhouse Bill</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#WORKHOUSE_BILL.">361</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#THE_CAMP.">The Camp</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#THE_CAMP.">370</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#MORTIMERS_BANK">Mortimer's Bank</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#MORTIMERS_BANK">372</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</center>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>DIRECTIONS</h2>
+<h2>TO THE</h2>
+<h2>BINDERS,</h2>
+<h2>FOR PLACING THE</h2>
+<h2>COPPER-PLATES.</h2>
+<center>
+<table summary="">
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image01.jpg">Prospect of Birmingham,</a></td>
+<td align="right">to face the Title.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Plan,</td>
+<td align="right">43</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image03.jpg">Alm's-houses,</a></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image03.jpg">*58</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image04.jpg">St. John's Chapel, Deritend,</a></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image04.jpg">111</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image05.jpg">St. Bartholomew's,</a></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image05.jpg">113</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image06.jpg">St. Mary's,</a></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image06.jpg">115</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image07.jpg">St. Paul's,</a></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image07.jpg">116</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image08a.jpg">Old and New Meetings,</a></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image08a.jpg">117</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image09.jpg">New Theatre,</a></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image09.jpg">123</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image10.jpg">Hotel,</a></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image10.jpg">130</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image11.jpg">Free School,</a></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image11.jpg">203</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image12.jpg">Charity School,</a></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image12.jpg">209</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image13.jpg">Workhouse,</a></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image13.jpg">215</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image14a.jpg">Old and Welch Cross,</a></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image14a.jpg">229</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image15.jpg">St. Martin's Church,</a></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image15.jpg">232</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image16.jpg">St. Philip's,</a></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image16.jpg">246</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image17.jpg">General Hospital,</a></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image17.jpg">256</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image19.jpg">Canal,</a></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image19.jpg">265</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image20.jpg">Navigation Office,</a></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image20.jpg">267</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image21.jpg">Brass Works,</a></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image21.jpg">329</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</center>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<a name="Page001"></a>
+<h3>AN</h3>
+<h2>HISTORY &amp;c.</h2>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p><i>Some account of the derivation of the name of
+Birmingham</i>.</p>
+<p>The word Birmingham, is too remote for certain explanation.
+During the last four centuries it has been variously written
+<i>Brumwycheham, Bermyngeham, Bromwycham, Burmyngham, Bermyngham,
+Byrmyngham</i>, and <i>Birmingham</i>; nay, even so late as the
+seventeenth century it was written <i>Bromicham</i>. Dugdale
+supposes the name to have been given by the planter, or owner, in
+the time of the Saxons; but, I suppose it much older than any
+Saxon, date: besides, it is not so common for a man to give a name
+to, as to take one from, a place. A man seldom gives his name
+except he is the founder, as Petersburg from Peter the Great.</p>
+<p>Towns, as well as every thing in nature, have exceedingly minute
+beginnings, and generally take a name from situation, or local
+circumstances. Would the Lord of a manor think it an honour to give
+his name to two or three miserable huts? But, if in a succession of
+ages these huts swell into opulence, they confer upon the lord an
+honour, a residence, and a name. The terminations of <i>sted</i>,
+<i>ham</i>, and <i>hurst</i>, are evidently Saxon, and mean the
+same thing, a home.</p>
+<p>The word, in later ages reduced to a certainty, hath undergone
+various mutations; but the original seems to have been
+<i>Bromwych</i>; <i>Brom</i> perhaps, from broom a shrub, for the
+growth of which the soil is extremely favourable; <i>Wych</i>, a
+descent, this exactly corresponds with the declivity from the High
+Street to Digbeth. Two other places also in the neigbourhood bear
+the same name, which serves to strengthen the opinion.</p>
+<p>This infant colony, for many centuries after the first buddings
+of existence, perhaps, had no other appellation than that of
+Bromwych. Its center, for many reasons that might be urged, was the
+Old Cross, and its increase, in those early ages of time must have
+been very small.</p>
+<p>A series of prosperity attending it, its lord might assume its
+name, reside in it, and the particle <i>ham</i> would naturally
+follow. This very probably happened under the Saxon Heptarchy, and
+the name was no other than <i>Bromwycham</i>.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="SITUATION."></a>SITUATION.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>It lies near the centre of the kingdom, in the north-west
+extremity of the county of Warwick, in a kind of peninsula, the
+northern part of which is bounded by Handsworth, in the county of
+Stafford, and the southern by King's-norton, in the county of
+Worcester; it is also in the diocese of Lichfield and Coventry, and
+in the deanery of Arden.</p>
+<p>Let us perambulate the parish from the bottom of Digbeth, thirty
+yards north of the bridge. We will proceed south-west up the bed of
+the river, with Deritend, in the parish of Aston, on our left.
+Before we come to the Floodgates, near Vaughton's Hole, we pass by
+the Longmores, a small part of King's-norton. Crossing the river
+Rea, we enter the vestiges of a small rivulet, yet visible, though
+the stream hath been turned, perhaps, a thousand years, to supply
+the moat. We now bear rather west, nearly in a straight line for
+three miles, to Shirland brook, with Edgbaston on the left. At the
+top of the first meadow from the river Rea, we meet the little
+stream above-mentioned, in the pursuit of which, we cross the
+Bromsgrove road a little east of the first mile stone. Leaving
+Banner's marlpit to the left, we proceed up a narrow lane crossing
+the old Bromsgrove road, and up to the turnpike at the five ways in
+the road to Hales Owen. Leaving this road also to the left we
+proceed down the lane towards Ladywood, cross the Icknield street,
+a stone's cast east of the observatory, to the north extremity of
+Rotton Park. We now meet with Shirland Brook, which leads us east,
+and across the Dudley road, at the seven mile stone, having
+Smethwick in the county of Stafford, on the left, down to Pigmill.
+We now leave Handsworth on the left, following the stream through
+Hockley great pool; cross the Wolverhampton road, and the
+Ikenield-street at the same time down to Aston furnace, with that
+parish on the left. At the bottom of Walmer-lane we leave the
+water, move over the fields, nearly in a line to the post by the
+Peacock upon Gosty-green. We now cross the Lichfield road, down
+Duke-street, then the Coleshill road at the A B house. From thence
+down the meadows, to Cooper's mill; up the river to the foot of
+Deritend bridge; and then turn sharp to the right, keeping the
+course of a drain in the form of a sickle, through John a Dean's
+hole, into Digbeth, from whence we set out. In marching along
+Duke-street, we leave about seventy houses to the left, and up the
+river Rea, about four hundred more in Deritend, reputed part of
+Birmingham, though not in the parish.</p>
+<p>This little journey, nearly of an oval form, is about seven
+miles. The longest diameter from Shirland brook to Deritend bridge
+is about three, and the widest, from the bottom of Walmer Lane to
+the rivulet, near the mile-stone, upon the Bromsgrove road, more
+than two.</p>
+<p>The superficial contents of the parish may be upwards of four
+miles, about three thousand acres.</p>
+<p>Birmingham is by much the smallest parish in the neighbourhood,
+those of Aston and Sutton are each about five times as large,
+Yardley four, and King's-Norton eight.</p>
+<p>When Alfred, that great master of legislation, parished out his
+kingdom, or rather, put the finishing hand to that important work;
+where he met with a town, he allotted a smaller quantity of land,
+because the inhabitants chiefly depended upon commerce; but where
+there was only a village, he allotted a larger, because they
+depended upon agriculture.</p>
+<p>This observation goes far in proving the antiquity of the place,
+for it is nine hundred years since this division took effect.</p>
+<p>The buildings occupy the south east part of the parish; perhaps,
+with their appendages, about six hundred acres.</p>
+<p>This south east part, being insufficient for the extraordinary
+increase of the inhabitants, she has of late extended her buildings
+along the Bromsgrove road, near the boundaries of Edgbaston; and
+actually on the other side planted three of her streets in the
+parish of Aston. Could the sagacious Alfred have seen into
+futurity, he would have augmented her borders.</p>
+<p>As no part of the town lies flat, the showers promote both
+cleanliness and health, by removing obstructions.</p>
+<p>The approach is on every side by ascent, except that from
+Hales-Owen, north west, which gives a free access of air, even to
+the most secret recesses of habitation.</p>
+<p>Thus eminently situated, the sun can exercise his full powers of
+exhalation.</p>
+<p>The foundation upon which this mistress of the arts is erected,
+is one solid mass of dry reddish sand.</p>
+<p>The vapours that rise from the earth are the great promoters of
+disease; but here, instead of the moisture ascending to the
+prejudice of the inhabitant, the contrary is evident; for the water
+descends through the pores of the sand, so that even our very
+cellars are habitable.</p>
+<p>This accounts for the almost total extinction of the ague among
+us:--During a residence of thirty years, I have never seen one
+person afflicted with it, though, by the opportunities of office, I
+have frequently visited the repositories of the sick.</p>
+<p>Thus peculiarly favoured, this happy spot, enjoys four of the
+greatest benefits that can attend human existence--water, air, the
+fun, and a situation free from damps.</p>
+<p>All the <i>past</i> writers upon Birmingham have viewed her as
+low and watery, and with reason; because Digbeth, then the chief
+street, bears that description. But all the future writers will
+view her on an eminence, and with as much reason; because, for one
+low street, we have now fifty elevated.</p>
+<p>Birmingham, like the empire to which she belongs, has been, for
+many centuries, travelling <i>up hill</i>; and, like that, rising
+in consequence.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="SOIL."></a>SOIL.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>The soil is rather light, sandy, and weak; and though metals, of
+various sorts, are found in great plenty, <i>above</i> the surface,
+we know of nothing below, except sand and gravel, stone and water.
+All the riches of the place, like those of an empiric, in laced
+cloaths, appear on the <i>outside</i>.</p>
+<p>The northern part of the parish, for about four hundred acres,
+to the disgrace of the age, is yet a shameful waste.</p>
+<p>A small part of the land near the town, is parcelled out into
+little gardens, at ten or twenty shillings each, amounting to about
+sixteen pounds per acre.</p>
+<p>These are not intended so much for profit, as health and
+amusement.</p>
+<p>Others are let in detached pieces for private use, at about four
+pounds per acre. So that this small parish cannot boast of more
+than six or eight farms, and these of the smaller size, at about
+two pounds per acre. Manure from the sty brings about 16s. per
+waggon load, that from the stable about 12, and that from the fire
+and the street, five.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="WATER."></a>WATER.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>I think there is not any natural river runs through the parish,
+but there are three that mark the boundaries of it, for about half
+its circumference, described above; none of these supply family
+use. After penetrating into a body of sand, interspersed with a
+small strata of soft Rock, and sometimes of gravel; at the depth of
+about twenty yards, we come to plenty of water, rather hard. There
+are in the lower parts of the town, two excellent springs of soft
+water, suitable for most purposes; one at the top of Digbeth, the
+other, Lady-Well. Or rather, one spring, or bed of water, with many
+out-lets, continuing its course along the bottom of the hill,
+parallel with Small-brook-street, Edgbaston street, St.
+Martin's-lane, and Park-street; sufficiently copious to supply the
+whole city of London. Water is of the first consequence, it often
+influences disease, always the habit of body: that of Birmingham is
+in general productive of salutary effects.</p>
+<p>That dreadful disorder, the stone, is seldom found among us. I
+can recollect but very few, in my time, under this severe
+complaint, which is perhaps owing to that valuable element. I
+mentioned this remark to an eminent surgeon, who assured me, that,
+in his long course of practice, he had never been concerned in one
+operation in that unhappy disorder.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="BATHS."></a>BATHS.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>At Lady-Well, are the most complete baths in the whole Island.
+There are seven in number; erected at the expence of 2000<i>l</i>.
+Accommodation is ever ready for hot or cold bathing; for immersion
+or amusement; with conveniency for sweating. That, appropriated for
+swimming, is eighteen Yards by thirty-six, situated in the centre
+of a garden, in which are twenty four private undressing-houses,
+the whole surrounded by a wall 10 feet high. Pleasure and health
+are the guardians of the place. The gloomy horrors of a bath,
+sometimes deter us from its use, particularly, if aided by
+complaint; but the appearance of these is rather inviting. We read
+of painted sepulchres, whose <i>outsides</i> are richly ornamented,
+but <i>within</i> are full of corruption and death. The reverse is
+before us. No elegance appears without, but within are the Springs
+of life! The expence was great, the utility greater.</p>
+<p>I do not know any author, who has reckoned man among the
+amphibious race of animals, neither do I know any animal who better
+deserves it. Man is lord of the little ball on which he treads, one
+half of which, at least, is water. If we do not allow him to be
+amphibious, we deprive him of half his sovereignty. He justly bears
+that name, who can <i>live</i> in the water. Many of the disorders
+incident to the human frame are prevented, and others cured, both
+by fresh and salt bathing; so that we may properly remark, "<i>He
+lives in the water</i>, who can find life, nay, even <i>health</i>
+in that friendly element."</p>
+<p>The greatest treasure on earth is health; but, a treasure, of
+all others, the least valued by the owner. Other property is best
+rated when in possession, but this, can only be rated when lost. We
+sometimes observe a man, who, having lost this inestimable jewel,
+seeks it with an ardour equal to its worth; but when every research
+by land, is eluded, he fortunately finds it in the water. Like the
+fish, he pines away upon shore, but like that, recovers again in
+the deep.</p>
+<p>Perhaps Venus is represented as rising from the ocean, which is
+no other then a bath of the larger size, to denote, that bathing is
+the refiner of health, consequently, of beauty; and Neptune being
+figured in advanced life, indicates, that it is a preservative to
+old age.</p>
+<p>The cure of disease among the Romans, by bathing, is supported
+by many authorities; among others, by the number of baths
+frequently discovered, in which, pleasure, in that warm climate,
+bore a part. But this practice seemed to decline with Roman
+freedom, and never after held the eminence it deserved. Can we
+suppose, the physician stept between disease and the bath, to
+hinder their junction; or, that he lawfully holds, by prescription,
+the tenure of sickness, in <i>fee</i>?</p>
+<p>The knowledge of this singular <i>art of healing</i>, is at
+present only in infancy. How far it may prevent, or conquer
+disease; to what measure it may be applied, in particular cases,
+and the degrees of use, in different constitutions, are enquiries
+that will be better understood by a future generation.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="AIR."></a>AIR.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>As we have passed through the water, let us now investigate her
+sister fluid, the air. They are both necessary to life, and the
+purity of both to the prolongation of it; this small difference
+lies between them, a man may live a day without water, but not an
+hour without air: If a man wants better water, it may be removed
+from a distant place for his benefit; but if he wants air, he must
+remove himself.--The natural air of Birmingham, perhaps, cannot be
+excelled in this climate, the moderate elevation and dry soil
+evinces this truth; but it receives an alloy from the congregated
+body of fifty thousand people; also from the smoke of an
+extraordinary number of fires used in business; and perhaps, more
+from the various effluvia arising from particular trades. It is not
+uncommon to see a man with green hair or a yellow wig, from his
+constant employment in brass; if he reads, the green vestiges of
+his occupation remain on every leaf, never to be expunged. The
+inside of his body, no doubt, receives the same tincture, but is
+kept clean by being often washed with ale. Some of the fair sex,
+likewise are subject to the same inconvenience, but find relief in
+the same remedy.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="LONGEVITY."></a>LONGEVITY.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Man is a time-piece. He measures out a certain space, then stops
+for ever. We see him move upon the earth, hear him click, and
+perceive in his face the uses of intelligence. His external
+appearance will inform us whether he is old-fashioned, in which
+case, he is less valuable upon every gambling calculation. His face
+also will generally inform us whether all is right within. This
+curious machine is filled with a complication of movements, very
+unfit to be regulated by the rough hand of ignorance, which
+sometimes leaves a mark not to be obliterated even by the hand of
+an artist. If the works are directed by violence, destruction is
+not far off. If we load it with the oil of luxury, it will give an
+additional vigor, but in the end, clog and impede the motion. But
+if the machine is under the influence of prudence, she will guide
+it with an even, and a delicate hand, and perhaps the piece may
+move on 'till it is fairly worn out by a long course of fourscore
+years.</p>
+<p>There are a set of people who expect to find that health in
+medicine, which possibly might be found in regimen, in air,
+exercise, or serenity of mind.</p>
+<p>There is another class amongst us, and that rather numerous,
+whose employment is laborious, and whose conduct is irregular.
+Their time is divided between hard working, and hard drinking, and
+both by a fire. It is no uncommon thing to see one of these, at
+forty, wear the aspect of sixty, and finish a life of violence at
+fifty, which the hand of prudence would have directed to
+eighty.</p>
+<p>The strength of a kingdom consists in the multitude of its
+inhabitants; success in trade depends upon the manufacturer; the
+support and direction of a family, upon the head of it. When this
+useful part of mankind, therefore, are cut off in the active part
+of life, the community sustains a loss, whether we take the matter
+in a national, a commercial, or a private view.</p>
+<p>We have a third class, who shun the rock upon which these last
+fall, but wreck upon another; they run upon scylla though they have
+missed charybdis; they escape the liquid destruction, but split
+upon the solid. These are proficients in good eating; adepts in
+culling of delicacies, and the modes of dressing them. Matters of
+the whole art of cookery; each carries a kitchen in his head. Thus
+an excellent constitution may be stabbed by the spit. Nature never
+designed us to live well, and continue well; the stomach is too
+weak a vessel to be richly and deeply laden. Perhaps more injury is
+done by eating than by drinking; one is a secret, the other an open
+enemy: the secret is always supposed the most dangerous. Drinking
+attacks by assault, but eating by sap: luxury is seldom visited by
+old age. The best antidote yet discovered against this kind of slow
+poison is exercise; but the advantages of elevation, air, and
+water, on one hand, and disadvantages of crowd, smoke, and effluvia
+on the other, are trifles compared to intemperance.</p>
+<p>We have a fourth class, and with these I shall shut up the
+clock. If this valuable machine comes finished from the hand of
+nature; if the rough blasts of fortune only attack the outward
+case, without affecting the internal works, and if reason conduces
+the piece, it may move on, with a calm, steady, and uninterrupted
+pace to a great extent of years, 'till time only annihilates the
+motion.</p>
+<p>I personally know amongst us a Mrs. Dallaway, aged near 90;
+George Davis, 85; John Baddally, Esq; and his two brothers, all
+between 80 and and 90; Mrs. Allen, 92; Mrs. Silk, 84; John Burbury,
+84; Thomas Rutter, 88; Elizabeth Bentley, 88; John Harrison and his
+wife, one 86, the other 88; Mrs. Floyd, 87; Elizabeth Simms, 88;
+Sarah Aston, 98; Isaac Spooner, Esq; 89; Joseph Scott, Esq; 94; all
+at this day, January 9, 1780, I believe enjoy health and capacity.
+This is not designed as a complete list of the aged, but of such
+only as immediately occur to memory. I also knew a John England who
+died at the age of 89; Hugh Vincent, 94; John Pitt, 100; George
+Bridgens, 103; Mrs. More, 104. An old fellow assured me he had kept
+the market 77 years: he kept it for several years after to my
+knowledge. At 90 he was attacked by an acute disorder, but,
+fortunately for himself, being too poor to purchase medical
+assistance, he was left to the care of nature, who opened that door
+to health which the physician would have locked for ever. At 106 I
+heard him swear with all the fervency of a recruit: at 107 he died.
+It is easy to give instances of people who have breathed the smoak
+of Birmingham for threescore years, and yet have scarcely left the
+precincts of of youth. Such are the happy effects of constitution,
+temper, and conduct!</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="Ancient_State_of_Birmingham"></a>Ancient State of
+Birmingham</i>.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>We have now to pass through the very remote ages of time,
+without staff to support us, without light to conduct us, or hand
+to guide us. The way is long, dark, and slippery. The credit of an
+historian is built upon truth; he cannot assert, without giving his
+facts; he cannot surmise, without giving his reasons; he must
+relate things as they are, not as he would have them. The fabric
+founded in error will moulder of itself, but that founded in
+reality will stand the age and the critic.</p>
+<p>Except half a dozen pages in Dugdale, I know of no author who
+hath professedly treated of Birmingham. None of the histories which
+I have seen bestow upon it more than a few lines, in which we are
+sure to be treated with the noise of hammers and anvils; as if the
+historian thought us a race of dealers in thunder, lightning, and
+wind; or infernals, puffing in blast and smoak.</p>
+<p>Suffer me to transcribe a passage from Leland, one of our most
+celebrated writers, employed by Henry the VIIIth to form an
+itinerary of Britain, whose works have stood the test of 250 years.
+We shall observe how much he erred for want of information, and how
+natural for his successors to copy him.</p>
+<p>"I came through a pretty street as ever I entered, into
+Birmingham town. This street, as I remember, is called Dirtey
+(Deritend). In it dwells smithes and cutlers, and there is a brook
+that divides this street from Birmingham, an hamlet, or member,
+belonging to the parish therebye.</p>
+<p>"There is at the end of Dirtey a propper chappel and
+mansion-house of timber, (the moat) hard on the ripe, as the brook
+runneth down; and as I went through the ford, by the bridge, the
+water came down on the right hand, and a few miles below goeth into
+Tame. This brook, above Dirtey, breaketh in two arms, that a little
+beneath the bridge close again. This brook riseth, as some say,
+four or five miles above Birmingham, towards Black-hills.</p>
+<p>"The beauty of Birmingham, a good market-town in the extreme
+parts of Warwickshire, is one street going up alonge, almost from
+the left ripe of the brook, up a meane hill, by the length of a
+quarter of a mile, I saw but one parish-church in the town.</p>
+<p>"There be many smithes in the town that use to make knives and
+all manner of cutting tools, and many loriners that make bittes,
+and a great many naylers; so that a great part of the town is
+maintained by smithes, who have their iron and sea-coal out of
+Staffordshire."</p>
+<p>Here we find some intelligence, and more mistake, cloathed in
+the dress of antique diction, which plainly evinces the necessity
+of modern history.</p>
+<p>It is matter of surprise that none of those religious drones,
+the monks, who hived in the priory for fifteen or twenty
+generations, ever thought of indulging posterity with an history of
+Birmingham. They could not want opportunity, for they lived a life
+of indolence; nor materials, for they were nearer the infancy of
+time, and were possessed of historical fads now totally lost.
+Besides, nearly all the little learning in the kingdom was
+possessed by this class of people; and the place, in their day,
+must have enjoyed an eminent degree of prosperity.</p>
+<p>Though the town has a modern appearance, there is reason to
+believe it of great antiquity; my Birmingham reader, therefore,
+must suffer me to carry him back into the remote ages of the
+Ancient Britons to visit his fable ancestors.</p>
+<p>We have no histories of those times but what are left by the
+Romans, and these we ought to read with caution, because they were
+parties in the dispute. If two antagonists write each his own
+history, the discerning reader will sometimes draw the line of
+justice between them; but where there is only one, partiality is
+expected. The Romans were obliged to make the Britons war-like, or
+there would have been no merit in conquering them: they must also
+sound forth their ignorance, or there would have been none in
+improving them. If the Britons were that wretched people they are
+represented by the Romans, they could not be worth conquering: no
+man subdues a people to improve them, but to profit by them. Though
+the Romans at that time were in their meridian of splendor, they
+pursued Britain a whole century before they reduced it; which
+indicates that they considered it as a valuable prize. Though the
+Britons were not masters of science, like the Romans; though the
+fine arts did not flourish here, as in Rome, because never planted;
+yet by many testimonies it is evident they were masters of plain
+life; that many of the simple arts were practiced in that day, as
+well as in this; that assemblages of people composed cities, the
+same as now, but in an inferior degree; and that the country was
+populous is plain from the immense army Boadicia brought into the
+field, except the Romans increased that army that their merit might
+be greater in defeating it. Nay, I believe we may with propriety
+carry them beyond plain life, and charge them with a degree of
+elegance: the Romans themselves allow the Britons were complete
+masters of the chariot; that when the scythe was fixed at each end
+of the axle-tree, they drove with great dexterity into the midst of
+the enemy, broke their ranks, and mowed them down. The chariot,
+therefore, could not be made altogether for war, but, when the
+scythes were removed, it still remained an emblem of pride, became
+useful in peace, was a badge of high-life, and continues so with
+their descendants to this day.</p>
+<p>We know the instruments of war used by the Britons were a sword,
+spear, shield and scythe. If they were not the manufacturers, how
+came they by these instruments? We cannot allow either they or the
+chariots were imported, because that will give them a much greater
+consequence: they must also have been well acquainted with the
+tools used in husbandry, for they were masters of the field in a
+double sense. Bad also as their houses were, a chest of carpentry
+tools would be necessary to complete them. We cannot doubt,
+therefore, from these evidences, and others which might be adduced,
+that the Britons understood the manufactory of iron. Perhaps
+history cannot produce an instance of any place in an improving
+country, like England, where the coarse manufactory of iron has
+been carried on, that ever that laborious art went to decay, except
+the materials failed; and as we know of no place where such
+materials have failed, there is the utmost reason to believe our
+fore-fathers, the Britons, were supplied with those necessary
+implements by the black artists of the Birmingham forge. Iron-stone
+and coal are the materials for this production, both which are
+found in the neighbourhood in great plenty. I asked a gentleman of
+knowledge, if there was a probability of the delphs failing? He
+answered, "Not in five thousand years."</p>
+<p>The two following circumstances strongly evince this ancient
+British manufactory:--</p>
+<p>Upon the borders of the parish stands Aston-furnace,
+appropriated for melting ironstone, and reducing it into pigs: this
+has the appearance of great antiquity. From the melted ore, in this
+subterranean region of infernal aspect, is produced a calx, or
+cinder, of which there is an enormous mountain. From an attentive
+survey, the observer would suppose so prodigious a heap could not
+accumulate in one hundred generations; however, it shows no
+perceptible addition in the age of man.</p>
+<p>There is also a common of vast extent, called
+Wednesbury-old-field, in which are the vestiges of many hundreds of
+coal-pits, long in disuse, which the curious antiquarian would deem
+as long in sinking, as the mountain of cinders in rising.</p>
+<p>The minute sprig of Birmingham, no doubt first took root in this
+black soil, which, in a succession of ages, hath grown to its
+present opulence. At what time this prosperous plant was set, is
+very uncertain; perhaps as long before the days of Caesar as it is
+since. Thus the mines of Wednesbury empty their riches into the lap
+of Birmingham, and thus she draws nurture from the bowels of the
+earth.</p>
+<p>The chief, if not the only manufactory of Birmingham, from its
+first existence to the restoration of Charles the Second, was in
+iron: of this was produced instruments of war and of husbandry,
+furniture for the kitchen, and tools for the whole system of
+carpentry.</p>
+<p>The places where our athletic ancestors performed these curious
+productions of art, were in the shops fronting the street: some
+small remains of this very ancient custom are yet visible, chiefly
+in Digbeth, where about a dozen shops still exhibit the original
+music of anvil and hammer.</p>
+<p>As there is the highest probability that Birmingham produced her
+manufactures long before the landing of Caesar, it would give
+pleasure to the curious enquirer, could he be informed of her size
+in those very early ages; but this information is for ever hid from
+the historian, and the reader. Perhaps there never was a period in
+which she saw a decline, but that her progress has been certain,
+though slow, during the long space of two or three thousand years
+before Charles the Second.</p>
+<p>The very roads that proceed from Birmingham, are also additional
+indications of her great antiquity and commercial influence.</p>
+<p>Where any of these roads lead up an eminence, they were worn by
+the long practice of ages into deep holloways, some of them twelve
+or fourteen yards below the surface of the banks, with which they
+were once even, and so narrow as to admit only one passenger.</p>
+<p>Though modern industry, assisted by various turnpike acts, has
+widened the upper part and filled up the lower, yet they were all
+visible in the days of our fathers, and are traceable even in ours.
+Some of these, no doubt, were formed by the spade, to soften the
+fatigue of climbing the hill, but many were owing to the pure
+efforts of time, the horse, and the showers. As inland trade was
+small, prior to the fifteenth century, the use of the wagon, that
+great destroyer of the road, was but little known. The horse was
+the chief conveyor of burthen among the Britons, and for centuries
+after: if we, therefore, consider the great length of time it would
+take for the rains to form these deep ravages, we must place the
+origin of Birmingham, at a very early date.</p>
+<p>One of these subterranean passages, in part filled up, will
+convey its name to posterity in that of a street, called
+Holloway-head, 'till lately the way to Bromsgrove and to Bewdley,
+but not now the chief road to either. Dale-end, once a deep road,
+has the same derivation. Another at Summer-hill, in the Dudley
+road, altered in 1753. A remarkable one is also between the
+Salutation and the Turnpike, in the Wolverhampton road. A fifth at
+the top of Walmer-lane, changed into its present form in 1764.
+Another between Gosta-green and Aston-brook, reduced in 1752.</p>
+<p>All the way from Dale-end to Duddeston, of which
+Coleshill-street now makes a part, was sunk five or six feet,
+though nearly upon a flat, 'till filled up in 1756 by act of
+Parliament: but the most singular is that between Deritend and
+Camp-hill, in the way to Stratford, which is, even now, many yards
+below the banks; yet the seniors of the last age took a pleasure in
+telling us, they could remember when it would have buried a wagon
+load of hay beneath its present surface.</p>
+<p>Thus the traveller of old, who came to purchase the produce of
+Birmingham, or to sell his own, seemed to approach her by sap.</p>
+<p>British traces are, no doubt, discoverable in the old
+Dudley-road, down Easy-hill, under the canal; at the eight
+mile-stone, and at Smethwick: also in many of the private roads
+near Birmingham, which were never thought to merit a repair,
+particularly at Good-knaves-end, towards Harborne; the Green-lane,
+leading to the Garrison; and that beyond Long-bridge, in the road
+to Yardley; all of them deep holloways, which carry evident tokens
+of antiquity. Let the curious calculator determine what an amazing
+length of time would elapse in wearing the deep roads along
+Saltleyfield, Shaw-hill, Allum-rock, and the remainder of the way
+to Stichford, only a pitiful hamlet of a dozen houses.</p>
+<p>The ancient centre of Birmingham seems to have been the Old
+Cross, from the number of streets pointing towards it. Wherever the
+narrow end of a street enters a great thorough-fare, it indicates
+antiquity, this is the case with Philip-street, Bell-street,
+Spiceal-street, Park-street, and Moor-street, which not only
+incline to the centre above-mentioned, but all terminate with their
+narrow ends into the grand passage. These streets are narrow at the
+entrance, and widen as you proceed: the narrow ends were formed
+with the main street at first, and were not, at that time, intended
+for streets themselves. As the town increased, other blunders of
+the same kind were committed, witness the gateway late at the east
+end of New-street, the two ends of Worcester-street,
+Smallbrook-street, Cannon-street, New-meeting-streer, and Bull
+street; it is easy to see which end of a street was formed first;
+perhaps the south end of Moor street is two thousand years older
+than the north; the same errors are also committing in our day, as
+in Hill and Vale streets, the two Hinkleys and Catharine-street.
+One generation, for want of foresight, forms a narrow entrance, and
+another widens it by Act of Parliament.</p>
+<p>Every word in the English language carries an idea: when a word,
+therefore, strikes the ear, the mind immediately forms a picture,
+which represents it as faithfully as the looking-glass the
+face.--Thus, when the word Birmingham occurs, a superb picture
+instantly expands in the mind, which is best explained by the other
+words grand, populous, extensive, active, commercial and humane.
+This painting is an exact counter-part of the word at this day; but
+it does not correspond with its appearance, in the days of the
+ancient Britons--We must, therefore, for a moment, detach the idea
+from the word.</p>
+<p>Let us suppose, then, this centre surrounded with less than one
+hundred stragling huts, without order, which we will dignify with
+the name of houses; built of timber, the interfaces wattled with
+sticks, and plaistered with mud, covered with thatch, boards or
+sods; none of them higher than the ground story. The meaner sort
+only one room, which served for three uses, shop, kitchen, and
+lodging room; the door for two, it admitted the people and the
+light. The better sort two rooms, and some three, for work, for the
+kitchen, and for rest; all three in a line, and sometimes fronting
+the street.</p>
+<p>If the curious reader chooses to see a picture of Birmingham, in
+the time of the Britons, he will find one in the turnpike road,
+between Hales-owen and Stourbridge, called the Lie Waste, alias Mud
+City. The houses stand in every direction, composed of one large
+and ill-formed brick, scoped into a tenement, burnt by the sun, and
+often destroyed by the frost: the males naked; the females
+accomplished breeders. The children, at the age of three months,
+take a singular hue from the sun and the soil, which continues for
+life. The rags which cover them leave no room for the observer to
+guess at the sex. Only one person upon the premisses presumes to
+carry a belly, and he a landlord. We might as well look for the
+moon in a coal-pit, as for stays or white linen in the City of Mud.
+The principal tool in business is the hammer, and the beast of
+burden, the ass.</p>
+<p>The extent of our little colony of artists, perhaps reached
+nearly as high as the east end of New-street, occupied the upper
+part of Spiceal-street, and penetrated down the hill to the top of
+Digbeth, chiefly on the east.</p>
+<p>Success, which ever waits on Industry, produced a gradual, but
+very slow increase: perhaps a thousand years elapsed without adding
+half that number of houses.</p>
+<p>Thus our favourite plantation having taken such firm root, that
+she was able to stand the wintry blasts of fortune, we shall
+digress for a moment, while she wields her sparkling heat,
+according to the fashion of the day, in executing the orders of the
+sturdy Briton; then of the polite and heroic Roman; afterwards of
+our mild ancestors, the Saxons. Whether she raised her hammer for
+the plundering Dane is uncertain, his reign being short; and,
+lastly, for the resolute and surly Norman.</p>
+<p>It does not appear that Birmingham, from its first formation, to
+the present day, was ever the habitation of a gentleman, the lords
+of the manor excepted. But if there are no originals among us, we
+can produce many striking likenesses--The smoke of Birmingham has
+been very propitious to their growth, but not to their
+maturity.</p>
+<p>Gentlemen, as well as buttons, have been stamped here; but, like
+them, when finished, are moved off.</p>
+<p>They both originate from a very uncouth state, <i>without form
+or comeliness</i>; and pass through various stages, uncertain of
+success. Some of them, at length, receive the last polish, and
+arrive at perfection; while others, ruined by a flaw, are deemed
+<i>wasters</i>.</p>
+<p>I have known the man of opulence direct his gilt chariot
+<i>out</i> of Birmingham, who first approached her an helpless
+orphan in rags. I have known the chief magistrate of fifty thousand
+people, fall from his phaeton, and humbly ask bread at a parish
+vestry.</p>
+<p>Frequently the wheel of capricious fortune describes a circle,
+in the rotation of which, a family experiences alternately, the
+heighth of prosperity and the depth of distress; but more
+frequently, like a pendulum, it describes only the arc of a circle,
+and that always at the bottom.</p>
+<p>Many fine estates have been struck out of the anvil, valuable
+possessions raised by the tongs, and superb houses, in a two-fold
+sense, erected by the trowel.</p>
+<p>The paternal ancestor of the late Sir Charles Holte was a native
+of this place, and purchaser, in the beginning of Edward the Third,
+of the several manors, which have been the honour and the support
+of his house to the present time.</p>
+<p>Walter Clodshale was another native of Birmingham, who, in 1332,
+purchased the manor of Saltley, now enjoyed by his maternal
+descendant, Charles Bowyer Adderley, Esq.</p>
+<p>Charles Colmore, Esq; holds a considerable estate in the parish;
+his predecessor is said to have occupied, in the reign of Henry the
+Eighth, that house, now No. 1, in the High-street, as a mercer, and
+general receiver of the taxes.</p>
+<p>A numerous branch of this ancient family flourishes in
+Birmingham at this day.</p>
+<p>The head of it, in the reign of James the First, erected
+New-hall, and himself into a gentleman. On this desirable eminence,
+about half a mile from the buildings, they resided till time,
+fashion, and success, removed them, like their predecessors, the
+sons of fortune, to a greater distance.</p>
+<p>The place was then possessed by a tenant, as a farm; but
+Birmingham, a speedy traveller, marched over the premises, and
+covered them with twelve hundred houses, on building leases; the
+farmer was converted into a steward: his brown hempen frock, which
+guarded the <i>outside</i> of his waistcoat, became white holland,
+edged with ruffles, and took its station <i>within</i>: the
+pitchfork was metamorphosed into a pen, and his ancient practice of
+breeding up sheep, was changed into that of <i>dressing their
+skins</i>.</p>
+<p>Robert Philips, Esq; acquired a valuable property in the
+seventeenth century; now possessed by his descendant, William
+Theodore Inge, Esquire.</p>
+<p>A gentleman of the name of Foxall, assured me, that the head of
+his family resided upon the spot, now No. 101, in Digbeth, about
+four hundred years ago, in the capacity of a tanner.</p>
+<p>Richard Smallbroke, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, in the
+reign of George II. was a native of Birmingham, as his ancestors
+were for many ages, with reputation: he is said to have been born
+at number 2 in the High-street, had great property in the town, now
+enjoyed by his descendants, though they have left the place. The
+families also of Weaman, Jennings, Whalley, etc. have acquired vast
+property, and quitted the meridian of Birmingham; and some others
+are at this day ripe for removal. Let me close this bright scene of
+prosperity, and open another, which can only be viewed with a
+melancholy eye. We cannot behold the distresses of man without
+compassion; but that distress which follows affluence, comes with
+double effect.</p>
+<p>We have amongst us a family of the name of Middlemore, of great
+antiquity, deducible from the conquest; who held the chief
+possessions, and the chief offices in the county, and who matched
+into the first families in the kingdom, but fell with the interest
+of Charles the First; and are now in that low ebb of fortune, that
+I have frequently, with a gloomy pleasure, relieved them at the
+common charity-board of the town. Such is the tottering point of
+human greatness.</p>
+<p>Another of the name of Bracebridge, who for more than six
+hundred years, figured in the first ranks of life.</p>
+<p>A third of the name of Mountfort, who shone with meridian
+splendor, through a long train of ages. As genealogy was ever a
+favourite amusement, I have often conversed with these solitary
+remains of tarnished lustre, but find in all of them, the pride of
+their family buried with its greatness:--they pay no more attention
+to the arms of their ancestors, than to a scrap of paper, with
+which they would light their pipe. Upon consulting one of the name
+of Elwall, said to be descended from the Britons, I found him so
+amazingly defective, that he could not stretch his pedigree even so
+high as his grandfather.</p>
+<p>A fifth family amongst us, of the name of Arden, stood upon the
+pinnacle of fame in the days of Alfred the Great, where perhaps
+they had stood for ages before: they continued the elevation about
+seven hundred years after; but having treasonable charges brought
+against them, in the days of Queen Elizabeth, about two hundred
+years ago, they were thrown from this exalted eminence, and dashed
+to pieces in the fall. In various consultations with a member of
+this honourable house, I found the greatness of his family not only
+lost, but the memory of it also. I assured him, that his family
+stood higher in the scale of honour, than any private one within my
+knowledge: that his paternal ancestors, for about seven
+generations, were successively Earls of Warwick, before the Norman
+conquest: that, though he could not boast a descent from the famous
+Guy, he was related to him: that, though Turchell, Earl of Warwick
+at the conquest, his direct ancestor, lost the Earldom in favour of
+Roger Newburgh, a favourite of William's; yet, as the Earl did not
+appear in arms, against the Conqueror, at the battle of Hastings,
+nor oppose the new interest, he was allowed to keep forty-six of
+his manors: that he retired upon his own vast estate, which he held
+in dependence, where the family resided with great opulence, in one
+house, for many centuries, 'till their reduction above-mentioned.
+He received the information with some degree of amazement, and
+replied with a serious face,--"Perhaps there may have been
+something great in my predecessors, for my grandfather kept several
+cows in Birmingham and sold milk."</p>
+<p>The families of those ancient heroes, of Saxon and Norman race,
+are, chiefly by the mutations of time, and of state, either become
+extinct, or as above, reduced to the lowest verge of fortune. Those
+few therefore, whose descent is traceable, may be carried higher
+than that of the present nobility; for I know none of these last,
+who claim peerage beyond Edward the first, about 1295. Hence it
+follows, that for antiquity, alliance, and blood, the advantage is
+evidently in favour of the lowest class.</p>
+<p>Could one of those illustrious shades return to the earth and
+inspect human actions, he might behold one of his descendants,
+dancing at the lathe; another tippling with his dark brethren of
+the apron; a third humbly soliciting from other families such
+favours as were formerly granted by his own; a fourth imitating
+modern grandeur, by contracting debts he never designs to pay; and
+a fifth snuff of departed light, poaching, like a thief in the
+night, upon the very manors, possessed by his ancestors.</p>
+<p>Whence is it that title, pedigree, and alliance, in superior
+life, are esteemed of the highest value; while in the inferior, who
+have a prior claim, are totally neglected? The grand design of
+every creature upon earth, is to supply the wants of nature. No
+amusements of body or mind can be adopted, till hunger is served.
+When the appetite calls, the whole attention of the animal, with
+all its powers, is bound to answer. Hence arise those dreadful
+contests in the brute creation, from the lion in the woods, to the
+dog, who seizes the bone. Hence the ship, when her provisions are
+spent, and she becalmed, casts a savage eye, upon human sacrifices;
+and hence, the attention of the lower ranks of men, are too far
+engrossed for mental pursuit. They see, like Esau, the honours of
+their family devoured with a ravenous appetite. A man with an empty
+cupboard would make but a wretched philosopher. But if fortune
+should smile upon one of the lower race, raise him a step above his
+original standing, and give him a prospect of independence, he
+immediately begins to eye the arms upon carriages, examines old
+records for his name, and inquires where the Herald's office is
+kept. Thus, when the urgency of nature is set at liberty, the bird
+can whistle upon the branch, the fish play upon the surface, the
+goat skip upon the mountain, and even man himself, can bask in the
+sunshine of science. I digress no farther.</p>
+<p>The situation of St. Martin's church is another reason for
+fixing the original centre of Birmingham at the Old Cross.
+Christianity made an early and a swift progress in this kingdom;
+persecution, as might be expected, followed her footsteps,
+increased her votaries, and, as was ever the case, in all new
+religions, her proselytes were very devout.</p>
+<p>The religious fervor of the christians displayed itself in
+building churches. Most of those in England are of Saxon original,
+and were erected between the fourth and the tenth century; that of
+St. Martin's is ancient beyond the reach of historical knowledge,
+and probably rose in the early reigns of the Saxon kings.</p>
+<p>It was the custom of those times, to place the church, if there
+was but one, out of the precincts of the town; this is visible at
+the present day in those places which have received no
+increase.</p>
+<p>Perhaps it will not be an unreasonable supposition to fix the
+erection of St. Martin's, in the eighth century; and if the
+inquisitive reader chooses to traverse the town a second time, he
+may find its boundaries something like the following. We cannot
+allow its extension northward beyond the east end of New-street;
+that it included the narrow parts of Philip street, Bell street,
+Spiceal street, Moor street, and Park street. That the houses at
+this period were more compact than heretofore; that Digbeth and
+Deritend, lying in the road to Stratford, Warwick, and Coventry,
+all places of antiquity, were now formed. Thus the church stood in
+the environs of the town, unincumbered with buildings. Possibly
+this famous nursery of arts might, by this time, produce six
+hundred houses. A town must increase before its appendages are
+formed; those appendages also must increase before there is a
+necessity for an additional chapel, and after that increase, the
+inhabitants may wait long before that necessity is removed.
+Deritend is an appendage to Birmingham; the inhabitants of this
+hamlet having long laboured under the inconveniency of being remote
+from the parish church of Aston, and too numerous for admission
+into that of Birmingham, procured a grant in 1381 to erect a chapel
+of their own. If we, therefore, allow three hundred years for the
+infancy of Deritend, three hundred more for her maturity, and four
+hundred since the erection of her chapel, which is a very
+reasonable allowance. It will bring us to the time I mentioned.</p>
+<p>It does not appear that Deritend was attended with any
+considerable augmentation, from the Norman conquest to the year
+1767, when a turnpike-road was opened to Alcester, and when Henry
+Bradford publicly offered a freehold to the man who should first
+build upon his estate; since which time Deritend has made a rapid
+progress: and this dusky offspring of Birmingham is now travelling
+apace along her new formed road.</p>
+<p>I must again recline upon Dugdale.--In 1309, William de
+Birmingham, Lord of the Manor, took a distress of the inhabitants
+of Bromsgrove and King's-norton, for refusing to pay the customary
+tolls of the market. The inhabitants, therefore, brought their
+action and recovered damage, because it was said, their lands being
+the ancient demesne of the crown, they had a right to sell their
+produce in any market in the King's dominions.</p>
+<p>It appeared in the course of the trial, that the ancestors of
+William de Birmingham had a MARKET HERE before the Norman conquest!
+I shall have occasion, in future, to resume this remarkable
+expression. I have also met with an old author, who observes, that
+Birmingham was governed by two Constables in the time of the
+Saxons; small places have seldom more than one. These evidences
+prove much in favour of the government, population, and antiquity
+of the place.</p>
+<p>In Domesday-book it is rated at four hides of land. A hide was
+as much as a team could conveniently plough in a year; perhaps at
+that time about fifty acres: I think there is not now, more than
+two hundred ploughed in the parish.</p>
+<p>It was also said to contain woods of half a mile in length, and
+four furlongs in breadth. What difference subsisted between half a
+mile and four furlongs, in ancient time, is uncertain; we know of
+none now. The mile was reduced to its present standard in the reign
+of Queen Elizabeth: neither are there the least traces of those
+woods, for at this day it is difficult to find a stick that
+deserves the name of a tree, in the whole manor.--Timber is no part
+of the manufactory of Birmingham.</p>
+<p>Let us survey the town a third time, as we may reasonably
+suppose it stood in the most remarkable period of English history,
+that of the conquest.</p>
+<p>We cannot yet go farther North of the centre than before, that
+is, along the High-street, 'till we meet the East end of New
+street. We shall penetrate rather farther into Moor-street, none
+into Park-street, take in Digbeth, Deritend, Edgbaston-street, as
+being the road to Dudley, Bromsgrove, and the whole West of
+England; Spiceal-street, the Shambles, a larger part of Bell
+street, and Philip-street.</p>
+<p>The ancient increase of the town was towards the South, because
+of the great road, the conveniency of water, the church, and the
+manor-house, all which lay in that quarter: but the modern
+extension was chiefly towards the North, owing to the scions of her
+trades being transplanted all over the country, in that direction,
+as far as Wednesbury, Walsall, and Wolverhampton. But particularly
+her vicinity to the coal delphs, which were ever considered as the
+soul of her prosperity. Perhaps by this time the number of houses
+might have been augmented to seven hundred: but whatever was her
+number, either in this or any other period, we cannot doubt her
+being populous in every &aelig;ra of her existence.</p>
+<p>The following small extract from the register, will show a
+gradual increase, even before the restoration:</p>
+<center>
+<table summary="">
+<tr>
+<th align="center">Year.</th>
+<th align="center">Christenings.</th>
+<th align="center">Weddings.</th>
+<th align="center">Burials</th>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">1555,</td>
+<td align="center">37,</td>
+<td align="center">15,</td>
+<td align="center">27.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">1558,</td>
+<td align="center">48,</td>
+<td align="center">10,</td>
+<td align="center">47.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">1603,</td>
+<td align="center">65,</td>
+<td align="center">14,</td>
+<td align="center">40.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">1625,</td>
+<td align="center">76,</td>
+<td align="center">18,</td>
+<td align="center">47.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">1660,</td>
+<td align="center">76,</td>
+<td colspan="2">from April to Dec. inclusive.</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</center>
+<p>In 1251, William de Birmingham, Lord of the Manor, procured an
+additional charter from Henry the Third, reviving some decayed
+privileges and granting others; among the last was that of the
+Whitsuntide fair, to begin on the eve of Holy Thursday, and to
+continue four days. At the alteration of the style, in 1752, it was
+prudently changed to the Thursday in Whitsun week; that less time
+might be lost to the injury of work and the workman. He also
+procured another fair, to begin on the eve of St. Michael, and
+continue for three days. Both which fairs are at this day in great
+repute.</p>
+<p>By the interest of Audomore de Valance, earl of Pembroke, a
+licence was obtained from the crown, in 1319 to charge an
+additional toll upon every article sold in the market for three
+years, towards paving the town. Every quarter of corn to pay one
+farthing, and other things in proportion.</p>
+<p>We have no reason to believe that either the town or the market
+were small at that time, however, at the expiration of the term,
+the toll was found inadequate to the expence, and the work lay
+dormant for eighteen years, till 1337, when a second licence was
+obtained, equal to the first, which completed the intention.</p>
+<p>Those streets, thus dignified with a pavement, or rather their
+sides, to accommodate the foot passenger, probably were
+High-street, the Bull-ring, Corn-cheaping, Digbeth, St.
+Martin's-lane, Moat-lane, Edgbaston-street, Spiceal-street, and
+part of Moor-street.</p>
+<p>It was the practice, in those early days, to leave the center of
+a street unpaved, for the easier passage of carriages and horses;
+the consequence was, in flat streets the road became extremely
+dirty, almost impassable, and in a descent, the soil was quickly
+worn away, and left a causeway on each side. Many instances of this
+ancient practice are within memory.</p>
+<p>The streets, no doubt, in which the fairs were held, mark the
+boundaries of the town in the thirteenth century. Though smaller
+wares were sold upon the spot used for the market, the rougher
+articles, such as cattle, were exposed to sale in what were then
+the <i>out-streets</i>. The fair for horses was held in
+Edgbaston-street, and that for beasts in the High-street, tending
+towards the Welch Cross.</p>
+<p>Inconvenient as these streets seem for the purpose, our dark
+ancestors, of peaceable memory, found no detriment, during the
+infant state of population, in keeping them there. But we, their
+crowded sons, for want of accommodation, have wisely removed both;
+the horse-fair, in 1777, to Brick-kiln-lane, now the extreme part
+of the town; and that for beasts, in 1769, into the open part of
+Dale-end.</p>
+<p>Whatever veneration we may entertain for ancient custom, there
+is sometimes a necessity to break it. Were we now to solicit the
+crown for a fair, those streets would be the last we should fix
+on.</p>
+<p>If we survey Birmingham in the twelfth century, we shall find
+her crowded with timber, within and without; her streets dirty and
+narrow; but considering the distant period, much trodden, yet,
+compared with her present rising state, but little.</p>
+<p>The inhabitant became an early encroacher upon nor narrow
+streets, and sometimes the lord was the greatest. Her houses were
+mean and low, but few reaching higher than one story, perhaps none
+more than two; composed of wood and plaister--she was a stranger to
+brick. Her public buildings consisted solely of one, <i>the
+church</i>.</p>
+<p>If we behold her in the fourteenth century, we shall observe her
+private buildings multiplied more than improved; her narrow
+streets, by trespass, become narrower, for she was ever chargeable
+with neglect; her public buildings increased to four, two in the
+town, and two at a distance, the Priory, of stone, founded by
+contribution, at the head of which stood her lord; the Guild, of
+timber, now the Free School; and Deritend Chapel, of the same
+materials, resembling a barn, with something like an awkward
+dove-coat, at the west end, by way of steeple. All these will be
+noticed in due course.</p>
+<p>If we take a view of the inhabitants, we shall find them
+industrious, plain, and honest; the more of the former, generally,
+the less of dishonesty, if their superiors lived in an homelier
+stile in that period, it is no wonder <i>they</i> did. Perhaps our
+ancestors acquired more money than their neighbours, and not much
+of that; but what they had was extremely valuable: diligence will
+accumulate. In curious operations, known only to a few, we may
+suppose the artist was amply paid.</p>
+<p>Nash, in his History of Worcestershire, gives us a curious list
+of anecdotes, from the church-wardens ledger, of Hales-Owen. I
+shall transcribe two, nearly three hundred years old. "<i>Paid for
+bread and ale, to make my Lord Abbot drink, in Rogation week,
+2d.</i>" What should we now think of an ecclesiastical nobleman,
+accepting a two-penny treat from a country church-warden?</p>
+<p>This displays an instance of moderation in a class of people
+famous for luxury. It shows also the amazing reduction of money:
+the same sum which served my Lord Abbot four days, would now be
+devoured in four minutes.--"1498, <i>paid for repeyling the organs,
+to the organmaker at Bromicham</i>, 10<i>s</i>." Birmingham then,
+we find, discovered the powers of genius in the finer arts, as well
+as in iron. By '<i>the</i> organmaker,' we mould suppose there was
+but one.</p>
+<p>It appears that the art of acquiring riches was as well
+understood by our fathers, as by us; while an artist could receive
+as much money for tuning an organ, as would purchase an acre of
+land, or treat near half a gross of Lord Abbots.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="BATTLE_OF_CAMP-HILL."></a>BATTLE OF CAMP-HILL.</h2>
+<h3>1643.</h3>
+<br>
+<p>Clarendon reproaches with virulence, our spirited ancestors, for
+disloyalty to Charles the First.--The day after the King left
+Birmingham, on his march from Shrewsbury, in 1642, they seized his
+carriages, containing the royal plate and furniture, which they
+conveyed, for security, to Warwick Castle. They apprehended all
+messengers and suspected persons; frequently attacked, and reduced
+small parties of the royalists, whom they sent prisoners to
+Coventry.--Hence the proverbial expression of a refractory person,
+<i>Send him to Coventry</i>.</p>
+<p>In 1643, the King ordered Prince Rupert, with a detachment of
+two thousand men, to open a communication between Oxford and York.
+In his march to Birmingham, he found a company of foot, kept for
+the parliament, lately reinforced by a troop of horse from the
+garrison at Lichfield: but, supposing they would not resist a power
+of ten to one, sent his quarter masters to demand lodging, and
+offer protection.</p>
+<p>But the sturdy sons of freedom, having cast up slight works at
+each end of the town, and barricaded the lesser avenues, rejected
+the offer and the officers. The military uniting in one small and
+compact body, assisted by the inhabitants, were determined the
+King's forces mould not enter. Their little fire opened on the
+Prince: but bravery itself, though possessed of an excellent spot
+of ground for defence, was obliged to give way to numbers. The
+Prince quickly put them to silence; yet, under the success of his
+own arms, he was not able to enter the town, for the inhabitants
+had choaked up, with carriages, the deep and narrow road, then
+between Deritend and Camp-hill, which obliged the Prince to alter
+his route to the left, and proceed towards Long-bridge.</p>
+<p>The spirit of resistance was not yet broken; they sustained a
+second attack, but to no purpose, except that of laughter. A
+running fight continued through the town; victory declared loudly
+for the Prince; the retreat became general: part of the vanquished
+took the way to Oldbury.</p>
+<p>William Fielding, Earl of Denbigh, a volunteer under the Prince,
+being in close pursuit of an officer in the service of the
+parliament, and both upon the full gallop, up Shirland-lane, in the
+manor of Smethwick, the officer instantly turning, discharged a
+pistol at the Earl, and mortally wounded him with a random
+shot.</p>
+<p>The parliament troops were animated in the engagement by a
+clergyman, who acted as governor, but being taken in the defeat,
+and refusing quarter, was killed in the Red Lion-inn.</p>
+<p>The Prince, provoked at the resistance, in revenge, set fire to
+the town. His wrath is said to have kindled in Bull-street, and
+consumed several houses near the spot, now No. 12.</p>
+<p>He obliged the inhabitants to quench the flames with a heavy
+fine, to prevent farther military execution. Part of the fine is
+said to have been shoes and stockings for his people.</p>
+<p>The parliament forces had formed their camp in that well chosen
+angle, which divides the Stratford and Warwick roads, upon
+Camp-hill.</p>
+<p>The victorious Prince left no garrison, because their
+insignificant works were untenable; but left an humbled people, and
+marched to the reduction of Lichfield.</p>
+<p>In 1665, London was not only visited with the plague, but many
+other parts of England, among which, Birmingham felt this dreadful
+mark of the divine judgment.</p>
+<p>The infection is said to have been caught by a box of clothes,
+brought by the carrier, and lodged at the White-hart. Depopulation
+ensued. The church-yard was insufficient for the reception of the
+dead, who were conveyed to Ladywood-green, one acre of waste land,
+then denominated the Pelt Ground.</p>
+<p>The charter for the market has evidently been repeated by divers
+kings, both Saxon and Norman, but when first granted is uncertain,
+perhaps at an early Saxon date; and the day seems never to have
+been changed from Thursday.</p>
+<p>The lords were tenacious of their privileges; or, one would
+think, there was no need to renew their charter. Prescription,
+necessity, and increasing numbers, would establish the right.</p>
+<p>Perhaps, in a Saxon period, there was room sufficient in our
+circumscribed market-place, for the people and their weekly
+supplies; but now, their supplies would fill it, exclusive of the
+people.</p>
+<p>Thus by a steady and a persevering hand, she kept a constant and
+uniform stroke at the anvil, through a vast succession of ages:
+rising superior to the frowns of fortune: establishing a variety of
+productions from iron: ever improving her inventive powers, and
+perhaps, changing a number of her people, equal to her whole
+inhabitants, every sixteen years, till she arrived at another
+important period, the end of the civil wars of Charles the
+first.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="MODERN_STATE"></a>MODERN STATE</h2>
+<h3>OF</h3>
+<h2>BIRMINGHAM.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>It is the practice of the historian, to divide ancient history
+from modern, at the fall of the Roman Empire. For, during a course
+of about seven hundred years, while the Roman name beamed in
+meridian splendour, the lustre of her arms and political conduct
+influenced, more or less, every country in Europe. But at the fall
+of that mighty empire, which happened in the fifth century, every
+one of the conquered provinces was left to stand upon its own
+basis. From this period, therefore, the history of nations takes a
+material turn. The English historian divides his ancient account
+from the modern, at the extinction of the house of Plantagenet, in
+1485, the fall of Richard the Third. For, by the introduction of
+letters, an amazing degree of light was thrown upon science, and
+also, by a new system of politics, adopted by Henry the Seventh,
+the British constitution, occasioned by one little act of
+parliament, that of allowing liberty to sell land, took a very
+different, and an important course.</p>
+<p>But the ancient and modern state of Birmingham, must divide at
+the restoration of Charles the Second. For though she had before,
+held a considerable degree of eminence; yet at this period, the
+curious arts began to take root, and were cultivated by the hand of
+genius. Building leases, also, began to take effect, extension
+followed, and numbers of people crowded upon each other, as into a
+Paradise.</p>
+<p>As a kind tree, perfectly adapted for growth, and planted in a
+suitable soil, draws nourishment from the circumjacent ground, to a
+great extent, and robs the neighbouring plants of their support,
+that nothing can thrive within its influence; so Birmingham, half
+whose inhabitants above the age of ten, perhaps, are not natives,
+draws her annual supply of hands, and is constantly fed by the
+towns that surround her, where her trades are not practised.
+Preventing every increase to those neighbours who kindly contribute
+to her wants. This is the case with Bromsgrove, Dudley,
+Stourbridge, Sutton, Lichfield, Tamworth, Coleshill, and
+Solihull.</p>
+<p>We have taken a view of Birmingham in several periods of
+existence, during the long course of perhaps three thousand years.
+Standing sometimes upon presumptive ground. If the prospect has
+been a little clouded, it only caused us to be more attentive, that
+we might not be deceived. But, though we have attended her through
+so immense a space, we have only seen her in infancy. Comparatively
+small in her size, homely in her person, and coarse in her dress.
+Her ornaments, wholly of iron, from her own forge.</p>
+<p>But now, her growths will be amazing; her expansion rapid,
+perhaps not to be paralleled in history. We shall see her rise in
+all the beauty of youth, of grace, of elegance, and attract the
+notice of the commercial world. She will also add to her iron
+ornaments, the lustre of every metal, that the whole earth can
+produce, with all their illustrious race of compounds, heightened
+by fancy, and garnished with jewels. She will draw from the fossil,
+and the vegetable kingdoms; press the ocean for shell, skin and
+coral. She will also tax the animal, for horn, bone, and ivory, and
+she will decorate the whole with the touches of her pencil.</p>
+<p>I have met with some remarks, published in 1743, wherein the
+author observes, "That Birmingham, at the restoration, probably
+consisted only of three streets." But it is more probable it
+consisted of fifteen, though not all finished, and about nine
+hundred houses.</p>
+<p>I am sensible, when an author strings a parcel of streets
+together, he furnishes but a dry entertainment for his reader,
+especially to a stranger. But, as necessity demands intelligence
+from the historian, I must beg leave to mention the streets and
+their supposed number of houses.</p>
+<br>
+<center>
+<table summary="">
+<tr>
+<td>Digbeth, nearly the same as now, except</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;the twenty-tree houses between
+the two</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Mill-lanes, which are of a modern
+date,</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;about</td>
+<td align="right">110</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Moat-lane (Court-lane)</td>
+<td align="right">12</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Corn-market and Shambles</td>
+<td align="right">40</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Spiceal-street</td>
+<td align="right">50</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Dudley-street</td>
+<td align="right">50</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Bell-street</td>
+<td align="right">50</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Philip-street</td>
+<td align="right">30</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>St. Martin's-lane</td>
+<td align="right">15</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Edgbaston-street</td>
+<td align="right">70</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Lee's-lane</td>
+<td align="right">10</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Park-street, extending from Digbeth nearly</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;to the East end of
+Freeman-street</td>
+<td align="right">80</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>More-street, to the bottom of Castle-street,</td>
+<td align="right">70</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Bull-street, not so high as the Minories,</td>
+<td align="right">50</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>High-street,</td>
+<td align="right">100</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Deritend;</td>
+<td align="right">120</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Odd houses scattered round the verge of</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;the town</td>
+<td align="right">50</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right">----</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right">907</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The number of inhabitants,
+5,472.</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</center>
+<br>
+<p>The same author farther observes, "That from the Restoration to
+the year 1700, the streets of Birmingham were increased to thirty
+one." But I can make their number only twenty-eight, and many of
+these far from complete. Also, that the whole number of houses were
+2,504, and the inhabitants 15,032. The additional streets therefore
+seem to have been Castle-street, Carr's-lane, Dale-end,
+Stafford-street, Bull lane, Pinfold-street, Colmore-street, the
+Froggery, Old Meeting-street, Worcester-street, Peck-lane,
+New-street, (a small part,) Lower Mill-lane.</p>
+<p>From the year 1700 to 1731, there is said to have been a farther
+addition of twenty-five streets, I know of only twenty-three: and
+also of 1,215 houses, and 8,250 inhabitants. Their names we offer
+as under;--Freeman-street, New Meeting-street, Moor-street, (the
+North part), Wood-street, the Butts, Lichfield-street;
+Thomas's-street, John's-street, London-'prentice street, Lower
+priory, The Square, Upper-priory, Minories, Steel-house-lane,
+Cherry-street, Cannon-street, Needless-alley, Temple-street, King's
+street, Queen-street, Old Hinkleys, Smallbrook-street, and the East
+part of Hill-street.</p>
+<p>I first saw Birmingham July 14, 1741, and will therefore
+perambulate its boundaries at that time with my traveller,
+beginning at the top of Snow-hill, keeping the town on our left,
+and the fields that then were, on our right.</p>
+<p>Through Bull-lane we proceed to Temple-street; down Peck lane,
+to the top of Pinfold-street; Dudley-street, the Old Hinkleys to
+the top of Smallbrook street, back through Edgbaston-street,
+Digbeth, to the upper end of Deritend. We shall return through
+Park-street, Mass-house-lane, the North of Dale end,
+Stafford-street, Steel-house-lane, to the top of Snow-hill, from
+whence we set out.</p>
+<p>If we compare this account with that of 1731, we shall not find
+any great addition of streets; but those that were formed before,
+were much better filled up. The new streets erected during these
+ten years were Temple-row, except about six houses. The North of
+Park-street, and of Dale-end; also, Slaney-street, and a small part
+of the East side of Snow hill.</p>
+<p>From 1741, to the present year 1780, Birmingham seems to have
+acquired the amazing augmentation of seventy one streets, 4172
+houses, and 25,032 inhabitants.</p>
+<p>Thus her internal property is covered with new-erected
+buildings, tier within tier. Thus she opens annually, a new aspect
+to the traveller; and thus she penetrates along the roads that
+surround her, as if to unite with the neighbouring towns, for their
+improvement in commerce, in arts, and in civilization.</p>
+<p>I have often led my curious enquirer round Birmingham, but, like
+the thread round the swelling clue, never twice in the same tract.
+We shall therefore, for the last time, examine her present
+boundaries. Our former journey commenced at the top of Snow-hill,
+we now set off from the bottom.</p>
+<p>The present buildings extend about forty yards beyond the
+Salutation, on the Wolverhampton road. We now turn up
+Lionel-street, leaving St. Paul's, and about three new erected
+houses, on the right<a name="FNanchor1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1">[1]</a>; pass close to New-Hall, leaving it on the
+left, to the top of Great Charles-street, along Easy-hill: we now
+leave the Wharf to the right, down Suffolk-street, in which are
+seventy houses, leaving two infant streets also to the right, in
+which are about twelve houses each: up to Holloway-head, thence to
+Windmill-hill, Bow-street, Brick-kiln-lane, down to Lady-well,
+along Pudding-brook, to the Moat, Lloyd's Slitting-mill, Digbeth,
+over Deritend bridge, thence to the right, for Cheapside; cross the
+top of Bradford-street, return by the Bridge to Floodgate-street,
+Park-street, Bartholomew's-chapel, Grosvenor-street, Nova
+scotia-street, Woodcock-lane, Aston-street, Lancaster-street,
+Walmer-lane, Price's-street, Bath-street, to the bottom of
+Snow-hill.</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor1">[1]</a>
+The above was written in May 1780, and the three houses are now,
+March 14, 1781, multiplied into fifty-five.</blockquote>
+<p>The circle I have described is about five miles, in which is
+much ground to be filled up. There are also beyond this crooked
+line, five clumps of houses belonging to Birmingham, which may be
+deemed hamlets.</p>
+<p>At the Sand-pits upon the Dudley-road, about three furlongs from
+the buildings, are fourteen houses.</p>
+<p>Four furlongs from the Navigation-office, upon the road to
+Hales-owen, are twenty-nine.</p>
+<p>One furlong from Exeter row, towards the hand, are
+thirty-four.</p>
+<p>Upon Camp-hill, 130 yards from the junction of the Warwick and
+Coventry roads, which is the extremity of the present buildings,
+are thirty-one.</p>
+<p>And two furlongs from the town, in Walmer-lane, are seventeen
+more.</p>
+<p>I shall comprize, in one view, the state of Birmingham in eight
+different periods of time. And though some are imaginary, perhaps
+they are not far from real.</p>
+<br>
+<center>
+<table summary="">
+<tr>
+<th>&nbsp;</th>
+<th align="right">Streets.</th>
+<th align="right">Houses.</th>
+<th align="right">Souls.</th>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>In the time of the ancient Britons,</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right">80</td>
+<td align="right">400</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right">A.D. 750,</td>
+<td align="right">8</td>
+<td align="right">600</td>
+<td align="right">3000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right">1066,</td>
+<td align="right">9</td>
+<td align="right">700</td>
+<td align="right">3500</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right">1650,</td>
+<td align="right">15</td>
+<td align="right">900</td>
+<td align="right">5472</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right">1700,</td>
+<td align="right">28</td>
+<td align="right">2504</td>
+<td align="right">15032</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right">1731,</td>
+<td align="right">51</td>
+<td align="right">3717</td>
+<td align="right">23286</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right">1741,</td>
+<td align="right">54</td>
+<td align="right">4114</td>
+<td align="right">24660</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right">1780,</td>
+<td align="right">125</td>
+<td align="right">8382</td>
+<td align="right">50295</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</center>
+<br>
+<p>In 1778, Birmingham, exclusive of the appendages, contained 8042
+houses, 48252 inhabitants.</p>
+<p>At the same time, Manchester consisted of 3402, houses, and
+22440 people.</p>
+<p>In 1779, Nottingham contained 3191 houses, and 17711 souls.</p>
+<p>It is easy to see, without the spirit of prophecy, that
+Birmingham hath not yet arrived at her zenith, neither is she
+likely to reach it for ages to come. Her increase will depend upon
+her manufactures; her manufactures will depend upon the national
+commerce; national commerce, will depend upon a superiority at sea;
+and this superiority may be extended to a long futurity.</p>
+<p>The interior parts of the town, are like those of other places,
+parcelled out into small free-holds, perhaps, originally purchased
+of the Lords of the Manor; but, since its amazing increase, which
+began about the restoration, large tracts of land have been
+huxtered out upon building leases.</p>
+<p>Some of the first that were granted, seem to have been about
+Worcester and Colmore streets, at the trifling annual price of one
+farthing per yard, or under.</p>
+<p>The market ran so much against the lesor, that the lessee had
+liberty to build in what manner he pleased; and, at the expiration
+of the term, could remove the buildings unless the other chose to
+purchase them. But the market, at this day, is so altered, that the
+lessee gives four-pence per yard; is tied to the mode of building,
+and obliged to leave the premisses in repair.</p>
+<p>The itch for building is predominant: we dip our fingers into
+mortar almost as soon as into business. It is not wonderful that a
+person should be hurt by the <i>falling</i> of a house; but, with
+us, a man sometimes breaks his back by <i>raising</i> one.</p>
+<p>This private injury, however, is attended with a public benefit
+of the first magnitude; for every "<i>House to be Let</i>," holds
+forth a kind of invitation to the stranger to settle in it, who,
+being of the laborious class, promotes the manufactures.</p>
+<p>If we cannot produce many houses of the highest orders in
+architecture, we make out the defect in numbers. Perhaps
+<i>more</i> are erected here, in a given time, than in any place in
+the whole island, London excepted.</p>
+<p>It is remarkable, that in a town like Birmingham, where so many
+houses are built, the art of building is so little understood. The
+stile of architecture in the inferior sort, is rather showy than
+lasting.</p>
+<p>The proprietor generally contracts for a house of certain
+dimensions, at a stipulated price: this induces the artist to use
+some ingredients of the cheaper kind, and sometimes to try whether
+he can cement the materials with sand, instead of lime.</p>
+<p>But a house is not the only thing spoilt by the builder; he
+frequently spoils himself: out of many successions of house-makers,
+I cannot recollect one who made a fortune.</p>
+<p>Many of these edifices have been brought forth, answered the
+purposes for which they were created, and been buried in the dust,
+during my short acquaintance with Birmingham. One would think, if a
+man can survive a house, he has no great reason to complain of the
+shortness of life.</p>
+<p>From the external genteel appearance of a house, the stranger
+would be tempted to think the inhabitant possessed at least a
+thousand pounds; but, if he looks within, he sees only the ensigns
+of beggary.</p>
+<p>We have people who enjoy four or five hundred pounds a year in
+houses, none of which, perhaps, exceed six pounds per annum. It may
+excite a smile, to say, I have known two houses erected, one
+occupied by a man, his wife, and three children; the other pair had
+four; and twelve guineas covered every expence.</p>
+<p>Pardon, my dear reader, the omission of a pompous encomium on
+their beauty, or duration.</p>
+<p>I am inclined to think two thirds of the houses in Birmingham
+stand upon new foundations, and all the places of worship, except
+Deritend Chapel.</p>
+<p>About the year 1730, Thomas Sherlock, late Bishop of London,
+purchased the private estate of the ladies of the manor, chiefly
+land, about four hundred per annum.</p>
+<p>In 1758, the steward told me it had increased to twice the
+original value. The pious old Bishop was frequently solicited to
+grant building leases, but answered, "His land was valuable, and if
+built upon, his successor, at the expiration of the term, would
+have the rubbish to carry off:" he therefore not only refused, but
+prohibited his successor from granting such leases.</p>
+<p>But Sir Thomas Gooch, who succeeded him, seeing the great
+improvement of the neighbouring estates, and wisely judging fifty
+pounds per acre preferable to five, procured an act in about 1766,
+to set aside the prohibiting clause in the Bishop's will.</p>
+<p>Since which, a considerable town may be said to have been
+erected upon his property, now about 1600<i>l</i>. per annum.</p>
+<p>An acquaintance assured me, that in 1756 he could have purchased
+the house he then occupied for 400<i>l</i>. but refused. In 1770,
+the same house was sold for 600<i>l</i>. and in 1772, I purchased
+it for eight hundred and thirty-five guineas, without any
+alteration, but what time had made for the worse: and for this
+enormous price I had only an old house, which I was obliged to take
+down. Such is the rapid improvement in value, of landed property,
+in a commercial country.</p>
+<p>Suffer me to add, though foreign to my subject, that these
+premises were the property of an ancient family of the name of
+Smith, now in decay; where many centuries ago one of the first inns
+in Birmingham, and well known by the name of the Garland House,
+perhaps from the sign; but within memory, Potter's
+Coffee-house.</p>
+<p>Under one part was a room about forty-five feet long, and
+fifteen wide, used for the town prison.</p>
+<p>In sinking a cellar we found a large quantity of tobacco-pipes
+of a angular construction, with some very antique earthen ware, but
+no coin; also loads of broken bottles, which refutes the complaint
+of our pulpits against modern degeneracy, and indicates, the
+vociferous arts of getting drunk and breaking glass, were well
+understood by our ancestors.</p>
+<p>In penetrating a bed of sand, upon which had stood a work-shop,
+about two feet below the surface we came to a tumolus six feet
+long, three wide, and five deep, built very neat, with tiles laid
+flat, but no cement. The contents were mouldered wood, and pieces
+of human bone.</p>
+<p>I know of no house in Birmingham, the inns excepted, whose
+annual rent exceeds eighty pounds. By the lamp books, the united
+rents appear to be about seventy thousand, which if we take at
+twenty years purchase, will compose a freehold of
+1,400,000<i>l</i>. value.</p>
+<p>If we allow the contents of the manor to be three thousand
+acres, and deduct six hundred for the town, five hundred more for
+roads, water, and waste land; and rate the remaining nineteen
+hundred, at the average rent of 2<i>l</i>. 10s. per acre; we shall
+raise an additional freehold of 4,750<i>l</i>. per ann.</p>
+<p>If we value this landed property at thirty years purchase, it
+will produce 142,500<i>l</i>. and, united with the value of the
+buildings, the fee-simple of this happy region of genius, will
+amount to 1,542,500<i>l</i>.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="OF_THE_STREETS"></a>OF THE STREETS,</h2>
+<h3>AND</h3>
+<h2>THEIR NAMES.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>We accuse our short-sighted ancestors, and with reason, for
+leaving us almost without a church-yard and a market-place; for
+forming some of our streets nearly without width, and without
+light. One would think they intended a street without a passage,
+when they erected Moor-street; and that their successors should
+light their candles at noon.</p>
+<p>Something, however, may be pleaded in excuse, by observing the
+concourse of people was small, therefore a little room would
+suffice; and the buildings were low, so that light would be less
+obstructed: besides, we cannot guess at the future but by the
+present. As the increase of the town was slow, the modern
+augmentation could not then be discovered through the dark medium
+of time; but the prospect into futurity is at this day rather
+brighter, for we plainly see, and perhaps with more reason,
+succeeding generations will blame us for neglect. We occupy the
+power to reform, without the will; why else do we suffer enormities
+to grow, which will have taken deep root in another age? If utility
+and beauty can <i>be joined together</i> in the street, why are
+they ever <i>put asunder</i>? It is easy for Birmingham to be as
+rapid in her improvement, as in her growth.</p>
+<p>The town consists of about 125 streets, some of which acquired
+their names from a variety of causes, but some from no cause, and
+others, have not yet acquired a name.</p>
+<p>Those of Bull street, Cannon street, London Prentice street, and
+Bell street, from the signs of their respective names.</p>
+<p>Some receive theirs from the proprietors of the land, as
+Smallbrook street, Freeman street, Colmore street, Slaney street,
+Weaman street, Bradford street, and Colmore row.</p>
+<p>Digbeth, or Ducks Bath, from the Pools for accommodating that
+animal, was originally Well street, from the many springs in its
+neighbourhood.</p>
+<p>Others derive a name from caprice, as Jamaica row, John, Thomas,
+and Philip streets.</p>
+<p>Some, from a desire of imitating the metropolis, as,
+Fleet-street, Snow-hill, Ludgate-hill, Cheapside, and
+Friday-street.</p>
+<p>Some again, from local causes, as High-street, from its
+elevation, St. Martin's-lane, Church-street, Cherry-street,
+originally an orchard, Chapel-street, Bartholomew-row,
+Mass-house-lane, Old and New Meeting-streets, Steelhouse-lane,
+Temple-row and Temple-street, also Pinfold-street, from a pinfold
+at No. 85, removed in 1752.</p>
+<p>Moor-street, anciently Mole-street, from the eminence on one
+side, or the declivity on the other.</p>
+<p>Park-street seems to have acquired its name by being
+appropriated to the private use of the lord of the manor, and,
+except at the narrow end next Digbeth, contained only the corner
+house to the south, entering Shut-lane, No. 82, lately taken down,
+which was called The Lodge.</p>
+<p>Spiceal-street, anciently Mercer-street, from the number of
+mercers shops; and as the professors of that trade dealt in
+grocery, it was promiscuously called Spicer-street. The present
+name is only a corruption of the last.</p>
+<p>The spot, now the Old Hinkleys, was a close, till about 1720, in
+which horses were shown at the fair, then held in Edgbaston-street.
+It was since a brick-yard, and contained only one hut, in which the
+brick-maker slept.</p>
+<p>The tincture of the smoky shops, with all their <i>black
+furniture</i>, for weilding gun-barrels, which afterwards appeared
+on the back of Small-brooke-street, might occasion the original
+name <i>Inkleys</i>; ink is well known; leys, is of British
+derivation, and means grazing ground; so that the etymology perhaps
+is <i>Black pasture</i>.</p>
+<p>The Butts; a mark to shoot at, when the bow was the fashionable
+instrument of war, which the artist of Birmingham knew well how to
+make, and to use.</p>
+<p>Gosta Green (Goose-stead-Green) a name of great antiquity, now
+in decline; once a track of commons, circumscribed by the Stafford
+road, now Stafford-street, the roads to Lichfield and Coleshill,
+now Aston and Coleshill-streets, and extending to Duke-street, the
+boundary of the manor.</p>
+<p>Perhaps, many ages after, it was converted into a farm, and was,
+within memory, possessed by a person of the name of Tanter, whence,
+Tanter-street.</p>
+<p>Sometimes a street fluctuates between two names, as that of
+Catharine and Wittal, which at length terminated in favour of the
+former.</p>
+<p>Thus the names of great George and great Charles stood
+candidates for one of the finest streets in Birmingham, which after
+a contest of two or three years, was carried in favour of the
+latter.</p>
+<p>Others receive a name from the places to which they direct, as
+Worcester-street, Edgbaston-street, Dudley-street,
+Lichfield-street, Aston-street, Stafford-street, Coleshill-street,
+and Alcester-street.</p>
+<p>A John Cooper, the same person who stands in the list of donors
+in St. Martin's church, and who, I apprehend, lived about two
+hundred and fifty years ago, at the Talbot, now No. 20, in the
+High-street, left about four acres of land, between
+Steelhouse-lane, St. Paul's chapel, and Walmer-lane, to make
+love-days for the people of Birmingham; hence,
+<i>Love-day-croft</i>.</p>
+<p>Various sounds from the trowel upon the premises, in 1758,
+produced the name of <i>Love-day-street</i> (corrupted into
+Lovely-street.)</p>
+<p>This croft is part of an estate under the care of Lench's Trust;
+and, at the time of the bequest, was probably worth no more than
+ten shillings per annum.</p>
+<p>At the top of Walmer-lane, which is the north east corner of
+this croft, stood about half a dozen old alms-houses, perhaps
+erected in the beginning of the seventeenth century, then at a
+considerable distance from the town. These were taken down in 1764,
+and the present alms-houses, which are thirty-six, erected near the
+spot, at the expence of the trust, to accommodate the same number
+of poor widows, who have each a small annual stipend, for the
+supply of coals.</p>
+<p>This John Cooper, for some services rendered to the lord of the
+manor, obtained three privileges, That of regulating the goodness
+and price of beer, consequently he stands in the front of the whole
+liquid race of high tasters; that he should, whenever he pleased,
+beat a bull in the Bull-ring, whence arises the name; and, that he
+should be allowed interment in the south porch of St. Martin's
+church. His memory ought to be transmitted with honor, to
+posterity, for promoting the harmony of his neighbourhood, but he
+ought to have been buried in a dunghill, for punishing an innocent
+animal.--His wife seems to have survived him, who also became a
+benefactress, is recorded in the same list, and their monument, in
+antique sculpture, is yet visible in the porch.</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image03.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image03.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image03.jpg" width="60%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b><i>The Alms House</i>.</b></p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="TRADE."></a>TRADE.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Perhaps there is not by nature so much difference in the
+capacities of men, as by education. The efforts of nature will
+produce a ten-fold crop in the field, but those of art, fifty.</p>
+<p>Perhaps too, the seeds of every virtue, vice, inclination, and
+habit, are sown in the breast of every human being, though not in
+an equal degree. Some of these lie dormant for ever, no hand
+inviting their cultivation. Some are called into existence by their
+own internal strength, and others by the external powers that
+surround them. Some of these seeds flourish more, some less,
+according to the aptness of the soil, and the modes of assistance.
+We are not to suppose infancy the only time in which these scions
+spring, no part of life is exempt. I knew a man who lived to the
+age of forty, totally regardless of music. A fidler happening to
+have apartments near his abode, attracted his ear, by frequent
+exhibitions, which produced a growing inclination for that
+favourite science, and he became a proficient himself. Thus in
+advanced periods a man may fall in love with a science, a woman, or
+a bottle. Thus avarice is said to shoot up in ancient soil, and
+thus, I myself bud forth in history at fifty-six.</p>
+<p>The cameleon is said to receive a tincture from the colour of
+the object that is nearest him; but the human mind in reality
+receives a bias from its connections. Link a man to the pulpit, and
+he cannot proceed to any great lengths in profligate life. Enter
+him into the army, and he will endeavour to swear himself into
+consequence. Make the man of humanity an overseer of the poor, and
+he will quickly find the tender feelings of commiseration hardened.
+Make him a physician, and he will be the only person upon the
+premises, the heir excepted, unconcerned at the prospect of death.
+Make him a surgeon, and he will amputate a leg with the same
+indifference with which a cutler saws a piece of bone for a knife
+handle. You commit a rascal to prison because he merits
+transportation, but by the time he comes out he merits a halter. By
+uniting also with industry, we become industrious. It is easy to
+give instances of people whose distinguishing characteristic was
+idleness, but when they breathed the air of Birmingham, diligence
+became the predominant feature. The view of profit, like the view
+of corn to the hungry horse, excites to action.</p>
+<p>Thus the various seeds scattered by nature into the soul at its
+first formation, either lie neglected, are urged into increase by
+their own powers, or are drawn towards maturity by the concurring
+circumstances that attend them.</p>
+<p>The late Mr. Grenville observed, in the House of Commons, "That
+commerce tended to corrupt the morals of a people." If we examine
+the expression, we shall find it true in a certain degree, beyond
+which, it tends to improve them.</p>
+<p>Perhaps every tradesman can furnish out numberless instances of
+small deceit. His conduct is marked with a littleness, which though
+allowed by general consent, is not strictly just. A person with
+whom I have long been connected in business, asked, if I had dealt
+with his relation, whom he had brought up, and who had lately
+entered into commercial life. I answered in the affirmative. He
+replied, "He is a very honest fellow." I told him I saw all the
+finesse of a tradesman about him. "Oh, rejoined my friend, a man
+has a right to say all he can in favour of his own goods." Nor is
+the seller alone culpable. The buyer takes an equal share in the
+deception. Though neither of them speak their sentiments, they well
+understand each other. Whilst the treaty is agitating, the profit
+of the tradesman vanishes, yet the buyer pronounces against the
+article; but when finished, the seller whispers his friend, "It is
+well sold," and the buyer smiles if a bargain.</p>
+<p>Thus is the commercial track a line of minute deceits.</p>
+<p>But, on the other hand, it does not seem possible for a man in
+trade to pass this line, without wrecking his reputation; which, if
+once broken, can never be made whole. The character of a tradesman
+is valuable, it is his all; therefore, whatever seeds of the
+vicious kind shoot forth in the mind, are carefully watched and
+nipped in the bud, that they may never blossom into action.</p>
+<p>Thus having slated the accounts between morality and trade, I
+shall leave the reader to draw the ballance. I shall not pronounce
+after so great a master, and upon so delicate a subject, but shall
+only ask, "Whether the people in trade are more corrupt than those
+out?"</p>
+<p>If the curious reader will lend an attentive ear to a pair of
+farmers in the market, bartering for a cow, he will find as much
+dissimulation as at St. James's, or at any other saint's, but
+couched in homelier phrase. The man of well-bred deceit is
+'<i>infinitely</i> your friend--It would give him <i>immense</i>
+pleasure to serve you!' while the man in the frock 'Will be ---- if
+he tells you a word of a lye!' Deception is an innate principle of
+the human heart, not peculiar to one man, or one profession.</p>
+<p>Having occasion for a horse, in 1759, I mentioned it to an
+acquaintance, and informed him of the uses: he assured me, he had
+one that would exactly suit; which he showed in the stable, and
+held the candle pretty high, <i>for fear of affecting the
+straw</i>. I told him it was needless to examine him, for I should
+rely upon his word, being conscious he was too much my friend to
+deceive me; therefore bargained, and caused him to be sent home.
+But by the light of the sun, which next morning illumined the
+heavens, I perceived the horse was <i>greased</i> on all fours. I
+therefore, in gentle terms, upbraided my friend with duplicity,
+when he replied with some warmth, "I would cheat my own brother in
+a horse." Had this honourable friend stood a chance of selling me a
+horse once a week, his own interest would have prevented him from
+deceiving me.</p>
+<p>A man enters into business with a view of acquiring a fortune--A
+laudable motive! That property which rises from honest industry, is
+an honour to its owner; the repose of his age; the reward of a life
+of attention: but, great as the advantage seems, yet, being of a
+private nature, it is one of the least in the mercantile walk. For
+the intercourse occasioned by traffic, gives a man a view of the
+world, and of himself; removes the narrow limits that confine his
+judgment; expands the mind; opens his understanding; removes his
+prejudices; and polishes his manners. Civility and humanity are
+ever the companions of trade; the man of business is the man of
+liberal sentiment; a barbarous and commercial people, is a
+contradiction; if he is not the philosopher of nature, he is the
+friend of his country, and well understands her interest. Even the
+men of inferior life among us, whose occupations, one would think,
+tend to produce minds as callous as the mettle they work; lay a
+stronger claim to civilization, than in any other place with which
+I am acquainted. I am sorry to mutilate the compliment, when I
+mention the lower race of the other sex: no lady ought to be
+publicly insulted, let her appear in what dress she pleases. Both
+sexes, however, agree in exhibiting a mistaken pity, in cases of
+punishment, particularly by preventing that for misconduct in the
+military profession.</p>
+<p>It is singular, that a predilection for Birmingham, is
+entertained by every denomination of visitants, from Edward Duke of
+York, who saw us in 1765, down to the presuming quack, who, griped
+with necessity, boldly discharges his filth from the stage. A
+paviour, of the name of Obrien, assured me in 1750, that he only
+meant to sleep one night in Birmingham, in his way from London to
+Dublin. But instead of pursuing his journey next morning, as
+intended, he had continued in the place thirty-five years: and
+though fortune had never elevated him above the pebbles of the
+street, yet he had never repented his stay.</p>
+<p>It has already been remarked that I first saw Birmingham in
+1741, accidentally cast into those regions of civility; equally
+unknown to every inhabitant, nor having the least idea of becoming
+one myself. Though the reflections of an untaught youth of
+seventeen cannot be striking, yet, as they were purely natural,
+permit me to describe them.</p>
+<p>I had been before acquainted with two or three principal towns.
+The environs of all I had seen were composed of wretched dwellings,
+replete with dirt and poverty; but the buildings in the exterior of
+Birmingham rose in a style of elegance. Thatch, so plentiful in
+other towns, was not to be met with in this. I was surprised at the
+place, but more so at the people: They were a species I had never
+seen: They possessed a vivacity I had never beheld: I had been
+among dreamers, but now I saw men awake: Their very step along the
+street showed alacrity: Every man seemed to know and prosecute his
+own affairs: The town was large, and full of inhabitants, and those
+inhabitants full of industry. I had seen faces elsewhere tinctured
+with an idle gloom void of meaning, but here, with a pleasing
+alertness: Their appearance was strongly marked with the modes of
+civil life: I mixed a variety of company, chiefly of the lower
+ranks, and rather as a silent spectator: I was treated with an easy
+freedom by all, and with marks of favour by some: Hospitality
+seemed to claim this happy people for her own, though I knew not at
+that time from what cause.</p>
+<p>I did not meet with this treatment in 1770, twenty nine years
+after, at Bosworth, where I accompanied a gentleman, with no other
+intent, than to view the field celebrated for the fall of Richard
+the third. The inhabitants enjoyed the cruel satisfaction of
+setting their dogs at us in the street, merely because we were
+strangers. Human figures, not their own, are seldom seen in those
+inhospitable regions: Surrounded with impassable roads, no
+intercourse with man to humanise the mind, no commerce to smooth
+their rugged manners, they continue the boors of nature.</p>
+<p>Thus it appears, that characters are influenced by profession.
+That the great advantage of private fortune, and the greater to
+society, of softening and forming the mind, are the result of
+trade. But these are not the only benefits that flow from this
+desirable spring. It opens the hand of charity to the assistance of
+distress; witness the Hospital and the two Charity Schools,
+supported by annual donation: It adds to the national security, by
+supplying the taxes for internal use, and, for the prosecution of
+war. It adds to that security, by furnishing the inhabitants with
+riches, which they are ever anxious to preserve, even at the risk
+of their lives; for the preservation of private wealth, tends to
+the preservation of the state.</p>
+<p>It augments the value of landed property, by multiplying the
+number of purchasers: It produces money to improve that land into a
+higher state of cultivation, which ultimately redounds to the
+general benefit, by affording plenty.</p>
+<p>It unites bodies of men in social compact, for their mutual
+interest: It adds to the credit and pleasure of individuals, by
+enabling them to purchase entertainment and improvement, both of
+the corporeal and intellectual kind.</p>
+<p>It finds employment for the hand that would otherwise be found
+in mischief: And it elevates the character of a nation in the scale
+of government.</p>
+<p>Birmingham, by her commercial consequence, has, of late, justly
+assumed the liberty of nominating one of the representatives for
+the county; and, to her honor, the elective body never regretted
+her choice.</p>
+<p>In that memorable contest of 1774, we were almost to a man of
+one mind: if an <i>odd dozen</i> among us, of a different
+<i>mould</i>, did not assimulate with the rest, they were treated,
+as men of free judgment should ever be treated, <i>with
+civility</i>, and the line of harmony was not broken.</p>
+<p>If this little treatise happens to travel into some of our
+corporate places, where the fire of contention, blown by the breath
+of party, is kept alive during seven years, let them cast a second
+glance over the above remark.</p>
+<p>Some of the first words after the creation, <i>increase and
+multiply</i>, are applicable to Birmingham; but as her own people
+are insufficient for the manufactures, she demands assistance for
+two or three miles round her. In our early morning walks, on every
+road proceeding from the town, we meet the sons of diligence
+returning to business, and bringing <i>in</i> the same dusky smuts,
+which the evening before they took out. And though they appear of a
+darkish complexion, we may consider it is the property of every
+metal to sully the user; money itself has the same effect, and yet
+he deems it no disgrace who is daubed by fingering it; the disgrace
+lies with him who has none to finger.</p>
+<p>The profits arising from labour, to the lower orders of men,
+seem to surpass those of other mercantile places. This is not only
+visible in the manufactures peculiar to Birmingham, but in the more
+common occupations of the barber, taylor, shoe-maker, etc. who bask
+in the rays of plenty.</p>
+<p>It is entertaining to the curious observer, to contemplate the
+variation of things. We know of nothing, either in the natural or
+moral world, that continues in the same state: From a number of
+instances that might be adduced, permit me to name one--that of
+money. This, considered in the abstract, is of little or no value;
+but, by the common consent of mankind, is erected into a general
+arbitrator, to fix a value upon all others: a medium through which
+every thing passes: a balance by which they must be weighed: a
+touchstone to which they must be applied to find their worth:
+though we can neither eat nor drink it, we can neither eat nor
+drink without it.--He that has none best knows its use.</p>
+<p>It has long been a complaint, that the same quantity of that
+medium, money, will not produce so much of the necessaries of life,
+particularly food, as heretofore; or, in other words, that
+provisions have been gradually rising for many ages, and that the
+milling, which formerly supported the laborious family a whole
+week, will not now support it one day.</p>
+<p>In times of remarkable scarcity, such as those in 1728, 41, 56,
+66, and 74, the press abounded with publications on the subject;
+but none, which I have seen, reached the question, though
+short.</p>
+<p>It is of no consequence, whether a bushel of corn sells for six
+<i>pence</i>, or six <i>shillings</i>, but, what <i>time</i> a man
+must labour before he can earn one?</p>
+<p>If, by the moderate labour of thirty-six hours, in the reign of
+Henry the Third, he could acquire a groat, which would purchase a
+bushel of wheat; and if, in the reign of George the Third, he works
+the same number of hours for eight shillings, which will make the
+same purchase, the balance is exactly even. If, by our commercial
+concerns with the eastern and the western worlds, the kingdom
+abounds with bullion, money must be cheaper; therefore a larger
+quantity is required to perform the same use. If money would go as
+far now as in the days of Henry the Third, a journeyman in
+Birmingham might amass a ministerial fortune.</p>
+<p>Whether provisions abound more or less? And whether the poor
+fare better or worse, in this period than in the other? are also
+questions dependant upon trade, and therefore worth
+investigating.</p>
+<p>If the necessaries of life abound more in this reign, than in
+that of Henry the Third, we cannot pronounce them dearer.</p>
+<p>Perhaps it will not be absurd to suppose, that the same quantity
+of land, directed by the superior hand of cultivation, in the
+eighteenth century, will yield twice the produce, as by the
+ignorant management of the thirteenth. We may suppose also, by the
+vast number of new inclosures which have annually taken place since
+the revolution, that twice the quantity of land is brought into
+cultivation: It follows, that four times the quantity of provisions
+is raised from the earth, than was raised under Henry the Third;
+which will leave a large surplus in hand, after we have deducted
+for additional luxury, a greater number of consumers, and also for
+exportation.</p>
+<p>This extraordinary stock is also a security against famine,
+which our forefathers severely felt.</p>
+<p>It will be granted, that in both periods the worst of the meat
+was used by the poor. By the improvements in agriculture, the art
+of feeding cattle is well understood, and much in practice; as the
+land improves, so will the beast that feeds upon it: if the
+productions, therefore, of the slaughter house, in this age,
+surpass those of Henry the Third, then the fare of the poor is at
+least as much superior now, as the worst of fat meat is superior to
+the worst of lean.</p>
+<p>The poor inhabitants in that day, found it difficult to procure
+bread; but in this, they sometimes add cream and butter.</p>
+<p>Thus it appears, that through the variation of things a balance
+is preserved: That provisions have not advanced in price, but are
+more plentiful: And that the lower class of men have found in
+trade, that intricate, but beneficial clue, which guides them into
+the confines of luxury.</p>
+<p>Provisions and the manufactures, like a pair of scales, will not
+preponderate together; but as weight is applied to the one, the
+other will advance.</p>
+<p>As labour is irksome to the body, a man will perform no more of
+it than necessity obliges him; it follows, that in those times when
+plenty preponderates, the manufactures tend to decay: For if a man
+can support his family with three days labour, he will not work
+six.</p>
+<p>As the generality of men will perform no more work than produces
+a maintenance, reduce that maintenance to half the price, and they
+will perform but half the work: Hence half the commerce of a nation
+is destroyed at one blow, and what is lost by one kingdom will be
+recovered by another, in rivalship.</p>
+<p>A commercial people, therefore, will endeavour to keep
+provisions at a superior rate, yet within reach of the poor.</p>
+<p>It follows also, that luxury is no way detrimental to trade; for
+we frequently observe ability and industry exerted to support
+it.</p>
+<p>The practice of the Birmingham manufacturer, for, perhaps, a
+hundred generations, was to keep within the warmth of his own
+forge.</p>
+<p>The foreign customer, therefore, applied to him for the
+execution of orders, and regularly made his appearance twice a
+year; and though this mode of business is not totally extinguished,
+yet a very different one is adopted.</p>
+<p>The merchant stands at the head of the manufacturer, purchases
+his produce, and travels the whole island to promote the sale: A
+practice that would have astonished our fore fathers. The
+commercial spirit of the age, hath also penetrated beyond the
+confines of Britain, and explored the whole continent of Europe;
+nor does it stop there, for the West-Indies, and the American
+world, are intimately acquainted with the Birmingham merchant; and
+nothing but the exclusive command of the East-India Company, over
+the Asiatic trade, prevents our riders from treading upon the heels
+of each other, in the streets of Calcutta.</p>
+<p>To this modern conduct of Birmingham, in sending her sons to the
+foreign market, I ascribe the chief cause of her rapid
+increase.</p>
+<p>By the poor's books it appears, there are not three thousand
+houses in Birmingham, that pay the parochial rates; whilst there
+are more then five thousand that do not, chiefly through inability.
+Hence we see what an amazing number of the laborious class of
+mankind is among us. This valuable part of the creation, is the
+prop of the remainder. They are the rise and support of our
+commerce. From this fountain we draw our luxuries and our
+pleasures. They spread our tables, and oil the wheels of our
+carriages. They are also the riches and the defence of the
+country.</p>
+<p>How necessary then, is it to direct with prudence, the rough
+passions of this important race, and make them subservient to the
+great end of civil society. The deficiency of conduct in this
+useful part of our species ought to be supplied by the
+superior.</p>
+<p>Let not the religious reader be surprised if I say, their
+follies, and even their vices, under certain restrictions, are
+beneficial. Corruption in the community, as well as in the natural
+body, accelerates vital existence.</p>
+<p>Let us survey one of the men, who begin life at the lowest ebb;
+without property, or any other advantage but that of his own
+prudence.</p>
+<p>He comes, by length of time and very minute degrees, from being
+directed himself, to have the direction of others. He quits the
+precincts of servitude, and enters the dominions of command: He
+laboured for others, but now others labour for him. Should the
+whole race, therefore, possess the same prudence, they would all
+become masters. Where then could be found the servant? Who is to
+perform the manual part? Who to execute the orders of the merchant?
+A world consisting only of masters, is like a monster consisting
+only of a head. We know that the head is no more than the leading
+power, the members are equally necessary. And, as one member is
+placed in a more elevated state than another, so are the ranks of
+men, that no void may be left. The hands and the feet, were
+designed to execute the drudgery of life; the head for direction,
+and all are suitable in their sphere.</p>
+<p>If we turn the other side of the picture, we shall see a man
+born in affluence, take the reins of direction; but like
+Ph&aelig;ton, not being able to guide them, blunders on from
+mischief to mischief, till he involves himself in destruction,
+comes prone to the earth, and many are injured by his fall. From
+directing the bridle, he submits to the bit; seeks for bread in the
+shops, the line designed him by nature; where his hands become
+callous with the file, and where, for the first time in his life,
+he becomes useful to an injured society.</p>
+<p>Thus, from imprudence, folly, and vice, is produced
+poverty;--poverty produces labour; from labour, arise the
+manufactures; and from these, the riches of a country, with all
+their train of benefits.</p>
+<p>It would be difficult to enumerate the great variety of trades
+practised in Birmingham, neither would it give pleasure to the
+reader. Some of them, spring up with the expedition of a blade of
+grass, and, like that, wither in a summer. If some are lasting,
+like the sun, others seem to change with the moon. Invention is
+ever at work. Idleness; the manufactory of scandal, with the
+numerous occupations connected with the cotton; the linen, the
+silk, and the woollen trades, are little known among us.</p>
+<p>Birmingham begun with the productions of the anvil, and probably
+will end with them. The sons of the hammer, were once her chief
+inhabitants; but that great croud of artists is now lost in a
+greater: Genius seems to increase with multitude.</p>
+<p>Part of the riches, extension, and improvement of Birmingham,
+are owing to the late John Taylor, Esq; who possessed the singular
+powers of perceiving things as they really were. The spring, and
+consequence of action, were open to his view; whom we may justly
+deem the Shakespear or the Newton of his day. He rose from minute
+beginnings, to shine in the commercial hemisphere, as they in the
+poetical and philosophical--Imitation is part of the human
+character. An example of such eminence in himself, promoted
+exertion in others; which, when prudence guided the helm, led on to
+fortune: But the bold adventurer who crouded sail, without ballast
+and without rudder, has been known to overset the vessel, and sink
+insolvent.</p>
+<p>To this uncommon genius we owe the gilt-button, the japanned and
+gilt snuff-boxes, with the numerous race of enamels--From the same
+fountain also issued the paper snuff-box, at which one servant
+earned three pounds ten shillings per week, by painting them at a
+farthing each.</p>
+<p>In his shop were weekly manufactured buttons to the amount of
+800<i>l</i> exclusive of other valuable productions.</p>
+<p>One of the present nobility, of distinguished taste, examining
+the works, with the master, purchased some of the articles, amongst
+others, a toy of eighty guineas value, and, while paying for them,
+observed with a smile, "he plainly saw he could not reside in
+Birmingham for less than two hundred pounds a day."</p>
+<p>The toy trades first made their appearance in Birmingham, in the
+beginning of Charles the second, in an amazing variety, attended
+with all their beauties and their graces. The first in pre-eminence
+is</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="The_BUTTON."></a>The BUTTON.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>This beautiful ornament appears with infinite variation; and
+though the original date is rather uncertain, yet we well remember
+the long coats of our grandfathers covered with half a gross of
+high-tops, and the cloaks of our grandmothers, ornamented with a
+horn button nearly the size of a crown piece, a watch, or a John
+apple, curiously wrought, as having passed through the Birmingham
+press.</p>
+<p>Though the common round button keeps on with the steady pace of
+the day, yet we sometimes see the oval, the square, the pea, and
+the pyramid, flash into existence. In some branches of traffic the
+wearer calls loudly for new fashions; but in this, the fashions
+tread upon each other, and crowd upon the wearer. The consumption
+of this article is astonishing. There seem to be hidden treasures
+couched within this magic circle, known only to a few, who extract
+prodigious fortunes out of this useful toy, whilst a far greater
+number, submit to a statute of bankruptcy.</p>
+<p>Trade, like a restive horse, can rarely be managed; for, where
+one is carried to the end of a successful journey, many are thrown
+off by the way. The next that calls our attention is</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="The_BUCKLE."></a>The BUCKLE.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Perhaps the shoe, in one form or other, is nearly as ancient as
+the foot. It originally appeared under the name of, sandal; this
+was no other than a sole without an upper-leather. That fashion
+hath since been inverted, and we now, sometimes, see an
+upper-leather nearly without a sole. But, whatever was the cut of
+the shoe, it always demanded a fastening. Under the house of
+Plantagenet, it shot horizontally from the foot, like a Dutch
+scait, to an enormous length, so that the extremity was fattened to
+the knee, sometimes, with a silver chain, a silk lace, or even a
+pack-thread string, rather than avoid <i>genteel taste</i>.</p>
+<p>This thriving beak, drew the attention of the legislature, who
+were determined to prune the exorbitant shoot. For in 1465 we find
+an order of council, prohibiting the growth of the shoe toe, to
+more than two inches, under the penalty of a dreadful curse from
+the priest, and, which was worse, the payment of twenty shillings
+to the king.</p>
+<p>This fashion, like every other, gave way to time, and in its
+stead, the rose began to bud upon the foot. Which under the house
+of Tudor, opened in great perfection. No shoe was fashionable,
+without being fattened with a full-blown rose. Under the house of
+Stuart, the rose withered, which gave rise to the shoe-string.</p>
+<p>The beaus of that age, ornamented their lower tier with double
+laces of silk, tagged with silver, and the extremities beautified
+with a small fringe of the same metal. The inferior class, wore
+laces of plain silk, linen, or even a thong of leather; which last
+is yet to be met with in the humble plains of rural life. But I am
+inclined to think, the artists of Birmingham had no great hand in
+fitting out the beau of the last century.</p>
+<p>The revolution was remarkable, for the introduction of William,
+of liberty, and the minute buckle; not differing much in size and
+shape from the horse bean.</p>
+<p>This offspring of fancy, like the clouds, is ever changing. The
+fashion of to-day, is thrown into the casting pot to-morrow.</p>
+<p>The buckle seems to have undergone every figure, size and shape
+of geometrical invention: It has passed through every form in the
+whole zodiac of Euclid. The large square buckle is the <i>ton</i>
+of the present day. The ladies also, have adopted the reigning
+taste: It is difficult to discover their beautiful little feet,
+covered with an enormous shield of buckle; and we wonder to see the
+active motion under the massive load. Thus the British fair support
+the manufactures of Birmingham, and thus they kill by weight of
+metal.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="GUNS."></a>GUNS.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Though the sword and the gun are equal companions in war, it
+does not appear they are of equal original. I have already
+observed, that the sword was the manufacture of Birmingham, in the
+time of the Britons.</p>
+<p>But tradition tells us, King William was once lamenting "That
+guns were not manufactured in his dominions, but that he was
+obliged to procure them from Holland at a great expence, and
+greater difficulty."</p>
+<p>One of the Members for Warwickshire being present, told the
+King, "He thought his constituents could answer his Majesty's
+wishes."--The King was pleased with the remark, and the Member
+posted to Birmingham. Upon application to a person in Digbeth,
+whose name I forget, the pattern was executed with precision,
+which, when presented to the royal board, gave entire satisfaction.
+Orders were immediately issued for large numbers, which have been
+so frequently repeated that they never lost their road; and the
+ingenious artists have been so amply rewarded, that they have
+rolled in their carriages to this day.--Thus the same instrument
+which is death to one man, is genteel life to another.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="LEATHER."></a>LEATHER.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>It may seem singular to a modern eye, to view this place in the
+light of one vast tan-yard.--Though there is no appearance of that
+necessary article among us, yet Birmingham was once a famous market
+for leather. Digbeth not only abounded with tanners, but large
+numbers of hides arrived weekly for sale, where the whole country
+found a supply. When the weather would allow, they were ranged in
+columns in the High-street, and at other times deposited in the
+Leather-hall, at the East end of New-street, appropriated for their
+reception.</p>
+<p>This market was of great antiquity, perhaps not less than seven
+hundred years, and continued till the beginning of the present
+century. We have two officers, annually chosen, by the name of
+<i>leather-sealers</i>, from a power given them by ancient charter,
+to mark the vendible hides; but now the leather-sealers have no
+duty, but that of taking an elegant dinner. Shops are erected upon
+tan-fats; the Leather-hall is gone to destruction, and we are
+reduced to one solitary tanner.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="STEEL."></a>STEEL.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>The progress of the arts, is equal to the progress of time; they
+began, and will end together. Though some of both are lost, yet
+they both accumulate.</p>
+<p>The manufacture of iron, in Birmingham, is ancient beyond
+research; that of steel is of modern date.</p>
+<p>Pride is inseparable from the human character, the man without
+it, is the man without breath: we trace it in various forms,
+through every degree of people; but like those objects about us, it
+is best discovered in our own sphere; those above, and those below
+us, rather escape our notice; envy attacks an equal.</p>
+<p>Pride induced the Pope to look with contempt on the European
+Princes, and now induces them to return the compliment; it taught
+insolence to the Spaniard, selfishness to the Dutch; it teaches the
+rival nations of France and England to contend for power.</p>
+<p>Pride preserves a man from mean actions, it throws him upon
+meaner; it whets the sword for destruction; it urges the laudable
+acts of humanity; it is the universal hinge on which we move; it
+glides the gentle stream of usefulness, it overflows the mounds of
+reason, and swells into a destructive flood; like the sun, in his
+milder rays, it animates and draws us towards perfection; but, like
+him, in his fiercer beams, it scorches and destroys.</p>
+<p>Money is not the necessary attendant of pride, for it abounds no
+where more than in the lowest ranks. It adds a sprucer air to a
+sunday dress; casts a look of disdain from a bundle of rags; it
+boasts the <i>honor</i> of a family, while poverty unites a sole
+and upper-leather with a bandage of shop-thread. There are people
+who even <i>pride</i> themselves in humility.</p>
+<p>This dangerous <i>good</i>, this necessary <i>evil</i>, supports
+the female character; without it, the brightest part of the
+creation would degenerate.</p>
+<p>It will be asked, "What portion may be allowed?" Prudence will
+answer, "As much as you please, but <i>not</i> to disgust."</p>
+<p>It is equally found in the senate-house, or the button-shop; the
+scene of action is the scene of pride; and I, unable to adorn this
+work with erudition, take a pride in cloathing a worn-out subject
+afresh, and that pride will increase, should the world smi ----
+"But why, says my friend, do you forsake the title of your chapter,
+and lead us a dance through the mazes of pride? Can there be any
+connexion between that sovereign passion, and forging a bar of
+steel?" Yes, he who makes steel prides himself in carrying the art
+one step higher than he who makes iron.</p>
+<p>This art appeared among us in the seventeenth century; was
+introduced by the family of Kettle. The name of Steelhouse-lane
+will convey to posterity the situation of the works, the commercial
+spirit of Birmingham, will convey the produce to the Antipodes.</p>
+<p>From this warm, but dismal climate, issues the button, which
+shines on the breast, and the bayonet, intended to pierce it; the
+lancet, which bleeds the man, and the rowel, the horse; the lock,
+which preserves the beloved bottle, and the screw, to uncork it;
+the needle, equally obedient to the thimble and the pole.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="NAILS."></a>NAILS.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>In most occupations, the profit of the master and the journeyman
+bear a proportion: if the former is able to figure in genteel life,
+the latter is able to figure in silk stockings. If the matter can
+afford to allow upon his goods ten per cent. discount for money,
+the servant can afford to squander half his wages. In a worn-down
+trade, where the tides of profit are reduced to a low ebb, and
+where imprudence sets her foot upon the premises, the matter and
+the man starve together. Only <i>half</i> this is our present
+case.</p>
+<p>The art of nail-making is one of the most ancient among us; we
+may safely charge its antiquity with four figures.</p>
+<p>We cannot consider it a trade <i>in</i>, so much as <i>of</i>
+Birmingham; for we have but few nail-makers left in the town: our
+nailers are chiefly masters, and rather opulent. The manufacturers
+are so scattered round the country, that we cannot travel far, in
+any direction, out of the sound of the nail-hammer. But Birmingham,
+like a powerful magnet, draws the produce of the anvil to
+herself.</p>
+<p>When I first approached her, from Walsall, in 1741, I was
+surprized at the prodigious number of blacksmiths shops upon the
+road; and could not conceive how a country, though populous, could
+support so many people of the same occupation. In some of these
+shops I observed one, or more females, stript of their upper
+garment, and not overcharged with their lower, wielding the hammer
+with all the grace of the sex. The beauties of their face were
+rather eclipsed by the smut of the anvil; or, in poetical phrase,
+the tincture of the forge had taken possession of those lips, which
+might have been taken by the kiss.</p>
+<p>Struck with the novelty, I inquired, "Whether the ladies in this
+country shod horses?" but was answered, with a smile, "They are
+nailers."</p>
+<p>A fire without heat, a nailer of a fair complexion, or one who
+despises the tankard, are equally rare among them. His whole system
+of faith may be comprised in one article--That the slender
+two-penny mug, used in a public house, <i>is deceitful above all
+things, and desperately wicked</i>.</p>
+<p>While the master reaps the harvest of plenty, the workman
+submits to the scanty gleanings of penury, a thin habit, an early
+old age, and a figure bending towards the earth. Plenty comes not
+near his dwelling, except of rags, and of children. But few
+recruits arise from his nail-shop, except for the army. His hammer
+is worn into deep hollows, fitting the fingers of a dark and plump
+hand, hard as the timber it wears. His face, like the moon, is
+often seen through a cloud.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="BELLOWS."></a>BELLOWS.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Man first catches the profession; the profession afterwards
+moulds the man.</p>
+<p>In whatever profession we engage, we assume its character,
+become a part of it, vindicate its honor, its eminence, its
+antiquity; or feel a wound through its sides.</p>
+<p>Though there may be no more pride in a minister of state, who
+opens a budget, than in a tinker who carries one, yet they equally
+contend for the honor of their trade.</p>
+<p>Every man, from the attorney's clerk to the butcher's
+apprentice, feels his own honor, with that of his profession,
+wounded by travelling on foot. To be caught on his feet, is nearly
+the same as to be caught in a crime. The man who has gathered up
+his limbs, and hung them on a horse, looks <i>down</i> with dignity
+on him who has not; while the man on foot offers his humble bow,
+afraid to look up--If providence favours us with feet, is it a
+disgrace to use them?--I could instance a person who condescended
+to quit London, that center of trick, lace, and equipage; and in
+1761, open a draper's shop in Birmingham: but his feet, or his
+<i>pride</i>, were so much hurt by walking, that he could scarcely
+travel ten doors from his own without a post-chaise--the result
+was, he became such an adept in riding, that in a few months, he
+rode triumphant into the Gazette. Being quickly scoured bright by
+the ill-judged laws of bankruptcy, he rode, for the last time,
+<i>out</i> of Birmingham, where he had so often rode <i>in</i>: but
+his injured creditors were obliged to <i>walk</i> after the slender
+dividend of eighteen pence in the pound. The man who <i>can</i> use
+his feet, is envied by him who <i>cannot</i>; and he, in turn,
+envies him who <i>will</i> not. Our health and our feet, in a
+double sense, go together. The human body has been justly compared
+to a musical instrument; I add, this instrument was never perfectly
+in tune, without a due portion of exercise.</p>
+<p>The man of military character, puts on, with his scarlet, that
+martial air, which tells us, "he has formed a resolution to kill:"
+and we naturally ask, "Which sex?"</p>
+<p>Some "<i>pert and affected author</i>" with anxiety on his brow,
+will be apt to step forward, and say, "Will you celebrate the man
+of the sword, who transfers the blush of his face to his back, and
+neglect the man of the quill, who, like the pelican, portions out
+his vitals to feed others? Which is preferable, he who lights up
+the mental powers, or he who puts them out? the man who stores the
+head with knowledge, or he who stores it with a bullet?"</p>
+<p>The antiquarian supports his dignity with a solemn aspect; he
+treats a sin and a smile as synonimous; one half of which has been
+discarded from his childhood. If a smile in the house of religion,
+or of mourning, be absurd, is there any reason to expel it from
+those places where it is not? A tale will generally allow of two
+ingredients, <i>information</i> and <i>amusement</i>: but the
+historian and the antiquarian have, from time immemorial, used but
+<i>one</i>. Every smile, except that of contempt, is beneficial to
+the constitution; they tend to promote long life, and pleasure
+while that life lasts. Much may be said in favour of tears of joy,
+but more on joy without tears. I wonder the lively fancy of Hogarth
+never sketched the <i>dull</i> historian, in the figure of an ass,
+plodding to market under his panniers, laden with the fruits of
+antiquity, and old time driving up the <i>rear</i>, with his scythe
+converted into an hedge-stake.</p>
+<p>The bellows-maker proclaims the <i>honor</i> of his art, by
+observing, he alone produces that instrument which commands the
+winds; his soft breeze, like that of the south, counter-acts the
+chill blasts of winter: by his efforts, like those of the sun, the
+world receives light: he creates when he pleases, and gives
+<i>breath</i> when he creates. In his caverns the winds deep at
+pleasure; and by his <i>orders</i> they set Europe in flames.</p>
+<p>He pretends, that a gentle puff in the eyes of a
+<i>reviewer</i>, from a pair of his bellows, would tend to clear
+the sight, and enable him to distinguish between a smile and a
+serious face: that his circular board, like a ferula, applied by
+the handle to an inferior part, would induce him to peruse the
+<i>whole treatise</i>, and not partially pronounce from the
+preface.</p>
+<p>He farther pretends, that the <i>antiquity</i> of his occupation
+will appear from the plenty of elm, once in the neighbourhood, but
+long cut up for his use: that the leather-market in Birmingham, for
+many ages, furnished him with sides; and though the manufacture of
+iron is allowed to be extremely ancient, yet the smith could not
+procure his heat without a blast, nor could that blast be raised
+without the bellows.</p>
+<p>Two inferences arise from these remarks, that the antiquarian
+will frown on this little history; and that bellows-making is one
+of the oldest trades in Birmingham.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="THREAD."></a>THREAD.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>We, who reside in the interior parts of the kingdom, may observe
+the first traces of a river issue from its fountain; the current so
+extremely small, that if a bottle of liquor, distilled through the
+urinary vessels, was discharged into its course, it would
+manifestly augment the water, and quicken the stream: the reviving
+bottle, having added spirits to the man, seems to add spirits to
+the river.--If we pursue this river, winding through one hundred
+and thirty miles, we shall observe it collect strength as it runs,
+expand its borders, swell into consequence, employ multitudes of
+people, carry wealth in its bosom, and exactly resemble
+<i>thread-making</i> in Birmingham.</p>
+<p>If we represent to our idea, a man able to employ three or four
+people, himself in an apron, one of the number; but being
+<i>unable</i> to write his name, shows his attachment to the
+christian religion, by signing the <i>cross</i> to receipts; whose
+method of book-keeping, like that of the publican, is <i>a door and
+a lump of chalk;</i> producing a book which none can peruse but
+himself: who, having manufactured 40lb. weight of thread, of divers
+colours, and rammed it into a pair of leather bags, something
+larger than a pair of boots, which we might deem the arms of his
+trade <i>empaled</i>; flung them on a horse, and placed himself on
+the top, by way of a <i>crest</i>; visits an adjacent market, to
+starve with his goods at a stall, or retail them to the mercer, nor
+return without the money--we shall see a thread-maker of 1652.</p>
+<p>If we pursue this occupation, winding through the mazes of one
+hundred and thirty <i>years</i>, we shall see it enlarge its
+boundaries, multiply its people, increase its consequence and
+wealth, till 1782, when we behold the matter in possession of
+correct accounts, the apron thrown aside, the stall kicked over,
+the bags tossed into the garret, and the mercer overlooked in the
+grand prospect of exportation. We farther behold him take the lead
+in provincial concerns, step into his own carriage, and hold the
+king's commission as a magistrate.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="PRINTING"></a>PRINTING,</h2>
+<h3>By JOHN BASKERVILLE.</h3>
+<br>
+<p>The pen of an historian rejoices in the actions of the great;
+the fame of the deserving, like an oak tree, is of sluggish growth;
+and, like the man himself, they are not matured in a day. The
+present generation becomes debtor to him who excels, but the future
+will discharge that debt with more than simple interest. The still
+voice of fame may warble in his ears towards the close of life, but
+her trumpet seldom sounds in full clarion, till those ears are
+stopped with the finger of death.</p>
+<p>This son of genius was born at Wolverley, in the county of
+Worcester, in 1706; heir to a paternal estate of 60<i>l</i>. per
+annum, which, fifty years after, while in his own possession, had
+increased to 90<i>l</i>. He was trained to no occupation; but, in
+1726, became a writing-matter in Birmingham.--In 1737, he taught
+school in the Bull-ring, and is said to have written an excellent
+hand.</p>
+<p>As painting suited his talents, he entered into the lucrative
+branch of japanning, and resided at No. 22, in Moor-street.</p>
+<p>He took, in 1745, a building lease of eight acres, two furlongs
+north west of the town, to which he gave the name of
+<i>Easy-hill</i>, converted it into a little Eden, and built a
+house in the center: but the town, as if conscious of his merit,
+followed his retreat, and surrounded it with buildings.--Here he
+continued the business of a japanner for life: his carriage, each
+pannel of which was a distinct picture, might be considered <i>the
+pattern-card of his trade</i>, and was drawn by a beautiful pair of
+cream-coloured horses.</p>
+<p>His inclination for letters induced him, in 1750, to turn his
+thoughts towards the press. He spent many years in the uncertain
+pursuit; sunk 600<i>l</i>. before he could produce one letter to
+please himself, and some thousands before the shallow stream of
+profit began to flow.</p>
+<p>His first attempt, in 1756, was a quarto edition of Virgil,
+price one guinea, now worth several.--He afterwards printed
+Paradise Lost, the Bible, Common Prayer, Roman and English
+Classics, etc. in various sizes, with more satisfaction to the
+literary world than emolument to himself.</p>
+<p>In 1765, he applied to his friend, Dr. Franklin, then at Paris,
+and now Ambassador from America, to sound the literati, respecting
+the purchase of his types; but received for answer, "That the
+French, reduced by the war of 1756, were so far from pursuing
+schemes of taste, that they were unable to repair their public
+buildings, but suffered the scaffolding to rot before them."</p>
+<p>In private life he was a humorist; idle in the extreme; but his
+invention was of the true Birmingham model, active. He could well
+design, but procured others to execute; wherever he found merit he
+caressed it: he was remarkably polite to the stranger; fond of
+show: a figure rather of the smaller size, and delighted to adorn
+that figure with gold lace.--Although constructed with the light
+timbers of a frigate, his movement was solemn as a ship of the
+line.</p>
+<p>During the twenty-five years I knew him, though in the decline
+of life, he retained the singular traces of a handsome man. If he
+exhibited a peevish temper, we may consider good-nature and intense
+thinking are not always found together.</p>
+<p>Taste accompanied him through the different walks of
+agriculture, architecture, and the finer arts. Whatever passed
+through his fingers, bore the lively marks of John Baskerville.</p>
+<p>His aversion to christianity would not suffer him to lie among
+christians; he therefore erected a mausoleum in his own grounds for
+his remains, and died without issue, in 1775, at the age of
+69.--Many efforts were used after his death, to dispose of the
+types; but, to the lading discredit of the British nation, no
+purchaser could be found in the whole commonwealth of letters. The
+universities coldly rejected the offer. The London booksellers
+understood no science like that of profit. The valuable property,
+therefore, lay a dead weight, till purchased by a literary society
+at Paris, in 1779, for 3700<i>l</i>.</p>
+<p>It is an old remark, that no country abounds with genius so much
+as this island; and it is a remark nearly as old, that genius is no
+where so little rewarded; how else came Dryden, Goldsmith, and
+Chatterton to want bread? Is merit, like a flower of the field, too
+common to attract notice? or is the use of money beneath the care
+of exalted talents?</p>
+<p>Invention seldom pays the inventor. If you ask, what fortune
+Baskerville ought to have been rewarded with? "The <i>most</i>
+which can be comprised in five figures." If you farther ask, what
+he possessed? "The <i>least</i>;" but none of it squeezed from the
+press. What will the shade of this great man think, if capable of
+thinking, that he has spent a fortune of opulence, and a life of
+genius, in carrying to perfection the greatest of all human
+inventions; and his productions, slighted by his country, were
+hawked over Europe, in quest of a bidder?</p>
+<p>We must <i>revere</i>, if we do not <i>imitate</i>, the taste
+and economy of the French nation, who, brought by the British arms,
+in 1762, to the verge of ruin, rising above distress, were able, in
+17 years, to purchase Baskerville's elegant types, refused by his
+own country, and expend an hundred thousand pounds in printing the
+works of Voltaire!</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="BRASS_FOUNDRY."></a>BRASS FOUNDRY.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>The curious art before us is perhaps less ancient than
+profitable, and less healthful than either. I shall not enquire
+whose grandfather was the first brass-founder here, but shall leave
+their grandsons to settle that important point with my successor
+who shall next write the History of Birmingham. Whoever was the
+first, I believe he figured in the reign of King William; but,
+though he sold his productions at an excessive price, he did not,
+like the moderns, possess the art of acquiring a fortune: but now
+the master knows the way to affluence, and the servant to
+liquor.</p>
+<p>To enumerate the great variety of occupations amongst us, would
+be as useless, and as unentertaining to the reader, perhaps to the
+writer, as to count the pebbles in the street.</p>
+<p>Having therefore visited a few, by way of specimen, I shall
+desist from farther pursuit, and wheel off in a</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="HACKNEY_COACH."></a>HACKNEY COACH.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Wherever the view of profit opens, the eyes of a Birmingham man
+are open to see it.</p>
+<p>In 1775, a person was determined to try if a Hackney Coach would
+take with the inhabitants. He had not mounted the box many times
+before he inadvertently dropped the expression, "Thirty shillings a
+day!" The word was attended with all the powers of magic, for
+instantly a second rolled into the circus.</p>
+<p>And these elevated sons of the lash are now augmented to
+fifteen, whom we may justly denominate a club of tippling deities,
+who preside over weddings, christenings, and pleasurable
+excursions.</p>
+<p>It would give satisfaction to the curious calculator, could any
+mode be found of discovering the returns of trade, made by the
+united inhabitants. But the question is complicated. It only admits
+of surmise. From comparing many instances in various ranks of life
+among us, I have been led to suppose, that the weekly returns
+exceed the annual rent of the buildings. And as these rents are
+nearly ascertained, perhaps, we may conclude, that those returns
+are about 80,000. If we deduct for four weeks holidays, the annual
+returns will be--3,840,000<i>l</i>.</p>
+<p>Now we have entered the visionary regions of fancy, let us
+pursue the thought a stage farther; and consider Birmingham as one
+great family, possessed of a capital of Eight Millions. Her annual
+returns in trade as above, from which we will deduct for the
+purchase of</p>
+<center>
+<table summary="">
+<tr>
+<td>Raw materials</td>
+<td align="right">1,920,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>House rent, repairs and taxes</td>
+<td align="right">100,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Losses in trade</td>
+<td align="right">50,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Maintenance, clothing, and pleasurable</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;expences, for 50,000 people, at
+10<i>s</i>.</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;per week</td>
+<td align="right">1,300,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right">---------</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right">3,370,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right">---------</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Annual addition to the capital</td>
+<td align="right">470,000</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</center>
+<p>Should a future antagonist arise, and attack me in numbers, I
+promise beforehand to relinquish the field; for I profess only, to
+stand upon ideal ground.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="BANK."></a>BANK.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Perhaps a public bank is as necessary to the health of the
+commercial body, as exercise to the natural. The circulation of the
+blood and spirits are promoted by one, so are cash and bills by the
+other; and a stagnation is equally detrimental to both. Few places
+are without: Yet Birmingham, famous in the annals of traffic, could
+boast no such claim. To remedy this defect therefore, about every
+tenth trader was a banker, or, a retailer of cash. At the head of
+whom were marshalled the whole train of drapers and grocers, till
+the year 1765, when a regular bank was established by Messrs.
+Taylor and Lloyd, two opulent tradesmen, whose credit being equal
+to that of the bank of England, quickly collected the shining rays
+of sterling property into its focus.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="GOVERNMENT."></a>GOVERNMENT.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Have you, my dear reader, seen a sword hilt, of curious, and of
+Birmingham manufactory, covered with spangles of various sizes,
+every one of which carries a separate lustre, but, when united, has
+a dazzling effect? Or, have you seen a ring, from the same origin,
+set with diamonds of many dimensions, the least of which, sparkles
+with amazing beauty, but, when beheld in cluster, surprize the
+beholder? Or, have you, in a frosty evening, seen the heavens
+bespangled with refulgent splendor, each stud shining with
+intrinsic excellence, but, viewed in the aggregate, reflect honour
+upon the maker, and enliven the hemisphere? Such is the British
+government. Such is that excellent system of polity, which shines,
+the envy of the stranger, and the protector of the native.</p>
+<p>Every city, town and village in the English hemisphere, hath a
+separate jurisdiction of its own, and may justly be deemed <i>a
+stud in the grand lustre</i>.</p>
+<p>Though the British Constitution is as far from perfection, as
+the glory of the ring and the hilt is from that of the sun which
+causes it, or the stars from the day; yet perhaps it stands higher
+in the scale of excellence, than that of its neighbours. We may,
+with propriety, allow that body to shine with splendor, which hath
+been polishing for seventeen hundred years. Much honour is due to
+the patriotic merit which advanced it to its present eminence.</p>
+<p>Though Birmingham is but one sparkle of the brilliant clustre,
+yet she is a sparkle of the first <i>water</i>, and of the first
+<i>magnitude</i>.</p>
+<p>The more perfect any system of government, the happier the
+people. A wise government will punish for the commission of crimes,
+but a wiser will endeavour to prevent them. Man is an active
+animal: If he is not employed in some useful pursuit, he will
+employ himself in mischief. Example is also prevalent: If one man
+falls into error, he often draws another. Though heaven, for wise
+purposes, suffers a people to fulfil the measure of their
+iniquities, a prudent state will nip them in the bud.</p>
+<p>It is easy to point out some places, only one third the
+magnitude of Birmingham, whose frequent breaches of the law, and
+quarrels among themselves, find employment for half a dozen
+magistrates, and four times that number of constables; whilst the
+business of this, was for many years conducted by a single Justice,
+the late John Wyrley, Esq. If the reader should think I am mistaken
+and object, that parish affairs cannot be conducted without a
+second? Let me reply, He conducted that second also.</p>
+<p>As human nature is nearly the same, whether in or out of
+Birmingham; and as enormities seem more prevalent out than in, we
+may reasonably ascribe the cause to the extraordinary industry of
+the inhabitants, not allowing time to brood over, and bring forth
+mischief, equal to places of inferior diligence.</p>
+<p>We have at present two acting magistrates to hold the beam of
+justice, the Rev. Benjamin Spencer, and Joseph Carles, Esq; who
+both reside at a distance.</p>
+<p>Many of our corporate towns received their charters from that
+amiable, but unfortunate prince, Henry the Second. These were the
+first dawnings of British liberty, after fixing the Norman yoke.
+They were afterwards ratified and improved by the subsequent Kings
+of England; granting not only the manors, but many exclusive
+privileges. But at this day, those places which were so remarkably
+favoured with the smiles of royalty, are not quite so free as those
+that were not. The prosperity of this happy place proves the
+assertion, of which every man is free the moment he enters.</p>
+<p>We often behold a pompous corporation, which sounds well in
+history, over something like a dirty village--This is a head
+without a body. The very reverse is our case--We are a body without
+a head. For though Birmingham has undergone an amazing alteration
+in extension, riches and population, yet the government is nearly
+the same as the Saxons left it. This part of my important history
+therefore must suffer an eclipse: This illustrious chapter, that
+rose in dazling brightness, must be veiled in the thick clouds of
+obscurity: I shall figure with my corporation in a despicable
+light. I am not able to bring upon the stage, a mayor and a group
+of aldermen, dressed in antique scarlet, bordered with fur, drawing
+a train of attendants; the meanest of which, even the pinder, is
+badged with silver: Nor treat my guest with a band of music, in
+scarlet cloaks with broad laces. I can grace the hand of my
+Birmingham fidler with only a rusty instrument, and his back with
+barely a whole coat; neither have I a mace for the inaugeration of
+the chief magistrate. The reader, therefore, must either quit the
+place, or be satisfied with such entertainment as the company
+affords.</p>
+<p>The officers, who are annually chosen, to direct in this
+prosperous feat of fortune, are</p>
+<br>
+<center>
+<table summary="">
+<tr>
+<td>An High Bailiff.</td>
+<td>Two High Tasters.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Low Bailiff.</td>
+<td>Two Low Tasters.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Two Constables.</td>
+<td>Two Asseirers. And</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Headborough.</td>
+<td>Two Leather Sealers.</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</center>
+<br>
+<p>All which, the constables excepted, are no more than servants to
+the lord of the manor; and whose duty extends no farther, than to
+the preservation of the manorial rights.</p>
+<p>The high bailiff is to inspect the market, and see that justice
+takes place between buyer and seller; to rectify the weights and
+dry measures used in the manor.</p>
+<p>The low bailiff summons a jury, who choose all the other
+officers, and generally with prudence. But the most important part
+of his office is, to treat his friends at the expence of about
+Seventy Pounds.</p>
+<p>The headborough is only an assistant to the constables, chiefly
+in time of absence.</p>
+<p>High tasters examine the goodness of beer, and its measure.</p>
+<p>Low tasters inspect the meat exposed to sale, and cause that to
+be destroyed which is unfit for use.</p>
+<p>Asseirers ratify the chief rent and amercements, between the
+lord and the inhabitant. And the</p>
+<p>Leather sealers, stamped a public seal upon the hides, when
+Birmingham was a market for leather.</p>
+<p>These manorial servants, instituted by ancient charter, chiefly
+possess a name, without an office. Thus order seems assisted by
+industry, and thus a numerous body of inhabitants are governed
+without a governor.</p>
+<p>Exclusive of the choice of officers, the jury impannelled by the
+low bailiff, have the presentation of all encroachments upon the
+lord's waste, which has long been neglected.</p>
+<p>The duties of office are little known, except that of taking a
+generous dinner, which is punctually observed. It is too early to
+begin business till the table is well stored with bottles, and too
+late afterwards.</p>
+<p>During the existence of the house of Birmingham, the court-leet
+was held at the Moat, in what we should now think a large and
+shabby room, conducted under the eye of the low bailiff, at the
+expence of the lord.</p>
+<p>The jury, twice a year, were witnesses, that the famous dish of
+roast beef, ancient as the family who gave it, demanded the head of
+the table. The court was afterwards held at the Leather-hall, and
+the expence, which was trifling, borne by the bailiff. Time,
+prosperity, and emulation, are able to effect considerable changes.
+The jury, in the beginning of the present century, were impannelled
+in the Old Cross, then newly erected, from whence they adjourned to
+the house of the bailiff, and were feasted at the growing charge of
+<i>two or three pounds</i>.</p>
+<p>This practice continued till about the year 1735, when the
+company, grown too bulky for a private house, assembled at a
+tavern, and the bailiff enjoyed the singular privilege of consuming
+ten pounds upon his guests.</p>
+<p>It is easier to advance in expences than to retreat. In 1760,
+they had increased to forty pounds, and in the next edition of this
+work, we may expect to see the word <i>hundred</i>.</p>
+<p>The lord was anciently founder of the feast, and treated his
+bailiff; but now that custom is inverted, and the bailiff treats
+his lord.</p>
+<p>The proclamation of our two fairs, is performed by the high
+bailiff, in the name of the Lord of the Manor; this was done a
+century ago, without the least expence. The strength of his liquor,
+a silver tankard, and the pride of shewing it, perhaps induced him,
+in process of time, to treat his attendants.</p>
+<p>His ale, without a miracle, was, in a few years, converted into
+wine, and that of various sorts; to which was added, a small
+collation; and now his friends are complimented with a card, to
+meet him at the Hotel, where he incurs an expence of twenty
+pounds.</p>
+<p>While the spirit of the people refines by intercourse, industry,
+and the singular jurisdiction among us, this insignificant pimple,
+on our head of government, swells into a wen.</p>
+<p>Habits approved are soon acquired: a third entertainment has, of
+late years, sprung up, termed <i>the constables feast</i>, with
+this difference, <i>it is charged to the public</i>. We may
+consider it a wart on the political body, which merits the
+caustic.</p>
+<p>Deritend, being a hamlet of Birmingham, sends her inhabitants to
+the court-leet, where they perform suit and service, and where her
+constable is chosen by the same jury.</p>
+<p>I shall here exhibit a defective list of our principal officers
+during the last century. If it should be objected, that a petty
+constable is too insignificant, being the lowest officer of the
+crown, for admission into history; I answer, by whatever
+appellation an officer is accepted, he cannot be insignificant who
+stands at the head of 50,000 people. Perhaps, therefore, the office
+of constable may be sought for in future, and the officer himself
+assume a superior consequence.</p>
+<p>The dates are the years in which they were chosen, fixed by
+charter, within thirty days after Michaelmas.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="CONSTABLES."></a>CONSTABLES.</h2>
+<center>
+<table summary="">
+<tr>
+<td>1680</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>John Simco</td>
+<td>John Cottrill</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1681</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>John Wallaxall</td>
+<td>William Guest</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1682</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>George Abel</td>
+<td>Samuel White</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1683</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>Thomas Russell</td>
+<td>Abraham Spooner</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1684</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>Roger Macham</td>
+<td>William Wheely</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1685</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>Thomas Cox</td>
+<td>John Green</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1686</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>Henry Porter</td>
+<td>Samuel Carless</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1687</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>Samuel Banner</td>
+<td>John Jesson</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1690</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>Joseph Robinson</td>
+<td>John Birch</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1691</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>John Rogers</td>
+<td>Richard Leather</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1692</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>Thomas Robins</td>
+<td>Corbet Bushell</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1693</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>Joseph Rann</td>
+<td>William Sarjeant</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1694</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>Rowland Hall</td>
+<td>John Bryerly</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1695</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>Richard Scott</td>
+<td>George Wells</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1696</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>Joseph Haddock</td>
+<td>Robert Mansell</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1697</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>James Greir</td>
+<td>John Foster</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1698</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>John Baker</td>
+<td>Henry Camden</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1699</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>William Kettle</td>
+<td>Thomas Gisborn</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1700</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>John Wilson</td>
+<td>Joseph Allen</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1701</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>Nicholas Bakewell</td>
+<td>Richard Banner</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1702</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>William Collins</td>
+<td>Robert Groves</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1703</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>Henry Parrot</td>
+<td>Benjamin Carless</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1704</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>William Brierly</td>
+<td>John Hunt</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1705</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>Jonathan Seeley</td>
+<td>Thomas Holloway</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1706</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>Robert Moore</td>
+<td>John Savage</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1707</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>Isaac Spooner</td>
+<td>Samuel Hervey</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1708</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>Richard Weston</td>
+<td>Thomas Cope</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1709</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>Samuel Walford</td>
+<td>Thomas Green</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1710</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>John Foxall</td>
+<td>William Norton</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1711</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>Stephen Newton</td>
+<td>John Taylor</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1712</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>William Russel</td>
+<td>John Cotterell</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1713</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>John Shaw</td>
+<td>Thomas Hallford</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1714</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>Randall Bradburn</td>
+<td>Joseph May</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1715</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>Stephen Newton</td>
+<td>Samuel Russell</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1716</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>Stephen Newton</td>
+<td>Joseph Carless</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1717</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>Abraham Foxall</td>
+<td>William Spilsbury</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1718</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>John Gisborn</td>
+<td>Henry Carver</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1719</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>Samuel Hays</td>
+<td>Joseph Smith</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1720</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>John Barnsley</td>
+<td>John Humphrys</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1721</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>William Bennett</td>
+<td>Thomas Wilson</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1722</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>John Harrison</td>
+<td>Simon Harris</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</center>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<a name="Bailiffs"></a>
+<h2>A LIST OF THE</h2>
+<h2>HIGH BAILIFFS, LOW BAILIFFS, AND CONSTABLES,</h2>
+<h2>Of the TOWN of BIRMINGHAM, from 1732, to 1782.</h2>
+<center>
+<table summary="">
+<tr>
+<th>YEAR</th>
+<th>HIGH BAILIFFS.</th>
+<th>LOW BAILIFFS.</th>
+<th colspan="2" align="center">CONSTABLES.</th>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1732</td>
+<td>Thomas Wilson</td>
+<td>John Webster</td>
+<td>Joseph Bradnock</td>
+<td>John Wilson</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1733</td>
+<td>John Webster</td>
+<td>Joseph Kettle</td>
+<td>Thomas Nickin</td>
+<td>James Baker</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1734</td>
+<td>John Wickins</td>
+<td>Thomas Lakin</td>
+<td>Joseph Scott, esq;<a name="FNanchor2"></a>[<a href="#Footnote_2">2</a>]</td>
+<td>James Taylor</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1735</td>
+<td>Joseph Marston</td>
+<td>John Russell</td>
+<td>John Webster</td>
+<td>Thomas Ashfield</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1736</td>
+<td>Joseph Bradnock</td>
+<td>Robert Moore</td>
+<td>Thomas Wickins</td>
+<td>Joseph Fullelove</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1737</td>
+<td>James Baker</td>
+<td>Isaac Ingram</td>
+<td>John Kettle</td>
+<td>Richard Porter</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1738</td>
+<td>Joseph Smith</td>
+<td>William Mason</td>
+<td>William Hunt</td>
+<td>Henry Hun</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1739</td>
+<td>Thomas Wickens</td>
+<td>William Harvey</td>
+<td>Edward Burton</td>
+<td>John England</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1740</td>
+<td>Simon Harris</td>
+<td>Thomas Russel</td>
+<td>Joseph Richards</td>
+<td>T. Honeyborn</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1741</td>
+<td>Daniel Gill</td>
+<td>George Abney</td>
+<td>Thomas Turner</td>
+<td>John Bedford</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1742</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1743</td>
+<td>Josiah Jefferys</td>
+<td>William Kettle</td>
+<td>John Russel</td>
+<td>Thomas</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1744</td>
+<td>George Davies</td>
+<td>J. Humphrys, Jr.</td>
+<td>William Mason</td>
+<td>William Ward</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1745</td>
+<td>Edward Burton</td>
+<td>Robert Moore</td>
+<td>Joseph Wollaston</td>
+<td>John Turner</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1746</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1747</td>
+<td>Thomas Ashwell</td>
+<td>J. Taylor, esq;</td>
+<td>Joseph Walker</td>
+<td>Josiah Hunt</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1748</td>
+<td>Thomas Wickens</td>
+<td>John Roe</td>
+<td>Robert Moore</td>
+<td>John Horton</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1749</td>
+<td>Joseph Fullelove</td>
+<td>Richard Brett</td>
+<td>Henry Hunt</td>
+<td>Joseph Ruston</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1750</td>
+<td>Thomas Lakin</td>
+<td>Joseph Smith</td>
+<td>John Gill</td>
+<td>Luke Bell</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1751</td>
+<td>Thomas Turner</td>
+<td>Benj. Mansell</td>
+<td>John Walters</td>
+<td>W. Walsingham</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1752</td>
+<td>James Baker</td>
+<td>John Taylor</td>
+<td>Price Thomas</td>
+<td>Joseph Thomas</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1753</td>
+<td>E. Jordan, esq;</td>
+<td>Samuel Harvey</td>
+<td>Samuel Birch</td>
+<td>Samuel Richards</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1754</td>
+<td>Thomas Cottrell</td>
+<td>Joseph Richards</td>
+<td>John Bellears</td>
+<td>John Camden</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1755</td>
+<td>Joseph Walker</td>
+<td>John Wells<a name="FNanchor3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3">[3]</a></td>
+<td>Stephen Colmore</td>
+<td>John Powell</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1756</td>
+<td>John Bellears</td>
+<td>J. Kettle, esq;</td>
+<td>Ambrose Foxall</td>
+<td>John Gray</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1757</td>
+<td>William Patteson</td>
+<td>Joseph Webster</td>
+<td>J. Darbyshire</td>
+<td>Richard Brett</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1758</td>
+<td>James Horton</td>
+<td>T. Lawrence</td>
+<td>Thomas Richards</td>
+<td>Sam. Pemberton</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1759</td>
+<td>John Walker</td>
+<td>Thomas Abney</td>
+<td>G. Spilsbury</td>
+<td>Edward Weston</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1760</td>
+<td>John Turner</td>
+<td>Abel Humphrys</td>
+<td>Richard Dingley</td>
+<td>Web Marriott</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1761</td>
+<td>John Baskerville</td>
+<td>Stephen Bedford</td>
+<td>Michael Lakin</td>
+<td>Nehemiah Bague</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1762</td>
+<td>Joseph Thomas</td>
+<td>James Jackson</td>
+<td>George Birch</td>
+<td>John Green</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1763</td>
+<td>John Gold</td>
+<td>John Lee</td>
+<td>William Parks</td>
+<td>John Daws</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1764</td>
+<td>Richard Hicks</td>
+<td>J. Ryland</td>
+<td>S. Bradburn, esq;</td>
+<td>Geo. Anderton</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1765</td>
+<td>Thomas Vallant</td>
+<td>Sam. Richards</td>
+<td>Ed. H. Noble</td>
+<td>Elias Wallin</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1766</td>
+<td>John Lane</td>
+<td>Henry Venour</td>
+<td>John Lane</td>
+<td>Joseph Adams</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1767</td>
+<td>John Horn</td>
+<td>Jo. Wilkinson</td>
+<td>Richard Rabone</td>
+<td>Thomas Care</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1768</td>
+<td>Gregory Hicks</td>
+<td>W. Russell, esq;</td>
+<td>Thomas Bingham</td>
+<td>John Moody</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1769</td>
+<td>James Male</td>
+<td>Samuel Ray</td>
+<td>Thomas Gisborne</td>
+<td>William Mansell</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1770</td>
+<td>Joshua Glover</td>
+<td>Thomas Russell</td>
+<td>T. Lutwyche</td>
+<td>Thomas Barker</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1771</td>
+<td>John Harris</td>
+<td>J. Hornblower</td>
+<td>Thomas Cooper</td>
+<td>Walter Salt</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1772</td>
+<td>William Holden</td>
+<td>Jos. Tyndall</td>
+<td>R. Anderton</td>
+<td>T. Hunt</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1773</td>
+<td>Thomas Westley</td>
+<td>John Richards</td>
+<td>Ob. Bellamy</td>
+<td>John Smart</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1774</td>
+<td>John Ward</td>
+<td>John Francis</td>
+<td>W. Hodgkins</td>
+<td>Thomas Wight</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1775</td>
+<td>Thomas Hurd</td>
+<td>John Taylor, esq;</td>
+<td>John Startin</td>
+<td>T. Everton</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1776</td>
+<td>E.W. Patteson</td>
+<td>Josiah Rogers</td>
+<td>Thomas Corden</td>
+<td>Joseph Wright</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1777</td>
+<td>Ed. Thomason</td>
+<td>S. Pemberton</td>
+<td>Joseph Jukes</td>
+<td>Joseph Sheldon</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1778</td>
+<td>Joseph Green</td>
+<td>William Hunt</td>
+<td>Thomas Wright</td>
+<td>John Allen<a name="FNanchor4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4">[4]</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1779</td>
+<td>T. Faulconbridge</td>
+<td>W. Humphrys</td>
+<td>John Guest</td>
+<td>Jonathan Wigley</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1780</td>
+<td>Daniel Winwood</td>
+<td>William Scott</td>
+<td>William Thomas</td>
+<td>John Bird</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1781</td>
+<td>William Hicks</td>
+<td>W. Taylor, esq;</td>
+<td>John Dallaway</td>
+<td>Richard Porter</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1782</td>
+<td>Thomas Carless</td>
+<td>G. Humphrys</td>
+<td>John Holmes</td>
+<td>Thomas Barrs</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</center>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor2">[2]</a>
+Joseph Scott, Esq; not choosing the official part, procured a
+substitute to perform it, in the person of the late Constable James
+Baker.</blockquote>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor3">[3]</a>
+in office, Benjamin Mansell was chosen in his stead.</blockquote>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor4">[4]</a>
+was charged with a fine of 25<i>l</i>. by the lady of the manor,
+and John Miles chosen in his stead.</blockquote>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>Three of the Inhabitants have, since I knew the place, served
+the Office of SHERIFF for the County, viz.</p>
+<br>
+<center>
+<table summary="">
+<tr>
+<td>John Taylor, Esquire, in</td>
+<td>1756.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Edward Jordan, Esquire, in</td>
+<td>1757.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>And Isaac Spooner, Esquire, in</td>
+<td>1763.</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</center>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="COURT_OF_REQUESTS."></a>COURT OF REQUESTS.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Law is the very basis of civil society, without it man would
+quickly return to his original rudeness; the result would be,
+robbery and blood:--and even laws themselves are of little moment,
+without a due execution of them--there is a necessity to annex
+punishment.</p>
+<p>But there is no necessity to punish the living, who are
+innocent, by hanging the dead bodies of criminals in the air. This
+indecent and inhuman custom, which originated from the days of
+barbarism, reflects an indelible disgrace upon a civilized age. The
+intention, no doubt, was laudable; to prevent the commission of
+crimes, but does it answer that intention?</p>
+<p>In 1759, two brothers, of the name of Darby, were hung in chains
+near Hales-Owen, since which time there has been only one murder
+committed in the whole neighbourhood, and that under the very
+gibbet upon which they hung<a name="FNanchor5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5">[5]</a>.</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor5">[5]</a>
+Joseph Skidmore, a carrier of Stourbridge, having Ann Mansfield, a
+young woman of Birmingham, under his care, ravished and murdered
+her in the evening of December 10, 1774.</blockquote>
+<p>Justice, however, points out a way wherein the dead body, by
+conveying chirurgical knowledge, may be serviceable to the
+living.</p>
+<p>Laws generally tend, either directly, or remotely, to the
+protection of property.</p>
+<p>All wise legislators have endeavoured to proportion the
+punishment to the crime, but never to exceed it: a well conducted
+state holds forth a scale of punishments for transgressions of
+every dimension, beginning with the simple reprimand, and
+proceeding downwards even to death itself.</p>
+<p>It will be granted, that the line of equity ought to be drawn
+with critical exactness.</p>
+<p>If by fair trade, persuasion, or finesse, I get the property of
+another into my hands, even to the trifling value of a shilling, my
+effects ought to be responsible for that sum.</p>
+<p>If I possess no effects, he certainly retains a right of
+punishing to that amount: for if we do not lay this line in the
+boundaries of strict justice, it will not lie upon any other
+ground. And if I am allowed fraud in one shilling, I am allowed it
+in a greater sum. How far punishment may be softened by concurring
+circumstances, is another question.</p>
+<p>It therefore follows of course, that if my creditor has a right
+to recover his unfortunate property, those laws are the nearest to
+perfection, that will enable him to recover it with the most
+expedition, and the least expence and trouble to us both.</p>
+<p>If the charge of recovery is likely to exceed the debt, he will
+be apt to desist, I to laugh at him, and to try my skill at a
+second enterprize.</p>
+<p>Trade and credit cannot be well separated; they are as closely
+connected as the wax and the paper. The laws of credit, therefore,
+ought to rest upon a permanent foundation: neither is law necessary
+to restrain credit; for if, in a commercial state, it becomes
+detrimental by its over growth, it finds itself a remedy.</p>
+<p>Much has been said, and perhaps more than has been thought,
+concerning the court before us. The loser is expected to complain,
+and his friends to give him a partial hearing; and though he
+breathes <i>vengeance</i> against his antagonist, it ends in a
+<i>breath</i>.</p>
+<p>The looker-on can easily spy an error in the actor. If a fault
+is committed, we are glad it was done by another; besides, it is no
+new thing for the <i>outs</i> to complain of the <i>ins</i>. It
+will plead strongly in excuse, to say, the intention was right, if
+the judgment was wrong. If perfection is required, she does not
+reside upon earth.</p>
+<p>But if these pleadings are not found a balance against
+prejudice, and a man suffers his wrath to kindle against a valuable
+institution, because perfection does not preside over it, let him
+peruse an old author, who asks, "What shall we think of the folly
+of that man, who throws away the apple, because it contains a core?
+despises the nut, for the shell? or casts the diamond into the sea,
+because it has a flaw?"</p>
+<p>Decision is usually established upon oath, both in criminal
+courts, and in those at Westminster, through which the oath is seen
+to pass with free currency.</p>
+<p>A judge is sometimes fond of sheltering himself behind an oath;
+it may be had at an easy rate. Each of the contending parties
+wishes to win his cause by an oath: but though oaths would be
+willingly taken, they ought to be sparingly given.--They may be
+considered what they generally are not, <i>of the last
+importance</i>.</p>
+<p>We may observe, that two opponents are ready to swear directly
+contrary to each other; that if a man asserts a thing, he can do no
+less than swear it; and that, after all, an oath proves
+nothing.</p>
+<p>The commissioners, therefore, wish rather to establish
+<i>fact</i> upon <i>proof</i>; but, if this is wanting, then upon
+circumstantial evidence; and if this support fails, they chuse to
+finish a quarrel by a moderate, though a random judgment.</p>
+<p>Much honor is due to that judicial luminary, William Murray,
+Earl of Mansfield, who presides over the King's-Bench, for
+introducing equity into the courts of law, where she had long been
+a stranger.</p>
+<p>The Court of Requests may justly be charged with weakness, and
+what court may not? It is inseparable from man.</p>
+<p>A person cannot chuse his capacity, but he may chuse to be a
+rogue; one is an act of nature, the other of the will. The greater
+the temptation to go astray, the greater must be the resolution to
+conquer it.</p>
+<p>One of the suitors presented a commissioner with a couple of
+chickens, as a powerful argument to strengthen a feeble case; but
+the commissioner returned his present, and the plaintiff lost his
+cause; and no wonder, he sent a chicken to plead it.</p>
+<p>The defendant, by disobeying the orders of the court, falls
+under the power of the plaintiff, who can cause execution to issue
+against his goods, and reimburse himself; or, against his body, and
+confine him forty days, unless paid his demand.</p>
+<p>There is no cause that can be brought before the Court of
+Requests, but may be brought before a higher court, and at a higher
+expence.</p>
+<p>A cause passes through this court for seventeen-pence; and
+cannot well, by chicanery or neglect, amount to more than two
+shillings and nine-pence: So that ruin is not one of its
+imperfections.</p>
+<p>Though law is said to produce quarrels among friends, yet the
+contending parties often go out of that court better friends than
+when they came in.</p>
+<p>It has been objected, that the publicans give credit to the
+lower class, in expectation of relief from the court. But the
+debtor is equally apprized of the remedy, and often drinks deeper,
+in expectation of a mild sentence from the commissioners; besides,
+is not all credit founded on the laws of recovery?</p>
+<p>It has also been urged, that while punishment pursues the
+debtor, for neglect of orders, his family falls upon the
+community.</p>
+<p>But the community would not wish to put a bar between a man and
+his property--The precedent would be dangerous: Justice is no
+respector of persons. A culprit will soon procure a family, if they
+are able to plead his excuse: It would follow, that single men only
+would be obliged to be honest. She does not save the criminal,
+because he is an handsome man. If she did, beauty would increase in
+value; but honesty, seldom be its companion.</p>
+<p>But can accusation lie against a fair tribunal of rectitude? The
+man does not exist that can quarrel with equity, and treat her as
+the offspring of fraud---The most amiable character in the
+creation, and the immediate representative of supreme excellence.
+She will be revered, even by the sons of plunder!</p>
+<p>Many of the causes that pass this court, are of a disputable
+nature, and if not terminated there, would take a different
+turn.</p>
+<p>From distant views of relief here, even sickness herself finds
+credit in the day of distress.</p>
+<p>The use of the court is also favourable to trade, for, to oblige
+a man to pay his debts, is to oblige him to labour, which improves
+the manufactures.</p>
+<p>Birmingham, in no period of her existence, has increased with
+such rapidity, in people, buildings and commerce, as since the
+erection of that court; so that depopulation is not one of its
+inconveniencies.</p>
+<p>From a consideration of the prodigious intercourse subsisting in
+so vast a body of people, and the credit consequent thereon, it was
+wisely judged necessary to establish an easy, and expeditious
+method of ending dispute, and securing property.</p>
+<p>The inhabitants of Birmingham, therefore, in 1752, procured an
+act for the recovery of debts under Forty Shillings; constituting
+seventy-two commissioners, three to be a quorum. They sit for the
+dispatch of business in the chamber over the Old Cross every Friday
+morning, and there usually appear before them between eighty and
+one hundred causes: Their determinations are final. Two clerks
+also, constituted by the act, attend the court to give judicial
+assistance; are always of the law, chosen alternately by the lord
+of the manor, and the commissioners, and to continue for life. Once
+in every two years, ten of the commissioners are ballotted out, and
+ten others of the inhabitants chosen in their stead.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="LAMP_ACT."></a>LAMP ACT.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Order, is preserved by industry. In 1769 an act was obtained,
+and in 1773 an amendment of the act, for lighting and cleaning the
+streets of Birmingham, and for removing obstructions that were
+prejudicial to the health or convenience of the inhabitants.</p>
+<p>These acts were committed to the care of about seventy-six
+irresolute commissioners, with farther powers of preventing
+encroachments upon public ground; for it was justly observed, that
+robbery was a work of darkness, therefore to introduce light would,
+in some measure, protect property. That in a town like Birmingham,
+full of commerce and inhabitants, where necessity leads to
+continual action, no part of the twenty four hours ought to be
+dark. That, to avoid darkness, is sometimes to avoid insult; and
+that by the light of 700 lamps, many unfortunate accidents would be
+prevented.</p>
+<p>It was also observed, that in a course of time, the buildings in
+some of the ancient streets had encroached upon the path, four or
+five feet on each side; which caused an irregular line, and made
+those streets eight or ten feet narrower, that are now used by
+50,000 people, than they were, when used only by a tenth part of
+that number; and, that their confined width rendered the passage
+dangerous to children, women, and feeble age, particularly on the
+market day and Saturday evening.</p>
+<p>That if former encroachments could not be recovered, future
+ought to be prevented.</p>
+<p>And farther, that necessity pleads for a wider street now, than
+heretofore, not only because the inhabitants, being more numerous,
+require more room, but the buildings being more elevated, obstruct
+the light, the sun, and the air, which obstructions tend to
+sickness and inconveniency.</p>
+<p>Narrow streets with modern buildings are generally dirty, for
+want of these natural helps; as Digbeth, St. Martin's-lane,
+Swan-alley, Carr's-lane, &amp;c. The narrower the street, the less
+it can be influenced by the sun and the wind, consequently, the
+more the dirt will abound; and by experimental observations upon
+stagnate water in the street, it is found extremely prejudicial to
+health. And also, the larger the number of people, the more
+necessity to watch over their interest with a guardian eye.</p>
+<p>It may farther be remarked, that an act of parliament ought to
+distribute justice with an impartial hand, in which case, content
+and obedience may reasonably be expected. But the acts before us
+carry a manifest partiality, one man claims a right to an
+encroachment into the street, of three or four feet, whilst another
+is restricted to twelve inches.</p>
+<p>This inactive body of seventy-six, who wisely argue against the
+annihilation of one evil, because another will remain; had also
+powers to borrow a thousand pounds, to purchase and remove some
+obstructive buildings; and to defray the expence by a rate on the
+inhabitants, which, after deducting about one hundred and twenty
+pounds per ann. for deficiencies, amounted in</p>
+<blockquote>1774, to&nbsp;&nbsp; 912<i>l</i>.<br>
+1775, --&nbsp;&nbsp; 902<i>l</i>.<br>
+1776, --&nbsp;&nbsp; 947<i>l</i>.<br>
+1777, --&nbsp;&nbsp; 965<i>l</i>.<br>
+1778, -- 1,012<i>l</i>.<br>
+1779, -- 1,022<i>l</i>.<br>
+1780, -- 1,021<i>l</i>.</blockquote>
+<p>Though the town was averse to the measure, as an innovation,
+they quickly saw its utility, and seemed to wish a more vigorous
+exertion of the commissioners; but numbers sometimes procrastinate
+design. If it is difficult to find five men of one mind, it is more
+difficult to find a superior number. That business which would run
+currently through the hands of five, stagnates at fifteen, the
+number required.</p>
+<p>It is curious to observe a body of commissioners, every one of
+whom conducts his own private affairs with propriety and success,
+attack a question by the hour, which is as plain as the simplest
+proposition in the mathematicks, when not being able to reduce it,
+and their ammunition spent, leave the matter undetermined, and
+retreat in silence.</p>
+<p>In works of manual operation a large number may be necessary,
+but in works of direction a small one facilitates dispatch.</p>
+<p>Birmingham, a capacious field, by long neglect is over-grown
+with encroaching weeds. The gentle commissioners, appointed to
+reduce them, behold it an arduous work, are divided in opinion, and
+some withdraw the hand from the plough; certainly, <i>the harvest
+is great, and the labourers are few</i>. The manorial powers, which
+alone could preserve order, have slept for ages. Regularity has
+been long extinct. The desire of trespass is so prevalent, that I
+have been tempted to question; if it were not for the powers of the
+lamp act, feeble as they are, whether the many-headed-public, ever
+watchful of prey, would not in another century, devour whole
+streets, and totally prevent the passenger. Thus a supine
+jurisdiction abounds with <i>street-robbers</i>.</p>
+<p>There are cases where the line of the street should inviolably
+be preserved, as in a common range of houses; therefore all
+projections above a given dimension infringe this rule.</p>
+<p>There are other cases where taste would direct this line to be
+broken, as in buildings of singular size and construction, which
+should be viewed in recess. Those of a public nature generally come
+under this description, as the free-school, and the hotel, which
+ought to have fallen two or three yards back. What pity, that so
+noble an edifice as the theatre in New-street, should lose any of
+its beauty, by the prominence of its situation!</p>
+<p>As Birmingham abounds with new streets, that were once private
+property, it is a question often discussed, In what point of time
+the land appropriated for such streets, ceases to be private? But
+as this question was never determined, and as it naturally rises
+before me, and is of importance, suffer me to examine it.</p>
+<p>When building leases are granted, if the road be narrow, as was
+lately the case at the West end of New-street, the proprietor
+engages to give a certain portion of land to widen it. From that
+moment, therefore, it falls to the lot of the public, and is under
+the controul of the commissioners, as guardians of public property.
+I allow, if within memory, the grantor and the lessees should agree
+to cancel the leases, which is just as likely to happen as the
+powers of attraction to cease, and the moon to descend from the
+heavens; in this case, the land reverts again to its original
+proprietor.</p>
+<p>Though the streets of Birmingham have for many ages been exposed
+to the hand of the encroacher, yet, by a little care, and less
+expence, they might in about one century be reduced to a
+considerable degree of use and beauty. In what light then shall we
+be viewed by the future eye, if we neglect the interest of
+posterity?</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="RELIGION_AND_POLITICS."></a>RELIGION AND
+POLITICS.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Although these two threads, like the warp and the woof, are very
+distinct things; yet, like them, they are usually woven together.
+Each possesses a strength of its own, but when united, have often
+become extremely powerful, as in the case of Henry the Third and
+the clergy. This union, at times, subsisted from a very early
+date.</p>
+<p>Power is the idol of man; we not only wish to acquire it, but
+also to increase and preserve it. If the magistrate has been too
+weak to execute his designs, he has backed his schemes with the aid
+of the church; this occurred with King Stephen and the Bishops.</p>
+<p>Likewise, if a churchman finds his power ascendant in the human
+mind, he still wishes an addition to that power, by uniting
+another. Thus the Bishop of Rome, being master of the spiritual
+chair, stept also into the temporal.</p>
+<p>Sometimes the ecclesiastical and civil governors appear in
+malign aspect, or in modern phrase, like a quarrel between the
+squire and the rector, which is seldom detrimental to the people.
+This was the case with Henry the Eighth and the church.</p>
+<p>The curses of a priest hath sometimes brought a people into
+obedience to the King, when he was not able to bring them himself.
+One could not refrain from smiling, to hear a Bishop curse the
+people for obeying their Sovereign, and in a few months after,
+curse them again if they did not; which happened in the reign of
+King John. But, happy for the world, that these retail dealers in
+the wrath of heaven are become extinct, and the market is over.</p>
+<p>Birmingham, in those remote periods of time, does not seem to
+have attended so much to religious and political dispute, as to the
+course music of her hammer. Peace seems to have been her
+characteristic--She paid obedience to that Prince had the good
+fortune to possess the throne, and regularly paid divine honours in
+St. Martin's, because there was no other church. Thus, through the
+long ages of Saxon, Danish, and Norman government, we hear of no
+noise but that of the anvil, till the reign of Henry the Third,
+when her Lord joined the Barons against the Crown, and drew after
+him some of his mechanics, to exercise the very arms they had been
+taught to make; and where, at the battle of Evesham, he staked his
+life and his fortune, and lost both.</p>
+<p>Things quickly returning into their former channel, she stood a
+silent spectator during that dreadful contest between the two
+roses, pursuing the tenor of still life till the civil wars of
+Charles I. when she took part with the Parliament, some of whose
+troops were stationed here, particularly at the Garrison and
+Camp-hill; the names of both originating in that circumstance.</p>
+<p>Prince Rupert, as hinted before, approaching Birmingham in 1643
+with a superior power, forced the lines, and as a punishment set
+fire to the town. His vengeance burned fiercely in Bull-street, and
+the affrighted inhabitants quenched the flames with a heavy
+fine.</p>
+<p>In 1660, she joined the wish of the kingdom, in the restoration
+of the Stuart family. About this time, many of the curious
+manufactures began to blossom in this prosperous garden of the
+arts.</p>
+<p>In 1688, when the nation chose to expel a race of Kings, though
+replete with good nature, because they had forgot the limits of
+justice ; our peaceable sons of art, wisely considering, that
+oppression and commerce, like oil and water, could never unite,
+smiled with the rest of the kingdom at the landing of the Prince of
+Orange, and exerted their little assistance towards effecting the
+Revolution, notwithstanding the lessons of <i>divine right</i> had
+been taught near ninety years.</p>
+<p>In the reign of Queen Anne, when that flaming luminary, Dr.
+Sacheverel, set half the kingdom in blaze, the inhabitants of this
+region of industry caught the spark of the day, and grew warm for
+the church--They had always been inured to <i>fire</i>, but now we
+behold them between <i>two</i>.</p>
+<p>As the doctor rode in triumph through the streets of Birmingham,
+this flimsy idol of party snuffed up the incense of the populace,
+but the more sensible with held their homage; and when he preached
+at Sutton Coldfield, where he had family connections, the people of
+Birmingham crowded in multitudes round his pulpit. But it does not
+appear that he taught his hearers to <i>build up Zion</i>, but
+perhaps to pull her down; for they immediately went and gutted a
+meeting-house.</p>
+<p>It is easy to point out a time when it was dangerous to have
+been of the established church, and I have here pointed out one,
+when it was dangerous to profess any other.</p>
+<p>We are apt to think the zeal of our fathers died with them, for
+I have frequently beheld with pleasure, the churchman, the
+presbyterian, and the quaker uniting their efforts, like brethren,
+to carry on a work of utility. The bigot of the last age casts a
+malicious sneer upon the religion of another, but the man of this
+passes a joke upon his own.</p>
+<p>A sameness in religious sentiment is no more to be expected,
+than a sameness of face. If the human judgment varies in almost
+every subject of plain knowledge, how can it be fixed in this,
+composed of mystery?</p>
+<p>As the true religion is ever that which a man professes himself,
+it is necessary to enquire, What means, he that is right may use,
+to convert him that is wrong?</p>
+<p>As the whole generations of faggot and torture, are extinct in
+this age of light, there seems only to remain fair arguments
+founded in reason, and these can only be brought as evidences upon
+the trial: The culprit himself, <i>by indefeasible right
+divine</i>, will preside as the judge. Upon a close enquiry it will
+be found, that his sentiments are as much his private property, as
+the coat that covers him, or the life which that coat incloses.</p>
+<p>Is there not as much reason to punish my neighbour for differing
+in opinion from me, as to punish me, because I differ from him? Or,
+is there any to punish either?</p>
+<p>If a man's sentiments and practice in religious matters, appear
+even absurd, provided society is not injured, what right hath the
+magistrate to interfere?</p>
+<p>The task is as easy to make the stream run upwards, as to form a
+nation of one mind. We may pronounce with confidence, an age of
+bigotry is no age of philosophy.</p>
+<p>The gentle hand of Brunswick, had swayed the British sceptre
+near half a century, ere all the sons of science in this meridian,
+were compleatly reconciled to this favourite line.</p>
+<p>But unanimity, with benign aspect, seems now the predominant
+star of the zenith: A friendly intercourse succeeds suspicion. The
+difference of sentiment, that once created jealousy, now excites a
+smile; and the narrow views of our forefathers are prudently
+expanded.</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image04.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image04.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image04.jpg" width="45%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b><i>St. John's Chapel, Deritend</i>.</b></p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="PLACES_OF_WORSHIP."></a>PLACES OF WORSHIP.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>In a town like Birmingham, unfettered with charteral laws; which
+gives access to the stranger of every denomination, for he here
+finds a freedom by birthright; and where the principles of
+toleration are well understood, it is no wonder we find various
+modes of worship. The wonder consists in finding such
+<i>agreement</i>, in such variety.</p>
+<p>We have fourteen places for religious exercise, six of the
+established church, three dissenting meeting houses, a quakers,
+baptist, methodist, roman catholic, and jewish. Two of these only
+are churches, of which elsewhere.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="SAINT_JOHNS_CHAPEL"></a>SAINT JOHN'S CHAPEL,</h2>
+<h2>DERITEND.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>This, tho' joining to the parish of Birmingham, is a chapel of
+ease belonging to Aston, two miles distant. Founded in the fifth of
+Richard the Second, 1382.</p>
+<p>This chapel does not, like others in Birmingham, seem to have
+been erected first, and the houses brought round it: It appears, by
+its extreme circumscribed latitude, to have been founded upon the
+scite of other buildings, which were purchased, or rather given, by
+Sir John de Birmingham, Lord of Deritend, and situated upon the
+boundaries of the manor, perhaps to accommodate in some measure the
+people of Digbeth; because the church in Birmingham must, for
+many-ages, have been too small for the inhabitants.</p>
+<p>Time seems to have worn out that building of 1382; in the
+windows of which were the arms of Lord Dudley, and Dudley empaling
+Barckley, both knights of the garter, descended from the Somery's,
+Barons of Dudley-castle: Also a whole figure of Walter Arden, Esq;
+of ancient family, often mentioned, Lord of Bordesley.</p>
+<p>The present building was erected in 1735, and the steeple in
+1762. In 1777 eight of the most musical bells, together with a
+clock, entered the steeple. The present chaplain, the Rev. Thomas
+Cox--Income 80<i>l</i>.</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image05.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image05.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image05.jpg" width="45%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b><i>St. Bartholomew's Chapel</i>.</b></p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="SAINT_BARTHOLOMEWS"></a>SAINT BARTHOLOMEW'S.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Built in 1749, on the east side of the town, will accommodate
+about 800 hearers; is neat and elegant. The land was the gift of
+John Jennens, Esq; of Copsal, in the county of Leicester, possessor
+of a considerable estate in and near Birmingham.</p>
+<p>By the solicitation of Mrs. Weaman, Mrs. Jennens gave
+1000<i>l</i>. and the remainder was raised by contribution to
+accomplish the building.</p>
+<p>Wherever a chapel is erected, the houses immediately, as if
+touched by the wand of magic, spring into existence. Here is a
+spacious area for interment, amply furnished by death. The infant
+steeple, if it will bear the name, is very small but beautiful.</p>
+<p>The chancel hath this singular difference from others--that it
+veres towards the North. Whether the projector committed an error,
+I leave to the critics.</p>
+<p>It was the general practice of the Pagan church to fix their
+altar, upon which they sacrificed, in the East, towards the rising
+sun, the object of worship.</p>
+<p>The Christian church, in the time of the Romans, immediately
+succeeded the Pagan, and scrupulously adopted the same method;
+which has been strictly adhered to.</p>
+<p>By what obligation the Christian is bound to follow the Pagan,
+or wherein a church would be injured by being directed to any of
+the thirty-two points in the compass, is doubtful. Certain it is,
+if the chancel of Bartholomew's had tended due East, the eye would
+have been exceedingly hurt, and the builder would have raised an
+object of ridicule for ages. The ground will admit of no situation
+but that in which the church now stands. But the inconsiderate
+architect of Deritend chapel, anxious to catch the Eastern point,
+lost the line of the street: we may therefore justly pronounce,
+<i>be sacrificed to the East</i>. Other enormities also, of little
+moment, have issued from the same fountain.</p>
+<p>The altar piece was the gift of Basil Earl of Denbigh; and the
+communion plate, consisting of 182 ounces, that of Mary Carless.
+Income 100<i>l</i>.--Rev. William Jabbitt, chaplain.</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image06.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image06.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image06.jpg" width="45%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b>St. Mary's Chapel.</b></p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="SAINT_MARYS"></a>SAINT MARY's.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Though the houses for divine worship were multiplied in
+Birmingham, yet the inhabitants increased in a greater proportion;
+so that in 1772 an act was obtained for two additional chapels.</p>
+<p>St. Mary's, therefore, was erected in 1774, in the octagon form,
+not overcharged with light nor strength; in an airy situation and
+taste, but shews too little steeple, and too much roof. If a light
+balustrade was raised over the parapet, with an urn in the centre
+of the roof, the eye of the observer would be relieved.</p>
+<p>The clock was seldom seen to go right, but the wonder ceases if
+there are NO WORKS within.</p>
+<p>The land was the gift of Mary Weaman, in whom is the
+presentation, who inducted the Rev. John Riland. Annual income
+about 200<i>l</i>.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="SAINT_PAULS"></a>SAINT PAUL's.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>The act was procured for this chapel at the same time as for
+that of St. Mary's; but it was not erected till 1779, upon a spot
+of ground given by Charles Colmore, Esq; upon the declivity of a
+hill, not altogether suitable for the elegant building it sustains,
+which is of stone--plain beauty unites with strength.</p>
+<p>This roof, like that of St. Mary's, appears also too full. The
+steeple intended for this useful edifice, will do honour to the
+modern stile of architecture, whenever money can be procured to
+erect it; which at present is only delineated upon paper.</p>
+<p>Chaplain, the Rev. William Toy Young.--Income nearly as St.
+Mary's.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="OLD_MEETING."></a>OLD MEETING.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>After the extinction of the Stuart race, who bore an invincible
+hatred to presbyterianism, the dissenters from the establishment
+procured a licence for a meeting at the bottom of Digbeth, which
+yet bears the name of Meeting-house-yard. Here the rigid sons of
+worship paid a weekly attendance. The place is now a work-shop: The
+sound of the pulpit is changed into that of the bellows: Instead of
+an impression upon the heart, it is now stamped upon the button.
+The visitants used to appear in a variety of colours, but now
+always in black.</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image07.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image07.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image07.jpg" width="45%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b><i>St. Paul's Chapel</i>.</b></p>
+<br>
+<a name="image08a.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image08a.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image08a.jpg" width="45%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b>New Meeting.</b></p>
+<br>
+<a name="image08b.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image08b.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image08b.jpg" width="45%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b>Old Meeting.</b></p>
+<br>
+<p>Another was erected in the reign of King William, now
+denominated The Old Meeting, and from whence the street in which it
+stands derives a name. This is large, and much attended.</p>
+<p>Pastor, the Rev. Radcliff Scoldfield.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="NEW_MEETING."></a>NEW MEETING.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Erected in the year 1730, at which time that in Digbeth went
+into disuse. This is in a stile of elegance, and has few equals.
+The Rev. Samuel Blyth, and the Rev. William Hawkes preside over
+it.</p>
+<p>In December 1780, Mr. Hawkes declining the pastoral care, the
+congregation judiciously turned their thoughts towards the
+celebrated Doctor Priestley, F.R.S. one of the first philosophers
+of the age; whose merit seems obvious to every eye but his own.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="CARRS_LANE_MEETING"></a>CARR's LANE MEETING.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>A scion of the Old Meeting, transplanted in 1748--The building
+cost about 700<i>l</i>. This society hath been favoured with two
+donations; one the interest of 800<i>l</i>. by the will of John
+England, in 1771: The other Scott's Trust, mentioned in another
+part.</p>
+<p>This residence of divine light is totally eclipsed, by being
+surrounded with about forty families of paupers, crouded almost
+within the compass of a giant's span, which amply furnish the
+congregation with noise, smoak, dirt and dispute. If the place
+itself is the road to heaven, the stranger would imagine, that the
+road to the place led to something worse: The words, <i>Strait is
+the gate, and narrow is the way</i>, are here literally
+verified.--Pastor, the Rev. John Punfield.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="BAPTIST_MEETING."></a>BAPTIST MEETING.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Founded in Cannon-street, 1738. This hill of Zion is also hid
+from the public eye, but situated in a purer air.--The minister was
+the late Rev. James Turner.</p>
+<p>Some trifling differences arising in the congregation, to which
+the human mind is everlastingly prone, caused discontent:
+Individuals began to sting each other, which in 1745, produced a
+swarm.</p>
+<p>The destitute wanderers therefore, erected for themselves a
+small cell in Freeman-street, where they hived in expectation of
+harmony. Over this little society of separatists presided a
+journeyman woolcomber: What elevation he bore in the comb-shop,
+during six days of the week, history is silent; but having the good
+fortune to procure a black coat and a white wig, he figured on the
+seventh with parsonic elegance.</p>
+<p>Whether <i>he</i> fed his people best, or <i>they</i> him, is
+uncertain; but whether they starved one another, is not. Disgust,
+which ever waits upon disappointment, appeared among them.</p>
+<p>Though the preacher was certainly warmed in the shop, <i>with a
+live coal from the altar</i>; yet unfortunately, Sunday was the
+only day in which his <i>fire</i> was extinguished; <i>then</i> the
+priest and the people hit the taste of the day, and slumbered
+together; a priviledge never granted by a <i>reader</i> to an
+<i>author</i>. Thus the boasted <i>liberty of the press</i> submits
+to that of the pulpit.</p>
+<p>This exalted shepherd dwelt upon the words of Paul, <i>He that
+preaches the gospel, ought to subsist by the gospel;</i> and
+<i>they</i> did not forget a portion in John, <i>Feed my sheep</i>.
+The word, he well knew, promised both wine and <i>oil</i>, but he
+was obliged to be satisfied with the latter.</p>
+<p>Although the teacher might possess some <i>shining qualities</i>
+at the combe-pot, he did not possess that of protecting his flock,
+who in 1752, silently retreated to their original fold in
+Cannon-street; and the place was soon after converted into a
+dwelling, No. 16, when for the first time it produced
+<i>profit</i>.</p>
+<p>The growing numbers of this prosperous society induced them, in
+1780, to enlarge the place of worship, at the expence of about
+800<i>l</i>. in which is observable some beauty, but more
+conveniency.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="QUAKERS_MEETING"></a>QUAKER's MEETING</h2>
+<br>
+<p>In Bull-street. A large convenient place, and notwithstanding
+the plainness of the profession rather elegant. The congregation is
+very flourishing, rich, and peaceable. Chandler tells us, to the
+everlasting honour of the Quakers, that they are the only christian
+sect who have never exercised the cruel weapon of persecution.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="METHODISTS_MEETING"></a>METHODIST's MEETING.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>We learn from ecclesiastical history, that the people in high
+life are always <i>followers</i> in religion. Though they are the
+best leaders in political and social concerns, yet all religions
+seem to originate from the lowest class. Every religion is first
+obstructed by violence, passes through the insults of an age, then
+rests in peace, and often takes up the rod against another.</p>
+<p>The first preachers of the christian faith, the short-sighted
+apostles, were men of the meanest occupations, and their church, a
+wretched room in a miserable tenement. The superb buildings of St.
+Peter's in Rome, and St. Paul's in London, used by their followers,
+were not within the reach of their penetration. They were also
+totally ignorant of tripple crowns, red hats, mitres, crosiers,
+robes, and rochets, well known to their successors.</p>
+<p>The religion of a private room, soon became the religion of a
+country: the church acquired affluence, for all churches hate
+poverty; and this humble church, disturbed for ages, became the
+church of Rome, the disturber of Europe.</p>
+<p>John Wickliff, in 1377, began to renew her disturbance: this
+able theologist planted our present national church, which
+underwent severe persecutions, from its mother church at Rome; but,
+rising superior to the rod, and advancing to maturity, she became
+the mother of a numerous offspring, which she afterwards persecuted
+herself; and this offspring, like <i>their</i> mother, were much
+inclined to persecution.</p>
+<p>Puritanism, her first born, groaned under the pressure of her
+hand. The Baptists, founded by a taylor, followed, and were
+buffeted by both.--Independency appeared, ponderous as an elephant,
+and trampled upon all three.</p>
+<p>John Fox, a composition of the oddest matter, and of the meanest
+original, formed a numerous band of disciples, who suffered the
+insults of an age, but have carried the arts of prudence to the
+highest pitch.</p>
+<p>The Muglitonians, the Prophets, the Superlapsarians, &amp;c.
+like untimely births, just saw the light and disappeared.</p>
+<p>The Moravians, under the influence of Zinzendorf, rose about
+1740, but are not in a flourishing state; their circumscribed
+rules, like those of the cloister, being too much shackled to
+thrive in a land of freedom.</p>
+<p>James Sandiman introduced a religion, about 1750, but, though
+eclipsed himself by poverty, he taught his preachers to shine; for
+he allowed them to grace the pulpit with ruffles, lace, and a
+cueque. Birmingham cannot produce one professor of the two last
+churches.</p>
+<p>The christian religion has branched into more sectaries in the
+last two hundred years, than in the fifteen hundred before--the
+reason is obvious. During the tedious reign of the Romish priest,
+before the introduction of letters, knowledge was small, and he
+wished to confine that knowledge to himself: he substituted mystery
+for science, and led the people blindfold. But the printing-press,
+though dark in itself, and surrounded with yet <i>darker</i>
+materials, diffused a ray of light through the world, which enabled
+every man to read, think, and judge for himself; hence diversity of
+opinion, and the absurdity of reducing a nation to one faith,
+vainly attempted by Henry VIII.</p>
+<p>In those distant ages, the priest had great influence, with
+little knowledge; but in these, great knowledge, with little
+influence. He was then revered according to his authority; but now,
+according to his merit: he shone in a borrowed, but now in a real
+lustre: then he was less deserving; but now less esteemed. The
+humble christian, in the strictest sense, worked out his salvation
+with fear and trembling, and with tools furnished by the priest: he
+built upon his opinions, but now he lays a foundation for his
+own.</p>
+<p>Though we acknowledge the scriptures our guide, we take the
+liberty to guide them; we torture them to our own sentiments.
+Though we allow their <i>equal</i> weight, we suffer one portion to
+weigh down another. If we attend to twenty disputants, not one of
+them will quote a text which militates against his sentiments.</p>
+<p>The artillery of vengeance was pointed at Methodism for thirty
+years; but, fixed as a rock, it could never be beaten down, and its
+professors now enjoy their sentiments in quiet.</p>
+<p>After the institution of this sect by George Whitfield, in 1738,
+they were first covered by the heavens, equally exposed to the rain
+and the rabble, and afterwards they occupied, for many years, a
+place in Steelhouse-lane, where the wags of the age observed, "they
+were eat out by the bugs."--They therefore procured a cast off
+theatre in Moor-street, where they continued to exhibit till 1782;
+when, quitting the stage, they erected a superb meeting-house, in
+Cherry-street, at the expence of 1200<i>l</i>. This was opened,
+July 7, by John Wesley, the chief priest, whose extensive
+knowledge, and unblemished manners, give us a tolerable picture of
+apostolic purity; who <i>believes</i>, as if he were to be saved by
+faith; and who <i>labours</i>, as if he were to be saved by
+works.</p>
+<p>Thus our composite order of religion, an assemblage of the
+Episcopalian, the Presbyterian, the Independent, and the Baptist;
+fled from the buffetings of the vulgar, and now take peaceable
+shelter from the dews of heaven.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="ROMISH_CHAPEL."></a>ROMISH CHAPEL.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>I have already remarked, there is nothing which continues in the
+same state: the code of manners, habits of thinking, and of
+expression, modes of living, articles of learning; the ways of
+acquiring wealth, or knowledge; our dress, diet, recreations,
+&amp;c. change in every age.</p>
+<p>But why is there a change in religion? eternal truth, once
+fixed, is everlastingly the same. Religion is purity, which, one
+would think, admits of no change; if it changes, we should doubt
+whether it is religion. But a little attention to facts will inform
+us, <i>there is nothing more changable:</i> nor need we wonder,
+because, man himself being changable, every thing committed to his
+care will change with him. We may plead his excuse, by observing,
+his sight is defective: he may be deceived by viewing an object in
+one light, or attitude, to-day, and another, to-morrow. This
+propensity to change might lead us to suspect the authenticity of
+our own sentiments.</p>
+<p>The apostles certainly formed the church of Rome; but she,
+having undergone the variations of seventeen hundred years, St.
+Peter himself, should he return to the earth, could not discover
+one linament in her aspect; but would be apt to reject her as a
+changling.</p>
+<p>The church of England has not only undergone a change since the
+reformation, but wishes a greater.</p>
+<p>We should suppose the puritan of 1583, and the dissenter of
+1783, were the same: but although substance and shadow exactly
+resemble each other, no two things differ more.</p>
+<p>When pride sends a man in quest of a religion, if he does not
+discover something new, he might as well stay at home: nothing near
+the present standard can take. Two requisites are necessary to
+found a religion, capacity, and singularity: no fool ever
+succeeded. If his talents are not above mediocrity, he will not be
+able to draw the crowd; and if his doctrines are not singular, the
+crowd will not be drawn--novelty pleases.</p>
+<p>Having collected, and brightened up a set of doctrines, wide of
+every other church, he fixes at a distance from all. But time, and
+unavoidable intercourse with the world, promote a nearer
+approximation; and, mixing with men, we act like men. Thus the
+Quaker under George III. shews but little of the Quaker under
+George Fox.</p>
+<p>In two congregations of the same profession, as in two twins of
+the same family, though there is a striking likeness, the curious
+observer will trace a considerable difference.</p>
+<p>In a religion, as well as a man, <i>there is a time to be born,
+and a time to die</i>. They both vary in aspect, according to the
+length of their existence, carry the marks of decline, and sink
+into obscurity.</p>
+<p>We are well informed how much the Romish religion has declined
+in this country: three hundred years ago Birmingham did not produce
+one person of another persuasion; but now, out of 50,000 people, we
+have not 300 of this.</p>
+<p>The Roman Catholics formerly enjoyed a place for religious
+worship near St. Bartholomew's-chapel, still called Masshouse-lane;
+but the rude hands of irreligion destroyed it. There is now none
+nearer than Edgbaston, two miles distant; yet the congregation is
+chiefly supplied from Birmingham.</p>
+<p>If the Roman Catholics are not so powerful as in the sixteenth
+century, they seem as quiet, and as little addicted to knowledge;
+perhaps they have not yet learned to see through any eyes but those
+of the priest.--There appears, however, as much devotion in their
+public worship, as among any denomination of christians.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="JEWISH_SYNAGOGUE."></a>JEWISH SYNAGOGUE.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>We have also among us a remnant of Israel. A people who, when
+masters of their own country, were scarcely ever known to travel,
+and who are now seldom employed in any thing else. But, though they
+are ever moving, they are ever at home: who once lived the
+favourites of heaven, and fed upon the cream of the earth; but now
+are little regarded by either: whose society is entirely confined
+to themselves, except in the commercial line.</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image09.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image09.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image09.jpg" width="60%" alt=""></a></p>
+<br>
+<p>In the Synagogue, situated in the Froggery, they still preserve
+the faint resemblence of the ancient worship. Their whole apparatus
+being no more than the drooping ensigns of poverty. The place is
+rather small, but tolerably filled; where there appears less
+decorum than in the christian churches. The proverbial expression
+"as rich as a jew," is not altogether verified in Birmingham, but
+perhaps, time is transfering it to the Quakers.</p>
+<p>It is rather singular, that the honesty of a jew, is seldom
+pleaded but by the jew himself.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="THEATRES."></a>THEATRES.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>The practice of the Theatre is of great antiquity. We find it in
+great repute among the Greeks; we also find, the more a nation is
+civilized, the more they have supported the stage. It seems
+designed for two purposes, improvement and entertainment.</p>
+<p>There are certain exuberances that naturally grow in religion,
+government, and private life which may with propriety be attacked
+by the poet and the comedian, but which can scarcely be reduced by
+any other power. While the stage therefore keeps this great end in
+view, it answers a valuable purpose to the community. The poet
+should use his pen to reform, not to indulge a corrupt age, as was
+the case in the days of Charles the Second, when indecency was
+brought on to raise the laugh.</p>
+<p>Perhaps there is no period of time in which the stage was less
+polluted, owing to the inimitable Garrick, than the present:
+notwithstanding there is yet room for improvement.</p>
+<p>Tragedy is to melt the heart, by exhibiting the unfortunate;
+satiate revenge, by punishing the unjust tyrant: To discard vice,
+and to keep undue passions within bounds.</p>
+<p>Comedy holds up folly in a ridiculous light: Whatever conduct or
+character is found in the regions of absurdity, furnishes proper
+materials for the stage; and out of these, the pen of a master will
+draw many useful lessons.</p>
+<p>The pulpit and the stage have nearly the same use, but not in
+the same line--That of improving the man.</p>
+<p>The English stage opened about the conquest, and was wholly
+confined to religion; in whose service it continued, with very
+little intermission, to the extinction of the Plantagenets. The
+play-houses were the churches, the principal actors the priests,
+and the performances taken from scripture; such as the Fall of Man,
+the Story of Joseph, Sampson, Histories of the Saints, the
+Sufferings of Christ, Resurrection, Day of Judgment, &amp;c.</p>
+<p>Theatrical exhibition in Birmingham, is rather of a modern date.
+As far as memory can penetrate, the stroller occupied,
+occasionally, a shed of boards in the fields, now Temple-street:
+Here he acted the part of Distress, in a double capacity. The
+situation was afterwards changed, but not the eminence, and the
+Hinkleys dignified the performers booth!</p>
+<p>In about 1730, the amusements of the stage rose in a superior
+stile of elegance, and entered something like a stable in
+Castle-street. Here the comedian strutted in painted rags,
+ornamented with tinsel: The audience raised a noisy laugh, half
+real and half forced, at three-pence a head.</p>
+<p>In about 1740, a theatre was erected in Moor-street, which
+rather gave a spring to the amusement; in the day time the comedian
+beat up for volunteers for the night, delivered his bills of fare,
+and roared out an encomium on the excellence of the entertainment,
+which had not always the desired effect.</p>
+<p>In 1751, a company arrived, which anounced themselves, "His
+Majesty's servants, from the theatres-royal in London; and hoped
+the public would excuse the ceremony of the drum, as beneath the
+dignity of a London company." The novelty had a surprising effect;
+the performers had merit; the house was continually crouded; the
+general conversation turned upon theatrical exhibition, and the
+town was converted into one vast theatre.</p>
+<p>In 1752 it was found necessary to erect a larger theatre, that
+in King Street, and we multiplied into two London companies.</p>
+<p>The pulpits took the alarm, and in turn, roared after their
+customers: But the pious teachers forgot it was only the fervour of
+a day, which would cool of itself; that the fiercer the fire burns,
+the sooner it will burn out.</p>
+<p>This declaration of war, fortunately happening at the latter end
+of summer, the campaign was over, and the company retreated into
+winter quarters, without hostilities.</p>
+<p>It was afterwards found, that two theatres were more than the
+town chose to support; therefore that in Moor-street was set for a
+methodist meeting, where, it was said, though it changed its
+audience, it kept its primeval use, continuing the theatre of
+farce.</p>
+<p>In 1774, the theatre in King-street was enlarged, beautified,
+and made more convenient; so that it hath very few equals.</p>
+<p>About the same time that in New-street was erected upon a
+suitable spot, an extensive plan, and richly ornamented with
+paintings and scenery.--Expence seems the least object in
+consideration.</p>
+<p>An additional and superb portico, was erected in 1780, which
+perhaps may cause it to be pronounced, "One of the first theatres
+in Europe."</p>
+<p>Two busts, in relief, of excellent workmanship, are elevated
+over the attic windows; one is the father, and the other the
+refiner of the British, stage--Shakespear and Garrick.</p>
+<p>Also two figures eight feet high, are said to be under the
+chissel, one of Thalia, and the other of Melpomene, the comic and
+the tragic muses; the value one hundred and sixty guineas. Places
+are reserved for their reception, to augment the beauty of the
+front, and shew the taste of the age.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="AMUSEMENTS."></a>AMUSEMENTS.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Man seems formed for variety, whether we view him in a rational
+or an animal light. A sameness of temper, habit, diet, pursuit, or
+pleasure, is no part of his character. The different ages of his
+life, also produce different sentiments; that which gives us the
+highest relish in one period, is totally flat in another. The
+rattle that pleases at three, would be cast into the fire at
+threescore: The same hand that empties the purse at twenty, would
+fill it at fifty: In age, he bends his knee to the same religion,
+which he laughed at in youth: The prayer book, that holds the
+attention of seventy, holds the lottery pictures of seven: And the
+amorous tale that awakes the ideas of twenty five, lulls old age to
+sleep.</p>
+<p>Not only life is productive of change, but also every day in it.
+If a man would take a minute survey of his thoughts and
+employments, for only twenty-four hours, he would be astonished at
+their infinite variety.</p>
+<p>Though industry be the ruling passion of this ingenious race,
+yet relaxation must follow, as one period to another. Society is
+therefore justly esteemed an everlasting fund of amusement, which
+is found at the tavern, in the winter evening: Intoxication is
+seldom met with, except in the inferior ranks, where it is visible
+in both sexes.</p>
+<p>A regular concert is established, where the music is allowed to
+excel. This harmonious science, like other productions of taste,
+though it be not the general study of the inhabitants, hath made an
+amazing progress during the last thirty years.</p>
+<p>In 1777, a coffee-house was opened at the East end of
+New-street, the first in this department; which, drawing into its
+vortex the transactions of Europe, finds employment for the
+politician.</p>
+<p>Assemblies are held weekly, which give room for beauty to figure
+at cards, in conversation, and in the dance.</p>
+<p>The pleasures of the field claim their votaries, but, in a
+populous country, like that of Birmingham, plenty of game is not to
+be expected; for want of wild fowl, therefore, the shooter has been
+sometimes known to attack the tame.</p>
+<p>However, the farmer need not be under any great concern for his
+property; the sportsman seldom does any thing with his
+arms--but--<i>carry them</i>. We are more famous for <i>making</i>,
+than <i>using</i> the gun.</p>
+<p>A pack of hounds have sometimes been kept by subscription,
+termed, The Birmingham Hunt; but, as the sound of the dogs and the
+anvil never harmonised together, they have been long in disuse: the
+jocund tribe, therefore, having no scent of their own, fall into
+that of the neighbouring gentry, many of whom support a pack.</p>
+<p>The man of reflection finds amusement in domestic resources;
+and, in his own mind, if unoppressed. Here the treasures collected
+from men, books, and observation, <i>are laid up for many
+years</i>, from which he draws pleasure, without diminishing the
+flock. The universal riches of nature and of art; the part, the
+present, and a glympse of the future, lie open to his eye.</p>
+<p>Two obstructions only bound his ideas, <i>time</i> and
+<i>space</i>. He steps from planet to planet, and if he cannot
+enter immensity, he can verge upon its borders.</p>
+<p>I pity the man, who through poverty, cannot find warmth by his
+own fire-side; but I pity him more, who, through poverty of
+thought, cannot find happiness.</p>
+<p>For the entertainment of summer, exclusive of the two theatres,
+there are five greens, where the gentlemen are amused with bowls,
+and the ladies with tea.</p>
+<p>There are also great variety of public gardens, suited to every
+class of people, or which Duddeston, the ancient seat of the Holte
+family, claims the pre-eminence.</p>
+<p>The fishing-rod, that instrument which <i>destroys in peace</i>,
+must find a place: other animals are followed with fire and tumult,
+but the fishes are entrapped with deceit. Of all the sportsmen, we
+charge the angler alone with <i>killing in cold blood</i>.</p>
+<p>Just as a pursuit abounds with pleasure, so will it abound with
+votaries. The pleasure of angling depends on the success of the
+line: this art is but little practised here, and less known. Our
+rivers are small, and thinly stored; our pools are guarded as
+private property: the Birmingham spirit is rather too active for
+the sleepy amusement of fishing.</p>
+<p>Patience seems the highest accomplishment of an angler. We
+behold him, fixed as a statue, on the bank; his head inclining
+towards the river, his attention upon the water, his eye upon the
+float; he often draws, and draws only his hook! But although he
+gets no bite, it may fairly be said <i>he is bit:</i> of the two,
+the fish display the most cunning.--He, surprized that he has
+<i>caught nothing</i>, and I, that he has kept his rod and his
+patience.</p>
+<p>Party excursion is held in considerable esteem, in which are
+included Enville, the seat of Lord Stamford; Hagley, that of the
+late Lord Lyttelton; and the Leasowes, the property of the late Wm.
+Shenstone, Esq. We will omit the journey to London, a tour which
+some of us have made all our lives <i>without seeing it</i>.</p>
+<p>Cards and the visit are linked together, nor is the billiard
+table totally forsaken. One man amuses himself in amassing a
+fortune, and another in dissolving one.</p>
+<p>About thirty-six of the inhabitants keep carriages for their own
+private use; and near fifty have country houses. The relaxations of
+the humbler class, are fives, quoits, skittles, and ale.</p>
+<p>Health and amusement are found in the prodigious number of
+private gardens scattered round Birmingham, from which we often
+behold the father returning with a cabbage, and the daughter with a
+nosegay.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="HOTEL."></a>HOTEL.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>The spot where our great-grandmothers smiled in the lively
+dance, when they possessed the flower of beauty in the spring of
+life, is lost in forgetfulness. The floor that trembled under that
+foot which was covered with a leather shoe tied with a silken
+string, and which supported a stocking of dark blue worsted, not of
+the finest texture, is now buried in oblivion.</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image10.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image10.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image10.jpg" width="45%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b>Hotel.</b></p>
+<br>
+<p>In 1750 we had two assembly rooms; one at No. 11. in the Square,
+the other No. 85. in Bull-street. This last was not much in use
+afterwards. That in the Square continued in repute till in the
+course of that evening which happened in October 1765, when Edward
+Duke of York had the honour of leading up the dance, and the ladies
+of Birmingham enjoyed that of the Duke's hand, He remarked, "That a
+town of such magnitude as Birmingham, and adorned with so much
+beauty, deserved a superior accomodation:--That the room itself was
+mean, but the entrance still meaner."</p>
+<p>Truth is ever the same, whether it comes from a prince or a
+peasant; but its effects are not. Whether some secret charm
+attended the Duke's expression, that blasted the room, is
+uncertain, but it never after held its former eminence.</p>
+<p>In 1772 a building was erected by subscription, upon the Tontine
+principle, at the head of Temple row, and was dignified with the
+French name of Hotel: From a handsome, entrance the ladies are now
+led through a spacious saloon, at the extremity of which the eye is
+struck with a grand flight of steps, opening into an assembly-room,
+which would not disgrace even the royal presence of the Duke's
+brother.</p>
+<p>The pile itself is large, plain, and elegant, but standing in
+the same line with the other buildings, which before were really
+genteel, eclipses them by its superiority: Whereas, if the Hotel
+had fallen a few feet back, it would, by breaking the line, have
+preserved the beauty of the row, without losing its own.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="WAKES."></a>WAKES.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>This ancient custom was left us by the Saxons. Time, that makes
+alteration only in other customs, has totally inverted this.</p>
+<p>When a church was erected, it was immediately called after a
+saint, put under his protection, and the day belonging to that
+saint kept in the church as an high festival. In the evening
+preceding the day, the inhabitants, with lights, approached the
+church, and kept a continual devotion during the whole night; hence
+the name <i>wake</i>: After which they entered into festivity.</p>
+<p>But now the devotional part is forgot, the church is deserted,
+and the festivity turned into riot, drunkenness, and mischief.</p>
+<p>Without searching into the mouldy records of time, for evidence
+to support our assertion, we may safely pronounce the wake the
+lowest of all low amusements, and compleatly suited to the lowest
+of tempers.</p>
+<p>Wakes have been deemed a public concern, and legislature, more
+than once, been obliged to interpose for the sake of that order
+which private conduct could never boast.</p>
+<p>In the reign of Henry the Sixth, every consideration, whether of
+a public or a private nature, gave way to the wake: The harvest in
+particular was neglected. An order therefore issued, confining the
+wakes to the first Sunday in October, consequently the whole nation
+run mad at once.</p>
+<p>Wakes in Birmingham are not ancient: Why St. Martin's, then the
+only church, was neglected, is uncertain.</p>
+<p>Although we have no wakes for the town, there are three kept in
+its borders, called Deritend, Chapel, and Bell wakes. The two first
+are in the spring of existence, the last in the falling leaf of
+autumn.</p>
+<p>Deritend wake probably took its rise at the erection of her
+chapel, in 1382.</p>
+<p>Chapel wake, in 1750, from St. Bartholomew's chapel, is held in
+the meridian of Coleshill-street; was hatched and fostered by the
+publicans, for the benefit of the spiggot.</p>
+<p>Amongst other important amusements, was that of bull-baiting,
+till the year 1773, when the commissioners of lamps, in the
+amendment of their act, wisely broke the chain, and procured a
+reprieve for the unfortunate animal.</p>
+<p>Another was the horse-race, 'till a few years ago a person being
+killed, rather slackened the entertainment. What singular genius
+introduced the horse-race into a crowded street, I am yet to
+learn.</p>
+<p>In the evening the passenger cannot proceed without danger; in
+the morning, he may discover which houses are public, without other
+intelligence than the copious streams that have issued from the
+wall. The blind may also distinguish the same thing, by the strong
+scent of the tap.</p>
+<p>Bell wake is the junior by one year, originating from the same
+cause, in 1751, in consequence of ten bells being hung up in St
+Philip's steeple.--'Till within these few years, we were at this
+wake struck with a singular exhibition, that of a number of boys
+running a race through the streets naked. Some of the inhabitants,
+seeing so fair a mark for chastisement, applied the rod with
+success, put a period to the sport, and obliged the young runners
+to run under cover.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="CLUBS."></a>CLUBS.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>It may be expected, from the title of this chapter, that I shall
+introduce a set of ruffians armed with missive weapons; or, having
+named a trump, a set of gamblers shuffling and dealing out the
+cards: But whatever veneration I may entertain for these two fag
+ends of our species, I shall certainly introduce a class of people,
+which, though of the lower orders, are preferable to both.</p>
+<p>Social compact is a distinguishing mark of civilization: The
+whole British empire may be justly considered as one grand
+alliance, united for public and private interest, and this vast
+body of people are subdivided into an infinity of smaller
+fraternities, for individual benefit.</p>
+<p>Perhaps there are hundreds of these societies in Birmingham
+under the name of clubs; some of them boast the antiquity of a
+century, and by prudent direction have acquired a capital, at
+accumulating interest. Thousands of the inhabitants are thus
+connected, nay, to be otherwise is rather unfashionable, and some
+are people of sentiment and property.</p>
+<p>A variety of purposes are intended by these laudable
+institutions, but the principal one is that of supporting the
+sick.</p>
+<p>Each society is governed by a code of laws of its own making,
+which have at least the honour of <i>resembling</i> those of
+legislature, for words without sense are found in both, and we
+sometimes stumble upon contradiction.</p>
+<p>The poor's-rates, enormous as they appear, are softened by these
+brotherly aids. They tend also to keep the mind at rest, for a man
+will enjoy the day of health, with double relish, when he considers
+he has a treasure laid up for that of sickness.</p>
+<p>If a <i>member</i> only of a poor family be sick, the
+<i>head</i> still remains to procure necessaries; but if that head
+be disordered, the whole source of supply is dried up, which
+evinces the utility of such institutions.</p>
+<p>The general custom is to meet at the public every fortnight,
+spend a trifle, and each contribute six-pence, or any stated sum,
+to the common stock. The landlord is always treasurer, or father,
+and is assisted by two stewards, annually or monthly chosen.</p>
+<p>As honour and low life are not always found together, we
+sometimes see a man who is rather <i>idle</i>, wish the society may
+suppose him <i>sick</i>, that he may rob them with more security.
+Or, if a member hangs long upon the box, his brethren seek a
+pretence to expel him. On the other hand, we frequently observe a
+man silently retreat from the club, if another falls upon the box,
+and fondly suppose himself no longer a member; or if the box be
+loaded with sickness, the whole club has been known to dissolve,
+that they may rid themselves of the burthen; but the Court of
+Requests finds an easy remedy for these evils, and at a trifling
+expence.</p>
+<p>The charity of the club, is also extended beyond the grave, and
+terminates with a present to the widow.</p>
+<p>The philosophers tell us, "There is no good without its kindred
+evil." This amiable body of men, therefore, marshalled to expel
+disease, hath one small alloy, and perhaps but one. As liquor and
+labour are inseparable, the imprudent member is apt to forget to
+quit the club room when he has spent his necessary two-pence, but
+continues there to the injury of his family.</p>
+<p>Another of these institutions is the <i>rent club</i>, where,
+from the weekly sums deposited by the members, a sop is regularly
+served up twice a year, to prevent the growlings of a landlord.</p>
+<p>In the <i>breeches club</i> every member ballots for a pair,
+value a guinea, <i>promised</i> of more value by the maker. This
+club dissolves when all the members are served.</p>
+<p>The intentions of the <i>book club</i> are well known, to catch
+the productions of the press as they rise.</p>
+<p>The <i>watch club</i> has generally a watchmaker for its
+president, is composed of young men, and is always temporary.</p>
+<p>If a taylor be short of employment, he has only to consult a
+landlord over a bottle, who, by their joint powers, can give birth
+to a <i>cloaths club</i>; where every member is supplied with a
+suit to his taste, of a stipulated price. These are chiefly
+composed of batchelors, who wish to shine in the eye of the
+fair.</p>
+<p>Thus a bricklayer stands at the head of the <i>building
+club</i>, where every member perhaps subscribes two guineas per
+month, and each house, value about one hundred pounds, is balloted
+for, as soon as erected. As a house is a weighty concern, every
+member is obliged to produce two bondsmen for the performance of
+covenants.</p>
+<p>I will venture to pronounce another the <i>capital club</i>, for
+when the contributions amount to 50<i>l</i>. the members ballot for
+this capital, to bring into business: Here also securities are
+necessary. It is easy to conceive the two last clubs are extremely
+beneficial to building and to commerce.</p>
+<p>The last I shall enumerate is the <i>clock club</i>: When the
+weekly deposits of the members amount to about 4<i>l</i>. they call
+lots who shall be first served with a clock of that value, and
+continue the same method till the whole club is supplied; after
+which, the clockmaker and landlord cast about for another set, who
+are chiefly composed of young house-keepers. Hence the beginner
+ornaments his premises with furniture, the artist finds employment
+and profit, and the publican empties his barrel.</p>
+<p>Thus we have taken a transient survey of this rising colony of
+arts, uniting observation with fact: We have seen her dark
+manufactures, in darker times: We have attended her through her
+commercial, religious, political, and pleasurable walks: Have
+viewed her in many points of light, but never in decline; 'till we
+have now set her in the fair sunshine of the present day.</p>
+<p>Perhaps I shall not be charged with prolixity, that unpardonable
+sin against the reader, when it is considered, that three thousand
+years are deposited in the compass of one hundred and forty little
+pages.</p>
+<p>Some other circumstances deserve attention, which could not be
+introduced without breaking the thread of history: But as that
+thread is now drawn to an end, I must, before I resume it, step
+back into the recesses of time, and slumber through the long ages
+of seventeen hundred years; if the active reader, therefore, has no
+inclination for a nod of that length, or, in simple phrase, no
+relish for antiquity, I advise him to pass over the five ensuing
+chapters.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="IKENIELD_STREET."></a>IKENIELD STREET.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>About five furlongs North of the Navigation Bridge, in Great
+Charles street, which is the boundary of the present buildings,
+runs the Ikenield-street; one of those famous pretorian roads which
+mark the Romans with conquest, and the Britons with slavery.</p>
+<p>By that time a century had elapsed, from the first landing of
+Caesar in Britain the victorious Romans had carried their arms
+through the southern part of the isle. They therefore endeavoured
+to secure the conquered provinces by opening four roads, which
+should each rise in the shore, communicate with, and cross each
+other, form different angles, extend over the island several ways,
+and terminate in the opposite sea.</p>
+<p>These are the Watling-street, which rises near Dover, and
+running North-west through London, Atherstone, and Shropshire, in
+the neighbourhood of Chester, ends in the Irish sea.</p>
+<p>The Foss begins in Devonshlre, extends South-east through
+Leicestershire, continuing its course through Lincolnshire, to the
+verge of the German ocean.</p>
+<p>These two roads, crossing each other at right angles, form a
+figure resembling the letter X, whose centre is the High Cross,
+which divides the counties of Warwick and Leicester.</p>
+<p>The Ermine-street extends along the southern part of the island;
+near the British channel; and the Ikenield-street, which I cannot
+so soon quit, rises near Southampton, extends nearly North, through
+Winchester, Wallingford, and over the Isis, at New-bridge; thence
+to Burford, crossing the Foss at Stow in the Woulds, over
+Bitford-bridge, in the County of Warwick, to Alcester; by Studley,
+Ipsley, Beely, Wetherick-hill, Stutley-street; crosses the road
+from Birmingham to Bromsgrove, at Selley oak, leaving Harborne a
+mile to the left, also the Hales Owen road a mile West of
+Birmingham: Thence by the Observatory in Lady-wood-lane, where it
+enters the parish of Birmingham, crossing the Dudley road at the
+Sand-pits; along Worstone-lane; through the little pool, and
+Hockley-brook, where it quits the parish: Thence over
+Handsworth-heath, entering a little lane on the right of
+Bristle-lands-end, and over the river Tame, at Offord-mill,
+(Oldford-mill) directly to Sutton Coldfield. It passes the Ridgeway
+a few yards East of King's-standing, a little artificial mount, on
+which Charles the First is said to have stood when he harangued the
+troops he brought out of Shropshire, at the opening of the civil
+wars, in 1642. From thence the road proceeds through Sutton park,
+and the remainder of the Coldfield; over Radley-moor; from thence
+to Wall, a Roman station, where it meets the Watling-street:
+Leaving Lichfield a mile to the left, it leads through Street-hay;
+over Fradley-heath; thence through Alderwas hays, crossing the
+river Trent, at Wichnor-bridge, to Branson-turnpike: over
+Burton-moor, leaving the town half a mile to the right: thence to
+Monk's-bridge, upon the river Dove; along Egington-heath,
+Little-over, the Rue-dyches, Stepping-lane, Nun-green, and
+Darley-slade, to the river Derwent, one mile above Derby; upon the
+eastern banks of which stands Little Chester, built by the
+Romans.</p>
+<p>If the traveller is tired with this tedious journey, and dull
+description, which admits of no variety, we will stop for a moment,
+and refresh in this Roman city.</p>
+<p>In drawing the flewks of his oar along the bed of the river, as
+he boats over it, he may feel the foundations of a Roman bridge,
+nearly level with its bottom. Joining the water are the vestiges of
+a castle, now an orchard. Roman coins are frequently discovered--In
+1765, I was presented with one of Vespasian's, found the year
+before in scowering a ditch; but I am sorry to observe, it has
+suffered more during the fifteen years in my possession, than
+during the fifteen hundred it lay in the earth.</p>
+<p>The inhabitants being in want of materials to form a turnpike
+road, attempted to pull up this renowned military way, for the sake
+of those materials, but found them too strongly cemented to admit
+of an easy separation, and therefore desisted when they had taken
+up a few loads.</p>
+<p>I saw the section of this road cut up from the bottom: the
+Romans seem to have formed it with infinite labour and expence.
+They took out the soil for about twenty yards wide, and one deep,
+perhaps, till they came to a firm bottom; and filled up the whole
+with stones of all sizes, brought from Duffield, four miles up the
+river; cemented with coarse mortar.</p>
+<p>The road here is only discoverable by its barren track, along
+the cultivated meadows. It then proceeds over Morley-moor, through
+Scarsdale, by Chesterfield, Balsover, through Yorkshire,
+Northumberland, and terminates upon the banks of the Tine, near
+Tinmouth.</p>
+<p>There are many roads in England formed by the Romans: they were
+of two kinds, the military, which crossed the island; and the
+smaller, which extended from one town to another. The four I have
+mentioned come under the first class: they rather avoided, than led
+through a town, that they might not be injured by traffic.</p>
+<p>Two of these four, the Watling-street, and the Ikenield-street,
+are thought, by their names, to be British, and with some reason;
+neither of the words are derived from the Latin: but whatever were
+their origin, they are certainly of Roman construction.</p>
+<p>These great roads were begun as soon as the island was subdued,
+to employ the military, and awe the natives, and were divided into
+stages, at the end of each was a fort, or station, to accommodate
+the guard, for the reception of stores, the conveniency of marching
+parties, and to prevent the soldiers from mixing with the
+Britons.</p>
+<p>The stations upon the Ikenield-street, in our neighbourhood, are
+Little Chester (Derventione) a square fort, nearly half an acre;
+joining the road to the south, and the Derwent to the west.</p>
+<p>The next is Burton upon Trent (Ad Trivonam) thirteen miles
+south. Here I find no remains of a station.</p>
+<p>Then Wall (Etocetum) near Lichfield, which I have examined with
+great labour, or rather with great pleasure: Here the two famous
+consular roads cross each other. We should expect a fort in the
+angle, commanding both, which is not the case. The Watling-street
+is lost for about half a mile, leading over a morass, only the line
+is faintly preserved, by a blind path over the inclosures: the
+Ikenield-street crosses it in this morass, not the least traces of
+which remain. But, by a strict attention, I could point out their
+junction to a few yards.</p>
+<p>Six furlongs west of this junction, and one hundred yards north
+of the Watling-street, in a close, now about three acres, are the
+remains of the Roman fortress. This building, of strength and
+terror, is reduced to one piece of thick wall, visibly of Roman
+workmanship, from whence the place derives its modern name.</p>
+<p>Can you, says I to a senior peasant, for I love to appeal to old
+age, tell the origin of that building?</p>
+<p>"No; but we suppose it has been a church. The ruins were much
+larger in my memory; but they were lately destroyed, to bring the
+land into that improved state of cultivation in which you see
+it."--And so you reduced a fortress in four years, which the
+Britons never could in four hundred. For a trifling profit, you
+eraze the work of the ancients, and prevent the wonder of the
+moderns.--Are you apprised of any old walls under the surface?</p>
+<p>"Yes; the close is full of them: I have broke three ploughs in
+one day; no tool will stand against them. It has been more
+expensive to bring the land into its present condition, than the
+freehold is worth." Why, you seem more willing to destroy than your
+tools; and more able than time. The works which were the admiration
+of ages, you bury under ground. What the traveller comes many miles
+to see, you assiduously hide.</p>
+<p>What could be the meaning that the Romans erected their station
+on the declivity of this hill, when the summit, two hundred yards
+distant, is much more eligible; are there no foundations upon it?
+"None."</p>
+<p>The commandry is preferable: the Watling-street runs by it, and
+it is nearer the Ikenield-street. Pray, are you acquainted with
+another Roman road which crosses it? "No."</p>
+<p>Do you know any close about the village, where a narrow bed of
+gravel, which runs a considerable length, has impeded the
+plough?</p>
+<p>"Yes; there is a place, half a mile distant, where, when a
+child, I drove the plough; we penetrated a land of gravel, and my
+companion's grandfather told us, it had been an old road."--That is
+the place I want, lead me to it. Being already master of both ends
+of the road, like a broken line, with the center worn out, the
+gravel bed enabled me to recover it.</p>
+<p>The next station upon the Ikenield-street is Birmingham
+(Bremenium) I have examined this country with care; but find no
+vestiges of a station: nor shall we wonder; dissolation is the
+preserver of antiquity, nothing of which reigns here; the most
+likely place is Wor-ston (Wall-stone) which a younger brother of
+Birmingham might afterwards convert into the fashionable moat of
+the times, and erect a castle. The next station is Alcester
+(Alauna) all which are nearly at equal distances.</p>
+<p>In forming these grand roads, a strait direction seems to have
+been their leading maxim. Though curiosity has lead me to travel
+many hundred miles upon their roads, with the eye of an enquirer, I
+cannot recollect one instance, where they ever broke the line to
+avoid a hill, a swamp, a rock, or a river.</p>
+<p>They were well acquainted with the propriety of an old English
+adage, <i>Once well done is twice done</i>; an idea new cloathed by
+Lord Chesterfield, <i>If a a thing be worth doing at all, it is
+worth doing well</i>.</p>
+<p>For their roads were so durably constructed, that, had they been
+appropriated only to the use intended, they might have withstood
+the efforts of time, and bid fair for eternity.--Why is this useful
+art so lost among the moderns?</p>
+<p>When time and intercourse had so far united the Romans and the
+Britons, that they approached nearly to one people, the Romans
+formed, or rather <i>improved</i>, many of the smaller roads;
+placed stones of intelligence upon them; hence, London Stone, Stony
+Stratford (the stone at the Street-ford) Atherstone, stone (hither,
+near, or first stone from Witherly-bridge, a Roman camp) and fixed
+their stations in the places to which these roads tended.</p>
+<p>The great roads, as observed before, were chiefly appropriated
+for military purposes, and instituted in the beginning of their
+government; but the smaller were of later date, and designed for
+common use. As these came more in practice, there was less occasion
+for the military; which, not leading to their towns, were, in
+process of time, nearly laid aside.</p>
+<p>Antonine, and his numerous train of commentators, have not
+bestowed that attention on the roads they deserve: a curious
+acquaintance with the roads of a country, brings us acquainted with
+the manners of the people: in one, like a mirror, is exactly
+represented the other. Their state, like a master key, unlocks many
+apartments.</p>
+<p>The authors I have seen are <i>all in the wrong</i>; and as my
+researches are confined, it is a mortification, I am not able to
+set them right. They have confounded the two classes together,
+which were very distinct in chronology, the manner of making, and
+their use. If an author treats of one old road, he supposes himself
+bound to treat of all in the kingdom, a task no man can execute: by
+undertaking much, we do nothing well; the journey of an antiquarian
+mould never be rapid. If fortune offers a small discovery, let him
+think, and compare. Neither will they ever be set right, but
+continue to build a mouldering fabric, with untempered mortar, till
+a number of intelligent residents, by local enquiries can produce
+solid materials for a lasting monument.</p>
+<p>The Romans properly termed their ways streets, a name retained
+by many of them to this day; one of the smaller roads, issuing from
+London, penetrates through Stratford upon Avon (Street-ford)
+Monks-path-street, and Shirley-street, to Birmingham, which proves
+it of great antiquity, and the Ikenield-street running by it,
+proves it of greater. We may from hence safely conclude, Birmingham
+was a place of note in the time of Caesar, because she merited
+legislative regard in forming their roads; which will send us far
+back among the Britons, to find her first existence.</p>
+<p>Though we are certain the Ikenield-street passes about a mile in
+length through this parish, as described above; yet, as there are
+no Roman traces to be seen, I must take the curious traveller to
+that vast waste, called Sutton-Coldfield, about four miles distant,
+where he will, in the same road, find the footsteps of those great
+mailers of the world, marked in lasting characters.</p>
+<p>He will plainly see its straight line pass over the Ridgeway,
+through Sutton Park, leaving the West hedge about 200 yards to the
+left; through the remainder of the Coldfield, till lost in
+cultivation.</p>
+<p>This track is more than three miles in length, and is no where
+else visible in these parts. I must apprize him that its highest
+beauty is only discovered by an horizontal sun in the winter
+months.</p>
+<p>I first saw it in 1762, relieved by the transverse rays, in a
+clear evening in November; I had a perfect view upon the Ridgeway,
+near King's-standing of this delightful scene: Had I been attacked
+by the chill blasts of winter, upon this bleak mountain, the
+sensation would have been lost in the transport. The eye, at one
+view, takes in more than two miles. Struck with astonishment, I
+thought it the grandest sight I had ever beheld; and was amazed, so
+noble a monument of antiquity should be so little regarded.</p>
+<p>The poets have long contended for the line of beauty--they may
+find it here. I was fixed as by enchantment till the sun dropt, my
+prospect with it, and I left the place with regret.</p>
+<p>If the industrious traveller chooses to wade up to the middle in
+gorse, as I did, he may find a roughish journey along this famous
+military way.</p>
+<p>Perhaps this is the only road in which money is of no use to the
+traveller; for upon this barren wild he can neither spend it, nor
+give it away.</p>
+<p>He will perceive the Coldfield to be one vast bed of gravel,
+covered with a moderate depth of soil of eight or ten inches:
+During this journey of three miles, he will observe all the way, on
+each side, a number of pits, perhaps more than a thousand, out of
+which the Romans procured the gravel to form the road; none of them
+many yards from it. This great number of pits, tends to prove two
+points--That the country was full of timber, which they not
+choosing to fall, procured the gravel in the interstices; for the
+road is composed of nothing else--And, that a great number of
+people were employed in its formation: They would also, with the
+trees properly disposed, which the Romans must inevitably cut to
+procure a passage, form a barrier to the road.</p>
+<p>This noble production was designed by a master, is every where
+straight, and executed with labour and judgement.</p>
+<p>Here he perceives the date of his own conquest, and of his
+civilization. Thus the Romans humbled a ferocious people.</p>
+<p>If he chooses to measure it he will find it exactly sixty feet
+wide, divided into three lands, resembling those in a ploughed
+field. The centre land thirty-six feet, and raised from one to
+three, according to the nature of the ground. The side lands,
+twelve each, and rising seldom more than one foot.</p>
+<p>This centre land no doubt was appropriated for the march of the
+troops, and the small one, on each side, for the out-guards, who
+preserved their ranks, for fear of a surprize from the vigilant and
+angry Britons.</p>
+<p>The Romans held these roads in great esteem, and were severe in
+their laws for their preservation.</p>
+<p>This famous road is visible all the way, but in some parts
+greatly hurt, and in others, compleat as in the first day the
+Romans made it. Perhaps the inquisitive traveller may find here,
+the only monument in the whole island left us by the Romans, that
+<i>time</i> hath not injured.</p>
+<p>The philosophical traveller may make some curious observations
+in the line of agriculture, yet in its infancy.</p>
+<p>The only growth upon this wild, is gorse and ling: The
+vegetation upon the road and the adjacent lands, seem equal: The
+pits are all covered with a tolerable turf.</p>
+<p>As this road has been made about 1720 years, and, as at the time
+of making, both that and the pits must have been surfaces of neat
+gravel; he will be led to examine, what degree of soil they have
+acquired in that long course of years, and by what means?</p>
+<p>He well knows, that the surface of the earth is very far from
+being a fixed body: That there is a continual motion in every part,
+stone excepted: That the operations of the sun, the air, the frost,
+the dews, the winds, and the rain, produce a constant agitation,
+which changes the particles and the pores, tends to promote
+vegetation, and to increase the soil to a certain depth.</p>
+<p>This progress is too minute for the human eye, but the effects
+are visible. The powers above mentioned operate nearly as yeast in
+a lump of dough, that enlivens the whole. Nature seems to wish that
+the foot would leave the path, that she may cover it with grass. He
+will find this vegetative power so strong, that it even attends the
+small detached parts of the soil where-ever they go, provided they
+are within reach of air and moisture: He will not only observe it
+in the small pots, appropriated for garden use, but on the tops of
+houses, remote from any road, where the wind has carried any small
+dust. He will also observe it in cracks of the rocks; but in an
+amazing degree in the thick walls of ruined castles, where, by a
+long course of time, the decayed materials are converted into a
+kind of soil, and so well covered with grass, that if one of our
+old castle builders could return to his possessions, he might mow
+his house as well as his field, and procure a tolerable crop from
+both.</p>
+<p>In those pits, upon an eminence, the soil will be found deep
+enough for any mode of husbandry. In those of the vallies, which
+take in the small drain of the adjacent parts, it is much deeper.
+That upon the road, which rather gives than receives any addition
+from drain, the average depth is about four inches.</p>
+<p>The soil is not only increased by the causes above, but also by
+the constant decays of the growth upon it. The present vegetable
+generation falling to decay, adds to the soil, and also, assists
+the next generation, which in a short time follows the same
+course.</p>
+<p>The author of the History of Sutton says, "The poor inhabitants
+are supplied with fuel from a magazine of peat, near the Roman
+road, composed of thousands of fir trees cut down by the Romans, to
+enable them to pass over a morass. The bodies of the trees are
+sometimes dug up found, with the marks of the axe upon them."</p>
+<p>Are we then to suppose, by this curious historical anecdote,
+that the inhabitants of Sutton have run away with this celebrated
+piece of antiquity? That the cart, instead of rolling <i>over</i>
+the military way, has rolled <i>under</i> it, and that they have
+boiled the pot with the Roman road?</p>
+<p>Upon inquiry, they seemed more inclined to credit the fact, than
+able to prove it; but I can find no such morass, neither is the
+road any where broken up. Perhaps it would be as difficult to find
+the trees, as the axe that cut them: Besides, the fir is not a
+native of Britain, but of Russia; and I believe our forefathers,
+the Britons, were not complete masters of the art of transplanting.
+The park of Sutton was probably a bed of oaks, the natural weed of
+the country, long before Moses figured in history.</p>
+<p>Whilst the political traveller is contemplating this
+extraordinary production of antiquity, of art, and of labour, his
+thoughts will naturally recur to the authors of it.</p>
+<p>He will find them proficients in science, in ambition, in taste:
+They added dominion to conquest, 'till their original territory
+became too narrow a basis to support the vast fabric acquired by
+the success of their arms: The monstrous bulk fell to destruction
+by its own weight.--Man was not made for universality; if he grasps
+at little, he may retain it; if at much, he may lose all.</p>
+<p>The confusion, natural on such occasions, produced anarchy: At
+that moment, the military stept into the government, and the people
+became slaves.</p>
+<p>Upon the ruins of this brave race, the Bishop of Rome founded an
+ecclesiastical jurisdiction. His power increasing with his
+votaries, he found means to link all christendom to the triple
+crown, and acquired an unaccountable ascendency over the human
+mind: The princes of Europe were harnessed, like so many coach
+horses. The pontiff directed the bridle. He sometimes used the
+whip, and sometimes the curse. The thunder of his throne rattled
+through the world with astonishing effect, 'till that most useful
+discovery, the art of printing, in the fifteenth century, dissolved
+the charm, and set the oppressed cattle at liberty; who began to
+kick their driver. Henry the Eighth of England, was the first
+unruly animal in the papal team, and the sagacious Cranmer assisted
+in breaking the shackles.</p>
+<p>We have, in our day, seen an order of priesthood in the church
+of Rome, annihilated by the consent of the European princes, which
+the Pope beheld in silence.</p>
+<p>"There is an ultimate point of exaltation, and reduction, beyond
+which human affairs cannot proceed." Rome, seems to have
+experienced both, for she is at this day one of the most
+contemptible states in the scale of empire.</p>
+<p>This will of course lead the traveller's thoughts towards
+Britain, where he will find her sons by nature inclined to a love
+of arms, of liberty, and of commerce. These are the strong outlines
+of national character, the interior parts of which are finished
+with the softer touches of humanity, of science, and of luxury. He
+will also find, that there is a natural boundary to every country,
+beyond which it is dangerous to add dominion. That the boundary of
+Britain is the sea: That her external strength is her navy, which
+protects her frontiers, and her commerce: That her internal is
+unanimity: That when her strength is united within herself, she is
+invincible, and the balance of Europe will be fixed in her hand,
+which she ought never to let go.</p>
+<p>But if she accumulates territory, though she may profit at
+first, she weakens her power by dividing it; for the more she fends
+abroad, the less will remain at home; and, instead of giving law to
+the tyrant, she may be obliged to receive law from him.</p>
+<p>That, by a multiplicity of additions, her little isles will be
+lost in the great map of dominion.</p>
+<p>That, if she attempts to draw that vast and growing empire,
+America, she may herself be drawn to destruction; for, by every law
+of attraction, the greater draws the less--The mouse was never
+meant to direct the ox. That the military and the ecclesiastical
+powers are necessary in their places, that is, subordinate to the
+civil.</p>
+<p>But my companion will remember that Birmingham is our historical
+mark, therefore we must retreat to that happy abode of the smiling
+arts. If he has no taste for antiquity, I have detained him too
+long upon this hungry, though delightful spot. If he has, he will
+leave the enchanted ground with reluctance; will often turn his
+head to repeat the view, 'till the prospect is totally lost.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="LORDS_OF_THE_MANOR."></a>LORDS OF THE MANOR.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>By the united voice of our historians, it appears, that as the
+Saxons conquered province after province, which was effected in
+about one hundred and thirty years, the unfortunate Britons
+retreated into Wales: But we are not to suppose that all the
+inhabitants ran away, and left a desolate region to the victor;
+this would have been of little more value to the conqueror, than
+the possession of Sutton Coldfield or Bromsgrove Lickey. The
+mechanic and the peasant were left, which are by far the greatest
+number; they are also the riches of a country; stamp a value upon
+property, and it becomes current. As they have nothing to lose, so
+they have nothing to fear; for let who will be master, they must be
+drudges: Their safety consists in their servitude; the victor is
+ever conscious of their utility, therefore their protection is
+certain.</p>
+<p>But the danger lies with the man of substance, and the greater
+that substance, the greater his anxiety to preserve it, and the
+more danger to himself if conquered: These were the people who
+retreated into Wales. Neither must we consider the wealth of that
+day to consist of bags of cash, bills of exchange, India bonds,
+bank stock, etc. no such thing existed. Property lay in the land,
+and the herds that fed upon it. And here I must congratulate our
+Welch neighbours, who are most certainly descended from gentlemen;
+and I make no doubt but the Cambrian reader will readily unite in
+the same sentiment.</p>
+<p>The Saxons, as conquerors, were too proud to follow the modes of
+the conquered, therefore they introduced government, laws,
+language, customs and habits of their own. Hence we date the
+division of the kingdom into manors.</p>
+<p>Human nature is nearly the same in all ages. Where value is
+marked upon property or power, it will find its votaries: Whoever
+was the most deserving, or rather could make the most interest,
+procured land sufficient for an Elderman, now Earl; the next class,
+a Manor; and the inferior, who had borne the heat and burthen of
+the day--nothing.</p>
+<p>I must now introduce an expression which I promised not to
+forget.--In the course of a trial between William de Birmingham,
+and the inhabitants of Bromsgrove and King's-norton, in 1309,
+concerning the right of tollage; it appeared, That the ANCESTORS of
+the said William had a market here before the Norman conquest. This
+proves, that the family of Birmingham were of Saxon race, and Lords
+of the Manor prior to that period.</p>
+<p>Mercia was not only the largest, but also the last of the seven
+conquered kingdoms--It was bounded on the North by the Humber, on
+the West by the Severn, on the South by the Thames, and on the East
+by the German ocean. Birmingham lies nearly in the centre. Cridda,
+a Saxon, came over with a body of troops, and reduced it in 582;
+therefore, as no after revolution happened that could cause
+Birmingham to change its owner, and as land was not in a very
+saleable state at that time, there is the greatest reason to
+suppose the founder of the house of Birmingham Came over with
+Cridda, as an officer in his army, and procured this little
+flourishing dominion as a reward for his service.</p>
+<p>The succeeding generations of this illustrious family are too
+remote for historical penetration, 'till the reign of Edward the
+Confessor, the last of the Saxon Kings, when we find, in 1050,</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="ULUUINE"></a>ULUUINE, (since ALWYNE, now ALLEN,)</h2>
+<center>master of this improving spot.</center>
+<h2><a name="RICHARD"></a>RICHARD,</h2>
+<h3>1066,</h3>
+<br>
+<p>seems to have succeeded him, and to have lived in that
+unfortunate period for property, the conquest.</p>
+<p>The time was now arrived when this ancient family, with the rest
+of the English gentry, who had lived under the benign climate of
+Saxon government, and in the affluence of fortune, must quit the
+happy regions of hospitality, and enter the gloomy precincts of
+penury--From givers, they were to become beggars.</p>
+<p>The whole conduct of William seems to have carried the strongest
+marks of conquest. Many of the English lost their lives, some their
+liberty, and nearly all their estates. The whole land in the
+kingdom was insufficient to satisfy the hungry Normans.</p>
+<p>Perhaps William took the wisest method to secure the conquered
+country that could be devised by human wisdom; he parcelled out the
+kingdom among his greater Barons; the whole county of Chester is
+said to have fallen to the share of Hugh Lupus: and these were
+subdivided into 62,000 Knight's-sees, which were held under the
+great Barons by military service. Thus the Sovereign by only
+signifying his pleasure to the Barons, could instantly raise an
+army for any purpose. We cannot produce a stronger indication of
+arbitrary government: But, it is happy for the world, that
+perfection is not found even in human wisdom; for this well laid
+scheme destroyed itself. Instead of making the crown absolute, as
+was intended, it threw the balance into the hands of the Barons,
+who became so many petty Sovereigns, and a scourge to the King in
+after ages, 'till Henry the Seventh sapped their power, and raised
+the third estate, the Commons, which quickly eclipsed the other
+two.</p>
+<p>The English gentry suffered great distress: Their complaints
+rung loud in the royal ear, some of them therefore, who had been
+peaceable and never opposed the Normans, were suffered to enjoy
+their estates in dependance upon the great Barons.</p>
+<p>This was the case with Richard, Lord of Birmingham, who held
+this manor by knight's-service of William Fitz-Ausculf, Lord of
+Dudley castle, and perhaps all the land between the two places.</p>
+<p>Thus Birmingham, now rising towards the meridian of opulence,
+was a dependant upon Dudley castle, now in ruins; and thus an
+honourable family, who had enjoyed a valuable freehold, perhaps
+near 500 years, were obliged to pay rent, homage, suit and service,
+attend the Lord's court at Dudley every three weeks, be called into
+the field at pleasure, and after all, possess a precarious tenure
+in villainage.</p>
+<p>The blood of the ancient English was not only tainted with the
+breath of that destructive age, but their lands also. The powerful
+blast destroyed their ancient freehold tenures, reducing them into
+wretched copyholds: and to the disgrace of succeeding ages, many of
+them retain this mark of Norman slavery to the present day. How
+defective are those laws, which give one man power over another in
+neutral cases? That tend to promote quarrels, prevent cultivation,
+and which cannot draw the line between property and property?</p>
+<p>Though a spirit of bravery is certainly a part of the British
+character, yet there are two or three periods in English history,
+when this noble flame was totally extinguished. Every degree of
+resolution seems to have been cut off at the battle of Hastings.
+The English acted contrary to their usual manner:--Danger had often
+made them desperate, but now it made them humble. This conquest is
+one of the most extraordinary held forth in history; the flower of
+nobility was wholly nipped off; the spirit of the English
+depressed, and having no head to direct, or hand to cultivate the
+courage of the people and lead it into action, it dwindled at the
+root, was trampled under the foot of tyranny, and, according to
+<i>Smollet</i>, several generations elapsed before any one of the
+old English stock blossomed into peerage.</p>
+<p>It is curious to contemplate the revolution of things--Though
+the conquering Romans flood first in the annals of same at the
+beginning of the Christian era, yet they were a whole century in
+carrying their illustrious arms over the island, occupied only by a
+despicable race of Britons. Though the Saxons were invited, by one
+false step in politics, to assist the Britons in expelling an
+enemy, which gave them an opportunity of becoming enemies
+themselves; yet it was 130 years before they could complete their
+conquest. And though the industrious Dane poured incessant numbers
+of people into Britain, yet it cost them 200 years, and 150,000 men
+before they reduced it. But William, at one blow, finished the
+dreadful work, shackled her sons to his throne, and governed them
+with a sceptre of iron. Normandy, a petty dukedom, very little
+larger than Yorkshire, conquered a mighty nation in one day.
+England seems to have been taken by storm, and her liberties put to
+the sword: Nor did the miseries of this ill-fated kingdom end here,
+for the continental dominions, which William annexed to the crown,
+proved a whirlpool for 400 years, which drew the blood and treasure
+of the nation into its vortex, 'till those dominions were
+fortunately lost in the reign of Mary the First.</p>
+<p>Thus the Romans spent one century in acquiring a kingdom, which
+they governed for four. The Saxons spent 130 years, and ruled for
+459. The Danes spent 200 and reigned for 25--But the Norman spent
+one day only, for a reign of 700 years: They continue to reign
+still.</p>
+<p>It is easy to point out some families of Norman race, who yet
+enjoy the estates won by their ancestors at the battle of
+Hastings.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="WILLIAM"></a>WILLIAM,</h2>
+<h3>1130,</h3>
+<br>
+<p>Like his unfortunate father, was in a state of vassalage. The
+male line of the Fitz-Ausculfs soon became extinct, and Gervase
+Paganell marrying the heiress, became Baron of Dudley-castle.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="PETER_DE_BIRMINGHAM"></a>PETER DE BIRMINGHAM,</h2>
+<h3>1154.</h3>
+<br>
+<p>It is common in every class of life, for the inferior to imitate
+the superior: If the real lady claims a head-dress sixteen inches
+high, that of the imaginary lady will immediately begin to thrive.
+The family, or surname, entered with William the First, and was
+soon the reigning taste of the day: A person was thought of no
+consequence without a surname, and even the depressed English,
+crept into the fashion, in imitation of their masters. I have
+already mentioned the Earl of Warwick, father of a numerous race
+now in Birmingham; whose name before the conquest was simply
+Turchill, but after, Turchill de Arden, (Matter of the Woods) from
+his own estate.</p>
+<p>Thus the family of whom I speak, chose to dignify themselves
+with the name of <i>de Birmingham</i>.</p>
+<p>Peter wisely consulted his own interest, kept fair with Paganall
+his Lord, and obtained from him, in 1166, nine Knight's-fees, which
+he held by military service.</p>
+<p>A Knight's-fee, though uncommon now, was a word well understood
+600 years ago. It did not mean, as some have imagined, fifteen
+pounds per annum, nor any determinate sum; but as much land as
+would support a gentleman. This Peter was fewer to Paganall,
+(waited at his table) though a man of great property.</p>
+<p>The splendor in which the great Barons of that age lived, was
+little inferior to royalty.</p>
+<p>The party distinctions also of Saxon and Norman, in the twelfth
+century, began to die away, as the people became united by interest
+or marriage, like that of Whig and Tory, in the eighteenth. And
+perhaps there is not at present a native that does not carry in his
+veins the blood of the four nations that were grafted upon the
+Britons.</p>
+<p>Peter himself lived in affluence at his castle, then near
+Birmingham, now the Moat, of which in the next section. He also
+obtained from Henry the Second, as well as from Paganall the Lord
+paramount, several valuable privileges for his favourite
+inheritance of Birmingham. He bore for his arms, <i>azure, a bend
+lozenge</i>, of five points, <i>or</i>; the coat of his
+ancestors.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="WILLIAM_DE_BIRMINGHAM1"></a>WILLIAM DE
+BIRMINGHAM,</h2>
+<h3>1216.</h3>
+<br>
+<p>At the reduction of Ireland, in the reign of Henry the Second, a
+branch of this family, and perhaps uncle to William, was very
+instrumental under Richard Strongbow, Earl of Pembroke, in
+accomplishing that great end; for which he was rewarded with a
+large estate, and the title of Earl of Lowth, both which continue
+in his family. Perhaps they are the only remains of this honorable
+house.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="WILLIAM_DE_BIRMINGHAM2"></a>WILLIAM DE
+BIRMINGHAM,</h2>
+<h3>1246.</h3>
+<br>
+<p>By this time, the male line of the Paganalls was worn out, and
+Roger de Someri marrying the heiress, became Baron of Dudley, with
+all its dependencies; but Someri and Birmingham did not keep peace,
+as their fathers had done. William, being very rich, forgot to ride
+to Dudley every three weeks, to perform suit and service at
+Someri's court.</p>
+<p>Whereupon a contest commenced to enforce the performance. But,
+in 1262, it was agreed between the contending parties--That William
+should attend the Lord's court only twice a year, Easter and
+Michaelmas, and at such other times, as the Lord chose to command
+by special summons. This William, having married the daughter of
+Thomas de Astley, a man of great eminence, and both joining with
+the Barons under Simon Mountfort, Earl of Leicester, against Henry
+the Third, William fell, in 1265, at the battle of Evesham; and as
+the loser is ever the rebel, the Barons were prescribed, and their
+estates confiscated.</p>
+<p>The manor of Birmingham, therefore, valued at forty pounds per
+annum, was seized by the King, and given to his favorite, Roger de
+Clifford.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="WILLIAM_DE_BIRMINGHAM3"></a>WILLIAM DE
+BIRMINGHAM,</h2>
+<h3>1265.</h3>
+<br>
+<p>By a law called the statute of Kenilworth, every man who had
+forfeited his estate to the crown, by having taken up arms, had
+liberty to redeem his lands, by a certain fine: William therefore
+paid that fine, and recovered the inheritance of his family. He
+also, in 1283 strengthened his title by a charter from Edward the
+First, and likewise to the other manors he possessed, such as
+Stockton, in the County of Worcester; Shetford, in Oxfordshire;
+Maidencoat, in Berkshire; Hoggeston, in the county of Bucks; and
+Christleton, in Cheshire.</p>
+<p>In 1285, Edward brought his writ of quo warranto, whereby every
+holder of land was obliged to show by what title he held it. The
+consequence would have been dreadful to a Prince of less prudence
+than Edward. Some showed great unwillingness; for a dormant title
+will not always bear examination--But William producing divers
+charters, clearly proved his right to every manorial privilege,
+such as market, toll, tem, sack, sok, insangenthief, weyfs,
+gallows, court-leet, and pillory, with a right to fix the standard
+for bread and beer; all which were allowed.</p>
+<p>William, Lord of Birmingham, being a military tenant, was
+obliged to attend the King into Gascoigne, 1297, where he lost his
+liberty at the siege of Bellgard, and was carried prisoner in
+triumph to Paris.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="WILLIAM_DE_BIRMINGHAM4"></a>WILLIAM DE
+BIRMINGHAM,</h2>
+<h3>1306.</h3>
+<br>
+<p>This is the man who tried the right of tollage with the people
+of Bromsgrove and King's norton.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>WILLIAM DE BIRMINGHAM,</h2>
+<h3>LORD BIRMINGHAM.</h3>
+<h3>1316.</h3>
+<br>
+<p>Was knighted in 1325; well affected to Edward the Second, for
+whose service he raised four hundred foot. Time seems to have put a
+period to the family of Someri, Lords of Dudley, as well as to
+those of their predecessors, the Paganalls, and the
+Fitz-Ausculfs.</p>
+<p>In 1327, the first of Edward the Third, Sir William was summoned
+to Parliament, by the title of William Lord Birmingham, but not
+after.</p>
+<p>It was not the fashion of that day to fill the House of Peers by
+patent. The greater Barons held a local title from their Baronies;
+the possessor of one of these, claimed a seat among the Lords.</p>
+<p>I think, they are now all extinct, except Arundel, the property
+of the Norfolk family, and whoever is proprietor of Arundel castle,
+is Earl thereof by ancient prescription.</p>
+<p>The lesser Barons were called up to the House by writ, which did
+not confer an hereditary title. Of this class was the Lord of
+Birmingham.</p>
+<p>Hugh Spencer, the favourite of the weak Edward the Second, had
+procured the custody of Dudley-castle, with all its appendages, for
+his friend William, Lord Birmingham.</p>
+<p>Thus the family who had travelled from Birmingham to Dudley
+every three weeks, to perform humble suit at the Lord's court, held
+that very court by royal appointment, to receive the fealty of
+others.</p>
+<p>By the patent which constituted William keeper of Dudley-castle,
+he was obliged to account for the annual profits arising from that
+vast estate into the King's exchequer. When, therefore, in 1334, he
+delivered in his accounts, the Barons refused to admit them,
+because the money was defective. But he had interest enough with
+the crown to cause a mandamus to be issued, commanding the Barons
+to admit them.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="SIR_FOUK_DE_BIRMINGHAM"></a>SIR FOUK DE
+BIRMINGHAM,</h2>
+<h3>1340.</h3>
+<br>
+<p>This man advanced to Sir Baldwin Freville, Lord of Tamworth,
+forty eight marks, upon mortgage of five mills. The ancient coat of
+the <i>bend lozenge</i>, was now changed for the <i>partie per
+pale, indented, or, and gules</i>.</p>
+<p>In 1352, and 1362 he was returned a member for the county of
+Warwick; also, in three or four succeeding Parliaments.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="SIR_JOHN_DE_BIRMINGHAM"></a>SIR JOHN DE
+BIRMINGHAM,</h2>
+<h3>1376.</h3>
+<br>
+<p>Served the office of Sheriff for the county of Warwick, in 1379,
+and was successively returned to serve in Parliament for the
+counties of Warwick, Bedford, and Buckingham. He married the
+daughter of William de la Planch, by whom he had no issue. She
+afterwards married the Lord Clinton, retained the manor of
+Birmingham as her dower, and lived to the year 1424.</p>
+<p>It does not appear in this illustrious family, that the regular
+line of descent, from father to son, was ever broken, from the time
+of the Saxons, 'till 1390. This Sir John left a brother, Sir Thomas
+de Birmingham, heir at law, who enjoyed the bulk of his brother's
+fortune; but was not to possess the manor of Birmingham 'till the
+widow's death, which not happening 'till after his own, he never
+enjoyed it.</p>
+<p>The Lord Clinton and his Lady seem to have occupied the
+Manor-house; and Sir Thomas, unwilling to quit the place of his
+affections and of his nativity, erected a castle for himself at
+Worstone, near the Sand-pits, joining the Ikenield-street; street;
+where, though the building is totally gone, the vestiges of its
+liquid security are yet complete. This Sir Thomas enjoyed several
+public offices, and figured in the style of his ancestors. He left
+a daughter, who married Thomas de la Roche, and from this marriage
+sprang two daughters; the eldest of which married Edmund, Lord
+Ferrers of Chartley, who, at the decease of Sir John's widow,
+inherited the manor, and occupied the Manor house. There yet stands
+a building on the North-east side of the Moat, erected by this Lord
+Ferrers, with his arms in the timbers of the ceiling, and the
+crest, a horse-shoe.</p>
+<p>I take this house to be the oldest in Birmingham, though it hath
+not that appearance; having stood about 350 years.</p>
+<p>By an entail of the manor upon the male line, the Lady Ferrers
+seems to have quitted her title in favor of a second cousin, a
+descendant of William de Birmingham, brother to Sir Fouk.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="WILLIAM_DE_BIRMINGHAM5"></a>WILLIAM DE
+BIRMINGHAM,</h2>
+<h3>1430.</h3>
+<br>
+<p>In the 19th of Henry the Sixth, 1441, is said to have held his
+manor of Birmingham, of Sir John Sutton, Lord of Dudley, by
+military service; but instead of paying homage, fealty, escuage,
+&amp;c. as his ancestors had done, which was very troublesome to
+the tenant, and brought only empty honour to the Lord: and, as
+sometimes the Lord's necessities taught him to think that money was
+more <i>Solid</i> than suit and service; an agreement was entered
+into, for money instead of homage, between the Lord and the
+tenant--Such agreements now became common. Thus land became a kind
+of bastard freehold:--The tenant held a certainty, while he
+conformed to the agreement; or, in other words, the custom of the
+manor--And the Lord still possessed a material control. He died in
+1479, leaving a son,</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="SIR_WILLIAM_BIRMINGHAM"></a>SIR WILLIAM
+BIRMINGHAM,</h2>
+<h3>1479,</h3>
+<br>
+<p>Aged thirty at the decease of his father. He married Isabella,
+heiress of William Hilton, by whom he had a son, William, who died
+before his father, June 7, 1500, leaving a son,</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="EDWARD_BIRMINGHAM"></a>EDWARD BIRMINGHAM,</h2>
+<h3>1500,</h3>
+<br>
+<p>Born in 1497, and succeeded his grandfather at the age of three.
+During his minority, Henry the Seventh, 1502, granted the wardship
+to Edward, Lord Dudley.</p>
+<p>The family estate then consisted of the manors of Birmingham,
+Over Warton, Nether Warton, Mock Tew, Little Tew, and Shutford in
+the county of Oxford, Hoggeston in Bucks, and Billesley in the
+county of Worcester. Edward afterwards married Elizabeth, widow of
+William Ludford, of Annesley, by whom he had one daughter, who
+married a person of the name of Atkinson.</p>
+<p>But after the peaceable possession of a valuable estate, for
+thirty seven years; the time was now arrived, when the mounds of
+justice must be broken down by the weight of power, a whole deluge
+of destruction enter, and overwhelm an ancient and illustrious
+family, in the person of an innocent man. The world would view the
+diabolical transaction with amazement, none daring to lend
+assistance to the unfortunate; not considering, that property
+should ever be under the protection of law; and, what was Edward's
+case to-day, might be that of any other man to-morrow. But the
+oppressor kept fair with the crown, and the crown held a rod of
+iron over the people.--Suffer me to tell the mournful tale from
+Dugdale's Antiquities of Warwickshire.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>1537,</h2>
+<br>
+<p>John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, a man of great wealth,
+unbounded ambition, and one of the basest characters of the age,
+was possessor of Dudley-castle, and the fine estate belonging to
+it:--He wished to add Birmingham to his vast domain. Edward
+Birmingham therefore was privately founded, respecting the disposal
+of his manor; but as money was not wanted, and as the place had
+been the honor and the residence of his family for many centuries,
+it was out of the reach of purchase.</p>
+<p>Northumberland was so charmed with its beauty, he was determined
+to possess it; and perhaps the manner in which he accomplished his
+design, cannot be paralleled in the annals of infamy.</p>
+<p>He procured two or three rascals of his own temper, and rather
+of mean appearance, to avoid suspicion, to take up their quarters
+for a night or two in Birmingham, and gain secret intelligence when
+Edward Birmingham should ride out, and what road: This done, one of
+the rascals was to keep before the others, but all took care that
+Edward should easily overtake them. Upon his arrival at the first
+class, the villains joined him, entered into chat, and all moved
+soberly together 'till they reached the first man; when, on a
+sudden, the strangers with Edward drew their pistols and robbed
+their brother villain, who no doubt lost a considerable sum after a
+decent resistance. Edward was easily known, apprehended, and
+committed as one of the robbers; the others were not to be
+found.</p>
+<p>Edward immediately saw himself on the verge of destruction. He
+could only <i>alledge</i>, but not <i>prove</i> his innocence: All
+the proof the case could admit of, was against him.</p>
+<p>Northumberland (then only Lord L'Isle) hitherto had succeeded to
+his wish; nor was Edward long in suspence--Private hints were given
+him, that the only way to save his life, was to make Northumberland
+his friend; and this probably might be done, by resigning to him
+his manor of Birmingham; with which the unfortunate Edward
+reluctantly complied.</p>
+<p>Northumberland thinking a common conveyance insufficient, caused
+Edward to yield his estate into the hands of the King, and had
+interest enough in that age of injustice to procure a ratification
+from a weak Parliament, by which means he endeavoured to throw the
+odium off his own character, and fix it upon theirs, and also,
+procure to himself a safer title.</p>
+<p>An extract from that base act is as follows:--</p>
+<p>"Whereas Edward Byrmingham, late of Byrmingham in the countie of
+Warwick, Esquire, otherwise callid Edward Byrmingham, Esquire, ys
+and standyth lawfully indettid to our soverene Lord the Kinge, in
+diverse grete summes of money; and also standyth at the mercy of
+his Highness, for that the same Edward ys at this present convected
+of felony: Our seide soverene Lord the Kinge ys contentid and
+pleasid, that for and in recompence and satisfaction to his Grace
+of the seyde summes of money, to accept and take of the seyde
+Edward the mannour and lordship of Byrmingham, otherwise callid
+Byrmincham, with the appurtinances, lying and being in the countie
+of Warwick, and all and singuler other lands and tenements,
+reversions, rents, services, and hereditaments of the same Edward
+Byrmingham, set, lying and beying in the countie of Warwick
+aforesaid. Be yt therefore ordeyned and enacted, by the authoritie
+of this present Parliament, that our seyde soverene Lord the Kinge
+shall have, hold, and enjoy, to him and his heires and assignes for
+ever, the seyde mannour and lordship of Byrmingham, &amp;c."</p>
+<p>In the act there is a reservation of 40<i>l</i>. per annum,
+during the lives only of the said Edward and his wife.</p>
+<p>It appears also, by an expression in the act, that Edward was
+brought to trial, and found guilty. Thus innocence is depressed for
+want of support; property is wrested for want of the protection of
+the law; and a vile minister, in a corrupt age, can carry an
+infamous point through a court of justice, the two Houses of
+Parliament, and complete his horrid design by the sanction of a
+tyrant.</p>
+<p>The place where tradition tells us this diabolical transaction
+happened, is the middle of Sandy-lane, in the Sutton road; the
+upper part of which begins at the North east corner of Aston park
+wall; at the bottom, you bear to the left, for Sawford-bridge, or
+to the right, for Nachell's-green; about two miles from the Moat,
+the place of Edward's abode.</p>
+<p>Except that branch which proceeded from this original stem,
+about 600 years ago, of which the Earl of Lowth is head, I know of
+no male descendant from this honourable stock; who, if we allow the
+founder to have come over with Cridda, the Saxon, in 582, must have
+commanded this little Sovereignty 955 years.</p>
+<p>I met with a person sometime ago of the name of Birmingham, and
+was pleased with the hope of finding a member of that ancient and
+honorable house; but he proved so amasingly ignorant, he could not
+tell whether he was from the clouds, the sea, or the dunghill:
+instead of traceing the existence of his ancestors, even so high as
+his father, he was scarcely conscious of his own.</p>
+<p>As this house did not much abound with daughters, I cannot at
+present recollect any families among us, except that of
+Bracebridge, who are descended from this illustrious origin, by a
+female line; and Sir John Talbot Dillon, who is descended from the
+ancient Earls of Lowth, as he is from the De Veres, the more
+ancient Earls of Oxford.</p>
+<p>Here, then, I unwillingly extinguish that long range of lights,
+which for many ages illuminated the house of Birmingham.</p>
+<p>But I cannot extinguish the rascallity of the line of
+Northumberland. This unworthy race, proved a scourge to the world,
+at least during three generations. Each, in his turn, presided in
+the British cabinet; and each seems to have possessed the villainy
+of his predecessor, united with his own. The first, only
+<i>served</i> a throne; but the second and the third intended to
+<i>fill</i> one. A small degree of ambition warms the mind in
+pursuit of fame, through the paths of honor; while too large a
+portion tends to unfavorable directions, kindles to a flame,
+consumes the finer sensations of rectitude, and leaves a stench
+behind.</p>
+<p>Edmund, the father of this John, was the voracious leech, with
+Empson, who sucked the vitals of the people, to feed the avarice of
+Henry the Seventh.</p>
+<p>It is singular that Henry, the most sagacious prince since the
+conquest, loaded him with honours for filling the royal coffers
+with wealth, which the penurious monarch durst never enjoy: but his
+successor, Henry the Eighth, enjoyed the pleasure of consuming that
+wealth, and <i>executed</i> the father for collecting it! How much
+are our best laid schemes defective? How little does expectation
+and event coincide? It is no disgrace to a man that he died on the
+scaffold; the question is--What brought him there? Some of the most
+inoffensive, and others the most exalted characters of the age in
+which they lived, have been cut off by the axe, as Edward
+Plantagenet, Earl of Warwick, for being the last male heir of the
+Anjouvin Kings; John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, Sir Thomas Moore,
+Sir Walter Raleigh, Algernon Sidney, William Lord Russell, &amp;c.
+whose blood ornamented the scaffold on which they fell.</p>
+<p>The son of this man, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, favorite
+of Queen Elizabeth, is held up by our historians as a master-piece
+of dissimulation, pride, and cruelty. He married three wives, all
+which he is charged with sending to the grave by untimely deaths;
+one of them, to open a passage to the Queen's bed, to which he
+aspired. It is surprising, that he should deceive the penetrating
+eye of Elizabeth: but I am much inclined to think she <i>knew
+him</i> better than the world; and they knew him rather to well. He
+ruined many of the English gentry, particularly the ancient family
+of Arden, of Park-hall, in this neighbourhood: he afterwards ruined
+his own family by disinheriting a son, more worthy than
+himself.--If he did not fall by the executioner, it is no proof
+that he did not deserve it.--We now behold</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="JOHN_DUKE_OF_NORTHUMBERLAND"></a>JOHN, DUKE OF
+NORTHUMBERLAND,</h2>
+<h3>1537,</h3>
+<br>
+<p>Lord of the manor of Birmingham; a man, who of all others the
+least deserved that honor; or rather, deserved the axe for being
+so.</p>
+<p>Some have asserted, "That property acquired by dishonesty cannot
+prosper." But I shall leave the philosopher and the enthusiast to
+settle that important point, while I go on to observe, That that
+the lordship of Birmingham did not prosper with the Duke. Though he
+had, in some degree, the powers of government in his hands, he had
+also the clamours of the people in his ears. What were his inward
+feelings, is uncertain at this distance--Fear seems to have
+prevented him from acknowledging Birmingham for his property.
+Though he exercised every act of ownership, yet he suffered the
+fee-simple to rest in the crown, 'till nine years had elapsed, and
+those clamours subsided, before he ventured to accept the grant, in
+1546.</p>
+<p>As the execution of this grant was one of the last acts of
+Henry's life, we should be apt to suspect the Duke carried it in
+his pocket ready for signing, but deferred the matter as long as he
+could with safety, that distance of time might annihilate
+reflection; and that the King's death, which happened a few weeks
+after, might draw the attention of the world too much, by the
+importance of the event, to regard the Duke's conduct.</p>
+<p>The next six years, which carries us through the reign of Edward
+the Sixth, is replete with the intrigues of this illustrious knave.
+He sought connections with the principal families: He sought
+honours for his own: He procured a match between his son, the Lord
+Guildford Dudley, and the Lady Jane Gray, daughter of the Duke of
+Suffolk, and a descendant from Henry the Seventh, with intent of
+fixing the crown in his family, but failing in the attempt, he
+brought ruin upon the Suffolk family, and himself to the block, in
+the first of Queen Mary, 1553.</p>
+<p>Though a man be guilty of many atrocious acts that deserve
+death, yet in the hour of distress humanity demands the tear of
+compassion; but the case was otherwise at the execution of John,
+Duke of Northumberland, for a woman near the scaffold held forth a
+bloody handkerchief and exclaimed, "Behold the blood of the Duke of
+Somerset, shed by your means, and which cries for vengeance against
+you."</p>
+<p>Thus Northumberland kept a short and rough possession of glory;
+thus he fell unlamented; and thus the manor of Birmingham reverted
+to the crown a second time, the Duke himself having first taught it
+the way.</p>
+<p>Birmingham continued two years in the crown, 'till the third of
+Queen Mary, when she granted it to</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="THOMAS_MARROW"></a>THOMAS MARROW,</h2>
+<h3>1555,</h3>
+<br>
+<p>Whose family, for many descents, resided at Berkeswell, in this
+county.</p>
+<p>In the possession of the High Bailiff is a bushel measure, cast
+in brass, of some value; round which in relief is, SAMUEL MARROW,
+LORD OF THE MANOR OF BIRMINGHAM, 1664.</p>
+<p>The Lordship continued in this family about 191 years, 'till the
+male line failing, it became the joint property of four
+coheirs--Ann, married to Sir Arthur Kaye; Mary, the wife of John
+Knightley, Esq; Ursulla, the wife of Sir Robert Wilmot; and
+Arabella, unmarried; who, in about 1730, disposed of the private
+estate in the manor, amounting to about 400<i>l</i>. per annum, to
+Thomas Sherlock, Bishop of London, as before observed, and the
+manor itself to</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="THOMAS_ARCHER_ESQ"></a>THOMAS ARCHER, ESQ.</h2>
+<h3>for 1,700<i>l</i>. in 1746,</h3>
+<br>
+<p>Of an ancient family, who have resided at Umberslade in this
+county more than 600 years--from him it descended to</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="ANDREW_LORD_ARCHER"></a>ANDREW, LORD ARCHER,</h2>
+<br>
+<p>And is now enjoyed by his relict,</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="SARAH_LADY_ARCHER"></a>SARAH, LADY ARCHER,</h2>
+<h3>1781,</h3>
+<br>
+<p>Possessing no more in the parish than the royalty; as it does
+not appear that the subsequent Lords, after the extinction of the
+house of Birmingham, were resident upon the manor, I omit
+particulars.</p>
+<p>Let me remark, this place yet gives title to the present Lord
+Viscount Dudley and Ward, as descended, by the female line, from
+the great Norman Barons, the Fitz-Ausculfs, the Paganalls, the
+Somerys, the Suttons, and the Dudleys, successively Lords
+paramount, whose original power is reduced to a name.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="MANOR_HOUSE."></a>MANOR HOUSE.</h2>
+<h3>(The Moat.)</h3>
+<br>
+<p>The natural temper of the human mind, like that of the brute, is
+given to plunder: This temper is very apt to break forth into
+action. In all societies of men, therefore, restraints have been
+discovered, under the name of laws, attended with punishment, to
+deter people from infringing each others property. Every thing that
+a man can possess, falls under the denomination of property;
+whether it be life, liberty, wealth or character.</p>
+<p>The less perfect these laws are, the less a people are removed
+from the rude state of nature, and the more necessity there is for
+a man to be constantly in a state of defence, that he may be able
+to repel any force that shall rise up against him.</p>
+<p>It is easy to discover, by the laws of a country, how far the
+people are advanced in civilization. If the laws are defective, or
+the magistrate too weak to execute them, it is dangerous for a man
+to possess property.</p>
+<p>But when a nation is pretty far advanced in social existence;
+when the laws agree with reason, and are executed with firmness, a
+man need not trouble himself concerning the protection of his
+property--his country will protect it for him.</p>
+<p>The laws of England have, for many ages, been gradually
+refining; and are capable of that protection which violence never
+was.</p>
+<p>But if we penetrate back into the recesses of time, we shall
+find the laws inadequate, the manners savage, force occupy the
+place of justice, and property unprotected. In those barbarous
+ages, therefore, men sought security by intrenching themselves from
+a world they could not trust. This was done by opening a large
+ditch round their habitation, which they filled with water, and
+which was only approachable by a draw-bridge. This, in some degree,
+supplied the defect of the law, and the want of power in the
+magistrate. It also, during the iron reign of priesthood, furnished
+that table in lent, which it guarded all the year.</p>
+<p>The Britons had a very slender knowledge of fortification. The
+camps they left us, are chiefly upon eminences, girt by a shallow
+ditch, bordered with stone, earth, or timber, but never with water.
+The moat, therefore, was introduced by the Romans; their camps are
+often in marshes; some wholly, and some in part surrounded by
+water.</p>
+<p>These liquid barriers were begun in England early in the
+christian &aelig;ra, they were in the zenith of their glory at the
+barons wars, in the reign of king John, and continued to be the
+mode of fortification till the introduction of guns, in the reign
+of Edward the fourth, which shook their foundation; and the civil
+wars of Charles the first totally annihilated their use, after an
+existence of twelve hundred years.</p>
+<p>Perhaps few parishes, that have been the ancient habitation of a
+gentleman, are void of some traces of these fluid bulwarks. That of
+Birmingham has three; one of these, of a square form, at Warstone,
+erected by a younger brother of the house of Birmingham, hath
+already been mentioned; it is fed by a small rivulet from Rotton
+Park, which crosses the Dudley Road, near the Sand pits.</p>
+<p>Another is the Parsonage house, belonging to St. Martin's,
+formerly situated in the road to Bromsgrove, now Smallbrook street,
+of a circular figure, and supplied by a neighbouring spring. If we
+allow this watery circle to be a proof of the great antiquity of
+the house, it is a much greater with regard to the antiquity of the
+church.</p>
+<p>The third is what we simply denominate the Moat, and was the
+residence of the ancient lords of Birmingham, situated about sixty
+yards south of the church, and twenty west of Digbeth; this is also
+circular, and supplied by a small stream that crosses the road to
+Bromsgrove, near the first mile stone; it originally ran into the
+river Rea, near Vaughton's hole, dividing the parishes of
+Birmingham and Edgbaston all the way, but at the formation of the
+Moat, was diverted from its course, into which it never
+returned.</p>
+<p>No certain evidence remains to inform us when this liquid work
+was accomplished: perhaps in the Saxon heptarchy, when there were
+few or no buildings south of the church. Digbeth seems to have been
+one of the first streets added to this important school of arts;
+the upper part of that street must of course have been formed
+first: but, that the Moat was completed prior to the erection of
+any buildings between that and Digbeth, is evident, because those
+buildings stand upon the very soil thrown out in forming the
+Moat.</p>
+<p>The first certain account that we meet with of this guardian
+circle, is in the reign of Henry the Second, 1154, when Peter de
+Birmingham, then lord of the see, had a cattle here, and lived in
+splendor. All the succeeding Lords resided upon the same island,
+till their cruel expulsion by John Duke of Northumberland in
+1537.</p>
+<p>The old castle followed its lords, and is buried in the ruins of
+time. Upon the spot, about forty years ago, rose a house in the
+modern style, occupied by a manufacturer (John Francis;) in one of
+the out-buildings is shewn, the apartment where the ancient lords
+kept their court leet; another out-building which stands to the
+east, I have already observed, was the work of Edmund Lord
+Ferrers.</p>
+<p>The ditch being filled with water, has nearly the same
+appearance now as perhaps a thousand years ago, but not altogether
+the same use. It then served to protect its master, but now, to
+turn a thread-mill.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="PUDDING_BROOK."></a>PUDDING BROOK.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Near the place where the small rivulet discharges itself into
+the Moat, another of the same size is carried over it, called
+Pudding Brook, and proceeds from the town as this advances towards
+it, producing a curiosity seldom met with; one river running South,
+and the other North, for half a mile, yet only a path-road of three
+feet asunder; which surprised Brindley the famous engineer.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="THE_PRIORY."></a>THE PRIORY.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>The site of this ancient edifice is now the Square; some small
+remains of the old foundations are yet visible in the cellars,
+chiefly on the South-east. The out-buildings and pleasure-grounds
+perhaps occupied the whole North east side of Bull-street, then
+uninhabited, and only the highway to Wolverhampton; bounded on the
+North-west by Steelhouse-lane; on the North-east by Newton and
+John's-street; and on the South-east by Dale-end, which also was no
+other than the highway to Lichfield--The whole, about fourteen
+acres.</p>
+<p>The building upon this delightful eminence, which at that time
+commanded the small but beautiful prospect of Bristland-fields,
+Rowley-hills, Oldbury, Smethewick, Handsworth, Sutton-Coldfield,
+Erdington, Saltley, the Garrison, and Camp-hill, and which then
+stood at a distance from the town, though now near its centre; was
+founded by the house of Birmingham, in the early reigns of the
+Norman Kings, and called the Hospital of Saint Thomas,--The priest
+being bound to pray for the souls of the founders every day, to the
+end of the world.</p>
+<p>In 1285, Thomas de Madenhache, Lord of the manor of Aston, gave
+ten acres of land in his manor. William de Birmingham ten, which I
+take to be the land where the Priory stood; and Ranulph de Rakeby
+three acres, in Saltley: About the same time, sundry others gave
+houses and land in smaller quantities: William de Birmingham gave
+afterwards twenty-two acres more. The same active spirit seems to
+have operated in our ancestors, 500 years ago, that does in their
+descendants at this day: If a new scheme strikes the fancy, it is
+pursued with vigor.</p>
+<p>The religious fervor of that day ran high: It was unfashionable
+to leave the world, and not remember the Priory. Donations crowded
+in so fast, that the prohibiting act was forgot; so that in 1311,
+the brotherhood were prosecuted by the crown, for appropriating
+lands contrary to the act of mortmain; But these interested
+priests, like their sagacious brethren, knew as well how to
+preserve as to gain property; for upon their humble petition to the
+throne, Edward the Second put a stop to the judicial proceedings,
+and granted a special pardon.</p>
+<p>In 1351, Fouk de Birmingham, and Richard Spencer, jointly gave
+to the priory one hundred acres of land, part lying in Aston, and
+part in Birmingham, to maintain another priest, who should
+celebrate divine service daily at the altar of the Virgin Mary, in
+the church of the hospital, for the souls of William la Mercer, and
+his wife. The church is supposed to have stood upon the spot now
+No. 27, in Bull-street.</p>
+<p>In the premises belonging to the Red Bull, No. 83, nearly
+opposite, have been discovered human bones, which has caused some
+to suppose it the place of interment for the religious, belonging
+to the priory, which I rather doubt.</p>
+<p>At the dissolution of the abbies, in 1536, the King's visitors
+valued the annual income at the trifling sum of 8<i>l</i>. 8s.
+9d.</p>
+<p>The patronage continued chiefly in the head of the Birmingham
+family. Dugdale gives us a list of some of the Priors, who held
+dominion in this little common wealth, from 1326, 'till the total
+annihilation, being 210 years.</p>
+<blockquote>Robert Marmion,<br>
+Robert Cappe,<br>
+Thomas Edmunds,<br>
+John Frothward,<br>
+Robert Browne,<br>
+John Port,<br>
+William Priestwood,<br>
+Henry Drayton,<br>
+John Cheyne,<br>
+Henry Bradley,<br>
+Thomas Salpin,<br>
+Sir Edward Toste,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; AND<br>
+Henry Hody.</blockquote>
+<p>Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex, a man of much honour, more
+capacity, and yet more spirit, was the instrument with which Henry
+the Eighth destroyed the abbies; but Henry, like a true politician
+of the house of Tudor, wisely threw the blame upon the instrument,
+held it forth to the public in an odious light, and then sacrificed
+it to appease an angry people.</p>
+<p>This destructive measure against the religious houses,
+originated from royal letchery, and was replete with
+consequence.</p>
+<p>It opened the fountains of learning, at that day confined to the
+monastry, and the streams diffused themselves through various ranks
+of men. The revival of letters and of science made a rapid
+progress: It soon appeared, that the stagnate knowledge of the
+priest, was abundantly mixed with error; but now, running through
+the laity, who had no private interest to serve, it became more
+pure.</p>
+<p>It removed great numbers of men, who lay as a dead weight upon
+the community, and they became useful members of society: When
+younger sons could no longer find an asylum within the gloomy walls
+of a convent, they sought a livelihood in trade. Commerce,
+therefore, was taught to crowd her sails, cross the western ocean,
+fill the country with riches, and change an idle spirit into that
+of industry.</p>
+<p>By the destruction of religious houses, architecture sustained a
+temporary wound: They were by far the most magnificent and
+expensive buildings in the kingdoms, far surpassing those of the
+nobility; some of these structures are yet habitable, though the
+major part are gone to decay. But modern architecture hath since
+out-done the former splendor of the abbey, in use and elegance and
+sometimes with the profits arising from the abbey lands.</p>
+<p>It also shut the door of charity against the impostor, the
+helpless, and the idle, who had found here their chief supply; and
+gave rise to one of the best laws ever invented by human wisdom
+that of each parish supporting its own poor.</p>
+<p>By the annihilation of abbots, the church lost its weight in
+Parliament, and the vote was thrown into the hands of the temporal
+Lords.</p>
+<p>It prevented, in some degree, the extinction of families; for,
+instead of younger branches becoming the votaries of a monastic
+life, they became the votaries of hymen: Hence the kingdom was
+enriched by population. It eased the people of a set of masters,
+who had for ages ruled them with a rod of iron.</p>
+<p>The hands of superstition were also weakened, for the important
+sciences of astrology, miracle, and divination, supported by the
+cell, have been losing ground ever since.</p>
+<p>It likewise recovered vast tracts of land out of dead hands, and
+gave an additional vigor to agriculture, unknown to former ages.
+The monk, who had only a temporary tenancy, could not give a
+permanant one; therefore, the lands were neglected, and the produce
+was small: But these lands falling into the hands of the gentry,
+acquired an hereditary title. It was their interest; to grant
+leases, for a superior rent; and it was the tenant's interest to
+give that rent, for the sake of security: Hence the produce of land
+is become one of the most advantageous branches of British
+commerce.</p>
+<p>Henry, by this seisure, had more property to give away, than any
+King of England since William the Conqueror, and he generously gave
+away that which was never his own. It is curious to survey the
+foundation of some of the principal religions that have taken the
+lead among men.</p>
+<p>Moses founded a religion upon morals and ceremonies, one half of
+which continues with his people to this day.</p>
+<p>Christ founded one upon <i>love</i> and <i>purity</i>; words of
+the simplest import, yet we sometimes mistake their meaning.</p>
+<p>The Bishop of Rome erected his, upon deceit and oppression;
+hence the treasures of knowledge were locked up, an inundation of
+riches and power flowed into the church, with destructive
+tendency.</p>
+<p>And Henry the Eighth, built his reformation upon revenge and
+plunder: He deprived the <i>head</i> of the Romish see, of an
+unjust power, for pronouncing a just decision; and robbed the
+<i>members</i>, for being annexed to that head. Henry wished the
+world to believe, what he believed himself, that he acted from a
+religious principle; but his motive seems to have been <i>savage
+love</i>.</p>
+<p>Had equity directed when Henry divided this vast property, he
+would have restored it to the descendants of those persons, whose
+mistaken zeal had injured their families; but his disposal of it
+was ludicrous--sometimes he made a free gift, at others he
+exchanged a better estate for a a worse, and then gave that worse
+to another.</p>
+<p>I have met with a little anecdote which says, "That Henry being
+upon a tour in Devonshire, two men waited on him to beg certain
+lands in that county; while they attended in the anti-room for the
+royal presence, a stranger approached, and asked them a trifling
+question; they answered, they wished to be alone--at that moment
+the King entered: They fell at his feet: The stranger seeing them
+kneel, kneelt with them. They asked the favor intended; the King
+readily granted it: They bowed: The stranger bowed also. By this
+time, the stranger perceiving there was a valuable prize in the
+question, claimed his thirds; they denied his having anything to do
+with the matter: He answered, he had done as much as they, for they
+only asked and bowed, and he did the same. The dispute grew warm,
+and both parties agreed to appeal to the King, who answered, He
+took them for joint beggars, therefore had made them a joint
+present. They were then obliged to divide the land with the
+stranger, whose share amounted to 240<i>l</i>. per annum."</p>
+<p>The land formerly used for the priory of Birmingham, is now the
+property of many persons. Upon that spot, whereon stood one
+solitary house, now stand about four hundred. Upon that ground,
+where about thirty persons lived upon the industry of others, about
+three thousand live upon their own: The place, which lay as a heavy
+burden upon the community, now tends to enrich it, by adding its
+mite to the national commerce, and the national treasury.</p>
+<p>In 1775, I took down an old house of wood and plaister, which
+had stood 208 years, having been erected in 1567, thirty-one years
+after the dissolution of abbies. The foundation of this old house
+seemed to have been built chiefly with stones from the priory;
+perhaps more than twenty wagon loads: These appeared in a variety
+of forms and sizes, highly finished in the gothic taste, parts of
+porticos, arches, windows, ceilings, etc. some fluted, some
+cyphered, and otherwise ornamented, yet complete as in the first
+day they were left by the chizel. The greatest, part of them were
+destroyed by the workmen: Some others I used again in the fireplace
+of an under kitchen. Perhaps they are the only perfect fragments
+that remain of that venerable edifice, which once stood the
+monument of ancient piety, the ornament of the town, and the envy
+of the priest out of place.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="JOHN_A_DEANS_HOLE"></a>JOHN A DEAN'S HOLE.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>At the bottom of Digbeth, about thirty yards North of the
+bridge, on the left, is a water-course that takes in a small drain
+from Digbeth, but more from the adjacent meadows, and which divides
+the parishes of Aston and Birmingham, called John a Dean's Hole;
+from a person of that name who is said to have lost his life there,
+and which, I think, is the only name of antiquity among us.</p>
+<p>The particle <i>de</i>, between the christian and surname, is of
+French extraction, and came over with William the First: It
+continued tolerably pure for about three centuries, when it in some
+degree assumed an English garb, in the particle <i>of</i>: The
+<i>a</i>, therefore is only a corruption of the latter. Hence the
+time of this unhappy man's misfortune may be fixed about the reign
+of Edward the Third.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="LENCHS_TRUST"></a>LENCH'S TRUST.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>In the reign of Henry the Eighth, William Lench, a native of
+this place, bequeathed his estate for the purpose of erecting alms
+houses, which are those at the bottom of Steelhouse-lane, for the
+benefit of poor widows, but chiefly for repairing the streets of
+Birmingham. Afterwards others granted smaller donations for the
+same use, but all were included under the name of Lench; and I
+believe did not unitedly amount, at that time, to fifteen pounds
+per annum.</p>
+<p>Over this scattered inheritance was erected a trust, consisting
+of gentlemen in the neighborhood of Birmingham.</p>
+<p>All human affairs tend to confusion: The hand of care is ever
+necessary to keep order. The gentlemen, therefore at the head of
+this charity, having too many modes of pleasure of their own, to
+pay attention to this little jurisdiction, disorder crept in apace;
+some of the lands were lost for want of inspection; the rents ran
+in arrear, and were never recovered; the streets were neglected,
+and the people complained.</p>
+<p>Misconduct, particularly of a public nature, silently grows for
+years, and sometimes for ages, 'till it becomes too bulky for
+support, falls in pieces by its own weight, and out of its very
+destruction rises a remedy. An order, therefore, from the Court of
+Chancery was obtained, for vesting the property in other hands,
+consisting of twenty persons, all of Birmingham, who have directed
+this valuable estate, now 227<i>l</i>. 5s. per annum, to useful
+purposes. The man who can guide his own private concerns with
+success, stands the fairest chance of guiding those of the
+public.</p>
+<p>If the former trust went widely astray, perhaps their successors
+have not exactly kept the line, by advancing the leases to a rack
+rent: It is worth considering, whether the tenant of an expiring
+lease, hath not in equity, a kind of reversionary right, which
+ought to favour him with the refusal of another term, at one third
+under the value, in houses, and one fourth in land; this would give
+stability to the title, secure the rents, and cause the lessee more
+chearfully to improve the premises, which in time would enhance
+their value, both with regard to property and esteem.</p>
+<p>But where business is well conducted, complaint should cease;
+for perfection is not to be expected on this side the grave.</p>
+<p>Exclusive of a pittance to the poor widows above, the trust have
+a power of distributing money to the necessitous at Christmas and
+Easter, which is punctually performed.</p>
+<p>I think there is an excellent clause in the devisor's will,
+ordering his bailiff to pay half a crown to any two persons, who,
+having quarreled and entered into law, shall stop judicial
+proceedings, and make peace by agreement--He might have added, "And
+half a crown to the lawyer that will suffer them." I know the sum
+has been demanded, but am sorry I do <i>not</i> know that it was
+ever paid.</p>
+<p>If money be reduced to one fourth its value, since the days of
+Lench, it follows, that four times the sum ought to be paid in
+ours; and perhaps ten shillings cannot be better laid out, than in
+the purchase of that peace, which tends to harmonise the community,
+and weed a brotherhood not the most amicable among us.</p>
+<p>The members choose annually, out of their own body a steward, by
+the name of bailiff Lench: The present fraternity, who direct this
+useful charity, are</p>
+<blockquote>Thomas Colmore, <i>bailiff</i>.<br>
+George Davis,<br>
+Win. Walsingham, <i>dead</i>,<br>
+Michael Lakin,<br>
+Benjamin May,<br>
+Michael Lakin, <i>jun</i>.<br>
+James Bedford,<br>
+Samuel Ray,<br>
+John Ryland,<br>
+James Jackson,<br>
+Stephen Bedford, <i>dead</i>,<br>
+Joseph Tyndall,<br>
+Joseph Smith,<br>
+Robert Mason,<br>
+Joseph Webster, <i>dead</i>,<br>
+Abel Humphreys,<br>
+Thomas Lawrence,<br>
+Samuel Pemberton,<br>
+Joseph Webster, <i>jun</i>.<br>
+John Richards.</blockquote>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="FENTHAMS_TRUST"></a>FENTHAM'S TRUST.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>In 1712, George Fentham, of Birmingham, devised his estate by
+will, consisting of about one hundred acres, in Erdington and
+Handsworth, of the value then, of 20<i>l</i>. per annum, vesting
+the same in a trust, of which no person could be chosen who resided
+more than one hundred yards from the Old Cross. We should be
+inclined to think the devisor entertained a singular predilection
+for the Old Cross, then in the pride of youth. But if we unfold
+this whimsical clause, we shall find it contains a shrewd
+intention. The choice was limited within one hundred yards, because
+the town itself, in his day, did not in some directions extend
+farther. Fentham had spent a life in Birmingham, knew well her
+inhabitants, and like some others, had found honour as well as
+riches among them: He knew also, he could with safety deposit his
+property in their hands, and was determined it should never go
+out,--The scheme will answer his purpose.</p>
+<p>The uses of this estate, now about 100<i>l</i>. per annum, are
+for teaching children to read, and for clothing ten poor widows of
+Birmingham: Those children belonging to the charity school, in
+green, are upon this foundation.</p>
+<blockquote>The present trust are<br>
+Francis Coales, and Edmund Wace Pattison.</blockquote>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="CROWLEYS_TRUST"></a>CROWLEY'S TRUST.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Ann Crowley bequeathed, by her last will, in 1733, six houses in
+Steelhouse-lane, amounting to eighteen pounds per annum, for the
+purpose of supporting a school, consisting of ten children. From an
+attachment to her own sex, she constituted over this infant colony
+of letters a female teacher: Perhaps we should have seen a female
+trust, had they been equally capable of defending the property. The
+income of the estate increasing, the children are now augmented to
+twelve.</p>
+<p>By a subsequent clause in the devisor's will, twenty shillings a
+year, forever, issues out of two houses in the Lower Priory, to be
+disposed of at discretion of the trust.</p>
+<p>The governors of this female charity are</p>
+<blockquote>Thomas Colmore, <i>bailiff</i>,<br>
+Joseph Cartwright,<br>
+Thomas Lee,<br>
+John Francis,<br>
+Samuel Colmore,<br>
+William Russell, <i>esq</i>.<br>
+Josiah Rogers,<br>
+Joseph Hornblower,<br>
+John Rogers.</blockquote>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="SCOTTS_TRUST"></a>SCOTT'S TRUST.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Joseph Scott, Esq; yet living, assigned, July 7, 1779, certain
+messuages and lands in and near Walmer-lane, in Birmingham, of the
+present rent of 40<i>l</i>. 18s. part of the said premises to be
+appropriated for the interment of protestant dissenters; part of
+the profits to be applied to the use of a religious society in
+Carr's lane, at the discretion of the trust; and the remainder, for
+the institution of a school to teach the mother tongue.</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image11.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image11.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image11.jpg" width="45%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b><i>Free School</i>.</b></p>
+<br>
+<p>That part of the demise, designed for the reception of the dead,
+is about three acres, upon, which stands one messuage, now the
+Golden Fleece, joining Summer-lane on the west, and Walmer-lane on
+the east; the other, which hath Aston-street on the south, and
+Walmer-lane on the west, contains about four acres, upon which now
+stand ninety-one houses. A building lease, in 1778, was granted of
+these last premises, for 120 years, at 30<i>l</i>. per annum; at
+the expiration of which, the rents will probably amount to twenty
+times the present income. The trust, to whose direction this
+charity is committed, are</p>
+<blockquote>Abel Humphrys, <i>bailiff</i>,<br>
+John Allen,<br>
+John Parteridge,<br>
+William Aitkins,<br>
+Joseph Rogers,<br>
+Thomas Cock,<br>
+John Berry,<br>
+William Hutton,<br>
+Thomas Cheek Lea,<br>
+Durant Hidson,<br>
+Samuel Tutin.</blockquote>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="FREE_SCHOOL."></a>FREE SCHOOL.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>It is entertaining to contemplate the generations of fashion,
+which not only influences our dress and manner of living, but most
+of the common actions of life, and even the modes of thinking. Some
+of these fashions, not meeting with the taste of the day, are of
+short duration, and retreat out of life as soon as they are well
+brought in; others take a longer space; but whatever fashions
+predominate, though ever so absurd, they carry an imaginary beauty,
+which pleases the fancy, 'till they become ridiculous with age, are
+succeeded by others, when their very memory becomes disgusting.</p>
+<p>Custom gives a sanction to fashion, and reconciles us even to
+its inconveniency. The fashion of this year is laughed at the
+next.</p>
+<p>There are fashions of every date, from five hundred years, even
+to one day; of the first, was that of erecting religious houses; of
+the last, was that of destroying them.</p>
+<p>Our ancestors, the Saxons, after their conversion to
+christianity, displayed their zeal in building churches: though the
+kingdom in a few centuries was amply supplied, yet that zeal was no
+way abated; it therefore exerted itself in the abbey.--When a man
+of fortune had nearly done with time, he began to peep into
+eternity through the windows of an abbey; or, if a villian had
+committed a piece of butchery, or had cheated the world for sixty
+years, there was no doubt but he could burrow his way to glory
+through the foundations of an abbey.</p>
+<p>In 1383, the sixth of Richard the Second, before the religious
+fervor subsided that had erected Deritend-chapel, Thomas de
+Sheldon, John Coleshill, John Goldsmith, and William att Slowe, all
+of Birmingham, obtained a patent from the crown to erect a building
+upon the spot where the Free School now stands in New-street, to be
+called <i>The Gild of the Holy Cross</i>; to endow it with lands in
+Birmingham and Edgbaston, of the annual value of twenty marks, for
+the maintenance of two priests, who were to perform divine service
+to the honor of God, our blessed Lady his Mother, the Holy Cross,
+St. Thomas, and St. Catharine.</p>
+<p>The fashion seemed to take with the inhabitants, many of whom
+wished to join the four happy men, who had obtained the patent for
+so pious a work; so that, in 1393, a second patent was procured by
+the bailiff and inhabitants of Birmingham, for confirming the gild,
+and making the addition of a brotherhood in honor of the Holy
+Cross, consisting of both sexes, with power to constitute a master
+and wardens, and also to erect a chantry of priests to celebrate
+divine service in the chapel of the gild, for the souls of the
+founders, and all the fraternity; for whose support there were
+given, by divers persons, eighteen messuages, three tofts, (pieces
+of ground) six acres of land, and forty shillings rent, lying in
+Birmingham and Edgbaston aforesaid.</p>
+<p>But, in the 27th of Henry the Eighth, 1536, when it was the
+fashion of that day, to multiply destruction against the religious,
+and their habitations, the annual income of the gild was valued, by
+the King's random visitors, at the sum of 31<i>l</i>. 2s. 10d. out
+of which, three priests who sung mass, had 5<i>l</i>. 6s. 8d. each;
+an organist, 3<i>l</i>. 13s. 4d. the common midwife, 4s. the
+bell-man, 6s. 8d. with other salaries of inferior note.</p>
+<p>These lands continued in the crown 'till 1552, the fifth of
+Edward the Sixth, when, at the humble suit of the inhabitants, they
+were assigned to</p>
+<blockquote>William Symmons, <i>gent</i>.<br>
+Richard Smallbrook, <i>bailiff of the town</i>,<br>
+John Shilton,<br>
+William Colmore,<br>
+Henry Foxall,<br>
+William Bogee,<br>
+Thomas Cooper,<br>
+Richard Swifte,<br>
+Thomas Marshall,<br>
+John Veysy,<br>
+John King,<br>
+John Wylles,<br>
+William Paynton,<br>
+William Aschrig,<br>
+Robert Rastall,<br>
+Thomas Snowden,<br>
+John Eyliat,<br>
+William Colmore, <i>jun</i>.<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;AND<br>
+William Mychell,</blockquote>
+<p>all inhabitants of Birmingham, and their successors, to be
+chosen upon death or removal, by the appellation of the Bailiff and
+Governors of the Free Grammar School of King Edward the Sixth, for
+the instruction of children in grammar; to be held of the crown in
+common soccage, paying for ever twenty shillings per annum. Over
+this seminary of learning were to preside a master and usher, whose
+united income seems to have been only twenty pounds per annum. Both
+are of the clergy. The hall of the gild was used for a school-room.
+In the glass of the windows was painted the figure of Edmund Lord
+Ferrers; who, marrying, about 350 years ago, the heiress of the
+house of Birmingham, resided upon the manor, and seems to have been
+a benefactor to the gild, with his arms, empaling Belknap; and
+also, those of Stafford, of Grafton, of Birmingham, and Bryon.</p>
+<p>The gild stood at that time at a distance from the town,
+surrounded with inclosures; the highway to Hales Owen, now
+New-street, running by the north. No house could be nearer than
+those in the High-street.</p>
+<p>The first erection, wood and plaister, which had stood about 320
+years, was taken down in 1707, to make way for the present flat
+building. In 1756, a set of urns were placed upon the parapet,
+which give relief to that stiff air, so hurtful to the view: at the
+same time, the front was <i>intended</i> to have been decorated, by
+erecting half a dozen dreadful pillars, like so many over-grown
+giants marshalled in battalia, to guard the entrance, which the
+boys wish to shun; and, being sufficiently tarnished with
+Birmingham smoak, may become dangerous to pregnancy. Had the wings
+of this building fallen two or three yards back, and the line of
+the street been preserved by a light palisade, it would have risen
+in the scale of beauty, and removed the gloomy aspect of the
+area.</p>
+<p>The tower is in a good taste, except being rather too narrow in
+the base, and is ornamented with a sleepy figure of the donor,
+Edward the Sixth, dressed in a royal mantle, with the ensigns of
+the Garter; holding a bible and sceptre.</p>
+<p>The lands that support this foundation, and were in the reign of
+Henry the Eighth, valued at thirty-one pounds per annum, are now,
+by the advance of landed property, the reduction of money, and the
+increase of commerce, about 600<i>l</i>.</p>
+<p>The present governors of this royal donation are</p>
+<blockquote>John Whateley, <i>bailiff</i>,<br>
+<i>Rev</i>. Charles Newling,<br>
+Abraham Spooner, <i>esq</i>;<br>
+Thomas Russell,<br>
+John Ash, <i>M.D.</i><br>
+Richard Rabone,<br>
+Francis Goodall,<br>
+Francis Parrott, <i>esq</i>;<br>
+William Russell, <i>esq</i>;<br>
+John Cope, <i>dead</i>,<br>
+Thomas Hurd,<br>
+Thomas Westley,<br>
+Wm. John Banner,<br>
+Thomas Salt,<br>
+William Holden,<br>
+Thomas Carless,<br>
+John Ward,<br>
+Edward Palmer, <i>esq</i>;<br>
+Francis Coales,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;AND<br>
+;Robert Coales.</blockquote>
+<br>
+<a name="image12.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image12.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image12.jpg" width="45%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b><i>Charity School</i>.</b></p>
+<br>
+<p>Over this nursery of science presides a chief master, with an
+annual salary of one hundred and twenty pounds; a second master
+sixty; two ushers; a master in the art of writing, and another in
+that of drawing, at forty pounds each: a librarian, ten: seven
+exhibitioners at the University of Oxford, twenty-five pounds each.
+Also, eight inferior schools in various parts of the town, are
+constituted and fed by this grand reservoir, at fifteen pounds
+each, which begin the first rudiments of learning.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHIEF MASTERS.</h2>
+<center>
+<table summary="">
+<tr>
+<td>John Brooksby,</td>
+<td>1685.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>---- Tonkinson.</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>John Husted.</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Edward Mainwaring,</td>
+<td>1730.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>John Wilkinson,</td>
+<td>1746</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Thomas Green,</td>
+<td>1759.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>William Brailsford,</td>
+<td>1766.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Rev. Thomas Price,</td>
+<td>1776.</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</center>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="CHARITY_SCHOOL:"></a>CHARITY SCHOOL:</h2>
+<h3>COMMONLY,</h3>
+<h3>The BLUE SCHOOL.</h3>
+<br>
+<p>There seems to be three clases of people, who demand the care of
+society; infancy, old age, and casual infirmity. When a man cannot
+assist himself, it is necessary he should be assisted. The first of
+these only is before us. The direction of youth seems one of the
+greatest concerns in moral life, and one that is the least
+understood: to form the generation to come, is of the last
+importance. If an ingenious master hath flogged the a b c into an
+innocent child, he thinks himself worthy of praise. A lad is too
+much terrified to march that path, which is marked out by the rod.
+If the way to learning abounds with punishment, he will quickly
+detest it; if we make his duty a task, we lay a stumbling-block
+before him that he cannot surmount.</p>
+<p>We rarely know a tutor succeed in training up youth, who is a
+friend to harsh treatment.</p>
+<p>Whence is it, that we so seldom find affection subsisting
+between master and scholar? From the moment they unite, to the end
+of their lives, disgust, like a cloud, rises in the mind, which
+reason herself can never dispel.</p>
+<p>The boy may pass the precincts of childhood, and tread the stage
+of life upon an equality with every man in it, except his old
+school-master; the dread of him seldom wears off; the name of Busby
+founded with horror for half a century after he had laid down the
+rod. I have often been delighted when I have seen a school of boys
+break up; the joy that diffuses itself over every face and action,
+shews infant nature in her gayest form--the only care remaining is,
+to forget on one side of the walls what was taught on the
+other.</p>
+<p>One would think, if <i>coming out</i> gives so much
+satisfaction, there must be something very detestable
+<i>within</i>.</p>
+<p>If the master thinks he has performed his task when he has
+taught the boy a few words, he as much mistakes his duty, as he
+does the road to learning: this is only the first stage of his
+journey. He has the man to form for society with ten thousand
+sentiments.</p>
+<p>It is curious to enter one of these prisons of science, and
+observe the children not under the least government: the master
+without authority, the children without order; the master scolding,
+the children riotous. We never <i>harden</i> the wax to receive the
+impression. They act in a natural sphere, but he in opposition: he
+seems the only person in the school who merits correction; he,
+unfit to teach, is making them unfit to be taught.</p>
+<p>A man does not consider whether his talents are adapted for
+teaching, so much, as whether he can <i>profit</i> by teaching:
+thus, when a man hath taught for twenty years, he may be only fit
+to go to school.</p>
+<p>To that vast group of instructors, therefore, whether in, or out
+of petticoats, who teach, without having been taught; who mistake
+the tail for the feat of learning, instead of the head; who can
+neither direct the passions of others nor their own; it may be
+said, "Quit the trade, if bread can be procured out of it. It is
+useless to pursue a work of error: the ingenious architect must
+take up your rotten foundation, before he can lay one that is
+solid."</p>
+<p>But, to the discerning few, who can penetrate the secret
+windings of the heart; who know that nature may be directed, but
+can never be inverted; that instruction should ever coincide with
+the temper of the instructed, or we sail against the wind; that it
+is necessary the pupil should relish both the teacher and the
+lesson; which, if accepted like a bitter draught, may easily be
+sweetened to his taste: to these valuable few, who, like the
+prudent florist, possessed of a choice root, which he cultivates
+with care, adding improvement to every generation; it may be said,
+"Banish tyranny out of the little dominions over which you are
+absolute sovereigns; introduce in its stead two of the highest
+ornaments of humanity, love and reason." Through the medium of the
+first, the master and the lesson may be viewed without horror; when
+the teacher and the learner are upon friendly terms, the scholar
+will rather invite than repel the assistance of the master. By the
+second, reason, the teacher will support his full authority. Every
+period of life in which a man is capable of attending to
+instruction, he is capable of attending to reason: this will answer
+every end of punishment, and something more.</p>
+<p>Thus, an irksome task will be changed into a friendly
+intercourse.</p>
+<p>This School, by a date in the front, was erected in 1724, in St.
+Philip's church-yard; is a plain, airy, and useful building,
+ornamented over the door with the figures of a boy and a girl in
+the uniform of the school, and executed with a degree of elegance,
+that a Roman statuary would not have blushed to own.</p>
+<p>This artificial family consists of about ninety scholars, of
+both sexes; over which preside a governor and governess, both
+single. Behind the apartments, is a large area appropriated for the
+amusement of the infant race, necessary as their food. Great
+decorum is preserved in this little society; who are supported by
+annual contribution, and by a collection made after sermon twice a
+year.</p>
+<p>At twelve, or fourteen, the children are removed into the
+commercial world, and often acquire an affluence that enables them
+to support that foundation, which formerly supported them.</p>
+<p>It is worthy of remark, that those institutions which are
+immediately upheld by the temporary hand of the giver, flourish in
+continual spring, and become real benefits to society; while those
+which enjoy a perpetual income, are often tinctured with
+supineness, and dwindle into obscurity.--The first, usually answer
+the purpose of the living; the last, seldom that of the dead.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="DISSENTING_CHARITY-SCHOOL."></a>DISSENTING
+CHARITY-SCHOOL.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>About twenty years ago, the Dissenters established a school,
+upon nearly the same plan as the former, consisting of about
+eighteen boys and eight girls; with this improvement, that the boys
+are innured to moderate labour, and the girls to house-work.</p>
+<p>The annual subscriptions seem to be willingly paid, thankfully
+received, and judiciously expended.</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image13.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image13.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image13.jpg" width="60%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b><i>Work House</i>.</b></p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="WORKHOUSE."></a>WORKHOUSE.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>During the long reign of the Plantagenets in England, there do
+not seem many laws in the code then existing for the regulation of
+the poor: distress was obliged to wander for a temporary and
+uncertain relief:--idleness usually mixed with it.</p>
+<p>The nobility then kept plain and hospitable houses, where want
+frequently procured a supply; but, as these were thinly scattered,
+they were inadequate to the purpose.</p>
+<p>As the abbey was much more frequent, and as a great part of the
+riches of the kingdom passed through the hands of the monk, and
+charity being consonant to the profession of that order, the weight
+of the poor chiefly lay upon the religious houses; this was the
+general mark for the indigent, the idle, and the impostor, who
+carried meanness in their aspect, and the words <i>Christ Jesus</i>
+in their mouth. Hence arise the epithets of stroller, vagrant, and
+sturdy beggar, with which modern law is intimately acquainted.</p>
+<p>It was too frequently observed, that there was but a slender
+barrier between begging and stealing, that necessity seldom marks
+the limits of honesty, and that a country abounding with beggars,
+abounds also with plunderers. A remnant of this urgent race, so
+justly complained of, which disgrace society, and lay the country
+under contribution, are still suffered, by the supineness of the
+magistrate.</p>
+<p>When the religious houses, and all their property, in 1536, fell
+a sacrifice to the vindictive wrath of Henry the Eighth, the poor
+lost their dependence, and as want knows no law, robbery became
+frequent; justice called loudly for punishment, and the hungry for
+bread; which gave rise, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, to that
+most excellent institution, of erecting every parish into a
+distinct fraternity, and obliging them to support their own
+members; therefore, it is difficult to assign a reason, why the
+blind should go abroad to <i>see</i> fresh countries, or the man
+<i>without feet to travel</i>.</p>
+<p>Though the poor were nursed by parochial law, yet workhouses did
+not become general 'till 1730: that of Birmingham was erected in
+1733, at the expence of 1173<i>l</i>. 3s. 5d. and which, the
+stranger would rather suppose, was the residence of a gentleman,
+than that of four hundred paupers. The left wing, called the
+infirmary, was added in 1766, at the charge of 400<i>l</i>. and the
+right, a place for labour, in 1779, at the expence of 700<i>l</i>.
+more.</p>
+<p>Let us a second time, consider the 50,000 people who occupy this
+<i>grand toy shop of Europe</i><a name="FNanchor6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6">[6]</a> as one great family, where, though the
+property of individuals is ascertained and secured, yet a close and
+beneficial compact subsists. We behold the members of this vast
+family marked with every style of character. Forlorn infancy,
+accidental calamity, casual sickness, old age, and even inadvertent
+distress, all find support from that charitable fund erected by
+industry. No part of the family is neglected: he that cannot find
+bread for himself, finds a ready supply; he that can, ought to do
+so. By cultivating the young suckers of infancy, we prudently
+establish the ensuing generation, which will, in the commercial
+walk, abundantly repay the expence: temporary affliction of every
+kind also merits pity; even those distresses which arise from folly
+ought not to be neglected: the parish hath done well to many a man,
+who would not do well to himself; if imprudence cannot be banished
+out of the world, companion ought not: he that cannot direct
+himself, must be under the direction of another.--If the parish
+supported none but the prudent, she would have but few to support.
+The last stage of human life demands, as well as the first, the
+help of the family. The care of infancy arises from an expectation
+of a return; that of old age from benefits already received. Though
+a man may have passed through life without growing rich, he may, by
+his labour, have contributed to make others so; though he could not
+pursue the road to affluence himself, he may have been the means of
+directing others to find it.</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor6">[6]</a>
+Burke.</blockquote>
+<p>The number of persons depending upon this weekly charity in
+Birmingham were, April 14, 1781, about 5240.</p>
+<p>Whether the mode of distributing the bounty of the community, is
+agreeable to the intentions of legislature, or the ideas of
+humanity, is a doubt. For in some parishes the unfortunate paupers
+have the additional misery of being sold to a mercenary wretch to
+starve upon twelve pence a head. It is matter of surprise that the
+magistrate should wink at this cruelty; but it is matter of
+pleasure, that no accusation comes within the verge of my
+historical remarks, for the wretched of Birmingham are not made
+more so by ill treatment, but meet with a kindness acceptable to
+distress. One would think <i>that</i> situation could not be
+despicable, which is often <i>wished for</i>, and often
+<i>sought</i>, that of becoming one of the poor of Birmingham.</p>
+<p>We cannot be conversant in parochial business, without observing
+a littleness predominant in most parishes, by using every finesse
+to relieve themselves of paupers, and throwing them upon others.
+Thus the oppressed, like the child between two fathers, is
+supported by neither.</p>
+<p>There is also an enormity, which, though agreeable to law, can
+never be justified by the rules of equity--That a man should spend
+the principal part of his life in a parish, add wealth to it by his
+labour, form connexions in it, bring up a family which shall all
+belong to it, but having never gained a settlement himself, shall,
+in old age be removed by an order, to perish among strangers. In
+1768, a small property fell into my hands, situated in a
+neighbouring village; I found the tenant had entered upon the
+premises at the age of twenty-two; that he had resided upon them,
+with poverty and a fair character, during the long space of forty
+six years--I told him he was welcome to spend the residue of his
+life upon the spot gratis. He continued there ten years after, when
+finding an inability to procure support from labour, and meeting
+with no assistance from the parish in which he had been resident
+for an age, he resigned the place with tears, in 1778, after an
+occupation of fifty six years, and was obliged to recoil upon his
+own parish, about twelve miles distant; to be farmed with the rest
+of the poor; and where, he afterwards assured me, "They were
+murdering him by inches." -- But no complaint of this ungrateful
+kind lies against that people whose character I draw.</p>
+<p>Perhaps it may be a wise measure, in a place like Birmingham,
+where the manufactures flourish in continual sunshine, not to be
+over strict with regard to removals. Though it may be burdensome to
+support the poor of another parish, yet perhaps it is the least of
+two evils: to remove old age which hath spent a life among us, is
+ungenerous; to remove temporary sickness, is injurious to trade;
+and to remove infancy is impolitic, being upon the verge of
+accommodating the town with a life of labour. It may be more
+prudent to remove a rascal than a pauper. Forty pounds hath been
+spent in removing a family, which would not otherwise have cost
+forty shillings, and whose future industry might have added many
+times that sum to the common capital. The highest pitch of charity,
+is that of directing inability to support itself. Idleness suits no
+part of a people, neither does it find a place here; every
+individual ought to contribute to the general benefit, by his head
+or his hands: if he is arrived at the western verge of life, when
+the powers of usefulness decline, let him repose upon his fortune;
+if no such thing exists, let him rest upon his friends, and if this
+prop fail, let the public nurse him, with a tenderness becoming
+humanity.</p>
+<p>We may observe, that the manufactures, the laborious part of
+mankind, the poor's rates, and the number of paupers, will
+everlastingly go hand in hand; they will increase and decrease
+together; we cannot annihilate one, but the others will follow, and
+odd as the expression may sound, we become rich by payment and
+poverty. If we discharge the poor, who shall act the laborious
+part? Stop the going out of one shilling, and it will prevent the
+coming in of two.</p>
+<p>At the introduction of the poor's laws, under Elizabeth, two
+pence halfpenny in the pound rent was collected every fortnight,
+for future support: time has made an alteration in the system,
+which is now six-pence in the pound, and collected as often as
+found necessary. The present levy amounts to above 10,000<i>l</i>.
+per ann. but is not wholly collected.</p>
+<p>As the overseers are generally people of property, payment in
+advance is not scrupulously observed.</p>
+<p>It was customary, at the beginning of this admirable system of
+jurisprudence, to constitute two overseers in each parish; but the
+magnitude of Birmingham pleaded for four, which continued 'till the
+year 1720, when a fifth was established: in 1729 they were
+augmented to half a dozen; the wishes of some, who are frighted at
+office, rise to the word <i>dozen</i>, a number very familiar in
+the Birmingham art of reckoning: but let it be remembered, that a
+vestry filled with overseers is not calculated for the meridian of
+business; that the larger the body, the slower the motion; and that
+the time and the necessities of the poor demand dispatch.</p>
+<p>From the annual disbursements in assisting the poor, which I
+shall here exhibit from undoubted evidence, the curious will draw
+some useful lessons respecting the increase of manufactures, of
+population, and of property.</p>
+<p>No memoirs are found prior to 1676.</p>
+<br>
+<center>
+<table summary="">
+<tr>
+<th>Year.</th>
+<th colspan="3" align="center">Disbursed.</th>
+<th>Year.</th>
+<th colspan="3" align="center">Disbursed.</th>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="center">l.</td>
+<td align="center">s.</td>
+<td align="center">d.</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="center">l.</td>
+<td align="center">s.</td>
+<td align="center">d.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1676</td>
+<td align="right">328</td>
+<td align="right">17</td>
+<td>7</td>
+<td>1684</td>
+<td align="right">451</td>
+<td align="right">0</td>
+<td>5-1/2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1677</td>
+<td align="right">347</td>
+<td align="right">9</td>
+<td>10-1/2</td>
+<td>1685</td>
+<td align="right">324</td>
+<td align="right">2</td>
+<td>8</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1678</td>
+<td align="right">398</td>
+<td align="right">8</td>
+<td>0-1/2</td>
+<td>1686</td>
+<td align="right">338</td>
+<td align="right">12</td>
+<td>11</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1679</td>
+<td colspan="3" align="center">omitted</td>
+<td>1687</td>
+<td align="right">343</td>
+<td align="right">15</td>
+<td>6</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1680</td>
+<td align="right">342</td>
+<td align="right">11</td>
+<td>2-1/2</td>
+<td>1688</td>
+<td align="right">308</td>
+<td align="right">17</td>
+<td>9-1/2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1681</td>
+<td align="right">363</td>
+<td align="right">15</td>
+<td>7</td>
+<td>1689</td>
+<td align="right">395</td>
+<td align="right">14</td>
+<td>11</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1682</td>
+<td align="right">337</td>
+<td align="right">2</td>
+<td>8-1/2</td>
+<td>1690</td>
+<td align="right">396</td>
+<td align="right">15</td>
+<td>2-1/2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1683</td>
+<td align="right">410</td>
+<td align="right">12</td>
+<td>1</td>
+<td>1691</td>
+<td align="right">354</td>
+<td align="right">1</td>
+<td>5-1/2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1691</td>
+<td align="right">360</td>
+<td align="right">0</td>
+<td>4-1/2</td>
+<td>1720</td>
+<td align="right">950</td>
+<td align="right">14</td>
+<td>0</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1693</td>
+<td align="right">376</td>
+<td align="right">12</td>
+<td>3-1/2</td>
+<td>1721</td>
+<td align="right">1024</td>
+<td align="right">6</td>
+<td>6-1/2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1694</td>
+<td align="right">423</td>
+<td align="right">12</td>
+<td>1-1/2</td>
+<td>1722</td>
+<td align="right">939</td>
+<td align="right">18</td>
+<td>0-1/2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1695</td>
+<td align="right">454</td>
+<td align="right">2</td>
+<td>1-1/2</td>
+<td>1739</td>
+<td align="right">678</td>
+<td align="right">8</td>
+<td>5</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1696</td>
+<td align="right">385</td>
+<td align="right">8</td>
+<td>11-1/2</td>
+<td>1740</td>
+<td align="right">938</td>
+<td align="right">0</td>
+<td>6</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1697</td>
+<td align="right">446</td>
+<td align="right">11</td>
+<td>5</td>
+<td>1742</td>
+<td align="right">888</td>
+<td align="right">1</td>
+<td>1-1/2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1698</td>
+<td align="right">505</td>
+<td align="right">0</td>
+<td>2-1/2</td>
+<td>1743</td>
+<td align="right">799</td>
+<td align="right">6</td>
+<td>1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1699</td>
+<td align="right">592</td>
+<td align="right">11</td>
+<td>2</td>
+<td>1744</td>
+<td align="right">851</td>
+<td align="right">12</td>
+<td>5-1/2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1700</td>
+<td align="right">661</td>
+<td align="right">7</td>
+<td>4-1/2</td>
+<td>1745</td>
+<td align="right">746</td>
+<td align="right">2</td>
+<td>7</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1701</td>
+<td align="right">487</td>
+<td align="right">13</td>
+<td>0</td>
+<td>1746</td>
+<td align="right">1003</td>
+<td align="right">14</td>
+<td>9-1/2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1702</td>
+<td align="right">413</td>
+<td align="right">14</td>
+<td>0-1/2</td>
+<td>1747</td>
+<td align="right">1071</td>
+<td align="right">7</td>
+<td>3</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1703</td>
+<td align="right">476</td>
+<td align="right">13</td>
+<td>10</td>
+<td>1748</td>
+<td align="right">1175</td>
+<td align="right">8</td>
+<td>7-1/2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1704</td>
+<td align="right">555</td>
+<td align="right">11</td>
+<td>11-1/2</td>
+<td>1749</td>
+<td align="right">1132</td>
+<td align="right">11</td>
+<td>7-1/2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1705</td>
+<td align="right">510</td>
+<td align="right">0</td>
+<td>10</td>
+<td>1750</td>
+<td align="right">1167</td>
+<td align="right">16</td>
+<td>6</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1706</td>
+<td align="right">519</td>
+<td align="right">3</td>
+<td>6</td>
+<td>1751</td>
+<td align="right">1352</td>
+<td align="right">0</td>
+<td>8-1/2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1707</td>
+<td align="right">609</td>
+<td align="right">0</td>
+<td>4-1/2</td>
+<td>1752</td>
+<td align="right">1355</td>
+<td align="right">6</td>
+<td>4</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1708</td>
+<td align="right">649</td>
+<td align="right">15</td>
+<td>9</td>
+<td>1756</td>
+<td align="right">3255</td>
+<td align="right">18</td>
+<td>3-1/4</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1709</td>
+<td align="right">744</td>
+<td align="right">17</td>
+<td>0-1/2</td>
+<td>1757</td>
+<td align="right">3402</td>
+<td align="right">7</td>
+<td>2-1/2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1710</td>
+<td align="right">960</td>
+<td align="right">8</td>
+<td>8-1/2</td>
+<td>1758</td>
+<td align="right">3306</td>
+<td align="right">12</td>
+<td>5</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1711</td>
+<td align="right">1055</td>
+<td align="right">2</td>
+<td>10</td>
+<td>1759</td>
+<td align="right">2708</td>
+<td align="right">9</td>
+<td>5-3/4</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1712</td>
+<td align="right">734</td>
+<td align="right">0</td>
+<td>11</td>
+<td>1760</td>
+<td align="right">3221</td>
+<td align="right">18</td>
+<td>7</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1713</td>
+<td align="right">674</td>
+<td align="right">7</td>
+<td>6</td>
+<td>1761</td>
+<td align="right">2935</td>
+<td align="right">4</td>
+<td>1-1/2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1714</td>
+<td align="right">722</td>
+<td align="right">15</td>
+<td>6-1/2</td>
+<td>1762</td>
+<td align="right">3078</td>
+<td align="right">18</td>
+<td>2-1/2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1715</td>
+<td align="right">718</td>
+<td align="right">2</td>
+<td>1</td>
+<td>1763</td>
+<td align="right">3330</td>
+<td align="right">13</td>
+<td>11-1/2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1716</td>
+<td align="right">788</td>
+<td align="right">3</td>
+<td>2-1/2</td>
+<td>1764</td>
+<td align="right">3963</td>
+<td align="right">11</td>
+<td>0-1/2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1717</td>
+<td align="right">764</td>
+<td align="right">0</td>
+<td>6-1/2</td>
+<td>1765</td>
+<td align="right">3884</td>
+<td align="right">18</td>
+<td>9</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1718</td>
+<td align="right">751</td>
+<td align="right">2</td>
+<td>4</td>
+<td>1766</td>
+<td align="right">4716</td>
+<td align="right">2</td>
+<td>10-1/2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1719</td>
+<td align="right">1094</td>
+<td align="right">10</td>
+<td>7</td>
+<td>1767</td>
+<td align="right">4940</td>
+<td align="right">2</td>
+<td>2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1768</td>
+<td align="right">4798</td>
+<td align="right">2</td>
+<td>5</td>
+<td>1775</td>
+<td align="right">6509</td>
+<td align="right">10</td>
+<td>10</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1769</td>
+<td align="right">5082</td>
+<td align="right">0</td>
+<td>9</td>
+<td>1776</td>
+<td align="right">5203</td>
+<td align="right">4</td>
+<td>9-1/2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1770</td>
+<td align="right">5125</td>
+<td align="right">13</td>
+<td>2-1/4</td>
+<td>1777</td>
+<td align="right">6012</td>
+<td align="right">5</td>
+<td>5</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1771</td>
+<td align="right">6132</td>
+<td align="right">5</td>
+<td>10</td>
+<td>1778</td>
+<td align="right">6866</td>
+<td align="right">10</td>
+<td>8-1/2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1772</td>
+<td align="right">6139</td>
+<td align="right">6</td>
+<td>5-1/2</td>
+<td>1779</td>
+<td align="right">8081</td>
+<td align="right">19</td>
+<td>7-1/2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1773</td>
+<td align="right">5584</td>
+<td align="right">18</td>
+<td>8-1/2</td>
+<td>1780</td>
+<td align="right">9910</td>
+<td align="right">4</td>
+<td>11-3/4</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1774</td>
+<td align="right">6115</td>
+<td align="right">17</td>
+<td>11</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</center>
+<br>
+<p>We cannot pass through this spacious edifice without being
+pleased with its internal oeconomy; order influences the whole, nor
+can the cleanliness be exceeded: but I am extremely concerned, that
+I cannot pass through without complaint.</p>
+<p>There are evils in common life which admit of no remedy; but
+there are very few which may not be lessened by prudence.</p>
+<p>The modes of nursing infancy in this little dominion of poverty,
+are truly defective. It is to be feared the method intended to
+train up inhabitants for the earth, annually furnishes the regions
+of the grave.</p>
+<p>Why is so little attention paid to the generation who are to
+tread the stage after us? as if we suffered them to be cut off that
+we might keep possession for ever. The unfortunate orphan that none
+will own, none will regard: distress, in whatever form it appears,
+excites compassion, but particularly in the helpless. Whoever puts
+an infant into the arms of decrepit old age, passes upon it a
+sentence of death, and happy is that infant who finds a reprieve.
+The tender sprig is not likely to prosper under the influence of
+the tree which attracts its nurture; applies that nurture to
+itself, where the calls occasioned by decay are the most
+powerful--An old woman and a sprightly nurse, are characters as
+opposite as the antipodes.</p>
+<p>If we could but exercise a proper care during the first two
+years, the child would afterwards nurse itself; there is not a more
+active animal in the creation, no part of its time, while awake, is
+unemployed: why then do we invert nature, and confine an animal to
+still life, in what is called a school, who is designed for
+action?</p>
+<p>We cannot with indifference behold infants crouded into a room
+by the hundred, commanded perhaps by some disbanded soldier, termed
+a school-master, who having changed the sword for the rod,
+continues much inclined to draw blood with his arms; where every
+individual not only re breathes his own air, but that of another:
+the whole assembly is composed of the feeble, the afflicted, the
+maimed, and the orphan; the result of whose confinement, is a
+fallow aspect, and a sickly frame: but the paltry grains of
+knowledge gleaned up by the child in this barren field of learning,
+will never profit him two-pence in future; whereas, if we could
+introduce a robust habit, he would one day be a treasure to the
+community, and a greater to himself. Till he is initiated into
+labour, a good foundation for health may be laid in air and
+exercise.</p>
+<p>Whenever I see half a dozen of these forlorn innocents quartered
+upon a farm house, a group of them taking the air under the conduct
+of a senior, or marshalled in rank and file to attend public
+worship, I consider the overseer who directed it, as possessed of
+tender feelings: their orderly attire, and simplicity of manners,
+convey a degree of pleasure to the mind; and I behold in them, the
+future support of that commercial interest; upon which they now lie
+as a burden.</p>
+<p>If I have dwelt long upon the little part of our species, let it
+plead my excuse to say, I cannot view a human being, however
+diminutive in stature, or depressed in fortune, without
+considering, <i>I view an equal</i>.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="OLD_CROSS"></a>OLD CROSS,</h2>
+<br>
+<p>So called, because prior to the Welch Cross; before the erection
+of this last, it was simply called, The Cross.</p>
+<p>The use of the market cross is very ancient, though not equal to
+the market, for this began with civilization.</p>
+<p>Christianity first appeared in Britain under the Romans; but in
+the sixth century, under the Saxon government, it had made such an
+amazing progress, that every man seemed to be not only <i>almost a
+Christian</i>, but it was unfashionable not to have been a zealous
+one. The cross of Christ was frequently mentioned in conversation,
+and afterwards became an oath. It was hacknied about the streets,
+sometimes in the pocket, or about the neck; sometimes it was fixed
+upon the church, which we see at this day, and always hoisted to
+the top of the steeple. The rudiments of learning began with the
+cross; hence it stands to this moment as a frontispiece to the
+battledore, which likewise bears its name.</p>
+<p>This important article of religion was thought to answer two
+valuable purposes, that of collecting the people; and containing a
+charm against ghosts, evil spirits, etc. with the idea of which,
+that age was much infested.</p>
+<p>To accomplish these singular ends, it was blended into the
+common actions of life, and at that period it entered the
+market-place. A few circular steps from the centre of which issued
+an elevated pillar, terminating in a cross, was the general fashion
+throughout the kingdom; and perhaps our Vulcanian ancestors knew no
+other for twelve hundred years, this being renewed about once every
+century, 'till the year 1702, when the present cross was erected,
+at the expence of 80<i>l</i>. 9s. 1d. This was the first upon that
+spot, ever honoured with a roof: the under part was found a useful
+shelter for the market-people. The room over it was designed for
+the court leet, and other public business, which during the
+residence of the lords upon the manor, had been transacted in one
+of their detached apartments, yet in being: but after the removal
+of the lords, in 1537, the business was done in the Leather-hall,
+which occupied the whole east end of New-street, a covered gateway
+of twelve feet excepted, and afterwards in the Old Cross.</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image14a.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image14a.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image14a.jpg" width="45%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b><i>Welch Cross</i>.</b></p>
+<br>
+<a name="image14b.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image14b.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image14b.jpg" width="45%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b><i>Old Cross</i>.</b></p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="WELCH_CROSS."></a>WELCH CROSS.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>If a reader, fond of antiquity, should object, that I have
+comprized the <i>Ancient state of Birmingham</i> in too small a
+compass, and that I ought to have extended it beyond the 39th page;
+I answer, when a man has not much to say, he ought to be hissed out
+of authorship, if he picks the pocket of his friend, by saying
+much; neither does antiquity end with that page, for in some of the
+chapters, I have led him through the mazes of time, to present him
+with a modern prospect.</p>
+<p>In erecting a new building, we generally use the few materials
+of the old, as far as they will extend. Birmingham may be
+considered as one vast and modern edifice, of which the ancient
+materials make but a very small part: the extensive <i>new</i>,
+seems to surround the minute <i>old</i>, as if to protect it.</p>
+<p>Upon the spot where the Welch Cross now stands, probably stood a
+finger-post, to direct the stranger that could read, for there were
+not many, the roads to Wolverhampton and Lichfield.</p>
+<p>Though the ancient post, and the modern cross, might succeed
+each other, yet this difference was between them, one stood at a
+distance from the town, the other stands near its centre.</p>
+<p>By some antique writings it appears, that 200 years ago this
+spot bore the name of the Welch End, perhaps from the number of
+Welch in its neighbourhood; or rather, from its being the great
+road to that principality, and was at that time the extremity of
+the town, odd houses excepted. This is corroborated by a
+circumstance I have twice mentioned already, that when Birmingham
+unfortunately fell under the frowns of Prince Rupert, 137 years
+ago, and he determined to reduce it to ashes for succouring an
+enemy, it is reasonable to suppose he began at the exterior, which
+was then in Bull-street, about twelve houses above the cross.</p>
+<p>If we were ignorant of the date of this cross, the style of the
+building itself would inform us, that it rose in the beginning of
+the present century, and was designed, as population encreased, for
+a Saturday market; yet, although it is used in some degree for that
+purpose, the people never heartily adopted the measure.</p>
+<p>In a town like Birmingham, a commodious market-place, for we
+have nothing that bears the name, would be extremely useful.
+Efforts have been used to make one, of a large area, now a
+bowling-green, in Corbet's-alley; but I am persuaded the
+market-people would suffer the grass to grow in it, as peaceably as
+in their own fields. We are not easily drawn from ancient custom,
+except by interest.</p>
+<p>For want of a convenient place where the sellers may be
+collected into one point, they are scattered into various parts of
+the town. Corn is sold by sample, in the Bull-ring; the eatable
+productions of the garden, in the same place: butchers stalls
+occupy Spiceal-street; one would think a narrow street was
+preferred, that no customer should be suffered to pass by. Flowers,
+shrubs, etc. at the ends of Philip-street and Moor-street: beds of
+earthen-ware lie in the middle of the foot ways; and a double range
+of insignificant stalls, in the front of the shambles, choak up the
+passage: the beast market is kept in Dale-end: that for pigs, sheep
+and horses in New-street: cheese issues from one of our principal
+inns: fruit, fowls and butter are sold at the Old Cross: nay, it is
+difficult to mention a place where they are not. We may observe, if
+a man hath an article to sell which another wants to buy, they will
+quickly find each other out.</p>
+<p>Though the market-inconveniencies are great, a man seldom brings
+a commodity for the support of life, or of luxury, and returns
+without a customer. Yet even this crowded state of the market,
+dangerous to the feeble, hath its advantages: much business is
+transacted in a little time; the first customer is obliged to use
+dispatch, before he is justled out by a second: to <i>stand all the
+day idle in the market place</i>, is not known among us.</p>
+<p>The upper room of this cross is appropriated for a military
+guard-house. We find, December 16, 1723, an order made at a public
+meeting, that "A guard house should be erected in a convenient part
+of the town, because neither of the crosses were eligible." But
+this old order, like some of the new, was never carried into
+execution. As no complaint lies against the cross, in our time, we
+may suppose it suitable for the purpose; and I know none but its
+prisoners that pronounce against it.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="SAINT_MARTINS"></a>SAINT MARTIN's.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>It has been remarked, that the antiquity of this church is too
+remote for historical light.</p>
+<p>The curious records of those dark ages, not being multiplied,
+and preserved by the art of printing, have fallen a prey to time,
+and the revolution of things.</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image15.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image15.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image15.jpg" width="45%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b><i>Saint Martin's Church</i>.</b></p>
+<br>
+<p>There is reason for fixing the foundation in the eighth century,
+perhaps rather sooner, and it then was at a small distance from the
+buildings. The town stood upon the hill, whose centre was the Old
+Cross; consequently, the ring of houses that now surrounds the
+church, from the bottom of Edgbaston-street, part of
+Spiceal-street, the Bull-ring, Corn-cheaping, and St.
+Martin's-lane, could not exist.</p>
+<p>I am inclined to think that the precincts of St. Martin's have
+undergone a mutilation, and that the place which has obtained the
+modern name of Bull-ring, and which is used as a market for corn
+and herbs, was once an appropriation of the church, though not used
+for internment; because the church is evidently calculated for a
+town of some size, to which the present church-yard no way agrees,
+being so extremely small that the ancient dead must have been
+continually disturbed, to make way for the modern, that little spot
+being their only receptacle for 900 years.</p>
+<p>A son not only succeeds his father in the possession of his
+property and habitation, but also in the grave, where he can
+scarcely enter without expelling half a dozen of his ancestors.</p>
+<p>The antiquity of St. Martin's will appear by surveying the
+adjacent ground. From the eminence upon which the High-street
+stands, proceeds a steep, and regular descent into Moor-street,
+Digbeth, down Spiceal-street, Lee's-lane, and Worcester-street.
+This descent is broken only by the church-yard; which, through a
+long course of internment, for ages, is augmented into a
+considerable hill, chiefly composed of the refuse of life. We may,
+therefore, safely remark, in this place, <i>the dead are raised
+up</i>. Nor shall we be surprised at the rapid growth of the hill,
+when we consider this little point of land was alone that hungry
+grave which devoured the whole inhabitants, during the long ages of
+existence, till the year 1715, when St. Philip's was opened. The
+curious observer will easily discover, the fabric has lost that
+symmetry which should ever attend architecture, by the growth of
+the soil about it, causing a low appearance in the building, so
+that instead of the church burying the dead, the dead would, in
+time, have buried the church.</p>
+<p>It is reasonable to allow, the original approach into this place
+was by a flight of steps, not by descent, as is the present case;
+and that the church-yard was surrounded by a low wall. As the
+ground swelled by the accumulation of the dead, wall after wall was
+added to support the growing soil; thus the fence and the hill
+sprang up together; but this was demonstrated, August 27, 1781,
+when, in removing two or three old houses, to widen St. Martin's
+Lane, they took down the church-yard wall, which was fifteen feet
+high without, and three within. This proved to be only an outward
+case, that covered another wall twelve feet high; in the front of
+which was a stone, elevated eight feet, and inscribed, "Robert
+Dallaway, Francis Burton." Church-wardens, anno dom. (supposed)
+"1310." As there is certain evidence, that the church is, much
+older then the above date, we should suspect there had been another
+fence many ages prior to this. But it was put beyond a doubt, when
+the workmen came to a third wall, four feet high, covered with
+antique coping, probably erected with the fabric itself, which
+would lead us far back into the Saxon times.</p>
+<p>The removal of the buildings to accommodate the street, the
+construction of the wall, beautified with pallisades, is
+<i>half</i> an elegant plan, well executed. If we can persuade
+ourselves to perform the other half, by removing the remainder of
+the buildings, and continuing the line to the steps, at the bottom
+of Spiceal-street, the work will stand in the front of modern
+improvement.</p>
+<p>In the south-east part of the wall, covered by the engine-house,
+upon another stone, nearly obliterated, is, John Enser, Richard
+Higginson, Church-wardens, 1709.</p>
+<p>Other church-yards are ornamented with the front of the
+buildings, but that of St. Martin submits to the rear.</p>
+<p>The present church is of stone; the first upon the premises; and
+perhaps the oldest building in these parts.</p>
+<p>As the country does not produce stone of a lasting texture, and
+as the rough blasts of 900 years, had made inroads upon the fabric,
+it was thought necessary, in 1690, to case both church and steeple
+with brick, except the spire, which is an elegant one. The bricks
+and the workmanship are excellent.</p>
+<p>Though the fabric is not void of beauty, yet being closely
+surrounded with houses, which destroy the medium of view, that
+beauty is totally hid.</p>
+<p>The steeple has, within memory, been three times injured by
+lightning. Forty feet of the spire, in a decayed state, was taken
+down and rebuilt in 1781, with stone from Attleborough, near
+Nuneaton; and strengthened by a spindle of iron, running up its
+centre 105 feet long, secured to the side walls every ten feet, by
+braces--the expence, 165<i>l</i>. 16s.</p>
+<p>Inclosed is a ring of twelve musical bells, and though I am not
+master of the bob major and tripple-grandfire, yet am well
+informed, the ringers are masters of the bell-rope: but to excel in
+Birmingham is not new.</p>
+<p>The seats in the church would disgrace a meaner parish than that
+of Birmingham; one should be tempted to think, they are the first
+ever erected upon the spot, without taste or order: the timber is
+become hard with age, and to the honour of the inhabitants, bright
+with use. Each sitting is a private freehold, and is farther
+disgraced, like the coffin of a pauper, with the paltry initials of
+the owner's name. These divine abodes are secured with the coarse
+padlocks of a field gate.</p>
+<p>By an attentive survey of the seats, we plainly discover the
+increasing population of Birmingham. When the church was erected,
+there was doubtless sufficient room for the inhabitants, and it was
+probably the only place for public worship during 800 years: as the
+town increased, gallery after gallery was erected, 'till no
+conveniency was found for more. Invention was afterwards exerted to
+augment the number of sittings; every recess capable only of
+admitting the body of an infant, was converted into a seat, which
+indicates, the continual increase of people, and, that a spirit of
+devotion was prevalent among them.</p>
+<p>The floor of the church is greatly injured by internment, as is
+also the light, by the near approach of the buildings,
+notwithstanding, in 1733, the middle roof of the chancel was taken
+off, and the side walls raised about nine feet, to admit a double
+range of windows.</p>
+<p>Dugdale, who wrote in 1640, gives us twenty-two drawings of the
+arms, in the windows, of those gentry who had connection with
+Birmingham.</p>
+<br>
+<center>
+<table summary="">
+<tr>
+<td>1. Astley.</td>
+<td>10. Freville.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>2. Sumeri.</td>
+<td>11. Ancient Birmingham.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>3. Ancient Birmingham.</td>
+<td>12. Knell.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>4. Ancient Birmingham,</td>
+<td>13. Fitz-Warrer.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;the 2nd house.</td>
+<td>14. Montalt.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>5. Seagreve.</td>
+<td>15. Modern Birmingham.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>6. Modern Birmingham.</td>
+<td>16. Hampden.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>7. Ancient and modern</td>
+<td>17. Burdet.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Birmingham,</td>
+<td>18. Montalt.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;quartered.</td>
+<td>19. Modern Birmingham.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>8. Peshale quartering</td>
+<td>20. Beauchamp.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Bottetort.</td>
+<td>21. Ferrers.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>9. Birmingham quartering</td>
+<td>22. Latimere.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Wyrley.</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</center>
+<br>
+<p>These twenty-two coats are now reduced to three, which are,</p>
+<p>Number two, in the east window of the chancel, which is <i>or,
+two lions passant azure</i>, the arms of the family of Someri,
+Lords of Dudley-castle, and superior Lords of Birmingham; which
+having been extinct about 450 years, the coat of arms must have
+been there at least during that period.</p>
+<p>Number three, in the south window of the chancel, <i>azure, a
+bend lozenge of five points, or</i>, the ancient arms of the family
+of Birmingham, which perhaps is upwards of 400 years old, as that
+coat was not used after the days of Edward the First, except in
+quarterings.</p>
+<p>And number ten, in the north window, <i>or, a cross, indented
+gules</i>; also, <i>five fleurs de lis</i>, the ancient arms of
+Freville, Lords of Tamworth, whose ancestor, Marmion, received a
+grant of that castle from William the Conqueror, and whose
+descendant, Lord Viscount Townshend, is the present proprietor.
+Perhaps this coat hath been there 400 years, for the male line of
+the Freville family, was extinct in the reign of Henry the
+Fourth.</p>
+<p>Under the south window of the chancel, by the door, are two
+monuments a-breast, of white marble, much injured by the hand of
+rude time, and more by that of the ruder boys. The left figure,
+which is very ancient, I take to be William de Birmingham, who was
+made prisoner by the French, at the siege of Bellegard, in the 25th
+of Edward the First, 1297. He wears a short mantle, which was the
+dress of that time, a sword, expressive of the military order, and
+he also bears a shield with the bend lozenge, which seems never to
+have been borne after the above date.</p>
+<p>The right hand figure, next the wall, is visibly marked with a
+much older date, perhaps about the conquest. The effigy does not
+appear in a military character, neither did the Lords of that
+period. The value of these ancient relicts have long claimed the
+care of the wardens, to preserve them from the injurious hand of
+the boys, and the foot of the window cleaner, by securing them with
+a pallisade. Even Westminster abbey, famous for departed glory,
+cannot produce a monument of equal antiquity.</p>
+<p>At the foot of these, is another of the same materials,
+belonging to one of the Marrows, Lords of Birmingham.</p>
+<p>Under the north east window, is a monument of white marble,
+belonging to one of the Lords of the house of Birmingham: but this
+is of modern date compared with the others, perhaps not more than
+300 years; he bearing the <i>parte per pale, indented or, and
+gules</i>.</p>
+<p>In the church is an excellent organ, and in the steeple a set of
+chimes, where the ingenious artist treats us with a fresh tune
+every day of the week.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>Upon one of the CENTRE PILLARS.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Here lieth the bodies of William Colmore, Gent. who died in
+1607, and Ann his wife, in 1591: also the body of Henry Willoughby,
+Esq; father to Frances, wife of William Colmore, now living; he
+died 1609.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>NORTH GALLERY.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>John Crowley, in 1709, gave twenty shillings per annum, payable
+out of the lowermost house in the Priory, to be distributed in
+bread, in the church on St. John's day, to house-keepers in
+Birmingham, who receive no pay.</p>
+<p>Joseph Hopkins died in 1683, who gave 200<i>l</i>. with which an
+estate was purchased in Sutton Coldfield; the rents to be laid out
+in coats, gowns, and other relief for the poor of Birmingham: he
+also gave 200<i>l</i>. for the poor of Wednesbury: 200<i>l</i>. to
+distresed quakers: 5<i>l</i>. 10s. to the poor of Birmingham, and
+the same sum to those of Wednesbury, at his death.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>SAME GALLERY.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Whereas the church of St. Martin's, in Birmingham, had only 52
+ounces of plate, in 1708, for the use of the communion table; it
+was, by a voluntary subscription of the inhabitants, increased to
+275--Two flaggons, two cups, two covers and pattens, with cases:
+the whole, 80<i>l</i>. 16s. 6d.</p>
+<p>Richard Banner ordered one hundred pounds to be laid out in
+lands within ten miles of Birmingham; which sum, lying at interest,
+and other small donations being added, amounted to 170<i>l</i>.
+with which an estate at Erdington, value 81. 10s. per annum, was
+purchased for the poor of Birmingham.</p>
+<p>Richard Kilcup gave a house and garden at Spark-brook, for the
+church and poor.</p>
+<p>John Cooper gave a croft for making of love-days (merriments)
+among Birmingham men.</p>
+<p>William Rixam gave a house in Spiceal-street, No. 26, for the
+use of the poor, in 1568.</p>
+<p>John Ward, in 1591, gave a house and lands in Marston Culey.</p>
+<p>William Colmore gave ten shillings per ann. payable out of the
+house, No. 1, High-street.</p>
+<p>John Shelton gave ten shillings per annum, issuing out of a
+house occupied by Martin Day.</p>
+<p>Several of the above donations are included in Lench's
+trust.</p>
+<p>John Peak gave a chest bound with iron for the use of the
+church; seemingly about 200 years old, and of 200 lb. weight.</p>
+<p>Edward Smith gave 20<i>l</i>. per ann. to the poor, in 1612, and
+also erected the pulpit.</p>
+<p>John Billingsley, in 1629, gave 26 shillings yearly, chargeable
+upon a house in Dale-end, to be given in bread, by six-pence every
+Sunday.</p>
+<p>One croft to find bell-ropes.</p>
+<p>Richard Dukesayle, in 1630, gave the utensils belonging to the
+communion table.</p>
+<p>Barnaby Smith, 1633, gave 20<i>l</i>. to be lent to ten poor
+tradesmen, at the discretion of the church-wardens for two or three
+years.</p>
+<p>Catharine Roberts, wife of Barnaby Smith, in 1642, gave
+20<i>l</i>. the interest of which was to be given to the poor, the
+first Friday in Lent.</p>
+<p>John Jennens, 1651, gave 2<i>l</i>. 10s. for the use of the
+poor, born and living in Birmingham; and also 20s. on St. Thomas's
+day.</p>
+<p>John Milward gave 26<i>l</i> per annum, lying in Bordesley: one
+third to the school-master of Birmingham, (Free-school); one third
+to the Principal of Brazen nose College, Oxford, for the
+maintenance of one scholar from Birmingham or Haverfordwest, and
+the remainder to the poor.</p>
+<p>Joseph Pemberton gave 40s. per annum, payable out of an estate
+at Tamworth, and 20s. out of an estate in Harbourne.</p>
+<p>Richard Smallbrook gave to the poor of Birmingham 10s. per
+annum, arising out of a salt vat in Droitwich.</p>
+<p>Robert Whittall gave the pall, or beere cloth.</p>
+<p>Widow Cooper, of the Talbot, No. 20, in High-street, gave one
+towel and one sheet, to wrap the poor in the grave.</p>
+<p>Mrs. Jennens gave 10<i>l</i>. per annum to support a lecture,
+the second and third Thursday in every month.</p>
+<p>The following offspring of charity seems to have expired at its
+birth, but rose from the dead a few months ago, after an internment
+of fifty-four years.</p>
+<p>The numerous family of Piddock flourished in great opulence for
+many ages, and though they were not lords of a manor, they were as
+rich as those who were: they yet boast, that their ancestors could
+walk seven miles upon their own land. It sometimes may be prudent,
+however, to believe only <i>half</i> what a man says; besides, a
+person with tolerable vigour of limb, might contrive to walk seven
+miles upon his own land, if he has but one acre--a lawyer is not
+the only man who can double.</p>
+<p>Perhaps they were possessed of the northern part of this parish,
+from Birmingham-heath to Shirland-brook, exclusive of many estates
+in the manors of Smethwick and Oldbury.</p>
+<p>Their decline continued many years, till one of them, in 1771,
+extinguished their greatness by a single dash of his pen, in
+selling the last foot of land.--I know some of them now in
+distress.</p>
+<p>William Piddock, in 1728, devised his farm at Winson-green,
+about nine acres, to his wife Sarah, during life, and at her death,
+to his nephews and executors William and John Riddall, their heirs
+and assigns for ever, in trust, for educating and putting out poor
+boys of Birmingham; or other discretional charities in the same
+parish.</p>
+<p>But William and John wisely considered, that they could not put
+the money into any pocket sooner than their own; that as the estate
+was in the family it was needless to disturb it; that as the will
+was not known to the world, there was no necessity to publish it;
+and, as it gave them a discretional power of disposal, they might
+as well consider themselves <i>the poor</i>, for they were both in
+the parish.</p>
+<p>There is nothing easier than to coin excuses for a fault;--there
+is nothing harder than to make them pass.</p>
+<p>What must be his state of mind, who is in continual
+apprehensions of a disgraceful discovery? No profits can compensate
+his feelings.</p>
+<p>Had the deviser been less charitable, William and John had been
+less guilty: the gift of one man becomes a temptation to another.
+These nine acres, from which the donor was to spring upwards, lay
+like a mountain on the breasts of William and John, tending to
+press them downwards. Although poverty makes many a rogue, yet had
+William and John been more poor, they would have been more
+innocent. The children themselves would have been the least gainers
+by the bequest, for, without this legacy, they could just as well
+have procured trades; the profit would have centered in the
+inhabitants, by softening their levies.--Thus a donation runs
+through many a private channel, unseen by the giver.</p>
+<p>Matters continued in this torpid state till 1782, when a quarrel
+between the brothers and a tenant, broke the enchantment, and
+shewed the actors in real view.</p>
+<p>The officers, in behalf of the town, filed a bill in Chancery,
+and recovered the dormant property, which was committed in trust
+to</p>
+<blockquote>John Dymock Griffith,<br>
+John Harwood,<br>
+Thomas Archer,&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&gt;
+Overseers, 1781.<br>
+William Hunt,<br>
+Joseph Robinson,<br>
+James Rollason,<br>
+<br>
+John
+Holmes,&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&gt;
+Constables, 1782.<br>
+Thomas Barrs,<br>
+Joseph Sheldon,<br>
+Charles Primer,&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&gt;
+Church-wardens,<br>
+William Dickenson,<br>
+Edmund Tompkins,<br>
+<br>
+Claud Johnson,<br>
+Nathaniel Lawrence,<br>
+Edward
+Homer,&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&gt;
+Overseers, 1782.<br>
+Thomas Cock,<br>
+Samuel Stretch,<br>
+Joseph Townsend,<br>
+John Startin.</blockquote>
+<p>The presentation of St. Martin's was vested in the family of
+Birmingham, until the year 1537, since which it has passed through
+the Dudleys, the Crown, the Marrows, the Smiths, and now rests in
+the family of Tennant.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>RECTORS.</h2>
+<center>
+<table summary="">
+<tr>
+<td>1300</td>
+<td>Thomas de Hinckleigh.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1304</td>
+<td>Stephen de Segrave.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1304</td>
+<td>John de Ayleston.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1336</td>
+<td>Robert de Shuteford.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1349</td>
+<td>William de Seggeley.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1354</td>
+<td>Thomas de Dumbleton.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1369</td>
+<td>Hugh de Wolvesey.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1396</td>
+<td>Thomas Darnall.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1412</td>
+<td>William Thomas.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1414</td>
+<td>Richard Slowther.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1428</td>
+<td>John Waryn.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1432</td>
+<td>William Hyde.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1433</td>
+<td>John Armstrong.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1433</td>
+<td>John Wardale.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1436</td>
+<td>Henry Symon.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1444</td>
+<td>Humphrey Jurdan.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1504</td>
+<td>Richard Button.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1536</td>
+<td>Richard Myddlemore.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1544</td>
+<td>William Wrixam.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1578</td>
+<td>Lucus Smith.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><i>Thus far Dugdale</i>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>----</td>
+<td>------ Smith.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1641</td>
+<td>Samuel Wills.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1654</td>
+<td>------ Slater.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1660</td>
+<td>John Riland.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1672</td>
+<td>Henry Grove.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>----</td>
+<td>William Daggett.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>----</td>
+<td>Thomas Tyrer.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1732</td>
+<td>Richard Dovey.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1771</td>
+<td>------ Chase.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1772</td>
+<td>John Parsons.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1779</td>
+<td>William Hinton, D.D.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1781</td>
+<td>Charles Curtis.</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</center>
+<p>During Cromwell's government, ---- Slater, a broken apothecary
+of this place, having been unsuccessful in curing the body,
+resolved to attempt curing the soul. He therefore, to repair his
+misfortunes, assumed the clerical character, and cast an eye on the
+rectory of St. Martin's; but he had many powerful opponents: among
+others were Jennens, an iron-master, possessor of Aston-furnace;
+Smallbroke, another wealthy inhabitant, and Sir Thomas Holt.</p>
+<p>However, he with difficulty, triumphed over his enemies, stept
+into the pulpit, and held the rectory till the restoration.</p>
+<p>Being determined, in his first sermon, to lash his enemies with
+the whip of those times, he told his people, "The Lord had carried
+him through many troubles; for he had passed, like Shadrach,
+Meshach, and Abednego, through the <i>fiery furnace</i>. And as the
+Lord had enabled the children of Israel to pass over the Red Sea,
+so he had assisted him in passing over the <i>Small-brooks</i>, and
+to overcome the strong <i>Holts</i> of sin and satan."</p>
+<p>At the restoration, suspecting the approach of the proper
+officers to expel him from the Parsonage-house, he crept into a
+hiding-place under the stairs; but, being discovered, was drawn out
+by force, and the place ever after, bore the name of <i>Slater's
+Hole</i>.</p>
+<p>John Riland succeeded him, who is celebrated for piety,
+learning, and a steady adherence to the interest of Charles the
+First; in whose cause he seems to have lost every thing he
+possessed, but his life. He was remarkable for compromising
+quarrels among his neighbours, often at an expence to himself; also
+for constantly carrying a charity box, to relieve the distress of
+others; and, though robbed of all himself, never thought he was
+poor, except when his box was empty.--He died in 1672, aged 53.</p>
+<p>A succeeding rector, William Daggett, is said to have understood
+the art of boxing, better than that of preaching: his clerk often
+felt the weightier argument of his hand. Meeting a quaker, whose
+profession, then in infancy, did not stand high in esteem, he
+offered some insults, which the other resenting, told him, "If he
+was not protected by his cloth, he would make him repent the
+indignity." Dagget immediately stripped, "There, now I have thrown
+off my protection."</p>
+<p>They fought--but the spiritual bruiser proved too hard for the
+injured quaker.</p>
+<p>Among the rectors we sometimes behold a magistrate; at others,
+those who for misconduct ought to have been taken before one.</p>
+<p>The rectory, in the King's books, was valued, in 1291, at
+5<i>l</i>. per annum; and, in 1536, at 19<i>l</i>. 3s. 6d.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i>A terrier of the rectory, written by the rector,<br>
+about 1680</i>.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>A house wherein the present rector, Mr. Dagget, resides.
+[Parsonage-house.]</p>
+<p>Two other houses in Birmingham, [now three, at No. 15,
+Spiceal-street.]</p>
+<p>Three pieces of glebe land, nineteen acres, between the school
+land and Sheepcoat-lane.</p>
+<p>Three pieces, called the Five-way-closes twenty-one acres,
+bounded by the lands of Samuel Smallbroke, Esq; and Josiah
+Porter.</p>
+<p>One close, two acres, bounded by Lady-wood-lane.</p>
+<p>Parsons-meadow, two acres, bounded by the lands of Thomas Smith,
+Sir Richard Gough, and Sir Arthur Kaye.</p>
+<p>Horse pool-croft, half an acre, bounded by Bell's-barn-lane,
+[Brickiln-lane] the lands of Robert Phillips and Samuel Smallbrook,
+Esqrs.</p>
+<p>Tythe of all kinds of grain: but instead of hay, wool and lamb,
+a due of 12d. in the pound rent, called herbage, in all the parish,
+except foreign, wherein the custom is 4d. per acre for meadow land;
+3d. per acre for leas; 3d. for each lamb; 1d. 1/2 for a cow and
+calf: and except part of the estate of William Colmore, Esq; with
+the Hall-ring, Tanter-butts, Bell's-barns, [No. 1, Exeter-row] and
+Rings; for the herbage of which is paid annually 13s. 4d. and also,
+except part of the estate of Samuel Smallbrook, Esq; for which he
+pays 8s. per annum; and, except the estate of Thomas Weaman, called
+Whittall's-farm, [Catharine-street] for which he pays 2s. 8d.</p>
+<p>All the above estates pay the customary modus, whether in or out
+of tillage.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>SURPLICE FEES.</h2>
+<center>
+<table summary="">
+<tr>
+<th>&nbsp;</th>
+<th>Rector.</th>
+<th>Clerk,</th>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>s.</td>
+<td>d.</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>s.</td>
+<td>d.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>For burying in the church,</td>
+<td>1</td>
+<td>0</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>1</td>
+<td>0</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Ditto church-yard,</td>
+<td>0</td>
+<td>6</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>0</td>
+<td>6</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Churching a woman,</td>
+<td>0</td>
+<td>4</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>0</td>
+<td>4</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Marrying by licence,</td>
+<td>5</td>
+<td>0</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>2</td>
+<td>6</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Ditto without,</td>
+<td>2</td>
+<td>6</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>1</td>
+<td>0</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Tythe pig, if seven or upwards,</td>
+<td>0</td>
+<td>4</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>0</td>
+<td>0</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Easter dues, man and wife,</td>
+<td>0</td>
+<td>4</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>0</td>
+<td>0</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>---- each person above sixteen,</td>
+<td>0</td>
+<td>4</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>0</td>
+<td>0</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Clerk's salary 20s. paid by the wardens; also 2d.</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;from each house keeper at
+Easter.</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</center>
+<p>From the above terrier, I am inclined to value the income at
+about 90<i>l</i>. per annum.</p>
+<p>The benefice, in 1771, was about 350<i>l</i>. per annum: the
+late Rector, John Parsons, procured an act, in 1773, to enable the
+incumbent to grant building leases; the grant of a single lease, in
+1777, brought the annual addition of about 170<i>l</i>. The income
+is now about 700<i>l</i>. and is expected, at the expiration of the
+leases, to exceed 2000<i>l</i>.</p>
+<p>The repairs of the chancel belong to the rector, and the
+remainder of the building to the parish.</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image16.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image16.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image16.jpg" width="45%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b><i>St. Philip's Church</i>.</b></p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="SAINT_PHILLIPS"></a>SAINT PHILLIP's.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>We have touched upon various objects in our peregrinations
+through Birmingham, which meet with approbation, though viewed
+through the medium of smoke; some of these, being covered with the
+rust of time, command our veneration; but the prospect before us is
+wholly modern.</p>
+<p>We have mounted, by imperceptable gradations, from beauty to
+beauty, 'till we are now arrived at the summit.</p>
+<p>If an historian had written in the last century, he would have
+recorded but two places of worship; I am now recording the
+fourteenth: but my successor, if not prevented by our own
+imprudence, in driving away the spirit of commerce, may record the
+four-and-twentieth. The artist, who carries the manufactures among
+foreigners, or the overseer, who wantonly loads the people with
+burdens, draws the wrath of the place upon his own head.</p>
+<p>This curious piece of architecture, the steeple of which is
+erected after the model of St. Paul's, in London, but without its
+weight, does honour to the age that raised it, and to the place
+that contains it. Perhaps the eye of the critic cannot point out a
+fault, which the hand of the artist can mend: perhaps too, the
+attentive eye cannot survey this pile of building, without
+communicating to the mind a small degree of pleasure. If the
+materials are not proof against time, it is rather a misfortune to
+be lamented, than an error to be complained of, the country
+producing no better.</p>
+<p>Yet, amidst all the excellencies we boast, I am sorry to charge
+this chief ornament with an evil which admits no cure, that of not
+ranging with its own coemetery, or the adjacent buildings: out of
+seven streets, with which it is connected, it lines with
+none.--Like Deritend chapel, of which I have already complained,
+from a strong attachment to a point of religion, or of the compass,
+it appears twisted out of its place. We may be delighted with a
+human figure, complete in stature, exactly moulded with symmetry,
+and set off with the graces of dress; but we should be disgusted,
+if his right side seemed to attempt to out-walk his left.</p>
+<p>This defect, in religious architecture, arises from a strict
+adherence to the custom of the ancients, who fixed their altars
+towards the east. It is amasing, that even weakness itself, by long
+practice, becomes canonical; it gains credit by its age and its
+company. Hence, Sternhold and Hopkins, by being long bound up with
+scripture, acquired a kind of scripture authority.</p>
+<p>The ground, originally, was part of a farm, and bore the name of
+the Horse-close; afterwards <i>Barley-close</i>.--Thus a benign
+spot of earth, gave additional spirits to a man when living, and
+kindly covered him in its bosom when dead.</p>
+<p>This well chosen spot, is the summit of the highest eminence in
+Birmingham, with a descent every way; and, when the church was
+erected, there were not any buildings nearer than those in
+Bull-street.</p>
+<p>The land was the gift of Robert Phillips, Esq; whence the name,
+ancestor to William Theodore Inge, Esquire.</p>
+<p>In all degrees of people, from the bishop to the beadle, there
+seems a propensity in the mind to arrive at the honours of
+Sainthood: by joining our names in partnership with a faint, we
+share with him a red letter in the almanack.</p>
+<p>Out of six churches in Birmingham, three bear the names of the
+donors. St. Bartholomew's would, probably, have taken that of its
+founder, John Jennens, Esq; but that name happened to be
+anticipated by Sir John de Birmingham, who conferred it upon
+Deritend chapel. St. Mary's could readily perpetuate the name of
+its benefactress, because we had no place of worship that bore it.
+But as neither the popish, nor the protestant kalendar produced a
+St. Charles, the founder of St. Paul's was unfortunately
+excluded.</p>
+<p>The gifts, which the benefactor himself believes are charitable,
+and expects the world to believe the same, if scrutinized, will be
+found to originate from various causes--counterfeits are apt to be
+offered in currency for sterling.</p>
+<p>Perhaps <i>ostentation</i> has brought forth more acts of
+beneficence than charity herself; but, like an unkind parent, she
+disowns her offspring, and charges them upon charity.</p>
+<p>Ostentation is the root of charity; why else are we told, in
+capitals, by a large stone in the front of a building--"This
+hospital was erected by William Bilby, in the sixty-third year of
+his age, 1709." Or, "That John Moore, yeoman, of Worley Wigorn,
+built this school, in 1730."--Nay, pride even tempts us to strut in
+a second-hand robe of charity, left by another; or why do we
+read--"These alms-houses were erected by Lench's trust, in 1764. W.
+WALSINGHAM, BAILIFF."</p>
+<p>Another utters the word <i>charity</i>, and we rejoice in the
+echo. If we miss the substance, we grasp at the shadow.</p>
+<p>Sometimes we assign our property for religious uses, late in the
+evening of life, when <i>enjoyment</i> is over, and almost
+<i>possession</i>. Thus we bequeath to piety, what we can keep no
+longer. We convey our name to posterity at the expence of our
+successor, and scaffold our way towards heaven up the walls of a
+steeple.</p>
+<p>Will charity chalk up one additional score in our favour,
+because we grant a small portion of our land to found a church,
+which enables us to augment the remainder treble its value, by
+granting building leases? a man seldom makes a bargain for heaven,
+and forgets himself. Charity and self-interest, like the apple and
+the rind, are closely connected, and, like them, we cannot separate
+one without trespassing on the other.</p>
+<p>In contributions of the lesser kind, the giver examines the
+quantum given by those of his own station; <i>pride</i> will not
+suffer him to appear less than his neighbour.</p>
+<p>Sometimes he surrenders merely through importunity, which
+indicates as much <i>charity</i>, as the garrison does
+<i>merit</i>, which surrenders when closely besieged. Neither do we
+fear <i>our left hand knowing what our right hand doth</i>, our
+only fear is, left the world should <i>not</i> know it.</p>
+<p>This superb edifice was begun by act of Parliament, in 1711,
+under a commission consisting of twenty of the neighbouring gentry,
+appointed by the bishop of the diocese, under his episcopal seal.
+Their commission was to end twelve months after the erection of the
+church.</p>
+<p>Though Birmingham ever was, and perhaps ever will be considered
+as one parish, yet a portion of land, about one hundred acres,
+nearly triangular, and about three fourths built up, was taken out
+of the centre of St. Martin's, like a shred of cloth out of a great
+coat, to make a less, and constituted a separate parish, by the
+appellation of St Philip's.</p>
+<p>We shall describe this new boundary by an imaginary journey, for
+a real one perhaps was never taken since the land was first laid
+out, nor ever will to the end of time.</p>
+<p>We include the warehouse, then of John Jenens, Esq; now No. 26,
+in High-street, penetrate through the buildings, till we come
+within twenty yards, of Moor-street, turn sharp to the left, cross
+the lower part of Castle-street, Carr's-lane, and New
+Meeting-street; pass close by the front of the Meeting-house,
+through Bank-alley, into Hen's-walk, having kept Moor-street about
+twenty yards to the right, all the way; we now enter that street,
+at the bottom of Hen's-walk, pass through the east part of
+Dale-end, through Stafford-street, Steelhouse-lane (then called
+Whittal-lane) Bull-lane (then New-hall-lane) and
+Mount-pleasant.</p>
+<p>Our journey now leads us on the west of Pinfold-street, keeping
+it about twenty yards on our left; up Peck-lane, till we come near
+the top, when we turn to the right, keeping the buildings, with the
+Free-school in New street, on our left, into Swan-alley. We now
+turn up the Alley into New-street, then to the right, which leads
+us to the Party-wall, between No. 25 and 26, in High-street, late
+Jennens's, where we began.</p>
+<p>In the new parish I have described, and during the journey, kept
+on the left, there seems to have been, at passing the act, twelve
+closes, all which are filled with buildings, except the land
+between New-street and Mount-pleasant, which only waits a word from
+the owner, to speak the houses into being.</p>
+<p>The church was consecrated in 1715, and finished in 1719, the
+work of eight years; at which time the commissioners resigned their
+powers into the hands of the diocesan, in whom is the presentation,
+after having paid, it is said, the trifling sum of
+5012<i>l</i>.--but perhaps such a work could not be completed for
+20,000<i>l</i>.</p>
+<p>Three reasons may be assigned, why so small a sum was expended;
+many of the materials were given; more of the carriage, and some
+heavy debts were contracted.</p>
+<p>The urns upon the parapet of the church, which are highly
+ornamental, were fixed at the same time with those of the school,
+in about 1756.</p>
+<p>When I first saw St. Philip's, in the year 1741, at a proper
+distance, uncrowded with houses, for there were none to the north,
+New-hall excepted, untarnished with smoke, and illuminated by a
+western sun, I was delighted with its appearance, and thought it
+then, what I do now, and what others will in future, <i>the pride
+of the place</i>.</p>
+<p>If we assemble the beauties of the edifice, which cover a rood
+of ground; the spacious area of the church-yard, occupying four
+acres; ornamented with walks in great perfection; shaded with trees
+in double and treble ranks; and surrounded with buildings in
+elegant taste: perhaps its equal cannot be found in the British
+dominions.</p>
+<p>The steeple, 'till the year 1751, contained a peal of six bells,
+which were then augmented to ten; at which time St. Martin's, the
+mother church, having only eight, could not bear to be out-numbered
+by a junior, though of superior elegance, therefore ordered twelve
+into her own steeple: but as room was insufficient for the
+admission of bells by the dozen, means were found to hoist them
+tier over tier. Though the round dozen is a complete number in the
+counting-house, it is not altogether so in the belfry: the octave
+is the most perfect concord in music, but diminishes by rising to
+an octave and a half; neither can that dozen well be crowded into
+the peal.</p>
+<p>But perhaps the artist had another grand scheme in view, that of
+accommodating the town with the additional harmony of the chimes;
+for only a few tunes can be played on the octave, whilst the dozen
+will compass nearly all.</p>
+<p>Whether we are entertained even by this <i>exalted</i> style of
+music, admits a doubt; for instead of the curious ear being charmed
+with distinct notes, we only hear a bustle of confused sounds,
+which baffle the attention too much to keep pace with the tune.</p>
+<p>These two steeples, are our <i>public</i> band of music: they
+are the only <i>standing</i> Waits of the place. Two thousand
+people may be accommodated in the church, but, at times, it has
+contained near three thousand.</p>
+<p>In the vestry is a theological library, bequeathed by the first
+rector, William Higgs, for the use of the clergy in Birmingham and
+its neighbourhood; who left 200<i>l</i>. for future purchase.</p>
+<p>Under the centre isle runs a vault, the whole length of the
+church, for the reception of those who chuse to pay an additional
+guinea.</p>
+<p>The organ excels; the paintings, mouldings and gildings are
+superb: whether the stranger takes an external or an internal
+survey, the eye is struck with delight, and he pronounces the whole
+the work of a matter. Its conveniency also, can only be equalled by
+its elegance.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>In the FRONT GALLERY.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Upon application of Sir Richard Gough, to Sir Robert Walpole,
+then in power, George the First gave 600<i>l</i>. in 1725, towards
+finishing this church.</p>
+<p>Three remarks naturally arise from this declaration; That the
+prodigious sums expended upon this pious undertaking, were beyond
+the ability of the inhabitants; that the debts contracted, were
+many years in discharging; and that one of the best of Kings, the
+head of the Brunswick line, bestowed a liberal benefaction upon a
+people not compleatly reconciled to his house.</p>
+<p>Whether monumental decoration adds beauty to a place already
+beautiful, is a question. There are three very small and very
+elegant monuments in this church. Upon one of the south pillars, is
+that of the above William Higgs, who died in 1733. Upon another is
+that of William Vyse, the second rector, who died in 1770, at the
+age of 61. And, upon a north pillar, that of Girton Peak, Esq; an
+humane magistrate, who died in 1770, aged 48.</p>
+<p>Internment in the church is wisely prohibited; an indecency
+incompatible with a civilized people. The foreigner will be apt to
+hold forth the barbarity of the English nation, by observing, "They
+introduce corruption in their very churches, and pay divine
+adoration upon the graves of their ancestors."</p>
+<p>Places of worship were designed for the living, the dead give up
+their title with their life: besides, even small degrees of
+putrefaction, confined in a room where the air cannot circulate,
+may become prejudicial to health: it also ruins the pavement, as is
+done at St. Martin's. Our first inhabitants, therefore, lie
+contented in the church yard, by their unfortunate equals; having
+private sepulchres appropriated for family use--Perhaps at the last
+day, no inquiry will be made whether they lay on the in, or the
+outside of the walls.</p>
+<p>It is difficult to traverse the elegant walks that surround this
+gulf of death, without contemplating, that time is drawing us
+towards the same focus, and that we shall shortly fall into the
+centre: that this irregular circle contains what was once generous
+and beautiful, opulent and humane. The arts took their rise in this
+fruitful soil: this is the grave of invention and of industry; here
+those who figured upon the stage are fallen, to make way for
+others, who must follow: though multitudes unite with the dead, the
+numbers of the living increase; the inhabitants change, while the
+genius improves. We cannot pass on without reading upon the stones,
+the short existence of our departed friends, perusing the end of a
+life with which we were well acquainted. The active motion that
+veered with the rude blasts of seventy years, slops in this point
+for ever.</p>
+<p>The present rector, who is the third, is the Rev. Charles
+Newling, and the benefice something like the following:</p>
+<center>
+<table summary="">
+<tr>
+<th>&nbsp;</th>
+<th><b>l.</b></th>
+<th><b>s</b>.</th>
+<th><b>d.</b></th>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>A prebendal stall in the cathedral</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;church of Lichfield,</td>
+<td align="right">6</td>
+<td align="right">0</td>
+<td>0</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Eight acres and a half of glebe land,</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;at Long bridge, near
+Birmingham,</td>
+<td align="right">32</td>
+<td align="right">0</td>
+<td>0</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Emoluments arising from the seats of</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;the church,</td>
+<td align="right">140</td>
+<td align="right">0</td>
+<td>0</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Surplice fees,</td>
+<td align="right">50</td>
+<td align="right">0</td>
+<td>0</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Easter offerings,</td>
+<td align="right">10</td>
+<td align="right">0</td>
+<td>0</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>An estate at Sawley, in the county of</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Derby, under lease for three
+lives,</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;renewable by fine, at the
+annual</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;rent of</td>
+<td align="right">66</td>
+<td align="right">13</td>
+<td>4</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td colspan="3">------------</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right">304</td>
+<td align="right">13</td>
+<td>4</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Out of which is paid to the rector</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;of St. Martin's, in
+consideration</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;fees and offerings once
+appropriated</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;to that church,</td>
+<td align="right">15</td>
+<td align="right">0</td>
+<td>0</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td colspan="3">-----------</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right">289</td>
+<td align="right">13</td>
+<td>4</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</center>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="BIRTHS_AND_BURIALS."></a>BIRTHS AND BURIALS.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>There are many inducements for an author to take up the pen, but
+the leading motives, however disguised, seem to be pride and
+poverty; hence, two of the most despicable things among men,
+furnish the world with knowledge.</p>
+<p>One would think, however, there can be no great inducement for a
+man to write what he is conscious will never be read. Under this
+class may be comprehended alphabetical collections, chronological
+tables, books of figures, occasional devotions, etc. here also I
+range the lists of officers in Birmingham, the annual sums expended
+upon the poor, and the present chapter of numbers. These are
+intended for occasional inspection, rather than for regular
+perusal: we may consider them as deserts served up for a taste
+only, not a dinner; yet even this rule may be broken by a resolute
+reader, for the late Joseph Scott, Esq; founder of the trust
+before-mentioned, assured me, in 1751, that he had perused Bailey's
+Dictionary as methodically as he had done Tom Jones; and, though a
+dissenter, he continued to read the Common Prayer Book from end to
+end, about twice a year; which is more than, perhaps, the greatest
+lover of that excellent composition can boast.</p>
+<p>I shall, to avoid prolixity in a barren chapter of the two
+extremes of life, select about every tenth year from the register.
+Those years at the time of the plague, make no addition to the
+burials, because the unhappy victims were conveyed to Lady-wood for
+internment.</p>
+<p>These lists inform us, that the number of streets, houses,
+inhabitants, births, burials, poor's rates, and commercial
+productions, increase with equal rapidity. It appears also from the
+register, that there were more christenings lately at St. Martin's,
+in one day, than the whole town produced in a year, in the 16th
+century--The same may be found in that of St. Phillip's.</p>
+<p>The deaths in Deritend are omitted, being involved with those of
+Aston.</p>
+<br>
+<center>
+<table summary="">
+<tr>
+<th>Year.</th>
+<th>&nbsp;&nbsp;Births.</th>
+<th>&nbsp;&nbsp;Burials.</th>
+<th>&nbsp;&nbsp;Year.</th>
+<th>&nbsp;&nbsp;Births.</th>
+<th>&nbsp;&nbsp;Burials.</th>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1555</td>
+<td align="right">37</td>
+<td align="right">27</td>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;1667</td>
+<td align="right">146</td>
+<td align="right">140</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1560</td>
+<td align="right">--</td>
+<td align="right">37</td>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;1668</td>
+<td align="right">113</td>
+<td align="right">102</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1571</td>
+<td align="right">48</td>
+<td align="right">26</td>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;1681</td>
+<td align="right">251</td>
+<td align="right">139</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1580</td>
+<td align="right">37</td>
+<td align="right">25</td>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;1690</td>
+<td align="right">127</td>
+<td align="right">150</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1590</td>
+<td align="right">52</td>
+<td align="right">47</td>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;1700</td>
+<td align="right">172</td>
+<td align="right">171</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1600</td>
+<td align="right">62</td>
+<td align="right">32</td>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;1719</td>
+<td align="right">334</td>
+<td align="right">270</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1610</td>
+<td align="right">70</td>
+<td align="right">45</td>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;1720</td>
+<td align="right">423</td>
+<td align="right">355</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1623</td>
+<td align="right">81</td>
+<td align="right">66</td>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;1730</td>
+<td align="right">449</td>
+<td align="right">415</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1628</td>
+<td align="right">100</td>
+<td align="right">96</td>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;1740</td>
+<td align="right">520</td>
+<td align="right">573</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1653</td>
+<td align="right">--</td>
+<td align="right">47</td>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;1750</td>
+<td align="right">860</td>
+<td align="right">1020</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1660</td>
+<td align="right">--</td>
+<td align="right">75</td>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;1760</td>
+<td align="right">984</td>
+<td align="right">1143</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1665</td>
+<td align="right">--</td>
+<td align="right">109</td>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;1770</td>
+<td align="right">1329</td>
+<td align="right">899</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1666</td>
+<td align="right">144</td>
+<td align="right">121</td>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;1780</td>
+<td align="right">1636</td>
+<td align="right">1340</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</center>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="GENERAL_HOSPITAL."></a>GENERAL HOSPITAL.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Though charity is one of the most amiable qualities of humanity,
+yet, like Cupid, she ought to be represented blind; or, like
+Justice, hood-winked. None of the virtues have been so much
+misapplied; giving to the <i>hungry</i>, is sometimes only another
+word for giving to the <i>idle</i>. We know of but two ways in
+which this excellence can exert itself; improving the <i>mind</i>,
+and nourishing the <i>body</i>. To help him who <i>will not</i>
+help himself; or, indiscriminately to relieve those that want, is
+totally to mistake the end; for want is often met with: but to
+supply those who <i>cannot</i> supply themselves, becomes real
+charity. Some worthy Christians have taken it into their heads to
+relieve <i>all</i>, for fear of omitting the right. What should we
+think of the constable who seizes every person he meets with, for
+fear of missing the thief? Between the simple words, therefore, of
+WILL NOT and CANNOT, runs the fine barrier between real and
+mistaken charity.</p>
+<p>This virtue, so strongly inculcated by the christian system,
+hath, during the last seventeen centuries, appeared in a variety of
+forms, and some of them have been detrimental to the interest they
+were meant to serve: <i>Such was the cloister</i>. Man is not born
+altogether to serve himself, but the community; if he cannot exist
+without the assistance of others, it follows, that others ought to
+be assisted by him: but if condemned to obscurity in the cell, he
+is then fed by the aid of the public, while that public derives
+none from him.</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image17.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image17.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image17.jpg" width="60%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b><i>General Hospital</i>.</b></p>
+<br>
+<p>Estates have sometimes been devised in trust for particular
+uses, meant as charities by the giver, but have, in a few years,
+been diverted out of their original channel to other purposes.</p>
+<p>The trust themselves, like so many contending princes, ardently
+druggie for sovereignty; hence, <i>legacy</i> and <i>discord</i>
+are intimate companions.</p>
+<p>The plantation of many of our English schools sprang up from the
+will of the dead; but it is observable, that sterility quickly
+takes place; the establishment of the master being properly
+secured, supineness enters, and the young scions of learning are
+retarded in their growth.</p>
+<p>It therefore admits a doubt, whether charitable donation is
+beneficial to the world; nay, the estate itself becomes blasted
+when bequeathed to public use, for, being the freehold of none,
+none will improve it: besides, the more dead land, the less scope
+for industry.</p>
+<p>At the reformation, under Queen Elizabeth, charity seemed to
+take a different appearance: employment was found for the idle; he
+that was able, was obliged to labour, and the parish was obliged to
+assist him who could not. Hence the kingdom became replete with
+workhouses: these are the laudable repositories of distress.</p>
+<p>It has already been observed, that three classes of people merit
+the care of society: forlorn infancy, which is too weak for its own
+support; old age, which has served the community, without serving
+itself; and accidental calamity: the two first, fall under the eye
+of the parish, the last, under the modern institution of the
+General Hospital.</p>
+<p>The shell of this plain, but noble edifice, was erected in 1766,
+upon a situation very unsuitable for its elegant front, in a narrow
+dirty lane, with an aspect directing up the hill, which should ever
+be avoided.</p>
+<p>The amiable desire of doing good in the inhabitants, seemed to
+have exceeded their ability; and, to the grief of many, it lay
+dormant for twelve years. In 1778, the matter was revived with
+vigor; subscriptions filled apace, and by the next year the
+hospital was finished, at the expence of 7137<i>l</i>. 10s. Though
+the benefactions might not amount to this enormous sum, yet they
+were noble, and truly characteristic of a generous people. The
+annual subscriptions, as they stood at Michaelmas, 1779, were
+901<i>l</i>. 19s. and, at Midsummer, 1780, 932<i>l</i>. 8s. During
+these nine months, 529 patients were admitted, of which, 303 were
+cured, 93 relieved, 112 remained on the books, only 5 died, and but
+<i>one</i> was discharged as incurable; an incontestible proof of
+the <i>skill</i> of the faculty, which is at least equalled by
+their <i>humanity</i>, in giving their attendance gratis.</p>
+<p>The rules by which this excellent charity is conducted, are
+worthy of its authors: success hath fully answered expectation, and
+the building will probably stand for ages, to tell posterity a
+favourable tale of the present generation.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="PUBLIC_ROADS."></a>PUBLIC ROADS.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Man is evidently formed for society; the intercourse of one with
+another, like two blocks of marble in friction, reduces the rough
+prominences of behaviour, and gives a polish to the manners.</p>
+<p>Whatever tends to promote social connection, improve commerce,
+or stamp an additional value upon property, is worthy of
+attention.</p>
+<p>Perhaps, there is not a circumstance that points more favourably
+towards these great designs, than commodious roads.</p>
+<p>According as a country is improved in her roads, so will she
+stand in the scale of civilization. It is a characteristic by which
+we may pronounce with safety. The manners and the roads of the
+English, have been refining together for about 1700 years. If any
+period of time is distinguished with a more rapid improvement in
+one, it is also in the other.</p>
+<p>Our Saxons ancestors, of dusky memory, seldom stepped from under
+the smoke of Birmingham. We have a common observation among us,
+that even so late as William the Third, the roads were in so
+dangerous a state, that a man usually made his will, and took a
+formal fare-well of his friends, before he durst venture upon a
+journey to London; which, perhaps, was thought then, of as much
+consequence as a voyage to America now.</p>
+<p>A dangerous road is unfavourable both to commerce and to
+friendship; a man is unwilling to venture his neck to sell his
+productions, or even visit his friend: if a dreadful road lies
+between them, it will be apt to annihilate friendship.</p>
+<p>Landed property in particular, improves with the road. If a
+farmer cannot bring his produce to market, he cannot give much for
+his land, neither can that land well be improved, or the market
+properly supplied. Upon a well formed road, therefore, might, with
+propriety, be placed the figures of commerce, of friendship, and of
+agriculture, as presiding over it.</p>
+<p>There are but very few observations necessary in forming a road,
+and those few are very simple; to expel whatever is hurtful, and
+invite whatever is beneficial.</p>
+<p>The breaking up of a long frost, by loosening the foundations,
+is injurious, and very heavy carriages ought to be prevented, 'till
+the weather unites the disjointed particles, which will soon
+happen.</p>
+<p>But the grand enemy is water; and as this will inevitably fall,
+every means should be used to discharge it: drains ought to be
+frequent, that the water may not lie upon the road.</p>
+<p>The great benefits are <i>the sun</i> and the <i>wind:</i> the
+surveyor should use every method for the admission of these
+friendly aids, that they may dispel the moisture which cannot run
+off.</p>
+<p>For this purpose, all public roads ought to be sixty feet wide;
+all trees and hedges within thirty feet of the centre, be under the
+controul of the commissioners, with full liberty of drawing off the
+water in what manner they judge necessary.</p>
+<p>The Romans were the most accomplished masters we know of in this
+useful art; yet even they seem to have forgot the under drain, for
+it is evident at this day, where their road runs along the
+declivity of a hill, the water dams up, flows over, and injures the
+road.</p>
+<p>Care should be taken, in properly forming a road at first,
+otherwise you may botch it for a whole century, and at the end of
+that long period, it will be only a botch itself.</p>
+<p>A wide road will put the innocent traveller out of fear of the
+waggoners; not the most civilized of the human race.</p>
+<p>From Birmingham, as from a grand centre, issues twelve roads,
+that point to as many towns; some of these, within memory, have
+scarcely been passable; all are mended, but though much is done,
+more is wanted. In an upland country, like that about Birmingham,
+where there is no river of size, and where the heads only of the
+streams show themselves: the stranger would be surprised to hear,
+that through most of these twelve roads he cannot travel in a flood
+with safety. For want of causeways and bridges, the water is
+suffered to flow over the road, higher than the stirrup: every
+stream, though only the size of a tobacco-pipe, ought to be carried
+through an under drain, never to run over the road.</p>
+<p>At Saltley, in the way to Coleshill, which is ten miles, for
+want of a causeway, with an arch or two, every flood annoys the
+passenger and the road: at Coleshill-hall, 'till the year 1779, he
+had to pass a dangerous river.</p>
+<p>One mile from Birmingham, upon the Lichfield road, sixteen
+miles, to the disgrace of the community, is yet a river without a
+bridge. In 1777, the country was inclined to solicit Parliament for
+a turnpike-act, but the matter fell to the ground through private
+views: one would think, that the penny can never be ill laid out,
+which carries a man ten miles with pleasure and safety. The hand of
+nature hath been more beneficent, both to this, and to the Stafford
+road, which is twenty-eight miles, than that of art.</p>
+<p>The road to Walfall, ten miles, is rather <i>below
+indifferent</i>.</p>
+<p>That to Wolverhampton, thirteen miles, is much improved since
+the coal-teams left it.</p>
+<p>The road to Dudley, ten miles, is despicable beyond description.
+The unwilling traveller is obliged to go two miles about, through a
+bad road, to avoid a worse.</p>
+<p>That to Hales-Owen, eight miles, like the life of man, is
+checkered with good and evil; chiefly the latter.</p>
+<p>To Bromsgrove, thirteen miles, made extremely commodious for the
+first four, under the patronage of John Kettle, Esq; in 1772, at
+the expence of near 5000<i>l</i>. but afterwards is so confined,
+that two horses cannot pass without danger; the sun and the winds
+are excluded, the rivers lie open to the stranger, and he travels
+through dirt 'till Midsummer.</p>
+<p>To Alcester, about twenty, formed in 1767, upon a tolerable
+plan, but is rather too narrow, through a desolate country, which
+at present scarcely defrays the expence; but that country seems to
+improve with the road.</p>
+<p>Those to Stratford and Warwick, about twenty miles each, are
+much used and much neglected.</p>
+<p>That to Coventry, about the same distance, can only be equalled
+by the Dudley road. The genius of the age has forgot, in some of
+these roads to accommodate the foot passenger with a causeway.</p>
+<p>The surveyor will be inclined to ask, How can a capital be
+raised to defray this enormous expence? Suffer me to reply with an
+expression in the life of Oliver Cromwell, "He that lays out money
+when necessary, and only then, will accomplish matters beyond the
+reach of imagination."</p>
+<p>Government long practised the impolitic mode of transporting
+vast numbers of her people to America, under the character of
+felons; these, who are generally in the prime of life, might be
+made extremely useful to that country which they formerly robbed,
+and against which, they are at this moment carrying arms. It would
+be easy to reduce this ferocious race under a kind of martial
+discipline; to badge them with a mark only removeable by the
+governors, for hope should ever be left for repentance, and to
+employ them in the rougher arts of life, according to the nature of
+the crime, and the ability of body; such as working the coal mines
+in Northumberland, the lead mines in Derbyshire, the tin mines in
+Cornwall, cultivating waste lands, banking after inundations,
+forming canals, cleansing the beds of rivers, assisting in harvest,
+and in FORMING and MENDING the ROADS: <i>these hewers of wood and
+drawers of water</i> would be a corps of reserve against any
+emergency. From this magazine of villiany, the British navy might
+be equipped with, considerable advantage.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="CANAL."></a>CANAL.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>An act was obtained, in 1767, to open a cut between Birmingham
+and the coal delphs about Wednesbury.</p>
+<p>The necessary article of coal, before this act, was brought by
+land, at about thirteen shillings per ton, but now at seven.</p>
+<p>It was common to see a train of carriages for miles, to the
+great destruction of the road, and the annoyance of travellers.</p>
+<p>This dust is extended in the whole to about twenty-two miles in
+length, 'till it unites with what we may justly term the grand
+artery, or Staffordshire Canal; which, eroding the island,
+communicates with Hull, Bristol and Liverpool. The expence was
+about 70,000<i>l</i>. divided into shares 140<i>l</i>. each, of
+which no man can purchase more than ten, and which now sell for
+about 370<i>l</i>.</p>
+<p>The proprietors took a perpetual lease of six acres of land, of
+Sir Thomas Gooch, at 47<i>l</i>. per annum, which is converted into
+a wharf, upon the front of which is erected an handsome office for
+the dispatch of business.</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image19.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image19.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image19.jpg" width="100%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b>A Plan of the Navigable Canal from Birmingham to
+Autherley.</b></p>
+<br>
+<a name="image20.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image20.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image20.jpg" width="60%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b><i>Navigation Office</i>.</b></p>
+<br>
+<p>This watery passage, exclusive of loading the proprietors with
+wealth, tends greatly to the improvement of some branches of trade,
+by introducing heavy materials at a small expence, such as pig iron
+for the founderies, lime-stone, articles for the manufacture of
+brass and steel, also stone, brick, slate, timber, &amp;c.</p>
+<p>It is happy for the world, that public interest is grafted upon
+private, and that both flourish together.</p>
+<p>This grand work, like other productions of Birmingham birth, was
+rather hasty; the managers, not being able to find patience to worm
+round the hill at Smethwick, or cut through, have wisely travelled
+over it by the help of twelve locks, with six they mount the
+summit, and with six more descend to the former level; forgetting
+the great waste of water, and the small supply from the rivulets,
+and also, the amazing loss of of time in climbing this curious
+ladder, consisting of twelve liquid steps. It is worthy of remark,
+that the level of the earth, is nearly the same at Birmingham as at
+the pits: what benefit then would accrue to commerce, could the
+boats travel a dead flat of fourteen miles without interruption?
+The use of the canal would increase, great variety of goods be
+brought which are now excluded, and these delivered with more
+expedition, with less expence, and the waste of water never felt;
+but, by the introduction of twelve unnecessary locks, the company
+may experience five plagues more than fell on Egypt.</p>
+<p>The boats are nearly alike, constructed to fit the locks, carry
+about twenty-five tons, and are each drawn by something like the
+skeleton of a horse, covered with skin: whether he subsists upon
+the scent of the water, is a doubt; but whether his life is a scene
+of affliction, is not; for the unfeeling driver has no employment
+but to whip him from one end of the canal to the other. While the
+teams practised the turnpike road, the lash was divided among five
+unfortunate animals, but now the whole wrath of the driver falls
+upon one.</p>
+<p>We can scarcely view a boat travelling this liquid road, without
+raising opposite sensations--pleased to think of its great benefit
+to the community, and grieved to behold wanton punishment.</p>
+<p>I see a large field of cruelty expanding before me, which I
+could easily prevail with myself to enter; in which we behold the
+child plucking a wing and a leg off a fly, to try how the poor
+insect can perform with half his limbs; or running a pin through
+the posteriors of a locust, to observe it spinning through the air,
+like a comet, drawing a tail of thread. If we allow, man has a
+right to destroy noxious animals, we cannot allow he has a right to
+protract their pain by a lingering death. By fine gradations the
+modes of cruelty improve with years, in pinching the tail of a cat
+for the music of her voice, kicking a dog because we have trod upon
+his foot, or hanging him for <i>fun</i>, 'till we arrive at the
+priests in the church of Rome, who burnt people for opinion; or to
+the painter, who begged the life of a criminal, that he might
+torture him to death with the severest pangs, to catch the
+agonizing feature, and transfer it into his favourite piece, of a
+dying Saviour. But did that Saviour teach such doctrine? Humanity
+would wish rather to have lost the piece, than have heard of the
+cruelty. What, if the injured ghost of the criminal is at this
+moment torturing that of the painter?--</p>
+<p>But as this capacious field is beyond the line I profess, and,
+as I have no direct accusation against the people of my regard, I
+shall not enter.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="DERITEND_BRIDGE."></a>DERITEND BRIDGE.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Cooper's-mill, situated upon the verge of the parishes of Afton
+and Birmingham, 400 yards below this bridge, was probably first
+erected in the the peaceable ages of Saxon influence, and continued
+a part of the manorial estate 'till the disposal of it in 1730.</p>
+<p>Before the water was pounded up to supply the mill, it must have
+been so shallow, as to admit a passage between Digbeth and
+Deritend, over a few stepping stones; and a gate seems to have been
+placed upon the verge of the river, to prevent encroachments of the
+cattle.</p>
+<p>This accounts for the original name, which Dugdale tells us was
+<i>Derry-yate-end:</i> derry, low; yate, gate; end, extremity of
+the parish; with which it perfectly agrees.</p>
+<p>The mill afterwards causing the water to be dammed up, gave rise
+to a succession of paltry bridges, chiefly of timber, to preserve a
+communication between the two streets.</p>
+<p>But in later ages, the passage was dignified with those of
+stone. In 1750, a wretched one was taken down, and the present
+bridge erected by Henry Bradford and John Collins, overseers of the
+highway, consisting of five arches; but the homely style, the deep
+ascent, and the circumscribed width prevents encomium.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<a name="SOHO"></a>
+<h2>ADJACENT REMARKS.</h2>
+<h3>SOHO.</h3>
+<br>
+<p>If we travel two miles from the centre of Birmingham, upon the
+Wolverhampton road, which may be called, the road to taste, and is
+daily travelled by the nobility and gentry, we shall arrive at the
+epitome of the arts.</p>
+<p>Though this little spot lies in the county of Stafford, we must
+accept it as part of Birmingham; neither is it many yards distant
+from the parish.</p>
+<p>The proprietor, invited by a genius, a fortune of
+30,000<i>l</i>. and a little stream, which promised to facilitate
+business, has erected the most elegant works in these parts, said
+to accommodate seven hundred persons. Upon that hungry ground,
+where, in 1758 stood one paltry cottage, we now behold, a city in
+miniature.</p>
+<p>From this nursery of ingenuity, originated the Soho button, the
+single wheel clock, the improvement of the steam engine, the
+platina button, the method of taking exact copies of painting,
+writing, &amp;c. also, the productions of fancy, in great variety;
+with which some of the European princes are well acquainted.</p>
+<p>To the genius of the place is owing the assay-office, for
+marking standard wrought plate, which, prior to the year 1773, was
+conveyed to London to receive the sanction of that office; but by
+an act then obtained, the business is done here by an assay master,
+superintended by four wardens: these are annually chosen out of
+thirty-six guardians, whose chief duty consists in dining together,
+at least once a year; for it appears from the chapter upon
+government, that feasting makes a principal part of a Birmingham
+office; and, however unwilling a man may seem to <i>enter in</i> we
+generally find him pleased when he <i>is in</i>.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="DANES_CAMP:"></a>DANES CAMP:</h2>
+<h3>DANES BANK, OR BURY FIELDS.</h3>
+<br>
+<p>About five miles south of Birmingham, and five furlongs off
+Solihull Lodge, is a place called <i>The Danes Camp</i>. But
+although neither history nor tradition speak of this particular
+event, it probably was raised in the ninth century.</p>
+<p>The situation is well chosen, upon an eminence, about nine
+acres, nearly triangular, is yet in tolerable perfection; the ditch
+is about twenty feet wide; the base of the bank about the same;
+admits but of one entrance, and is capable of being secured by
+water. From the bottom of the ditch, to the top of the mound, was,
+when made, about twenty feet; and is a production of great
+labour.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="GENTLEMENS_SEATS"></a>GENTLEMEN'S SEATS.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>This neighbourhood may justly be deemed the seat of the arts,
+but not the seat of the gentry.</p>
+<p>None of the nobility are near us, except William Legge, Earl of
+Dartmouth, at Sandwell, four miles from Birmingham. The principal
+houses in our environs, are those of Sir Charles Holte, late member
+for the county, at Aston; Sir Henry Gough, member for Bamber, at
+Edgbaston; George Birch, Esq; at Handsworth; John Gough, Esq; at
+Perry; and John Taylor, Esq; at Bordesley and at Moseley; all
+joining to the manor of Birmingham. Exclusive of these, are many
+elegant retreats of our first inhabitants, acquired by commercial
+success.</p>
+<p>Full fed with vanity is an author, when two readers strive to
+catch up his work, for the pleasure of perusing it:--but,
+perchance, if two readers dip into this chapter, they may strive to
+lay it down.</p>
+<p>I have hitherto written to the <i>world</i>, but now to a small
+part, <i>the antiquarians</i>; nay, a small part of the sensible
+part; for a fool and an antiquary is a contradiction: they are, to
+a man, people of letters and penetration. If their judgment is
+sometimes erroneous, we may consider, man was never designed for
+perfection; there is also less light to guide them in this, than in
+other researches. If the traveller slips upon common ground, how
+will he fare if he treads upon ice?--Besides, in dark questions, as
+in intricate journies, there are many erroneous ways for one
+right.</p>
+<p>If, like the mathematician, he can establish one point, it
+ascertains another. We may deem his pursuit one of the most
+arduous, and attended with the least profit: his emoluments consist
+in the returns of pleasure to his own mind.</p>
+<p>The historian only collects the matter of the day, and hands it
+to posterity; but the antiquarian brings his treasures from remote
+ages, and presents them to this: he examines forgotten
+repositories, calls things back into existence, which are past;
+counter-acts the efforts of time, and of death; possesses something
+like a re-creative power; collects the dust of departed matter,
+moulds it into its prestine state, exhibits the figure to view, and
+stamps it with a kind of immortality.</p>
+<p>Every thing has its day, whether it be a nation, a city, a
+castle, a man, or an insect; the difference is, one is a winter's
+day, the other may be extended to the length of a summer's--an
+<i>end</i> waits upon all. But we cannot contemplate the end of
+grandeur, without gloomy ideas.</p>
+<p>Birmingham is surrounded with the melancholy remains of
+extinguished greatness; the decayed habitations of decayed gentry,
+fill the mind with sorrowful reflections. Here the feet of those
+marked the ground, whose actions marked the page of history. Their
+arms glistened in the field; their eloquence moved the senate. Born
+to command, their influence was extensive; but who now rest in
+peace among the paupers, fed with the crumbs of their table. The
+very land which, for ages, was witness to the hospitality of its
+master, is itself doomed to stirility. The spot which drew the
+adjacent country, is neglected by all; is often in a wretched state
+of cultivation, sets for a trifle; the glory is departed; it
+demands a tear from the traveller, and the winds teem, to sigh over
+it.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="THE_MOATS."></a>THE MOATS.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>In the parish of King's-norton, four miles south west of
+Birmingham, is <i>The Moats</i>, upon which long resided the
+ancient family of Field. The numerous buildings, which almost
+formed a village, are totally erased, and barley grows where the
+beer was drank.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="BLACK_GREVES."></a>BLACK GREVES.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Eight miles south west of Birmingham, in the same parish, near
+Withod Chapel, is <i>Black Greves</i> (Black Groves) another seat
+of the Fields; which, though a family of opulence, were so far from
+being lords of the manor, that they were in vassalage to them.</p>
+<p>The whole of that extensive parish is in the crown, which holds
+the detestable badge of ancient slavery over every tenant, of
+demanding under the name of harriot, the best moveable he dies
+possessed of--Thus death and the bailiff make their inroads
+together; they rob the family in a double capacity, each taking the
+best moveable.</p>
+<p>As the human body descends into the regions of sickness, much
+sooner than it can return into health; so a family can decline into
+poverty by hastier steps, than rise into affluence. One generation
+of extravagance puts a period to many of greatness.</p>
+<p>A branch of the Fields, in 1777, finished their ancient
+grandeur, by signing away the last estate of his family.--Thus he
+blotted out the name of his ancestors by writing his own.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="ULVERLEY_OR_CULVERLEY"></a>ULVERLEY, OR
+CULVERLEY.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Four miles from Birmingham, upon the Warwick road, entering the
+parish of Solihull, in Castle-lane, is Ulverle, in doom's-day
+Ulverlei. Trifling as this place now seems, it must have been the
+manor-house of Solihull, under the Saxon heptarchy; but went to
+decay so long ago as the conquest.</p>
+<p>The manor was the property of the Earls of Mercia, but whether
+their residence is uncertain.--The traces of a moat yet remain,
+which are triangular, and encircle a wretched farm-house of no
+note: one of the angles of this moat is filled up, and become part
+of Castle-lane; which proves that Ulverley went into disuse when
+Hogg's-moat was erected: it also proves that the lane terminated
+here, which is about two hundred yards from the turnpike road. The
+great width of the lane, from the road to Ulverley, and the
+singular narrowness from thence to Hogg's-moat, is another proof of
+its prior antiquity.</p>
+<p>If we pursue our journey half a mile Farther along this lane,
+which by the way is scarcely passable, it will bring us to</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="HOGGS-MOAT"></a>HOGG'S-MOAT.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>At Oltenend (Old Town) originally Odingsell's-moat, now
+Hobb's-moat, the ancient manor-house of Solihull, after it had
+changed its lords at the conquest. The property, as before
+observed, of Edwin Earl of Mercia, in the reign of Edward the the
+Confessor.</p>
+<p>William the First granted the manor to a favourite lady, named
+Cristina, probably a handsome lass, of the same complexion as his
+mother; thus we err when we say William gave all the land in the
+kingdom to his followers--some little was given to those <i>he</i>
+followed.</p>
+<p>This lady, like many of her successors, having tired the arms of
+royalty, was conveyed into those of an humble favourite; Ralph de
+Limesie married her, who became lord of the place, but despising
+Ulverley, erected this castle.</p>
+<p>The line of Limesie continued proprietors four descents; when,
+in the reign of King John, it became the property of Hugh de
+Odingsells, by marrying a co-heiress.</p>
+<p>The last of the Odingsells, in 1294, left four daughters, one of
+whom, with the lordship, fell into the hands of John de Clinton;
+but it is probable the castle was not inhabited after the above
+date, therefore would quickly fall to decay.</p>
+<p>The moat is upon a much larger plan than Ulverley, takes in a
+compass of five acres, had two trenches; the outer is nearly
+obliterated, but the inner is marked with the strongest lines we
+meet with. This trench is about twenty feet deep, and about thirty
+yards from the crown of one bank to the other.</p>
+<p>When Dugdale saw it, about a hundred and fifty years ago, the
+center, which is about two acres, where the castle stood, was
+covered with old oaks; round this center are now some thousands,
+the oldest of which is not more than a century; so that the timber
+is changed since the days of Dugdale, but not the appearance of the
+land.</p>
+<p>The center is bare of timber, and exhibits the marks of the
+plough. The late Benjamin Palmer, Esq; a few years ago, planted it
+with trees, which are in that dwindling state, that they are not
+likely to grow so tall as their master<a name=
+"FNanchor7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7">[7]</a>.</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor7">[7]</a>
+He measured about six feet five inches, but was singularly short in
+the lower parts: his step was not larger than a child's of ten
+years old. His carriage, by its extraordinary height, looked at a
+distance like a moving steeple; he sat as high in a common chair,
+as a man of the middle-size stands: he was as immoderately heavy as
+he was tall, and as remarkable for good-nature as either. As a man,
+he shone by his bulk; as a magistrate, in a dull but honest
+light--his decisions were <i>intended</i> to be just. He seemingly
+dozed as he walked; but if his own eyes were half shut, those of
+every other person were open to see him.</blockquote>
+<p>It lies in a pleasant situation, upon a descent, so that the
+trench in one part is dry, and in another three or four yards deep
+in water.</p>
+<p>A place of such desolation, one would think, was a place of
+silence--just the reverse. When I saw it, Feb. 23, 1783, the trees
+were tall, the winds high, and the roar tremendous.</p>
+<p>Exclusive of Ulverley and Hogg's-moat, there are many old
+foundations in Solihull, once the residence of gentry now extinct;
+as Solihull-hall, the Moat-house, and Kynton, the property of the
+Botolers; Bury-hall, that of the Warings; who both came over with
+William: Henwood, belonging to the Hugfords; Hillfield-hall, the
+ancient seat of the Greswolds, as Malvern was their modern.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="YARDLEY."></a>YARDLEY.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>At Yardley church, four miles east of Birmingham, is <i>The
+Moat</i>, now a pasture; the trench still retains its water, as a
+remembrance of its former use.</p>
+<p>This was anciently the property of the Allestrees, lords of
+Witton; but about thirty years ago, the building and the family
+expired together.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="KENTS-MOAT"></a>KENT'S-MOAT.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>One mile farther east is Kent's-moat, in which no noise is heard
+but the singing of birds, as if for joy that their enemy is fled,
+and they have regained their former habitation.</p>
+<p>This is situate on an eminence, like that of Park-hall, is
+capacious, has but one trench, supplied by its own springs; and,
+like that, as complete as earth and water can make it.</p>
+<p>This was part of Coleshill, and vested in the crown before the
+conquest, but soon after granted with that to Clinton, who gave it
+with a daughter to Verdon; and he, with another, to Anselm de
+Scheldon, who kept it till the reign of Edward the Third: it
+afterwards passed through several families, till the reign of Henry
+the Seventh, when it came into that of De Gray, Earl of Kent,
+whence the name; though, perhaps, the works were erected by
+Scheldon.</p>
+<p>It is now, with Coleshill, the property of Lord Digby; but the
+building has been so long gone, that tradition herself has lost
+it.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="SHELDON."></a>SHELDON.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>One mile east is Sheldon-hall, which anciently bore the name of
+East-hall, in contradistinction from Kent's-moat, which was
+West-hall. This, in 1379, was the property of Sir Hugh le
+Despenser, afterwards of the family of Devereux, ancestor of the
+present Viscount Hereford, who resided here till about 1710. In
+1751, it was purchased by John Taylor, Esq; and is now possessed by
+his tenant.</p>
+<p>The moat, like others on an eminence, has but one trench, fed by
+the land springs; is filled up in the front of the hall, as there
+is not much need of water protection. The house, which gives an
+idea of former gentility, seems the first erected on the spot; is
+irregular, agreeable to the taste of the times, and must have been
+built many centuries. All the ancient furniture fled with its
+owners, except an hatchment in the hall, with sixteen coats of
+arms, specifying the families into which they married.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="KINGS-HURST"></a>KING'S-HURST.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Two furlongs east of Sheldon-hall, and one mile south of Castle
+Bromwich, is <i>Kings-hurst</i>; which, though now a dwelling in
+tenancy, was once the capital of a large track of land, consisting
+of its own manor, Coleshill, and Sheldon; the demesne of the crown,
+under the Saxon kings, from whom we trace the name.</p>
+<p>The Conqueror, or his son William, granted it; but whether for
+money, service, caprice, or favour, is uncertain; for he who wears
+a crown acts as whimsically as he who does not.</p>
+<p>Mountfort came over with William, as a knight, and an officer of
+rank; but, perhaps, did not immediately receive the grant, for the
+king would act again much like other people, <i>give away their
+property, before he would give away his own</i>.</p>
+<p>If this unfortunate family were not the first grantees, they
+were lords, and probably residents of King's-hurst, long before
+their possession of Coleshill, in 1332, and by a younger branch,
+long after the unhappy attainder of Sir Simon, in 1497.</p>
+<p>Sir William Mountfort, in 1390, augmented the buildings, erected
+a chapel, and inclosed the manor. His grandson, Sir Edmund, in
+1447, paled in some of the land, and dignified it with the
+fashionable name of <i>park</i>.</p>
+<p>This prevailing humour of imparking was unknown to the Saxons,
+it crept in with the Norman: some of the first we meet with are
+those of Nottingham, Wedgnock, and Woodstock--Nottingham, by
+William Peveral, illegitimate son of the Conqueror; Wedgnock, by
+Newburg, the first Norman Earl of Warwick; and Woodstock, by Henry
+the First. So that the Duke of Marlborough perhaps may congratulate
+himself with possessing the oldest park in use.</p>
+<p>The modern park is worth attention; some are delightful in the
+extreme: they are the beauties of creation, terrestrial paradises;
+they are just what they ought to be, nature cautiously assisted by
+invisible art. We envy the little being who presides over one--but
+why mould we envy him? the pleasure consists in <i>seeing</i>, and
+one man may <i>see</i> as well as another: nay, the stranger holds
+a privilege beyond him; for the proprietor, by often seeing, sees
+away the beauties, while he who looks but seldom, sees with full
+effect. Besides, one is liable to be fretted by the mischievous
+hand of injury, which the stranger seldom sees; he looks for
+excellence, the owner for defect, and they both find.</p>
+<p>These proud inclosures, guarded by the growth within, first
+appeared under the dimension of one or two hundred acres; but
+fashion, emulation, and the park, grew up together, till the last
+swelled into one or two thousand.</p>
+<p>If religions rise from the lowest ranks, the fashions generally
+descend from the higher, who are at once blamed, and imitated by
+their inferiors.</p>
+<p>The highest orders of men lead up a fashion, the next class
+tread upon their heels, the third quickly follow, then the fourth,
+fifth, &amp;c. immediately figure after them. But as a man who had
+an inclination for a park, could not always spare a thousand acres,
+he must submit to less, for a park must be had: thus Bond, of
+Ward-end, set up with thirty; some with one half, till the very
+word became a burlesque upon the idea. The design was a display of
+lawns, hills, water, clumps, &amp;c. as if ordered by the voice of
+nature; and furnished with herds of deer. But some of our modern
+parks contain none of these beauties, nor scarcely land enough to
+support a rabbit.</p>
+<p>I am possessed of one of these jokes of a park, something less
+than an acre:--he that has none, might think it a <i>good</i> joke,
+and wish it his own; he that has more would despise it: that it
+never was larger, appears from its being surrounded by Sutton
+Coldfield; and that it has retained the name for ages, appears from
+the old timber upon it.</p>
+<p>The manor of King's-hurst was disposed of by the Mountforts,
+about two hundred years ago, to the Digbys, where it remains.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="COLESHILL."></a>COLESHILL.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>One mile farther east is <i>Coleshill-hall</i>, vested in the
+crown before, and after the conquest; purchased, perhaps, of
+William Rufus, by Geoffrey de Clinton, ancestor to the present Duke
+of Newcastle. In 1352, an heiress of the house of Clinton, gave it,
+with herself, to Sir John de Mountfort, of the same family with
+Simon, the great Earl of Leicester, who fell, in 1265, at Evesham,
+in that remarkable contest with Henry the Third.</p>
+<p>With them it continued till 1497, when Sir Simon Mountfort,
+charged, but perhaps unjustly, with assisting Perkin Warbeck with
+30<i>l</i>. was brought to trial at Guildhall, condemned as a
+traitor, executed at Tyburn, his large fortune confiscated, and his
+family ruined. Some of his descendants I well know in Birmingham;
+and <i>they</i> are well known to poverty, and the vice.</p>
+<p>In the reign of Henry the Seventh, it was almost dangerous,
+particularly for a rich man, even to <i>think</i> against a crafty
+and avaricious monarch.--What is singular, the man who accused Sir
+Simon at the bar, succeeded him in his estate.</p>
+<p>Simon Digby procured a grant of the place, in whose line it
+still continues. The hall is inhabited, but has been left about
+thirty years by the family; was probably erected by the Mountforts,
+is extensive, and its antique aspect without, gives a venerable
+pleasure to the beholder, like the half admitted light diffused
+within. Every spot of the park is delightful, except that in which
+the hall stands: our ancestors built in the vallies, for the sake
+of water; their successors on the hills, for the sake of air.</p>
+<p>From this uncouth swamp sprung the philosopher, the statesman,
+and tradition says, the gunpowder-plot.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="DUDDESTON."></a>DUDDESTON.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Four furlongs north-east of Birmingham, is <i>Duddeston</i>
+(Dud's-town) from Dud, the Saxon proprietor, Lord of Dudley, who
+probably had a seat here; once a considerable village, but long
+reduced to the manor-house, till Birmingham, swelling beyond its
+bounds, in 1764, verged upon this lordship; and we now, in 1783,
+behold about eighty houses, under the names of Duke-street,
+Prospect-row, and Woodcock-lane.</p>
+<p>It afterwards descended to the Paganalls, the Sumeris, then to
+the Bottetourts, and was, in 1323, enjoyed by Joan Bottetourt, lady
+of Weoley castle, a daughter of the house of Sumeri.</p>
+<p>Sir Thomas de Erdington held it of this lady, by a chief-rent,
+which was a pair of gilt spurs, or six-pence, at the option of the
+tenant.</p>
+<p>Erdington sold it, in 1327, to Thomas de Maidenhache, by whose
+daughter, Sibell, it came in marriage to Adam de Grymforwe; whose
+posterity, in 1363, conveyed it for 26<i>l</i>. 13s. 4d. now worth
+20,000<i>l</i>. to John atte Holt; and his successors made it their
+residence, till the erection of Aston-hall, in the reign of James
+I.</p>
+<p>It is now converted into beautiful gardens, as a public resort
+of pleasure, and dignified with the London name of Vauxhall. The
+demolished fish-ponds, and the old foundations, which repel the
+spade, declare its former grandeur.</p>
+<p>In 1782 it quitted, by one of the most unaccountable alignments
+that ever resulted from human weakness, the ancient name of Holte,
+familiar during four hundred and nineteen years, for that of
+Legge.</p>
+<p>Could the ghost of Sir Lister re-visit his departed property,
+one might ask, What reception might you meet with, Sir Lister, in
+1770, among your venerable ancestors in the shades, for barring,
+unprovoked, an infant heiress of 7000<i>l</i>. a year, and giving
+it, unsolicited, to a stranger? Perhaps you experience repeated
+buffetings; a sturdy figure, with iron aspect, would be apt to
+accost you--"I with nervous arm, and many a bended back, drew
+40<i>l</i>. from the Birmingham forge, with which, in 1330, I
+purchased the park and manor of Nechels, now worth four hundred
+times that sum. I planted that family which you have plucked up by
+the roots: in the sweat of my brow, I laid a foundation for
+greatness; many of my successors built on that foundation--but you,
+by starving your brother, Sir Charles, into compliance, wantonly
+cut off the entail, and gave away the estate, after passing through
+seventeen descents, merely to shew you had a power to give it. We
+concluded here, that a son of his daughter, the last hope of the
+family, would change his own name to preserve ours, and not the
+estate change its possessor."--"I," another would be apt to say,
+"with frugal hand, and lucrative employments under the crown,
+added, in 1363, the manor of Duddeston; and, in 1367, that of
+Alton. But for what purpose did I add them? To display the folly of
+a successor."--A dejected spectre would seem to step forward, whose
+face carried the wrinkles of eighty-four, and the shadow of tear;
+"I, in 1611, brought the title of baronet among us, first tarnished
+by you; which, if your own imbecility could not procure issue to
+support, you ought to have supported it by purchase. I also, in
+1620, erected the mansion at Afton, then, and even now, the most
+superb in that neighbourhood, fit to grace the leading title of
+nobility; but you forbad my successors to enter. I joined, in 1647,
+to our vast fortune, the manor of Erdington.--Thus the fabric we
+have been rearing for ages, you overthrew in one fatal
+moment."--The last angry spectre would appear in the bloom of life.
+"I left you an estate which you did not deserve: you had no more
+right to leave it from your successor, than I to leave it from you:
+one man may ruin the family of another, but he seldom ruins his
+own. We blame him who wrongs his neighbour, but what does he
+deserve who wrongs himself?--You have done both, for by cutting off
+the succession, your name will be lost. The ungenerous attorney,
+instead of making your absurd will, ought to have apprized you of
+our sentiments, which exactly coincide with those of the world, or
+how could the tale affect a stranger? Why did not some generous
+friend guide your crazy vessel, and save a sinking family?
+Degenerate son, he who destroys the peace of another, should
+forfeit his own--we leave you to remorse, may she quickly <i>find,
+and weep over you</i>."</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="SALTLEY."></a>SALTLEY.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>A mile east of Duddeston is <i>Saltley-hall</i>, which, with an
+extensive track of ground, was, in the Saxon times, the freehold of
+a person whom we should now call Allen; the same who was Lord of
+Birmingham. But at the conquest, when justice was laid asleep, and
+property possessed by him who could seize it, this manor, with many
+others, fell into the hands of William Fitz-Ausculf, Baron of
+Dudley-castle, who granted it in knight's-service to Henry de
+Rokeby.</p>
+<p>A daughter of Rokeby carried it by marriage to Sir John Goband,
+whose descendants, in 1332, sold it to Walter de Clodshale; an
+heiress of Clodshale, in 1426, brought it into the ancient family
+of Arden, and a daughter of this house, to that of Adderley, where
+it now rests.</p>
+<p>The castle, I have reason to think, was erected by Rokeby, in
+which all the lords resided till the extinction of the
+Clodshales.--It has been gone to ruin about three hundred years,
+and the solitary platform seems to mourn its loss.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="WARD-END."></a>WARD-END.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Three miles from Birmingham, in the same direction, is
+<i>Wart-end</i>, anciently <i>Little Bromwich</i>; a name derived
+from the plenty of broom, and is retained to this day by part of
+the precincts, <i>Broomford</i> (Bromford).</p>
+<p>This manor was claimed by that favourite of the conqueror,
+Fitz-Ausculf, and granted by him to a second-hand favourite, who
+took its name.</p>
+<p>The old castle has been gone about a century; the works are
+nearly complete, cover about nine acres, the most capacious in this
+neighbourhood, those of Weoley-castle excepted. The central area is
+now an orchard, and the water, which guarded the castle, guards the
+fruit. This is surrounded with three mounds, and three trenches,
+one of them fifty yards over, which, having lost its master, guards
+the fish.</p>
+<p>The place afterwards passed through several families, till the
+reign of Henry the Seventh. One of them bearing the name of
+<i>Ward</i>, changed the name to <i>Ward-end</i>.</p>
+<p>In 1512, it was the property of John Bond, who, fond of his
+little hamlet, inclosed a park of thirty acres, stocked it with
+deer; and, in 1517, erected a chapel for the conveniency of his
+tenants, being two miles from the parish church of Afton. The
+skeleton of this chapel, in the form of a cross, the fashion of the
+times, is yet standing on the outward mound: its floor is the only
+religious one I have seen laid with horse-dung; the pulpit is
+converted into a manger--it formerly furnished husks for the man,
+but now corn for the horse. Like the first christian church, it has
+experienced a double use, a church and a stable; but with this
+difference, <i>that</i> in Bethlehem, was a stable advanced into a
+church; this, on the contrary, is reduced into a stable.</p>
+<p>The manor, by a female, passed through the Kinardsleys, and is
+now possessed by the Brand-woods; but the hall, erected in 1710,
+and its environs, are the property of Abraham Spooner, Esq.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="CASTLE_BROMWICH."></a>CASTLE BROMWICH.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Simply <i>Bromwich</i>, because the soil is productive of
+broom.</p>
+<p>My subject often leads me back to the conquest, an enterprize,
+wild without parallel: we are astonished at the undertaking,
+because William was certainly a man of sense, and a politician.
+Harold, his competitor, was a prince much superior in power, a
+consummate general, and beloved by his people. The odds were so
+much against the invader, that out of one hundred such imprudent
+attempts, ninety-nine would miscarry: all the excuse in his favour
+is, <i>it succeeded</i>. Many causes concurred in this success,
+such as his own ambition, aided by his valour; the desperate
+fortune of his followers, very few of whom were men of property,
+for to the appearance of gentlemen, they added the realities of
+want; a situation to which any change is thought preferable; but,
+above all, <i>chance</i>. A man may dispute for religion, he may
+contend for liberty, he may run for his life, but he will
+<i>fight</i> for property.</p>
+<p>By the contest between William and Harold, the unhappy English
+lost all they had to lose; and though this all centered in the
+Normans, they did not acquire sufficient to content them.</p>
+<p>History does not inform us who was then the proprietor of Castle
+Bromwich, but that it belonged to the Mercian Earls scarcely admits
+a doubt; as Edwin owned some adjoining manors, he probably owned
+this. Fitz-Ausculf was his fortunate successor, who procured many
+lordships in the neighhood of Birmingham; Castle Bromwich was one.
+He granted it to an inferior Norman, in military tenure; who,
+agreeable to the fashion of those times, took the surname of
+Bromwich.</p>
+<p>Henry de Castel was a subsequent proprietor. Dugdale supposes
+the village took its name from a castle, once on the premises; and
+that the castle-hill yet remains: but this hill is too small, even
+to admit a shelter for a Lilliputian, and is evidently an
+artificial trifle, designed for a monument. It might hold, for its
+ancient furniture, a turret, termed a castle--perhaps it held
+nothing in Dugdale's time: the modern is a gladiator, in the
+attitude of fighting, supported by a pedestal, containing the
+Bridgeman arms.</p>
+<p><i>Castle</i>, probably, was added by the family of that name,
+lords of the place, to distinguish it from <i>woody</i> and
+<i>little</i> Bromwich. They bore for their arms, three castles and
+a chevron.</p>
+<p>Lord Ferrers of Chartley, who was proprietor of Birmingham in
+the reign of Henry the Sixth, enjoyed it by marriage; and his grand
+daughter brought it, by the same channel, into the family of
+Devereux, Lords of Sheldon. Edward, about the latter end of Queen
+Elizabeth's reign, erected the present building, which is
+capacious, is in a stile between ancient and modern, and has a
+pleasing appearance.</p>
+<p>The Bridgeman family acceded to possession about eighty years
+ago, by purchase, and made it their residence till about 1768. We
+should naturally enquire, Why Sir Harry quitted a place so
+delightfully situated? Perhaps it is not excelled in this country,
+in the junction of three great roads, a a desirable neighbourhood,
+the river Tame at its back, and within five miles of the plentiful
+market of Bimingham--but, alas, <i>it has no park</i>.</p>
+<p>The gentry seem to have resided in our vicinity, when there was
+the greatest inducement to leave it, <i>impassable roads</i>: they
+seem also to have quitted the country, now there is the greatest
+inducement to reside there; roads, which improve their estates, and
+may be travelled with pleasure. It may be objected, that "the
+buildings become ancient." But there is no more disgrace in an old
+house, than in an old man; they may both be dressed in character,
+and look well. A gentleman, by residing in the family seat, pays a
+compliment to his ancestors.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="PARK-HALL."></a>PARK-HALL.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Six miles north-east of Birmingham, and one from Castle Bromwich
+chapel, is a spacious moat, with one trench, which, for many
+centuries guarded <i>Park-hall</i>. This is another of those
+desolate islands, from which every creature is fled, and every
+sound, except that of the winds; nay, even the very clouds seem to
+lament the desolation with tears.</p>
+<p>This was possessed by none but the Ardens, being part of their
+vast estate long before the conquest, and five hundred years after.
+A delightful situation on the banks of the Tame; to which we are
+led through a dirty road.</p>
+<p>We may consider this island, the treasury into which forty-six
+lordships paid their tribute. The riches of the country were drawn
+to this center, and commands were issued from it. The growth of
+these manors supplied that spot, which now grows for another. The
+lordships are in forty-six hands; the country is in silence; the
+island ploughed up, and the family distressed--At the remembrance
+of their name, the smile quits the face of history; she records
+their sad tale with a sigh; while their arms are yet displayed in
+some of the old halls in the neighbourhood.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="BERWOOD."></a>BERWOOD.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Crossing the river, one mile farther east, is
+<i>Berwood-hall</i>, where the forsaken moat, at this day,
+guards--nothing. This, with the manor to which it belongs, was also
+the property of the Ardens; one of which in the reign of Henry the
+Second, granted it to the canons of Leicester; who added a chapel,
+which went to decay four hundred years ago. After the grant, the
+Ardens seem to have become tenants to the canons for the land, once
+their own: we frequently observe a man pay rent for what he
+<i>sells</i>, but seldom for what he <i>gives</i>.</p>
+<p>At the dissolution of abbies, in 1537, Thomas Arden, the head of
+the family, purchased it of Henry the Eighth, for 272<i>l</i>. 10s.
+uniting it again to his estate, after a separation of three hundred
+and fifty years, in whose posterity it continued till their
+fall.</p>
+<p>Thus, the father first purchased what the son gave away, and his
+offspring re-purchased again. The father lays a tax on his
+successor; or, climbs to heaven at the expence of the son. In one
+age it is meritorious to <i>give</i> to the church, in another, to
+<i>take</i> from her.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="ERDINGTON."></a>ERDINGTON.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Three miles north-east of Birmingham, is <i>Erdington-hall</i>,
+which boasts a long antiquity. The manor was the property of the
+old Earls of Mercia: Edwin possessed it at the conquest, but lost
+it in favour of William Fitz-Ausculf, who no doubt granted it in
+knight's service to his friend and relation, of Norman race, who
+erected the hall; the moat, took his residence in, and his name
+Erdington, from the place. His descendants seem to have resided
+here with great opulence near 400 years.</p>
+<p>Dugdale mentions a circumstance of Sir Thomas de Erdington,
+little noticed by our historians. He was a faithful adherent to
+King John, who conferred on him many valuable favours: harrassed by
+the Pope on one side, and his angry Barons on the other, he
+privately sent Sir Thomas to Murmeli, the powerful King of Africa,
+Morocco, and Spain; with offers to forsake the christian faith,
+turn mahometan, deliver up his kingdom, and hold it of him in
+tribute, for his assistance against his enemies. But it does not
+appear the ambassador succeeded: the Moorish Monarch did not chuse
+to unite his prosperous fortune with that of a random prince; he
+might also consider, the man who could destroy his nephew and his
+sovereign, could not be an honour to any profession.</p>
+<p>The manor left the Erdington family in 1472, and, during a
+course of 175 years, acknowledged for its owners, George
+Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence, Sir William Harcourt, Robert Wright,
+Sir Reginald Bray, Francis Englefield, Humphry Dimock, Walter Earl,
+Sir Walter Devereux, and was, in 1647, purchased by Sir Thomas
+Holte, in whose family it continued till 1782, when Henage Legge,
+Esq; became seised of the manor.</p>
+<p>As none of the Lords seem to have resided upon the premises
+since the departure of the Erdingtons, it must be expected they
+have gradually tended to decay.</p>
+<p>We may with some reason conclude, that as Erdington was the
+freehold of the Earls of Mercia, it was not the residence of its
+owners, therefore could not derive its name from them. That as the
+word <i>Arden</i> signifies a wood, the etymology of that populous
+village is, <i>a town in the wood</i>. That one of the first
+proprietors, after the conquest, struck with the security offered
+by the river, erected the present fortifications, which cover three
+parts of the hall, and the river itself the fourth. Hence it
+follows, that the neighbouring work, which we now call
+Bromford-forge, was a mill prior to the conquest; because the
+stream is evidently turned out of its bed to feed it. That the
+present hall is the second on the premises, and was erected by the
+Erdingtons, with some later additions.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="PIPE."></a>PIPE.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>One mile north-east of Erdington, is <i>Pipe-hall</i>; which,
+with its manor, like the neighbouring land, became at the conquest
+the property of Fitz-Ausculf; and afterwards of his defendants,
+Paganall, Sumeri, Bottetort, and St. Leger.</p>
+<p>It was common at that fatal period, for one of these great
+barons, or rather great robbers, to procure a large quantity of
+land for himself; some of them two or three hundred thousand
+acres--too much for one man to grasp. He therefore kept what he
+pleased for his private use, and granted the other in
+knight's-service, reserving annually a rent. These rents were
+generally small, so as never to hurt the tenant: however, the lord
+could order him to arms whenever he pleased.</p>
+<p>A few of the grants were procured by the disinherited English,
+but chiefly by the officers of William's army, being more
+respected, and more proper to be trusted: they were often
+relations, or favourites of the great barons. The lord could not
+conveniently sell, without the consent of the crown, but he could
+set at what price he pleased. Time made this chief-rent permanent,
+and gave the tenant stability of title.</p>
+<p>The manor of Pipe, with some others, was granted to William
+Mansell, who resided in the hall, and executed some of the chief
+offices of the county.</p>
+<p>The last of the name, in the reign of Henry the Third, left a
+daughter, who married Henry de Harcourt; and his daughter married
+John de Pipe, who seems to have taken its name.</p>
+<p>Henry, his descendant, had many children, all of whom, with his
+lady, died of the plague, except a daughter, Margery. He afterwards
+married, in 1363, Matilda, the daughter of George de Castell, of
+Castle Bromwich; but soon after the happy wedding, he perceived his
+bride was pregnant, which proved, on enquiry, the effect of an
+intrigue with her father's menial servant; a striking instance of
+female treachery, which can only be equalled by--male.</p>
+<p>The shock proving too great for his constitution, brought on a
+decline, and himself to the grave, before the birth of the
+child.</p>
+<p>John was the fruit of this unlawful amour, whose guardian, to
+prevent his inheriting the estate, made him a canon of Ouston, in
+Leicestershire; and afterwards persuaded the unhappy Margery to
+grant the manor to the abbot of Stonely.</p>
+<p>Thomas de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, afterwards purchased it
+for 133<i>l</i>. 6s. 8d. It came to the crown by attainder, in the
+reign of Henry the Seventh; then to Sir William Staunford, one of
+his judges, John Buttler; Edward Holte, in 1568; Francis Dimock,
+whose daughter married Walter Earl; then to Walter Devereux, by
+marrying Earl's daughter; afterwards to Sir Thomas Holte, by
+purchase; and is now in the family of Bagot.</p>
+<p>Though the hall is antique, its front is covered in the modern
+barbarous stile, by a clump of venerable trees; which would become
+any situation but that in which they stand. It is now inhabited by
+a gentleman of Birmingham, who has experienced the smiles of
+commerce.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="ASTON."></a>ASTON.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Two miles north of Birmingham, is Aston (East-town) being east
+of Westbury (Wednesbury) it lies on a steep descent towards the
+river Tame.</p>
+<p>This place, like that of Erdington, belonged to the Earls of
+Mercia in the Saxon times; and, at the conquest, was the property
+of the unfortunate Edwin. Fitz-Ausculf became his successor in
+this, and in other lands: the survey calls it eight hides, valued
+at 5<i>l</i>. per annum; a mill, 3s. and a wood, three miles long,
+and half a mile broad. The mill, I make no doubt, stood where a
+mill now stands, near Sawford-bridge; but neither the hides, nor
+the wood, could be confined within the boundary of Afton; the manor
+is too little for either. The lordship extends about a square mile,
+and that part which is now the park, I have reason to think, was
+then a common, and for ages after.</p>
+<p>A Saxon, of the name of Godmund, held it under the Mercian
+Earls, and found means, at the conquest, to hold it under the
+Norman.</p>
+<p>One hundred yards north of the church, in a perfect swamp, stood
+the hall; probably erected by Godmund, or his family: the situation
+shews the extreme of bad taste--one would think, he endeavoured to
+lay his house under the water. The trenches are obliterated by the
+floods, so as to render the place unobserved by the stranger: it is
+difficult to chuse a worse, except he had put his house under the
+earth. I believe there never was more than one house erected on the
+spot, and that was one too much.</p>
+<p>Whether this Saxon family of Godmund became extinct, or had lost
+their right, is uncertain; but Sumeri, Fitz-Ausculf's successor,
+about 1203, granted the manor to Sir Thomas de Erdington,
+Ambassador to King John, mentioned before, who had married his
+sister; paying annually a pair of spurs, or six-pence, as a nominal
+rent, but meant, in reality, as a portion for the lady.</p>
+<p>The family of Erdington, about 1275, sold it to Thomas de
+Maidenhache, who did not seem to live upon friendly terms with his
+neighbour, William de Birmingham; for, in 1290, he brought an
+action against him for fishing in his water, called Moysich
+(Dead-branch) leading into Tame, towards Scarford-bridge
+(Shareford, dividing the shares, or parts of the parish, Aston
+manor from Erdington, now Sawford-bridge) which implies a degree of
+unkindness; because William could not amuse himself in his own
+manor of Birmingham, for he might as well have angled in one of his
+streets, as in the river Rea. The two lords had, probably, four
+years before been on friendly terms, when they jointly lent their
+assistance to the hospital of St. Thomas, in Birmingham.</p>
+<p>Maidenhache left four daughters; Sibel, married Adam de
+Grymsorwe, who took with her the manor of Aston; a daughter of this
+house, in 1367, sold it to John atte Holte, of Birmingham, in whose
+family it continued 415 years, till 1782, when Henage Legge, Esq;
+acceded to possession.</p>
+<p>This wretched bog was the habitation of all the lords, from
+Godmund to the Holtes, the Erdington's excepted; for Maud Grymsorwe
+executing the conveyance at Aston, indicates that she resided
+there; and Thomas Holte, being possessed of Duddeston, proves that
+he did not: therefore I conclude, that the building, as it ought,
+went to decay soon after; so that desolation has claimed the place
+for her own near four hundred years. This is corroberated by some
+old timber trees, long since upon the spot where the building
+stood.</p>
+<p>The extensive parish of Aston takes in the two extremes of
+Birmingham, which supplies her with more christenings, weddings,
+and burials, than were, a few years ago, supplied by the whole
+parish of Birmingham.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="WITTON."></a>WITTON.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Three miles north of Birmingham, and one from Aston, is
+<i>Witton</i>, (Wicton) from the bend of the river, according to
+Dugdale: the property of a person at the conquest whose name was
+Staunchel. Fitz-Ausculf seized it, and Staunchel, more fortunate
+than the chief of his country men, became his tenant; valued in the
+conqueror's survey at 20s. per ann.</p>
+<p>It was afterwards vested in the crown: in 1240, Henry the third
+granted it to Andrew de Wicton, who took his name from the place,
+for in Dooms-day it is Witone; therefore the name being prior,
+proves the remark.</p>
+<p>Andrew, anxious after the boundary of his new purchase, brought
+an action against his neighbour, William de Pyrie (Perry) for
+infringing his property. Great disputes arise from small
+beginnings; perhaps a lawyer blew the flame.</p>
+<p>The king issued his precept to the Sheriff of Staffordshire, in
+which Perry lies, to bring with him twelve lawful and discreet
+knights; and the same to the Sheriff of Warwickshire, of which
+Witton is part, to ascertain the bounds between them.</p>
+<p>Which was the aggressor, is hard to determine, but I should
+rather suppose Squire Perry, because <i>man</i> is ever apt to
+trespass; he resided on the premises, and the crown is but a sleepy
+landlord; not so likely to rob, as be robbed.</p>
+<p>There is a road, where foot seldom treads, mounded on each side,
+leading over the Coldfield, from Perry-bridge towards the Newlands,
+undoubtedly the work of this venerable band of discreet
+knights.</p>
+<p>The stranger, of course, would deem the property between the
+contending parties, of great value, which, twenty-four of the
+principal characters of the age, the flower of two counties,
+marshalled by two chief officers, were to determine. But what will
+he think of the quarrelsome spirit of the times, when, I tell him,
+it was only a few acres, which is, even at this day, waste land,
+and scarcely worth owning by either.</p>
+<p>In 1290, Witton was the property of William Dixley; in 1340,
+that of Richard de Pyrie, descendant of him, who, a hundred years
+before, held the contest. In 1426, Thomas East, of Hay-hall, in
+Yardley, was owner; who sold it to John Bond, of Ward-end, of whose
+descendants William Booth purchased it, in 1620: an heiress of
+Booth brought it by marriage to Allestree, of Yardley, who enjoyed
+it in our days; it was sold to John Wyrley, and is now possessed by
+George Birch, Esq; of Handsworth.</p>
+<p>The house, left by its owners, is in that low, or rather boggy
+situation, suitable to the fashion of those times. I can discover
+no traces of a moat, though there is every conveniency for one: We
+are doubly hurt by seeing a house in a miserable hole, when joining
+an elegible spot.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="BLAKELEY."></a>BLAKELEY.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Five miles north-west of Birmingham, is <i>Blakely-hall</i>, the
+manor house of Oldbury. If we see a venerable edifice without a
+moat, we cannot from thence conclude, it was never the residence of
+a gentleman, but wherever we find one, we may conclude it was.</p>
+<p>Anciently, this manor, with those of Smethwick and Harborn,
+belonged to the family of Cornwallis, whose habitation was
+Blakeley-hall: the present building seems about 300 years old.</p>
+<p>The extinction of the male line, threw the property into the
+hands of two coheirs; one of whom married into the family of
+Grimshaw, the other into that of Wright, who jointly held it. The
+family of Grimshaw failing, Wright became then, and is now,
+possessed of the whole.</p>
+<p>I am unacquainted with the principal characters who acted the
+farce of life on this island, but it has long been in the tenancy
+of a poor farmer, who, the proprietor allured me, was <i>best</i>
+able to stock the place with children. In 1769, the Birmingham
+canal passing over the premises, robbed the trench of its water.
+Whether it endangers the safety is a doubt, for <i>poverty</i> is
+the best security against violence.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="WEOLEY"></a>WEOLEY</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Four miles west of Birmingham, in the parish of Northfield, are
+the small, but extensive ruins of <i>Weoley-castle</i>, whose
+appendages command a track of seventeen acres, situate in a park of
+eighteen hundred.</p>
+<p>These moats usually extend from half an acre to two acres, are
+generally square, and the trenches from eight yards over to
+twenty.</p>
+<p>This is large, the walls massy; they form the allies of a
+garden, and the rooms, the beds; the whole display the remains of
+excellent workmanship. One may nearly guess at a man's consequence,
+even after a lapse of 500 years, by the ruins of his house.</p>
+<p>The steward told me, "they pulled down the walls as they wanted
+the stone." Unfeeling projectors: there is not so much to pull
+down. Does not time bring destruction fast enough without
+assistance? The head which cannot contemplate, offers its hand to
+destroy. The insensible taste, unable itself to relish the dry
+fruits of antiquity, throws them away to prevent another. May the
+fingers <i>smart</i> which injure the venerable walls of Dudley, or
+of Kenilworth. Noble remains of ancient grandeur! copious indexes,
+that point to former usage! We survey them with awful pleasure. The
+mouldering walls, as if ashamed of their humble state, hide
+themselves under the ivies; the generous ivies, as if conscious of
+the precious relics, cover them from the injuries of time.</p>
+<p>When land frequently undergoes a conveyance, necessity, we
+suppose, is the lot of the owner, but the lawyer fattens: <i>To
+have and to hold</i> are words of singular import; they charm
+beyond music; are the quintessence of language; the leading figure
+in rhetoric. But how would he fare if land was never conveyed? He
+must starve upon quarrels.</p>
+<p>Instances may be given of land which knows no title, except
+those of conquest and descent: Weoley Castle comes nearly under
+this description. <i>To sign, seal, and deliver</i>, were wholly
+unknown to our ancestors. Could a Saxon freeholder rise from the
+dead, and visit the land, once his own, now held by as many
+writings as would half spread over it, he might exclaim, "Evil
+increases with time, and parchment with both. You deprive the poor
+of their breeches; I covered the ground with sheep, you with their
+skins; I thought, as you were at variance with France, Spain,
+Holland, and America, those numerous deeds were a heap of drum
+heads, and the internal writing, the <i>articles of war</i>. In one
+instance, however, there is a similarity between us; we unjustly
+took this land from the Britons, you as unjustly took it from us;
+and a time may come, when another will take it from you. Thus, the
+Spaniards founded the Peruvian empire in butchery, now tottering
+towards a fall; you, following their example, seized the northern
+coast of America; you neither bought it nor begged it, you took it
+from the natives; and thus your children, the Americans, with equal
+violence, have taken it from you: No law binds like that of arms.
+The question has been, whether they shall pay taxes? which, after a
+dispute of eight years, was lost in another, <i>to whom</i> they
+shall pay taxes? The result, in a future day will be, domestic
+struggles for sovereignty will stain the ground with blood."</p>
+<p>When the proud Norman cut his way to the throne, his imperious
+followers seized the lands, kicked out the rightful possessors, and
+treated them with a dignity rather beneath that practiced to a
+dog.--This is the most summary title yet discovered.</p>
+<p>Northfield was the fee-simple of Alwold (Allwood) but, at the
+conquest, Fitz-Ausculf seized it, with a multitude of other manors:
+it does not appear that he granted it in knight's-service to the
+injured Allwood, but kept it for his private use, Paganall married
+his heiress, and Sumeri married Paganall's, who, in the beginning
+of the 13th century, erected the castle. In 1322, the line of
+Sumeri expired.</p>
+<p>Bottetourt, one of the needy squires, who, like Sancho Panza,
+attended William his master, in his mad, but <i>fortunate</i>
+enterprize, procured lands which enabled him to <i>live</i> in
+England, which was preferable to starving in Normandy. His
+descendant became, in right of his wife, coheir of the house of
+Sumeri, vested in Weoley-castle. He had, in 1307, sprung into
+peerage, and was one of our powerful barons, till 1385, when the
+male line dropt. The vast estate of Bottetourt, was then divided
+among females; Thomas Barkley, married the eldest, and this ancient
+barony was, in 1761, revived in his descendant, Norborne Barkley,
+the present Lord Bottetourt; Sir Hugh Burnel married another, and
+Sir John St. Leger a third.</p>
+<p>Weoley-castle was, for many years, the undivided estate of the
+three families; but Edward Sutton, Lord Dudley, having married a
+daughter of Barkley, became possessed of that castle, which was
+erected by Sumeri, their common ancestor, about nine generations
+before.</p>
+<p>In 1551, he sold it to William Jervoise, of London, mercer,
+whose descendant, Jervoise Clark Jervoise, Esq; now enjoys it.</p>
+<p>Fond of ranging, I have travelled a circuit round Birmingham,
+without being many miles from it. I wish to penetrate farther from
+the center, but my subject forbids. <i>Having therefore finished my
+discourse, I shall</i>, like my friends, the pulpitarians, many of
+whom, and of several denominations, are characters I revere,
+<i>apply what has been said</i>.</p>
+<p>We learn, that the land I have gone over, with the land I have
+not, changed its owners at the conquest: this shuts the door of
+inquiry into pedigree, the old families chiefly became extinct, and
+few of the present can be traced higher.--Destruction then
+overspread the kingdom.</p>
+<p>The seniors of every age exclaim against the growing corruption
+of the times: my father, and perhaps every father, dwelt on the
+propriety of his conduct in younger life, and placed it in
+counter-view with that of the following generation. However, while
+I knew him, it was much like other people's--But I could tell him,
+that he gave us the bright side of his character; that he was,
+probably, a piece of human nature, as well as his son; that nature
+varies but little, and that the age of William the Conqueror was
+the most rascally in the British annals. One age may be marked for
+the golden, another for the iron, but this for plunder.</p>
+<p>We farther learn, there is not one instance in this
+neighbourhood, where an estate has continued till now in the male
+line, very few in the female. I am acquainted with only one family
+near Birmingham, whose ancestor entered with William, and who yet
+enjoy the land granted at that period: the male line has been once
+broken--perhaps this land was never conveyed. They shone with
+splendour near six hundred years. In the sixteenth century, their
+estate was about 1400<i>l</i>. a year; great for that time, but is
+now, exclusive of a few <i>pepper-corns</i> and <i>red roses</i>,
+long since withered, reduced to one little farm, tilled for bread
+by the owner. This setting glympse of a shining family, is as
+indifferent about the matter, and almost as ignorant, as the team
+he drives.</p>
+<p>Lastly, we learn that none of the lords, as formerly, reside on
+the above premises: that in four instances out of twenty-one, the
+buildings are now as left by the lords, Sheldon, Coleshill, Pipe,
+and Blakeley: two have undergone some alteration, as Duddeston and
+Erdington: five others are re-erected, as Black Greves, Ulverley,
+King's-hurst, Castle Bromwich, and Witton; which, with all the
+above, are held in tenancy: in eight others all the buildings are
+swept away, and their moats left naked, as Hogg's-moat, Yardley,
+Kent's-moat, Saltley, Ward-end, Park-hall, Berwood, and Weoley; and
+in two instances the moats themselves are vanished, that of
+King's-norton is filled up to make way for the plough, and that of
+Aston demolished by the floods. Thus the scenes of hospitality and
+grandeur, become the scenes of antiquity, and then disappear.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="SUTTON_COLDFIELD."></a>SUTTON COLDFIELD.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Though the topographical historian, who resides upon the
+premises, is most likely to be correct; yet if <i>he</i>, with all
+his care, is apt to be mistaken, what can be expected from him who
+trots his horse over the scenes of antiquity?</p>
+<p>I have visited, for twenty years, some singular places in this
+neighbourhood, yet, without being master of their history; thus a
+man may spend an age in conning his lesson, and never learn it.</p>
+<p>When the farmer observes me on his territories, he eyes me
+<i>ascance</i>; suspecting a design to purchase his farm, or take
+it out of his hands.--I endeavour to remove his apprehensions, by
+approaching him; and introduce a conversation tending to my
+pursuit, which he understands as well as if, like the sons of
+Jacob, I addressed him in Hebrew; yet, notwithstanding his total
+ignorance of the matter, he has sometimes dropt an accidental word,
+which has thrown more light on the subject, than all my researches
+for a twelvemonth. If an honest farmer, in future, should see upon
+his premises a plumpish figure, five feet six, with one third of
+his hair on, a cane in his left hand, a glove upon each, and a
+Pomeranian dog at his heels, let him fear no evil; his farm will
+not be additionally tythed, his sheep worried, nor his hedges
+broken--it is only a solitary animal, in quest of a Roman
+phantom.</p>
+<p>Upon the north west extremity of Sutton Coldfield, joining the
+Chester road, is <i>The Bowen Pool</i>; at the tail of which, one
+hundred yards west of the road, on a small eminence, or swell of
+the earth, are the remains of a fortification, called <i>Loaches
+Banks</i>; but of what use or original is uncertain, no author
+having mentioned it.</p>
+<p>Four hundred yards farther west, in the same flat, is a hill of
+some magnitude, deemed, by the curious, a tumolus--it is a common
+thing for an historian to be lost, but not quite so common to
+acknowledge it. In attempting to visit this tumolus, I soon found
+myself in the center of a morass; and here, my dear reader might
+have seen the historian set fast in a double sense. I was obliged,
+for that evening, February 16, 1783, to retreat, as the sun had
+just done before me. I made my approaches from another quarter,
+April 13, when the hill appeared the work of nature, upon too broad
+a base for a tumolus; covering about three acres, perfectly round,
+rising gradually to the center, which is about sixteen feet above
+the level, surrounded by a ditch, perhaps made for some private
+purpose by the owner.</p>
+<p>The Roman tumoli were of two sorts, the small for the reception
+of a general, or great man, as that at Cloudsley-bush, near the
+High Cross, the tomb of Claudius; and the large, as at Seckington,
+near Tamworth, for the reception of the dead, after a battle: they
+are both of the same shape, rather high than broad. That before us
+comes under the description of neither; nor could the dead well be
+conveyed over the morass.</p>
+<p>The ground-plot, in the center of the fort, at Loaches Banks, is
+about two acres, surrounded by three mounds, which are large, and
+three trenches, which are small; the whole forming a square of four
+acres. Each corner directs to a cardinal point, but perhaps not
+with design; for the situation of the ground would invite the
+operator to chuse the present form. The north-west joins to, and is
+secured by the pool.</p>
+<p>As the works are much in the Roman taste, I might, at first
+view, deem it the residence of an opulent lord of the manor; but,
+the adjacent lands carrying no marks of cultivation, destroys the
+argument; it is also too large for the fashion; besides, all these
+manorial foundations have been in use since the conquest, therefore
+tradition assists the historian; but here, tradition being lost,
+proves the place of greater antiquity.</p>
+<p>One might judge it of Danish extraction, but here again,
+tradition will generally lend her assistance; neither are the
+trenches large enough for that people: of themselves they are no
+security, whether full or empty; for an active young fellow might
+easily skip from one bank to another. Nor can we view it as the
+work of some whimsical lord, to excite the wonder of the moderns;
+it could never pay for the trouble. We must, therefore, travel back
+among the ancient Britons, for a solution, and here we shall travel
+over solid ground.</p>
+<p>It is, probably, the remains of a British camp, for near these
+premises are Drude-heath (Druid's-heath) and Drude-fields, which we
+may reasonably suppose was the residence of a British priest: the
+military would naturally shelter themselves under the wing of the
+church, and the priest with the protection of the military. The
+narrowness of the trenches is another proof of its being British;
+they exactly correspond with the stile of that people. The name of
+the pool, <i>Bowen</i>, is of British derivation, which is a
+farther proof that the work originated from the Britons. They did
+not place their security so much in the trenches, as in the mounds,
+which they barracaded with timber. This camp is secured on three
+sides by a morass, and is only approachable on the fourth, that
+from the Coldfield. The first mound on this weak side, is
+twenty-four yards over, twice the size of any other; which,
+allowing an ample security, is a farther evidence of its being
+British, and tradition being silent is another.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="PETITION_FOR_A_CORPORATION."></a>PETITION FOR A
+CORPORATION.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Every man upon earth seems fond of two things, riches and power:
+this fondness necessarily springs from the heart, otherwise order
+would cease. Without the desire of riches, a man would not preserve
+what he has, nor provide for the future. "My thoughts," says a
+worthy christian, "are not of this world; I desire but one guinea
+to carry me through it." Supply him with that guinea, and he wishes
+another, lest the first should be defective.</p>
+<p>If it is necessary a man mould possess property, it is just as
+necessary he should possess a power to protect it, or the world
+would quickly bully him out of it: this power is founded on the
+laws of his country, to which he adds, by way of supplement,
+bye-laws, founded upon his own prudence. Those who possess riches,
+well know they are furnished with wings, and can scarcely be kept
+from flying.</p>
+<p>The man who has power to secure his wealth, seldom stops there;
+he, in turn, is apt to triumph over him who has less. Riches and
+power are often seen to go hand in hand.</p>
+<p>Industry produces property; which, when a little matured, looks
+out for command; thus the inhabitants of Birmingham, who have
+generally something upon the anvil besides iron, near seventy years
+ago having derived wealth from diligence, wished to derive power
+from charter; therefore, petitioned the crown that Birmingham might
+be erected into a corporation. Tickled with the title of alderman,
+dazzled with the splendour of a silver mace, a furred gown, and a
+magisterial chair, they could not see the interest of the place:
+had they succeeded, that amazing growth would have been crippled,
+which has since astonished the world, and those trades have been
+fettered which have proved the greatest benefit.</p>
+<p>When a man loudly pleads for public good, we shrewdly suspect a
+private emolument lurking beneath. There is nothing more
+detrimental to good neighbourhood, than men in power, where power
+is unnecessary: free as the air we breathe, we subsist by our
+freedom; no command is exercised among us, but that of the laws, to
+which every discreet citizen pays attention--the magistrate who
+distributes justice, tinctured with mercy, merits the thanks of
+society. A train of attendants, a white wand, and a few fiddles,
+are only the fringe, lace, and trappings of charteral office.</p>
+<p>Birmingham, exclusive of her market, ranks among the very lowest
+order of townships; every petty village claims the honour of being
+a constable-wick--we are no more. Our immunities are only the
+trifling privileges anciently granted to the lords; and two thirds
+of these are lost. But, notwithstanding this seemingly forlorn
+state, perhaps there is not a place in the British dominions, where
+so many people are governed by so few officers; nor a place better
+governed: pride, therefore, must have dictated the humble petition
+before us.</p>
+<p>I have seen a copy of this petition, signed by eighty-four of
+the inhabitants; and though without a date, seems to have been
+addressed to King George the First, about 1716: it alledges, "That
+Birmingham is, of late years, become very populous, from its great
+increase of trade; is much superior to any town in the county, and
+but little inferior to any inland town in the kingdom: that it is
+governed only by a constable, and enjoys no more privileges than a
+village: that there is no justice of peace in the town; nor any in
+the neighbourhood, who dares act with vigour: that the country
+abounds with rioters, who, knowing the place to be void of
+magistrates, assemble in it, pull down the meeting-houses, defy the
+king, openly avow the pretender, threaten the inhabitants, and
+oblige them to keep watch in their own houses: that the trade
+decays, and will stagnate, if not relieved. To remedy these evils,
+they beseech his majesty to incorporate the town, and grant such
+privileges as will enable them to support their trade, the king's
+interest, and destroy the villainous attempts of the jacobites. In
+consideration of the requested charter, they make the usual
+offering of <i>lives</i> and <i>fortunes</i>".</p>
+<p>A petition and the petitioner, like Janus with his two faces,
+looks different ways; it is often treated as if it said one thing,
+and meant another; or as if it said any thing but truth. Its use,
+in some places, is to <i>lie on the table</i>. Our humble petition,
+by some means, met with the fate it deserved.</p>
+<p>We may remark, a town without a charter, is a town without a
+shackle. If there was then a necessity to erect a corporation,
+because the town was large, there is none now, though larger: the
+place was not better governed a thousand years ago, when only a
+tenth of its present magnitude; it may also be governed as well a
+thousand years hence, if it should swell to ten times its size.</p>
+<p>The <i>pride</i> of our ancestors was hurt by a petty constable;
+the <i>interest</i> of us, their successors, would be hurt by a
+mayor: a more simple government cannot be instituted, or one more
+efficacious: that of some places is designed for parade, ours for
+use; and both answers their end. A town governed by a multitude of
+governors, is the most likely to be ill-governed.</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image21.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image21.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image21.jpg" width="60%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b><i>The New Brass Works</i>.</b></p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="BRASS_WORKS."></a>BRASS WORKS.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>The manufacture of brass was introduced by the family of Turner,
+about 1740, who erected those works at the south end of
+Coleshill-street; then, near two hundred yards beyond the
+buildings, but now the buildings extend about five hundred beyond
+them.</p>
+<p>Under the black clouds which arose from this corpulent tunnel,
+some of the trades collected their daily supply of brass; but the
+major part was drawn from the Macclesfield, Cheadle, and Bristol
+companies.</p>
+<p>'Causes are known by their effects;' the fine feelings of the
+heart are easily read in the features of the face: the still
+operations of the mind, are discovered by the rougher operations of
+the hand.</p>
+<p>Every creature is fond of power, from that noble head of the
+creation, man, who devours man, down to that insignificant mite,
+who devours his cheese: every man strives to be free himself, and
+to shackle another.</p>
+<p>Where there is power of any kind, whether in the hands of a
+prince, a people, a body of men, or a private person, there is a
+propensity to abuse it: abuse of power will everlastingly seek
+itself a remedy, and frequently find it; nay, even this remedy may
+in time degenerate to abuse, and call loudly for another.</p>
+<p>Brass is an object of some magnitude, in the trades of
+Birmingham; the consumption is said to be a thousand tons per
+annum. The manufacture of this useful article had long been in few,
+and opulent hands; who, instead of making the humble bow, for
+favours received, acted with despotic sovereignty, established
+their own laws, chose their customers, directed the price, and
+governed the market.</p>
+<p>In 1780, the article rose, either through caprice, or necessity,
+perhaps the <i>former</i>, from 72<i>l</i>. a ton to 84<i>l</i>.
+the result was, an advance upon the goods manufactured, followed by
+a number of counter-orders, and a stagnation of business.</p>
+<p>In 1781, a person, from affection to the user, or resentment to
+the maker, perhaps, the <i>latter</i>, harangued the public in the
+weekly papers; censured the arbitrary measures of the brazen
+sovereigns, shewed their dangerous influence over the trades of the
+town, and the easy manner in which works of our own might be
+constructed--good often arises out of evil; this fiery match, dipt
+in brimstone, quickly kindled another furnace in Birmingham. Public
+meetings were advertised, a committee appointed, and subscriptions
+opened to fill two hundred shares, of 100<i>l</i>. each, deemed a
+sufficient capital: each proprietor of a share, to purchase one ton
+of brass, annually. Works were immediately erected upon the banks
+of the canal, for the advantage of water carriage, and the whole
+was conducted with the true spirit of Birmingham freedom.</p>
+<p>If a man can worm himself <i>into</i> a lucrative branch, he
+will use every method to keep another <i>out</i>. All his powers
+may prove ineffectual; for if that other smells the sweet profits
+of the first, <i>he</i> will endeavour to worm himself <i>in</i>:
+both may suffer by the contest, and the public be gainers.</p>
+<p>The old companies, which we may justly consider the directors of
+a south sea bubble in miniature, sunk the price from 84<i>l</i>. to
+56<i>l</i>. Two inferences arise from this measure; that their
+profits were once very high, or are now very low; and, like some
+former monarchs, in the abuse of power, they repented one day too
+late.</p>
+<p>Schemes are generally proclaimed, <i>for public good!</i> but as
+often meant, <i>for private interest</i>.--This, however, varied
+from that rule, and seemed less calculated to benefit those
+immediately, than those remotely concerned: they chose to sustain a
+smaller injury from making brass, than a greater from the
+makers.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="PRISON."></a>PRISON.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>If the subject is little, but little can be said upon it; I
+shall shine as dimly in this chapter on confinement, as in that on
+government. The traveller who sets out lame, will probably limp
+through the journey.</p>
+<p>Many of my friends have assured me, "That I must have
+experienced much trouble in writing the history of Birmingham." But
+I assure them in return, that I range those hours among the
+happiest of my life; and part of that happiness may consist in
+delineating the bright side of human nature. Pictures of deformity,
+whether of body or of mind, disgust--the more they approach towards
+beauty, the more they charm.</p>
+<p>All the chapters which compose this work, were formed with
+pleasure, except the latter part of that upon <i>births and
+burials</i>; there, being forced to apply to the parish books, I
+<i>figured</i> with some obstruction. Poor <i>Allsop</i>, full of
+good-nature and affliction, fearful lest I should sap the church,
+could not receive me with kindness. When a man's resources lie
+within himself, he draws at pleasure; but when necessity throws him
+upon the parish, he draws in small sums, and with difficulty.</p>
+<p>I either <i>have</i>, or <i>shall</i> remark, for I know not in
+what nich I shall exhibit this posthumous chapter, drawn like one
+of our sluggish bills, <i>three months after date</i>, "That
+Birmingham does not abound in villainy, equal to some other places:
+that the hand employed in business, has less time, and less
+temptation, to be employed in mischief; and that one magistrate
+alone, corrected the enormities of this numerous people, many years
+before I knew them, and twenty-five after." I add, that the ancient
+lords of Birmingham, among their manorial privileges, had the grant
+of a gallows, for capital punishment; but as there are no traces
+even of the name, in the whole manor, I am persuaded no such thing
+was ever erected, and perhaps the <i>anvil</i> prevented it.</p>
+<p>Many of the rogues among us are not of our own growth, but are
+drawn hither, as in London, to shelter in a crowd, and the easier
+in that crowd to pursue their game. Some of them fortunately catch,
+from example, the arts of industry, and become useful: others
+continue to cheat for one or two years, till frightened by the grim
+aspect of justice, they decamp.</p>
+<p>Our vile and obscure prison, termed <i>The Dungeon</i>, is a
+farther proof how little that prison has been an object of notice,
+consequently of use.</p>
+<p>Anciently the lord of a manor exercised a sovereign power in his
+little dominion; held a tribunal on his premises, to which was
+annexed a prison, furnished with implements for punishment; these
+were claimed by the lords of Birmingham. This crippled species of
+jurisprudence, which sometimes made a man judge in his own cause,
+from which there was no appeal, prevailed in the highlands of
+Scotland, so late as the rebellion in 1745, when the peasantry, by
+act of parliament, were restored to freedom.</p>
+<p>Early perhaps in the sixteenth century, when the house of
+Birmingham, who had been chief gaolers, were fallen, a building was
+erected, which covered the east end of New-street, called the
+Leather-hall: the upper part consisted of a room about fifty feet
+long, where the public business of the manor was transacted. The
+under part was divided into several: one of these small rooms was
+used for a prison: but about the year 1728, <i>while men slept an
+enemy came</i>, a private agent to the lord of the manor, and
+erazed the Leather-hall and the Dungeon, erected three houses on
+the spot, and received their rents till 1776, when the town
+purchased them for 500<i>l</i>. to open the way. A narrow passage
+on the south will be remembered for half a century to come, by the
+name of the <i>dungeon-entry</i>.</p>
+<p>A dry cellar, opposite the demolished hall, was then
+appropriated for a prison, till the town of all bad places chose
+the worst, the bottom of Peck-lane; dark, narrow, and unwholesome
+within; crowded with dwellings, filth and distress without, the
+circulation of air is prevented.</p>
+<p>As a growing taste for public buildings has for some time
+appeared among us, we might, in the construction of a prison, unite
+elegance and use; and the west angle of that land between
+New-street and Mount-pleasant, might be suitable for the purpose;
+an airy spot in the junction of six streets. The proprietor of the
+land, from his known attachment to Birmingham, would, I doubt not,
+be much inclined to grant a favour.--Thus, I have expended ten
+<i>score</i> words, to tell the world what another would have told
+them in <i>ten</i>--"That our prison is wretched, and we want a
+better."</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="CLODSHALES_CHANTRY."></a>CLODSHALES CHANTRY.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>It is an ancient remark, "The world is a farce." Every
+generation, and perhaps every individual, acts a part in disguise;
+but when the curtain falls, the hand of the historian pulls off the
+mask, and displays the character in its native light. Every
+generation differs from the other, <i>yet all are right</i>. Time,
+fashion, and sentiment change together. We laugh at the oddity of
+our fore-fathers--our successors will laugh at us.</p>
+<p>The prosperous anvil of Walter de Clodshale, a native of this
+place, had enabled him to acquire several estates in Birmingham, to
+purchase the lordship of Saltley, commence gentleman, and reside in
+the manor-house, now gone to decay, though its traces remain, and
+are termed by common people, <i>the Giant's Castle</i>. This man,
+having well provided for the <i>present</i>, thought it prudent, at
+the close of life, to provide for the <i>future</i>: he therefore
+procured a licence, in 1331, from William de Birmingham, lord of
+the see, and another from the crown, to found a chantry at the
+altar in St. Martin's church, for one priest, to pray for his soul,
+and that of his wife.</p>
+<p>He gave, that he might be safely wafted into the arms of
+felicity, by the breath of a priest, four houses, twenty acres of
+land, and eighteen-pence rent, issuing out of his estates in
+Birmingham.</p>
+<p>The same righteous motive induced his son Richard, in 1348, to
+grant five houses, ten acres of land, and ten shillings rent, from
+the Birmingham estates, to maintain a second priest, who was to
+secure the souls of himself and his wife. The declaration of
+Christ, in that pious age, seems to have been inverted; for instead
+of its being difficult for a rich man to enter the kingdom of
+heaven, it was difficult for him to miss it. We are not told what
+became of him who had nothing to give! If the profits of the estate
+tended the right way, perhaps there was no great concern which way
+either <i>Walter</i> or <i>Richard</i> tended.</p>
+<p>The chantorial music continued two hundred and four years, till
+1535, when Henry the Eighth closed the book, turned out the
+priests, who were Sir Thomas Allen and Sir John Green, and seized
+the property, valued at 5<i>l</i>. 1s. per annum. Permit me again
+to moralize upon this fashionable practice of ruining the family,
+for the health of the soul: except some lawful creditor puts in a
+claim, which justice ought to allow, a son has the same right to an
+estate, after the death of his father, as that father had before
+him.</p>
+<p>Had Walter and Richard taken <i>equal</i> care of their souls,
+and their estate, the first might have been as safe as in the hands
+of a priest, and the last, at this day, have been the property of
+that ancient, and once noble race of Arden, long since in distress;
+who, in 1426, married the heiress of their house.--Thus, a family,
+benefited by the hammer, was injured by the church.</p>
+<p>Had the hands of these two priests ministered to their wants, in
+the construction of tents and fishing-nets, like those of their
+predecessors, St. Paul and St. Peter, though their pride would have
+been eclipsed, their usefulness would have shone, and the world
+have been gainers by their labour. Two other lessons may be learnt
+from this little ecclesiastical history--</p>
+<p>The astonishing advance of landed property in Birmingham: nine
+houses, and thirty acres of land, two hundred and fifty years ago,
+were valued at the trifling rent of 4<i>l</i>. 9s. 6d. per annum;
+one of the acres, or one of the houses, would at this day bring
+more. We may reasonably suppose they were under-rated; yet, even
+then, the difference is amasing. An acre, within a mile of
+Birmingham, now sells for about one hundred pounds, and lets from
+three pounds to five, some as high as seven.</p>
+<p>And, the nation so overswarmed with ecclesiastics, that the
+spiritual honours were quickly devoured, and the race left hungry;
+they therefore fastened upon the temporal--hence we boast of two
+knighted priests.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="OCCURRENCES."></a>OCCURRENCES.</h2>
+<h3>EARTHQUAKE, &amp;c.</h3>
+<br>
+<p>It is a doctrine singular and barbarous, but it is nevertheless
+true, that <i>destruction is necessary</i>. Every species of
+animals would multiply beyond their bounds in the creation, were
+not means devised to thin their race.</p>
+<p>I perused an author in 1738, who asserts, "The world might
+maintain sixty times the number of its present inhabitants." Two
+able disputants, like those in religion, might maintain sixty
+arguments on the subject, and like them, leave the matter where
+they found it. But if restraint was removed, the present number
+would be multiplied into sixty, in much less than one century.</p>
+<p>Those animals appropriated for use, are suffered, or rather
+invited, to multiply without limitation. But <i>luxury</i> cuts off
+the beast, the pig, the sheep, and the fowl, and ill treatment the
+horse: vermin of every kind, from the lion to the louse, are hunted
+to death; a perpetual contest seems to exist between them and us;
+they for their preservation, and we for their extinction. The
+kitten and the puppy are cast <i>into</i> the water, to end their
+lives; <i>out</i> of which the fishes are drawn to end
+theirs--animals are every were devoured by animals.</p>
+<p>Their grand governor, man himself, is under controul; some by
+religious, others by interested motives. Even the fond parent,
+seldom wishes to increase the number of those objects, which of all
+others he values most!</p>
+<p>In civilized nations the superior class are restrained by the
+laws of honour, the inferior by those of bastardy; but,
+notwithstanding these restraints, the human race would increase
+beyond measure, were they not taken off by casualties. It is in our
+species alone, that we often behold the infant flame extinguished
+by the wretched nurse.</p>
+<p>Three dreadful calamities attending existence, are inundations,
+fires, and earthquakes; devestation follows their footsteps, But
+<i>one</i> calamity, more destructive than them all, rises from man
+himself, <i>war</i>.</p>
+<p>Birmingham, from its elevation, is nearly exempt from the flood;
+our inundations, instead of sweeping away life and fortune, sweep
+away the filth from the kennel.</p>
+<p>It is amasing, in a place crowded with people, that so
+<i>much</i> business, and so <i>little</i> mischief is done by
+fire: we abound more with party walls, than with timber buildings.
+Utensils are ever ready to extinguish the flames, and a generous
+spirit to use them. I am not certain that a conflagration of
+50<i>l</i>. damage, has happened within memory.</p>
+<p>I have only one earthquake to record, felt Nov. 15, 1772, at
+four in the morning; it extended about eight miles in length, from
+Hall-green to Erdington, and four in breadth, of which Birmingham
+was part. The shaking of the earth continued about five seconds,
+with unequal vibration, sufficient to awake a gentle sleeper, throw
+down a knife carelessly reared up, or rattle the brass drops of a
+chest of drawers. A flock of sheep, in a field near Yardley,
+frightened at the trembling, ran away.--No damage was
+sustained.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="PITMORE_AND_HAMMOND."></a>PITMORE AND HAMMOND.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Thomas Pitmore, a native of Cheshire, after consuming a fortune
+of 700<i>l</i>. was corporal in the second regiment of foot; and
+John Hammond, an American by birth, was drummer in the
+thirty-sixth; both of recruiting parties in Birmingham.</p>
+<p>Having procured a brace of pistols, they committed several
+robberies in the dark, on the highways.</p>
+<p>At eight in the evening of November 22, 1780, about five hundred
+yards short of the four mile-stone, in the Coleshill road, they met
+three butchers of Birmingham, who closely followed each other in
+their return from Rugby fair. One of the robbers attempted the
+bridle of the first man, but his horse, being young, started out of
+the road, and ran away. The drummer then attacked the second,
+Wilfred Barwick, with "Stop your horse," and that moment, through
+the agitation of a timorous mind, discharged a pistol, and lodged a
+brace of slugs in the bowels of the unfortunate Barwick, who
+exclaimed, "I am a dead man!" and fell.</p>
+<p>The corporal instantly disappeared, and was afterwards, by the
+light of the show upon the ground, seen retreating to Birmingham.
+The drummer ran forwards about forty yards, and over a stile into
+Ward-end field. A fourth butcher of their company, and a lad, by
+this time came up, who, having heard the report of a pistol, seen
+the flash, and the drummer enter the field, leaped over the hedge
+in pursuit of the murderer. A frey ensued, in which the drummer was
+seized, who desired them not to take his life, but leave him to the
+laws of his country.</p>
+<p>Within half an hour, the deceased and the captive appeared
+together in the same room, at the Horse-shoe. What must then be the
+feelings of a mind, susceptible of impression by nature, but weakly
+calloused over by art? This is one instance, among many, which
+shews us, a life of innocence, is alone a life of happiness.</p>
+<p>The drummer impeached his companion, who was perhaps the most
+guilty of the two, and they were both that night lodged in the
+dungeon.</p>
+<p>Upon the trial, March 31, 1781, the matter was too plain to be
+controverted. The criminals were executed, and hung in chains at
+Washwood-heath, April 2; the corporal at the age of 25, and the
+drummer 22.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="RIOTS."></a>RIOTS.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Three principal causes of riot are, the low state of wages, the
+difference in political sentiment, and the rise of provisions:
+these causes, like inundations, produce dreadful effects, and like
+them, return at uncertain periods.</p>
+<p>The journeyman in Birmingham is under no temptation to demand an
+additional price for his labour, which is already higher than the
+usual mark.</p>
+<p>There is no nation fonder of their king than the English; which
+is a proof that monarchy suits the genius of the people: there is
+no nation more jealous of his power, which proves that liberty is a
+favourite maxim. Though the laws have complimented him with
+<i>much</i>, yet he well knows, a prerogative upon the stretch, is
+a prerogative in a dangerous state.</p>
+<p>The more a people value their prince, the more willing are they
+to contend in his favour.</p>
+<p>The people of England revered the memory of their beloved Saxon
+kings, and doubly lamented their fall, with that of their
+liberties.</p>
+<p>They taxed themselves into beggary, to raise the amasing sum of
+100,000<i>l</i>. to release Richard the First, unjustly taken
+captive by Leopold.</p>
+<p>They protected Henry the Fifth from death, at Agincourt, and
+received that death themselves.</p>
+<p>They covered the extreme weakness of Henry the Sixth, who
+<i>never said a good thing, or did a bad one</i>, with the mantle
+of royalty; when a character like his, without a crown, would have
+been hunted through life: they gave him the title of <i>good king
+Henry</i>, which would well have suited, had the word <i>king</i>
+been omitted; they sought him a place in the kalendar of saints,
+and made <i>him</i> perform the miracles of an angel when dead, who
+could never perform the works of a man, when living.</p>
+<p>The people shewed their attachment to Henry the Eighth, by
+submitting to the faggot and the block, at his command; and with
+their last breath, praying for their butcher.</p>
+<p>Affection for Charles the First, induced four of his friends to
+offer their own heads, to save his.--The wrath, and the tears of
+the people, succeeded his melancholy exit.</p>
+<p>When James the Second eloped from the throne, and was casually
+picked up at Feversham, by his injured subjects, <i>they remembered
+he was their king</i>.</p>
+<p>The church and Queen Anne, like a joyous co-partnership, were
+toasted together. The barrel was willingly emptied to honour the
+queen, and the toaster lamented he could honour her no more.</p>
+<p>The nation displayed their love to Charles the Second, by
+latticing the forests. His climbing the oak at Boscobel, has been
+the destruction of more timber than would have filled the harbour
+of Portsmouth; the tree which flourished in the field, was brought
+to die in the street. Birmingham, for ninety years, honoured him
+with her vengeance against the woods; and she is, at this day,
+surrounded with mutilated oaks, which stand as martyrs to
+royalty.</p>
+<p>It is singular, that the oak, which assisted the devotion of the
+Britons, composed habitations for the people, and furniture for
+those habitations; that, while standing, was an ornament to the
+country that bore it; and afterwards guarded the land which nursed
+it, should be the cause of continual riots, in the reign of George
+the First. We could not readily accede to a line of strangers, in
+preference to our ancient race of kings, though loudly charged with
+oppression.</p>
+<p>Clubs and tumults supported the spirit of contention till 1745,
+when, as our last act of animosity, we crowned an ass with turnips,
+in derision of one of the worthiest families that ever eat
+them.</p>
+<p>Power, in the hand of ignorance, is an edge-tool of the most
+dangerous kind. The scarcity of provisions, in 1766, excited the
+murmurs of the poor. They began to breathe vengeance against the
+farmer, miller, and baker, for doing what they do themselves,
+procure the greatest price for their property.</p>
+<p>On the market day, a common labourer, like Massenello of Naples,
+formed the resolution to lead a mob.</p>
+<p>He therefore erected his standard, which was a mop inverted,
+assembled the crowd, and roared out the old note, "Redress of
+Grievances." The colliers, with all their dark retinue, were to
+bring destruction from Wednesbury. Amazement seised the town! the
+people of fortune trembled: John Wyrley, an able magistrate, for
+the first time frightened in office, with quivering lips, and a
+pale aspect, swore in about eighty constables, to oppose the rising
+storm, armed each of them with a staff of authority, warm from the
+turning-lathe, and applied to the War-office for a military
+force.</p>
+<p>The lime-powdered monarch began to fabricate his own laws,
+direct the price of every article, which was punctually obeyed.</p>
+<p>Port, or power, soon overcome a weak head; the more copious the
+draught, the more quick intoxication: he entered many of the shops,
+and was every where treated with the utmost reverence; took
+whatever goods he pleased, and distributed them among his
+followers; till one of the inhabitants, provoked beyond measure at
+his insolence, gave him a hearty kick on the posteriors, when the
+hero and his consequence, like that of Wat Tyler, fell
+together.--Thus ended a reign of seven hours; the sovereign was
+committed to prison, as sovereigns ought, in the abuse of power,
+and harmony was restored without blood.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="THE_CONJURERS."></a>THE CONJURERS.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>No <i>head</i> is a vacuum. Some, like a paltry cottage, are ill
+accommodated, dark, and circumscribed; others are capacious as
+Westminster-Hall. Though none are immense, yet they are capable of
+immense furniture. The more room is taken up by knowledge, the less
+remains for credulity. The more a man is acquainted with things,
+the more willing to <i>give up the ghost</i>. Every town and
+village, within my knowledge, has been pestered with spirits; which
+appear in horrid forms to the imagination in the winter night--but
+the spirits which haunt Birmingham, are those of industry and
+luxury.</p>
+<p>If we examine the whole parish, we cannot produce one <i>old</i>
+witch; but we have plenty of young, who exercise a powerful
+influence over us. Should the ladies accuse the harsh epithet, they
+will please to consider, I allow them, what of all things they most
+wish for, <i>power</i>, therefore the balance is in my favor.</p>
+<p>If we pass through the planitary worlds, we shall be able to
+muster up two conjurers, who endeavoured to <i>shine with the
+stars</i>. The first, John Walton, who was so busy in calling the
+nativity of others, he forgot his own.</p>
+<p>Conscious of an application to himself, for the discovery of
+stolen goods, he employed his people to steal them. And though, for
+many years confined to his bed by infirmity, he could conjure away
+the property of others, and, for a reward, reconjure it again.</p>
+<p>The prevalence of this evil, induced the legislature, in 1725,
+to make the <i>reception</i> of stolen goods capital. The first
+sacrifice to this law was the noted Jonathan Wild.</p>
+<p>The officers of justice, in 1732, pulled Walton out of his bed,
+in an obscure cottage, one furlong from the town, now
+Brickhill-Lane, carried him to prison, and from thence to the
+gallows--they had better have carried him to the workhouse, and his
+followers to the anvil.</p>
+<p>To him succeeded Francis Kimberley, the only reasoning animal,
+who resided at No. 60, in Dale-End, from his early youth to extreme
+age.--An hermit in a crowd! The windows of his house were strangers
+to light! The shutters forgot to open; the chimney to smoak. His
+cellar, though amply furnished, never knew moisture.</p>
+<p>He spent threescore years in filling six rooms with such
+trumpery as is just too good to be thrown away, and too bad to be
+kept. His life was as inoffensive as long. Instead of
+<i>stealing</i> the goods which other people use, he
+<i>purchased</i> what he could not use himself. He was not anxious
+what kind of property entered his house; if there was <i>bulk</i>
+he was satisfied.</p>
+<p>His dark house, and his dark figure corresponded with each
+other. The apartments, choaked up with lumber, scarcely admitted
+his body, though of the skeleton order. Perhaps leanness is an
+appendage to the science, for I never knew a corpulent
+conjurer.</p>
+<p>His diet, regular, plain, and slender, shewed at how little
+expence life may be sustained.</p>
+<p>His library consisted of several thousand volumes, not one of
+which, I believe, he ever read: having written, in characters
+unknown to all but himself, his name, price, and date, in the
+title-page, he laid them by for ever. The highest pitch of his
+erudition was the annual almanack.</p>
+<p>He never wished to approach a woman, or be approached by one.
+Should the rest of men, for half a century, pay no more attention
+to the fair, some angelic hand might stick up a note, like the
+artic circle over one of our continents, <i>this world to be
+let</i>.</p>
+<p>If he did not cultivate the human species, the spiders, more
+numerous than his books, enjoyed an uninterrupted reign of quiet.
+The silence of the place was not broken: the broom, the book, the
+dust, or the web, was not disturbed. Mercury and his shirt, changed
+their revolutions together; and Saturn changed <i>his</i>, with his
+coat.</p>
+<p>He died, in 1756, as conjurers usually die, unlamented.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="MILITARY_ASSOCIATION."></a>MILITARY ASSOCIATION.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>The use of arms is necessary to every man who has something to
+lose, or something to gain. No property will protect itself. The
+English have liberty and property to lose, but nothing to win. As
+every man is born free, the West-Indian slaves have liberty to
+gain, but nothing to lose. If a rascally African prince attempts to
+sell his people, he ought to be first sold himself; and the buyer,
+who acts so daringly opposite to the Christian precept, is yet more
+blameable. He ought to have the first whip, often mended, worn out
+upon his own back.</p>
+<p>It may seem unnecessary to tell the world, what they already
+know; recent transactions come under this description; but they are
+not known to the stranger, nor to posterity.</p>
+<p>Upon a change of the Northean ministry, in 1782, the new
+premier, in a circular letter, advised the nation to arm, as the
+dangers of invasion threatened us with dreadful aspect.
+Intelligence from a quarter so authentic, locked up the door of
+private judgment, or we might have considered, that even without
+alliance, and with four principal powers upon our hands, we were
+rather gaining ground; that the Americans were so far from
+attacking us, that they wished us to run ourselves out of breath to
+attack them; that Spain had slumbered over a seven years war; that
+the Dutch, provoked at their governors, for the loss of their
+commerce, were more inclinable to invade themselves than us; and
+that as France bore the weight of the contest, we found employment
+for her arms, without invasion; but, perhaps, the letter was only
+an artifice of the new state doctor, to represent his patient in a
+most deplorable state, as a complement to his own merit in
+recovering her.</p>
+<p>Whatever was the cause, nothing could be more agreeable than
+this letter to the active spirit of Birmingham. Public meetings
+were held. The rockets of war were squibbed off in the news-papers.
+The plodding tradesman and the lively hero assembled together in
+arms, and many a trophy was won in thought.</p>
+<p>Each man purchased a genteel blue uniform, decorated with
+epaulets of gold, which, together with his accoutrements, cost
+about 17<i>l</i>. The gentleman, the apprentice, &amp;c. to the
+number of seventy, united in a body, termed by themselves, <i>The
+Birmingham Association</i>; by the wag, <i>the brazen walls of the
+town</i>. Each was to be officer and private by ballet, which gives
+an idea of equality, and was called to exercise once a week.</p>
+<p>The high price of provisions, and the 17th of October, brought a
+dangerous mob into Birmingham. They wanted bread: so did we. But
+little conference passed between them and the inhabitants. They
+were quiet; we were pleased; and, after an hour or two's stay, they
+retreated in peace.</p>
+<p>In the evening, after the enemy were fled, our champions beat to
+arms, breathing vengeance against the hungry crew; and, had they
+returned, some people verily thought our valiant heroes would have
+<i>discharged</i> at them.</p>
+<p>However laudable a system, if built upon a false basis, it will
+not stand. Equality and command, in the same person, are
+incompatiable; therefore, cannot exist together. Subordination is
+necessary in every class of life, but particularly in the military.
+Nothing but severe discipline can regulate the boisterous spirit of
+an army.</p>
+<p>A man may be bound to another, but if he commands the bandage,
+he will quickly set himself free. This was the case with the
+military association. As their uniform resembled that of a
+commander, so did their temper. There were none to submit. The
+result was, the farce ended, and the curtain dropt in December, by
+a quarrel with each other; and, like <i>John</i> and
+<i>Lilborn</i>, almost with themselves.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="BILSTON_CANAL_ACT."></a>BILSTON CANAL ACT.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Envy, like a dark shadow, follows closely the footsteps of
+prosperity; success in any undertaking, out of the circle of
+genius, produces a rival.--This I have instanced in our hackney
+coaches.</p>
+<p>Profits, like a round-bellied bottle, may seem bulky, which,
+like that, will not bear dividing: Thus Orator Jones, in 1774,
+opened a debating society at the Red Lion; he quickly filled a
+large room with customers, and his pockets with money, but he had
+not prudence to keep either. His success opened a rival society at
+the King's-head, which, in a few weeks, annihilated both.</p>
+<p>The growing profits of our canal company, already mentioned, had
+increased the shares from 140<i>l</i>. in 1768, to 400 guineas, in
+1782. These emoluments being thought enormous, a rival company
+sprung up, which, in 1783, petitioned Parliament to partake of
+those emoluments, by opening a parallel cut from some of the
+neighbouring coal-pits; to proceed along the lower level, and
+terminate in Digbeth.</p>
+<p>A stranger might ask, "How the water in our upland country,
+which had never supplied one canal, could supply two? Whether the
+second canal was not likely to rob the first? Whether one able
+canal is not preferable to two lame ones? If a man sells me an
+article cheaper than I can purchase it elsewhere, whether it is of
+consequence to me what are his profits? And whether two companies
+in rivalship would destroy that harmony which has long subsisted in
+Birmingham."</p>
+<p>The new company urged, "The necessity of another canal, lest the
+old should not perform the business of the town; that twenty per
+cent. are unreasonable returns; that they could afford coals under
+the present price; that the south country teams would procure a
+readier supply from Digbeth, than from the present wharf, and not
+passing through the streets, would be prevented from injuring the
+pavement; and that the goods from the Trent would come to their
+wharf by a run of eighteen miles nearer than to the other."</p>
+<p>The old company alledged, "That they ventured their property in
+an uncertain pursuit, which, had it not succeeded, would have
+ruined many individuals; therefore the present gains were only a
+recompense for former hazard: that this property was expended upon
+the faith of Parliament, who were obliged in honour to protect it,
+otherwise no man would risk his fortune upon a public undertaking;
+for should they allow a second canal, why not a third; which would
+become a wanton destruction of right, without benefit; that
+although the profit of the original subscribers might seem large,
+those subscribers are but few; many have bought at a subsequent
+price, which barely pays common interest, and this is all their
+support; therefore a reduction would be barbarous on one side, and
+sensibly felt on the other: and, as the present canal amply
+supplies the town and country, it would be ridiculous to cut away
+good land to make another, which would ruin both."</p>
+<p>I shall not examine the reasons of either, but leave the
+disinterested reader to weigh both in his own balance.</p>
+<p>When two opponents have said all that is true, they generally
+say something more; rancour holds the place of argument.</p>
+<p>Both parties beat up for volunteers in the town, to strengthen
+their forces; from words of acrimony, they came to those of
+virulence; then the powerful batteries of hand-bills, and
+news-papers were opened: every town within fifty miles, interested,
+on either side, was moved to petition, and both prepared for a
+grand attack, confident of victory.</p>
+<p>Perhaps a contest among friends, in matters of property, will
+remove that peace of mind, which twenty per cent. will not
+replace.</p>
+<p>Each party possessed that activity of spirit, for which
+Birmingham is famous, and seemed to divide between them the
+legislative strength of the nation: every corner of the two houses
+was ransacked for a vote; the throne was the only power
+unsolicited. Perhaps at the reading, when both parties had
+marshalled their forces, there was the fullest House of Commons
+ever remembered on a private bill.</p>
+<p>The new company promised much, for besides the cut from
+Wednesbury to Digbeth, they would open another to join the two
+canals of Stafford and Coventry, in which a large track of country
+was interested.</p>
+<p>As the old company were the first adventurers, the house gave
+them the option to perform this Herculean labour, which they
+accepted.</p>
+<p>As parliament have not yet given their determination, and as the
+printer this moment raps at my door, "Sir, the press waits, more
+copy if you please," I cannot stay to tell the world the result of
+the bill; but perhaps, the new proprietors, by losing, will save
+50,000<i>l</i>. and the old, by winning, become sufferers.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="WORKHOUSE_BILL."></a>WORKHOUSE BILL.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>I have often mentioned an active spirit, as the characteristic
+of the inhabitants of Birmingham. This spirit never forsakes them.
+It displays itself in industry, commerce, invention, humanity, and
+internal government. A singular vivacity attends every pursuit till
+compleated, or discarded for a second.</p>
+<p>The bubble of the day, like that at the end of a tobacco-pipe,
+dances in air, exhibits divers beauties, pleases the eye, bursts in
+a moment, and is followed up by another.</p>
+<p>There is no place in the British dominions easier to be governed
+than Birmingham; and yet we are fond of forging acts of parliament
+to govern her.</p>
+<p>There is seldom a point of time in which an act is not in
+agitation; we fabricate them with such expedition, that we could
+employ a parliament of our own to pass them. But, to the honor of
+our ladies, not one of these acts is directed against them. Neither
+is there an instance upon record, that the torch of Hymen was ever
+extinguished by the breath of Marriot in Doctors-Commons.</p>
+<p>In the present spring of 1783, we have four acts upon the anvil:
+every man, of the least consequence, becomes a legislator, and
+wishes to lend his assistance in framing an act; so that instead of
+one lord, as formerly, we now, like the Philistines, have three
+thousand.</p>
+<p>An act of parliament, abstractedly considered, is a dead matter:
+it cannot operate of itself: like a plaister, it must be applied to
+the evil, or that evil will remain. We vainly expect a law to
+perform the intended work; if it does not, we procure another to
+make it. Thus the canal, by one act in 1767, hobbled on, like a man
+with one leg; but a second, in 1770, furnished a pair. The lamp
+act, procured in 1769, was worn to rags, and mended with another in
+1773; and this second has been long out of repair, and waits for a
+third.</p>
+<p>We carry the same spirit into our bye-laws, and with the same
+success. Schemes have been devised, to oblige every man to pay
+levies; but it was found difficult to extract money from him who
+had none.</p>
+<p>In 1754, we brought the manufacture of pack-thread into the
+workhouse, to reduce the levies; the levies increased. A spirited
+overseer afterwards, for the same reason, as if poverty was not a
+sufficient stigma, badged the poor; the levies still increased.</p>
+<p>The advance of bread in 1756, induced the officers to step out
+of the common track, perhaps, out of their knowledge; and, at the
+expence of half a levy, fit up an apparatus for grinding corn in
+the house: thus, by sacrificing half <i>one levy, many would be
+saved</i>. However, in the pursuit, many happened to be lost. In
+1761, the apparatus was sold at a farther loss; and the overseers
+sheltered themselves under the charge of idleness against the
+paupers.</p>
+<p>In 1766, the spinning of mop-yarn was introduced, which might,
+with attention, have turned to account; but unfortunately, the yarn
+proved of less value than the wool.</p>
+<p>Others, with equal wisdom, were to ease the levies, by feeding a
+drove of pigs, which, agreeable to their own nature--ran
+backwards.--Renting a piece of ground, by way of garden, which
+supplied the house with a pennyworth of vegetables, for two-pence,
+adding a few cows, and a pasture; but as the end of all was
+<i>loss</i>, the levies increased.</p>
+<p>In 1780, two collectors were appointed, at fifty guineas each,
+which would save the town <i>many a hundred</i>; still the levies
+increased.</p>
+<p>A petition is this sessions presented, for an Act to overturn
+the whole pauper system (for our heads are as fond of new fashions,
+in parochial government, as in the hats which cover them) to erect
+a superb workhouse, at the expence of 10,000<i>l</i>. with powers
+to borrow 15,000<i>l</i>. which grand design is to reduce the
+levies <i>one third</i>.--The levies will increase.</p>
+<p>The reasons <i>openly</i> alledged are, "The Out-pensioners,
+which cost 7000<i>l</i>. a year, are the chief foundation of our
+public grievances: that the poor ought to be employed <i>in</i> the
+house, lest their morals become injured by the shops; which
+prevents them from being taken into family service; and, the
+crowded state of the workhouse."--But whether the pride of an
+overseer, in perpetuating his name, is not the pendulum which set
+the machine in motion? Or, whether a man, as well as a spider, may
+not create a <i>place</i>, and, like that--<i>fill it with
+himself</i>?</p>
+<p>The bill directs, That the inhabitants mall chuse a number of
+guardians by ballot, who shall erect a workhouse, on
+Birmingham-heath--a spot as airy as the scheme; conduct a
+manufacture, and the poor; dispose of the present workhouse; seize
+and confine idle or disorderly persons, and keep them to labour,
+till they have reimbursed the parish all expences.</p>
+<p>But it may be asked, Whether spending 15,000<i>l</i>. is likely
+to reduce the levies?</p>
+<p>Whether we shall be laughed at, for throwing by a building, the
+last wing of which cost a thousand pounds, after using it only
+three years?</p>
+<p>Our commerce is carried on by reciprocal obligation. Every
+overseer has his friends, whom he cannot refuse to serve; nay, whom
+he may even wish to serve, if that service costs him nothing:
+hence, that over-grown monster so justly complains of, <i>The
+Weekly Tickets</i>; it follows, whether <i>sixty</i> guardians are
+not likely to have more friends to serve, than six overseers?</p>
+<p>Whether the trades of the town, by a considerable manufacture
+established at the workhouse, will not be deprived of their most
+useful hands?</p>
+<p>Whether it is not a maxim of the wisest men who have filled the
+office, "to endeavour to keep the poor <i>out</i> of the house, for
+if they are admitted, they become more chargeable; nor will they
+leave it without clothing?"</p>
+<p>A workhouse is a kind of prison, and a dreadful one to those of
+tender feelings--Whether the health of an individual, the ideas of
+rectitude, or the natural right of our species, would not be
+infringed by a cruel imprisonment.</p>
+<p>If a man has followed an occupation forty years, and necessity
+sends him to the parish, whether is it preferable to teach him a
+new trade, or suffer him to earn what he can at his old? If we
+decide for the latter, whether he had better walk four hundred
+yards to business, or four miles? His own infirmity will determine
+this question.</p>
+<p>If a young widow be left with two children, shall she pay a girl
+six-pence a week to tend them, while she earns five shillings at
+the mops, and is allowed two by the parish, or shall all three
+reside in the house, at the weekly expence of six, and she be
+employed in nursing them? If we again declare for the latter, it
+follows, that the parish will not only have four shillings a week,
+but the community may gain half a crown by her labour.</p>
+<p>Whether the morals of the children are more likely to be injured
+by the shops, than the morals of half the children in town; many of
+whom labour to procure levies for the workhouse?</p>
+<p>Whether the morals of a child will be more corrupted in a small
+shop, consisting of a few persons, or in a large one at the
+workhouse, consisting of hundreds?</p>
+<p>Whether the grand shop at Birmingham-heath, or at any heath,
+will train girls for service, preferable to others?</p>
+<p>Shall we, because the house has been crowded a few weeks, throw
+away 15000<i>l</i>. followed by a train of evils? A few months ago,
+I saw in it a large number of vacant beds. Besides, at a small
+expence, and without impeding the circulation of air, conveniency
+may be made for one hundred more.</p>
+<p>Did a manufacture ever prosper under a multitude of inspectors,
+not one of which is to taste the least benefit?</p>
+<p>As public business, which admits no profit, such as vestry
+assemblies, commissions of lamps, turnpike meetings, &amp;c. are
+thinly attended, even in town; what reason is there to expect a
+board two miles in the country?</p>
+<p>The workhouse may be deemed <i>The Nursery of Birmingham</i>, in
+which she deposits her infants, for future service: the unfortunate
+and the idle, till they can be set upon their own basis; and the
+decrepid, during the few remaining sands in their glass. If we
+therefore carry the workhouse to a distance, whether we shall not
+interrupt that necessary intercourse which ought to subsist between
+a mother and her offspring? As sudden sickness, indications of
+child-birth, &amp;c. require immediate assistance, a life in
+extreme danger may chance to be lost by the length of the road.</p>
+<p>If we keep the disorderly till they have reimbursed the parish,
+whether we do not acquire an inheritance for life?</p>
+<p>We censure the officer who pursues a phantom at the expence of
+others; we praise him who <i>teaches the poor to live</i>.</p>
+<p>All the evils complained of, may be removed by <i>attention in
+the man</i>; the remedy is not in an act. He therefore accuses his
+own want of application, in soliciting government to <i>do</i> what
+he might do himself--Expences are saved by private acts of
+oeconomy, not by public Acts of Parliament.</p>
+<p>It has long been said, <i>think</i> and <i>act</i>; but as our
+internal legislators chuse to reverse the maxim by fitting up an
+expensive shop; then seeking a trade to bring in, perhaps they may
+place over the grand entrance, <i>act</i> and <i>think</i>.</p>
+<p>One remark should never be lost sight of, <i>The more we tax the
+inhabitants, the sooner they leave us, and carry off the
+trades</i>.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="THE_CAMP."></a>THE CAMP.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>I have already remarked, <i>a spirit of bravery is part of the
+British character</i>. The perpetual contests for power, among the
+Britons, the many roads formed by the Romans, to convey their
+military force, the prodigious number of camps, moats, and broken
+castles, left us by the Saxons, Danes, and Normans, our common
+ancestors, indicate <i>a martial temper</i>. The names of those
+heroic sovereigns, Edward the Third, and Henry the Fifth, who
+brought their people to the fields of conquest, descend to
+posterity with the highest applause, though they brought their
+kingdom to the brink of ruin; while those quiet princes, Henry the
+Seventh, and James the First, who cultivated the arts of peace, are
+but little esteemed, though under their sceptre, England
+experienced the greatest improvement.--The man who dare face an
+enemy, is the most likely to gain a friend. A nation versed in
+arms, stands the fairest chance to protect its property, and secure
+its peace: war itself may be hurtful, the knowledge of it
+useful.</p>
+<p>In Mitchly-park, three miles west of Birmingham, in the parish
+of Edgbaston, is <i>The Camp</i>; which might be ascribed to the
+Romans, lying within two or three stones cast of their
+Ikenield-street, where it divides the counties of Warwick and
+Worcester, but is too extensive for that people, being about thirty
+acres: I know none of their camps more than four, some much less;
+it must, therefore, have been the work of those pilfering vermin
+the Danes, better acquainted with other peoples property than their
+own; who first swarmed on the shores, then over-ran the interior
+parts of the kingdom, and, in two hundred years, devoured the
+whole.</p>
+<p>No part of this fortification is wholly obliterated, though, in
+many places, it is nearly levelled by modern cultivation, that
+dreadful enemy to the antiquary. Pieces of armour are frequently
+ploughed up, particularly parts of the sword and the battle-axe,
+instruments much used by those destructive sons of the raven.</p>
+<p>The platform is quadrangular, every side nearly four hundred
+yards; the center is about six acres, surrounded by three ditches,
+each about eight yards over, at unequal distances; though upon a
+descent, it is amply furnished with water. An undertaking of such
+immense labour, could not have been designed for temporary use.</p>
+<p>The propriety of the spot, and the rage of the day for
+fortification, seem to have induced the Middlemores, lords of the
+place for many centuries, and celebrated for riches, but in the
+beginning of this work, for poverty, to erect a park, and a lodge;
+nothing of either exist, but the names.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="MORTIMERS_BANK"></a>MORTIMER's BANK.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>The traveller who undertakes an extensive journey, cannot chuse
+his road, or his weather: sometimes the prospect brightens, with a
+serene sky, a smooth path, and a smiling sun; all within and
+without him is chearful.</p>
+<p>Anon he is assailed by the tempests, stumbles over the ridges,
+is bemired in the hollows, the sun hides his face, and his own is
+sorrowful--this is the lot of the historian; he has no choice of
+subject, merry or mournful, he must submit to the changes which
+offer; delighted with the prosperous tale, depressed with the
+gloomy.</p>
+<p>I am told, this work has often drawn a smile from the reader; it
+has often drawn a sigh from me. A celebrated painter fell in love
+with the picture he drew; I have wept at mine--Such is the chapter
+of the Lords, and the Workhouse. We are not always proof against a
+melancholy or a tender sentiment.</p>
+<p>Having pursued our several stages, with various fortune, through
+fifty chapters, at the close of this last tragic scene, emotion and
+the journey cease together.</p>
+<p>Upon King's-wood, five miles from Birmingham, and two hundred
+yards east of the Alcester-road, runs a bank for near a mile in
+length, unless obliterated by the new inclosure; for I saw it
+complete in 1775. This was raised by the famous Roger Mortimer,
+Earl of March, about 1324, to inclose a wood, from whence the place
+derives its name.</p>
+<p>Then that feeble monarch, Edward the Second, governed the
+kingdom; the amorous Isabella, his wife, governed the king, and the
+gallant Mortimer governed the queen.</p>
+<p>The parishes of King's-norton, Solihull, Yardley, uniting in
+this wood, and enjoying a right of commons, the inhabitants
+conceived themselves injured by the inclosure, assembled in a body,
+threw down the fence, and murdered the Earl's bailiff.</p>
+<p>Mortimer, in revenge, procured a special writ from the Court of
+Common Pleas, and caused the matter to be tried at Bromsgrove,
+where the affrighted inhabitants, over-awed with power, durst not
+appear in their own vindication. The Earl, therefore, recovered a
+verdict, and the enormous sum of 300<i>l</i>. damage. A sum nearly
+equal, at that time, to the fee-simple of the three parishes.</p>
+<p>The confusion of the times, and the poverty of the people,
+protracted payment, till the unhappy Mortimer, overpowered by his
+enemies, was seized as a criminal in Nottingham-castle; and,
+without being heard, executed at Tyburn, in 1328.</p>
+<p>The distressed inhabitants of our three parishes humbly
+petitioned the crown, for a reduction of the fine; when Edward the
+Third was pleased to remit about 260<i>l</i>.</p>
+<p>We can assign no reason for this imprudent step of inclosing the
+wood, unless the Earl intended to procure a grant of the manor,
+then in the crown, for his family. But what he could not accomplish
+by family, was accomplished by fortune; for George the Third, King
+of Great Britain, is lord of the manor of King's-norton, and a
+descendant from the house of Mortimer.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>F I N I S.</h2>
+<br>
+
+<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13926 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
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+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
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+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #13926 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13926)
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+Project Gutenberg's An History of Birmingham (1783), by William Hutton
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: An History of Birmingham (1783)
+
+Author: William Hutton
+
+Release Date: November 2, 2004 [EBook #13926]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM (1783) ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Charlie Kirschner and the PG Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+AN
+
+HISTORY
+
+OF
+
+BIRMINGHAM.
+
+[Illustration: the-text-caption]
+
+
+
+
+THE SECOND EDITION,
+
+WITH CONSIDERABLE ADDITIONS.
+
+
+By W. HUTTON.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+A preface rather induces a man to speak of himself, which is deemed the
+worst subject upon which he _can_ speak. In history we become acquainted
+with things, but in a preface with the author; and, for a man to treat
+of himself, may be the most _difficult_ talk of the two: for in history,
+facts are produced ready to the hand of the historian, which give birth
+to thought, and it is easy to cloath that thought in words. But in a
+preface, an author is obliged to forge from the brain, where he is
+sometimes known to forge without fire. In one, he only reduces a
+substance into form; but in the other, he must create that substance.
+
+As I am not an author by profession, it is no wonder if I am
+unacquainted with the modes of authorship; but I apprehend, the usual
+method of conducting the pen, is to polish up a founding title-page,
+dignified with scraps of Latin, and then, to hammer up a work to fit it,
+as nearly as genius, or want of genius, will allow.
+
+We next _turn over a new leaf_, and open upon a pompous dedication,
+which answers many laudable purposes: if a coat of arms, correctly
+engraven, should step first into view, we consider it a singular
+advantage gained over a reader, like the first blow in a combat. The
+dedication itself becomes a pair of stilts, which advance an author
+something higher.
+
+As a horse-shoe, nailed upon the threshold of a cottage, prevents the
+influence of the witch; so a first-rate name, at the head of a
+dedication, is a total bar against the critic; but this great name, like
+a great officer, sometimes unfortunately stands at the head of
+wretched troops.
+
+When an author is too _heavy_ to swim of himself, it serves as a pair of
+bladders, to prevent his sinking.
+
+It is farther productive of a _solid_ advantage, that of a present from
+the patron, more valuable than that from the bookseller, which prevents
+his sinking under the pressure of famine.
+
+But, being wholly unknown to the great names of literary consequence, I
+shall not attempt a dedication, therefore must lose the benefit of the
+stilt, the bladder, and the horse-shoe.
+
+Were I to enter upon a dedication, I should certainly address myself,
+"_To the Inhabitants of Birmingham_." For to them I not only owe much,
+but all; and I think, among that congregated mass, there is not one
+person to whom I wish ill. I have the pleasure of calling many of those
+inhabitants _Friends_, and some of them share my warm affections equally
+with myself. Birmingham, like a compassionate nurse, not only draws our
+persons, but our esteem, from the place of our nativity, and fixes it
+upon herself: I might add, _I was hungry, and she fed me_; _thirsty, and
+she gave me drink_; _a stranger, and she took me in_. I approached her
+with reluctance, because I did not know her; I shall leave her with
+reluctance, because I do.
+
+Whether it is perfectly confident in an author, to solicit the
+indulgence of the public, though it may stand first in his wishes,
+admits a doubt; for, if his productions will not bear the light, it may
+be said, why does he publish? but, if they will, there is no need to ask
+a favor; the world receives one from him. Will not a piece everlastingly
+be tried by its merit? Shall we esteem it the higher, because it was
+written at the age of thirteen? because it was the effort of a week?
+delivered extempore? hatched while the author stood upon one leg? or
+cobbled, while he cobbled a shoe? or will it be a recommendation, that
+it issues forth in gilt binding? The judicious world will not be
+deceived by the tinselled purse, but will examine whether the _contents_
+are sterling.
+
+Will it augment the value of this history, or cover its blunders, to
+say, that I have never seen _Oxford?_ That the thick fogs of penury,
+prevented the sun of science from beaming upon the mind? That necessity
+obliged me to lay down the battledore, before I was master of the
+letters? And that, instead of handling systems of knowledge, my hands,
+at the early period of seven, became callous with labour?
+
+But, though a whole group of pretences will have no effect with the
+impartial eye, yet one reason pleads strongly in my favor--no such thing
+ever appeared as _An History of Birmingham_. It is remarkable, that one
+of the most singular places in the universe is without an historian:
+that she never manufactured an history of herself, who has manufactured
+almost every thing else; that so many ages should elapse, and not one
+among her numerous sons of industry, snatch the manners of the day from
+oblivion, group them in design, with the touches of his pen, and exhibit
+the picture to posterity. If such a production had ever seen the light,
+mine most certainly would never have been written; a temporary bridge
+therefore may satisfy the impatient traveller, till a more skilful
+architect shall accommodate him with a complete production of elegance,
+of use, and of duration.--Although works of genius ought to come out of
+the mint doubly refined, yet history admits of a much greater latitude
+to the author. The best upon the subject, though defective, may meet
+with regard.
+
+It has long been a complaint, that local history is much wanted. This
+will appear obvious, if we examine the places we know, with the
+histories that treat of them. Many an author has become a cripple, by
+historically travelling through _all England_, who might have made a
+tolerable figure, had he staid at home. The subject is too copious for
+one performance, or even the life of one man. The design of history is
+knowledge: but, if simply to tell a tale, be all the duty of an
+historian, he has no irksome task before him; for there is nothing more
+easy than to relate a fact; but, perhaps, nothing more difficult than to
+relate it well.
+
+The situation of an author is rather precarious--if the smiles of the
+world chance to meet his labours, he is apt to forget himself; if
+otherwise, he is soon forgot. The efforts of the critic may be necessary
+to clip the wings of a presuming author, lest his rising vanity becomes
+insupportable: but I pity the man, who writes a book which none will
+peruse a second time; critical exertions are not necessary to pull him
+down, he will fall of himself. The sin of writing carries its own
+punishment, the tumultuous passions of anxiety and expectation, like
+the jarring elements in October, disturb his repose, and, like them, are
+followed by stirility: his cold productions, injured by no hand but that
+of time, are found sleeping on the shelf unmolested. It is easy to
+describe his fears before publication, but who can tell his feelings
+after judgment is passed upon his works? His only consolation is
+accusing the critic of injustice, and thinking the world in the wrong.
+But if repentence should not follow the culprit, hardened in scribbling,
+it follows, his bookseller, oppressed with _dead works_. However, if all
+the evils in Pandora's box are emptied on a blasted author, this one
+comfort remains behind--The keeper of a circulating library, or the
+steward of a reading society can tell him, "His book is more _durable_
+than the others."
+
+Having, many years ago, entertained an idea of this undertaking, I made
+some trifling preparations; but, in 1775, a circumstance of a private
+nature occurring, which engaged my attention for several years, I
+relinquished the design, destroyed the materials, and meant to give up
+the thought for ever. But the intention revived in 1780, and the
+work followed.
+
+I may be accused of quitting the regular trammels of history, and
+sporting in the fields of remark: but, although our habitation justly
+stands first in our esteem, in return for rest, content, and protection;
+does it follow that we should never stray from it? If I happen to veer a
+moment from the polar point of Birmingham, I shall certainly vibrate
+again to the center. Every author has a manner peculiar to himself, nor
+can he well forsake it. I should be exceedingly hurt to omit a
+necessary part of intelligence, but more, to offend a reader.
+
+If GRANDEUR should censure me for sometimes recording the men of mean
+life, let me ask, _Which is preferable_, he who thunders at the anvil,
+or in the senate? The man who earnestly wishes the significant letters,
+ESQ. spliced to the end of his name, will despise the question; but the
+philosopher will answer, "They are equal."
+
+Lucrative views have no part in this production: I cannot solicit a kind
+people to grant what they have already granted; but if another finds
+that pleasure in reading, which I have done in writing, I am paid.
+
+As no history is extant, to inform me of this famous nursery of the
+arts, perfection in mine must not be expected. Though I have
+endeavoured to pursue the road to truth; yet, having no light to guide,
+or hand to direct me, it is no wonder if I mistake it: but we do not
+_condemn_, so much as _pity_ the man for losing his way, who first
+travels an unbeaten road.
+
+Birmingham, for want of the recording hand, may be said to live but one
+generation; the transactions of the last age, die in this; memory is the
+sole historian, which being defective, I embalm the present generation,
+for the inspection of the future.
+
+It is unnecessary to attempt a general character, for if the attentive
+reader is himself of Birmingham, he is equally apprized of that
+character; and, if a stranger, he will find a variety of touches
+scattered through the piece, which, taken in a collective view, form a
+picture of that generous people, who _merit his_ esteem, and
+_possess mine_.
+
+
+
+THE
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+
+_Some Account of the Derivation of the Name of
+Birmingham_, ..................................... page 1
+_Situation_, .....................................      3
+_Soil_, ..........................................      6
+_Water_, .........................................      7
+_Baths_, .........................................      8
+_Air_, ...........................................     *8
+_Longevity_, .....................................      9
+_Ancient State of Birmingham_, ...................     13
+_Battle of Camp-hill_, ...........................    *41
+_Modern State of Birmingham_, ....................     40
+_Streets, and their Names_, ......................     53
+_Trade_, .........................................     57
+  _Button_, ......................................     75
+  _Buckle_, ......................................     76
+  _Guns_, ........................................     78
+  _Leather_, .....................................     79
+  _Steel_, .......................................     80
+  _Nails_, .......................................    *83
+  _Bellows_, .....................................    *85
+  _Thread_, ......................................    *89
+  _Printing, by John Baskerville_, ...............    *90
+  _Brass foundry_, ...............................    *94
+  _Hackney Coaches_, .............................     81
+_Bank_, ..........................................     83
+_Government_, ....................................   ibid
+  _Constables_, ..................................     92
+  _Bailiffs_, ....................................     94
+_Court of Requests_, .............................    *99
+_Lamp Act_, ......................................     99
+_Religion and Politics_, .........................    105
+_Places of Worship_, .............................    111
+  _St. John's Chapel, Deritend_, .................    112
+  _St. Bartholomew's_, ...........................    113
+  _St. Mary's_, ..................................    115
+  _St. Paul's_, ..................................   ibid
+  _Old Meeting_, .................................    116
+  _New Meeting_, .................................    117
+  _Carr's-lane Meeting_, .........................    118
+  _Baptist Meeting_, .............................   ibid
+  _Quaker's Meeting_, ............................    120
+  _Methodist Meeting_, ...........................    121
+  _Romish Chapel_, ...............................   *125
+  _Jewish Synagogue_, ............................   *128
+_Theatres_, ......................................    123
+_Amusements_, ....................................    127
+_Hotel_, .........................................   *132
+_Wakes_, .........................................    132
+_Clubs_, .........................................    135
+_Ikenield street_, ...............................    140
+_Lords of the Manor_, ............................    153
+  _Uluuine_, 1050, ...............................    156
+  _Richard_, 1066, ...............................   ibid
+  _William_, 1130, ...............................    161
+  _Peter de Birmingham_, 1154, ...................    161
+  _William de Birmingham_, 1216, .................    163
+  _William de Birmingham_, 1246, .................    164
+  _William de Birmingham_, 1265, .................    165
+  _William de Birmingham_, 1306, .................    166
+  _Sir Fouk de Birmingham_, 1340, ................    168
+  _Sir John de Birmingham_, 1376, ................    169
+  _Lord Clinton_, ................................   ibid
+  _Edmund, Lord Ferrers_, ........................    170
+  _William de Birmingham_, 1430, .................   ibid
+  _Sir William Birmingham_, 1479, ................    171
+  _Edward Birmingham_, 1500, .....................    172
+  _John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland_, 1537, ...    177
+  _Thomas Marrow_, 1555, .........................    180
+  _Thomas Archer_, 1746, .........................    181
+  _Andrew, Lord Archer_, .........................    181
+  _Sarah, Lady Archer_, 1781, ....................   ibid
+_Manor house_, ...................................    182
+_Pudding-brook_, .................................    186
+_Priory_, ........................................    187
+_John à Dean's Hole_, ............................    195
+_Lench's Trust_, .................................    196
+_Fentbam's Trust_, ...............................    200
+_Crowley's Trust_, ...............................    201
+_Scott's Trust_, .................................    202
+_Free School_, ...................................    203
+_Charity School_, ................................    209
+_Dissenting Charity School_, .....................    214
+_Workhouse_, .....................................    215
+_Old Cross_, .....................................    227
+_Welch Cross_, ...................................    229
+_St. Martin's_, ..................................    232
+_St. Philip's_, ..................................    246
+_Births and Burials_, ............................    253
+_General Hospital_, ..............................    256
+_Public Roads_, ..................................    259
+_Canal_, .........................................    266
+_Deritend Bridge_, ...............................    269
+_Soho_, ..........................................    271
+_Danes Camp, Danes Bank, or Bury Fields_, ........    272
+_Gentlemen's Seats_, .............................    273
+  _The Moats_, ...................................    276
+  _Black Greves_, ................................   ibid
+  _Ulverley, or Culverley_, ......................    277
+  _Hogg's Moat_, .................................    278
+  _Yardley_, .....................................    281
+  _Kent's Moat_, .................................    282
+  _Sheldon_, .....................................    283
+  _King's hurst_, ................................   ibid
+  _Coleshill_, ...................................    287
+  _Duddeston_, ...................................    289
+  _Saltley_, .....................................    292
+  _Ward-end_ .....................................    293
+  _Castle Bromwich_, .............................    295
+  _Park hall_, ...................................    299
+  _Berwood_, .....................................    300
+  _Erdington_, ...................................    301
+  _Pipe_, ........................................    303
+  _Aston_, .......................................    306
+  _Witton_, ......................................    309
+  _Blakeley_, ....................................    312
+  _Weoley_, ......................................    313
+_Sutton Coldfield_, ..............................    320
+_Petition for a Corporation_, ....................    324
+_Brass Works_, ...................................    329
+_Prison_, ........................................    332
+_Clodshale's Chantry_, ...........................    336
+_Occurrences_, ...................................    340
+  _Earthquake_, ..................................   ibid
+  _Pitmore and Hammond_, .........................    343
+  _Riots_, .......................................    345
+  _The Conjurers_, ...............................    350
+_Military Association_, ..........................    353
+_Bilston Canal Act_, .............................    357
+_Workhouse Bill_, ................................    361
+_The Camp_, ......................................    370
+_Mortimer's Bank_, ...............................    372
+
+
+
+DIRECTIONS
+
+TO THE
+
+BINDERS,
+
+FOR PLACING THE
+
+COPPER-PLATES.
+
+Prospect of Birmingham,          to face the Title.
+Plan, ........................................   43
+Alm's-houses, ................................  *58
+St. John's Chapel, Deritend, .................  111
+St. Bartholomew's, ...........................  113
+St. Mary's, ..................................  115
+St. Paul's, ..................................  116
+Old and New Meetings, ........................  117
+New Theatre, .................................  123
+Hotel, .......................................  130
+Free School, .................................  203
+Charity School, ..............................  209
+Workhouse, ...................................  215
+Old and Welch Cross, .........................  229
+St. Martin's Church, .........................  232
+St. Philip's, ................................  246
+General Hospital, ............................  256
+Canal, .......................................  265
+Navigation Office, ...........................  267
+Brass Works, .................................  329
+
+
+
+AN
+
+HISTORY &c.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Some account of the derivation of the name of Birmingham_.
+
+The word Birmingham, is too remote for certain explanation. During the
+last four centuries it has been variously written _Brumwycheham,
+Bermyngeham, Bromwycham, Burmyngham, Bermyngham, Byrmyngham_, and
+_Birmingham_; nay, even so late as the seventeenth century it was
+written _Bromicham_. Dugdale supposes the name to have been given by the
+planter, or owner, in the time of the Saxons; but, I suppose it much
+older than any Saxon, date: besides, it is not so common for a man to
+give a name to, as to take one from, a place. A man seldom gives his
+name except he is the founder, as Petersburg from Peter the Great.
+
+Towns, as well as every thing in nature, have exceedingly minute
+beginnings, and generally take a name from situation, or local
+circumstances. Would the Lord of a manor think it an honour to give his
+name to two or three miserable huts? But, if in a succession of ages
+these huts swell into opulence, they confer upon the lord an honour, a
+residence, and a name. The terminations of _sted_, _ham_, and _hurst_,
+are evidently Saxon, and mean the same thing, a home.
+
+The word, in later ages reduced to a certainty, hath undergone various
+mutations; but the original seems to have been _Bromwych_; _Brom_
+perhaps, from broom a shrub, for the growth of which the soil is
+extremely favourable; _Wych_, a descent, this exactly corresponds with
+the declivity from the High Street to Digbeth. Two other places also in
+the neigbourhood bear the same name, which serves to strengthen
+the opinion.
+
+This infant colony, for many centuries after the first buddings of
+existence, perhaps, had no other appellation than that of Bromwych. Its
+center, for many reasons that might be urged, was the Old Cross, and its
+increase, in those early ages of time must have been very small.
+
+A series of prosperity attending it, its lord might assume its name,
+reside in it, and the particle _ham_ would naturally follow. This very
+probably happened under the Saxon Heptarchy, and the name was no other
+than _Bromwycham_.
+
+
+
+SITUATION.
+
+It lies near the centre of the kingdom, in the north-west extremity of
+the county of Warwick, in a kind of peninsula, the northern part of
+which is bounded by Handsworth, in the county of Stafford, and the
+southern by King's-norton, in the county of Worcester; it is also in the
+diocese of Lichfield and Coventry, and in the deanery of Arden.
+
+Let us perambulate the parish from the bottom of Digbeth, thirty yards
+north of the bridge. We will proceed south-west up the bed of the river,
+with Deritend, in the parish of Aston, on our left. Before we come to
+the Floodgates, near Vaughton's Hole, we pass by the Longmores, a small
+part of King's-norton. Crossing the river Rea, we enter the vestiges of
+a small rivulet, yet visible, though the stream hath been turned,
+perhaps, a thousand years, to supply the moat. We now bear rather west,
+nearly in a straight line for three miles, to Shirland brook, with
+Edgbaston on the left. At the top of the first meadow from the river
+Rea, we meet the little stream above-mentioned, in the pursuit of which,
+we cross the Bromsgrove road a little east of the first mile stone.
+Leaving Banner's marlpit to the left, we proceed up a narrow lane
+crossing the old Bromsgrove road, and up to the turnpike at the five
+ways in the road to Hales Owen. Leaving this road also to the left we
+proceed down the lane towards Ladywood, cross the Icknield street, a
+stone's cast east of the observatory, to the north extremity of Rotton
+Park. We now meet with Shirland Brook, which leads us east, and across
+the Dudley road, at the seven mile stone, having Smethwick in the county
+of Stafford, on the left, down to Pigmill. We now leave Handsworth on
+the left, following the stream through Hockley great pool; cross the
+Wolverhampton road, and the Ikenield-street at the same time down to
+Aston furnace, with that parish on the left. At the bottom of
+Walmer-lane we leave the water, move over the fields, nearly in a line
+to the post by the Peacock upon Gosty-green. We now cross the Lichfield
+road, down Duke-street, then the Coleshill road at the A B house. From
+thence down the meadows, to Cooper's mill; up the river to the foot of
+Deritend bridge; and then turn sharp to the right, keeping the course of
+a drain in the form of a sickle, through John a Dean's hole, into
+Digbeth, from whence we set out. In marching along Duke-street, we leave
+about seventy houses to the left, and up the river Rea, about four
+hundred more in Deritend, reputed part of Birmingham, though not in
+the parish.
+
+This little journey, nearly of an oval form, is about seven miles. The
+longest diameter from Shirland brook to Deritend bridge is about three,
+and the widest, from the bottom of Walmer Lane to the rivulet, near the
+mile-stone, upon the Bromsgrove road, more than two.
+
+The superficial contents of the parish may be upwards of four miles,
+about three thousand acres.
+
+Birmingham is by much the smallest parish in the neighbourhood, those of
+Aston and Sutton are each about five times as large, Yardley four, and
+King's-Norton eight.
+
+When Alfred, that great master of legislation, parished out his kingdom,
+or rather, put the finishing hand to that important work; where he met
+with a town, he allotted a smaller quantity of land, because the
+inhabitants chiefly depended upon commerce; but where there was only a
+village, he allotted a larger, because they depended upon agriculture.
+
+This observation goes far in proving the antiquity of the place, for it
+is nine hundred years since this division took effect.
+
+The buildings occupy the south east part of the parish; perhaps, with
+their appendages, about six hundred acres.
+
+This south east part, being insufficient for the extraordinary increase
+of the inhabitants, she has of late extended her buildings along the
+Bromsgrove road, near the boundaries of Edgbaston; and actually on the
+other side planted three of her streets in the parish of Aston. Could
+the sagacious Alfred have seen into futurity, he would have augmented
+her borders.
+
+As no part of the town lies flat, the showers promote both cleanliness
+and health, by removing obstructions.
+
+The approach is on every side by ascent, except that from Hales-Owen,
+north west, which gives a free access of air, even to the most secret
+recesses of habitation.
+
+Thus eminently situated, the sun can exercise his full powers of
+exhalation.
+
+The foundation upon which this mistress of the arts is erected, is one
+solid mass of dry reddish sand.
+
+The vapours that rise from the earth are the great promoters of disease;
+but here, instead of the moisture ascending to the prejudice of the
+inhabitant, the contrary is evident; for the water descends through the
+pores of the sand, so that even our very cellars are habitable.
+
+This accounts for the almost total extinction of the ague among
+us:--During a residence of thirty years, I have never seen one person
+afflicted with it, though, by the opportunities of office, I have
+frequently visited the repositories of the sick.
+
+Thus peculiarly favoured, this happy spot, enjoys four of the greatest
+benefits that can attend human existence--water, air, the fun, and a
+situation free from damps.
+
+All the _past_ writers upon Birmingham have viewed her as low and
+watery, and with reason; because Digbeth, then the chief street, bears
+that description. But all the future writers will view her on an
+eminence, and with as much reason; because, for one low street, we have
+now fifty elevated.
+
+Birmingham, like the empire to which she belongs, has been, for many
+centuries, travelling _up hill_; and, like that, rising in consequence.
+
+
+
+SOIL.
+
+The soil is rather light, sandy, and weak; and though metals, of various
+sorts, are found in great plenty, _above_ the surface, we know of
+nothing below, except sand and gravel, stone and water. All the riches
+of the place, like those of an empiric, in laced cloaths, appear on the
+_outside_.
+
+The northern part of the parish, for about four hundred acres, to the
+disgrace of the age, is yet a shameful waste.
+
+A small part of the land near the town, is parcelled out into little
+gardens, at ten or twenty shillings each, amounting to about sixteen
+pounds per acre.
+
+These are not intended so much for profit, as health and amusement.
+
+Others are let in detached pieces for private use, at about four pounds
+per acre. So that this small parish cannot boast of more than six or
+eight farms, and these of the smaller size, at about two pounds per
+acre. Manure from the sty brings about 16s. per waggon load, that from
+the stable about 12, and that from the fire and the street, five.
+
+
+
+WATER.
+
+I think there is not any natural river runs through the parish, but
+there are three that mark the boundaries of it, for about half its
+circumference, described above; none of these supply family use. After
+penetrating into a body of sand, interspersed with a small strata of
+soft Rock, and sometimes of gravel; at the depth of about twenty yards,
+we come to plenty of water, rather hard. There are in the lower parts of
+the town, two excellent springs of soft water, suitable for most
+purposes; one at the top of Digbeth, the other, Lady-Well. Or rather,
+one spring, or bed of water, with many out-lets, continuing its course
+along the bottom of the hill, parallel with Small-brook-street,
+Edgbaston street, St. Martin's-lane, and Park-street; sufficiently
+copious to supply the whole city of London. Water is of the first
+consequence, it often influences disease, always the habit of body: that
+of Birmingham is in general productive of salutary effects.
+
+That dreadful disorder, the stone, is seldom found among us. I can
+recollect but very few, in my time, under this severe complaint, which
+is perhaps owing to that valuable element. I mentioned this remark to an
+eminent surgeon, who assured me, that, in his long course of practice,
+he had never been concerned in one operation in that unhappy disorder.
+
+
+
+BATHS.
+
+At Lady-Well, are the most complete baths in the whole Island. There are
+seven in number; erected at the expence of 2000_l_. Accommodation is
+ever ready for hot or cold bathing; for immersion or amusement; with
+conveniency for sweating. That, appropriated for swimming, is eighteen
+Yards by thirty-six, situated in the centre of a garden, in which are
+twenty four private undressing-houses, the whole surrounded by a wall 10
+feet high. Pleasure and health are the guardians of the place. The
+gloomy horrors of a bath, sometimes deter us from its use, particularly,
+if aided by complaint; but the appearance of these is rather inviting.
+We read of painted sepulchres, whose _outsides_ are richly ornamented,
+but _within_ are full of corruption and death. The reverse is before us.
+No elegance appears without, but within are the Springs of life! The
+expence was great, the utility greater.
+
+I do not know any author, who has reckoned man among the amphibious race
+of animals, neither do I know any animal who better deserves it. Man is
+lord of the little ball on which he treads, one half of which, at least,
+is water. If we do not allow him to be amphibious, we deprive him of
+half his sovereignty. He justly bears that name, who can _live_ in the
+water. Many of the disorders incident to the human frame are prevented,
+and others cured, both by fresh and salt bathing; so that we may
+properly remark, "_He lives in the water_, who can find life, nay, even
+_health_ in that friendly element."
+
+The greatest treasure on earth is health; but, a treasure, of all
+others, the least valued by the owner. Other property is best rated when
+in possession, but this, can only be rated when lost. We sometimes
+observe a man, who, having lost this inestimable jewel, seeks it with an
+ardour equal to its worth; but when every research by land, is eluded,
+he fortunately finds it in the water. Like the fish, he pines away upon
+shore, but like that, recovers again in the deep.
+
+Perhaps Venus is represented as rising from the ocean, which is no other
+then a bath of the larger size, to denote, that bathing is the refiner
+of health, consequently, of beauty; and Neptune being figured in
+advanced life, indicates, that it is a preservative to old age.
+
+The cure of disease among the Romans, by bathing, is supported by many
+authorities; among others, by the number of baths frequently discovered,
+in which, pleasure, in that warm climate, bore a part. But this practice
+seemed to decline with Roman freedom, and never after held the eminence
+it deserved. Can we suppose, the physician stept between disease and the
+bath, to hinder their junction; or, that he lawfully holds, by
+prescription, the tenure of sickness, in _fee_?
+
+The knowledge of this singular _art of healing_, is at present only in
+infancy. How far it may prevent, or conquer disease; to what measure it
+may be applied, in particular cases, and the degrees of use, in
+different constitutions, are enquiries that will be better understood by
+a future generation.
+
+
+
+AIR.
+
+As we have passed through the water, let us now investigate her sister
+fluid, the air. They are both necessary to life, and the purity of both
+to the prolongation of it; this small difference lies between them, a
+man may live a day without water, but not an hour without air: If a man
+wants better water, it may be removed from a distant place for his
+benefit; but if he wants air, he must remove himself.--The natural air
+of Birmingham, perhaps, cannot be excelled in this climate, the moderate
+elevation and dry soil evinces this truth; but it receives an alloy from
+the congregated body of fifty thousand people; also from the smoke of an
+extraordinary number of fires used in business; and perhaps, more from
+the various effluvia arising from particular trades. It is not uncommon
+to see a man with green hair or a yellow wig, from his constant
+employment in brass; if he reads, the green vestiges of his occupation
+remain on every leaf, never to be expunged. The inside of his body, no
+doubt, receives the same tincture, but is kept clean by being often
+washed with ale. Some of the fair sex, likewise are subject to the same
+inconvenience, but find relief in the same remedy.
+
+
+
+LONGEVITY.
+
+Man is a time-piece. He measures out a certain space, then stops for
+ever. We see him move upon the earth, hear him click, and perceive in
+his face the uses of intelligence. His external appearance will inform
+us whether he is old-fashioned, in which case, he is less valuable upon
+every gambling calculation. His face also will generally inform us
+whether all is right within. This curious machine is filled with a
+complication of movements, very unfit to be regulated by the rough hand
+of ignorance, which sometimes leaves a mark not to be obliterated even
+by the hand of an artist. If the works are directed by violence,
+destruction is not far off. If we load it with the oil of luxury, it
+will give an additional vigor, but in the end, clog and impede the
+motion. But if the machine is under the influence of prudence, she will
+guide it with an even, and a delicate hand, and perhaps the piece may
+move on 'till it is fairly worn out by a long course of fourscore years.
+
+There are a set of people who expect to find that health in medicine,
+which possibly might be found in regimen, in air, exercise, or
+serenity of mind.
+
+There is another class amongst us, and that rather numerous, whose
+employment is laborious, and whose conduct is irregular. Their time is
+divided between hard working, and hard drinking, and both by a fire. It
+is no uncommon thing to see one of these, at forty, wear the aspect of
+sixty, and finish a life of violence at fifty, which the hand of
+prudence would have directed to eighty.
+
+The strength of a kingdom consists in the multitude of its inhabitants;
+success in trade depends upon the manufacturer; the support and
+direction of a family, upon the head of it. When this useful part of
+mankind, therefore, are cut off in the active part of life, the
+community sustains a loss, whether we take the matter in a national, a
+commercial, or a private view.
+
+We have a third class, who shun the rock upon which these last fall, but
+wreck upon another; they run upon scylla though they have missed
+charybdis; they escape the liquid destruction, but split upon the solid.
+These are proficients in good eating; adepts in culling of delicacies,
+and the modes of dressing them. Matters of the whole art of cookery;
+each carries a kitchen in his head. Thus an excellent constitution may
+be stabbed by the spit. Nature never designed us to live well, and
+continue well; the stomach is too weak a vessel to be richly and deeply
+laden. Perhaps more injury is done by eating than by drinking; one is a
+secret, the other an open enemy: the secret is always supposed the most
+dangerous. Drinking attacks by assault, but eating by sap: luxury is
+seldom visited by old age. The best antidote yet discovered against this
+kind of slow poison is exercise; but the advantages of elevation, air,
+and water, on one hand, and disadvantages of crowd, smoke, and effluvia
+on the other, are trifles compared to intemperance.
+
+We have a fourth class, and with these I shall shut up the clock. If
+this valuable machine comes finished from the hand of nature; if the
+rough blasts of fortune only attack the outward case, without affecting
+the internal works, and if reason conduces the piece, it may move on,
+with a calm, steady, and uninterrupted pace to a great extent of years,
+'till time only annihilates the motion.
+
+I personally know amongst us a Mrs. Dallaway, aged near 90; George
+Davis, 85; John Baddally, Esq; and his two brothers, all between 80 and
+and 90; Mrs. Allen, 92; Mrs. Silk, 84; John Burbury, 84; Thomas Rutter,
+88; Elizabeth Bentley, 88; John Harrison and his wife, one 86, the other
+88; Mrs. Floyd, 87; Elizabeth Simms, 88; Sarah Aston, 98; Isaac Spooner,
+Esq; 89; Joseph Scott, Esq; 94; all at this day, January 9, 1780, I
+believe enjoy health and capacity. This is not designed as a complete
+list of the aged, but of such only as immediately occur to memory. I
+also knew a John England who died at the age of 89; Hugh Vincent, 94;
+John Pitt, 100; George Bridgens, 103; Mrs. More, 104. An old fellow
+assured me he had kept the market 77 years: he kept it for several years
+after to my knowledge. At 90 he was attacked by an acute disorder, but,
+fortunately for himself, being too poor to purchase medical assistance,
+he was left to the care of nature, who opened that door to health which
+the physician would have locked for ever. At 106 I heard him swear with
+all the fervency of a recruit: at 107 he died. It is easy to give
+instances of people who have breathed the smoak of Birmingham for
+threescore years, and yet have scarcely left the precincts of of youth.
+Such are the happy effects of constitution, temper, and conduct!
+
+
+
+_Ancient State of Birmingham_.
+
+We have now to pass through the very remote ages of time, without staff
+to support us, without light to conduct us, or hand to guide us. The way
+is long, dark, and slippery. The credit of an historian is built upon
+truth; he cannot assert, without giving his facts; he cannot surmise,
+without giving his reasons; he must relate things as they are, not as he
+would have them. The fabric founded in error will moulder of itself, but
+that founded in reality will stand the age and the critic.
+
+Except half a dozen pages in Dugdale, I know of no author who hath
+professedly treated of Birmingham. None of the histories which I have
+seen bestow upon it more than a few lines, in which we are sure to be
+treated with the noise of hammers and anvils; as if the historian
+thought us a race of dealers in thunder, lightning, and wind; or
+infernals, puffing in blast and smoak.
+
+Suffer me to transcribe a passage from Leland, one of our most
+celebrated writers, employed by Henry the VIIIth to form an itinerary of
+Britain, whose works have stood the test of 250 years. We shall observe
+how much he erred for want of information, and how natural for his
+successors to copy him.
+
+"I came through a pretty street as ever I entered, into Birmingham town.
+This street, as I remember, is called Dirtey (Deritend). In it dwells
+smithes and cutlers, and there is a brook that divides this street from
+Birmingham, an hamlet, or member, belonging to the parish therebye.
+
+"There is at the end of Dirtey a propper chappel and mansion-house of
+timber, (the moat) hard on the ripe, as the brook runneth down; and as I
+went through the ford, by the bridge, the water came down on the right
+hand, and a few miles below goeth into Tame. This brook, above Dirtey,
+breaketh in two arms, that a little beneath the bridge close again. This
+brook riseth, as some say, four or five miles above Birmingham, towards
+Black-hills.
+
+"The beauty of Birmingham, a good market-town in the extreme parts of
+Warwickshire, is one street going up alonge, almost from the left ripe
+of the brook, up a meane hill, by the length of a quarter of a mile, I
+saw but one parish-church in the town.
+
+"There be many smithes in the town that use to make knives and all
+manner of cutting tools, and many loriners that make bittes, and a
+great many naylers; so that a great part of the town is maintained by
+smithes, who have their iron and sea-coal out of Staffordshire."
+
+Here we find some intelligence, and more mistake, cloathed in the dress
+of antique diction, which plainly evinces the necessity of
+modern history.
+
+It is matter of surprise that none of those religious drones, the monks,
+who hived in the priory for fifteen or twenty generations, ever thought
+of indulging posterity with an history of Birmingham. They could not
+want opportunity, for they lived a life of indolence; nor materials, for
+they were nearer the infancy of time, and were possessed of historical
+fads now totally lost. Besides, nearly all the little learning in the
+kingdom was possessed by this class of people; and the place, in their
+day, must have enjoyed an eminent degree of prosperity.
+
+Though the town has a modern appearance, there is reason to believe it
+of great antiquity; my Birmingham reader, therefore, must suffer me to
+carry him back into the remote ages of the Ancient Britons to visit his
+fable ancestors.
+
+We have no histories of those times but what are left by the Romans, and
+these we ought to read with caution, because they were parties in the
+dispute. If two antagonists write each his own history, the discerning
+reader will sometimes draw the line of justice between them; but where
+there is only one, partiality is expected. The Romans were obliged to
+make the Britons war-like, or there would have been no merit in
+conquering them: they must also sound forth their ignorance, or there
+would have been none in improving them. If the Britons were that
+wretched people they are represented by the Romans, they could not be
+worth conquering: no man subdues a people to improve them, but to profit
+by them. Though the Romans at that time were in their meridian of
+splendor, they pursued Britain a whole century before they reduced it;
+which indicates that they considered it as a valuable prize. Though the
+Britons were not masters of science, like the Romans; though the fine
+arts did not flourish here, as in Rome, because never planted; yet by
+many testimonies it is evident they were masters of plain life; that
+many of the simple arts were practiced in that day, as well as in this;
+that assemblages of people composed cities, the same as now, but in an
+inferior degree; and that the country was populous is plain from the
+immense army Boadicia brought into the field, except the Romans
+increased that army that their merit might be greater in defeating it.
+Nay, I believe we may with propriety carry them beyond plain life, and
+charge them with a degree of elegance: the Romans themselves allow the
+Britons were complete masters of the chariot; that when the scythe was
+fixed at each end of the axle-tree, they drove with great dexterity into
+the midst of the enemy, broke their ranks, and mowed them down. The
+chariot, therefore, could not be made altogether for war, but, when the
+scythes were removed, it still remained an emblem of pride, became
+useful in peace, was a badge of high-life, and continues so with their
+descendants to this day.
+
+We know the instruments of war used by the Britons were a sword, spear,
+shield and scythe. If they were not the manufacturers, how came they by
+these instruments? We cannot allow either they or the chariots were
+imported, because that will give them a much greater consequence: they
+must also have been well acquainted with the tools used in husbandry,
+for they were masters of the field in a double sense. Bad also as their
+houses were, a chest of carpentry tools would be necessary to complete
+them. We cannot doubt, therefore, from these evidences, and others which
+might be adduced, that the Britons understood the manufactory of iron.
+Perhaps history cannot produce an instance of any place in an improving
+country, like England, where the coarse manufactory of iron has been
+carried on, that ever that laborious art went to decay, except the
+materials failed; and as we know of no place where such materials have
+failed, there is the utmost reason to believe our fore-fathers, the
+Britons, were supplied with those necessary implements by the black
+artists of the Birmingham forge. Iron-stone and coal are the materials
+for this production, both which are found in the neighbourhood in great
+plenty. I asked a gentleman of knowledge, if there was a probability of
+the delphs failing? He answered, "Not in five thousand years."
+
+The two following circumstances strongly evince this ancient British
+manufactory:--
+
+Upon the borders of the parish stands Aston-furnace, appropriated for
+melting ironstone, and reducing it into pigs: this has the appearance of
+great antiquity. From the melted ore, in this subterranean region of
+infernal aspect, is produced a calx, or cinder, of which there is an
+enormous mountain. From an attentive survey, the observer would suppose
+so prodigious a heap could not accumulate in one hundred generations;
+however, it shows no perceptible addition in the age of man.
+
+There is also a common of vast extent, called Wednesbury-old-field, in
+which are the vestiges of many hundreds of coal-pits, long in disuse,
+which the curious antiquarian would deem as long in sinking, as the
+mountain of cinders in rising.
+
+The minute sprig of Birmingham, no doubt first took root in this black
+soil, which, in a succession of ages, hath grown to its present
+opulence. At what time this prosperous plant was set, is very uncertain;
+perhaps as long before the days of Caesar as it is since. Thus the mines
+of Wednesbury empty their riches into the lap of Birmingham, and thus
+she draws nurture from the bowels of the earth.
+
+The chief, if not the only manufactory of Birmingham, from its first
+existence to the restoration of Charles the Second, was in iron: of this
+was produced instruments of war and of husbandry, furniture for the
+kitchen, and tools for the whole system of carpentry.
+
+The places where our athletic ancestors performed these curious
+productions of art, were in the shops fronting the street: some small
+remains of this very ancient custom are yet visible, chiefly in Digbeth,
+where about a dozen shops still exhibit the original music of anvil
+and hammer.
+
+As there is the highest probability that Birmingham produced her
+manufactures long before the landing of Caesar, it would give pleasure
+to the curious enquirer, could he be informed of her size in those very
+early ages; but this information is for ever hid from the historian, and
+the reader. Perhaps there never was a period in which she saw a decline,
+but that her progress has been certain, though slow, during the long
+space of two or three thousand years before Charles the Second.
+
+The very roads that proceed from Birmingham, are also additional
+indications of her great antiquity and commercial influence.
+
+Where any of these roads lead up an eminence, they were worn by the long
+practice of ages into deep holloways, some of them twelve or fourteen
+yards below the surface of the banks, with which they were once even,
+and so narrow as to admit only one passenger.
+
+Though modern industry, assisted by various turnpike acts, has widened
+the upper part and filled up the lower, yet they were all visible in the
+days of our fathers, and are traceable even in ours. Some of these, no
+doubt, were formed by the spade, to soften the fatigue of climbing the
+hill, but many were owing to the pure efforts of time, the horse, and
+the showers. As inland trade was small, prior to the fifteenth century,
+the use of the wagon, that great destroyer of the road, was but little
+known. The horse was the chief conveyor of burthen among the Britons,
+and for centuries after: if we, therefore, consider the great length of
+time it would take for the rains to form these deep ravages, we must
+place the origin of Birmingham, at a very early date.
+
+One of these subterranean passages, in part filled up, will convey its
+name to posterity in that of a street, called Holloway-head, 'till
+lately the way to Bromsgrove and to Bewdley, but not now the chief road
+to either. Dale-end, once a deep road, has the same derivation. Another
+at Summer-hill, in the Dudley road, altered in 1753. A remarkable one is
+also between the Salutation and the Turnpike, in the Wolverhampton road.
+A fifth at the top of Walmer-lane, changed into its present form in
+1764. Another between Gosta-green and Aston-brook, reduced in 1752.
+
+All the way from Dale-end to Duddeston, of which Coleshill-street now
+makes a part, was sunk five or six feet, though nearly upon a flat,
+'till filled up in 1756 by act of Parliament: but the most singular is
+that between Deritend and Camp-hill, in the way to Stratford, which is,
+even now, many yards below the banks; yet the seniors of the last age
+took a pleasure in telling us, they could remember when it would have
+buried a wagon load of hay beneath its present surface.
+
+Thus the traveller of old, who came to purchase the produce of
+Birmingham, or to sell his own, seemed to approach her by sap.
+
+British traces are, no doubt, discoverable in the old Dudley-road, down
+Easy-hill, under the canal; at the eight mile-stone, and at Smethwick:
+also in many of the private roads near Birmingham, which were never
+thought to merit a repair, particularly at Good-knaves-end, towards
+Harborne; the Green-lane, leading to the Garrison; and that beyond
+Long-bridge, in the road to Yardley; all of them deep holloways, which
+carry evident tokens of antiquity. Let the curious calculator determine
+what an amazing length of time would elapse in wearing the deep roads
+along Saltleyfield, Shaw-hill, Allum-rock, and the remainder of the way
+to Stichford, only a pitiful hamlet of a dozen houses.
+
+The ancient centre of Birmingham seems to have been the Old Cross, from
+the number of streets pointing towards it. Wherever the narrow end of a
+street enters a great thorough-fare, it indicates antiquity, this is the
+case with Philip-street, Bell-street, Spiceal-street, Park-street, and
+Moor-street, which not only incline to the centre above-mentioned, but
+all terminate with their narrow ends into the grand passage. These
+streets are narrow at the entrance, and widen as you proceed: the narrow
+ends were formed with the main street at first, and were not, at that
+time, intended for streets themselves. As the town increased, other
+blunders of the same kind were committed, witness the gateway late at
+the east end of New-street, the two ends of Worcester-street,
+Smallbrook-street, Cannon-street, New-meeting-streer, and Bull street;
+it is easy to see which end of a street was formed first; perhaps the
+south end of Moor street is two thousand years older than the north; the
+same errors are also committing in our day, as in Hill and Vale streets,
+the two Hinkleys and Catharine-street. One generation, for want of
+foresight, forms a narrow entrance, and another widens it by Act of
+Parliament.
+
+Every word in the English language carries an idea: when a word,
+therefore, strikes the ear, the mind immediately forms a picture, which
+represents it as faithfully as the looking-glass the face.--Thus, when
+the word Birmingham occurs, a superb picture instantly expands in the
+mind, which is best explained by the other words grand, populous,
+extensive, active, commercial and humane. This painting is an exact
+counter-part of the word at this day; but it does not correspond with
+its appearance, in the days of the ancient Britons--We must, therefore,
+for a moment, detach the idea from the word.
+
+Let us suppose, then, this centre surrounded with less than one hundred
+stragling huts, without order, which we will dignify with the name of
+houses; built of timber, the interfaces wattled with sticks, and
+plaistered with mud, covered with thatch, boards or sods; none of them
+higher than the ground story. The meaner sort only one room, which
+served for three uses, shop, kitchen, and lodging room; the door for
+two, it admitted the people and the light. The better sort two rooms,
+and some three, for work, for the kitchen, and for rest; all three in a
+line, and sometimes fronting the street.
+
+If the curious reader chooses to see a picture of Birmingham, in the
+time of the Britons, he will find one in the turnpike road, between
+Hales-owen and Stourbridge, called the Lie Waste, alias Mud City. The
+houses stand in every direction, composed of one large and ill-formed
+brick, scoped into a tenement, burnt by the sun, and often destroyed by
+the frost: the males naked; the females accomplished breeders. The
+children, at the age of three months, take a singular hue from the sun
+and the soil, which continues for life. The rags which cover them leave
+no room for the observer to guess at the sex. Only one person upon the
+premisses presumes to carry a belly, and he a landlord. We might as well
+look for the moon in a coal-pit, as for stays or white linen in the City
+of Mud. The principal tool in business is the hammer, and the beast of
+burden, the ass.
+
+The extent of our little colony of artists, perhaps reached nearly as
+high as the east end of New-street, occupied the upper part of
+Spiceal-street, and penetrated down the hill to the top of Digbeth,
+chiefly on the east.
+
+Success, which ever waits on Industry, produced a gradual, but very slow
+increase: perhaps a thousand years elapsed without adding half that
+number of houses.
+
+Thus our favourite plantation having taken such firm root, that she was
+able to stand the wintry blasts of fortune, we shall digress for a
+moment, while she wields her sparkling heat, according to the fashion of
+the day, in executing the orders of the sturdy Briton; then of the
+polite and heroic Roman; afterwards of our mild ancestors, the Saxons.
+Whether she raised her hammer for the plundering Dane is uncertain, his
+reign being short; and, lastly, for the resolute and surly Norman.
+
+It does not appear that Birmingham, from its first formation, to the
+present day, was ever the habitation of a gentleman, the lords of the
+manor excepted. But if there are no originals among us, we can produce
+many striking likenesses--The smoke of Birmingham has been very
+propitious to their growth, but not to their maturity.
+
+Gentlemen, as well as buttons, have been stamped here; but, like them,
+when finished, are moved off.
+
+They both originate from a very uncouth state, _without form or
+comeliness_; and pass through various stages, uncertain of success. Some
+of them, at length, receive the last polish, and arrive at perfection;
+while others, ruined by a flaw, are deemed _wasters_.
+
+I have known the man of opulence direct his gilt chariot _out_ of
+Birmingham, who first approached her an helpless orphan in rags. I have
+known the chief magistrate of fifty thousand people, fall from his
+phaeton, and humbly ask bread at a parish vestry.
+
+Frequently the wheel of capricious fortune describes a circle, in the
+rotation of which, a family experiences alternately, the heighth of
+prosperity and the depth of distress; but more frequently, like a
+pendulum, it describes only the arc of a circle, and that always at
+the bottom.
+
+Many fine estates have been struck out of the anvil, valuable
+possessions raised by the tongs, and superb houses, in a two-fold sense,
+erected by the trowel.
+
+The paternal ancestor of the late Sir Charles Holte was a native of this
+place, and purchaser, in the beginning of Edward the Third, of the
+several manors, which have been the honour and the support of his house
+to the present time.
+
+Walter Clodshale was another native of Birmingham, who, in 1332,
+purchased the manor of Saltley, now enjoyed by his maternal descendant,
+Charles Bowyer Adderley, Esq.
+
+Charles Colmore, Esq; holds a considerable estate in the parish; his
+predecessor is said to have occupied, in the reign of Henry the Eighth,
+that house, now No. 1, in the High-street, as a mercer, and general
+receiver of the taxes.
+
+A numerous branch of this ancient family flourishes in Birmingham at
+this day.
+
+The head of it, in the reign of James the First, erected New-hall, and
+himself into a gentleman. On this desirable eminence, about half a mile
+from the buildings, they resided till time, fashion, and success,
+removed them, like their predecessors, the sons of fortune, to a
+greater distance.
+
+The place was then possessed by a tenant, as a farm; but Birmingham, a
+speedy traveller, marched over the premises, and covered them with
+twelve hundred houses, on building leases; the farmer was converted into
+a steward: his brown hempen frock, which guarded the _outside_ of his
+waistcoat, became white holland, edged with ruffles, and took its
+station _within_: the pitchfork was metamorphosed into a pen, and his
+ancient practice of breeding up sheep, was changed into that of
+_dressing their skins_.
+
+Robert Philips, Esq; acquired a valuable property in the seventeenth
+century; now possessed by his descendant, William Theodore
+Inge, Esquire.
+
+A gentleman of the name of Foxall, assured me, that the head of his
+family resided upon the spot, now No. 101, in Digbeth, about four
+hundred years ago, in the capacity of a tanner.
+
+Richard Smallbroke, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, in the reign of
+George II. was a native of Birmingham, as his ancestors were for many
+ages, with reputation: he is said to have been born at number 2 in the
+High-street, had great property in the town, now enjoyed by his
+descendants, though they have left the place. The families also of
+Weaman, Jennings, Whalley, etc. have acquired vast property, and quitted
+the meridian of Birmingham; and some others are at this day ripe for
+removal. Let me close this bright scene of prosperity, and open another,
+which can only be viewed with a melancholy eye. We cannot behold the
+distresses of man without compassion; but that distress which follows
+affluence, comes with double effect.
+
+We have amongst us a family of the name of Middlemore, of great
+antiquity, deducible from the conquest; who held the chief possessions,
+and the chief offices in the county, and who matched into the first
+families in the kingdom, but fell with the interest of Charles the
+First; and are now in that low ebb of fortune, that I have frequently,
+with a gloomy pleasure, relieved them at the common charity-board of the
+town. Such is the tottering point of human greatness.
+
+Another of the name of Bracebridge, who for more than six hundred years,
+figured in the first ranks of life.
+
+A third of the name of Mountfort, who shone with meridian splendor,
+through a long train of ages. As genealogy was ever a favourite
+amusement, I have often conversed with these solitary remains of
+tarnished lustre, but find in all of them, the pride of their family
+buried with its greatness:--they pay no more attention to the arms of
+their ancestors, than to a scrap of paper, with which they would light
+their pipe. Upon consulting one of the name of Elwall, said to be
+descended from the Britons, I found him so amazingly defective, that he
+could not stretch his pedigree even so high as his grandfather.
+
+A fifth family amongst us, of the name of Arden, stood upon the pinnacle
+of fame in the days of Alfred the Great, where perhaps they had stood
+for ages before: they continued the elevation about seven hundred years
+after; but having treasonable charges brought against them, in the days
+of Queen Elizabeth, about two hundred years ago, they were thrown from
+this exalted eminence, and dashed to pieces in the fall. In various
+consultations with a member of this honourable house, I found the
+greatness of his family not only lost, but the memory of it also. I
+assured him, that his family stood higher in the scale of honour, than
+any private one within my knowledge: that his paternal ancestors, for
+about seven generations, were successively Earls of Warwick, before the
+Norman conquest: that, though he could not boast a descent from the
+famous Guy, he was related to him: that, though Turchell, Earl of
+Warwick at the conquest, his direct ancestor, lost the Earldom in favour
+of Roger Newburgh, a favourite of William's; yet, as the Earl did not
+appear in arms, against the Conqueror, at the battle of Hastings, nor
+oppose the new interest, he was allowed to keep forty-six of his manors:
+that he retired upon his own vast estate, which he held in dependence,
+where the family resided with great opulence, in one house, for many
+centuries, 'till their reduction above-mentioned. He received the
+information with some degree of amazement, and replied with a serious
+face,--"Perhaps there may have been something great in my predecessors,
+for my grandfather kept several cows in Birmingham and sold milk."
+
+The families of those ancient heroes, of Saxon and Norman race, are,
+chiefly by the mutations of time, and of state, either become extinct,
+or as above, reduced to the lowest verge of fortune. Those few
+therefore, whose descent is traceable, may be carried higher than that
+of the present nobility; for I know none of these last, who claim
+peerage beyond Edward the first, about 1295. Hence it follows, that for
+antiquity, alliance, and blood, the advantage is evidently in favour of
+the lowest class.
+
+Could one of those illustrious shades return to the earth and inspect
+human actions, he might behold one of his descendants, dancing at the
+lathe; another tippling with his dark brethren of the apron; a third
+humbly soliciting from other families such favours as were formerly
+granted by his own; a fourth imitating modern grandeur, by contracting
+debts he never designs to pay; and a fifth snuff of departed light,
+poaching, like a thief in the night, upon the very manors, possessed by
+his ancestors.
+
+Whence is it that title, pedigree, and alliance, in superior life, are
+esteemed of the highest value; while in the inferior, who have a prior
+claim, are totally neglected? The grand design of every creature upon
+earth, is to supply the wants of nature. No amusements of body or mind
+can be adopted, till hunger is served. When the appetite calls, the
+whole attention of the animal, with all its powers, is bound to answer.
+Hence arise those dreadful contests in the brute creation, from the lion
+in the woods, to the dog, who seizes the bone. Hence the ship, when her
+provisions are spent, and she becalmed, casts a savage eye, upon human
+sacrifices; and hence, the attention of the lower ranks of men, are too
+far engrossed for mental pursuit. They see, like Esau, the honours of
+their family devoured with a ravenous appetite. A man with an empty
+cupboard would make but a wretched philosopher. But if fortune should
+smile upon one of the lower race, raise him a step above his original
+standing, and give him a prospect of independence, he immediately begins
+to eye the arms upon carriages, examines old records for his name, and
+inquires where the Herald's office is kept. Thus, when the urgency of
+nature is set at liberty, the bird can whistle upon the branch, the fish
+play upon the surface, the goat skip upon the mountain, and even man
+himself, can bask in the sunshine of science. I digress no farther.
+
+The situation of St. Martin's church is another reason for fixing the
+original centre of Birmingham at the Old Cross. Christianity made an
+early and a swift progress in this kingdom; persecution, as might be
+expected, followed her footsteps, increased her votaries, and, as was
+ever the case, in all new religions, her proselytes were very devout.
+
+The religious fervor of the christians displayed itself in building
+churches. Most of those in England are of Saxon original, and were
+erected between the fourth and the tenth century; that of St. Martin's
+is ancient beyond the reach of historical knowledge, and probably rose
+in the early reigns of the Saxon kings.
+
+It was the custom of those times, to place the church, if there was but
+one, out of the precincts of the town; this is visible at the present
+day in those places which have received no increase.
+
+Perhaps it will not be an unreasonable supposition to fix the erection
+of St. Martin's, in the eighth century; and if the inquisitive reader
+chooses to traverse the town a second time, he may find its boundaries
+something like the following. We cannot allow its extension northward
+beyond the east end of New-street; that it included the narrow parts of
+Philip street, Bell street, Spiceal street, Moor street, and Park
+street. That the houses at this period were more compact than
+heretofore; that Digbeth and Deritend, lying in the road to Stratford,
+Warwick, and Coventry, all places of antiquity, were now formed. Thus
+the church stood in the environs of the town, unincumbered with
+buildings. Possibly this famous nursery of arts might, by this time,
+produce six hundred houses. A town must increase before its appendages
+are formed; those appendages also must increase before there is a
+necessity for an additional chapel, and after that increase, the
+inhabitants may wait long before that necessity is removed. Deritend is
+an appendage to Birmingham; the inhabitants of this hamlet having long
+laboured under the inconveniency of being remote from the parish church
+of Aston, and too numerous for admission into that of Birmingham,
+procured a grant in 1381 to erect a chapel of their own. If we,
+therefore, allow three hundred years for the infancy of Deritend, three
+hundred more for her maturity, and four hundred since the erection of
+her chapel, which is a very reasonable allowance. It will bring us to
+the time I mentioned.
+
+It does not appear that Deritend was attended with any considerable
+augmentation, from the Norman conquest to the year 1767, when a
+turnpike-road was opened to Alcester, and when Henry Bradford publicly
+offered a freehold to the man who should first build upon his estate;
+since which time Deritend has made a rapid progress: and this dusky
+offspring of Birmingham is now travelling apace along her new
+formed road.
+
+I must again recline upon Dugdale.--In 1309, William de Birmingham, Lord
+of the Manor, took a distress of the inhabitants of Bromsgrove and
+King's-norton, for refusing to pay the customary tolls of the market.
+The inhabitants, therefore, brought their action and recovered damage,
+because it was said, their lands being the ancient demesne of the crown,
+they had a right to sell their produce in any market in the King's
+dominions.
+
+It appeared in the course of the trial, that the ancestors of William de
+Birmingham had a MARKET HERE before the Norman conquest! I shall have
+occasion, in future, to resume this remarkable expression. I have also
+met with an old author, who observes, that Birmingham was governed by
+two Constables in the time of the Saxons; small places have seldom more
+than one. These evidences prove much in favour of the government,
+population, and antiquity of the place.
+
+In Domesday-book it is rated at four hides of land. A hide was as much
+as a team could conveniently plough in a year; perhaps at that time
+about fifty acres: I think there is not now, more than two hundred
+ploughed in the parish.
+
+It was also said to contain woods of half a mile in length, and four
+furlongs in breadth. What difference subsisted between half a mile and
+four furlongs, in ancient time, is uncertain; we know of none now. The
+mile was reduced to its present standard in the reign of Queen
+Elizabeth: neither are there the least traces of those woods, for at
+this day it is difficult to find a stick that deserves the name of a
+tree, in the whole manor.--Timber is no part of the manufactory of
+Birmingham.
+
+Let us survey the town a third time, as we may reasonably suppose it
+stood in the most remarkable period of English history, that of the
+conquest.
+
+We cannot yet go farther North of the centre than before, that is, along
+the High-street, 'till we meet the East end of New street. We shall
+penetrate rather farther into Moor-street, none into Park-street, take
+in Digbeth, Deritend, Edgbaston-street, as being the road to Dudley,
+Bromsgrove, and the whole West of England; Spiceal-street, the Shambles,
+a larger part of Bell street, and Philip-street.
+
+The ancient increase of the town was towards the South, because of the
+great road, the conveniency of water, the church, and the manor-house,
+all which lay in that quarter: but the modern extension was chiefly
+towards the North, owing to the scions of her trades being transplanted
+all over the country, in that direction, as far as Wednesbury, Walsall,
+and Wolverhampton. But particularly her vicinity to the coal delphs,
+which were ever considered as the soul of her prosperity. Perhaps by
+this time the number of houses might have been augmented to seven
+hundred: but whatever was her number, either in this or any other
+period, we cannot doubt her being populous in every æra of her
+existence.
+
+The following small extract from the register, will show a gradual
+increase, even before the restoration:
+
+     Year.  Christenings. Weddings.  Burials
+     1555,  37,           15,        27.
+     1558,  48,           10,        47.
+     1603,  65,           14,        40.
+     1625,  76,           18,        47.
+     1660,  76, from April to Dec. inclusive.
+
+In 1251, William de Birmingham, Lord of the Manor, procured an
+additional charter from Henry the Third, reviving some decayed
+privileges and granting others; among the last was that of the
+Whitsuntide fair, to begin on the eve of Holy Thursday, and to continue
+four days. At the alteration of the style, in 1752, it was prudently
+changed to the Thursday in Whitsun week; that less time might be lost to
+the injury of work and the workman. He also procured another fair, to
+begin on the eve of St. Michael, and continue for three days. Both which
+fairs are at this day in great repute.
+
+By the interest of Audomore de Valance, earl of Pembroke, a licence was
+obtained from the crown, in 1319 to charge an additional toll upon every
+article sold in the market for three years, towards paving the town.
+Every quarter of corn to pay one farthing, and other things in
+proportion.
+
+We have no reason to believe that either the town or the market were
+small at that time, however, at the expiration of the term, the toll
+was found inadequate to the expence, and the work lay dormant for
+eighteen years, till 1337, when a second licence was obtained, equal to
+the first, which completed the intention.
+
+Those streets, thus dignified with a pavement, or rather their sides, to
+accommodate the foot passenger, probably were High-street, the
+Bull-ring, Corn-cheaping, Digbeth, St. Martin's-lane, Moat-lane,
+Edgbaston-street, Spiceal-street, and part of Moor-street.
+
+It was the practice, in those early days, to leave the center of a
+street unpaved, for the easier passage of carriages and horses; the
+consequence was, in flat streets the road became extremely dirty, almost
+impassable, and in a descent, the soil was quickly worn away, and left a
+causeway on each side. Many instances of this ancient practice are
+within memory.
+
+The streets, no doubt, in which the fairs were held, mark the boundaries
+of the town in the thirteenth century. Though smaller wares were sold
+upon the spot used for the market, the rougher articles, such as cattle,
+were exposed to sale in what were then the _out-streets_. The fair for
+horses was held in Edgbaston-street, and that for beasts in the
+High-street, tending towards the Welch Cross.
+
+Inconvenient as these streets seem for the purpose, our dark ancestors,
+of peaceable memory, found no detriment, during the infant state of
+population, in keeping them there. But we, their crowded sons, for want
+of accommodation, have wisely removed both; the horse-fair, in 1777, to
+Brick-kiln-lane, now the extreme part of the town; and that for beasts,
+in 1769, into the open part of Dale-end.
+
+Whatever veneration we may entertain for ancient custom, there is
+sometimes a necessity to break it. Were we now to solicit the crown for
+a fair, those streets would be the last we should fix on.
+
+If we survey Birmingham in the twelfth century, we shall find her
+crowded with timber, within and without; her streets dirty and narrow;
+but considering the distant period, much trodden, yet, compared with her
+present rising state, but little.
+
+The inhabitant became an early encroacher upon nor narrow streets, and
+sometimes the lord was the greatest. Her houses were mean and low, but
+few reaching higher than one story, perhaps none more than two;
+composed of wood and plaister--she was a stranger to brick. Her public
+buildings consisted solely of one, _the church_.
+
+If we behold her in the fourteenth century, we shall observe her private
+buildings multiplied more than improved; her narrow streets, by
+trespass, become narrower, for she was ever chargeable with neglect; her
+public buildings increased to four, two in the town, and two at a
+distance, the Priory, of stone, founded by contribution, at the head of
+which stood her lord; the Guild, of timber, now the Free School; and
+Deritend Chapel, of the same materials, resembling a barn, with
+something like an awkward dove-coat, at the west end, by way of steeple.
+All these will be noticed in due course.
+
+If we take a view of the inhabitants, we shall find them industrious,
+plain, and honest; the more of the former, generally, the less of
+dishonesty, if their superiors lived in an homelier stile in that
+period, it is no wonder _they_ did. Perhaps our ancestors acquired more
+money than their neighbours, and not much of that; but what they had was
+extremely valuable: diligence will accumulate. In curious operations,
+known only to a few, we may suppose the artist was amply paid.
+
+Nash, in his History of Worcestershire, gives us a curious list of
+anecdotes, from the church-wardens ledger, of Hales-Owen. I shall
+transcribe two, nearly three hundred years old. "_Paid for bread and
+ale, to make my Lord Abbot drink, in Rogation week, 2d._" What should we
+now think of an ecclesiastical nobleman, accepting a two-penny treat
+from a country church-warden?
+
+This displays an instance of moderation in a class of people famous for
+luxury. It shows also the amazing reduction of money: the same sum which
+served my Lord Abbot four days, would now be devoured in four
+minutes.--"1498, _paid for repeyling the organs, to the organmaker at
+Bromicham_, 10_s_." Birmingham then, we find, discovered the powers of
+genius in the finer arts, as well as in iron. By '_the_ organmaker,' we
+mould suppose there was but one.
+
+It appears that the art of acquiring riches was as well understood by
+our fathers, as by us; while an artist could receive as much money for
+tuning an organ, as would purchase an acre of land, or treat near half a
+gross of Lord Abbots.
+
+
+
+BATTLE OF CAMP-HILL.
+
+1643.
+
+Clarendon reproaches with virulence, our spirited ancestors, for
+disloyalty to Charles the First.--The day after the King left
+Birmingham, on his march from Shrewsbury, in 1642, they seized his
+carriages, containing the royal plate and furniture, which they
+conveyed, for security, to Warwick Castle. They apprehended all
+messengers and suspected persons; frequently attacked, and reduced small
+parties of the royalists, whom they sent prisoners to Coventry.--Hence
+the proverbial expression of a refractory person, _Send him to
+Coventry_.
+
+In 1643, the King ordered Prince Rupert, with a detachment of two
+thousand men, to open a communication between Oxford and York. In his
+march to Birmingham, he found a company of foot, kept for the
+parliament, lately reinforced by a troop of horse from the garrison at
+Lichfield: but, supposing they would not resist a power of ten to one,
+sent his quarter masters to demand lodging, and offer protection.
+
+But the sturdy sons of freedom, having cast up slight works at each end
+of the town, and barricaded the lesser avenues, rejected the offer and
+the officers. The military uniting in one small and compact body,
+assisted by the inhabitants, were determined the King's forces mould not
+enter. Their little fire opened on the Prince: but bravery itself,
+though possessed of an excellent spot of ground for defence, was obliged
+to give way to numbers. The Prince quickly put them to silence; yet,
+under the success of his own arms, he was not able to enter the town,
+for the inhabitants had choaked up, with carriages, the deep and narrow
+road, then between Deritend and Camp-hill, which obliged the Prince to
+alter his route to the left, and proceed towards Long-bridge.
+
+The spirit of resistance was not yet broken; they sustained a second
+attack, but to no purpose, except that of laughter. A running fight
+continued through the town; victory declared loudly for the Prince; the
+retreat became general: part of the vanquished took the way to Oldbury.
+
+William Fielding, Earl of Denbigh, a volunteer under the Prince, being
+in close pursuit of an officer in the service of the parliament, and
+both upon the full gallop, up Shirland-lane, in the manor of Smethwick,
+the officer instantly turning, discharged a pistol at the Earl, and
+mortally wounded him with a random shot.
+
+The parliament troops were animated in the engagement by a clergyman,
+who acted as governor, but being taken in the defeat, and refusing
+quarter, was killed in the Red Lion-inn.
+
+The Prince, provoked at the resistance, in revenge, set fire to the
+town. His wrath is said to have kindled in Bull-street, and consumed
+several houses near the spot, now No. 12.
+
+He obliged the inhabitants to quench the flames with a heavy fine, to
+prevent farther military execution. Part of the fine is said to have
+been shoes and stockings for his people.
+
+The parliament forces had formed their camp in that well chosen angle,
+which divides the Stratford and Warwick roads, upon Camp-hill.
+
+The victorious Prince left no garrison, because their insignificant
+works were untenable; but left an humbled people, and marched to the
+reduction of Lichfield.
+
+In 1665, London was not only visited with the plague, but many other
+parts of England, among which, Birmingham felt this dreadful mark of the
+divine judgment.
+
+The infection is said to have been caught by a box of clothes, brought
+by the carrier, and lodged at the White-hart. Depopulation ensued. The
+church-yard was insufficient for the reception of the dead, who were
+conveyed to Ladywood-green, one acre of waste land, then denominated the
+Pelt Ground.
+
+The charter for the market has evidently been repeated by divers kings,
+both Saxon and Norman, but when first granted is uncertain, perhaps at
+an early Saxon date; and the day seems never to have been changed
+from Thursday.
+
+The lords were tenacious of their privileges; or, one would think, there
+was no need to renew their charter. Prescription, necessity, and
+increasing numbers, would establish the right.
+
+Perhaps, in a Saxon period, there was room sufficient in our
+circumscribed market-place, for the people and their weekly supplies;
+but now, their supplies would fill it, exclusive of the people.
+
+Thus by a steady and a persevering hand, she kept a constant and uniform
+stroke at the anvil, through a vast succession of ages: rising superior
+to the frowns of fortune: establishing a variety of productions from
+iron: ever improving her inventive powers, and perhaps, changing a
+number of her people, equal to her whole inhabitants, every sixteen
+years, till she arrived at another important period, the end of the
+civil wars of Charles the first.
+
+
+
+MODERN STATE
+
+OF
+
+BIRMINGHAM.
+
+It is the practice of the historian, to divide ancient history from
+modern, at the fall of the Roman Empire. For, during a course of about
+seven hundred years, while the Roman name beamed in meridian splendour,
+the lustre of her arms and political conduct influenced, more or less,
+every country in Europe. But at the fall of that mighty empire, which
+happened in the fifth century, every one of the conquered provinces was
+left to stand upon its own basis. From this period, therefore, the
+history of nations takes a material turn. The English historian divides
+his ancient account from the modern, at the extinction of the house of
+Plantagenet, in 1485, the fall of Richard the Third. For, by the
+introduction of letters, an amazing degree of light was thrown upon
+science, and also, by a new system of politics, adopted by Henry the
+Seventh, the British constitution, occasioned by one little act of
+parliament, that of allowing liberty to sell land, took a very
+different, and an important course.
+
+But the ancient and modern state of Birmingham, must divide at the
+restoration of Charles the Second. For though she had before, held a
+considerable degree of eminence; yet at this period, the curious arts
+began to take root, and were cultivated by the hand of genius. Building
+leases, also, began to take effect, extension followed, and numbers of
+people crowded upon each other, as into a Paradise.
+
+As a kind tree, perfectly adapted for growth, and planted in a suitable
+soil, draws nourishment from the circumjacent ground, to a great extent,
+and robs the neighbouring plants of their support, that nothing can
+thrive within its influence; so Birmingham, half whose inhabitants above
+the age of ten, perhaps, are not natives, draws her annual supply of
+hands, and is constantly fed by the towns that surround her, where her
+trades are not practised. Preventing every increase to those neighbours
+who kindly contribute to her wants. This is the case with Bromsgrove,
+Dudley, Stourbridge, Sutton, Lichfield, Tamworth, Coleshill,
+and Solihull.
+
+We have taken a view of Birmingham in several periods of existence,
+during the long course of perhaps three thousand years. Standing
+sometimes upon presumptive ground. If the prospect has been a little
+clouded, it only caused us to be more attentive, that we might not be
+deceived. But, though we have attended her through so immense a space,
+we have only seen her in infancy. Comparatively small in her size,
+homely in her person, and coarse in her dress. Her ornaments, wholly of
+iron, from her own forge.
+
+But now, her growths will be amazing; her expansion rapid, perhaps not
+to be paralleled in history. We shall see her rise in all the beauty of
+youth, of grace, of elegance, and attract the notice of the commercial
+world. She will also add to her iron ornaments, the lustre of every
+metal, that the whole earth can produce, with all their illustrious race
+of compounds, heightened by fancy, and garnished with jewels. She will
+draw from the fossil, and the vegetable kingdoms; press the ocean for
+shell, skin and coral. She will also tax the animal, for horn, bone, and
+ivory, and she will decorate the whole with the touches of her pencil.
+
+I have met with some remarks, published in 1743, wherein the author
+observes, "That Birmingham, at the restoration, probably consisted only
+of three streets." But it is more probable it consisted of fifteen,
+though not all finished, and about nine hundred houses.
+
+I am sensible, when an author strings a parcel of streets together, he
+furnishes but a dry entertainment for his reader, especially to a
+stranger. But, as necessity demands intelligence from the historian, I
+must beg leave to mention the streets and their supposed number
+of houses.
+
+     Digbeth, nearly the same as now, except
+       the twenty-tree houses between the two
+       Mill-lanes, which are of a modern date,
+       about                                      110
+     Moat-lane (Court-lane)                        12
+     Corn-market and Shambles                      40
+     Spiceal-street                                50
+     Dudley-street                                 50
+     Bell-street                                   50
+     Philip-street                                 30
+     St. Martin's-lane                             15
+     Edgbaston-street                              70
+     Lee's-lane                                    10
+     Park-street, extending from Digbeth nearly
+       to the East end of Freeman-street           80
+     More-street, to the bottom of Castle-street,  70
+     Bull-street, not so high as the Minories,     50
+     High-street,                                 100
+     Deritend;                                    120
+     Odd houses scattered round the verge of
+       the town                                    50
+                                                 ----
+                                                  907
+         The number of inhabitants,   5,472.
+
+The same author farther observes, "That from the Restoration to the year
+1700, the streets of Birmingham were increased to thirty one." But I can
+make their number only twenty-eight, and many of these far from
+complete. Also, that the whole number of houses were 2,504, and the
+inhabitants 15,032. The additional streets therefore seem to have been
+Castle-street, Carr's-lane, Dale-end, Stafford-street, Bull lane,
+Pinfold-street, Colmore-street, the Froggery, Old Meeting-street,
+Worcester-street, Peck-lane, New-street, (a small part,) Lower
+Mill-lane.
+
+From the year 1700 to 1731, there is said to have been a farther
+addition of twenty-five streets, I know of only twenty-three: and also
+of 1,215 houses, and 8,250 inhabitants. Their names we offer as
+under;--Freeman-street, New Meeting-street, Moor-street, (the North
+part), Wood-street, the Butts, Lichfield-street; Thomas's-street,
+John's-street, London-'prentice street, Lower priory, The Square,
+Upper-priory, Minories, Steel-house-lane, Cherry-street, Cannon-street,
+Needless-alley, Temple-street, King's street, Queen-street, Old
+Hinkleys, Smallbrook-street, and the East part of Hill-street.
+
+I first saw Birmingham July 14, 1741, and will therefore perambulate its
+boundaries at that time with my traveller, beginning at the top of
+Snow-hill, keeping the town on our left, and the fields that then were,
+on our right.
+
+Through Bull-lane we proceed to Temple-street; down Peck lane, to the
+top of Pinfold-street; Dudley-street, the Old Hinkleys to the top of
+Smallbrook street, back through Edgbaston-street, Digbeth, to the upper
+end of Deritend. We shall return through Park-street, Mass-house-lane,
+the North of Dale end, Stafford-street, Steel-house-lane, to the top of
+Snow-hill, from whence we set out.
+
+If we compare this account with that of 1731, we shall not find any
+great addition of streets; but those that were formed before, were much
+better filled up. The new streets erected during these ten years were
+Temple-row, except about six houses. The North of Park-street, and of
+Dale-end; also, Slaney-street, and a small part of the East side of
+Snow hill.
+
+From 1741, to the present year 1780, Birmingham seems to have acquired
+the amazing augmentation of seventy one streets, 4172 houses, and
+25,032 inhabitants.
+
+Thus her internal property is covered with new-erected buildings, tier
+within tier. Thus she opens annually, a new aspect to the traveller; and
+thus she penetrates along the roads that surround her, as if to unite
+with the neighbouring towns, for their improvement in commerce, in arts,
+and in civilization.
+
+I have often led my curious enquirer round Birmingham, but, like the
+thread round the swelling clue, never twice in the same tract. We shall
+therefore, for the last time, examine her present boundaries. Our former
+journey commenced at the top of Snow-hill, we now set off from
+the bottom.
+
+The present buildings extend about forty yards beyond the Salutation, on
+the Wolverhampton road. We now turn up Lionel-street, leaving St.
+Paul's, and about three new erected houses, on the right[1]; pass close
+to New-Hall, leaving it on the left, to the top of Great Charles-street,
+along Easy-hill: we now leave the Wharf to the right, down
+Suffolk-street, in which are seventy houses, leaving two infant streets
+also to the right, in which are about twelve houses each: up to
+Holloway-head, thence to Windmill-hill, Bow-street, Brick-kiln-lane,
+down to Lady-well, along Pudding-brook, to the Moat, Lloyd's
+Slitting-mill, Digbeth, over Deritend bridge, thence to the right, for
+Cheapside; cross the top of Bradford-street, return by the Bridge to
+Floodgate-street, Park-street, Bartholomew's-chapel, Grosvenor-street,
+Nova scotia-street, Woodcock-lane, Aston-street, Lancaster-street,
+Walmer-lane, Price's-street, Bath-street, to the bottom of Snow-hill.
+
+[Footnote 1: The above was written in May 1780, and the three houses are
+now, March 14, 1781, multiplied into fifty-five.]
+
+The circle I have described is about five miles, in which is much ground
+to be filled up. There are also beyond this crooked line, five clumps of
+houses belonging to Birmingham, which may be deemed hamlets.
+
+At the Sand-pits upon the Dudley-road, about three furlongs from the
+buildings, are fourteen houses.
+
+Four furlongs from the Navigation-office, upon the road to Hales-owen,
+are twenty-nine.
+
+One furlong from Exeter row, towards the hand, are thirty-four.
+
+Upon Camp-hill, 130 yards from the junction of the Warwick and Coventry
+roads, which is the extremity of the present buildings, are thirty-one.
+
+And two furlongs from the town, in Walmer-lane, are seventeen more.
+
+I shall comprize, in one view, the state of Birmingham in eight
+different periods of time. And though some are imaginary, perhaps they
+are not far from real.
+
+                               Streets.   Houses.    Souls.
+       In the time of the ancient
+     Britons,                                 80       400
+      A.D.     750,                  8       600      3000
+              1066,                  9       700      3500
+              1650,                 15       900      5472
+              1700,                 28      2504     15032
+              1731,                 51      3717     23286
+              1741,                 54      4114     24660
+              1780,                125      8382     50295
+
+In 1778, Birmingham, exclusive of the appendages, contained 8042 houses,
+48252 inhabitants.
+
+At the same time, Manchester consisted of 3402, houses, and 22440
+people.
+
+In 1779, Nottingham contained 3191 houses, and 17711 souls.
+
+It is easy to see, without the spirit of prophecy, that Birmingham hath
+not yet arrived at her zenith, neither is she likely to reach it for
+ages to come. Her increase will depend upon her manufactures; her
+manufactures will depend upon the national commerce; national commerce,
+will depend upon a superiority at sea; and this superiority may be
+extended to a long futurity.
+
+The interior parts of the town, are like those of other places,
+parcelled out into small free-holds, perhaps, originally purchased of
+the Lords of the Manor; but, since its amazing increase, which began
+about the restoration, large tracts of land have been huxtered out upon
+building leases.
+
+Some of the first that were granted, seem to have been about Worcester
+and Colmore streets, at the trifling annual price of one farthing per
+yard, or under.
+
+The market ran so much against the lesor, that the lessee had liberty to
+build in what manner he pleased; and, at the expiration of the term,
+could remove the buildings unless the other chose to purchase them. But
+the market, at this day, is so altered, that the lessee gives four-pence
+per yard; is tied to the mode of building, and obliged to leave the
+premisses in repair.
+
+The itch for building is predominant: we dip our fingers into mortar
+almost as soon as into business. It is not wonderful that a person
+should be hurt by the _falling_ of a house; but, with us, a man
+sometimes breaks his back by _raising_ one.
+
+This private injury, however, is attended with a public benefit of the
+first magnitude; for every "_House to be Let_," holds forth a kind of
+invitation to the stranger to settle in it, who, being of the laborious
+class, promotes the manufactures.
+
+If we cannot produce many houses of the highest orders in architecture,
+we make out the defect in numbers. Perhaps _more_ are erected here, in a
+given time, than in any place in the whole island, London excepted.
+
+It is remarkable, that in a town like Birmingham, where so many houses
+are built, the art of building is so little understood. The stile of
+architecture in the inferior sort, is rather showy than lasting.
+
+The proprietor generally contracts for a house of certain dimensions, at
+a stipulated price: this induces the artist to use some ingredients of
+the cheaper kind, and sometimes to try whether he can cement the
+materials with sand, instead of lime.
+
+But a house is not the only thing spoilt by the builder; he frequently
+spoils himself: out of many successions of house-makers, I cannot
+recollect one who made a fortune.
+
+Many of these edifices have been brought forth, answered the purposes
+for which they were created, and been buried in the dust, during my
+short acquaintance with Birmingham. One would think, if a man can
+survive a house, he has no great reason to complain of the shortness
+of life.
+
+From the external genteel appearance of a house, the stranger would be
+tempted to think the inhabitant possessed at least a thousand pounds;
+but, if he looks within, he sees only the ensigns of beggary.
+
+We have people who enjoy four or five hundred pounds a year in houses,
+none of which, perhaps, exceed six pounds per annum. It may excite a
+smile, to say, I have known two houses erected, one occupied by a man,
+his wife, and three children; the other pair had four; and twelve
+guineas covered every expence.
+
+Pardon, my dear reader, the omission of a pompous encomium on their
+beauty, or duration.
+
+I am inclined to think two thirds of the houses in Birmingham stand upon
+new foundations, and all the places of worship, except Deritend Chapel.
+
+About the year 1730, Thomas Sherlock, late Bishop of London, purchased
+the private estate of the ladies of the manor, chiefly land, about four
+hundred per annum.
+
+In 1758, the steward told me it had increased to twice the original
+value. The pious old Bishop was frequently solicited to grant building
+leases, but answered, "His land was valuable, and if built upon, his
+successor, at the expiration of the term, would have the rubbish to
+carry off:" he therefore not only refused, but prohibited his successor
+from granting such leases.
+
+But Sir Thomas Gooch, who succeeded him, seeing the great improvement of
+the neighbouring estates, and wisely judging fifty pounds per acre
+preferable to five, procured an act in about 1766, to set aside the
+prohibiting clause in the Bishop's will.
+
+Since which, a considerable town may be said to have been erected upon
+his property, now about 1600_l_. per annum.
+
+An acquaintance assured me, that in 1756 he could have purchased the
+house he then occupied for 400_l_. but refused. In 1770, the same house
+was sold for 600_l_. and in 1772, I purchased it for eight hundred and
+thirty-five guineas, without any alteration, but what time had made for
+the worse: and for this enormous price I had only an old house, which I
+was obliged to take down. Such is the rapid improvement in value, of
+landed property, in a commercial country.
+
+Suffer me to add, though foreign to my subject, that these premises were
+the property of an ancient family of the name of Smith, now in decay;
+where many centuries ago one of the first inns in Birmingham, and well
+known by the name of the Garland House, perhaps from the sign; but
+within memory, Potter's Coffee-house.
+
+Under one part was a room about forty-five feet long, and fifteen wide,
+used for the town prison.
+
+In sinking a cellar we found a large quantity of tobacco-pipes of a
+angular construction, with some very antique earthen ware, but no coin;
+also loads of broken bottles, which refutes the complaint of our pulpits
+against modern degeneracy, and indicates, the vociferous arts of getting
+drunk and breaking glass, were well understood by our ancestors.
+
+In penetrating a bed of sand, upon which had stood a work-shop, about
+two feet below the surface we came to a tumolus six feet long, three
+wide, and five deep, built very neat, with tiles laid flat, but no
+cement. The contents were mouldered wood, and pieces of human bone.
+
+I know of no house in Birmingham, the inns excepted, whose annual rent
+exceeds eighty pounds. By the lamp books, the united rents appear to be
+about seventy thousand, which if we take at twenty years purchase, will
+compose a freehold of 1,400,000_l_. value.
+
+If we allow the contents of the manor to be three thousand acres, and
+deduct six hundred for the town, five hundred more for roads, water, and
+waste land; and rate the remaining nineteen hundred, at the average rent
+of 2_l_. 10s. per acre; we shall raise an additional freehold of
+4,750_l_. per ann.
+
+If we value this landed property at thirty years purchase, it will
+produce 142,500_l_. and, united with the value of the buildings, the
+fee-simple of this happy region of genius, will amount to 1,542,500_l_.
+
+
+
+OF THE STREETS,
+
+AND
+
+THEIR NAMES.
+
+We accuse our short-sighted ancestors, and with reason, for leaving us
+almost without a church-yard and a market-place; for forming some of our
+streets nearly without width, and without light. One would think they
+intended a street without a passage, when they erected Moor-street; and
+that their successors should light their candles at noon.
+
+Something, however, may be pleaded in excuse, by observing the concourse
+of people was small, therefore a little room would suffice; and the
+buildings were low, so that light would be less obstructed: besides, we
+cannot guess at the future but by the present. As the increase of the
+town was slow, the modern augmentation could not then be discovered
+through the dark medium of time; but the prospect into futurity is at
+this day rather brighter, for we plainly see, and perhaps with more
+reason, succeeding generations will blame us for neglect. We occupy the
+power to reform, without the will; why else do we suffer enormities to
+grow, which will have taken deep root in another age? If utility and
+beauty can _be joined together_ in the street, why are they ever _put
+asunder_? It is easy for Birmingham to be as rapid in her improvement,
+as in her growth.
+
+The town consists of about 125 streets, some of which acquired their
+names from a variety of causes, but some from no cause, and others, have
+not yet acquired a name.
+
+Those of Bull street, Cannon street, London Prentice street, and Bell
+street, from the signs of their respective names.
+
+Some receive theirs from the proprietors of the land, as Smallbrook
+street, Freeman street, Colmore street, Slaney street, Weaman street,
+Bradford street, and Colmore row.
+
+Digbeth, or Ducks Bath, from the Pools for accommodating that animal,
+was originally Well street, from the many springs in its neighbourhood.
+
+Others derive a name from caprice, as Jamaica row, John, Thomas, and
+Philip streets.
+
+Some, from a desire of imitating the metropolis, as, Fleet-street,
+Snow-hill, Ludgate-hill, Cheapside, and Friday-street.
+
+Some again, from local causes, as High-street, from its elevation, St.
+Martin's-lane, Church-street, Cherry-street, originally an orchard,
+Chapel-street, Bartholomew-row, Mass-house-lane, Old and New
+Meeting-streets, Steelhouse-lane, Temple-row and Temple-street, also
+Pinfold-street, from a pinfold at No. 85, removed in 1752.
+
+Moor-street, anciently Mole-street, from the eminence on one side, or
+the declivity on the other.
+
+Park-street seems to have acquired its name by being appropriated to the
+private use of the lord of the manor, and, except at the narrow end next
+Digbeth, contained only the corner house to the south, entering
+Shut-lane, No. 82, lately taken down, which was called The Lodge.
+
+Spiceal-street, anciently Mercer-street, from the number of mercers
+shops; and as the professors of that trade dealt in grocery, it was
+promiscuously called Spicer-street. The present name is only a
+corruption of the last.
+
+The spot, now the Old Hinkleys, was a close, till about 1720, in which
+horses were shown at the fair, then held in Edgbaston-street. It was
+since a brick-yard, and contained only one hut, in which the
+brick-maker slept.
+
+The tincture of the smoky shops, with all their _black furniture_, for
+weilding gun-barrels, which afterwards appeared on the back of
+Small-brooke-street, might occasion the original name _Inkleys_; ink is
+well known; leys, is of British derivation, and means grazing ground; so
+that the etymology perhaps is _Black pasture_.
+
+The Butts; a mark to shoot at, when the bow was the fashionable
+instrument of war, which the artist of Birmingham knew well how to make,
+and to use.
+
+Gosta Green (Goose-stead-Green) a name of great antiquity, now in
+decline; once a track of commons, circumscribed by the Stafford road,
+now Stafford-street, the roads to Lichfield and Coleshill, now Aston and
+Coleshill-streets, and extending to Duke-street, the boundary of
+the manor.
+
+Perhaps, many ages after, it was converted into a farm, and was, within
+memory, possessed by a person of the name of Tanter, whence,
+Tanter-street.
+
+Sometimes a street fluctuates between two names, as that of Catharine
+and Wittal, which at length terminated in favour of the former.
+
+Thus the names of great George and great Charles stood candidates for
+one of the finest streets in Birmingham, which after a contest of two or
+three years, was carried in favour of the latter.
+
+Others receive a name from the places to which they direct, as
+Worcester-street, Edgbaston-street, Dudley-street, Lichfield-street,
+Aston-street, Stafford-street, Coleshill-street, and Alcester-street.
+
+A John Cooper, the same person who stands in the list of donors in St.
+Martin's church, and who, I apprehend, lived about two hundred and fifty
+years ago, at the Talbot, now No. 20, in the High-street, left about
+four acres of land, between Steelhouse-lane, St. Paul's chapel, and
+Walmer-lane, to make love-days for the people of Birmingham; hence,
+_Love-day-croft_.
+
+Various sounds from the trowel upon the premises, in 1758, produced the
+name of _Love-day-street_ (corrupted into Lovely-street.)
+
+This croft is part of an estate under the care of Lench's Trust; and, at
+the time of the bequest, was probably worth no more than ten shillings
+per annum.
+
+At the top of Walmer-lane, which is the north east corner of this croft,
+stood about half a dozen old alms-houses, perhaps erected in the
+beginning of the seventeenth century, then at a considerable distance
+from the town. These were taken down in 1764, and the present
+alms-houses, which are thirty-six, erected near the spot, at the expence
+of the trust, to accommodate the same number of poor widows, who have
+each a small annual stipend, for the supply of coals.
+
+This John Cooper, for some services rendered to the lord of the manor,
+obtained three privileges, That of regulating the goodness and price of
+beer, consequently he stands in the front of the whole liquid race of
+high tasters; that he should, whenever he pleased, beat a bull in the
+Bull-ring, whence arises the name; and, that he should be allowed
+interment in the south porch of St. Martin's church. His memory ought to
+be transmitted with honor, to posterity, for promoting the harmony of
+his neighbourhood, but he ought to have been buried in a dunghill, for
+punishing an innocent animal.--His wife seems to have survived him, who
+also became a benefactress, is recorded in the same list, and their
+monument, in antique sculpture, is yet visible in the porch.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+TRADE.
+
+Perhaps there is not by nature so much difference in the capacities of
+men, as by education. The efforts of nature will produce a ten-fold crop
+in the field, but those of art, fifty.
+
+Perhaps too, the seeds of every virtue, vice, inclination, and habit,
+are sown in the breast of every human being, though not in an equal
+degree. Some of these lie dormant for ever, no hand inviting their
+cultivation. Some are called into existence by their own internal
+strength, and others by the external powers that surround them. Some of
+these seeds flourish more, some less, according to the aptness of the
+soil, and the modes of assistance. We are not to suppose infancy the
+only time in which these scions spring, no part of life is exempt. I
+knew a man who lived to the age of forty, totally regardless of music. A
+fidler happening to have apartments near his abode, attracted his ear,
+by frequent exhibitions, which produced a growing inclination for that
+favourite science, and he became a proficient himself. Thus in advanced
+periods a man may fall in love with a science, a woman, or a bottle.
+Thus avarice is said to shoot up in ancient soil, and thus, I myself
+bud forth in history at fifty-six.
+
+The cameleon is said to receive a tincture from the colour of the object
+that is nearest him; but the human mind in reality receives a bias from
+its connections. Link a man to the pulpit, and he cannot proceed to any
+great lengths in profligate life. Enter him into the army, and he will
+endeavour to swear himself into consequence. Make the man of humanity an
+overseer of the poor, and he will quickly find the tender feelings of
+commiseration hardened. Make him a physician, and he will be the only
+person upon the premises, the heir excepted, unconcerned at the prospect
+of death. Make him a surgeon, and he will amputate a leg with the same
+indifference with which a cutler saws a piece of bone for a knife
+handle. You commit a rascal to prison because he merits transportation,
+but by the time he comes out he merits a halter. By uniting also with
+industry, we become industrious. It is easy to give instances of people
+whose distinguishing characteristic was idleness, but when they breathed
+the air of Birmingham, diligence became the predominant feature. The
+view of profit, like the view of corn to the hungry horse, excites
+to action.
+
+Thus the various seeds scattered by nature into the soul at its first
+formation, either lie neglected, are urged into increase by their own
+powers, or are drawn towards maturity by the concurring circumstances
+that attend them.
+
+The late Mr. Grenville observed, in the House of Commons, "That commerce
+tended to corrupt the morals of a people." If we examine the expression,
+we shall find it true in a certain degree, beyond which, it tends to
+improve them.
+
+Perhaps every tradesman can furnish out numberless instances of small
+deceit. His conduct is marked with a littleness, which though allowed by
+general consent, is not strictly just. A person with whom I have long
+been connected in business, asked, if I had dealt with his relation,
+whom he had brought up, and who had lately entered into commercial life.
+I answered in the affirmative. He replied, "He is a very honest fellow."
+I told him I saw all the finesse of a tradesman about him. "Oh, rejoined
+my friend, a man has a right to say all he can in favour of his own
+goods." Nor is the seller alone culpable. The buyer takes an equal share
+in the deception. Though neither of them speak their sentiments, they
+well understand each other. Whilst the treaty is agitating, the profit
+of the tradesman vanishes, yet the buyer pronounces against the article;
+but when finished, the seller whispers his friend, "It is well sold,"
+and the buyer smiles if a bargain.
+
+Thus is the commercial track a line of minute deceits.
+
+But, on the other hand, it does not seem possible for a man in trade to
+pass this line, without wrecking his reputation; which, if once broken,
+can never be made whole. The character of a tradesman is valuable, it is
+his all; therefore, whatever seeds of the vicious kind shoot forth in
+the mind, are carefully watched and nipped in the bud, that they may
+never blossom into action.
+
+Thus having slated the accounts between morality and trade, I shall
+leave the reader to draw the ballance. I shall not pronounce after so
+great a master, and upon so delicate a subject, but shall only ask,
+"Whether the people in trade are more corrupt than those out?"
+
+If the curious reader will lend an attentive ear to a pair of farmers in
+the market, bartering for a cow, he will find as much dissimulation as
+at St. James's, or at any other saint's, but couched in homelier phrase.
+The man of well-bred deceit is '_infinitely_ your friend--It would give
+him _immense_ pleasure to serve you!' while the man in the frock 'Will
+be ---- if he tells you a word of a lye!' Deception is an innate
+principle of the human heart, not peculiar to one man, or one
+profession.
+
+Having occasion for a horse, in 1759, I mentioned it to an acquaintance,
+and informed him of the uses: he assured me, he had one that would
+exactly suit; which he showed in the stable, and held the candle pretty
+high, _for fear of affecting the straw_. I told him it was needless to
+examine him, for I should rely upon his word, being conscious he was too
+much my friend to deceive me; therefore bargained, and caused him to be
+sent home. But by the light of the sun, which next morning illumined the
+heavens, I perceived the horse was _greased_ on all fours. I therefore,
+in gentle terms, upbraided my friend with duplicity, when he replied
+with some warmth, "I would cheat my own brother in a horse." Had this
+honourable friend stood a chance of selling me a horse once a week, his
+own interest would have prevented him from deceiving me.
+
+A man enters into business with a view of acquiring a fortune--A
+laudable motive! That property which rises from honest industry, is an
+honour to its owner; the repose of his age; the reward of a life of
+attention: but, great as the advantage seems, yet, being of a private
+nature, it is one of the least in the mercantile walk. For the
+intercourse occasioned by traffic, gives a man a view of the world, and
+of himself; removes the narrow limits that confine his judgment; expands
+the mind; opens his understanding; removes his prejudices; and polishes
+his manners. Civility and humanity are ever the companions of trade;
+the man of business is the man of liberal sentiment; a barbarous and
+commercial people, is a contradiction; if he is not the philosopher of
+nature, he is the friend of his country, and well understands her
+interest. Even the men of inferior life among us, whose occupations, one
+would think, tend to produce minds as callous as the mettle they work;
+lay a stronger claim to civilization, than in any other place with which
+I am acquainted. I am sorry to mutilate the compliment, when I mention
+the lower race of the other sex: no lady ought to be publicly insulted,
+let her appear in what dress she pleases. Both sexes, however, agree in
+exhibiting a mistaken pity, in cases of punishment, particularly by
+preventing that for misconduct in the military profession.
+
+It is singular, that a predilection for Birmingham, is entertained by
+every denomination of visitants, from Edward Duke of York, who saw us in
+1765, down to the presuming quack, who, griped with necessity, boldly
+discharges his filth from the stage. A paviour, of the name of Obrien,
+assured me in 1750, that he only meant to sleep one night in Birmingham,
+in his way from London to Dublin. But instead of pursuing his journey
+next morning, as intended, he had continued in the place thirty-five
+years: and though fortune had never elevated him above the pebbles of
+the street, yet he had never repented his stay.
+
+It has already been remarked that I first saw Birmingham in 1741,
+accidentally cast into those regions of civility; equally unknown to
+every inhabitant, nor having the least idea of becoming one myself.
+Though the reflections of an untaught youth of seventeen cannot be
+striking, yet, as they were purely natural, permit me to describe them.
+
+I had been before acquainted with two or three principal towns. The
+environs of all I had seen were composed of wretched dwellings, replete
+with dirt and poverty; but the buildings in the exterior of Birmingham
+rose in a style of elegance. Thatch, so plentiful in other towns, was
+not to be met with in this. I was surprised at the place, but more so at
+the people: They were a species I had never seen: They possessed a
+vivacity I had never beheld: I had been among dreamers, but now I saw
+men awake: Their very step along the street showed alacrity: Every man
+seemed to know and prosecute his own affairs: The town was large, and
+full of inhabitants, and those inhabitants full of industry. I had seen
+faces elsewhere tinctured with an idle gloom void of meaning, but here,
+with a pleasing alertness: Their appearance was strongly marked with the
+modes of civil life: I mixed a variety of company, chiefly of the lower
+ranks, and rather as a silent spectator: I was treated with an easy
+freedom by all, and with marks of favour by some: Hospitality seemed to
+claim this happy people for her own, though I knew not at that time from
+what cause.
+
+I did not meet with this treatment in 1770, twenty nine years after, at
+Bosworth, where I accompanied a gentleman, with no other intent, than to
+view the field celebrated for the fall of Richard the third. The
+inhabitants enjoyed the cruel satisfaction of setting their dogs at us
+in the street, merely because we were strangers. Human figures, not
+their own, are seldom seen in those inhospitable regions: Surrounded
+with impassable roads, no intercourse with man to humanise the mind, no
+commerce to smooth their rugged manners, they continue the boors
+of nature.
+
+Thus it appears, that characters are influenced by profession. That the
+great advantage of private fortune, and the greater to society, of
+softening and forming the mind, are the result of trade. But these are
+not the only benefits that flow from this desirable spring. It opens the
+hand of charity to the assistance of distress; witness the Hospital and
+the two Charity Schools, supported by annual donation: It adds to the
+national security, by supplying the taxes for internal use, and, for
+the prosecution of war. It adds to that security, by furnishing the
+inhabitants with riches, which they are ever anxious to preserve, even
+at the risk of their lives; for the preservation of private wealth,
+tends to the preservation of the state.
+
+It augments the value of landed property, by multiplying the number of
+purchasers: It produces money to improve that land into a higher state
+of cultivation, which ultimately redounds to the general benefit, by
+affording plenty.
+
+It unites bodies of men in social compact, for their mutual interest: It
+adds to the credit and pleasure of individuals, by enabling them to
+purchase entertainment and improvement, both of the corporeal and
+intellectual kind.
+
+It finds employment for the hand that would otherwise be found in
+mischief: And it elevates the character of a nation in the scale of
+government.
+
+Birmingham, by her commercial consequence, has, of late, justly assumed
+the liberty of nominating one of the representatives for the county;
+and, to her honor, the elective body never regretted her choice.
+
+In that memorable contest of 1774, we were almost to a man of one mind:
+if an _odd dozen_ among us, of a different _mould_, did not assimulate
+with the rest, they were treated, as men of free judgment should ever be
+treated, _with civility_, and the line of harmony was not broken.
+
+If this little treatise happens to travel into some of our corporate
+places, where the fire of contention, blown by the breath of party, is
+kept alive during seven years, let them cast a second glance over the
+above remark.
+
+Some of the first words after the creation, _increase and multiply_, are
+applicable to Birmingham; but as her own people are insufficient for the
+manufactures, she demands assistance for two or three miles round her.
+In our early morning walks, on every road proceeding from the town, we
+meet the sons of diligence returning to business, and bringing _in_ the
+same dusky smuts, which the evening before they took out. And though
+they appear of a darkish complexion, we may consider it is the property
+of every metal to sully the user; money itself has the same effect, and
+yet he deems it no disgrace who is daubed by fingering it; the disgrace
+lies with him who has none to finger.
+
+The profits arising from labour, to the lower orders of men, seem to
+surpass those of other mercantile places. This is not only visible in
+the manufactures peculiar to Birmingham, but in the more common
+occupations of the barber, taylor, shoe-maker, etc. who bask in the rays
+of plenty.
+
+It is entertaining to the curious observer, to contemplate the variation
+of things. We know of nothing, either in the natural or moral world,
+that continues in the same state: From a number of instances that might
+be adduced, permit me to name one--that of money. This, considered in
+the abstract, is of little or no value; but, by the common consent of
+mankind, is erected into a general arbitrator, to fix a value upon all
+others: a medium through which every thing passes: a balance by which
+they must be weighed: a touchstone to which they must be applied to find
+their worth: though we can neither eat nor drink it, we can neither eat
+nor drink without it.--He that has none best knows its use.
+
+It has long been a complaint, that the same quantity of that medium,
+money, will not produce so much of the necessaries of life, particularly
+food, as heretofore; or, in other words, that provisions have been
+gradually rising for many ages, and that the milling, which formerly
+supported the laborious family a whole week, will not now support it
+one day.
+
+In times of remarkable scarcity, such as those in 1728, 41, 56, 66, and
+74, the press abounded with publications on the subject; but none, which
+I have seen, reached the question, though short.
+
+It is of no consequence, whether a bushel of corn sells for six _pence_,
+or six _shillings_, but, what _time_ a man must labour before he
+can earn one?
+
+If, by the moderate labour of thirty-six hours, in the reign of Henry
+the Third, he could acquire a groat, which would purchase a bushel of
+wheat; and if, in the reign of George the Third, he works the same
+number of hours for eight shillings, which will make the same purchase,
+the balance is exactly even. If, by our commercial concerns with the
+eastern and the western worlds, the kingdom abounds with bullion, money
+must be cheaper; therefore a larger quantity is required to perform the
+same use. If money would go as far now as in the days of Henry the
+Third, a journeyman in Birmingham might amass a ministerial fortune.
+
+Whether provisions abound more or less? And whether the poor fare better
+or worse, in this period than in the other? are also questions dependant
+upon trade, and therefore worth investigating.
+
+If the necessaries of life abound more in this reign, than in that of
+Henry the Third, we cannot pronounce them dearer.
+
+Perhaps it will not be absurd to suppose, that the same quantity of
+land, directed by the superior hand of cultivation, in the eighteenth
+century, will yield twice the produce, as by the ignorant management of
+the thirteenth. We may suppose also, by the vast number of new
+inclosures which have annually taken place since the revolution, that
+twice the quantity of land is brought into cultivation: It follows, that
+four times the quantity of provisions is raised from the earth, than was
+raised under Henry the Third; which will leave a large surplus in hand,
+after we have deducted for additional luxury, a greater number of
+consumers, and also for exportation.
+
+This extraordinary stock is also a security against famine, which our
+forefathers severely felt.
+
+It will be granted, that in both periods the worst of the meat was used
+by the poor. By the improvements in agriculture, the art of feeding
+cattle is well understood, and much in practice; as the land improves,
+so will the beast that feeds upon it: if the productions, therefore, of
+the slaughter house, in this age, surpass those of Henry the Third, then
+the fare of the poor is at least as much superior now, as the worst of
+fat meat is superior to the worst of lean.
+
+The poor inhabitants in that day, found it difficult to procure bread;
+but in this, they sometimes add cream and butter.
+
+Thus it appears, that through the variation of things a balance is
+preserved: That provisions have not advanced in price, but are more
+plentiful: And that the lower class of men have found in trade, that
+intricate, but beneficial clue, which guides them into the confines
+of luxury.
+
+Provisions and the manufactures, like a pair of scales, will not
+preponderate together; but as weight is applied to the one, the other
+will advance.
+
+As labour is irksome to the body, a man will perform no more of it than
+necessity obliges him; it follows, that in those times when plenty
+preponderates, the manufactures tend to decay: For if a man can support
+his family with three days labour, he will not work six.
+
+As the generality of men will perform no more work than produces a
+maintenance, reduce that maintenance to half the price, and they will
+perform but half the work: Hence half the commerce of a nation is
+destroyed at one blow, and what is lost by one kingdom will be recovered
+by another, in rivalship.
+
+A commercial people, therefore, will endeavour to keep provisions at a
+superior rate, yet within reach of the poor.
+
+It follows also, that luxury is no way detrimental to trade; for we
+frequently observe ability and industry exerted to support it.
+
+The practice of the Birmingham manufacturer, for, perhaps, a hundred
+generations, was to keep within the warmth of his own forge.
+
+The foreign customer, therefore, applied to him for the execution of
+orders, and regularly made his appearance twice a year; and though this
+mode of business is not totally extinguished, yet a very different one
+is adopted.
+
+The merchant stands at the head of the manufacturer, purchases his
+produce, and travels the whole island to promote the sale: A practice
+that would have astonished our fore fathers. The commercial spirit of
+the age, hath also penetrated beyond the confines of Britain, and
+explored the whole continent of Europe; nor does it stop there, for the
+West-Indies, and the American world, are intimately acquainted with the
+Birmingham merchant; and nothing but the exclusive command of the
+East-India Company, over the Asiatic trade, prevents our riders from
+treading upon the heels of each other, in the streets of Calcutta.
+
+To this modern conduct of Birmingham, in sending her sons to the foreign
+market, I ascribe the chief cause of her rapid increase.
+
+By the poor's books it appears, there are not three thousand houses in
+Birmingham, that pay the parochial rates; whilst there are more then
+five thousand that do not, chiefly through inability. Hence we see what
+an amazing number of the laborious class of mankind is among us. This
+valuable part of the creation, is the prop of the remainder. They are
+the rise and support of our commerce. From this fountain we draw our
+luxuries and our pleasures. They spread our tables, and oil the wheels
+of our carriages. They are also the riches and the defence of
+the country.
+
+How necessary then, is it to direct with prudence, the rough passions of
+this important race, and make them subservient to the great end of civil
+society. The deficiency of conduct in this useful part of our species
+ought to be supplied by the superior.
+
+Let not the religious reader be surprised if I say, their follies, and
+even their vices, under certain restrictions, are beneficial. Corruption
+in the community, as well as in the natural body, accelerates vital
+existence.
+
+Let us survey one of the men, who begin life at the lowest ebb; without
+property, or any other advantage but that of his own prudence.
+
+He comes, by length of time and very minute degrees, from being directed
+himself, to have the direction of others. He quits the precincts of
+servitude, and enters the dominions of command: He laboured for others,
+but now others labour for him. Should the whole race, therefore, possess
+the same prudence, they would all become masters. Where then could be
+found the servant? Who is to perform the manual part? Who to execute the
+orders of the merchant? A world consisting only of masters, is like a
+monster consisting only of a head. We know that the head is no more than
+the leading power, the members are equally necessary. And, as one member
+is placed in a more elevated state than another, so are the ranks of
+men, that no void may be left. The hands and the feet, were designed to
+execute the drudgery of life; the head for direction, and all are
+suitable in their sphere.
+
+If we turn the other side of the picture, we shall see a man born in
+affluence, take the reins of direction; but like Phæton, not being able
+to guide them, blunders on from mischief to mischief, till he involves
+himself in destruction, comes prone to the earth, and many are injured
+by his fall. From directing the bridle, he submits to the bit; seeks for
+bread in the shops, the line designed him by nature; where his hands
+become callous with the file, and where, for the first time in his life,
+he becomes useful to an injured society.
+
+Thus, from imprudence, folly, and vice, is produced poverty;--poverty
+produces labour; from labour, arise the manufactures; and from these,
+the riches of a country, with all their train of benefits.
+
+It would be difficult to enumerate the great variety of trades practised
+in Birmingham, neither would it give pleasure to the reader. Some of
+them, spring up with the expedition of a blade of grass, and, like that,
+wither in a summer. If some are lasting, like the sun, others seem to
+change with the moon. Invention is ever at work. Idleness; the
+manufactory of scandal, with the numerous occupations connected with the
+cotton; the linen, the silk, and the woollen trades, are little
+known among us.
+
+Birmingham begun with the productions of the anvil, and probably will
+end with them. The sons of the hammer, were once her chief inhabitants;
+but that great croud of artists is now lost in a greater: Genius seems
+to increase with multitude.
+
+Part of the riches, extension, and improvement of Birmingham, are owing
+to the late John Taylor, Esq; who possessed the singular powers of
+perceiving things as they really were. The spring, and consequence of
+action, were open to his view; whom we may justly deem the Shakespear
+or the Newton of his day. He rose from minute beginnings, to
+shine in the commercial hemisphere, as they in the poetical and
+philosophical--Imitation is part of the human character. An example of
+such eminence in himself, promoted exertion in others; which, when
+prudence guided the helm, led on to fortune: But the bold adventurer who
+crouded sail, without ballast and without rudder, has been known to
+overset the vessel, and sink insolvent.
+
+To this uncommon genius we owe the gilt-button, the japanned and gilt
+snuff-boxes, with the numerous race of enamels--From the same fountain
+also issued the paper snuff-box, at which one servant earned three
+pounds ten shillings per week, by painting them at a farthing each.
+
+In his shop were weekly manufactured buttons to the amount of 800_l_
+exclusive of other valuable productions.
+
+One of the present nobility, of distinguished taste, examining the
+works, with the master, purchased some of the articles, amongst others,
+a toy of eighty guineas value, and, while paying for them, observed with
+a smile, "he plainly saw he could not reside in Birmingham for less than
+two hundred pounds a day."
+
+The toy trades first made their appearance in Birmingham, in the
+beginning of Charles the second, in an amazing variety, attended with
+all their beauties and their graces. The first in pre-eminence is
+
+
+
+The BUTTON.
+
+This beautiful ornament appears with infinite variation; and though the
+original date is rather uncertain, yet we well remember the long coats
+of our grandfathers covered with half a gross of high-tops, and the
+cloaks of our grandmothers, ornamented with a horn button nearly the
+size of a crown piece, a watch, or a John apple, curiously wrought, as
+having passed through the Birmingham press.
+
+Though the common round button keeps on with the steady pace of the day,
+yet we sometimes see the oval, the square, the pea, and the pyramid,
+flash into existence. In some branches of traffic the wearer calls
+loudly for new fashions; but in this, the fashions tread upon each
+other, and crowd upon the wearer. The consumption of this article is
+astonishing. There seem to be hidden treasures couched within this magic
+circle, known only to a few, who extract prodigious fortunes out of
+this useful toy, whilst a far greater number, submit to a statute of
+bankruptcy.
+
+Trade, like a restive horse, can rarely be managed; for, where one is
+carried to the end of a successful journey, many are thrown off by the
+way. The next that calls our attention is
+
+
+
+The BUCKLE.
+
+Perhaps the shoe, in one form or other, is nearly as ancient as the
+foot. It originally appeared under the name of, sandal; this was no
+other than a sole without an upper-leather. That fashion hath since been
+inverted, and we now, sometimes, see an upper-leather nearly without a
+sole. But, whatever was the cut of the shoe, it always demanded a
+fastening. Under the house of Plantagenet, it shot horizontally from the
+foot, like a Dutch scait, to an enormous length, so that the extremity
+was fattened to the knee, sometimes, with a silver chain, a silk lace,
+or even a pack-thread string, rather than avoid _genteel taste_.
+
+This thriving beak, drew the attention of the legislature, who were
+determined to prune the exorbitant shoot. For in 1465 we find an order
+of council, prohibiting the growth of the shoe toe, to more than two
+inches, under the penalty of a dreadful curse from the priest, and,
+which was worse, the payment of twenty shillings to the king.
+
+This fashion, like every other, gave way to time, and in its stead, the
+rose began to bud upon the foot. Which under the house of Tudor, opened
+in great perfection. No shoe was fashionable, without being fattened
+with a full-blown rose. Under the house of Stuart, the rose withered,
+which gave rise to the shoe-string.
+
+The beaus of that age, ornamented their lower tier with double laces of
+silk, tagged with silver, and the extremities beautified with a small
+fringe of the same metal. The inferior class, wore laces of plain silk,
+linen, or even a thong of leather; which last is yet to be met with in
+the humble plains of rural life. But I am inclined to think, the artists
+of Birmingham had no great hand in fitting out the beau of the
+last century.
+
+The revolution was remarkable, for the introduction of William, of
+liberty, and the minute buckle; not differing much in size and shape
+from the horse bean.
+
+This offspring of fancy, like the clouds, is ever changing. The fashion
+of to-day, is thrown into the casting pot to-morrow.
+
+The buckle seems to have undergone every figure, size and shape of
+geometrical invention: It has passed through every form in the whole
+zodiac of Euclid. The large square buckle is the _ton_ of the present
+day. The ladies also, have adopted the reigning taste: It is difficult
+to discover their beautiful little feet, covered with an enormous shield
+of buckle; and we wonder to see the active motion under the massive
+load. Thus the British fair support the manufactures of Birmingham, and
+thus they kill by weight of metal.
+
+
+
+GUNS.
+
+Though the sword and the gun are equal companions in war, it does not
+appear they are of equal original. I have already observed, that the
+sword was the manufacture of Birmingham, in the time of the Britons.
+
+But tradition tells us, King William was once lamenting "That guns were
+not manufactured in his dominions, but that he was obliged to procure
+them from Holland at a great expence, and greater difficulty."
+
+One of the Members for Warwickshire being present, told the King, "He
+thought his constituents could answer his Majesty's wishes."--The King
+was pleased with the remark, and the Member posted to Birmingham. Upon
+application to a person in Digbeth, whose name I forget, the pattern was
+executed with precision, which, when presented to the royal board, gave
+entire satisfaction. Orders were immediately issued for large numbers,
+which have been so frequently repeated that they never lost their road;
+and the ingenious artists have been so amply rewarded, that they have
+rolled in their carriages to this day.--Thus the same instrument which
+is death to one man, is genteel life to another.
+
+
+
+LEATHER.
+
+It may seem singular to a modern eye, to view this place in the light of
+one vast tan-yard.--Though there is no appearance of that necessary
+article among us, yet Birmingham was once a famous market for leather.
+Digbeth not only abounded with tanners, but large numbers of hides
+arrived weekly for sale, where the whole country found a supply. When
+the weather would allow, they were ranged in columns in the High-street,
+and at other times deposited in the Leather-hall, at the East end of
+New-street, appropriated for their reception.
+
+This market was of great antiquity, perhaps not less than seven hundred
+years, and continued till the beginning of the present century. We have
+two officers, annually chosen, by the name of _leather-sealers_, from a
+power given them by ancient charter, to mark the vendible hides; but now
+the leather-sealers have no duty, but that of taking an elegant dinner.
+Shops are erected upon tan-fats; the Leather-hall is gone to
+destruction, and we are reduced to one solitary tanner.
+
+
+
+STEEL.
+
+The progress of the arts, is equal to the progress of time; they began,
+and will end together. Though some of both are lost, yet they both
+accumulate.
+
+The manufacture of iron, in Birmingham, is ancient beyond research; that
+of steel is of modern date.
+
+Pride is inseparable from the human character, the man without it, is
+the man without breath: we trace it in various forms, through every
+degree of people; but like those objects about us, it is best
+discovered in our own sphere; those above, and those below us, rather
+escape our notice; envy attacks an equal.
+
+Pride induced the Pope to look with contempt on the European Princes,
+and now induces them to return the compliment; it taught insolence to
+the Spaniard, selfishness to the Dutch; it teaches the rival nations of
+France and England to contend for power.
+
+Pride preserves a man from mean actions, it throws him upon meaner; it
+whets the sword for destruction; it urges the laudable acts of humanity;
+it is the universal hinge on which we move; it glides the gentle stream
+of usefulness, it overflows the mounds of reason, and swells into a
+destructive flood; like the sun, in his milder rays, it animates and
+draws us towards perfection; but, like him, in his fiercer beams, it
+scorches and destroys.
+
+Money is not the necessary attendant of pride, for it abounds no where
+more than in the lowest ranks. It adds a sprucer air to a sunday dress;
+casts a look of disdain from a bundle of rags; it boasts the _honor_ of
+a family, while poverty unites a sole and upper-leather with a bandage
+of shop-thread. There are people who even _pride_ themselves in
+humility.
+
+This dangerous _good_, this necessary _evil_, supports the female
+character; without it, the brightest part of the creation would
+degenerate.
+
+It will be asked, "What portion may be allowed?" Prudence will answer,
+"As much as you please, but _not_ to disgust."
+
+It is equally found in the senate-house, or the button-shop; the scene
+of action is the scene of pride; and I, unable to adorn this work with
+erudition, take a pride in cloathing a worn-out subject afresh, and that
+pride will increase, should the world smi ---- "But why, says my friend,
+do you forsake the title of your chapter, and lead us a dance through
+the mazes of pride? Can there be any connexion between that sovereign
+passion, and forging a bar of steel?" Yes, he who makes steel prides
+himself in carrying the art one step higher than he who makes iron.
+
+This art appeared among us in the seventeenth century; was introduced by
+the family of Kettle. The name of Steelhouse-lane will convey to
+posterity the situation of the works, the commercial spirit of
+Birmingham, will convey the produce to the Antipodes.
+
+From this warm, but dismal climate, issues the button, which shines on
+the breast, and the bayonet, intended to pierce it; the lancet, which
+bleeds the man, and the rowel, the horse; the lock, which preserves the
+beloved bottle, and the screw, to uncork it; the needle, equally
+obedient to the thimble and the pole.
+
+
+
+NAILS.
+
+In most occupations, the profit of the master and the journeyman bear a
+proportion: if the former is able to figure in genteel life, the latter
+is able to figure in silk stockings. If the matter can afford to allow
+upon his goods ten per cent. discount for money, the servant can afford
+to squander half his wages. In a worn-down trade, where the tides of
+profit are reduced to a low ebb, and where imprudence sets her foot upon
+the premises, the matter and the man starve together. Only _half_ this
+is our present case.
+
+The art of nail-making is one of the most ancient among us; we may
+safely charge its antiquity with four figures.
+
+We cannot consider it a trade _in_, so much as _of_ Birmingham; for we
+have but few nail-makers left in the town: our nailers are chiefly
+masters, and rather opulent. The manufacturers are so scattered round
+the country, that we cannot travel far, in any direction, out of the
+sound of the nail-hammer. But Birmingham, like a powerful magnet, draws
+the produce of the anvil to herself.
+
+When I first approached her, from Walsall, in 1741, I was surprized at
+the prodigious number of blacksmiths shops upon the road; and could not
+conceive how a country, though populous, could support so many people of
+the same occupation. In some of these shops I observed one, or more
+females, stript of their upper garment, and not overcharged with their
+lower, wielding the hammer with all the grace of the sex. The beauties
+of their face were rather eclipsed by the smut of the anvil; or, in
+poetical phrase, the tincture of the forge had taken possession of those
+lips, which might have been taken by the kiss.
+
+Struck with the novelty, I inquired, "Whether the ladies in this country
+shod horses?" but was answered, with a smile, "They are nailers."
+
+A fire without heat, a nailer of a fair complexion, or one who despises
+the tankard, are equally rare among them. His whole system of faith may
+be comprised in one article--That the slender two-penny mug, used in a
+public house, _is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked_.
+
+While the master reaps the harvest of plenty, the workman submits to the
+scanty gleanings of penury, a thin habit, an early old age, and a
+figure bending towards the earth. Plenty comes not near his dwelling,
+except of rags, and of children. But few recruits arise from his
+nail-shop, except for the army. His hammer is worn into deep hollows,
+fitting the fingers of a dark and plump hand, hard as the timber it
+wears. His face, like the moon, is often seen through a cloud.
+
+
+
+BELLOWS.
+
+Man first catches the profession; the profession afterwards moulds the
+man.
+
+In whatever profession we engage, we assume its character, become a part
+of it, vindicate its honor, its eminence, its antiquity; or feel a wound
+through its sides.
+
+Though there may be no more pride in a minister of state, who opens a
+budget, than in a tinker who carries one, yet they equally contend for
+the honor of their trade.
+
+Every man, from the attorney's clerk to the butcher's apprentice, feels
+his own honor, with that of his profession, wounded by travelling on
+foot. To be caught on his feet, is nearly the same as to be caught in a
+crime. The man who has gathered up his limbs, and hung them on a horse,
+looks _down_ with dignity on him who has not; while the man on foot
+offers his humble bow, afraid to look up--If providence favours us with
+feet, is it a disgrace to use them?--I could instance a person who
+condescended to quit London, that center of trick, lace, and equipage;
+and in 1761, open a draper's shop in Birmingham: but his feet, or his
+_pride_, were so much hurt by walking, that he could scarcely travel ten
+doors from his own without a post-chaise--the result was, he became such
+an adept in riding, that in a few months, he rode triumphant into the
+Gazette. Being quickly scoured bright by the ill-judged laws of
+bankruptcy, he rode, for the last time, _out_ of Birmingham, where he
+had so often rode _in_: but his injured creditors were obliged to _walk_
+after the slender dividend of eighteen pence in the pound. The man who
+_can_ use his feet, is envied by him who _cannot_; and he, in turn,
+envies him who _will_ not. Our health and our feet, in a double sense,
+go together. The human body has been justly compared to a musical
+instrument; I add, this instrument was never perfectly in tune, without
+a due portion of exercise.
+
+The man of military character, puts on, with his scarlet, that martial
+air, which tells us, "he has formed a resolution to kill:" and we
+naturally ask, "Which sex?"
+
+Some "_pert and affected author_" with anxiety on his brow, will be apt
+to step forward, and say, "Will you celebrate the man of the sword, who
+transfers the blush of his face to his back, and neglect the man of the
+quill, who, like the pelican, portions out his vitals to feed others?
+Which is preferable, he who lights up the mental powers, or he who puts
+them out? the man who stores the head with knowledge, or he who stores
+it with a bullet?"
+
+The antiquarian supports his dignity with a solemn aspect; he treats a
+sin and a smile as synonimous; one half of which has been discarded from
+his childhood. If a smile in the house of religion, or of mourning, be
+absurd, is there any reason to expel it from those places where it is
+not? A tale will generally allow of two ingredients, _information_ and
+_amusement_: but the historian and the antiquarian have, from time
+immemorial, used but _one_. Every smile, except that of contempt, is
+beneficial to the constitution; they tend to promote long life, and
+pleasure while that life lasts. Much may be said in favour of tears of
+joy, but more on joy without tears. I wonder the lively fancy of Hogarth
+never sketched the _dull_ historian, in the figure of an ass, plodding
+to market under his panniers, laden with the fruits of antiquity, and
+old time driving up the _rear_, with his scythe converted into an
+hedge-stake.
+
+The bellows-maker proclaims the _honor_ of his art, by observing, he
+alone produces that instrument which commands the winds; his soft
+breeze, like that of the south, counter-acts the chill blasts of winter:
+by his efforts, like those of the sun, the world receives light: he
+creates when he pleases, and gives _breath_ when he creates. In his
+caverns the winds deep at pleasure; and by his _orders_ they set Europe
+in flames.
+
+He pretends, that a gentle puff in the eyes of a _reviewer_, from a pair
+of his bellows, would tend to clear the sight, and enable him to
+distinguish between a smile and a serious face: that his circular board,
+like a ferula, applied by the handle to an inferior part, would induce
+him to peruse the _whole treatise_, and not partially pronounce from
+the preface.
+
+He farther pretends, that the _antiquity_ of his occupation will appear
+from the plenty of elm, once in the neighbourhood, but long cut up for
+his use: that the leather-market in Birmingham, for many ages, furnished
+him with sides; and though the manufacture of iron is allowed to be
+extremely ancient, yet the smith could not procure his heat without a
+blast, nor could that blast be raised without the bellows.
+
+Two inferences arise from these remarks, that the antiquarian will frown
+on this little history; and that bellows-making is one of the oldest
+trades in Birmingham.
+
+
+
+THREAD.
+
+We, who reside in the interior parts of the kingdom, may observe the
+first traces of a river issue from its fountain; the current so
+extremely small, that if a bottle of liquor, distilled through the
+urinary vessels, was discharged into its course, it would manifestly
+augment the water, and quicken the stream: the reviving bottle, having
+added spirits to the man, seems to add spirits to the river.--If we
+pursue this river, winding through one hundred and thirty miles, we
+shall observe it collect strength as it runs, expand its borders, swell
+into consequence, employ multitudes of people, carry wealth in its
+bosom, and exactly resemble _thread-making_ in Birmingham.
+
+If we represent to our idea, a man able to employ three or four people,
+himself in an apron, one of the number; but being _unable_ to write his
+name, shows his attachment to the christian religion, by signing the
+_cross_ to receipts; whose method of book-keeping, like that of the
+publican, is _a door and a lump of chalk;_ producing a book which none
+can peruse but himself: who, having manufactured 40lb. weight of thread,
+of divers colours, and rammed it into a pair of leather bags, something
+larger than a pair of boots, which we might deem the arms of his trade
+_empaled_; flung them on a horse, and placed himself on the top, by way
+of a _crest_; visits an adjacent market, to starve with his goods at a
+stall, or retail them to the mercer, nor return without the money--we
+shall see a thread-maker of 1652.
+
+If we pursue this occupation, winding through the mazes of one hundred
+and thirty _years_, we shall see it enlarge its boundaries, multiply its
+people, increase its consequence and wealth, till 1782, when we behold
+the matter in possession of correct accounts, the apron thrown aside,
+the stall kicked over, the bags tossed into the garret, and the mercer
+overlooked in the grand prospect of exportation. We farther behold him
+take the lead in provincial concerns, step into his own carriage, and
+hold the king's commission as a magistrate.
+
+
+
+PRINTING,
+
+By JOHN BASKERVILLE.
+
+The pen of an historian rejoices in the actions of the great; the fame
+of the deserving, like an oak tree, is of sluggish growth; and, like the
+man himself, they are not matured in a day. The present generation
+becomes debtor to him who excels, but the future will discharge that
+debt with more than simple interest. The still voice of fame may warble
+in his ears towards the close of life, but her trumpet seldom sounds in
+full clarion, till those ears are stopped with the finger of death.
+
+This son of genius was born at Wolverley, in the county of Worcester, in
+1706; heir to a paternal estate of 60_l_. per annum, which, fifty years
+after, while in his own possession, had increased to 90_l_. He was
+trained to no occupation; but, in 1726, became a writing-matter in
+Birmingham.--In 1737, he taught school in the Bull-ring, and is said to
+have written an excellent hand.
+
+As painting suited his talents, he entered into the lucrative branch of
+japanning, and resided at No. 22, in Moor-street.
+
+He took, in 1745, a building lease of eight acres, two furlongs north
+west of the town, to which he gave the name of _Easy-hill_, converted it
+into a little Eden, and built a house in the center: but the town, as if
+conscious of his merit, followed his retreat, and surrounded it with
+buildings.--Here he continued the business of a japanner for life: his
+carriage, each pannel of which was a distinct picture, might be
+considered _the pattern-card of his trade_, and was drawn by a beautiful
+pair of cream-coloured horses.
+
+His inclination for letters induced him, in 1750, to turn his thoughts
+towards the press. He spent many years in the uncertain pursuit; sunk
+600_l_. before he could produce one letter to please himself, and some
+thousands before the shallow stream of profit began to flow.
+
+His first attempt, in 1756, was a quarto edition of Virgil, price one
+guinea, now worth several.--He afterwards printed Paradise Lost, the
+Bible, Common Prayer, Roman and English Classics, etc. in various sizes,
+with more satisfaction to the literary world than emolument to himself.
+
+In 1765, he applied to his friend, Dr. Franklin, then at Paris, and now
+Ambassador from America, to sound the literati, respecting the purchase
+of his types; but received for answer, "That the French, reduced by the
+war of 1756, were so far from pursuing schemes of taste, that they were
+unable to repair their public buildings, but suffered the scaffolding to
+rot before them."
+
+In private life he was a humorist; idle in the extreme; but his
+invention was of the true Birmingham model, active. He could well
+design, but procured others to execute; wherever he found merit he
+caressed it: he was remarkably polite to the stranger; fond of show: a
+figure rather of the smaller size, and delighted to adorn that figure
+with gold lace.--Although constructed with the light timbers of a
+frigate, his movement was solemn as a ship of the line.
+
+During the twenty-five years I knew him, though in the decline of life,
+he retained the singular traces of a handsome man. If he exhibited a
+peevish temper, we may consider good-nature and intense thinking are
+not always found together.
+
+Taste accompanied him through the different walks of agriculture,
+architecture, and the finer arts. Whatever passed through his fingers,
+bore the lively marks of John Baskerville.
+
+His aversion to christianity would not suffer him to lie among
+christians; he therefore erected a mausoleum in his own grounds for his
+remains, and died without issue, in 1775, at the age of 69.--Many
+efforts were used after his death, to dispose of the types; but, to the
+lading discredit of the British nation, no purchaser could be found in
+the whole commonwealth of letters. The universities coldly rejected the
+offer. The London booksellers understood no science like that of profit.
+The valuable property, therefore, lay a dead weight, till purchased by a
+literary society at Paris, in 1779, for 3700_l_.
+
+It is an old remark, that no country abounds with genius so much as this
+island; and it is a remark nearly as old, that genius is no where so
+little rewarded; how else came Dryden, Goldsmith, and Chatterton to want
+bread? Is merit, like a flower of the field, too common to attract
+notice? or is the use of money beneath the care of exalted talents?
+
+Invention seldom pays the inventor. If you ask, what fortune Baskerville
+ought to have been rewarded with? "The _most_ which can be comprised in
+five figures." If you farther ask, what he possessed? "The _least_;" but
+none of it squeezed from the press. What will the shade of this great
+man think, if capable of thinking, that he has spent a fortune of
+opulence, and a life of genius, in carrying to perfection the greatest
+of all human inventions; and his productions, slighted by his country,
+were hawked over Europe, in quest of a bidder?
+
+We must _revere_, if we do not _imitate_, the taste and economy of the
+French nation, who, brought by the British arms, in 1762, to the verge
+of ruin, rising above distress, were able, in 17 years, to purchase
+Baskerville's elegant types, refused by his own country, and expend an
+hundred thousand pounds in printing the works of Voltaire!
+
+
+
+BRASS FOUNDRY.
+
+The curious art before us is perhaps less ancient than profitable, and
+less healthful than either. I shall not enquire whose grandfather was
+the first brass-founder here, but shall leave their grandsons to settle
+that important point with my successor who shall next write the History
+of Birmingham. Whoever was the first, I believe he figured in the reign
+of King William; but, though he sold his productions at an excessive
+price, he did not, like the moderns, possess the art of acquiring a
+fortune: but now the master knows the way to affluence, and the servant
+to liquor.
+
+To enumerate the great variety of occupations amongst us, would be as
+useless, and as unentertaining to the reader, perhaps to the writer, as
+to count the pebbles in the street.
+
+Having therefore visited a few, by way of specimen, I shall desist from
+farther pursuit, and wheel off in a
+
+
+
+HACKNEY COACH.
+
+Wherever the view of profit opens, the eyes of a Birmingham man are open
+to see it.
+
+In 1775, a person was determined to try if a Hackney Coach would take
+with the inhabitants. He had not mounted the box many times before he
+inadvertently dropped the expression, "Thirty shillings a day!" The word
+was attended with all the powers of magic, for instantly a second rolled
+into the circus.
+
+And these elevated sons of the lash are now augmented to fifteen, whom
+we may justly denominate a club of tippling deities, who preside over
+weddings, christenings, and pleasurable excursions.
+
+It would give satisfaction to the curious calculator, could any mode be
+found of discovering the returns of trade, made by the united
+inhabitants. But the question is complicated. It only admits of surmise.
+From comparing many instances in various ranks of life among us, I have
+been led to suppose, that the weekly returns exceed the annual rent of
+the buildings. And as these rents are nearly ascertained, perhaps, we
+may conclude, that those returns are about 80,000. If we deduct for four
+weeks holidays, the annual returns will be--3,840,000_l_.
+
+Now we have entered the visionary regions of fancy, let us pursue the
+thought a stage farther; and consider Birmingham as one great family,
+possessed of a capital of Eight Millions. Her annual returns in trade as
+above, from which we will deduct for the purchase of
+
+     Raw materials  -   -   -   -   -   -   -    1,920,000
+     House rent, repairs and taxes  -   -   -      100,000
+     Losses in trade    -   -   -   -   -   -       50,000
+     Maintenance, clothing, and pleasurable
+       expences, for 50,000 people, at 10_s_.
+       per week     -   -   -   -   -   -   -    1,300,000
+                                                 ---------
+                                                 3,370,000
+                                                 ---------
+     Annual addition to the capital -   -   -      470,000
+
+Should a future antagonist arise, and attack me in numbers, I promise
+beforehand to relinquish the field; for I profess only, to stand upon
+ideal ground.
+
+
+
+BANK.
+
+Perhaps a public bank is as necessary to the health of the commercial
+body, as exercise to the natural. The circulation of the blood and
+spirits are promoted by one, so are cash and bills by the other; and a
+stagnation is equally detrimental to both. Few places are without: Yet
+Birmingham, famous in the annals of traffic, could boast no such claim.
+To remedy this defect therefore, about every tenth trader was a banker,
+or, a retailer of cash. At the head of whom were marshalled the whole
+train of drapers and grocers, till the year 1765, when a regular bank
+was established by Messrs. Taylor and Lloyd, two opulent tradesmen,
+whose credit being equal to that of the bank of England, quickly
+collected the shining rays of sterling property into its focus.
+
+
+
+GOVERNMENT.
+
+Have you, my dear reader, seen a sword hilt, of curious, and of
+Birmingham manufactory, covered with spangles of various sizes, every
+one of which carries a separate lustre, but, when united, has a dazzling
+effect? Or, have you seen a ring, from the same origin, set with
+diamonds of many dimensions, the least of which, sparkles with amazing
+beauty, but, when beheld in cluster, surprize the beholder? Or, have
+you, in a frosty evening, seen the heavens bespangled with refulgent
+splendor, each stud shining with intrinsic excellence, but, viewed in
+the aggregate, reflect honour upon the maker, and enliven the
+hemisphere? Such is the British government. Such is that excellent
+system of polity, which shines, the envy of the stranger, and the
+protector of the native.
+
+Every city, town and village in the English hemisphere, hath a separate
+jurisdiction of its own, and may justly be deemed _a stud in the
+grand lustre_.
+
+Though the British Constitution is as far from perfection, as the glory
+of the ring and the hilt is from that of the sun which causes it, or the
+stars from the day; yet perhaps it stands higher in the scale of
+excellence, than that of its neighbours. We may, with propriety, allow
+that body to shine with splendor, which hath been polishing for
+seventeen hundred years. Much honour is due to the patriotic merit
+which advanced it to its present eminence.
+
+Though Birmingham is but one sparkle of the brilliant clustre, yet she
+is a sparkle of the first _water_, and of the first _magnitude_.
+
+The more perfect any system of government, the happier the people. A
+wise government will punish for the commission of crimes, but a wiser
+will endeavour to prevent them. Man is an active animal: If he is not
+employed in some useful pursuit, he will employ himself in mischief.
+Example is also prevalent: If one man falls into error, he often draws
+another. Though heaven, for wise purposes, suffers a people to fulfil
+the measure of their iniquities, a prudent state will nip them in
+the bud.
+
+It is easy to point out some places, only one third the magnitude of
+Birmingham, whose frequent breaches of the law, and quarrels among
+themselves, find employment for half a dozen magistrates, and four times
+that number of constables; whilst the business of this, was for many
+years conducted by a single Justice, the late John Wyrley, Esq. If the
+reader should think I am mistaken and object, that parish affairs cannot
+be conducted without a second? Let me reply, He conducted that
+second also.
+
+As human nature is nearly the same, whether in or out of Birmingham; and
+as enormities seem more prevalent out than in, we may reasonably ascribe
+the cause to the extraordinary industry of the inhabitants, not allowing
+time to brood over, and bring forth mischief, equal to places of
+inferior diligence.
+
+We have at present two acting magistrates to hold the beam of justice,
+the Rev. Benjamin Spencer, and Joseph Carles, Esq; who both reside at
+a distance.
+
+Many of our corporate towns received their charters from that amiable,
+but unfortunate prince, Henry the Second. These were the first dawnings
+of British liberty, after fixing the Norman yoke. They were afterwards
+ratified and improved by the subsequent Kings of England; granting not
+only the manors, but many exclusive privileges. But at this day, those
+places which were so remarkably favoured with the smiles of royalty, are
+not quite so free as those that were not. The prosperity of this happy
+place proves the assertion, of which every man is free the moment
+he enters.
+
+We often behold a pompous corporation, which sounds well in history,
+over something like a dirty village--This is a head without a body. The
+very reverse is our case--We are a body without a head. For though
+Birmingham has undergone an amazing alteration in extension, riches and
+population, yet the government is nearly the same as the Saxons left it.
+This part of my important history therefore must suffer an eclipse: This
+illustrious chapter, that rose in dazling brightness, must be veiled in
+the thick clouds of obscurity: I shall figure with my corporation in a
+despicable light. I am not able to bring upon the stage, a mayor and a
+group of aldermen, dressed in antique scarlet, bordered with fur,
+drawing a train of attendants; the meanest of which, even the pinder, is
+badged with silver: Nor treat my guest with a band of music, in scarlet
+cloaks with broad laces. I can grace the hand of my Birmingham fidler
+with only a rusty instrument, and his back with barely a whole coat;
+neither have I a mace for the inaugeration of the chief magistrate. The
+reader, therefore, must either quit the place, or be satisfied with such
+entertainment as the company affords.
+
+The officers, who are annually chosen, to direct in this prosperous feat
+of fortune, are
+
+     An High Bailiff.   Two High Tasters.
+     Low Bailiff.       Two Low Tasters.
+     Two Constables.    Two Asseirers. And
+     Headborough.       Two Leather Sealers.
+
+All which, the constables excepted, are no more than servants to the
+lord of the manor; and whose duty extends no farther, than to the
+preservation of the manorial rights.
+
+The high bailiff is to inspect the market, and see that justice takes
+place between buyer and seller; to rectify the weights and dry measures
+used in the manor.
+
+The low bailiff summons a jury, who choose all the other officers, and
+generally with prudence. But the most important part of his office is,
+to treat his friends at the expence of about Seventy Pounds.
+
+The headborough is only an assistant to the constables, chiefly in time
+of absence.
+
+High tasters examine the goodness of beer, and its measure.
+
+Low tasters inspect the meat exposed to sale, and cause that to be
+destroyed which is unfit for use.
+
+Asseirers ratify the chief rent and amercements, between the lord and
+the inhabitant. And the
+
+Leather sealers, stamped a public seal upon the hides, when Birmingham
+was a market for leather.
+
+These manorial servants, instituted by ancient charter, chiefly possess
+a name, without an office. Thus order seems assisted by industry, and
+thus a numerous body of inhabitants are governed without a governor.
+
+Exclusive of the choice of officers, the jury impannelled by the low
+bailiff, have the presentation of all encroachments upon the lord's
+waste, which has long been neglected.
+
+The duties of office are little known, except that of taking a generous
+dinner, which is punctually observed. It is too early to begin business
+till the table is well stored with bottles, and too late afterwards.
+
+During the existence of the house of Birmingham, the court-leet was held
+at the Moat, in what we should now think a large and shabby room,
+conducted under the eye of the low bailiff, at the expence of the lord.
+
+The jury, twice a year, were witnesses, that the famous dish of roast
+beef, ancient as the family who gave it, demanded the head of the table.
+The court was afterwards held at the Leather-hall, and the expence,
+which was trifling, borne by the bailiff. Time, prosperity, and
+emulation, are able to effect considerable changes. The jury, in the
+beginning of the present century, were impannelled in the Old Cross,
+then newly erected, from whence they adjourned to the house of the
+bailiff, and were feasted at the growing charge of _two or
+three pounds_.
+
+This practice continued till about the year 1735, when the company,
+grown too bulky for a private house, assembled at a tavern, and the
+bailiff enjoyed the singular privilege of consuming ten pounds upon
+his guests.
+
+It is easier to advance in expences than to retreat. In 1760, they had
+increased to forty pounds, and in the next edition of this work, we may
+expect to see the word _hundred_.
+
+The lord was anciently founder of the feast, and treated his bailiff;
+but now that custom is inverted, and the bailiff treats his lord.
+
+The proclamation of our two fairs, is performed by the high bailiff, in
+the name of the Lord of the Manor; this was done a century ago, without
+the least expence. The strength of his liquor, a silver tankard, and the
+pride of shewing it, perhaps induced him, in process of time, to treat
+his attendants.
+
+His ale, without a miracle, was, in a few years, converted into wine,
+and that of various sorts; to which was added, a small collation; and
+now his friends are complimented with a card, to meet him at the Hotel,
+where he incurs an expence of twenty pounds.
+
+While the spirit of the people refines by intercourse, industry, and the
+singular jurisdiction among us, this insignificant pimple, on our head
+of government, swells into a wen.
+
+Habits approved are soon acquired: a third entertainment has, of late
+years, sprung up, termed _the constables feast_, with this difference,
+_it is charged to the public_. We may consider it a wart on the
+political body, which merits the caustic.
+
+Deritend, being a hamlet of Birmingham, sends her inhabitants to the
+court-leet, where they perform suit and service, and where her constable
+is chosen by the same jury.
+
+I shall here exhibit a defective list of our principal officers during
+the last century. If it should be objected, that a petty constable is
+too insignificant, being the lowest officer of the crown, for admission
+into history; I answer, by whatever appellation an officer is accepted,
+he cannot be insignificant who stands at the head of 50,000 people.
+Perhaps, therefore, the office of constable may be sought for in
+future, and the officer himself assume a superior consequence.
+
+The dates are the years in which they were chosen, fixed by charter,
+within thirty days after Michaelmas.
+
+
+
+CONSTABLES.
+
+1680   John Simco          John Cottrill
+1681   John Wallaxall      William Guest
+1682   George Abel         Samuel White
+1683   Thomas Russell      Abraham Spooner
+1684   Roger Macham        William Wheely
+1685   Thomas Cox          John Green
+1686   Henry Porter        Samuel Carless
+1687   Samuel Banner       John Jesson
+1690   Joseph Robinson     John Birch
+1691   John Rogers         Richard Leather
+1692   Thomas Robins       Corbet Bushell
+1693   Joseph Rann         William Sarjeant
+1694   Rowland Hall        John Bryerly
+1695   Richard Scott       George Wells
+1696   Joseph Haddock      Robert Mansell
+1697   James Greir         John Foster
+1698   John Baker          Henry Camden
+1699   William Kettle      Thomas Gisborn
+1700   John Wilson         Joseph Allen
+1701   Nicholas Bakewell   Richard Banner
+1702   William Collins     Robert Groves
+1703   Henry Parrot        Benjamin Carless
+1704   William Brierly     John Hunt
+1705   Jonathan Seeley     Thomas Holloway
+1706   Robert Moore        John Savage
+1707   Isaac Spooner       Samuel Hervey
+1708   Richard Weston      Thomas Cope
+1709   Samuel Walford      Thomas Green
+1710   John Foxall         William Norton
+1711   Stephen Newton      John Taylor
+1712   William Russel      John Cotterell
+1713   John Shaw           Thomas Hallford
+1714   Randall Bradburn    Joseph May
+1715   Stephen Newton      Samuel Russell
+1716   Stephen Newton      Joseph Carless
+1717   Abraham Foxall      William Spilsbury
+1718   John Gisborn        Henry Carver
+1719   Samuel Hays         Joseph Smith
+1720   John Barnsley       John Humphrys
+1721   William Bennett     Thomas Wilson
+1722   John Harrison       Simon Harris
+
+
+
+A LIST
+
+OF THE
+
+HIGH BAILIFFS, LOW BAILIFFS, AND CONSTABLES,
+
+Of the TOWN of BIRMINGHAM, from 1732, to 1782.
+
+     HIGH BAILIFFS.      LOW BAILIFFS.          CONSTABLES.
+
+1732  Thomas Wilson    John Webster      Joseph Bradnock    John Wilson
+1733  John Webster     Joseph Kettle     Thomas Nickin      James Baker
+1734  John Wickins     Thomas Lakin   [2]Joseph Scott, esq; James Taylor
+1735  Joseph Marston   John Russell      John Webster       Thomas Ashfield
+1736  Joseph Bradnock  Robert Moore      Thomas Wickins     Joseph Fullelove
+1737  James Baker      Isaac Ingram      John Kettle        Richard Porter
+1738  Joseph Smith     William Mason     William Hunt       Henry Hun
+1739  Thomas Wickens   William Harvey    Edward Burton      John England
+1740  Simon Harris     Thomas Russel     Joseph Richards    T. Honeyborn
+1741  Daniel Gill      George Abney      Thomas Turner      John Bedford
+1742
+1743  Josiah Jefferys  William Kettle    John Russel        Thomas
+1744  George Davies    J. Humphrys, Jr.  William Mason      William Ward
+1745  Edward Burton    Robert Moore      Joseph Wollaston   John Turner
+1746
+1747  Thomas Ashwell   J. Taylor, esq;   Joseph Walker      Josiah Hunt
+1748  Thomas Wickens   John Roe          Robert Moore       John Horton
+1749  Joseph Fullelove Richard Brett     Henry Hunt         Joseph Ruston
+1750  Thomas Lakin     Joseph Smith      John Gill          Luke Bell
+1751  Thomas Turner    Benj. Mansell     John Walters       W. Walsingham
+1752  James Baker      John Taylor       Price Thomas       Joseph Thomas
+1753  E. Jordan, esq;  Samuel Harvey     Samuel Birch       Samuel Richards
+1754  Thomas Cottrell  Joseph Richards   John Bellears      John Camden
+1755  Joseph Walker    John Wells[3]     Stephen Colmore    John Powell
+1756  John Bellears    J. Kettle, esq;   Ambrose Foxall     John Gray
+1757  William Patteson Joseph Webster    J. Darbyshire      Richard Brett
+1758  James Horton     T. Lawrence       Thomas Richards    Sam. Pemberton
+1759  John Walker      Thomas Abney      G. Spilsbury       Edward Weston
+1760  John Turner      Abel Humphrys     Richard Dingley    Web Marriott
+1761  John Baskerville Stephen Bedford   Michael Lakin      Nehemiah Bague
+1762  Joseph Thomas    James Jackson     George Birch       John Green
+1763  John Gold        John Lee          William Parks      John Daws
+1764  Richard Hicks    J. Ryland         S. Bradburn, esq;  Geo. Anderton
+1765  Thomas Vallant   Sam. Richards     Ed. H. Noble       Elias Wallin
+1766  John Lane        Henry Venour      John Lane          Joseph Adams
+1767  John Horn        Jo. Wilkinson     Richard Rabone     Thomas Care
+1768  Gregory Hicks    W. Russell, esq;  Thomas Bingham     John Moody
+1769  James Male       Samuel Ray        Thomas Gisborne    William Mansell
+1770  Joshua Glover    Thomas Russell    T. Lutwyche        Thomas Barker
+1771  John Harris      J. Hornblower     Thomas Cooper      Walter Salt
+1772  William Holden   Jos. Tyndall      R. Anderton        T. Hunt
+1773  Thomas Westley   John Richards     Ob. Bellamy        John Smart
+1774  John Ward        John Francis      W. Hodgkins        Thomas Wight
+1775  Thomas Hurd      John Taylor, esq; John Startin       T. Everton
+1776  E.W. Patteson    Josiah Rogers     Thomas Corden      Joseph Wright
+1777  Ed. Thomason     S. Pemberton      Joseph Jukes       Joseph Sheldon
+1778  Joseph Green     William Hunt      Thomas Wright      John Allen[4]
+1779  T. Faulconbridge W. Humphrys       John Guest         Jonathan Wigley
+1780  Daniel Winwood   William Scott     William Thomas     John Bird
+1781  William Hicks    W. Taylor, esq;   John Dallaway      Richard Porter
+1782  Thomas Carless   G. Humphrys       John Holmes        Thomas Barrs
+
+[Footnote 2: Joseph Scott, Esq; not choosing the official part, procured
+a substitute to perform it, in the person of the late Constable
+James Baker.]
+
+[Footnote 3: in office, Benjamin Mansell was chosen in his stead.]
+
+[Footnote 4: was charged with a fine of 25_l_. by the lady of the manor,
+and John Miles chosen in his stead.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Three of the Inhabitants have, since I knew the place, served the Office
+of SHERIFF for the County, viz.
+
+     John Taylor, Esquire, in - - - - 1756.
+     Edward Jordan, Esquire, in - - - 1757.
+     And Isaac Spooner, Esquire, in - 1763.
+
+
+
+COURT OF REQUESTS.
+
+Law is the very basis of civil society, without it man would quickly
+return to his original rudeness; the result would be, robbery and
+blood:--and even laws themselves are of little moment, without a due
+execution of them--there is a necessity to annex punishment.
+
+But there is no necessity to punish the living, who are innocent, by
+hanging the dead bodies of criminals in the air. This indecent and
+inhuman custom, which originated from the days of barbarism, reflects an
+indelible disgrace upon a civilized age. The intention, no doubt, was
+laudable; to prevent the commission of crimes, but does it answer that
+intention?
+
+In 1759, two brothers, of the name of Darby, were hung in chains near
+Hales-Owen, since which time there has been only one murder committed in
+the whole neighbourhood, and that under the very gibbet upon which
+they hung[5].
+
+[Footnote 5: Joseph Skidmore, a carrier of Stourbridge, having Ann
+Mansfield, a young woman of Birmingham, under his care, ravished and
+murdered her in the evening of December 10, 1774.]
+
+Justice, however, points out a way wherein the dead body, by conveying
+chirurgical knowledge, may be serviceable to the living.
+
+Laws generally tend, either directly, or remotely, to the protection of
+property.
+
+All wise legislators have endeavoured to proportion the punishment to
+the crime, but never to exceed it: a well conducted state holds forth a
+scale of punishments for transgressions of every dimension, beginning
+with the simple reprimand, and proceeding downwards even to
+death itself.
+
+It will be granted, that the line of equity ought to be drawn with
+critical exactness.
+
+If by fair trade, persuasion, or finesse, I get the property of another
+into my hands, even to the trifling value of a shilling, my effects
+ought to be responsible for that sum.
+
+If I possess no effects, he certainly retains a right of punishing to
+that amount: for if we do not lay this line in the boundaries of strict
+justice, it will not lie upon any other ground. And if I am allowed
+fraud in one shilling, I am allowed it in a greater sum. How far
+punishment may be softened by concurring circumstances, is
+another question.
+
+It therefore follows of course, that if my creditor has a right to
+recover his unfortunate property, those laws are the nearest to
+perfection, that will enable him to recover it with the most expedition,
+and the least expence and trouble to us both.
+
+If the charge of recovery is likely to exceed the debt, he will be apt
+to desist, I to laugh at him, and to try my skill at a second
+enterprize.
+
+Trade and credit cannot be well separated; they are as closely connected
+as the wax and the paper. The laws of credit, therefore, ought to rest
+upon a permanent foundation: neither is law necessary to restrain
+credit; for if, in a commercial state, it becomes detrimental by its
+over growth, it finds itself a remedy.
+
+Much has been said, and perhaps more than has been thought, concerning
+the court before us. The loser is expected to complain, and his friends
+to give him a partial hearing; and though he breathes _vengeance_
+against his antagonist, it ends in a _breath_.
+
+The looker-on can easily spy an error in the actor. If a fault is
+committed, we are glad it was done by another; besides, it is no new
+thing for the _outs_ to complain of the _ins_. It will plead strongly in
+excuse, to say, the intention was right, if the judgment was wrong. If
+perfection is required, she does not reside upon earth.
+
+But if these pleadings are not found a balance against prejudice, and a
+man suffers his wrath to kindle against a valuable institution, because
+perfection does not preside over it, let him peruse an old author, who
+asks, "What shall we think of the folly of that man, who throws away the
+apple, because it contains a core? despises the nut, for the shell? or
+casts the diamond into the sea, because it has a flaw?"
+
+Decision is usually established upon oath, both in criminal courts, and
+in those at Westminster, through which the oath is seen to pass with
+free currency.
+
+A judge is sometimes fond of sheltering himself behind an oath; it may
+be had at an easy rate. Each of the contending parties wishes to win his
+cause by an oath: but though oaths would be willingly taken, they ought
+to be sparingly given.--They may be considered what they generally are
+not, _of the last importance_.
+
+We may observe, that two opponents are ready to swear directly contrary
+to each other; that if a man asserts a thing, he can do no less than
+swear it; and that, after all, an oath proves nothing.
+
+The commissioners, therefore, wish rather to establish _fact_ upon
+_proof_; but, if this is wanting, then upon circumstantial evidence; and
+if this support fails, they chuse to finish a quarrel by a moderate,
+though a random judgment.
+
+Much honor is due to that judicial luminary, William Murray, Earl of
+Mansfield, who presides over the King's-Bench, for introducing equity
+into the courts of law, where she had long been a stranger.
+
+The Court of Requests may justly be charged with weakness, and what
+court may not? It is inseparable from man.
+
+A person cannot chuse his capacity, but he may chuse to be a rogue; one
+is an act of nature, the other of the will. The greater the temptation
+to go astray, the greater must be the resolution to conquer it.
+
+One of the suitors presented a commissioner with a couple of chickens,
+as a powerful argument to strengthen a feeble case; but the commissioner
+returned his present, and the plaintiff lost his cause; and no wonder,
+he sent a chicken to plead it.
+
+The defendant, by disobeying the orders of the court, falls under the
+power of the plaintiff, who can cause execution to issue against his
+goods, and reimburse himself; or, against his body, and confine him
+forty days, unless paid his demand.
+
+There is no cause that can be brought before the Court of Requests, but
+may be brought before a higher court, and at a higher expence.
+
+A cause passes through this court for seventeen-pence; and cannot well,
+by chicanery or neglect, amount to more than two shillings and
+nine-pence: So that ruin is not one of its imperfections.
+
+Though law is said to produce quarrels among friends, yet the contending
+parties often go out of that court better friends than when they
+came in.
+
+It has been objected, that the publicans give credit to the lower class,
+in expectation of relief from the court. But the debtor is equally
+apprized of the remedy, and often drinks deeper, in expectation of a
+mild sentence from the commissioners; besides, is not all credit founded
+on the laws of recovery?
+
+It has also been urged, that while punishment pursues the debtor, for
+neglect of orders, his family falls upon the community.
+
+But the community would not wish to put a bar between a man and his
+property--The precedent would be dangerous: Justice is no respector of
+persons. A culprit will soon procure a family, if they are able to plead
+his excuse: It would follow, that single men only would be obliged to be
+honest. She does not save the criminal, because he is an handsome man.
+If she did, beauty would increase in value; but honesty, seldom be its
+companion.
+
+But can accusation lie against a fair tribunal of rectitude? The man
+does not exist that can quarrel with equity, and treat her as the
+offspring of fraud---The most amiable character in the creation, and the
+immediate representative of supreme excellence. She will be revered,
+even by the sons of plunder!
+
+Many of the causes that pass this court, are of a disputable nature, and
+if not terminated there, would take a different turn.
+
+From distant views of relief here, even sickness herself finds credit in
+the day of distress.
+
+The use of the court is also favourable to trade, for, to oblige a man
+to pay his debts, is to oblige him to labour, which improves the
+manufactures.
+
+Birmingham, in no period of her existence, has increased with such
+rapidity, in people, buildings and commerce, as since the erection of
+that court; so that depopulation is not one of its inconveniencies.
+
+From a consideration of the prodigious intercourse subsisting in so vast
+a body of people, and the credit consequent thereon, it was wisely
+judged necessary to establish an easy, and expeditious method of ending
+dispute, and securing property.
+
+The inhabitants of Birmingham, therefore, in 1752, procured an act for
+the recovery of debts under Forty Shillings; constituting seventy-two
+commissioners, three to be a quorum. They sit for the dispatch of
+business in the chamber over the Old Cross every Friday morning, and
+there usually appear before them between eighty and one hundred causes:
+Their determinations are final. Two clerks also, constituted by the act,
+attend the court to give judicial assistance; are always of the law,
+chosen alternately by the lord of the manor, and the commissioners, and
+to continue for life. Once in every two years, ten of the commissioners
+are ballotted out, and ten others of the inhabitants chosen in
+their stead.
+
+
+
+LAMP ACT.
+
+Order, is preserved by industry. In 1769 an act was obtained, and in
+1773 an amendment of the act, for lighting and cleaning the streets of
+Birmingham, and for removing obstructions that were prejudicial to the
+health or convenience of the inhabitants.
+
+These acts were committed to the care of about seventy-six irresolute
+commissioners, with farther powers of preventing encroachments upon
+public ground; for it was justly observed, that robbery was a work of
+darkness, therefore to introduce light would, in some measure, protect
+property. That in a town like Birmingham, full of commerce and
+inhabitants, where necessity leads to continual action, no part of the
+twenty four hours ought to be dark. That, to avoid darkness, is
+sometimes to avoid insult; and that by the light of 700 lamps, many
+unfortunate accidents would be prevented.
+
+It was also observed, that in a course of time, the buildings in some of
+the ancient streets had encroached upon the path, four or five feet on
+each side; which caused an irregular line, and made those streets eight
+or ten feet narrower, that are now used by 50,000 people, than they
+were, when used only by a tenth part of that number; and, that their
+confined width rendered the passage dangerous to children, women, and
+feeble age, particularly on the market day and Saturday evening.
+
+That if former encroachments could not be recovered, future ought to be
+prevented.
+
+And farther, that necessity pleads for a wider street now, than
+heretofore, not only because the inhabitants, being more numerous,
+require more room, but the buildings being more elevated, obstruct the
+light, the sun, and the air, which obstructions tend to sickness and
+inconveniency.
+
+Narrow streets with modern buildings are generally dirty, for want of
+these natural helps; as Digbeth, St. Martin's-lane, Swan-alley,
+Carr's-lane, &c. The narrower the street, the less it can be influenced
+by the sun and the wind, consequently, the more the dirt will abound;
+and by experimental observations upon stagnate water in the street, it
+is found extremely prejudicial to health. And also, the larger the
+number of people, the more necessity to watch over their interest with a
+guardian eye.
+
+It may farther be remarked, that an act of parliament ought to
+distribute justice with an impartial hand, in which case, content and
+obedience may reasonably be expected. But the acts before us carry a
+manifest partiality, one man claims a right to an encroachment into the
+street, of three or four feet, whilst another is restricted to
+twelve inches.
+
+This inactive body of seventy-six, who wisely argue against the
+annihilation of one evil, because another will remain; had also powers
+to borrow a thousand pounds, to purchase and remove some obstructive
+buildings; and to defray the expence by a rate on the inhabitants,
+which, after deducting about one hundred and twenty pounds per ann. for
+deficiencies, amounted in
+
+     1774, to   912_l_.
+     1775, --   902_l_.
+     1776, --   947_l_.
+     1777, --   965_l_.
+     1778, -- 1,012_l_.
+     1779, -- 1,022_l_.
+     1780, -- 1,021_l_.
+
+Though the town was averse to the measure, as an innovation, they
+quickly saw its utility, and seemed to wish a more vigorous exertion of
+the commissioners; but numbers sometimes procrastinate design. If it is
+difficult to find five men of one mind, it is more difficult to find a
+superior number. That business which would run currently through the
+hands of five, stagnates at fifteen, the number required.
+
+It is curious to observe a body of commissioners, every one of whom
+conducts his own private affairs with propriety and success, attack a
+question by the hour, which is as plain as the simplest proposition in
+the mathematicks, when not being able to reduce it, and their
+ammunition spent, leave the matter undetermined, and retreat in silence.
+
+In works of manual operation a large number may be necessary, but in
+works of direction a small one facilitates dispatch.
+
+Birmingham, a capacious field, by long neglect is over-grown with
+encroaching weeds. The gentle commissioners, appointed to reduce them,
+behold it an arduous work, are divided in opinion, and some withdraw the
+hand from the plough; certainly, _the harvest is great, and the
+labourers are few_. The manorial powers, which alone could preserve
+order, have slept for ages. Regularity has been long extinct. The desire
+of trespass is so prevalent, that I have been tempted to question; if it
+were not for the powers of the lamp act, feeble as they are, whether the
+many-headed-public, ever watchful of prey, would not in another century,
+devour whole streets, and totally prevent the passenger. Thus a supine
+jurisdiction abounds with _street-robbers_.
+
+There are cases where the line of the street should inviolably be
+preserved, as in a common range of houses; therefore all projections
+above a given dimension infringe this rule.
+
+There are other cases where taste would direct this line to be broken,
+as in buildings of singular size and construction, which should be
+viewed in recess. Those of a public nature generally come under this
+description, as the free-school, and the hotel, which ought to have
+fallen two or three yards back. What pity, that so noble an edifice as
+the theatre in New-street, should lose any of its beauty, by the
+prominence of its situation!
+
+As Birmingham abounds with new streets, that were once private property,
+it is a question often discussed, In what point of time the land
+appropriated for such streets, ceases to be private? But as this
+question was never determined, and as it naturally rises before me, and
+is of importance, suffer me to examine it.
+
+When building leases are granted, if the road be narrow, as was lately
+the case at the West end of New-street, the proprietor engages to give a
+certain portion of land to widen it. From that moment, therefore, it
+falls to the lot of the public, and is under the controul of the
+commissioners, as guardians of public property. I allow, if within
+memory, the grantor and the lessees should agree to cancel the leases,
+which is just as likely to happen as the powers of attraction to cease,
+and the moon to descend from the heavens; in this case, the land reverts
+again to its original proprietor.
+
+Though the streets of Birmingham have for many ages been exposed to the
+hand of the encroacher, yet, by a little care, and less expence, they
+might in about one century be reduced to a considerable degree of use
+and beauty. In what light then shall we be viewed by the future eye, if
+we neglect the interest of posterity?
+
+
+
+RELIGION AND POLITICS.
+
+Although these two threads, like the warp and the woof, are very
+distinct things; yet, like them, they are usually woven together. Each
+possesses a strength of its own, but when united, have often become
+extremely powerful, as in the case of Henry the Third and the clergy.
+This union, at times, subsisted from a very early date.
+
+Power is the idol of man; we not only wish to acquire it, but also to
+increase and preserve it. If the magistrate has been too weak to execute
+his designs, he has backed his schemes with the aid of the church; this
+occurred with King Stephen and the Bishops.
+
+Likewise, if a churchman finds his power ascendant in the human mind, he
+still wishes an addition to that power, by uniting another. Thus the
+Bishop of Rome, being master of the spiritual chair, stept also into
+the temporal.
+
+Sometimes the ecclesiastical and civil governors appear in malign
+aspect, or in modern phrase, like a quarrel between the squire and the
+rector, which is seldom detrimental to the people. This was the case
+with Henry the Eighth and the church.
+
+The curses of a priest hath sometimes brought a people into obedience to
+the King, when he was not able to bring them himself. One could not
+refrain from smiling, to hear a Bishop curse the people for obeying
+their Sovereign, and in a few months after, curse them again if they did
+not; which happened in the reign of King John. But, happy for the world,
+that these retail dealers in the wrath of heaven are become extinct, and
+the market is over.
+
+Birmingham, in those remote periods of time, does not seem to have
+attended so much to religious and political dispute, as to the course
+music of her hammer. Peace seems to have been her characteristic--She
+paid obedience to that Prince had the good fortune to possess the
+throne, and regularly paid divine honours in St. Martin's, because
+there was no other church. Thus, through the long ages of Saxon, Danish,
+and Norman government, we hear of no noise but that of the anvil, till
+the reign of Henry the Third, when her Lord joined the Barons against
+the Crown, and drew after him some of his mechanics, to exercise the
+very arms they had been taught to make; and where, at the battle of
+Evesham, he staked his life and his fortune, and lost both.
+
+Things quickly returning into their former channel, she stood a silent
+spectator during that dreadful contest between the two roses, pursuing
+the tenor of still life till the civil wars of Charles I. when she took
+part with the Parliament, some of whose troops were stationed here,
+particularly at the Garrison and Camp-hill; the names of both
+originating in that circumstance.
+
+Prince Rupert, as hinted before, approaching Birmingham in 1643 with a
+superior power, forced the lines, and as a punishment set fire to the
+town. His vengeance burned fiercely in Bull-street, and the affrighted
+inhabitants quenched the flames with a heavy fine.
+
+In 1660, she joined the wish of the kingdom, in the restoration of the
+Stuart family. About this time, many of the curious manufactures began
+to blossom in this prosperous garden of the arts.
+
+In 1688, when the nation chose to expel a race of Kings, though replete
+with good nature, because they had forgot the limits of justice; our
+peaceable sons of art, wisely considering, that oppression and commerce,
+like oil and water, could never unite, smiled with the rest of the
+kingdom at the landing of the Prince of Orange, and exerted their little
+assistance towards effecting the Revolution, notwithstanding the lessons
+of _divine right_ had been taught near ninety years.
+
+In the reign of Queen Anne, when that flaming luminary, Dr. Sacheverel,
+set half the kingdom in blaze, the inhabitants of this region of
+industry caught the spark of the day, and grew warm for the church--They
+had always been inured to _fire_, but now we behold them between _two_.
+
+As the doctor rode in triumph through the streets of Birmingham, this
+flimsy idol of party snuffed up the incense of the populace, but the
+more sensible with held their homage; and when he preached at Sutton
+Coldfield, where he had family connections, the people of Birmingham
+crowded in multitudes round his pulpit. But it does not appear that he
+taught his hearers to _build up Zion_, but perhaps to pull her down;
+for they immediately went and gutted a meeting-house.
+
+It is easy to point out a time when it was dangerous to have been of the
+established church, and I have here pointed out one, when it was
+dangerous to profess any other.
+
+We are apt to think the zeal of our fathers died with them, for I have
+frequently beheld with pleasure, the churchman, the presbyterian, and
+the quaker uniting their efforts, like brethren, to carry on a work of
+utility. The bigot of the last age casts a malicious sneer upon the
+religion of another, but the man of this passes a joke upon his own.
+
+A sameness in religious sentiment is no more to be expected, than a
+sameness of face. If the human judgment varies in almost every subject
+of plain knowledge, how can it be fixed in this, composed of mystery?
+
+As the true religion is ever that which a man professes himself, it is
+necessary to enquire, What means, he that is right may use, to convert
+him that is wrong?
+
+As the whole generations of faggot and torture, are extinct in this age
+of light, there seems only to remain fair arguments founded in reason,
+and these can only be brought as evidences upon the trial: The culprit
+himself, _by indefeasible right divine_, will preside as the judge. Upon
+a close enquiry it will be found, that his sentiments are as much his
+private property, as the coat that covers him, or the life which that
+coat incloses.
+
+Is there not as much reason to punish my neighbour for differing in
+opinion from me, as to punish me, because I differ from him? Or, is
+there any to punish either?
+
+If a man's sentiments and practice in religious matters, appear even
+absurd, provided society is not injured, what right hath the magistrate
+to interfere?
+
+The task is as easy to make the stream run upwards, as to form a nation
+of one mind. We may pronounce with confidence, an age of bigotry is no
+age of philosophy.
+
+The gentle hand of Brunswick, had swayed the British sceptre near half a
+century, ere all the sons of science in this meridian, were compleatly
+reconciled to this favourite line.
+
+But unanimity, with benign aspect, seems now the predominant star of the
+zenith: A friendly intercourse succeeds suspicion. The difference of
+sentiment, that once created jealousy, now excites a smile; and the
+narrow views of our forefathers are prudently expanded.
+
+[Illustration: _St. John's Chapel, Deritend_.]
+
+
+
+PLACES OF WORSHIP.
+
+In a town like Birmingham, unfettered with charteral laws; which gives
+access to the stranger of every denomination, for he here finds a
+freedom by birthright; and where the principles of toleration are well
+understood, it is no wonder we find various modes of worship. The wonder
+consists in finding such _agreement_, in such variety.
+
+We have fourteen places for religious exercise, six of the established
+church, three dissenting meeting houses, a quakers, baptist, methodist,
+roman catholic, and jewish. Two of these only are churches, of which
+elsewhere.
+
+
+
+SAINT JOHN'S CHAPEL, DERITEND.
+
+This, tho' joining to the parish of Birmingham, is a chapel of ease
+belonging to Aston, two miles distant. Founded in the fifth of Richard
+the Second, 1382.
+
+This chapel does not, like others in Birmingham, seem to have been
+erected first, and the houses brought round it: It appears, by its
+extreme circumscribed latitude, to have been founded upon the scite of
+other buildings, which were purchased, or rather given, by Sir John de
+Birmingham, Lord of Deritend, and situated upon the boundaries of the
+manor, perhaps to accommodate in some measure the people of Digbeth;
+because the church in Birmingham must, for many-ages, have been too
+small for the inhabitants.
+
+Time seems to have worn out that building of 1382; in the windows of
+which were the arms of Lord Dudley, and Dudley empaling Barckley, both
+knights of the garter, descended from the Somery's, Barons of
+Dudley-castle: Also a whole figure of Walter Arden, Esq; of ancient
+family, often mentioned, Lord of Bordesley.
+
+The present building was erected in 1735, and the steeple in 1762. In
+1777 eight of the most musical bells, together with a clock, entered the
+steeple. The present chaplain, the Rev. Thomas Cox--Income 80_l_.
+
+[Illustration: _St. Bartholomew's Chapel_.]
+
+
+
+SAINT BARTHOLOMEW'S.
+
+Built in 1749, on the east side of the town, will accommodate about 800
+hearers; is neat and elegant. The land was the gift of John Jennens,
+Esq; of Copsal, in the county of Leicester, possessor of a considerable
+estate in and near Birmingham.
+
+By the solicitation of Mrs. Weaman, Mrs. Jennens gave 1000_l_. and the
+remainder was raised by contribution to accomplish the building.
+
+Wherever a chapel is erected, the houses immediately, as if touched by
+the wand of magic, spring into existence. Here is a spacious area for
+interment, amply furnished by death. The infant steeple, if it will bear
+the name, is very small but beautiful.
+
+The chancel hath this singular difference from others--that it veres
+towards the North. Whether the projector committed an error, I leave to
+the critics.
+
+It was the general practice of the Pagan church to fix their altar, upon
+which they sacrificed, in the East, towards the rising sun, the object
+of worship.
+
+The Christian church, in the time of the Romans, immediately succeeded
+the Pagan, and scrupulously adopted the same method; which has been
+strictly adhered to.
+
+By what obligation the Christian is bound to follow the Pagan, or
+wherein a church would be injured by being directed to any of the
+thirty-two points in the compass, is doubtful. Certain it is, if the
+chancel of Bartholomew's had tended due East, the eye would have been
+exceedingly hurt, and the builder would have raised an object of
+ridicule for ages. The ground will admit of no situation but that in
+which the church now stands. But the inconsiderate architect of Deritend
+chapel, anxious to catch the Eastern point, lost the line of the street:
+we may therefore justly pronounce, _be sacrificed to the East_. Other
+enormities also, of little moment, have issued from the same fountain.
+
+The altar piece was the gift of Basil Earl of Denbigh; and the communion
+plate, consisting of 182 ounces, that of Mary Carless. Income
+100_l_.--Rev. William Jabbitt, chaplain.
+
+[Illustration: St. Mary's Chapel.]
+
+
+
+SAINT MARY's.
+
+Though the houses for divine worship were multiplied in Birmingham, yet
+the inhabitants increased in a greater proportion; so that in 1772 an
+act was obtained for two additional chapels.
+
+St. Mary's, therefore, was erected in 1774, in the octagon form, not
+overcharged with light nor strength; in an airy situation and taste, but
+shews too little steeple, and too much roof. If a light balustrade was
+raised over the parapet, with an urn in the centre of the roof, the eye
+of the observer would be relieved.
+
+The clock was seldom seen to go right, but the wonder ceases if there
+are NO WORKS within.
+
+The land was the gift of Mary Weaman, in whom is the presentation, who
+inducted the Rev. John Riland. Annual income about 200_l_.
+
+
+
+SAINT PAUL'S.
+
+The act was procured for this chapel at the same time as for that of St.
+Mary's; but it was not erected till 1779, upon a spot of ground given
+by Charles Colmore, Esq; upon the declivity of a hill, not altogether
+suitable for the elegant building it sustains, which is of stone--plain
+beauty unites with strength.
+
+This roof, like that of St. Mary's, appears also too full. The steeple
+intended for this useful edifice, will do honour to the modern stile of
+architecture, whenever money can be procured to erect it; which at
+present is only delineated upon paper.
+
+Chaplain, the Rev. William Toy Young.--Income nearly as St. Mary's.
+
+
+
+OLD MEETING.
+
+After the extinction of the Stuart race, who bore an invincible hatred
+to presbyterianism, the dissenters from the establishment procured a
+licence for a meeting at the bottom of Digbeth, which yet bears the name
+of Meeting-house-yard. Here the rigid sons of worship paid a weekly
+attendance. The place is now a work-shop: The sound of the pulpit is
+changed into that of the bellows: Instead of an impression upon the
+heart, it is now stamped upon the button. The visitants used to
+appear in a variety of colours, but now always in black.
+
+[Illustration: _St. Paul's Chapel_.]
+
+[Illustration: New Meeting.]
+
+[Illustration: Old Meeting.]
+
+Another was erected in the reign of King William, now denominated The
+Old Meeting, and from whence the street in which it stands derives a
+name. This is large, and much attended.
+
+Pastor, the Rev. Radcliff Scoldfield.
+
+
+
+NEW MEETING.
+
+Erected in the year 1730, at which time that in Digbeth went into
+disuse. This is in a stile of elegance, and has few equals. The Rev.
+Samuel Blyth, and the Rev. William Hawkes preside over it.
+
+In December 1780, Mr. Hawkes declining the pastoral care, the
+congregation judiciously turned their thoughts towards the celebrated
+Doctor Priestley, F.R.S. one of the first philosophers of the age; whose
+merit seems obvious to every eye but his own.
+
+
+
+CARR's LANE MEETING.
+
+A scion of the Old Meeting, transplanted in 1748--The building cost
+about 700_l_. This society hath been favoured with two donations; one
+the interest of 800_l_. by the will of John England, in 1771: The other
+Scott's Trust, mentioned in another part.
+
+This residence of divine light is totally eclipsed, by being surrounded
+with about forty families of paupers, crouded almost within the compass
+of a giant's span, which amply furnish the congregation with noise,
+smoak, dirt and dispute. If the place itself is the road to heaven, the
+stranger would imagine, that the road to the place led to something
+worse: The words, _Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way_, are here
+literally verified.--Pastor, the Rev. John Punfield.
+
+
+
+BAPTIST MEETING.
+
+Founded in Cannon-street, 1738. This hill of Zion is also hid from the
+public eye, but situated in a purer air.--The minister was the late
+Rev. James Turner.
+
+Some trifling differences arising in the congregation, to which the
+human mind is everlastingly prone, caused discontent: Individuals began
+to sting each other, which in 1745, produced a swarm.
+
+The destitute wanderers therefore, erected for themselves a small cell
+in Freeman-street, where they hived in expectation of harmony. Over this
+little society of separatists presided a journeyman woolcomber: What
+elevation he bore in the comb-shop, during six days of the week, history
+is silent; but having the good fortune to procure a black coat and a
+white wig, he figured on the seventh with parsonic elegance.
+
+Whether _he_ fed his people best, or _they_ him, is uncertain; but
+whether they starved one another, is not. Disgust, which ever waits upon
+disappointment, appeared among them.
+
+Though the preacher was certainly warmed in the shop, _with a live coal
+from the altar_; yet unfortunately, Sunday was the only day in which his
+_fire_ was extinguished; _then_ the priest and the people hit the taste
+of the day, and slumbered together; a priviledge never granted by a
+_reader_ to an _author_. Thus the boasted _liberty of the press_
+submits to that of the pulpit.
+
+This exalted shepherd dwelt upon the words of Paul, _He that preaches
+the gospel, ought to subsist by the gospel;_ and _they_ did not forget a
+portion in John, _Feed my sheep_. The word, he well knew, promised both
+wine and _oil_, but he was obliged to be satisfied with the latter.
+
+Although the teacher might possess some _shining qualities_ at the
+combe-pot, he did not possess that of protecting his flock, who in 1752,
+silently retreated to their original fold in Cannon-street; and the
+place was soon after converted into a dwelling, No. 16, when for the
+first time it produced _profit_.
+
+The growing numbers of this prosperous society induced them, in 1780, to
+enlarge the place of worship, at the expence of about 800_l_. in which
+is observable some beauty, but more conveniency.
+
+
+
+QUAKER's MEETING
+
+In Bull-street. A large convenient place, and notwithstanding the
+plainness of the profession rather elegant. The congregation is very
+flourishing, rich, and peaceable. Chandler tells us, to the everlasting
+honour of the Quakers, that they are the only christian sect who have
+never exercised the cruel weapon of persecution.
+
+
+
+METHODIST's MEETING.
+
+We learn from ecclesiastical history, that the people in high life are
+always _followers_ in religion. Though they are the best leaders in
+political and social concerns, yet all religions seem to originate from
+the lowest class. Every religion is first obstructed by violence, passes
+through the insults of an age, then rests in peace, and often takes up
+the rod against another.
+
+The first preachers of the christian faith, the short-sighted apostles,
+were men of the meanest occupations, and their church, a wretched room
+in a miserable tenement. The superb buildings of St. Peter's in Rome,
+and St. Paul's in London, used by their followers, were not within the
+reach of their penetration. They were also totally ignorant of tripple
+crowns, red hats, mitres, crosiers, robes, and rochets, well known to
+their successors.
+
+The religion of a private room, soon became the religion of a country:
+the church acquired affluence, for all churches hate poverty; and this
+humble church, disturbed for ages, became the church of Rome, the
+disturber of Europe.
+
+John Wickliff, in 1377, began to renew her disturbance: this able
+theologist planted our present national church, which underwent severe
+persecutions, from its mother church at Rome; but, rising superior to
+the rod, and advancing to maturity, she became the mother of a numerous
+offspring, which she afterwards persecuted herself; and this offspring,
+like _their_ mother, were much inclined to persecution.
+
+Puritanism, her first born, groaned under the pressure of her hand. The
+Baptists, founded by a taylor, followed, and were buffeted by
+both.--Independency appeared, ponderous as an elephant, and trampled
+upon all three.
+
+John Fox, a composition of the oddest matter, and of the meanest
+original, formed a numerous band of disciples, who suffered the insults
+of an age, but have carried the arts of prudence to the highest pitch.
+
+The Muglitonians, the Prophets, the Superlapsarians, &c. like untimely
+births, just saw the light and disappeared.
+
+The Moravians, under the influence of Zinzendorf, rose about 1740, but
+are not in a flourishing state; their circumscribed rules, like those
+of the cloister, being too much shackled to thrive in a land of freedom.
+
+James Sandiman introduced a religion, about 1750, but, though eclipsed
+himself by poverty, he taught his preachers to shine; for he allowed
+them to grace the pulpit with ruffles, lace, and a cueque. Birmingham
+cannot produce one professor of the two last churches.
+
+The christian religion has branched into more sectaries in the last two
+hundred years, than in the fifteen hundred before--the reason is
+obvious. During the tedious reign of the Romish priest, before the
+introduction of letters, knowledge was small, and he wished to confine
+that knowledge to himself: he substituted mystery for science, and led
+the people blindfold. But the printing-press, though dark in itself, and
+surrounded with yet _darker_ materials, diffused a ray of light through
+the world, which enabled every man to read, think, and judge for
+himself; hence diversity of opinion, and the absurdity of reducing a
+nation to one faith, vainly attempted by Henry VIII.
+
+In those distant ages, the priest had great influence, with little
+knowledge; but in these, great knowledge, with little influence. He was
+then revered according to his authority; but now, according to his
+merit: he shone in a borrowed, but now in a real lustre: then he was
+less deserving; but now less esteemed. The humble christian, in the
+strictest sense, worked out his salvation with fear and trembling, and
+with tools furnished by the priest: he built upon his opinions, but now
+he lays a foundation for his own.
+
+Though we acknowledge the scriptures our guide, we take the liberty to
+guide them; we torture them to our own sentiments. Though we allow their
+_equal_ weight, we suffer one portion to weigh down another. If we
+attend to twenty disputants, not one of them will quote a text which
+militates against his sentiments.
+
+The artillery of vengeance was pointed at Methodism for thirty years;
+but, fixed as a rock, it could never be beaten down, and its professors
+now enjoy their sentiments in quiet.
+
+After the institution of this sect by George Whitfield, in 1738, they
+were first covered by the heavens, equally exposed to the rain and the
+rabble, and afterwards they occupied, for many years, a place in
+Steelhouse-lane, where the wags of the age observed, "they were eat out
+by the bugs."--They therefore procured a cast off theatre in
+Moor-street, where they continued to exhibit till 1782; when, quitting
+the stage, they erected a superb meeting-house, in Cherry-street, at the
+expence of 1200_l_. This was opened, July 7, by John Wesley, the chief
+priest, whose extensive knowledge, and unblemished manners, give us a
+tolerable picture of apostolic purity; who _believes_, as if he were to
+be saved by faith; and who _labours_, as if he were to be saved
+by works.
+
+Thus our composite order of religion, an assemblage of the Episcopalian,
+the Presbyterian, the Independent, and the Baptist; fled from the
+buffetings of the vulgar, and now take peaceable shelter from the dews
+of heaven.
+
+
+
+ROMISH CHAPEL.
+
+I have already remarked, there is nothing which continues in the same
+state: the code of manners, habits of thinking, and of expression, modes
+of living, articles of learning; the ways of acquiring wealth, or
+knowledge; our dress, diet, recreations, &c. change in every age.
+
+But why is there a change in religion? eternal truth, once fixed, is
+everlastingly the same. Religion is purity, which, one would think,
+admits of no change; if it changes, we should doubt whether it is
+religion. But a little attention to facts will inform us, _there is
+nothing more changable:_ nor need we wonder, because, man himself being
+changable, every thing committed to his care will change with him. We
+may plead his excuse, by observing, his sight is defective: he may be
+deceived by viewing an object in one light, or attitude, to-day, and
+another, to-morrow. This propensity to change might lead us to suspect
+the authenticity of our own sentiments.
+
+The apostles certainly formed the church of Rome; but she, having
+undergone the variations of seventeen hundred years, St. Peter himself,
+should he return to the earth, could not discover one linament in her
+aspect; but would be apt to reject her as a changling.
+
+The church of England has not only undergone a change since the
+reformation, but wishes a greater.
+
+We should suppose the puritan of 1583, and the dissenter of 1783, were
+the same: but although substance and shadow exactly resemble each other,
+no two things differ more.
+
+When pride sends a man in quest of a religion, if he does not discover
+something new, he might as well stay at home: nothing near the present
+standard can take. Two requisites are necessary to found a religion,
+capacity, and singularity: no fool ever succeeded. If his talents are
+not above mediocrity, he will not be able to draw the crowd; and if his
+doctrines are not singular, the crowd will not be drawn--novelty
+pleases.
+
+Having collected, and brightened up a set of doctrines, wide of every
+other church, he fixes at a distance from all. But time, and unavoidable
+intercourse with the world, promote a nearer approximation; and, mixing
+with men, we act like men. Thus the Quaker under George III. shews but
+little of the Quaker under George Fox.
+
+In two congregations of the same profession, as in two twins of the same
+family, though there is a striking likeness, the curious observer will
+trace a considerable difference.
+
+In a religion, as well as a man, _there is a time to be born, and a time
+to die_. They both vary in aspect, according to the length of their
+existence, carry the marks of decline, and sink into obscurity.
+
+We are well informed how much the Romish religion has declined in this
+country: three hundred years ago Birmingham did not produce one person
+of another persuasion; but now, out of 50,000 people, we have not 300
+of this.
+
+The Roman Catholics formerly enjoyed a place for religious worship near
+St. Bartholomew's-chapel, still called Masshouse-lane; but the rude
+hands of irreligion destroyed it. There is now none nearer than
+Edgbaston, two miles distant; yet the congregation is chiefly supplied
+from Birmingham.
+
+If the Roman Catholics are not so powerful as in the sixteenth century,
+they seem as quiet, and as little addicted to knowledge; perhaps they
+have not yet learned to see through any eyes but those of the
+priest.--There appears, however, as much devotion in their public
+worship, as among any denomination of christians.
+
+
+
+JEWISH SYNAGOGUE.
+
+We have also among us a remnant of Israel. A people who, when masters of
+their own country, were scarcely ever known to travel, and who are now
+seldom employed in any thing else. But, though they are ever moving,
+they are ever at home: who once lived the favourites of heaven, and fed
+upon the cream of the earth; but now are little regarded by either:
+whose society is entirely confined to themselves, except in the
+commercial line.
+
+[ILLUSTRATION: Birmingham Theatre, Hotel and Tavern.]
+
+In the Synagogue, situated in the Froggery, they still preserve the
+faint resemblence of the ancient worship. Their whole apparatus being no
+more than the drooping ensigns of poverty. The place is rather small,
+but tolerably filled; where there appears less decorum than in the
+christian churches. The proverbial expression "as rich as a jew," is not
+altogether verified in Birmingham, but perhaps, time is transfering it
+to the Quakers.
+
+It is rather singular, that the honesty of a jew, is seldom pleaded but
+by the jew himself.
+
+
+
+THEATRES.
+
+The practice of the Theatre is of great antiquity. We find it in great
+repute among the Greeks; we also find, the more a nation is civilized,
+the more they have supported the stage. It seems designed for two
+purposes, improvement and entertainment.
+
+There are certain exuberances that naturally grow in religion,
+government, and private life which may with propriety be attacked by the
+poet and the comedian, but which can scarcely be reduced by any other
+power. While the stage therefore keeps this great end in view, it
+answers a valuable purpose to the community. The poet should use his pen
+to reform, not to indulge a corrupt age, as was the case in the days of
+Charles the Second, when indecency was brought on to raise the laugh.
+
+Perhaps there is no period of time in which the stage was less polluted,
+owing to the inimitable Garrick, than the present: notwithstanding there
+is yet room for improvement.
+
+Tragedy is to melt the heart, by exhibiting the unfortunate; satiate
+revenge, by punishing the unjust tyrant: To discard vice, and to keep
+undue passions within bounds.
+
+Comedy holds up folly in a ridiculous light: Whatever conduct or
+character is found in the regions of absurdity, furnishes proper
+materials for the stage; and out of these, the pen of a master will draw
+many useful lessons.
+
+The pulpit and the stage have nearly the same use, but not in the same
+line--That of improving the man.
+
+The English stage opened about the conquest, and was wholly confined to
+religion; in whose service it continued, with very little intermission,
+to the extinction of the Plantagenets. The play-houses were the
+churches, the principal actors the priests, and the performances taken
+from scripture; such as the Fall of Man, the Story of Joseph, Sampson,
+Histories of the Saints, the Sufferings of Christ, Resurrection, Day of
+Judgment, &c.
+
+Theatrical exhibition in Birmingham, is rather of a modern date. As far
+as memory can penetrate, the stroller occupied, occasionally, a shed of
+boards in the fields, now Temple-street: Here he acted the part of
+Distress, in a double capacity. The situation was afterwards changed,
+but not the eminence, and the Hinkleys dignified the performers booth!
+
+In about 1730, the amusements of the stage rose in a superior stile of
+elegance, and entered something like a stable in Castle-street. Here the
+comedian strutted in painted rags, ornamented with tinsel: The audience
+raised a noisy laugh, half real and half forced, at three-pence a head.
+
+In about 1740, a theatre was erected in Moor-street, which rather gave a
+spring to the amusement; in the day time the comedian beat up for
+volunteers for the night, delivered his bills of fare, and roared out an
+encomium on the excellence of the entertainment, which had not always
+the desired effect.
+
+In 1751, a company arrived, which anounced themselves, "His Majesty's
+servants, from the theatres-royal in London; and hoped the public would
+excuse the ceremony of the drum, as beneath the dignity of a London
+company." The novelty had a surprising effect; the performers had
+merit; the house was continually crouded; the general conversation
+turned upon theatrical exhibition, and the town was converted into one
+vast theatre.
+
+In 1752 it was found necessary to erect a larger theatre, that in King
+Street, and we multiplied into two London companies.
+
+The pulpits took the alarm, and in turn, roared after their customers:
+But the pious teachers forgot it was only the fervour of a day, which
+would cool of itself; that the fiercer the fire burns, the sooner it
+will burn out.
+
+This declaration of war, fortunately happening at the latter end of
+summer, the campaign was over, and the company retreated into winter
+quarters, without hostilities.
+
+It was afterwards found, that two theatres were more than the town chose
+to support; therefore that in Moor-street was set for a methodist
+meeting, where, it was said, though it changed its audience, it kept its
+primeval use, continuing the theatre of farce.
+
+In 1774, the theatre in King-street was enlarged, beautified, and made
+more convenient; so that it hath very few equals.
+
+About the same time that in New-street was erected upon a suitable spot,
+an extensive plan, and richly ornamented with paintings and
+scenery.--Expence seems the least object in consideration.
+
+An additional and superb portico, was erected in 1780, which perhaps may
+cause it to be pronounced, "One of the first theatres in Europe."
+
+Two busts, in relief, of excellent workmanship, are elevated over the
+attic windows; one is the father, and the other the refiner of the
+British, stage--Shakespear and Garrick.
+
+Also two figures eight feet high, are said to be under the chissel, one
+of Thalia, and the other of Melpomene, the comic and the tragic muses;
+the value one hundred and sixty guineas. Places are reserved for their
+reception, to augment the beauty of the front, and shew the taste of
+the age.
+
+
+
+AMUSEMENTS.
+
+Man seems formed for variety, whether we view him in a rational or an
+animal light. A sameness of temper, habit, diet, pursuit, or pleasure,
+is no part of his character. The different ages of his life, also
+produce different sentiments; that which gives us the highest relish in
+one period, is totally flat in another. The rattle that pleases at
+three, would be cast into the fire at threescore: The same hand that
+empties the purse at twenty, would fill it at fifty: In age, he bends
+his knee to the same religion, which he laughed at in youth: The prayer
+book, that holds the attention of seventy, holds the lottery pictures of
+seven: And the amorous tale that awakes the ideas of twenty five, lulls
+old age to sleep.
+
+Not only life is productive of change, but also every day in it. If a
+man would take a minute survey of his thoughts and employments, for only
+twenty-four hours, he would be astonished at their infinite variety.
+
+Though industry be the ruling passion of this ingenious race, yet
+relaxation must follow, as one period to another. Society is therefore
+justly esteemed an everlasting fund of amusement, which is found at the
+tavern, in the winter evening: Intoxication is seldom met with, except
+in the inferior ranks, where it is visible in both sexes.
+
+A regular concert is established, where the music is allowed to excel.
+This harmonious science, like other productions of taste, though it be
+not the general study of the inhabitants, hath made an amazing progress
+during the last thirty years.
+
+In 1777, a coffee-house was opened at the East end of New-street, the
+first in this department; which, drawing into its vortex the
+transactions of Europe, finds employment for the politician.
+
+Assemblies are held weekly, which give room for beauty to figure at
+cards, in conversation, and in the dance.
+
+The pleasures of the field claim their votaries, but, in a populous
+country, like that of Birmingham, plenty of game is not to be expected;
+for want of wild fowl, therefore, the shooter has been sometimes known
+to attack the tame.
+
+However, the farmer need not be under any great concern for his
+property; the sportsman seldom does any thing with his arms--but--_carry
+them_. We are more famous for _making_, than _using_ the gun.
+
+A pack of hounds have sometimes been kept by subscription, termed, The
+Birmingham Hunt; but, as the sound of the dogs and the anvil never
+harmonised together, they have been long in disuse: the jocund tribe,
+therefore, having no scent of their own, fall into that of the
+neighbouring gentry, many of whom support a pack.
+
+The man of reflection finds amusement in domestic resources; and, in his
+own mind, if unoppressed. Here the treasures collected from men, books,
+and observation, _are laid up for many years_, from which he draws
+pleasure, without diminishing the flock. The universal riches of nature
+and of art; the part, the present, and a glympse of the future, lie open
+to his eye.
+
+Two obstructions only bound his ideas, _time_ and _space_. He steps from
+planet to planet, and if he cannot enter immensity, he can verge upon
+its borders.
+
+I pity the man, who through poverty, cannot find warmth by his own
+fire-side; but I pity him more, who, through poverty of thought, cannot
+find happiness.
+
+For the entertainment of summer, exclusive of the two theatres, there
+are five greens, where the gentlemen are amused with bowls, and the
+ladies with tea.
+
+There are also great variety of public gardens, suited to every class of
+people, or which Duddeston, the ancient seat of the Holte family, claims
+the pre-eminence.
+
+The fishing-rod, that instrument which _destroys in peace_, must find a
+place: other animals are followed with fire and tumult, but the fishes
+are entrapped with deceit. Of all the sportsmen, we charge the angler
+alone with _killing in cold blood_.
+
+Just as a pursuit abounds with pleasure, so will it abound with
+votaries. The pleasure of angling depends on the success of the line:
+this art is but little practised here, and less known. Our rivers are
+small, and thinly stored; our pools are guarded as private property: the
+Birmingham spirit is rather too active for the sleepy amusement
+of fishing.
+
+Patience seems the highest accomplishment of an angler. We behold him,
+fixed as a statue, on the bank; his head inclining towards the river,
+his attention upon the water, his eye upon the float; he often draws,
+and draws only his hook! But although he gets no bite, it may fairly be
+said _he is bit:_ of the two, the fish display the most cunning.--He,
+surprized that he has _caught nothing_, and I, that he has kept his rod
+and his patience.
+
+Party excursion is held in considerable esteem, in which are included
+Enville, the seat of Lord Stamford; Hagley, that of the late Lord
+Lyttelton; and the Leasowes, the property of the late Wm. Shenstone,
+Esq. We will omit the journey to London, a tour which some of us have
+made all our lives _without seeing it_.
+
+Cards and the visit are linked together, nor is the billiard table
+totally forsaken. One man amuses himself in amassing a fortune, and
+another in dissolving one.
+
+About thirty-six of the inhabitants keep carriages for their own private
+use; and near fifty have country houses. The relaxations of the humbler
+class, are fives, quoits, skittles, and ale.
+
+Health and amusement are found in the prodigious number of private
+gardens scattered round Birmingham, from which we often behold the
+father returning with a cabbage, and the daughter with a nosegay.
+
+
+
+HOTEL.
+
+The spot where our great-grandmothers smiled in the lively dance, when
+they possessed the flower of beauty in the spring of life, is lost in
+forgetfulness. The floor that trembled under that foot which was covered
+with a leather shoe tied with a silken string, and which supported a
+stocking of dark blue worsted, not of the finest texture, is now buried
+in oblivion.
+
+[Illustration: Hotel.]
+
+In 1750 we had two assembly rooms; one at No. 11. in the Square, the
+other No. 85. in Bull-street. This last was not much in use afterwards.
+That in the Square continued in repute till in the course of that
+evening which happened in October 1765, when Edward Duke of York had the
+honour of leading up the dance, and the ladies of Birmingham enjoyed
+that of the Duke's hand, He remarked, "That a town of such magnitude as
+Birmingham, and adorned with so much beauty, deserved a superior
+accomodation:--That the room itself was mean, but the entrance
+still meaner."
+
+Truth is ever the same, whether it comes from a prince or a peasant; but
+its effects are not. Whether some secret charm attended the Duke's
+expression, that blasted the room, is uncertain, but it never after held
+its former eminence.
+
+In 1772 a building was erected by subscription, upon the Tontine
+principle, at the head of Temple row, and was dignified with the French
+name of Hotel: From a handsome, entrance the ladies are now led through
+a spacious saloon, at the extremity of which the eye is struck with a
+grand flight of steps, opening into an assembly-room, which would not
+disgrace even the royal presence of the Duke's brother.
+
+The pile itself is large, plain, and elegant, but standing in the same
+line with the other buildings, which before were really genteel,
+eclipses them by its superiority: Whereas, if the Hotel had fallen a few
+feet back, it would, by breaking the line, have preserved the beauty of
+the row, without losing its own.
+
+
+
+WAKES.
+
+This ancient custom was left us by the Saxons. Time, that makes
+alteration only in other customs, has totally inverted this.
+
+When a church was erected, it was immediately called after a saint, put
+under his protection, and the day belonging to that saint kept in the
+church as an high festival. In the evening preceding the day, the
+inhabitants, with lights, approached the church, and kept a continual
+devotion during the whole night; hence the name _wake_: After which
+they entered into festivity.
+
+But now the devotional part is forgot, the church is deserted, and the
+festivity turned into riot, drunkenness, and mischief.
+
+Without searching into the mouldy records of time, for evidence to
+support our assertion, we may safely pronounce the wake the lowest of
+all low amusements, and compleatly suited to the lowest of tempers.
+
+Wakes have been deemed a public concern, and legislature, more than
+once, been obliged to interpose for the sake of that order which private
+conduct could never boast.
+
+In the reign of Henry the Sixth, every consideration, whether of a
+public or a private nature, gave way to the wake: The harvest in
+particular was neglected. An order therefore issued, confining the wakes
+to the first Sunday in October, consequently the whole nation run mad
+at once.
+
+Wakes in Birmingham are not ancient: Why St. Martin's, then the only
+church, was neglected, is uncertain.
+
+Although we have no wakes for the town, there are three kept in its
+borders, called Deritend, Chapel, and Bell wakes. The two first are in
+the spring of existence, the last in the falling leaf of autumn.
+
+Deritend wake probably took its rise at the erection of her chapel, in
+1382.
+
+Chapel wake, in 1750, from St. Bartholomew's chapel, is held in the
+meridian of Coleshill-street; was hatched and fostered by the publicans,
+for the benefit of the spiggot.
+
+Amongst other important amusements, was that of bull-baiting, till the
+year 1773, when the commissioners of lamps, in the amendment of their
+act, wisely broke the chain, and procured a reprieve for the
+unfortunate animal.
+
+Another was the horse-race, 'till a few years ago a person being killed,
+rather slackened the entertainment. What singular genius introduced the
+horse-race into a crowded street, I am yet to learn.
+
+In the evening the passenger cannot proceed without danger; in the
+morning, he may discover which houses are public, without other
+intelligence than the copious streams that have issued from the wall.
+The blind may also distinguish the same thing, by the strong scent
+of the tap.
+
+Bell wake is the junior by one year, originating from the same cause, in
+1751, in consequence of ten bells being hung up in St Philip's
+steeple.--'Till within these few years, we were at this wake struck with
+a singular exhibition, that of a number of boys running a race through
+the streets naked. Some of the inhabitants, seeing so fair a mark for
+chastisement, applied the rod with success, put a period to the sport,
+and obliged the young runners to run under cover.
+
+
+
+CLUBS.
+
+It may be expected, from the title of this chapter, that I shall
+introduce a set of ruffians armed with missive weapons; or, having named
+a trump, a set of gamblers shuffling and dealing out the cards: But
+whatever veneration I may entertain for these two fag ends of our
+species, I shall certainly introduce a class of people, which, though of
+the lower orders, are preferable to both.
+
+Social compact is a distinguishing mark of civilization: The whole
+British empire may be justly considered as one grand alliance, united
+for public and private interest, and this vast body of people are
+subdivided into an infinity of smaller fraternities, for
+individual benefit.
+
+Perhaps there are hundreds of these societies in Birmingham under the
+name of clubs; some of them boast the antiquity of a century, and by
+prudent direction have acquired a capital, at accumulating interest.
+Thousands of the inhabitants are thus connected, nay, to be otherwise is
+rather unfashionable, and some are people of sentiment and property.
+
+A variety of purposes are intended by these laudable institutions, but
+the principal one is that of supporting the sick.
+
+Each society is governed by a code of laws of its own making, which have
+at least the honour of _resembling_ those of legislature, for words
+without sense are found in both, and we sometimes stumble upon
+contradiction.
+
+The poor's-rates, enormous as they appear, are softened by these
+brotherly aids. They tend also to keep the mind at rest, for a man will
+enjoy the day of health, with double relish, when he considers he has a
+treasure laid up for that of sickness.
+
+If a _member_ only of a poor family be sick, the _head_ still remains to
+procure necessaries; but if that head be disordered, the whole source of
+supply is dried up, which evinces the utility of such institutions.
+
+The general custom is to meet at the public every fortnight, spend a
+trifle, and each contribute six-pence, or any stated sum, to the common
+stock. The landlord is always treasurer, or father, and is assisted by
+two stewards, annually or monthly chosen.
+
+As honour and low life are not always found together, we sometimes see a
+man who is rather _idle_, wish the society may suppose him _sick_, that
+he may rob them with more security. Or, if a member hangs long upon the
+box, his brethren seek a pretence to expel him. On the other hand, we
+frequently observe a man silently retreat from the club, if another
+falls upon the box, and fondly suppose himself no longer a member; or if
+the box be loaded with sickness, the whole club has been known to
+dissolve, that they may rid themselves of the burthen; but the Court of
+Requests finds an easy remedy for these evils, and at a
+trifling expence.
+
+The charity of the club, is also extended beyond the grave, and
+terminates with a present to the widow.
+
+The philosophers tell us, "There is no good without its kindred evil."
+This amiable body of men, therefore, marshalled to expel disease, hath
+one small alloy, and perhaps but one. As liquor and labour are
+inseparable, the imprudent member is apt to forget to quit the club
+room when he has spent his necessary two-pence, but continues there to
+the injury of his family.
+
+Another of these institutions is the _rent club_, where, from the weekly
+sums deposited by the members, a sop is regularly served up twice a
+year, to prevent the growlings of a landlord.
+
+In the _breeches club_ every member ballots for a pair, value a guinea,
+_promised_ of more value by the maker. This club dissolves when all the
+members are served.
+
+The intentions of the _book club_ are well known, to catch the
+productions of the press as they rise.
+
+The _watch club_ has generally a watchmaker for its president, is
+composed of young men, and is always temporary.
+
+If a taylor be short of employment, he has only to consult a landlord
+over a bottle, who, by their joint powers, can give birth to a _cloaths
+club_; where every member is supplied with a suit to his taste, of a
+stipulated price. These are chiefly composed of batchelors, who wish to
+shine in the eye of the fair.
+
+Thus a bricklayer stands at the head of the _building club_, where every
+member perhaps subscribes two guineas per month, and each house, value
+about one hundred pounds, is balloted for, as soon as erected. As a
+house is a weighty concern, every member is obliged to produce two
+bondsmen for the performance of covenants.
+
+I will venture to pronounce another the _capital club_, for when the
+contributions amount to 50_l_. the members ballot for this capital, to
+bring into business: Here also securities are necessary. It is easy to
+conceive the two last clubs are extremely beneficial to building and
+to commerce.
+
+The last I shall enumerate is the _clock club_: When the weekly deposits
+of the members amount to about 4_l_. they call lots who shall be first
+served with a clock of that value, and continue the same method till the
+whole club is supplied; after which, the clockmaker and landlord cast
+about for another set, who are chiefly composed of young house-keepers.
+Hence the beginner ornaments his premises with furniture, the artist
+finds employment and profit, and the publican empties his barrel.
+
+Thus we have taken a transient survey of this rising colony of arts,
+uniting observation with fact: We have seen her dark manufactures, in
+darker times: We have attended her through her commercial, religious,
+political, and pleasurable walks: Have viewed her in many points of
+light, but never in decline; 'till we have now set her in the fair
+sunshine of the present day.
+
+Perhaps I shall not be charged with prolixity, that unpardonable sin
+against the reader, when it is considered, that three thousand years are
+deposited in the compass of one hundred and forty little pages.
+
+Some other circumstances deserve attention, which could not be
+introduced without breaking the thread of history: But as that thread is
+now drawn to an end, I must, before I resume it, step back into the
+recesses of time, and slumber through the long ages of seventeen hundred
+years; if the active reader, therefore, has no inclination for a nod of
+that length, or, in simple phrase, no relish for antiquity, I advise him
+to pass over the five ensuing chapters.
+
+
+
+IKENIELD STREET.
+
+About five furlongs North of the Navigation Bridge, in Great Charles
+street, which is the boundary of the present buildings, runs the
+Ikenield-street; one of those famous pretorian roads which mark the
+Romans with conquest, and the Britons with slavery.
+
+By that time a century had elapsed, from the first landing of Caesar in
+Britain the victorious Romans had carried their arms through the
+southern part of the isle. They therefore endeavoured to secure the
+conquered provinces by opening four roads, which should each rise in the
+shore, communicate with, and cross each other, form different angles,
+extend over the island several ways, and terminate in the opposite sea.
+
+These are the Watling-street, which rises near Dover, and running
+North-west through London, Atherstone, and Shropshire, in the
+neighbourhood of Chester, ends in the Irish sea.
+
+The Foss begins in Devonshlre, extends South-east through
+Leicestershire, continuing its course through Lincolnshire, to the verge
+of the German ocean.
+
+These two roads, crossing each other at right angles, form a figure
+resembling the letter X, whose centre is the High Cross, which divides
+the counties of Warwick and Leicester.
+
+The Ermine-street extends along the southern part of the island; near
+the British channel; and the Ikenield-street, which I cannot so soon
+quit, rises near Southampton, extends nearly North, through Winchester,
+Wallingford, and over the Isis, at New-bridge; thence to Burford,
+crossing the Foss at Stow in the Woulds, over Bitford-bridge, in the
+County of Warwick, to Alcester; by Studley, Ipsley, Beely,
+Wetherick-hill, Stutley-street; crosses the road from Birmingham to
+Bromsgrove, at Selley oak, leaving Harborne a mile to the left, also the
+Hales Owen road a mile West of Birmingham: Thence by the Observatory in
+Lady-wood-lane, where it enters the parish of Birmingham, crossing the
+Dudley road at the Sand-pits; along Worstone-lane; through the little
+pool, and Hockley-brook, where it quits the parish: Thence over
+Handsworth-heath, entering a little lane on the right of
+Bristle-lands-end, and over the river Tame, at Offord-mill,
+(Oldford-mill) directly to Sutton Coldfield. It passes the Ridgeway a
+few yards East of King's-standing, a little artificial mount, on which
+Charles the First is said to have stood when he harangued the troops he
+brought out of Shropshire, at the opening of the civil wars, in 1642.
+From thence the road proceeds through Sutton park, and the remainder of
+the Coldfield; over Radley-moor; from thence to Wall, a Roman station,
+where it meets the Watling-street: Leaving Lichfield a mile to the left,
+it leads through Street-hay; over Fradley-heath; thence through Alderwas
+hays, crossing the river Trent, at Wichnor-bridge, to Branson-turnpike:
+over Burton-moor, leaving the town half a mile to the right: thence to
+Monk's-bridge, upon the river Dove; along Egington-heath, Little-over,
+the Rue-dyches, Stepping-lane, Nun-green, and Darley-slade, to the river
+Derwent, one mile above Derby; upon the eastern banks of which stands
+Little Chester, built by the Romans.
+
+If the traveller is tired with this tedious journey, and dull
+description, which admits of no variety, we will stop for a moment, and
+refresh in this Roman city.
+
+In drawing the flewks of his oar along the bed of the river, as he boats
+over it, he may feel the foundations of a Roman bridge, nearly level
+with its bottom. Joining the water are the vestiges of a castle, now an
+orchard. Roman coins are frequently discovered--In 1765, I was presented
+with one of Vespasian's, found the year before in scowering a ditch; but
+I am sorry to observe, it has suffered more during the fifteen years in
+my possession, than during the fifteen hundred it lay in the earth.
+
+The inhabitants being in want of materials to form a turnpike road,
+attempted to pull up this renowned military way, for the sake of those
+materials, but found them too strongly cemented to admit of an easy
+separation, and therefore desisted when they had taken up a few loads.
+
+I saw the section of this road cut up from the bottom: the Romans seem
+to have formed it with infinite labour and expence. They took out the
+soil for about twenty yards wide, and one deep, perhaps, till they came
+to a firm bottom; and filled up the whole with stones of all sizes,
+brought from Duffield, four miles up the river; cemented with
+coarse mortar.
+
+The road here is only discoverable by its barren track, along the
+cultivated meadows. It then proceeds over Morley-moor, through
+Scarsdale, by Chesterfield, Balsover, through Yorkshire, Northumberland,
+and terminates upon the banks of the Tine, near Tinmouth.
+
+There are many roads in England formed by the Romans: they were of two
+kinds, the military, which crossed the island; and the smaller, which
+extended from one town to another. The four I have mentioned come under
+the first class: they rather avoided, than led through a town, that they
+might not be injured by traffic.
+
+Two of these four, the Watling-street, and the Ikenield-street, are
+thought, by their names, to be British, and with some reason; neither of
+the words are derived from the Latin: but whatever were their origin,
+they are certainly of Roman construction.
+
+These great roads were begun as soon as the island was subdued, to
+employ the military, and awe the natives, and were divided into stages,
+at the end of each was a fort, or station, to accommodate the guard, for
+the reception of stores, the conveniency of marching parties, and to
+prevent the soldiers from mixing with the Britons.
+
+The stations upon the Ikenield-street, in our neighbourhood, are Little
+Chester (Derventione) a square fort, nearly half an acre; joining the
+road to the south, and the Derwent to the west.
+
+The next is Burton upon Trent (Ad Trivonam) thirteen miles south. Here I
+find no remains of a station.
+
+Then Wall (Etocetum) near Lichfield, which I have examined with great
+labour, or rather with great pleasure: Here the two famous consular
+roads cross each other. We should expect a fort in the angle, commanding
+both, which is not the case. The Watling-street is lost for about half a
+mile, leading over a morass, only the line is faintly preserved, by a
+blind path over the inclosures: the Ikenield-street crosses it in this
+morass, not the least traces of which remain. But, by a strict
+attention, I could point out their junction to a few yards.
+
+Six furlongs west of this junction, and one hundred yards north of the
+Watling-street, in a close, now about three acres, are the remains of
+the Roman fortress. This building, of strength and terror, is reduced to
+one piece of thick wall, visibly of Roman workmanship, from whence the
+place derives its modern name.
+
+Can you, says I to a senior peasant, for I love to appeal to old age,
+tell the origin of that building?
+
+"No; but we suppose it has been a church. The ruins were much larger in
+my memory; but they were lately destroyed, to bring the land into that
+improved state of cultivation in which you see it."--And so you reduced
+a fortress in four years, which the Britons never could in four hundred.
+For a trifling profit, you eraze the work of the ancients, and prevent
+the wonder of the moderns.--Are you apprised of any old walls under
+the surface?
+
+"Yes; the close is full of them: I have broke three ploughs in one day;
+no tool will stand against them. It has been more expensive to bring the
+land into its present condition, than the freehold is worth." Why, you
+seem more willing to destroy than your tools; and more able than time.
+The works which were the admiration of ages, you bury under ground. What
+the traveller comes many miles to see, you assiduously hide.
+
+What could be the meaning that the Romans erected their station on the
+declivity of this hill, when the summit, two hundred yards distant, is
+much more eligible; are there no foundations upon it? "None."
+
+The commandry is preferable: the Watling-street runs by it, and it is
+nearer the Ikenield-street. Pray, are you acquainted with another Roman
+road which crosses it? "No."
+
+Do you know any close about the village, where a narrow bed of gravel,
+which runs a considerable length, has impeded the plough?
+
+"Yes; there is a place, half a mile distant, where, when a child, I
+drove the plough; we penetrated a land of gravel, and my companion's
+grandfather told us, it had been an old road."--That is the place I
+want, lead me to it. Being already master of both ends of the road, like
+a broken line, with the center worn out, the gravel bed enabled me to
+recover it.
+
+The next station upon the Ikenield-street is Birmingham (Bremenium) I
+have examined this country with care; but find no vestiges of a station:
+nor shall we wonder; dissolation is the preserver of antiquity, nothing
+of which reigns here; the most likely place is Wor-ston (Wall-stone)
+which a younger brother of Birmingham might afterwards convert into the
+fashionable moat of the times, and erect a castle. The next station is
+Alcester (Alauna) all which are nearly at equal distances.
+
+In forming these grand roads, a strait direction seems to have been
+their leading maxim. Though curiosity has lead me to travel many hundred
+miles upon their roads, with the eye of an enquirer, I cannot recollect
+one instance, where they ever broke the line to avoid a hill, a swamp, a
+rock, or a river.
+
+They were well acquainted with the propriety of an old English adage,
+_Once well done is twice done_; an idea new cloathed by Lord
+Chesterfield, _If a a thing be worth doing at all, it is worth
+doing well_.
+
+For their roads were so durably constructed, that, had they been
+appropriated only to the use intended, they might have withstood the
+efforts of time, and bid fair for eternity.--Why is this useful art so
+lost among the moderns?
+
+When time and intercourse had so far united the Romans and the Britons,
+that they approached nearly to one people, the Romans formed, or rather
+_improved_, many of the smaller roads; placed stones of intelligence
+upon them; hence, London Stone, Stony Stratford (the stone at the
+Street-ford) Atherstone, stone (hither, near, or first stone from
+Witherly-bridge, a Roman camp) and fixed their stations in the places to
+which these roads tended.
+
+The great roads, as observed before, were chiefly appropriated for
+military purposes, and instituted in the beginning of their government;
+but the smaller were of later date, and designed for common use. As
+these came more in practice, there was less occasion for the military;
+which, not leading to their towns, were, in process of time, nearly
+laid aside.
+
+Antonine, and his numerous train of commentators, have not bestowed that
+attention on the roads they deserve: a curious acquaintance with the
+roads of a country, brings us acquainted with the manners of the people:
+in one, like a mirror, is exactly represented the other. Their state,
+like a master key, unlocks many apartments.
+
+The authors I have seen are _all in the wrong_; and as my researches are
+confined, it is a mortification, I am not able to set them right. They
+have confounded the two classes together, which were very distinct in
+chronology, the manner of making, and their use. If an author treats of
+one old road, he supposes himself bound to treat of all in the kingdom,
+a task no man can execute: by undertaking much, we do nothing well; the
+journey of an antiquarian mould never be rapid. If fortune offers a
+small discovery, let him think, and compare. Neither will they ever be
+set right, but continue to build a mouldering fabric, with untempered
+mortar, till a number of intelligent residents, by local enquiries can
+produce solid materials for a lasting monument.
+
+The Romans properly termed their ways streets, a name retained by many
+of them to this day; one of the smaller roads, issuing from London,
+penetrates through Stratford upon Avon (Street-ford) Monks-path-street,
+and Shirley-street, to Birmingham, which proves it of great antiquity,
+and the Ikenield-street running by it, proves it of greater. We may from
+hence safely conclude, Birmingham was a place of note in the time of
+Caesar, because she merited legislative regard in forming their roads;
+which will send us far back among the Britons, to find her first
+existence.
+
+Though we are certain the Ikenield-street passes about a mile in length
+through this parish, as described above; yet, as there are no Roman
+traces to be seen, I must take the curious traveller to that vast waste,
+called Sutton-Coldfield, about four miles distant, where he will, in the
+same road, find the footsteps of those great mailers of the world,
+marked in lasting characters.
+
+He will plainly see its straight line pass over the Ridgeway, through
+Sutton Park, leaving the West hedge about 200 yards to the left; through
+the remainder of the Coldfield, till lost in cultivation.
+
+This track is more than three miles in length, and is no where else
+visible in these parts. I must apprize him that its highest beauty is
+only discovered by an horizontal sun in the winter months.
+
+I first saw it in 1762, relieved by the transverse rays, in a clear
+evening in November; I had a perfect view upon the Ridgeway, near
+King's-standing of this delightful scene: Had I been attacked by the
+chill blasts of winter, upon this bleak mountain, the sensation would
+have been lost in the transport. The eye, at one view, takes in more
+than two miles. Struck with astonishment, I thought it the grandest
+sight I had ever beheld; and was amazed, so noble a monument of
+antiquity should be so little regarded.
+
+The poets have long contended for the line of beauty--they may find it
+here. I was fixed as by enchantment till the sun dropt, my prospect with
+it, and I left the place with regret.
+
+If the industrious traveller chooses to wade up to the middle in gorse,
+as I did, he may find a roughish journey along this famous
+military way.
+
+Perhaps this is the only road in which money is of no use to the
+traveller; for upon this barren wild he can neither spend it, nor
+give it away.
+
+He will perceive the Coldfield to be one vast bed of gravel, covered
+with a moderate depth of soil of eight or ten inches: During this
+journey of three miles, he will observe all the way, on each side, a
+number of pits, perhaps more than a thousand, out of which the Romans
+procured the gravel to form the road; none of them many yards from it.
+This great number of pits, tends to prove two points--That the country
+was full of timber, which they not choosing to fall, procured the gravel
+in the interstices; for the road is composed of nothing else--And, that
+a great number of people were employed in its formation: They would
+also, with the trees properly disposed, which the Romans must inevitably
+cut to procure a passage, form a barrier to the road.
+
+This noble production was designed by a master, is every where straight,
+and executed with labour and judgement.
+
+Here he perceives the date of his own conquest, and of his civilization.
+Thus the Romans humbled a ferocious people.
+
+If he chooses to measure it he will find it exactly sixty feet wide,
+divided into three lands, resembling those in a ploughed field. The
+centre land thirty-six feet, and raised from one to three, according to
+the nature of the ground. The side lands, twelve each, and rising seldom
+more than one foot.
+
+This centre land no doubt was appropriated for the march of the troops,
+and the small one, on each side, for the out-guards, who preserved their
+ranks, for fear of a surprize from the vigilant and angry Britons.
+
+The Romans held these roads in great esteem, and were severe in their
+laws for their preservation.
+
+This famous road is visible all the way, but in some parts greatly hurt,
+and in others, compleat as in the first day the Romans made it. Perhaps
+the inquisitive traveller may find here, the only monument in the whole
+island left us by the Romans, that _time_ hath not injured.
+
+The philosophical traveller may make some curious observations in the
+line of agriculture, yet in its infancy.
+
+The only growth upon this wild, is gorse and ling: The vegetation upon
+the road and the adjacent lands, seem equal: The pits are all covered
+with a tolerable turf.
+
+As this road has been made about 1720 years, and, as at the time of
+making, both that and the pits must have been surfaces of neat gravel;
+he will be led to examine, what degree of soil they have acquired in
+that long course of years, and by what means?
+
+He well knows, that the surface of the earth is very far from being a
+fixed body: That there is a continual motion in every part, stone
+excepted: That the operations of the sun, the air, the frost, the dews,
+the winds, and the rain, produce a constant agitation, which changes the
+particles and the pores, tends to promote vegetation, and to increase
+the soil to a certain depth.
+
+This progress is too minute for the human eye, but the effects are
+visible. The powers above mentioned operate nearly as yeast in a lump of
+dough, that enlivens the whole. Nature seems to wish that the foot would
+leave the path, that she may cover it with grass. He will find this
+vegetative power so strong, that it even attends the small detached
+parts of the soil where-ever they go, provided they are within reach of
+air and moisture: He will not only observe it in the small pots,
+appropriated for garden use, but on the tops of houses, remote from any
+road, where the wind has carried any small dust. He will also observe it
+in cracks of the rocks; but in an amazing degree in the thick walls of
+ruined castles, where, by a long course of time, the decayed materials
+are converted into a kind of soil, and so well covered with grass, that
+if one of our old castle builders could return to his possessions, he
+might mow his house as well as his field, and procure a tolerable crop
+from both.
+
+In those pits, upon an eminence, the soil will be found deep enough for
+any mode of husbandry. In those of the vallies, which take in the small
+drain of the adjacent parts, it is much deeper. That upon the road,
+which rather gives than receives any addition from drain, the average
+depth is about four inches.
+
+The soil is not only increased by the causes above, but also by the
+constant decays of the growth upon it. The present vegetable generation
+falling to decay, adds to the soil, and also, assists the next
+generation, which in a short time follows the same course.
+
+The author of the History of Sutton says, "The poor inhabitants are
+supplied with fuel from a magazine of peat, near the Roman road,
+composed of thousands of fir trees cut down by the Romans, to enable
+them to pass over a morass. The bodies of the trees are sometimes dug up
+found, with the marks of the axe upon them."
+
+Are we then to suppose, by this curious historical anecdote, that the
+inhabitants of Sutton have run away with this celebrated piece of
+antiquity? That the cart, instead of rolling _over_ the military way,
+has rolled _under_ it, and that they have boiled the pot with the
+Roman road?
+
+Upon inquiry, they seemed more inclined to credit the fact, than able to
+prove it; but I can find no such morass, neither is the road any where
+broken up. Perhaps it would be as difficult to find the trees, as the
+axe that cut them: Besides, the fir is not a native of Britain, but of
+Russia; and I believe our forefathers, the Britons, were not complete
+masters of the art of transplanting. The park of Sutton was probably a
+bed of oaks, the natural weed of the country, long before Moses figured
+in history.
+
+Whilst the political traveller is contemplating this extraordinary
+production of antiquity, of art, and of labour, his thoughts will
+naturally recur to the authors of it.
+
+He will find them proficients in science, in ambition, in taste: They
+added dominion to conquest, 'till their original territory became too
+narrow a basis to support the vast fabric acquired by the success of
+their arms: The monstrous bulk fell to destruction by its own
+weight.--Man was not made for universality; if he grasps at little, he
+may retain it; if at much, he may lose all.
+
+The confusion, natural on such occasions, produced anarchy: At that
+moment, the military stept into the government, and the people
+became slaves.
+
+Upon the ruins of this brave race, the Bishop of Rome founded an
+ecclesiastical jurisdiction. His power increasing with his votaries, he
+found means to link all christendom to the triple crown, and acquired an
+unaccountable ascendency over the human mind: The princes of Europe were
+harnessed, like so many coach horses. The pontiff directed the bridle.
+He sometimes used the whip, and sometimes the curse. The thunder of his
+throne rattled through the world with astonishing effect, 'till that
+most useful discovery, the art of printing, in the fifteenth century,
+dissolved the charm, and set the oppressed cattle at liberty; who began
+to kick their driver. Henry the Eighth of England, was the first unruly
+animal in the papal team, and the sagacious Cranmer assisted in breaking
+the shackles.
+
+We have, in our day, seen an order of priesthood in the church of Rome,
+annihilated by the consent of the European princes, which the Pope
+beheld in silence.
+
+"There is an ultimate point of exaltation, and reduction, beyond which
+human affairs cannot proceed." Rome, seems to have experienced both, for
+she is at this day one of the most contemptible states in the scale
+of empire.
+
+This will of course lead the traveller's thoughts towards Britain, where
+he will find her sons by nature inclined to a love of arms, of liberty,
+and of commerce. These are the strong outlines of national character,
+the interior parts of which are finished with the softer touches of
+humanity, of science, and of luxury. He will also find, that there is a
+natural boundary to every country, beyond which it is dangerous to add
+dominion. That the boundary of Britain is the sea: That her external
+strength is her navy, which protects her frontiers, and her commerce:
+That her internal is unanimity: That when her strength is united within
+herself, she is invincible, and the balance of Europe will be fixed in
+her hand, which she ought never to let go.
+
+But if she accumulates territory, though she may profit at first, she
+weakens her power by dividing it; for the more she fends abroad, the
+less will remain at home; and, instead of giving law to the tyrant, she
+may be obliged to receive law from him.
+
+That, by a multiplicity of additions, her little isles will be lost in
+the great map of dominion.
+
+That, if she attempts to draw that vast and growing empire, America, she
+may herself be drawn to destruction; for, by every law of attraction,
+the greater draws the less--The mouse was never meant to direct the ox.
+That the military and the ecclesiastical powers are necessary in their
+places, that is, subordinate to the civil.
+
+But my companion will remember that Birmingham is our historical mark,
+therefore we must retreat to that happy abode of the smiling arts. If he
+has no taste for antiquity, I have detained him too long upon this
+hungry, though delightful spot. If he has, he will leave the enchanted
+ground with reluctance; will often turn his head to repeat the view,
+'till the prospect is totally lost.
+
+
+
+LORDS OF THE MANOR.
+
+By the united voice of our historians, it appears, that as the Saxons
+conquered province after province, which was effected in about one
+hundred and thirty years, the unfortunate Britons retreated into Wales:
+But we are not to suppose that all the inhabitants ran away, and left a
+desolate region to the victor; this would have been of little more value
+to the conqueror, than the possession of Sutton Coldfield or Bromsgrove
+Lickey. The mechanic and the peasant were left, which are by far the
+greatest number; they are also the riches of a country; stamp a value
+upon property, and it becomes current. As they have nothing to lose, so
+they have nothing to fear; for let who will be master, they must be
+drudges: Their safety consists in their servitude; the victor is ever
+conscious of their utility, therefore their protection is certain.
+
+But the danger lies with the man of substance, and the greater that
+substance, the greater his anxiety to preserve it, and the more danger
+to himself if conquered: These were the people who retreated into Wales.
+Neither must we consider the wealth of that day to consist of bags of
+cash, bills of exchange, India bonds, bank stock, etc. no such thing
+existed. Property lay in the land, and the herds that fed upon it. And
+here I must congratulate our Welch neighbours, who are most certainly
+descended from gentlemen; and I make no doubt but the Cambrian reader
+will readily unite in the same sentiment.
+
+The Saxons, as conquerors, were too proud to follow the modes of the
+conquered, therefore they introduced government, laws, language,
+customs and habits of their own. Hence we date the division of the
+kingdom into manors.
+
+Human nature is nearly the same in all ages. Where value is marked upon
+property or power, it will find its votaries: Whoever was the most
+deserving, or rather could make the most interest, procured land
+sufficient for an Elderman, now Earl; the next class, a Manor; and the
+inferior, who had borne the heat and burthen of the day--nothing.
+
+I must now introduce an expression which I promised not to forget.--In
+the course of a trial between William de Birmingham, and the inhabitants
+of Bromsgrove and King's-norton, in 1309, concerning the right of
+tollage; it appeared, That the ANCESTORS of the said William had a
+market here before the Norman conquest. This proves, that the family of
+Birmingham were of Saxon race, and Lords of the Manor prior to
+that period.
+
+Mercia was not only the largest, but also the last of the seven
+conquered kingdoms--It was bounded on the North by the Humber, on the
+West by the Severn, on the South by the Thames, and on the East by the
+German ocean. Birmingham lies nearly in the centre. Cridda, a Saxon,
+came over with a body of troops, and reduced it in 582; therefore, as
+no after revolution happened that could cause Birmingham to change its
+owner, and as land was not in a very saleable state at that time, there
+is the greatest reason to suppose the founder of the house of Birmingham
+Came over with Cridda, as an officer in his army, and procured this
+little flourishing dominion as a reward for his service.
+
+The succeeding generations of this illustrious family are too remote for
+historical penetration, 'till the reign of Edward the Confessor, the
+last of the Saxon Kings, when we find, in 1050,
+
+
+
+ULUUINE, (since ALWYNE, now ALLEN,)
+
+master of this improving spot.
+
+RICHARD,
+
+1066,
+
+seems to have succeeded him, and to have lived in that unfortunate
+period for property, the conquest.
+
+The time was now arrived when this ancient family, with the rest of the
+English gentry, who had lived under the benign climate of Saxon
+government, and in the affluence of fortune, must quit the happy
+regions of hospitality, and enter the gloomy precincts of penury--From
+givers, they were to become beggars.
+
+The whole conduct of William seems to have carried the strongest marks
+of conquest. Many of the English lost their lives, some their liberty,
+and nearly all their estates. The whole land in the kingdom was
+insufficient to satisfy the hungry Normans.
+
+Perhaps William took the wisest method to secure the conquered country
+that could be devised by human wisdom; he parcelled out the kingdom
+among his greater Barons; the whole county of Chester is said to have
+fallen to the share of Hugh Lupus: and these were subdivided into 62,000
+Knight's-sees, which were held under the great Barons by military
+service. Thus the Sovereign by only signifying his pleasure to the
+Barons, could instantly raise an army for any purpose. We cannot produce
+a stronger indication of arbitrary government: But, it is happy for the
+world, that perfection is not found even in human wisdom; for this well
+laid scheme destroyed itself. Instead of making the crown absolute, as
+was intended, it threw the balance into the hands of the Barons, who
+became so many petty Sovereigns, and a scourge to the King in after
+ages, 'till Henry the Seventh sapped their power, and raised the third
+estate, the Commons, which quickly eclipsed the other two.
+
+The English gentry suffered great distress: Their complaints rung loud
+in the royal ear, some of them therefore, who had been peaceable and
+never opposed the Normans, were suffered to enjoy their estates in
+dependance upon the great Barons.
+
+This was the case with Richard, Lord of Birmingham, who held this manor
+by knight's-service of William Fitz-Ausculf, Lord of Dudley castle, and
+perhaps all the land between the two places.
+
+Thus Birmingham, now rising towards the meridian of opulence, was a
+dependant upon Dudley castle, now in ruins; and thus an honourable
+family, who had enjoyed a valuable freehold, perhaps near 500 years,
+were obliged to pay rent, homage, suit and service, attend the Lord's
+court at Dudley every three weeks, be called into the field at pleasure,
+and after all, possess a precarious tenure in villainage.
+
+The blood of the ancient English was not only tainted with the breath of
+that destructive age, but their lands also. The powerful blast destroyed
+their ancient freehold tenures, reducing them into wretched copyholds:
+and to the disgrace of succeeding ages, many of them retain this mark of
+Norman slavery to the present day. How defective are those laws, which
+give one man power over another in neutral cases? That tend to promote
+quarrels, prevent cultivation, and which cannot draw the line between
+property and property?
+
+Though a spirit of bravery is certainly a part of the British character,
+yet there are two or three periods in English history, when this noble
+flame was totally extinguished. Every degree of resolution seems to have
+been cut off at the battle of Hastings. The English acted contrary to
+their usual manner:--Danger had often made them desperate, but now it
+made them humble. This conquest is one of the most extraordinary held
+forth in history; the flower of nobility was wholly nipped off; the
+spirit of the English depressed, and having no head to direct, or hand
+to cultivate the courage of the people and lead it into action, it
+dwindled at the root, was trampled under the foot of tyranny, and,
+according to _Smollet_, several generations elapsed before any one of
+the old English stock blossomed into peerage.
+
+It is curious to contemplate the revolution of things--Though the
+conquering Romans flood first in the annals of same at the beginning of
+the Christian era, yet they were a whole century in carrying their
+illustrious arms over the island, occupied only by a despicable race of
+Britons. Though the Saxons were invited, by one false step in politics,
+to assist the Britons in expelling an enemy, which gave them an
+opportunity of becoming enemies themselves; yet it was 130 years before
+they could complete their conquest. And though the industrious Dane
+poured incessant numbers of people into Britain, yet it cost them 200
+years, and 150,000 men before they reduced it. But William, at one blow,
+finished the dreadful work, shackled her sons to his throne, and
+governed them with a sceptre of iron. Normandy, a petty dukedom, very
+little larger than Yorkshire, conquered a mighty nation in one day.
+England seems to have been taken by storm, and her liberties put to the
+sword: Nor did the miseries of this ill-fated kingdom end here, for the
+continental dominions, which William annexed to the crown, proved a
+whirlpool for 400 years, which drew the blood and treasure of the nation
+into its vortex, 'till those dominions were fortunately lost in the
+reign of Mary the First.
+
+Thus the Romans spent one century in acquiring a kingdom, which they
+governed for four. The Saxons spent 130 years, and ruled for 459. The
+Danes spent 200 and reigned for 25--But the Norman spent one day only,
+for a reign of 700 years: They continue to reign still.
+
+It is easy to point out some families of Norman race, who yet enjoy the
+estates won by their ancestors at the battle of Hastings.
+
+
+
+WILLIAM,
+
+1130,
+
+Like his unfortunate father, was in a state of vassalage. The male line
+of the Fitz-Ausculfs soon became extinct, and Gervase Paganell marrying
+the heiress, became Baron of Dudley-castle.
+
+
+
+PETER DE BIRMINGHAM,
+
+1154.
+
+It is common in every class of life, for the inferior to imitate the
+superior: If the real lady claims a head-dress sixteen inches high, that
+of the imaginary lady will immediately begin to thrive. The family, or
+surname, entered with William the First, and was soon the reigning taste
+of the day: A person was thought of no consequence without a surname,
+and even the depressed English, crept into the fashion, in imitation of
+their masters. I have already mentioned the Earl of Warwick, father of a
+numerous race now in Birmingham; whose name before the conquest was
+simply Turchill, but after, Turchill de Arden, (Matter of the Woods)
+from his own estate.
+
+Thus the family of whom I speak, chose to dignify themselves with the
+name of _de Birmingham_.
+
+Peter wisely consulted his own interest, kept fair with Paganall his
+Lord, and obtained from him, in 1166, nine Knight's-fees, which he held
+by military service.
+
+A Knight's-fee, though uncommon now, was a word well understood 600
+years ago. It did not mean, as some have imagined, fifteen pounds per
+annum, nor any determinate sum; but as much land as would support a
+gentleman. This Peter was fewer to Paganall, (waited at his table)
+though a man of great property.
+
+The splendor in which the great Barons of that age lived, was little
+inferior to royalty.
+
+The party distinctions also of Saxon and Norman, in the twelfth century,
+began to die away, as the people became united by interest or marriage,
+like that of Whig and Tory, in the eighteenth. And perhaps there is not
+at present a native that does not carry in his veins the blood of the
+four nations that were grafted upon the Britons.
+
+Peter himself lived in affluence at his castle, then near Birmingham,
+now the Moat, of which in the next section. He also obtained from Henry
+the Second, as well as from Paganall the Lord paramount, several
+valuable privileges for his favourite inheritance of Birmingham. He bore
+for his arms, _azure, a bend lozenge_, of five points, _or_; the coat of
+his ancestors.
+
+
+
+WILLIAM DE BIRMINGHAM,
+
+1216.
+
+At the reduction of Ireland, in the reign of Henry the Second, a branch
+of this family, and perhaps uncle to William, was very instrumental
+under Richard Strongbow, Earl of Pembroke, in accomplishing that great
+end; for which he was rewarded with a large estate, and the title of
+Earl of Lowth, both which continue in his family. Perhaps they are the
+only remains of this honorable house.
+
+
+
+WILLIAM DE BIRMINGHAM,
+
+1246.
+
+By this time, the male line of the Paganalls was worn out, and Roger de
+Someri marrying the heiress, became Baron of Dudley, with all its
+dependencies; but Someri and Birmingham did not keep peace, as their
+fathers had done. William, being very rich, forgot to ride to Dudley
+every three weeks, to perform suit and service at Someri's court.
+
+Whereupon a contest commenced to enforce the performance. But, in 1262,
+it was agreed between the contending parties--That William should attend
+the Lord's court only twice a year, Easter and Michaelmas, and at such
+other times, as the Lord chose to command by special summons. This
+William, having married the daughter of Thomas de Astley, a man of great
+eminence, and both joining with the Barons under Simon Mountfort, Earl
+of Leicester, against Henry the Third, William fell, in 1265, at the
+battle of Evesham; and as the loser is ever the rebel, the Barons were
+prescribed, and their estates confiscated.
+
+The manor of Birmingham, therefore, valued at forty pounds per annum,
+was seized by the King, and given to his favorite, Roger de Clifford.
+
+
+
+WILLIAM DE BIRMINGHAM,
+
+1265.
+
+By a law called the statute of Kenilworth, every man who had forfeited
+his estate to the crown, by having taken up arms, had liberty to redeem
+his lands, by a certain fine: William therefore paid that fine, and
+recovered the inheritance of his family. He also, in 1283 strengthened
+his title by a charter from Edward the First, and likewise to the other
+manors he possessed, such as Stockton, in the County of Worcester;
+Shetford, in Oxfordshire; Maidencoat, in Berkshire; Hoggeston, in the
+county of Bucks; and Christleton, in Cheshire.
+
+In 1285, Edward brought his writ of quo warranto, whereby every holder
+of land was obliged to show by what title he held it. The consequence
+would have been dreadful to a Prince of less prudence than Edward. Some
+showed great unwillingness; for a dormant title will not always bear
+examination--But William producing divers charters, clearly proved his
+right to every manorial privilege, such as market, toll, tem, sack, sok,
+insangenthief, weyfs, gallows, court-leet, and pillory, with a right to
+fix the standard for bread and beer; all which were allowed.
+
+William, Lord of Birmingham, being a military tenant, was obliged to
+attend the King into Gascoigne, 1297, where he lost his liberty at the
+siege of Bellgard, and was carried prisoner in triumph to Paris.
+
+
+
+WILLIAM DE BIRMINGHAM,
+
+1306.
+
+This is the man who tried the right of tollage with the people of
+Bromsgrove and King's norton.
+
+
+
+WILLIAM DE BIRMINGHAM,
+
+LORD BIRMINGHAM.
+
+1316.
+
+Was knighted in 1325; well affected to Edward the Second, for whose
+service he raised four hundred foot. Time seems to have put a period to
+the family of Someri, Lords of Dudley, as well as to those of their
+predecessors, the Paganalls, and the Fitz-Ausculfs.
+
+In 1327, the first of Edward the Third, Sir William was summoned to
+Parliament, by the title of William Lord Birmingham, but not after.
+
+It was not the fashion of that day to fill the House of Peers by patent.
+The greater Barons held a local title from their Baronies; the possessor
+of one of these, claimed a seat among the Lords.
+
+I think, they are now all extinct, except Arundel, the property of the
+Norfolk family, and whoever is proprietor of Arundel castle, is Earl
+thereof by ancient prescription.
+
+The lesser Barons were called up to the House by writ, which did not
+confer an hereditary title. Of this class was the Lord of Birmingham.
+
+Hugh Spencer, the favourite of the weak Edward the Second, had procured
+the custody of Dudley-castle, with all its appendages, for his friend
+William, Lord Birmingham.
+
+Thus the family who had travelled from Birmingham to Dudley every three
+weeks, to perform humble suit at the Lord's court, held that very court
+by royal appointment, to receive the fealty of others.
+
+By the patent which constituted William keeper of Dudley-castle, he was
+obliged to account for the annual profits arising from that vast estate
+into the King's exchequer. When, therefore, in 1334, he delivered in his
+accounts, the Barons refused to admit them, because the money was
+defective. But he had interest enough with the crown to cause a mandamus
+to be issued, commanding the Barons to admit them.
+
+
+
+SIR FOUK DE BIRMINGHAM,
+
+1340.
+
+This man advanced to Sir Baldwin Freville, Lord of Tamworth, forty eight
+marks, upon mortgage of five mills. The ancient coat of the _bend
+lozenge_, was now changed for the _partie per pale, indented, or,
+and gules_.
+
+In 1352, and 1362 he was returned a member for the county of Warwick;
+also, in three or four succeeding Parliaments.
+
+
+
+SIR JOHN DE BIRMINGHAM,
+
+1376.
+
+Served the office of Sheriff for the county of Warwick, in 1379, and was
+successively returned to serve in Parliament for the counties of
+Warwick, Bedford, and Buckingham. He married the daughter of William de
+la Planch, by whom he had no issue. She afterwards married the Lord
+Clinton, retained the manor of Birmingham as her dower, and lived to the
+year 1424.
+
+It does not appear in this illustrious family, that the regular line of
+descent, from father to son, was ever broken, from the time of the
+Saxons, 'till 1390. This Sir John left a brother, Sir Thomas de
+Birmingham, heir at law, who enjoyed the bulk of his brother's fortune;
+but was not to possess the manor of Birmingham 'till the widow's death,
+which not happening 'till after his own, he never enjoyed it.
+
+The Lord Clinton and his Lady seem to have occupied the Manor-house; and
+Sir Thomas, unwilling to quit the place of his affections and of his
+nativity, erected a castle for himself at Worstone, near the Sand-pits,
+joining the Ikenield-street; street; where, though the building is
+totally gone, the vestiges of its liquid security are yet complete. This
+Sir Thomas enjoyed several public offices, and figured in the style of
+his ancestors. He left a daughter, who married Thomas de la Roche, and
+from this marriage sprang two daughters; the eldest of which married
+Edmund, Lord Ferrers of Chartley, who, at the decease of Sir John's
+widow, inherited the manor, and occupied the Manor house. There yet
+stands a building on the North-east side of the Moat, erected by this
+Lord Ferrers, with his arms in the timbers of the ceiling, and the
+crest, a horse-shoe.
+
+I take this house to be the oldest in Birmingham, though it hath not
+that appearance; having stood about 350 years.
+
+By an entail of the manor upon the male line, the Lady Ferrers seems to
+have quitted her title in favor of a second cousin, a descendant of
+William de Birmingham, brother to Sir Fouk.
+
+
+
+WILLIAM DE BIRMINGHAM,
+
+1430.
+
+In the 19th of Henry the Sixth, 1441, is said to have held his manor of
+Birmingham, of Sir John Sutton, Lord of Dudley, by military service;
+but instead of paying homage, fealty, escuage, &c. as his ancestors had
+done, which was very troublesome to the tenant, and brought only empty
+honour to the Lord: and, as sometimes the Lord's necessities taught him
+to think that money was more _Solid_ than suit and service; an agreement
+was entered into, for money instead of homage, between the Lord and the
+tenant--Such agreements now became common. Thus land became a kind of
+bastard freehold:--The tenant held a certainty, while he conformed to
+the agreement; or, in other words, the custom of the manor--And the Lord
+still possessed a material control. He died in 1479, leaving a son,
+
+
+
+SIR WILLIAM BIRMINGHAM,
+
+1479,
+
+Aged thirty at the decease of his father. He married Isabella, heiress
+of William Hilton, by whom he had a son, William, who died before his
+father, June 7, 1500, leaving a son,
+
+
+
+EDWARD BIRMINGHAM,
+
+1500,
+
+Born in 1497, and succeeded his grandfather at the age of three. During
+his minority, Henry the Seventh, 1502, granted the wardship to Edward,
+Lord Dudley.
+
+The family estate then consisted of the manors of Birmingham, Over
+Warton, Nether Warton, Mock Tew, Little Tew, and Shutford in the county
+of Oxford, Hoggeston in Bucks, and Billesley in the county of Worcester.
+Edward afterwards married Elizabeth, widow of William Ludford, of
+Annesley, by whom he had one daughter, who married a person of the name
+of Atkinson.
+
+But after the peaceable possession of a valuable estate, for thirty
+seven years; the time was now arrived, when the mounds of justice must
+be broken down by the weight of power, a whole deluge of destruction
+enter, and overwhelm an ancient and illustrious family, in the person of
+an innocent man. The world would view the diabolical transaction with
+amazement, none daring to lend assistance to the unfortunate; not
+considering, that property should ever be under the protection of law;
+and, what was Edward's case to-day, might be that of any other man
+to-morrow. But the oppressor kept fair with the crown, and the crown
+held a rod of iron over the people.--Suffer me to tell the mournful tale
+from Dugdale's Antiquities of Warwickshire.
+
+
+
+1537,
+
+John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, a man of great wealth, unbounded
+ambition, and one of the basest characters of the age, was possessor of
+Dudley-castle, and the fine estate belonging to it:--He wished to add
+Birmingham to his vast domain. Edward Birmingham therefore was privately
+founded, respecting the disposal of his manor; but as money was not
+wanted, and as the place had been the honor and the residence of his
+family for many centuries, it was out of the reach of purchase.
+
+Northumberland was so charmed with its beauty, he was determined to
+possess it; and perhaps the manner in which he accomplished his design,
+cannot be paralleled in the annals of infamy.
+
+He procured two or three rascals of his own temper, and rather of mean
+appearance, to avoid suspicion, to take up their quarters for a night or
+two in Birmingham, and gain secret intelligence when Edward Birmingham
+should ride out, and what road: This done, one of the rascals was to
+keep before the others, but all took care that Edward should easily
+overtake them. Upon his arrival at the first class, the villains joined
+him, entered into chat, and all moved soberly together 'till they
+reached the first man; when, on a sudden, the strangers with Edward drew
+their pistols and robbed their brother villain, who no doubt lost a
+considerable sum after a decent resistance. Edward was easily known,
+apprehended, and committed as one of the robbers; the others were not
+to be found.
+
+Edward immediately saw himself on the verge of destruction. He could
+only _alledge_, but not _prove_ his innocence: All the proof the case
+could admit of, was against him.
+
+Northumberland (then only Lord L'Isle) hitherto had succeeded to his
+wish; nor was Edward long in suspence--Private hints were given him,
+that the only way to save his life, was to make Northumberland his
+friend; and this probably might be done, by resigning to him his manor
+of Birmingham; with which the unfortunate Edward reluctantly complied.
+
+Northumberland thinking a common conveyance insufficient, caused Edward
+to yield his estate into the hands of the King, and had interest enough
+in that age of injustice to procure a ratification from a weak
+Parliament, by which means he endeavoured to throw the odium off his own
+character, and fix it upon theirs, and also, procure to himself a
+safer title.
+
+An extract from that base act is as follows:--
+
+"Whereas Edward Byrmingham, late of Byrmingham in the countie of
+Warwick, Esquire, otherwise callid Edward Byrmingham, Esquire, ys and
+standyth lawfully indettid to our soverene Lord the Kinge, in diverse
+grete summes of money; and also standyth at the mercy of his Highness,
+for that the same Edward ys at this present convected of felony: Our
+seide soverene Lord the Kinge ys contentid and pleasid, that for and in
+recompence and satisfaction to his Grace of the seyde summes of money,
+to accept and take of the seyde Edward the mannour and lordship of
+Byrmingham, otherwise callid Byrmincham, with the appurtinances, lying
+and being in the countie of Warwick, and all and singuler other lands
+and tenements, reversions, rents, services, and hereditaments of the
+same Edward Byrmingham, set, lying and beying in the countie of Warwick
+aforesaid. Be yt therefore ordeyned and enacted, by the authoritie of
+this present Parliament, that our seyde soverene Lord the Kinge shall
+have, hold, and enjoy, to him and his heires and assignes for ever, the
+seyde mannour and lordship of Byrmingham, &c."
+
+In the act there is a reservation of 40_l_. per annum, during the lives
+only of the said Edward and his wife.
+
+It appears also, by an expression in the act, that Edward was brought to
+trial, and found guilty. Thus innocence is depressed for want of
+support; property is wrested for want of the protection of the law; and
+a vile minister, in a corrupt age, can carry an infamous point through a
+court of justice, the two Houses of Parliament, and complete his horrid
+design by the sanction of a tyrant.
+
+The place where tradition tells us this diabolical transaction happened,
+is the middle of Sandy-lane, in the Sutton road; the upper part of which
+begins at the North east corner of Aston park wall; at the bottom, you
+bear to the left, for Sawford-bridge, or to the right, for
+Nachell's-green; about two miles from the Moat, the place of
+Edward's abode.
+
+Except that branch which proceeded from this original stem, about 600
+years ago, of which the Earl of Lowth is head, I know of no male
+descendant from this honourable stock; who, if we allow the founder to
+have come over with Cridda, the Saxon, in 582, must have commanded this
+little Sovereignty 955 years.
+
+I met with a person sometime ago of the name of Birmingham, and was
+pleased with the hope of finding a member of that ancient and honorable
+house; but he proved so amasingly ignorant, he could not tell whether he
+was from the clouds, the sea, or the dunghill: instead of traceing the
+existence of his ancestors, even so high as his father, he was scarcely
+conscious of his own.
+
+As this house did not much abound with daughters, I cannot at present
+recollect any families among us, except that of Bracebridge, who are
+descended from this illustrious origin, by a female line; and Sir John
+Talbot Dillon, who is descended from the ancient Earls of Lowth, as he
+is from the De Veres, the more ancient Earls of Oxford.
+
+Here, then, I unwillingly extinguish that long range of lights, which
+for many ages illuminated the house of Birmingham.
+
+But I cannot extinguish the rascallity of the line of Northumberland.
+This unworthy race, proved a scourge to the world, at least during three
+generations. Each, in his turn, presided in the British cabinet; and
+each seems to have possessed the villainy of his predecessor, united
+with his own. The first, only _served_ a throne; but the second and the
+third intended to _fill_ one. A small degree of ambition warms the mind
+in pursuit of fame, through the paths of honor; while too large a
+portion tends to unfavorable directions, kindles to a flame, consumes
+the finer sensations of rectitude, and leaves a stench behind.
+
+Edmund, the father of this John, was the voracious leech, with Empson,
+who sucked the vitals of the people, to feed the avarice of Henry
+the Seventh.
+
+It is singular that Henry, the most sagacious prince since the conquest,
+loaded him with honours for filling the royal coffers with wealth, which
+the penurious monarch durst never enjoy: but his successor, Henry the
+Eighth, enjoyed the pleasure of consuming that wealth, and _executed_
+the father for collecting it! How much are our best laid schemes
+defective? How little does expectation and event coincide? It is no
+disgrace to a man that he died on the scaffold; the question is--What
+brought him there? Some of the most inoffensive, and others the most
+exalted characters of the age in which they lived, have been cut off by
+the axe, as Edward Plantagenet, Earl of Warwick, for being the last male
+heir of the Anjouvin Kings; John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, Sir Thomas
+Moore, Sir Walter Raleigh, Algernon Sidney, William Lord Russell, &c.
+whose blood ornamented the scaffold on which they fell.
+
+The son of this man, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, favorite of Queen
+Elizabeth, is held up by our historians as a master-piece of
+dissimulation, pride, and cruelty. He married three wives, all which he
+is charged with sending to the grave by untimely deaths; one of them, to
+open a passage to the Queen's bed, to which he aspired. It is
+surprising, that he should deceive the penetrating eye of Elizabeth: but
+I am much inclined to think she _knew him_ better than the world; and
+they knew him rather to well. He ruined many of the English gentry,
+particularly the ancient family of Arden, of Park-hall, in this
+neighbourhood: he afterwards ruined his own family by disinheriting a
+son, more worthy than himself.--If he did not fall by the executioner,
+it is no proof that he did not deserve it.--We now behold
+
+
+
+JOHN, DUKE OF NORTHUMBERLAND, 1537,
+
+Lord of the manor of Birmingham; a man, who of all others the least
+deserved that honor; or rather, deserved the axe for being so.
+
+Some have asserted, "That property acquired by dishonesty cannot
+prosper." But I shall leave the philosopher and the enthusiast to settle
+that important point, while I go on to observe, That that the lordship
+of Birmingham did not prosper with the Duke. Though he had, in some
+degree, the powers of government in his hands, he had also the clamours
+of the people in his ears. What were his inward feelings, is uncertain
+at this distance--Fear seems to have prevented him from acknowledging
+Birmingham for his property. Though he exercised every act of ownership,
+yet he suffered the fee-simple to rest in the crown, 'till nine years
+had elapsed, and those clamours subsided, before he ventured to accept
+the grant, in 1546.
+
+As the execution of this grant was one of the last acts of Henry's life,
+we should be apt to suspect the Duke carried it in his pocket ready for
+signing, but deferred the matter as long as he could with safety, that
+distance of time might annihilate reflection; and that the King's death,
+which happened a few weeks after, might draw the attention of the world
+too much, by the importance of the event, to regard the Duke's conduct.
+
+The next six years, which carries us through the reign of Edward the
+Sixth, is replete with the intrigues of this illustrious knave. He
+sought connections with the principal families: He sought honours for
+his own: He procured a match between his son, the Lord Guildford Dudley,
+and the Lady Jane Gray, daughter of the Duke of Suffolk, and a
+descendant from Henry the Seventh, with intent of fixing the crown in
+his family, but failing in the attempt, he brought ruin upon the Suffolk
+family, and himself to the block, in the first of Queen Mary, 1553.
+
+Though a man be guilty of many atrocious acts that deserve death, yet in
+the hour of distress humanity demands the tear of compassion; but the
+case was otherwise at the execution of John, Duke of Northumberland, for
+a woman near the scaffold held forth a bloody handkerchief and
+exclaimed, "Behold the blood of the Duke of Somerset, shed by your
+means, and which cries for vengeance against you."
+
+Thus Northumberland kept a short and rough possession of glory; thus he
+fell unlamented; and thus the manor of Birmingham reverted to the crown
+a second time, the Duke himself having first taught it the way.
+
+Birmingham continued two years in the crown, 'till the third of Queen
+Mary, when she granted it to
+
+
+
+THOMAS MARROW,
+
+1555,
+
+Whose family, for many descents, resided at Berkeswell, in this county.
+
+In the possession of the High Bailiff is a bushel measure, cast in
+brass, of some value; round which in relief is, SAMUEL MARROW, LORD OF
+THE MANOR OF BIRMINGHAM, 1664.
+
+The Lordship continued in this family about 191 years, 'till the male
+line failing, it became the joint property of four coheirs--Ann, married
+to Sir Arthur Kaye; Mary, the wife of John Knightley, Esq; Ursulla, the
+wife of Sir Robert Wilmot; and Arabella, unmarried; who, in about 1730,
+disposed of the private estate in the manor, amounting to about 400_l_.
+per annum, to Thomas Sherlock, Bishop of London, as before observed, and
+the manor itself to
+
+
+
+THOMAS ARCHER, ESQ.
+
+for 1,700_l_. in 1746,
+
+Of an ancient family, who have resided at Umberslade in this county more
+than 600 years--from him it descended to
+
+
+
+ANDREW, LORD ARCHER,
+
+And is now enjoyed by his relict,
+
+
+
+SARAH, LADY ARCHER,
+
+1781,
+
+Possessing no more in the parish than the royalty; as it does not appear
+that the subsequent Lords, after the extinction of the house of
+Birmingham, were resident upon the manor, I omit particulars.
+
+Let me remark, this place yet gives title to the present Lord Viscount
+Dudley and Ward, as descended, by the female line, from the great
+Norman Barons, the Fitz-Ausculfs, the Paganalls, the Somerys, the
+Suttons, and the Dudleys, successively Lords paramount, whose original
+power is reduced to a name.
+
+
+
+MANOR HOUSE.
+
+(The Moat.)
+
+The natural temper of the human mind, like that of the brute, is given
+to plunder: This temper is very apt to break forth into action. In all
+societies of men, therefore, restraints have been discovered, under the
+name of laws, attended with punishment, to deter people from infringing
+each others property. Every thing that a man can possess, falls under
+the denomination of property; whether it be life, liberty, wealth or
+character.
+
+The less perfect these laws are, the less a people are removed from the
+rude state of nature, and the more necessity there is for a man to be
+constantly in a state of defence, that he may be able to repel any force
+that shall rise up against him.
+
+It is easy to discover, by the laws of a country, how far the people are
+advanced in civilization. If the laws are defective, or the magistrate
+too weak to execute them, it is dangerous for a man to possess property.
+
+But when a nation is pretty far advanced in social existence; when the
+laws agree with reason, and are executed with firmness, a man need not
+trouble himself concerning the protection of his property--his country
+will protect it for him.
+
+The laws of England have, for many ages, been gradually refining; and
+are capable of that protection which violence never was.
+
+But if we penetrate back into the recesses of time, we shall find the
+laws inadequate, the manners savage, force occupy the place of justice,
+and property unprotected. In those barbarous ages, therefore, men sought
+security by intrenching themselves from a world they could not trust.
+This was done by opening a large ditch round their habitation, which
+they filled with water, and which was only approachable by a
+draw-bridge. This, in some degree, supplied the defect of the law, and
+the want of power in the magistrate. It also, during the iron reign of
+priesthood, furnished that table in lent, which it guarded all the year.
+
+The Britons had a very slender knowledge of fortification. The camps
+they left us, are chiefly upon eminences, girt by a shallow ditch,
+bordered with stone, earth, or timber, but never with water. The moat,
+therefore, was introduced by the Romans; their camps are often in
+marshes; some wholly, and some in part surrounded by water.
+
+These liquid barriers were begun in England early in the christian æra,
+they were in the zenith of their glory at the barons wars, in the reign
+of king John, and continued to be the mode of fortification till the
+introduction of guns, in the reign of Edward the fourth, which shook
+their foundation; and the civil wars of Charles the first totally
+annihilated their use, after an existence of twelve hundred years.
+
+Perhaps few parishes, that have been the ancient habitation of a
+gentleman, are void of some traces of these fluid bulwarks. That of
+Birmingham has three; one of these, of a square form, at Warstone,
+erected by a younger brother of the house of Birmingham, hath already
+been mentioned; it is fed by a small rivulet from Rotton Park, which
+crosses the Dudley Road, near the Sand pits.
+
+Another is the Parsonage house, belonging to St. Martin's, formerly
+situated in the road to Bromsgrove, now Smallbrook street, of a circular
+figure, and supplied by a neighbouring spring. If we allow this watery
+circle to be a proof of the great antiquity of the house, it is a much
+greater with regard to the antiquity of the church.
+
+The third is what we simply denominate the Moat, and was the residence
+of the ancient lords of Birmingham, situated about sixty yards south of
+the church, and twenty west of Digbeth; this is also circular, and
+supplied by a small stream that crosses the road to Bromsgrove, near the
+first mile stone; it originally ran into the river Rea, near Vaughton's
+hole, dividing the parishes of Birmingham and Edgbaston all the way, but
+at the formation of the Moat, was diverted from its course, into which
+it never returned.
+
+No certain evidence remains to inform us when this liquid work was
+accomplished: perhaps in the Saxon heptarchy, when there were few or no
+buildings south of the church. Digbeth seems to have been one of the
+first streets added to this important school of arts; the upper part of
+that street must of course have been formed first: but, that the Moat
+was completed prior to the erection of any buildings between that and
+Digbeth, is evident, because those buildings stand upon the very soil
+thrown out in forming the Moat.
+
+The first certain account that we meet with of this guardian circle, is
+in the reign of Henry the Second, 1154, when Peter de Birmingham, then
+lord of the see, had a cattle here, and lived in splendor. All the
+succeeding Lords resided upon the same island, till their cruel
+expulsion by John Duke of Northumberland in 1537.
+
+The old castle followed its lords, and is buried in the ruins of time.
+Upon the spot, about forty years ago, rose a house in the modern style,
+occupied by a manufacturer (John Francis;) in one of the out-buildings
+is shewn, the apartment where the ancient lords kept their court leet;
+another out-building which stands to the east, I have already observed,
+was the work of Edmund Lord Ferrers.
+
+The ditch being filled with water, has nearly the same appearance now as
+perhaps a thousand years ago, but not altogether the same use. It then
+served to protect its master, but now, to turn a thread-mill.
+
+
+
+PUDDING BROOK.
+
+Near the place where the small rivulet discharges itself into the Moat,
+another of the same size is carried over it, called Pudding Brook, and
+proceeds from the town as this advances towards it, producing a
+curiosity seldom met with; one river running South, and the other North,
+for half a mile, yet only a path-road of three feet asunder; which
+surprised Brindley the famous engineer.
+
+
+
+THE PRIORY.
+
+The site of this ancient edifice is now the Square; some small remains
+of the old foundations are yet visible in the cellars, chiefly on the
+South-east. The out-buildings and pleasure-grounds perhaps occupied the
+whole North east side of Bull-street, then uninhabited, and only the
+highway to Wolverhampton; bounded on the North-west by Steelhouse-lane;
+on the North-east by Newton and John's-street; and on the South-east by
+Dale-end, which also was no other than the highway to Lichfield--The
+whole, about fourteen acres.
+
+The building upon this delightful eminence, which at that time commanded
+the small but beautiful prospect of Bristland-fields, Rowley-hills,
+Oldbury, Smethewick, Handsworth, Sutton-Coldfield, Erdington, Saltley,
+the Garrison, and Camp-hill, and which then stood at a distance from the
+town, though now near its centre; was founded by the house of
+Birmingham, in the early reigns of the Norman Kings, and called the
+Hospital of Saint Thomas,--The priest being bound to pray for the souls
+of the founders every day, to the end of the world.
+
+In 1285, Thomas de Madenhache, Lord of the manor of Aston, gave ten
+acres of land in his manor. William de Birmingham ten, which I take to
+be the land where the Priory stood; and Ranulph de Rakeby three acres,
+in Saltley: About the same time, sundry others gave houses and land in
+smaller quantities: William de Birmingham gave afterwards twenty-two
+acres more. The same active spirit seems to have operated in our
+ancestors, 500 years ago, that does in their descendants at this day: If
+a new scheme strikes the fancy, it is pursued with vigor.
+
+The religious fervor of that day ran high: It was unfashionable to leave
+the world, and not remember the Priory. Donations crowded in so fast,
+that the prohibiting act was forgot; so that in 1311, the brotherhood
+were prosecuted by the crown, for appropriating lands contrary to the
+act of mortmain; But these interested priests, like their sagacious
+brethren, knew as well how to preserve as to gain property; for upon
+their humble petition to the throne, Edward the Second put a stop to the
+judicial proceedings, and granted a special pardon.
+
+In 1351, Fouk de Birmingham, and Richard Spencer, jointly gave to the
+priory one hundred acres of land, part lying in Aston, and part in
+Birmingham, to maintain another priest, who should celebrate divine
+service daily at the altar of the Virgin Mary, in the church of the
+hospital, for the souls of William la Mercer, and his wife. The church
+is supposed to have stood upon the spot now No. 27, in Bull-street.
+
+In the premises belonging to the Red Bull, No. 83, nearly opposite, have
+been discovered human bones, which has caused some to suppose it the
+place of interment for the religious, belonging to the priory, which I
+rather doubt.
+
+At the dissolution of the abbies, in 1536, the King's visitors valued
+the annual income at the trifling sum of 8_l_. 8s. 9d.
+
+The patronage continued chiefly in the head of the Birmingham family.
+Dugdale gives us a list of some of the Priors, who held dominion in this
+little common wealth, from 1326, 'till the total annihilation, being
+210 years.
+
+     Robert Marmion,
+     Robert Cappe,
+     Thomas Edmunds,
+     John Frothward,
+     Robert Browne,
+     John Port,
+     William Priestwood,
+     Henry Drayton,
+     John Cheyne,
+     Henry Bradley,
+     Thomas Salpin,
+     Sir Edward Toste,
+          AND
+     Henry Hody.
+
+Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex, a man of much honour, more capacity, and
+yet more spirit, was the instrument with which Henry the Eighth
+destroyed the abbies; but Henry, like a true politician of the house of
+Tudor, wisely threw the blame upon the instrument, held it forth to the
+public in an odious light, and then sacrificed it to appease an
+angry people.
+
+This destructive measure against the religious houses, originated from
+royal letchery, and was replete with consequence.
+
+It opened the fountains of learning, at that day confined to the
+monastry, and the streams diffused themselves through various ranks of
+men. The revival of letters and of science made a rapid progress: It
+soon appeared, that the stagnate knowledge of the priest, was abundantly
+mixed with error; but now, running through the laity, who had no private
+interest to serve, it became more pure.
+
+It removed great numbers of men, who lay as a dead weight upon the
+community, and they became useful members of society: When younger sons
+could no longer find an asylum within the gloomy walls of a convent,
+they sought a livelihood in trade. Commerce, therefore, was taught to
+crowd her sails, cross the western ocean, fill the country with riches,
+and change an idle spirit into that of industry.
+
+By the destruction of religious houses, architecture sustained a
+temporary wound: They were by far the most magnificent and expensive
+buildings in the kingdoms, far surpassing those of the nobility; some of
+these structures are yet habitable, though the major part are gone to
+decay. But modern architecture hath since out-done the former splendor
+of the abbey, in use and elegance and sometimes with the profits arising
+from the abbey lands.
+
+It also shut the door of charity against the impostor, the helpless, and
+the idle, who had found here their chief supply; and gave rise to one of
+the best laws ever invented by human wisdom that of each parish
+supporting its own poor.
+
+By the annihilation of abbots, the church lost its weight in Parliament,
+and the vote was thrown into the hands of the temporal Lords.
+
+It prevented, in some degree, the extinction of families; for, instead
+of younger branches becoming the votaries of a monastic life, they
+became the votaries of hymen: Hence the kingdom was enriched by
+population. It eased the people of a set of masters, who had for ages
+ruled them with a rod of iron.
+
+The hands of superstition were also weakened, for the important sciences
+of astrology, miracle, and divination, supported by the cell, have been
+losing ground ever since.
+
+It likewise recovered vast tracts of land out of dead hands, and gave an
+additional vigor to agriculture, unknown to former ages. The monk, who
+had only a temporary tenancy, could not give a permanant one; therefore,
+the lands were neglected, and the produce was small: But these lands
+falling into the hands of the gentry, acquired an hereditary title. It
+was their interest; to grant leases, for a superior rent; and it was the
+tenant's interest to give that rent, for the sake of security: Hence the
+produce of land is become one of the most advantageous branches of
+British commerce.
+
+Henry, by this seisure, had more property to give away, than any King of
+England since William the Conqueror, and he generously gave away that
+which was never his own. It is curious to survey the foundation of some
+of the principal religions that have taken the lead among men.
+
+Moses founded a religion upon morals and ceremonies, one half of which
+continues with his people to this day.
+
+Christ founded one upon _love_ and _purity_; words of the simplest
+import, yet we sometimes mistake their meaning.
+
+The Bishop of Rome erected his, upon deceit and oppression; hence the
+treasures of knowledge were locked up, an inundation of riches and power
+flowed into the church, with destructive tendency.
+
+And Henry the Eighth, built his reformation upon revenge and plunder: He
+deprived the _head_ of the Romish see, of an unjust power, for
+pronouncing a just decision; and robbed the _members_, for being annexed
+to that head. Henry wished the world to believe, what he believed
+himself, that he acted from a religious principle; but his motive seems
+to have been _savage love_.
+
+Had equity directed when Henry divided this vast property, he would have
+restored it to the descendants of those persons, whose mistaken zeal had
+injured their families; but his disposal of it was ludicrous--sometimes
+he made a free gift, at others he exchanged a better estate for a a
+worse, and then gave that worse to another.
+
+I have met with a little anecdote which says, "That Henry being upon a
+tour in Devonshire, two men waited on him to beg certain lands in that
+county; while they attended in the anti-room for the royal presence, a
+stranger approached, and asked them a trifling question; they answered,
+they wished to be alone--at that moment the King entered: They fell at
+his feet: The stranger seeing them kneel, kneelt with them. They asked
+the favor intended; the King readily granted it: They bowed: The
+stranger bowed also. By this time, the stranger perceiving there was a
+valuable prize in the question, claimed his thirds; they denied his
+having anything to do with the matter: He answered, he had done as much
+as they, for they only asked and bowed, and he did the same. The dispute
+grew warm, and both parties agreed to appeal to the King, who answered,
+He took them for joint beggars, therefore had made them a joint present.
+They were then obliged to divide the land with the stranger, whose share
+amounted to 240_l_. per annum."
+
+The land formerly used for the priory of Birmingham, is now the property
+of many persons. Upon that spot, whereon stood one solitary house, now
+stand about four hundred. Upon that ground, where about thirty persons
+lived upon the industry of others, about three thousand live upon their
+own: The place, which lay as a heavy burden upon the community, now
+tends to enrich it, by adding its mite to the national commerce, and the
+national treasury.
+
+In 1775, I took down an old house of wood and plaister, which had stood
+208 years, having been erected in 1567, thirty-one years after the
+dissolution of abbies. The foundation of this old house seemed to have
+been built chiefly with stones from the priory; perhaps more than twenty
+wagon loads: These appeared in a variety of forms and sizes, highly
+finished in the gothic taste, parts of porticos, arches, windows,
+ceilings, etc. some fluted, some cyphered, and otherwise ornamented, yet
+complete as in the first day they were left by the chizel. The greatest,
+part of them were destroyed by the workmen: Some others I used again in
+the fireplace of an under kitchen. Perhaps they are the only perfect
+fragments that remain of that venerable edifice, which once stood the
+monument of ancient piety, the ornament of the town, and the envy of the
+priest out of place.
+
+
+
+JOHN A DEAN'S HOLE.
+
+At the bottom of Digbeth, about thirty yards North of the bridge, on the
+left, is a water-course that takes in a small drain from Digbeth, but
+more from the adjacent meadows, and which divides the parishes of Aston
+and Birmingham, called John a Dean's Hole; from a person of that name
+who is said to have lost his life there, and which, I think, is the only
+name of antiquity among us.
+
+The particle _de_, between the christian and surname, is of French
+extraction, and came over with William the First: It continued tolerably
+pure for about three centuries, when it in some degree assumed an
+English garb, in the particle _of_: The _a_, therefore is only a
+corruption of the latter. Hence the time of this unhappy man's
+misfortune may be fixed about the reign of Edward the Third.
+
+
+
+LENCH'S TRUST.
+
+In the reign of Henry the Eighth, William Lench, a native of this place,
+bequeathed his estate for the purpose of erecting alms houses, which are
+those at the bottom of Steelhouse-lane, for the benefit of poor widows,
+but chiefly for repairing the streets of Birmingham. Afterwards others
+granted smaller donations for the same use, but all were included under
+the name of Lench; and I believe did not unitedly amount, at that time,
+to fifteen pounds per annum.
+
+Over this scattered inheritance was erected a trust, consisting of
+gentlemen in the neighborhood of Birmingham.
+
+All human affairs tend to confusion: The hand of care is ever necessary
+to keep order. The gentlemen, therefore at the head of this charity,
+having too many modes of pleasure of their own, to pay attention to this
+little jurisdiction, disorder crept in apace; some of the lands were
+lost for want of inspection; the rents ran in arrear, and were never
+recovered; the streets were neglected, and the people complained.
+
+Misconduct, particularly of a public nature, silently grows for years,
+and sometimes for ages, 'till it becomes too bulky for support, falls in
+pieces by its own weight, and out of its very destruction rises a
+remedy. An order, therefore, from the Court of Chancery was obtained,
+for vesting the property in other hands, consisting of twenty persons,
+all of Birmingham, who have directed this valuable estate, now 227_l_.
+5s. per annum, to useful purposes. The man who can guide his own private
+concerns with success, stands the fairest chance of guiding those of
+the public.
+
+If the former trust went widely astray, perhaps their successors have
+not exactly kept the line, by advancing the leases to a rack rent: It is
+worth considering, whether the tenant of an expiring lease, hath not in
+equity, a kind of reversionary right, which ought to favour him with the
+refusal of another term, at one third under the value, in houses, and
+one fourth in land; this would give stability to the title, secure the
+rents, and cause the lessee more chearfully to improve the premises,
+which in time would enhance their value, both with regard to property
+and esteem.
+
+But where business is well conducted, complaint should cease; for
+perfection is not to be expected on this side the grave.
+
+Exclusive of a pittance to the poor widows above, the trust have a power
+of distributing money to the necessitous at Christmas and Easter, which
+is punctually performed.
+
+I think there is an excellent clause in the devisor's will, ordering his
+bailiff to pay half a crown to any two persons, who, having quarreled
+and entered into law, shall stop judicial proceedings, and make peace by
+agreement--He might have added, "And half a crown to the lawyer that
+will suffer them." I know the sum has been demanded, but am sorry I do
+_not_ know that it was ever paid.
+
+If money be reduced to one fourth its value, since the days of Lench, it
+follows, that four times the sum ought to be paid in ours; and perhaps
+ten shillings cannot be better laid out, than in the purchase of that
+peace, which tends to harmonise the community, and weed a brotherhood
+not the most amicable among us.
+
+The members choose annually, out of their own body a steward, by the
+name of bailiff Lench: The present fraternity, who direct this useful
+charity, are
+
+     Thomas Colmore, _bailiff_.
+     George Davis,
+     Win. Walsingham, _dead_,
+     Michael Lakin,
+     Benjamin May,
+     Michael Lakin, _jun_.
+     James Bedford,
+     Samuel Ray,
+     John Ryland,
+     James Jackson,
+     Stephen Bedford, _dead_,
+     Joseph Tyndall,
+     Joseph Smith,
+     Robert Mason,
+     Joseph Webster, _dead_,
+     Abel Humphreys,
+     Thomas Lawrence,
+     Samuel Pemberton,
+     Joseph Webster, _jun_.
+     John Richards.
+
+
+
+FENTHAM'S TRUST.
+
+In 1712, George Fentham, of Birmingham, devised his estate by will,
+consisting of about one hundred acres, in Erdington and Handsworth, of
+the value then, of 20_l_. per annum, vesting the same in a trust, of
+which no person could be chosen who resided more than one hundred yards
+from the Old Cross. We should be inclined to think the devisor
+entertained a singular predilection for the Old Cross, then in the pride
+of youth. But if we unfold this whimsical clause, we shall find it
+contains a shrewd intention. The choice was limited within one hundred
+yards, because the town itself, in his day, did not in some directions
+extend farther. Fentham had spent a life in Birmingham, knew well her
+inhabitants, and like some others, had found honour as well as riches
+among them: He knew also, he could with safety deposit his property in
+their hands, and was determined it should never go out,--The scheme will
+answer his purpose.
+
+The uses of this estate, now about 100_l_. per annum, are for teaching
+children to read, and for clothing ten poor widows of Birmingham: Those
+children belonging to the charity school, in green, are upon this
+foundation.
+
+     The present trust are
+     Francis Coales, and Edmund Wace Pattison.
+
+
+
+CROWLEY'S TRUST.
+
+Ann Crowley bequeathed, by her last will, in 1733, six houses in
+Steelhouse-lane, amounting to eighteen pounds per annum, for the purpose
+of supporting a school, consisting of ten children. From an attachment
+to her own sex, she constituted over this infant colony of letters a
+female teacher: Perhaps we should have seen a female trust, had they
+been equally capable of defending the property. The income of the estate
+increasing, the children are now augmented to twelve.
+
+By a subsequent clause in the devisor's will, twenty shillings a year,
+forever, issues out of two houses in the Lower Priory, to be disposed of
+at discretion of the trust.
+
+The governors of this female charity are
+
+     Thomas Colmore, _bailiff_,
+     Joseph Cartwright,
+     Thomas Lee,
+     John Francis,
+     Samuel Colmore,
+     William Russell, _esq_.
+     Josiah Rogers,
+     Joseph Hornblower,
+     John Rogers.
+
+
+
+SCOTT'S TRUST.
+
+Joseph Scott, Esq; yet living, assigned, July 7, 1779, certain messuages
+and lands in and near Walmer-lane, in Birmingham, of the present rent of
+40_l_. 18s. part of the said premises to be appropriated for the
+interment of protestant dissenters; part of the profits to be applied to
+the use of a religious society in Carr's lane, at the discretion of the
+trust; and the remainder, for the institution of a school to teach the
+mother tongue.
+
+[Illustration: _Free School_.]
+
+That part of the demise, designed for the reception of the dead, is
+about three acres, upon, which stands one messuage, now the Golden
+Fleece, joining Summer-lane on the west, and Walmer-lane on the east;
+the other, which hath Aston-street on the south, and Walmer-lane on the
+west, contains about four acres, upon which now stand ninety-one houses.
+A building lease, in 1778, was granted of these last premises, for 120
+years, at 30_l_. per annum; at the expiration of which, the rents
+will probably amount to twenty times the present income. The trust, to
+whose direction this charity is committed, are
+
+     Abel Humphrys, _bailiff_,
+     John Allen,
+     John Parteridge,
+     William Aitkins,
+     Joseph Rogers,
+     Thomas Cock,
+     John Berry,
+     William Hutton,
+     Thomas Cheek Lea,
+     Durant Hidson,
+     Samuel Tutin.
+
+
+
+FREE SCHOOL.
+
+It is entertaining to contemplate the generations of fashion, which not
+only influences our dress and manner of living, but most of the common
+actions of life, and even the modes of thinking. Some of these fashions,
+not meeting with the taste of the day, are of short duration, and
+retreat out of life as soon as they are well brought in; others take a
+longer space; but whatever fashions predominate, though ever so absurd,
+they carry an imaginary beauty, which pleases the fancy, 'till they
+become ridiculous with age, are succeeded by others, when their very
+memory becomes disgusting.
+
+Custom gives a sanction to fashion, and reconciles us even to its
+inconveniency. The fashion of this year is laughed at the next.
+
+There are fashions of every date, from five hundred years, even to one
+day; of the first, was that of erecting religious houses; of the last,
+was that of destroying them.
+
+Our ancestors, the Saxons, after their conversion to christianity,
+displayed their zeal in building churches: though the kingdom in a few
+centuries was amply supplied, yet that zeal was no way abated; it
+therefore exerted itself in the abbey.--When a man of fortune had nearly
+done with time, he began to peep into eternity through the windows of an
+abbey; or, if a villian had committed a piece of butchery, or had
+cheated the world for sixty years, there was no doubt but he could
+burrow his way to glory through the foundations of an abbey.
+
+In 1383, the sixth of Richard the Second, before the religious fervor
+subsided that had erected Deritend-chapel, Thomas de Sheldon, John
+Coleshill, John Goldsmith, and William att Slowe, all of Birmingham,
+obtained a patent from the crown to erect a building upon the spot where
+the Free School now stands in New-street, to be called _The Gild of the
+Holy Cross_; to endow it with lands in Birmingham and Edgbaston, of the
+annual value of twenty marks, for the maintenance of two priests, who
+were to perform divine service to the honor of God, our blessed Lady his
+Mother, the Holy Cross, St. Thomas, and St. Catharine.
+
+The fashion seemed to take with the inhabitants, many of whom wished to
+join the four happy men, who had obtained the patent for so pious a
+work; so that, in 1393, a second patent was procured by the bailiff and
+inhabitants of Birmingham, for confirming the gild, and making the
+addition of a brotherhood in honor of the Holy Cross, consisting of both
+sexes, with power to constitute a master and wardens, and also to erect
+a chantry of priests to celebrate divine service in the chapel of the
+gild, for the souls of the founders, and all the fraternity; for whose
+support there were given, by divers persons, eighteen messuages, three
+tofts, (pieces of ground) six acres of land, and forty shillings rent,
+lying in Birmingham and Edgbaston aforesaid.
+
+But, in the 27th of Henry the Eighth, 1536, when it was the fashion of
+that day, to multiply destruction against the religious, and their
+habitations, the annual income of the gild was valued, by the King's
+random visitors, at the sum of 31_l_. 2s. 10d. out of which, three
+priests who sung mass, had 5_l_. 6s. 8d. each; an organist, 3_l_. 13s.
+4d. the common midwife, 4s. the bell-man, 6s. 8d. with other salaries of
+inferior note.
+
+These lands continued in the crown 'till 1552, the fifth of Edward the
+Sixth, when, at the humble suit of the inhabitants, they were
+assigned to
+
+     William Symmons, _gent_.
+     Richard Smallbrook, _bailiff of the town_,
+     John Shilton,
+     William Colmore,
+     Henry Foxall,
+     William Bogee,
+     Thomas Cooper,
+     Richard Swifte,
+     Thomas Marshall,
+     John Veysy,
+     John King,
+     John Wylles,
+     William Paynton,
+     William Aschrig,
+     Robert Rastall,
+     Thomas Snowden,
+     John Eyliat,
+     William Colmore, _jun_.
+           AND
+     William Mychell,
+
+all inhabitants of Birmingham, and their successors, to be chosen upon
+death or removal, by the appellation of the Bailiff and Governors of the
+Free Grammar School of King Edward the Sixth, for the instruction of
+children in grammar; to be held of the crown in common soccage, paying
+for ever twenty shillings per annum. Over this seminary of learning were
+to preside a master and usher, whose united income seems to have been
+only twenty pounds per annum. Both are of the clergy. The hall of the
+gild was used for a school-room. In the glass of the windows was
+painted the figure of Edmund Lord Ferrers; who, marrying, about 350
+years ago, the heiress of the house of Birmingham, resided upon the
+manor, and seems to have been a benefactor to the gild, with his arms,
+empaling Belknap; and also, those of Stafford, of Grafton, of
+Birmingham, and Bryon.
+
+The gild stood at that time at a distance from the town, surrounded with
+inclosures; the highway to Hales Owen, now New-street, running by the
+north. No house could be nearer than those in the High-street.
+
+The first erection, wood and plaister, which had stood about 320 years,
+was taken down in 1707, to make way for the present flat building. In
+1756, a set of urns were placed upon the parapet, which give relief to
+that stiff air, so hurtful to the view: at the same time, the front was
+_intended_ to have been decorated, by erecting half a dozen dreadful
+pillars, like so many over-grown giants marshalled in battalia, to guard
+the entrance, which the boys wish to shun; and, being sufficiently
+tarnished with Birmingham smoak, may become dangerous to pregnancy. Had
+the wings of this building fallen two or three yards back, and the line
+of the street been preserved by a light palisade, it would have risen in
+the scale of beauty, and removed the gloomy aspect of the area.
+
+The tower is in a good taste, except being rather too narrow in the
+base, and is ornamented with a sleepy figure of the donor, Edward the
+Sixth, dressed in a royal mantle, with the ensigns of the Garter;
+holding a bible and sceptre.
+
+The lands that support this foundation, and were in the reign of Henry
+the Eighth, valued at thirty-one pounds per annum, are now, by the
+advance of landed property, the reduction of money, and the increase of
+commerce, about 600_l_.
+
+The present governors of this royal donation are
+
+     John Whateley, _bailiff_,
+     _Rev_. Charles Newling,
+     Abraham Spooner, _esq_;
+     Thomas Russell,
+     John Ash, _M.D._
+     Richard Rabone,
+     Francis Goodall,
+     Francis Parrott, _esq_;
+     William Russell, _esq_;
+     John Cope, _dead_,
+     Thomas Hurd,
+     Thomas Westley,
+     Wm. John Banner,
+     Thomas Salt,
+     William Holden,
+     Thomas Carless,
+     John Ward,
+     Edward Palmer, _esq_;
+     Francis Coales,
+          AND
+     Robert Coales.
+
+[Illustration: _Charity School_.]
+
+Over this nursery of science presides a chief master, with an annual
+salary of one hundred and twenty pounds; a second master sixty; two
+ushers; a master in the art of writing, and another in that of drawing,
+at forty pounds each: a librarian, ten: seven exhibitioners at the
+University of Oxford, twenty-five pounds each. Also, eight inferior
+schools in various parts of the town, are constituted and fed by this
+grand reservoir, at fifteen pounds each, which begin the first rudiments
+of learning.
+
+CHIEF MASTERS.
+
+     John Brooksby,            1685.
+     ---- Tonkinson.
+     John Husted.
+     Edward Mainwaring,        1730.
+     John Wilkinson,           1746
+     Thomas Green,             1759.
+     William Brailsford,       1766.
+     Rev. Thomas Price,        1776.
+
+
+
+CHARITY SCHOOL:
+
+COMMONLY,
+
+The BLUE SCHOOL.
+
+There seems to be three clases of people, who demand the care of
+society; infancy, old age, and casual infirmity. When a man cannot
+assist himself, it is necessary he should be assisted. The first of
+these only is before us. The direction of youth seems one of the
+greatest concerns in moral life, and one that is the least understood:
+to form the generation to come, is of the last importance. If an
+ingenious master hath flogged the a b c into an innocent child, he
+thinks himself worthy of praise. A lad is too much terrified to march
+that path, which is marked out by the rod. If the way to learning
+abounds with punishment, he will quickly detest it; if we make his duty
+a task, we lay a stumbling-block before him that he cannot surmount.
+
+We rarely know a tutor succeed in training up youth, who is a friend to
+harsh treatment.
+
+Whence is it, that we so seldom find affection subsisting between master
+and scholar? From the moment they unite, to the end of their lives,
+disgust, like a cloud, rises in the mind, which reason herself can
+never dispel.
+
+The boy may pass the precincts of childhood, and tread the stage of life
+upon an equality with every man in it, except his old school-master; the
+dread of him seldom wears off; the name of Busby founded with horror for
+half a century after he had laid down the rod. I have often been
+delighted when I have seen a school of boys break up; the joy that
+diffuses itself over every face and action, shews infant nature in her
+gayest form--the only care remaining is, to forget on one side of the
+walls what was taught on the other.
+
+One would think, if _coming out_ gives so much satisfaction, there must
+be something very detestable _within_.
+
+If the master thinks he has performed his task when he has taught the
+boy a few words, he as much mistakes his duty, as he does the road to
+learning: this is only the first stage of his journey. He has the man to
+form for society with ten thousand sentiments.
+
+It is curious to enter one of these prisons of science, and observe the
+children not under the least government: the master without authority,
+the children without order; the master scolding, the children riotous.
+We never _harden_ the wax to receive the impression. They act in a
+natural sphere, but he in opposition: he seems the only person in the
+school who merits correction; he, unfit to teach, is making them unfit
+to be taught.
+
+A man does not consider whether his talents are adapted for teaching, so
+much, as whether he can _profit_ by teaching: thus, when a man hath
+taught for twenty years, he may be only fit to go to school.
+
+To that vast group of instructors, therefore, whether in, or out of
+petticoats, who teach, without having been taught; who mistake the tail
+for the feat of learning, instead of the head; who can neither direct
+the passions of others nor their own; it may be said, "Quit the trade,
+if bread can be procured out of it. It is useless to pursue a work of
+error: the ingenious architect must take up your rotten foundation,
+before he can lay one that is solid."
+
+But, to the discerning few, who can penetrate the secret windings of the
+heart; who know that nature may be directed, but can never be inverted;
+that instruction should ever coincide with the temper of the instructed,
+or we sail against the wind; that it is necessary the pupil should
+relish both the teacher and the lesson; which, if accepted like a bitter
+draught, may easily be sweetened to his taste: to these valuable few,
+who, like the prudent florist, possessed of a choice root, which he
+cultivates with care, adding improvement to every generation; it may be
+said, "Banish tyranny out of the little dominions over which you are
+absolute sovereigns; introduce in its stead two of the highest ornaments
+of humanity, love and reason." Through the medium of the first, the
+master and the lesson may be viewed without horror; when the teacher and
+the learner are upon friendly terms, the scholar will rather invite than
+repel the assistance of the master. By the second, reason, the teacher
+will support his full authority. Every period of life in which a man is
+capable of attending to instruction, he is capable of attending to
+reason: this will answer every end of punishment, and something more.
+
+Thus, an irksome task will be changed into a friendly intercourse.
+
+This School, by a date in the front, was erected in 1724, in St.
+Philip's church-yard; is a plain, airy, and useful building, ornamented
+over the door with the figures of a boy and a girl in the uniform of the
+school, and executed with a degree of elegance, that a Roman statuary
+would not have blushed to own.
+
+This artificial family consists of about ninety scholars, of both sexes;
+over which preside a governor and governess, both single. Behind the
+apartments, is a large area appropriated for the amusement of the infant
+race, necessary as their food. Great decorum is preserved in this little
+society; who are supported by annual contribution, and by a collection
+made after sermon twice a year.
+
+At twelve, or fourteen, the children are removed into the commercial
+world, and often acquire an affluence that enables them to support that
+foundation, which formerly supported them.
+
+It is worthy of remark, that those institutions which are immediately
+upheld by the temporary hand of the giver, flourish in continual spring,
+and become real benefits to society; while those which enjoy a perpetual
+income, are often tinctured with supineness, and dwindle into
+obscurity.--The first, usually answer the purpose of the living; the
+last, seldom that of the dead.
+
+
+
+DISSENTING CHARITY-SCHOOL.
+
+About twenty years ago, the Dissenters established a school, upon nearly
+the same plan as the former, consisting of about eighteen boys and eight
+girls; with this improvement, that the boys are innured to moderate
+labour, and the girls to house-work.
+
+The annual subscriptions seem to be willingly paid, thankfully received,
+and judiciously expended.
+
+[Illustration: _Work House_.]
+
+
+
+WORKHOUSE.
+
+During the long reign of the Plantagenets in England, there do not seem
+many laws in the code then existing for the regulation of the poor:
+distress was obliged to wander for a temporary and uncertain
+relief:--idleness usually mixed with it.
+
+The nobility then kept plain and hospitable houses, where want
+frequently procured a supply; but, as these were thinly scattered, they
+were inadequate to the purpose.
+
+As the abbey was much more frequent, and as a great part of the riches
+of the kingdom passed through the hands of the monk, and charity being
+consonant to the profession of that order, the weight of the poor
+chiefly lay upon the religious houses; this was the general mark for the
+indigent, the idle, and the impostor, who carried meanness in their
+aspect, and the words _Christ Jesus_ in their mouth. Hence arise the
+epithets of stroller, vagrant, and sturdy beggar, with which modern law
+is intimately acquainted.
+
+It was too frequently observed, that there was but a slender barrier
+between begging and stealing, that necessity seldom marks the limits of
+honesty, and that a country abounding with beggars, abounds also with
+plunderers. A remnant of this urgent race, so justly complained of,
+which disgrace society, and lay the country under contribution, are
+still suffered, by the supineness of the magistrate.
+
+When the religious houses, and all their property, in 1536, fell a
+sacrifice to the vindictive wrath of Henry the Eighth, the poor lost
+their dependence, and as want knows no law, robbery became frequent;
+justice called loudly for punishment, and the hungry for bread; which
+gave rise, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, to that most excellent
+institution, of erecting every parish into a distinct fraternity, and
+obliging them to support their own members; therefore, it is difficult
+to assign a reason, why the blind should go abroad to _see_ fresh
+countries, or the man _without feet to travel_.
+
+Though the poor were nursed by parochial law, yet workhouses did not
+become general 'till 1730: that of Birmingham was erected in 1733, at
+the expence of 1173_l_. 3s. 5d. and which, the stranger would rather
+suppose, was the residence of a gentleman, than that of four hundred
+paupers. The left wing, called the infirmary, was added in 1766, at the
+charge of 400_l_. and the right, a place for labour, in 1779, at the
+expence of 700_l_. more.
+
+Let us a second time, consider the 50,000 people who occupy this _grand
+toy shop of Europe_[6] as one great family, where, though the property
+of individuals is ascertained and secured, yet a close and beneficial
+compact subsists. We behold the members of this vast family marked with
+every style of character. Forlorn infancy, accidental calamity, casual
+sickness, old age, and even inadvertent distress, all find support from
+that charitable fund erected by industry. No part of the family is
+neglected: he that cannot find bread for himself, finds a ready supply;
+he that can, ought to do so. By cultivating the young suckers of
+infancy, we prudently establish the ensuing generation, which will, in
+the commercial walk, abundantly repay the expence: temporary affliction
+of every kind also merits pity; even those distresses which arise from
+folly ought not to be neglected: the parish hath done well to many a
+man, who would not do well to himself; if imprudence cannot be banished
+out of the world, companion ought not: he that cannot direct himself,
+must be under the direction of another.--If the parish supported none
+but the prudent, she would have but few to support. The last stage of
+human life demands, as well as the first, the help of the family. The
+care of infancy arises from an expectation of a return; that of old age
+from benefits already received. Though a man may have passed through
+life without growing rich, he may, by his labour, have contributed to
+make others so; though he could not pursue the road to affluence
+himself, he may have been the means of directing others to find it.
+
+[Footnote 6: Burke.]
+
+The number of persons depending upon this weekly charity in Birmingham
+were, April 14, 1781, about 5240.
+
+Whether the mode of distributing the bounty of the community, is
+agreeable to the intentions of legislature, or the ideas of humanity, is
+a doubt. For in some parishes the unfortunate paupers have the
+additional misery of being sold to a mercenary wretch to starve upon
+twelve pence a head. It is matter of surprise that the magistrate should
+wink at this cruelty; but it is matter of pleasure, that no accusation
+comes within the verge of my historical remarks, for the wretched of
+Birmingham are not made more so by ill treatment, but meet with a
+kindness acceptable to distress. One would think _that_ situation could
+not be despicable, which is often _wished for_, and often _sought_, that
+of becoming one of the poor of Birmingham.
+
+We cannot be conversant in parochial business, without observing a
+littleness predominant in most parishes, by using every finesse to
+relieve themselves of paupers, and throwing them upon others. Thus the
+oppressed, like the child between two fathers, is supported by neither.
+
+There is also an enormity, which, though agreeable to law, can never be
+justified by the rules of equity--That a man should spend the principal
+part of his life in a parish, add wealth to it by his labour, form
+connexions in it, bring up a family which shall all belong to it, but
+having never gained a settlement himself, shall, in old age be removed
+by an order, to perish among strangers. In 1768, a small property fell
+into my hands, situated in a neighbouring village; I found the tenant
+had entered upon the premises at the age of twenty-two; that he had
+resided upon them, with poverty and a fair character, during the long
+space of forty six years--I told him he was welcome to spend the residue
+of his life upon the spot gratis. He continued there ten years after,
+when finding an inability to procure support from labour, and meeting
+with no assistance from the parish in which he had been resident for an
+age, he resigned the place with tears, in 1778, after an occupation of
+fifty six years, and was obliged to recoil upon his own parish, about
+twelve miles distant; to be farmed with the rest of the poor; and
+where, he afterwards assured me, "They were murdering him by inches." --
+But no complaint of this ungrateful kind lies against that people whose
+character I draw.
+
+Perhaps it may be a wise measure, in a place like Birmingham, where the
+manufactures flourish in continual sunshine, not to be over strict with
+regard to removals. Though it may be burdensome to support the poor of
+another parish, yet perhaps it is the least of two evils: to remove old
+age which hath spent a life among us, is ungenerous; to remove temporary
+sickness, is injurious to trade; and to remove infancy is impolitic,
+being upon the verge of accommodating the town with a life of labour. It
+may be more prudent to remove a rascal than a pauper. Forty pounds hath
+been spent in removing a family, which would not otherwise have cost
+forty shillings, and whose future industry might have added many times
+that sum to the common capital. The highest pitch of charity, is that of
+directing inability to support itself. Idleness suits no part of a
+people, neither does it find a place here; every individual ought to
+contribute to the general benefit, by his head or his hands: if he is
+arrived at the western verge of life, when the powers of usefulness
+decline, let him repose upon his fortune; if no such thing exists, let
+him rest upon his friends, and if this prop fail, let the public nurse
+him, with a tenderness becoming humanity.
+
+We may observe, that the manufactures, the laborious part of mankind,
+the poor's rates, and the number of paupers, will everlastingly go hand
+in hand; they will increase and decrease together; we cannot annihilate
+one, but the others will follow, and odd as the expression may sound, we
+become rich by payment and poverty. If we discharge the poor, who shall
+act the laborious part? Stop the going out of one shilling, and it will
+prevent the coming in of two.
+
+At the introduction of the poor's laws, under Elizabeth, two pence
+halfpenny in the pound rent was collected every fortnight, for future
+support: time has made an alteration in the system, which is now
+six-pence in the pound, and collected as often as found necessary. The
+present levy amounts to above 10,000_l_. per ann. but is not wholly
+collected.
+
+As the overseers are generally people of property, payment in advance is
+not scrupulously observed.
+
+It was customary, at the beginning of this admirable system of
+jurisprudence, to constitute two overseers in each parish; but the
+magnitude of Birmingham pleaded for four, which continued 'till the year
+1720, when a fifth was established: in 1729 they were augmented to half
+a dozen; the wishes of some, who are frighted at office, rise to the
+word _dozen_, a number very familiar in the Birmingham art of reckoning:
+but let it be remembered, that a vestry filled with overseers is not
+calculated for the meridian of business; that the larger the body, the
+slower the motion; and that the time and the necessities of the poor
+demand dispatch.
+
+From the annual disbursements in assisting the poor, which I shall here
+exhibit from undoubted evidence, the curious will draw some useful
+lessons respecting the increase of manufactures, of population, and
+of property.
+
+No memoirs are found prior to 1676.
+
+     Year.        Disbursed.             Year.       Disbursed.
+
+                l.     s.    d.                    l.     s.    d.
+
+     1676       328    17    7           1684     451     0     5-1/2
+     1677       347     9   10-1/2       1685     324     2     8
+     1678       398     8    0-1/2       1686     338    12    11
+     1679            omitted             1687     343    15     6
+     1680       342    11    2-1/2       1688     308    17     9-1/2
+     1681       363    15    7           1689     395    14    11
+     1682       337     2    8-1/2       1690     396    15     2-1/2
+     1683       410    12    1           1691     354     1     5-1/2
+     1691       360     0    4-1/2       1720     950    14     0
+     1693       376    12    3-1/2       1721    1024     6     6-1/2
+     1694       423    12    1-1/2       1722     939    18     0-1/2
+     1695       454     2    1-1/2       1739     678     8     5
+     1696       385     8   11-1/2       1740     938     0     6
+     1697       446    11    5           1742     888     1     1-1/2
+     1698       505     0    2-1/2       1743     799     6     1
+     1699       592    11    2           1744     851    12     5-1/2
+     1700       661     7    4-1/2       1745     746     2     7
+     1701       487    13    0           1746    1003    14     9-1/2
+     1702       413    14    0-1/2       1747    1071     7     3
+     1703       476    13   10           1748    1175     8     7-1/2
+     1704       555    11   11-1/2       1749    1132    11     7-1/2
+     1705       510     0   10           1750    1167    16     6
+     1706       519     3    6           1751    1352     0     8-1/2
+     1707       609     0    4-1/2       1752    1355     6     4
+     1708       649    15    9           1756    3255    18     3-1/4
+     1709       744    17    0-1/2       1757    3402     7     2-1/2
+     1710       960     8    8-1/2       1758    3306    12     5
+     1711      1055     2   10           1759    2708     9     5-3/4
+     1712       734     0   11           1760    3221    18     7
+     1713       674     7    6           1761    2935     4     1-1/2
+     1714       722    15    6-1/2       1762    3078    18     2-1/2
+     1715       718     2    1           1763    3330    13    11-1/2
+     1716       788     3    2-1/2       1764    3963    11     0-1/2
+     1717       764     0    6-1/2       1765    3884    18     9
+     1718       751     2    4           1766    4716     2    10-1/2
+     1719      1094    10    7           1767    4940     2     2
+     1768      4798     2    5           1775    6509    10    10
+     1769      5082     0    9           1776    5203     4     9-1/2
+     1770      5125    13    2-1/4       1777    6012     5     5
+     1771      6132     5   10           1778    6866    10     8-1/2
+     1772      6139     6    5-1/2       1779    8081    19     7-1/2
+     1773      5584    18    8-1/2       1780    9910     4    11-3/4
+     1774      6115    17   11
+
+We cannot pass through this spacious edifice without being pleased with
+its internal oeconomy; order influences the whole, nor can the
+cleanliness be exceeded: but I am extremely concerned, that I cannot
+pass through without complaint.
+
+There are evils in common life which admit of no remedy; but there are
+very few which may not be lessened by prudence.
+
+The modes of nursing infancy in this little dominion of poverty, are
+truly defective. It is to be feared the method intended to train up
+inhabitants for the earth, annually furnishes the regions of the grave.
+
+Why is so little attention paid to the generation who are to tread the
+stage after us? as if we suffered them to be cut off that we might keep
+possession for ever. The unfortunate orphan that none will own, none
+will regard: distress, in whatever form it appears, excites compassion,
+but particularly in the helpless. Whoever puts an infant into the arms
+of decrepit old age, passes upon it a sentence of death, and happy is
+that infant who finds a reprieve. The tender sprig is not likely to
+prosper under the influence of the tree which attracts its nurture;
+applies that nurture to itself, where the calls occasioned by decay are
+the most powerful--An old woman and a sprightly nurse, are characters as
+opposite as the antipodes.
+
+If we could but exercise a proper care during the first two years, the
+child would afterwards nurse itself; there is not a more active animal
+in the creation, no part of its time, while awake, is unemployed: why
+then do we invert nature, and confine an animal to still life, in what
+is called a school, who is designed for action?
+
+We cannot with indifference behold infants crouded into a room by the
+hundred, commanded perhaps by some disbanded soldier, termed a
+school-master, who having changed the sword for the rod, continues much
+inclined to draw blood with his arms; where every individual not only re
+breathes his own air, but that of another: the whole assembly is
+composed of the feeble, the afflicted, the maimed, and the orphan; the
+result of whose confinement, is a fallow aspect, and a sickly frame: but
+the paltry grains of knowledge gleaned up by the child in this barren
+field of learning, will never profit him two-pence in future; whereas,
+if we could introduce a robust habit, he would one day be a treasure to
+the community, and a greater to himself. Till he is initiated into
+labour, a good foundation for health may be laid in air and exercise.
+
+Whenever I see half a dozen of these forlorn innocents quartered upon a
+farm house, a group of them taking the air under the conduct of a
+senior, or marshalled in rank and file to attend public worship, I
+consider the overseer who directed it, as possessed of tender feelings:
+their orderly attire, and simplicity of manners, convey a degree of
+pleasure to the mind; and I behold in them, the future support of that
+commercial interest; upon which they now lie as a burden.
+
+If I have dwelt long upon the little part of our species, let it plead
+my excuse to say, I cannot view a human being, however diminutive in
+stature, or depressed in fortune, without considering, _I view
+an equal_.
+
+
+
+OLD CROSS,
+
+So called, because prior to the Welch Cross; before the erection of this
+last, it was simply called, The Cross.
+
+The use of the market cross is very ancient, though not equal to the
+market, for this began with civilization.
+
+Christianity first appeared in Britain under the Romans; but in the
+sixth century, under the Saxon government, it had made such an amazing
+progress, that every man seemed to be not only _almost a Christian_, but
+it was unfashionable not to have been a zealous one. The cross of Christ
+was frequently mentioned in conversation, and afterwards became an oath.
+It was hacknied about the streets, sometimes in the pocket, or about the
+neck; sometimes it was fixed upon the church, which we see at this day,
+and always hoisted to the top of the steeple. The rudiments of learning
+began with the cross; hence it stands to this moment as a frontispiece
+to the battledore, which likewise bears its name.
+
+This important article of religion was thought to answer two valuable
+purposes, that of collecting the people; and containing a charm against
+ghosts, evil spirits, etc. with the idea of which, that age was
+much infested.
+
+To accomplish these singular ends, it was blended into the common
+actions of life, and at that period it entered the market-place. A few
+circular steps from the centre of which issued an elevated pillar,
+terminating in a cross, was the general fashion throughout the kingdom;
+and perhaps our Vulcanian ancestors knew no other for twelve hundred
+years, this being renewed about once every century, 'till the year 1702,
+when the present cross was erected, at the expence of 80_l_. 9s. 1d.
+This was the first upon that spot, ever honoured with a roof: the under
+part was found a useful shelter for the market-people. The room over it
+was designed for the court leet, and other public business, which during
+the residence of the lords upon the manor, had been transacted in one of
+their detached apartments, yet in being: but after the removal of the
+lords, in 1537, the business was done in the Leather-hall, which
+occupied the whole east end of New-street, a covered gateway of twelve
+feet excepted, and afterwards in the Old Cross.
+
+[Illustration: _Welch Cross_.]
+
+[Illustration: _Old Cross_.]
+
+
+
+WELCH CROSS.
+
+If a reader, fond of antiquity, should object, that I have comprized the
+_Ancient state of Birmingham_ in too small a compass, and that I ought
+to have extended it beyond the 39th page; I answer, when a man has not
+much to say, he ought to be hissed out of authorship, if he picks the
+pocket of his friend, by saying much; neither does antiquity end with
+that page, for in some of the chapters, I have led him through the mazes
+of time, to present him with a modern prospect.
+
+In erecting a new building, we generally use the few materials of the
+old, as far as they will extend. Birmingham may be considered as one
+vast and modern edifice, of which the ancient materials make but a very
+small part: the extensive _new_, seems to surround the minute _old_, as
+if to protect it.
+
+Upon the spot where the Welch Cross now stands, probably stood a
+finger-post, to direct the stranger that could read, for there were not
+many, the roads to Wolverhampton and Lichfield.
+
+Though the ancient post, and the modern cross, might succeed each other,
+yet this difference was between them, one stood at a distance from the
+town, the other stands near its centre.
+
+By some antique writings it appears, that 200 years ago this spot bore
+the name of the Welch End, perhaps from the number of Welch in its
+neighbourhood; or rather, from its being the great road to that
+principality, and was at that time the extremity of the town, odd houses
+excepted. This is corroborated by a circumstance I have twice mentioned
+already, that when Birmingham unfortunately fell under the frowns of
+Prince Rupert, 137 years ago, and he determined to reduce it to ashes
+for succouring an enemy, it is reasonable to suppose he began at the
+exterior, which was then in Bull-street, about twelve houses above
+the cross.
+
+If we were ignorant of the date of this cross, the style of the building
+itself would inform us, that it rose in the beginning of the present
+century, and was designed, as population encreased, for a Saturday
+market; yet, although it is used in some degree for that purpose, the
+people never heartily adopted the measure.
+
+In a town like Birmingham, a commodious market-place, for we have
+nothing that bears the name, would be extremely useful. Efforts have
+been used to make one, of a large area, now a bowling-green, in
+Corbet's-alley; but I am persuaded the market-people would suffer the
+grass to grow in it, as peaceably as in their own fields. We are not
+easily drawn from ancient custom, except by interest.
+
+For want of a convenient place where the sellers may be collected into
+one point, they are scattered into various parts of the town. Corn is
+sold by sample, in the Bull-ring; the eatable productions of the garden,
+in the same place: butchers stalls occupy Spiceal-street; one would
+think a narrow street was preferred, that no customer should be suffered
+to pass by. Flowers, shrubs, etc. at the ends of Philip-street and
+Moor-street: beds of earthen-ware lie in the middle of the foot ways;
+and a double range of insignificant stalls, in the front of the
+shambles, choak up the passage: the beast market is kept in Dale-end:
+that for pigs, sheep and horses in New-street: cheese issues from one of
+our principal inns: fruit, fowls and butter are sold at the Old Cross:
+nay, it is difficult to mention a place where they are not. We may
+observe, if a man hath an article to sell which another wants to buy,
+they will quickly find each other out.
+
+Though the market-inconveniencies are great, a man seldom brings a
+commodity for the support of life, or of luxury, and returns without a
+customer. Yet even this crowded state of the market, dangerous to the
+feeble, hath its advantages: much business is transacted in a little
+time; the first customer is obliged to use dispatch, before he is
+justled out by a second: to _stand all the day idle in the market
+place_, is not known among us.
+
+The upper room of this cross is appropriated for a military guard-house.
+We find, December 16, 1723, an order made at a public meeting, that "A
+guard house should be erected in a convenient part of the town, because
+neither of the crosses were eligible." But this old order, like some of
+the new, was never carried into execution. As no complaint lies against
+the cross, in our time, we may suppose it suitable for the purpose; and
+I know none but its prisoners that pronounce against it.
+
+
+
+SAINT MARTIN's.
+
+It has been remarked, that the antiquity of this church is too remote
+for historical light.
+
+The curious records of those dark ages, not being multiplied, and
+preserved by the art of printing, have fallen a prey to time, and the
+revolution of things.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+There is reason for fixing the foundation in the eighth century, perhaps
+rather sooner, and it then was at a small distance from the buildings.
+The town stood upon the hill, whose centre was the Old Cross;
+consequently, the ring of houses that now surrounds the church, from the
+bottom of Edgbaston-street, part of Spiceal-street, the Bull-ring,
+Corn-cheaping, and St. Martin's-lane, could not exist.
+
+I am inclined to think that the precincts of St. Martin's have undergone
+a mutilation, and that the place which has obtained the modern name of
+Bull-ring, and which is used as a market for corn and herbs, was once an
+appropriation of the church, though not used for internment; because the
+church is evidently calculated for a town of some size, to which the
+present church-yard no way agrees, being so extremely small that the
+ancient dead must have been continually disturbed, to make way for the
+modern, that little spot being their only receptacle for 900 years.
+
+A son not only succeeds his father in the possession of his property and
+habitation, but also in the grave, where he can scarcely enter without
+expelling half a dozen of his ancestors.
+
+The antiquity of St. Martin's will appear by surveying the adjacent
+ground. From the eminence upon which the High-street stands, proceeds a
+steep, and regular descent into Moor-street, Digbeth, down
+Spiceal-street, Lee's-lane, and Worcester-street. This descent is broken
+only by the church-yard; which, through a long course of internment, for
+ages, is augmented into a considerable hill, chiefly composed of the
+refuse of life. We may, therefore, safely remark, in this place, _the
+dead are raised up_. Nor shall we be surprised at the rapid growth of
+the hill, when we consider this little point of land was alone that
+hungry grave which devoured the whole inhabitants, during the long ages
+of existence, till the year 1715, when St. Philip's was opened. The
+curious observer will easily discover, the fabric has lost that symmetry
+which should ever attend architecture, by the growth of the soil about
+it, causing a low appearance in the building, so that instead of the
+church burying the dead, the dead would, in time, have buried
+the church.
+
+It is reasonable to allow, the original approach into this place was by
+a flight of steps, not by descent, as is the present case; and that the
+church-yard was surrounded by a low wall. As the ground swelled by the
+accumulation of the dead, wall after wall was added to support the
+growing soil; thus the fence and the hill sprang up together; but this
+was demonstrated, August 27, 1781, when, in removing two or three old
+houses, to widen St. Martin's Lane, they took down the church-yard wall,
+which was fifteen feet high without, and three within. This proved to be
+only an outward case, that covered another wall twelve feet high; in the
+front of which was a stone, elevated eight feet, and inscribed, "Robert
+Dallaway, Francis Burton." Church-wardens, anno dom. (supposed) "1310."
+As there is certain evidence, that the church is, much older then the
+above date, we should suspect there had been another fence many ages
+prior to this. But it was put beyond a doubt, when the workmen came to a
+third wall, four feet high, covered with antique coping, probably
+erected with the fabric itself, which would lead us far back into the
+Saxon times.
+
+The removal of the buildings to accommodate the street, the construction
+of the wall, beautified with pallisades, is _half_ an elegant plan, well
+executed. If we can persuade ourselves to perform the other half, by
+removing the remainder of the buildings, and continuing the line to the
+steps, at the bottom of Spiceal-street, the work will stand in the front
+of modern improvement.
+
+In the south-east part of the wall, covered by the engine-house, upon
+another stone, nearly obliterated, is, John Enser, Richard Higginson,
+Church-wardens, 1709.
+
+Other church-yards are ornamented with the front of the buildings, but
+that of St. Martin submits to the rear.
+
+The present church is of stone; the first upon the premises; and perhaps
+the oldest building in these parts.
+
+As the country does not produce stone of a lasting texture, and as the
+rough blasts of 900 years, had made inroads upon the fabric, it was
+thought necessary, in 1690, to case both church and steeple with brick,
+except the spire, which is an elegant one. The bricks and the
+workmanship are excellent.
+
+Though the fabric is not void of beauty, yet being closely surrounded
+with houses, which destroy the medium of view, that beauty is
+totally hid.
+
+The steeple has, within memory, been three times injured by lightning.
+Forty feet of the spire, in a decayed state, was taken down and rebuilt
+in 1781, with stone from Attleborough, near Nuneaton; and strengthened
+by a spindle of iron, running up its centre 105 feet long, secured to
+the side walls every ten feet, by braces--the expence, 165_l_. 16s.
+
+Inclosed is a ring of twelve musical bells, and though I am not master
+of the bob major and tripple-grandfire, yet am well informed, the
+ringers are masters of the bell-rope: but to excel in Birmingham is
+not new.
+
+The seats in the church would disgrace a meaner parish than that of
+Birmingham; one should be tempted to think, they are the first ever
+erected upon the spot, without taste or order: the timber is become hard
+with age, and to the honour of the inhabitants, bright with use. Each
+sitting is a private freehold, and is farther disgraced, like the coffin
+of a pauper, with the paltry initials of the owner's name. These divine
+abodes are secured with the coarse padlocks of a field gate.
+
+By an attentive survey of the seats, we plainly discover the increasing
+population of Birmingham. When the church was erected, there was
+doubtless sufficient room for the inhabitants, and it was probably the
+only place for public worship during 800 years: as the town increased,
+gallery after gallery was erected, 'till no conveniency was found for
+more. Invention was afterwards exerted to augment the number of
+sittings; every recess capable only of admitting the body of an infant,
+was converted into a seat, which indicates, the continual increase of
+people, and, that a spirit of devotion was prevalent among them.
+
+The floor of the church is greatly injured by internment, as is also the
+light, by the near approach of the buildings, notwithstanding, in 1733,
+the middle roof of the chancel was taken off, and the side walls raised
+about nine feet, to admit a double range of windows.
+
+Dugdale, who wrote in 1640, gives us twenty-two drawings of the arms, in
+the windows, of those gentry who had connection with Birmingham.
+
+     1.  Astley.                     10.  Freville.
+     2.  Sumeri.                     11.  Ancient Birmingham.
+     3.  Ancient Birmingham.         12.  Knell.
+     4.  Ancient Birmingham,         13.  Fitz-Warrer.
+        the 2nd house.               14.  Montalt.
+     5.  Seagreve.                   15.  Modern Birmingham.
+     6.  Modern Birmingham.          16.  Hampden.
+     7.  Ancient and modern          17.  Burdet.
+        Birmingham,                  18.  Montalt.
+        quartered.                   19.  Modern Birmingham.
+     8.  Peshale quartering          20.  Beauchamp.
+        Bottetort.                   21.  Ferrers.
+     9.  Birmingham quartering       22.  Latimere.
+        Wyrley.
+
+These twenty-two coats are now reduced to three, which are,
+
+Number two, in the east window of the chancel, which is _or, two lions
+passant azure_, the arms of the family of Someri, Lords of
+Dudley-castle, and superior Lords of Birmingham; which having been
+extinct about 450 years, the coat of arms must have been there at least
+during that period.
+
+Number three, in the south window of the chancel, _azure, a bend lozenge
+of five points, or_, the ancient arms of the family of Birmingham, which
+perhaps is upwards of 400 years old, as that coat was not used after the
+days of Edward the First, except in quarterings.
+
+And number ten, in the north window, _or, a cross, indented gules_;
+also, _five fleurs de lis_, the ancient arms of Freville, Lords of
+Tamworth, whose ancestor, Marmion, received a grant of that castle from
+William the Conqueror, and whose descendant, Lord Viscount Townshend, is
+the present proprietor. Perhaps this coat hath been there 400 years, for
+the male line of the Freville family, was extinct in the reign of Henry
+the Fourth.
+
+Under the south window of the chancel, by the door, are two monuments
+a-breast, of white marble, much injured by the hand of rude time, and
+more by that of the ruder boys. The left figure, which is very ancient,
+I take to be William de Birmingham, who was made prisoner by the French,
+at the siege of Bellegard, in the 25th of Edward the First, 1297. He
+wears a short mantle, which was the dress of that time, a sword,
+expressive of the military order, and he also bears a shield with the
+bend lozenge, which seems never to have been borne after the above date.
+
+The right hand figure, next the wall, is visibly marked with a much
+older date, perhaps about the conquest. The effigy does not appear in a
+military character, neither did the Lords of that period. The value of
+these ancient relicts have long claimed the care of the wardens, to
+preserve them from the injurious hand of the boys, and the foot of the
+window cleaner, by securing them with a pallisade. Even Westminster
+abbey, famous for departed glory, cannot produce a monument of equal
+antiquity.
+
+At the foot of these, is another of the same materials, belonging to one
+of the Marrows, Lords of Birmingham.
+
+Under the north east window, is a monument of white marble, belonging to
+one of the Lords of the house of Birmingham: but this is of modern date
+compared with the others, perhaps not more than 300 years; he bearing
+the _parte per pale, indented or, and gules_.
+
+In the church is an excellent organ, and in the steeple a set of chimes,
+where the ingenious artist treats us with a fresh tune every day of
+the week.
+
+
+
+Upon one of the CENTRE PILLARS.
+
+Here lieth the bodies of William Colmore, Gent. who died in 1607, and
+Ann his wife, in 1591: also the body of Henry Willoughby, Esq; father to
+Frances, wife of William Colmore, now living; he died 1609.
+
+
+
+NORTH GALLERY.
+
+John Crowley, in 1709, gave twenty shillings per annum, payable out of
+the lowermost house in the Priory, to be distributed in bread, in the
+church on St. John's day, to house-keepers in Birmingham, who receive
+no pay.
+
+Joseph Hopkins died in 1683, who gave 200_l_. with which an estate was
+purchased in Sutton Coldfield; the rents to be laid out in coats, gowns,
+and other relief for the poor of Birmingham: he also gave 200_l_. for
+the poor of Wednesbury: 200_l_. to distresed quakers: 5_l_. 10s. to the
+poor of Birmingham, and the same sum to those of Wednesbury, at
+his death.
+
+
+
+SAME GALLERY.
+
+Whereas the church of St. Martin's, in Birmingham, had only 52 ounces of
+plate, in 1708, for the use of the communion table; it was, by a
+voluntary subscription of the inhabitants, increased to 275--Two
+flaggons, two cups, two covers and pattens, with cases: the whole,
+80_l_. 16s. 6d.
+
+Richard Banner ordered one hundred pounds to be laid out in lands within
+ten miles of Birmingham; which sum, lying at interest, and other small
+donations being added, amounted to 170_l_. with which an estate at
+Erdington, value 81. 10s. per annum, was purchased for the poor of
+Birmingham.
+
+Richard Kilcup gave a house and garden at Spark-brook, for the church
+and poor.
+
+John Cooper gave a croft for making of love-days (merriments) among
+Birmingham men.
+
+William Rixam gave a house in Spiceal-street, No. 26, for the use of the
+poor, in 1568.
+
+John Ward, in 1591, gave a house and lands in Marston Culey.
+
+William Colmore gave ten shillings per ann. payable out of the house,
+No. 1, High-street.
+
+John Shelton gave ten shillings per annum, issuing out of a house
+occupied by Martin Day.
+
+Several of the above donations are included in Lench's trust.
+
+John Peak gave a chest bound with iron for the use of the church;
+seemingly about 200 years old, and of 200 lb. weight.
+
+Edward Smith gave 20_l_. per ann. to the poor, in 1612, and also erected
+the pulpit.
+
+John Billingsley, in 1629, gave 26 shillings yearly, chargeable upon a
+house in Dale-end, to be given in bread, by six-pence every Sunday.
+
+One croft to find bell-ropes.
+
+Richard Dukesayle, in 1630, gave the utensils belonging to the communion
+table.
+
+Barnaby Smith, 1633, gave 20_l_. to be lent to ten poor tradesmen, at
+the discretion of the church-wardens for two or three years.
+
+Catharine Roberts, wife of Barnaby Smith, in 1642, gave 20_l_. the
+interest of which was to be given to the poor, the first Friday in Lent.
+
+John Jennens, 1651, gave 2_l_. 10s. for the use of the poor, born and
+living in Birmingham; and also 20s. on St. Thomas's day.
+
+John Milward gave 26_l_ per annum, lying in Bordesley: one third to the
+school-master of Birmingham, (Free-school); one third to the Principal
+of Brazen nose College, Oxford, for the maintenance of one scholar from
+Birmingham or Haverfordwest, and the remainder to the poor.
+
+Joseph Pemberton gave 40s. per annum, payable out of an estate at
+Tamworth, and 20s. out of an estate in Harbourne.
+
+Richard Smallbrook gave to the poor of Birmingham 10s. per annum,
+arising out of a salt vat in Droitwich.
+
+Robert Whittall gave the pall, or beere cloth.
+
+Widow Cooper, of the Talbot, No. 20, in High-street, gave one towel and
+one sheet, to wrap the poor in the grave.
+
+Mrs. Jennens gave 10_l_. per annum to support a lecture, the second and
+third Thursday in every month.
+
+The following offspring of charity seems to have expired at its birth,
+but rose from the dead a few months ago, after an internment of
+fifty-four years.
+
+The numerous family of Piddock flourished in great opulence for many
+ages, and though they were not lords of a manor, they were as rich as
+those who were: they yet boast, that their ancestors could walk seven
+miles upon their own land. It sometimes may be prudent, however, to
+believe only _half_ what a man says; besides, a person with tolerable
+vigour of limb, might contrive to walk seven miles upon his own land, if
+he has but one acre--a lawyer is not the only man who can double.
+
+Perhaps they were possessed of the northern part of this parish, from
+Birmingham-heath to Shirland-brook, exclusive of many estates in the
+manors of Smethwick and Oldbury.
+
+Their decline continued many years, till one of them, in 1771,
+extinguished their greatness by a single dash of his pen, in selling the
+last foot of land.--I know some of them now in distress.
+
+William Piddock, in 1728, devised his farm at Winson-green, about nine
+acres, to his wife Sarah, during life, and at her death, to his nephews
+and executors William and John Riddall, their heirs and assigns for
+ever, in trust, for educating and putting out poor boys of Birmingham;
+or other discretional charities in the same parish.
+
+But William and John wisely considered, that they could not put the
+money into any pocket sooner than their own; that as the estate was in
+the family it was needless to disturb it; that as the will was not known
+to the world, there was no necessity to publish it; and, as it gave them
+a discretional power of disposal, they might as well consider themselves
+_the poor_, for they were both in the parish.
+
+There is nothing easier than to coin excuses for a fault;--there is
+nothing harder than to make them pass.
+
+What must be his state of mind, who is in continual apprehensions of a
+disgraceful discovery? No profits can compensate his feelings.
+
+Had the deviser been less charitable, William and John had been less
+guilty: the gift of one man becomes a temptation to another. These nine
+acres, from which the donor was to spring upwards, lay like a mountain
+on the breasts of William and John, tending to press them downwards.
+Although poverty makes many a rogue, yet had William and John been more
+poor, they would have been more innocent. The children themselves would
+have been the least gainers by the bequest, for, without this legacy,
+they could just as well have procured trades; the profit would have
+centered in the inhabitants, by softening their levies.--Thus a donation
+runs through many a private channel, unseen by the giver.
+
+Matters continued in this torpid state till 1782, when a quarrel between
+the brothers and a tenant, broke the enchantment, and shewed the actors
+in real view.
+
+The officers, in behalf of the town, filed a bill in Chancery, and
+recovered the dormant property, which was committed in trust to
+
+     John Dymock Griffith,
+     John Harwood,
+     Thomas Archer,         > Overseers, 1781.
+     William Hunt,
+     Joseph Robinson,
+     James Rollason,
+
+     John Holmes,           > Constables, 1782.
+     Thomas Barrs,
+     Joseph Sheldon,
+     Charles Primer,        > Church-wardens,
+     William Dickenson,
+     Edmund Tompkins,
+
+     Claud Johnson,
+     Nathaniel Lawrence,
+     Edward Homer,          > Overseers, 1782.
+     Thomas Cock,
+     Samuel Stretch,
+     Joseph Townsend,
+     John Startin.
+
+The presentation of St. Martin's was vested in the family of Birmingham,
+until the year 1537, since which it has passed through the Dudleys, the
+Crown, the Marrows, the Smiths, and now rests in the family of Tennant.
+
+
+
+RECTORS.
+
+     1300   Thomas de Hinckleigh.
+     1304   Stephen de Segrave.
+     1304   John de Ayleston.
+     1336   Robert de Shuteford.
+     1349   William de Seggeley.
+     1354   Thomas de Dumbleton.
+     1369   Hugh de Wolvesey.
+     1396   Thomas Darnall.
+     1412   William Thomas.
+     1414   Richard Slowther.
+     1428   John Waryn.
+     1432   William Hyde.
+     1433   John Armstrong.
+     1433   John Wardale.
+     1436   Henry Symon.
+     1444   Humphrey Jurdan.
+     1504   Richard Button.
+     1536   Richard Myddlemore.
+     1544   William Wrixam.
+     1578   Lucus Smith.
+
+     _Thus far Dugdale_.
+
+     ----   ------ Smith
+     1641   Samuel Wills.
+     1654   ------ Slater.
+     1660   John Riland.
+     1672   Henry Grove.
+     ----   William Daggett.
+     ----   Thomas Tyrer.
+     1732   Richard Dovey.
+     1771   ------ Chase.
+     1772   John Parsons.
+     1779   William Hinton, D.D.
+     1781   Charles Curtis.
+
+During Cromwell's government, ---- Slater, a broken apothecary of this
+place, having been unsuccessful in curing the body, resolved to attempt
+curing the soul. He therefore, to repair his misfortunes, assumed the
+clerical character, and cast an eye on the rectory of St. Martin's; but
+he had many powerful opponents: among others were Jennens, an
+iron-master, possessor of Aston-furnace; Smallbroke, another wealthy
+inhabitant, and Sir Thomas Holt.
+
+However, he with difficulty, triumphed over his enemies, stept into the
+pulpit, and held the rectory till the restoration.
+
+Being determined, in his first sermon, to lash his enemies with the whip
+of those times, he told his people, "The Lord had carried him through
+many troubles; for he had passed, like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,
+through the _fiery furnace_. And as the Lord had enabled the children of
+Israel to pass over the Red Sea, so he had assisted him in passing over
+the _Small-brooks_, and to overcome the strong _Holts_ of sin
+and satan."
+
+At the restoration, suspecting the approach of the proper officers to
+expel him from the Parsonage-house, he crept into a hiding-place under
+the stairs; but, being discovered, was drawn out by force, and the
+place ever after, bore the name of _Slater's Hole_.
+
+John Riland succeeded him, who is celebrated for piety, learning, and a
+steady adherence to the interest of Charles the First; in whose cause he
+seems to have lost every thing he possessed, but his life. He was
+remarkable for compromising quarrels among his neighbours, often at an
+expence to himself; also for constantly carrying a charity box, to
+relieve the distress of others; and, though robbed of all himself, never
+thought he was poor, except when his box was empty.--He died in
+1672, aged 53.
+
+A succeeding rector, William Daggett, is said to have understood the art
+of boxing, better than that of preaching: his clerk often felt the
+weightier argument of his hand. Meeting a quaker, whose profession, then
+in infancy, did not stand high in esteem, he offered some insults, which
+the other resenting, told him, "If he was not protected by his cloth, he
+would make him repent the indignity." Dagget immediately stripped,
+"There, now I have thrown off my protection."
+
+They fought--but the spiritual bruiser proved too hard for the injured
+quaker.
+
+Among the rectors we sometimes behold a magistrate; at others, those who
+for misconduct ought to have been taken before one.
+
+The rectory, in the King's books, was valued, in 1291, at 5_l_. per
+annum; and, in 1536, at 19_l_. 3s. 6d.
+
+
+
+_A terrier of the rectory, written by the rector, about 1680_.
+
+A house wherein the present rector, Mr. Dagget, resides.
+[Parsonage-house.]
+
+Two other houses in Birmingham, [now three, at No. 15, Spiceal-street.]
+
+Three pieces of glebe land, nineteen acres, between the school land and
+Sheepcoat-lane.
+
+Three pieces, called the Five-way-closes twenty-one acres, bounded by
+the lands of Samuel Smallbroke, Esq; and Josiah Porter.
+
+One close, two acres, bounded by Lady-wood-lane.
+
+Parsons-meadow, two acres, bounded by the lands of Thomas Smith, Sir
+Richard Gough, and Sir Arthur Kaye.
+
+Horse pool-croft, half an acre, bounded by Bell's-barn-lane,
+[Brickiln-lane] the lands of Robert Phillips and Samuel
+Smallbrook, Esqrs.
+
+Tythe of all kinds of grain: but instead of hay, wool and lamb, a due of
+12d. in the pound rent, called herbage, in all the parish, except
+foreign, wherein the custom is 4d. per acre for meadow land; 3d. per
+acre for leas; 3d. for each lamb; 1d. 1/2 for a cow and calf: and except
+part of the estate of William Colmore, Esq; with the Hall-ring,
+Tanter-butts, Bell's-barns, [No. 1, Exeter-row] and Rings; for the
+herbage of which is paid annually 13s. 4d. and also, except part of the
+estate of Samuel Smallbrook, Esq; for which he pays 8s. per annum; and,
+except the estate of Thomas Weaman, called Whittall's-farm,
+[Catharine-street] for which he pays 2s. 8d.
+
+All the above estates pay the customary modus, whether in or out of
+tillage.
+
+
+
+SURPLICE FEES.
+
+                                          Rector. Clerk,
+                                          s. d.     s. d.
+     For burying in the church,           1  0      1  0
+     Ditto church-yard,                   0  6      0  6
+     Churching a woman,                   0  4      0  4
+     Marrying by licence,                 5  0      2  6
+     Ditto without,                       2  6      1  0
+     Tythe pig, if seven or upwards,      0  4      0  0
+     Easter dues, man and wife,           0  4      0  0
+     ---- each person above sixteen,      0  4      0  0
+     Clerk's salary 20s. paid by the wardens; also 2d.
+       from each house keeper at Easter.
+
+From the above terrier, I am inclined to value the income at about
+90_l_. per annum.
+
+The benefice, in 1771, was about 350_l_. per annum: the late Rector,
+John Parsons, procured an act, in 1773, to enable the incumbent to grant
+building leases; the grant of a single lease, in 1777, brought the
+annual addition of about 170_l_. The income is now about 700_l_. and is
+expected, at the expiration of the leases, to exceed 2000_l_.
+
+The repairs of the chancel belong to the rector, and the remainder of
+the building to the parish.
+
+
+
+SAINT PHILLIP's.
+
+We have touched upon various objects in our peregrinations through
+Birmingham, which meet with approbation, though viewed through the
+medium of smoke; some of these, being covered with the rust of time,
+command our veneration; but the prospect before us is wholly modern.
+
+We have mounted, by imperceptable gradations, from beauty to beauty,
+'till we are now arrived at the summit.
+
+If an historian had written in the last century, he would have recorded
+but two places of worship; I am now recording the fourteenth: but my
+successor, if not prevented by our own imprudence, in driving away the
+spirit of commerce, may record the four-and-twentieth. The artist, who
+carries the manufactures among foreigners, or the overseer, who wantonly
+loads the people with burdens, draws the wrath of the place upon his
+own head.
+
+This curious piece of architecture, the steeple of which is erected
+after the model of St. Paul's, in London, but without its weight, does
+honour to the age that raised it, and to the place that contains it.
+Perhaps the eye of the critic cannot point out a fault, which the hand
+of the artist can mend: perhaps too, the attentive eye cannot survey
+this pile of building, without communicating to the mind a small degree
+of pleasure. If the materials are not proof against time, it is rather
+a misfortune to be lamented, than an error to be complained of, the
+country producing no better.
+
+Yet, amidst all the excellencies we boast, I am sorry to charge this
+chief ornament with an evil which admits no cure, that of not ranging
+with its own coemetery, or the adjacent buildings: out of seven streets,
+with which it is connected, it lines with none.--Like Deritend chapel,
+of which I have already complained, from a strong attachment to a point
+of religion, or of the compass, it appears twisted out of its place. We
+may be delighted with a human figure, complete in stature, exactly
+moulded with symmetry, and set off with the graces of dress; but we
+should be disgusted, if his right side seemed to attempt to out-walk
+his left.
+
+This defect, in religious architecture, arises from a strict adherence
+to the custom of the ancients, who fixed their altars towards the east.
+It is amasing, that even weakness itself, by long practice, becomes
+canonical; it gains credit by its age and its company. Hence, Sternhold
+and Hopkins, by being long bound up with scripture, acquired a kind of
+scripture authority.
+
+The ground, originally, was part of a farm, and bore the name of the
+Horse-close; afterwards _Barley-close_.--Thus a benign spot of earth,
+gave additional spirits to a man when living, and kindly covered him in
+its bosom when dead.
+
+This well chosen spot, is the summit of the highest eminence in
+Birmingham, with a descent every way; and, when the church was erected,
+there were not any buildings nearer than those in Bull-street.
+
+The land was the gift of Robert Phillips, Esq; whence the name, ancestor
+to William Theodore Inge, Esquire.
+
+In all degrees of people, from the bishop to the beadle, there seems a
+propensity in the mind to arrive at the honours of Sainthood: by joining
+our names in partnership with a faint, we share with him a red letter in
+the almanack.
+
+Out of six churches in Birmingham, three bear the names of the donors.
+St. Bartholomew's would, probably, have taken that of its founder, John
+Jennens, Esq; but that name happened to be anticipated by Sir John de
+Birmingham, who conferred it upon Deritend chapel. St. Mary's could
+readily perpetuate the name of its benefactress, because we had no place
+of worship that bore it. But as neither the popish, nor the protestant
+kalendar produced a St. Charles, the founder of St. Paul's was
+unfortunately excluded.
+
+The gifts, which the benefactor himself believes are charitable, and
+expects the world to believe the same, if scrutinized, will be found to
+originate from various causes--counterfeits are apt to be offered in
+currency for sterling.
+
+Perhaps _ostentation_ has brought forth more acts of beneficence than
+charity herself; but, like an unkind parent, she disowns her offspring,
+and charges them upon charity.
+
+Ostentation is the root of charity; why else are we told, in capitals,
+by a large stone in the front of a building--"This hospital was erected
+by William Bilby, in the sixty-third year of his age, 1709." Or, "That
+John Moore, yeoman, of Worley Wigorn, built this school, in 1730."--Nay,
+pride even tempts us to strut in a second-hand robe of charity, left by
+another; or why do we read--"These alms-houses were erected by Lench's
+trust, in 1764. W. WALSINGHAM, BAILIFF."
+
+Another utters the word _charity_, and we rejoice in the echo. If we
+miss the substance, we grasp at the shadow.
+
+Sometimes we assign our property for religious uses, late in the evening
+of life, when _enjoyment_ is over, and almost _possession_. Thus we
+bequeath to piety, what we can keep no longer. We convey our name to
+posterity at the expence of our successor, and scaffold our way towards
+heaven up the walls of a steeple.
+
+Will charity chalk up one additional score in our favour, because we
+grant a small portion of our land to found a church, which enables us to
+augment the remainder treble its value, by granting building leases? a
+man seldom makes a bargain for heaven, and forgets himself. Charity and
+self-interest, like the apple and the rind, are closely connected, and,
+like them, we cannot separate one without trespassing on the other.
+
+In contributions of the lesser kind, the giver examines the quantum
+given by those of his own station; _pride_ will not suffer him to appear
+less than his neighbour.
+
+Sometimes he surrenders merely through importunity, which indicates as
+much _charity_, as the garrison does _merit_, which surrenders when
+closely besieged. Neither do we fear _our left hand knowing what our
+right hand doth_, our only fear is, left the world should _not_
+know it.
+
+This superb edifice was begun by act of Parliament, in 1711, under a
+commission consisting of twenty of the neighbouring gentry, appointed by
+the bishop of the diocese, under his episcopal seal. Their commission
+was to end twelve months after the erection of the church.
+
+Though Birmingham ever was, and perhaps ever will be considered as one
+parish, yet a portion of land, about one hundred acres, nearly
+triangular, and about three fourths built up, was taken out of the
+centre of St. Martin's, like a shred of cloth out of a great coat, to
+make a less, and constituted a separate parish, by the appellation of
+St Philip's.
+
+We shall describe this new boundary by an imaginary journey, for a real
+one perhaps was never taken since the land was first laid out, nor ever
+will to the end of time.
+
+We include the warehouse, then of John Jenens, Esq; now No. 26, in
+High-street, penetrate through the buildings, till we come within twenty
+yards, of Moor-street, turn sharp to the left, cross the lower part of
+Castle-street, Carr's-lane, and New Meeting-street; pass close by the
+front of the Meeting-house, through Bank-alley, into Hen's-walk, having
+kept Moor-street about twenty yards to the right, all the way; we now
+enter that street, at the bottom of Hen's-walk, pass through the east
+part of Dale-end, through Stafford-street, Steelhouse-lane (then called
+Whittal-lane) Bull-lane (then New-hall-lane) and Mount-pleasant.
+
+Our journey now leads us on the west of Pinfold-street, keeping it about
+twenty yards on our left; up Peck-lane, till we come near the top, when
+we turn to the right, keeping the buildings, with the Free-school in New
+street, on our left, into Swan-alley. We now turn up the Alley into
+New-street, then to the right, which leads us to the Party-wall, between
+No. 25 and 26, in High-street, late Jennens's, where we began.
+
+In the new parish I have described, and during the journey, kept on the
+left, there seems to have been, at passing the act, twelve closes, all
+which are filled with buildings, except the land between New-street and
+Mount-pleasant, which only waits a word from the owner, to speak the
+houses into being.
+
+The church was consecrated in 1715, and finished in 1719, the work of
+eight years; at which time the commissioners resigned their powers into
+the hands of the diocesan, in whom is the presentation, after having
+paid, it is said, the trifling sum of 5012_l_.--but perhaps such a work
+could not be completed for 20,000_l_.
+
+Three reasons may be assigned, why so small a sum was expended; many of
+the materials were given; more of the carriage, and some heavy debts
+were contracted.
+
+The urns upon the parapet of the church, which are highly ornamental,
+were fixed at the same time with those of the school, in about 1756.
+
+When I first saw St. Philip's, in the year 1741, at a proper distance,
+uncrowded with houses, for there were none to the north, New-hall
+excepted, untarnished with smoke, and illuminated by a western sun, I
+was delighted with its appearance, and thought it then, what I do now,
+and what others will in future, _the pride of the place_.
+
+If we assemble the beauties of the edifice, which cover a rood of
+ground; the spacious area of the church-yard, occupying four acres;
+ornamented with walks in great perfection; shaded with trees in double
+and treble ranks; and surrounded with buildings in elegant taste:
+perhaps its equal cannot be found in the British dominions.
+
+The steeple, 'till the year 1751, contained a peal of six bells, which
+were then augmented to ten; at which time St. Martin's, the mother
+church, having only eight, could not bear to be out-numbered by a
+junior, though of superior elegance, therefore ordered twelve into her
+own steeple: but as room was insufficient for the admission of bells by
+the dozen, means were found to hoist them tier over tier. Though the
+round dozen is a complete number in the counting-house, it is not
+altogether so in the belfry: the octave is the most perfect concord in
+music, but diminishes by rising to an octave and a half; neither can
+that dozen well be crowded into the peal.
+
+But perhaps the artist had another grand scheme in view, that of
+accommodating the town with the additional harmony of the chimes; for
+only a few tunes can be played on the octave, whilst the dozen will
+compass nearly all.
+
+Whether we are entertained even by this _exalted_ style of music, admits
+a doubt; for instead of the curious ear being charmed with distinct
+notes, we only hear a bustle of confused sounds, which baffle the
+attention too much to keep pace with the tune.
+
+These two steeples, are our _public_ band of music: they are the only
+_standing_ Waits of the place. Two thousand people may be accommodated
+in the church, but, at times, it has contained near three thousand.
+
+In the vestry is a theological library, bequeathed by the first rector,
+William Higgs, for the use of the clergy in Birmingham and its
+neighbourhood; who left 200_l_. for future purchase.
+
+Under the centre isle runs a vault, the whole length of the church, for
+the reception of those who chuse to pay an additional guinea.
+
+The organ excels; the paintings, mouldings and gildings are superb:
+whether the stranger takes an external or an internal survey, the eye is
+struck with delight, and he pronounces the whole the work of a matter.
+Its conveniency also, can only be equalled by its elegance.
+
+
+
+In the FRONT GALLERY.
+
+Upon application of Sir Richard Gough, to Sir Robert Walpole, then in
+power, George the First gave 600_l_. in 1725, towards finishing
+this church.
+
+Three remarks naturally arise from this declaration; That the prodigious
+sums expended upon this pious undertaking, were beyond the ability of
+the inhabitants; that the debts contracted, were many years in
+discharging; and that one of the best of Kings, the head of the
+Brunswick line, bestowed a liberal benefaction upon a people not
+compleatly reconciled to his house.
+
+Whether monumental decoration adds beauty to a place already beautiful,
+is a question. There are three very small and very elegant monuments in
+this church. Upon one of the south pillars, is that of the above William
+Higgs, who died in 1733. Upon another is that of William Vyse, the
+second rector, who died in 1770, at the age of 61. And, upon a north
+pillar, that of Girton Peak, Esq; an humane magistrate, who died in
+1770, aged 48.
+
+Internment in the church is wisely prohibited; an indecency incompatible
+with a civilized people. The foreigner will be apt to hold forth the
+barbarity of the English nation, by observing, "They introduce
+corruption in their very churches, and pay divine adoration upon the
+graves of their ancestors."
+
+Places of worship were designed for the living, the dead give up their
+title with their life: besides, even small degrees of putrefaction,
+confined in a room where the air cannot circulate, may become
+prejudicial to health: it also ruins the pavement, as is done at St.
+Martin's. Our first inhabitants, therefore, lie contented in the church
+yard, by their unfortunate equals; having private sepulchres
+appropriated for family use--Perhaps at the last day, no inquiry will be
+made whether they lay on the in, or the outside of the walls.
+
+It is difficult to traverse the elegant walks that surround this gulf of
+death, without contemplating, that time is drawing us towards the same
+focus, and that we shall shortly fall into the centre: that this
+irregular circle contains what was once generous and beautiful, opulent
+and humane. The arts took their rise in this fruitful soil: this is the
+grave of invention and of industry; here those who figured upon the
+stage are fallen, to make way for others, who must follow: though
+multitudes unite with the dead, the numbers of the living increase; the
+inhabitants change, while the genius improves. We cannot pass on without
+reading upon the stones, the short existence of our departed friends,
+perusing the end of a life with which we were well acquainted. The
+active motion that veered with the rude blasts of seventy years, slops
+in this point for ever.
+
+The present rector, who is the third, is the Rev. Charles Newling, and
+the benefice something like the following:
+
+     A prebendal stall in the cathedral      l.  s.  d.
+      church of Lichfield,                    6   0   0
+     Eight acres and a half of glebe land,
+      at Long bridge, near Birmingham,       32   0   0
+     Emoluments arising from the seats of
+      the church,                           140   0   0
+     Surplice fees,                          50   0   0
+     Easter offerings,                       10   0   0
+     An estate at Sawley, in the county of
+      Derby, under lease for three lives,
+      renewable by fine, at the annual
+      rent of                                66  13   4
+                                           ------------
+                                            304  13   4
+     Out of which is paid to the rector
+      of St. Martin's, in consideration
+      fees and offerings once appropriated
+      to that church,                        15   0   0
+                                            -----------
+                                            289  13   4
+
+
+
+BIRTHS AND BURIALS.
+
+There are many inducements for an author to take up the pen, but the
+leading motives, however disguised, seem to be pride and poverty;
+hence, two of the most despicable things among men, furnish the world
+with knowledge.
+
+One would think, however, there can be no great inducement for a man to
+write what he is conscious will never be read. Under this class may be
+comprehended alphabetical collections, chronological tables, books of
+figures, occasional devotions, etc. here also I range the lists of
+officers in Birmingham, the annual sums expended upon the poor, and the
+present chapter of numbers. These are intended for occasional
+inspection, rather than for regular perusal: we may consider them as
+deserts served up for a taste only, not a dinner; yet even this rule may
+be broken by a resolute reader, for the late Joseph Scott, Esq; founder
+of the trust before-mentioned, assured me, in 1751, that he had perused
+Bailey's Dictionary as methodically as he had done Tom Jones; and,
+though a dissenter, he continued to read the Common Prayer Book from end
+to end, about twice a year; which is more than, perhaps, the greatest
+lover of that excellent composition can boast.
+
+I shall, to avoid prolixity in a barren chapter of the two extremes of
+life, select about every tenth year from the register. Those years at
+the time of the plague, make no addition to the burials, because the
+unhappy victims were conveyed to Lady-wood for internment.
+
+These lists inform us, that the number of streets, houses, inhabitants,
+births, burials, poor's rates, and commercial productions, increase with
+equal rapidity. It appears also from the register, that there were more
+christenings lately at St. Martin's, in one day, than the whole town
+produced in a year, in the 16th century--The same may be found in that
+of St. Phillip's.
+
+The deaths in Deritend are omitted, being involved with those of Aston.
+
+      Year.   Births.   Burials.     Year.    Births.    Burials.
+
+     1555         37         27      1667         146         140
+     1560         --         37      1668         113         102
+     1571         48         26      1681         251         139
+     1580         37         25      1690         127         150
+     1590         52         47      1700         172         171
+     1600         62         32      1719         334         270
+     1610         70         45      1720         423         355
+     1623         81         66      1730         449         415
+     1628        100         96      1740         520         573
+     1653         --         47      1750         860        1020
+     1660         --         75      1760         984        1143
+     1665         --        109      1770        1329         899
+     1666        144        121      1780        1636        1340
+
+
+
+GENERAL HOSPITAL.
+
+Though charity is one of the most amiable qualities of humanity, yet,
+like Cupid, she ought to be represented blind; or, like Justice,
+hood-winked. None of the virtues have been so much misapplied; giving to
+the _hungry_, is sometimes only another word for giving to the _idle_.
+We know of but two ways in which this excellence can exert itself;
+improving the _mind_, and nourishing the _body_. To help him who _will
+not _help himself; or, indiscriminately to relieve those that want, is
+totally to mistake the end; for want is often met with: but to supply
+those who _cannot_ supply themselves, becomes real charity. Some worthy
+Christians have taken it into their heads to relieve _all_, for fear of
+omitting the right. What should we think of the constable who seizes
+every person he meets with, for fear of missing the thief? Between the
+simple words, therefore, of WILL NOT and CANNOT, runs the fine barrier
+between real and mistaken charity.
+
+This virtue, so strongly inculcated by the christian system, hath,
+during the last seventeen centuries, appeared in a variety of forms, and
+some of them have been detrimental to the interest they were meant to
+serve: _Such was the cloister_. Man is not born altogether to serve
+himself, but the community; if he cannot exist without the assistance of
+others, it follows, that others ought to be assisted by him: but if
+condemned to obscurity in the cell, he is then fed by the aid of the
+public, while that public derives none from him.
+
+[Illustration: _General Hospital_.]
+
+Estates have sometimes been devised in trust for particular uses, meant
+as charities by the giver, but have, in a few years, been diverted out
+of their original channel to other purposes.
+
+The trust themselves, like so many contending princes, ardently druggie
+for sovereignty; hence, _legacy_ and _discord_ are intimate companions.
+
+The plantation of many of our English schools sprang up from the will of
+the dead; but it is observable, that sterility quickly takes place; the
+establishment of the master being properly secured, supineness enters,
+and the young scions of learning are retarded in their growth.
+
+It therefore admits a doubt, whether charitable donation is beneficial
+to the world; nay, the estate itself becomes blasted when bequeathed to
+public use, for, being the freehold of none, none will improve it:
+besides, the more dead land, the less scope for industry.
+
+At the reformation, under Queen Elizabeth, charity seemed to take a
+different appearance: employment was found for the idle; he that was
+able, was obliged to labour, and the parish was obliged to assist him
+who could not. Hence the kingdom became replete with workhouses: these
+are the laudable repositories of distress.
+
+It has already been observed, that three classes of people merit the
+care of society: forlorn infancy, which is too weak for its own support;
+old age, which has served the community, without serving itself; and
+accidental calamity: the two first, fall under the eye of the parish,
+the last, under the modern institution of the General Hospital.
+
+The shell of this plain, but noble edifice, was erected in 1766, upon a
+situation very unsuitable for its elegant front, in a narrow dirty lane,
+with an aspect directing up the hill, which should ever be avoided.
+
+The amiable desire of doing good in the inhabitants, seemed to have
+exceeded their ability; and, to the grief of many, it lay dormant for
+twelve years. In 1778, the matter was revived with vigor; subscriptions
+filled apace, and by the next year the hospital was finished, at the
+expence of 7137_l_. 10s. Though the benefactions might not amount to
+this enormous sum, yet they were noble, and truly characteristic of a
+generous people. The annual subscriptions, as they stood at Michaelmas,
+1779, were 901_l_. 19s. and, at Midsummer, 1780, 932_l_. 8s. During
+these nine months, 529 patients were admitted, of which, 303 were cured,
+93 relieved, 112 remained on the books, only 5 died, and but _one_ was
+discharged as incurable; an incontestible proof of the _skill_ of the
+faculty, which is at least equalled by their _humanity_, in giving their
+attendance gratis.
+
+The rules by which this excellent charity is conducted, are worthy of
+its authors: success hath fully answered expectation, and the building
+will probably stand for ages, to tell posterity a favourable tale of the
+present generation.
+
+
+
+PUBLIC ROADS.
+
+Man is evidently formed for society; the intercourse of one with
+another, like two blocks of marble in friction, reduces the rough
+prominences of behaviour, and gives a polish to the manners.
+
+Whatever tends to promote social connection, improve commerce, or stamp
+an additional value upon property, is worthy of attention.
+
+Perhaps, there is not a circumstance that points more favourably towards
+these great designs, than commodious roads.
+
+According as a country is improved in her roads, so will she stand in
+the scale of civilization. It is a characteristic by which we may
+pronounce with safety. The manners and the roads of the English, have
+been refining together for about 1700 years. If any period of time is
+distinguished with a more rapid improvement in one, it is also in
+the other.
+
+Our Saxons ancestors, of dusky memory, seldom stepped from under the
+smoke of Birmingham. We have a common observation among us, that even so
+late as William the Third, the roads were in so dangerous a state, that
+a man usually made his will, and took a formal fare-well of his friends,
+before he durst venture upon a journey to London; which, perhaps, was
+thought then, of as much consequence as a voyage to America now.
+
+A dangerous road is unfavourable both to commerce and to friendship; a
+man is unwilling to venture his neck to sell his productions, or even
+visit his friend: if a dreadful road lies between them, it will be apt
+to annihilate friendship.
+
+Landed property in particular, improves with the road. If a farmer
+cannot bring his produce to market, he cannot give much for his land,
+neither can that land well be improved, or the market properly supplied.
+Upon a well formed road, therefore, might, with propriety, be placed the
+figures of commerce, of friendship, and of agriculture, as
+presiding over it.
+
+There are but very few observations necessary in forming a road, and
+those few are very simple; to expel whatever is hurtful, and invite
+whatever is beneficial.
+
+The breaking up of a long frost, by loosening the foundations, is
+injurious, and very heavy carriages ought to be prevented, 'till the
+weather unites the disjointed particles, which will soon happen.
+
+But the grand enemy is water; and as this will inevitably fall, every
+means should be used to discharge it: drains ought to be frequent, that
+the water may not lie upon the road.
+
+The great benefits are _the sun_ and the _wind:_ the surveyor should use
+every method for the admission of these friendly aids, that they may
+dispel the moisture which cannot run off.
+
+For this purpose, all public roads ought to be sixty feet wide; all
+trees and hedges within thirty feet of the centre, be under the
+controul of the commissioners, with full liberty of drawing off the
+water in what manner they judge necessary.
+
+The Romans were the most accomplished masters we know of in this useful
+art; yet even they seem to have forgot the under drain, for it is
+evident at this day, where their road runs along the declivity of a
+hill, the water dams up, flows over, and injures the road.
+
+Care should be taken, in properly forming a road at first, otherwise you
+may botch it for a whole century, and at the end of that long period, it
+will be only a botch itself.
+
+A wide road will put the innocent traveller out of fear of the
+waggoners; not the most civilized of the human race.
+
+From Birmingham, as from a grand centre, issues twelve roads, that point
+to as many towns; some of these, within memory, have scarcely been
+passable; all are mended, but though much is done, more is wanted. In an
+upland country, like that about Birmingham, where there is no river of
+size, and where the heads only of the streams show themselves: the
+stranger would be surprised to hear, that through most of these twelve
+roads he cannot travel in a flood with safety. For want of causeways
+and bridges, the water is suffered to flow over the road, higher than
+the stirrup: every stream, though only the size of a tobacco-pipe, ought
+to be carried through an under drain, never to run over the road.
+
+At Saltley, in the way to Coleshill, which is ten miles, for want of a
+causeway, with an arch or two, every flood annoys the passenger and the
+road: at Coleshill-hall, 'till the year 1779, he had to pass a
+dangerous river.
+
+One mile from Birmingham, upon the Lichfield road, sixteen miles, to the
+disgrace of the community, is yet a river without a bridge. In 1777, the
+country was inclined to solicit Parliament for a turnpike-act, but the
+matter fell to the ground through private views: one would think, that
+the penny can never be ill laid out, which carries a man ten miles with
+pleasure and safety. The hand of nature hath been more beneficent, both
+to this, and to the Stafford road, which is twenty-eight miles, than
+that of art.
+
+The road to Walfall, ten miles, is rather _below indifferent_.
+
+That to Wolverhampton, thirteen miles, is much improved since the
+coal-teams left it.
+
+The road to Dudley, ten miles, is despicable beyond description. The
+unwilling traveller is obliged to go two miles about, through a bad
+road, to avoid a worse.
+
+That to Hales-Owen, eight miles, like the life of man, is checkered with
+good and evil; chiefly the latter.
+
+To Bromsgrove, thirteen miles, made extremely commodious for the first
+four, under the patronage of John Kettle, Esq; in 1772, at the expence
+of near 5000_l_. but afterwards is so confined, that two horses cannot
+pass without danger; the sun and the winds are excluded, the rivers lie
+open to the stranger, and he travels through dirt 'till Midsummer.
+
+To Alcester, about twenty, formed in 1767, upon a tolerable plan, but is
+rather too narrow, through a desolate country, which at present scarcely
+defrays the expence; but that country seems to improve with the road.
+
+Those to Stratford and Warwick, about twenty miles each, are much used
+and much neglected.
+
+That to Coventry, about the same distance, can only be equalled by the
+Dudley road. The genius of the age has forgot, in some of these roads to
+accommodate the foot passenger with a causeway.
+
+The surveyor will be inclined to ask, How can a capital be raised to
+defray this enormous expence? Suffer me to reply with an expression in
+the life of Oliver Cromwell, "He that lays out money when necessary, and
+only then, will accomplish matters beyond the reach of imagination."
+
+Government long practised the impolitic mode of transporting vast
+numbers of her people to America, under the character of felons; these,
+who are generally in the prime of life, might be made extremely useful
+to that country which they formerly robbed, and against which, they are
+at this moment carrying arms. It would be easy to reduce this ferocious
+race under a kind of martial discipline; to badge them with a mark only
+removeable by the governors, for hope should ever be left for
+repentance, and to employ them in the rougher arts of life, according to
+the nature of the crime, and the ability of body; such as working the
+coal mines in Northumberland, the lead mines in Derbyshire, the tin
+mines in Cornwall, cultivating waste lands, banking after inundations,
+forming canals, cleansing the beds of rivers, assisting in harvest, and
+in FORMING and MENDING the ROADS: _these hewers of wood and drawers of
+water_ would be a corps of reserve against any emergency. From this
+magazine of villiany, the British navy might be equipped with,
+considerable advantage.
+
+
+
+CANAL.
+
+An act was obtained, in 1767, to open a cut between Birmingham and the
+coal delphs about Wednesbury.
+
+The necessary article of coal, before this act, was brought by land, at
+about thirteen shillings per ton, but now at seven.
+
+It was common to see a train of carriages for miles, to the great
+destruction of the road, and the annoyance of travellers.
+
+This dust is extended in the whole to about twenty-two miles in length,
+'till it unites with what we may justly term the grand artery, or
+Staffordshire Canal; which, eroding the island, communicates with Hull,
+Bristol and Liverpool. The expence was about 70,000_l_. divided into
+shares 140_l_. each, of which no man can purchase more than ten, and
+which now sell for about 370_l_.
+
+The proprietors took a perpetual lease of six acres of land, of Sir
+Thomas Gooch, at 47_l_. per annum, which is converted into a wharf, upon
+the front of which is erected an handsome office for the dispatch
+of business.
+
+[ILLUSTRATION: A Plan of the Navigable Canal from Birmingham to
+Autherley]
+
+[ILLUSTRATION: Navigation Office]
+
+This watery passage, exclusive of loading the proprietors with wealth,
+tends greatly to the improvement of some branches of trade, by
+introducing heavy materials at a small expence, such as pig iron for the
+founderies, lime-stone, articles for the manufacture of brass and steel,
+also stone, brick, slate, timber, &c.
+
+It is happy for the world, that public interest is grafted upon private,
+and that both flourish together.
+
+This grand work, like other productions of Birmingham birth, was rather
+hasty; the managers, not being able to find patience to worm round the
+hill at Smethwick, or cut through, have wisely travelled over it by the
+help of twelve locks, with six they mount the summit, and with six more
+descend to the former level; forgetting the great waste of water, and
+the small supply from the rivulets, and also, the amazing loss of of
+time in climbing this curious ladder, consisting of twelve liquid steps.
+It is worthy of remark, that the level of the earth, is nearly the same
+at Birmingham as at the pits: what benefit then would accrue to
+commerce, could the boats travel a dead flat of fourteen miles without
+interruption? The use of the canal would increase, great variety of
+goods be brought which are now excluded, and these delivered with more
+expedition, with less expence, and the waste of water never felt; but,
+by the introduction of twelve unnecessary locks, the company may
+experience five plagues more than fell on Egypt.
+
+The boats are nearly alike, constructed to fit the locks, carry about
+twenty-five tons, and are each drawn by something like the skeleton of a
+horse, covered with skin: whether he subsists upon the scent of the
+water, is a doubt; but whether his life is a scene of affliction, is
+not; for the unfeeling driver has no employment but to whip him from one
+end of the canal to the other. While the teams practised the turnpike
+road, the lash was divided among five unfortunate animals, but now the
+whole wrath of the driver falls upon one.
+
+We can scarcely view a boat travelling this liquid road, without raising
+opposite sensations--pleased to think of its great benefit to the
+community, and grieved to behold wanton punishment.
+
+I see a large field of cruelty expanding before me, which I could easily
+prevail with myself to enter; in which we behold the child plucking a
+wing and a leg off a fly, to try how the poor insect can perform with
+half his limbs; or running a pin through the posteriors of a locust, to
+observe it spinning through the air, like a comet, drawing a tail of
+thread. If we allow, man has a right to destroy noxious animals, we
+cannot allow he has a right to protract their pain by a lingering death.
+By fine gradations the modes of cruelty improve with years, in pinching
+the tail of a cat for the music of her voice, kicking a dog because we
+have trod upon his foot, or hanging him for _fun_, 'till we arrive at
+the priests in the church of Rome, who burnt people for opinion; or to
+the painter, who begged the life of a criminal, that he might torture
+him to death with the severest pangs, to catch the agonizing feature,
+and transfer it into his favourite piece, of a dying Saviour. But did
+that Saviour teach such doctrine? Humanity would wish rather to have
+lost the piece, than have heard of the cruelty. What, if the injured
+ghost of the criminal is at this moment torturing that of the painter?--
+
+But as this capacious field is beyond the line I profess, and, as I have
+no direct accusation against the people of my regard, I shall not enter.
+
+
+
+DERITEND BRIDGE.
+
+Cooper's-mill, situated upon the verge of the parishes of Afton and
+Birmingham, 400 yards below this bridge, was probably first erected in
+the the peaceable ages of Saxon influence, and continued a part of the
+manorial estate 'till the disposal of it in 1730.
+
+Before the water was pounded up to supply the mill, it must have been so
+shallow, as to admit a passage between Digbeth and Deritend, over a few
+stepping stones; and a gate seems to have been placed upon the verge of
+the river, to prevent encroachments of the cattle.
+
+This accounts for the original name, which Dugdale tells us was
+_Derry-yate-end:_ derry, low; yate, gate; end, extremity of the parish;
+with which it perfectly agrees.
+
+The mill afterwards causing the water to be dammed up, gave rise to a
+succession of paltry bridges, chiefly of timber, to preserve a
+communication between the two streets.
+
+But in later ages, the passage was dignified with those of stone. In
+1750, a wretched one was taken down, and the present bridge erected by
+Henry Bradford and John Collins, overseers of the highway, consisting of
+five arches; but the homely style, the deep ascent, and the
+circumscribed width prevents encomium.
+
+
+
+ADJACENT REMARKS.
+
+SOHO.
+
+If we travel two miles from the centre of Birmingham, upon the
+Wolverhampton road, which may be called, the road to taste, and is daily
+travelled by the nobility and gentry, we shall arrive at the epitome
+of the arts.
+
+Though this little spot lies in the county of Stafford, we must accept
+it as part of Birmingham; neither is it many yards distant from
+the parish.
+
+The proprietor, invited by a genius, a fortune of 30,000_l_. and a
+little stream, which promised to facilitate business, has erected the
+most elegant works in these parts, said to accommodate seven hundred
+persons. Upon that hungry ground, where, in 1758 stood one paltry
+cottage, we now behold, a city in miniature.
+
+From this nursery of ingenuity, originated the Soho button, the single
+wheel clock, the improvement of the steam engine, the platina button,
+the method of taking exact copies of painting, writing, &c. also, the
+productions of fancy, in great variety; with which some of the European
+princes are well acquainted.
+
+To the genius of the place is owing the assay-office, for marking
+standard wrought plate, which, prior to the year 1773, was conveyed to
+London to receive the sanction of that office; but by an act then
+obtained, the business is done here by an assay master, superintended by
+four wardens: these are annually chosen out of thirty-six guardians,
+whose chief duty consists in dining together, at least once a year; for
+it appears from the chapter upon government, that feasting makes a
+principal part of a Birmingham office; and, however unwilling a man may
+seem to _enter in_ we generally find him pleased when he _is in_.
+
+
+
+DANES CAMP:
+
+DANES BANK, OR BURY FIELDS.
+
+About five miles south of Birmingham, and five furlongs off Solihull
+Lodge, is a place called _The Danes Camp_. But although neither history
+nor tradition speak of this particular event, it probably was raised in
+the ninth century.
+
+The situation is well chosen, upon an eminence, about nine acres, nearly
+triangular, is yet in tolerable perfection; the ditch is about twenty
+feet wide; the base of the bank about the same; admits but of one
+entrance, and is capable of being secured by water. From the bottom of
+the ditch, to the top of the mound, was, when made, about twenty feet;
+and is a production of great labour.
+
+
+
+GENTLEMEN'S SEATS.
+
+This neighbourhood may justly be deemed the seat of the arts, but not
+the seat of the gentry.
+
+None of the nobility are near us, except William Legge, Earl of
+Dartmouth, at Sandwell, four miles from Birmingham. The principal houses
+in our environs, are those of Sir Charles Holte, late member for the
+county, at Aston; Sir Henry Gough, member for Bamber, at Edgbaston;
+George Birch, Esq; at Handsworth; John Gough, Esq; at Perry; and John
+Taylor, Esq; at Bordesley and at Moseley; all joining to the manor of
+Birmingham. Exclusive of these, are many elegant retreats of our first
+inhabitants, acquired by commercial success.
+
+Full fed with vanity is an author, when two readers strive to catch up
+his work, for the pleasure of perusing it:--but, perchance, if two
+readers dip into this chapter, they may strive to lay it down.
+
+I have hitherto written to the _world_, but now to a small part, _the
+antiquarians_; nay, a small part of the sensible part; for a fool and an
+antiquary is a contradiction: they are, to a man, people of letters and
+penetration. If their judgment is sometimes erroneous, we may consider,
+man was never designed for perfection; there is also less light to guide
+them in this, than in other researches. If the traveller slips upon
+common ground, how will he fare if he treads upon ice?--Besides, in dark
+questions, as in intricate journies, there are many erroneous ways for
+one right.
+
+If, like the mathematician, he can establish one point, it ascertains
+another. We may deem his pursuit one of the most arduous, and attended
+with the least profit: his emoluments consist in the returns of pleasure
+to his own mind.
+
+The historian only collects the matter of the day, and hands it to
+posterity; but the antiquarian brings his treasures from remote ages,
+and presents them to this: he examines forgotten repositories, calls
+things back into existence, which are past; counter-acts the efforts of
+time, and of death; possesses something like a re-creative power;
+collects the dust of departed matter, moulds it into its prestine state,
+exhibits the figure to view, and stamps it with a kind of immortality.
+
+Every thing has its day, whether it be a nation, a city, a castle, a
+man, or an insect; the difference is, one is a winter's day, the other
+may be extended to the length of a summer's--an _end_ waits upon all.
+But we cannot contemplate the end of grandeur, without gloomy ideas.
+
+Birmingham is surrounded with the melancholy remains of extinguished
+greatness; the decayed habitations of decayed gentry, fill the mind with
+sorrowful reflections. Here the feet of those marked the ground, whose
+actions marked the page of history. Their arms glistened in the field;
+their eloquence moved the senate. Born to command, their influence was
+extensive; but who now rest in peace among the paupers, fed with the
+crumbs of their table. The very land which, for ages, was witness to the
+hospitality of its master, is itself doomed to stirility. The spot
+which drew the adjacent country, is neglected by all; is often in a
+wretched state of cultivation, sets for a trifle; the glory is departed;
+it demands a tear from the traveller, and the winds teem, to sigh
+over it.
+
+
+
+THE MOATS.
+
+In the parish of King's-norton, four miles south west of Birmingham, is
+_The Moats_, upon which long resided the ancient family of Field. The
+numerous buildings, which almost formed a village, are totally erased,
+and barley grows where the beer was drank.
+
+
+
+BLACK GREVES.
+
+Eight miles south west of Birmingham, in the same parish, near Withod
+Chapel, is _Black Greves_ (Black Groves) another seat of the Fields;
+which, though a family of opulence, were so far from being lords of the
+manor, that they were in vassalage to them.
+
+The whole of that extensive parish is in the crown, which holds the
+detestable badge of ancient slavery over every tenant, of demanding
+under the name of harriot, the best moveable he dies possessed of--Thus
+death and the bailiff make their inroads together; they rob the family
+in a double capacity, each taking the best moveable.
+
+As the human body descends into the regions of sickness, much sooner
+than it can return into health; so a family can decline into poverty by
+hastier steps, than rise into affluence. One generation of extravagance
+puts a period to many of greatness.
+
+A branch of the Fields, in 1777, finished their ancient grandeur, by
+signing away the last estate of his family.--Thus he blotted out the
+name of his ancestors by writing his own.
+
+
+
+ULVERLEY, OR CULVERLEY.
+
+Four miles from Birmingham, upon the Warwick road, entering the parish
+of Solihull, in Castle-lane, is Ulverle, in doom's-day Ulverlei.
+Trifling as this place now seems, it must have been the manor-house of
+Solihull, under the Saxon heptarchy; but went to decay so long ago as
+the conquest.
+
+The manor was the property of the Earls of Mercia, but whether their
+residence is uncertain.--The traces of a moat yet remain, which are
+triangular, and encircle a wretched farm-house of no note: one of the
+angles of this moat is filled up, and become part of Castle-lane; which
+proves that Ulverley went into disuse when Hogg's-moat was erected: it
+also proves that the lane terminated here, which is about two hundred
+yards from the turnpike road. The great width of the lane, from the road
+to Ulverley, and the singular narrowness from thence to Hogg's-moat, is
+another proof of its prior antiquity.
+
+If we pursue our journey half a mile Farther along this lane, which by
+the way is scarcely passable, it will bring us to
+
+
+
+HOGG'S-MOAT.
+
+At Oltenend (Old Town) originally Odingsell's-moat, now Hobb's-moat, the
+ancient manor-house of Solihull, after it had changed its lords at the
+conquest. The property, as before observed, of Edwin Earl of Mercia, in
+the reign of Edward the the Confessor.
+
+William the First granted the manor to a favourite lady, named Cristina,
+probably a handsome lass, of the same complexion as his mother; thus we
+err when we say William gave all the land in the kingdom to his
+followers--some little was given to those _he_ followed.
+
+This lady, like many of her successors, having tired the arms of
+royalty, was conveyed into those of an humble favourite; Ralph de
+Limesie married her, who became lord of the place, but despising
+Ulverley, erected this castle.
+
+The line of Limesie continued proprietors four descents; when, in the
+reign of King John, it became the property of Hugh de Odingsells, by
+marrying a co-heiress.
+
+The last of the Odingsells, in 1294, left four daughters, one of whom,
+with the lordship, fell into the hands of John de Clinton; but it is
+probable the castle was not inhabited after the above date, therefore
+would quickly fall to decay.
+
+The moat is upon a much larger plan than Ulverley, takes in a compass of
+five acres, had two trenches; the outer is nearly obliterated, but the
+inner is marked with the strongest lines we meet with. This trench is
+about twenty feet deep, and about thirty yards from the crown of one
+bank to the other.
+
+When Dugdale saw it, about a hundred and fifty years ago, the center,
+which is about two acres, where the castle stood, was covered with old
+oaks; round this center are now some thousands, the oldest of which is
+not more than a century; so that the timber is changed since the days of
+Dugdale, but not the appearance of the land.
+
+The center is bare of timber, and exhibits the marks of the plough. The
+late Benjamin Palmer, Esq; a few years ago, planted it with trees, which
+are in that dwindling state, that they are not likely to grow so tall as
+their master[7].
+
+[Footnote 7: He measured about six feet five inches, but was singularly
+short in the lower parts: his step was not larger than a child's of ten
+years old. His carriage, by its extraordinary height, looked at a
+distance like a moving steeple; he sat as high in a common chair, as a
+man of the middle-size stands: he was as immoderately heavy as he was
+tall, and as remarkable for good-nature as either. As a man, he shone by
+his bulk; as a magistrate, in a dull but honest light--his decisions
+were _intended_ to be just. He seemingly dozed as he walked; but if his
+own eyes were half shut, those of every other person were open to
+see him.]
+
+It lies in a pleasant situation, upon a descent, so that the trench in
+one part is dry, and in another three or four yards deep in water.
+
+A place of such desolation, one would think, was a place of
+silence--just the reverse. When I saw it, Feb. 23, 1783, the trees were
+tall, the winds high, and the roar tremendous.
+
+Exclusive of Ulverley and Hogg's-moat, there are many old foundations in
+Solihull, once the residence of gentry now extinct; as Solihull-hall,
+the Moat-house, and Kynton, the property of the Botolers; Bury-hall,
+that of the Warings; who both came over with William: Henwood, belonging
+to the Hugfords; Hillfield-hall, the ancient seat of the Greswolds, as
+Malvern was their modern.
+
+
+
+YARDLEY.
+
+At Yardley church, four miles east of Birmingham, is _The Moat_, now a
+pasture; the trench still retains its water, as a remembrance of its
+former use.
+
+This was anciently the property of the Allestrees, lords of Witton; but
+about thirty years ago, the building and the family expired together.
+
+
+
+KENT'S-MOAT.
+
+One mile farther east is Kent's-moat, in which no noise is heard but the
+singing of birds, as if for joy that their enemy is fled, and they have
+regained their former habitation.
+
+This is situate on an eminence, like that of Park-hall, is capacious,
+has but one trench, supplied by its own springs; and, like that, as
+complete as earth and water can make it.
+
+This was part of Coleshill, and vested in the crown before the conquest,
+but soon after granted with that to Clinton, who gave it with a daughter
+to Verdon; and he, with another, to Anselm de Scheldon, who kept it till
+the reign of Edward the Third: it afterwards passed through several
+families, till the reign of Henry the Seventh, when it came into that of
+De Gray, Earl of Kent, whence the name; though, perhaps, the works were
+erected by Scheldon.
+
+It is now, with Coleshill, the property of Lord Digby; but the building
+has been so long gone, that tradition herself has lost it.
+
+
+
+SHELDON.
+
+One mile east is Sheldon-hall, which anciently bore the name of
+East-hall, in contradistinction from Kent's-moat, which was West-hall.
+This, in 1379, was the property of Sir Hugh le Despenser, afterwards of
+the family of Devereux, ancestor of the present Viscount Hereford, who
+resided here till about 1710. In 1751, it was purchased by John Taylor,
+Esq; and is now possessed by his tenant.
+
+The moat, like others on an eminence, has but one trench, fed by the
+land springs; is filled up in the front of the hall, as there is not
+much need of water protection. The house, which gives an idea of former
+gentility, seems the first erected on the spot; is irregular, agreeable
+to the taste of the times, and must have been built many centuries. All
+the ancient furniture fled with its owners, except an hatchment in the
+hall, with sixteen coats of arms, specifying the families into which
+they married.
+
+
+
+KING'S-HURST.
+
+Two furlongs east of Sheldon-hall, and one mile south of Castle
+Bromwich, is _Kings-hurst_; which, though now a dwelling in tenancy,
+was once the capital of a large track of land, consisting of its own
+manor, Coleshill, and Sheldon; the demesne of the crown, under the Saxon
+kings, from whom we trace the name.
+
+The Conqueror, or his son William, granted it; but whether for money,
+service, caprice, or favour, is uncertain; for he who wears a crown acts
+as whimsically as he who does not.
+
+Mountfort came over with William, as a knight, and an officer of rank;
+but, perhaps, did not immediately receive the grant, for the king would
+act again much like other people, _give away their property, before he
+would give away his own_.
+
+If this unfortunate family were not the first grantees, they were lords,
+and probably residents of King's-hurst, long before their possession of
+Coleshill, in 1332, and by a younger branch, long after the unhappy
+attainder of Sir Simon, in 1497.
+
+Sir William Mountfort, in 1390, augmented the buildings, erected a
+chapel, and inclosed the manor. His grandson, Sir Edmund, in 1447, paled
+in some of the land, and dignified it with the fashionable name
+of _park_.
+
+This prevailing humour of imparking was unknown to the Saxons, it crept
+in with the Norman: some of the first we meet with are those of
+Nottingham, Wedgnock, and Woodstock--Nottingham, by William Peveral,
+illegitimate son of the Conqueror; Wedgnock, by Newburg, the first
+Norman Earl of Warwick; and Woodstock, by Henry the First. So that the
+Duke of Marlborough perhaps may congratulate himself with possessing the
+oldest park in use.
+
+The modern park is worth attention; some are delightful in the extreme:
+they are the beauties of creation, terrestrial paradises; they are just
+what they ought to be, nature cautiously assisted by invisible art. We
+envy the little being who presides over one--but why mould we envy him?
+the pleasure consists in _seeing_, and one man may _see_ as well as
+another: nay, the stranger holds a privilege beyond him; for the
+proprietor, by often seeing, sees away the beauties, while he who looks
+but seldom, sees with full effect. Besides, one is liable to be fretted
+by the mischievous hand of injury, which the stranger seldom sees; he
+looks for excellence, the owner for defect, and they both find.
+
+These proud inclosures, guarded by the growth within, first appeared
+under the dimension of one or two hundred acres; but fashion, emulation,
+and the park, grew up together, till the last swelled into one or
+two thousand.
+
+If religions rise from the lowest ranks, the fashions generally descend
+from the higher, who are at once blamed, and imitated by their
+inferiors.
+
+The highest orders of men lead up a fashion, the next class tread upon
+their heels, the third quickly follow, then the fourth, fifth, &c.
+immediately figure after them. But as a man who had an inclination for a
+park, could not always spare a thousand acres, he must submit to less,
+for a park must be had: thus Bond, of Ward-end, set up with thirty; some
+with one half, till the very word became a burlesque upon the idea. The
+design was a display of lawns, hills, water, clumps, &c. as if ordered
+by the voice of nature; and furnished with herds of deer. But some of
+our modern parks contain none of these beauties, nor scarcely land
+enough to support a rabbit.
+
+I am possessed of one of these jokes of a park, something less than an
+acre:--he that has none, might think it a _good_ joke, and wish it his
+own; he that has more would despise it: that it never was larger,
+appears from its being surrounded by Sutton Coldfield; and that it has
+retained the name for ages, appears from the old timber upon it.
+
+The manor of King's-hurst was disposed of by the Mountforts, about two
+hundred years ago, to the Digbys, where it remains.
+
+
+
+COLESHILL.
+
+One mile farther east is _Coleshill-hall_, vested in the crown before,
+and after the conquest; purchased, perhaps, of William Rufus, by
+Geoffrey de Clinton, ancestor to the present Duke of Newcastle. In 1352,
+an heiress of the house of Clinton, gave it, with herself, to Sir John
+de Mountfort, of the same family with Simon, the great Earl of
+Leicester, who fell, in 1265, at Evesham, in that remarkable contest
+with Henry the Third.
+
+With them it continued till 1497, when Sir Simon Mountfort, charged, but
+perhaps unjustly, with assisting Perkin Warbeck with 30_l_. was brought
+to trial at Guildhall, condemned as a traitor, executed at Tyburn, his
+large fortune confiscated, and his family ruined. Some of his
+descendants I well know in Birmingham; and _they_ are well known to
+poverty, and the vice.
+
+In the reign of Henry the Seventh, it was almost dangerous, particularly
+for a rich man, even to _think_ against a crafty and avaricious
+monarch.--What is singular, the man who accused Sir Simon at the bar,
+succeeded him in his estate.
+
+Simon Digby procured a grant of the place, in whose line it still
+continues. The hall is inhabited, but has been left about thirty years
+by the family; was probably erected by the Mountforts, is extensive, and
+its antique aspect without, gives a venerable pleasure to the beholder,
+like the half admitted light diffused within. Every spot of the park is
+delightful, except that in which the hall stands: our ancestors built in
+the vallies, for the sake of water; their successors on the hills, for
+the sake of air.
+
+From this uncouth swamp sprung the philosopher, the statesman, and
+tradition says, the gunpowder-plot.
+
+
+
+DUDDESTON.
+
+Four furlongs north-east of Birmingham, is _Duddeston_ (Dud's-town) from
+Dud, the Saxon proprietor, Lord of Dudley, who probably had a seat here;
+once a considerable village, but long reduced to the manor-house, till
+Birmingham, swelling beyond its bounds, in 1764, verged upon this
+lordship; and we now, in 1783, behold about eighty houses, under the
+names of Duke-street, Prospect-row, and Woodcock-lane.
+
+It afterwards descended to the Paganalls, the Sumeris, then to the
+Bottetourts, and was, in 1323, enjoyed by Joan Bottetourt, lady of
+Weoley castle, a daughter of the house of Sumeri.
+
+Sir Thomas de Erdington held it of this lady, by a chief-rent, which was
+a pair of gilt spurs, or six-pence, at the option of the tenant.
+
+Erdington sold it, in 1327, to Thomas de Maidenhache, by whose daughter,
+Sibell, it came in marriage to Adam de Grymforwe; whose posterity, in
+1363, conveyed it for 26_l_. 13s. 4d. now worth 20,000_l_. to John atte
+Holt; and his successors made it their residence, till the erection of
+Aston-hall, in the reign of James I.
+
+It is now converted into beautiful gardens, as a public resort of
+pleasure, and dignified with the London name of Vauxhall. The demolished
+fish-ponds, and the old foundations, which repel the spade, declare its
+former grandeur.
+
+In 1782 it quitted, by one of the most unaccountable alignments that
+ever resulted from human weakness, the ancient name of Holte, familiar
+during four hundred and nineteen years, for that of Legge.
+
+Could the ghost of Sir Lister re-visit his departed property, one might
+ask, What reception might you meet with, Sir Lister, in 1770, among your
+venerable ancestors in the shades, for barring, unprovoked, an infant
+heiress of 7000_l_. a year, and giving it, unsolicited, to a stranger?
+Perhaps you experience repeated buffetings; a sturdy figure, with iron
+aspect, would be apt to accost you--"I with nervous arm, and many a
+bended back, drew 40_l_. from the Birmingham forge, with which, in 1330,
+I purchased the park and manor of Nechels, now worth four hundred times
+that sum. I planted that family which you have plucked up by the roots:
+in the sweat of my brow, I laid a foundation for greatness; many of my
+successors built on that foundation--but you, by starving your brother,
+Sir Charles, into compliance, wantonly cut off the entail, and gave away
+the estate, after passing through seventeen descents, merely to shew you
+had a power to give it. We concluded here, that a son of his daughter,
+the last hope of the family, would change his own name to preserve ours,
+and not the estate change its possessor."--"I," another would be apt to
+say, "with frugal hand, and lucrative employments under the crown,
+added, in 1363, the manor of Duddeston; and, in 1367, that of Alton. But
+for what purpose did I add them? To display the folly of a
+successor."--A dejected spectre would seem to step forward, whose face
+carried the wrinkles of eighty-four, and the shadow of tear; "I, in
+1611, brought the title of baronet among us, first tarnished by you;
+which, if your own imbecility could not procure issue to support, you
+ought to have supported it by purchase. I also, in 1620, erected the
+mansion at Afton, then, and even now, the most superb in that
+neighbourhood, fit to grace the leading title of nobility; but you
+forbad my successors to enter. I joined, in 1647, to our vast fortune,
+the manor of Erdington.--Thus the fabric we have been rearing for ages,
+you overthrew in one fatal moment."--The last angry spectre would appear
+in the bloom of life. "I left you an estate which you did not deserve:
+you had no more right to leave it from your successor, than I to leave
+it from you: one man may ruin the family of another, but he seldom ruins
+his own. We blame him who wrongs his neighbour, but what does he deserve
+who wrongs himself?--You have done both, for by cutting off the
+succession, your name will be lost. The ungenerous attorney, instead of
+making your absurd will, ought to have apprized you of our sentiments,
+which exactly coincide with those of the world, or how could the tale
+affect a stranger? Why did not some generous friend guide your crazy
+vessel, and save a sinking family? Degenerate son, he who destroys the
+peace of another, should forfeit his own--we leave you to remorse, may
+she quickly _find, and weep over you_."
+
+
+
+SALTLEY.
+
+A mile east of Duddeston is _Saltley-hall_, which, with an extensive
+track of ground, was, in the Saxon times, the freehold of a person whom
+we should now call Allen; the same who was Lord of Birmingham. But at
+the conquest, when justice was laid asleep, and property possessed by
+him who could seize it, this manor, with many others, fell into the
+hands of William Fitz-Ausculf, Baron of Dudley-castle, who granted it in
+knight's-service to Henry de Rokeby.
+
+A daughter of Rokeby carried it by marriage to Sir John Goband, whose
+descendants, in 1332, sold it to Walter de Clodshale; an heiress of
+Clodshale, in 1426, brought it into the ancient family of Arden, and a
+daughter of this house, to that of Adderley, where it now rests.
+
+The castle, I have reason to think, was erected by Rokeby, in which all
+the lords resided till the extinction of the Clodshales.--It has been
+gone to ruin about three hundred years, and the solitary platform seems
+to mourn its loss.
+
+
+
+WARD-END.
+
+Three miles from Birmingham, in the same direction, is _Wart-end_,
+anciently _Little Bromwich_; a name derived from the plenty of broom,
+and is retained to this day by part of the precincts, _Broomford_
+(Bromford).
+
+This manor was claimed by that favourite of the conqueror, Fitz-Ausculf,
+and granted by him to a second-hand favourite, who took its name.
+
+The old castle has been gone about a century; the works are nearly
+complete, cover about nine acres, the most capacious in this
+neighbourhood, those of Weoley-castle excepted. The central area is now
+an orchard, and the water, which guarded the castle, guards the fruit.
+This is surrounded with three mounds, and three trenches, one of them
+fifty yards over, which, having lost its master, guards the fish.
+
+The place afterwards passed through several families, till the reign of
+Henry the Seventh. One of them bearing the name of _Ward_, changed the
+name to _Ward-end_.
+
+In 1512, it was the property of John Bond, who, fond of his little
+hamlet, inclosed a park of thirty acres, stocked it with deer; and, in
+1517, erected a chapel for the conveniency of his tenants, being two
+miles from the parish church of Afton. The skeleton of this chapel, in
+the form of a cross, the fashion of the times, is yet standing on the
+outward mound: its floor is the only religious one I have seen laid with
+horse-dung; the pulpit is converted into a manger--it formerly furnished
+husks for the man, but now corn for the horse. Like the first christian
+church, it has experienced a double use, a church and a stable; but with
+this difference, _that_ in Bethlehem, was a stable advanced into a
+church; this, on the contrary, is reduced into a stable.
+
+The manor, by a female, passed through the Kinardsleys, and is now
+possessed by the Brand-woods; but the hall, erected in 1710, and its
+environs, are the property of Abraham Spooner, Esq.
+
+
+
+CASTLE BROMWICH.
+
+Simply _Bromwich_, because the soil is productive of broom.
+
+My subject often leads me back to the conquest, an enterprize, wild
+without parallel: we are astonished at the undertaking, because William
+was certainly a man of sense, and a politician. Harold, his competitor,
+was a prince much superior in power, a consummate general, and beloved
+by his people. The odds were so much against the invader, that out of
+one hundred such imprudent attempts, ninety-nine would miscarry: all the
+excuse in his favour is, _it succeeded_. Many causes concurred in this
+success, such as his own ambition, aided by his valour; the desperate
+fortune of his followers, very few of whom were men of property, for to
+the appearance of gentlemen, they added the realities of want; a
+situation to which any change is thought preferable; but, above all,
+_chance_. A man may dispute for religion, he may contend for liberty, he
+may run for his life, but he will _fight_ for property.
+
+By the contest between William and Harold, the unhappy English lost all
+they had to lose; and though this all centered in the Normans, they did
+not acquire sufficient to content them.
+
+History does not inform us who was then the proprietor of Castle
+Bromwich, but that it belonged to the Mercian Earls scarcely admits a
+doubt; as Edwin owned some adjoining manors, he probably owned this.
+Fitz-Ausculf was his fortunate successor, who procured many lordships in
+the neighhood of Birmingham; Castle Bromwich was one. He granted it to
+an inferior Norman, in military tenure; who, agreeable to the fashion of
+those times, took the surname of Bromwich.
+
+Henry de Castel was a subsequent proprietor. Dugdale supposes the
+village took its name from a castle, once on the premises; and that the
+castle-hill yet remains: but this hill is too small, even to admit a
+shelter for a Lilliputian, and is evidently an artificial trifle,
+designed for a monument. It might hold, for its ancient furniture, a
+turret, termed a castle--perhaps it held nothing in Dugdale's time: the
+modern is a gladiator, in the attitude of fighting, supported by a
+pedestal, containing the Bridgeman arms.
+
+_Castle_, probably, was added by the family of that name, lords of the
+place, to distinguish it from _woody_ and _little_ Bromwich. They bore
+for their arms, three castles and a chevron.
+
+Lord Ferrers of Chartley, who was proprietor of Birmingham in the reign
+of Henry the Sixth, enjoyed it by marriage; and his grand daughter
+brought it, by the same channel, into the family of Devereux, Lords of
+Sheldon. Edward, about the latter end of Queen Elizabeth's reign,
+erected the present building, which is capacious, is in a stile between
+ancient and modern, and has a pleasing appearance.
+
+The Bridgeman family acceded to possession about eighty years ago, by
+purchase, and made it their residence till about 1768. We should
+naturally enquire, Why Sir Harry quitted a place so delightfully
+situated? Perhaps it is not excelled in this country, in the junction of
+three great roads, a a desirable neighbourhood, the river Tame at its
+back, and within five miles of the plentiful market of Bimingham--but,
+alas, _it has no park_.
+
+The gentry seem to have resided in our vicinity, when there was the
+greatest inducement to leave it, _impassable roads_: they seem also to
+have quitted the country, now there is the greatest inducement to reside
+there; roads, which improve their estates, and may be travelled with
+pleasure. It may be objected, that "the buildings become ancient." But
+there is no more disgrace in an old house, than in an old man; they may
+both be dressed in character, and look well. A gentleman, by residing in
+the family seat, pays a compliment to his ancestors.
+
+
+
+PARK-HALL.
+
+Six miles north-east of Birmingham, and one from Castle Bromwich chapel,
+is a spacious moat, with one trench, which, for many centuries guarded
+_Park-hall_. This is another of those desolate islands, from which every
+creature is fled, and every sound, except that of the winds; nay, even
+the very clouds seem to lament the desolation with tears.
+
+This was possessed by none but the Ardens, being part of their vast
+estate long before the conquest, and five hundred years after. A
+delightful situation on the banks of the Tame; to which we are led
+through a dirty road.
+
+We may consider this island, the treasury into which forty-six lordships
+paid their tribute. The riches of the country were drawn to this center,
+and commands were issued from it. The growth of these manors supplied
+that spot, which now grows for another. The lordships are in forty-six
+hands; the country is in silence; the island ploughed up, and the family
+distressed--At the remembrance of their name, the smile quits the face
+of history; she records their sad tale with a sigh; while their arms
+are yet displayed in some of the old halls in the neighbourhood.
+
+
+
+BERWOOD.
+
+Crossing the river, one mile farther east, is _Berwood-hall_, where the
+forsaken moat, at this day, guards--nothing. This, with the manor to
+which it belongs, was also the property of the Ardens; one of which in
+the reign of Henry the Second, granted it to the canons of Leicester;
+who added a chapel, which went to decay four hundred years ago. After
+the grant, the Ardens seem to have become tenants to the canons for the
+land, once their own: we frequently observe a man pay rent for what he
+_sells_, but seldom for what he _gives_.
+
+At the dissolution of abbies, in 1537, Thomas Arden, the head of the
+family, purchased it of Henry the Eighth, for 272_l_. 10s. uniting it
+again to his estate, after a separation of three hundred and fifty
+years, in whose posterity it continued till their fall.
+
+Thus, the father first purchased what the son gave away, and his
+offspring re-purchased again. The father lays a tax on his successor;
+or, climbs to heaven at the expence of the son. In one age it is
+meritorious to _give_ to the church, in another, to _take_ from her.
+
+
+
+ERDINGTON.
+
+Three miles north-east of Birmingham, is _Erdington-hall_, which boasts
+a long antiquity. The manor was the property of the old Earls of Mercia:
+Edwin possessed it at the conquest, but lost it in favour of William
+Fitz-Ausculf, who no doubt granted it in knight's service to his friend
+and relation, of Norman race, who erected the hall; the moat, took his
+residence in, and his name Erdington, from the place. His descendants
+seem to have resided here with great opulence near 400 years.
+
+Dugdale mentions a circumstance of Sir Thomas de Erdington, little
+noticed by our historians. He was a faithful adherent to King John, who
+conferred on him many valuable favours: harrassed by the Pope on one
+side, and his angry Barons on the other, he privately sent Sir Thomas to
+Murmeli, the powerful King of Africa, Morocco, and Spain; with offers
+to forsake the christian faith, turn mahometan, deliver up his kingdom,
+and hold it of him in tribute, for his assistance against his enemies.
+But it does not appear the ambassador succeeded: the Moorish Monarch did
+not chuse to unite his prosperous fortune with that of a random prince;
+he might also consider, the man who could destroy his nephew and his
+sovereign, could not be an honour to any profession.
+
+The manor left the Erdington family in 1472, and, during a course of 175
+years, acknowledged for its owners, George Plantagenet, Duke of
+Clarence, Sir William Harcourt, Robert Wright, Sir Reginald Bray,
+Francis Englefield, Humphry Dimock, Walter Earl, Sir Walter Devereux,
+and was, in 1647, purchased by Sir Thomas Holte, in whose family it
+continued till 1782, when Henage Legge, Esq; became seised of the manor.
+
+As none of the Lords seem to have resided upon the premises since the
+departure of the Erdingtons, it must be expected they have gradually
+tended to decay.
+
+We may with some reason conclude, that as Erdington was the freehold of
+the Earls of Mercia, it was not the residence of its owners, therefore
+could not derive its name from them. That as the word _Arden_ signifies
+a wood, the etymology of that populous village is, _a town in the wood_.
+That one of the first proprietors, after the conquest, struck with the
+security offered by the river, erected the present fortifications, which
+cover three parts of the hall, and the river itself the fourth. Hence it
+follows, that the neighbouring work, which we now call Bromford-forge,
+was a mill prior to the conquest; because the stream is evidently turned
+out of its bed to feed it. That the present hall is the second on the
+premises, and was erected by the Erdingtons, with some later additions.
+
+
+
+PIPE.
+
+One mile north-east of Erdington, is _Pipe-hall_; which, with its manor,
+like the neighbouring land, became at the conquest the property of
+Fitz-Ausculf; and afterwards of his defendants, Paganall, Sumeri,
+Bottetort, and St. Leger.
+
+It was common at that fatal period, for one of these great barons, or
+rather great robbers, to procure a large quantity of land for himself;
+some of them two or three hundred thousand acres--too much for one man
+to grasp. He therefore kept what he pleased for his private use, and
+granted the other in knight's-service, reserving annually a rent. These
+rents were generally small, so as never to hurt the tenant: however, the
+lord could order him to arms whenever he pleased.
+
+A few of the grants were procured by the disinherited English, but
+chiefly by the officers of William's army, being more respected, and
+more proper to be trusted: they were often relations, or favourites of
+the great barons. The lord could not conveniently sell, without the
+consent of the crown, but he could set at what price he pleased. Time
+made this chief-rent permanent, and gave the tenant stability of title.
+
+The manor of Pipe, with some others, was granted to William Mansell, who
+resided in the hall, and executed some of the chief offices of
+the county.
+
+The last of the name, in the reign of Henry the Third, left a daughter,
+who married Henry de Harcourt; and his daughter married John de Pipe,
+who seems to have taken its name.
+
+Henry, his descendant, had many children, all of whom, with his lady,
+died of the plague, except a daughter, Margery. He afterwards married,
+in 1363, Matilda, the daughter of George de Castell, of Castle Bromwich;
+but soon after the happy wedding, he perceived his bride was pregnant,
+which proved, on enquiry, the effect of an intrigue with her father's
+menial servant; a striking instance of female treachery, which can only
+be equalled by--male.
+
+The shock proving too great for his constitution, brought on a decline,
+and himself to the grave, before the birth of the child.
+
+John was the fruit of this unlawful amour, whose guardian, to prevent
+his inheriting the estate, made him a canon of Ouston, in
+Leicestershire; and afterwards persuaded the unhappy Margery to grant
+the manor to the abbot of Stonely.
+
+Thomas de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, afterwards purchased it for
+133_l_. 6s. 8d. It came to the crown by attainder, in the reign of Henry
+the Seventh; then to Sir William Staunford, one of his judges, John
+Buttler; Edward Holte, in 1568; Francis Dimock, whose daughter married
+Walter Earl; then to Walter Devereux, by marrying Earl's daughter;
+afterwards to Sir Thomas Holte, by purchase; and is now in the family
+of Bagot.
+
+Though the hall is antique, its front is covered in the modern barbarous
+stile, by a clump of venerable trees; which would become any situation
+but that in which they stand. It is now inhabited by a gentleman of
+Birmingham, who has experienced the smiles of commerce.
+
+
+
+ASTON.
+
+Two miles north of Birmingham, is Aston (East-town) being east of
+Westbury (Wednesbury) it lies on a steep descent towards the river Tame.
+
+This place, like that of Erdington, belonged to the Earls of Mercia in
+the Saxon times; and, at the conquest, was the property of the
+unfortunate Edwin. Fitz-Ausculf became his successor in this, and in
+other lands: the survey calls it eight hides, valued at 5_l_. per annum;
+a mill, 3s. and a wood, three miles long, and half a mile broad. The
+mill, I make no doubt, stood where a mill now stands, near
+Sawford-bridge; but neither the hides, nor the wood, could be confined
+within the boundary of Afton; the manor is too little for either. The
+lordship extends about a square mile, and that part which is now the
+park, I have reason to think, was then a common, and for ages after.
+
+A Saxon, of the name of Godmund, held it under the Mercian Earls, and
+found means, at the conquest, to hold it under the Norman.
+
+One hundred yards north of the church, in a perfect swamp, stood the
+hall; probably erected by Godmund, or his family: the situation shews
+the extreme of bad taste--one would think, he endeavoured to lay his
+house under the water. The trenches are obliterated by the floods, so as
+to render the place unobserved by the stranger: it is difficult to chuse
+a worse, except he had put his house under the earth. I believe there
+never was more than one house erected on the spot, and that was one
+too much.
+
+Whether this Saxon family of Godmund became extinct, or had lost their
+right, is uncertain; but Sumeri, Fitz-Ausculf's successor, about 1203,
+granted the manor to Sir Thomas de Erdington, Ambassador to King John,
+mentioned before, who had married his sister; paying annually a pair of
+spurs, or six-pence, as a nominal rent, but meant, in reality, as a
+portion for the lady.
+
+The family of Erdington, about 1275, sold it to Thomas de Maidenhache,
+who did not seem to live upon friendly terms with his neighbour, William
+de Birmingham; for, in 1290, he brought an action against him for
+fishing in his water, called Moysich (Dead-branch) leading into Tame,
+towards Scarford-bridge (Shareford, dividing the shares, or parts of the
+parish, Aston manor from Erdington, now Sawford-bridge) which implies a
+degree of unkindness; because William could not amuse himself in his own
+manor of Birmingham, for he might as well have angled in one of his
+streets, as in the river Rea. The two lords had, probably, four years
+before been on friendly terms, when they jointly lent their assistance
+to the hospital of St. Thomas, in Birmingham.
+
+Maidenhache left four daughters; Sibel, married Adam de Grymsorwe, who
+took with her the manor of Aston; a daughter of this house, in 1367,
+sold it to John atte Holte, of Birmingham, in whose family it continued
+415 years, till 1782, when Henage Legge, Esq; acceded to possession.
+
+This wretched bog was the habitation of all the lords, from Godmund to
+the Holtes, the Erdington's excepted; for Maud Grymsorwe executing the
+conveyance at Aston, indicates that she resided there; and Thomas Holte,
+being possessed of Duddeston, proves that he did not: therefore I
+conclude, that the building, as it ought, went to decay soon after; so
+that desolation has claimed the place for her own near four hundred
+years. This is corroberated by some old timber trees, long since upon
+the spot where the building stood.
+
+The extensive parish of Aston takes in the two extremes of Birmingham,
+which supplies her with more christenings, weddings, and burials, than
+were, a few years ago, supplied by the whole parish of Birmingham.
+
+
+
+WITTON.
+
+Three miles north of Birmingham, and one from Aston, is _Witton_,
+(Wicton) from the bend of the river, according to Dugdale: the property
+of a person at the conquest whose name was Staunchel. Fitz-Ausculf
+seized it, and Staunchel, more fortunate than the chief of his country
+men, became his tenant; valued in the conqueror's survey at 20s.
+per ann.
+
+It was afterwards vested in the crown: in 1240, Henry the third granted
+it to Andrew de Wicton, who took his name from the place, for in
+Dooms-day it is Witone; therefore the name being prior, proves
+the remark.
+
+Andrew, anxious after the boundary of his new purchase, brought an
+action against his neighbour, William de Pyrie (Perry) for infringing
+his property. Great disputes arise from small beginnings; perhaps a
+lawyer blew the flame.
+
+The king issued his precept to the Sheriff of Staffordshire, in which
+Perry lies, to bring with him twelve lawful and discreet knights; and
+the same to the Sheriff of Warwickshire, of which Witton is part, to
+ascertain the bounds between them.
+
+Which was the aggressor, is hard to determine, but I should rather
+suppose Squire Perry, because _man_ is ever apt to trespass; he resided
+on the premises, and the crown is but a sleepy landlord; not so likely
+to rob, as be robbed.
+
+There is a road, where foot seldom treads, mounded on each side, leading
+over the Coldfield, from Perry-bridge towards the Newlands, undoubtedly
+the work of this venerable band of discreet knights.
+
+The stranger, of course, would deem the property between the contending
+parties, of great value, which, twenty-four of the principal characters
+of the age, the flower of two counties, marshalled by two chief
+officers, were to determine. But what will he think of the quarrelsome
+spirit of the times, when, I tell him, it was only a few acres, which
+is, even at this day, waste land, and scarcely worth owning by either.
+
+In 1290, Witton was the property of William Dixley; in 1340, that of
+Richard de Pyrie, descendant of him, who, a hundred years before, held
+the contest. In 1426, Thomas East, of Hay-hall, in Yardley, was owner;
+who sold it to John Bond, of Ward-end, of whose descendants William
+Booth purchased it, in 1620: an heiress of Booth brought it by marriage
+to Allestree, of Yardley, who enjoyed it in our days; it was sold to
+John Wyrley, and is now possessed by George Birch, Esq; of Handsworth.
+
+The house, left by its owners, is in that low, or rather boggy
+situation, suitable to the fashion of those times. I can discover no
+traces of a moat, though there is every conveniency for one: We are
+doubly hurt by seeing a house in a miserable hole, when joining an
+elegible spot.
+
+
+
+BLAKELEY.
+
+Five miles north-west of Birmingham, is _Blakely-hall_, the manor house
+of Oldbury. If we see a venerable edifice without a moat, we cannot from
+thence conclude, it was never the residence of a gentleman, but wherever
+we find one, we may conclude it was.
+
+Anciently, this manor, with those of Smethwick and Harborn, belonged to
+the family of Cornwallis, whose habitation was Blakeley-hall: the
+present building seems about 300 years old.
+
+The extinction of the male line, threw the property into the hands of
+two coheirs; one of whom married into the family of Grimshaw, the other
+into that of Wright, who jointly held it. The family of Grimshaw
+failing, Wright became then, and is now, possessed of the whole.
+
+I am unacquainted with the principal characters who acted the farce of
+life on this island, but it has long been in the tenancy of a poor
+farmer, who, the proprietor allured me, was _best_ able to stock the
+place with children. In 1769, the Birmingham canal passing over the
+premises, robbed the trench of its water. Whether it endangers the
+safety is a doubt, for _poverty_ is the best security against violence.
+
+
+
+WEOLEY
+
+Four miles west of Birmingham, in the parish of Northfield, are the
+small, but extensive ruins of _Weoley-castle_, whose appendages command
+a track of seventeen acres, situate in a park of eighteen hundred.
+
+These moats usually extend from half an acre to two acres, are generally
+square, and the trenches from eight yards over to twenty.
+
+This is large, the walls massy; they form the allies of a garden, and
+the rooms, the beds; the whole display the remains of excellent
+workmanship. One may nearly guess at a man's consequence, even after a
+lapse of 500 years, by the ruins of his house.
+
+The steward told me, "they pulled down the walls as they wanted the
+stone." Unfeeling projectors: there is not so much to pull down. Does
+not time bring destruction fast enough without assistance? The head
+which cannot contemplate, offers its hand to destroy. The insensible
+taste, unable itself to relish the dry fruits of antiquity, throws them
+away to prevent another. May the fingers _smart_ which injure the
+venerable walls of Dudley, or of Kenilworth. Noble remains of ancient
+grandeur! copious indexes, that point to former usage! We survey them
+with awful pleasure. The mouldering walls, as if ashamed of their humble
+state, hide themselves under the ivies; the generous ivies, as if
+conscious of the precious relics, cover them from the injuries of time.
+
+When land frequently undergoes a conveyance, necessity, we suppose, is
+the lot of the owner, but the lawyer fattens: _To have and to hold_ are
+words of singular import; they charm beyond music; are the quintessence
+of language; the leading figure in rhetoric. But how would he fare if
+land was never conveyed? He must starve upon quarrels.
+
+Instances may be given of land which knows no title, except those of
+conquest and descent: Weoley Castle comes nearly under this
+description. _To sign, seal, and deliver_, were wholly unknown to our
+ancestors. Could a Saxon freeholder rise from the dead, and visit the
+land, once his own, now held by as many writings as would half spread
+over it, he might exclaim, "Evil increases with time, and parchment with
+both. You deprive the poor of their breeches; I covered the ground with
+sheep, you with their skins; I thought, as you were at variance with
+France, Spain, Holland, and America, those numerous deeds were a heap of
+drum heads, and the internal writing, the _articles of war_. In one
+instance, however, there is a similarity between us; we unjustly took
+this land from the Britons, you as unjustly took it from us; and a time
+may come, when another will take it from you. Thus, the Spaniards
+founded the Peruvian empire in butchery, now tottering towards a fall;
+you, following their example, seized the northern coast of America; you
+neither bought it nor begged it, you took it from the natives; and thus
+your children, the Americans, with equal violence, have taken it from
+you: No law binds like that of arms. The question has been, whether they
+shall pay taxes? which, after a dispute of eight years, was lost in
+another, _to whom_ they shall pay taxes? The result, in a future day
+will be, domestic struggles for sovereignty will stain the ground
+with blood."
+
+When the proud Norman cut his way to the throne, his imperious followers
+seized the lands, kicked out the rightful possessors, and treated them
+with a dignity rather beneath that practiced to a dog.--This is the most
+summary title yet discovered.
+
+Northfield was the fee-simple of Alwold (Allwood) but, at the conquest,
+Fitz-Ausculf seized it, with a multitude of other manors: it does not
+appear that he granted it in knight's-service to the injured Allwood,
+but kept it for his private use, Paganall married his heiress, and
+Sumeri married Paganall's, who, in the beginning of the 13th century,
+erected the castle. In 1322, the line of Sumeri expired.
+
+Bottetourt, one of the needy squires, who, like Sancho Panza, attended
+William his master, in his mad, but _fortunate_ enterprize, procured
+lands which enabled him to _live_ in England, which was preferable to
+starving in Normandy. His descendant became, in right of his wife,
+coheir of the house of Sumeri, vested in Weoley-castle. He had, in
+1307, sprung into peerage, and was one of our powerful barons, till
+1385, when the male line dropt. The vast estate of Bottetourt, was then
+divided among females; Thomas Barkley, married the eldest, and this
+ancient barony was, in 1761, revived in his descendant, Norborne
+Barkley, the present Lord Bottetourt; Sir Hugh Burnel married another,
+and Sir John St. Leger a third.
+
+Weoley-castle was, for many years, the undivided estate of the three
+families; but Edward Sutton, Lord Dudley, having married a daughter of
+Barkley, became possessed of that castle, which was erected by Sumeri,
+their common ancestor, about nine generations before.
+
+In 1551, he sold it to William Jervoise, of London, mercer, whose
+descendant, Jervoise Clark Jervoise, Esq; now enjoys it.
+
+Fond of ranging, I have travelled a circuit round Birmingham, without
+being many miles from it. I wish to penetrate farther from the center,
+but my subject forbids. _Having therefore finished my discourse, I
+shall_, like my friends, the pulpitarians, many of whom, and of several
+denominations, are characters I revere, _apply what has been said_.
+
+We learn, that the land I have gone over, with the land I have not,
+changed its owners at the conquest: this shuts the door of inquiry into
+pedigree, the old families chiefly became extinct, and few of the
+present can be traced higher.--Destruction then overspread the kingdom.
+
+The seniors of every age exclaim against the growing corruption of the
+times: my father, and perhaps every father, dwelt on the propriety of
+his conduct in younger life, and placed it in counter-view with that of
+the following generation. However, while I knew him, it was much like
+other people's--But I could tell him, that he gave us the bright side of
+his character; that he was, probably, a piece of human nature, as well
+as his son; that nature varies but little, and that the age of William
+the Conqueror was the most rascally in the British annals. One age may
+be marked for the golden, another for the iron, but this for plunder.
+
+We farther learn, there is not one instance in this neighbourhood, where
+an estate has continued till now in the male line, very few in the
+female. I am acquainted with only one family near Birmingham, whose
+ancestor entered with William, and who yet enjoy the land granted at
+that period: the male line has been once broken--perhaps this land was
+never conveyed. They shone with splendour near six hundred years. In the
+sixteenth century, their estate was about 1400_l_. a year; great for
+that time, but is now, exclusive of a few _pepper-corns_ and _red
+roses_, long since withered, reduced to one little farm, tilled for
+bread by the owner. This setting glympse of a shining family, is as
+indifferent about the matter, and almost as ignorant, as the team
+he drives.
+
+Lastly, we learn that none of the lords, as formerly, reside on the
+above premises: that in four instances out of twenty-one, the buildings
+are now as left by the lords, Sheldon, Coleshill, Pipe, and Blakeley:
+two have undergone some alteration, as Duddeston and Erdington: five
+others are re-erected, as Black Greves, Ulverley, King's-hurst, Castle
+Bromwich, and Witton; which, with all the above, are held in tenancy: in
+eight others all the buildings are swept away, and their moats left
+naked, as Hogg's-moat, Yardley, Kent's-moat, Saltley, Ward-end,
+Park-hall, Berwood, and Weoley; and in two instances the moats
+themselves are vanished, that of King's-norton is filled up to make way
+for the plough, and that of Aston demolished by the floods. Thus the
+scenes of hospitality and grandeur, become the scenes of antiquity, and
+then disappear.
+
+
+
+SUTTON COLDFIELD.
+
+Though the topographical historian, who resides upon the premises, is
+most likely to be correct; yet if _he_, with all his care, is apt to be
+mistaken, what can be expected from him who trots his horse over the
+scenes of antiquity?
+
+I have visited, for twenty years, some singular places in this
+neighbourhood, yet, without being master of their history; thus a man
+may spend an age in conning his lesson, and never learn it.
+
+When the farmer observes me on his territories, he eyes me _ascance_;
+suspecting a design to purchase his farm, or take it out of his
+hands.--I endeavour to remove his apprehensions, by approaching him; and
+introduce a conversation tending to my pursuit, which he understands as
+well as if, like the sons of Jacob, I addressed him in Hebrew; yet,
+notwithstanding his total ignorance of the matter, he has sometimes
+dropt an accidental word, which has thrown more light on the subject,
+than all my researches for a twelvemonth. If an honest farmer, in
+future, should see upon his premises a plumpish figure, five feet six,
+with one third of his hair on, a cane in his left hand, a glove upon
+each, and a Pomeranian dog at his heels, let him fear no evil; his farm
+will not be additionally tythed, his sheep worried, nor his hedges
+broken--it is only a solitary animal, in quest of a Roman phantom.
+
+Upon the north west extremity of Sutton Coldfield, joining the Chester
+road, is _The Bowen Pool_; at the tail of which, one hundred yards west
+of the road, on a small eminence, or swell of the earth, are the remains
+of a fortification, called _Loaches Banks_; but of what use or original
+is uncertain, no author having mentioned it.
+
+Four hundred yards farther west, in the same flat, is a hill of some
+magnitude, deemed, by the curious, a tumolus--it is a common thing for
+an historian to be lost, but not quite so common to acknowledge it. In
+attempting to visit this tumolus, I soon found myself in the center of a
+morass; and here, my dear reader might have seen the historian set fast
+in a double sense. I was obliged, for that evening, February 16, 1783,
+to retreat, as the sun had just done before me. I made my approaches
+from another quarter, April 13, when the hill appeared the work of
+nature, upon too broad a base for a tumolus; covering about three acres,
+perfectly round, rising gradually to the center, which is about sixteen
+feet above the level, surrounded by a ditch, perhaps made for some
+private purpose by the owner.
+
+The Roman tumoli were of two sorts, the small for the reception of a
+general, or great man, as that at Cloudsley-bush, near the High Cross,
+the tomb of Claudius; and the large, as at Seckington, near Tamworth,
+for the reception of the dead, after a battle: they are both of the same
+shape, rather high than broad. That before us comes under the
+description of neither; nor could the dead well be conveyed over
+the morass.
+
+The ground-plot, in the center of the fort, at Loaches Banks, is about
+two acres, surrounded by three mounds, which are large, and three
+trenches, which are small; the whole forming a square of four acres.
+Each corner directs to a cardinal point, but perhaps not with design;
+for the situation of the ground would invite the operator to chuse the
+present form. The north-west joins to, and is secured by the pool.
+
+As the works are much in the Roman taste, I might, at first view, deem
+it the residence of an opulent lord of the manor; but, the adjacent
+lands carrying no marks of cultivation, destroys the argument; it is
+also too large for the fashion; besides, all these manorial foundations
+have been in use since the conquest, therefore tradition assists the
+historian; but here, tradition being lost, proves the place of greater
+antiquity.
+
+One might judge it of Danish extraction, but here again, tradition will
+generally lend her assistance; neither are the trenches large enough for
+that people: of themselves they are no security, whether full or empty;
+for an active young fellow might easily skip from one bank to another.
+Nor can we view it as the work of some whimsical lord, to excite the
+wonder of the moderns; it could never pay for the trouble. We must,
+therefore, travel back among the ancient Britons, for a solution, and
+here we shall travel over solid ground.
+
+It is, probably, the remains of a British camp, for near these premises
+are Drude-heath (Druid's-heath) and Drude-fields, which we may
+reasonably suppose was the residence of a British priest: the military
+would naturally shelter themselves under the wing of the church, and the
+priest with the protection of the military. The narrowness of the
+trenches is another proof of its being British; they exactly correspond
+with the stile of that people. The name of the pool, _Bowen_, is of
+British derivation, which is a farther proof that the work originated
+from the Britons. They did not place their security so much in the
+trenches, as in the mounds, which they barracaded with timber. This camp
+is secured on three sides by a morass, and is only approachable on the
+fourth, that from the Coldfield. The first mound on this weak side, is
+twenty-four yards over, twice the size of any other; which, allowing an
+ample security, is a farther evidence of its being British, and
+tradition being silent is another.
+
+
+
+PETITION FOR A CORPORATION.
+
+Every man upon earth seems fond of two things, riches and power: this
+fondness necessarily springs from the heart, otherwise order would
+cease. Without the desire of riches, a man would not preserve what he
+has, nor provide for the future. "My thoughts," says a worthy christian,
+"are not of this world; I desire but one guinea to carry me through it."
+Supply him with that guinea, and he wishes another, lest the first
+should be defective.
+
+If it is necessary a man mould possess property, it is just as necessary
+he should possess a power to protect it, or the world would quickly
+bully him out of it: this power is founded on the laws of his country,
+to which he adds, by way of supplement, bye-laws, founded upon his own
+prudence. Those who possess riches, well know they are furnished with
+wings, and can scarcely be kept from flying.
+
+The man who has power to secure his wealth, seldom stops there; he, in
+turn, is apt to triumph over him who has less. Riches and power are
+often seen to go hand in hand.
+
+Industry produces property; which, when a little matured, looks out for
+command; thus the inhabitants of Birmingham, who have generally
+something upon the anvil besides iron, near seventy years ago having
+derived wealth from diligence, wished to derive power from charter;
+therefore, petitioned the crown that Birmingham might be erected into a
+corporation. Tickled with the title of alderman, dazzled with the
+splendour of a silver mace, a furred gown, and a magisterial chair, they
+could not see the interest of the place: had they succeeded, that
+amazing growth would have been crippled, which has since astonished the
+world, and those trades have been fettered which have proved the
+greatest benefit.
+
+When a man loudly pleads for public good, we shrewdly suspect a private
+emolument lurking beneath. There is nothing more detrimental to good
+neighbourhood, than men in power, where power is unnecessary: free as
+the air we breathe, we subsist by our freedom; no command is exercised
+among us, but that of the laws, to which every discreet citizen pays
+attention--the magistrate who distributes justice, tinctured with mercy,
+merits the thanks of society. A train of attendants, a white wand, and a
+few fiddles, are only the fringe, lace, and trappings of
+charteral office.
+
+Birmingham, exclusive of her market, ranks among the very lowest order
+of townships; every petty village claims the honour of being a
+constable-wick--we are no more. Our immunities are only the trifling
+privileges anciently granted to the lords; and two thirds of these are
+lost. But, notwithstanding this seemingly forlorn state, perhaps there
+is not a place in the British dominions, where so many people are
+governed by so few officers; nor a place better governed: pride,
+therefore, must have dictated the humble petition before us.
+
+I have seen a copy of this petition, signed by eighty-four of the
+inhabitants; and though without a date, seems to have been addressed to
+King George the First, about 1716: it alledges, "That Birmingham is, of
+late years, become very populous, from its great increase of trade; is
+much superior to any town in the county, and but little inferior to any
+inland town in the kingdom: that it is governed only by a constable, and
+enjoys no more privileges than a village: that there is no justice of
+peace in the town; nor any in the neighbourhood, who dares act with
+vigour: that the country abounds with rioters, who, knowing the place to
+be void of magistrates, assemble in it, pull down the meeting-houses,
+defy the king, openly avow the pretender, threaten the inhabitants, and
+oblige them to keep watch in their own houses: that the trade decays,
+and will stagnate, if not relieved. To remedy these evils, they beseech
+his majesty to incorporate the town, and grant such privileges as will
+enable them to support their trade, the king's interest, and destroy the
+villainous attempts of the jacobites. In consideration of the requested
+charter, they make the usual offering of _lives_ and _fortunes_".
+
+A petition and the petitioner, like Janus with his two faces, looks
+different ways; it is often treated as if it said one thing, and meant
+another; or as if it said any thing but truth. Its use, in some places,
+is to _lie on the table_. Our humble petition, by some means, met with
+the fate it deserved.
+
+We may remark, a town without a charter, is a town without a shackle. If
+there was then a necessity to erect a corporation, because the town was
+large, there is none now, though larger: the place was not better
+governed a thousand years ago, when only a tenth of its present
+magnitude; it may also be governed as well a thousand years hence, if it
+should swell to ten times its size.
+
+The _pride_ of our ancestors was hurt by a petty constable; the
+_interest_ of us, their successors, would be hurt by a mayor: a more
+simple government cannot be instituted, or one more efficacious: that of
+some places is designed for parade, ours for use; and both answers their
+end. A town governed by a multitude of governors, is the most likely to
+be ill-governed.
+
+[Illustration: The New Brass Works]
+
+
+
+BRASS WORKS.
+
+The manufacture of brass was introduced by the family of Turner, about
+1740, who erected those works at the south end of Coleshill-street;
+then, near two hundred yards beyond the buildings, but now the buildings
+extend about five hundred beyond them.
+
+Under the black clouds which arose from this corpulent tunnel, some of
+the trades collected their daily supply of brass; but the major part was
+drawn from the Macclesfield, Cheadle, and Bristol companies.
+
+'Causes are known by their effects;' the fine feelings of the heart are
+easily read in the features of the face: the still operations of the
+mind, are discovered by the rougher operations of the hand.
+
+Every creature is fond of power, from that noble head of the creation,
+man, who devours man, down to that insignificant mite, who devours his
+cheese: every man strives to be free himself, and to shackle another.
+
+Where there is power of any kind, whether in the hands of a prince, a
+people, a body of men, or a private person, there is a propensity to
+abuse it: abuse of power will everlastingly seek itself a remedy, and
+frequently find it; nay, even this remedy may in time degenerate to
+abuse, and call loudly for another.
+
+Brass is an object of some magnitude, in the trades of Birmingham; the
+consumption is said to be a thousand tons per annum. The manufacture of
+this useful article had long been in few, and opulent hands; who,
+instead of making the humble bow, for favours received, acted with
+despotic sovereignty, established their own laws, chose their customers,
+directed the price, and governed the market.
+
+In 1780, the article rose, either through caprice, or necessity, perhaps
+the _former_, from 72_l_. a ton to 84_l_. the result was, an advance
+upon the goods manufactured, followed by a number of counter-orders,
+and a stagnation of business.
+
+In 1781, a person, from affection to the user, or resentment to the
+maker, perhaps, the _latter_, harangued the public in the weekly papers;
+censured the arbitrary measures of the brazen sovereigns, shewed their
+dangerous influence over the trades of the town, and the easy manner in
+which works of our own might be constructed--good often arises out of
+evil; this fiery match, dipt in brimstone, quickly kindled another
+furnace in Birmingham. Public meetings were advertised, a committee
+appointed, and subscriptions opened to fill two hundred shares, of
+100_l_. each, deemed a sufficient capital: each proprietor of a share,
+to purchase one ton of brass, annually. Works were immediately erected
+upon the banks of the canal, for the advantage of water carriage, and
+the whole was conducted with the true spirit of Birmingham freedom.
+
+If a man can worm himself _into_ a lucrative branch, he will use every
+method to keep another _out_. All his powers may prove ineffectual; for
+if that other smells the sweet profits of the first, _he_ will endeavour
+to worm himself _in_: both may suffer by the contest, and the public
+be gainers.
+
+The old companies, which we may justly consider the directors of a south
+sea bubble in miniature, sunk the price from 84_l_. to 56_l_. Two
+inferences arise from this measure; that their profits were once very
+high, or are now very low; and, like some former monarchs, in the abuse
+of power, they repented one day too late.
+
+Schemes are generally proclaimed, _for public good!_ but as often meant,
+_for private interest_.--This, however, varied from that rule, and
+seemed less calculated to benefit those immediately, than those remotely
+concerned: they chose to sustain a smaller injury from making brass,
+than a greater from the makers.
+
+
+
+PRISON.
+
+If the subject is little, but little can be said upon it; I shall shine
+as dimly in this chapter on confinement, as in that on government. The
+traveller who sets out lame, will probably limp through the journey.
+
+Many of my friends have assured me, "That I must have experienced much
+trouble in writing the history of Birmingham." But I assure them in
+return, that I range those hours among the happiest of my life; and part
+of that happiness may consist in delineating the bright side of human
+nature. Pictures of deformity, whether of body or of mind, disgust--the
+more they approach towards beauty, the more they charm.
+
+All the chapters which compose this work, were formed with pleasure,
+except the latter part of that upon _births and burials_; there, being
+forced to apply to the parish books, I _figured_ with some obstruction.
+Poor _Allsop_, full of good-nature and affliction, fearful lest I should
+sap the church, could not receive me with kindness. When a man's
+resources lie within himself, he draws at pleasure; but when necessity
+throws him upon the parish, he draws in small sums, and with difficulty.
+
+I either _have_, or _shall_ remark, for I know not in what nich I shall
+exhibit this posthumous chapter, drawn like one of our sluggish bills,
+_three months after date_, "That Birmingham does not abound in villainy,
+equal to some other places: that the hand employed in business, has less
+time, and less temptation, to be employed in mischief; and that one
+magistrate alone, corrected the enormities of this numerous people,
+many years before I knew them, and twenty-five after." I add, that the
+ancient lords of Birmingham, among their manorial privileges, had the
+grant of a gallows, for capital punishment; but as there are no traces
+even of the name, in the whole manor, I am persuaded no such thing was
+ever erected, and perhaps the _anvil_ prevented it.
+
+Many of the rogues among us are not of our own growth, but are drawn
+hither, as in London, to shelter in a crowd, and the easier in that
+crowd to pursue their game. Some of them fortunately catch, from
+example, the arts of industry, and become useful: others continue to
+cheat for one or two years, till frightened by the grim aspect of
+justice, they decamp.
+
+Our vile and obscure prison, termed _The Dungeon_, is a farther proof
+how little that prison has been an object of notice, consequently
+of use.
+
+Anciently the lord of a manor exercised a sovereign power in his little
+dominion; held a tribunal on his premises, to which was annexed a
+prison, furnished with implements for punishment; these were claimed by
+the lords of Birmingham. This crippled species of jurisprudence, which
+sometimes made a man judge in his own cause, from which there was no
+appeal, prevailed in the highlands of Scotland, so late as the rebellion
+in 1745, when the peasantry, by act of parliament, were restored
+to freedom.
+
+Early perhaps in the sixteenth century, when the house of Birmingham,
+who had been chief gaolers, were fallen, a building was erected, which
+covered the east end of New-street, called the Leather-hall: the upper
+part consisted of a room about fifty feet long, where the public
+business of the manor was transacted. The under part was divided into
+several: one of these small rooms was used for a prison: but about the
+year 1728, _while men slept an enemy came_, a private agent to the lord
+of the manor, and erazed the Leather-hall and the Dungeon, erected three
+houses on the spot, and received their rents till 1776, when the town
+purchased them for 500_l_. to open the way. A narrow passage on the
+south will be remembered for half a century to come, by the name of the
+_dungeon-entry_.
+
+A dry cellar, opposite the demolished hall, was then appropriated for a
+prison, till the town of all bad places chose the worst, the bottom of
+Peck-lane; dark, narrow, and unwholesome within; crowded with dwellings,
+filth and distress without, the circulation of air is prevented.
+
+As a growing taste for public buildings has for some time appeared among
+us, we might, in the construction of a prison, unite elegance and use;
+and the west angle of that land between New-street and Mount-pleasant,
+might be suitable for the purpose; an airy spot in the junction of six
+streets. The proprietor of the land, from his known attachment to
+Birmingham, would, I doubt not, be much inclined to grant a
+favour.--Thus, I have expended ten _score_ words, to tell the world what
+another would have told them in _ten_--"That our prison is wretched, and
+we want a better."
+
+
+
+CLODSHALES CHANTRY.
+
+It is an ancient remark, "The world is a farce." Every generation, and
+perhaps every individual, acts a part in disguise; but when the curtain
+falls, the hand of the historian pulls off the mask, and displays the
+character in its native light. Every generation differs from the other,
+_yet all are right_. Time, fashion, and sentiment change together. We
+laugh at the oddity of our fore-fathers--our successors will laugh
+at us.
+
+The prosperous anvil of Walter de Clodshale, a native of this place, had
+enabled him to acquire several estates in Birmingham, to purchase the
+lordship of Saltley, commence gentleman, and reside in the manor-house,
+now gone to decay, though its traces remain, and are termed by common
+people, _the Giant's Castle_. This man, having well provided for the
+_present_, thought it prudent, at the close of life, to provide for the
+_future_: he therefore procured a licence, in 1331, from William de
+Birmingham, lord of the see, and another from the crown, to found a
+chantry at the altar in St. Martin's church, for one priest, to pray for
+his soul, and that of his wife.
+
+He gave, that he might be safely wafted into the arms of felicity, by
+the breath of a priest, four houses, twenty acres of land, and
+eighteen-pence rent, issuing out of his estates in Birmingham.
+
+The same righteous motive induced his son Richard, in 1348, to grant
+five houses, ten acres of land, and ten shillings rent, from the
+Birmingham estates, to maintain a second priest, who was to secure the
+souls of himself and his wife. The declaration of Christ, in that pious
+age, seems to have been inverted; for instead of its being difficult for
+a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, it was difficult for him to
+miss it. We are not told what became of him who had nothing to give! If
+the profits of the estate tended the right way, perhaps there was no
+great concern which way either _Walter_ or _Richard_ tended.
+
+The chantorial music continued two hundred and four years, till 1535,
+when Henry the Eighth closed the book, turned out the priests, who were
+Sir Thomas Allen and Sir John Green, and seized the property, valued at
+5_l_. 1s. per annum. Permit me again to moralize upon this fashionable
+practice of ruining the family, for the health of the soul: except some
+lawful creditor puts in a claim, which justice ought to allow, a son has
+the same right to an estate, after the death of his father, as that
+father had before him.
+
+Had Walter and Richard taken _equal_ care of their souls, and their
+estate, the first might have been as safe as in the hands of a priest,
+and the last, at this day, have been the property of that ancient, and
+once noble race of Arden, long since in distress; who, in 1426, married
+the heiress of their house.--Thus, a family, benefited by the hammer,
+was injured by the church.
+
+Had the hands of these two priests ministered to their wants, in the
+construction of tents and fishing-nets, like those of their
+predecessors, St. Paul and St. Peter, though their pride would have been
+eclipsed, their usefulness would have shone, and the world have been
+gainers by their labour. Two other lessons may be learnt from this
+little ecclesiastical history--
+
+The astonishing advance of landed property in Birmingham: nine houses,
+and thirty acres of land, two hundred and fifty years ago, were valued
+at the trifling rent of 4_l_. 9s. 6d. per annum; one of the acres, or
+one of the houses, would at this day bring more. We may reasonably
+suppose they were under-rated; yet, even then, the difference is
+amasing. An acre, within a mile of Birmingham, now sells for about one
+hundred pounds, and lets from three pounds to five, some as high
+as seven.
+
+And, the nation so overswarmed with ecclesiastics, that the spiritual
+honours were quickly devoured, and the race left hungry; they therefore
+fastened upon the temporal--hence we boast of two knighted priests.
+
+
+
+OCCURRENCES.
+
+EARTHQUAKE, &c.
+
+It is a doctrine singular and barbarous, but it is nevertheless true,
+that _destruction is necessary_. Every species of animals would multiply
+beyond their bounds in the creation, were not means devised to thin
+their race.
+
+I perused an author in 1738, who asserts, "The world might maintain
+sixty times the number of its present inhabitants." Two able disputants,
+like those in religion, might maintain sixty arguments on the subject,
+and like them, leave the matter where they found it. But if restraint
+was removed, the present number would be multiplied into sixty, in much
+less than one century.
+
+Those animals appropriated for use, are suffered, or rather invited, to
+multiply without limitation. But _luxury_ cuts off the beast, the pig,
+the sheep, and the fowl, and ill treatment the horse: vermin of every
+kind, from the lion to the louse, are hunted to death; a perpetual
+contest seems to exist between them and us; they for their preservation,
+and we for their extinction. The kitten and the puppy are cast _into_
+the water, to end their lives; _out_ of which the fishes are drawn to
+end theirs--animals are every were devoured by animals.
+
+Their grand governor, man himself, is under controul; some by religious,
+others by interested motives. Even the fond parent, seldom wishes to
+increase the number of those objects, which of all others he
+values most!
+
+In civilized nations the superior class are restrained by the laws of
+honour, the inferior by those of bastardy; but, notwithstanding these
+restraints, the human race would increase beyond measure, were they not
+taken off by casualties. It is in our species alone, that we often
+behold the infant flame extinguished by the wretched nurse.
+
+Three dreadful calamities attending existence, are inundations, fires,
+and earthquakes; devestation follows their footsteps, But _one_
+calamity, more destructive than them all, rises from man
+himself, _war_.
+
+Birmingham, from its elevation, is nearly exempt from the flood; our
+inundations, instead of sweeping away life and fortune, sweep away the
+filth from the kennel.
+
+It is amasing, in a place crowded with people, that so _much_ business,
+and so _little_ mischief is done by fire: we abound more with party
+walls, than with timber buildings. Utensils are ever ready to extinguish
+the flames, and a generous spirit to use them. I am not certain that a
+conflagration of 50_l_. damage, has happened within memory.
+
+I have only one earthquake to record, felt Nov. 15, 1772, at four in the
+morning; it extended about eight miles in length, from Hall-green to
+Erdington, and four in breadth, of which Birmingham was part. The
+shaking of the earth continued about five seconds, with unequal
+vibration, sufficient to awake a gentle sleeper, throw down a knife
+carelessly reared up, or rattle the brass drops of a chest of drawers. A
+flock of sheep, in a field near Yardley, frightened at the trembling,
+ran away.--No damage was sustained.
+
+
+
+PITMORE AND HAMMOND.
+
+Thomas Pitmore, a native of Cheshire, after consuming a fortune of
+700_l_. was corporal in the second regiment of foot; and John Hammond,
+an American by birth, was drummer in the thirty-sixth; both of
+recruiting parties in Birmingham.
+
+Having procured a brace of pistols, they committed several robberies in
+the dark, on the highways.
+
+At eight in the evening of November 22, 1780, about five hundred yards
+short of the four mile-stone, in the Coleshill road, they met three
+butchers of Birmingham, who closely followed each other in their return
+from Rugby fair. One of the robbers attempted the bridle of the first
+man, but his horse, being young, started out of the road, and ran away.
+The drummer then attacked the second, Wilfred Barwick, with "Stop your
+horse," and that moment, through the agitation of a timorous mind,
+discharged a pistol, and lodged a brace of slugs in the bowels of the
+unfortunate Barwick, who exclaimed, "I am a dead man!" and fell.
+
+The corporal instantly disappeared, and was afterwards, by the light of
+the show upon the ground, seen retreating to Birmingham. The drummer ran
+forwards about forty yards, and over a stile into Ward-end field. A
+fourth butcher of their company, and a lad, by this time came up, who,
+having heard the report of a pistol, seen the flash, and the drummer
+enter the field, leaped over the hedge in pursuit of the murderer. A
+frey ensued, in which the drummer was seized, who desired them not to
+take his life, but leave him to the laws of his country.
+
+Within half an hour, the deceased and the captive appeared together in
+the same room, at the Horse-shoe. What must then be the feelings of a
+mind, susceptible of impression by nature, but weakly calloused over by
+art? This is one instance, among many, which shews us, a life of
+innocence, is alone a life of happiness.
+
+The drummer impeached his companion, who was perhaps the most guilty of
+the two, and they were both that night lodged in the dungeon.
+
+Upon the trial, March 31, 1781, the matter was too plain to be
+controverted. The criminals were executed, and hung in chains at
+Washwood-heath, April 2; the corporal at the age of 25, and the
+drummer 22.
+
+
+
+RIOTS.
+
+Three principal causes of riot are, the low state of wages, the
+difference in political sentiment, and the rise of provisions: these
+causes, like inundations, produce dreadful effects, and like them,
+return at uncertain periods.
+
+The journeyman in Birmingham is under no temptation to demand an
+additional price for his labour, which is already higher than the
+usual mark.
+
+There is no nation fonder of their king than the English; which is a
+proof that monarchy suits the genius of the people: there is no nation
+more jealous of his power, which proves that liberty is a favourite
+maxim. Though the laws have complimented him with _much_, yet he well
+knows, a prerogative upon the stretch, is a prerogative in a
+dangerous state.
+
+The more a people value their prince, the more willing are they to
+contend in his favour.
+
+The people of England revered the memory of their beloved Saxon kings,
+and doubly lamented their fall, with that of their liberties.
+
+They taxed themselves into beggary, to raise the amasing sum of
+100,000_l_. to release Richard the First, unjustly taken captive
+by Leopold.
+
+They protected Henry the Fifth from death, at Agincourt, and received
+that death themselves.
+
+They covered the extreme weakness of Henry the Sixth, who _never said a
+good thing, or did a bad one_, with the mantle of royalty; when a
+character like his, without a crown, would have been hunted through
+life: they gave him the title of _good king Henry_, which would well
+have suited, had the word _king_ been omitted; they sought him a place
+in the kalendar of saints, and made _him_ perform the miracles of an
+angel when dead, who could never perform the works of a man,
+when living.
+
+The people shewed their attachment to Henry the Eighth, by submitting to
+the faggot and the block, at his command; and with their last breath,
+praying for their butcher.
+
+Affection for Charles the First, induced four of his friends to offer
+their own heads, to save his.--The wrath, and the tears of the people,
+succeeded his melancholy exit.
+
+When James the Second eloped from the throne, and was casually picked up
+at Feversham, by his injured subjects, _they remembered he was
+their king_.
+
+The church and Queen Anne, like a joyous co-partnership, were toasted
+together. The barrel was willingly emptied to honour the queen, and the
+toaster lamented he could honour her no more.
+
+The nation displayed their love to Charles the Second, by latticing the
+forests. His climbing the oak at Boscobel, has been the destruction of
+more timber than would have filled the harbour of Portsmouth; the tree
+which flourished in the field, was brought to die in the street.
+Birmingham, for ninety years, honoured him with her vengeance against
+the woods; and she is, at this day, surrounded with mutilated oaks,
+which stand as martyrs to royalty.
+
+It is singular, that the oak, which assisted the devotion of the
+Britons, composed habitations for the people, and furniture for those
+habitations; that, while standing, was an ornament to the country that
+bore it; and afterwards guarded the land which nursed it, should be the
+cause of continual riots, in the reign of George the First. We could not
+readily accede to a line of strangers, in preference to our ancient race
+of kings, though loudly charged with oppression.
+
+Clubs and tumults supported the spirit of contention till 1745, when, as
+our last act of animosity, we crowned an ass with turnips, in derision
+of one of the worthiest families that ever eat them.
+
+Power, in the hand of ignorance, is an edge-tool of the most dangerous
+kind. The scarcity of provisions, in 1766, excited the murmurs of the
+poor. They began to breathe vengeance against the farmer, miller, and
+baker, for doing what they do themselves, procure the greatest price for
+their property.
+
+On the market day, a common labourer, like Massenello of Naples, formed
+the resolution to lead a mob.
+
+He therefore erected his standard, which was a mop inverted, assembled
+the crowd, and roared out the old note, "Redress of Grievances." The
+colliers, with all their dark retinue, were to bring destruction from
+Wednesbury. Amazement seised the town! the people of fortune trembled:
+John Wyrley, an able magistrate, for the first time frightened in
+office, with quivering lips, and a pale aspect, swore in about eighty
+constables, to oppose the rising storm, armed each of them with a staff
+of authority, warm from the turning-lathe, and applied to the War-office
+for a military force.
+
+The lime-powdered monarch began to fabricate his own laws, direct the
+price of every article, which was punctually obeyed.
+
+Port, or power, soon overcome a weak head; the more copious the draught,
+the more quick intoxication: he entered many of the shops, and was every
+where treated with the utmost reverence; took whatever goods he pleased,
+and distributed them among his followers; till one of the inhabitants,
+provoked beyond measure at his insolence, gave him a hearty kick on the
+posteriors, when the hero and his consequence, like that of Wat Tyler,
+fell together.--Thus ended a reign of seven hours; the sovereign was
+committed to prison, as sovereigns ought, in the abuse of power, and
+harmony was restored without blood.
+
+
+
+THE CONJURERS.
+
+No _head_ is a vacuum. Some, like a paltry cottage, are ill
+accommodated, dark, and circumscribed; others are capacious as
+Westminster-Hall. Though none are immense, yet they are capable of
+immense furniture. The more room is taken up by knowledge, the less
+remains for credulity. The more a man is acquainted with things, the
+more willing to _give up the ghost_. Every town and village, within my
+knowledge, has been pestered with spirits; which appear in horrid forms
+to the imagination in the winter night--but the spirits which haunt
+Birmingham, are those of industry and luxury.
+
+If we examine the whole parish, we cannot produce one _old_ witch; but
+we have plenty of young, who exercise a powerful influence over us.
+Should the ladies accuse the harsh epithet, they will please to
+consider, I allow them, what of all things they most wish for, _power_,
+therefore the balance is in my favor.
+
+If we pass through the planitary worlds, we shall be able to muster up
+two conjurers, who endeavoured to _shine with the stars_. The first,
+John Walton, who was so busy in calling the nativity of others, he
+forgot his own.
+
+Conscious of an application to himself, for the discovery of stolen
+goods, he employed his people to steal them. And though, for many years
+confined to his bed by infirmity, he could conjure away the property of
+others, and, for a reward, reconjure it again.
+
+The prevalence of this evil, induced the legislature, in 1725, to make
+the _reception_ of stolen goods capital. The first sacrifice to this law
+was the noted Jonathan Wild.
+
+The officers of justice, in 1732, pulled Walton out of his bed, in an
+obscure cottage, one furlong from the town, now Brickhill-Lane, carried
+him to prison, and from thence to the gallows--they had better have
+carried him to the workhouse, and his followers to the anvil.
+
+To him succeeded Francis Kimberley, the only reasoning animal, who
+resided at No. 60, in Dale-End, from his early youth to extreme
+age.--An hermit in a crowd! The windows of his house were strangers to
+light! The shutters forgot to open; the chimney to smoak. His cellar,
+though amply furnished, never knew moisture.
+
+He spent threescore years in filling six rooms with such trumpery as is
+just too good to be thrown away, and too bad to be kept. His life was as
+inoffensive as long. Instead of _stealing_ the goods which other people
+use, he _purchased_ what he could not use himself. He was not anxious
+what kind of property entered his house; if there was _bulk_ he was
+satisfied.
+
+His dark house, and his dark figure corresponded with each other. The
+apartments, choaked up with lumber, scarcely admitted his body, though
+of the skeleton order. Perhaps leanness is an appendage to the science,
+for I never knew a corpulent conjurer.
+
+His diet, regular, plain, and slender, shewed at how little expence life
+may be sustained.
+
+His library consisted of several thousand volumes, not one of which, I
+believe, he ever read: having written, in characters unknown to all but
+himself, his name, price, and date, in the title-page, he laid them by
+for ever. The highest pitch of his erudition was the annual almanack.
+
+He never wished to approach a woman, or be approached by one. Should the
+rest of men, for half a century, pay no more attention to the fair, some
+angelic hand might stick up a note, like the artic circle over one of
+our continents, _this world to be let_.
+
+If he did not cultivate the human species, the spiders, more numerous
+than his books, enjoyed an uninterrupted reign of quiet. The silence of
+the place was not broken: the broom, the book, the dust, or the web, was
+not disturbed. Mercury and his shirt, changed their revolutions
+together; and Saturn changed _his_, with his coat.
+
+He died, in 1756, as conjurers usually die, unlamented.
+
+
+
+MILITARY ASSOCIATION.
+
+The use of arms is necessary to every man who has something to lose, or
+something to gain. No property will protect itself. The English have
+liberty and property to lose, but nothing to win. As every man is born
+free, the West-Indian slaves have liberty to gain, but nothing to lose.
+If a rascally African prince attempts to sell his people, he ought to be
+first sold himself; and the buyer, who acts so daringly opposite to the
+Christian precept, is yet more blameable. He ought to have the first
+whip, often mended, worn out upon his own back.
+
+It may seem unnecessary to tell the world, what they already know;
+recent transactions come under this description; but they are not known
+to the stranger, nor to posterity.
+
+Upon a change of the Northean ministry, in 1782, the new premier, in a
+circular letter, advised the nation to arm, as the dangers of invasion
+threatened us with dreadful aspect. Intelligence from a quarter so
+authentic, locked up the door of private judgment, or we might have
+considered, that even without alliance, and with four principal powers
+upon our hands, we were rather gaining ground; that the Americans were
+so far from attacking us, that they wished us to run ourselves out of
+breath to attack them; that Spain had slumbered over a seven years war;
+that the Dutch, provoked at their governors, for the loss of their
+commerce, were more inclinable to invade themselves than us; and that as
+France bore the weight of the contest, we found employment for her arms,
+without invasion; but, perhaps, the letter was only an artifice of the
+new state doctor, to represent his patient in a most deplorable state,
+as a complement to his own merit in recovering her.
+
+Whatever was the cause, nothing could be more agreeable than this letter
+to the active spirit of Birmingham. Public meetings were held. The
+rockets of war were squibbed off in the news-papers. The plodding
+tradesman and the lively hero assembled together in arms, and many a
+trophy was won in thought.
+
+Each man purchased a genteel blue uniform, decorated with epaulets of
+gold, which, together with his accoutrements, cost about 17_l_. The
+gentleman, the apprentice, &c. to the number of seventy, united in a
+body, termed by themselves, _The Birmingham Association_; by the wag,
+_the brazen walls of the town_. Each was to be officer and private by
+ballet, which gives an idea of equality, and was called to exercise
+once a week.
+
+The high price of provisions, and the 17th of October, brought a
+dangerous mob into Birmingham. They wanted bread: so did we. But little
+conference passed between them and the inhabitants. They were quiet; we
+were pleased; and, after an hour or two's stay, they retreated in peace.
+
+In the evening, after the enemy were fled, our champions beat to arms,
+breathing vengeance against the hungry crew; and, had they returned,
+some people verily thought our valiant heroes would have _discharged_
+at them.
+
+However laudable a system, if built upon a false basis, it will not
+stand. Equality and command, in the same person, are incompatiable;
+therefore, cannot exist together. Subordination is necessary in every
+class of life, but particularly in the military. Nothing but severe
+discipline can regulate the boisterous spirit of an army.
+
+A man may be bound to another, but if he commands the bandage, he will
+quickly set himself free. This was the case with the military
+association. As their uniform resembled that of a commander, so did
+their temper. There were none to submit. The result was, the farce
+ended, and the curtain dropt in December, by a quarrel with each other;
+and, like _John_ and _Lilborn_, almost with themselves.
+
+
+
+BILSTON CANAL ACT.
+
+Envy, like a dark shadow, follows closely the footsteps of prosperity;
+success in any undertaking, out of the circle of genius, produces a
+rival.--This I have instanced in our hackney coaches.
+
+Profits, like a round-bellied bottle, may seem bulky, which, like that,
+will not bear dividing: Thus Orator Jones, in 1774, opened a debating
+society at the Red Lion; he quickly filled a large room with customers,
+and his pockets with money, but he had not prudence to keep either. His
+success opened a rival society at the King's-head, which, in a few
+weeks, annihilated both.
+
+The growing profits of our canal company, already mentioned, had
+increased the shares from 140_l_. in 1768, to 400 guineas, in 1782.
+These emoluments being thought enormous, a rival company sprung up,
+which, in 1783, petitioned Parliament to partake of those emoluments, by
+opening a parallel cut from some of the neighbouring coal-pits; to
+proceed along the lower level, and terminate in Digbeth.
+
+A stranger might ask, "How the water in our upland country, which had
+never supplied one canal, could supply two? Whether the second canal was
+not likely to rob the first? Whether one able canal is not preferable to
+two lame ones? If a man sells me an article cheaper than I can purchase
+it elsewhere, whether it is of consequence to me what are his profits?
+And whether two companies in rivalship would destroy that harmony which
+has long subsisted in Birmingham."
+
+The new company urged, "The necessity of another canal, lest the old
+should not perform the business of the town; that twenty per cent. are
+unreasonable returns; that they could afford coals under the present
+price; that the south country teams would procure a readier supply from
+Digbeth, than from the present wharf, and not passing through the
+streets, would be prevented from injuring the pavement; and that the
+goods from the Trent would come to their wharf by a run of eighteen
+miles nearer than to the other."
+
+The old company alledged, "That they ventured their property in an
+uncertain pursuit, which, had it not succeeded, would have ruined many
+individuals; therefore the present gains were only a recompense for
+former hazard: that this property was expended upon the faith of
+Parliament, who were obliged in honour to protect it, otherwise no man
+would risk his fortune upon a public undertaking; for should they allow
+a second canal, why not a third; which would become a wanton destruction
+of right, without benefit; that although the profit of the original
+subscribers might seem large, those subscribers are but few; many have
+bought at a subsequent price, which barely pays common interest, and
+this is all their support; therefore a reduction would be barbarous on
+one side, and sensibly felt on the other: and, as the present canal
+amply supplies the town and country, it would be ridiculous to cut away
+good land to make another, which would ruin both."
+
+I shall not examine the reasons of either, but leave the disinterested
+reader to weigh both in his own balance.
+
+When two opponents have said all that is true, they generally say
+something more; rancour holds the place of argument.
+
+Both parties beat up for volunteers in the town, to strengthen their
+forces; from words of acrimony, they came to those of virulence; then
+the powerful batteries of hand-bills, and news-papers were opened: every
+town within fifty miles, interested, on either side, was moved to
+petition, and both prepared for a grand attack, confident of victory.
+
+Perhaps a contest among friends, in matters of property, will remove
+that peace of mind, which twenty per cent. will not replace.
+
+Each party possessed that activity of spirit, for which Birmingham is
+famous, and seemed to divide between them the legislative strength of
+the nation: every corner of the two houses was ransacked for a vote; the
+throne was the only power unsolicited. Perhaps at the reading, when both
+parties had marshalled their forces, there was the fullest House of
+Commons ever remembered on a private bill.
+
+The new company promised much, for besides the cut from Wednesbury to
+Digbeth, they would open another to join the two canals of Stafford and
+Coventry, in which a large track of country was interested.
+
+As the old company were the first adventurers, the house gave them the
+option to perform this Herculean labour, which they accepted.
+
+As parliament have not yet given their determination, and as the printer
+this moment raps at my door, "Sir, the press waits, more copy if you
+please," I cannot stay to tell the world the result of the bill; but
+perhaps, the new proprietors, by losing, will save 50,000_l_. and the
+old, by winning, become sufferers.
+
+
+
+WORKHOUSE BILL.
+
+I have often mentioned an active spirit, as the characteristic of the
+inhabitants of Birmingham. This spirit never forsakes them. It displays
+itself in industry, commerce, invention, humanity, and internal
+government. A singular vivacity attends every pursuit till compleated,
+or discarded for a second.
+
+The bubble of the day, like that at the end of a tobacco-pipe, dances in
+air, exhibits divers beauties, pleases the eye, bursts in a moment, and
+is followed up by another.
+
+There is no place in the British dominions easier to be governed than
+Birmingham; and yet we are fond of forging acts of parliament to
+govern her.
+
+There is seldom a point of time in which an act is not in agitation; we
+fabricate them with such expedition, that we could employ a parliament
+of our own to pass them. But, to the honor of our ladies, not one of
+these acts is directed against them. Neither is there an instance upon
+record, that the torch of Hymen was ever extinguished by the breath of
+Marriot in Doctors-Commons.
+
+In the present spring of 1783, we have four acts upon the anvil: every
+man, of the least consequence, becomes a legislator, and wishes to lend
+his assistance in framing an act; so that instead of one lord, as
+formerly, we now, like the Philistines, have three thousand.
+
+An act of parliament, abstractedly considered, is a dead matter: it
+cannot operate of itself: like a plaister, it must be applied to the
+evil, or that evil will remain. We vainly expect a law to perform the
+intended work; if it does not, we procure another to make it. Thus the
+canal, by one act in 1767, hobbled on, like a man with one leg; but a
+second, in 1770, furnished a pair. The lamp act, procured in 1769, was
+worn to rags, and mended with another in 1773; and this second has been
+long out of repair, and waits for a third.
+
+We carry the same spirit into our bye-laws, and with the same success.
+Schemes have been devised, to oblige every man to pay levies; but it was
+found difficult to extract money from him who had none.
+
+In 1754, we brought the manufacture of pack-thread into the workhouse,
+to reduce the levies; the levies increased. A spirited overseer
+afterwards, for the same reason, as if poverty was not a sufficient
+stigma, badged the poor; the levies still increased.
+
+The advance of bread in 1756, induced the officers to step out of the
+common track, perhaps, out of their knowledge; and, at the expence of
+half a levy, fit up an apparatus for grinding corn in the house: thus,
+by sacrificing half _one levy, many would be saved_. However, in the
+pursuit, many happened to be lost. In 1761, the apparatus was sold at a
+farther loss; and the overseers sheltered themselves under the charge of
+idleness against the paupers.
+
+In 1766, the spinning of mop-yarn was introduced, which might, with
+attention, have turned to account; but unfortunately, the yarn proved of
+less value than the wool.
+
+Others, with equal wisdom, were to ease the levies, by feeding a drove
+of pigs, which, agreeable to their own nature--ran backwards.--Renting a
+piece of ground, by way of garden, which supplied the house with a
+pennyworth of vegetables, for two-pence, adding a few cows, and a
+pasture; but as the end of all was _loss_, the levies increased.
+
+In 1780, two collectors were appointed, at fifty guineas each, which
+would save the town _many a hundred_; still the levies increased.
+
+A petition is this sessions presented, for an Act to overturn the whole
+pauper system (for our heads are as fond of new fashions, in parochial
+government, as in the hats which cover them) to erect a superb
+workhouse, at the expence of 10,000_l_. with powers to borrow 15,000_l_.
+which grand design is to reduce the levies _one third_.--The levies will
+increase.
+
+The reasons _openly_ alledged are, "The Out-pensioners, which cost
+7000_l_. a year, are the chief foundation of our public grievances: that
+the poor ought to be employed _in_ the house, lest their morals become
+injured by the shops; which prevents them from being taken into family
+service; and, the crowded state of the workhouse."--But whether the
+pride of an overseer, in perpetuating his name, is not the pendulum
+which set the machine in motion? Or, whether a man, as well as a spider,
+may not create a _place_, and, like that--_fill it with himself_?
+
+The bill directs, That the inhabitants mall chuse a number of guardians
+by ballot, who shall erect a workhouse, on Birmingham-heath--a spot as
+airy as the scheme; conduct a manufacture, and the poor; dispose of the
+present workhouse; seize and confine idle or disorderly persons, and
+keep them to labour, till they have reimbursed the parish all expences.
+
+But it may be asked, Whether spending 15,000_l_. is likely to reduce the
+levies?
+
+Whether we shall be laughed at, for throwing by a building, the last
+wing of which cost a thousand pounds, after using it only three years?
+
+Our commerce is carried on by reciprocal obligation. Every overseer has
+his friends, whom he cannot refuse to serve; nay, whom he may even wish
+to serve, if that service costs him nothing: hence, that over-grown
+monster so justly complains of, _The Weekly Tickets_; it follows,
+whether _sixty_ guardians are not likely to have more friends to serve,
+than six overseers?
+
+Whether the trades of the town, by a considerable manufacture
+established at the workhouse, will not be deprived of their most
+useful hands?
+
+Whether it is not a maxim of the wisest men who have filled the office,
+"to endeavour to keep the poor _out_ of the house, for if they are
+admitted, they become more chargeable; nor will they leave it without
+clothing?"
+
+A workhouse is a kind of prison, and a dreadful one to those of tender
+feelings--Whether the health of an individual, the ideas of rectitude,
+or the natural right of our species, would not be infringed by a cruel
+imprisonment.
+
+If a man has followed an occupation forty years, and necessity sends him
+to the parish, whether is it preferable to teach him a new trade, or
+suffer him to earn what he can at his old? If we decide for the latter,
+whether he had better walk four hundred yards to business, or four
+miles? His own infirmity will determine this question.
+
+If a young widow be left with two children, shall she pay a girl
+six-pence a week to tend them, while she earns five shillings at the
+mops, and is allowed two by the parish, or shall all three reside in the
+house, at the weekly expence of six, and she be employed in nursing
+them? If we again declare for the latter, it follows, that the parish
+will not only have four shillings a week, but the community may gain
+half a crown by her labour.
+
+Whether the morals of the children are more likely to be injured by the
+shops, than the morals of half the children in town; many of whom labour
+to procure levies for the workhouse?
+
+Whether the morals of a child will be more corrupted in a small shop,
+consisting of a few persons, or in a large one at the workhouse,
+consisting of hundreds?
+
+Whether the grand shop at Birmingham-heath, or at any heath, will train
+girls for service, preferable to others?
+
+Shall we, because the house has been crowded a few weeks, throw away
+15000_l_. followed by a train of evils? A few months ago, I saw in it a
+large number of vacant beds. Besides, at a small expence, and without
+impeding the circulation of air, conveniency may be made for one
+hundred more.
+
+Did a manufacture ever prosper under a multitude of inspectors, not one
+of which is to taste the least benefit?
+
+As public business, which admits no profit, such as vestry assemblies,
+commissions of lamps, turnpike meetings, &c. are thinly attended, even
+in town; what reason is there to expect a board two miles in
+the country?
+
+The workhouse may be deemed _The Nursery of Birmingham_, in which she
+deposits her infants, for future service: the unfortunate and the idle,
+till they can be set upon their own basis; and the decrepid, during the
+few remaining sands in their glass. If we therefore carry the workhouse
+to a distance, whether we shall not interrupt that necessary intercourse
+which ought to subsist between a mother and her offspring? As sudden
+sickness, indications of child-birth, &c. require immediate assistance,
+a life in extreme danger may chance to be lost by the length of
+the road.
+
+If we keep the disorderly till they have reimbursed the parish, whether
+we do not acquire an inheritance for life?
+
+We censure the officer who pursues a phantom at the expence of others;
+we praise him who _teaches the poor to live_.
+
+All the evils complained of, may be removed by _attention in the man_;
+the remedy is not in an act. He therefore accuses his own want of
+application, in soliciting government to _do_ what he might do
+himself--Expences are saved by private acts of oeconomy, not by public
+Acts of Parliament.
+
+It has long been said, _think_ and _act_; but as our internal
+legislators chuse to reverse the maxim by fitting up an expensive shop;
+then seeking a trade to bring in, perhaps they may place over the grand
+entrance, _act_ and _think_.
+
+One remark should never be lost sight of, _The more we tax the
+inhabitants, the sooner they leave us, and carry off the trades_.
+
+
+
+THE CAMP.
+
+I have already remarked, _a spirit of bravery is part of the British
+character_. The perpetual contests for power, among the Britons, the
+many roads formed by the Romans, to convey their military force, the
+prodigious number of camps, moats, and broken castles, left us by the
+Saxons, Danes, and Normans, our common ancestors, indicate _a martial
+temper_. The names of those heroic sovereigns, Edward the Third, and
+Henry the Fifth, who brought their people to the fields of conquest,
+descend to posterity with the highest applause, though they brought
+their kingdom to the brink of ruin; while those quiet princes, Henry the
+Seventh, and James the First, who cultivated the arts of peace, are but
+little esteemed, though under their sceptre, England experienced the
+greatest improvement.--The man who dare face an enemy, is the most
+likely to gain a friend. A nation versed in arms, stands the fairest
+chance to protect its property, and secure its peace: war itself may be
+hurtful, the knowledge of it useful.
+
+In Mitchly-park, three miles west of Birmingham, in the parish of
+Edgbaston, is _The Camp_; which might be ascribed to the Romans, lying
+within two or three stones cast of their Ikenield-street, where it
+divides the counties of Warwick and Worcester, but is too extensive for
+that people, being about thirty acres: I know none of their camps more
+than four, some much less; it must, therefore, have been the work of
+those pilfering vermin the Danes, better acquainted with other peoples
+property than their own; who first swarmed on the shores, then over-ran
+the interior parts of the kingdom, and, in two hundred years, devoured
+the whole.
+
+No part of this fortification is wholly obliterated, though, in many
+places, it is nearly levelled by modern cultivation, that dreadful enemy
+to the antiquary. Pieces of armour are frequently ploughed up,
+particularly parts of the sword and the battle-axe, instruments much
+used by those destructive sons of the raven.
+
+The platform is quadrangular, every side nearly four hundred yards; the
+center is about six acres, surrounded by three ditches, each about eight
+yards over, at unequal distances; though upon a descent, it is amply
+furnished with water. An undertaking of such immense labour, could not
+have been designed for temporary use.
+
+The propriety of the spot, and the rage of the day for fortification,
+seem to have induced the Middlemores, lords of the place for many
+centuries, and celebrated for riches, but in the beginning of this work,
+for poverty, to erect a park, and a lodge; nothing of either exist, but
+the names.
+
+
+
+MORTIMER's BANK.
+
+The traveller who undertakes an extensive journey, cannot chuse his
+road, or his weather: sometimes the prospect brightens, with a serene
+sky, a smooth path, and a smiling sun; all within and without him
+is chearful.
+
+Anon he is assailed by the tempests, stumbles over the ridges, is
+bemired in the hollows, the sun hides his face, and his own is
+sorrowful--this is the lot of the historian; he has no choice of
+subject, merry or mournful, he must submit to the changes which offer;
+delighted with the prosperous tale, depressed with the gloomy.
+
+I am told, this work has often drawn a smile from the reader; it has
+often drawn a sigh from me. A celebrated painter fell in love with the
+picture he drew; I have wept at mine--Such is the chapter of the Lords,
+and the Workhouse. We are not always proof against a melancholy or a
+tender sentiment.
+
+Having pursued our several stages, with various fortune, through fifty
+chapters, at the close of this last tragic scene, emotion and the
+journey cease together.
+
+Upon King's-wood, five miles from Birmingham, and two hundred yards east
+of the Alcester-road, runs a bank for near a mile in length, unless
+obliterated by the new inclosure; for I saw it complete in 1775. This
+was raised by the famous Roger Mortimer, Earl of March, about 1324, to
+inclose a wood, from whence the place derives its name.
+
+Then that feeble monarch, Edward the Second, governed the kingdom; the
+amorous Isabella, his wife, governed the king, and the gallant Mortimer
+governed the queen.
+
+The parishes of King's-norton, Solihull, Yardley, uniting in this wood,
+and enjoying a right of commons, the inhabitants conceived themselves
+injured by the inclosure, assembled in a body, threw down the fence, and
+murdered the Earl's bailiff.
+
+Mortimer, in revenge, procured a special writ from the Court of Common
+Pleas, and caused the matter to be tried at Bromsgrove, where the
+affrighted inhabitants, over-awed with power, durst not appear in their
+own vindication. The Earl, therefore, recovered a verdict, and the
+enormous sum of 300_l_. damage. A sum nearly equal, at that time, to the
+fee-simple of the three parishes.
+
+The confusion of the times, and the poverty of the people, protracted
+payment, till the unhappy Mortimer, overpowered by his enemies, was
+seized as a criminal in Nottingham-castle; and, without being heard,
+executed at Tyburn, in 1328.
+
+The distressed inhabitants of our three parishes humbly petitioned the
+crown, for a reduction of the fine; when Edward the Third was pleased to
+remit about 260_l_.
+
+We can assign no reason for this imprudent step of inclosing the wood,
+unless the Earl intended to procure a grant of the manor, then in the
+crown, for his family. But what he could not accomplish by family, was
+accomplished by fortune; for George the Third, King of Great Britain, is
+lord of the manor of King's-norton, and a descendant from the house
+of Mortimer.
+
+
+
+F I N I S.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's An History of Birmingham (1783), by William Hutton
+
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+
+Project Gutenberg's An History of Birmingham (1783), by William Hutton
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: An History of Birmingham (1783)
+
+Author: William Hutton
+
+Release Date: November 2, 2004 [EBook #13926]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM (1783) ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Charlie Kirschner and the PG Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+<h3>AN</h3>
+<h2>HISTORY</h2>
+<h3>OF</h3>
+<h1>BIRMINGHAM.</h1>
+<a name="image01.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image01.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image01.jpg" width="100%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b>A South View of BIRMINGHAM <i>from the Summer House, Cheapside,
+Bordsley.</i></b></p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h3>THE SECOND EDITION,</h3>
+<h4>WITH CONSIDERABLE ADDITIONS.</h4>
+<br>
+<h3>By W. HUTTON.</h3>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>PREFACE.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>A preface rather induces a man to speak of himself, which is
+deemed the worst subject upon which he <i>can</i> speak. In history
+we become acquainted with things, but in a preface with the author;
+and, for a man to treat of himself, may be the most
+<i>difficult</i> talk of the two: for in history, facts are
+produced ready to the hand of the historian, which give birth to
+thought, and it is easy to cloath that thought in words. But in a
+preface, an author is obliged to forge from the brain, where he is
+sometimes known to forge without fire. In one, he only reduces a
+substance into form; but in the other, he must create that
+substance.</p>
+<p>As I am not an author by profession, it is no wonder if I am
+unacquainted with the modes of authorship; but I apprehend, the
+usual method of conducting the pen, is to polish up a founding
+title-page, dignified with scraps of Latin, and then, to hammer up
+a work to fit it, as nearly as genius, or want of genius, will
+allow.</p>
+<p>We next <i>turn over a new leaf</i>, and open upon a pompous
+dedication, which answers many laudable purposes: if a coat of
+arms, correctly engraven, should step first into view, we consider
+it a singular advantage gained over a reader, like the first blow
+in a combat. The dedication itself becomes a pair of stilts, which
+advance an author something higher.</p>
+<p>As a horse-shoe, nailed upon the threshold of a cottage,
+prevents the influence of the witch; so a first-rate name, at the
+head of a dedication, is a total bar against the critic; but this
+great name, like a great officer, sometimes unfortunately stands at
+the head of wretched troops.</p>
+<p>When an author is too <i>heavy</i> to swim of himself, it serves
+as a pair of bladders, to prevent his sinking.</p>
+<p>It is farther productive of a <i>solid</i> advantage, that of a
+present from the patron, more valuable than that from the
+bookseller, which prevents his sinking under the pressure of
+famine.</p>
+<p>But, being wholly unknown to the great names of literary
+consequence, I shall not attempt a dedication, therefore must lose
+the benefit of the stilt, the bladder, and the horse-shoe.</p>
+<p>Were I to enter upon a dedication, I should certainly address
+myself, "<i>To the Inhabitants of Birmingham</i>." For to them I
+not only owe much, but all; and I think, among that congregated
+mass, there is not one person to whom I wish ill. I have the
+pleasure of calling many of those inhabitants <i>Friends</i>, and
+some of them share my warm affections equally with myself.
+Birmingham, like a compassionate nurse, not only draws our persons,
+but our esteem, from the place of our nativity, and fixes it upon
+herself: I might add, <i>I was hungry, and she fed me</i>;
+<i>thirsty, and she gave me drink</i>; <i>a stranger, and she took
+me in</i>. I approached her with reluctance, because I did not know
+her; I shall leave her with reluctance, because I do.</p>
+<p>Whether it is perfectly confident in an author, to solicit the
+indulgence of the public, though it may stand first in his wishes,
+admits a doubt; for, if his productions will not bear the light, it
+may be said, why does he publish? but, if they will, there is no
+need to ask a favor; the world receives one from him. Will not a
+piece everlastingly be tried by its merit? Shall we esteem it the
+higher, because it was written at the age of thirteen? because it
+was the effort of a week? delivered extempore? hatched while the
+author stood upon one leg? or cobbled, while he cobbled a shoe? or
+will it be a recommendation, that it issues forth in gilt binding?
+The judicious world will not be deceived by the tinselled purse,
+but will examine whether the <i>contents</i> are sterling.</p>
+<p>Will it augment the value of this history, or cover its
+blunders, to say, that I have never seen <i>Oxford?</i> That the
+thick fogs of penury, prevented the sun of science from beaming
+upon the mind? That necessity obliged me to lay down the
+battledore, before I was master of the letters? And that, instead
+of handling systems of knowledge, my hands, at the early period of
+seven, became callous with labour?</p>
+<p>But, though a whole group of pretences will have no effect with
+the impartial eye, yet one reason pleads strongly in my favor--no
+such thing ever appeared as <i>An History of Birmingham</i>. It is
+remarkable, that one of the most singular places in the universe is
+without an historian: that she never manufactured an history of
+herself, who has manufactured almost every thing else; that so many
+ages should elapse, and not one among her numerous sons of
+industry, snatch the manners of the day from oblivion, group them
+in design, with the touches of his pen, and exhibit the picture to
+posterity. If such a production had ever seen the light, mine most
+certainly would never have been written; a temporary bridge
+therefore may satisfy the impatient traveller, till a more skilful
+architect shall accommodate him with a complete production of
+elegance, of use, and of duration.--Although works of genius ought
+to come out of the mint doubly refined, yet history admits of a
+much greater latitude to the author. The best upon the subject,
+though defective, may meet with regard.</p>
+<p>It has long been a complaint, that local history is much wanted.
+This will appear obvious, if we examine the places we know, with
+the histories that treat of them. Many an author has become a
+cripple, by historically travelling through <i>all England</i>, who
+might have made a tolerable figure, had he staid at home. The
+subject is too copious for one performance, or even the life of one
+man. The design of history is knowledge: but, if simply to tell a
+tale, be all the duty of an historian, he has no irksome task
+before him; for there is nothing more easy than to relate a fact;
+but, perhaps, nothing more difficult than to relate it well.</p>
+<p>The situation of an author is rather precarious--if the smiles
+of the world chance to meet his labours, he is apt to forget
+himself; if otherwise, he is soon forgot. The efforts of the critic
+may be necessary to clip the wings of a presuming author, lest his
+rising vanity becomes insupportable: but I pity the man, who writes
+a book which none will peruse a second time; critical exertions are
+not necessary to pull him down, he will fall of himself. The sin of
+writing carries its own punishment, the tumultuous passions of
+anxiety and expectation, like the jarring elements in October,
+disturb his repose, and, like them, are followed by stirility: his
+cold productions, injured by no hand but that of time, are found
+sleeping on the shelf unmolested. It is easy to describe his fears
+before publication, but who can tell his feelings after judgment is
+passed upon his works? His only consolation is accusing the critic
+of injustice, and thinking the world in the wrong. But if
+repentence should not follow the culprit, hardened in scribbling,
+it follows, his bookseller, oppressed with <i>dead works</i>.
+However, if all the evils in Pandora's box are emptied on a blasted
+author, this one comfort remains behind--The keeper of a
+circulating library, or the steward of a reading society can tell
+him, "His book is more <i>durable</i> than the others."</p>
+<p>Having, many years ago, entertained an idea of this undertaking,
+I made some trifling preparations; but, in 1775, a circumstance of
+a private nature occurring, which engaged my attention for several
+years, I relinquished the design, destroyed the materials, and
+meant to give up the thought for ever. But the intention revived in
+1780, and the work followed.</p>
+<p>I may be accused of quitting the regular trammels of history,
+and sporting in the fields of remark: but, although our habitation
+justly stands first in our esteem, in return for rest, content, and
+protection; does it follow that we should never stray from it? If I
+happen to veer a moment from the polar point of Birmingham, I shall
+certainly vibrate again to the center. Every author has a manner
+peculiar to himself, nor can he well forsake it. I should be
+exceedingly hurt to omit a necessary part of intelligence, but
+more, to offend a reader.</p>
+<p>If GRANDEUR should censure me for sometimes recording the men of
+mean life, let me ask, <i>Which is preferable</i>, he who thunders
+at the anvil, or in the senate? The man who earnestly wishes the
+significant letters, ESQ. spliced to the end of his name, will
+despise the question; but the philosopher will answer, "They are
+equal."</p>
+<p>Lucrative views have no part in this production: I cannot
+solicit a kind people to grant what they have already granted; but
+if another finds that pleasure in reading, which I have done in
+writing, I am paid.</p>
+<p>As no history is extant, to inform me of this famous nursery of
+the arts, perfection in mine must not be expected. Though I have
+endeavoured to pursue the road to truth; yet, having no light to
+guide, or hand to direct me, it is no wonder if I mistake it: but
+we do not <i>condemn</i>, so much as <i>pity</i> the man for losing
+his way, who first travels an unbeaten road.</p>
+<p>Birmingham, for want of the recording hand, may be said to live
+but one generation; the transactions of the last age, die in this;
+memory is the sole historian, which being defective, I embalm the
+present generation, for the inspection of the future.</p>
+<p>It is unnecessary to attempt a general character, for if the
+attentive reader is himself of Birmingham, he is equally apprized
+of that character; and, if a stranger, he will find a variety of
+touches scattered through the piece, which, taken in a collective
+view, form a picture of that generous people, who <i>merit his</i>
+esteem, and <i>possess mine</i>.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>THE</h2>
+<h2>CONTENTS.</h2>
+<center>
+<table summary="">
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#Page001">Some Account of the Derivation of the Name of Birmingham</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><i>page</i> <a href="#Page001">1</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#SITUATION.">Situation</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#SITUATION.">3</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#SOIL.">Soil</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#SOIL.">6</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#WATER.">Water</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#WATER.">7</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#BATHS.">Baths</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#BATHS.">8</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#AIR.">Air</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#AIR.">*8</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#LONGEVITY.">Longevity</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#LONGEVITY.">9</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#Ancient_State_of_Birmingham">Ancient State of Birmingham</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Ancient_State_of_Birmingham">13</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#BATTLE_OF_CAMP-HILL.">Battle of Camp-hill</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#BATTLE_OF_CAMP-HILL.">*41</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#MODERN_STATE">Modern State of Birmingham</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#MODERN_STATE">40</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#OF_THE_STREETS">Streets, and their Names</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#OF_THE_STREETS">53</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#TRADE.">Trade</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#TRADE.">57</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#The_BUTTON.">Button</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#The_BUTTON.">75</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#The_BUCKLE.">Buckle</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#The_BUCKLE.">76</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#GUNS.">Guns</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#GUNS.">78</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#LEATHER.">Leather</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#LEATHER.">79</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#STEEL.">Steel</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#STEEL.">80</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#NAILS.">Nails</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#NAILS.">*83</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#BELLOWS.">Bellows</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#BELLOWS.">*85</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#THREAD.">Thread</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#THREAD.">*89</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#PRINTING">Printing, by John Baskerville</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#PRINTING">*90</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#BRASS_FOUNDRY.">Brass foundry</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#BRASS_FOUNDRY.">*94</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#HACKNEY_COACH.">Hackney Coaches</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#HACKNEY_COACH.">81</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#BANK.">Bank</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#BANK.">83</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#GOVERNMENT.">Government</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#GOVERNMENT.">ibid</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#CONSTABLES.">Constables</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#CONSTABLES.">92</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#Bailiffs">Bailiffs</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Bailiffs">94</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#COURT_OF_REQUESTS.">Court of Requests</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#COURT_OF_REQUESTS.">*99</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#LAMP_ACT.">Lamp Act</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#LAMP_ACT.">99</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#RELIGION_AND_POLITICS.">Religion and Politics</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#RELIGION_AND_POLITICS.">105</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#PLACES_OF_WORSHIP.">Places of Worship</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#PLACES_OF_WORSHIP.">111</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#SAINT_JOHNS_CHAPEL">St. John's Chapel, Deritend</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#SAINT_JOHNS_CHAPEL">112</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#SAINT_BARTHOLOMEWS">St. Bartholomew's</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#SAINT_BARTHOLOMEWS">113</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#SAINT_MARYS">St. Mary's</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#SAINT_MARYS">115</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#SAINT_PAULS">St. Paul's</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#SAINT_PAULS">ibid</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#OLD_MEETING.">Old Meeting</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#OLD_MEETING.">116</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#NEW_MEETING.">New Meeting</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#NEW_MEETING.">117</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#CARRS_LANE_MEETING">Carr's-lane Meeting</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#CARRS_LANE_MEETING">118</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#BAPTIST_MEETING.">Baptist Meeting</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#BAPTIST_MEETING.">ibid</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#QUAKERS_MEETING">Quaker's Meeting</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#QUAKERS_MEETING">120</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#METHODISTS_MEETING">Methodist Meeting</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#METHODISTS_MEETING">121</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#ROMISH_CHAPEL.">Romish Chapel</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#ROMISH_CHAPEL.">*125</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#JEWISH_SYNAGOGUE.">Jewish Synagogue</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#JEWISH_SYNAGOGUE.">*128</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#THEATRES.">Theatres</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#THEATRES.">123</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#AMUSEMENTS.">Amusements</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#AMUSEMENTS.">127</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#HOTEL.">Hotel</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#HOTEL.">*132</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#WAKES.">Wakes</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#WAKES.">132</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#CLUBS.">Club</a>s</i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#CLUBS.">135</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#IKENIELD_STREET.">Ikenield street</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#IKENIELD_STREET.">140</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#LORDS_OF_THE_MANOR.">Lords of the Manor</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#LORDS_OF_THE_MANOR.">153</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#ULUUINE">Uluuine</a></i>, 1050,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#ULUUINE">156</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#RICHARD">Richard</a></i>, 1066,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#RICHARD">ibid</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#WILLIAM">William</a></i>, 1130,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#WILLIAM">161</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#PETER_DE_BIRMINGHAM">Peter de Birmingham</a></i>, 1154,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#PETER_DE_BIRMINGHAM">161</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#WILLIAM_DE_BIRMINGHAM1">William de Birmingham</a></i>, 1216,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#WILLIAM_DE_BIRMINGHAM1">163</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#WILLIAM_DE_BIRMINGHAM2">William de Birmingham</a></i>, 1246,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#WILLIAM_DE_BIRMINGHAM2">164</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#WILLIAM_DE_BIRMINGHAM3">William de Birmingham</a></i>, 1265,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#WILLIAM_DE_BIRMINGHAM3">165</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#WILLIAM_DE_BIRMINGHAM4">William de Birmingham</a></i>, 1306,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#WILLIAM_DE_BIRMINGHAM4">166</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#SIR_FOUK_DE_BIRMINGHAM">Sir Fouk de Birmingham</a></i>, 1340,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#SIR_FOUK_DE_BIRMINGHAM">168</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#SIR_JOHN_DE_BIRMINGHAM">Sir John de Birmingham</a></i>, 1376,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#SIR_JOHN_DE_BIRMINGHAM">169</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#SIR_JOHN_DE_BIRMINGHAM">Lord Clinton</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#SIR_JOHN_DE_BIRMINGHAM">ibid</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#SIR_JOHN_DE_BIRMINGHAM">Edmund, Lord Ferrers</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#SIR_JOHN_DE_BIRMINGHAM">170</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#WILLIAM_DE_BIRMINGHAM5">William de Birmingham</a></i>, 1430,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#WILLIAM_DE_BIRMINGHAM5">ibid</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#SIR_WILLIAM_BIRMINGHAM">Sir William Birmingham</a></i>, 1479,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#SIR_WILLIAM_BIRMINGHAM">171</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#EDWARD_BIRMINGHAM">Edward Birmingham</a></i>, 1500,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#EDWARD_BIRMINGHAM">172</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#JOHN_DUKE_OF_NORTHUMBERLAND">John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland</a></i>, 1537,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#JOHN_DUKE_OF_NORTHUMBERLAND">177</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#THOMAS_MARROW">Thomas Marrow</a></i>, 1555,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#THOMAS_MARROW">180</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#THOMAS_ARCHER_ESQ">Thomas Archer</a></i>, 1746,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#THOMAS_ARCHER_ESQ">181</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#ANDREW_LORD_ARCHER">Andrew, Lord Archer</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#ANDREW_LORD_ARCHER">181</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#SARAH_LADY_ARCHER">Sarah, Lady Archer</a></i>, 1781,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#SARAH_LADY_ARCHER">ibid</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#MANOR_HOUSE.">Manor house</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#MANOR_HOUSE.">182</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#PUDDING_BROOK.">Pudding-brook</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#PUDDING_BROOK.">186</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#THE_PRIORY.">Priory</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#THE_PRIORY.">187</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#JOHN_A_DEANS_HOLE">John à Dean's Hole</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#JOHN_A_DEANS_HOLE">195</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#LENCHS_TRUST">Lench's Trust</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#LENCHS_TRUST">196</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#FENTHAMS_TRUST">Fentbam's Trust</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#FENTHAMS_TRUST">200</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#CROWLEYS_TRUST">Crowley's Trust</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#CROWLEYS_TRUST">201</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#SCOTTS_TRUST">Scott's Trust</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#SCOTTS_TRUST">202</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#FREE_SCHOOL.">Free School</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#FREE_SCHOOL.">203</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#CHARITY_SCHOOL:">Charity School</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#CHARITY_SCHOOL:">209</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#DISSENTING_CHARITY-SCHOOL.">Dissenting Charity School</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#DISSENTING_CHARITY-SCHOOL.">214</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#WORKHOUSE.">Workhouse</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#WORKHOUSE.">215</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#OLD_CROSS">Old Cross</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#OLD_CROSS">227</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#WELCH_CROSS.">Welch Cross</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#WELCH_CROSS.">229</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#SAINT_MARTINS">St. Martin's</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#SAINT_MARTINS">232</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#SAINT_PHILLIPS">St. Philip's</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#SAINT_PHILLIPS">246</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#BIRTHS_AND_BURIALS.">Births and Burials</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#BIRTHS_AND_BURIALS.">253</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#GENERAL_HOSPITAL.">General Hospital</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#GENERAL_HOSPITAL.">256</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#PUBLIC_ROADS.">Public Roads</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#PUBLIC_ROADS.">259</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#CANAL.">Canal</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#CANAL.">266</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#DERITEND_BRIDGE.">Deritend Bridge</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#DERITEND_BRIDGE.">269</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#SOHO">Soho</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#SOHO">271</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#DANES_CAMP:">Danes Camp, Danes Bank, or Bury Fields</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#DANES_CAMP:">272</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#GENTLEMENS_SEATS">Gentlemen's Seats</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#GENTLEMENS_SEATS">273</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#THE_MOATS.">The Moats</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#THE_MOATS.">276</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#BLACK_GREVES.">Black Greves</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#BLACK_GREVES.">ibid</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#ULVERLEY_OR_CULVERLEY">Ulverley, or Culverley</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#ULVERLEY_OR_CULVERLEY">277</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#HOGGS-MOAT">Hogg's Moat</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#HOGGS-MOAT">278</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#YARDLEY.">Yardley</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#YARDLEY.">281</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#KENTS-MOAT">Kent's Moat</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#KENTS-MOAT">282</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#SHELDON.">Sheldon</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#SHELDON.">283</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#KINGS-HURST">King's hurst</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#KINGS-HURST">ibid</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#COLESHILL.">Coleshill</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#COLESHILL.">287</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#DUDDESTON.">Duddeston</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#DUDDESTON.">289</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#SALTLEY.">Saltley</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#SALTLEY.">292</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#WARD-END.">Ward-end</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#WARD-END.">293</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#CASTLE_BROMWICH.">Castle Bromwich</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#CASTLE_BROMWICH.">295</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#PARK-HALL.">Park hall</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#PARK-HALL.">299</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#BERWOOD.">Berwood</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#BERWOOD.">300</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#ERDINGTON.">Erdington</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#ERDINGTON.">301</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#PIPE.">Pipe</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#PIPE.">303</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#ASTON.">Aston</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#ASTON.">306</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#WITTON.">Witton</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#WITTON.">309</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#BLAKELEY.">Blakeley</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#BLAKELEY.">312</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#WEOLEY">Weoley</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#WEOLEY">313</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#SUTTON_COLDFIELD.">Sutton Coldfield</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#SUTTON_COLDFIELD.">320</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#PETITION_FOR_A_CORPORATION.">Petition for a Corporation</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#PETITION_FOR_A_CORPORATION.">324</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#BRASS_WORKS.">Brass Works</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#BRASS_WORKS.">329</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#PRISON.">Prison</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#PRISON.">332</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#CLODSHALES_CHANTRY.">Clodshale's Chantry</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#CLODSHALES_CHANTRY.">336</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#OCCURRENCES.">Occurrences</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#OCCURRENCES.">340</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#OCCURRENCES.">Earthquake</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#OCCURRENCES.">ibid</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#PITMORE_AND_HAMMOND.">Pitmore and Hammond</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#PITMORE_AND_HAMMOND.">343</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#RIOTS.">Riots</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#RIOTS.">345</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i><a href="#THE_CONJURERS.">The Conjurers</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#THE_CONJURERS.">350</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#MILITARY_ASSOCIATION.">Military Association</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#MILITARY_ASSOCIATION.">353</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#BILSTON_CANAL_ACT.">Bilston Canal Act</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#BILSTON_CANAL_ACT.">357</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#WORKHOUSE_BILL.">Workhouse Bill</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#WORKHOUSE_BILL.">361</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#THE_CAMP.">The Camp</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#THE_CAMP.">370</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i><a href="#MORTIMERS_BANK">Mortimer's Bank</a></i>,</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#MORTIMERS_BANK">372</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</center>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>DIRECTIONS</h2>
+<h2>TO THE</h2>
+<h2>BINDERS,</h2>
+<h2>FOR PLACING THE</h2>
+<h2>COPPER-PLATES.</h2>
+<center>
+<table summary="">
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image01.jpg">Prospect of Birmingham,</a></td>
+<td align="right">to face the Title.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Plan,</td>
+<td align="right">43</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image03.jpg">Alm's-houses,</a></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image03.jpg">*58</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image04.jpg">St. John's Chapel, Deritend,</a></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image04.jpg">111</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image05.jpg">St. Bartholomew's,</a></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image05.jpg">113</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image06.jpg">St. Mary's,</a></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image06.jpg">115</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image07.jpg">St. Paul's,</a></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image07.jpg">116</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image08a.jpg">Old and New Meetings,</a></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image08a.jpg">117</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image09.jpg">New Theatre,</a></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image09.jpg">123</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image10.jpg">Hotel,</a></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image10.jpg">130</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image11.jpg">Free School,</a></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image11.jpg">203</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image12.jpg">Charity School,</a></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image12.jpg">209</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image13.jpg">Workhouse,</a></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image13.jpg">215</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image14a.jpg">Old and Welch Cross,</a></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image14a.jpg">229</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image15.jpg">St. Martin's Church,</a></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image15.jpg">232</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image16.jpg">St. Philip's,</a></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image16.jpg">246</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image17.jpg">General Hospital,</a></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image17.jpg">256</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image19.jpg">Canal,</a></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image19.jpg">265</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image20.jpg">Navigation Office,</a></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image20.jpg">267</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><a href="#image21.jpg">Brass Works,</a></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#image21.jpg">329</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</center>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<a name="Page001"></a>
+<h3>AN</h3>
+<h2>HISTORY &amp;c.</h2>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p><i>Some account of the derivation of the name of
+Birmingham</i>.</p>
+<p>The word Birmingham, is too remote for certain explanation.
+During the last four centuries it has been variously written
+<i>Brumwycheham, Bermyngeham, Bromwycham, Burmyngham, Bermyngham,
+Byrmyngham</i>, and <i>Birmingham</i>; nay, even so late as the
+seventeenth century it was written <i>Bromicham</i>. Dugdale
+supposes the name to have been given by the planter, or owner, in
+the time of the Saxons; but, I suppose it much older than any
+Saxon, date: besides, it is not so common for a man to give a name
+to, as to take one from, a place. A man seldom gives his name
+except he is the founder, as Petersburg from Peter the Great.</p>
+<p>Towns, as well as every thing in nature, have exceedingly minute
+beginnings, and generally take a name from situation, or local
+circumstances. Would the Lord of a manor think it an honour to give
+his name to two or three miserable huts? But, if in a succession of
+ages these huts swell into opulence, they confer upon the lord an
+honour, a residence, and a name. The terminations of <i>sted</i>,
+<i>ham</i>, and <i>hurst</i>, are evidently Saxon, and mean the
+same thing, a home.</p>
+<p>The word, in later ages reduced to a certainty, hath undergone
+various mutations; but the original seems to have been
+<i>Bromwych</i>; <i>Brom</i> perhaps, from broom a shrub, for the
+growth of which the soil is extremely favourable; <i>Wych</i>, a
+descent, this exactly corresponds with the declivity from the High
+Street to Digbeth. Two other places also in the neigbourhood bear
+the same name, which serves to strengthen the opinion.</p>
+<p>This infant colony, for many centuries after the first buddings
+of existence, perhaps, had no other appellation than that of
+Bromwych. Its center, for many reasons that might be urged, was the
+Old Cross, and its increase, in those early ages of time must have
+been very small.</p>
+<p>A series of prosperity attending it, its lord might assume its
+name, reside in it, and the particle <i>ham</i> would naturally
+follow. This very probably happened under the Saxon Heptarchy, and
+the name was no other than <i>Bromwycham</i>.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="SITUATION."></a>SITUATION.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>It lies near the centre of the kingdom, in the north-west
+extremity of the county of Warwick, in a kind of peninsula, the
+northern part of which is bounded by Handsworth, in the county of
+Stafford, and the southern by King's-norton, in the county of
+Worcester; it is also in the diocese of Lichfield and Coventry, and
+in the deanery of Arden.</p>
+<p>Let us perambulate the parish from the bottom of Digbeth, thirty
+yards north of the bridge. We will proceed south-west up the bed of
+the river, with Deritend, in the parish of Aston, on our left.
+Before we come to the Floodgates, near Vaughton's Hole, we pass by
+the Longmores, a small part of King's-norton. Crossing the river
+Rea, we enter the vestiges of a small rivulet, yet visible, though
+the stream hath been turned, perhaps, a thousand years, to supply
+the moat. We now bear rather west, nearly in a straight line for
+three miles, to Shirland brook, with Edgbaston on the left. At the
+top of the first meadow from the river Rea, we meet the little
+stream above-mentioned, in the pursuit of which, we cross the
+Bromsgrove road a little east of the first mile stone. Leaving
+Banner's marlpit to the left, we proceed up a narrow lane crossing
+the old Bromsgrove road, and up to the turnpike at the five ways in
+the road to Hales Owen. Leaving this road also to the left we
+proceed down the lane towards Ladywood, cross the Icknield street,
+a stone's cast east of the observatory, to the north extremity of
+Rotton Park. We now meet with Shirland Brook, which leads us east,
+and across the Dudley road, at the seven mile stone, having
+Smethwick in the county of Stafford, on the left, down to Pigmill.
+We now leave Handsworth on the left, following the stream through
+Hockley great pool; cross the Wolverhampton road, and the
+Ikenield-street at the same time down to Aston furnace, with that
+parish on the left. At the bottom of Walmer-lane we leave the
+water, move over the fields, nearly in a line to the post by the
+Peacock upon Gosty-green. We now cross the Lichfield road, down
+Duke-street, then the Coleshill road at the A B house. From thence
+down the meadows, to Cooper's mill; up the river to the foot of
+Deritend bridge; and then turn sharp to the right, keeping the
+course of a drain in the form of a sickle, through John a Dean's
+hole, into Digbeth, from whence we set out. In marching along
+Duke-street, we leave about seventy houses to the left, and up the
+river Rea, about four hundred more in Deritend, reputed part of
+Birmingham, though not in the parish.</p>
+<p>This little journey, nearly of an oval form, is about seven
+miles. The longest diameter from Shirland brook to Deritend bridge
+is about three, and the widest, from the bottom of Walmer Lane to
+the rivulet, near the mile-stone, upon the Bromsgrove road, more
+than two.</p>
+<p>The superficial contents of the parish may be upwards of four
+miles, about three thousand acres.</p>
+<p>Birmingham is by much the smallest parish in the neighbourhood,
+those of Aston and Sutton are each about five times as large,
+Yardley four, and King's-Norton eight.</p>
+<p>When Alfred, that great master of legislation, parished out his
+kingdom, or rather, put the finishing hand to that important work;
+where he met with a town, he allotted a smaller quantity of land,
+because the inhabitants chiefly depended upon commerce; but where
+there was only a village, he allotted a larger, because they
+depended upon agriculture.</p>
+<p>This observation goes far in proving the antiquity of the place,
+for it is nine hundred years since this division took effect.</p>
+<p>The buildings occupy the south east part of the parish; perhaps,
+with their appendages, about six hundred acres.</p>
+<p>This south east part, being insufficient for the extraordinary
+increase of the inhabitants, she has of late extended her buildings
+along the Bromsgrove road, near the boundaries of Edgbaston; and
+actually on the other side planted three of her streets in the
+parish of Aston. Could the sagacious Alfred have seen into
+futurity, he would have augmented her borders.</p>
+<p>As no part of the town lies flat, the showers promote both
+cleanliness and health, by removing obstructions.</p>
+<p>The approach is on every side by ascent, except that from
+Hales-Owen, north west, which gives a free access of air, even to
+the most secret recesses of habitation.</p>
+<p>Thus eminently situated, the sun can exercise his full powers of
+exhalation.</p>
+<p>The foundation upon which this mistress of the arts is erected,
+is one solid mass of dry reddish sand.</p>
+<p>The vapours that rise from the earth are the great promoters of
+disease; but here, instead of the moisture ascending to the
+prejudice of the inhabitant, the contrary is evident; for the water
+descends through the pores of the sand, so that even our very
+cellars are habitable.</p>
+<p>This accounts for the almost total extinction of the ague among
+us:--During a residence of thirty years, I have never seen one
+person afflicted with it, though, by the opportunities of office, I
+have frequently visited the repositories of the sick.</p>
+<p>Thus peculiarly favoured, this happy spot, enjoys four of the
+greatest benefits that can attend human existence--water, air, the
+fun, and a situation free from damps.</p>
+<p>All the <i>past</i> writers upon Birmingham have viewed her as
+low and watery, and with reason; because Digbeth, then the chief
+street, bears that description. But all the future writers will
+view her on an eminence, and with as much reason; because, for one
+low street, we have now fifty elevated.</p>
+<p>Birmingham, like the empire to which she belongs, has been, for
+many centuries, travelling <i>up hill</i>; and, like that, rising
+in consequence.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="SOIL."></a>SOIL.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>The soil is rather light, sandy, and weak; and though metals, of
+various sorts, are found in great plenty, <i>above</i> the surface,
+we know of nothing below, except sand and gravel, stone and water.
+All the riches of the place, like those of an empiric, in laced
+cloaths, appear on the <i>outside</i>.</p>
+<p>The northern part of the parish, for about four hundred acres,
+to the disgrace of the age, is yet a shameful waste.</p>
+<p>A small part of the land near the town, is parcelled out into
+little gardens, at ten or twenty shillings each, amounting to about
+sixteen pounds per acre.</p>
+<p>These are not intended so much for profit, as health and
+amusement.</p>
+<p>Others are let in detached pieces for private use, at about four
+pounds per acre. So that this small parish cannot boast of more
+than six or eight farms, and these of the smaller size, at about
+two pounds per acre. Manure from the sty brings about 16s. per
+waggon load, that from the stable about 12, and that from the fire
+and the street, five.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="WATER."></a>WATER.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>I think there is not any natural river runs through the parish,
+but there are three that mark the boundaries of it, for about half
+its circumference, described above; none of these supply family
+use. After penetrating into a body of sand, interspersed with a
+small strata of soft Rock, and sometimes of gravel; at the depth of
+about twenty yards, we come to plenty of water, rather hard. There
+are in the lower parts of the town, two excellent springs of soft
+water, suitable for most purposes; one at the top of Digbeth, the
+other, Lady-Well. Or rather, one spring, or bed of water, with many
+out-lets, continuing its course along the bottom of the hill,
+parallel with Small-brook-street, Edgbaston street, St.
+Martin's-lane, and Park-street; sufficiently copious to supply the
+whole city of London. Water is of the first consequence, it often
+influences disease, always the habit of body: that of Birmingham is
+in general productive of salutary effects.</p>
+<p>That dreadful disorder, the stone, is seldom found among us. I
+can recollect but very few, in my time, under this severe
+complaint, which is perhaps owing to that valuable element. I
+mentioned this remark to an eminent surgeon, who assured me, that,
+in his long course of practice, he had never been concerned in one
+operation in that unhappy disorder.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="BATHS."></a>BATHS.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>At Lady-Well, are the most complete baths in the whole Island.
+There are seven in number; erected at the expence of 2000<i>l</i>.
+Accommodation is ever ready for hot or cold bathing; for immersion
+or amusement; with conveniency for sweating. That, appropriated for
+swimming, is eighteen Yards by thirty-six, situated in the centre
+of a garden, in which are twenty four private undressing-houses,
+the whole surrounded by a wall 10 feet high. Pleasure and health
+are the guardians of the place. The gloomy horrors of a bath,
+sometimes deter us from its use, particularly, if aided by
+complaint; but the appearance of these is rather inviting. We read
+of painted sepulchres, whose <i>outsides</i> are richly ornamented,
+but <i>within</i> are full of corruption and death. The reverse is
+before us. No elegance appears without, but within are the Springs
+of life! The expence was great, the utility greater.</p>
+<p>I do not know any author, who has reckoned man among the
+amphibious race of animals, neither do I know any animal who better
+deserves it. Man is lord of the little ball on which he treads, one
+half of which, at least, is water. If we do not allow him to be
+amphibious, we deprive him of half his sovereignty. He justly bears
+that name, who can <i>live</i> in the water. Many of the disorders
+incident to the human frame are prevented, and others cured, both
+by fresh and salt bathing; so that we may properly remark, "<i>He
+lives in the water</i>, who can find life, nay, even <i>health</i>
+in that friendly element."</p>
+<p>The greatest treasure on earth is health; but, a treasure, of
+all others, the least valued by the owner. Other property is best
+rated when in possession, but this, can only be rated when lost. We
+sometimes observe a man, who, having lost this inestimable jewel,
+seeks it with an ardour equal to its worth; but when every research
+by land, is eluded, he fortunately finds it in the water. Like the
+fish, he pines away upon shore, but like that, recovers again in
+the deep.</p>
+<p>Perhaps Venus is represented as rising from the ocean, which is
+no other then a bath of the larger size, to denote, that bathing is
+the refiner of health, consequently, of beauty; and Neptune being
+figured in advanced life, indicates, that it is a preservative to
+old age.</p>
+<p>The cure of disease among the Romans, by bathing, is supported
+by many authorities; among others, by the number of baths
+frequently discovered, in which, pleasure, in that warm climate,
+bore a part. But this practice seemed to decline with Roman
+freedom, and never after held the eminence it deserved. Can we
+suppose, the physician stept between disease and the bath, to
+hinder their junction; or, that he lawfully holds, by prescription,
+the tenure of sickness, in <i>fee</i>?</p>
+<p>The knowledge of this singular <i>art of healing</i>, is at
+present only in infancy. How far it may prevent, or conquer
+disease; to what measure it may be applied, in particular cases,
+and the degrees of use, in different constitutions, are enquiries
+that will be better understood by a future generation.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="AIR."></a>AIR.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>As we have passed through the water, let us now investigate her
+sister fluid, the air. They are both necessary to life, and the
+purity of both to the prolongation of it; this small difference
+lies between them, a man may live a day without water, but not an
+hour without air: If a man wants better water, it may be removed
+from a distant place for his benefit; but if he wants air, he must
+remove himself.--The natural air of Birmingham, perhaps, cannot be
+excelled in this climate, the moderate elevation and dry soil
+evinces this truth; but it receives an alloy from the congregated
+body of fifty thousand people; also from the smoke of an
+extraordinary number of fires used in business; and perhaps, more
+from the various effluvia arising from particular trades. It is not
+uncommon to see a man with green hair or a yellow wig, from his
+constant employment in brass; if he reads, the green vestiges of
+his occupation remain on every leaf, never to be expunged. The
+inside of his body, no doubt, receives the same tincture, but is
+kept clean by being often washed with ale. Some of the fair sex,
+likewise are subject to the same inconvenience, but find relief in
+the same remedy.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="LONGEVITY."></a>LONGEVITY.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Man is a time-piece. He measures out a certain space, then stops
+for ever. We see him move upon the earth, hear him click, and
+perceive in his face the uses of intelligence. His external
+appearance will inform us whether he is old-fashioned, in which
+case, he is less valuable upon every gambling calculation. His face
+also will generally inform us whether all is right within. This
+curious machine is filled with a complication of movements, very
+unfit to be regulated by the rough hand of ignorance, which
+sometimes leaves a mark not to be obliterated even by the hand of
+an artist. If the works are directed by violence, destruction is
+not far off. If we load it with the oil of luxury, it will give an
+additional vigor, but in the end, clog and impede the motion. But
+if the machine is under the influence of prudence, she will guide
+it with an even, and a delicate hand, and perhaps the piece may
+move on 'till it is fairly worn out by a long course of fourscore
+years.</p>
+<p>There are a set of people who expect to find that health in
+medicine, which possibly might be found in regimen, in air,
+exercise, or serenity of mind.</p>
+<p>There is another class amongst us, and that rather numerous,
+whose employment is laborious, and whose conduct is irregular.
+Their time is divided between hard working, and hard drinking, and
+both by a fire. It is no uncommon thing to see one of these, at
+forty, wear the aspect of sixty, and finish a life of violence at
+fifty, which the hand of prudence would have directed to
+eighty.</p>
+<p>The strength of a kingdom consists in the multitude of its
+inhabitants; success in trade depends upon the manufacturer; the
+support and direction of a family, upon the head of it. When this
+useful part of mankind, therefore, are cut off in the active part
+of life, the community sustains a loss, whether we take the matter
+in a national, a commercial, or a private view.</p>
+<p>We have a third class, who shun the rock upon which these last
+fall, but wreck upon another; they run upon scylla though they have
+missed charybdis; they escape the liquid destruction, but split
+upon the solid. These are proficients in good eating; adepts in
+culling of delicacies, and the modes of dressing them. Matters of
+the whole art of cookery; each carries a kitchen in his head. Thus
+an excellent constitution may be stabbed by the spit. Nature never
+designed us to live well, and continue well; the stomach is too
+weak a vessel to be richly and deeply laden. Perhaps more injury is
+done by eating than by drinking; one is a secret, the other an open
+enemy: the secret is always supposed the most dangerous. Drinking
+attacks by assault, but eating by sap: luxury is seldom visited by
+old age. The best antidote yet discovered against this kind of slow
+poison is exercise; but the advantages of elevation, air, and
+water, on one hand, and disadvantages of crowd, smoke, and effluvia
+on the other, are trifles compared to intemperance.</p>
+<p>We have a fourth class, and with these I shall shut up the
+clock. If this valuable machine comes finished from the hand of
+nature; if the rough blasts of fortune only attack the outward
+case, without affecting the internal works, and if reason conduces
+the piece, it may move on, with a calm, steady, and uninterrupted
+pace to a great extent of years, 'till time only annihilates the
+motion.</p>
+<p>I personally know amongst us a Mrs. Dallaway, aged near 90;
+George Davis, 85; John Baddally, Esq; and his two brothers, all
+between 80 and and 90; Mrs. Allen, 92; Mrs. Silk, 84; John Burbury,
+84; Thomas Rutter, 88; Elizabeth Bentley, 88; John Harrison and his
+wife, one 86, the other 88; Mrs. Floyd, 87; Elizabeth Simms, 88;
+Sarah Aston, 98; Isaac Spooner, Esq; 89; Joseph Scott, Esq; 94; all
+at this day, January 9, 1780, I believe enjoy health and capacity.
+This is not designed as a complete list of the aged, but of such
+only as immediately occur to memory. I also knew a John England who
+died at the age of 89; Hugh Vincent, 94; John Pitt, 100; George
+Bridgens, 103; Mrs. More, 104. An old fellow assured me he had kept
+the market 77 years: he kept it for several years after to my
+knowledge. At 90 he was attacked by an acute disorder, but,
+fortunately for himself, being too poor to purchase medical
+assistance, he was left to the care of nature, who opened that door
+to health which the physician would have locked for ever. At 106 I
+heard him swear with all the fervency of a recruit: at 107 he died.
+It is easy to give instances of people who have breathed the smoak
+of Birmingham for threescore years, and yet have scarcely left the
+precincts of of youth. Such are the happy effects of constitution,
+temper, and conduct!</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i><a name="Ancient_State_of_Birmingham"></a>Ancient State of
+Birmingham</i>.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>We have now to pass through the very remote ages of time,
+without staff to support us, without light to conduct us, or hand
+to guide us. The way is long, dark, and slippery. The credit of an
+historian is built upon truth; he cannot assert, without giving his
+facts; he cannot surmise, without giving his reasons; he must
+relate things as they are, not as he would have them. The fabric
+founded in error will moulder of itself, but that founded in
+reality will stand the age and the critic.</p>
+<p>Except half a dozen pages in Dugdale, I know of no author who
+hath professedly treated of Birmingham. None of the histories which
+I have seen bestow upon it more than a few lines, in which we are
+sure to be treated with the noise of hammers and anvils; as if the
+historian thought us a race of dealers in thunder, lightning, and
+wind; or infernals, puffing in blast and smoak.</p>
+<p>Suffer me to transcribe a passage from Leland, one of our most
+celebrated writers, employed by Henry the VIIIth to form an
+itinerary of Britain, whose works have stood the test of 250 years.
+We shall observe how much he erred for want of information, and how
+natural for his successors to copy him.</p>
+<p>"I came through a pretty street as ever I entered, into
+Birmingham town. This street, as I remember, is called Dirtey
+(Deritend). In it dwells smithes and cutlers, and there is a brook
+that divides this street from Birmingham, an hamlet, or member,
+belonging to the parish therebye.</p>
+<p>"There is at the end of Dirtey a propper chappel and
+mansion-house of timber, (the moat) hard on the ripe, as the brook
+runneth down; and as I went through the ford, by the bridge, the
+water came down on the right hand, and a few miles below goeth into
+Tame. This brook, above Dirtey, breaketh in two arms, that a little
+beneath the bridge close again. This brook riseth, as some say,
+four or five miles above Birmingham, towards Black-hills.</p>
+<p>"The beauty of Birmingham, a good market-town in the extreme
+parts of Warwickshire, is one street going up alonge, almost from
+the left ripe of the brook, up a meane hill, by the length of a
+quarter of a mile, I saw but one parish-church in the town.</p>
+<p>"There be many smithes in the town that use to make knives and
+all manner of cutting tools, and many loriners that make bittes,
+and a great many naylers; so that a great part of the town is
+maintained by smithes, who have their iron and sea-coal out of
+Staffordshire."</p>
+<p>Here we find some intelligence, and more mistake, cloathed in
+the dress of antique diction, which plainly evinces the necessity
+of modern history.</p>
+<p>It is matter of surprise that none of those religious drones,
+the monks, who hived in the priory for fifteen or twenty
+generations, ever thought of indulging posterity with an history of
+Birmingham. They could not want opportunity, for they lived a life
+of indolence; nor materials, for they were nearer the infancy of
+time, and were possessed of historical fads now totally lost.
+Besides, nearly all the little learning in the kingdom was
+possessed by this class of people; and the place, in their day,
+must have enjoyed an eminent degree of prosperity.</p>
+<p>Though the town has a modern appearance, there is reason to
+believe it of great antiquity; my Birmingham reader, therefore,
+must suffer me to carry him back into the remote ages of the
+Ancient Britons to visit his fable ancestors.</p>
+<p>We have no histories of those times but what are left by the
+Romans, and these we ought to read with caution, because they were
+parties in the dispute. If two antagonists write each his own
+history, the discerning reader will sometimes draw the line of
+justice between them; but where there is only one, partiality is
+expected. The Romans were obliged to make the Britons war-like, or
+there would have been no merit in conquering them: they must also
+sound forth their ignorance, or there would have been none in
+improving them. If the Britons were that wretched people they are
+represented by the Romans, they could not be worth conquering: no
+man subdues a people to improve them, but to profit by them. Though
+the Romans at that time were in their meridian of splendor, they
+pursued Britain a whole century before they reduced it; which
+indicates that they considered it as a valuable prize. Though the
+Britons were not masters of science, like the Romans; though the
+fine arts did not flourish here, as in Rome, because never planted;
+yet by many testimonies it is evident they were masters of plain
+life; that many of the simple arts were practiced in that day, as
+well as in this; that assemblages of people composed cities, the
+same as now, but in an inferior degree; and that the country was
+populous is plain from the immense army Boadicia brought into the
+field, except the Romans increased that army that their merit might
+be greater in defeating it. Nay, I believe we may with propriety
+carry them beyond plain life, and charge them with a degree of
+elegance: the Romans themselves allow the Britons were complete
+masters of the chariot; that when the scythe was fixed at each end
+of the axle-tree, they drove with great dexterity into the midst of
+the enemy, broke their ranks, and mowed them down. The chariot,
+therefore, could not be made altogether for war, but, when the
+scythes were removed, it still remained an emblem of pride, became
+useful in peace, was a badge of high-life, and continues so with
+their descendants to this day.</p>
+<p>We know the instruments of war used by the Britons were a sword,
+spear, shield and scythe. If they were not the manufacturers, how
+came they by these instruments? We cannot allow either they or the
+chariots were imported, because that will give them a much greater
+consequence: they must also have been well acquainted with the
+tools used in husbandry, for they were masters of the field in a
+double sense. Bad also as their houses were, a chest of carpentry
+tools would be necessary to complete them. We cannot doubt,
+therefore, from these evidences, and others which might be adduced,
+that the Britons understood the manufactory of iron. Perhaps
+history cannot produce an instance of any place in an improving
+country, like England, where the coarse manufactory of iron has
+been carried on, that ever that laborious art went to decay, except
+the materials failed; and as we know of no place where such
+materials have failed, there is the utmost reason to believe our
+fore-fathers, the Britons, were supplied with those necessary
+implements by the black artists of the Birmingham forge. Iron-stone
+and coal are the materials for this production, both which are
+found in the neighbourhood in great plenty. I asked a gentleman of
+knowledge, if there was a probability of the delphs failing? He
+answered, "Not in five thousand years."</p>
+<p>The two following circumstances strongly evince this ancient
+British manufactory:--</p>
+<p>Upon the borders of the parish stands Aston-furnace,
+appropriated for melting ironstone, and reducing it into pigs: this
+has the appearance of great antiquity. From the melted ore, in this
+subterranean region of infernal aspect, is produced a calx, or
+cinder, of which there is an enormous mountain. From an attentive
+survey, the observer would suppose so prodigious a heap could not
+accumulate in one hundred generations; however, it shows no
+perceptible addition in the age of man.</p>
+<p>There is also a common of vast extent, called
+Wednesbury-old-field, in which are the vestiges of many hundreds of
+coal-pits, long in disuse, which the curious antiquarian would deem
+as long in sinking, as the mountain of cinders in rising.</p>
+<p>The minute sprig of Birmingham, no doubt first took root in this
+black soil, which, in a succession of ages, hath grown to its
+present opulence. At what time this prosperous plant was set, is
+very uncertain; perhaps as long before the days of Caesar as it is
+since. Thus the mines of Wednesbury empty their riches into the lap
+of Birmingham, and thus she draws nurture from the bowels of the
+earth.</p>
+<p>The chief, if not the only manufactory of Birmingham, from its
+first existence to the restoration of Charles the Second, was in
+iron: of this was produced instruments of war and of husbandry,
+furniture for the kitchen, and tools for the whole system of
+carpentry.</p>
+<p>The places where our athletic ancestors performed these curious
+productions of art, were in the shops fronting the street: some
+small remains of this very ancient custom are yet visible, chiefly
+in Digbeth, where about a dozen shops still exhibit the original
+music of anvil and hammer.</p>
+<p>As there is the highest probability that Birmingham produced her
+manufactures long before the landing of Caesar, it would give
+pleasure to the curious enquirer, could he be informed of her size
+in those very early ages; but this information is for ever hid from
+the historian, and the reader. Perhaps there never was a period in
+which she saw a decline, but that her progress has been certain,
+though slow, during the long space of two or three thousand years
+before Charles the Second.</p>
+<p>The very roads that proceed from Birmingham, are also additional
+indications of her great antiquity and commercial influence.</p>
+<p>Where any of these roads lead up an eminence, they were worn by
+the long practice of ages into deep holloways, some of them twelve
+or fourteen yards below the surface of the banks, with which they
+were once even, and so narrow as to admit only one passenger.</p>
+<p>Though modern industry, assisted by various turnpike acts, has
+widened the upper part and filled up the lower, yet they were all
+visible in the days of our fathers, and are traceable even in ours.
+Some of these, no doubt, were formed by the spade, to soften the
+fatigue of climbing the hill, but many were owing to the pure
+efforts of time, the horse, and the showers. As inland trade was
+small, prior to the fifteenth century, the use of the wagon, that
+great destroyer of the road, was but little known. The horse was
+the chief conveyor of burthen among the Britons, and for centuries
+after: if we, therefore, consider the great length of time it would
+take for the rains to form these deep ravages, we must place the
+origin of Birmingham, at a very early date.</p>
+<p>One of these subterranean passages, in part filled up, will
+convey its name to posterity in that of a street, called
+Holloway-head, 'till lately the way to Bromsgrove and to Bewdley,
+but not now the chief road to either. Dale-end, once a deep road,
+has the same derivation. Another at Summer-hill, in the Dudley
+road, altered in 1753. A remarkable one is also between the
+Salutation and the Turnpike, in the Wolverhampton road. A fifth at
+the top of Walmer-lane, changed into its present form in 1764.
+Another between Gosta-green and Aston-brook, reduced in 1752.</p>
+<p>All the way from Dale-end to Duddeston, of which
+Coleshill-street now makes a part, was sunk five or six feet,
+though nearly upon a flat, 'till filled up in 1756 by act of
+Parliament: but the most singular is that between Deritend and
+Camp-hill, in the way to Stratford, which is, even now, many yards
+below the banks; yet the seniors of the last age took a pleasure in
+telling us, they could remember when it would have buried a wagon
+load of hay beneath its present surface.</p>
+<p>Thus the traveller of old, who came to purchase the produce of
+Birmingham, or to sell his own, seemed to approach her by sap.</p>
+<p>British traces are, no doubt, discoverable in the old
+Dudley-road, down Easy-hill, under the canal; at the eight
+mile-stone, and at Smethwick: also in many of the private roads
+near Birmingham, which were never thought to merit a repair,
+particularly at Good-knaves-end, towards Harborne; the Green-lane,
+leading to the Garrison; and that beyond Long-bridge, in the road
+to Yardley; all of them deep holloways, which carry evident tokens
+of antiquity. Let the curious calculator determine what an amazing
+length of time would elapse in wearing the deep roads along
+Saltleyfield, Shaw-hill, Allum-rock, and the remainder of the way
+to Stichford, only a pitiful hamlet of a dozen houses.</p>
+<p>The ancient centre of Birmingham seems to have been the Old
+Cross, from the number of streets pointing towards it. Wherever the
+narrow end of a street enters a great thorough-fare, it indicates
+antiquity, this is the case with Philip-street, Bell-street,
+Spiceal-street, Park-street, and Moor-street, which not only
+incline to the centre above-mentioned, but all terminate with their
+narrow ends into the grand passage. These streets are narrow at the
+entrance, and widen as you proceed: the narrow ends were formed
+with the main street at first, and were not, at that time, intended
+for streets themselves. As the town increased, other blunders of
+the same kind were committed, witness the gateway late at the east
+end of New-street, the two ends of Worcester-street,
+Smallbrook-street, Cannon-street, New-meeting-streer, and Bull
+street; it is easy to see which end of a street was formed first;
+perhaps the south end of Moor street is two thousand years older
+than the north; the same errors are also committing in our day, as
+in Hill and Vale streets, the two Hinkleys and Catharine-street.
+One generation, for want of foresight, forms a narrow entrance, and
+another widens it by Act of Parliament.</p>
+<p>Every word in the English language carries an idea: when a word,
+therefore, strikes the ear, the mind immediately forms a picture,
+which represents it as faithfully as the looking-glass the
+face.--Thus, when the word Birmingham occurs, a superb picture
+instantly expands in the mind, which is best explained by the other
+words grand, populous, extensive, active, commercial and humane.
+This painting is an exact counter-part of the word at this day; but
+it does not correspond with its appearance, in the days of the
+ancient Britons--We must, therefore, for a moment, detach the idea
+from the word.</p>
+<p>Let us suppose, then, this centre surrounded with less than one
+hundred stragling huts, without order, which we will dignify with
+the name of houses; built of timber, the interfaces wattled with
+sticks, and plaistered with mud, covered with thatch, boards or
+sods; none of them higher than the ground story. The meaner sort
+only one room, which served for three uses, shop, kitchen, and
+lodging room; the door for two, it admitted the people and the
+light. The better sort two rooms, and some three, for work, for the
+kitchen, and for rest; all three in a line, and sometimes fronting
+the street.</p>
+<p>If the curious reader chooses to see a picture of Birmingham, in
+the time of the Britons, he will find one in the turnpike road,
+between Hales-owen and Stourbridge, called the Lie Waste, alias Mud
+City. The houses stand in every direction, composed of one large
+and ill-formed brick, scoped into a tenement, burnt by the sun, and
+often destroyed by the frost: the males naked; the females
+accomplished breeders. The children, at the age of three months,
+take a singular hue from the sun and the soil, which continues for
+life. The rags which cover them leave no room for the observer to
+guess at the sex. Only one person upon the premisses presumes to
+carry a belly, and he a landlord. We might as well look for the
+moon in a coal-pit, as for stays or white linen in the City of Mud.
+The principal tool in business is the hammer, and the beast of
+burden, the ass.</p>
+<p>The extent of our little colony of artists, perhaps reached
+nearly as high as the east end of New-street, occupied the upper
+part of Spiceal-street, and penetrated down the hill to the top of
+Digbeth, chiefly on the east.</p>
+<p>Success, which ever waits on Industry, produced a gradual, but
+very slow increase: perhaps a thousand years elapsed without adding
+half that number of houses.</p>
+<p>Thus our favourite plantation having taken such firm root, that
+she was able to stand the wintry blasts of fortune, we shall
+digress for a moment, while she wields her sparkling heat,
+according to the fashion of the day, in executing the orders of the
+sturdy Briton; then of the polite and heroic Roman; afterwards of
+our mild ancestors, the Saxons. Whether she raised her hammer for
+the plundering Dane is uncertain, his reign being short; and,
+lastly, for the resolute and surly Norman.</p>
+<p>It does not appear that Birmingham, from its first formation, to
+the present day, was ever the habitation of a gentleman, the lords
+of the manor excepted. But if there are no originals among us, we
+can produce many striking likenesses--The smoke of Birmingham has
+been very propitious to their growth, but not to their
+maturity.</p>
+<p>Gentlemen, as well as buttons, have been stamped here; but, like
+them, when finished, are moved off.</p>
+<p>They both originate from a very uncouth state, <i>without form
+or comeliness</i>; and pass through various stages, uncertain of
+success. Some of them, at length, receive the last polish, and
+arrive at perfection; while others, ruined by a flaw, are deemed
+<i>wasters</i>.</p>
+<p>I have known the man of opulence direct his gilt chariot
+<i>out</i> of Birmingham, who first approached her an helpless
+orphan in rags. I have known the chief magistrate of fifty thousand
+people, fall from his phaeton, and humbly ask bread at a parish
+vestry.</p>
+<p>Frequently the wheel of capricious fortune describes a circle,
+in the rotation of which, a family experiences alternately, the
+heighth of prosperity and the depth of distress; but more
+frequently, like a pendulum, it describes only the arc of a circle,
+and that always at the bottom.</p>
+<p>Many fine estates have been struck out of the anvil, valuable
+possessions raised by the tongs, and superb houses, in a two-fold
+sense, erected by the trowel.</p>
+<p>The paternal ancestor of the late Sir Charles Holte was a native
+of this place, and purchaser, in the beginning of Edward the Third,
+of the several manors, which have been the honour and the support
+of his house to the present time.</p>
+<p>Walter Clodshale was another native of Birmingham, who, in 1332,
+purchased the manor of Saltley, now enjoyed by his maternal
+descendant, Charles Bowyer Adderley, Esq.</p>
+<p>Charles Colmore, Esq; holds a considerable estate in the parish;
+his predecessor is said to have occupied, in the reign of Henry the
+Eighth, that house, now No. 1, in the High-street, as a mercer, and
+general receiver of the taxes.</p>
+<p>A numerous branch of this ancient family flourishes in
+Birmingham at this day.</p>
+<p>The head of it, in the reign of James the First, erected
+New-hall, and himself into a gentleman. On this desirable eminence,
+about half a mile from the buildings, they resided till time,
+fashion, and success, removed them, like their predecessors, the
+sons of fortune, to a greater distance.</p>
+<p>The place was then possessed by a tenant, as a farm; but
+Birmingham, a speedy traveller, marched over the premises, and
+covered them with twelve hundred houses, on building leases; the
+farmer was converted into a steward: his brown hempen frock, which
+guarded the <i>outside</i> of his waistcoat, became white holland,
+edged with ruffles, and took its station <i>within</i>: the
+pitchfork was metamorphosed into a pen, and his ancient practice of
+breeding up sheep, was changed into that of <i>dressing their
+skins</i>.</p>
+<p>Robert Philips, Esq; acquired a valuable property in the
+seventeenth century; now possessed by his descendant, William
+Theodore Inge, Esquire.</p>
+<p>A gentleman of the name of Foxall, assured me, that the head of
+his family resided upon the spot, now No. 101, in Digbeth, about
+four hundred years ago, in the capacity of a tanner.</p>
+<p>Richard Smallbroke, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, in the
+reign of George II. was a native of Birmingham, as his ancestors
+were for many ages, with reputation: he is said to have been born
+at number 2 in the High-street, had great property in the town, now
+enjoyed by his descendants, though they have left the place. The
+families also of Weaman, Jennings, Whalley, etc. have acquired vast
+property, and quitted the meridian of Birmingham; and some others
+are at this day ripe for removal. Let me close this bright scene of
+prosperity, and open another, which can only be viewed with a
+melancholy eye. We cannot behold the distresses of man without
+compassion; but that distress which follows affluence, comes with
+double effect.</p>
+<p>We have amongst us a family of the name of Middlemore, of great
+antiquity, deducible from the conquest; who held the chief
+possessions, and the chief offices in the county, and who matched
+into the first families in the kingdom, but fell with the interest
+of Charles the First; and are now in that low ebb of fortune, that
+I have frequently, with a gloomy pleasure, relieved them at the
+common charity-board of the town. Such is the tottering point of
+human greatness.</p>
+<p>Another of the name of Bracebridge, who for more than six
+hundred years, figured in the first ranks of life.</p>
+<p>A third of the name of Mountfort, who shone with meridian
+splendor, through a long train of ages. As genealogy was ever a
+favourite amusement, I have often conversed with these solitary
+remains of tarnished lustre, but find in all of them, the pride of
+their family buried with its greatness:--they pay no more attention
+to the arms of their ancestors, than to a scrap of paper, with
+which they would light their pipe. Upon consulting one of the name
+of Elwall, said to be descended from the Britons, I found him so
+amazingly defective, that he could not stretch his pedigree even so
+high as his grandfather.</p>
+<p>A fifth family amongst us, of the name of Arden, stood upon the
+pinnacle of fame in the days of Alfred the Great, where perhaps
+they had stood for ages before: they continued the elevation about
+seven hundred years after; but having treasonable charges brought
+against them, in the days of Queen Elizabeth, about two hundred
+years ago, they were thrown from this exalted eminence, and dashed
+to pieces in the fall. In various consultations with a member of
+this honourable house, I found the greatness of his family not only
+lost, but the memory of it also. I assured him, that his family
+stood higher in the scale of honour, than any private one within my
+knowledge: that his paternal ancestors, for about seven
+generations, were successively Earls of Warwick, before the Norman
+conquest: that, though he could not boast a descent from the famous
+Guy, he was related to him: that, though Turchell, Earl of Warwick
+at the conquest, his direct ancestor, lost the Earldom in favour of
+Roger Newburgh, a favourite of William's; yet, as the Earl did not
+appear in arms, against the Conqueror, at the battle of Hastings,
+nor oppose the new interest, he was allowed to keep forty-six of
+his manors: that he retired upon his own vast estate, which he held
+in dependence, where the family resided with great opulence, in one
+house, for many centuries, 'till their reduction above-mentioned.
+He received the information with some degree of amazement, and
+replied with a serious face,--"Perhaps there may have been
+something great in my predecessors, for my grandfather kept several
+cows in Birmingham and sold milk."</p>
+<p>The families of those ancient heroes, of Saxon and Norman race,
+are, chiefly by the mutations of time, and of state, either become
+extinct, or as above, reduced to the lowest verge of fortune. Those
+few therefore, whose descent is traceable, may be carried higher
+than that of the present nobility; for I know none of these last,
+who claim peerage beyond Edward the first, about 1295. Hence it
+follows, that for antiquity, alliance, and blood, the advantage is
+evidently in favour of the lowest class.</p>
+<p>Could one of those illustrious shades return to the earth and
+inspect human actions, he might behold one of his descendants,
+dancing at the lathe; another tippling with his dark brethren of
+the apron; a third humbly soliciting from other families such
+favours as were formerly granted by his own; a fourth imitating
+modern grandeur, by contracting debts he never designs to pay; and
+a fifth snuff of departed light, poaching, like a thief in the
+night, upon the very manors, possessed by his ancestors.</p>
+<p>Whence is it that title, pedigree, and alliance, in superior
+life, are esteemed of the highest value; while in the inferior, who
+have a prior claim, are totally neglected? The grand design of
+every creature upon earth, is to supply the wants of nature. No
+amusements of body or mind can be adopted, till hunger is served.
+When the appetite calls, the whole attention of the animal, with
+all its powers, is bound to answer. Hence arise those dreadful
+contests in the brute creation, from the lion in the woods, to the
+dog, who seizes the bone. Hence the ship, when her provisions are
+spent, and she becalmed, casts a savage eye, upon human sacrifices;
+and hence, the attention of the lower ranks of men, are too far
+engrossed for mental pursuit. They see, like Esau, the honours of
+their family devoured with a ravenous appetite. A man with an empty
+cupboard would make but a wretched philosopher. But if fortune
+should smile upon one of the lower race, raise him a step above his
+original standing, and give him a prospect of independence, he
+immediately begins to eye the arms upon carriages, examines old
+records for his name, and inquires where the Herald's office is
+kept. Thus, when the urgency of nature is set at liberty, the bird
+can whistle upon the branch, the fish play upon the surface, the
+goat skip upon the mountain, and even man himself, can bask in the
+sunshine of science. I digress no farther.</p>
+<p>The situation of St. Martin's church is another reason for
+fixing the original centre of Birmingham at the Old Cross.
+Christianity made an early and a swift progress in this kingdom;
+persecution, as might be expected, followed her footsteps,
+increased her votaries, and, as was ever the case, in all new
+religions, her proselytes were very devout.</p>
+<p>The religious fervor of the christians displayed itself in
+building churches. Most of those in England are of Saxon original,
+and were erected between the fourth and the tenth century; that of
+St. Martin's is ancient beyond the reach of historical knowledge,
+and probably rose in the early reigns of the Saxon kings.</p>
+<p>It was the custom of those times, to place the church, if there
+was but one, out of the precincts of the town; this is visible at
+the present day in those places which have received no
+increase.</p>
+<p>Perhaps it will not be an unreasonable supposition to fix the
+erection of St. Martin's, in the eighth century; and if the
+inquisitive reader chooses to traverse the town a second time, he
+may find its boundaries something like the following. We cannot
+allow its extension northward beyond the east end of New-street;
+that it included the narrow parts of Philip street, Bell street,
+Spiceal street, Moor street, and Park street. That the houses at
+this period were more compact than heretofore; that Digbeth and
+Deritend, lying in the road to Stratford, Warwick, and Coventry,
+all places of antiquity, were now formed. Thus the church stood in
+the environs of the town, unincumbered with buildings. Possibly
+this famous nursery of arts might, by this time, produce six
+hundred houses. A town must increase before its appendages are
+formed; those appendages also must increase before there is a
+necessity for an additional chapel, and after that increase, the
+inhabitants may wait long before that necessity is removed.
+Deritend is an appendage to Birmingham; the inhabitants of this
+hamlet having long laboured under the inconveniency of being remote
+from the parish church of Aston, and too numerous for admission
+into that of Birmingham, procured a grant in 1381 to erect a chapel
+of their own. If we, therefore, allow three hundred years for the
+infancy of Deritend, three hundred more for her maturity, and four
+hundred since the erection of her chapel, which is a very
+reasonable allowance. It will bring us to the time I mentioned.</p>
+<p>It does not appear that Deritend was attended with any
+considerable augmentation, from the Norman conquest to the year
+1767, when a turnpike-road was opened to Alcester, and when Henry
+Bradford publicly offered a freehold to the man who should first
+build upon his estate; since which time Deritend has made a rapid
+progress: and this dusky offspring of Birmingham is now travelling
+apace along her new formed road.</p>
+<p>I must again recline upon Dugdale.--In 1309, William de
+Birmingham, Lord of the Manor, took a distress of the inhabitants
+of Bromsgrove and King's-norton, for refusing to pay the customary
+tolls of the market. The inhabitants, therefore, brought their
+action and recovered damage, because it was said, their lands being
+the ancient demesne of the crown, they had a right to sell their
+produce in any market in the King's dominions.</p>
+<p>It appeared in the course of the trial, that the ancestors of
+William de Birmingham had a MARKET HERE before the Norman conquest!
+I shall have occasion, in future, to resume this remarkable
+expression. I have also met with an old author, who observes, that
+Birmingham was governed by two Constables in the time of the
+Saxons; small places have seldom more than one. These evidences
+prove much in favour of the government, population, and antiquity
+of the place.</p>
+<p>In Domesday-book it is rated at four hides of land. A hide was
+as much as a team could conveniently plough in a year; perhaps at
+that time about fifty acres: I think there is not now, more than
+two hundred ploughed in the parish.</p>
+<p>It was also said to contain woods of half a mile in length, and
+four furlongs in breadth. What difference subsisted between half a
+mile and four furlongs, in ancient time, is uncertain; we know of
+none now. The mile was reduced to its present standard in the reign
+of Queen Elizabeth: neither are there the least traces of those
+woods, for at this day it is difficult to find a stick that
+deserves the name of a tree, in the whole manor.--Timber is no part
+of the manufactory of Birmingham.</p>
+<p>Let us survey the town a third time, as we may reasonably
+suppose it stood in the most remarkable period of English history,
+that of the conquest.</p>
+<p>We cannot yet go farther North of the centre than before, that
+is, along the High-street, 'till we meet the East end of New
+street. We shall penetrate rather farther into Moor-street, none
+into Park-street, take in Digbeth, Deritend, Edgbaston-street, as
+being the road to Dudley, Bromsgrove, and the whole West of
+England; Spiceal-street, the Shambles, a larger part of Bell
+street, and Philip-street.</p>
+<p>The ancient increase of the town was towards the South, because
+of the great road, the conveniency of water, the church, and the
+manor-house, all which lay in that quarter: but the modern
+extension was chiefly towards the North, owing to the scions of her
+trades being transplanted all over the country, in that direction,
+as far as Wednesbury, Walsall, and Wolverhampton. But particularly
+her vicinity to the coal delphs, which were ever considered as the
+soul of her prosperity. Perhaps by this time the number of houses
+might have been augmented to seven hundred: but whatever was her
+number, either in this or any other period, we cannot doubt her
+being populous in every &aelig;ra of her existence.</p>
+<p>The following small extract from the register, will show a
+gradual increase, even before the restoration:</p>
+<center>
+<table summary="">
+<tr>
+<th align="center">Year.</th>
+<th align="center">Christenings.</th>
+<th align="center">Weddings.</th>
+<th align="center">Burials</th>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">1555,</td>
+<td align="center">37,</td>
+<td align="center">15,</td>
+<td align="center">27.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">1558,</td>
+<td align="center">48,</td>
+<td align="center">10,</td>
+<td align="center">47.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">1603,</td>
+<td align="center">65,</td>
+<td align="center">14,</td>
+<td align="center">40.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">1625,</td>
+<td align="center">76,</td>
+<td align="center">18,</td>
+<td align="center">47.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="center">1660,</td>
+<td align="center">76,</td>
+<td colspan="2">from April to Dec. inclusive.</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</center>
+<p>In 1251, William de Birmingham, Lord of the Manor, procured an
+additional charter from Henry the Third, reviving some decayed
+privileges and granting others; among the last was that of the
+Whitsuntide fair, to begin on the eve of Holy Thursday, and to
+continue four days. At the alteration of the style, in 1752, it was
+prudently changed to the Thursday in Whitsun week; that less time
+might be lost to the injury of work and the workman. He also
+procured another fair, to begin on the eve of St. Michael, and
+continue for three days. Both which fairs are at this day in great
+repute.</p>
+<p>By the interest of Audomore de Valance, earl of Pembroke, a
+licence was obtained from the crown, in 1319 to charge an
+additional toll upon every article sold in the market for three
+years, towards paving the town. Every quarter of corn to pay one
+farthing, and other things in proportion.</p>
+<p>We have no reason to believe that either the town or the market
+were small at that time, however, at the expiration of the term,
+the toll was found inadequate to the expence, and the work lay
+dormant for eighteen years, till 1337, when a second licence was
+obtained, equal to the first, which completed the intention.</p>
+<p>Those streets, thus dignified with a pavement, or rather their
+sides, to accommodate the foot passenger, probably were
+High-street, the Bull-ring, Corn-cheaping, Digbeth, St.
+Martin's-lane, Moat-lane, Edgbaston-street, Spiceal-street, and
+part of Moor-street.</p>
+<p>It was the practice, in those early days, to leave the center of
+a street unpaved, for the easier passage of carriages and horses;
+the consequence was, in flat streets the road became extremely
+dirty, almost impassable, and in a descent, the soil was quickly
+worn away, and left a causeway on each side. Many instances of this
+ancient practice are within memory.</p>
+<p>The streets, no doubt, in which the fairs were held, mark the
+boundaries of the town in the thirteenth century. Though smaller
+wares were sold upon the spot used for the market, the rougher
+articles, such as cattle, were exposed to sale in what were then
+the <i>out-streets</i>. The fair for horses was held in
+Edgbaston-street, and that for beasts in the High-street, tending
+towards the Welch Cross.</p>
+<p>Inconvenient as these streets seem for the purpose, our dark
+ancestors, of peaceable memory, found no detriment, during the
+infant state of population, in keeping them there. But we, their
+crowded sons, for want of accommodation, have wisely removed both;
+the horse-fair, in 1777, to Brick-kiln-lane, now the extreme part
+of the town; and that for beasts, in 1769, into the open part of
+Dale-end.</p>
+<p>Whatever veneration we may entertain for ancient custom, there
+is sometimes a necessity to break it. Were we now to solicit the
+crown for a fair, those streets would be the last we should fix
+on.</p>
+<p>If we survey Birmingham in the twelfth century, we shall find
+her crowded with timber, within and without; her streets dirty and
+narrow; but considering the distant period, much trodden, yet,
+compared with her present rising state, but little.</p>
+<p>The inhabitant became an early encroacher upon nor narrow
+streets, and sometimes the lord was the greatest. Her houses were
+mean and low, but few reaching higher than one story, perhaps none
+more than two; composed of wood and plaister--she was a stranger to
+brick. Her public buildings consisted solely of one, <i>the
+church</i>.</p>
+<p>If we behold her in the fourteenth century, we shall observe her
+private buildings multiplied more than improved; her narrow
+streets, by trespass, become narrower, for she was ever chargeable
+with neglect; her public buildings increased to four, two in the
+town, and two at a distance, the Priory, of stone, founded by
+contribution, at the head of which stood her lord; the Guild, of
+timber, now the Free School; and Deritend Chapel, of the same
+materials, resembling a barn, with something like an awkward
+dove-coat, at the west end, by way of steeple. All these will be
+noticed in due course.</p>
+<p>If we take a view of the inhabitants, we shall find them
+industrious, plain, and honest; the more of the former, generally,
+the less of dishonesty, if their superiors lived in an homelier
+stile in that period, it is no wonder <i>they</i> did. Perhaps our
+ancestors acquired more money than their neighbours, and not much
+of that; but what they had was extremely valuable: diligence will
+accumulate. In curious operations, known only to a few, we may
+suppose the artist was amply paid.</p>
+<p>Nash, in his History of Worcestershire, gives us a curious list
+of anecdotes, from the church-wardens ledger, of Hales-Owen. I
+shall transcribe two, nearly three hundred years old. "<i>Paid for
+bread and ale, to make my Lord Abbot drink, in Rogation week,
+2d.</i>" What should we now think of an ecclesiastical nobleman,
+accepting a two-penny treat from a country church-warden?</p>
+<p>This displays an instance of moderation in a class of people
+famous for luxury. It shows also the amazing reduction of money:
+the same sum which served my Lord Abbot four days, would now be
+devoured in four minutes.--"1498, <i>paid for repeyling the organs,
+to the organmaker at Bromicham</i>, 10<i>s</i>." Birmingham then,
+we find, discovered the powers of genius in the finer arts, as well
+as in iron. By '<i>the</i> organmaker,' we mould suppose there was
+but one.</p>
+<p>It appears that the art of acquiring riches was as well
+understood by our fathers, as by us; while an artist could receive
+as much money for tuning an organ, as would purchase an acre of
+land, or treat near half a gross of Lord Abbots.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="BATTLE_OF_CAMP-HILL."></a>BATTLE OF CAMP-HILL.</h2>
+<h3>1643.</h3>
+<br>
+<p>Clarendon reproaches with virulence, our spirited ancestors, for
+disloyalty to Charles the First.--The day after the King left
+Birmingham, on his march from Shrewsbury, in 1642, they seized his
+carriages, containing the royal plate and furniture, which they
+conveyed, for security, to Warwick Castle. They apprehended all
+messengers and suspected persons; frequently attacked, and reduced
+small parties of the royalists, whom they sent prisoners to
+Coventry.--Hence the proverbial expression of a refractory person,
+<i>Send him to Coventry</i>.</p>
+<p>In 1643, the King ordered Prince Rupert, with a detachment of
+two thousand men, to open a communication between Oxford and York.
+In his march to Birmingham, he found a company of foot, kept for
+the parliament, lately reinforced by a troop of horse from the
+garrison at Lichfield: but, supposing they would not resist a power
+of ten to one, sent his quarter masters to demand lodging, and
+offer protection.</p>
+<p>But the sturdy sons of freedom, having cast up slight works at
+each end of the town, and barricaded the lesser avenues, rejected
+the offer and the officers. The military uniting in one small and
+compact body, assisted by the inhabitants, were determined the
+King's forces mould not enter. Their little fire opened on the
+Prince: but bravery itself, though possessed of an excellent spot
+of ground for defence, was obliged to give way to numbers. The
+Prince quickly put them to silence; yet, under the success of his
+own arms, he was not able to enter the town, for the inhabitants
+had choaked up, with carriages, the deep and narrow road, then
+between Deritend and Camp-hill, which obliged the Prince to alter
+his route to the left, and proceed towards Long-bridge.</p>
+<p>The spirit of resistance was not yet broken; they sustained a
+second attack, but to no purpose, except that of laughter. A
+running fight continued through the town; victory declared loudly
+for the Prince; the retreat became general: part of the vanquished
+took the way to Oldbury.</p>
+<p>William Fielding, Earl of Denbigh, a volunteer under the Prince,
+being in close pursuit of an officer in the service of the
+parliament, and both upon the full gallop, up Shirland-lane, in the
+manor of Smethwick, the officer instantly turning, discharged a
+pistol at the Earl, and mortally wounded him with a random
+shot.</p>
+<p>The parliament troops were animated in the engagement by a
+clergyman, who acted as governor, but being taken in the defeat,
+and refusing quarter, was killed in the Red Lion-inn.</p>
+<p>The Prince, provoked at the resistance, in revenge, set fire to
+the town. His wrath is said to have kindled in Bull-street, and
+consumed several houses near the spot, now No. 12.</p>
+<p>He obliged the inhabitants to quench the flames with a heavy
+fine, to prevent farther military execution. Part of the fine is
+said to have been shoes and stockings for his people.</p>
+<p>The parliament forces had formed their camp in that well chosen
+angle, which divides the Stratford and Warwick roads, upon
+Camp-hill.</p>
+<p>The victorious Prince left no garrison, because their
+insignificant works were untenable; but left an humbled people, and
+marched to the reduction of Lichfield.</p>
+<p>In 1665, London was not only visited with the plague, but many
+other parts of England, among which, Birmingham felt this dreadful
+mark of the divine judgment.</p>
+<p>The infection is said to have been caught by a box of clothes,
+brought by the carrier, and lodged at the White-hart. Depopulation
+ensued. The church-yard was insufficient for the reception of the
+dead, who were conveyed to Ladywood-green, one acre of waste land,
+then denominated the Pelt Ground.</p>
+<p>The charter for the market has evidently been repeated by divers
+kings, both Saxon and Norman, but when first granted is uncertain,
+perhaps at an early Saxon date; and the day seems never to have
+been changed from Thursday.</p>
+<p>The lords were tenacious of their privileges; or, one would
+think, there was no need to renew their charter. Prescription,
+necessity, and increasing numbers, would establish the right.</p>
+<p>Perhaps, in a Saxon period, there was room sufficient in our
+circumscribed market-place, for the people and their weekly
+supplies; but now, their supplies would fill it, exclusive of the
+people.</p>
+<p>Thus by a steady and a persevering hand, she kept a constant and
+uniform stroke at the anvil, through a vast succession of ages:
+rising superior to the frowns of fortune: establishing a variety of
+productions from iron: ever improving her inventive powers, and
+perhaps, changing a number of her people, equal to her whole
+inhabitants, every sixteen years, till she arrived at another
+important period, the end of the civil wars of Charles the
+first.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="MODERN_STATE"></a>MODERN STATE</h2>
+<h3>OF</h3>
+<h2>BIRMINGHAM.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>It is the practice of the historian, to divide ancient history
+from modern, at the fall of the Roman Empire. For, during a course
+of about seven hundred years, while the Roman name beamed in
+meridian splendour, the lustre of her arms and political conduct
+influenced, more or less, every country in Europe. But at the fall
+of that mighty empire, which happened in the fifth century, every
+one of the conquered provinces was left to stand upon its own
+basis. From this period, therefore, the history of nations takes a
+material turn. The English historian divides his ancient account
+from the modern, at the extinction of the house of Plantagenet, in
+1485, the fall of Richard the Third. For, by the introduction of
+letters, an amazing degree of light was thrown upon science, and
+also, by a new system of politics, adopted by Henry the Seventh,
+the British constitution, occasioned by one little act of
+parliament, that of allowing liberty to sell land, took a very
+different, and an important course.</p>
+<p>But the ancient and modern state of Birmingham, must divide at
+the restoration of Charles the Second. For though she had before,
+held a considerable degree of eminence; yet at this period, the
+curious arts began to take root, and were cultivated by the hand of
+genius. Building leases, also, began to take effect, extension
+followed, and numbers of people crowded upon each other, as into a
+Paradise.</p>
+<p>As a kind tree, perfectly adapted for growth, and planted in a
+suitable soil, draws nourishment from the circumjacent ground, to a
+great extent, and robs the neighbouring plants of their support,
+that nothing can thrive within its influence; so Birmingham, half
+whose inhabitants above the age of ten, perhaps, are not natives,
+draws her annual supply of hands, and is constantly fed by the
+towns that surround her, where her trades are not practised.
+Preventing every increase to those neighbours who kindly contribute
+to her wants. This is the case with Bromsgrove, Dudley,
+Stourbridge, Sutton, Lichfield, Tamworth, Coleshill, and
+Solihull.</p>
+<p>We have taken a view of Birmingham in several periods of
+existence, during the long course of perhaps three thousand years.
+Standing sometimes upon presumptive ground. If the prospect has
+been a little clouded, it only caused us to be more attentive, that
+we might not be deceived. But, though we have attended her through
+so immense a space, we have only seen her in infancy. Comparatively
+small in her size, homely in her person, and coarse in her dress.
+Her ornaments, wholly of iron, from her own forge.</p>
+<p>But now, her growths will be amazing; her expansion rapid,
+perhaps not to be paralleled in history. We shall see her rise in
+all the beauty of youth, of grace, of elegance, and attract the
+notice of the commercial world. She will also add to her iron
+ornaments, the lustre of every metal, that the whole earth can
+produce, with all their illustrious race of compounds, heightened
+by fancy, and garnished with jewels. She will draw from the fossil,
+and the vegetable kingdoms; press the ocean for shell, skin and
+coral. She will also tax the animal, for horn, bone, and ivory, and
+she will decorate the whole with the touches of her pencil.</p>
+<p>I have met with some remarks, published in 1743, wherein the
+author observes, "That Birmingham, at the restoration, probably
+consisted only of three streets." But it is more probable it
+consisted of fifteen, though not all finished, and about nine
+hundred houses.</p>
+<p>I am sensible, when an author strings a parcel of streets
+together, he furnishes but a dry entertainment for his reader,
+especially to a stranger. But, as necessity demands intelligence
+from the historian, I must beg leave to mention the streets and
+their supposed number of houses.</p>
+<br>
+<center>
+<table summary="">
+<tr>
+<td>Digbeth, nearly the same as now, except</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;the twenty-tree houses between
+the two</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Mill-lanes, which are of a modern
+date,</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;about</td>
+<td align="right">110</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Moat-lane (Court-lane)</td>
+<td align="right">12</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Corn-market and Shambles</td>
+<td align="right">40</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Spiceal-street</td>
+<td align="right">50</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Dudley-street</td>
+<td align="right">50</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Bell-street</td>
+<td align="right">50</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Philip-street</td>
+<td align="right">30</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>St. Martin's-lane</td>
+<td align="right">15</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Edgbaston-street</td>
+<td align="right">70</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Lee's-lane</td>
+<td align="right">10</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Park-street, extending from Digbeth nearly</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;to the East end of
+Freeman-street</td>
+<td align="right">80</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>More-street, to the bottom of Castle-street,</td>
+<td align="right">70</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Bull-street, not so high as the Minories,</td>
+<td align="right">50</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>High-street,</td>
+<td align="right">100</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Deritend;</td>
+<td align="right">120</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Odd houses scattered round the verge of</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;the town</td>
+<td align="right">50</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right">----</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right">907</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The number of inhabitants,
+5,472.</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</center>
+<br>
+<p>The same author farther observes, "That from the Restoration to
+the year 1700, the streets of Birmingham were increased to thirty
+one." But I can make their number only twenty-eight, and many of
+these far from complete. Also, that the whole number of houses were
+2,504, and the inhabitants 15,032. The additional streets therefore
+seem to have been Castle-street, Carr's-lane, Dale-end,
+Stafford-street, Bull lane, Pinfold-street, Colmore-street, the
+Froggery, Old Meeting-street, Worcester-street, Peck-lane,
+New-street, (a small part,) Lower Mill-lane.</p>
+<p>From the year 1700 to 1731, there is said to have been a farther
+addition of twenty-five streets, I know of only twenty-three: and
+also of 1,215 houses, and 8,250 inhabitants. Their names we offer
+as under;--Freeman-street, New Meeting-street, Moor-street, (the
+North part), Wood-street, the Butts, Lichfield-street;
+Thomas's-street, John's-street, London-'prentice street, Lower
+priory, The Square, Upper-priory, Minories, Steel-house-lane,
+Cherry-street, Cannon-street, Needless-alley, Temple-street, King's
+street, Queen-street, Old Hinkleys, Smallbrook-street, and the East
+part of Hill-street.</p>
+<p>I first saw Birmingham July 14, 1741, and will therefore
+perambulate its boundaries at that time with my traveller,
+beginning at the top of Snow-hill, keeping the town on our left,
+and the fields that then were, on our right.</p>
+<p>Through Bull-lane we proceed to Temple-street; down Peck lane,
+to the top of Pinfold-street; Dudley-street, the Old Hinkleys to
+the top of Smallbrook street, back through Edgbaston-street,
+Digbeth, to the upper end of Deritend. We shall return through
+Park-street, Mass-house-lane, the North of Dale end,
+Stafford-street, Steel-house-lane, to the top of Snow-hill, from
+whence we set out.</p>
+<p>If we compare this account with that of 1731, we shall not find
+any great addition of streets; but those that were formed before,
+were much better filled up. The new streets erected during these
+ten years were Temple-row, except about six houses. The North of
+Park-street, and of Dale-end; also, Slaney-street, and a small part
+of the East side of Snow hill.</p>
+<p>From 1741, to the present year 1780, Birmingham seems to have
+acquired the amazing augmentation of seventy one streets, 4172
+houses, and 25,032 inhabitants.</p>
+<p>Thus her internal property is covered with new-erected
+buildings, tier within tier. Thus she opens annually, a new aspect
+to the traveller; and thus she penetrates along the roads that
+surround her, as if to unite with the neighbouring towns, for their
+improvement in commerce, in arts, and in civilization.</p>
+<p>I have often led my curious enquirer round Birmingham, but, like
+the thread round the swelling clue, never twice in the same tract.
+We shall therefore, for the last time, examine her present
+boundaries. Our former journey commenced at the top of Snow-hill,
+we now set off from the bottom.</p>
+<p>The present buildings extend about forty yards beyond the
+Salutation, on the Wolverhampton road. We now turn up
+Lionel-street, leaving St. Paul's, and about three new erected
+houses, on the right<a name="FNanchor1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1">[1]</a>; pass close to New-Hall, leaving it on the
+left, to the top of Great Charles-street, along Easy-hill: we now
+leave the Wharf to the right, down Suffolk-street, in which are
+seventy houses, leaving two infant streets also to the right, in
+which are about twelve houses each: up to Holloway-head, thence to
+Windmill-hill, Bow-street, Brick-kiln-lane, down to Lady-well,
+along Pudding-brook, to the Moat, Lloyd's Slitting-mill, Digbeth,
+over Deritend bridge, thence to the right, for Cheapside; cross the
+top of Bradford-street, return by the Bridge to Floodgate-street,
+Park-street, Bartholomew's-chapel, Grosvenor-street, Nova
+scotia-street, Woodcock-lane, Aston-street, Lancaster-street,
+Walmer-lane, Price's-street, Bath-street, to the bottom of
+Snow-hill.</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor1">[1]</a>
+The above was written in May 1780, and the three houses are now,
+March 14, 1781, multiplied into fifty-five.</blockquote>
+<p>The circle I have described is about five miles, in which is
+much ground to be filled up. There are also beyond this crooked
+line, five clumps of houses belonging to Birmingham, which may be
+deemed hamlets.</p>
+<p>At the Sand-pits upon the Dudley-road, about three furlongs from
+the buildings, are fourteen houses.</p>
+<p>Four furlongs from the Navigation-office, upon the road to
+Hales-owen, are twenty-nine.</p>
+<p>One furlong from Exeter row, towards the hand, are
+thirty-four.</p>
+<p>Upon Camp-hill, 130 yards from the junction of the Warwick and
+Coventry roads, which is the extremity of the present buildings,
+are thirty-one.</p>
+<p>And two furlongs from the town, in Walmer-lane, are seventeen
+more.</p>
+<p>I shall comprize, in one view, the state of Birmingham in eight
+different periods of time. And though some are imaginary, perhaps
+they are not far from real.</p>
+<br>
+<center>
+<table summary="">
+<tr>
+<th>&nbsp;</th>
+<th align="right">Streets.</th>
+<th align="right">Houses.</th>
+<th align="right">Souls.</th>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>In the time of the ancient Britons,</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right">80</td>
+<td align="right">400</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right">A.D. 750,</td>
+<td align="right">8</td>
+<td align="right">600</td>
+<td align="right">3000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right">1066,</td>
+<td align="right">9</td>
+<td align="right">700</td>
+<td align="right">3500</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right">1650,</td>
+<td align="right">15</td>
+<td align="right">900</td>
+<td align="right">5472</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right">1700,</td>
+<td align="right">28</td>
+<td align="right">2504</td>
+<td align="right">15032</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right">1731,</td>
+<td align="right">51</td>
+<td align="right">3717</td>
+<td align="right">23286</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right">1741,</td>
+<td align="right">54</td>
+<td align="right">4114</td>
+<td align="right">24660</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="right">1780,</td>
+<td align="right">125</td>
+<td align="right">8382</td>
+<td align="right">50295</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</center>
+<br>
+<p>In 1778, Birmingham, exclusive of the appendages, contained 8042
+houses, 48252 inhabitants.</p>
+<p>At the same time, Manchester consisted of 3402, houses, and
+22440 people.</p>
+<p>In 1779, Nottingham contained 3191 houses, and 17711 souls.</p>
+<p>It is easy to see, without the spirit of prophecy, that
+Birmingham hath not yet arrived at her zenith, neither is she
+likely to reach it for ages to come. Her increase will depend upon
+her manufactures; her manufactures will depend upon the national
+commerce; national commerce, will depend upon a superiority at sea;
+and this superiority may be extended to a long futurity.</p>
+<p>The interior parts of the town, are like those of other places,
+parcelled out into small free-holds, perhaps, originally purchased
+of the Lords of the Manor; but, since its amazing increase, which
+began about the restoration, large tracts of land have been
+huxtered out upon building leases.</p>
+<p>Some of the first that were granted, seem to have been about
+Worcester and Colmore streets, at the trifling annual price of one
+farthing per yard, or under.</p>
+<p>The market ran so much against the lesor, that the lessee had
+liberty to build in what manner he pleased; and, at the expiration
+of the term, could remove the buildings unless the other chose to
+purchase them. But the market, at this day, is so altered, that the
+lessee gives four-pence per yard; is tied to the mode of building,
+and obliged to leave the premisses in repair.</p>
+<p>The itch for building is predominant: we dip our fingers into
+mortar almost as soon as into business. It is not wonderful that a
+person should be hurt by the <i>falling</i> of a house; but, with
+us, a man sometimes breaks his back by <i>raising</i> one.</p>
+<p>This private injury, however, is attended with a public benefit
+of the first magnitude; for every "<i>House to be Let</i>," holds
+forth a kind of invitation to the stranger to settle in it, who,
+being of the laborious class, promotes the manufactures.</p>
+<p>If we cannot produce many houses of the highest orders in
+architecture, we make out the defect in numbers. Perhaps
+<i>more</i> are erected here, in a given time, than in any place in
+the whole island, London excepted.</p>
+<p>It is remarkable, that in a town like Birmingham, where so many
+houses are built, the art of building is so little understood. The
+stile of architecture in the inferior sort, is rather showy than
+lasting.</p>
+<p>The proprietor generally contracts for a house of certain
+dimensions, at a stipulated price: this induces the artist to use
+some ingredients of the cheaper kind, and sometimes to try whether
+he can cement the materials with sand, instead of lime.</p>
+<p>But a house is not the only thing spoilt by the builder; he
+frequently spoils himself: out of many successions of house-makers,
+I cannot recollect one who made a fortune.</p>
+<p>Many of these edifices have been brought forth, answered the
+purposes for which they were created, and been buried in the dust,
+during my short acquaintance with Birmingham. One would think, if a
+man can survive a house, he has no great reason to complain of the
+shortness of life.</p>
+<p>From the external genteel appearance of a house, the stranger
+would be tempted to think the inhabitant possessed at least a
+thousand pounds; but, if he looks within, he sees only the ensigns
+of beggary.</p>
+<p>We have people who enjoy four or five hundred pounds a year in
+houses, none of which, perhaps, exceed six pounds per annum. It may
+excite a smile, to say, I have known two houses erected, one
+occupied by a man, his wife, and three children; the other pair had
+four; and twelve guineas covered every expence.</p>
+<p>Pardon, my dear reader, the omission of a pompous encomium on
+their beauty, or duration.</p>
+<p>I am inclined to think two thirds of the houses in Birmingham
+stand upon new foundations, and all the places of worship, except
+Deritend Chapel.</p>
+<p>About the year 1730, Thomas Sherlock, late Bishop of London,
+purchased the private estate of the ladies of the manor, chiefly
+land, about four hundred per annum.</p>
+<p>In 1758, the steward told me it had increased to twice the
+original value. The pious old Bishop was frequently solicited to
+grant building leases, but answered, "His land was valuable, and if
+built upon, his successor, at the expiration of the term, would
+have the rubbish to carry off:" he therefore not only refused, but
+prohibited his successor from granting such leases.</p>
+<p>But Sir Thomas Gooch, who succeeded him, seeing the great
+improvement of the neighbouring estates, and wisely judging fifty
+pounds per acre preferable to five, procured an act in about 1766,
+to set aside the prohibiting clause in the Bishop's will.</p>
+<p>Since which, a considerable town may be said to have been
+erected upon his property, now about 1600<i>l</i>. per annum.</p>
+<p>An acquaintance assured me, that in 1756 he could have purchased
+the house he then occupied for 400<i>l</i>. but refused. In 1770,
+the same house was sold for 600<i>l</i>. and in 1772, I purchased
+it for eight hundred and thirty-five guineas, without any
+alteration, but what time had made for the worse: and for this
+enormous price I had only an old house, which I was obliged to take
+down. Such is the rapid improvement in value, of landed property,
+in a commercial country.</p>
+<p>Suffer me to add, though foreign to my subject, that these
+premises were the property of an ancient family of the name of
+Smith, now in decay; where many centuries ago one of the first inns
+in Birmingham, and well known by the name of the Garland House,
+perhaps from the sign; but within memory, Potter's
+Coffee-house.</p>
+<p>Under one part was a room about forty-five feet long, and
+fifteen wide, used for the town prison.</p>
+<p>In sinking a cellar we found a large quantity of tobacco-pipes
+of a angular construction, with some very antique earthen ware, but
+no coin; also loads of broken bottles, which refutes the complaint
+of our pulpits against modern degeneracy, and indicates, the
+vociferous arts of getting drunk and breaking glass, were well
+understood by our ancestors.</p>
+<p>In penetrating a bed of sand, upon which had stood a work-shop,
+about two feet below the surface we came to a tumolus six feet
+long, three wide, and five deep, built very neat, with tiles laid
+flat, but no cement. The contents were mouldered wood, and pieces
+of human bone.</p>
+<p>I know of no house in Birmingham, the inns excepted, whose
+annual rent exceeds eighty pounds. By the lamp books, the united
+rents appear to be about seventy thousand, which if we take at
+twenty years purchase, will compose a freehold of
+1,400,000<i>l</i>. value.</p>
+<p>If we allow the contents of the manor to be three thousand
+acres, and deduct six hundred for the town, five hundred more for
+roads, water, and waste land; and rate the remaining nineteen
+hundred, at the average rent of 2<i>l</i>. 10s. per acre; we shall
+raise an additional freehold of 4,750<i>l</i>. per ann.</p>
+<p>If we value this landed property at thirty years purchase, it
+will produce 142,500<i>l</i>. and, united with the value of the
+buildings, the fee-simple of this happy region of genius, will
+amount to 1,542,500<i>l</i>.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="OF_THE_STREETS"></a>OF THE STREETS,</h2>
+<h3>AND</h3>
+<h2>THEIR NAMES.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>We accuse our short-sighted ancestors, and with reason, for
+leaving us almost without a church-yard and a market-place; for
+forming some of our streets nearly without width, and without
+light. One would think they intended a street without a passage,
+when they erected Moor-street; and that their successors should
+light their candles at noon.</p>
+<p>Something, however, may be pleaded in excuse, by observing the
+concourse of people was small, therefore a little room would
+suffice; and the buildings were low, so that light would be less
+obstructed: besides, we cannot guess at the future but by the
+present. As the increase of the town was slow, the modern
+augmentation could not then be discovered through the dark medium
+of time; but the prospect into futurity is at this day rather
+brighter, for we plainly see, and perhaps with more reason,
+succeeding generations will blame us for neglect. We occupy the
+power to reform, without the will; why else do we suffer enormities
+to grow, which will have taken deep root in another age? If utility
+and beauty can <i>be joined together</i> in the street, why are
+they ever <i>put asunder</i>? It is easy for Birmingham to be as
+rapid in her improvement, as in her growth.</p>
+<p>The town consists of about 125 streets, some of which acquired
+their names from a variety of causes, but some from no cause, and
+others, have not yet acquired a name.</p>
+<p>Those of Bull street, Cannon street, London Prentice street, and
+Bell street, from the signs of their respective names.</p>
+<p>Some receive theirs from the proprietors of the land, as
+Smallbrook street, Freeman street, Colmore street, Slaney street,
+Weaman street, Bradford street, and Colmore row.</p>
+<p>Digbeth, or Ducks Bath, from the Pools for accommodating that
+animal, was originally Well street, from the many springs in its
+neighbourhood.</p>
+<p>Others derive a name from caprice, as Jamaica row, John, Thomas,
+and Philip streets.</p>
+<p>Some, from a desire of imitating the metropolis, as,
+Fleet-street, Snow-hill, Ludgate-hill, Cheapside, and
+Friday-street.</p>
+<p>Some again, from local causes, as High-street, from its
+elevation, St. Martin's-lane, Church-street, Cherry-street,
+originally an orchard, Chapel-street, Bartholomew-row,
+Mass-house-lane, Old and New Meeting-streets, Steelhouse-lane,
+Temple-row and Temple-street, also Pinfold-street, from a pinfold
+at No. 85, removed in 1752.</p>
+<p>Moor-street, anciently Mole-street, from the eminence on one
+side, or the declivity on the other.</p>
+<p>Park-street seems to have acquired its name by being
+appropriated to the private use of the lord of the manor, and,
+except at the narrow end next Digbeth, contained only the corner
+house to the south, entering Shut-lane, No. 82, lately taken down,
+which was called The Lodge.</p>
+<p>Spiceal-street, anciently Mercer-street, from the number of
+mercers shops; and as the professors of that trade dealt in
+grocery, it was promiscuously called Spicer-street. The present
+name is only a corruption of the last.</p>
+<p>The spot, now the Old Hinkleys, was a close, till about 1720, in
+which horses were shown at the fair, then held in Edgbaston-street.
+It was since a brick-yard, and contained only one hut, in which the
+brick-maker slept.</p>
+<p>The tincture of the smoky shops, with all their <i>black
+furniture</i>, for weilding gun-barrels, which afterwards appeared
+on the back of Small-brooke-street, might occasion the original
+name <i>Inkleys</i>; ink is well known; leys, is of British
+derivation, and means grazing ground; so that the etymology perhaps
+is <i>Black pasture</i>.</p>
+<p>The Butts; a mark to shoot at, when the bow was the fashionable
+instrument of war, which the artist of Birmingham knew well how to
+make, and to use.</p>
+<p>Gosta Green (Goose-stead-Green) a name of great antiquity, now
+in decline; once a track of commons, circumscribed by the Stafford
+road, now Stafford-street, the roads to Lichfield and Coleshill,
+now Aston and Coleshill-streets, and extending to Duke-street, the
+boundary of the manor.</p>
+<p>Perhaps, many ages after, it was converted into a farm, and was,
+within memory, possessed by a person of the name of Tanter, whence,
+Tanter-street.</p>
+<p>Sometimes a street fluctuates between two names, as that of
+Catharine and Wittal, which at length terminated in favour of the
+former.</p>
+<p>Thus the names of great George and great Charles stood
+candidates for one of the finest streets in Birmingham, which after
+a contest of two or three years, was carried in favour of the
+latter.</p>
+<p>Others receive a name from the places to which they direct, as
+Worcester-street, Edgbaston-street, Dudley-street,
+Lichfield-street, Aston-street, Stafford-street, Coleshill-street,
+and Alcester-street.</p>
+<p>A John Cooper, the same person who stands in the list of donors
+in St. Martin's church, and who, I apprehend, lived about two
+hundred and fifty years ago, at the Talbot, now No. 20, in the
+High-street, left about four acres of land, between
+Steelhouse-lane, St. Paul's chapel, and Walmer-lane, to make
+love-days for the people of Birmingham; hence,
+<i>Love-day-croft</i>.</p>
+<p>Various sounds from the trowel upon the premises, in 1758,
+produced the name of <i>Love-day-street</i> (corrupted into
+Lovely-street.)</p>
+<p>This croft is part of an estate under the care of Lench's Trust;
+and, at the time of the bequest, was probably worth no more than
+ten shillings per annum.</p>
+<p>At the top of Walmer-lane, which is the north east corner of
+this croft, stood about half a dozen old alms-houses, perhaps
+erected in the beginning of the seventeenth century, then at a
+considerable distance from the town. These were taken down in 1764,
+and the present alms-houses, which are thirty-six, erected near the
+spot, at the expence of the trust, to accommodate the same number
+of poor widows, who have each a small annual stipend, for the
+supply of coals.</p>
+<p>This John Cooper, for some services rendered to the lord of the
+manor, obtained three privileges, That of regulating the goodness
+and price of beer, consequently he stands in the front of the whole
+liquid race of high tasters; that he should, whenever he pleased,
+beat a bull in the Bull-ring, whence arises the name; and, that he
+should be allowed interment in the south porch of St. Martin's
+church. His memory ought to be transmitted with honor, to
+posterity, for promoting the harmony of his neighbourhood, but he
+ought to have been buried in a dunghill, for punishing an innocent
+animal.--His wife seems to have survived him, who also became a
+benefactress, is recorded in the same list, and their monument, in
+antique sculpture, is yet visible in the porch.</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image03.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image03.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image03.jpg" width="60%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b><i>The Alms House</i>.</b></p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="TRADE."></a>TRADE.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Perhaps there is not by nature so much difference in the
+capacities of men, as by education. The efforts of nature will
+produce a ten-fold crop in the field, but those of art, fifty.</p>
+<p>Perhaps too, the seeds of every virtue, vice, inclination, and
+habit, are sown in the breast of every human being, though not in
+an equal degree. Some of these lie dormant for ever, no hand
+inviting their cultivation. Some are called into existence by their
+own internal strength, and others by the external powers that
+surround them. Some of these seeds flourish more, some less,
+according to the aptness of the soil, and the modes of assistance.
+We are not to suppose infancy the only time in which these scions
+spring, no part of life is exempt. I knew a man who lived to the
+age of forty, totally regardless of music. A fidler happening to
+have apartments near his abode, attracted his ear, by frequent
+exhibitions, which produced a growing inclination for that
+favourite science, and he became a proficient himself. Thus in
+advanced periods a man may fall in love with a science, a woman, or
+a bottle. Thus avarice is said to shoot up in ancient soil, and
+thus, I myself bud forth in history at fifty-six.</p>
+<p>The cameleon is said to receive a tincture from the colour of
+the object that is nearest him; but the human mind in reality
+receives a bias from its connections. Link a man to the pulpit, and
+he cannot proceed to any great lengths in profligate life. Enter
+him into the army, and he will endeavour to swear himself into
+consequence. Make the man of humanity an overseer of the poor, and
+he will quickly find the tender feelings of commiseration hardened.
+Make him a physician, and he will be the only person upon the
+premises, the heir excepted, unconcerned at the prospect of death.
+Make him a surgeon, and he will amputate a leg with the same
+indifference with which a cutler saws a piece of bone for a knife
+handle. You commit a rascal to prison because he merits
+transportation, but by the time he comes out he merits a halter. By
+uniting also with industry, we become industrious. It is easy to
+give instances of people whose distinguishing characteristic was
+idleness, but when they breathed the air of Birmingham, diligence
+became the predominant feature. The view of profit, like the view
+of corn to the hungry horse, excites to action.</p>
+<p>Thus the various seeds scattered by nature into the soul at its
+first formation, either lie neglected, are urged into increase by
+their own powers, or are drawn towards maturity by the concurring
+circumstances that attend them.</p>
+<p>The late Mr. Grenville observed, in the House of Commons, "That
+commerce tended to corrupt the morals of a people." If we examine
+the expression, we shall find it true in a certain degree, beyond
+which, it tends to improve them.</p>
+<p>Perhaps every tradesman can furnish out numberless instances of
+small deceit. His conduct is marked with a littleness, which though
+allowed by general consent, is not strictly just. A person with
+whom I have long been connected in business, asked, if I had dealt
+with his relation, whom he had brought up, and who had lately
+entered into commercial life. I answered in the affirmative. He
+replied, "He is a very honest fellow." I told him I saw all the
+finesse of a tradesman about him. "Oh, rejoined my friend, a man
+has a right to say all he can in favour of his own goods." Nor is
+the seller alone culpable. The buyer takes an equal share in the
+deception. Though neither of them speak their sentiments, they well
+understand each other. Whilst the treaty is agitating, the profit
+of the tradesman vanishes, yet the buyer pronounces against the
+article; but when finished, the seller whispers his friend, "It is
+well sold," and the buyer smiles if a bargain.</p>
+<p>Thus is the commercial track a line of minute deceits.</p>
+<p>But, on the other hand, it does not seem possible for a man in
+trade to pass this line, without wrecking his reputation; which, if
+once broken, can never be made whole. The character of a tradesman
+is valuable, it is his all; therefore, whatever seeds of the
+vicious kind shoot forth in the mind, are carefully watched and
+nipped in the bud, that they may never blossom into action.</p>
+<p>Thus having slated the accounts between morality and trade, I
+shall leave the reader to draw the ballance. I shall not pronounce
+after so great a master, and upon so delicate a subject, but shall
+only ask, "Whether the people in trade are more corrupt than those
+out?"</p>
+<p>If the curious reader will lend an attentive ear to a pair of
+farmers in the market, bartering for a cow, he will find as much
+dissimulation as at St. James's, or at any other saint's, but
+couched in homelier phrase. The man of well-bred deceit is
+'<i>infinitely</i> your friend--It would give him <i>immense</i>
+pleasure to serve you!' while the man in the frock 'Will be ---- if
+he tells you a word of a lye!' Deception is an innate principle of
+the human heart, not peculiar to one man, or one profession.</p>
+<p>Having occasion for a horse, in 1759, I mentioned it to an
+acquaintance, and informed him of the uses: he assured me, he had
+one that would exactly suit; which he showed in the stable, and
+held the candle pretty high, <i>for fear of affecting the
+straw</i>. I told him it was needless to examine him, for I should
+rely upon his word, being conscious he was too much my friend to
+deceive me; therefore bargained, and caused him to be sent home.
+But by the light of the sun, which next morning illumined the
+heavens, I perceived the horse was <i>greased</i> on all fours. I
+therefore, in gentle terms, upbraided my friend with duplicity,
+when he replied with some warmth, "I would cheat my own brother in
+a horse." Had this honourable friend stood a chance of selling me a
+horse once a week, his own interest would have prevented him from
+deceiving me.</p>
+<p>A man enters into business with a view of acquiring a fortune--A
+laudable motive! That property which rises from honest industry, is
+an honour to its owner; the repose of his age; the reward of a life
+of attention: but, great as the advantage seems, yet, being of a
+private nature, it is one of the least in the mercantile walk. For
+the intercourse occasioned by traffic, gives a man a view of the
+world, and of himself; removes the narrow limits that confine his
+judgment; expands the mind; opens his understanding; removes his
+prejudices; and polishes his manners. Civility and humanity are
+ever the companions of trade; the man of business is the man of
+liberal sentiment; a barbarous and commercial people, is a
+contradiction; if he is not the philosopher of nature, he is the
+friend of his country, and well understands her interest. Even the
+men of inferior life among us, whose occupations, one would think,
+tend to produce minds as callous as the mettle they work; lay a
+stronger claim to civilization, than in any other place with which
+I am acquainted. I am sorry to mutilate the compliment, when I
+mention the lower race of the other sex: no lady ought to be
+publicly insulted, let her appear in what dress she pleases. Both
+sexes, however, agree in exhibiting a mistaken pity, in cases of
+punishment, particularly by preventing that for misconduct in the
+military profession.</p>
+<p>It is singular, that a predilection for Birmingham, is
+entertained by every denomination of visitants, from Edward Duke of
+York, who saw us in 1765, down to the presuming quack, who, griped
+with necessity, boldly discharges his filth from the stage. A
+paviour, of the name of Obrien, assured me in 1750, that he only
+meant to sleep one night in Birmingham, in his way from London to
+Dublin. But instead of pursuing his journey next morning, as
+intended, he had continued in the place thirty-five years: and
+though fortune had never elevated him above the pebbles of the
+street, yet he had never repented his stay.</p>
+<p>It has already been remarked that I first saw Birmingham in
+1741, accidentally cast into those regions of civility; equally
+unknown to every inhabitant, nor having the least idea of becoming
+one myself. Though the reflections of an untaught youth of
+seventeen cannot be striking, yet, as they were purely natural,
+permit me to describe them.</p>
+<p>I had been before acquainted with two or three principal towns.
+The environs of all I had seen were composed of wretched dwellings,
+replete with dirt and poverty; but the buildings in the exterior of
+Birmingham rose in a style of elegance. Thatch, so plentiful in
+other towns, was not to be met with in this. I was surprised at the
+place, but more so at the people: They were a species I had never
+seen: They possessed a vivacity I had never beheld: I had been
+among dreamers, but now I saw men awake: Their very step along the
+street showed alacrity: Every man seemed to know and prosecute his
+own affairs: The town was large, and full of inhabitants, and those
+inhabitants full of industry. I had seen faces elsewhere tinctured
+with an idle gloom void of meaning, but here, with a pleasing
+alertness: Their appearance was strongly marked with the modes of
+civil life: I mixed a variety of company, chiefly of the lower
+ranks, and rather as a silent spectator: I was treated with an easy
+freedom by all, and with marks of favour by some: Hospitality
+seemed to claim this happy people for her own, though I knew not at
+that time from what cause.</p>
+<p>I did not meet with this treatment in 1770, twenty nine years
+after, at Bosworth, where I accompanied a gentleman, with no other
+intent, than to view the field celebrated for the fall of Richard
+the third. The inhabitants enjoyed the cruel satisfaction of
+setting their dogs at us in the street, merely because we were
+strangers. Human figures, not their own, are seldom seen in those
+inhospitable regions: Surrounded with impassable roads, no
+intercourse with man to humanise the mind, no commerce to smooth
+their rugged manners, they continue the boors of nature.</p>
+<p>Thus it appears, that characters are influenced by profession.
+That the great advantage of private fortune, and the greater to
+society, of softening and forming the mind, are the result of
+trade. But these are not the only benefits that flow from this
+desirable spring. It opens the hand of charity to the assistance of
+distress; witness the Hospital and the two Charity Schools,
+supported by annual donation: It adds to the national security, by
+supplying the taxes for internal use, and, for the prosecution of
+war. It adds to that security, by furnishing the inhabitants with
+riches, which they are ever anxious to preserve, even at the risk
+of their lives; for the preservation of private wealth, tends to
+the preservation of the state.</p>
+<p>It augments the value of landed property, by multiplying the
+number of purchasers: It produces money to improve that land into a
+higher state of cultivation, which ultimately redounds to the
+general benefit, by affording plenty.</p>
+<p>It unites bodies of men in social compact, for their mutual
+interest: It adds to the credit and pleasure of individuals, by
+enabling them to purchase entertainment and improvement, both of
+the corporeal and intellectual kind.</p>
+<p>It finds employment for the hand that would otherwise be found
+in mischief: And it elevates the character of a nation in the scale
+of government.</p>
+<p>Birmingham, by her commercial consequence, has, of late, justly
+assumed the liberty of nominating one of the representatives for
+the county; and, to her honor, the elective body never regretted
+her choice.</p>
+<p>In that memorable contest of 1774, we were almost to a man of
+one mind: if an <i>odd dozen</i> among us, of a different
+<i>mould</i>, did not assimulate with the rest, they were treated,
+as men of free judgment should ever be treated, <i>with
+civility</i>, and the line of harmony was not broken.</p>
+<p>If this little treatise happens to travel into some of our
+corporate places, where the fire of contention, blown by the breath
+of party, is kept alive during seven years, let them cast a second
+glance over the above remark.</p>
+<p>Some of the first words after the creation, <i>increase and
+multiply</i>, are applicable to Birmingham; but as her own people
+are insufficient for the manufactures, she demands assistance for
+two or three miles round her. In our early morning walks, on every
+road proceeding from the town, we meet the sons of diligence
+returning to business, and bringing <i>in</i> the same dusky smuts,
+which the evening before they took out. And though they appear of a
+darkish complexion, we may consider it is the property of every
+metal to sully the user; money itself has the same effect, and yet
+he deems it no disgrace who is daubed by fingering it; the disgrace
+lies with him who has none to finger.</p>
+<p>The profits arising from labour, to the lower orders of men,
+seem to surpass those of other mercantile places. This is not only
+visible in the manufactures peculiar to Birmingham, but in the more
+common occupations of the barber, taylor, shoe-maker, etc. who bask
+in the rays of plenty.</p>
+<p>It is entertaining to the curious observer, to contemplate the
+variation of things. We know of nothing, either in the natural or
+moral world, that continues in the same state: From a number of
+instances that might be adduced, permit me to name one--that of
+money. This, considered in the abstract, is of little or no value;
+but, by the common consent of mankind, is erected into a general
+arbitrator, to fix a value upon all others: a medium through which
+every thing passes: a balance by which they must be weighed: a
+touchstone to which they must be applied to find their worth:
+though we can neither eat nor drink it, we can neither eat nor
+drink without it.--He that has none best knows its use.</p>
+<p>It has long been a complaint, that the same quantity of that
+medium, money, will not produce so much of the necessaries of life,
+particularly food, as heretofore; or, in other words, that
+provisions have been gradually rising for many ages, and that the
+milling, which formerly supported the laborious family a whole
+week, will not now support it one day.</p>
+<p>In times of remarkable scarcity, such as those in 1728, 41, 56,
+66, and 74, the press abounded with publications on the subject;
+but none, which I have seen, reached the question, though
+short.</p>
+<p>It is of no consequence, whether a bushel of corn sells for six
+<i>pence</i>, or six <i>shillings</i>, but, what <i>time</i> a man
+must labour before he can earn one?</p>
+<p>If, by the moderate labour of thirty-six hours, in the reign of
+Henry the Third, he could acquire a groat, which would purchase a
+bushel of wheat; and if, in the reign of George the Third, he works
+the same number of hours for eight shillings, which will make the
+same purchase, the balance is exactly even. If, by our commercial
+concerns with the eastern and the western worlds, the kingdom
+abounds with bullion, money must be cheaper; therefore a larger
+quantity is required to perform the same use. If money would go as
+far now as in the days of Henry the Third, a journeyman in
+Birmingham might amass a ministerial fortune.</p>
+<p>Whether provisions abound more or less? And whether the poor
+fare better or worse, in this period than in the other? are also
+questions dependant upon trade, and therefore worth
+investigating.</p>
+<p>If the necessaries of life abound more in this reign, than in
+that of Henry the Third, we cannot pronounce them dearer.</p>
+<p>Perhaps it will not be absurd to suppose, that the same quantity
+of land, directed by the superior hand of cultivation, in the
+eighteenth century, will yield twice the produce, as by the
+ignorant management of the thirteenth. We may suppose also, by the
+vast number of new inclosures which have annually taken place since
+the revolution, that twice the quantity of land is brought into
+cultivation: It follows, that four times the quantity of provisions
+is raised from the earth, than was raised under Henry the Third;
+which will leave a large surplus in hand, after we have deducted
+for additional luxury, a greater number of consumers, and also for
+exportation.</p>
+<p>This extraordinary stock is also a security against famine,
+which our forefathers severely felt.</p>
+<p>It will be granted, that in both periods the worst of the meat
+was used by the poor. By the improvements in agriculture, the art
+of feeding cattle is well understood, and much in practice; as the
+land improves, so will the beast that feeds upon it: if the
+productions, therefore, of the slaughter house, in this age,
+surpass those of Henry the Third, then the fare of the poor is at
+least as much superior now, as the worst of fat meat is superior to
+the worst of lean.</p>
+<p>The poor inhabitants in that day, found it difficult to procure
+bread; but in this, they sometimes add cream and butter.</p>
+<p>Thus it appears, that through the variation of things a balance
+is preserved: That provisions have not advanced in price, but are
+more plentiful: And that the lower class of men have found in
+trade, that intricate, but beneficial clue, which guides them into
+the confines of luxury.</p>
+<p>Provisions and the manufactures, like a pair of scales, will not
+preponderate together; but as weight is applied to the one, the
+other will advance.</p>
+<p>As labour is irksome to the body, a man will perform no more of
+it than necessity obliges him; it follows, that in those times when
+plenty preponderates, the manufactures tend to decay: For if a man
+can support his family with three days labour, he will not work
+six.</p>
+<p>As the generality of men will perform no more work than produces
+a maintenance, reduce that maintenance to half the price, and they
+will perform but half the work: Hence half the commerce of a nation
+is destroyed at one blow, and what is lost by one kingdom will be
+recovered by another, in rivalship.</p>
+<p>A commercial people, therefore, will endeavour to keep
+provisions at a superior rate, yet within reach of the poor.</p>
+<p>It follows also, that luxury is no way detrimental to trade; for
+we frequently observe ability and industry exerted to support
+it.</p>
+<p>The practice of the Birmingham manufacturer, for, perhaps, a
+hundred generations, was to keep within the warmth of his own
+forge.</p>
+<p>The foreign customer, therefore, applied to him for the
+execution of orders, and regularly made his appearance twice a
+year; and though this mode of business is not totally extinguished,
+yet a very different one is adopted.</p>
+<p>The merchant stands at the head of the manufacturer, purchases
+his produce, and travels the whole island to promote the sale: A
+practice that would have astonished our fore fathers. The
+commercial spirit of the age, hath also penetrated beyond the
+confines of Britain, and explored the whole continent of Europe;
+nor does it stop there, for the West-Indies, and the American
+world, are intimately acquainted with the Birmingham merchant; and
+nothing but the exclusive command of the East-India Company, over
+the Asiatic trade, prevents our riders from treading upon the heels
+of each other, in the streets of Calcutta.</p>
+<p>To this modern conduct of Birmingham, in sending her sons to the
+foreign market, I ascribe the chief cause of her rapid
+increase.</p>
+<p>By the poor's books it appears, there are not three thousand
+houses in Birmingham, that pay the parochial rates; whilst there
+are more then five thousand that do not, chiefly through inability.
+Hence we see what an amazing number of the laborious class of
+mankind is among us. This valuable part of the creation, is the
+prop of the remainder. They are the rise and support of our
+commerce. From this fountain we draw our luxuries and our
+pleasures. They spread our tables, and oil the wheels of our
+carriages. They are also the riches and the defence of the
+country.</p>
+<p>How necessary then, is it to direct with prudence, the rough
+passions of this important race, and make them subservient to the
+great end of civil society. The deficiency of conduct in this
+useful part of our species ought to be supplied by the
+superior.</p>
+<p>Let not the religious reader be surprised if I say, their
+follies, and even their vices, under certain restrictions, are
+beneficial. Corruption in the community, as well as in the natural
+body, accelerates vital existence.</p>
+<p>Let us survey one of the men, who begin life at the lowest ebb;
+without property, or any other advantage but that of his own
+prudence.</p>
+<p>He comes, by length of time and very minute degrees, from being
+directed himself, to have the direction of others. He quits the
+precincts of servitude, and enters the dominions of command: He
+laboured for others, but now others labour for him. Should the
+whole race, therefore, possess the same prudence, they would all
+become masters. Where then could be found the servant? Who is to
+perform the manual part? Who to execute the orders of the merchant?
+A world consisting only of masters, is like a monster consisting
+only of a head. We know that the head is no more than the leading
+power, the members are equally necessary. And, as one member is
+placed in a more elevated state than another, so are the ranks of
+men, that no void may be left. The hands and the feet, were
+designed to execute the drudgery of life; the head for direction,
+and all are suitable in their sphere.</p>
+<p>If we turn the other side of the picture, we shall see a man
+born in affluence, take the reins of direction; but like
+Ph&aelig;ton, not being able to guide them, blunders on from
+mischief to mischief, till he involves himself in destruction,
+comes prone to the earth, and many are injured by his fall. From
+directing the bridle, he submits to the bit; seeks for bread in the
+shops, the line designed him by nature; where his hands become
+callous with the file, and where, for the first time in his life,
+he becomes useful to an injured society.</p>
+<p>Thus, from imprudence, folly, and vice, is produced
+poverty;--poverty produces labour; from labour, arise the
+manufactures; and from these, the riches of a country, with all
+their train of benefits.</p>
+<p>It would be difficult to enumerate the great variety of trades
+practised in Birmingham, neither would it give pleasure to the
+reader. Some of them, spring up with the expedition of a blade of
+grass, and, like that, wither in a summer. If some are lasting,
+like the sun, others seem to change with the moon. Invention is
+ever at work. Idleness; the manufactory of scandal, with the
+numerous occupations connected with the cotton; the linen, the
+silk, and the woollen trades, are little known among us.</p>
+<p>Birmingham begun with the productions of the anvil, and probably
+will end with them. The sons of the hammer, were once her chief
+inhabitants; but that great croud of artists is now lost in a
+greater: Genius seems to increase with multitude.</p>
+<p>Part of the riches, extension, and improvement of Birmingham,
+are owing to the late John Taylor, Esq; who possessed the singular
+powers of perceiving things as they really were. The spring, and
+consequence of action, were open to his view; whom we may justly
+deem the Shakespear or the Newton of his day. He rose from minute
+beginnings, to shine in the commercial hemisphere, as they in the
+poetical and philosophical--Imitation is part of the human
+character. An example of such eminence in himself, promoted
+exertion in others; which, when prudence guided the helm, led on to
+fortune: But the bold adventurer who crouded sail, without ballast
+and without rudder, has been known to overset the vessel, and sink
+insolvent.</p>
+<p>To this uncommon genius we owe the gilt-button, the japanned and
+gilt snuff-boxes, with the numerous race of enamels--From the same
+fountain also issued the paper snuff-box, at which one servant
+earned three pounds ten shillings per week, by painting them at a
+farthing each.</p>
+<p>In his shop were weekly manufactured buttons to the amount of
+800<i>l</i> exclusive of other valuable productions.</p>
+<p>One of the present nobility, of distinguished taste, examining
+the works, with the master, purchased some of the articles, amongst
+others, a toy of eighty guineas value, and, while paying for them,
+observed with a smile, "he plainly saw he could not reside in
+Birmingham for less than two hundred pounds a day."</p>
+<p>The toy trades first made their appearance in Birmingham, in the
+beginning of Charles the second, in an amazing variety, attended
+with all their beauties and their graces. The first in pre-eminence
+is</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="The_BUTTON."></a>The BUTTON.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>This beautiful ornament appears with infinite variation; and
+though the original date is rather uncertain, yet we well remember
+the long coats of our grandfathers covered with half a gross of
+high-tops, and the cloaks of our grandmothers, ornamented with a
+horn button nearly the size of a crown piece, a watch, or a John
+apple, curiously wrought, as having passed through the Birmingham
+press.</p>
+<p>Though the common round button keeps on with the steady pace of
+the day, yet we sometimes see the oval, the square, the pea, and
+the pyramid, flash into existence. In some branches of traffic the
+wearer calls loudly for new fashions; but in this, the fashions
+tread upon each other, and crowd upon the wearer. The consumption
+of this article is astonishing. There seem to be hidden treasures
+couched within this magic circle, known only to a few, who extract
+prodigious fortunes out of this useful toy, whilst a far greater
+number, submit to a statute of bankruptcy.</p>
+<p>Trade, like a restive horse, can rarely be managed; for, where
+one is carried to the end of a successful journey, many are thrown
+off by the way. The next that calls our attention is</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="The_BUCKLE."></a>The BUCKLE.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Perhaps the shoe, in one form or other, is nearly as ancient as
+the foot. It originally appeared under the name of, sandal; this
+was no other than a sole without an upper-leather. That fashion
+hath since been inverted, and we now, sometimes, see an
+upper-leather nearly without a sole. But, whatever was the cut of
+the shoe, it always demanded a fastening. Under the house of
+Plantagenet, it shot horizontally from the foot, like a Dutch
+scait, to an enormous length, so that the extremity was fattened to
+the knee, sometimes, with a silver chain, a silk lace, or even a
+pack-thread string, rather than avoid <i>genteel taste</i>.</p>
+<p>This thriving beak, drew the attention of the legislature, who
+were determined to prune the exorbitant shoot. For in 1465 we find
+an order of council, prohibiting the growth of the shoe toe, to
+more than two inches, under the penalty of a dreadful curse from
+the priest, and, which was worse, the payment of twenty shillings
+to the king.</p>
+<p>This fashion, like every other, gave way to time, and in its
+stead, the rose began to bud upon the foot. Which under the house
+of Tudor, opened in great perfection. No shoe was fashionable,
+without being fattened with a full-blown rose. Under the house of
+Stuart, the rose withered, which gave rise to the shoe-string.</p>
+<p>The beaus of that age, ornamented their lower tier with double
+laces of silk, tagged with silver, and the extremities beautified
+with a small fringe of the same metal. The inferior class, wore
+laces of plain silk, linen, or even a thong of leather; which last
+is yet to be met with in the humble plains of rural life. But I am
+inclined to think, the artists of Birmingham had no great hand in
+fitting out the beau of the last century.</p>
+<p>The revolution was remarkable, for the introduction of William,
+of liberty, and the minute buckle; not differing much in size and
+shape from the horse bean.</p>
+<p>This offspring of fancy, like the clouds, is ever changing. The
+fashion of to-day, is thrown into the casting pot to-morrow.</p>
+<p>The buckle seems to have undergone every figure, size and shape
+of geometrical invention: It has passed through every form in the
+whole zodiac of Euclid. The large square buckle is the <i>ton</i>
+of the present day. The ladies also, have adopted the reigning
+taste: It is difficult to discover their beautiful little feet,
+covered with an enormous shield of buckle; and we wonder to see the
+active motion under the massive load. Thus the British fair support
+the manufactures of Birmingham, and thus they kill by weight of
+metal.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="GUNS."></a>GUNS.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Though the sword and the gun are equal companions in war, it
+does not appear they are of equal original. I have already
+observed, that the sword was the manufacture of Birmingham, in the
+time of the Britons.</p>
+<p>But tradition tells us, King William was once lamenting "That
+guns were not manufactured in his dominions, but that he was
+obliged to procure them from Holland at a great expence, and
+greater difficulty."</p>
+<p>One of the Members for Warwickshire being present, told the
+King, "He thought his constituents could answer his Majesty's
+wishes."--The King was pleased with the remark, and the Member
+posted to Birmingham. Upon application to a person in Digbeth,
+whose name I forget, the pattern was executed with precision,
+which, when presented to the royal board, gave entire satisfaction.
+Orders were immediately issued for large numbers, which have been
+so frequently repeated that they never lost their road; and the
+ingenious artists have been so amply rewarded, that they have
+rolled in their carriages to this day.--Thus the same instrument
+which is death to one man, is genteel life to another.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="LEATHER."></a>LEATHER.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>It may seem singular to a modern eye, to view this place in the
+light of one vast tan-yard.--Though there is no appearance of that
+necessary article among us, yet Birmingham was once a famous market
+for leather. Digbeth not only abounded with tanners, but large
+numbers of hides arrived weekly for sale, where the whole country
+found a supply. When the weather would allow, they were ranged in
+columns in the High-street, and at other times deposited in the
+Leather-hall, at the East end of New-street, appropriated for their
+reception.</p>
+<p>This market was of great antiquity, perhaps not less than seven
+hundred years, and continued till the beginning of the present
+century. We have two officers, annually chosen, by the name of
+<i>leather-sealers</i>, from a power given them by ancient charter,
+to mark the vendible hides; but now the leather-sealers have no
+duty, but that of taking an elegant dinner. Shops are erected upon
+tan-fats; the Leather-hall is gone to destruction, and we are
+reduced to one solitary tanner.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="STEEL."></a>STEEL.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>The progress of the arts, is equal to the progress of time; they
+began, and will end together. Though some of both are lost, yet
+they both accumulate.</p>
+<p>The manufacture of iron, in Birmingham, is ancient beyond
+research; that of steel is of modern date.</p>
+<p>Pride is inseparable from the human character, the man without
+it, is the man without breath: we trace it in various forms,
+through every degree of people; but like those objects about us, it
+is best discovered in our own sphere; those above, and those below
+us, rather escape our notice; envy attacks an equal.</p>
+<p>Pride induced the Pope to look with contempt on the European
+Princes, and now induces them to return the compliment; it taught
+insolence to the Spaniard, selfishness to the Dutch; it teaches the
+rival nations of France and England to contend for power.</p>
+<p>Pride preserves a man from mean actions, it throws him upon
+meaner; it whets the sword for destruction; it urges the laudable
+acts of humanity; it is the universal hinge on which we move; it
+glides the gentle stream of usefulness, it overflows the mounds of
+reason, and swells into a destructive flood; like the sun, in his
+milder rays, it animates and draws us towards perfection; but, like
+him, in his fiercer beams, it scorches and destroys.</p>
+<p>Money is not the necessary attendant of pride, for it abounds no
+where more than in the lowest ranks. It adds a sprucer air to a
+sunday dress; casts a look of disdain from a bundle of rags; it
+boasts the <i>honor</i> of a family, while poverty unites a sole
+and upper-leather with a bandage of shop-thread. There are people
+who even <i>pride</i> themselves in humility.</p>
+<p>This dangerous <i>good</i>, this necessary <i>evil</i>, supports
+the female character; without it, the brightest part of the
+creation would degenerate.</p>
+<p>It will be asked, "What portion may be allowed?" Prudence will
+answer, "As much as you please, but <i>not</i> to disgust."</p>
+<p>It is equally found in the senate-house, or the button-shop; the
+scene of action is the scene of pride; and I, unable to adorn this
+work with erudition, take a pride in cloathing a worn-out subject
+afresh, and that pride will increase, should the world smi ----
+"But why, says my friend, do you forsake the title of your chapter,
+and lead us a dance through the mazes of pride? Can there be any
+connexion between that sovereign passion, and forging a bar of
+steel?" Yes, he who makes steel prides himself in carrying the art
+one step higher than he who makes iron.</p>
+<p>This art appeared among us in the seventeenth century; was
+introduced by the family of Kettle. The name of Steelhouse-lane
+will convey to posterity the situation of the works, the commercial
+spirit of Birmingham, will convey the produce to the Antipodes.</p>
+<p>From this warm, but dismal climate, issues the button, which
+shines on the breast, and the bayonet, intended to pierce it; the
+lancet, which bleeds the man, and the rowel, the horse; the lock,
+which preserves the beloved bottle, and the screw, to uncork it;
+the needle, equally obedient to the thimble and the pole.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="NAILS."></a>NAILS.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>In most occupations, the profit of the master and the journeyman
+bear a proportion: if the former is able to figure in genteel life,
+the latter is able to figure in silk stockings. If the matter can
+afford to allow upon his goods ten per cent. discount for money,
+the servant can afford to squander half his wages. In a worn-down
+trade, where the tides of profit are reduced to a low ebb, and
+where imprudence sets her foot upon the premises, the matter and
+the man starve together. Only <i>half</i> this is our present
+case.</p>
+<p>The art of nail-making is one of the most ancient among us; we
+may safely charge its antiquity with four figures.</p>
+<p>We cannot consider it a trade <i>in</i>, so much as <i>of</i>
+Birmingham; for we have but few nail-makers left in the town: our
+nailers are chiefly masters, and rather opulent. The manufacturers
+are so scattered round the country, that we cannot travel far, in
+any direction, out of the sound of the nail-hammer. But Birmingham,
+like a powerful magnet, draws the produce of the anvil to
+herself.</p>
+<p>When I first approached her, from Walsall, in 1741, I was
+surprized at the prodigious number of blacksmiths shops upon the
+road; and could not conceive how a country, though populous, could
+support so many people of the same occupation. In some of these
+shops I observed one, or more females, stript of their upper
+garment, and not overcharged with their lower, wielding the hammer
+with all the grace of the sex. The beauties of their face were
+rather eclipsed by the smut of the anvil; or, in poetical phrase,
+the tincture of the forge had taken possession of those lips, which
+might have been taken by the kiss.</p>
+<p>Struck with the novelty, I inquired, "Whether the ladies in this
+country shod horses?" but was answered, with a smile, "They are
+nailers."</p>
+<p>A fire without heat, a nailer of a fair complexion, or one who
+despises the tankard, are equally rare among them. His whole system
+of faith may be comprised in one article--That the slender
+two-penny mug, used in a public house, <i>is deceitful above all
+things, and desperately wicked</i>.</p>
+<p>While the master reaps the harvest of plenty, the workman
+submits to the scanty gleanings of penury, a thin habit, an early
+old age, and a figure bending towards the earth. Plenty comes not
+near his dwelling, except of rags, and of children. But few
+recruits arise from his nail-shop, except for the army. His hammer
+is worn into deep hollows, fitting the fingers of a dark and plump
+hand, hard as the timber it wears. His face, like the moon, is
+often seen through a cloud.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="BELLOWS."></a>BELLOWS.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Man first catches the profession; the profession afterwards
+moulds the man.</p>
+<p>In whatever profession we engage, we assume its character,
+become a part of it, vindicate its honor, its eminence, its
+antiquity; or feel a wound through its sides.</p>
+<p>Though there may be no more pride in a minister of state, who
+opens a budget, than in a tinker who carries one, yet they equally
+contend for the honor of their trade.</p>
+<p>Every man, from the attorney's clerk to the butcher's
+apprentice, feels his own honor, with that of his profession,
+wounded by travelling on foot. To be caught on his feet, is nearly
+the same as to be caught in a crime. The man who has gathered up
+his limbs, and hung them on a horse, looks <i>down</i> with dignity
+on him who has not; while the man on foot offers his humble bow,
+afraid to look up--If providence favours us with feet, is it a
+disgrace to use them?--I could instance a person who condescended
+to quit London, that center of trick, lace, and equipage; and in
+1761, open a draper's shop in Birmingham: but his feet, or his
+<i>pride</i>, were so much hurt by walking, that he could scarcely
+travel ten doors from his own without a post-chaise--the result
+was, he became such an adept in riding, that in a few months, he
+rode triumphant into the Gazette. Being quickly scoured bright by
+the ill-judged laws of bankruptcy, he rode, for the last time,
+<i>out</i> of Birmingham, where he had so often rode <i>in</i>: but
+his injured creditors were obliged to <i>walk</i> after the slender
+dividend of eighteen pence in the pound. The man who <i>can</i> use
+his feet, is envied by him who <i>cannot</i>; and he, in turn,
+envies him who <i>will</i> not. Our health and our feet, in a
+double sense, go together. The human body has been justly compared
+to a musical instrument; I add, this instrument was never perfectly
+in tune, without a due portion of exercise.</p>
+<p>The man of military character, puts on, with his scarlet, that
+martial air, which tells us, "he has formed a resolution to kill:"
+and we naturally ask, "Which sex?"</p>
+<p>Some "<i>pert and affected author</i>" with anxiety on his brow,
+will be apt to step forward, and say, "Will you celebrate the man
+of the sword, who transfers the blush of his face to his back, and
+neglect the man of the quill, who, like the pelican, portions out
+his vitals to feed others? Which is preferable, he who lights up
+the mental powers, or he who puts them out? the man who stores the
+head with knowledge, or he who stores it with a bullet?"</p>
+<p>The antiquarian supports his dignity with a solemn aspect; he
+treats a sin and a smile as synonimous; one half of which has been
+discarded from his childhood. If a smile in the house of religion,
+or of mourning, be absurd, is there any reason to expel it from
+those places where it is not? A tale will generally allow of two
+ingredients, <i>information</i> and <i>amusement</i>: but the
+historian and the antiquarian have, from time immemorial, used but
+<i>one</i>. Every smile, except that of contempt, is beneficial to
+the constitution; they tend to promote long life, and pleasure
+while that life lasts. Much may be said in favour of tears of joy,
+but more on joy without tears. I wonder the lively fancy of Hogarth
+never sketched the <i>dull</i> historian, in the figure of an ass,
+plodding to market under his panniers, laden with the fruits of
+antiquity, and old time driving up the <i>rear</i>, with his scythe
+converted into an hedge-stake.</p>
+<p>The bellows-maker proclaims the <i>honor</i> of his art, by
+observing, he alone produces that instrument which commands the
+winds; his soft breeze, like that of the south, counter-acts the
+chill blasts of winter: by his efforts, like those of the sun, the
+world receives light: he creates when he pleases, and gives
+<i>breath</i> when he creates. In his caverns the winds deep at
+pleasure; and by his <i>orders</i> they set Europe in flames.</p>
+<p>He pretends, that a gentle puff in the eyes of a
+<i>reviewer</i>, from a pair of his bellows, would tend to clear
+the sight, and enable him to distinguish between a smile and a
+serious face: that his circular board, like a ferula, applied by
+the handle to an inferior part, would induce him to peruse the
+<i>whole treatise</i>, and not partially pronounce from the
+preface.</p>
+<p>He farther pretends, that the <i>antiquity</i> of his occupation
+will appear from the plenty of elm, once in the neighbourhood, but
+long cut up for his use: that the leather-market in Birmingham, for
+many ages, furnished him with sides; and though the manufacture of
+iron is allowed to be extremely ancient, yet the smith could not
+procure his heat without a blast, nor could that blast be raised
+without the bellows.</p>
+<p>Two inferences arise from these remarks, that the antiquarian
+will frown on this little history; and that bellows-making is one
+of the oldest trades in Birmingham.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="THREAD."></a>THREAD.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>We, who reside in the interior parts of the kingdom, may observe
+the first traces of a river issue from its fountain; the current so
+extremely small, that if a bottle of liquor, distilled through the
+urinary vessels, was discharged into its course, it would
+manifestly augment the water, and quicken the stream: the reviving
+bottle, having added spirits to the man, seems to add spirits to
+the river.--If we pursue this river, winding through one hundred
+and thirty miles, we shall observe it collect strength as it runs,
+expand its borders, swell into consequence, employ multitudes of
+people, carry wealth in its bosom, and exactly resemble
+<i>thread-making</i> in Birmingham.</p>
+<p>If we represent to our idea, a man able to employ three or four
+people, himself in an apron, one of the number; but being
+<i>unable</i> to write his name, shows his attachment to the
+christian religion, by signing the <i>cross</i> to receipts; whose
+method of book-keeping, like that of the publican, is <i>a door and
+a lump of chalk;</i> producing a book which none can peruse but
+himself: who, having manufactured 40lb. weight of thread, of divers
+colours, and rammed it into a pair of leather bags, something
+larger than a pair of boots, which we might deem the arms of his
+trade <i>empaled</i>; flung them on a horse, and placed himself on
+the top, by way of a <i>crest</i>; visits an adjacent market, to
+starve with his goods at a stall, or retail them to the mercer, nor
+return without the money--we shall see a thread-maker of 1652.</p>
+<p>If we pursue this occupation, winding through the mazes of one
+hundred and thirty <i>years</i>, we shall see it enlarge its
+boundaries, multiply its people, increase its consequence and
+wealth, till 1782, when we behold the matter in possession of
+correct accounts, the apron thrown aside, the stall kicked over,
+the bags tossed into the garret, and the mercer overlooked in the
+grand prospect of exportation. We farther behold him take the lead
+in provincial concerns, step into his own carriage, and hold the
+king's commission as a magistrate.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="PRINTING"></a>PRINTING,</h2>
+<h3>By JOHN BASKERVILLE.</h3>
+<br>
+<p>The pen of an historian rejoices in the actions of the great;
+the fame of the deserving, like an oak tree, is of sluggish growth;
+and, like the man himself, they are not matured in a day. The
+present generation becomes debtor to him who excels, but the future
+will discharge that debt with more than simple interest. The still
+voice of fame may warble in his ears towards the close of life, but
+her trumpet seldom sounds in full clarion, till those ears are
+stopped with the finger of death.</p>
+<p>This son of genius was born at Wolverley, in the county of
+Worcester, in 1706; heir to a paternal estate of 60<i>l</i>. per
+annum, which, fifty years after, while in his own possession, had
+increased to 90<i>l</i>. He was trained to no occupation; but, in
+1726, became a writing-matter in Birmingham.--In 1737, he taught
+school in the Bull-ring, and is said to have written an excellent
+hand.</p>
+<p>As painting suited his talents, he entered into the lucrative
+branch of japanning, and resided at No. 22, in Moor-street.</p>
+<p>He took, in 1745, a building lease of eight acres, two furlongs
+north west of the town, to which he gave the name of
+<i>Easy-hill</i>, converted it into a little Eden, and built a
+house in the center: but the town, as if conscious of his merit,
+followed his retreat, and surrounded it with buildings.--Here he
+continued the business of a japanner for life: his carriage, each
+pannel of which was a distinct picture, might be considered <i>the
+pattern-card of his trade</i>, and was drawn by a beautiful pair of
+cream-coloured horses.</p>
+<p>His inclination for letters induced him, in 1750, to turn his
+thoughts towards the press. He spent many years in the uncertain
+pursuit; sunk 600<i>l</i>. before he could produce one letter to
+please himself, and some thousands before the shallow stream of
+profit began to flow.</p>
+<p>His first attempt, in 1756, was a quarto edition of Virgil,
+price one guinea, now worth several.--He afterwards printed
+Paradise Lost, the Bible, Common Prayer, Roman and English
+Classics, etc. in various sizes, with more satisfaction to the
+literary world than emolument to himself.</p>
+<p>In 1765, he applied to his friend, Dr. Franklin, then at Paris,
+and now Ambassador from America, to sound the literati, respecting
+the purchase of his types; but received for answer, "That the
+French, reduced by the war of 1756, were so far from pursuing
+schemes of taste, that they were unable to repair their public
+buildings, but suffered the scaffolding to rot before them."</p>
+<p>In private life he was a humorist; idle in the extreme; but his
+invention was of the true Birmingham model, active. He could well
+design, but procured others to execute; wherever he found merit he
+caressed it: he was remarkably polite to the stranger; fond of
+show: a figure rather of the smaller size, and delighted to adorn
+that figure with gold lace.--Although constructed with the light
+timbers of a frigate, his movement was solemn as a ship of the
+line.</p>
+<p>During the twenty-five years I knew him, though in the decline
+of life, he retained the singular traces of a handsome man. If he
+exhibited a peevish temper, we may consider good-nature and intense
+thinking are not always found together.</p>
+<p>Taste accompanied him through the different walks of
+agriculture, architecture, and the finer arts. Whatever passed
+through his fingers, bore the lively marks of John Baskerville.</p>
+<p>His aversion to christianity would not suffer him to lie among
+christians; he therefore erected a mausoleum in his own grounds for
+his remains, and died without issue, in 1775, at the age of
+69.--Many efforts were used after his death, to dispose of the
+types; but, to the lading discredit of the British nation, no
+purchaser could be found in the whole commonwealth of letters. The
+universities coldly rejected the offer. The London booksellers
+understood no science like that of profit. The valuable property,
+therefore, lay a dead weight, till purchased by a literary society
+at Paris, in 1779, for 3700<i>l</i>.</p>
+<p>It is an old remark, that no country abounds with genius so much
+as this island; and it is a remark nearly as old, that genius is no
+where so little rewarded; how else came Dryden, Goldsmith, and
+Chatterton to want bread? Is merit, like a flower of the field, too
+common to attract notice? or is the use of money beneath the care
+of exalted talents?</p>
+<p>Invention seldom pays the inventor. If you ask, what fortune
+Baskerville ought to have been rewarded with? "The <i>most</i>
+which can be comprised in five figures." If you farther ask, what
+he possessed? "The <i>least</i>;" but none of it squeezed from the
+press. What will the shade of this great man think, if capable of
+thinking, that he has spent a fortune of opulence, and a life of
+genius, in carrying to perfection the greatest of all human
+inventions; and his productions, slighted by his country, were
+hawked over Europe, in quest of a bidder?</p>
+<p>We must <i>revere</i>, if we do not <i>imitate</i>, the taste
+and economy of the French nation, who, brought by the British arms,
+in 1762, to the verge of ruin, rising above distress, were able, in
+17 years, to purchase Baskerville's elegant types, refused by his
+own country, and expend an hundred thousand pounds in printing the
+works of Voltaire!</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="BRASS_FOUNDRY."></a>BRASS FOUNDRY.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>The curious art before us is perhaps less ancient than
+profitable, and less healthful than either. I shall not enquire
+whose grandfather was the first brass-founder here, but shall leave
+their grandsons to settle that important point with my successor
+who shall next write the History of Birmingham. Whoever was the
+first, I believe he figured in the reign of King William; but,
+though he sold his productions at an excessive price, he did not,
+like the moderns, possess the art of acquiring a fortune: but now
+the master knows the way to affluence, and the servant to
+liquor.</p>
+<p>To enumerate the great variety of occupations amongst us, would
+be as useless, and as unentertaining to the reader, perhaps to the
+writer, as to count the pebbles in the street.</p>
+<p>Having therefore visited a few, by way of specimen, I shall
+desist from farther pursuit, and wheel off in a</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="HACKNEY_COACH."></a>HACKNEY COACH.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Wherever the view of profit opens, the eyes of a Birmingham man
+are open to see it.</p>
+<p>In 1775, a person was determined to try if a Hackney Coach would
+take with the inhabitants. He had not mounted the box many times
+before he inadvertently dropped the expression, "Thirty shillings a
+day!" The word was attended with all the powers of magic, for
+instantly a second rolled into the circus.</p>
+<p>And these elevated sons of the lash are now augmented to
+fifteen, whom we may justly denominate a club of tippling deities,
+who preside over weddings, christenings, and pleasurable
+excursions.</p>
+<p>It would give satisfaction to the curious calculator, could any
+mode be found of discovering the returns of trade, made by the
+united inhabitants. But the question is complicated. It only admits
+of surmise. From comparing many instances in various ranks of life
+among us, I have been led to suppose, that the weekly returns
+exceed the annual rent of the buildings. And as these rents are
+nearly ascertained, perhaps, we may conclude, that those returns
+are about 80,000. If we deduct for four weeks holidays, the annual
+returns will be--3,840,000<i>l</i>.</p>
+<p>Now we have entered the visionary regions of fancy, let us
+pursue the thought a stage farther; and consider Birmingham as one
+great family, possessed of a capital of Eight Millions. Her annual
+returns in trade as above, from which we will deduct for the
+purchase of</p>
+<center>
+<table summary="">
+<tr>
+<td>Raw materials</td>
+<td align="right">1,920,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>House rent, repairs and taxes</td>
+<td align="right">100,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Losses in trade</td>
+<td align="right">50,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Maintenance, clothing, and pleasurable</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;expences, for 50,000 people, at
+10<i>s</i>.</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;per week</td>
+<td align="right">1,300,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right">---------</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right">3,370,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right">---------</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Annual addition to the capital</td>
+<td align="right">470,000</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</center>
+<p>Should a future antagonist arise, and attack me in numbers, I
+promise beforehand to relinquish the field; for I profess only, to
+stand upon ideal ground.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="BANK."></a>BANK.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Perhaps a public bank is as necessary to the health of the
+commercial body, as exercise to the natural. The circulation of the
+blood and spirits are promoted by one, so are cash and bills by the
+other; and a stagnation is equally detrimental to both. Few places
+are without: Yet Birmingham, famous in the annals of traffic, could
+boast no such claim. To remedy this defect therefore, about every
+tenth trader was a banker, or, a retailer of cash. At the head of
+whom were marshalled the whole train of drapers and grocers, till
+the year 1765, when a regular bank was established by Messrs.
+Taylor and Lloyd, two opulent tradesmen, whose credit being equal
+to that of the bank of England, quickly collected the shining rays
+of sterling property into its focus.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="GOVERNMENT."></a>GOVERNMENT.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Have you, my dear reader, seen a sword hilt, of curious, and of
+Birmingham manufactory, covered with spangles of various sizes,
+every one of which carries a separate lustre, but, when united, has
+a dazzling effect? Or, have you seen a ring, from the same origin,
+set with diamonds of many dimensions, the least of which, sparkles
+with amazing beauty, but, when beheld in cluster, surprize the
+beholder? Or, have you, in a frosty evening, seen the heavens
+bespangled with refulgent splendor, each stud shining with
+intrinsic excellence, but, viewed in the aggregate, reflect honour
+upon the maker, and enliven the hemisphere? Such is the British
+government. Such is that excellent system of polity, which shines,
+the envy of the stranger, and the protector of the native.</p>
+<p>Every city, town and village in the English hemisphere, hath a
+separate jurisdiction of its own, and may justly be deemed <i>a
+stud in the grand lustre</i>.</p>
+<p>Though the British Constitution is as far from perfection, as
+the glory of the ring and the hilt is from that of the sun which
+causes it, or the stars from the day; yet perhaps it stands higher
+in the scale of excellence, than that of its neighbours. We may,
+with propriety, allow that body to shine with splendor, which hath
+been polishing for seventeen hundred years. Much honour is due to
+the patriotic merit which advanced it to its present eminence.</p>
+<p>Though Birmingham is but one sparkle of the brilliant clustre,
+yet she is a sparkle of the first <i>water</i>, and of the first
+<i>magnitude</i>.</p>
+<p>The more perfect any system of government, the happier the
+people. A wise government will punish for the commission of crimes,
+but a wiser will endeavour to prevent them. Man is an active
+animal: If he is not employed in some useful pursuit, he will
+employ himself in mischief. Example is also prevalent: If one man
+falls into error, he often draws another. Though heaven, for wise
+purposes, suffers a people to fulfil the measure of their
+iniquities, a prudent state will nip them in the bud.</p>
+<p>It is easy to point out some places, only one third the
+magnitude of Birmingham, whose frequent breaches of the law, and
+quarrels among themselves, find employment for half a dozen
+magistrates, and four times that number of constables; whilst the
+business of this, was for many years conducted by a single Justice,
+the late John Wyrley, Esq. If the reader should think I am mistaken
+and object, that parish affairs cannot be conducted without a
+second? Let me reply, He conducted that second also.</p>
+<p>As human nature is nearly the same, whether in or out of
+Birmingham; and as enormities seem more prevalent out than in, we
+may reasonably ascribe the cause to the extraordinary industry of
+the inhabitants, not allowing time to brood over, and bring forth
+mischief, equal to places of inferior diligence.</p>
+<p>We have at present two acting magistrates to hold the beam of
+justice, the Rev. Benjamin Spencer, and Joseph Carles, Esq; who
+both reside at a distance.</p>
+<p>Many of our corporate towns received their charters from that
+amiable, but unfortunate prince, Henry the Second. These were the
+first dawnings of British liberty, after fixing the Norman yoke.
+They were afterwards ratified and improved by the subsequent Kings
+of England; granting not only the manors, but many exclusive
+privileges. But at this day, those places which were so remarkably
+favoured with the smiles of royalty, are not quite so free as those
+that were not. The prosperity of this happy place proves the
+assertion, of which every man is free the moment he enters.</p>
+<p>We often behold a pompous corporation, which sounds well in
+history, over something like a dirty village--This is a head
+without a body. The very reverse is our case--We are a body without
+a head. For though Birmingham has undergone an amazing alteration
+in extension, riches and population, yet the government is nearly
+the same as the Saxons left it. This part of my important history
+therefore must suffer an eclipse: This illustrious chapter, that
+rose in dazling brightness, must be veiled in the thick clouds of
+obscurity: I shall figure with my corporation in a despicable
+light. I am not able to bring upon the stage, a mayor and a group
+of aldermen, dressed in antique scarlet, bordered with fur, drawing
+a train of attendants; the meanest of which, even the pinder, is
+badged with silver: Nor treat my guest with a band of music, in
+scarlet cloaks with broad laces. I can grace the hand of my
+Birmingham fidler with only a rusty instrument, and his back with
+barely a whole coat; neither have I a mace for the inaugeration of
+the chief magistrate. The reader, therefore, must either quit the
+place, or be satisfied with such entertainment as the company
+affords.</p>
+<p>The officers, who are annually chosen, to direct in this
+prosperous feat of fortune, are</p>
+<br>
+<center>
+<table summary="">
+<tr>
+<td>An High Bailiff.</td>
+<td>Two High Tasters.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Low Bailiff.</td>
+<td>Two Low Tasters.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Two Constables.</td>
+<td>Two Asseirers. And</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Headborough.</td>
+<td>Two Leather Sealers.</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</center>
+<br>
+<p>All which, the constables excepted, are no more than servants to
+the lord of the manor; and whose duty extends no farther, than to
+the preservation of the manorial rights.</p>
+<p>The high bailiff is to inspect the market, and see that justice
+takes place between buyer and seller; to rectify the weights and
+dry measures used in the manor.</p>
+<p>The low bailiff summons a jury, who choose all the other
+officers, and generally with prudence. But the most important part
+of his office is, to treat his friends at the expence of about
+Seventy Pounds.</p>
+<p>The headborough is only an assistant to the constables, chiefly
+in time of absence.</p>
+<p>High tasters examine the goodness of beer, and its measure.</p>
+<p>Low tasters inspect the meat exposed to sale, and cause that to
+be destroyed which is unfit for use.</p>
+<p>Asseirers ratify the chief rent and amercements, between the
+lord and the inhabitant. And the</p>
+<p>Leather sealers, stamped a public seal upon the hides, when
+Birmingham was a market for leather.</p>
+<p>These manorial servants, instituted by ancient charter, chiefly
+possess a name, without an office. Thus order seems assisted by
+industry, and thus a numerous body of inhabitants are governed
+without a governor.</p>
+<p>Exclusive of the choice of officers, the jury impannelled by the
+low bailiff, have the presentation of all encroachments upon the
+lord's waste, which has long been neglected.</p>
+<p>The duties of office are little known, except that of taking a
+generous dinner, which is punctually observed. It is too early to
+begin business till the table is well stored with bottles, and too
+late afterwards.</p>
+<p>During the existence of the house of Birmingham, the court-leet
+was held at the Moat, in what we should now think a large and
+shabby room, conducted under the eye of the low bailiff, at the
+expence of the lord.</p>
+<p>The jury, twice a year, were witnesses, that the famous dish of
+roast beef, ancient as the family who gave it, demanded the head of
+the table. The court was afterwards held at the Leather-hall, and
+the expence, which was trifling, borne by the bailiff. Time,
+prosperity, and emulation, are able to effect considerable changes.
+The jury, in the beginning of the present century, were impannelled
+in the Old Cross, then newly erected, from whence they adjourned to
+the house of the bailiff, and were feasted at the growing charge of
+<i>two or three pounds</i>.</p>
+<p>This practice continued till about the year 1735, when the
+company, grown too bulky for a private house, assembled at a
+tavern, and the bailiff enjoyed the singular privilege of consuming
+ten pounds upon his guests.</p>
+<p>It is easier to advance in expences than to retreat. In 1760,
+they had increased to forty pounds, and in the next edition of this
+work, we may expect to see the word <i>hundred</i>.</p>
+<p>The lord was anciently founder of the feast, and treated his
+bailiff; but now that custom is inverted, and the bailiff treats
+his lord.</p>
+<p>The proclamation of our two fairs, is performed by the high
+bailiff, in the name of the Lord of the Manor; this was done a
+century ago, without the least expence. The strength of his liquor,
+a silver tankard, and the pride of shewing it, perhaps induced him,
+in process of time, to treat his attendants.</p>
+<p>His ale, without a miracle, was, in a few years, converted into
+wine, and that of various sorts; to which was added, a small
+collation; and now his friends are complimented with a card, to
+meet him at the Hotel, where he incurs an expence of twenty
+pounds.</p>
+<p>While the spirit of the people refines by intercourse, industry,
+and the singular jurisdiction among us, this insignificant pimple,
+on our head of government, swells into a wen.</p>
+<p>Habits approved are soon acquired: a third entertainment has, of
+late years, sprung up, termed <i>the constables feast</i>, with
+this difference, <i>it is charged to the public</i>. We may
+consider it a wart on the political body, which merits the
+caustic.</p>
+<p>Deritend, being a hamlet of Birmingham, sends her inhabitants to
+the court-leet, where they perform suit and service, and where her
+constable is chosen by the same jury.</p>
+<p>I shall here exhibit a defective list of our principal officers
+during the last century. If it should be objected, that a petty
+constable is too insignificant, being the lowest officer of the
+crown, for admission into history; I answer, by whatever
+appellation an officer is accepted, he cannot be insignificant who
+stands at the head of 50,000 people. Perhaps, therefore, the office
+of constable may be sought for in future, and the officer himself
+assume a superior consequence.</p>
+<p>The dates are the years in which they were chosen, fixed by
+charter, within thirty days after Michaelmas.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="CONSTABLES."></a>CONSTABLES.</h2>
+<center>
+<table summary="">
+<tr>
+<td>1680</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>John Simco</td>
+<td>John Cottrill</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1681</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>John Wallaxall</td>
+<td>William Guest</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1682</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>George Abel</td>
+<td>Samuel White</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1683</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>Thomas Russell</td>
+<td>Abraham Spooner</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1684</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>Roger Macham</td>
+<td>William Wheely</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1685</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>Thomas Cox</td>
+<td>John Green</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1686</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>Henry Porter</td>
+<td>Samuel Carless</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1687</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>Samuel Banner</td>
+<td>John Jesson</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1690</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>Joseph Robinson</td>
+<td>John Birch</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1691</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>John Rogers</td>
+<td>Richard Leather</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1692</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>Thomas Robins</td>
+<td>Corbet Bushell</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1693</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>Joseph Rann</td>
+<td>William Sarjeant</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1694</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>Rowland Hall</td>
+<td>John Bryerly</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1695</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>Richard Scott</td>
+<td>George Wells</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1696</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>Joseph Haddock</td>
+<td>Robert Mansell</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1697</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>James Greir</td>
+<td>John Foster</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1698</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>John Baker</td>
+<td>Henry Camden</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1699</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>William Kettle</td>
+<td>Thomas Gisborn</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1700</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>John Wilson</td>
+<td>Joseph Allen</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1701</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>Nicholas Bakewell</td>
+<td>Richard Banner</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1702</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>William Collins</td>
+<td>Robert Groves</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1703</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>Henry Parrot</td>
+<td>Benjamin Carless</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1704</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>William Brierly</td>
+<td>John Hunt</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1705</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>Jonathan Seeley</td>
+<td>Thomas Holloway</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1706</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>Robert Moore</td>
+<td>John Savage</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1707</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>Isaac Spooner</td>
+<td>Samuel Hervey</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1708</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>Richard Weston</td>
+<td>Thomas Cope</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1709</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>Samuel Walford</td>
+<td>Thomas Green</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1710</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>John Foxall</td>
+<td>William Norton</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1711</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>Stephen Newton</td>
+<td>John Taylor</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1712</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>William Russel</td>
+<td>John Cotterell</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1713</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>John Shaw</td>
+<td>Thomas Hallford</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1714</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>Randall Bradburn</td>
+<td>Joseph May</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1715</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>Stephen Newton</td>
+<td>Samuel Russell</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1716</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>Stephen Newton</td>
+<td>Joseph Carless</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1717</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>Abraham Foxall</td>
+<td>William Spilsbury</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1718</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>John Gisborn</td>
+<td>Henry Carver</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1719</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>Samuel Hays</td>
+<td>Joseph Smith</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1720</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>John Barnsley</td>
+<td>John Humphrys</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1721</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>William Bennett</td>
+<td>Thomas Wilson</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1722</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>John Harrison</td>
+<td>Simon Harris</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</center>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<a name="Bailiffs"></a>
+<h2>A LIST OF THE</h2>
+<h2>HIGH BAILIFFS, LOW BAILIFFS, AND CONSTABLES,</h2>
+<h2>Of the TOWN of BIRMINGHAM, from 1732, to 1782.</h2>
+<center>
+<table summary="">
+<tr>
+<th>YEAR</th>
+<th>HIGH BAILIFFS.</th>
+<th>LOW BAILIFFS.</th>
+<th colspan="2" align="center">CONSTABLES.</th>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1732</td>
+<td>Thomas Wilson</td>
+<td>John Webster</td>
+<td>Joseph Bradnock</td>
+<td>John Wilson</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1733</td>
+<td>John Webster</td>
+<td>Joseph Kettle</td>
+<td>Thomas Nickin</td>
+<td>James Baker</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1734</td>
+<td>John Wickins</td>
+<td>Thomas Lakin</td>
+<td>Joseph Scott, esq;<a name="FNanchor2"></a>[<a href="#Footnote_2">2</a>]</td>
+<td>James Taylor</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1735</td>
+<td>Joseph Marston</td>
+<td>John Russell</td>
+<td>John Webster</td>
+<td>Thomas Ashfield</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1736</td>
+<td>Joseph Bradnock</td>
+<td>Robert Moore</td>
+<td>Thomas Wickins</td>
+<td>Joseph Fullelove</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1737</td>
+<td>James Baker</td>
+<td>Isaac Ingram</td>
+<td>John Kettle</td>
+<td>Richard Porter</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1738</td>
+<td>Joseph Smith</td>
+<td>William Mason</td>
+<td>William Hunt</td>
+<td>Henry Hun</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1739</td>
+<td>Thomas Wickens</td>
+<td>William Harvey</td>
+<td>Edward Burton</td>
+<td>John England</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1740</td>
+<td>Simon Harris</td>
+<td>Thomas Russel</td>
+<td>Joseph Richards</td>
+<td>T. Honeyborn</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1741</td>
+<td>Daniel Gill</td>
+<td>George Abney</td>
+<td>Thomas Turner</td>
+<td>John Bedford</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1742</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1743</td>
+<td>Josiah Jefferys</td>
+<td>William Kettle</td>
+<td>John Russel</td>
+<td>Thomas</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1744</td>
+<td>George Davies</td>
+<td>J. Humphrys, Jr.</td>
+<td>William Mason</td>
+<td>William Ward</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1745</td>
+<td>Edward Burton</td>
+<td>Robert Moore</td>
+<td>Joseph Wollaston</td>
+<td>John Turner</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1746</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1747</td>
+<td>Thomas Ashwell</td>
+<td>J. Taylor, esq;</td>
+<td>Joseph Walker</td>
+<td>Josiah Hunt</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1748</td>
+<td>Thomas Wickens</td>
+<td>John Roe</td>
+<td>Robert Moore</td>
+<td>John Horton</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1749</td>
+<td>Joseph Fullelove</td>
+<td>Richard Brett</td>
+<td>Henry Hunt</td>
+<td>Joseph Ruston</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1750</td>
+<td>Thomas Lakin</td>
+<td>Joseph Smith</td>
+<td>John Gill</td>
+<td>Luke Bell</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1751</td>
+<td>Thomas Turner</td>
+<td>Benj. Mansell</td>
+<td>John Walters</td>
+<td>W. Walsingham</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1752</td>
+<td>James Baker</td>
+<td>John Taylor</td>
+<td>Price Thomas</td>
+<td>Joseph Thomas</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1753</td>
+<td>E. Jordan, esq;</td>
+<td>Samuel Harvey</td>
+<td>Samuel Birch</td>
+<td>Samuel Richards</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1754</td>
+<td>Thomas Cottrell</td>
+<td>Joseph Richards</td>
+<td>John Bellears</td>
+<td>John Camden</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1755</td>
+<td>Joseph Walker</td>
+<td>John Wells<a name="FNanchor3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3">[3]</a></td>
+<td>Stephen Colmore</td>
+<td>John Powell</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1756</td>
+<td>John Bellears</td>
+<td>J. Kettle, esq;</td>
+<td>Ambrose Foxall</td>
+<td>John Gray</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1757</td>
+<td>William Patteson</td>
+<td>Joseph Webster</td>
+<td>J. Darbyshire</td>
+<td>Richard Brett</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1758</td>
+<td>James Horton</td>
+<td>T. Lawrence</td>
+<td>Thomas Richards</td>
+<td>Sam. Pemberton</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1759</td>
+<td>John Walker</td>
+<td>Thomas Abney</td>
+<td>G. Spilsbury</td>
+<td>Edward Weston</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1760</td>
+<td>John Turner</td>
+<td>Abel Humphrys</td>
+<td>Richard Dingley</td>
+<td>Web Marriott</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1761</td>
+<td>John Baskerville</td>
+<td>Stephen Bedford</td>
+<td>Michael Lakin</td>
+<td>Nehemiah Bague</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1762</td>
+<td>Joseph Thomas</td>
+<td>James Jackson</td>
+<td>George Birch</td>
+<td>John Green</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1763</td>
+<td>John Gold</td>
+<td>John Lee</td>
+<td>William Parks</td>
+<td>John Daws</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1764</td>
+<td>Richard Hicks</td>
+<td>J. Ryland</td>
+<td>S. Bradburn, esq;</td>
+<td>Geo. Anderton</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1765</td>
+<td>Thomas Vallant</td>
+<td>Sam. Richards</td>
+<td>Ed. H. Noble</td>
+<td>Elias Wallin</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1766</td>
+<td>John Lane</td>
+<td>Henry Venour</td>
+<td>John Lane</td>
+<td>Joseph Adams</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1767</td>
+<td>John Horn</td>
+<td>Jo. Wilkinson</td>
+<td>Richard Rabone</td>
+<td>Thomas Care</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1768</td>
+<td>Gregory Hicks</td>
+<td>W. Russell, esq;</td>
+<td>Thomas Bingham</td>
+<td>John Moody</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1769</td>
+<td>James Male</td>
+<td>Samuel Ray</td>
+<td>Thomas Gisborne</td>
+<td>William Mansell</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1770</td>
+<td>Joshua Glover</td>
+<td>Thomas Russell</td>
+<td>T. Lutwyche</td>
+<td>Thomas Barker</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1771</td>
+<td>John Harris</td>
+<td>J. Hornblower</td>
+<td>Thomas Cooper</td>
+<td>Walter Salt</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1772</td>
+<td>William Holden</td>
+<td>Jos. Tyndall</td>
+<td>R. Anderton</td>
+<td>T. Hunt</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1773</td>
+<td>Thomas Westley</td>
+<td>John Richards</td>
+<td>Ob. Bellamy</td>
+<td>John Smart</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1774</td>
+<td>John Ward</td>
+<td>John Francis</td>
+<td>W. Hodgkins</td>
+<td>Thomas Wight</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1775</td>
+<td>Thomas Hurd</td>
+<td>John Taylor, esq;</td>
+<td>John Startin</td>
+<td>T. Everton</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1776</td>
+<td>E.W. Patteson</td>
+<td>Josiah Rogers</td>
+<td>Thomas Corden</td>
+<td>Joseph Wright</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1777</td>
+<td>Ed. Thomason</td>
+<td>S. Pemberton</td>
+<td>Joseph Jukes</td>
+<td>Joseph Sheldon</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1778</td>
+<td>Joseph Green</td>
+<td>William Hunt</td>
+<td>Thomas Wright</td>
+<td>John Allen<a name="FNanchor4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4">[4]</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1779</td>
+<td>T. Faulconbridge</td>
+<td>W. Humphrys</td>
+<td>John Guest</td>
+<td>Jonathan Wigley</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1780</td>
+<td>Daniel Winwood</td>
+<td>William Scott</td>
+<td>William Thomas</td>
+<td>John Bird</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1781</td>
+<td>William Hicks</td>
+<td>W. Taylor, esq;</td>
+<td>John Dallaway</td>
+<td>Richard Porter</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1782</td>
+<td>Thomas Carless</td>
+<td>G. Humphrys</td>
+<td>John Holmes</td>
+<td>Thomas Barrs</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</center>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor2">[2]</a>
+Joseph Scott, Esq; not choosing the official part, procured a
+substitute to perform it, in the person of the late Constable James
+Baker.</blockquote>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor3">[3]</a>
+in office, Benjamin Mansell was chosen in his stead.</blockquote>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor4">[4]</a>
+was charged with a fine of 25<i>l</i>. by the lady of the manor,
+and John Miles chosen in his stead.</blockquote>
+<hr style="width: 25%;">
+<p>Three of the Inhabitants have, since I knew the place, served
+the Office of SHERIFF for the County, viz.</p>
+<br>
+<center>
+<table summary="">
+<tr>
+<td>John Taylor, Esquire, in</td>
+<td>1756.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Edward Jordan, Esquire, in</td>
+<td>1757.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>And Isaac Spooner, Esquire, in</td>
+<td>1763.</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</center>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="COURT_OF_REQUESTS."></a>COURT OF REQUESTS.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Law is the very basis of civil society, without it man would
+quickly return to his original rudeness; the result would be,
+robbery and blood:--and even laws themselves are of little moment,
+without a due execution of them--there is a necessity to annex
+punishment.</p>
+<p>But there is no necessity to punish the living, who are
+innocent, by hanging the dead bodies of criminals in the air. This
+indecent and inhuman custom, which originated from the days of
+barbarism, reflects an indelible disgrace upon a civilized age. The
+intention, no doubt, was laudable; to prevent the commission of
+crimes, but does it answer that intention?</p>
+<p>In 1759, two brothers, of the name of Darby, were hung in chains
+near Hales-Owen, since which time there has been only one murder
+committed in the whole neighbourhood, and that under the very
+gibbet upon which they hung<a name="FNanchor5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5">[5]</a>.</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor5">[5]</a>
+Joseph Skidmore, a carrier of Stourbridge, having Ann Mansfield, a
+young woman of Birmingham, under his care, ravished and murdered
+her in the evening of December 10, 1774.</blockquote>
+<p>Justice, however, points out a way wherein the dead body, by
+conveying chirurgical knowledge, may be serviceable to the
+living.</p>
+<p>Laws generally tend, either directly, or remotely, to the
+protection of property.</p>
+<p>All wise legislators have endeavoured to proportion the
+punishment to the crime, but never to exceed it: a well conducted
+state holds forth a scale of punishments for transgressions of
+every dimension, beginning with the simple reprimand, and
+proceeding downwards even to death itself.</p>
+<p>It will be granted, that the line of equity ought to be drawn
+with critical exactness.</p>
+<p>If by fair trade, persuasion, or finesse, I get the property of
+another into my hands, even to the trifling value of a shilling, my
+effects ought to be responsible for that sum.</p>
+<p>If I possess no effects, he certainly retains a right of
+punishing to that amount: for if we do not lay this line in the
+boundaries of strict justice, it will not lie upon any other
+ground. And if I am allowed fraud in one shilling, I am allowed it
+in a greater sum. How far punishment may be softened by concurring
+circumstances, is another question.</p>
+<p>It therefore follows of course, that if my creditor has a right
+to recover his unfortunate property, those laws are the nearest to
+perfection, that will enable him to recover it with the most
+expedition, and the least expence and trouble to us both.</p>
+<p>If the charge of recovery is likely to exceed the debt, he will
+be apt to desist, I to laugh at him, and to try my skill at a
+second enterprize.</p>
+<p>Trade and credit cannot be well separated; they are as closely
+connected as the wax and the paper. The laws of credit, therefore,
+ought to rest upon a permanent foundation: neither is law necessary
+to restrain credit; for if, in a commercial state, it becomes
+detrimental by its over growth, it finds itself a remedy.</p>
+<p>Much has been said, and perhaps more than has been thought,
+concerning the court before us. The loser is expected to complain,
+and his friends to give him a partial hearing; and though he
+breathes <i>vengeance</i> against his antagonist, it ends in a
+<i>breath</i>.</p>
+<p>The looker-on can easily spy an error in the actor. If a fault
+is committed, we are glad it was done by another; besides, it is no
+new thing for the <i>outs</i> to complain of the <i>ins</i>. It
+will plead strongly in excuse, to say, the intention was right, if
+the judgment was wrong. If perfection is required, she does not
+reside upon earth.</p>
+<p>But if these pleadings are not found a balance against
+prejudice, and a man suffers his wrath to kindle against a valuable
+institution, because perfection does not preside over it, let him
+peruse an old author, who asks, "What shall we think of the folly
+of that man, who throws away the apple, because it contains a core?
+despises the nut, for the shell? or casts the diamond into the sea,
+because it has a flaw?"</p>
+<p>Decision is usually established upon oath, both in criminal
+courts, and in those at Westminster, through which the oath is seen
+to pass with free currency.</p>
+<p>A judge is sometimes fond of sheltering himself behind an oath;
+it may be had at an easy rate. Each of the contending parties
+wishes to win his cause by an oath: but though oaths would be
+willingly taken, they ought to be sparingly given.--They may be
+considered what they generally are not, <i>of the last
+importance</i>.</p>
+<p>We may observe, that two opponents are ready to swear directly
+contrary to each other; that if a man asserts a thing, he can do no
+less than swear it; and that, after all, an oath proves
+nothing.</p>
+<p>The commissioners, therefore, wish rather to establish
+<i>fact</i> upon <i>proof</i>; but, if this is wanting, then upon
+circumstantial evidence; and if this support fails, they chuse to
+finish a quarrel by a moderate, though a random judgment.</p>
+<p>Much honor is due to that judicial luminary, William Murray,
+Earl of Mansfield, who presides over the King's-Bench, for
+introducing equity into the courts of law, where she had long been
+a stranger.</p>
+<p>The Court of Requests may justly be charged with weakness, and
+what court may not? It is inseparable from man.</p>
+<p>A person cannot chuse his capacity, but he may chuse to be a
+rogue; one is an act of nature, the other of the will. The greater
+the temptation to go astray, the greater must be the resolution to
+conquer it.</p>
+<p>One of the suitors presented a commissioner with a couple of
+chickens, as a powerful argument to strengthen a feeble case; but
+the commissioner returned his present, and the plaintiff lost his
+cause; and no wonder, he sent a chicken to plead it.</p>
+<p>The defendant, by disobeying the orders of the court, falls
+under the power of the plaintiff, who can cause execution to issue
+against his goods, and reimburse himself; or, against his body, and
+confine him forty days, unless paid his demand.</p>
+<p>There is no cause that can be brought before the Court of
+Requests, but may be brought before a higher court, and at a higher
+expence.</p>
+<p>A cause passes through this court for seventeen-pence; and
+cannot well, by chicanery or neglect, amount to more than two
+shillings and nine-pence: So that ruin is not one of its
+imperfections.</p>
+<p>Though law is said to produce quarrels among friends, yet the
+contending parties often go out of that court better friends than
+when they came in.</p>
+<p>It has been objected, that the publicans give credit to the
+lower class, in expectation of relief from the court. But the
+debtor is equally apprized of the remedy, and often drinks deeper,
+in expectation of a mild sentence from the commissioners; besides,
+is not all credit founded on the laws of recovery?</p>
+<p>It has also been urged, that while punishment pursues the
+debtor, for neglect of orders, his family falls upon the
+community.</p>
+<p>But the community would not wish to put a bar between a man and
+his property--The precedent would be dangerous: Justice is no
+respector of persons. A culprit will soon procure a family, if they
+are able to plead his excuse: It would follow, that single men only
+would be obliged to be honest. She does not save the criminal,
+because he is an handsome man. If she did, beauty would increase in
+value; but honesty, seldom be its companion.</p>
+<p>But can accusation lie against a fair tribunal of rectitude? The
+man does not exist that can quarrel with equity, and treat her as
+the offspring of fraud---The most amiable character in the
+creation, and the immediate representative of supreme excellence.
+She will be revered, even by the sons of plunder!</p>
+<p>Many of the causes that pass this court, are of a disputable
+nature, and if not terminated there, would take a different
+turn.</p>
+<p>From distant views of relief here, even sickness herself finds
+credit in the day of distress.</p>
+<p>The use of the court is also favourable to trade, for, to oblige
+a man to pay his debts, is to oblige him to labour, which improves
+the manufactures.</p>
+<p>Birmingham, in no period of her existence, has increased with
+such rapidity, in people, buildings and commerce, as since the
+erection of that court; so that depopulation is not one of its
+inconveniencies.</p>
+<p>From a consideration of the prodigious intercourse subsisting in
+so vast a body of people, and the credit consequent thereon, it was
+wisely judged necessary to establish an easy, and expeditious
+method of ending dispute, and securing property.</p>
+<p>The inhabitants of Birmingham, therefore, in 1752, procured an
+act for the recovery of debts under Forty Shillings; constituting
+seventy-two commissioners, three to be a quorum. They sit for the
+dispatch of business in the chamber over the Old Cross every Friday
+morning, and there usually appear before them between eighty and
+one hundred causes: Their determinations are final. Two clerks
+also, constituted by the act, attend the court to give judicial
+assistance; are always of the law, chosen alternately by the lord
+of the manor, and the commissioners, and to continue for life. Once
+in every two years, ten of the commissioners are ballotted out, and
+ten others of the inhabitants chosen in their stead.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="LAMP_ACT."></a>LAMP ACT.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Order, is preserved by industry. In 1769 an act was obtained,
+and in 1773 an amendment of the act, for lighting and cleaning the
+streets of Birmingham, and for removing obstructions that were
+prejudicial to the health or convenience of the inhabitants.</p>
+<p>These acts were committed to the care of about seventy-six
+irresolute commissioners, with farther powers of preventing
+encroachments upon public ground; for it was justly observed, that
+robbery was a work of darkness, therefore to introduce light would,
+in some measure, protect property. That in a town like Birmingham,
+full of commerce and inhabitants, where necessity leads to
+continual action, no part of the twenty four hours ought to be
+dark. That, to avoid darkness, is sometimes to avoid insult; and
+that by the light of 700 lamps, many unfortunate accidents would be
+prevented.</p>
+<p>It was also observed, that in a course of time, the buildings in
+some of the ancient streets had encroached upon the path, four or
+five feet on each side; which caused an irregular line, and made
+those streets eight or ten feet narrower, that are now used by
+50,000 people, than they were, when used only by a tenth part of
+that number; and, that their confined width rendered the passage
+dangerous to children, women, and feeble age, particularly on the
+market day and Saturday evening.</p>
+<p>That if former encroachments could not be recovered, future
+ought to be prevented.</p>
+<p>And farther, that necessity pleads for a wider street now, than
+heretofore, not only because the inhabitants, being more numerous,
+require more room, but the buildings being more elevated, obstruct
+the light, the sun, and the air, which obstructions tend to
+sickness and inconveniency.</p>
+<p>Narrow streets with modern buildings are generally dirty, for
+want of these natural helps; as Digbeth, St. Martin's-lane,
+Swan-alley, Carr's-lane, &amp;c. The narrower the street, the less
+it can be influenced by the sun and the wind, consequently, the
+more the dirt will abound; and by experimental observations upon
+stagnate water in the street, it is found extremely prejudicial to
+health. And also, the larger the number of people, the more
+necessity to watch over their interest with a guardian eye.</p>
+<p>It may farther be remarked, that an act of parliament ought to
+distribute justice with an impartial hand, in which case, content
+and obedience may reasonably be expected. But the acts before us
+carry a manifest partiality, one man claims a right to an
+encroachment into the street, of three or four feet, whilst another
+is restricted to twelve inches.</p>
+<p>This inactive body of seventy-six, who wisely argue against the
+annihilation of one evil, because another will remain; had also
+powers to borrow a thousand pounds, to purchase and remove some
+obstructive buildings; and to defray the expence by a rate on the
+inhabitants, which, after deducting about one hundred and twenty
+pounds per ann. for deficiencies, amounted in</p>
+<blockquote>1774, to&nbsp;&nbsp; 912<i>l</i>.<br>
+1775, --&nbsp;&nbsp; 902<i>l</i>.<br>
+1776, --&nbsp;&nbsp; 947<i>l</i>.<br>
+1777, --&nbsp;&nbsp; 965<i>l</i>.<br>
+1778, -- 1,012<i>l</i>.<br>
+1779, -- 1,022<i>l</i>.<br>
+1780, -- 1,021<i>l</i>.</blockquote>
+<p>Though the town was averse to the measure, as an innovation,
+they quickly saw its utility, and seemed to wish a more vigorous
+exertion of the commissioners; but numbers sometimes procrastinate
+design. If it is difficult to find five men of one mind, it is more
+difficult to find a superior number. That business which would run
+currently through the hands of five, stagnates at fifteen, the
+number required.</p>
+<p>It is curious to observe a body of commissioners, every one of
+whom conducts his own private affairs with propriety and success,
+attack a question by the hour, which is as plain as the simplest
+proposition in the mathematicks, when not being able to reduce it,
+and their ammunition spent, leave the matter undetermined, and
+retreat in silence.</p>
+<p>In works of manual operation a large number may be necessary,
+but in works of direction a small one facilitates dispatch.</p>
+<p>Birmingham, a capacious field, by long neglect is over-grown
+with encroaching weeds. The gentle commissioners, appointed to
+reduce them, behold it an arduous work, are divided in opinion, and
+some withdraw the hand from the plough; certainly, <i>the harvest
+is great, and the labourers are few</i>. The manorial powers, which
+alone could preserve order, have slept for ages. Regularity has
+been long extinct. The desire of trespass is so prevalent, that I
+have been tempted to question; if it were not for the powers of the
+lamp act, feeble as they are, whether the many-headed-public, ever
+watchful of prey, would not in another century, devour whole
+streets, and totally prevent the passenger. Thus a supine
+jurisdiction abounds with <i>street-robbers</i>.</p>
+<p>There are cases where the line of the street should inviolably
+be preserved, as in a common range of houses; therefore all
+projections above a given dimension infringe this rule.</p>
+<p>There are other cases where taste would direct this line to be
+broken, as in buildings of singular size and construction, which
+should be viewed in recess. Those of a public nature generally come
+under this description, as the free-school, and the hotel, which
+ought to have fallen two or three yards back. What pity, that so
+noble an edifice as the theatre in New-street, should lose any of
+its beauty, by the prominence of its situation!</p>
+<p>As Birmingham abounds with new streets, that were once private
+property, it is a question often discussed, In what point of time
+the land appropriated for such streets, ceases to be private? But
+as this question was never determined, and as it naturally rises
+before me, and is of importance, suffer me to examine it.</p>
+<p>When building leases are granted, if the road be narrow, as was
+lately the case at the West end of New-street, the proprietor
+engages to give a certain portion of land to widen it. From that
+moment, therefore, it falls to the lot of the public, and is under
+the controul of the commissioners, as guardians of public property.
+I allow, if within memory, the grantor and the lessees should agree
+to cancel the leases, which is just as likely to happen as the
+powers of attraction to cease, and the moon to descend from the
+heavens; in this case, the land reverts again to its original
+proprietor.</p>
+<p>Though the streets of Birmingham have for many ages been exposed
+to the hand of the encroacher, yet, by a little care, and less
+expence, they might in about one century be reduced to a
+considerable degree of use and beauty. In what light then shall we
+be viewed by the future eye, if we neglect the interest of
+posterity?</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="RELIGION_AND_POLITICS."></a>RELIGION AND
+POLITICS.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Although these two threads, like the warp and the woof, are very
+distinct things; yet, like them, they are usually woven together.
+Each possesses a strength of its own, but when united, have often
+become extremely powerful, as in the case of Henry the Third and
+the clergy. This union, at times, subsisted from a very early
+date.</p>
+<p>Power is the idol of man; we not only wish to acquire it, but
+also to increase and preserve it. If the magistrate has been too
+weak to execute his designs, he has backed his schemes with the aid
+of the church; this occurred with King Stephen and the Bishops.</p>
+<p>Likewise, if a churchman finds his power ascendant in the human
+mind, he still wishes an addition to that power, by uniting
+another. Thus the Bishop of Rome, being master of the spiritual
+chair, stept also into the temporal.</p>
+<p>Sometimes the ecclesiastical and civil governors appear in
+malign aspect, or in modern phrase, like a quarrel between the
+squire and the rector, which is seldom detrimental to the people.
+This was the case with Henry the Eighth and the church.</p>
+<p>The curses of a priest hath sometimes brought a people into
+obedience to the King, when he was not able to bring them himself.
+One could not refrain from smiling, to hear a Bishop curse the
+people for obeying their Sovereign, and in a few months after,
+curse them again if they did not; which happened in the reign of
+King John. But, happy for the world, that these retail dealers in
+the wrath of heaven are become extinct, and the market is over.</p>
+<p>Birmingham, in those remote periods of time, does not seem to
+have attended so much to religious and political dispute, as to the
+course music of her hammer. Peace seems to have been her
+characteristic--She paid obedience to that Prince had the good
+fortune to possess the throne, and regularly paid divine honours in
+St. Martin's, because there was no other church. Thus, through the
+long ages of Saxon, Danish, and Norman government, we hear of no
+noise but that of the anvil, till the reign of Henry the Third,
+when her Lord joined the Barons against the Crown, and drew after
+him some of his mechanics, to exercise the very arms they had been
+taught to make; and where, at the battle of Evesham, he staked his
+life and his fortune, and lost both.</p>
+<p>Things quickly returning into their former channel, she stood a
+silent spectator during that dreadful contest between the two
+roses, pursuing the tenor of still life till the civil wars of
+Charles I. when she took part with the Parliament, some of whose
+troops were stationed here, particularly at the Garrison and
+Camp-hill; the names of both originating in that circumstance.</p>
+<p>Prince Rupert, as hinted before, approaching Birmingham in 1643
+with a superior power, forced the lines, and as a punishment set
+fire to the town. His vengeance burned fiercely in Bull-street, and
+the affrighted inhabitants quenched the flames with a heavy
+fine.</p>
+<p>In 1660, she joined the wish of the kingdom, in the restoration
+of the Stuart family. About this time, many of the curious
+manufactures began to blossom in this prosperous garden of the
+arts.</p>
+<p>In 1688, when the nation chose to expel a race of Kings, though
+replete with good nature, because they had forgot the limits of
+justice ; our peaceable sons of art, wisely considering, that
+oppression and commerce, like oil and water, could never unite,
+smiled with the rest of the kingdom at the landing of the Prince of
+Orange, and exerted their little assistance towards effecting the
+Revolution, notwithstanding the lessons of <i>divine right</i> had
+been taught near ninety years.</p>
+<p>In the reign of Queen Anne, when that flaming luminary, Dr.
+Sacheverel, set half the kingdom in blaze, the inhabitants of this
+region of industry caught the spark of the day, and grew warm for
+the church--They had always been inured to <i>fire</i>, but now we
+behold them between <i>two</i>.</p>
+<p>As the doctor rode in triumph through the streets of Birmingham,
+this flimsy idol of party snuffed up the incense of the populace,
+but the more sensible with held their homage; and when he preached
+at Sutton Coldfield, where he had family connections, the people of
+Birmingham crowded in multitudes round his pulpit. But it does not
+appear that he taught his hearers to <i>build up Zion</i>, but
+perhaps to pull her down; for they immediately went and gutted a
+meeting-house.</p>
+<p>It is easy to point out a time when it was dangerous to have
+been of the established church, and I have here pointed out one,
+when it was dangerous to profess any other.</p>
+<p>We are apt to think the zeal of our fathers died with them, for
+I have frequently beheld with pleasure, the churchman, the
+presbyterian, and the quaker uniting their efforts, like brethren,
+to carry on a work of utility. The bigot of the last age casts a
+malicious sneer upon the religion of another, but the man of this
+passes a joke upon his own.</p>
+<p>A sameness in religious sentiment is no more to be expected,
+than a sameness of face. If the human judgment varies in almost
+every subject of plain knowledge, how can it be fixed in this,
+composed of mystery?</p>
+<p>As the true religion is ever that which a man professes himself,
+it is necessary to enquire, What means, he that is right may use,
+to convert him that is wrong?</p>
+<p>As the whole generations of faggot and torture, are extinct in
+this age of light, there seems only to remain fair arguments
+founded in reason, and these can only be brought as evidences upon
+the trial: The culprit himself, <i>by indefeasible right
+divine</i>, will preside as the judge. Upon a close enquiry it will
+be found, that his sentiments are as much his private property, as
+the coat that covers him, or the life which that coat incloses.</p>
+<p>Is there not as much reason to punish my neighbour for differing
+in opinion from me, as to punish me, because I differ from him? Or,
+is there any to punish either?</p>
+<p>If a man's sentiments and practice in religious matters, appear
+even absurd, provided society is not injured, what right hath the
+magistrate to interfere?</p>
+<p>The task is as easy to make the stream run upwards, as to form a
+nation of one mind. We may pronounce with confidence, an age of
+bigotry is no age of philosophy.</p>
+<p>The gentle hand of Brunswick, had swayed the British sceptre
+near half a century, ere all the sons of science in this meridian,
+were compleatly reconciled to this favourite line.</p>
+<p>But unanimity, with benign aspect, seems now the predominant
+star of the zenith: A friendly intercourse succeeds suspicion. The
+difference of sentiment, that once created jealousy, now excites a
+smile; and the narrow views of our forefathers are prudently
+expanded.</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image04.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image04.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image04.jpg" width="45%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b><i>St. John's Chapel, Deritend</i>.</b></p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="PLACES_OF_WORSHIP."></a>PLACES OF WORSHIP.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>In a town like Birmingham, unfettered with charteral laws; which
+gives access to the stranger of every denomination, for he here
+finds a freedom by birthright; and where the principles of
+toleration are well understood, it is no wonder we find various
+modes of worship. The wonder consists in finding such
+<i>agreement</i>, in such variety.</p>
+<p>We have fourteen places for religious exercise, six of the
+established church, three dissenting meeting houses, a quakers,
+baptist, methodist, roman catholic, and jewish. Two of these only
+are churches, of which elsewhere.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="SAINT_JOHNS_CHAPEL"></a>SAINT JOHN'S CHAPEL,</h2>
+<h2>DERITEND.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>This, tho' joining to the parish of Birmingham, is a chapel of
+ease belonging to Aston, two miles distant. Founded in the fifth of
+Richard the Second, 1382.</p>
+<p>This chapel does not, like others in Birmingham, seem to have
+been erected first, and the houses brought round it: It appears, by
+its extreme circumscribed latitude, to have been founded upon the
+scite of other buildings, which were purchased, or rather given, by
+Sir John de Birmingham, Lord of Deritend, and situated upon the
+boundaries of the manor, perhaps to accommodate in some measure the
+people of Digbeth; because the church in Birmingham must, for
+many-ages, have been too small for the inhabitants.</p>
+<p>Time seems to have worn out that building of 1382; in the
+windows of which were the arms of Lord Dudley, and Dudley empaling
+Barckley, both knights of the garter, descended from the Somery's,
+Barons of Dudley-castle: Also a whole figure of Walter Arden, Esq;
+of ancient family, often mentioned, Lord of Bordesley.</p>
+<p>The present building was erected in 1735, and the steeple in
+1762. In 1777 eight of the most musical bells, together with a
+clock, entered the steeple. The present chaplain, the Rev. Thomas
+Cox--Income 80<i>l</i>.</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image05.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image05.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image05.jpg" width="45%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b><i>St. Bartholomew's Chapel</i>.</b></p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="SAINT_BARTHOLOMEWS"></a>SAINT BARTHOLOMEW'S.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Built in 1749, on the east side of the town, will accommodate
+about 800 hearers; is neat and elegant. The land was the gift of
+John Jennens, Esq; of Copsal, in the county of Leicester, possessor
+of a considerable estate in and near Birmingham.</p>
+<p>By the solicitation of Mrs. Weaman, Mrs. Jennens gave
+1000<i>l</i>. and the remainder was raised by contribution to
+accomplish the building.</p>
+<p>Wherever a chapel is erected, the houses immediately, as if
+touched by the wand of magic, spring into existence. Here is a
+spacious area for interment, amply furnished by death. The infant
+steeple, if it will bear the name, is very small but beautiful.</p>
+<p>The chancel hath this singular difference from others--that it
+veres towards the North. Whether the projector committed an error,
+I leave to the critics.</p>
+<p>It was the general practice of the Pagan church to fix their
+altar, upon which they sacrificed, in the East, towards the rising
+sun, the object of worship.</p>
+<p>The Christian church, in the time of the Romans, immediately
+succeeded the Pagan, and scrupulously adopted the same method;
+which has been strictly adhered to.</p>
+<p>By what obligation the Christian is bound to follow the Pagan,
+or wherein a church would be injured by being directed to any of
+the thirty-two points in the compass, is doubtful. Certain it is,
+if the chancel of Bartholomew's had tended due East, the eye would
+have been exceedingly hurt, and the builder would have raised an
+object of ridicule for ages. The ground will admit of no situation
+but that in which the church now stands. But the inconsiderate
+architect of Deritend chapel, anxious to catch the Eastern point,
+lost the line of the street: we may therefore justly pronounce,
+<i>be sacrificed to the East</i>. Other enormities also, of little
+moment, have issued from the same fountain.</p>
+<p>The altar piece was the gift of Basil Earl of Denbigh; and the
+communion plate, consisting of 182 ounces, that of Mary Carless.
+Income 100<i>l</i>.--Rev. William Jabbitt, chaplain.</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image06.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image06.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image06.jpg" width="45%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b>St. Mary's Chapel.</b></p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="SAINT_MARYS"></a>SAINT MARY's.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Though the houses for divine worship were multiplied in
+Birmingham, yet the inhabitants increased in a greater proportion;
+so that in 1772 an act was obtained for two additional chapels.</p>
+<p>St. Mary's, therefore, was erected in 1774, in the octagon form,
+not overcharged with light nor strength; in an airy situation and
+taste, but shews too little steeple, and too much roof. If a light
+balustrade was raised over the parapet, with an urn in the centre
+of the roof, the eye of the observer would be relieved.</p>
+<p>The clock was seldom seen to go right, but the wonder ceases if
+there are NO WORKS within.</p>
+<p>The land was the gift of Mary Weaman, in whom is the
+presentation, who inducted the Rev. John Riland. Annual income
+about 200<i>l</i>.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="SAINT_PAULS"></a>SAINT PAUL's.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>The act was procured for this chapel at the same time as for
+that of St. Mary's; but it was not erected till 1779, upon a spot
+of ground given by Charles Colmore, Esq; upon the declivity of a
+hill, not altogether suitable for the elegant building it sustains,
+which is of stone--plain beauty unites with strength.</p>
+<p>This roof, like that of St. Mary's, appears also too full. The
+steeple intended for this useful edifice, will do honour to the
+modern stile of architecture, whenever money can be procured to
+erect it; which at present is only delineated upon paper.</p>
+<p>Chaplain, the Rev. William Toy Young.--Income nearly as St.
+Mary's.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="OLD_MEETING."></a>OLD MEETING.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>After the extinction of the Stuart race, who bore an invincible
+hatred to presbyterianism, the dissenters from the establishment
+procured a licence for a meeting at the bottom of Digbeth, which
+yet bears the name of Meeting-house-yard. Here the rigid sons of
+worship paid a weekly attendance. The place is now a work-shop: The
+sound of the pulpit is changed into that of the bellows: Instead of
+an impression upon the heart, it is now stamped upon the button.
+The visitants used to appear in a variety of colours, but now
+always in black.</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image07.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image07.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image07.jpg" width="45%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b><i>St. Paul's Chapel</i>.</b></p>
+<br>
+<a name="image08a.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image08a.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image08a.jpg" width="45%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b>New Meeting.</b></p>
+<br>
+<a name="image08b.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image08b.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image08b.jpg" width="45%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b>Old Meeting.</b></p>
+<br>
+<p>Another was erected in the reign of King William, now
+denominated The Old Meeting, and from whence the street in which it
+stands derives a name. This is large, and much attended.</p>
+<p>Pastor, the Rev. Radcliff Scoldfield.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="NEW_MEETING."></a>NEW MEETING.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Erected in the year 1730, at which time that in Digbeth went
+into disuse. This is in a stile of elegance, and has few equals.
+The Rev. Samuel Blyth, and the Rev. William Hawkes preside over
+it.</p>
+<p>In December 1780, Mr. Hawkes declining the pastoral care, the
+congregation judiciously turned their thoughts towards the
+celebrated Doctor Priestley, F.R.S. one of the first philosophers
+of the age; whose merit seems obvious to every eye but his own.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="CARRS_LANE_MEETING"></a>CARR's LANE MEETING.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>A scion of the Old Meeting, transplanted in 1748--The building
+cost about 700<i>l</i>. This society hath been favoured with two
+donations; one the interest of 800<i>l</i>. by the will of John
+England, in 1771: The other Scott's Trust, mentioned in another
+part.</p>
+<p>This residence of divine light is totally eclipsed, by being
+surrounded with about forty families of paupers, crouded almost
+within the compass of a giant's span, which amply furnish the
+congregation with noise, smoak, dirt and dispute. If the place
+itself is the road to heaven, the stranger would imagine, that the
+road to the place led to something worse: The words, <i>Strait is
+the gate, and narrow is the way</i>, are here literally
+verified.--Pastor, the Rev. John Punfield.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="BAPTIST_MEETING."></a>BAPTIST MEETING.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Founded in Cannon-street, 1738. This hill of Zion is also hid
+from the public eye, but situated in a purer air.--The minister was
+the late Rev. James Turner.</p>
+<p>Some trifling differences arising in the congregation, to which
+the human mind is everlastingly prone, caused discontent:
+Individuals began to sting each other, which in 1745, produced a
+swarm.</p>
+<p>The destitute wanderers therefore, erected for themselves a
+small cell in Freeman-street, where they hived in expectation of
+harmony. Over this little society of separatists presided a
+journeyman woolcomber: What elevation he bore in the comb-shop,
+during six days of the week, history is silent; but having the good
+fortune to procure a black coat and a white wig, he figured on the
+seventh with parsonic elegance.</p>
+<p>Whether <i>he</i> fed his people best, or <i>they</i> him, is
+uncertain; but whether they starved one another, is not. Disgust,
+which ever waits upon disappointment, appeared among them.</p>
+<p>Though the preacher was certainly warmed in the shop, <i>with a
+live coal from the altar</i>; yet unfortunately, Sunday was the
+only day in which his <i>fire</i> was extinguished; <i>then</i> the
+priest and the people hit the taste of the day, and slumbered
+together; a priviledge never granted by a <i>reader</i> to an
+<i>author</i>. Thus the boasted <i>liberty of the press</i> submits
+to that of the pulpit.</p>
+<p>This exalted shepherd dwelt upon the words of Paul, <i>He that
+preaches the gospel, ought to subsist by the gospel;</i> and
+<i>they</i> did not forget a portion in John, <i>Feed my sheep</i>.
+The word, he well knew, promised both wine and <i>oil</i>, but he
+was obliged to be satisfied with the latter.</p>
+<p>Although the teacher might possess some <i>shining qualities</i>
+at the combe-pot, he did not possess that of protecting his flock,
+who in 1752, silently retreated to their original fold in
+Cannon-street; and the place was soon after converted into a
+dwelling, No. 16, when for the first time it produced
+<i>profit</i>.</p>
+<p>The growing numbers of this prosperous society induced them, in
+1780, to enlarge the place of worship, at the expence of about
+800<i>l</i>. in which is observable some beauty, but more
+conveniency.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="QUAKERS_MEETING"></a>QUAKER's MEETING</h2>
+<br>
+<p>In Bull-street. A large convenient place, and notwithstanding
+the plainness of the profession rather elegant. The congregation is
+very flourishing, rich, and peaceable. Chandler tells us, to the
+everlasting honour of the Quakers, that they are the only christian
+sect who have never exercised the cruel weapon of persecution.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="METHODISTS_MEETING"></a>METHODIST's MEETING.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>We learn from ecclesiastical history, that the people in high
+life are always <i>followers</i> in religion. Though they are the
+best leaders in political and social concerns, yet all religions
+seem to originate from the lowest class. Every religion is first
+obstructed by violence, passes through the insults of an age, then
+rests in peace, and often takes up the rod against another.</p>
+<p>The first preachers of the christian faith, the short-sighted
+apostles, were men of the meanest occupations, and their church, a
+wretched room in a miserable tenement. The superb buildings of St.
+Peter's in Rome, and St. Paul's in London, used by their followers,
+were not within the reach of their penetration. They were also
+totally ignorant of tripple crowns, red hats, mitres, crosiers,
+robes, and rochets, well known to their successors.</p>
+<p>The religion of a private room, soon became the religion of a
+country: the church acquired affluence, for all churches hate
+poverty; and this humble church, disturbed for ages, became the
+church of Rome, the disturber of Europe.</p>
+<p>John Wickliff, in 1377, began to renew her disturbance: this
+able theologist planted our present national church, which
+underwent severe persecutions, from its mother church at Rome; but,
+rising superior to the rod, and advancing to maturity, she became
+the mother of a numerous offspring, which she afterwards persecuted
+herself; and this offspring, like <i>their</i> mother, were much
+inclined to persecution.</p>
+<p>Puritanism, her first born, groaned under the pressure of her
+hand. The Baptists, founded by a taylor, followed, and were
+buffeted by both.--Independency appeared, ponderous as an elephant,
+and trampled upon all three.</p>
+<p>John Fox, a composition of the oddest matter, and of the meanest
+original, formed a numerous band of disciples, who suffered the
+insults of an age, but have carried the arts of prudence to the
+highest pitch.</p>
+<p>The Muglitonians, the Prophets, the Superlapsarians, &amp;c.
+like untimely births, just saw the light and disappeared.</p>
+<p>The Moravians, under the influence of Zinzendorf, rose about
+1740, but are not in a flourishing state; their circumscribed
+rules, like those of the cloister, being too much shackled to
+thrive in a land of freedom.</p>
+<p>James Sandiman introduced a religion, about 1750, but, though
+eclipsed himself by poverty, he taught his preachers to shine; for
+he allowed them to grace the pulpit with ruffles, lace, and a
+cueque. Birmingham cannot produce one professor of the two last
+churches.</p>
+<p>The christian religion has branched into more sectaries in the
+last two hundred years, than in the fifteen hundred before--the
+reason is obvious. During the tedious reign of the Romish priest,
+before the introduction of letters, knowledge was small, and he
+wished to confine that knowledge to himself: he substituted mystery
+for science, and led the people blindfold. But the printing-press,
+though dark in itself, and surrounded with yet <i>darker</i>
+materials, diffused a ray of light through the world, which enabled
+every man to read, think, and judge for himself; hence diversity of
+opinion, and the absurdity of reducing a nation to one faith,
+vainly attempted by Henry VIII.</p>
+<p>In those distant ages, the priest had great influence, with
+little knowledge; but in these, great knowledge, with little
+influence. He was then revered according to his authority; but now,
+according to his merit: he shone in a borrowed, but now in a real
+lustre: then he was less deserving; but now less esteemed. The
+humble christian, in the strictest sense, worked out his salvation
+with fear and trembling, and with tools furnished by the priest: he
+built upon his opinions, but now he lays a foundation for his
+own.</p>
+<p>Though we acknowledge the scriptures our guide, we take the
+liberty to guide them; we torture them to our own sentiments.
+Though we allow their <i>equal</i> weight, we suffer one portion to
+weigh down another. If we attend to twenty disputants, not one of
+them will quote a text which militates against his sentiments.</p>
+<p>The artillery of vengeance was pointed at Methodism for thirty
+years; but, fixed as a rock, it could never be beaten down, and its
+professors now enjoy their sentiments in quiet.</p>
+<p>After the institution of this sect by George Whitfield, in 1738,
+they were first covered by the heavens, equally exposed to the rain
+and the rabble, and afterwards they occupied, for many years, a
+place in Steelhouse-lane, where the wags of the age observed, "they
+were eat out by the bugs."--They therefore procured a cast off
+theatre in Moor-street, where they continued to exhibit till 1782;
+when, quitting the stage, they erected a superb meeting-house, in
+Cherry-street, at the expence of 1200<i>l</i>. This was opened,
+July 7, by John Wesley, the chief priest, whose extensive
+knowledge, and unblemished manners, give us a tolerable picture of
+apostolic purity; who <i>believes</i>, as if he were to be saved by
+faith; and who <i>labours</i>, as if he were to be saved by
+works.</p>
+<p>Thus our composite order of religion, an assemblage of the
+Episcopalian, the Presbyterian, the Independent, and the Baptist;
+fled from the buffetings of the vulgar, and now take peaceable
+shelter from the dews of heaven.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="ROMISH_CHAPEL."></a>ROMISH CHAPEL.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>I have already remarked, there is nothing which continues in the
+same state: the code of manners, habits of thinking, and of
+expression, modes of living, articles of learning; the ways of
+acquiring wealth, or knowledge; our dress, diet, recreations,
+&amp;c. change in every age.</p>
+<p>But why is there a change in religion? eternal truth, once
+fixed, is everlastingly the same. Religion is purity, which, one
+would think, admits of no change; if it changes, we should doubt
+whether it is religion. But a little attention to facts will inform
+us, <i>there is nothing more changable:</i> nor need we wonder,
+because, man himself being changable, every thing committed to his
+care will change with him. We may plead his excuse, by observing,
+his sight is defective: he may be deceived by viewing an object in
+one light, or attitude, to-day, and another, to-morrow. This
+propensity to change might lead us to suspect the authenticity of
+our own sentiments.</p>
+<p>The apostles certainly formed the church of Rome; but she,
+having undergone the variations of seventeen hundred years, St.
+Peter himself, should he return to the earth, could not discover
+one linament in her aspect; but would be apt to reject her as a
+changling.</p>
+<p>The church of England has not only undergone a change since the
+reformation, but wishes a greater.</p>
+<p>We should suppose the puritan of 1583, and the dissenter of
+1783, were the same: but although substance and shadow exactly
+resemble each other, no two things differ more.</p>
+<p>When pride sends a man in quest of a religion, if he does not
+discover something new, he might as well stay at home: nothing near
+the present standard can take. Two requisites are necessary to
+found a religion, capacity, and singularity: no fool ever
+succeeded. If his talents are not above mediocrity, he will not be
+able to draw the crowd; and if his doctrines are not singular, the
+crowd will not be drawn--novelty pleases.</p>
+<p>Having collected, and brightened up a set of doctrines, wide of
+every other church, he fixes at a distance from all. But time, and
+unavoidable intercourse with the world, promote a nearer
+approximation; and, mixing with men, we act like men. Thus the
+Quaker under George III. shews but little of the Quaker under
+George Fox.</p>
+<p>In two congregations of the same profession, as in two twins of
+the same family, though there is a striking likeness, the curious
+observer will trace a considerable difference.</p>
+<p>In a religion, as well as a man, <i>there is a time to be born,
+and a time to die</i>. They both vary in aspect, according to the
+length of their existence, carry the marks of decline, and sink
+into obscurity.</p>
+<p>We are well informed how much the Romish religion has declined
+in this country: three hundred years ago Birmingham did not produce
+one person of another persuasion; but now, out of 50,000 people, we
+have not 300 of this.</p>
+<p>The Roman Catholics formerly enjoyed a place for religious
+worship near St. Bartholomew's-chapel, still called Masshouse-lane;
+but the rude hands of irreligion destroyed it. There is now none
+nearer than Edgbaston, two miles distant; yet the congregation is
+chiefly supplied from Birmingham.</p>
+<p>If the Roman Catholics are not so powerful as in the sixteenth
+century, they seem as quiet, and as little addicted to knowledge;
+perhaps they have not yet learned to see through any eyes but those
+of the priest.--There appears, however, as much devotion in their
+public worship, as among any denomination of christians.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="JEWISH_SYNAGOGUE."></a>JEWISH SYNAGOGUE.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>We have also among us a remnant of Israel. A people who, when
+masters of their own country, were scarcely ever known to travel,
+and who are now seldom employed in any thing else. But, though they
+are ever moving, they are ever at home: who once lived the
+favourites of heaven, and fed upon the cream of the earth; but now
+are little regarded by either: whose society is entirely confined
+to themselves, except in the commercial line.</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image09.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image09.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image09.jpg" width="60%" alt=""></a></p>
+<br>
+<p>In the Synagogue, situated in the Froggery, they still preserve
+the faint resemblence of the ancient worship. Their whole apparatus
+being no more than the drooping ensigns of poverty. The place is
+rather small, but tolerably filled; where there appears less
+decorum than in the christian churches. The proverbial expression
+"as rich as a jew," is not altogether verified in Birmingham, but
+perhaps, time is transfering it to the Quakers.</p>
+<p>It is rather singular, that the honesty of a jew, is seldom
+pleaded but by the jew himself.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="THEATRES."></a>THEATRES.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>The practice of the Theatre is of great antiquity. We find it in
+great repute among the Greeks; we also find, the more a nation is
+civilized, the more they have supported the stage. It seems
+designed for two purposes, improvement and entertainment.</p>
+<p>There are certain exuberances that naturally grow in religion,
+government, and private life which may with propriety be attacked
+by the poet and the comedian, but which can scarcely be reduced by
+any other power. While the stage therefore keeps this great end in
+view, it answers a valuable purpose to the community. The poet
+should use his pen to reform, not to indulge a corrupt age, as was
+the case in the days of Charles the Second, when indecency was
+brought on to raise the laugh.</p>
+<p>Perhaps there is no period of time in which the stage was less
+polluted, owing to the inimitable Garrick, than the present:
+notwithstanding there is yet room for improvement.</p>
+<p>Tragedy is to melt the heart, by exhibiting the unfortunate;
+satiate revenge, by punishing the unjust tyrant: To discard vice,
+and to keep undue passions within bounds.</p>
+<p>Comedy holds up folly in a ridiculous light: Whatever conduct or
+character is found in the regions of absurdity, furnishes proper
+materials for the stage; and out of these, the pen of a master will
+draw many useful lessons.</p>
+<p>The pulpit and the stage have nearly the same use, but not in
+the same line--That of improving the man.</p>
+<p>The English stage opened about the conquest, and was wholly
+confined to religion; in whose service it continued, with very
+little intermission, to the extinction of the Plantagenets. The
+play-houses were the churches, the principal actors the priests,
+and the performances taken from scripture; such as the Fall of Man,
+the Story of Joseph, Sampson, Histories of the Saints, the
+Sufferings of Christ, Resurrection, Day of Judgment, &amp;c.</p>
+<p>Theatrical exhibition in Birmingham, is rather of a modern date.
+As far as memory can penetrate, the stroller occupied,
+occasionally, a shed of boards in the fields, now Temple-street:
+Here he acted the part of Distress, in a double capacity. The
+situation was afterwards changed, but not the eminence, and the
+Hinkleys dignified the performers booth!</p>
+<p>In about 1730, the amusements of the stage rose in a superior
+stile of elegance, and entered something like a stable in
+Castle-street. Here the comedian strutted in painted rags,
+ornamented with tinsel: The audience raised a noisy laugh, half
+real and half forced, at three-pence a head.</p>
+<p>In about 1740, a theatre was erected in Moor-street, which
+rather gave a spring to the amusement; in the day time the comedian
+beat up for volunteers for the night, delivered his bills of fare,
+and roared out an encomium on the excellence of the entertainment,
+which had not always the desired effect.</p>
+<p>In 1751, a company arrived, which anounced themselves, "His
+Majesty's servants, from the theatres-royal in London; and hoped
+the public would excuse the ceremony of the drum, as beneath the
+dignity of a London company." The novelty had a surprising effect;
+the performers had merit; the house was continually crouded; the
+general conversation turned upon theatrical exhibition, and the
+town was converted into one vast theatre.</p>
+<p>In 1752 it was found necessary to erect a larger theatre, that
+in King Street, and we multiplied into two London companies.</p>
+<p>The pulpits took the alarm, and in turn, roared after their
+customers: But the pious teachers forgot it was only the fervour of
+a day, which would cool of itself; that the fiercer the fire burns,
+the sooner it will burn out.</p>
+<p>This declaration of war, fortunately happening at the latter end
+of summer, the campaign was over, and the company retreated into
+winter quarters, without hostilities.</p>
+<p>It was afterwards found, that two theatres were more than the
+town chose to support; therefore that in Moor-street was set for a
+methodist meeting, where, it was said, though it changed its
+audience, it kept its primeval use, continuing the theatre of
+farce.</p>
+<p>In 1774, the theatre in King-street was enlarged, beautified,
+and made more convenient; so that it hath very few equals.</p>
+<p>About the same time that in New-street was erected upon a
+suitable spot, an extensive plan, and richly ornamented with
+paintings and scenery.--Expence seems the least object in
+consideration.</p>
+<p>An additional and superb portico, was erected in 1780, which
+perhaps may cause it to be pronounced, "One of the first theatres
+in Europe."</p>
+<p>Two busts, in relief, of excellent workmanship, are elevated
+over the attic windows; one is the father, and the other the
+refiner of the British, stage--Shakespear and Garrick.</p>
+<p>Also two figures eight feet high, are said to be under the
+chissel, one of Thalia, and the other of Melpomene, the comic and
+the tragic muses; the value one hundred and sixty guineas. Places
+are reserved for their reception, to augment the beauty of the
+front, and shew the taste of the age.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="AMUSEMENTS."></a>AMUSEMENTS.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Man seems formed for variety, whether we view him in a rational
+or an animal light. A sameness of temper, habit, diet, pursuit, or
+pleasure, is no part of his character. The different ages of his
+life, also produce different sentiments; that which gives us the
+highest relish in one period, is totally flat in another. The
+rattle that pleases at three, would be cast into the fire at
+threescore: The same hand that empties the purse at twenty, would
+fill it at fifty: In age, he bends his knee to the same religion,
+which he laughed at in youth: The prayer book, that holds the
+attention of seventy, holds the lottery pictures of seven: And the
+amorous tale that awakes the ideas of twenty five, lulls old age to
+sleep.</p>
+<p>Not only life is productive of change, but also every day in it.
+If a man would take a minute survey of his thoughts and
+employments, for only twenty-four hours, he would be astonished at
+their infinite variety.</p>
+<p>Though industry be the ruling passion of this ingenious race,
+yet relaxation must follow, as one period to another. Society is
+therefore justly esteemed an everlasting fund of amusement, which
+is found at the tavern, in the winter evening: Intoxication is
+seldom met with, except in the inferior ranks, where it is visible
+in both sexes.</p>
+<p>A regular concert is established, where the music is allowed to
+excel. This harmonious science, like other productions of taste,
+though it be not the general study of the inhabitants, hath made an
+amazing progress during the last thirty years.</p>
+<p>In 1777, a coffee-house was opened at the East end of
+New-street, the first in this department; which, drawing into its
+vortex the transactions of Europe, finds employment for the
+politician.</p>
+<p>Assemblies are held weekly, which give room for beauty to figure
+at cards, in conversation, and in the dance.</p>
+<p>The pleasures of the field claim their votaries, but, in a
+populous country, like that of Birmingham, plenty of game is not to
+be expected; for want of wild fowl, therefore, the shooter has been
+sometimes known to attack the tame.</p>
+<p>However, the farmer need not be under any great concern for his
+property; the sportsman seldom does any thing with his
+arms--but--<i>carry them</i>. We are more famous for <i>making</i>,
+than <i>using</i> the gun.</p>
+<p>A pack of hounds have sometimes been kept by subscription,
+termed, The Birmingham Hunt; but, as the sound of the dogs and the
+anvil never harmonised together, they have been long in disuse: the
+jocund tribe, therefore, having no scent of their own, fall into
+that of the neighbouring gentry, many of whom support a pack.</p>
+<p>The man of reflection finds amusement in domestic resources;
+and, in his own mind, if unoppressed. Here the treasures collected
+from men, books, and observation, <i>are laid up for many
+years</i>, from which he draws pleasure, without diminishing the
+flock. The universal riches of nature and of art; the part, the
+present, and a glympse of the future, lie open to his eye.</p>
+<p>Two obstructions only bound his ideas, <i>time</i> and
+<i>space</i>. He steps from planet to planet, and if he cannot
+enter immensity, he can verge upon its borders.</p>
+<p>I pity the man, who through poverty, cannot find warmth by his
+own fire-side; but I pity him more, who, through poverty of
+thought, cannot find happiness.</p>
+<p>For the entertainment of summer, exclusive of the two theatres,
+there are five greens, where the gentlemen are amused with bowls,
+and the ladies with tea.</p>
+<p>There are also great variety of public gardens, suited to every
+class of people, or which Duddeston, the ancient seat of the Holte
+family, claims the pre-eminence.</p>
+<p>The fishing-rod, that instrument which <i>destroys in peace</i>,
+must find a place: other animals are followed with fire and tumult,
+but the fishes are entrapped with deceit. Of all the sportsmen, we
+charge the angler alone with <i>killing in cold blood</i>.</p>
+<p>Just as a pursuit abounds with pleasure, so will it abound with
+votaries. The pleasure of angling depends on the success of the
+line: this art is but little practised here, and less known. Our
+rivers are small, and thinly stored; our pools are guarded as
+private property: the Birmingham spirit is rather too active for
+the sleepy amusement of fishing.</p>
+<p>Patience seems the highest accomplishment of an angler. We
+behold him, fixed as a statue, on the bank; his head inclining
+towards the river, his attention upon the water, his eye upon the
+float; he often draws, and draws only his hook! But although he
+gets no bite, it may fairly be said <i>he is bit:</i> of the two,
+the fish display the most cunning.--He, surprized that he has
+<i>caught nothing</i>, and I, that he has kept his rod and his
+patience.</p>
+<p>Party excursion is held in considerable esteem, in which are
+included Enville, the seat of Lord Stamford; Hagley, that of the
+late Lord Lyttelton; and the Leasowes, the property of the late Wm.
+Shenstone, Esq. We will omit the journey to London, a tour which
+some of us have made all our lives <i>without seeing it</i>.</p>
+<p>Cards and the visit are linked together, nor is the billiard
+table totally forsaken. One man amuses himself in amassing a
+fortune, and another in dissolving one.</p>
+<p>About thirty-six of the inhabitants keep carriages for their own
+private use; and near fifty have country houses. The relaxations of
+the humbler class, are fives, quoits, skittles, and ale.</p>
+<p>Health and amusement are found in the prodigious number of
+private gardens scattered round Birmingham, from which we often
+behold the father returning with a cabbage, and the daughter with a
+nosegay.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="HOTEL."></a>HOTEL.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>The spot where our great-grandmothers smiled in the lively
+dance, when they possessed the flower of beauty in the spring of
+life, is lost in forgetfulness. The floor that trembled under that
+foot which was covered with a leather shoe tied with a silken
+string, and which supported a stocking of dark blue worsted, not of
+the finest texture, is now buried in oblivion.</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image10.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image10.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image10.jpg" width="45%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b>Hotel.</b></p>
+<br>
+<p>In 1750 we had two assembly rooms; one at No. 11. in the Square,
+the other No. 85. in Bull-street. This last was not much in use
+afterwards. That in the Square continued in repute till in the
+course of that evening which happened in October 1765, when Edward
+Duke of York had the honour of leading up the dance, and the ladies
+of Birmingham enjoyed that of the Duke's hand, He remarked, "That a
+town of such magnitude as Birmingham, and adorned with so much
+beauty, deserved a superior accomodation:--That the room itself was
+mean, but the entrance still meaner."</p>
+<p>Truth is ever the same, whether it comes from a prince or a
+peasant; but its effects are not. Whether some secret charm
+attended the Duke's expression, that blasted the room, is
+uncertain, but it never after held its former eminence.</p>
+<p>In 1772 a building was erected by subscription, upon the Tontine
+principle, at the head of Temple row, and was dignified with the
+French name of Hotel: From a handsome, entrance the ladies are now
+led through a spacious saloon, at the extremity of which the eye is
+struck with a grand flight of steps, opening into an assembly-room,
+which would not disgrace even the royal presence of the Duke's
+brother.</p>
+<p>The pile itself is large, plain, and elegant, but standing in
+the same line with the other buildings, which before were really
+genteel, eclipses them by its superiority: Whereas, if the Hotel
+had fallen a few feet back, it would, by breaking the line, have
+preserved the beauty of the row, without losing its own.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="WAKES."></a>WAKES.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>This ancient custom was left us by the Saxons. Time, that makes
+alteration only in other customs, has totally inverted this.</p>
+<p>When a church was erected, it was immediately called after a
+saint, put under his protection, and the day belonging to that
+saint kept in the church as an high festival. In the evening
+preceding the day, the inhabitants, with lights, approached the
+church, and kept a continual devotion during the whole night; hence
+the name <i>wake</i>: After which they entered into festivity.</p>
+<p>But now the devotional part is forgot, the church is deserted,
+and the festivity turned into riot, drunkenness, and mischief.</p>
+<p>Without searching into the mouldy records of time, for evidence
+to support our assertion, we may safely pronounce the wake the
+lowest of all low amusements, and compleatly suited to the lowest
+of tempers.</p>
+<p>Wakes have been deemed a public concern, and legislature, more
+than once, been obliged to interpose for the sake of that order
+which private conduct could never boast.</p>
+<p>In the reign of Henry the Sixth, every consideration, whether of
+a public or a private nature, gave way to the wake: The harvest in
+particular was neglected. An order therefore issued, confining the
+wakes to the first Sunday in October, consequently the whole nation
+run mad at once.</p>
+<p>Wakes in Birmingham are not ancient: Why St. Martin's, then the
+only church, was neglected, is uncertain.</p>
+<p>Although we have no wakes for the town, there are three kept in
+its borders, called Deritend, Chapel, and Bell wakes. The two first
+are in the spring of existence, the last in the falling leaf of
+autumn.</p>
+<p>Deritend wake probably took its rise at the erection of her
+chapel, in 1382.</p>
+<p>Chapel wake, in 1750, from St. Bartholomew's chapel, is held in
+the meridian of Coleshill-street; was hatched and fostered by the
+publicans, for the benefit of the spiggot.</p>
+<p>Amongst other important amusements, was that of bull-baiting,
+till the year 1773, when the commissioners of lamps, in the
+amendment of their act, wisely broke the chain, and procured a
+reprieve for the unfortunate animal.</p>
+<p>Another was the horse-race, 'till a few years ago a person being
+killed, rather slackened the entertainment. What singular genius
+introduced the horse-race into a crowded street, I am yet to
+learn.</p>
+<p>In the evening the passenger cannot proceed without danger; in
+the morning, he may discover which houses are public, without other
+intelligence than the copious streams that have issued from the
+wall. The blind may also distinguish the same thing, by the strong
+scent of the tap.</p>
+<p>Bell wake is the junior by one year, originating from the same
+cause, in 1751, in consequence of ten bells being hung up in St
+Philip's steeple.--'Till within these few years, we were at this
+wake struck with a singular exhibition, that of a number of boys
+running a race through the streets naked. Some of the inhabitants,
+seeing so fair a mark for chastisement, applied the rod with
+success, put a period to the sport, and obliged the young runners
+to run under cover.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="CLUBS."></a>CLUBS.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>It may be expected, from the title of this chapter, that I shall
+introduce a set of ruffians armed with missive weapons; or, having
+named a trump, a set of gamblers shuffling and dealing out the
+cards: But whatever veneration I may entertain for these two fag
+ends of our species, I shall certainly introduce a class of people,
+which, though of the lower orders, are preferable to both.</p>
+<p>Social compact is a distinguishing mark of civilization: The
+whole British empire may be justly considered as one grand
+alliance, united for public and private interest, and this vast
+body of people are subdivided into an infinity of smaller
+fraternities, for individual benefit.</p>
+<p>Perhaps there are hundreds of these societies in Birmingham
+under the name of clubs; some of them boast the antiquity of a
+century, and by prudent direction have acquired a capital, at
+accumulating interest. Thousands of the inhabitants are thus
+connected, nay, to be otherwise is rather unfashionable, and some
+are people of sentiment and property.</p>
+<p>A variety of purposes are intended by these laudable
+institutions, but the principal one is that of supporting the
+sick.</p>
+<p>Each society is governed by a code of laws of its own making,
+which have at least the honour of <i>resembling</i> those of
+legislature, for words without sense are found in both, and we
+sometimes stumble upon contradiction.</p>
+<p>The poor's-rates, enormous as they appear, are softened by these
+brotherly aids. They tend also to keep the mind at rest, for a man
+will enjoy the day of health, with double relish, when he considers
+he has a treasure laid up for that of sickness.</p>
+<p>If a <i>member</i> only of a poor family be sick, the
+<i>head</i> still remains to procure necessaries; but if that head
+be disordered, the whole source of supply is dried up, which
+evinces the utility of such institutions.</p>
+<p>The general custom is to meet at the public every fortnight,
+spend a trifle, and each contribute six-pence, or any stated sum,
+to the common stock. The landlord is always treasurer, or father,
+and is assisted by two stewards, annually or monthly chosen.</p>
+<p>As honour and low life are not always found together, we
+sometimes see a man who is rather <i>idle</i>, wish the society may
+suppose him <i>sick</i>, that he may rob them with more security.
+Or, if a member hangs long upon the box, his brethren seek a
+pretence to expel him. On the other hand, we frequently observe a
+man silently retreat from the club, if another falls upon the box,
+and fondly suppose himself no longer a member; or if the box be
+loaded with sickness, the whole club has been known to dissolve,
+that they may rid themselves of the burthen; but the Court of
+Requests finds an easy remedy for these evils, and at a trifling
+expence.</p>
+<p>The charity of the club, is also extended beyond the grave, and
+terminates with a present to the widow.</p>
+<p>The philosophers tell us, "There is no good without its kindred
+evil." This amiable body of men, therefore, marshalled to expel
+disease, hath one small alloy, and perhaps but one. As liquor and
+labour are inseparable, the imprudent member is apt to forget to
+quit the club room when he has spent his necessary two-pence, but
+continues there to the injury of his family.</p>
+<p>Another of these institutions is the <i>rent club</i>, where,
+from the weekly sums deposited by the members, a sop is regularly
+served up twice a year, to prevent the growlings of a landlord.</p>
+<p>In the <i>breeches club</i> every member ballots for a pair,
+value a guinea, <i>promised</i> of more value by the maker. This
+club dissolves when all the members are served.</p>
+<p>The intentions of the <i>book club</i> are well known, to catch
+the productions of the press as they rise.</p>
+<p>The <i>watch club</i> has generally a watchmaker for its
+president, is composed of young men, and is always temporary.</p>
+<p>If a taylor be short of employment, he has only to consult a
+landlord over a bottle, who, by their joint powers, can give birth
+to a <i>cloaths club</i>; where every member is supplied with a
+suit to his taste, of a stipulated price. These are chiefly
+composed of batchelors, who wish to shine in the eye of the
+fair.</p>
+<p>Thus a bricklayer stands at the head of the <i>building
+club</i>, where every member perhaps subscribes two guineas per
+month, and each house, value about one hundred pounds, is balloted
+for, as soon as erected. As a house is a weighty concern, every
+member is obliged to produce two bondsmen for the performance of
+covenants.</p>
+<p>I will venture to pronounce another the <i>capital club</i>, for
+when the contributions amount to 50<i>l</i>. the members ballot for
+this capital, to bring into business: Here also securities are
+necessary. It is easy to conceive the two last clubs are extremely
+beneficial to building and to commerce.</p>
+<p>The last I shall enumerate is the <i>clock club</i>: When the
+weekly deposits of the members amount to about 4<i>l</i>. they call
+lots who shall be first served with a clock of that value, and
+continue the same method till the whole club is supplied; after
+which, the clockmaker and landlord cast about for another set, who
+are chiefly composed of young house-keepers. Hence the beginner
+ornaments his premises with furniture, the artist finds employment
+and profit, and the publican empties his barrel.</p>
+<p>Thus we have taken a transient survey of this rising colony of
+arts, uniting observation with fact: We have seen her dark
+manufactures, in darker times: We have attended her through her
+commercial, religious, political, and pleasurable walks: Have
+viewed her in many points of light, but never in decline; 'till we
+have now set her in the fair sunshine of the present day.</p>
+<p>Perhaps I shall not be charged with prolixity, that unpardonable
+sin against the reader, when it is considered, that three thousand
+years are deposited in the compass of one hundred and forty little
+pages.</p>
+<p>Some other circumstances deserve attention, which could not be
+introduced without breaking the thread of history: But as that
+thread is now drawn to an end, I must, before I resume it, step
+back into the recesses of time, and slumber through the long ages
+of seventeen hundred years; if the active reader, therefore, has no
+inclination for a nod of that length, or, in simple phrase, no
+relish for antiquity, I advise him to pass over the five ensuing
+chapters.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="IKENIELD_STREET."></a>IKENIELD STREET.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>About five furlongs North of the Navigation Bridge, in Great
+Charles street, which is the boundary of the present buildings,
+runs the Ikenield-street; one of those famous pretorian roads which
+mark the Romans with conquest, and the Britons with slavery.</p>
+<p>By that time a century had elapsed, from the first landing of
+Caesar in Britain the victorious Romans had carried their arms
+through the southern part of the isle. They therefore endeavoured
+to secure the conquered provinces by opening four roads, which
+should each rise in the shore, communicate with, and cross each
+other, form different angles, extend over the island several ways,
+and terminate in the opposite sea.</p>
+<p>These are the Watling-street, which rises near Dover, and
+running North-west through London, Atherstone, and Shropshire, in
+the neighbourhood of Chester, ends in the Irish sea.</p>
+<p>The Foss begins in Devonshlre, extends South-east through
+Leicestershire, continuing its course through Lincolnshire, to the
+verge of the German ocean.</p>
+<p>These two roads, crossing each other at right angles, form a
+figure resembling the letter X, whose centre is the High Cross,
+which divides the counties of Warwick and Leicester.</p>
+<p>The Ermine-street extends along the southern part of the island;
+near the British channel; and the Ikenield-street, which I cannot
+so soon quit, rises near Southampton, extends nearly North, through
+Winchester, Wallingford, and over the Isis, at New-bridge; thence
+to Burford, crossing the Foss at Stow in the Woulds, over
+Bitford-bridge, in the County of Warwick, to Alcester; by Studley,
+Ipsley, Beely, Wetherick-hill, Stutley-street; crosses the road
+from Birmingham to Bromsgrove, at Selley oak, leaving Harborne a
+mile to the left, also the Hales Owen road a mile West of
+Birmingham: Thence by the Observatory in Lady-wood-lane, where it
+enters the parish of Birmingham, crossing the Dudley road at the
+Sand-pits; along Worstone-lane; through the little pool, and
+Hockley-brook, where it quits the parish: Thence over
+Handsworth-heath, entering a little lane on the right of
+Bristle-lands-end, and over the river Tame, at Offord-mill,
+(Oldford-mill) directly to Sutton Coldfield. It passes the Ridgeway
+a few yards East of King's-standing, a little artificial mount, on
+which Charles the First is said to have stood when he harangued the
+troops he brought out of Shropshire, at the opening of the civil
+wars, in 1642. From thence the road proceeds through Sutton park,
+and the remainder of the Coldfield; over Radley-moor; from thence
+to Wall, a Roman station, where it meets the Watling-street:
+Leaving Lichfield a mile to the left, it leads through Street-hay;
+over Fradley-heath; thence through Alderwas hays, crossing the
+river Trent, at Wichnor-bridge, to Branson-turnpike: over
+Burton-moor, leaving the town half a mile to the right: thence to
+Monk's-bridge, upon the river Dove; along Egington-heath,
+Little-over, the Rue-dyches, Stepping-lane, Nun-green, and
+Darley-slade, to the river Derwent, one mile above Derby; upon the
+eastern banks of which stands Little Chester, built by the
+Romans.</p>
+<p>If the traveller is tired with this tedious journey, and dull
+description, which admits of no variety, we will stop for a moment,
+and refresh in this Roman city.</p>
+<p>In drawing the flewks of his oar along the bed of the river, as
+he boats over it, he may feel the foundations of a Roman bridge,
+nearly level with its bottom. Joining the water are the vestiges of
+a castle, now an orchard. Roman coins are frequently discovered--In
+1765, I was presented with one of Vespasian's, found the year
+before in scowering a ditch; but I am sorry to observe, it has
+suffered more during the fifteen years in my possession, than
+during the fifteen hundred it lay in the earth.</p>
+<p>The inhabitants being in want of materials to form a turnpike
+road, attempted to pull up this renowned military way, for the sake
+of those materials, but found them too strongly cemented to admit
+of an easy separation, and therefore desisted when they had taken
+up a few loads.</p>
+<p>I saw the section of this road cut up from the bottom: the
+Romans seem to have formed it with infinite labour and expence.
+They took out the soil for about twenty yards wide, and one deep,
+perhaps, till they came to a firm bottom; and filled up the whole
+with stones of all sizes, brought from Duffield, four miles up the
+river; cemented with coarse mortar.</p>
+<p>The road here is only discoverable by its barren track, along
+the cultivated meadows. It then proceeds over Morley-moor, through
+Scarsdale, by Chesterfield, Balsover, through Yorkshire,
+Northumberland, and terminates upon the banks of the Tine, near
+Tinmouth.</p>
+<p>There are many roads in England formed by the Romans: they were
+of two kinds, the military, which crossed the island; and the
+smaller, which extended from one town to another. The four I have
+mentioned come under the first class: they rather avoided, than led
+through a town, that they might not be injured by traffic.</p>
+<p>Two of these four, the Watling-street, and the Ikenield-street,
+are thought, by their names, to be British, and with some reason;
+neither of the words are derived from the Latin: but whatever were
+their origin, they are certainly of Roman construction.</p>
+<p>These great roads were begun as soon as the island was subdued,
+to employ the military, and awe the natives, and were divided into
+stages, at the end of each was a fort, or station, to accommodate
+the guard, for the reception of stores, the conveniency of marching
+parties, and to prevent the soldiers from mixing with the
+Britons.</p>
+<p>The stations upon the Ikenield-street, in our neighbourhood, are
+Little Chester (Derventione) a square fort, nearly half an acre;
+joining the road to the south, and the Derwent to the west.</p>
+<p>The next is Burton upon Trent (Ad Trivonam) thirteen miles
+south. Here I find no remains of a station.</p>
+<p>Then Wall (Etocetum) near Lichfield, which I have examined with
+great labour, or rather with great pleasure: Here the two famous
+consular roads cross each other. We should expect a fort in the
+angle, commanding both, which is not the case. The Watling-street
+is lost for about half a mile, leading over a morass, only the line
+is faintly preserved, by a blind path over the inclosures: the
+Ikenield-street crosses it in this morass, not the least traces of
+which remain. But, by a strict attention, I could point out their
+junction to a few yards.</p>
+<p>Six furlongs west of this junction, and one hundred yards north
+of the Watling-street, in a close, now about three acres, are the
+remains of the Roman fortress. This building, of strength and
+terror, is reduced to one piece of thick wall, visibly of Roman
+workmanship, from whence the place derives its modern name.</p>
+<p>Can you, says I to a senior peasant, for I love to appeal to old
+age, tell the origin of that building?</p>
+<p>"No; but we suppose it has been a church. The ruins were much
+larger in my memory; but they were lately destroyed, to bring the
+land into that improved state of cultivation in which you see
+it."--And so you reduced a fortress in four years, which the
+Britons never could in four hundred. For a trifling profit, you
+eraze the work of the ancients, and prevent the wonder of the
+moderns.--Are you apprised of any old walls under the surface?</p>
+<p>"Yes; the close is full of them: I have broke three ploughs in
+one day; no tool will stand against them. It has been more
+expensive to bring the land into its present condition, than the
+freehold is worth." Why, you seem more willing to destroy than your
+tools; and more able than time. The works which were the admiration
+of ages, you bury under ground. What the traveller comes many miles
+to see, you assiduously hide.</p>
+<p>What could be the meaning that the Romans erected their station
+on the declivity of this hill, when the summit, two hundred yards
+distant, is much more eligible; are there no foundations upon it?
+"None."</p>
+<p>The commandry is preferable: the Watling-street runs by it, and
+it is nearer the Ikenield-street. Pray, are you acquainted with
+another Roman road which crosses it? "No."</p>
+<p>Do you know any close about the village, where a narrow bed of
+gravel, which runs a considerable length, has impeded the
+plough?</p>
+<p>"Yes; there is a place, half a mile distant, where, when a
+child, I drove the plough; we penetrated a land of gravel, and my
+companion's grandfather told us, it had been an old road."--That is
+the place I want, lead me to it. Being already master of both ends
+of the road, like a broken line, with the center worn out, the
+gravel bed enabled me to recover it.</p>
+<p>The next station upon the Ikenield-street is Birmingham
+(Bremenium) I have examined this country with care; but find no
+vestiges of a station: nor shall we wonder; dissolation is the
+preserver of antiquity, nothing of which reigns here; the most
+likely place is Wor-ston (Wall-stone) which a younger brother of
+Birmingham might afterwards convert into the fashionable moat of
+the times, and erect a castle. The next station is Alcester
+(Alauna) all which are nearly at equal distances.</p>
+<p>In forming these grand roads, a strait direction seems to have
+been their leading maxim. Though curiosity has lead me to travel
+many hundred miles upon their roads, with the eye of an enquirer, I
+cannot recollect one instance, where they ever broke the line to
+avoid a hill, a swamp, a rock, or a river.</p>
+<p>They were well acquainted with the propriety of an old English
+adage, <i>Once well done is twice done</i>; an idea new cloathed by
+Lord Chesterfield, <i>If a a thing be worth doing at all, it is
+worth doing well</i>.</p>
+<p>For their roads were so durably constructed, that, had they been
+appropriated only to the use intended, they might have withstood
+the efforts of time, and bid fair for eternity.--Why is this useful
+art so lost among the moderns?</p>
+<p>When time and intercourse had so far united the Romans and the
+Britons, that they approached nearly to one people, the Romans
+formed, or rather <i>improved</i>, many of the smaller roads;
+placed stones of intelligence upon them; hence, London Stone, Stony
+Stratford (the stone at the Street-ford) Atherstone, stone (hither,
+near, or first stone from Witherly-bridge, a Roman camp) and fixed
+their stations in the places to which these roads tended.</p>
+<p>The great roads, as observed before, were chiefly appropriated
+for military purposes, and instituted in the beginning of their
+government; but the smaller were of later date, and designed for
+common use. As these came more in practice, there was less occasion
+for the military; which, not leading to their towns, were, in
+process of time, nearly laid aside.</p>
+<p>Antonine, and his numerous train of commentators, have not
+bestowed that attention on the roads they deserve: a curious
+acquaintance with the roads of a country, brings us acquainted with
+the manners of the people: in one, like a mirror, is exactly
+represented the other. Their state, like a master key, unlocks many
+apartments.</p>
+<p>The authors I have seen are <i>all in the wrong</i>; and as my
+researches are confined, it is a mortification, I am not able to
+set them right. They have confounded the two classes together,
+which were very distinct in chronology, the manner of making, and
+their use. If an author treats of one old road, he supposes himself
+bound to treat of all in the kingdom, a task no man can execute: by
+undertaking much, we do nothing well; the journey of an antiquarian
+mould never be rapid. If fortune offers a small discovery, let him
+think, and compare. Neither will they ever be set right, but
+continue to build a mouldering fabric, with untempered mortar, till
+a number of intelligent residents, by local enquiries can produce
+solid materials for a lasting monument.</p>
+<p>The Romans properly termed their ways streets, a name retained
+by many of them to this day; one of the smaller roads, issuing from
+London, penetrates through Stratford upon Avon (Street-ford)
+Monks-path-street, and Shirley-street, to Birmingham, which proves
+it of great antiquity, and the Ikenield-street running by it,
+proves it of greater. We may from hence safely conclude, Birmingham
+was a place of note in the time of Caesar, because she merited
+legislative regard in forming their roads; which will send us far
+back among the Britons, to find her first existence.</p>
+<p>Though we are certain the Ikenield-street passes about a mile in
+length through this parish, as described above; yet, as there are
+no Roman traces to be seen, I must take the curious traveller to
+that vast waste, called Sutton-Coldfield, about four miles distant,
+where he will, in the same road, find the footsteps of those great
+mailers of the world, marked in lasting characters.</p>
+<p>He will plainly see its straight line pass over the Ridgeway,
+through Sutton Park, leaving the West hedge about 200 yards to the
+left; through the remainder of the Coldfield, till lost in
+cultivation.</p>
+<p>This track is more than three miles in length, and is no where
+else visible in these parts. I must apprize him that its highest
+beauty is only discovered by an horizontal sun in the winter
+months.</p>
+<p>I first saw it in 1762, relieved by the transverse rays, in a
+clear evening in November; I had a perfect view upon the Ridgeway,
+near King's-standing of this delightful scene: Had I been attacked
+by the chill blasts of winter, upon this bleak mountain, the
+sensation would have been lost in the transport. The eye, at one
+view, takes in more than two miles. Struck with astonishment, I
+thought it the grandest sight I had ever beheld; and was amazed, so
+noble a monument of antiquity should be so little regarded.</p>
+<p>The poets have long contended for the line of beauty--they may
+find it here. I was fixed as by enchantment till the sun dropt, my
+prospect with it, and I left the place with regret.</p>
+<p>If the industrious traveller chooses to wade up to the middle in
+gorse, as I did, he may find a roughish journey along this famous
+military way.</p>
+<p>Perhaps this is the only road in which money is of no use to the
+traveller; for upon this barren wild he can neither spend it, nor
+give it away.</p>
+<p>He will perceive the Coldfield to be one vast bed of gravel,
+covered with a moderate depth of soil of eight or ten inches:
+During this journey of three miles, he will observe all the way, on
+each side, a number of pits, perhaps more than a thousand, out of
+which the Romans procured the gravel to form the road; none of them
+many yards from it. This great number of pits, tends to prove two
+points--That the country was full of timber, which they not
+choosing to fall, procured the gravel in the interstices; for the
+road is composed of nothing else--And, that a great number of
+people were employed in its formation: They would also, with the
+trees properly disposed, which the Romans must inevitably cut to
+procure a passage, form a barrier to the road.</p>
+<p>This noble production was designed by a master, is every where
+straight, and executed with labour and judgement.</p>
+<p>Here he perceives the date of his own conquest, and of his
+civilization. Thus the Romans humbled a ferocious people.</p>
+<p>If he chooses to measure it he will find it exactly sixty feet
+wide, divided into three lands, resembling those in a ploughed
+field. The centre land thirty-six feet, and raised from one to
+three, according to the nature of the ground. The side lands,
+twelve each, and rising seldom more than one foot.</p>
+<p>This centre land no doubt was appropriated for the march of the
+troops, and the small one, on each side, for the out-guards, who
+preserved their ranks, for fear of a surprize from the vigilant and
+angry Britons.</p>
+<p>The Romans held these roads in great esteem, and were severe in
+their laws for their preservation.</p>
+<p>This famous road is visible all the way, but in some parts
+greatly hurt, and in others, compleat as in the first day the
+Romans made it. Perhaps the inquisitive traveller may find here,
+the only monument in the whole island left us by the Romans, that
+<i>time</i> hath not injured.</p>
+<p>The philosophical traveller may make some curious observations
+in the line of agriculture, yet in its infancy.</p>
+<p>The only growth upon this wild, is gorse and ling: The
+vegetation upon the road and the adjacent lands, seem equal: The
+pits are all covered with a tolerable turf.</p>
+<p>As this road has been made about 1720 years, and, as at the time
+of making, both that and the pits must have been surfaces of neat
+gravel; he will be led to examine, what degree of soil they have
+acquired in that long course of years, and by what means?</p>
+<p>He well knows, that the surface of the earth is very far from
+being a fixed body: That there is a continual motion in every part,
+stone excepted: That the operations of the sun, the air, the frost,
+the dews, the winds, and the rain, produce a constant agitation,
+which changes the particles and the pores, tends to promote
+vegetation, and to increase the soil to a certain depth.</p>
+<p>This progress is too minute for the human eye, but the effects
+are visible. The powers above mentioned operate nearly as yeast in
+a lump of dough, that enlivens the whole. Nature seems to wish that
+the foot would leave the path, that she may cover it with grass. He
+will find this vegetative power so strong, that it even attends the
+small detached parts of the soil where-ever they go, provided they
+are within reach of air and moisture: He will not only observe it
+in the small pots, appropriated for garden use, but on the tops of
+houses, remote from any road, where the wind has carried any small
+dust. He will also observe it in cracks of the rocks; but in an
+amazing degree in the thick walls of ruined castles, where, by a
+long course of time, the decayed materials are converted into a
+kind of soil, and so well covered with grass, that if one of our
+old castle builders could return to his possessions, he might mow
+his house as well as his field, and procure a tolerable crop from
+both.</p>
+<p>In those pits, upon an eminence, the soil will be found deep
+enough for any mode of husbandry. In those of the vallies, which
+take in the small drain of the adjacent parts, it is much deeper.
+That upon the road, which rather gives than receives any addition
+from drain, the average depth is about four inches.</p>
+<p>The soil is not only increased by the causes above, but also by
+the constant decays of the growth upon it. The present vegetable
+generation falling to decay, adds to the soil, and also, assists
+the next generation, which in a short time follows the same
+course.</p>
+<p>The author of the History of Sutton says, "The poor inhabitants
+are supplied with fuel from a magazine of peat, near the Roman
+road, composed of thousands of fir trees cut down by the Romans, to
+enable them to pass over a morass. The bodies of the trees are
+sometimes dug up found, with the marks of the axe upon them."</p>
+<p>Are we then to suppose, by this curious historical anecdote,
+that the inhabitants of Sutton have run away with this celebrated
+piece of antiquity? That the cart, instead of rolling <i>over</i>
+the military way, has rolled <i>under</i> it, and that they have
+boiled the pot with the Roman road?</p>
+<p>Upon inquiry, they seemed more inclined to credit the fact, than
+able to prove it; but I can find no such morass, neither is the
+road any where broken up. Perhaps it would be as difficult to find
+the trees, as the axe that cut them: Besides, the fir is not a
+native of Britain, but of Russia; and I believe our forefathers,
+the Britons, were not complete masters of the art of transplanting.
+The park of Sutton was probably a bed of oaks, the natural weed of
+the country, long before Moses figured in history.</p>
+<p>Whilst the political traveller is contemplating this
+extraordinary production of antiquity, of art, and of labour, his
+thoughts will naturally recur to the authors of it.</p>
+<p>He will find them proficients in science, in ambition, in taste:
+They added dominion to conquest, 'till their original territory
+became too narrow a basis to support the vast fabric acquired by
+the success of their arms: The monstrous bulk fell to destruction
+by its own weight.--Man was not made for universality; if he grasps
+at little, he may retain it; if at much, he may lose all.</p>
+<p>The confusion, natural on such occasions, produced anarchy: At
+that moment, the military stept into the government, and the people
+became slaves.</p>
+<p>Upon the ruins of this brave race, the Bishop of Rome founded an
+ecclesiastical jurisdiction. His power increasing with his
+votaries, he found means to link all christendom to the triple
+crown, and acquired an unaccountable ascendency over the human
+mind: The princes of Europe were harnessed, like so many coach
+horses. The pontiff directed the bridle. He sometimes used the
+whip, and sometimes the curse. The thunder of his throne rattled
+through the world with astonishing effect, 'till that most useful
+discovery, the art of printing, in the fifteenth century, dissolved
+the charm, and set the oppressed cattle at liberty; who began to
+kick their driver. Henry the Eighth of England, was the first
+unruly animal in the papal team, and the sagacious Cranmer assisted
+in breaking the shackles.</p>
+<p>We have, in our day, seen an order of priesthood in the church
+of Rome, annihilated by the consent of the European princes, which
+the Pope beheld in silence.</p>
+<p>"There is an ultimate point of exaltation, and reduction, beyond
+which human affairs cannot proceed." Rome, seems to have
+experienced both, for she is at this day one of the most
+contemptible states in the scale of empire.</p>
+<p>This will of course lead the traveller's thoughts towards
+Britain, where he will find her sons by nature inclined to a love
+of arms, of liberty, and of commerce. These are the strong outlines
+of national character, the interior parts of which are finished
+with the softer touches of humanity, of science, and of luxury. He
+will also find, that there is a natural boundary to every country,
+beyond which it is dangerous to add dominion. That the boundary of
+Britain is the sea: That her external strength is her navy, which
+protects her frontiers, and her commerce: That her internal is
+unanimity: That when her strength is united within herself, she is
+invincible, and the balance of Europe will be fixed in her hand,
+which she ought never to let go.</p>
+<p>But if she accumulates territory, though she may profit at
+first, she weakens her power by dividing it; for the more she fends
+abroad, the less will remain at home; and, instead of giving law to
+the tyrant, she may be obliged to receive law from him.</p>
+<p>That, by a multiplicity of additions, her little isles will be
+lost in the great map of dominion.</p>
+<p>That, if she attempts to draw that vast and growing empire,
+America, she may herself be drawn to destruction; for, by every law
+of attraction, the greater draws the less--The mouse was never
+meant to direct the ox. That the military and the ecclesiastical
+powers are necessary in their places, that is, subordinate to the
+civil.</p>
+<p>But my companion will remember that Birmingham is our historical
+mark, therefore we must retreat to that happy abode of the smiling
+arts. If he has no taste for antiquity, I have detained him too
+long upon this hungry, though delightful spot. If he has, he will
+leave the enchanted ground with reluctance; will often turn his
+head to repeat the view, 'till the prospect is totally lost.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="LORDS_OF_THE_MANOR."></a>LORDS OF THE MANOR.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>By the united voice of our historians, it appears, that as the
+Saxons conquered province after province, which was effected in
+about one hundred and thirty years, the unfortunate Britons
+retreated into Wales: But we are not to suppose that all the
+inhabitants ran away, and left a desolate region to the victor;
+this would have been of little more value to the conqueror, than
+the possession of Sutton Coldfield or Bromsgrove Lickey. The
+mechanic and the peasant were left, which are by far the greatest
+number; they are also the riches of a country; stamp a value upon
+property, and it becomes current. As they have nothing to lose, so
+they have nothing to fear; for let who will be master, they must be
+drudges: Their safety consists in their servitude; the victor is
+ever conscious of their utility, therefore their protection is
+certain.</p>
+<p>But the danger lies with the man of substance, and the greater
+that substance, the greater his anxiety to preserve it, and the
+more danger to himself if conquered: These were the people who
+retreated into Wales. Neither must we consider the wealth of that
+day to consist of bags of cash, bills of exchange, India bonds,
+bank stock, etc. no such thing existed. Property lay in the land,
+and the herds that fed upon it. And here I must congratulate our
+Welch neighbours, who are most certainly descended from gentlemen;
+and I make no doubt but the Cambrian reader will readily unite in
+the same sentiment.</p>
+<p>The Saxons, as conquerors, were too proud to follow the modes of
+the conquered, therefore they introduced government, laws,
+language, customs and habits of their own. Hence we date the
+division of the kingdom into manors.</p>
+<p>Human nature is nearly the same in all ages. Where value is
+marked upon property or power, it will find its votaries: Whoever
+was the most deserving, or rather could make the most interest,
+procured land sufficient for an Elderman, now Earl; the next class,
+a Manor; and the inferior, who had borne the heat and burthen of
+the day--nothing.</p>
+<p>I must now introduce an expression which I promised not to
+forget.--In the course of a trial between William de Birmingham,
+and the inhabitants of Bromsgrove and King's-norton, in 1309,
+concerning the right of tollage; it appeared, That the ANCESTORS of
+the said William had a market here before the Norman conquest. This
+proves, that the family of Birmingham were of Saxon race, and Lords
+of the Manor prior to that period.</p>
+<p>Mercia was not only the largest, but also the last of the seven
+conquered kingdoms--It was bounded on the North by the Humber, on
+the West by the Severn, on the South by the Thames, and on the East
+by the German ocean. Birmingham lies nearly in the centre. Cridda,
+a Saxon, came over with a body of troops, and reduced it in 582;
+therefore, as no after revolution happened that could cause
+Birmingham to change its owner, and as land was not in a very
+saleable state at that time, there is the greatest reason to
+suppose the founder of the house of Birmingham Came over with
+Cridda, as an officer in his army, and procured this little
+flourishing dominion as a reward for his service.</p>
+<p>The succeeding generations of this illustrious family are too
+remote for historical penetration, 'till the reign of Edward the
+Confessor, the last of the Saxon Kings, when we find, in 1050,</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="ULUUINE"></a>ULUUINE, (since ALWYNE, now ALLEN,)</h2>
+<center>master of this improving spot.</center>
+<h2><a name="RICHARD"></a>RICHARD,</h2>
+<h3>1066,</h3>
+<br>
+<p>seems to have succeeded him, and to have lived in that
+unfortunate period for property, the conquest.</p>
+<p>The time was now arrived when this ancient family, with the rest
+of the English gentry, who had lived under the benign climate of
+Saxon government, and in the affluence of fortune, must quit the
+happy regions of hospitality, and enter the gloomy precincts of
+penury--From givers, they were to become beggars.</p>
+<p>The whole conduct of William seems to have carried the strongest
+marks of conquest. Many of the English lost their lives, some their
+liberty, and nearly all their estates. The whole land in the
+kingdom was insufficient to satisfy the hungry Normans.</p>
+<p>Perhaps William took the wisest method to secure the conquered
+country that could be devised by human wisdom; he parcelled out the
+kingdom among his greater Barons; the whole county of Chester is
+said to have fallen to the share of Hugh Lupus: and these were
+subdivided into 62,000 Knight's-sees, which were held under the
+great Barons by military service. Thus the Sovereign by only
+signifying his pleasure to the Barons, could instantly raise an
+army for any purpose. We cannot produce a stronger indication of
+arbitrary government: But, it is happy for the world, that
+perfection is not found even in human wisdom; for this well laid
+scheme destroyed itself. Instead of making the crown absolute, as
+was intended, it threw the balance into the hands of the Barons,
+who became so many petty Sovereigns, and a scourge to the King in
+after ages, 'till Henry the Seventh sapped their power, and raised
+the third estate, the Commons, which quickly eclipsed the other
+two.</p>
+<p>The English gentry suffered great distress: Their complaints
+rung loud in the royal ear, some of them therefore, who had been
+peaceable and never opposed the Normans, were suffered to enjoy
+their estates in dependance upon the great Barons.</p>
+<p>This was the case with Richard, Lord of Birmingham, who held
+this manor by knight's-service of William Fitz-Ausculf, Lord of
+Dudley castle, and perhaps all the land between the two places.</p>
+<p>Thus Birmingham, now rising towards the meridian of opulence,
+was a dependant upon Dudley castle, now in ruins; and thus an
+honourable family, who had enjoyed a valuable freehold, perhaps
+near 500 years, were obliged to pay rent, homage, suit and service,
+attend the Lord's court at Dudley every three weeks, be called into
+the field at pleasure, and after all, possess a precarious tenure
+in villainage.</p>
+<p>The blood of the ancient English was not only tainted with the
+breath of that destructive age, but their lands also. The powerful
+blast destroyed their ancient freehold tenures, reducing them into
+wretched copyholds: and to the disgrace of succeeding ages, many of
+them retain this mark of Norman slavery to the present day. How
+defective are those laws, which give one man power over another in
+neutral cases? That tend to promote quarrels, prevent cultivation,
+and which cannot draw the line between property and property?</p>
+<p>Though a spirit of bravery is certainly a part of the British
+character, yet there are two or three periods in English history,
+when this noble flame was totally extinguished. Every degree of
+resolution seems to have been cut off at the battle of Hastings.
+The English acted contrary to their usual manner:--Danger had often
+made them desperate, but now it made them humble. This conquest is
+one of the most extraordinary held forth in history; the flower of
+nobility was wholly nipped off; the spirit of the English
+depressed, and having no head to direct, or hand to cultivate the
+courage of the people and lead it into action, it dwindled at the
+root, was trampled under the foot of tyranny, and, according to
+<i>Smollet</i>, several generations elapsed before any one of the
+old English stock blossomed into peerage.</p>
+<p>It is curious to contemplate the revolution of things--Though
+the conquering Romans flood first in the annals of same at the
+beginning of the Christian era, yet they were a whole century in
+carrying their illustrious arms over the island, occupied only by a
+despicable race of Britons. Though the Saxons were invited, by one
+false step in politics, to assist the Britons in expelling an
+enemy, which gave them an opportunity of becoming enemies
+themselves; yet it was 130 years before they could complete their
+conquest. And though the industrious Dane poured incessant numbers
+of people into Britain, yet it cost them 200 years, and 150,000 men
+before they reduced it. But William, at one blow, finished the
+dreadful work, shackled her sons to his throne, and governed them
+with a sceptre of iron. Normandy, a petty dukedom, very little
+larger than Yorkshire, conquered a mighty nation in one day.
+England seems to have been taken by storm, and her liberties put to
+the sword: Nor did the miseries of this ill-fated kingdom end here,
+for the continental dominions, which William annexed to the crown,
+proved a whirlpool for 400 years, which drew the blood and treasure
+of the nation into its vortex, 'till those dominions were
+fortunately lost in the reign of Mary the First.</p>
+<p>Thus the Romans spent one century in acquiring a kingdom, which
+they governed for four. The Saxons spent 130 years, and ruled for
+459. The Danes spent 200 and reigned for 25--But the Norman spent
+one day only, for a reign of 700 years: They continue to reign
+still.</p>
+<p>It is easy to point out some families of Norman race, who yet
+enjoy the estates won by their ancestors at the battle of
+Hastings.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="WILLIAM"></a>WILLIAM,</h2>
+<h3>1130,</h3>
+<br>
+<p>Like his unfortunate father, was in a state of vassalage. The
+male line of the Fitz-Ausculfs soon became extinct, and Gervase
+Paganell marrying the heiress, became Baron of Dudley-castle.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="PETER_DE_BIRMINGHAM"></a>PETER DE BIRMINGHAM,</h2>
+<h3>1154.</h3>
+<br>
+<p>It is common in every class of life, for the inferior to imitate
+the superior: If the real lady claims a head-dress sixteen inches
+high, that of the imaginary lady will immediately begin to thrive.
+The family, or surname, entered with William the First, and was
+soon the reigning taste of the day: A person was thought of no
+consequence without a surname, and even the depressed English,
+crept into the fashion, in imitation of their masters. I have
+already mentioned the Earl of Warwick, father of a numerous race
+now in Birmingham; whose name before the conquest was simply
+Turchill, but after, Turchill de Arden, (Matter of the Woods) from
+his own estate.</p>
+<p>Thus the family of whom I speak, chose to dignify themselves
+with the name of <i>de Birmingham</i>.</p>
+<p>Peter wisely consulted his own interest, kept fair with Paganall
+his Lord, and obtained from him, in 1166, nine Knight's-fees, which
+he held by military service.</p>
+<p>A Knight's-fee, though uncommon now, was a word well understood
+600 years ago. It did not mean, as some have imagined, fifteen
+pounds per annum, nor any determinate sum; but as much land as
+would support a gentleman. This Peter was fewer to Paganall,
+(waited at his table) though a man of great property.</p>
+<p>The splendor in which the great Barons of that age lived, was
+little inferior to royalty.</p>
+<p>The party distinctions also of Saxon and Norman, in the twelfth
+century, began to die away, as the people became united by interest
+or marriage, like that of Whig and Tory, in the eighteenth. And
+perhaps there is not at present a native that does not carry in his
+veins the blood of the four nations that were grafted upon the
+Britons.</p>
+<p>Peter himself lived in affluence at his castle, then near
+Birmingham, now the Moat, of which in the next section. He also
+obtained from Henry the Second, as well as from Paganall the Lord
+paramount, several valuable privileges for his favourite
+inheritance of Birmingham. He bore for his arms, <i>azure, a bend
+lozenge</i>, of five points, <i>or</i>; the coat of his
+ancestors.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="WILLIAM_DE_BIRMINGHAM1"></a>WILLIAM DE
+BIRMINGHAM,</h2>
+<h3>1216.</h3>
+<br>
+<p>At the reduction of Ireland, in the reign of Henry the Second, a
+branch of this family, and perhaps uncle to William, was very
+instrumental under Richard Strongbow, Earl of Pembroke, in
+accomplishing that great end; for which he was rewarded with a
+large estate, and the title of Earl of Lowth, both which continue
+in his family. Perhaps they are the only remains of this honorable
+house.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="WILLIAM_DE_BIRMINGHAM2"></a>WILLIAM DE
+BIRMINGHAM,</h2>
+<h3>1246.</h3>
+<br>
+<p>By this time, the male line of the Paganalls was worn out, and
+Roger de Someri marrying the heiress, became Baron of Dudley, with
+all its dependencies; but Someri and Birmingham did not keep peace,
+as their fathers had done. William, being very rich, forgot to ride
+to Dudley every three weeks, to perform suit and service at
+Someri's court.</p>
+<p>Whereupon a contest commenced to enforce the performance. But,
+in 1262, it was agreed between the contending parties--That William
+should attend the Lord's court only twice a year, Easter and
+Michaelmas, and at such other times, as the Lord chose to command
+by special summons. This William, having married the daughter of
+Thomas de Astley, a man of great eminence, and both joining with
+the Barons under Simon Mountfort, Earl of Leicester, against Henry
+the Third, William fell, in 1265, at the battle of Evesham; and as
+the loser is ever the rebel, the Barons were prescribed, and their
+estates confiscated.</p>
+<p>The manor of Birmingham, therefore, valued at forty pounds per
+annum, was seized by the King, and given to his favorite, Roger de
+Clifford.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="WILLIAM_DE_BIRMINGHAM3"></a>WILLIAM DE
+BIRMINGHAM,</h2>
+<h3>1265.</h3>
+<br>
+<p>By a law called the statute of Kenilworth, every man who had
+forfeited his estate to the crown, by having taken up arms, had
+liberty to redeem his lands, by a certain fine: William therefore
+paid that fine, and recovered the inheritance of his family. He
+also, in 1283 strengthened his title by a charter from Edward the
+First, and likewise to the other manors he possessed, such as
+Stockton, in the County of Worcester; Shetford, in Oxfordshire;
+Maidencoat, in Berkshire; Hoggeston, in the county of Bucks; and
+Christleton, in Cheshire.</p>
+<p>In 1285, Edward brought his writ of quo warranto, whereby every
+holder of land was obliged to show by what title he held it. The
+consequence would have been dreadful to a Prince of less prudence
+than Edward. Some showed great unwillingness; for a dormant title
+will not always bear examination--But William producing divers
+charters, clearly proved his right to every manorial privilege,
+such as market, toll, tem, sack, sok, insangenthief, weyfs,
+gallows, court-leet, and pillory, with a right to fix the standard
+for bread and beer; all which were allowed.</p>
+<p>William, Lord of Birmingham, being a military tenant, was
+obliged to attend the King into Gascoigne, 1297, where he lost his
+liberty at the siege of Bellgard, and was carried prisoner in
+triumph to Paris.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="WILLIAM_DE_BIRMINGHAM4"></a>WILLIAM DE
+BIRMINGHAM,</h2>
+<h3>1306.</h3>
+<br>
+<p>This is the man who tried the right of tollage with the people
+of Bromsgrove and King's norton.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>WILLIAM DE BIRMINGHAM,</h2>
+<h3>LORD BIRMINGHAM.</h3>
+<h3>1316.</h3>
+<br>
+<p>Was knighted in 1325; well affected to Edward the Second, for
+whose service he raised four hundred foot. Time seems to have put a
+period to the family of Someri, Lords of Dudley, as well as to
+those of their predecessors, the Paganalls, and the
+Fitz-Ausculfs.</p>
+<p>In 1327, the first of Edward the Third, Sir William was summoned
+to Parliament, by the title of William Lord Birmingham, but not
+after.</p>
+<p>It was not the fashion of that day to fill the House of Peers by
+patent. The greater Barons held a local title from their Baronies;
+the possessor of one of these, claimed a seat among the Lords.</p>
+<p>I think, they are now all extinct, except Arundel, the property
+of the Norfolk family, and whoever is proprietor of Arundel castle,
+is Earl thereof by ancient prescription.</p>
+<p>The lesser Barons were called up to the House by writ, which did
+not confer an hereditary title. Of this class was the Lord of
+Birmingham.</p>
+<p>Hugh Spencer, the favourite of the weak Edward the Second, had
+procured the custody of Dudley-castle, with all its appendages, for
+his friend William, Lord Birmingham.</p>
+<p>Thus the family who had travelled from Birmingham to Dudley
+every three weeks, to perform humble suit at the Lord's court, held
+that very court by royal appointment, to receive the fealty of
+others.</p>
+<p>By the patent which constituted William keeper of Dudley-castle,
+he was obliged to account for the annual profits arising from that
+vast estate into the King's exchequer. When, therefore, in 1334, he
+delivered in his accounts, the Barons refused to admit them,
+because the money was defective. But he had interest enough with
+the crown to cause a mandamus to be issued, commanding the Barons
+to admit them.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="SIR_FOUK_DE_BIRMINGHAM"></a>SIR FOUK DE
+BIRMINGHAM,</h2>
+<h3>1340.</h3>
+<br>
+<p>This man advanced to Sir Baldwin Freville, Lord of Tamworth,
+forty eight marks, upon mortgage of five mills. The ancient coat of
+the <i>bend lozenge</i>, was now changed for the <i>partie per
+pale, indented, or, and gules</i>.</p>
+<p>In 1352, and 1362 he was returned a member for the county of
+Warwick; also, in three or four succeeding Parliaments.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="SIR_JOHN_DE_BIRMINGHAM"></a>SIR JOHN DE
+BIRMINGHAM,</h2>
+<h3>1376.</h3>
+<br>
+<p>Served the office of Sheriff for the county of Warwick, in 1379,
+and was successively returned to serve in Parliament for the
+counties of Warwick, Bedford, and Buckingham. He married the
+daughter of William de la Planch, by whom he had no issue. She
+afterwards married the Lord Clinton, retained the manor of
+Birmingham as her dower, and lived to the year 1424.</p>
+<p>It does not appear in this illustrious family, that the regular
+line of descent, from father to son, was ever broken, from the time
+of the Saxons, 'till 1390. This Sir John left a brother, Sir Thomas
+de Birmingham, heir at law, who enjoyed the bulk of his brother's
+fortune; but was not to possess the manor of Birmingham 'till the
+widow's death, which not happening 'till after his own, he never
+enjoyed it.</p>
+<p>The Lord Clinton and his Lady seem to have occupied the
+Manor-house; and Sir Thomas, unwilling to quit the place of his
+affections and of his nativity, erected a castle for himself at
+Worstone, near the Sand-pits, joining the Ikenield-street; street;
+where, though the building is totally gone, the vestiges of its
+liquid security are yet complete. This Sir Thomas enjoyed several
+public offices, and figured in the style of his ancestors. He left
+a daughter, who married Thomas de la Roche, and from this marriage
+sprang two daughters; the eldest of which married Edmund, Lord
+Ferrers of Chartley, who, at the decease of Sir John's widow,
+inherited the manor, and occupied the Manor house. There yet stands
+a building on the North-east side of the Moat, erected by this Lord
+Ferrers, with his arms in the timbers of the ceiling, and the
+crest, a horse-shoe.</p>
+<p>I take this house to be the oldest in Birmingham, though it hath
+not that appearance; having stood about 350 years.</p>
+<p>By an entail of the manor upon the male line, the Lady Ferrers
+seems to have quitted her title in favor of a second cousin, a
+descendant of William de Birmingham, brother to Sir Fouk.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="WILLIAM_DE_BIRMINGHAM5"></a>WILLIAM DE
+BIRMINGHAM,</h2>
+<h3>1430.</h3>
+<br>
+<p>In the 19th of Henry the Sixth, 1441, is said to have held his
+manor of Birmingham, of Sir John Sutton, Lord of Dudley, by
+military service; but instead of paying homage, fealty, escuage,
+&amp;c. as his ancestors had done, which was very troublesome to
+the tenant, and brought only empty honour to the Lord: and, as
+sometimes the Lord's necessities taught him to think that money was
+more <i>Solid</i> than suit and service; an agreement was entered
+into, for money instead of homage, between the Lord and the
+tenant--Such agreements now became common. Thus land became a kind
+of bastard freehold:--The tenant held a certainty, while he
+conformed to the agreement; or, in other words, the custom of the
+manor--And the Lord still possessed a material control. He died in
+1479, leaving a son,</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="SIR_WILLIAM_BIRMINGHAM"></a>SIR WILLIAM
+BIRMINGHAM,</h2>
+<h3>1479,</h3>
+<br>
+<p>Aged thirty at the decease of his father. He married Isabella,
+heiress of William Hilton, by whom he had a son, William, who died
+before his father, June 7, 1500, leaving a son,</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="EDWARD_BIRMINGHAM"></a>EDWARD BIRMINGHAM,</h2>
+<h3>1500,</h3>
+<br>
+<p>Born in 1497, and succeeded his grandfather at the age of three.
+During his minority, Henry the Seventh, 1502, granted the wardship
+to Edward, Lord Dudley.</p>
+<p>The family estate then consisted of the manors of Birmingham,
+Over Warton, Nether Warton, Mock Tew, Little Tew, and Shutford in
+the county of Oxford, Hoggeston in Bucks, and Billesley in the
+county of Worcester. Edward afterwards married Elizabeth, widow of
+William Ludford, of Annesley, by whom he had one daughter, who
+married a person of the name of Atkinson.</p>
+<p>But after the peaceable possession of a valuable estate, for
+thirty seven years; the time was now arrived, when the mounds of
+justice must be broken down by the weight of power, a whole deluge
+of destruction enter, and overwhelm an ancient and illustrious
+family, in the person of an innocent man. The world would view the
+diabolical transaction with amazement, none daring to lend
+assistance to the unfortunate; not considering, that property
+should ever be under the protection of law; and, what was Edward's
+case to-day, might be that of any other man to-morrow. But the
+oppressor kept fair with the crown, and the crown held a rod of
+iron over the people.--Suffer me to tell the mournful tale from
+Dugdale's Antiquities of Warwickshire.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>1537,</h2>
+<br>
+<p>John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, a man of great wealth,
+unbounded ambition, and one of the basest characters of the age,
+was possessor of Dudley-castle, and the fine estate belonging to
+it:--He wished to add Birmingham to his vast domain. Edward
+Birmingham therefore was privately founded, respecting the disposal
+of his manor; but as money was not wanted, and as the place had
+been the honor and the residence of his family for many centuries,
+it was out of the reach of purchase.</p>
+<p>Northumberland was so charmed with its beauty, he was determined
+to possess it; and perhaps the manner in which he accomplished his
+design, cannot be paralleled in the annals of infamy.</p>
+<p>He procured two or three rascals of his own temper, and rather
+of mean appearance, to avoid suspicion, to take up their quarters
+for a night or two in Birmingham, and gain secret intelligence when
+Edward Birmingham should ride out, and what road: This done, one of
+the rascals was to keep before the others, but all took care that
+Edward should easily overtake them. Upon his arrival at the first
+class, the villains joined him, entered into chat, and all moved
+soberly together 'till they reached the first man; when, on a
+sudden, the strangers with Edward drew their pistols and robbed
+their brother villain, who no doubt lost a considerable sum after a
+decent resistance. Edward was easily known, apprehended, and
+committed as one of the robbers; the others were not to be
+found.</p>
+<p>Edward immediately saw himself on the verge of destruction. He
+could only <i>alledge</i>, but not <i>prove</i> his innocence: All
+the proof the case could admit of, was against him.</p>
+<p>Northumberland (then only Lord L'Isle) hitherto had succeeded to
+his wish; nor was Edward long in suspence--Private hints were given
+him, that the only way to save his life, was to make Northumberland
+his friend; and this probably might be done, by resigning to him
+his manor of Birmingham; with which the unfortunate Edward
+reluctantly complied.</p>
+<p>Northumberland thinking a common conveyance insufficient, caused
+Edward to yield his estate into the hands of the King, and had
+interest enough in that age of injustice to procure a ratification
+from a weak Parliament, by which means he endeavoured to throw the
+odium off his own character, and fix it upon theirs, and also,
+procure to himself a safer title.</p>
+<p>An extract from that base act is as follows:--</p>
+<p>"Whereas Edward Byrmingham, late of Byrmingham in the countie of
+Warwick, Esquire, otherwise callid Edward Byrmingham, Esquire, ys
+and standyth lawfully indettid to our soverene Lord the Kinge, in
+diverse grete summes of money; and also standyth at the mercy of
+his Highness, for that the same Edward ys at this present convected
+of felony: Our seide soverene Lord the Kinge ys contentid and
+pleasid, that for and in recompence and satisfaction to his Grace
+of the seyde summes of money, to accept and take of the seyde
+Edward the mannour and lordship of Byrmingham, otherwise callid
+Byrmincham, with the appurtinances, lying and being in the countie
+of Warwick, and all and singuler other lands and tenements,
+reversions, rents, services, and hereditaments of the same Edward
+Byrmingham, set, lying and beying in the countie of Warwick
+aforesaid. Be yt therefore ordeyned and enacted, by the authoritie
+of this present Parliament, that our seyde soverene Lord the Kinge
+shall have, hold, and enjoy, to him and his heires and assignes for
+ever, the seyde mannour and lordship of Byrmingham, &amp;c."</p>
+<p>In the act there is a reservation of 40<i>l</i>. per annum,
+during the lives only of the said Edward and his wife.</p>
+<p>It appears also, by an expression in the act, that Edward was
+brought to trial, and found guilty. Thus innocence is depressed for
+want of support; property is wrested for want of the protection of
+the law; and a vile minister, in a corrupt age, can carry an
+infamous point through a court of justice, the two Houses of
+Parliament, and complete his horrid design by the sanction of a
+tyrant.</p>
+<p>The place where tradition tells us this diabolical transaction
+happened, is the middle of Sandy-lane, in the Sutton road; the
+upper part of which begins at the North east corner of Aston park
+wall; at the bottom, you bear to the left, for Sawford-bridge, or
+to the right, for Nachell's-green; about two miles from the Moat,
+the place of Edward's abode.</p>
+<p>Except that branch which proceeded from this original stem,
+about 600 years ago, of which the Earl of Lowth is head, I know of
+no male descendant from this honourable stock; who, if we allow the
+founder to have come over with Cridda, the Saxon, in 582, must have
+commanded this little Sovereignty 955 years.</p>
+<p>I met with a person sometime ago of the name of Birmingham, and
+was pleased with the hope of finding a member of that ancient and
+honorable house; but he proved so amasingly ignorant, he could not
+tell whether he was from the clouds, the sea, or the dunghill:
+instead of traceing the existence of his ancestors, even so high as
+his father, he was scarcely conscious of his own.</p>
+<p>As this house did not much abound with daughters, I cannot at
+present recollect any families among us, except that of
+Bracebridge, who are descended from this illustrious origin, by a
+female line; and Sir John Talbot Dillon, who is descended from the
+ancient Earls of Lowth, as he is from the De Veres, the more
+ancient Earls of Oxford.</p>
+<p>Here, then, I unwillingly extinguish that long range of lights,
+which for many ages illuminated the house of Birmingham.</p>
+<p>But I cannot extinguish the rascallity of the line of
+Northumberland. This unworthy race, proved a scourge to the world,
+at least during three generations. Each, in his turn, presided in
+the British cabinet; and each seems to have possessed the villainy
+of his predecessor, united with his own. The first, only
+<i>served</i> a throne; but the second and the third intended to
+<i>fill</i> one. A small degree of ambition warms the mind in
+pursuit of fame, through the paths of honor; while too large a
+portion tends to unfavorable directions, kindles to a flame,
+consumes the finer sensations of rectitude, and leaves a stench
+behind.</p>
+<p>Edmund, the father of this John, was the voracious leech, with
+Empson, who sucked the vitals of the people, to feed the avarice of
+Henry the Seventh.</p>
+<p>It is singular that Henry, the most sagacious prince since the
+conquest, loaded him with honours for filling the royal coffers
+with wealth, which the penurious monarch durst never enjoy: but his
+successor, Henry the Eighth, enjoyed the pleasure of consuming that
+wealth, and <i>executed</i> the father for collecting it! How much
+are our best laid schemes defective? How little does expectation
+and event coincide? It is no disgrace to a man that he died on the
+scaffold; the question is--What brought him there? Some of the most
+inoffensive, and others the most exalted characters of the age in
+which they lived, have been cut off by the axe, as Edward
+Plantagenet, Earl of Warwick, for being the last male heir of the
+Anjouvin Kings; John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, Sir Thomas Moore,
+Sir Walter Raleigh, Algernon Sidney, William Lord Russell, &amp;c.
+whose blood ornamented the scaffold on which they fell.</p>
+<p>The son of this man, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, favorite
+of Queen Elizabeth, is held up by our historians as a master-piece
+of dissimulation, pride, and cruelty. He married three wives, all
+which he is charged with sending to the grave by untimely deaths;
+one of them, to open a passage to the Queen's bed, to which he
+aspired. It is surprising, that he should deceive the penetrating
+eye of Elizabeth: but I am much inclined to think she <i>knew
+him</i> better than the world; and they knew him rather to well. He
+ruined many of the English gentry, particularly the ancient family
+of Arden, of Park-hall, in this neighbourhood: he afterwards ruined
+his own family by disinheriting a son, more worthy than
+himself.--If he did not fall by the executioner, it is no proof
+that he did not deserve it.--We now behold</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="JOHN_DUKE_OF_NORTHUMBERLAND"></a>JOHN, DUKE OF
+NORTHUMBERLAND,</h2>
+<h3>1537,</h3>
+<br>
+<p>Lord of the manor of Birmingham; a man, who of all others the
+least deserved that honor; or rather, deserved the axe for being
+so.</p>
+<p>Some have asserted, "That property acquired by dishonesty cannot
+prosper." But I shall leave the philosopher and the enthusiast to
+settle that important point, while I go on to observe, That that
+the lordship of Birmingham did not prosper with the Duke. Though he
+had, in some degree, the powers of government in his hands, he had
+also the clamours of the people in his ears. What were his inward
+feelings, is uncertain at this distance--Fear seems to have
+prevented him from acknowledging Birmingham for his property.
+Though he exercised every act of ownership, yet he suffered the
+fee-simple to rest in the crown, 'till nine years had elapsed, and
+those clamours subsided, before he ventured to accept the grant, in
+1546.</p>
+<p>As the execution of this grant was one of the last acts of
+Henry's life, we should be apt to suspect the Duke carried it in
+his pocket ready for signing, but deferred the matter as long as he
+could with safety, that distance of time might annihilate
+reflection; and that the King's death, which happened a few weeks
+after, might draw the attention of the world too much, by the
+importance of the event, to regard the Duke's conduct.</p>
+<p>The next six years, which carries us through the reign of Edward
+the Sixth, is replete with the intrigues of this illustrious knave.
+He sought connections with the principal families: He sought
+honours for his own: He procured a match between his son, the Lord
+Guildford Dudley, and the Lady Jane Gray, daughter of the Duke of
+Suffolk, and a descendant from Henry the Seventh, with intent of
+fixing the crown in his family, but failing in the attempt, he
+brought ruin upon the Suffolk family, and himself to the block, in
+the first of Queen Mary, 1553.</p>
+<p>Though a man be guilty of many atrocious acts that deserve
+death, yet in the hour of distress humanity demands the tear of
+compassion; but the case was otherwise at the execution of John,
+Duke of Northumberland, for a woman near the scaffold held forth a
+bloody handkerchief and exclaimed, "Behold the blood of the Duke of
+Somerset, shed by your means, and which cries for vengeance against
+you."</p>
+<p>Thus Northumberland kept a short and rough possession of glory;
+thus he fell unlamented; and thus the manor of Birmingham reverted
+to the crown a second time, the Duke himself having first taught it
+the way.</p>
+<p>Birmingham continued two years in the crown, 'till the third of
+Queen Mary, when she granted it to</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="THOMAS_MARROW"></a>THOMAS MARROW,</h2>
+<h3>1555,</h3>
+<br>
+<p>Whose family, for many descents, resided at Berkeswell, in this
+county.</p>
+<p>In the possession of the High Bailiff is a bushel measure, cast
+in brass, of some value; round which in relief is, SAMUEL MARROW,
+LORD OF THE MANOR OF BIRMINGHAM, 1664.</p>
+<p>The Lordship continued in this family about 191 years, 'till the
+male line failing, it became the joint property of four
+coheirs--Ann, married to Sir Arthur Kaye; Mary, the wife of John
+Knightley, Esq; Ursulla, the wife of Sir Robert Wilmot; and
+Arabella, unmarried; who, in about 1730, disposed of the private
+estate in the manor, amounting to about 400<i>l</i>. per annum, to
+Thomas Sherlock, Bishop of London, as before observed, and the
+manor itself to</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="THOMAS_ARCHER_ESQ"></a>THOMAS ARCHER, ESQ.</h2>
+<h3>for 1,700<i>l</i>. in 1746,</h3>
+<br>
+<p>Of an ancient family, who have resided at Umberslade in this
+county more than 600 years--from him it descended to</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="ANDREW_LORD_ARCHER"></a>ANDREW, LORD ARCHER,</h2>
+<br>
+<p>And is now enjoyed by his relict,</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="SARAH_LADY_ARCHER"></a>SARAH, LADY ARCHER,</h2>
+<h3>1781,</h3>
+<br>
+<p>Possessing no more in the parish than the royalty; as it does
+not appear that the subsequent Lords, after the extinction of the
+house of Birmingham, were resident upon the manor, I omit
+particulars.</p>
+<p>Let me remark, this place yet gives title to the present Lord
+Viscount Dudley and Ward, as descended, by the female line, from
+the great Norman Barons, the Fitz-Ausculfs, the Paganalls, the
+Somerys, the Suttons, and the Dudleys, successively Lords
+paramount, whose original power is reduced to a name.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="MANOR_HOUSE."></a>MANOR HOUSE.</h2>
+<h3>(The Moat.)</h3>
+<br>
+<p>The natural temper of the human mind, like that of the brute, is
+given to plunder: This temper is very apt to break forth into
+action. In all societies of men, therefore, restraints have been
+discovered, under the name of laws, attended with punishment, to
+deter people from infringing each others property. Every thing that
+a man can possess, falls under the denomination of property;
+whether it be life, liberty, wealth or character.</p>
+<p>The less perfect these laws are, the less a people are removed
+from the rude state of nature, and the more necessity there is for
+a man to be constantly in a state of defence, that he may be able
+to repel any force that shall rise up against him.</p>
+<p>It is easy to discover, by the laws of a country, how far the
+people are advanced in civilization. If the laws are defective, or
+the magistrate too weak to execute them, it is dangerous for a man
+to possess property.</p>
+<p>But when a nation is pretty far advanced in social existence;
+when the laws agree with reason, and are executed with firmness, a
+man need not trouble himself concerning the protection of his
+property--his country will protect it for him.</p>
+<p>The laws of England have, for many ages, been gradually
+refining; and are capable of that protection which violence never
+was.</p>
+<p>But if we penetrate back into the recesses of time, we shall
+find the laws inadequate, the manners savage, force occupy the
+place of justice, and property unprotected. In those barbarous
+ages, therefore, men sought security by intrenching themselves from
+a world they could not trust. This was done by opening a large
+ditch round their habitation, which they filled with water, and
+which was only approachable by a draw-bridge. This, in some degree,
+supplied the defect of the law, and the want of power in the
+magistrate. It also, during the iron reign of priesthood, furnished
+that table in lent, which it guarded all the year.</p>
+<p>The Britons had a very slender knowledge of fortification. The
+camps they left us, are chiefly upon eminences, girt by a shallow
+ditch, bordered with stone, earth, or timber, but never with water.
+The moat, therefore, was introduced by the Romans; their camps are
+often in marshes; some wholly, and some in part surrounded by
+water.</p>
+<p>These liquid barriers were begun in England early in the
+christian &aelig;ra, they were in the zenith of their glory at the
+barons wars, in the reign of king John, and continued to be the
+mode of fortification till the introduction of guns, in the reign
+of Edward the fourth, which shook their foundation; and the civil
+wars of Charles the first totally annihilated their use, after an
+existence of twelve hundred years.</p>
+<p>Perhaps few parishes, that have been the ancient habitation of a
+gentleman, are void of some traces of these fluid bulwarks. That of
+Birmingham has three; one of these, of a square form, at Warstone,
+erected by a younger brother of the house of Birmingham, hath
+already been mentioned; it is fed by a small rivulet from Rotton
+Park, which crosses the Dudley Road, near the Sand pits.</p>
+<p>Another is the Parsonage house, belonging to St. Martin's,
+formerly situated in the road to Bromsgrove, now Smallbrook street,
+of a circular figure, and supplied by a neighbouring spring. If we
+allow this watery circle to be a proof of the great antiquity of
+the house, it is a much greater with regard to the antiquity of the
+church.</p>
+<p>The third is what we simply denominate the Moat, and was the
+residence of the ancient lords of Birmingham, situated about sixty
+yards south of the church, and twenty west of Digbeth; this is also
+circular, and supplied by a small stream that crosses the road to
+Bromsgrove, near the first mile stone; it originally ran into the
+river Rea, near Vaughton's hole, dividing the parishes of
+Birmingham and Edgbaston all the way, but at the formation of the
+Moat, was diverted from its course, into which it never
+returned.</p>
+<p>No certain evidence remains to inform us when this liquid work
+was accomplished: perhaps in the Saxon heptarchy, when there were
+few or no buildings south of the church. Digbeth seems to have been
+one of the first streets added to this important school of arts;
+the upper part of that street must of course have been formed
+first: but, that the Moat was completed prior to the erection of
+any buildings between that and Digbeth, is evident, because those
+buildings stand upon the very soil thrown out in forming the
+Moat.</p>
+<p>The first certain account that we meet with of this guardian
+circle, is in the reign of Henry the Second, 1154, when Peter de
+Birmingham, then lord of the see, had a cattle here, and lived in
+splendor. All the succeeding Lords resided upon the same island,
+till their cruel expulsion by John Duke of Northumberland in
+1537.</p>
+<p>The old castle followed its lords, and is buried in the ruins of
+time. Upon the spot, about forty years ago, rose a house in the
+modern style, occupied by a manufacturer (John Francis;) in one of
+the out-buildings is shewn, the apartment where the ancient lords
+kept their court leet; another out-building which stands to the
+east, I have already observed, was the work of Edmund Lord
+Ferrers.</p>
+<p>The ditch being filled with water, has nearly the same
+appearance now as perhaps a thousand years ago, but not altogether
+the same use. It then served to protect its master, but now, to
+turn a thread-mill.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="PUDDING_BROOK."></a>PUDDING BROOK.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Near the place where the small rivulet discharges itself into
+the Moat, another of the same size is carried over it, called
+Pudding Brook, and proceeds from the town as this advances towards
+it, producing a curiosity seldom met with; one river running South,
+and the other North, for half a mile, yet only a path-road of three
+feet asunder; which surprised Brindley the famous engineer.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="THE_PRIORY."></a>THE PRIORY.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>The site of this ancient edifice is now the Square; some small
+remains of the old foundations are yet visible in the cellars,
+chiefly on the South-east. The out-buildings and pleasure-grounds
+perhaps occupied the whole North east side of Bull-street, then
+uninhabited, and only the highway to Wolverhampton; bounded on the
+North-west by Steelhouse-lane; on the North-east by Newton and
+John's-street; and on the South-east by Dale-end, which also was no
+other than the highway to Lichfield--The whole, about fourteen
+acres.</p>
+<p>The building upon this delightful eminence, which at that time
+commanded the small but beautiful prospect of Bristland-fields,
+Rowley-hills, Oldbury, Smethewick, Handsworth, Sutton-Coldfield,
+Erdington, Saltley, the Garrison, and Camp-hill, and which then
+stood at a distance from the town, though now near its centre; was
+founded by the house of Birmingham, in the early reigns of the
+Norman Kings, and called the Hospital of Saint Thomas,--The priest
+being bound to pray for the souls of the founders every day, to the
+end of the world.</p>
+<p>In 1285, Thomas de Madenhache, Lord of the manor of Aston, gave
+ten acres of land in his manor. William de Birmingham ten, which I
+take to be the land where the Priory stood; and Ranulph de Rakeby
+three acres, in Saltley: About the same time, sundry others gave
+houses and land in smaller quantities: William de Birmingham gave
+afterwards twenty-two acres more. The same active spirit seems to
+have operated in our ancestors, 500 years ago, that does in their
+descendants at this day: If a new scheme strikes the fancy, it is
+pursued with vigor.</p>
+<p>The religious fervor of that day ran high: It was unfashionable
+to leave the world, and not remember the Priory. Donations crowded
+in so fast, that the prohibiting act was forgot; so that in 1311,
+the brotherhood were prosecuted by the crown, for appropriating
+lands contrary to the act of mortmain; But these interested
+priests, like their sagacious brethren, knew as well how to
+preserve as to gain property; for upon their humble petition to the
+throne, Edward the Second put a stop to the judicial proceedings,
+and granted a special pardon.</p>
+<p>In 1351, Fouk de Birmingham, and Richard Spencer, jointly gave
+to the priory one hundred acres of land, part lying in Aston, and
+part in Birmingham, to maintain another priest, who should
+celebrate divine service daily at the altar of the Virgin Mary, in
+the church of the hospital, for the souls of William la Mercer, and
+his wife. The church is supposed to have stood upon the spot now
+No. 27, in Bull-street.</p>
+<p>In the premises belonging to the Red Bull, No. 83, nearly
+opposite, have been discovered human bones, which has caused some
+to suppose it the place of interment for the religious, belonging
+to the priory, which I rather doubt.</p>
+<p>At the dissolution of the abbies, in 1536, the King's visitors
+valued the annual income at the trifling sum of 8<i>l</i>. 8s.
+9d.</p>
+<p>The patronage continued chiefly in the head of the Birmingham
+family. Dugdale gives us a list of some of the Priors, who held
+dominion in this little common wealth, from 1326, 'till the total
+annihilation, being 210 years.</p>
+<blockquote>Robert Marmion,<br>
+Robert Cappe,<br>
+Thomas Edmunds,<br>
+John Frothward,<br>
+Robert Browne,<br>
+John Port,<br>
+William Priestwood,<br>
+Henry Drayton,<br>
+John Cheyne,<br>
+Henry Bradley,<br>
+Thomas Salpin,<br>
+Sir Edward Toste,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; AND<br>
+Henry Hody.</blockquote>
+<p>Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex, a man of much honour, more
+capacity, and yet more spirit, was the instrument with which Henry
+the Eighth destroyed the abbies; but Henry, like a true politician
+of the house of Tudor, wisely threw the blame upon the instrument,
+held it forth to the public in an odious light, and then sacrificed
+it to appease an angry people.</p>
+<p>This destructive measure against the religious houses,
+originated from royal letchery, and was replete with
+consequence.</p>
+<p>It opened the fountains of learning, at that day confined to the
+monastry, and the streams diffused themselves through various ranks
+of men. The revival of letters and of science made a rapid
+progress: It soon appeared, that the stagnate knowledge of the
+priest, was abundantly mixed with error; but now, running through
+the laity, who had no private interest to serve, it became more
+pure.</p>
+<p>It removed great numbers of men, who lay as a dead weight upon
+the community, and they became useful members of society: When
+younger sons could no longer find an asylum within the gloomy walls
+of a convent, they sought a livelihood in trade. Commerce,
+therefore, was taught to crowd her sails, cross the western ocean,
+fill the country with riches, and change an idle spirit into that
+of industry.</p>
+<p>By the destruction of religious houses, architecture sustained a
+temporary wound: They were by far the most magnificent and
+expensive buildings in the kingdoms, far surpassing those of the
+nobility; some of these structures are yet habitable, though the
+major part are gone to decay. But modern architecture hath since
+out-done the former splendor of the abbey, in use and elegance and
+sometimes with the profits arising from the abbey lands.</p>
+<p>It also shut the door of charity against the impostor, the
+helpless, and the idle, who had found here their chief supply; and
+gave rise to one of the best laws ever invented by human wisdom
+that of each parish supporting its own poor.</p>
+<p>By the annihilation of abbots, the church lost its weight in
+Parliament, and the vote was thrown into the hands of the temporal
+Lords.</p>
+<p>It prevented, in some degree, the extinction of families; for,
+instead of younger branches becoming the votaries of a monastic
+life, they became the votaries of hymen: Hence the kingdom was
+enriched by population. It eased the people of a set of masters,
+who had for ages ruled them with a rod of iron.</p>
+<p>The hands of superstition were also weakened, for the important
+sciences of astrology, miracle, and divination, supported by the
+cell, have been losing ground ever since.</p>
+<p>It likewise recovered vast tracts of land out of dead hands, and
+gave an additional vigor to agriculture, unknown to former ages.
+The monk, who had only a temporary tenancy, could not give a
+permanant one; therefore, the lands were neglected, and the produce
+was small: But these lands falling into the hands of the gentry,
+acquired an hereditary title. It was their interest; to grant
+leases, for a superior rent; and it was the tenant's interest to
+give that rent, for the sake of security: Hence the produce of land
+is become one of the most advantageous branches of British
+commerce.</p>
+<p>Henry, by this seisure, had more property to give away, than any
+King of England since William the Conqueror, and he generously gave
+away that which was never his own. It is curious to survey the
+foundation of some of the principal religions that have taken the
+lead among men.</p>
+<p>Moses founded a religion upon morals and ceremonies, one half of
+which continues with his people to this day.</p>
+<p>Christ founded one upon <i>love</i> and <i>purity</i>; words of
+the simplest import, yet we sometimes mistake their meaning.</p>
+<p>The Bishop of Rome erected his, upon deceit and oppression;
+hence the treasures of knowledge were locked up, an inundation of
+riches and power flowed into the church, with destructive
+tendency.</p>
+<p>And Henry the Eighth, built his reformation upon revenge and
+plunder: He deprived the <i>head</i> of the Romish see, of an
+unjust power, for pronouncing a just decision; and robbed the
+<i>members</i>, for being annexed to that head. Henry wished the
+world to believe, what he believed himself, that he acted from a
+religious principle; but his motive seems to have been <i>savage
+love</i>.</p>
+<p>Had equity directed when Henry divided this vast property, he
+would have restored it to the descendants of those persons, whose
+mistaken zeal had injured their families; but his disposal of it
+was ludicrous--sometimes he made a free gift, at others he
+exchanged a better estate for a a worse, and then gave that worse
+to another.</p>
+<p>I have met with a little anecdote which says, "That Henry being
+upon a tour in Devonshire, two men waited on him to beg certain
+lands in that county; while they attended in the anti-room for the
+royal presence, a stranger approached, and asked them a trifling
+question; they answered, they wished to be alone--at that moment
+the King entered: They fell at his feet: The stranger seeing them
+kneel, kneelt with them. They asked the favor intended; the King
+readily granted it: They bowed: The stranger bowed also. By this
+time, the stranger perceiving there was a valuable prize in the
+question, claimed his thirds; they denied his having anything to do
+with the matter: He answered, he had done as much as they, for they
+only asked and bowed, and he did the same. The dispute grew warm,
+and both parties agreed to appeal to the King, who answered, He
+took them for joint beggars, therefore had made them a joint
+present. They were then obliged to divide the land with the
+stranger, whose share amounted to 240<i>l</i>. per annum."</p>
+<p>The land formerly used for the priory of Birmingham, is now the
+property of many persons. Upon that spot, whereon stood one
+solitary house, now stand about four hundred. Upon that ground,
+where about thirty persons lived upon the industry of others, about
+three thousand live upon their own: The place, which lay as a heavy
+burden upon the community, now tends to enrich it, by adding its
+mite to the national commerce, and the national treasury.</p>
+<p>In 1775, I took down an old house of wood and plaister, which
+had stood 208 years, having been erected in 1567, thirty-one years
+after the dissolution of abbies. The foundation of this old house
+seemed to have been built chiefly with stones from the priory;
+perhaps more than twenty wagon loads: These appeared in a variety
+of forms and sizes, highly finished in the gothic taste, parts of
+porticos, arches, windows, ceilings, etc. some fluted, some
+cyphered, and otherwise ornamented, yet complete as in the first
+day they were left by the chizel. The greatest, part of them were
+destroyed by the workmen: Some others I used again in the fireplace
+of an under kitchen. Perhaps they are the only perfect fragments
+that remain of that venerable edifice, which once stood the
+monument of ancient piety, the ornament of the town, and the envy
+of the priest out of place.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="JOHN_A_DEANS_HOLE"></a>JOHN A DEAN'S HOLE.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>At the bottom of Digbeth, about thirty yards North of the
+bridge, on the left, is a water-course that takes in a small drain
+from Digbeth, but more from the adjacent meadows, and which divides
+the parishes of Aston and Birmingham, called John a Dean's Hole;
+from a person of that name who is said to have lost his life there,
+and which, I think, is the only name of antiquity among us.</p>
+<p>The particle <i>de</i>, between the christian and surname, is of
+French extraction, and came over with William the First: It
+continued tolerably pure for about three centuries, when it in some
+degree assumed an English garb, in the particle <i>of</i>: The
+<i>a</i>, therefore is only a corruption of the latter. Hence the
+time of this unhappy man's misfortune may be fixed about the reign
+of Edward the Third.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="LENCHS_TRUST"></a>LENCH'S TRUST.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>In the reign of Henry the Eighth, William Lench, a native of
+this place, bequeathed his estate for the purpose of erecting alms
+houses, which are those at the bottom of Steelhouse-lane, for the
+benefit of poor widows, but chiefly for repairing the streets of
+Birmingham. Afterwards others granted smaller donations for the
+same use, but all were included under the name of Lench; and I
+believe did not unitedly amount, at that time, to fifteen pounds
+per annum.</p>
+<p>Over this scattered inheritance was erected a trust, consisting
+of gentlemen in the neighborhood of Birmingham.</p>
+<p>All human affairs tend to confusion: The hand of care is ever
+necessary to keep order. The gentlemen, therefore at the head of
+this charity, having too many modes of pleasure of their own, to
+pay attention to this little jurisdiction, disorder crept in apace;
+some of the lands were lost for want of inspection; the rents ran
+in arrear, and were never recovered; the streets were neglected,
+and the people complained.</p>
+<p>Misconduct, particularly of a public nature, silently grows for
+years, and sometimes for ages, 'till it becomes too bulky for
+support, falls in pieces by its own weight, and out of its very
+destruction rises a remedy. An order, therefore, from the Court of
+Chancery was obtained, for vesting the property in other hands,
+consisting of twenty persons, all of Birmingham, who have directed
+this valuable estate, now 227<i>l</i>. 5s. per annum, to useful
+purposes. The man who can guide his own private concerns with
+success, stands the fairest chance of guiding those of the
+public.</p>
+<p>If the former trust went widely astray, perhaps their successors
+have not exactly kept the line, by advancing the leases to a rack
+rent: It is worth considering, whether the tenant of an expiring
+lease, hath not in equity, a kind of reversionary right, which
+ought to favour him with the refusal of another term, at one third
+under the value, in houses, and one fourth in land; this would give
+stability to the title, secure the rents, and cause the lessee more
+chearfully to improve the premises, which in time would enhance
+their value, both with regard to property and esteem.</p>
+<p>But where business is well conducted, complaint should cease;
+for perfection is not to be expected on this side the grave.</p>
+<p>Exclusive of a pittance to the poor widows above, the trust have
+a power of distributing money to the necessitous at Christmas and
+Easter, which is punctually performed.</p>
+<p>I think there is an excellent clause in the devisor's will,
+ordering his bailiff to pay half a crown to any two persons, who,
+having quarreled and entered into law, shall stop judicial
+proceedings, and make peace by agreement--He might have added, "And
+half a crown to the lawyer that will suffer them." I know the sum
+has been demanded, but am sorry I do <i>not</i> know that it was
+ever paid.</p>
+<p>If money be reduced to one fourth its value, since the days of
+Lench, it follows, that four times the sum ought to be paid in
+ours; and perhaps ten shillings cannot be better laid out, than in
+the purchase of that peace, which tends to harmonise the community,
+and weed a brotherhood not the most amicable among us.</p>
+<p>The members choose annually, out of their own body a steward, by
+the name of bailiff Lench: The present fraternity, who direct this
+useful charity, are</p>
+<blockquote>Thomas Colmore, <i>bailiff</i>.<br>
+George Davis,<br>
+Win. Walsingham, <i>dead</i>,<br>
+Michael Lakin,<br>
+Benjamin May,<br>
+Michael Lakin, <i>jun</i>.<br>
+James Bedford,<br>
+Samuel Ray,<br>
+John Ryland,<br>
+James Jackson,<br>
+Stephen Bedford, <i>dead</i>,<br>
+Joseph Tyndall,<br>
+Joseph Smith,<br>
+Robert Mason,<br>
+Joseph Webster, <i>dead</i>,<br>
+Abel Humphreys,<br>
+Thomas Lawrence,<br>
+Samuel Pemberton,<br>
+Joseph Webster, <i>jun</i>.<br>
+John Richards.</blockquote>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="FENTHAMS_TRUST"></a>FENTHAM'S TRUST.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>In 1712, George Fentham, of Birmingham, devised his estate by
+will, consisting of about one hundred acres, in Erdington and
+Handsworth, of the value then, of 20<i>l</i>. per annum, vesting
+the same in a trust, of which no person could be chosen who resided
+more than one hundred yards from the Old Cross. We should be
+inclined to think the devisor entertained a singular predilection
+for the Old Cross, then in the pride of youth. But if we unfold
+this whimsical clause, we shall find it contains a shrewd
+intention. The choice was limited within one hundred yards, because
+the town itself, in his day, did not in some directions extend
+farther. Fentham had spent a life in Birmingham, knew well her
+inhabitants, and like some others, had found honour as well as
+riches among them: He knew also, he could with safety deposit his
+property in their hands, and was determined it should never go
+out,--The scheme will answer his purpose.</p>
+<p>The uses of this estate, now about 100<i>l</i>. per annum, are
+for teaching children to read, and for clothing ten poor widows of
+Birmingham: Those children belonging to the charity school, in
+green, are upon this foundation.</p>
+<blockquote>The present trust are<br>
+Francis Coales, and Edmund Wace Pattison.</blockquote>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="CROWLEYS_TRUST"></a>CROWLEY'S TRUST.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Ann Crowley bequeathed, by her last will, in 1733, six houses in
+Steelhouse-lane, amounting to eighteen pounds per annum, for the
+purpose of supporting a school, consisting of ten children. From an
+attachment to her own sex, she constituted over this infant colony
+of letters a female teacher: Perhaps we should have seen a female
+trust, had they been equally capable of defending the property. The
+income of the estate increasing, the children are now augmented to
+twelve.</p>
+<p>By a subsequent clause in the devisor's will, twenty shillings a
+year, forever, issues out of two houses in the Lower Priory, to be
+disposed of at discretion of the trust.</p>
+<p>The governors of this female charity are</p>
+<blockquote>Thomas Colmore, <i>bailiff</i>,<br>
+Joseph Cartwright,<br>
+Thomas Lee,<br>
+John Francis,<br>
+Samuel Colmore,<br>
+William Russell, <i>esq</i>.<br>
+Josiah Rogers,<br>
+Joseph Hornblower,<br>
+John Rogers.</blockquote>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="SCOTTS_TRUST"></a>SCOTT'S TRUST.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Joseph Scott, Esq; yet living, assigned, July 7, 1779, certain
+messuages and lands in and near Walmer-lane, in Birmingham, of the
+present rent of 40<i>l</i>. 18s. part of the said premises to be
+appropriated for the interment of protestant dissenters; part of
+the profits to be applied to the use of a religious society in
+Carr's lane, at the discretion of the trust; and the remainder, for
+the institution of a school to teach the mother tongue.</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image11.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image11.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image11.jpg" width="45%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b><i>Free School</i>.</b></p>
+<br>
+<p>That part of the demise, designed for the reception of the dead,
+is about three acres, upon, which stands one messuage, now the
+Golden Fleece, joining Summer-lane on the west, and Walmer-lane on
+the east; the other, which hath Aston-street on the south, and
+Walmer-lane on the west, contains about four acres, upon which now
+stand ninety-one houses. A building lease, in 1778, was granted of
+these last premises, for 120 years, at 30<i>l</i>. per annum; at
+the expiration of which, the rents will probably amount to twenty
+times the present income. The trust, to whose direction this
+charity is committed, are</p>
+<blockquote>Abel Humphrys, <i>bailiff</i>,<br>
+John Allen,<br>
+John Parteridge,<br>
+William Aitkins,<br>
+Joseph Rogers,<br>
+Thomas Cock,<br>
+John Berry,<br>
+William Hutton,<br>
+Thomas Cheek Lea,<br>
+Durant Hidson,<br>
+Samuel Tutin.</blockquote>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="FREE_SCHOOL."></a>FREE SCHOOL.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>It is entertaining to contemplate the generations of fashion,
+which not only influences our dress and manner of living, but most
+of the common actions of life, and even the modes of thinking. Some
+of these fashions, not meeting with the taste of the day, are of
+short duration, and retreat out of life as soon as they are well
+brought in; others take a longer space; but whatever fashions
+predominate, though ever so absurd, they carry an imaginary beauty,
+which pleases the fancy, 'till they become ridiculous with age, are
+succeeded by others, when their very memory becomes disgusting.</p>
+<p>Custom gives a sanction to fashion, and reconciles us even to
+its inconveniency. The fashion of this year is laughed at the
+next.</p>
+<p>There are fashions of every date, from five hundred years, even
+to one day; of the first, was that of erecting religious houses; of
+the last, was that of destroying them.</p>
+<p>Our ancestors, the Saxons, after their conversion to
+christianity, displayed their zeal in building churches: though the
+kingdom in a few centuries was amply supplied, yet that zeal was no
+way abated; it therefore exerted itself in the abbey.--When a man
+of fortune had nearly done with time, he began to peep into
+eternity through the windows of an abbey; or, if a villian had
+committed a piece of butchery, or had cheated the world for sixty
+years, there was no doubt but he could burrow his way to glory
+through the foundations of an abbey.</p>
+<p>In 1383, the sixth of Richard the Second, before the religious
+fervor subsided that had erected Deritend-chapel, Thomas de
+Sheldon, John Coleshill, John Goldsmith, and William att Slowe, all
+of Birmingham, obtained a patent from the crown to erect a building
+upon the spot where the Free School now stands in New-street, to be
+called <i>The Gild of the Holy Cross</i>; to endow it with lands in
+Birmingham and Edgbaston, of the annual value of twenty marks, for
+the maintenance of two priests, who were to perform divine service
+to the honor of God, our blessed Lady his Mother, the Holy Cross,
+St. Thomas, and St. Catharine.</p>
+<p>The fashion seemed to take with the inhabitants, many of whom
+wished to join the four happy men, who had obtained the patent for
+so pious a work; so that, in 1393, a second patent was procured by
+the bailiff and inhabitants of Birmingham, for confirming the gild,
+and making the addition of a brotherhood in honor of the Holy
+Cross, consisting of both sexes, with power to constitute a master
+and wardens, and also to erect a chantry of priests to celebrate
+divine service in the chapel of the gild, for the souls of the
+founders, and all the fraternity; for whose support there were
+given, by divers persons, eighteen messuages, three tofts, (pieces
+of ground) six acres of land, and forty shillings rent, lying in
+Birmingham and Edgbaston aforesaid.</p>
+<p>But, in the 27th of Henry the Eighth, 1536, when it was the
+fashion of that day, to multiply destruction against the religious,
+and their habitations, the annual income of the gild was valued, by
+the King's random visitors, at the sum of 31<i>l</i>. 2s. 10d. out
+of which, three priests who sung mass, had 5<i>l</i>. 6s. 8d. each;
+an organist, 3<i>l</i>. 13s. 4d. the common midwife, 4s. the
+bell-man, 6s. 8d. with other salaries of inferior note.</p>
+<p>These lands continued in the crown 'till 1552, the fifth of
+Edward the Sixth, when, at the humble suit of the inhabitants, they
+were assigned to</p>
+<blockquote>William Symmons, <i>gent</i>.<br>
+Richard Smallbrook, <i>bailiff of the town</i>,<br>
+John Shilton,<br>
+William Colmore,<br>
+Henry Foxall,<br>
+William Bogee,<br>
+Thomas Cooper,<br>
+Richard Swifte,<br>
+Thomas Marshall,<br>
+John Veysy,<br>
+John King,<br>
+John Wylles,<br>
+William Paynton,<br>
+William Aschrig,<br>
+Robert Rastall,<br>
+Thomas Snowden,<br>
+John Eyliat,<br>
+William Colmore, <i>jun</i>.<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;AND<br>
+William Mychell,</blockquote>
+<p>all inhabitants of Birmingham, and their successors, to be
+chosen upon death or removal, by the appellation of the Bailiff and
+Governors of the Free Grammar School of King Edward the Sixth, for
+the instruction of children in grammar; to be held of the crown in
+common soccage, paying for ever twenty shillings per annum. Over
+this seminary of learning were to preside a master and usher, whose
+united income seems to have been only twenty pounds per annum. Both
+are of the clergy. The hall of the gild was used for a school-room.
+In the glass of the windows was painted the figure of Edmund Lord
+Ferrers; who, marrying, about 350 years ago, the heiress of the
+house of Birmingham, resided upon the manor, and seems to have been
+a benefactor to the gild, with his arms, empaling Belknap; and
+also, those of Stafford, of Grafton, of Birmingham, and Bryon.</p>
+<p>The gild stood at that time at a distance from the town,
+surrounded with inclosures; the highway to Hales Owen, now
+New-street, running by the north. No house could be nearer than
+those in the High-street.</p>
+<p>The first erection, wood and plaister, which had stood about 320
+years, was taken down in 1707, to make way for the present flat
+building. In 1756, a set of urns were placed upon the parapet,
+which give relief to that stiff air, so hurtful to the view: at the
+same time, the front was <i>intended</i> to have been decorated, by
+erecting half a dozen dreadful pillars, like so many over-grown
+giants marshalled in battalia, to guard the entrance, which the
+boys wish to shun; and, being sufficiently tarnished with
+Birmingham smoak, may become dangerous to pregnancy. Had the wings
+of this building fallen two or three yards back, and the line of
+the street been preserved by a light palisade, it would have risen
+in the scale of beauty, and removed the gloomy aspect of the
+area.</p>
+<p>The tower is in a good taste, except being rather too narrow in
+the base, and is ornamented with a sleepy figure of the donor,
+Edward the Sixth, dressed in a royal mantle, with the ensigns of
+the Garter; holding a bible and sceptre.</p>
+<p>The lands that support this foundation, and were in the reign of
+Henry the Eighth, valued at thirty-one pounds per annum, are now,
+by the advance of landed property, the reduction of money, and the
+increase of commerce, about 600<i>l</i>.</p>
+<p>The present governors of this royal donation are</p>
+<blockquote>John Whateley, <i>bailiff</i>,<br>
+<i>Rev</i>. Charles Newling,<br>
+Abraham Spooner, <i>esq</i>;<br>
+Thomas Russell,<br>
+John Ash, <i>M.D.</i><br>
+Richard Rabone,<br>
+Francis Goodall,<br>
+Francis Parrott, <i>esq</i>;<br>
+William Russell, <i>esq</i>;<br>
+John Cope, <i>dead</i>,<br>
+Thomas Hurd,<br>
+Thomas Westley,<br>
+Wm. John Banner,<br>
+Thomas Salt,<br>
+William Holden,<br>
+Thomas Carless,<br>
+John Ward,<br>
+Edward Palmer, <i>esq</i>;<br>
+Francis Coales,<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;AND<br>
+;Robert Coales.</blockquote>
+<br>
+<a name="image12.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image12.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image12.jpg" width="45%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b><i>Charity School</i>.</b></p>
+<br>
+<p>Over this nursery of science presides a chief master, with an
+annual salary of one hundred and twenty pounds; a second master
+sixty; two ushers; a master in the art of writing, and another in
+that of drawing, at forty pounds each: a librarian, ten: seven
+exhibitioners at the University of Oxford, twenty-five pounds each.
+Also, eight inferior schools in various parts of the town, are
+constituted and fed by this grand reservoir, at fifteen pounds
+each, which begin the first rudiments of learning.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>CHIEF MASTERS.</h2>
+<center>
+<table summary="">
+<tr>
+<td>John Brooksby,</td>
+<td>1685.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>---- Tonkinson.</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>John Husted.</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Edward Mainwaring,</td>
+<td>1730.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>John Wilkinson,</td>
+<td>1746</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Thomas Green,</td>
+<td>1759.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>William Brailsford,</td>
+<td>1766.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Rev. Thomas Price,</td>
+<td>1776.</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</center>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="CHARITY_SCHOOL:"></a>CHARITY SCHOOL:</h2>
+<h3>COMMONLY,</h3>
+<h3>The BLUE SCHOOL.</h3>
+<br>
+<p>There seems to be three clases of people, who demand the care of
+society; infancy, old age, and casual infirmity. When a man cannot
+assist himself, it is necessary he should be assisted. The first of
+these only is before us. The direction of youth seems one of the
+greatest concerns in moral life, and one that is the least
+understood: to form the generation to come, is of the last
+importance. If an ingenious master hath flogged the a b c into an
+innocent child, he thinks himself worthy of praise. A lad is too
+much terrified to march that path, which is marked out by the rod.
+If the way to learning abounds with punishment, he will quickly
+detest it; if we make his duty a task, we lay a stumbling-block
+before him that he cannot surmount.</p>
+<p>We rarely know a tutor succeed in training up youth, who is a
+friend to harsh treatment.</p>
+<p>Whence is it, that we so seldom find affection subsisting
+between master and scholar? From the moment they unite, to the end
+of their lives, disgust, like a cloud, rises in the mind, which
+reason herself can never dispel.</p>
+<p>The boy may pass the precincts of childhood, and tread the stage
+of life upon an equality with every man in it, except his old
+school-master; the dread of him seldom wears off; the name of Busby
+founded with horror for half a century after he had laid down the
+rod. I have often been delighted when I have seen a school of boys
+break up; the joy that diffuses itself over every face and action,
+shews infant nature in her gayest form--the only care remaining is,
+to forget on one side of the walls what was taught on the
+other.</p>
+<p>One would think, if <i>coming out</i> gives so much
+satisfaction, there must be something very detestable
+<i>within</i>.</p>
+<p>If the master thinks he has performed his task when he has
+taught the boy a few words, he as much mistakes his duty, as he
+does the road to learning: this is only the first stage of his
+journey. He has the man to form for society with ten thousand
+sentiments.</p>
+<p>It is curious to enter one of these prisons of science, and
+observe the children not under the least government: the master
+without authority, the children without order; the master scolding,
+the children riotous. We never <i>harden</i> the wax to receive the
+impression. They act in a natural sphere, but he in opposition: he
+seems the only person in the school who merits correction; he,
+unfit to teach, is making them unfit to be taught.</p>
+<p>A man does not consider whether his talents are adapted for
+teaching, so much, as whether he can <i>profit</i> by teaching:
+thus, when a man hath taught for twenty years, he may be only fit
+to go to school.</p>
+<p>To that vast group of instructors, therefore, whether in, or out
+of petticoats, who teach, without having been taught; who mistake
+the tail for the feat of learning, instead of the head; who can
+neither direct the passions of others nor their own; it may be
+said, "Quit the trade, if bread can be procured out of it. It is
+useless to pursue a work of error: the ingenious architect must
+take up your rotten foundation, before he can lay one that is
+solid."</p>
+<p>But, to the discerning few, who can penetrate the secret
+windings of the heart; who know that nature may be directed, but
+can never be inverted; that instruction should ever coincide with
+the temper of the instructed, or we sail against the wind; that it
+is necessary the pupil should relish both the teacher and the
+lesson; which, if accepted like a bitter draught, may easily be
+sweetened to his taste: to these valuable few, who, like the
+prudent florist, possessed of a choice root, which he cultivates
+with care, adding improvement to every generation; it may be said,
+"Banish tyranny out of the little dominions over which you are
+absolute sovereigns; introduce in its stead two of the highest
+ornaments of humanity, love and reason." Through the medium of the
+first, the master and the lesson may be viewed without horror; when
+the teacher and the learner are upon friendly terms, the scholar
+will rather invite than repel the assistance of the master. By the
+second, reason, the teacher will support his full authority. Every
+period of life in which a man is capable of attending to
+instruction, he is capable of attending to reason: this will answer
+every end of punishment, and something more.</p>
+<p>Thus, an irksome task will be changed into a friendly
+intercourse.</p>
+<p>This School, by a date in the front, was erected in 1724, in St.
+Philip's church-yard; is a plain, airy, and useful building,
+ornamented over the door with the figures of a boy and a girl in
+the uniform of the school, and executed with a degree of elegance,
+that a Roman statuary would not have blushed to own.</p>
+<p>This artificial family consists of about ninety scholars, of
+both sexes; over which preside a governor and governess, both
+single. Behind the apartments, is a large area appropriated for the
+amusement of the infant race, necessary as their food. Great
+decorum is preserved in this little society; who are supported by
+annual contribution, and by a collection made after sermon twice a
+year.</p>
+<p>At twelve, or fourteen, the children are removed into the
+commercial world, and often acquire an affluence that enables them
+to support that foundation, which formerly supported them.</p>
+<p>It is worthy of remark, that those institutions which are
+immediately upheld by the temporary hand of the giver, flourish in
+continual spring, and become real benefits to society; while those
+which enjoy a perpetual income, are often tinctured with
+supineness, and dwindle into obscurity.--The first, usually answer
+the purpose of the living; the last, seldom that of the dead.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="DISSENTING_CHARITY-SCHOOL."></a>DISSENTING
+CHARITY-SCHOOL.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>About twenty years ago, the Dissenters established a school,
+upon nearly the same plan as the former, consisting of about
+eighteen boys and eight girls; with this improvement, that the boys
+are innured to moderate labour, and the girls to house-work.</p>
+<p>The annual subscriptions seem to be willingly paid, thankfully
+received, and judiciously expended.</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image13.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image13.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image13.jpg" width="60%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b><i>Work House</i>.</b></p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="WORKHOUSE."></a>WORKHOUSE.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>During the long reign of the Plantagenets in England, there do
+not seem many laws in the code then existing for the regulation of
+the poor: distress was obliged to wander for a temporary and
+uncertain relief:--idleness usually mixed with it.</p>
+<p>The nobility then kept plain and hospitable houses, where want
+frequently procured a supply; but, as these were thinly scattered,
+they were inadequate to the purpose.</p>
+<p>As the abbey was much more frequent, and as a great part of the
+riches of the kingdom passed through the hands of the monk, and
+charity being consonant to the profession of that order, the weight
+of the poor chiefly lay upon the religious houses; this was the
+general mark for the indigent, the idle, and the impostor, who
+carried meanness in their aspect, and the words <i>Christ Jesus</i>
+in their mouth. Hence arise the epithets of stroller, vagrant, and
+sturdy beggar, with which modern law is intimately acquainted.</p>
+<p>It was too frequently observed, that there was but a slender
+barrier between begging and stealing, that necessity seldom marks
+the limits of honesty, and that a country abounding with beggars,
+abounds also with plunderers. A remnant of this urgent race, so
+justly complained of, which disgrace society, and lay the country
+under contribution, are still suffered, by the supineness of the
+magistrate.</p>
+<p>When the religious houses, and all their property, in 1536, fell
+a sacrifice to the vindictive wrath of Henry the Eighth, the poor
+lost their dependence, and as want knows no law, robbery became
+frequent; justice called loudly for punishment, and the hungry for
+bread; which gave rise, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, to that
+most excellent institution, of erecting every parish into a
+distinct fraternity, and obliging them to support their own
+members; therefore, it is difficult to assign a reason, why the
+blind should go abroad to <i>see</i> fresh countries, or the man
+<i>without feet to travel</i>.</p>
+<p>Though the poor were nursed by parochial law, yet workhouses did
+not become general 'till 1730: that of Birmingham was erected in
+1733, at the expence of 1173<i>l</i>. 3s. 5d. and which, the
+stranger would rather suppose, was the residence of a gentleman,
+than that of four hundred paupers. The left wing, called the
+infirmary, was added in 1766, at the charge of 400<i>l</i>. and the
+right, a place for labour, in 1779, at the expence of 700<i>l</i>.
+more.</p>
+<p>Let us a second time, consider the 50,000 people who occupy this
+<i>grand toy shop of Europe</i><a name="FNanchor6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6">[6]</a> as one great family, where, though the
+property of individuals is ascertained and secured, yet a close and
+beneficial compact subsists. We behold the members of this vast
+family marked with every style of character. Forlorn infancy,
+accidental calamity, casual sickness, old age, and even inadvertent
+distress, all find support from that charitable fund erected by
+industry. No part of the family is neglected: he that cannot find
+bread for himself, finds a ready supply; he that can, ought to do
+so. By cultivating the young suckers of infancy, we prudently
+establish the ensuing generation, which will, in the commercial
+walk, abundantly repay the expence: temporary affliction of every
+kind also merits pity; even those distresses which arise from folly
+ought not to be neglected: the parish hath done well to many a man,
+who would not do well to himself; if imprudence cannot be banished
+out of the world, companion ought not: he that cannot direct
+himself, must be under the direction of another.--If the parish
+supported none but the prudent, she would have but few to support.
+The last stage of human life demands, as well as the first, the
+help of the family. The care of infancy arises from an expectation
+of a return; that of old age from benefits already received. Though
+a man may have passed through life without growing rich, he may, by
+his labour, have contributed to make others so; though he could not
+pursue the road to affluence himself, he may have been the means of
+directing others to find it.</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor6">[6]</a>
+Burke.</blockquote>
+<p>The number of persons depending upon this weekly charity in
+Birmingham were, April 14, 1781, about 5240.</p>
+<p>Whether the mode of distributing the bounty of the community, is
+agreeable to the intentions of legislature, or the ideas of
+humanity, is a doubt. For in some parishes the unfortunate paupers
+have the additional misery of being sold to a mercenary wretch to
+starve upon twelve pence a head. It is matter of surprise that the
+magistrate should wink at this cruelty; but it is matter of
+pleasure, that no accusation comes within the verge of my
+historical remarks, for the wretched of Birmingham are not made
+more so by ill treatment, but meet with a kindness acceptable to
+distress. One would think <i>that</i> situation could not be
+despicable, which is often <i>wished for</i>, and often
+<i>sought</i>, that of becoming one of the poor of Birmingham.</p>
+<p>We cannot be conversant in parochial business, without observing
+a littleness predominant in most parishes, by using every finesse
+to relieve themselves of paupers, and throwing them upon others.
+Thus the oppressed, like the child between two fathers, is
+supported by neither.</p>
+<p>There is also an enormity, which, though agreeable to law, can
+never be justified by the rules of equity--That a man should spend
+the principal part of his life in a parish, add wealth to it by his
+labour, form connexions in it, bring up a family which shall all
+belong to it, but having never gained a settlement himself, shall,
+in old age be removed by an order, to perish among strangers. In
+1768, a small property fell into my hands, situated in a
+neighbouring village; I found the tenant had entered upon the
+premises at the age of twenty-two; that he had resided upon them,
+with poverty and a fair character, during the long space of forty
+six years--I told him he was welcome to spend the residue of his
+life upon the spot gratis. He continued there ten years after, when
+finding an inability to procure support from labour, and meeting
+with no assistance from the parish in which he had been resident
+for an age, he resigned the place with tears, in 1778, after an
+occupation of fifty six years, and was obliged to recoil upon his
+own parish, about twelve miles distant; to be farmed with the rest
+of the poor; and where, he afterwards assured me, "They were
+murdering him by inches." -- But no complaint of this ungrateful
+kind lies against that people whose character I draw.</p>
+<p>Perhaps it may be a wise measure, in a place like Birmingham,
+where the manufactures flourish in continual sunshine, not to be
+over strict with regard to removals. Though it may be burdensome to
+support the poor of another parish, yet perhaps it is the least of
+two evils: to remove old age which hath spent a life among us, is
+ungenerous; to remove temporary sickness, is injurious to trade;
+and to remove infancy is impolitic, being upon the verge of
+accommodating the town with a life of labour. It may be more
+prudent to remove a rascal than a pauper. Forty pounds hath been
+spent in removing a family, which would not otherwise have cost
+forty shillings, and whose future industry might have added many
+times that sum to the common capital. The highest pitch of charity,
+is that of directing inability to support itself. Idleness suits no
+part of a people, neither does it find a place here; every
+individual ought to contribute to the general benefit, by his head
+or his hands: if he is arrived at the western verge of life, when
+the powers of usefulness decline, let him repose upon his fortune;
+if no such thing exists, let him rest upon his friends, and if this
+prop fail, let the public nurse him, with a tenderness becoming
+humanity.</p>
+<p>We may observe, that the manufactures, the laborious part of
+mankind, the poor's rates, and the number of paupers, will
+everlastingly go hand in hand; they will increase and decrease
+together; we cannot annihilate one, but the others will follow, and
+odd as the expression may sound, we become rich by payment and
+poverty. If we discharge the poor, who shall act the laborious
+part? Stop the going out of one shilling, and it will prevent the
+coming in of two.</p>
+<p>At the introduction of the poor's laws, under Elizabeth, two
+pence halfpenny in the pound rent was collected every fortnight,
+for future support: time has made an alteration in the system,
+which is now six-pence in the pound, and collected as often as
+found necessary. The present levy amounts to above 10,000<i>l</i>.
+per ann. but is not wholly collected.</p>
+<p>As the overseers are generally people of property, payment in
+advance is not scrupulously observed.</p>
+<p>It was customary, at the beginning of this admirable system of
+jurisprudence, to constitute two overseers in each parish; but the
+magnitude of Birmingham pleaded for four, which continued 'till the
+year 1720, when a fifth was established: in 1729 they were
+augmented to half a dozen; the wishes of some, who are frighted at
+office, rise to the word <i>dozen</i>, a number very familiar in
+the Birmingham art of reckoning: but let it be remembered, that a
+vestry filled with overseers is not calculated for the meridian of
+business; that the larger the body, the slower the motion; and that
+the time and the necessities of the poor demand dispatch.</p>
+<p>From the annual disbursements in assisting the poor, which I
+shall here exhibit from undoubted evidence, the curious will draw
+some useful lessons respecting the increase of manufactures, of
+population, and of property.</p>
+<p>No memoirs are found prior to 1676.</p>
+<br>
+<center>
+<table summary="">
+<tr>
+<th>Year.</th>
+<th colspan="3" align="center">Disbursed.</th>
+<th>Year.</th>
+<th colspan="3" align="center">Disbursed.</th>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="center">l.</td>
+<td align="center">s.</td>
+<td align="center">d.</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="center">l.</td>
+<td align="center">s.</td>
+<td align="center">d.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1676</td>
+<td align="right">328</td>
+<td align="right">17</td>
+<td>7</td>
+<td>1684</td>
+<td align="right">451</td>
+<td align="right">0</td>
+<td>5-1/2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1677</td>
+<td align="right">347</td>
+<td align="right">9</td>
+<td>10-1/2</td>
+<td>1685</td>
+<td align="right">324</td>
+<td align="right">2</td>
+<td>8</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1678</td>
+<td align="right">398</td>
+<td align="right">8</td>
+<td>0-1/2</td>
+<td>1686</td>
+<td align="right">338</td>
+<td align="right">12</td>
+<td>11</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1679</td>
+<td colspan="3" align="center">omitted</td>
+<td>1687</td>
+<td align="right">343</td>
+<td align="right">15</td>
+<td>6</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1680</td>
+<td align="right">342</td>
+<td align="right">11</td>
+<td>2-1/2</td>
+<td>1688</td>
+<td align="right">308</td>
+<td align="right">17</td>
+<td>9-1/2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1681</td>
+<td align="right">363</td>
+<td align="right">15</td>
+<td>7</td>
+<td>1689</td>
+<td align="right">395</td>
+<td align="right">14</td>
+<td>11</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1682</td>
+<td align="right">337</td>
+<td align="right">2</td>
+<td>8-1/2</td>
+<td>1690</td>
+<td align="right">396</td>
+<td align="right">15</td>
+<td>2-1/2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1683</td>
+<td align="right">410</td>
+<td align="right">12</td>
+<td>1</td>
+<td>1691</td>
+<td align="right">354</td>
+<td align="right">1</td>
+<td>5-1/2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1691</td>
+<td align="right">360</td>
+<td align="right">0</td>
+<td>4-1/2</td>
+<td>1720</td>
+<td align="right">950</td>
+<td align="right">14</td>
+<td>0</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1693</td>
+<td align="right">376</td>
+<td align="right">12</td>
+<td>3-1/2</td>
+<td>1721</td>
+<td align="right">1024</td>
+<td align="right">6</td>
+<td>6-1/2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1694</td>
+<td align="right">423</td>
+<td align="right">12</td>
+<td>1-1/2</td>
+<td>1722</td>
+<td align="right">939</td>
+<td align="right">18</td>
+<td>0-1/2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1695</td>
+<td align="right">454</td>
+<td align="right">2</td>
+<td>1-1/2</td>
+<td>1739</td>
+<td align="right">678</td>
+<td align="right">8</td>
+<td>5</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1696</td>
+<td align="right">385</td>
+<td align="right">8</td>
+<td>11-1/2</td>
+<td>1740</td>
+<td align="right">938</td>
+<td align="right">0</td>
+<td>6</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1697</td>
+<td align="right">446</td>
+<td align="right">11</td>
+<td>5</td>
+<td>1742</td>
+<td align="right">888</td>
+<td align="right">1</td>
+<td>1-1/2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1698</td>
+<td align="right">505</td>
+<td align="right">0</td>
+<td>2-1/2</td>
+<td>1743</td>
+<td align="right">799</td>
+<td align="right">6</td>
+<td>1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1699</td>
+<td align="right">592</td>
+<td align="right">11</td>
+<td>2</td>
+<td>1744</td>
+<td align="right">851</td>
+<td align="right">12</td>
+<td>5-1/2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1700</td>
+<td align="right">661</td>
+<td align="right">7</td>
+<td>4-1/2</td>
+<td>1745</td>
+<td align="right">746</td>
+<td align="right">2</td>
+<td>7</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1701</td>
+<td align="right">487</td>
+<td align="right">13</td>
+<td>0</td>
+<td>1746</td>
+<td align="right">1003</td>
+<td align="right">14</td>
+<td>9-1/2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1702</td>
+<td align="right">413</td>
+<td align="right">14</td>
+<td>0-1/2</td>
+<td>1747</td>
+<td align="right">1071</td>
+<td align="right">7</td>
+<td>3</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1703</td>
+<td align="right">476</td>
+<td align="right">13</td>
+<td>10</td>
+<td>1748</td>
+<td align="right">1175</td>
+<td align="right">8</td>
+<td>7-1/2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1704</td>
+<td align="right">555</td>
+<td align="right">11</td>
+<td>11-1/2</td>
+<td>1749</td>
+<td align="right">1132</td>
+<td align="right">11</td>
+<td>7-1/2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1705</td>
+<td align="right">510</td>
+<td align="right">0</td>
+<td>10</td>
+<td>1750</td>
+<td align="right">1167</td>
+<td align="right">16</td>
+<td>6</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1706</td>
+<td align="right">519</td>
+<td align="right">3</td>
+<td>6</td>
+<td>1751</td>
+<td align="right">1352</td>
+<td align="right">0</td>
+<td>8-1/2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1707</td>
+<td align="right">609</td>
+<td align="right">0</td>
+<td>4-1/2</td>
+<td>1752</td>
+<td align="right">1355</td>
+<td align="right">6</td>
+<td>4</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1708</td>
+<td align="right">649</td>
+<td align="right">15</td>
+<td>9</td>
+<td>1756</td>
+<td align="right">3255</td>
+<td align="right">18</td>
+<td>3-1/4</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1709</td>
+<td align="right">744</td>
+<td align="right">17</td>
+<td>0-1/2</td>
+<td>1757</td>
+<td align="right">3402</td>
+<td align="right">7</td>
+<td>2-1/2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1710</td>
+<td align="right">960</td>
+<td align="right">8</td>
+<td>8-1/2</td>
+<td>1758</td>
+<td align="right">3306</td>
+<td align="right">12</td>
+<td>5</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1711</td>
+<td align="right">1055</td>
+<td align="right">2</td>
+<td>10</td>
+<td>1759</td>
+<td align="right">2708</td>
+<td align="right">9</td>
+<td>5-3/4</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1712</td>
+<td align="right">734</td>
+<td align="right">0</td>
+<td>11</td>
+<td>1760</td>
+<td align="right">3221</td>
+<td align="right">18</td>
+<td>7</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1713</td>
+<td align="right">674</td>
+<td align="right">7</td>
+<td>6</td>
+<td>1761</td>
+<td align="right">2935</td>
+<td align="right">4</td>
+<td>1-1/2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1714</td>
+<td align="right">722</td>
+<td align="right">15</td>
+<td>6-1/2</td>
+<td>1762</td>
+<td align="right">3078</td>
+<td align="right">18</td>
+<td>2-1/2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1715</td>
+<td align="right">718</td>
+<td align="right">2</td>
+<td>1</td>
+<td>1763</td>
+<td align="right">3330</td>
+<td align="right">13</td>
+<td>11-1/2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1716</td>
+<td align="right">788</td>
+<td align="right">3</td>
+<td>2-1/2</td>
+<td>1764</td>
+<td align="right">3963</td>
+<td align="right">11</td>
+<td>0-1/2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1717</td>
+<td align="right">764</td>
+<td align="right">0</td>
+<td>6-1/2</td>
+<td>1765</td>
+<td align="right">3884</td>
+<td align="right">18</td>
+<td>9</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1718</td>
+<td align="right">751</td>
+<td align="right">2</td>
+<td>4</td>
+<td>1766</td>
+<td align="right">4716</td>
+<td align="right">2</td>
+<td>10-1/2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1719</td>
+<td align="right">1094</td>
+<td align="right">10</td>
+<td>7</td>
+<td>1767</td>
+<td align="right">4940</td>
+<td align="right">2</td>
+<td>2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1768</td>
+<td align="right">4798</td>
+<td align="right">2</td>
+<td>5</td>
+<td>1775</td>
+<td align="right">6509</td>
+<td align="right">10</td>
+<td>10</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1769</td>
+<td align="right">5082</td>
+<td align="right">0</td>
+<td>9</td>
+<td>1776</td>
+<td align="right">5203</td>
+<td align="right">4</td>
+<td>9-1/2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1770</td>
+<td align="right">5125</td>
+<td align="right">13</td>
+<td>2-1/4</td>
+<td>1777</td>
+<td align="right">6012</td>
+<td align="right">5</td>
+<td>5</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1771</td>
+<td align="right">6132</td>
+<td align="right">5</td>
+<td>10</td>
+<td>1778</td>
+<td align="right">6866</td>
+<td align="right">10</td>
+<td>8-1/2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1772</td>
+<td align="right">6139</td>
+<td align="right">6</td>
+<td>5-1/2</td>
+<td>1779</td>
+<td align="right">8081</td>
+<td align="right">19</td>
+<td>7-1/2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1773</td>
+<td align="right">5584</td>
+<td align="right">18</td>
+<td>8-1/2</td>
+<td>1780</td>
+<td align="right">9910</td>
+<td align="right">4</td>
+<td>11-3/4</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1774</td>
+<td align="right">6115</td>
+<td align="right">17</td>
+<td>11</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</center>
+<br>
+<p>We cannot pass through this spacious edifice without being
+pleased with its internal oeconomy; order influences the whole, nor
+can the cleanliness be exceeded: but I am extremely concerned, that
+I cannot pass through without complaint.</p>
+<p>There are evils in common life which admit of no remedy; but
+there are very few which may not be lessened by prudence.</p>
+<p>The modes of nursing infancy in this little dominion of poverty,
+are truly defective. It is to be feared the method intended to
+train up inhabitants for the earth, annually furnishes the regions
+of the grave.</p>
+<p>Why is so little attention paid to the generation who are to
+tread the stage after us? as if we suffered them to be cut off that
+we might keep possession for ever. The unfortunate orphan that none
+will own, none will regard: distress, in whatever form it appears,
+excites compassion, but particularly in the helpless. Whoever puts
+an infant into the arms of decrepit old age, passes upon it a
+sentence of death, and happy is that infant who finds a reprieve.
+The tender sprig is not likely to prosper under the influence of
+the tree which attracts its nurture; applies that nurture to
+itself, where the calls occasioned by decay are the most
+powerful--An old woman and a sprightly nurse, are characters as
+opposite as the antipodes.</p>
+<p>If we could but exercise a proper care during the first two
+years, the child would afterwards nurse itself; there is not a more
+active animal in the creation, no part of its time, while awake, is
+unemployed: why then do we invert nature, and confine an animal to
+still life, in what is called a school, who is designed for
+action?</p>
+<p>We cannot with indifference behold infants crouded into a room
+by the hundred, commanded perhaps by some disbanded soldier, termed
+a school-master, who having changed the sword for the rod,
+continues much inclined to draw blood with his arms; where every
+individual not only re breathes his own air, but that of another:
+the whole assembly is composed of the feeble, the afflicted, the
+maimed, and the orphan; the result of whose confinement, is a
+fallow aspect, and a sickly frame: but the paltry grains of
+knowledge gleaned up by the child in this barren field of learning,
+will never profit him two-pence in future; whereas, if we could
+introduce a robust habit, he would one day be a treasure to the
+community, and a greater to himself. Till he is initiated into
+labour, a good foundation for health may be laid in air and
+exercise.</p>
+<p>Whenever I see half a dozen of these forlorn innocents quartered
+upon a farm house, a group of them taking the air under the conduct
+of a senior, or marshalled in rank and file to attend public
+worship, I consider the overseer who directed it, as possessed of
+tender feelings: their orderly attire, and simplicity of manners,
+convey a degree of pleasure to the mind; and I behold in them, the
+future support of that commercial interest; upon which they now lie
+as a burden.</p>
+<p>If I have dwelt long upon the little part of our species, let it
+plead my excuse to say, I cannot view a human being, however
+diminutive in stature, or depressed in fortune, without
+considering, <i>I view an equal</i>.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="OLD_CROSS"></a>OLD CROSS,</h2>
+<br>
+<p>So called, because prior to the Welch Cross; before the erection
+of this last, it was simply called, The Cross.</p>
+<p>The use of the market cross is very ancient, though not equal to
+the market, for this began with civilization.</p>
+<p>Christianity first appeared in Britain under the Romans; but in
+the sixth century, under the Saxon government, it had made such an
+amazing progress, that every man seemed to be not only <i>almost a
+Christian</i>, but it was unfashionable not to have been a zealous
+one. The cross of Christ was frequently mentioned in conversation,
+and afterwards became an oath. It was hacknied about the streets,
+sometimes in the pocket, or about the neck; sometimes it was fixed
+upon the church, which we see at this day, and always hoisted to
+the top of the steeple. The rudiments of learning began with the
+cross; hence it stands to this moment as a frontispiece to the
+battledore, which likewise bears its name.</p>
+<p>This important article of religion was thought to answer two
+valuable purposes, that of collecting the people; and containing a
+charm against ghosts, evil spirits, etc. with the idea of which,
+that age was much infested.</p>
+<p>To accomplish these singular ends, it was blended into the
+common actions of life, and at that period it entered the
+market-place. A few circular steps from the centre of which issued
+an elevated pillar, terminating in a cross, was the general fashion
+throughout the kingdom; and perhaps our Vulcanian ancestors knew no
+other for twelve hundred years, this being renewed about once every
+century, 'till the year 1702, when the present cross was erected,
+at the expence of 80<i>l</i>. 9s. 1d. This was the first upon that
+spot, ever honoured with a roof: the under part was found a useful
+shelter for the market-people. The room over it was designed for
+the court leet, and other public business, which during the
+residence of the lords upon the manor, had been transacted in one
+of their detached apartments, yet in being: but after the removal
+of the lords, in 1537, the business was done in the Leather-hall,
+which occupied the whole east end of New-street, a covered gateway
+of twelve feet excepted, and afterwards in the Old Cross.</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image14a.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image14a.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image14a.jpg" width="45%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b><i>Welch Cross</i>.</b></p>
+<br>
+<a name="image14b.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image14b.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image14b.jpg" width="45%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b><i>Old Cross</i>.</b></p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="WELCH_CROSS."></a>WELCH CROSS.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>If a reader, fond of antiquity, should object, that I have
+comprized the <i>Ancient state of Birmingham</i> in too small a
+compass, and that I ought to have extended it beyond the 39th page;
+I answer, when a man has not much to say, he ought to be hissed out
+of authorship, if he picks the pocket of his friend, by saying
+much; neither does antiquity end with that page, for in some of the
+chapters, I have led him through the mazes of time, to present him
+with a modern prospect.</p>
+<p>In erecting a new building, we generally use the few materials
+of the old, as far as they will extend. Birmingham may be
+considered as one vast and modern edifice, of which the ancient
+materials make but a very small part: the extensive <i>new</i>,
+seems to surround the minute <i>old</i>, as if to protect it.</p>
+<p>Upon the spot where the Welch Cross now stands, probably stood a
+finger-post, to direct the stranger that could read, for there were
+not many, the roads to Wolverhampton and Lichfield.</p>
+<p>Though the ancient post, and the modern cross, might succeed
+each other, yet this difference was between them, one stood at a
+distance from the town, the other stands near its centre.</p>
+<p>By some antique writings it appears, that 200 years ago this
+spot bore the name of the Welch End, perhaps from the number of
+Welch in its neighbourhood; or rather, from its being the great
+road to that principality, and was at that time the extremity of
+the town, odd houses excepted. This is corroborated by a
+circumstance I have twice mentioned already, that when Birmingham
+unfortunately fell under the frowns of Prince Rupert, 137 years
+ago, and he determined to reduce it to ashes for succouring an
+enemy, it is reasonable to suppose he began at the exterior, which
+was then in Bull-street, about twelve houses above the cross.</p>
+<p>If we were ignorant of the date of this cross, the style of the
+building itself would inform us, that it rose in the beginning of
+the present century, and was designed, as population encreased, for
+a Saturday market; yet, although it is used in some degree for that
+purpose, the people never heartily adopted the measure.</p>
+<p>In a town like Birmingham, a commodious market-place, for we
+have nothing that bears the name, would be extremely useful.
+Efforts have been used to make one, of a large area, now a
+bowling-green, in Corbet's-alley; but I am persuaded the
+market-people would suffer the grass to grow in it, as peaceably as
+in their own fields. We are not easily drawn from ancient custom,
+except by interest.</p>
+<p>For want of a convenient place where the sellers may be
+collected into one point, they are scattered into various parts of
+the town. Corn is sold by sample, in the Bull-ring; the eatable
+productions of the garden, in the same place: butchers stalls
+occupy Spiceal-street; one would think a narrow street was
+preferred, that no customer should be suffered to pass by. Flowers,
+shrubs, etc. at the ends of Philip-street and Moor-street: beds of
+earthen-ware lie in the middle of the foot ways; and a double range
+of insignificant stalls, in the front of the shambles, choak up the
+passage: the beast market is kept in Dale-end: that for pigs, sheep
+and horses in New-street: cheese issues from one of our principal
+inns: fruit, fowls and butter are sold at the Old Cross: nay, it is
+difficult to mention a place where they are not. We may observe, if
+a man hath an article to sell which another wants to buy, they will
+quickly find each other out.</p>
+<p>Though the market-inconveniencies are great, a man seldom brings
+a commodity for the support of life, or of luxury, and returns
+without a customer. Yet even this crowded state of the market,
+dangerous to the feeble, hath its advantages: much business is
+transacted in a little time; the first customer is obliged to use
+dispatch, before he is justled out by a second: to <i>stand all the
+day idle in the market place</i>, is not known among us.</p>
+<p>The upper room of this cross is appropriated for a military
+guard-house. We find, December 16, 1723, an order made at a public
+meeting, that "A guard house should be erected in a convenient part
+of the town, because neither of the crosses were eligible." But
+this old order, like some of the new, was never carried into
+execution. As no complaint lies against the cross, in our time, we
+may suppose it suitable for the purpose; and I know none but its
+prisoners that pronounce against it.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="SAINT_MARTINS"></a>SAINT MARTIN's.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>It has been remarked, that the antiquity of this church is too
+remote for historical light.</p>
+<p>The curious records of those dark ages, not being multiplied,
+and preserved by the art of printing, have fallen a prey to time,
+and the revolution of things.</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image15.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image15.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image15.jpg" width="45%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b><i>Saint Martin's Church</i>.</b></p>
+<br>
+<p>There is reason for fixing the foundation in the eighth century,
+perhaps rather sooner, and it then was at a small distance from the
+buildings. The town stood upon the hill, whose centre was the Old
+Cross; consequently, the ring of houses that now surrounds the
+church, from the bottom of Edgbaston-street, part of
+Spiceal-street, the Bull-ring, Corn-cheaping, and St.
+Martin's-lane, could not exist.</p>
+<p>I am inclined to think that the precincts of St. Martin's have
+undergone a mutilation, and that the place which has obtained the
+modern name of Bull-ring, and which is used as a market for corn
+and herbs, was once an appropriation of the church, though not used
+for internment; because the church is evidently calculated for a
+town of some size, to which the present church-yard no way agrees,
+being so extremely small that the ancient dead must have been
+continually disturbed, to make way for the modern, that little spot
+being their only receptacle for 900 years.</p>
+<p>A son not only succeeds his father in the possession of his
+property and habitation, but also in the grave, where he can
+scarcely enter without expelling half a dozen of his ancestors.</p>
+<p>The antiquity of St. Martin's will appear by surveying the
+adjacent ground. From the eminence upon which the High-street
+stands, proceeds a steep, and regular descent into Moor-street,
+Digbeth, down Spiceal-street, Lee's-lane, and Worcester-street.
+This descent is broken only by the church-yard; which, through a
+long course of internment, for ages, is augmented into a
+considerable hill, chiefly composed of the refuse of life. We may,
+therefore, safely remark, in this place, <i>the dead are raised
+up</i>. Nor shall we be surprised at the rapid growth of the hill,
+when we consider this little point of land was alone that hungry
+grave which devoured the whole inhabitants, during the long ages of
+existence, till the year 1715, when St. Philip's was opened. The
+curious observer will easily discover, the fabric has lost that
+symmetry which should ever attend architecture, by the growth of
+the soil about it, causing a low appearance in the building, so
+that instead of the church burying the dead, the dead would, in
+time, have buried the church.</p>
+<p>It is reasonable to allow, the original approach into this place
+was by a flight of steps, not by descent, as is the present case;
+and that the church-yard was surrounded by a low wall. As the
+ground swelled by the accumulation of the dead, wall after wall was
+added to support the growing soil; thus the fence and the hill
+sprang up together; but this was demonstrated, August 27, 1781,
+when, in removing two or three old houses, to widen St. Martin's
+Lane, they took down the church-yard wall, which was fifteen feet
+high without, and three within. This proved to be only an outward
+case, that covered another wall twelve feet high; in the front of
+which was a stone, elevated eight feet, and inscribed, "Robert
+Dallaway, Francis Burton." Church-wardens, anno dom. (supposed)
+"1310." As there is certain evidence, that the church is, much
+older then the above date, we should suspect there had been another
+fence many ages prior to this. But it was put beyond a doubt, when
+the workmen came to a third wall, four feet high, covered with
+antique coping, probably erected with the fabric itself, which
+would lead us far back into the Saxon times.</p>
+<p>The removal of the buildings to accommodate the street, the
+construction of the wall, beautified with pallisades, is
+<i>half</i> an elegant plan, well executed. If we can persuade
+ourselves to perform the other half, by removing the remainder of
+the buildings, and continuing the line to the steps, at the bottom
+of Spiceal-street, the work will stand in the front of modern
+improvement.</p>
+<p>In the south-east part of the wall, covered by the engine-house,
+upon another stone, nearly obliterated, is, John Enser, Richard
+Higginson, Church-wardens, 1709.</p>
+<p>Other church-yards are ornamented with the front of the
+buildings, but that of St. Martin submits to the rear.</p>
+<p>The present church is of stone; the first upon the premises; and
+perhaps the oldest building in these parts.</p>
+<p>As the country does not produce stone of a lasting texture, and
+as the rough blasts of 900 years, had made inroads upon the fabric,
+it was thought necessary, in 1690, to case both church and steeple
+with brick, except the spire, which is an elegant one. The bricks
+and the workmanship are excellent.</p>
+<p>Though the fabric is not void of beauty, yet being closely
+surrounded with houses, which destroy the medium of view, that
+beauty is totally hid.</p>
+<p>The steeple has, within memory, been three times injured by
+lightning. Forty feet of the spire, in a decayed state, was taken
+down and rebuilt in 1781, with stone from Attleborough, near
+Nuneaton; and strengthened by a spindle of iron, running up its
+centre 105 feet long, secured to the side walls every ten feet, by
+braces--the expence, 165<i>l</i>. 16s.</p>
+<p>Inclosed is a ring of twelve musical bells, and though I am not
+master of the bob major and tripple-grandfire, yet am well
+informed, the ringers are masters of the bell-rope: but to excel in
+Birmingham is not new.</p>
+<p>The seats in the church would disgrace a meaner parish than that
+of Birmingham; one should be tempted to think, they are the first
+ever erected upon the spot, without taste or order: the timber is
+become hard with age, and to the honour of the inhabitants, bright
+with use. Each sitting is a private freehold, and is farther
+disgraced, like the coffin of a pauper, with the paltry initials of
+the owner's name. These divine abodes are secured with the coarse
+padlocks of a field gate.</p>
+<p>By an attentive survey of the seats, we plainly discover the
+increasing population of Birmingham. When the church was erected,
+there was doubtless sufficient room for the inhabitants, and it was
+probably the only place for public worship during 800 years: as the
+town increased, gallery after gallery was erected, 'till no
+conveniency was found for more. Invention was afterwards exerted to
+augment the number of sittings; every recess capable only of
+admitting the body of an infant, was converted into a seat, which
+indicates, the continual increase of people, and, that a spirit of
+devotion was prevalent among them.</p>
+<p>The floor of the church is greatly injured by internment, as is
+also the light, by the near approach of the buildings,
+notwithstanding, in 1733, the middle roof of the chancel was taken
+off, and the side walls raised about nine feet, to admit a double
+range of windows.</p>
+<p>Dugdale, who wrote in 1640, gives us twenty-two drawings of the
+arms, in the windows, of those gentry who had connection with
+Birmingham.</p>
+<br>
+<center>
+<table summary="">
+<tr>
+<td>1. Astley.</td>
+<td>10. Freville.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>2. Sumeri.</td>
+<td>11. Ancient Birmingham.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>3. Ancient Birmingham.</td>
+<td>12. Knell.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>4. Ancient Birmingham,</td>
+<td>13. Fitz-Warrer.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;the 2nd house.</td>
+<td>14. Montalt.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>5. Seagreve.</td>
+<td>15. Modern Birmingham.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>6. Modern Birmingham.</td>
+<td>16. Hampden.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>7. Ancient and modern</td>
+<td>17. Burdet.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Birmingham,</td>
+<td>18. Montalt.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;quartered.</td>
+<td>19. Modern Birmingham.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>8. Peshale quartering</td>
+<td>20. Beauchamp.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Bottetort.</td>
+<td>21. Ferrers.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>9. Birmingham quartering</td>
+<td>22. Latimere.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Wyrley.</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</center>
+<br>
+<p>These twenty-two coats are now reduced to three, which are,</p>
+<p>Number two, in the east window of the chancel, which is <i>or,
+two lions passant azure</i>, the arms of the family of Someri,
+Lords of Dudley-castle, and superior Lords of Birmingham; which
+having been extinct about 450 years, the coat of arms must have
+been there at least during that period.</p>
+<p>Number three, in the south window of the chancel, <i>azure, a
+bend lozenge of five points, or</i>, the ancient arms of the family
+of Birmingham, which perhaps is upwards of 400 years old, as that
+coat was not used after the days of Edward the First, except in
+quarterings.</p>
+<p>And number ten, in the north window, <i>or, a cross, indented
+gules</i>; also, <i>five fleurs de lis</i>, the ancient arms of
+Freville, Lords of Tamworth, whose ancestor, Marmion, received a
+grant of that castle from William the Conqueror, and whose
+descendant, Lord Viscount Townshend, is the present proprietor.
+Perhaps this coat hath been there 400 years, for the male line of
+the Freville family, was extinct in the reign of Henry the
+Fourth.</p>
+<p>Under the south window of the chancel, by the door, are two
+monuments a-breast, of white marble, much injured by the hand of
+rude time, and more by that of the ruder boys. The left figure,
+which is very ancient, I take to be William de Birmingham, who was
+made prisoner by the French, at the siege of Bellegard, in the 25th
+of Edward the First, 1297. He wears a short mantle, which was the
+dress of that time, a sword, expressive of the military order, and
+he also bears a shield with the bend lozenge, which seems never to
+have been borne after the above date.</p>
+<p>The right hand figure, next the wall, is visibly marked with a
+much older date, perhaps about the conquest. The effigy does not
+appear in a military character, neither did the Lords of that
+period. The value of these ancient relicts have long claimed the
+care of the wardens, to preserve them from the injurious hand of
+the boys, and the foot of the window cleaner, by securing them with
+a pallisade. Even Westminster abbey, famous for departed glory,
+cannot produce a monument of equal antiquity.</p>
+<p>At the foot of these, is another of the same materials,
+belonging to one of the Marrows, Lords of Birmingham.</p>
+<p>Under the north east window, is a monument of white marble,
+belonging to one of the Lords of the house of Birmingham: but this
+is of modern date compared with the others, perhaps not more than
+300 years; he bearing the <i>parte per pale, indented or, and
+gules</i>.</p>
+<p>In the church is an excellent organ, and in the steeple a set of
+chimes, where the ingenious artist treats us with a fresh tune
+every day of the week.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>Upon one of the CENTRE PILLARS.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Here lieth the bodies of William Colmore, Gent. who died in
+1607, and Ann his wife, in 1591: also the body of Henry Willoughby,
+Esq; father to Frances, wife of William Colmore, now living; he
+died 1609.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>NORTH GALLERY.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>John Crowley, in 1709, gave twenty shillings per annum, payable
+out of the lowermost house in the Priory, to be distributed in
+bread, in the church on St. John's day, to house-keepers in
+Birmingham, who receive no pay.</p>
+<p>Joseph Hopkins died in 1683, who gave 200<i>l</i>. with which an
+estate was purchased in Sutton Coldfield; the rents to be laid out
+in coats, gowns, and other relief for the poor of Birmingham: he
+also gave 200<i>l</i>. for the poor of Wednesbury: 200<i>l</i>. to
+distresed quakers: 5<i>l</i>. 10s. to the poor of Birmingham, and
+the same sum to those of Wednesbury, at his death.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>SAME GALLERY.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Whereas the church of St. Martin's, in Birmingham, had only 52
+ounces of plate, in 1708, for the use of the communion table; it
+was, by a voluntary subscription of the inhabitants, increased to
+275--Two flaggons, two cups, two covers and pattens, with cases:
+the whole, 80<i>l</i>. 16s. 6d.</p>
+<p>Richard Banner ordered one hundred pounds to be laid out in
+lands within ten miles of Birmingham; which sum, lying at interest,
+and other small donations being added, amounted to 170<i>l</i>.
+with which an estate at Erdington, value 81. 10s. per annum, was
+purchased for the poor of Birmingham.</p>
+<p>Richard Kilcup gave a house and garden at Spark-brook, for the
+church and poor.</p>
+<p>John Cooper gave a croft for making of love-days (merriments)
+among Birmingham men.</p>
+<p>William Rixam gave a house in Spiceal-street, No. 26, for the
+use of the poor, in 1568.</p>
+<p>John Ward, in 1591, gave a house and lands in Marston Culey.</p>
+<p>William Colmore gave ten shillings per ann. payable out of the
+house, No. 1, High-street.</p>
+<p>John Shelton gave ten shillings per annum, issuing out of a
+house occupied by Martin Day.</p>
+<p>Several of the above donations are included in Lench's
+trust.</p>
+<p>John Peak gave a chest bound with iron for the use of the
+church; seemingly about 200 years old, and of 200 lb. weight.</p>
+<p>Edward Smith gave 20<i>l</i>. per ann. to the poor, in 1612, and
+also erected the pulpit.</p>
+<p>John Billingsley, in 1629, gave 26 shillings yearly, chargeable
+upon a house in Dale-end, to be given in bread, by six-pence every
+Sunday.</p>
+<p>One croft to find bell-ropes.</p>
+<p>Richard Dukesayle, in 1630, gave the utensils belonging to the
+communion table.</p>
+<p>Barnaby Smith, 1633, gave 20<i>l</i>. to be lent to ten poor
+tradesmen, at the discretion of the church-wardens for two or three
+years.</p>
+<p>Catharine Roberts, wife of Barnaby Smith, in 1642, gave
+20<i>l</i>. the interest of which was to be given to the poor, the
+first Friday in Lent.</p>
+<p>John Jennens, 1651, gave 2<i>l</i>. 10s. for the use of the
+poor, born and living in Birmingham; and also 20s. on St. Thomas's
+day.</p>
+<p>John Milward gave 26<i>l</i> per annum, lying in Bordesley: one
+third to the school-master of Birmingham, (Free-school); one third
+to the Principal of Brazen nose College, Oxford, for the
+maintenance of one scholar from Birmingham or Haverfordwest, and
+the remainder to the poor.</p>
+<p>Joseph Pemberton gave 40s. per annum, payable out of an estate
+at Tamworth, and 20s. out of an estate in Harbourne.</p>
+<p>Richard Smallbrook gave to the poor of Birmingham 10s. per
+annum, arising out of a salt vat in Droitwich.</p>
+<p>Robert Whittall gave the pall, or beere cloth.</p>
+<p>Widow Cooper, of the Talbot, No. 20, in High-street, gave one
+towel and one sheet, to wrap the poor in the grave.</p>
+<p>Mrs. Jennens gave 10<i>l</i>. per annum to support a lecture,
+the second and third Thursday in every month.</p>
+<p>The following offspring of charity seems to have expired at its
+birth, but rose from the dead a few months ago, after an internment
+of fifty-four years.</p>
+<p>The numerous family of Piddock flourished in great opulence for
+many ages, and though they were not lords of a manor, they were as
+rich as those who were: they yet boast, that their ancestors could
+walk seven miles upon their own land. It sometimes may be prudent,
+however, to believe only <i>half</i> what a man says; besides, a
+person with tolerable vigour of limb, might contrive to walk seven
+miles upon his own land, if he has but one acre--a lawyer is not
+the only man who can double.</p>
+<p>Perhaps they were possessed of the northern part of this parish,
+from Birmingham-heath to Shirland-brook, exclusive of many estates
+in the manors of Smethwick and Oldbury.</p>
+<p>Their decline continued many years, till one of them, in 1771,
+extinguished their greatness by a single dash of his pen, in
+selling the last foot of land.--I know some of them now in
+distress.</p>
+<p>William Piddock, in 1728, devised his farm at Winson-green,
+about nine acres, to his wife Sarah, during life, and at her death,
+to his nephews and executors William and John Riddall, their heirs
+and assigns for ever, in trust, for educating and putting out poor
+boys of Birmingham; or other discretional charities in the same
+parish.</p>
+<p>But William and John wisely considered, that they could not put
+the money into any pocket sooner than their own; that as the estate
+was in the family it was needless to disturb it; that as the will
+was not known to the world, there was no necessity to publish it;
+and, as it gave them a discretional power of disposal, they might
+as well consider themselves <i>the poor</i>, for they were both in
+the parish.</p>
+<p>There is nothing easier than to coin excuses for a fault;--there
+is nothing harder than to make them pass.</p>
+<p>What must be his state of mind, who is in continual
+apprehensions of a disgraceful discovery? No profits can compensate
+his feelings.</p>
+<p>Had the deviser been less charitable, William and John had been
+less guilty: the gift of one man becomes a temptation to another.
+These nine acres, from which the donor was to spring upwards, lay
+like a mountain on the breasts of William and John, tending to
+press them downwards. Although poverty makes many a rogue, yet had
+William and John been more poor, they would have been more
+innocent. The children themselves would have been the least gainers
+by the bequest, for, without this legacy, they could just as well
+have procured trades; the profit would have centered in the
+inhabitants, by softening their levies.--Thus a donation runs
+through many a private channel, unseen by the giver.</p>
+<p>Matters continued in this torpid state till 1782, when a quarrel
+between the brothers and a tenant, broke the enchantment, and
+shewed the actors in real view.</p>
+<p>The officers, in behalf of the town, filed a bill in Chancery,
+and recovered the dormant property, which was committed in trust
+to</p>
+<blockquote>John Dymock Griffith,<br>
+John Harwood,<br>
+Thomas Archer,&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&gt;
+Overseers, 1781.<br>
+William Hunt,<br>
+Joseph Robinson,<br>
+James Rollason,<br>
+<br>
+John
+Holmes,&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&gt;
+Constables, 1782.<br>
+Thomas Barrs,<br>
+Joseph Sheldon,<br>
+Charles Primer,&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&gt;
+Church-wardens,<br>
+William Dickenson,<br>
+Edmund Tompkins,<br>
+<br>
+Claud Johnson,<br>
+Nathaniel Lawrence,<br>
+Edward
+Homer,&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&gt;
+Overseers, 1782.<br>
+Thomas Cock,<br>
+Samuel Stretch,<br>
+Joseph Townsend,<br>
+John Startin.</blockquote>
+<p>The presentation of St. Martin's was vested in the family of
+Birmingham, until the year 1537, since which it has passed through
+the Dudleys, the Crown, the Marrows, the Smiths, and now rests in
+the family of Tennant.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>RECTORS.</h2>
+<center>
+<table summary="">
+<tr>
+<td>1300</td>
+<td>Thomas de Hinckleigh.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1304</td>
+<td>Stephen de Segrave.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1304</td>
+<td>John de Ayleston.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1336</td>
+<td>Robert de Shuteford.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1349</td>
+<td>William de Seggeley.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1354</td>
+<td>Thomas de Dumbleton.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1369</td>
+<td>Hugh de Wolvesey.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1396</td>
+<td>Thomas Darnall.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1412</td>
+<td>William Thomas.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1414</td>
+<td>Richard Slowther.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1428</td>
+<td>John Waryn.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1432</td>
+<td>William Hyde.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1433</td>
+<td>John Armstrong.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1433</td>
+<td>John Wardale.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1436</td>
+<td>Henry Symon.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1444</td>
+<td>Humphrey Jurdan.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1504</td>
+<td>Richard Button.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1536</td>
+<td>Richard Myddlemore.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1544</td>
+<td>William Wrixam.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1578</td>
+<td>Lucus Smith.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2"><i>Thus far Dugdale</i>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>----</td>
+<td>------ Smith.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1641</td>
+<td>Samuel Wills.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1654</td>
+<td>------ Slater.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1660</td>
+<td>John Riland.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1672</td>
+<td>Henry Grove.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>----</td>
+<td>William Daggett.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>----</td>
+<td>Thomas Tyrer.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1732</td>
+<td>Richard Dovey.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1771</td>
+<td>------ Chase.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1772</td>
+<td>John Parsons.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1779</td>
+<td>William Hinton, D.D.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1781</td>
+<td>Charles Curtis.</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</center>
+<p>During Cromwell's government, ---- Slater, a broken apothecary
+of this place, having been unsuccessful in curing the body,
+resolved to attempt curing the soul. He therefore, to repair his
+misfortunes, assumed the clerical character, and cast an eye on the
+rectory of St. Martin's; but he had many powerful opponents: among
+others were Jennens, an iron-master, possessor of Aston-furnace;
+Smallbroke, another wealthy inhabitant, and Sir Thomas Holt.</p>
+<p>However, he with difficulty, triumphed over his enemies, stept
+into the pulpit, and held the rectory till the restoration.</p>
+<p>Being determined, in his first sermon, to lash his enemies with
+the whip of those times, he told his people, "The Lord had carried
+him through many troubles; for he had passed, like Shadrach,
+Meshach, and Abednego, through the <i>fiery furnace</i>. And as the
+Lord had enabled the children of Israel to pass over the Red Sea,
+so he had assisted him in passing over the <i>Small-brooks</i>, and
+to overcome the strong <i>Holts</i> of sin and satan."</p>
+<p>At the restoration, suspecting the approach of the proper
+officers to expel him from the Parsonage-house, he crept into a
+hiding-place under the stairs; but, being discovered, was drawn out
+by force, and the place ever after, bore the name of <i>Slater's
+Hole</i>.</p>
+<p>John Riland succeeded him, who is celebrated for piety,
+learning, and a steady adherence to the interest of Charles the
+First; in whose cause he seems to have lost every thing he
+possessed, but his life. He was remarkable for compromising
+quarrels among his neighbours, often at an expence to himself; also
+for constantly carrying a charity box, to relieve the distress of
+others; and, though robbed of all himself, never thought he was
+poor, except when his box was empty.--He died in 1672, aged 53.</p>
+<p>A succeeding rector, William Daggett, is said to have understood
+the art of boxing, better than that of preaching: his clerk often
+felt the weightier argument of his hand. Meeting a quaker, whose
+profession, then in infancy, did not stand high in esteem, he
+offered some insults, which the other resenting, told him, "If he
+was not protected by his cloth, he would make him repent the
+indignity." Dagget immediately stripped, "There, now I have thrown
+off my protection."</p>
+<p>They fought--but the spiritual bruiser proved too hard for the
+injured quaker.</p>
+<p>Among the rectors we sometimes behold a magistrate; at others,
+those who for misconduct ought to have been taken before one.</p>
+<p>The rectory, in the King's books, was valued, in 1291, at
+5<i>l</i>. per annum; and, in 1536, at 19<i>l</i>. 3s. 6d.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><i>A terrier of the rectory, written by the rector,<br>
+about 1680</i>.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>A house wherein the present rector, Mr. Dagget, resides.
+[Parsonage-house.]</p>
+<p>Two other houses in Birmingham, [now three, at No. 15,
+Spiceal-street.]</p>
+<p>Three pieces of glebe land, nineteen acres, between the school
+land and Sheepcoat-lane.</p>
+<p>Three pieces, called the Five-way-closes twenty-one acres,
+bounded by the lands of Samuel Smallbroke, Esq; and Josiah
+Porter.</p>
+<p>One close, two acres, bounded by Lady-wood-lane.</p>
+<p>Parsons-meadow, two acres, bounded by the lands of Thomas Smith,
+Sir Richard Gough, and Sir Arthur Kaye.</p>
+<p>Horse pool-croft, half an acre, bounded by Bell's-barn-lane,
+[Brickiln-lane] the lands of Robert Phillips and Samuel Smallbrook,
+Esqrs.</p>
+<p>Tythe of all kinds of grain: but instead of hay, wool and lamb,
+a due of 12d. in the pound rent, called herbage, in all the parish,
+except foreign, wherein the custom is 4d. per acre for meadow land;
+3d. per acre for leas; 3d. for each lamb; 1d. 1/2 for a cow and
+calf: and except part of the estate of William Colmore, Esq; with
+the Hall-ring, Tanter-butts, Bell's-barns, [No. 1, Exeter-row] and
+Rings; for the herbage of which is paid annually 13s. 4d. and also,
+except part of the estate of Samuel Smallbrook, Esq; for which he
+pays 8s. per annum; and, except the estate of Thomas Weaman, called
+Whittall's-farm, [Catharine-street] for which he pays 2s. 8d.</p>
+<p>All the above estates pay the customary modus, whether in or out
+of tillage.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>SURPLICE FEES.</h2>
+<center>
+<table summary="">
+<tr>
+<th>&nbsp;</th>
+<th>Rector.</th>
+<th>Clerk,</th>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>s.</td>
+<td>d.</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>s.</td>
+<td>d.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>For burying in the church,</td>
+<td>1</td>
+<td>0</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>1</td>
+<td>0</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Ditto church-yard,</td>
+<td>0</td>
+<td>6</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>0</td>
+<td>6</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Churching a woman,</td>
+<td>0</td>
+<td>4</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>0</td>
+<td>4</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Marrying by licence,</td>
+<td>5</td>
+<td>0</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>2</td>
+<td>6</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Ditto without,</td>
+<td>2</td>
+<td>6</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>1</td>
+<td>0</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Tythe pig, if seven or upwards,</td>
+<td>0</td>
+<td>4</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>0</td>
+<td>0</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Easter dues, man and wife,</td>
+<td>0</td>
+<td>4</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>0</td>
+<td>0</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>---- each person above sixteen,</td>
+<td>0</td>
+<td>4</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>0</td>
+<td>0</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Clerk's salary 20s. paid by the wardens; also 2d.</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;from each house keeper at
+Easter.</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</center>
+<p>From the above terrier, I am inclined to value the income at
+about 90<i>l</i>. per annum.</p>
+<p>The benefice, in 1771, was about 350<i>l</i>. per annum: the
+late Rector, John Parsons, procured an act, in 1773, to enable the
+incumbent to grant building leases; the grant of a single lease, in
+1777, brought the annual addition of about 170<i>l</i>. The income
+is now about 700<i>l</i>. and is expected, at the expiration of the
+leases, to exceed 2000<i>l</i>.</p>
+<p>The repairs of the chancel belong to the rector, and the
+remainder of the building to the parish.</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image16.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image16.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image16.jpg" width="45%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b><i>St. Philip's Church</i>.</b></p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="SAINT_PHILLIPS"></a>SAINT PHILLIP's.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>We have touched upon various objects in our peregrinations
+through Birmingham, which meet with approbation, though viewed
+through the medium of smoke; some of these, being covered with the
+rust of time, command our veneration; but the prospect before us is
+wholly modern.</p>
+<p>We have mounted, by imperceptable gradations, from beauty to
+beauty, 'till we are now arrived at the summit.</p>
+<p>If an historian had written in the last century, he would have
+recorded but two places of worship; I am now recording the
+fourteenth: but my successor, if not prevented by our own
+imprudence, in driving away the spirit of commerce, may record the
+four-and-twentieth. The artist, who carries the manufactures among
+foreigners, or the overseer, who wantonly loads the people with
+burdens, draws the wrath of the place upon his own head.</p>
+<p>This curious piece of architecture, the steeple of which is
+erected after the model of St. Paul's, in London, but without its
+weight, does honour to the age that raised it, and to the place
+that contains it. Perhaps the eye of the critic cannot point out a
+fault, which the hand of the artist can mend: perhaps too, the
+attentive eye cannot survey this pile of building, without
+communicating to the mind a small degree of pleasure. If the
+materials are not proof against time, it is rather a misfortune to
+be lamented, than an error to be complained of, the country
+producing no better.</p>
+<p>Yet, amidst all the excellencies we boast, I am sorry to charge
+this chief ornament with an evil which admits no cure, that of not
+ranging with its own coemetery, or the adjacent buildings: out of
+seven streets, with which it is connected, it lines with
+none.--Like Deritend chapel, of which I have already complained,
+from a strong attachment to a point of religion, or of the compass,
+it appears twisted out of its place. We may be delighted with a
+human figure, complete in stature, exactly moulded with symmetry,
+and set off with the graces of dress; but we should be disgusted,
+if his right side seemed to attempt to out-walk his left.</p>
+<p>This defect, in religious architecture, arises from a strict
+adherence to the custom of the ancients, who fixed their altars
+towards the east. It is amasing, that even weakness itself, by long
+practice, becomes canonical; it gains credit by its age and its
+company. Hence, Sternhold and Hopkins, by being long bound up with
+scripture, acquired a kind of scripture authority.</p>
+<p>The ground, originally, was part of a farm, and bore the name of
+the Horse-close; afterwards <i>Barley-close</i>.--Thus a benign
+spot of earth, gave additional spirits to a man when living, and
+kindly covered him in its bosom when dead.</p>
+<p>This well chosen spot, is the summit of the highest eminence in
+Birmingham, with a descent every way; and, when the church was
+erected, there were not any buildings nearer than those in
+Bull-street.</p>
+<p>The land was the gift of Robert Phillips, Esq; whence the name,
+ancestor to William Theodore Inge, Esquire.</p>
+<p>In all degrees of people, from the bishop to the beadle, there
+seems a propensity in the mind to arrive at the honours of
+Sainthood: by joining our names in partnership with a faint, we
+share with him a red letter in the almanack.</p>
+<p>Out of six churches in Birmingham, three bear the names of the
+donors. St. Bartholomew's would, probably, have taken that of its
+founder, John Jennens, Esq; but that name happened to be
+anticipated by Sir John de Birmingham, who conferred it upon
+Deritend chapel. St. Mary's could readily perpetuate the name of
+its benefactress, because we had no place of worship that bore it.
+But as neither the popish, nor the protestant kalendar produced a
+St. Charles, the founder of St. Paul's was unfortunately
+excluded.</p>
+<p>The gifts, which the benefactor himself believes are charitable,
+and expects the world to believe the same, if scrutinized, will be
+found to originate from various causes--counterfeits are apt to be
+offered in currency for sterling.</p>
+<p>Perhaps <i>ostentation</i> has brought forth more acts of
+beneficence than charity herself; but, like an unkind parent, she
+disowns her offspring, and charges them upon charity.</p>
+<p>Ostentation is the root of charity; why else are we told, in
+capitals, by a large stone in the front of a building--"This
+hospital was erected by William Bilby, in the sixty-third year of
+his age, 1709." Or, "That John Moore, yeoman, of Worley Wigorn,
+built this school, in 1730."--Nay, pride even tempts us to strut in
+a second-hand robe of charity, left by another; or why do we
+read--"These alms-houses were erected by Lench's trust, in 1764. W.
+WALSINGHAM, BAILIFF."</p>
+<p>Another utters the word <i>charity</i>, and we rejoice in the
+echo. If we miss the substance, we grasp at the shadow.</p>
+<p>Sometimes we assign our property for religious uses, late in the
+evening of life, when <i>enjoyment</i> is over, and almost
+<i>possession</i>. Thus we bequeath to piety, what we can keep no
+longer. We convey our name to posterity at the expence of our
+successor, and scaffold our way towards heaven up the walls of a
+steeple.</p>
+<p>Will charity chalk up one additional score in our favour,
+because we grant a small portion of our land to found a church,
+which enables us to augment the remainder treble its value, by
+granting building leases? a man seldom makes a bargain for heaven,
+and forgets himself. Charity and self-interest, like the apple and
+the rind, are closely connected, and, like them, we cannot separate
+one without trespassing on the other.</p>
+<p>In contributions of the lesser kind, the giver examines the
+quantum given by those of his own station; <i>pride</i> will not
+suffer him to appear less than his neighbour.</p>
+<p>Sometimes he surrenders merely through importunity, which
+indicates as much <i>charity</i>, as the garrison does
+<i>merit</i>, which surrenders when closely besieged. Neither do we
+fear <i>our left hand knowing what our right hand doth</i>, our
+only fear is, left the world should <i>not</i> know it.</p>
+<p>This superb edifice was begun by act of Parliament, in 1711,
+under a commission consisting of twenty of the neighbouring gentry,
+appointed by the bishop of the diocese, under his episcopal seal.
+Their commission was to end twelve months after the erection of the
+church.</p>
+<p>Though Birmingham ever was, and perhaps ever will be considered
+as one parish, yet a portion of land, about one hundred acres,
+nearly triangular, and about three fourths built up, was taken out
+of the centre of St. Martin's, like a shred of cloth out of a great
+coat, to make a less, and constituted a separate parish, by the
+appellation of St Philip's.</p>
+<p>We shall describe this new boundary by an imaginary journey, for
+a real one perhaps was never taken since the land was first laid
+out, nor ever will to the end of time.</p>
+<p>We include the warehouse, then of John Jenens, Esq; now No. 26,
+in High-street, penetrate through the buildings, till we come
+within twenty yards, of Moor-street, turn sharp to the left, cross
+the lower part of Castle-street, Carr's-lane, and New
+Meeting-street; pass close by the front of the Meeting-house,
+through Bank-alley, into Hen's-walk, having kept Moor-street about
+twenty yards to the right, all the way; we now enter that street,
+at the bottom of Hen's-walk, pass through the east part of
+Dale-end, through Stafford-street, Steelhouse-lane (then called
+Whittal-lane) Bull-lane (then New-hall-lane) and
+Mount-pleasant.</p>
+<p>Our journey now leads us on the west of Pinfold-street, keeping
+it about twenty yards on our left; up Peck-lane, till we come near
+the top, when we turn to the right, keeping the buildings, with the
+Free-school in New street, on our left, into Swan-alley. We now
+turn up the Alley into New-street, then to the right, which leads
+us to the Party-wall, between No. 25 and 26, in High-street, late
+Jennens's, where we began.</p>
+<p>In the new parish I have described, and during the journey, kept
+on the left, there seems to have been, at passing the act, twelve
+closes, all which are filled with buildings, except the land
+between New-street and Mount-pleasant, which only waits a word from
+the owner, to speak the houses into being.</p>
+<p>The church was consecrated in 1715, and finished in 1719, the
+work of eight years; at which time the commissioners resigned their
+powers into the hands of the diocesan, in whom is the presentation,
+after having paid, it is said, the trifling sum of
+5012<i>l</i>.--but perhaps such a work could not be completed for
+20,000<i>l</i>.</p>
+<p>Three reasons may be assigned, why so small a sum was expended;
+many of the materials were given; more of the carriage, and some
+heavy debts were contracted.</p>
+<p>The urns upon the parapet of the church, which are highly
+ornamental, were fixed at the same time with those of the school,
+in about 1756.</p>
+<p>When I first saw St. Philip's, in the year 1741, at a proper
+distance, uncrowded with houses, for there were none to the north,
+New-hall excepted, untarnished with smoke, and illuminated by a
+western sun, I was delighted with its appearance, and thought it
+then, what I do now, and what others will in future, <i>the pride
+of the place</i>.</p>
+<p>If we assemble the beauties of the edifice, which cover a rood
+of ground; the spacious area of the church-yard, occupying four
+acres; ornamented with walks in great perfection; shaded with trees
+in double and treble ranks; and surrounded with buildings in
+elegant taste: perhaps its equal cannot be found in the British
+dominions.</p>
+<p>The steeple, 'till the year 1751, contained a peal of six bells,
+which were then augmented to ten; at which time St. Martin's, the
+mother church, having only eight, could not bear to be out-numbered
+by a junior, though of superior elegance, therefore ordered twelve
+into her own steeple: but as room was insufficient for the
+admission of bells by the dozen, means were found to hoist them
+tier over tier. Though the round dozen is a complete number in the
+counting-house, it is not altogether so in the belfry: the octave
+is the most perfect concord in music, but diminishes by rising to
+an octave and a half; neither can that dozen well be crowded into
+the peal.</p>
+<p>But perhaps the artist had another grand scheme in view, that of
+accommodating the town with the additional harmony of the chimes;
+for only a few tunes can be played on the octave, whilst the dozen
+will compass nearly all.</p>
+<p>Whether we are entertained even by this <i>exalted</i> style of
+music, admits a doubt; for instead of the curious ear being charmed
+with distinct notes, we only hear a bustle of confused sounds,
+which baffle the attention too much to keep pace with the tune.</p>
+<p>These two steeples, are our <i>public</i> band of music: they
+are the only <i>standing</i> Waits of the place. Two thousand
+people may be accommodated in the church, but, at times, it has
+contained near three thousand.</p>
+<p>In the vestry is a theological library, bequeathed by the first
+rector, William Higgs, for the use of the clergy in Birmingham and
+its neighbourhood; who left 200<i>l</i>. for future purchase.</p>
+<p>Under the centre isle runs a vault, the whole length of the
+church, for the reception of those who chuse to pay an additional
+guinea.</p>
+<p>The organ excels; the paintings, mouldings and gildings are
+superb: whether the stranger takes an external or an internal
+survey, the eye is struck with delight, and he pronounces the whole
+the work of a matter. Its conveniency also, can only be equalled by
+its elegance.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>In the FRONT GALLERY.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Upon application of Sir Richard Gough, to Sir Robert Walpole,
+then in power, George the First gave 600<i>l</i>. in 1725, towards
+finishing this church.</p>
+<p>Three remarks naturally arise from this declaration; That the
+prodigious sums expended upon this pious undertaking, were beyond
+the ability of the inhabitants; that the debts contracted, were
+many years in discharging; and that one of the best of Kings, the
+head of the Brunswick line, bestowed a liberal benefaction upon a
+people not compleatly reconciled to his house.</p>
+<p>Whether monumental decoration adds beauty to a place already
+beautiful, is a question. There are three very small and very
+elegant monuments in this church. Upon one of the south pillars, is
+that of the above William Higgs, who died in 1733. Upon another is
+that of William Vyse, the second rector, who died in 1770, at the
+age of 61. And, upon a north pillar, that of Girton Peak, Esq; an
+humane magistrate, who died in 1770, aged 48.</p>
+<p>Internment in the church is wisely prohibited; an indecency
+incompatible with a civilized people. The foreigner will be apt to
+hold forth the barbarity of the English nation, by observing, "They
+introduce corruption in their very churches, and pay divine
+adoration upon the graves of their ancestors."</p>
+<p>Places of worship were designed for the living, the dead give up
+their title with their life: besides, even small degrees of
+putrefaction, confined in a room where the air cannot circulate,
+may become prejudicial to health: it also ruins the pavement, as is
+done at St. Martin's. Our first inhabitants, therefore, lie
+contented in the church yard, by their unfortunate equals; having
+private sepulchres appropriated for family use--Perhaps at the last
+day, no inquiry will be made whether they lay on the in, or the
+outside of the walls.</p>
+<p>It is difficult to traverse the elegant walks that surround this
+gulf of death, without contemplating, that time is drawing us
+towards the same focus, and that we shall shortly fall into the
+centre: that this irregular circle contains what was once generous
+and beautiful, opulent and humane. The arts took their rise in this
+fruitful soil: this is the grave of invention and of industry; here
+those who figured upon the stage are fallen, to make way for
+others, who must follow: though multitudes unite with the dead, the
+numbers of the living increase; the inhabitants change, while the
+genius improves. We cannot pass on without reading upon the stones,
+the short existence of our departed friends, perusing the end of a
+life with which we were well acquainted. The active motion that
+veered with the rude blasts of seventy years, slops in this point
+for ever.</p>
+<p>The present rector, who is the third, is the Rev. Charles
+Newling, and the benefice something like the following:</p>
+<center>
+<table summary="">
+<tr>
+<th>&nbsp;</th>
+<th><b>l.</b></th>
+<th><b>s</b>.</th>
+<th><b>d.</b></th>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>A prebendal stall in the cathedral</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;church of Lichfield,</td>
+<td align="right">6</td>
+<td align="right">0</td>
+<td>0</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Eight acres and a half of glebe land,</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;at Long bridge, near
+Birmingham,</td>
+<td align="right">32</td>
+<td align="right">0</td>
+<td>0</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Emoluments arising from the seats of</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;the church,</td>
+<td align="right">140</td>
+<td align="right">0</td>
+<td>0</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Surplice fees,</td>
+<td align="right">50</td>
+<td align="right">0</td>
+<td>0</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Easter offerings,</td>
+<td align="right">10</td>
+<td align="right">0</td>
+<td>0</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>An estate at Sawley, in the county of</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Derby, under lease for three
+lives,</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;renewable by fine, at the
+annual</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;rent of</td>
+<td align="right">66</td>
+<td align="right">13</td>
+<td>4</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td colspan="3">------------</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right">304</td>
+<td align="right">13</td>
+<td>4</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Out of which is paid to the rector</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;of St. Martin's, in
+consideration</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;fees and offerings once
+appropriated</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;to that church,</td>
+<td align="right">15</td>
+<td align="right">0</td>
+<td>0</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td colspan="3">-----------</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right">289</td>
+<td align="right">13</td>
+<td>4</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</center>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="BIRTHS_AND_BURIALS."></a>BIRTHS AND BURIALS.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>There are many inducements for an author to take up the pen, but
+the leading motives, however disguised, seem to be pride and
+poverty; hence, two of the most despicable things among men,
+furnish the world with knowledge.</p>
+<p>One would think, however, there can be no great inducement for a
+man to write what he is conscious will never be read. Under this
+class may be comprehended alphabetical collections, chronological
+tables, books of figures, occasional devotions, etc. here also I
+range the lists of officers in Birmingham, the annual sums expended
+upon the poor, and the present chapter of numbers. These are
+intended for occasional inspection, rather than for regular
+perusal: we may consider them as deserts served up for a taste
+only, not a dinner; yet even this rule may be broken by a resolute
+reader, for the late Joseph Scott, Esq; founder of the trust
+before-mentioned, assured me, in 1751, that he had perused Bailey's
+Dictionary as methodically as he had done Tom Jones; and, though a
+dissenter, he continued to read the Common Prayer Book from end to
+end, about twice a year; which is more than, perhaps, the greatest
+lover of that excellent composition can boast.</p>
+<p>I shall, to avoid prolixity in a barren chapter of the two
+extremes of life, select about every tenth year from the register.
+Those years at the time of the plague, make no addition to the
+burials, because the unhappy victims were conveyed to Lady-wood for
+internment.</p>
+<p>These lists inform us, that the number of streets, houses,
+inhabitants, births, burials, poor's rates, and commercial
+productions, increase with equal rapidity. It appears also from the
+register, that there were more christenings lately at St. Martin's,
+in one day, than the whole town produced in a year, in the 16th
+century--The same may be found in that of St. Phillip's.</p>
+<p>The deaths in Deritend are omitted, being involved with those of
+Aston.</p>
+<br>
+<center>
+<table summary="">
+<tr>
+<th>Year.</th>
+<th>&nbsp;&nbsp;Births.</th>
+<th>&nbsp;&nbsp;Burials.</th>
+<th>&nbsp;&nbsp;Year.</th>
+<th>&nbsp;&nbsp;Births.</th>
+<th>&nbsp;&nbsp;Burials.</th>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1555</td>
+<td align="right">37</td>
+<td align="right">27</td>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;1667</td>
+<td align="right">146</td>
+<td align="right">140</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1560</td>
+<td align="right">--</td>
+<td align="right">37</td>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;1668</td>
+<td align="right">113</td>
+<td align="right">102</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1571</td>
+<td align="right">48</td>
+<td align="right">26</td>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;1681</td>
+<td align="right">251</td>
+<td align="right">139</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1580</td>
+<td align="right">37</td>
+<td align="right">25</td>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;1690</td>
+<td align="right">127</td>
+<td align="right">150</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1590</td>
+<td align="right">52</td>
+<td align="right">47</td>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;1700</td>
+<td align="right">172</td>
+<td align="right">171</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1600</td>
+<td align="right">62</td>
+<td align="right">32</td>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;1719</td>
+<td align="right">334</td>
+<td align="right">270</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1610</td>
+<td align="right">70</td>
+<td align="right">45</td>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;1720</td>
+<td align="right">423</td>
+<td align="right">355</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1623</td>
+<td align="right">81</td>
+<td align="right">66</td>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;1730</td>
+<td align="right">449</td>
+<td align="right">415</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1628</td>
+<td align="right">100</td>
+<td align="right">96</td>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;1740</td>
+<td align="right">520</td>
+<td align="right">573</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1653</td>
+<td align="right">--</td>
+<td align="right">47</td>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;1750</td>
+<td align="right">860</td>
+<td align="right">1020</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1660</td>
+<td align="right">--</td>
+<td align="right">75</td>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;1760</td>
+<td align="right">984</td>
+<td align="right">1143</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1665</td>
+<td align="right">--</td>
+<td align="right">109</td>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;1770</td>
+<td align="right">1329</td>
+<td align="right">899</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>1666</td>
+<td align="right">144</td>
+<td align="right">121</td>
+<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;1780</td>
+<td align="right">1636</td>
+<td align="right">1340</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</center>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="GENERAL_HOSPITAL."></a>GENERAL HOSPITAL.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Though charity is one of the most amiable qualities of humanity,
+yet, like Cupid, she ought to be represented blind; or, like
+Justice, hood-winked. None of the virtues have been so much
+misapplied; giving to the <i>hungry</i>, is sometimes only another
+word for giving to the <i>idle</i>. We know of but two ways in
+which this excellence can exert itself; improving the <i>mind</i>,
+and nourishing the <i>body</i>. To help him who <i>will not</i>
+help himself; or, indiscriminately to relieve those that want, is
+totally to mistake the end; for want is often met with: but to
+supply those who <i>cannot</i> supply themselves, becomes real
+charity. Some worthy Christians have taken it into their heads to
+relieve <i>all</i>, for fear of omitting the right. What should we
+think of the constable who seizes every person he meets with, for
+fear of missing the thief? Between the simple words, therefore, of
+WILL NOT and CANNOT, runs the fine barrier between real and
+mistaken charity.</p>
+<p>This virtue, so strongly inculcated by the christian system,
+hath, during the last seventeen centuries, appeared in a variety of
+forms, and some of them have been detrimental to the interest they
+were meant to serve: <i>Such was the cloister</i>. Man is not born
+altogether to serve himself, but the community; if he cannot exist
+without the assistance of others, it follows, that others ought to
+be assisted by him: but if condemned to obscurity in the cell, he
+is then fed by the aid of the public, while that public derives
+none from him.</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image17.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image17.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image17.jpg" width="60%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b><i>General Hospital</i>.</b></p>
+<br>
+<p>Estates have sometimes been devised in trust for particular
+uses, meant as charities by the giver, but have, in a few years,
+been diverted out of their original channel to other purposes.</p>
+<p>The trust themselves, like so many contending princes, ardently
+druggie for sovereignty; hence, <i>legacy</i> and <i>discord</i>
+are intimate companions.</p>
+<p>The plantation of many of our English schools sprang up from the
+will of the dead; but it is observable, that sterility quickly
+takes place; the establishment of the master being properly
+secured, supineness enters, and the young scions of learning are
+retarded in their growth.</p>
+<p>It therefore admits a doubt, whether charitable donation is
+beneficial to the world; nay, the estate itself becomes blasted
+when bequeathed to public use, for, being the freehold of none,
+none will improve it: besides, the more dead land, the less scope
+for industry.</p>
+<p>At the reformation, under Queen Elizabeth, charity seemed to
+take a different appearance: employment was found for the idle; he
+that was able, was obliged to labour, and the parish was obliged to
+assist him who could not. Hence the kingdom became replete with
+workhouses: these are the laudable repositories of distress.</p>
+<p>It has already been observed, that three classes of people merit
+the care of society: forlorn infancy, which is too weak for its own
+support; old age, which has served the community, without serving
+itself; and accidental calamity: the two first, fall under the eye
+of the parish, the last, under the modern institution of the
+General Hospital.</p>
+<p>The shell of this plain, but noble edifice, was erected in 1766,
+upon a situation very unsuitable for its elegant front, in a narrow
+dirty lane, with an aspect directing up the hill, which should ever
+be avoided.</p>
+<p>The amiable desire of doing good in the inhabitants, seemed to
+have exceeded their ability; and, to the grief of many, it lay
+dormant for twelve years. In 1778, the matter was revived with
+vigor; subscriptions filled apace, and by the next year the
+hospital was finished, at the expence of 7137<i>l</i>. 10s. Though
+the benefactions might not amount to this enormous sum, yet they
+were noble, and truly characteristic of a generous people. The
+annual subscriptions, as they stood at Michaelmas, 1779, were
+901<i>l</i>. 19s. and, at Midsummer, 1780, 932<i>l</i>. 8s. During
+these nine months, 529 patients were admitted, of which, 303 were
+cured, 93 relieved, 112 remained on the books, only 5 died, and but
+<i>one</i> was discharged as incurable; an incontestible proof of
+the <i>skill</i> of the faculty, which is at least equalled by
+their <i>humanity</i>, in giving their attendance gratis.</p>
+<p>The rules by which this excellent charity is conducted, are
+worthy of its authors: success hath fully answered expectation, and
+the building will probably stand for ages, to tell posterity a
+favourable tale of the present generation.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="PUBLIC_ROADS."></a>PUBLIC ROADS.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Man is evidently formed for society; the intercourse of one with
+another, like two blocks of marble in friction, reduces the rough
+prominences of behaviour, and gives a polish to the manners.</p>
+<p>Whatever tends to promote social connection, improve commerce,
+or stamp an additional value upon property, is worthy of
+attention.</p>
+<p>Perhaps, there is not a circumstance that points more favourably
+towards these great designs, than commodious roads.</p>
+<p>According as a country is improved in her roads, so will she
+stand in the scale of civilization. It is a characteristic by which
+we may pronounce with safety. The manners and the roads of the
+English, have been refining together for about 1700 years. If any
+period of time is distinguished with a more rapid improvement in
+one, it is also in the other.</p>
+<p>Our Saxons ancestors, of dusky memory, seldom stepped from under
+the smoke of Birmingham. We have a common observation among us,
+that even so late as William the Third, the roads were in so
+dangerous a state, that a man usually made his will, and took a
+formal fare-well of his friends, before he durst venture upon a
+journey to London; which, perhaps, was thought then, of as much
+consequence as a voyage to America now.</p>
+<p>A dangerous road is unfavourable both to commerce and to
+friendship; a man is unwilling to venture his neck to sell his
+productions, or even visit his friend: if a dreadful road lies
+between them, it will be apt to annihilate friendship.</p>
+<p>Landed property in particular, improves with the road. If a
+farmer cannot bring his produce to market, he cannot give much for
+his land, neither can that land well be improved, or the market
+properly supplied. Upon a well formed road, therefore, might, with
+propriety, be placed the figures of commerce, of friendship, and of
+agriculture, as presiding over it.</p>
+<p>There are but very few observations necessary in forming a road,
+and those few are very simple; to expel whatever is hurtful, and
+invite whatever is beneficial.</p>
+<p>The breaking up of a long frost, by loosening the foundations,
+is injurious, and very heavy carriages ought to be prevented, 'till
+the weather unites the disjointed particles, which will soon
+happen.</p>
+<p>But the grand enemy is water; and as this will inevitably fall,
+every means should be used to discharge it: drains ought to be
+frequent, that the water may not lie upon the road.</p>
+<p>The great benefits are <i>the sun</i> and the <i>wind:</i> the
+surveyor should use every method for the admission of these
+friendly aids, that they may dispel the moisture which cannot run
+off.</p>
+<p>For this purpose, all public roads ought to be sixty feet wide;
+all trees and hedges within thirty feet of the centre, be under the
+controul of the commissioners, with full liberty of drawing off the
+water in what manner they judge necessary.</p>
+<p>The Romans were the most accomplished masters we know of in this
+useful art; yet even they seem to have forgot the under drain, for
+it is evident at this day, where their road runs along the
+declivity of a hill, the water dams up, flows over, and injures the
+road.</p>
+<p>Care should be taken, in properly forming a road at first,
+otherwise you may botch it for a whole century, and at the end of
+that long period, it will be only a botch itself.</p>
+<p>A wide road will put the innocent traveller out of fear of the
+waggoners; not the most civilized of the human race.</p>
+<p>From Birmingham, as from a grand centre, issues twelve roads,
+that point to as many towns; some of these, within memory, have
+scarcely been passable; all are mended, but though much is done,
+more is wanted. In an upland country, like that about Birmingham,
+where there is no river of size, and where the heads only of the
+streams show themselves: the stranger would be surprised to hear,
+that through most of these twelve roads he cannot travel in a flood
+with safety. For want of causeways and bridges, the water is
+suffered to flow over the road, higher than the stirrup: every
+stream, though only the size of a tobacco-pipe, ought to be carried
+through an under drain, never to run over the road.</p>
+<p>At Saltley, in the way to Coleshill, which is ten miles, for
+want of a causeway, with an arch or two, every flood annoys the
+passenger and the road: at Coleshill-hall, 'till the year 1779, he
+had to pass a dangerous river.</p>
+<p>One mile from Birmingham, upon the Lichfield road, sixteen
+miles, to the disgrace of the community, is yet a river without a
+bridge. In 1777, the country was inclined to solicit Parliament for
+a turnpike-act, but the matter fell to the ground through private
+views: one would think, that the penny can never be ill laid out,
+which carries a man ten miles with pleasure and safety. The hand of
+nature hath been more beneficent, both to this, and to the Stafford
+road, which is twenty-eight miles, than that of art.</p>
+<p>The road to Walfall, ten miles, is rather <i>below
+indifferent</i>.</p>
+<p>That to Wolverhampton, thirteen miles, is much improved since
+the coal-teams left it.</p>
+<p>The road to Dudley, ten miles, is despicable beyond description.
+The unwilling traveller is obliged to go two miles about, through a
+bad road, to avoid a worse.</p>
+<p>That to Hales-Owen, eight miles, like the life of man, is
+checkered with good and evil; chiefly the latter.</p>
+<p>To Bromsgrove, thirteen miles, made extremely commodious for the
+first four, under the patronage of John Kettle, Esq; in 1772, at
+the expence of near 5000<i>l</i>. but afterwards is so confined,
+that two horses cannot pass without danger; the sun and the winds
+are excluded, the rivers lie open to the stranger, and he travels
+through dirt 'till Midsummer.</p>
+<p>To Alcester, about twenty, formed in 1767, upon a tolerable
+plan, but is rather too narrow, through a desolate country, which
+at present scarcely defrays the expence; but that country seems to
+improve with the road.</p>
+<p>Those to Stratford and Warwick, about twenty miles each, are
+much used and much neglected.</p>
+<p>That to Coventry, about the same distance, can only be equalled
+by the Dudley road. The genius of the age has forgot, in some of
+these roads to accommodate the foot passenger with a causeway.</p>
+<p>The surveyor will be inclined to ask, How can a capital be
+raised to defray this enormous expence? Suffer me to reply with an
+expression in the life of Oliver Cromwell, "He that lays out money
+when necessary, and only then, will accomplish matters beyond the
+reach of imagination."</p>
+<p>Government long practised the impolitic mode of transporting
+vast numbers of her people to America, under the character of
+felons; these, who are generally in the prime of life, might be
+made extremely useful to that country which they formerly robbed,
+and against which, they are at this moment carrying arms. It would
+be easy to reduce this ferocious race under a kind of martial
+discipline; to badge them with a mark only removeable by the
+governors, for hope should ever be left for repentance, and to
+employ them in the rougher arts of life, according to the nature of
+the crime, and the ability of body; such as working the coal mines
+in Northumberland, the lead mines in Derbyshire, the tin mines in
+Cornwall, cultivating waste lands, banking after inundations,
+forming canals, cleansing the beds of rivers, assisting in harvest,
+and in FORMING and MENDING the ROADS: <i>these hewers of wood and
+drawers of water</i> would be a corps of reserve against any
+emergency. From this magazine of villiany, the British navy might
+be equipped with, considerable advantage.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="CANAL."></a>CANAL.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>An act was obtained, in 1767, to open a cut between Birmingham
+and the coal delphs about Wednesbury.</p>
+<p>The necessary article of coal, before this act, was brought by
+land, at about thirteen shillings per ton, but now at seven.</p>
+<p>It was common to see a train of carriages for miles, to the
+great destruction of the road, and the annoyance of travellers.</p>
+<p>This dust is extended in the whole to about twenty-two miles in
+length, 'till it unites with what we may justly term the grand
+artery, or Staffordshire Canal; which, eroding the island,
+communicates with Hull, Bristol and Liverpool. The expence was
+about 70,000<i>l</i>. divided into shares 140<i>l</i>. each, of
+which no man can purchase more than ten, and which now sell for
+about 370<i>l</i>.</p>
+<p>The proprietors took a perpetual lease of six acres of land, of
+Sir Thomas Gooch, at 47<i>l</i>. per annum, which is converted into
+a wharf, upon the front of which is erected an handsome office for
+the dispatch of business.</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image19.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image19.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image19.jpg" width="100%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b>A Plan of the Navigable Canal from Birmingham to
+Autherley.</b></p>
+<br>
+<a name="image20.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image20.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image20.jpg" width="60%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b><i>Navigation Office</i>.</b></p>
+<br>
+<p>This watery passage, exclusive of loading the proprietors with
+wealth, tends greatly to the improvement of some branches of trade,
+by introducing heavy materials at a small expence, such as pig iron
+for the founderies, lime-stone, articles for the manufacture of
+brass and steel, also stone, brick, slate, timber, &amp;c.</p>
+<p>It is happy for the world, that public interest is grafted upon
+private, and that both flourish together.</p>
+<p>This grand work, like other productions of Birmingham birth, was
+rather hasty; the managers, not being able to find patience to worm
+round the hill at Smethwick, or cut through, have wisely travelled
+over it by the help of twelve locks, with six they mount the
+summit, and with six more descend to the former level; forgetting
+the great waste of water, and the small supply from the rivulets,
+and also, the amazing loss of of time in climbing this curious
+ladder, consisting of twelve liquid steps. It is worthy of remark,
+that the level of the earth, is nearly the same at Birmingham as at
+the pits: what benefit then would accrue to commerce, could the
+boats travel a dead flat of fourteen miles without interruption?
+The use of the canal would increase, great variety of goods be
+brought which are now excluded, and these delivered with more
+expedition, with less expence, and the waste of water never felt;
+but, by the introduction of twelve unnecessary locks, the company
+may experience five plagues more than fell on Egypt.</p>
+<p>The boats are nearly alike, constructed to fit the locks, carry
+about twenty-five tons, and are each drawn by something like the
+skeleton of a horse, covered with skin: whether he subsists upon
+the scent of the water, is a doubt; but whether his life is a scene
+of affliction, is not; for the unfeeling driver has no employment
+but to whip him from one end of the canal to the other. While the
+teams practised the turnpike road, the lash was divided among five
+unfortunate animals, but now the whole wrath of the driver falls
+upon one.</p>
+<p>We can scarcely view a boat travelling this liquid road, without
+raising opposite sensations--pleased to think of its great benefit
+to the community, and grieved to behold wanton punishment.</p>
+<p>I see a large field of cruelty expanding before me, which I
+could easily prevail with myself to enter; in which we behold the
+child plucking a wing and a leg off a fly, to try how the poor
+insect can perform with half his limbs; or running a pin through
+the posteriors of a locust, to observe it spinning through the air,
+like a comet, drawing a tail of thread. If we allow, man has a
+right to destroy noxious animals, we cannot allow he has a right to
+protract their pain by a lingering death. By fine gradations the
+modes of cruelty improve with years, in pinching the tail of a cat
+for the music of her voice, kicking a dog because we have trod upon
+his foot, or hanging him for <i>fun</i>, 'till we arrive at the
+priests in the church of Rome, who burnt people for opinion; or to
+the painter, who begged the life of a criminal, that he might
+torture him to death with the severest pangs, to catch the
+agonizing feature, and transfer it into his favourite piece, of a
+dying Saviour. But did that Saviour teach such doctrine? Humanity
+would wish rather to have lost the piece, than have heard of the
+cruelty. What, if the injured ghost of the criminal is at this
+moment torturing that of the painter?--</p>
+<p>But as this capacious field is beyond the line I profess, and,
+as I have no direct accusation against the people of my regard, I
+shall not enter.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="DERITEND_BRIDGE."></a>DERITEND BRIDGE.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Cooper's-mill, situated upon the verge of the parishes of Afton
+and Birmingham, 400 yards below this bridge, was probably first
+erected in the the peaceable ages of Saxon influence, and continued
+a part of the manorial estate 'till the disposal of it in 1730.</p>
+<p>Before the water was pounded up to supply the mill, it must have
+been so shallow, as to admit a passage between Digbeth and
+Deritend, over a few stepping stones; and a gate seems to have been
+placed upon the verge of the river, to prevent encroachments of the
+cattle.</p>
+<p>This accounts for the original name, which Dugdale tells us was
+<i>Derry-yate-end:</i> derry, low; yate, gate; end, extremity of
+the parish; with which it perfectly agrees.</p>
+<p>The mill afterwards causing the water to be dammed up, gave rise
+to a succession of paltry bridges, chiefly of timber, to preserve a
+communication between the two streets.</p>
+<p>But in later ages, the passage was dignified with those of
+stone. In 1750, a wretched one was taken down, and the present
+bridge erected by Henry Bradford and John Collins, overseers of the
+highway, consisting of five arches; but the homely style, the deep
+ascent, and the circumscribed width prevents encomium.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<a name="SOHO"></a>
+<h2>ADJACENT REMARKS.</h2>
+<h3>SOHO.</h3>
+<br>
+<p>If we travel two miles from the centre of Birmingham, upon the
+Wolverhampton road, which may be called, the road to taste, and is
+daily travelled by the nobility and gentry, we shall arrive at the
+epitome of the arts.</p>
+<p>Though this little spot lies in the county of Stafford, we must
+accept it as part of Birmingham; neither is it many yards distant
+from the parish.</p>
+<p>The proprietor, invited by a genius, a fortune of
+30,000<i>l</i>. and a little stream, which promised to facilitate
+business, has erected the most elegant works in these parts, said
+to accommodate seven hundred persons. Upon that hungry ground,
+where, in 1758 stood one paltry cottage, we now behold, a city in
+miniature.</p>
+<p>From this nursery of ingenuity, originated the Soho button, the
+single wheel clock, the improvement of the steam engine, the
+platina button, the method of taking exact copies of painting,
+writing, &amp;c. also, the productions of fancy, in great variety;
+with which some of the European princes are well acquainted.</p>
+<p>To the genius of the place is owing the assay-office, for
+marking standard wrought plate, which, prior to the year 1773, was
+conveyed to London to receive the sanction of that office; but by
+an act then obtained, the business is done here by an assay master,
+superintended by four wardens: these are annually chosen out of
+thirty-six guardians, whose chief duty consists in dining together,
+at least once a year; for it appears from the chapter upon
+government, that feasting makes a principal part of a Birmingham
+office; and, however unwilling a man may seem to <i>enter in</i> we
+generally find him pleased when he <i>is in</i>.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="DANES_CAMP:"></a>DANES CAMP:</h2>
+<h3>DANES BANK, OR BURY FIELDS.</h3>
+<br>
+<p>About five miles south of Birmingham, and five furlongs off
+Solihull Lodge, is a place called <i>The Danes Camp</i>. But
+although neither history nor tradition speak of this particular
+event, it probably was raised in the ninth century.</p>
+<p>The situation is well chosen, upon an eminence, about nine
+acres, nearly triangular, is yet in tolerable perfection; the ditch
+is about twenty feet wide; the base of the bank about the same;
+admits but of one entrance, and is capable of being secured by
+water. From the bottom of the ditch, to the top of the mound, was,
+when made, about twenty feet; and is a production of great
+labour.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="GENTLEMENS_SEATS"></a>GENTLEMEN'S SEATS.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>This neighbourhood may justly be deemed the seat of the arts,
+but not the seat of the gentry.</p>
+<p>None of the nobility are near us, except William Legge, Earl of
+Dartmouth, at Sandwell, four miles from Birmingham. The principal
+houses in our environs, are those of Sir Charles Holte, late member
+for the county, at Aston; Sir Henry Gough, member for Bamber, at
+Edgbaston; George Birch, Esq; at Handsworth; John Gough, Esq; at
+Perry; and John Taylor, Esq; at Bordesley and at Moseley; all
+joining to the manor of Birmingham. Exclusive of these, are many
+elegant retreats of our first inhabitants, acquired by commercial
+success.</p>
+<p>Full fed with vanity is an author, when two readers strive to
+catch up his work, for the pleasure of perusing it:--but,
+perchance, if two readers dip into this chapter, they may strive to
+lay it down.</p>
+<p>I have hitherto written to the <i>world</i>, but now to a small
+part, <i>the antiquarians</i>; nay, a small part of the sensible
+part; for a fool and an antiquary is a contradiction: they are, to
+a man, people of letters and penetration. If their judgment is
+sometimes erroneous, we may consider, man was never designed for
+perfection; there is also less light to guide them in this, than in
+other researches. If the traveller slips upon common ground, how
+will he fare if he treads upon ice?--Besides, in dark questions, as
+in intricate journies, there are many erroneous ways for one
+right.</p>
+<p>If, like the mathematician, he can establish one point, it
+ascertains another. We may deem his pursuit one of the most
+arduous, and attended with the least profit: his emoluments consist
+in the returns of pleasure to his own mind.</p>
+<p>The historian only collects the matter of the day, and hands it
+to posterity; but the antiquarian brings his treasures from remote
+ages, and presents them to this: he examines forgotten
+repositories, calls things back into existence, which are past;
+counter-acts the efforts of time, and of death; possesses something
+like a re-creative power; collects the dust of departed matter,
+moulds it into its prestine state, exhibits the figure to view, and
+stamps it with a kind of immortality.</p>
+<p>Every thing has its day, whether it be a nation, a city, a
+castle, a man, or an insect; the difference is, one is a winter's
+day, the other may be extended to the length of a summer's--an
+<i>end</i> waits upon all. But we cannot contemplate the end of
+grandeur, without gloomy ideas.</p>
+<p>Birmingham is surrounded with the melancholy remains of
+extinguished greatness; the decayed habitations of decayed gentry,
+fill the mind with sorrowful reflections. Here the feet of those
+marked the ground, whose actions marked the page of history. Their
+arms glistened in the field; their eloquence moved the senate. Born
+to command, their influence was extensive; but who now rest in
+peace among the paupers, fed with the crumbs of their table. The
+very land which, for ages, was witness to the hospitality of its
+master, is itself doomed to stirility. The spot which drew the
+adjacent country, is neglected by all; is often in a wretched state
+of cultivation, sets for a trifle; the glory is departed; it
+demands a tear from the traveller, and the winds teem, to sigh over
+it.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="THE_MOATS."></a>THE MOATS.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>In the parish of King's-norton, four miles south west of
+Birmingham, is <i>The Moats</i>, upon which long resided the
+ancient family of Field. The numerous buildings, which almost
+formed a village, are totally erased, and barley grows where the
+beer was drank.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="BLACK_GREVES."></a>BLACK GREVES.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Eight miles south west of Birmingham, in the same parish, near
+Withod Chapel, is <i>Black Greves</i> (Black Groves) another seat
+of the Fields; which, though a family of opulence, were so far from
+being lords of the manor, that they were in vassalage to them.</p>
+<p>The whole of that extensive parish is in the crown, which holds
+the detestable badge of ancient slavery over every tenant, of
+demanding under the name of harriot, the best moveable he dies
+possessed of--Thus death and the bailiff make their inroads
+together; they rob the family in a double capacity, each taking the
+best moveable.</p>
+<p>As the human body descends into the regions of sickness, much
+sooner than it can return into health; so a family can decline into
+poverty by hastier steps, than rise into affluence. One generation
+of extravagance puts a period to many of greatness.</p>
+<p>A branch of the Fields, in 1777, finished their ancient
+grandeur, by signing away the last estate of his family.--Thus he
+blotted out the name of his ancestors by writing his own.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="ULVERLEY_OR_CULVERLEY"></a>ULVERLEY, OR
+CULVERLEY.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Four miles from Birmingham, upon the Warwick road, entering the
+parish of Solihull, in Castle-lane, is Ulverle, in doom's-day
+Ulverlei. Trifling as this place now seems, it must have been the
+manor-house of Solihull, under the Saxon heptarchy; but went to
+decay so long ago as the conquest.</p>
+<p>The manor was the property of the Earls of Mercia, but whether
+their residence is uncertain.--The traces of a moat yet remain,
+which are triangular, and encircle a wretched farm-house of no
+note: one of the angles of this moat is filled up, and become part
+of Castle-lane; which proves that Ulverley went into disuse when
+Hogg's-moat was erected: it also proves that the lane terminated
+here, which is about two hundred yards from the turnpike road. The
+great width of the lane, from the road to Ulverley, and the
+singular narrowness from thence to Hogg's-moat, is another proof of
+its prior antiquity.</p>
+<p>If we pursue our journey half a mile Farther along this lane,
+which by the way is scarcely passable, it will bring us to</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="HOGGS-MOAT"></a>HOGG'S-MOAT.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>At Oltenend (Old Town) originally Odingsell's-moat, now
+Hobb's-moat, the ancient manor-house of Solihull, after it had
+changed its lords at the conquest. The property, as before
+observed, of Edwin Earl of Mercia, in the reign of Edward the the
+Confessor.</p>
+<p>William the First granted the manor to a favourite lady, named
+Cristina, probably a handsome lass, of the same complexion as his
+mother; thus we err when we say William gave all the land in the
+kingdom to his followers--some little was given to those <i>he</i>
+followed.</p>
+<p>This lady, like many of her successors, having tired the arms of
+royalty, was conveyed into those of an humble favourite; Ralph de
+Limesie married her, who became lord of the place, but despising
+Ulverley, erected this castle.</p>
+<p>The line of Limesie continued proprietors four descents; when,
+in the reign of King John, it became the property of Hugh de
+Odingsells, by marrying a co-heiress.</p>
+<p>The last of the Odingsells, in 1294, left four daughters, one of
+whom, with the lordship, fell into the hands of John de Clinton;
+but it is probable the castle was not inhabited after the above
+date, therefore would quickly fall to decay.</p>
+<p>The moat is upon a much larger plan than Ulverley, takes in a
+compass of five acres, had two trenches; the outer is nearly
+obliterated, but the inner is marked with the strongest lines we
+meet with. This trench is about twenty feet deep, and about thirty
+yards from the crown of one bank to the other.</p>
+<p>When Dugdale saw it, about a hundred and fifty years ago, the
+center, which is about two acres, where the castle stood, was
+covered with old oaks; round this center are now some thousands,
+the oldest of which is not more than a century; so that the timber
+is changed since the days of Dugdale, but not the appearance of the
+land.</p>
+<p>The center is bare of timber, and exhibits the marks of the
+plough. The late Benjamin Palmer, Esq; a few years ago, planted it
+with trees, which are in that dwindling state, that they are not
+likely to grow so tall as their master<a name=
+"FNanchor7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7">[7]</a>.</p>
+<blockquote><a name="Footnote_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor7">[7]</a>
+He measured about six feet five inches, but was singularly short in
+the lower parts: his step was not larger than a child's of ten
+years old. His carriage, by its extraordinary height, looked at a
+distance like a moving steeple; he sat as high in a common chair,
+as a man of the middle-size stands: he was as immoderately heavy as
+he was tall, and as remarkable for good-nature as either. As a man,
+he shone by his bulk; as a magistrate, in a dull but honest
+light--his decisions were <i>intended</i> to be just. He seemingly
+dozed as he walked; but if his own eyes were half shut, those of
+every other person were open to see him.</blockquote>
+<p>It lies in a pleasant situation, upon a descent, so that the
+trench in one part is dry, and in another three or four yards deep
+in water.</p>
+<p>A place of such desolation, one would think, was a place of
+silence--just the reverse. When I saw it, Feb. 23, 1783, the trees
+were tall, the winds high, and the roar tremendous.</p>
+<p>Exclusive of Ulverley and Hogg's-moat, there are many old
+foundations in Solihull, once the residence of gentry now extinct;
+as Solihull-hall, the Moat-house, and Kynton, the property of the
+Botolers; Bury-hall, that of the Warings; who both came over with
+William: Henwood, belonging to the Hugfords; Hillfield-hall, the
+ancient seat of the Greswolds, as Malvern was their modern.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="YARDLEY."></a>YARDLEY.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>At Yardley church, four miles east of Birmingham, is <i>The
+Moat</i>, now a pasture; the trench still retains its water, as a
+remembrance of its former use.</p>
+<p>This was anciently the property of the Allestrees, lords of
+Witton; but about thirty years ago, the building and the family
+expired together.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="KENTS-MOAT"></a>KENT'S-MOAT.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>One mile farther east is Kent's-moat, in which no noise is heard
+but the singing of birds, as if for joy that their enemy is fled,
+and they have regained their former habitation.</p>
+<p>This is situate on an eminence, like that of Park-hall, is
+capacious, has but one trench, supplied by its own springs; and,
+like that, as complete as earth and water can make it.</p>
+<p>This was part of Coleshill, and vested in the crown before the
+conquest, but soon after granted with that to Clinton, who gave it
+with a daughter to Verdon; and he, with another, to Anselm de
+Scheldon, who kept it till the reign of Edward the Third: it
+afterwards passed through several families, till the reign of Henry
+the Seventh, when it came into that of De Gray, Earl of Kent,
+whence the name; though, perhaps, the works were erected by
+Scheldon.</p>
+<p>It is now, with Coleshill, the property of Lord Digby; but the
+building has been so long gone, that tradition herself has lost
+it.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="SHELDON."></a>SHELDON.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>One mile east is Sheldon-hall, which anciently bore the name of
+East-hall, in contradistinction from Kent's-moat, which was
+West-hall. This, in 1379, was the property of Sir Hugh le
+Despenser, afterwards of the family of Devereux, ancestor of the
+present Viscount Hereford, who resided here till about 1710. In
+1751, it was purchased by John Taylor, Esq; and is now possessed by
+his tenant.</p>
+<p>The moat, like others on an eminence, has but one trench, fed by
+the land springs; is filled up in the front of the hall, as there
+is not much need of water protection. The house, which gives an
+idea of former gentility, seems the first erected on the spot; is
+irregular, agreeable to the taste of the times, and must have been
+built many centuries. All the ancient furniture fled with its
+owners, except an hatchment in the hall, with sixteen coats of
+arms, specifying the families into which they married.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="KINGS-HURST"></a>KING'S-HURST.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Two furlongs east of Sheldon-hall, and one mile south of Castle
+Bromwich, is <i>Kings-hurst</i>; which, though now a dwelling in
+tenancy, was once the capital of a large track of land, consisting
+of its own manor, Coleshill, and Sheldon; the demesne of the crown,
+under the Saxon kings, from whom we trace the name.</p>
+<p>The Conqueror, or his son William, granted it; but whether for
+money, service, caprice, or favour, is uncertain; for he who wears
+a crown acts as whimsically as he who does not.</p>
+<p>Mountfort came over with William, as a knight, and an officer of
+rank; but, perhaps, did not immediately receive the grant, for the
+king would act again much like other people, <i>give away their
+property, before he would give away his own</i>.</p>
+<p>If this unfortunate family were not the first grantees, they
+were lords, and probably residents of King's-hurst, long before
+their possession of Coleshill, in 1332, and by a younger branch,
+long after the unhappy attainder of Sir Simon, in 1497.</p>
+<p>Sir William Mountfort, in 1390, augmented the buildings, erected
+a chapel, and inclosed the manor. His grandson, Sir Edmund, in
+1447, paled in some of the land, and dignified it with the
+fashionable name of <i>park</i>.</p>
+<p>This prevailing humour of imparking was unknown to the Saxons,
+it crept in with the Norman: some of the first we meet with are
+those of Nottingham, Wedgnock, and Woodstock--Nottingham, by
+William Peveral, illegitimate son of the Conqueror; Wedgnock, by
+Newburg, the first Norman Earl of Warwick; and Woodstock, by Henry
+the First. So that the Duke of Marlborough perhaps may congratulate
+himself with possessing the oldest park in use.</p>
+<p>The modern park is worth attention; some are delightful in the
+extreme: they are the beauties of creation, terrestrial paradises;
+they are just what they ought to be, nature cautiously assisted by
+invisible art. We envy the little being who presides over one--but
+why mould we envy him? the pleasure consists in <i>seeing</i>, and
+one man may <i>see</i> as well as another: nay, the stranger holds
+a privilege beyond him; for the proprietor, by often seeing, sees
+away the beauties, while he who looks but seldom, sees with full
+effect. Besides, one is liable to be fretted by the mischievous
+hand of injury, which the stranger seldom sees; he looks for
+excellence, the owner for defect, and they both find.</p>
+<p>These proud inclosures, guarded by the growth within, first
+appeared under the dimension of one or two hundred acres; but
+fashion, emulation, and the park, grew up together, till the last
+swelled into one or two thousand.</p>
+<p>If religions rise from the lowest ranks, the fashions generally
+descend from the higher, who are at once blamed, and imitated by
+their inferiors.</p>
+<p>The highest orders of men lead up a fashion, the next class
+tread upon their heels, the third quickly follow, then the fourth,
+fifth, &amp;c. immediately figure after them. But as a man who had
+an inclination for a park, could not always spare a thousand acres,
+he must submit to less, for a park must be had: thus Bond, of
+Ward-end, set up with thirty; some with one half, till the very
+word became a burlesque upon the idea. The design was a display of
+lawns, hills, water, clumps, &amp;c. as if ordered by the voice of
+nature; and furnished with herds of deer. But some of our modern
+parks contain none of these beauties, nor scarcely land enough to
+support a rabbit.</p>
+<p>I am possessed of one of these jokes of a park, something less
+than an acre:--he that has none, might think it a <i>good</i> joke,
+and wish it his own; he that has more would despise it: that it
+never was larger, appears from its being surrounded by Sutton
+Coldfield; and that it has retained the name for ages, appears from
+the old timber upon it.</p>
+<p>The manor of King's-hurst was disposed of by the Mountforts,
+about two hundred years ago, to the Digbys, where it remains.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="COLESHILL."></a>COLESHILL.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>One mile farther east is <i>Coleshill-hall</i>, vested in the
+crown before, and after the conquest; purchased, perhaps, of
+William Rufus, by Geoffrey de Clinton, ancestor to the present Duke
+of Newcastle. In 1352, an heiress of the house of Clinton, gave it,
+with herself, to Sir John de Mountfort, of the same family with
+Simon, the great Earl of Leicester, who fell, in 1265, at Evesham,
+in that remarkable contest with Henry the Third.</p>
+<p>With them it continued till 1497, when Sir Simon Mountfort,
+charged, but perhaps unjustly, with assisting Perkin Warbeck with
+30<i>l</i>. was brought to trial at Guildhall, condemned as a
+traitor, executed at Tyburn, his large fortune confiscated, and his
+family ruined. Some of his descendants I well know in Birmingham;
+and <i>they</i> are well known to poverty, and the vice.</p>
+<p>In the reign of Henry the Seventh, it was almost dangerous,
+particularly for a rich man, even to <i>think</i> against a crafty
+and avaricious monarch.--What is singular, the man who accused Sir
+Simon at the bar, succeeded him in his estate.</p>
+<p>Simon Digby procured a grant of the place, in whose line it
+still continues. The hall is inhabited, but has been left about
+thirty years by the family; was probably erected by the Mountforts,
+is extensive, and its antique aspect without, gives a venerable
+pleasure to the beholder, like the half admitted light diffused
+within. Every spot of the park is delightful, except that in which
+the hall stands: our ancestors built in the vallies, for the sake
+of water; their successors on the hills, for the sake of air.</p>
+<p>From this uncouth swamp sprung the philosopher, the statesman,
+and tradition says, the gunpowder-plot.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="DUDDESTON."></a>DUDDESTON.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Four furlongs north-east of Birmingham, is <i>Duddeston</i>
+(Dud's-town) from Dud, the Saxon proprietor, Lord of Dudley, who
+probably had a seat here; once a considerable village, but long
+reduced to the manor-house, till Birmingham, swelling beyond its
+bounds, in 1764, verged upon this lordship; and we now, in 1783,
+behold about eighty houses, under the names of Duke-street,
+Prospect-row, and Woodcock-lane.</p>
+<p>It afterwards descended to the Paganalls, the Sumeris, then to
+the Bottetourts, and was, in 1323, enjoyed by Joan Bottetourt, lady
+of Weoley castle, a daughter of the house of Sumeri.</p>
+<p>Sir Thomas de Erdington held it of this lady, by a chief-rent,
+which was a pair of gilt spurs, or six-pence, at the option of the
+tenant.</p>
+<p>Erdington sold it, in 1327, to Thomas de Maidenhache, by whose
+daughter, Sibell, it came in marriage to Adam de Grymforwe; whose
+posterity, in 1363, conveyed it for 26<i>l</i>. 13s. 4d. now worth
+20,000<i>l</i>. to John atte Holt; and his successors made it their
+residence, till the erection of Aston-hall, in the reign of James
+I.</p>
+<p>It is now converted into beautiful gardens, as a public resort
+of pleasure, and dignified with the London name of Vauxhall. The
+demolished fish-ponds, and the old foundations, which repel the
+spade, declare its former grandeur.</p>
+<p>In 1782 it quitted, by one of the most unaccountable alignments
+that ever resulted from human weakness, the ancient name of Holte,
+familiar during four hundred and nineteen years, for that of
+Legge.</p>
+<p>Could the ghost of Sir Lister re-visit his departed property,
+one might ask, What reception might you meet with, Sir Lister, in
+1770, among your venerable ancestors in the shades, for barring,
+unprovoked, an infant heiress of 7000<i>l</i>. a year, and giving
+it, unsolicited, to a stranger? Perhaps you experience repeated
+buffetings; a sturdy figure, with iron aspect, would be apt to
+accost you--"I with nervous arm, and many a bended back, drew
+40<i>l</i>. from the Birmingham forge, with which, in 1330, I
+purchased the park and manor of Nechels, now worth four hundred
+times that sum. I planted that family which you have plucked up by
+the roots: in the sweat of my brow, I laid a foundation for
+greatness; many of my successors built on that foundation--but you,
+by starving your brother, Sir Charles, into compliance, wantonly
+cut off the entail, and gave away the estate, after passing through
+seventeen descents, merely to shew you had a power to give it. We
+concluded here, that a son of his daughter, the last hope of the
+family, would change his own name to preserve ours, and not the
+estate change its possessor."--"I," another would be apt to say,
+"with frugal hand, and lucrative employments under the crown,
+added, in 1363, the manor of Duddeston; and, in 1367, that of
+Alton. But for what purpose did I add them? To display the folly of
+a successor."--A dejected spectre would seem to step forward, whose
+face carried the wrinkles of eighty-four, and the shadow of tear;
+"I, in 1611, brought the title of baronet among us, first tarnished
+by you; which, if your own imbecility could not procure issue to
+support, you ought to have supported it by purchase. I also, in
+1620, erected the mansion at Afton, then, and even now, the most
+superb in that neighbourhood, fit to grace the leading title of
+nobility; but you forbad my successors to enter. I joined, in 1647,
+to our vast fortune, the manor of Erdington.--Thus the fabric we
+have been rearing for ages, you overthrew in one fatal
+moment."--The last angry spectre would appear in the bloom of life.
+"I left you an estate which you did not deserve: you had no more
+right to leave it from your successor, than I to leave it from you:
+one man may ruin the family of another, but he seldom ruins his
+own. We blame him who wrongs his neighbour, but what does he
+deserve who wrongs himself?--You have done both, for by cutting off
+the succession, your name will be lost. The ungenerous attorney,
+instead of making your absurd will, ought to have apprized you of
+our sentiments, which exactly coincide with those of the world, or
+how could the tale affect a stranger? Why did not some generous
+friend guide your crazy vessel, and save a sinking family?
+Degenerate son, he who destroys the peace of another, should
+forfeit his own--we leave you to remorse, may she quickly <i>find,
+and weep over you</i>."</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="SALTLEY."></a>SALTLEY.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>A mile east of Duddeston is <i>Saltley-hall</i>, which, with an
+extensive track of ground, was, in the Saxon times, the freehold of
+a person whom we should now call Allen; the same who was Lord of
+Birmingham. But at the conquest, when justice was laid asleep, and
+property possessed by him who could seize it, this manor, with many
+others, fell into the hands of William Fitz-Ausculf, Baron of
+Dudley-castle, who granted it in knight's-service to Henry de
+Rokeby.</p>
+<p>A daughter of Rokeby carried it by marriage to Sir John Goband,
+whose descendants, in 1332, sold it to Walter de Clodshale; an
+heiress of Clodshale, in 1426, brought it into the ancient family
+of Arden, and a daughter of this house, to that of Adderley, where
+it now rests.</p>
+<p>The castle, I have reason to think, was erected by Rokeby, in
+which all the lords resided till the extinction of the
+Clodshales.--It has been gone to ruin about three hundred years,
+and the solitary platform seems to mourn its loss.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="WARD-END."></a>WARD-END.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Three miles from Birmingham, in the same direction, is
+<i>Wart-end</i>, anciently <i>Little Bromwich</i>; a name derived
+from the plenty of broom, and is retained to this day by part of
+the precincts, <i>Broomford</i> (Bromford).</p>
+<p>This manor was claimed by that favourite of the conqueror,
+Fitz-Ausculf, and granted by him to a second-hand favourite, who
+took its name.</p>
+<p>The old castle has been gone about a century; the works are
+nearly complete, cover about nine acres, the most capacious in this
+neighbourhood, those of Weoley-castle excepted. The central area is
+now an orchard, and the water, which guarded the castle, guards the
+fruit. This is surrounded with three mounds, and three trenches,
+one of them fifty yards over, which, having lost its master, guards
+the fish.</p>
+<p>The place afterwards passed through several families, till the
+reign of Henry the Seventh. One of them bearing the name of
+<i>Ward</i>, changed the name to <i>Ward-end</i>.</p>
+<p>In 1512, it was the property of John Bond, who, fond of his
+little hamlet, inclosed a park of thirty acres, stocked it with
+deer; and, in 1517, erected a chapel for the conveniency of his
+tenants, being two miles from the parish church of Afton. The
+skeleton of this chapel, in the form of a cross, the fashion of the
+times, is yet standing on the outward mound: its floor is the only
+religious one I have seen laid with horse-dung; the pulpit is
+converted into a manger--it formerly furnished husks for the man,
+but now corn for the horse. Like the first christian church, it has
+experienced a double use, a church and a stable; but with this
+difference, <i>that</i> in Bethlehem, was a stable advanced into a
+church; this, on the contrary, is reduced into a stable.</p>
+<p>The manor, by a female, passed through the Kinardsleys, and is
+now possessed by the Brand-woods; but the hall, erected in 1710,
+and its environs, are the property of Abraham Spooner, Esq.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="CASTLE_BROMWICH."></a>CASTLE BROMWICH.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Simply <i>Bromwich</i>, because the soil is productive of
+broom.</p>
+<p>My subject often leads me back to the conquest, an enterprize,
+wild without parallel: we are astonished at the undertaking,
+because William was certainly a man of sense, and a politician.
+Harold, his competitor, was a prince much superior in power, a
+consummate general, and beloved by his people. The odds were so
+much against the invader, that out of one hundred such imprudent
+attempts, ninety-nine would miscarry: all the excuse in his favour
+is, <i>it succeeded</i>. Many causes concurred in this success,
+such as his own ambition, aided by his valour; the desperate
+fortune of his followers, very few of whom were men of property,
+for to the appearance of gentlemen, they added the realities of
+want; a situation to which any change is thought preferable; but,
+above all, <i>chance</i>. A man may dispute for religion, he may
+contend for liberty, he may run for his life, but he will
+<i>fight</i> for property.</p>
+<p>By the contest between William and Harold, the unhappy English
+lost all they had to lose; and though this all centered in the
+Normans, they did not acquire sufficient to content them.</p>
+<p>History does not inform us who was then the proprietor of Castle
+Bromwich, but that it belonged to the Mercian Earls scarcely admits
+a doubt; as Edwin owned some adjoining manors, he probably owned
+this. Fitz-Ausculf was his fortunate successor, who procured many
+lordships in the neighhood of Birmingham; Castle Bromwich was one.
+He granted it to an inferior Norman, in military tenure; who,
+agreeable to the fashion of those times, took the surname of
+Bromwich.</p>
+<p>Henry de Castel was a subsequent proprietor. Dugdale supposes
+the village took its name from a castle, once on the premises; and
+that the castle-hill yet remains: but this hill is too small, even
+to admit a shelter for a Lilliputian, and is evidently an
+artificial trifle, designed for a monument. It might hold, for its
+ancient furniture, a turret, termed a castle--perhaps it held
+nothing in Dugdale's time: the modern is a gladiator, in the
+attitude of fighting, supported by a pedestal, containing the
+Bridgeman arms.</p>
+<p><i>Castle</i>, probably, was added by the family of that name,
+lords of the place, to distinguish it from <i>woody</i> and
+<i>little</i> Bromwich. They bore for their arms, three castles and
+a chevron.</p>
+<p>Lord Ferrers of Chartley, who was proprietor of Birmingham in
+the reign of Henry the Sixth, enjoyed it by marriage; and his grand
+daughter brought it, by the same channel, into the family of
+Devereux, Lords of Sheldon. Edward, about the latter end of Queen
+Elizabeth's reign, erected the present building, which is
+capacious, is in a stile between ancient and modern, and has a
+pleasing appearance.</p>
+<p>The Bridgeman family acceded to possession about eighty years
+ago, by purchase, and made it their residence till about 1768. We
+should naturally enquire, Why Sir Harry quitted a place so
+delightfully situated? Perhaps it is not excelled in this country,
+in the junction of three great roads, a a desirable neighbourhood,
+the river Tame at its back, and within five miles of the plentiful
+market of Bimingham--but, alas, <i>it has no park</i>.</p>
+<p>The gentry seem to have resided in our vicinity, when there was
+the greatest inducement to leave it, <i>impassable roads</i>: they
+seem also to have quitted the country, now there is the greatest
+inducement to reside there; roads, which improve their estates, and
+may be travelled with pleasure. It may be objected, that "the
+buildings become ancient." But there is no more disgrace in an old
+house, than in an old man; they may both be dressed in character,
+and look well. A gentleman, by residing in the family seat, pays a
+compliment to his ancestors.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="PARK-HALL."></a>PARK-HALL.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Six miles north-east of Birmingham, and one from Castle Bromwich
+chapel, is a spacious moat, with one trench, which, for many
+centuries guarded <i>Park-hall</i>. This is another of those
+desolate islands, from which every creature is fled, and every
+sound, except that of the winds; nay, even the very clouds seem to
+lament the desolation with tears.</p>
+<p>This was possessed by none but the Ardens, being part of their
+vast estate long before the conquest, and five hundred years after.
+A delightful situation on the banks of the Tame; to which we are
+led through a dirty road.</p>
+<p>We may consider this island, the treasury into which forty-six
+lordships paid their tribute. The riches of the country were drawn
+to this center, and commands were issued from it. The growth of
+these manors supplied that spot, which now grows for another. The
+lordships are in forty-six hands; the country is in silence; the
+island ploughed up, and the family distressed--At the remembrance
+of their name, the smile quits the face of history; she records
+their sad tale with a sigh; while their arms are yet displayed in
+some of the old halls in the neighbourhood.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="BERWOOD."></a>BERWOOD.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Crossing the river, one mile farther east, is
+<i>Berwood-hall</i>, where the forsaken moat, at this day,
+guards--nothing. This, with the manor to which it belongs, was also
+the property of the Ardens; one of which in the reign of Henry the
+Second, granted it to the canons of Leicester; who added a chapel,
+which went to decay four hundred years ago. After the grant, the
+Ardens seem to have become tenants to the canons for the land, once
+their own: we frequently observe a man pay rent for what he
+<i>sells</i>, but seldom for what he <i>gives</i>.</p>
+<p>At the dissolution of abbies, in 1537, Thomas Arden, the head of
+the family, purchased it of Henry the Eighth, for 272<i>l</i>. 10s.
+uniting it again to his estate, after a separation of three hundred
+and fifty years, in whose posterity it continued till their
+fall.</p>
+<p>Thus, the father first purchased what the son gave away, and his
+offspring re-purchased again. The father lays a tax on his
+successor; or, climbs to heaven at the expence of the son. In one
+age it is meritorious to <i>give</i> to the church, in another, to
+<i>take</i> from her.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="ERDINGTON."></a>ERDINGTON.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Three miles north-east of Birmingham, is <i>Erdington-hall</i>,
+which boasts a long antiquity. The manor was the property of the
+old Earls of Mercia: Edwin possessed it at the conquest, but lost
+it in favour of William Fitz-Ausculf, who no doubt granted it in
+knight's service to his friend and relation, of Norman race, who
+erected the hall; the moat, took his residence in, and his name
+Erdington, from the place. His descendants seem to have resided
+here with great opulence near 400 years.</p>
+<p>Dugdale mentions a circumstance of Sir Thomas de Erdington,
+little noticed by our historians. He was a faithful adherent to
+King John, who conferred on him many valuable favours: harrassed by
+the Pope on one side, and his angry Barons on the other, he
+privately sent Sir Thomas to Murmeli, the powerful King of Africa,
+Morocco, and Spain; with offers to forsake the christian faith,
+turn mahometan, deliver up his kingdom, and hold it of him in
+tribute, for his assistance against his enemies. But it does not
+appear the ambassador succeeded: the Moorish Monarch did not chuse
+to unite his prosperous fortune with that of a random prince; he
+might also consider, the man who could destroy his nephew and his
+sovereign, could not be an honour to any profession.</p>
+<p>The manor left the Erdington family in 1472, and, during a
+course of 175 years, acknowledged for its owners, George
+Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence, Sir William Harcourt, Robert Wright,
+Sir Reginald Bray, Francis Englefield, Humphry Dimock, Walter Earl,
+Sir Walter Devereux, and was, in 1647, purchased by Sir Thomas
+Holte, in whose family it continued till 1782, when Henage Legge,
+Esq; became seised of the manor.</p>
+<p>As none of the Lords seem to have resided upon the premises
+since the departure of the Erdingtons, it must be expected they
+have gradually tended to decay.</p>
+<p>We may with some reason conclude, that as Erdington was the
+freehold of the Earls of Mercia, it was not the residence of its
+owners, therefore could not derive its name from them. That as the
+word <i>Arden</i> signifies a wood, the etymology of that populous
+village is, <i>a town in the wood</i>. That one of the first
+proprietors, after the conquest, struck with the security offered
+by the river, erected the present fortifications, which cover three
+parts of the hall, and the river itself the fourth. Hence it
+follows, that the neighbouring work, which we now call
+Bromford-forge, was a mill prior to the conquest; because the
+stream is evidently turned out of its bed to feed it. That the
+present hall is the second on the premises, and was erected by the
+Erdingtons, with some later additions.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="PIPE."></a>PIPE.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>One mile north-east of Erdington, is <i>Pipe-hall</i>; which,
+with its manor, like the neighbouring land, became at the conquest
+the property of Fitz-Ausculf; and afterwards of his defendants,
+Paganall, Sumeri, Bottetort, and St. Leger.</p>
+<p>It was common at that fatal period, for one of these great
+barons, or rather great robbers, to procure a large quantity of
+land for himself; some of them two or three hundred thousand
+acres--too much for one man to grasp. He therefore kept what he
+pleased for his private use, and granted the other in
+knight's-service, reserving annually a rent. These rents were
+generally small, so as never to hurt the tenant: however, the lord
+could order him to arms whenever he pleased.</p>
+<p>A few of the grants were procured by the disinherited English,
+but chiefly by the officers of William's army, being more
+respected, and more proper to be trusted: they were often
+relations, or favourites of the great barons. The lord could not
+conveniently sell, without the consent of the crown, but he could
+set at what price he pleased. Time made this chief-rent permanent,
+and gave the tenant stability of title.</p>
+<p>The manor of Pipe, with some others, was granted to William
+Mansell, who resided in the hall, and executed some of the chief
+offices of the county.</p>
+<p>The last of the name, in the reign of Henry the Third, left a
+daughter, who married Henry de Harcourt; and his daughter married
+John de Pipe, who seems to have taken its name.</p>
+<p>Henry, his descendant, had many children, all of whom, with his
+lady, died of the plague, except a daughter, Margery. He afterwards
+married, in 1363, Matilda, the daughter of George de Castell, of
+Castle Bromwich; but soon after the happy wedding, he perceived his
+bride was pregnant, which proved, on enquiry, the effect of an
+intrigue with her father's menial servant; a striking instance of
+female treachery, which can only be equalled by--male.</p>
+<p>The shock proving too great for his constitution, brought on a
+decline, and himself to the grave, before the birth of the
+child.</p>
+<p>John was the fruit of this unlawful amour, whose guardian, to
+prevent his inheriting the estate, made him a canon of Ouston, in
+Leicestershire; and afterwards persuaded the unhappy Margery to
+grant the manor to the abbot of Stonely.</p>
+<p>Thomas de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, afterwards purchased it
+for 133<i>l</i>. 6s. 8d. It came to the crown by attainder, in the
+reign of Henry the Seventh; then to Sir William Staunford, one of
+his judges, John Buttler; Edward Holte, in 1568; Francis Dimock,
+whose daughter married Walter Earl; then to Walter Devereux, by
+marrying Earl's daughter; afterwards to Sir Thomas Holte, by
+purchase; and is now in the family of Bagot.</p>
+<p>Though the hall is antique, its front is covered in the modern
+barbarous stile, by a clump of venerable trees; which would become
+any situation but that in which they stand. It is now inhabited by
+a gentleman of Birmingham, who has experienced the smiles of
+commerce.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="ASTON."></a>ASTON.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Two miles north of Birmingham, is Aston (East-town) being east
+of Westbury (Wednesbury) it lies on a steep descent towards the
+river Tame.</p>
+<p>This place, like that of Erdington, belonged to the Earls of
+Mercia in the Saxon times; and, at the conquest, was the property
+of the unfortunate Edwin. Fitz-Ausculf became his successor in
+this, and in other lands: the survey calls it eight hides, valued
+at 5<i>l</i>. per annum; a mill, 3s. and a wood, three miles long,
+and half a mile broad. The mill, I make no doubt, stood where a
+mill now stands, near Sawford-bridge; but neither the hides, nor
+the wood, could be confined within the boundary of Afton; the manor
+is too little for either. The lordship extends about a square mile,
+and that part which is now the park, I have reason to think, was
+then a common, and for ages after.</p>
+<p>A Saxon, of the name of Godmund, held it under the Mercian
+Earls, and found means, at the conquest, to hold it under the
+Norman.</p>
+<p>One hundred yards north of the church, in a perfect swamp, stood
+the hall; probably erected by Godmund, or his family: the situation
+shews the extreme of bad taste--one would think, he endeavoured to
+lay his house under the water. The trenches are obliterated by the
+floods, so as to render the place unobserved by the stranger: it is
+difficult to chuse a worse, except he had put his house under the
+earth. I believe there never was more than one house erected on the
+spot, and that was one too much.</p>
+<p>Whether this Saxon family of Godmund became extinct, or had lost
+their right, is uncertain; but Sumeri, Fitz-Ausculf's successor,
+about 1203, granted the manor to Sir Thomas de Erdington,
+Ambassador to King John, mentioned before, who had married his
+sister; paying annually a pair of spurs, or six-pence, as a nominal
+rent, but meant, in reality, as a portion for the lady.</p>
+<p>The family of Erdington, about 1275, sold it to Thomas de
+Maidenhache, who did not seem to live upon friendly terms with his
+neighbour, William de Birmingham; for, in 1290, he brought an
+action against him for fishing in his water, called Moysich
+(Dead-branch) leading into Tame, towards Scarford-bridge
+(Shareford, dividing the shares, or parts of the parish, Aston
+manor from Erdington, now Sawford-bridge) which implies a degree of
+unkindness; because William could not amuse himself in his own
+manor of Birmingham, for he might as well have angled in one of his
+streets, as in the river Rea. The two lords had, probably, four
+years before been on friendly terms, when they jointly lent their
+assistance to the hospital of St. Thomas, in Birmingham.</p>
+<p>Maidenhache left four daughters; Sibel, married Adam de
+Grymsorwe, who took with her the manor of Aston; a daughter of this
+house, in 1367, sold it to John atte Holte, of Birmingham, in whose
+family it continued 415 years, till 1782, when Henage Legge, Esq;
+acceded to possession.</p>
+<p>This wretched bog was the habitation of all the lords, from
+Godmund to the Holtes, the Erdington's excepted; for Maud Grymsorwe
+executing the conveyance at Aston, indicates that she resided
+there; and Thomas Holte, being possessed of Duddeston, proves that
+he did not: therefore I conclude, that the building, as it ought,
+went to decay soon after; so that desolation has claimed the place
+for her own near four hundred years. This is corroberated by some
+old timber trees, long since upon the spot where the building
+stood.</p>
+<p>The extensive parish of Aston takes in the two extremes of
+Birmingham, which supplies her with more christenings, weddings,
+and burials, than were, a few years ago, supplied by the whole
+parish of Birmingham.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="WITTON."></a>WITTON.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Three miles north of Birmingham, and one from Aston, is
+<i>Witton</i>, (Wicton) from the bend of the river, according to
+Dugdale: the property of a person at the conquest whose name was
+Staunchel. Fitz-Ausculf seized it, and Staunchel, more fortunate
+than the chief of his country men, became his tenant; valued in the
+conqueror's survey at 20s. per ann.</p>
+<p>It was afterwards vested in the crown: in 1240, Henry the third
+granted it to Andrew de Wicton, who took his name from the place,
+for in Dooms-day it is Witone; therefore the name being prior,
+proves the remark.</p>
+<p>Andrew, anxious after the boundary of his new purchase, brought
+an action against his neighbour, William de Pyrie (Perry) for
+infringing his property. Great disputes arise from small
+beginnings; perhaps a lawyer blew the flame.</p>
+<p>The king issued his precept to the Sheriff of Staffordshire, in
+which Perry lies, to bring with him twelve lawful and discreet
+knights; and the same to the Sheriff of Warwickshire, of which
+Witton is part, to ascertain the bounds between them.</p>
+<p>Which was the aggressor, is hard to determine, but I should
+rather suppose Squire Perry, because <i>man</i> is ever apt to
+trespass; he resided on the premises, and the crown is but a sleepy
+landlord; not so likely to rob, as be robbed.</p>
+<p>There is a road, where foot seldom treads, mounded on each side,
+leading over the Coldfield, from Perry-bridge towards the Newlands,
+undoubtedly the work of this venerable band of discreet
+knights.</p>
+<p>The stranger, of course, would deem the property between the
+contending parties, of great value, which, twenty-four of the
+principal characters of the age, the flower of two counties,
+marshalled by two chief officers, were to determine. But what will
+he think of the quarrelsome spirit of the times, when, I tell him,
+it was only a few acres, which is, even at this day, waste land,
+and scarcely worth owning by either.</p>
+<p>In 1290, Witton was the property of William Dixley; in 1340,
+that of Richard de Pyrie, descendant of him, who, a hundred years
+before, held the contest. In 1426, Thomas East, of Hay-hall, in
+Yardley, was owner; who sold it to John Bond, of Ward-end, of whose
+descendants William Booth purchased it, in 1620: an heiress of
+Booth brought it by marriage to Allestree, of Yardley, who enjoyed
+it in our days; it was sold to John Wyrley, and is now possessed by
+George Birch, Esq; of Handsworth.</p>
+<p>The house, left by its owners, is in that low, or rather boggy
+situation, suitable to the fashion of those times. I can discover
+no traces of a moat, though there is every conveniency for one: We
+are doubly hurt by seeing a house in a miserable hole, when joining
+an elegible spot.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="BLAKELEY."></a>BLAKELEY.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Five miles north-west of Birmingham, is <i>Blakely-hall</i>, the
+manor house of Oldbury. If we see a venerable edifice without a
+moat, we cannot from thence conclude, it was never the residence of
+a gentleman, but wherever we find one, we may conclude it was.</p>
+<p>Anciently, this manor, with those of Smethwick and Harborn,
+belonged to the family of Cornwallis, whose habitation was
+Blakeley-hall: the present building seems about 300 years old.</p>
+<p>The extinction of the male line, threw the property into the
+hands of two coheirs; one of whom married into the family of
+Grimshaw, the other into that of Wright, who jointly held it. The
+family of Grimshaw failing, Wright became then, and is now,
+possessed of the whole.</p>
+<p>I am unacquainted with the principal characters who acted the
+farce of life on this island, but it has long been in the tenancy
+of a poor farmer, who, the proprietor allured me, was <i>best</i>
+able to stock the place with children. In 1769, the Birmingham
+canal passing over the premises, robbed the trench of its water.
+Whether it endangers the safety is a doubt, for <i>poverty</i> is
+the best security against violence.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="WEOLEY"></a>WEOLEY</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Four miles west of Birmingham, in the parish of Northfield, are
+the small, but extensive ruins of <i>Weoley-castle</i>, whose
+appendages command a track of seventeen acres, situate in a park of
+eighteen hundred.</p>
+<p>These moats usually extend from half an acre to two acres, are
+generally square, and the trenches from eight yards over to
+twenty.</p>
+<p>This is large, the walls massy; they form the allies of a
+garden, and the rooms, the beds; the whole display the remains of
+excellent workmanship. One may nearly guess at a man's consequence,
+even after a lapse of 500 years, by the ruins of his house.</p>
+<p>The steward told me, "they pulled down the walls as they wanted
+the stone." Unfeeling projectors: there is not so much to pull
+down. Does not time bring destruction fast enough without
+assistance? The head which cannot contemplate, offers its hand to
+destroy. The insensible taste, unable itself to relish the dry
+fruits of antiquity, throws them away to prevent another. May the
+fingers <i>smart</i> which injure the venerable walls of Dudley, or
+of Kenilworth. Noble remains of ancient grandeur! copious indexes,
+that point to former usage! We survey them with awful pleasure. The
+mouldering walls, as if ashamed of their humble state, hide
+themselves under the ivies; the generous ivies, as if conscious of
+the precious relics, cover them from the injuries of time.</p>
+<p>When land frequently undergoes a conveyance, necessity, we
+suppose, is the lot of the owner, but the lawyer fattens: <i>To
+have and to hold</i> are words of singular import; they charm
+beyond music; are the quintessence of language; the leading figure
+in rhetoric. But how would he fare if land was never conveyed? He
+must starve upon quarrels.</p>
+<p>Instances may be given of land which knows no title, except
+those of conquest and descent: Weoley Castle comes nearly under
+this description. <i>To sign, seal, and deliver</i>, were wholly
+unknown to our ancestors. Could a Saxon freeholder rise from the
+dead, and visit the land, once his own, now held by as many
+writings as would half spread over it, he might exclaim, "Evil
+increases with time, and parchment with both. You deprive the poor
+of their breeches; I covered the ground with sheep, you with their
+skins; I thought, as you were at variance with France, Spain,
+Holland, and America, those numerous deeds were a heap of drum
+heads, and the internal writing, the <i>articles of war</i>. In one
+instance, however, there is a similarity between us; we unjustly
+took this land from the Britons, you as unjustly took it from us;
+and a time may come, when another will take it from you. Thus, the
+Spaniards founded the Peruvian empire in butchery, now tottering
+towards a fall; you, following their example, seized the northern
+coast of America; you neither bought it nor begged it, you took it
+from the natives; and thus your children, the Americans, with equal
+violence, have taken it from you: No law binds like that of arms.
+The question has been, whether they shall pay taxes? which, after a
+dispute of eight years, was lost in another, <i>to whom</i> they
+shall pay taxes? The result, in a future day will be, domestic
+struggles for sovereignty will stain the ground with blood."</p>
+<p>When the proud Norman cut his way to the throne, his imperious
+followers seized the lands, kicked out the rightful possessors, and
+treated them with a dignity rather beneath that practiced to a
+dog.--This is the most summary title yet discovered.</p>
+<p>Northfield was the fee-simple of Alwold (Allwood) but, at the
+conquest, Fitz-Ausculf seized it, with a multitude of other manors:
+it does not appear that he granted it in knight's-service to the
+injured Allwood, but kept it for his private use, Paganall married
+his heiress, and Sumeri married Paganall's, who, in the beginning
+of the 13th century, erected the castle. In 1322, the line of
+Sumeri expired.</p>
+<p>Bottetourt, one of the needy squires, who, like Sancho Panza,
+attended William his master, in his mad, but <i>fortunate</i>
+enterprize, procured lands which enabled him to <i>live</i> in
+England, which was preferable to starving in Normandy. His
+descendant became, in right of his wife, coheir of the house of
+Sumeri, vested in Weoley-castle. He had, in 1307, sprung into
+peerage, and was one of our powerful barons, till 1385, when the
+male line dropt. The vast estate of Bottetourt, was then divided
+among females; Thomas Barkley, married the eldest, and this ancient
+barony was, in 1761, revived in his descendant, Norborne Barkley,
+the present Lord Bottetourt; Sir Hugh Burnel married another, and
+Sir John St. Leger a third.</p>
+<p>Weoley-castle was, for many years, the undivided estate of the
+three families; but Edward Sutton, Lord Dudley, having married a
+daughter of Barkley, became possessed of that castle, which was
+erected by Sumeri, their common ancestor, about nine generations
+before.</p>
+<p>In 1551, he sold it to William Jervoise, of London, mercer,
+whose descendant, Jervoise Clark Jervoise, Esq; now enjoys it.</p>
+<p>Fond of ranging, I have travelled a circuit round Birmingham,
+without being many miles from it. I wish to penetrate farther from
+the center, but my subject forbids. <i>Having therefore finished my
+discourse, I shall</i>, like my friends, the pulpitarians, many of
+whom, and of several denominations, are characters I revere,
+<i>apply what has been said</i>.</p>
+<p>We learn, that the land I have gone over, with the land I have
+not, changed its owners at the conquest: this shuts the door of
+inquiry into pedigree, the old families chiefly became extinct, and
+few of the present can be traced higher.--Destruction then
+overspread the kingdom.</p>
+<p>The seniors of every age exclaim against the growing corruption
+of the times: my father, and perhaps every father, dwelt on the
+propriety of his conduct in younger life, and placed it in
+counter-view with that of the following generation. However, while
+I knew him, it was much like other people's--But I could tell him,
+that he gave us the bright side of his character; that he was,
+probably, a piece of human nature, as well as his son; that nature
+varies but little, and that the age of William the Conqueror was
+the most rascally in the British annals. One age may be marked for
+the golden, another for the iron, but this for plunder.</p>
+<p>We farther learn, there is not one instance in this
+neighbourhood, where an estate has continued till now in the male
+line, very few in the female. I am acquainted with only one family
+near Birmingham, whose ancestor entered with William, and who yet
+enjoy the land granted at that period: the male line has been once
+broken--perhaps this land was never conveyed. They shone with
+splendour near six hundred years. In the sixteenth century, their
+estate was about 1400<i>l</i>. a year; great for that time, but is
+now, exclusive of a few <i>pepper-corns</i> and <i>red roses</i>,
+long since withered, reduced to one little farm, tilled for bread
+by the owner. This setting glympse of a shining family, is as
+indifferent about the matter, and almost as ignorant, as the team
+he drives.</p>
+<p>Lastly, we learn that none of the lords, as formerly, reside on
+the above premises: that in four instances out of twenty-one, the
+buildings are now as left by the lords, Sheldon, Coleshill, Pipe,
+and Blakeley: two have undergone some alteration, as Duddeston and
+Erdington: five others are re-erected, as Black Greves, Ulverley,
+King's-hurst, Castle Bromwich, and Witton; which, with all the
+above, are held in tenancy: in eight others all the buildings are
+swept away, and their moats left naked, as Hogg's-moat, Yardley,
+Kent's-moat, Saltley, Ward-end, Park-hall, Berwood, and Weoley; and
+in two instances the moats themselves are vanished, that of
+King's-norton is filled up to make way for the plough, and that of
+Aston demolished by the floods. Thus the scenes of hospitality and
+grandeur, become the scenes of antiquity, and then disappear.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="SUTTON_COLDFIELD."></a>SUTTON COLDFIELD.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Though the topographical historian, who resides upon the
+premises, is most likely to be correct; yet if <i>he</i>, with all
+his care, is apt to be mistaken, what can be expected from him who
+trots his horse over the scenes of antiquity?</p>
+<p>I have visited, for twenty years, some singular places in this
+neighbourhood, yet, without being master of their history; thus a
+man may spend an age in conning his lesson, and never learn it.</p>
+<p>When the farmer observes me on his territories, he eyes me
+<i>ascance</i>; suspecting a design to purchase his farm, or take
+it out of his hands.--I endeavour to remove his apprehensions, by
+approaching him; and introduce a conversation tending to my
+pursuit, which he understands as well as if, like the sons of
+Jacob, I addressed him in Hebrew; yet, notwithstanding his total
+ignorance of the matter, he has sometimes dropt an accidental word,
+which has thrown more light on the subject, than all my researches
+for a twelvemonth. If an honest farmer, in future, should see upon
+his premises a plumpish figure, five feet six, with one third of
+his hair on, a cane in his left hand, a glove upon each, and a
+Pomeranian dog at his heels, let him fear no evil; his farm will
+not be additionally tythed, his sheep worried, nor his hedges
+broken--it is only a solitary animal, in quest of a Roman
+phantom.</p>
+<p>Upon the north west extremity of Sutton Coldfield, joining the
+Chester road, is <i>The Bowen Pool</i>; at the tail of which, one
+hundred yards west of the road, on a small eminence, or swell of
+the earth, are the remains of a fortification, called <i>Loaches
+Banks</i>; but of what use or original is uncertain, no author
+having mentioned it.</p>
+<p>Four hundred yards farther west, in the same flat, is a hill of
+some magnitude, deemed, by the curious, a tumolus--it is a common
+thing for an historian to be lost, but not quite so common to
+acknowledge it. In attempting to visit this tumolus, I soon found
+myself in the center of a morass; and here, my dear reader might
+have seen the historian set fast in a double sense. I was obliged,
+for that evening, February 16, 1783, to retreat, as the sun had
+just done before me. I made my approaches from another quarter,
+April 13, when the hill appeared the work of nature, upon too broad
+a base for a tumolus; covering about three acres, perfectly round,
+rising gradually to the center, which is about sixteen feet above
+the level, surrounded by a ditch, perhaps made for some private
+purpose by the owner.</p>
+<p>The Roman tumoli were of two sorts, the small for the reception
+of a general, or great man, as that at Cloudsley-bush, near the
+High Cross, the tomb of Claudius; and the large, as at Seckington,
+near Tamworth, for the reception of the dead, after a battle: they
+are both of the same shape, rather high than broad. That before us
+comes under the description of neither; nor could the dead well be
+conveyed over the morass.</p>
+<p>The ground-plot, in the center of the fort, at Loaches Banks, is
+about two acres, surrounded by three mounds, which are large, and
+three trenches, which are small; the whole forming a square of four
+acres. Each corner directs to a cardinal point, but perhaps not
+with design; for the situation of the ground would invite the
+operator to chuse the present form. The north-west joins to, and is
+secured by the pool.</p>
+<p>As the works are much in the Roman taste, I might, at first
+view, deem it the residence of an opulent lord of the manor; but,
+the adjacent lands carrying no marks of cultivation, destroys the
+argument; it is also too large for the fashion; besides, all these
+manorial foundations have been in use since the conquest, therefore
+tradition assists the historian; but here, tradition being lost,
+proves the place of greater antiquity.</p>
+<p>One might judge it of Danish extraction, but here again,
+tradition will generally lend her assistance; neither are the
+trenches large enough for that people: of themselves they are no
+security, whether full or empty; for an active young fellow might
+easily skip from one bank to another. Nor can we view it as the
+work of some whimsical lord, to excite the wonder of the moderns;
+it could never pay for the trouble. We must, therefore, travel back
+among the ancient Britons, for a solution, and here we shall travel
+over solid ground.</p>
+<p>It is, probably, the remains of a British camp, for near these
+premises are Drude-heath (Druid's-heath) and Drude-fields, which we
+may reasonably suppose was the residence of a British priest: the
+military would naturally shelter themselves under the wing of the
+church, and the priest with the protection of the military. The
+narrowness of the trenches is another proof of its being British;
+they exactly correspond with the stile of that people. The name of
+the pool, <i>Bowen</i>, is of British derivation, which is a
+farther proof that the work originated from the Britons. They did
+not place their security so much in the trenches, as in the mounds,
+which they barracaded with timber. This camp is secured on three
+sides by a morass, and is only approachable on the fourth, that
+from the Coldfield. The first mound on this weak side, is
+twenty-four yards over, twice the size of any other; which,
+allowing an ample security, is a farther evidence of its being
+British, and tradition being silent is another.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="PETITION_FOR_A_CORPORATION."></a>PETITION FOR A
+CORPORATION.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Every man upon earth seems fond of two things, riches and power:
+this fondness necessarily springs from the heart, otherwise order
+would cease. Without the desire of riches, a man would not preserve
+what he has, nor provide for the future. "My thoughts," says a
+worthy christian, "are not of this world; I desire but one guinea
+to carry me through it." Supply him with that guinea, and he wishes
+another, lest the first should be defective.</p>
+<p>If it is necessary a man mould possess property, it is just as
+necessary he should possess a power to protect it, or the world
+would quickly bully him out of it: this power is founded on the
+laws of his country, to which he adds, by way of supplement,
+bye-laws, founded upon his own prudence. Those who possess riches,
+well know they are furnished with wings, and can scarcely be kept
+from flying.</p>
+<p>The man who has power to secure his wealth, seldom stops there;
+he, in turn, is apt to triumph over him who has less. Riches and
+power are often seen to go hand in hand.</p>
+<p>Industry produces property; which, when a little matured, looks
+out for command; thus the inhabitants of Birmingham, who have
+generally something upon the anvil besides iron, near seventy years
+ago having derived wealth from diligence, wished to derive power
+from charter; therefore, petitioned the crown that Birmingham might
+be erected into a corporation. Tickled with the title of alderman,
+dazzled with the splendour of a silver mace, a furred gown, and a
+magisterial chair, they could not see the interest of the place:
+had they succeeded, that amazing growth would have been crippled,
+which has since astonished the world, and those trades have been
+fettered which have proved the greatest benefit.</p>
+<p>When a man loudly pleads for public good, we shrewdly suspect a
+private emolument lurking beneath. There is nothing more
+detrimental to good neighbourhood, than men in power, where power
+is unnecessary: free as the air we breathe, we subsist by our
+freedom; no command is exercised among us, but that of the laws, to
+which every discreet citizen pays attention--the magistrate who
+distributes justice, tinctured with mercy, merits the thanks of
+society. A train of attendants, a white wand, and a few fiddles,
+are only the fringe, lace, and trappings of charteral office.</p>
+<p>Birmingham, exclusive of her market, ranks among the very lowest
+order of townships; every petty village claims the honour of being
+a constable-wick--we are no more. Our immunities are only the
+trifling privileges anciently granted to the lords; and two thirds
+of these are lost. But, notwithstanding this seemingly forlorn
+state, perhaps there is not a place in the British dominions, where
+so many people are governed by so few officers; nor a place better
+governed: pride, therefore, must have dictated the humble petition
+before us.</p>
+<p>I have seen a copy of this petition, signed by eighty-four of
+the inhabitants; and though without a date, seems to have been
+addressed to King George the First, about 1716: it alledges, "That
+Birmingham is, of late years, become very populous, from its great
+increase of trade; is much superior to any town in the county, and
+but little inferior to any inland town in the kingdom: that it is
+governed only by a constable, and enjoys no more privileges than a
+village: that there is no justice of peace in the town; nor any in
+the neighbourhood, who dares act with vigour: that the country
+abounds with rioters, who, knowing the place to be void of
+magistrates, assemble in it, pull down the meeting-houses, defy the
+king, openly avow the pretender, threaten the inhabitants, and
+oblige them to keep watch in their own houses: that the trade
+decays, and will stagnate, if not relieved. To remedy these evils,
+they beseech his majesty to incorporate the town, and grant such
+privileges as will enable them to support their trade, the king's
+interest, and destroy the villainous attempts of the jacobites. In
+consideration of the requested charter, they make the usual
+offering of <i>lives</i> and <i>fortunes</i>".</p>
+<p>A petition and the petitioner, like Janus with his two faces,
+looks different ways; it is often treated as if it said one thing,
+and meant another; or as if it said any thing but truth. Its use,
+in some places, is to <i>lie on the table</i>. Our humble petition,
+by some means, met with the fate it deserved.</p>
+<p>We may remark, a town without a charter, is a town without a
+shackle. If there was then a necessity to erect a corporation,
+because the town was large, there is none now, though larger: the
+place was not better governed a thousand years ago, when only a
+tenth of its present magnitude; it may also be governed as well a
+thousand years hence, if it should swell to ten times its size.</p>
+<p>The <i>pride</i> of our ancestors was hurt by a petty constable;
+the <i>interest</i> of us, their successors, would be hurt by a
+mayor: a more simple government cannot be instituted, or one more
+efficacious: that of some places is designed for parade, ours for
+use; and both answers their end. A town governed by a multitude of
+governors, is the most likely to be ill-governed.</p>
+<br>
+<a name="image21.jpg"></a>
+<p class="ctr"><a href="images/image21.jpg"><img src=
+"images/image21.jpg" width="60%" alt=""></a><br>
+<b><i>The New Brass Works</i>.</b></p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="BRASS_WORKS."></a>BRASS WORKS.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>The manufacture of brass was introduced by the family of Turner,
+about 1740, who erected those works at the south end of
+Coleshill-street; then, near two hundred yards beyond the
+buildings, but now the buildings extend about five hundred beyond
+them.</p>
+<p>Under the black clouds which arose from this corpulent tunnel,
+some of the trades collected their daily supply of brass; but the
+major part was drawn from the Macclesfield, Cheadle, and Bristol
+companies.</p>
+<p>'Causes are known by their effects;' the fine feelings of the
+heart are easily read in the features of the face: the still
+operations of the mind, are discovered by the rougher operations of
+the hand.</p>
+<p>Every creature is fond of power, from that noble head of the
+creation, man, who devours man, down to that insignificant mite,
+who devours his cheese: every man strives to be free himself, and
+to shackle another.</p>
+<p>Where there is power of any kind, whether in the hands of a
+prince, a people, a body of men, or a private person, there is a
+propensity to abuse it: abuse of power will everlastingly seek
+itself a remedy, and frequently find it; nay, even this remedy may
+in time degenerate to abuse, and call loudly for another.</p>
+<p>Brass is an object of some magnitude, in the trades of
+Birmingham; the consumption is said to be a thousand tons per
+annum. The manufacture of this useful article had long been in few,
+and opulent hands; who, instead of making the humble bow, for
+favours received, acted with despotic sovereignty, established
+their own laws, chose their customers, directed the price, and
+governed the market.</p>
+<p>In 1780, the article rose, either through caprice, or necessity,
+perhaps the <i>former</i>, from 72<i>l</i>. a ton to 84<i>l</i>.
+the result was, an advance upon the goods manufactured, followed by
+a number of counter-orders, and a stagnation of business.</p>
+<p>In 1781, a person, from affection to the user, or resentment to
+the maker, perhaps, the <i>latter</i>, harangued the public in the
+weekly papers; censured the arbitrary measures of the brazen
+sovereigns, shewed their dangerous influence over the trades of the
+town, and the easy manner in which works of our own might be
+constructed--good often arises out of evil; this fiery match, dipt
+in brimstone, quickly kindled another furnace in Birmingham. Public
+meetings were advertised, a committee appointed, and subscriptions
+opened to fill two hundred shares, of 100<i>l</i>. each, deemed a
+sufficient capital: each proprietor of a share, to purchase one ton
+of brass, annually. Works were immediately erected upon the banks
+of the canal, for the advantage of water carriage, and the whole
+was conducted with the true spirit of Birmingham freedom.</p>
+<p>If a man can worm himself <i>into</i> a lucrative branch, he
+will use every method to keep another <i>out</i>. All his powers
+may prove ineffectual; for if that other smells the sweet profits
+of the first, <i>he</i> will endeavour to worm himself <i>in</i>:
+both may suffer by the contest, and the public be gainers.</p>
+<p>The old companies, which we may justly consider the directors of
+a south sea bubble in miniature, sunk the price from 84<i>l</i>. to
+56<i>l</i>. Two inferences arise from this measure; that their
+profits were once very high, or are now very low; and, like some
+former monarchs, in the abuse of power, they repented one day too
+late.</p>
+<p>Schemes are generally proclaimed, <i>for public good!</i> but as
+often meant, <i>for private interest</i>.--This, however, varied
+from that rule, and seemed less calculated to benefit those
+immediately, than those remotely concerned: they chose to sustain a
+smaller injury from making brass, than a greater from the
+makers.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="PRISON."></a>PRISON.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>If the subject is little, but little can be said upon it; I
+shall shine as dimly in this chapter on confinement, as in that on
+government. The traveller who sets out lame, will probably limp
+through the journey.</p>
+<p>Many of my friends have assured me, "That I must have
+experienced much trouble in writing the history of Birmingham." But
+I assure them in return, that I range those hours among the
+happiest of my life; and part of that happiness may consist in
+delineating the bright side of human nature. Pictures of deformity,
+whether of body or of mind, disgust--the more they approach towards
+beauty, the more they charm.</p>
+<p>All the chapters which compose this work, were formed with
+pleasure, except the latter part of that upon <i>births and
+burials</i>; there, being forced to apply to the parish books, I
+<i>figured</i> with some obstruction. Poor <i>Allsop</i>, full of
+good-nature and affliction, fearful lest I should sap the church,
+could not receive me with kindness. When a man's resources lie
+within himself, he draws at pleasure; but when necessity throws him
+upon the parish, he draws in small sums, and with difficulty.</p>
+<p>I either <i>have</i>, or <i>shall</i> remark, for I know not in
+what nich I shall exhibit this posthumous chapter, drawn like one
+of our sluggish bills, <i>three months after date</i>, "That
+Birmingham does not abound in villainy, equal to some other places:
+that the hand employed in business, has less time, and less
+temptation, to be employed in mischief; and that one magistrate
+alone, corrected the enormities of this numerous people, many years
+before I knew them, and twenty-five after." I add, that the ancient
+lords of Birmingham, among their manorial privileges, had the grant
+of a gallows, for capital punishment; but as there are no traces
+even of the name, in the whole manor, I am persuaded no such thing
+was ever erected, and perhaps the <i>anvil</i> prevented it.</p>
+<p>Many of the rogues among us are not of our own growth, but are
+drawn hither, as in London, to shelter in a crowd, and the easier
+in that crowd to pursue their game. Some of them fortunately catch,
+from example, the arts of industry, and become useful: others
+continue to cheat for one or two years, till frightened by the grim
+aspect of justice, they decamp.</p>
+<p>Our vile and obscure prison, termed <i>The Dungeon</i>, is a
+farther proof how little that prison has been an object of notice,
+consequently of use.</p>
+<p>Anciently the lord of a manor exercised a sovereign power in his
+little dominion; held a tribunal on his premises, to which was
+annexed a prison, furnished with implements for punishment; these
+were claimed by the lords of Birmingham. This crippled species of
+jurisprudence, which sometimes made a man judge in his own cause,
+from which there was no appeal, prevailed in the highlands of
+Scotland, so late as the rebellion in 1745, when the peasantry, by
+act of parliament, were restored to freedom.</p>
+<p>Early perhaps in the sixteenth century, when the house of
+Birmingham, who had been chief gaolers, were fallen, a building was
+erected, which covered the east end of New-street, called the
+Leather-hall: the upper part consisted of a room about fifty feet
+long, where the public business of the manor was transacted. The
+under part was divided into several: one of these small rooms was
+used for a prison: but about the year 1728, <i>while men slept an
+enemy came</i>, a private agent to the lord of the manor, and
+erazed the Leather-hall and the Dungeon, erected three houses on
+the spot, and received their rents till 1776, when the town
+purchased them for 500<i>l</i>. to open the way. A narrow passage
+on the south will be remembered for half a century to come, by the
+name of the <i>dungeon-entry</i>.</p>
+<p>A dry cellar, opposite the demolished hall, was then
+appropriated for a prison, till the town of all bad places chose
+the worst, the bottom of Peck-lane; dark, narrow, and unwholesome
+within; crowded with dwellings, filth and distress without, the
+circulation of air is prevented.</p>
+<p>As a growing taste for public buildings has for some time
+appeared among us, we might, in the construction of a prison, unite
+elegance and use; and the west angle of that land between
+New-street and Mount-pleasant, might be suitable for the purpose;
+an airy spot in the junction of six streets. The proprietor of the
+land, from his known attachment to Birmingham, would, I doubt not,
+be much inclined to grant a favour.--Thus, I have expended ten
+<i>score</i> words, to tell the world what another would have told
+them in <i>ten</i>--"That our prison is wretched, and we want a
+better."</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="CLODSHALES_CHANTRY."></a>CLODSHALES CHANTRY.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>It is an ancient remark, "The world is a farce." Every
+generation, and perhaps every individual, acts a part in disguise;
+but when the curtain falls, the hand of the historian pulls off the
+mask, and displays the character in its native light. Every
+generation differs from the other, <i>yet all are right</i>. Time,
+fashion, and sentiment change together. We laugh at the oddity of
+our fore-fathers--our successors will laugh at us.</p>
+<p>The prosperous anvil of Walter de Clodshale, a native of this
+place, had enabled him to acquire several estates in Birmingham, to
+purchase the lordship of Saltley, commence gentleman, and reside in
+the manor-house, now gone to decay, though its traces remain, and
+are termed by common people, <i>the Giant's Castle</i>. This man,
+having well provided for the <i>present</i>, thought it prudent, at
+the close of life, to provide for the <i>future</i>: he therefore
+procured a licence, in 1331, from William de Birmingham, lord of
+the see, and another from the crown, to found a chantry at the
+altar in St. Martin's church, for one priest, to pray for his soul,
+and that of his wife.</p>
+<p>He gave, that he might be safely wafted into the arms of
+felicity, by the breath of a priest, four houses, twenty acres of
+land, and eighteen-pence rent, issuing out of his estates in
+Birmingham.</p>
+<p>The same righteous motive induced his son Richard, in 1348, to
+grant five houses, ten acres of land, and ten shillings rent, from
+the Birmingham estates, to maintain a second priest, who was to
+secure the souls of himself and his wife. The declaration of
+Christ, in that pious age, seems to have been inverted; for instead
+of its being difficult for a rich man to enter the kingdom of
+heaven, it was difficult for him to miss it. We are not told what
+became of him who had nothing to give! If the profits of the estate
+tended the right way, perhaps there was no great concern which way
+either <i>Walter</i> or <i>Richard</i> tended.</p>
+<p>The chantorial music continued two hundred and four years, till
+1535, when Henry the Eighth closed the book, turned out the
+priests, who were Sir Thomas Allen and Sir John Green, and seized
+the property, valued at 5<i>l</i>. 1s. per annum. Permit me again
+to moralize upon this fashionable practice of ruining the family,
+for the health of the soul: except some lawful creditor puts in a
+claim, which justice ought to allow, a son has the same right to an
+estate, after the death of his father, as that father had before
+him.</p>
+<p>Had Walter and Richard taken <i>equal</i> care of their souls,
+and their estate, the first might have been as safe as in the hands
+of a priest, and the last, at this day, have been the property of
+that ancient, and once noble race of Arden, long since in distress;
+who, in 1426, married the heiress of their house.--Thus, a family,
+benefited by the hammer, was injured by the church.</p>
+<p>Had the hands of these two priests ministered to their wants, in
+the construction of tents and fishing-nets, like those of their
+predecessors, St. Paul and St. Peter, though their pride would have
+been eclipsed, their usefulness would have shone, and the world
+have been gainers by their labour. Two other lessons may be learnt
+from this little ecclesiastical history--</p>
+<p>The astonishing advance of landed property in Birmingham: nine
+houses, and thirty acres of land, two hundred and fifty years ago,
+were valued at the trifling rent of 4<i>l</i>. 9s. 6d. per annum;
+one of the acres, or one of the houses, would at this day bring
+more. We may reasonably suppose they were under-rated; yet, even
+then, the difference is amasing. An acre, within a mile of
+Birmingham, now sells for about one hundred pounds, and lets from
+three pounds to five, some as high as seven.</p>
+<p>And, the nation so overswarmed with ecclesiastics, that the
+spiritual honours were quickly devoured, and the race left hungry;
+they therefore fastened upon the temporal--hence we boast of two
+knighted priests.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="OCCURRENCES."></a>OCCURRENCES.</h2>
+<h3>EARTHQUAKE, &amp;c.</h3>
+<br>
+<p>It is a doctrine singular and barbarous, but it is nevertheless
+true, that <i>destruction is necessary</i>. Every species of
+animals would multiply beyond their bounds in the creation, were
+not means devised to thin their race.</p>
+<p>I perused an author in 1738, who asserts, "The world might
+maintain sixty times the number of its present inhabitants." Two
+able disputants, like those in religion, might maintain sixty
+arguments on the subject, and like them, leave the matter where
+they found it. But if restraint was removed, the present number
+would be multiplied into sixty, in much less than one century.</p>
+<p>Those animals appropriated for use, are suffered, or rather
+invited, to multiply without limitation. But <i>luxury</i> cuts off
+the beast, the pig, the sheep, and the fowl, and ill treatment the
+horse: vermin of every kind, from the lion to the louse, are hunted
+to death; a perpetual contest seems to exist between them and us;
+they for their preservation, and we for their extinction. The
+kitten and the puppy are cast <i>into</i> the water, to end their
+lives; <i>out</i> of which the fishes are drawn to end
+theirs--animals are every were devoured by animals.</p>
+<p>Their grand governor, man himself, is under controul; some by
+religious, others by interested motives. Even the fond parent,
+seldom wishes to increase the number of those objects, which of all
+others he values most!</p>
+<p>In civilized nations the superior class are restrained by the
+laws of honour, the inferior by those of bastardy; but,
+notwithstanding these restraints, the human race would increase
+beyond measure, were they not taken off by casualties. It is in our
+species alone, that we often behold the infant flame extinguished
+by the wretched nurse.</p>
+<p>Three dreadful calamities attending existence, are inundations,
+fires, and earthquakes; devestation follows their footsteps, But
+<i>one</i> calamity, more destructive than them all, rises from man
+himself, <i>war</i>.</p>
+<p>Birmingham, from its elevation, is nearly exempt from the flood;
+our inundations, instead of sweeping away life and fortune, sweep
+away the filth from the kennel.</p>
+<p>It is amasing, in a place crowded with people, that so
+<i>much</i> business, and so <i>little</i> mischief is done by
+fire: we abound more with party walls, than with timber buildings.
+Utensils are ever ready to extinguish the flames, and a generous
+spirit to use them. I am not certain that a conflagration of
+50<i>l</i>. damage, has happened within memory.</p>
+<p>I have only one earthquake to record, felt Nov. 15, 1772, at
+four in the morning; it extended about eight miles in length, from
+Hall-green to Erdington, and four in breadth, of which Birmingham
+was part. The shaking of the earth continued about five seconds,
+with unequal vibration, sufficient to awake a gentle sleeper, throw
+down a knife carelessly reared up, or rattle the brass drops of a
+chest of drawers. A flock of sheep, in a field near Yardley,
+frightened at the trembling, ran away.--No damage was
+sustained.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="PITMORE_AND_HAMMOND."></a>PITMORE AND HAMMOND.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Thomas Pitmore, a native of Cheshire, after consuming a fortune
+of 700<i>l</i>. was corporal in the second regiment of foot; and
+John Hammond, an American by birth, was drummer in the
+thirty-sixth; both of recruiting parties in Birmingham.</p>
+<p>Having procured a brace of pistols, they committed several
+robberies in the dark, on the highways.</p>
+<p>At eight in the evening of November 22, 1780, about five hundred
+yards short of the four mile-stone, in the Coleshill road, they met
+three butchers of Birmingham, who closely followed each other in
+their return from Rugby fair. One of the robbers attempted the
+bridle of the first man, but his horse, being young, started out of
+the road, and ran away. The drummer then attacked the second,
+Wilfred Barwick, with "Stop your horse," and that moment, through
+the agitation of a timorous mind, discharged a pistol, and lodged a
+brace of slugs in the bowels of the unfortunate Barwick, who
+exclaimed, "I am a dead man!" and fell.</p>
+<p>The corporal instantly disappeared, and was afterwards, by the
+light of the show upon the ground, seen retreating to Birmingham.
+The drummer ran forwards about forty yards, and over a stile into
+Ward-end field. A fourth butcher of their company, and a lad, by
+this time came up, who, having heard the report of a pistol, seen
+the flash, and the drummer enter the field, leaped over the hedge
+in pursuit of the murderer. A frey ensued, in which the drummer was
+seized, who desired them not to take his life, but leave him to the
+laws of his country.</p>
+<p>Within half an hour, the deceased and the captive appeared
+together in the same room, at the Horse-shoe. What must then be the
+feelings of a mind, susceptible of impression by nature, but weakly
+calloused over by art? This is one instance, among many, which
+shews us, a life of innocence, is alone a life of happiness.</p>
+<p>The drummer impeached his companion, who was perhaps the most
+guilty of the two, and they were both that night lodged in the
+dungeon.</p>
+<p>Upon the trial, March 31, 1781, the matter was too plain to be
+controverted. The criminals were executed, and hung in chains at
+Washwood-heath, April 2; the corporal at the age of 25, and the
+drummer 22.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="RIOTS."></a>RIOTS.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Three principal causes of riot are, the low state of wages, the
+difference in political sentiment, and the rise of provisions:
+these causes, like inundations, produce dreadful effects, and like
+them, return at uncertain periods.</p>
+<p>The journeyman in Birmingham is under no temptation to demand an
+additional price for his labour, which is already higher than the
+usual mark.</p>
+<p>There is no nation fonder of their king than the English; which
+is a proof that monarchy suits the genius of the people: there is
+no nation more jealous of his power, which proves that liberty is a
+favourite maxim. Though the laws have complimented him with
+<i>much</i>, yet he well knows, a prerogative upon the stretch, is
+a prerogative in a dangerous state.</p>
+<p>The more a people value their prince, the more willing are they
+to contend in his favour.</p>
+<p>The people of England revered the memory of their beloved Saxon
+kings, and doubly lamented their fall, with that of their
+liberties.</p>
+<p>They taxed themselves into beggary, to raise the amasing sum of
+100,000<i>l</i>. to release Richard the First, unjustly taken
+captive by Leopold.</p>
+<p>They protected Henry the Fifth from death, at Agincourt, and
+received that death themselves.</p>
+<p>They covered the extreme weakness of Henry the Sixth, who
+<i>never said a good thing, or did a bad one</i>, with the mantle
+of royalty; when a character like his, without a crown, would have
+been hunted through life: they gave him the title of <i>good king
+Henry</i>, which would well have suited, had the word <i>king</i>
+been omitted; they sought him a place in the kalendar of saints,
+and made <i>him</i> perform the miracles of an angel when dead, who
+could never perform the works of a man, when living.</p>
+<p>The people shewed their attachment to Henry the Eighth, by
+submitting to the faggot and the block, at his command; and with
+their last breath, praying for their butcher.</p>
+<p>Affection for Charles the First, induced four of his friends to
+offer their own heads, to save his.--The wrath, and the tears of
+the people, succeeded his melancholy exit.</p>
+<p>When James the Second eloped from the throne, and was casually
+picked up at Feversham, by his injured subjects, <i>they remembered
+he was their king</i>.</p>
+<p>The church and Queen Anne, like a joyous co-partnership, were
+toasted together. The barrel was willingly emptied to honour the
+queen, and the toaster lamented he could honour her no more.</p>
+<p>The nation displayed their love to Charles the Second, by
+latticing the forests. His climbing the oak at Boscobel, has been
+the destruction of more timber than would have filled the harbour
+of Portsmouth; the tree which flourished in the field, was brought
+to die in the street. Birmingham, for ninety years, honoured him
+with her vengeance against the woods; and she is, at this day,
+surrounded with mutilated oaks, which stand as martyrs to
+royalty.</p>
+<p>It is singular, that the oak, which assisted the devotion of the
+Britons, composed habitations for the people, and furniture for
+those habitations; that, while standing, was an ornament to the
+country that bore it; and afterwards guarded the land which nursed
+it, should be the cause of continual riots, in the reign of George
+the First. We could not readily accede to a line of strangers, in
+preference to our ancient race of kings, though loudly charged with
+oppression.</p>
+<p>Clubs and tumults supported the spirit of contention till 1745,
+when, as our last act of animosity, we crowned an ass with turnips,
+in derision of one of the worthiest families that ever eat
+them.</p>
+<p>Power, in the hand of ignorance, is an edge-tool of the most
+dangerous kind. The scarcity of provisions, in 1766, excited the
+murmurs of the poor. They began to breathe vengeance against the
+farmer, miller, and baker, for doing what they do themselves,
+procure the greatest price for their property.</p>
+<p>On the market day, a common labourer, like Massenello of Naples,
+formed the resolution to lead a mob.</p>
+<p>He therefore erected his standard, which was a mop inverted,
+assembled the crowd, and roared out the old note, "Redress of
+Grievances." The colliers, with all their dark retinue, were to
+bring destruction from Wednesbury. Amazement seised the town! the
+people of fortune trembled: John Wyrley, an able magistrate, for
+the first time frightened in office, with quivering lips, and a
+pale aspect, swore in about eighty constables, to oppose the rising
+storm, armed each of them with a staff of authority, warm from the
+turning-lathe, and applied to the War-office for a military
+force.</p>
+<p>The lime-powdered monarch began to fabricate his own laws,
+direct the price of every article, which was punctually obeyed.</p>
+<p>Port, or power, soon overcome a weak head; the more copious the
+draught, the more quick intoxication: he entered many of the shops,
+and was every where treated with the utmost reverence; took
+whatever goods he pleased, and distributed them among his
+followers; till one of the inhabitants, provoked beyond measure at
+his insolence, gave him a hearty kick on the posteriors, when the
+hero and his consequence, like that of Wat Tyler, fell
+together.--Thus ended a reign of seven hours; the sovereign was
+committed to prison, as sovereigns ought, in the abuse of power,
+and harmony was restored without blood.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="THE_CONJURERS."></a>THE CONJURERS.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>No <i>head</i> is a vacuum. Some, like a paltry cottage, are ill
+accommodated, dark, and circumscribed; others are capacious as
+Westminster-Hall. Though none are immense, yet they are capable of
+immense furniture. The more room is taken up by knowledge, the less
+remains for credulity. The more a man is acquainted with things,
+the more willing to <i>give up the ghost</i>. Every town and
+village, within my knowledge, has been pestered with spirits; which
+appear in horrid forms to the imagination in the winter night--but
+the spirits which haunt Birmingham, are those of industry and
+luxury.</p>
+<p>If we examine the whole parish, we cannot produce one <i>old</i>
+witch; but we have plenty of young, who exercise a powerful
+influence over us. Should the ladies accuse the harsh epithet, they
+will please to consider, I allow them, what of all things they most
+wish for, <i>power</i>, therefore the balance is in my favor.</p>
+<p>If we pass through the planitary worlds, we shall be able to
+muster up two conjurers, who endeavoured to <i>shine with the
+stars</i>. The first, John Walton, who was so busy in calling the
+nativity of others, he forgot his own.</p>
+<p>Conscious of an application to himself, for the discovery of
+stolen goods, he employed his people to steal them. And though, for
+many years confined to his bed by infirmity, he could conjure away
+the property of others, and, for a reward, reconjure it again.</p>
+<p>The prevalence of this evil, induced the legislature, in 1725,
+to make the <i>reception</i> of stolen goods capital. The first
+sacrifice to this law was the noted Jonathan Wild.</p>
+<p>The officers of justice, in 1732, pulled Walton out of his bed,
+in an obscure cottage, one furlong from the town, now
+Brickhill-Lane, carried him to prison, and from thence to the
+gallows--they had better have carried him to the workhouse, and his
+followers to the anvil.</p>
+<p>To him succeeded Francis Kimberley, the only reasoning animal,
+who resided at No. 60, in Dale-End, from his early youth to extreme
+age.--An hermit in a crowd! The windows of his house were strangers
+to light! The shutters forgot to open; the chimney to smoak. His
+cellar, though amply furnished, never knew moisture.</p>
+<p>He spent threescore years in filling six rooms with such
+trumpery as is just too good to be thrown away, and too bad to be
+kept. His life was as inoffensive as long. Instead of
+<i>stealing</i> the goods which other people use, he
+<i>purchased</i> what he could not use himself. He was not anxious
+what kind of property entered his house; if there was <i>bulk</i>
+he was satisfied.</p>
+<p>His dark house, and his dark figure corresponded with each
+other. The apartments, choaked up with lumber, scarcely admitted
+his body, though of the skeleton order. Perhaps leanness is an
+appendage to the science, for I never knew a corpulent
+conjurer.</p>
+<p>His diet, regular, plain, and slender, shewed at how little
+expence life may be sustained.</p>
+<p>His library consisted of several thousand volumes, not one of
+which, I believe, he ever read: having written, in characters
+unknown to all but himself, his name, price, and date, in the
+title-page, he laid them by for ever. The highest pitch of his
+erudition was the annual almanack.</p>
+<p>He never wished to approach a woman, or be approached by one.
+Should the rest of men, for half a century, pay no more attention
+to the fair, some angelic hand might stick up a note, like the
+artic circle over one of our continents, <i>this world to be
+let</i>.</p>
+<p>If he did not cultivate the human species, the spiders, more
+numerous than his books, enjoyed an uninterrupted reign of quiet.
+The silence of the place was not broken: the broom, the book, the
+dust, or the web, was not disturbed. Mercury and his shirt, changed
+their revolutions together; and Saturn changed <i>his</i>, with his
+coat.</p>
+<p>He died, in 1756, as conjurers usually die, unlamented.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="MILITARY_ASSOCIATION."></a>MILITARY ASSOCIATION.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>The use of arms is necessary to every man who has something to
+lose, or something to gain. No property will protect itself. The
+English have liberty and property to lose, but nothing to win. As
+every man is born free, the West-Indian slaves have liberty to
+gain, but nothing to lose. If a rascally African prince attempts to
+sell his people, he ought to be first sold himself; and the buyer,
+who acts so daringly opposite to the Christian precept, is yet more
+blameable. He ought to have the first whip, often mended, worn out
+upon his own back.</p>
+<p>It may seem unnecessary to tell the world, what they already
+know; recent transactions come under this description; but they are
+not known to the stranger, nor to posterity.</p>
+<p>Upon a change of the Northean ministry, in 1782, the new
+premier, in a circular letter, advised the nation to arm, as the
+dangers of invasion threatened us with dreadful aspect.
+Intelligence from a quarter so authentic, locked up the door of
+private judgment, or we might have considered, that even without
+alliance, and with four principal powers upon our hands, we were
+rather gaining ground; that the Americans were so far from
+attacking us, that they wished us to run ourselves out of breath to
+attack them; that Spain had slumbered over a seven years war; that
+the Dutch, provoked at their governors, for the loss of their
+commerce, were more inclinable to invade themselves than us; and
+that as France bore the weight of the contest, we found employment
+for her arms, without invasion; but, perhaps, the letter was only
+an artifice of the new state doctor, to represent his patient in a
+most deplorable state, as a complement to his own merit in
+recovering her.</p>
+<p>Whatever was the cause, nothing could be more agreeable than
+this letter to the active spirit of Birmingham. Public meetings
+were held. The rockets of war were squibbed off in the news-papers.
+The plodding tradesman and the lively hero assembled together in
+arms, and many a trophy was won in thought.</p>
+<p>Each man purchased a genteel blue uniform, decorated with
+epaulets of gold, which, together with his accoutrements, cost
+about 17<i>l</i>. The gentleman, the apprentice, &amp;c. to the
+number of seventy, united in a body, termed by themselves, <i>The
+Birmingham Association</i>; by the wag, <i>the brazen walls of the
+town</i>. Each was to be officer and private by ballet, which gives
+an idea of equality, and was called to exercise once a week.</p>
+<p>The high price of provisions, and the 17th of October, brought a
+dangerous mob into Birmingham. They wanted bread: so did we. But
+little conference passed between them and the inhabitants. They
+were quiet; we were pleased; and, after an hour or two's stay, they
+retreated in peace.</p>
+<p>In the evening, after the enemy were fled, our champions beat to
+arms, breathing vengeance against the hungry crew; and, had they
+returned, some people verily thought our valiant heroes would have
+<i>discharged</i> at them.</p>
+<p>However laudable a system, if built upon a false basis, it will
+not stand. Equality and command, in the same person, are
+incompatiable; therefore, cannot exist together. Subordination is
+necessary in every class of life, but particularly in the military.
+Nothing but severe discipline can regulate the boisterous spirit of
+an army.</p>
+<p>A man may be bound to another, but if he commands the bandage,
+he will quickly set himself free. This was the case with the
+military association. As their uniform resembled that of a
+commander, so did their temper. There were none to submit. The
+result was, the farce ended, and the curtain dropt in December, by
+a quarrel with each other; and, like <i>John</i> and
+<i>Lilborn</i>, almost with themselves.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="BILSTON_CANAL_ACT."></a>BILSTON CANAL ACT.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>Envy, like a dark shadow, follows closely the footsteps of
+prosperity; success in any undertaking, out of the circle of
+genius, produces a rival.--This I have instanced in our hackney
+coaches.</p>
+<p>Profits, like a round-bellied bottle, may seem bulky, which,
+like that, will not bear dividing: Thus Orator Jones, in 1774,
+opened a debating society at the Red Lion; he quickly filled a
+large room with customers, and his pockets with money, but he had
+not prudence to keep either. His success opened a rival society at
+the King's-head, which, in a few weeks, annihilated both.</p>
+<p>The growing profits of our canal company, already mentioned, had
+increased the shares from 140<i>l</i>. in 1768, to 400 guineas, in
+1782. These emoluments being thought enormous, a rival company
+sprung up, which, in 1783, petitioned Parliament to partake of
+those emoluments, by opening a parallel cut from some of the
+neighbouring coal-pits; to proceed along the lower level, and
+terminate in Digbeth.</p>
+<p>A stranger might ask, "How the water in our upland country,
+which had never supplied one canal, could supply two? Whether the
+second canal was not likely to rob the first? Whether one able
+canal is not preferable to two lame ones? If a man sells me an
+article cheaper than I can purchase it elsewhere, whether it is of
+consequence to me what are his profits? And whether two companies
+in rivalship would destroy that harmony which has long subsisted in
+Birmingham."</p>
+<p>The new company urged, "The necessity of another canal, lest the
+old should not perform the business of the town; that twenty per
+cent. are unreasonable returns; that they could afford coals under
+the present price; that the south country teams would procure a
+readier supply from Digbeth, than from the present wharf, and not
+passing through the streets, would be prevented from injuring the
+pavement; and that the goods from the Trent would come to their
+wharf by a run of eighteen miles nearer than to the other."</p>
+<p>The old company alledged, "That they ventured their property in
+an uncertain pursuit, which, had it not succeeded, would have
+ruined many individuals; therefore the present gains were only a
+recompense for former hazard: that this property was expended upon
+the faith of Parliament, who were obliged in honour to protect it,
+otherwise no man would risk his fortune upon a public undertaking;
+for should they allow a second canal, why not a third; which would
+become a wanton destruction of right, without benefit; that
+although the profit of the original subscribers might seem large,
+those subscribers are but few; many have bought at a subsequent
+price, which barely pays common interest, and this is all their
+support; therefore a reduction would be barbarous on one side, and
+sensibly felt on the other: and, as the present canal amply
+supplies the town and country, it would be ridiculous to cut away
+good land to make another, which would ruin both."</p>
+<p>I shall not examine the reasons of either, but leave the
+disinterested reader to weigh both in his own balance.</p>
+<p>When two opponents have said all that is true, they generally
+say something more; rancour holds the place of argument.</p>
+<p>Both parties beat up for volunteers in the town, to strengthen
+their forces; from words of acrimony, they came to those of
+virulence; then the powerful batteries of hand-bills, and
+news-papers were opened: every town within fifty miles, interested,
+on either side, was moved to petition, and both prepared for a
+grand attack, confident of victory.</p>
+<p>Perhaps a contest among friends, in matters of property, will
+remove that peace of mind, which twenty per cent. will not
+replace.</p>
+<p>Each party possessed that activity of spirit, for which
+Birmingham is famous, and seemed to divide between them the
+legislative strength of the nation: every corner of the two houses
+was ransacked for a vote; the throne was the only power
+unsolicited. Perhaps at the reading, when both parties had
+marshalled their forces, there was the fullest House of Commons
+ever remembered on a private bill.</p>
+<p>The new company promised much, for besides the cut from
+Wednesbury to Digbeth, they would open another to join the two
+canals of Stafford and Coventry, in which a large track of country
+was interested.</p>
+<p>As the old company were the first adventurers, the house gave
+them the option to perform this Herculean labour, which they
+accepted.</p>
+<p>As parliament have not yet given their determination, and as the
+printer this moment raps at my door, "Sir, the press waits, more
+copy if you please," I cannot stay to tell the world the result of
+the bill; but perhaps, the new proprietors, by losing, will save
+50,000<i>l</i>. and the old, by winning, become sufferers.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="WORKHOUSE_BILL."></a>WORKHOUSE BILL.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>I have often mentioned an active spirit, as the characteristic
+of the inhabitants of Birmingham. This spirit never forsakes them.
+It displays itself in industry, commerce, invention, humanity, and
+internal government. A singular vivacity attends every pursuit till
+compleated, or discarded for a second.</p>
+<p>The bubble of the day, like that at the end of a tobacco-pipe,
+dances in air, exhibits divers beauties, pleases the eye, bursts in
+a moment, and is followed up by another.</p>
+<p>There is no place in the British dominions easier to be governed
+than Birmingham; and yet we are fond of forging acts of parliament
+to govern her.</p>
+<p>There is seldom a point of time in which an act is not in
+agitation; we fabricate them with such expedition, that we could
+employ a parliament of our own to pass them. But, to the honor of
+our ladies, not one of these acts is directed against them. Neither
+is there an instance upon record, that the torch of Hymen was ever
+extinguished by the breath of Marriot in Doctors-Commons.</p>
+<p>In the present spring of 1783, we have four acts upon the anvil:
+every man, of the least consequence, becomes a legislator, and
+wishes to lend his assistance in framing an act; so that instead of
+one lord, as formerly, we now, like the Philistines, have three
+thousand.</p>
+<p>An act of parliament, abstractedly considered, is a dead matter:
+it cannot operate of itself: like a plaister, it must be applied to
+the evil, or that evil will remain. We vainly expect a law to
+perform the intended work; if it does not, we procure another to
+make it. Thus the canal, by one act in 1767, hobbled on, like a man
+with one leg; but a second, in 1770, furnished a pair. The lamp
+act, procured in 1769, was worn to rags, and mended with another in
+1773; and this second has been long out of repair, and waits for a
+third.</p>
+<p>We carry the same spirit into our bye-laws, and with the same
+success. Schemes have been devised, to oblige every man to pay
+levies; but it was found difficult to extract money from him who
+had none.</p>
+<p>In 1754, we brought the manufacture of pack-thread into the
+workhouse, to reduce the levies; the levies increased. A spirited
+overseer afterwards, for the same reason, as if poverty was not a
+sufficient stigma, badged the poor; the levies still increased.</p>
+<p>The advance of bread in 1756, induced the officers to step out
+of the common track, perhaps, out of their knowledge; and, at the
+expence of half a levy, fit up an apparatus for grinding corn in
+the house: thus, by sacrificing half <i>one levy, many would be
+saved</i>. However, in the pursuit, many happened to be lost. In
+1761, the apparatus was sold at a farther loss; and the overseers
+sheltered themselves under the charge of idleness against the
+paupers.</p>
+<p>In 1766, the spinning of mop-yarn was introduced, which might,
+with attention, have turned to account; but unfortunately, the yarn
+proved of less value than the wool.</p>
+<p>Others, with equal wisdom, were to ease the levies, by feeding a
+drove of pigs, which, agreeable to their own nature--ran
+backwards.--Renting a piece of ground, by way of garden, which
+supplied the house with a pennyworth of vegetables, for two-pence,
+adding a few cows, and a pasture; but as the end of all was
+<i>loss</i>, the levies increased.</p>
+<p>In 1780, two collectors were appointed, at fifty guineas each,
+which would save the town <i>many a hundred</i>; still the levies
+increased.</p>
+<p>A petition is this sessions presented, for an Act to overturn
+the whole pauper system (for our heads are as fond of new fashions,
+in parochial government, as in the hats which cover them) to erect
+a superb workhouse, at the expence of 10,000<i>l</i>. with powers
+to borrow 15,000<i>l</i>. which grand design is to reduce the
+levies <i>one third</i>.--The levies will increase.</p>
+<p>The reasons <i>openly</i> alledged are, "The Out-pensioners,
+which cost 7000<i>l</i>. a year, are the chief foundation of our
+public grievances: that the poor ought to be employed <i>in</i> the
+house, lest their morals become injured by the shops; which
+prevents them from being taken into family service; and, the
+crowded state of the workhouse."--But whether the pride of an
+overseer, in perpetuating his name, is not the pendulum which set
+the machine in motion? Or, whether a man, as well as a spider, may
+not create a <i>place</i>, and, like that--<i>fill it with
+himself</i>?</p>
+<p>The bill directs, That the inhabitants mall chuse a number of
+guardians by ballot, who shall erect a workhouse, on
+Birmingham-heath--a spot as airy as the scheme; conduct a
+manufacture, and the poor; dispose of the present workhouse; seize
+and confine idle or disorderly persons, and keep them to labour,
+till they have reimbursed the parish all expences.</p>
+<p>But it may be asked, Whether spending 15,000<i>l</i>. is likely
+to reduce the levies?</p>
+<p>Whether we shall be laughed at, for throwing by a building, the
+last wing of which cost a thousand pounds, after using it only
+three years?</p>
+<p>Our commerce is carried on by reciprocal obligation. Every
+overseer has his friends, whom he cannot refuse to serve; nay, whom
+he may even wish to serve, if that service costs him nothing:
+hence, that over-grown monster so justly complains of, <i>The
+Weekly Tickets</i>; it follows, whether <i>sixty</i> guardians are
+not likely to have more friends to serve, than six overseers?</p>
+<p>Whether the trades of the town, by a considerable manufacture
+established at the workhouse, will not be deprived of their most
+useful hands?</p>
+<p>Whether it is not a maxim of the wisest men who have filled the
+office, "to endeavour to keep the poor <i>out</i> of the house, for
+if they are admitted, they become more chargeable; nor will they
+leave it without clothing?"</p>
+<p>A workhouse is a kind of prison, and a dreadful one to those of
+tender feelings--Whether the health of an individual, the ideas of
+rectitude, or the natural right of our species, would not be
+infringed by a cruel imprisonment.</p>
+<p>If a man has followed an occupation forty years, and necessity
+sends him to the parish, whether is it preferable to teach him a
+new trade, or suffer him to earn what he can at his old? If we
+decide for the latter, whether he had better walk four hundred
+yards to business, or four miles? His own infirmity will determine
+this question.</p>
+<p>If a young widow be left with two children, shall she pay a girl
+six-pence a week to tend them, while she earns five shillings at
+the mops, and is allowed two by the parish, or shall all three
+reside in the house, at the weekly expence of six, and she be
+employed in nursing them? If we again declare for the latter, it
+follows, that the parish will not only have four shillings a week,
+but the community may gain half a crown by her labour.</p>
+<p>Whether the morals of the children are more likely to be injured
+by the shops, than the morals of half the children in town; many of
+whom labour to procure levies for the workhouse?</p>
+<p>Whether the morals of a child will be more corrupted in a small
+shop, consisting of a few persons, or in a large one at the
+workhouse, consisting of hundreds?</p>
+<p>Whether the grand shop at Birmingham-heath, or at any heath,
+will train girls for service, preferable to others?</p>
+<p>Shall we, because the house has been crowded a few weeks, throw
+away 15000<i>l</i>. followed by a train of evils? A few months ago,
+I saw in it a large number of vacant beds. Besides, at a small
+expence, and without impeding the circulation of air, conveniency
+may be made for one hundred more.</p>
+<p>Did a manufacture ever prosper under a multitude of inspectors,
+not one of which is to taste the least benefit?</p>
+<p>As public business, which admits no profit, such as vestry
+assemblies, commissions of lamps, turnpike meetings, &amp;c. are
+thinly attended, even in town; what reason is there to expect a
+board two miles in the country?</p>
+<p>The workhouse may be deemed <i>The Nursery of Birmingham</i>, in
+which she deposits her infants, for future service: the unfortunate
+and the idle, till they can be set upon their own basis; and the
+decrepid, during the few remaining sands in their glass. If we
+therefore carry the workhouse to a distance, whether we shall not
+interrupt that necessary intercourse which ought to subsist between
+a mother and her offspring? As sudden sickness, indications of
+child-birth, &amp;c. require immediate assistance, a life in
+extreme danger may chance to be lost by the length of the road.</p>
+<p>If we keep the disorderly till they have reimbursed the parish,
+whether we do not acquire an inheritance for life?</p>
+<p>We censure the officer who pursues a phantom at the expence of
+others; we praise him who <i>teaches the poor to live</i>.</p>
+<p>All the evils complained of, may be removed by <i>attention in
+the man</i>; the remedy is not in an act. He therefore accuses his
+own want of application, in soliciting government to <i>do</i> what
+he might do himself--Expences are saved by private acts of
+oeconomy, not by public Acts of Parliament.</p>
+<p>It has long been said, <i>think</i> and <i>act</i>; but as our
+internal legislators chuse to reverse the maxim by fitting up an
+expensive shop; then seeking a trade to bring in, perhaps they may
+place over the grand entrance, <i>act</i> and <i>think</i>.</p>
+<p>One remark should never be lost sight of, <i>The more we tax the
+inhabitants, the sooner they leave us, and carry off the
+trades</i>.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="THE_CAMP."></a>THE CAMP.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>I have already remarked, <i>a spirit of bravery is part of the
+British character</i>. The perpetual contests for power, among the
+Britons, the many roads formed by the Romans, to convey their
+military force, the prodigious number of camps, moats, and broken
+castles, left us by the Saxons, Danes, and Normans, our common
+ancestors, indicate <i>a martial temper</i>. The names of those
+heroic sovereigns, Edward the Third, and Henry the Fifth, who
+brought their people to the fields of conquest, descend to
+posterity with the highest applause, though they brought their
+kingdom to the brink of ruin; while those quiet princes, Henry the
+Seventh, and James the First, who cultivated the arts of peace, are
+but little esteemed, though under their sceptre, England
+experienced the greatest improvement.--The man who dare face an
+enemy, is the most likely to gain a friend. A nation versed in
+arms, stands the fairest chance to protect its property, and secure
+its peace: war itself may be hurtful, the knowledge of it
+useful.</p>
+<p>In Mitchly-park, three miles west of Birmingham, in the parish
+of Edgbaston, is <i>The Camp</i>; which might be ascribed to the
+Romans, lying within two or three stones cast of their
+Ikenield-street, where it divides the counties of Warwick and
+Worcester, but is too extensive for that people, being about thirty
+acres: I know none of their camps more than four, some much less;
+it must, therefore, have been the work of those pilfering vermin
+the Danes, better acquainted with other peoples property than their
+own; who first swarmed on the shores, then over-ran the interior
+parts of the kingdom, and, in two hundred years, devoured the
+whole.</p>
+<p>No part of this fortification is wholly obliterated, though, in
+many places, it is nearly levelled by modern cultivation, that
+dreadful enemy to the antiquary. Pieces of armour are frequently
+ploughed up, particularly parts of the sword and the battle-axe,
+instruments much used by those destructive sons of the raven.</p>
+<p>The platform is quadrangular, every side nearly four hundred
+yards; the center is about six acres, surrounded by three ditches,
+each about eight yards over, at unequal distances; though upon a
+descent, it is amply furnished with water. An undertaking of such
+immense labour, could not have been designed for temporary use.</p>
+<p>The propriety of the spot, and the rage of the day for
+fortification, seem to have induced the Middlemores, lords of the
+place for many centuries, and celebrated for riches, but in the
+beginning of this work, for poverty, to erect a park, and a lodge;
+nothing of either exist, but the names.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2><a name="MORTIMERS_BANK"></a>MORTIMER's BANK.</h2>
+<br>
+<p>The traveller who undertakes an extensive journey, cannot chuse
+his road, or his weather: sometimes the prospect brightens, with a
+serene sky, a smooth path, and a smiling sun; all within and
+without him is chearful.</p>
+<p>Anon he is assailed by the tempests, stumbles over the ridges,
+is bemired in the hollows, the sun hides his face, and his own is
+sorrowful--this is the lot of the historian; he has no choice of
+subject, merry or mournful, he must submit to the changes which
+offer; delighted with the prosperous tale, depressed with the
+gloomy.</p>
+<p>I am told, this work has often drawn a smile from the reader; it
+has often drawn a sigh from me. A celebrated painter fell in love
+with the picture he drew; I have wept at mine--Such is the chapter
+of the Lords, and the Workhouse. We are not always proof against a
+melancholy or a tender sentiment.</p>
+<p>Having pursued our several stages, with various fortune, through
+fifty chapters, at the close of this last tragic scene, emotion and
+the journey cease together.</p>
+<p>Upon King's-wood, five miles from Birmingham, and two hundred
+yards east of the Alcester-road, runs a bank for near a mile in
+length, unless obliterated by the new inclosure; for I saw it
+complete in 1775. This was raised by the famous Roger Mortimer,
+Earl of March, about 1324, to inclose a wood, from whence the place
+derives its name.</p>
+<p>Then that feeble monarch, Edward the Second, governed the
+kingdom; the amorous Isabella, his wife, governed the king, and the
+gallant Mortimer governed the queen.</p>
+<p>The parishes of King's-norton, Solihull, Yardley, uniting in
+this wood, and enjoying a right of commons, the inhabitants
+conceived themselves injured by the inclosure, assembled in a body,
+threw down the fence, and murdered the Earl's bailiff.</p>
+<p>Mortimer, in revenge, procured a special writ from the Court of
+Common Pleas, and caused the matter to be tried at Bromsgrove,
+where the affrighted inhabitants, over-awed with power, durst not
+appear in their own vindication. The Earl, therefore, recovered a
+verdict, and the enormous sum of 300<i>l</i>. damage. A sum nearly
+equal, at that time, to the fee-simple of the three parishes.</p>
+<p>The confusion of the times, and the poverty of the people,
+protracted payment, till the unhappy Mortimer, overpowered by his
+enemies, was seized as a criminal in Nottingham-castle; and,
+without being heard, executed at Tyburn, in 1328.</p>
+<p>The distressed inhabitants of our three parishes humbly
+petitioned the crown, for a reduction of the fine; when Edward the
+Third was pleased to remit about 260<i>l</i>.</p>
+<p>We can assign no reason for this imprudent step of inclosing the
+wood, unless the Earl intended to procure a grant of the manor,
+then in the crown, for his family. But what he could not accomplish
+by family, was accomplished by fortune; for George the Third, King
+of Great Britain, is lord of the manor of King's-norton, and a
+descendant from the house of Mortimer.</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<hr style="width: 35%;">
+<br>
+<br>
+<h2>F I N I S.</h2>
+<br>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's An History of Birmingham (1783), by William Hutton
+
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+</pre>
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+</body>
+</html>
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+Project Gutenberg's An History of Birmingham (1783), by William Hutton
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: An History of Birmingham (1783)
+
+Author: William Hutton
+
+Release Date: November 2, 2004 [EBook #13926]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM (1783) ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Charlie Kirschner and the PG Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+AN
+
+HISTORY
+
+OF
+
+BIRMINGHAM.
+
+[Illustration: the-text-caption]
+
+
+
+
+THE SECOND EDITION,
+
+WITH CONSIDERABLE ADDITIONS.
+
+
+By W. HUTTON.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+A preface rather induces a man to speak of himself, which is deemed the
+worst subject upon which he _can_ speak. In history we become acquainted
+with things, but in a preface with the author; and, for a man to treat
+of himself, may be the most _difficult_ talk of the two: for in history,
+facts are produced ready to the hand of the historian, which give birth
+to thought, and it is easy to cloath that thought in words. But in a
+preface, an author is obliged to forge from the brain, where he is
+sometimes known to forge without fire. In one, he only reduces a
+substance into form; but in the other, he must create that substance.
+
+As I am not an author by profession, it is no wonder if I am
+unacquainted with the modes of authorship; but I apprehend, the usual
+method of conducting the pen, is to polish up a founding title-page,
+dignified with scraps of Latin, and then, to hammer up a work to fit it,
+as nearly as genius, or want of genius, will allow.
+
+We next _turn over a new leaf_, and open upon a pompous dedication,
+which answers many laudable purposes: if a coat of arms, correctly
+engraven, should step first into view, we consider it a singular
+advantage gained over a reader, like the first blow in a combat. The
+dedication itself becomes a pair of stilts, which advance an author
+something higher.
+
+As a horse-shoe, nailed upon the threshold of a cottage, prevents the
+influence of the witch; so a first-rate name, at the head of a
+dedication, is a total bar against the critic; but this great name, like
+a great officer, sometimes unfortunately stands at the head of
+wretched troops.
+
+When an author is too _heavy_ to swim of himself, it serves as a pair of
+bladders, to prevent his sinking.
+
+It is farther productive of a _solid_ advantage, that of a present from
+the patron, more valuable than that from the bookseller, which prevents
+his sinking under the pressure of famine.
+
+But, being wholly unknown to the great names of literary consequence, I
+shall not attempt a dedication, therefore must lose the benefit of the
+stilt, the bladder, and the horse-shoe.
+
+Were I to enter upon a dedication, I should certainly address myself,
+"_To the Inhabitants of Birmingham_." For to them I not only owe much,
+but all; and I think, among that congregated mass, there is not one
+person to whom I wish ill. I have the pleasure of calling many of those
+inhabitants _Friends_, and some of them share my warm affections equally
+with myself. Birmingham, like a compassionate nurse, not only draws our
+persons, but our esteem, from the place of our nativity, and fixes it
+upon herself: I might add, _I was hungry, and she fed me_; _thirsty, and
+she gave me drink_; _a stranger, and she took me in_. I approached her
+with reluctance, because I did not know her; I shall leave her with
+reluctance, because I do.
+
+Whether it is perfectly confident in an author, to solicit the
+indulgence of the public, though it may stand first in his wishes,
+admits a doubt; for, if his productions will not bear the light, it may
+be said, why does he publish? but, if they will, there is no need to ask
+a favor; the world receives one from him. Will not a piece everlastingly
+be tried by its merit? Shall we esteem it the higher, because it was
+written at the age of thirteen? because it was the effort of a week?
+delivered extempore? hatched while the author stood upon one leg? or
+cobbled, while he cobbled a shoe? or will it be a recommendation, that
+it issues forth in gilt binding? The judicious world will not be
+deceived by the tinselled purse, but will examine whether the _contents_
+are sterling.
+
+Will it augment the value of this history, or cover its blunders, to
+say, that I have never seen _Oxford?_ That the thick fogs of penury,
+prevented the sun of science from beaming upon the mind? That necessity
+obliged me to lay down the battledore, before I was master of the
+letters? And that, instead of handling systems of knowledge, my hands,
+at the early period of seven, became callous with labour?
+
+But, though a whole group of pretences will have no effect with the
+impartial eye, yet one reason pleads strongly in my favor--no such thing
+ever appeared as _An History of Birmingham_. It is remarkable, that one
+of the most singular places in the universe is without an historian:
+that she never manufactured an history of herself, who has manufactured
+almost every thing else; that so many ages should elapse, and not one
+among her numerous sons of industry, snatch the manners of the day from
+oblivion, group them in design, with the touches of his pen, and exhibit
+the picture to posterity. If such a production had ever seen the light,
+mine most certainly would never have been written; a temporary bridge
+therefore may satisfy the impatient traveller, till a more skilful
+architect shall accommodate him with a complete production of elegance,
+of use, and of duration.--Although works of genius ought to come out of
+the mint doubly refined, yet history admits of a much greater latitude
+to the author. The best upon the subject, though defective, may meet
+with regard.
+
+It has long been a complaint, that local history is much wanted. This
+will appear obvious, if we examine the places we know, with the
+histories that treat of them. Many an author has become a cripple, by
+historically travelling through _all England_, who might have made a
+tolerable figure, had he staid at home. The subject is too copious for
+one performance, or even the life of one man. The design of history is
+knowledge: but, if simply to tell a tale, be all the duty of an
+historian, he has no irksome task before him; for there is nothing more
+easy than to relate a fact; but, perhaps, nothing more difficult than to
+relate it well.
+
+The situation of an author is rather precarious--if the smiles of the
+world chance to meet his labours, he is apt to forget himself; if
+otherwise, he is soon forgot. The efforts of the critic may be necessary
+to clip the wings of a presuming author, lest his rising vanity becomes
+insupportable: but I pity the man, who writes a book which none will
+peruse a second time; critical exertions are not necessary to pull him
+down, he will fall of himself. The sin of writing carries its own
+punishment, the tumultuous passions of anxiety and expectation, like
+the jarring elements in October, disturb his repose, and, like them, are
+followed by stirility: his cold productions, injured by no hand but that
+of time, are found sleeping on the shelf unmolested. It is easy to
+describe his fears before publication, but who can tell his feelings
+after judgment is passed upon his works? His only consolation is
+accusing the critic of injustice, and thinking the world in the wrong.
+But if repentence should not follow the culprit, hardened in scribbling,
+it follows, his bookseller, oppressed with _dead works_. However, if all
+the evils in Pandora's box are emptied on a blasted author, this one
+comfort remains behind--The keeper of a circulating library, or the
+steward of a reading society can tell him, "His book is more _durable_
+than the others."
+
+Having, many years ago, entertained an idea of this undertaking, I made
+some trifling preparations; but, in 1775, a circumstance of a private
+nature occurring, which engaged my attention for several years, I
+relinquished the design, destroyed the materials, and meant to give up
+the thought for ever. But the intention revived in 1780, and the
+work followed.
+
+I may be accused of quitting the regular trammels of history, and
+sporting in the fields of remark: but, although our habitation justly
+stands first in our esteem, in return for rest, content, and protection;
+does it follow that we should never stray from it? If I happen to veer a
+moment from the polar point of Birmingham, I shall certainly vibrate
+again to the center. Every author has a manner peculiar to himself, nor
+can he well forsake it. I should be exceedingly hurt to omit a
+necessary part of intelligence, but more, to offend a reader.
+
+If GRANDEUR should censure me for sometimes recording the men of mean
+life, let me ask, _Which is preferable_, he who thunders at the anvil,
+or in the senate? The man who earnestly wishes the significant letters,
+ESQ. spliced to the end of his name, will despise the question; but the
+philosopher will answer, "They are equal."
+
+Lucrative views have no part in this production: I cannot solicit a kind
+people to grant what they have already granted; but if another finds
+that pleasure in reading, which I have done in writing, I am paid.
+
+As no history is extant, to inform me of this famous nursery of the
+arts, perfection in mine must not be expected. Though I have
+endeavoured to pursue the road to truth; yet, having no light to guide,
+or hand to direct me, it is no wonder if I mistake it: but we do not
+_condemn_, so much as _pity_ the man for losing his way, who first
+travels an unbeaten road.
+
+Birmingham, for want of the recording hand, may be said to live but one
+generation; the transactions of the last age, die in this; memory is the
+sole historian, which being defective, I embalm the present generation,
+for the inspection of the future.
+
+It is unnecessary to attempt a general character, for if the attentive
+reader is himself of Birmingham, he is equally apprized of that
+character; and, if a stranger, he will find a variety of touches
+scattered through the piece, which, taken in a collective view, form a
+picture of that generous people, who _merit his_ esteem, and
+_possess mine_.
+
+
+
+THE
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+
+_Some Account of the Derivation of the Name of
+Birmingham_, ..................................... page 1
+_Situation_, .....................................      3
+_Soil_, ..........................................      6
+_Water_, .........................................      7
+_Baths_, .........................................      8
+_Air_, ...........................................     *8
+_Longevity_, .....................................      9
+_Ancient State of Birmingham_, ...................     13
+_Battle of Camp-hill_, ...........................    *41
+_Modern State of Birmingham_, ....................     40
+_Streets, and their Names_, ......................     53
+_Trade_, .........................................     57
+  _Button_, ......................................     75
+  _Buckle_, ......................................     76
+  _Guns_, ........................................     78
+  _Leather_, .....................................     79
+  _Steel_, .......................................     80
+  _Nails_, .......................................    *83
+  _Bellows_, .....................................    *85
+  _Thread_, ......................................    *89
+  _Printing, by John Baskerville_, ...............    *90
+  _Brass foundry_, ...............................    *94
+  _Hackney Coaches_, .............................     81
+_Bank_, ..........................................     83
+_Government_, ....................................   ibid
+  _Constables_, ..................................     92
+  _Bailiffs_, ....................................     94
+_Court of Requests_, .............................    *99
+_Lamp Act_, ......................................     99
+_Religion and Politics_, .........................    105
+_Places of Worship_, .............................    111
+  _St. John's Chapel, Deritend_, .................    112
+  _St. Bartholomew's_, ...........................    113
+  _St. Mary's_, ..................................    115
+  _St. Paul's_, ..................................   ibid
+  _Old Meeting_, .................................    116
+  _New Meeting_, .................................    117
+  _Carr's-lane Meeting_, .........................    118
+  _Baptist Meeting_, .............................   ibid
+  _Quaker's Meeting_, ............................    120
+  _Methodist Meeting_, ...........................    121
+  _Romish Chapel_, ...............................   *125
+  _Jewish Synagogue_, ............................   *128
+_Theatres_, ......................................    123
+_Amusements_, ....................................    127
+_Hotel_, .........................................   *132
+_Wakes_, .........................................    132
+_Clubs_, .........................................    135
+_Ikenield street_, ...............................    140
+_Lords of the Manor_, ............................    153
+  _Uluuine_, 1050, ...............................    156
+  _Richard_, 1066, ...............................   ibid
+  _William_, 1130, ...............................    161
+  _Peter de Birmingham_, 1154, ...................    161
+  _William de Birmingham_, 1216, .................    163
+  _William de Birmingham_, 1246, .................    164
+  _William de Birmingham_, 1265, .................    165
+  _William de Birmingham_, 1306, .................    166
+  _Sir Fouk de Birmingham_, 1340, ................    168
+  _Sir John de Birmingham_, 1376, ................    169
+  _Lord Clinton_, ................................   ibid
+  _Edmund, Lord Ferrers_, ........................    170
+  _William de Birmingham_, 1430, .................   ibid
+  _Sir William Birmingham_, 1479, ................    171
+  _Edward Birmingham_, 1500, .....................    172
+  _John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland_, 1537, ...    177
+  _Thomas Marrow_, 1555, .........................    180
+  _Thomas Archer_, 1746, .........................    181
+  _Andrew, Lord Archer_, .........................    181
+  _Sarah, Lady Archer_, 1781, ....................   ibid
+_Manor house_, ...................................    182
+_Pudding-brook_, .................................    186
+_Priory_, ........................................    187
+_John à Dean's Hole_, ............................    195
+_Lench's Trust_, .................................    196
+_Fentbam's Trust_, ...............................    200
+_Crowley's Trust_, ...............................    201
+_Scott's Trust_, .................................    202
+_Free School_, ...................................    203
+_Charity School_, ................................    209
+_Dissenting Charity School_, .....................    214
+_Workhouse_, .....................................    215
+_Old Cross_, .....................................    227
+_Welch Cross_, ...................................    229
+_St. Martin's_, ..................................    232
+_St. Philip's_, ..................................    246
+_Births and Burials_, ............................    253
+_General Hospital_, ..............................    256
+_Public Roads_, ..................................    259
+_Canal_, .........................................    266
+_Deritend Bridge_, ...............................    269
+_Soho_, ..........................................    271
+_Danes Camp, Danes Bank, or Bury Fields_, ........    272
+_Gentlemen's Seats_, .............................    273
+  _The Moats_, ...................................    276
+  _Black Greves_, ................................   ibid
+  _Ulverley, or Culverley_, ......................    277
+  _Hogg's Moat_, .................................    278
+  _Yardley_, .....................................    281
+  _Kent's Moat_, .................................    282
+  _Sheldon_, .....................................    283
+  _King's hurst_, ................................   ibid
+  _Coleshill_, ...................................    287
+  _Duddeston_, ...................................    289
+  _Saltley_, .....................................    292
+  _Ward-end_ .....................................    293
+  _Castle Bromwich_, .............................    295
+  _Park hall_, ...................................    299
+  _Berwood_, .....................................    300
+  _Erdington_, ...................................    301
+  _Pipe_, ........................................    303
+  _Aston_, .......................................    306
+  _Witton_, ......................................    309
+  _Blakeley_, ....................................    312
+  _Weoley_, ......................................    313
+_Sutton Coldfield_, ..............................    320
+_Petition for a Corporation_, ....................    324
+_Brass Works_, ...................................    329
+_Prison_, ........................................    332
+_Clodshale's Chantry_, ...........................    336
+_Occurrences_, ...................................    340
+  _Earthquake_, ..................................   ibid
+  _Pitmore and Hammond_, .........................    343
+  _Riots_, .......................................    345
+  _The Conjurers_, ...............................    350
+_Military Association_, ..........................    353
+_Bilston Canal Act_, .............................    357
+_Workhouse Bill_, ................................    361
+_The Camp_, ......................................    370
+_Mortimer's Bank_, ...............................    372
+
+
+
+DIRECTIONS
+
+TO THE
+
+BINDERS,
+
+FOR PLACING THE
+
+COPPER-PLATES.
+
+Prospect of Birmingham,          to face the Title.
+Plan, ........................................   43
+Alm's-houses, ................................  *58
+St. John's Chapel, Deritend, .................  111
+St. Bartholomew's, ...........................  113
+St. Mary's, ..................................  115
+St. Paul's, ..................................  116
+Old and New Meetings, ........................  117
+New Theatre, .................................  123
+Hotel, .......................................  130
+Free School, .................................  203
+Charity School, ..............................  209
+Workhouse, ...................................  215
+Old and Welch Cross, .........................  229
+St. Martin's Church, .........................  232
+St. Philip's, ................................  246
+General Hospital, ............................  256
+Canal, .......................................  265
+Navigation Office, ...........................  267
+Brass Works, .................................  329
+
+
+
+AN
+
+HISTORY &c.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Some account of the derivation of the name of Birmingham_.
+
+The word Birmingham, is too remote for certain explanation. During the
+last four centuries it has been variously written _Brumwycheham,
+Bermyngeham, Bromwycham, Burmyngham, Bermyngham, Byrmyngham_, and
+_Birmingham_; nay, even so late as the seventeenth century it was
+written _Bromicham_. Dugdale supposes the name to have been given by the
+planter, or owner, in the time of the Saxons; but, I suppose it much
+older than any Saxon, date: besides, it is not so common for a man to
+give a name to, as to take one from, a place. A man seldom gives his
+name except he is the founder, as Petersburg from Peter the Great.
+
+Towns, as well as every thing in nature, have exceedingly minute
+beginnings, and generally take a name from situation, or local
+circumstances. Would the Lord of a manor think it an honour to give his
+name to two or three miserable huts? But, if in a succession of ages
+these huts swell into opulence, they confer upon the lord an honour, a
+residence, and a name. The terminations of _sted_, _ham_, and _hurst_,
+are evidently Saxon, and mean the same thing, a home.
+
+The word, in later ages reduced to a certainty, hath undergone various
+mutations; but the original seems to have been _Bromwych_; _Brom_
+perhaps, from broom a shrub, for the growth of which the soil is
+extremely favourable; _Wych_, a descent, this exactly corresponds with
+the declivity from the High Street to Digbeth. Two other places also in
+the neigbourhood bear the same name, which serves to strengthen
+the opinion.
+
+This infant colony, for many centuries after the first buddings of
+existence, perhaps, had no other appellation than that of Bromwych. Its
+center, for many reasons that might be urged, was the Old Cross, and its
+increase, in those early ages of time must have been very small.
+
+A series of prosperity attending it, its lord might assume its name,
+reside in it, and the particle _ham_ would naturally follow. This very
+probably happened under the Saxon Heptarchy, and the name was no other
+than _Bromwycham_.
+
+
+
+SITUATION.
+
+It lies near the centre of the kingdom, in the north-west extremity of
+the county of Warwick, in a kind of peninsula, the northern part of
+which is bounded by Handsworth, in the county of Stafford, and the
+southern by King's-norton, in the county of Worcester; it is also in the
+diocese of Lichfield and Coventry, and in the deanery of Arden.
+
+Let us perambulate the parish from the bottom of Digbeth, thirty yards
+north of the bridge. We will proceed south-west up the bed of the river,
+with Deritend, in the parish of Aston, on our left. Before we come to
+the Floodgates, near Vaughton's Hole, we pass by the Longmores, a small
+part of King's-norton. Crossing the river Rea, we enter the vestiges of
+a small rivulet, yet visible, though the stream hath been turned,
+perhaps, a thousand years, to supply the moat. We now bear rather west,
+nearly in a straight line for three miles, to Shirland brook, with
+Edgbaston on the left. At the top of the first meadow from the river
+Rea, we meet the little stream above-mentioned, in the pursuit of which,
+we cross the Bromsgrove road a little east of the first mile stone.
+Leaving Banner's marlpit to the left, we proceed up a narrow lane
+crossing the old Bromsgrove road, and up to the turnpike at the five
+ways in the road to Hales Owen. Leaving this road also to the left we
+proceed down the lane towards Ladywood, cross the Icknield street, a
+stone's cast east of the observatory, to the north extremity of Rotton
+Park. We now meet with Shirland Brook, which leads us east, and across
+the Dudley road, at the seven mile stone, having Smethwick in the county
+of Stafford, on the left, down to Pigmill. We now leave Handsworth on
+the left, following the stream through Hockley great pool; cross the
+Wolverhampton road, and the Ikenield-street at the same time down to
+Aston furnace, with that parish on the left. At the bottom of
+Walmer-lane we leave the water, move over the fields, nearly in a line
+to the post by the Peacock upon Gosty-green. We now cross the Lichfield
+road, down Duke-street, then the Coleshill road at the A B house. From
+thence down the meadows, to Cooper's mill; up the river to the foot of
+Deritend bridge; and then turn sharp to the right, keeping the course of
+a drain in the form of a sickle, through John a Dean's hole, into
+Digbeth, from whence we set out. In marching along Duke-street, we leave
+about seventy houses to the left, and up the river Rea, about four
+hundred more in Deritend, reputed part of Birmingham, though not in
+the parish.
+
+This little journey, nearly of an oval form, is about seven miles. The
+longest diameter from Shirland brook to Deritend bridge is about three,
+and the widest, from the bottom of Walmer Lane to the rivulet, near the
+mile-stone, upon the Bromsgrove road, more than two.
+
+The superficial contents of the parish may be upwards of four miles,
+about three thousand acres.
+
+Birmingham is by much the smallest parish in the neighbourhood, those of
+Aston and Sutton are each about five times as large, Yardley four, and
+King's-Norton eight.
+
+When Alfred, that great master of legislation, parished out his kingdom,
+or rather, put the finishing hand to that important work; where he met
+with a town, he allotted a smaller quantity of land, because the
+inhabitants chiefly depended upon commerce; but where there was only a
+village, he allotted a larger, because they depended upon agriculture.
+
+This observation goes far in proving the antiquity of the place, for it
+is nine hundred years since this division took effect.
+
+The buildings occupy the south east part of the parish; perhaps, with
+their appendages, about six hundred acres.
+
+This south east part, being insufficient for the extraordinary increase
+of the inhabitants, she has of late extended her buildings along the
+Bromsgrove road, near the boundaries of Edgbaston; and actually on the
+other side planted three of her streets in the parish of Aston. Could
+the sagacious Alfred have seen into futurity, he would have augmented
+her borders.
+
+As no part of the town lies flat, the showers promote both cleanliness
+and health, by removing obstructions.
+
+The approach is on every side by ascent, except that from Hales-Owen,
+north west, which gives a free access of air, even to the most secret
+recesses of habitation.
+
+Thus eminently situated, the sun can exercise his full powers of
+exhalation.
+
+The foundation upon which this mistress of the arts is erected, is one
+solid mass of dry reddish sand.
+
+The vapours that rise from the earth are the great promoters of disease;
+but here, instead of the moisture ascending to the prejudice of the
+inhabitant, the contrary is evident; for the water descends through the
+pores of the sand, so that even our very cellars are habitable.
+
+This accounts for the almost total extinction of the ague among
+us:--During a residence of thirty years, I have never seen one person
+afflicted with it, though, by the opportunities of office, I have
+frequently visited the repositories of the sick.
+
+Thus peculiarly favoured, this happy spot, enjoys four of the greatest
+benefits that can attend human existence--water, air, the fun, and a
+situation free from damps.
+
+All the _past_ writers upon Birmingham have viewed her as low and
+watery, and with reason; because Digbeth, then the chief street, bears
+that description. But all the future writers will view her on an
+eminence, and with as much reason; because, for one low street, we have
+now fifty elevated.
+
+Birmingham, like the empire to which she belongs, has been, for many
+centuries, travelling _up hill_; and, like that, rising in consequence.
+
+
+
+SOIL.
+
+The soil is rather light, sandy, and weak; and though metals, of various
+sorts, are found in great plenty, _above_ the surface, we know of
+nothing below, except sand and gravel, stone and water. All the riches
+of the place, like those of an empiric, in laced cloaths, appear on the
+_outside_.
+
+The northern part of the parish, for about four hundred acres, to the
+disgrace of the age, is yet a shameful waste.
+
+A small part of the land near the town, is parcelled out into little
+gardens, at ten or twenty shillings each, amounting to about sixteen
+pounds per acre.
+
+These are not intended so much for profit, as health and amusement.
+
+Others are let in detached pieces for private use, at about four pounds
+per acre. So that this small parish cannot boast of more than six or
+eight farms, and these of the smaller size, at about two pounds per
+acre. Manure from the sty brings about 16s. per waggon load, that from
+the stable about 12, and that from the fire and the street, five.
+
+
+
+WATER.
+
+I think there is not any natural river runs through the parish, but
+there are three that mark the boundaries of it, for about half its
+circumference, described above; none of these supply family use. After
+penetrating into a body of sand, interspersed with a small strata of
+soft Rock, and sometimes of gravel; at the depth of about twenty yards,
+we come to plenty of water, rather hard. There are in the lower parts of
+the town, two excellent springs of soft water, suitable for most
+purposes; one at the top of Digbeth, the other, Lady-Well. Or rather,
+one spring, or bed of water, with many out-lets, continuing its course
+along the bottom of the hill, parallel with Small-brook-street,
+Edgbaston street, St. Martin's-lane, and Park-street; sufficiently
+copious to supply the whole city of London. Water is of the first
+consequence, it often influences disease, always the habit of body: that
+of Birmingham is in general productive of salutary effects.
+
+That dreadful disorder, the stone, is seldom found among us. I can
+recollect but very few, in my time, under this severe complaint, which
+is perhaps owing to that valuable element. I mentioned this remark to an
+eminent surgeon, who assured me, that, in his long course of practice,
+he had never been concerned in one operation in that unhappy disorder.
+
+
+
+BATHS.
+
+At Lady-Well, are the most complete baths in the whole Island. There are
+seven in number; erected at the expence of 2000_l_. Accommodation is
+ever ready for hot or cold bathing; for immersion or amusement; with
+conveniency for sweating. That, appropriated for swimming, is eighteen
+Yards by thirty-six, situated in the centre of a garden, in which are
+twenty four private undressing-houses, the whole surrounded by a wall 10
+feet high. Pleasure and health are the guardians of the place. The
+gloomy horrors of a bath, sometimes deter us from its use, particularly,
+if aided by complaint; but the appearance of these is rather inviting.
+We read of painted sepulchres, whose _outsides_ are richly ornamented,
+but _within_ are full of corruption and death. The reverse is before us.
+No elegance appears without, but within are the Springs of life! The
+expence was great, the utility greater.
+
+I do not know any author, who has reckoned man among the amphibious race
+of animals, neither do I know any animal who better deserves it. Man is
+lord of the little ball on which he treads, one half of which, at least,
+is water. If we do not allow him to be amphibious, we deprive him of
+half his sovereignty. He justly bears that name, who can _live_ in the
+water. Many of the disorders incident to the human frame are prevented,
+and others cured, both by fresh and salt bathing; so that we may
+properly remark, "_He lives in the water_, who can find life, nay, even
+_health_ in that friendly element."
+
+The greatest treasure on earth is health; but, a treasure, of all
+others, the least valued by the owner. Other property is best rated when
+in possession, but this, can only be rated when lost. We sometimes
+observe a man, who, having lost this inestimable jewel, seeks it with an
+ardour equal to its worth; but when every research by land, is eluded,
+he fortunately finds it in the water. Like the fish, he pines away upon
+shore, but like that, recovers again in the deep.
+
+Perhaps Venus is represented as rising from the ocean, which is no other
+then a bath of the larger size, to denote, that bathing is the refiner
+of health, consequently, of beauty; and Neptune being figured in
+advanced life, indicates, that it is a preservative to old age.
+
+The cure of disease among the Romans, by bathing, is supported by many
+authorities; among others, by the number of baths frequently discovered,
+in which, pleasure, in that warm climate, bore a part. But this practice
+seemed to decline with Roman freedom, and never after held the eminence
+it deserved. Can we suppose, the physician stept between disease and the
+bath, to hinder their junction; or, that he lawfully holds, by
+prescription, the tenure of sickness, in _fee_?
+
+The knowledge of this singular _art of healing_, is at present only in
+infancy. How far it may prevent, or conquer disease; to what measure it
+may be applied, in particular cases, and the degrees of use, in
+different constitutions, are enquiries that will be better understood by
+a future generation.
+
+
+
+AIR.
+
+As we have passed through the water, let us now investigate her sister
+fluid, the air. They are both necessary to life, and the purity of both
+to the prolongation of it; this small difference lies between them, a
+man may live a day without water, but not an hour without air: If a man
+wants better water, it may be removed from a distant place for his
+benefit; but if he wants air, he must remove himself.--The natural air
+of Birmingham, perhaps, cannot be excelled in this climate, the moderate
+elevation and dry soil evinces this truth; but it receives an alloy from
+the congregated body of fifty thousand people; also from the smoke of an
+extraordinary number of fires used in business; and perhaps, more from
+the various effluvia arising from particular trades. It is not uncommon
+to see a man with green hair or a yellow wig, from his constant
+employment in brass; if he reads, the green vestiges of his occupation
+remain on every leaf, never to be expunged. The inside of his body, no
+doubt, receives the same tincture, but is kept clean by being often
+washed with ale. Some of the fair sex, likewise are subject to the same
+inconvenience, but find relief in the same remedy.
+
+
+
+LONGEVITY.
+
+Man is a time-piece. He measures out a certain space, then stops for
+ever. We see him move upon the earth, hear him click, and perceive in
+his face the uses of intelligence. His external appearance will inform
+us whether he is old-fashioned, in which case, he is less valuable upon
+every gambling calculation. His face also will generally inform us
+whether all is right within. This curious machine is filled with a
+complication of movements, very unfit to be regulated by the rough hand
+of ignorance, which sometimes leaves a mark not to be obliterated even
+by the hand of an artist. If the works are directed by violence,
+destruction is not far off. If we load it with the oil of luxury, it
+will give an additional vigor, but in the end, clog and impede the
+motion. But if the machine is under the influence of prudence, she will
+guide it with an even, and a delicate hand, and perhaps the piece may
+move on 'till it is fairly worn out by a long course of fourscore years.
+
+There are a set of people who expect to find that health in medicine,
+which possibly might be found in regimen, in air, exercise, or
+serenity of mind.
+
+There is another class amongst us, and that rather numerous, whose
+employment is laborious, and whose conduct is irregular. Their time is
+divided between hard working, and hard drinking, and both by a fire. It
+is no uncommon thing to see one of these, at forty, wear the aspect of
+sixty, and finish a life of violence at fifty, which the hand of
+prudence would have directed to eighty.
+
+The strength of a kingdom consists in the multitude of its inhabitants;
+success in trade depends upon the manufacturer; the support and
+direction of a family, upon the head of it. When this useful part of
+mankind, therefore, are cut off in the active part of life, the
+community sustains a loss, whether we take the matter in a national, a
+commercial, or a private view.
+
+We have a third class, who shun the rock upon which these last fall, but
+wreck upon another; they run upon scylla though they have missed
+charybdis; they escape the liquid destruction, but split upon the solid.
+These are proficients in good eating; adepts in culling of delicacies,
+and the modes of dressing them. Matters of the whole art of cookery;
+each carries a kitchen in his head. Thus an excellent constitution may
+be stabbed by the spit. Nature never designed us to live well, and
+continue well; the stomach is too weak a vessel to be richly and deeply
+laden. Perhaps more injury is done by eating than by drinking; one is a
+secret, the other an open enemy: the secret is always supposed the most
+dangerous. Drinking attacks by assault, but eating by sap: luxury is
+seldom visited by old age. The best antidote yet discovered against this
+kind of slow poison is exercise; but the advantages of elevation, air,
+and water, on one hand, and disadvantages of crowd, smoke, and effluvia
+on the other, are trifles compared to intemperance.
+
+We have a fourth class, and with these I shall shut up the clock. If
+this valuable machine comes finished from the hand of nature; if the
+rough blasts of fortune only attack the outward case, without affecting
+the internal works, and if reason conduces the piece, it may move on,
+with a calm, steady, and uninterrupted pace to a great extent of years,
+'till time only annihilates the motion.
+
+I personally know amongst us a Mrs. Dallaway, aged near 90; George
+Davis, 85; John Baddally, Esq; and his two brothers, all between 80 and
+and 90; Mrs. Allen, 92; Mrs. Silk, 84; John Burbury, 84; Thomas Rutter,
+88; Elizabeth Bentley, 88; John Harrison and his wife, one 86, the other
+88; Mrs. Floyd, 87; Elizabeth Simms, 88; Sarah Aston, 98; Isaac Spooner,
+Esq; 89; Joseph Scott, Esq; 94; all at this day, January 9, 1780, I
+believe enjoy health and capacity. This is not designed as a complete
+list of the aged, but of such only as immediately occur to memory. I
+also knew a John England who died at the age of 89; Hugh Vincent, 94;
+John Pitt, 100; George Bridgens, 103; Mrs. More, 104. An old fellow
+assured me he had kept the market 77 years: he kept it for several years
+after to my knowledge. At 90 he was attacked by an acute disorder, but,
+fortunately for himself, being too poor to purchase medical assistance,
+he was left to the care of nature, who opened that door to health which
+the physician would have locked for ever. At 106 I heard him swear with
+all the fervency of a recruit: at 107 he died. It is easy to give
+instances of people who have breathed the smoak of Birmingham for
+threescore years, and yet have scarcely left the precincts of of youth.
+Such are the happy effects of constitution, temper, and conduct!
+
+
+
+_Ancient State of Birmingham_.
+
+We have now to pass through the very remote ages of time, without staff
+to support us, without light to conduct us, or hand to guide us. The way
+is long, dark, and slippery. The credit of an historian is built upon
+truth; he cannot assert, without giving his facts; he cannot surmise,
+without giving his reasons; he must relate things as they are, not as he
+would have them. The fabric founded in error will moulder of itself, but
+that founded in reality will stand the age and the critic.
+
+Except half a dozen pages in Dugdale, I know of no author who hath
+professedly treated of Birmingham. None of the histories which I have
+seen bestow upon it more than a few lines, in which we are sure to be
+treated with the noise of hammers and anvils; as if the historian
+thought us a race of dealers in thunder, lightning, and wind; or
+infernals, puffing in blast and smoak.
+
+Suffer me to transcribe a passage from Leland, one of our most
+celebrated writers, employed by Henry the VIIIth to form an itinerary of
+Britain, whose works have stood the test of 250 years. We shall observe
+how much he erred for want of information, and how natural for his
+successors to copy him.
+
+"I came through a pretty street as ever I entered, into Birmingham town.
+This street, as I remember, is called Dirtey (Deritend). In it dwells
+smithes and cutlers, and there is a brook that divides this street from
+Birmingham, an hamlet, or member, belonging to the parish therebye.
+
+"There is at the end of Dirtey a propper chappel and mansion-house of
+timber, (the moat) hard on the ripe, as the brook runneth down; and as I
+went through the ford, by the bridge, the water came down on the right
+hand, and a few miles below goeth into Tame. This brook, above Dirtey,
+breaketh in two arms, that a little beneath the bridge close again. This
+brook riseth, as some say, four or five miles above Birmingham, towards
+Black-hills.
+
+"The beauty of Birmingham, a good market-town in the extreme parts of
+Warwickshire, is one street going up alonge, almost from the left ripe
+of the brook, up a meane hill, by the length of a quarter of a mile, I
+saw but one parish-church in the town.
+
+"There be many smithes in the town that use to make knives and all
+manner of cutting tools, and many loriners that make bittes, and a
+great many naylers; so that a great part of the town is maintained by
+smithes, who have their iron and sea-coal out of Staffordshire."
+
+Here we find some intelligence, and more mistake, cloathed in the dress
+of antique diction, which plainly evinces the necessity of
+modern history.
+
+It is matter of surprise that none of those religious drones, the monks,
+who hived in the priory for fifteen or twenty generations, ever thought
+of indulging posterity with an history of Birmingham. They could not
+want opportunity, for they lived a life of indolence; nor materials, for
+they were nearer the infancy of time, and were possessed of historical
+fads now totally lost. Besides, nearly all the little learning in the
+kingdom was possessed by this class of people; and the place, in their
+day, must have enjoyed an eminent degree of prosperity.
+
+Though the town has a modern appearance, there is reason to believe it
+of great antiquity; my Birmingham reader, therefore, must suffer me to
+carry him back into the remote ages of the Ancient Britons to visit his
+fable ancestors.
+
+We have no histories of those times but what are left by the Romans, and
+these we ought to read with caution, because they were parties in the
+dispute. If two antagonists write each his own history, the discerning
+reader will sometimes draw the line of justice between them; but where
+there is only one, partiality is expected. The Romans were obliged to
+make the Britons war-like, or there would have been no merit in
+conquering them: they must also sound forth their ignorance, or there
+would have been none in improving them. If the Britons were that
+wretched people they are represented by the Romans, they could not be
+worth conquering: no man subdues a people to improve them, but to profit
+by them. Though the Romans at that time were in their meridian of
+splendor, they pursued Britain a whole century before they reduced it;
+which indicates that they considered it as a valuable prize. Though the
+Britons were not masters of science, like the Romans; though the fine
+arts did not flourish here, as in Rome, because never planted; yet by
+many testimonies it is evident they were masters of plain life; that
+many of the simple arts were practiced in that day, as well as in this;
+that assemblages of people composed cities, the same as now, but in an
+inferior degree; and that the country was populous is plain from the
+immense army Boadicia brought into the field, except the Romans
+increased that army that their merit might be greater in defeating it.
+Nay, I believe we may with propriety carry them beyond plain life, and
+charge them with a degree of elegance: the Romans themselves allow the
+Britons were complete masters of the chariot; that when the scythe was
+fixed at each end of the axle-tree, they drove with great dexterity into
+the midst of the enemy, broke their ranks, and mowed them down. The
+chariot, therefore, could not be made altogether for war, but, when the
+scythes were removed, it still remained an emblem of pride, became
+useful in peace, was a badge of high-life, and continues so with their
+descendants to this day.
+
+We know the instruments of war used by the Britons were a sword, spear,
+shield and scythe. If they were not the manufacturers, how came they by
+these instruments? We cannot allow either they or the chariots were
+imported, because that will give them a much greater consequence: they
+must also have been well acquainted with the tools used in husbandry,
+for they were masters of the field in a double sense. Bad also as their
+houses were, a chest of carpentry tools would be necessary to complete
+them. We cannot doubt, therefore, from these evidences, and others which
+might be adduced, that the Britons understood the manufactory of iron.
+Perhaps history cannot produce an instance of any place in an improving
+country, like England, where the coarse manufactory of iron has been
+carried on, that ever that laborious art went to decay, except the
+materials failed; and as we know of no place where such materials have
+failed, there is the utmost reason to believe our fore-fathers, the
+Britons, were supplied with those necessary implements by the black
+artists of the Birmingham forge. Iron-stone and coal are the materials
+for this production, both which are found in the neighbourhood in great
+plenty. I asked a gentleman of knowledge, if there was a probability of
+the delphs failing? He answered, "Not in five thousand years."
+
+The two following circumstances strongly evince this ancient British
+manufactory:--
+
+Upon the borders of the parish stands Aston-furnace, appropriated for
+melting ironstone, and reducing it into pigs: this has the appearance of
+great antiquity. From the melted ore, in this subterranean region of
+infernal aspect, is produced a calx, or cinder, of which there is an
+enormous mountain. From an attentive survey, the observer would suppose
+so prodigious a heap could not accumulate in one hundred generations;
+however, it shows no perceptible addition in the age of man.
+
+There is also a common of vast extent, called Wednesbury-old-field, in
+which are the vestiges of many hundreds of coal-pits, long in disuse,
+which the curious antiquarian would deem as long in sinking, as the
+mountain of cinders in rising.
+
+The minute sprig of Birmingham, no doubt first took root in this black
+soil, which, in a succession of ages, hath grown to its present
+opulence. At what time this prosperous plant was set, is very uncertain;
+perhaps as long before the days of Caesar as it is since. Thus the mines
+of Wednesbury empty their riches into the lap of Birmingham, and thus
+she draws nurture from the bowels of the earth.
+
+The chief, if not the only manufactory of Birmingham, from its first
+existence to the restoration of Charles the Second, was in iron: of this
+was produced instruments of war and of husbandry, furniture for the
+kitchen, and tools for the whole system of carpentry.
+
+The places where our athletic ancestors performed these curious
+productions of art, were in the shops fronting the street: some small
+remains of this very ancient custom are yet visible, chiefly in Digbeth,
+where about a dozen shops still exhibit the original music of anvil
+and hammer.
+
+As there is the highest probability that Birmingham produced her
+manufactures long before the landing of Caesar, it would give pleasure
+to the curious enquirer, could he be informed of her size in those very
+early ages; but this information is for ever hid from the historian, and
+the reader. Perhaps there never was a period in which she saw a decline,
+but that her progress has been certain, though slow, during the long
+space of two or three thousand years before Charles the Second.
+
+The very roads that proceed from Birmingham, are also additional
+indications of her great antiquity and commercial influence.
+
+Where any of these roads lead up an eminence, they were worn by the long
+practice of ages into deep holloways, some of them twelve or fourteen
+yards below the surface of the banks, with which they were once even,
+and so narrow as to admit only one passenger.
+
+Though modern industry, assisted by various turnpike acts, has widened
+the upper part and filled up the lower, yet they were all visible in the
+days of our fathers, and are traceable even in ours. Some of these, no
+doubt, were formed by the spade, to soften the fatigue of climbing the
+hill, but many were owing to the pure efforts of time, the horse, and
+the showers. As inland trade was small, prior to the fifteenth century,
+the use of the wagon, that great destroyer of the road, was but little
+known. The horse was the chief conveyor of burthen among the Britons,
+and for centuries after: if we, therefore, consider the great length of
+time it would take for the rains to form these deep ravages, we must
+place the origin of Birmingham, at a very early date.
+
+One of these subterranean passages, in part filled up, will convey its
+name to posterity in that of a street, called Holloway-head, 'till
+lately the way to Bromsgrove and to Bewdley, but not now the chief road
+to either. Dale-end, once a deep road, has the same derivation. Another
+at Summer-hill, in the Dudley road, altered in 1753. A remarkable one is
+also between the Salutation and the Turnpike, in the Wolverhampton road.
+A fifth at the top of Walmer-lane, changed into its present form in
+1764. Another between Gosta-green and Aston-brook, reduced in 1752.
+
+All the way from Dale-end to Duddeston, of which Coleshill-street now
+makes a part, was sunk five or six feet, though nearly upon a flat,
+'till filled up in 1756 by act of Parliament: but the most singular is
+that between Deritend and Camp-hill, in the way to Stratford, which is,
+even now, many yards below the banks; yet the seniors of the last age
+took a pleasure in telling us, they could remember when it would have
+buried a wagon load of hay beneath its present surface.
+
+Thus the traveller of old, who came to purchase the produce of
+Birmingham, or to sell his own, seemed to approach her by sap.
+
+British traces are, no doubt, discoverable in the old Dudley-road, down
+Easy-hill, under the canal; at the eight mile-stone, and at Smethwick:
+also in many of the private roads near Birmingham, which were never
+thought to merit a repair, particularly at Good-knaves-end, towards
+Harborne; the Green-lane, leading to the Garrison; and that beyond
+Long-bridge, in the road to Yardley; all of them deep holloways, which
+carry evident tokens of antiquity. Let the curious calculator determine
+what an amazing length of time would elapse in wearing the deep roads
+along Saltleyfield, Shaw-hill, Allum-rock, and the remainder of the way
+to Stichford, only a pitiful hamlet of a dozen houses.
+
+The ancient centre of Birmingham seems to have been the Old Cross, from
+the number of streets pointing towards it. Wherever the narrow end of a
+street enters a great thorough-fare, it indicates antiquity, this is the
+case with Philip-street, Bell-street, Spiceal-street, Park-street, and
+Moor-street, which not only incline to the centre above-mentioned, but
+all terminate with their narrow ends into the grand passage. These
+streets are narrow at the entrance, and widen as you proceed: the narrow
+ends were formed with the main street at first, and were not, at that
+time, intended for streets themselves. As the town increased, other
+blunders of the same kind were committed, witness the gateway late at
+the east end of New-street, the two ends of Worcester-street,
+Smallbrook-street, Cannon-street, New-meeting-streer, and Bull street;
+it is easy to see which end of a street was formed first; perhaps the
+south end of Moor street is two thousand years older than the north; the
+same errors are also committing in our day, as in Hill and Vale streets,
+the two Hinkleys and Catharine-street. One generation, for want of
+foresight, forms a narrow entrance, and another widens it by Act of
+Parliament.
+
+Every word in the English language carries an idea: when a word,
+therefore, strikes the ear, the mind immediately forms a picture, which
+represents it as faithfully as the looking-glass the face.--Thus, when
+the word Birmingham occurs, a superb picture instantly expands in the
+mind, which is best explained by the other words grand, populous,
+extensive, active, commercial and humane. This painting is an exact
+counter-part of the word at this day; but it does not correspond with
+its appearance, in the days of the ancient Britons--We must, therefore,
+for a moment, detach the idea from the word.
+
+Let us suppose, then, this centre surrounded with less than one hundred
+stragling huts, without order, which we will dignify with the name of
+houses; built of timber, the interfaces wattled with sticks, and
+plaistered with mud, covered with thatch, boards or sods; none of them
+higher than the ground story. The meaner sort only one room, which
+served for three uses, shop, kitchen, and lodging room; the door for
+two, it admitted the people and the light. The better sort two rooms,
+and some three, for work, for the kitchen, and for rest; all three in a
+line, and sometimes fronting the street.
+
+If the curious reader chooses to see a picture of Birmingham, in the
+time of the Britons, he will find one in the turnpike road, between
+Hales-owen and Stourbridge, called the Lie Waste, alias Mud City. The
+houses stand in every direction, composed of one large and ill-formed
+brick, scoped into a tenement, burnt by the sun, and often destroyed by
+the frost: the males naked; the females accomplished breeders. The
+children, at the age of three months, take a singular hue from the sun
+and the soil, which continues for life. The rags which cover them leave
+no room for the observer to guess at the sex. Only one person upon the
+premisses presumes to carry a belly, and he a landlord. We might as well
+look for the moon in a coal-pit, as for stays or white linen in the City
+of Mud. The principal tool in business is the hammer, and the beast of
+burden, the ass.
+
+The extent of our little colony of artists, perhaps reached nearly as
+high as the east end of New-street, occupied the upper part of
+Spiceal-street, and penetrated down the hill to the top of Digbeth,
+chiefly on the east.
+
+Success, which ever waits on Industry, produced a gradual, but very slow
+increase: perhaps a thousand years elapsed without adding half that
+number of houses.
+
+Thus our favourite plantation having taken such firm root, that she was
+able to stand the wintry blasts of fortune, we shall digress for a
+moment, while she wields her sparkling heat, according to the fashion of
+the day, in executing the orders of the sturdy Briton; then of the
+polite and heroic Roman; afterwards of our mild ancestors, the Saxons.
+Whether she raised her hammer for the plundering Dane is uncertain, his
+reign being short; and, lastly, for the resolute and surly Norman.
+
+It does not appear that Birmingham, from its first formation, to the
+present day, was ever the habitation of a gentleman, the lords of the
+manor excepted. But if there are no originals among us, we can produce
+many striking likenesses--The smoke of Birmingham has been very
+propitious to their growth, but not to their maturity.
+
+Gentlemen, as well as buttons, have been stamped here; but, like them,
+when finished, are moved off.
+
+They both originate from a very uncouth state, _without form or
+comeliness_; and pass through various stages, uncertain of success. Some
+of them, at length, receive the last polish, and arrive at perfection;
+while others, ruined by a flaw, are deemed _wasters_.
+
+I have known the man of opulence direct his gilt chariot _out_ of
+Birmingham, who first approached her an helpless orphan in rags. I have
+known the chief magistrate of fifty thousand people, fall from his
+phaeton, and humbly ask bread at a parish vestry.
+
+Frequently the wheel of capricious fortune describes a circle, in the
+rotation of which, a family experiences alternately, the heighth of
+prosperity and the depth of distress; but more frequently, like a
+pendulum, it describes only the arc of a circle, and that always at
+the bottom.
+
+Many fine estates have been struck out of the anvil, valuable
+possessions raised by the tongs, and superb houses, in a two-fold sense,
+erected by the trowel.
+
+The paternal ancestor of the late Sir Charles Holte was a native of this
+place, and purchaser, in the beginning of Edward the Third, of the
+several manors, which have been the honour and the support of his house
+to the present time.
+
+Walter Clodshale was another native of Birmingham, who, in 1332,
+purchased the manor of Saltley, now enjoyed by his maternal descendant,
+Charles Bowyer Adderley, Esq.
+
+Charles Colmore, Esq; holds a considerable estate in the parish; his
+predecessor is said to have occupied, in the reign of Henry the Eighth,
+that house, now No. 1, in the High-street, as a mercer, and general
+receiver of the taxes.
+
+A numerous branch of this ancient family flourishes in Birmingham at
+this day.
+
+The head of it, in the reign of James the First, erected New-hall, and
+himself into a gentleman. On this desirable eminence, about half a mile
+from the buildings, they resided till time, fashion, and success,
+removed them, like their predecessors, the sons of fortune, to a
+greater distance.
+
+The place was then possessed by a tenant, as a farm; but Birmingham, a
+speedy traveller, marched over the premises, and covered them with
+twelve hundred houses, on building leases; the farmer was converted into
+a steward: his brown hempen frock, which guarded the _outside_ of his
+waistcoat, became white holland, edged with ruffles, and took its
+station _within_: the pitchfork was metamorphosed into a pen, and his
+ancient practice of breeding up sheep, was changed into that of
+_dressing their skins_.
+
+Robert Philips, Esq; acquired a valuable property in the seventeenth
+century; now possessed by his descendant, William Theodore
+Inge, Esquire.
+
+A gentleman of the name of Foxall, assured me, that the head of his
+family resided upon the spot, now No. 101, in Digbeth, about four
+hundred years ago, in the capacity of a tanner.
+
+Richard Smallbroke, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, in the reign of
+George II. was a native of Birmingham, as his ancestors were for many
+ages, with reputation: he is said to have been born at number 2 in the
+High-street, had great property in the town, now enjoyed by his
+descendants, though they have left the place. The families also of
+Weaman, Jennings, Whalley, etc. have acquired vast property, and quitted
+the meridian of Birmingham; and some others are at this day ripe for
+removal. Let me close this bright scene of prosperity, and open another,
+which can only be viewed with a melancholy eye. We cannot behold the
+distresses of man without compassion; but that distress which follows
+affluence, comes with double effect.
+
+We have amongst us a family of the name of Middlemore, of great
+antiquity, deducible from the conquest; who held the chief possessions,
+and the chief offices in the county, and who matched into the first
+families in the kingdom, but fell with the interest of Charles the
+First; and are now in that low ebb of fortune, that I have frequently,
+with a gloomy pleasure, relieved them at the common charity-board of the
+town. Such is the tottering point of human greatness.
+
+Another of the name of Bracebridge, who for more than six hundred years,
+figured in the first ranks of life.
+
+A third of the name of Mountfort, who shone with meridian splendor,
+through a long train of ages. As genealogy was ever a favourite
+amusement, I have often conversed with these solitary remains of
+tarnished lustre, but find in all of them, the pride of their family
+buried with its greatness:--they pay no more attention to the arms of
+their ancestors, than to a scrap of paper, with which they would light
+their pipe. Upon consulting one of the name of Elwall, said to be
+descended from the Britons, I found him so amazingly defective, that he
+could not stretch his pedigree even so high as his grandfather.
+
+A fifth family amongst us, of the name of Arden, stood upon the pinnacle
+of fame in the days of Alfred the Great, where perhaps they had stood
+for ages before: they continued the elevation about seven hundred years
+after; but having treasonable charges brought against them, in the days
+of Queen Elizabeth, about two hundred years ago, they were thrown from
+this exalted eminence, and dashed to pieces in the fall. In various
+consultations with a member of this honourable house, I found the
+greatness of his family not only lost, but the memory of it also. I
+assured him, that his family stood higher in the scale of honour, than
+any private one within my knowledge: that his paternal ancestors, for
+about seven generations, were successively Earls of Warwick, before the
+Norman conquest: that, though he could not boast a descent from the
+famous Guy, he was related to him: that, though Turchell, Earl of
+Warwick at the conquest, his direct ancestor, lost the Earldom in favour
+of Roger Newburgh, a favourite of William's; yet, as the Earl did not
+appear in arms, against the Conqueror, at the battle of Hastings, nor
+oppose the new interest, he was allowed to keep forty-six of his manors:
+that he retired upon his own vast estate, which he held in dependence,
+where the family resided with great opulence, in one house, for many
+centuries, 'till their reduction above-mentioned. He received the
+information with some degree of amazement, and replied with a serious
+face,--"Perhaps there may have been something great in my predecessors,
+for my grandfather kept several cows in Birmingham and sold milk."
+
+The families of those ancient heroes, of Saxon and Norman race, are,
+chiefly by the mutations of time, and of state, either become extinct,
+or as above, reduced to the lowest verge of fortune. Those few
+therefore, whose descent is traceable, may be carried higher than that
+of the present nobility; for I know none of these last, who claim
+peerage beyond Edward the first, about 1295. Hence it follows, that for
+antiquity, alliance, and blood, the advantage is evidently in favour of
+the lowest class.
+
+Could one of those illustrious shades return to the earth and inspect
+human actions, he might behold one of his descendants, dancing at the
+lathe; another tippling with his dark brethren of the apron; a third
+humbly soliciting from other families such favours as were formerly
+granted by his own; a fourth imitating modern grandeur, by contracting
+debts he never designs to pay; and a fifth snuff of departed light,
+poaching, like a thief in the night, upon the very manors, possessed by
+his ancestors.
+
+Whence is it that title, pedigree, and alliance, in superior life, are
+esteemed of the highest value; while in the inferior, who have a prior
+claim, are totally neglected? The grand design of every creature upon
+earth, is to supply the wants of nature. No amusements of body or mind
+can be adopted, till hunger is served. When the appetite calls, the
+whole attention of the animal, with all its powers, is bound to answer.
+Hence arise those dreadful contests in the brute creation, from the lion
+in the woods, to the dog, who seizes the bone. Hence the ship, when her
+provisions are spent, and she becalmed, casts a savage eye, upon human
+sacrifices; and hence, the attention of the lower ranks of men, are too
+far engrossed for mental pursuit. They see, like Esau, the honours of
+their family devoured with a ravenous appetite. A man with an empty
+cupboard would make but a wretched philosopher. But if fortune should
+smile upon one of the lower race, raise him a step above his original
+standing, and give him a prospect of independence, he immediately begins
+to eye the arms upon carriages, examines old records for his name, and
+inquires where the Herald's office is kept. Thus, when the urgency of
+nature is set at liberty, the bird can whistle upon the branch, the fish
+play upon the surface, the goat skip upon the mountain, and even man
+himself, can bask in the sunshine of science. I digress no farther.
+
+The situation of St. Martin's church is another reason for fixing the
+original centre of Birmingham at the Old Cross. Christianity made an
+early and a swift progress in this kingdom; persecution, as might be
+expected, followed her footsteps, increased her votaries, and, as was
+ever the case, in all new religions, her proselytes were very devout.
+
+The religious fervor of the christians displayed itself in building
+churches. Most of those in England are of Saxon original, and were
+erected between the fourth and the tenth century; that of St. Martin's
+is ancient beyond the reach of historical knowledge, and probably rose
+in the early reigns of the Saxon kings.
+
+It was the custom of those times, to place the church, if there was but
+one, out of the precincts of the town; this is visible at the present
+day in those places which have received no increase.
+
+Perhaps it will not be an unreasonable supposition to fix the erection
+of St. Martin's, in the eighth century; and if the inquisitive reader
+chooses to traverse the town a second time, he may find its boundaries
+something like the following. We cannot allow its extension northward
+beyond the east end of New-street; that it included the narrow parts of
+Philip street, Bell street, Spiceal street, Moor street, and Park
+street. That the houses at this period were more compact than
+heretofore; that Digbeth and Deritend, lying in the road to Stratford,
+Warwick, and Coventry, all places of antiquity, were now formed. Thus
+the church stood in the environs of the town, unincumbered with
+buildings. Possibly this famous nursery of arts might, by this time,
+produce six hundred houses. A town must increase before its appendages
+are formed; those appendages also must increase before there is a
+necessity for an additional chapel, and after that increase, the
+inhabitants may wait long before that necessity is removed. Deritend is
+an appendage to Birmingham; the inhabitants of this hamlet having long
+laboured under the inconveniency of being remote from the parish church
+of Aston, and too numerous for admission into that of Birmingham,
+procured a grant in 1381 to erect a chapel of their own. If we,
+therefore, allow three hundred years for the infancy of Deritend, three
+hundred more for her maturity, and four hundred since the erection of
+her chapel, which is a very reasonable allowance. It will bring us to
+the time I mentioned.
+
+It does not appear that Deritend was attended with any considerable
+augmentation, from the Norman conquest to the year 1767, when a
+turnpike-road was opened to Alcester, and when Henry Bradford publicly
+offered a freehold to the man who should first build upon his estate;
+since which time Deritend has made a rapid progress: and this dusky
+offspring of Birmingham is now travelling apace along her new
+formed road.
+
+I must again recline upon Dugdale.--In 1309, William de Birmingham, Lord
+of the Manor, took a distress of the inhabitants of Bromsgrove and
+King's-norton, for refusing to pay the customary tolls of the market.
+The inhabitants, therefore, brought their action and recovered damage,
+because it was said, their lands being the ancient demesne of the crown,
+they had a right to sell their produce in any market in the King's
+dominions.
+
+It appeared in the course of the trial, that the ancestors of William de
+Birmingham had a MARKET HERE before the Norman conquest! I shall have
+occasion, in future, to resume this remarkable expression. I have also
+met with an old author, who observes, that Birmingham was governed by
+two Constables in the time of the Saxons; small places have seldom more
+than one. These evidences prove much in favour of the government,
+population, and antiquity of the place.
+
+In Domesday-book it is rated at four hides of land. A hide was as much
+as a team could conveniently plough in a year; perhaps at that time
+about fifty acres: I think there is not now, more than two hundred
+ploughed in the parish.
+
+It was also said to contain woods of half a mile in length, and four
+furlongs in breadth. What difference subsisted between half a mile and
+four furlongs, in ancient time, is uncertain; we know of none now. The
+mile was reduced to its present standard in the reign of Queen
+Elizabeth: neither are there the least traces of those woods, for at
+this day it is difficult to find a stick that deserves the name of a
+tree, in the whole manor.--Timber is no part of the manufactory of
+Birmingham.
+
+Let us survey the town a third time, as we may reasonably suppose it
+stood in the most remarkable period of English history, that of the
+conquest.
+
+We cannot yet go farther North of the centre than before, that is, along
+the High-street, 'till we meet the East end of New street. We shall
+penetrate rather farther into Moor-street, none into Park-street, take
+in Digbeth, Deritend, Edgbaston-street, as being the road to Dudley,
+Bromsgrove, and the whole West of England; Spiceal-street, the Shambles,
+a larger part of Bell street, and Philip-street.
+
+The ancient increase of the town was towards the South, because of the
+great road, the conveniency of water, the church, and the manor-house,
+all which lay in that quarter: but the modern extension was chiefly
+towards the North, owing to the scions of her trades being transplanted
+all over the country, in that direction, as far as Wednesbury, Walsall,
+and Wolverhampton. But particularly her vicinity to the coal delphs,
+which were ever considered as the soul of her prosperity. Perhaps by
+this time the number of houses might have been augmented to seven
+hundred: but whatever was her number, either in this or any other
+period, we cannot doubt her being populous in every æra of her
+existence.
+
+The following small extract from the register, will show a gradual
+increase, even before the restoration:
+
+     Year.  Christenings. Weddings.  Burials
+     1555,  37,           15,        27.
+     1558,  48,           10,        47.
+     1603,  65,           14,        40.
+     1625,  76,           18,        47.
+     1660,  76, from April to Dec. inclusive.
+
+In 1251, William de Birmingham, Lord of the Manor, procured an
+additional charter from Henry the Third, reviving some decayed
+privileges and granting others; among the last was that of the
+Whitsuntide fair, to begin on the eve of Holy Thursday, and to continue
+four days. At the alteration of the style, in 1752, it was prudently
+changed to the Thursday in Whitsun week; that less time might be lost to
+the injury of work and the workman. He also procured another fair, to
+begin on the eve of St. Michael, and continue for three days. Both which
+fairs are at this day in great repute.
+
+By the interest of Audomore de Valance, earl of Pembroke, a licence was
+obtained from the crown, in 1319 to charge an additional toll upon every
+article sold in the market for three years, towards paving the town.
+Every quarter of corn to pay one farthing, and other things in
+proportion.
+
+We have no reason to believe that either the town or the market were
+small at that time, however, at the expiration of the term, the toll
+was found inadequate to the expence, and the work lay dormant for
+eighteen years, till 1337, when a second licence was obtained, equal to
+the first, which completed the intention.
+
+Those streets, thus dignified with a pavement, or rather their sides, to
+accommodate the foot passenger, probably were High-street, the
+Bull-ring, Corn-cheaping, Digbeth, St. Martin's-lane, Moat-lane,
+Edgbaston-street, Spiceal-street, and part of Moor-street.
+
+It was the practice, in those early days, to leave the center of a
+street unpaved, for the easier passage of carriages and horses; the
+consequence was, in flat streets the road became extremely dirty, almost
+impassable, and in a descent, the soil was quickly worn away, and left a
+causeway on each side. Many instances of this ancient practice are
+within memory.
+
+The streets, no doubt, in which the fairs were held, mark the boundaries
+of the town in the thirteenth century. Though smaller wares were sold
+upon the spot used for the market, the rougher articles, such as cattle,
+were exposed to sale in what were then the _out-streets_. The fair for
+horses was held in Edgbaston-street, and that for beasts in the
+High-street, tending towards the Welch Cross.
+
+Inconvenient as these streets seem for the purpose, our dark ancestors,
+of peaceable memory, found no detriment, during the infant state of
+population, in keeping them there. But we, their crowded sons, for want
+of accommodation, have wisely removed both; the horse-fair, in 1777, to
+Brick-kiln-lane, now the extreme part of the town; and that for beasts,
+in 1769, into the open part of Dale-end.
+
+Whatever veneration we may entertain for ancient custom, there is
+sometimes a necessity to break it. Were we now to solicit the crown for
+a fair, those streets would be the last we should fix on.
+
+If we survey Birmingham in the twelfth century, we shall find her
+crowded with timber, within and without; her streets dirty and narrow;
+but considering the distant period, much trodden, yet, compared with her
+present rising state, but little.
+
+The inhabitant became an early encroacher upon nor narrow streets, and
+sometimes the lord was the greatest. Her houses were mean and low, but
+few reaching higher than one story, perhaps none more than two;
+composed of wood and plaister--she was a stranger to brick. Her public
+buildings consisted solely of one, _the church_.
+
+If we behold her in the fourteenth century, we shall observe her private
+buildings multiplied more than improved; her narrow streets, by
+trespass, become narrower, for she was ever chargeable with neglect; her
+public buildings increased to four, two in the town, and two at a
+distance, the Priory, of stone, founded by contribution, at the head of
+which stood her lord; the Guild, of timber, now the Free School; and
+Deritend Chapel, of the same materials, resembling a barn, with
+something like an awkward dove-coat, at the west end, by way of steeple.
+All these will be noticed in due course.
+
+If we take a view of the inhabitants, we shall find them industrious,
+plain, and honest; the more of the former, generally, the less of
+dishonesty, if their superiors lived in an homelier stile in that
+period, it is no wonder _they_ did. Perhaps our ancestors acquired more
+money than their neighbours, and not much of that; but what they had was
+extremely valuable: diligence will accumulate. In curious operations,
+known only to a few, we may suppose the artist was amply paid.
+
+Nash, in his History of Worcestershire, gives us a curious list of
+anecdotes, from the church-wardens ledger, of Hales-Owen. I shall
+transcribe two, nearly three hundred years old. "_Paid for bread and
+ale, to make my Lord Abbot drink, in Rogation week, 2d._" What should we
+now think of an ecclesiastical nobleman, accepting a two-penny treat
+from a country church-warden?
+
+This displays an instance of moderation in a class of people famous for
+luxury. It shows also the amazing reduction of money: the same sum which
+served my Lord Abbot four days, would now be devoured in four
+minutes.--"1498, _paid for repeyling the organs, to the organmaker at
+Bromicham_, 10_s_." Birmingham then, we find, discovered the powers of
+genius in the finer arts, as well as in iron. By '_the_ organmaker,' we
+mould suppose there was but one.
+
+It appears that the art of acquiring riches was as well understood by
+our fathers, as by us; while an artist could receive as much money for
+tuning an organ, as would purchase an acre of land, or treat near half a
+gross of Lord Abbots.
+
+
+
+BATTLE OF CAMP-HILL.
+
+1643.
+
+Clarendon reproaches with virulence, our spirited ancestors, for
+disloyalty to Charles the First.--The day after the King left
+Birmingham, on his march from Shrewsbury, in 1642, they seized his
+carriages, containing the royal plate and furniture, which they
+conveyed, for security, to Warwick Castle. They apprehended all
+messengers and suspected persons; frequently attacked, and reduced small
+parties of the royalists, whom they sent prisoners to Coventry.--Hence
+the proverbial expression of a refractory person, _Send him to
+Coventry_.
+
+In 1643, the King ordered Prince Rupert, with a detachment of two
+thousand men, to open a communication between Oxford and York. In his
+march to Birmingham, he found a company of foot, kept for the
+parliament, lately reinforced by a troop of horse from the garrison at
+Lichfield: but, supposing they would not resist a power of ten to one,
+sent his quarter masters to demand lodging, and offer protection.
+
+But the sturdy sons of freedom, having cast up slight works at each end
+of the town, and barricaded the lesser avenues, rejected the offer and
+the officers. The military uniting in one small and compact body,
+assisted by the inhabitants, were determined the King's forces mould not
+enter. Their little fire opened on the Prince: but bravery itself,
+though possessed of an excellent spot of ground for defence, was obliged
+to give way to numbers. The Prince quickly put them to silence; yet,
+under the success of his own arms, he was not able to enter the town,
+for the inhabitants had choaked up, with carriages, the deep and narrow
+road, then between Deritend and Camp-hill, which obliged the Prince to
+alter his route to the left, and proceed towards Long-bridge.
+
+The spirit of resistance was not yet broken; they sustained a second
+attack, but to no purpose, except that of laughter. A running fight
+continued through the town; victory declared loudly for the Prince; the
+retreat became general: part of the vanquished took the way to Oldbury.
+
+William Fielding, Earl of Denbigh, a volunteer under the Prince, being
+in close pursuit of an officer in the service of the parliament, and
+both upon the full gallop, up Shirland-lane, in the manor of Smethwick,
+the officer instantly turning, discharged a pistol at the Earl, and
+mortally wounded him with a random shot.
+
+The parliament troops were animated in the engagement by a clergyman,
+who acted as governor, but being taken in the defeat, and refusing
+quarter, was killed in the Red Lion-inn.
+
+The Prince, provoked at the resistance, in revenge, set fire to the
+town. His wrath is said to have kindled in Bull-street, and consumed
+several houses near the spot, now No. 12.
+
+He obliged the inhabitants to quench the flames with a heavy fine, to
+prevent farther military execution. Part of the fine is said to have
+been shoes and stockings for his people.
+
+The parliament forces had formed their camp in that well chosen angle,
+which divides the Stratford and Warwick roads, upon Camp-hill.
+
+The victorious Prince left no garrison, because their insignificant
+works were untenable; but left an humbled people, and marched to the
+reduction of Lichfield.
+
+In 1665, London was not only visited with the plague, but many other
+parts of England, among which, Birmingham felt this dreadful mark of the
+divine judgment.
+
+The infection is said to have been caught by a box of clothes, brought
+by the carrier, and lodged at the White-hart. Depopulation ensued. The
+church-yard was insufficient for the reception of the dead, who were
+conveyed to Ladywood-green, one acre of waste land, then denominated the
+Pelt Ground.
+
+The charter for the market has evidently been repeated by divers kings,
+both Saxon and Norman, but when first granted is uncertain, perhaps at
+an early Saxon date; and the day seems never to have been changed
+from Thursday.
+
+The lords were tenacious of their privileges; or, one would think, there
+was no need to renew their charter. Prescription, necessity, and
+increasing numbers, would establish the right.
+
+Perhaps, in a Saxon period, there was room sufficient in our
+circumscribed market-place, for the people and their weekly supplies;
+but now, their supplies would fill it, exclusive of the people.
+
+Thus by a steady and a persevering hand, she kept a constant and uniform
+stroke at the anvil, through a vast succession of ages: rising superior
+to the frowns of fortune: establishing a variety of productions from
+iron: ever improving her inventive powers, and perhaps, changing a
+number of her people, equal to her whole inhabitants, every sixteen
+years, till she arrived at another important period, the end of the
+civil wars of Charles the first.
+
+
+
+MODERN STATE
+
+OF
+
+BIRMINGHAM.
+
+It is the practice of the historian, to divide ancient history from
+modern, at the fall of the Roman Empire. For, during a course of about
+seven hundred years, while the Roman name beamed in meridian splendour,
+the lustre of her arms and political conduct influenced, more or less,
+every country in Europe. But at the fall of that mighty empire, which
+happened in the fifth century, every one of the conquered provinces was
+left to stand upon its own basis. From this period, therefore, the
+history of nations takes a material turn. The English historian divides
+his ancient account from the modern, at the extinction of the house of
+Plantagenet, in 1485, the fall of Richard the Third. For, by the
+introduction of letters, an amazing degree of light was thrown upon
+science, and also, by a new system of politics, adopted by Henry the
+Seventh, the British constitution, occasioned by one little act of
+parliament, that of allowing liberty to sell land, took a very
+different, and an important course.
+
+But the ancient and modern state of Birmingham, must divide at the
+restoration of Charles the Second. For though she had before, held a
+considerable degree of eminence; yet at this period, the curious arts
+began to take root, and were cultivated by the hand of genius. Building
+leases, also, began to take effect, extension followed, and numbers of
+people crowded upon each other, as into a Paradise.
+
+As a kind tree, perfectly adapted for growth, and planted in a suitable
+soil, draws nourishment from the circumjacent ground, to a great extent,
+and robs the neighbouring plants of their support, that nothing can
+thrive within its influence; so Birmingham, half whose inhabitants above
+the age of ten, perhaps, are not natives, draws her annual supply of
+hands, and is constantly fed by the towns that surround her, where her
+trades are not practised. Preventing every increase to those neighbours
+who kindly contribute to her wants. This is the case with Bromsgrove,
+Dudley, Stourbridge, Sutton, Lichfield, Tamworth, Coleshill,
+and Solihull.
+
+We have taken a view of Birmingham in several periods of existence,
+during the long course of perhaps three thousand years. Standing
+sometimes upon presumptive ground. If the prospect has been a little
+clouded, it only caused us to be more attentive, that we might not be
+deceived. But, though we have attended her through so immense a space,
+we have only seen her in infancy. Comparatively small in her size,
+homely in her person, and coarse in her dress. Her ornaments, wholly of
+iron, from her own forge.
+
+But now, her growths will be amazing; her expansion rapid, perhaps not
+to be paralleled in history. We shall see her rise in all the beauty of
+youth, of grace, of elegance, and attract the notice of the commercial
+world. She will also add to her iron ornaments, the lustre of every
+metal, that the whole earth can produce, with all their illustrious race
+of compounds, heightened by fancy, and garnished with jewels. She will
+draw from the fossil, and the vegetable kingdoms; press the ocean for
+shell, skin and coral. She will also tax the animal, for horn, bone, and
+ivory, and she will decorate the whole with the touches of her pencil.
+
+I have met with some remarks, published in 1743, wherein the author
+observes, "That Birmingham, at the restoration, probably consisted only
+of three streets." But it is more probable it consisted of fifteen,
+though not all finished, and about nine hundred houses.
+
+I am sensible, when an author strings a parcel of streets together, he
+furnishes but a dry entertainment for his reader, especially to a
+stranger. But, as necessity demands intelligence from the historian, I
+must beg leave to mention the streets and their supposed number
+of houses.
+
+     Digbeth, nearly the same as now, except
+       the twenty-tree houses between the two
+       Mill-lanes, which are of a modern date,
+       about                                      110
+     Moat-lane (Court-lane)                        12
+     Corn-market and Shambles                      40
+     Spiceal-street                                50
+     Dudley-street                                 50
+     Bell-street                                   50
+     Philip-street                                 30
+     St. Martin's-lane                             15
+     Edgbaston-street                              70
+     Lee's-lane                                    10
+     Park-street, extending from Digbeth nearly
+       to the East end of Freeman-street           80
+     More-street, to the bottom of Castle-street,  70
+     Bull-street, not so high as the Minories,     50
+     High-street,                                 100
+     Deritend;                                    120
+     Odd houses scattered round the verge of
+       the town                                    50
+                                                 ----
+                                                  907
+         The number of inhabitants,   5,472.
+
+The same author farther observes, "That from the Restoration to the year
+1700, the streets of Birmingham were increased to thirty one." But I can
+make their number only twenty-eight, and many of these far from
+complete. Also, that the whole number of houses were 2,504, and the
+inhabitants 15,032. The additional streets therefore seem to have been
+Castle-street, Carr's-lane, Dale-end, Stafford-street, Bull lane,
+Pinfold-street, Colmore-street, the Froggery, Old Meeting-street,
+Worcester-street, Peck-lane, New-street, (a small part,) Lower
+Mill-lane.
+
+From the year 1700 to 1731, there is said to have been a farther
+addition of twenty-five streets, I know of only twenty-three: and also
+of 1,215 houses, and 8,250 inhabitants. Their names we offer as
+under;--Freeman-street, New Meeting-street, Moor-street, (the North
+part), Wood-street, the Butts, Lichfield-street; Thomas's-street,
+John's-street, London-'prentice street, Lower priory, The Square,
+Upper-priory, Minories, Steel-house-lane, Cherry-street, Cannon-street,
+Needless-alley, Temple-street, King's street, Queen-street, Old
+Hinkleys, Smallbrook-street, and the East part of Hill-street.
+
+I first saw Birmingham July 14, 1741, and will therefore perambulate its
+boundaries at that time with my traveller, beginning at the top of
+Snow-hill, keeping the town on our left, and the fields that then were,
+on our right.
+
+Through Bull-lane we proceed to Temple-street; down Peck lane, to the
+top of Pinfold-street; Dudley-street, the Old Hinkleys to the top of
+Smallbrook street, back through Edgbaston-street, Digbeth, to the upper
+end of Deritend. We shall return through Park-street, Mass-house-lane,
+the North of Dale end, Stafford-street, Steel-house-lane, to the top of
+Snow-hill, from whence we set out.
+
+If we compare this account with that of 1731, we shall not find any
+great addition of streets; but those that were formed before, were much
+better filled up. The new streets erected during these ten years were
+Temple-row, except about six houses. The North of Park-street, and of
+Dale-end; also, Slaney-street, and a small part of the East side of
+Snow hill.
+
+From 1741, to the present year 1780, Birmingham seems to have acquired
+the amazing augmentation of seventy one streets, 4172 houses, and
+25,032 inhabitants.
+
+Thus her internal property is covered with new-erected buildings, tier
+within tier. Thus she opens annually, a new aspect to the traveller; and
+thus she penetrates along the roads that surround her, as if to unite
+with the neighbouring towns, for their improvement in commerce, in arts,
+and in civilization.
+
+I have often led my curious enquirer round Birmingham, but, like the
+thread round the swelling clue, never twice in the same tract. We shall
+therefore, for the last time, examine her present boundaries. Our former
+journey commenced at the top of Snow-hill, we now set off from
+the bottom.
+
+The present buildings extend about forty yards beyond the Salutation, on
+the Wolverhampton road. We now turn up Lionel-street, leaving St.
+Paul's, and about three new erected houses, on the right[1]; pass close
+to New-Hall, leaving it on the left, to the top of Great Charles-street,
+along Easy-hill: we now leave the Wharf to the right, down
+Suffolk-street, in which are seventy houses, leaving two infant streets
+also to the right, in which are about twelve houses each: up to
+Holloway-head, thence to Windmill-hill, Bow-street, Brick-kiln-lane,
+down to Lady-well, along Pudding-brook, to the Moat, Lloyd's
+Slitting-mill, Digbeth, over Deritend bridge, thence to the right, for
+Cheapside; cross the top of Bradford-street, return by the Bridge to
+Floodgate-street, Park-street, Bartholomew's-chapel, Grosvenor-street,
+Nova scotia-street, Woodcock-lane, Aston-street, Lancaster-street,
+Walmer-lane, Price's-street, Bath-street, to the bottom of Snow-hill.
+
+[Footnote 1: The above was written in May 1780, and the three houses are
+now, March 14, 1781, multiplied into fifty-five.]
+
+The circle I have described is about five miles, in which is much ground
+to be filled up. There are also beyond this crooked line, five clumps of
+houses belonging to Birmingham, which may be deemed hamlets.
+
+At the Sand-pits upon the Dudley-road, about three furlongs from the
+buildings, are fourteen houses.
+
+Four furlongs from the Navigation-office, upon the road to Hales-owen,
+are twenty-nine.
+
+One furlong from Exeter row, towards the hand, are thirty-four.
+
+Upon Camp-hill, 130 yards from the junction of the Warwick and Coventry
+roads, which is the extremity of the present buildings, are thirty-one.
+
+And two furlongs from the town, in Walmer-lane, are seventeen more.
+
+I shall comprize, in one view, the state of Birmingham in eight
+different periods of time. And though some are imaginary, perhaps they
+are not far from real.
+
+                               Streets.   Houses.    Souls.
+       In the time of the ancient
+     Britons,                                 80       400
+      A.D.     750,                  8       600      3000
+              1066,                  9       700      3500
+              1650,                 15       900      5472
+              1700,                 28      2504     15032
+              1731,                 51      3717     23286
+              1741,                 54      4114     24660
+              1780,                125      8382     50295
+
+In 1778, Birmingham, exclusive of the appendages, contained 8042 houses,
+48252 inhabitants.
+
+At the same time, Manchester consisted of 3402, houses, and 22440
+people.
+
+In 1779, Nottingham contained 3191 houses, and 17711 souls.
+
+It is easy to see, without the spirit of prophecy, that Birmingham hath
+not yet arrived at her zenith, neither is she likely to reach it for
+ages to come. Her increase will depend upon her manufactures; her
+manufactures will depend upon the national commerce; national commerce,
+will depend upon a superiority at sea; and this superiority may be
+extended to a long futurity.
+
+The interior parts of the town, are like those of other places,
+parcelled out into small free-holds, perhaps, originally purchased of
+the Lords of the Manor; but, since its amazing increase, which began
+about the restoration, large tracts of land have been huxtered out upon
+building leases.
+
+Some of the first that were granted, seem to have been about Worcester
+and Colmore streets, at the trifling annual price of one farthing per
+yard, or under.
+
+The market ran so much against the lesor, that the lessee had liberty to
+build in what manner he pleased; and, at the expiration of the term,
+could remove the buildings unless the other chose to purchase them. But
+the market, at this day, is so altered, that the lessee gives four-pence
+per yard; is tied to the mode of building, and obliged to leave the
+premisses in repair.
+
+The itch for building is predominant: we dip our fingers into mortar
+almost as soon as into business. It is not wonderful that a person
+should be hurt by the _falling_ of a house; but, with us, a man
+sometimes breaks his back by _raising_ one.
+
+This private injury, however, is attended with a public benefit of the
+first magnitude; for every "_House to be Let_," holds forth a kind of
+invitation to the stranger to settle in it, who, being of the laborious
+class, promotes the manufactures.
+
+If we cannot produce many houses of the highest orders in architecture,
+we make out the defect in numbers. Perhaps _more_ are erected here, in a
+given time, than in any place in the whole island, London excepted.
+
+It is remarkable, that in a town like Birmingham, where so many houses
+are built, the art of building is so little understood. The stile of
+architecture in the inferior sort, is rather showy than lasting.
+
+The proprietor generally contracts for a house of certain dimensions, at
+a stipulated price: this induces the artist to use some ingredients of
+the cheaper kind, and sometimes to try whether he can cement the
+materials with sand, instead of lime.
+
+But a house is not the only thing spoilt by the builder; he frequently
+spoils himself: out of many successions of house-makers, I cannot
+recollect one who made a fortune.
+
+Many of these edifices have been brought forth, answered the purposes
+for which they were created, and been buried in the dust, during my
+short acquaintance with Birmingham. One would think, if a man can
+survive a house, he has no great reason to complain of the shortness
+of life.
+
+From the external genteel appearance of a house, the stranger would be
+tempted to think the inhabitant possessed at least a thousand pounds;
+but, if he looks within, he sees only the ensigns of beggary.
+
+We have people who enjoy four or five hundred pounds a year in houses,
+none of which, perhaps, exceed six pounds per annum. It may excite a
+smile, to say, I have known two houses erected, one occupied by a man,
+his wife, and three children; the other pair had four; and twelve
+guineas covered every expence.
+
+Pardon, my dear reader, the omission of a pompous encomium on their
+beauty, or duration.
+
+I am inclined to think two thirds of the houses in Birmingham stand upon
+new foundations, and all the places of worship, except Deritend Chapel.
+
+About the year 1730, Thomas Sherlock, late Bishop of London, purchased
+the private estate of the ladies of the manor, chiefly land, about four
+hundred per annum.
+
+In 1758, the steward told me it had increased to twice the original
+value. The pious old Bishop was frequently solicited to grant building
+leases, but answered, "His land was valuable, and if built upon, his
+successor, at the expiration of the term, would have the rubbish to
+carry off:" he therefore not only refused, but prohibited his successor
+from granting such leases.
+
+But Sir Thomas Gooch, who succeeded him, seeing the great improvement of
+the neighbouring estates, and wisely judging fifty pounds per acre
+preferable to five, procured an act in about 1766, to set aside the
+prohibiting clause in the Bishop's will.
+
+Since which, a considerable town may be said to have been erected upon
+his property, now about 1600_l_. per annum.
+
+An acquaintance assured me, that in 1756 he could have purchased the
+house he then occupied for 400_l_. but refused. In 1770, the same house
+was sold for 600_l_. and in 1772, I purchased it for eight hundred and
+thirty-five guineas, without any alteration, but what time had made for
+the worse: and for this enormous price I had only an old house, which I
+was obliged to take down. Such is the rapid improvement in value, of
+landed property, in a commercial country.
+
+Suffer me to add, though foreign to my subject, that these premises were
+the property of an ancient family of the name of Smith, now in decay;
+where many centuries ago one of the first inns in Birmingham, and well
+known by the name of the Garland House, perhaps from the sign; but
+within memory, Potter's Coffee-house.
+
+Under one part was a room about forty-five feet long, and fifteen wide,
+used for the town prison.
+
+In sinking a cellar we found a large quantity of tobacco-pipes of a
+angular construction, with some very antique earthen ware, but no coin;
+also loads of broken bottles, which refutes the complaint of our pulpits
+against modern degeneracy, and indicates, the vociferous arts of getting
+drunk and breaking glass, were well understood by our ancestors.
+
+In penetrating a bed of sand, upon which had stood a work-shop, about
+two feet below the surface we came to a tumolus six feet long, three
+wide, and five deep, built very neat, with tiles laid flat, but no
+cement. The contents were mouldered wood, and pieces of human bone.
+
+I know of no house in Birmingham, the inns excepted, whose annual rent
+exceeds eighty pounds. By the lamp books, the united rents appear to be
+about seventy thousand, which if we take at twenty years purchase, will
+compose a freehold of 1,400,000_l_. value.
+
+If we allow the contents of the manor to be three thousand acres, and
+deduct six hundred for the town, five hundred more for roads, water, and
+waste land; and rate the remaining nineteen hundred, at the average rent
+of 2_l_. 10s. per acre; we shall raise an additional freehold of
+4,750_l_. per ann.
+
+If we value this landed property at thirty years purchase, it will
+produce 142,500_l_. and, united with the value of the buildings, the
+fee-simple of this happy region of genius, will amount to 1,542,500_l_.
+
+
+
+OF THE STREETS,
+
+AND
+
+THEIR NAMES.
+
+We accuse our short-sighted ancestors, and with reason, for leaving us
+almost without a church-yard and a market-place; for forming some of our
+streets nearly without width, and without light. One would think they
+intended a street without a passage, when they erected Moor-street; and
+that their successors should light their candles at noon.
+
+Something, however, may be pleaded in excuse, by observing the concourse
+of people was small, therefore a little room would suffice; and the
+buildings were low, so that light would be less obstructed: besides, we
+cannot guess at the future but by the present. As the increase of the
+town was slow, the modern augmentation could not then be discovered
+through the dark medium of time; but the prospect into futurity is at
+this day rather brighter, for we plainly see, and perhaps with more
+reason, succeeding generations will blame us for neglect. We occupy the
+power to reform, without the will; why else do we suffer enormities to
+grow, which will have taken deep root in another age? If utility and
+beauty can _be joined together_ in the street, why are they ever _put
+asunder_? It is easy for Birmingham to be as rapid in her improvement,
+as in her growth.
+
+The town consists of about 125 streets, some of which acquired their
+names from a variety of causes, but some from no cause, and others, have
+not yet acquired a name.
+
+Those of Bull street, Cannon street, London Prentice street, and Bell
+street, from the signs of their respective names.
+
+Some receive theirs from the proprietors of the land, as Smallbrook
+street, Freeman street, Colmore street, Slaney street, Weaman street,
+Bradford street, and Colmore row.
+
+Digbeth, or Ducks Bath, from the Pools for accommodating that animal,
+was originally Well street, from the many springs in its neighbourhood.
+
+Others derive a name from caprice, as Jamaica row, John, Thomas, and
+Philip streets.
+
+Some, from a desire of imitating the metropolis, as, Fleet-street,
+Snow-hill, Ludgate-hill, Cheapside, and Friday-street.
+
+Some again, from local causes, as High-street, from its elevation, St.
+Martin's-lane, Church-street, Cherry-street, originally an orchard,
+Chapel-street, Bartholomew-row, Mass-house-lane, Old and New
+Meeting-streets, Steelhouse-lane, Temple-row and Temple-street, also
+Pinfold-street, from a pinfold at No. 85, removed in 1752.
+
+Moor-street, anciently Mole-street, from the eminence on one side, or
+the declivity on the other.
+
+Park-street seems to have acquired its name by being appropriated to the
+private use of the lord of the manor, and, except at the narrow end next
+Digbeth, contained only the corner house to the south, entering
+Shut-lane, No. 82, lately taken down, which was called The Lodge.
+
+Spiceal-street, anciently Mercer-street, from the number of mercers
+shops; and as the professors of that trade dealt in grocery, it was
+promiscuously called Spicer-street. The present name is only a
+corruption of the last.
+
+The spot, now the Old Hinkleys, was a close, till about 1720, in which
+horses were shown at the fair, then held in Edgbaston-street. It was
+since a brick-yard, and contained only one hut, in which the
+brick-maker slept.
+
+The tincture of the smoky shops, with all their _black furniture_, for
+weilding gun-barrels, which afterwards appeared on the back of
+Small-brooke-street, might occasion the original name _Inkleys_; ink is
+well known; leys, is of British derivation, and means grazing ground; so
+that the etymology perhaps is _Black pasture_.
+
+The Butts; a mark to shoot at, when the bow was the fashionable
+instrument of war, which the artist of Birmingham knew well how to make,
+and to use.
+
+Gosta Green (Goose-stead-Green) a name of great antiquity, now in
+decline; once a track of commons, circumscribed by the Stafford road,
+now Stafford-street, the roads to Lichfield and Coleshill, now Aston and
+Coleshill-streets, and extending to Duke-street, the boundary of
+the manor.
+
+Perhaps, many ages after, it was converted into a farm, and was, within
+memory, possessed by a person of the name of Tanter, whence,
+Tanter-street.
+
+Sometimes a street fluctuates between two names, as that of Catharine
+and Wittal, which at length terminated in favour of the former.
+
+Thus the names of great George and great Charles stood candidates for
+one of the finest streets in Birmingham, which after a contest of two or
+three years, was carried in favour of the latter.
+
+Others receive a name from the places to which they direct, as
+Worcester-street, Edgbaston-street, Dudley-street, Lichfield-street,
+Aston-street, Stafford-street, Coleshill-street, and Alcester-street.
+
+A John Cooper, the same person who stands in the list of donors in St.
+Martin's church, and who, I apprehend, lived about two hundred and fifty
+years ago, at the Talbot, now No. 20, in the High-street, left about
+four acres of land, between Steelhouse-lane, St. Paul's chapel, and
+Walmer-lane, to make love-days for the people of Birmingham; hence,
+_Love-day-croft_.
+
+Various sounds from the trowel upon the premises, in 1758, produced the
+name of _Love-day-street_ (corrupted into Lovely-street.)
+
+This croft is part of an estate under the care of Lench's Trust; and, at
+the time of the bequest, was probably worth no more than ten shillings
+per annum.
+
+At the top of Walmer-lane, which is the north east corner of this croft,
+stood about half a dozen old alms-houses, perhaps erected in the
+beginning of the seventeenth century, then at a considerable distance
+from the town. These were taken down in 1764, and the present
+alms-houses, which are thirty-six, erected near the spot, at the expence
+of the trust, to accommodate the same number of poor widows, who have
+each a small annual stipend, for the supply of coals.
+
+This John Cooper, for some services rendered to the lord of the manor,
+obtained three privileges, That of regulating the goodness and price of
+beer, consequently he stands in the front of the whole liquid race of
+high tasters; that he should, whenever he pleased, beat a bull in the
+Bull-ring, whence arises the name; and, that he should be allowed
+interment in the south porch of St. Martin's church. His memory ought to
+be transmitted with honor, to posterity, for promoting the harmony of
+his neighbourhood, but he ought to have been buried in a dunghill, for
+punishing an innocent animal.--His wife seems to have survived him, who
+also became a benefactress, is recorded in the same list, and their
+monument, in antique sculpture, is yet visible in the porch.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+TRADE.
+
+Perhaps there is not by nature so much difference in the capacities of
+men, as by education. The efforts of nature will produce a ten-fold crop
+in the field, but those of art, fifty.
+
+Perhaps too, the seeds of every virtue, vice, inclination, and habit,
+are sown in the breast of every human being, though not in an equal
+degree. Some of these lie dormant for ever, no hand inviting their
+cultivation. Some are called into existence by their own internal
+strength, and others by the external powers that surround them. Some of
+these seeds flourish more, some less, according to the aptness of the
+soil, and the modes of assistance. We are not to suppose infancy the
+only time in which these scions spring, no part of life is exempt. I
+knew a man who lived to the age of forty, totally regardless of music. A
+fidler happening to have apartments near his abode, attracted his ear,
+by frequent exhibitions, which produced a growing inclination for that
+favourite science, and he became a proficient himself. Thus in advanced
+periods a man may fall in love with a science, a woman, or a bottle.
+Thus avarice is said to shoot up in ancient soil, and thus, I myself
+bud forth in history at fifty-six.
+
+The cameleon is said to receive a tincture from the colour of the object
+that is nearest him; but the human mind in reality receives a bias from
+its connections. Link a man to the pulpit, and he cannot proceed to any
+great lengths in profligate life. Enter him into the army, and he will
+endeavour to swear himself into consequence. Make the man of humanity an
+overseer of the poor, and he will quickly find the tender feelings of
+commiseration hardened. Make him a physician, and he will be the only
+person upon the premises, the heir excepted, unconcerned at the prospect
+of death. Make him a surgeon, and he will amputate a leg with the same
+indifference with which a cutler saws a piece of bone for a knife
+handle. You commit a rascal to prison because he merits transportation,
+but by the time he comes out he merits a halter. By uniting also with
+industry, we become industrious. It is easy to give instances of people
+whose distinguishing characteristic was idleness, but when they breathed
+the air of Birmingham, diligence became the predominant feature. The
+view of profit, like the view of corn to the hungry horse, excites
+to action.
+
+Thus the various seeds scattered by nature into the soul at its first
+formation, either lie neglected, are urged into increase by their own
+powers, or are drawn towards maturity by the concurring circumstances
+that attend them.
+
+The late Mr. Grenville observed, in the House of Commons, "That commerce
+tended to corrupt the morals of a people." If we examine the expression,
+we shall find it true in a certain degree, beyond which, it tends to
+improve them.
+
+Perhaps every tradesman can furnish out numberless instances of small
+deceit. His conduct is marked with a littleness, which though allowed by
+general consent, is not strictly just. A person with whom I have long
+been connected in business, asked, if I had dealt with his relation,
+whom he had brought up, and who had lately entered into commercial life.
+I answered in the affirmative. He replied, "He is a very honest fellow."
+I told him I saw all the finesse of a tradesman about him. "Oh, rejoined
+my friend, a man has a right to say all he can in favour of his own
+goods." Nor is the seller alone culpable. The buyer takes an equal share
+in the deception. Though neither of them speak their sentiments, they
+well understand each other. Whilst the treaty is agitating, the profit
+of the tradesman vanishes, yet the buyer pronounces against the article;
+but when finished, the seller whispers his friend, "It is well sold,"
+and the buyer smiles if a bargain.
+
+Thus is the commercial track a line of minute deceits.
+
+But, on the other hand, it does not seem possible for a man in trade to
+pass this line, without wrecking his reputation; which, if once broken,
+can never be made whole. The character of a tradesman is valuable, it is
+his all; therefore, whatever seeds of the vicious kind shoot forth in
+the mind, are carefully watched and nipped in the bud, that they may
+never blossom into action.
+
+Thus having slated the accounts between morality and trade, I shall
+leave the reader to draw the ballance. I shall not pronounce after so
+great a master, and upon so delicate a subject, but shall only ask,
+"Whether the people in trade are more corrupt than those out?"
+
+If the curious reader will lend an attentive ear to a pair of farmers in
+the market, bartering for a cow, he will find as much dissimulation as
+at St. James's, or at any other saint's, but couched in homelier phrase.
+The man of well-bred deceit is '_infinitely_ your friend--It would give
+him _immense_ pleasure to serve you!' while the man in the frock 'Will
+be ---- if he tells you a word of a lye!' Deception is an innate
+principle of the human heart, not peculiar to one man, or one
+profession.
+
+Having occasion for a horse, in 1759, I mentioned it to an acquaintance,
+and informed him of the uses: he assured me, he had one that would
+exactly suit; which he showed in the stable, and held the candle pretty
+high, _for fear of affecting the straw_. I told him it was needless to
+examine him, for I should rely upon his word, being conscious he was too
+much my friend to deceive me; therefore bargained, and caused him to be
+sent home. But by the light of the sun, which next morning illumined the
+heavens, I perceived the horse was _greased_ on all fours. I therefore,
+in gentle terms, upbraided my friend with duplicity, when he replied
+with some warmth, "I would cheat my own brother in a horse." Had this
+honourable friend stood a chance of selling me a horse once a week, his
+own interest would have prevented him from deceiving me.
+
+A man enters into business with a view of acquiring a fortune--A
+laudable motive! That property which rises from honest industry, is an
+honour to its owner; the repose of his age; the reward of a life of
+attention: but, great as the advantage seems, yet, being of a private
+nature, it is one of the least in the mercantile walk. For the
+intercourse occasioned by traffic, gives a man a view of the world, and
+of himself; removes the narrow limits that confine his judgment; expands
+the mind; opens his understanding; removes his prejudices; and polishes
+his manners. Civility and humanity are ever the companions of trade;
+the man of business is the man of liberal sentiment; a barbarous and
+commercial people, is a contradiction; if he is not the philosopher of
+nature, he is the friend of his country, and well understands her
+interest. Even the men of inferior life among us, whose occupations, one
+would think, tend to produce minds as callous as the mettle they work;
+lay a stronger claim to civilization, than in any other place with which
+I am acquainted. I am sorry to mutilate the compliment, when I mention
+the lower race of the other sex: no lady ought to be publicly insulted,
+let her appear in what dress she pleases. Both sexes, however, agree in
+exhibiting a mistaken pity, in cases of punishment, particularly by
+preventing that for misconduct in the military profession.
+
+It is singular, that a predilection for Birmingham, is entertained by
+every denomination of visitants, from Edward Duke of York, who saw us in
+1765, down to the presuming quack, who, griped with necessity, boldly
+discharges his filth from the stage. A paviour, of the name of Obrien,
+assured me in 1750, that he only meant to sleep one night in Birmingham,
+in his way from London to Dublin. But instead of pursuing his journey
+next morning, as intended, he had continued in the place thirty-five
+years: and though fortune had never elevated him above the pebbles of
+the street, yet he had never repented his stay.
+
+It has already been remarked that I first saw Birmingham in 1741,
+accidentally cast into those regions of civility; equally unknown to
+every inhabitant, nor having the least idea of becoming one myself.
+Though the reflections of an untaught youth of seventeen cannot be
+striking, yet, as they were purely natural, permit me to describe them.
+
+I had been before acquainted with two or three principal towns. The
+environs of all I had seen were composed of wretched dwellings, replete
+with dirt and poverty; but the buildings in the exterior of Birmingham
+rose in a style of elegance. Thatch, so plentiful in other towns, was
+not to be met with in this. I was surprised at the place, but more so at
+the people: They were a species I had never seen: They possessed a
+vivacity I had never beheld: I had been among dreamers, but now I saw
+men awake: Their very step along the street showed alacrity: Every man
+seemed to know and prosecute his own affairs: The town was large, and
+full of inhabitants, and those inhabitants full of industry. I had seen
+faces elsewhere tinctured with an idle gloom void of meaning, but here,
+with a pleasing alertness: Their appearance was strongly marked with the
+modes of civil life: I mixed a variety of company, chiefly of the lower
+ranks, and rather as a silent spectator: I was treated with an easy
+freedom by all, and with marks of favour by some: Hospitality seemed to
+claim this happy people for her own, though I knew not at that time from
+what cause.
+
+I did not meet with this treatment in 1770, twenty nine years after, at
+Bosworth, where I accompanied a gentleman, with no other intent, than to
+view the field celebrated for the fall of Richard the third. The
+inhabitants enjoyed the cruel satisfaction of setting their dogs at us
+in the street, merely because we were strangers. Human figures, not
+their own, are seldom seen in those inhospitable regions: Surrounded
+with impassable roads, no intercourse with man to humanise the mind, no
+commerce to smooth their rugged manners, they continue the boors
+of nature.
+
+Thus it appears, that characters are influenced by profession. That the
+great advantage of private fortune, and the greater to society, of
+softening and forming the mind, are the result of trade. But these are
+not the only benefits that flow from this desirable spring. It opens the
+hand of charity to the assistance of distress; witness the Hospital and
+the two Charity Schools, supported by annual donation: It adds to the
+national security, by supplying the taxes for internal use, and, for
+the prosecution of war. It adds to that security, by furnishing the
+inhabitants with riches, which they are ever anxious to preserve, even
+at the risk of their lives; for the preservation of private wealth,
+tends to the preservation of the state.
+
+It augments the value of landed property, by multiplying the number of
+purchasers: It produces money to improve that land into a higher state
+of cultivation, which ultimately redounds to the general benefit, by
+affording plenty.
+
+It unites bodies of men in social compact, for their mutual interest: It
+adds to the credit and pleasure of individuals, by enabling them to
+purchase entertainment and improvement, both of the corporeal and
+intellectual kind.
+
+It finds employment for the hand that would otherwise be found in
+mischief: And it elevates the character of a nation in the scale of
+government.
+
+Birmingham, by her commercial consequence, has, of late, justly assumed
+the liberty of nominating one of the representatives for the county;
+and, to her honor, the elective body never regretted her choice.
+
+In that memorable contest of 1774, we were almost to a man of one mind:
+if an _odd dozen_ among us, of a different _mould_, did not assimulate
+with the rest, they were treated, as men of free judgment should ever be
+treated, _with civility_, and the line of harmony was not broken.
+
+If this little treatise happens to travel into some of our corporate
+places, where the fire of contention, blown by the breath of party, is
+kept alive during seven years, let them cast a second glance over the
+above remark.
+
+Some of the first words after the creation, _increase and multiply_, are
+applicable to Birmingham; but as her own people are insufficient for the
+manufactures, she demands assistance for two or three miles round her.
+In our early morning walks, on every road proceeding from the town, we
+meet the sons of diligence returning to business, and bringing _in_ the
+same dusky smuts, which the evening before they took out. And though
+they appear of a darkish complexion, we may consider it is the property
+of every metal to sully the user; money itself has the same effect, and
+yet he deems it no disgrace who is daubed by fingering it; the disgrace
+lies with him who has none to finger.
+
+The profits arising from labour, to the lower orders of men, seem to
+surpass those of other mercantile places. This is not only visible in
+the manufactures peculiar to Birmingham, but in the more common
+occupations of the barber, taylor, shoe-maker, etc. who bask in the rays
+of plenty.
+
+It is entertaining to the curious observer, to contemplate the variation
+of things. We know of nothing, either in the natural or moral world,
+that continues in the same state: From a number of instances that might
+be adduced, permit me to name one--that of money. This, considered in
+the abstract, is of little or no value; but, by the common consent of
+mankind, is erected into a general arbitrator, to fix a value upon all
+others: a medium through which every thing passes: a balance by which
+they must be weighed: a touchstone to which they must be applied to find
+their worth: though we can neither eat nor drink it, we can neither eat
+nor drink without it.--He that has none best knows its use.
+
+It has long been a complaint, that the same quantity of that medium,
+money, will not produce so much of the necessaries of life, particularly
+food, as heretofore; or, in other words, that provisions have been
+gradually rising for many ages, and that the milling, which formerly
+supported the laborious family a whole week, will not now support it
+one day.
+
+In times of remarkable scarcity, such as those in 1728, 41, 56, 66, and
+74, the press abounded with publications on the subject; but none, which
+I have seen, reached the question, though short.
+
+It is of no consequence, whether a bushel of corn sells for six _pence_,
+or six _shillings_, but, what _time_ a man must labour before he
+can earn one?
+
+If, by the moderate labour of thirty-six hours, in the reign of Henry
+the Third, he could acquire a groat, which would purchase a bushel of
+wheat; and if, in the reign of George the Third, he works the same
+number of hours for eight shillings, which will make the same purchase,
+the balance is exactly even. If, by our commercial concerns with the
+eastern and the western worlds, the kingdom abounds with bullion, money
+must be cheaper; therefore a larger quantity is required to perform the
+same use. If money would go as far now as in the days of Henry the
+Third, a journeyman in Birmingham might amass a ministerial fortune.
+
+Whether provisions abound more or less? And whether the poor fare better
+or worse, in this period than in the other? are also questions dependant
+upon trade, and therefore worth investigating.
+
+If the necessaries of life abound more in this reign, than in that of
+Henry the Third, we cannot pronounce them dearer.
+
+Perhaps it will not be absurd to suppose, that the same quantity of
+land, directed by the superior hand of cultivation, in the eighteenth
+century, will yield twice the produce, as by the ignorant management of
+the thirteenth. We may suppose also, by the vast number of new
+inclosures which have annually taken place since the revolution, that
+twice the quantity of land is brought into cultivation: It follows, that
+four times the quantity of provisions is raised from the earth, than was
+raised under Henry the Third; which will leave a large surplus in hand,
+after we have deducted for additional luxury, a greater number of
+consumers, and also for exportation.
+
+This extraordinary stock is also a security against famine, which our
+forefathers severely felt.
+
+It will be granted, that in both periods the worst of the meat was used
+by the poor. By the improvements in agriculture, the art of feeding
+cattle is well understood, and much in practice; as the land improves,
+so will the beast that feeds upon it: if the productions, therefore, of
+the slaughter house, in this age, surpass those of Henry the Third, then
+the fare of the poor is at least as much superior now, as the worst of
+fat meat is superior to the worst of lean.
+
+The poor inhabitants in that day, found it difficult to procure bread;
+but in this, they sometimes add cream and butter.
+
+Thus it appears, that through the variation of things a balance is
+preserved: That provisions have not advanced in price, but are more
+plentiful: And that the lower class of men have found in trade, that
+intricate, but beneficial clue, which guides them into the confines
+of luxury.
+
+Provisions and the manufactures, like a pair of scales, will not
+preponderate together; but as weight is applied to the one, the other
+will advance.
+
+As labour is irksome to the body, a man will perform no more of it than
+necessity obliges him; it follows, that in those times when plenty
+preponderates, the manufactures tend to decay: For if a man can support
+his family with three days labour, he will not work six.
+
+As the generality of men will perform no more work than produces a
+maintenance, reduce that maintenance to half the price, and they will
+perform but half the work: Hence half the commerce of a nation is
+destroyed at one blow, and what is lost by one kingdom will be recovered
+by another, in rivalship.
+
+A commercial people, therefore, will endeavour to keep provisions at a
+superior rate, yet within reach of the poor.
+
+It follows also, that luxury is no way detrimental to trade; for we
+frequently observe ability and industry exerted to support it.
+
+The practice of the Birmingham manufacturer, for, perhaps, a hundred
+generations, was to keep within the warmth of his own forge.
+
+The foreign customer, therefore, applied to him for the execution of
+orders, and regularly made his appearance twice a year; and though this
+mode of business is not totally extinguished, yet a very different one
+is adopted.
+
+The merchant stands at the head of the manufacturer, purchases his
+produce, and travels the whole island to promote the sale: A practice
+that would have astonished our fore fathers. The commercial spirit of
+the age, hath also penetrated beyond the confines of Britain, and
+explored the whole continent of Europe; nor does it stop there, for the
+West-Indies, and the American world, are intimately acquainted with the
+Birmingham merchant; and nothing but the exclusive command of the
+East-India Company, over the Asiatic trade, prevents our riders from
+treading upon the heels of each other, in the streets of Calcutta.
+
+To this modern conduct of Birmingham, in sending her sons to the foreign
+market, I ascribe the chief cause of her rapid increase.
+
+By the poor's books it appears, there are not three thousand houses in
+Birmingham, that pay the parochial rates; whilst there are more then
+five thousand that do not, chiefly through inability. Hence we see what
+an amazing number of the laborious class of mankind is among us. This
+valuable part of the creation, is the prop of the remainder. They are
+the rise and support of our commerce. From this fountain we draw our
+luxuries and our pleasures. They spread our tables, and oil the wheels
+of our carriages. They are also the riches and the defence of
+the country.
+
+How necessary then, is it to direct with prudence, the rough passions of
+this important race, and make them subservient to the great end of civil
+society. The deficiency of conduct in this useful part of our species
+ought to be supplied by the superior.
+
+Let not the religious reader be surprised if I say, their follies, and
+even their vices, under certain restrictions, are beneficial. Corruption
+in the community, as well as in the natural body, accelerates vital
+existence.
+
+Let us survey one of the men, who begin life at the lowest ebb; without
+property, or any other advantage but that of his own prudence.
+
+He comes, by length of time and very minute degrees, from being directed
+himself, to have the direction of others. He quits the precincts of
+servitude, and enters the dominions of command: He laboured for others,
+but now others labour for him. Should the whole race, therefore, possess
+the same prudence, they would all become masters. Where then could be
+found the servant? Who is to perform the manual part? Who to execute the
+orders of the merchant? A world consisting only of masters, is like a
+monster consisting only of a head. We know that the head is no more than
+the leading power, the members are equally necessary. And, as one member
+is placed in a more elevated state than another, so are the ranks of
+men, that no void may be left. The hands and the feet, were designed to
+execute the drudgery of life; the head for direction, and all are
+suitable in their sphere.
+
+If we turn the other side of the picture, we shall see a man born in
+affluence, take the reins of direction; but like Phæton, not being able
+to guide them, blunders on from mischief to mischief, till he involves
+himself in destruction, comes prone to the earth, and many are injured
+by his fall. From directing the bridle, he submits to the bit; seeks for
+bread in the shops, the line designed him by nature; where his hands
+become callous with the file, and where, for the first time in his life,
+he becomes useful to an injured society.
+
+Thus, from imprudence, folly, and vice, is produced poverty;--poverty
+produces labour; from labour, arise the manufactures; and from these,
+the riches of a country, with all their train of benefits.
+
+It would be difficult to enumerate the great variety of trades practised
+in Birmingham, neither would it give pleasure to the reader. Some of
+them, spring up with the expedition of a blade of grass, and, like that,
+wither in a summer. If some are lasting, like the sun, others seem to
+change with the moon. Invention is ever at work. Idleness; the
+manufactory of scandal, with the numerous occupations connected with the
+cotton; the linen, the silk, and the woollen trades, are little
+known among us.
+
+Birmingham begun with the productions of the anvil, and probably will
+end with them. The sons of the hammer, were once her chief inhabitants;
+but that great croud of artists is now lost in a greater: Genius seems
+to increase with multitude.
+
+Part of the riches, extension, and improvement of Birmingham, are owing
+to the late John Taylor, Esq; who possessed the singular powers of
+perceiving things as they really were. The spring, and consequence of
+action, were open to his view; whom we may justly deem the Shakespear
+or the Newton of his day. He rose from minute beginnings, to
+shine in the commercial hemisphere, as they in the poetical and
+philosophical--Imitation is part of the human character. An example of
+such eminence in himself, promoted exertion in others; which, when
+prudence guided the helm, led on to fortune: But the bold adventurer who
+crouded sail, without ballast and without rudder, has been known to
+overset the vessel, and sink insolvent.
+
+To this uncommon genius we owe the gilt-button, the japanned and gilt
+snuff-boxes, with the numerous race of enamels--From the same fountain
+also issued the paper snuff-box, at which one servant earned three
+pounds ten shillings per week, by painting them at a farthing each.
+
+In his shop were weekly manufactured buttons to the amount of 800_l_
+exclusive of other valuable productions.
+
+One of the present nobility, of distinguished taste, examining the
+works, with the master, purchased some of the articles, amongst others,
+a toy of eighty guineas value, and, while paying for them, observed with
+a smile, "he plainly saw he could not reside in Birmingham for less than
+two hundred pounds a day."
+
+The toy trades first made their appearance in Birmingham, in the
+beginning of Charles the second, in an amazing variety, attended with
+all their beauties and their graces. The first in pre-eminence is
+
+
+
+The BUTTON.
+
+This beautiful ornament appears with infinite variation; and though the
+original date is rather uncertain, yet we well remember the long coats
+of our grandfathers covered with half a gross of high-tops, and the
+cloaks of our grandmothers, ornamented with a horn button nearly the
+size of a crown piece, a watch, or a John apple, curiously wrought, as
+having passed through the Birmingham press.
+
+Though the common round button keeps on with the steady pace of the day,
+yet we sometimes see the oval, the square, the pea, and the pyramid,
+flash into existence. In some branches of traffic the wearer calls
+loudly for new fashions; but in this, the fashions tread upon each
+other, and crowd upon the wearer. The consumption of this article is
+astonishing. There seem to be hidden treasures couched within this magic
+circle, known only to a few, who extract prodigious fortunes out of
+this useful toy, whilst a far greater number, submit to a statute of
+bankruptcy.
+
+Trade, like a restive horse, can rarely be managed; for, where one is
+carried to the end of a successful journey, many are thrown off by the
+way. The next that calls our attention is
+
+
+
+The BUCKLE.
+
+Perhaps the shoe, in one form or other, is nearly as ancient as the
+foot. It originally appeared under the name of, sandal; this was no
+other than a sole without an upper-leather. That fashion hath since been
+inverted, and we now, sometimes, see an upper-leather nearly without a
+sole. But, whatever was the cut of the shoe, it always demanded a
+fastening. Under the house of Plantagenet, it shot horizontally from the
+foot, like a Dutch scait, to an enormous length, so that the extremity
+was fattened to the knee, sometimes, with a silver chain, a silk lace,
+or even a pack-thread string, rather than avoid _genteel taste_.
+
+This thriving beak, drew the attention of the legislature, who were
+determined to prune the exorbitant shoot. For in 1465 we find an order
+of council, prohibiting the growth of the shoe toe, to more than two
+inches, under the penalty of a dreadful curse from the priest, and,
+which was worse, the payment of twenty shillings to the king.
+
+This fashion, like every other, gave way to time, and in its stead, the
+rose began to bud upon the foot. Which under the house of Tudor, opened
+in great perfection. No shoe was fashionable, without being fattened
+with a full-blown rose. Under the house of Stuart, the rose withered,
+which gave rise to the shoe-string.
+
+The beaus of that age, ornamented their lower tier with double laces of
+silk, tagged with silver, and the extremities beautified with a small
+fringe of the same metal. The inferior class, wore laces of plain silk,
+linen, or even a thong of leather; which last is yet to be met with in
+the humble plains of rural life. But I am inclined to think, the artists
+of Birmingham had no great hand in fitting out the beau of the
+last century.
+
+The revolution was remarkable, for the introduction of William, of
+liberty, and the minute buckle; not differing much in size and shape
+from the horse bean.
+
+This offspring of fancy, like the clouds, is ever changing. The fashion
+of to-day, is thrown into the casting pot to-morrow.
+
+The buckle seems to have undergone every figure, size and shape of
+geometrical invention: It has passed through every form in the whole
+zodiac of Euclid. The large square buckle is the _ton_ of the present
+day. The ladies also, have adopted the reigning taste: It is difficult
+to discover their beautiful little feet, covered with an enormous shield
+of buckle; and we wonder to see the active motion under the massive
+load. Thus the British fair support the manufactures of Birmingham, and
+thus they kill by weight of metal.
+
+
+
+GUNS.
+
+Though the sword and the gun are equal companions in war, it does not
+appear they are of equal original. I have already observed, that the
+sword was the manufacture of Birmingham, in the time of the Britons.
+
+But tradition tells us, King William was once lamenting "That guns were
+not manufactured in his dominions, but that he was obliged to procure
+them from Holland at a great expence, and greater difficulty."
+
+One of the Members for Warwickshire being present, told the King, "He
+thought his constituents could answer his Majesty's wishes."--The King
+was pleased with the remark, and the Member posted to Birmingham. Upon
+application to a person in Digbeth, whose name I forget, the pattern was
+executed with precision, which, when presented to the royal board, gave
+entire satisfaction. Orders were immediately issued for large numbers,
+which have been so frequently repeated that they never lost their road;
+and the ingenious artists have been so amply rewarded, that they have
+rolled in their carriages to this day.--Thus the same instrument which
+is death to one man, is genteel life to another.
+
+
+
+LEATHER.
+
+It may seem singular to a modern eye, to view this place in the light of
+one vast tan-yard.--Though there is no appearance of that necessary
+article among us, yet Birmingham was once a famous market for leather.
+Digbeth not only abounded with tanners, but large numbers of hides
+arrived weekly for sale, where the whole country found a supply. When
+the weather would allow, they were ranged in columns in the High-street,
+and at other times deposited in the Leather-hall, at the East end of
+New-street, appropriated for their reception.
+
+This market was of great antiquity, perhaps not less than seven hundred
+years, and continued till the beginning of the present century. We have
+two officers, annually chosen, by the name of _leather-sealers_, from a
+power given them by ancient charter, to mark the vendible hides; but now
+the leather-sealers have no duty, but that of taking an elegant dinner.
+Shops are erected upon tan-fats; the Leather-hall is gone to
+destruction, and we are reduced to one solitary tanner.
+
+
+
+STEEL.
+
+The progress of the arts, is equal to the progress of time; they began,
+and will end together. Though some of both are lost, yet they both
+accumulate.
+
+The manufacture of iron, in Birmingham, is ancient beyond research; that
+of steel is of modern date.
+
+Pride is inseparable from the human character, the man without it, is
+the man without breath: we trace it in various forms, through every
+degree of people; but like those objects about us, it is best
+discovered in our own sphere; those above, and those below us, rather
+escape our notice; envy attacks an equal.
+
+Pride induced the Pope to look with contempt on the European Princes,
+and now induces them to return the compliment; it taught insolence to
+the Spaniard, selfishness to the Dutch; it teaches the rival nations of
+France and England to contend for power.
+
+Pride preserves a man from mean actions, it throws him upon meaner; it
+whets the sword for destruction; it urges the laudable acts of humanity;
+it is the universal hinge on which we move; it glides the gentle stream
+of usefulness, it overflows the mounds of reason, and swells into a
+destructive flood; like the sun, in his milder rays, it animates and
+draws us towards perfection; but, like him, in his fiercer beams, it
+scorches and destroys.
+
+Money is not the necessary attendant of pride, for it abounds no where
+more than in the lowest ranks. It adds a sprucer air to a sunday dress;
+casts a look of disdain from a bundle of rags; it boasts the _honor_ of
+a family, while poverty unites a sole and upper-leather with a bandage
+of shop-thread. There are people who even _pride_ themselves in
+humility.
+
+This dangerous _good_, this necessary _evil_, supports the female
+character; without it, the brightest part of the creation would
+degenerate.
+
+It will be asked, "What portion may be allowed?" Prudence will answer,
+"As much as you please, but _not_ to disgust."
+
+It is equally found in the senate-house, or the button-shop; the scene
+of action is the scene of pride; and I, unable to adorn this work with
+erudition, take a pride in cloathing a worn-out subject afresh, and that
+pride will increase, should the world smi ---- "But why, says my friend,
+do you forsake the title of your chapter, and lead us a dance through
+the mazes of pride? Can there be any connexion between that sovereign
+passion, and forging a bar of steel?" Yes, he who makes steel prides
+himself in carrying the art one step higher than he who makes iron.
+
+This art appeared among us in the seventeenth century; was introduced by
+the family of Kettle. The name of Steelhouse-lane will convey to
+posterity the situation of the works, the commercial spirit of
+Birmingham, will convey the produce to the Antipodes.
+
+From this warm, but dismal climate, issues the button, which shines on
+the breast, and the bayonet, intended to pierce it; the lancet, which
+bleeds the man, and the rowel, the horse; the lock, which preserves the
+beloved bottle, and the screw, to uncork it; the needle, equally
+obedient to the thimble and the pole.
+
+
+
+NAILS.
+
+In most occupations, the profit of the master and the journeyman bear a
+proportion: if the former is able to figure in genteel life, the latter
+is able to figure in silk stockings. If the matter can afford to allow
+upon his goods ten per cent. discount for money, the servant can afford
+to squander half his wages. In a worn-down trade, where the tides of
+profit are reduced to a low ebb, and where imprudence sets her foot upon
+the premises, the matter and the man starve together. Only _half_ this
+is our present case.
+
+The art of nail-making is one of the most ancient among us; we may
+safely charge its antiquity with four figures.
+
+We cannot consider it a trade _in_, so much as _of_ Birmingham; for we
+have but few nail-makers left in the town: our nailers are chiefly
+masters, and rather opulent. The manufacturers are so scattered round
+the country, that we cannot travel far, in any direction, out of the
+sound of the nail-hammer. But Birmingham, like a powerful magnet, draws
+the produce of the anvil to herself.
+
+When I first approached her, from Walsall, in 1741, I was surprized at
+the prodigious number of blacksmiths shops upon the road; and could not
+conceive how a country, though populous, could support so many people of
+the same occupation. In some of these shops I observed one, or more
+females, stript of their upper garment, and not overcharged with their
+lower, wielding the hammer with all the grace of the sex. The beauties
+of their face were rather eclipsed by the smut of the anvil; or, in
+poetical phrase, the tincture of the forge had taken possession of those
+lips, which might have been taken by the kiss.
+
+Struck with the novelty, I inquired, "Whether the ladies in this country
+shod horses?" but was answered, with a smile, "They are nailers."
+
+A fire without heat, a nailer of a fair complexion, or one who despises
+the tankard, are equally rare among them. His whole system of faith may
+be comprised in one article--That the slender two-penny mug, used in a
+public house, _is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked_.
+
+While the master reaps the harvest of plenty, the workman submits to the
+scanty gleanings of penury, a thin habit, an early old age, and a
+figure bending towards the earth. Plenty comes not near his dwelling,
+except of rags, and of children. But few recruits arise from his
+nail-shop, except for the army. His hammer is worn into deep hollows,
+fitting the fingers of a dark and plump hand, hard as the timber it
+wears. His face, like the moon, is often seen through a cloud.
+
+
+
+BELLOWS.
+
+Man first catches the profession; the profession afterwards moulds the
+man.
+
+In whatever profession we engage, we assume its character, become a part
+of it, vindicate its honor, its eminence, its antiquity; or feel a wound
+through its sides.
+
+Though there may be no more pride in a minister of state, who opens a
+budget, than in a tinker who carries one, yet they equally contend for
+the honor of their trade.
+
+Every man, from the attorney's clerk to the butcher's apprentice, feels
+his own honor, with that of his profession, wounded by travelling on
+foot. To be caught on his feet, is nearly the same as to be caught in a
+crime. The man who has gathered up his limbs, and hung them on a horse,
+looks _down_ with dignity on him who has not; while the man on foot
+offers his humble bow, afraid to look up--If providence favours us with
+feet, is it a disgrace to use them?--I could instance a person who
+condescended to quit London, that center of trick, lace, and equipage;
+and in 1761, open a draper's shop in Birmingham: but his feet, or his
+_pride_, were so much hurt by walking, that he could scarcely travel ten
+doors from his own without a post-chaise--the result was, he became such
+an adept in riding, that in a few months, he rode triumphant into the
+Gazette. Being quickly scoured bright by the ill-judged laws of
+bankruptcy, he rode, for the last time, _out_ of Birmingham, where he
+had so often rode _in_: but his injured creditors were obliged to _walk_
+after the slender dividend of eighteen pence in the pound. The man who
+_can_ use his feet, is envied by him who _cannot_; and he, in turn,
+envies him who _will_ not. Our health and our feet, in a double sense,
+go together. The human body has been justly compared to a musical
+instrument; I add, this instrument was never perfectly in tune, without
+a due portion of exercise.
+
+The man of military character, puts on, with his scarlet, that martial
+air, which tells us, "he has formed a resolution to kill:" and we
+naturally ask, "Which sex?"
+
+Some "_pert and affected author_" with anxiety on his brow, will be apt
+to step forward, and say, "Will you celebrate the man of the sword, who
+transfers the blush of his face to his back, and neglect the man of the
+quill, who, like the pelican, portions out his vitals to feed others?
+Which is preferable, he who lights up the mental powers, or he who puts
+them out? the man who stores the head with knowledge, or he who stores
+it with a bullet?"
+
+The antiquarian supports his dignity with a solemn aspect; he treats a
+sin and a smile as synonimous; one half of which has been discarded from
+his childhood. If a smile in the house of religion, or of mourning, be
+absurd, is there any reason to expel it from those places where it is
+not? A tale will generally allow of two ingredients, _information_ and
+_amusement_: but the historian and the antiquarian have, from time
+immemorial, used but _one_. Every smile, except that of contempt, is
+beneficial to the constitution; they tend to promote long life, and
+pleasure while that life lasts. Much may be said in favour of tears of
+joy, but more on joy without tears. I wonder the lively fancy of Hogarth
+never sketched the _dull_ historian, in the figure of an ass, plodding
+to market under his panniers, laden with the fruits of antiquity, and
+old time driving up the _rear_, with his scythe converted into an
+hedge-stake.
+
+The bellows-maker proclaims the _honor_ of his art, by observing, he
+alone produces that instrument which commands the winds; his soft
+breeze, like that of the south, counter-acts the chill blasts of winter:
+by his efforts, like those of the sun, the world receives light: he
+creates when he pleases, and gives _breath_ when he creates. In his
+caverns the winds deep at pleasure; and by his _orders_ they set Europe
+in flames.
+
+He pretends, that a gentle puff in the eyes of a _reviewer_, from a pair
+of his bellows, would tend to clear the sight, and enable him to
+distinguish between a smile and a serious face: that his circular board,
+like a ferula, applied by the handle to an inferior part, would induce
+him to peruse the _whole treatise_, and not partially pronounce from
+the preface.
+
+He farther pretends, that the _antiquity_ of his occupation will appear
+from the plenty of elm, once in the neighbourhood, but long cut up for
+his use: that the leather-market in Birmingham, for many ages, furnished
+him with sides; and though the manufacture of iron is allowed to be
+extremely ancient, yet the smith could not procure his heat without a
+blast, nor could that blast be raised without the bellows.
+
+Two inferences arise from these remarks, that the antiquarian will frown
+on this little history; and that bellows-making is one of the oldest
+trades in Birmingham.
+
+
+
+THREAD.
+
+We, who reside in the interior parts of the kingdom, may observe the
+first traces of a river issue from its fountain; the current so
+extremely small, that if a bottle of liquor, distilled through the
+urinary vessels, was discharged into its course, it would manifestly
+augment the water, and quicken the stream: the reviving bottle, having
+added spirits to the man, seems to add spirits to the river.--If we
+pursue this river, winding through one hundred and thirty miles, we
+shall observe it collect strength as it runs, expand its borders, swell
+into consequence, employ multitudes of people, carry wealth in its
+bosom, and exactly resemble _thread-making_ in Birmingham.
+
+If we represent to our idea, a man able to employ three or four people,
+himself in an apron, one of the number; but being _unable_ to write his
+name, shows his attachment to the christian religion, by signing the
+_cross_ to receipts; whose method of book-keeping, like that of the
+publican, is _a door and a lump of chalk;_ producing a book which none
+can peruse but himself: who, having manufactured 40lb. weight of thread,
+of divers colours, and rammed it into a pair of leather bags, something
+larger than a pair of boots, which we might deem the arms of his trade
+_empaled_; flung them on a horse, and placed himself on the top, by way
+of a _crest_; visits an adjacent market, to starve with his goods at a
+stall, or retail them to the mercer, nor return without the money--we
+shall see a thread-maker of 1652.
+
+If we pursue this occupation, winding through the mazes of one hundred
+and thirty _years_, we shall see it enlarge its boundaries, multiply its
+people, increase its consequence and wealth, till 1782, when we behold
+the matter in possession of correct accounts, the apron thrown aside,
+the stall kicked over, the bags tossed into the garret, and the mercer
+overlooked in the grand prospect of exportation. We farther behold him
+take the lead in provincial concerns, step into his own carriage, and
+hold the king's commission as a magistrate.
+
+
+
+PRINTING,
+
+By JOHN BASKERVILLE.
+
+The pen of an historian rejoices in the actions of the great; the fame
+of the deserving, like an oak tree, is of sluggish growth; and, like the
+man himself, they are not matured in a day. The present generation
+becomes debtor to him who excels, but the future will discharge that
+debt with more than simple interest. The still voice of fame may warble
+in his ears towards the close of life, but her trumpet seldom sounds in
+full clarion, till those ears are stopped with the finger of death.
+
+This son of genius was born at Wolverley, in the county of Worcester, in
+1706; heir to a paternal estate of 60_l_. per annum, which, fifty years
+after, while in his own possession, had increased to 90_l_. He was
+trained to no occupation; but, in 1726, became a writing-matter in
+Birmingham.--In 1737, he taught school in the Bull-ring, and is said to
+have written an excellent hand.
+
+As painting suited his talents, he entered into the lucrative branch of
+japanning, and resided at No. 22, in Moor-street.
+
+He took, in 1745, a building lease of eight acres, two furlongs north
+west of the town, to which he gave the name of _Easy-hill_, converted it
+into a little Eden, and built a house in the center: but the town, as if
+conscious of his merit, followed his retreat, and surrounded it with
+buildings.--Here he continued the business of a japanner for life: his
+carriage, each pannel of which was a distinct picture, might be
+considered _the pattern-card of his trade_, and was drawn by a beautiful
+pair of cream-coloured horses.
+
+His inclination for letters induced him, in 1750, to turn his thoughts
+towards the press. He spent many years in the uncertain pursuit; sunk
+600_l_. before he could produce one letter to please himself, and some
+thousands before the shallow stream of profit began to flow.
+
+His first attempt, in 1756, was a quarto edition of Virgil, price one
+guinea, now worth several.--He afterwards printed Paradise Lost, the
+Bible, Common Prayer, Roman and English Classics, etc. in various sizes,
+with more satisfaction to the literary world than emolument to himself.
+
+In 1765, he applied to his friend, Dr. Franklin, then at Paris, and now
+Ambassador from America, to sound the literati, respecting the purchase
+of his types; but received for answer, "That the French, reduced by the
+war of 1756, were so far from pursuing schemes of taste, that they were
+unable to repair their public buildings, but suffered the scaffolding to
+rot before them."
+
+In private life he was a humorist; idle in the extreme; but his
+invention was of the true Birmingham model, active. He could well
+design, but procured others to execute; wherever he found merit he
+caressed it: he was remarkably polite to the stranger; fond of show: a
+figure rather of the smaller size, and delighted to adorn that figure
+with gold lace.--Although constructed with the light timbers of a
+frigate, his movement was solemn as a ship of the line.
+
+During the twenty-five years I knew him, though in the decline of life,
+he retained the singular traces of a handsome man. If he exhibited a
+peevish temper, we may consider good-nature and intense thinking are
+not always found together.
+
+Taste accompanied him through the different walks of agriculture,
+architecture, and the finer arts. Whatever passed through his fingers,
+bore the lively marks of John Baskerville.
+
+His aversion to christianity would not suffer him to lie among
+christians; he therefore erected a mausoleum in his own grounds for his
+remains, and died without issue, in 1775, at the age of 69.--Many
+efforts were used after his death, to dispose of the types; but, to the
+lading discredit of the British nation, no purchaser could be found in
+the whole commonwealth of letters. The universities coldly rejected the
+offer. The London booksellers understood no science like that of profit.
+The valuable property, therefore, lay a dead weight, till purchased by a
+literary society at Paris, in 1779, for 3700_l_.
+
+It is an old remark, that no country abounds with genius so much as this
+island; and it is a remark nearly as old, that genius is no where so
+little rewarded; how else came Dryden, Goldsmith, and Chatterton to want
+bread? Is merit, like a flower of the field, too common to attract
+notice? or is the use of money beneath the care of exalted talents?
+
+Invention seldom pays the inventor. If you ask, what fortune Baskerville
+ought to have been rewarded with? "The _most_ which can be comprised in
+five figures." If you farther ask, what he possessed? "The _least_;" but
+none of it squeezed from the press. What will the shade of this great
+man think, if capable of thinking, that he has spent a fortune of
+opulence, and a life of genius, in carrying to perfection the greatest
+of all human inventions; and his productions, slighted by his country,
+were hawked over Europe, in quest of a bidder?
+
+We must _revere_, if we do not _imitate_, the taste and economy of the
+French nation, who, brought by the British arms, in 1762, to the verge
+of ruin, rising above distress, were able, in 17 years, to purchase
+Baskerville's elegant types, refused by his own country, and expend an
+hundred thousand pounds in printing the works of Voltaire!
+
+
+
+BRASS FOUNDRY.
+
+The curious art before us is perhaps less ancient than profitable, and
+less healthful than either. I shall not enquire whose grandfather was
+the first brass-founder here, but shall leave their grandsons to settle
+that important point with my successor who shall next write the History
+of Birmingham. Whoever was the first, I believe he figured in the reign
+of King William; but, though he sold his productions at an excessive
+price, he did not, like the moderns, possess the art of acquiring a
+fortune: but now the master knows the way to affluence, and the servant
+to liquor.
+
+To enumerate the great variety of occupations amongst us, would be as
+useless, and as unentertaining to the reader, perhaps to the writer, as
+to count the pebbles in the street.
+
+Having therefore visited a few, by way of specimen, I shall desist from
+farther pursuit, and wheel off in a
+
+
+
+HACKNEY COACH.
+
+Wherever the view of profit opens, the eyes of a Birmingham man are open
+to see it.
+
+In 1775, a person was determined to try if a Hackney Coach would take
+with the inhabitants. He had not mounted the box many times before he
+inadvertently dropped the expression, "Thirty shillings a day!" The word
+was attended with all the powers of magic, for instantly a second rolled
+into the circus.
+
+And these elevated sons of the lash are now augmented to fifteen, whom
+we may justly denominate a club of tippling deities, who preside over
+weddings, christenings, and pleasurable excursions.
+
+It would give satisfaction to the curious calculator, could any mode be
+found of discovering the returns of trade, made by the united
+inhabitants. But the question is complicated. It only admits of surmise.
+From comparing many instances in various ranks of life among us, I have
+been led to suppose, that the weekly returns exceed the annual rent of
+the buildings. And as these rents are nearly ascertained, perhaps, we
+may conclude, that those returns are about 80,000. If we deduct for four
+weeks holidays, the annual returns will be--3,840,000_l_.
+
+Now we have entered the visionary regions of fancy, let us pursue the
+thought a stage farther; and consider Birmingham as one great family,
+possessed of a capital of Eight Millions. Her annual returns in trade as
+above, from which we will deduct for the purchase of
+
+     Raw materials  -   -   -   -   -   -   -    1,920,000
+     House rent, repairs and taxes  -   -   -      100,000
+     Losses in trade    -   -   -   -   -   -       50,000
+     Maintenance, clothing, and pleasurable
+       expences, for 50,000 people, at 10_s_.
+       per week     -   -   -   -   -   -   -    1,300,000
+                                                 ---------
+                                                 3,370,000
+                                                 ---------
+     Annual addition to the capital -   -   -      470,000
+
+Should a future antagonist arise, and attack me in numbers, I promise
+beforehand to relinquish the field; for I profess only, to stand upon
+ideal ground.
+
+
+
+BANK.
+
+Perhaps a public bank is as necessary to the health of the commercial
+body, as exercise to the natural. The circulation of the blood and
+spirits are promoted by one, so are cash and bills by the other; and a
+stagnation is equally detrimental to both. Few places are without: Yet
+Birmingham, famous in the annals of traffic, could boast no such claim.
+To remedy this defect therefore, about every tenth trader was a banker,
+or, a retailer of cash. At the head of whom were marshalled the whole
+train of drapers and grocers, till the year 1765, when a regular bank
+was established by Messrs. Taylor and Lloyd, two opulent tradesmen,
+whose credit being equal to that of the bank of England, quickly
+collected the shining rays of sterling property into its focus.
+
+
+
+GOVERNMENT.
+
+Have you, my dear reader, seen a sword hilt, of curious, and of
+Birmingham manufactory, covered with spangles of various sizes, every
+one of which carries a separate lustre, but, when united, has a dazzling
+effect? Or, have you seen a ring, from the same origin, set with
+diamonds of many dimensions, the least of which, sparkles with amazing
+beauty, but, when beheld in cluster, surprize the beholder? Or, have
+you, in a frosty evening, seen the heavens bespangled with refulgent
+splendor, each stud shining with intrinsic excellence, but, viewed in
+the aggregate, reflect honour upon the maker, and enliven the
+hemisphere? Such is the British government. Such is that excellent
+system of polity, which shines, the envy of the stranger, and the
+protector of the native.
+
+Every city, town and village in the English hemisphere, hath a separate
+jurisdiction of its own, and may justly be deemed _a stud in the
+grand lustre_.
+
+Though the British Constitution is as far from perfection, as the glory
+of the ring and the hilt is from that of the sun which causes it, or the
+stars from the day; yet perhaps it stands higher in the scale of
+excellence, than that of its neighbours. We may, with propriety, allow
+that body to shine with splendor, which hath been polishing for
+seventeen hundred years. Much honour is due to the patriotic merit
+which advanced it to its present eminence.
+
+Though Birmingham is but one sparkle of the brilliant clustre, yet she
+is a sparkle of the first _water_, and of the first _magnitude_.
+
+The more perfect any system of government, the happier the people. A
+wise government will punish for the commission of crimes, but a wiser
+will endeavour to prevent them. Man is an active animal: If he is not
+employed in some useful pursuit, he will employ himself in mischief.
+Example is also prevalent: If one man falls into error, he often draws
+another. Though heaven, for wise purposes, suffers a people to fulfil
+the measure of their iniquities, a prudent state will nip them in
+the bud.
+
+It is easy to point out some places, only one third the magnitude of
+Birmingham, whose frequent breaches of the law, and quarrels among
+themselves, find employment for half a dozen magistrates, and four times
+that number of constables; whilst the business of this, was for many
+years conducted by a single Justice, the late John Wyrley, Esq. If the
+reader should think I am mistaken and object, that parish affairs cannot
+be conducted without a second? Let me reply, He conducted that
+second also.
+
+As human nature is nearly the same, whether in or out of Birmingham; and
+as enormities seem more prevalent out than in, we may reasonably ascribe
+the cause to the extraordinary industry of the inhabitants, not allowing
+time to brood over, and bring forth mischief, equal to places of
+inferior diligence.
+
+We have at present two acting magistrates to hold the beam of justice,
+the Rev. Benjamin Spencer, and Joseph Carles, Esq; who both reside at
+a distance.
+
+Many of our corporate towns received their charters from that amiable,
+but unfortunate prince, Henry the Second. These were the first dawnings
+of British liberty, after fixing the Norman yoke. They were afterwards
+ratified and improved by the subsequent Kings of England; granting not
+only the manors, but many exclusive privileges. But at this day, those
+places which were so remarkably favoured with the smiles of royalty, are
+not quite so free as those that were not. The prosperity of this happy
+place proves the assertion, of which every man is free the moment
+he enters.
+
+We often behold a pompous corporation, which sounds well in history,
+over something like a dirty village--This is a head without a body. The
+very reverse is our case--We are a body without a head. For though
+Birmingham has undergone an amazing alteration in extension, riches and
+population, yet the government is nearly the same as the Saxons left it.
+This part of my important history therefore must suffer an eclipse: This
+illustrious chapter, that rose in dazling brightness, must be veiled in
+the thick clouds of obscurity: I shall figure with my corporation in a
+despicable light. I am not able to bring upon the stage, a mayor and a
+group of aldermen, dressed in antique scarlet, bordered with fur,
+drawing a train of attendants; the meanest of which, even the pinder, is
+badged with silver: Nor treat my guest with a band of music, in scarlet
+cloaks with broad laces. I can grace the hand of my Birmingham fidler
+with only a rusty instrument, and his back with barely a whole coat;
+neither have I a mace for the inaugeration of the chief magistrate. The
+reader, therefore, must either quit the place, or be satisfied with such
+entertainment as the company affords.
+
+The officers, who are annually chosen, to direct in this prosperous feat
+of fortune, are
+
+     An High Bailiff.   Two High Tasters.
+     Low Bailiff.       Two Low Tasters.
+     Two Constables.    Two Asseirers. And
+     Headborough.       Two Leather Sealers.
+
+All which, the constables excepted, are no more than servants to the
+lord of the manor; and whose duty extends no farther, than to the
+preservation of the manorial rights.
+
+The high bailiff is to inspect the market, and see that justice takes
+place between buyer and seller; to rectify the weights and dry measures
+used in the manor.
+
+The low bailiff summons a jury, who choose all the other officers, and
+generally with prudence. But the most important part of his office is,
+to treat his friends at the expence of about Seventy Pounds.
+
+The headborough is only an assistant to the constables, chiefly in time
+of absence.
+
+High tasters examine the goodness of beer, and its measure.
+
+Low tasters inspect the meat exposed to sale, and cause that to be
+destroyed which is unfit for use.
+
+Asseirers ratify the chief rent and amercements, between the lord and
+the inhabitant. And the
+
+Leather sealers, stamped a public seal upon the hides, when Birmingham
+was a market for leather.
+
+These manorial servants, instituted by ancient charter, chiefly possess
+a name, without an office. Thus order seems assisted by industry, and
+thus a numerous body of inhabitants are governed without a governor.
+
+Exclusive of the choice of officers, the jury impannelled by the low
+bailiff, have the presentation of all encroachments upon the lord's
+waste, which has long been neglected.
+
+The duties of office are little known, except that of taking a generous
+dinner, which is punctually observed. It is too early to begin business
+till the table is well stored with bottles, and too late afterwards.
+
+During the existence of the house of Birmingham, the court-leet was held
+at the Moat, in what we should now think a large and shabby room,
+conducted under the eye of the low bailiff, at the expence of the lord.
+
+The jury, twice a year, were witnesses, that the famous dish of roast
+beef, ancient as the family who gave it, demanded the head of the table.
+The court was afterwards held at the Leather-hall, and the expence,
+which was trifling, borne by the bailiff. Time, prosperity, and
+emulation, are able to effect considerable changes. The jury, in the
+beginning of the present century, were impannelled in the Old Cross,
+then newly erected, from whence they adjourned to the house of the
+bailiff, and were feasted at the growing charge of _two or
+three pounds_.
+
+This practice continued till about the year 1735, when the company,
+grown too bulky for a private house, assembled at a tavern, and the
+bailiff enjoyed the singular privilege of consuming ten pounds upon
+his guests.
+
+It is easier to advance in expences than to retreat. In 1760, they had
+increased to forty pounds, and in the next edition of this work, we may
+expect to see the word _hundred_.
+
+The lord was anciently founder of the feast, and treated his bailiff;
+but now that custom is inverted, and the bailiff treats his lord.
+
+The proclamation of our two fairs, is performed by the high bailiff, in
+the name of the Lord of the Manor; this was done a century ago, without
+the least expence. The strength of his liquor, a silver tankard, and the
+pride of shewing it, perhaps induced him, in process of time, to treat
+his attendants.
+
+His ale, without a miracle, was, in a few years, converted into wine,
+and that of various sorts; to which was added, a small collation; and
+now his friends are complimented with a card, to meet him at the Hotel,
+where he incurs an expence of twenty pounds.
+
+While the spirit of the people refines by intercourse, industry, and the
+singular jurisdiction among us, this insignificant pimple, on our head
+of government, swells into a wen.
+
+Habits approved are soon acquired: a third entertainment has, of late
+years, sprung up, termed _the constables feast_, with this difference,
+_it is charged to the public_. We may consider it a wart on the
+political body, which merits the caustic.
+
+Deritend, being a hamlet of Birmingham, sends her inhabitants to the
+court-leet, where they perform suit and service, and where her constable
+is chosen by the same jury.
+
+I shall here exhibit a defective list of our principal officers during
+the last century. If it should be objected, that a petty constable is
+too insignificant, being the lowest officer of the crown, for admission
+into history; I answer, by whatever appellation an officer is accepted,
+he cannot be insignificant who stands at the head of 50,000 people.
+Perhaps, therefore, the office of constable may be sought for in
+future, and the officer himself assume a superior consequence.
+
+The dates are the years in which they were chosen, fixed by charter,
+within thirty days after Michaelmas.
+
+
+
+CONSTABLES.
+
+1680   John Simco          John Cottrill
+1681   John Wallaxall      William Guest
+1682   George Abel         Samuel White
+1683   Thomas Russell      Abraham Spooner
+1684   Roger Macham        William Wheely
+1685   Thomas Cox          John Green
+1686   Henry Porter        Samuel Carless
+1687   Samuel Banner       John Jesson
+1690   Joseph Robinson     John Birch
+1691   John Rogers         Richard Leather
+1692   Thomas Robins       Corbet Bushell
+1693   Joseph Rann         William Sarjeant
+1694   Rowland Hall        John Bryerly
+1695   Richard Scott       George Wells
+1696   Joseph Haddock      Robert Mansell
+1697   James Greir         John Foster
+1698   John Baker          Henry Camden
+1699   William Kettle      Thomas Gisborn
+1700   John Wilson         Joseph Allen
+1701   Nicholas Bakewell   Richard Banner
+1702   William Collins     Robert Groves
+1703   Henry Parrot        Benjamin Carless
+1704   William Brierly     John Hunt
+1705   Jonathan Seeley     Thomas Holloway
+1706   Robert Moore        John Savage
+1707   Isaac Spooner       Samuel Hervey
+1708   Richard Weston      Thomas Cope
+1709   Samuel Walford      Thomas Green
+1710   John Foxall         William Norton
+1711   Stephen Newton      John Taylor
+1712   William Russel      John Cotterell
+1713   John Shaw           Thomas Hallford
+1714   Randall Bradburn    Joseph May
+1715   Stephen Newton      Samuel Russell
+1716   Stephen Newton      Joseph Carless
+1717   Abraham Foxall      William Spilsbury
+1718   John Gisborn        Henry Carver
+1719   Samuel Hays         Joseph Smith
+1720   John Barnsley       John Humphrys
+1721   William Bennett     Thomas Wilson
+1722   John Harrison       Simon Harris
+
+
+
+A LIST
+
+OF THE
+
+HIGH BAILIFFS, LOW BAILIFFS, AND CONSTABLES,
+
+Of the TOWN of BIRMINGHAM, from 1732, to 1782.
+
+     HIGH BAILIFFS.      LOW BAILIFFS.          CONSTABLES.
+
+1732  Thomas Wilson    John Webster      Joseph Bradnock    John Wilson
+1733  John Webster     Joseph Kettle     Thomas Nickin      James Baker
+1734  John Wickins     Thomas Lakin   [2]Joseph Scott, esq; James Taylor
+1735  Joseph Marston   John Russell      John Webster       Thomas Ashfield
+1736  Joseph Bradnock  Robert Moore      Thomas Wickins     Joseph Fullelove
+1737  James Baker      Isaac Ingram      John Kettle        Richard Porter
+1738  Joseph Smith     William Mason     William Hunt       Henry Hun
+1739  Thomas Wickens   William Harvey    Edward Burton      John England
+1740  Simon Harris     Thomas Russel     Joseph Richards    T. Honeyborn
+1741  Daniel Gill      George Abney      Thomas Turner      John Bedford
+1742
+1743  Josiah Jefferys  William Kettle    John Russel        Thomas
+1744  George Davies    J. Humphrys, Jr.  William Mason      William Ward
+1745  Edward Burton    Robert Moore      Joseph Wollaston   John Turner
+1746
+1747  Thomas Ashwell   J. Taylor, esq;   Joseph Walker      Josiah Hunt
+1748  Thomas Wickens   John Roe          Robert Moore       John Horton
+1749  Joseph Fullelove Richard Brett     Henry Hunt         Joseph Ruston
+1750  Thomas Lakin     Joseph Smith      John Gill          Luke Bell
+1751  Thomas Turner    Benj. Mansell     John Walters       W. Walsingham
+1752  James Baker      John Taylor       Price Thomas       Joseph Thomas
+1753  E. Jordan, esq;  Samuel Harvey     Samuel Birch       Samuel Richards
+1754  Thomas Cottrell  Joseph Richards   John Bellears      John Camden
+1755  Joseph Walker    John Wells[3]     Stephen Colmore    John Powell
+1756  John Bellears    J. Kettle, esq;   Ambrose Foxall     John Gray
+1757  William Patteson Joseph Webster    J. Darbyshire      Richard Brett
+1758  James Horton     T. Lawrence       Thomas Richards    Sam. Pemberton
+1759  John Walker      Thomas Abney      G. Spilsbury       Edward Weston
+1760  John Turner      Abel Humphrys     Richard Dingley    Web Marriott
+1761  John Baskerville Stephen Bedford   Michael Lakin      Nehemiah Bague
+1762  Joseph Thomas    James Jackson     George Birch       John Green
+1763  John Gold        John Lee          William Parks      John Daws
+1764  Richard Hicks    J. Ryland         S. Bradburn, esq;  Geo. Anderton
+1765  Thomas Vallant   Sam. Richards     Ed. H. Noble       Elias Wallin
+1766  John Lane        Henry Venour      John Lane          Joseph Adams
+1767  John Horn        Jo. Wilkinson     Richard Rabone     Thomas Care
+1768  Gregory Hicks    W. Russell, esq;  Thomas Bingham     John Moody
+1769  James Male       Samuel Ray        Thomas Gisborne    William Mansell
+1770  Joshua Glover    Thomas Russell    T. Lutwyche        Thomas Barker
+1771  John Harris      J. Hornblower     Thomas Cooper      Walter Salt
+1772  William Holden   Jos. Tyndall      R. Anderton        T. Hunt
+1773  Thomas Westley   John Richards     Ob. Bellamy        John Smart
+1774  John Ward        John Francis      W. Hodgkins        Thomas Wight
+1775  Thomas Hurd      John Taylor, esq; John Startin       T. Everton
+1776  E.W. Patteson    Josiah Rogers     Thomas Corden      Joseph Wright
+1777  Ed. Thomason     S. Pemberton      Joseph Jukes       Joseph Sheldon
+1778  Joseph Green     William Hunt      Thomas Wright      John Allen[4]
+1779  T. Faulconbridge W. Humphrys       John Guest         Jonathan Wigley
+1780  Daniel Winwood   William Scott     William Thomas     John Bird
+1781  William Hicks    W. Taylor, esq;   John Dallaway      Richard Porter
+1782  Thomas Carless   G. Humphrys       John Holmes        Thomas Barrs
+
+[Footnote 2: Joseph Scott, Esq; not choosing the official part, procured
+a substitute to perform it, in the person of the late Constable
+James Baker.]
+
+[Footnote 3: in office, Benjamin Mansell was chosen in his stead.]
+
+[Footnote 4: was charged with a fine of 25_l_. by the lady of the manor,
+and John Miles chosen in his stead.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Three of the Inhabitants have, since I knew the place, served the Office
+of SHERIFF for the County, viz.
+
+     John Taylor, Esquire, in - - - - 1756.
+     Edward Jordan, Esquire, in - - - 1757.
+     And Isaac Spooner, Esquire, in - 1763.
+
+
+
+COURT OF REQUESTS.
+
+Law is the very basis of civil society, without it man would quickly
+return to his original rudeness; the result would be, robbery and
+blood:--and even laws themselves are of little moment, without a due
+execution of them--there is a necessity to annex punishment.
+
+But there is no necessity to punish the living, who are innocent, by
+hanging the dead bodies of criminals in the air. This indecent and
+inhuman custom, which originated from the days of barbarism, reflects an
+indelible disgrace upon a civilized age. The intention, no doubt, was
+laudable; to prevent the commission of crimes, but does it answer that
+intention?
+
+In 1759, two brothers, of the name of Darby, were hung in chains near
+Hales-Owen, since which time there has been only one murder committed in
+the whole neighbourhood, and that under the very gibbet upon which
+they hung[5].
+
+[Footnote 5: Joseph Skidmore, a carrier of Stourbridge, having Ann
+Mansfield, a young woman of Birmingham, under his care, ravished and
+murdered her in the evening of December 10, 1774.]
+
+Justice, however, points out a way wherein the dead body, by conveying
+chirurgical knowledge, may be serviceable to the living.
+
+Laws generally tend, either directly, or remotely, to the protection of
+property.
+
+All wise legislators have endeavoured to proportion the punishment to
+the crime, but never to exceed it: a well conducted state holds forth a
+scale of punishments for transgressions of every dimension, beginning
+with the simple reprimand, and proceeding downwards even to
+death itself.
+
+It will be granted, that the line of equity ought to be drawn with
+critical exactness.
+
+If by fair trade, persuasion, or finesse, I get the property of another
+into my hands, even to the trifling value of a shilling, my effects
+ought to be responsible for that sum.
+
+If I possess no effects, he certainly retains a right of punishing to
+that amount: for if we do not lay this line in the boundaries of strict
+justice, it will not lie upon any other ground. And if I am allowed
+fraud in one shilling, I am allowed it in a greater sum. How far
+punishment may be softened by concurring circumstances, is
+another question.
+
+It therefore follows of course, that if my creditor has a right to
+recover his unfortunate property, those laws are the nearest to
+perfection, that will enable him to recover it with the most expedition,
+and the least expence and trouble to us both.
+
+If the charge of recovery is likely to exceed the debt, he will be apt
+to desist, I to laugh at him, and to try my skill at a second
+enterprize.
+
+Trade and credit cannot be well separated; they are as closely connected
+as the wax and the paper. The laws of credit, therefore, ought to rest
+upon a permanent foundation: neither is law necessary to restrain
+credit; for if, in a commercial state, it becomes detrimental by its
+over growth, it finds itself a remedy.
+
+Much has been said, and perhaps more than has been thought, concerning
+the court before us. The loser is expected to complain, and his friends
+to give him a partial hearing; and though he breathes _vengeance_
+against his antagonist, it ends in a _breath_.
+
+The looker-on can easily spy an error in the actor. If a fault is
+committed, we are glad it was done by another; besides, it is no new
+thing for the _outs_ to complain of the _ins_. It will plead strongly in
+excuse, to say, the intention was right, if the judgment was wrong. If
+perfection is required, she does not reside upon earth.
+
+But if these pleadings are not found a balance against prejudice, and a
+man suffers his wrath to kindle against a valuable institution, because
+perfection does not preside over it, let him peruse an old author, who
+asks, "What shall we think of the folly of that man, who throws away the
+apple, because it contains a core? despises the nut, for the shell? or
+casts the diamond into the sea, because it has a flaw?"
+
+Decision is usually established upon oath, both in criminal courts, and
+in those at Westminster, through which the oath is seen to pass with
+free currency.
+
+A judge is sometimes fond of sheltering himself behind an oath; it may
+be had at an easy rate. Each of the contending parties wishes to win his
+cause by an oath: but though oaths would be willingly taken, they ought
+to be sparingly given.--They may be considered what they generally are
+not, _of the last importance_.
+
+We may observe, that two opponents are ready to swear directly contrary
+to each other; that if a man asserts a thing, he can do no less than
+swear it; and that, after all, an oath proves nothing.
+
+The commissioners, therefore, wish rather to establish _fact_ upon
+_proof_; but, if this is wanting, then upon circumstantial evidence; and
+if this support fails, they chuse to finish a quarrel by a moderate,
+though a random judgment.
+
+Much honor is due to that judicial luminary, William Murray, Earl of
+Mansfield, who presides over the King's-Bench, for introducing equity
+into the courts of law, where she had long been a stranger.
+
+The Court of Requests may justly be charged with weakness, and what
+court may not? It is inseparable from man.
+
+A person cannot chuse his capacity, but he may chuse to be a rogue; one
+is an act of nature, the other of the will. The greater the temptation
+to go astray, the greater must be the resolution to conquer it.
+
+One of the suitors presented a commissioner with a couple of chickens,
+as a powerful argument to strengthen a feeble case; but the commissioner
+returned his present, and the plaintiff lost his cause; and no wonder,
+he sent a chicken to plead it.
+
+The defendant, by disobeying the orders of the court, falls under the
+power of the plaintiff, who can cause execution to issue against his
+goods, and reimburse himself; or, against his body, and confine him
+forty days, unless paid his demand.
+
+There is no cause that can be brought before the Court of Requests, but
+may be brought before a higher court, and at a higher expence.
+
+A cause passes through this court for seventeen-pence; and cannot well,
+by chicanery or neglect, amount to more than two shillings and
+nine-pence: So that ruin is not one of its imperfections.
+
+Though law is said to produce quarrels among friends, yet the contending
+parties often go out of that court better friends than when they
+came in.
+
+It has been objected, that the publicans give credit to the lower class,
+in expectation of relief from the court. But the debtor is equally
+apprized of the remedy, and often drinks deeper, in expectation of a
+mild sentence from the commissioners; besides, is not all credit founded
+on the laws of recovery?
+
+It has also been urged, that while punishment pursues the debtor, for
+neglect of orders, his family falls upon the community.
+
+But the community would not wish to put a bar between a man and his
+property--The precedent would be dangerous: Justice is no respector of
+persons. A culprit will soon procure a family, if they are able to plead
+his excuse: It would follow, that single men only would be obliged to be
+honest. She does not save the criminal, because he is an handsome man.
+If she did, beauty would increase in value; but honesty, seldom be its
+companion.
+
+But can accusation lie against a fair tribunal of rectitude? The man
+does not exist that can quarrel with equity, and treat her as the
+offspring of fraud---The most amiable character in the creation, and the
+immediate representative of supreme excellence. She will be revered,
+even by the sons of plunder!
+
+Many of the causes that pass this court, are of a disputable nature, and
+if not terminated there, would take a different turn.
+
+From distant views of relief here, even sickness herself finds credit in
+the day of distress.
+
+The use of the court is also favourable to trade, for, to oblige a man
+to pay his debts, is to oblige him to labour, which improves the
+manufactures.
+
+Birmingham, in no period of her existence, has increased with such
+rapidity, in people, buildings and commerce, as since the erection of
+that court; so that depopulation is not one of its inconveniencies.
+
+From a consideration of the prodigious intercourse subsisting in so vast
+a body of people, and the credit consequent thereon, it was wisely
+judged necessary to establish an easy, and expeditious method of ending
+dispute, and securing property.
+
+The inhabitants of Birmingham, therefore, in 1752, procured an act for
+the recovery of debts under Forty Shillings; constituting seventy-two
+commissioners, three to be a quorum. They sit for the dispatch of
+business in the chamber over the Old Cross every Friday morning, and
+there usually appear before them between eighty and one hundred causes:
+Their determinations are final. Two clerks also, constituted by the act,
+attend the court to give judicial assistance; are always of the law,
+chosen alternately by the lord of the manor, and the commissioners, and
+to continue for life. Once in every two years, ten of the commissioners
+are ballotted out, and ten others of the inhabitants chosen in
+their stead.
+
+
+
+LAMP ACT.
+
+Order, is preserved by industry. In 1769 an act was obtained, and in
+1773 an amendment of the act, for lighting and cleaning the streets of
+Birmingham, and for removing obstructions that were prejudicial to the
+health or convenience of the inhabitants.
+
+These acts were committed to the care of about seventy-six irresolute
+commissioners, with farther powers of preventing encroachments upon
+public ground; for it was justly observed, that robbery was a work of
+darkness, therefore to introduce light would, in some measure, protect
+property. That in a town like Birmingham, full of commerce and
+inhabitants, where necessity leads to continual action, no part of the
+twenty four hours ought to be dark. That, to avoid darkness, is
+sometimes to avoid insult; and that by the light of 700 lamps, many
+unfortunate accidents would be prevented.
+
+It was also observed, that in a course of time, the buildings in some of
+the ancient streets had encroached upon the path, four or five feet on
+each side; which caused an irregular line, and made those streets eight
+or ten feet narrower, that are now used by 50,000 people, than they
+were, when used only by a tenth part of that number; and, that their
+confined width rendered the passage dangerous to children, women, and
+feeble age, particularly on the market day and Saturday evening.
+
+That if former encroachments could not be recovered, future ought to be
+prevented.
+
+And farther, that necessity pleads for a wider street now, than
+heretofore, not only because the inhabitants, being more numerous,
+require more room, but the buildings being more elevated, obstruct the
+light, the sun, and the air, which obstructions tend to sickness and
+inconveniency.
+
+Narrow streets with modern buildings are generally dirty, for want of
+these natural helps; as Digbeth, St. Martin's-lane, Swan-alley,
+Carr's-lane, &c. The narrower the street, the less it can be influenced
+by the sun and the wind, consequently, the more the dirt will abound;
+and by experimental observations upon stagnate water in the street, it
+is found extremely prejudicial to health. And also, the larger the
+number of people, the more necessity to watch over their interest with a
+guardian eye.
+
+It may farther be remarked, that an act of parliament ought to
+distribute justice with an impartial hand, in which case, content and
+obedience may reasonably be expected. But the acts before us carry a
+manifest partiality, one man claims a right to an encroachment into the
+street, of three or four feet, whilst another is restricted to
+twelve inches.
+
+This inactive body of seventy-six, who wisely argue against the
+annihilation of one evil, because another will remain; had also powers
+to borrow a thousand pounds, to purchase and remove some obstructive
+buildings; and to defray the expence by a rate on the inhabitants,
+which, after deducting about one hundred and twenty pounds per ann. for
+deficiencies, amounted in
+
+     1774, to   912_l_.
+     1775, --   902_l_.
+     1776, --   947_l_.
+     1777, --   965_l_.
+     1778, -- 1,012_l_.
+     1779, -- 1,022_l_.
+     1780, -- 1,021_l_.
+
+Though the town was averse to the measure, as an innovation, they
+quickly saw its utility, and seemed to wish a more vigorous exertion of
+the commissioners; but numbers sometimes procrastinate design. If it is
+difficult to find five men of one mind, it is more difficult to find a
+superior number. That business which would run currently through the
+hands of five, stagnates at fifteen, the number required.
+
+It is curious to observe a body of commissioners, every one of whom
+conducts his own private affairs with propriety and success, attack a
+question by the hour, which is as plain as the simplest proposition in
+the mathematicks, when not being able to reduce it, and their
+ammunition spent, leave the matter undetermined, and retreat in silence.
+
+In works of manual operation a large number may be necessary, but in
+works of direction a small one facilitates dispatch.
+
+Birmingham, a capacious field, by long neglect is over-grown with
+encroaching weeds. The gentle commissioners, appointed to reduce them,
+behold it an arduous work, are divided in opinion, and some withdraw the
+hand from the plough; certainly, _the harvest is great, and the
+labourers are few_. The manorial powers, which alone could preserve
+order, have slept for ages. Regularity has been long extinct. The desire
+of trespass is so prevalent, that I have been tempted to question; if it
+were not for the powers of the lamp act, feeble as they are, whether the
+many-headed-public, ever watchful of prey, would not in another century,
+devour whole streets, and totally prevent the passenger. Thus a supine
+jurisdiction abounds with _street-robbers_.
+
+There are cases where the line of the street should inviolably be
+preserved, as in a common range of houses; therefore all projections
+above a given dimension infringe this rule.
+
+There are other cases where taste would direct this line to be broken,
+as in buildings of singular size and construction, which should be
+viewed in recess. Those of a public nature generally come under this
+description, as the free-school, and the hotel, which ought to have
+fallen two or three yards back. What pity, that so noble an edifice as
+the theatre in New-street, should lose any of its beauty, by the
+prominence of its situation!
+
+As Birmingham abounds with new streets, that were once private property,
+it is a question often discussed, In what point of time the land
+appropriated for such streets, ceases to be private? But as this
+question was never determined, and as it naturally rises before me, and
+is of importance, suffer me to examine it.
+
+When building leases are granted, if the road be narrow, as was lately
+the case at the West end of New-street, the proprietor engages to give a
+certain portion of land to widen it. From that moment, therefore, it
+falls to the lot of the public, and is under the controul of the
+commissioners, as guardians of public property. I allow, if within
+memory, the grantor and the lessees should agree to cancel the leases,
+which is just as likely to happen as the powers of attraction to cease,
+and the moon to descend from the heavens; in this case, the land reverts
+again to its original proprietor.
+
+Though the streets of Birmingham have for many ages been exposed to the
+hand of the encroacher, yet, by a little care, and less expence, they
+might in about one century be reduced to a considerable degree of use
+and beauty. In what light then shall we be viewed by the future eye, if
+we neglect the interest of posterity?
+
+
+
+RELIGION AND POLITICS.
+
+Although these two threads, like the warp and the woof, are very
+distinct things; yet, like them, they are usually woven together. Each
+possesses a strength of its own, but when united, have often become
+extremely powerful, as in the case of Henry the Third and the clergy.
+This union, at times, subsisted from a very early date.
+
+Power is the idol of man; we not only wish to acquire it, but also to
+increase and preserve it. If the magistrate has been too weak to execute
+his designs, he has backed his schemes with the aid of the church; this
+occurred with King Stephen and the Bishops.
+
+Likewise, if a churchman finds his power ascendant in the human mind, he
+still wishes an addition to that power, by uniting another. Thus the
+Bishop of Rome, being master of the spiritual chair, stept also into
+the temporal.
+
+Sometimes the ecclesiastical and civil governors appear in malign
+aspect, or in modern phrase, like a quarrel between the squire and the
+rector, which is seldom detrimental to the people. This was the case
+with Henry the Eighth and the church.
+
+The curses of a priest hath sometimes brought a people into obedience to
+the King, when he was not able to bring them himself. One could not
+refrain from smiling, to hear a Bishop curse the people for obeying
+their Sovereign, and in a few months after, curse them again if they did
+not; which happened in the reign of King John. But, happy for the world,
+that these retail dealers in the wrath of heaven are become extinct, and
+the market is over.
+
+Birmingham, in those remote periods of time, does not seem to have
+attended so much to religious and political dispute, as to the course
+music of her hammer. Peace seems to have been her characteristic--She
+paid obedience to that Prince had the good fortune to possess the
+throne, and regularly paid divine honours in St. Martin's, because
+there was no other church. Thus, through the long ages of Saxon, Danish,
+and Norman government, we hear of no noise but that of the anvil, till
+the reign of Henry the Third, when her Lord joined the Barons against
+the Crown, and drew after him some of his mechanics, to exercise the
+very arms they had been taught to make; and where, at the battle of
+Evesham, he staked his life and his fortune, and lost both.
+
+Things quickly returning into their former channel, she stood a silent
+spectator during that dreadful contest between the two roses, pursuing
+the tenor of still life till the civil wars of Charles I. when she took
+part with the Parliament, some of whose troops were stationed here,
+particularly at the Garrison and Camp-hill; the names of both
+originating in that circumstance.
+
+Prince Rupert, as hinted before, approaching Birmingham in 1643 with a
+superior power, forced the lines, and as a punishment set fire to the
+town. His vengeance burned fiercely in Bull-street, and the affrighted
+inhabitants quenched the flames with a heavy fine.
+
+In 1660, she joined the wish of the kingdom, in the restoration of the
+Stuart family. About this time, many of the curious manufactures began
+to blossom in this prosperous garden of the arts.
+
+In 1688, when the nation chose to expel a race of Kings, though replete
+with good nature, because they had forgot the limits of justice; our
+peaceable sons of art, wisely considering, that oppression and commerce,
+like oil and water, could never unite, smiled with the rest of the
+kingdom at the landing of the Prince of Orange, and exerted their little
+assistance towards effecting the Revolution, notwithstanding the lessons
+of _divine right_ had been taught near ninety years.
+
+In the reign of Queen Anne, when that flaming luminary, Dr. Sacheverel,
+set half the kingdom in blaze, the inhabitants of this region of
+industry caught the spark of the day, and grew warm for the church--They
+had always been inured to _fire_, but now we behold them between _two_.
+
+As the doctor rode in triumph through the streets of Birmingham, this
+flimsy idol of party snuffed up the incense of the populace, but the
+more sensible with held their homage; and when he preached at Sutton
+Coldfield, where he had family connections, the people of Birmingham
+crowded in multitudes round his pulpit. But it does not appear that he
+taught his hearers to _build up Zion_, but perhaps to pull her down;
+for they immediately went and gutted a meeting-house.
+
+It is easy to point out a time when it was dangerous to have been of the
+established church, and I have here pointed out one, when it was
+dangerous to profess any other.
+
+We are apt to think the zeal of our fathers died with them, for I have
+frequently beheld with pleasure, the churchman, the presbyterian, and
+the quaker uniting their efforts, like brethren, to carry on a work of
+utility. The bigot of the last age casts a malicious sneer upon the
+religion of another, but the man of this passes a joke upon his own.
+
+A sameness in religious sentiment is no more to be expected, than a
+sameness of face. If the human judgment varies in almost every subject
+of plain knowledge, how can it be fixed in this, composed of mystery?
+
+As the true religion is ever that which a man professes himself, it is
+necessary to enquire, What means, he that is right may use, to convert
+him that is wrong?
+
+As the whole generations of faggot and torture, are extinct in this age
+of light, there seems only to remain fair arguments founded in reason,
+and these can only be brought as evidences upon the trial: The culprit
+himself, _by indefeasible right divine_, will preside as the judge. Upon
+a close enquiry it will be found, that his sentiments are as much his
+private property, as the coat that covers him, or the life which that
+coat incloses.
+
+Is there not as much reason to punish my neighbour for differing in
+opinion from me, as to punish me, because I differ from him? Or, is
+there any to punish either?
+
+If a man's sentiments and practice in religious matters, appear even
+absurd, provided society is not injured, what right hath the magistrate
+to interfere?
+
+The task is as easy to make the stream run upwards, as to form a nation
+of one mind. We may pronounce with confidence, an age of bigotry is no
+age of philosophy.
+
+The gentle hand of Brunswick, had swayed the British sceptre near half a
+century, ere all the sons of science in this meridian, were compleatly
+reconciled to this favourite line.
+
+But unanimity, with benign aspect, seems now the predominant star of the
+zenith: A friendly intercourse succeeds suspicion. The difference of
+sentiment, that once created jealousy, now excites a smile; and the
+narrow views of our forefathers are prudently expanded.
+
+[Illustration: _St. John's Chapel, Deritend_.]
+
+
+
+PLACES OF WORSHIP.
+
+In a town like Birmingham, unfettered with charteral laws; which gives
+access to the stranger of every denomination, for he here finds a
+freedom by birthright; and where the principles of toleration are well
+understood, it is no wonder we find various modes of worship. The wonder
+consists in finding such _agreement_, in such variety.
+
+We have fourteen places for religious exercise, six of the established
+church, three dissenting meeting houses, a quakers, baptist, methodist,
+roman catholic, and jewish. Two of these only are churches, of which
+elsewhere.
+
+
+
+SAINT JOHN'S CHAPEL, DERITEND.
+
+This, tho' joining to the parish of Birmingham, is a chapel of ease
+belonging to Aston, two miles distant. Founded in the fifth of Richard
+the Second, 1382.
+
+This chapel does not, like others in Birmingham, seem to have been
+erected first, and the houses brought round it: It appears, by its
+extreme circumscribed latitude, to have been founded upon the scite of
+other buildings, which were purchased, or rather given, by Sir John de
+Birmingham, Lord of Deritend, and situated upon the boundaries of the
+manor, perhaps to accommodate in some measure the people of Digbeth;
+because the church in Birmingham must, for many-ages, have been too
+small for the inhabitants.
+
+Time seems to have worn out that building of 1382; in the windows of
+which were the arms of Lord Dudley, and Dudley empaling Barckley, both
+knights of the garter, descended from the Somery's, Barons of
+Dudley-castle: Also a whole figure of Walter Arden, Esq; of ancient
+family, often mentioned, Lord of Bordesley.
+
+The present building was erected in 1735, and the steeple in 1762. In
+1777 eight of the most musical bells, together with a clock, entered the
+steeple. The present chaplain, the Rev. Thomas Cox--Income 80_l_.
+
+[Illustration: _St. Bartholomew's Chapel_.]
+
+
+
+SAINT BARTHOLOMEW'S.
+
+Built in 1749, on the east side of the town, will accommodate about 800
+hearers; is neat and elegant. The land was the gift of John Jennens,
+Esq; of Copsal, in the county of Leicester, possessor of a considerable
+estate in and near Birmingham.
+
+By the solicitation of Mrs. Weaman, Mrs. Jennens gave 1000_l_. and the
+remainder was raised by contribution to accomplish the building.
+
+Wherever a chapel is erected, the houses immediately, as if touched by
+the wand of magic, spring into existence. Here is a spacious area for
+interment, amply furnished by death. The infant steeple, if it will bear
+the name, is very small but beautiful.
+
+The chancel hath this singular difference from others--that it veres
+towards the North. Whether the projector committed an error, I leave to
+the critics.
+
+It was the general practice of the Pagan church to fix their altar, upon
+which they sacrificed, in the East, towards the rising sun, the object
+of worship.
+
+The Christian church, in the time of the Romans, immediately succeeded
+the Pagan, and scrupulously adopted the same method; which has been
+strictly adhered to.
+
+By what obligation the Christian is bound to follow the Pagan, or
+wherein a church would be injured by being directed to any of the
+thirty-two points in the compass, is doubtful. Certain it is, if the
+chancel of Bartholomew's had tended due East, the eye would have been
+exceedingly hurt, and the builder would have raised an object of
+ridicule for ages. The ground will admit of no situation but that in
+which the church now stands. But the inconsiderate architect of Deritend
+chapel, anxious to catch the Eastern point, lost the line of the street:
+we may therefore justly pronounce, _be sacrificed to the East_. Other
+enormities also, of little moment, have issued from the same fountain.
+
+The altar piece was the gift of Basil Earl of Denbigh; and the communion
+plate, consisting of 182 ounces, that of Mary Carless. Income
+100_l_.--Rev. William Jabbitt, chaplain.
+
+[Illustration: St. Mary's Chapel.]
+
+
+
+SAINT MARY's.
+
+Though the houses for divine worship were multiplied in Birmingham, yet
+the inhabitants increased in a greater proportion; so that in 1772 an
+act was obtained for two additional chapels.
+
+St. Mary's, therefore, was erected in 1774, in the octagon form, not
+overcharged with light nor strength; in an airy situation and taste, but
+shews too little steeple, and too much roof. If a light balustrade was
+raised over the parapet, with an urn in the centre of the roof, the eye
+of the observer would be relieved.
+
+The clock was seldom seen to go right, but the wonder ceases if there
+are NO WORKS within.
+
+The land was the gift of Mary Weaman, in whom is the presentation, who
+inducted the Rev. John Riland. Annual income about 200_l_.
+
+
+
+SAINT PAUL'S.
+
+The act was procured for this chapel at the same time as for that of St.
+Mary's; but it was not erected till 1779, upon a spot of ground given
+by Charles Colmore, Esq; upon the declivity of a hill, not altogether
+suitable for the elegant building it sustains, which is of stone--plain
+beauty unites with strength.
+
+This roof, like that of St. Mary's, appears also too full. The steeple
+intended for this useful edifice, will do honour to the modern stile of
+architecture, whenever money can be procured to erect it; which at
+present is only delineated upon paper.
+
+Chaplain, the Rev. William Toy Young.--Income nearly as St. Mary's.
+
+
+
+OLD MEETING.
+
+After the extinction of the Stuart race, who bore an invincible hatred
+to presbyterianism, the dissenters from the establishment procured a
+licence for a meeting at the bottom of Digbeth, which yet bears the name
+of Meeting-house-yard. Here the rigid sons of worship paid a weekly
+attendance. The place is now a work-shop: The sound of the pulpit is
+changed into that of the bellows: Instead of an impression upon the
+heart, it is now stamped upon the button. The visitants used to
+appear in a variety of colours, but now always in black.
+
+[Illustration: _St. Paul's Chapel_.]
+
+[Illustration: New Meeting.]
+
+[Illustration: Old Meeting.]
+
+Another was erected in the reign of King William, now denominated The
+Old Meeting, and from whence the street in which it stands derives a
+name. This is large, and much attended.
+
+Pastor, the Rev. Radcliff Scoldfield.
+
+
+
+NEW MEETING.
+
+Erected in the year 1730, at which time that in Digbeth went into
+disuse. This is in a stile of elegance, and has few equals. The Rev.
+Samuel Blyth, and the Rev. William Hawkes preside over it.
+
+In December 1780, Mr. Hawkes declining the pastoral care, the
+congregation judiciously turned their thoughts towards the celebrated
+Doctor Priestley, F.R.S. one of the first philosophers of the age; whose
+merit seems obvious to every eye but his own.
+
+
+
+CARR's LANE MEETING.
+
+A scion of the Old Meeting, transplanted in 1748--The building cost
+about 700_l_. This society hath been favoured with two donations; one
+the interest of 800_l_. by the will of John England, in 1771: The other
+Scott's Trust, mentioned in another part.
+
+This residence of divine light is totally eclipsed, by being surrounded
+with about forty families of paupers, crouded almost within the compass
+of a giant's span, which amply furnish the congregation with noise,
+smoak, dirt and dispute. If the place itself is the road to heaven, the
+stranger would imagine, that the road to the place led to something
+worse: The words, _Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way_, are here
+literally verified.--Pastor, the Rev. John Punfield.
+
+
+
+BAPTIST MEETING.
+
+Founded in Cannon-street, 1738. This hill of Zion is also hid from the
+public eye, but situated in a purer air.--The minister was the late
+Rev. James Turner.
+
+Some trifling differences arising in the congregation, to which the
+human mind is everlastingly prone, caused discontent: Individuals began
+to sting each other, which in 1745, produced a swarm.
+
+The destitute wanderers therefore, erected for themselves a small cell
+in Freeman-street, where they hived in expectation of harmony. Over this
+little society of separatists presided a journeyman woolcomber: What
+elevation he bore in the comb-shop, during six days of the week, history
+is silent; but having the good fortune to procure a black coat and a
+white wig, he figured on the seventh with parsonic elegance.
+
+Whether _he_ fed his people best, or _they_ him, is uncertain; but
+whether they starved one another, is not. Disgust, which ever waits upon
+disappointment, appeared among them.
+
+Though the preacher was certainly warmed in the shop, _with a live coal
+from the altar_; yet unfortunately, Sunday was the only day in which his
+_fire_ was extinguished; _then_ the priest and the people hit the taste
+of the day, and slumbered together; a priviledge never granted by a
+_reader_ to an _author_. Thus the boasted _liberty of the press_
+submits to that of the pulpit.
+
+This exalted shepherd dwelt upon the words of Paul, _He that preaches
+the gospel, ought to subsist by the gospel;_ and _they_ did not forget a
+portion in John, _Feed my sheep_. The word, he well knew, promised both
+wine and _oil_, but he was obliged to be satisfied with the latter.
+
+Although the teacher might possess some _shining qualities_ at the
+combe-pot, he did not possess that of protecting his flock, who in 1752,
+silently retreated to their original fold in Cannon-street; and the
+place was soon after converted into a dwelling, No. 16, when for the
+first time it produced _profit_.
+
+The growing numbers of this prosperous society induced them, in 1780, to
+enlarge the place of worship, at the expence of about 800_l_. in which
+is observable some beauty, but more conveniency.
+
+
+
+QUAKER's MEETING
+
+In Bull-street. A large convenient place, and notwithstanding the
+plainness of the profession rather elegant. The congregation is very
+flourishing, rich, and peaceable. Chandler tells us, to the everlasting
+honour of the Quakers, that they are the only christian sect who have
+never exercised the cruel weapon of persecution.
+
+
+
+METHODIST's MEETING.
+
+We learn from ecclesiastical history, that the people in high life are
+always _followers_ in religion. Though they are the best leaders in
+political and social concerns, yet all religions seem to originate from
+the lowest class. Every religion is first obstructed by violence, passes
+through the insults of an age, then rests in peace, and often takes up
+the rod against another.
+
+The first preachers of the christian faith, the short-sighted apostles,
+were men of the meanest occupations, and their church, a wretched room
+in a miserable tenement. The superb buildings of St. Peter's in Rome,
+and St. Paul's in London, used by their followers, were not within the
+reach of their penetration. They were also totally ignorant of tripple
+crowns, red hats, mitres, crosiers, robes, and rochets, well known to
+their successors.
+
+The religion of a private room, soon became the religion of a country:
+the church acquired affluence, for all churches hate poverty; and this
+humble church, disturbed for ages, became the church of Rome, the
+disturber of Europe.
+
+John Wickliff, in 1377, began to renew her disturbance: this able
+theologist planted our present national church, which underwent severe
+persecutions, from its mother church at Rome; but, rising superior to
+the rod, and advancing to maturity, she became the mother of a numerous
+offspring, which she afterwards persecuted herself; and this offspring,
+like _their_ mother, were much inclined to persecution.
+
+Puritanism, her first born, groaned under the pressure of her hand. The
+Baptists, founded by a taylor, followed, and were buffeted by
+both.--Independency appeared, ponderous as an elephant, and trampled
+upon all three.
+
+John Fox, a composition of the oddest matter, and of the meanest
+original, formed a numerous band of disciples, who suffered the insults
+of an age, but have carried the arts of prudence to the highest pitch.
+
+The Muglitonians, the Prophets, the Superlapsarians, &c. like untimely
+births, just saw the light and disappeared.
+
+The Moravians, under the influence of Zinzendorf, rose about 1740, but
+are not in a flourishing state; their circumscribed rules, like those
+of the cloister, being too much shackled to thrive in a land of freedom.
+
+James Sandiman introduced a religion, about 1750, but, though eclipsed
+himself by poverty, he taught his preachers to shine; for he allowed
+them to grace the pulpit with ruffles, lace, and a cueque. Birmingham
+cannot produce one professor of the two last churches.
+
+The christian religion has branched into more sectaries in the last two
+hundred years, than in the fifteen hundred before--the reason is
+obvious. During the tedious reign of the Romish priest, before the
+introduction of letters, knowledge was small, and he wished to confine
+that knowledge to himself: he substituted mystery for science, and led
+the people blindfold. But the printing-press, though dark in itself, and
+surrounded with yet _darker_ materials, diffused a ray of light through
+the world, which enabled every man to read, think, and judge for
+himself; hence diversity of opinion, and the absurdity of reducing a
+nation to one faith, vainly attempted by Henry VIII.
+
+In those distant ages, the priest had great influence, with little
+knowledge; but in these, great knowledge, with little influence. He was
+then revered according to his authority; but now, according to his
+merit: he shone in a borrowed, but now in a real lustre: then he was
+less deserving; but now less esteemed. The humble christian, in the
+strictest sense, worked out his salvation with fear and trembling, and
+with tools furnished by the priest: he built upon his opinions, but now
+he lays a foundation for his own.
+
+Though we acknowledge the scriptures our guide, we take the liberty to
+guide them; we torture them to our own sentiments. Though we allow their
+_equal_ weight, we suffer one portion to weigh down another. If we
+attend to twenty disputants, not one of them will quote a text which
+militates against his sentiments.
+
+The artillery of vengeance was pointed at Methodism for thirty years;
+but, fixed as a rock, it could never be beaten down, and its professors
+now enjoy their sentiments in quiet.
+
+After the institution of this sect by George Whitfield, in 1738, they
+were first covered by the heavens, equally exposed to the rain and the
+rabble, and afterwards they occupied, for many years, a place in
+Steelhouse-lane, where the wags of the age observed, "they were eat out
+by the bugs."--They therefore procured a cast off theatre in
+Moor-street, where they continued to exhibit till 1782; when, quitting
+the stage, they erected a superb meeting-house, in Cherry-street, at the
+expence of 1200_l_. This was opened, July 7, by John Wesley, the chief
+priest, whose extensive knowledge, and unblemished manners, give us a
+tolerable picture of apostolic purity; who _believes_, as if he were to
+be saved by faith; and who _labours_, as if he were to be saved
+by works.
+
+Thus our composite order of religion, an assemblage of the Episcopalian,
+the Presbyterian, the Independent, and the Baptist; fled from the
+buffetings of the vulgar, and now take peaceable shelter from the dews
+of heaven.
+
+
+
+ROMISH CHAPEL.
+
+I have already remarked, there is nothing which continues in the same
+state: the code of manners, habits of thinking, and of expression, modes
+of living, articles of learning; the ways of acquiring wealth, or
+knowledge; our dress, diet, recreations, &c. change in every age.
+
+But why is there a change in religion? eternal truth, once fixed, is
+everlastingly the same. Religion is purity, which, one would think,
+admits of no change; if it changes, we should doubt whether it is
+religion. But a little attention to facts will inform us, _there is
+nothing more changable:_ nor need we wonder, because, man himself being
+changable, every thing committed to his care will change with him. We
+may plead his excuse, by observing, his sight is defective: he may be
+deceived by viewing an object in one light, or attitude, to-day, and
+another, to-morrow. This propensity to change might lead us to suspect
+the authenticity of our own sentiments.
+
+The apostles certainly formed the church of Rome; but she, having
+undergone the variations of seventeen hundred years, St. Peter himself,
+should he return to the earth, could not discover one linament in her
+aspect; but would be apt to reject her as a changling.
+
+The church of England has not only undergone a change since the
+reformation, but wishes a greater.
+
+We should suppose the puritan of 1583, and the dissenter of 1783, were
+the same: but although substance and shadow exactly resemble each other,
+no two things differ more.
+
+When pride sends a man in quest of a religion, if he does not discover
+something new, he might as well stay at home: nothing near the present
+standard can take. Two requisites are necessary to found a religion,
+capacity, and singularity: no fool ever succeeded. If his talents are
+not above mediocrity, he will not be able to draw the crowd; and if his
+doctrines are not singular, the crowd will not be drawn--novelty
+pleases.
+
+Having collected, and brightened up a set of doctrines, wide of every
+other church, he fixes at a distance from all. But time, and unavoidable
+intercourse with the world, promote a nearer approximation; and, mixing
+with men, we act like men. Thus the Quaker under George III. shews but
+little of the Quaker under George Fox.
+
+In two congregations of the same profession, as in two twins of the same
+family, though there is a striking likeness, the curious observer will
+trace a considerable difference.
+
+In a religion, as well as a man, _there is a time to be born, and a time
+to die_. They both vary in aspect, according to the length of their
+existence, carry the marks of decline, and sink into obscurity.
+
+We are well informed how much the Romish religion has declined in this
+country: three hundred years ago Birmingham did not produce one person
+of another persuasion; but now, out of 50,000 people, we have not 300
+of this.
+
+The Roman Catholics formerly enjoyed a place for religious worship near
+St. Bartholomew's-chapel, still called Masshouse-lane; but the rude
+hands of irreligion destroyed it. There is now none nearer than
+Edgbaston, two miles distant; yet the congregation is chiefly supplied
+from Birmingham.
+
+If the Roman Catholics are not so powerful as in the sixteenth century,
+they seem as quiet, and as little addicted to knowledge; perhaps they
+have not yet learned to see through any eyes but those of the
+priest.--There appears, however, as much devotion in their public
+worship, as among any denomination of christians.
+
+
+
+JEWISH SYNAGOGUE.
+
+We have also among us a remnant of Israel. A people who, when masters of
+their own country, were scarcely ever known to travel, and who are now
+seldom employed in any thing else. But, though they are ever moving,
+they are ever at home: who once lived the favourites of heaven, and fed
+upon the cream of the earth; but now are little regarded by either:
+whose society is entirely confined to themselves, except in the
+commercial line.
+
+[ILLUSTRATION: Birmingham Theatre, Hotel and Tavern.]
+
+In the Synagogue, situated in the Froggery, they still preserve the
+faint resemblence of the ancient worship. Their whole apparatus being no
+more than the drooping ensigns of poverty. The place is rather small,
+but tolerably filled; where there appears less decorum than in the
+christian churches. The proverbial expression "as rich as a jew," is not
+altogether verified in Birmingham, but perhaps, time is transfering it
+to the Quakers.
+
+It is rather singular, that the honesty of a jew, is seldom pleaded but
+by the jew himself.
+
+
+
+THEATRES.
+
+The practice of the Theatre is of great antiquity. We find it in great
+repute among the Greeks; we also find, the more a nation is civilized,
+the more they have supported the stage. It seems designed for two
+purposes, improvement and entertainment.
+
+There are certain exuberances that naturally grow in religion,
+government, and private life which may with propriety be attacked by the
+poet and the comedian, but which can scarcely be reduced by any other
+power. While the stage therefore keeps this great end in view, it
+answers a valuable purpose to the community. The poet should use his pen
+to reform, not to indulge a corrupt age, as was the case in the days of
+Charles the Second, when indecency was brought on to raise the laugh.
+
+Perhaps there is no period of time in which the stage was less polluted,
+owing to the inimitable Garrick, than the present: notwithstanding there
+is yet room for improvement.
+
+Tragedy is to melt the heart, by exhibiting the unfortunate; satiate
+revenge, by punishing the unjust tyrant: To discard vice, and to keep
+undue passions within bounds.
+
+Comedy holds up folly in a ridiculous light: Whatever conduct or
+character is found in the regions of absurdity, furnishes proper
+materials for the stage; and out of these, the pen of a master will draw
+many useful lessons.
+
+The pulpit and the stage have nearly the same use, but not in the same
+line--That of improving the man.
+
+The English stage opened about the conquest, and was wholly confined to
+religion; in whose service it continued, with very little intermission,
+to the extinction of the Plantagenets. The play-houses were the
+churches, the principal actors the priests, and the performances taken
+from scripture; such as the Fall of Man, the Story of Joseph, Sampson,
+Histories of the Saints, the Sufferings of Christ, Resurrection, Day of
+Judgment, &c.
+
+Theatrical exhibition in Birmingham, is rather of a modern date. As far
+as memory can penetrate, the stroller occupied, occasionally, a shed of
+boards in the fields, now Temple-street: Here he acted the part of
+Distress, in a double capacity. The situation was afterwards changed,
+but not the eminence, and the Hinkleys dignified the performers booth!
+
+In about 1730, the amusements of the stage rose in a superior stile of
+elegance, and entered something like a stable in Castle-street. Here the
+comedian strutted in painted rags, ornamented with tinsel: The audience
+raised a noisy laugh, half real and half forced, at three-pence a head.
+
+In about 1740, a theatre was erected in Moor-street, which rather gave a
+spring to the amusement; in the day time the comedian beat up for
+volunteers for the night, delivered his bills of fare, and roared out an
+encomium on the excellence of the entertainment, which had not always
+the desired effect.
+
+In 1751, a company arrived, which anounced themselves, "His Majesty's
+servants, from the theatres-royal in London; and hoped the public would
+excuse the ceremony of the drum, as beneath the dignity of a London
+company." The novelty had a surprising effect; the performers had
+merit; the house was continually crouded; the general conversation
+turned upon theatrical exhibition, and the town was converted into one
+vast theatre.
+
+In 1752 it was found necessary to erect a larger theatre, that in King
+Street, and we multiplied into two London companies.
+
+The pulpits took the alarm, and in turn, roared after their customers:
+But the pious teachers forgot it was only the fervour of a day, which
+would cool of itself; that the fiercer the fire burns, the sooner it
+will burn out.
+
+This declaration of war, fortunately happening at the latter end of
+summer, the campaign was over, and the company retreated into winter
+quarters, without hostilities.
+
+It was afterwards found, that two theatres were more than the town chose
+to support; therefore that in Moor-street was set for a methodist
+meeting, where, it was said, though it changed its audience, it kept its
+primeval use, continuing the theatre of farce.
+
+In 1774, the theatre in King-street was enlarged, beautified, and made
+more convenient; so that it hath very few equals.
+
+About the same time that in New-street was erected upon a suitable spot,
+an extensive plan, and richly ornamented with paintings and
+scenery.--Expence seems the least object in consideration.
+
+An additional and superb portico, was erected in 1780, which perhaps may
+cause it to be pronounced, "One of the first theatres in Europe."
+
+Two busts, in relief, of excellent workmanship, are elevated over the
+attic windows; one is the father, and the other the refiner of the
+British, stage--Shakespear and Garrick.
+
+Also two figures eight feet high, are said to be under the chissel, one
+of Thalia, and the other of Melpomene, the comic and the tragic muses;
+the value one hundred and sixty guineas. Places are reserved for their
+reception, to augment the beauty of the front, and shew the taste of
+the age.
+
+
+
+AMUSEMENTS.
+
+Man seems formed for variety, whether we view him in a rational or an
+animal light. A sameness of temper, habit, diet, pursuit, or pleasure,
+is no part of his character. The different ages of his life, also
+produce different sentiments; that which gives us the highest relish in
+one period, is totally flat in another. The rattle that pleases at
+three, would be cast into the fire at threescore: The same hand that
+empties the purse at twenty, would fill it at fifty: In age, he bends
+his knee to the same religion, which he laughed at in youth: The prayer
+book, that holds the attention of seventy, holds the lottery pictures of
+seven: And the amorous tale that awakes the ideas of twenty five, lulls
+old age to sleep.
+
+Not only life is productive of change, but also every day in it. If a
+man would take a minute survey of his thoughts and employments, for only
+twenty-four hours, he would be astonished at their infinite variety.
+
+Though industry be the ruling passion of this ingenious race, yet
+relaxation must follow, as one period to another. Society is therefore
+justly esteemed an everlasting fund of amusement, which is found at the
+tavern, in the winter evening: Intoxication is seldom met with, except
+in the inferior ranks, where it is visible in both sexes.
+
+A regular concert is established, where the music is allowed to excel.
+This harmonious science, like other productions of taste, though it be
+not the general study of the inhabitants, hath made an amazing progress
+during the last thirty years.
+
+In 1777, a coffee-house was opened at the East end of New-street, the
+first in this department; which, drawing into its vortex the
+transactions of Europe, finds employment for the politician.
+
+Assemblies are held weekly, which give room for beauty to figure at
+cards, in conversation, and in the dance.
+
+The pleasures of the field claim their votaries, but, in a populous
+country, like that of Birmingham, plenty of game is not to be expected;
+for want of wild fowl, therefore, the shooter has been sometimes known
+to attack the tame.
+
+However, the farmer need not be under any great concern for his
+property; the sportsman seldom does any thing with his arms--but--_carry
+them_. We are more famous for _making_, than _using_ the gun.
+
+A pack of hounds have sometimes been kept by subscription, termed, The
+Birmingham Hunt; but, as the sound of the dogs and the anvil never
+harmonised together, they have been long in disuse: the jocund tribe,
+therefore, having no scent of their own, fall into that of the
+neighbouring gentry, many of whom support a pack.
+
+The man of reflection finds amusement in domestic resources; and, in his
+own mind, if unoppressed. Here the treasures collected from men, books,
+and observation, _are laid up for many years_, from which he draws
+pleasure, without diminishing the flock. The universal riches of nature
+and of art; the part, the present, and a glympse of the future, lie open
+to his eye.
+
+Two obstructions only bound his ideas, _time_ and _space_. He steps from
+planet to planet, and if he cannot enter immensity, he can verge upon
+its borders.
+
+I pity the man, who through poverty, cannot find warmth by his own
+fire-side; but I pity him more, who, through poverty of thought, cannot
+find happiness.
+
+For the entertainment of summer, exclusive of the two theatres, there
+are five greens, where the gentlemen are amused with bowls, and the
+ladies with tea.
+
+There are also great variety of public gardens, suited to every class of
+people, or which Duddeston, the ancient seat of the Holte family, claims
+the pre-eminence.
+
+The fishing-rod, that instrument which _destroys in peace_, must find a
+place: other animals are followed with fire and tumult, but the fishes
+are entrapped with deceit. Of all the sportsmen, we charge the angler
+alone with _killing in cold blood_.
+
+Just as a pursuit abounds with pleasure, so will it abound with
+votaries. The pleasure of angling depends on the success of the line:
+this art is but little practised here, and less known. Our rivers are
+small, and thinly stored; our pools are guarded as private property: the
+Birmingham spirit is rather too active for the sleepy amusement
+of fishing.
+
+Patience seems the highest accomplishment of an angler. We behold him,
+fixed as a statue, on the bank; his head inclining towards the river,
+his attention upon the water, his eye upon the float; he often draws,
+and draws only his hook! But although he gets no bite, it may fairly be
+said _he is bit:_ of the two, the fish display the most cunning.--He,
+surprized that he has _caught nothing_, and I, that he has kept his rod
+and his patience.
+
+Party excursion is held in considerable esteem, in which are included
+Enville, the seat of Lord Stamford; Hagley, that of the late Lord
+Lyttelton; and the Leasowes, the property of the late Wm. Shenstone,
+Esq. We will omit the journey to London, a tour which some of us have
+made all our lives _without seeing it_.
+
+Cards and the visit are linked together, nor is the billiard table
+totally forsaken. One man amuses himself in amassing a fortune, and
+another in dissolving one.
+
+About thirty-six of the inhabitants keep carriages for their own private
+use; and near fifty have country houses. The relaxations of the humbler
+class, are fives, quoits, skittles, and ale.
+
+Health and amusement are found in the prodigious number of private
+gardens scattered round Birmingham, from which we often behold the
+father returning with a cabbage, and the daughter with a nosegay.
+
+
+
+HOTEL.
+
+The spot where our great-grandmothers smiled in the lively dance, when
+they possessed the flower of beauty in the spring of life, is lost in
+forgetfulness. The floor that trembled under that foot which was covered
+with a leather shoe tied with a silken string, and which supported a
+stocking of dark blue worsted, not of the finest texture, is now buried
+in oblivion.
+
+[Illustration: Hotel.]
+
+In 1750 we had two assembly rooms; one at No. 11. in the Square, the
+other No. 85. in Bull-street. This last was not much in use afterwards.
+That in the Square continued in repute till in the course of that
+evening which happened in October 1765, when Edward Duke of York had the
+honour of leading up the dance, and the ladies of Birmingham enjoyed
+that of the Duke's hand, He remarked, "That a town of such magnitude as
+Birmingham, and adorned with so much beauty, deserved a superior
+accomodation:--That the room itself was mean, but the entrance
+still meaner."
+
+Truth is ever the same, whether it comes from a prince or a peasant; but
+its effects are not. Whether some secret charm attended the Duke's
+expression, that blasted the room, is uncertain, but it never after held
+its former eminence.
+
+In 1772 a building was erected by subscription, upon the Tontine
+principle, at the head of Temple row, and was dignified with the French
+name of Hotel: From a handsome, entrance the ladies are now led through
+a spacious saloon, at the extremity of which the eye is struck with a
+grand flight of steps, opening into an assembly-room, which would not
+disgrace even the royal presence of the Duke's brother.
+
+The pile itself is large, plain, and elegant, but standing in the same
+line with the other buildings, which before were really genteel,
+eclipses them by its superiority: Whereas, if the Hotel had fallen a few
+feet back, it would, by breaking the line, have preserved the beauty of
+the row, without losing its own.
+
+
+
+WAKES.
+
+This ancient custom was left us by the Saxons. Time, that makes
+alteration only in other customs, has totally inverted this.
+
+When a church was erected, it was immediately called after a saint, put
+under his protection, and the day belonging to that saint kept in the
+church as an high festival. In the evening preceding the day, the
+inhabitants, with lights, approached the church, and kept a continual
+devotion during the whole night; hence the name _wake_: After which
+they entered into festivity.
+
+But now the devotional part is forgot, the church is deserted, and the
+festivity turned into riot, drunkenness, and mischief.
+
+Without searching into the mouldy records of time, for evidence to
+support our assertion, we may safely pronounce the wake the lowest of
+all low amusements, and compleatly suited to the lowest of tempers.
+
+Wakes have been deemed a public concern, and legislature, more than
+once, been obliged to interpose for the sake of that order which private
+conduct could never boast.
+
+In the reign of Henry the Sixth, every consideration, whether of a
+public or a private nature, gave way to the wake: The harvest in
+particular was neglected. An order therefore issued, confining the wakes
+to the first Sunday in October, consequently the whole nation run mad
+at once.
+
+Wakes in Birmingham are not ancient: Why St. Martin's, then the only
+church, was neglected, is uncertain.
+
+Although we have no wakes for the town, there are three kept in its
+borders, called Deritend, Chapel, and Bell wakes. The two first are in
+the spring of existence, the last in the falling leaf of autumn.
+
+Deritend wake probably took its rise at the erection of her chapel, in
+1382.
+
+Chapel wake, in 1750, from St. Bartholomew's chapel, is held in the
+meridian of Coleshill-street; was hatched and fostered by the publicans,
+for the benefit of the spiggot.
+
+Amongst other important amusements, was that of bull-baiting, till the
+year 1773, when the commissioners of lamps, in the amendment of their
+act, wisely broke the chain, and procured a reprieve for the
+unfortunate animal.
+
+Another was the horse-race, 'till a few years ago a person being killed,
+rather slackened the entertainment. What singular genius introduced the
+horse-race into a crowded street, I am yet to learn.
+
+In the evening the passenger cannot proceed without danger; in the
+morning, he may discover which houses are public, without other
+intelligence than the copious streams that have issued from the wall.
+The blind may also distinguish the same thing, by the strong scent
+of the tap.
+
+Bell wake is the junior by one year, originating from the same cause, in
+1751, in consequence of ten bells being hung up in St Philip's
+steeple.--'Till within these few years, we were at this wake struck with
+a singular exhibition, that of a number of boys running a race through
+the streets naked. Some of the inhabitants, seeing so fair a mark for
+chastisement, applied the rod with success, put a period to the sport,
+and obliged the young runners to run under cover.
+
+
+
+CLUBS.
+
+It may be expected, from the title of this chapter, that I shall
+introduce a set of ruffians armed with missive weapons; or, having named
+a trump, a set of gamblers shuffling and dealing out the cards: But
+whatever veneration I may entertain for these two fag ends of our
+species, I shall certainly introduce a class of people, which, though of
+the lower orders, are preferable to both.
+
+Social compact is a distinguishing mark of civilization: The whole
+British empire may be justly considered as one grand alliance, united
+for public and private interest, and this vast body of people are
+subdivided into an infinity of smaller fraternities, for
+individual benefit.
+
+Perhaps there are hundreds of these societies in Birmingham under the
+name of clubs; some of them boast the antiquity of a century, and by
+prudent direction have acquired a capital, at accumulating interest.
+Thousands of the inhabitants are thus connected, nay, to be otherwise is
+rather unfashionable, and some are people of sentiment and property.
+
+A variety of purposes are intended by these laudable institutions, but
+the principal one is that of supporting the sick.
+
+Each society is governed by a code of laws of its own making, which have
+at least the honour of _resembling_ those of legislature, for words
+without sense are found in both, and we sometimes stumble upon
+contradiction.
+
+The poor's-rates, enormous as they appear, are softened by these
+brotherly aids. They tend also to keep the mind at rest, for a man will
+enjoy the day of health, with double relish, when he considers he has a
+treasure laid up for that of sickness.
+
+If a _member_ only of a poor family be sick, the _head_ still remains to
+procure necessaries; but if that head be disordered, the whole source of
+supply is dried up, which evinces the utility of such institutions.
+
+The general custom is to meet at the public every fortnight, spend a
+trifle, and each contribute six-pence, or any stated sum, to the common
+stock. The landlord is always treasurer, or father, and is assisted by
+two stewards, annually or monthly chosen.
+
+As honour and low life are not always found together, we sometimes see a
+man who is rather _idle_, wish the society may suppose him _sick_, that
+he may rob them with more security. Or, if a member hangs long upon the
+box, his brethren seek a pretence to expel him. On the other hand, we
+frequently observe a man silently retreat from the club, if another
+falls upon the box, and fondly suppose himself no longer a member; or if
+the box be loaded with sickness, the whole club has been known to
+dissolve, that they may rid themselves of the burthen; but the Court of
+Requests finds an easy remedy for these evils, and at a
+trifling expence.
+
+The charity of the club, is also extended beyond the grave, and
+terminates with a present to the widow.
+
+The philosophers tell us, "There is no good without its kindred evil."
+This amiable body of men, therefore, marshalled to expel disease, hath
+one small alloy, and perhaps but one. As liquor and labour are
+inseparable, the imprudent member is apt to forget to quit the club
+room when he has spent his necessary two-pence, but continues there to
+the injury of his family.
+
+Another of these institutions is the _rent club_, where, from the weekly
+sums deposited by the members, a sop is regularly served up twice a
+year, to prevent the growlings of a landlord.
+
+In the _breeches club_ every member ballots for a pair, value a guinea,
+_promised_ of more value by the maker. This club dissolves when all the
+members are served.
+
+The intentions of the _book club_ are well known, to catch the
+productions of the press as they rise.
+
+The _watch club_ has generally a watchmaker for its president, is
+composed of young men, and is always temporary.
+
+If a taylor be short of employment, he has only to consult a landlord
+over a bottle, who, by their joint powers, can give birth to a _cloaths
+club_; where every member is supplied with a suit to his taste, of a
+stipulated price. These are chiefly composed of batchelors, who wish to
+shine in the eye of the fair.
+
+Thus a bricklayer stands at the head of the _building club_, where every
+member perhaps subscribes two guineas per month, and each house, value
+about one hundred pounds, is balloted for, as soon as erected. As a
+house is a weighty concern, every member is obliged to produce two
+bondsmen for the performance of covenants.
+
+I will venture to pronounce another the _capital club_, for when the
+contributions amount to 50_l_. the members ballot for this capital, to
+bring into business: Here also securities are necessary. It is easy to
+conceive the two last clubs are extremely beneficial to building and
+to commerce.
+
+The last I shall enumerate is the _clock club_: When the weekly deposits
+of the members amount to about 4_l_. they call lots who shall be first
+served with a clock of that value, and continue the same method till the
+whole club is supplied; after which, the clockmaker and landlord cast
+about for another set, who are chiefly composed of young house-keepers.
+Hence the beginner ornaments his premises with furniture, the artist
+finds employment and profit, and the publican empties his barrel.
+
+Thus we have taken a transient survey of this rising colony of arts,
+uniting observation with fact: We have seen her dark manufactures, in
+darker times: We have attended her through her commercial, religious,
+political, and pleasurable walks: Have viewed her in many points of
+light, but never in decline; 'till we have now set her in the fair
+sunshine of the present day.
+
+Perhaps I shall not be charged with prolixity, that unpardonable sin
+against the reader, when it is considered, that three thousand years are
+deposited in the compass of one hundred and forty little pages.
+
+Some other circumstances deserve attention, which could not be
+introduced without breaking the thread of history: But as that thread is
+now drawn to an end, I must, before I resume it, step back into the
+recesses of time, and slumber through the long ages of seventeen hundred
+years; if the active reader, therefore, has no inclination for a nod of
+that length, or, in simple phrase, no relish for antiquity, I advise him
+to pass over the five ensuing chapters.
+
+
+
+IKENIELD STREET.
+
+About five furlongs North of the Navigation Bridge, in Great Charles
+street, which is the boundary of the present buildings, runs the
+Ikenield-street; one of those famous pretorian roads which mark the
+Romans with conquest, and the Britons with slavery.
+
+By that time a century had elapsed, from the first landing of Caesar in
+Britain the victorious Romans had carried their arms through the
+southern part of the isle. They therefore endeavoured to secure the
+conquered provinces by opening four roads, which should each rise in the
+shore, communicate with, and cross each other, form different angles,
+extend over the island several ways, and terminate in the opposite sea.
+
+These are the Watling-street, which rises near Dover, and running
+North-west through London, Atherstone, and Shropshire, in the
+neighbourhood of Chester, ends in the Irish sea.
+
+The Foss begins in Devonshlre, extends South-east through
+Leicestershire, continuing its course through Lincolnshire, to the verge
+of the German ocean.
+
+These two roads, crossing each other at right angles, form a figure
+resembling the letter X, whose centre is the High Cross, which divides
+the counties of Warwick and Leicester.
+
+The Ermine-street extends along the southern part of the island; near
+the British channel; and the Ikenield-street, which I cannot so soon
+quit, rises near Southampton, extends nearly North, through Winchester,
+Wallingford, and over the Isis, at New-bridge; thence to Burford,
+crossing the Foss at Stow in the Woulds, over Bitford-bridge, in the
+County of Warwick, to Alcester; by Studley, Ipsley, Beely,
+Wetherick-hill, Stutley-street; crosses the road from Birmingham to
+Bromsgrove, at Selley oak, leaving Harborne a mile to the left, also the
+Hales Owen road a mile West of Birmingham: Thence by the Observatory in
+Lady-wood-lane, where it enters the parish of Birmingham, crossing the
+Dudley road at the Sand-pits; along Worstone-lane; through the little
+pool, and Hockley-brook, where it quits the parish: Thence over
+Handsworth-heath, entering a little lane on the right of
+Bristle-lands-end, and over the river Tame, at Offord-mill,
+(Oldford-mill) directly to Sutton Coldfield. It passes the Ridgeway a
+few yards East of King's-standing, a little artificial mount, on which
+Charles the First is said to have stood when he harangued the troops he
+brought out of Shropshire, at the opening of the civil wars, in 1642.
+From thence the road proceeds through Sutton park, and the remainder of
+the Coldfield; over Radley-moor; from thence to Wall, a Roman station,
+where it meets the Watling-street: Leaving Lichfield a mile to the left,
+it leads through Street-hay; over Fradley-heath; thence through Alderwas
+hays, crossing the river Trent, at Wichnor-bridge, to Branson-turnpike:
+over Burton-moor, leaving the town half a mile to the right: thence to
+Monk's-bridge, upon the river Dove; along Egington-heath, Little-over,
+the Rue-dyches, Stepping-lane, Nun-green, and Darley-slade, to the river
+Derwent, one mile above Derby; upon the eastern banks of which stands
+Little Chester, built by the Romans.
+
+If the traveller is tired with this tedious journey, and dull
+description, which admits of no variety, we will stop for a moment, and
+refresh in this Roman city.
+
+In drawing the flewks of his oar along the bed of the river, as he boats
+over it, he may feel the foundations of a Roman bridge, nearly level
+with its bottom. Joining the water are the vestiges of a castle, now an
+orchard. Roman coins are frequently discovered--In 1765, I was presented
+with one of Vespasian's, found the year before in scowering a ditch; but
+I am sorry to observe, it has suffered more during the fifteen years in
+my possession, than during the fifteen hundred it lay in the earth.
+
+The inhabitants being in want of materials to form a turnpike road,
+attempted to pull up this renowned military way, for the sake of those
+materials, but found them too strongly cemented to admit of an easy
+separation, and therefore desisted when they had taken up a few loads.
+
+I saw the section of this road cut up from the bottom: the Romans seem
+to have formed it with infinite labour and expence. They took out the
+soil for about twenty yards wide, and one deep, perhaps, till they came
+to a firm bottom; and filled up the whole with stones of all sizes,
+brought from Duffield, four miles up the river; cemented with
+coarse mortar.
+
+The road here is only discoverable by its barren track, along the
+cultivated meadows. It then proceeds over Morley-moor, through
+Scarsdale, by Chesterfield, Balsover, through Yorkshire, Northumberland,
+and terminates upon the banks of the Tine, near Tinmouth.
+
+There are many roads in England formed by the Romans: they were of two
+kinds, the military, which crossed the island; and the smaller, which
+extended from one town to another. The four I have mentioned come under
+the first class: they rather avoided, than led through a town, that they
+might not be injured by traffic.
+
+Two of these four, the Watling-street, and the Ikenield-street, are
+thought, by their names, to be British, and with some reason; neither of
+the words are derived from the Latin: but whatever were their origin,
+they are certainly of Roman construction.
+
+These great roads were begun as soon as the island was subdued, to
+employ the military, and awe the natives, and were divided into stages,
+at the end of each was a fort, or station, to accommodate the guard, for
+the reception of stores, the conveniency of marching parties, and to
+prevent the soldiers from mixing with the Britons.
+
+The stations upon the Ikenield-street, in our neighbourhood, are Little
+Chester (Derventione) a square fort, nearly half an acre; joining the
+road to the south, and the Derwent to the west.
+
+The next is Burton upon Trent (Ad Trivonam) thirteen miles south. Here I
+find no remains of a station.
+
+Then Wall (Etocetum) near Lichfield, which I have examined with great
+labour, or rather with great pleasure: Here the two famous consular
+roads cross each other. We should expect a fort in the angle, commanding
+both, which is not the case. The Watling-street is lost for about half a
+mile, leading over a morass, only the line is faintly preserved, by a
+blind path over the inclosures: the Ikenield-street crosses it in this
+morass, not the least traces of which remain. But, by a strict
+attention, I could point out their junction to a few yards.
+
+Six furlongs west of this junction, and one hundred yards north of the
+Watling-street, in a close, now about three acres, are the remains of
+the Roman fortress. This building, of strength and terror, is reduced to
+one piece of thick wall, visibly of Roman workmanship, from whence the
+place derives its modern name.
+
+Can you, says I to a senior peasant, for I love to appeal to old age,
+tell the origin of that building?
+
+"No; but we suppose it has been a church. The ruins were much larger in
+my memory; but they were lately destroyed, to bring the land into that
+improved state of cultivation in which you see it."--And so you reduced
+a fortress in four years, which the Britons never could in four hundred.
+For a trifling profit, you eraze the work of the ancients, and prevent
+the wonder of the moderns.--Are you apprised of any old walls under
+the surface?
+
+"Yes; the close is full of them: I have broke three ploughs in one day;
+no tool will stand against them. It has been more expensive to bring the
+land into its present condition, than the freehold is worth." Why, you
+seem more willing to destroy than your tools; and more able than time.
+The works which were the admiration of ages, you bury under ground. What
+the traveller comes many miles to see, you assiduously hide.
+
+What could be the meaning that the Romans erected their station on the
+declivity of this hill, when the summit, two hundred yards distant, is
+much more eligible; are there no foundations upon it? "None."
+
+The commandry is preferable: the Watling-street runs by it, and it is
+nearer the Ikenield-street. Pray, are you acquainted with another Roman
+road which crosses it? "No."
+
+Do you know any close about the village, where a narrow bed of gravel,
+which runs a considerable length, has impeded the plough?
+
+"Yes; there is a place, half a mile distant, where, when a child, I
+drove the plough; we penetrated a land of gravel, and my companion's
+grandfather told us, it had been an old road."--That is the place I
+want, lead me to it. Being already master of both ends of the road, like
+a broken line, with the center worn out, the gravel bed enabled me to
+recover it.
+
+The next station upon the Ikenield-street is Birmingham (Bremenium) I
+have examined this country with care; but find no vestiges of a station:
+nor shall we wonder; dissolation is the preserver of antiquity, nothing
+of which reigns here; the most likely place is Wor-ston (Wall-stone)
+which a younger brother of Birmingham might afterwards convert into the
+fashionable moat of the times, and erect a castle. The next station is
+Alcester (Alauna) all which are nearly at equal distances.
+
+In forming these grand roads, a strait direction seems to have been
+their leading maxim. Though curiosity has lead me to travel many hundred
+miles upon their roads, with the eye of an enquirer, I cannot recollect
+one instance, where they ever broke the line to avoid a hill, a swamp, a
+rock, or a river.
+
+They were well acquainted with the propriety of an old English adage,
+_Once well done is twice done_; an idea new cloathed by Lord
+Chesterfield, _If a a thing be worth doing at all, it is worth
+doing well_.
+
+For their roads were so durably constructed, that, had they been
+appropriated only to the use intended, they might have withstood the
+efforts of time, and bid fair for eternity.--Why is this useful art so
+lost among the moderns?
+
+When time and intercourse had so far united the Romans and the Britons,
+that they approached nearly to one people, the Romans formed, or rather
+_improved_, many of the smaller roads; placed stones of intelligence
+upon them; hence, London Stone, Stony Stratford (the stone at the
+Street-ford) Atherstone, stone (hither, near, or first stone from
+Witherly-bridge, a Roman camp) and fixed their stations in the places to
+which these roads tended.
+
+The great roads, as observed before, were chiefly appropriated for
+military purposes, and instituted in the beginning of their government;
+but the smaller were of later date, and designed for common use. As
+these came more in practice, there was less occasion for the military;
+which, not leading to their towns, were, in process of time, nearly
+laid aside.
+
+Antonine, and his numerous train of commentators, have not bestowed that
+attention on the roads they deserve: a curious acquaintance with the
+roads of a country, brings us acquainted with the manners of the people:
+in one, like a mirror, is exactly represented the other. Their state,
+like a master key, unlocks many apartments.
+
+The authors I have seen are _all in the wrong_; and as my researches are
+confined, it is a mortification, I am not able to set them right. They
+have confounded the two classes together, which were very distinct in
+chronology, the manner of making, and their use. If an author treats of
+one old road, he supposes himself bound to treat of all in the kingdom,
+a task no man can execute: by undertaking much, we do nothing well; the
+journey of an antiquarian mould never be rapid. If fortune offers a
+small discovery, let him think, and compare. Neither will they ever be
+set right, but continue to build a mouldering fabric, with untempered
+mortar, till a number of intelligent residents, by local enquiries can
+produce solid materials for a lasting monument.
+
+The Romans properly termed their ways streets, a name retained by many
+of them to this day; one of the smaller roads, issuing from London,
+penetrates through Stratford upon Avon (Street-ford) Monks-path-street,
+and Shirley-street, to Birmingham, which proves it of great antiquity,
+and the Ikenield-street running by it, proves it of greater. We may from
+hence safely conclude, Birmingham was a place of note in the time of
+Caesar, because she merited legislative regard in forming their roads;
+which will send us far back among the Britons, to find her first
+existence.
+
+Though we are certain the Ikenield-street passes about a mile in length
+through this parish, as described above; yet, as there are no Roman
+traces to be seen, I must take the curious traveller to that vast waste,
+called Sutton-Coldfield, about four miles distant, where he will, in the
+same road, find the footsteps of those great mailers of the world,
+marked in lasting characters.
+
+He will plainly see its straight line pass over the Ridgeway, through
+Sutton Park, leaving the West hedge about 200 yards to the left; through
+the remainder of the Coldfield, till lost in cultivation.
+
+This track is more than three miles in length, and is no where else
+visible in these parts. I must apprize him that its highest beauty is
+only discovered by an horizontal sun in the winter months.
+
+I first saw it in 1762, relieved by the transverse rays, in a clear
+evening in November; I had a perfect view upon the Ridgeway, near
+King's-standing of this delightful scene: Had I been attacked by the
+chill blasts of winter, upon this bleak mountain, the sensation would
+have been lost in the transport. The eye, at one view, takes in more
+than two miles. Struck with astonishment, I thought it the grandest
+sight I had ever beheld; and was amazed, so noble a monument of
+antiquity should be so little regarded.
+
+The poets have long contended for the line of beauty--they may find it
+here. I was fixed as by enchantment till the sun dropt, my prospect with
+it, and I left the place with regret.
+
+If the industrious traveller chooses to wade up to the middle in gorse,
+as I did, he may find a roughish journey along this famous
+military way.
+
+Perhaps this is the only road in which money is of no use to the
+traveller; for upon this barren wild he can neither spend it, nor
+give it away.
+
+He will perceive the Coldfield to be one vast bed of gravel, covered
+with a moderate depth of soil of eight or ten inches: During this
+journey of three miles, he will observe all the way, on each side, a
+number of pits, perhaps more than a thousand, out of which the Romans
+procured the gravel to form the road; none of them many yards from it.
+This great number of pits, tends to prove two points--That the country
+was full of timber, which they not choosing to fall, procured the gravel
+in the interstices; for the road is composed of nothing else--And, that
+a great number of people were employed in its formation: They would
+also, with the trees properly disposed, which the Romans must inevitably
+cut to procure a passage, form a barrier to the road.
+
+This noble production was designed by a master, is every where straight,
+and executed with labour and judgement.
+
+Here he perceives the date of his own conquest, and of his civilization.
+Thus the Romans humbled a ferocious people.
+
+If he chooses to measure it he will find it exactly sixty feet wide,
+divided into three lands, resembling those in a ploughed field. The
+centre land thirty-six feet, and raised from one to three, according to
+the nature of the ground. The side lands, twelve each, and rising seldom
+more than one foot.
+
+This centre land no doubt was appropriated for the march of the troops,
+and the small one, on each side, for the out-guards, who preserved their
+ranks, for fear of a surprize from the vigilant and angry Britons.
+
+The Romans held these roads in great esteem, and were severe in their
+laws for their preservation.
+
+This famous road is visible all the way, but in some parts greatly hurt,
+and in others, compleat as in the first day the Romans made it. Perhaps
+the inquisitive traveller may find here, the only monument in the whole
+island left us by the Romans, that _time_ hath not injured.
+
+The philosophical traveller may make some curious observations in the
+line of agriculture, yet in its infancy.
+
+The only growth upon this wild, is gorse and ling: The vegetation upon
+the road and the adjacent lands, seem equal: The pits are all covered
+with a tolerable turf.
+
+As this road has been made about 1720 years, and, as at the time of
+making, both that and the pits must have been surfaces of neat gravel;
+he will be led to examine, what degree of soil they have acquired in
+that long course of years, and by what means?
+
+He well knows, that the surface of the earth is very far from being a
+fixed body: That there is a continual motion in every part, stone
+excepted: That the operations of the sun, the air, the frost, the dews,
+the winds, and the rain, produce a constant agitation, which changes the
+particles and the pores, tends to promote vegetation, and to increase
+the soil to a certain depth.
+
+This progress is too minute for the human eye, but the effects are
+visible. The powers above mentioned operate nearly as yeast in a lump of
+dough, that enlivens the whole. Nature seems to wish that the foot would
+leave the path, that she may cover it with grass. He will find this
+vegetative power so strong, that it even attends the small detached
+parts of the soil where-ever they go, provided they are within reach of
+air and moisture: He will not only observe it in the small pots,
+appropriated for garden use, but on the tops of houses, remote from any
+road, where the wind has carried any small dust. He will also observe it
+in cracks of the rocks; but in an amazing degree in the thick walls of
+ruined castles, where, by a long course of time, the decayed materials
+are converted into a kind of soil, and so well covered with grass, that
+if one of our old castle builders could return to his possessions, he
+might mow his house as well as his field, and procure a tolerable crop
+from both.
+
+In those pits, upon an eminence, the soil will be found deep enough for
+any mode of husbandry. In those of the vallies, which take in the small
+drain of the adjacent parts, it is much deeper. That upon the road,
+which rather gives than receives any addition from drain, the average
+depth is about four inches.
+
+The soil is not only increased by the causes above, but also by the
+constant decays of the growth upon it. The present vegetable generation
+falling to decay, adds to the soil, and also, assists the next
+generation, which in a short time follows the same course.
+
+The author of the History of Sutton says, "The poor inhabitants are
+supplied with fuel from a magazine of peat, near the Roman road,
+composed of thousands of fir trees cut down by the Romans, to enable
+them to pass over a morass. The bodies of the trees are sometimes dug up
+found, with the marks of the axe upon them."
+
+Are we then to suppose, by this curious historical anecdote, that the
+inhabitants of Sutton have run away with this celebrated piece of
+antiquity? That the cart, instead of rolling _over_ the military way,
+has rolled _under_ it, and that they have boiled the pot with the
+Roman road?
+
+Upon inquiry, they seemed more inclined to credit the fact, than able to
+prove it; but I can find no such morass, neither is the road any where
+broken up. Perhaps it would be as difficult to find the trees, as the
+axe that cut them: Besides, the fir is not a native of Britain, but of
+Russia; and I believe our forefathers, the Britons, were not complete
+masters of the art of transplanting. The park of Sutton was probably a
+bed of oaks, the natural weed of the country, long before Moses figured
+in history.
+
+Whilst the political traveller is contemplating this extraordinary
+production of antiquity, of art, and of labour, his thoughts will
+naturally recur to the authors of it.
+
+He will find them proficients in science, in ambition, in taste: They
+added dominion to conquest, 'till their original territory became too
+narrow a basis to support the vast fabric acquired by the success of
+their arms: The monstrous bulk fell to destruction by its own
+weight.--Man was not made for universality; if he grasps at little, he
+may retain it; if at much, he may lose all.
+
+The confusion, natural on such occasions, produced anarchy: At that
+moment, the military stept into the government, and the people
+became slaves.
+
+Upon the ruins of this brave race, the Bishop of Rome founded an
+ecclesiastical jurisdiction. His power increasing with his votaries, he
+found means to link all christendom to the triple crown, and acquired an
+unaccountable ascendency over the human mind: The princes of Europe were
+harnessed, like so many coach horses. The pontiff directed the bridle.
+He sometimes used the whip, and sometimes the curse. The thunder of his
+throne rattled through the world with astonishing effect, 'till that
+most useful discovery, the art of printing, in the fifteenth century,
+dissolved the charm, and set the oppressed cattle at liberty; who began
+to kick their driver. Henry the Eighth of England, was the first unruly
+animal in the papal team, and the sagacious Cranmer assisted in breaking
+the shackles.
+
+We have, in our day, seen an order of priesthood in the church of Rome,
+annihilated by the consent of the European princes, which the Pope
+beheld in silence.
+
+"There is an ultimate point of exaltation, and reduction, beyond which
+human affairs cannot proceed." Rome, seems to have experienced both, for
+she is at this day one of the most contemptible states in the scale
+of empire.
+
+This will of course lead the traveller's thoughts towards Britain, where
+he will find her sons by nature inclined to a love of arms, of liberty,
+and of commerce. These are the strong outlines of national character,
+the interior parts of which are finished with the softer touches of
+humanity, of science, and of luxury. He will also find, that there is a
+natural boundary to every country, beyond which it is dangerous to add
+dominion. That the boundary of Britain is the sea: That her external
+strength is her navy, which protects her frontiers, and her commerce:
+That her internal is unanimity: That when her strength is united within
+herself, she is invincible, and the balance of Europe will be fixed in
+her hand, which she ought never to let go.
+
+But if she accumulates territory, though she may profit at first, she
+weakens her power by dividing it; for the more she fends abroad, the
+less will remain at home; and, instead of giving law to the tyrant, she
+may be obliged to receive law from him.
+
+That, by a multiplicity of additions, her little isles will be lost in
+the great map of dominion.
+
+That, if she attempts to draw that vast and growing empire, America, she
+may herself be drawn to destruction; for, by every law of attraction,
+the greater draws the less--The mouse was never meant to direct the ox.
+That the military and the ecclesiastical powers are necessary in their
+places, that is, subordinate to the civil.
+
+But my companion will remember that Birmingham is our historical mark,
+therefore we must retreat to that happy abode of the smiling arts. If he
+has no taste for antiquity, I have detained him too long upon this
+hungry, though delightful spot. If he has, he will leave the enchanted
+ground with reluctance; will often turn his head to repeat the view,
+'till the prospect is totally lost.
+
+
+
+LORDS OF THE MANOR.
+
+By the united voice of our historians, it appears, that as the Saxons
+conquered province after province, which was effected in about one
+hundred and thirty years, the unfortunate Britons retreated into Wales:
+But we are not to suppose that all the inhabitants ran away, and left a
+desolate region to the victor; this would have been of little more value
+to the conqueror, than the possession of Sutton Coldfield or Bromsgrove
+Lickey. The mechanic and the peasant were left, which are by far the
+greatest number; they are also the riches of a country; stamp a value
+upon property, and it becomes current. As they have nothing to lose, so
+they have nothing to fear; for let who will be master, they must be
+drudges: Their safety consists in their servitude; the victor is ever
+conscious of their utility, therefore their protection is certain.
+
+But the danger lies with the man of substance, and the greater that
+substance, the greater his anxiety to preserve it, and the more danger
+to himself if conquered: These were the people who retreated into Wales.
+Neither must we consider the wealth of that day to consist of bags of
+cash, bills of exchange, India bonds, bank stock, etc. no such thing
+existed. Property lay in the land, and the herds that fed upon it. And
+here I must congratulate our Welch neighbours, who are most certainly
+descended from gentlemen; and I make no doubt but the Cambrian reader
+will readily unite in the same sentiment.
+
+The Saxons, as conquerors, were too proud to follow the modes of the
+conquered, therefore they introduced government, laws, language,
+customs and habits of their own. Hence we date the division of the
+kingdom into manors.
+
+Human nature is nearly the same in all ages. Where value is marked upon
+property or power, it will find its votaries: Whoever was the most
+deserving, or rather could make the most interest, procured land
+sufficient for an Elderman, now Earl; the next class, a Manor; and the
+inferior, who had borne the heat and burthen of the day--nothing.
+
+I must now introduce an expression which I promised not to forget.--In
+the course of a trial between William de Birmingham, and the inhabitants
+of Bromsgrove and King's-norton, in 1309, concerning the right of
+tollage; it appeared, That the ANCESTORS of the said William had a
+market here before the Norman conquest. This proves, that the family of
+Birmingham were of Saxon race, and Lords of the Manor prior to
+that period.
+
+Mercia was not only the largest, but also the last of the seven
+conquered kingdoms--It was bounded on the North by the Humber, on the
+West by the Severn, on the South by the Thames, and on the East by the
+German ocean. Birmingham lies nearly in the centre. Cridda, a Saxon,
+came over with a body of troops, and reduced it in 582; therefore, as
+no after revolution happened that could cause Birmingham to change its
+owner, and as land was not in a very saleable state at that time, there
+is the greatest reason to suppose the founder of the house of Birmingham
+Came over with Cridda, as an officer in his army, and procured this
+little flourishing dominion as a reward for his service.
+
+The succeeding generations of this illustrious family are too remote for
+historical penetration, 'till the reign of Edward the Confessor, the
+last of the Saxon Kings, when we find, in 1050,
+
+
+
+ULUUINE, (since ALWYNE, now ALLEN,)
+
+master of this improving spot.
+
+RICHARD,
+
+1066,
+
+seems to have succeeded him, and to have lived in that unfortunate
+period for property, the conquest.
+
+The time was now arrived when this ancient family, with the rest of the
+English gentry, who had lived under the benign climate of Saxon
+government, and in the affluence of fortune, must quit the happy
+regions of hospitality, and enter the gloomy precincts of penury--From
+givers, they were to become beggars.
+
+The whole conduct of William seems to have carried the strongest marks
+of conquest. Many of the English lost their lives, some their liberty,
+and nearly all their estates. The whole land in the kingdom was
+insufficient to satisfy the hungry Normans.
+
+Perhaps William took the wisest method to secure the conquered country
+that could be devised by human wisdom; he parcelled out the kingdom
+among his greater Barons; the whole county of Chester is said to have
+fallen to the share of Hugh Lupus: and these were subdivided into 62,000
+Knight's-sees, which were held under the great Barons by military
+service. Thus the Sovereign by only signifying his pleasure to the
+Barons, could instantly raise an army for any purpose. We cannot produce
+a stronger indication of arbitrary government: But, it is happy for the
+world, that perfection is not found even in human wisdom; for this well
+laid scheme destroyed itself. Instead of making the crown absolute, as
+was intended, it threw the balance into the hands of the Barons, who
+became so many petty Sovereigns, and a scourge to the King in after
+ages, 'till Henry the Seventh sapped their power, and raised the third
+estate, the Commons, which quickly eclipsed the other two.
+
+The English gentry suffered great distress: Their complaints rung loud
+in the royal ear, some of them therefore, who had been peaceable and
+never opposed the Normans, were suffered to enjoy their estates in
+dependance upon the great Barons.
+
+This was the case with Richard, Lord of Birmingham, who held this manor
+by knight's-service of William Fitz-Ausculf, Lord of Dudley castle, and
+perhaps all the land between the two places.
+
+Thus Birmingham, now rising towards the meridian of opulence, was a
+dependant upon Dudley castle, now in ruins; and thus an honourable
+family, who had enjoyed a valuable freehold, perhaps near 500 years,
+were obliged to pay rent, homage, suit and service, attend the Lord's
+court at Dudley every three weeks, be called into the field at pleasure,
+and after all, possess a precarious tenure in villainage.
+
+The blood of the ancient English was not only tainted with the breath of
+that destructive age, but their lands also. The powerful blast destroyed
+their ancient freehold tenures, reducing them into wretched copyholds:
+and to the disgrace of succeeding ages, many of them retain this mark of
+Norman slavery to the present day. How defective are those laws, which
+give one man power over another in neutral cases? That tend to promote
+quarrels, prevent cultivation, and which cannot draw the line between
+property and property?
+
+Though a spirit of bravery is certainly a part of the British character,
+yet there are two or three periods in English history, when this noble
+flame was totally extinguished. Every degree of resolution seems to have
+been cut off at the battle of Hastings. The English acted contrary to
+their usual manner:--Danger had often made them desperate, but now it
+made them humble. This conquest is one of the most extraordinary held
+forth in history; the flower of nobility was wholly nipped off; the
+spirit of the English depressed, and having no head to direct, or hand
+to cultivate the courage of the people and lead it into action, it
+dwindled at the root, was trampled under the foot of tyranny, and,
+according to _Smollet_, several generations elapsed before any one of
+the old English stock blossomed into peerage.
+
+It is curious to contemplate the revolution of things--Though the
+conquering Romans flood first in the annals of same at the beginning of
+the Christian era, yet they were a whole century in carrying their
+illustrious arms over the island, occupied only by a despicable race of
+Britons. Though the Saxons were invited, by one false step in politics,
+to assist the Britons in expelling an enemy, which gave them an
+opportunity of becoming enemies themselves; yet it was 130 years before
+they could complete their conquest. And though the industrious Dane
+poured incessant numbers of people into Britain, yet it cost them 200
+years, and 150,000 men before they reduced it. But William, at one blow,
+finished the dreadful work, shackled her sons to his throne, and
+governed them with a sceptre of iron. Normandy, a petty dukedom, very
+little larger than Yorkshire, conquered a mighty nation in one day.
+England seems to have been taken by storm, and her liberties put to the
+sword: Nor did the miseries of this ill-fated kingdom end here, for the
+continental dominions, which William annexed to the crown, proved a
+whirlpool for 400 years, which drew the blood and treasure of the nation
+into its vortex, 'till those dominions were fortunately lost in the
+reign of Mary the First.
+
+Thus the Romans spent one century in acquiring a kingdom, which they
+governed for four. The Saxons spent 130 years, and ruled for 459. The
+Danes spent 200 and reigned for 25--But the Norman spent one day only,
+for a reign of 700 years: They continue to reign still.
+
+It is easy to point out some families of Norman race, who yet enjoy the
+estates won by their ancestors at the battle of Hastings.
+
+
+
+WILLIAM,
+
+1130,
+
+Like his unfortunate father, was in a state of vassalage. The male line
+of the Fitz-Ausculfs soon became extinct, and Gervase Paganell marrying
+the heiress, became Baron of Dudley-castle.
+
+
+
+PETER DE BIRMINGHAM,
+
+1154.
+
+It is common in every class of life, for the inferior to imitate the
+superior: If the real lady claims a head-dress sixteen inches high, that
+of the imaginary lady will immediately begin to thrive. The family, or
+surname, entered with William the First, and was soon the reigning taste
+of the day: A person was thought of no consequence without a surname,
+and even the depressed English, crept into the fashion, in imitation of
+their masters. I have already mentioned the Earl of Warwick, father of a
+numerous race now in Birmingham; whose name before the conquest was
+simply Turchill, but after, Turchill de Arden, (Matter of the Woods)
+from his own estate.
+
+Thus the family of whom I speak, chose to dignify themselves with the
+name of _de Birmingham_.
+
+Peter wisely consulted his own interest, kept fair with Paganall his
+Lord, and obtained from him, in 1166, nine Knight's-fees, which he held
+by military service.
+
+A Knight's-fee, though uncommon now, was a word well understood 600
+years ago. It did not mean, as some have imagined, fifteen pounds per
+annum, nor any determinate sum; but as much land as would support a
+gentleman. This Peter was fewer to Paganall, (waited at his table)
+though a man of great property.
+
+The splendor in which the great Barons of that age lived, was little
+inferior to royalty.
+
+The party distinctions also of Saxon and Norman, in the twelfth century,
+began to die away, as the people became united by interest or marriage,
+like that of Whig and Tory, in the eighteenth. And perhaps there is not
+at present a native that does not carry in his veins the blood of the
+four nations that were grafted upon the Britons.
+
+Peter himself lived in affluence at his castle, then near Birmingham,
+now the Moat, of which in the next section. He also obtained from Henry
+the Second, as well as from Paganall the Lord paramount, several
+valuable privileges for his favourite inheritance of Birmingham. He bore
+for his arms, _azure, a bend lozenge_, of five points, _or_; the coat of
+his ancestors.
+
+
+
+WILLIAM DE BIRMINGHAM,
+
+1216.
+
+At the reduction of Ireland, in the reign of Henry the Second, a branch
+of this family, and perhaps uncle to William, was very instrumental
+under Richard Strongbow, Earl of Pembroke, in accomplishing that great
+end; for which he was rewarded with a large estate, and the title of
+Earl of Lowth, both which continue in his family. Perhaps they are the
+only remains of this honorable house.
+
+
+
+WILLIAM DE BIRMINGHAM,
+
+1246.
+
+By this time, the male line of the Paganalls was worn out, and Roger de
+Someri marrying the heiress, became Baron of Dudley, with all its
+dependencies; but Someri and Birmingham did not keep peace, as their
+fathers had done. William, being very rich, forgot to ride to Dudley
+every three weeks, to perform suit and service at Someri's court.
+
+Whereupon a contest commenced to enforce the performance. But, in 1262,
+it was agreed between the contending parties--That William should attend
+the Lord's court only twice a year, Easter and Michaelmas, and at such
+other times, as the Lord chose to command by special summons. This
+William, having married the daughter of Thomas de Astley, a man of great
+eminence, and both joining with the Barons under Simon Mountfort, Earl
+of Leicester, against Henry the Third, William fell, in 1265, at the
+battle of Evesham; and as the loser is ever the rebel, the Barons were
+prescribed, and their estates confiscated.
+
+The manor of Birmingham, therefore, valued at forty pounds per annum,
+was seized by the King, and given to his favorite, Roger de Clifford.
+
+
+
+WILLIAM DE BIRMINGHAM,
+
+1265.
+
+By a law called the statute of Kenilworth, every man who had forfeited
+his estate to the crown, by having taken up arms, had liberty to redeem
+his lands, by a certain fine: William therefore paid that fine, and
+recovered the inheritance of his family. He also, in 1283 strengthened
+his title by a charter from Edward the First, and likewise to the other
+manors he possessed, such as Stockton, in the County of Worcester;
+Shetford, in Oxfordshire; Maidencoat, in Berkshire; Hoggeston, in the
+county of Bucks; and Christleton, in Cheshire.
+
+In 1285, Edward brought his writ of quo warranto, whereby every holder
+of land was obliged to show by what title he held it. The consequence
+would have been dreadful to a Prince of less prudence than Edward. Some
+showed great unwillingness; for a dormant title will not always bear
+examination--But William producing divers charters, clearly proved his
+right to every manorial privilege, such as market, toll, tem, sack, sok,
+insangenthief, weyfs, gallows, court-leet, and pillory, with a right to
+fix the standard for bread and beer; all which were allowed.
+
+William, Lord of Birmingham, being a military tenant, was obliged to
+attend the King into Gascoigne, 1297, where he lost his liberty at the
+siege of Bellgard, and was carried prisoner in triumph to Paris.
+
+
+
+WILLIAM DE BIRMINGHAM,
+
+1306.
+
+This is the man who tried the right of tollage with the people of
+Bromsgrove and King's norton.
+
+
+
+WILLIAM DE BIRMINGHAM,
+
+LORD BIRMINGHAM.
+
+1316.
+
+Was knighted in 1325; well affected to Edward the Second, for whose
+service he raised four hundred foot. Time seems to have put a period to
+the family of Someri, Lords of Dudley, as well as to those of their
+predecessors, the Paganalls, and the Fitz-Ausculfs.
+
+In 1327, the first of Edward the Third, Sir William was summoned to
+Parliament, by the title of William Lord Birmingham, but not after.
+
+It was not the fashion of that day to fill the House of Peers by patent.
+The greater Barons held a local title from their Baronies; the possessor
+of one of these, claimed a seat among the Lords.
+
+I think, they are now all extinct, except Arundel, the property of the
+Norfolk family, and whoever is proprietor of Arundel castle, is Earl
+thereof by ancient prescription.
+
+The lesser Barons were called up to the House by writ, which did not
+confer an hereditary title. Of this class was the Lord of Birmingham.
+
+Hugh Spencer, the favourite of the weak Edward the Second, had procured
+the custody of Dudley-castle, with all its appendages, for his friend
+William, Lord Birmingham.
+
+Thus the family who had travelled from Birmingham to Dudley every three
+weeks, to perform humble suit at the Lord's court, held that very court
+by royal appointment, to receive the fealty of others.
+
+By the patent which constituted William keeper of Dudley-castle, he was
+obliged to account for the annual profits arising from that vast estate
+into the King's exchequer. When, therefore, in 1334, he delivered in his
+accounts, the Barons refused to admit them, because the money was
+defective. But he had interest enough with the crown to cause a mandamus
+to be issued, commanding the Barons to admit them.
+
+
+
+SIR FOUK DE BIRMINGHAM,
+
+1340.
+
+This man advanced to Sir Baldwin Freville, Lord of Tamworth, forty eight
+marks, upon mortgage of five mills. The ancient coat of the _bend
+lozenge_, was now changed for the _partie per pale, indented, or,
+and gules_.
+
+In 1352, and 1362 he was returned a member for the county of Warwick;
+also, in three or four succeeding Parliaments.
+
+
+
+SIR JOHN DE BIRMINGHAM,
+
+1376.
+
+Served the office of Sheriff for the county of Warwick, in 1379, and was
+successively returned to serve in Parliament for the counties of
+Warwick, Bedford, and Buckingham. He married the daughter of William de
+la Planch, by whom he had no issue. She afterwards married the Lord
+Clinton, retained the manor of Birmingham as her dower, and lived to the
+year 1424.
+
+It does not appear in this illustrious family, that the regular line of
+descent, from father to son, was ever broken, from the time of the
+Saxons, 'till 1390. This Sir John left a brother, Sir Thomas de
+Birmingham, heir at law, who enjoyed the bulk of his brother's fortune;
+but was not to possess the manor of Birmingham 'till the widow's death,
+which not happening 'till after his own, he never enjoyed it.
+
+The Lord Clinton and his Lady seem to have occupied the Manor-house; and
+Sir Thomas, unwilling to quit the place of his affections and of his
+nativity, erected a castle for himself at Worstone, near the Sand-pits,
+joining the Ikenield-street; street; where, though the building is
+totally gone, the vestiges of its liquid security are yet complete. This
+Sir Thomas enjoyed several public offices, and figured in the style of
+his ancestors. He left a daughter, who married Thomas de la Roche, and
+from this marriage sprang two daughters; the eldest of which married
+Edmund, Lord Ferrers of Chartley, who, at the decease of Sir John's
+widow, inherited the manor, and occupied the Manor house. There yet
+stands a building on the North-east side of the Moat, erected by this
+Lord Ferrers, with his arms in the timbers of the ceiling, and the
+crest, a horse-shoe.
+
+I take this house to be the oldest in Birmingham, though it hath not
+that appearance; having stood about 350 years.
+
+By an entail of the manor upon the male line, the Lady Ferrers seems to
+have quitted her title in favor of a second cousin, a descendant of
+William de Birmingham, brother to Sir Fouk.
+
+
+
+WILLIAM DE BIRMINGHAM,
+
+1430.
+
+In the 19th of Henry the Sixth, 1441, is said to have held his manor of
+Birmingham, of Sir John Sutton, Lord of Dudley, by military service;
+but instead of paying homage, fealty, escuage, &c. as his ancestors had
+done, which was very troublesome to the tenant, and brought only empty
+honour to the Lord: and, as sometimes the Lord's necessities taught him
+to think that money was more _Solid_ than suit and service; an agreement
+was entered into, for money instead of homage, between the Lord and the
+tenant--Such agreements now became common. Thus land became a kind of
+bastard freehold:--The tenant held a certainty, while he conformed to
+the agreement; or, in other words, the custom of the manor--And the Lord
+still possessed a material control. He died in 1479, leaving a son,
+
+
+
+SIR WILLIAM BIRMINGHAM,
+
+1479,
+
+Aged thirty at the decease of his father. He married Isabella, heiress
+of William Hilton, by whom he had a son, William, who died before his
+father, June 7, 1500, leaving a son,
+
+
+
+EDWARD BIRMINGHAM,
+
+1500,
+
+Born in 1497, and succeeded his grandfather at the age of three. During
+his minority, Henry the Seventh, 1502, granted the wardship to Edward,
+Lord Dudley.
+
+The family estate then consisted of the manors of Birmingham, Over
+Warton, Nether Warton, Mock Tew, Little Tew, and Shutford in the county
+of Oxford, Hoggeston in Bucks, and Billesley in the county of Worcester.
+Edward afterwards married Elizabeth, widow of William Ludford, of
+Annesley, by whom he had one daughter, who married a person of the name
+of Atkinson.
+
+But after the peaceable possession of a valuable estate, for thirty
+seven years; the time was now arrived, when the mounds of justice must
+be broken down by the weight of power, a whole deluge of destruction
+enter, and overwhelm an ancient and illustrious family, in the person of
+an innocent man. The world would view the diabolical transaction with
+amazement, none daring to lend assistance to the unfortunate; not
+considering, that property should ever be under the protection of law;
+and, what was Edward's case to-day, might be that of any other man
+to-morrow. But the oppressor kept fair with the crown, and the crown
+held a rod of iron over the people.--Suffer me to tell the mournful tale
+from Dugdale's Antiquities of Warwickshire.
+
+
+
+1537,
+
+John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, a man of great wealth, unbounded
+ambition, and one of the basest characters of the age, was possessor of
+Dudley-castle, and the fine estate belonging to it:--He wished to add
+Birmingham to his vast domain. Edward Birmingham therefore was privately
+founded, respecting the disposal of his manor; but as money was not
+wanted, and as the place had been the honor and the residence of his
+family for many centuries, it was out of the reach of purchase.
+
+Northumberland was so charmed with its beauty, he was determined to
+possess it; and perhaps the manner in which he accomplished his design,
+cannot be paralleled in the annals of infamy.
+
+He procured two or three rascals of his own temper, and rather of mean
+appearance, to avoid suspicion, to take up their quarters for a night or
+two in Birmingham, and gain secret intelligence when Edward Birmingham
+should ride out, and what road: This done, one of the rascals was to
+keep before the others, but all took care that Edward should easily
+overtake them. Upon his arrival at the first class, the villains joined
+him, entered into chat, and all moved soberly together 'till they
+reached the first man; when, on a sudden, the strangers with Edward drew
+their pistols and robbed their brother villain, who no doubt lost a
+considerable sum after a decent resistance. Edward was easily known,
+apprehended, and committed as one of the robbers; the others were not
+to be found.
+
+Edward immediately saw himself on the verge of destruction. He could
+only _alledge_, but not _prove_ his innocence: All the proof the case
+could admit of, was against him.
+
+Northumberland (then only Lord L'Isle) hitherto had succeeded to his
+wish; nor was Edward long in suspence--Private hints were given him,
+that the only way to save his life, was to make Northumberland his
+friend; and this probably might be done, by resigning to him his manor
+of Birmingham; with which the unfortunate Edward reluctantly complied.
+
+Northumberland thinking a common conveyance insufficient, caused Edward
+to yield his estate into the hands of the King, and had interest enough
+in that age of injustice to procure a ratification from a weak
+Parliament, by which means he endeavoured to throw the odium off his own
+character, and fix it upon theirs, and also, procure to himself a
+safer title.
+
+An extract from that base act is as follows:--
+
+"Whereas Edward Byrmingham, late of Byrmingham in the countie of
+Warwick, Esquire, otherwise callid Edward Byrmingham, Esquire, ys and
+standyth lawfully indettid to our soverene Lord the Kinge, in diverse
+grete summes of money; and also standyth at the mercy of his Highness,
+for that the same Edward ys at this present convected of felony: Our
+seide soverene Lord the Kinge ys contentid and pleasid, that for and in
+recompence and satisfaction to his Grace of the seyde summes of money,
+to accept and take of the seyde Edward the mannour and lordship of
+Byrmingham, otherwise callid Byrmincham, with the appurtinances, lying
+and being in the countie of Warwick, and all and singuler other lands
+and tenements, reversions, rents, services, and hereditaments of the
+same Edward Byrmingham, set, lying and beying in the countie of Warwick
+aforesaid. Be yt therefore ordeyned and enacted, by the authoritie of
+this present Parliament, that our seyde soverene Lord the Kinge shall
+have, hold, and enjoy, to him and his heires and assignes for ever, the
+seyde mannour and lordship of Byrmingham, &c."
+
+In the act there is a reservation of 40_l_. per annum, during the lives
+only of the said Edward and his wife.
+
+It appears also, by an expression in the act, that Edward was brought to
+trial, and found guilty. Thus innocence is depressed for want of
+support; property is wrested for want of the protection of the law; and
+a vile minister, in a corrupt age, can carry an infamous point through a
+court of justice, the two Houses of Parliament, and complete his horrid
+design by the sanction of a tyrant.
+
+The place where tradition tells us this diabolical transaction happened,
+is the middle of Sandy-lane, in the Sutton road; the upper part of which
+begins at the North east corner of Aston park wall; at the bottom, you
+bear to the left, for Sawford-bridge, or to the right, for
+Nachell's-green; about two miles from the Moat, the place of
+Edward's abode.
+
+Except that branch which proceeded from this original stem, about 600
+years ago, of which the Earl of Lowth is head, I know of no male
+descendant from this honourable stock; who, if we allow the founder to
+have come over with Cridda, the Saxon, in 582, must have commanded this
+little Sovereignty 955 years.
+
+I met with a person sometime ago of the name of Birmingham, and was
+pleased with the hope of finding a member of that ancient and honorable
+house; but he proved so amasingly ignorant, he could not tell whether he
+was from the clouds, the sea, or the dunghill: instead of traceing the
+existence of his ancestors, even so high as his father, he was scarcely
+conscious of his own.
+
+As this house did not much abound with daughters, I cannot at present
+recollect any families among us, except that of Bracebridge, who are
+descended from this illustrious origin, by a female line; and Sir John
+Talbot Dillon, who is descended from the ancient Earls of Lowth, as he
+is from the De Veres, the more ancient Earls of Oxford.
+
+Here, then, I unwillingly extinguish that long range of lights, which
+for many ages illuminated the house of Birmingham.
+
+But I cannot extinguish the rascallity of the line of Northumberland.
+This unworthy race, proved a scourge to the world, at least during three
+generations. Each, in his turn, presided in the British cabinet; and
+each seems to have possessed the villainy of his predecessor, united
+with his own. The first, only _served_ a throne; but the second and the
+third intended to _fill_ one. A small degree of ambition warms the mind
+in pursuit of fame, through the paths of honor; while too large a
+portion tends to unfavorable directions, kindles to a flame, consumes
+the finer sensations of rectitude, and leaves a stench behind.
+
+Edmund, the father of this John, was the voracious leech, with Empson,
+who sucked the vitals of the people, to feed the avarice of Henry
+the Seventh.
+
+It is singular that Henry, the most sagacious prince since the conquest,
+loaded him with honours for filling the royal coffers with wealth, which
+the penurious monarch durst never enjoy: but his successor, Henry the
+Eighth, enjoyed the pleasure of consuming that wealth, and _executed_
+the father for collecting it! How much are our best laid schemes
+defective? How little does expectation and event coincide? It is no
+disgrace to a man that he died on the scaffold; the question is--What
+brought him there? Some of the most inoffensive, and others the most
+exalted characters of the age in which they lived, have been cut off by
+the axe, as Edward Plantagenet, Earl of Warwick, for being the last male
+heir of the Anjouvin Kings; John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, Sir Thomas
+Moore, Sir Walter Raleigh, Algernon Sidney, William Lord Russell, &c.
+whose blood ornamented the scaffold on which they fell.
+
+The son of this man, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, favorite of Queen
+Elizabeth, is held up by our historians as a master-piece of
+dissimulation, pride, and cruelty. He married three wives, all which he
+is charged with sending to the grave by untimely deaths; one of them, to
+open a passage to the Queen's bed, to which he aspired. It is
+surprising, that he should deceive the penetrating eye of Elizabeth: but
+I am much inclined to think she _knew him_ better than the world; and
+they knew him rather to well. He ruined many of the English gentry,
+particularly the ancient family of Arden, of Park-hall, in this
+neighbourhood: he afterwards ruined his own family by disinheriting a
+son, more worthy than himself.--If he did not fall by the executioner,
+it is no proof that he did not deserve it.--We now behold
+
+
+
+JOHN, DUKE OF NORTHUMBERLAND, 1537,
+
+Lord of the manor of Birmingham; a man, who of all others the least
+deserved that honor; or rather, deserved the axe for being so.
+
+Some have asserted, "That property acquired by dishonesty cannot
+prosper." But I shall leave the philosopher and the enthusiast to settle
+that important point, while I go on to observe, That that the lordship
+of Birmingham did not prosper with the Duke. Though he had, in some
+degree, the powers of government in his hands, he had also the clamours
+of the people in his ears. What were his inward feelings, is uncertain
+at this distance--Fear seems to have prevented him from acknowledging
+Birmingham for his property. Though he exercised every act of ownership,
+yet he suffered the fee-simple to rest in the crown, 'till nine years
+had elapsed, and those clamours subsided, before he ventured to accept
+the grant, in 1546.
+
+As the execution of this grant was one of the last acts of Henry's life,
+we should be apt to suspect the Duke carried it in his pocket ready for
+signing, but deferred the matter as long as he could with safety, that
+distance of time might annihilate reflection; and that the King's death,
+which happened a few weeks after, might draw the attention of the world
+too much, by the importance of the event, to regard the Duke's conduct.
+
+The next six years, which carries us through the reign of Edward the
+Sixth, is replete with the intrigues of this illustrious knave. He
+sought connections with the principal families: He sought honours for
+his own: He procured a match between his son, the Lord Guildford Dudley,
+and the Lady Jane Gray, daughter of the Duke of Suffolk, and a
+descendant from Henry the Seventh, with intent of fixing the crown in
+his family, but failing in the attempt, he brought ruin upon the Suffolk
+family, and himself to the block, in the first of Queen Mary, 1553.
+
+Though a man be guilty of many atrocious acts that deserve death, yet in
+the hour of distress humanity demands the tear of compassion; but the
+case was otherwise at the execution of John, Duke of Northumberland, for
+a woman near the scaffold held forth a bloody handkerchief and
+exclaimed, "Behold the blood of the Duke of Somerset, shed by your
+means, and which cries for vengeance against you."
+
+Thus Northumberland kept a short and rough possession of glory; thus he
+fell unlamented; and thus the manor of Birmingham reverted to the crown
+a second time, the Duke himself having first taught it the way.
+
+Birmingham continued two years in the crown, 'till the third of Queen
+Mary, when she granted it to
+
+
+
+THOMAS MARROW,
+
+1555,
+
+Whose family, for many descents, resided at Berkeswell, in this county.
+
+In the possession of the High Bailiff is a bushel measure, cast in
+brass, of some value; round which in relief is, SAMUEL MARROW, LORD OF
+THE MANOR OF BIRMINGHAM, 1664.
+
+The Lordship continued in this family about 191 years, 'till the male
+line failing, it became the joint property of four coheirs--Ann, married
+to Sir Arthur Kaye; Mary, the wife of John Knightley, Esq; Ursulla, the
+wife of Sir Robert Wilmot; and Arabella, unmarried; who, in about 1730,
+disposed of the private estate in the manor, amounting to about 400_l_.
+per annum, to Thomas Sherlock, Bishop of London, as before observed, and
+the manor itself to
+
+
+
+THOMAS ARCHER, ESQ.
+
+for 1,700_l_. in 1746,
+
+Of an ancient family, who have resided at Umberslade in this county more
+than 600 years--from him it descended to
+
+
+
+ANDREW, LORD ARCHER,
+
+And is now enjoyed by his relict,
+
+
+
+SARAH, LADY ARCHER,
+
+1781,
+
+Possessing no more in the parish than the royalty; as it does not appear
+that the subsequent Lords, after the extinction of the house of
+Birmingham, were resident upon the manor, I omit particulars.
+
+Let me remark, this place yet gives title to the present Lord Viscount
+Dudley and Ward, as descended, by the female line, from the great
+Norman Barons, the Fitz-Ausculfs, the Paganalls, the Somerys, the
+Suttons, and the Dudleys, successively Lords paramount, whose original
+power is reduced to a name.
+
+
+
+MANOR HOUSE.
+
+(The Moat.)
+
+The natural temper of the human mind, like that of the brute, is given
+to plunder: This temper is very apt to break forth into action. In all
+societies of men, therefore, restraints have been discovered, under the
+name of laws, attended with punishment, to deter people from infringing
+each others property. Every thing that a man can possess, falls under
+the denomination of property; whether it be life, liberty, wealth or
+character.
+
+The less perfect these laws are, the less a people are removed from the
+rude state of nature, and the more necessity there is for a man to be
+constantly in a state of defence, that he may be able to repel any force
+that shall rise up against him.
+
+It is easy to discover, by the laws of a country, how far the people are
+advanced in civilization. If the laws are defective, or the magistrate
+too weak to execute them, it is dangerous for a man to possess property.
+
+But when a nation is pretty far advanced in social existence; when the
+laws agree with reason, and are executed with firmness, a man need not
+trouble himself concerning the protection of his property--his country
+will protect it for him.
+
+The laws of England have, for many ages, been gradually refining; and
+are capable of that protection which violence never was.
+
+But if we penetrate back into the recesses of time, we shall find the
+laws inadequate, the manners savage, force occupy the place of justice,
+and property unprotected. In those barbarous ages, therefore, men sought
+security by intrenching themselves from a world they could not trust.
+This was done by opening a large ditch round their habitation, which
+they filled with water, and which was only approachable by a
+draw-bridge. This, in some degree, supplied the defect of the law, and
+the want of power in the magistrate. It also, during the iron reign of
+priesthood, furnished that table in lent, which it guarded all the year.
+
+The Britons had a very slender knowledge of fortification. The camps
+they left us, are chiefly upon eminences, girt by a shallow ditch,
+bordered with stone, earth, or timber, but never with water. The moat,
+therefore, was introduced by the Romans; their camps are often in
+marshes; some wholly, and some in part surrounded by water.
+
+These liquid barriers were begun in England early in the christian æra,
+they were in the zenith of their glory at the barons wars, in the reign
+of king John, and continued to be the mode of fortification till the
+introduction of guns, in the reign of Edward the fourth, which shook
+their foundation; and the civil wars of Charles the first totally
+annihilated their use, after an existence of twelve hundred years.
+
+Perhaps few parishes, that have been the ancient habitation of a
+gentleman, are void of some traces of these fluid bulwarks. That of
+Birmingham has three; one of these, of a square form, at Warstone,
+erected by a younger brother of the house of Birmingham, hath already
+been mentioned; it is fed by a small rivulet from Rotton Park, which
+crosses the Dudley Road, near the Sand pits.
+
+Another is the Parsonage house, belonging to St. Martin's, formerly
+situated in the road to Bromsgrove, now Smallbrook street, of a circular
+figure, and supplied by a neighbouring spring. If we allow this watery
+circle to be a proof of the great antiquity of the house, it is a much
+greater with regard to the antiquity of the church.
+
+The third is what we simply denominate the Moat, and was the residence
+of the ancient lords of Birmingham, situated about sixty yards south of
+the church, and twenty west of Digbeth; this is also circular, and
+supplied by a small stream that crosses the road to Bromsgrove, near the
+first mile stone; it originally ran into the river Rea, near Vaughton's
+hole, dividing the parishes of Birmingham and Edgbaston all the way, but
+at the formation of the Moat, was diverted from its course, into which
+it never returned.
+
+No certain evidence remains to inform us when this liquid work was
+accomplished: perhaps in the Saxon heptarchy, when there were few or no
+buildings south of the church. Digbeth seems to have been one of the
+first streets added to this important school of arts; the upper part of
+that street must of course have been formed first: but, that the Moat
+was completed prior to the erection of any buildings between that and
+Digbeth, is evident, because those buildings stand upon the very soil
+thrown out in forming the Moat.
+
+The first certain account that we meet with of this guardian circle, is
+in the reign of Henry the Second, 1154, when Peter de Birmingham, then
+lord of the see, had a cattle here, and lived in splendor. All the
+succeeding Lords resided upon the same island, till their cruel
+expulsion by John Duke of Northumberland in 1537.
+
+The old castle followed its lords, and is buried in the ruins of time.
+Upon the spot, about forty years ago, rose a house in the modern style,
+occupied by a manufacturer (John Francis;) in one of the out-buildings
+is shewn, the apartment where the ancient lords kept their court leet;
+another out-building which stands to the east, I have already observed,
+was the work of Edmund Lord Ferrers.
+
+The ditch being filled with water, has nearly the same appearance now as
+perhaps a thousand years ago, but not altogether the same use. It then
+served to protect its master, but now, to turn a thread-mill.
+
+
+
+PUDDING BROOK.
+
+Near the place where the small rivulet discharges itself into the Moat,
+another of the same size is carried over it, called Pudding Brook, and
+proceeds from the town as this advances towards it, producing a
+curiosity seldom met with; one river running South, and the other North,
+for half a mile, yet only a path-road of three feet asunder; which
+surprised Brindley the famous engineer.
+
+
+
+THE PRIORY.
+
+The site of this ancient edifice is now the Square; some small remains
+of the old foundations are yet visible in the cellars, chiefly on the
+South-east. The out-buildings and pleasure-grounds perhaps occupied the
+whole North east side of Bull-street, then uninhabited, and only the
+highway to Wolverhampton; bounded on the North-west by Steelhouse-lane;
+on the North-east by Newton and John's-street; and on the South-east by
+Dale-end, which also was no other than the highway to Lichfield--The
+whole, about fourteen acres.
+
+The building upon this delightful eminence, which at that time commanded
+the small but beautiful prospect of Bristland-fields, Rowley-hills,
+Oldbury, Smethewick, Handsworth, Sutton-Coldfield, Erdington, Saltley,
+the Garrison, and Camp-hill, and which then stood at a distance from the
+town, though now near its centre; was founded by the house of
+Birmingham, in the early reigns of the Norman Kings, and called the
+Hospital of Saint Thomas,--The priest being bound to pray for the souls
+of the founders every day, to the end of the world.
+
+In 1285, Thomas de Madenhache, Lord of the manor of Aston, gave ten
+acres of land in his manor. William de Birmingham ten, which I take to
+be the land where the Priory stood; and Ranulph de Rakeby three acres,
+in Saltley: About the same time, sundry others gave houses and land in
+smaller quantities: William de Birmingham gave afterwards twenty-two
+acres more. The same active spirit seems to have operated in our
+ancestors, 500 years ago, that does in their descendants at this day: If
+a new scheme strikes the fancy, it is pursued with vigor.
+
+The religious fervor of that day ran high: It was unfashionable to leave
+the world, and not remember the Priory. Donations crowded in so fast,
+that the prohibiting act was forgot; so that in 1311, the brotherhood
+were prosecuted by the crown, for appropriating lands contrary to the
+act of mortmain; But these interested priests, like their sagacious
+brethren, knew as well how to preserve as to gain property; for upon
+their humble petition to the throne, Edward the Second put a stop to the
+judicial proceedings, and granted a special pardon.
+
+In 1351, Fouk de Birmingham, and Richard Spencer, jointly gave to the
+priory one hundred acres of land, part lying in Aston, and part in
+Birmingham, to maintain another priest, who should celebrate divine
+service daily at the altar of the Virgin Mary, in the church of the
+hospital, for the souls of William la Mercer, and his wife. The church
+is supposed to have stood upon the spot now No. 27, in Bull-street.
+
+In the premises belonging to the Red Bull, No. 83, nearly opposite, have
+been discovered human bones, which has caused some to suppose it the
+place of interment for the religious, belonging to the priory, which I
+rather doubt.
+
+At the dissolution of the abbies, in 1536, the King's visitors valued
+the annual income at the trifling sum of 8_l_. 8s. 9d.
+
+The patronage continued chiefly in the head of the Birmingham family.
+Dugdale gives us a list of some of the Priors, who held dominion in this
+little common wealth, from 1326, 'till the total annihilation, being
+210 years.
+
+     Robert Marmion,
+     Robert Cappe,
+     Thomas Edmunds,
+     John Frothward,
+     Robert Browne,
+     John Port,
+     William Priestwood,
+     Henry Drayton,
+     John Cheyne,
+     Henry Bradley,
+     Thomas Salpin,
+     Sir Edward Toste,
+          AND
+     Henry Hody.
+
+Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex, a man of much honour, more capacity, and
+yet more spirit, was the instrument with which Henry the Eighth
+destroyed the abbies; but Henry, like a true politician of the house of
+Tudor, wisely threw the blame upon the instrument, held it forth to the
+public in an odious light, and then sacrificed it to appease an
+angry people.
+
+This destructive measure against the religious houses, originated from
+royal letchery, and was replete with consequence.
+
+It opened the fountains of learning, at that day confined to the
+monastry, and the streams diffused themselves through various ranks of
+men. The revival of letters and of science made a rapid progress: It
+soon appeared, that the stagnate knowledge of the priest, was abundantly
+mixed with error; but now, running through the laity, who had no private
+interest to serve, it became more pure.
+
+It removed great numbers of men, who lay as a dead weight upon the
+community, and they became useful members of society: When younger sons
+could no longer find an asylum within the gloomy walls of a convent,
+they sought a livelihood in trade. Commerce, therefore, was taught to
+crowd her sails, cross the western ocean, fill the country with riches,
+and change an idle spirit into that of industry.
+
+By the destruction of religious houses, architecture sustained a
+temporary wound: They were by far the most magnificent and expensive
+buildings in the kingdoms, far surpassing those of the nobility; some of
+these structures are yet habitable, though the major part are gone to
+decay. But modern architecture hath since out-done the former splendor
+of the abbey, in use and elegance and sometimes with the profits arising
+from the abbey lands.
+
+It also shut the door of charity against the impostor, the helpless, and
+the idle, who had found here their chief supply; and gave rise to one of
+the best laws ever invented by human wisdom that of each parish
+supporting its own poor.
+
+By the annihilation of abbots, the church lost its weight in Parliament,
+and the vote was thrown into the hands of the temporal Lords.
+
+It prevented, in some degree, the extinction of families; for, instead
+of younger branches becoming the votaries of a monastic life, they
+became the votaries of hymen: Hence the kingdom was enriched by
+population. It eased the people of a set of masters, who had for ages
+ruled them with a rod of iron.
+
+The hands of superstition were also weakened, for the important sciences
+of astrology, miracle, and divination, supported by the cell, have been
+losing ground ever since.
+
+It likewise recovered vast tracts of land out of dead hands, and gave an
+additional vigor to agriculture, unknown to former ages. The monk, who
+had only a temporary tenancy, could not give a permanant one; therefore,
+the lands were neglected, and the produce was small: But these lands
+falling into the hands of the gentry, acquired an hereditary title. It
+was their interest; to grant leases, for a superior rent; and it was the
+tenant's interest to give that rent, for the sake of security: Hence the
+produce of land is become one of the most advantageous branches of
+British commerce.
+
+Henry, by this seisure, had more property to give away, than any King of
+England since William the Conqueror, and he generously gave away that
+which was never his own. It is curious to survey the foundation of some
+of the principal religions that have taken the lead among men.
+
+Moses founded a religion upon morals and ceremonies, one half of which
+continues with his people to this day.
+
+Christ founded one upon _love_ and _purity_; words of the simplest
+import, yet we sometimes mistake their meaning.
+
+The Bishop of Rome erected his, upon deceit and oppression; hence the
+treasures of knowledge were locked up, an inundation of riches and power
+flowed into the church, with destructive tendency.
+
+And Henry the Eighth, built his reformation upon revenge and plunder: He
+deprived the _head_ of the Romish see, of an unjust power, for
+pronouncing a just decision; and robbed the _members_, for being annexed
+to that head. Henry wished the world to believe, what he believed
+himself, that he acted from a religious principle; but his motive seems
+to have been _savage love_.
+
+Had equity directed when Henry divided this vast property, he would have
+restored it to the descendants of those persons, whose mistaken zeal had
+injured their families; but his disposal of it was ludicrous--sometimes
+he made a free gift, at others he exchanged a better estate for a a
+worse, and then gave that worse to another.
+
+I have met with a little anecdote which says, "That Henry being upon a
+tour in Devonshire, two men waited on him to beg certain lands in that
+county; while they attended in the anti-room for the royal presence, a
+stranger approached, and asked them a trifling question; they answered,
+they wished to be alone--at that moment the King entered: They fell at
+his feet: The stranger seeing them kneel, kneelt with them. They asked
+the favor intended; the King readily granted it: They bowed: The
+stranger bowed also. By this time, the stranger perceiving there was a
+valuable prize in the question, claimed his thirds; they denied his
+having anything to do with the matter: He answered, he had done as much
+as they, for they only asked and bowed, and he did the same. The dispute
+grew warm, and both parties agreed to appeal to the King, who answered,
+He took them for joint beggars, therefore had made them a joint present.
+They were then obliged to divide the land with the stranger, whose share
+amounted to 240_l_. per annum."
+
+The land formerly used for the priory of Birmingham, is now the property
+of many persons. Upon that spot, whereon stood one solitary house, now
+stand about four hundred. Upon that ground, where about thirty persons
+lived upon the industry of others, about three thousand live upon their
+own: The place, which lay as a heavy burden upon the community, now
+tends to enrich it, by adding its mite to the national commerce, and the
+national treasury.
+
+In 1775, I took down an old house of wood and plaister, which had stood
+208 years, having been erected in 1567, thirty-one years after the
+dissolution of abbies. The foundation of this old house seemed to have
+been built chiefly with stones from the priory; perhaps more than twenty
+wagon loads: These appeared in a variety of forms and sizes, highly
+finished in the gothic taste, parts of porticos, arches, windows,
+ceilings, etc. some fluted, some cyphered, and otherwise ornamented, yet
+complete as in the first day they were left by the chizel. The greatest,
+part of them were destroyed by the workmen: Some others I used again in
+the fireplace of an under kitchen. Perhaps they are the only perfect
+fragments that remain of that venerable edifice, which once stood the
+monument of ancient piety, the ornament of the town, and the envy of the
+priest out of place.
+
+
+
+JOHN A DEAN'S HOLE.
+
+At the bottom of Digbeth, about thirty yards North of the bridge, on the
+left, is a water-course that takes in a small drain from Digbeth, but
+more from the adjacent meadows, and which divides the parishes of Aston
+and Birmingham, called John a Dean's Hole; from a person of that name
+who is said to have lost his life there, and which, I think, is the only
+name of antiquity among us.
+
+The particle _de_, between the christian and surname, is of French
+extraction, and came over with William the First: It continued tolerably
+pure for about three centuries, when it in some degree assumed an
+English garb, in the particle _of_: The _a_, therefore is only a
+corruption of the latter. Hence the time of this unhappy man's
+misfortune may be fixed about the reign of Edward the Third.
+
+
+
+LENCH'S TRUST.
+
+In the reign of Henry the Eighth, William Lench, a native of this place,
+bequeathed his estate for the purpose of erecting alms houses, which are
+those at the bottom of Steelhouse-lane, for the benefit of poor widows,
+but chiefly for repairing the streets of Birmingham. Afterwards others
+granted smaller donations for the same use, but all were included under
+the name of Lench; and I believe did not unitedly amount, at that time,
+to fifteen pounds per annum.
+
+Over this scattered inheritance was erected a trust, consisting of
+gentlemen in the neighborhood of Birmingham.
+
+All human affairs tend to confusion: The hand of care is ever necessary
+to keep order. The gentlemen, therefore at the head of this charity,
+having too many modes of pleasure of their own, to pay attention to this
+little jurisdiction, disorder crept in apace; some of the lands were
+lost for want of inspection; the rents ran in arrear, and were never
+recovered; the streets were neglected, and the people complained.
+
+Misconduct, particularly of a public nature, silently grows for years,
+and sometimes for ages, 'till it becomes too bulky for support, falls in
+pieces by its own weight, and out of its very destruction rises a
+remedy. An order, therefore, from the Court of Chancery was obtained,
+for vesting the property in other hands, consisting of twenty persons,
+all of Birmingham, who have directed this valuable estate, now 227_l_.
+5s. per annum, to useful purposes. The man who can guide his own private
+concerns with success, stands the fairest chance of guiding those of
+the public.
+
+If the former trust went widely astray, perhaps their successors have
+not exactly kept the line, by advancing the leases to a rack rent: It is
+worth considering, whether the tenant of an expiring lease, hath not in
+equity, a kind of reversionary right, which ought to favour him with the
+refusal of another term, at one third under the value, in houses, and
+one fourth in land; this would give stability to the title, secure the
+rents, and cause the lessee more chearfully to improve the premises,
+which in time would enhance their value, both with regard to property
+and esteem.
+
+But where business is well conducted, complaint should cease; for
+perfection is not to be expected on this side the grave.
+
+Exclusive of a pittance to the poor widows above, the trust have a power
+of distributing money to the necessitous at Christmas and Easter, which
+is punctually performed.
+
+I think there is an excellent clause in the devisor's will, ordering his
+bailiff to pay half a crown to any two persons, who, having quarreled
+and entered into law, shall stop judicial proceedings, and make peace by
+agreement--He might have added, "And half a crown to the lawyer that
+will suffer them." I know the sum has been demanded, but am sorry I do
+_not_ know that it was ever paid.
+
+If money be reduced to one fourth its value, since the days of Lench, it
+follows, that four times the sum ought to be paid in ours; and perhaps
+ten shillings cannot be better laid out, than in the purchase of that
+peace, which tends to harmonise the community, and weed a brotherhood
+not the most amicable among us.
+
+The members choose annually, out of their own body a steward, by the
+name of bailiff Lench: The present fraternity, who direct this useful
+charity, are
+
+     Thomas Colmore, _bailiff_.
+     George Davis,
+     Win. Walsingham, _dead_,
+     Michael Lakin,
+     Benjamin May,
+     Michael Lakin, _jun_.
+     James Bedford,
+     Samuel Ray,
+     John Ryland,
+     James Jackson,
+     Stephen Bedford, _dead_,
+     Joseph Tyndall,
+     Joseph Smith,
+     Robert Mason,
+     Joseph Webster, _dead_,
+     Abel Humphreys,
+     Thomas Lawrence,
+     Samuel Pemberton,
+     Joseph Webster, _jun_.
+     John Richards.
+
+
+
+FENTHAM'S TRUST.
+
+In 1712, George Fentham, of Birmingham, devised his estate by will,
+consisting of about one hundred acres, in Erdington and Handsworth, of
+the value then, of 20_l_. per annum, vesting the same in a trust, of
+which no person could be chosen who resided more than one hundred yards
+from the Old Cross. We should be inclined to think the devisor
+entertained a singular predilection for the Old Cross, then in the pride
+of youth. But if we unfold this whimsical clause, we shall find it
+contains a shrewd intention. The choice was limited within one hundred
+yards, because the town itself, in his day, did not in some directions
+extend farther. Fentham had spent a life in Birmingham, knew well her
+inhabitants, and like some others, had found honour as well as riches
+among them: He knew also, he could with safety deposit his property in
+their hands, and was determined it should never go out,--The scheme will
+answer his purpose.
+
+The uses of this estate, now about 100_l_. per annum, are for teaching
+children to read, and for clothing ten poor widows of Birmingham: Those
+children belonging to the charity school, in green, are upon this
+foundation.
+
+     The present trust are
+     Francis Coales, and Edmund Wace Pattison.
+
+
+
+CROWLEY'S TRUST.
+
+Ann Crowley bequeathed, by her last will, in 1733, six houses in
+Steelhouse-lane, amounting to eighteen pounds per annum, for the purpose
+of supporting a school, consisting of ten children. From an attachment
+to her own sex, she constituted over this infant colony of letters a
+female teacher: Perhaps we should have seen a female trust, had they
+been equally capable of defending the property. The income of the estate
+increasing, the children are now augmented to twelve.
+
+By a subsequent clause in the devisor's will, twenty shillings a year,
+forever, issues out of two houses in the Lower Priory, to be disposed of
+at discretion of the trust.
+
+The governors of this female charity are
+
+     Thomas Colmore, _bailiff_,
+     Joseph Cartwright,
+     Thomas Lee,
+     John Francis,
+     Samuel Colmore,
+     William Russell, _esq_.
+     Josiah Rogers,
+     Joseph Hornblower,
+     John Rogers.
+
+
+
+SCOTT'S TRUST.
+
+Joseph Scott, Esq; yet living, assigned, July 7, 1779, certain messuages
+and lands in and near Walmer-lane, in Birmingham, of the present rent of
+40_l_. 18s. part of the said premises to be appropriated for the
+interment of protestant dissenters; part of the profits to be applied to
+the use of a religious society in Carr's lane, at the discretion of the
+trust; and the remainder, for the institution of a school to teach the
+mother tongue.
+
+[Illustration: _Free School_.]
+
+That part of the demise, designed for the reception of the dead, is
+about three acres, upon, which stands one messuage, now the Golden
+Fleece, joining Summer-lane on the west, and Walmer-lane on the east;
+the other, which hath Aston-street on the south, and Walmer-lane on the
+west, contains about four acres, upon which now stand ninety-one houses.
+A building lease, in 1778, was granted of these last premises, for 120
+years, at 30_l_. per annum; at the expiration of which, the rents
+will probably amount to twenty times the present income. The trust, to
+whose direction this charity is committed, are
+
+     Abel Humphrys, _bailiff_,
+     John Allen,
+     John Parteridge,
+     William Aitkins,
+     Joseph Rogers,
+     Thomas Cock,
+     John Berry,
+     William Hutton,
+     Thomas Cheek Lea,
+     Durant Hidson,
+     Samuel Tutin.
+
+
+
+FREE SCHOOL.
+
+It is entertaining to contemplate the generations of fashion, which not
+only influences our dress and manner of living, but most of the common
+actions of life, and even the modes of thinking. Some of these fashions,
+not meeting with the taste of the day, are of short duration, and
+retreat out of life as soon as they are well brought in; others take a
+longer space; but whatever fashions predominate, though ever so absurd,
+they carry an imaginary beauty, which pleases the fancy, 'till they
+become ridiculous with age, are succeeded by others, when their very
+memory becomes disgusting.
+
+Custom gives a sanction to fashion, and reconciles us even to its
+inconveniency. The fashion of this year is laughed at the next.
+
+There are fashions of every date, from five hundred years, even to one
+day; of the first, was that of erecting religious houses; of the last,
+was that of destroying them.
+
+Our ancestors, the Saxons, after their conversion to christianity,
+displayed their zeal in building churches: though the kingdom in a few
+centuries was amply supplied, yet that zeal was no way abated; it
+therefore exerted itself in the abbey.--When a man of fortune had nearly
+done with time, he began to peep into eternity through the windows of an
+abbey; or, if a villian had committed a piece of butchery, or had
+cheated the world for sixty years, there was no doubt but he could
+burrow his way to glory through the foundations of an abbey.
+
+In 1383, the sixth of Richard the Second, before the religious fervor
+subsided that had erected Deritend-chapel, Thomas de Sheldon, John
+Coleshill, John Goldsmith, and William att Slowe, all of Birmingham,
+obtained a patent from the crown to erect a building upon the spot where
+the Free School now stands in New-street, to be called _The Gild of the
+Holy Cross_; to endow it with lands in Birmingham and Edgbaston, of the
+annual value of twenty marks, for the maintenance of two priests, who
+were to perform divine service to the honor of God, our blessed Lady his
+Mother, the Holy Cross, St. Thomas, and St. Catharine.
+
+The fashion seemed to take with the inhabitants, many of whom wished to
+join the four happy men, who had obtained the patent for so pious a
+work; so that, in 1393, a second patent was procured by the bailiff and
+inhabitants of Birmingham, for confirming the gild, and making the
+addition of a brotherhood in honor of the Holy Cross, consisting of both
+sexes, with power to constitute a master and wardens, and also to erect
+a chantry of priests to celebrate divine service in the chapel of the
+gild, for the souls of the founders, and all the fraternity; for whose
+support there were given, by divers persons, eighteen messuages, three
+tofts, (pieces of ground) six acres of land, and forty shillings rent,
+lying in Birmingham and Edgbaston aforesaid.
+
+But, in the 27th of Henry the Eighth, 1536, when it was the fashion of
+that day, to multiply destruction against the religious, and their
+habitations, the annual income of the gild was valued, by the King's
+random visitors, at the sum of 31_l_. 2s. 10d. out of which, three
+priests who sung mass, had 5_l_. 6s. 8d. each; an organist, 3_l_. 13s.
+4d. the common midwife, 4s. the bell-man, 6s. 8d. with other salaries of
+inferior note.
+
+These lands continued in the crown 'till 1552, the fifth of Edward the
+Sixth, when, at the humble suit of the inhabitants, they were
+assigned to
+
+     William Symmons, _gent_.
+     Richard Smallbrook, _bailiff of the town_,
+     John Shilton,
+     William Colmore,
+     Henry Foxall,
+     William Bogee,
+     Thomas Cooper,
+     Richard Swifte,
+     Thomas Marshall,
+     John Veysy,
+     John King,
+     John Wylles,
+     William Paynton,
+     William Aschrig,
+     Robert Rastall,
+     Thomas Snowden,
+     John Eyliat,
+     William Colmore, _jun_.
+           AND
+     William Mychell,
+
+all inhabitants of Birmingham, and their successors, to be chosen upon
+death or removal, by the appellation of the Bailiff and Governors of the
+Free Grammar School of King Edward the Sixth, for the instruction of
+children in grammar; to be held of the crown in common soccage, paying
+for ever twenty shillings per annum. Over this seminary of learning were
+to preside a master and usher, whose united income seems to have been
+only twenty pounds per annum. Both are of the clergy. The hall of the
+gild was used for a school-room. In the glass of the windows was
+painted the figure of Edmund Lord Ferrers; who, marrying, about 350
+years ago, the heiress of the house of Birmingham, resided upon the
+manor, and seems to have been a benefactor to the gild, with his arms,
+empaling Belknap; and also, those of Stafford, of Grafton, of
+Birmingham, and Bryon.
+
+The gild stood at that time at a distance from the town, surrounded with
+inclosures; the highway to Hales Owen, now New-street, running by the
+north. No house could be nearer than those in the High-street.
+
+The first erection, wood and plaister, which had stood about 320 years,
+was taken down in 1707, to make way for the present flat building. In
+1756, a set of urns were placed upon the parapet, which give relief to
+that stiff air, so hurtful to the view: at the same time, the front was
+_intended_ to have been decorated, by erecting half a dozen dreadful
+pillars, like so many over-grown giants marshalled in battalia, to guard
+the entrance, which the boys wish to shun; and, being sufficiently
+tarnished with Birmingham smoak, may become dangerous to pregnancy. Had
+the wings of this building fallen two or three yards back, and the line
+of the street been preserved by a light palisade, it would have risen in
+the scale of beauty, and removed the gloomy aspect of the area.
+
+The tower is in a good taste, except being rather too narrow in the
+base, and is ornamented with a sleepy figure of the donor, Edward the
+Sixth, dressed in a royal mantle, with the ensigns of the Garter;
+holding a bible and sceptre.
+
+The lands that support this foundation, and were in the reign of Henry
+the Eighth, valued at thirty-one pounds per annum, are now, by the
+advance of landed property, the reduction of money, and the increase of
+commerce, about 600_l_.
+
+The present governors of this royal donation are
+
+     John Whateley, _bailiff_,
+     _Rev_. Charles Newling,
+     Abraham Spooner, _esq_;
+     Thomas Russell,
+     John Ash, _M.D._
+     Richard Rabone,
+     Francis Goodall,
+     Francis Parrott, _esq_;
+     William Russell, _esq_;
+     John Cope, _dead_,
+     Thomas Hurd,
+     Thomas Westley,
+     Wm. John Banner,
+     Thomas Salt,
+     William Holden,
+     Thomas Carless,
+     John Ward,
+     Edward Palmer, _esq_;
+     Francis Coales,
+          AND
+     Robert Coales.
+
+[Illustration: _Charity School_.]
+
+Over this nursery of science presides a chief master, with an annual
+salary of one hundred and twenty pounds; a second master sixty; two
+ushers; a master in the art of writing, and another in that of drawing,
+at forty pounds each: a librarian, ten: seven exhibitioners at the
+University of Oxford, twenty-five pounds each. Also, eight inferior
+schools in various parts of the town, are constituted and fed by this
+grand reservoir, at fifteen pounds each, which begin the first rudiments
+of learning.
+
+CHIEF MASTERS.
+
+     John Brooksby,            1685.
+     ---- Tonkinson.
+     John Husted.
+     Edward Mainwaring,        1730.
+     John Wilkinson,           1746
+     Thomas Green,             1759.
+     William Brailsford,       1766.
+     Rev. Thomas Price,        1776.
+
+
+
+CHARITY SCHOOL:
+
+COMMONLY,
+
+The BLUE SCHOOL.
+
+There seems to be three clases of people, who demand the care of
+society; infancy, old age, and casual infirmity. When a man cannot
+assist himself, it is necessary he should be assisted. The first of
+these only is before us. The direction of youth seems one of the
+greatest concerns in moral life, and one that is the least understood:
+to form the generation to come, is of the last importance. If an
+ingenious master hath flogged the a b c into an innocent child, he
+thinks himself worthy of praise. A lad is too much terrified to march
+that path, which is marked out by the rod. If the way to learning
+abounds with punishment, he will quickly detest it; if we make his duty
+a task, we lay a stumbling-block before him that he cannot surmount.
+
+We rarely know a tutor succeed in training up youth, who is a friend to
+harsh treatment.
+
+Whence is it, that we so seldom find affection subsisting between master
+and scholar? From the moment they unite, to the end of their lives,
+disgust, like a cloud, rises in the mind, which reason herself can
+never dispel.
+
+The boy may pass the precincts of childhood, and tread the stage of life
+upon an equality with every man in it, except his old school-master; the
+dread of him seldom wears off; the name of Busby founded with horror for
+half a century after he had laid down the rod. I have often been
+delighted when I have seen a school of boys break up; the joy that
+diffuses itself over every face and action, shews infant nature in her
+gayest form--the only care remaining is, to forget on one side of the
+walls what was taught on the other.
+
+One would think, if _coming out_ gives so much satisfaction, there must
+be something very detestable _within_.
+
+If the master thinks he has performed his task when he has taught the
+boy a few words, he as much mistakes his duty, as he does the road to
+learning: this is only the first stage of his journey. He has the man to
+form for society with ten thousand sentiments.
+
+It is curious to enter one of these prisons of science, and observe the
+children not under the least government: the master without authority,
+the children without order; the master scolding, the children riotous.
+We never _harden_ the wax to receive the impression. They act in a
+natural sphere, but he in opposition: he seems the only person in the
+school who merits correction; he, unfit to teach, is making them unfit
+to be taught.
+
+A man does not consider whether his talents are adapted for teaching, so
+much, as whether he can _profit_ by teaching: thus, when a man hath
+taught for twenty years, he may be only fit to go to school.
+
+To that vast group of instructors, therefore, whether in, or out of
+petticoats, who teach, without having been taught; who mistake the tail
+for the feat of learning, instead of the head; who can neither direct
+the passions of others nor their own; it may be said, "Quit the trade,
+if bread can be procured out of it. It is useless to pursue a work of
+error: the ingenious architect must take up your rotten foundation,
+before he can lay one that is solid."
+
+But, to the discerning few, who can penetrate the secret windings of the
+heart; who know that nature may be directed, but can never be inverted;
+that instruction should ever coincide with the temper of the instructed,
+or we sail against the wind; that it is necessary the pupil should
+relish both the teacher and the lesson; which, if accepted like a bitter
+draught, may easily be sweetened to his taste: to these valuable few,
+who, like the prudent florist, possessed of a choice root, which he
+cultivates with care, adding improvement to every generation; it may be
+said, "Banish tyranny out of the little dominions over which you are
+absolute sovereigns; introduce in its stead two of the highest ornaments
+of humanity, love and reason." Through the medium of the first, the
+master and the lesson may be viewed without horror; when the teacher and
+the learner are upon friendly terms, the scholar will rather invite than
+repel the assistance of the master. By the second, reason, the teacher
+will support his full authority. Every period of life in which a man is
+capable of attending to instruction, he is capable of attending to
+reason: this will answer every end of punishment, and something more.
+
+Thus, an irksome task will be changed into a friendly intercourse.
+
+This School, by a date in the front, was erected in 1724, in St.
+Philip's church-yard; is a plain, airy, and useful building, ornamented
+over the door with the figures of a boy and a girl in the uniform of the
+school, and executed with a degree of elegance, that a Roman statuary
+would not have blushed to own.
+
+This artificial family consists of about ninety scholars, of both sexes;
+over which preside a governor and governess, both single. Behind the
+apartments, is a large area appropriated for the amusement of the infant
+race, necessary as their food. Great decorum is preserved in this little
+society; who are supported by annual contribution, and by a collection
+made after sermon twice a year.
+
+At twelve, or fourteen, the children are removed into the commercial
+world, and often acquire an affluence that enables them to support that
+foundation, which formerly supported them.
+
+It is worthy of remark, that those institutions which are immediately
+upheld by the temporary hand of the giver, flourish in continual spring,
+and become real benefits to society; while those which enjoy a perpetual
+income, are often tinctured with supineness, and dwindle into
+obscurity.--The first, usually answer the purpose of the living; the
+last, seldom that of the dead.
+
+
+
+DISSENTING CHARITY-SCHOOL.
+
+About twenty years ago, the Dissenters established a school, upon nearly
+the same plan as the former, consisting of about eighteen boys and eight
+girls; with this improvement, that the boys are innured to moderate
+labour, and the girls to house-work.
+
+The annual subscriptions seem to be willingly paid, thankfully received,
+and judiciously expended.
+
+[Illustration: _Work House_.]
+
+
+
+WORKHOUSE.
+
+During the long reign of the Plantagenets in England, there do not seem
+many laws in the code then existing for the regulation of the poor:
+distress was obliged to wander for a temporary and uncertain
+relief:--idleness usually mixed with it.
+
+The nobility then kept plain and hospitable houses, where want
+frequently procured a supply; but, as these were thinly scattered, they
+were inadequate to the purpose.
+
+As the abbey was much more frequent, and as a great part of the riches
+of the kingdom passed through the hands of the monk, and charity being
+consonant to the profession of that order, the weight of the poor
+chiefly lay upon the religious houses; this was the general mark for the
+indigent, the idle, and the impostor, who carried meanness in their
+aspect, and the words _Christ Jesus_ in their mouth. Hence arise the
+epithets of stroller, vagrant, and sturdy beggar, with which modern law
+is intimately acquainted.
+
+It was too frequently observed, that there was but a slender barrier
+between begging and stealing, that necessity seldom marks the limits of
+honesty, and that a country abounding with beggars, abounds also with
+plunderers. A remnant of this urgent race, so justly complained of,
+which disgrace society, and lay the country under contribution, are
+still suffered, by the supineness of the magistrate.
+
+When the religious houses, and all their property, in 1536, fell a
+sacrifice to the vindictive wrath of Henry the Eighth, the poor lost
+their dependence, and as want knows no law, robbery became frequent;
+justice called loudly for punishment, and the hungry for bread; which
+gave rise, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, to that most excellent
+institution, of erecting every parish into a distinct fraternity, and
+obliging them to support their own members; therefore, it is difficult
+to assign a reason, why the blind should go abroad to _see_ fresh
+countries, or the man _without feet to travel_.
+
+Though the poor were nursed by parochial law, yet workhouses did not
+become general 'till 1730: that of Birmingham was erected in 1733, at
+the expence of 1173_l_. 3s. 5d. and which, the stranger would rather
+suppose, was the residence of a gentleman, than that of four hundred
+paupers. The left wing, called the infirmary, was added in 1766, at the
+charge of 400_l_. and the right, a place for labour, in 1779, at the
+expence of 700_l_. more.
+
+Let us a second time, consider the 50,000 people who occupy this _grand
+toy shop of Europe_[6] as one great family, where, though the property
+of individuals is ascertained and secured, yet a close and beneficial
+compact subsists. We behold the members of this vast family marked with
+every style of character. Forlorn infancy, accidental calamity, casual
+sickness, old age, and even inadvertent distress, all find support from
+that charitable fund erected by industry. No part of the family is
+neglected: he that cannot find bread for himself, finds a ready supply;
+he that can, ought to do so. By cultivating the young suckers of
+infancy, we prudently establish the ensuing generation, which will, in
+the commercial walk, abundantly repay the expence: temporary affliction
+of every kind also merits pity; even those distresses which arise from
+folly ought not to be neglected: the parish hath done well to many a
+man, who would not do well to himself; if imprudence cannot be banished
+out of the world, companion ought not: he that cannot direct himself,
+must be under the direction of another.--If the parish supported none
+but the prudent, she would have but few to support. The last stage of
+human life demands, as well as the first, the help of the family. The
+care of infancy arises from an expectation of a return; that of old age
+from benefits already received. Though a man may have passed through
+life without growing rich, he may, by his labour, have contributed to
+make others so; though he could not pursue the road to affluence
+himself, he may have been the means of directing others to find it.
+
+[Footnote 6: Burke.]
+
+The number of persons depending upon this weekly charity in Birmingham
+were, April 14, 1781, about 5240.
+
+Whether the mode of distributing the bounty of the community, is
+agreeable to the intentions of legislature, or the ideas of humanity, is
+a doubt. For in some parishes the unfortunate paupers have the
+additional misery of being sold to a mercenary wretch to starve upon
+twelve pence a head. It is matter of surprise that the magistrate should
+wink at this cruelty; but it is matter of pleasure, that no accusation
+comes within the verge of my historical remarks, for the wretched of
+Birmingham are not made more so by ill treatment, but meet with a
+kindness acceptable to distress. One would think _that_ situation could
+not be despicable, which is often _wished for_, and often _sought_, that
+of becoming one of the poor of Birmingham.
+
+We cannot be conversant in parochial business, without observing a
+littleness predominant in most parishes, by using every finesse to
+relieve themselves of paupers, and throwing them upon others. Thus the
+oppressed, like the child between two fathers, is supported by neither.
+
+There is also an enormity, which, though agreeable to law, can never be
+justified by the rules of equity--That a man should spend the principal
+part of his life in a parish, add wealth to it by his labour, form
+connexions in it, bring up a family which shall all belong to it, but
+having never gained a settlement himself, shall, in old age be removed
+by an order, to perish among strangers. In 1768, a small property fell
+into my hands, situated in a neighbouring village; I found the tenant
+had entered upon the premises at the age of twenty-two; that he had
+resided upon them, with poverty and a fair character, during the long
+space of forty six years--I told him he was welcome to spend the residue
+of his life upon the spot gratis. He continued there ten years after,
+when finding an inability to procure support from labour, and meeting
+with no assistance from the parish in which he had been resident for an
+age, he resigned the place with tears, in 1778, after an occupation of
+fifty six years, and was obliged to recoil upon his own parish, about
+twelve miles distant; to be farmed with the rest of the poor; and
+where, he afterwards assured me, "They were murdering him by inches." --
+But no complaint of this ungrateful kind lies against that people whose
+character I draw.
+
+Perhaps it may be a wise measure, in a place like Birmingham, where the
+manufactures flourish in continual sunshine, not to be over strict with
+regard to removals. Though it may be burdensome to support the poor of
+another parish, yet perhaps it is the least of two evils: to remove old
+age which hath spent a life among us, is ungenerous; to remove temporary
+sickness, is injurious to trade; and to remove infancy is impolitic,
+being upon the verge of accommodating the town with a life of labour. It
+may be more prudent to remove a rascal than a pauper. Forty pounds hath
+been spent in removing a family, which would not otherwise have cost
+forty shillings, and whose future industry might have added many times
+that sum to the common capital. The highest pitch of charity, is that of
+directing inability to support itself. Idleness suits no part of a
+people, neither does it find a place here; every individual ought to
+contribute to the general benefit, by his head or his hands: if he is
+arrived at the western verge of life, when the powers of usefulness
+decline, let him repose upon his fortune; if no such thing exists, let
+him rest upon his friends, and if this prop fail, let the public nurse
+him, with a tenderness becoming humanity.
+
+We may observe, that the manufactures, the laborious part of mankind,
+the poor's rates, and the number of paupers, will everlastingly go hand
+in hand; they will increase and decrease together; we cannot annihilate
+one, but the others will follow, and odd as the expression may sound, we
+become rich by payment and poverty. If we discharge the poor, who shall
+act the laborious part? Stop the going out of one shilling, and it will
+prevent the coming in of two.
+
+At the introduction of the poor's laws, under Elizabeth, two pence
+halfpenny in the pound rent was collected every fortnight, for future
+support: time has made an alteration in the system, which is now
+six-pence in the pound, and collected as often as found necessary. The
+present levy amounts to above 10,000_l_. per ann. but is not wholly
+collected.
+
+As the overseers are generally people of property, payment in advance is
+not scrupulously observed.
+
+It was customary, at the beginning of this admirable system of
+jurisprudence, to constitute two overseers in each parish; but the
+magnitude of Birmingham pleaded for four, which continued 'till the year
+1720, when a fifth was established: in 1729 they were augmented to half
+a dozen; the wishes of some, who are frighted at office, rise to the
+word _dozen_, a number very familiar in the Birmingham art of reckoning:
+but let it be remembered, that a vestry filled with overseers is not
+calculated for the meridian of business; that the larger the body, the
+slower the motion; and that the time and the necessities of the poor
+demand dispatch.
+
+From the annual disbursements in assisting the poor, which I shall here
+exhibit from undoubted evidence, the curious will draw some useful
+lessons respecting the increase of manufactures, of population, and
+of property.
+
+No memoirs are found prior to 1676.
+
+     Year.        Disbursed.             Year.       Disbursed.
+
+                l.     s.    d.                    l.     s.    d.
+
+     1676       328    17    7           1684     451     0     5-1/2
+     1677       347     9   10-1/2       1685     324     2     8
+     1678       398     8    0-1/2       1686     338    12    11
+     1679            omitted             1687     343    15     6
+     1680       342    11    2-1/2       1688     308    17     9-1/2
+     1681       363    15    7           1689     395    14    11
+     1682       337     2    8-1/2       1690     396    15     2-1/2
+     1683       410    12    1           1691     354     1     5-1/2
+     1691       360     0    4-1/2       1720     950    14     0
+     1693       376    12    3-1/2       1721    1024     6     6-1/2
+     1694       423    12    1-1/2       1722     939    18     0-1/2
+     1695       454     2    1-1/2       1739     678     8     5
+     1696       385     8   11-1/2       1740     938     0     6
+     1697       446    11    5           1742     888     1     1-1/2
+     1698       505     0    2-1/2       1743     799     6     1
+     1699       592    11    2           1744     851    12     5-1/2
+     1700       661     7    4-1/2       1745     746     2     7
+     1701       487    13    0           1746    1003    14     9-1/2
+     1702       413    14    0-1/2       1747    1071     7     3
+     1703       476    13   10           1748    1175     8     7-1/2
+     1704       555    11   11-1/2       1749    1132    11     7-1/2
+     1705       510     0   10           1750    1167    16     6
+     1706       519     3    6           1751    1352     0     8-1/2
+     1707       609     0    4-1/2       1752    1355     6     4
+     1708       649    15    9           1756    3255    18     3-1/4
+     1709       744    17    0-1/2       1757    3402     7     2-1/2
+     1710       960     8    8-1/2       1758    3306    12     5
+     1711      1055     2   10           1759    2708     9     5-3/4
+     1712       734     0   11           1760    3221    18     7
+     1713       674     7    6           1761    2935     4     1-1/2
+     1714       722    15    6-1/2       1762    3078    18     2-1/2
+     1715       718     2    1           1763    3330    13    11-1/2
+     1716       788     3    2-1/2       1764    3963    11     0-1/2
+     1717       764     0    6-1/2       1765    3884    18     9
+     1718       751     2    4           1766    4716     2    10-1/2
+     1719      1094    10    7           1767    4940     2     2
+     1768      4798     2    5           1775    6509    10    10
+     1769      5082     0    9           1776    5203     4     9-1/2
+     1770      5125    13    2-1/4       1777    6012     5     5
+     1771      6132     5   10           1778    6866    10     8-1/2
+     1772      6139     6    5-1/2       1779    8081    19     7-1/2
+     1773      5584    18    8-1/2       1780    9910     4    11-3/4
+     1774      6115    17   11
+
+We cannot pass through this spacious edifice without being pleased with
+its internal oeconomy; order influences the whole, nor can the
+cleanliness be exceeded: but I am extremely concerned, that I cannot
+pass through without complaint.
+
+There are evils in common life which admit of no remedy; but there are
+very few which may not be lessened by prudence.
+
+The modes of nursing infancy in this little dominion of poverty, are
+truly defective. It is to be feared the method intended to train up
+inhabitants for the earth, annually furnishes the regions of the grave.
+
+Why is so little attention paid to the generation who are to tread the
+stage after us? as if we suffered them to be cut off that we might keep
+possession for ever. The unfortunate orphan that none will own, none
+will regard: distress, in whatever form it appears, excites compassion,
+but particularly in the helpless. Whoever puts an infant into the arms
+of decrepit old age, passes upon it a sentence of death, and happy is
+that infant who finds a reprieve. The tender sprig is not likely to
+prosper under the influence of the tree which attracts its nurture;
+applies that nurture to itself, where the calls occasioned by decay are
+the most powerful--An old woman and a sprightly nurse, are characters as
+opposite as the antipodes.
+
+If we could but exercise a proper care during the first two years, the
+child would afterwards nurse itself; there is not a more active animal
+in the creation, no part of its time, while awake, is unemployed: why
+then do we invert nature, and confine an animal to still life, in what
+is called a school, who is designed for action?
+
+We cannot with indifference behold infants crouded into a room by the
+hundred, commanded perhaps by some disbanded soldier, termed a
+school-master, who having changed the sword for the rod, continues much
+inclined to draw blood with his arms; where every individual not only re
+breathes his own air, but that of another: the whole assembly is
+composed of the feeble, the afflicted, the maimed, and the orphan; the
+result of whose confinement, is a fallow aspect, and a sickly frame: but
+the paltry grains of knowledge gleaned up by the child in this barren
+field of learning, will never profit him two-pence in future; whereas,
+if we could introduce a robust habit, he would one day be a treasure to
+the community, and a greater to himself. Till he is initiated into
+labour, a good foundation for health may be laid in air and exercise.
+
+Whenever I see half a dozen of these forlorn innocents quartered upon a
+farm house, a group of them taking the air under the conduct of a
+senior, or marshalled in rank and file to attend public worship, I
+consider the overseer who directed it, as possessed of tender feelings:
+their orderly attire, and simplicity of manners, convey a degree of
+pleasure to the mind; and I behold in them, the future support of that
+commercial interest; upon which they now lie as a burden.
+
+If I have dwelt long upon the little part of our species, let it plead
+my excuse to say, I cannot view a human being, however diminutive in
+stature, or depressed in fortune, without considering, _I view
+an equal_.
+
+
+
+OLD CROSS,
+
+So called, because prior to the Welch Cross; before the erection of this
+last, it was simply called, The Cross.
+
+The use of the market cross is very ancient, though not equal to the
+market, for this began with civilization.
+
+Christianity first appeared in Britain under the Romans; but in the
+sixth century, under the Saxon government, it had made such an amazing
+progress, that every man seemed to be not only _almost a Christian_, but
+it was unfashionable not to have been a zealous one. The cross of Christ
+was frequently mentioned in conversation, and afterwards became an oath.
+It was hacknied about the streets, sometimes in the pocket, or about the
+neck; sometimes it was fixed upon the church, which we see at this day,
+and always hoisted to the top of the steeple. The rudiments of learning
+began with the cross; hence it stands to this moment as a frontispiece
+to the battledore, which likewise bears its name.
+
+This important article of religion was thought to answer two valuable
+purposes, that of collecting the people; and containing a charm against
+ghosts, evil spirits, etc. with the idea of which, that age was
+much infested.
+
+To accomplish these singular ends, it was blended into the common
+actions of life, and at that period it entered the market-place. A few
+circular steps from the centre of which issued an elevated pillar,
+terminating in a cross, was the general fashion throughout the kingdom;
+and perhaps our Vulcanian ancestors knew no other for twelve hundred
+years, this being renewed about once every century, 'till the year 1702,
+when the present cross was erected, at the expence of 80_l_. 9s. 1d.
+This was the first upon that spot, ever honoured with a roof: the under
+part was found a useful shelter for the market-people. The room over it
+was designed for the court leet, and other public business, which during
+the residence of the lords upon the manor, had been transacted in one of
+their detached apartments, yet in being: but after the removal of the
+lords, in 1537, the business was done in the Leather-hall, which
+occupied the whole east end of New-street, a covered gateway of twelve
+feet excepted, and afterwards in the Old Cross.
+
+[Illustration: _Welch Cross_.]
+
+[Illustration: _Old Cross_.]
+
+
+
+WELCH CROSS.
+
+If a reader, fond of antiquity, should object, that I have comprized the
+_Ancient state of Birmingham_ in too small a compass, and that I ought
+to have extended it beyond the 39th page; I answer, when a man has not
+much to say, he ought to be hissed out of authorship, if he picks the
+pocket of his friend, by saying much; neither does antiquity end with
+that page, for in some of the chapters, I have led him through the mazes
+of time, to present him with a modern prospect.
+
+In erecting a new building, we generally use the few materials of the
+old, as far as they will extend. Birmingham may be considered as one
+vast and modern edifice, of which the ancient materials make but a very
+small part: the extensive _new_, seems to surround the minute _old_, as
+if to protect it.
+
+Upon the spot where the Welch Cross now stands, probably stood a
+finger-post, to direct the stranger that could read, for there were not
+many, the roads to Wolverhampton and Lichfield.
+
+Though the ancient post, and the modern cross, might succeed each other,
+yet this difference was between them, one stood at a distance from the
+town, the other stands near its centre.
+
+By some antique writings it appears, that 200 years ago this spot bore
+the name of the Welch End, perhaps from the number of Welch in its
+neighbourhood; or rather, from its being the great road to that
+principality, and was at that time the extremity of the town, odd houses
+excepted. This is corroborated by a circumstance I have twice mentioned
+already, that when Birmingham unfortunately fell under the frowns of
+Prince Rupert, 137 years ago, and he determined to reduce it to ashes
+for succouring an enemy, it is reasonable to suppose he began at the
+exterior, which was then in Bull-street, about twelve houses above
+the cross.
+
+If we were ignorant of the date of this cross, the style of the building
+itself would inform us, that it rose in the beginning of the present
+century, and was designed, as population encreased, for a Saturday
+market; yet, although it is used in some degree for that purpose, the
+people never heartily adopted the measure.
+
+In a town like Birmingham, a commodious market-place, for we have
+nothing that bears the name, would be extremely useful. Efforts have
+been used to make one, of a large area, now a bowling-green, in
+Corbet's-alley; but I am persuaded the market-people would suffer the
+grass to grow in it, as peaceably as in their own fields. We are not
+easily drawn from ancient custom, except by interest.
+
+For want of a convenient place where the sellers may be collected into
+one point, they are scattered into various parts of the town. Corn is
+sold by sample, in the Bull-ring; the eatable productions of the garden,
+in the same place: butchers stalls occupy Spiceal-street; one would
+think a narrow street was preferred, that no customer should be suffered
+to pass by. Flowers, shrubs, etc. at the ends of Philip-street and
+Moor-street: beds of earthen-ware lie in the middle of the foot ways;
+and a double range of insignificant stalls, in the front of the
+shambles, choak up the passage: the beast market is kept in Dale-end:
+that for pigs, sheep and horses in New-street: cheese issues from one of
+our principal inns: fruit, fowls and butter are sold at the Old Cross:
+nay, it is difficult to mention a place where they are not. We may
+observe, if a man hath an article to sell which another wants to buy,
+they will quickly find each other out.
+
+Though the market-inconveniencies are great, a man seldom brings a
+commodity for the support of life, or of luxury, and returns without a
+customer. Yet even this crowded state of the market, dangerous to the
+feeble, hath its advantages: much business is transacted in a little
+time; the first customer is obliged to use dispatch, before he is
+justled out by a second: to _stand all the day idle in the market
+place_, is not known among us.
+
+The upper room of this cross is appropriated for a military guard-house.
+We find, December 16, 1723, an order made at a public meeting, that "A
+guard house should be erected in a convenient part of the town, because
+neither of the crosses were eligible." But this old order, like some of
+the new, was never carried into execution. As no complaint lies against
+the cross, in our time, we may suppose it suitable for the purpose; and
+I know none but its prisoners that pronounce against it.
+
+
+
+SAINT MARTIN's.
+
+It has been remarked, that the antiquity of this church is too remote
+for historical light.
+
+The curious records of those dark ages, not being multiplied, and
+preserved by the art of printing, have fallen a prey to time, and the
+revolution of things.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+There is reason for fixing the foundation in the eighth century, perhaps
+rather sooner, and it then was at a small distance from the buildings.
+The town stood upon the hill, whose centre was the Old Cross;
+consequently, the ring of houses that now surrounds the church, from the
+bottom of Edgbaston-street, part of Spiceal-street, the Bull-ring,
+Corn-cheaping, and St. Martin's-lane, could not exist.
+
+I am inclined to think that the precincts of St. Martin's have undergone
+a mutilation, and that the place which has obtained the modern name of
+Bull-ring, and which is used as a market for corn and herbs, was once an
+appropriation of the church, though not used for internment; because the
+church is evidently calculated for a town of some size, to which the
+present church-yard no way agrees, being so extremely small that the
+ancient dead must have been continually disturbed, to make way for the
+modern, that little spot being their only receptacle for 900 years.
+
+A son not only succeeds his father in the possession of his property and
+habitation, but also in the grave, where he can scarcely enter without
+expelling half a dozen of his ancestors.
+
+The antiquity of St. Martin's will appear by surveying the adjacent
+ground. From the eminence upon which the High-street stands, proceeds a
+steep, and regular descent into Moor-street, Digbeth, down
+Spiceal-street, Lee's-lane, and Worcester-street. This descent is broken
+only by the church-yard; which, through a long course of internment, for
+ages, is augmented into a considerable hill, chiefly composed of the
+refuse of life. We may, therefore, safely remark, in this place, _the
+dead are raised up_. Nor shall we be surprised at the rapid growth of
+the hill, when we consider this little point of land was alone that
+hungry grave which devoured the whole inhabitants, during the long ages
+of existence, till the year 1715, when St. Philip's was opened. The
+curious observer will easily discover, the fabric has lost that symmetry
+which should ever attend architecture, by the growth of the soil about
+it, causing a low appearance in the building, so that instead of the
+church burying the dead, the dead would, in time, have buried
+the church.
+
+It is reasonable to allow, the original approach into this place was by
+a flight of steps, not by descent, as is the present case; and that the
+church-yard was surrounded by a low wall. As the ground swelled by the
+accumulation of the dead, wall after wall was added to support the
+growing soil; thus the fence and the hill sprang up together; but this
+was demonstrated, August 27, 1781, when, in removing two or three old
+houses, to widen St. Martin's Lane, they took down the church-yard wall,
+which was fifteen feet high without, and three within. This proved to be
+only an outward case, that covered another wall twelve feet high; in the
+front of which was a stone, elevated eight feet, and inscribed, "Robert
+Dallaway, Francis Burton." Church-wardens, anno dom. (supposed) "1310."
+As there is certain evidence, that the church is, much older then the
+above date, we should suspect there had been another fence many ages
+prior to this. But it was put beyond a doubt, when the workmen came to a
+third wall, four feet high, covered with antique coping, probably
+erected with the fabric itself, which would lead us far back into the
+Saxon times.
+
+The removal of the buildings to accommodate the street, the construction
+of the wall, beautified with pallisades, is _half_ an elegant plan, well
+executed. If we can persuade ourselves to perform the other half, by
+removing the remainder of the buildings, and continuing the line to the
+steps, at the bottom of Spiceal-street, the work will stand in the front
+of modern improvement.
+
+In the south-east part of the wall, covered by the engine-house, upon
+another stone, nearly obliterated, is, John Enser, Richard Higginson,
+Church-wardens, 1709.
+
+Other church-yards are ornamented with the front of the buildings, but
+that of St. Martin submits to the rear.
+
+The present church is of stone; the first upon the premises; and perhaps
+the oldest building in these parts.
+
+As the country does not produce stone of a lasting texture, and as the
+rough blasts of 900 years, had made inroads upon the fabric, it was
+thought necessary, in 1690, to case both church and steeple with brick,
+except the spire, which is an elegant one. The bricks and the
+workmanship are excellent.
+
+Though the fabric is not void of beauty, yet being closely surrounded
+with houses, which destroy the medium of view, that beauty is
+totally hid.
+
+The steeple has, within memory, been three times injured by lightning.
+Forty feet of the spire, in a decayed state, was taken down and rebuilt
+in 1781, with stone from Attleborough, near Nuneaton; and strengthened
+by a spindle of iron, running up its centre 105 feet long, secured to
+the side walls every ten feet, by braces--the expence, 165_l_. 16s.
+
+Inclosed is a ring of twelve musical bells, and though I am not master
+of the bob major and tripple-grandfire, yet am well informed, the
+ringers are masters of the bell-rope: but to excel in Birmingham is
+not new.
+
+The seats in the church would disgrace a meaner parish than that of
+Birmingham; one should be tempted to think, they are the first ever
+erected upon the spot, without taste or order: the timber is become hard
+with age, and to the honour of the inhabitants, bright with use. Each
+sitting is a private freehold, and is farther disgraced, like the coffin
+of a pauper, with the paltry initials of the owner's name. These divine
+abodes are secured with the coarse padlocks of a field gate.
+
+By an attentive survey of the seats, we plainly discover the increasing
+population of Birmingham. When the church was erected, there was
+doubtless sufficient room for the inhabitants, and it was probably the
+only place for public worship during 800 years: as the town increased,
+gallery after gallery was erected, 'till no conveniency was found for
+more. Invention was afterwards exerted to augment the number of
+sittings; every recess capable only of admitting the body of an infant,
+was converted into a seat, which indicates, the continual increase of
+people, and, that a spirit of devotion was prevalent among them.
+
+The floor of the church is greatly injured by internment, as is also the
+light, by the near approach of the buildings, notwithstanding, in 1733,
+the middle roof of the chancel was taken off, and the side walls raised
+about nine feet, to admit a double range of windows.
+
+Dugdale, who wrote in 1640, gives us twenty-two drawings of the arms, in
+the windows, of those gentry who had connection with Birmingham.
+
+     1.  Astley.                     10.  Freville.
+     2.  Sumeri.                     11.  Ancient Birmingham.
+     3.  Ancient Birmingham.         12.  Knell.
+     4.  Ancient Birmingham,         13.  Fitz-Warrer.
+        the 2nd house.               14.  Montalt.
+     5.  Seagreve.                   15.  Modern Birmingham.
+     6.  Modern Birmingham.          16.  Hampden.
+     7.  Ancient and modern          17.  Burdet.
+        Birmingham,                  18.  Montalt.
+        quartered.                   19.  Modern Birmingham.
+     8.  Peshale quartering          20.  Beauchamp.
+        Bottetort.                   21.  Ferrers.
+     9.  Birmingham quartering       22.  Latimere.
+        Wyrley.
+
+These twenty-two coats are now reduced to three, which are,
+
+Number two, in the east window of the chancel, which is _or, two lions
+passant azure_, the arms of the family of Someri, Lords of
+Dudley-castle, and superior Lords of Birmingham; which having been
+extinct about 450 years, the coat of arms must have been there at least
+during that period.
+
+Number three, in the south window of the chancel, _azure, a bend lozenge
+of five points, or_, the ancient arms of the family of Birmingham, which
+perhaps is upwards of 400 years old, as that coat was not used after the
+days of Edward the First, except in quarterings.
+
+And number ten, in the north window, _or, a cross, indented gules_;
+also, _five fleurs de lis_, the ancient arms of Freville, Lords of
+Tamworth, whose ancestor, Marmion, received a grant of that castle from
+William the Conqueror, and whose descendant, Lord Viscount Townshend, is
+the present proprietor. Perhaps this coat hath been there 400 years, for
+the male line of the Freville family, was extinct in the reign of Henry
+the Fourth.
+
+Under the south window of the chancel, by the door, are two monuments
+a-breast, of white marble, much injured by the hand of rude time, and
+more by that of the ruder boys. The left figure, which is very ancient,
+I take to be William de Birmingham, who was made prisoner by the French,
+at the siege of Bellegard, in the 25th of Edward the First, 1297. He
+wears a short mantle, which was the dress of that time, a sword,
+expressive of the military order, and he also bears a shield with the
+bend lozenge, which seems never to have been borne after the above date.
+
+The right hand figure, next the wall, is visibly marked with a much
+older date, perhaps about the conquest. The effigy does not appear in a
+military character, neither did the Lords of that period. The value of
+these ancient relicts have long claimed the care of the wardens, to
+preserve them from the injurious hand of the boys, and the foot of the
+window cleaner, by securing them with a pallisade. Even Westminster
+abbey, famous for departed glory, cannot produce a monument of equal
+antiquity.
+
+At the foot of these, is another of the same materials, belonging to one
+of the Marrows, Lords of Birmingham.
+
+Under the north east window, is a monument of white marble, belonging to
+one of the Lords of the house of Birmingham: but this is of modern date
+compared with the others, perhaps not more than 300 years; he bearing
+the _parte per pale, indented or, and gules_.
+
+In the church is an excellent organ, and in the steeple a set of chimes,
+where the ingenious artist treats us with a fresh tune every day of
+the week.
+
+
+
+Upon one of the CENTRE PILLARS.
+
+Here lieth the bodies of William Colmore, Gent. who died in 1607, and
+Ann his wife, in 1591: also the body of Henry Willoughby, Esq; father to
+Frances, wife of William Colmore, now living; he died 1609.
+
+
+
+NORTH GALLERY.
+
+John Crowley, in 1709, gave twenty shillings per annum, payable out of
+the lowermost house in the Priory, to be distributed in bread, in the
+church on St. John's day, to house-keepers in Birmingham, who receive
+no pay.
+
+Joseph Hopkins died in 1683, who gave 200_l_. with which an estate was
+purchased in Sutton Coldfield; the rents to be laid out in coats, gowns,
+and other relief for the poor of Birmingham: he also gave 200_l_. for
+the poor of Wednesbury: 200_l_. to distresed quakers: 5_l_. 10s. to the
+poor of Birmingham, and the same sum to those of Wednesbury, at
+his death.
+
+
+
+SAME GALLERY.
+
+Whereas the church of St. Martin's, in Birmingham, had only 52 ounces of
+plate, in 1708, for the use of the communion table; it was, by a
+voluntary subscription of the inhabitants, increased to 275--Two
+flaggons, two cups, two covers and pattens, with cases: the whole,
+80_l_. 16s. 6d.
+
+Richard Banner ordered one hundred pounds to be laid out in lands within
+ten miles of Birmingham; which sum, lying at interest, and other small
+donations being added, amounted to 170_l_. with which an estate at
+Erdington, value 81. 10s. per annum, was purchased for the poor of
+Birmingham.
+
+Richard Kilcup gave a house and garden at Spark-brook, for the church
+and poor.
+
+John Cooper gave a croft for making of love-days (merriments) among
+Birmingham men.
+
+William Rixam gave a house in Spiceal-street, No. 26, for the use of the
+poor, in 1568.
+
+John Ward, in 1591, gave a house and lands in Marston Culey.
+
+William Colmore gave ten shillings per ann. payable out of the house,
+No. 1, High-street.
+
+John Shelton gave ten shillings per annum, issuing out of a house
+occupied by Martin Day.
+
+Several of the above donations are included in Lench's trust.
+
+John Peak gave a chest bound with iron for the use of the church;
+seemingly about 200 years old, and of 200 lb. weight.
+
+Edward Smith gave 20_l_. per ann. to the poor, in 1612, and also erected
+the pulpit.
+
+John Billingsley, in 1629, gave 26 shillings yearly, chargeable upon a
+house in Dale-end, to be given in bread, by six-pence every Sunday.
+
+One croft to find bell-ropes.
+
+Richard Dukesayle, in 1630, gave the utensils belonging to the communion
+table.
+
+Barnaby Smith, 1633, gave 20_l_. to be lent to ten poor tradesmen, at
+the discretion of the church-wardens for two or three years.
+
+Catharine Roberts, wife of Barnaby Smith, in 1642, gave 20_l_. the
+interest of which was to be given to the poor, the first Friday in Lent.
+
+John Jennens, 1651, gave 2_l_. 10s. for the use of the poor, born and
+living in Birmingham; and also 20s. on St. Thomas's day.
+
+John Milward gave 26_l_ per annum, lying in Bordesley: one third to the
+school-master of Birmingham, (Free-school); one third to the Principal
+of Brazen nose College, Oxford, for the maintenance of one scholar from
+Birmingham or Haverfordwest, and the remainder to the poor.
+
+Joseph Pemberton gave 40s. per annum, payable out of an estate at
+Tamworth, and 20s. out of an estate in Harbourne.
+
+Richard Smallbrook gave to the poor of Birmingham 10s. per annum,
+arising out of a salt vat in Droitwich.
+
+Robert Whittall gave the pall, or beere cloth.
+
+Widow Cooper, of the Talbot, No. 20, in High-street, gave one towel and
+one sheet, to wrap the poor in the grave.
+
+Mrs. Jennens gave 10_l_. per annum to support a lecture, the second and
+third Thursday in every month.
+
+The following offspring of charity seems to have expired at its birth,
+but rose from the dead a few months ago, after an internment of
+fifty-four years.
+
+The numerous family of Piddock flourished in great opulence for many
+ages, and though they were not lords of a manor, they were as rich as
+those who were: they yet boast, that their ancestors could walk seven
+miles upon their own land. It sometimes may be prudent, however, to
+believe only _half_ what a man says; besides, a person with tolerable
+vigour of limb, might contrive to walk seven miles upon his own land, if
+he has but one acre--a lawyer is not the only man who can double.
+
+Perhaps they were possessed of the northern part of this parish, from
+Birmingham-heath to Shirland-brook, exclusive of many estates in the
+manors of Smethwick and Oldbury.
+
+Their decline continued many years, till one of them, in 1771,
+extinguished their greatness by a single dash of his pen, in selling the
+last foot of land.--I know some of them now in distress.
+
+William Piddock, in 1728, devised his farm at Winson-green, about nine
+acres, to his wife Sarah, during life, and at her death, to his nephews
+and executors William and John Riddall, their heirs and assigns for
+ever, in trust, for educating and putting out poor boys of Birmingham;
+or other discretional charities in the same parish.
+
+But William and John wisely considered, that they could not put the
+money into any pocket sooner than their own; that as the estate was in
+the family it was needless to disturb it; that as the will was not known
+to the world, there was no necessity to publish it; and, as it gave them
+a discretional power of disposal, they might as well consider themselves
+_the poor_, for they were both in the parish.
+
+There is nothing easier than to coin excuses for a fault;--there is
+nothing harder than to make them pass.
+
+What must be his state of mind, who is in continual apprehensions of a
+disgraceful discovery? No profits can compensate his feelings.
+
+Had the deviser been less charitable, William and John had been less
+guilty: the gift of one man becomes a temptation to another. These nine
+acres, from which the donor was to spring upwards, lay like a mountain
+on the breasts of William and John, tending to press them downwards.
+Although poverty makes many a rogue, yet had William and John been more
+poor, they would have been more innocent. The children themselves would
+have been the least gainers by the bequest, for, without this legacy,
+they could just as well have procured trades; the profit would have
+centered in the inhabitants, by softening their levies.--Thus a donation
+runs through many a private channel, unseen by the giver.
+
+Matters continued in this torpid state till 1782, when a quarrel between
+the brothers and a tenant, broke the enchantment, and shewed the actors
+in real view.
+
+The officers, in behalf of the town, filed a bill in Chancery, and
+recovered the dormant property, which was committed in trust to
+
+     John Dymock Griffith,
+     John Harwood,
+     Thomas Archer,         > Overseers, 1781.
+     William Hunt,
+     Joseph Robinson,
+     James Rollason,
+
+     John Holmes,           > Constables, 1782.
+     Thomas Barrs,
+     Joseph Sheldon,
+     Charles Primer,        > Church-wardens,
+     William Dickenson,
+     Edmund Tompkins,
+
+     Claud Johnson,
+     Nathaniel Lawrence,
+     Edward Homer,          > Overseers, 1782.
+     Thomas Cock,
+     Samuel Stretch,
+     Joseph Townsend,
+     John Startin.
+
+The presentation of St. Martin's was vested in the family of Birmingham,
+until the year 1537, since which it has passed through the Dudleys, the
+Crown, the Marrows, the Smiths, and now rests in the family of Tennant.
+
+
+
+RECTORS.
+
+     1300   Thomas de Hinckleigh.
+     1304   Stephen de Segrave.
+     1304   John de Ayleston.
+     1336   Robert de Shuteford.
+     1349   William de Seggeley.
+     1354   Thomas de Dumbleton.
+     1369   Hugh de Wolvesey.
+     1396   Thomas Darnall.
+     1412   William Thomas.
+     1414   Richard Slowther.
+     1428   John Waryn.
+     1432   William Hyde.
+     1433   John Armstrong.
+     1433   John Wardale.
+     1436   Henry Symon.
+     1444   Humphrey Jurdan.
+     1504   Richard Button.
+     1536   Richard Myddlemore.
+     1544   William Wrixam.
+     1578   Lucus Smith.
+
+     _Thus far Dugdale_.
+
+     ----   ------ Smith
+     1641   Samuel Wills.
+     1654   ------ Slater.
+     1660   John Riland.
+     1672   Henry Grove.
+     ----   William Daggett.
+     ----   Thomas Tyrer.
+     1732   Richard Dovey.
+     1771   ------ Chase.
+     1772   John Parsons.
+     1779   William Hinton, D.D.
+     1781   Charles Curtis.
+
+During Cromwell's government, ---- Slater, a broken apothecary of this
+place, having been unsuccessful in curing the body, resolved to attempt
+curing the soul. He therefore, to repair his misfortunes, assumed the
+clerical character, and cast an eye on the rectory of St. Martin's; but
+he had many powerful opponents: among others were Jennens, an
+iron-master, possessor of Aston-furnace; Smallbroke, another wealthy
+inhabitant, and Sir Thomas Holt.
+
+However, he with difficulty, triumphed over his enemies, stept into the
+pulpit, and held the rectory till the restoration.
+
+Being determined, in his first sermon, to lash his enemies with the whip
+of those times, he told his people, "The Lord had carried him through
+many troubles; for he had passed, like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,
+through the _fiery furnace_. And as the Lord had enabled the children of
+Israel to pass over the Red Sea, so he had assisted him in passing over
+the _Small-brooks_, and to overcome the strong _Holts_ of sin
+and satan."
+
+At the restoration, suspecting the approach of the proper officers to
+expel him from the Parsonage-house, he crept into a hiding-place under
+the stairs; but, being discovered, was drawn out by force, and the
+place ever after, bore the name of _Slater's Hole_.
+
+John Riland succeeded him, who is celebrated for piety, learning, and a
+steady adherence to the interest of Charles the First; in whose cause he
+seems to have lost every thing he possessed, but his life. He was
+remarkable for compromising quarrels among his neighbours, often at an
+expence to himself; also for constantly carrying a charity box, to
+relieve the distress of others; and, though robbed of all himself, never
+thought he was poor, except when his box was empty.--He died in
+1672, aged 53.
+
+A succeeding rector, William Daggett, is said to have understood the art
+of boxing, better than that of preaching: his clerk often felt the
+weightier argument of his hand. Meeting a quaker, whose profession, then
+in infancy, did not stand high in esteem, he offered some insults, which
+the other resenting, told him, "If he was not protected by his cloth, he
+would make him repent the indignity." Dagget immediately stripped,
+"There, now I have thrown off my protection."
+
+They fought--but the spiritual bruiser proved too hard for the injured
+quaker.
+
+Among the rectors we sometimes behold a magistrate; at others, those who
+for misconduct ought to have been taken before one.
+
+The rectory, in the King's books, was valued, in 1291, at 5_l_. per
+annum; and, in 1536, at 19_l_. 3s. 6d.
+
+
+
+_A terrier of the rectory, written by the rector, about 1680_.
+
+A house wherein the present rector, Mr. Dagget, resides.
+[Parsonage-house.]
+
+Two other houses in Birmingham, [now three, at No. 15, Spiceal-street.]
+
+Three pieces of glebe land, nineteen acres, between the school land and
+Sheepcoat-lane.
+
+Three pieces, called the Five-way-closes twenty-one acres, bounded by
+the lands of Samuel Smallbroke, Esq; and Josiah Porter.
+
+One close, two acres, bounded by Lady-wood-lane.
+
+Parsons-meadow, two acres, bounded by the lands of Thomas Smith, Sir
+Richard Gough, and Sir Arthur Kaye.
+
+Horse pool-croft, half an acre, bounded by Bell's-barn-lane,
+[Brickiln-lane] the lands of Robert Phillips and Samuel
+Smallbrook, Esqrs.
+
+Tythe of all kinds of grain: but instead of hay, wool and lamb, a due of
+12d. in the pound rent, called herbage, in all the parish, except
+foreign, wherein the custom is 4d. per acre for meadow land; 3d. per
+acre for leas; 3d. for each lamb; 1d. 1/2 for a cow and calf: and except
+part of the estate of William Colmore, Esq; with the Hall-ring,
+Tanter-butts, Bell's-barns, [No. 1, Exeter-row] and Rings; for the
+herbage of which is paid annually 13s. 4d. and also, except part of the
+estate of Samuel Smallbrook, Esq; for which he pays 8s. per annum; and,
+except the estate of Thomas Weaman, called Whittall's-farm,
+[Catharine-street] for which he pays 2s. 8d.
+
+All the above estates pay the customary modus, whether in or out of
+tillage.
+
+
+
+SURPLICE FEES.
+
+                                          Rector. Clerk,
+                                          s. d.     s. d.
+     For burying in the church,           1  0      1  0
+     Ditto church-yard,                   0  6      0  6
+     Churching a woman,                   0  4      0  4
+     Marrying by licence,                 5  0      2  6
+     Ditto without,                       2  6      1  0
+     Tythe pig, if seven or upwards,      0  4      0  0
+     Easter dues, man and wife,           0  4      0  0
+     ---- each person above sixteen,      0  4      0  0
+     Clerk's salary 20s. paid by the wardens; also 2d.
+       from each house keeper at Easter.
+
+From the above terrier, I am inclined to value the income at about
+90_l_. per annum.
+
+The benefice, in 1771, was about 350_l_. per annum: the late Rector,
+John Parsons, procured an act, in 1773, to enable the incumbent to grant
+building leases; the grant of a single lease, in 1777, brought the
+annual addition of about 170_l_. The income is now about 700_l_. and is
+expected, at the expiration of the leases, to exceed 2000_l_.
+
+The repairs of the chancel belong to the rector, and the remainder of
+the building to the parish.
+
+
+
+SAINT PHILLIP's.
+
+We have touched upon various objects in our peregrinations through
+Birmingham, which meet with approbation, though viewed through the
+medium of smoke; some of these, being covered with the rust of time,
+command our veneration; but the prospect before us is wholly modern.
+
+We have mounted, by imperceptable gradations, from beauty to beauty,
+'till we are now arrived at the summit.
+
+If an historian had written in the last century, he would have recorded
+but two places of worship; I am now recording the fourteenth: but my
+successor, if not prevented by our own imprudence, in driving away the
+spirit of commerce, may record the four-and-twentieth. The artist, who
+carries the manufactures among foreigners, or the overseer, who wantonly
+loads the people with burdens, draws the wrath of the place upon his
+own head.
+
+This curious piece of architecture, the steeple of which is erected
+after the model of St. Paul's, in London, but without its weight, does
+honour to the age that raised it, and to the place that contains it.
+Perhaps the eye of the critic cannot point out a fault, which the hand
+of the artist can mend: perhaps too, the attentive eye cannot survey
+this pile of building, without communicating to the mind a small degree
+of pleasure. If the materials are not proof against time, it is rather
+a misfortune to be lamented, than an error to be complained of, the
+country producing no better.
+
+Yet, amidst all the excellencies we boast, I am sorry to charge this
+chief ornament with an evil which admits no cure, that of not ranging
+with its own coemetery, or the adjacent buildings: out of seven streets,
+with which it is connected, it lines with none.--Like Deritend chapel,
+of which I have already complained, from a strong attachment to a point
+of religion, or of the compass, it appears twisted out of its place. We
+may be delighted with a human figure, complete in stature, exactly
+moulded with symmetry, and set off with the graces of dress; but we
+should be disgusted, if his right side seemed to attempt to out-walk
+his left.
+
+This defect, in religious architecture, arises from a strict adherence
+to the custom of the ancients, who fixed their altars towards the east.
+It is amasing, that even weakness itself, by long practice, becomes
+canonical; it gains credit by its age and its company. Hence, Sternhold
+and Hopkins, by being long bound up with scripture, acquired a kind of
+scripture authority.
+
+The ground, originally, was part of a farm, and bore the name of the
+Horse-close; afterwards _Barley-close_.--Thus a benign spot of earth,
+gave additional spirits to a man when living, and kindly covered him in
+its bosom when dead.
+
+This well chosen spot, is the summit of the highest eminence in
+Birmingham, with a descent every way; and, when the church was erected,
+there were not any buildings nearer than those in Bull-street.
+
+The land was the gift of Robert Phillips, Esq; whence the name, ancestor
+to William Theodore Inge, Esquire.
+
+In all degrees of people, from the bishop to the beadle, there seems a
+propensity in the mind to arrive at the honours of Sainthood: by joining
+our names in partnership with a faint, we share with him a red letter in
+the almanack.
+
+Out of six churches in Birmingham, three bear the names of the donors.
+St. Bartholomew's would, probably, have taken that of its founder, John
+Jennens, Esq; but that name happened to be anticipated by Sir John de
+Birmingham, who conferred it upon Deritend chapel. St. Mary's could
+readily perpetuate the name of its benefactress, because we had no place
+of worship that bore it. But as neither the popish, nor the protestant
+kalendar produced a St. Charles, the founder of St. Paul's was
+unfortunately excluded.
+
+The gifts, which the benefactor himself believes are charitable, and
+expects the world to believe the same, if scrutinized, will be found to
+originate from various causes--counterfeits are apt to be offered in
+currency for sterling.
+
+Perhaps _ostentation_ has brought forth more acts of beneficence than
+charity herself; but, like an unkind parent, she disowns her offspring,
+and charges them upon charity.
+
+Ostentation is the root of charity; why else are we told, in capitals,
+by a large stone in the front of a building--"This hospital was erected
+by William Bilby, in the sixty-third year of his age, 1709." Or, "That
+John Moore, yeoman, of Worley Wigorn, built this school, in 1730."--Nay,
+pride even tempts us to strut in a second-hand robe of charity, left by
+another; or why do we read--"These alms-houses were erected by Lench's
+trust, in 1764. W. WALSINGHAM, BAILIFF."
+
+Another utters the word _charity_, and we rejoice in the echo. If we
+miss the substance, we grasp at the shadow.
+
+Sometimes we assign our property for religious uses, late in the evening
+of life, when _enjoyment_ is over, and almost _possession_. Thus we
+bequeath to piety, what we can keep no longer. We convey our name to
+posterity at the expence of our successor, and scaffold our way towards
+heaven up the walls of a steeple.
+
+Will charity chalk up one additional score in our favour, because we
+grant a small portion of our land to found a church, which enables us to
+augment the remainder treble its value, by granting building leases? a
+man seldom makes a bargain for heaven, and forgets himself. Charity and
+self-interest, like the apple and the rind, are closely connected, and,
+like them, we cannot separate one without trespassing on the other.
+
+In contributions of the lesser kind, the giver examines the quantum
+given by those of his own station; _pride_ will not suffer him to appear
+less than his neighbour.
+
+Sometimes he surrenders merely through importunity, which indicates as
+much _charity_, as the garrison does _merit_, which surrenders when
+closely besieged. Neither do we fear _our left hand knowing what our
+right hand doth_, our only fear is, left the world should _not_
+know it.
+
+This superb edifice was begun by act of Parliament, in 1711, under a
+commission consisting of twenty of the neighbouring gentry, appointed by
+the bishop of the diocese, under his episcopal seal. Their commission
+was to end twelve months after the erection of the church.
+
+Though Birmingham ever was, and perhaps ever will be considered as one
+parish, yet a portion of land, about one hundred acres, nearly
+triangular, and about three fourths built up, was taken out of the
+centre of St. Martin's, like a shred of cloth out of a great coat, to
+make a less, and constituted a separate parish, by the appellation of
+St Philip's.
+
+We shall describe this new boundary by an imaginary journey, for a real
+one perhaps was never taken since the land was first laid out, nor ever
+will to the end of time.
+
+We include the warehouse, then of John Jenens, Esq; now No. 26, in
+High-street, penetrate through the buildings, till we come within twenty
+yards, of Moor-street, turn sharp to the left, cross the lower part of
+Castle-street, Carr's-lane, and New Meeting-street; pass close by the
+front of the Meeting-house, through Bank-alley, into Hen's-walk, having
+kept Moor-street about twenty yards to the right, all the way; we now
+enter that street, at the bottom of Hen's-walk, pass through the east
+part of Dale-end, through Stafford-street, Steelhouse-lane (then called
+Whittal-lane) Bull-lane (then New-hall-lane) and Mount-pleasant.
+
+Our journey now leads us on the west of Pinfold-street, keeping it about
+twenty yards on our left; up Peck-lane, till we come near the top, when
+we turn to the right, keeping the buildings, with the Free-school in New
+street, on our left, into Swan-alley. We now turn up the Alley into
+New-street, then to the right, which leads us to the Party-wall, between
+No. 25 and 26, in High-street, late Jennens's, where we began.
+
+In the new parish I have described, and during the journey, kept on the
+left, there seems to have been, at passing the act, twelve closes, all
+which are filled with buildings, except the land between New-street and
+Mount-pleasant, which only waits a word from the owner, to speak the
+houses into being.
+
+The church was consecrated in 1715, and finished in 1719, the work of
+eight years; at which time the commissioners resigned their powers into
+the hands of the diocesan, in whom is the presentation, after having
+paid, it is said, the trifling sum of 5012_l_.--but perhaps such a work
+could not be completed for 20,000_l_.
+
+Three reasons may be assigned, why so small a sum was expended; many of
+the materials were given; more of the carriage, and some heavy debts
+were contracted.
+
+The urns upon the parapet of the church, which are highly ornamental,
+were fixed at the same time with those of the school, in about 1756.
+
+When I first saw St. Philip's, in the year 1741, at a proper distance,
+uncrowded with houses, for there were none to the north, New-hall
+excepted, untarnished with smoke, and illuminated by a western sun, I
+was delighted with its appearance, and thought it then, what I do now,
+and what others will in future, _the pride of the place_.
+
+If we assemble the beauties of the edifice, which cover a rood of
+ground; the spacious area of the church-yard, occupying four acres;
+ornamented with walks in great perfection; shaded with trees in double
+and treble ranks; and surrounded with buildings in elegant taste:
+perhaps its equal cannot be found in the British dominions.
+
+The steeple, 'till the year 1751, contained a peal of six bells, which
+were then augmented to ten; at which time St. Martin's, the mother
+church, having only eight, could not bear to be out-numbered by a
+junior, though of superior elegance, therefore ordered twelve into her
+own steeple: but as room was insufficient for the admission of bells by
+the dozen, means were found to hoist them tier over tier. Though the
+round dozen is a complete number in the counting-house, it is not
+altogether so in the belfry: the octave is the most perfect concord in
+music, but diminishes by rising to an octave and a half; neither can
+that dozen well be crowded into the peal.
+
+But perhaps the artist had another grand scheme in view, that of
+accommodating the town with the additional harmony of the chimes; for
+only a few tunes can be played on the octave, whilst the dozen will
+compass nearly all.
+
+Whether we are entertained even by this _exalted_ style of music, admits
+a doubt; for instead of the curious ear being charmed with distinct
+notes, we only hear a bustle of confused sounds, which baffle the
+attention too much to keep pace with the tune.
+
+These two steeples, are our _public_ band of music: they are the only
+_standing_ Waits of the place. Two thousand people may be accommodated
+in the church, but, at times, it has contained near three thousand.
+
+In the vestry is a theological library, bequeathed by the first rector,
+William Higgs, for the use of the clergy in Birmingham and its
+neighbourhood; who left 200_l_. for future purchase.
+
+Under the centre isle runs a vault, the whole length of the church, for
+the reception of those who chuse to pay an additional guinea.
+
+The organ excels; the paintings, mouldings and gildings are superb:
+whether the stranger takes an external or an internal survey, the eye is
+struck with delight, and he pronounces the whole the work of a matter.
+Its conveniency also, can only be equalled by its elegance.
+
+
+
+In the FRONT GALLERY.
+
+Upon application of Sir Richard Gough, to Sir Robert Walpole, then in
+power, George the First gave 600_l_. in 1725, towards finishing
+this church.
+
+Three remarks naturally arise from this declaration; That the prodigious
+sums expended upon this pious undertaking, were beyond the ability of
+the inhabitants; that the debts contracted, were many years in
+discharging; and that one of the best of Kings, the head of the
+Brunswick line, bestowed a liberal benefaction upon a people not
+compleatly reconciled to his house.
+
+Whether monumental decoration adds beauty to a place already beautiful,
+is a question. There are three very small and very elegant monuments in
+this church. Upon one of the south pillars, is that of the above William
+Higgs, who died in 1733. Upon another is that of William Vyse, the
+second rector, who died in 1770, at the age of 61. And, upon a north
+pillar, that of Girton Peak, Esq; an humane magistrate, who died in
+1770, aged 48.
+
+Internment in the church is wisely prohibited; an indecency incompatible
+with a civilized people. The foreigner will be apt to hold forth the
+barbarity of the English nation, by observing, "They introduce
+corruption in their very churches, and pay divine adoration upon the
+graves of their ancestors."
+
+Places of worship were designed for the living, the dead give up their
+title with their life: besides, even small degrees of putrefaction,
+confined in a room where the air cannot circulate, may become
+prejudicial to health: it also ruins the pavement, as is done at St.
+Martin's. Our first inhabitants, therefore, lie contented in the church
+yard, by their unfortunate equals; having private sepulchres
+appropriated for family use--Perhaps at the last day, no inquiry will be
+made whether they lay on the in, or the outside of the walls.
+
+It is difficult to traverse the elegant walks that surround this gulf of
+death, without contemplating, that time is drawing us towards the same
+focus, and that we shall shortly fall into the centre: that this
+irregular circle contains what was once generous and beautiful, opulent
+and humane. The arts took their rise in this fruitful soil: this is the
+grave of invention and of industry; here those who figured upon the
+stage are fallen, to make way for others, who must follow: though
+multitudes unite with the dead, the numbers of the living increase; the
+inhabitants change, while the genius improves. We cannot pass on without
+reading upon the stones, the short existence of our departed friends,
+perusing the end of a life with which we were well acquainted. The
+active motion that veered with the rude blasts of seventy years, slops
+in this point for ever.
+
+The present rector, who is the third, is the Rev. Charles Newling, and
+the benefice something like the following:
+
+     A prebendal stall in the cathedral      l.  s.  d.
+      church of Lichfield,                    6   0   0
+     Eight acres and a half of glebe land,
+      at Long bridge, near Birmingham,       32   0   0
+     Emoluments arising from the seats of
+      the church,                           140   0   0
+     Surplice fees,                          50   0   0
+     Easter offerings,                       10   0   0
+     An estate at Sawley, in the county of
+      Derby, under lease for three lives,
+      renewable by fine, at the annual
+      rent of                                66  13   4
+                                           ------------
+                                            304  13   4
+     Out of which is paid to the rector
+      of St. Martin's, in consideration
+      fees and offerings once appropriated
+      to that church,                        15   0   0
+                                            -----------
+                                            289  13   4
+
+
+
+BIRTHS AND BURIALS.
+
+There are many inducements for an author to take up the pen, but the
+leading motives, however disguised, seem to be pride and poverty;
+hence, two of the most despicable things among men, furnish the world
+with knowledge.
+
+One would think, however, there can be no great inducement for a man to
+write what he is conscious will never be read. Under this class may be
+comprehended alphabetical collections, chronological tables, books of
+figures, occasional devotions, etc. here also I range the lists of
+officers in Birmingham, the annual sums expended upon the poor, and the
+present chapter of numbers. These are intended for occasional
+inspection, rather than for regular perusal: we may consider them as
+deserts served up for a taste only, not a dinner; yet even this rule may
+be broken by a resolute reader, for the late Joseph Scott, Esq; founder
+of the trust before-mentioned, assured me, in 1751, that he had perused
+Bailey's Dictionary as methodically as he had done Tom Jones; and,
+though a dissenter, he continued to read the Common Prayer Book from end
+to end, about twice a year; which is more than, perhaps, the greatest
+lover of that excellent composition can boast.
+
+I shall, to avoid prolixity in a barren chapter of the two extremes of
+life, select about every tenth year from the register. Those years at
+the time of the plague, make no addition to the burials, because the
+unhappy victims were conveyed to Lady-wood for internment.
+
+These lists inform us, that the number of streets, houses, inhabitants,
+births, burials, poor's rates, and commercial productions, increase with
+equal rapidity. It appears also from the register, that there were more
+christenings lately at St. Martin's, in one day, than the whole town
+produced in a year, in the 16th century--The same may be found in that
+of St. Phillip's.
+
+The deaths in Deritend are omitted, being involved with those of Aston.
+
+      Year.   Births.   Burials.     Year.    Births.    Burials.
+
+     1555         37         27      1667         146         140
+     1560         --         37      1668         113         102
+     1571         48         26      1681         251         139
+     1580         37         25      1690         127         150
+     1590         52         47      1700         172         171
+     1600         62         32      1719         334         270
+     1610         70         45      1720         423         355
+     1623         81         66      1730         449         415
+     1628        100         96      1740         520         573
+     1653         --         47      1750         860        1020
+     1660         --         75      1760         984        1143
+     1665         --        109      1770        1329         899
+     1666        144        121      1780        1636        1340
+
+
+
+GENERAL HOSPITAL.
+
+Though charity is one of the most amiable qualities of humanity, yet,
+like Cupid, she ought to be represented blind; or, like Justice,
+hood-winked. None of the virtues have been so much misapplied; giving to
+the _hungry_, is sometimes only another word for giving to the _idle_.
+We know of but two ways in which this excellence can exert itself;
+improving the _mind_, and nourishing the _body_. To help him who _will
+not _help himself; or, indiscriminately to relieve those that want, is
+totally to mistake the end; for want is often met with: but to supply
+those who _cannot_ supply themselves, becomes real charity. Some worthy
+Christians have taken it into their heads to relieve _all_, for fear of
+omitting the right. What should we think of the constable who seizes
+every person he meets with, for fear of missing the thief? Between the
+simple words, therefore, of WILL NOT and CANNOT, runs the fine barrier
+between real and mistaken charity.
+
+This virtue, so strongly inculcated by the christian system, hath,
+during the last seventeen centuries, appeared in a variety of forms, and
+some of them have been detrimental to the interest they were meant to
+serve: _Such was the cloister_. Man is not born altogether to serve
+himself, but the community; if he cannot exist without the assistance of
+others, it follows, that others ought to be assisted by him: but if
+condemned to obscurity in the cell, he is then fed by the aid of the
+public, while that public derives none from him.
+
+[Illustration: _General Hospital_.]
+
+Estates have sometimes been devised in trust for particular uses, meant
+as charities by the giver, but have, in a few years, been diverted out
+of their original channel to other purposes.
+
+The trust themselves, like so many contending princes, ardently druggie
+for sovereignty; hence, _legacy_ and _discord_ are intimate companions.
+
+The plantation of many of our English schools sprang up from the will of
+the dead; but it is observable, that sterility quickly takes place; the
+establishment of the master being properly secured, supineness enters,
+and the young scions of learning are retarded in their growth.
+
+It therefore admits a doubt, whether charitable donation is beneficial
+to the world; nay, the estate itself becomes blasted when bequeathed to
+public use, for, being the freehold of none, none will improve it:
+besides, the more dead land, the less scope for industry.
+
+At the reformation, under Queen Elizabeth, charity seemed to take a
+different appearance: employment was found for the idle; he that was
+able, was obliged to labour, and the parish was obliged to assist him
+who could not. Hence the kingdom became replete with workhouses: these
+are the laudable repositories of distress.
+
+It has already been observed, that three classes of people merit the
+care of society: forlorn infancy, which is too weak for its own support;
+old age, which has served the community, without serving itself; and
+accidental calamity: the two first, fall under the eye of the parish,
+the last, under the modern institution of the General Hospital.
+
+The shell of this plain, but noble edifice, was erected in 1766, upon a
+situation very unsuitable for its elegant front, in a narrow dirty lane,
+with an aspect directing up the hill, which should ever be avoided.
+
+The amiable desire of doing good in the inhabitants, seemed to have
+exceeded their ability; and, to the grief of many, it lay dormant for
+twelve years. In 1778, the matter was revived with vigor; subscriptions
+filled apace, and by the next year the hospital was finished, at the
+expence of 7137_l_. 10s. Though the benefactions might not amount to
+this enormous sum, yet they were noble, and truly characteristic of a
+generous people. The annual subscriptions, as they stood at Michaelmas,
+1779, were 901_l_. 19s. and, at Midsummer, 1780, 932_l_. 8s. During
+these nine months, 529 patients were admitted, of which, 303 were cured,
+93 relieved, 112 remained on the books, only 5 died, and but _one_ was
+discharged as incurable; an incontestible proof of the _skill_ of the
+faculty, which is at least equalled by their _humanity_, in giving their
+attendance gratis.
+
+The rules by which this excellent charity is conducted, are worthy of
+its authors: success hath fully answered expectation, and the building
+will probably stand for ages, to tell posterity a favourable tale of the
+present generation.
+
+
+
+PUBLIC ROADS.
+
+Man is evidently formed for society; the intercourse of one with
+another, like two blocks of marble in friction, reduces the rough
+prominences of behaviour, and gives a polish to the manners.
+
+Whatever tends to promote social connection, improve commerce, or stamp
+an additional value upon property, is worthy of attention.
+
+Perhaps, there is not a circumstance that points more favourably towards
+these great designs, than commodious roads.
+
+According as a country is improved in her roads, so will she stand in
+the scale of civilization. It is a characteristic by which we may
+pronounce with safety. The manners and the roads of the English, have
+been refining together for about 1700 years. If any period of time is
+distinguished with a more rapid improvement in one, it is also in
+the other.
+
+Our Saxons ancestors, of dusky memory, seldom stepped from under the
+smoke of Birmingham. We have a common observation among us, that even so
+late as William the Third, the roads were in so dangerous a state, that
+a man usually made his will, and took a formal fare-well of his friends,
+before he durst venture upon a journey to London; which, perhaps, was
+thought then, of as much consequence as a voyage to America now.
+
+A dangerous road is unfavourable both to commerce and to friendship; a
+man is unwilling to venture his neck to sell his productions, or even
+visit his friend: if a dreadful road lies between them, it will be apt
+to annihilate friendship.
+
+Landed property in particular, improves with the road. If a farmer
+cannot bring his produce to market, he cannot give much for his land,
+neither can that land well be improved, or the market properly supplied.
+Upon a well formed road, therefore, might, with propriety, be placed the
+figures of commerce, of friendship, and of agriculture, as
+presiding over it.
+
+There are but very few observations necessary in forming a road, and
+those few are very simple; to expel whatever is hurtful, and invite
+whatever is beneficial.
+
+The breaking up of a long frost, by loosening the foundations, is
+injurious, and very heavy carriages ought to be prevented, 'till the
+weather unites the disjointed particles, which will soon happen.
+
+But the grand enemy is water; and as this will inevitably fall, every
+means should be used to discharge it: drains ought to be frequent, that
+the water may not lie upon the road.
+
+The great benefits are _the sun_ and the _wind:_ the surveyor should use
+every method for the admission of these friendly aids, that they may
+dispel the moisture which cannot run off.
+
+For this purpose, all public roads ought to be sixty feet wide; all
+trees and hedges within thirty feet of the centre, be under the
+controul of the commissioners, with full liberty of drawing off the
+water in what manner they judge necessary.
+
+The Romans were the most accomplished masters we know of in this useful
+art; yet even they seem to have forgot the under drain, for it is
+evident at this day, where their road runs along the declivity of a
+hill, the water dams up, flows over, and injures the road.
+
+Care should be taken, in properly forming a road at first, otherwise you
+may botch it for a whole century, and at the end of that long period, it
+will be only a botch itself.
+
+A wide road will put the innocent traveller out of fear of the
+waggoners; not the most civilized of the human race.
+
+From Birmingham, as from a grand centre, issues twelve roads, that point
+to as many towns; some of these, within memory, have scarcely been
+passable; all are mended, but though much is done, more is wanted. In an
+upland country, like that about Birmingham, where there is no river of
+size, and where the heads only of the streams show themselves: the
+stranger would be surprised to hear, that through most of these twelve
+roads he cannot travel in a flood with safety. For want of causeways
+and bridges, the water is suffered to flow over the road, higher than
+the stirrup: every stream, though only the size of a tobacco-pipe, ought
+to be carried through an under drain, never to run over the road.
+
+At Saltley, in the way to Coleshill, which is ten miles, for want of a
+causeway, with an arch or two, every flood annoys the passenger and the
+road: at Coleshill-hall, 'till the year 1779, he had to pass a
+dangerous river.
+
+One mile from Birmingham, upon the Lichfield road, sixteen miles, to the
+disgrace of the community, is yet a river without a bridge. In 1777, the
+country was inclined to solicit Parliament for a turnpike-act, but the
+matter fell to the ground through private views: one would think, that
+the penny can never be ill laid out, which carries a man ten miles with
+pleasure and safety. The hand of nature hath been more beneficent, both
+to this, and to the Stafford road, which is twenty-eight miles, than
+that of art.
+
+The road to Walfall, ten miles, is rather _below indifferent_.
+
+That to Wolverhampton, thirteen miles, is much improved since the
+coal-teams left it.
+
+The road to Dudley, ten miles, is despicable beyond description. The
+unwilling traveller is obliged to go two miles about, through a bad
+road, to avoid a worse.
+
+That to Hales-Owen, eight miles, like the life of man, is checkered with
+good and evil; chiefly the latter.
+
+To Bromsgrove, thirteen miles, made extremely commodious for the first
+four, under the patronage of John Kettle, Esq; in 1772, at the expence
+of near 5000_l_. but afterwards is so confined, that two horses cannot
+pass without danger; the sun and the winds are excluded, the rivers lie
+open to the stranger, and he travels through dirt 'till Midsummer.
+
+To Alcester, about twenty, formed in 1767, upon a tolerable plan, but is
+rather too narrow, through a desolate country, which at present scarcely
+defrays the expence; but that country seems to improve with the road.
+
+Those to Stratford and Warwick, about twenty miles each, are much used
+and much neglected.
+
+That to Coventry, about the same distance, can only be equalled by the
+Dudley road. The genius of the age has forgot, in some of these roads to
+accommodate the foot passenger with a causeway.
+
+The surveyor will be inclined to ask, How can a capital be raised to
+defray this enormous expence? Suffer me to reply with an expression in
+the life of Oliver Cromwell, "He that lays out money when necessary, and
+only then, will accomplish matters beyond the reach of imagination."
+
+Government long practised the impolitic mode of transporting vast
+numbers of her people to America, under the character of felons; these,
+who are generally in the prime of life, might be made extremely useful
+to that country which they formerly robbed, and against which, they are
+at this moment carrying arms. It would be easy to reduce this ferocious
+race under a kind of martial discipline; to badge them with a mark only
+removeable by the governors, for hope should ever be left for
+repentance, and to employ them in the rougher arts of life, according to
+the nature of the crime, and the ability of body; such as working the
+coal mines in Northumberland, the lead mines in Derbyshire, the tin
+mines in Cornwall, cultivating waste lands, banking after inundations,
+forming canals, cleansing the beds of rivers, assisting in harvest, and
+in FORMING and MENDING the ROADS: _these hewers of wood and drawers of
+water_ would be a corps of reserve against any emergency. From this
+magazine of villiany, the British navy might be equipped with,
+considerable advantage.
+
+
+
+CANAL.
+
+An act was obtained, in 1767, to open a cut between Birmingham and the
+coal delphs about Wednesbury.
+
+The necessary article of coal, before this act, was brought by land, at
+about thirteen shillings per ton, but now at seven.
+
+It was common to see a train of carriages for miles, to the great
+destruction of the road, and the annoyance of travellers.
+
+This dust is extended in the whole to about twenty-two miles in length,
+'till it unites with what we may justly term the grand artery, or
+Staffordshire Canal; which, eroding the island, communicates with Hull,
+Bristol and Liverpool. The expence was about 70,000_l_. divided into
+shares 140_l_. each, of which no man can purchase more than ten, and
+which now sell for about 370_l_.
+
+The proprietors took a perpetual lease of six acres of land, of Sir
+Thomas Gooch, at 47_l_. per annum, which is converted into a wharf, upon
+the front of which is erected an handsome office for the dispatch
+of business.
+
+[ILLUSTRATION: A Plan of the Navigable Canal from Birmingham to
+Autherley]
+
+[ILLUSTRATION: Navigation Office]
+
+This watery passage, exclusive of loading the proprietors with wealth,
+tends greatly to the improvement of some branches of trade, by
+introducing heavy materials at a small expence, such as pig iron for the
+founderies, lime-stone, articles for the manufacture of brass and steel,
+also stone, brick, slate, timber, &c.
+
+It is happy for the world, that public interest is grafted upon private,
+and that both flourish together.
+
+This grand work, like other productions of Birmingham birth, was rather
+hasty; the managers, not being able to find patience to worm round the
+hill at Smethwick, or cut through, have wisely travelled over it by the
+help of twelve locks, with six they mount the summit, and with six more
+descend to the former level; forgetting the great waste of water, and
+the small supply from the rivulets, and also, the amazing loss of of
+time in climbing this curious ladder, consisting of twelve liquid steps.
+It is worthy of remark, that the level of the earth, is nearly the same
+at Birmingham as at the pits: what benefit then would accrue to
+commerce, could the boats travel a dead flat of fourteen miles without
+interruption? The use of the canal would increase, great variety of
+goods be brought which are now excluded, and these delivered with more
+expedition, with less expence, and the waste of water never felt; but,
+by the introduction of twelve unnecessary locks, the company may
+experience five plagues more than fell on Egypt.
+
+The boats are nearly alike, constructed to fit the locks, carry about
+twenty-five tons, and are each drawn by something like the skeleton of a
+horse, covered with skin: whether he subsists upon the scent of the
+water, is a doubt; but whether his life is a scene of affliction, is
+not; for the unfeeling driver has no employment but to whip him from one
+end of the canal to the other. While the teams practised the turnpike
+road, the lash was divided among five unfortunate animals, but now the
+whole wrath of the driver falls upon one.
+
+We can scarcely view a boat travelling this liquid road, without raising
+opposite sensations--pleased to think of its great benefit to the
+community, and grieved to behold wanton punishment.
+
+I see a large field of cruelty expanding before me, which I could easily
+prevail with myself to enter; in which we behold the child plucking a
+wing and a leg off a fly, to try how the poor insect can perform with
+half his limbs; or running a pin through the posteriors of a locust, to
+observe it spinning through the air, like a comet, drawing a tail of
+thread. If we allow, man has a right to destroy noxious animals, we
+cannot allow he has a right to protract their pain by a lingering death.
+By fine gradations the modes of cruelty improve with years, in pinching
+the tail of a cat for the music of her voice, kicking a dog because we
+have trod upon his foot, or hanging him for _fun_, 'till we arrive at
+the priests in the church of Rome, who burnt people for opinion; or to
+the painter, who begged the life of a criminal, that he might torture
+him to death with the severest pangs, to catch the agonizing feature,
+and transfer it into his favourite piece, of a dying Saviour. But did
+that Saviour teach such doctrine? Humanity would wish rather to have
+lost the piece, than have heard of the cruelty. What, if the injured
+ghost of the criminal is at this moment torturing that of the painter?--
+
+But as this capacious field is beyond the line I profess, and, as I have
+no direct accusation against the people of my regard, I shall not enter.
+
+
+
+DERITEND BRIDGE.
+
+Cooper's-mill, situated upon the verge of the parishes of Afton and
+Birmingham, 400 yards below this bridge, was probably first erected in
+the the peaceable ages of Saxon influence, and continued a part of the
+manorial estate 'till the disposal of it in 1730.
+
+Before the water was pounded up to supply the mill, it must have been so
+shallow, as to admit a passage between Digbeth and Deritend, over a few
+stepping stones; and a gate seems to have been placed upon the verge of
+the river, to prevent encroachments of the cattle.
+
+This accounts for the original name, which Dugdale tells us was
+_Derry-yate-end:_ derry, low; yate, gate; end, extremity of the parish;
+with which it perfectly agrees.
+
+The mill afterwards causing the water to be dammed up, gave rise to a
+succession of paltry bridges, chiefly of timber, to preserve a
+communication between the two streets.
+
+But in later ages, the passage was dignified with those of stone. In
+1750, a wretched one was taken down, and the present bridge erected by
+Henry Bradford and John Collins, overseers of the highway, consisting of
+five arches; but the homely style, the deep ascent, and the
+circumscribed width prevents encomium.
+
+
+
+ADJACENT REMARKS.
+
+SOHO.
+
+If we travel two miles from the centre of Birmingham, upon the
+Wolverhampton road, which may be called, the road to taste, and is daily
+travelled by the nobility and gentry, we shall arrive at the epitome
+of the arts.
+
+Though this little spot lies in the county of Stafford, we must accept
+it as part of Birmingham; neither is it many yards distant from
+the parish.
+
+The proprietor, invited by a genius, a fortune of 30,000_l_. and a
+little stream, which promised to facilitate business, has erected the
+most elegant works in these parts, said to accommodate seven hundred
+persons. Upon that hungry ground, where, in 1758 stood one paltry
+cottage, we now behold, a city in miniature.
+
+From this nursery of ingenuity, originated the Soho button, the single
+wheel clock, the improvement of the steam engine, the platina button,
+the method of taking exact copies of painting, writing, &c. also, the
+productions of fancy, in great variety; with which some of the European
+princes are well acquainted.
+
+To the genius of the place is owing the assay-office, for marking
+standard wrought plate, which, prior to the year 1773, was conveyed to
+London to receive the sanction of that office; but by an act then
+obtained, the business is done here by an assay master, superintended by
+four wardens: these are annually chosen out of thirty-six guardians,
+whose chief duty consists in dining together, at least once a year; for
+it appears from the chapter upon government, that feasting makes a
+principal part of a Birmingham office; and, however unwilling a man may
+seem to _enter in_ we generally find him pleased when he _is in_.
+
+
+
+DANES CAMP:
+
+DANES BANK, OR BURY FIELDS.
+
+About five miles south of Birmingham, and five furlongs off Solihull
+Lodge, is a place called _The Danes Camp_. But although neither history
+nor tradition speak of this particular event, it probably was raised in
+the ninth century.
+
+The situation is well chosen, upon an eminence, about nine acres, nearly
+triangular, is yet in tolerable perfection; the ditch is about twenty
+feet wide; the base of the bank about the same; admits but of one
+entrance, and is capable of being secured by water. From the bottom of
+the ditch, to the top of the mound, was, when made, about twenty feet;
+and is a production of great labour.
+
+
+
+GENTLEMEN'S SEATS.
+
+This neighbourhood may justly be deemed the seat of the arts, but not
+the seat of the gentry.
+
+None of the nobility are near us, except William Legge, Earl of
+Dartmouth, at Sandwell, four miles from Birmingham. The principal houses
+in our environs, are those of Sir Charles Holte, late member for the
+county, at Aston; Sir Henry Gough, member for Bamber, at Edgbaston;
+George Birch, Esq; at Handsworth; John Gough, Esq; at Perry; and John
+Taylor, Esq; at Bordesley and at Moseley; all joining to the manor of
+Birmingham. Exclusive of these, are many elegant retreats of our first
+inhabitants, acquired by commercial success.
+
+Full fed with vanity is an author, when two readers strive to catch up
+his work, for the pleasure of perusing it:--but, perchance, if two
+readers dip into this chapter, they may strive to lay it down.
+
+I have hitherto written to the _world_, but now to a small part, _the
+antiquarians_; nay, a small part of the sensible part; for a fool and an
+antiquary is a contradiction: they are, to a man, people of letters and
+penetration. If their judgment is sometimes erroneous, we may consider,
+man was never designed for perfection; there is also less light to guide
+them in this, than in other researches. If the traveller slips upon
+common ground, how will he fare if he treads upon ice?--Besides, in dark
+questions, as in intricate journies, there are many erroneous ways for
+one right.
+
+If, like the mathematician, he can establish one point, it ascertains
+another. We may deem his pursuit one of the most arduous, and attended
+with the least profit: his emoluments consist in the returns of pleasure
+to his own mind.
+
+The historian only collects the matter of the day, and hands it to
+posterity; but the antiquarian brings his treasures from remote ages,
+and presents them to this: he examines forgotten repositories, calls
+things back into existence, which are past; counter-acts the efforts of
+time, and of death; possesses something like a re-creative power;
+collects the dust of departed matter, moulds it into its prestine state,
+exhibits the figure to view, and stamps it with a kind of immortality.
+
+Every thing has its day, whether it be a nation, a city, a castle, a
+man, or an insect; the difference is, one is a winter's day, the other
+may be extended to the length of a summer's--an _end_ waits upon all.
+But we cannot contemplate the end of grandeur, without gloomy ideas.
+
+Birmingham is surrounded with the melancholy remains of extinguished
+greatness; the decayed habitations of decayed gentry, fill the mind with
+sorrowful reflections. Here the feet of those marked the ground, whose
+actions marked the page of history. Their arms glistened in the field;
+their eloquence moved the senate. Born to command, their influence was
+extensive; but who now rest in peace among the paupers, fed with the
+crumbs of their table. The very land which, for ages, was witness to the
+hospitality of its master, is itself doomed to stirility. The spot
+which drew the adjacent country, is neglected by all; is often in a
+wretched state of cultivation, sets for a trifle; the glory is departed;
+it demands a tear from the traveller, and the winds teem, to sigh
+over it.
+
+
+
+THE MOATS.
+
+In the parish of King's-norton, four miles south west of Birmingham, is
+_The Moats_, upon which long resided the ancient family of Field. The
+numerous buildings, which almost formed a village, are totally erased,
+and barley grows where the beer was drank.
+
+
+
+BLACK GREVES.
+
+Eight miles south west of Birmingham, in the same parish, near Withod
+Chapel, is _Black Greves_ (Black Groves) another seat of the Fields;
+which, though a family of opulence, were so far from being lords of the
+manor, that they were in vassalage to them.
+
+The whole of that extensive parish is in the crown, which holds the
+detestable badge of ancient slavery over every tenant, of demanding
+under the name of harriot, the best moveable he dies possessed of--Thus
+death and the bailiff make their inroads together; they rob the family
+in a double capacity, each taking the best moveable.
+
+As the human body descends into the regions of sickness, much sooner
+than it can return into health; so a family can decline into poverty by
+hastier steps, than rise into affluence. One generation of extravagance
+puts a period to many of greatness.
+
+A branch of the Fields, in 1777, finished their ancient grandeur, by
+signing away the last estate of his family.--Thus he blotted out the
+name of his ancestors by writing his own.
+
+
+
+ULVERLEY, OR CULVERLEY.
+
+Four miles from Birmingham, upon the Warwick road, entering the parish
+of Solihull, in Castle-lane, is Ulverle, in doom's-day Ulverlei.
+Trifling as this place now seems, it must have been the manor-house of
+Solihull, under the Saxon heptarchy; but went to decay so long ago as
+the conquest.
+
+The manor was the property of the Earls of Mercia, but whether their
+residence is uncertain.--The traces of a moat yet remain, which are
+triangular, and encircle a wretched farm-house of no note: one of the
+angles of this moat is filled up, and become part of Castle-lane; which
+proves that Ulverley went into disuse when Hogg's-moat was erected: it
+also proves that the lane terminated here, which is about two hundred
+yards from the turnpike road. The great width of the lane, from the road
+to Ulverley, and the singular narrowness from thence to Hogg's-moat, is
+another proof of its prior antiquity.
+
+If we pursue our journey half a mile Farther along this lane, which by
+the way is scarcely passable, it will bring us to
+
+
+
+HOGG'S-MOAT.
+
+At Oltenend (Old Town) originally Odingsell's-moat, now Hobb's-moat, the
+ancient manor-house of Solihull, after it had changed its lords at the
+conquest. The property, as before observed, of Edwin Earl of Mercia, in
+the reign of Edward the the Confessor.
+
+William the First granted the manor to a favourite lady, named Cristina,
+probably a handsome lass, of the same complexion as his mother; thus we
+err when we say William gave all the land in the kingdom to his
+followers--some little was given to those _he_ followed.
+
+This lady, like many of her successors, having tired the arms of
+royalty, was conveyed into those of an humble favourite; Ralph de
+Limesie married her, who became lord of the place, but despising
+Ulverley, erected this castle.
+
+The line of Limesie continued proprietors four descents; when, in the
+reign of King John, it became the property of Hugh de Odingsells, by
+marrying a co-heiress.
+
+The last of the Odingsells, in 1294, left four daughters, one of whom,
+with the lordship, fell into the hands of John de Clinton; but it is
+probable the castle was not inhabited after the above date, therefore
+would quickly fall to decay.
+
+The moat is upon a much larger plan than Ulverley, takes in a compass of
+five acres, had two trenches; the outer is nearly obliterated, but the
+inner is marked with the strongest lines we meet with. This trench is
+about twenty feet deep, and about thirty yards from the crown of one
+bank to the other.
+
+When Dugdale saw it, about a hundred and fifty years ago, the center,
+which is about two acres, where the castle stood, was covered with old
+oaks; round this center are now some thousands, the oldest of which is
+not more than a century; so that the timber is changed since the days of
+Dugdale, but not the appearance of the land.
+
+The center is bare of timber, and exhibits the marks of the plough. The
+late Benjamin Palmer, Esq; a few years ago, planted it with trees, which
+are in that dwindling state, that they are not likely to grow so tall as
+their master[7].
+
+[Footnote 7: He measured about six feet five inches, but was singularly
+short in the lower parts: his step was not larger than a child's of ten
+years old. His carriage, by its extraordinary height, looked at a
+distance like a moving steeple; he sat as high in a common chair, as a
+man of the middle-size stands: he was as immoderately heavy as he was
+tall, and as remarkable for good-nature as either. As a man, he shone by
+his bulk; as a magistrate, in a dull but honest light--his decisions
+were _intended_ to be just. He seemingly dozed as he walked; but if his
+own eyes were half shut, those of every other person were open to
+see him.]
+
+It lies in a pleasant situation, upon a descent, so that the trench in
+one part is dry, and in another three or four yards deep in water.
+
+A place of such desolation, one would think, was a place of
+silence--just the reverse. When I saw it, Feb. 23, 1783, the trees were
+tall, the winds high, and the roar tremendous.
+
+Exclusive of Ulverley and Hogg's-moat, there are many old foundations in
+Solihull, once the residence of gentry now extinct; as Solihull-hall,
+the Moat-house, and Kynton, the property of the Botolers; Bury-hall,
+that of the Warings; who both came over with William: Henwood, belonging
+to the Hugfords; Hillfield-hall, the ancient seat of the Greswolds, as
+Malvern was their modern.
+
+
+
+YARDLEY.
+
+At Yardley church, four miles east of Birmingham, is _The Moat_, now a
+pasture; the trench still retains its water, as a remembrance of its
+former use.
+
+This was anciently the property of the Allestrees, lords of Witton; but
+about thirty years ago, the building and the family expired together.
+
+
+
+KENT'S-MOAT.
+
+One mile farther east is Kent's-moat, in which no noise is heard but the
+singing of birds, as if for joy that their enemy is fled, and they have
+regained their former habitation.
+
+This is situate on an eminence, like that of Park-hall, is capacious,
+has but one trench, supplied by its own springs; and, like that, as
+complete as earth and water can make it.
+
+This was part of Coleshill, and vested in the crown before the conquest,
+but soon after granted with that to Clinton, who gave it with a daughter
+to Verdon; and he, with another, to Anselm de Scheldon, who kept it till
+the reign of Edward the Third: it afterwards passed through several
+families, till the reign of Henry the Seventh, when it came into that of
+De Gray, Earl of Kent, whence the name; though, perhaps, the works were
+erected by Scheldon.
+
+It is now, with Coleshill, the property of Lord Digby; but the building
+has been so long gone, that tradition herself has lost it.
+
+
+
+SHELDON.
+
+One mile east is Sheldon-hall, which anciently bore the name of
+East-hall, in contradistinction from Kent's-moat, which was West-hall.
+This, in 1379, was the property of Sir Hugh le Despenser, afterwards of
+the family of Devereux, ancestor of the present Viscount Hereford, who
+resided here till about 1710. In 1751, it was purchased by John Taylor,
+Esq; and is now possessed by his tenant.
+
+The moat, like others on an eminence, has but one trench, fed by the
+land springs; is filled up in the front of the hall, as there is not
+much need of water protection. The house, which gives an idea of former
+gentility, seems the first erected on the spot; is irregular, agreeable
+to the taste of the times, and must have been built many centuries. All
+the ancient furniture fled with its owners, except an hatchment in the
+hall, with sixteen coats of arms, specifying the families into which
+they married.
+
+
+
+KING'S-HURST.
+
+Two furlongs east of Sheldon-hall, and one mile south of Castle
+Bromwich, is _Kings-hurst_; which, though now a dwelling in tenancy,
+was once the capital of a large track of land, consisting of its own
+manor, Coleshill, and Sheldon; the demesne of the crown, under the Saxon
+kings, from whom we trace the name.
+
+The Conqueror, or his son William, granted it; but whether for money,
+service, caprice, or favour, is uncertain; for he who wears a crown acts
+as whimsically as he who does not.
+
+Mountfort came over with William, as a knight, and an officer of rank;
+but, perhaps, did not immediately receive the grant, for the king would
+act again much like other people, _give away their property, before he
+would give away his own_.
+
+If this unfortunate family were not the first grantees, they were lords,
+and probably residents of King's-hurst, long before their possession of
+Coleshill, in 1332, and by a younger branch, long after the unhappy
+attainder of Sir Simon, in 1497.
+
+Sir William Mountfort, in 1390, augmented the buildings, erected a
+chapel, and inclosed the manor. His grandson, Sir Edmund, in 1447, paled
+in some of the land, and dignified it with the fashionable name
+of _park_.
+
+This prevailing humour of imparking was unknown to the Saxons, it crept
+in with the Norman: some of the first we meet with are those of
+Nottingham, Wedgnock, and Woodstock--Nottingham, by William Peveral,
+illegitimate son of the Conqueror; Wedgnock, by Newburg, the first
+Norman Earl of Warwick; and Woodstock, by Henry the First. So that the
+Duke of Marlborough perhaps may congratulate himself with possessing the
+oldest park in use.
+
+The modern park is worth attention; some are delightful in the extreme:
+they are the beauties of creation, terrestrial paradises; they are just
+what they ought to be, nature cautiously assisted by invisible art. We
+envy the little being who presides over one--but why mould we envy him?
+the pleasure consists in _seeing_, and one man may _see_ as well as
+another: nay, the stranger holds a privilege beyond him; for the
+proprietor, by often seeing, sees away the beauties, while he who looks
+but seldom, sees with full effect. Besides, one is liable to be fretted
+by the mischievous hand of injury, which the stranger seldom sees; he
+looks for excellence, the owner for defect, and they both find.
+
+These proud inclosures, guarded by the growth within, first appeared
+under the dimension of one or two hundred acres; but fashion, emulation,
+and the park, grew up together, till the last swelled into one or
+two thousand.
+
+If religions rise from the lowest ranks, the fashions generally descend
+from the higher, who are at once blamed, and imitated by their
+inferiors.
+
+The highest orders of men lead up a fashion, the next class tread upon
+their heels, the third quickly follow, then the fourth, fifth, &c.
+immediately figure after them. But as a man who had an inclination for a
+park, could not always spare a thousand acres, he must submit to less,
+for a park must be had: thus Bond, of Ward-end, set up with thirty; some
+with one half, till the very word became a burlesque upon the idea. The
+design was a display of lawns, hills, water, clumps, &c. as if ordered
+by the voice of nature; and furnished with herds of deer. But some of
+our modern parks contain none of these beauties, nor scarcely land
+enough to support a rabbit.
+
+I am possessed of one of these jokes of a park, something less than an
+acre:--he that has none, might think it a _good_ joke, and wish it his
+own; he that has more would despise it: that it never was larger,
+appears from its being surrounded by Sutton Coldfield; and that it has
+retained the name for ages, appears from the old timber upon it.
+
+The manor of King's-hurst was disposed of by the Mountforts, about two
+hundred years ago, to the Digbys, where it remains.
+
+
+
+COLESHILL.
+
+One mile farther east is _Coleshill-hall_, vested in the crown before,
+and after the conquest; purchased, perhaps, of William Rufus, by
+Geoffrey de Clinton, ancestor to the present Duke of Newcastle. In 1352,
+an heiress of the house of Clinton, gave it, with herself, to Sir John
+de Mountfort, of the same family with Simon, the great Earl of
+Leicester, who fell, in 1265, at Evesham, in that remarkable contest
+with Henry the Third.
+
+With them it continued till 1497, when Sir Simon Mountfort, charged, but
+perhaps unjustly, with assisting Perkin Warbeck with 30_l_. was brought
+to trial at Guildhall, condemned as a traitor, executed at Tyburn, his
+large fortune confiscated, and his family ruined. Some of his
+descendants I well know in Birmingham; and _they_ are well known to
+poverty, and the vice.
+
+In the reign of Henry the Seventh, it was almost dangerous, particularly
+for a rich man, even to _think_ against a crafty and avaricious
+monarch.--What is singular, the man who accused Sir Simon at the bar,
+succeeded him in his estate.
+
+Simon Digby procured a grant of the place, in whose line it still
+continues. The hall is inhabited, but has been left about thirty years
+by the family; was probably erected by the Mountforts, is extensive, and
+its antique aspect without, gives a venerable pleasure to the beholder,
+like the half admitted light diffused within. Every spot of the park is
+delightful, except that in which the hall stands: our ancestors built in
+the vallies, for the sake of water; their successors on the hills, for
+the sake of air.
+
+From this uncouth swamp sprung the philosopher, the statesman, and
+tradition says, the gunpowder-plot.
+
+
+
+DUDDESTON.
+
+Four furlongs north-east of Birmingham, is _Duddeston_ (Dud's-town) from
+Dud, the Saxon proprietor, Lord of Dudley, who probably had a seat here;
+once a considerable village, but long reduced to the manor-house, till
+Birmingham, swelling beyond its bounds, in 1764, verged upon this
+lordship; and we now, in 1783, behold about eighty houses, under the
+names of Duke-street, Prospect-row, and Woodcock-lane.
+
+It afterwards descended to the Paganalls, the Sumeris, then to the
+Bottetourts, and was, in 1323, enjoyed by Joan Bottetourt, lady of
+Weoley castle, a daughter of the house of Sumeri.
+
+Sir Thomas de Erdington held it of this lady, by a chief-rent, which was
+a pair of gilt spurs, or six-pence, at the option of the tenant.
+
+Erdington sold it, in 1327, to Thomas de Maidenhache, by whose daughter,
+Sibell, it came in marriage to Adam de Grymforwe; whose posterity, in
+1363, conveyed it for 26_l_. 13s. 4d. now worth 20,000_l_. to John atte
+Holt; and his successors made it their residence, till the erection of
+Aston-hall, in the reign of James I.
+
+It is now converted into beautiful gardens, as a public resort of
+pleasure, and dignified with the London name of Vauxhall. The demolished
+fish-ponds, and the old foundations, which repel the spade, declare its
+former grandeur.
+
+In 1782 it quitted, by one of the most unaccountable alignments that
+ever resulted from human weakness, the ancient name of Holte, familiar
+during four hundred and nineteen years, for that of Legge.
+
+Could the ghost of Sir Lister re-visit his departed property, one might
+ask, What reception might you meet with, Sir Lister, in 1770, among your
+venerable ancestors in the shades, for barring, unprovoked, an infant
+heiress of 7000_l_. a year, and giving it, unsolicited, to a stranger?
+Perhaps you experience repeated buffetings; a sturdy figure, with iron
+aspect, would be apt to accost you--"I with nervous arm, and many a
+bended back, drew 40_l_. from the Birmingham forge, with which, in 1330,
+I purchased the park and manor of Nechels, now worth four hundred times
+that sum. I planted that family which you have plucked up by the roots:
+in the sweat of my brow, I laid a foundation for greatness; many of my
+successors built on that foundation--but you, by starving your brother,
+Sir Charles, into compliance, wantonly cut off the entail, and gave away
+the estate, after passing through seventeen descents, merely to shew you
+had a power to give it. We concluded here, that a son of his daughter,
+the last hope of the family, would change his own name to preserve ours,
+and not the estate change its possessor."--"I," another would be apt to
+say, "with frugal hand, and lucrative employments under the crown,
+added, in 1363, the manor of Duddeston; and, in 1367, that of Alton. But
+for what purpose did I add them? To display the folly of a
+successor."--A dejected spectre would seem to step forward, whose face
+carried the wrinkles of eighty-four, and the shadow of tear; "I, in
+1611, brought the title of baronet among us, first tarnished by you;
+which, if your own imbecility could not procure issue to support, you
+ought to have supported it by purchase. I also, in 1620, erected the
+mansion at Afton, then, and even now, the most superb in that
+neighbourhood, fit to grace the leading title of nobility; but you
+forbad my successors to enter. I joined, in 1647, to our vast fortune,
+the manor of Erdington.--Thus the fabric we have been rearing for ages,
+you overthrew in one fatal moment."--The last angry spectre would appear
+in the bloom of life. "I left you an estate which you did not deserve:
+you had no more right to leave it from your successor, than I to leave
+it from you: one man may ruin the family of another, but he seldom ruins
+his own. We blame him who wrongs his neighbour, but what does he deserve
+who wrongs himself?--You have done both, for by cutting off the
+succession, your name will be lost. The ungenerous attorney, instead of
+making your absurd will, ought to have apprized you of our sentiments,
+which exactly coincide with those of the world, or how could the tale
+affect a stranger? Why did not some generous friend guide your crazy
+vessel, and save a sinking family? Degenerate son, he who destroys the
+peace of another, should forfeit his own--we leave you to remorse, may
+she quickly _find, and weep over you_."
+
+
+
+SALTLEY.
+
+A mile east of Duddeston is _Saltley-hall_, which, with an extensive
+track of ground, was, in the Saxon times, the freehold of a person whom
+we should now call Allen; the same who was Lord of Birmingham. But at
+the conquest, when justice was laid asleep, and property possessed by
+him who could seize it, this manor, with many others, fell into the
+hands of William Fitz-Ausculf, Baron of Dudley-castle, who granted it in
+knight's-service to Henry de Rokeby.
+
+A daughter of Rokeby carried it by marriage to Sir John Goband, whose
+descendants, in 1332, sold it to Walter de Clodshale; an heiress of
+Clodshale, in 1426, brought it into the ancient family of Arden, and a
+daughter of this house, to that of Adderley, where it now rests.
+
+The castle, I have reason to think, was erected by Rokeby, in which all
+the lords resided till the extinction of the Clodshales.--It has been
+gone to ruin about three hundred years, and the solitary platform seems
+to mourn its loss.
+
+
+
+WARD-END.
+
+Three miles from Birmingham, in the same direction, is _Wart-end_,
+anciently _Little Bromwich_; a name derived from the plenty of broom,
+and is retained to this day by part of the precincts, _Broomford_
+(Bromford).
+
+This manor was claimed by that favourite of the conqueror, Fitz-Ausculf,
+and granted by him to a second-hand favourite, who took its name.
+
+The old castle has been gone about a century; the works are nearly
+complete, cover about nine acres, the most capacious in this
+neighbourhood, those of Weoley-castle excepted. The central area is now
+an orchard, and the water, which guarded the castle, guards the fruit.
+This is surrounded with three mounds, and three trenches, one of them
+fifty yards over, which, having lost its master, guards the fish.
+
+The place afterwards passed through several families, till the reign of
+Henry the Seventh. One of them bearing the name of _Ward_, changed the
+name to _Ward-end_.
+
+In 1512, it was the property of John Bond, who, fond of his little
+hamlet, inclosed a park of thirty acres, stocked it with deer; and, in
+1517, erected a chapel for the conveniency of his tenants, being two
+miles from the parish church of Afton. The skeleton of this chapel, in
+the form of a cross, the fashion of the times, is yet standing on the
+outward mound: its floor is the only religious one I have seen laid with
+horse-dung; the pulpit is converted into a manger--it formerly furnished
+husks for the man, but now corn for the horse. Like the first christian
+church, it has experienced a double use, a church and a stable; but with
+this difference, _that_ in Bethlehem, was a stable advanced into a
+church; this, on the contrary, is reduced into a stable.
+
+The manor, by a female, passed through the Kinardsleys, and is now
+possessed by the Brand-woods; but the hall, erected in 1710, and its
+environs, are the property of Abraham Spooner, Esq.
+
+
+
+CASTLE BROMWICH.
+
+Simply _Bromwich_, because the soil is productive of broom.
+
+My subject often leads me back to the conquest, an enterprize, wild
+without parallel: we are astonished at the undertaking, because William
+was certainly a man of sense, and a politician. Harold, his competitor,
+was a prince much superior in power, a consummate general, and beloved
+by his people. The odds were so much against the invader, that out of
+one hundred such imprudent attempts, ninety-nine would miscarry: all the
+excuse in his favour is, _it succeeded_. Many causes concurred in this
+success, such as his own ambition, aided by his valour; the desperate
+fortune of his followers, very few of whom were men of property, for to
+the appearance of gentlemen, they added the realities of want; a
+situation to which any change is thought preferable; but, above all,
+_chance_. A man may dispute for religion, he may contend for liberty, he
+may run for his life, but he will _fight_ for property.
+
+By the contest between William and Harold, the unhappy English lost all
+they had to lose; and though this all centered in the Normans, they did
+not acquire sufficient to content them.
+
+History does not inform us who was then the proprietor of Castle
+Bromwich, but that it belonged to the Mercian Earls scarcely admits a
+doubt; as Edwin owned some adjoining manors, he probably owned this.
+Fitz-Ausculf was his fortunate successor, who procured many lordships in
+the neighhood of Birmingham; Castle Bromwich was one. He granted it to
+an inferior Norman, in military tenure; who, agreeable to the fashion of
+those times, took the surname of Bromwich.
+
+Henry de Castel was a subsequent proprietor. Dugdale supposes the
+village took its name from a castle, once on the premises; and that the
+castle-hill yet remains: but this hill is too small, even to admit a
+shelter for a Lilliputian, and is evidently an artificial trifle,
+designed for a monument. It might hold, for its ancient furniture, a
+turret, termed a castle--perhaps it held nothing in Dugdale's time: the
+modern is a gladiator, in the attitude of fighting, supported by a
+pedestal, containing the Bridgeman arms.
+
+_Castle_, probably, was added by the family of that name, lords of the
+place, to distinguish it from _woody_ and _little_ Bromwich. They bore
+for their arms, three castles and a chevron.
+
+Lord Ferrers of Chartley, who was proprietor of Birmingham in the reign
+of Henry the Sixth, enjoyed it by marriage; and his grand daughter
+brought it, by the same channel, into the family of Devereux, Lords of
+Sheldon. Edward, about the latter end of Queen Elizabeth's reign,
+erected the present building, which is capacious, is in a stile between
+ancient and modern, and has a pleasing appearance.
+
+The Bridgeman family acceded to possession about eighty years ago, by
+purchase, and made it their residence till about 1768. We should
+naturally enquire, Why Sir Harry quitted a place so delightfully
+situated? Perhaps it is not excelled in this country, in the junction of
+three great roads, a a desirable neighbourhood, the river Tame at its
+back, and within five miles of the plentiful market of Bimingham--but,
+alas, _it has no park_.
+
+The gentry seem to have resided in our vicinity, when there was the
+greatest inducement to leave it, _impassable roads_: they seem also to
+have quitted the country, now there is the greatest inducement to reside
+there; roads, which improve their estates, and may be travelled with
+pleasure. It may be objected, that "the buildings become ancient." But
+there is no more disgrace in an old house, than in an old man; they may
+both be dressed in character, and look well. A gentleman, by residing in
+the family seat, pays a compliment to his ancestors.
+
+
+
+PARK-HALL.
+
+Six miles north-east of Birmingham, and one from Castle Bromwich chapel,
+is a spacious moat, with one trench, which, for many centuries guarded
+_Park-hall_. This is another of those desolate islands, from which every
+creature is fled, and every sound, except that of the winds; nay, even
+the very clouds seem to lament the desolation with tears.
+
+This was possessed by none but the Ardens, being part of their vast
+estate long before the conquest, and five hundred years after. A
+delightful situation on the banks of the Tame; to which we are led
+through a dirty road.
+
+We may consider this island, the treasury into which forty-six lordships
+paid their tribute. The riches of the country were drawn to this center,
+and commands were issued from it. The growth of these manors supplied
+that spot, which now grows for another. The lordships are in forty-six
+hands; the country is in silence; the island ploughed up, and the family
+distressed--At the remembrance of their name, the smile quits the face
+of history; she records their sad tale with a sigh; while their arms
+are yet displayed in some of the old halls in the neighbourhood.
+
+
+
+BERWOOD.
+
+Crossing the river, one mile farther east, is _Berwood-hall_, where the
+forsaken moat, at this day, guards--nothing. This, with the manor to
+which it belongs, was also the property of the Ardens; one of which in
+the reign of Henry the Second, granted it to the canons of Leicester;
+who added a chapel, which went to decay four hundred years ago. After
+the grant, the Ardens seem to have become tenants to the canons for the
+land, once their own: we frequently observe a man pay rent for what he
+_sells_, but seldom for what he _gives_.
+
+At the dissolution of abbies, in 1537, Thomas Arden, the head of the
+family, purchased it of Henry the Eighth, for 272_l_. 10s. uniting it
+again to his estate, after a separation of three hundred and fifty
+years, in whose posterity it continued till their fall.
+
+Thus, the father first purchased what the son gave away, and his
+offspring re-purchased again. The father lays a tax on his successor;
+or, climbs to heaven at the expence of the son. In one age it is
+meritorious to _give_ to the church, in another, to _take_ from her.
+
+
+
+ERDINGTON.
+
+Three miles north-east of Birmingham, is _Erdington-hall_, which boasts
+a long antiquity. The manor was the property of the old Earls of Mercia:
+Edwin possessed it at the conquest, but lost it in favour of William
+Fitz-Ausculf, who no doubt granted it in knight's service to his friend
+and relation, of Norman race, who erected the hall; the moat, took his
+residence in, and his name Erdington, from the place. His descendants
+seem to have resided here with great opulence near 400 years.
+
+Dugdale mentions a circumstance of Sir Thomas de Erdington, little
+noticed by our historians. He was a faithful adherent to King John, who
+conferred on him many valuable favours: harrassed by the Pope on one
+side, and his angry Barons on the other, he privately sent Sir Thomas to
+Murmeli, the powerful King of Africa, Morocco, and Spain; with offers
+to forsake the christian faith, turn mahometan, deliver up his kingdom,
+and hold it of him in tribute, for his assistance against his enemies.
+But it does not appear the ambassador succeeded: the Moorish Monarch did
+not chuse to unite his prosperous fortune with that of a random prince;
+he might also consider, the man who could destroy his nephew and his
+sovereign, could not be an honour to any profession.
+
+The manor left the Erdington family in 1472, and, during a course of 175
+years, acknowledged for its owners, George Plantagenet, Duke of
+Clarence, Sir William Harcourt, Robert Wright, Sir Reginald Bray,
+Francis Englefield, Humphry Dimock, Walter Earl, Sir Walter Devereux,
+and was, in 1647, purchased by Sir Thomas Holte, in whose family it
+continued till 1782, when Henage Legge, Esq; became seised of the manor.
+
+As none of the Lords seem to have resided upon the premises since the
+departure of the Erdingtons, it must be expected they have gradually
+tended to decay.
+
+We may with some reason conclude, that as Erdington was the freehold of
+the Earls of Mercia, it was not the residence of its owners, therefore
+could not derive its name from them. That as the word _Arden_ signifies
+a wood, the etymology of that populous village is, _a town in the wood_.
+That one of the first proprietors, after the conquest, struck with the
+security offered by the river, erected the present fortifications, which
+cover three parts of the hall, and the river itself the fourth. Hence it
+follows, that the neighbouring work, which we now call Bromford-forge,
+was a mill prior to the conquest; because the stream is evidently turned
+out of its bed to feed it. That the present hall is the second on the
+premises, and was erected by the Erdingtons, with some later additions.
+
+
+
+PIPE.
+
+One mile north-east of Erdington, is _Pipe-hall_; which, with its manor,
+like the neighbouring land, became at the conquest the property of
+Fitz-Ausculf; and afterwards of his defendants, Paganall, Sumeri,
+Bottetort, and St. Leger.
+
+It was common at that fatal period, for one of these great barons, or
+rather great robbers, to procure a large quantity of land for himself;
+some of them two or three hundred thousand acres--too much for one man
+to grasp. He therefore kept what he pleased for his private use, and
+granted the other in knight's-service, reserving annually a rent. These
+rents were generally small, so as never to hurt the tenant: however, the
+lord could order him to arms whenever he pleased.
+
+A few of the grants were procured by the disinherited English, but
+chiefly by the officers of William's army, being more respected, and
+more proper to be trusted: they were often relations, or favourites of
+the great barons. The lord could not conveniently sell, without the
+consent of the crown, but he could set at what price he pleased. Time
+made this chief-rent permanent, and gave the tenant stability of title.
+
+The manor of Pipe, with some others, was granted to William Mansell, who
+resided in the hall, and executed some of the chief offices of
+the county.
+
+The last of the name, in the reign of Henry the Third, left a daughter,
+who married Henry de Harcourt; and his daughter married John de Pipe,
+who seems to have taken its name.
+
+Henry, his descendant, had many children, all of whom, with his lady,
+died of the plague, except a daughter, Margery. He afterwards married,
+in 1363, Matilda, the daughter of George de Castell, of Castle Bromwich;
+but soon after the happy wedding, he perceived his bride was pregnant,
+which proved, on enquiry, the effect of an intrigue with her father's
+menial servant; a striking instance of female treachery, which can only
+be equalled by--male.
+
+The shock proving too great for his constitution, brought on a decline,
+and himself to the grave, before the birth of the child.
+
+John was the fruit of this unlawful amour, whose guardian, to prevent
+his inheriting the estate, made him a canon of Ouston, in
+Leicestershire; and afterwards persuaded the unhappy Margery to grant
+the manor to the abbot of Stonely.
+
+Thomas de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, afterwards purchased it for
+133_l_. 6s. 8d. It came to the crown by attainder, in the reign of Henry
+the Seventh; then to Sir William Staunford, one of his judges, John
+Buttler; Edward Holte, in 1568; Francis Dimock, whose daughter married
+Walter Earl; then to Walter Devereux, by marrying Earl's daughter;
+afterwards to Sir Thomas Holte, by purchase; and is now in the family
+of Bagot.
+
+Though the hall is antique, its front is covered in the modern barbarous
+stile, by a clump of venerable trees; which would become any situation
+but that in which they stand. It is now inhabited by a gentleman of
+Birmingham, who has experienced the smiles of commerce.
+
+
+
+ASTON.
+
+Two miles north of Birmingham, is Aston (East-town) being east of
+Westbury (Wednesbury) it lies on a steep descent towards the river Tame.
+
+This place, like that of Erdington, belonged to the Earls of Mercia in
+the Saxon times; and, at the conquest, was the property of the
+unfortunate Edwin. Fitz-Ausculf became his successor in this, and in
+other lands: the survey calls it eight hides, valued at 5_l_. per annum;
+a mill, 3s. and a wood, three miles long, and half a mile broad. The
+mill, I make no doubt, stood where a mill now stands, near
+Sawford-bridge; but neither the hides, nor the wood, could be confined
+within the boundary of Afton; the manor is too little for either. The
+lordship extends about a square mile, and that part which is now the
+park, I have reason to think, was then a common, and for ages after.
+
+A Saxon, of the name of Godmund, held it under the Mercian Earls, and
+found means, at the conquest, to hold it under the Norman.
+
+One hundred yards north of the church, in a perfect swamp, stood the
+hall; probably erected by Godmund, or his family: the situation shews
+the extreme of bad taste--one would think, he endeavoured to lay his
+house under the water. The trenches are obliterated by the floods, so as
+to render the place unobserved by the stranger: it is difficult to chuse
+a worse, except he had put his house under the earth. I believe there
+never was more than one house erected on the spot, and that was one
+too much.
+
+Whether this Saxon family of Godmund became extinct, or had lost their
+right, is uncertain; but Sumeri, Fitz-Ausculf's successor, about 1203,
+granted the manor to Sir Thomas de Erdington, Ambassador to King John,
+mentioned before, who had married his sister; paying annually a pair of
+spurs, or six-pence, as a nominal rent, but meant, in reality, as a
+portion for the lady.
+
+The family of Erdington, about 1275, sold it to Thomas de Maidenhache,
+who did not seem to live upon friendly terms with his neighbour, William
+de Birmingham; for, in 1290, he brought an action against him for
+fishing in his water, called Moysich (Dead-branch) leading into Tame,
+towards Scarford-bridge (Shareford, dividing the shares, or parts of the
+parish, Aston manor from Erdington, now Sawford-bridge) which implies a
+degree of unkindness; because William could not amuse himself in his own
+manor of Birmingham, for he might as well have angled in one of his
+streets, as in the river Rea. The two lords had, probably, four years
+before been on friendly terms, when they jointly lent their assistance
+to the hospital of St. Thomas, in Birmingham.
+
+Maidenhache left four daughters; Sibel, married Adam de Grymsorwe, who
+took with her the manor of Aston; a daughter of this house, in 1367,
+sold it to John atte Holte, of Birmingham, in whose family it continued
+415 years, till 1782, when Henage Legge, Esq; acceded to possession.
+
+This wretched bog was the habitation of all the lords, from Godmund to
+the Holtes, the Erdington's excepted; for Maud Grymsorwe executing the
+conveyance at Aston, indicates that she resided there; and Thomas Holte,
+being possessed of Duddeston, proves that he did not: therefore I
+conclude, that the building, as it ought, went to decay soon after; so
+that desolation has claimed the place for her own near four hundred
+years. This is corroberated by some old timber trees, long since upon
+the spot where the building stood.
+
+The extensive parish of Aston takes in the two extremes of Birmingham,
+which supplies her with more christenings, weddings, and burials, than
+were, a few years ago, supplied by the whole parish of Birmingham.
+
+
+
+WITTON.
+
+Three miles north of Birmingham, and one from Aston, is _Witton_,
+(Wicton) from the bend of the river, according to Dugdale: the property
+of a person at the conquest whose name was Staunchel. Fitz-Ausculf
+seized it, and Staunchel, more fortunate than the chief of his country
+men, became his tenant; valued in the conqueror's survey at 20s.
+per ann.
+
+It was afterwards vested in the crown: in 1240, Henry the third granted
+it to Andrew de Wicton, who took his name from the place, for in
+Dooms-day it is Witone; therefore the name being prior, proves
+the remark.
+
+Andrew, anxious after the boundary of his new purchase, brought an
+action against his neighbour, William de Pyrie (Perry) for infringing
+his property. Great disputes arise from small beginnings; perhaps a
+lawyer blew the flame.
+
+The king issued his precept to the Sheriff of Staffordshire, in which
+Perry lies, to bring with him twelve lawful and discreet knights; and
+the same to the Sheriff of Warwickshire, of which Witton is part, to
+ascertain the bounds between them.
+
+Which was the aggressor, is hard to determine, but I should rather
+suppose Squire Perry, because _man_ is ever apt to trespass; he resided
+on the premises, and the crown is but a sleepy landlord; not so likely
+to rob, as be robbed.
+
+There is a road, where foot seldom treads, mounded on each side, leading
+over the Coldfield, from Perry-bridge towards the Newlands, undoubtedly
+the work of this venerable band of discreet knights.
+
+The stranger, of course, would deem the property between the contending
+parties, of great value, which, twenty-four of the principal characters
+of the age, the flower of two counties, marshalled by two chief
+officers, were to determine. But what will he think of the quarrelsome
+spirit of the times, when, I tell him, it was only a few acres, which
+is, even at this day, waste land, and scarcely worth owning by either.
+
+In 1290, Witton was the property of William Dixley; in 1340, that of
+Richard de Pyrie, descendant of him, who, a hundred years before, held
+the contest. In 1426, Thomas East, of Hay-hall, in Yardley, was owner;
+who sold it to John Bond, of Ward-end, of whose descendants William
+Booth purchased it, in 1620: an heiress of Booth brought it by marriage
+to Allestree, of Yardley, who enjoyed it in our days; it was sold to
+John Wyrley, and is now possessed by George Birch, Esq; of Handsworth.
+
+The house, left by its owners, is in that low, or rather boggy
+situation, suitable to the fashion of those times. I can discover no
+traces of a moat, though there is every conveniency for one: We are
+doubly hurt by seeing a house in a miserable hole, when joining an
+elegible spot.
+
+
+
+BLAKELEY.
+
+Five miles north-west of Birmingham, is _Blakely-hall_, the manor house
+of Oldbury. If we see a venerable edifice without a moat, we cannot from
+thence conclude, it was never the residence of a gentleman, but wherever
+we find one, we may conclude it was.
+
+Anciently, this manor, with those of Smethwick and Harborn, belonged to
+the family of Cornwallis, whose habitation was Blakeley-hall: the
+present building seems about 300 years old.
+
+The extinction of the male line, threw the property into the hands of
+two coheirs; one of whom married into the family of Grimshaw, the other
+into that of Wright, who jointly held it. The family of Grimshaw
+failing, Wright became then, and is now, possessed of the whole.
+
+I am unacquainted with the principal characters who acted the farce of
+life on this island, but it has long been in the tenancy of a poor
+farmer, who, the proprietor allured me, was _best_ able to stock the
+place with children. In 1769, the Birmingham canal passing over the
+premises, robbed the trench of its water. Whether it endangers the
+safety is a doubt, for _poverty_ is the best security against violence.
+
+
+
+WEOLEY
+
+Four miles west of Birmingham, in the parish of Northfield, are the
+small, but extensive ruins of _Weoley-castle_, whose appendages command
+a track of seventeen acres, situate in a park of eighteen hundred.
+
+These moats usually extend from half an acre to two acres, are generally
+square, and the trenches from eight yards over to twenty.
+
+This is large, the walls massy; they form the allies of a garden, and
+the rooms, the beds; the whole display the remains of excellent
+workmanship. One may nearly guess at a man's consequence, even after a
+lapse of 500 years, by the ruins of his house.
+
+The steward told me, "they pulled down the walls as they wanted the
+stone." Unfeeling projectors: there is not so much to pull down. Does
+not time bring destruction fast enough without assistance? The head
+which cannot contemplate, offers its hand to destroy. The insensible
+taste, unable itself to relish the dry fruits of antiquity, throws them
+away to prevent another. May the fingers _smart_ which injure the
+venerable walls of Dudley, or of Kenilworth. Noble remains of ancient
+grandeur! copious indexes, that point to former usage! We survey them
+with awful pleasure. The mouldering walls, as if ashamed of their humble
+state, hide themselves under the ivies; the generous ivies, as if
+conscious of the precious relics, cover them from the injuries of time.
+
+When land frequently undergoes a conveyance, necessity, we suppose, is
+the lot of the owner, but the lawyer fattens: _To have and to hold_ are
+words of singular import; they charm beyond music; are the quintessence
+of language; the leading figure in rhetoric. But how would he fare if
+land was never conveyed? He must starve upon quarrels.
+
+Instances may be given of land which knows no title, except those of
+conquest and descent: Weoley Castle comes nearly under this
+description. _To sign, seal, and deliver_, were wholly unknown to our
+ancestors. Could a Saxon freeholder rise from the dead, and visit the
+land, once his own, now held by as many writings as would half spread
+over it, he might exclaim, "Evil increases with time, and parchment with
+both. You deprive the poor of their breeches; I covered the ground with
+sheep, you with their skins; I thought, as you were at variance with
+France, Spain, Holland, and America, those numerous deeds were a heap of
+drum heads, and the internal writing, the _articles of war_. In one
+instance, however, there is a similarity between us; we unjustly took
+this land from the Britons, you as unjustly took it from us; and a time
+may come, when another will take it from you. Thus, the Spaniards
+founded the Peruvian empire in butchery, now tottering towards a fall;
+you, following their example, seized the northern coast of America; you
+neither bought it nor begged it, you took it from the natives; and thus
+your children, the Americans, with equal violence, have taken it from
+you: No law binds like that of arms. The question has been, whether they
+shall pay taxes? which, after a dispute of eight years, was lost in
+another, _to whom_ they shall pay taxes? The result, in a future day
+will be, domestic struggles for sovereignty will stain the ground
+with blood."
+
+When the proud Norman cut his way to the throne, his imperious followers
+seized the lands, kicked out the rightful possessors, and treated them
+with a dignity rather beneath that practiced to a dog.--This is the most
+summary title yet discovered.
+
+Northfield was the fee-simple of Alwold (Allwood) but, at the conquest,
+Fitz-Ausculf seized it, with a multitude of other manors: it does not
+appear that he granted it in knight's-service to the injured Allwood,
+but kept it for his private use, Paganall married his heiress, and
+Sumeri married Paganall's, who, in the beginning of the 13th century,
+erected the castle. In 1322, the line of Sumeri expired.
+
+Bottetourt, one of the needy squires, who, like Sancho Panza, attended
+William his master, in his mad, but _fortunate_ enterprize, procured
+lands which enabled him to _live_ in England, which was preferable to
+starving in Normandy. His descendant became, in right of his wife,
+coheir of the house of Sumeri, vested in Weoley-castle. He had, in
+1307, sprung into peerage, and was one of our powerful barons, till
+1385, when the male line dropt. The vast estate of Bottetourt, was then
+divided among females; Thomas Barkley, married the eldest, and this
+ancient barony was, in 1761, revived in his descendant, Norborne
+Barkley, the present Lord Bottetourt; Sir Hugh Burnel married another,
+and Sir John St. Leger a third.
+
+Weoley-castle was, for many years, the undivided estate of the three
+families; but Edward Sutton, Lord Dudley, having married a daughter of
+Barkley, became possessed of that castle, which was erected by Sumeri,
+their common ancestor, about nine generations before.
+
+In 1551, he sold it to William Jervoise, of London, mercer, whose
+descendant, Jervoise Clark Jervoise, Esq; now enjoys it.
+
+Fond of ranging, I have travelled a circuit round Birmingham, without
+being many miles from it. I wish to penetrate farther from the center,
+but my subject forbids. _Having therefore finished my discourse, I
+shall_, like my friends, the pulpitarians, many of whom, and of several
+denominations, are characters I revere, _apply what has been said_.
+
+We learn, that the land I have gone over, with the land I have not,
+changed its owners at the conquest: this shuts the door of inquiry into
+pedigree, the old families chiefly became extinct, and few of the
+present can be traced higher.--Destruction then overspread the kingdom.
+
+The seniors of every age exclaim against the growing corruption of the
+times: my father, and perhaps every father, dwelt on the propriety of
+his conduct in younger life, and placed it in counter-view with that of
+the following generation. However, while I knew him, it was much like
+other people's--But I could tell him, that he gave us the bright side of
+his character; that he was, probably, a piece of human nature, as well
+as his son; that nature varies but little, and that the age of William
+the Conqueror was the most rascally in the British annals. One age may
+be marked for the golden, another for the iron, but this for plunder.
+
+We farther learn, there is not one instance in this neighbourhood, where
+an estate has continued till now in the male line, very few in the
+female. I am acquainted with only one family near Birmingham, whose
+ancestor entered with William, and who yet enjoy the land granted at
+that period: the male line has been once broken--perhaps this land was
+never conveyed. They shone with splendour near six hundred years. In the
+sixteenth century, their estate was about 1400_l_. a year; great for
+that time, but is now, exclusive of a few _pepper-corns_ and _red
+roses_, long since withered, reduced to one little farm, tilled for
+bread by the owner. This setting glympse of a shining family, is as
+indifferent about the matter, and almost as ignorant, as the team
+he drives.
+
+Lastly, we learn that none of the lords, as formerly, reside on the
+above premises: that in four instances out of twenty-one, the buildings
+are now as left by the lords, Sheldon, Coleshill, Pipe, and Blakeley:
+two have undergone some alteration, as Duddeston and Erdington: five
+others are re-erected, as Black Greves, Ulverley, King's-hurst, Castle
+Bromwich, and Witton; which, with all the above, are held in tenancy: in
+eight others all the buildings are swept away, and their moats left
+naked, as Hogg's-moat, Yardley, Kent's-moat, Saltley, Ward-end,
+Park-hall, Berwood, and Weoley; and in two instances the moats
+themselves are vanished, that of King's-norton is filled up to make way
+for the plough, and that of Aston demolished by the floods. Thus the
+scenes of hospitality and grandeur, become the scenes of antiquity, and
+then disappear.
+
+
+
+SUTTON COLDFIELD.
+
+Though the topographical historian, who resides upon the premises, is
+most likely to be correct; yet if _he_, with all his care, is apt to be
+mistaken, what can be expected from him who trots his horse over the
+scenes of antiquity?
+
+I have visited, for twenty years, some singular places in this
+neighbourhood, yet, without being master of their history; thus a man
+may spend an age in conning his lesson, and never learn it.
+
+When the farmer observes me on his territories, he eyes me _ascance_;
+suspecting a design to purchase his farm, or take it out of his
+hands.--I endeavour to remove his apprehensions, by approaching him; and
+introduce a conversation tending to my pursuit, which he understands as
+well as if, like the sons of Jacob, I addressed him in Hebrew; yet,
+notwithstanding his total ignorance of the matter, he has sometimes
+dropt an accidental word, which has thrown more light on the subject,
+than all my researches for a twelvemonth. If an honest farmer, in
+future, should see upon his premises a plumpish figure, five feet six,
+with one third of his hair on, a cane in his left hand, a glove upon
+each, and a Pomeranian dog at his heels, let him fear no evil; his farm
+will not be additionally tythed, his sheep worried, nor his hedges
+broken--it is only a solitary animal, in quest of a Roman phantom.
+
+Upon the north west extremity of Sutton Coldfield, joining the Chester
+road, is _The Bowen Pool_; at the tail of which, one hundred yards west
+of the road, on a small eminence, or swell of the earth, are the remains
+of a fortification, called _Loaches Banks_; but of what use or original
+is uncertain, no author having mentioned it.
+
+Four hundred yards farther west, in the same flat, is a hill of some
+magnitude, deemed, by the curious, a tumolus--it is a common thing for
+an historian to be lost, but not quite so common to acknowledge it. In
+attempting to visit this tumolus, I soon found myself in the center of a
+morass; and here, my dear reader might have seen the historian set fast
+in a double sense. I was obliged, for that evening, February 16, 1783,
+to retreat, as the sun had just done before me. I made my approaches
+from another quarter, April 13, when the hill appeared the work of
+nature, upon too broad a base for a tumolus; covering about three acres,
+perfectly round, rising gradually to the center, which is about sixteen
+feet above the level, surrounded by a ditch, perhaps made for some
+private purpose by the owner.
+
+The Roman tumoli were of two sorts, the small for the reception of a
+general, or great man, as that at Cloudsley-bush, near the High Cross,
+the tomb of Claudius; and the large, as at Seckington, near Tamworth,
+for the reception of the dead, after a battle: they are both of the same
+shape, rather high than broad. That before us comes under the
+description of neither; nor could the dead well be conveyed over
+the morass.
+
+The ground-plot, in the center of the fort, at Loaches Banks, is about
+two acres, surrounded by three mounds, which are large, and three
+trenches, which are small; the whole forming a square of four acres.
+Each corner directs to a cardinal point, but perhaps not with design;
+for the situation of the ground would invite the operator to chuse the
+present form. The north-west joins to, and is secured by the pool.
+
+As the works are much in the Roman taste, I might, at first view, deem
+it the residence of an opulent lord of the manor; but, the adjacent
+lands carrying no marks of cultivation, destroys the argument; it is
+also too large for the fashion; besides, all these manorial foundations
+have been in use since the conquest, therefore tradition assists the
+historian; but here, tradition being lost, proves the place of greater
+antiquity.
+
+One might judge it of Danish extraction, but here again, tradition will
+generally lend her assistance; neither are the trenches large enough for
+that people: of themselves they are no security, whether full or empty;
+for an active young fellow might easily skip from one bank to another.
+Nor can we view it as the work of some whimsical lord, to excite the
+wonder of the moderns; it could never pay for the trouble. We must,
+therefore, travel back among the ancient Britons, for a solution, and
+here we shall travel over solid ground.
+
+It is, probably, the remains of a British camp, for near these premises
+are Drude-heath (Druid's-heath) and Drude-fields, which we may
+reasonably suppose was the residence of a British priest: the military
+would naturally shelter themselves under the wing of the church, and the
+priest with the protection of the military. The narrowness of the
+trenches is another proof of its being British; they exactly correspond
+with the stile of that people. The name of the pool, _Bowen_, is of
+British derivation, which is a farther proof that the work originated
+from the Britons. They did not place their security so much in the
+trenches, as in the mounds, which they barracaded with timber. This camp
+is secured on three sides by a morass, and is only approachable on the
+fourth, that from the Coldfield. The first mound on this weak side, is
+twenty-four yards over, twice the size of any other; which, allowing an
+ample security, is a farther evidence of its being British, and
+tradition being silent is another.
+
+
+
+PETITION FOR A CORPORATION.
+
+Every man upon earth seems fond of two things, riches and power: this
+fondness necessarily springs from the heart, otherwise order would
+cease. Without the desire of riches, a man would not preserve what he
+has, nor provide for the future. "My thoughts," says a worthy christian,
+"are not of this world; I desire but one guinea to carry me through it."
+Supply him with that guinea, and he wishes another, lest the first
+should be defective.
+
+If it is necessary a man mould possess property, it is just as necessary
+he should possess a power to protect it, or the world would quickly
+bully him out of it: this power is founded on the laws of his country,
+to which he adds, by way of supplement, bye-laws, founded upon his own
+prudence. Those who possess riches, well know they are furnished with
+wings, and can scarcely be kept from flying.
+
+The man who has power to secure his wealth, seldom stops there; he, in
+turn, is apt to triumph over him who has less. Riches and power are
+often seen to go hand in hand.
+
+Industry produces property; which, when a little matured, looks out for
+command; thus the inhabitants of Birmingham, who have generally
+something upon the anvil besides iron, near seventy years ago having
+derived wealth from diligence, wished to derive power from charter;
+therefore, petitioned the crown that Birmingham might be erected into a
+corporation. Tickled with the title of alderman, dazzled with the
+splendour of a silver mace, a furred gown, and a magisterial chair, they
+could not see the interest of the place: had they succeeded, that
+amazing growth would have been crippled, which has since astonished the
+world, and those trades have been fettered which have proved the
+greatest benefit.
+
+When a man loudly pleads for public good, we shrewdly suspect a private
+emolument lurking beneath. There is nothing more detrimental to good
+neighbourhood, than men in power, where power is unnecessary: free as
+the air we breathe, we subsist by our freedom; no command is exercised
+among us, but that of the laws, to which every discreet citizen pays
+attention--the magistrate who distributes justice, tinctured with mercy,
+merits the thanks of society. A train of attendants, a white wand, and a
+few fiddles, are only the fringe, lace, and trappings of
+charteral office.
+
+Birmingham, exclusive of her market, ranks among the very lowest order
+of townships; every petty village claims the honour of being a
+constable-wick--we are no more. Our immunities are only the trifling
+privileges anciently granted to the lords; and two thirds of these are
+lost. But, notwithstanding this seemingly forlorn state, perhaps there
+is not a place in the British dominions, where so many people are
+governed by so few officers; nor a place better governed: pride,
+therefore, must have dictated the humble petition before us.
+
+I have seen a copy of this petition, signed by eighty-four of the
+inhabitants; and though without a date, seems to have been addressed to
+King George the First, about 1716: it alledges, "That Birmingham is, of
+late years, become very populous, from its great increase of trade; is
+much superior to any town in the county, and but little inferior to any
+inland town in the kingdom: that it is governed only by a constable, and
+enjoys no more privileges than a village: that there is no justice of
+peace in the town; nor any in the neighbourhood, who dares act with
+vigour: that the country abounds with rioters, who, knowing the place to
+be void of magistrates, assemble in it, pull down the meeting-houses,
+defy the king, openly avow the pretender, threaten the inhabitants, and
+oblige them to keep watch in their own houses: that the trade decays,
+and will stagnate, if not relieved. To remedy these evils, they beseech
+his majesty to incorporate the town, and grant such privileges as will
+enable them to support their trade, the king's interest, and destroy the
+villainous attempts of the jacobites. In consideration of the requested
+charter, they make the usual offering of _lives_ and _fortunes_".
+
+A petition and the petitioner, like Janus with his two faces, looks
+different ways; it is often treated as if it said one thing, and meant
+another; or as if it said any thing but truth. Its use, in some places,
+is to _lie on the table_. Our humble petition, by some means, met with
+the fate it deserved.
+
+We may remark, a town without a charter, is a town without a shackle. If
+there was then a necessity to erect a corporation, because the town was
+large, there is none now, though larger: the place was not better
+governed a thousand years ago, when only a tenth of its present
+magnitude; it may also be governed as well a thousand years hence, if it
+should swell to ten times its size.
+
+The _pride_ of our ancestors was hurt by a petty constable; the
+_interest_ of us, their successors, would be hurt by a mayor: a more
+simple government cannot be instituted, or one more efficacious: that of
+some places is designed for parade, ours for use; and both answers their
+end. A town governed by a multitude of governors, is the most likely to
+be ill-governed.
+
+[Illustration: The New Brass Works]
+
+
+
+BRASS WORKS.
+
+The manufacture of brass was introduced by the family of Turner, about
+1740, who erected those works at the south end of Coleshill-street;
+then, near two hundred yards beyond the buildings, but now the buildings
+extend about five hundred beyond them.
+
+Under the black clouds which arose from this corpulent tunnel, some of
+the trades collected their daily supply of brass; but the major part was
+drawn from the Macclesfield, Cheadle, and Bristol companies.
+
+'Causes are known by their effects;' the fine feelings of the heart are
+easily read in the features of the face: the still operations of the
+mind, are discovered by the rougher operations of the hand.
+
+Every creature is fond of power, from that noble head of the creation,
+man, who devours man, down to that insignificant mite, who devours his
+cheese: every man strives to be free himself, and to shackle another.
+
+Where there is power of any kind, whether in the hands of a prince, a
+people, a body of men, or a private person, there is a propensity to
+abuse it: abuse of power will everlastingly seek itself a remedy, and
+frequently find it; nay, even this remedy may in time degenerate to
+abuse, and call loudly for another.
+
+Brass is an object of some magnitude, in the trades of Birmingham; the
+consumption is said to be a thousand tons per annum. The manufacture of
+this useful article had long been in few, and opulent hands; who,
+instead of making the humble bow, for favours received, acted with
+despotic sovereignty, established their own laws, chose their customers,
+directed the price, and governed the market.
+
+In 1780, the article rose, either through caprice, or necessity, perhaps
+the _former_, from 72_l_. a ton to 84_l_. the result was, an advance
+upon the goods manufactured, followed by a number of counter-orders,
+and a stagnation of business.
+
+In 1781, a person, from affection to the user, or resentment to the
+maker, perhaps, the _latter_, harangued the public in the weekly papers;
+censured the arbitrary measures of the brazen sovereigns, shewed their
+dangerous influence over the trades of the town, and the easy manner in
+which works of our own might be constructed--good often arises out of
+evil; this fiery match, dipt in brimstone, quickly kindled another
+furnace in Birmingham. Public meetings were advertised, a committee
+appointed, and subscriptions opened to fill two hundred shares, of
+100_l_. each, deemed a sufficient capital: each proprietor of a share,
+to purchase one ton of brass, annually. Works were immediately erected
+upon the banks of the canal, for the advantage of water carriage, and
+the whole was conducted with the true spirit of Birmingham freedom.
+
+If a man can worm himself _into_ a lucrative branch, he will use every
+method to keep another _out_. All his powers may prove ineffectual; for
+if that other smells the sweet profits of the first, _he_ will endeavour
+to worm himself _in_: both may suffer by the contest, and the public
+be gainers.
+
+The old companies, which we may justly consider the directors of a south
+sea bubble in miniature, sunk the price from 84_l_. to 56_l_. Two
+inferences arise from this measure; that their profits were once very
+high, or are now very low; and, like some former monarchs, in the abuse
+of power, they repented one day too late.
+
+Schemes are generally proclaimed, _for public good!_ but as often meant,
+_for private interest_.--This, however, varied from that rule, and
+seemed less calculated to benefit those immediately, than those remotely
+concerned: they chose to sustain a smaller injury from making brass,
+than a greater from the makers.
+
+
+
+PRISON.
+
+If the subject is little, but little can be said upon it; I shall shine
+as dimly in this chapter on confinement, as in that on government. The
+traveller who sets out lame, will probably limp through the journey.
+
+Many of my friends have assured me, "That I must have experienced much
+trouble in writing the history of Birmingham." But I assure them in
+return, that I range those hours among the happiest of my life; and part
+of that happiness may consist in delineating the bright side of human
+nature. Pictures of deformity, whether of body or of mind, disgust--the
+more they approach towards beauty, the more they charm.
+
+All the chapters which compose this work, were formed with pleasure,
+except the latter part of that upon _births and burials_; there, being
+forced to apply to the parish books, I _figured_ with some obstruction.
+Poor _Allsop_, full of good-nature and affliction, fearful lest I should
+sap the church, could not receive me with kindness. When a man's
+resources lie within himself, he draws at pleasure; but when necessity
+throws him upon the parish, he draws in small sums, and with difficulty.
+
+I either _have_, or _shall_ remark, for I know not in what nich I shall
+exhibit this posthumous chapter, drawn like one of our sluggish bills,
+_three months after date_, "That Birmingham does not abound in villainy,
+equal to some other places: that the hand employed in business, has less
+time, and less temptation, to be employed in mischief; and that one
+magistrate alone, corrected the enormities of this numerous people,
+many years before I knew them, and twenty-five after." I add, that the
+ancient lords of Birmingham, among their manorial privileges, had the
+grant of a gallows, for capital punishment; but as there are no traces
+even of the name, in the whole manor, I am persuaded no such thing was
+ever erected, and perhaps the _anvil_ prevented it.
+
+Many of the rogues among us are not of our own growth, but are drawn
+hither, as in London, to shelter in a crowd, and the easier in that
+crowd to pursue their game. Some of them fortunately catch, from
+example, the arts of industry, and become useful: others continue to
+cheat for one or two years, till frightened by the grim aspect of
+justice, they decamp.
+
+Our vile and obscure prison, termed _The Dungeon_, is a farther proof
+how little that prison has been an object of notice, consequently
+of use.
+
+Anciently the lord of a manor exercised a sovereign power in his little
+dominion; held a tribunal on his premises, to which was annexed a
+prison, furnished with implements for punishment; these were claimed by
+the lords of Birmingham. This crippled species of jurisprudence, which
+sometimes made a man judge in his own cause, from which there was no
+appeal, prevailed in the highlands of Scotland, so late as the rebellion
+in 1745, when the peasantry, by act of parliament, were restored
+to freedom.
+
+Early perhaps in the sixteenth century, when the house of Birmingham,
+who had been chief gaolers, were fallen, a building was erected, which
+covered the east end of New-street, called the Leather-hall: the upper
+part consisted of a room about fifty feet long, where the public
+business of the manor was transacted. The under part was divided into
+several: one of these small rooms was used for a prison: but about the
+year 1728, _while men slept an enemy came_, a private agent to the lord
+of the manor, and erazed the Leather-hall and the Dungeon, erected three
+houses on the spot, and received their rents till 1776, when the town
+purchased them for 500_l_. to open the way. A narrow passage on the
+south will be remembered for half a century to come, by the name of the
+_dungeon-entry_.
+
+A dry cellar, opposite the demolished hall, was then appropriated for a
+prison, till the town of all bad places chose the worst, the bottom of
+Peck-lane; dark, narrow, and unwholesome within; crowded with dwellings,
+filth and distress without, the circulation of air is prevented.
+
+As a growing taste for public buildings has for some time appeared among
+us, we might, in the construction of a prison, unite elegance and use;
+and the west angle of that land between New-street and Mount-pleasant,
+might be suitable for the purpose; an airy spot in the junction of six
+streets. The proprietor of the land, from his known attachment to
+Birmingham, would, I doubt not, be much inclined to grant a
+favour.--Thus, I have expended ten _score_ words, to tell the world what
+another would have told them in _ten_--"That our prison is wretched, and
+we want a better."
+
+
+
+CLODSHALES CHANTRY.
+
+It is an ancient remark, "The world is a farce." Every generation, and
+perhaps every individual, acts a part in disguise; but when the curtain
+falls, the hand of the historian pulls off the mask, and displays the
+character in its native light. Every generation differs from the other,
+_yet all are right_. Time, fashion, and sentiment change together. We
+laugh at the oddity of our fore-fathers--our successors will laugh
+at us.
+
+The prosperous anvil of Walter de Clodshale, a native of this place, had
+enabled him to acquire several estates in Birmingham, to purchase the
+lordship of Saltley, commence gentleman, and reside in the manor-house,
+now gone to decay, though its traces remain, and are termed by common
+people, _the Giant's Castle_. This man, having well provided for the
+_present_, thought it prudent, at the close of life, to provide for the
+_future_: he therefore procured a licence, in 1331, from William de
+Birmingham, lord of the see, and another from the crown, to found a
+chantry at the altar in St. Martin's church, for one priest, to pray for
+his soul, and that of his wife.
+
+He gave, that he might be safely wafted into the arms of felicity, by
+the breath of a priest, four houses, twenty acres of land, and
+eighteen-pence rent, issuing out of his estates in Birmingham.
+
+The same righteous motive induced his son Richard, in 1348, to grant
+five houses, ten acres of land, and ten shillings rent, from the
+Birmingham estates, to maintain a second priest, who was to secure the
+souls of himself and his wife. The declaration of Christ, in that pious
+age, seems to have been inverted; for instead of its being difficult for
+a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, it was difficult for him to
+miss it. We are not told what became of him who had nothing to give! If
+the profits of the estate tended the right way, perhaps there was no
+great concern which way either _Walter_ or _Richard_ tended.
+
+The chantorial music continued two hundred and four years, till 1535,
+when Henry the Eighth closed the book, turned out the priests, who were
+Sir Thomas Allen and Sir John Green, and seized the property, valued at
+5_l_. 1s. per annum. Permit me again to moralize upon this fashionable
+practice of ruining the family, for the health of the soul: except some
+lawful creditor puts in a claim, which justice ought to allow, a son has
+the same right to an estate, after the death of his father, as that
+father had before him.
+
+Had Walter and Richard taken _equal_ care of their souls, and their
+estate, the first might have been as safe as in the hands of a priest,
+and the last, at this day, have been the property of that ancient, and
+once noble race of Arden, long since in distress; who, in 1426, married
+the heiress of their house.--Thus, a family, benefited by the hammer,
+was injured by the church.
+
+Had the hands of these two priests ministered to their wants, in the
+construction of tents and fishing-nets, like those of their
+predecessors, St. Paul and St. Peter, though their pride would have been
+eclipsed, their usefulness would have shone, and the world have been
+gainers by their labour. Two other lessons may be learnt from this
+little ecclesiastical history--
+
+The astonishing advance of landed property in Birmingham: nine houses,
+and thirty acres of land, two hundred and fifty years ago, were valued
+at the trifling rent of 4_l_. 9s. 6d. per annum; one of the acres, or
+one of the houses, would at this day bring more. We may reasonably
+suppose they were under-rated; yet, even then, the difference is
+amasing. An acre, within a mile of Birmingham, now sells for about one
+hundred pounds, and lets from three pounds to five, some as high
+as seven.
+
+And, the nation so overswarmed with ecclesiastics, that the spiritual
+honours were quickly devoured, and the race left hungry; they therefore
+fastened upon the temporal--hence we boast of two knighted priests.
+
+
+
+OCCURRENCES.
+
+EARTHQUAKE, &c.
+
+It is a doctrine singular and barbarous, but it is nevertheless true,
+that _destruction is necessary_. Every species of animals would multiply
+beyond their bounds in the creation, were not means devised to thin
+their race.
+
+I perused an author in 1738, who asserts, "The world might maintain
+sixty times the number of its present inhabitants." Two able disputants,
+like those in religion, might maintain sixty arguments on the subject,
+and like them, leave the matter where they found it. But if restraint
+was removed, the present number would be multiplied into sixty, in much
+less than one century.
+
+Those animals appropriated for use, are suffered, or rather invited, to
+multiply without limitation. But _luxury_ cuts off the beast, the pig,
+the sheep, and the fowl, and ill treatment the horse: vermin of every
+kind, from the lion to the louse, are hunted to death; a perpetual
+contest seems to exist between them and us; they for their preservation,
+and we for their extinction. The kitten and the puppy are cast _into_
+the water, to end their lives; _out_ of which the fishes are drawn to
+end theirs--animals are every were devoured by animals.
+
+Their grand governor, man himself, is under controul; some by religious,
+others by interested motives. Even the fond parent, seldom wishes to
+increase the number of those objects, which of all others he
+values most!
+
+In civilized nations the superior class are restrained by the laws of
+honour, the inferior by those of bastardy; but, notwithstanding these
+restraints, the human race would increase beyond measure, were they not
+taken off by casualties. It is in our species alone, that we often
+behold the infant flame extinguished by the wretched nurse.
+
+Three dreadful calamities attending existence, are inundations, fires,
+and earthquakes; devestation follows their footsteps, But _one_
+calamity, more destructive than them all, rises from man
+himself, _war_.
+
+Birmingham, from its elevation, is nearly exempt from the flood; our
+inundations, instead of sweeping away life and fortune, sweep away the
+filth from the kennel.
+
+It is amasing, in a place crowded with people, that so _much_ business,
+and so _little_ mischief is done by fire: we abound more with party
+walls, than with timber buildings. Utensils are ever ready to extinguish
+the flames, and a generous spirit to use them. I am not certain that a
+conflagration of 50_l_. damage, has happened within memory.
+
+I have only one earthquake to record, felt Nov. 15, 1772, at four in the
+morning; it extended about eight miles in length, from Hall-green to
+Erdington, and four in breadth, of which Birmingham was part. The
+shaking of the earth continued about five seconds, with unequal
+vibration, sufficient to awake a gentle sleeper, throw down a knife
+carelessly reared up, or rattle the brass drops of a chest of drawers. A
+flock of sheep, in a field near Yardley, frightened at the trembling,
+ran away.--No damage was sustained.
+
+
+
+PITMORE AND HAMMOND.
+
+Thomas Pitmore, a native of Cheshire, after consuming a fortune of
+700_l_. was corporal in the second regiment of foot; and John Hammond,
+an American by birth, was drummer in the thirty-sixth; both of
+recruiting parties in Birmingham.
+
+Having procured a brace of pistols, they committed several robberies in
+the dark, on the highways.
+
+At eight in the evening of November 22, 1780, about five hundred yards
+short of the four mile-stone, in the Coleshill road, they met three
+butchers of Birmingham, who closely followed each other in their return
+from Rugby fair. One of the robbers attempted the bridle of the first
+man, but his horse, being young, started out of the road, and ran away.
+The drummer then attacked the second, Wilfred Barwick, with "Stop your
+horse," and that moment, through the agitation of a timorous mind,
+discharged a pistol, and lodged a brace of slugs in the bowels of the
+unfortunate Barwick, who exclaimed, "I am a dead man!" and fell.
+
+The corporal instantly disappeared, and was afterwards, by the light of
+the show upon the ground, seen retreating to Birmingham. The drummer ran
+forwards about forty yards, and over a stile into Ward-end field. A
+fourth butcher of their company, and a lad, by this time came up, who,
+having heard the report of a pistol, seen the flash, and the drummer
+enter the field, leaped over the hedge in pursuit of the murderer. A
+frey ensued, in which the drummer was seized, who desired them not to
+take his life, but leave him to the laws of his country.
+
+Within half an hour, the deceased and the captive appeared together in
+the same room, at the Horse-shoe. What must then be the feelings of a
+mind, susceptible of impression by nature, but weakly calloused over by
+art? This is one instance, among many, which shews us, a life of
+innocence, is alone a life of happiness.
+
+The drummer impeached his companion, who was perhaps the most guilty of
+the two, and they were both that night lodged in the dungeon.
+
+Upon the trial, March 31, 1781, the matter was too plain to be
+controverted. The criminals were executed, and hung in chains at
+Washwood-heath, April 2; the corporal at the age of 25, and the
+drummer 22.
+
+
+
+RIOTS.
+
+Three principal causes of riot are, the low state of wages, the
+difference in political sentiment, and the rise of provisions: these
+causes, like inundations, produce dreadful effects, and like them,
+return at uncertain periods.
+
+The journeyman in Birmingham is under no temptation to demand an
+additional price for his labour, which is already higher than the
+usual mark.
+
+There is no nation fonder of their king than the English; which is a
+proof that monarchy suits the genius of the people: there is no nation
+more jealous of his power, which proves that liberty is a favourite
+maxim. Though the laws have complimented him with _much_, yet he well
+knows, a prerogative upon the stretch, is a prerogative in a
+dangerous state.
+
+The more a people value their prince, the more willing are they to
+contend in his favour.
+
+The people of England revered the memory of their beloved Saxon kings,
+and doubly lamented their fall, with that of their liberties.
+
+They taxed themselves into beggary, to raise the amasing sum of
+100,000_l_. to release Richard the First, unjustly taken captive
+by Leopold.
+
+They protected Henry the Fifth from death, at Agincourt, and received
+that death themselves.
+
+They covered the extreme weakness of Henry the Sixth, who _never said a
+good thing, or did a bad one_, with the mantle of royalty; when a
+character like his, without a crown, would have been hunted through
+life: they gave him the title of _good king Henry_, which would well
+have suited, had the word _king_ been omitted; they sought him a place
+in the kalendar of saints, and made _him_ perform the miracles of an
+angel when dead, who could never perform the works of a man,
+when living.
+
+The people shewed their attachment to Henry the Eighth, by submitting to
+the faggot and the block, at his command; and with their last breath,
+praying for their butcher.
+
+Affection for Charles the First, induced four of his friends to offer
+their own heads, to save his.--The wrath, and the tears of the people,
+succeeded his melancholy exit.
+
+When James the Second eloped from the throne, and was casually picked up
+at Feversham, by his injured subjects, _they remembered he was
+their king_.
+
+The church and Queen Anne, like a joyous co-partnership, were toasted
+together. The barrel was willingly emptied to honour the queen, and the
+toaster lamented he could honour her no more.
+
+The nation displayed their love to Charles the Second, by latticing the
+forests. His climbing the oak at Boscobel, has been the destruction of
+more timber than would have filled the harbour of Portsmouth; the tree
+which flourished in the field, was brought to die in the street.
+Birmingham, for ninety years, honoured him with her vengeance against
+the woods; and she is, at this day, surrounded with mutilated oaks,
+which stand as martyrs to royalty.
+
+It is singular, that the oak, which assisted the devotion of the
+Britons, composed habitations for the people, and furniture for those
+habitations; that, while standing, was an ornament to the country that
+bore it; and afterwards guarded the land which nursed it, should be the
+cause of continual riots, in the reign of George the First. We could not
+readily accede to a line of strangers, in preference to our ancient race
+of kings, though loudly charged with oppression.
+
+Clubs and tumults supported the spirit of contention till 1745, when, as
+our last act of animosity, we crowned an ass with turnips, in derision
+of one of the worthiest families that ever eat them.
+
+Power, in the hand of ignorance, is an edge-tool of the most dangerous
+kind. The scarcity of provisions, in 1766, excited the murmurs of the
+poor. They began to breathe vengeance against the farmer, miller, and
+baker, for doing what they do themselves, procure the greatest price for
+their property.
+
+On the market day, a common labourer, like Massenello of Naples, formed
+the resolution to lead a mob.
+
+He therefore erected his standard, which was a mop inverted, assembled
+the crowd, and roared out the old note, "Redress of Grievances." The
+colliers, with all their dark retinue, were to bring destruction from
+Wednesbury. Amazement seised the town! the people of fortune trembled:
+John Wyrley, an able magistrate, for the first time frightened in
+office, with quivering lips, and a pale aspect, swore in about eighty
+constables, to oppose the rising storm, armed each of them with a staff
+of authority, warm from the turning-lathe, and applied to the War-office
+for a military force.
+
+The lime-powdered monarch began to fabricate his own laws, direct the
+price of every article, which was punctually obeyed.
+
+Port, or power, soon overcome a weak head; the more copious the draught,
+the more quick intoxication: he entered many of the shops, and was every
+where treated with the utmost reverence; took whatever goods he pleased,
+and distributed them among his followers; till one of the inhabitants,
+provoked beyond measure at his insolence, gave him a hearty kick on the
+posteriors, when the hero and his consequence, like that of Wat Tyler,
+fell together.--Thus ended a reign of seven hours; the sovereign was
+committed to prison, as sovereigns ought, in the abuse of power, and
+harmony was restored without blood.
+
+
+
+THE CONJURERS.
+
+No _head_ is a vacuum. Some, like a paltry cottage, are ill
+accommodated, dark, and circumscribed; others are capacious as
+Westminster-Hall. Though none are immense, yet they are capable of
+immense furniture. The more room is taken up by knowledge, the less
+remains for credulity. The more a man is acquainted with things, the
+more willing to _give up the ghost_. Every town and village, within my
+knowledge, has been pestered with spirits; which appear in horrid forms
+to the imagination in the winter night--but the spirits which haunt
+Birmingham, are those of industry and luxury.
+
+If we examine the whole parish, we cannot produce one _old_ witch; but
+we have plenty of young, who exercise a powerful influence over us.
+Should the ladies accuse the harsh epithet, they will please to
+consider, I allow them, what of all things they most wish for, _power_,
+therefore the balance is in my favor.
+
+If we pass through the planitary worlds, we shall be able to muster up
+two conjurers, who endeavoured to _shine with the stars_. The first,
+John Walton, who was so busy in calling the nativity of others, he
+forgot his own.
+
+Conscious of an application to himself, for the discovery of stolen
+goods, he employed his people to steal them. And though, for many years
+confined to his bed by infirmity, he could conjure away the property of
+others, and, for a reward, reconjure it again.
+
+The prevalence of this evil, induced the legislature, in 1725, to make
+the _reception_ of stolen goods capital. The first sacrifice to this law
+was the noted Jonathan Wild.
+
+The officers of justice, in 1732, pulled Walton out of his bed, in an
+obscure cottage, one furlong from the town, now Brickhill-Lane, carried
+him to prison, and from thence to the gallows--they had better have
+carried him to the workhouse, and his followers to the anvil.
+
+To him succeeded Francis Kimberley, the only reasoning animal, who
+resided at No. 60, in Dale-End, from his early youth to extreme
+age.--An hermit in a crowd! The windows of his house were strangers to
+light! The shutters forgot to open; the chimney to smoak. His cellar,
+though amply furnished, never knew moisture.
+
+He spent threescore years in filling six rooms with such trumpery as is
+just too good to be thrown away, and too bad to be kept. His life was as
+inoffensive as long. Instead of _stealing_ the goods which other people
+use, he _purchased_ what he could not use himself. He was not anxious
+what kind of property entered his house; if there was _bulk_ he was
+satisfied.
+
+His dark house, and his dark figure corresponded with each other. The
+apartments, choaked up with lumber, scarcely admitted his body, though
+of the skeleton order. Perhaps leanness is an appendage to the science,
+for I never knew a corpulent conjurer.
+
+His diet, regular, plain, and slender, shewed at how little expence life
+may be sustained.
+
+His library consisted of several thousand volumes, not one of which, I
+believe, he ever read: having written, in characters unknown to all but
+himself, his name, price, and date, in the title-page, he laid them by
+for ever. The highest pitch of his erudition was the annual almanack.
+
+He never wished to approach a woman, or be approached by one. Should the
+rest of men, for half a century, pay no more attention to the fair, some
+angelic hand might stick up a note, like the artic circle over one of
+our continents, _this world to be let_.
+
+If he did not cultivate the human species, the spiders, more numerous
+than his books, enjoyed an uninterrupted reign of quiet. The silence of
+the place was not broken: the broom, the book, the dust, or the web, was
+not disturbed. Mercury and his shirt, changed their revolutions
+together; and Saturn changed _his_, with his coat.
+
+He died, in 1756, as conjurers usually die, unlamented.
+
+
+
+MILITARY ASSOCIATION.
+
+The use of arms is necessary to every man who has something to lose, or
+something to gain. No property will protect itself. The English have
+liberty and property to lose, but nothing to win. As every man is born
+free, the West-Indian slaves have liberty to gain, but nothing to lose.
+If a rascally African prince attempts to sell his people, he ought to be
+first sold himself; and the buyer, who acts so daringly opposite to the
+Christian precept, is yet more blameable. He ought to have the first
+whip, often mended, worn out upon his own back.
+
+It may seem unnecessary to tell the world, what they already know;
+recent transactions come under this description; but they are not known
+to the stranger, nor to posterity.
+
+Upon a change of the Northean ministry, in 1782, the new premier, in a
+circular letter, advised the nation to arm, as the dangers of invasion
+threatened us with dreadful aspect. Intelligence from a quarter so
+authentic, locked up the door of private judgment, or we might have
+considered, that even without alliance, and with four principal powers
+upon our hands, we were rather gaining ground; that the Americans were
+so far from attacking us, that they wished us to run ourselves out of
+breath to attack them; that Spain had slumbered over a seven years war;
+that the Dutch, provoked at their governors, for the loss of their
+commerce, were more inclinable to invade themselves than us; and that as
+France bore the weight of the contest, we found employment for her arms,
+without invasion; but, perhaps, the letter was only an artifice of the
+new state doctor, to represent his patient in a most deplorable state,
+as a complement to his own merit in recovering her.
+
+Whatever was the cause, nothing could be more agreeable than this letter
+to the active spirit of Birmingham. Public meetings were held. The
+rockets of war were squibbed off in the news-papers. The plodding
+tradesman and the lively hero assembled together in arms, and many a
+trophy was won in thought.
+
+Each man purchased a genteel blue uniform, decorated with epaulets of
+gold, which, together with his accoutrements, cost about 17_l_. The
+gentleman, the apprentice, &c. to the number of seventy, united in a
+body, termed by themselves, _The Birmingham Association_; by the wag,
+_the brazen walls of the town_. Each was to be officer and private by
+ballet, which gives an idea of equality, and was called to exercise
+once a week.
+
+The high price of provisions, and the 17th of October, brought a
+dangerous mob into Birmingham. They wanted bread: so did we. But little
+conference passed between them and the inhabitants. They were quiet; we
+were pleased; and, after an hour or two's stay, they retreated in peace.
+
+In the evening, after the enemy were fled, our champions beat to arms,
+breathing vengeance against the hungry crew; and, had they returned,
+some people verily thought our valiant heroes would have _discharged_
+at them.
+
+However laudable a system, if built upon a false basis, it will not
+stand. Equality and command, in the same person, are incompatiable;
+therefore, cannot exist together. Subordination is necessary in every
+class of life, but particularly in the military. Nothing but severe
+discipline can regulate the boisterous spirit of an army.
+
+A man may be bound to another, but if he commands the bandage, he will
+quickly set himself free. This was the case with the military
+association. As their uniform resembled that of a commander, so did
+their temper. There were none to submit. The result was, the farce
+ended, and the curtain dropt in December, by a quarrel with each other;
+and, like _John_ and _Lilborn_, almost with themselves.
+
+
+
+BILSTON CANAL ACT.
+
+Envy, like a dark shadow, follows closely the footsteps of prosperity;
+success in any undertaking, out of the circle of genius, produces a
+rival.--This I have instanced in our hackney coaches.
+
+Profits, like a round-bellied bottle, may seem bulky, which, like that,
+will not bear dividing: Thus Orator Jones, in 1774, opened a debating
+society at the Red Lion; he quickly filled a large room with customers,
+and his pockets with money, but he had not prudence to keep either. His
+success opened a rival society at the King's-head, which, in a few
+weeks, annihilated both.
+
+The growing profits of our canal company, already mentioned, had
+increased the shares from 140_l_. in 1768, to 400 guineas, in 1782.
+These emoluments being thought enormous, a rival company sprung up,
+which, in 1783, petitioned Parliament to partake of those emoluments, by
+opening a parallel cut from some of the neighbouring coal-pits; to
+proceed along the lower level, and terminate in Digbeth.
+
+A stranger might ask, "How the water in our upland country, which had
+never supplied one canal, could supply two? Whether the second canal was
+not likely to rob the first? Whether one able canal is not preferable to
+two lame ones? If a man sells me an article cheaper than I can purchase
+it elsewhere, whether it is of consequence to me what are his profits?
+And whether two companies in rivalship would destroy that harmony which
+has long subsisted in Birmingham."
+
+The new company urged, "The necessity of another canal, lest the old
+should not perform the business of the town; that twenty per cent. are
+unreasonable returns; that they could afford coals under the present
+price; that the south country teams would procure a readier supply from
+Digbeth, than from the present wharf, and not passing through the
+streets, would be prevented from injuring the pavement; and that the
+goods from the Trent would come to their wharf by a run of eighteen
+miles nearer than to the other."
+
+The old company alledged, "That they ventured their property in an
+uncertain pursuit, which, had it not succeeded, would have ruined many
+individuals; therefore the present gains were only a recompense for
+former hazard: that this property was expended upon the faith of
+Parliament, who were obliged in honour to protect it, otherwise no man
+would risk his fortune upon a public undertaking; for should they allow
+a second canal, why not a third; which would become a wanton destruction
+of right, without benefit; that although the profit of the original
+subscribers might seem large, those subscribers are but few; many have
+bought at a subsequent price, which barely pays common interest, and
+this is all their support; therefore a reduction would be barbarous on
+one side, and sensibly felt on the other: and, as the present canal
+amply supplies the town and country, it would be ridiculous to cut away
+good land to make another, which would ruin both."
+
+I shall not examine the reasons of either, but leave the disinterested
+reader to weigh both in his own balance.
+
+When two opponents have said all that is true, they generally say
+something more; rancour holds the place of argument.
+
+Both parties beat up for volunteers in the town, to strengthen their
+forces; from words of acrimony, they came to those of virulence; then
+the powerful batteries of hand-bills, and news-papers were opened: every
+town within fifty miles, interested, on either side, was moved to
+petition, and both prepared for a grand attack, confident of victory.
+
+Perhaps a contest among friends, in matters of property, will remove
+that peace of mind, which twenty per cent. will not replace.
+
+Each party possessed that activity of spirit, for which Birmingham is
+famous, and seemed to divide between them the legislative strength of
+the nation: every corner of the two houses was ransacked for a vote; the
+throne was the only power unsolicited. Perhaps at the reading, when both
+parties had marshalled their forces, there was the fullest House of
+Commons ever remembered on a private bill.
+
+The new company promised much, for besides the cut from Wednesbury to
+Digbeth, they would open another to join the two canals of Stafford and
+Coventry, in which a large track of country was interested.
+
+As the old company were the first adventurers, the house gave them the
+option to perform this Herculean labour, which they accepted.
+
+As parliament have not yet given their determination, and as the printer
+this moment raps at my door, "Sir, the press waits, more copy if you
+please," I cannot stay to tell the world the result of the bill; but
+perhaps, the new proprietors, by losing, will save 50,000_l_. and the
+old, by winning, become sufferers.
+
+
+
+WORKHOUSE BILL.
+
+I have often mentioned an active spirit, as the characteristic of the
+inhabitants of Birmingham. This spirit never forsakes them. It displays
+itself in industry, commerce, invention, humanity, and internal
+government. A singular vivacity attends every pursuit till compleated,
+or discarded for a second.
+
+The bubble of the day, like that at the end of a tobacco-pipe, dances in
+air, exhibits divers beauties, pleases the eye, bursts in a moment, and
+is followed up by another.
+
+There is no place in the British dominions easier to be governed than
+Birmingham; and yet we are fond of forging acts of parliament to
+govern her.
+
+There is seldom a point of time in which an act is not in agitation; we
+fabricate them with such expedition, that we could employ a parliament
+of our own to pass them. But, to the honor of our ladies, not one of
+these acts is directed against them. Neither is there an instance upon
+record, that the torch of Hymen was ever extinguished by the breath of
+Marriot in Doctors-Commons.
+
+In the present spring of 1783, we have four acts upon the anvil: every
+man, of the least consequence, becomes a legislator, and wishes to lend
+his assistance in framing an act; so that instead of one lord, as
+formerly, we now, like the Philistines, have three thousand.
+
+An act of parliament, abstractedly considered, is a dead matter: it
+cannot operate of itself: like a plaister, it must be applied to the
+evil, or that evil will remain. We vainly expect a law to perform the
+intended work; if it does not, we procure another to make it. Thus the
+canal, by one act in 1767, hobbled on, like a man with one leg; but a
+second, in 1770, furnished a pair. The lamp act, procured in 1769, was
+worn to rags, and mended with another in 1773; and this second has been
+long out of repair, and waits for a third.
+
+We carry the same spirit into our bye-laws, and with the same success.
+Schemes have been devised, to oblige every man to pay levies; but it was
+found difficult to extract money from him who had none.
+
+In 1754, we brought the manufacture of pack-thread into the workhouse,
+to reduce the levies; the levies increased. A spirited overseer
+afterwards, for the same reason, as if poverty was not a sufficient
+stigma, badged the poor; the levies still increased.
+
+The advance of bread in 1756, induced the officers to step out of the
+common track, perhaps, out of their knowledge; and, at the expence of
+half a levy, fit up an apparatus for grinding corn in the house: thus,
+by sacrificing half _one levy, many would be saved_. However, in the
+pursuit, many happened to be lost. In 1761, the apparatus was sold at a
+farther loss; and the overseers sheltered themselves under the charge of
+idleness against the paupers.
+
+In 1766, the spinning of mop-yarn was introduced, which might, with
+attention, have turned to account; but unfortunately, the yarn proved of
+less value than the wool.
+
+Others, with equal wisdom, were to ease the levies, by feeding a drove
+of pigs, which, agreeable to their own nature--ran backwards.--Renting a
+piece of ground, by way of garden, which supplied the house with a
+pennyworth of vegetables, for two-pence, adding a few cows, and a
+pasture; but as the end of all was _loss_, the levies increased.
+
+In 1780, two collectors were appointed, at fifty guineas each, which
+would save the town _many a hundred_; still the levies increased.
+
+A petition is this sessions presented, for an Act to overturn the whole
+pauper system (for our heads are as fond of new fashions, in parochial
+government, as in the hats which cover them) to erect a superb
+workhouse, at the expence of 10,000_l_. with powers to borrow 15,000_l_.
+which grand design is to reduce the levies _one third_.--The levies will
+increase.
+
+The reasons _openly_ alledged are, "The Out-pensioners, which cost
+7000_l_. a year, are the chief foundation of our public grievances: that
+the poor ought to be employed _in_ the house, lest their morals become
+injured by the shops; which prevents them from being taken into family
+service; and, the crowded state of the workhouse."--But whether the
+pride of an overseer, in perpetuating his name, is not the pendulum
+which set the machine in motion? Or, whether a man, as well as a spider,
+may not create a _place_, and, like that--_fill it with himself_?
+
+The bill directs, That the inhabitants mall chuse a number of guardians
+by ballot, who shall erect a workhouse, on Birmingham-heath--a spot as
+airy as the scheme; conduct a manufacture, and the poor; dispose of the
+present workhouse; seize and confine idle or disorderly persons, and
+keep them to labour, till they have reimbursed the parish all expences.
+
+But it may be asked, Whether spending 15,000_l_. is likely to reduce the
+levies?
+
+Whether we shall be laughed at, for throwing by a building, the last
+wing of which cost a thousand pounds, after using it only three years?
+
+Our commerce is carried on by reciprocal obligation. Every overseer has
+his friends, whom he cannot refuse to serve; nay, whom he may even wish
+to serve, if that service costs him nothing: hence, that over-grown
+monster so justly complains of, _The Weekly Tickets_; it follows,
+whether _sixty_ guardians are not likely to have more friends to serve,
+than six overseers?
+
+Whether the trades of the town, by a considerable manufacture
+established at the workhouse, will not be deprived of their most
+useful hands?
+
+Whether it is not a maxim of the wisest men who have filled the office,
+"to endeavour to keep the poor _out_ of the house, for if they are
+admitted, they become more chargeable; nor will they leave it without
+clothing?"
+
+A workhouse is a kind of prison, and a dreadful one to those of tender
+feelings--Whether the health of an individual, the ideas of rectitude,
+or the natural right of our species, would not be infringed by a cruel
+imprisonment.
+
+If a man has followed an occupation forty years, and necessity sends him
+to the parish, whether is it preferable to teach him a new trade, or
+suffer him to earn what he can at his old? If we decide for the latter,
+whether he had better walk four hundred yards to business, or four
+miles? His own infirmity will determine this question.
+
+If a young widow be left with two children, shall she pay a girl
+six-pence a week to tend them, while she earns five shillings at the
+mops, and is allowed two by the parish, or shall all three reside in the
+house, at the weekly expence of six, and she be employed in nursing
+them? If we again declare for the latter, it follows, that the parish
+will not only have four shillings a week, but the community may gain
+half a crown by her labour.
+
+Whether the morals of the children are more likely to be injured by the
+shops, than the morals of half the children in town; many of whom labour
+to procure levies for the workhouse?
+
+Whether the morals of a child will be more corrupted in a small shop,
+consisting of a few persons, or in a large one at the workhouse,
+consisting of hundreds?
+
+Whether the grand shop at Birmingham-heath, or at any heath, will train
+girls for service, preferable to others?
+
+Shall we, because the house has been crowded a few weeks, throw away
+15000_l_. followed by a train of evils? A few months ago, I saw in it a
+large number of vacant beds. Besides, at a small expence, and without
+impeding the circulation of air, conveniency may be made for one
+hundred more.
+
+Did a manufacture ever prosper under a multitude of inspectors, not one
+of which is to taste the least benefit?
+
+As public business, which admits no profit, such as vestry assemblies,
+commissions of lamps, turnpike meetings, &c. are thinly attended, even
+in town; what reason is there to expect a board two miles in
+the country?
+
+The workhouse may be deemed _The Nursery of Birmingham_, in which she
+deposits her infants, for future service: the unfortunate and the idle,
+till they can be set upon their own basis; and the decrepid, during the
+few remaining sands in their glass. If we therefore carry the workhouse
+to a distance, whether we shall not interrupt that necessary intercourse
+which ought to subsist between a mother and her offspring? As sudden
+sickness, indications of child-birth, &c. require immediate assistance,
+a life in extreme danger may chance to be lost by the length of
+the road.
+
+If we keep the disorderly till they have reimbursed the parish, whether
+we do not acquire an inheritance for life?
+
+We censure the officer who pursues a phantom at the expence of others;
+we praise him who _teaches the poor to live_.
+
+All the evils complained of, may be removed by _attention in the man_;
+the remedy is not in an act. He therefore accuses his own want of
+application, in soliciting government to _do_ what he might do
+himself--Expences are saved by private acts of oeconomy, not by public
+Acts of Parliament.
+
+It has long been said, _think_ and _act_; but as our internal
+legislators chuse to reverse the maxim by fitting up an expensive shop;
+then seeking a trade to bring in, perhaps they may place over the grand
+entrance, _act_ and _think_.
+
+One remark should never be lost sight of, _The more we tax the
+inhabitants, the sooner they leave us, and carry off the trades_.
+
+
+
+THE CAMP.
+
+I have already remarked, _a spirit of bravery is part of the British
+character_. The perpetual contests for power, among the Britons, the
+many roads formed by the Romans, to convey their military force, the
+prodigious number of camps, moats, and broken castles, left us by the
+Saxons, Danes, and Normans, our common ancestors, indicate _a martial
+temper_. The names of those heroic sovereigns, Edward the Third, and
+Henry the Fifth, who brought their people to the fields of conquest,
+descend to posterity with the highest applause, though they brought
+their kingdom to the brink of ruin; while those quiet princes, Henry the
+Seventh, and James the First, who cultivated the arts of peace, are but
+little esteemed, though under their sceptre, England experienced the
+greatest improvement.--The man who dare face an enemy, is the most
+likely to gain a friend. A nation versed in arms, stands the fairest
+chance to protect its property, and secure its peace: war itself may be
+hurtful, the knowledge of it useful.
+
+In Mitchly-park, three miles west of Birmingham, in the parish of
+Edgbaston, is _The Camp_; which might be ascribed to the Romans, lying
+within two or three stones cast of their Ikenield-street, where it
+divides the counties of Warwick and Worcester, but is too extensive for
+that people, being about thirty acres: I know none of their camps more
+than four, some much less; it must, therefore, have been the work of
+those pilfering vermin the Danes, better acquainted with other peoples
+property than their own; who first swarmed on the shores, then over-ran
+the interior parts of the kingdom, and, in two hundred years, devoured
+the whole.
+
+No part of this fortification is wholly obliterated, though, in many
+places, it is nearly levelled by modern cultivation, that dreadful enemy
+to the antiquary. Pieces of armour are frequently ploughed up,
+particularly parts of the sword and the battle-axe, instruments much
+used by those destructive sons of the raven.
+
+The platform is quadrangular, every side nearly four hundred yards; the
+center is about six acres, surrounded by three ditches, each about eight
+yards over, at unequal distances; though upon a descent, it is amply
+furnished with water. An undertaking of such immense labour, could not
+have been designed for temporary use.
+
+The propriety of the spot, and the rage of the day for fortification,
+seem to have induced the Middlemores, lords of the place for many
+centuries, and celebrated for riches, but in the beginning of this work,
+for poverty, to erect a park, and a lodge; nothing of either exist, but
+the names.
+
+
+
+MORTIMER's BANK.
+
+The traveller who undertakes an extensive journey, cannot chuse his
+road, or his weather: sometimes the prospect brightens, with a serene
+sky, a smooth path, and a smiling sun; all within and without him
+is chearful.
+
+Anon he is assailed by the tempests, stumbles over the ridges, is
+bemired in the hollows, the sun hides his face, and his own is
+sorrowful--this is the lot of the historian; he has no choice of
+subject, merry or mournful, he must submit to the changes which offer;
+delighted with the prosperous tale, depressed with the gloomy.
+
+I am told, this work has often drawn a smile from the reader; it has
+often drawn a sigh from me. A celebrated painter fell in love with the
+picture he drew; I have wept at mine--Such is the chapter of the Lords,
+and the Workhouse. We are not always proof against a melancholy or a
+tender sentiment.
+
+Having pursued our several stages, with various fortune, through fifty
+chapters, at the close of this last tragic scene, emotion and the
+journey cease together.
+
+Upon King's-wood, five miles from Birmingham, and two hundred yards east
+of the Alcester-road, runs a bank for near a mile in length, unless
+obliterated by the new inclosure; for I saw it complete in 1775. This
+was raised by the famous Roger Mortimer, Earl of March, about 1324, to
+inclose a wood, from whence the place derives its name.
+
+Then that feeble monarch, Edward the Second, governed the kingdom; the
+amorous Isabella, his wife, governed the king, and the gallant Mortimer
+governed the queen.
+
+The parishes of King's-norton, Solihull, Yardley, uniting in this wood,
+and enjoying a right of commons, the inhabitants conceived themselves
+injured by the inclosure, assembled in a body, threw down the fence, and
+murdered the Earl's bailiff.
+
+Mortimer, in revenge, procured a special writ from the Court of Common
+Pleas, and caused the matter to be tried at Bromsgrove, where the
+affrighted inhabitants, over-awed with power, durst not appear in their
+own vindication. The Earl, therefore, recovered a verdict, and the
+enormous sum of 300_l_. damage. A sum nearly equal, at that time, to the
+fee-simple of the three parishes.
+
+The confusion of the times, and the poverty of the people, protracted
+payment, till the unhappy Mortimer, overpowered by his enemies, was
+seized as a criminal in Nottingham-castle; and, without being heard,
+executed at Tyburn, in 1328.
+
+The distressed inhabitants of our three parishes humbly petitioned the
+crown, for a reduction of the fine; when Edward the Third was pleased to
+remit about 260_l_.
+
+We can assign no reason for this imprudent step of inclosing the wood,
+unless the Earl intended to procure a grant of the manor, then in the
+crown, for his family. But what he could not accomplish by family, was
+accomplished by fortune; for George the Third, King of Great Britain, is
+lord of the manor of King's-norton, and a descendant from the house
+of Mortimer.
+
+
+
+F I N I S.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's An History of Birmingham (1783), by William Hutton
+
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+Project Gutenberg's An History of Birmingham (1783), by William Hutton
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: An History of Birmingham (1783)
+
+Author: William Hutton
+
+Release Date: November 2, 2004 [EBook #13926]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN HISTORY OF BIRMINGHAM (1783) ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Charlie Kirschner and the PG Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+AN
+
+HISTORY
+
+OF
+
+BIRMINGHAM.
+
+[Illustration: the-text-caption]
+
+
+
+
+THE SECOND EDITION,
+
+WITH CONSIDERABLE ADDITIONS.
+
+
+By W. HUTTON.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+A preface rather induces a man to speak of himself, which is deemed the
+worst subject upon which he _can_ speak. In history we become acquainted
+with things, but in a preface with the author; and, for a man to treat
+of himself, may be the most _difficult_ talk of the two: for in history,
+facts are produced ready to the hand of the historian, which give birth
+to thought, and it is easy to cloath that thought in words. But in a
+preface, an author is obliged to forge from the brain, where he is
+sometimes known to forge without fire. In one, he only reduces a
+substance into form; but in the other, he must create that substance.
+
+As I am not an author by profession, it is no wonder if I am
+unacquainted with the modes of authorship; but I apprehend, the usual
+method of conducting the pen, is to polish up a founding title-page,
+dignified with scraps of Latin, and then, to hammer up a work to fit it,
+as nearly as genius, or want of genius, will allow.
+
+We next _turn over a new leaf_, and open upon a pompous dedication,
+which answers many laudable purposes: if a coat of arms, correctly
+engraven, should step first into view, we consider it a singular
+advantage gained over a reader, like the first blow in a combat. The
+dedication itself becomes a pair of stilts, which advance an author
+something higher.
+
+As a horse-shoe, nailed upon the threshold of a cottage, prevents the
+influence of the witch; so a first-rate name, at the head of a
+dedication, is a total bar against the critic; but this great name, like
+a great officer, sometimes unfortunately stands at the head of
+wretched troops.
+
+When an author is too _heavy_ to swim of himself, it serves as a pair of
+bladders, to prevent his sinking.
+
+It is farther productive of a _solid_ advantage, that of a present from
+the patron, more valuable than that from the bookseller, which prevents
+his sinking under the pressure of famine.
+
+But, being wholly unknown to the great names of literary consequence, I
+shall not attempt a dedication, therefore must lose the benefit of the
+stilt, the bladder, and the horse-shoe.
+
+Were I to enter upon a dedication, I should certainly address myself,
+"_To the Inhabitants of Birmingham_." For to them I not only owe much,
+but all; and I think, among that congregated mass, there is not one
+person to whom I wish ill. I have the pleasure of calling many of those
+inhabitants _Friends_, and some of them share my warm affections equally
+with myself. Birmingham, like a compassionate nurse, not only draws our
+persons, but our esteem, from the place of our nativity, and fixes it
+upon herself: I might add, _I was hungry, and she fed me_; _thirsty, and
+she gave me drink_; _a stranger, and she took me in_. I approached her
+with reluctance, because I did not know her; I shall leave her with
+reluctance, because I do.
+
+Whether it is perfectly confident in an author, to solicit the
+indulgence of the public, though it may stand first in his wishes,
+admits a doubt; for, if his productions will not bear the light, it may
+be said, why does he publish? but, if they will, there is no need to ask
+a favor; the world receives one from him. Will not a piece everlastingly
+be tried by its merit? Shall we esteem it the higher, because it was
+written at the age of thirteen? because it was the effort of a week?
+delivered extempore? hatched while the author stood upon one leg? or
+cobbled, while he cobbled a shoe? or will it be a recommendation, that
+it issues forth in gilt binding? The judicious world will not be
+deceived by the tinselled purse, but will examine whether the _contents_
+are sterling.
+
+Will it augment the value of this history, or cover its blunders, to
+say, that I have never seen _Oxford?_ That the thick fogs of penury,
+prevented the sun of science from beaming upon the mind? That necessity
+obliged me to lay down the battledore, before I was master of the
+letters? And that, instead of handling systems of knowledge, my hands,
+at the early period of seven, became callous with labour?
+
+But, though a whole group of pretences will have no effect with the
+impartial eye, yet one reason pleads strongly in my favor--no such thing
+ever appeared as _An History of Birmingham_. It is remarkable, that one
+of the most singular places in the universe is without an historian:
+that she never manufactured an history of herself, who has manufactured
+almost every thing else; that so many ages should elapse, and not one
+among her numerous sons of industry, snatch the manners of the day from
+oblivion, group them in design, with the touches of his pen, and exhibit
+the picture to posterity. If such a production had ever seen the light,
+mine most certainly would never have been written; a temporary bridge
+therefore may satisfy the impatient traveller, till a more skilful
+architect shall accommodate him with a complete production of elegance,
+of use, and of duration.--Although works of genius ought to come out of
+the mint doubly refined, yet history admits of a much greater latitude
+to the author. The best upon the subject, though defective, may meet
+with regard.
+
+It has long been a complaint, that local history is much wanted. This
+will appear obvious, if we examine the places we know, with the
+histories that treat of them. Many an author has become a cripple, by
+historically travelling through _all England_, who might have made a
+tolerable figure, had he staid at home. The subject is too copious for
+one performance, or even the life of one man. The design of history is
+knowledge: but, if simply to tell a tale, be all the duty of an
+historian, he has no irksome task before him; for there is nothing more
+easy than to relate a fact; but, perhaps, nothing more difficult than to
+relate it well.
+
+The situation of an author is rather precarious--if the smiles of the
+world chance to meet his labours, he is apt to forget himself; if
+otherwise, he is soon forgot. The efforts of the critic may be necessary
+to clip the wings of a presuming author, lest his rising vanity becomes
+insupportable: but I pity the man, who writes a book which none will
+peruse a second time; critical exertions are not necessary to pull him
+down, he will fall of himself. The sin of writing carries its own
+punishment, the tumultuous passions of anxiety and expectation, like
+the jarring elements in October, disturb his repose, and, like them, are
+followed by stirility: his cold productions, injured by no hand but that
+of time, are found sleeping on the shelf unmolested. It is easy to
+describe his fears before publication, but who can tell his feelings
+after judgment is passed upon his works? His only consolation is
+accusing the critic of injustice, and thinking the world in the wrong.
+But if repentence should not follow the culprit, hardened in scribbling,
+it follows, his bookseller, oppressed with _dead works_. However, if all
+the evils in Pandora's box are emptied on a blasted author, this one
+comfort remains behind--The keeper of a circulating library, or the
+steward of a reading society can tell him, "His book is more _durable_
+than the others."
+
+Having, many years ago, entertained an idea of this undertaking, I made
+some trifling preparations; but, in 1775, a circumstance of a private
+nature occurring, which engaged my attention for several years, I
+relinquished the design, destroyed the materials, and meant to give up
+the thought for ever. But the intention revived in 1780, and the
+work followed.
+
+I may be accused of quitting the regular trammels of history, and
+sporting in the fields of remark: but, although our habitation justly
+stands first in our esteem, in return for rest, content, and protection;
+does it follow that we should never stray from it? If I happen to veer a
+moment from the polar point of Birmingham, I shall certainly vibrate
+again to the center. Every author has a manner peculiar to himself, nor
+can he well forsake it. I should be exceedingly hurt to omit a
+necessary part of intelligence, but more, to offend a reader.
+
+If GRANDEUR should censure me for sometimes recording the men of mean
+life, let me ask, _Which is preferable_, he who thunders at the anvil,
+or in the senate? The man who earnestly wishes the significant letters,
+ESQ. spliced to the end of his name, will despise the question; but the
+philosopher will answer, "They are equal."
+
+Lucrative views have no part in this production: I cannot solicit a kind
+people to grant what they have already granted; but if another finds
+that pleasure in reading, which I have done in writing, I am paid.
+
+As no history is extant, to inform me of this famous nursery of the
+arts, perfection in mine must not be expected. Though I have
+endeavoured to pursue the road to truth; yet, having no light to guide,
+or hand to direct me, it is no wonder if I mistake it: but we do not
+_condemn_, so much as _pity_ the man for losing his way, who first
+travels an unbeaten road.
+
+Birmingham, for want of the recording hand, may be said to live but one
+generation; the transactions of the last age, die in this; memory is the
+sole historian, which being defective, I embalm the present generation,
+for the inspection of the future.
+
+It is unnecessary to attempt a general character, for if the attentive
+reader is himself of Birmingham, he is equally apprized of that
+character; and, if a stranger, he will find a variety of touches
+scattered through the piece, which, taken in a collective view, form a
+picture of that generous people, who _merit his_ esteem, and
+_possess mine_.
+
+
+
+THE
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+
+_Some Account of the Derivation of the Name of
+Birmingham_, ..................................... page 1
+_Situation_, .....................................      3
+_Soil_, ..........................................      6
+_Water_, .........................................      7
+_Baths_, .........................................      8
+_Air_, ...........................................     *8
+_Longevity_, .....................................      9
+_Ancient State of Birmingham_, ...................     13
+_Battle of Camp-hill_, ...........................    *41
+_Modern State of Birmingham_, ....................     40
+_Streets, and their Names_, ......................     53
+_Trade_, .........................................     57
+  _Button_, ......................................     75
+  _Buckle_, ......................................     76
+  _Guns_, ........................................     78
+  _Leather_, .....................................     79
+  _Steel_, .......................................     80
+  _Nails_, .......................................    *83
+  _Bellows_, .....................................    *85
+  _Thread_, ......................................    *89
+  _Printing, by John Baskerville_, ...............    *90
+  _Brass foundry_, ...............................    *94
+  _Hackney Coaches_, .............................     81
+_Bank_, ..........................................     83
+_Government_, ....................................   ibid
+  _Constables_, ..................................     92
+  _Bailiffs_, ....................................     94
+_Court of Requests_, .............................    *99
+_Lamp Act_, ......................................     99
+_Religion and Politics_, .........................    105
+_Places of Worship_, .............................    111
+  _St. John's Chapel, Deritend_, .................    112
+  _St. Bartholomew's_, ...........................    113
+  _St. Mary's_, ..................................    115
+  _St. Paul's_, ..................................   ibid
+  _Old Meeting_, .................................    116
+  _New Meeting_, .................................    117
+  _Carr's-lane Meeting_, .........................    118
+  _Baptist Meeting_, .............................   ibid
+  _Quaker's Meeting_, ............................    120
+  _Methodist Meeting_, ...........................    121
+  _Romish Chapel_, ...............................   *125
+  _Jewish Synagogue_, ............................   *128
+_Theatres_, ......................................    123
+_Amusements_, ....................................    127
+_Hotel_, .........................................   *132
+_Wakes_, .........................................    132
+_Clubs_, .........................................    135
+_Ikenield street_, ...............................    140
+_Lords of the Manor_, ............................    153
+  _Uluuine_, 1050, ...............................    156
+  _Richard_, 1066, ...............................   ibid
+  _William_, 1130, ...............................    161
+  _Peter de Birmingham_, 1154, ...................    161
+  _William de Birmingham_, 1216, .................    163
+  _William de Birmingham_, 1246, .................    164
+  _William de Birmingham_, 1265, .................    165
+  _William de Birmingham_, 1306, .................    166
+  _Sir Fouk de Birmingham_, 1340, ................    168
+  _Sir John de Birmingham_, 1376, ................    169
+  _Lord Clinton_, ................................   ibid
+  _Edmund, Lord Ferrers_, ........................    170
+  _William de Birmingham_, 1430, .................   ibid
+  _Sir William Birmingham_, 1479, ................    171
+  _Edward Birmingham_, 1500, .....................    172
+  _John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland_, 1537, ...    177
+  _Thomas Marrow_, 1555, .........................    180
+  _Thomas Archer_, 1746, .........................    181
+  _Andrew, Lord Archer_, .........................    181
+  _Sarah, Lady Archer_, 1781, ....................   ibid
+_Manor house_, ...................................    182
+_Pudding-brook_, .................................    186
+_Priory_, ........................................    187
+_John a Dean's Hole_, ............................    195
+_Lench's Trust_, .................................    196
+_Fentbam's Trust_, ...............................    200
+_Crowley's Trust_, ...............................    201
+_Scott's Trust_, .................................    202
+_Free School_, ...................................    203
+_Charity School_, ................................    209
+_Dissenting Charity School_, .....................    214
+_Workhouse_, .....................................    215
+_Old Cross_, .....................................    227
+_Welch Cross_, ...................................    229
+_St. Martin's_, ..................................    232
+_St. Philip's_, ..................................    246
+_Births and Burials_, ............................    253
+_General Hospital_, ..............................    256
+_Public Roads_, ..................................    259
+_Canal_, .........................................    266
+_Deritend Bridge_, ...............................    269
+_Soho_, ..........................................    271
+_Danes Camp, Danes Bank, or Bury Fields_, ........    272
+_Gentlemen's Seats_, .............................    273
+  _The Moats_, ...................................    276
+  _Black Greves_, ................................   ibid
+  _Ulverley, or Culverley_, ......................    277
+  _Hogg's Moat_, .................................    278
+  _Yardley_, .....................................    281
+  _Kent's Moat_, .................................    282
+  _Sheldon_, .....................................    283
+  _King's hurst_, ................................   ibid
+  _Coleshill_, ...................................    287
+  _Duddeston_, ...................................    289
+  _Saltley_, .....................................    292
+  _Ward-end_ .....................................    293
+  _Castle Bromwich_, .............................    295
+  _Park hall_, ...................................    299
+  _Berwood_, .....................................    300
+  _Erdington_, ...................................    301
+  _Pipe_, ........................................    303
+  _Aston_, .......................................    306
+  _Witton_, ......................................    309
+  _Blakeley_, ....................................    312
+  _Weoley_, ......................................    313
+_Sutton Coldfield_, ..............................    320
+_Petition for a Corporation_, ....................    324
+_Brass Works_, ...................................    329
+_Prison_, ........................................    332
+_Clodshale's Chantry_, ...........................    336
+_Occurrences_, ...................................    340
+  _Earthquake_, ..................................   ibid
+  _Pitmore and Hammond_, .........................    343
+  _Riots_, .......................................    345
+  _The Conjurers_, ...............................    350
+_Military Association_, ..........................    353
+_Bilston Canal Act_, .............................    357
+_Workhouse Bill_, ................................    361
+_The Camp_, ......................................    370
+_Mortimer's Bank_, ...............................    372
+
+
+
+DIRECTIONS
+
+TO THE
+
+BINDERS,
+
+FOR PLACING THE
+
+COPPER-PLATES.
+
+Prospect of Birmingham,          to face the Title.
+Plan, ........................................   43
+Alm's-houses, ................................  *58
+St. John's Chapel, Deritend, .................  111
+St. Bartholomew's, ...........................  113
+St. Mary's, ..................................  115
+St. Paul's, ..................................  116
+Old and New Meetings, ........................  117
+New Theatre, .................................  123
+Hotel, .......................................  130
+Free School, .................................  203
+Charity School, ..............................  209
+Workhouse, ...................................  215
+Old and Welch Cross, .........................  229
+St. Martin's Church, .........................  232
+St. Philip's, ................................  246
+General Hospital, ............................  256
+Canal, .......................................  265
+Navigation Office, ...........................  267
+Brass Works, .................................  329
+
+
+
+AN
+
+HISTORY &c.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Some account of the derivation of the name of Birmingham_.
+
+The word Birmingham, is too remote for certain explanation. During the
+last four centuries it has been variously written _Brumwycheham,
+Bermyngeham, Bromwycham, Burmyngham, Bermyngham, Byrmyngham_, and
+_Birmingham_; nay, even so late as the seventeenth century it was
+written _Bromicham_. Dugdale supposes the name to have been given by the
+planter, or owner, in the time of the Saxons; but, I suppose it much
+older than any Saxon, date: besides, it is not so common for a man to
+give a name to, as to take one from, a place. A man seldom gives his
+name except he is the founder, as Petersburg from Peter the Great.
+
+Towns, as well as every thing in nature, have exceedingly minute
+beginnings, and generally take a name from situation, or local
+circumstances. Would the Lord of a manor think it an honour to give his
+name to two or three miserable huts? But, if in a succession of ages
+these huts swell into opulence, they confer upon the lord an honour, a
+residence, and a name. The terminations of _sted_, _ham_, and _hurst_,
+are evidently Saxon, and mean the same thing, a home.
+
+The word, in later ages reduced to a certainty, hath undergone various
+mutations; but the original seems to have been _Bromwych_; _Brom_
+perhaps, from broom a shrub, for the growth of which the soil is
+extremely favourable; _Wych_, a descent, this exactly corresponds with
+the declivity from the High Street to Digbeth. Two other places also in
+the neigbourhood bear the same name, which serves to strengthen
+the opinion.
+
+This infant colony, for many centuries after the first buddings of
+existence, perhaps, had no other appellation than that of Bromwych. Its
+center, for many reasons that might be urged, was the Old Cross, and its
+increase, in those early ages of time must have been very small.
+
+A series of prosperity attending it, its lord might assume its name,
+reside in it, and the particle _ham_ would naturally follow. This very
+probably happened under the Saxon Heptarchy, and the name was no other
+than _Bromwycham_.
+
+
+
+SITUATION.
+
+It lies near the centre of the kingdom, in the north-west extremity of
+the county of Warwick, in a kind of peninsula, the northern part of
+which is bounded by Handsworth, in the county of Stafford, and the
+southern by King's-norton, in the county of Worcester; it is also in the
+diocese of Lichfield and Coventry, and in the deanery of Arden.
+
+Let us perambulate the parish from the bottom of Digbeth, thirty yards
+north of the bridge. We will proceed south-west up the bed of the river,
+with Deritend, in the parish of Aston, on our left. Before we come to
+the Floodgates, near Vaughton's Hole, we pass by the Longmores, a small
+part of King's-norton. Crossing the river Rea, we enter the vestiges of
+a small rivulet, yet visible, though the stream hath been turned,
+perhaps, a thousand years, to supply the moat. We now bear rather west,
+nearly in a straight line for three miles, to Shirland brook, with
+Edgbaston on the left. At the top of the first meadow from the river
+Rea, we meet the little stream above-mentioned, in the pursuit of which,
+we cross the Bromsgrove road a little east of the first mile stone.
+Leaving Banner's marlpit to the left, we proceed up a narrow lane
+crossing the old Bromsgrove road, and up to the turnpike at the five
+ways in the road to Hales Owen. Leaving this road also to the left we
+proceed down the lane towards Ladywood, cross the Icknield street, a
+stone's cast east of the observatory, to the north extremity of Rotton
+Park. We now meet with Shirland Brook, which leads us east, and across
+the Dudley road, at the seven mile stone, having Smethwick in the county
+of Stafford, on the left, down to Pigmill. We now leave Handsworth on
+the left, following the stream through Hockley great pool; cross the
+Wolverhampton road, and the Ikenield-street at the same time down to
+Aston furnace, with that parish on the left. At the bottom of
+Walmer-lane we leave the water, move over the fields, nearly in a line
+to the post by the Peacock upon Gosty-green. We now cross the Lichfield
+road, down Duke-street, then the Coleshill road at the A B house. From
+thence down the meadows, to Cooper's mill; up the river to the foot of
+Deritend bridge; and then turn sharp to the right, keeping the course of
+a drain in the form of a sickle, through John a Dean's hole, into
+Digbeth, from whence we set out. In marching along Duke-street, we leave
+about seventy houses to the left, and up the river Rea, about four
+hundred more in Deritend, reputed part of Birmingham, though not in
+the parish.
+
+This little journey, nearly of an oval form, is about seven miles. The
+longest diameter from Shirland brook to Deritend bridge is about three,
+and the widest, from the bottom of Walmer Lane to the rivulet, near the
+mile-stone, upon the Bromsgrove road, more than two.
+
+The superficial contents of the parish may be upwards of four miles,
+about three thousand acres.
+
+Birmingham is by much the smallest parish in the neighbourhood, those of
+Aston and Sutton are each about five times as large, Yardley four, and
+King's-Norton eight.
+
+When Alfred, that great master of legislation, parished out his kingdom,
+or rather, put the finishing hand to that important work; where he met
+with a town, he allotted a smaller quantity of land, because the
+inhabitants chiefly depended upon commerce; but where there was only a
+village, he allotted a larger, because they depended upon agriculture.
+
+This observation goes far in proving the antiquity of the place, for it
+is nine hundred years since this division took effect.
+
+The buildings occupy the south east part of the parish; perhaps, with
+their appendages, about six hundred acres.
+
+This south east part, being insufficient for the extraordinary increase
+of the inhabitants, she has of late extended her buildings along the
+Bromsgrove road, near the boundaries of Edgbaston; and actually on the
+other side planted three of her streets in the parish of Aston. Could
+the sagacious Alfred have seen into futurity, he would have augmented
+her borders.
+
+As no part of the town lies flat, the showers promote both cleanliness
+and health, by removing obstructions.
+
+The approach is on every side by ascent, except that from Hales-Owen,
+north west, which gives a free access of air, even to the most secret
+recesses of habitation.
+
+Thus eminently situated, the sun can exercise his full powers of
+exhalation.
+
+The foundation upon which this mistress of the arts is erected, is one
+solid mass of dry reddish sand.
+
+The vapours that rise from the earth are the great promoters of disease;
+but here, instead of the moisture ascending to the prejudice of the
+inhabitant, the contrary is evident; for the water descends through the
+pores of the sand, so that even our very cellars are habitable.
+
+This accounts for the almost total extinction of the ague among
+us:--During a residence of thirty years, I have never seen one person
+afflicted with it, though, by the opportunities of office, I have
+frequently visited the repositories of the sick.
+
+Thus peculiarly favoured, this happy spot, enjoys four of the greatest
+benefits that can attend human existence--water, air, the fun, and a
+situation free from damps.
+
+All the _past_ writers upon Birmingham have viewed her as low and
+watery, and with reason; because Digbeth, then the chief street, bears
+that description. But all the future writers will view her on an
+eminence, and with as much reason; because, for one low street, we have
+now fifty elevated.
+
+Birmingham, like the empire to which she belongs, has been, for many
+centuries, travelling _up hill_; and, like that, rising in consequence.
+
+
+
+SOIL.
+
+The soil is rather light, sandy, and weak; and though metals, of various
+sorts, are found in great plenty, _above_ the surface, we know of
+nothing below, except sand and gravel, stone and water. All the riches
+of the place, like those of an empiric, in laced cloaths, appear on the
+_outside_.
+
+The northern part of the parish, for about four hundred acres, to the
+disgrace of the age, is yet a shameful waste.
+
+A small part of the land near the town, is parcelled out into little
+gardens, at ten or twenty shillings each, amounting to about sixteen
+pounds per acre.
+
+These are not intended so much for profit, as health and amusement.
+
+Others are let in detached pieces for private use, at about four pounds
+per acre. So that this small parish cannot boast of more than six or
+eight farms, and these of the smaller size, at about two pounds per
+acre. Manure from the sty brings about 16s. per waggon load, that from
+the stable about 12, and that from the fire and the street, five.
+
+
+
+WATER.
+
+I think there is not any natural river runs through the parish, but
+there are three that mark the boundaries of it, for about half its
+circumference, described above; none of these supply family use. After
+penetrating into a body of sand, interspersed with a small strata of
+soft Rock, and sometimes of gravel; at the depth of about twenty yards,
+we come to plenty of water, rather hard. There are in the lower parts of
+the town, two excellent springs of soft water, suitable for most
+purposes; one at the top of Digbeth, the other, Lady-Well. Or rather,
+one spring, or bed of water, with many out-lets, continuing its course
+along the bottom of the hill, parallel with Small-brook-street,
+Edgbaston street, St. Martin's-lane, and Park-street; sufficiently
+copious to supply the whole city of London. Water is of the first
+consequence, it often influences disease, always the habit of body: that
+of Birmingham is in general productive of salutary effects.
+
+That dreadful disorder, the stone, is seldom found among us. I can
+recollect but very few, in my time, under this severe complaint, which
+is perhaps owing to that valuable element. I mentioned this remark to an
+eminent surgeon, who assured me, that, in his long course of practice,
+he had never been concerned in one operation in that unhappy disorder.
+
+
+
+BATHS.
+
+At Lady-Well, are the most complete baths in the whole Island. There are
+seven in number; erected at the expence of 2000_l_. Accommodation is
+ever ready for hot or cold bathing; for immersion or amusement; with
+conveniency for sweating. That, appropriated for swimming, is eighteen
+Yards by thirty-six, situated in the centre of a garden, in which are
+twenty four private undressing-houses, the whole surrounded by a wall 10
+feet high. Pleasure and health are the guardians of the place. The
+gloomy horrors of a bath, sometimes deter us from its use, particularly,
+if aided by complaint; but the appearance of these is rather inviting.
+We read of painted sepulchres, whose _outsides_ are richly ornamented,
+but _within_ are full of corruption and death. The reverse is before us.
+No elegance appears without, but within are the Springs of life! The
+expence was great, the utility greater.
+
+I do not know any author, who has reckoned man among the amphibious race
+of animals, neither do I know any animal who better deserves it. Man is
+lord of the little ball on which he treads, one half of which, at least,
+is water. If we do not allow him to be amphibious, we deprive him of
+half his sovereignty. He justly bears that name, who can _live_ in the
+water. Many of the disorders incident to the human frame are prevented,
+and others cured, both by fresh and salt bathing; so that we may
+properly remark, "_He lives in the water_, who can find life, nay, even
+_health_ in that friendly element."
+
+The greatest treasure on earth is health; but, a treasure, of all
+others, the least valued by the owner. Other property is best rated when
+in possession, but this, can only be rated when lost. We sometimes
+observe a man, who, having lost this inestimable jewel, seeks it with an
+ardour equal to its worth; but when every research by land, is eluded,
+he fortunately finds it in the water. Like the fish, he pines away upon
+shore, but like that, recovers again in the deep.
+
+Perhaps Venus is represented as rising from the ocean, which is no other
+then a bath of the larger size, to denote, that bathing is the refiner
+of health, consequently, of beauty; and Neptune being figured in
+advanced life, indicates, that it is a preservative to old age.
+
+The cure of disease among the Romans, by bathing, is supported by many
+authorities; among others, by the number of baths frequently discovered,
+in which, pleasure, in that warm climate, bore a part. But this practice
+seemed to decline with Roman freedom, and never after held the eminence
+it deserved. Can we suppose, the physician stept between disease and the
+bath, to hinder their junction; or, that he lawfully holds, by
+prescription, the tenure of sickness, in _fee_?
+
+The knowledge of this singular _art of healing_, is at present only in
+infancy. How far it may prevent, or conquer disease; to what measure it
+may be applied, in particular cases, and the degrees of use, in
+different constitutions, are enquiries that will be better understood by
+a future generation.
+
+
+
+AIR.
+
+As we have passed through the water, let us now investigate her sister
+fluid, the air. They are both necessary to life, and the purity of both
+to the prolongation of it; this small difference lies between them, a
+man may live a day without water, but not an hour without air: If a man
+wants better water, it may be removed from a distant place for his
+benefit; but if he wants air, he must remove himself.--The natural air
+of Birmingham, perhaps, cannot be excelled in this climate, the moderate
+elevation and dry soil evinces this truth; but it receives an alloy from
+the congregated body of fifty thousand people; also from the smoke of an
+extraordinary number of fires used in business; and perhaps, more from
+the various effluvia arising from particular trades. It is not uncommon
+to see a man with green hair or a yellow wig, from his constant
+employment in brass; if he reads, the green vestiges of his occupation
+remain on every leaf, never to be expunged. The inside of his body, no
+doubt, receives the same tincture, but is kept clean by being often
+washed with ale. Some of the fair sex, likewise are subject to the same
+inconvenience, but find relief in the same remedy.
+
+
+
+LONGEVITY.
+
+Man is a time-piece. He measures out a certain space, then stops for
+ever. We see him move upon the earth, hear him click, and perceive in
+his face the uses of intelligence. His external appearance will inform
+us whether he is old-fashioned, in which case, he is less valuable upon
+every gambling calculation. His face also will generally inform us
+whether all is right within. This curious machine is filled with a
+complication of movements, very unfit to be regulated by the rough hand
+of ignorance, which sometimes leaves a mark not to be obliterated even
+by the hand of an artist. If the works are directed by violence,
+destruction is not far off. If we load it with the oil of luxury, it
+will give an additional vigor, but in the end, clog and impede the
+motion. But if the machine is under the influence of prudence, she will
+guide it with an even, and a delicate hand, and perhaps the piece may
+move on 'till it is fairly worn out by a long course of fourscore years.
+
+There are a set of people who expect to find that health in medicine,
+which possibly might be found in regimen, in air, exercise, or
+serenity of mind.
+
+There is another class amongst us, and that rather numerous, whose
+employment is laborious, and whose conduct is irregular. Their time is
+divided between hard working, and hard drinking, and both by a fire. It
+is no uncommon thing to see one of these, at forty, wear the aspect of
+sixty, and finish a life of violence at fifty, which the hand of
+prudence would have directed to eighty.
+
+The strength of a kingdom consists in the multitude of its inhabitants;
+success in trade depends upon the manufacturer; the support and
+direction of a family, upon the head of it. When this useful part of
+mankind, therefore, are cut off in the active part of life, the
+community sustains a loss, whether we take the matter in a national, a
+commercial, or a private view.
+
+We have a third class, who shun the rock upon which these last fall, but
+wreck upon another; they run upon scylla though they have missed
+charybdis; they escape the liquid destruction, but split upon the solid.
+These are proficients in good eating; adepts in culling of delicacies,
+and the modes of dressing them. Matters of the whole art of cookery;
+each carries a kitchen in his head. Thus an excellent constitution may
+be stabbed by the spit. Nature never designed us to live well, and
+continue well; the stomach is too weak a vessel to be richly and deeply
+laden. Perhaps more injury is done by eating than by drinking; one is a
+secret, the other an open enemy: the secret is always supposed the most
+dangerous. Drinking attacks by assault, but eating by sap: luxury is
+seldom visited by old age. The best antidote yet discovered against this
+kind of slow poison is exercise; but the advantages of elevation, air,
+and water, on one hand, and disadvantages of crowd, smoke, and effluvia
+on the other, are trifles compared to intemperance.
+
+We have a fourth class, and with these I shall shut up the clock. If
+this valuable machine comes finished from the hand of nature; if the
+rough blasts of fortune only attack the outward case, without affecting
+the internal works, and if reason conduces the piece, it may move on,
+with a calm, steady, and uninterrupted pace to a great extent of years,
+'till time only annihilates the motion.
+
+I personally know amongst us a Mrs. Dallaway, aged near 90; George
+Davis, 85; John Baddally, Esq; and his two brothers, all between 80 and
+and 90; Mrs. Allen, 92; Mrs. Silk, 84; John Burbury, 84; Thomas Rutter,
+88; Elizabeth Bentley, 88; John Harrison and his wife, one 86, the other
+88; Mrs. Floyd, 87; Elizabeth Simms, 88; Sarah Aston, 98; Isaac Spooner,
+Esq; 89; Joseph Scott, Esq; 94; all at this day, January 9, 1780, I
+believe enjoy health and capacity. This is not designed as a complete
+list of the aged, but of such only as immediately occur to memory. I
+also knew a John England who died at the age of 89; Hugh Vincent, 94;
+John Pitt, 100; George Bridgens, 103; Mrs. More, 104. An old fellow
+assured me he had kept the market 77 years: he kept it for several years
+after to my knowledge. At 90 he was attacked by an acute disorder, but,
+fortunately for himself, being too poor to purchase medical assistance,
+he was left to the care of nature, who opened that door to health which
+the physician would have locked for ever. At 106 I heard him swear with
+all the fervency of a recruit: at 107 he died. It is easy to give
+instances of people who have breathed the smoak of Birmingham for
+threescore years, and yet have scarcely left the precincts of of youth.
+Such are the happy effects of constitution, temper, and conduct!
+
+
+
+_Ancient State of Birmingham_.
+
+We have now to pass through the very remote ages of time, without staff
+to support us, without light to conduct us, or hand to guide us. The way
+is long, dark, and slippery. The credit of an historian is built upon
+truth; he cannot assert, without giving his facts; he cannot surmise,
+without giving his reasons; he must relate things as they are, not as he
+would have them. The fabric founded in error will moulder of itself, but
+that founded in reality will stand the age and the critic.
+
+Except half a dozen pages in Dugdale, I know of no author who hath
+professedly treated of Birmingham. None of the histories which I have
+seen bestow upon it more than a few lines, in which we are sure to be
+treated with the noise of hammers and anvils; as if the historian
+thought us a race of dealers in thunder, lightning, and wind; or
+infernals, puffing in blast and smoak.
+
+Suffer me to transcribe a passage from Leland, one of our most
+celebrated writers, employed by Henry the VIIIth to form an itinerary of
+Britain, whose works have stood the test of 250 years. We shall observe
+how much he erred for want of information, and how natural for his
+successors to copy him.
+
+"I came through a pretty street as ever I entered, into Birmingham town.
+This street, as I remember, is called Dirtey (Deritend). In it dwells
+smithes and cutlers, and there is a brook that divides this street from
+Birmingham, an hamlet, or member, belonging to the parish therebye.
+
+"There is at the end of Dirtey a propper chappel and mansion-house of
+timber, (the moat) hard on the ripe, as the brook runneth down; and as I
+went through the ford, by the bridge, the water came down on the right
+hand, and a few miles below goeth into Tame. This brook, above Dirtey,
+breaketh in two arms, that a little beneath the bridge close again. This
+brook riseth, as some say, four or five miles above Birmingham, towards
+Black-hills.
+
+"The beauty of Birmingham, a good market-town in the extreme parts of
+Warwickshire, is one street going up alonge, almost from the left ripe
+of the brook, up a meane hill, by the length of a quarter of a mile, I
+saw but one parish-church in the town.
+
+"There be many smithes in the town that use to make knives and all
+manner of cutting tools, and many loriners that make bittes, and a
+great many naylers; so that a great part of the town is maintained by
+smithes, who have their iron and sea-coal out of Staffordshire."
+
+Here we find some intelligence, and more mistake, cloathed in the dress
+of antique diction, which plainly evinces the necessity of
+modern history.
+
+It is matter of surprise that none of those religious drones, the monks,
+who hived in the priory for fifteen or twenty generations, ever thought
+of indulging posterity with an history of Birmingham. They could not
+want opportunity, for they lived a life of indolence; nor materials, for
+they were nearer the infancy of time, and were possessed of historical
+fads now totally lost. Besides, nearly all the little learning in the
+kingdom was possessed by this class of people; and the place, in their
+day, must have enjoyed an eminent degree of prosperity.
+
+Though the town has a modern appearance, there is reason to believe it
+of great antiquity; my Birmingham reader, therefore, must suffer me to
+carry him back into the remote ages of the Ancient Britons to visit his
+fable ancestors.
+
+We have no histories of those times but what are left by the Romans, and
+these we ought to read with caution, because they were parties in the
+dispute. If two antagonists write each his own history, the discerning
+reader will sometimes draw the line of justice between them; but where
+there is only one, partiality is expected. The Romans were obliged to
+make the Britons war-like, or there would have been no merit in
+conquering them: they must also sound forth their ignorance, or there
+would have been none in improving them. If the Britons were that
+wretched people they are represented by the Romans, they could not be
+worth conquering: no man subdues a people to improve them, but to profit
+by them. Though the Romans at that time were in their meridian of
+splendor, they pursued Britain a whole century before they reduced it;
+which indicates that they considered it as a valuable prize. Though the
+Britons were not masters of science, like the Romans; though the fine
+arts did not flourish here, as in Rome, because never planted; yet by
+many testimonies it is evident they were masters of plain life; that
+many of the simple arts were practiced in that day, as well as in this;
+that assemblages of people composed cities, the same as now, but in an
+inferior degree; and that the country was populous is plain from the
+immense army Boadicia brought into the field, except the Romans
+increased that army that their merit might be greater in defeating it.
+Nay, I believe we may with propriety carry them beyond plain life, and
+charge them with a degree of elegance: the Romans themselves allow the
+Britons were complete masters of the chariot; that when the scythe was
+fixed at each end of the axle-tree, they drove with great dexterity into
+the midst of the enemy, broke their ranks, and mowed them down. The
+chariot, therefore, could not be made altogether for war, but, when the
+scythes were removed, it still remained an emblem of pride, became
+useful in peace, was a badge of high-life, and continues so with their
+descendants to this day.
+
+We know the instruments of war used by the Britons were a sword, spear,
+shield and scythe. If they were not the manufacturers, how came they by
+these instruments? We cannot allow either they or the chariots were
+imported, because that will give them a much greater consequence: they
+must also have been well acquainted with the tools used in husbandry,
+for they were masters of the field in a double sense. Bad also as their
+houses were, a chest of carpentry tools would be necessary to complete
+them. We cannot doubt, therefore, from these evidences, and others which
+might be adduced, that the Britons understood the manufactory of iron.
+Perhaps history cannot produce an instance of any place in an improving
+country, like England, where the coarse manufactory of iron has been
+carried on, that ever that laborious art went to decay, except the
+materials failed; and as we know of no place where such materials have
+failed, there is the utmost reason to believe our fore-fathers, the
+Britons, were supplied with those necessary implements by the black
+artists of the Birmingham forge. Iron-stone and coal are the materials
+for this production, both which are found in the neighbourhood in great
+plenty. I asked a gentleman of knowledge, if there was a probability of
+the delphs failing? He answered, "Not in five thousand years."
+
+The two following circumstances strongly evince this ancient British
+manufactory:--
+
+Upon the borders of the parish stands Aston-furnace, appropriated for
+melting ironstone, and reducing it into pigs: this has the appearance of
+great antiquity. From the melted ore, in this subterranean region of
+infernal aspect, is produced a calx, or cinder, of which there is an
+enormous mountain. From an attentive survey, the observer would suppose
+so prodigious a heap could not accumulate in one hundred generations;
+however, it shows no perceptible addition in the age of man.
+
+There is also a common of vast extent, called Wednesbury-old-field, in
+which are the vestiges of many hundreds of coal-pits, long in disuse,
+which the curious antiquarian would deem as long in sinking, as the
+mountain of cinders in rising.
+
+The minute sprig of Birmingham, no doubt first took root in this black
+soil, which, in a succession of ages, hath grown to its present
+opulence. At what time this prosperous plant was set, is very uncertain;
+perhaps as long before the days of Caesar as it is since. Thus the mines
+of Wednesbury empty their riches into the lap of Birmingham, and thus
+she draws nurture from the bowels of the earth.
+
+The chief, if not the only manufactory of Birmingham, from its first
+existence to the restoration of Charles the Second, was in iron: of this
+was produced instruments of war and of husbandry, furniture for the
+kitchen, and tools for the whole system of carpentry.
+
+The places where our athletic ancestors performed these curious
+productions of art, were in the shops fronting the street: some small
+remains of this very ancient custom are yet visible, chiefly in Digbeth,
+where about a dozen shops still exhibit the original music of anvil
+and hammer.
+
+As there is the highest probability that Birmingham produced her
+manufactures long before the landing of Caesar, it would give pleasure
+to the curious enquirer, could he be informed of her size in those very
+early ages; but this information is for ever hid from the historian, and
+the reader. Perhaps there never was a period in which she saw a decline,
+but that her progress has been certain, though slow, during the long
+space of two or three thousand years before Charles the Second.
+
+The very roads that proceed from Birmingham, are also additional
+indications of her great antiquity and commercial influence.
+
+Where any of these roads lead up an eminence, they were worn by the long
+practice of ages into deep holloways, some of them twelve or fourteen
+yards below the surface of the banks, with which they were once even,
+and so narrow as to admit only one passenger.
+
+Though modern industry, assisted by various turnpike acts, has widened
+the upper part and filled up the lower, yet they were all visible in the
+days of our fathers, and are traceable even in ours. Some of these, no
+doubt, were formed by the spade, to soften the fatigue of climbing the
+hill, but many were owing to the pure efforts of time, the horse, and
+the showers. As inland trade was small, prior to the fifteenth century,
+the use of the wagon, that great destroyer of the road, was but little
+known. The horse was the chief conveyor of burthen among the Britons,
+and for centuries after: if we, therefore, consider the great length of
+time it would take for the rains to form these deep ravages, we must
+place the origin of Birmingham, at a very early date.
+
+One of these subterranean passages, in part filled up, will convey its
+name to posterity in that of a street, called Holloway-head, 'till
+lately the way to Bromsgrove and to Bewdley, but not now the chief road
+to either. Dale-end, once a deep road, has the same derivation. Another
+at Summer-hill, in the Dudley road, altered in 1753. A remarkable one is
+also between the Salutation and the Turnpike, in the Wolverhampton road.
+A fifth at the top of Walmer-lane, changed into its present form in
+1764. Another between Gosta-green and Aston-brook, reduced in 1752.
+
+All the way from Dale-end to Duddeston, of which Coleshill-street now
+makes a part, was sunk five or six feet, though nearly upon a flat,
+'till filled up in 1756 by act of Parliament: but the most singular is
+that between Deritend and Camp-hill, in the way to Stratford, which is,
+even now, many yards below the banks; yet the seniors of the last age
+took a pleasure in telling us, they could remember when it would have
+buried a wagon load of hay beneath its present surface.
+
+Thus the traveller of old, who came to purchase the produce of
+Birmingham, or to sell his own, seemed to approach her by sap.
+
+British traces are, no doubt, discoverable in the old Dudley-road, down
+Easy-hill, under the canal; at the eight mile-stone, and at Smethwick:
+also in many of the private roads near Birmingham, which were never
+thought to merit a repair, particularly at Good-knaves-end, towards
+Harborne; the Green-lane, leading to the Garrison; and that beyond
+Long-bridge, in the road to Yardley; all of them deep holloways, which
+carry evident tokens of antiquity. Let the curious calculator determine
+what an amazing length of time would elapse in wearing the deep roads
+along Saltleyfield, Shaw-hill, Allum-rock, and the remainder of the way
+to Stichford, only a pitiful hamlet of a dozen houses.
+
+The ancient centre of Birmingham seems to have been the Old Cross, from
+the number of streets pointing towards it. Wherever the narrow end of a
+street enters a great thorough-fare, it indicates antiquity, this is the
+case with Philip-street, Bell-street, Spiceal-street, Park-street, and
+Moor-street, which not only incline to the centre above-mentioned, but
+all terminate with their narrow ends into the grand passage. These
+streets are narrow at the entrance, and widen as you proceed: the narrow
+ends were formed with the main street at first, and were not, at that
+time, intended for streets themselves. As the town increased, other
+blunders of the same kind were committed, witness the gateway late at
+the east end of New-street, the two ends of Worcester-street,
+Smallbrook-street, Cannon-street, New-meeting-streer, and Bull street;
+it is easy to see which end of a street was formed first; perhaps the
+south end of Moor street is two thousand years older than the north; the
+same errors are also committing in our day, as in Hill and Vale streets,
+the two Hinkleys and Catharine-street. One generation, for want of
+foresight, forms a narrow entrance, and another widens it by Act of
+Parliament.
+
+Every word in the English language carries an idea: when a word,
+therefore, strikes the ear, the mind immediately forms a picture, which
+represents it as faithfully as the looking-glass the face.--Thus, when
+the word Birmingham occurs, a superb picture instantly expands in the
+mind, which is best explained by the other words grand, populous,
+extensive, active, commercial and humane. This painting is an exact
+counter-part of the word at this day; but it does not correspond with
+its appearance, in the days of the ancient Britons--We must, therefore,
+for a moment, detach the idea from the word.
+
+Let us suppose, then, this centre surrounded with less than one hundred
+stragling huts, without order, which we will dignify with the name of
+houses; built of timber, the interfaces wattled with sticks, and
+plaistered with mud, covered with thatch, boards or sods; none of them
+higher than the ground story. The meaner sort only one room, which
+served for three uses, shop, kitchen, and lodging room; the door for
+two, it admitted the people and the light. The better sort two rooms,
+and some three, for work, for the kitchen, and for rest; all three in a
+line, and sometimes fronting the street.
+
+If the curious reader chooses to see a picture of Birmingham, in the
+time of the Britons, he will find one in the turnpike road, between
+Hales-owen and Stourbridge, called the Lie Waste, alias Mud City. The
+houses stand in every direction, composed of one large and ill-formed
+brick, scoped into a tenement, burnt by the sun, and often destroyed by
+the frost: the males naked; the females accomplished breeders. The
+children, at the age of three months, take a singular hue from the sun
+and the soil, which continues for life. The rags which cover them leave
+no room for the observer to guess at the sex. Only one person upon the
+premisses presumes to carry a belly, and he a landlord. We might as well
+look for the moon in a coal-pit, as for stays or white linen in the City
+of Mud. The principal tool in business is the hammer, and the beast of
+burden, the ass.
+
+The extent of our little colony of artists, perhaps reached nearly as
+high as the east end of New-street, occupied the upper part of
+Spiceal-street, and penetrated down the hill to the top of Digbeth,
+chiefly on the east.
+
+Success, which ever waits on Industry, produced a gradual, but very slow
+increase: perhaps a thousand years elapsed without adding half that
+number of houses.
+
+Thus our favourite plantation having taken such firm root, that she was
+able to stand the wintry blasts of fortune, we shall digress for a
+moment, while she wields her sparkling heat, according to the fashion of
+the day, in executing the orders of the sturdy Briton; then of the
+polite and heroic Roman; afterwards of our mild ancestors, the Saxons.
+Whether she raised her hammer for the plundering Dane is uncertain, his
+reign being short; and, lastly, for the resolute and surly Norman.
+
+It does not appear that Birmingham, from its first formation, to the
+present day, was ever the habitation of a gentleman, the lords of the
+manor excepted. But if there are no originals among us, we can produce
+many striking likenesses--The smoke of Birmingham has been very
+propitious to their growth, but not to their maturity.
+
+Gentlemen, as well as buttons, have been stamped here; but, like them,
+when finished, are moved off.
+
+They both originate from a very uncouth state, _without form or
+comeliness_; and pass through various stages, uncertain of success. Some
+of them, at length, receive the last polish, and arrive at perfection;
+while others, ruined by a flaw, are deemed _wasters_.
+
+I have known the man of opulence direct his gilt chariot _out_ of
+Birmingham, who first approached her an helpless orphan in rags. I have
+known the chief magistrate of fifty thousand people, fall from his
+phaeton, and humbly ask bread at a parish vestry.
+
+Frequently the wheel of capricious fortune describes a circle, in the
+rotation of which, a family experiences alternately, the heighth of
+prosperity and the depth of distress; but more frequently, like a
+pendulum, it describes only the arc of a circle, and that always at
+the bottom.
+
+Many fine estates have been struck out of the anvil, valuable
+possessions raised by the tongs, and superb houses, in a two-fold sense,
+erected by the trowel.
+
+The paternal ancestor of the late Sir Charles Holte was a native of this
+place, and purchaser, in the beginning of Edward the Third, of the
+several manors, which have been the honour and the support of his house
+to the present time.
+
+Walter Clodshale was another native of Birmingham, who, in 1332,
+purchased the manor of Saltley, now enjoyed by his maternal descendant,
+Charles Bowyer Adderley, Esq.
+
+Charles Colmore, Esq; holds a considerable estate in the parish; his
+predecessor is said to have occupied, in the reign of Henry the Eighth,
+that house, now No. 1, in the High-street, as a mercer, and general
+receiver of the taxes.
+
+A numerous branch of this ancient family flourishes in Birmingham at
+this day.
+
+The head of it, in the reign of James the First, erected New-hall, and
+himself into a gentleman. On this desirable eminence, about half a mile
+from the buildings, they resided till time, fashion, and success,
+removed them, like their predecessors, the sons of fortune, to a
+greater distance.
+
+The place was then possessed by a tenant, as a farm; but Birmingham, a
+speedy traveller, marched over the premises, and covered them with
+twelve hundred houses, on building leases; the farmer was converted into
+a steward: his brown hempen frock, which guarded the _outside_ of his
+waistcoat, became white holland, edged with ruffles, and took its
+station _within_: the pitchfork was metamorphosed into a pen, and his
+ancient practice of breeding up sheep, was changed into that of
+_dressing their skins_.
+
+Robert Philips, Esq; acquired a valuable property in the seventeenth
+century; now possessed by his descendant, William Theodore
+Inge, Esquire.
+
+A gentleman of the name of Foxall, assured me, that the head of his
+family resided upon the spot, now No. 101, in Digbeth, about four
+hundred years ago, in the capacity of a tanner.
+
+Richard Smallbroke, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, in the reign of
+George II. was a native of Birmingham, as his ancestors were for many
+ages, with reputation: he is said to have been born at number 2 in the
+High-street, had great property in the town, now enjoyed by his
+descendants, though they have left the place. The families also of
+Weaman, Jennings, Whalley, etc. have acquired vast property, and quitted
+the meridian of Birmingham; and some others are at this day ripe for
+removal. Let me close this bright scene of prosperity, and open another,
+which can only be viewed with a melancholy eye. We cannot behold the
+distresses of man without compassion; but that distress which follows
+affluence, comes with double effect.
+
+We have amongst us a family of the name of Middlemore, of great
+antiquity, deducible from the conquest; who held the chief possessions,
+and the chief offices in the county, and who matched into the first
+families in the kingdom, but fell with the interest of Charles the
+First; and are now in that low ebb of fortune, that I have frequently,
+with a gloomy pleasure, relieved them at the common charity-board of the
+town. Such is the tottering point of human greatness.
+
+Another of the name of Bracebridge, who for more than six hundred years,
+figured in the first ranks of life.
+
+A third of the name of Mountfort, who shone with meridian splendor,
+through a long train of ages. As genealogy was ever a favourite
+amusement, I have often conversed with these solitary remains of
+tarnished lustre, but find in all of them, the pride of their family
+buried with its greatness:--they pay no more attention to the arms of
+their ancestors, than to a scrap of paper, with which they would light
+their pipe. Upon consulting one of the name of Elwall, said to be
+descended from the Britons, I found him so amazingly defective, that he
+could not stretch his pedigree even so high as his grandfather.
+
+A fifth family amongst us, of the name of Arden, stood upon the pinnacle
+of fame in the days of Alfred the Great, where perhaps they had stood
+for ages before: they continued the elevation about seven hundred years
+after; but having treasonable charges brought against them, in the days
+of Queen Elizabeth, about two hundred years ago, they were thrown from
+this exalted eminence, and dashed to pieces in the fall. In various
+consultations with a member of this honourable house, I found the
+greatness of his family not only lost, but the memory of it also. I
+assured him, that his family stood higher in the scale of honour, than
+any private one within my knowledge: that his paternal ancestors, for
+about seven generations, were successively Earls of Warwick, before the
+Norman conquest: that, though he could not boast a descent from the
+famous Guy, he was related to him: that, though Turchell, Earl of
+Warwick at the conquest, his direct ancestor, lost the Earldom in favour
+of Roger Newburgh, a favourite of William's; yet, as the Earl did not
+appear in arms, against the Conqueror, at the battle of Hastings, nor
+oppose the new interest, he was allowed to keep forty-six of his manors:
+that he retired upon his own vast estate, which he held in dependence,
+where the family resided with great opulence, in one house, for many
+centuries, 'till their reduction above-mentioned. He received the
+information with some degree of amazement, and replied with a serious
+face,--"Perhaps there may have been something great in my predecessors,
+for my grandfather kept several cows in Birmingham and sold milk."
+
+The families of those ancient heroes, of Saxon and Norman race, are,
+chiefly by the mutations of time, and of state, either become extinct,
+or as above, reduced to the lowest verge of fortune. Those few
+therefore, whose descent is traceable, may be carried higher than that
+of the present nobility; for I know none of these last, who claim
+peerage beyond Edward the first, about 1295. Hence it follows, that for
+antiquity, alliance, and blood, the advantage is evidently in favour of
+the lowest class.
+
+Could one of those illustrious shades return to the earth and inspect
+human actions, he might behold one of his descendants, dancing at the
+lathe; another tippling with his dark brethren of the apron; a third
+humbly soliciting from other families such favours as were formerly
+granted by his own; a fourth imitating modern grandeur, by contracting
+debts he never designs to pay; and a fifth snuff of departed light,
+poaching, like a thief in the night, upon the very manors, possessed by
+his ancestors.
+
+Whence is it that title, pedigree, and alliance, in superior life, are
+esteemed of the highest value; while in the inferior, who have a prior
+claim, are totally neglected? The grand design of every creature upon
+earth, is to supply the wants of nature. No amusements of body or mind
+can be adopted, till hunger is served. When the appetite calls, the
+whole attention of the animal, with all its powers, is bound to answer.
+Hence arise those dreadful contests in the brute creation, from the lion
+in the woods, to the dog, who seizes the bone. Hence the ship, when her
+provisions are spent, and she becalmed, casts a savage eye, upon human
+sacrifices; and hence, the attention of the lower ranks of men, are too
+far engrossed for mental pursuit. They see, like Esau, the honours of
+their family devoured with a ravenous appetite. A man with an empty
+cupboard would make but a wretched philosopher. But if fortune should
+smile upon one of the lower race, raise him a step above his original
+standing, and give him a prospect of independence, he immediately begins
+to eye the arms upon carriages, examines old records for his name, and
+inquires where the Herald's office is kept. Thus, when the urgency of
+nature is set at liberty, the bird can whistle upon the branch, the fish
+play upon the surface, the goat skip upon the mountain, and even man
+himself, can bask in the sunshine of science. I digress no farther.
+
+The situation of St. Martin's church is another reason for fixing the
+original centre of Birmingham at the Old Cross. Christianity made an
+early and a swift progress in this kingdom; persecution, as might be
+expected, followed her footsteps, increased her votaries, and, as was
+ever the case, in all new religions, her proselytes were very devout.
+
+The religious fervor of the christians displayed itself in building
+churches. Most of those in England are of Saxon original, and were
+erected between the fourth and the tenth century; that of St. Martin's
+is ancient beyond the reach of historical knowledge, and probably rose
+in the early reigns of the Saxon kings.
+
+It was the custom of those times, to place the church, if there was but
+one, out of the precincts of the town; this is visible at the present
+day in those places which have received no increase.
+
+Perhaps it will not be an unreasonable supposition to fix the erection
+of St. Martin's, in the eighth century; and if the inquisitive reader
+chooses to traverse the town a second time, he may find its boundaries
+something like the following. We cannot allow its extension northward
+beyond the east end of New-street; that it included the narrow parts of
+Philip street, Bell street, Spiceal street, Moor street, and Park
+street. That the houses at this period were more compact than
+heretofore; that Digbeth and Deritend, lying in the road to Stratford,
+Warwick, and Coventry, all places of antiquity, were now formed. Thus
+the church stood in the environs of the town, unincumbered with
+buildings. Possibly this famous nursery of arts might, by this time,
+produce six hundred houses. A town must increase before its appendages
+are formed; those appendages also must increase before there is a
+necessity for an additional chapel, and after that increase, the
+inhabitants may wait long before that necessity is removed. Deritend is
+an appendage to Birmingham; the inhabitants of this hamlet having long
+laboured under the inconveniency of being remote from the parish church
+of Aston, and too numerous for admission into that of Birmingham,
+procured a grant in 1381 to erect a chapel of their own. If we,
+therefore, allow three hundred years for the infancy of Deritend, three
+hundred more for her maturity, and four hundred since the erection of
+her chapel, which is a very reasonable allowance. It will bring us to
+the time I mentioned.
+
+It does not appear that Deritend was attended with any considerable
+augmentation, from the Norman conquest to the year 1767, when a
+turnpike-road was opened to Alcester, and when Henry Bradford publicly
+offered a freehold to the man who should first build upon his estate;
+since which time Deritend has made a rapid progress: and this dusky
+offspring of Birmingham is now travelling apace along her new
+formed road.
+
+I must again recline upon Dugdale.--In 1309, William de Birmingham, Lord
+of the Manor, took a distress of the inhabitants of Bromsgrove and
+King's-norton, for refusing to pay the customary tolls of the market.
+The inhabitants, therefore, brought their action and recovered damage,
+because it was said, their lands being the ancient demesne of the crown,
+they had a right to sell their produce in any market in the King's
+dominions.
+
+It appeared in the course of the trial, that the ancestors of William de
+Birmingham had a MARKET HERE before the Norman conquest! I shall have
+occasion, in future, to resume this remarkable expression. I have also
+met with an old author, who observes, that Birmingham was governed by
+two Constables in the time of the Saxons; small places have seldom more
+than one. These evidences prove much in favour of the government,
+population, and antiquity of the place.
+
+In Domesday-book it is rated at four hides of land. A hide was as much
+as a team could conveniently plough in a year; perhaps at that time
+about fifty acres: I think there is not now, more than two hundred
+ploughed in the parish.
+
+It was also said to contain woods of half a mile in length, and four
+furlongs in breadth. What difference subsisted between half a mile and
+four furlongs, in ancient time, is uncertain; we know of none now. The
+mile was reduced to its present standard in the reign of Queen
+Elizabeth: neither are there the least traces of those woods, for at
+this day it is difficult to find a stick that deserves the name of a
+tree, in the whole manor.--Timber is no part of the manufactory of
+Birmingham.
+
+Let us survey the town a third time, as we may reasonably suppose it
+stood in the most remarkable period of English history, that of the
+conquest.
+
+We cannot yet go farther North of the centre than before, that is, along
+the High-street, 'till we meet the East end of New street. We shall
+penetrate rather farther into Moor-street, none into Park-street, take
+in Digbeth, Deritend, Edgbaston-street, as being the road to Dudley,
+Bromsgrove, and the whole West of England; Spiceal-street, the Shambles,
+a larger part of Bell street, and Philip-street.
+
+The ancient increase of the town was towards the South, because of the
+great road, the conveniency of water, the church, and the manor-house,
+all which lay in that quarter: but the modern extension was chiefly
+towards the North, owing to the scions of her trades being transplanted
+all over the country, in that direction, as far as Wednesbury, Walsall,
+and Wolverhampton. But particularly her vicinity to the coal delphs,
+which were ever considered as the soul of her prosperity. Perhaps by
+this time the number of houses might have been augmented to seven
+hundred: but whatever was her number, either in this or any other
+period, we cannot doubt her being populous in every aera of her
+existence.
+
+The following small extract from the register, will show a gradual
+increase, even before the restoration:
+
+     Year.  Christenings. Weddings.  Burials
+     1555,  37,           15,        27.
+     1558,  48,           10,        47.
+     1603,  65,           14,        40.
+     1625,  76,           18,        47.
+     1660,  76, from April to Dec. inclusive.
+
+In 1251, William de Birmingham, Lord of the Manor, procured an
+additional charter from Henry the Third, reviving some decayed
+privileges and granting others; among the last was that of the
+Whitsuntide fair, to begin on the eve of Holy Thursday, and to continue
+four days. At the alteration of the style, in 1752, it was prudently
+changed to the Thursday in Whitsun week; that less time might be lost to
+the injury of work and the workman. He also procured another fair, to
+begin on the eve of St. Michael, and continue for three days. Both which
+fairs are at this day in great repute.
+
+By the interest of Audomore de Valance, earl of Pembroke, a licence was
+obtained from the crown, in 1319 to charge an additional toll upon every
+article sold in the market for three years, towards paving the town.
+Every quarter of corn to pay one farthing, and other things in
+proportion.
+
+We have no reason to believe that either the town or the market were
+small at that time, however, at the expiration of the term, the toll
+was found inadequate to the expence, and the work lay dormant for
+eighteen years, till 1337, when a second licence was obtained, equal to
+the first, which completed the intention.
+
+Those streets, thus dignified with a pavement, or rather their sides, to
+accommodate the foot passenger, probably were High-street, the
+Bull-ring, Corn-cheaping, Digbeth, St. Martin's-lane, Moat-lane,
+Edgbaston-street, Spiceal-street, and part of Moor-street.
+
+It was the practice, in those early days, to leave the center of a
+street unpaved, for the easier passage of carriages and horses; the
+consequence was, in flat streets the road became extremely dirty, almost
+impassable, and in a descent, the soil was quickly worn away, and left a
+causeway on each side. Many instances of this ancient practice are
+within memory.
+
+The streets, no doubt, in which the fairs were held, mark the boundaries
+of the town in the thirteenth century. Though smaller wares were sold
+upon the spot used for the market, the rougher articles, such as cattle,
+were exposed to sale in what were then the _out-streets_. The fair for
+horses was held in Edgbaston-street, and that for beasts in the
+High-street, tending towards the Welch Cross.
+
+Inconvenient as these streets seem for the purpose, our dark ancestors,
+of peaceable memory, found no detriment, during the infant state of
+population, in keeping them there. But we, their crowded sons, for want
+of accommodation, have wisely removed both; the horse-fair, in 1777, to
+Brick-kiln-lane, now the extreme part of the town; and that for beasts,
+in 1769, into the open part of Dale-end.
+
+Whatever veneration we may entertain for ancient custom, there is
+sometimes a necessity to break it. Were we now to solicit the crown for
+a fair, those streets would be the last we should fix on.
+
+If we survey Birmingham in the twelfth century, we shall find her
+crowded with timber, within and without; her streets dirty and narrow;
+but considering the distant period, much trodden, yet, compared with her
+present rising state, but little.
+
+The inhabitant became an early encroacher upon nor narrow streets, and
+sometimes the lord was the greatest. Her houses were mean and low, but
+few reaching higher than one story, perhaps none more than two;
+composed of wood and plaister--she was a stranger to brick. Her public
+buildings consisted solely of one, _the church_.
+
+If we behold her in the fourteenth century, we shall observe her private
+buildings multiplied more than improved; her narrow streets, by
+trespass, become narrower, for she was ever chargeable with neglect; her
+public buildings increased to four, two in the town, and two at a
+distance, the Priory, of stone, founded by contribution, at the head of
+which stood her lord; the Guild, of timber, now the Free School; and
+Deritend Chapel, of the same materials, resembling a barn, with
+something like an awkward dove-coat, at the west end, by way of steeple.
+All these will be noticed in due course.
+
+If we take a view of the inhabitants, we shall find them industrious,
+plain, and honest; the more of the former, generally, the less of
+dishonesty, if their superiors lived in an homelier stile in that
+period, it is no wonder _they_ did. Perhaps our ancestors acquired more
+money than their neighbours, and not much of that; but what they had was
+extremely valuable: diligence will accumulate. In curious operations,
+known only to a few, we may suppose the artist was amply paid.
+
+Nash, in his History of Worcestershire, gives us a curious list of
+anecdotes, from the church-wardens ledger, of Hales-Owen. I shall
+transcribe two, nearly three hundred years old. "_Paid for bread and
+ale, to make my Lord Abbot drink, in Rogation week, 2d._" What should we
+now think of an ecclesiastical nobleman, accepting a two-penny treat
+from a country church-warden?
+
+This displays an instance of moderation in a class of people famous for
+luxury. It shows also the amazing reduction of money: the same sum which
+served my Lord Abbot four days, would now be devoured in four
+minutes.--"1498, _paid for repeyling the organs, to the organmaker at
+Bromicham_, 10_s_." Birmingham then, we find, discovered the powers of
+genius in the finer arts, as well as in iron. By '_the_ organmaker,' we
+mould suppose there was but one.
+
+It appears that the art of acquiring riches was as well understood by
+our fathers, as by us; while an artist could receive as much money for
+tuning an organ, as would purchase an acre of land, or treat near half a
+gross of Lord Abbots.
+
+
+
+BATTLE OF CAMP-HILL.
+
+1643.
+
+Clarendon reproaches with virulence, our spirited ancestors, for
+disloyalty to Charles the First.--The day after the King left
+Birmingham, on his march from Shrewsbury, in 1642, they seized his
+carriages, containing the royal plate and furniture, which they
+conveyed, for security, to Warwick Castle. They apprehended all
+messengers and suspected persons; frequently attacked, and reduced small
+parties of the royalists, whom they sent prisoners to Coventry.--Hence
+the proverbial expression of a refractory person, _Send him to
+Coventry_.
+
+In 1643, the King ordered Prince Rupert, with a detachment of two
+thousand men, to open a communication between Oxford and York. In his
+march to Birmingham, he found a company of foot, kept for the
+parliament, lately reinforced by a troop of horse from the garrison at
+Lichfield: but, supposing they would not resist a power of ten to one,
+sent his quarter masters to demand lodging, and offer protection.
+
+But the sturdy sons of freedom, having cast up slight works at each end
+of the town, and barricaded the lesser avenues, rejected the offer and
+the officers. The military uniting in one small and compact body,
+assisted by the inhabitants, were determined the King's forces mould not
+enter. Their little fire opened on the Prince: but bravery itself,
+though possessed of an excellent spot of ground for defence, was obliged
+to give way to numbers. The Prince quickly put them to silence; yet,
+under the success of his own arms, he was not able to enter the town,
+for the inhabitants had choaked up, with carriages, the deep and narrow
+road, then between Deritend and Camp-hill, which obliged the Prince to
+alter his route to the left, and proceed towards Long-bridge.
+
+The spirit of resistance was not yet broken; they sustained a second
+attack, but to no purpose, except that of laughter. A running fight
+continued through the town; victory declared loudly for the Prince; the
+retreat became general: part of the vanquished took the way to Oldbury.
+
+William Fielding, Earl of Denbigh, a volunteer under the Prince, being
+in close pursuit of an officer in the service of the parliament, and
+both upon the full gallop, up Shirland-lane, in the manor of Smethwick,
+the officer instantly turning, discharged a pistol at the Earl, and
+mortally wounded him with a random shot.
+
+The parliament troops were animated in the engagement by a clergyman,
+who acted as governor, but being taken in the defeat, and refusing
+quarter, was killed in the Red Lion-inn.
+
+The Prince, provoked at the resistance, in revenge, set fire to the
+town. His wrath is said to have kindled in Bull-street, and consumed
+several houses near the spot, now No. 12.
+
+He obliged the inhabitants to quench the flames with a heavy fine, to
+prevent farther military execution. Part of the fine is said to have
+been shoes and stockings for his people.
+
+The parliament forces had formed their camp in that well chosen angle,
+which divides the Stratford and Warwick roads, upon Camp-hill.
+
+The victorious Prince left no garrison, because their insignificant
+works were untenable; but left an humbled people, and marched to the
+reduction of Lichfield.
+
+In 1665, London was not only visited with the plague, but many other
+parts of England, among which, Birmingham felt this dreadful mark of the
+divine judgment.
+
+The infection is said to have been caught by a box of clothes, brought
+by the carrier, and lodged at the White-hart. Depopulation ensued. The
+church-yard was insufficient for the reception of the dead, who were
+conveyed to Ladywood-green, one acre of waste land, then denominated the
+Pelt Ground.
+
+The charter for the market has evidently been repeated by divers kings,
+both Saxon and Norman, but when first granted is uncertain, perhaps at
+an early Saxon date; and the day seems never to have been changed
+from Thursday.
+
+The lords were tenacious of their privileges; or, one would think, there
+was no need to renew their charter. Prescription, necessity, and
+increasing numbers, would establish the right.
+
+Perhaps, in a Saxon period, there was room sufficient in our
+circumscribed market-place, for the people and their weekly supplies;
+but now, their supplies would fill it, exclusive of the people.
+
+Thus by a steady and a persevering hand, she kept a constant and uniform
+stroke at the anvil, through a vast succession of ages: rising superior
+to the frowns of fortune: establishing a variety of productions from
+iron: ever improving her inventive powers, and perhaps, changing a
+number of her people, equal to her whole inhabitants, every sixteen
+years, till she arrived at another important period, the end of the
+civil wars of Charles the first.
+
+
+
+MODERN STATE
+
+OF
+
+BIRMINGHAM.
+
+It is the practice of the historian, to divide ancient history from
+modern, at the fall of the Roman Empire. For, during a course of about
+seven hundred years, while the Roman name beamed in meridian splendour,
+the lustre of her arms and political conduct influenced, more or less,
+every country in Europe. But at the fall of that mighty empire, which
+happened in the fifth century, every one of the conquered provinces was
+left to stand upon its own basis. From this period, therefore, the
+history of nations takes a material turn. The English historian divides
+his ancient account from the modern, at the extinction of the house of
+Plantagenet, in 1485, the fall of Richard the Third. For, by the
+introduction of letters, an amazing degree of light was thrown upon
+science, and also, by a new system of politics, adopted by Henry the
+Seventh, the British constitution, occasioned by one little act of
+parliament, that of allowing liberty to sell land, took a very
+different, and an important course.
+
+But the ancient and modern state of Birmingham, must divide at the
+restoration of Charles the Second. For though she had before, held a
+considerable degree of eminence; yet at this period, the curious arts
+began to take root, and were cultivated by the hand of genius. Building
+leases, also, began to take effect, extension followed, and numbers of
+people crowded upon each other, as into a Paradise.
+
+As a kind tree, perfectly adapted for growth, and planted in a suitable
+soil, draws nourishment from the circumjacent ground, to a great extent,
+and robs the neighbouring plants of their support, that nothing can
+thrive within its influence; so Birmingham, half whose inhabitants above
+the age of ten, perhaps, are not natives, draws her annual supply of
+hands, and is constantly fed by the towns that surround her, where her
+trades are not practised. Preventing every increase to those neighbours
+who kindly contribute to her wants. This is the case with Bromsgrove,
+Dudley, Stourbridge, Sutton, Lichfield, Tamworth, Coleshill,
+and Solihull.
+
+We have taken a view of Birmingham in several periods of existence,
+during the long course of perhaps three thousand years. Standing
+sometimes upon presumptive ground. If the prospect has been a little
+clouded, it only caused us to be more attentive, that we might not be
+deceived. But, though we have attended her through so immense a space,
+we have only seen her in infancy. Comparatively small in her size,
+homely in her person, and coarse in her dress. Her ornaments, wholly of
+iron, from her own forge.
+
+But now, her growths will be amazing; her expansion rapid, perhaps not
+to be paralleled in history. We shall see her rise in all the beauty of
+youth, of grace, of elegance, and attract the notice of the commercial
+world. She will also add to her iron ornaments, the lustre of every
+metal, that the whole earth can produce, with all their illustrious race
+of compounds, heightened by fancy, and garnished with jewels. She will
+draw from the fossil, and the vegetable kingdoms; press the ocean for
+shell, skin and coral. She will also tax the animal, for horn, bone, and
+ivory, and she will decorate the whole with the touches of her pencil.
+
+I have met with some remarks, published in 1743, wherein the author
+observes, "That Birmingham, at the restoration, probably consisted only
+of three streets." But it is more probable it consisted of fifteen,
+though not all finished, and about nine hundred houses.
+
+I am sensible, when an author strings a parcel of streets together, he
+furnishes but a dry entertainment for his reader, especially to a
+stranger. But, as necessity demands intelligence from the historian, I
+must beg leave to mention the streets and their supposed number
+of houses.
+
+     Digbeth, nearly the same as now, except
+       the twenty-tree houses between the two
+       Mill-lanes, which are of a modern date,
+       about                                      110
+     Moat-lane (Court-lane)                        12
+     Corn-market and Shambles                      40
+     Spiceal-street                                50
+     Dudley-street                                 50
+     Bell-street                                   50
+     Philip-street                                 30
+     St. Martin's-lane                             15
+     Edgbaston-street                              70
+     Lee's-lane                                    10
+     Park-street, extending from Digbeth nearly
+       to the East end of Freeman-street           80
+     More-street, to the bottom of Castle-street,  70
+     Bull-street, not so high as the Minories,     50
+     High-street,                                 100
+     Deritend;                                    120
+     Odd houses scattered round the verge of
+       the town                                    50
+                                                 ----
+                                                  907
+         The number of inhabitants,   5,472.
+
+The same author farther observes, "That from the Restoration to the year
+1700, the streets of Birmingham were increased to thirty one." But I can
+make their number only twenty-eight, and many of these far from
+complete. Also, that the whole number of houses were 2,504, and the
+inhabitants 15,032. The additional streets therefore seem to have been
+Castle-street, Carr's-lane, Dale-end, Stafford-street, Bull lane,
+Pinfold-street, Colmore-street, the Froggery, Old Meeting-street,
+Worcester-street, Peck-lane, New-street, (a small part,) Lower
+Mill-lane.
+
+From the year 1700 to 1731, there is said to have been a farther
+addition of twenty-five streets, I know of only twenty-three: and also
+of 1,215 houses, and 8,250 inhabitants. Their names we offer as
+under;--Freeman-street, New Meeting-street, Moor-street, (the North
+part), Wood-street, the Butts, Lichfield-street; Thomas's-street,
+John's-street, London-'prentice street, Lower priory, The Square,
+Upper-priory, Minories, Steel-house-lane, Cherry-street, Cannon-street,
+Needless-alley, Temple-street, King's street, Queen-street, Old
+Hinkleys, Smallbrook-street, and the East part of Hill-street.
+
+I first saw Birmingham July 14, 1741, and will therefore perambulate its
+boundaries at that time with my traveller, beginning at the top of
+Snow-hill, keeping the town on our left, and the fields that then were,
+on our right.
+
+Through Bull-lane we proceed to Temple-street; down Peck lane, to the
+top of Pinfold-street; Dudley-street, the Old Hinkleys to the top of
+Smallbrook street, back through Edgbaston-street, Digbeth, to the upper
+end of Deritend. We shall return through Park-street, Mass-house-lane,
+the North of Dale end, Stafford-street, Steel-house-lane, to the top of
+Snow-hill, from whence we set out.
+
+If we compare this account with that of 1731, we shall not find any
+great addition of streets; but those that were formed before, were much
+better filled up. The new streets erected during these ten years were
+Temple-row, except about six houses. The North of Park-street, and of
+Dale-end; also, Slaney-street, and a small part of the East side of
+Snow hill.
+
+From 1741, to the present year 1780, Birmingham seems to have acquired
+the amazing augmentation of seventy one streets, 4172 houses, and
+25,032 inhabitants.
+
+Thus her internal property is covered with new-erected buildings, tier
+within tier. Thus she opens annually, a new aspect to the traveller; and
+thus she penetrates along the roads that surround her, as if to unite
+with the neighbouring towns, for their improvement in commerce, in arts,
+and in civilization.
+
+I have often led my curious enquirer round Birmingham, but, like the
+thread round the swelling clue, never twice in the same tract. We shall
+therefore, for the last time, examine her present boundaries. Our former
+journey commenced at the top of Snow-hill, we now set off from
+the bottom.
+
+The present buildings extend about forty yards beyond the Salutation, on
+the Wolverhampton road. We now turn up Lionel-street, leaving St.
+Paul's, and about three new erected houses, on the right[1]; pass close
+to New-Hall, leaving it on the left, to the top of Great Charles-street,
+along Easy-hill: we now leave the Wharf to the right, down
+Suffolk-street, in which are seventy houses, leaving two infant streets
+also to the right, in which are about twelve houses each: up to
+Holloway-head, thence to Windmill-hill, Bow-street, Brick-kiln-lane,
+down to Lady-well, along Pudding-brook, to the Moat, Lloyd's
+Slitting-mill, Digbeth, over Deritend bridge, thence to the right, for
+Cheapside; cross the top of Bradford-street, return by the Bridge to
+Floodgate-street, Park-street, Bartholomew's-chapel, Grosvenor-street,
+Nova scotia-street, Woodcock-lane, Aston-street, Lancaster-street,
+Walmer-lane, Price's-street, Bath-street, to the bottom of Snow-hill.
+
+[Footnote 1: The above was written in May 1780, and the three houses are
+now, March 14, 1781, multiplied into fifty-five.]
+
+The circle I have described is about five miles, in which is much ground
+to be filled up. There are also beyond this crooked line, five clumps of
+houses belonging to Birmingham, which may be deemed hamlets.
+
+At the Sand-pits upon the Dudley-road, about three furlongs from the
+buildings, are fourteen houses.
+
+Four furlongs from the Navigation-office, upon the road to Hales-owen,
+are twenty-nine.
+
+One furlong from Exeter row, towards the hand, are thirty-four.
+
+Upon Camp-hill, 130 yards from the junction of the Warwick and Coventry
+roads, which is the extremity of the present buildings, are thirty-one.
+
+And two furlongs from the town, in Walmer-lane, are seventeen more.
+
+I shall comprize, in one view, the state of Birmingham in eight
+different periods of time. And though some are imaginary, perhaps they
+are not far from real.
+
+                               Streets.   Houses.    Souls.
+       In the time of the ancient
+     Britons,                                 80       400
+      A.D.     750,                  8       600      3000
+              1066,                  9       700      3500
+              1650,                 15       900      5472
+              1700,                 28      2504     15032
+              1731,                 51      3717     23286
+              1741,                 54      4114     24660
+              1780,                125      8382     50295
+
+In 1778, Birmingham, exclusive of the appendages, contained 8042 houses,
+48252 inhabitants.
+
+At the same time, Manchester consisted of 3402, houses, and 22440
+people.
+
+In 1779, Nottingham contained 3191 houses, and 17711 souls.
+
+It is easy to see, without the spirit of prophecy, that Birmingham hath
+not yet arrived at her zenith, neither is she likely to reach it for
+ages to come. Her increase will depend upon her manufactures; her
+manufactures will depend upon the national commerce; national commerce,
+will depend upon a superiority at sea; and this superiority may be
+extended to a long futurity.
+
+The interior parts of the town, are like those of other places,
+parcelled out into small free-holds, perhaps, originally purchased of
+the Lords of the Manor; but, since its amazing increase, which began
+about the restoration, large tracts of land have been huxtered out upon
+building leases.
+
+Some of the first that were granted, seem to have been about Worcester
+and Colmore streets, at the trifling annual price of one farthing per
+yard, or under.
+
+The market ran so much against the lesor, that the lessee had liberty to
+build in what manner he pleased; and, at the expiration of the term,
+could remove the buildings unless the other chose to purchase them. But
+the market, at this day, is so altered, that the lessee gives four-pence
+per yard; is tied to the mode of building, and obliged to leave the
+premisses in repair.
+
+The itch for building is predominant: we dip our fingers into mortar
+almost as soon as into business. It is not wonderful that a person
+should be hurt by the _falling_ of a house; but, with us, a man
+sometimes breaks his back by _raising_ one.
+
+This private injury, however, is attended with a public benefit of the
+first magnitude; for every "_House to be Let_," holds forth a kind of
+invitation to the stranger to settle in it, who, being of the laborious
+class, promotes the manufactures.
+
+If we cannot produce many houses of the highest orders in architecture,
+we make out the defect in numbers. Perhaps _more_ are erected here, in a
+given time, than in any place in the whole island, London excepted.
+
+It is remarkable, that in a town like Birmingham, where so many houses
+are built, the art of building is so little understood. The stile of
+architecture in the inferior sort, is rather showy than lasting.
+
+The proprietor generally contracts for a house of certain dimensions, at
+a stipulated price: this induces the artist to use some ingredients of
+the cheaper kind, and sometimes to try whether he can cement the
+materials with sand, instead of lime.
+
+But a house is not the only thing spoilt by the builder; he frequently
+spoils himself: out of many successions of house-makers, I cannot
+recollect one who made a fortune.
+
+Many of these edifices have been brought forth, answered the purposes
+for which they were created, and been buried in the dust, during my
+short acquaintance with Birmingham. One would think, if a man can
+survive a house, he has no great reason to complain of the shortness
+of life.
+
+From the external genteel appearance of a house, the stranger would be
+tempted to think the inhabitant possessed at least a thousand pounds;
+but, if he looks within, he sees only the ensigns of beggary.
+
+We have people who enjoy four or five hundred pounds a year in houses,
+none of which, perhaps, exceed six pounds per annum. It may excite a
+smile, to say, I have known two houses erected, one occupied by a man,
+his wife, and three children; the other pair had four; and twelve
+guineas covered every expence.
+
+Pardon, my dear reader, the omission of a pompous encomium on their
+beauty, or duration.
+
+I am inclined to think two thirds of the houses in Birmingham stand upon
+new foundations, and all the places of worship, except Deritend Chapel.
+
+About the year 1730, Thomas Sherlock, late Bishop of London, purchased
+the private estate of the ladies of the manor, chiefly land, about four
+hundred per annum.
+
+In 1758, the steward told me it had increased to twice the original
+value. The pious old Bishop was frequently solicited to grant building
+leases, but answered, "His land was valuable, and if built upon, his
+successor, at the expiration of the term, would have the rubbish to
+carry off:" he therefore not only refused, but prohibited his successor
+from granting such leases.
+
+But Sir Thomas Gooch, who succeeded him, seeing the great improvement of
+the neighbouring estates, and wisely judging fifty pounds per acre
+preferable to five, procured an act in about 1766, to set aside the
+prohibiting clause in the Bishop's will.
+
+Since which, a considerable town may be said to have been erected upon
+his property, now about 1600_l_. per annum.
+
+An acquaintance assured me, that in 1756 he could have purchased the
+house he then occupied for 400_l_. but refused. In 1770, the same house
+was sold for 600_l_. and in 1772, I purchased it for eight hundred and
+thirty-five guineas, without any alteration, but what time had made for
+the worse: and for this enormous price I had only an old house, which I
+was obliged to take down. Such is the rapid improvement in value, of
+landed property, in a commercial country.
+
+Suffer me to add, though foreign to my subject, that these premises were
+the property of an ancient family of the name of Smith, now in decay;
+where many centuries ago one of the first inns in Birmingham, and well
+known by the name of the Garland House, perhaps from the sign; but
+within memory, Potter's Coffee-house.
+
+Under one part was a room about forty-five feet long, and fifteen wide,
+used for the town prison.
+
+In sinking a cellar we found a large quantity of tobacco-pipes of a
+angular construction, with some very antique earthen ware, but no coin;
+also loads of broken bottles, which refutes the complaint of our pulpits
+against modern degeneracy, and indicates, the vociferous arts of getting
+drunk and breaking glass, were well understood by our ancestors.
+
+In penetrating a bed of sand, upon which had stood a work-shop, about
+two feet below the surface we came to a tumolus six feet long, three
+wide, and five deep, built very neat, with tiles laid flat, but no
+cement. The contents were mouldered wood, and pieces of human bone.
+
+I know of no house in Birmingham, the inns excepted, whose annual rent
+exceeds eighty pounds. By the lamp books, the united rents appear to be
+about seventy thousand, which if we take at twenty years purchase, will
+compose a freehold of 1,400,000_l_. value.
+
+If we allow the contents of the manor to be three thousand acres, and
+deduct six hundred for the town, five hundred more for roads, water, and
+waste land; and rate the remaining nineteen hundred, at the average rent
+of 2_l_. 10s. per acre; we shall raise an additional freehold of
+4,750_l_. per ann.
+
+If we value this landed property at thirty years purchase, it will
+produce 142,500_l_. and, united with the value of the buildings, the
+fee-simple of this happy region of genius, will amount to 1,542,500_l_.
+
+
+
+OF THE STREETS,
+
+AND
+
+THEIR NAMES.
+
+We accuse our short-sighted ancestors, and with reason, for leaving us
+almost without a church-yard and a market-place; for forming some of our
+streets nearly without width, and without light. One would think they
+intended a street without a passage, when they erected Moor-street; and
+that their successors should light their candles at noon.
+
+Something, however, may be pleaded in excuse, by observing the concourse
+of people was small, therefore a little room would suffice; and the
+buildings were low, so that light would be less obstructed: besides, we
+cannot guess at the future but by the present. As the increase of the
+town was slow, the modern augmentation could not then be discovered
+through the dark medium of time; but the prospect into futurity is at
+this day rather brighter, for we plainly see, and perhaps with more
+reason, succeeding generations will blame us for neglect. We occupy the
+power to reform, without the will; why else do we suffer enormities to
+grow, which will have taken deep root in another age? If utility and
+beauty can _be joined together_ in the street, why are they ever _put
+asunder_? It is easy for Birmingham to be as rapid in her improvement,
+as in her growth.
+
+The town consists of about 125 streets, some of which acquired their
+names from a variety of causes, but some from no cause, and others, have
+not yet acquired a name.
+
+Those of Bull street, Cannon street, London Prentice street, and Bell
+street, from the signs of their respective names.
+
+Some receive theirs from the proprietors of the land, as Smallbrook
+street, Freeman street, Colmore street, Slaney street, Weaman street,
+Bradford street, and Colmore row.
+
+Digbeth, or Ducks Bath, from the Pools for accommodating that animal,
+was originally Well street, from the many springs in its neighbourhood.
+
+Others derive a name from caprice, as Jamaica row, John, Thomas, and
+Philip streets.
+
+Some, from a desire of imitating the metropolis, as, Fleet-street,
+Snow-hill, Ludgate-hill, Cheapside, and Friday-street.
+
+Some again, from local causes, as High-street, from its elevation, St.
+Martin's-lane, Church-street, Cherry-street, originally an orchard,
+Chapel-street, Bartholomew-row, Mass-house-lane, Old and New
+Meeting-streets, Steelhouse-lane, Temple-row and Temple-street, also
+Pinfold-street, from a pinfold at No. 85, removed in 1752.
+
+Moor-street, anciently Mole-street, from the eminence on one side, or
+the declivity on the other.
+
+Park-street seems to have acquired its name by being appropriated to the
+private use of the lord of the manor, and, except at the narrow end next
+Digbeth, contained only the corner house to the south, entering
+Shut-lane, No. 82, lately taken down, which was called The Lodge.
+
+Spiceal-street, anciently Mercer-street, from the number of mercers
+shops; and as the professors of that trade dealt in grocery, it was
+promiscuously called Spicer-street. The present name is only a
+corruption of the last.
+
+The spot, now the Old Hinkleys, was a close, till about 1720, in which
+horses were shown at the fair, then held in Edgbaston-street. It was
+since a brick-yard, and contained only one hut, in which the
+brick-maker slept.
+
+The tincture of the smoky shops, with all their _black furniture_, for
+weilding gun-barrels, which afterwards appeared on the back of
+Small-brooke-street, might occasion the original name _Inkleys_; ink is
+well known; leys, is of British derivation, and means grazing ground; so
+that the etymology perhaps is _Black pasture_.
+
+The Butts; a mark to shoot at, when the bow was the fashionable
+instrument of war, which the artist of Birmingham knew well how to make,
+and to use.
+
+Gosta Green (Goose-stead-Green) a name of great antiquity, now in
+decline; once a track of commons, circumscribed by the Stafford road,
+now Stafford-street, the roads to Lichfield and Coleshill, now Aston and
+Coleshill-streets, and extending to Duke-street, the boundary of
+the manor.
+
+Perhaps, many ages after, it was converted into a farm, and was, within
+memory, possessed by a person of the name of Tanter, whence,
+Tanter-street.
+
+Sometimes a street fluctuates between two names, as that of Catharine
+and Wittal, which at length terminated in favour of the former.
+
+Thus the names of great George and great Charles stood candidates for
+one of the finest streets in Birmingham, which after a contest of two or
+three years, was carried in favour of the latter.
+
+Others receive a name from the places to which they direct, as
+Worcester-street, Edgbaston-street, Dudley-street, Lichfield-street,
+Aston-street, Stafford-street, Coleshill-street, and Alcester-street.
+
+A John Cooper, the same person who stands in the list of donors in St.
+Martin's church, and who, I apprehend, lived about two hundred and fifty
+years ago, at the Talbot, now No. 20, in the High-street, left about
+four acres of land, between Steelhouse-lane, St. Paul's chapel, and
+Walmer-lane, to make love-days for the people of Birmingham; hence,
+_Love-day-croft_.
+
+Various sounds from the trowel upon the premises, in 1758, produced the
+name of _Love-day-street_ (corrupted into Lovely-street.)
+
+This croft is part of an estate under the care of Lench's Trust; and, at
+the time of the bequest, was probably worth no more than ten shillings
+per annum.
+
+At the top of Walmer-lane, which is the north east corner of this croft,
+stood about half a dozen old alms-houses, perhaps erected in the
+beginning of the seventeenth century, then at a considerable distance
+from the town. These were taken down in 1764, and the present
+alms-houses, which are thirty-six, erected near the spot, at the expence
+of the trust, to accommodate the same number of poor widows, who have
+each a small annual stipend, for the supply of coals.
+
+This John Cooper, for some services rendered to the lord of the manor,
+obtained three privileges, That of regulating the goodness and price of
+beer, consequently he stands in the front of the whole liquid race of
+high tasters; that he should, whenever he pleased, beat a bull in the
+Bull-ring, whence arises the name; and, that he should be allowed
+interment in the south porch of St. Martin's church. His memory ought to
+be transmitted with honor, to posterity, for promoting the harmony of
+his neighbourhood, but he ought to have been buried in a dunghill, for
+punishing an innocent animal.--His wife seems to have survived him, who
+also became a benefactress, is recorded in the same list, and their
+monument, in antique sculpture, is yet visible in the porch.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+TRADE.
+
+Perhaps there is not by nature so much difference in the capacities of
+men, as by education. The efforts of nature will produce a ten-fold crop
+in the field, but those of art, fifty.
+
+Perhaps too, the seeds of every virtue, vice, inclination, and habit,
+are sown in the breast of every human being, though not in an equal
+degree. Some of these lie dormant for ever, no hand inviting their
+cultivation. Some are called into existence by their own internal
+strength, and others by the external powers that surround them. Some of
+these seeds flourish more, some less, according to the aptness of the
+soil, and the modes of assistance. We are not to suppose infancy the
+only time in which these scions spring, no part of life is exempt. I
+knew a man who lived to the age of forty, totally regardless of music. A
+fidler happening to have apartments near his abode, attracted his ear,
+by frequent exhibitions, which produced a growing inclination for that
+favourite science, and he became a proficient himself. Thus in advanced
+periods a man may fall in love with a science, a woman, or a bottle.
+Thus avarice is said to shoot up in ancient soil, and thus, I myself
+bud forth in history at fifty-six.
+
+The cameleon is said to receive a tincture from the colour of the object
+that is nearest him; but the human mind in reality receives a bias from
+its connections. Link a man to the pulpit, and he cannot proceed to any
+great lengths in profligate life. Enter him into the army, and he will
+endeavour to swear himself into consequence. Make the man of humanity an
+overseer of the poor, and he will quickly find the tender feelings of
+commiseration hardened. Make him a physician, and he will be the only
+person upon the premises, the heir excepted, unconcerned at the prospect
+of death. Make him a surgeon, and he will amputate a leg with the same
+indifference with which a cutler saws a piece of bone for a knife
+handle. You commit a rascal to prison because he merits transportation,
+but by the time he comes out he merits a halter. By uniting also with
+industry, we become industrious. It is easy to give instances of people
+whose distinguishing characteristic was idleness, but when they breathed
+the air of Birmingham, diligence became the predominant feature. The
+view of profit, like the view of corn to the hungry horse, excites
+to action.
+
+Thus the various seeds scattered by nature into the soul at its first
+formation, either lie neglected, are urged into increase by their own
+powers, or are drawn towards maturity by the concurring circumstances
+that attend them.
+
+The late Mr. Grenville observed, in the House of Commons, "That commerce
+tended to corrupt the morals of a people." If we examine the expression,
+we shall find it true in a certain degree, beyond which, it tends to
+improve them.
+
+Perhaps every tradesman can furnish out numberless instances of small
+deceit. His conduct is marked with a littleness, which though allowed by
+general consent, is not strictly just. A person with whom I have long
+been connected in business, asked, if I had dealt with his relation,
+whom he had brought up, and who had lately entered into commercial life.
+I answered in the affirmative. He replied, "He is a very honest fellow."
+I told him I saw all the finesse of a tradesman about him. "Oh, rejoined
+my friend, a man has a right to say all he can in favour of his own
+goods." Nor is the seller alone culpable. The buyer takes an equal share
+in the deception. Though neither of them speak their sentiments, they
+well understand each other. Whilst the treaty is agitating, the profit
+of the tradesman vanishes, yet the buyer pronounces against the article;
+but when finished, the seller whispers his friend, "It is well sold,"
+and the buyer smiles if a bargain.
+
+Thus is the commercial track a line of minute deceits.
+
+But, on the other hand, it does not seem possible for a man in trade to
+pass this line, without wrecking his reputation; which, if once broken,
+can never be made whole. The character of a tradesman is valuable, it is
+his all; therefore, whatever seeds of the vicious kind shoot forth in
+the mind, are carefully watched and nipped in the bud, that they may
+never blossom into action.
+
+Thus having slated the accounts between morality and trade, I shall
+leave the reader to draw the ballance. I shall not pronounce after so
+great a master, and upon so delicate a subject, but shall only ask,
+"Whether the people in trade are more corrupt than those out?"
+
+If the curious reader will lend an attentive ear to a pair of farmers in
+the market, bartering for a cow, he will find as much dissimulation as
+at St. James's, or at any other saint's, but couched in homelier phrase.
+The man of well-bred deceit is '_infinitely_ your friend--It would give
+him _immense_ pleasure to serve you!' while the man in the frock 'Will
+be ---- if he tells you a word of a lye!' Deception is an innate
+principle of the human heart, not peculiar to one man, or one
+profession.
+
+Having occasion for a horse, in 1759, I mentioned it to an acquaintance,
+and informed him of the uses: he assured me, he had one that would
+exactly suit; which he showed in the stable, and held the candle pretty
+high, _for fear of affecting the straw_. I told him it was needless to
+examine him, for I should rely upon his word, being conscious he was too
+much my friend to deceive me; therefore bargained, and caused him to be
+sent home. But by the light of the sun, which next morning illumined the
+heavens, I perceived the horse was _greased_ on all fours. I therefore,
+in gentle terms, upbraided my friend with duplicity, when he replied
+with some warmth, "I would cheat my own brother in a horse." Had this
+honourable friend stood a chance of selling me a horse once a week, his
+own interest would have prevented him from deceiving me.
+
+A man enters into business with a view of acquiring a fortune--A
+laudable motive! That property which rises from honest industry, is an
+honour to its owner; the repose of his age; the reward of a life of
+attention: but, great as the advantage seems, yet, being of a private
+nature, it is one of the least in the mercantile walk. For the
+intercourse occasioned by traffic, gives a man a view of the world, and
+of himself; removes the narrow limits that confine his judgment; expands
+the mind; opens his understanding; removes his prejudices; and polishes
+his manners. Civility and humanity are ever the companions of trade;
+the man of business is the man of liberal sentiment; a barbarous and
+commercial people, is a contradiction; if he is not the philosopher of
+nature, he is the friend of his country, and well understands her
+interest. Even the men of inferior life among us, whose occupations, one
+would think, tend to produce minds as callous as the mettle they work;
+lay a stronger claim to civilization, than in any other place with which
+I am acquainted. I am sorry to mutilate the compliment, when I mention
+the lower race of the other sex: no lady ought to be publicly insulted,
+let her appear in what dress she pleases. Both sexes, however, agree in
+exhibiting a mistaken pity, in cases of punishment, particularly by
+preventing that for misconduct in the military profession.
+
+It is singular, that a predilection for Birmingham, is entertained by
+every denomination of visitants, from Edward Duke of York, who saw us in
+1765, down to the presuming quack, who, griped with necessity, boldly
+discharges his filth from the stage. A paviour, of the name of Obrien,
+assured me in 1750, that he only meant to sleep one night in Birmingham,
+in his way from London to Dublin. But instead of pursuing his journey
+next morning, as intended, he had continued in the place thirty-five
+years: and though fortune had never elevated him above the pebbles of
+the street, yet he had never repented his stay.
+
+It has already been remarked that I first saw Birmingham in 1741,
+accidentally cast into those regions of civility; equally unknown to
+every inhabitant, nor having the least idea of becoming one myself.
+Though the reflections of an untaught youth of seventeen cannot be
+striking, yet, as they were purely natural, permit me to describe them.
+
+I had been before acquainted with two or three principal towns. The
+environs of all I had seen were composed of wretched dwellings, replete
+with dirt and poverty; but the buildings in the exterior of Birmingham
+rose in a style of elegance. Thatch, so plentiful in other towns, was
+not to be met with in this. I was surprised at the place, but more so at
+the people: They were a species I had never seen: They possessed a
+vivacity I had never beheld: I had been among dreamers, but now I saw
+men awake: Their very step along the street showed alacrity: Every man
+seemed to know and prosecute his own affairs: The town was large, and
+full of inhabitants, and those inhabitants full of industry. I had seen
+faces elsewhere tinctured with an idle gloom void of meaning, but here,
+with a pleasing alertness: Their appearance was strongly marked with the
+modes of civil life: I mixed a variety of company, chiefly of the lower
+ranks, and rather as a silent spectator: I was treated with an easy
+freedom by all, and with marks of favour by some: Hospitality seemed to
+claim this happy people for her own, though I knew not at that time from
+what cause.
+
+I did not meet with this treatment in 1770, twenty nine years after, at
+Bosworth, where I accompanied a gentleman, with no other intent, than to
+view the field celebrated for the fall of Richard the third. The
+inhabitants enjoyed the cruel satisfaction of setting their dogs at us
+in the street, merely because we were strangers. Human figures, not
+their own, are seldom seen in those inhospitable regions: Surrounded
+with impassable roads, no intercourse with man to humanise the mind, no
+commerce to smooth their rugged manners, they continue the boors
+of nature.
+
+Thus it appears, that characters are influenced by profession. That the
+great advantage of private fortune, and the greater to society, of
+softening and forming the mind, are the result of trade. But these are
+not the only benefits that flow from this desirable spring. It opens the
+hand of charity to the assistance of distress; witness the Hospital and
+the two Charity Schools, supported by annual donation: It adds to the
+national security, by supplying the taxes for internal use, and, for
+the prosecution of war. It adds to that security, by furnishing the
+inhabitants with riches, which they are ever anxious to preserve, even
+at the risk of their lives; for the preservation of private wealth,
+tends to the preservation of the state.
+
+It augments the value of landed property, by multiplying the number of
+purchasers: It produces money to improve that land into a higher state
+of cultivation, which ultimately redounds to the general benefit, by
+affording plenty.
+
+It unites bodies of men in social compact, for their mutual interest: It
+adds to the credit and pleasure of individuals, by enabling them to
+purchase entertainment and improvement, both of the corporeal and
+intellectual kind.
+
+It finds employment for the hand that would otherwise be found in
+mischief: And it elevates the character of a nation in the scale of
+government.
+
+Birmingham, by her commercial consequence, has, of late, justly assumed
+the liberty of nominating one of the representatives for the county;
+and, to her honor, the elective body never regretted her choice.
+
+In that memorable contest of 1774, we were almost to a man of one mind:
+if an _odd dozen_ among us, of a different _mould_, did not assimulate
+with the rest, they were treated, as men of free judgment should ever be
+treated, _with civility_, and the line of harmony was not broken.
+
+If this little treatise happens to travel into some of our corporate
+places, where the fire of contention, blown by the breath of party, is
+kept alive during seven years, let them cast a second glance over the
+above remark.
+
+Some of the first words after the creation, _increase and multiply_, are
+applicable to Birmingham; but as her own people are insufficient for the
+manufactures, she demands assistance for two or three miles round her.
+In our early morning walks, on every road proceeding from the town, we
+meet the sons of diligence returning to business, and bringing _in_ the
+same dusky smuts, which the evening before they took out. And though
+they appear of a darkish complexion, we may consider it is the property
+of every metal to sully the user; money itself has the same effect, and
+yet he deems it no disgrace who is daubed by fingering it; the disgrace
+lies with him who has none to finger.
+
+The profits arising from labour, to the lower orders of men, seem to
+surpass those of other mercantile places. This is not only visible in
+the manufactures peculiar to Birmingham, but in the more common
+occupations of the barber, taylor, shoe-maker, etc. who bask in the rays
+of plenty.
+
+It is entertaining to the curious observer, to contemplate the variation
+of things. We know of nothing, either in the natural or moral world,
+that continues in the same state: From a number of instances that might
+be adduced, permit me to name one--that of money. This, considered in
+the abstract, is of little or no value; but, by the common consent of
+mankind, is erected into a general arbitrator, to fix a value upon all
+others: a medium through which every thing passes: a balance by which
+they must be weighed: a touchstone to which they must be applied to find
+their worth: though we can neither eat nor drink it, we can neither eat
+nor drink without it.--He that has none best knows its use.
+
+It has long been a complaint, that the same quantity of that medium,
+money, will not produce so much of the necessaries of life, particularly
+food, as heretofore; or, in other words, that provisions have been
+gradually rising for many ages, and that the milling, which formerly
+supported the laborious family a whole week, will not now support it
+one day.
+
+In times of remarkable scarcity, such as those in 1728, 41, 56, 66, and
+74, the press abounded with publications on the subject; but none, which
+I have seen, reached the question, though short.
+
+It is of no consequence, whether a bushel of corn sells for six _pence_,
+or six _shillings_, but, what _time_ a man must labour before he
+can earn one?
+
+If, by the moderate labour of thirty-six hours, in the reign of Henry
+the Third, he could acquire a groat, which would purchase a bushel of
+wheat; and if, in the reign of George the Third, he works the same
+number of hours for eight shillings, which will make the same purchase,
+the balance is exactly even. If, by our commercial concerns with the
+eastern and the western worlds, the kingdom abounds with bullion, money
+must be cheaper; therefore a larger quantity is required to perform the
+same use. If money would go as far now as in the days of Henry the
+Third, a journeyman in Birmingham might amass a ministerial fortune.
+
+Whether provisions abound more or less? And whether the poor fare better
+or worse, in this period than in the other? are also questions dependant
+upon trade, and therefore worth investigating.
+
+If the necessaries of life abound more in this reign, than in that of
+Henry the Third, we cannot pronounce them dearer.
+
+Perhaps it will not be absurd to suppose, that the same quantity of
+land, directed by the superior hand of cultivation, in the eighteenth
+century, will yield twice the produce, as by the ignorant management of
+the thirteenth. We may suppose also, by the vast number of new
+inclosures which have annually taken place since the revolution, that
+twice the quantity of land is brought into cultivation: It follows, that
+four times the quantity of provisions is raised from the earth, than was
+raised under Henry the Third; which will leave a large surplus in hand,
+after we have deducted for additional luxury, a greater number of
+consumers, and also for exportation.
+
+This extraordinary stock is also a security against famine, which our
+forefathers severely felt.
+
+It will be granted, that in both periods the worst of the meat was used
+by the poor. By the improvements in agriculture, the art of feeding
+cattle is well understood, and much in practice; as the land improves,
+so will the beast that feeds upon it: if the productions, therefore, of
+the slaughter house, in this age, surpass those of Henry the Third, then
+the fare of the poor is at least as much superior now, as the worst of
+fat meat is superior to the worst of lean.
+
+The poor inhabitants in that day, found it difficult to procure bread;
+but in this, they sometimes add cream and butter.
+
+Thus it appears, that through the variation of things a balance is
+preserved: That provisions have not advanced in price, but are more
+plentiful: And that the lower class of men have found in trade, that
+intricate, but beneficial clue, which guides them into the confines
+of luxury.
+
+Provisions and the manufactures, like a pair of scales, will not
+preponderate together; but as weight is applied to the one, the other
+will advance.
+
+As labour is irksome to the body, a man will perform no more of it than
+necessity obliges him; it follows, that in those times when plenty
+preponderates, the manufactures tend to decay: For if a man can support
+his family with three days labour, he will not work six.
+
+As the generality of men will perform no more work than produces a
+maintenance, reduce that maintenance to half the price, and they will
+perform but half the work: Hence half the commerce of a nation is
+destroyed at one blow, and what is lost by one kingdom will be recovered
+by another, in rivalship.
+
+A commercial people, therefore, will endeavour to keep provisions at a
+superior rate, yet within reach of the poor.
+
+It follows also, that luxury is no way detrimental to trade; for we
+frequently observe ability and industry exerted to support it.
+
+The practice of the Birmingham manufacturer, for, perhaps, a hundred
+generations, was to keep within the warmth of his own forge.
+
+The foreign customer, therefore, applied to him for the execution of
+orders, and regularly made his appearance twice a year; and though this
+mode of business is not totally extinguished, yet a very different one
+is adopted.
+
+The merchant stands at the head of the manufacturer, purchases his
+produce, and travels the whole island to promote the sale: A practice
+that would have astonished our fore fathers. The commercial spirit of
+the age, hath also penetrated beyond the confines of Britain, and
+explored the whole continent of Europe; nor does it stop there, for the
+West-Indies, and the American world, are intimately acquainted with the
+Birmingham merchant; and nothing but the exclusive command of the
+East-India Company, over the Asiatic trade, prevents our riders from
+treading upon the heels of each other, in the streets of Calcutta.
+
+To this modern conduct of Birmingham, in sending her sons to the foreign
+market, I ascribe the chief cause of her rapid increase.
+
+By the poor's books it appears, there are not three thousand houses in
+Birmingham, that pay the parochial rates; whilst there are more then
+five thousand that do not, chiefly through inability. Hence we see what
+an amazing number of the laborious class of mankind is among us. This
+valuable part of the creation, is the prop of the remainder. They are
+the rise and support of our commerce. From this fountain we draw our
+luxuries and our pleasures. They spread our tables, and oil the wheels
+of our carriages. They are also the riches and the defence of
+the country.
+
+How necessary then, is it to direct with prudence, the rough passions of
+this important race, and make them subservient to the great end of civil
+society. The deficiency of conduct in this useful part of our species
+ought to be supplied by the superior.
+
+Let not the religious reader be surprised if I say, their follies, and
+even their vices, under certain restrictions, are beneficial. Corruption
+in the community, as well as in the natural body, accelerates vital
+existence.
+
+Let us survey one of the men, who begin life at the lowest ebb; without
+property, or any other advantage but that of his own prudence.
+
+He comes, by length of time and very minute degrees, from being directed
+himself, to have the direction of others. He quits the precincts of
+servitude, and enters the dominions of command: He laboured for others,
+but now others labour for him. Should the whole race, therefore, possess
+the same prudence, they would all become masters. Where then could be
+found the servant? Who is to perform the manual part? Who to execute the
+orders of the merchant? A world consisting only of masters, is like a
+monster consisting only of a head. We know that the head is no more than
+the leading power, the members are equally necessary. And, as one member
+is placed in a more elevated state than another, so are the ranks of
+men, that no void may be left. The hands and the feet, were designed to
+execute the drudgery of life; the head for direction, and all are
+suitable in their sphere.
+
+If we turn the other side of the picture, we shall see a man born in
+affluence, take the reins of direction; but like Phaeton, not being able
+to guide them, blunders on from mischief to mischief, till he involves
+himself in destruction, comes prone to the earth, and many are injured
+by his fall. From directing the bridle, he submits to the bit; seeks for
+bread in the shops, the line designed him by nature; where his hands
+become callous with the file, and where, for the first time in his life,
+he becomes useful to an injured society.
+
+Thus, from imprudence, folly, and vice, is produced poverty;--poverty
+produces labour; from labour, arise the manufactures; and from these,
+the riches of a country, with all their train of benefits.
+
+It would be difficult to enumerate the great variety of trades practised
+in Birmingham, neither would it give pleasure to the reader. Some of
+them, spring up with the expedition of a blade of grass, and, like that,
+wither in a summer. If some are lasting, like the sun, others seem to
+change with the moon. Invention is ever at work. Idleness; the
+manufactory of scandal, with the numerous occupations connected with the
+cotton; the linen, the silk, and the woollen trades, are little
+known among us.
+
+Birmingham begun with the productions of the anvil, and probably will
+end with them. The sons of the hammer, were once her chief inhabitants;
+but that great croud of artists is now lost in a greater: Genius seems
+to increase with multitude.
+
+Part of the riches, extension, and improvement of Birmingham, are owing
+to the late John Taylor, Esq; who possessed the singular powers of
+perceiving things as they really were. The spring, and consequence of
+action, were open to his view; whom we may justly deem the Shakespear
+or the Newton of his day. He rose from minute beginnings, to
+shine in the commercial hemisphere, as they in the poetical and
+philosophical--Imitation is part of the human character. An example of
+such eminence in himself, promoted exertion in others; which, when
+prudence guided the helm, led on to fortune: But the bold adventurer who
+crouded sail, without ballast and without rudder, has been known to
+overset the vessel, and sink insolvent.
+
+To this uncommon genius we owe the gilt-button, the japanned and gilt
+snuff-boxes, with the numerous race of enamels--From the same fountain
+also issued the paper snuff-box, at which one servant earned three
+pounds ten shillings per week, by painting them at a farthing each.
+
+In his shop were weekly manufactured buttons to the amount of 800_l_
+exclusive of other valuable productions.
+
+One of the present nobility, of distinguished taste, examining the
+works, with the master, purchased some of the articles, amongst others,
+a toy of eighty guineas value, and, while paying for them, observed with
+a smile, "he plainly saw he could not reside in Birmingham for less than
+two hundred pounds a day."
+
+The toy trades first made their appearance in Birmingham, in the
+beginning of Charles the second, in an amazing variety, attended with
+all their beauties and their graces. The first in pre-eminence is
+
+
+
+The BUTTON.
+
+This beautiful ornament appears with infinite variation; and though the
+original date is rather uncertain, yet we well remember the long coats
+of our grandfathers covered with half a gross of high-tops, and the
+cloaks of our grandmothers, ornamented with a horn button nearly the
+size of a crown piece, a watch, or a John apple, curiously wrought, as
+having passed through the Birmingham press.
+
+Though the common round button keeps on with the steady pace of the day,
+yet we sometimes see the oval, the square, the pea, and the pyramid,
+flash into existence. In some branches of traffic the wearer calls
+loudly for new fashions; but in this, the fashions tread upon each
+other, and crowd upon the wearer. The consumption of this article is
+astonishing. There seem to be hidden treasures couched within this magic
+circle, known only to a few, who extract prodigious fortunes out of
+this useful toy, whilst a far greater number, submit to a statute of
+bankruptcy.
+
+Trade, like a restive horse, can rarely be managed; for, where one is
+carried to the end of a successful journey, many are thrown off by the
+way. The next that calls our attention is
+
+
+
+The BUCKLE.
+
+Perhaps the shoe, in one form or other, is nearly as ancient as the
+foot. It originally appeared under the name of, sandal; this was no
+other than a sole without an upper-leather. That fashion hath since been
+inverted, and we now, sometimes, see an upper-leather nearly without a
+sole. But, whatever was the cut of the shoe, it always demanded a
+fastening. Under the house of Plantagenet, it shot horizontally from the
+foot, like a Dutch scait, to an enormous length, so that the extremity
+was fattened to the knee, sometimes, with a silver chain, a silk lace,
+or even a pack-thread string, rather than avoid _genteel taste_.
+
+This thriving beak, drew the attention of the legislature, who were
+determined to prune the exorbitant shoot. For in 1465 we find an order
+of council, prohibiting the growth of the shoe toe, to more than two
+inches, under the penalty of a dreadful curse from the priest, and,
+which was worse, the payment of twenty shillings to the king.
+
+This fashion, like every other, gave way to time, and in its stead, the
+rose began to bud upon the foot. Which under the house of Tudor, opened
+in great perfection. No shoe was fashionable, without being fattened
+with a full-blown rose. Under the house of Stuart, the rose withered,
+which gave rise to the shoe-string.
+
+The beaus of that age, ornamented their lower tier with double laces of
+silk, tagged with silver, and the extremities beautified with a small
+fringe of the same metal. The inferior class, wore laces of plain silk,
+linen, or even a thong of leather; which last is yet to be met with in
+the humble plains of rural life. But I am inclined to think, the artists
+of Birmingham had no great hand in fitting out the beau of the
+last century.
+
+The revolution was remarkable, for the introduction of William, of
+liberty, and the minute buckle; not differing much in size and shape
+from the horse bean.
+
+This offspring of fancy, like the clouds, is ever changing. The fashion
+of to-day, is thrown into the casting pot to-morrow.
+
+The buckle seems to have undergone every figure, size and shape of
+geometrical invention: It has passed through every form in the whole
+zodiac of Euclid. The large square buckle is the _ton_ of the present
+day. The ladies also, have adopted the reigning taste: It is difficult
+to discover their beautiful little feet, covered with an enormous shield
+of buckle; and we wonder to see the active motion under the massive
+load. Thus the British fair support the manufactures of Birmingham, and
+thus they kill by weight of metal.
+
+
+
+GUNS.
+
+Though the sword and the gun are equal companions in war, it does not
+appear they are of equal original. I have already observed, that the
+sword was the manufacture of Birmingham, in the time of the Britons.
+
+But tradition tells us, King William was once lamenting "That guns were
+not manufactured in his dominions, but that he was obliged to procure
+them from Holland at a great expence, and greater difficulty."
+
+One of the Members for Warwickshire being present, told the King, "He
+thought his constituents could answer his Majesty's wishes."--The King
+was pleased with the remark, and the Member posted to Birmingham. Upon
+application to a person in Digbeth, whose name I forget, the pattern was
+executed with precision, which, when presented to the royal board, gave
+entire satisfaction. Orders were immediately issued for large numbers,
+which have been so frequently repeated that they never lost their road;
+and the ingenious artists have been so amply rewarded, that they have
+rolled in their carriages to this day.--Thus the same instrument which
+is death to one man, is genteel life to another.
+
+
+
+LEATHER.
+
+It may seem singular to a modern eye, to view this place in the light of
+one vast tan-yard.--Though there is no appearance of that necessary
+article among us, yet Birmingham was once a famous market for leather.
+Digbeth not only abounded with tanners, but large numbers of hides
+arrived weekly for sale, where the whole country found a supply. When
+the weather would allow, they were ranged in columns in the High-street,
+and at other times deposited in the Leather-hall, at the East end of
+New-street, appropriated for their reception.
+
+This market was of great antiquity, perhaps not less than seven hundred
+years, and continued till the beginning of the present century. We have
+two officers, annually chosen, by the name of _leather-sealers_, from a
+power given them by ancient charter, to mark the vendible hides; but now
+the leather-sealers have no duty, but that of taking an elegant dinner.
+Shops are erected upon tan-fats; the Leather-hall is gone to
+destruction, and we are reduced to one solitary tanner.
+
+
+
+STEEL.
+
+The progress of the arts, is equal to the progress of time; they began,
+and will end together. Though some of both are lost, yet they both
+accumulate.
+
+The manufacture of iron, in Birmingham, is ancient beyond research; that
+of steel is of modern date.
+
+Pride is inseparable from the human character, the man without it, is
+the man without breath: we trace it in various forms, through every
+degree of people; but like those objects about us, it is best
+discovered in our own sphere; those above, and those below us, rather
+escape our notice; envy attacks an equal.
+
+Pride induced the Pope to look with contempt on the European Princes,
+and now induces them to return the compliment; it taught insolence to
+the Spaniard, selfishness to the Dutch; it teaches the rival nations of
+France and England to contend for power.
+
+Pride preserves a man from mean actions, it throws him upon meaner; it
+whets the sword for destruction; it urges the laudable acts of humanity;
+it is the universal hinge on which we move; it glides the gentle stream
+of usefulness, it overflows the mounds of reason, and swells into a
+destructive flood; like the sun, in his milder rays, it animates and
+draws us towards perfection; but, like him, in his fiercer beams, it
+scorches and destroys.
+
+Money is not the necessary attendant of pride, for it abounds no where
+more than in the lowest ranks. It adds a sprucer air to a sunday dress;
+casts a look of disdain from a bundle of rags; it boasts the _honor_ of
+a family, while poverty unites a sole and upper-leather with a bandage
+of shop-thread. There are people who even _pride_ themselves in
+humility.
+
+This dangerous _good_, this necessary _evil_, supports the female
+character; without it, the brightest part of the creation would
+degenerate.
+
+It will be asked, "What portion may be allowed?" Prudence will answer,
+"As much as you please, but _not_ to disgust."
+
+It is equally found in the senate-house, or the button-shop; the scene
+of action is the scene of pride; and I, unable to adorn this work with
+erudition, take a pride in cloathing a worn-out subject afresh, and that
+pride will increase, should the world smi ---- "But why, says my friend,
+do you forsake the title of your chapter, and lead us a dance through
+the mazes of pride? Can there be any connexion between that sovereign
+passion, and forging a bar of steel?" Yes, he who makes steel prides
+himself in carrying the art one step higher than he who makes iron.
+
+This art appeared among us in the seventeenth century; was introduced by
+the family of Kettle. The name of Steelhouse-lane will convey to
+posterity the situation of the works, the commercial spirit of
+Birmingham, will convey the produce to the Antipodes.
+
+From this warm, but dismal climate, issues the button, which shines on
+the breast, and the bayonet, intended to pierce it; the lancet, which
+bleeds the man, and the rowel, the horse; the lock, which preserves the
+beloved bottle, and the screw, to uncork it; the needle, equally
+obedient to the thimble and the pole.
+
+
+
+NAILS.
+
+In most occupations, the profit of the master and the journeyman bear a
+proportion: if the former is able to figure in genteel life, the latter
+is able to figure in silk stockings. If the matter can afford to allow
+upon his goods ten per cent. discount for money, the servant can afford
+to squander half his wages. In a worn-down trade, where the tides of
+profit are reduced to a low ebb, and where imprudence sets her foot upon
+the premises, the matter and the man starve together. Only _half_ this
+is our present case.
+
+The art of nail-making is one of the most ancient among us; we may
+safely charge its antiquity with four figures.
+
+We cannot consider it a trade _in_, so much as _of_ Birmingham; for we
+have but few nail-makers left in the town: our nailers are chiefly
+masters, and rather opulent. The manufacturers are so scattered round
+the country, that we cannot travel far, in any direction, out of the
+sound of the nail-hammer. But Birmingham, like a powerful magnet, draws
+the produce of the anvil to herself.
+
+When I first approached her, from Walsall, in 1741, I was surprized at
+the prodigious number of blacksmiths shops upon the road; and could not
+conceive how a country, though populous, could support so many people of
+the same occupation. In some of these shops I observed one, or more
+females, stript of their upper garment, and not overcharged with their
+lower, wielding the hammer with all the grace of the sex. The beauties
+of their face were rather eclipsed by the smut of the anvil; or, in
+poetical phrase, the tincture of the forge had taken possession of those
+lips, which might have been taken by the kiss.
+
+Struck with the novelty, I inquired, "Whether the ladies in this country
+shod horses?" but was answered, with a smile, "They are nailers."
+
+A fire without heat, a nailer of a fair complexion, or one who despises
+the tankard, are equally rare among them. His whole system of faith may
+be comprised in one article--That the slender two-penny mug, used in a
+public house, _is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked_.
+
+While the master reaps the harvest of plenty, the workman submits to the
+scanty gleanings of penury, a thin habit, an early old age, and a
+figure bending towards the earth. Plenty comes not near his dwelling,
+except of rags, and of children. But few recruits arise from his
+nail-shop, except for the army. His hammer is worn into deep hollows,
+fitting the fingers of a dark and plump hand, hard as the timber it
+wears. His face, like the moon, is often seen through a cloud.
+
+
+
+BELLOWS.
+
+Man first catches the profession; the profession afterwards moulds the
+man.
+
+In whatever profession we engage, we assume its character, become a part
+of it, vindicate its honor, its eminence, its antiquity; or feel a wound
+through its sides.
+
+Though there may be no more pride in a minister of state, who opens a
+budget, than in a tinker who carries one, yet they equally contend for
+the honor of their trade.
+
+Every man, from the attorney's clerk to the butcher's apprentice, feels
+his own honor, with that of his profession, wounded by travelling on
+foot. To be caught on his feet, is nearly the same as to be caught in a
+crime. The man who has gathered up his limbs, and hung them on a horse,
+looks _down_ with dignity on him who has not; while the man on foot
+offers his humble bow, afraid to look up--If providence favours us with
+feet, is it a disgrace to use them?--I could instance a person who
+condescended to quit London, that center of trick, lace, and equipage;
+and in 1761, open a draper's shop in Birmingham: but his feet, or his
+_pride_, were so much hurt by walking, that he could scarcely travel ten
+doors from his own without a post-chaise--the result was, he became such
+an adept in riding, that in a few months, he rode triumphant into the
+Gazette. Being quickly scoured bright by the ill-judged laws of
+bankruptcy, he rode, for the last time, _out_ of Birmingham, where he
+had so often rode _in_: but his injured creditors were obliged to _walk_
+after the slender dividend of eighteen pence in the pound. The man who
+_can_ use his feet, is envied by him who _cannot_; and he, in turn,
+envies him who _will_ not. Our health and our feet, in a double sense,
+go together. The human body has been justly compared to a musical
+instrument; I add, this instrument was never perfectly in tune, without
+a due portion of exercise.
+
+The man of military character, puts on, with his scarlet, that martial
+air, which tells us, "he has formed a resolution to kill:" and we
+naturally ask, "Which sex?"
+
+Some "_pert and affected author_" with anxiety on his brow, will be apt
+to step forward, and say, "Will you celebrate the man of the sword, who
+transfers the blush of his face to his back, and neglect the man of the
+quill, who, like the pelican, portions out his vitals to feed others?
+Which is preferable, he who lights up the mental powers, or he who puts
+them out? the man who stores the head with knowledge, or he who stores
+it with a bullet?"
+
+The antiquarian supports his dignity with a solemn aspect; he treats a
+sin and a smile as synonimous; one half of which has been discarded from
+his childhood. If a smile in the house of religion, or of mourning, be
+absurd, is there any reason to expel it from those places where it is
+not? A tale will generally allow of two ingredients, _information_ and
+_amusement_: but the historian and the antiquarian have, from time
+immemorial, used but _one_. Every smile, except that of contempt, is
+beneficial to the constitution; they tend to promote long life, and
+pleasure while that life lasts. Much may be said in favour of tears of
+joy, but more on joy without tears. I wonder the lively fancy of Hogarth
+never sketched the _dull_ historian, in the figure of an ass, plodding
+to market under his panniers, laden with the fruits of antiquity, and
+old time driving up the _rear_, with his scythe converted into an
+hedge-stake.
+
+The bellows-maker proclaims the _honor_ of his art, by observing, he
+alone produces that instrument which commands the winds; his soft
+breeze, like that of the south, counter-acts the chill blasts of winter:
+by his efforts, like those of the sun, the world receives light: he
+creates when he pleases, and gives _breath_ when he creates. In his
+caverns the winds deep at pleasure; and by his _orders_ they set Europe
+in flames.
+
+He pretends, that a gentle puff in the eyes of a _reviewer_, from a pair
+of his bellows, would tend to clear the sight, and enable him to
+distinguish between a smile and a serious face: that his circular board,
+like a ferula, applied by the handle to an inferior part, would induce
+him to peruse the _whole treatise_, and not partially pronounce from
+the preface.
+
+He farther pretends, that the _antiquity_ of his occupation will appear
+from the plenty of elm, once in the neighbourhood, but long cut up for
+his use: that the leather-market in Birmingham, for many ages, furnished
+him with sides; and though the manufacture of iron is allowed to be
+extremely ancient, yet the smith could not procure his heat without a
+blast, nor could that blast be raised without the bellows.
+
+Two inferences arise from these remarks, that the antiquarian will frown
+on this little history; and that bellows-making is one of the oldest
+trades in Birmingham.
+
+
+
+THREAD.
+
+We, who reside in the interior parts of the kingdom, may observe the
+first traces of a river issue from its fountain; the current so
+extremely small, that if a bottle of liquor, distilled through the
+urinary vessels, was discharged into its course, it would manifestly
+augment the water, and quicken the stream: the reviving bottle, having
+added spirits to the man, seems to add spirits to the river.--If we
+pursue this river, winding through one hundred and thirty miles, we
+shall observe it collect strength as it runs, expand its borders, swell
+into consequence, employ multitudes of people, carry wealth in its
+bosom, and exactly resemble _thread-making_ in Birmingham.
+
+If we represent to our idea, a man able to employ three or four people,
+himself in an apron, one of the number; but being _unable_ to write his
+name, shows his attachment to the christian religion, by signing the
+_cross_ to receipts; whose method of book-keeping, like that of the
+publican, is _a door and a lump of chalk;_ producing a book which none
+can peruse but himself: who, having manufactured 40lb. weight of thread,
+of divers colours, and rammed it into a pair of leather bags, something
+larger than a pair of boots, which we might deem the arms of his trade
+_empaled_; flung them on a horse, and placed himself on the top, by way
+of a _crest_; visits an adjacent market, to starve with his goods at a
+stall, or retail them to the mercer, nor return without the money--we
+shall see a thread-maker of 1652.
+
+If we pursue this occupation, winding through the mazes of one hundred
+and thirty _years_, we shall see it enlarge its boundaries, multiply its
+people, increase its consequence and wealth, till 1782, when we behold
+the matter in possession of correct accounts, the apron thrown aside,
+the stall kicked over, the bags tossed into the garret, and the mercer
+overlooked in the grand prospect of exportation. We farther behold him
+take the lead in provincial concerns, step into his own carriage, and
+hold the king's commission as a magistrate.
+
+
+
+PRINTING,
+
+By JOHN BASKERVILLE.
+
+The pen of an historian rejoices in the actions of the great; the fame
+of the deserving, like an oak tree, is of sluggish growth; and, like the
+man himself, they are not matured in a day. The present generation
+becomes debtor to him who excels, but the future will discharge that
+debt with more than simple interest. The still voice of fame may warble
+in his ears towards the close of life, but her trumpet seldom sounds in
+full clarion, till those ears are stopped with the finger of death.
+
+This son of genius was born at Wolverley, in the county of Worcester, in
+1706; heir to a paternal estate of 60_l_. per annum, which, fifty years
+after, while in his own possession, had increased to 90_l_. He was
+trained to no occupation; but, in 1726, became a writing-matter in
+Birmingham.--In 1737, he taught school in the Bull-ring, and is said to
+have written an excellent hand.
+
+As painting suited his talents, he entered into the lucrative branch of
+japanning, and resided at No. 22, in Moor-street.
+
+He took, in 1745, a building lease of eight acres, two furlongs north
+west of the town, to which he gave the name of _Easy-hill_, converted it
+into a little Eden, and built a house in the center: but the town, as if
+conscious of his merit, followed his retreat, and surrounded it with
+buildings.--Here he continued the business of a japanner for life: his
+carriage, each pannel of which was a distinct picture, might be
+considered _the pattern-card of his trade_, and was drawn by a beautiful
+pair of cream-coloured horses.
+
+His inclination for letters induced him, in 1750, to turn his thoughts
+towards the press. He spent many years in the uncertain pursuit; sunk
+600_l_. before he could produce one letter to please himself, and some
+thousands before the shallow stream of profit began to flow.
+
+His first attempt, in 1756, was a quarto edition of Virgil, price one
+guinea, now worth several.--He afterwards printed Paradise Lost, the
+Bible, Common Prayer, Roman and English Classics, etc. in various sizes,
+with more satisfaction to the literary world than emolument to himself.
+
+In 1765, he applied to his friend, Dr. Franklin, then at Paris, and now
+Ambassador from America, to sound the literati, respecting the purchase
+of his types; but received for answer, "That the French, reduced by the
+war of 1756, were so far from pursuing schemes of taste, that they were
+unable to repair their public buildings, but suffered the scaffolding to
+rot before them."
+
+In private life he was a humorist; idle in the extreme; but his
+invention was of the true Birmingham model, active. He could well
+design, but procured others to execute; wherever he found merit he
+caressed it: he was remarkably polite to the stranger; fond of show: a
+figure rather of the smaller size, and delighted to adorn that figure
+with gold lace.--Although constructed with the light timbers of a
+frigate, his movement was solemn as a ship of the line.
+
+During the twenty-five years I knew him, though in the decline of life,
+he retained the singular traces of a handsome man. If he exhibited a
+peevish temper, we may consider good-nature and intense thinking are
+not always found together.
+
+Taste accompanied him through the different walks of agriculture,
+architecture, and the finer arts. Whatever passed through his fingers,
+bore the lively marks of John Baskerville.
+
+His aversion to christianity would not suffer him to lie among
+christians; he therefore erected a mausoleum in his own grounds for his
+remains, and died without issue, in 1775, at the age of 69.--Many
+efforts were used after his death, to dispose of the types; but, to the
+lading discredit of the British nation, no purchaser could be found in
+the whole commonwealth of letters. The universities coldly rejected the
+offer. The London booksellers understood no science like that of profit.
+The valuable property, therefore, lay a dead weight, till purchased by a
+literary society at Paris, in 1779, for 3700_l_.
+
+It is an old remark, that no country abounds with genius so much as this
+island; and it is a remark nearly as old, that genius is no where so
+little rewarded; how else came Dryden, Goldsmith, and Chatterton to want
+bread? Is merit, like a flower of the field, too common to attract
+notice? or is the use of money beneath the care of exalted talents?
+
+Invention seldom pays the inventor. If you ask, what fortune Baskerville
+ought to have been rewarded with? "The _most_ which can be comprised in
+five figures." If you farther ask, what he possessed? "The _least_;" but
+none of it squeezed from the press. What will the shade of this great
+man think, if capable of thinking, that he has spent a fortune of
+opulence, and a life of genius, in carrying to perfection the greatest
+of all human inventions; and his productions, slighted by his country,
+were hawked over Europe, in quest of a bidder?
+
+We must _revere_, if we do not _imitate_, the taste and economy of the
+French nation, who, brought by the British arms, in 1762, to the verge
+of ruin, rising above distress, were able, in 17 years, to purchase
+Baskerville's elegant types, refused by his own country, and expend an
+hundred thousand pounds in printing the works of Voltaire!
+
+
+
+BRASS FOUNDRY.
+
+The curious art before us is perhaps less ancient than profitable, and
+less healthful than either. I shall not enquire whose grandfather was
+the first brass-founder here, but shall leave their grandsons to settle
+that important point with my successor who shall next write the History
+of Birmingham. Whoever was the first, I believe he figured in the reign
+of King William; but, though he sold his productions at an excessive
+price, he did not, like the moderns, possess the art of acquiring a
+fortune: but now the master knows the way to affluence, and the servant
+to liquor.
+
+To enumerate the great variety of occupations amongst us, would be as
+useless, and as unentertaining to the reader, perhaps to the writer, as
+to count the pebbles in the street.
+
+Having therefore visited a few, by way of specimen, I shall desist from
+farther pursuit, and wheel off in a
+
+
+
+HACKNEY COACH.
+
+Wherever the view of profit opens, the eyes of a Birmingham man are open
+to see it.
+
+In 1775, a person was determined to try if a Hackney Coach would take
+with the inhabitants. He had not mounted the box many times before he
+inadvertently dropped the expression, "Thirty shillings a day!" The word
+was attended with all the powers of magic, for instantly a second rolled
+into the circus.
+
+And these elevated sons of the lash are now augmented to fifteen, whom
+we may justly denominate a club of tippling deities, who preside over
+weddings, christenings, and pleasurable excursions.
+
+It would give satisfaction to the curious calculator, could any mode be
+found of discovering the returns of trade, made by the united
+inhabitants. But the question is complicated. It only admits of surmise.
+From comparing many instances in various ranks of life among us, I have
+been led to suppose, that the weekly returns exceed the annual rent of
+the buildings. And as these rents are nearly ascertained, perhaps, we
+may conclude, that those returns are about 80,000. If we deduct for four
+weeks holidays, the annual returns will be--3,840,000_l_.
+
+Now we have entered the visionary regions of fancy, let us pursue the
+thought a stage farther; and consider Birmingham as one great family,
+possessed of a capital of Eight Millions. Her annual returns in trade as
+above, from which we will deduct for the purchase of
+
+     Raw materials  -   -   -   -   -   -   -    1,920,000
+     House rent, repairs and taxes  -   -   -      100,000
+     Losses in trade    -   -   -   -   -   -       50,000
+     Maintenance, clothing, and pleasurable
+       expences, for 50,000 people, at 10_s_.
+       per week     -   -   -   -   -   -   -    1,300,000
+                                                 ---------
+                                                 3,370,000
+                                                 ---------
+     Annual addition to the capital -   -   -      470,000
+
+Should a future antagonist arise, and attack me in numbers, I promise
+beforehand to relinquish the field; for I profess only, to stand upon
+ideal ground.
+
+
+
+BANK.
+
+Perhaps a public bank is as necessary to the health of the commercial
+body, as exercise to the natural. The circulation of the blood and
+spirits are promoted by one, so are cash and bills by the other; and a
+stagnation is equally detrimental to both. Few places are without: Yet
+Birmingham, famous in the annals of traffic, could boast no such claim.
+To remedy this defect therefore, about every tenth trader was a banker,
+or, a retailer of cash. At the head of whom were marshalled the whole
+train of drapers and grocers, till the year 1765, when a regular bank
+was established by Messrs. Taylor and Lloyd, two opulent tradesmen,
+whose credit being equal to that of the bank of England, quickly
+collected the shining rays of sterling property into its focus.
+
+
+
+GOVERNMENT.
+
+Have you, my dear reader, seen a sword hilt, of curious, and of
+Birmingham manufactory, covered with spangles of various sizes, every
+one of which carries a separate lustre, but, when united, has a dazzling
+effect? Or, have you seen a ring, from the same origin, set with
+diamonds of many dimensions, the least of which, sparkles with amazing
+beauty, but, when beheld in cluster, surprize the beholder? Or, have
+you, in a frosty evening, seen the heavens bespangled with refulgent
+splendor, each stud shining with intrinsic excellence, but, viewed in
+the aggregate, reflect honour upon the maker, and enliven the
+hemisphere? Such is the British government. Such is that excellent
+system of polity, which shines, the envy of the stranger, and the
+protector of the native.
+
+Every city, town and village in the English hemisphere, hath a separate
+jurisdiction of its own, and may justly be deemed _a stud in the
+grand lustre_.
+
+Though the British Constitution is as far from perfection, as the glory
+of the ring and the hilt is from that of the sun which causes it, or the
+stars from the day; yet perhaps it stands higher in the scale of
+excellence, than that of its neighbours. We may, with propriety, allow
+that body to shine with splendor, which hath been polishing for
+seventeen hundred years. Much honour is due to the patriotic merit
+which advanced it to its present eminence.
+
+Though Birmingham is but one sparkle of the brilliant clustre, yet she
+is a sparkle of the first _water_, and of the first _magnitude_.
+
+The more perfect any system of government, the happier the people. A
+wise government will punish for the commission of crimes, but a wiser
+will endeavour to prevent them. Man is an active animal: If he is not
+employed in some useful pursuit, he will employ himself in mischief.
+Example is also prevalent: If one man falls into error, he often draws
+another. Though heaven, for wise purposes, suffers a people to fulfil
+the measure of their iniquities, a prudent state will nip them in
+the bud.
+
+It is easy to point out some places, only one third the magnitude of
+Birmingham, whose frequent breaches of the law, and quarrels among
+themselves, find employment for half a dozen magistrates, and four times
+that number of constables; whilst the business of this, was for many
+years conducted by a single Justice, the late John Wyrley, Esq. If the
+reader should think I am mistaken and object, that parish affairs cannot
+be conducted without a second? Let me reply, He conducted that
+second also.
+
+As human nature is nearly the same, whether in or out of Birmingham; and
+as enormities seem more prevalent out than in, we may reasonably ascribe
+the cause to the extraordinary industry of the inhabitants, not allowing
+time to brood over, and bring forth mischief, equal to places of
+inferior diligence.
+
+We have at present two acting magistrates to hold the beam of justice,
+the Rev. Benjamin Spencer, and Joseph Carles, Esq; who both reside at
+a distance.
+
+Many of our corporate towns received their charters from that amiable,
+but unfortunate prince, Henry the Second. These were the first dawnings
+of British liberty, after fixing the Norman yoke. They were afterwards
+ratified and improved by the subsequent Kings of England; granting not
+only the manors, but many exclusive privileges. But at this day, those
+places which were so remarkably favoured with the smiles of royalty, are
+not quite so free as those that were not. The prosperity of this happy
+place proves the assertion, of which every man is free the moment
+he enters.
+
+We often behold a pompous corporation, which sounds well in history,
+over something like a dirty village--This is a head without a body. The
+very reverse is our case--We are a body without a head. For though
+Birmingham has undergone an amazing alteration in extension, riches and
+population, yet the government is nearly the same as the Saxons left it.
+This part of my important history therefore must suffer an eclipse: This
+illustrious chapter, that rose in dazling brightness, must be veiled in
+the thick clouds of obscurity: I shall figure with my corporation in a
+despicable light. I am not able to bring upon the stage, a mayor and a
+group of aldermen, dressed in antique scarlet, bordered with fur,
+drawing a train of attendants; the meanest of which, even the pinder, is
+badged with silver: Nor treat my guest with a band of music, in scarlet
+cloaks with broad laces. I can grace the hand of my Birmingham fidler
+with only a rusty instrument, and his back with barely a whole coat;
+neither have I a mace for the inaugeration of the chief magistrate. The
+reader, therefore, must either quit the place, or be satisfied with such
+entertainment as the company affords.
+
+The officers, who are annually chosen, to direct in this prosperous feat
+of fortune, are
+
+     An High Bailiff.   Two High Tasters.
+     Low Bailiff.       Two Low Tasters.
+     Two Constables.    Two Asseirers. And
+     Headborough.       Two Leather Sealers.
+
+All which, the constables excepted, are no more than servants to the
+lord of the manor; and whose duty extends no farther, than to the
+preservation of the manorial rights.
+
+The high bailiff is to inspect the market, and see that justice takes
+place between buyer and seller; to rectify the weights and dry measures
+used in the manor.
+
+The low bailiff summons a jury, who choose all the other officers, and
+generally with prudence. But the most important part of his office is,
+to treat his friends at the expence of about Seventy Pounds.
+
+The headborough is only an assistant to the constables, chiefly in time
+of absence.
+
+High tasters examine the goodness of beer, and its measure.
+
+Low tasters inspect the meat exposed to sale, and cause that to be
+destroyed which is unfit for use.
+
+Asseirers ratify the chief rent and amercements, between the lord and
+the inhabitant. And the
+
+Leather sealers, stamped a public seal upon the hides, when Birmingham
+was a market for leather.
+
+These manorial servants, instituted by ancient charter, chiefly possess
+a name, without an office. Thus order seems assisted by industry, and
+thus a numerous body of inhabitants are governed without a governor.
+
+Exclusive of the choice of officers, the jury impannelled by the low
+bailiff, have the presentation of all encroachments upon the lord's
+waste, which has long been neglected.
+
+The duties of office are little known, except that of taking a generous
+dinner, which is punctually observed. It is too early to begin business
+till the table is well stored with bottles, and too late afterwards.
+
+During the existence of the house of Birmingham, the court-leet was held
+at the Moat, in what we should now think a large and shabby room,
+conducted under the eye of the low bailiff, at the expence of the lord.
+
+The jury, twice a year, were witnesses, that the famous dish of roast
+beef, ancient as the family who gave it, demanded the head of the table.
+The court was afterwards held at the Leather-hall, and the expence,
+which was trifling, borne by the bailiff. Time, prosperity, and
+emulation, are able to effect considerable changes. The jury, in the
+beginning of the present century, were impannelled in the Old Cross,
+then newly erected, from whence they adjourned to the house of the
+bailiff, and were feasted at the growing charge of _two or
+three pounds_.
+
+This practice continued till about the year 1735, when the company,
+grown too bulky for a private house, assembled at a tavern, and the
+bailiff enjoyed the singular privilege of consuming ten pounds upon
+his guests.
+
+It is easier to advance in expences than to retreat. In 1760, they had
+increased to forty pounds, and in the next edition of this work, we may
+expect to see the word _hundred_.
+
+The lord was anciently founder of the feast, and treated his bailiff;
+but now that custom is inverted, and the bailiff treats his lord.
+
+The proclamation of our two fairs, is performed by the high bailiff, in
+the name of the Lord of the Manor; this was done a century ago, without
+the least expence. The strength of his liquor, a silver tankard, and the
+pride of shewing it, perhaps induced him, in process of time, to treat
+his attendants.
+
+His ale, without a miracle, was, in a few years, converted into wine,
+and that of various sorts; to which was added, a small collation; and
+now his friends are complimented with a card, to meet him at the Hotel,
+where he incurs an expence of twenty pounds.
+
+While the spirit of the people refines by intercourse, industry, and the
+singular jurisdiction among us, this insignificant pimple, on our head
+of government, swells into a wen.
+
+Habits approved are soon acquired: a third entertainment has, of late
+years, sprung up, termed _the constables feast_, with this difference,
+_it is charged to the public_. We may consider it a wart on the
+political body, which merits the caustic.
+
+Deritend, being a hamlet of Birmingham, sends her inhabitants to the
+court-leet, where they perform suit and service, and where her constable
+is chosen by the same jury.
+
+I shall here exhibit a defective list of our principal officers during
+the last century. If it should be objected, that a petty constable is
+too insignificant, being the lowest officer of the crown, for admission
+into history; I answer, by whatever appellation an officer is accepted,
+he cannot be insignificant who stands at the head of 50,000 people.
+Perhaps, therefore, the office of constable may be sought for in
+future, and the officer himself assume a superior consequence.
+
+The dates are the years in which they were chosen, fixed by charter,
+within thirty days after Michaelmas.
+
+
+
+CONSTABLES.
+
+1680   John Simco          John Cottrill
+1681   John Wallaxall      William Guest
+1682   George Abel         Samuel White
+1683   Thomas Russell      Abraham Spooner
+1684   Roger Macham        William Wheely
+1685   Thomas Cox          John Green
+1686   Henry Porter        Samuel Carless
+1687   Samuel Banner       John Jesson
+1690   Joseph Robinson     John Birch
+1691   John Rogers         Richard Leather
+1692   Thomas Robins       Corbet Bushell
+1693   Joseph Rann         William Sarjeant
+1694   Rowland Hall        John Bryerly
+1695   Richard Scott       George Wells
+1696   Joseph Haddock      Robert Mansell
+1697   James Greir         John Foster
+1698   John Baker          Henry Camden
+1699   William Kettle      Thomas Gisborn
+1700   John Wilson         Joseph Allen
+1701   Nicholas Bakewell   Richard Banner
+1702   William Collins     Robert Groves
+1703   Henry Parrot        Benjamin Carless
+1704   William Brierly     John Hunt
+1705   Jonathan Seeley     Thomas Holloway
+1706   Robert Moore        John Savage
+1707   Isaac Spooner       Samuel Hervey
+1708   Richard Weston      Thomas Cope
+1709   Samuel Walford      Thomas Green
+1710   John Foxall         William Norton
+1711   Stephen Newton      John Taylor
+1712   William Russel      John Cotterell
+1713   John Shaw           Thomas Hallford
+1714   Randall Bradburn    Joseph May
+1715   Stephen Newton      Samuel Russell
+1716   Stephen Newton      Joseph Carless
+1717   Abraham Foxall      William Spilsbury
+1718   John Gisborn        Henry Carver
+1719   Samuel Hays         Joseph Smith
+1720   John Barnsley       John Humphrys
+1721   William Bennett     Thomas Wilson
+1722   John Harrison       Simon Harris
+
+
+
+A LIST
+
+OF THE
+
+HIGH BAILIFFS, LOW BAILIFFS, AND CONSTABLES,
+
+Of the TOWN of BIRMINGHAM, from 1732, to 1782.
+
+     HIGH BAILIFFS.      LOW BAILIFFS.          CONSTABLES.
+
+1732  Thomas Wilson    John Webster      Joseph Bradnock    John Wilson
+1733  John Webster     Joseph Kettle     Thomas Nickin      James Baker
+1734  John Wickins     Thomas Lakin   [2]Joseph Scott, esq; James Taylor
+1735  Joseph Marston   John Russell      John Webster       Thomas Ashfield
+1736  Joseph Bradnock  Robert Moore      Thomas Wickins     Joseph Fullelove
+1737  James Baker      Isaac Ingram      John Kettle        Richard Porter
+1738  Joseph Smith     William Mason     William Hunt       Henry Hun
+1739  Thomas Wickens   William Harvey    Edward Burton      John England
+1740  Simon Harris     Thomas Russel     Joseph Richards    T. Honeyborn
+1741  Daniel Gill      George Abney      Thomas Turner      John Bedford
+1742
+1743  Josiah Jefferys  William Kettle    John Russel        Thomas
+1744  George Davies    J. Humphrys, Jr.  William Mason      William Ward
+1745  Edward Burton    Robert Moore      Joseph Wollaston   John Turner
+1746
+1747  Thomas Ashwell   J. Taylor, esq;   Joseph Walker      Josiah Hunt
+1748  Thomas Wickens   John Roe          Robert Moore       John Horton
+1749  Joseph Fullelove Richard Brett     Henry Hunt         Joseph Ruston
+1750  Thomas Lakin     Joseph Smith      John Gill          Luke Bell
+1751  Thomas Turner    Benj. Mansell     John Walters       W. Walsingham
+1752  James Baker      John Taylor       Price Thomas       Joseph Thomas
+1753  E. Jordan, esq;  Samuel Harvey     Samuel Birch       Samuel Richards
+1754  Thomas Cottrell  Joseph Richards   John Bellears      John Camden
+1755  Joseph Walker    John Wells[3]     Stephen Colmore    John Powell
+1756  John Bellears    J. Kettle, esq;   Ambrose Foxall     John Gray
+1757  William Patteson Joseph Webster    J. Darbyshire      Richard Brett
+1758  James Horton     T. Lawrence       Thomas Richards    Sam. Pemberton
+1759  John Walker      Thomas Abney      G. Spilsbury       Edward Weston
+1760  John Turner      Abel Humphrys     Richard Dingley    Web Marriott
+1761  John Baskerville Stephen Bedford   Michael Lakin      Nehemiah Bague
+1762  Joseph Thomas    James Jackson     George Birch       John Green
+1763  John Gold        John Lee          William Parks      John Daws
+1764  Richard Hicks    J. Ryland         S. Bradburn, esq;  Geo. Anderton
+1765  Thomas Vallant   Sam. Richards     Ed. H. Noble       Elias Wallin
+1766  John Lane        Henry Venour      John Lane          Joseph Adams
+1767  John Horn        Jo. Wilkinson     Richard Rabone     Thomas Care
+1768  Gregory Hicks    W. Russell, esq;  Thomas Bingham     John Moody
+1769  James Male       Samuel Ray        Thomas Gisborne    William Mansell
+1770  Joshua Glover    Thomas Russell    T. Lutwyche        Thomas Barker
+1771  John Harris      J. Hornblower     Thomas Cooper      Walter Salt
+1772  William Holden   Jos. Tyndall      R. Anderton        T. Hunt
+1773  Thomas Westley   John Richards     Ob. Bellamy        John Smart
+1774  John Ward        John Francis      W. Hodgkins        Thomas Wight
+1775  Thomas Hurd      John Taylor, esq; John Startin       T. Everton
+1776  E.W. Patteson    Josiah Rogers     Thomas Corden      Joseph Wright
+1777  Ed. Thomason     S. Pemberton      Joseph Jukes       Joseph Sheldon
+1778  Joseph Green     William Hunt      Thomas Wright      John Allen[4]
+1779  T. Faulconbridge W. Humphrys       John Guest         Jonathan Wigley
+1780  Daniel Winwood   William Scott     William Thomas     John Bird
+1781  William Hicks    W. Taylor, esq;   John Dallaway      Richard Porter
+1782  Thomas Carless   G. Humphrys       John Holmes        Thomas Barrs
+
+[Footnote 2: Joseph Scott, Esq; not choosing the official part, procured
+a substitute to perform it, in the person of the late Constable
+James Baker.]
+
+[Footnote 3: in office, Benjamin Mansell was chosen in his stead.]
+
+[Footnote 4: was charged with a fine of 25_l_. by the lady of the manor,
+and John Miles chosen in his stead.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Three of the Inhabitants have, since I knew the place, served the Office
+of SHERIFF for the County, viz.
+
+     John Taylor, Esquire, in - - - - 1756.
+     Edward Jordan, Esquire, in - - - 1757.
+     And Isaac Spooner, Esquire, in - 1763.
+
+
+
+COURT OF REQUESTS.
+
+Law is the very basis of civil society, without it man would quickly
+return to his original rudeness; the result would be, robbery and
+blood:--and even laws themselves are of little moment, without a due
+execution of them--there is a necessity to annex punishment.
+
+But there is no necessity to punish the living, who are innocent, by
+hanging the dead bodies of criminals in the air. This indecent and
+inhuman custom, which originated from the days of barbarism, reflects an
+indelible disgrace upon a civilized age. The intention, no doubt, was
+laudable; to prevent the commission of crimes, but does it answer that
+intention?
+
+In 1759, two brothers, of the name of Darby, were hung in chains near
+Hales-Owen, since which time there has been only one murder committed in
+the whole neighbourhood, and that under the very gibbet upon which
+they hung[5].
+
+[Footnote 5: Joseph Skidmore, a carrier of Stourbridge, having Ann
+Mansfield, a young woman of Birmingham, under his care, ravished and
+murdered her in the evening of December 10, 1774.]
+
+Justice, however, points out a way wherein the dead body, by conveying
+chirurgical knowledge, may be serviceable to the living.
+
+Laws generally tend, either directly, or remotely, to the protection of
+property.
+
+All wise legislators have endeavoured to proportion the punishment to
+the crime, but never to exceed it: a well conducted state holds forth a
+scale of punishments for transgressions of every dimension, beginning
+with the simple reprimand, and proceeding downwards even to
+death itself.
+
+It will be granted, that the line of equity ought to be drawn with
+critical exactness.
+
+If by fair trade, persuasion, or finesse, I get the property of another
+into my hands, even to the trifling value of a shilling, my effects
+ought to be responsible for that sum.
+
+If I possess no effects, he certainly retains a right of punishing to
+that amount: for if we do not lay this line in the boundaries of strict
+justice, it will not lie upon any other ground. And if I am allowed
+fraud in one shilling, I am allowed it in a greater sum. How far
+punishment may be softened by concurring circumstances, is
+another question.
+
+It therefore follows of course, that if my creditor has a right to
+recover his unfortunate property, those laws are the nearest to
+perfection, that will enable him to recover it with the most expedition,
+and the least expence and trouble to us both.
+
+If the charge of recovery is likely to exceed the debt, he will be apt
+to desist, I to laugh at him, and to try my skill at a second
+enterprize.
+
+Trade and credit cannot be well separated; they are as closely connected
+as the wax and the paper. The laws of credit, therefore, ought to rest
+upon a permanent foundation: neither is law necessary to restrain
+credit; for if, in a commercial state, it becomes detrimental by its
+over growth, it finds itself a remedy.
+
+Much has been said, and perhaps more than has been thought, concerning
+the court before us. The loser is expected to complain, and his friends
+to give him a partial hearing; and though he breathes _vengeance_
+against his antagonist, it ends in a _breath_.
+
+The looker-on can easily spy an error in the actor. If a fault is
+committed, we are glad it was done by another; besides, it is no new
+thing for the _outs_ to complain of the _ins_. It will plead strongly in
+excuse, to say, the intention was right, if the judgment was wrong. If
+perfection is required, she does not reside upon earth.
+
+But if these pleadings are not found a balance against prejudice, and a
+man suffers his wrath to kindle against a valuable institution, because
+perfection does not preside over it, let him peruse an old author, who
+asks, "What shall we think of the folly of that man, who throws away the
+apple, because it contains a core? despises the nut, for the shell? or
+casts the diamond into the sea, because it has a flaw?"
+
+Decision is usually established upon oath, both in criminal courts, and
+in those at Westminster, through which the oath is seen to pass with
+free currency.
+
+A judge is sometimes fond of sheltering himself behind an oath; it may
+be had at an easy rate. Each of the contending parties wishes to win his
+cause by an oath: but though oaths would be willingly taken, they ought
+to be sparingly given.--They may be considered what they generally are
+not, _of the last importance_.
+
+We may observe, that two opponents are ready to swear directly contrary
+to each other; that if a man asserts a thing, he can do no less than
+swear it; and that, after all, an oath proves nothing.
+
+The commissioners, therefore, wish rather to establish _fact_ upon
+_proof_; but, if this is wanting, then upon circumstantial evidence; and
+if this support fails, they chuse to finish a quarrel by a moderate,
+though a random judgment.
+
+Much honor is due to that judicial luminary, William Murray, Earl of
+Mansfield, who presides over the King's-Bench, for introducing equity
+into the courts of law, where she had long been a stranger.
+
+The Court of Requests may justly be charged with weakness, and what
+court may not? It is inseparable from man.
+
+A person cannot chuse his capacity, but he may chuse to be a rogue; one
+is an act of nature, the other of the will. The greater the temptation
+to go astray, the greater must be the resolution to conquer it.
+
+One of the suitors presented a commissioner with a couple of chickens,
+as a powerful argument to strengthen a feeble case; but the commissioner
+returned his present, and the plaintiff lost his cause; and no wonder,
+he sent a chicken to plead it.
+
+The defendant, by disobeying the orders of the court, falls under the
+power of the plaintiff, who can cause execution to issue against his
+goods, and reimburse himself; or, against his body, and confine him
+forty days, unless paid his demand.
+
+There is no cause that can be brought before the Court of Requests, but
+may be brought before a higher court, and at a higher expence.
+
+A cause passes through this court for seventeen-pence; and cannot well,
+by chicanery or neglect, amount to more than two shillings and
+nine-pence: So that ruin is not one of its imperfections.
+
+Though law is said to produce quarrels among friends, yet the contending
+parties often go out of that court better friends than when they
+came in.
+
+It has been objected, that the publicans give credit to the lower class,
+in expectation of relief from the court. But the debtor is equally
+apprized of the remedy, and often drinks deeper, in expectation of a
+mild sentence from the commissioners; besides, is not all credit founded
+on the laws of recovery?
+
+It has also been urged, that while punishment pursues the debtor, for
+neglect of orders, his family falls upon the community.
+
+But the community would not wish to put a bar between a man and his
+property--The precedent would be dangerous: Justice is no respector of
+persons. A culprit will soon procure a family, if they are able to plead
+his excuse: It would follow, that single men only would be obliged to be
+honest. She does not save the criminal, because he is an handsome man.
+If she did, beauty would increase in value; but honesty, seldom be its
+companion.
+
+But can accusation lie against a fair tribunal of rectitude? The man
+does not exist that can quarrel with equity, and treat her as the
+offspring of fraud---The most amiable character in the creation, and the
+immediate representative of supreme excellence. She will be revered,
+even by the sons of plunder!
+
+Many of the causes that pass this court, are of a disputable nature, and
+if not terminated there, would take a different turn.
+
+From distant views of relief here, even sickness herself finds credit in
+the day of distress.
+
+The use of the court is also favourable to trade, for, to oblige a man
+to pay his debts, is to oblige him to labour, which improves the
+manufactures.
+
+Birmingham, in no period of her existence, has increased with such
+rapidity, in people, buildings and commerce, as since the erection of
+that court; so that depopulation is not one of its inconveniencies.
+
+From a consideration of the prodigious intercourse subsisting in so vast
+a body of people, and the credit consequent thereon, it was wisely
+judged necessary to establish an easy, and expeditious method of ending
+dispute, and securing property.
+
+The inhabitants of Birmingham, therefore, in 1752, procured an act for
+the recovery of debts under Forty Shillings; constituting seventy-two
+commissioners, three to be a quorum. They sit for the dispatch of
+business in the chamber over the Old Cross every Friday morning, and
+there usually appear before them between eighty and one hundred causes:
+Their determinations are final. Two clerks also, constituted by the act,
+attend the court to give judicial assistance; are always of the law,
+chosen alternately by the lord of the manor, and the commissioners, and
+to continue for life. Once in every two years, ten of the commissioners
+are ballotted out, and ten others of the inhabitants chosen in
+their stead.
+
+
+
+LAMP ACT.
+
+Order, is preserved by industry. In 1769 an act was obtained, and in
+1773 an amendment of the act, for lighting and cleaning the streets of
+Birmingham, and for removing obstructions that were prejudicial to the
+health or convenience of the inhabitants.
+
+These acts were committed to the care of about seventy-six irresolute
+commissioners, with farther powers of preventing encroachments upon
+public ground; for it was justly observed, that robbery was a work of
+darkness, therefore to introduce light would, in some measure, protect
+property. That in a town like Birmingham, full of commerce and
+inhabitants, where necessity leads to continual action, no part of the
+twenty four hours ought to be dark. That, to avoid darkness, is
+sometimes to avoid insult; and that by the light of 700 lamps, many
+unfortunate accidents would be prevented.
+
+It was also observed, that in a course of time, the buildings in some of
+the ancient streets had encroached upon the path, four or five feet on
+each side; which caused an irregular line, and made those streets eight
+or ten feet narrower, that are now used by 50,000 people, than they
+were, when used only by a tenth part of that number; and, that their
+confined width rendered the passage dangerous to children, women, and
+feeble age, particularly on the market day and Saturday evening.
+
+That if former encroachments could not be recovered, future ought to be
+prevented.
+
+And farther, that necessity pleads for a wider street now, than
+heretofore, not only because the inhabitants, being more numerous,
+require more room, but the buildings being more elevated, obstruct the
+light, the sun, and the air, which obstructions tend to sickness and
+inconveniency.
+
+Narrow streets with modern buildings are generally dirty, for want of
+these natural helps; as Digbeth, St. Martin's-lane, Swan-alley,
+Carr's-lane, &c. The narrower the street, the less it can be influenced
+by the sun and the wind, consequently, the more the dirt will abound;
+and by experimental observations upon stagnate water in the street, it
+is found extremely prejudicial to health. And also, the larger the
+number of people, the more necessity to watch over their interest with a
+guardian eye.
+
+It may farther be remarked, that an act of parliament ought to
+distribute justice with an impartial hand, in which case, content and
+obedience may reasonably be expected. But the acts before us carry a
+manifest partiality, one man claims a right to an encroachment into the
+street, of three or four feet, whilst another is restricted to
+twelve inches.
+
+This inactive body of seventy-six, who wisely argue against the
+annihilation of one evil, because another will remain; had also powers
+to borrow a thousand pounds, to purchase and remove some obstructive
+buildings; and to defray the expence by a rate on the inhabitants,
+which, after deducting about one hundred and twenty pounds per ann. for
+deficiencies, amounted in
+
+     1774, to   912_l_.
+     1775, --   902_l_.
+     1776, --   947_l_.
+     1777, --   965_l_.
+     1778, -- 1,012_l_.
+     1779, -- 1,022_l_.
+     1780, -- 1,021_l_.
+
+Though the town was averse to the measure, as an innovation, they
+quickly saw its utility, and seemed to wish a more vigorous exertion of
+the commissioners; but numbers sometimes procrastinate design. If it is
+difficult to find five men of one mind, it is more difficult to find a
+superior number. That business which would run currently through the
+hands of five, stagnates at fifteen, the number required.
+
+It is curious to observe a body of commissioners, every one of whom
+conducts his own private affairs with propriety and success, attack a
+question by the hour, which is as plain as the simplest proposition in
+the mathematicks, when not being able to reduce it, and their
+ammunition spent, leave the matter undetermined, and retreat in silence.
+
+In works of manual operation a large number may be necessary, but in
+works of direction a small one facilitates dispatch.
+
+Birmingham, a capacious field, by long neglect is over-grown with
+encroaching weeds. The gentle commissioners, appointed to reduce them,
+behold it an arduous work, are divided in opinion, and some withdraw the
+hand from the plough; certainly, _the harvest is great, and the
+labourers are few_. The manorial powers, which alone could preserve
+order, have slept for ages. Regularity has been long extinct. The desire
+of trespass is so prevalent, that I have been tempted to question; if it
+were not for the powers of the lamp act, feeble as they are, whether the
+many-headed-public, ever watchful of prey, would not in another century,
+devour whole streets, and totally prevent the passenger. Thus a supine
+jurisdiction abounds with _street-robbers_.
+
+There are cases where the line of the street should inviolably be
+preserved, as in a common range of houses; therefore all projections
+above a given dimension infringe this rule.
+
+There are other cases where taste would direct this line to be broken,
+as in buildings of singular size and construction, which should be
+viewed in recess. Those of a public nature generally come under this
+description, as the free-school, and the hotel, which ought to have
+fallen two or three yards back. What pity, that so noble an edifice as
+the theatre in New-street, should lose any of its beauty, by the
+prominence of its situation!
+
+As Birmingham abounds with new streets, that were once private property,
+it is a question often discussed, In what point of time the land
+appropriated for such streets, ceases to be private? But as this
+question was never determined, and as it naturally rises before me, and
+is of importance, suffer me to examine it.
+
+When building leases are granted, if the road be narrow, as was lately
+the case at the West end of New-street, the proprietor engages to give a
+certain portion of land to widen it. From that moment, therefore, it
+falls to the lot of the public, and is under the controul of the
+commissioners, as guardians of public property. I allow, if within
+memory, the grantor and the lessees should agree to cancel the leases,
+which is just as likely to happen as the powers of attraction to cease,
+and the moon to descend from the heavens; in this case, the land reverts
+again to its original proprietor.
+
+Though the streets of Birmingham have for many ages been exposed to the
+hand of the encroacher, yet, by a little care, and less expence, they
+might in about one century be reduced to a considerable degree of use
+and beauty. In what light then shall we be viewed by the future eye, if
+we neglect the interest of posterity?
+
+
+
+RELIGION AND POLITICS.
+
+Although these two threads, like the warp and the woof, are very
+distinct things; yet, like them, they are usually woven together. Each
+possesses a strength of its own, but when united, have often become
+extremely powerful, as in the case of Henry the Third and the clergy.
+This union, at times, subsisted from a very early date.
+
+Power is the idol of man; we not only wish to acquire it, but also to
+increase and preserve it. If the magistrate has been too weak to execute
+his designs, he has backed his schemes with the aid of the church; this
+occurred with King Stephen and the Bishops.
+
+Likewise, if a churchman finds his power ascendant in the human mind, he
+still wishes an addition to that power, by uniting another. Thus the
+Bishop of Rome, being master of the spiritual chair, stept also into
+the temporal.
+
+Sometimes the ecclesiastical and civil governors appear in malign
+aspect, or in modern phrase, like a quarrel between the squire and the
+rector, which is seldom detrimental to the people. This was the case
+with Henry the Eighth and the church.
+
+The curses of a priest hath sometimes brought a people into obedience to
+the King, when he was not able to bring them himself. One could not
+refrain from smiling, to hear a Bishop curse the people for obeying
+their Sovereign, and in a few months after, curse them again if they did
+not; which happened in the reign of King John. But, happy for the world,
+that these retail dealers in the wrath of heaven are become extinct, and
+the market is over.
+
+Birmingham, in those remote periods of time, does not seem to have
+attended so much to religious and political dispute, as to the course
+music of her hammer. Peace seems to have been her characteristic--She
+paid obedience to that Prince had the good fortune to possess the
+throne, and regularly paid divine honours in St. Martin's, because
+there was no other church. Thus, through the long ages of Saxon, Danish,
+and Norman government, we hear of no noise but that of the anvil, till
+the reign of Henry the Third, when her Lord joined the Barons against
+the Crown, and drew after him some of his mechanics, to exercise the
+very arms they had been taught to make; and where, at the battle of
+Evesham, he staked his life and his fortune, and lost both.
+
+Things quickly returning into their former channel, she stood a silent
+spectator during that dreadful contest between the two roses, pursuing
+the tenor of still life till the civil wars of Charles I. when she took
+part with the Parliament, some of whose troops were stationed here,
+particularly at the Garrison and Camp-hill; the names of both
+originating in that circumstance.
+
+Prince Rupert, as hinted before, approaching Birmingham in 1643 with a
+superior power, forced the lines, and as a punishment set fire to the
+town. His vengeance burned fiercely in Bull-street, and the affrighted
+inhabitants quenched the flames with a heavy fine.
+
+In 1660, she joined the wish of the kingdom, in the restoration of the
+Stuart family. About this time, many of the curious manufactures began
+to blossom in this prosperous garden of the arts.
+
+In 1688, when the nation chose to expel a race of Kings, though replete
+with good nature, because they had forgot the limits of justice; our
+peaceable sons of art, wisely considering, that oppression and commerce,
+like oil and water, could never unite, smiled with the rest of the
+kingdom at the landing of the Prince of Orange, and exerted their little
+assistance towards effecting the Revolution, notwithstanding the lessons
+of _divine right_ had been taught near ninety years.
+
+In the reign of Queen Anne, when that flaming luminary, Dr. Sacheverel,
+set half the kingdom in blaze, the inhabitants of this region of
+industry caught the spark of the day, and grew warm for the church--They
+had always been inured to _fire_, but now we behold them between _two_.
+
+As the doctor rode in triumph through the streets of Birmingham, this
+flimsy idol of party snuffed up the incense of the populace, but the
+more sensible with held their homage; and when he preached at Sutton
+Coldfield, where he had family connections, the people of Birmingham
+crowded in multitudes round his pulpit. But it does not appear that he
+taught his hearers to _build up Zion_, but perhaps to pull her down;
+for they immediately went and gutted a meeting-house.
+
+It is easy to point out a time when it was dangerous to have been of the
+established church, and I have here pointed out one, when it was
+dangerous to profess any other.
+
+We are apt to think the zeal of our fathers died with them, for I have
+frequently beheld with pleasure, the churchman, the presbyterian, and
+the quaker uniting their efforts, like brethren, to carry on a work of
+utility. The bigot of the last age casts a malicious sneer upon the
+religion of another, but the man of this passes a joke upon his own.
+
+A sameness in religious sentiment is no more to be expected, than a
+sameness of face. If the human judgment varies in almost every subject
+of plain knowledge, how can it be fixed in this, composed of mystery?
+
+As the true religion is ever that which a man professes himself, it is
+necessary to enquire, What means, he that is right may use, to convert
+him that is wrong?
+
+As the whole generations of faggot and torture, are extinct in this age
+of light, there seems only to remain fair arguments founded in reason,
+and these can only be brought as evidences upon the trial: The culprit
+himself, _by indefeasible right divine_, will preside as the judge. Upon
+a close enquiry it will be found, that his sentiments are as much his
+private property, as the coat that covers him, or the life which that
+coat incloses.
+
+Is there not as much reason to punish my neighbour for differing in
+opinion from me, as to punish me, because I differ from him? Or, is
+there any to punish either?
+
+If a man's sentiments and practice in religious matters, appear even
+absurd, provided society is not injured, what right hath the magistrate
+to interfere?
+
+The task is as easy to make the stream run upwards, as to form a nation
+of one mind. We may pronounce with confidence, an age of bigotry is no
+age of philosophy.
+
+The gentle hand of Brunswick, had swayed the British sceptre near half a
+century, ere all the sons of science in this meridian, were compleatly
+reconciled to this favourite line.
+
+But unanimity, with benign aspect, seems now the predominant star of the
+zenith: A friendly intercourse succeeds suspicion. The difference of
+sentiment, that once created jealousy, now excites a smile; and the
+narrow views of our forefathers are prudently expanded.
+
+[Illustration: _St. John's Chapel, Deritend_.]
+
+
+
+PLACES OF WORSHIP.
+
+In a town like Birmingham, unfettered with charteral laws; which gives
+access to the stranger of every denomination, for he here finds a
+freedom by birthright; and where the principles of toleration are well
+understood, it is no wonder we find various modes of worship. The wonder
+consists in finding such _agreement_, in such variety.
+
+We have fourteen places for religious exercise, six of the established
+church, three dissenting meeting houses, a quakers, baptist, methodist,
+roman catholic, and jewish. Two of these only are churches, of which
+elsewhere.
+
+
+
+SAINT JOHN'S CHAPEL, DERITEND.
+
+This, tho' joining to the parish of Birmingham, is a chapel of ease
+belonging to Aston, two miles distant. Founded in the fifth of Richard
+the Second, 1382.
+
+This chapel does not, like others in Birmingham, seem to have been
+erected first, and the houses brought round it: It appears, by its
+extreme circumscribed latitude, to have been founded upon the scite of
+other buildings, which were purchased, or rather given, by Sir John de
+Birmingham, Lord of Deritend, and situated upon the boundaries of the
+manor, perhaps to accommodate in some measure the people of Digbeth;
+because the church in Birmingham must, for many-ages, have been too
+small for the inhabitants.
+
+Time seems to have worn out that building of 1382; in the windows of
+which were the arms of Lord Dudley, and Dudley empaling Barckley, both
+knights of the garter, descended from the Somery's, Barons of
+Dudley-castle: Also a whole figure of Walter Arden, Esq; of ancient
+family, often mentioned, Lord of Bordesley.
+
+The present building was erected in 1735, and the steeple in 1762. In
+1777 eight of the most musical bells, together with a clock, entered the
+steeple. The present chaplain, the Rev. Thomas Cox--Income 80_l_.
+
+[Illustration: _St. Bartholomew's Chapel_.]
+
+
+
+SAINT BARTHOLOMEW'S.
+
+Built in 1749, on the east side of the town, will accommodate about 800
+hearers; is neat and elegant. The land was the gift of John Jennens,
+Esq; of Copsal, in the county of Leicester, possessor of a considerable
+estate in and near Birmingham.
+
+By the solicitation of Mrs. Weaman, Mrs. Jennens gave 1000_l_. and the
+remainder was raised by contribution to accomplish the building.
+
+Wherever a chapel is erected, the houses immediately, as if touched by
+the wand of magic, spring into existence. Here is a spacious area for
+interment, amply furnished by death. The infant steeple, if it will bear
+the name, is very small but beautiful.
+
+The chancel hath this singular difference from others--that it veres
+towards the North. Whether the projector committed an error, I leave to
+the critics.
+
+It was the general practice of the Pagan church to fix their altar, upon
+which they sacrificed, in the East, towards the rising sun, the object
+of worship.
+
+The Christian church, in the time of the Romans, immediately succeeded
+the Pagan, and scrupulously adopted the same method; which has been
+strictly adhered to.
+
+By what obligation the Christian is bound to follow the Pagan, or
+wherein a church would be injured by being directed to any of the
+thirty-two points in the compass, is doubtful. Certain it is, if the
+chancel of Bartholomew's had tended due East, the eye would have been
+exceedingly hurt, and the builder would have raised an object of
+ridicule for ages. The ground will admit of no situation but that in
+which the church now stands. But the inconsiderate architect of Deritend
+chapel, anxious to catch the Eastern point, lost the line of the street:
+we may therefore justly pronounce, _be sacrificed to the East_. Other
+enormities also, of little moment, have issued from the same fountain.
+
+The altar piece was the gift of Basil Earl of Denbigh; and the communion
+plate, consisting of 182 ounces, that of Mary Carless. Income
+100_l_.--Rev. William Jabbitt, chaplain.
+
+[Illustration: St. Mary's Chapel.]
+
+
+
+SAINT MARY's.
+
+Though the houses for divine worship were multiplied in Birmingham, yet
+the inhabitants increased in a greater proportion; so that in 1772 an
+act was obtained for two additional chapels.
+
+St. Mary's, therefore, was erected in 1774, in the octagon form, not
+overcharged with light nor strength; in an airy situation and taste, but
+shews too little steeple, and too much roof. If a light balustrade was
+raised over the parapet, with an urn in the centre of the roof, the eye
+of the observer would be relieved.
+
+The clock was seldom seen to go right, but the wonder ceases if there
+are NO WORKS within.
+
+The land was the gift of Mary Weaman, in whom is the presentation, who
+inducted the Rev. John Riland. Annual income about 200_l_.
+
+
+
+SAINT PAUL'S.
+
+The act was procured for this chapel at the same time as for that of St.
+Mary's; but it was not erected till 1779, upon a spot of ground given
+by Charles Colmore, Esq; upon the declivity of a hill, not altogether
+suitable for the elegant building it sustains, which is of stone--plain
+beauty unites with strength.
+
+This roof, like that of St. Mary's, appears also too full. The steeple
+intended for this useful edifice, will do honour to the modern stile of
+architecture, whenever money can be procured to erect it; which at
+present is only delineated upon paper.
+
+Chaplain, the Rev. William Toy Young.--Income nearly as St. Mary's.
+
+
+
+OLD MEETING.
+
+After the extinction of the Stuart race, who bore an invincible hatred
+to presbyterianism, the dissenters from the establishment procured a
+licence for a meeting at the bottom of Digbeth, which yet bears the name
+of Meeting-house-yard. Here the rigid sons of worship paid a weekly
+attendance. The place is now a work-shop: The sound of the pulpit is
+changed into that of the bellows: Instead of an impression upon the
+heart, it is now stamped upon the button. The visitants used to
+appear in a variety of colours, but now always in black.
+
+[Illustration: _St. Paul's Chapel_.]
+
+[Illustration: New Meeting.]
+
+[Illustration: Old Meeting.]
+
+Another was erected in the reign of King William, now denominated The
+Old Meeting, and from whence the street in which it stands derives a
+name. This is large, and much attended.
+
+Pastor, the Rev. Radcliff Scoldfield.
+
+
+
+NEW MEETING.
+
+Erected in the year 1730, at which time that in Digbeth went into
+disuse. This is in a stile of elegance, and has few equals. The Rev.
+Samuel Blyth, and the Rev. William Hawkes preside over it.
+
+In December 1780, Mr. Hawkes declining the pastoral care, the
+congregation judiciously turned their thoughts towards the celebrated
+Doctor Priestley, F.R.S. one of the first philosophers of the age; whose
+merit seems obvious to every eye but his own.
+
+
+
+CARR's LANE MEETING.
+
+A scion of the Old Meeting, transplanted in 1748--The building cost
+about 700_l_. This society hath been favoured with two donations; one
+the interest of 800_l_. by the will of John England, in 1771: The other
+Scott's Trust, mentioned in another part.
+
+This residence of divine light is totally eclipsed, by being surrounded
+with about forty families of paupers, crouded almost within the compass
+of a giant's span, which amply furnish the congregation with noise,
+smoak, dirt and dispute. If the place itself is the road to heaven, the
+stranger would imagine, that the road to the place led to something
+worse: The words, _Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way_, are here
+literally verified.--Pastor, the Rev. John Punfield.
+
+
+
+BAPTIST MEETING.
+
+Founded in Cannon-street, 1738. This hill of Zion is also hid from the
+public eye, but situated in a purer air.--The minister was the late
+Rev. James Turner.
+
+Some trifling differences arising in the congregation, to which the
+human mind is everlastingly prone, caused discontent: Individuals began
+to sting each other, which in 1745, produced a swarm.
+
+The destitute wanderers therefore, erected for themselves a small cell
+in Freeman-street, where they hived in expectation of harmony. Over this
+little society of separatists presided a journeyman woolcomber: What
+elevation he bore in the comb-shop, during six days of the week, history
+is silent; but having the good fortune to procure a black coat and a
+white wig, he figured on the seventh with parsonic elegance.
+
+Whether _he_ fed his people best, or _they_ him, is uncertain; but
+whether they starved one another, is not. Disgust, which ever waits upon
+disappointment, appeared among them.
+
+Though the preacher was certainly warmed in the shop, _with a live coal
+from the altar_; yet unfortunately, Sunday was the only day in which his
+_fire_ was extinguished; _then_ the priest and the people hit the taste
+of the day, and slumbered together; a priviledge never granted by a
+_reader_ to an _author_. Thus the boasted _liberty of the press_
+submits to that of the pulpit.
+
+This exalted shepherd dwelt upon the words of Paul, _He that preaches
+the gospel, ought to subsist by the gospel;_ and _they_ did not forget a
+portion in John, _Feed my sheep_. The word, he well knew, promised both
+wine and _oil_, but he was obliged to be satisfied with the latter.
+
+Although the teacher might possess some _shining qualities_ at the
+combe-pot, he did not possess that of protecting his flock, who in 1752,
+silently retreated to their original fold in Cannon-street; and the
+place was soon after converted into a dwelling, No. 16, when for the
+first time it produced _profit_.
+
+The growing numbers of this prosperous society induced them, in 1780, to
+enlarge the place of worship, at the expence of about 800_l_. in which
+is observable some beauty, but more conveniency.
+
+
+
+QUAKER's MEETING
+
+In Bull-street. A large convenient place, and notwithstanding the
+plainness of the profession rather elegant. The congregation is very
+flourishing, rich, and peaceable. Chandler tells us, to the everlasting
+honour of the Quakers, that they are the only christian sect who have
+never exercised the cruel weapon of persecution.
+
+
+
+METHODIST's MEETING.
+
+We learn from ecclesiastical history, that the people in high life are
+always _followers_ in religion. Though they are the best leaders in
+political and social concerns, yet all religions seem to originate from
+the lowest class. Every religion is first obstructed by violence, passes
+through the insults of an age, then rests in peace, and often takes up
+the rod against another.
+
+The first preachers of the christian faith, the short-sighted apostles,
+were men of the meanest occupations, and their church, a wretched room
+in a miserable tenement. The superb buildings of St. Peter's in Rome,
+and St. Paul's in London, used by their followers, were not within the
+reach of their penetration. They were also totally ignorant of tripple
+crowns, red hats, mitres, crosiers, robes, and rochets, well known to
+their successors.
+
+The religion of a private room, soon became the religion of a country:
+the church acquired affluence, for all churches hate poverty; and this
+humble church, disturbed for ages, became the church of Rome, the
+disturber of Europe.
+
+John Wickliff, in 1377, began to renew her disturbance: this able
+theologist planted our present national church, which underwent severe
+persecutions, from its mother church at Rome; but, rising superior to
+the rod, and advancing to maturity, she became the mother of a numerous
+offspring, which she afterwards persecuted herself; and this offspring,
+like _their_ mother, were much inclined to persecution.
+
+Puritanism, her first born, groaned under the pressure of her hand. The
+Baptists, founded by a taylor, followed, and were buffeted by
+both.--Independency appeared, ponderous as an elephant, and trampled
+upon all three.
+
+John Fox, a composition of the oddest matter, and of the meanest
+original, formed a numerous band of disciples, who suffered the insults
+of an age, but have carried the arts of prudence to the highest pitch.
+
+The Muglitonians, the Prophets, the Superlapsarians, &c. like untimely
+births, just saw the light and disappeared.
+
+The Moravians, under the influence of Zinzendorf, rose about 1740, but
+are not in a flourishing state; their circumscribed rules, like those
+of the cloister, being too much shackled to thrive in a land of freedom.
+
+James Sandiman introduced a religion, about 1750, but, though eclipsed
+himself by poverty, he taught his preachers to shine; for he allowed
+them to grace the pulpit with ruffles, lace, and a cueque. Birmingham
+cannot produce one professor of the two last churches.
+
+The christian religion has branched into more sectaries in the last two
+hundred years, than in the fifteen hundred before--the reason is
+obvious. During the tedious reign of the Romish priest, before the
+introduction of letters, knowledge was small, and he wished to confine
+that knowledge to himself: he substituted mystery for science, and led
+the people blindfold. But the printing-press, though dark in itself, and
+surrounded with yet _darker_ materials, diffused a ray of light through
+the world, which enabled every man to read, think, and judge for
+himself; hence diversity of opinion, and the absurdity of reducing a
+nation to one faith, vainly attempted by Henry VIII.
+
+In those distant ages, the priest had great influence, with little
+knowledge; but in these, great knowledge, with little influence. He was
+then revered according to his authority; but now, according to his
+merit: he shone in a borrowed, but now in a real lustre: then he was
+less deserving; but now less esteemed. The humble christian, in the
+strictest sense, worked out his salvation with fear and trembling, and
+with tools furnished by the priest: he built upon his opinions, but now
+he lays a foundation for his own.
+
+Though we acknowledge the scriptures our guide, we take the liberty to
+guide them; we torture them to our own sentiments. Though we allow their
+_equal_ weight, we suffer one portion to weigh down another. If we
+attend to twenty disputants, not one of them will quote a text which
+militates against his sentiments.
+
+The artillery of vengeance was pointed at Methodism for thirty years;
+but, fixed as a rock, it could never be beaten down, and its professors
+now enjoy their sentiments in quiet.
+
+After the institution of this sect by George Whitfield, in 1738, they
+were first covered by the heavens, equally exposed to the rain and the
+rabble, and afterwards they occupied, for many years, a place in
+Steelhouse-lane, where the wags of the age observed, "they were eat out
+by the bugs."--They therefore procured a cast off theatre in
+Moor-street, where they continued to exhibit till 1782; when, quitting
+the stage, they erected a superb meeting-house, in Cherry-street, at the
+expence of 1200_l_. This was opened, July 7, by John Wesley, the chief
+priest, whose extensive knowledge, and unblemished manners, give us a
+tolerable picture of apostolic purity; who _believes_, as if he were to
+be saved by faith; and who _labours_, as if he were to be saved
+by works.
+
+Thus our composite order of religion, an assemblage of the Episcopalian,
+the Presbyterian, the Independent, and the Baptist; fled from the
+buffetings of the vulgar, and now take peaceable shelter from the dews
+of heaven.
+
+
+
+ROMISH CHAPEL.
+
+I have already remarked, there is nothing which continues in the same
+state: the code of manners, habits of thinking, and of expression, modes
+of living, articles of learning; the ways of acquiring wealth, or
+knowledge; our dress, diet, recreations, &c. change in every age.
+
+But why is there a change in religion? eternal truth, once fixed, is
+everlastingly the same. Religion is purity, which, one would think,
+admits of no change; if it changes, we should doubt whether it is
+religion. But a little attention to facts will inform us, _there is
+nothing more changable:_ nor need we wonder, because, man himself being
+changable, every thing committed to his care will change with him. We
+may plead his excuse, by observing, his sight is defective: he may be
+deceived by viewing an object in one light, or attitude, to-day, and
+another, to-morrow. This propensity to change might lead us to suspect
+the authenticity of our own sentiments.
+
+The apostles certainly formed the church of Rome; but she, having
+undergone the variations of seventeen hundred years, St. Peter himself,
+should he return to the earth, could not discover one linament in her
+aspect; but would be apt to reject her as a changling.
+
+The church of England has not only undergone a change since the
+reformation, but wishes a greater.
+
+We should suppose the puritan of 1583, and the dissenter of 1783, were
+the same: but although substance and shadow exactly resemble each other,
+no two things differ more.
+
+When pride sends a man in quest of a religion, if he does not discover
+something new, he might as well stay at home: nothing near the present
+standard can take. Two requisites are necessary to found a religion,
+capacity, and singularity: no fool ever succeeded. If his talents are
+not above mediocrity, he will not be able to draw the crowd; and if his
+doctrines are not singular, the crowd will not be drawn--novelty
+pleases.
+
+Having collected, and brightened up a set of doctrines, wide of every
+other church, he fixes at a distance from all. But time, and unavoidable
+intercourse with the world, promote a nearer approximation; and, mixing
+with men, we act like men. Thus the Quaker under George III. shews but
+little of the Quaker under George Fox.
+
+In two congregations of the same profession, as in two twins of the same
+family, though there is a striking likeness, the curious observer will
+trace a considerable difference.
+
+In a religion, as well as a man, _there is a time to be born, and a time
+to die_. They both vary in aspect, according to the length of their
+existence, carry the marks of decline, and sink into obscurity.
+
+We are well informed how much the Romish religion has declined in this
+country: three hundred years ago Birmingham did not produce one person
+of another persuasion; but now, out of 50,000 people, we have not 300
+of this.
+
+The Roman Catholics formerly enjoyed a place for religious worship near
+St. Bartholomew's-chapel, still called Masshouse-lane; but the rude
+hands of irreligion destroyed it. There is now none nearer than
+Edgbaston, two miles distant; yet the congregation is chiefly supplied
+from Birmingham.
+
+If the Roman Catholics are not so powerful as in the sixteenth century,
+they seem as quiet, and as little addicted to knowledge; perhaps they
+have not yet learned to see through any eyes but those of the
+priest.--There appears, however, as much devotion in their public
+worship, as among any denomination of christians.
+
+
+
+JEWISH SYNAGOGUE.
+
+We have also among us a remnant of Israel. A people who, when masters of
+their own country, were scarcely ever known to travel, and who are now
+seldom employed in any thing else. But, though they are ever moving,
+they are ever at home: who once lived the favourites of heaven, and fed
+upon the cream of the earth; but now are little regarded by either:
+whose society is entirely confined to themselves, except in the
+commercial line.
+
+[ILLUSTRATION: Birmingham Theatre, Hotel and Tavern.]
+
+In the Synagogue, situated in the Froggery, they still preserve the
+faint resemblence of the ancient worship. Their whole apparatus being no
+more than the drooping ensigns of poverty. The place is rather small,
+but tolerably filled; where there appears less decorum than in the
+christian churches. The proverbial expression "as rich as a jew," is not
+altogether verified in Birmingham, but perhaps, time is transfering it
+to the Quakers.
+
+It is rather singular, that the honesty of a jew, is seldom pleaded but
+by the jew himself.
+
+
+
+THEATRES.
+
+The practice of the Theatre is of great antiquity. We find it in great
+repute among the Greeks; we also find, the more a nation is civilized,
+the more they have supported the stage. It seems designed for two
+purposes, improvement and entertainment.
+
+There are certain exuberances that naturally grow in religion,
+government, and private life which may with propriety be attacked by the
+poet and the comedian, but which can scarcely be reduced by any other
+power. While the stage therefore keeps this great end in view, it
+answers a valuable purpose to the community. The poet should use his pen
+to reform, not to indulge a corrupt age, as was the case in the days of
+Charles the Second, when indecency was brought on to raise the laugh.
+
+Perhaps there is no period of time in which the stage was less polluted,
+owing to the inimitable Garrick, than the present: notwithstanding there
+is yet room for improvement.
+
+Tragedy is to melt the heart, by exhibiting the unfortunate; satiate
+revenge, by punishing the unjust tyrant: To discard vice, and to keep
+undue passions within bounds.
+
+Comedy holds up folly in a ridiculous light: Whatever conduct or
+character is found in the regions of absurdity, furnishes proper
+materials for the stage; and out of these, the pen of a master will draw
+many useful lessons.
+
+The pulpit and the stage have nearly the same use, but not in the same
+line--That of improving the man.
+
+The English stage opened about the conquest, and was wholly confined to
+religion; in whose service it continued, with very little intermission,
+to the extinction of the Plantagenets. The play-houses were the
+churches, the principal actors the priests, and the performances taken
+from scripture; such as the Fall of Man, the Story of Joseph, Sampson,
+Histories of the Saints, the Sufferings of Christ, Resurrection, Day of
+Judgment, &c.
+
+Theatrical exhibition in Birmingham, is rather of a modern date. As far
+as memory can penetrate, the stroller occupied, occasionally, a shed of
+boards in the fields, now Temple-street: Here he acted the part of
+Distress, in a double capacity. The situation was afterwards changed,
+but not the eminence, and the Hinkleys dignified the performers booth!
+
+In about 1730, the amusements of the stage rose in a superior stile of
+elegance, and entered something like a stable in Castle-street. Here the
+comedian strutted in painted rags, ornamented with tinsel: The audience
+raised a noisy laugh, half real and half forced, at three-pence a head.
+
+In about 1740, a theatre was erected in Moor-street, which rather gave a
+spring to the amusement; in the day time the comedian beat up for
+volunteers for the night, delivered his bills of fare, and roared out an
+encomium on the excellence of the entertainment, which had not always
+the desired effect.
+
+In 1751, a company arrived, which anounced themselves, "His Majesty's
+servants, from the theatres-royal in London; and hoped the public would
+excuse the ceremony of the drum, as beneath the dignity of a London
+company." The novelty had a surprising effect; the performers had
+merit; the house was continually crouded; the general conversation
+turned upon theatrical exhibition, and the town was converted into one
+vast theatre.
+
+In 1752 it was found necessary to erect a larger theatre, that in King
+Street, and we multiplied into two London companies.
+
+The pulpits took the alarm, and in turn, roared after their customers:
+But the pious teachers forgot it was only the fervour of a day, which
+would cool of itself; that the fiercer the fire burns, the sooner it
+will burn out.
+
+This declaration of war, fortunately happening at the latter end of
+summer, the campaign was over, and the company retreated into winter
+quarters, without hostilities.
+
+It was afterwards found, that two theatres were more than the town chose
+to support; therefore that in Moor-street was set for a methodist
+meeting, where, it was said, though it changed its audience, it kept its
+primeval use, continuing the theatre of farce.
+
+In 1774, the theatre in King-street was enlarged, beautified, and made
+more convenient; so that it hath very few equals.
+
+About the same time that in New-street was erected upon a suitable spot,
+an extensive plan, and richly ornamented with paintings and
+scenery.--Expence seems the least object in consideration.
+
+An additional and superb portico, was erected in 1780, which perhaps may
+cause it to be pronounced, "One of the first theatres in Europe."
+
+Two busts, in relief, of excellent workmanship, are elevated over the
+attic windows; one is the father, and the other the refiner of the
+British, stage--Shakespear and Garrick.
+
+Also two figures eight feet high, are said to be under the chissel, one
+of Thalia, and the other of Melpomene, the comic and the tragic muses;
+the value one hundred and sixty guineas. Places are reserved for their
+reception, to augment the beauty of the front, and shew the taste of
+the age.
+
+
+
+AMUSEMENTS.
+
+Man seems formed for variety, whether we view him in a rational or an
+animal light. A sameness of temper, habit, diet, pursuit, or pleasure,
+is no part of his character. The different ages of his life, also
+produce different sentiments; that which gives us the highest relish in
+one period, is totally flat in another. The rattle that pleases at
+three, would be cast into the fire at threescore: The same hand that
+empties the purse at twenty, would fill it at fifty: In age, he bends
+his knee to the same religion, which he laughed at in youth: The prayer
+book, that holds the attention of seventy, holds the lottery pictures of
+seven: And the amorous tale that awakes the ideas of twenty five, lulls
+old age to sleep.
+
+Not only life is productive of change, but also every day in it. If a
+man would take a minute survey of his thoughts and employments, for only
+twenty-four hours, he would be astonished at their infinite variety.
+
+Though industry be the ruling passion of this ingenious race, yet
+relaxation must follow, as one period to another. Society is therefore
+justly esteemed an everlasting fund of amusement, which is found at the
+tavern, in the winter evening: Intoxication is seldom met with, except
+in the inferior ranks, where it is visible in both sexes.
+
+A regular concert is established, where the music is allowed to excel.
+This harmonious science, like other productions of taste, though it be
+not the general study of the inhabitants, hath made an amazing progress
+during the last thirty years.
+
+In 1777, a coffee-house was opened at the East end of New-street, the
+first in this department; which, drawing into its vortex the
+transactions of Europe, finds employment for the politician.
+
+Assemblies are held weekly, which give room for beauty to figure at
+cards, in conversation, and in the dance.
+
+The pleasures of the field claim their votaries, but, in a populous
+country, like that of Birmingham, plenty of game is not to be expected;
+for want of wild fowl, therefore, the shooter has been sometimes known
+to attack the tame.
+
+However, the farmer need not be under any great concern for his
+property; the sportsman seldom does any thing with his arms--but--_carry
+them_. We are more famous for _making_, than _using_ the gun.
+
+A pack of hounds have sometimes been kept by subscription, termed, The
+Birmingham Hunt; but, as the sound of the dogs and the anvil never
+harmonised together, they have been long in disuse: the jocund tribe,
+therefore, having no scent of their own, fall into that of the
+neighbouring gentry, many of whom support a pack.
+
+The man of reflection finds amusement in domestic resources; and, in his
+own mind, if unoppressed. Here the treasures collected from men, books,
+and observation, _are laid up for many years_, from which he draws
+pleasure, without diminishing the flock. The universal riches of nature
+and of art; the part, the present, and a glympse of the future, lie open
+to his eye.
+
+Two obstructions only bound his ideas, _time_ and _space_. He steps from
+planet to planet, and if he cannot enter immensity, he can verge upon
+its borders.
+
+I pity the man, who through poverty, cannot find warmth by his own
+fire-side; but I pity him more, who, through poverty of thought, cannot
+find happiness.
+
+For the entertainment of summer, exclusive of the two theatres, there
+are five greens, where the gentlemen are amused with bowls, and the
+ladies with tea.
+
+There are also great variety of public gardens, suited to every class of
+people, or which Duddeston, the ancient seat of the Holte family, claims
+the pre-eminence.
+
+The fishing-rod, that instrument which _destroys in peace_, must find a
+place: other animals are followed with fire and tumult, but the fishes
+are entrapped with deceit. Of all the sportsmen, we charge the angler
+alone with _killing in cold blood_.
+
+Just as a pursuit abounds with pleasure, so will it abound with
+votaries. The pleasure of angling depends on the success of the line:
+this art is but little practised here, and less known. Our rivers are
+small, and thinly stored; our pools are guarded as private property: the
+Birmingham spirit is rather too active for the sleepy amusement
+of fishing.
+
+Patience seems the highest accomplishment of an angler. We behold him,
+fixed as a statue, on the bank; his head inclining towards the river,
+his attention upon the water, his eye upon the float; he often draws,
+and draws only his hook! But although he gets no bite, it may fairly be
+said _he is bit:_ of the two, the fish display the most cunning.--He,
+surprized that he has _caught nothing_, and I, that he has kept his rod
+and his patience.
+
+Party excursion is held in considerable esteem, in which are included
+Enville, the seat of Lord Stamford; Hagley, that of the late Lord
+Lyttelton; and the Leasowes, the property of the late Wm. Shenstone,
+Esq. We will omit the journey to London, a tour which some of us have
+made all our lives _without seeing it_.
+
+Cards and the visit are linked together, nor is the billiard table
+totally forsaken. One man amuses himself in amassing a fortune, and
+another in dissolving one.
+
+About thirty-six of the inhabitants keep carriages for their own private
+use; and near fifty have country houses. The relaxations of the humbler
+class, are fives, quoits, skittles, and ale.
+
+Health and amusement are found in the prodigious number of private
+gardens scattered round Birmingham, from which we often behold the
+father returning with a cabbage, and the daughter with a nosegay.
+
+
+
+HOTEL.
+
+The spot where our great-grandmothers smiled in the lively dance, when
+they possessed the flower of beauty in the spring of life, is lost in
+forgetfulness. The floor that trembled under that foot which was covered
+with a leather shoe tied with a silken string, and which supported a
+stocking of dark blue worsted, not of the finest texture, is now buried
+in oblivion.
+
+[Illustration: Hotel.]
+
+In 1750 we had two assembly rooms; one at No. 11. in the Square, the
+other No. 85. in Bull-street. This last was not much in use afterwards.
+That in the Square continued in repute till in the course of that
+evening which happened in October 1765, when Edward Duke of York had the
+honour of leading up the dance, and the ladies of Birmingham enjoyed
+that of the Duke's hand, He remarked, "That a town of such magnitude as
+Birmingham, and adorned with so much beauty, deserved a superior
+accomodation:--That the room itself was mean, but the entrance
+still meaner."
+
+Truth is ever the same, whether it comes from a prince or a peasant; but
+its effects are not. Whether some secret charm attended the Duke's
+expression, that blasted the room, is uncertain, but it never after held
+its former eminence.
+
+In 1772 a building was erected by subscription, upon the Tontine
+principle, at the head of Temple row, and was dignified with the French
+name of Hotel: From a handsome, entrance the ladies are now led through
+a spacious saloon, at the extremity of which the eye is struck with a
+grand flight of steps, opening into an assembly-room, which would not
+disgrace even the royal presence of the Duke's brother.
+
+The pile itself is large, plain, and elegant, but standing in the same
+line with the other buildings, which before were really genteel,
+eclipses them by its superiority: Whereas, if the Hotel had fallen a few
+feet back, it would, by breaking the line, have preserved the beauty of
+the row, without losing its own.
+
+
+
+WAKES.
+
+This ancient custom was left us by the Saxons. Time, that makes
+alteration only in other customs, has totally inverted this.
+
+When a church was erected, it was immediately called after a saint, put
+under his protection, and the day belonging to that saint kept in the
+church as an high festival. In the evening preceding the day, the
+inhabitants, with lights, approached the church, and kept a continual
+devotion during the whole night; hence the name _wake_: After which
+they entered into festivity.
+
+But now the devotional part is forgot, the church is deserted, and the
+festivity turned into riot, drunkenness, and mischief.
+
+Without searching into the mouldy records of time, for evidence to
+support our assertion, we may safely pronounce the wake the lowest of
+all low amusements, and compleatly suited to the lowest of tempers.
+
+Wakes have been deemed a public concern, and legislature, more than
+once, been obliged to interpose for the sake of that order which private
+conduct could never boast.
+
+In the reign of Henry the Sixth, every consideration, whether of a
+public or a private nature, gave way to the wake: The harvest in
+particular was neglected. An order therefore issued, confining the wakes
+to the first Sunday in October, consequently the whole nation run mad
+at once.
+
+Wakes in Birmingham are not ancient: Why St. Martin's, then the only
+church, was neglected, is uncertain.
+
+Although we have no wakes for the town, there are three kept in its
+borders, called Deritend, Chapel, and Bell wakes. The two first are in
+the spring of existence, the last in the falling leaf of autumn.
+
+Deritend wake probably took its rise at the erection of her chapel, in
+1382.
+
+Chapel wake, in 1750, from St. Bartholomew's chapel, is held in the
+meridian of Coleshill-street; was hatched and fostered by the publicans,
+for the benefit of the spiggot.
+
+Amongst other important amusements, was that of bull-baiting, till the
+year 1773, when the commissioners of lamps, in the amendment of their
+act, wisely broke the chain, and procured a reprieve for the
+unfortunate animal.
+
+Another was the horse-race, 'till a few years ago a person being killed,
+rather slackened the entertainment. What singular genius introduced the
+horse-race into a crowded street, I am yet to learn.
+
+In the evening the passenger cannot proceed without danger; in the
+morning, he may discover which houses are public, without other
+intelligence than the copious streams that have issued from the wall.
+The blind may also distinguish the same thing, by the strong scent
+of the tap.
+
+Bell wake is the junior by one year, originating from the same cause, in
+1751, in consequence of ten bells being hung up in St Philip's
+steeple.--'Till within these few years, we were at this wake struck with
+a singular exhibition, that of a number of boys running a race through
+the streets naked. Some of the inhabitants, seeing so fair a mark for
+chastisement, applied the rod with success, put a period to the sport,
+and obliged the young runners to run under cover.
+
+
+
+CLUBS.
+
+It may be expected, from the title of this chapter, that I shall
+introduce a set of ruffians armed with missive weapons; or, having named
+a trump, a set of gamblers shuffling and dealing out the cards: But
+whatever veneration I may entertain for these two fag ends of our
+species, I shall certainly introduce a class of people, which, though of
+the lower orders, are preferable to both.
+
+Social compact is a distinguishing mark of civilization: The whole
+British empire may be justly considered as one grand alliance, united
+for public and private interest, and this vast body of people are
+subdivided into an infinity of smaller fraternities, for
+individual benefit.
+
+Perhaps there are hundreds of these societies in Birmingham under the
+name of clubs; some of them boast the antiquity of a century, and by
+prudent direction have acquired a capital, at accumulating interest.
+Thousands of the inhabitants are thus connected, nay, to be otherwise is
+rather unfashionable, and some are people of sentiment and property.
+
+A variety of purposes are intended by these laudable institutions, but
+the principal one is that of supporting the sick.
+
+Each society is governed by a code of laws of its own making, which have
+at least the honour of _resembling_ those of legislature, for words
+without sense are found in both, and we sometimes stumble upon
+contradiction.
+
+The poor's-rates, enormous as they appear, are softened by these
+brotherly aids. They tend also to keep the mind at rest, for a man will
+enjoy the day of health, with double relish, when he considers he has a
+treasure laid up for that of sickness.
+
+If a _member_ only of a poor family be sick, the _head_ still remains to
+procure necessaries; but if that head be disordered, the whole source of
+supply is dried up, which evinces the utility of such institutions.
+
+The general custom is to meet at the public every fortnight, spend a
+trifle, and each contribute six-pence, or any stated sum, to the common
+stock. The landlord is always treasurer, or father, and is assisted by
+two stewards, annually or monthly chosen.
+
+As honour and low life are not always found together, we sometimes see a
+man who is rather _idle_, wish the society may suppose him _sick_, that
+he may rob them with more security. Or, if a member hangs long upon the
+box, his brethren seek a pretence to expel him. On the other hand, we
+frequently observe a man silently retreat from the club, if another
+falls upon the box, and fondly suppose himself no longer a member; or if
+the box be loaded with sickness, the whole club has been known to
+dissolve, that they may rid themselves of the burthen; but the Court of
+Requests finds an easy remedy for these evils, and at a
+trifling expence.
+
+The charity of the club, is also extended beyond the grave, and
+terminates with a present to the widow.
+
+The philosophers tell us, "There is no good without its kindred evil."
+This amiable body of men, therefore, marshalled to expel disease, hath
+one small alloy, and perhaps but one. As liquor and labour are
+inseparable, the imprudent member is apt to forget to quit the club
+room when he has spent his necessary two-pence, but continues there to
+the injury of his family.
+
+Another of these institutions is the _rent club_, where, from the weekly
+sums deposited by the members, a sop is regularly served up twice a
+year, to prevent the growlings of a landlord.
+
+In the _breeches club_ every member ballots for a pair, value a guinea,
+_promised_ of more value by the maker. This club dissolves when all the
+members are served.
+
+The intentions of the _book club_ are well known, to catch the
+productions of the press as they rise.
+
+The _watch club_ has generally a watchmaker for its president, is
+composed of young men, and is always temporary.
+
+If a taylor be short of employment, he has only to consult a landlord
+over a bottle, who, by their joint powers, can give birth to a _cloaths
+club_; where every member is supplied with a suit to his taste, of a
+stipulated price. These are chiefly composed of batchelors, who wish to
+shine in the eye of the fair.
+
+Thus a bricklayer stands at the head of the _building club_, where every
+member perhaps subscribes two guineas per month, and each house, value
+about one hundred pounds, is balloted for, as soon as erected. As a
+house is a weighty concern, every member is obliged to produce two
+bondsmen for the performance of covenants.
+
+I will venture to pronounce another the _capital club_, for when the
+contributions amount to 50_l_. the members ballot for this capital, to
+bring into business: Here also securities are necessary. It is easy to
+conceive the two last clubs are extremely beneficial to building and
+to commerce.
+
+The last I shall enumerate is the _clock club_: When the weekly deposits
+of the members amount to about 4_l_. they call lots who shall be first
+served with a clock of that value, and continue the same method till the
+whole club is supplied; after which, the clockmaker and landlord cast
+about for another set, who are chiefly composed of young house-keepers.
+Hence the beginner ornaments his premises with furniture, the artist
+finds employment and profit, and the publican empties his barrel.
+
+Thus we have taken a transient survey of this rising colony of arts,
+uniting observation with fact: We have seen her dark manufactures, in
+darker times: We have attended her through her commercial, religious,
+political, and pleasurable walks: Have viewed her in many points of
+light, but never in decline; 'till we have now set her in the fair
+sunshine of the present day.
+
+Perhaps I shall not be charged with prolixity, that unpardonable sin
+against the reader, when it is considered, that three thousand years are
+deposited in the compass of one hundred and forty little pages.
+
+Some other circumstances deserve attention, which could not be
+introduced without breaking the thread of history: But as that thread is
+now drawn to an end, I must, before I resume it, step back into the
+recesses of time, and slumber through the long ages of seventeen hundred
+years; if the active reader, therefore, has no inclination for a nod of
+that length, or, in simple phrase, no relish for antiquity, I advise him
+to pass over the five ensuing chapters.
+
+
+
+IKENIELD STREET.
+
+About five furlongs North of the Navigation Bridge, in Great Charles
+street, which is the boundary of the present buildings, runs the
+Ikenield-street; one of those famous pretorian roads which mark the
+Romans with conquest, and the Britons with slavery.
+
+By that time a century had elapsed, from the first landing of Caesar in
+Britain the victorious Romans had carried their arms through the
+southern part of the isle. They therefore endeavoured to secure the
+conquered provinces by opening four roads, which should each rise in the
+shore, communicate with, and cross each other, form different angles,
+extend over the island several ways, and terminate in the opposite sea.
+
+These are the Watling-street, which rises near Dover, and running
+North-west through London, Atherstone, and Shropshire, in the
+neighbourhood of Chester, ends in the Irish sea.
+
+The Foss begins in Devonshlre, extends South-east through
+Leicestershire, continuing its course through Lincolnshire, to the verge
+of the German ocean.
+
+These two roads, crossing each other at right angles, form a figure
+resembling the letter X, whose centre is the High Cross, which divides
+the counties of Warwick and Leicester.
+
+The Ermine-street extends along the southern part of the island; near
+the British channel; and the Ikenield-street, which I cannot so soon
+quit, rises near Southampton, extends nearly North, through Winchester,
+Wallingford, and over the Isis, at New-bridge; thence to Burford,
+crossing the Foss at Stow in the Woulds, over Bitford-bridge, in the
+County of Warwick, to Alcester; by Studley, Ipsley, Beely,
+Wetherick-hill, Stutley-street; crosses the road from Birmingham to
+Bromsgrove, at Selley oak, leaving Harborne a mile to the left, also the
+Hales Owen road a mile West of Birmingham: Thence by the Observatory in
+Lady-wood-lane, where it enters the parish of Birmingham, crossing the
+Dudley road at the Sand-pits; along Worstone-lane; through the little
+pool, and Hockley-brook, where it quits the parish: Thence over
+Handsworth-heath, entering a little lane on the right of
+Bristle-lands-end, and over the river Tame, at Offord-mill,
+(Oldford-mill) directly to Sutton Coldfield. It passes the Ridgeway a
+few yards East of King's-standing, a little artificial mount, on which
+Charles the First is said to have stood when he harangued the troops he
+brought out of Shropshire, at the opening of the civil wars, in 1642.
+From thence the road proceeds through Sutton park, and the remainder of
+the Coldfield; over Radley-moor; from thence to Wall, a Roman station,
+where it meets the Watling-street: Leaving Lichfield a mile to the left,
+it leads through Street-hay; over Fradley-heath; thence through Alderwas
+hays, crossing the river Trent, at Wichnor-bridge, to Branson-turnpike:
+over Burton-moor, leaving the town half a mile to the right: thence to
+Monk's-bridge, upon the river Dove; along Egington-heath, Little-over,
+the Rue-dyches, Stepping-lane, Nun-green, and Darley-slade, to the river
+Derwent, one mile above Derby; upon the eastern banks of which stands
+Little Chester, built by the Romans.
+
+If the traveller is tired with this tedious journey, and dull
+description, which admits of no variety, we will stop for a moment, and
+refresh in this Roman city.
+
+In drawing the flewks of his oar along the bed of the river, as he boats
+over it, he may feel the foundations of a Roman bridge, nearly level
+with its bottom. Joining the water are the vestiges of a castle, now an
+orchard. Roman coins are frequently discovered--In 1765, I was presented
+with one of Vespasian's, found the year before in scowering a ditch; but
+I am sorry to observe, it has suffered more during the fifteen years in
+my possession, than during the fifteen hundred it lay in the earth.
+
+The inhabitants being in want of materials to form a turnpike road,
+attempted to pull up this renowned military way, for the sake of those
+materials, but found them too strongly cemented to admit of an easy
+separation, and therefore desisted when they had taken up a few loads.
+
+I saw the section of this road cut up from the bottom: the Romans seem
+to have formed it with infinite labour and expence. They took out the
+soil for about twenty yards wide, and one deep, perhaps, till they came
+to a firm bottom; and filled up the whole with stones of all sizes,
+brought from Duffield, four miles up the river; cemented with
+coarse mortar.
+
+The road here is only discoverable by its barren track, along the
+cultivated meadows. It then proceeds over Morley-moor, through
+Scarsdale, by Chesterfield, Balsover, through Yorkshire, Northumberland,
+and terminates upon the banks of the Tine, near Tinmouth.
+
+There are many roads in England formed by the Romans: they were of two
+kinds, the military, which crossed the island; and the smaller, which
+extended from one town to another. The four I have mentioned come under
+the first class: they rather avoided, than led through a town, that they
+might not be injured by traffic.
+
+Two of these four, the Watling-street, and the Ikenield-street, are
+thought, by their names, to be British, and with some reason; neither of
+the words are derived from the Latin: but whatever were their origin,
+they are certainly of Roman construction.
+
+These great roads were begun as soon as the island was subdued, to
+employ the military, and awe the natives, and were divided into stages,
+at the end of each was a fort, or station, to accommodate the guard, for
+the reception of stores, the conveniency of marching parties, and to
+prevent the soldiers from mixing with the Britons.
+
+The stations upon the Ikenield-street, in our neighbourhood, are Little
+Chester (Derventione) a square fort, nearly half an acre; joining the
+road to the south, and the Derwent to the west.
+
+The next is Burton upon Trent (Ad Trivonam) thirteen miles south. Here I
+find no remains of a station.
+
+Then Wall (Etocetum) near Lichfield, which I have examined with great
+labour, or rather with great pleasure: Here the two famous consular
+roads cross each other. We should expect a fort in the angle, commanding
+both, which is not the case. The Watling-street is lost for about half a
+mile, leading over a morass, only the line is faintly preserved, by a
+blind path over the inclosures: the Ikenield-street crosses it in this
+morass, not the least traces of which remain. But, by a strict
+attention, I could point out their junction to a few yards.
+
+Six furlongs west of this junction, and one hundred yards north of the
+Watling-street, in a close, now about three acres, are the remains of
+the Roman fortress. This building, of strength and terror, is reduced to
+one piece of thick wall, visibly of Roman workmanship, from whence the
+place derives its modern name.
+
+Can you, says I to a senior peasant, for I love to appeal to old age,
+tell the origin of that building?
+
+"No; but we suppose it has been a church. The ruins were much larger in
+my memory; but they were lately destroyed, to bring the land into that
+improved state of cultivation in which you see it."--And so you reduced
+a fortress in four years, which the Britons never could in four hundred.
+For a trifling profit, you eraze the work of the ancients, and prevent
+the wonder of the moderns.--Are you apprised of any old walls under
+the surface?
+
+"Yes; the close is full of them: I have broke three ploughs in one day;
+no tool will stand against them. It has been more expensive to bring the
+land into its present condition, than the freehold is worth." Why, you
+seem more willing to destroy than your tools; and more able than time.
+The works which were the admiration of ages, you bury under ground. What
+the traveller comes many miles to see, you assiduously hide.
+
+What could be the meaning that the Romans erected their station on the
+declivity of this hill, when the summit, two hundred yards distant, is
+much more eligible; are there no foundations upon it? "None."
+
+The commandry is preferable: the Watling-street runs by it, and it is
+nearer the Ikenield-street. Pray, are you acquainted with another Roman
+road which crosses it? "No."
+
+Do you know any close about the village, where a narrow bed of gravel,
+which runs a considerable length, has impeded the plough?
+
+"Yes; there is a place, half a mile distant, where, when a child, I
+drove the plough; we penetrated a land of gravel, and my companion's
+grandfather told us, it had been an old road."--That is the place I
+want, lead me to it. Being already master of both ends of the road, like
+a broken line, with the center worn out, the gravel bed enabled me to
+recover it.
+
+The next station upon the Ikenield-street is Birmingham (Bremenium) I
+have examined this country with care; but find no vestiges of a station:
+nor shall we wonder; dissolation is the preserver of antiquity, nothing
+of which reigns here; the most likely place is Wor-ston (Wall-stone)
+which a younger brother of Birmingham might afterwards convert into the
+fashionable moat of the times, and erect a castle. The next station is
+Alcester (Alauna) all which are nearly at equal distances.
+
+In forming these grand roads, a strait direction seems to have been
+their leading maxim. Though curiosity has lead me to travel many hundred
+miles upon their roads, with the eye of an enquirer, I cannot recollect
+one instance, where they ever broke the line to avoid a hill, a swamp, a
+rock, or a river.
+
+They were well acquainted with the propriety of an old English adage,
+_Once well done is twice done_; an idea new cloathed by Lord
+Chesterfield, _If a a thing be worth doing at all, it is worth
+doing well_.
+
+For their roads were so durably constructed, that, had they been
+appropriated only to the use intended, they might have withstood the
+efforts of time, and bid fair for eternity.--Why is this useful art so
+lost among the moderns?
+
+When time and intercourse had so far united the Romans and the Britons,
+that they approached nearly to one people, the Romans formed, or rather
+_improved_, many of the smaller roads; placed stones of intelligence
+upon them; hence, London Stone, Stony Stratford (the stone at the
+Street-ford) Atherstone, stone (hither, near, or first stone from
+Witherly-bridge, a Roman camp) and fixed their stations in the places to
+which these roads tended.
+
+The great roads, as observed before, were chiefly appropriated for
+military purposes, and instituted in the beginning of their government;
+but the smaller were of later date, and designed for common use. As
+these came more in practice, there was less occasion for the military;
+which, not leading to their towns, were, in process of time, nearly
+laid aside.
+
+Antonine, and his numerous train of commentators, have not bestowed that
+attention on the roads they deserve: a curious acquaintance with the
+roads of a country, brings us acquainted with the manners of the people:
+in one, like a mirror, is exactly represented the other. Their state,
+like a master key, unlocks many apartments.
+
+The authors I have seen are _all in the wrong_; and as my researches are
+confined, it is a mortification, I am not able to set them right. They
+have confounded the two classes together, which were very distinct in
+chronology, the manner of making, and their use. If an author treats of
+one old road, he supposes himself bound to treat of all in the kingdom,
+a task no man can execute: by undertaking much, we do nothing well; the
+journey of an antiquarian mould never be rapid. If fortune offers a
+small discovery, let him think, and compare. Neither will they ever be
+set right, but continue to build a mouldering fabric, with untempered
+mortar, till a number of intelligent residents, by local enquiries can
+produce solid materials for a lasting monument.
+
+The Romans properly termed their ways streets, a name retained by many
+of them to this day; one of the smaller roads, issuing from London,
+penetrates through Stratford upon Avon (Street-ford) Monks-path-street,
+and Shirley-street, to Birmingham, which proves it of great antiquity,
+and the Ikenield-street running by it, proves it of greater. We may from
+hence safely conclude, Birmingham was a place of note in the time of
+Caesar, because she merited legislative regard in forming their roads;
+which will send us far back among the Britons, to find her first
+existence.
+
+Though we are certain the Ikenield-street passes about a mile in length
+through this parish, as described above; yet, as there are no Roman
+traces to be seen, I must take the curious traveller to that vast waste,
+called Sutton-Coldfield, about four miles distant, where he will, in the
+same road, find the footsteps of those great mailers of the world,
+marked in lasting characters.
+
+He will plainly see its straight line pass over the Ridgeway, through
+Sutton Park, leaving the West hedge about 200 yards to the left; through
+the remainder of the Coldfield, till lost in cultivation.
+
+This track is more than three miles in length, and is no where else
+visible in these parts. I must apprize him that its highest beauty is
+only discovered by an horizontal sun in the winter months.
+
+I first saw it in 1762, relieved by the transverse rays, in a clear
+evening in November; I had a perfect view upon the Ridgeway, near
+King's-standing of this delightful scene: Had I been attacked by the
+chill blasts of winter, upon this bleak mountain, the sensation would
+have been lost in the transport. The eye, at one view, takes in more
+than two miles. Struck with astonishment, I thought it the grandest
+sight I had ever beheld; and was amazed, so noble a monument of
+antiquity should be so little regarded.
+
+The poets have long contended for the line of beauty--they may find it
+here. I was fixed as by enchantment till the sun dropt, my prospect with
+it, and I left the place with regret.
+
+If the industrious traveller chooses to wade up to the middle in gorse,
+as I did, he may find a roughish journey along this famous
+military way.
+
+Perhaps this is the only road in which money is of no use to the
+traveller; for upon this barren wild he can neither spend it, nor
+give it away.
+
+He will perceive the Coldfield to be one vast bed of gravel, covered
+with a moderate depth of soil of eight or ten inches: During this
+journey of three miles, he will observe all the way, on each side, a
+number of pits, perhaps more than a thousand, out of which the Romans
+procured the gravel to form the road; none of them many yards from it.
+This great number of pits, tends to prove two points--That the country
+was full of timber, which they not choosing to fall, procured the gravel
+in the interstices; for the road is composed of nothing else--And, that
+a great number of people were employed in its formation: They would
+also, with the trees properly disposed, which the Romans must inevitably
+cut to procure a passage, form a barrier to the road.
+
+This noble production was designed by a master, is every where straight,
+and executed with labour and judgement.
+
+Here he perceives the date of his own conquest, and of his civilization.
+Thus the Romans humbled a ferocious people.
+
+If he chooses to measure it he will find it exactly sixty feet wide,
+divided into three lands, resembling those in a ploughed field. The
+centre land thirty-six feet, and raised from one to three, according to
+the nature of the ground. The side lands, twelve each, and rising seldom
+more than one foot.
+
+This centre land no doubt was appropriated for the march of the troops,
+and the small one, on each side, for the out-guards, who preserved their
+ranks, for fear of a surprize from the vigilant and angry Britons.
+
+The Romans held these roads in great esteem, and were severe in their
+laws for their preservation.
+
+This famous road is visible all the way, but in some parts greatly hurt,
+and in others, compleat as in the first day the Romans made it. Perhaps
+the inquisitive traveller may find here, the only monument in the whole
+island left us by the Romans, that _time_ hath not injured.
+
+The philosophical traveller may make some curious observations in the
+line of agriculture, yet in its infancy.
+
+The only growth upon this wild, is gorse and ling: The vegetation upon
+the road and the adjacent lands, seem equal: The pits are all covered
+with a tolerable turf.
+
+As this road has been made about 1720 years, and, as at the time of
+making, both that and the pits must have been surfaces of neat gravel;
+he will be led to examine, what degree of soil they have acquired in
+that long course of years, and by what means?
+
+He well knows, that the surface of the earth is very far from being a
+fixed body: That there is a continual motion in every part, stone
+excepted: That the operations of the sun, the air, the frost, the dews,
+the winds, and the rain, produce a constant agitation, which changes the
+particles and the pores, tends to promote vegetation, and to increase
+the soil to a certain depth.
+
+This progress is too minute for the human eye, but the effects are
+visible. The powers above mentioned operate nearly as yeast in a lump of
+dough, that enlivens the whole. Nature seems to wish that the foot would
+leave the path, that she may cover it with grass. He will find this
+vegetative power so strong, that it even attends the small detached
+parts of the soil where-ever they go, provided they are within reach of
+air and moisture: He will not only observe it in the small pots,
+appropriated for garden use, but on the tops of houses, remote from any
+road, where the wind has carried any small dust. He will also observe it
+in cracks of the rocks; but in an amazing degree in the thick walls of
+ruined castles, where, by a long course of time, the decayed materials
+are converted into a kind of soil, and so well covered with grass, that
+if one of our old castle builders could return to his possessions, he
+might mow his house as well as his field, and procure a tolerable crop
+from both.
+
+In those pits, upon an eminence, the soil will be found deep enough for
+any mode of husbandry. In those of the vallies, which take in the small
+drain of the adjacent parts, it is much deeper. That upon the road,
+which rather gives than receives any addition from drain, the average
+depth is about four inches.
+
+The soil is not only increased by the causes above, but also by the
+constant decays of the growth upon it. The present vegetable generation
+falling to decay, adds to the soil, and also, assists the next
+generation, which in a short time follows the same course.
+
+The author of the History of Sutton says, "The poor inhabitants are
+supplied with fuel from a magazine of peat, near the Roman road,
+composed of thousands of fir trees cut down by the Romans, to enable
+them to pass over a morass. The bodies of the trees are sometimes dug up
+found, with the marks of the axe upon them."
+
+Are we then to suppose, by this curious historical anecdote, that the
+inhabitants of Sutton have run away with this celebrated piece of
+antiquity? That the cart, instead of rolling _over_ the military way,
+has rolled _under_ it, and that they have boiled the pot with the
+Roman road?
+
+Upon inquiry, they seemed more inclined to credit the fact, than able to
+prove it; but I can find no such morass, neither is the road any where
+broken up. Perhaps it would be as difficult to find the trees, as the
+axe that cut them: Besides, the fir is not a native of Britain, but of
+Russia; and I believe our forefathers, the Britons, were not complete
+masters of the art of transplanting. The park of Sutton was probably a
+bed of oaks, the natural weed of the country, long before Moses figured
+in history.
+
+Whilst the political traveller is contemplating this extraordinary
+production of antiquity, of art, and of labour, his thoughts will
+naturally recur to the authors of it.
+
+He will find them proficients in science, in ambition, in taste: They
+added dominion to conquest, 'till their original territory became too
+narrow a basis to support the vast fabric acquired by the success of
+their arms: The monstrous bulk fell to destruction by its own
+weight.--Man was not made for universality; if he grasps at little, he
+may retain it; if at much, he may lose all.
+
+The confusion, natural on such occasions, produced anarchy: At that
+moment, the military stept into the government, and the people
+became slaves.
+
+Upon the ruins of this brave race, the Bishop of Rome founded an
+ecclesiastical jurisdiction. His power increasing with his votaries, he
+found means to link all christendom to the triple crown, and acquired an
+unaccountable ascendency over the human mind: The princes of Europe were
+harnessed, like so many coach horses. The pontiff directed the bridle.
+He sometimes used the whip, and sometimes the curse. The thunder of his
+throne rattled through the world with astonishing effect, 'till that
+most useful discovery, the art of printing, in the fifteenth century,
+dissolved the charm, and set the oppressed cattle at liberty; who began
+to kick their driver. Henry the Eighth of England, was the first unruly
+animal in the papal team, and the sagacious Cranmer assisted in breaking
+the shackles.
+
+We have, in our day, seen an order of priesthood in the church of Rome,
+annihilated by the consent of the European princes, which the Pope
+beheld in silence.
+
+"There is an ultimate point of exaltation, and reduction, beyond which
+human affairs cannot proceed." Rome, seems to have experienced both, for
+she is at this day one of the most contemptible states in the scale
+of empire.
+
+This will of course lead the traveller's thoughts towards Britain, where
+he will find her sons by nature inclined to a love of arms, of liberty,
+and of commerce. These are the strong outlines of national character,
+the interior parts of which are finished with the softer touches of
+humanity, of science, and of luxury. He will also find, that there is a
+natural boundary to every country, beyond which it is dangerous to add
+dominion. That the boundary of Britain is the sea: That her external
+strength is her navy, which protects her frontiers, and her commerce:
+That her internal is unanimity: That when her strength is united within
+herself, she is invincible, and the balance of Europe will be fixed in
+her hand, which she ought never to let go.
+
+But if she accumulates territory, though she may profit at first, she
+weakens her power by dividing it; for the more she fends abroad, the
+less will remain at home; and, instead of giving law to the tyrant, she
+may be obliged to receive law from him.
+
+That, by a multiplicity of additions, her little isles will be lost in
+the great map of dominion.
+
+That, if she attempts to draw that vast and growing empire, America, she
+may herself be drawn to destruction; for, by every law of attraction,
+the greater draws the less--The mouse was never meant to direct the ox.
+That the military and the ecclesiastical powers are necessary in their
+places, that is, subordinate to the civil.
+
+But my companion will remember that Birmingham is our historical mark,
+therefore we must retreat to that happy abode of the smiling arts. If he
+has no taste for antiquity, I have detained him too long upon this
+hungry, though delightful spot. If he has, he will leave the enchanted
+ground with reluctance; will often turn his head to repeat the view,
+'till the prospect is totally lost.
+
+
+
+LORDS OF THE MANOR.
+
+By the united voice of our historians, it appears, that as the Saxons
+conquered province after province, which was effected in about one
+hundred and thirty years, the unfortunate Britons retreated into Wales:
+But we are not to suppose that all the inhabitants ran away, and left a
+desolate region to the victor; this would have been of little more value
+to the conqueror, than the possession of Sutton Coldfield or Bromsgrove
+Lickey. The mechanic and the peasant were left, which are by far the
+greatest number; they are also the riches of a country; stamp a value
+upon property, and it becomes current. As they have nothing to lose, so
+they have nothing to fear; for let who will be master, they must be
+drudges: Their safety consists in their servitude; the victor is ever
+conscious of their utility, therefore their protection is certain.
+
+But the danger lies with the man of substance, and the greater that
+substance, the greater his anxiety to preserve it, and the more danger
+to himself if conquered: These were the people who retreated into Wales.
+Neither must we consider the wealth of that day to consist of bags of
+cash, bills of exchange, India bonds, bank stock, etc. no such thing
+existed. Property lay in the land, and the herds that fed upon it. And
+here I must congratulate our Welch neighbours, who are most certainly
+descended from gentlemen; and I make no doubt but the Cambrian reader
+will readily unite in the same sentiment.
+
+The Saxons, as conquerors, were too proud to follow the modes of the
+conquered, therefore they introduced government, laws, language,
+customs and habits of their own. Hence we date the division of the
+kingdom into manors.
+
+Human nature is nearly the same in all ages. Where value is marked upon
+property or power, it will find its votaries: Whoever was the most
+deserving, or rather could make the most interest, procured land
+sufficient for an Elderman, now Earl; the next class, a Manor; and the
+inferior, who had borne the heat and burthen of the day--nothing.
+
+I must now introduce an expression which I promised not to forget.--In
+the course of a trial between William de Birmingham, and the inhabitants
+of Bromsgrove and King's-norton, in 1309, concerning the right of
+tollage; it appeared, That the ANCESTORS of the said William had a
+market here before the Norman conquest. This proves, that the family of
+Birmingham were of Saxon race, and Lords of the Manor prior to
+that period.
+
+Mercia was not only the largest, but also the last of the seven
+conquered kingdoms--It was bounded on the North by the Humber, on the
+West by the Severn, on the South by the Thames, and on the East by the
+German ocean. Birmingham lies nearly in the centre. Cridda, a Saxon,
+came over with a body of troops, and reduced it in 582; therefore, as
+no after revolution happened that could cause Birmingham to change its
+owner, and as land was not in a very saleable state at that time, there
+is the greatest reason to suppose the founder of the house of Birmingham
+Came over with Cridda, as an officer in his army, and procured this
+little flourishing dominion as a reward for his service.
+
+The succeeding generations of this illustrious family are too remote for
+historical penetration, 'till the reign of Edward the Confessor, the
+last of the Saxon Kings, when we find, in 1050,
+
+
+
+ULUUINE, (since ALWYNE, now ALLEN,)
+
+master of this improving spot.
+
+RICHARD,
+
+1066,
+
+seems to have succeeded him, and to have lived in that unfortunate
+period for property, the conquest.
+
+The time was now arrived when this ancient family, with the rest of the
+English gentry, who had lived under the benign climate of Saxon
+government, and in the affluence of fortune, must quit the happy
+regions of hospitality, and enter the gloomy precincts of penury--From
+givers, they were to become beggars.
+
+The whole conduct of William seems to have carried the strongest marks
+of conquest. Many of the English lost their lives, some their liberty,
+and nearly all their estates. The whole land in the kingdom was
+insufficient to satisfy the hungry Normans.
+
+Perhaps William took the wisest method to secure the conquered country
+that could be devised by human wisdom; he parcelled out the kingdom
+among his greater Barons; the whole county of Chester is said to have
+fallen to the share of Hugh Lupus: and these were subdivided into 62,000
+Knight's-sees, which were held under the great Barons by military
+service. Thus the Sovereign by only signifying his pleasure to the
+Barons, could instantly raise an army for any purpose. We cannot produce
+a stronger indication of arbitrary government: But, it is happy for the
+world, that perfection is not found even in human wisdom; for this well
+laid scheme destroyed itself. Instead of making the crown absolute, as
+was intended, it threw the balance into the hands of the Barons, who
+became so many petty Sovereigns, and a scourge to the King in after
+ages, 'till Henry the Seventh sapped their power, and raised the third
+estate, the Commons, which quickly eclipsed the other two.
+
+The English gentry suffered great distress: Their complaints rung loud
+in the royal ear, some of them therefore, who had been peaceable and
+never opposed the Normans, were suffered to enjoy their estates in
+dependance upon the great Barons.
+
+This was the case with Richard, Lord of Birmingham, who held this manor
+by knight's-service of William Fitz-Ausculf, Lord of Dudley castle, and
+perhaps all the land between the two places.
+
+Thus Birmingham, now rising towards the meridian of opulence, was a
+dependant upon Dudley castle, now in ruins; and thus an honourable
+family, who had enjoyed a valuable freehold, perhaps near 500 years,
+were obliged to pay rent, homage, suit and service, attend the Lord's
+court at Dudley every three weeks, be called into the field at pleasure,
+and after all, possess a precarious tenure in villainage.
+
+The blood of the ancient English was not only tainted with the breath of
+that destructive age, but their lands also. The powerful blast destroyed
+their ancient freehold tenures, reducing them into wretched copyholds:
+and to the disgrace of succeeding ages, many of them retain this mark of
+Norman slavery to the present day. How defective are those laws, which
+give one man power over another in neutral cases? That tend to promote
+quarrels, prevent cultivation, and which cannot draw the line between
+property and property?
+
+Though a spirit of bravery is certainly a part of the British character,
+yet there are two or three periods in English history, when this noble
+flame was totally extinguished. Every degree of resolution seems to have
+been cut off at the battle of Hastings. The English acted contrary to
+their usual manner:--Danger had often made them desperate, but now it
+made them humble. This conquest is one of the most extraordinary held
+forth in history; the flower of nobility was wholly nipped off; the
+spirit of the English depressed, and having no head to direct, or hand
+to cultivate the courage of the people and lead it into action, it
+dwindled at the root, was trampled under the foot of tyranny, and,
+according to _Smollet_, several generations elapsed before any one of
+the old English stock blossomed into peerage.
+
+It is curious to contemplate the revolution of things--Though the
+conquering Romans flood first in the annals of same at the beginning of
+the Christian era, yet they were a whole century in carrying their
+illustrious arms over the island, occupied only by a despicable race of
+Britons. Though the Saxons were invited, by one false step in politics,
+to assist the Britons in expelling an enemy, which gave them an
+opportunity of becoming enemies themselves; yet it was 130 years before
+they could complete their conquest. And though the industrious Dane
+poured incessant numbers of people into Britain, yet it cost them 200
+years, and 150,000 men before they reduced it. But William, at one blow,
+finished the dreadful work, shackled her sons to his throne, and
+governed them with a sceptre of iron. Normandy, a petty dukedom, very
+little larger than Yorkshire, conquered a mighty nation in one day.
+England seems to have been taken by storm, and her liberties put to the
+sword: Nor did the miseries of this ill-fated kingdom end here, for the
+continental dominions, which William annexed to the crown, proved a
+whirlpool for 400 years, which drew the blood and treasure of the nation
+into its vortex, 'till those dominions were fortunately lost in the
+reign of Mary the First.
+
+Thus the Romans spent one century in acquiring a kingdom, which they
+governed for four. The Saxons spent 130 years, and ruled for 459. The
+Danes spent 200 and reigned for 25--But the Norman spent one day only,
+for a reign of 700 years: They continue to reign still.
+
+It is easy to point out some families of Norman race, who yet enjoy the
+estates won by their ancestors at the battle of Hastings.
+
+
+
+WILLIAM,
+
+1130,
+
+Like his unfortunate father, was in a state of vassalage. The male line
+of the Fitz-Ausculfs soon became extinct, and Gervase Paganell marrying
+the heiress, became Baron of Dudley-castle.
+
+
+
+PETER DE BIRMINGHAM,
+
+1154.
+
+It is common in every class of life, for the inferior to imitate the
+superior: If the real lady claims a head-dress sixteen inches high, that
+of the imaginary lady will immediately begin to thrive. The family, or
+surname, entered with William the First, and was soon the reigning taste
+of the day: A person was thought of no consequence without a surname,
+and even the depressed English, crept into the fashion, in imitation of
+their masters. I have already mentioned the Earl of Warwick, father of a
+numerous race now in Birmingham; whose name before the conquest was
+simply Turchill, but after, Turchill de Arden, (Matter of the Woods)
+from his own estate.
+
+Thus the family of whom I speak, chose to dignify themselves with the
+name of _de Birmingham_.
+
+Peter wisely consulted his own interest, kept fair with Paganall his
+Lord, and obtained from him, in 1166, nine Knight's-fees, which he held
+by military service.
+
+A Knight's-fee, though uncommon now, was a word well understood 600
+years ago. It did not mean, as some have imagined, fifteen pounds per
+annum, nor any determinate sum; but as much land as would support a
+gentleman. This Peter was fewer to Paganall, (waited at his table)
+though a man of great property.
+
+The splendor in which the great Barons of that age lived, was little
+inferior to royalty.
+
+The party distinctions also of Saxon and Norman, in the twelfth century,
+began to die away, as the people became united by interest or marriage,
+like that of Whig and Tory, in the eighteenth. And perhaps there is not
+at present a native that does not carry in his veins the blood of the
+four nations that were grafted upon the Britons.
+
+Peter himself lived in affluence at his castle, then near Birmingham,
+now the Moat, of which in the next section. He also obtained from Henry
+the Second, as well as from Paganall the Lord paramount, several
+valuable privileges for his favourite inheritance of Birmingham. He bore
+for his arms, _azure, a bend lozenge_, of five points, _or_; the coat of
+his ancestors.
+
+
+
+WILLIAM DE BIRMINGHAM,
+
+1216.
+
+At the reduction of Ireland, in the reign of Henry the Second, a branch
+of this family, and perhaps uncle to William, was very instrumental
+under Richard Strongbow, Earl of Pembroke, in accomplishing that great
+end; for which he was rewarded with a large estate, and the title of
+Earl of Lowth, both which continue in his family. Perhaps they are the
+only remains of this honorable house.
+
+
+
+WILLIAM DE BIRMINGHAM,
+
+1246.
+
+By this time, the male line of the Paganalls was worn out, and Roger de
+Someri marrying the heiress, became Baron of Dudley, with all its
+dependencies; but Someri and Birmingham did not keep peace, as their
+fathers had done. William, being very rich, forgot to ride to Dudley
+every three weeks, to perform suit and service at Someri's court.
+
+Whereupon a contest commenced to enforce the performance. But, in 1262,
+it was agreed between the contending parties--That William should attend
+the Lord's court only twice a year, Easter and Michaelmas, and at such
+other times, as the Lord chose to command by special summons. This
+William, having married the daughter of Thomas de Astley, a man of great
+eminence, and both joining with the Barons under Simon Mountfort, Earl
+of Leicester, against Henry the Third, William fell, in 1265, at the
+battle of Evesham; and as the loser is ever the rebel, the Barons were
+prescribed, and their estates confiscated.
+
+The manor of Birmingham, therefore, valued at forty pounds per annum,
+was seized by the King, and given to his favorite, Roger de Clifford.
+
+
+
+WILLIAM DE BIRMINGHAM,
+
+1265.
+
+By a law called the statute of Kenilworth, every man who had forfeited
+his estate to the crown, by having taken up arms, had liberty to redeem
+his lands, by a certain fine: William therefore paid that fine, and
+recovered the inheritance of his family. He also, in 1283 strengthened
+his title by a charter from Edward the First, and likewise to the other
+manors he possessed, such as Stockton, in the County of Worcester;
+Shetford, in Oxfordshire; Maidencoat, in Berkshire; Hoggeston, in the
+county of Bucks; and Christleton, in Cheshire.
+
+In 1285, Edward brought his writ of quo warranto, whereby every holder
+of land was obliged to show by what title he held it. The consequence
+would have been dreadful to a Prince of less prudence than Edward. Some
+showed great unwillingness; for a dormant title will not always bear
+examination--But William producing divers charters, clearly proved his
+right to every manorial privilege, such as market, toll, tem, sack, sok,
+insangenthief, weyfs, gallows, court-leet, and pillory, with a right to
+fix the standard for bread and beer; all which were allowed.
+
+William, Lord of Birmingham, being a military tenant, was obliged to
+attend the King into Gascoigne, 1297, where he lost his liberty at the
+siege of Bellgard, and was carried prisoner in triumph to Paris.
+
+
+
+WILLIAM DE BIRMINGHAM,
+
+1306.
+
+This is the man who tried the right of tollage with the people of
+Bromsgrove and King's norton.
+
+
+
+WILLIAM DE BIRMINGHAM,
+
+LORD BIRMINGHAM.
+
+1316.
+
+Was knighted in 1325; well affected to Edward the Second, for whose
+service he raised four hundred foot. Time seems to have put a period to
+the family of Someri, Lords of Dudley, as well as to those of their
+predecessors, the Paganalls, and the Fitz-Ausculfs.
+
+In 1327, the first of Edward the Third, Sir William was summoned to
+Parliament, by the title of William Lord Birmingham, but not after.
+
+It was not the fashion of that day to fill the House of Peers by patent.
+The greater Barons held a local title from their Baronies; the possessor
+of one of these, claimed a seat among the Lords.
+
+I think, they are now all extinct, except Arundel, the property of the
+Norfolk family, and whoever is proprietor of Arundel castle, is Earl
+thereof by ancient prescription.
+
+The lesser Barons were called up to the House by writ, which did not
+confer an hereditary title. Of this class was the Lord of Birmingham.
+
+Hugh Spencer, the favourite of the weak Edward the Second, had procured
+the custody of Dudley-castle, with all its appendages, for his friend
+William, Lord Birmingham.
+
+Thus the family who had travelled from Birmingham to Dudley every three
+weeks, to perform humble suit at the Lord's court, held that very court
+by royal appointment, to receive the fealty of others.
+
+By the patent which constituted William keeper of Dudley-castle, he was
+obliged to account for the annual profits arising from that vast estate
+into the King's exchequer. When, therefore, in 1334, he delivered in his
+accounts, the Barons refused to admit them, because the money was
+defective. But he had interest enough with the crown to cause a mandamus
+to be issued, commanding the Barons to admit them.
+
+
+
+SIR FOUK DE BIRMINGHAM,
+
+1340.
+
+This man advanced to Sir Baldwin Freville, Lord of Tamworth, forty eight
+marks, upon mortgage of five mills. The ancient coat of the _bend
+lozenge_, was now changed for the _partie per pale, indented, or,
+and gules_.
+
+In 1352, and 1362 he was returned a member for the county of Warwick;
+also, in three or four succeeding Parliaments.
+
+
+
+SIR JOHN DE BIRMINGHAM,
+
+1376.
+
+Served the office of Sheriff for the county of Warwick, in 1379, and was
+successively returned to serve in Parliament for the counties of
+Warwick, Bedford, and Buckingham. He married the daughter of William de
+la Planch, by whom he had no issue. She afterwards married the Lord
+Clinton, retained the manor of Birmingham as her dower, and lived to the
+year 1424.
+
+It does not appear in this illustrious family, that the regular line of
+descent, from father to son, was ever broken, from the time of the
+Saxons, 'till 1390. This Sir John left a brother, Sir Thomas de
+Birmingham, heir at law, who enjoyed the bulk of his brother's fortune;
+but was not to possess the manor of Birmingham 'till the widow's death,
+which not happening 'till after his own, he never enjoyed it.
+
+The Lord Clinton and his Lady seem to have occupied the Manor-house; and
+Sir Thomas, unwilling to quit the place of his affections and of his
+nativity, erected a castle for himself at Worstone, near the Sand-pits,
+joining the Ikenield-street; street; where, though the building is
+totally gone, the vestiges of its liquid security are yet complete. This
+Sir Thomas enjoyed several public offices, and figured in the style of
+his ancestors. He left a daughter, who married Thomas de la Roche, and
+from this marriage sprang two daughters; the eldest of which married
+Edmund, Lord Ferrers of Chartley, who, at the decease of Sir John's
+widow, inherited the manor, and occupied the Manor house. There yet
+stands a building on the North-east side of the Moat, erected by this
+Lord Ferrers, with his arms in the timbers of the ceiling, and the
+crest, a horse-shoe.
+
+I take this house to be the oldest in Birmingham, though it hath not
+that appearance; having stood about 350 years.
+
+By an entail of the manor upon the male line, the Lady Ferrers seems to
+have quitted her title in favor of a second cousin, a descendant of
+William de Birmingham, brother to Sir Fouk.
+
+
+
+WILLIAM DE BIRMINGHAM,
+
+1430.
+
+In the 19th of Henry the Sixth, 1441, is said to have held his manor of
+Birmingham, of Sir John Sutton, Lord of Dudley, by military service;
+but instead of paying homage, fealty, escuage, &c. as his ancestors had
+done, which was very troublesome to the tenant, and brought only empty
+honour to the Lord: and, as sometimes the Lord's necessities taught him
+to think that money was more _Solid_ than suit and service; an agreement
+was entered into, for money instead of homage, between the Lord and the
+tenant--Such agreements now became common. Thus land became a kind of
+bastard freehold:--The tenant held a certainty, while he conformed to
+the agreement; or, in other words, the custom of the manor--And the Lord
+still possessed a material control. He died in 1479, leaving a son,
+
+
+
+SIR WILLIAM BIRMINGHAM,
+
+1479,
+
+Aged thirty at the decease of his father. He married Isabella, heiress
+of William Hilton, by whom he had a son, William, who died before his
+father, June 7, 1500, leaving a son,
+
+
+
+EDWARD BIRMINGHAM,
+
+1500,
+
+Born in 1497, and succeeded his grandfather at the age of three. During
+his minority, Henry the Seventh, 1502, granted the wardship to Edward,
+Lord Dudley.
+
+The family estate then consisted of the manors of Birmingham, Over
+Warton, Nether Warton, Mock Tew, Little Tew, and Shutford in the county
+of Oxford, Hoggeston in Bucks, and Billesley in the county of Worcester.
+Edward afterwards married Elizabeth, widow of William Ludford, of
+Annesley, by whom he had one daughter, who married a person of the name
+of Atkinson.
+
+But after the peaceable possession of a valuable estate, for thirty
+seven years; the time was now arrived, when the mounds of justice must
+be broken down by the weight of power, a whole deluge of destruction
+enter, and overwhelm an ancient and illustrious family, in the person of
+an innocent man. The world would view the diabolical transaction with
+amazement, none daring to lend assistance to the unfortunate; not
+considering, that property should ever be under the protection of law;
+and, what was Edward's case to-day, might be that of any other man
+to-morrow. But the oppressor kept fair with the crown, and the crown
+held a rod of iron over the people.--Suffer me to tell the mournful tale
+from Dugdale's Antiquities of Warwickshire.
+
+
+
+1537,
+
+John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, a man of great wealth, unbounded
+ambition, and one of the basest characters of the age, was possessor of
+Dudley-castle, and the fine estate belonging to it:--He wished to add
+Birmingham to his vast domain. Edward Birmingham therefore was privately
+founded, respecting the disposal of his manor; but as money was not
+wanted, and as the place had been the honor and the residence of his
+family for many centuries, it was out of the reach of purchase.
+
+Northumberland was so charmed with its beauty, he was determined to
+possess it; and perhaps the manner in which he accomplished his design,
+cannot be paralleled in the annals of infamy.
+
+He procured two or three rascals of his own temper, and rather of mean
+appearance, to avoid suspicion, to take up their quarters for a night or
+two in Birmingham, and gain secret intelligence when Edward Birmingham
+should ride out, and what road: This done, one of the rascals was to
+keep before the others, but all took care that Edward should easily
+overtake them. Upon his arrival at the first class, the villains joined
+him, entered into chat, and all moved soberly together 'till they
+reached the first man; when, on a sudden, the strangers with Edward drew
+their pistols and robbed their brother villain, who no doubt lost a
+considerable sum after a decent resistance. Edward was easily known,
+apprehended, and committed as one of the robbers; the others were not
+to be found.
+
+Edward immediately saw himself on the verge of destruction. He could
+only _alledge_, but not _prove_ his innocence: All the proof the case
+could admit of, was against him.
+
+Northumberland (then only Lord L'Isle) hitherto had succeeded to his
+wish; nor was Edward long in suspence--Private hints were given him,
+that the only way to save his life, was to make Northumberland his
+friend; and this probably might be done, by resigning to him his manor
+of Birmingham; with which the unfortunate Edward reluctantly complied.
+
+Northumberland thinking a common conveyance insufficient, caused Edward
+to yield his estate into the hands of the King, and had interest enough
+in that age of injustice to procure a ratification from a weak
+Parliament, by which means he endeavoured to throw the odium off his own
+character, and fix it upon theirs, and also, procure to himself a
+safer title.
+
+An extract from that base act is as follows:--
+
+"Whereas Edward Byrmingham, late of Byrmingham in the countie of
+Warwick, Esquire, otherwise callid Edward Byrmingham, Esquire, ys and
+standyth lawfully indettid to our soverene Lord the Kinge, in diverse
+grete summes of money; and also standyth at the mercy of his Highness,
+for that the same Edward ys at this present convected of felony: Our
+seide soverene Lord the Kinge ys contentid and pleasid, that for and in
+recompence and satisfaction to his Grace of the seyde summes of money,
+to accept and take of the seyde Edward the mannour and lordship of
+Byrmingham, otherwise callid Byrmincham, with the appurtinances, lying
+and being in the countie of Warwick, and all and singuler other lands
+and tenements, reversions, rents, services, and hereditaments of the
+same Edward Byrmingham, set, lying and beying in the countie of Warwick
+aforesaid. Be yt therefore ordeyned and enacted, by the authoritie of
+this present Parliament, that our seyde soverene Lord the Kinge shall
+have, hold, and enjoy, to him and his heires and assignes for ever, the
+seyde mannour and lordship of Byrmingham, &c."
+
+In the act there is a reservation of 40_l_. per annum, during the lives
+only of the said Edward and his wife.
+
+It appears also, by an expression in the act, that Edward was brought to
+trial, and found guilty. Thus innocence is depressed for want of
+support; property is wrested for want of the protection of the law; and
+a vile minister, in a corrupt age, can carry an infamous point through a
+court of justice, the two Houses of Parliament, and complete his horrid
+design by the sanction of a tyrant.
+
+The place where tradition tells us this diabolical transaction happened,
+is the middle of Sandy-lane, in the Sutton road; the upper part of which
+begins at the North east corner of Aston park wall; at the bottom, you
+bear to the left, for Sawford-bridge, or to the right, for
+Nachell's-green; about two miles from the Moat, the place of
+Edward's abode.
+
+Except that branch which proceeded from this original stem, about 600
+years ago, of which the Earl of Lowth is head, I know of no male
+descendant from this honourable stock; who, if we allow the founder to
+have come over with Cridda, the Saxon, in 582, must have commanded this
+little Sovereignty 955 years.
+
+I met with a person sometime ago of the name of Birmingham, and was
+pleased with the hope of finding a member of that ancient and honorable
+house; but he proved so amasingly ignorant, he could not tell whether he
+was from the clouds, the sea, or the dunghill: instead of traceing the
+existence of his ancestors, even so high as his father, he was scarcely
+conscious of his own.
+
+As this house did not much abound with daughters, I cannot at present
+recollect any families among us, except that of Bracebridge, who are
+descended from this illustrious origin, by a female line; and Sir John
+Talbot Dillon, who is descended from the ancient Earls of Lowth, as he
+is from the De Veres, the more ancient Earls of Oxford.
+
+Here, then, I unwillingly extinguish that long range of lights, which
+for many ages illuminated the house of Birmingham.
+
+But I cannot extinguish the rascallity of the line of Northumberland.
+This unworthy race, proved a scourge to the world, at least during three
+generations. Each, in his turn, presided in the British cabinet; and
+each seems to have possessed the villainy of his predecessor, united
+with his own. The first, only _served_ a throne; but the second and the
+third intended to _fill_ one. A small degree of ambition warms the mind
+in pursuit of fame, through the paths of honor; while too large a
+portion tends to unfavorable directions, kindles to a flame, consumes
+the finer sensations of rectitude, and leaves a stench behind.
+
+Edmund, the father of this John, was the voracious leech, with Empson,
+who sucked the vitals of the people, to feed the avarice of Henry
+the Seventh.
+
+It is singular that Henry, the most sagacious prince since the conquest,
+loaded him with honours for filling the royal coffers with wealth, which
+the penurious monarch durst never enjoy: but his successor, Henry the
+Eighth, enjoyed the pleasure of consuming that wealth, and _executed_
+the father for collecting it! How much are our best laid schemes
+defective? How little does expectation and event coincide? It is no
+disgrace to a man that he died on the scaffold; the question is--What
+brought him there? Some of the most inoffensive, and others the most
+exalted characters of the age in which they lived, have been cut off by
+the axe, as Edward Plantagenet, Earl of Warwick, for being the last male
+heir of the Anjouvin Kings; John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, Sir Thomas
+Moore, Sir Walter Raleigh, Algernon Sidney, William Lord Russell, &c.
+whose blood ornamented the scaffold on which they fell.
+
+The son of this man, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, favorite of Queen
+Elizabeth, is held up by our historians as a master-piece of
+dissimulation, pride, and cruelty. He married three wives, all which he
+is charged with sending to the grave by untimely deaths; one of them, to
+open a passage to the Queen's bed, to which he aspired. It is
+surprising, that he should deceive the penetrating eye of Elizabeth: but
+I am much inclined to think she _knew him_ better than the world; and
+they knew him rather to well. He ruined many of the English gentry,
+particularly the ancient family of Arden, of Park-hall, in this
+neighbourhood: he afterwards ruined his own family by disinheriting a
+son, more worthy than himself.--If he did not fall by the executioner,
+it is no proof that he did not deserve it.--We now behold
+
+
+
+JOHN, DUKE OF NORTHUMBERLAND, 1537,
+
+Lord of the manor of Birmingham; a man, who of all others the least
+deserved that honor; or rather, deserved the axe for being so.
+
+Some have asserted, "That property acquired by dishonesty cannot
+prosper." But I shall leave the philosopher and the enthusiast to settle
+that important point, while I go on to observe, That that the lordship
+of Birmingham did not prosper with the Duke. Though he had, in some
+degree, the powers of government in his hands, he had also the clamours
+of the people in his ears. What were his inward feelings, is uncertain
+at this distance--Fear seems to have prevented him from acknowledging
+Birmingham for his property. Though he exercised every act of ownership,
+yet he suffered the fee-simple to rest in the crown, 'till nine years
+had elapsed, and those clamours subsided, before he ventured to accept
+the grant, in 1546.
+
+As the execution of this grant was one of the last acts of Henry's life,
+we should be apt to suspect the Duke carried it in his pocket ready for
+signing, but deferred the matter as long as he could with safety, that
+distance of time might annihilate reflection; and that the King's death,
+which happened a few weeks after, might draw the attention of the world
+too much, by the importance of the event, to regard the Duke's conduct.
+
+The next six years, which carries us through the reign of Edward the
+Sixth, is replete with the intrigues of this illustrious knave. He
+sought connections with the principal families: He sought honours for
+his own: He procured a match between his son, the Lord Guildford Dudley,
+and the Lady Jane Gray, daughter of the Duke of Suffolk, and a
+descendant from Henry the Seventh, with intent of fixing the crown in
+his family, but failing in the attempt, he brought ruin upon the Suffolk
+family, and himself to the block, in the first of Queen Mary, 1553.
+
+Though a man be guilty of many atrocious acts that deserve death, yet in
+the hour of distress humanity demands the tear of compassion; but the
+case was otherwise at the execution of John, Duke of Northumberland, for
+a woman near the scaffold held forth a bloody handkerchief and
+exclaimed, "Behold the blood of the Duke of Somerset, shed by your
+means, and which cries for vengeance against you."
+
+Thus Northumberland kept a short and rough possession of glory; thus he
+fell unlamented; and thus the manor of Birmingham reverted to the crown
+a second time, the Duke himself having first taught it the way.
+
+Birmingham continued two years in the crown, 'till the third of Queen
+Mary, when she granted it to
+
+
+
+THOMAS MARROW,
+
+1555,
+
+Whose family, for many descents, resided at Berkeswell, in this county.
+
+In the possession of the High Bailiff is a bushel measure, cast in
+brass, of some value; round which in relief is, SAMUEL MARROW, LORD OF
+THE MANOR OF BIRMINGHAM, 1664.
+
+The Lordship continued in this family about 191 years, 'till the male
+line failing, it became the joint property of four coheirs--Ann, married
+to Sir Arthur Kaye; Mary, the wife of John Knightley, Esq; Ursulla, the
+wife of Sir Robert Wilmot; and Arabella, unmarried; who, in about 1730,
+disposed of the private estate in the manor, amounting to about 400_l_.
+per annum, to Thomas Sherlock, Bishop of London, as before observed, and
+the manor itself to
+
+
+
+THOMAS ARCHER, ESQ.
+
+for 1,700_l_. in 1746,
+
+Of an ancient family, who have resided at Umberslade in this county more
+than 600 years--from him it descended to
+
+
+
+ANDREW, LORD ARCHER,
+
+And is now enjoyed by his relict,
+
+
+
+SARAH, LADY ARCHER,
+
+1781,
+
+Possessing no more in the parish than the royalty; as it does not appear
+that the subsequent Lords, after the extinction of the house of
+Birmingham, were resident upon the manor, I omit particulars.
+
+Let me remark, this place yet gives title to the present Lord Viscount
+Dudley and Ward, as descended, by the female line, from the great
+Norman Barons, the Fitz-Ausculfs, the Paganalls, the Somerys, the
+Suttons, and the Dudleys, successively Lords paramount, whose original
+power is reduced to a name.
+
+
+
+MANOR HOUSE.
+
+(The Moat.)
+
+The natural temper of the human mind, like that of the brute, is given
+to plunder: This temper is very apt to break forth into action. In all
+societies of men, therefore, restraints have been discovered, under the
+name of laws, attended with punishment, to deter people from infringing
+each others property. Every thing that a man can possess, falls under
+the denomination of property; whether it be life, liberty, wealth or
+character.
+
+The less perfect these laws are, the less a people are removed from the
+rude state of nature, and the more necessity there is for a man to be
+constantly in a state of defence, that he may be able to repel any force
+that shall rise up against him.
+
+It is easy to discover, by the laws of a country, how far the people are
+advanced in civilization. If the laws are defective, or the magistrate
+too weak to execute them, it is dangerous for a man to possess property.
+
+But when a nation is pretty far advanced in social existence; when the
+laws agree with reason, and are executed with firmness, a man need not
+trouble himself concerning the protection of his property--his country
+will protect it for him.
+
+The laws of England have, for many ages, been gradually refining; and
+are capable of that protection which violence never was.
+
+But if we penetrate back into the recesses of time, we shall find the
+laws inadequate, the manners savage, force occupy the place of justice,
+and property unprotected. In those barbarous ages, therefore, men sought
+security by intrenching themselves from a world they could not trust.
+This was done by opening a large ditch round their habitation, which
+they filled with water, and which was only approachable by a
+draw-bridge. This, in some degree, supplied the defect of the law, and
+the want of power in the magistrate. It also, during the iron reign of
+priesthood, furnished that table in lent, which it guarded all the year.
+
+The Britons had a very slender knowledge of fortification. The camps
+they left us, are chiefly upon eminences, girt by a shallow ditch,
+bordered with stone, earth, or timber, but never with water. The moat,
+therefore, was introduced by the Romans; their camps are often in
+marshes; some wholly, and some in part surrounded by water.
+
+These liquid barriers were begun in England early in the christian aera,
+they were in the zenith of their glory at the barons wars, in the reign
+of king John, and continued to be the mode of fortification till the
+introduction of guns, in the reign of Edward the fourth, which shook
+their foundation; and the civil wars of Charles the first totally
+annihilated their use, after an existence of twelve hundred years.
+
+Perhaps few parishes, that have been the ancient habitation of a
+gentleman, are void of some traces of these fluid bulwarks. That of
+Birmingham has three; one of these, of a square form, at Warstone,
+erected by a younger brother of the house of Birmingham, hath already
+been mentioned; it is fed by a small rivulet from Rotton Park, which
+crosses the Dudley Road, near the Sand pits.
+
+Another is the Parsonage house, belonging to St. Martin's, formerly
+situated in the road to Bromsgrove, now Smallbrook street, of a circular
+figure, and supplied by a neighbouring spring. If we allow this watery
+circle to be a proof of the great antiquity of the house, it is a much
+greater with regard to the antiquity of the church.
+
+The third is what we simply denominate the Moat, and was the residence
+of the ancient lords of Birmingham, situated about sixty yards south of
+the church, and twenty west of Digbeth; this is also circular, and
+supplied by a small stream that crosses the road to Bromsgrove, near the
+first mile stone; it originally ran into the river Rea, near Vaughton's
+hole, dividing the parishes of Birmingham and Edgbaston all the way, but
+at the formation of the Moat, was diverted from its course, into which
+it never returned.
+
+No certain evidence remains to inform us when this liquid work was
+accomplished: perhaps in the Saxon heptarchy, when there were few or no
+buildings south of the church. Digbeth seems to have been one of the
+first streets added to this important school of arts; the upper part of
+that street must of course have been formed first: but, that the Moat
+was completed prior to the erection of any buildings between that and
+Digbeth, is evident, because those buildings stand upon the very soil
+thrown out in forming the Moat.
+
+The first certain account that we meet with of this guardian circle, is
+in the reign of Henry the Second, 1154, when Peter de Birmingham, then
+lord of the see, had a cattle here, and lived in splendor. All the
+succeeding Lords resided upon the same island, till their cruel
+expulsion by John Duke of Northumberland in 1537.
+
+The old castle followed its lords, and is buried in the ruins of time.
+Upon the spot, about forty years ago, rose a house in the modern style,
+occupied by a manufacturer (John Francis;) in one of the out-buildings
+is shewn, the apartment where the ancient lords kept their court leet;
+another out-building which stands to the east, I have already observed,
+was the work of Edmund Lord Ferrers.
+
+The ditch being filled with water, has nearly the same appearance now as
+perhaps a thousand years ago, but not altogether the same use. It then
+served to protect its master, but now, to turn a thread-mill.
+
+
+
+PUDDING BROOK.
+
+Near the place where the small rivulet discharges itself into the Moat,
+another of the same size is carried over it, called Pudding Brook, and
+proceeds from the town as this advances towards it, producing a
+curiosity seldom met with; one river running South, and the other North,
+for half a mile, yet only a path-road of three feet asunder; which
+surprised Brindley the famous engineer.
+
+
+
+THE PRIORY.
+
+The site of this ancient edifice is now the Square; some small remains
+of the old foundations are yet visible in the cellars, chiefly on the
+South-east. The out-buildings and pleasure-grounds perhaps occupied the
+whole North east side of Bull-street, then uninhabited, and only the
+highway to Wolverhampton; bounded on the North-west by Steelhouse-lane;
+on the North-east by Newton and John's-street; and on the South-east by
+Dale-end, which also was no other than the highway to Lichfield--The
+whole, about fourteen acres.
+
+The building upon this delightful eminence, which at that time commanded
+the small but beautiful prospect of Bristland-fields, Rowley-hills,
+Oldbury, Smethewick, Handsworth, Sutton-Coldfield, Erdington, Saltley,
+the Garrison, and Camp-hill, and which then stood at a distance from the
+town, though now near its centre; was founded by the house of
+Birmingham, in the early reigns of the Norman Kings, and called the
+Hospital of Saint Thomas,--The priest being bound to pray for the souls
+of the founders every day, to the end of the world.
+
+In 1285, Thomas de Madenhache, Lord of the manor of Aston, gave ten
+acres of land in his manor. William de Birmingham ten, which I take to
+be the land where the Priory stood; and Ranulph de Rakeby three acres,
+in Saltley: About the same time, sundry others gave houses and land in
+smaller quantities: William de Birmingham gave afterwards twenty-two
+acres more. The same active spirit seems to have operated in our
+ancestors, 500 years ago, that does in their descendants at this day: If
+a new scheme strikes the fancy, it is pursued with vigor.
+
+The religious fervor of that day ran high: It was unfashionable to leave
+the world, and not remember the Priory. Donations crowded in so fast,
+that the prohibiting act was forgot; so that in 1311, the brotherhood
+were prosecuted by the crown, for appropriating lands contrary to the
+act of mortmain; But these interested priests, like their sagacious
+brethren, knew as well how to preserve as to gain property; for upon
+their humble petition to the throne, Edward the Second put a stop to the
+judicial proceedings, and granted a special pardon.
+
+In 1351, Fouk de Birmingham, and Richard Spencer, jointly gave to the
+priory one hundred acres of land, part lying in Aston, and part in
+Birmingham, to maintain another priest, who should celebrate divine
+service daily at the altar of the Virgin Mary, in the church of the
+hospital, for the souls of William la Mercer, and his wife. The church
+is supposed to have stood upon the spot now No. 27, in Bull-street.
+
+In the premises belonging to the Red Bull, No. 83, nearly opposite, have
+been discovered human bones, which has caused some to suppose it the
+place of interment for the religious, belonging to the priory, which I
+rather doubt.
+
+At the dissolution of the abbies, in 1536, the King's visitors valued
+the annual income at the trifling sum of 8_l_. 8s. 9d.
+
+The patronage continued chiefly in the head of the Birmingham family.
+Dugdale gives us a list of some of the Priors, who held dominion in this
+little common wealth, from 1326, 'till the total annihilation, being
+210 years.
+
+     Robert Marmion,
+     Robert Cappe,
+     Thomas Edmunds,
+     John Frothward,
+     Robert Browne,
+     John Port,
+     William Priestwood,
+     Henry Drayton,
+     John Cheyne,
+     Henry Bradley,
+     Thomas Salpin,
+     Sir Edward Toste,
+          AND
+     Henry Hody.
+
+Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex, a man of much honour, more capacity, and
+yet more spirit, was the instrument with which Henry the Eighth
+destroyed the abbies; but Henry, like a true politician of the house of
+Tudor, wisely threw the blame upon the instrument, held it forth to the
+public in an odious light, and then sacrificed it to appease an
+angry people.
+
+This destructive measure against the religious houses, originated from
+royal letchery, and was replete with consequence.
+
+It opened the fountains of learning, at that day confined to the
+monastry, and the streams diffused themselves through various ranks of
+men. The revival of letters and of science made a rapid progress: It
+soon appeared, that the stagnate knowledge of the priest, was abundantly
+mixed with error; but now, running through the laity, who had no private
+interest to serve, it became more pure.
+
+It removed great numbers of men, who lay as a dead weight upon the
+community, and they became useful members of society: When younger sons
+could no longer find an asylum within the gloomy walls of a convent,
+they sought a livelihood in trade. Commerce, therefore, was taught to
+crowd her sails, cross the western ocean, fill the country with riches,
+and change an idle spirit into that of industry.
+
+By the destruction of religious houses, architecture sustained a
+temporary wound: They were by far the most magnificent and expensive
+buildings in the kingdoms, far surpassing those of the nobility; some of
+these structures are yet habitable, though the major part are gone to
+decay. But modern architecture hath since out-done the former splendor
+of the abbey, in use and elegance and sometimes with the profits arising
+from the abbey lands.
+
+It also shut the door of charity against the impostor, the helpless, and
+the idle, who had found here their chief supply; and gave rise to one of
+the best laws ever invented by human wisdom that of each parish
+supporting its own poor.
+
+By the annihilation of abbots, the church lost its weight in Parliament,
+and the vote was thrown into the hands of the temporal Lords.
+
+It prevented, in some degree, the extinction of families; for, instead
+of younger branches becoming the votaries of a monastic life, they
+became the votaries of hymen: Hence the kingdom was enriched by
+population. It eased the people of a set of masters, who had for ages
+ruled them with a rod of iron.
+
+The hands of superstition were also weakened, for the important sciences
+of astrology, miracle, and divination, supported by the cell, have been
+losing ground ever since.
+
+It likewise recovered vast tracts of land out of dead hands, and gave an
+additional vigor to agriculture, unknown to former ages. The monk, who
+had only a temporary tenancy, could not give a permanant one; therefore,
+the lands were neglected, and the produce was small: But these lands
+falling into the hands of the gentry, acquired an hereditary title. It
+was their interest; to grant leases, for a superior rent; and it was the
+tenant's interest to give that rent, for the sake of security: Hence the
+produce of land is become one of the most advantageous branches of
+British commerce.
+
+Henry, by this seisure, had more property to give away, than any King of
+England since William the Conqueror, and he generously gave away that
+which was never his own. It is curious to survey the foundation of some
+of the principal religions that have taken the lead among men.
+
+Moses founded a religion upon morals and ceremonies, one half of which
+continues with his people to this day.
+
+Christ founded one upon _love_ and _purity_; words of the simplest
+import, yet we sometimes mistake their meaning.
+
+The Bishop of Rome erected his, upon deceit and oppression; hence the
+treasures of knowledge were locked up, an inundation of riches and power
+flowed into the church, with destructive tendency.
+
+And Henry the Eighth, built his reformation upon revenge and plunder: He
+deprived the _head_ of the Romish see, of an unjust power, for
+pronouncing a just decision; and robbed the _members_, for being annexed
+to that head. Henry wished the world to believe, what he believed
+himself, that he acted from a religious principle; but his motive seems
+to have been _savage love_.
+
+Had equity directed when Henry divided this vast property, he would have
+restored it to the descendants of those persons, whose mistaken zeal had
+injured their families; but his disposal of it was ludicrous--sometimes
+he made a free gift, at others he exchanged a better estate for a a
+worse, and then gave that worse to another.
+
+I have met with a little anecdote which says, "That Henry being upon a
+tour in Devonshire, two men waited on him to beg certain lands in that
+county; while they attended in the anti-room for the royal presence, a
+stranger approached, and asked them a trifling question; they answered,
+they wished to be alone--at that moment the King entered: They fell at
+his feet: The stranger seeing them kneel, kneelt with them. They asked
+the favor intended; the King readily granted it: They bowed: The
+stranger bowed also. By this time, the stranger perceiving there was a
+valuable prize in the question, claimed his thirds; they denied his
+having anything to do with the matter: He answered, he had done as much
+as they, for they only asked and bowed, and he did the same. The dispute
+grew warm, and both parties agreed to appeal to the King, who answered,
+He took them for joint beggars, therefore had made them a joint present.
+They were then obliged to divide the land with the stranger, whose share
+amounted to 240_l_. per annum."
+
+The land formerly used for the priory of Birmingham, is now the property
+of many persons. Upon that spot, whereon stood one solitary house, now
+stand about four hundred. Upon that ground, where about thirty persons
+lived upon the industry of others, about three thousand live upon their
+own: The place, which lay as a heavy burden upon the community, now
+tends to enrich it, by adding its mite to the national commerce, and the
+national treasury.
+
+In 1775, I took down an old house of wood and plaister, which had stood
+208 years, having been erected in 1567, thirty-one years after the
+dissolution of abbies. The foundation of this old house seemed to have
+been built chiefly with stones from the priory; perhaps more than twenty
+wagon loads: These appeared in a variety of forms and sizes, highly
+finished in the gothic taste, parts of porticos, arches, windows,
+ceilings, etc. some fluted, some cyphered, and otherwise ornamented, yet
+complete as in the first day they were left by the chizel. The greatest,
+part of them were destroyed by the workmen: Some others I used again in
+the fireplace of an under kitchen. Perhaps they are the only perfect
+fragments that remain of that venerable edifice, which once stood the
+monument of ancient piety, the ornament of the town, and the envy of the
+priest out of place.
+
+
+
+JOHN A DEAN'S HOLE.
+
+At the bottom of Digbeth, about thirty yards North of the bridge, on the
+left, is a water-course that takes in a small drain from Digbeth, but
+more from the adjacent meadows, and which divides the parishes of Aston
+and Birmingham, called John a Dean's Hole; from a person of that name
+who is said to have lost his life there, and which, I think, is the only
+name of antiquity among us.
+
+The particle _de_, between the christian and surname, is of French
+extraction, and came over with William the First: It continued tolerably
+pure for about three centuries, when it in some degree assumed an
+English garb, in the particle _of_: The _a_, therefore is only a
+corruption of the latter. Hence the time of this unhappy man's
+misfortune may be fixed about the reign of Edward the Third.
+
+
+
+LENCH'S TRUST.
+
+In the reign of Henry the Eighth, William Lench, a native of this place,
+bequeathed his estate for the purpose of erecting alms houses, which are
+those at the bottom of Steelhouse-lane, for the benefit of poor widows,
+but chiefly for repairing the streets of Birmingham. Afterwards others
+granted smaller donations for the same use, but all were included under
+the name of Lench; and I believe did not unitedly amount, at that time,
+to fifteen pounds per annum.
+
+Over this scattered inheritance was erected a trust, consisting of
+gentlemen in the neighborhood of Birmingham.
+
+All human affairs tend to confusion: The hand of care is ever necessary
+to keep order. The gentlemen, therefore at the head of this charity,
+having too many modes of pleasure of their own, to pay attention to this
+little jurisdiction, disorder crept in apace; some of the lands were
+lost for want of inspection; the rents ran in arrear, and were never
+recovered; the streets were neglected, and the people complained.
+
+Misconduct, particularly of a public nature, silently grows for years,
+and sometimes for ages, 'till it becomes too bulky for support, falls in
+pieces by its own weight, and out of its very destruction rises a
+remedy. An order, therefore, from the Court of Chancery was obtained,
+for vesting the property in other hands, consisting of twenty persons,
+all of Birmingham, who have directed this valuable estate, now 227_l_.
+5s. per annum, to useful purposes. The man who can guide his own private
+concerns with success, stands the fairest chance of guiding those of
+the public.
+
+If the former trust went widely astray, perhaps their successors have
+not exactly kept the line, by advancing the leases to a rack rent: It is
+worth considering, whether the tenant of an expiring lease, hath not in
+equity, a kind of reversionary right, which ought to favour him with the
+refusal of another term, at one third under the value, in houses, and
+one fourth in land; this would give stability to the title, secure the
+rents, and cause the lessee more chearfully to improve the premises,
+which in time would enhance their value, both with regard to property
+and esteem.
+
+But where business is well conducted, complaint should cease; for
+perfection is not to be expected on this side the grave.
+
+Exclusive of a pittance to the poor widows above, the trust have a power
+of distributing money to the necessitous at Christmas and Easter, which
+is punctually performed.
+
+I think there is an excellent clause in the devisor's will, ordering his
+bailiff to pay half a crown to any two persons, who, having quarreled
+and entered into law, shall stop judicial proceedings, and make peace by
+agreement--He might have added, "And half a crown to the lawyer that
+will suffer them." I know the sum has been demanded, but am sorry I do
+_not_ know that it was ever paid.
+
+If money be reduced to one fourth its value, since the days of Lench, it
+follows, that four times the sum ought to be paid in ours; and perhaps
+ten shillings cannot be better laid out, than in the purchase of that
+peace, which tends to harmonise the community, and weed a brotherhood
+not the most amicable among us.
+
+The members choose annually, out of their own body a steward, by the
+name of bailiff Lench: The present fraternity, who direct this useful
+charity, are
+
+     Thomas Colmore, _bailiff_.
+     George Davis,
+     Win. Walsingham, _dead_,
+     Michael Lakin,
+     Benjamin May,
+     Michael Lakin, _jun_.
+     James Bedford,
+     Samuel Ray,
+     John Ryland,
+     James Jackson,
+     Stephen Bedford, _dead_,
+     Joseph Tyndall,
+     Joseph Smith,
+     Robert Mason,
+     Joseph Webster, _dead_,
+     Abel Humphreys,
+     Thomas Lawrence,
+     Samuel Pemberton,
+     Joseph Webster, _jun_.
+     John Richards.
+
+
+
+FENTHAM'S TRUST.
+
+In 1712, George Fentham, of Birmingham, devised his estate by will,
+consisting of about one hundred acres, in Erdington and Handsworth, of
+the value then, of 20_l_. per annum, vesting the same in a trust, of
+which no person could be chosen who resided more than one hundred yards
+from the Old Cross. We should be inclined to think the devisor
+entertained a singular predilection for the Old Cross, then in the pride
+of youth. But if we unfold this whimsical clause, we shall find it
+contains a shrewd intention. The choice was limited within one hundred
+yards, because the town itself, in his day, did not in some directions
+extend farther. Fentham had spent a life in Birmingham, knew well her
+inhabitants, and like some others, had found honour as well as riches
+among them: He knew also, he could with safety deposit his property in
+their hands, and was determined it should never go out,--The scheme will
+answer his purpose.
+
+The uses of this estate, now about 100_l_. per annum, are for teaching
+children to read, and for clothing ten poor widows of Birmingham: Those
+children belonging to the charity school, in green, are upon this
+foundation.
+
+     The present trust are
+     Francis Coales, and Edmund Wace Pattison.
+
+
+
+CROWLEY'S TRUST.
+
+Ann Crowley bequeathed, by her last will, in 1733, six houses in
+Steelhouse-lane, amounting to eighteen pounds per annum, for the purpose
+of supporting a school, consisting of ten children. From an attachment
+to her own sex, she constituted over this infant colony of letters a
+female teacher: Perhaps we should have seen a female trust, had they
+been equally capable of defending the property. The income of the estate
+increasing, the children are now augmented to twelve.
+
+By a subsequent clause in the devisor's will, twenty shillings a year,
+forever, issues out of two houses in the Lower Priory, to be disposed of
+at discretion of the trust.
+
+The governors of this female charity are
+
+     Thomas Colmore, _bailiff_,
+     Joseph Cartwright,
+     Thomas Lee,
+     John Francis,
+     Samuel Colmore,
+     William Russell, _esq_.
+     Josiah Rogers,
+     Joseph Hornblower,
+     John Rogers.
+
+
+
+SCOTT'S TRUST.
+
+Joseph Scott, Esq; yet living, assigned, July 7, 1779, certain messuages
+and lands in and near Walmer-lane, in Birmingham, of the present rent of
+40_l_. 18s. part of the said premises to be appropriated for the
+interment of protestant dissenters; part of the profits to be applied to
+the use of a religious society in Carr's lane, at the discretion of the
+trust; and the remainder, for the institution of a school to teach the
+mother tongue.
+
+[Illustration: _Free School_.]
+
+That part of the demise, designed for the reception of the dead, is
+about three acres, upon, which stands one messuage, now the Golden
+Fleece, joining Summer-lane on the west, and Walmer-lane on the east;
+the other, which hath Aston-street on the south, and Walmer-lane on the
+west, contains about four acres, upon which now stand ninety-one houses.
+A building lease, in 1778, was granted of these last premises, for 120
+years, at 30_l_. per annum; at the expiration of which, the rents
+will probably amount to twenty times the present income. The trust, to
+whose direction this charity is committed, are
+
+     Abel Humphrys, _bailiff_,
+     John Allen,
+     John Parteridge,
+     William Aitkins,
+     Joseph Rogers,
+     Thomas Cock,
+     John Berry,
+     William Hutton,
+     Thomas Cheek Lea,
+     Durant Hidson,
+     Samuel Tutin.
+
+
+
+FREE SCHOOL.
+
+It is entertaining to contemplate the generations of fashion, which not
+only influences our dress and manner of living, but most of the common
+actions of life, and even the modes of thinking. Some of these fashions,
+not meeting with the taste of the day, are of short duration, and
+retreat out of life as soon as they are well brought in; others take a
+longer space; but whatever fashions predominate, though ever so absurd,
+they carry an imaginary beauty, which pleases the fancy, 'till they
+become ridiculous with age, are succeeded by others, when their very
+memory becomes disgusting.
+
+Custom gives a sanction to fashion, and reconciles us even to its
+inconveniency. The fashion of this year is laughed at the next.
+
+There are fashions of every date, from five hundred years, even to one
+day; of the first, was that of erecting religious houses; of the last,
+was that of destroying them.
+
+Our ancestors, the Saxons, after their conversion to christianity,
+displayed their zeal in building churches: though the kingdom in a few
+centuries was amply supplied, yet that zeal was no way abated; it
+therefore exerted itself in the abbey.--When a man of fortune had nearly
+done with time, he began to peep into eternity through the windows of an
+abbey; or, if a villian had committed a piece of butchery, or had
+cheated the world for sixty years, there was no doubt but he could
+burrow his way to glory through the foundations of an abbey.
+
+In 1383, the sixth of Richard the Second, before the religious fervor
+subsided that had erected Deritend-chapel, Thomas de Sheldon, John
+Coleshill, John Goldsmith, and William att Slowe, all of Birmingham,
+obtained a patent from the crown to erect a building upon the spot where
+the Free School now stands in New-street, to be called _The Gild of the
+Holy Cross_; to endow it with lands in Birmingham and Edgbaston, of the
+annual value of twenty marks, for the maintenance of two priests, who
+were to perform divine service to the honor of God, our blessed Lady his
+Mother, the Holy Cross, St. Thomas, and St. Catharine.
+
+The fashion seemed to take with the inhabitants, many of whom wished to
+join the four happy men, who had obtained the patent for so pious a
+work; so that, in 1393, a second patent was procured by the bailiff and
+inhabitants of Birmingham, for confirming the gild, and making the
+addition of a brotherhood in honor of the Holy Cross, consisting of both
+sexes, with power to constitute a master and wardens, and also to erect
+a chantry of priests to celebrate divine service in the chapel of the
+gild, for the souls of the founders, and all the fraternity; for whose
+support there were given, by divers persons, eighteen messuages, three
+tofts, (pieces of ground) six acres of land, and forty shillings rent,
+lying in Birmingham and Edgbaston aforesaid.
+
+But, in the 27th of Henry the Eighth, 1536, when it was the fashion of
+that day, to multiply destruction against the religious, and their
+habitations, the annual income of the gild was valued, by the King's
+random visitors, at the sum of 31_l_. 2s. 10d. out of which, three
+priests who sung mass, had 5_l_. 6s. 8d. each; an organist, 3_l_. 13s.
+4d. the common midwife, 4s. the bell-man, 6s. 8d. with other salaries of
+inferior note.
+
+These lands continued in the crown 'till 1552, the fifth of Edward the
+Sixth, when, at the humble suit of the inhabitants, they were
+assigned to
+
+     William Symmons, _gent_.
+     Richard Smallbrook, _bailiff of the town_,
+     John Shilton,
+     William Colmore,
+     Henry Foxall,
+     William Bogee,
+     Thomas Cooper,
+     Richard Swifte,
+     Thomas Marshall,
+     John Veysy,
+     John King,
+     John Wylles,
+     William Paynton,
+     William Aschrig,
+     Robert Rastall,
+     Thomas Snowden,
+     John Eyliat,
+     William Colmore, _jun_.
+           AND
+     William Mychell,
+
+all inhabitants of Birmingham, and their successors, to be chosen upon
+death or removal, by the appellation of the Bailiff and Governors of the
+Free Grammar School of King Edward the Sixth, for the instruction of
+children in grammar; to be held of the crown in common soccage, paying
+for ever twenty shillings per annum. Over this seminary of learning were
+to preside a master and usher, whose united income seems to have been
+only twenty pounds per annum. Both are of the clergy. The hall of the
+gild was used for a school-room. In the glass of the windows was
+painted the figure of Edmund Lord Ferrers; who, marrying, about 350
+years ago, the heiress of the house of Birmingham, resided upon the
+manor, and seems to have been a benefactor to the gild, with his arms,
+empaling Belknap; and also, those of Stafford, of Grafton, of
+Birmingham, and Bryon.
+
+The gild stood at that time at a distance from the town, surrounded with
+inclosures; the highway to Hales Owen, now New-street, running by the
+north. No house could be nearer than those in the High-street.
+
+The first erection, wood and plaister, which had stood about 320 years,
+was taken down in 1707, to make way for the present flat building. In
+1756, a set of urns were placed upon the parapet, which give relief to
+that stiff air, so hurtful to the view: at the same time, the front was
+_intended_ to have been decorated, by erecting half a dozen dreadful
+pillars, like so many over-grown giants marshalled in battalia, to guard
+the entrance, which the boys wish to shun; and, being sufficiently
+tarnished with Birmingham smoak, may become dangerous to pregnancy. Had
+the wings of this building fallen two or three yards back, and the line
+of the street been preserved by a light palisade, it would have risen in
+the scale of beauty, and removed the gloomy aspect of the area.
+
+The tower is in a good taste, except being rather too narrow in the
+base, and is ornamented with a sleepy figure of the donor, Edward the
+Sixth, dressed in a royal mantle, with the ensigns of the Garter;
+holding a bible and sceptre.
+
+The lands that support this foundation, and were in the reign of Henry
+the Eighth, valued at thirty-one pounds per annum, are now, by the
+advance of landed property, the reduction of money, and the increase of
+commerce, about 600_l_.
+
+The present governors of this royal donation are
+
+     John Whateley, _bailiff_,
+     _Rev_. Charles Newling,
+     Abraham Spooner, _esq_;
+     Thomas Russell,
+     John Ash, _M.D._
+     Richard Rabone,
+     Francis Goodall,
+     Francis Parrott, _esq_;
+     William Russell, _esq_;
+     John Cope, _dead_,
+     Thomas Hurd,
+     Thomas Westley,
+     Wm. John Banner,
+     Thomas Salt,
+     William Holden,
+     Thomas Carless,
+     John Ward,
+     Edward Palmer, _esq_;
+     Francis Coales,
+          AND
+     Robert Coales.
+
+[Illustration: _Charity School_.]
+
+Over this nursery of science presides a chief master, with an annual
+salary of one hundred and twenty pounds; a second master sixty; two
+ushers; a master in the art of writing, and another in that of drawing,
+at forty pounds each: a librarian, ten: seven exhibitioners at the
+University of Oxford, twenty-five pounds each. Also, eight inferior
+schools in various parts of the town, are constituted and fed by this
+grand reservoir, at fifteen pounds each, which begin the first rudiments
+of learning.
+
+CHIEF MASTERS.
+
+     John Brooksby,            1685.
+     ---- Tonkinson.
+     John Husted.
+     Edward Mainwaring,        1730.
+     John Wilkinson,           1746
+     Thomas Green,             1759.
+     William Brailsford,       1766.
+     Rev. Thomas Price,        1776.
+
+
+
+CHARITY SCHOOL:
+
+COMMONLY,
+
+The BLUE SCHOOL.
+
+There seems to be three clases of people, who demand the care of
+society; infancy, old age, and casual infirmity. When a man cannot
+assist himself, it is necessary he should be assisted. The first of
+these only is before us. The direction of youth seems one of the
+greatest concerns in moral life, and one that is the least understood:
+to form the generation to come, is of the last importance. If an
+ingenious master hath flogged the a b c into an innocent child, he
+thinks himself worthy of praise. A lad is too much terrified to march
+that path, which is marked out by the rod. If the way to learning
+abounds with punishment, he will quickly detest it; if we make his duty
+a task, we lay a stumbling-block before him that he cannot surmount.
+
+We rarely know a tutor succeed in training up youth, who is a friend to
+harsh treatment.
+
+Whence is it, that we so seldom find affection subsisting between master
+and scholar? From the moment they unite, to the end of their lives,
+disgust, like a cloud, rises in the mind, which reason herself can
+never dispel.
+
+The boy may pass the precincts of childhood, and tread the stage of life
+upon an equality with every man in it, except his old school-master; the
+dread of him seldom wears off; the name of Busby founded with horror for
+half a century after he had laid down the rod. I have often been
+delighted when I have seen a school of boys break up; the joy that
+diffuses itself over every face and action, shews infant nature in her
+gayest form--the only care remaining is, to forget on one side of the
+walls what was taught on the other.
+
+One would think, if _coming out_ gives so much satisfaction, there must
+be something very detestable _within_.
+
+If the master thinks he has performed his task when he has taught the
+boy a few words, he as much mistakes his duty, as he does the road to
+learning: this is only the first stage of his journey. He has the man to
+form for society with ten thousand sentiments.
+
+It is curious to enter one of these prisons of science, and observe the
+children not under the least government: the master without authority,
+the children without order; the master scolding, the children riotous.
+We never _harden_ the wax to receive the impression. They act in a
+natural sphere, but he in opposition: he seems the only person in the
+school who merits correction; he, unfit to teach, is making them unfit
+to be taught.
+
+A man does not consider whether his talents are adapted for teaching, so
+much, as whether he can _profit_ by teaching: thus, when a man hath
+taught for twenty years, he may be only fit to go to school.
+
+To that vast group of instructors, therefore, whether in, or out of
+petticoats, who teach, without having been taught; who mistake the tail
+for the feat of learning, instead of the head; who can neither direct
+the passions of others nor their own; it may be said, "Quit the trade,
+if bread can be procured out of it. It is useless to pursue a work of
+error: the ingenious architect must take up your rotten foundation,
+before he can lay one that is solid."
+
+But, to the discerning few, who can penetrate the secret windings of the
+heart; who know that nature may be directed, but can never be inverted;
+that instruction should ever coincide with the temper of the instructed,
+or we sail against the wind; that it is necessary the pupil should
+relish both the teacher and the lesson; which, if accepted like a bitter
+draught, may easily be sweetened to his taste: to these valuable few,
+who, like the prudent florist, possessed of a choice root, which he
+cultivates with care, adding improvement to every generation; it may be
+said, "Banish tyranny out of the little dominions over which you are
+absolute sovereigns; introduce in its stead two of the highest ornaments
+of humanity, love and reason." Through the medium of the first, the
+master and the lesson may be viewed without horror; when the teacher and
+the learner are upon friendly terms, the scholar will rather invite than
+repel the assistance of the master. By the second, reason, the teacher
+will support his full authority. Every period of life in which a man is
+capable of attending to instruction, he is capable of attending to
+reason: this will answer every end of punishment, and something more.
+
+Thus, an irksome task will be changed into a friendly intercourse.
+
+This School, by a date in the front, was erected in 1724, in St.
+Philip's church-yard; is a plain, airy, and useful building, ornamented
+over the door with the figures of a boy and a girl in the uniform of the
+school, and executed with a degree of elegance, that a Roman statuary
+would not have blushed to own.
+
+This artificial family consists of about ninety scholars, of both sexes;
+over which preside a governor and governess, both single. Behind the
+apartments, is a large area appropriated for the amusement of the infant
+race, necessary as their food. Great decorum is preserved in this little
+society; who are supported by annual contribution, and by a collection
+made after sermon twice a year.
+
+At twelve, or fourteen, the children are removed into the commercial
+world, and often acquire an affluence that enables them to support that
+foundation, which formerly supported them.
+
+It is worthy of remark, that those institutions which are immediately
+upheld by the temporary hand of the giver, flourish in continual spring,
+and become real benefits to society; while those which enjoy a perpetual
+income, are often tinctured with supineness, and dwindle into
+obscurity.--The first, usually answer the purpose of the living; the
+last, seldom that of the dead.
+
+
+
+DISSENTING CHARITY-SCHOOL.
+
+About twenty years ago, the Dissenters established a school, upon nearly
+the same plan as the former, consisting of about eighteen boys and eight
+girls; with this improvement, that the boys are innured to moderate
+labour, and the girls to house-work.
+
+The annual subscriptions seem to be willingly paid, thankfully received,
+and judiciously expended.
+
+[Illustration: _Work House_.]
+
+
+
+WORKHOUSE.
+
+During the long reign of the Plantagenets in England, there do not seem
+many laws in the code then existing for the regulation of the poor:
+distress was obliged to wander for a temporary and uncertain
+relief:--idleness usually mixed with it.
+
+The nobility then kept plain and hospitable houses, where want
+frequently procured a supply; but, as these were thinly scattered, they
+were inadequate to the purpose.
+
+As the abbey was much more frequent, and as a great part of the riches
+of the kingdom passed through the hands of the monk, and charity being
+consonant to the profession of that order, the weight of the poor
+chiefly lay upon the religious houses; this was the general mark for the
+indigent, the idle, and the impostor, who carried meanness in their
+aspect, and the words _Christ Jesus_ in their mouth. Hence arise the
+epithets of stroller, vagrant, and sturdy beggar, with which modern law
+is intimately acquainted.
+
+It was too frequently observed, that there was but a slender barrier
+between begging and stealing, that necessity seldom marks the limits of
+honesty, and that a country abounding with beggars, abounds also with
+plunderers. A remnant of this urgent race, so justly complained of,
+which disgrace society, and lay the country under contribution, are
+still suffered, by the supineness of the magistrate.
+
+When the religious houses, and all their property, in 1536, fell a
+sacrifice to the vindictive wrath of Henry the Eighth, the poor lost
+their dependence, and as want knows no law, robbery became frequent;
+justice called loudly for punishment, and the hungry for bread; which
+gave rise, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, to that most excellent
+institution, of erecting every parish into a distinct fraternity, and
+obliging them to support their own members; therefore, it is difficult
+to assign a reason, why the blind should go abroad to _see_ fresh
+countries, or the man _without feet to travel_.
+
+Though the poor were nursed by parochial law, yet workhouses did not
+become general 'till 1730: that of Birmingham was erected in 1733, at
+the expence of 1173_l_. 3s. 5d. and which, the stranger would rather
+suppose, was the residence of a gentleman, than that of four hundred
+paupers. The left wing, called the infirmary, was added in 1766, at the
+charge of 400_l_. and the right, a place for labour, in 1779, at the
+expence of 700_l_. more.
+
+Let us a second time, consider the 50,000 people who occupy this _grand
+toy shop of Europe_[6] as one great family, where, though the property
+of individuals is ascertained and secured, yet a close and beneficial
+compact subsists. We behold the members of this vast family marked with
+every style of character. Forlorn infancy, accidental calamity, casual
+sickness, old age, and even inadvertent distress, all find support from
+that charitable fund erected by industry. No part of the family is
+neglected: he that cannot find bread for himself, finds a ready supply;
+he that can, ought to do so. By cultivating the young suckers of
+infancy, we prudently establish the ensuing generation, which will, in
+the commercial walk, abundantly repay the expence: temporary affliction
+of every kind also merits pity; even those distresses which arise from
+folly ought not to be neglected: the parish hath done well to many a
+man, who would not do well to himself; if imprudence cannot be banished
+out of the world, companion ought not: he that cannot direct himself,
+must be under the direction of another.--If the parish supported none
+but the prudent, she would have but few to support. The last stage of
+human life demands, as well as the first, the help of the family. The
+care of infancy arises from an expectation of a return; that of old age
+from benefits already received. Though a man may have passed through
+life without growing rich, he may, by his labour, have contributed to
+make others so; though he could not pursue the road to affluence
+himself, he may have been the means of directing others to find it.
+
+[Footnote 6: Burke.]
+
+The number of persons depending upon this weekly charity in Birmingham
+were, April 14, 1781, about 5240.
+
+Whether the mode of distributing the bounty of the community, is
+agreeable to the intentions of legislature, or the ideas of humanity, is
+a doubt. For in some parishes the unfortunate paupers have the
+additional misery of being sold to a mercenary wretch to starve upon
+twelve pence a head. It is matter of surprise that the magistrate should
+wink at this cruelty; but it is matter of pleasure, that no accusation
+comes within the verge of my historical remarks, for the wretched of
+Birmingham are not made more so by ill treatment, but meet with a
+kindness acceptable to distress. One would think _that_ situation could
+not be despicable, which is often _wished for_, and often _sought_, that
+of becoming one of the poor of Birmingham.
+
+We cannot be conversant in parochial business, without observing a
+littleness predominant in most parishes, by using every finesse to
+relieve themselves of paupers, and throwing them upon others. Thus the
+oppressed, like the child between two fathers, is supported by neither.
+
+There is also an enormity, which, though agreeable to law, can never be
+justified by the rules of equity--That a man should spend the principal
+part of his life in a parish, add wealth to it by his labour, form
+connexions in it, bring up a family which shall all belong to it, but
+having never gained a settlement himself, shall, in old age be removed
+by an order, to perish among strangers. In 1768, a small property fell
+into my hands, situated in a neighbouring village; I found the tenant
+had entered upon the premises at the age of twenty-two; that he had
+resided upon them, with poverty and a fair character, during the long
+space of forty six years--I told him he was welcome to spend the residue
+of his life upon the spot gratis. He continued there ten years after,
+when finding an inability to procure support from labour, and meeting
+with no assistance from the parish in which he had been resident for an
+age, he resigned the place with tears, in 1778, after an occupation of
+fifty six years, and was obliged to recoil upon his own parish, about
+twelve miles distant; to be farmed with the rest of the poor; and
+where, he afterwards assured me, "They were murdering him by inches." --
+But no complaint of this ungrateful kind lies against that people whose
+character I draw.
+
+Perhaps it may be a wise measure, in a place like Birmingham, where the
+manufactures flourish in continual sunshine, not to be over strict with
+regard to removals. Though it may be burdensome to support the poor of
+another parish, yet perhaps it is the least of two evils: to remove old
+age which hath spent a life among us, is ungenerous; to remove temporary
+sickness, is injurious to trade; and to remove infancy is impolitic,
+being upon the verge of accommodating the town with a life of labour. It
+may be more prudent to remove a rascal than a pauper. Forty pounds hath
+been spent in removing a family, which would not otherwise have cost
+forty shillings, and whose future industry might have added many times
+that sum to the common capital. The highest pitch of charity, is that of
+directing inability to support itself. Idleness suits no part of a
+people, neither does it find a place here; every individual ought to
+contribute to the general benefit, by his head or his hands: if he is
+arrived at the western verge of life, when the powers of usefulness
+decline, let him repose upon his fortune; if no such thing exists, let
+him rest upon his friends, and if this prop fail, let the public nurse
+him, with a tenderness becoming humanity.
+
+We may observe, that the manufactures, the laborious part of mankind,
+the poor's rates, and the number of paupers, will everlastingly go hand
+in hand; they will increase and decrease together; we cannot annihilate
+one, but the others will follow, and odd as the expression may sound, we
+become rich by payment and poverty. If we discharge the poor, who shall
+act the laborious part? Stop the going out of one shilling, and it will
+prevent the coming in of two.
+
+At the introduction of the poor's laws, under Elizabeth, two pence
+halfpenny in the pound rent was collected every fortnight, for future
+support: time has made an alteration in the system, which is now
+six-pence in the pound, and collected as often as found necessary. The
+present levy amounts to above 10,000_l_. per ann. but is not wholly
+collected.
+
+As the overseers are generally people of property, payment in advance is
+not scrupulously observed.
+
+It was customary, at the beginning of this admirable system of
+jurisprudence, to constitute two overseers in each parish; but the
+magnitude of Birmingham pleaded for four, which continued 'till the year
+1720, when a fifth was established: in 1729 they were augmented to half
+a dozen; the wishes of some, who are frighted at office, rise to the
+word _dozen_, a number very familiar in the Birmingham art of reckoning:
+but let it be remembered, that a vestry filled with overseers is not
+calculated for the meridian of business; that the larger the body, the
+slower the motion; and that the time and the necessities of the poor
+demand dispatch.
+
+From the annual disbursements in assisting the poor, which I shall here
+exhibit from undoubted evidence, the curious will draw some useful
+lessons respecting the increase of manufactures, of population, and
+of property.
+
+No memoirs are found prior to 1676.
+
+     Year.        Disbursed.             Year.       Disbursed.
+
+                l.     s.    d.                    l.     s.    d.
+
+     1676       328    17    7           1684     451     0     5-1/2
+     1677       347     9   10-1/2       1685     324     2     8
+     1678       398     8    0-1/2       1686     338    12    11
+     1679            omitted             1687     343    15     6
+     1680       342    11    2-1/2       1688     308    17     9-1/2
+     1681       363    15    7           1689     395    14    11
+     1682       337     2    8-1/2       1690     396    15     2-1/2
+     1683       410    12    1           1691     354     1     5-1/2
+     1691       360     0    4-1/2       1720     950    14     0
+     1693       376    12    3-1/2       1721    1024     6     6-1/2
+     1694       423    12    1-1/2       1722     939    18     0-1/2
+     1695       454     2    1-1/2       1739     678     8     5
+     1696       385     8   11-1/2       1740     938     0     6
+     1697       446    11    5           1742     888     1     1-1/2
+     1698       505     0    2-1/2       1743     799     6     1
+     1699       592    11    2           1744     851    12     5-1/2
+     1700       661     7    4-1/2       1745     746     2     7
+     1701       487    13    0           1746    1003    14     9-1/2
+     1702       413    14    0-1/2       1747    1071     7     3
+     1703       476    13   10           1748    1175     8     7-1/2
+     1704       555    11   11-1/2       1749    1132    11     7-1/2
+     1705       510     0   10           1750    1167    16     6
+     1706       519     3    6           1751    1352     0     8-1/2
+     1707       609     0    4-1/2       1752    1355     6     4
+     1708       649    15    9           1756    3255    18     3-1/4
+     1709       744    17    0-1/2       1757    3402     7     2-1/2
+     1710       960     8    8-1/2       1758    3306    12     5
+     1711      1055     2   10           1759    2708     9     5-3/4
+     1712       734     0   11           1760    3221    18     7
+     1713       674     7    6           1761    2935     4     1-1/2
+     1714       722    15    6-1/2       1762    3078    18     2-1/2
+     1715       718     2    1           1763    3330    13    11-1/2
+     1716       788     3    2-1/2       1764    3963    11     0-1/2
+     1717       764     0    6-1/2       1765    3884    18     9
+     1718       751     2    4           1766    4716     2    10-1/2
+     1719      1094    10    7           1767    4940     2     2
+     1768      4798     2    5           1775    6509    10    10
+     1769      5082     0    9           1776    5203     4     9-1/2
+     1770      5125    13    2-1/4       1777    6012     5     5
+     1771      6132     5   10           1778    6866    10     8-1/2
+     1772      6139     6    5-1/2       1779    8081    19     7-1/2
+     1773      5584    18    8-1/2       1780    9910     4    11-3/4
+     1774      6115    17   11
+
+We cannot pass through this spacious edifice without being pleased with
+its internal oeconomy; order influences the whole, nor can the
+cleanliness be exceeded: but I am extremely concerned, that I cannot
+pass through without complaint.
+
+There are evils in common life which admit of no remedy; but there are
+very few which may not be lessened by prudence.
+
+The modes of nursing infancy in this little dominion of poverty, are
+truly defective. It is to be feared the method intended to train up
+inhabitants for the earth, annually furnishes the regions of the grave.
+
+Why is so little attention paid to the generation who are to tread the
+stage after us? as if we suffered them to be cut off that we might keep
+possession for ever. The unfortunate orphan that none will own, none
+will regard: distress, in whatever form it appears, excites compassion,
+but particularly in the helpless. Whoever puts an infant into the arms
+of decrepit old age, passes upon it a sentence of death, and happy is
+that infant who finds a reprieve. The tender sprig is not likely to
+prosper under the influence of the tree which attracts its nurture;
+applies that nurture to itself, where the calls occasioned by decay are
+the most powerful--An old woman and a sprightly nurse, are characters as
+opposite as the antipodes.
+
+If we could but exercise a proper care during the first two years, the
+child would afterwards nurse itself; there is not a more active animal
+in the creation, no part of its time, while awake, is unemployed: why
+then do we invert nature, and confine an animal to still life, in what
+is called a school, who is designed for action?
+
+We cannot with indifference behold infants crouded into a room by the
+hundred, commanded perhaps by some disbanded soldier, termed a
+school-master, who having changed the sword for the rod, continues much
+inclined to draw blood with his arms; where every individual not only re
+breathes his own air, but that of another: the whole assembly is
+composed of the feeble, the afflicted, the maimed, and the orphan; the
+result of whose confinement, is a fallow aspect, and a sickly frame: but
+the paltry grains of knowledge gleaned up by the child in this barren
+field of learning, will never profit him two-pence in future; whereas,
+if we could introduce a robust habit, he would one day be a treasure to
+the community, and a greater to himself. Till he is initiated into
+labour, a good foundation for health may be laid in air and exercise.
+
+Whenever I see half a dozen of these forlorn innocents quartered upon a
+farm house, a group of them taking the air under the conduct of a
+senior, or marshalled in rank and file to attend public worship, I
+consider the overseer who directed it, as possessed of tender feelings:
+their orderly attire, and simplicity of manners, convey a degree of
+pleasure to the mind; and I behold in them, the future support of that
+commercial interest; upon which they now lie as a burden.
+
+If I have dwelt long upon the little part of our species, let it plead
+my excuse to say, I cannot view a human being, however diminutive in
+stature, or depressed in fortune, without considering, _I view
+an equal_.
+
+
+
+OLD CROSS,
+
+So called, because prior to the Welch Cross; before the erection of this
+last, it was simply called, The Cross.
+
+The use of the market cross is very ancient, though not equal to the
+market, for this began with civilization.
+
+Christianity first appeared in Britain under the Romans; but in the
+sixth century, under the Saxon government, it had made such an amazing
+progress, that every man seemed to be not only _almost a Christian_, but
+it was unfashionable not to have been a zealous one. The cross of Christ
+was frequently mentioned in conversation, and afterwards became an oath.
+It was hacknied about the streets, sometimes in the pocket, or about the
+neck; sometimes it was fixed upon the church, which we see at this day,
+and always hoisted to the top of the steeple. The rudiments of learning
+began with the cross; hence it stands to this moment as a frontispiece
+to the battledore, which likewise bears its name.
+
+This important article of religion was thought to answer two valuable
+purposes, that of collecting the people; and containing a charm against
+ghosts, evil spirits, etc. with the idea of which, that age was
+much infested.
+
+To accomplish these singular ends, it was blended into the common
+actions of life, and at that period it entered the market-place. A few
+circular steps from the centre of which issued an elevated pillar,
+terminating in a cross, was the general fashion throughout the kingdom;
+and perhaps our Vulcanian ancestors knew no other for twelve hundred
+years, this being renewed about once every century, 'till the year 1702,
+when the present cross was erected, at the expence of 80_l_. 9s. 1d.
+This was the first upon that spot, ever honoured with a roof: the under
+part was found a useful shelter for the market-people. The room over it
+was designed for the court leet, and other public business, which during
+the residence of the lords upon the manor, had been transacted in one of
+their detached apartments, yet in being: but after the removal of the
+lords, in 1537, the business was done in the Leather-hall, which
+occupied the whole east end of New-street, a covered gateway of twelve
+feet excepted, and afterwards in the Old Cross.
+
+[Illustration: _Welch Cross_.]
+
+[Illustration: _Old Cross_.]
+
+
+
+WELCH CROSS.
+
+If a reader, fond of antiquity, should object, that I have comprized the
+_Ancient state of Birmingham_ in too small a compass, and that I ought
+to have extended it beyond the 39th page; I answer, when a man has not
+much to say, he ought to be hissed out of authorship, if he picks the
+pocket of his friend, by saying much; neither does antiquity end with
+that page, for in some of the chapters, I have led him through the mazes
+of time, to present him with a modern prospect.
+
+In erecting a new building, we generally use the few materials of the
+old, as far as they will extend. Birmingham may be considered as one
+vast and modern edifice, of which the ancient materials make but a very
+small part: the extensive _new_, seems to surround the minute _old_, as
+if to protect it.
+
+Upon the spot where the Welch Cross now stands, probably stood a
+finger-post, to direct the stranger that could read, for there were not
+many, the roads to Wolverhampton and Lichfield.
+
+Though the ancient post, and the modern cross, might succeed each other,
+yet this difference was between them, one stood at a distance from the
+town, the other stands near its centre.
+
+By some antique writings it appears, that 200 years ago this spot bore
+the name of the Welch End, perhaps from the number of Welch in its
+neighbourhood; or rather, from its being the great road to that
+principality, and was at that time the extremity of the town, odd houses
+excepted. This is corroborated by a circumstance I have twice mentioned
+already, that when Birmingham unfortunately fell under the frowns of
+Prince Rupert, 137 years ago, and he determined to reduce it to ashes
+for succouring an enemy, it is reasonable to suppose he began at the
+exterior, which was then in Bull-street, about twelve houses above
+the cross.
+
+If we were ignorant of the date of this cross, the style of the building
+itself would inform us, that it rose in the beginning of the present
+century, and was designed, as population encreased, for a Saturday
+market; yet, although it is used in some degree for that purpose, the
+people never heartily adopted the measure.
+
+In a town like Birmingham, a commodious market-place, for we have
+nothing that bears the name, would be extremely useful. Efforts have
+been used to make one, of a large area, now a bowling-green, in
+Corbet's-alley; but I am persuaded the market-people would suffer the
+grass to grow in it, as peaceably as in their own fields. We are not
+easily drawn from ancient custom, except by interest.
+
+For want of a convenient place where the sellers may be collected into
+one point, they are scattered into various parts of the town. Corn is
+sold by sample, in the Bull-ring; the eatable productions of the garden,
+in the same place: butchers stalls occupy Spiceal-street; one would
+think a narrow street was preferred, that no customer should be suffered
+to pass by. Flowers, shrubs, etc. at the ends of Philip-street and
+Moor-street: beds of earthen-ware lie in the middle of the foot ways;
+and a double range of insignificant stalls, in the front of the
+shambles, choak up the passage: the beast market is kept in Dale-end:
+that for pigs, sheep and horses in New-street: cheese issues from one of
+our principal inns: fruit, fowls and butter are sold at the Old Cross:
+nay, it is difficult to mention a place where they are not. We may
+observe, if a man hath an article to sell which another wants to buy,
+they will quickly find each other out.
+
+Though the market-inconveniencies are great, a man seldom brings a
+commodity for the support of life, or of luxury, and returns without a
+customer. Yet even this crowded state of the market, dangerous to the
+feeble, hath its advantages: much business is transacted in a little
+time; the first customer is obliged to use dispatch, before he is
+justled out by a second: to _stand all the day idle in the market
+place_, is not known among us.
+
+The upper room of this cross is appropriated for a military guard-house.
+We find, December 16, 1723, an order made at a public meeting, that "A
+guard house should be erected in a convenient part of the town, because
+neither of the crosses were eligible." But this old order, like some of
+the new, was never carried into execution. As no complaint lies against
+the cross, in our time, we may suppose it suitable for the purpose; and
+I know none but its prisoners that pronounce against it.
+
+
+
+SAINT MARTIN's.
+
+It has been remarked, that the antiquity of this church is too remote
+for historical light.
+
+The curious records of those dark ages, not being multiplied, and
+preserved by the art of printing, have fallen a prey to time, and the
+revolution of things.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+There is reason for fixing the foundation in the eighth century, perhaps
+rather sooner, and it then was at a small distance from the buildings.
+The town stood upon the hill, whose centre was the Old Cross;
+consequently, the ring of houses that now surrounds the church, from the
+bottom of Edgbaston-street, part of Spiceal-street, the Bull-ring,
+Corn-cheaping, and St. Martin's-lane, could not exist.
+
+I am inclined to think that the precincts of St. Martin's have undergone
+a mutilation, and that the place which has obtained the modern name of
+Bull-ring, and which is used as a market for corn and herbs, was once an
+appropriation of the church, though not used for internment; because the
+church is evidently calculated for a town of some size, to which the
+present church-yard no way agrees, being so extremely small that the
+ancient dead must have been continually disturbed, to make way for the
+modern, that little spot being their only receptacle for 900 years.
+
+A son not only succeeds his father in the possession of his property and
+habitation, but also in the grave, where he can scarcely enter without
+expelling half a dozen of his ancestors.
+
+The antiquity of St. Martin's will appear by surveying the adjacent
+ground. From the eminence upon which the High-street stands, proceeds a
+steep, and regular descent into Moor-street, Digbeth, down
+Spiceal-street, Lee's-lane, and Worcester-street. This descent is broken
+only by the church-yard; which, through a long course of internment, for
+ages, is augmented into a considerable hill, chiefly composed of the
+refuse of life. We may, therefore, safely remark, in this place, _the
+dead are raised up_. Nor shall we be surprised at the rapid growth of
+the hill, when we consider this little point of land was alone that
+hungry grave which devoured the whole inhabitants, during the long ages
+of existence, till the year 1715, when St. Philip's was opened. The
+curious observer will easily discover, the fabric has lost that symmetry
+which should ever attend architecture, by the growth of the soil about
+it, causing a low appearance in the building, so that instead of the
+church burying the dead, the dead would, in time, have buried
+the church.
+
+It is reasonable to allow, the original approach into this place was by
+a flight of steps, not by descent, as is the present case; and that the
+church-yard was surrounded by a low wall. As the ground swelled by the
+accumulation of the dead, wall after wall was added to support the
+growing soil; thus the fence and the hill sprang up together; but this
+was demonstrated, August 27, 1781, when, in removing two or three old
+houses, to widen St. Martin's Lane, they took down the church-yard wall,
+which was fifteen feet high without, and three within. This proved to be
+only an outward case, that covered another wall twelve feet high; in the
+front of which was a stone, elevated eight feet, and inscribed, "Robert
+Dallaway, Francis Burton." Church-wardens, anno dom. (supposed) "1310."
+As there is certain evidence, that the church is, much older then the
+above date, we should suspect there had been another fence many ages
+prior to this. But it was put beyond a doubt, when the workmen came to a
+third wall, four feet high, covered with antique coping, probably
+erected with the fabric itself, which would lead us far back into the
+Saxon times.
+
+The removal of the buildings to accommodate the street, the construction
+of the wall, beautified with pallisades, is _half_ an elegant plan, well
+executed. If we can persuade ourselves to perform the other half, by
+removing the remainder of the buildings, and continuing the line to the
+steps, at the bottom of Spiceal-street, the work will stand in the front
+of modern improvement.
+
+In the south-east part of the wall, covered by the engine-house, upon
+another stone, nearly obliterated, is, John Enser, Richard Higginson,
+Church-wardens, 1709.
+
+Other church-yards are ornamented with the front of the buildings, but
+that of St. Martin submits to the rear.
+
+The present church is of stone; the first upon the premises; and perhaps
+the oldest building in these parts.
+
+As the country does not produce stone of a lasting texture, and as the
+rough blasts of 900 years, had made inroads upon the fabric, it was
+thought necessary, in 1690, to case both church and steeple with brick,
+except the spire, which is an elegant one. The bricks and the
+workmanship are excellent.
+
+Though the fabric is not void of beauty, yet being closely surrounded
+with houses, which destroy the medium of view, that beauty is
+totally hid.
+
+The steeple has, within memory, been three times injured by lightning.
+Forty feet of the spire, in a decayed state, was taken down and rebuilt
+in 1781, with stone from Attleborough, near Nuneaton; and strengthened
+by a spindle of iron, running up its centre 105 feet long, secured to
+the side walls every ten feet, by braces--the expence, 165_l_. 16s.
+
+Inclosed is a ring of twelve musical bells, and though I am not master
+of the bob major and tripple-grandfire, yet am well informed, the
+ringers are masters of the bell-rope: but to excel in Birmingham is
+not new.
+
+The seats in the church would disgrace a meaner parish than that of
+Birmingham; one should be tempted to think, they are the first ever
+erected upon the spot, without taste or order: the timber is become hard
+with age, and to the honour of the inhabitants, bright with use. Each
+sitting is a private freehold, and is farther disgraced, like the coffin
+of a pauper, with the paltry initials of the owner's name. These divine
+abodes are secured with the coarse padlocks of a field gate.
+
+By an attentive survey of the seats, we plainly discover the increasing
+population of Birmingham. When the church was erected, there was
+doubtless sufficient room for the inhabitants, and it was probably the
+only place for public worship during 800 years: as the town increased,
+gallery after gallery was erected, 'till no conveniency was found for
+more. Invention was afterwards exerted to augment the number of
+sittings; every recess capable only of admitting the body of an infant,
+was converted into a seat, which indicates, the continual increase of
+people, and, that a spirit of devotion was prevalent among them.
+
+The floor of the church is greatly injured by internment, as is also the
+light, by the near approach of the buildings, notwithstanding, in 1733,
+the middle roof of the chancel was taken off, and the side walls raised
+about nine feet, to admit a double range of windows.
+
+Dugdale, who wrote in 1640, gives us twenty-two drawings of the arms, in
+the windows, of those gentry who had connection with Birmingham.
+
+     1.  Astley.                     10.  Freville.
+     2.  Sumeri.                     11.  Ancient Birmingham.
+     3.  Ancient Birmingham.         12.  Knell.
+     4.  Ancient Birmingham,         13.  Fitz-Warrer.
+        the 2nd house.               14.  Montalt.
+     5.  Seagreve.                   15.  Modern Birmingham.
+     6.  Modern Birmingham.          16.  Hampden.
+     7.  Ancient and modern          17.  Burdet.
+        Birmingham,                  18.  Montalt.
+        quartered.                   19.  Modern Birmingham.
+     8.  Peshale quartering          20.  Beauchamp.
+        Bottetort.                   21.  Ferrers.
+     9.  Birmingham quartering       22.  Latimere.
+        Wyrley.
+
+These twenty-two coats are now reduced to three, which are,
+
+Number two, in the east window of the chancel, which is _or, two lions
+passant azure_, the arms of the family of Someri, Lords of
+Dudley-castle, and superior Lords of Birmingham; which having been
+extinct about 450 years, the coat of arms must have been there at least
+during that period.
+
+Number three, in the south window of the chancel, _azure, a bend lozenge
+of five points, or_, the ancient arms of the family of Birmingham, which
+perhaps is upwards of 400 years old, as that coat was not used after the
+days of Edward the First, except in quarterings.
+
+And number ten, in the north window, _or, a cross, indented gules_;
+also, _five fleurs de lis_, the ancient arms of Freville, Lords of
+Tamworth, whose ancestor, Marmion, received a grant of that castle from
+William the Conqueror, and whose descendant, Lord Viscount Townshend, is
+the present proprietor. Perhaps this coat hath been there 400 years, for
+the male line of the Freville family, was extinct in the reign of Henry
+the Fourth.
+
+Under the south window of the chancel, by the door, are two monuments
+a-breast, of white marble, much injured by the hand of rude time, and
+more by that of the ruder boys. The left figure, which is very ancient,
+I take to be William de Birmingham, who was made prisoner by the French,
+at the siege of Bellegard, in the 25th of Edward the First, 1297. He
+wears a short mantle, which was the dress of that time, a sword,
+expressive of the military order, and he also bears a shield with the
+bend lozenge, which seems never to have been borne after the above date.
+
+The right hand figure, next the wall, is visibly marked with a much
+older date, perhaps about the conquest. The effigy does not appear in a
+military character, neither did the Lords of that period. The value of
+these ancient relicts have long claimed the care of the wardens, to
+preserve them from the injurious hand of the boys, and the foot of the
+window cleaner, by securing them with a pallisade. Even Westminster
+abbey, famous for departed glory, cannot produce a monument of equal
+antiquity.
+
+At the foot of these, is another of the same materials, belonging to one
+of the Marrows, Lords of Birmingham.
+
+Under the north east window, is a monument of white marble, belonging to
+one of the Lords of the house of Birmingham: but this is of modern date
+compared with the others, perhaps not more than 300 years; he bearing
+the _parte per pale, indented or, and gules_.
+
+In the church is an excellent organ, and in the steeple a set of chimes,
+where the ingenious artist treats us with a fresh tune every day of
+the week.
+
+
+
+Upon one of the CENTRE PILLARS.
+
+Here lieth the bodies of William Colmore, Gent. who died in 1607, and
+Ann his wife, in 1591: also the body of Henry Willoughby, Esq; father to
+Frances, wife of William Colmore, now living; he died 1609.
+
+
+
+NORTH GALLERY.
+
+John Crowley, in 1709, gave twenty shillings per annum, payable out of
+the lowermost house in the Priory, to be distributed in bread, in the
+church on St. John's day, to house-keepers in Birmingham, who receive
+no pay.
+
+Joseph Hopkins died in 1683, who gave 200_l_. with which an estate was
+purchased in Sutton Coldfield; the rents to be laid out in coats, gowns,
+and other relief for the poor of Birmingham: he also gave 200_l_. for
+the poor of Wednesbury: 200_l_. to distresed quakers: 5_l_. 10s. to the
+poor of Birmingham, and the same sum to those of Wednesbury, at
+his death.
+
+
+
+SAME GALLERY.
+
+Whereas the church of St. Martin's, in Birmingham, had only 52 ounces of
+plate, in 1708, for the use of the communion table; it was, by a
+voluntary subscription of the inhabitants, increased to 275--Two
+flaggons, two cups, two covers and pattens, with cases: the whole,
+80_l_. 16s. 6d.
+
+Richard Banner ordered one hundred pounds to be laid out in lands within
+ten miles of Birmingham; which sum, lying at interest, and other small
+donations being added, amounted to 170_l_. with which an estate at
+Erdington, value 81. 10s. per annum, was purchased for the poor of
+Birmingham.
+
+Richard Kilcup gave a house and garden at Spark-brook, for the church
+and poor.
+
+John Cooper gave a croft for making of love-days (merriments) among
+Birmingham men.
+
+William Rixam gave a house in Spiceal-street, No. 26, for the use of the
+poor, in 1568.
+
+John Ward, in 1591, gave a house and lands in Marston Culey.
+
+William Colmore gave ten shillings per ann. payable out of the house,
+No. 1, High-street.
+
+John Shelton gave ten shillings per annum, issuing out of a house
+occupied by Martin Day.
+
+Several of the above donations are included in Lench's trust.
+
+John Peak gave a chest bound with iron for the use of the church;
+seemingly about 200 years old, and of 200 lb. weight.
+
+Edward Smith gave 20_l_. per ann. to the poor, in 1612, and also erected
+the pulpit.
+
+John Billingsley, in 1629, gave 26 shillings yearly, chargeable upon a
+house in Dale-end, to be given in bread, by six-pence every Sunday.
+
+One croft to find bell-ropes.
+
+Richard Dukesayle, in 1630, gave the utensils belonging to the communion
+table.
+
+Barnaby Smith, 1633, gave 20_l_. to be lent to ten poor tradesmen, at
+the discretion of the church-wardens for two or three years.
+
+Catharine Roberts, wife of Barnaby Smith, in 1642, gave 20_l_. the
+interest of which was to be given to the poor, the first Friday in Lent.
+
+John Jennens, 1651, gave 2_l_. 10s. for the use of the poor, born and
+living in Birmingham; and also 20s. on St. Thomas's day.
+
+John Milward gave 26_l_ per annum, lying in Bordesley: one third to the
+school-master of Birmingham, (Free-school); one third to the Principal
+of Brazen nose College, Oxford, for the maintenance of one scholar from
+Birmingham or Haverfordwest, and the remainder to the poor.
+
+Joseph Pemberton gave 40s. per annum, payable out of an estate at
+Tamworth, and 20s. out of an estate in Harbourne.
+
+Richard Smallbrook gave to the poor of Birmingham 10s. per annum,
+arising out of a salt vat in Droitwich.
+
+Robert Whittall gave the pall, or beere cloth.
+
+Widow Cooper, of the Talbot, No. 20, in High-street, gave one towel and
+one sheet, to wrap the poor in the grave.
+
+Mrs. Jennens gave 10_l_. per annum to support a lecture, the second and
+third Thursday in every month.
+
+The following offspring of charity seems to have expired at its birth,
+but rose from the dead a few months ago, after an internment of
+fifty-four years.
+
+The numerous family of Piddock flourished in great opulence for many
+ages, and though they were not lords of a manor, they were as rich as
+those who were: they yet boast, that their ancestors could walk seven
+miles upon their own land. It sometimes may be prudent, however, to
+believe only _half_ what a man says; besides, a person with tolerable
+vigour of limb, might contrive to walk seven miles upon his own land, if
+he has but one acre--a lawyer is not the only man who can double.
+
+Perhaps they were possessed of the northern part of this parish, from
+Birmingham-heath to Shirland-brook, exclusive of many estates in the
+manors of Smethwick and Oldbury.
+
+Their decline continued many years, till one of them, in 1771,
+extinguished their greatness by a single dash of his pen, in selling the
+last foot of land.--I know some of them now in distress.
+
+William Piddock, in 1728, devised his farm at Winson-green, about nine
+acres, to his wife Sarah, during life, and at her death, to his nephews
+and executors William and John Riddall, their heirs and assigns for
+ever, in trust, for educating and putting out poor boys of Birmingham;
+or other discretional charities in the same parish.
+
+But William and John wisely considered, that they could not put the
+money into any pocket sooner than their own; that as the estate was in
+the family it was needless to disturb it; that as the will was not known
+to the world, there was no necessity to publish it; and, as it gave them
+a discretional power of disposal, they might as well consider themselves
+_the poor_, for they were both in the parish.
+
+There is nothing easier than to coin excuses for a fault;--there is
+nothing harder than to make them pass.
+
+What must be his state of mind, who is in continual apprehensions of a
+disgraceful discovery? No profits can compensate his feelings.
+
+Had the deviser been less charitable, William and John had been less
+guilty: the gift of one man becomes a temptation to another. These nine
+acres, from which the donor was to spring upwards, lay like a mountain
+on the breasts of William and John, tending to press them downwards.
+Although poverty makes many a rogue, yet had William and John been more
+poor, they would have been more innocent. The children themselves would
+have been the least gainers by the bequest, for, without this legacy,
+they could just as well have procured trades; the profit would have
+centered in the inhabitants, by softening their levies.--Thus a donation
+runs through many a private channel, unseen by the giver.
+
+Matters continued in this torpid state till 1782, when a quarrel between
+the brothers and a tenant, broke the enchantment, and shewed the actors
+in real view.
+
+The officers, in behalf of the town, filed a bill in Chancery, and
+recovered the dormant property, which was committed in trust to
+
+     John Dymock Griffith,
+     John Harwood,
+     Thomas Archer,         > Overseers, 1781.
+     William Hunt,
+     Joseph Robinson,
+     James Rollason,
+
+     John Holmes,           > Constables, 1782.
+     Thomas Barrs,
+     Joseph Sheldon,
+     Charles Primer,        > Church-wardens,
+     William Dickenson,
+     Edmund Tompkins,
+
+     Claud Johnson,
+     Nathaniel Lawrence,
+     Edward Homer,          > Overseers, 1782.
+     Thomas Cock,
+     Samuel Stretch,
+     Joseph Townsend,
+     John Startin.
+
+The presentation of St. Martin's was vested in the family of Birmingham,
+until the year 1537, since which it has passed through the Dudleys, the
+Crown, the Marrows, the Smiths, and now rests in the family of Tennant.
+
+
+
+RECTORS.
+
+     1300   Thomas de Hinckleigh.
+     1304   Stephen de Segrave.
+     1304   John de Ayleston.
+     1336   Robert de Shuteford.
+     1349   William de Seggeley.
+     1354   Thomas de Dumbleton.
+     1369   Hugh de Wolvesey.
+     1396   Thomas Darnall.
+     1412   William Thomas.
+     1414   Richard Slowther.
+     1428   John Waryn.
+     1432   William Hyde.
+     1433   John Armstrong.
+     1433   John Wardale.
+     1436   Henry Symon.
+     1444   Humphrey Jurdan.
+     1504   Richard Button.
+     1536   Richard Myddlemore.
+     1544   William Wrixam.
+     1578   Lucus Smith.
+
+     _Thus far Dugdale_.
+
+     ----   ------ Smith
+     1641   Samuel Wills.
+     1654   ------ Slater.
+     1660   John Riland.
+     1672   Henry Grove.
+     ----   William Daggett.
+     ----   Thomas Tyrer.
+     1732   Richard Dovey.
+     1771   ------ Chase.
+     1772   John Parsons.
+     1779   William Hinton, D.D.
+     1781   Charles Curtis.
+
+During Cromwell's government, ---- Slater, a broken apothecary of this
+place, having been unsuccessful in curing the body, resolved to attempt
+curing the soul. He therefore, to repair his misfortunes, assumed the
+clerical character, and cast an eye on the rectory of St. Martin's; but
+he had many powerful opponents: among others were Jennens, an
+iron-master, possessor of Aston-furnace; Smallbroke, another wealthy
+inhabitant, and Sir Thomas Holt.
+
+However, he with difficulty, triumphed over his enemies, stept into the
+pulpit, and held the rectory till the restoration.
+
+Being determined, in his first sermon, to lash his enemies with the whip
+of those times, he told his people, "The Lord had carried him through
+many troubles; for he had passed, like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,
+through the _fiery furnace_. And as the Lord had enabled the children of
+Israel to pass over the Red Sea, so he had assisted him in passing over
+the _Small-brooks_, and to overcome the strong _Holts_ of sin
+and satan."
+
+At the restoration, suspecting the approach of the proper officers to
+expel him from the Parsonage-house, he crept into a hiding-place under
+the stairs; but, being discovered, was drawn out by force, and the
+place ever after, bore the name of _Slater's Hole_.
+
+John Riland succeeded him, who is celebrated for piety, learning, and a
+steady adherence to the interest of Charles the First; in whose cause he
+seems to have lost every thing he possessed, but his life. He was
+remarkable for compromising quarrels among his neighbours, often at an
+expence to himself; also for constantly carrying a charity box, to
+relieve the distress of others; and, though robbed of all himself, never
+thought he was poor, except when his box was empty.--He died in
+1672, aged 53.
+
+A succeeding rector, William Daggett, is said to have understood the art
+of boxing, better than that of preaching: his clerk often felt the
+weightier argument of his hand. Meeting a quaker, whose profession, then
+in infancy, did not stand high in esteem, he offered some insults, which
+the other resenting, told him, "If he was not protected by his cloth, he
+would make him repent the indignity." Dagget immediately stripped,
+"There, now I have thrown off my protection."
+
+They fought--but the spiritual bruiser proved too hard for the injured
+quaker.
+
+Among the rectors we sometimes behold a magistrate; at others, those who
+for misconduct ought to have been taken before one.
+
+The rectory, in the King's books, was valued, in 1291, at 5_l_. per
+annum; and, in 1536, at 19_l_. 3s. 6d.
+
+
+
+_A terrier of the rectory, written by the rector, about 1680_.
+
+A house wherein the present rector, Mr. Dagget, resides.
+[Parsonage-house.]
+
+Two other houses in Birmingham, [now three, at No. 15, Spiceal-street.]
+
+Three pieces of glebe land, nineteen acres, between the school land and
+Sheepcoat-lane.
+
+Three pieces, called the Five-way-closes twenty-one acres, bounded by
+the lands of Samuel Smallbroke, Esq; and Josiah Porter.
+
+One close, two acres, bounded by Lady-wood-lane.
+
+Parsons-meadow, two acres, bounded by the lands of Thomas Smith, Sir
+Richard Gough, and Sir Arthur Kaye.
+
+Horse pool-croft, half an acre, bounded by Bell's-barn-lane,
+[Brickiln-lane] the lands of Robert Phillips and Samuel
+Smallbrook, Esqrs.
+
+Tythe of all kinds of grain: but instead of hay, wool and lamb, a due of
+12d. in the pound rent, called herbage, in all the parish, except
+foreign, wherein the custom is 4d. per acre for meadow land; 3d. per
+acre for leas; 3d. for each lamb; 1d. 1/2 for a cow and calf: and except
+part of the estate of William Colmore, Esq; with the Hall-ring,
+Tanter-butts, Bell's-barns, [No. 1, Exeter-row] and Rings; for the
+herbage of which is paid annually 13s. 4d. and also, except part of the
+estate of Samuel Smallbrook, Esq; for which he pays 8s. per annum; and,
+except the estate of Thomas Weaman, called Whittall's-farm,
+[Catharine-street] for which he pays 2s. 8d.
+
+All the above estates pay the customary modus, whether in or out of
+tillage.
+
+
+
+SURPLICE FEES.
+
+                                          Rector. Clerk,
+                                          s. d.     s. d.
+     For burying in the church,           1  0      1  0
+     Ditto church-yard,                   0  6      0  6
+     Churching a woman,                   0  4      0  4
+     Marrying by licence,                 5  0      2  6
+     Ditto without,                       2  6      1  0
+     Tythe pig, if seven or upwards,      0  4      0  0
+     Easter dues, man and wife,           0  4      0  0
+     ---- each person above sixteen,      0  4      0  0
+     Clerk's salary 20s. paid by the wardens; also 2d.
+       from each house keeper at Easter.
+
+From the above terrier, I am inclined to value the income at about
+90_l_. per annum.
+
+The benefice, in 1771, was about 350_l_. per annum: the late Rector,
+John Parsons, procured an act, in 1773, to enable the incumbent to grant
+building leases; the grant of a single lease, in 1777, brought the
+annual addition of about 170_l_. The income is now about 700_l_. and is
+expected, at the expiration of the leases, to exceed 2000_l_.
+
+The repairs of the chancel belong to the rector, and the remainder of
+the building to the parish.
+
+
+
+SAINT PHILLIP's.
+
+We have touched upon various objects in our peregrinations through
+Birmingham, which meet with approbation, though viewed through the
+medium of smoke; some of these, being covered with the rust of time,
+command our veneration; but the prospect before us is wholly modern.
+
+We have mounted, by imperceptable gradations, from beauty to beauty,
+'till we are now arrived at the summit.
+
+If an historian had written in the last century, he would have recorded
+but two places of worship; I am now recording the fourteenth: but my
+successor, if not prevented by our own imprudence, in driving away the
+spirit of commerce, may record the four-and-twentieth. The artist, who
+carries the manufactures among foreigners, or the overseer, who wantonly
+loads the people with burdens, draws the wrath of the place upon his
+own head.
+
+This curious piece of architecture, the steeple of which is erected
+after the model of St. Paul's, in London, but without its weight, does
+honour to the age that raised it, and to the place that contains it.
+Perhaps the eye of the critic cannot point out a fault, which the hand
+of the artist can mend: perhaps too, the attentive eye cannot survey
+this pile of building, without communicating to the mind a small degree
+of pleasure. If the materials are not proof against time, it is rather
+a misfortune to be lamented, than an error to be complained of, the
+country producing no better.
+
+Yet, amidst all the excellencies we boast, I am sorry to charge this
+chief ornament with an evil which admits no cure, that of not ranging
+with its own coemetery, or the adjacent buildings: out of seven streets,
+with which it is connected, it lines with none.--Like Deritend chapel,
+of which I have already complained, from a strong attachment to a point
+of religion, or of the compass, it appears twisted out of its place. We
+may be delighted with a human figure, complete in stature, exactly
+moulded with symmetry, and set off with the graces of dress; but we
+should be disgusted, if his right side seemed to attempt to out-walk
+his left.
+
+This defect, in religious architecture, arises from a strict adherence
+to the custom of the ancients, who fixed their altars towards the east.
+It is amasing, that even weakness itself, by long practice, becomes
+canonical; it gains credit by its age and its company. Hence, Sternhold
+and Hopkins, by being long bound up with scripture, acquired a kind of
+scripture authority.
+
+The ground, originally, was part of a farm, and bore the name of the
+Horse-close; afterwards _Barley-close_.--Thus a benign spot of earth,
+gave additional spirits to a man when living, and kindly covered him in
+its bosom when dead.
+
+This well chosen spot, is the summit of the highest eminence in
+Birmingham, with a descent every way; and, when the church was erected,
+there were not any buildings nearer than those in Bull-street.
+
+The land was the gift of Robert Phillips, Esq; whence the name, ancestor
+to William Theodore Inge, Esquire.
+
+In all degrees of people, from the bishop to the beadle, there seems a
+propensity in the mind to arrive at the honours of Sainthood: by joining
+our names in partnership with a faint, we share with him a red letter in
+the almanack.
+
+Out of six churches in Birmingham, three bear the names of the donors.
+St. Bartholomew's would, probably, have taken that of its founder, John
+Jennens, Esq; but that name happened to be anticipated by Sir John de
+Birmingham, who conferred it upon Deritend chapel. St. Mary's could
+readily perpetuate the name of its benefactress, because we had no place
+of worship that bore it. But as neither the popish, nor the protestant
+kalendar produced a St. Charles, the founder of St. Paul's was
+unfortunately excluded.
+
+The gifts, which the benefactor himself believes are charitable, and
+expects the world to believe the same, if scrutinized, will be found to
+originate from various causes--counterfeits are apt to be offered in
+currency for sterling.
+
+Perhaps _ostentation_ has brought forth more acts of beneficence than
+charity herself; but, like an unkind parent, she disowns her offspring,
+and charges them upon charity.
+
+Ostentation is the root of charity; why else are we told, in capitals,
+by a large stone in the front of a building--"This hospital was erected
+by William Bilby, in the sixty-third year of his age, 1709." Or, "That
+John Moore, yeoman, of Worley Wigorn, built this school, in 1730."--Nay,
+pride even tempts us to strut in a second-hand robe of charity, left by
+another; or why do we read--"These alms-houses were erected by Lench's
+trust, in 1764. W. WALSINGHAM, BAILIFF."
+
+Another utters the word _charity_, and we rejoice in the echo. If we
+miss the substance, we grasp at the shadow.
+
+Sometimes we assign our property for religious uses, late in the evening
+of life, when _enjoyment_ is over, and almost _possession_. Thus we
+bequeath to piety, what we can keep no longer. We convey our name to
+posterity at the expence of our successor, and scaffold our way towards
+heaven up the walls of a steeple.
+
+Will charity chalk up one additional score in our favour, because we
+grant a small portion of our land to found a church, which enables us to
+augment the remainder treble its value, by granting building leases? a
+man seldom makes a bargain for heaven, and forgets himself. Charity and
+self-interest, like the apple and the rind, are closely connected, and,
+like them, we cannot separate one without trespassing on the other.
+
+In contributions of the lesser kind, the giver examines the quantum
+given by those of his own station; _pride_ will not suffer him to appear
+less than his neighbour.
+
+Sometimes he surrenders merely through importunity, which indicates as
+much _charity_, as the garrison does _merit_, which surrenders when
+closely besieged. Neither do we fear _our left hand knowing what our
+right hand doth_, our only fear is, left the world should _not_
+know it.
+
+This superb edifice was begun by act of Parliament, in 1711, under a
+commission consisting of twenty of the neighbouring gentry, appointed by
+the bishop of the diocese, under his episcopal seal. Their commission
+was to end twelve months after the erection of the church.
+
+Though Birmingham ever was, and perhaps ever will be considered as one
+parish, yet a portion of land, about one hundred acres, nearly
+triangular, and about three fourths built up, was taken out of the
+centre of St. Martin's, like a shred of cloth out of a great coat, to
+make a less, and constituted a separate parish, by the appellation of
+St Philip's.
+
+We shall describe this new boundary by an imaginary journey, for a real
+one perhaps was never taken since the land was first laid out, nor ever
+will to the end of time.
+
+We include the warehouse, then of John Jenens, Esq; now No. 26, in
+High-street, penetrate through the buildings, till we come within twenty
+yards, of Moor-street, turn sharp to the left, cross the lower part of
+Castle-street, Carr's-lane, and New Meeting-street; pass close by the
+front of the Meeting-house, through Bank-alley, into Hen's-walk, having
+kept Moor-street about twenty yards to the right, all the way; we now
+enter that street, at the bottom of Hen's-walk, pass through the east
+part of Dale-end, through Stafford-street, Steelhouse-lane (then called
+Whittal-lane) Bull-lane (then New-hall-lane) and Mount-pleasant.
+
+Our journey now leads us on the west of Pinfold-street, keeping it about
+twenty yards on our left; up Peck-lane, till we come near the top, when
+we turn to the right, keeping the buildings, with the Free-school in New
+street, on our left, into Swan-alley. We now turn up the Alley into
+New-street, then to the right, which leads us to the Party-wall, between
+No. 25 and 26, in High-street, late Jennens's, where we began.
+
+In the new parish I have described, and during the journey, kept on the
+left, there seems to have been, at passing the act, twelve closes, all
+which are filled with buildings, except the land between New-street and
+Mount-pleasant, which only waits a word from the owner, to speak the
+houses into being.
+
+The church was consecrated in 1715, and finished in 1719, the work of
+eight years; at which time the commissioners resigned their powers into
+the hands of the diocesan, in whom is the presentation, after having
+paid, it is said, the trifling sum of 5012_l_.--but perhaps such a work
+could not be completed for 20,000_l_.
+
+Three reasons may be assigned, why so small a sum was expended; many of
+the materials were given; more of the carriage, and some heavy debts
+were contracted.
+
+The urns upon the parapet of the church, which are highly ornamental,
+were fixed at the same time with those of the school, in about 1756.
+
+When I first saw St. Philip's, in the year 1741, at a proper distance,
+uncrowded with houses, for there were none to the north, New-hall
+excepted, untarnished with smoke, and illuminated by a western sun, I
+was delighted with its appearance, and thought it then, what I do now,
+and what others will in future, _the pride of the place_.
+
+If we assemble the beauties of the edifice, which cover a rood of
+ground; the spacious area of the church-yard, occupying four acres;
+ornamented with walks in great perfection; shaded with trees in double
+and treble ranks; and surrounded with buildings in elegant taste:
+perhaps its equal cannot be found in the British dominions.
+
+The steeple, 'till the year 1751, contained a peal of six bells, which
+were then augmented to ten; at which time St. Martin's, the mother
+church, having only eight, could not bear to be out-numbered by a
+junior, though of superior elegance, therefore ordered twelve into her
+own steeple: but as room was insufficient for the admission of bells by
+the dozen, means were found to hoist them tier over tier. Though the
+round dozen is a complete number in the counting-house, it is not
+altogether so in the belfry: the octave is the most perfect concord in
+music, but diminishes by rising to an octave and a half; neither can
+that dozen well be crowded into the peal.
+
+But perhaps the artist had another grand scheme in view, that of
+accommodating the town with the additional harmony of the chimes; for
+only a few tunes can be played on the octave, whilst the dozen will
+compass nearly all.
+
+Whether we are entertained even by this _exalted_ style of music, admits
+a doubt; for instead of the curious ear being charmed with distinct
+notes, we only hear a bustle of confused sounds, which baffle the
+attention too much to keep pace with the tune.
+
+These two steeples, are our _public_ band of music: they are the only
+_standing_ Waits of the place. Two thousand people may be accommodated
+in the church, but, at times, it has contained near three thousand.
+
+In the vestry is a theological library, bequeathed by the first rector,
+William Higgs, for the use of the clergy in Birmingham and its
+neighbourhood; who left 200_l_. for future purchase.
+
+Under the centre isle runs a vault, the whole length of the church, for
+the reception of those who chuse to pay an additional guinea.
+
+The organ excels; the paintings, mouldings and gildings are superb:
+whether the stranger takes an external or an internal survey, the eye is
+struck with delight, and he pronounces the whole the work of a matter.
+Its conveniency also, can only be equalled by its elegance.
+
+
+
+In the FRONT GALLERY.
+
+Upon application of Sir Richard Gough, to Sir Robert Walpole, then in
+power, George the First gave 600_l_. in 1725, towards finishing
+this church.
+
+Three remarks naturally arise from this declaration; That the prodigious
+sums expended upon this pious undertaking, were beyond the ability of
+the inhabitants; that the debts contracted, were many years in
+discharging; and that one of the best of Kings, the head of the
+Brunswick line, bestowed a liberal benefaction upon a people not
+compleatly reconciled to his house.
+
+Whether monumental decoration adds beauty to a place already beautiful,
+is a question. There are three very small and very elegant monuments in
+this church. Upon one of the south pillars, is that of the above William
+Higgs, who died in 1733. Upon another is that of William Vyse, the
+second rector, who died in 1770, at the age of 61. And, upon a north
+pillar, that of Girton Peak, Esq; an humane magistrate, who died in
+1770, aged 48.
+
+Internment in the church is wisely prohibited; an indecency incompatible
+with a civilized people. The foreigner will be apt to hold forth the
+barbarity of the English nation, by observing, "They introduce
+corruption in their very churches, and pay divine adoration upon the
+graves of their ancestors."
+
+Places of worship were designed for the living, the dead give up their
+title with their life: besides, even small degrees of putrefaction,
+confined in a room where the air cannot circulate, may become
+prejudicial to health: it also ruins the pavement, as is done at St.
+Martin's. Our first inhabitants, therefore, lie contented in the church
+yard, by their unfortunate equals; having private sepulchres
+appropriated for family use--Perhaps at the last day, no inquiry will be
+made whether they lay on the in, or the outside of the walls.
+
+It is difficult to traverse the elegant walks that surround this gulf of
+death, without contemplating, that time is drawing us towards the same
+focus, and that we shall shortly fall into the centre: that this
+irregular circle contains what was once generous and beautiful, opulent
+and humane. The arts took their rise in this fruitful soil: this is the
+grave of invention and of industry; here those who figured upon the
+stage are fallen, to make way for others, who must follow: though
+multitudes unite with the dead, the numbers of the living increase; the
+inhabitants change, while the genius improves. We cannot pass on without
+reading upon the stones, the short existence of our departed friends,
+perusing the end of a life with which we were well acquainted. The
+active motion that veered with the rude blasts of seventy years, slops
+in this point for ever.
+
+The present rector, who is the third, is the Rev. Charles Newling, and
+the benefice something like the following:
+
+     A prebendal stall in the cathedral      l.  s.  d.
+      church of Lichfield,                    6   0   0
+     Eight acres and a half of glebe land,
+      at Long bridge, near Birmingham,       32   0   0
+     Emoluments arising from the seats of
+      the church,                           140   0   0
+     Surplice fees,                          50   0   0
+     Easter offerings,                       10   0   0
+     An estate at Sawley, in the county of
+      Derby, under lease for three lives,
+      renewable by fine, at the annual
+      rent of                                66  13   4
+                                           ------------
+                                            304  13   4
+     Out of which is paid to the rector
+      of St. Martin's, in consideration
+      fees and offerings once appropriated
+      to that church,                        15   0   0
+                                            -----------
+                                            289  13   4
+
+
+
+BIRTHS AND BURIALS.
+
+There are many inducements for an author to take up the pen, but the
+leading motives, however disguised, seem to be pride and poverty;
+hence, two of the most despicable things among men, furnish the world
+with knowledge.
+
+One would think, however, there can be no great inducement for a man to
+write what he is conscious will never be read. Under this class may be
+comprehended alphabetical collections, chronological tables, books of
+figures, occasional devotions, etc. here also I range the lists of
+officers in Birmingham, the annual sums expended upon the poor, and the
+present chapter of numbers. These are intended for occasional
+inspection, rather than for regular perusal: we may consider them as
+deserts served up for a taste only, not a dinner; yet even this rule may
+be broken by a resolute reader, for the late Joseph Scott, Esq; founder
+of the trust before-mentioned, assured me, in 1751, that he had perused
+Bailey's Dictionary as methodically as he had done Tom Jones; and,
+though a dissenter, he continued to read the Common Prayer Book from end
+to end, about twice a year; which is more than, perhaps, the greatest
+lover of that excellent composition can boast.
+
+I shall, to avoid prolixity in a barren chapter of the two extremes of
+life, select about every tenth year from the register. Those years at
+the time of the plague, make no addition to the burials, because the
+unhappy victims were conveyed to Lady-wood for internment.
+
+These lists inform us, that the number of streets, houses, inhabitants,
+births, burials, poor's rates, and commercial productions, increase with
+equal rapidity. It appears also from the register, that there were more
+christenings lately at St. Martin's, in one day, than the whole town
+produced in a year, in the 16th century--The same may be found in that
+of St. Phillip's.
+
+The deaths in Deritend are omitted, being involved with those of Aston.
+
+      Year.   Births.   Burials.     Year.    Births.    Burials.
+
+     1555         37         27      1667         146         140
+     1560         --         37      1668         113         102
+     1571         48         26      1681         251         139
+     1580         37         25      1690         127         150
+     1590         52         47      1700         172         171
+     1600         62         32      1719         334         270
+     1610         70         45      1720         423         355
+     1623         81         66      1730         449         415
+     1628        100         96      1740         520         573
+     1653         --         47      1750         860        1020
+     1660         --         75      1760         984        1143
+     1665         --        109      1770        1329         899
+     1666        144        121      1780        1636        1340
+
+
+
+GENERAL HOSPITAL.
+
+Though charity is one of the most amiable qualities of humanity, yet,
+like Cupid, she ought to be represented blind; or, like Justice,
+hood-winked. None of the virtues have been so much misapplied; giving to
+the _hungry_, is sometimes only another word for giving to the _idle_.
+We know of but two ways in which this excellence can exert itself;
+improving the _mind_, and nourishing the _body_. To help him who _will
+not _help himself; or, indiscriminately to relieve those that want, is
+totally to mistake the end; for want is often met with: but to supply
+those who _cannot_ supply themselves, becomes real charity. Some worthy
+Christians have taken it into their heads to relieve _all_, for fear of
+omitting the right. What should we think of the constable who seizes
+every person he meets with, for fear of missing the thief? Between the
+simple words, therefore, of WILL NOT and CANNOT, runs the fine barrier
+between real and mistaken charity.
+
+This virtue, so strongly inculcated by the christian system, hath,
+during the last seventeen centuries, appeared in a variety of forms, and
+some of them have been detrimental to the interest they were meant to
+serve: _Such was the cloister_. Man is not born altogether to serve
+himself, but the community; if he cannot exist without the assistance of
+others, it follows, that others ought to be assisted by him: but if
+condemned to obscurity in the cell, he is then fed by the aid of the
+public, while that public derives none from him.
+
+[Illustration: _General Hospital_.]
+
+Estates have sometimes been devised in trust for particular uses, meant
+as charities by the giver, but have, in a few years, been diverted out
+of their original channel to other purposes.
+
+The trust themselves, like so many contending princes, ardently druggie
+for sovereignty; hence, _legacy_ and _discord_ are intimate companions.
+
+The plantation of many of our English schools sprang up from the will of
+the dead; but it is observable, that sterility quickly takes place; the
+establishment of the master being properly secured, supineness enters,
+and the young scions of learning are retarded in their growth.
+
+It therefore admits a doubt, whether charitable donation is beneficial
+to the world; nay, the estate itself becomes blasted when bequeathed to
+public use, for, being the freehold of none, none will improve it:
+besides, the more dead land, the less scope for industry.
+
+At the reformation, under Queen Elizabeth, charity seemed to take a
+different appearance: employment was found for the idle; he that was
+able, was obliged to labour, and the parish was obliged to assist him
+who could not. Hence the kingdom became replete with workhouses: these
+are the laudable repositories of distress.
+
+It has already been observed, that three classes of people merit the
+care of society: forlorn infancy, which is too weak for its own support;
+old age, which has served the community, without serving itself; and
+accidental calamity: the two first, fall under the eye of the parish,
+the last, under the modern institution of the General Hospital.
+
+The shell of this plain, but noble edifice, was erected in 1766, upon a
+situation very unsuitable for its elegant front, in a narrow dirty lane,
+with an aspect directing up the hill, which should ever be avoided.
+
+The amiable desire of doing good in the inhabitants, seemed to have
+exceeded their ability; and, to the grief of many, it lay dormant for
+twelve years. In 1778, the matter was revived with vigor; subscriptions
+filled apace, and by the next year the hospital was finished, at the
+expence of 7137_l_. 10s. Though the benefactions might not amount to
+this enormous sum, yet they were noble, and truly characteristic of a
+generous people. The annual subscriptions, as they stood at Michaelmas,
+1779, were 901_l_. 19s. and, at Midsummer, 1780, 932_l_. 8s. During
+these nine months, 529 patients were admitted, of which, 303 were cured,
+93 relieved, 112 remained on the books, only 5 died, and but _one_ was
+discharged as incurable; an incontestible proof of the _skill_ of the
+faculty, which is at least equalled by their _humanity_, in giving their
+attendance gratis.
+
+The rules by which this excellent charity is conducted, are worthy of
+its authors: success hath fully answered expectation, and the building
+will probably stand for ages, to tell posterity a favourable tale of the
+present generation.
+
+
+
+PUBLIC ROADS.
+
+Man is evidently formed for society; the intercourse of one with
+another, like two blocks of marble in friction, reduces the rough
+prominences of behaviour, and gives a polish to the manners.
+
+Whatever tends to promote social connection, improve commerce, or stamp
+an additional value upon property, is worthy of attention.
+
+Perhaps, there is not a circumstance that points more favourably towards
+these great designs, than commodious roads.
+
+According as a country is improved in her roads, so will she stand in
+the scale of civilization. It is a characteristic by which we may
+pronounce with safety. The manners and the roads of the English, have
+been refining together for about 1700 years. If any period of time is
+distinguished with a more rapid improvement in one, it is also in
+the other.
+
+Our Saxons ancestors, of dusky memory, seldom stepped from under the
+smoke of Birmingham. We have a common observation among us, that even so
+late as William the Third, the roads were in so dangerous a state, that
+a man usually made his will, and took a formal fare-well of his friends,
+before he durst venture upon a journey to London; which, perhaps, was
+thought then, of as much consequence as a voyage to America now.
+
+A dangerous road is unfavourable both to commerce and to friendship; a
+man is unwilling to venture his neck to sell his productions, or even
+visit his friend: if a dreadful road lies between them, it will be apt
+to annihilate friendship.
+
+Landed property in particular, improves with the road. If a farmer
+cannot bring his produce to market, he cannot give much for his land,
+neither can that land well be improved, or the market properly supplied.
+Upon a well formed road, therefore, might, with propriety, be placed the
+figures of commerce, of friendship, and of agriculture, as
+presiding over it.
+
+There are but very few observations necessary in forming a road, and
+those few are very simple; to expel whatever is hurtful, and invite
+whatever is beneficial.
+
+The breaking up of a long frost, by loosening the foundations, is
+injurious, and very heavy carriages ought to be prevented, 'till the
+weather unites the disjointed particles, which will soon happen.
+
+But the grand enemy is water; and as this will inevitably fall, every
+means should be used to discharge it: drains ought to be frequent, that
+the water may not lie upon the road.
+
+The great benefits are _the sun_ and the _wind:_ the surveyor should use
+every method for the admission of these friendly aids, that they may
+dispel the moisture which cannot run off.
+
+For this purpose, all public roads ought to be sixty feet wide; all
+trees and hedges within thirty feet of the centre, be under the
+controul of the commissioners, with full liberty of drawing off the
+water in what manner they judge necessary.
+
+The Romans were the most accomplished masters we know of in this useful
+art; yet even they seem to have forgot the under drain, for it is
+evident at this day, where their road runs along the declivity of a
+hill, the water dams up, flows over, and injures the road.
+
+Care should be taken, in properly forming a road at first, otherwise you
+may botch it for a whole century, and at the end of that long period, it
+will be only a botch itself.
+
+A wide road will put the innocent traveller out of fear of the
+waggoners; not the most civilized of the human race.
+
+From Birmingham, as from a grand centre, issues twelve roads, that point
+to as many towns; some of these, within memory, have scarcely been
+passable; all are mended, but though much is done, more is wanted. In an
+upland country, like that about Birmingham, where there is no river of
+size, and where the heads only of the streams show themselves: the
+stranger would be surprised to hear, that through most of these twelve
+roads he cannot travel in a flood with safety. For want of causeways
+and bridges, the water is suffered to flow over the road, higher than
+the stirrup: every stream, though only the size of a tobacco-pipe, ought
+to be carried through an under drain, never to run over the road.
+
+At Saltley, in the way to Coleshill, which is ten miles, for want of a
+causeway, with an arch or two, every flood annoys the passenger and the
+road: at Coleshill-hall, 'till the year 1779, he had to pass a
+dangerous river.
+
+One mile from Birmingham, upon the Lichfield road, sixteen miles, to the
+disgrace of the community, is yet a river without a bridge. In 1777, the
+country was inclined to solicit Parliament for a turnpike-act, but the
+matter fell to the ground through private views: one would think, that
+the penny can never be ill laid out, which carries a man ten miles with
+pleasure and safety. The hand of nature hath been more beneficent, both
+to this, and to the Stafford road, which is twenty-eight miles, than
+that of art.
+
+The road to Walfall, ten miles, is rather _below indifferent_.
+
+That to Wolverhampton, thirteen miles, is much improved since the
+coal-teams left it.
+
+The road to Dudley, ten miles, is despicable beyond description. The
+unwilling traveller is obliged to go two miles about, through a bad
+road, to avoid a worse.
+
+That to Hales-Owen, eight miles, like the life of man, is checkered with
+good and evil; chiefly the latter.
+
+To Bromsgrove, thirteen miles, made extremely commodious for the first
+four, under the patronage of John Kettle, Esq; in 1772, at the expence
+of near 5000_l_. but afterwards is so confined, that two horses cannot
+pass without danger; the sun and the winds are excluded, the rivers lie
+open to the stranger, and he travels through dirt 'till Midsummer.
+
+To Alcester, about twenty, formed in 1767, upon a tolerable plan, but is
+rather too narrow, through a desolate country, which at present scarcely
+defrays the expence; but that country seems to improve with the road.
+
+Those to Stratford and Warwick, about twenty miles each, are much used
+and much neglected.
+
+That to Coventry, about the same distance, can only be equalled by the
+Dudley road. The genius of the age has forgot, in some of these roads to
+accommodate the foot passenger with a causeway.
+
+The surveyor will be inclined to ask, How can a capital be raised to
+defray this enormous expence? Suffer me to reply with an expression in
+the life of Oliver Cromwell, "He that lays out money when necessary, and
+only then, will accomplish matters beyond the reach of imagination."
+
+Government long practised the impolitic mode of transporting vast
+numbers of her people to America, under the character of felons; these,
+who are generally in the prime of life, might be made extremely useful
+to that country which they formerly robbed, and against which, they are
+at this moment carrying arms. It would be easy to reduce this ferocious
+race under a kind of martial discipline; to badge them with a mark only
+removeable by the governors, for hope should ever be left for
+repentance, and to employ them in the rougher arts of life, according to
+the nature of the crime, and the ability of body; such as working the
+coal mines in Northumberland, the lead mines in Derbyshire, the tin
+mines in Cornwall, cultivating waste lands, banking after inundations,
+forming canals, cleansing the beds of rivers, assisting in harvest, and
+in FORMING and MENDING the ROADS: _these hewers of wood and drawers of
+water_ would be a corps of reserve against any emergency. From this
+magazine of villiany, the British navy might be equipped with,
+considerable advantage.
+
+
+
+CANAL.
+
+An act was obtained, in 1767, to open a cut between Birmingham and the
+coal delphs about Wednesbury.
+
+The necessary article of coal, before this act, was brought by land, at
+about thirteen shillings per ton, but now at seven.
+
+It was common to see a train of carriages for miles, to the great
+destruction of the road, and the annoyance of travellers.
+
+This dust is extended in the whole to about twenty-two miles in length,
+'till it unites with what we may justly term the grand artery, or
+Staffordshire Canal; which, eroding the island, communicates with Hull,
+Bristol and Liverpool. The expence was about 70,000_l_. divided into
+shares 140_l_. each, of which no man can purchase more than ten, and
+which now sell for about 370_l_.
+
+The proprietors took a perpetual lease of six acres of land, of Sir
+Thomas Gooch, at 47_l_. per annum, which is converted into a wharf, upon
+the front of which is erected an handsome office for the dispatch
+of business.
+
+[ILLUSTRATION: A Plan of the Navigable Canal from Birmingham to
+Autherley]
+
+[ILLUSTRATION: Navigation Office]
+
+This watery passage, exclusive of loading the proprietors with wealth,
+tends greatly to the improvement of some branches of trade, by
+introducing heavy materials at a small expence, such as pig iron for the
+founderies, lime-stone, articles for the manufacture of brass and steel,
+also stone, brick, slate, timber, &c.
+
+It is happy for the world, that public interest is grafted upon private,
+and that both flourish together.
+
+This grand work, like other productions of Birmingham birth, was rather
+hasty; the managers, not being able to find patience to worm round the
+hill at Smethwick, or cut through, have wisely travelled over it by the
+help of twelve locks, with six they mount the summit, and with six more
+descend to the former level; forgetting the great waste of water, and
+the small supply from the rivulets, and also, the amazing loss of of
+time in climbing this curious ladder, consisting of twelve liquid steps.
+It is worthy of remark, that the level of the earth, is nearly the same
+at Birmingham as at the pits: what benefit then would accrue to
+commerce, could the boats travel a dead flat of fourteen miles without
+interruption? The use of the canal would increase, great variety of
+goods be brought which are now excluded, and these delivered with more
+expedition, with less expence, and the waste of water never felt; but,
+by the introduction of twelve unnecessary locks, the company may
+experience five plagues more than fell on Egypt.
+
+The boats are nearly alike, constructed to fit the locks, carry about
+twenty-five tons, and are each drawn by something like the skeleton of a
+horse, covered with skin: whether he subsists upon the scent of the
+water, is a doubt; but whether his life is a scene of affliction, is
+not; for the unfeeling driver has no employment but to whip him from one
+end of the canal to the other. While the teams practised the turnpike
+road, the lash was divided among five unfortunate animals, but now the
+whole wrath of the driver falls upon one.
+
+We can scarcely view a boat travelling this liquid road, without raising
+opposite sensations--pleased to think of its great benefit to the
+community, and grieved to behold wanton punishment.
+
+I see a large field of cruelty expanding before me, which I could easily
+prevail with myself to enter; in which we behold the child plucking a
+wing and a leg off a fly, to try how the poor insect can perform with
+half his limbs; or running a pin through the posteriors of a locust, to
+observe it spinning through the air, like a comet, drawing a tail of
+thread. If we allow, man has a right to destroy noxious animals, we
+cannot allow he has a right to protract their pain by a lingering death.
+By fine gradations the modes of cruelty improve with years, in pinching
+the tail of a cat for the music of her voice, kicking a dog because we
+have trod upon his foot, or hanging him for _fun_, 'till we arrive at
+the priests in the church of Rome, who burnt people for opinion; or to
+the painter, who begged the life of a criminal, that he might torture
+him to death with the severest pangs, to catch the agonizing feature,
+and transfer it into his favourite piece, of a dying Saviour. But did
+that Saviour teach such doctrine? Humanity would wish rather to have
+lost the piece, than have heard of the cruelty. What, if the injured
+ghost of the criminal is at this moment torturing that of the painter?--
+
+But as this capacious field is beyond the line I profess, and, as I have
+no direct accusation against the people of my regard, I shall not enter.
+
+
+
+DERITEND BRIDGE.
+
+Cooper's-mill, situated upon the verge of the parishes of Afton and
+Birmingham, 400 yards below this bridge, was probably first erected in
+the the peaceable ages of Saxon influence, and continued a part of the
+manorial estate 'till the disposal of it in 1730.
+
+Before the water was pounded up to supply the mill, it must have been so
+shallow, as to admit a passage between Digbeth and Deritend, over a few
+stepping stones; and a gate seems to have been placed upon the verge of
+the river, to prevent encroachments of the cattle.
+
+This accounts for the original name, which Dugdale tells us was
+_Derry-yate-end:_ derry, low; yate, gate; end, extremity of the parish;
+with which it perfectly agrees.
+
+The mill afterwards causing the water to be dammed up, gave rise to a
+succession of paltry bridges, chiefly of timber, to preserve a
+communication between the two streets.
+
+But in later ages, the passage was dignified with those of stone. In
+1750, a wretched one was taken down, and the present bridge erected by
+Henry Bradford and John Collins, overseers of the highway, consisting of
+five arches; but the homely style, the deep ascent, and the
+circumscribed width prevents encomium.
+
+
+
+ADJACENT REMARKS.
+
+SOHO.
+
+If we travel two miles from the centre of Birmingham, upon the
+Wolverhampton road, which may be called, the road to taste, and is daily
+travelled by the nobility and gentry, we shall arrive at the epitome
+of the arts.
+
+Though this little spot lies in the county of Stafford, we must accept
+it as part of Birmingham; neither is it many yards distant from
+the parish.
+
+The proprietor, invited by a genius, a fortune of 30,000_l_. and a
+little stream, which promised to facilitate business, has erected the
+most elegant works in these parts, said to accommodate seven hundred
+persons. Upon that hungry ground, where, in 1758 stood one paltry
+cottage, we now behold, a city in miniature.
+
+From this nursery of ingenuity, originated the Soho button, the single
+wheel clock, the improvement of the steam engine, the platina button,
+the method of taking exact copies of painting, writing, &c. also, the
+productions of fancy, in great variety; with which some of the European
+princes are well acquainted.
+
+To the genius of the place is owing the assay-office, for marking
+standard wrought plate, which, prior to the year 1773, was conveyed to
+London to receive the sanction of that office; but by an act then
+obtained, the business is done here by an assay master, superintended by
+four wardens: these are annually chosen out of thirty-six guardians,
+whose chief duty consists in dining together, at least once a year; for
+it appears from the chapter upon government, that feasting makes a
+principal part of a Birmingham office; and, however unwilling a man may
+seem to _enter in_ we generally find him pleased when he _is in_.
+
+
+
+DANES CAMP:
+
+DANES BANK, OR BURY FIELDS.
+
+About five miles south of Birmingham, and five furlongs off Solihull
+Lodge, is a place called _The Danes Camp_. But although neither history
+nor tradition speak of this particular event, it probably was raised in
+the ninth century.
+
+The situation is well chosen, upon an eminence, about nine acres, nearly
+triangular, is yet in tolerable perfection; the ditch is about twenty
+feet wide; the base of the bank about the same; admits but of one
+entrance, and is capable of being secured by water. From the bottom of
+the ditch, to the top of the mound, was, when made, about twenty feet;
+and is a production of great labour.
+
+
+
+GENTLEMEN'S SEATS.
+
+This neighbourhood may justly be deemed the seat of the arts, but not
+the seat of the gentry.
+
+None of the nobility are near us, except William Legge, Earl of
+Dartmouth, at Sandwell, four miles from Birmingham. The principal houses
+in our environs, are those of Sir Charles Holte, late member for the
+county, at Aston; Sir Henry Gough, member for Bamber, at Edgbaston;
+George Birch, Esq; at Handsworth; John Gough, Esq; at Perry; and John
+Taylor, Esq; at Bordesley and at Moseley; all joining to the manor of
+Birmingham. Exclusive of these, are many elegant retreats of our first
+inhabitants, acquired by commercial success.
+
+Full fed with vanity is an author, when two readers strive to catch up
+his work, for the pleasure of perusing it:--but, perchance, if two
+readers dip into this chapter, they may strive to lay it down.
+
+I have hitherto written to the _world_, but now to a small part, _the
+antiquarians_; nay, a small part of the sensible part; for a fool and an
+antiquary is a contradiction: they are, to a man, people of letters and
+penetration. If their judgment is sometimes erroneous, we may consider,
+man was never designed for perfection; there is also less light to guide
+them in this, than in other researches. If the traveller slips upon
+common ground, how will he fare if he treads upon ice?--Besides, in dark
+questions, as in intricate journies, there are many erroneous ways for
+one right.
+
+If, like the mathematician, he can establish one point, it ascertains
+another. We may deem his pursuit one of the most arduous, and attended
+with the least profit: his emoluments consist in the returns of pleasure
+to his own mind.
+
+The historian only collects the matter of the day, and hands it to
+posterity; but the antiquarian brings his treasures from remote ages,
+and presents them to this: he examines forgotten repositories, calls
+things back into existence, which are past; counter-acts the efforts of
+time, and of death; possesses something like a re-creative power;
+collects the dust of departed matter, moulds it into its prestine state,
+exhibits the figure to view, and stamps it with a kind of immortality.
+
+Every thing has its day, whether it be a nation, a city, a castle, a
+man, or an insect; the difference is, one is a winter's day, the other
+may be extended to the length of a summer's--an _end_ waits upon all.
+But we cannot contemplate the end of grandeur, without gloomy ideas.
+
+Birmingham is surrounded with the melancholy remains of extinguished
+greatness; the decayed habitations of decayed gentry, fill the mind with
+sorrowful reflections. Here the feet of those marked the ground, whose
+actions marked the page of history. Their arms glistened in the field;
+their eloquence moved the senate. Born to command, their influence was
+extensive; but who now rest in peace among the paupers, fed with the
+crumbs of their table. The very land which, for ages, was witness to the
+hospitality of its master, is itself doomed to stirility. The spot
+which drew the adjacent country, is neglected by all; is often in a
+wretched state of cultivation, sets for a trifle; the glory is departed;
+it demands a tear from the traveller, and the winds teem, to sigh
+over it.
+
+
+
+THE MOATS.
+
+In the parish of King's-norton, four miles south west of Birmingham, is
+_The Moats_, upon which long resided the ancient family of Field. The
+numerous buildings, which almost formed a village, are totally erased,
+and barley grows where the beer was drank.
+
+
+
+BLACK GREVES.
+
+Eight miles south west of Birmingham, in the same parish, near Withod
+Chapel, is _Black Greves_ (Black Groves) another seat of the Fields;
+which, though a family of opulence, were so far from being lords of the
+manor, that they were in vassalage to them.
+
+The whole of that extensive parish is in the crown, which holds the
+detestable badge of ancient slavery over every tenant, of demanding
+under the name of harriot, the best moveable he dies possessed of--Thus
+death and the bailiff make their inroads together; they rob the family
+in a double capacity, each taking the best moveable.
+
+As the human body descends into the regions of sickness, much sooner
+than it can return into health; so a family can decline into poverty by
+hastier steps, than rise into affluence. One generation of extravagance
+puts a period to many of greatness.
+
+A branch of the Fields, in 1777, finished their ancient grandeur, by
+signing away the last estate of his family.--Thus he blotted out the
+name of his ancestors by writing his own.
+
+
+
+ULVERLEY, OR CULVERLEY.
+
+Four miles from Birmingham, upon the Warwick road, entering the parish
+of Solihull, in Castle-lane, is Ulverle, in doom's-day Ulverlei.
+Trifling as this place now seems, it must have been the manor-house of
+Solihull, under the Saxon heptarchy; but went to decay so long ago as
+the conquest.
+
+The manor was the property of the Earls of Mercia, but whether their
+residence is uncertain.--The traces of a moat yet remain, which are
+triangular, and encircle a wretched farm-house of no note: one of the
+angles of this moat is filled up, and become part of Castle-lane; which
+proves that Ulverley went into disuse when Hogg's-moat was erected: it
+also proves that the lane terminated here, which is about two hundred
+yards from the turnpike road. The great width of the lane, from the road
+to Ulverley, and the singular narrowness from thence to Hogg's-moat, is
+another proof of its prior antiquity.
+
+If we pursue our journey half a mile Farther along this lane, which by
+the way is scarcely passable, it will bring us to
+
+
+
+HOGG'S-MOAT.
+
+At Oltenend (Old Town) originally Odingsell's-moat, now Hobb's-moat, the
+ancient manor-house of Solihull, after it had changed its lords at the
+conquest. The property, as before observed, of Edwin Earl of Mercia, in
+the reign of Edward the the Confessor.
+
+William the First granted the manor to a favourite lady, named Cristina,
+probably a handsome lass, of the same complexion as his mother; thus we
+err when we say William gave all the land in the kingdom to his
+followers--some little was given to those _he_ followed.
+
+This lady, like many of her successors, having tired the arms of
+royalty, was conveyed into those of an humble favourite; Ralph de
+Limesie married her, who became lord of the place, but despising
+Ulverley, erected this castle.
+
+The line of Limesie continued proprietors four descents; when, in the
+reign of King John, it became the property of Hugh de Odingsells, by
+marrying a co-heiress.
+
+The last of the Odingsells, in 1294, left four daughters, one of whom,
+with the lordship, fell into the hands of John de Clinton; but it is
+probable the castle was not inhabited after the above date, therefore
+would quickly fall to decay.
+
+The moat is upon a much larger plan than Ulverley, takes in a compass of
+five acres, had two trenches; the outer is nearly obliterated, but the
+inner is marked with the strongest lines we meet with. This trench is
+about twenty feet deep, and about thirty yards from the crown of one
+bank to the other.
+
+When Dugdale saw it, about a hundred and fifty years ago, the center,
+which is about two acres, where the castle stood, was covered with old
+oaks; round this center are now some thousands, the oldest of which is
+not more than a century; so that the timber is changed since the days of
+Dugdale, but not the appearance of the land.
+
+The center is bare of timber, and exhibits the marks of the plough. The
+late Benjamin Palmer, Esq; a few years ago, planted it with trees, which
+are in that dwindling state, that they are not likely to grow so tall as
+their master[7].
+
+[Footnote 7: He measured about six feet five inches, but was singularly
+short in the lower parts: his step was not larger than a child's of ten
+years old. His carriage, by its extraordinary height, looked at a
+distance like a moving steeple; he sat as high in a common chair, as a
+man of the middle-size stands: he was as immoderately heavy as he was
+tall, and as remarkable for good-nature as either. As a man, he shone by
+his bulk; as a magistrate, in a dull but honest light--his decisions
+were _intended_ to be just. He seemingly dozed as he walked; but if his
+own eyes were half shut, those of every other person were open to
+see him.]
+
+It lies in a pleasant situation, upon a descent, so that the trench in
+one part is dry, and in another three or four yards deep in water.
+
+A place of such desolation, one would think, was a place of
+silence--just the reverse. When I saw it, Feb. 23, 1783, the trees were
+tall, the winds high, and the roar tremendous.
+
+Exclusive of Ulverley and Hogg's-moat, there are many old foundations in
+Solihull, once the residence of gentry now extinct; as Solihull-hall,
+the Moat-house, and Kynton, the property of the Botolers; Bury-hall,
+that of the Warings; who both came over with William: Henwood, belonging
+to the Hugfords; Hillfield-hall, the ancient seat of the Greswolds, as
+Malvern was their modern.
+
+
+
+YARDLEY.
+
+At Yardley church, four miles east of Birmingham, is _The Moat_, now a
+pasture; the trench still retains its water, as a remembrance of its
+former use.
+
+This was anciently the property of the Allestrees, lords of Witton; but
+about thirty years ago, the building and the family expired together.
+
+
+
+KENT'S-MOAT.
+
+One mile farther east is Kent's-moat, in which no noise is heard but the
+singing of birds, as if for joy that their enemy is fled, and they have
+regained their former habitation.
+
+This is situate on an eminence, like that of Park-hall, is capacious,
+has but one trench, supplied by its own springs; and, like that, as
+complete as earth and water can make it.
+
+This was part of Coleshill, and vested in the crown before the conquest,
+but soon after granted with that to Clinton, who gave it with a daughter
+to Verdon; and he, with another, to Anselm de Scheldon, who kept it till
+the reign of Edward the Third: it afterwards passed through several
+families, till the reign of Henry the Seventh, when it came into that of
+De Gray, Earl of Kent, whence the name; though, perhaps, the works were
+erected by Scheldon.
+
+It is now, with Coleshill, the property of Lord Digby; but the building
+has been so long gone, that tradition herself has lost it.
+
+
+
+SHELDON.
+
+One mile east is Sheldon-hall, which anciently bore the name of
+East-hall, in contradistinction from Kent's-moat, which was West-hall.
+This, in 1379, was the property of Sir Hugh le Despenser, afterwards of
+the family of Devereux, ancestor of the present Viscount Hereford, who
+resided here till about 1710. In 1751, it was purchased by John Taylor,
+Esq; and is now possessed by his tenant.
+
+The moat, like others on an eminence, has but one trench, fed by the
+land springs; is filled up in the front of the hall, as there is not
+much need of water protection. The house, which gives an idea of former
+gentility, seems the first erected on the spot; is irregular, agreeable
+to the taste of the times, and must have been built many centuries. All
+the ancient furniture fled with its owners, except an hatchment in the
+hall, with sixteen coats of arms, specifying the families into which
+they married.
+
+
+
+KING'S-HURST.
+
+Two furlongs east of Sheldon-hall, and one mile south of Castle
+Bromwich, is _Kings-hurst_; which, though now a dwelling in tenancy,
+was once the capital of a large track of land, consisting of its own
+manor, Coleshill, and Sheldon; the demesne of the crown, under the Saxon
+kings, from whom we trace the name.
+
+The Conqueror, or his son William, granted it; but whether for money,
+service, caprice, or favour, is uncertain; for he who wears a crown acts
+as whimsically as he who does not.
+
+Mountfort came over with William, as a knight, and an officer of rank;
+but, perhaps, did not immediately receive the grant, for the king would
+act again much like other people, _give away their property, before he
+would give away his own_.
+
+If this unfortunate family were not the first grantees, they were lords,
+and probably residents of King's-hurst, long before their possession of
+Coleshill, in 1332, and by a younger branch, long after the unhappy
+attainder of Sir Simon, in 1497.
+
+Sir William Mountfort, in 1390, augmented the buildings, erected a
+chapel, and inclosed the manor. His grandson, Sir Edmund, in 1447, paled
+in some of the land, and dignified it with the fashionable name
+of _park_.
+
+This prevailing humour of imparking was unknown to the Saxons, it crept
+in with the Norman: some of the first we meet with are those of
+Nottingham, Wedgnock, and Woodstock--Nottingham, by William Peveral,
+illegitimate son of the Conqueror; Wedgnock, by Newburg, the first
+Norman Earl of Warwick; and Woodstock, by Henry the First. So that the
+Duke of Marlborough perhaps may congratulate himself with possessing the
+oldest park in use.
+
+The modern park is worth attention; some are delightful in the extreme:
+they are the beauties of creation, terrestrial paradises; they are just
+what they ought to be, nature cautiously assisted by invisible art. We
+envy the little being who presides over one--but why mould we envy him?
+the pleasure consists in _seeing_, and one man may _see_ as well as
+another: nay, the stranger holds a privilege beyond him; for the
+proprietor, by often seeing, sees away the beauties, while he who looks
+but seldom, sees with full effect. Besides, one is liable to be fretted
+by the mischievous hand of injury, which the stranger seldom sees; he
+looks for excellence, the owner for defect, and they both find.
+
+These proud inclosures, guarded by the growth within, first appeared
+under the dimension of one or two hundred acres; but fashion, emulation,
+and the park, grew up together, till the last swelled into one or
+two thousand.
+
+If religions rise from the lowest ranks, the fashions generally descend
+from the higher, who are at once blamed, and imitated by their
+inferiors.
+
+The highest orders of men lead up a fashion, the next class tread upon
+their heels, the third quickly follow, then the fourth, fifth, &c.
+immediately figure after them. But as a man who had an inclination for a
+park, could not always spare a thousand acres, he must submit to less,
+for a park must be had: thus Bond, of Ward-end, set up with thirty; some
+with one half, till the very word became a burlesque upon the idea. The
+design was a display of lawns, hills, water, clumps, &c. as if ordered
+by the voice of nature; and furnished with herds of deer. But some of
+our modern parks contain none of these beauties, nor scarcely land
+enough to support a rabbit.
+
+I am possessed of one of these jokes of a park, something less than an
+acre:--he that has none, might think it a _good_ joke, and wish it his
+own; he that has more would despise it: that it never was larger,
+appears from its being surrounded by Sutton Coldfield; and that it has
+retained the name for ages, appears from the old timber upon it.
+
+The manor of King's-hurst was disposed of by the Mountforts, about two
+hundred years ago, to the Digbys, where it remains.
+
+
+
+COLESHILL.
+
+One mile farther east is _Coleshill-hall_, vested in the crown before,
+and after the conquest; purchased, perhaps, of William Rufus, by
+Geoffrey de Clinton, ancestor to the present Duke of Newcastle. In 1352,
+an heiress of the house of Clinton, gave it, with herself, to Sir John
+de Mountfort, of the same family with Simon, the great Earl of
+Leicester, who fell, in 1265, at Evesham, in that remarkable contest
+with Henry the Third.
+
+With them it continued till 1497, when Sir Simon Mountfort, charged, but
+perhaps unjustly, with assisting Perkin Warbeck with 30_l_. was brought
+to trial at Guildhall, condemned as a traitor, executed at Tyburn, his
+large fortune confiscated, and his family ruined. Some of his
+descendants I well know in Birmingham; and _they_ are well known to
+poverty, and the vice.
+
+In the reign of Henry the Seventh, it was almost dangerous, particularly
+for a rich man, even to _think_ against a crafty and avaricious
+monarch.--What is singular, the man who accused Sir Simon at the bar,
+succeeded him in his estate.
+
+Simon Digby procured a grant of the place, in whose line it still
+continues. The hall is inhabited, but has been left about thirty years
+by the family; was probably erected by the Mountforts, is extensive, and
+its antique aspect without, gives a venerable pleasure to the beholder,
+like the half admitted light diffused within. Every spot of the park is
+delightful, except that in which the hall stands: our ancestors built in
+the vallies, for the sake of water; their successors on the hills, for
+the sake of air.
+
+From this uncouth swamp sprung the philosopher, the statesman, and
+tradition says, the gunpowder-plot.
+
+
+
+DUDDESTON.
+
+Four furlongs north-east of Birmingham, is _Duddeston_ (Dud's-town) from
+Dud, the Saxon proprietor, Lord of Dudley, who probably had a seat here;
+once a considerable village, but long reduced to the manor-house, till
+Birmingham, swelling beyond its bounds, in 1764, verged upon this
+lordship; and we now, in 1783, behold about eighty houses, under the
+names of Duke-street, Prospect-row, and Woodcock-lane.
+
+It afterwards descended to the Paganalls, the Sumeris, then to the
+Bottetourts, and was, in 1323, enjoyed by Joan Bottetourt, lady of
+Weoley castle, a daughter of the house of Sumeri.
+
+Sir Thomas de Erdington held it of this lady, by a chief-rent, which was
+a pair of gilt spurs, or six-pence, at the option of the tenant.
+
+Erdington sold it, in 1327, to Thomas de Maidenhache, by whose daughter,
+Sibell, it came in marriage to Adam de Grymforwe; whose posterity, in
+1363, conveyed it for 26_l_. 13s. 4d. now worth 20,000_l_. to John atte
+Holt; and his successors made it their residence, till the erection of
+Aston-hall, in the reign of James I.
+
+It is now converted into beautiful gardens, as a public resort of
+pleasure, and dignified with the London name of Vauxhall. The demolished
+fish-ponds, and the old foundations, which repel the spade, declare its
+former grandeur.
+
+In 1782 it quitted, by one of the most unaccountable alignments that
+ever resulted from human weakness, the ancient name of Holte, familiar
+during four hundred and nineteen years, for that of Legge.
+
+Could the ghost of Sir Lister re-visit his departed property, one might
+ask, What reception might you meet with, Sir Lister, in 1770, among your
+venerable ancestors in the shades, for barring, unprovoked, an infant
+heiress of 7000_l_. a year, and giving it, unsolicited, to a stranger?
+Perhaps you experience repeated buffetings; a sturdy figure, with iron
+aspect, would be apt to accost you--"I with nervous arm, and many a
+bended back, drew 40_l_. from the Birmingham forge, with which, in 1330,
+I purchased the park and manor of Nechels, now worth four hundred times
+that sum. I planted that family which you have plucked up by the roots:
+in the sweat of my brow, I laid a foundation for greatness; many of my
+successors built on that foundation--but you, by starving your brother,
+Sir Charles, into compliance, wantonly cut off the entail, and gave away
+the estate, after passing through seventeen descents, merely to shew you
+had a power to give it. We concluded here, that a son of his daughter,
+the last hope of the family, would change his own name to preserve ours,
+and not the estate change its possessor."--"I," another would be apt to
+say, "with frugal hand, and lucrative employments under the crown,
+added, in 1363, the manor of Duddeston; and, in 1367, that of Alton. But
+for what purpose did I add them? To display the folly of a
+successor."--A dejected spectre would seem to step forward, whose face
+carried the wrinkles of eighty-four, and the shadow of tear; "I, in
+1611, brought the title of baronet among us, first tarnished by you;
+which, if your own imbecility could not procure issue to support, you
+ought to have supported it by purchase. I also, in 1620, erected the
+mansion at Afton, then, and even now, the most superb in that
+neighbourhood, fit to grace the leading title of nobility; but you
+forbad my successors to enter. I joined, in 1647, to our vast fortune,
+the manor of Erdington.--Thus the fabric we have been rearing for ages,
+you overthrew in one fatal moment."--The last angry spectre would appear
+in the bloom of life. "I left you an estate which you did not deserve:
+you had no more right to leave it from your successor, than I to leave
+it from you: one man may ruin the family of another, but he seldom ruins
+his own. We blame him who wrongs his neighbour, but what does he deserve
+who wrongs himself?--You have done both, for by cutting off the
+succession, your name will be lost. The ungenerous attorney, instead of
+making your absurd will, ought to have apprized you of our sentiments,
+which exactly coincide with those of the world, or how could the tale
+affect a stranger? Why did not some generous friend guide your crazy
+vessel, and save a sinking family? Degenerate son, he who destroys the
+peace of another, should forfeit his own--we leave you to remorse, may
+she quickly _find, and weep over you_."
+
+
+
+SALTLEY.
+
+A mile east of Duddeston is _Saltley-hall_, which, with an extensive
+track of ground, was, in the Saxon times, the freehold of a person whom
+we should now call Allen; the same who was Lord of Birmingham. But at
+the conquest, when justice was laid asleep, and property possessed by
+him who could seize it, this manor, with many others, fell into the
+hands of William Fitz-Ausculf, Baron of Dudley-castle, who granted it in
+knight's-service to Henry de Rokeby.
+
+A daughter of Rokeby carried it by marriage to Sir John Goband, whose
+descendants, in 1332, sold it to Walter de Clodshale; an heiress of
+Clodshale, in 1426, brought it into the ancient family of Arden, and a
+daughter of this house, to that of Adderley, where it now rests.
+
+The castle, I have reason to think, was erected by Rokeby, in which all
+the lords resided till the extinction of the Clodshales.--It has been
+gone to ruin about three hundred years, and the solitary platform seems
+to mourn its loss.
+
+
+
+WARD-END.
+
+Three miles from Birmingham, in the same direction, is _Wart-end_,
+anciently _Little Bromwich_; a name derived from the plenty of broom,
+and is retained to this day by part of the precincts, _Broomford_
+(Bromford).
+
+This manor was claimed by that favourite of the conqueror, Fitz-Ausculf,
+and granted by him to a second-hand favourite, who took its name.
+
+The old castle has been gone about a century; the works are nearly
+complete, cover about nine acres, the most capacious in this
+neighbourhood, those of Weoley-castle excepted. The central area is now
+an orchard, and the water, which guarded the castle, guards the fruit.
+This is surrounded with three mounds, and three trenches, one of them
+fifty yards over, which, having lost its master, guards the fish.
+
+The place afterwards passed through several families, till the reign of
+Henry the Seventh. One of them bearing the name of _Ward_, changed the
+name to _Ward-end_.
+
+In 1512, it was the property of John Bond, who, fond of his little
+hamlet, inclosed a park of thirty acres, stocked it with deer; and, in
+1517, erected a chapel for the conveniency of his tenants, being two
+miles from the parish church of Afton. The skeleton of this chapel, in
+the form of a cross, the fashion of the times, is yet standing on the
+outward mound: its floor is the only religious one I have seen laid with
+horse-dung; the pulpit is converted into a manger--it formerly furnished
+husks for the man, but now corn for the horse. Like the first christian
+church, it has experienced a double use, a church and a stable; but with
+this difference, _that_ in Bethlehem, was a stable advanced into a
+church; this, on the contrary, is reduced into a stable.
+
+The manor, by a female, passed through the Kinardsleys, and is now
+possessed by the Brand-woods; but the hall, erected in 1710, and its
+environs, are the property of Abraham Spooner, Esq.
+
+
+
+CASTLE BROMWICH.
+
+Simply _Bromwich_, because the soil is productive of broom.
+
+My subject often leads me back to the conquest, an enterprize, wild
+without parallel: we are astonished at the undertaking, because William
+was certainly a man of sense, and a politician. Harold, his competitor,
+was a prince much superior in power, a consummate general, and beloved
+by his people. The odds were so much against the invader, that out of
+one hundred such imprudent attempts, ninety-nine would miscarry: all the
+excuse in his favour is, _it succeeded_. Many causes concurred in this
+success, such as his own ambition, aided by his valour; the desperate
+fortune of his followers, very few of whom were men of property, for to
+the appearance of gentlemen, they added the realities of want; a
+situation to which any change is thought preferable; but, above all,
+_chance_. A man may dispute for religion, he may contend for liberty, he
+may run for his life, but he will _fight_ for property.
+
+By the contest between William and Harold, the unhappy English lost all
+they had to lose; and though this all centered in the Normans, they did
+not acquire sufficient to content them.
+
+History does not inform us who was then the proprietor of Castle
+Bromwich, but that it belonged to the Mercian Earls scarcely admits a
+doubt; as Edwin owned some adjoining manors, he probably owned this.
+Fitz-Ausculf was his fortunate successor, who procured many lordships in
+the neighhood of Birmingham; Castle Bromwich was one. He granted it to
+an inferior Norman, in military tenure; who, agreeable to the fashion of
+those times, took the surname of Bromwich.
+
+Henry de Castel was a subsequent proprietor. Dugdale supposes the
+village took its name from a castle, once on the premises; and that the
+castle-hill yet remains: but this hill is too small, even to admit a
+shelter for a Lilliputian, and is evidently an artificial trifle,
+designed for a monument. It might hold, for its ancient furniture, a
+turret, termed a castle--perhaps it held nothing in Dugdale's time: the
+modern is a gladiator, in the attitude of fighting, supported by a
+pedestal, containing the Bridgeman arms.
+
+_Castle_, probably, was added by the family of that name, lords of the
+place, to distinguish it from _woody_ and _little_ Bromwich. They bore
+for their arms, three castles and a chevron.
+
+Lord Ferrers of Chartley, who was proprietor of Birmingham in the reign
+of Henry the Sixth, enjoyed it by marriage; and his grand daughter
+brought it, by the same channel, into the family of Devereux, Lords of
+Sheldon. Edward, about the latter end of Queen Elizabeth's reign,
+erected the present building, which is capacious, is in a stile between
+ancient and modern, and has a pleasing appearance.
+
+The Bridgeman family acceded to possession about eighty years ago, by
+purchase, and made it their residence till about 1768. We should
+naturally enquire, Why Sir Harry quitted a place so delightfully
+situated? Perhaps it is not excelled in this country, in the junction of
+three great roads, a a desirable neighbourhood, the river Tame at its
+back, and within five miles of the plentiful market of Bimingham--but,
+alas, _it has no park_.
+
+The gentry seem to have resided in our vicinity, when there was the
+greatest inducement to leave it, _impassable roads_: they seem also to
+have quitted the country, now there is the greatest inducement to reside
+there; roads, which improve their estates, and may be travelled with
+pleasure. It may be objected, that "the buildings become ancient." But
+there is no more disgrace in an old house, than in an old man; they may
+both be dressed in character, and look well. A gentleman, by residing in
+the family seat, pays a compliment to his ancestors.
+
+
+
+PARK-HALL.
+
+Six miles north-east of Birmingham, and one from Castle Bromwich chapel,
+is a spacious moat, with one trench, which, for many centuries guarded
+_Park-hall_. This is another of those desolate islands, from which every
+creature is fled, and every sound, except that of the winds; nay, even
+the very clouds seem to lament the desolation with tears.
+
+This was possessed by none but the Ardens, being part of their vast
+estate long before the conquest, and five hundred years after. A
+delightful situation on the banks of the Tame; to which we are led
+through a dirty road.
+
+We may consider this island, the treasury into which forty-six lordships
+paid their tribute. The riches of the country were drawn to this center,
+and commands were issued from it. The growth of these manors supplied
+that spot, which now grows for another. The lordships are in forty-six
+hands; the country is in silence; the island ploughed up, and the family
+distressed--At the remembrance of their name, the smile quits the face
+of history; she records their sad tale with a sigh; while their arms
+are yet displayed in some of the old halls in the neighbourhood.
+
+
+
+BERWOOD.
+
+Crossing the river, one mile farther east, is _Berwood-hall_, where the
+forsaken moat, at this day, guards--nothing. This, with the manor to
+which it belongs, was also the property of the Ardens; one of which in
+the reign of Henry the Second, granted it to the canons of Leicester;
+who added a chapel, which went to decay four hundred years ago. After
+the grant, the Ardens seem to have become tenants to the canons for the
+land, once their own: we frequently observe a man pay rent for what he
+_sells_, but seldom for what he _gives_.
+
+At the dissolution of abbies, in 1537, Thomas Arden, the head of the
+family, purchased it of Henry the Eighth, for 272_l_. 10s. uniting it
+again to his estate, after a separation of three hundred and fifty
+years, in whose posterity it continued till their fall.
+
+Thus, the father first purchased what the son gave away, and his
+offspring re-purchased again. The father lays a tax on his successor;
+or, climbs to heaven at the expence of the son. In one age it is
+meritorious to _give_ to the church, in another, to _take_ from her.
+
+
+
+ERDINGTON.
+
+Three miles north-east of Birmingham, is _Erdington-hall_, which boasts
+a long antiquity. The manor was the property of the old Earls of Mercia:
+Edwin possessed it at the conquest, but lost it in favour of William
+Fitz-Ausculf, who no doubt granted it in knight's service to his friend
+and relation, of Norman race, who erected the hall; the moat, took his
+residence in, and his name Erdington, from the place. His descendants
+seem to have resided here with great opulence near 400 years.
+
+Dugdale mentions a circumstance of Sir Thomas de Erdington, little
+noticed by our historians. He was a faithful adherent to King John, who
+conferred on him many valuable favours: harrassed by the Pope on one
+side, and his angry Barons on the other, he privately sent Sir Thomas to
+Murmeli, the powerful King of Africa, Morocco, and Spain; with offers
+to forsake the christian faith, turn mahometan, deliver up his kingdom,
+and hold it of him in tribute, for his assistance against his enemies.
+But it does not appear the ambassador succeeded: the Moorish Monarch did
+not chuse to unite his prosperous fortune with that of a random prince;
+he might also consider, the man who could destroy his nephew and his
+sovereign, could not be an honour to any profession.
+
+The manor left the Erdington family in 1472, and, during a course of 175
+years, acknowledged for its owners, George Plantagenet, Duke of
+Clarence, Sir William Harcourt, Robert Wright, Sir Reginald Bray,
+Francis Englefield, Humphry Dimock, Walter Earl, Sir Walter Devereux,
+and was, in 1647, purchased by Sir Thomas Holte, in whose family it
+continued till 1782, when Henage Legge, Esq; became seised of the manor.
+
+As none of the Lords seem to have resided upon the premises since the
+departure of the Erdingtons, it must be expected they have gradually
+tended to decay.
+
+We may with some reason conclude, that as Erdington was the freehold of
+the Earls of Mercia, it was not the residence of its owners, therefore
+could not derive its name from them. That as the word _Arden_ signifies
+a wood, the etymology of that populous village is, _a town in the wood_.
+That one of the first proprietors, after the conquest, struck with the
+security offered by the river, erected the present fortifications, which
+cover three parts of the hall, and the river itself the fourth. Hence it
+follows, that the neighbouring work, which we now call Bromford-forge,
+was a mill prior to the conquest; because the stream is evidently turned
+out of its bed to feed it. That the present hall is the second on the
+premises, and was erected by the Erdingtons, with some later additions.
+
+
+
+PIPE.
+
+One mile north-east of Erdington, is _Pipe-hall_; which, with its manor,
+like the neighbouring land, became at the conquest the property of
+Fitz-Ausculf; and afterwards of his defendants, Paganall, Sumeri,
+Bottetort, and St. Leger.
+
+It was common at that fatal period, for one of these great barons, or
+rather great robbers, to procure a large quantity of land for himself;
+some of them two or three hundred thousand acres--too much for one man
+to grasp. He therefore kept what he pleased for his private use, and
+granted the other in knight's-service, reserving annually a rent. These
+rents were generally small, so as never to hurt the tenant: however, the
+lord could order him to arms whenever he pleased.
+
+A few of the grants were procured by the disinherited English, but
+chiefly by the officers of William's army, being more respected, and
+more proper to be trusted: they were often relations, or favourites of
+the great barons. The lord could not conveniently sell, without the
+consent of the crown, but he could set at what price he pleased. Time
+made this chief-rent permanent, and gave the tenant stability of title.
+
+The manor of Pipe, with some others, was granted to William Mansell, who
+resided in the hall, and executed some of the chief offices of
+the county.
+
+The last of the name, in the reign of Henry the Third, left a daughter,
+who married Henry de Harcourt; and his daughter married John de Pipe,
+who seems to have taken its name.
+
+Henry, his descendant, had many children, all of whom, with his lady,
+died of the plague, except a daughter, Margery. He afterwards married,
+in 1363, Matilda, the daughter of George de Castell, of Castle Bromwich;
+but soon after the happy wedding, he perceived his bride was pregnant,
+which proved, on enquiry, the effect of an intrigue with her father's
+menial servant; a striking instance of female treachery, which can only
+be equalled by--male.
+
+The shock proving too great for his constitution, brought on a decline,
+and himself to the grave, before the birth of the child.
+
+John was the fruit of this unlawful amour, whose guardian, to prevent
+his inheriting the estate, made him a canon of Ouston, in
+Leicestershire; and afterwards persuaded the unhappy Margery to grant
+the manor to the abbot of Stonely.
+
+Thomas de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, afterwards purchased it for
+133_l_. 6s. 8d. It came to the crown by attainder, in the reign of Henry
+the Seventh; then to Sir William Staunford, one of his judges, John
+Buttler; Edward Holte, in 1568; Francis Dimock, whose daughter married
+Walter Earl; then to Walter Devereux, by marrying Earl's daughter;
+afterwards to Sir Thomas Holte, by purchase; and is now in the family
+of Bagot.
+
+Though the hall is antique, its front is covered in the modern barbarous
+stile, by a clump of venerable trees; which would become any situation
+but that in which they stand. It is now inhabited by a gentleman of
+Birmingham, who has experienced the smiles of commerce.
+
+
+
+ASTON.
+
+Two miles north of Birmingham, is Aston (East-town) being east of
+Westbury (Wednesbury) it lies on a steep descent towards the river Tame.
+
+This place, like that of Erdington, belonged to the Earls of Mercia in
+the Saxon times; and, at the conquest, was the property of the
+unfortunate Edwin. Fitz-Ausculf became his successor in this, and in
+other lands: the survey calls it eight hides, valued at 5_l_. per annum;
+a mill, 3s. and a wood, three miles long, and half a mile broad. The
+mill, I make no doubt, stood where a mill now stands, near
+Sawford-bridge; but neither the hides, nor the wood, could be confined
+within the boundary of Afton; the manor is too little for either. The
+lordship extends about a square mile, and that part which is now the
+park, I have reason to think, was then a common, and for ages after.
+
+A Saxon, of the name of Godmund, held it under the Mercian Earls, and
+found means, at the conquest, to hold it under the Norman.
+
+One hundred yards north of the church, in a perfect swamp, stood the
+hall; probably erected by Godmund, or his family: the situation shews
+the extreme of bad taste--one would think, he endeavoured to lay his
+house under the water. The trenches are obliterated by the floods, so as
+to render the place unobserved by the stranger: it is difficult to chuse
+a worse, except he had put his house under the earth. I believe there
+never was more than one house erected on the spot, and that was one
+too much.
+
+Whether this Saxon family of Godmund became extinct, or had lost their
+right, is uncertain; but Sumeri, Fitz-Ausculf's successor, about 1203,
+granted the manor to Sir Thomas de Erdington, Ambassador to King John,
+mentioned before, who had married his sister; paying annually a pair of
+spurs, or six-pence, as a nominal rent, but meant, in reality, as a
+portion for the lady.
+
+The family of Erdington, about 1275, sold it to Thomas de Maidenhache,
+who did not seem to live upon friendly terms with his neighbour, William
+de Birmingham; for, in 1290, he brought an action against him for
+fishing in his water, called Moysich (Dead-branch) leading into Tame,
+towards Scarford-bridge (Shareford, dividing the shares, or parts of the
+parish, Aston manor from Erdington, now Sawford-bridge) which implies a
+degree of unkindness; because William could not amuse himself in his own
+manor of Birmingham, for he might as well have angled in one of his
+streets, as in the river Rea. The two lords had, probably, four years
+before been on friendly terms, when they jointly lent their assistance
+to the hospital of St. Thomas, in Birmingham.
+
+Maidenhache left four daughters; Sibel, married Adam de Grymsorwe, who
+took with her the manor of Aston; a daughter of this house, in 1367,
+sold it to John atte Holte, of Birmingham, in whose family it continued
+415 years, till 1782, when Henage Legge, Esq; acceded to possession.
+
+This wretched bog was the habitation of all the lords, from Godmund to
+the Holtes, the Erdington's excepted; for Maud Grymsorwe executing the
+conveyance at Aston, indicates that she resided there; and Thomas Holte,
+being possessed of Duddeston, proves that he did not: therefore I
+conclude, that the building, as it ought, went to decay soon after; so
+that desolation has claimed the place for her own near four hundred
+years. This is corroberated by some old timber trees, long since upon
+the spot where the building stood.
+
+The extensive parish of Aston takes in the two extremes of Birmingham,
+which supplies her with more christenings, weddings, and burials, than
+were, a few years ago, supplied by the whole parish of Birmingham.
+
+
+
+WITTON.
+
+Three miles north of Birmingham, and one from Aston, is _Witton_,
+(Wicton) from the bend of the river, according to Dugdale: the property
+of a person at the conquest whose name was Staunchel. Fitz-Ausculf
+seized it, and Staunchel, more fortunate than the chief of his country
+men, became his tenant; valued in the conqueror's survey at 20s.
+per ann.
+
+It was afterwards vested in the crown: in 1240, Henry the third granted
+it to Andrew de Wicton, who took his name from the place, for in
+Dooms-day it is Witone; therefore the name being prior, proves
+the remark.
+
+Andrew, anxious after the boundary of his new purchase, brought an
+action against his neighbour, William de Pyrie (Perry) for infringing
+his property. Great disputes arise from small beginnings; perhaps a
+lawyer blew the flame.
+
+The king issued his precept to the Sheriff of Staffordshire, in which
+Perry lies, to bring with him twelve lawful and discreet knights; and
+the same to the Sheriff of Warwickshire, of which Witton is part, to
+ascertain the bounds between them.
+
+Which was the aggressor, is hard to determine, but I should rather
+suppose Squire Perry, because _man_ is ever apt to trespass; he resided
+on the premises, and the crown is but a sleepy landlord; not so likely
+to rob, as be robbed.
+
+There is a road, where foot seldom treads, mounded on each side, leading
+over the Coldfield, from Perry-bridge towards the Newlands, undoubtedly
+the work of this venerable band of discreet knights.
+
+The stranger, of course, would deem the property between the contending
+parties, of great value, which, twenty-four of the principal characters
+of the age, the flower of two counties, marshalled by two chief
+officers, were to determine. But what will he think of the quarrelsome
+spirit of the times, when, I tell him, it was only a few acres, which
+is, even at this day, waste land, and scarcely worth owning by either.
+
+In 1290, Witton was the property of William Dixley; in 1340, that of
+Richard de Pyrie, descendant of him, who, a hundred years before, held
+the contest. In 1426, Thomas East, of Hay-hall, in Yardley, was owner;
+who sold it to John Bond, of Ward-end, of whose descendants William
+Booth purchased it, in 1620: an heiress of Booth brought it by marriage
+to Allestree, of Yardley, who enjoyed it in our days; it was sold to
+John Wyrley, and is now possessed by George Birch, Esq; of Handsworth.
+
+The house, left by its owners, is in that low, or rather boggy
+situation, suitable to the fashion of those times. I can discover no
+traces of a moat, though there is every conveniency for one: We are
+doubly hurt by seeing a house in a miserable hole, when joining an
+elegible spot.
+
+
+
+BLAKELEY.
+
+Five miles north-west of Birmingham, is _Blakely-hall_, the manor house
+of Oldbury. If we see a venerable edifice without a moat, we cannot from
+thence conclude, it was never the residence of a gentleman, but wherever
+we find one, we may conclude it was.
+
+Anciently, this manor, with those of Smethwick and Harborn, belonged to
+the family of Cornwallis, whose habitation was Blakeley-hall: the
+present building seems about 300 years old.
+
+The extinction of the male line, threw the property into the hands of
+two coheirs; one of whom married into the family of Grimshaw, the other
+into that of Wright, who jointly held it. The family of Grimshaw
+failing, Wright became then, and is now, possessed of the whole.
+
+I am unacquainted with the principal characters who acted the farce of
+life on this island, but it has long been in the tenancy of a poor
+farmer, who, the proprietor allured me, was _best_ able to stock the
+place with children. In 1769, the Birmingham canal passing over the
+premises, robbed the trench of its water. Whether it endangers the
+safety is a doubt, for _poverty_ is the best security against violence.
+
+
+
+WEOLEY
+
+Four miles west of Birmingham, in the parish of Northfield, are the
+small, but extensive ruins of _Weoley-castle_, whose appendages command
+a track of seventeen acres, situate in a park of eighteen hundred.
+
+These moats usually extend from half an acre to two acres, are generally
+square, and the trenches from eight yards over to twenty.
+
+This is large, the walls massy; they form the allies of a garden, and
+the rooms, the beds; the whole display the remains of excellent
+workmanship. One may nearly guess at a man's consequence, even after a
+lapse of 500 years, by the ruins of his house.
+
+The steward told me, "they pulled down the walls as they wanted the
+stone." Unfeeling projectors: there is not so much to pull down. Does
+not time bring destruction fast enough without assistance? The head
+which cannot contemplate, offers its hand to destroy. The insensible
+taste, unable itself to relish the dry fruits of antiquity, throws them
+away to prevent another. May the fingers _smart_ which injure the
+venerable walls of Dudley, or of Kenilworth. Noble remains of ancient
+grandeur! copious indexes, that point to former usage! We survey them
+with awful pleasure. The mouldering walls, as if ashamed of their humble
+state, hide themselves under the ivies; the generous ivies, as if
+conscious of the precious relics, cover them from the injuries of time.
+
+When land frequently undergoes a conveyance, necessity, we suppose, is
+the lot of the owner, but the lawyer fattens: _To have and to hold_ are
+words of singular import; they charm beyond music; are the quintessence
+of language; the leading figure in rhetoric. But how would he fare if
+land was never conveyed? He must starve upon quarrels.
+
+Instances may be given of land which knows no title, except those of
+conquest and descent: Weoley Castle comes nearly under this
+description. _To sign, seal, and deliver_, were wholly unknown to our
+ancestors. Could a Saxon freeholder rise from the dead, and visit the
+land, once his own, now held by as many writings as would half spread
+over it, he might exclaim, "Evil increases with time, and parchment with
+both. You deprive the poor of their breeches; I covered the ground with
+sheep, you with their skins; I thought, as you were at variance with
+France, Spain, Holland, and America, those numerous deeds were a heap of
+drum heads, and the internal writing, the _articles of war_. In one
+instance, however, there is a similarity between us; we unjustly took
+this land from the Britons, you as unjustly took it from us; and a time
+may come, when another will take it from you. Thus, the Spaniards
+founded the Peruvian empire in butchery, now tottering towards a fall;
+you, following their example, seized the northern coast of America; you
+neither bought it nor begged it, you took it from the natives; and thus
+your children, the Americans, with equal violence, have taken it from
+you: No law binds like that of arms. The question has been, whether they
+shall pay taxes? which, after a dispute of eight years, was lost in
+another, _to whom_ they shall pay taxes? The result, in a future day
+will be, domestic struggles for sovereignty will stain the ground
+with blood."
+
+When the proud Norman cut his way to the throne, his imperious followers
+seized the lands, kicked out the rightful possessors, and treated them
+with a dignity rather beneath that practiced to a dog.--This is the most
+summary title yet discovered.
+
+Northfield was the fee-simple of Alwold (Allwood) but, at the conquest,
+Fitz-Ausculf seized it, with a multitude of other manors: it does not
+appear that he granted it in knight's-service to the injured Allwood,
+but kept it for his private use, Paganall married his heiress, and
+Sumeri married Paganall's, who, in the beginning of the 13th century,
+erected the castle. In 1322, the line of Sumeri expired.
+
+Bottetourt, one of the needy squires, who, like Sancho Panza, attended
+William his master, in his mad, but _fortunate_ enterprize, procured
+lands which enabled him to _live_ in England, which was preferable to
+starving in Normandy. His descendant became, in right of his wife,
+coheir of the house of Sumeri, vested in Weoley-castle. He had, in
+1307, sprung into peerage, and was one of our powerful barons, till
+1385, when the male line dropt. The vast estate of Bottetourt, was then
+divided among females; Thomas Barkley, married the eldest, and this
+ancient barony was, in 1761, revived in his descendant, Norborne
+Barkley, the present Lord Bottetourt; Sir Hugh Burnel married another,
+and Sir John St. Leger a third.
+
+Weoley-castle was, for many years, the undivided estate of the three
+families; but Edward Sutton, Lord Dudley, having married a daughter of
+Barkley, became possessed of that castle, which was erected by Sumeri,
+their common ancestor, about nine generations before.
+
+In 1551, he sold it to William Jervoise, of London, mercer, whose
+descendant, Jervoise Clark Jervoise, Esq; now enjoys it.
+
+Fond of ranging, I have travelled a circuit round Birmingham, without
+being many miles from it. I wish to penetrate farther from the center,
+but my subject forbids. _Having therefore finished my discourse, I
+shall_, like my friends, the pulpitarians, many of whom, and of several
+denominations, are characters I revere, _apply what has been said_.
+
+We learn, that the land I have gone over, with the land I have not,
+changed its owners at the conquest: this shuts the door of inquiry into
+pedigree, the old families chiefly became extinct, and few of the
+present can be traced higher.--Destruction then overspread the kingdom.
+
+The seniors of every age exclaim against the growing corruption of the
+times: my father, and perhaps every father, dwelt on the propriety of
+his conduct in younger life, and placed it in counter-view with that of
+the following generation. However, while I knew him, it was much like
+other people's--But I could tell him, that he gave us the bright side of
+his character; that he was, probably, a piece of human nature, as well
+as his son; that nature varies but little, and that the age of William
+the Conqueror was the most rascally in the British annals. One age may
+be marked for the golden, another for the iron, but this for plunder.
+
+We farther learn, there is not one instance in this neighbourhood, where
+an estate has continued till now in the male line, very few in the
+female. I am acquainted with only one family near Birmingham, whose
+ancestor entered with William, and who yet enjoy the land granted at
+that period: the male line has been once broken--perhaps this land was
+never conveyed. They shone with splendour near six hundred years. In the
+sixteenth century, their estate was about 1400_l_. a year; great for
+that time, but is now, exclusive of a few _pepper-corns_ and _red
+roses_, long since withered, reduced to one little farm, tilled for
+bread by the owner. This setting glympse of a shining family, is as
+indifferent about the matter, and almost as ignorant, as the team
+he drives.
+
+Lastly, we learn that none of the lords, as formerly, reside on the
+above premises: that in four instances out of twenty-one, the buildings
+are now as left by the lords, Sheldon, Coleshill, Pipe, and Blakeley:
+two have undergone some alteration, as Duddeston and Erdington: five
+others are re-erected, as Black Greves, Ulverley, King's-hurst, Castle
+Bromwich, and Witton; which, with all the above, are held in tenancy: in
+eight others all the buildings are swept away, and their moats left
+naked, as Hogg's-moat, Yardley, Kent's-moat, Saltley, Ward-end,
+Park-hall, Berwood, and Weoley; and in two instances the moats
+themselves are vanished, that of King's-norton is filled up to make way
+for the plough, and that of Aston demolished by the floods. Thus the
+scenes of hospitality and grandeur, become the scenes of antiquity, and
+then disappear.
+
+
+
+SUTTON COLDFIELD.
+
+Though the topographical historian, who resides upon the premises, is
+most likely to be correct; yet if _he_, with all his care, is apt to be
+mistaken, what can be expected from him who trots his horse over the
+scenes of antiquity?
+
+I have visited, for twenty years, some singular places in this
+neighbourhood, yet, without being master of their history; thus a man
+may spend an age in conning his lesson, and never learn it.
+
+When the farmer observes me on his territories, he eyes me _ascance_;
+suspecting a design to purchase his farm, or take it out of his
+hands.--I endeavour to remove his apprehensions, by approaching him; and
+introduce a conversation tending to my pursuit, which he understands as
+well as if, like the sons of Jacob, I addressed him in Hebrew; yet,
+notwithstanding his total ignorance of the matter, he has sometimes
+dropt an accidental word, which has thrown more light on the subject,
+than all my researches for a twelvemonth. If an honest farmer, in
+future, should see upon his premises a plumpish figure, five feet six,
+with one third of his hair on, a cane in his left hand, a glove upon
+each, and a Pomeranian dog at his heels, let him fear no evil; his farm
+will not be additionally tythed, his sheep worried, nor his hedges
+broken--it is only a solitary animal, in quest of a Roman phantom.
+
+Upon the north west extremity of Sutton Coldfield, joining the Chester
+road, is _The Bowen Pool_; at the tail of which, one hundred yards west
+of the road, on a small eminence, or swell of the earth, are the remains
+of a fortification, called _Loaches Banks_; but of what use or original
+is uncertain, no author having mentioned it.
+
+Four hundred yards farther west, in the same flat, is a hill of some
+magnitude, deemed, by the curious, a tumolus--it is a common thing for
+an historian to be lost, but not quite so common to acknowledge it. In
+attempting to visit this tumolus, I soon found myself in the center of a
+morass; and here, my dear reader might have seen the historian set fast
+in a double sense. I was obliged, for that evening, February 16, 1783,
+to retreat, as the sun had just done before me. I made my approaches
+from another quarter, April 13, when the hill appeared the work of
+nature, upon too broad a base for a tumolus; covering about three acres,
+perfectly round, rising gradually to the center, which is about sixteen
+feet above the level, surrounded by a ditch, perhaps made for some
+private purpose by the owner.
+
+The Roman tumoli were of two sorts, the small for the reception of a
+general, or great man, as that at Cloudsley-bush, near the High Cross,
+the tomb of Claudius; and the large, as at Seckington, near Tamworth,
+for the reception of the dead, after a battle: they are both of the same
+shape, rather high than broad. That before us comes under the
+description of neither; nor could the dead well be conveyed over
+the morass.
+
+The ground-plot, in the center of the fort, at Loaches Banks, is about
+two acres, surrounded by three mounds, which are large, and three
+trenches, which are small; the whole forming a square of four acres.
+Each corner directs to a cardinal point, but perhaps not with design;
+for the situation of the ground would invite the operator to chuse the
+present form. The north-west joins to, and is secured by the pool.
+
+As the works are much in the Roman taste, I might, at first view, deem
+it the residence of an opulent lord of the manor; but, the adjacent
+lands carrying no marks of cultivation, destroys the argument; it is
+also too large for the fashion; besides, all these manorial foundations
+have been in use since the conquest, therefore tradition assists the
+historian; but here, tradition being lost, proves the place of greater
+antiquity.
+
+One might judge it of Danish extraction, but here again, tradition will
+generally lend her assistance; neither are the trenches large enough for
+that people: of themselves they are no security, whether full or empty;
+for an active young fellow might easily skip from one bank to another.
+Nor can we view it as the work of some whimsical lord, to excite the
+wonder of the moderns; it could never pay for the trouble. We must,
+therefore, travel back among the ancient Britons, for a solution, and
+here we shall travel over solid ground.
+
+It is, probably, the remains of a British camp, for near these premises
+are Drude-heath (Druid's-heath) and Drude-fields, which we may
+reasonably suppose was the residence of a British priest: the military
+would naturally shelter themselves under the wing of the church, and the
+priest with the protection of the military. The narrowness of the
+trenches is another proof of its being British; they exactly correspond
+with the stile of that people. The name of the pool, _Bowen_, is of
+British derivation, which is a farther proof that the work originated
+from the Britons. They did not place their security so much in the
+trenches, as in the mounds, which they barracaded with timber. This camp
+is secured on three sides by a morass, and is only approachable on the
+fourth, that from the Coldfield. The first mound on this weak side, is
+twenty-four yards over, twice the size of any other; which, allowing an
+ample security, is a farther evidence of its being British, and
+tradition being silent is another.
+
+
+
+PETITION FOR A CORPORATION.
+
+Every man upon earth seems fond of two things, riches and power: this
+fondness necessarily springs from the heart, otherwise order would
+cease. Without the desire of riches, a man would not preserve what he
+has, nor provide for the future. "My thoughts," says a worthy christian,
+"are not of this world; I desire but one guinea to carry me through it."
+Supply him with that guinea, and he wishes another, lest the first
+should be defective.
+
+If it is necessary a man mould possess property, it is just as necessary
+he should possess a power to protect it, or the world would quickly
+bully him out of it: this power is founded on the laws of his country,
+to which he adds, by way of supplement, bye-laws, founded upon his own
+prudence. Those who possess riches, well know they are furnished with
+wings, and can scarcely be kept from flying.
+
+The man who has power to secure his wealth, seldom stops there; he, in
+turn, is apt to triumph over him who has less. Riches and power are
+often seen to go hand in hand.
+
+Industry produces property; which, when a little matured, looks out for
+command; thus the inhabitants of Birmingham, who have generally
+something upon the anvil besides iron, near seventy years ago having
+derived wealth from diligence, wished to derive power from charter;
+therefore, petitioned the crown that Birmingham might be erected into a
+corporation. Tickled with the title of alderman, dazzled with the
+splendour of a silver mace, a furred gown, and a magisterial chair, they
+could not see the interest of the place: had they succeeded, that
+amazing growth would have been crippled, which has since astonished the
+world, and those trades have been fettered which have proved the
+greatest benefit.
+
+When a man loudly pleads for public good, we shrewdly suspect a private
+emolument lurking beneath. There is nothing more detrimental to good
+neighbourhood, than men in power, where power is unnecessary: free as
+the air we breathe, we subsist by our freedom; no command is exercised
+among us, but that of the laws, to which every discreet citizen pays
+attention--the magistrate who distributes justice, tinctured with mercy,
+merits the thanks of society. A train of attendants, a white wand, and a
+few fiddles, are only the fringe, lace, and trappings of
+charteral office.
+
+Birmingham, exclusive of her market, ranks among the very lowest order
+of townships; every petty village claims the honour of being a
+constable-wick--we are no more. Our immunities are only the trifling
+privileges anciently granted to the lords; and two thirds of these are
+lost. But, notwithstanding this seemingly forlorn state, perhaps there
+is not a place in the British dominions, where so many people are
+governed by so few officers; nor a place better governed: pride,
+therefore, must have dictated the humble petition before us.
+
+I have seen a copy of this petition, signed by eighty-four of the
+inhabitants; and though without a date, seems to have been addressed to
+King George the First, about 1716: it alledges, "That Birmingham is, of
+late years, become very populous, from its great increase of trade; is
+much superior to any town in the county, and but little inferior to any
+inland town in the kingdom: that it is governed only by a constable, and
+enjoys no more privileges than a village: that there is no justice of
+peace in the town; nor any in the neighbourhood, who dares act with
+vigour: that the country abounds with rioters, who, knowing the place to
+be void of magistrates, assemble in it, pull down the meeting-houses,
+defy the king, openly avow the pretender, threaten the inhabitants, and
+oblige them to keep watch in their own houses: that the trade decays,
+and will stagnate, if not relieved. To remedy these evils, they beseech
+his majesty to incorporate the town, and grant such privileges as will
+enable them to support their trade, the king's interest, and destroy the
+villainous attempts of the jacobites. In consideration of the requested
+charter, they make the usual offering of _lives_ and _fortunes_".
+
+A petition and the petitioner, like Janus with his two faces, looks
+different ways; it is often treated as if it said one thing, and meant
+another; or as if it said any thing but truth. Its use, in some places,
+is to _lie on the table_. Our humble petition, by some means, met with
+the fate it deserved.
+
+We may remark, a town without a charter, is a town without a shackle. If
+there was then a necessity to erect a corporation, because the town was
+large, there is none now, though larger: the place was not better
+governed a thousand years ago, when only a tenth of its present
+magnitude; it may also be governed as well a thousand years hence, if it
+should swell to ten times its size.
+
+The _pride_ of our ancestors was hurt by a petty constable; the
+_interest_ of us, their successors, would be hurt by a mayor: a more
+simple government cannot be instituted, or one more efficacious: that of
+some places is designed for parade, ours for use; and both answers their
+end. A town governed by a multitude of governors, is the most likely to
+be ill-governed.
+
+[Illustration: The New Brass Works]
+
+
+
+BRASS WORKS.
+
+The manufacture of brass was introduced by the family of Turner, about
+1740, who erected those works at the south end of Coleshill-street;
+then, near two hundred yards beyond the buildings, but now the buildings
+extend about five hundred beyond them.
+
+Under the black clouds which arose from this corpulent tunnel, some of
+the trades collected their daily supply of brass; but the major part was
+drawn from the Macclesfield, Cheadle, and Bristol companies.
+
+'Causes are known by their effects;' the fine feelings of the heart are
+easily read in the features of the face: the still operations of the
+mind, are discovered by the rougher operations of the hand.
+
+Every creature is fond of power, from that noble head of the creation,
+man, who devours man, down to that insignificant mite, who devours his
+cheese: every man strives to be free himself, and to shackle another.
+
+Where there is power of any kind, whether in the hands of a prince, a
+people, a body of men, or a private person, there is a propensity to
+abuse it: abuse of power will everlastingly seek itself a remedy, and
+frequently find it; nay, even this remedy may in time degenerate to
+abuse, and call loudly for another.
+
+Brass is an object of some magnitude, in the trades of Birmingham; the
+consumption is said to be a thousand tons per annum. The manufacture of
+this useful article had long been in few, and opulent hands; who,
+instead of making the humble bow, for favours received, acted with
+despotic sovereignty, established their own laws, chose their customers,
+directed the price, and governed the market.
+
+In 1780, the article rose, either through caprice, or necessity, perhaps
+the _former_, from 72_l_. a ton to 84_l_. the result was, an advance
+upon the goods manufactured, followed by a number of counter-orders,
+and a stagnation of business.
+
+In 1781, a person, from affection to the user, or resentment to the
+maker, perhaps, the _latter_, harangued the public in the weekly papers;
+censured the arbitrary measures of the brazen sovereigns, shewed their
+dangerous influence over the trades of the town, and the easy manner in
+which works of our own might be constructed--good often arises out of
+evil; this fiery match, dipt in brimstone, quickly kindled another
+furnace in Birmingham. Public meetings were advertised, a committee
+appointed, and subscriptions opened to fill two hundred shares, of
+100_l_. each, deemed a sufficient capital: each proprietor of a share,
+to purchase one ton of brass, annually. Works were immediately erected
+upon the banks of the canal, for the advantage of water carriage, and
+the whole was conducted with the true spirit of Birmingham freedom.
+
+If a man can worm himself _into_ a lucrative branch, he will use every
+method to keep another _out_. All his powers may prove ineffectual; for
+if that other smells the sweet profits of the first, _he_ will endeavour
+to worm himself _in_: both may suffer by the contest, and the public
+be gainers.
+
+The old companies, which we may justly consider the directors of a south
+sea bubble in miniature, sunk the price from 84_l_. to 56_l_. Two
+inferences arise from this measure; that their profits were once very
+high, or are now very low; and, like some former monarchs, in the abuse
+of power, they repented one day too late.
+
+Schemes are generally proclaimed, _for public good!_ but as often meant,
+_for private interest_.--This, however, varied from that rule, and
+seemed less calculated to benefit those immediately, than those remotely
+concerned: they chose to sustain a smaller injury from making brass,
+than a greater from the makers.
+
+
+
+PRISON.
+
+If the subject is little, but little can be said upon it; I shall shine
+as dimly in this chapter on confinement, as in that on government. The
+traveller who sets out lame, will probably limp through the journey.
+
+Many of my friends have assured me, "That I must have experienced much
+trouble in writing the history of Birmingham." But I assure them in
+return, that I range those hours among the happiest of my life; and part
+of that happiness may consist in delineating the bright side of human
+nature. Pictures of deformity, whether of body or of mind, disgust--the
+more they approach towards beauty, the more they charm.
+
+All the chapters which compose this work, were formed with pleasure,
+except the latter part of that upon _births and burials_; there, being
+forced to apply to the parish books, I _figured_ with some obstruction.
+Poor _Allsop_, full of good-nature and affliction, fearful lest I should
+sap the church, could not receive me with kindness. When a man's
+resources lie within himself, he draws at pleasure; but when necessity
+throws him upon the parish, he draws in small sums, and with difficulty.
+
+I either _have_, or _shall_ remark, for I know not in what nich I shall
+exhibit this posthumous chapter, drawn like one of our sluggish bills,
+_three months after date_, "That Birmingham does not abound in villainy,
+equal to some other places: that the hand employed in business, has less
+time, and less temptation, to be employed in mischief; and that one
+magistrate alone, corrected the enormities of this numerous people,
+many years before I knew them, and twenty-five after." I add, that the
+ancient lords of Birmingham, among their manorial privileges, had the
+grant of a gallows, for capital punishment; but as there are no traces
+even of the name, in the whole manor, I am persuaded no such thing was
+ever erected, and perhaps the _anvil_ prevented it.
+
+Many of the rogues among us are not of our own growth, but are drawn
+hither, as in London, to shelter in a crowd, and the easier in that
+crowd to pursue their game. Some of them fortunately catch, from
+example, the arts of industry, and become useful: others continue to
+cheat for one or two years, till frightened by the grim aspect of
+justice, they decamp.
+
+Our vile and obscure prison, termed _The Dungeon_, is a farther proof
+how little that prison has been an object of notice, consequently
+of use.
+
+Anciently the lord of a manor exercised a sovereign power in his little
+dominion; held a tribunal on his premises, to which was annexed a
+prison, furnished with implements for punishment; these were claimed by
+the lords of Birmingham. This crippled species of jurisprudence, which
+sometimes made a man judge in his own cause, from which there was no
+appeal, prevailed in the highlands of Scotland, so late as the rebellion
+in 1745, when the peasantry, by act of parliament, were restored
+to freedom.
+
+Early perhaps in the sixteenth century, when the house of Birmingham,
+who had been chief gaolers, were fallen, a building was erected, which
+covered the east end of New-street, called the Leather-hall: the upper
+part consisted of a room about fifty feet long, where the public
+business of the manor was transacted. The under part was divided into
+several: one of these small rooms was used for a prison: but about the
+year 1728, _while men slept an enemy came_, a private agent to the lord
+of the manor, and erazed the Leather-hall and the Dungeon, erected three
+houses on the spot, and received their rents till 1776, when the town
+purchased them for 500_l_. to open the way. A narrow passage on the
+south will be remembered for half a century to come, by the name of the
+_dungeon-entry_.
+
+A dry cellar, opposite the demolished hall, was then appropriated for a
+prison, till the town of all bad places chose the worst, the bottom of
+Peck-lane; dark, narrow, and unwholesome within; crowded with dwellings,
+filth and distress without, the circulation of air is prevented.
+
+As a growing taste for public buildings has for some time appeared among
+us, we might, in the construction of a prison, unite elegance and use;
+and the west angle of that land between New-street and Mount-pleasant,
+might be suitable for the purpose; an airy spot in the junction of six
+streets. The proprietor of the land, from his known attachment to
+Birmingham, would, I doubt not, be much inclined to grant a
+favour.--Thus, I have expended ten _score_ words, to tell the world what
+another would have told them in _ten_--"That our prison is wretched, and
+we want a better."
+
+
+
+CLODSHALES CHANTRY.
+
+It is an ancient remark, "The world is a farce." Every generation, and
+perhaps every individual, acts a part in disguise; but when the curtain
+falls, the hand of the historian pulls off the mask, and displays the
+character in its native light. Every generation differs from the other,
+_yet all are right_. Time, fashion, and sentiment change together. We
+laugh at the oddity of our fore-fathers--our successors will laugh
+at us.
+
+The prosperous anvil of Walter de Clodshale, a native of this place, had
+enabled him to acquire several estates in Birmingham, to purchase the
+lordship of Saltley, commence gentleman, and reside in the manor-house,
+now gone to decay, though its traces remain, and are termed by common
+people, _the Giant's Castle_. This man, having well provided for the
+_present_, thought it prudent, at the close of life, to provide for the
+_future_: he therefore procured a licence, in 1331, from William de
+Birmingham, lord of the see, and another from the crown, to found a
+chantry at the altar in St. Martin's church, for one priest, to pray for
+his soul, and that of his wife.
+
+He gave, that he might be safely wafted into the arms of felicity, by
+the breath of a priest, four houses, twenty acres of land, and
+eighteen-pence rent, issuing out of his estates in Birmingham.
+
+The same righteous motive induced his son Richard, in 1348, to grant
+five houses, ten acres of land, and ten shillings rent, from the
+Birmingham estates, to maintain a second priest, who was to secure the
+souls of himself and his wife. The declaration of Christ, in that pious
+age, seems to have been inverted; for instead of its being difficult for
+a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, it was difficult for him to
+miss it. We are not told what became of him who had nothing to give! If
+the profits of the estate tended the right way, perhaps there was no
+great concern which way either _Walter_ or _Richard_ tended.
+
+The chantorial music continued two hundred and four years, till 1535,
+when Henry the Eighth closed the book, turned out the priests, who were
+Sir Thomas Allen and Sir John Green, and seized the property, valued at
+5_l_. 1s. per annum. Permit me again to moralize upon this fashionable
+practice of ruining the family, for the health of the soul: except some
+lawful creditor puts in a claim, which justice ought to allow, a son has
+the same right to an estate, after the death of his father, as that
+father had before him.
+
+Had Walter and Richard taken _equal_ care of their souls, and their
+estate, the first might have been as safe as in the hands of a priest,
+and the last, at this day, have been the property of that ancient, and
+once noble race of Arden, long since in distress; who, in 1426, married
+the heiress of their house.--Thus, a family, benefited by the hammer,
+was injured by the church.
+
+Had the hands of these two priests ministered to their wants, in the
+construction of tents and fishing-nets, like those of their
+predecessors, St. Paul and St. Peter, though their pride would have been
+eclipsed, their usefulness would have shone, and the world have been
+gainers by their labour. Two other lessons may be learnt from this
+little ecclesiastical history--
+
+The astonishing advance of landed property in Birmingham: nine houses,
+and thirty acres of land, two hundred and fifty years ago, were valued
+at the trifling rent of 4_l_. 9s. 6d. per annum; one of the acres, or
+one of the houses, would at this day bring more. We may reasonably
+suppose they were under-rated; yet, even then, the difference is
+amasing. An acre, within a mile of Birmingham, now sells for about one
+hundred pounds, and lets from three pounds to five, some as high
+as seven.
+
+And, the nation so overswarmed with ecclesiastics, that the spiritual
+honours were quickly devoured, and the race left hungry; they therefore
+fastened upon the temporal--hence we boast of two knighted priests.
+
+
+
+OCCURRENCES.
+
+EARTHQUAKE, &c.
+
+It is a doctrine singular and barbarous, but it is nevertheless true,
+that _destruction is necessary_. Every species of animals would multiply
+beyond their bounds in the creation, were not means devised to thin
+their race.
+
+I perused an author in 1738, who asserts, "The world might maintain
+sixty times the number of its present inhabitants." Two able disputants,
+like those in religion, might maintain sixty arguments on the subject,
+and like them, leave the matter where they found it. But if restraint
+was removed, the present number would be multiplied into sixty, in much
+less than one century.
+
+Those animals appropriated for use, are suffered, or rather invited, to
+multiply without limitation. But _luxury_ cuts off the beast, the pig,
+the sheep, and the fowl, and ill treatment the horse: vermin of every
+kind, from the lion to the louse, are hunted to death; a perpetual
+contest seems to exist between them and us; they for their preservation,
+and we for their extinction. The kitten and the puppy are cast _into_
+the water, to end their lives; _out_ of which the fishes are drawn to
+end theirs--animals are every were devoured by animals.
+
+Their grand governor, man himself, is under controul; some by religious,
+others by interested motives. Even the fond parent, seldom wishes to
+increase the number of those objects, which of all others he
+values most!
+
+In civilized nations the superior class are restrained by the laws of
+honour, the inferior by those of bastardy; but, notwithstanding these
+restraints, the human race would increase beyond measure, were they not
+taken off by casualties. It is in our species alone, that we often
+behold the infant flame extinguished by the wretched nurse.
+
+Three dreadful calamities attending existence, are inundations, fires,
+and earthquakes; devestation follows their footsteps, But _one_
+calamity, more destructive than them all, rises from man
+himself, _war_.
+
+Birmingham, from its elevation, is nearly exempt from the flood; our
+inundations, instead of sweeping away life and fortune, sweep away the
+filth from the kennel.
+
+It is amasing, in a place crowded with people, that so _much_ business,
+and so _little_ mischief is done by fire: we abound more with party
+walls, than with timber buildings. Utensils are ever ready to extinguish
+the flames, and a generous spirit to use them. I am not certain that a
+conflagration of 50_l_. damage, has happened within memory.
+
+I have only one earthquake to record, felt Nov. 15, 1772, at four in the
+morning; it extended about eight miles in length, from Hall-green to
+Erdington, and four in breadth, of which Birmingham was part. The
+shaking of the earth continued about five seconds, with unequal
+vibration, sufficient to awake a gentle sleeper, throw down a knife
+carelessly reared up, or rattle the brass drops of a chest of drawers. A
+flock of sheep, in a field near Yardley, frightened at the trembling,
+ran away.--No damage was sustained.
+
+
+
+PITMORE AND HAMMOND.
+
+Thomas Pitmore, a native of Cheshire, after consuming a fortune of
+700_l_. was corporal in the second regiment of foot; and John Hammond,
+an American by birth, was drummer in the thirty-sixth; both of
+recruiting parties in Birmingham.
+
+Having procured a brace of pistols, they committed several robberies in
+the dark, on the highways.
+
+At eight in the evening of November 22, 1780, about five hundred yards
+short of the four mile-stone, in the Coleshill road, they met three
+butchers of Birmingham, who closely followed each other in their return
+from Rugby fair. One of the robbers attempted the bridle of the first
+man, but his horse, being young, started out of the road, and ran away.
+The drummer then attacked the second, Wilfred Barwick, with "Stop your
+horse," and that moment, through the agitation of a timorous mind,
+discharged a pistol, and lodged a brace of slugs in the bowels of the
+unfortunate Barwick, who exclaimed, "I am a dead man!" and fell.
+
+The corporal instantly disappeared, and was afterwards, by the light of
+the show upon the ground, seen retreating to Birmingham. The drummer ran
+forwards about forty yards, and over a stile into Ward-end field. A
+fourth butcher of their company, and a lad, by this time came up, who,
+having heard the report of a pistol, seen the flash, and the drummer
+enter the field, leaped over the hedge in pursuit of the murderer. A
+frey ensued, in which the drummer was seized, who desired them not to
+take his life, but leave him to the laws of his country.
+
+Within half an hour, the deceased and the captive appeared together in
+the same room, at the Horse-shoe. What must then be the feelings of a
+mind, susceptible of impression by nature, but weakly calloused over by
+art? This is one instance, among many, which shews us, a life of
+innocence, is alone a life of happiness.
+
+The drummer impeached his companion, who was perhaps the most guilty of
+the two, and they were both that night lodged in the dungeon.
+
+Upon the trial, March 31, 1781, the matter was too plain to be
+controverted. The criminals were executed, and hung in chains at
+Washwood-heath, April 2; the corporal at the age of 25, and the
+drummer 22.
+
+
+
+RIOTS.
+
+Three principal causes of riot are, the low state of wages, the
+difference in political sentiment, and the rise of provisions: these
+causes, like inundations, produce dreadful effects, and like them,
+return at uncertain periods.
+
+The journeyman in Birmingham is under no temptation to demand an
+additional price for his labour, which is already higher than the
+usual mark.
+
+There is no nation fonder of their king than the English; which is a
+proof that monarchy suits the genius of the people: there is no nation
+more jealous of his power, which proves that liberty is a favourite
+maxim. Though the laws have complimented him with _much_, yet he well
+knows, a prerogative upon the stretch, is a prerogative in a
+dangerous state.
+
+The more a people value their prince, the more willing are they to
+contend in his favour.
+
+The people of England revered the memory of their beloved Saxon kings,
+and doubly lamented their fall, with that of their liberties.
+
+They taxed themselves into beggary, to raise the amasing sum of
+100,000_l_. to release Richard the First, unjustly taken captive
+by Leopold.
+
+They protected Henry the Fifth from death, at Agincourt, and received
+that death themselves.
+
+They covered the extreme weakness of Henry the Sixth, who _never said a
+good thing, or did a bad one_, with the mantle of royalty; when a
+character like his, without a crown, would have been hunted through
+life: they gave him the title of _good king Henry_, which would well
+have suited, had the word _king_ been omitted; they sought him a place
+in the kalendar of saints, and made _him_ perform the miracles of an
+angel when dead, who could never perform the works of a man,
+when living.
+
+The people shewed their attachment to Henry the Eighth, by submitting to
+the faggot and the block, at his command; and with their last breath,
+praying for their butcher.
+
+Affection for Charles the First, induced four of his friends to offer
+their own heads, to save his.--The wrath, and the tears of the people,
+succeeded his melancholy exit.
+
+When James the Second eloped from the throne, and was casually picked up
+at Feversham, by his injured subjects, _they remembered he was
+their king_.
+
+The church and Queen Anne, like a joyous co-partnership, were toasted
+together. The barrel was willingly emptied to honour the queen, and the
+toaster lamented he could honour her no more.
+
+The nation displayed their love to Charles the Second, by latticing the
+forests. His climbing the oak at Boscobel, has been the destruction of
+more timber than would have filled the harbour of Portsmouth; the tree
+which flourished in the field, was brought to die in the street.
+Birmingham, for ninety years, honoured him with her vengeance against
+the woods; and she is, at this day, surrounded with mutilated oaks,
+which stand as martyrs to royalty.
+
+It is singular, that the oak, which assisted the devotion of the
+Britons, composed habitations for the people, and furniture for those
+habitations; that, while standing, was an ornament to the country that
+bore it; and afterwards guarded the land which nursed it, should be the
+cause of continual riots, in the reign of George the First. We could not
+readily accede to a line of strangers, in preference to our ancient race
+of kings, though loudly charged with oppression.
+
+Clubs and tumults supported the spirit of contention till 1745, when, as
+our last act of animosity, we crowned an ass with turnips, in derision
+of one of the worthiest families that ever eat them.
+
+Power, in the hand of ignorance, is an edge-tool of the most dangerous
+kind. The scarcity of provisions, in 1766, excited the murmurs of the
+poor. They began to breathe vengeance against the farmer, miller, and
+baker, for doing what they do themselves, procure the greatest price for
+their property.
+
+On the market day, a common labourer, like Massenello of Naples, formed
+the resolution to lead a mob.
+
+He therefore erected his standard, which was a mop inverted, assembled
+the crowd, and roared out the old note, "Redress of Grievances." The
+colliers, with all their dark retinue, were to bring destruction from
+Wednesbury. Amazement seised the town! the people of fortune trembled:
+John Wyrley, an able magistrate, for the first time frightened in
+office, with quivering lips, and a pale aspect, swore in about eighty
+constables, to oppose the rising storm, armed each of them with a staff
+of authority, warm from the turning-lathe, and applied to the War-office
+for a military force.
+
+The lime-powdered monarch began to fabricate his own laws, direct the
+price of every article, which was punctually obeyed.
+
+Port, or power, soon overcome a weak head; the more copious the draught,
+the more quick intoxication: he entered many of the shops, and was every
+where treated with the utmost reverence; took whatever goods he pleased,
+and distributed them among his followers; till one of the inhabitants,
+provoked beyond measure at his insolence, gave him a hearty kick on the
+posteriors, when the hero and his consequence, like that of Wat Tyler,
+fell together.--Thus ended a reign of seven hours; the sovereign was
+committed to prison, as sovereigns ought, in the abuse of power, and
+harmony was restored without blood.
+
+
+
+THE CONJURERS.
+
+No _head_ is a vacuum. Some, like a paltry cottage, are ill
+accommodated, dark, and circumscribed; others are capacious as
+Westminster-Hall. Though none are immense, yet they are capable of
+immense furniture. The more room is taken up by knowledge, the less
+remains for credulity. The more a man is acquainted with things, the
+more willing to _give up the ghost_. Every town and village, within my
+knowledge, has been pestered with spirits; which appear in horrid forms
+to the imagination in the winter night--but the spirits which haunt
+Birmingham, are those of industry and luxury.
+
+If we examine the whole parish, we cannot produce one _old_ witch; but
+we have plenty of young, who exercise a powerful influence over us.
+Should the ladies accuse the harsh epithet, they will please to
+consider, I allow them, what of all things they most wish for, _power_,
+therefore the balance is in my favor.
+
+If we pass through the planitary worlds, we shall be able to muster up
+two conjurers, who endeavoured to _shine with the stars_. The first,
+John Walton, who was so busy in calling the nativity of others, he
+forgot his own.
+
+Conscious of an application to himself, for the discovery of stolen
+goods, he employed his people to steal them. And though, for many years
+confined to his bed by infirmity, he could conjure away the property of
+others, and, for a reward, reconjure it again.
+
+The prevalence of this evil, induced the legislature, in 1725, to make
+the _reception_ of stolen goods capital. The first sacrifice to this law
+was the noted Jonathan Wild.
+
+The officers of justice, in 1732, pulled Walton out of his bed, in an
+obscure cottage, one furlong from the town, now Brickhill-Lane, carried
+him to prison, and from thence to the gallows--they had better have
+carried him to the workhouse, and his followers to the anvil.
+
+To him succeeded Francis Kimberley, the only reasoning animal, who
+resided at No. 60, in Dale-End, from his early youth to extreme
+age.--An hermit in a crowd! The windows of his house were strangers to
+light! The shutters forgot to open; the chimney to smoak. His cellar,
+though amply furnished, never knew moisture.
+
+He spent threescore years in filling six rooms with such trumpery as is
+just too good to be thrown away, and too bad to be kept. His life was as
+inoffensive as long. Instead of _stealing_ the goods which other people
+use, he _purchased_ what he could not use himself. He was not anxious
+what kind of property entered his house; if there was _bulk_ he was
+satisfied.
+
+His dark house, and his dark figure corresponded with each other. The
+apartments, choaked up with lumber, scarcely admitted his body, though
+of the skeleton order. Perhaps leanness is an appendage to the science,
+for I never knew a corpulent conjurer.
+
+His diet, regular, plain, and slender, shewed at how little expence life
+may be sustained.
+
+His library consisted of several thousand volumes, not one of which, I
+believe, he ever read: having written, in characters unknown to all but
+himself, his name, price, and date, in the title-page, he laid them by
+for ever. The highest pitch of his erudition was the annual almanack.
+
+He never wished to approach a woman, or be approached by one. Should the
+rest of men, for half a century, pay no more attention to the fair, some
+angelic hand might stick up a note, like the artic circle over one of
+our continents, _this world to be let_.
+
+If he did not cultivate the human species, the spiders, more numerous
+than his books, enjoyed an uninterrupted reign of quiet. The silence of
+the place was not broken: the broom, the book, the dust, or the web, was
+not disturbed. Mercury and his shirt, changed their revolutions
+together; and Saturn changed _his_, with his coat.
+
+He died, in 1756, as conjurers usually die, unlamented.
+
+
+
+MILITARY ASSOCIATION.
+
+The use of arms is necessary to every man who has something to lose, or
+something to gain. No property will protect itself. The English have
+liberty and property to lose, but nothing to win. As every man is born
+free, the West-Indian slaves have liberty to gain, but nothing to lose.
+If a rascally African prince attempts to sell his people, he ought to be
+first sold himself; and the buyer, who acts so daringly opposite to the
+Christian precept, is yet more blameable. He ought to have the first
+whip, often mended, worn out upon his own back.
+
+It may seem unnecessary to tell the world, what they already know;
+recent transactions come under this description; but they are not known
+to the stranger, nor to posterity.
+
+Upon a change of the Northean ministry, in 1782, the new premier, in a
+circular letter, advised the nation to arm, as the dangers of invasion
+threatened us with dreadful aspect. Intelligence from a quarter so
+authentic, locked up the door of private judgment, or we might have
+considered, that even without alliance, and with four principal powers
+upon our hands, we were rather gaining ground; that the Americans were
+so far from attacking us, that they wished us to run ourselves out of
+breath to attack them; that Spain had slumbered over a seven years war;
+that the Dutch, provoked at their governors, for the loss of their
+commerce, were more inclinable to invade themselves than us; and that as
+France bore the weight of the contest, we found employment for her arms,
+without invasion; but, perhaps, the letter was only an artifice of the
+new state doctor, to represent his patient in a most deplorable state,
+as a complement to his own merit in recovering her.
+
+Whatever was the cause, nothing could be more agreeable than this letter
+to the active spirit of Birmingham. Public meetings were held. The
+rockets of war were squibbed off in the news-papers. The plodding
+tradesman and the lively hero assembled together in arms, and many a
+trophy was won in thought.
+
+Each man purchased a genteel blue uniform, decorated with epaulets of
+gold, which, together with his accoutrements, cost about 17_l_. The
+gentleman, the apprentice, &c. to the number of seventy, united in a
+body, termed by themselves, _The Birmingham Association_; by the wag,
+_the brazen walls of the town_. Each was to be officer and private by
+ballet, which gives an idea of equality, and was called to exercise
+once a week.
+
+The high price of provisions, and the 17th of October, brought a
+dangerous mob into Birmingham. They wanted bread: so did we. But little
+conference passed between them and the inhabitants. They were quiet; we
+were pleased; and, after an hour or two's stay, they retreated in peace.
+
+In the evening, after the enemy were fled, our champions beat to arms,
+breathing vengeance against the hungry crew; and, had they returned,
+some people verily thought our valiant heroes would have _discharged_
+at them.
+
+However laudable a system, if built upon a false basis, it will not
+stand. Equality and command, in the same person, are incompatiable;
+therefore, cannot exist together. Subordination is necessary in every
+class of life, but particularly in the military. Nothing but severe
+discipline can regulate the boisterous spirit of an army.
+
+A man may be bound to another, but if he commands the bandage, he will
+quickly set himself free. This was the case with the military
+association. As their uniform resembled that of a commander, so did
+their temper. There were none to submit. The result was, the farce
+ended, and the curtain dropt in December, by a quarrel with each other;
+and, like _John_ and _Lilborn_, almost with themselves.
+
+
+
+BILSTON CANAL ACT.
+
+Envy, like a dark shadow, follows closely the footsteps of prosperity;
+success in any undertaking, out of the circle of genius, produces a
+rival.--This I have instanced in our hackney coaches.
+
+Profits, like a round-bellied bottle, may seem bulky, which, like that,
+will not bear dividing: Thus Orator Jones, in 1774, opened a debating
+society at the Red Lion; he quickly filled a large room with customers,
+and his pockets with money, but he had not prudence to keep either. His
+success opened a rival society at the King's-head, which, in a few
+weeks, annihilated both.
+
+The growing profits of our canal company, already mentioned, had
+increased the shares from 140_l_. in 1768, to 400 guineas, in 1782.
+These emoluments being thought enormous, a rival company sprung up,
+which, in 1783, petitioned Parliament to partake of those emoluments, by
+opening a parallel cut from some of the neighbouring coal-pits; to
+proceed along the lower level, and terminate in Digbeth.
+
+A stranger might ask, "How the water in our upland country, which had
+never supplied one canal, could supply two? Whether the second canal was
+not likely to rob the first? Whether one able canal is not preferable to
+two lame ones? If a man sells me an article cheaper than I can purchase
+it elsewhere, whether it is of consequence to me what are his profits?
+And whether two companies in rivalship would destroy that harmony which
+has long subsisted in Birmingham."
+
+The new company urged, "The necessity of another canal, lest the old
+should not perform the business of the town; that twenty per cent. are
+unreasonable returns; that they could afford coals under the present
+price; that the south country teams would procure a readier supply from
+Digbeth, than from the present wharf, and not passing through the
+streets, would be prevented from injuring the pavement; and that the
+goods from the Trent would come to their wharf by a run of eighteen
+miles nearer than to the other."
+
+The old company alledged, "That they ventured their property in an
+uncertain pursuit, which, had it not succeeded, would have ruined many
+individuals; therefore the present gains were only a recompense for
+former hazard: that this property was expended upon the faith of
+Parliament, who were obliged in honour to protect it, otherwise no man
+would risk his fortune upon a public undertaking; for should they allow
+a second canal, why not a third; which would become a wanton destruction
+of right, without benefit; that although the profit of the original
+subscribers might seem large, those subscribers are but few; many have
+bought at a subsequent price, which barely pays common interest, and
+this is all their support; therefore a reduction would be barbarous on
+one side, and sensibly felt on the other: and, as the present canal
+amply supplies the town and country, it would be ridiculous to cut away
+good land to make another, which would ruin both."
+
+I shall not examine the reasons of either, but leave the disinterested
+reader to weigh both in his own balance.
+
+When two opponents have said all that is true, they generally say
+something more; rancour holds the place of argument.
+
+Both parties beat up for volunteers in the town, to strengthen their
+forces; from words of acrimony, they came to those of virulence; then
+the powerful batteries of hand-bills, and news-papers were opened: every
+town within fifty miles, interested, on either side, was moved to
+petition, and both prepared for a grand attack, confident of victory.
+
+Perhaps a contest among friends, in matters of property, will remove
+that peace of mind, which twenty per cent. will not replace.
+
+Each party possessed that activity of spirit, for which Birmingham is
+famous, and seemed to divide between them the legislative strength of
+the nation: every corner of the two houses was ransacked for a vote; the
+throne was the only power unsolicited. Perhaps at the reading, when both
+parties had marshalled their forces, there was the fullest House of
+Commons ever remembered on a private bill.
+
+The new company promised much, for besides the cut from Wednesbury to
+Digbeth, they would open another to join the two canals of Stafford and
+Coventry, in which a large track of country was interested.
+
+As the old company were the first adventurers, the house gave them the
+option to perform this Herculean labour, which they accepted.
+
+As parliament have not yet given their determination, and as the printer
+this moment raps at my door, "Sir, the press waits, more copy if you
+please," I cannot stay to tell the world the result of the bill; but
+perhaps, the new proprietors, by losing, will save 50,000_l_. and the
+old, by winning, become sufferers.
+
+
+
+WORKHOUSE BILL.
+
+I have often mentioned an active spirit, as the characteristic of the
+inhabitants of Birmingham. This spirit never forsakes them. It displays
+itself in industry, commerce, invention, humanity, and internal
+government. A singular vivacity attends every pursuit till compleated,
+or discarded for a second.
+
+The bubble of the day, like that at the end of a tobacco-pipe, dances in
+air, exhibits divers beauties, pleases the eye, bursts in a moment, and
+is followed up by another.
+
+There is no place in the British dominions easier to be governed than
+Birmingham; and yet we are fond of forging acts of parliament to
+govern her.
+
+There is seldom a point of time in which an act is not in agitation; we
+fabricate them with such expedition, that we could employ a parliament
+of our own to pass them. But, to the honor of our ladies, not one of
+these acts is directed against them. Neither is there an instance upon
+record, that the torch of Hymen was ever extinguished by the breath of
+Marriot in Doctors-Commons.
+
+In the present spring of 1783, we have four acts upon the anvil: every
+man, of the least consequence, becomes a legislator, and wishes to lend
+his assistance in framing an act; so that instead of one lord, as
+formerly, we now, like the Philistines, have three thousand.
+
+An act of parliament, abstractedly considered, is a dead matter: it
+cannot operate of itself: like a plaister, it must be applied to the
+evil, or that evil will remain. We vainly expect a law to perform the
+intended work; if it does not, we procure another to make it. Thus the
+canal, by one act in 1767, hobbled on, like a man with one leg; but a
+second, in 1770, furnished a pair. The lamp act, procured in 1769, was
+worn to rags, and mended with another in 1773; and this second has been
+long out of repair, and waits for a third.
+
+We carry the same spirit into our bye-laws, and with the same success.
+Schemes have been devised, to oblige every man to pay levies; but it was
+found difficult to extract money from him who had none.
+
+In 1754, we brought the manufacture of pack-thread into the workhouse,
+to reduce the levies; the levies increased. A spirited overseer
+afterwards, for the same reason, as if poverty was not a sufficient
+stigma, badged the poor; the levies still increased.
+
+The advance of bread in 1756, induced the officers to step out of the
+common track, perhaps, out of their knowledge; and, at the expence of
+half a levy, fit up an apparatus for grinding corn in the house: thus,
+by sacrificing half _one levy, many would be saved_. However, in the
+pursuit, many happened to be lost. In 1761, the apparatus was sold at a
+farther loss; and the overseers sheltered themselves under the charge of
+idleness against the paupers.
+
+In 1766, the spinning of mop-yarn was introduced, which might, with
+attention, have turned to account; but unfortunately, the yarn proved of
+less value than the wool.
+
+Others, with equal wisdom, were to ease the levies, by feeding a drove
+of pigs, which, agreeable to their own nature--ran backwards.--Renting a
+piece of ground, by way of garden, which supplied the house with a
+pennyworth of vegetables, for two-pence, adding a few cows, and a
+pasture; but as the end of all was _loss_, the levies increased.
+
+In 1780, two collectors were appointed, at fifty guineas each, which
+would save the town _many a hundred_; still the levies increased.
+
+A petition is this sessions presented, for an Act to overturn the whole
+pauper system (for our heads are as fond of new fashions, in parochial
+government, as in the hats which cover them) to erect a superb
+workhouse, at the expence of 10,000_l_. with powers to borrow 15,000_l_.
+which grand design is to reduce the levies _one third_.--The levies will
+increase.
+
+The reasons _openly_ alledged are, "The Out-pensioners, which cost
+7000_l_. a year, are the chief foundation of our public grievances: that
+the poor ought to be employed _in_ the house, lest their morals become
+injured by the shops; which prevents them from being taken into family
+service; and, the crowded state of the workhouse."--But whether the
+pride of an overseer, in perpetuating his name, is not the pendulum
+which set the machine in motion? Or, whether a man, as well as a spider,
+may not create a _place_, and, like that--_fill it with himself_?
+
+The bill directs, That the inhabitants mall chuse a number of guardians
+by ballot, who shall erect a workhouse, on Birmingham-heath--a spot as
+airy as the scheme; conduct a manufacture, and the poor; dispose of the
+present workhouse; seize and confine idle or disorderly persons, and
+keep them to labour, till they have reimbursed the parish all expences.
+
+But it may be asked, Whether spending 15,000_l_. is likely to reduce the
+levies?
+
+Whether we shall be laughed at, for throwing by a building, the last
+wing of which cost a thousand pounds, after using it only three years?
+
+Our commerce is carried on by reciprocal obligation. Every overseer has
+his friends, whom he cannot refuse to serve; nay, whom he may even wish
+to serve, if that service costs him nothing: hence, that over-grown
+monster so justly complains of, _The Weekly Tickets_; it follows,
+whether _sixty_ guardians are not likely to have more friends to serve,
+than six overseers?
+
+Whether the trades of the town, by a considerable manufacture
+established at the workhouse, will not be deprived of their most
+useful hands?
+
+Whether it is not a maxim of the wisest men who have filled the office,
+"to endeavour to keep the poor _out_ of the house, for if they are
+admitted, they become more chargeable; nor will they leave it without
+clothing?"
+
+A workhouse is a kind of prison, and a dreadful one to those of tender
+feelings--Whether the health of an individual, the ideas of rectitude,
+or the natural right of our species, would not be infringed by a cruel
+imprisonment.
+
+If a man has followed an occupation forty years, and necessity sends him
+to the parish, whether is it preferable to teach him a new trade, or
+suffer him to earn what he can at his old? If we decide for the latter,
+whether he had better walk four hundred yards to business, or four
+miles? His own infirmity will determine this question.
+
+If a young widow be left with two children, shall she pay a girl
+six-pence a week to tend them, while she earns five shillings at the
+mops, and is allowed two by the parish, or shall all three reside in the
+house, at the weekly expence of six, and she be employed in nursing
+them? If we again declare for the latter, it follows, that the parish
+will not only have four shillings a week, but the community may gain
+half a crown by her labour.
+
+Whether the morals of the children are more likely to be injured by the
+shops, than the morals of half the children in town; many of whom labour
+to procure levies for the workhouse?
+
+Whether the morals of a child will be more corrupted in a small shop,
+consisting of a few persons, or in a large one at the workhouse,
+consisting of hundreds?
+
+Whether the grand shop at Birmingham-heath, or at any heath, will train
+girls for service, preferable to others?
+
+Shall we, because the house has been crowded a few weeks, throw away
+15000_l_. followed by a train of evils? A few months ago, I saw in it a
+large number of vacant beds. Besides, at a small expence, and without
+impeding the circulation of air, conveniency may be made for one
+hundred more.
+
+Did a manufacture ever prosper under a multitude of inspectors, not one
+of which is to taste the least benefit?
+
+As public business, which admits no profit, such as vestry assemblies,
+commissions of lamps, turnpike meetings, &c. are thinly attended, even
+in town; what reason is there to expect a board two miles in
+the country?
+
+The workhouse may be deemed _The Nursery of Birmingham_, in which she
+deposits her infants, for future service: the unfortunate and the idle,
+till they can be set upon their own basis; and the decrepid, during the
+few remaining sands in their glass. If we therefore carry the workhouse
+to a distance, whether we shall not interrupt that necessary intercourse
+which ought to subsist between a mother and her offspring? As sudden
+sickness, indications of child-birth, &c. require immediate assistance,
+a life in extreme danger may chance to be lost by the length of
+the road.
+
+If we keep the disorderly till they have reimbursed the parish, whether
+we do not acquire an inheritance for life?
+
+We censure the officer who pursues a phantom at the expence of others;
+we praise him who _teaches the poor to live_.
+
+All the evils complained of, may be removed by _attention in the man_;
+the remedy is not in an act. He therefore accuses his own want of
+application, in soliciting government to _do_ what he might do
+himself--Expences are saved by private acts of oeconomy, not by public
+Acts of Parliament.
+
+It has long been said, _think_ and _act_; but as our internal
+legislators chuse to reverse the maxim by fitting up an expensive shop;
+then seeking a trade to bring in, perhaps they may place over the grand
+entrance, _act_ and _think_.
+
+One remark should never be lost sight of, _The more we tax the
+inhabitants, the sooner they leave us, and carry off the trades_.
+
+
+
+THE CAMP.
+
+I have already remarked, _a spirit of bravery is part of the British
+character_. The perpetual contests for power, among the Britons, the
+many roads formed by the Romans, to convey their military force, the
+prodigious number of camps, moats, and broken castles, left us by the
+Saxons, Danes, and Normans, our common ancestors, indicate _a martial
+temper_. The names of those heroic sovereigns, Edward the Third, and
+Henry the Fifth, who brought their people to the fields of conquest,
+descend to posterity with the highest applause, though they brought
+their kingdom to the brink of ruin; while those quiet princes, Henry the
+Seventh, and James the First, who cultivated the arts of peace, are but
+little esteemed, though under their sceptre, England experienced the
+greatest improvement.--The man who dare face an enemy, is the most
+likely to gain a friend. A nation versed in arms, stands the fairest
+chance to protect its property, and secure its peace: war itself may be
+hurtful, the knowledge of it useful.
+
+In Mitchly-park, three miles west of Birmingham, in the parish of
+Edgbaston, is _The Camp_; which might be ascribed to the Romans, lying
+within two or three stones cast of their Ikenield-street, where it
+divides the counties of Warwick and Worcester, but is too extensive for
+that people, being about thirty acres: I know none of their camps more
+than four, some much less; it must, therefore, have been the work of
+those pilfering vermin the Danes, better acquainted with other peoples
+property than their own; who first swarmed on the shores, then over-ran
+the interior parts of the kingdom, and, in two hundred years, devoured
+the whole.
+
+No part of this fortification is wholly obliterated, though, in many
+places, it is nearly levelled by modern cultivation, that dreadful enemy
+to the antiquary. Pieces of armour are frequently ploughed up,
+particularly parts of the sword and the battle-axe, instruments much
+used by those destructive sons of the raven.
+
+The platform is quadrangular, every side nearly four hundred yards; the
+center is about six acres, surrounded by three ditches, each about eight
+yards over, at unequal distances; though upon a descent, it is amply
+furnished with water. An undertaking of such immense labour, could not
+have been designed for temporary use.
+
+The propriety of the spot, and the rage of the day for fortification,
+seem to have induced the Middlemores, lords of the place for many
+centuries, and celebrated for riches, but in the beginning of this work,
+for poverty, to erect a park, and a lodge; nothing of either exist, but
+the names.
+
+
+
+MORTIMER's BANK.
+
+The traveller who undertakes an extensive journey, cannot chuse his
+road, or his weather: sometimes the prospect brightens, with a serene
+sky, a smooth path, and a smiling sun; all within and without him
+is chearful.
+
+Anon he is assailed by the tempests, stumbles over the ridges, is
+bemired in the hollows, the sun hides his face, and his own is
+sorrowful--this is the lot of the historian; he has no choice of
+subject, merry or mournful, he must submit to the changes which offer;
+delighted with the prosperous tale, depressed with the gloomy.
+
+I am told, this work has often drawn a smile from the reader; it has
+often drawn a sigh from me. A celebrated painter fell in love with the
+picture he drew; I have wept at mine--Such is the chapter of the Lords,
+and the Workhouse. We are not always proof against a melancholy or a
+tender sentiment.
+
+Having pursued our several stages, with various fortune, through fifty
+chapters, at the close of this last tragic scene, emotion and the
+journey cease together.
+
+Upon King's-wood, five miles from Birmingham, and two hundred yards east
+of the Alcester-road, runs a bank for near a mile in length, unless
+obliterated by the new inclosure; for I saw it complete in 1775. This
+was raised by the famous Roger Mortimer, Earl of March, about 1324, to
+inclose a wood, from whence the place derives its name.
+
+Then that feeble monarch, Edward the Second, governed the kingdom; the
+amorous Isabella, his wife, governed the king, and the gallant Mortimer
+governed the queen.
+
+The parishes of King's-norton, Solihull, Yardley, uniting in this wood,
+and enjoying a right of commons, the inhabitants conceived themselves
+injured by the inclosure, assembled in a body, threw down the fence, and
+murdered the Earl's bailiff.
+
+Mortimer, in revenge, procured a special writ from the Court of Common
+Pleas, and caused the matter to be tried at Bromsgrove, where the
+affrighted inhabitants, over-awed with power, durst not appear in their
+own vindication. The Earl, therefore, recovered a verdict, and the
+enormous sum of 300_l_. damage. A sum nearly equal, at that time, to the
+fee-simple of the three parishes.
+
+The confusion of the times, and the poverty of the people, protracted
+payment, till the unhappy Mortimer, overpowered by his enemies, was
+seized as a criminal in Nottingham-castle; and, without being heard,
+executed at Tyburn, in 1328.
+
+The distressed inhabitants of our three parishes humbly petitioned the
+crown, for a reduction of the fine; when Edward the Third was pleased to
+remit about 260_l_.
+
+We can assign no reason for this imprudent step of inclosing the wood,
+unless the Earl intended to procure a grant of the manor, then in the
+crown, for his family. But what he could not accomplish by family, was
+accomplished by fortune; for George the Third, King of Great Britain, is
+lord of the manor of King's-norton, and a descendant from the house
+of Mortimer.
+
+
+
+F I N I S.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's An History of Birmingham (1783), by William Hutton
+
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