which I have seen," he says in another paragraph, "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 smoke.'

Hutton supposes that two vestiges of Birmingham's infant state still survive, in Aston Forge and Wednes

forests, in order that a supply of fuel might be obtained. Now it is known, from Domesday-book and other authorities, that the southern part of Staffordshire and the northern part of Warwickshire were in former days covered with forests. Scarcely a vestige of such forests now remain; and it is inferred that much of the timber has been used for charcoal for iron-smelting. The part of Warwickshire now under notice was formerly called Arden, from a British or Celtic word, implying wood-bury Old Field, which show indications of iron-works land: there are still towns in it called Hampden-inArden, and Henley-in-Arden. It is supposed that, when the wood of Staffordshire had been largely consumed for smelting Staffordshire iron, the forests of Warwickshire were appealed to; and that Birmingham, being situated on the confines of the two counties, became a nucleus of manufacture and trade. It is always difficult to trace exactly the circumstances which led to the establishment of a particular manufacture in a particular town; but they are generally to be sought for in some natural features of the district.

Whether or not Birmingham owed its growth and importance to the vicinage of Staffordshire iron and Warwickshire wood, it is certain that the prosperity of South Staffordshire hinged upon the discovery of a mode of smelting iron by means of coal. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the legislature gave many indications of alarm at the prospective destruction of timber, by lessening or prohibiting the use of charcoal fuel at iron-works; but as no other mode of smelting was then known, the existence of the ironmanufacture itself became much perilled. During the reigns of James I. and Charles I., many persons attempted to smelt iron by the aid of pit-coal, but without success. In the reign of Charles II., however, Dud Dudley, of Dudley Castle, after infinite trouble, difficulty, and expense, succeeded in showing that iron might be smelted by pit-coal; and from that period we may date the commencement of the present state of things in South Staffordshire, seeing that the operations for coal and for iron have ever since gone on pari passu. The object of this paper will be best attained by postponing a rapid sketch of these mining towns, until we have made acquaintance with Birmingham and its singulrly remarkable development of industry.

BIRMINGHAM IN PAST DAYS.

"that

William Hutton runs a tilt against the old chroniclers, because they do not mention Birmingham (or Bermyngeham, Burmyngham, Bermyngham, Byrmyngham, Bromicham, Bromwycham, Brumwycheham-for it has been spelled in all these different ways, and possibly many more). "It is matter of surprise," he says, none of those religious drones, the monks, who lived in the priory for fifteen or twenty generations, ever thought of indulging posterity with a 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 facts now totally lost."-" None of the histories

-

having been there in the time of the Romans, or
perhaps of the Britons. Birmingham is now known
as the seat of manufacture in various metals; but from
its earliest state till the time of Charles II., its manu-
factures were almost exclusively in iron. Instruments
of husbandry, tools for carpenters and other artificers,
kitchen furniture these were the main articles of
produce; and until the middle of the last century, the
forges at which these articles were made occupied the
shops fronting the street: the old street called Digbeth
had a dozen such forge-shops in front of the street in
Hutton's time. Hutton describes the roads which led
out of Birmingham, in the olden times, as having been
sunk far beneath the surface of the adjoining country.
Holloway Head, Dale End, Summer Hill, a road from
Gosta Green to Aston Brook, Coleshill Street, and a
road between Deritend and Camp Hill-all well-known
localities in Birmingham-were formerly sunk below
the level of the surrounding country to a depth varying
from six to fifty feet; so that "the traveller of old,
who came to purchase the produce of Birmingham, or
to sell his own, seemed to approach her by sap."
old topographer views these hollow ways as indications
of the antiquity and commercial influence of Birming-
ham. He says that they coincided with hilly parts of
the town; that some of them, no doubt, were formed
by the spade, to soften the fatigue of climbing the hill;
that most of them, however, were owing to the effects
of time, rain, and horse-traffic; and that, as rain must
have been the most effective of these three agents, the
formation of such deep gullies must have proved the
great antiquity of Birmingham. This theory is inge-
nious, but not wholly satisfactory.

The

Leland, in the time of Henry VIII., gave the following picture of Birmingham, as it appeared to him on a hasty visit, in the early part of the sixteenth century: "I came through a pretty street as ever I entered, into Birmingham town: this street, as I remember, is called Dirtey' (Deritend). In it dwell smiths 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 proper chappel, and mansion-house of tymber (the Moat), hard on the ripe (bank), 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 along, almost
from the left ripe of the brook, up a mean hill, by the
length of a quarter of a mile. I saw but one parish
church in the town. There be many smiths in the
town that use to make knives and all manner of cutting
tools; and many lorimers that make bitts, and a great
many nailors; so that a great part of the town is main-
tained by smithes, who have their iron and sea-coal
out of Staffordshire." Hutton dismisses this descrip-
tion, by saying, "Here we find some intelligence, and
more mistake." The great family which formerly gave
the tone to Birmingham, and received a title from it, were
the Lords de Birmingham, of whom frequent mention
was made in the times of the Edwards and Henrys.
Hutton draws a picture-in part probably an ima-
ginary one, of Birmingham in the twelfth century.
The houses, he says, were of timber, mean and low,
and lining both sides of dirty and narrow streets;
her public buildings consisted of but one-t
-the Church
of St. Martin in the Bull Ring. Two centuries later,
the town exhibited a greater number but scarcely a
better kind of houses; her narrow streets had become
narrower by encroachments from either side; her
public buildings had been increased by three additional
structures; viz., a Priory, a Guildhall, and a Chapel
at Deritend. The description by Leland, so far as it
gives intelligible or trustworthy details, may serve to
represent Birmingham in the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries. In the seventeenth century, the Birming-
ham men took part with the Parliamentarians against
Charles I.

It was about the reign of Charles II. that the modern era of Birmingham may be said to have commenced. We have mentioned the introduction of smelting iron with coal, as having placed South Staffordshire in an improved position. Birmingham shared in that improvement; and about the same time buildingleases became prevalent; and many new branches of ornamental manufacture began to spring up. Hutton, who delighted to put his description into quaint language, thus speaks of the change in Birmingham at the period now under notice :-"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 growth 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."

ago that that singular writer first set foot in Birmingham; and ever since that period a steady process of advancement has been going on. New branches of manufacture have sprung up year after year; and the consumption of raw materials has become immense.

BIRMINGHAM IN THE PRESENT DAY.

Birmingham, we have before stated, lies in Warwickshire. It is very near the north-western extremity of that county. On approaching it from any side, the traveller should hesitate to pass judgment on it till he has taken the state of the weather into consideration. If it be fine, he may enter Birmingham in cheerfulness in spite of its smoke; if it be wet or foggy, he must buckle up his courage and draw upon his philosophy, or he will very likely think Birmingham a dismal place. It is rather unlucky, for a tourist who may be sensitive in these matters, that the railway stations are in such a poor-looking locality. The Grand Junction, the London and Birmingham, and Birmingham and Derby Companies, all fixed upon one district at the eastern margin of the town for their stations; and to get from thence to the busy heart of the place, we must traverse several queer and unattractive streets. When the present stupendous works are completed, (of which more anon,) this disadvantage will be obviated; but at present the entrance to Birmingham from the railways is anything but a pictorial one.

Perhaps the best mode of entering Birmingham, to see what it has been in past times, is by the London Road, through Bordesley and Digbeth, toward the Bull Ring and High Street. Here we come to the centre of old Birmingham. Here we see how prone our ancestors were to form streets, in every imaginable direction, in perfect contempt of all Euclid's propositions about right angles. Take the line from Bordesley to High Street: as tortuous a serpentine as we should wish to meet with. Turn up Moor Street, or Dale-End, or Bull Street, or New Street, or Edgbaston Street, or Worcester Street, or Spiceal Street-nothing is at right angles or parallel with anything else: each street pursues its own way, and a very crooked way it often is. Yet it is pleasant to see this odd-shaped spot; for it was the nucleus of all that Birmingham has since become. The approach from the east is not favourable; there is a long range of poor, dull, uninteresting streets to traverse before reaching the heart of the town. The northern inlets are better. Whether we come along Lichfield Road, through Aston, or along the Wolverhampton Road, the approaches are more frequently speckled over with villas and neat residences. But the approaches from Halesowen and Harbourne, on the west, are the best of all; for they form, in fact, the "west end," in more senses than one. As seen from the open fields southward of the town, Birmingham presents a very busy aspect. (See Plate.)

From whichever way entered, Birmingham presents The old bibliopole was right. Birmingham has rather a flat appearance. It has no hilly spot; its done all that he predicted. It is rather over a century | spires are not conspicuous for loftiness; its only visible