those of 1781.

For the present number, and names of the streets,

we refer to that department in another part of our work.

Notwithstanding the war had, at one period, made such ravages, a re-action took place in 1808. An increase of building followed; about 200 additional houses were erected, and the population exceeded the proportion, causing such an extraordinary and continued demand for houses, that at so late a period as 1824, as we have before stated, it is supposed that about 2000 houses were erected in, and near to, Birmingham.

If the town cannot boast many instances of the highest orders of architecture, she is daily improving in the style of her buildings; there are now architects of the first eminence in the town, and others rapidly rising into notice.

The country Mansions of the merchants and traders, are generally upon an admirable scale for convenience and comfort, and with the grounds, are kept in excellent order; in fact, the environs do not produce so vitiated and whimsical a taste as frequently appears around the metropolis.

It has been supposed that three fourths of the houses in Birmingham in 1781, stood upon old foundations, and all the places of worship, except Deritend Chapel.

Mr. Hutton accuses our ancestors of leaving us almost without a church-yard, and a market-place, as well as for their narrow policy, evinced in the narrowness of their streets; but Birmingham in this respect, like all other towns, is as rapidly improving as the population is on the increase. The erection of new churches and other places of worship, with their burial grounds-the laying out of new, and the improving of old, streets, has been incessantly proceeding, and the erection of a market and town-hall, upon a very extensive scale, has received the sanction of Parliament.

Of the market and other improvements, we shall have much to record, but reserve it for the concluding part of our work respecting Birmingham,

Of the origin and names of some of the streets, we must again recline upon Mr. Hutton, from whose observations and researches we select the following remarks.

"He says that in 1791, when the town consisted of about 200 streets, some had acquired their names from a variety of causes, but some from no cause, and others have not yet acquired a name. Bull-street, Cannon-street, and London-prentice-street, were so designated from their respective signs, others receive their names from the proprietors of land, as Smallbrook-street, Freeman-street, Weaman-street, Bradford-street, Colmore-row, Slaney-street, Colmorestreet, Philip-street and Bell-street. Digbeth or Ducks-bath, from the pools for accommodating that animal, was originally Well-street, from the many springs in its neighbourhood, other streets derive names from a desire of imitating those of London, as Fleet-street, Snow-hill, Ludgate-hill, Cheapside, Oxford-street, Bond-street, Friday-street, &c. numerous modern streets too tedious for insertion, have also been called after the christian and sirnames of proprietors. Steelhouse-lane, from a furnace being placed at the beginning of the 11th century, on the outside of the town, for the conversion of iron into steel, and houses being erected in its vicinity, the place was denominated Steelhouse-lane."

"Some again from local causes, as Alcester, Aston, Bristol, Bromsgrove, Coleshill, Dudley, Edgbaston, Lichfield, Stafford, Worcester, and other streets as leading to those towns. Cherry-street, from its being originally an orchard,and St. Martin's-lane, Church-steeet, Bartholomew-row, Chapel-street, Masshouse-lane, Old and New Meeting-streets, &c. &c. as leading to, or connected with places of devotion. Pinfold-street, from a Pinfold at No. 85, removed in 1752; Moorstreet, anciently Mole-street, from the eminence on one side, or the declivity on the other. Park-street from having been a portion of land appropriated to the private use of the Lord of the Manor; Spiceal-street, was formerly called Mercer-street, from the number of mercers who followed that trade, and dealt in groceries, from which it was promiscuously called Spiceal-street, and subsequently misnamed Spicer-street. The Old Inkleys, or Inkleys, Mr. H. says, was an enclosure till 1720, in which horses were shewn at the fair,

then held in Edgbaston-street. It was since a brick yard, and contained only one hut, in which the brick-makers slept. The tincture of the smoky shops with all their black furniture, for welding gunbarrels, which afterwards appeared on the back of Smallbrook-street, might occasion the original name of Inkleys; ink is well known, leys is of British derivation, and means grazing ground, so that the etymology perhaps is black pasture. The Butts, took its name from a mark to shoot at when the bow was the fashionable instrument of war, which the artists of Birmingham knew well how to make and to use. There is a place of a similar name at Warwick, which no doubt originated from its being ground appropriated to the practice of the Bow."

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"Gosta green, (Goose head green,) a name of great antiquity, now in decline: once a tract of common, since converted into a farm and occupied by a person of the name of Tanter, whence Tanter-street. The Bull-ring arising from similar circumstances to the same name attached to a place in Coventry and other towns, from the original custom and place where the bull-baiting took place." As respects the Bull-ring in Birmingham, its historian relates the following curious account. 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. Mary'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-daystreet; (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 seventeenth century, then at a considerable distance from the town, these were taken down in 1764, and the present alms houses, which are thirtysix, 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 priveliges :-that of regulating the goodness and price of beer; consequently he stands in the front of liquid high tasters; that he should, whenever he

pleased, bait 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 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; she also became a benefactress, is recorded in the same list, and their monument in antique sculpture, is yet visible in the porch."

In taking another retrospective view of Birmingham and its progressive increase, we find that, at the time of the invasion by Julius Cæsar, the spot at present occupied by High-street, and a small portion of Digbeth, constituted the town.-At the Norman Conquest, its increase included portions of Bell, Philip, Edgbaston, and Moor streets, and occupied the places where the Nelson Hotel, the Market, the Court of Requests, and that part of Moor-street, on which the Public Office is built, together with Moat-row, Smithfield, and Deritend. At the Restoration in 1661, its further increase included an extension of High-street, about one third of Bull-street, and Crookedlane, with small portions of Edgbaston, Worcester, and Dudleystreets; also of Park-street, Castle-street, and Shut-lane.—In 1731, a considerable increase to Digbeth and Bordesley had taken place, and the following streets, and portions of streets, were added to the number; nearly two thirds of Bull-street, with about one fourth of Snow-hill, the whole of Steelhouse-lane, parts of Slaney and Weamanstreets, and the Quakers' and Independent Meeting-houses and the Poor-house.-It also included the Upper and Lower-priories, Old Square, Lichfield-street, Stafford-street, parts of Aston and Coleshillstreets, the whole of Thomas-street, John-street, Newton-street, London Prentice-street, Wood-street, Freeman-street, New Meetingstreet, Carr's-lane, Dale-end; likewise parts of Castle-street, Parkstreet, Masshouse-lane and Bartholomew Burial-ground. On the northern side of High-street were included, at the above period, Newstreet as far up as Temple-street, and to the west of New-street, the principal portions of Worcester-street, Bell-street, Philip-street, Colmore-street, Peck-lane, Pinfold-street, Old Meeting-street, and Old Inkleys; and eastward of New-street, the following additions are now found,-Temple-street, Needless-alley, Cannon-street, Union-street, Colmore-row, St. Philip's Church, and improvements where the Royal Hotel stands,

From a late survey taken by Mr. Pigott Smith, its centre is ascertained to be at the Royal Hotel. We shall commence our description of the town from that point, including in our first circuit St. Philip's Church, and the principal streets and improvements that have taken place within the last century.

It

THE ROYAL HOTEL.-The site of this extensive, neat, and elegant pile of building was selected from the salubrity of the air, in the neighbourhood, and erected upon the Tontine principle of subscription, in 1772, and the Assembly Room attached to it, enlarged in 1804. It was divided into fifty one hundred pound shares, and there are at present living (1828) twenty original proprietors, and thirty-one of the persons whose lives were nominated. appears to have been the first establishment in Birmingham, that was designated, after the French, by the name of Hotel. Its grand entrance through an elegant saloon, displays a noble flight of steps leading to the Assembly and Concert Room. organ, and decorations, are on an extensive scale. mirably calculated for families of the first distinction, and has been honoured by part of the Royal Family, and the first class of the English nobility and gentry, as well as by the Emperor of Russia, the late King of France, and other foreigners of distinction, who have visited the manufactories and show-rooms of Birmingham.

The orchestra, The Hotel is ad

ST. PHILIP'S CHURCH.-In entering the fine open space of the church-yard of four acres in area, St. Philip's Church, the principal architectural beauty of the town, presents itself upon such elevated ground, that streets descend from it in almost every direction. The ground, upon which the church is erected was, it appears, originally part of a farm called Horse Close, afterwards Barley Close. The land was given by Robert Philips, Esq. (ancestor of William Theodore Inge, Esq.) and the Church named after the saint, and of the founder.-Thomas Archer, Esq. (ancestor of Lord Archer) who designed the Church of St. John, Westminster, furnished the plans and elevations of this noble structure.-The act was obtained in 1709, the building commenced in 1711, and was consecrated in 1715, although it was not finished till 1719; when it cost about £5000 and the commissioners, who had been appointed by the Bishop of the diocese, resigned it to the diocesan.