, 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 shou