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, h