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, Handswort