rve a
communication between the two streets.

But in later ages, the passage was dignified with those of stone. In
1750, a wretched one was taken down, and the present bridge erected by
Henry Bradford and John Collins, overseers of the highway, consisting of
five arches; but the homely style, the deep ascent, and the
circumscribed width prevents encomium.

ADJACENT REMARKS.

SOHO.

If we travel two miles from the centre of Birmingham, upon the
Wolverhampton road, which may be called, the road to taste, and is daily
travelled by the nobility and gentry, we shall arrive at the epitome
of the arts.

Though this little spot lies in the county of Stafford, we must accept
it as part of Birmingham; neither is it many yards distant from
the parish.

The proprietor, invited by a genius, a fortune of 30,000_l_. and a
little stream, which promised to facilitate business, has erected the
most elegant works in these parts, said to accommodate seven hundred
persons. Upon that hungry ground, where, in 1758 stood one paltry
cottage, we now behold, a city in miniature.

From this nursery of ingenuity, originated the Soho button, the single
wheel clock, the improvement of the steam engine, the platina button,
the method of taking exact copies of painting, writing, &c. also, the
productions of fancy, in great variety; with which some of the European
princes are well acquainted.

To the genius of the place is owing the assay-office, for marking
standard wrought plate, which, prior to the year 1773, was conveyed to
London to receive the sanction of that office; but by an act then
obtained, the business is done here by an assay master, superintended by
four wardens: these are annually chosen out of thirty-six guardians,
whose chief duty consists in dining together, at least once a year; for
it appears from the chapter upon government, that feasting makes a
principal part of a Birmingham office; and, however unwilling a man may
seem to _enter in_ we generally find him pleased when he _is in_.

DANES CAMP:

DANES BANK, OR BURY FIELDS.

About five miles south of Birmingham, and five furlongs off Solihull
Lodge, is a place called _The Danes Camp_. But although neither history
nor tradition speak of this particular event, it probably was raised in
the ninth century.

The situation is well chosen, upon an eminence, about nine acres, nearly
triangular, is yet in tolerable perfection; the ditch is about twenty
feet wide; th