, where the coarse manufactory of iron has been
carried on, that ever that laborious art went to decay, except the
materials failed; and as we know of no place where such materials have
failed, there is the utmost reason to believe our fore-fathers, the
Britons, were supplied with those necessary implements by the black
artists of the Birmingham forge. Iron-stone and coal are the materials
for this production, both which are found in the neighbourhood in great
plenty. I asked a gentleman of knowledge, if there was a probability of
the delphs failing? He answered, "Not in five thousand years."

The two following circumstances strongly evince this ancient British
manufactory:--

Upon the borders of the parish stands Aston-furnace, appropriated for
melting ironstone, and reducing it into pigs: this has the appearance of
great antiquity. From the melted ore, in this subterranean region of
infernal aspect, is produced a calx, or cinder, of which there is an
enormous mountain. From an attentive survey, the observer would suppose
so prodigious a heap could not accumulate in one hundred generations;
however, it shows no perceptible addition in the age of man.

There is also a common of vast extent, called Wednesbury-old-field, in
which are the vestiges of many hundreds of coal-pits, long in disuse,
which the curious antiquarian would deem as long in sinking, as the
mountain of cinders in rising.

The minute sprig of Birmingham, no doubt first took root in this black
soil, which, in a succession of ages, hath grown to its present
opulence. At what time this prosperous plant was set, is very uncertain;
perhaps as long before the days of Caesar as it is since. Thus the mines
of Wednesbury empty their riches into the lap of Birmingham, and thus
she draws nurture from the bowels of the earth.

The chief, if not the only manufactory of Birmingham, from its first
existence to the restoration of Charles the Second, was in iron: of this
was produced instruments of war and of husbandry, furniture for the
kitchen, and tools for the whole system of carpentry.

The places where our athletic ancestors performed these curious
productions of art, were in the shops fronting the street: some small
remains of this very ancient custom are yet visible, chiefly in Digbeth,
where about a dozen shops still exhibit the original music of anvil
and hammer.

As there is the highest probability that Birmingham produced her
manufactures long before