t age
took a pleasure in telling us, they could remember when it would have
buried a wagon load of hay beneath its present surface.

Thus the traveller of old, who came to purchase the produce of
Birmingham, or to sell his own, seemed to approach her by sap.

British traces are, no doubt, discoverable in the old Dudley-road, down
Easy-hill, under the canal; at the eight mile-stone, and at Smethwick:
also in many of the private roads near Birmingham, which were never
thought to merit a repair, particularly at Good-knaves-end, towards
Harborne; the Green-lane, leading to the Garrison; and that beyond
Long-bridge, in the road to Yardley; all of them deep holloways, which
carry evident tokens of antiquity. Let the curious calculator determine
what an amazing length of time would elapse in wearing the deep roads
along Saltleyfield, Shaw-hill, Allum-rock, and the remainder of the way
to Stichford, only a pitiful hamlet of a dozen houses.

The ancient centre of Birmingham seems to have been the Old Cross, from
the number of streets pointing towards it. Wherever the narrow end of a
street enters a great thorough-fare, it indicates antiquity, this is the
case with Philip-street, Bell-street, Spiceal-street, Park-street, and
Moor-street, which not only incline to the centre above-mentioned, but
all terminate with their narrow ends into the grand passage. These
streets are narrow at the entrance, and widen as you proceed: the narrow
ends were formed with the main street at first, and were not, at that
time, intended for streets themselves. As the town increased, other
blunders of the same kind were committed, witness the gateway late at
the east end of New-street, the two ends of Worcester-street,
Smallbrook-street, Cannon-street, New-meeting-streer, and Bull street;
it is easy to see which end of a street was formed first; perhaps the
south end of Moor street is two thousand years older than the north; the
same errors are also committing in our day, as in Hill and Vale streets,
the two Hinkleys and Catharine-street. One generation, for want of
foresight, forms a narrow entrance, and another widens it by Act of
Parliament.

Every word in the English language carries an idea: when a word,
therefore, strikes the ear, the mind immediately forms a picture, which
represents it as faithfully as the looking-glass the face.--Thus, when
the word Birmingham occurs, a superb picture instantly expands in the
mind, which is best explained