nd, then denominated the
Pelt Ground.

The charter for the market has evidently been repeated by divers kings,
both Saxon and Norman, but when first granted is uncertain, perhaps at
an early Saxon date; and the day seems never to have been changed
from Thursday.

The lords were tenacious of their privileges; or, one would think, there
was no need to renew their charter. Prescription, necessity, and
increasing numbers, would establish the right.

Perhaps, in a Saxon period, there was room sufficient in our
circumscribed market-place, for the people and their weekly supplies;
but now, their supplies would fill it, exclusive of the people.

Thus by a steady and a persevering hand, she kept a constant and uniform
stroke at the anvil, through a vast succession of ages: rising superior
to the frowns of fortune: establishing a variety of productions from
iron: ever improving her inventive powers, and perhaps, changing a
number of her people, equal to her whole inhabitants, every sixteen
years, till she arrived at another important period, the end of the
civil wars of Charles the first.

MODERN STATE

OF

BIRMINGHAM.

It is the practice of the historian, to divide ancient history from
modern, at the fall of the Roman Empire. For, during a course of about
seven hundred years, while the Roman name beamed in meridian splendour,
the lustre of her arms and political conduct influenced, more or less,
every country in Europe. But at the fall of that mighty empire, which
happened in the fifth century, every one of the conquered provinces was
left to stand upon its own basis. From this period, therefore, the
history of nations takes a material turn. The English historian divides
his ancient account from the modern, at the extinction of the house of
Plantagenet, in 1485, the fall of Richard the Third. For, by the
introduction of letters, an amazing degree of light was thrown upon
science, and also, by a new system of politics, adopted by Henry the
Seventh, the British constitution, occasioned by one little act of
parliament, that of allowing liberty to sell land, took a very
different, and an important course.

But the ancient and modern state of Birmingham, must divide at the
restoration of Charles the Second. For though she had before, held a
considerable degree of eminence; yet at this period, the curious arts
began to take root, and were cultivated by the hand of genius. Building
leases, also, began to take effect, e