xtension followed, and numbers of
people crowded upon each other, as into a Paradise.

As a kind tree, perfectly adapted for growth, and planted in a suitable
soil, draws nourishment from the circumjacent ground, to a great extent,
and robs the neighbouring plants of their support, that nothing can
thrive within its influence; so Birmingham, half whose inhabitants above
the age of ten, perhaps, are not natives, draws her annual supply of
hands, and is constantly fed by the towns that surround her, where her
trades are not practised. Preventing every increase to those neighbours
who kindly contribute to her wants. This is the case with Bromsgrove,
Dudley, Stourbridge, Sutton, Lichfield, Tamworth, Coleshill,
and Solihull.

We have taken a view of Birmingham in several periods of existence,
during the long course of perhaps three thousand years. Standing
sometimes upon presumptive ground. If the prospect has been a little
clouded, it only caused us to be more attentive, that we might not be
deceived. But, though we have attended her through so immense a space,
we have only seen her in infancy. Comparatively small in her size,
homely in her person, and coarse in her dress. Her ornaments, wholly of
iron, from her own forge.

But now, her growths will be amazing; her expansion rapid, perhaps not
to be paralleled in history. We shall see her rise in all the beauty of
youth, of grace, of elegance, and attract the notice of the commercial
world. She will also add to her iron ornaments, the lustre of every
metal, that the whole earth can produce, with all their illustrious race
of compounds, heightened by fancy, and garnished with jewels. She will
draw from the fossil, and the vegetable kingdoms; press the ocean for
shell, skin and coral. She will also tax the animal, for horn, bone, and
ivory, and she will decorate the whole with the touches of her pencil.

I have met with some remarks, published in 1743, wherein the author
observes, "That Birmingham, at the restoration, probably consisted only
of three streets." But it is more probable it consisted of fifteen,
though not all finished, and about nine hundred houses.

I am sensible, when an author strings a parcel of streets together, he
furnishes but a dry entertainment for his reader, especially to a
stranger. But, as necessity demands intelligence from the historian, I
must beg leave to mention the streets and their supposed number
of houses.

Digbeth, nearly the s