places of entertainment; one for the first, and the other for the second class. The meaner room was occupied by a company of plasterers, and an itinerant musician with his music mill. These were in the full tide of glorious merriment, and it was rare diversion "to behold the swelling scene." Imagine half a score of sirloin-cheeked beet-nosed, pinkeyed old suckers, ranged round on stout benches, behind clean-scraped, white oak side-boards, and, in their tow jerkins, and white-washed caps, resembling as many stuffed wool-sacks, crowned with the ruby phiz of old Silenus himself! On this side stands the organ-man, and there, next the door, sit two rosy-cheeked, giggling bar-maids, on tip-toes, as occasion called, to "bowse about the porter." "Another pint, Doll," says one, "and a pipe o' backker, ha'penny 'orth." "Ay, sir." "Two pints, sweet Dolly," says one at the other end of the bench, sliding along his pewter pots, and singing, "And let me the canakin clink, clink, And let me the canakin clink." Dolly seizes the mugs with a smile and darts away; returning in a trice, and bringing the foaming liquid, as she urges her way through the crowd. "Ha! Dolly, my pink, as hi live, you're a 'ansome wench. Ha! w'at heys! W'y they're brighter than these spangled bubbles. Now sarve old Tun at the other hend. 'Ere's a 'ealth to charming Dolly, And, you, old Tun of fat and folly" The maid laughed, but old Tun was angered. "Poh! Fie on yer palarverling, Jo," says he; "it's foolish; its damned foolish." "Whew! don't get in a passion, old blubber-sides. Keep cool, or you'll inflame that hale with yer red nose. If you should explode, there'd be a general hinundation and conflagration, all at once. You clay-brained, measly-chopped, gimlet-eyed, swollen sack of spleen! what hails ye?" Old Tun was perfectly maddened by this broadside of abuse, and, making a plunge towards his foe, stumbles over tables and benches, demolishes the mugs, bruises several shins, and strikes his face against one end of the organ. This facetious feat occasioned much mirth in the company; but the maids look sour as Dutch crout, and go about setting things to rights again. The unlucky old fellow very quietly crawls back to his former position, muttering that, "if he hadn't hit his foot against the pesky bench he should have won; but," says he, "I yield to the fate of war. Bring us two pints o' hale and a buscuit, gals. Come, brother Jo, I confess you come out first best, and I'm worsted. Come, come, let's leave contention. It's low. There never did any good result from it since the days of jolly old Solomon.” The full mugs being returned, good fellowship is restored, and the late antagonists sit and sip like loving brethren. Now Orpheus begins to grind, the maids resume their smiles, and Josy strikes up a song in harmony with the music: Ho! ye jovial plasterers, Shove about the hale; Hearty toil and thisty mortar Vex the tedious day, But the nightly flowing porter Washes care away. Here's a 'ealth to hour good master, Life to Johnny Bull, Joy, ye golden sons of plaster! Give the jugs a pull Then the air changing, and blithe Josy getting merrier, up he bounds into the double-demisemi girations and twistifications of a baccanalian hornpipe; others break forth in ring ing choruses, the grinder gets excited; and, thus, ungodly glee makes the whole welkin shake till after midnight. In the other room, a similar number of well-dressed men were sitting around fine mahogany tables, discussing politics, reading the papers, smoking cigars or long porcelain pipes, each with a glass of brandy at his elbow. Now and then, as the noise in the other apartment became boisterous, some one looking quite philosophical, would express his surprise, that the landlord should give "those fellows such strong ale!" Aspect of the Town in the Morning. The next morn arose fairer, than I had seen for a week previous in gloomy Manchester. In the yellow sun-light, the neat dwellings, well-swept streets, massive ware-houses, and majestic public buildings presented a very pleasing scene. Birmingham is, indeed, a beautiful picture, and rife with animation. The new streets are wide and firmly paved, but the old ones are still narrow, though smooth. The fashion of roads has greatly changed here since the days of the Saxon kings. In those early times, whenever a way led up an eminence, it was worn by the long travel of former ages deeply into the ground, often twelve or fourteen yards below the surface of the banks, with which it was at first even, and so narrow as to admit of only one passenger. But modern industry and art has filled up the lower part and widened the upper, making them broad and convenient for several carriages abreast. The principal structures here are of free-stone, which must be very abundant in this island. The population of the town is about two hundred thousand; of whom, but half are supposed to be natives. Ancient History. Two hundred and sixty years ago that old antiquary, John Leland, rode through the place, and made the following observations, which are recorded in his Itinerary of Britain: "The beauty of Birmingham, a good markettowne, in the extreme parts of Warwickshire, is one street going up alonge, almost from the left side of the brook, up a meane hill, by the length of a quarter of a mile. I saw but one parish church in the towne. There be many smithes in the towne, that use to make knives and all manner of cutting tools, and many loriners that makes bittes, and a great many naylors; so that a great part of the towne is maintained by smithes who have their iron and sea-coal out of Staffordshire." The only manufacture of Birmingham, from its first existence to about 1650, was in iron; which was wrought at a very early day. An Aston furnace, on the borders of the parish, used to smelt the ore, exhibits certain marks of great antiquity. For, in this region of infernal aspect, there is an enormous mountain of cinders, which I should suppose could not have accumulated in less than a hundred generations. Some have even conjectured, that manufactures might have been produced here long before the landing of Julius Caesar, since the Britons were armed with several kinds of weapons peculiar to their nation. After 1650, Birmingham began to assume new beauty, and in her age of perhaps three thousand years, she stepped forth in all the vigor of youth. She added to her iron manufactures the lustre of every metal in the world, and all their various amalgamations, together with the garnish of starry gems. The situation of this town is near the centre of the kingdom, in the diocese of Litchfield and Coventry, the deanery of Arden, and in the hundred of Hemlingford. The soil in the neighborhood is light, sandy and weak; and below it, sand, gravel and stone, (but no ores,) prevail. A mile from the limits of the parish, in the manor of Duddeston, there is an excellent mineral spring of greenish water. The climate here, notwithstanding the smoke, seems to be conducive to longevity; since many arrive at the age of a hundred years. Indeed some who work long in the brass founderies, enjoy a very green old age, for their hair becomes as green as grass. The first public library in town, originated in 1779. It consisted of but a handful of books, till 1782, when Dr. Priestly succeeded in placing the institution upon a durable basis. Churches and Sects. Here are many fine churches belonging to the various sects, Unitarians, Baptists, Quakers, Methodists, Catholics and Jews. St. Martin's, one of the magnificent churches of the established religion, is supposed to have taken its original rise, like many in other parts of England, between the sixth and tenth centuries. Its antiquity is too remote for the light of history; the scanty records of those dark ages having fallen a prey to the ravages of time, and the numerous revolutions of government and customs. Within I observed three marble figures of very ancient appearance, in a reclining posture, under the south windows. They are believed, as the Beadle informed me, to be monuments of the Birminghams, once lords of the manor, whose original name, in 1050, was Uluuine (since Alwyne, now Allen). One is known to be as ancient as the conquest, 1066; and another is that of Wm. de Birmingham, who was made prisoner by the French at the siege of Bellegard, in 1297. On old tablets about the church, I saw the names of William Colmore 1615; Russel Spooner; Hicks; Powell; Bower; Pritchard; Hale; Parsons; Geo. Frost, D. D.; Henry Clay, Esq. died Apr. 29, 1812, his arms, a lion rampant; Bixam 1568; Ward 1591; Hopkins 1683, etc. The families of Marrow and Archer were once lords of the manor; but the most noble families of ancient times, on account of the changes of fortune, are now represented by noble mechanics and artisans. There is many a sable-browed smith in Birmingham, whose ancestors have been kings and queens, both before and since the conquest; whereas none of the present nobility of England claim peerage beyond Ed |