bridge, the water ran downe on the right hand, and a few miles lower goeth into Tame, ripa dextra. This brooke, above Dirtey, breaketh in two armes, that, a little beneath the bridge, close again. This brooke riseth, as some say, four or five miles above Bermigham, towards Black Hilles.
"The beauty of Bermingham, a good markett towne in the extreame parts of Warwikeshire, is one street going up alonge, almost from the left ripe of the brooke, up a meane hill by the length of a quarter of a mile. I saw but one Parroch Church in the towne. There be many smiths in the towne that use to make knives and all mannour of cuttinge tooles, and many loriners that make bittes, and a great many naylors. Soe that a great part of the towne is maintained by smithes, who have their iron and sea-coal out of Staffordshire."[1]
Camden, the well-beloved teacher of "rare Ben Jonson," visited the town somewhere between 1576 and 1586, for, in the latter year, his famous work was published. In his "Britannia" we have the following brief, but highly creditable notice of Birmingham as it was nearly three hundred years ago. He says, "To proceed hence [Kenilworth], as I took my own route, I came next to Solyhill [Solihull], which has nothing remarkable but its church; then to Bremichan, swarming with inhabitants, and echoing with the noise of anvils, (for here are great numbers of smiths). The lower part of the town is very watery. The upper part rises with abundance of handsome buildings; and it is none of the least honours of the place, that from hence the noble and warlike family of Bremichams in Ireland had their original and name." In 1690, Alexander Missen, in his travels, says, he saw, at Milan "Fine works of Rock Crystal, Swords, Heads for Canes, Snuff Boxes and other fine works of steel; but they can be had cheaper and better at Birmingham." This early reputation she has not only maintained, but so far increased as to occupy one of the highest places amongst the industrial towns of the world.
In 1777, Edmund Burke said he looked upon Birmingham to be the great Toy Shop of Europe." And notwithstanding the rapid progress made by other places in manufactures since the great orator and statesman uttered these words, Birmingham still maintains its own pre-eminence, and may even now be fitly looked upon as the great Toy Shop of Europe.[2]
