132 YOUNG KENNIE AT SCHOOL, PART VIT. 



there in the time of the ancient Britons. In the reign 

 of Henry YIII., Leland found " many smythes in the 

 town that use to make knives and all manner of cutting 

 tools, and many loriners that make bittes, and a great 

 many nailers ; so that a great part of the town is main- 

 tained by smythes who have their iron and sea-coal out 

 of Staffordshire." 



The artisans of the place thus had the advantage of 

 the training of many generations ; aptitude for handi- 

 craft, like every other characteristic of a people, de- 

 scending from father to son like an inheritance. There 

 was then no town in England where mechanics were to 

 be found so capable of satisfactorily executing original 

 and unaccustomed work, nor has the skill yet departed 

 from them. Though there are now many districts in 

 which far more machinery is manufactured than in 

 Birmingham, the workmen of that place are still supe- 

 rior to most others in executing machinery requiring 

 manipulative skill and dexterity out of the common 

 track, and especially in carrying out new designs. The 

 occupation of the people gave them an air of quickness 

 and intelligence which was quite new to strangers accus- 

 tomed to the quieter aspects of rural life. When Hutton 

 entered Birmingham, he was especially struck by the 

 vivacity of the persons he met in the streets. " I had," 

 he says, " been among dreamers, but now I was among 

 men awake. Their very step showed alacrity. Every 

 man seemed to know and prosecute his own affairs." 

 He also adds, that men whose former disposition was 

 idleness no sooner breathed the air of Birmingham than 

 diligence became their characteristic. 



Rennie did not stand in need of this infection being 

 communicated to him, yet he was all the better for his 

 contact with the population of the town. He made him- 

 self familiar with their processes of handicraft, and, 

 being able to work at the anvil himself, he could fully 

 appreciate the skill of the Birmingham artisans. The 



