WAEWICKSHIEE. 



109 



Birmingham, the largest town of Warwicksliire, does not lie witliin the basin 

 of the Severn, for it is built upon the undulating ground extending on both sides 

 of the river Rea, a tributary of the Tame, which discharges its waters through 

 the Humber into the German Ocean. In Doomsday Book the city is called 

 Bermingeham. This afterwards became corrupted into Bromwycham, or Brum- 

 magem, meaning the "town of brooms," but popularly associated with pinch- 

 beck and base metals fraudulently used to make articles glitter like gold. 

 Birmingham is an ancient seat of the iron industry, and in 1643, having 

 taken the side of the Parliament, it supplied swords and other weapons which 

 did good service against the lancers of Prince Rupert. The commercial importance 



Fiar. 59. — Shakspere's House. 



of the town dates, however, only from the restoration of Charles IL, who brought 

 metal ornaments into fashion, and these Birmingham supplied wàth unexampled 

 vigour. From being the " toy-shop of Europe " of Burke's time, it has grown into 

 a town pre-eminent for every description of metal- ware, from steam-engines to steel 

 pens and jewellery. Its industry is not exclusively carried on in huge factories, 

 but employs a multitude of artisans working at home, or in small shops, and 

 they have thus retained a spirit of initiation and independence not usually 

 found to exist in manufacturing towns. The leading articles made at Bir- 

 mingham are hardware, unequalled for variety and value ; tools, small arms, 

 nails, pins, steel pens, buttons, jewellery, electro-plated ware, glass, bronzes, 



