110 



THE BEITISH ISLES. 



papier-mâché goodo, and carriages. Near Haudsivorth, a little to the west of 

 Birmingham.witLin the Staffordshire border, are the famous Soho and Smethwick 

 works, founded by Watt and Boulton, where steam-engines were first made. The 

 manufacture of "toys" is still vigorously carried on, the most curious of this 

 class of goods being Chinese idols and African fetishes. 



The lower part of Birmingham is crowded with workshops, and grimy, but 

 the upper has regular streets, and the suburbs, including Edgbaston and Aston 

 Manor, abound in elegant villas and stately residences. liirmingham boasts now 



Fijy. GO. — BlUMlNGHAM. 

 Sciile 1 : 200,000. 



2 Mills. 



of being the most "radical" town of the kingdom, and of having the largest 

 number of public institutions supported by voluntary contributions ; yet it was 

 here that the mob denounced the distinguished Dr. Priestley as an atheist and 

 Jacobin (1791), and destroyed his house, library, and apparatus. Amends for 

 this outrage have been made by the erection of a statue of the great chemist and 

 discoverer of oxygen, which occupies a site in front of the municipal buildings. 

 Most prominent amongst the public edifices of the town is its Town-hall, in which 

 the celebrated triennial musical festivals are held, and which contains a fine 

 marble bust of Mendelssohn, who produced here, in 1847, his oratorio Elijah. 



