SILVERSMITHS’ WORK.
Leland, who, by express eomraission from Henry VIII. , travelled over the greater part of England betweenthe years 1533 and 1540, has left us an interesting notice of Birmingham as he then found it. “I came,” hesays, “through a pretty street or ever I entred into Bermingham towne. This street, as I remember, iscalled Dirtey [Deritend] ; in it dwell smithes and cutlers.” And again: “ The beauty of Bermigham, a goodmarkett-towne in the extreame partes of Warwickshire , is one street, goeing up alonge almost from the leftripe of the brooke, up a mean hill, by the length of a cpiarter of a mile. I saw but one paroch-church inthe towne. There be many smithes in the towne that use to make knives and all mannour of cutting tooles,and many loriners that make bittes, and a great many naylors; soe that a great part of the towne ismaintained by smithes, whoe have theire iron and sea-cole out of Staffordshire .”*
Camden describes “ Bremicham” as “full of inhabitants, and echoing with forges;” and adds that “mostof the inhabitants be smiths ; ”f so that the existence of even an extensive local manufacture as early as thesixteenth century is unquestionable.
In the Civil Wars we find that the townsmen supported the Parliamentary cause, and made swords forthe army. Hence they incurred the vengeance of Prince Rupert, who set fire to and destroyed a great partof the town. The scanty population of the “ three streets ” of Birmingham was almost destroyed by theGreat Plague of 1655, and these calamities must have sadly retarded its prosperity. On the restoration ofCharles II. the luxurious frivolities of French taste were introduced, and the “ brass toy trade,” in which thetown has ever since been unsurpassed, was established for the production of glittering trifles in the shape ofpouncets, pomanders, tags, etui-cases, snuff-boxes, and other appurtenances of personal vanity.
From that time to the present the trade of Birmingham has steadily increased. William III . was perhapsits greatest benefactor, in introducing two important, though widely different articles of production, namely,guns and buckles. Lamenting the necessity of procuring the former from Holland, his Majesty was induced,by a patriotic representative of Warwickshire (Sir Richard Newdegate), to give to a Birmingham manufacturera commission which laid the foundation of the local gun-trade. “ The Revolution,” says Hutton, “ was remarkablefor the introduction of William , of liberty, and of the minute buckle, not differing much in size and shapefrom the horse-bean. This offspring of fancy, like the clouds, is ever changing: the fashion of to-day isthrown into the casting-pot to-morrow. The buckle seems to have undergone every figure, size, and shapeof geometrical invention; it has passed through every form in the whole zodiac of Euclid. The large squarebuckle is the ton of the present day. The ladies also have adopted the reigning taste: it is difficult todiscover their beautiful white feet covered with an enormous shield of buckle, and we wonder to see theactive motion under the massive load. Thus the British fair support the manufacturers of Birmingham , and thusthey kill by weight of metal.”
Bishop Gibson, in his additions to Camden, in 1722, mentions, besides the “smiths” noticed by the latter,“ other artificers in iron and steel, whose performances are greatly admired both at home and abroad.”
About the time when Hutton published his history (1781), it was the custom to address letters to“Birmingham, near Walsall ;” and although the trade had given ample promise of future consequence, even he,sanguine as he was in his predictions, could not have anticipated its present greatness. Much of this is dueto the general progress of the country, to improved means of transit, and other similar causes; but we mustnot overlook the efforts of such men as Boulton, Watt, John Taylor, Baskerville, Eginton, Murdock, Hardman,sen., Thomason, Priestley, and many more—the local aristocracy of talent at the close of the last century,who have been well seconded by the manufacturers of our own days.
As an index of the progress made in the manufacturing importance of Birmingham since the days wehave last referred to, no better test can be found than the progressive increase of its population. In 1781this was estimated at about 25,000; in 1831 the number had increased to 120,000; in 1841 to 182,894; andat the last census, 1851, to 232,634.
* Leland’s “Itinerary,” by llearne, 8vo. vol. iv. part ii. p. 186 b.