. The earth and its inhabitants .. . the Anker, on the northern slope ofthe county, engages largely in cotton-spinning, whilst its neighbour Atherstone,in the same valley, in addition to collieries, carries on the manufacture of hatsand caps. WARWICKSHIRE. 109 Birmingham, the largest town of Warwickshire, does not lie within the basinof the Severn, for it is built upon the undulating ground extending on both sidesof the river Rea, a tributary of the Tame, which discharges its waters throughthe Humber into the German Ocean. In Doomsday Book the city is calledBermingeham. This afterwards became
. The earth and its inhabitants .. . the Anker, on the northern slope ofthe county, engages largely in cotton-spinning, whilst its neighbour Atherstone,in the same valley, in addition to collieries, carries on the manufacture of hatsand caps. WARWICKSHIRE. 109 Birmingham, the largest town of Warwickshire, does not lie within the basinof the Severn, for it is built upon the undulating ground extending on both sidesof the river Rea, a tributary of the Tame, which discharges its waters throughthe Humber into the German Ocean. In Doomsday Book the city is calledBermingeham. 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 is an ancient seat of the iron industry, and in 1643, havingtaken the side of the Parliament, it supplied swords and other weapons whichdid good service against the lancers of Prince Rupert. The commercial importance Fig. 59.—Shaks^eres of the town dates, however, only from the restoration of Charles II., who broughtmetal ornaments into fashion, and these Birmingham supplied with unexampledvigour. From being the toy-shop of Europe of Burkes time, it has grown intoa town pre-eminent for every description of metal-ware, from steam-engines to steelpens 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, andthey have thus retained a spirit of initiation and independence not usuallyfound 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, 110 THE BEITISH ISLES. papier-mache goods, and carriages. Near Randsuorth, a little to tlie west ofBirmingham,within the Staffordshire border, are the famous Soho and Smethwickworks, founde
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