the residence of the lords upon the manor, had been transacted in one of
their detached apartments, yet in being: but after the removal of the
lords, in 1537, the business was done in the Leather-hall, which
occupied the whole east end of New-street, a covered gateway of twelve
feet excepted, and afterwards in the Old Cross.

[Illustration: _Welch Cross_.]

[Illustration: _Old Cross_.]



WELCH CROSS.

If a reader, fond of antiquity, should object, that I have comprized the
_Ancient state of Birmingham_ in too small a compass, and that I ought
to have extended it beyond the 39th page; I answer, when a man has not
much to say, he ought to be hissed out of authorship, if he picks the
pocket of his friend, by saying much; neither does antiquity end with
that page, for in some of the chapters, I have led him through the mazes
of time, to present him with a modern prospect.

In erecting a new building, we generally use the few materials of the
old, as far as they will extend. Birmingham may be considered as one
vast and modern edifice, of which the ancient materials make but a very
small part: the extensive _new_, seems to surround the minute _old_, as
if to protect it.

Upon the spot where the Welch Cross now stands, probably stood a
finger-post, to direct the stranger that could read, for there were not