his "Itinerary"--"There be many smithies in the towne that use to make
knives and all manner of cutlery tooles, and many lorimers that make
bittes, and a great many naylors, so that a great part of the towne is
maintained by smithes, who have their iron and seacole out of
Staffordshire." He describes the town as consisting of one street, about
a quarter of a mile long, "a pretty street or ever I enterd," and "this
street, as I remember, is called Dirtey."

~Birmingham in 1586.~--Camden in his "Britannica," published this year,
speaks of "Bremicham, swarming with inhabitants, and echoing with the
noise of anvils, for the most part of them are smiths."

~Birmingham in 1627.~--In a book issued at Oxford this year mention is
made of "Bremincham inhabited with blacksmiths, and forging sundry kinds
of iron utensils."

~Birmingham in 1635.~--As showing the status the town held at this date
we find that it was assessed for "ship money" by Charles I. at £100, the
same as Warwick, while Sutton Coldfield had to find £80 and Coventry
£266.

~Birmingham in 1656.~--Dugdale speaks of it as "being a place very
eminent for most commodities made of iron."

~Birmingham in 1680-90.~--Macaulay says: The population of Birmingham
was only 4,000, and at that day nobody had heard of Birmingham guns. He
also says there was not a single regular shop where a Bible or almanack
could be bought; on market days a bookseller named Michael Johnson
(father of the great Samuel Johnson) came over from Lichfield and opened
a stall for a few hours, and this supply was equal to the demand. The