the first house therein.

~Breweries.~--In the days of old nearly every publican and innkeeper was
his own brewer, the fame of his house depending almost solely on the
quality of the "stingo" he could pour out to his customers. The first
local brewery on a large scale appears to have been that erected in
Moseley Street in 1782, which even down to late years retained its
cognomen of the Birmingham Old Brewery. In 1817 another company opened a
similar extensive establishment at St. Peter's Place, in Broad Street,
and since then a number of enterprising individuals have at times
started in the same track, but most have come grief, even in the case of
those whose capital was not classed under the modern term "limited." The
principal local breweries now in existence are those of Messrs. Holder,
Mitchell, and Bates, in addition to the well-known Crosswells Brewery of
Messrs Walter Showell and Sons, noted in next paragraph. The principal
Vinegar Brewery in Birmingham is that of Messrs. Fardon and Co.
(Limited), in Glover Street, which was formed in 1860, and is well
worthy of the stranger's visit. The annual output is about 850,000
gallons, there being storage for nearly a million gallons, and 36,000
casks to send the vinegar out in.

~Brewery at Crosswells.~--Though by far the most extensive brewery
supplying Birmingham, the Crosswells cannot claim to be more than in the
infancy of its establishment at present, as only twelve years ago the
many acres of ground now covered by its buildings formed but part of an
unenclosed piece of waste land. Nevertheless, the spot was well-known
and often visited in ancient times, on account of the wonderful and
miraculous cures said to have been effected by the free use of the water
gushing up from the depths of the springs to be found there, and which
the monks of old had christened "The Wells of the Cross." Be its