Prospect of Birmingham, to face the Title. Plan, ........................................ 43 Alm's-houses, ................................ *58 St. John's Chapel, Deritend, ................. 111 St. Bartholomew's, ........................... 113 St. Mary's, .................................. 115 St. Paul's, .................................. 116 Old and New Meetings, ........................ 117 New Theatre, ................................. 123 Hotel, ....................................... 130 Free School, ................................. 203 Charity School, .............................. 209 Workhouse, ................................... 215 Old and Welch Cross, ......................... 229 St. Martin's Church, ......................... 232 St. Philip's, ................................ 246 General Hospital, ............................ 256 Canal, ....................................... 265 Navigation Office, ........................... 267 Brass Works, ................................. 329 AN HISTORY &c. * * * * * _Some account of the derivation of the name of Birmingham_. The word Birmingham, is too remote for certain explanation. During the last four centuries it has been variously written _Brumwycheham, Bermyngeham, Bromwycham, Burmyngham, Bermyngham, Byrmyngham_, and _Birmingham_; nay, even so late as the seventeenth century it was written _Bromicham_. Dugdale supposes the name to have been given by the planter, or owner, in the time of the Saxons; but, I suppose it much older than any Saxon, date: besides, it is not so common for a man to give a name to, as to take one from, a place. A man seldom gives his name except he is the founder, as Petersburg from Peter the Great. Towns, as well as every thing in nature, have exceedingly minute beginnings, and generally take a name from situation, or local circumstances. Would the Lord of a manor think it an honour to give his name to two or three miserable huts? But, if in a succession of ages these huts swell into opulence, they confer upon the lord an honour, a residence, and a name. The terminations of _sted_, _ham_, and _hurst_, are evidently Saxon, and mean the same thing, a home. The word, in later ages reduced to a certainty, hath undergone various mutations; but the original seems to have been _Bromwych_; _Brom_ perhaps, from broom a shrub, for the growth of which the soil is extremely favourable; _Wych_, a descent, this exactly corresponds with the declivity from the High Street to Digbeth. Two other places also in the neigbourhood bear the same name, which serves to strengthen the opinion. This infant colony, for many centuries after the first buddings of existence, perhaps, had no other appellation than that of Bromwych. Its center, for many reasons that might be urged, was the Old Cross, and its increase, in those early ages of time must have been very small.