CHAPTER II.
BIRMINGHAM: ITS NAME, POSITION, POLITICAL HISTORY, AND MEN.
BIRMINGHAM is the capital, manufacturing centre, and growth of the The Black Country. Every acre of the district has given it rootage and riches; and in every way it represents, measures, and honours the mineral and mental production of this velvet-bound area of fire and smoke. The antiquities of the town are rather dubious and obscure. Of course its physical site is as old as any part of the island. So much may be conceded to the zealous antiquarian who is eager to make the most of its history. Some have gone so far as to argue or believe that the lineage of its iron and copper workers runs back to Tubal Cain without a break, and that they here made and sharpened pickaxes and other tools for the Cornish tin-miners in the days of the Phœnician traders; that here also the scythes were made and bolted to the chariots!
