Kearsley's Traveller's Entertaining Guide Through Great Britain (1803):
Birmingham, a large a populous manufacturing town , seated on the side of a hill. The lower part is filled with the workshops and warehouses of the manufacturers and consists chiefly of old buildings . The upper part contains many new and regular streets . It has two churches, several chapels and meeting-houses for every denomination of different era. It has an elegant theatre, and a good public library. Its manufactures are chiefly in hardware such as metal buttons, buckles, plated goods of all kinds, japanned and paper-ware etc. It is plentifully supplied with coal by means of a canal to Wednesbury in Staffordshire. Birmingham goods are dispersed throughout the kingdom and exported in great quantities to foreign countries where, in respect of show and cheapness , they are unrivalled: that it is become to use the emphatical expression of Burke, "the toy-shop of Europe". The improved steam-engines made here by Messers Bolton and Watt deserve to rank among the productions of human ingenuity. Two miles on the l. is Soho, Matthew Bolton, esq. Further on the r. is Aston-park, Heneage Legge , esq. and two miles further on the r. is Sandwell, earl of Dartmouth.
Inns:Lloyd's Hotel, Swan, Castle.
Use the "Show me" link to locate Birmingham on the map. You may need to scroll down to see Birmingham highlighted.
Chapter 42 