Page:Showell's Dictionary of Birmingham.djvu/43

Rh tired of it. As a town it is pitiful enough—a mean congeries of bricks, including one or two large capitalists, some hundreds of minor ones, and, perhaps, a hundred and twenty thousand sooty artisans in metals and chemical produce. The streets are ill-built, ill-paved, always flimsy in their aspect—often poor, sometimes miserable. Not above one or two of them are paved with flagstones at the sides; and to walk upon the little egg-shaped, slippery flints that supply their places is something like a penance. Yet withal it is interesting for some of the commons or lanes that spot and intersect the green, woody, undulating environs to view this city of Tubal Cain. Torrents of thick smoke, with ever and anon a burst of dingy flame, are issuing from a thousand funnels. 'A thousand hammers fall by turns.' You hear the clank of innumerable steam engines, the rumbling of cars and vans, and the hum of men interrupted by the sharper rattle of some canal boat loading or disloading, or, perhaps, some fierce explosion when the cannon founders [qy: the proof-house] are proving their new-made ware. I have seen their rolling-mills, their polishing of teapots, and buttons and gun-barrels, and fire-shovels, and swords, and all manner of toys and tackle. I have looked into their ironworks where 150,000 men are smelting the metal in a district a few miles to the north: their coal mines, fit image of Arvenns; their tubes and vats, as large as country churches, full of copperas and aqua fortis and oil of vitroil; and the whole is not without its attractions, as well as repulsions, of which, when we meet. I will preach to you at large.'

Carr's Lane.,—Originally this is believed to have been known as "Goddes Cart Lane," and was sufficiently steep to be dangerous, as evidenced by accidents noted in past history.

Carr's Lane Chapel, the meeting house of the old Independents, or as they are now called, the Congregationalists, will be noticed under "Places of Worship."

Cartoons.—If some of our fore-fathers could but glance at the illustrations or the portrait caricatures of local public men and their doings, now given us almost daily, we fear they would not credit us moderns with much advancement in the way of political politeness, however forward we may be in other respects. Many really good cartoons have appeared, and neither side can be said to hold a monopoly of such sketchy skilfulness, but one of the best (because most truthful) was the cartoon issued in October 1868, giving the portrait of a "Vote-as-you're-told" electer, led by the nose by his Daily Post.

Castle.—Birmingham Castle is named in an ancient document as being situated a "bowshot southwestward of the church," but the exact site thereof has never been traced. It is supposed to have been erected about the year 1140, and to have been demolished by order of King Stephen, in 1176.

Castle Street takes its name from the hostlery once so famous among our coach officers.

Catacombs.—There is a large number of massively-built stone vaults underneath Christ Church, each divided into tiers of catacombs, or receptacles for the dead. It is in one of these that the remains of Baskerville at last found a resting place.—The catacombs at the General Cemetery are many, being cut out of the sandstone rock known as Key Hill, and a large number have been and can be excavated underneath the church in the Warstone Lane Cemetery.

Cathedral.—See "Places of Worship—Catholic."

Cat Shows.—The first Cat Show held here was opened November 29th, 1873, and was a very successful speculation; but the exhibitions of the two following years did not pay and since then the grimalkins have been left at home.

—As first started (in 1849, when it was held near Kent Street), and at Bingley Hall in the following year, this was an annual show of cattle, sheep, and pigs only, but after years has made it a gathering place for specimens, of nearly everything required on a farm, and the "Show" has become an "Exhibition," under which heading full notice will be found.

Cemeteries.—The burial grounds attached to the Churches were formerly