Page:The Grand junction railway companion to Liverpool, Manchester, and Birmingham; (IA grandjunctionrai00free).pdf/189

Rh slight sketch of the ancient history of the town, and to direct the stranger to such objects of pleasure, curiosity, and convenience, as will render his sojourn either profitable or pleasurable, according to the pursuit with which he may be occupied.

First, then, as to the name. Hutton has given us a very feasible account of its origin, which I shall adopt as I have seen no better, and as it is not of vast importance.

The original name he states was Bromwhich from Brom or Broom, a shrub, for the growth of which it appears its soil is specially favourable, and wich a descent—those words combined would then give us Bromwich, or the Broon-hill in more modern phraseology, which appears quite natural, as the original town was situated on an acclivity: the addition of ham he has also as ingeniously indeed as naturally accounted for. This word, it appears, is Saxon, and signifies a home; this, after the town had sprung into comparative importance, the lord of the soil might, and properly did assume its name, and it thus became Bromycham, or the Broom-hill home. Respecting the antiquity of the town. Mr. Hutton has, by his industrious examination of the neighbourhood, given us very good data, from which to prove the probability of its having been the armoury of our forefathers, previous to the invasion of the Romans. These people found us in a comparative state of barbarism, but still with evidence of the existence of a knowledge of manufactures. The mailed legions of Rome were, it is true, met by the naked Britons, but