The old Bedford Hotel, which was the scene of one of the famous Jack Mytton’s most remarkable exploits, when for a wager he rode his mare upstairs into the dining–room, set her at the large table, which she cleared, jumping over the heads of his assembled friends, and then continued her course out of the balcony into the street below, has long disappeared; doubtless to the regret of all hunting folk and of the curious sightseer.
Like Hawthorne, those who have visited Leamington carry away with them pleasant memories of a town which, although owing much to natural beauty of situation, yet owes also not a little to the intelligence and foresight of those responsible for its development, who may be said to have coaxed rather than coerced Nature in their efforts to make the spot one of uncommon rural and urban attractiveness, whilst still mindful of the demands of exigent moderns.
CHAPTER VIII
THE STORY OF BIRMINGHAM
The city of Birmingham has been sung by a local poet as follows:—
Illustrious off–spring of Vulcanic toil!
Pride of the country! Glory of the Isle!
Europe’s grand toy shop! arts’ exhaustive mine
These, and more titles, Birmingham, are thine.
From jealous fears, from chartered fetters free,
Desponding genius finds a friend in thee;
Thy soul as liberal as the breath of Spring,
Cheers his faint heart and plumes his flagging wing.
But, nevertheless, it presents more of a prosaic and commercial than a romantic attraction for a writer.
The derivation of the name has not yet been satisfactorily arrived at, and by even its most accurate and painstaking historian is considered “too remote for explanation.” Aided by the erratic spelling of former times, during the last four centuries alone there have been eight modes of spelling it,—Burmyngham, Bermyngham, Byrmyngham, Bermyngeham, Brumychcham, Bromycham, Bromicham, and lastly the more modern and generally accepted Birmingham. The curious, however, may be set yet a greater puzzle of selective ingenuity, as from different authors, documents, records, and papers it is possible to find upwards of a hundred additional methods of spelling the name of the town which is popularly known as “the capital of the Midlands.”