or fixing the foundation in the eighth century, perhaps
rather sooner, and it then was at a small distance from the buildings.
The town stood upon the hill, whose centre was the Old Cross;
consequently, the ring of houses that now surrounds the church, from the
bottom of Edgbaston-street, part of Spiceal-street, the Bull-ring,
Corn-cheaping, and St. Martin's-lane, could not exist.

I am inclined to think that the precincts of St. Martin's have undergone
a mutilation, and that the place which has obtained the modern name of
Bull-ring, and which is used as a market for corn and herbs, was once an
appropriation of the church, though not used for internment; because the
church is evidently calculated for a town of some size, to which the
present church-yard no way agrees, being so extremely small that the
ancient dead must have been continually disturbed, to make way for the
modern, that little spot being their only receptacle for 900 years.

A son not only succeeds his father in the possession of his property and
habitation, but also in the grave, where he can scarcely enter without
expelling half a dozen of his ancestors.

The antiquity of St. Martin's will appear by surveying the adjacent
ground. From the eminence upon which the High-street stands, proceeds a
steep, and regular descent into Moor-street, Digbeth, down
Spiceal-street, Lee's-lane, and Worcester-street. This descent is broken
only by the church-yard; which, through a long course of internment, for
ages, is augmented into a considerable hill, chiefly composed of the
refuse of life. We may, therefore, safely remark, in this place, _the
dead are raised up_. Nor shall we be surprised at the rapid growth of
the hill, when we consider this little point of land was alone that
hungry grave which devoured the whole inhabitants, during the long ages
of existence, till the year 1715, when St. Philip's was opened. The
curious observer will easily discover, the fabric has lost that symmetry
which should ever attend architecture, by the growth of the soil about
it, causing a low appearance in the building, so that instead of the
church burying the dead, the dead would, in time, have buried
the church.

It is reasonable to allow, the original approach into this place was by
a flight of steps, not by descent, as is the present case; and that the
church-yard was surrounded by a low wall. As the ground swelled by the
accumulation of the dead, wall after wall was added to s