(The Moat.)
The natural temper of the human mind, like that of the brute, is given
to plunder: This temper is very apt to break forth into action. In all
societies of men, therefore, restraints have been discovered, under the
name of laws, attended with punishment, to deter people from infringing
each others property. Every thing that a man can possess, falls under
the denomination of property; whether it be life, liberty, wealth or
character.
The less perfect these laws are, the less a people are removed from the
rude state of nature, and the more necessity there is for a man to be
constantly in a state of defence, that he may be able to repel any force
that shall rise up against him.
It is easy to discover, by the laws of a country, how far the people are
advanced in civilization. If the laws are defective, or the magistrate
too weak to execute them, it is dangerous for a man to possess property.
But when a nation is pretty far advanced in social existence; when the
laws agree with reason, and are executed with firmness, a man need not
trouble himself concerning the protection of his property--his country
will protect it for him.
The laws of England have, for many ages, been gradually refining; and
are capable of that protection which violence never was.
But if we penetrate back into the recesses of time, we shall find the
laws inadequate, the manners savage, force occupy the place of justice,
and property unprotected. In those barbarous ages, therefore, men sought
security by intrenching themselves from a world they could not trust.
This was done by opening a large ditch round their habitation, which
they filled with water, and which was only approachable by a
draw-bridge. This, in some degree, supplied the defect of the law, and
the want of power in the magistrate. It also, during the iron reign of
priesthood, furnished that table in lent, which it guarded all the year.
The Britons had a very slender knowledge of fortification. The camps
they left us, are chiefly upon eminences, girt by a shallow ditch,
bordered with stone, earth, or timber, but never with water. The moat,
therefore, was introduced by the Romans; their camps are often in
marshes; some wholly, and some in part surrounded by water.
These liquid barriers were begun in England early in the christian æra,
they were in the zenith of their glory at the barons wars, in the reign
of king John, and continued to be the mode of fortification till the
introduction of guns, in the reign of Edward the fourth, which shook
their foundation; and the civil wars of Charles the first totally
annihilated their use, after an existence of twelve hundred years.
Perhaps few parishes, that have been the ancient habitation of a
gentleman, are void of some traces of these fluid bulwarks. That of
Birmingham has three; one of these, of a square form, at Warstone,
erected by a younger brother of the house of Birmingham, hath already
been mentioned; it is fed by a small rivulet from Rotton Park, which
crosses the Dudley Road, near the Sand pits.
Another is the Parsonage house, belonging to St. Martin's, formerly
situated in the road to Bromsgrove, now Smallbrook street, of a circular
figure, and supplied by a neighbouring spring. If we allow this watery
circle to be a proof of the great antiquity of the house, it is a much
greater with regard to the antiquity of the church.
The third is what we simply denominate the Moat, and was the residence
of the ancient lords of Birmingham, situated about sixty yards south of
the church, and twenty west of Digbeth; this is also circular, and
supplied by a small stream that crosses the road to Bromsgrove, near the
first mile stone; it originally ran into the river Rea, near Vaughton's
hole, dividing the parishes of Birmingham and Edgbaston all the way, but
at the formation of the Moat, was diverted from its course, into which
it never returned.
No certain evidence remains to inform us when this liquid work was
accomplished: perhaps in the Saxon heptarchy, when there were few or no
buildings south of the church. Digbeth seems to have been one of the
first streets added to this important school of arts; the upper part of
that street must of course have been formed first: but, that the Moat
was completed prior to the erection of any buildings between that and
Digbeth, is evident, because those buildings stand upon the very soil
thrown out in forming the Moat.
The first certain account that we meet with of this guardian circle, is
in the reign of Henry the Second, 1154, when Peter de Birmingham, then
lord of the see, had a cattle here, and lived in splendor. All the
succeeding Lords resided upon the same island, till their cruel
expulsion by John Duke of Northumberland in 1537.
The old castle followed its lords, and is buried in the ruins of time.
Upon the spot, about forty years ago, rose a house in the modern style,
occupied by a manufacturer (John Francis;) in one of the out-buildings
is shewn, the apartment where the ancient lords kept their court leet;
another out-building which stands to the east, I have already observed,
was the work of Edmund Lord Ferrers.
The ditch being filled with water, has nearly the same appearance now as
perhaps a thousand years ago, but not altogether the same use. It then
served to protect its master, but now, to turn a thread-mill.