Mercia.—­In 585, this neighbourhood formed part of the Heptarchic kingdom of Mercia, under Cridda; in 697, Mercia was divided into four dioceses; this district being included in that of Lichfield; in 878, Mercia was merged in the kingdom of England.  According to Bede and the Saxon Chronicles, Beorned was, in 757, king of Mercia, of which Birmingham formed part, and in Canute’s reign there was an Earl Beorn, the king’s nephew, and it has been fancifully suggested that in this name Beorn may lie the much-sought root for the etymology of the town’s name.  Beorn, or Bern, being derived from ber, a bear or boar, it might be arranged thusly:—­

  Ber, bear or boar; moeng, many; ham, dwelling—­the whole making
  Bermoengham, the dwelling of many bears, or the home of many pigs!

Metchley Camp.—­At Metchley Park, about three miles from town, near to Harborne, there are the remains of an old camp or station which Hutton attributes to “those pilfering vermin, the Danes,” other writers thinking it was constructed by the Romans, but it is hardly possible that an undertaking requiring such immense labour as this must have done, could have been overlooked in any history of the Roman occupation.  More likely it was a stronghold of the native Britons who opposed their advance, a superstition borne out by its being adjacent to their line of Icknield Street, and near the heart of England.  From a measurement made in 1822, the camp appears to have covered an area of about 15-1/2 acres.  Hutton gives it as 30 acres, and describes a third embankment.  The present outer vallum was 330 yards long by 228 wide, and the interior camp 187 yards long by 165 wide.  The ancient vallum and fosse have suffered much by the lapse of time, by the occupiers partially levelling the ground, and by the passing through it of the Worcester and Birmingham canal, to make the banks of which the southern extremity of the camp was completely destroyed.  Some few pieces of ancient weapons, swords and battle-axes, and portions of bucklers, have been found here, but nothing of a distinctively Roman or Danish character.  As the fortification was of such great size and strength, and evidently formed for no mere temporary occupation, had either of those passers-by been the constructors we should naturally have expected that more positive traces of their nationality would have been found.

Methodism.—­The introduction here must date from Wesley’s first visit in March, 1738.  In 1764, Moor Street Theatre was taken as a meeting place, and John Wesley opened it March 21.  The new sect afterwards occupied the King Street Theatre.  Hutton says:—­“The Methodists occupied for many years a place in Steelhouse Lane, where the wags of the age observed, ‘they were eaten out by the bugs.’  They therefore procured the cast-off Theatre in Moor Street, where they continued to exhibit till 1782, when, quitting the stage, they