648.
The metric system is especially useful in our local jewellery and other
trades, but it is very slowly making its way against the old English
foot and yaid, even such a learned man as Professor Rankine poking fun
at the foreign measures in a comic song of which two verses run:--
Some talk of millimetres, and some of kilogrammes,
And some of decillitres to measure beer and drams;
But I'm an English workman, too old to go to school,
So by pounds I'll eat, by quarts I'll drink, and work by my two-foot
rule.
A party of astronomers went measuring of the earth,
And forty million metres they took to be its girth;
Five hundred million inches now go through from pole to pole,
So we'll stick to inches, feet, and yards, and our own old two-foot
rule.
~Mid-England.~--Meriden, near Coventry, is believed to be about the
centre spot of England.
~Midland Institute.~--Suggestions of some such an institution, to take
the place of the defunct Mechanics', had several time appeared in print,
but nothing definite was done in the matter until the subject was
discussed (June 4, 1852) over the dinner table of Mr. Arthur Ryland.
Practical shape being given to the ideas then advanced, a town's meeting
on Dec. 3, 1853, sanctioned the grant by the Council of the land
necessary for the erection of a proper building, and an Act of
Incorporation was obtained in the following Parliamentiry session. In
December 1854, Charles Dickens gave three readings in the Town Hall, in
behalf of the building fund, whereby £227 13s. 9d. was realised, the
donations then amounting to £8,467. The foundation stone was laid by
Prince Albert, on Nov. 22, 1855, and the contract for the first part of
the building given to Messrs. Branston and Gwyther for £12,000. The
lecture theatre was opened Oct. 13, 1857, when addresses were delivered
by Lord Brougham, Lord Russell, and Lord Stanley, the latter delivering
the prizes to the students who had attended the classes, which were
first started in October, 1854, at the Philosophical Institute. In 1859,
the portrait of David Cox was presented to the Institute, forming the
first contribution to the Fine Art Gallery, which was built on portion
of the land originally given to the Institute, the whole of the
buildings being designed by Mr. E.M. Barry. The amount subscribed to the
building fund was about £18,000, and the coat, including furniture and
apparatus more than £16,000. Great extension has been made since then,
on the Paradise Street side, and many thousands spent on the
enlargement, branch classes bring also held at several of the Board
Schools to relieve the pressure on the Institute. In 1864, the members
of the Institute numbered 660, and the students 880, with an income of
£998; in January, 1874, there were 1,591 members, 733 family ticket
holders. 2,172 students, and an income of £2,580. At the end of 1833,
the number of annual subscribers was 1,900, and lecture ticket-holders
838. In the Industrial Department there were 4,334 students; the
Archæological Section numbered 226 members, and the musical Section 183.
108 students attended the Laws of Health classes, 220 the Ladies
classes, and 36 the classes for preparation for matriculation. The
benefits derived from the establishment of the Midland Institute, and
the amount of useful, practical, and scientific knowledge disseminated
by means of its classes among the intelligent working men of the town
and the rising generation, is incalculable. These classes, many of which
are open at the low fee of 1d., and some others specially for females,
now include the whole of the following subjects:--English language and
literature, English history, French, German, Latin, Greek, and Spanish,
algebra, geometry, mensuration, trignometry, and arithmetic, music,
drawing, writing, English grammar, and composition, botany, chemistry,
experimental physics, practical mechanics, and metallurgy, elementary
singing, physical geography, animal physiology, geology, practical plane
and solid geometry, &c. The general position of the Institute with
regard to finance was as follows:--Gross receipts in General Department,
£3,281 5s. 6d.; expenditure in this department (including £998 1s. 6d.
deficiency at the close of the year 1882), £3,088 17s. 2d.; balance in
favour of the General Department, £192 8s. 4d. Gross receipts in
Industrial Department, £1,747 13s.; expenditure in this department,
£3,173 7s. 10d.; deficiency, £l,425 14s. 10d., met by a transfer from
the funds of the General Department. The total result of the year's
operations in both departments left a deficiency of £1,233 6s. 6d. The
amount due to bankers on the General Fund was £863 13s. 6d; and the
amount standing to the credit of the Institute on the Repairs Account is
£440 12s. 2d. It is much to be regretted that there is a total debt on
the Institute, amounting to £19,000, the paying of interest on which
sadly retards its usefulness. Many munificent donations have been made
to the funds of the Institute from time to time, one being the sum of
£3,000, given by an anonymous donor in 186[**], "in memory of Arthur
Ryland." In August, same year, it was announced that the late Mr. Alfred
Wilkes had bequeathed the bulk of his estate, estimated at about
£100,000, in trust for his two sisters during their lives, with
reversion in equal shares to the General Hospital and the Midland
Institute, being a deferred benefaction of £50,000 to each.
~Midland Metropolis.~--Birmingham was so entitled because it was the
largest town, and has more inhabitants than any town in the centre of
England. To use a Yankeeism, it is "the hub" of the Kingdom; here is the
throbbing heart of all that is Liberal in the political life of Europe;
this is the workshop of the world, the birth-spot of the steam-engine,
and the home of mock jewellery. In all matters political, social, and
national, it takes the lead, and if London is the Metropolis of all that
is effete and aristocratic, Birmingham has the moving-power of all that
is progressive, recuperative and advancing. When Macaulay's New
Zealander sits sadly viewing the silent ruins of the once gigantic city
on the Thames, he will have the consolation of knowing that the
pulse-beats of his progenitors will still be found in the Mid-England
Metropolis, once known as the town of Burningsham or Birmingham.
~Mild Winters.~--The winter of 1658-9 was very mild, there being neither
snow or frost. In 1748 honeysuckles, in full bloom, were gathered near
Worcester, in February. In the first four months of 1779 there was not a
day's rain or snow, and on the 25th of March the cherry, plum, and pear
trees were in full bloom. An extraordinary mild winter was that of
1782-3. A rose was plucked in an open garden, in New Street, on 30th
December, 1820. In December, 1857, a wren's nest, with two eggs in it
was found near Selly Oak, and ripe raspberries were gathered in the
Christmas week at Astwood Bank. The winter of 1883-4 is worthy of note,
for rose trees were budding in December, lambs frisking about in
January, and blackbirds sitting in February.
~Milk.~--The reports of the Borough Analyst for several successive
years, 1879 to 1882, showed that nearly one-half the samples of milk
examined were adulterated, the average adulteration of each being as
much as 20 per cent.; and a calculation has been made that the Brums pay
£20,000 a year for the water added to their milk! Next to the bread we
eat, there is no article that should be kept freer from adulteration
than milk, and the formation of a Dairy Company, in April, 1882, was
hailed as a boon by many. The Company started with a nominal capital of
£50,000 in £5 shares, and it rigidly prosecutes any farmer who puts the
milk of the "wooden cow" into their cans.
~Minories.~--Once known as Upper and Lower Minories, the latter name
being given to what, at other times, has been called "Pemberton's Yard"
or the "Coach Yard." The names give their own meaning, the roads leading
to the Priory.
~Mints.~--See "_Trades_."
~Missionary Work.~--About a million and a quarter sterling is yearly
contributed in England to Foreign, Colonial, and Home Missionary
Societies, and Birmingham sends its share very fairly. The local
Auxiliary, to the Church Missionary Society, in 1882, gathered £2,133
8s. 6d.; in 1883 (to June both years) it reached £2,774 17s. 8d., of
which £2,336 6s 11d. was from collections in the local churches. The
Auxiliary to the London Missionary Society gathered £1,050, of which
£991 was collected in churches and chapels. The Baptist Missionary
Society was founded in October, 1792, and branch was started here a few
months afterwards, the first fruits totting up to the very respectable
amount of £70. A branch of the Wesleyan Missionary Society was formed
here in 1814 for the Birmingham and Shrewsbury district, and the amounts
gathered in 1882 totalled £4,829 10s. 3d. To the Society for promoting
Christianity among the Jews, the Birmingham Auxiliaries in 1883 sent
£323. There are also Auxiliaries of the Church of England Zenana, of the
South American, and of one or two other Missionary Societies. The Rev.
J.B. Barradale, who died in China, early in 1879, while relieving
sufferers from famine, was educated at Spring Hill College. He was sent
out by the London Missionary Society, and his death was preceded by that
of his wife and only child, who died a few weeks before him, all from
fever caught while helping poor Chinamen.
~Moated Houses.~--The Parsonage, as well as the Manor House (as noted
elsewhere), were each surrounded by its moat, and, possibly, no portion
of the United Kingdom could show more family mansions, and country
residences, protected in this manner, than the immediate district
surrounding Birmingham. Many more or-less-preserved specimens of these
old-fashioned houses, with their water guards round them, are to be met
with by the rambler, as at Astwood Bank. Erdington, Inkberrow, Yardley,
Wyrley, &c. Perhaps, the two best are Maxtoke Castle, near Coleshill,
and the New Hall, Sutton Coldfield.
~Modern Monasteries.~--The foundation-stone of St. Thomas's Priory, at
Erdington, for the accommodation of the Monks of the Order of St.
Benedict, was laid on Aug. 5, 1879, by the Prior, the Rev. Hildebrand de
Hemptinne. Alter the date, and the reader might fancy himself living in
Mediæval times.
~Monument.~--The high tower erected near the Reservoir has long borne
the name of "The Monument," though it has been said it was built more as
a strange kind of pleasure-house, where the owner, a Mr. Perrott, could
pass his leisure hours witnessing coursing in the day-time, or making
astronomical observations at night. Hence it was often called "Perrott's
Folly." It dates from 1758--See also "_Statues_," &c.
~Moody and Sankey.~--These American Evangelists, or Revivalists, visited
here in Jan. 1875, their first meeting being held in the Town Hall, on
the 17th, the remainder of their services (to February 7) being given in
Bingley Hall. They came also in February, 1883. when the last-named
place again accommodated them.
~Moor Street.~--Rivaling Edgbaston Street in its antiquity, its name has
long given rise to debate as to origin, but the most likely solution of
the puzzle is this: On the sloping land near here, in the 14th century,
and perhaps earlier, there was a mill, probably the Town Mill, and by
the contraction of the Latin, _Molendinaria_, the miller would be called
John le Molendin, or John le Moul. The phonetic style of writing by
sound was in great measured practised by the scriveners, and thus we
find, as time went on, the street of the mill became Moul, Moule, Mowle,
Molle, Moll, More, and Moor Street. A stream crossed the street near the
Woolpack, over which was a wooden bridge, and farther on was another
bridge of more substantial character, called "Carter's Bridge." In flood
times, Cars Lane also brought from the higher lands copious streams of
water, and the keeping of Moor Street tidy often gave cause to mention
these spots in old records, thus:--
£ s. d.
1637--Paid Walter Taylor for ridding
the gutters in Moor Street 0 0 11
1665--Zachary Gisborne 42 loads of
mudd out of Moore Street .. 0 0 7
1676--J. Bridgens keepinge open
passage and tourneing water
from Cars Lane that it did
not runne into More Street
for a yeare .. .. .. .. 0 4 0
1688--Paid mending Carter's Bridge
timber and worke .. .. .. 0 5 0
1690--John, for mending Moore Street
Bridg .. .. .. .. .. .. 0 0 10
Moor Street, from the earliest date, was the chosen place of residence
for many of the old families, the Carless, Smalbroke, Ward, Sheldon,
Flavell, Stidman, and other names, continually cropping up in deeds;
some of the rents paid to the Lord of the Manor, contrasting curiously
with the rentals of to-day. For three properties adjoining in More
Street, and which were so paid until a comparatively modern date, the
rents were:--
"One pound of pepper by Goldsmythe and Lench,
Two pounds of pepper by the master of the Gild,
One pound of cumin seed, one bow, and six barbed bolts, or arrow heads
by John Sheldon."
~Moseley.~--One of the popular, and soon will be populous suburbs,
connected as it is so closely to us by Balsall Heath. It is one of the
old Domesday-mentioned spots, but has little history other than
connected with the one or two families who chose it for their residence
ages ago. It is supposed the old church was erected prior to the year
1500, a tower being added to it in Henry VIII.'s reign, but the parish
register dates only from the middle of last century, possibly older
entries being made at King's Norton (from which Moseley was
ecclesiastically divided in 1852). Moseley does not appear to have been
named from, or to have given name to, any particular family, the
earliest we have any note about being Greves, or Grevis, whose tombs are
in King's Norton Church, one of the epitaphs being this:--
"Ascension day on ninth of May,
Third year of King James' reine,
To end my time and steal my coin,
I William Greves was slain. 1605."
Hutton says that the old custom of "heriot" was practised here; which is
not improbable, as instances have occurred in neighbourhood of
Bromsgrove and other parts of the county within the past few years. This
relic of feudalism, or barbarism, consists of the demanding for the lord
of the manor the best movable article, live or dead, that any tenant
happens to be possessed of at the time of his death.
~Moseley Hall.~--Hutton relates that on July 21, 1786, one Henshaw
Grevis came before him in the court of Requests, as a poor debtor, who,
thirty years before, he had seen "completely mounted and dressed in
green velvet, with a hunter's cap and girdle, at the head of the pack."
This poor fellow was the last member of a family who had held the
Moseley Hall estate from the time of the Conquest. In the riots of 1791
the Hall was burnt down, being rebuilt ten years after.
~Mothering Sunday~, or Mid-Lent Sunday, has its peculiarities according
to districts. In Birmingham the good people who like to keep up old
customs sit down to veal and custard. At Draycot-le-Moors they eat pies
made of figs. The practice of visiting the parents' home on this day was
one of those old-time customs so popular in the days of our grandfathers
and great-grandfathers (but which, with many others have fallen into
disuse), and this is supposed to have given rise to the "Mothering
Sunday" name. Prior to the Reformation, the Catholics kept the day as a
holy day, in honour of the Mother of Jesus, it being a Protestant
invention to turn the fast-day into one of feasting.
~Mount Misery.~--At the close of the great war, which culminated at
Waterloo, it was long before the blessings of peace brought comfort to
the homes of the poor. The first effects of the sheathing of the sword
was a collapse in prices of all kinds, and a general stagnation of
trade, of which Birmingham, made prosperous through the demand for its
guns, &c., felt the full force. Bad trade was followed by bad harvests,
and the commercial history of the next dozen years is but one huge
chronicle of disaster, shops and mills closing fast, and poverty
following faster. How to employ the hundreds of able-bodied men
dependent on the rates was a continual puzzle to the Overseers, until
someone, wise in his generation, hit upon the plan of paying the
unfortunates to wheel sand from the bank then in front of Key Hill House
up to the canal side, a distance of 1-1/2 miles, the payment being at
the rate of one penny per barrow load. This fearful "labour test" was
continued for a long time, and when we reckon that each man would have
to wheel his barrow backwards and forwards for nearly 20 miles to earn a
shilling, moving more than a ton of sand in the process we cannot wonder
at the place receiving such a woeful name as Mount Misery.
~M.P.'s for Borough.~--See "_Parliamentary_."
~Mules.~-These animals are not often seen about town now, but in the
politically-exciting days of 1815 they apparently were not strangers in
our streets, as Mr. Richard Spooner (who, like our genial Alderman
Avery, was fond of "tooling" his own cattle), was in the habit of
driving his own mail-drag into town, to which four mules were harnessed.
With Mr. Thomas Potts, a well-to-do merchant, a "bigoted Baptist," and
ultra-Radical, Mr. Spooner and Mr. T. Attwood took part in a deputation
to London, giving occasion to one of the street-songs of the day:--
"Tommy Potts has gone to town
To join the deputation;
He is a man of great renown,
And fit to save the nation.
Yankee doodle do,
Yankee doodle dandy.
Dicky Spooner's also there,
And Tom the Banker, too;
If in glory they should share,
We'll sing them 'Cock-a-doodle-doo.'
Yankee doodle do,
Yankee doodle dandy.
Dicky Spooner is Dicky Mule,
Tom Attwood is Tom Fool;
And Potts an empty kettle,
With lots of bosh and rattle.
Yankee doodle do,
Yankee doodle dandy."
Another of the doggerel verses, alluding to Mr. Spooner's mules, ran--
"Tommy Potts went up to town,
Bright Tom, who all surpasses,
Was drawn by horses out of town,
And in again by asses.
With their Yankee doodle do,
Yankee doodle dandy."
~Municipal Expenditure.~--Fortunately the population of Birmingham is
going ahead rapidly, and the more the children multiply the more "heads
of families" we may naturally hope there will be noted down as
ratepayers by the heads of the gather-the-tin office. The cost of
governing our little town is not at all heavy, and when divided out at
per head of the inhabitants it seems but a mere bagatelle. Mr. J. Powell
Williams, who takes credit for being a financier and man of figures,
said in 1884 that the totals of our municipal expenditure for the past
few years were as follows:--
In 1879 it was £354,000 or 18/3 per head
" 1880 " 343,900 " 17/5 "
" 1881 " 361,500 " 18/0 "
" 1882 " 374,000 " 18/4 "
" 1883 " 385,000 " 18/7 "
" 1884 " 385,000 " 18/3 "
The bachelors who live in apartments will surely be tempted to begin
housekeeping when they see how low a sum it takes to pay for all the
blessings conferred upon us by a Liberal Corporation; but what the Pater
of half-a-dozen olive branches may think about the matter, is altogether
a different thing, especially when he finds that to the above 18/2 per
head must be added 2/7-1/2 per head for the School Board, and 1s. 2d.
per head for the Drainage Board, besides poor-rates, Government taxes,
gas, water, and all these other little nothings that empty the purse.
~Murder and Manslaughter.~--It would be _too_ black a catalogue to give
all the horrible cases of this nature which the local journals have
chronicled in past years, those here noted being only such as have a
certain historical interest.
"Tom and Jack."--"See _Executions_."
Sergeant William Cartwright, of the Coldstream Guards, was killed in
Townsend's Yard by a deserter, September 13, 1796.
A desperate attempt was made to murder a young woman in Bull Street in
the evening of a fair day, June 9, 1797.
Philip Matsell was hanged August 22, 1806, at the bottom of Snow Hill,
for attempting to murder a watchman.--See "_Executions_."
A Mr. Pennington, of London, was murdered at Vauxhall, Feb. 6. 1817.
Ashford, Mary, May 27, 1817, murdered at Sutton Coldfield.
F. Adams was murdered by T. Johnson, in London 'Prentice Street, Aug. 5,
1821.
Mr. R. Perry was killed in Mary Ann Street, by Michael Ford, December 6,
1825. Execution, March 7, 1826.
J. Fitter was tried and acquitted August 11, 1834, on a charge of having
murdered Margaret Webb, in Lawley Street, on 7th April preceding.
Mr. W. Painter, a tax collector, was robbed and murdered in the old
Parsonage grounds (near what is now the bottom of Worcester Street),
February 17, 1835.
William Devey murdered Mr. Davenport in a shop in Snow Hill, April 5,
1838.
Mrs. Steapenhill shot by her husband in Heneage Street, January 7, 1842.
Mrs. Davis killed by her husband in Moor Street, March, 1848.
Mrs. Wilkes murdered her four children in Cheapside, October 23, 1847;
also committing suicide.
Francis Price was executed at Warwick, August 20, 1860, for murdering
Sarah Pratt, April 18.
Elizabeth Brooks was shot by Farquhar, at Small Heath, August 29, 1861.
He was sentenced to imprisonment for a long term, but was liberated in
April, 1866.
Thompson, Tanter Street, killed his wife, September 23, 1861; hung
December 30.
Henry Carter, aged 17, who had killed his sweetheart, was hung April 11,
1863.
George Hall shot his unfaithful wife on Dartmouth Street Bridge,
February 16, 1864, and was sentenced to death, but reprieved. He was
released March 5, 1884.
Murder and suicide in Nursery Terrace, November 28, 1866.
Mr. Pryse was murdered by James Scott in Aston Street, April 6, 1867.
Mary Milbourn was murdered in Heneage Street, January 21, 1868.
Murder and suicide in Garrison Street, November 25, 1871.
Richard Smith was killed by his fellow-lodger, in Adam Street, January
7, 1872.
Thomas Picken, of St. Luke Street, killed his wife, January 22, 1872. He
was found next morning hanging to a lamp-post, at Camp Hill Station.
Jeremiah Corkery stabbed Policeman Lines, March 7; was condemned to
death July 9, and hung July 27, 1875.
Patrick O'Donoghue was kicked and killed at the Flying Horse, Little
Hampton Street, August 7. 1875. Moran and Caulfield, the kickers, were
sent to penal servitude for ten years.
A woman, resisting indecent assault, was thrown into the canal, October
8, 1875, and died from effects.
Emma Luke, Hope street, killed her infant and herself, October 23, 1875.
Samuel Todd, a deaf-mute, killed William Brislin, in a fit of passion,
December 31, 1875.--Fifteen years' penal servitude.
Gaorge Underhill shot Alfred Price, in Stephenson place, January 12,
1876, being in drink at the time, and thinking he was going to be
robbed. Price died, and Underhill was imprisoned for twelve months.
Frederick Lipscombe killed his wife because she did not get his meals
ready to the time he wished, July 18, 1876.
Mary Saunders, Aston, had her throat cut by F.E. Baker, her lodger,
January 16, 1877. He was hung April 17.
John Nicholson killed Mary (or Minnie) Fantham, in Navigation Street,
February 23rd, 1877, committing suicide himself. He was buried as a
_felo de se_.
Francis Mason, Litimer Street, stabbed his wife, June 25, 1867, but the
jury called it manslaughter, and he was allowed to retire for five
years.
William Toy, a glasscutter, was killed in the Plasterers' Arms, Lupin
Street, July 20, 1878, in a drunken row.
Edward Johnson, a retired butcher, of this town, killed his wife and
drowned himself at Erdington, July 27, 1878.
Sarah Alice Vernon, married woman, aged 26, was first stabbed and then
flung into the canal, at Spring Hill, by her paramour, John Ralph, a
hawker of fancy baskets, early in the morning of May 31, 1879. He was
hung August 26.
Caroline Brooks, a young woman of 20, was fatally stabbed on the night
of June 28, 1879, while walking with her sweetheart, but the man who
killed her escaped.