ii s. ix. MAR. 28, 19H.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
245
which acknowledged with pride " this great
town " as its metropolis, he could not but
feel interested in all that concerned its
welfare. The " great town " many years
later honoured Peel's memory by erecting a
statue to him (its second public statue after
an interval of over forty-five years since its
first was set up) at the junction of Paradise
Street, Ann Street, and New Street, at a
cost of about 2,000 guineas the work of
Peter Hollins. This was unveiled on 27
Aug., 1855, during the mayoralty of Mr.
John Palmer, having been cast by Messrs.
Elkington & Mason out of more than 3 tons
of metal. The railings originally surround-
ing it bore clusters of ears of wheat, emble-
matical of the repeal of the Corn Laws.
More than twenty years afterwards (about
the time of the building of the Council
House) the position of the statue was
slightly altered, consequent upon street
changes in the neighbourhood of the Town
Hall and Colmore Row (previously Ann
Street), and the earlier railings made way
for others of a less decorative character.
Gloomy and grand, Sir Robert none the
less adds a touch of old-world dignity to
surroundings reminiscent of lost archi-
tectural opportunities, the sombre subject
of Birmingham's most easily answered
conundrum : " Why is the Town Hall like
an orange ? " " Because it has Peel out-
side." A model of the statue stood for
many years in a long-ago dismantled pavilion
at Aston Hall, and it is, I think, recognizable
in a photograph now before me of the
interior of the Kent Street swimming-bath
building, to which apparently it was most
inappropriately transferredr
During the twenty years culminating in 1832 the local agitation for the fuller political enfranchisement of the town involved Birm- ingham in a long series of spirited contro- versies and more or less dangerous excite- ments. The ' Birmingham Political Union fo the Protection of Public Rights " (the forerunner of many similar " Unions " in England) was formed, and ran a successful course to ultimate victory. In 1819 the " reformers " had " elected " Sir Charles Wolseley as their Parliamentary representa- tive, but "without lawful authority"; and in course of time Thomas Attwood (1783-1856), a local banker, who had been High Bailiff, emerged into prominence as the accepted leader of the movement, to become known as the " Father of Political Unions." With Joshua Scholefield, he be- came one of the first (two) niGiubers for Birm- ingham on 12 Dec., 1832, after the passing
of the Reform Bill, retiring from Parliament
in January, 1840, and dying at Malvern.
The Freedom of the City of London was one
of the many honours conferred upon him.
Newhall Hill, the scene of most of the
Union's great meetings, is now built over,
and the actual site of the platform was sub-
sequently occupied by a Unitarian chapel
surrounded by mean streets.
WlLMOT CORFIELD.
(To be continued.)
THE PIED PIPER ONCE MORE. Corre-
spondence on this topic began so long ago-
as 1872 in ' N. & Q.,' eliciting much of interest
in connexion with the antiquity of the
legend, and the frequent mention of it in.
English or other sources. No very special
erudition is required for the disinterring of
such references as those in Burton's ' Ana-
tomy ' and the ' Epistolse Ho-Elianse.' But
Browning did not need to travel far afield
to discover a very complete, simple, and
humorous version of the story. The first
chapter of Prosper Merimee's ' Chronique
du Regne de Charles IX.' (1829) gives, in
its author's characteristically incisive prose,
an account of the tale, which coincides in
definite particulars with Browning's render-
ing (c. 1842). I shall mention but two. The
piper leads the children into a cavern in the
side of Koppenberg (Koppelberg) Hill ; and
Merimee winds up his narrative with a
reference to a settlement of German-speaking
aliens in Transylvania who have preserved
their native speech, though surrounded by
a population whose language is a barbarous
gibberish. Both versions, too, are con-
veyed in a tone which is describable solely
with the help of the French adjective
narquois. P. T. L.
" FROM THIS ENORMOUS STATE," ' KlN
LEAR,' II. ii. 163-8 (Cambridge) : And shall find time
From this enormous state, seeking to give Losses their remidies. All weary and o'erwatch'd Take vantage, heavy eyes, not to behold This shameful lodging.
Fortune, good night : smile once more ; turn thy wheel ! [Sleeps.
So the * Cambridge ' editors print ; and a. glance at the textual notes on the passage shows the hopeless failure of the emenda- tions there proposed. The very obvious correction of " shall " to she 'II (in which I have been anticipated by Daniel) is the only one at all worthy of acceptance.
1. The adoption of she'll for "shall," is imperative. Kent is speaking of Cordelia
