though covered over and its waters allowed to flow into the sewers instead of the Baths, and any visitor desirous of testing the water once hallowed for its purity must take his course down the mean alley known as Ladywell Walk, at the bend in which he will find a dirty passage leading to a rusty iron pump, "presented by Sir E. S. Gooch, Bart., to the inhabitants of Birmingham," as commemorated by an inscription on the dirty stone which covers the spring and its well, God's Well field is covered with workshops, stables, dirty backyards and grimy-looking houses, and the Baths are a timber-yard.
Lambert.—Birmingham had something to do with the fattening of the celebrated Daniel Lambert, the heaviest lump of humanity this country has yet produced, for he was an apprentice to Mr. John Taylor, button maker, of Crooked Lane. His indentures were cancelled through his becoming so fat and unwieldy, and he was sent back to his father, the then governor of Leicester gaol. Daniel died June 21st, 1809, at Stamford, where he was buried; his age was 39, and he weighed 52 stone 11lb. (at 14lb. the stone), measuring 9ft. 4in. round the body, and 3ft. 1in. round the thick of each of his legs.
Lancashire Distress.—The accounts of the Local Fund raided for the relief of the cotton operatives of Lancashire were published Aug. 3, 1863, showing receipts amounting £15,115 4s. 10d.
Lamps.—The number of ordinary lamps in the borough, under the control of the Public Works Department, on the 3lst of December, 1882, was 6,591, of which number 1,950 are regulated to consume 5.20 cubic feet, and the remainder, or 4,641, 4.30 cubic feet per hour; their cost respectively inclusive of lighting, cleaning, and extinguishing, was £2 12s. 4½d., and £2 5s. 2¼d. per lamp per annum. In addition there are 93 special and 53 urinal lamps.
Lands.—In Birmingham it is bought and sold by the square yard, and very pretty prices are occasionally paid therefore; our agricultural friends reckon by acres, roods, and perches. The Saxon "hyde" of land, as mentioned in Domesday Book and other old documents, was equivalent to 100, or, as some read it, 120 acres; the Norman "Carucase" being similar.
Land Agency.—An International Land and Labour Agency was established at Birmingham by the Hon. Elihu Burritt in October, 1869; its object being to facilitate the settlement of English farmers and mechanics in the United States, and also to supply American orders for English labourers and domestic servants of all kinds. Large numbers of servant-girls in England, it was thought, would be glad to go to America, but unable to pay their passage-money, and unwilling to start without knowing where they were to go on arriving. This agency advanced the passage-money, to be deducted from the first wages; but, though the scheme was good and well meant, very little advantage was taken of the agency, and, like some other of the learned blacksmith's notions, though a fair-looking tree, it bore very little fruit.
Land and Building Societies.—Though frequently considered to be quite a modern invention, the plan of a number uniting to purchase lands and houses for after distribution, is a system almost as old as the hills. The earliest record we have of a local Building Society dates from 1781, though no documents are at hand to show its methods of working. On Jan. 17, 1837, the books were opened for the formation of a Freehold Land and Building Society here, but its usefulness was very limited, and its existence short. It was left to the seething and revolutionary days of 1847-8, when the Continental nations were toppling over thrones and kicking out kings, for sundry of our men of light and leading to bethink themselves of the
