deaths 68,596, occurred in London. The tradition is that the plague contagion was brought here in a box of clothes conveyed by a carrier from Loudon. It is said that so many persons died in this town that the churchyard would not hold the bodies, and the dead were taken to a one-acre piece of waste land at Ladywood Green, hence known for many generations as the "Pest Ground." The site has long been built over, but no traces of any kind of sepulture were found when house foundations were being laid.
Pewter.—To have bright pewter plates and dishes ranged on their kitchen shelves was once the delight and the pride of all well-to-do housewives, and even the tables of royalty did not disdain the pewter. At the grand dinner on George IV.'s Coronation-day, though gold and silver plate was there in abundance for the most noble of the noble guests, the majority Were served on brightly-burnished pewter, supplied from Thomason's of Birmingham. The metal is seldom seen now except in the shape of cups aud measures used by publicans.
Philanthropic Collections.—The following are a few not mentioned in previous pages:— A local fund for the relief of sufferers by famine in Asia Minor was opened May 6, 1875, the amount collected being £682.—In 1875, a little over £1,700 was gathered to aid the sufferers from the inundations in France that year.—November 25, 1878, at a meeting held to sympathise with the losers through the failure of the Glasgow Bank more than £1,000 was subscribed; £750 being gathered afterwards.—The Mayor's Relief Fund, in the winter-time of 1878-79, totalled up to £10,242, of which £9,500 was expended in relief, £537 in expenses, and the balance divided between the Hospitals. The number of separate gifts or donations to the poor was 500,187, equivalent to relieving once 103,630 families.
Philanthropic Societies.—Are as numerous as they are various, and the amount of money, and money's worth, distributed each year is something surprising. The following are the principal ones:—
Aged Women.—A society was commenced here in 1824 for the relief of poor women over 60 years of age, and there are now on the books the names of nearly 200 who receive, during the year, in small amounts, an average of 17s to 18s. each. Miss Southall, 73, Wellington Road, is one of the Hon. Secs., who will be pleased to receive additional subscriptions. Fifty other aged women are yearly benefitted through Fentham's Trust.—See "Blue Coat School."
Architects.—There is a Benevolent Society in connection with the Royal Institute of British Architects, for relieving poor members of the profession, their widows, or orphans. The local representative is Mr. F. Cross, 14a, Temple Row.
Aunt Judy's Work Society.—On the plan of one started in Loudon a few years back; the object being to provide clothes for poor children in the Hospitals. The secretary is Mrs. W. Lord, Brakendale, Farquhar Road, Edgbaston.
Bibles, &c.—The Birmingham Depositorv of the British and Foreign Bibie Society is at 40, Paradise Street; and that of the Christian Knowledge Society is at 92, New Street.
Boarding-out Poor Children.— A Ladies' Society for Befriending Pauper Children by taking them from the Workhouse and boarding them out amoug cottagers and others in the country, has been quietly at work for some dozen years before the Marston Green Homes were built, but whether the latter rule-of-thumb experiment will prove more successful than that of the ladies, though far more costly, the coming generation muse decide.
Boatmen's Friend Society.— A branch of the British Seamen's and Boatmen's Friend Society, principally for the supply of religious education to the
