and Haverfovrdwest and Brazennose College, for the support at the said college of one student from the above schools in rotation. The Red Lion having been swallowed up at a gulp, the other property would appear to have been kept as a nibbling-cake, for till the Charity Commissioners visited there in 1827 no scholar had ever been sent to college by its means. The railways and canals have taken most of the property of this trust, they invested capital arising from the sales bringing in now about £650 per year, which is divided between the two schools and the college above named, the Birmingham portion being sufficient to pay for two scholarships yearly.
The Nichol Charity provrides for the distribution of bread and coal to about 100 people on New Year's Day, by the vicar and churchwardens of St. David's.
Old Maids and Widows.—About £40 per year are dividcd by the Rector and Churchwardens of St. Philip's amongst ten old maids "or single women of virtuous character," and twelve poor widows attending divine service there, the invested money arising from Sheldon's Charity, 1826, and Wilkinson's Charity, 1830.—Thomas Pargeter (of Foxcote) in 1867, left money in trust, to provide annuities of £20 each, to unmarried ladies of fifty-five or more, professing Unitarianism, and about 100 are now reaping the fruit of his charity. Messrs. Harding and Son, Waterloo Street, are the solicitors.
Pidduck's Trust, for putting poor boys out apprentice, was devised in 1728, the property consisting of a farm at Winson Green. By direction of the Court of Chancery, the income is now directed, £70 to Gem Street Free Industrial School, and £20 to the British School, Severn Street. The trustees include the Mayor, the Rectors of St. Martin's, St. Philip's, St. Thomas's, St. George's, several Nonconformist ministers, and the Registrar of the Society of Friends.
Preaching Sermons.—By Salusbury's Charity, 1726, the Rectors of Sr. Martin's and St. Philip's are entitled to the sum of 15s. to preach sermons once a year for the benefit of the Blue Coat School—Ingram's Charity, 1818, consisting of the yearly interest of £500 4 par cent. India Stock, was intended to insure the preaching of an annual sermon on the subject of kindness to animals (especially to the horse) by a local clergyman of the Established Church, but the Governors of King Edward's School, who are the trustees, have obtained the sanction of the Charity Commissioniers to a scheme under which sermons on kindness to animals may take the form of one or more free lectures on the kind treatment of animals, and especially of the horse, to be delivered in any place of public worship, or other building or room approved by the trustees, and not necessarily, as heretofore, by a clergyman of the Established Church, and in a church.
Scripture Reading.—In 1853 Admiral Duff left a sum of money, which brings in about £15 per year, for the maintenance of a Scripture Reader for the town of Birmingham. The trustee of this fund is the Mayor for the time being, and the Scripture Reader may be heard of at the Town Clerk's office.
The Whittingham Charity, distributed at St James's, Ashted, in March, furnishes gifts to about eighty poor people (principally widows), who receive blankets, sheets, quilts, flannel, &c., in addition to bread and coal.
Philosophical Society.—A society with this name was formed in 1794, for the promulgation of scientific principles among mechanics. Its meetings were held in an old warehouse in the Coach Yard, and from the fact that many workmen from the Eagle Foundry attended the lectures, delivered mainly by Mr. Thomas Clarke, the members acquired the name of "the cast-iron philosophers." Another society was formed in 1800, for the diffusion of scientific knowledge amongst the
