tions. The chapel, which has several stained windows, is capable of seating 800 persons, and in it, on May 9, 1883, the Bishop of Worcester administered the rite of confirmation to 31 of the inmates, a novelty in the history of Birmingham Workhouse, at all events. Full provision is made for Catholics and Nonconformists desiring to attend the services of their respective bodies. In connection with the Workhouse may be noted the Cottage Homes and Schools at Marston Green (commenced in October, 1878) for the rearing and teaching of a portion of the poor children left in the care of the Guardians. These buildings consist of 3 schools, 14 cottage homes, workshops, infirmary, headmaster's residence, &c., each of the homes being for thirty children, in addition to an artisan and his wife, who act as heads of the family About twenty acres of land are at present thus occupied, the cost being at the rate of £140 per acre, while on the buildings upwards of £20,000 has been spent.
Public houses.—The early Closing Act came into operation here, November 11, 1864; and the eleven o'clock closing hour in 1872; the rule from 1864 having been to close at one and open at four a.m. Prior to that date the tipplers could be indulged from the earliest hour on Monday till the latest on Saturday night, Mr. Joseph Chamberlain and his friends thought so highly of the Gothenburg scheme that they persuaded the Town Council into passing a resolution (Jan. 2, 1877) that the Corporation ought to be allowed to buy up all the trade in Birmingham. There were forty-six who voted for the motion against ten; but, when the Right Hon. J. C.'s monopolising motion was introduced to the House of Commons (March 13, 1877), it was negatived by fifty-two votes.
Pudding Brook.—This was the sweetly pretty name given to one of the little streams that ran in connection with the moat round the old Manorhouse. Possibly it was originally Puddle Brook, but as it became little more than an open sewer or stinking mud ditch before it was ultimately done away with, the last given name may not have been inappropriate.
Quacks.—Though we cannot boast of a millionaire pill-maker like the late Professor Holloway, we have not often been without a local well-to-do "quack."
A medical man, named Richard Aston, about 1815-25, was universally called so, and if the making of money is proof of quackery, he deserved the title, as he left a fortune of £60,000. He also left an only daughter, but she and her husband were left to die in the Workhouse, as the quack did not approve of their union.
Quakers.—Peaceable and quiet as the members of the Society of Friends are known to be now, they do not appear to have always borne that character in this neighbourhood, but the punishments inflicted upon them in the time of the Commonwealth seem to have been brutish in the extreme. In a history of the diocese of Worcester it is stated that the Quakers not only refused to pay tithes or take off their hats in courts of justice, but persisted in carrying on their business on Sundays, and scarcely suffering a service to be conducted without interruption, forcing themselves into congregations and proclaiming that the clergymen were lying witnesses and false prophets, varying their proceeding? by occasionally runing naked through the streets of towns and villages, and otherwise misbehaving themselves, until they were regarded as public pests and treated accordingly. In the year 1661, fifty-four Quakers were in Worcester gaol, and about the same time seven or eight others were in the lockup at Evesham, where they were confined for fourteen weeks in a cell 22ft. square and 6ft, high, being fed on bread and water and not once let out during the whole time, so that people could not endure to pass the place; female Quakers were thrust with brutal indecency into the stocks and
