milk." It is but a few years bade since the present writer saw the last direct descendant of the Holtes working as a compositor in one of the newspaper offices of this town, and almost any day there was to be seen in the streets a truck with the name painted on of "Charles Holte Bracebridge. Licensed Hawker!"
Famines.—In the year 310, it is said that 40,000 persons died in this country from famine. It is not known whether any "Brums" existed then. In 1195 wheat was so scarce that it sold for 20s, the quarter; ten years after, it was only 12d. In 1438, the times were so hard that people eat bread made from fern roots. In 1565, a famine prevailed throughout the kingdom.
Fashionable Quarter.—Edgbaston is our "West End," of which Thomas Ragg (before he was ordained) thus wrote:—
Glorious suburbs! long
May ye remain to bless the ancient town
Whose crown ye are; rewarder of the caves
Of those who toil amid the din and smoke
Of iron ribbed and hardy Birmingham.
And may ye long be suburbs, keeping still
Business at distance from your green retreats.
Feasts, Feeds, and Tea-fights.—Like other Englishmen, when we have a good opinion of people we ask them to dinner, and the number of public breakfasts, dinners, teas, and suppers on our record is wonderful. We give a few of the most interesting:—3,800 persons dined with our first M.P.'s., Attwood and Scholefield, at Beardsworth's Repository. Sept. 15, 1834.—A Reform banquet was the attraction in the Town Hall. Jan. 28, 1836.—Members and friends of the 'Chartist Church' kept their Christmas festival, by taking tea in Town Hall, Dec.28, 1841.—1,700 Anti-Cornlawites (John Bright among them) did ditto Jan. 22, 1843.—The defeat of an obnoxious Police Bill lead 900 persons to banquet together April 9. 1845.—A banquet in honour of Charles Dickens opened the year 1853—The first anniversary of the Loyal and Constitutional Association was celebrated by the dining of 848 loyal subjects, Dec. 17, 1855.—A dinner was given to 1,200 poor folks in Bingley Hall, Jan. 25, 1858, to make them remember the marriage of the Princess Royal. Those who were not poor kept the game alive at Dee's Hotel.—John Bright was dined in Town Hall, Oct. 29, 1858.-A party of New Zealand chiefs were stuffed at same place. March 10, 1864—To celebrate the opening of a Dining Hall in Cambridge Street, a public dinner was given on All Fools' Day, 1864.—On the 23rd April following, about 150 gentlemen breakfasted with the Mayor, in honour of the Shakespeare Library being presented to the town.—The purchase of Aston Park was celebrated by a banquet. Sept. 22, 1864.—Over a hundred bellringers, at Nock's Hotel, 1868, had their clappers set wagging by Blews and Sons, in honour of the first peal of bells cast by them, and now in Bishop Ryder's Church.—The Muster Bakers, who have been baking dinners for the public so long, in December, 1874, commenced an annual series of dinners among themselves, at which neither baked meats, nor even baked potatoes, are allowed.—Of political and quasi-political banquets, there have been many of late years, but as the parties have, in most cases, simply been gathered for party purposes, their remembrance is not worth keeping.—To help pay for improvements at General Hospital, there was a dinner at the Great Western Hotel, June 4, 1868, and when the plate was sent round, it received £4.000. That was the best, and there the list must close.
Females.—The fairer portion of our local community number (census 1881) 210,050, as "against 197,954 males, a preponderance of 12,096. In 1871 the ladies outnumbered us by
