the small plots into which the land was divided and the number of owners
named from time to time in ancient deeds, the yearly rentals, even in
Henry VIII's time being from 3s. to 5s. per year. At the back of the
lower side of Edgbaston Street, were several tanneries, there being a
stream of water running from the moat round the Parsonage-house to the
Manor-house moat, the watercourse being now known as Dean Street and
Smithfield Passage.

~Electric Light.~--The light of the future. The first public exhibition
of lighting by electricity, was introduced by Maccabe, a ventriloquial
entertainer of the public, at the entrance of Curzon Hall, September 30,
1878. On the 28th of the following month, the novelty appeared at the
Lower Grounds, on the occasion of a football match at night, the
kick-off and lighting-up taking place at seven o'clock. At the last
Musical Festival, the Town Hall was lit up by Messrs. Whitfield, of
Cambridge-street, and the novelty is no longer a rarity, a company
having been formed to supply the houses, shops, and public buildings in
the centre of the town.

~Electro Plate.~--As early as 1838, Messrs. Elkington were in the habit
of coating ornaments with gold and silver by dipping them in various
solutions of those metals, and the first patent taken out for the
electro process appears to be that of July 6, 1838, for covering copper
and brass with zinc. Mr. John Wright, a surgeon, of this town, was the
first to use the alkaline cyanides, and the process was included in
Elkington's patent of March 25, 1840. The use of electricity from
magnets instead of the voltaic battery was patented by J.S. Wolrich, in
August, 1842. His father was probably the first person who deposited
metals for any practical purpose by means of the galvanic battery. Mr.
Elkington applied the electro-deposit process to gilding and