public buildings, banks, and other places where the blue, red, and gold
of the Birmingham Arms shines forth, he will soon be able to count three
to four dozen different styles; every carver, painter, and printer
apparently pleasing himself how he does it. It has been said that when
the question of adopting a coat of arms was on the _tapis_, the grave
and reverend seniors appointed to make inquiries thereanent, calmly took
copies of the shields of the De Berminghams and the De Edgbastous, and
fitted the "bend lozengy" and the "parti per pale" together, under the
impression that the one noble family's cognisance was a gridiron, and
the other a currycomb, both of which articles they considered to be
exceedingly appropriate for such a manufacturing town as Birmingham.
Wiser in their practicability than the gentlemen who designed the
present shield, they left the currycomb quarters in their proper _sable_
and _argent_ (black and white), and the gridiron _or_ and _gules_ (a
golden grid on a red-hot fire.) For proper emblazonment, as by
Birmingham law established, see the cover.

~Heathmill Lane.~--In 1532 there was a "water mill to grynde corne,"
called "Heth mill," which in that year was let, with certain lands,
called the "Couyngry," by the Lord of the Manor, on a ninety-nine years'
lease, at a rent of £6 13s. 4d. per year.

~Here we are again~!--The London _Chronicle_ of August 14, 1788, quoting
from a "gentleman" who had visited this town, says that "the people are
all diminutive in size, sickly in appearance, and spend their Sundays in
low debauchery," the manufacturers being noted for "a great deal of
trick and low cunning as well as profligacy!"

~Highland Gathering.~--The Birmingham Celtic Society held their first
"gathering" at Lower Grounds, August 2, 1879, when the ancient sports of