rentals of £1,000 and upwards. That these "Returns" may be useful to
biassed politicians is likely enough, as Lord Calthorpe is put down as
owner of 2,073 acres at an estimated rental of £113,707, while Mr. Muntz
appears as owning 2,486 acres at an estimated rental of £3,948. His
lordship's £113,707 "estimated" rental must be considerably reduced when
the leaseholders have taken their share and left him only the ground
rents. The other large ground landlords are the Trustees of the Grammar
School, the Trustees of the Colmore, Gooch, Vyse, Inge, Digby, Gillot,
Robins, and Mason estates, &c., Earl Howe, Lench's Trust, the Blue Coat
School, &c. The Corporation of Birmingham is returned as owning 257
acres, in addition to 134 had from the Waterworks Co., but that does not
include the additions made under the Improvement Scheme, &c. The manner
in which the estates of the old Lords of the Manor, of the Guild of Holy
Cross, and the possessions of the ancient Priory, have been divided and
portioned out by descent, marriage, forfeiture, plunder, and purchase is
interesting matter of history, but rather of a private than public
nature.

~Local Notes and Queries.~--The gathering of odd scraps of past local
history, notes of men and manners of a bygone time, and the stray (and
sometimes strange) bits of folklore garnered alone in the recollections
of greybeards, has been an interesting occupation for more than one
during the past score or two of years. The first series of "Local Notes
and Queries" in our newspapers appeared in the _Gazette_, commencing in
Feb., 1856, and was continued till Sept., 1860. There was a somewhat
similar but short series running in the columns of the _Journal_ from
August, 1861, to May, 1862. The _Daily Post_ took it up in Jan., 1863,
and devoted a column per week to "Notes" up to March, 1865, resuming at
intervals from 1867 to 1872. The series now (1884) appearing in the
_Weekly Post_ was commenced on the first Saturday (Jan. 6) in 1877.