valued at about L20 per annum,
and so little was it imagined that Birmingham would ever be more than
the small hamlet it then was, that a funny tale has come down to the
effect that the good people of King's Norton, when offered their choice
of similar lands or a sum equal thereto, wisely as they thought chose
the "bird in hand" and asked for the L20 per year for their school,
leaving the Brums to make what they could out of the bare fields once
belonging to the brotherhood of the Holy Cross. Like the majority of
so-called charity schools, this foundation was for many generations so
managed that the funds went into almost any channel except the purpose
for which it was designed--the free education of the poor--and even now
it would be an interesting question to find out how many boys are
receiving the advantages thereof whose parents are well able to pay for
their learning elsewhere. The property of the charity is widely
scattered over the town, here a piece and there a piece, but it is
rapidly increasing in value from the falling in of leases the rentals,
which in 1827 were about L3,000 per annum, being in 1840 L8,400, in 1860
L12,600, and now L25,000; by the expiration of this century it will be
at least L50,000. The earliest existing statutes are dated October 20,
1676, one of the most comical being that the assistant masters were not
to marry. The head master's salary in 1676 was fixed at L68 15s., with a
house and land; in 1738 he was allowed L20 in lieu of the house, in 1788
the salary was increased to L150; in 1726 to L200; in 1816 to L400; and
now it is about L1,200. The second master at first received L34 6s. 8d.;
in 1874 he received L300. The first school was the old Guildhall of the
Holy Cross, which was pulled down at the commencement of the 18th
century, a new school being erected in 1707, and removed in 1833, to
make way for the present edifice, which was erected in 1840, from the
designs of Mr. Barry, at a cost of L67,000. The school has a frontage of
174 feet, with a depth of 125 feet, being 60 feet high. The "schoolroom"
proper is 120 feet, by 30 feet and 45 feet high. In the last century the
governors "set up" branch schools in Shut Lane, Dudley Street, Freeman
Street, London 'Prentice Street, and other localities; and in 1838
elementary schools were erected in Gem Street, Edward Street, and
Meriden Street, as preparatory adjuncts to the New Street School.
Extensive changes have lately been made in the