50.

~Shirley.~--Situated in the parish of Solihull, though but a village
with some half hundred cottages, has of late become a favorite spot for
those fond of a Sunday drive.

~Shoeblacks.~--An attempt was made in 1875 to form a shoeblack brigade,
but only ten gentlemen attended the meeting (called June 21), and the
business was left to the irregulars.

~Smallbrook Street.~--A small stream, formerly ran its course along part
of this site, proceeding by way of Smithfield Passage to the moat, and
thence through the mill-pool, back of Bradford Street, to the Rea. The
ancient family of the Smallbrokes held considerable lands in the
neighbourhood, but whether the street's name came from the small brook
or the Smallbrokes is a matter of doubt.

~Smallpox.~--From the opening of the Smallpox Hospital in May, 1882, to
July 10, 1884, the duration of the late epidemic, there were 1,591 cases
admitted. Among the 1,384 patients who had been vaccinated there
occurred 59 deaths; among the 207 unvaccinated, 90 deaths. No
re-vaccinated person died.

~Snow Hill.~--There is a difference of 60ft. between the top level next
Bull Street and the Bottom of Snow Hill.

~Soho.~--Prior to 1756 the country on the Handsworth side of Birmingham
was little better than barren heath, the home of conies and a few
beggarly squatters, until Mr. Edward Ruston leased from the Lord of the
Manor the whole of the piece of common that lay between Nineveh and
Hockley on the left of the West Bromwich Road. He deepened the channel
of Hockley brook, and built a small mill by its side, which being
purchased from him in 1764 by Matthew Boulton (who soon acquired the
freehold also) formed the site of the once world-renowned Soho Works. In
1774, according to "Swinney's Birmingham Directory," these works
consisted of four squares of buildings, with workshops, &e., for more
than a thousand workmen. Many more than that number, however, were
afterwards employed on the grounds, and for long years Soho House, as
Boulton's residence was called, was the resort of lords and ladies,
princes and philosophers, savants and students, to a far greater extent
than many of the European courts. Of this home of the steam engine, and
the birthplace of inventions too numerous to count, there is now no
vestige left, the foundry being removed to Smethwick in 1848, the
celebrated Mint, with the warehouses and shopping, being cleared out
early in 1850, and the walls razed to the ground