of
1881; and the Blue Ribbons were introduced in May, 1882. This novelty in
dress ornamentation was adopted (so they said) by over 40,000
inhabitants, but at the end of twelve months the count was reduced to
8,000, including Sunday School children, popular parsons, maidens
looking for husbands, old maids who had lost their chances, and the
unco' guid people, who, having lost their own tastes, would fain keep
others from their cakes and ale.

~Temple Row.~--A "parech meeting" in 1715 ordered the purchase of land
for a passage way out of Bull Street to St. Philip's Church. It was not
until 1842 when part of the Royal Hotel stables were taken down, that it
was made its present width. In 1837 the churchyard had some pleasant
walks along the sides, bounded by a low wooden fence, and skirted with
trees.

~Temple Street~ takes its name from the old summer arbour, wittily
called "the Temple," which once stood in a garden where now Temple Row
joins the street. An advertisement in _Gazette_ of December 5, 1743,
announced a house for sale, in Temple Street, having a garden twelve
yards wide by fifty yards long, adjoining the fields, and with a
prospect of four miles distance.

~Theatrical Jottings.~--What accommodation, if any, was provided here
for "their majesties' servants," the playactors, in the times of Queen
Anne and her successor, George I., is not known, but as Hutton tells us
that in 1730 the amusements of the stage _rose_ in elegance so far that
threepenny performances were given "in a stable in Castle Street," we
may be sure the position held by members of the profession was not very
high in the estimation of our townsfolk previous to that period. Indeed,
it would almost seem as if the acting of plays was quite an innovation
at the time named, and one that met with approval, for shortly after we
read of there being theatres in Smallbrook Street, in New Street, and "a
new theatre" in Moor Street. The first-named closed in 1749 or 1750; the
second is _supposed_ to have been on the site of the present Theatre
Royal, but it could not have been a building of much importance as we
find no note of it after 1744; the third, built in 1739, was taken
possession of by the disciples of Wesley, and on March 21, 1764, was
opened as a chapel. Previous to the last event, however, another theatre
had been erected (in 1752) in King Street, leading out of New Street,
near to the Free School, which, being enlarged in 1774, is describe