uxhall
Road, to Nechells Park Road; 6th, in the same direction, by way of Gosta
Green, Lister Street, and Great Lister Street, using "running powers"
over the Aston line where necessary on the last-named and following
routes; 7th from Corporation Street, along Aston Street, Lancaster
Street, Newtown Row, up the Birchfield Road; 8th, from Six Ways,
Birchfield, along the Lozells Road to Villa Cross, and from the Lozells
Road along Wheeler Street to Constitution Hill, forming a junction with
the original Hockley and Snow Hill line. The system of lines projected
by the Western Districts Co., include: 1st, commencing in Edmund Street,
near the Great Western Railway Station, along Congreve Street, Summer
Row, Parade, Frederick Street, and Vyse Street, to join the Hockley
line; 2nd, as before to Parade, along the Sandpits, Spring Hill to
borough boundary in Dudley Road, and along Heath Street to Smethwick;
3rd, as before to Spring Hill, thence in one direction along Monument
Road to Hagley Road, and in the opposite direction along Icknield Street
to Hockley; 4th, starting from Lower Temple Street, along Hill Street,
Hurst Street, Sherlock Street to the borough boundary in Pershore Road,
and from Sherlock Street, by way of Gooch Street, to Balsall Heath; 5th,
by way of Holloway Head, Bath Row, and Islington to the Five Ways. The
whole of the lines now in use and being constructed in the Borough are
the property of the Corporation, who lease them to the several
Companies, the latter making the lines outside the borough themselves,
and keeping them in repair. The average cost of laying down is put at
50s. per yard for single line, or L5 per yard for double lines, the cost
of the metal rail itself being about 20s. per yard.

~Trees in Streets.~--Though a few trees were planted along the Bristol
Road in 1853, and a few others later in some of the outskirts, the
system cannot be fairly said to have started till the spring of 1876,
when about 100 plane trees were planted in Broad Street, 100 limes in
Bristol Street, 20 Canadian poplars in St. Martin's church-yard, a score
or so of plane trees near Central Station, and a number in Gosta Green
and the various playgrounds belonging to Board Schools, a few elms,
sycamores, and Ontario poplars being mixed with them. As a matter of
historical fact, the first were put in the ground Nov. 29, 1885, in
Stephenson Place.

~Tunnels.~--The tunnel on the Worcester and Birmingham Canal, near
King