g this inscription:--
In Memory of MANETTA STOCKER,
Who quitted this life the fourth day of May, 1819,
at the age of thirty-nine years.
The smallest woman in this kingdom,
and one of the most accomplished.
She was not more than thirty-three inches high.
She was a native of Austria.
General Tom Thumb (Charles Stratton) was exhibited at Dee's Royal
Hotel, in September, 1844, when he was about ten years old, and several
times after renewed the acquaintance. He was 31 inches high, and was
married to Miss Warren, a lady of an extra inch. The couple had
offspring, but the early death of the child put an end to Barnum's
attempt to create a race of dwarfs. Tom Thumb died in June 1883. General
Mite who was exhibited here last year, was even smaller than Tom Thumb,
being but 21 inches in height. Birmingham, however, need not send abroad
for specimens of this kind, "Robin Goodfellow" chronicling the death on
Nov. 27, 1878, of a poor unfortunate named Thomas Field, otherwise the
"Man-baby," who, though twenty-four years of age, was but 30 inches high
and weighed little over 20lbs., and who had never walked or talked. The
curious in such matters may, on warm, sunny mornings, occasionally meet,
in the neighbourhood of Bromsgrove Street, a very intelligent little man
not much if any bigger than the celebrated Tom Thumb, but who has never
been made a show of.
~Dynamite Manufacture.~--See "_Notable Offences_."
~Ear and Throat Infirmary.~--See "_Hospitals_."
~Earthquakes~ are not of such frequent occurrence in this country as to
require much notice. The first we find recorded (said to be the greatest
known here) took place in November, 1318; others were felt in this
country in May, 1332; April, 1580; November, 1775; November, 1779;
November, 1852, and October, 1863.
~Easy Row,~ or Easy Hill, as Baskerville delighted to call the spot he
had chosen for a residence. When Mr. Hanson was planning out the Town
Hall, there were several large elm trees still standing in Easy Row, by
the corner of Edmund Street, part of the trees which constituted
Baskerville's Park, and in the top branches of which the rooks still
built their nests. The entrance to Broad Street had been narrow, and
bounded by a lawn enclosed with posts and chains, reaching to the elm
trees, but the increase of traffic had necessitated the removal (in
1838) of the grassplots and the fencing, though the old trees were left
until 1847, by which time th
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