n
sentenced at the Assizes, were brought back here and so whipped through
the town; and in one instance, where a young man had been caught
filching from the Mint, the culprit was taken to Soho works, and in the
factory yard, there stripped and flogged by "Black Jack" of the Dungeon,
as a warning to his fellow-workmen. This style of punishment would
hardly do now, but if some few of the present race of "roughs" could be
treated to a dose of "the cat" now and then, it might add considerably
to the peace and comfort of the borough. Flogging by proxy was not
unknown in some of the old scholastic establishments, but whipping a
scarecrow seems to have been the amusement on February 26th. 1842, when
Sir Robert Peel, at that day a sad delinquent politically, was publicly
flogged in elligy.

~Floods~--The milldams at Sutton burst their banks, July 24, 1668, and
many houses were swept away.--On the 24th November, 1703, a three days'
storm arose which extended over the whole kingdom; many parts of the
Midlands being flooded and immense damage caused, farmers' live stock
especially suffering. 15,000 sheep were drowned in one pan of
Gloucestershire; several men and hundreds of sheep near to Worcester;
the losses in Leicestershire and Staffordshire being also enormous.
Though there is no local record respecting it here, there can be little
doubt that the inhabitants had their share of the miseries.--July 2,
1759, a man and several horses were drowned in a flood near Meriden.--
Heavy rains caused great floods here in January, 1764.--On April 13,
1792, a waterspout, at the Lickey Hills, turned the Rea into a torrent.
--The lower parts of the town were flooded through the heavy rain of
June 26, 1830.--There were floods in Deritend and Bordesley, Nov. 11,
1852.--June 23, 1861, parts of Aston, Digbeth, and the Parade were
swamped.--Feb. 8, 1865, Hockley was flooded through the bursting of the
Canal banks; and a simmilar accident to the Worcester Canal, May 25,
1872, laid the roads and gardens about Wheeley's Road under water.--
There were very heavy rains in July and October, 1875, causing much
damage in the lower parts of the town.--Aug. 2 and 3, 1879, many parts
of the outskirts were flooded, in comparatively the shortest time in
memory.

~Flour Mills.~--The Union Mill Co. (now known as the Old Union, &c.) was
formed early in 1796, with a capital of L7,000 in L1 shares, each
share-holder being required to take a given amount of bread