ood with anything but one's own fingers. Later on, when
the coaches began to throng the road, gentlemen were in the habit of
carrying with them their own knife and fork for use, so seldom were the
latter articles to be found at the country inns, and the use of forks
cannot be said to have become general more than a hundred years ago.

~Forward.~--The self-appropriated motto of our borough, chosen at one of
the earliest committee meetings of the Town Council in 1839. Mr. William
Middlemore is said to have proposed the use of the word as being
preferable to any Latin, though "Vox populi, vox Dei," and other like
appropriate mottoes, have been suggested. Like all good things, however,
the honour of originating this motto has been contested, the name of
Robert Crump Mason having been given as its author.

~Fogs.~--Bad as it may be now and then in the neighbourhood of some of
our works, it there is one thing in nature we can boast of more than
another, it is our comparatively clear atmosphere, and it is seldom that
we are troubled with fogs of any kind. In this respect, at all events,
the Midland metropolis is better off than its Middlesex namesake, with
its "London particular," as Mr. Guppy calls it. But there was one day
(17th) in December, 1879, when we were, by some atmospheric phenomena,
treated to such "a peasouper" that we must note it as being the
curiosity of the day, the street traffic being put a stop to while the
fog lasted.

~Folk-lore.~--Funny old sayings are to be met with among the quips and
quirks of "folk-lore" that tickled the fancies of our grandfathers. The
following is to [**] with several changes, but it [**] good to be
lost:--

"Sutton for mutton,
Tamworth for beeves,
Walsall for knockknees,
And Brummagem for thieves."

~Fountains.~--Messrs. Messenger and Sons designed, executed, and
erected, to order of the Street Commissioners, in 1851, a very neat, and
for the situation, appropriate, fountain in the centre of the Market
Hall, but which has since been removed to Highgate Park, where it
appears sadly out of place.

The poor little boys, without any clothes,
Looking in winter as if they were froze.

A number of small drinking-fountains or taps have been presented to the
town by benevolent persons (one of the neatest being that put up at the
expense of Mr. William White in Bristol Road in 1876), and granite
cattle-troughs are to be found in Constitution Hill, Icknield Street,
Eas