receive
an offered town subscription.

~Garrison.~--Though a strong force was kept in the Barracks in the old
days of riot and turbulence, it is many years since we have been
favoured with more than a single company of red coats at a time, our
peaceful inland town not requiring a strong garrison.

~Gardens.~--A hundred to 150 years ago there was no town in England
better supplied with gardens than Birmingham, almost every house in what
are now the main thoroughfares having its plot of garden ground. In 1731
there were many acres of allotment gardens (as they came to be called at
a later date) where St. Bartholomew's Church now stands, and in almost
every other direction similar pieces of land were to be seen under
cultivation. Public tea gardens were also to be found in several
quarters of the outskirts; the establishment known as the Spring Gardens
closing its doors July 31, 1801. The Apollo Tea Gardens lingered on till
1846, and Beach's Gardens closed in September, 1854.

~Gas.~--William Murdoch is generally credited with the introduction of
lighting by gas, but it is evident that the inflammability of the gas
producible from coal was known long before his day, as the Rev. Dr. John
Clayton, Dean of Kildare, mentioned it in a letter he wrote to the Hon.
Robert Boyle, in 1691. The Dr.'s discovery was probably made during his
stay in Virginia, and another letter of his shows the probability of his
being aware that the gas would pass through water without losing its
lighting properties. The discovery has also been claimed as that of a
learned French _savant_ but Murdoch must certainly take the honour of
being the first to bring gas into practical use at his residence, at
Redruth, in 1792, and it is said that he even made a lantern to light
the paths in his evening walks, the gas burned in which was contained in
a bag carried under his arm, his rooms being also lit up from a bag of
gas placed under weights. The exact date of its introduction in this
neighbourhood has not been ascertained though it is believed that part
of the Soho Works were fitted with gas-lights in 1798, and, on the
occurrence of the celebration of the Peace of Amiens, in 1802, a public
exhibition was made of the new light, in the illumination of the works.
The _Gazette_ of April 5, 1802 (according to extract by Dr. Langford, in
his "Century of Birmingham Life") described the various devices in
coloured lamps and transparencies, but strangely enough do