tion to two nights' lighting up of the principal buildings,
&c.), by an extra grand show of thousands of lamps at Soho, with the
accompaniment of fireworks and fire-balloons, the roasting of sheep and
oxen, &c. Waterloo was the next occasion, but local chroniclers of the
news of the day gave but scant note thereof. From time to time there
have been illuminations for several more peaceable matters of rejoicing,
but the grandest display that Birmingham has ever witnessed was that to
celebrate the marriage of the Prince of Wales, March 10th, 1863, when
St. Philip's Church was illuminated on a scale so colossal as to exceed
anything of the kind that had previously been attempted in the
illumination by gas of public buildings upon their architectural lines.
Situated in the centre, and upon the most elevated ground in Birmingham,
St. Philip's measures upwards of 170-ft. from the base to the summit of
the cross. The design for the illumination--furnished by Mr. Peter
Hollins--consisted of gas-tubing, running parallel to the principal
lines of architecture from the base to the summit, pierced at distances
of 3 in. or 5 in., and fitted with batswing burners. About 10,000 of
these burners were used in the illumination. The service-pipes employed
varied in diameter from three inches to three-quarters of an inch, and
measured, in a straight line, about three-quarters of a mile, being
united by more than two thousand sockets. Separate mains conducted the
gas to the western elevation, the tower, the dome, the cupola, and
cross; the latter standing 8 ft. above the ordinary cross of the church,
and being inclosed in a frame of ruby-coloured glass. These mains were
connected with a ten-inch main from a heavily-weighed gasometer at the
Windsor Street works of the Birmingham Gas Company, which was reserved
for the sole use of the illumination. It took forty men three days to
put up the scaffolding, but the whole work was finished and the
scaffolding removed in a week. It was estimated that the consumption of
gas during the period of illumination reached very nearly three-quarters
of a million of cubic feet; and the entire expense of the illumination,
including the gas-fittings, was somewhat over six hundred pounds. The
illumination was seen for miles round in every direction. From the top
of Barr Beacon, about eight miles distant, a singular effect was
produced by means of a fog cloud which hung over the town, and concealed
the dome and tow