ndsworth, April 20,
1885, by her uncle, Thomas Boulton.

~Museums.~--No place in England ought to have a better collection of
coins and medals, but there is no Numismatic Museum in Birmingham. Few
towns can show such a list of patentees and inventors, but we have no
Patent Museum wherein to preserve the outcome of their ideas. Though the
town's very name cannot be traced through the mists of dim antiquity,
the most ancient thing we can show is the Old Crown public-house. Romans
and Normans, Britons and Saxons, have all trod the same ground as
ourselves, but we preserve no relics of them. Though we have supplied
the whole earth with firearms, it was left to Mr. Marshall, of Leeds, to
gather together a Gun Museum. Fortunately the Guardians of the Proof
House were liberal and, buying the collection for L1,550, made many
valuable additions to it, and after exhibiting it for a time at 5,
Newhall Street, presented it to the town in August, 1876. There is a
curious miscellany of articles on exhibition at Aston Hall, which some
may call a "Museum," and a few cases of birds, sundry stuffed animals,
&c., but we must wait until the Art Gallery now in course of erection,
is finished before the Midland Metropolis can boast of owning a real
Museum. At various times, some rich examples of industrial art have been
exhibited in the temporary Art Gallery adjoining the Midland Institute,
and now, in one of the rooms of the Free Library, there are sufficient
to form the nucleus of a good Museum. We may, therefore, hope that, in
time, we _shall_ have a collection that we may be proud of. Mr. Joseph
Chamberlain (April 26, 1875) gave L1,000 to purchase objects of
industrial art, and it has been expended in the purchase of a collection
of gems and precious stones, than which nothing could be more suitable
in this centre of the jewellery trade. Possibly, on the opening of the
new Art Gallery, we shall hear of other "thousands" as forthcoming.

~Musical Associations.~--There were, of course, the choirs attached to
the churches previous, but the earliest Musical Society is believed to
be that established by James Kempson, in 1762, at Cooke's, in the Cherry
Orchard, and the founding of which led to the Musical Festivals. The
members met for practice, and evidently enjoyed their pipes and glasses,
their nightly song being:--

"To our Musical Club here's long life and prosperity;
May it flourish with us, and so on to posterity,
May concor