xperience showed
the two counties to be as bad, and subscribers were tempted to buy by
the issue of an Illustrated Bible and Prayer Book sent out in parts with
the paper. The first No. was that of Aug. 20, 1737, and it continued
till the end of Revelations, a large number of copperplate engravings
being given with the Bible, though the price of the paper was but 2d.

_Weekly Mercury_.--Commenced November, 1884.

_Weekly News_.--A weak attempt at a weekly paper, lasted from May to
September, 1882.

~Newsrooms.~--The first to open a newsroom were Messrs. Thomson and
Wrightson, booksellers, who on Aug. 22, 1807, admitted the public to its
tables. In 1825 a handsome newsroom was erected in Bennett's Hill, the
site of which was sold in 1858 for the County Court, previous to its
removal to Waterloo Street.

~New Street~ once called "Beast Market." was in Hutton's time approached
from High Street through an archway, the rooms over being in his
occupation. In 1817 there were several walled-in gardens on the
Bennett's Hill side of the street, and it is on record that one house at
least was let at the low rent of 5s. 6d. per week. The old "Grapes"
public-house was pulled down just after the Queen's visit, being the
last of the houses removed on account of the railway station. Though it
has long been the principal business street of the town, New street was
at one time devoted to the ignoble purposes of a beast market, and where
the fair ladies of to-day lightly tread the flags when on shopping bent,
the swine did wait the butcher's knife. New Street is 561 yards in
length; between Temple Street and Bennett's Hill it is 46-1/2 feet wide,
and near Worcester Street 65 ft. 4 in. wide.

~Nonconformists.~--The so-called Act of Uniformity of 1602 deprived
nearly 2,000 of the clergy of their livings, and a few of them came to
Birmingham as a place of refuge, ministering among the Dissenters, who
then had no buildings for regular worship. There were many documents in
the lost Staunton Collection relating to some of these clergymen, who,
however, did not find altogether comfortable quarters even here, one
George Long, M.D., who had fled from his persecutors in Staffordshire,
finding no peace in Birmingham, removed to Ireland; others, though they
came here by stealth to minister, had to reside in country parts. A
Central Nonconformist Committee was formed here March 3, 1870.

~Nonjurors.~--Among the name of the Roman Catholics, or "No