Rateable Values.—In 1815 the annual rateable value of property in the borough was totaled at £311,954; in 1824 the amount stood at £389,273, an increase of £77,319 in the ten years; in 1834 the return was £483,774, the increase being £94,501; in 1814 it was £569,686, or an increase of £85,912; in 1854 the returns showed £655,631, the increase, £85,934, being little more than in the previous decennial period. The next ten years were those of the highest prosperity the building trade of this town has ever known, and the rateable values in 1864 went up to £982,384, an increase of £326,763. In 1870 a new assessment was made, which added over £112,000 to the rateable values, the returns for 1874 amounting to £1,254,911, an increase in the ten years of £272,527. In 1877 the returns gave a total of £1,352,554; in 1878 £1,411,060, an increase in the one year of £58,506; but since 1878 the increase has not been so rapid, the average for the next three years being £36,379; and, as will be seen by the following table, the yearly increase of values during the last three years is still less in each of the several parish divisions of the borough:—
| 1881 | 1882 | 1883 | |
| Birmingham parish | £985,081 | £991,445 | £1,001,541 |
| Yearly increase | 18,483 | 6,364 | 10,096 |
| Edgbaston parish | £179,328 | £180,327 | £181,552 |
| Yearly increase | 8,474 | 999 | 1,225 |
| Aston, part of parish | £355,788 | £362,337 | £365,875 |
| Yearly increase | 9,419 | 6,549 | 3,538 |
| Total rateable value of the Borough | £1,520,179 | £1,534,109 | £1,548,968 |
| Yearly increase | 36,379 | 13,912 | 14,859 |
Rainfall.—The mean annual rainfall in the eleven years ending with 1871, in this neighbourhood, was 29.51 inches, in the following eleven years 36.01 inches, the two heaviest years being 1872 with 47.69 inches, and 1882 with 43.06 inches. The depth of rain registered in the last three months of 1882 (14.93 inches), was the largest for any three consecutive months ever recorded by our painstaking meteorologist, the late Mr. T.L. Plant, of Moseley.
Ravenhurst.—The old house at Camp Hill, which gave names to Hurst Street and Ravenhurst Street, leading in the direction of the mansion, where in 1810 there were found a number of coins and tokens of the period of Queen Elizabeth and Charles I., as well as sundry Scotch "bawbees."
Rea.—This little river takes its rise among the Lickey Hills, and from certain geological discoveries made in 1883, there is every reason to believe that, in Saxon days, it was a stream of considerable force. The name Rea, or Rhea, is of Gaelic derivation, and, with slight alteration, it is the name of some other watercourses in the kingdom. From time to time, alterations have been made in the course of the Rea, and prior to the introduction of steam its waters were used extensively for mill-power, dams, fleams, and shoots interfering with the free running in all directions. Long little better than an open sewer, there is a prospect that, within a few years, it may be cleansed and become once more a limpid stream, if the sanitary authorities will but find some more convenient site as burial-place for unfortunate canines and felines.
Rebellion of 1745.—The first news of the Rebellion and of the landing of the Young Pretender reached here Aug. 19, 1745. The Scotch did not come so far as Birmingham, but [though thousands of swords were made here for "Bonnie Prince Charlie">[ some little preparation was made to receive them. At a meeting held October 5, 1745, it was proposed to form a regiment of volunteers against them, and Sir Lister Holte found 250 horses to pursue the unfortunate "Pretender," whose great-grandfather had been the guest of Sir Lister's ancestor.
Rebus.—Poking fun at our town is no new game, as may be seen by the following local rebus (by "Dardanus") copied from the Gentlemen's Magazine of 1752:—
"Take three-fourths of a creature which many admire,
That's often confined in a castle of wire;
Three-fourths of a herb that the garden doth yield,