Birmingham.—A horse of this name won the Doncaster St. Leger in 1830 against 27 competitors. The owner, John Beardsworth, cleared £40,000. He gave Connolly, the jockey, £2,000.
Birmingham Abroad.—Our brethren who have emigrated do not like to forget even the name of their old town, and a glance over the American and Colonial census sheet shows us that there are at least a score of other Birminghams in the world. In New Zealand there are three, and in Australia five townships so christened. Two can be found in Canada, and ten or twelve in the United States, the chief of which is Birmingham in Alabama. In 1870 this district contained only a few inhabitants, but in the following year, with a population of 700, it was incorporated, and at once took rank as a thriving city, now proudly called "The Iron City," from its numerous ironworks, furnaces, and mills. Last year the citizens numbered over 12,000, the annual output of pig-iron being about 60,000 tons, and the coal mines in the neighbourhood turning out 2,000 tons per day. The city is 240 miles from Nashville, 143 miles from Chattanooga, and 96 miles from Montgomery, all thriving places, and is a central junction of six railways. The climate is good, work plentiful, wages fair, provisions cheap, house rent not dear, churches and schools abundant, and if any of our townsmen are thinking of emigrating they may do a deal worse than go from hence to that other Birmingham, which its own "daily" says is a "City of marvellous wonder and magic growth," &c., &c.
Birmingham Begging.—Liberal to others as a rule when in distress, it is on record that once at least the inhabitants of this town were the recipients of like favours at the hands of their fellow-countrymen. In the churchwardens' books of Redenall, Norfolk, under date September 20, 1644, is an entry of 6s. paid "to Richard Herbert, of Birmingham, where was an hundred fifty and five dwelling house burnt by Pr. Rupert."
Birmingham Borough, which is in the hundred of Hemlingford, and wholly in the county of Warwick, includes the parish of Birmingham, part of the parish of Edgbaston, and the hamlets of Deritend-and-Bordesley, and Duddeston-cum-Nechells, in the parish of Aston. The extreme length is six miles one furlong, the average breadth three miles, the circumference twenty-one miles, and the total area 8,420 acres, viz., Birmingham, 2,955; in Edgbaston, 2,512; and in Aston, 2,853. Divided into sixteen wards by an Order in Council, approved by Her Majesty, October 15, 1872. The mean level of Birmingham is reckoned as 443 feet above sea level.
Birmingham Heath.—Once an unenclosed common, and part of it may now be said to be common property, nearly 100 acres of it being covered with public buildings for the use of such as need a common home. There is not, however, anything commonplace in the style of these erections for sheltering our common infirmities, as the Workhouse, Gaol, and Asylum combined have cost "the Commons" something like £350,000. The Volunteers in 1798 made use of part of the Heath as a practice and parade ground.
Birmingham Bishops.—The Rev. John Milner, a Catholic divine and eminent ecclesiastical antiquary, who was educated at Edgbaston, was appointed Bishop Apostolic in the Midland district, with the title of "Bishop of Castaballa." He died in 1826, in his 74th year.—Dr. Ullathorne was enthroned at St. Chad's, August 30th, 1848, as Bishop of the present Catholic diocese.—The Rev. P. Lee, Head Master of Free Grammar School in 1839, was chosen as the first Bishop of Manchester.— The Rev. S. Thornton, St. George's, was consecrated Bishop of Ballarat, May 1, 1875.—The Rev. Edward White Benson, D.D., a native of this town, was nominated first Bishop of Truro, in December, 1876, and is now Archbishop of Canterbury.—The Rev. Thomas Huband Gregg resigned the vicarage of East Harborne in March, 1877, and on June 20 was consecrated at New York a Bishop of the Reformed Episcopal Church.
Birmingham (Little).—In a record of the early date of 1313 there is mention of a place called Little Birmingham (parvam Birmingham), as being in the hundreds of North and South Erpyngham, Norfolk.
Birmingham in the Future.—It has been proposed that the Borough should be extended so as to include the Local Board districts of Harborne and Handsworth, Balsall Heath, Moseley, King's Heath, part of King's Norton parish, the whole of Yardley and Acock's Green, part of Northfield parish, all Aston Manor, Saltley, Witton, Little Bromwich, and Erdington, covering an area of about 32,000 acres, with a present population of over half a million.
Blind Asylum.—See "[Philanthropic Institutions]."
Blondin made his first appearance at Aston Park, June 8, 1861; at the Birmingham Concert Hall, December, 1869, and March, 1870; at the Reservoir September, 1873, and September, 1878. Mrs. Powell, who was known as the "Female Blondin," was killed at a fête in Aston Park, July 20, 1868, by falling from the high rope.