Hackney Coaches were introduced here in 1775. Hutton says the drivers of the first few earned 30s. per day; those of the present day say they do not get half the sum now. Hansom Cabs, the invention, in 1836, of the architect and designer of our Town Hall, were first put on the stands in 1842.
Half-Holiday.—Ten to twelve hours a day, six days a week, used to be the stint for workpeople here and elsewhere. A Saturday Half-holiday movement was begun in 1851, the first employers to adopt the system being Mr. John Frearson, of Gas Street (late of the Waverley Hotel, Crescent), and Mr. Richard Tangye. Wingfields, Brown, Marshall & Co., and many other large firms began with the year 1853, when it maybe said the plan became general.
Handsworth.—Till within the last thirty or forty years, Handsworth was little more than a pleasant country village, though now a well-populated suburb of Birmingham. The name is to be found in the "Domesday Book," but the ancient history of the parish is meagre indeed, and confined almost solely to the families of the lords of the manor, the Wyrleys, Stanfords, &c., their marriages and intermarriages, their fancies and feuds, and all those petty trifles chroniclers of old were so fond of recording. After the erection of the once world-known, but now vanished Soho Works, by Matthew Boulton, a gradual change came o'er the scene; cultivated enclosures taking the place of the commons, enclosed in 1793; Boulton's park laid out, good roads made, water-courses cleared, and houses and mansions springing up on all sides, and so continuing on until now, when the parish (which includes Birchfield and Perry Barr, an area of 7,680 acres in all) is nearly half covered with streets and houses, churches and chapels, alms-houses and stations, shops, offices, schools, and all the other necessary adjuncts to a populous and thriving community. The Local Board Offices and Free Library, situate in Soho Road, were built in 1878 (first stone laid October 30th, 1877), at a cost of £20,662, and it is a handsome pile of buildings. The library contains about 7,000 volumes. There is talk of erecting public swimming and other baths, and a faint whisper that recreation grounds are not far from view. The 1st Volunteer Battalion of the South Staffordshire Regiment have their head-quarters here. Old Handsworth Church, which contained several carved effigies and tombs of the old lords, monuments of Matthew Boulton and James Watt, with bust of William Murdoch, &c., has been rebuilt and enlarged, the first stone of the new building being laid in Aug, 1876. Five of the bells in the tower were cast in 1701, by Joseph Smith, of Edgbaston, and were the first peal sent out of his foundry; the tenor is much older. The very appropriate inscription on the fourth bell is, "God preserve the Church of England as by law established."
Harborne is another of our near neighbours which a thousand years or so ago had a name if nothing else, but that name has come down to present time with less change than is usual, and, possibly through the Calthorpe estate blocking the way, the parish itself has changed but very slowly, considering its close proximity to busy, bustling Birmingham. This apparent stagnation, however, has endeared it to us Brums not a little, on account of the many pleasant glades and sunny spots in and around it. Harborne gardeners have long been famous for growing gooseberries, the annual dinner of the Gooseberry Growers' Society having been held at the Green Man ever since 1815. But Harborne has plucked up heart latterly, and will not much longer be "out of the running." With its little area of 1,412 acres, and only a population of 6,600, it has built itself an Institute (a miniature model of the Midland), with class rooms and reading rooms, with library and with lecture halls, to seat a thousand, at a cost of £6,500, and got Henry Irving to lay the foundation-stone, in 1879. A Masonic Hall followed in 1880, and a Fire Brigade Station soon after. It has also a local railway as well as a newspaper. In the parish church, which was nearly all rebuilt in 1867, there are several monuments of olden date, one being in remembrance of a member of the Hinckley family, from whose name that of our Inkleys is deducible; there is also a stained window to the memory of David Cox. The practice of giving a Christmas treat, comprising a good dinner, some small presents, and an enjoyable entertainment to the aged poor, was begun in 1865, and is still kept up.
Hard Times.—Food was so dear and trade so bad in 1757 that Lord Dartmouth for a long time relieved 500 a week out of his own pocket. In 1782 bread was sold to the poor at one-third under its market value. On the 1st of July, 1795, the lessee of the Theatre Royal, Mr. McCready, gave the proceeds of the night's performance (£161 8s.) for the benefit of the poor. The money was expended in wheat, which was sold free of carriage. Meat was also very scarce on the tables of the poor, and a public subscription was opened by the High Bailiff to enable meat to be sold at 1d. per lb. under the market price, which then ruled at 3d. to 6d. per lb. In November, 1799, wheat was 15s. per bushel. In May, 1800, the distressed poor were supplied with wheat at the "reduced price" of 15s. per bushel, and potatoes at 8s. per peck. Soup kitchens for the poor were opened November 30, 1816, when 3,000 quarts were sold the first day. The poor-rates, levied in 1817, amounted to £61,928, and it was computed that out of a population of 84,000 at least 27,000 were in receipt of parish relief. In 1819 £5,500 was collected to relieve the distressed poor. The button makers were numbered at 17,000 in 1813, two-thirds of them being out of work. 1825 and 1836 were terrible years of poverty and privation in this town and neighbourhood. In 1838, 380,000 doles were made to poor people from a fund raised by public subscription. In the summer of 1840, local trade was so bad that we have been told as many as 10,000 persons applied at one office alone for free passages to Australia, and all unsuccessfully. Empty houses could be counted by the hundred. There was great distress in the winter of 1853-4, considerable amounts being subscribed for charitable relief. In the first three months of 1855, there were distributed among the poor 11,745 loaves of bread, 175,500 pints of soup, and £725 in cash. The sum of £10,328 was subscribed for and expended in the relief of the unemployed in the winter of 1878-79—the number of families receiving the same being calculated at 195,165, with a total of 494,731 persons.
Harmonies.—See "[Musical Societies]."
Hats and Hatters.—In 1820 there was but one hatter in the town, Harry Evans, and his price for best "beavers" was a guinea and a half, "silks," which first appeared in 1812, not being popular and "felts" unknown. Strangers have noted one peculiarity of the native Brums, and that is their innate dislike to "top hats," few of which are worn here (in comparison to population) except on Sunday, when respectable mechanics churchward-bound mount the chimney pot. In the revolutionary days of 1848, &c., when local political feeling ran high in favour of Pole and Hungarian, soft broad-brimmed felt hats, with flowing black feathers were en regle, and most of the advanced leaders of the day thus adorned themselves. Now, the ladies monopolise the feathers and the glories thereof. According to the scale measure used by hatters, the average size of hats worn is that called 6-7/8, representing one-half of the length and breadth of a man's head, but it has been noted by "S.D.R." that several local worthies have had much larger craniums, George Dawson requiring a 7-1/2 sized hat, Mr. Charles Geach a 7-3/4, and Sir Josiah Mason a little over an 8. An old Soho man once told the writer that Matthew Boulton's head-gear had to be specially made for him, and, to judge from a bust of M.B., now in his possession, the hat required must have been extra size indeed.
Hearth Duty.—In 1663, an Act was passed for the better ordering and collecting the revenue derived from "Hearth Money," and we gather a few figures from a return then made, as showing the comparative number of the larger mansions whose owners were liable to the tax. The return for Birmingham gives a total of 414 hearths and stoves, the account including as well those which are liable to pay as of those which are not liable. Of this number 360 were charged with duty, the house of the celebrated Humphrey Jennens being credited with 25. From Aston the return was but 47, but of these 40 were counted in the Hall and 7 in the Parsonage, Edgbaston showed 37, of which 22 were in the Hall. Erdington was booked for 27, and Sutton Coldfield for 67, of which 23 were in two houses belonging to the Willoughby family. Coleshill would appear to have been a rather warmer place of abode, as there are 125 hearths charged for duty, 30 being in the house of Dame Mary Digby.
Heathfield.—Prior to 1790 the whole of this neighbourhood was open common-land, the celebrated engineer and inventor, James Watt, after the passing of the Enclosure Act being the first to erect a residence thereon, in 1791. By 1794 he had acquired rather more than 40 acres, which, he then planted and laid out as a park. Heathfield House may be called the cradle of many scores of inventions, which, though novel when first introduced, are now but as household words in our everyday life. Watt's workshop was in the garret of the south-east corner of the building, and may be said to be even now in exactly the same state as when his master-hand last touched the tools, but as the estate was lotted out for building purposes in May, 1874, and houses and streets have been built and formed all round it, it is most likely that the "House" itself will soon lose all its historic interest, and the contents of the workshop be distributed among the curiosity mongers, or hidden away on the shelves of some museum. To a local chronicler such a room is as sacred as that in which Shakespeare was born, and in the words of Mr. Sam Timmins, "to open the door and look upon the strange relics there is to stand in the very presence of the mighty dead. Everything in the room remains just as it was left by the fast failing hands of the octogenarian engineer. His well-worn, humble apron hangs dusty on the wall, the last work before him is fixed unfinished in the lathe, the elaborate machines over which his latest thoughts were spent are still and silent, as if waiting only for their master's hand again to waken them into life and work. Upon the shelves are crowds of books, whose pages open no more to those clear, thoughtful eyes, and scattered in the drawers and boxes are the notes and memoranda, and pocket-books, and diaries never to be continued now. All these relics of the great engineer, the skilful mechanic, the student of science, relate to his intellectual and public life; but there is a sadder relic still. An old hair-trunk, carefully kept close by the old man's stool, contains the childish sketches, the early copy-books and grammars, the dictionaries, the school-books, and some of the toys of his dearly-beloved and brilliant son Gregory Watt."
Heraldry.—In the days of the mail-clad knights, who bore on their shields some quaint device, by which friend or foe could tell at sight whom they slew or met in fight, doubtless the "Kings-At-Arms," the "Heralds," and the "Pursuivants" of the College of Arms founded by Richard III. were functionaries of great utility, but their duties nowadays are but few, and consist almost solely of tracing pedigrees for that portion of the community whom our American cousins designate as "shoddy," but who, having "made their pile," would fain be thought of aristocratic descent. In such a Radical town as Birmingham, the study of or and gules, azure and vert, or any of the other significant terms used in the antique science of heraldry, was not, of course, to be expected, unless at the hands of the antiquary or the practical heraldic engraver, both scarce birds in our smoky town, but the least to be looked for would be that the borough authorities should carefully see that the borough coat of arms was rightly blazoned. It has been proved that the town's-name has, at times, been spelt in over a gross of different ways, and if any reader will take the trouble to look at the public buildings, banks, and other places where the blue, red, and gold of the Birmingham Arms shines forth, he will soon be able to count three to four dozen different styles; every carver, painter, and printer apparently pleasing himself how he does it. It has been said that when the question of adopting a coat of arms was on the tapis, the grave and reverend seniors appointed to make inquiries thereanent, calmly took copies of the shields of the De Berminghams and the De Edgbastous, and fitted the "bend lozengy" and the "parti per pale" together, under the impression that the one noble family's cognisance was a gridiron, and the other a currycomb, both of which articles they considered to be exceedingly appropriate for such a manufacturing town as Birmingham. Wiser in their practicability than the gentlemen who designed the present shield, they left the currycomb quarters in their proper sable and argent (black and white), and the gridiron or and gules (a golden grid on a red-hot fire.) For proper emblazonment, as by Birmingham law established, see the cover.