Kirby's Pools.—A well-known and favourite resort on the outskirt of the borough, on the Bristol Road, and formerly one of the celebrated taverns and tea gardens of past days. The publichouse (the "Malt Shovel") having been extended and partially rebuilt, and the grounds better laid out, the establishment was re-christened, and opened as the Bournbrook Hotel, at Whitsuntide, 1877.
Kossuth.—Louis Kossuth, the ex-dictator of Hungary, was honoured with a public welcome and procession of trades, &c., Nov. 10, 1851, and entertained at a banquet in Town Hall on the 12th. He afterwards appeared here May 7 and 8, 1856, in the role of a public lecturer.
Kyott's Lake.—A pool once existing where now is Grafton Road, Camp Hill. There was another pool near it, known as Foul Lake.
Kyrle Society.—So named after the character alluded to by Pope in his "Moral Essays":
"Who taught that heaven-directed spire to rise?
'The Man of Ross,' each lisping babe replies."
John Kyrle, who died Nov. 11, 1724, though not a native, resided at Ross nearly the whole of his long and loyal life of close on 90 years, and Pope, who often visited the neighbourhood, there became acquainted with him and his good works, and embalmed his memory in undying verse as an example to future generations. A more benevolent lover of his fellowman than Kyrle cannot be named, and a society for cultivating purity of taste, and a delight in aiding the well-being of others, is rightly called after him. The Birmingham Kyrle Society was established in 1880, and frequent paragraphs in the local papers tell us of their doings, at one time cheering the inmates of the institutions where the sick and unfortunate lie, with music and song, and at another distributing books, pictures, and flowers, where they are prized by those who are too poor to purchase. The officers of the society will be pleased to hear from donors, as let contributions of flowers or pictures be ever so many, the recipients are far more numerous. Mr. Walliker, our philanthropic postmaster, is one of the vice-presidents, and the arrangements of the parcel post are peculiarly suited for forwarding parcels.
Lady Well.—There is mention in a document dated 1347 of a "dwelling in Egebaston Strete leading towards God well feld," and there can be no doubt that this was an allusion to the Lady Well, or the well dedicated to the blessed Virgin, close to the old house that for centuries sheltered the priests that served St. Martin's, and which afterwards was called the Parsonage or Rectory. The well spring was most abundant, and was never known to fail. The stream from it helped to supply the moat round the Parsonage, and there, joined by the waters from the higher grounds in the neighbourhood of Holloway Head, and from the hill above the Pinfold, it passed at the back of Edgbaston Street, by the way of Smithfield passage and Dean Street (formerly the course of a brook) to the Manor House moat. The Ladywell Baths were historically famous and, as stated by Hutton, were the finest in the kingdom. The Holy Well of the blessed Virgin still exists, though covered over and its waters allowed to flow into the sewers instead of the Baths, and any visitor desirous of testing the water once hallowed for its purity must take his course down the mean alley known as Ladywell Walk, at the bend in which he will find a dirty passage leading to a rusty iron pump, "presented by Sir E.S. Gooch, Bart., to the inhabitants of Birmingham," as commemorated by an inscription on the dirty stone which covers the spring and its well. God's Well field is covered with workshops, stables, dirty backyards and grimy-looking houses, and the Baths are a timber-yard.
Lambert.—Birmingham had something to do with the fattening of the celebrated Daniel Lambert, the heaviest lump of humanity this country has yet produced, for he was an apprentice to Mr. John Taylor, button maker, of Crooked Lane. His indentures were cancelled through his becoming so fat and unwieldy, and he was sent back to his father, the then governor of Leicester gaol. Daniel died June 21st, 1809, at Stamford, where he was buried; his age was 39, and he weighed 52 stone 11 lb. (at 14 lb. the stone), measuring 9 ft. 4 in. round the body, and 3 ft. 1 in. round the thick of each of his legs.
Lancashire Distress.—The accounts of the Local Fund raised for the relief of the cotton operatives of Lancashire were published Aug. 3, 1863, showing receipts amounting £15,115 4s. 10d.
Lamps.—The number of ordinary lamps in the borough, under the control of the Public Works Department, on the 31st of December, 1882, was 6,591, of which number 1,950 are regulated to consume 5.20 cubic feet, and the remainder, or 4,641, 4.30 cubic feet per hour; their cost respectively inclusive of lighting, cleaning, and extinguishing, was £2 12s. 4-1/2d., and £2 5s. 2-1/4d. per lamp per annum. In addition there are 93 special and 53 urinal lamps.