Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 9.djvu/251

 ii s. ix. MAR. 28, 19H.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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which acknowledged with pride " this great town " as its metropolis, he could not but feel interested in all that concerned its welfare. The " great town " many years later honoured Peel's memory by erecting a statue to him (its second public statue after an interval of over forty-five years since its first was set up) at the junction of Paradise Street, Ann Street, and New Street, at a cost of about 2,000 guineas the work of Peter Hollins. This was unveiled on 27 Aug., 1855, during the mayoralty of Mr. John Palmer, having been cast by Messrs. Elkington & Mason out of more than 3 tons of metal. The railings originally surround- ing it bore clusters of ears of wheat, emble- matical of the repeal of the Corn Laws. More than twenty years afterwards (about the time of the building of the Council House) the position of the statue was slightly altered, consequent upon street changes in the neighbourhood of the Town Hall and Colmore Row (previously Ann Street), and the earlier railings made way for others of a less decorative character. Gloomy and grand, Sir Robert none the less adds a touch of old-world dignity to surroundings reminiscent of lost archi- tectural opportunities, the sombre subject of Birmingham's most easily answered conundrum : " Why is the Town Hall like an orange ? " " Because it has Peel out- side." A model of the statue stood for many years in a long-ago dismantled pavilion at Aston Hall, and it is, I think, recognizable in a photograph now before me of the interior of the Kent Street swimming-bath building, to which apparently it was most inappropriately transferredr

During the twenty years culminating in 1832 the local agitation for the fuller political enfranchisement of the town involved Birm- ingham in a long series of spirited contro- versies and more or less dangerous excite- ments. The ' Birmingham Political Union fo the Protection of Public Rights " (the forerunner of many similar " Unions " in England) was formed, and ran a successful course to ultimate victory. In 1819 the " reformers " had " elected " Sir Charles Wolseley as their Parliamentary representa- tive, but "without lawful authority"; and in course of time Thomas Attwood (1783-1856), a local banker, who had been High Bailiff, emerged into prominence as the accepted leader of the movement, to become known as the " Father of Political Unions." With Joshua Scholefield, he be- came one of the first (two) niGiubers for Birm- ingham on 12 Dec., 1832, after the passing

of the Reform Bill, retiring from Parliament in January, 1840, and dying at Malvern. The Freedom of the City of London was one of the many honours conferred upon him. Newhall Hill, the scene of most of the Union's great meetings, is now built over, and the actual site of the platform was sub- sequently occupied by a Unitarian chapel surrounded by mean streets.

WlLMOT CORFIELD.

(To be continued.)

THE PIED PIPER ONCE MORE. Corre- spondence on this topic began so long ago- as 1872 in ' N. & Q.,' eliciting much of interest in connexion with the antiquity of the legend, and the frequent mention of it in. English or other sources. No very special erudition is required for the disinterring of such references as those in Burton's ' Ana- tomy ' and the ' Epistolse Ho-Elianse.' But Browning did not need to travel far afield to discover a very complete, simple, and humorous version of the story. The first chapter of Prosper Merimee's ' Chronique du Regne de Charles IX.' (1829) gives, in its author's characteristically incisive prose, an account of the tale, which coincides in definite particulars with Browning's render- ing (c. 1842). I shall mention but two. The piper leads the children into a cavern in the side of Koppenberg (Koppelberg) Hill ; and Merimee winds up his narrative with a reference to a settlement of German-speaking aliens in Transylvania who have preserved their native speech, though surrounded by a population whose language is a barbarous gibberish. Both versions, too, are con- veyed in a tone which is describable solely with the help of the French adjective narquois. P. T. L.

" FROM THIS ENORMOUS STATE," ' KlN

LEAR,' II. ii. 163-8 (Cambridge) : And shall find time

From this enormous state, seeking to give Losses their remidies. All weary and o'erwatch'd Take vantage, heavy eyes, not to behold This shameful lodging.

Fortune, good night : smile once more ; turn thy wheel ! [Sleeps.

So the * Cambridge ' editors print ; and a. glance at the textual notes on the passage shows the hopeless failure of the emenda- tions there proposed. The very obvious correction of " shall " to she 'II (in which I have been anticipated by Daniel) is the only one at all worthy of acceptance.

1. The adoption of she'll for "shall," is imperative. Kent is speaking of Cordelia