Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 9.djvu/369

 ii s. ix. MAY 9, 1914. ] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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('N. & Q.,' 11 S. vi. 201), the king of the Ceatas : Gautas : Gotas, according to dialect. He was an important ruler in his day, and, as Widsith places him first, Schiitte's Law requires us to suppose that he was the most important of those whom Eormenric ruled over. The last champion mentioned in Widsith's list of Eormenric's tributaries is Hama, and the lines referring to him and his comrade Wudga certainly seem to indi- cate, as Mr. Chambers says, that Hama was of " greatest special interest " to Widsith.

Dr. Schiitte's Law may, therefore, be asserted to be fully operative in ' Widsith.' The facts upon which this judgment depends were arrived at independently of the valu- able criterion formulated by Dr. Schiitte, misapplied by Dr. Olrik, and rejected by Mr. Chambers.

No investigator has sought to identify the historic Wala the greatest of all the Germanic heroes that Widsith knew ox with " the man of most worship of the world " the world of chivalry and romance.

ALFRED ANSCOMBE.

BIRMINGHAM STATUES AND MEMORIALS.

(See ante, pp. 202, 243, 282, 322.)

' QUEEN VICTORIA,' by Sir Thomas Brock, R.A., the gift of Mr. W. H. Barber, in the centre of the refuge before the Council House, was unveiled on 10 Jan., 1901, a few days only before Her Majesty's death.

There are two Birmingham statues to King Edward : the earlier, by Mr. Alfred Drury, R.A., in the entrance hall of the University buildings at Edgbaston (the gift of Mr. Alderman F. C. Clayton), unveiled by Mrs. Joseph Chamberlain on 27 June, 1912; and the later, by Mr. A. Toft (a native of the town), to the right of Queen Victoria, before the Council House, unveiled by H.R.H. the Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyle, on 23 April, 1913. The city statue, representing the King in field - marshal's uniform and Coronation robes, erected at a cost of 2,700Z., has attached bronze panels bearing life-sized figures symbolical of Peace and Education and Progress. The memorial to the King also includes the provision of a new Children's Hospital at Ladywood.

King Edward, before and after his suc- cession to the Crown, visited Birmingham several times. A visit in 1874 gave occasion for Tenniel's memorable Punch cartoon of

the then Princess of Wales cutting the claws; of the " Brummagem Lion " (Mr. Chamber- lain), the Prince meanwhile regarding the- operation with amusement.

The now vacant site for a statue to the left of Queen Victoria is locally regarded a* reserved for a future statue of King George. Should this surmise prove correct, there would then be three royal statues in a row on a street island of somewhat restricted size. The beautiful Hall of the Victoria Law Courts would seem to be an ideal posi- tion for the Queen's statue, and were King Edward's alone in Victoria Square, it would show to greater advantage than it does at present ; it being of white material, however, its early removal to some situation free from exposure to smoke might well be made a matter for civic consideration. The statues, &c., in Chamberlain Square, by reason of their overcrowding, seem to many also to call for rearrangement.

The unveiling of the latest Birmingham statue that to Bishop Gore is recorded on page 202.

In addition to statues there are other- personal memorials in and near the city. An obelisk to Col. Fred Burnaby, an un- successful Parliamentary Conservative candi- date for Central Birmingham in 1880, is in St. Philip's Gardens. Unveiled by Lord Charles Beresford in 1885, it has at the base a bold medallion bust of the Colonel, sur- mounted by a trophy of arms ; at the back "Burnaby," and at the sides "Khiva 1875" and " Abu Klea 1885."

There are two war memorials. A small' one in Chamberlain Square is to the men of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment of the Soudan Campaign of 1898. It is surmounted by a bronze antelope, the badge of the regi- ment. The larger, by Mr. A. Toft, in Cannon Hill Park, consists of a bronze group to Birmingham men who fell during the Boer War in South Africa.

Among busts of public men is that of John Rogers (1500-55), the friend and helper of Tindal, and first martyr of the Marian persecution to be burnt at Smithfield. It is in St. John's Church, Deritend, of which part of Birmingham Rogers was a native. Others are to David Cox (1783-1859),. painter (buried at Harborne) ; to Mendels- sohn, whose ' Elijah ' was first produced in Birmingham at a performance of the Musical Festival of 26 Aug., 1846; to William Scholefield, M.P. for the Borough 1847-67 ; and to Samuel Timmins and George Dawson-