Page:Showell's Dictionary of Birmingham.djvu/97

Rh  Furniture.—Judging from some old records appertaining to the history of a very ancient family, who, until the town swallowed it up, farmed a considerable portion of the district known as the Lozells, or Lowcells, as it was once called, even our well-to-do neighbours would appear to have been rather short of what we think necessary household furniture. As to chairs in bedrooms, there were often none; and if the had chimnies, only movable grates, formed of a few bars resting on "dogs." Window-curtains, drawers, carpets, and washing-stands, are not, according to our recollection, anywhere specified ; and a warming-pan does not occur till 1604, and then was kept in the bed-room. Tongs appear as annexations of grates, without poker or shovel; and the family plate-chest was part of bed-room furniture. Stools were the substitutes for chairs in the principal sitting-room, in the proportion of even twenty of the former to two of the latter, which were evidently intended, par distinction, for the husband and wife. 

 Galton.—The family name of a once well-known firm of gun, sword, and bayonet makers, whose town-house was in Steelhouse Lane, opposite the Upper Priory. Their works were close by in Weaman Street, but the mill for grinding and polishing the barrels and blades was at Duddeston, near to Duddeston Hall, the Galton's country-house. It was this firm's manufactory that Lady SelbourneShelburne [sic] refers to in her "Diary," wherein she states that in 1765 she went to a Quaker's "to see the making of guns." The strange feature of members of the peace-loving Society of Friends being concerned in the manufacture of such death-dealing implements was so contrary to their profession, that in 1796, the Friends strongly remonstrated with the Galtons, leading to the retirement of the senior partner from the trade, and the expulsion of the junior from the body. The mansion in Steelhouse Lane was afterwards converted into a banking-house; then used for the purposes of the Polytechnic Institution; next, after a period of dreary emptiness, fitted up as the Children's Hospital, after the removal of which to Broad Street, the old house has reverted to its original use, as the private abode of Dr. Clay.

Gambetta.—The eminent French patriot was fined 2,000 francs for upholding the freedom of speech and the rights of the press, two things ever dear to Liberal Birmingham, and it was proposed to send him the money from here as a mark of esteem and sympathy. The Daily Post took the matter in hand, and, after appealing to its 40,000 readers every day for some weeks, forwarded (November 10, 1877) a draft for £80 17s. 6d.

Gaols.—The Town Gaol, or Lockup, at the back of the Public Office, in Moor-street, was first used in September, 1806. It then consisted of a courtyard, 59 ft. by 30 ft. (enclosed by a 26ft. wall) two day rooms or kitchens. 14 ft. square, and sixteen sleeping cells, 8 ft. by 6 ft. The prisoners' allowance was a pennyworth of bread and a slice of cheese twice a day, and the use of the pump. Rather short commons, considering the 41b. loaf often sold at 1s. The establishment, which is vastly improved and much enlarged, is now used only as a place of temporary detention or lockup, where prisoners are first received, and wait their introduction to the gentlemen of the bench.

The erection of the Borough Gaol was commenced on October 29, 1845, and it was opened for the reception of prisoners, October 17, 1849, the first culprit being received two days afterwards. The estimated cost was put at £51,447, but altogether it cost the town about £90,000, about £70,000 of which has been paid off. In the year 1877, three prisoners contrived to escape; one, John Sutcliffe, who got out on July 25, not being recaptured till the 22nd of January following. The others were soon taken back home. The gaol was taken over 