life, and three pages are required for the titles of the poems it has inspired. The extraordinary number of 20 pages are occupied solely by items commencing with the word "Saint" and really chronicling the multifarious work of our churches.
Then there are other records not official in origin, but in their way equally valuable. Directories begin in 1770 and fill 8 pages. Guides require half the space. Maps fill no less than 14 pages. Information which might in many cases be sought elsewhere in vain, is contained in local and amateur magazines. In these, Birmingham has always been rich, and the air seems to suit them for they live long. To give a few instances, the Central Literary Magazine has been published for forty-five years; the Institute Magazine for thirty-five years; Edgbastonia for thirty-seven; and the 42nd volume of the Transactions of the Birmingham Archæological Society has been published. The Town Crier ceased to exist in 1903 in its 42nd year. The others are still living and vigorous.
Happily our city has long been notable for the industry and care with which local enthusiasts have collected every scrap which they could find, whether in word or picture, relating to its history and life. Among these, the names of Hutton, Hamper, Clarke, Timmins, Joseph Hill, Osborne, Rabone, Malins, Bickley and Wright Wilson deserve special mention. That which was destroyed in the great fire excepted, almost the whole of their collections are in the library. The local newspapers have also for long periods published weekly articles dealing with the same subject, and often illustrated. These are continued even among all the difficulties of the present time, and are valuable as preserving innumerable personal recollections which are full of interest and which could only by this aid have been placed on permanent record. Among those collections may be mentioned thirteen folio and nine quarto volumes of cuttings from local newspapers, chiefly due to the care of Mr. Sam Timmins; nearly fifty volumes of various sizes dealing mainly with the history of Handsworth and the district, collected by Mr. G. H. Osborne; twenty-one volumes of manuscript and other records collected by Dr. Wright Wilson for his "Life of George Dawson," and presented by him; and very numerous collections of views, portraits and maps, many of which are rare or unique. No fewer than ninety-six separate subjects are referred to in the Catalogue as being illustrated by collections of cuttings, gathered together by the care of some one interested therein.
Even so brief a sketch as this must be, of the local treasures of the Reference Library, would be very incomplete without some grateful recognition of the private enthusiasm to which its wealth in local records and reminiscences is so largely due. In many cases the collections accumulated with so much care have been as generously presented to the city as they were laboriously gathered in its interest. No public expenditure and no public exertion could have obtained what has here been garnered in illustration of the annals of our great city; and no public gratitude can exceed the value of the service. It is true that many of the details are mere trifles, but they are trifles which refer to our own work, our own history, and our own familiar streets, and to us, few if any of them can be quite uninteresting. Indeed it is hard to say what fact can be regarded as trifling, when our Chief Librarian has only recently been summoned to produce in a Court of Law a mere play-bill, on the evidence of which a sum of thousands of pounds might have depended.
Many of our literary and other societies have presented their Minute Books and other archives. Among these are the Central Literary Association, the Midland Arts Club, the Clarendon Art Fellowship, and the Dramatic and Literary Club, and it is hoped that other societies will follow their example, and place in safe keeping records of so much interest and value to coining generations.
Some of the absolutely unique possessions of the Reference Library have been incidently mentioned. To these may be added the following:—Autograph letters of Dr. Johnson and of the Withering family; the famous letter of Baskerville to Horace Walpole; manuscript collections of Mr. W. C. Aitken, of Mr. R. J. W. Davison of Moseley, of
