ance of absolute splendour. Prom Jemmy
Wood's shop to the noble hall of the Midland, or the Joint Stock, is
indeed a long step in advance.

It has often occurred to me that it would be a wise plan for bankers
to divide their counters into distinct compartments, so that one
customer could see nothing of his next neighbour, and hear nothing of
his business. The transactions at a bank are often of as delicate a
nature as the matters discussed in a solicitor's office; yet the one
is secret and safe, and the other is open to the gaze and the ear of
any one who happens to be at the bank at the same time.

In closing this subject, I wish to express my thanks to Mr. S.A.
Goddard for his assistance. His great age, his acute powers of
perception, and his marvellously retentive and accurate memory,
combine to make him, probably, the only living competent witness of
some of the circumstances I have been able to detail; while the ready
manner in which he responded to my request for information merits my
warmest and most grateful acknowledgments.

JOHN WALSH WALSH AND THE ASTON FETES.

No one possessing ordinary habits of observation can have lived in
Birmingham for anything like forty years without being conscious of
the extraordinary difference between the personal and social habits of
the generation which is passing away, and of that which has arisen
to succeed it. Now-a-days, as soon as business is over, Birmingham
people--professional men, manufacturers, shopkeepers, and, indeed, all
the well-to-do classes--hurry off by rail, by tramway, or by omnibus,
to snug country homesteads, where their evenings are spent by their
own firesides in quiet domestic intercourse. A generation ago, things
in Birmingham were very different. Then, shopkeepers lived "on the
premises," and manufacturers, as a rule, had their dwelling houses
in close proximity to their factories. Business, compared with its
present condition, was in a very primitive state. Manufacturers worked
at their business with their men, beginning with them in the morning
and leaving off at the same hour at night. The warehouse closed, and
the work of the day being over, the "master" would doff his apron,
roll down his turned-up shirt sleeves, put on his second-best coat,
and sally forth to his usual smoking-room. Here, in company with a
few old cronies, he solaced himself with a modest jug of ale, and,
lighting his clay pipe, proceeded with great solemnity to enjoy