The gild stood at that time at a distance from the town, surrounded with inclosures; the highway to Hales Owen, now New-street, running by the north.  No house could be nearer than those in the High-street.

The first erection, wood and plaister, which had stood about 320 years, was taken down in 1707, to make way for the present flat building.  In 1756, a set of urns were placed upon the parapet, which give relief to that stiff air, so hurtful to the view:  at the same time, the front was intended to have been decorated, by erecting half a dozen dreadful pillars, like so many over-grown giants marshalled in battalia, to guard the entrance, which the boys wish to shun; and, being sufficiently tarnished with Birmingham smoak, may become dangerous to pregnancy.  Had the wings of this building fallen two or three yards back, and the line of the street been preserved by a light palisade, it would have risen in the scale of beauty, and removed the gloomy aspect of the area.

The tower is in a good taste, except being rather too narrow in the base, and is ornamented with a sleepy figure of the donor, Edward the Sixth, dressed in a royal mantle, with the ensigns of the Garter; holding a bible and sceptre.

The lands that support this foundation, and were in the reign of Henry the Eighth, valued at thirty-one pounds per annum, are now, by the advance of landed property, the reduction of money, and the increase of commerce, about 600_l_.

The present governors of this royal donation are

John Whateley, bailiff, Rev.  Charles Newling, Abraham Spooner, esq; Thomas Russell, John Ash, M.D. Richard Rabone, Francis Goodall, Francis Parrott, esq; William Russell, esq; John Cope, dead, Thomas Hurd, Thomas Westley, Wm. John Banner, Thomas Salt, William Holden, Thomas Carless, John Ward, Edward Palmer, esq; Francis Coales,
     AND
Robert Coales.

[Illustration:  Charity School.]

Over this nursery of science presides a chief master, with an annual salary of one hundred and twenty pounds; a second master sixty; two ushers; a master in the art of writing, and another in that of drawing, at forty pounds each:  a librarian, ten:  seven exhibitioners at the University of Oxford, twenty-five pounds each.  Also, eight inferior schools in various parts of the town, are constituted and fed by this grand reservoir, at fifteen pounds each, which begin the first rudiments of learning.

CHIEF MASTERS.

John Brooksby, 1685. ——­ Tonkinson.  John Husted.  Edward Mainwaring, 1730.  John Wilkinson, 1746 Thomas Green, 1759.  William Brailsford, 1766.  Rev. Thomas Price, 1776.

CHARITY SCHOOL: 

COMMONLY,

The BLUE SCHOOL.