150 boys, and 50 infants, the original part being reserved for the girls and infants and a new wing built for the boys.  The two are connected by the lofty dining hall, 200ft. long, with tables and seats for 500 children.  Every part of the establishment is on a liberal scale and fitted with the best appliances; each child has its separate bed, and the playgrounds are most extensive.—­The Princess Alice Orphanage, of which the foundation-stone was laid Sept. 19, 1882, has rather more than a Birmingham interest, as it is intended in the first instance for the reception of children from all parts of the country whose parents have been Wesleyans.  In connection with the Wesleyan Thanksgiving Fund, Mr. Solomon Jevons, of this town, made an offer to the committee that if from the fund they would make a grant of L10,000 towards establishing an orphanage in the neighbourhood of Birmingham, he would supplement it by a donation of L10,000.  After due consideration the offer was accepted.  Plans were prepared by Mr. J.L.  Ball for as much of the building as it was proposed immediately to erect, and the contract was let to Messrs. J. Wilson and Sons, of Handsworth.  The sanction of her Majesty the Queen was obtained to call the building the “Princess Alice” Orphanage, in memory of her lamented daughter, the late Princess of Hesse.  The site chosen is about halfway between Erdington and Sutton Coldfield on the Chester Road, and very near to the “Beggar’s Bush.”  Facing the road, though forty yards from it, is the central block of buildings, 250 feet in length, including the master’s house, board room and offices, store rooms, &c., with a large hall, 90 feet by 33 feet, for use as a dining hall, general gatherings, morning prayers, &c., the children’s homes being in cottages at varying distances, so that when the whole twenty-four homes (twelve each for boys and girls) are erected it will be like a miniature village, sundry farm buildings and workshops being interspersed here and there.  Each cottage is intended to be the home of about twenty children, but at first, and until the funds for the maintenance of the orphanage have been increased, the inmates will be limited to the accommodation that can be provided at the central block and the nearest two or three homes, the rest being built as occasion offers.

Oscott College.—­See “Schools,” &c.

Oxford, (Edward).—­The boy Oxford who shot at the Queen, on June 10, 1840, was born here and had worked at several shops in the town.

Oxygen.—­It was on the first of August, 1774, that Dr. Priestley discovered the nature of oxygen or “dephlogisticated air.”  If he could visit Oxygen Street in this town in August of any year, he would probably say that the air there to be breathed required dephlogisticating over and over again.

Packhorses.—­In and about the year 1750 the only method of conveying parcels of goods from here to London was by means of packhorses, the charge being at the rate of L7 to L9 per ton; to Liverpool and Bristol, L5.