Rateable Values.—­In 1815 the annual rateable value of property in the borough was totaled at L311,954; in 1824 the amount stood at L389,273, an increase of L77,319 in the ten years; in 1834 the return was L483,774, the increase being L94,501; in 1814 it was L569,686, or an increase of L85,912; in 1854 the returns showed L655,631, the increase, L85,934, being little more than in the previous decennial period.  The next ten years were those of the highest prosperity the building trade of this town has ever known, and the rateable values in 1864 went up to L982,384, an increase of L326,763.  In 1870 a new assessment was made, which added over L112,000 to the rateable values, the returns for 1874 amounting to L1,254,911, an increase in the ten years of L272,527.  In 1877 the returns gave a total of L1,352,554; in 1878 L1,411,060, an increase in the one year of L58,506; but since 1878 the increase has not been so rapid, the average for the next three years being L36,379; and, as will be seen by the following table, the yearly increase of values during the last three years is still less in each of the several parish divisions of the borough:—­

1881 1882 1883

Birmingham parish L985,081 L991,445 L1,001,541
  Yearly increase 18,483 6,364 10,096

Edgbaston parish L179,328 L180,327 L181,552
  Yearly increase 8,474 999 1,225

Aston, part of parish L355,788 L362,337 L365,875
  Yearly increase 9,419 6,549 3,538

Total rateable value of
   the Borough L1,520,179 L1,534,109 L1,548,968
  Yearly increase 36,379 13,912 14,859

Rainfall.—­The mean annual rainfall in the eleven years ending with 1871, in this neighbourhood, was 29.51 inches, in the following eleven years 36.01 inches, the two heaviest years being 1872 with 47.69 inches, and 1882 with 43.06 inches.  The depth of rain registered in the last three months of 1882 (14.93 inches), was the largest for any three consecutive months ever recorded by our painstaking meteorologist, the late Mr. T.L.  Plant, of Moseley.

Ravenhurst.—­The old house at Camp Hill, which gave names to Hurst Street and Ravenhurst Street, leading in the direction of the mansion, where in 1810 there were found a number of coins and tokens of the period of Queen Elizabeth and Charles I., as well as sundry Scotch “bawbees.”

Rea.—­This little river takes its rise among the Lickey Hills, and from certain geological discoveries made in 1883, there is every reason to believe that, in Saxon days, it was a stream of considerable force.  The name Rea, or Rhea, is of Gaelic derivation, and, with slight alteration, it is the name of some other watercourses in the kingdom.  From time to time, alterations have been made in the course of