opening the British Museum on Sundays.  The Reference Library and Art Gallery commenced to be opened on Sundays, April 28, 1872, and they are well frequented.  Sunday labour in the local Post Offices was stopped Aug. 10, 1873.  In 1879 a society was formed for the purpose of delivering lectures, readings, and addresses of an interesting nature, on the Sunday evenings of the winter season, the Town Hall, Board Schools, and other public buildings being utilised for the purpose (the first being held in the Bristol Street Schools, Oct. 19, 1879), and very popular have they been, gentlemen of all sects and parties taking part, in the belief that

  A Sabbath well spent
  Brings a week of content.

In 1883, during an inquiry as to the extent of drunkenness on the Sabbath, it was shown that the county of Warwick (including Birmingham) was remarkably clear, as out of a population of 737,188 there had only been 348 convictions during 1882.  For Staffordshire, with a population of 980,385, the convictions were 581.  Northumberland, 687 convictions out of 434,074.  Durham, 1,015 out of 867,586.  Liverpool 1,741 out of 552,425.  Manchester, 1,429 out of 341,508.

Sutton Coldfield, on the road to Lichfield, is celebrated even more for its park than its antiquity.  The former was left to the town by the Bishop of Exeter (John Harman), otherwise known as Bishop Vesey, who was a native of Sutton, and whose monument is still to be seen in the old Church.  He procured a charter of incorporation in 1528, and also founded the Grammar School, and other endowed charities, such as the Almshouses, the Poor Maidens’ Portions, &c., dying in 1555, in his 103rd year.  Thirty years’ back, the park contained an area of 2,300 acres, but a small part was sold, and the railways have taken portions, the present extent, park and pools, being estimated at 2,034 acres, the mean level of which is 410 feet above the sea level.  A good length of Icknielde Street, or the Old Roman Road, is distinctly traceable across a portion of the park.  King John visited Sutton manor-house in April, 1208.  On the 18th of October, 1642, Charles I. reviewed his Staffordshire troops here, prior to the battle of Edgehill, the spot being long known as “The King’s Standing.”  The mill-dams at Sutton burst their banks July 24, 1668, and many houses were swept away.  The population is about 8,000, and the rateable value is put at L50,000, but as, through the attraction of the park, the town is a very popular resort, and is rapidly increasing, it may ultimately become a place of importance, worthy of municipal honours, which are even now being sought.  The number of visitors to the park in the Whit-week of 1882, was 19,549; same week in 1883, it was 11,378; in 1884, it was 17,486; of whom 14,000 went on the Monday.