~Board Schools.~--See "_School Board_."
~Boatmen's Hall,~ erected on Worcester Wharf, by Miss Ryland, was opened
March 17, 1879.
~Bonded Warehouses.~--Our Chamber of Commerce memoralised the Lords of
the Treasury for the extension of the bonded warehouse system to this
town, in December, 1858, but it was several years before permission was
obtained.
~Books.~--The oldest known Birmingham book is a "Latin Grammar, composed
in the English tongue," printed in London in 1652, for Thomas Underhill,
its author having been one of the masters of our Free School.
~Book Club (The).~--Commenced some few years previous to 1775, at which
time its meetings were held in Poet Freeth's, Leicester Arms,
Bell-street. As its name implies, the club was formed for the purchase
and circulation among the members of new or choice books, which were
sold at the annual dinner, hence the poet's hint in one of his
invitations to these meetings:--
"Due regard let the hammer be paid,
Ply the glass gloomy care to dispel;
If mellow our hearts are all made,
The books much better may sell."
In these days of cheap literature, free libraries, and halfpenny papers,
such a club is not wanted.
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