~Fishmongers' Hall.~--Not being satisfied with the accommodation provided for them in the Fish Market, the Fish and Game Dealers' Association, at their first annual meeting (Feb. 13, 1878), proposed to erect a Fishmongers' Hall, but they did not carry out their intention.
~Flogging.~--In "the good old days," when George the Third was King, it was not very uncommon for malefactors to be flogged through the streets, tied to the tail end of a cart. In 1786 several persons, who had been sentenced at the Assizes, were brought back here and so whipped through the town; and in one instance, where a young man had been caught filching from the Mint, the culprit was taken to Soho works, and in the factory yard, there stripped and flogged by "Black Jack" of the Dungeon, as a warning to his fellow-workmen. This style of punishment would hardly do now, but if some few of the present race of "roughs" could be treated to a dose of "the cat" now and then, it might add considerably to the peace and comfort of the borough. Flogging by proxy was not unknown in some of the old scholastic establishments, but whipping a scarecrow seems to have been the amusement on February 26th. 1842, when Sir Robert Peel, at that day a sad delinquent politically, was publicly flogged in elligy.
~Floods~--The milldams at Sutton burst their banks, July 24, 1668, and many houses were swept away.--On the 24th November, 1703, a three days' storm arose which extended over the whole kingdom; many parts of the Midlands being flooded and immense damage caused, farmers' live stock especially suffering. 15,000 sheep were drowned in one pan of Gloucestershire; several men and hundreds of sheep near to Worcester; the losses in Leicestershire and Staffordshire being also enormous. Though there is no local record respecting it here, there can be little doubt that the inhabitants had their share of the miseries.--July 2, 1759, a man and several horses were drowned in a flood near Meriden.-- Heavy rains caused great floods here in January, 1764.--On April 13, 1792, a waterspout, at the Lickey Hills, turned the Rea into a torrent. --The lower parts of the town were flooded through the heavy rain of June 26, 1830.--There were floods in Deritend and Bordesley, Nov. 11, 1852.--June 23, 1861, parts of Aston, Digbeth, and the Parade were swamped.--Feb. 8, 1865, Hockley was flooded through the bursting of the Canal banks; and a simmilar accident to the Worcester Canal, May 25, 1872, laid the roads and gardens about Wheeley's Road under water.-- There were very heavy rains in July and October, 1875, causing much damage in the lower parts of the town.--Aug. 2 and 3, 1879, many parts of the outskirts were flooded, in comparatively the shortest time in memory.