It must, I think, have cost him a struggle to part
company with such a man as Mr. Chamberlain—with
one who had put him in the way he should go, and which
led him to such a commanding position of influence
and importance. Anyway, from whatever motive,
he was induced to forsake the rising star in the political
firmament, and to worship Mr. Gladstone, the setting
sun. The sun went down below the horizon, but
we saw how Mr. Schnadhorst continued to work his political
orrery with the major and minor planets, the shooting
stars and comets, that shone at Westminster with such
varied lustre, or wished to shine there if they could.
The Birmingham Belgravia.
Seeing how Birmingham has grown and prospered, it
is interesting to consider what might have been the
result if the town and its outskirts had not been
fairly pleasant for well-to-do people to reside in.
Fortunately, there is one extensive west-end suburb—Edgbaston—which
forms a suitable, healthy, and desirable residential
locality for the Birmingham upper classes. But
for the existence of this well laid out—I
was going to say genteel, but Heaven forbid—neighbourhood,
a very large number of its wealthiest manufacturers
and professional men would doubtless now reside some
distance from the city. An increasing number
of those who work in Birmingham now live—at
least have their houses—outside its limits,
owing to facilities afforded by the railways; but
Edgbaston is still a rich, well-populated suburb within
a very easy distance of the centre of the city.
Mr. Schnadhorst, when he pulled political strings
in Birmingham, regarded Edgbaston as a fine, good
piece of vantage ground from an electoral point of
view, since it kept so many rich residents within
the pale of the town, and added so much to its influential
voting power.
Edgbaston is chiefly, I might almost say entirely,
the property of the Calthorpes, and the late Lord
Calthorpe, also his predecessor, were wise in their
day and generation, and they had agents who were shrewd
and far-seeing. They saw the importance of reserving
Edgbaston and laying it out as an attractive, quiet
suburb, and the late lord at least lived to see it
covered with leasehold residences, many of them—indeed
a very large number of them—of considerable
value and importance. When these leases expire,
as some of them will now before many years are over,
and the noble ground landlord begins to draw in his
net, what a big haul he will make in the way of reversions
of the properties that have been built upon his land!
Some of these Edgbaston houses are not only large
and commodious, but are architecturally handsome and
artistic. Birmingham has been fortunate during
the last thirty or forty years in having two or three
local architects who have not only possessed professional
skill but also taste. The old square, solid,
“money box” houses, so much esteemed by
our fathers, are rarely erected now, but in their place
residences of a more attractive design and artistic
type.
