380 CITY OF WORCESTER.

bands, was but 9,183; eighty years ago it had increased to only 13,000, but at the present time there are not many short of 35,000 souls here, the increase in the last decade having been unusually great, by the accession of manufactures, workshops, and railways. In most of the suburbs little towns are rising, and in all respects Worcester now seems bent on keeping pace with the times. We have an active and popular Board of Guardians, of which Mr. Close is chairman; an Agricultural Society, which only requires amalgamation with its offshoots to render it successful; an Architectural Society and a Naturalist Field Club, whose excursions in the summer are sources of much enjoyment; an Archaeological Club; Ragged Schools and Industrial Homes, worthy of all support; Lying-in Charity, Prisoners' Relief Society, and many other lesser institutions. W. Webb, Esq., is the present Mayor of the city.

Among the public buildings and institutions are - the Guildhall, built in 1723, from the designs of Mr. T. White, a native; the Market-house opposite, which has been re-built several times within living memory: the Shirehall, erected in 1835, at a cost of £30,000; the Museum (one of the most complete out of London), established 1835-6; Post-office, nearly opposite, corner of Pierpoint Street; Infirmary, built in 1770, but now greatly enlarged; City and County Gaol, which has been constantly enlarging ever since it was first raised in 1809 ; police stations, separate, for city and county; Union Workhouse, on a high and healthy site at Shrub Hill; railway station at Shrub Hill, and smaller one in Foregate Street, centre of the city; Dispensary, Eye Hospital, and by and bye a noble new Orphan Asylum; a College for the blind sons of gentlemen, admirably conducted by the Rev. R. H. Blair; Hop, Cattle, and Corn Markets, with abundant accommodation for the trades; a School of Art, established in 1851; a Music Hall, baths, club houses for ladies and gentlemen, and model dwellings for the poor; the old City Library, in Pierpoint Stftet; ancient cross-timbered houses in Friar Street, New