Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 5.djvu/228

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. v. AUG., 1919.

THE MILLION BANK (12 S. v. lSl).The Gentleman's Magazine and London Magazine both record the death on Dec. 13, 1765, of Nathl. Neale, Clerk of Guy's Hospital (which post he held in 1750), and Secretary to the Million Bank. His name appears as such in the Court and City Register for 1759 and 1764, p. 253, where appears a list of the twenty -four " Directors of the Million Bank (office, Nagg's Head Court, Gracechurch Street)," in alphabetical order, including two M.Ps., Sir Richard Glyn, Bart., and Sir W. Beauchamp Proctor, Bart., and such other (then) well-known city merchants and bankers as Bibye Lake, Joseph Martin, and Lee Steere. It follows the Bank of England, East India, South Sea, and Hudson's Bay Companies, and im- mediately precedes the Insurance Com- panies. In 1793 it is given under the heading of " Trading Companies," and before the separate " List of London Bankers," and I should imagine it was more of a trading than a banking institution. It disappeared before 1798.

W. R. WILLIAMS.

The following extract is taken from Lawson's ' History of Banking ' (1850) :

" About the latter end of 1693 there appeared a scheme for a bank, commonly called 'The Million Bank.' It took its rise from a number of London bankers, who lent out money on pledges, agreeing to purchase tickets in King William's Million Lottery, and from thence they were called ' The Company of the Million Bank.' This bank was finally established, and its affairs were conducted by a Board of Directors, consisting of twenty-four members, including a Governor and Deputy- Governor; they subsequently purchased ' many reversions of the Fourteen per Cent, annuities, and permitted many proprietors of annuities to pur- chase their joint stock, which amounted to500,000. They were a partnership by deed, enrolled in Chancery, with a joint stock fund."

ARCHIBALD SPARKE.

I would suggest a search at the Public Record Office, Chancery Lane.

GEORGE SHERWOOD.

'MR. HOWARD,' PORTRAIT OF (12 S. iv. 18). I do not know whether this can be a portrait of John Howard the philan- thropist. I have a stipple (17 in. by 13 in.) representing the philanthropist, sitting in. a chair, holding a scroll in one hand, marked " Plan of Laenrettos." It was engraved by Edmund Scott from a portrait by Mather Brom. He is dressed in the prevailing style.

I have also a pastel (full length) not named, but, showing what is supposed to be Howard, sitting in a chair, by a table, on

which is a MS. relating to Prisons. He hole in one hand a MS. of pome size. It is a oval about 27 in. by 20 in., beautiful! coloured artist unknown.

HOWARD EDWARDS. 2026 Mt. Vernon Street, Philadelphia.

PROVERB : " LET THE WEAKEST GO i THE WALL" (12 S. v. 177). The quotatic from the Rev. George Miller's book wf given at US. x. 78. The period to whic the author refers is not clear, but one ma suppose that it was not earlier than 1540.

W. Carew Hazlitt in his ' English Pr< verbs,' editions 1882 and 1907. writes s.v " The weakest goeth to the wall,"

" The title of a play printed 1600 and 1618. Bi in Scogin's Je*t*, first published in 1540, the phras is, Even the weakest is thrust to the wall.... Tuvill, in his Kxxay* Morali and The.oloyicall, 160! p. 187, speaks of this as That common Proverbe < our owne.

" Sampson. I will take the wall of any man ( maide of the Mountagues.

" Qregorie. That shewes thee a weake slaue, fc the weakest goes to the wall. Romeo and Jidie edit. 1599, sign. A3."

Probably Hazlitt quotes David Erskin Baker's ' Biograhhia Dramatica ' (2nd ed. vol. ii. p. 400, a? to the play, entitled ' Th Weakest goeth to the Wall,' where it i said to be " Anonymous. Acted by th Earl of Oxford, Lord Chamberlain of En land's servants, 4to, 1600, 4to, 1G18. Tb scene is laid in Burgundy."

ROBERT PIERPOINT.

DICKENS' s TOPOGRAPHICAL SLIPS (12 S v. 37, 136, 164, 187). I have no wish to b hypercritical, but the evidence of structure changes at Child's (" Tellson's ") Bank is ver definite, and the late Mr. Hilton Price mug be the preferred authority on all relating t the bank and the changes in its appearance

The allusion in the novel to the cheques i haphazard because it suggests they wei then in common use. The whole graphi reference to the bank is strictly in accor with its appearance, customs, and tradition when the novelist saw it ; but he is at fau] in pre-dating all these suggestions of ag fifty or sixty years.

I derive some satisfaction in having re ceived useful comment from MR. \\ COURTHORPE FORMAN.

ALECK ABRAHAMS.

BOULOGNE : REGISTERS AND EPITAPH; &c. (12 S. v. 181). In answer to the quer initialled J. W. F. I am directed to say thf this Society has in its Great Index copic of the M.I. at Boulogne, transcribed b