The First Bankers--Middleton & Campbell, predecessors of Coutts & Co.,
"at The Three Crowns in the Strand"--Patrick and John Coutts--Patrick
and Thomas Coutts in London--Death of James Coutts--Enter,
Thomas Coutts--Letter by Him--His Stern Character--Married to
Harriot Mellon--Susan Starkie and "The Three Graces"--Sir Francis
Burdett--Angela Georgina Burdett--The Duchess of St Albans--Anecdotes
of Thomas Coutts--His Personal Appearance--Interior of the Bank--The
Chinese Wall-Paper--The Adelphi Chapel--Illustrious Customers of
Messrs Coutts--Partners in the Firm--The Wills of Thomas Coutts
and the Duchess of St Albans--The Savage Club--Thomas Hardy--E.L.
Blanchard.
QUEEN ELIZABETH "was particularly kind to the citizens, and borrowed
money of them on all occasions." At first sight this may not seem a
compliment, since monarchs have not always been too particular in the
matter of the repayment of their loans. Queen Elizabeth, however,
was a good borrower, and the Goldsmiths Company--employed by her in
these transactions--drank annual libations to her memory, out of a
silver cup which she had presented to them, for many years after her
decease. But "the business of goldsmiths," as Pennant has pointed
out, "was confined to the buying and selling of plate, and foreign
coins of gold and silver, melting them, and coining others at the
mint. The banking was accidental, and foreign to their institution.
Regular banking by private people resulted, in 1643, from the calamity
of the time, when the seditious spirit was incited by the arts of the
parliamentary leaders. The merchants and tradesmen, who before trusted
their cash to their servants and apprentices, found that no longer
safe; neither did they dare to leave it in the mint at the Tower, by
reason of the distress of Majesty itself, which before was a place of
public deposit." In the year 1645, the goldsmiths added banking to
their business. The first regular banker was Thomas Child, goldsmith,
of Fleet Street, who began in this way soon after the Restoration. "He
was the father of the profession, a person of large fortune and most
respectable character."[46]
The shops of the goldsmiths and bankers were, of course, situated in
the city of London until, in 1692, the firm of Middleton & Campbell was
established in St Martin's Lane. George Middleton and John Campbell
were the predecessors of the great banking firm known as Coutts &
Co., whose premises in the Strand occupied part of the New Exchange
and the Adelphi for one hundred and sixty odd years. Campbell, who
died in 1712, and was buried in the churchyard of St Paul's, Covent
Garden, left his "faithful and honest partner" as executor to his four
children until the coming of age of his eldest son, William. In 1729,
the youngest son of John Campbell became a partner. Until 1737, the
business was carried on in St Martin's Lane, then the centre of the
artistic world of London. In that year Messrs Middleton & Campbell
occupied the middle house of a row of eleven which had been built on
the site of "Britain's Burse." The firm did not become "bankers" until
1740, although it had transacted the usual banking business, together
with an army and commission agency, for many years previously. In
1712-13 Middleton & Campbell had acted as agents for Queen Anne's 4th
Troop of Guards. The name of the firm was changed to that of Coutts in
1760, and it is by this honoured name that it is likely to be known so
long as it exists--and that will be so long as banking flourishes as
an institution in this country. The original sign of the house, three
crowns, is still used on the cheques, surrounded by the words: "At the
Three Crowns in the Strand, next door to the Globe Tavern, A.D. 1692."
The story of the change in the name of the firm is curious and
interesting. This history being more particularly concerned with Thomas
Coutts, and his establishment in the Strand, it is not necessary to go
further into his genealogy than to state that the great banker was a
descendant of William Coutts and his wife, Janet Ochiltree, of Montrose.
One Patrick Coutts, desirous of making a name for himself, left
Montrose and went to Edinburgh, where he traded as a general merchant,
importing and exporting goods, in 1696. He died in 1704, a man of
probity and wealth. He left his great fortune to his son John, who
also flourished in Edinburgh as a merchant. "The business initiated by
John Coutts was a combination of general dealing and the negotiation
of foreign bills of exchange. He also imported and sold corn, either
on his own account or as a commission agent. But in proportion as
he advanced in business and acquired spare capital, as well as the
confidence of persons who deposited with him money at interest, he
appears to have laid himself out chiefly as a negotiator of bills, a
species of traffic which as yet had not been appropriated by banks, and
demanded much knowledge and shrewdness. Whether from family connections
or otherwise, he became acquainted with people of good social standing,
through whom he widened his base of operations. For some time he had
for a partner Thomas Haliburton, of Newmains (who through a daughter
became the great-grandfather of Sir Walter Scott); next we find him
taking as partner Archibald Trotter, son of Trotter, of Castleshiel;
then by another change of firm he was associated with his cousin,
Robert Ramsay, brother of Sir Alexander, of Balmain. As further
marking the esteem in which he was held by the aristocratic circles of
Edinburgh, he formed an intimacy with Sir John Stuart, of Allanbank,
whose sister he married."[47]
John Coutts, who was Provost of Edinburgh in 1742-43, died in 1751,
leaving four sons, Patrick, John, James, and Thomas, who inherited
his business and great wealth. Thomas Coutts, with whom we are more
directly concerned, was born on September 7, 1735. Patrick and Thomas
Coutts, and their cousin, Thomas Stephen, opened a branch establishment
in London, in Jeffrey's Square, St Mary Axe, under the name of Coutts,
Stephen, Coutts, & Co.; John and James Coutts, remaining in the North,
acted as the correspondents of the London firm, and bought and sold
goods on commission. In his _Memoirs of a Banking House_, Sir William
Forbes says: "Some years they made large profits, which they as often
lost in others, owing to the fluctuation of the markets and the
bankruptcy of many of those with whom they dealt. Indeed, I have often
thought it not a little singular that a banking house, which of all
branches of business seems peculiarly to require caution, and which
ought, as much as possible, to be kept clear of hazard or speculation,
should have chosen to embark so largely in the corn trade, which is
perhaps the most liable to sudden fluctuation, and in which no human
prudence or insurance can guard the adventures from frequent loss."
The house in the Strand was carried on under the style of Campbell &
Bruce, under the sole control of George Campbell from 1751 to July,
1755. James Coutts, the third son of Lord Provost John Coutts, having
become acquainted with George Campbell during one of his visits to
London--for his main business was with the Edinburgh house--married, in
1754, Campbell's niece, Mary Peagrim, and was taken into partnership
by the Strand banker, whereupon he withdrew from his old firm, and
Campbell & Coutts came into existence at No. 59 Strand. On the death of
his partner, in 1761, James Coutts took his brother, Thomas, into the
firm. James Coutts died in 1778, leaving Thomas in full control of the
business, and his only daughter inherited his fortune of £70,000.
Thomas Coutts, who ultimately became known as "the richest man in
London," was a great character. He had received an excellent training
at the High School in Edinburgh, and this, together with his vast
experience in correspondence, "enabled him to appreciate literary
composition, and to express himself with accuracy." He survived all
his brothers, and became the first banker in London. His munificence,
no less than his wealth, admitted him to the highest circles. Together
with Sir Walter Scott, his friend, and kinsman, through the Stuarts of
Allanbank, he received the freedom of the city of Edinburgh. Although
he was always ready to lend a hand to genuine distress, he was very
keen in money matters, and sternly resented any attempt at what he
considered imposition. The following letter, written in his eightieth
year, is characteristic of his attitude when replying to those who
besought unwarranted favours. It was addressed to John Pinkerton, the
Scottish antiquary and historian, who had asked the banker to recommend
him as a travelling companion, and to forego the interest on a bond:--
"Strand, _January 31, 1815_.
"I have received the favour of your letter, asking me to withdraw
the claim for interest on the sum I lent on the security of a house;
but the footing upon which you have put the request is one I have
uniformly, at all times, thought to be such as I ought to reject, and
have rejected accordingly. The bankers in Scotland and the county
banks in England are on a different plan from those of London. They
circulate their own notes and make payments in them. We give out no
notes of our own, and if we were to give interest at even one per
cent. per annum, we should be losers by our business.
"We do not consider ourselves as being obliged to any one person who
places his money in our hands, however considerable. It is to the
aggregate and general mass of society that we owe our situation, and
to the credit our prudence and attention has obtained for us; and
people deposit their money in our hands for their own advantage and
convenience, not from favour to us, nor do we desire to have it on any
other terms. Probably you may not understand the explanation I have
spent time in making, which I can very ill spare, and it may therefore
answer no purpose, but it satisfies myself, and I wish to show equal
attention to all my employers, whether they have large or small sums
in my hands, which indeed hardly ever occupies my attention.
"My attention is fully engrossed in doing business with honour and
regularity, leaving the rest to the common chance and course of
things. It surprises me that, though it every day appears that there
is very little truth published in the newspapers, yet people will
still believe what they read, especially abuse, or what they think is
against the character or prudence of the person treated of. I saw some
paragraphs, and heard of more, of what I had done for Mr Kean, in all
which there was not a word of truth; though I see no reason why I
might not, without offence to any one, have given Mr Kean anything I
pleased. In doing any little matter in my power for an individual, I
must add, I never had any view to celebrity, with the present age or
with posterity.
"If I should know of any gentleman wanting a travelling companion
abroad, I shall mention you to him, but it seldom happens that I am
applied to in such matters."
The Mr Kean alluded to in this letter is, of course, the great actor.
But, as Edmund Kean was at the zenith of his power and success in
1814-15, we may indeed readily believe that "there was not a word of
truth" in the rumour that "Mrs Coutts visited Kean and made him a gift
of fifty pounds," which was circulated at the time. Moreover, it was
not until March 2, 1815, that the marriage of Thomas Coutts to Harriot
Mellon was announced. Miss Mellon was the second wife of the banker,
and her marriage was a romantic one. Before dealing with it, however,
it is necessary to refer to the first Mrs Coutts, about whom a good
deal of mystery has been made. The simple truth is that she came of
"poor but honest parents" in Lancashire. Her name was Susan Starkie,
and we have it on the authority of the Earl of Dundonald (1775-1860)
that she was "a most respectable, modest, handsome young woman."
Another writer says that, even near the day of her death, although she
was then an old woman, with grown-up grandchildren, "she exhibited
traces of having possessed some personal advantages in her youth, her
large black eyes retaining their brightness, although rather stern
and wild in their expression." She is interesting, as far as this
story is concerned, inasmuch as Thomas Coutts met her in the house in
the Strand, where she was in charge of his brother's daughter. After
the marriage, Mr and Mrs Thomas Coutts resided in St Martin's Lane,
and there "my brother and myself have frequently called to visit"
them, wrote the Earl of Dundonald, who added that "her good sense,
amiable disposition, and exemplary good conduct endeared her to all
her husband's family, and commanded the respect of everyone who knew
her." Of this union there were three daughters, who were known as "the
Three Graces." The first, Susan, married the third Earl of Guildford;
the second, Frances, was the second wife of John, first Marquis of
Bute; while Sophia was married to Sir Francis Burdett, Bart., M.P.,
the well-known politician, and hero of reform. Sir Francis and Lady
Burdett had six children, a son and five daughters, the youngest of
whom, Angela Georgina, born on April 21, 1814, became the Baroness
Burdett-Coutts, whose death, on December 30, 1906, has been so greatly
deplored. This lady received, on the death of the Duchess of St
Albans--Harriot Mellon, the second wife of Thomas Coutts--the entire
estate which the banker had, by his will, placed at the disposal of the
Duchess.
The Duchess of St Albans, who, as Mrs Coutts, must have been a frequent
visitor at No. 59 Strand, made her first appearance on the stage
as Lydia Languish in _The Rivals_, on January 31, 1795, at Covent
Garden, she being then twenty years of age. Her first husband died
on February 24, 1822, and was buried at Wroxton Abbey, Oxfordshire,
"his funeral being attended by many of the nobility and gentry of the
district, while the carriages of their royal highnesses the Dukes of
York, Clarence, and Sussex accompanied the procession." She was then
importuned by William Aubrey de Vere, the ninth Duke of St Albans, to
whom she was married on June 16, 1827. The story of this courtship
has been told by Sir Walter Scott: "Mrs Coutts, with the Duke of St
Albans and Lady Charlotte Beauclerk, called to take leave of us. When
at Abbotsford his suit throve but coldly. She made me, I believe, a
confidant in sincerity. She had refused him twice, and decidedly: he
was merely on the footing of friendship. I urged it was akin to love.
She allowed she might marry the Duke, only she had at present not the
least intention that way. It is the fashion to attend Mrs Coutts'
parties, and to abuse her. I have always found her a kind, friendly
woman, without either affectation or insolence in the display of her
wealth; most willing to do good if the means be shown her. She can be
very entertaining too, and she speaks without scruple of her stage
life. So much wealth can hardly be enjoyed without ostentation." In
Lockhart's _Life of Scott_ there is a long account of a visit paid to
Sir Walter by Mrs Coutts, who arrived at Abbotsford with a train of
three carriages each drawn by four horses. Her retinue consisted of
her future lord, the Duke of St Albans, one of his grace's sisters,
a sort of lady-in-waiting, two physicians, and besides other menials
of every grade, two bed-chamber women for Mrs Coutts' own person--she
requiring to have this article also in duplicate, because in her
widowed condition she was fearful of ghosts. There were already
assembled at Abbotsford several ladies of high rank, who, witnessing
this ostentation on the part of an actress who, when a girl, had been
chased from her home by a vulgar virago of a mother, took it into
their heads to snub her. "The good-natured Sir Walter, pained at the
conduct of his noble guests, took the youngest and prettiest of them
aside, and lectured her on her manners. The beautiful peeress thanked
him for treating her as his daughter; and one by one the other ladies
being made to run the gauntlet of Sir Walter's rebukes, Mrs Coutts
was speedily set at ease. The narrative is curious as a typical
illustration of the sentiments with which the society to which Harriet
Mellon claimed to belong regarded her."[48]
The anecdotes which have been related of Thomas Coutts are innumerable
and--unreliable. One of the most extraordinary of them is the
following:--"In the early part of his career, Mr Coutts, anxious
to secure the cordial co-operation of the heads of the various
banking-houses in London, was in the habit of frequently inviting them
to dinner. On one of these occasions the manager of a City bank, in
retailing the news of the day, accidentally remarked that a certain
nobleman had applied to his firm for the loan of £30,000, and had been
refused. Mr Coutts listened, and said nothing; but the moment his
guests had retired, about ten o'clock in the evening, he started off
to the house of the nobleman mentioned, and requested the honour of an
interview with his lordship next day. On the following morning, the
nobleman called at the bank. Mr Coutts received him with the greatest
politeness, and taking thirty one-thousand pound notes from a drawer,
presented them to his lordship. The latter, very agreeably surprised,
exclaimed, 'But what security am I to give you?' 'I shall be satisfied
with your lordship's note of hand,' was the reply. The 'I.O.U.' was
instantly given, with the remark, 'I find I shall only require for the
present £10,000; I therefore return you £20,000, with which you will be
pleased to open an account in my name.' This generous, or, as it may
more truly be called, exceedingly well-calculated, act of Mr Coutts
was not lost upon the nobleman, who, in addition to paying in within
a few months £200,000 to his account, the produce of the sale of an
estate, recommended several high personages to patronise the bank in
the Strand. Among new clients who opened accounts there was King George
III."
This absurd story had its origin in the financial adventures of one
Alexander Trotter, Paymaster of the Navy, who, despite the facts that
his salary was a mere five hundred a year and that he had no other
means, passed some fifteen million pounds through Coutts' Bank and
speculated hugely on the Stock Exchange, his transactions amounting
in one day to £300,000. In giving evidence in the trial of Lord
Melville, the treasurer of the Navy, in 1806, he said: "I certainly
made use of that part which was not likely to be claimed for my own
benefit, generally by lending it at interest, and at times by investing
it in Exchequer or Navy Bills, or other Government securities. The
whole profit and emolument derived from that mode of laying out the
money were entirely my own." He gave as his reason for passing the
money through his private account, instead of through the Bank of
England, that, after the removal of the Navy Office from Broad Street
to Somerset Place, it was "safer and more convenient to give orders
on a bank in the Strand." He also affirmed that he never drew for
a million of money but once in his life, "And that money went into
the hands of Coutts, for I drew a draft, as usual, upon the Bank of
England, but instead of giving the draft to Coutts, I gave it to a
clerk, who carried it to the bank, and, the notes being divided into a
great number of small notes, he took them to Coutts"--a very singular
proceeding. Lord Melville stated that, to the best of his recollection,
"He never authorised the application of any of the Navy money for his
own benefit or advantage, but that, owing to the way in which the
pay-master had blended his own money and the public money, it was
impossible to ascertain with precision whether the advances he had made
to the treasurer were from one source or the other." An important point
in the trial turned upon the disposal of a certain sum of £30,000, and
it could not be determined as to whether the money came from the Navy,
or, as a loan, from Messrs Coutts. Hence arose the apocryphal story of
the staid banker, to whom caution was second nature, wishing to lend
this large amount on the frail security of an I.O.U.
As for the stories about people who are supposed to have given
Thomas Coutts a guinea, as a consequence of his shabby appearance,
they are too numerous for repetition. The most circumstantial is the
following:--"Mr Coutts used to make periodical visits to a town in the
vicinity of the country seat of one of his married daughters. On one
of these occasions he had attracted the attention of a benevolent old
gentleman, who, noticing the neat but somewhat worn apparel of the
eminent banker, imagined that he had most probably seen better days,
but that his actual financial condition was not very flourishing.
The last time they met was Christmas time; and the benevolent old
gentleman, no doubt warmed up with the prospects of the festivities of
the season, dropped a guinea into the hand of Mr Coutts as he passed
quickly by him, bidding him get a good dinner. Having discovered
the name of his benefactor, Mr Coutts soon after invited him to his
house, where he made himself known to him, and related the anecdote
to his guests, letting them know how he had the guinea given to him,
and saying he intended keeping it." This story of the guinea gathered
strength with the years, one of the versions being that when the banker
was in Brighton, visiting the Prince Regent, to whom he occasionally
acted as financial adviser, he was sitting on the front when a lady,
observing "his dejected appearance and shabby apparel, gave him a
crown with which to get some breakfast, and promised to get her friends
to help to buy him a dinner. The crown, of course, proved to be a crown
token piece issued from the Coutts' Bank at the sign of 'The Three
Crowns in the Strand,' but when the lady returned with her friends,
and was just about to give the poor man his dinner money, the Prince
Regent ran out from the pavilion, and slapping him on the back, called
out, 'Tom Coutts, my boy, we have fined you a bottle for leaving your
glass!'"
[Illustration: NORTHUMBERLAND HOUSE, FROM THE GARDENS.]
According to Mrs Cornwall Baron-Wilson, Thomas Coutts was "a tall,
thin, spare figure, and his clothes, always ill-fitting, bore that
appearance of being rubbed at the seams, which reveals the 'business
coat' of an office. He was often mistaken for an indigent person,
and used to enjoy the mistake of all things." There is probably
some little exaggeration in this, but the banker, most certainly,
was not extravagant in his dress. Even if the following anecdote is
not strictly accurate, there is, no doubt, some truth in it:--"Mr
Coutts, from his too strict attention to the bank, felt his appetite
diminished; and, in order to afford him a little exercise, his
physician ordered him to walk daily after the bank closed to a
chemist's, who resided at some distance from the Strand, to have
some tonic preparation made up. So quiet and unassuming was he in
his manners, that he always made way for everyone who came while
he was at the shop, so that they might be served before him; and,
with his fair, delicate countenance, spare frame, and very simple
dress, no strangers guessed that they were pushing aside the opulent
Mr Coutts. A kind-hearted, liberal man, a merchant--who used to quit
his counting-house about the same time that Mr Coutts left the bank,
and who had chanced to be in the chemist's shop two or three times at
the hour when the latter came there--had remarked him, and from his
retiring, gentle appearance and actions, concluded he was a reduced
gentleman whose mind was superior to his means. Accordingly, this
charitable merchant resolved to administer to the necessities of the
shrinking, modest individual; and, one day, having sealed up a sum of
money for the purpose, he went to the chemist's shop, where he remained
a length of time, waiting anxiously for the appearance of the latter,
who, however, on that day did not come for the tonic, being probably
too much engaged in distributing thousands. The stranger, being at
length tired of waiting, and feeling ashamed of occupying a place
in the shop so long, told the chemist how the absence of the pale,
indigent, elderly gentleman had prevented his intended donation. The
chemist, in amazement, said: 'And you really meant to offer pecuniary
aid to that person, sir? Have you no idea who he is?' 'None,' said
the other, 'but I conclude he is some gentlemanly man in distressed,
or, at least, reduced circumstances.' 'You shall judge, sir, as to his
circumstances--that unassuming, quiet individual is Thomas Coutts!'"[49]
Part of the premises of the bank has been occupied since the removal
of Messrs Coutts--in 1904, to No. 440 Strand--by the London County
Council. The number is 59, and the upper part is much the same as it
was in 1768, when it was erected by the brothers Adam. The house then
contained "some good marble chimney-pieces of the Cipriani and Bacon
school. The dining-room is hung with Chinese subjects on paper, sent to
Coutts by Lord Macartney, while on his embassy to China in 1792-95. In
another room is a collection of portraits of the early friends of the
wealthy banker, including the portrait of Dr Armstrong, the poet, by
Sir Joshua Reynolds. The strong rooms, or vaults of the house--'which
alone cost £10,000'--will repay an endeavour to obtain a sight of
them. Here, in a succession of cloister-like avenues, are stored in
boxes of all shapes, sizes, and colours, patents, title-deeds, plate,
etc., of many of the nobility and gentry of Great Britain."[50] The
Adams mantel-pieces and some of their doors were transferred to No.
440 Strand; and here the board-room--an apartment of drawing-room
appearance which is in strange contrast to the busy thoroughfare
below--is hung with the Chinese wall-paper which, despite its hundred
and more years of age, looks perfectly new. During the building of
the Adelphi, Coutts, in order to prevent the interruption of the
view from the back part of the premises, made a stipulation with the
Adams that Robert Street should be so planned as to form a kind of
framework for the fine view of the hills beyond the Thames. The land
beyond John and William streets was then occupied by the strong-rooms,
"connected underground with the office, and built only to the level
of the Strand. When it became necessary to enlarge" the premises,
Coutts "procured a special Act of Parliament for throwing an arch over
William Street. It was recognised as a good omen that, on the day of
opening these improvements, Nelson sent to Mr Coutts for security the
diamond aigrette which had been presented to him by the Sultan."[51] In
James Street--now covered, with William Street, in the general name of
Durham House Street, stretching from the Strand to John Street--was the
Adelphi Chapel, built by a congregation of Particular Baptists about
1777, and subsequently sold by them to the Calvinistic Baptists. Later
on, an Independent congregation occupied the building until it became
absorbed in the banking-house, and, until the removal of Messrs Coutts,
it was called "the chapel."
Many names, famous in all ranks of life, are registered in the accounts
of the customers of Messrs Coutts. Taking them at random, they include
Pitt, Lord Londonderry, Sir Thomas Lawrence, Sir Walter Scott, the Duke
of Wellington, Nelson, Lord Bute, Dr Johnson, C.J. Fox, Lord Grenville,
Lord Macartney, Pope, Benjamin West, Lord George Gordon, Dr Armstrong,
Mrs FitzHerbert, Charles Dickens, Livingstone, Alfred Tennyson, and
Henry Irving. Kings George III. and IV., and William IV., banked here,
as did Queen Victoria. Messrs Coutts are also the bankers of King
Edward VII.--who also kept an account at No. 59 when he was Prince of
Wales--of Queen Alexandra, of the Queen of Spain, and of the King of
Portugal.
The partners in the bank are, with the exception of the Hon. W.F.D.
Smith, of Scottish descent. On February 23, 1906, the capital was
registered as £600,000, distributed as follows:--
William Rolle Malcolm, Lord A. Campbell,
G.J. Marjoribanks, and the Earl of
Harrowby, as trustees for the persons
interested under the will of Harriot,
Duchess of St Albans £223,600
Ronald Malcolm and G.J. Marjoribanks
(jointly) 82,900
Archibald Dudley Ryder, Edward Dudley
Ryder, and the Earl of Harrowby 82,700
William Rolle Malcolm 53,000
The Earl of Harrowby 36,500
George John Marjoribanks 40,000
Lord Archibald Campbell 31,700
The Baroness Burdett-Coutts 21,100
The Hon. F.W.D. Smith 10,000
Ronald Malcolm 10,000
Archibald Dudley Ryder 4,250
The Hon. Edward Dudley Ryder 4,250
--------
£600,000
Thomas Coutts left all his property to his wife. His personal estate
was valued at just under £600,000, but "as his own personal stocks
and shares and his interest in the stocks and shares held by the bank
were mingled, and it would be difficult for others than his partners
to distinguish which was the bank's property and which was his own,
he named as special trustees of such stocks and shares his partners,
Sir Edmund Antrobus, Mr Coutts Trotter, Mr Edward Marjoribanks, and Mr
Edmund Antrobus, and he appointed them executors, together with William
Adam the younger, of Lincoln's Inn, Andrew Dickie, of the Strand, and
Thomas Atkinson and John Parkinson, both of Lincoln's Inn Fields."
Harriot, Duchess of St Albans, widow of Thomas Coutts, made her will
on March 14, 1837, six months before her decease, her executors being
Sir Coutts Trotter, Edward Marjoribanks, Sir Edmund Antrobus, and
William Matthew Coulthurst, all of the Strand, with William George
Adam, Accountant-General of the High Court of Chancery, and John
Parkinson, of Lincoln's Inn Fields. She bequeathed to her husband the
use and enjoyment during his life of Holly Lodge, Highgate (which Mr
Coutts had bought for her at a cost of £25,000), the use and enjoyment
of rooms in the Strand, a legacy of £10,000 for furniture, a selection
of plate, not exceeding in value £2000, and an annuity of £10,000; but
the annuity and the use and enjoyment of Holly Lodge were to cease if
he should permit his uncle, Lord Amilius Beauclerk, or his brothers,
Frederick or Charles Beauclerk, to reside in these quarters for one
week or more in any one year. She left her jewellery to Angela Georgina
Burdett--subsequently the Baroness Burdett-Coutts--and she also gave,
devised, and bequeathed all her real and personal estate, including her
shares and interest of and in the banking-house and business in the
Strand, in trust to pay the income thereof to the said Angela Georgina
Burdett until she should marry or die, which should first happen,
and after such marriage to pay the same to her for her own sole and
separate use and benefit during the then residue of her life.
At the southern end of Robert Street, through which Thomas Coutts
looked at the Surrey hills, there was, in modern times, the Caledonian
Hotel, which, with its hideous plaster front, was a blot upon the
surrounding architecture. This, in the late seventies of the last
century, was the meeting-place of the Savage Club. The "Savages" then
migrated to Lancaster House, Savoy, but in 1889 they returned to the
Adelphi, having taken the lease of their present premises, Nos. 6
and 7 Adelphi Terrace. Excepting that the beautiful ceiling of their
principal room is covered with whitewash, the rooms still contain much
of the Adams imprint. Next door, however, Garrick's house is little
changed; the ceiling in his drawing-room was painted by Antonio Zucchi,
A.R.A., Angelica Kauffmann's second husband, and it is in a splendid
state of preservation, as is the magnificent marble chimney-piece,
which is said to have cost £300--the rooms in which Mr and Mrs Garrick
died are now in the occupation of the Institution of Naval Architects.
King Edward VII. was an honorary life member of the Savage Club
from 1882 until his Accession in 1901. Honorary life members of the
present year of grace include the Prince of Wales, Earl Roberts, Lord
Kitchener, Mr Whitelaw Reid, and Mr Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain).
The treasurer and secretary--both of which posts are honorary--are Sir
James D. Linton, R.I., and Mr Edwin E. Peacock respectively. The club
is limited to five hundred town and one hundred country members.
One of the most notable residents of the Adelphi in modern times
was Mr Thomas Hardy, who, happily still with us, lived at No. 8
Adelphi Terrace in the years 1863-67. During that time, "I sat there
drawing," he wrote to a friend, who has kindly given me the privilege
of reproducing his words, "inside the eastern-most window of the
front room on the first floor above the ground floor, occasionally
varying the experience by idling on the balcony. I saw from there the
Embankment and Charing Cross Bridge built, and, of course, used to
think of Garrick and Johnson." Mr Hardy, who was born in 1840, was
then practising architecture under Sir A. Blomfield, A.R.A. The room
in which the future author of _Far from the Madding Crowd_ and _Tess
of the D'Urbervilles_ worked "contained at that date a fine Adams
mantel-piece in white marble, on which we used to sketch caricatures in
pencil."
The coming of the Savage Club to Adelphi Terrace occasioned much sorrow
to one of the kindest-hearted men who ever lived--E.L. Blanchard, who
had rooms in No. 6 from April 1876 until March 1889, a few months
before his death. Edward Litt Laman Blanchard--son of William Blanchard
(1769-1835), an actor who was celebrated for his Bob Acres, Sir Hugh
Evans, Fluellen, Menenius, and Polonius--was born on December 11, 1820.
He was a prolific writer, and for many years was the dramatic critic
and theatrical chronicler of _The Daily Telegraph_. He wrote the Drury
Lane pantomime for thirty-seven years--a marvellous record. On December
11, 1888, he writes in his _Diary_: "Am reminded, to my amazement, that
I am sixty-eight this day. Thank God for the many unexpected blessings
I have had." On the following day he hears "with inexpressible regret
that the Savage Club signed yesterday an agreement to take these
premises, and the adjoining house, No. 7." On the 15th he writes:
"Receive formal notice to give up possession of Adelphi Terrace on Lady
Day next, which troubles me greatly." His death occurred on September
4, 1889. Among the many shadows of the past which rise up before me
as I bring to a close this history of the Adelphi of the Brothers
Adam, there is none for which I have a greater reverence, or greater
affection, than that of gentle, sweet-natured E.L. Blanchard.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 46: Pennant's _Account of London_, ed. 1813, p. 537. It has
been stated recently that Messrs Martin & Co., of Lombard Street, the
direct successors of Sir Thomas Gresham (1519-1579), are the oldest
bankers in London. But I prefer to believe Pennant.]
[Footnote 47: Robert Chambers, in his _Journal_ (No. 567, Nov. 7,
1874).]
[Footnote 48: _Representative Actors_, W. Clark Russell, p. 322.]
[Footnote 49: _Memoirs of Miss Mellon_, vol. i., p. 309.]
[Footnote 50: Cunningham's _Handbook of London_, 1850, p. 476.]
[Footnote 51: _London Past and Present_, vol. i., p. 6.]