"_Paid down upon the Nail_" (Vol. ix., p. 196.).--Your correspondent ABHBA
mentions Limerick, on the authority of O'Keefe the dramatist, as the place
where this saying originated; from the fact of a pillar, with a circular
plate of copper upon it, having stood in a piazza under the Exchange in
this ancient city: which pillar was called "the nail." Permit me to remark,
Bristol also claims the origin of this saying: vide the following paragraph
in No. 1. p. 4. of the _Curiosities of Bristol_, published last September:
"We have heard it stated that this phrase first originated in Bristol,
when it was common for the merchants to buy and sell at the bronze
pillars (four) in front of the Exchange--the pillars being commonly
called _Nails_."
I should infer that, from the fact of Bristol having been at the time of
the erection of these pillars (some centuries ago) by far the most
important place in the British empire (London only excepted), it is more
likely to have originated this commercial saying than Limerick.