Mr. Samuel Page (one of the partners with Edward Garlick,
Richard Reynolds, &c.) for L700. It was this same firm which purchased
the Elton "Great House" in 1772.

The firm was known as Messrs. Reynolds, Getley and Company, by virtue of
an indenture of co-partnership, dated 1st June, 1764. The document was
signed and sealed by Richard Reynolds, Edward Garlick, Richard Summers,
James Harford, William Cowles, James Getley, Samuel Page, William
Weaver, John Partridge, and John Partridge, jun. The firm was engaged in
the iron and tin-plate trades, and, according to the _London Gazette_ of
Saturday, March 17th, 1820, it was being carried on under the style of
Harfords, Crocker, and Co. The partnership dissolved on the 30th day of
June, 1821, by Alicia Calder, Elizabeth Weaver, and Sarah Davies
retiring from the firm, and by reason of the death of the Philip
Crocker. The business was continued by Richard Summers Harford, Samuel
Harford, John Harford, William Green, and William Weaver Davies, under
the firm of Harford Brothers and Co., under the date of 25th day of
February, 1822.

These two tenements became the property of the Bristol Water Works
Company at the same time as the Great House, in 1865, and a portion of
ground at the back, facing St. Leonard's Lane, belonging to the St.
Werburgh's charities, in 1902.

[Illustration: CHIMNEY-PIECE IN ELTON MANSION, SMALL STREET, BRISTOL.]

The old chimney-piece--a fine specimen of mediaeval stone carving--which
stood in the principal upstairs room of No. 7, used as a boardroom by
the Water Works Company, the richly decorated ceiling, and the panelled
walls, marked the period at which the Eltons occupied the house; and the
initials A. and M.E., representing Abraham and Mary Elton (Mary,
daughter of Robert Jefferies, whom he married in 1676), and the date,
1700, quaintly cut, are on the chimney-piece. The chimney-piece has been
removed, and re-erected in the new Water Works building in Telephone
Avenue. The inquirer of the far-distant future may be misled when he
finds it in this spot, unless, indeed, there be some tablet provided to
indicate and perpetuate the history of this antique stone carving. The
ceiling and panelling have been purchased by Sir Edmund Elton, and taken
to Clevedon Court.

In letters to the _Bristol Times and Mirror_ newspaper, certain writers
have, in treating of the Water Works premises, sought to establish that
the great philanthropist, Edward Colston,