nd then getting
up and making him a low bow whilst pocketing the cash, he said, "Thank
you, alderman; for the future I shall never drink any porter but yours."
"I wish, sir," replied the brewer, "that every other blackguard in
London would tell me the same." Combe was succeeded in the mayoralty by
Sir William Staines. They were both smokers, and were seen one night at
the Mansion House lighting their pipes at the same taper; which reminds
us of the two kings of Brentford smelling at one nosegay. (Timbs.)

1800. Sir William Staines, mayor. He began life as a bricklayer's
labourer, and by persevering steadily in the pursuit of one object,
accumulated a large fortune, and rose to the state coach and the Mansion
House. He was Alderman of Cripplegate Ward, where his memory is much
respected. In Jacob's Well Passage, in 1786, he built nine houses for
the reception of his aged and indigent friends. They are erected on both
sides of the court, with nothing to distinguish them from the other
dwelling-houses, and without ostentatious display of stone or other
inscription to denote the poverty of the inhabitants. The early tenants
were aged workmen, tradesmen, &c., several of whom Staines had
personally esteemed as his neighbours. One, a peruke-maker, had shaved
the worthy alderman during forty years. Staines also built Barbican
Chapel, and rebuilt the "Jacob's Well" public-house, noted for dramatic
representations. The alderman was an illiterate man, and was a sort of
butt amongst his brethren. At one of the Old Bailey dinners, after a
sumptuous repast of turtle and venison, Sir William was eating a great
quantity of butter with his cheese. "Why, brother," said Wilkes, "you
lay it on with a _trowel_!" A son of Sir William Staines, who worked at
his father's business (a builder), fell from a lofty ladder, and was
killed; when the father, on being fetched to the spot, broke through the
crowd, exclaiming, "See that the poor fellow's watch is safe!" His
manners may be judged from the following anecdote. At a City feast, when
sheriff, sitting by General Tarleton, he thus addressed him, "Eat away
at the pines, General; for we must pay, eat or not eat."

In 1806, Sir James Shaw (Scrivener), afterwards Chamberlain, was a
native of Kilmarnock, where a marble statue of him has been erected. He
was of the humblest birth, but amassed a fortune as a merchant, and sat
in three parliaments for the City. He was extremely charitable, and was
one