rant, in his "Great Metropolis," framed and
exhibited for five years in one of his sitting-rooms a Bank post bill
for L30,000. The fifth year he died, and down came the picture double
quick, and was cashed by his heirs. Some years ago, at a nobleman's
house near the Park, a dispute arose about a certain text, and a dean
present denying there was any such text at all, a Bible was called for.
A dusty old Bible was produced, which had never been removed from its
shelf since the nobleman's mother had died some years before. When it
was opened a mark was found in it, which, on examination, turned out to
be a Bank post bill for L40,000. It might, it strikes us, have been
placed there as a reproof to the son, who perhaps did not consult his
Bible as often as his mother could have wished. The author of "The
American in England" describes, in 1835, one of the servants of the Bank
putting into his hand Bank post bills, which, before being cancelled by
having the signatures torn off, had represented the sum of five millions
sterling. The whole made a parcel that could with ease be put into the
waistcoat pocket.

The largest amount of a bank-note in current circulation in 1827 was
L1,000. It is said that two notes for L100,000 each, and two for
L50,000, were once engraved and issued. A butcher who had amassed an
immense fortune in the war time, went one day with one of these L50,000
notes to a private bank, asking the loan of L5,000, and wishing to
deposit the big note as security in the banker's hands, saying that he
had kept it for years. The L5,000 were at once handed over, but the
banker hinted at the same time to the butcher the folly of hoarding such
a sum and losing the interest. "Werry true, sir," replied the butcher,
"but I likes the look on't so wery well that I keeps t'other one of the
same kind at home."

As the Bank of England pays an annual average sum of L70,000 to the
Stamp Office for their notes, while other banks pay a certain sum on
every note as stamped, the Bank of England never re-issues its notes,
but destroys them on return. A visitor to the Bank was one day shown a
heap of cinders, which was the ashes of L40,000,000 of notes recently
burned. The letters could here and there be seen. It looked like a piece
of laminated larva, and was about three inches long and two inches
broad, weighing probably from ten to twelve ounces.

The losses of the Bank are considerable. In 1820 no fewer than 352
persons were co