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And with the twilight came a spell,
A calm ne'er felt before;
Whether from that deep sky it fell,
Or brought by night-winds o'er the dell,
We question'd not, nor cared to tell,
Wind-wafted from the shore!

In deep content we watch'd the skies,
The changing hues of eve;
And joy shot forth from dark-brown eyes
Bound by the sweetest human ties-
Our world seem'd one fair Paradise
Where none could sigh or grieve.

We spoke not of our calm delight,
Borne o'er the ocean-stream;
But onward sped athwart the night
'Till one exclaim'd, "I see a light!".
The morning sun was shining bright,
I woke, and 'twas a dream!

*

'Tis gone, that dream of youth and glee, It will return no more!

But still all care and sadness flee

When dreamy eyes are fix'd on me-
Once more I sail upon the sea,

Wind-wafted from the shore!

H. D. MURPHY, B.A.

OUR PORTRAIT GALLERY.

SECOND SERIES.-No. 33.

THE RIGHT HON. ANGELA GEORGINA, BARONESS

BURDETT-COUTTS.

EVERYBODY knows, at least by name, the famous banking-house of Coutts and Co., in the Strand, London. Perhaps no firm of private bankers in the world can boast of a clientelage so aristocratic The early history of the bank is interesting, and illustrates very favourably the success of Scottish enterprise in England.

In the latter part of the sixteenth century William Coutts, a cadet of the Auchintoul family, was "provost" of Montrose. His grandson, Patrick Coutts, became a merchant in Edinburgh, and died there in 1704, leaving a wife and three children, and an estate of £2,500 to be divided between them.

Patrick's eldest son, John, succeeded to his father's business, and extended it greatly. His firm of John Coutts and Co., general merchants, was widely known and highly respected.

In 1742 he was elected Lord Provost of Edinburgh, the highest municipal dignity that can be attained in Scotland. In his later years ill-health made it necessary for him to reside in Italy, and he died at Nola, near Naples, on March 23, 1750, at the age of fifty-one.

Before leaving Scotland John Coutts had assumed as partners his eldest son Patrick and a Mr. Trotter. The capital of the new firm was only £4,000. They dealt in corn, acted as commission agents, and negotiated bills on the Continental Bourses. In course of time their business on 'Change became so extensive that they ceased to act as general merchants and devoted themselves entirely to banking. In 1773 Sir William Forbes, Sir James Hunter Blair, and Sir Robert Herries came to be the chief partners in the firm, and the bank was long known

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as "Sir W. Forbes, J. Hunter, and Co." In 1830 it became the Union Bank of Scotland, one of the greatest banks in the country.*

Lord Provost Coutts left four sons. James became a banker in St. Mary Axe, in London, but subsequently joined his younger brother Thomas in establishing the banking-house of Coutts and Co. in the Strand. He was for some time M.P. for Edinburgh, and died in 1778. Thereupon Thomas Coutts became the sole manager of the bank in the Strand. In course of time the private account of King George was kept at Coutts's, and the principal members of the aristocracy soon followed the lead of the Sovereign. It became fashionable to have an account there; and even yet there is a certain undefinable prestige in paying your bills by a cheque on "Coutts's."

Prudence, economy, and punctuality soon made Thomas Coutts a millionaire. He married first Susan Starkie, who died in 1815, leaving three daughters-Susan, married in 1796 to the Earl of Guildford; Frances, married in 1800 to the first Marquis of Bute; and Sophia, married in 1793 to Sir Francis Burdett, Baronet. The youngest daughter of Sir Francis by this marriage was Angela Georgina Burdett-now the Baroness Burdett-Coutts-the subject of the present memoir.

Miss Burdett was not born heir to the princely fortune which afterwards fell to her lot, and of which she has made so noble a use. Soon after the death of his first wife, Thomas Coutts married, in 1815, Miss Harriet Mellon, an actress more celebrated for her beauty than for her professional talent; and at his death, which took place on February 22, 1822, she succeeded under his will to his entire property.

In 1827 Mr. Coutts's widow was married to William Aubrey de Vere Beauclerk, Duke of St. Albans. She died on 6th August, 1837, and left the whole of the fortune she had derived from the Coutts' family to Miss Angela Georgina, the youngest and then the only unmarried daughter of Sir Francis Burdett, only subject to an annuity of £10,000 a-year to her husband, the Duke of St. Albans, and to a life-rent in his favour of her mansion in Piccadilly, and of her Highgate properties, including Holly Lodge. With many peculiarities, and perhaps not a few weaknesses, she was a generous and kind-hearted woman; and it is said that she disposed of her wealth in the way we have mentioned under the conviction that justice required that Mr. Coutts's fortune should revert at her death to one of his own family.

Sir Francis Burdett, the representative of an ancient Derbyshire

* It is stated in Notes and Queries (4th S. X., 398), that Mansfield's Bank, established in 1738, was the first private bank in Edinburgh, "except perhaps Coutts's, which is supposed to have had the precedence." Probably neither of them in the early part of their history limited its business to banking in the strict sense of the term. Both seem to have been at first mercantile houses, receiving deposits at interest, and dealing in bills of exchange at home and abroad.

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