ROMANCE OF TEMPLE BAT.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 95, 22 April 1878, Page 4

ROMANCE OF TEMPLE BAT.

[EUROPEAN MAIL.]

Though some • writers would try to "persuade us otherwise, there is very little, if any, real romance connected -with the lnst of the City gates, which is now " flowlv hut surely " coming to the ground Hfird by, however, if we linger we may find something to suit the palate of the lover of the romantic. The exact date of the establishment of Messrs Child and Co.'s Baok is not known, but it is on record that Nell Gwynn did business there previous to ncr death in 1657, and that the bank knew as customers Oliver Cromwell and "William 111. and his Queen Mary. In 1689, owing to a rumor getting abroad that a run was about to be made on the bank, its position for a time, it is said, "Was critical. The rumor, however, reached tbe ears of Lady Churchill, who collected all the gold she could get among her friends, and carried it in her coach to the bank, thus enabling it to meet whatever demands were made upon it. Hogarth considered this event a worthy object for his pencil. There is a sketch of his showing her ladyship's coach stopping at Temple Bar, and another sketch portraying her ladyship superintending porters carry ing bags of gold into the bank. Lady Cbtircbil], as the reader will know, afterwards became Duchess of Marlborough. Another event which may be said to come under the head of romance is connected wifch the celebrated banking establishment of Messrs Child and Co.. Lord "Westmoreland, It is reported, was dining one day with Mr Child, when he asked him to suppose himself in love with a girl, and her father refusing his consent to the union. •" Yes," said Mr Child. "Well, what would you do ?" queried the lord. " Why, run away with her, of course," promptly replied Mr Child. The same night Lord "Westmoreland ran away •with Mr Child's daughter. Mr Child pursued the couple, and came up with them in Northumberland when the gallant lord, in order to get ahead, stood up in his carriage and shot the leading horse in Mr Child's chaise, "which," according to Milton Price, " caused the whole vehicle to capsize." Lord Westmoreland then got across the border, the blacksmith was in readiness, and the pair were married at Gretna Green before Mr Child could interfere with the ceremony.'*