ADDENDUM.

In September, 1927, Mr. Steele discovered a stone altar slab forming part of the floor of the North Aisle passage. It is of Purbeck Oolite and measures 3ft. 8ins. by 2ft. 3ins. Five crosses are incised on it, one at each corner and one central. The dimensions correspond with the requirements of an altar at either of the lateral openings in the stone screen.

HE private bankers in the country towns of the west of England do not find a place in historical literature, with two exceptions to be presently mentioned; indeed it is difficult to ascertain even their names unless search is made in unofficial contemporary records. On the other hand the history of the early bankers in London, the successors of the goldsmiths who "kept running cashes" in the seventeenth century, has been written by antiquaries and others, notably by the late F. G. Hilton Price whose knowledge of the subject was probably unrivalled.

In these circumstances I have attempted to bring together in the following pages the names of those bankers who carried on their calling in Dorset, Somerset, Devon and Cornwall before the year 1825*, with a few comments based upon eighteenth

* Bristol is not included, as the firms in that City were fully discussed in 1899 in a privately printed book by C. H. Cave, himself a banker.

century and later sources of information. Although I cannot hope that the list is complete, I believe that there are not many omissions of importance.

In our local museums there are preserved a limited number of bank notes, chiefly of the denomination of one pound, which were circulated in the area under review. A small collection formed by the present writer is now exhibited for inspection, and other examples are mentioned in the list which follows. It would appear that the extant notes do not represent more than, say, one quarter of the known bankers, all of whom certainly issued such promises to pay on demand, as their profits were closely related to the amount of their paper currency in circulation. Presumably the great majority of these little documents, often skilfully engraved, were lost or intentionally destroyed about one hundred years ago, after the passing of an Act which required the withdrawal of all bank notes under five pounds in value. A note issued at Shaston in 1810 by Bowles, Ogden and Wyndham is reproduced on the accompanying plate.

If a haphazard group of old notes be examined it will be seen that they differ in essential conditions. Some were payable at the issuing bank only; some at that bank or its London agents; while a smaller number could be presented for payment at the London agents only. The last named stipulation was an obvious precaution against sudden demands for specie or Bank of England notes which a country office with slow means of communication might not be able to meet; nevertheless an unconditional offer to pay would stimulate greater trust in the banker.

There is ample testimony that these notes in the majority of cases passed freely from hand to hand in the market-place and country-side, and their tattered condition bears witness to the length of their circulation. Indeed they were at one period almost the sole medium for settling small transactions, owing to the neglect by the Government of its duty to provide a metallic currency. The oldest of the Dorset firms used its