CHAPTER XVI THE FIRST GOVERNOR "... Tyre, the crowning city, whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are the honourable of the earth.'-ISAIAH xxiii. 8. An ancient map of London made in 1633, before the Great Fire, hangs in one of the rooms at Magdalene College, Cambridge, containing the Pepysian Library. In this map the scale is large enough to show the elevation. of the more important houses in the city. From it we find that the original house in Threadneedle Street belonging to Sir John Houblon possessed three lofty gables facing the street, the garden extending behind. When the house was rebuilt after the fire, the plan was altogether altered. In Hatton's New View of London, we are told that the houses rebuilt by the great London merchants were numerous and magnificent; their 'courts, offices, and all necessary apartments inclosed to themselves,' some with 'noble gates and frontispieces towards the street,' but that they were chiefly remarkable as 'ornamental, commodious, and richly furnished within.' 'For convenience,—and because of the great quantity of ground they are built on, -they are,' he adds, 'generally situate backward.'1 A coloured sketch and plan in the British Museum show this description to apply exactly to the house of Sir John Houblon as rebuilt by him. It now stood back from the street, being approached by a stone-paved New View of London, ii. 627. passage or carriage-way, leading into the open court. beyond. The house stood on the opposite side of this court, being approached by a flight of steps, while on each side were ranged buildings comprising stables and offices. Behind the house was a large garden extending for a considerable distance, the space of ground measuring about two hundred and forty feet deep by a hundred feet. On the side facing Threadneedle Street it was somewhat narrower; the plan shows the garden to have been carefully laid out and planted with trees. Close by was the fine old Church of St. Christopher le Stocks with its churchyard. It was not till the year 1680 that Sir John Houblon 1680 had permitted himself the luxury of a country home. Doubtless the airy London house and garden were deemed sufficient for the requirements of his simple tastes and the well-being of his family. His new property was, like almost all the merchants' country houses at that time, in Essex. The mansion, which is situated in the parish of High Ongar, is now used as a farmhouse; at the time of the purchase it was called the New House, and it still goes by the same name.1 The credit of the money men,' as they were nicknamed outside the City, was not allowed to arrive at its full measure without strong and vigorous opposition. The old ruling class of landowners had suddenly four.d themselves at disadvantage in political influence, and naturally sought eagerly for occasion to stay the tide of a change so unwelcome. Money was required; it was not desired to dispute that fact, for Parliament was now confronted with the necessity for again providing large sums for the prosecution of the war in the Netherlands. But the effort was now renewed to provide that money from other sources, so as to obviate the necessity for appealing for a fresh loan to the hated owners of 1 Close Roll, 32 Charles II., Part V., No. 25. wealth in the City. The plan of a Land Bank of two years before had failed, for it had been obviously based upon unsound and even ridiculous assumptions. But now a new project was brought forward which, it was the confident expectation of the landed interest, would secure the money required for the war. This scheme, which was supported by Parliament and had been subscribed to by the King, failed also; for although the owners of land eagerly desired to borrow money on the security of their land, they were not in a position to lend it. And so the loan, when placed upon the market, met with no response from the public. Only when the government had realised, by the ignominious failure of the Land Bank, the hopelessness of obtaining money elsewhere, did they again turn to the City and the great Bank which had owed its incorporation to the necessities of the State. As we shall presently see, by the countenance and encouragement accorded by the government to the promoters of the Land Bank, they aimed a heavy blow at the institution which had already rendered them such signal service, leading to a crisis which only the presence of mind and resource of the governor and directors of the Bank were able to meet. The first effect of this blow, coming as it did when other circumstances had combined to make it a time of extreme anxiety and difficulty, was to send down the shares of the Bank. The price of Bank 1696 stock fell from 107 on the 31st of January 1695/6, to 83 on the 14th of February following a significant sign 1 See Broadside by Dr. Hugh Chamberlayne, 15 August 1695. |