mission, and the negotiation of bills of exchange on London, Holland, France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. The negotiation of bills of exchange formed at that period a considerable part of the business of Edinburgh; for there were then no country banks, and consequently the bills for the exports and imports of Perth, Dundee, Montrose, Aberdeen, and other trading towns in Scotland, with Holland, France, and other countries, were negotiated at Edinburgh.'

In this sort of business John Coutts found plenty to do, and managed to make a good deal of money. Other money came to him about this time from one of his brothers, who, having prospered as a merchant in London, and dying early, left all his earnings, some 20,000l., to the Edinburgh merchant and billbroker, and thus much increased his influence. Being a " man of high character as a merchant, as well as of very popular and agreeable manners, John Coutts lived with a degree of hospitality and expense, not usual in the family of a merchant at that period.' Therefore he made an excellent lord provost, to which office he was elected in 1742. He was the first lord provost, we are told, who, breaking through the old custom of holding all civic entertainments at a tavern, when the expense was borne by the city, and, taking the provision and management of the hospitalities altogether into his

own

hands, conducted them in his own house. Therein, however, he did himself much harm. 'Unfortunately,' we read, he was thus led into excesses of the table, and other indulgences, which at length hurt his constitution.' In 1749 he was forced to seek change and better health by travelling in Italy. Failing in that, he died at Naples in the spring of 1750, 'beloved and regretted by all his acquaintance, who overlooked the imperfections of his character when they thought of him as the upright citizen and useful magistrate, ever zealous in the service of his friends, and a most agreeable member of society.'

He left four boys, named Patrick,

John, James, and Thomas, to share his business with their cousin Trotter. But the lads were too young and giddy, and Trotter was too sleepy and lazy to carry it on with advantage. 'As neither his person nor manners were at all calculated to command their respect, his young friends were constantly teasing him with little boyish, roguish tricks. One consisted in their putting a live mouse under the cover of his inkstand, and watching with glee for the start he was to give, when, on his lifting the lid, the animal jumped out, to the no small amusement, as might be expected, of the whole countinghouse.'

This

Therefore, Trotter was got rid of. He went to make a paltry living for himself as agent, on behalf of the Edinburgh bankers, in carrying on a curious quarrel then raging between them and the monied men of Glasgow, his business being to collect notes and present them for payment at all sorts of inconvenient times, and in all sorts of vexatious ways.* A new partner was found for the young brothers Coutts in a John Stephen, their uncle and a wine merchant. John Stephen's son was also introduced into the firm, and sent to aid in managing a branch establishment in London. With him came the eldest and the youngest of John Coutts's sons, Patrick and Thomas, their residence and place of business being in Jeffrey's Square, St. Mary Axe, and their chief employment being the buying and selling of goods on commission. The two other sons, John and James, with the elder Stephen, remained in Edinburgh. They lived in the same house which their father had inhabited, being the second floor of the President's Stairs in the Parliament Close; and they continued in the same line of business of bank

*He certainly was often treated with inconvenience and vexation in return. Once he was all day long for thirty-four days obtaining payment for bills amounting in all to 28931.; one whole forenoon being passed in receiving 7., doled out in sixpences, one after another, as slowly as possible.

ing and exchange which their father had carried on. Like him, too, they dealt very largely in corn. They had a settled agent in Northumberland, residing at Fenwick, who was employed to make purchases of corn for the house, and for none else, in that country. Others at Aberdeen, at Portroy, and at Dundee, made purchases for the house in the fertile corn countries of Perth, Forfar, Kincardine, Aberdeen, Banff, and Moray; and two others, again, in Caithness and in Ross-shire, both of them gentlemen of landed property, but also men of business, though not, strictly speaking, merchants, made purchases for the house on their joint account in those northern counties. In England the house had large quantities of corn shipped for them at Yarne and at Stockton, in Yorkshire; at Lynn Regis, Fakenham, and Yarmouth, all in the rich county of Norfolk; at Haverfordwest, in South Wales; and by the noted Cooper Thornhill, who at that time kept the Bell Inn at Hilton, and was one of the most considerable corn-factors in England.* They also procured corn from Belfast and Drogheda; and occasionally even imported wheat from Dantzic and Königsberg.

The Couttses were certainly the largest and the most adventurous corn-dealers in Scotland, perhaps in all Great Britain, a hundred years

*It was he,' says the same informant, 'who performed the extraordinary ride from Hilton to London, back to Hilton, and thence to London again, being 225 miles, in 12 hours 17 minutes. He set out at four

o'clock in the morning of the 29th April, 1745, and came to the Queen's Arms, opposite Shoreditch Church, in 3 hours and 52 (minutes; returned again to Hilton in 4 hours and 12 minutes, and came back to London in 4 hours and 13 minutes. He was allowed 15 hours for the task, and as many horses as he pleased, which he had ready waiting him at various places on the road. He was so little fatigued by this exploit that he rode next day as if nothing had happened. The road was lined with spectators to see him pass and repass, and many thousands, besides his own wager of 500 guineas, depended on the performance. Mr. Thornhill, though he kept an inn, was much respected for his gentlemanlike manners, and generally brought to table by his guests.'

ago. When I reflect on the extent of all their correspondence,' says their sometime clerk, from whom we have already quoted, and the combination of such a variety of intelligence respecting the prices of corn at all those different places, compared with the prices in the different parts of Scotland, I cannot but wonder at the boldness of enterprise which led them to embark in such a perilous traffic. Some years they made large profits, which they as often lost in others, owing to the fluctuation of markets, and the bankruptcy of many of those with whom they dealt. Indeed, I have often thought it not a little singular that a banking-house, which, of all branches of business, seems peculiarly to require caution, and which ought, as much as possible, to be kept clear of every undertaking of hazard or speculation, should have chosen to embark so largely in the corn-trade, which is perhaps the most liable to sudden fluctuation, and in which no human prudence or insurance can guard the adventurers from frequent loss.'

Yet in combining banking transactions with general commerce, the Couttses did nearly as much as all other bankers were accustomed to do in the middle of last century. Neither in Edinburgh nor out of it were there many bankers in the strict sense of the term. The leading men in Edinburgh, for instance, who at that time acted as cashiers to its men of business, were old James Mansfield, a linen-draper, who, prospering in his trade, prodealing in bills of exchange, and at ceeded to make more money by length founded the famous bankinghouse of Mansfield and Co., afterwards Mansfield, Ramsay and Co., and then Ramsay, Bonars and Co.; William Cuming, who in like manner combined banking with the cloth business, that he had inherited from his father; and William Alexander and Sons, who began as · tobacco merchants and ended as money-lenders of great repute.

None of these, however, were, or ever became, as famous as the Couttses. Having in 1750 firmly established themselves both in

Edinburgh and in London, they proceeded to extend their engagements in both places, neglecting none of the general commerce, but especially aiming at increase of the banking business. In 1754 there were in Edinburgh only four clerks and two apprentices, besides the three partners, and in London the three other partners seem to have done nearly all the work by themselves. But in that year great changes began. In August, James, the third of the four, went on a visit to his brothers in London, where he fell in with a Miss Patty Peagrim, whose uncle, George Campbell, originally a goldsmith in the Strand, had come to be an influential banker, patronized by all the Whigs, while his near neighbour and rival, Andrew Drummond, had the friendship of the Tories. Before the year was out, young Coutts was married to the niece, settled in London, and made a partner in the new firm of Campbell and Coutts. In 1760 his father-in-law died, and he then took his brother Thomas into partnership, the house being thenceforth known as James and Thomas Coutts.

Thus Patrick and John were left alone in possession of the original business, the one in London, the other in Edinburgh. Patrick was

man of elegant and agreeable manners, but more inclined to the study of books than to application to business.' He soon abandoned it altogether. Going on the Continent for pleasure and for health, he met with an accident prejudicial to both. At Lisle he was walking on the ramparts, jotting down some short-hand notes in his pocket-book, when a bystander came to the conclusion that he was a spy, and accordingly informed against him. He was thrown into prison, and there detained several months, before his friends could satisfy the authorities of his honesty, and procure his release. That trouble seems to have strengthened certain eccentricities in his character, and soon after his return to England, he had to be lodged in a London madhouse, there to remain through more than forty years.

John Coutts was dead before that misfortune arose. He appears to have been the best of all the four brothers. 'Lively and well-bred, and of very engaging manners,' says his clerk and protégé, he had the happy talent of uniting a love of society and public amusements with a strict attention to business. While resembling his father in his general manners more than did any of his brothers, he was more correct in his conduct; nor do I recollect to have ever seen him but once in the counting-house disguised with liquor, and incapable of transacting business.' Whence we may infer that he often was so disguised when not in the counting-house; but no Scotchman pretending to be a gentleman and a pleasant member of good society could be expected to be otherwise in those days. Even in the strictest walks of business, room was found for merrymaking and good fellowship. In those days,' we are told, 'it was the custom for the merchants and bankers in Edinburgh to assemble regularly every day at one o'clock at the Cross, where they transacted business with each other, and talked over the news of the day; and as there were among the merchants at that time several gentlemen of a literary turn, and possessed of considerable powers of conversation, we were joined by many who had no concern in the mercantile world, such as physicians and lawyers, who frequented the Cross nearly with as much regularity as the others, for the sake of gossiping and amusement merely.' In that pleasant little business-world, not so oppressed with the burdens and cares of business as now-a-days, John Coutts was thoroughly at home. But unfortunately he died in 1761, before he was thirty years of age.

Thus it happened that, before the end of 1761, there were no Couttses left in the old house of John Coutts and Co. The name, however, lasted for a long time; and the businessthe banking business, at any ratehas lasted to this day. The two surviving and sane brothers, who had set up for themselves in the