Whose Scrip has dwindled into worthless rag;
Oh! give relief; part of his loss restore.
From George Cruikshank’s Table Book. 1845.
Stag was a term applied during the railway mania to a speculator without capital who took “scrip” in the Diddlesex Junction Railway, and other lines ejus et sui generis, got the shares up to a premium, and then sold out. When the panic came the Stags got severely pinched, they could neither sell their scrip, nor pay the calls as they became due. Capel Court is one of the entrances to the London Stock Exchange.
The Lament of Westminster Bridge.
Pity the sorrows of a poor old bridge
Whose tottering state has made him quite a bore;
Whose arches dwindle to the river’s ridge,
As they approach on either side the shore.