She related that several times during the past weeks, when quite alone in the church for the purpose of sweeping and dusting, she had heard a peculiar noise proceeding from the pew where the old man used to sit, and it sounded to her exactly as though he were counting out money, and she would be very glad if he would look to it and verify her statement.
Accordingly the rector and his curate accompanied the woman to the pew. At first all was quiet, but as they listened, assuredly the sound came exactly as described; they felt round about the pew, and at length discovered a movable panel near the flooring. It was the work of a moment to remove it, and there, in a good sized cavity, lay heaps of money wrapped up in paper, which last had attracted the mice, and it was their little pattering feet among the coins which had caught the woman’s ear. The man had evidently dropped in his week’s savings on Sundays, believing that it would be safer in the church than elsewhere.
It seems that after the restoration of Charles II., he being greatly in want of money, the goldsmiths lent it, demanding ten per cent. for the loan. Often, however, they obtained thirty per cent. from him, and this induced the goldsmiths to lend more and more to the king, so that really the whole revenue passed through their hands.
In 1672 a sad calamity befel the bankers, and put a check on their prodigal lending. King Charles, who owed them £1,328,526, which he had borrowed at eight per cent., utterly refused to pay either principal or interest, and he remained firm to his resolution.
The way in which bankers transacted their loans with the king, was in this manner:—As soon as the Parliament had voted to the king certain sums of money out of special taxes, the goldsmith-bankers at once supplied the king with the whole sum so voted, and were repaid in weekly payments at the Exchequer[3] as the taxes were received.
DRESS: IN SEASON AND IN REASON.
By A LADY DRESSMAKER.
We have had such a mild and delightful autumn, that all kinds of winter garments have been delayed in making an appearance. This is especially the case with mantles and the heavier class of jackets. However, there is enough to show us that no great novelty has been introduced. Mantles are all small and short, and the majority have ends in front more or less long. Black plush seems a very favourite material, and is much overladen with trimming. Plain plush is also used for paletôts, and for large cloaks; but there is a new-patterned plush, with ribs in layers, that is much used also. Beaded shoulder-straps and epaulettes are worn as well as ornaments at the back, and sometimes beaded braces round the join of the sleeve in the small mantles, and a strip of the same may be used to outline the seam at the back. These hints may help some of my readers to do up a last year’s mantle with some of the moderate priced bead trimmings now in vogue. Paletôts or cloaks are made both long and medium in length. They are made in plush, cloth, and rough cloths, but are not seen in the finer fancy stuffs which are made use of for mantles and jackets. These fancy cloths have an appearance as if braid were sewn on to the surface. The cloak paletôts, when long, close in front to the feet, and the fronts are trimmed with a border of fur, which is shaped on the shoulders like a pointed old-fashioned “Victorine.” No fur is placed at the lower edge of the cloak; the cuffs are deep. Fur trimmings on jackets that are tight-fitting follow the same rule, and have no trimming of fur at the edge. Fur boas are very decidedly the fashion this winter, and there seems no end to their popularity. Some of them are flat at the neck, like a collarette; and others are attached to the mantle. The newest boas are rather shorter, and some are nothing more than fur collars that clasp round the throat; and these collars, or “tippets,” will probably take the place of the fur capes that have been worn so long. Grey furs are more in fashion than brown ones—such as chinchilla, grey fox, squirrel-lock, and opossum, and I see that quantities of American raccoon are also being prepared. Of course, the best kind of furs, like sable, marten-tail, mink, or blue fox, are not within the ordinary range of purchasers, and few people care to spend so much money on dress as their acquirement entails. There is also a new feeling to be taken into account; the same feeling that makes thinking women and girls decline to wear birds, and their heads and wings, i.e., the feeling that the seal fishery as hitherto conducted is cruel; and that one may wear furs that are too costly in other ways. I often think if mighty hunters—instead of hunting down the buffalo, and the other animals useful to the Indian in the North West—would go to India and hunt the tigers that so cruelly prey on the natives there, we should wear those skins with much pleasure as well as advantage. But the account of the slaying of a mother-seal ought to be enough for a tender-hearted woman. I have never cordially liked sealskins since I read of the devotion of one poor mother-seal in particular to her young; and I have never had a sealskin jacket since.
