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Show T , London's Great Banking House. The great London banking house of Coutts, where British monarch ami the members of their family have banked and kept their private accounts since the reign of King George II, is about to move from 59 Strand, where it lias been established since ! 1GI2. to a handsome building, which has been completed com-pleted for its aeeoininodation a little farther west on the oppo-ire -ido of the same thoroughfare. The date of the removal is being kept a strict secret, in view of the erioniiotis value of (he treasure to be transferred, and will, it is said, be done entirely underground un-derground by means of a vunnel constructed for the purpose. In olden limes safe depo.-it vaults, as ihey now I exist, were unknown in England, and whenever ! great people went abroad, sometimes merely when they left town, ihey were wo lit i end all thir vulu-abls. vulu-abls. e-ipecialiy their jewels and their plate, 1o their hankei-s for safe keeping ju 1P, vaults of the bank. Thus NTelson kept his jewels at Coutts', many of i them presented to him by foreign rulers, so did the. great Duke of Wellington and the famous Marchioness of Conyingham, upon whom King George IV is known to have bestowed many of the crown jewels, some of which were recovered from her with great difficulty at his death, while others have never been seen since. There are numerous strong rooms at Coutts', some of them guarded by iron doors weighing nearly near-ly a ton each, jull of trunks and diesis of plate, j some of which have been there undisturbed for 150 years and more. Years of litigation would be probably prob-ably required to ascertain who arc today the legal owners of these old and long forgotten treasures. In many cases there are no claimants. But meanwhile mean-while Coutts have never disregarded their original trust as mere custodians, and keep the boxes undisturbed un-disturbed without even attempting to examine their contents. Some of the cases in the huge, subterranean, cloister-like vaults of the old Coutts bank are . known to contain, not merely the securities and title deeds, but also the confidential naners of the. oldest and grandest houses of the European aristocracy aris-tocracy and of old world royalty. It is there that have been lying for more than a century the documents docu-ments relating to the secret marriage of King George IV and Mrs. Fitzherbcrt, and. also to the union of one of his brothers to Mme. de St. Laurent, with whom he lived for years in Canada. |