Nooks and Corners of English Life, Past and PresentTimbs, John
History
Nooks and Corners of English Life, Past and Present
Timbs, John
England -- Social life and customs
We have mentioned Mrs. Jefferies' loans. She had various sums placed out
at interest, on bond and mortgage, varying from three hundred pounds and
upwards, and one of eight hundred pounds. The securities were frequently
shifting; and the number of persons who paid to her irregularly enough,
in this way, in two years, was little short of one hundred. The
borrowers of these moneys were knights, yeomen, gentry, farmers, and
tradesmen; burgesses, and aldermen, and Mayors of Hereford, with many
others. The collection of interest upon principal so detached and widely
dispersed, must have been attended with difficulty. The principal itself
must have incurred risk of diminution; but the convenience of the Three
per Cents. was then unknown, and eight per cent. was the interest upon
these loans. This practice of lending money in small sums must formerly
have been more general than at the present day: there were then few
modes of employing money so as to realize fair interest; it was often
hoarded by "making a stocking," and various modes of concealment.
Some of Mrs. Jefferies's entries respecting those who do not repay loans
are curious. Thus, M. Garnons, an occasional suitor for relief, she
styles "an unthrifty gentleman;" amuses herself in setting down a small
bad debt; and, after recording the name of the borrower, and the
trifling sum lent, adds, in a note by way of anticipation, "which he
will never pay." In another case, that of a legal transaction, in which
a person had agreed to surrender certain premises to her use, and she
had herself paid for drawing the instrument upon which he was to have
acted, she observes, "but he never did, and I lost my money." In all
matters she exhibits a gentle and generous mind. It was natural enough
that she should describe the Parliamentary folks who pulled down her
house as "fearful soldiers."
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