GUARDING THE BANK OF ENG LAND.

Waikato Argus, Volume IV, Issue 306, 25 June 1898, Page 2 (Supplement)

GUARDING THE BANK OF ENG LAND.

TRAVELLERS along the Thames Embankment between li and 7 o'clock in tbe evening will see a detachment of tbe Guards moving eastwards at quick march. These are the men told off for the protection of the Bank of England, Thoy number 60, and are in command of ono of the regimental officers. The service is decidedly popular, involving a change from barrack life. Tho bank directors provide a guardroom where, sentries duly placed, those awaiting their turn can sleep. Each man has a (filling given to him, which ho may, if he pleases, spend m the canteen, also provided by tho thoughtful directors. Noncommissioned officers accompanying tbe detachment have half-a-erown. On ordinary occasions tho men march from whatever barracks is on tho rota to supply tho force. But on snowy or foggy nights thoy may be Seen going by the under ground railway, a luxury of locomotion for which the officor in charge pays out of bis private purse. As for that gilded warrior, ho dines in solemn state in a room at the bank reserved for his use. He may, if he hankers after company, entertain two guests. I (Mr H. VV. Lucy, writing to the Sydney Morning Herald) have had the pleasure of joining this unique dinner tablo, and can testify to tho excsllence of the fare. The statutes of the Bank of England provide two bottles of wine for the officer on guard duty. The ancient fashion cf the institution is witnessed by the fact that the officor may make his choice of port, sherry, or claret. Champagne was not known as the habitual dinner drink of an Englishman at the time when the directors instituted a meal that certainly goes as far back as the times of LordGeorgo Gordon. They themselves drank port, sherry, or claret, and thought it good enough for generations yet unborn. The port certainly is. If tho officer ha* company, he may claim an odd bottle of which ever of these wines he pleases Some newcomers have ranhly asked for whisky and soda, for later refreshment, a demand sternly rebuffed, That compound is another newfangled notion, and tho will of the old directors is still law in the Commissariat Department at Threadneedle-street. In addition to the military garrison the directors now, as was the custom more than a century ago, keep a nightly patrol of 25 clerks. One of the head clerks takes his turn at sitting up all night in the bank buildings, where the silence is broken only by the footfall of the patrol.