22 A COMMERCIAL DAY BOOK. 



wonder whether some lingering memory of this practice 

 may have prompted the Germans somewhere in France to 

 set up a board facing our trenches with the old words of faith 

 writ large on it, to edify or intimidate our soldiers. 

 The attempt failed, for our side promptly set up another board 

 with the words " We've got mittens too.") 



Though the book has neither title nor signature of Mr. 

 Richards, the ownership is fixed by a letter dated 

 Dec., 1716, in which the Lord Mayor of London calls 

 upon the chief magistrate of Porto Maria in the Kingdom 

 of Spain for his good offices in favour of John Richards, 

 " merchant, a citizen and inhabitant of the City of London," 

 who had been appointed to receive the bankrupt estate of an 

 English merchant. Mr. Richards was to exercise his powers 

 through the agency of the firm of Brown and Butler, 

 merchants at Cadiz and his correspondents at that port. 



To fix the identity of this John Richards with the 'Squire of 

 Warmwell we turn to p. 27, and read that " George Richards 

 my brother is Dr. to James Richards of Knight on, for Cousin 

 James' half year's rent due at Lady Day, 25." The owner of 

 the book is therefore brother to George Richards, who is 

 elsewhere described as of Longbredy ; and we are told of the 

 existence of a cousin, James Richards, who does not appear 

 in Hutchins's genealogy. James of Knighton and " Cousin 

 James " are one and the same in this quotation, because the 

 cousin is throughout the book described as of Knighton, to 

 distinguish him from " James my brother." 



" James my brother " may have been a merchant in the 

 City of London at some time, as stated by Hut chins ; but it 

 is probable that on this point he was confusing James 

 with John, for during the period embraced by this book he 

 was certainly a cloth manufacturer of Exeter. The transac- 

 tions between the brothers were very numerous. In the 

 following example James appears in two characters, as a 

 manufacturer and as an agent 



" Divers Merchandize Dr. to James Richards, my brother, 

 for 10 Balles long Ells, 7 per Captain Dodge (that is by sea), 



