ALEXANDER MENZIKOFF. 
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and very penurious, his expenses were very trifling. His custom was 
to dine on his shop-counter, with no other table-cloth than an old 
newspaper; he was also as little nice in regard to his apparel. The 
bulk of his fortune, however, was acquired by the less reputable pur- 
chase of seamen’s tickets during queen Anne’s wars, and by South- 
sea stock in the memorable year 1720. 
To shew what great events spring from trivial causes, it may be 
observed, that the public are indebted to a most trifling accident for 
the greatest part of his fortunes being applied to charitable uses. 
Guy had a maid-servant, whom he agreed to marry ; and preparatory 
to his nuptials, he had ordered the pavement before his door to be 
mended, so far as to a particular stone which he marked. The maid, 
while her master was out, innocently looking on the paviers at work, 
saw a broken place they had not repaired, and mentioned it to them ; 
but they told her that Mr. Guy had directed them not to go so far. 
“ Well,” says she, “do you mend it : tell him 1 bade you, and I know 
he will not be angry.” It happened, however, that the poor girl 
presumed too much on her influence over her wary lover, with whom 
the charge of a few shillings extraordinary turned the scale entirely 
against her ; for Guy, enraged to find his orders exceeded, renounced 
the matrimonial scheme, and built hospitals in his old age. 
In 1707 he built and furnished three wards, on the north side of 
the outer court of St. Thomas’s hospital in Southwark, and gave lOOl. 
to it annually for eleven years preceding the erection of his own hos- 
pital. Some time before his death he erected the stately iron gate, 
with the large houses on each side, at the expense of about 3000L 
He was seventy-six years of age when he formed the design of build- 
ing the hospital near St. Thomas’s, which bears his name. The 
charge of erecting this vast pile amounted to 18,7931. besides 219,4991. 
which he left to endow it: and he just lived to see it roofed in. He 
erected an almshouse, with a library, at Tamw'orth in Staffordshire, 
the place of his mother’s nativity, (and which he represented in par- 
liament,) for fourteen poor men and w'omen ; and for their pensions, as 
well as for the putting out of poor children apprentices, bequeathed 
1251. a year. To Christ’s hospital he gave 4001. a year for ever ; and 
the residue of his estate, amounting to about 80,0001. among those 
who could prove themselves in any degree related to him. 
He died December 17, 1724, in the eighty-first year of his age, 
after having dedicated to charitable purposes more money than any 
one private man upon record in this kingdom. 
Alexander Menzikoff. 
This was a prince of the Russian empire, deeply concerned in the 
politics of his time. The general opinion of the origin of Menzikoff 
is, that his father was a peasant, who had placed him at Moscow 
with a pastry-cook, and that he carried little pies about the streets 
singing as he went. In this situation he was seen by the emperor 
Peter, who, pleased with the wit and liveliness, which on examination 
he found in him, took him about his person, and thus opened the way 
to his fortune. Others, however, say that his father was an officer 
