Balancing the cash

'How J Backhouse and Co balanced the cash sixty years ago': coloured drawing signed by Samuel Richardson, who worked at the Darlington Bank, with a narrative account of Jonathan Backhouse at Croft Bridge in 1819. The story of how Jonathan Backhouse rode non-stop to London, in order to get hold of enough gold to stop Lord Darlington's attempt to cause a 'run' on his bank by presenting all the Backhouse bank notes he could find, soon became a local legend. This picture, painted nearly 60 years later, was presented by G H Richardson (son of the artist and a pensioner of the Bank), to mark his 90th birthday. The phrase 'balancing the cash' has a double meaning, for not only did Backhouse get enough gold to balance the notes, but on the return journey a wheel came off his coach and the gold was used to balance the vehicle on his triumphal entry into Darlington.