PORTRAIT OF AN UNKNOWN VICTORIAN By R. H. Mottram
In this book (Robert Hale, 12s. 6d.) Mr. Mottram tells the story of the life of the chief clerk in the Norwich bank of Messrs. Gurney during the second half of the nineteenth century. But neither he nor his life were very interest- ing. Though of great integrity, he was a man of limited outlook, rigid prejudices and little humour ; and it would be unfair to the Victorian era to suggest that in these respects he was typical of it. He wa ;, however, fond of music, travelled a little abroad and met Gladstone a id Galsworthy, each on one occasion. • It is difficult to arouse much interest in the man; the book itself, which is we'l written, gives a good picture of tl e life of Norwich at a time when county towns really were pro- vincial capitals. There are stories of elections and corruption ; the subject of the book (who was presumably the father of the writer) was so much trusted that he was appointed to count the votes. The life of Mr. Mottram, senior, was, above all, involved with the history of the great Whig bank, Gurney's. Gurney's stikvived a 'disaster to the London bank of Overend, Gurney and profited by the collapse of the rival Tory bank of Sir Robert Harvey in 1870; it was finally absorbed in Barclay's Bank shortly before Mr. Mottram, senior, retired.
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