)

BANKET, a South African mining term, applied to the beds of auriferous
conglomerate, chiefly occurring in the Witwatersrand gold-fields (see
GOLD). The name was given to these beds from their resemblance to a
sweetmeat, known in Dutch as "banket," resembling almond hard-bake. The
word is the same as "banquet," and is derived ultimately from "bank" or
"bench," meaning table-feast, hence applied to any delicacy or to various
kinds of confectionery, a use now obsolete in English.

BANK HOLIDAYS, in the United Kingdom, those days which by the Bank Holidays
Act 1871 are kept as close holidays in all banks in England and Ireland and
Scotland respectively. Before the year 1834, the Bank of England was closed
on certain saints' days and anniversaries, about thirty-three days in all.
In 1834 these were reduced to four--Good Friday, 1st of May, 1st of
November and Christmas Day. By the act of 1871, carried through the House
of Commons by Sir J. Lubbock (afterwards Lord Avebury), the following were
constituted bank holidays in England and Ireland--Easter Monday, the Monday
in Whitsun week, the first Monday of August, the 26th of December if a
week-day; and by the Bank Holiday (Ireland) Act 1903, March 17th as a
special bank holiday for Ireland (see FEASTS AND FESTIVALS). In
Scotland--New Year's Day, Christmas Day, Good Friday, the 1st Monday of
May, the 1st Monday of August. If Christmas Day and New Year's Day fall on
a Sunday, the next Monday following is the bank holiday. No person is
compelled to make any payment or to do any act upon a bank holiday which he
would not be compelled to do or make on Christmas Day or Good Friday, and
the making of a payment or the doing of an act on the following day is
equivalent to doing it on the holiday. By the same act it was made lawful
for the sovereign from time to time, as it should seem fit, to appoint by
proclamation, in the same manner as public fasts or days of public
thanksgiving, any day to be observed as a bank holiday throughout the
United Kingdom or any part of it, or to substitute another day when in any
special case it appears inexpedient to the sovereign in council to keep the
usual bank holiday. (See further HOLIDAY.)

BANKIPUR, an ancient village on the Hugli river in the Bengal Presidency,
near the modern Palta above Barrackpore. It has disappeared from the map,
but is famous as the principal settlement of the ill-fated Ostend Company,
the one great effort made by Germa