is death. He had a great
horror of photographers, and refused all requests to sit for his
portrait. One was at length obtained surreptitiously. On a fine summer
day, he was persuaded, for the sake of the fresh air, to take a seat in
the yard, which then existed at the back of the bank. Mr. Whitlock was
in attendance, and succeeded, greatly to the delight of Mr. Spooner's
friends, in obtaining a very good portrait of the blind old man, as he
sat there, perfectly unconscious of what was going on. I believe this
was the only portrait ever taken.

At the death of Mr. George Attwood--which preceded that of Mr. Spooner
by some years--the firm had been re-constituted, and became Attwood,
Spooner, Marshalls, and Co. The partners in the new firm were Mr. Thomas
Aurelius Attwood, Mr. R. Spooner, and Messrs. William and Henry
Marshall, who had been clerks in the bank all their lives. The deaths,
in a comparatively short period, of Mr. T.A. Attwood and Mr. W.
Marshall, followed soon after by that of Mr. Spooner, left Mr. Henry
Marshall the only surviving member of this firm.

Soon after Mr. Spooner's death, it was announced that an amalgamation of
this bank with the Birmingham Joint Stock Bank in Temple Row had been
agreed upon, and satisfaction with this arrangement was universally
expressed. On Saturday March 10, 1865--only four months after Mr.
Spooner's decease--the town, and in fact the whole country, was
electrified by the announcement that the bank had stopped payment.
People were incredulous, as it had been thought to be one of the safest
banks in the kingdom. An excited crowd surrounded the bank premises
during the whole day, and a strong force of police was in attendance to
preserve order. In the course of the day a circular was issued, of which
the following is a copy:

"It is with feelings of the deepest concern and distress that we
announce that we are compelled to suspend payment, and this at the
moment when, after several months of anxious negotiation, we had
confidently trusted we should obtain such assistance as would enable
us to carry into effect, on our part, the preliminary agreement for
the amalgamation of the bank with the Birmingham Joint Stock Bank.
In this hope we have been disappointed. Sums of money to a large
amount were drawn out of the bank some years since by the family
of the Attwoods. To this circumstance it can be clearly shown, at
the proper time, our fa