these young men--as
good a man as ever stood on 'Change." And then Mr. Giles, warming with
his subject, enters at large into the history of the house. "You
see, sir," says he, "the banking-house of Hobson Brothers, or Newcome
Brothers, as the partners of the firm really are, is not one of the
leading banking firms of the City of London, but a most respectable
house of many years' standing, and doing a most respectable business,
especially in the Dissenting connection." After the business came into
the hands of the Newcome Brothers, Hobson Newcome, Esq., and Sir Brian
Newcome, Bart., M.P., Mr. Giles shows how a considerable West End
connection was likewise established, chiefly through the aristocratic
friends and connections of the above-named Bart.

But the best man of business, according to Mr. Giles, whom the firm of
Hobson Brothers ever knew, better than her father and uncle, better than
her husband Sir T. Newcome, better than her sons and successors above
mentioned, was the famous Sophia Alethea Hobson, afterwards Newcome--of
whom might be said what Frederick the Great said of his sister, that she
was sexu foemina, vir ingenio--in sex a woman, and in mind a man.
Nor was she, my informant told me, without even manly personal
characteristics: she had a very deep and gruff voice, and in her old age
a beard which many a young man might envy; and as she came into the bank
out of her carriage from Clapham, in her dark green pelisse with
fur trimmings, in her grey beaver hat, beaver gloves, and great gold
spectacles, not a clerk in that house did not tremble before her, and
it was said she only wanted a pipe in her mouth considerably to resemble
the late Field-Marshal Prince Blucher.

Her funeral was one of the most imposing sights ever witnessed in
Clapham. There was such a crowd you might have thought it was a
Derby-day. The carriages of some of the greatest City firms, and the
wealthiest Dissenting houses; several coaches full of ministers of all
denominations, including the Established Church; the carriage of the
Right Honourable the Earl of Kew, and that of his daughter, Lady
Anne Newcome, attended that revered lady's remains to their final
resting-place. No less than nine sermons were preached at various
places of public worship regarding her end. She fell upstairs at a
very advanced age, going from the library to the bedroom, after all the
household was gone to rest, and was found by the maids in the morning,
ina