...our listserv after all.  A posting on the normally quiet (and slightly
boring) Society of Architectural Historians listserv asked about the Baring
Brothers in the context of a Frank Lloyd Wright (or HH Richardson?)
commission.   It garnered the usual dry-toast responses, but this lyrical
reply came from someone at the National Parks Service:

"From: [log in to unmask] (Marilyn Harper)

      They are also the ones immortalized by Gilbert and Sullivan in
      "Iolanthe" in one of their most famous patter songs.  The line reads
      "the shares are a penny and ever so many are taken by Rothschild and
      Baring, and just as a few are alotted to you, you awake with a shudder
      despairing," so they are moving in pretty exalted circles! (Though I
      suppose the needs of the rhyme might have had some effect too.)

      Marilyn Harper"

Ken, why don't you invite her?

Christopher Gray