Morocco's feats is given by a French eye-witness, Jean de Montlyard, Sieur de Melleray, in a note to a French translation of the ‘Golden Ass’ of Apuleius (1602). The horse's age is there stated to be about twelve years, but he was certainly some three or four years older. The magistrates of Paris suspected that his tricks were performed by magic, and for some time Banks was imprisoned and his horse impounded. But on his master declaring that he had carefully instructed Morocco by signs, they were both released, and Banks was permitted to continue his exhibition. At Orleans, according to Bishop Morton (Direct Answer unto the Scandalous Exceptions of Theophilus Higgons, 1609, p. 11), Morocco was again suspected of being a pupil of the devil, and Banks, to allay the suspicion, ‘commanded his horse’ (who at once obeyed him) ‘to seek out one in the preasse of the people who had a crucifixe on his hat; which done, he bad him kneele downe unto it, and not this onely, but also to rise up againe and to kisse it.’ According to the same authority, Banks, with Morocco, visited Frankfort shortly after this adventure. In 1608 he had returned to England, and was temporarily employed by Henry, Prince of Wales, in the management of his horses (MS. Privy Purse Expenses, 1608–9). In succeeding years Banks, according to references in the works of Ben Jonson, Sir Walter Raleigh (History of the World, 1614, i. 173), Michael Drayton, John Taylor, and Sir John Harington, continued to give his entertainment in London. An elaborate account of ‘how a horse may be taught to doe any tricke done by Banks his curtall’ is given at the end of Gervase Markham's ‘Cavelarice’ (1607). Some mystery has been ascribed to the fate of Banks and Morocco. According to playful allusions in Ben Jonson's ‘Epigrams’ (1616) and in a marginal note to the mock romance of ‘Don Zara del Fogo’ (1656), they were both burned at Rome ‘by the commandment of the pope.’ But no importance need be attached to these statements. The showman is almost certainly to be identified with Banks, a vintner in Cheapside in later years, who is said to have ‘taught his horse to dance, and shooed him with silver’ (Life and Death of Mistress Mary Frith, 1662, p. 75). As a vintner, Banks was evidently alive in May 1637 (Ashmole MS. 826), and mention is made of ‘mine host Bankes’ in Shirley's ‘Ball,’ 1639. Curious allusions to Banks and his dancing horse are found as late as 1664 (Killigrew's Parson's Wedding). An early Lancashire pedigree states that a ‘daughter of … Banks, who kept the horse with the admirable tricks,’ married John Hyde of Urmstone, a member of an ancient county family (Hunter's Illustrations to Shakespeare, i. 265).
[The best accounts of Banks, with numberless references to contemporary authorities, appear in Halliwell-Phillips's folio Shakespeare, iv. 243 et seq., and in his privately printed Memoranda on Love's Labour's Lost (1879), pp. 21–57. The rare tract, Maroccus Extaticus, one copy of which is now in the British Museum, was reprinted with notes by E. F. Rimbault for the Percy Society (No. 47). See also Douce's Illustrations to Shakespeare, i. 212; Corser's Collectanea, i. 152 et seq.; and Frost's Old Showmen, p. 23.]
BANKS, BENJAMIN (1750–1795), a violin-maker, was one of the most prominent among the English followers of Amati. He began as a pupil of Peter Walmsley, of the ‘Golden Harp’ in Piccadilly, the great imitator of Stainer violins. Banks, following Daniel Parker, discarded the Stainer traditions, and copied the instruments of Nicholas Amati. His violas and violoncellos are excellent, but his violins are not so good. At an early period of his life he established himself at Salisbury. His business there was carried on after his death by his two sons, James and Henry, who subsequently migrated to Liverpool.
[Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ii. 164 b.]
BANKS, Sir EDWARD (1769?–1835), builder, raised himself from the humble station of a day labourer to the chief control of the firm of Jolliffe & Banks, contractors for public works, and was the builder of Waterloo, Southwark, and London bridges. He owed his fortune principally to these contracts, which he took with the Rev. W. J. Jolliffe, under the superintendence of the Rennies. Among his other undertakings may be mentioned Staines bridge, the naval works at Sheerness dockyard, and the new channels for the rivers Ouse, Nene, and Witham in Norfolk and Lincolnshire. In June 1822 Banks received the honour of knighthood. He died at Tilgate, Sussex, the residence of his daughter, Mrs. Gilbert East Jolliffe, 5 July 1835, in his sixty-sixth year. While working as a day labourer upon the Merstham tram-road, he had been struck with the beauty of the neighbouring hamlet of Chipstead, and, when he died nearly forty years later, desired that he might be buried in its quiet churchyard.
[Brayley's Surrey, iv. 305–7; Gent. Mag. (1835), iv. 444.]
