The phrase 'I became as rich as the Gurneys' is a line from The Judge's Song from Gilbert & Sullivan's comic opera Trial by Jury (you can see an amateur dramatic group singing it here - the line in question occurs about 2:16m in).
I was watching a programme on iPlayer about 19th-century bankers and their philanthropy (if you're in the UK, it's here) and Ian Hislop, the presenter, talked a lot about the Gurneys, a very wealthy banking family in the 18th and 19th centuries. I was interested to hear that Elizabeth Fry, a well-known 19th-century influential prison reformer (her portrait appears on the £5 note), was one of the Gurney sisters. It is this banking family who are alluded to in the Gilbert & Sullivan song.
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