The Royal Bounty Fund was a special

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fund originally set up in 1782 by

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. The operation of the fund was always shrouded in secrecy. Gifts, grants and pensions were paid out from the fund under the patronage of the prime minister and no accounts were ever published. From as early as 1802 Treasury officials expressed concerns about the operation of the fund but it was not until 2002 that it was eventually wound down by Tony Blair. One known recipient of funds, granted by

A. J. Balfour Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour, (, ; 25 July 184819 March 1930), also known as Lord Balfour, was a British Conservative statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1902 to 1905. As foreign secretary in the ...

when he was First Lord of the Treasury, was for the completion of The English Dialect Dictionary.Wright, Joseph (1898). ''The English Dialect Dictionary''
Vol. 1, p. viii.
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References

{{Edmund Burke Edmund Burke Financial services in the United Kingdom Investment funds