In London the 9th of November has been regarded, for many centuries, as
a day of special importance. It is Lord Mayor's Day. That is to say, the
new Lord Mayor of the City of London, who was elected by the freemen of
the City Guilds on Michaelmas Day, goes in his state coach to the Law
Courts to be "sworn into" office by His Majesty's judges. Until recent
times the Law Courts were situated at Westminster, and in old
Westminster Hall some of the greatest trials in English history took
place,--such as the trials of Lord Cobham, Strafford, and Warren
Hastings. Now the Law Courts are situated in the Strand, near to the
spot where stood Temple Bar.
The Lord Mayor of London has still a certain amount of authority within
the City bounds, but nothing like what he used to possess. At one time,
indeed, in his capacity of Head of all the great trade guilds, he was
more powerful than any of the king's nobles, and in London he
exercised almost as much authority as the king himself. From this you
will understand that when he, in the old times, journeyed from the City
of London to the City of Westminster it was a great occasion, because
the Lord Mayor was in truth a great man. The stately pageants wended to
Westminster on Lord Mayor's Day both by coach and water-barge;
glittering pageants that had a real significance. In many cases they
were devised by clever play-wrights, and their glories recorded in the
verses of the poet laureates.
In the year 1616 Sir John Leman, of the Fishmongers' Company, was Lord
Mayor, and part of his pageant was a fishing-boat with fishermen drawing
up their nets laden with living fish which they distributed among the
people. This boat, set upon a wheeled stage, was followed by a dolphin
with a youth on its back; then the King of the Moors, with six tributary
kings on horseback; then a lemon-tree (the Mayor's name was Leman) laden
with fruit and flowers; then a bower adorned with the names and arms of
all members of the Fishmongers' Company; then an armed officer, with a
representation of the head of Wat Tyler; lastly there was a great car
drawn by mermen and mermaids, and on the top of it was a victorious
angel, with a representation of King Richard surrounded by figures that
symbolized all the royal virtues.
Some of the Lord Mayor's pageants were even more splendid than this one.
Gilded chariots, giants, bowers wreathed with flowers, men in armour,
full-rigged ships, satyrs, bannermen--these things, and many other
fanciful contrivances, found a place in the Lord Mayor's procession. And
this procession still forms a part of London life, but it has lost all
its significance; and a great deal of its interest, even as a show. On
the 9th day of each November the Lord Mayor's gilded coach, with a few
mounted soldiers, the heralds, the aldermen in coaches, the City
firemen, and a few symbolical cars block the traffic of London from east
to west. It is not an occasion of great historical interest, yet it
still draws great crowds, for your true Londoner loves a procession that
goes to the sound of brazen music. The Lord Mayor's Show is also--just
like a circus procession--beloved of all boys and girls.