=Source.=--_The Illustrated London News_, August 19, 1871.
The first statute holiday of the first Monday in August, under the
Bank Holidays Act, was very generally observed on the 7th; and another
year this holiday will probably be still more general. The name of
Sir John Lubbock and the first Monday in August will henceforth be
associated with pleasant recollections in the minds of the clerks
of the bankers, brokers, merchants, and traders of the city. At all
events, the principal employers of labour in the City, many in the east
and a few in the west, took advantage of the provision contained in the
new Act, and closed their establishments. The Government offices in
the City remained open, but all the warehouses and offices of public
companies, the Royal Exchange and Lloyd’s, and nearly all the retail
shops in Cannon Street, the Poultry, and Cornhill, were closed. The
holiday having been wisely fixed for Monday, a large number of those
for whose benefit the measure was more especially passed were able to
leave town on Saturday afternoon, and thus to secure two clear days in
the country. But still many thousands thronged to the railway stations
in the morning. Notwithstanding this exodus of pleasure-seekers, the
principal exhibitions and places of amusement had fully the average
number of visitors....
In the east end of the town many of the manufactories were closed, and
several of the great capitalists, who give their workmen an annual
“treat,” engaged fields in which the workmen, with their wives and
families, were entertained and amused with outdoor sports. By rail
and by river more than 10,000 Oddfellows of the North London District
of the Manchester Unity went down to the North Woolwich Gardens to
take part in a fête held for the benefit of the widows and orphans of
deceased members. On Monday night the great thoroughfares in the City
leading from the railways--especially at Ludgate Hill, the Bank, and
Gracechurch Street--were filled with holiday folks “homeward bound.”
Several schools gave a whole holiday to the pupils, and children of all
ages formed part of most of the groups. Not a tipsy or ill-conducted
person could be seen. The day had been glorious, and the sum of
happiness and social and domestic enjoyment evidently conferred by this
first Bank Holiday in August testifies to the wisdom of the Legislature.