Saints, stood in the north-east corner of Guildhall Yard, immediately
adjoining the Guildhall. The chapel is said to have been built at the
end of the thirteenth century, when Adam Franceys and Peter Faulore
obtained licence from Edward III. to convey a piece of land for the
erection of houses for the custos and chaplains of this college. The
original building became in course of time too small for the
requirements of the citizens, and in 1429, when the new Guildhall was
nearing completion, a new chapel was built. This beautiful building,
though injured and defaced, was not destroyed in the Great Fire of
London, and continued to be used as a chapel until the latter part of
the eighteenth century, when its religious services were discontinued.
The chapel was then devoted to secular use, and became the Court of
Requests until its final demolition in 1822 to make room for the new Law
Courts. The great charm of this building was its beautiful western
front, which faced the Guildhall Yard. This was adorned with three
canopied niches containing statues of Edward VI., Elizabeth, and Charles
I. (now preserved in the Guildhall Library), and with a glorious west
window of seven lights, a perfect example of the Perpendicular style.
Adjoining the chapel on the south was Blackwell Hall, which was for so
many centuries the great Cloth Mart of the city.
Among the religious services which formed so bright a feature in ancient
civic life those of the Guildhall Chapel held an important place.
Besides their attendances at the Cathedral, at Paul's Cross, and at the
'Spital, the Lord Mayor and his brethren, with the City officers,
attended Divine service at this chapel on Michaelmas Day before the
election of a new Lord Mayor, and on many other occasions throughout the
year. The sermons preached on these occasions were printed, and form
quite a large body of civic homiletics, many of the preachers being men
of great fame and reputation. The practice of attending the Mass of the
Holy Spirit (for which a celebration of Holy Communion with sermon is
now substituted) was revived, if not originated, by the celebrated Sir
Richard Whittington on the day of his own election as Lord Mayor in
1406.
Another of the good deeds of this worthy mayor was the foundation,
through his executor, of a library to be attached to the Guildhall
College, under the custody of one of its chaplains. This was duly
carried out in 1425 by the erection of a separate building of two
floors, well supplied with books "for the profit of the students there,
and those discoursing to the common people." This public library, which
appears to have been the first of its kind in England, had,
unfortunately, but a brief existence, _all_ of its books having been
"borrowed" in 1550 by the Duke of Somerset, Lord Protector, by whom, as
we learn from Stow the historian, they were never returned. The loss has
since been, to some extent, supplied by the present library, founded at
Guildhall in 1824, and rebuilt in 1873.
In the reign of Henry VI., after the completion of the great hall, other
apartments, such as "the mayor's chamber, the council chamber, with
other rooms above the stairs," were built. Of these no trace at present
remains, and two Common Council chambers have since been erected. The
first of these was a picturesque apartment, its walls being covered with
statuary and paintings, the latter being chiefly presented to the
Corporation by Alderman John Boydell. A new council chamber, of handsome
and commodious design, was erected by the Corporation in 1884, from the
designs of Sir Horace Jones, City Architect. The Court of Aldermen's
present chamber was built in the latter half of the seventeenth century,
and is a small but handsome room. The ceiling is painted with
allegorical figures of the City of London--Prudence, Justice,
Temperance, and Fortitude--executed by Sir James Thornhill, who was
presented by the Corporation with a gold cup of L225 7s. in value.
Around the walls and in the windows are shields containing the arms of
most of the Lord Mayors of the last 127 years.
[Illustration: THE GUILDHALL.
_Engraved by R. Acom, 1828._]
The artistic decoration of the Guildhall and its various apartments
includes monuments, busts, and portraits of men whom the City has
delighted to honour. In the great hall are the monuments to Admiral Lord
Nelson, by J. Smith; to the "Iron Duke," by J. Bell; to the Earl of
Chatham, by Bacon, with inscription by Burke; to the younger Pitt, by
Bubb, with Canning's inscription; and to Alderman Beckford, by Moore. On
Beckford's monument is inscribed, in letters of gold, the speech which
that famous citizen addressed, or is said to have addressed, as Lord
Mayor, to King George IV. on his throne. Around the hall were formerly
hung portraits of twenty-two judges who assisted in the special Court of
Judicature appointed to decide the disputes which arose as to sites of
property in the City after the Great Fire. These portraits, which are
now hung in the old Common Council chamber, were painted at the
Corporation's expense by Michael Wright, Sir Peter Lely having declined
the commission because the judges refused to wait upon him at his house
for the necessary sittings. In the vestibule of the council chambers are
a series of portrait-busts of statesmen, philanthropists, warriors, and
men of high eminence in the general estimation of their
fellow-countrymen. The decoration of the outer lobby was executed as a
memorial of his shrievalty in 1889-90 by the late Alderman Sir Stuart
Knill, Bart., and exhibits the Corporation and the City Livery Companies
in a very pleasing symbolical design.
At the west end of the great hall are two law courts, where the City
judges, the Recorder, and the Common Sergeant administer justice in the
Mayor's Court. The aldermen sit in rotation as magistrates in the Police
Court in the Guildhall Yard, and in Guildhall Buildings is the City of
London Court (anciently the Sheriff's Court), over which two judges
preside for the Poultry and Giltspur Street Compters respectively.
Besides the courts above mentioned, there are the departments of the
various officers of the Corporation, chief in importance among them
being that of the Chamberlain. The court over which this officer
presides deals with admission to the freedom of the City and the
oversight of apprentices. The Freedom of London was a much-coveted
privilege in former times, as without it no one was allowed to carry on
business in the City. The benefits now are wholly of a posthumous
nature, the children and widows of deceased freemen being eligible for
election respectively to benefits of an educational and charitable kind.
There is, however, an inner circle of honorary freemen, whose names have
been enrolled on the City's Roll of Fame. This highly-prized distinction
is reserved for those who, in the unanimous judgment of the Corporation,
have rendered conspicuous services to their country in their various
callings. The roll was reserved almost exclusively in former times for
eminent statesmen and naval and military commanders. In more modern
times the claims of great explorers, scientific discoverers,
philanthropists, social reformers, etc., have been freely admitted, and
the honour is bestowed without distinction of politics or creed. In
January, 1900, the Honorary Freedom was conferred upon every member of
the City Imperial Volunteers before the departure of the regiment for
active service in the South African War. The Chamberlain also deals with
disputes between masters and their apprentices, and has power to commit
refractory apprentices to Bridewell for imprisonment. There was formerly
attached to his office a little prison-cell, known as "Little Ease,"
which exercised a wholesome dread upon the turbulent 'prentices of days
gone by. In addition to his judicial duties the Chamberlain has the
responsibility of receiving and disbursing the City's cash, and all
other moneys which the Corporation administers.
[Illustration: INNER TEMPLE HALL.]
The great purpose of the Guildhall as a place of meeting for the
citizens is well seen in its use on various official occasions. Here are
held the meetings of the Court of Common Hall, that court being an
assemblage of all the liverymen of the various guilds. The Common Hall
on Midsummer Day is for election by the liverymen of the two Sheriffs
and various minor officials. The Sheriffs thus elected are admitted into
office in the Guildhall on Michaelmas Eve, and preside on the following
day at the Common Hall held for the election of Lord Mayor. The Lord
Mayor Elect is formally installed in office at Guildhall, with a quaint
and dignified ceremony, on November 8th, and enters upon his duties
after a further ceremony at the Royal Courts of Justice on the following
day. The Livery also meet in Guildhall to take part in and to hear the
result of elections of Members of Parliament for the City. On all these
occasions an elevated hustings is raised at the east end of the hall,
and strewn with sweet-smelling herbs, the civic party being also
provided with nosegays. This old custom is supposed to have originated
in the days when the City was ravaged by pestilence, the herbs and
flowers being employed as prophylactics.
Now taking leave of the building, it is time to glance very briefly at
some of the important events which have taken place within these
historic walls. It was here, in 1483, that the Duke of Buckingham, sent
by Richard Duke of Gloucester, with his persuasive tongue, prevailed
with the citizens to hail the usurper as King Richard III. A different
scene was enacted in 1546, when Guildhall was the scene of the trial of
the youthful and accomplished Anne Askew, which ended in her
condemnation, her torture on the rack, and her martyrdom in Smithfield.
The next year saw the trial of the Earl of Surrey, one who was
distinguished by every accomplishment which became a scholar, a
courtier, and a soldier, and who, to gratify the malice of Henry VIII.,
was convicted of high treason. This unhappy period also saw the tragic
trial and condemnation, in 1553, of the ill-fated Lady Jane Grey and her
husband. The trial of Sir Nicholas Throgmorton at Guildhall in 1554, for
taking part in Sir Thomas Wyatt's rebellion, had a different result.
This trial is one of the most interesting on record for the exhibition
of intellectual power, and is remarkable for the courage displayed by
the jury in returning a verdict of "acquittal" in opposition to the
despotic wishes of the court, though at the expense of imprisonment and
fine. In 1642 Charles I. attended at a Common Council and claimed the
Corporation's assistance an apprehending the five members whom he had
denounced as guilty of high treason, and who had fled to the City to
avoid arrest. This incident is commemorated by an inscription affixed to
one of the pillars in the new council chamber. During the Civil War and
the Commonwealth period the Guildhall became the arena of many an
important incident connected with the political events of the times. At
a later period, when, in 1689, the Government of James II. had become so
intolerable that he was forced to abdicate, Guildhall was the spot where
the Lords of Parliament met and agreed on a declaration in favour of the
assumption of regal authority by the Prince of Orange, afterwards
William III.
Guildhall has been famous also for the many sumptuous entertainments
which have been given in it to royalty and other personages of
distinction at various times, apart from the annual festivity which
marks the entry into office of each Lord Mayor. From the banquet given
in 1421 to Henry V. and his Queen, on the successful termination of his
campaigns in France--when Sir Richard Whittington, in addition to the
luxuries provided for his royal guests, is said to have gratified and
astonished the King by throwing into the fire bonds for which he was
indebted to the citizens to the amount of L60,000--down to the reign of
his present Majesty, nearly every sovereign of this country has honoured
the City by accepting its hospitality in the Guildhall. Charles II.
showed so much fondness for the civic entertainments that he dined there
as many as nine times in the course of his reign.
[Illustration: THE OLD GUILDHALL.]
Apart from its strictly official use, the Guildhall is the place of
meeting for the citizens generally when any important public question
calls for the expression of their views. During the reign of George III.
the views of the citizens were in frequent conflict with those of the
Ministry of the day. Special meetings of Common Hall were summoned, at
which addresses to the King were voted, praying His Majesty to dismiss
his Ministers, and terminate the conflict with the American Colonies.
More than once the citizens have been in conflict with the House of
Commons: for the liberty of the press in 1770, when Brass Crosby, the
Lord Mayor, was committed to the Tower; and in 1805, when the liverymen
in their Common Hall supported Sir Francis Burdett, who was upholding
against the House of Commons the cherished right of liberty of speech.
In the long struggle connected with the Reform Bill the City supported
the cause of Reform, and, on the Passing of the Reform Act of 1832,
entertained in the Guildhall Earl Grey and his principal supporters in
both Houses of Parliament.
The voice of the City sounding far and wide from its ancient Guildhall
has similarly supported the great causes of Catholic Emancipation, the
removal of Jewish Disabilities, and the Abolition of the Slave Trade. In
modern times the character of the gatherings at the Guildhall has been
still more varied. Foreign sovereigns have been entertained: the allied
monarchs in 1814, the Emperor and Empress of the French (1855), the
Sultan of Turkey (1867), the Shah of Persia (1889), Alexander II., Czar
of Russia (1875), the King of the Hellenes (1881); indeed, almost every
crowned head in Europe and the civilised world has been sumptuously
received at Guildhall. In 1886, the year of the Colonial and Indian
Exhibition, the representatives of our Colonies were warmly welcomed.
Then followed the Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1887, and the Diamond
Jubilee in 1897, each occasion being celebrated by entertainments of a
memorable character.
The two great windows in the Guildhall have also memories of the deepest
interest. That at the west end was placed there by the Corporation in
1869 to recall the many virtues and the "high and spotless character" of
the Prince Consort. The window at the east end was subscribed for by the
Lancashire operatives in 1868 in gratitude for the help extended to them
during the distress occasioned by the Cotton Famine. Of unique interest
was the Jubilee Anniversary of Penny Postage, celebrated on the 16th
May, 1890, at Guildhall, when the scene within its ancient walls
resembled a huge post-office and telegraph-office combined.
Among its many services to humanity at large the Guildhall has voiced,
more than once, the outcry against Jewish persecution in Russia. A
working-classes industrial exhibition, bazaars and concerts for
charitable objects, International congresses of scientific and social
bodies, Christmas entertainments to poor and crippled children: these
are some of the present-day uses of the Guildhall. It only remains to
add the furtherance of religious effort which it has afforded by
welcoming such gatherings as those of the Sunday School Centenary, the
mission of Canon Aitken, and the yearly meeting of the British and
Foreign Bible Society, when one of the youngest collectors present (some
small personage of four or five years) cuts the Society's birthday cake
after some hearty words of welcome from the Lord Mayor, as the genial
host of the City's Guildhall.
THE CITY COMPANIES OF LONDON
BY P. H. DITCHFIELD, M.A., F.S.A.
In these days of change, which have obliterated most of the old
landmarks of the city, when the County Council has almost transformed
London, and high warehouses and glaring shops have replaced the old
picturesque buildings of our forefathers, it is refreshing to find some
institutions which have preserved through the ages their ancient customs
and usages, and retain their ancient homes and treasures. Such are the
Livery Companies of the City of London, the history of which teems with
vivid pictures of bygone times and manners, and the accounts of their
pageantries, their feasts, and customs furnish us with curious glimpses
of ancient civic life. When we visit the ancient homes of these
venerable societies, we are impressed by their magnificence and
interesting associations. Portraits of old city worthies gaze at us from
the walls and link our times with theirs, when they, too, strove to
uphold the honour of their guild and benefit their generation. Many a
quaint old-time custom and curious ceremonial usage linger on within the
old walls, and there, too, are enshrined cuirass and targe, helmet,
sword and buckler, which tell the story of the past and of the part
which the companies played in national defence, or in the protection of
civic rights. Turning down some little alley and entering the portals of
one of these halls, we are transported at once from the busy streets and
din of modern London into a region of old-world memories, which has a
fascination that is all its own. We see the old city merchants
resplendent in their liveries of "red and white with the connuzances of
their mysteries embroidered on their sleeves," or when fashions changed,
then dominating the sterner sex as it now does only the fair, clad in
"scarlet and green," or "scarlet and black," or "murrey and plunket," a
"darkly red," or a "kind of blue," preparing to attend some great State
function, or to march in procession through the streets to their guild
services. Again, the great hall is filled with a gallant company. Nobles
and princes are the guests of the company, and the mighty "baron" makes
the table groan, and "frumentie with venyson," brawn, fat swan, boar,
conger, sea-hog, and other delicacies crown the feast, while the merry
music of the minstrels or the performance of the players delights the
gay throng. Pictures of ancient pageantry, their triumphs, their
magnificent shows and gorgeous ceremonies, flit before our eyes when we
visit the halls of the companies.
[Illustration: MODEL OF BARGE FORMERLY USED BY THE CLOTHWORKERS' COMPANY
IN CIVIC PROCESSION.]
[Illustration: STAPLES INN HALL.
_From a drawing by T. H. Shepherd in 1830._]
There was a grand procession in 1686, when Sir John Peake, mercer, was
Lord Mayor. The master, wardens, and assistants, dressed in their gowns
faced with foins and their hoods, marched first, followed by the
livery in their gowns faced with satin, and the company's almsmen, each
one bearing a banner. Then came the gentlemen ushers in velvet coats,
each wearing a chain of gold, followed by the bachelors invested in
gowns and scarlet satin hoods, banner-bearers, trumpeters, drummers, the
city marshals, and many others, while the gentlemen of the Artillery
Company, led by Sir John Moore, brought up the rear. From the hall of
the Grocers' Company, which was the usual rendezvous on account of its
convenient situation or its size, they marched to the Guildhall, the
lord mayor, sheriffs, and aldermen riding on horseback. Thence they went
to Three-cranes Wharf and took barge to Westminster. On their return the
pageants met them at St. Paul's Churchyard. These were most gorgeous.
The first consisted of a rock of coral with sea-weeds, with Neptune at
the summit mounted on a dolphin which bore a throne of mother-of-pearl,
tritons, mermaids, and other marine creatures being in attendance. But
the most magnificent of all was the maiden chariot, a virgin's head
being the arms of the company. Strype tells us that
"... when any one of this company is chosen mayor, or makes
one of the triumph of the day wherein he goes to Westminster to
be sworn, a most beautiful virgin is carried through the
streets in a chariot, with all the glory and majesty possible,
with her hair all dishevelled about her shoulders, to represent
the maidenhead which the company give for their arms. And this
lady is plentifully gratified for her pains, besides the gift
of all the rich attire she wears."
The chariot in which she rode was
"... an imperial triumphal car of Roman form, elegantly adorned
with variety of paintings, commixed with richest metals,
beautified and embellished with several embellishments of gold
and silver, illustrated with divers inestimable and
various-coloured jewels of dazzling splendour, adorned and
replenished with several lively figures bearing the banners of
the kings, the lords mayor, and companies."
Upon a throne sits the virgin in great state, "hieroglyphically attired"
in a robe of white satin, richly adorned with precious stones, fringed
and embroidered with gold, signifying the graceful blushes of virginity;
on her head a long dishevelled hair of flaxen colour, decked with pearls
and precious gems, on which is a coronet of gold beset with emeralds,
diamonds, sapphires, and other precious jewels of inestimable value. Her
buskins are of gold, laced with scarlet ribbons, adorned with pearls and
other costly jewels. In one hand she holds a sceptre; in the other, a
shield with the arms of the right honourable the Company of Mercers.
Such is the gorgeous being who presides over the maiden's chariot. But
she rides not in solitary state. Fame perched on a golden canopy blows
her trumpet; Vigilance, Wisdom, Charity, Prudence, Justice, Fortitude,
Temperance, Faith, Hope, Charity, Loyalty, and the nine muses, attend
upon her. She has eight pages of honour dressed in cloth of silver walk
by her side, and Triumph acts as charioteer. The whole machine is drawn
by nine white Flanders horses, each horse ridden by some emblematical
personage--such as Victory, Fame, Loyalty, Europe attended by Peace and
Plenty, Africa, Asia and America. The foot attendants are
numerous--eight grooms, forty Roman lictors in crimson garb, twenty
servants to clear the way, and twenty "savages" or green men throwing
squibs and fireworks to keep off the crowd, and a crowd of workmen ready
to repair any part of the cumbersome chariot which might, as was not
unlikely, get out of order during its progress through the city.
Beside such magnificent pageants, our present Lord Mayors' processions
seem poor and insignificant. We might go back to an earlier day and see
Henry V. returning from his victorious campaign in France, and being
greeted by his loyal subjects at Blackheath, the mayor and brethren of
the City Companies wearing red gowns with hoods of red and white, "well
mounted and gorgeously horsed with rich collars and great chains,
rejoicing in his victorious returne." The river, too, was often the
scene of their splendour, as when Elizabeth, the Queen of King Henry
VII., was crowned. At her coming forth from Greenwich by water
"... there was attending upon her then the maior, shrifes, and
aldermen of the citie, and divers and many worshipful comoners,
chosen out of evry crafte, in their liveries, in barges freshly
furnished with banners and streamers of silke, rechly beaton
with the arms and bagges of their craftes; and in especiall a
barge, called the bachelors' barge, garnished and apparelled,
passing all other, wherein was ordeyned a great redd dragon,
spowting flames of fyer into the Thames; and many other
gentlemanlie pagiaunts, well and curiously devised, to do Her
Highness sport and pleasure with."
CHARITY AND RELIGION
But pleasure, pomp, and pageantry were not the sole uses of these guilds
in olden days. A study of the preamble to their numerous charters shows
that to maintain the poor members of their companies was one of their
chief objects. The Fishmongers had a grant of power to hold land "for
the sustentation of the poor men and women of the said commonalty." The
Goldsmiths' charter recites that
"... many persons of that trade, by fire and the smoke of
quicksilver, had lost their sight, and that others of them by
working in that trade became so crazed and infirm that they
were disabled to subsist but of relief from others; and that
divers of the said city, compassionating the condition of such,
were disposed to give and grant divers tenements and rents in
the said city to the value of twenty pounds per annum to the
company of the said craft towards the maintenance of the said
blind, weak and infirm."