In the evening the traditional election banquet takes place in the Company’s Hall, in Dowgate Hill. The Master has on his right the four outgoing Wardens, in order of precedence, and next to them the third and Renter Wardens elect. On his left are the Guests of the Company, and the remaining seats are occupied by the Court and Livery, all of whom are invited. When dinner is over, and the loyal toasts have been honoured, the doors of the hall are thrown open to the strains of music, and a procession enters, headed by the musicians, who are followed by ten Christ’s Hospital boys, representing the ten scholars formerly nominated by the Company under the will of Mr. Stoddard (1611). Then come ten of the junior Liverymen, each carrying alternately one of the five Cokayne cups, referred to later on, or one of the election caps, and after them the two Beadles with their staves, and the Clerk. The procession marches round the hall from left to right, and halts when the first of the Liverymen comes opposite the Master for the second time. The Master then takes from him the first cap and, after trying it vainly on the heads of some of the chief Guests, fits it successfully on the Master-elect, to whom he then drinks from the first of the five cups. Then the music strikes up, and the procession moves round the hall again, till a circuit has been completed, when another halt is called, and the first, second, and third Wardens elect are successively capped and pledged. Then follows another circuit of the procession, and a similar recognition of the Renter-elect, after which the procession resumes its march, and leaves the hall. As each of the five Elect is capped, he returns to his seat, wearing the cap, the retiring Renter Warden making way for the third and Renter Wardens elect to pass above him. After an interval, the caps are laid aside, and the Master proceeds to propose the health of the Master-elect, and after his response the ordinary proceedings are resumed. The Cokayne cups bear the date-mark of 1565, and passed to the Company under the will, dated 1598, of Mr. William Cokayne. Each stands 16½ in. high, and is in the form of a silver-gilt cock standing on a tortoise, the head of the cock being removable. Ever since the cups came into the possession of the Company they have been used at the election banquet, in pursuance of an engagement entered into by the Company at the time of the bequest becoming operative. Their value must be very great. The workmanship is somewhat delicate, and repairs have had to be executed from time to time. Thus, Renter Warden’s account, 1661–2:— “Paid Jacob Boddendicke for makeing a new tayle for one of the cockes and refreshing 3 other cockes and mending their tayles and one of the cases—005–10–00.”