Anecdotes of the Manners and Customs of London during the Eighteenth Century; Vol. 1 (of 2): Including the Charities, Depravities, Dresses, and Amusements etc.Malcolm, James Peller
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Anecdotes of the Manners and Customs of London during the Eighteenth Century; Vol. 1 (of 2): Including the Charities, Depravities, Dresses, and Amusements etc.
Malcolm, James Peller
London (England) -- Social life and customs -- 18th century
"In the preparations for the intended feast, your Committee
omitted no expence that might serve to improve its splendour,
elegance, or accommodation: whilst on the other hand they
retrenched every charge that was not calculated to that end,
however warranted by former precedents. Their Majesties
having expressed their Royal inclinations to see the
Procession of the Lord Mayor to Guildhall, the Committee
obtained Mr. Barclay's house in Cheapside for that purpose,
where proper refreshments were provided, and every care taken
to accommodate their Majesties with a full view of the whole
cavalcade.
"The great hall and adjoining apartments were decorated
and furnished with as much taste and magnificence as the
shortness of the time for preparation and the nature of a
temporary service would permit: the Hustings where their
Majesties dined, and the new Council Chamber, to which
they retired both before and after dinner, being spread
with Turkey carpets, and the rest of the floors over which
their Majesties were to pass with blue cloth, and the
whole illuminated with near three thousand wax tapers in
chandeliers, lustres, girandoles, and sconces.
"A select band of music, consisting of fifty of the best
hands, placed in a superb gallery, erected on purpose at the
lower end of the Hall, entertained their Majesties with a
concert during the time of dinner, under the direction of a
gentleman justly celebrated for his great musical talents;
whilst four other galleries (all covered with crimson, and
ornamented with festoons) exhibited to their Majesties a
most brilliant appearance of five hundred of the principal
Citizens of both sexes.
"Their Majesties table was served with a new set of rich
plate, purchased on this occasion, and covered with all
the delicacies which the season could furnish, or expence
procure, and prepared by the best hands.
"A proportionable care was taken of the several other
tables provided for the Foreign Ambassadors and Ministers;
the Lords and Gentlemen of his Majesty's most Honourable
Privy-Council; the Lord Chancellor and Judges; the Lords and
Ladies in waiting; the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, Sheriffs, and
Common Council; and many others, both of the Nobility and
Gentry: the whole number of guests within the Hall, including
the galleries, being upwards of twelve hundred; and that of
the Gentlemen Pensioners, Yeomen of the Guard, Horse and
Horse-Grenadier Guards, and servants attendant upon their
Majesties, and the Royal Family, and who were entertained
at places provided in the neighbourhood, amounting to seven
hundred and twenty-nine.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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