The ceremony takes place in Westminster Abbey on the Thursday before Good Friday, known as Maundy Thursday. The dish is taken from the Tower to Westminster, where at the ceremony a yeoman of the guard carries it in procession, holding displayed the little red bags containing the Maundy Money. The aged poor are marshalled on each side of the aisle, and to them after an impressive service the little bags of money are one by one distributed, by the clergy, in the King’s name. It will be noticed that William and Mary have placed their cypher in the middle of the Maundy Dish, but the plate mark clearly shows that it was made at the beginning of the reign of Charles II. After the ceremony at Westminster the Maundy Dish is conveyed back to the Tower, and there rests behind iron bars for yet another year. Of the ecclesiastical plate the most prominent piece is the gold baptismal font made for Charles II, and intended to be used for the baptism of all Royal children born thereafter. If the original intention had been carried out a very long successions of Princes and Princesses, including those now living, would have had this historic connection with an ancient piece of church plate. Unhappily, however, owing possibly to the inadvertence of Court officials or the clergy, the font has only been spasmodically used. The first recorded occasion is at the christening of the Princess Augusta, afterwards Duchess of Brunswick, the third daughter of Frederick Louis, Prince of Wales in the year 1737. We also know that it was used at the baptism of George IV, and for the same ceremony in the case of twelve of the children of George III. Then it seems to have been lost sight of, or perhaps was mistaken for a punch bowl, for we find that in 1840-41, Queen Victoria ordered a baptismal font to be made of silver-gilt, which is now at Windsor Castle, and in which all Princes and Princesses from that date have been baptised. It may confidently be hoped that at some future date the older font will again come into use, and will not again be lost to sight. Charles II’s font gives the general impression of a large, covered bowl standing on a slender, rounded column, and has a somewhat top-heavy effect. In height it is about 3 ft. 6 in., whilst the bowl is about 18 in. in diameter. On top of the cover is a group of gold figures representing St. Philip baptising the eunuch, whilst below is the cypher of Charles II surmounted by a Royal crown. The same device is repeated on the base of the font. As part of the set is a very handsome and massive golden alms dish with the Royal arms of the Stuarts engraved large in the centre.