QUAINT METHODS OF ELECTING MAYORS

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 57, 29 November 1924, Page 18

QUAINT METHODS OF ELECTING MAYORS

Mayoral office in England dates back to the 12th century, when the title was first used to designate the chief official of London. Many quaint ceremonies connected with the mayoral elections still peisist. At Bournemouth and Hanley the retiring mayor confirms his successor’s elevation to office by a solemn loving-kiss. The chief magistrate of Grantham has his robe stripped off him, and the town clerk taps him on the head with a mallet on the expiration of his mayoralty. After his election the Mayor of High Wycombe, accompanied by his aidermen and councillors, proceeds to the borough department of weights and measures, where the ' council are carefully weighed. Their avoirdupois is duly noted in the civic records. Of great antiquity is the custom of placing a ring upon the finger of the Mayor of Lincoln upon his (flection. At’ Cheltenham upon accepting office the chief magistrate is given a goldmounted cane. The belfry of the parish church is the unusual place chosen for the appointment of tho MayOr of Brightlingsea. As symbol of bis authority as admiral (if the port, the Mayor of Cork, with the members of the council, used to beat the boundaries of Cork harbour, finally casting to the waves a bronze-tipped arrow. In 1893 tho mayors of several large towns, Liverpool and Manchester included, weie raised to tho. dignity of Lord Mayor, a title previously held only by the civic heads of London, Dublin and York. . The two former are exclusively privileged to appear at the Bar of tho House of Commons, wearing the regalia of their office and attended by their sheriffs, to present petitions. Tho Lord Mayor of Bristol is also a judge of the Admiralty Court, and he can sit on the bench of any court of justice iu England by virtue of his position as chief magistrate of the western port. fi’he sumptuous mayoral banquet held in the metropolis, the civio goose feast at Liverpool, the champagne and sausages consumed at Peterborough, and the curious spr.it feast enjoyed at Yarmouth, convey the impression that of the many qualifications a mayor must possess not the least is a firstclass digestion'—Frederick Salfeld, in the “Daily Mail.”