LORD MAYOR AT HOME.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20472, 25 January 1930, Page 2 (Supplement)

LORD MAYOR AT HOME.

LONDON'S MANSION HOUSE.

VERY EXPENSIVE POSITION. OUTLAY ABOUT £50,000 A YEAR. Tho Lord Mayor of London is said to outrank tho earls, but to be a little less important than a marquess. He is tho last of tho great nobles to live in stato and to keep open house, and it is an everlasting puzzle that all this is managed within so small a building as tho Mansion House. There is no room in the City for a palaco, and it would be very difficult in so crowded a district to enlarge the present building either in area or in height. Writing on tho subject in Answers, Roger Pocock says: . It is a long-established custom for each Lord Mayor to have his portrait painted in his robes, and tho building has to find space for these pictures. But tho City has had nearly 760 Lord Mayors, and oven since tho Great Fire there have been over 250, so that their portraits would mako a rather largo picture gallery. Again, it is a custom that each holder of the office should add at least £IOOO worth to tho Mansion Houso collection of plate, and tho more usual is valued at about £ISOO. The plate is stored in a strong-room, and guarded at night by five able-bodied menservants, not to mention the night-watchman and the police. A silver loviilg-cup, known as the Fire Cup, is tho only piece of plate which was saved from the Great Fire when tho city was burned in 1666; but the modern collection is ono of the finest in tho world.

The state coachman, tho gorgeous coaches, the horses, and the grooms are housed outside, at Green Yard, off London Wall, but the space to the west of the Mansion House has to be reserved for their standing. The great kitchen is at the rear of the building, on the ground floor, with windows heavily barred, and there they still uso spits for roasting barons of beef in front of an open fire. Ono may sometimes seo these noble joints on exhibition at one of the largo butcher shops in Smithfield Market. About £50,000 a Year Expended.

The Mansion House has a chef and his permanent staff. Tho small luncheons and dinners, up to 40 covers, are served in tho Long Parlour ; tho larger banquets, up to 350 covers, are served in the Egyptian Hall; and only the largest state banquets have to be served in tho Guildhall. As to the butler's department, there are very large cellars under the Mansion House. Managing the household and the almost boundless hospitality is part of the duty of the permanent secretary, Sir William Soulsby, Who lias advised a long succession of Lord Mayors as to the customs of the house and the guests who ought to .be entertained—kings, princes, potentates, and citizens. This is an expensive business, to which the Corporation contributes £BOOO a year. But tho Lord Mayor has to spend about £50,000 during liis year of office. Tho business centre of this very crowded building is tho beautiful Venetian Parlour on tho first floor, behind the portico. Thero tho Lord Mayor receives his visitors and organises* tho gigantic Lord Mayor's Funds for the relief of distress in somo stricken industry at home, or in any part of tho world which has been devastated by flood, famino, pestilenco or earthquake. It has been tho privilege of the present writer to introduce a deputation to tlie Lord Mayor, requesting him to attend* in state a function where liis presence was badly needed to help a public fund. Ho produced an engagement book, crowded witli appointments, all of which would be of public benefit. Somewhere in the upper storeys of the Mansion House thero' is a little private suite of rooms where tho Lady Mayoress keeps houso during tho year when her own town houso is abandoned, and there are even ranges of bedrooms for-her private guests. Sho has a groat deal to do with city charities, and sales or bazaars aro held in tho Egyptian Hall. What the City 41 Freedom" Means.

The Lord Mayor is supposed to preside over the city government, with its city police,, and an endless list of charities, schools and institutions, which secrn for the most, part to be- governed from the Guildhall. The greatest gift within his patronage iS" the 1 presentation' in a gold box of t Ihj Freedom of the city, which entitles the grandee or-public benefactor on whom it is bestowed, to hawk wares from a coster barrow through. the city streets.

Part of the Lord Mayor's daily work is. to sit as magistrate at his own police court behind the front steps of the Mansion House. In one notable case he inflicted upon a sea captain a fine of five shillings for blocking the traffic in front of the Bank of England, from five'to ten a.m., with seventeen waggonloads of gold. The Mansion House is not old, but the Corporation, copied from that of Rouen, is older than Parliament, dating back 760 years. It was founded in a city of perhaps 20.000, which grew to about a million, and now is down again to 16,000 residents, while the largest towu in the world, with 7,500,000 people, a population almost equal to that of the whole 'of Canada, serves as a suburb to this civic capital