BEEFEATERS BEARDS

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 53, Issue 3795, 14 August 1936, Page 3

BEEFEATERS BEARDS

THE KING’S BODYGUARD. “MISTAKEN FOR FOREIGNERS.” It has been announced from London that as a result of the permission given by the King to the Yeomen of the Guard to shave off their beards, 90 out of the 100 members of the corps have got rid of their beards. For more than 400 years the Yeomen of the Guard have worn beards; but in these days beards are so uncommon in England that the yeomen, when in mufti, were often mistaken for foreigners. SergeantMajor Lockyer, states that he has been mistaken at different times for a French Cabinet Minister, a Russian Prince and an Italian officer. The King’s Body Guard of the Yeomen of the Guards (to give the corps its full title) is the oldest military organisation in England. It was founded in 1485 by Henry VII. after the battle of Bosworth, and it consisted originally of the King’s private guard who had helped him to secure the throne. Through successive reigns its chief duty was to protect the person of the sovereign, but in these days its functions are ceremonial. The guard consists- of 100 military veterans, a captain, a lieutenant, an ensign, a clerk of the cheque and four corporals. There has been very little change in the uniform of the yeomen since Tudor times. The uniform is similar in many respects to that worn by the warders of the Tower of London.

The Yeomen of the Guard are known as Beefeaters, much to their annoyance. There has been considerable controversy over the origin of the name. A polite explanation is that it is derived from the NormanFrench “Buffetiers,” meaning those who waited at a buffet. But it is now generally accepted that Beefeaters means what it says. At the foundation of the corps it was laid down that the yeoman should be big stout men, and in England, big, stout men were regarded as the product of beef and beer. ANCIENT CEREMONIES. The Yeoman of the Guard appear in full uniform at the annual ceremony of the distribution of Maundy money by the King. This ceremony takes place at Westminster Abbey on Maundy Thursday, the day before Good Friday. It was formerly the custom of the sovereign- to wash the feet of a selected number of poor men on Maundy Thursday, in com memoration of the act of our Lord. It is recorded that Queen Elizabeth, at the age of 39, washed the feet of 39 poor men at her palace at Greenwich—after their feet had been given a preliminary washing by the Yeomen of the Laundry. The last sovereign in England who actually washed the feet of the poor on Maundy Thursday was James IL, but the ceremony was carried out by the monarchs of Catholic countries in Europe up to recent times, such as the Emperor of Austria-Hungary and the King of Spain. In these days the ceremony in England consists in giving alms by the King. A purse is given to a number of poor persons, their number corresponding with the age of the King. There are red and white purses, the former containing £2 10s and the wjiite ones as many pence as the age of the King. The coins in the white purses consist of silver pennies of the value of two pence, threepence and four pence, the coins being specially minted for the ceremony. As collectors are eager to obtain these coins they are easily exchanged by the recipients into current coins of the realm. The purses are brought into the Abbey by a Yeoman, in a silver dish, which he carries on his head. They are distributed by the Lord High Almoner to the King, after an appropriate religious service has been held in the Abbey. Another ceremony carried out by the Yeoman of the Guard is that of searching the Parliamentary buildings known as the Palace of Westminster. This search is made at the opening of every session of Parliament before the King sets out in the State carriage from Buckingham Palace to deliver the Speech frqm the Throne. The corridors, vaults and cellars are searched to make certain that it is safe for the King and the Lords and Commons to assemble in the building. This ceremony is supposed to date back to the Guy Fawkes plot of 1605, but it did not commence until 1690, after the re-

ceipt of an anonymous warning by the Marquis of Carmarthen, which stated that “ there is great cause to judge that there is a second gunpowder plot or some other such great mischief designing against the King and Parliament, by a frequent and great resort of notorious ill-will-ers at most private hours to the Louse of one Hutchinson, in the Old Palace yard, Westminster, situate very dangerous for such purpose.” Though nothing was found to justify the warning, the search has continued ever since at the opening of every new session of Parliament.

“The search party,” states Mr Michael Macdonagh, in his interesting book, “The Pageant of Parliament,” “consists of twelve Yeomen of the Guard from the Tower of London, in all the picturesque glory of their Tudor uniforms, accompanied by representatives of the Lord Great Chamberlain, the Office of Works and the two police inspectors of the House of Lords and the House of Commons. The Palace of Westminster, which is the largest and most imposing Gothic building in the world, contains over 1200 rooms, two miles of corridors and hundreds of stair cases. The seadch party itramp through the miles of corridors and lobbies, looking carefully into every nook and comer, and down in the equally extensive basement they examine everything with the utmost minuteness, going among gas pipes, steam pipes, hot-water pipes, electric light conductors, to make sure that no explosives have been deposited there. When the search was first ordered the Yeoman of the Guard were directed to carry lanterns to light them on their way through the dark passages. The corridors and cellars are now flooded with electric light, but the Yeomen of the Guard, faithful to tradition, march along swinging their lanterns.” If nothing of a suspicious nature is found, the King is officially informed that the search has been carried out and everything is ready for his arrival at the House of Lords to announce the business for which Parliament has been summoned to meet. ADHERING TO TRADITION! There are many remarkable examples in England of the practice of carrying out traditional ceremonies, which through the course of centuries have lost their significance. One of the most notable of these ceremonies is the payment of quit rent to the Crown by the Corporation of the City of London, for a piece of unidentifiable land in the parish of St Clement Danes. To-day no one knows where this land is situated, or who occupies it, but the ceremony of paying quit rent for it is carried out with much pomp every year at the Law Courts in the Strand. According to tradition a piece of land was rented by Henry 111. to a farrier, who established his smithy on it, near the tilting ground of the Knights Templar, for the purpose of shoeing the horses ridden by the knights, and repairing their armour. As the smithy was a great convenience to the knights, the rent demanded from the farrier was merely nominal consisting of six horse shoes and 61 nails, the extra nail beyond 60 for the six horse shoes, being for good measure. For more than 700 years, this quit rent has been paid. When the City of London took over the payment for it no one knows. But punctually once a year the King’s Remembrancer holds court, and calls on the unknown occupant of this long-lost smithy to pay the rent. And the city solicitor in his robes of office steps forward, and hands over six horse shoes and 61 nails.

It might be supposed that the King’s Remembrancer has accumulated in the course of centuries a large stock of horse shoes and nails. But this is not the case, for the same set of horse shoes and nails have been doing duty as quit rent year after year. They are kept under lock and key, and are produced each year for the ceremony. At the same time the quit rent for some land in Shropshire, known as the Moors, is discharged by the City’ solicitor, in the presence of the King’s Remembrances. This consists in chopping with a red-handled hatchet, a small bundle of faggots, which is placed on a wood block in the Court. Another bundle of faggots is cut through by the City solicitor with a hill-hook. When he has accomplished the task, the King’s Remembrancer exclaims “Good service.”

The custom of ringing the curfew hell is still kept up in London at Gray’s Inn, Lincoln’s Inn and the Tower. At the Coal Exchange a bell is rung at 2 o’clock each day. In times gone by the ringing of this bell announced the fact that the exchange had closed, but now the exchange does not open until 2.30 p.m. In a house close to the Temple in London, a light is kept burning in the hall after midnight. “ The light marks an ancient privilege, and a bygone right of way,” writes Dr George C. Williamson in his book “Curious Survivals.” “It is maintained by the Westminster Council, and not by the tenant of the house. The lamplighter enters at twelve and kindles the light, and on his round in the early morning he re-enters with a latch-key and extinguishes it. The light is the remaining symbol of a right of way formerly enjoyed by residents in that small street, giving them the power of proceeding to a spring of water in the basement of that particular house, which at one

time was their sole water supply.” MEMORIES OF THE PAST. Some old ceremonies are regularly carried out by the guild companies and livery companies of London. The Vintners’ Company like many of the others, makes an annual procession to a city church and on lhese occasions the porters of the company, wearing clean aprons and equipped with new brooms precede the procession from the Vintner’s Hall, sweeping a path for the masters and wardens. This custom dates back, centuries, when the streets of London were in a filthy condition, and it was necessary to sweep a path for the fur-robed oficials of the company. The streets are not now in need of cleaning, but the custom is still carried out. The members of the procession carry nosegays, in accordance with the former custom- when aromatic herbs were held to the nose to keep away the offensive smells of the streets. At the court of the Guild Hall aromatic herbs are scattered on the dais to keep away the gaol fever, from which many of the deliquents brought before the court ; n former times were suffering. For centuries the Lord Mayor of London has been provided with the password of the Tower of London, and this practice is continued at the present time. The original object of it was to enable the Lord Mayor in the days when the Tower was also the Royal Palace, to obtain an audience of the King if any great emergency arose; but the Tower ceased to be a Royal palace some hundreds of years ago. The Lord Mayor gets a quarterly list of the passwords for each day of the ensuing three months; the list is signed not only by the Secretary of State, but by the Sovereign. On one occasion the list was sent to the Lord Mayor without the signature of Queen Victoria, who was absent from London. The Lord Mayor sent the list back for her Majesty’s signature—a course which evoked the approval of the Queen.

An ancient custom is carried out each year on Good Friday in the churchyard of St. Bartholomew, in Smithfield. Twenty-one widows of the parish are each given sixpence and two hot cross buns. The sixpences are placed on a tombstone, and as each of the old women passes by the tombstone she picks up a coin. The tombstone is supposed to cover the grave of a woman of the fifteenth century who made a will directing that twenty-one widows should each receive sixpence on Good Friday out of her estate. The inscription on the tombstone has long been obliterated, and there is no record in the annals of the parish of any such bequest. But every year the ceremony is carried out, the money being provided by members of the church.