LORD MAYOR'S DAY.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 11647, 3 January 1902, Page 4

LORD MAYOR'S DAY.

AN ANCIENT* PAGEANT. Sixty years ago . contemporary records tells us that just as the Lord Mayor was entering his carriage at GuildhaE a mounted messenger rode up breathless with the news! that an heir to the throne had been born. It was felt in the city, no doubt, that the illustrious infant had chosen a particularly happy moment to make his appearance, and ever- since the coincidence «if the two events has given an added glory to the day. . Not seldom has it Seen suggested that the date of the Lord Mayor's Show, the one . open-air pageantwhich London can confidently rely upon every year, should be changed to a season • promising better weather conditions than Movember imagine the' Lord Mayor's " Show in a thick fog! But if that change vere ever likely to be made it will certainly not happen until, the 9th ceases to be the momentous anniversary it now is. The coach in which the Lord Mayer rides from the Guildhall to the Law Courts was bnflfc in 1757 by a subscription from «ach. - of the junior Aldermen, or such as had not passed the civic chair. The repairs to the coach have in one yeir cost as much as £6OO. The design of the coach is magnificent, but can hardly be considered graceful. It consists of a pair at grotesque marine figures, which support the seat of the driver, and a large shell —"as a footboard- Behind are two children bearing the city arms. _ The perch is double, and terminates in dolphins' ' - heads. Outside the coach is gorgeous -with gilding, and inside are painted panels, historical and symbolical, relating, of course, to the City of London, Up to the year 1712 the Lord Mayor rode in 1 state on horseback, after which there was a carriage drawn by four horses. The '' present cunTbersome coach, weighing nearly ', fcnr tons, requires six stout horses to draw ifc along. ,- No galloper delayed the entrance of Sir ;-} Joseph Dimsdale into his newly - gilded coach on Saturday, and having, with his " attendants, taken his seat in that- most uncomfortable-looking vehicle, the procession, moved off as if actuated by clock-

Tort. - But it must be admitted that before this it took an uncommonly large amount of -winding up. The burly figure of the - ' City Marshal was"everywhere, ordering, expostulating, entreating, as far as it becomes a. City Marshal to entreat. And after all, one must be civil to Henry KtzAlwin, first Mayor of London, especially when he has a bodyguard of six knights clad in armour, and is supported by a. score of City merchants. "~ There is excuse for reviving the camel, i without which some years ago no show V* was complete. He gives tone to it. Hi» is a dignity which is not in the least ',- aldexmanic, and he always looks old. The V- camels that adorned the procession on Sa- '• tnrday might very well have been born - in. Henry MtzAhrin's year of office. Let % -as by all means have more camels, even 3- if -we have fewer bands and - beadles. The <i beadles at least have the virtue of silence, *""" but the musicians are too conspicuous to *„ fce dumb for any length of time. Twenty- £* one separate companies of bandsmen, to SL-- say nothing of the pipers of the Scots t~ Guards, the State Trumpeters of the Royal ?.♦ Horse Guards, and the City Trumpeters, helped on Saturdav to fill the City with ?i • melody, and they filled it in full measure, K - pressed down, and running over. Taking t. npa position, .say, at Ludgate Circus, you at one time enjoy the strains of <&. r sir able-bodied brass bands, playing each IF ' a different air, and playing it with deterge lmnaiioD. And yet we are sometimes re--11 proached by people who have evidently gt never been at Le Lor* Maire's show with being a musical nation. The show was really a very good show ; of its kind, and certainly pleased the peo- * -pie, and especially the little people. For i their sake, if for no other reason, the &' Lord Mayor's procession must go on for 1 ever. There is a moral to it, of course, V which was pointed long ago by Hogarth's \ tale of the Idle and Industrious Apprenfe tices, but even without the moral children it. They at any rate were not % hypercritical; they had no doubts, at all f > about the genuineness of Henry FitzAlwin ;- or that other distinguished personage Nepi' tone; for them there were not too many many bands or too many tunes; and the i? last word in beauty and gorgeousness was ?v .summed up by the gilt coach, in the ;+ -recesses of which that awful and exalted the Lord Mayor of London,. W? .could be dimly seen. K The palm in the matter of cars must be to that fflustrativa of the CommonKT >£alth of Australia, which met with a iSi deal of applause during its progress. 'Txhaps the most popular feature of all, .ifliar part of the annual procession, year especially noticeable because BBBcontained the Deal crew, under the com&s7«and of Coxswain Roberts. Since Rohas been f-2.\. the boat has saved 429 lives. (London LV paper.) - ;