"If these giddy goers be forced to give a

up
and down the streets, their answer is, t
pass their time. And how tedious it is,
hours, to be subject to these vacancies
day with such time-passers; who neit!
of true friendship, but only to spend
else to do, but to supply their idle t

adopted not less ng whom were, continued to be ; for in 1676, ** most worthy s in the body and I hope is

introduced in his estor, says, -"Shall I ..cian replies, “Ay, my

add a brief account of some g to the province of Police, comonies attendant on the Lord Mayor's ce. The pageantry and magnificence power, may - periodical assumption of ing description, taken from a manuscript,

"After they have asked you h fabulous news, laughed twice or those they know you love not they go to, is to them — whe spoke a few words of fash postures of the last edition: protestations of their servi The diminutive oaths, were, unfortunately, co adopted by both sexes language; a shocking fashionable by the oaths were neither spared an oath i thought it added classes, we nee the great body words, yet t1 These ab

be

and Jude he (the Mayor) entrethe into his the next daie following he goeth by water to maner. His barge beinge garryumplyke of the citie: and nere the sayd barge goeth a Scenes Matie, beinge trymed upp, and rigged lyke ch dyvers peces of ordinance, standards, penons, proper armes of the sayd Mayor, the armes of the and of the marchaunts adventurers, or of the of the newe trades; next before hym goeth Company very of his owne company, decked with their owne the bachelers barge, and so all the companies in exter, every one havinge their owne proper barge gar

Cany

Mao's Complete Angler, Bagster's edit. 1808, pp. 369. 380.
As Shakspeare, vol. xv. pp. 328, 329.

nished with the armes of their company. And so passinge alonge the Thamise, landeth at Westmynster, where he taketh his othe in Thexcheker, beffore the judge there, (whiche is one of the chiefe judges of England,) whiche done, he returneth by water as afforsayd, and landeth at powles wharfe, where he and the reste of the Aldermen take their horses, and in great pompe passe through the greate streete of the citie, called Cheapside. And fyrste of all cometh ij great estandarts, one havinge the armes of the citie, and the other the armes of the Mayor's company; next them ij drommes and a flute, then an ensigne of the citie, and then about Ixx or Ixxx poore men marchinge ij and two togeather in blewe gownes, with redd sleeves and capps, every one bearinge a pyke and a target, wheron is paynted the armes of all them that have byn Mayor of the same company that this newe mayor is of. Then ij banners one of the kynges armes, the other of the Mayor's owne proper armes. Then a sett of hautboits playinge, and after them certayne wyfflers, in velvett cotes, and chaynes of golde, with white staves in their handes, then the pageant of tryumphe rychly decked, whereuppon by certayne fygures and wrytinges, some matter touchinge justice, and the office of a maiestrate is represented. Then xvj trompeters viij and viij in a company, havinge banners of the Mayor's company. Then certayne wyfflers in velvet cotes and chaynes, with white staves as aforesayde. Then the bachelers ij, and two together, in longe gownen, with crymson hoodes on their shoulders of sattyn; which bachelers are chosen every yeare of the same company that the Mayor is of, (but not of the lyvery,) and serve as gentlemen on that and other festivall daies, to wayte on the Mayor, beinge in nomber accordinge to the quantetie of the company, sometimes sixty or one hundred. After them xij trompeters more, with banners of the Mayor's company, then the dromme and flute of the citie, and an ensigne of the Mayor's company, and after, the waytes of the citie in blewe gownes, redd sleeves and cappes, every one havinge his silver coller about his neck. Then they of the liverey in their longe gownes, every one havinge his hood on his lefte shoulder, halfe black and

sons.

In conformity

than twelve or feare

Cartright, Ra'c'; observed m

Charles C

Jather

ordinge to the greatnes of the them followe Sheriffes officers, 、 other officers of the citie, as the

berlayne; next before the Mayore ng on his headd, the cappe of honor, te in his right hande, in a riche skabarde, on his left hand goeth the comon cryer of the nace on his shoulder, all gilt. The Mayor hathe

e of skarlet, and on his lefte shoulder, a hood of black che coller of gold of SS. about his neck, and with him de Mayor also, in his skarlet gowne, hood of velvet, and golde about his neck. Then all the Aldermen ij and ij Recorder), all in skarlet gownes;

e amongst whom is the

ose that have byn Mayors, have chaynes of gold, the other have back velvett tippetts. The ij Shereffes come last of all, in their black skarlet gownes and chaynes of golde.

In this order they passe alonge through the citie, to the Guyldhall, where they dyne that daie, to the number of 1000 persons, all at the charge of the Mayor and the ij Shereffes. This feast costeth 400%., whereof the Mayor payeth 2007., and eche of the Shereffes 1001. Imediately after dyner, they go the churche of St. Paule, every one of the aforesaid poore men, bearrynge staffe torches and targetts, whiche torches are lighted when it is late, before they come from evenynge prayer."

Had the police of the city been as strictly regulated, as were the ceremonies attending the inauguration of its chief magistrate, the inhabitants of London, in Queen Elizabeth's days, would have had little cause of complaint, with regard to personal protection; but,

"A breffe description of the Royall Citie of London, capitall citie of this realme of England. (City Arms.) Wrytten by me William Smythe citezen and haberdasher of London, 1575." MS.

"This compilation," says Mr. Haslewood, "forms a quarto volume of moderate thickness, and was intended for publication." Vide British Bibliographer, vol. i. pp. 539-542.

though the Statutes of the Streets were numerous and rigid, and sometimes ridiculously minute, for No. 22. enacts, that "no man shall blowe any horne in the night, within this citie, or whistle after the houre of nyne of the clock in the night, under paine of imprisonment *" yet they were so ill executed, that, even in the day-time, disturbances of the most atrocious kind were deemed matters of common occurrence. Thus Gilbert Talbot and his wife, writing to the Earl and Countess of Shrewsbury, consider the following acts of violence as trifling matters: "On Thursday laste, (Feb. 13th, 1587,) as my Lorde Rytche was rydynge in the streates, there was one Wyndam that stode in a dore, and shotte a dagge at him, thynkynge to have slayne him; but God pˇvyded so for my L. Rytche, that this Wyndam apoyntynge his servante y mornynge to charge his dagge wth 11 bulletts, the fellow, doubtinge he mente to doe sum myschefe wth it, charged it only wth powder and paper, and no bullett; and so this L'. lyfe was thereby saved, for otherwyse he had beene slayne. Wyndam was p'sently taken by my L. Rytche's men, and, beynge broughte before the Counsell, confessed his intende, but the cause of his quarrell I knowe not; but he is comytted to the Towre. The same daye, also, as St John Conway was goynge in the streetes, M' Lodovyke Grevell came sodenly uppon him, and stroke him on the hedd wth a sworde, and but for one of St John Conwaye's men, who warded the blow, he had cutt of his legges; yet did he hurte him sumwhat on bothe his shynns: The Councell sente for Lodovyke Grevell, and have comytted him to the Marchallcye. I am forced to trouble yo' Honors wth thes tryflynge matters, for I know no greater."+

Yet a sufficient number of watchmen, constables, and justices of the peace, was not wanting. Of these, the first were armed with halberds, which, in Shakspeare's time, were called bills, and they usually carried a lanthorn in one hand, and sometimes a bell in the

* Vide "The Statutes of the Streets," printed by Wolfe, in $595.

+ Lodge's Illustrations, vol. ii. p. 206.

other, resting the halberd on the shoulder. Notwithstanding these official characters, however, the peace of the city was frequently more effectually preserved by the interference of the apprentices, than by that of the appointed guardians of public order; for it appears, from Shakspeare's dramas, that the cry of Clubs! was a signal for the apprentices to arm themselves with these weapons, and quell the disturbance. Thus in King Henry the Eighth, act v. sc. 3., the Porter's man says: "I hit that woman who cried out, clubs! when I might Bees from far some forty truncheoneers draw to her succour, which were the hope of the Strand ;" and in Henry the Sixth, Part the First, even the Mayor of London is represented, on occasion of a quarrel between the partizans of the Duke of Gloucester and the Cardinal of Winchester, as threatening to call in similar assistance:

"I'll call for clubs, if you will not away.” ‡

We cannot wonder that the inferior officers of the Police should be slack in the performance of their duty, when we recollect, that the Justices of the Peace, in these days, especially those resident in the metropolis, were so open to bribery, that many of them obtained the appellation of Basket Justices; nor did a member of the House of Commons hesitate, during the reign of Elizabeth, to describe a justice of the peace as "an animal who for half a dozen of chickens would readily dispense with a dozen penal laws." §

Many customs of a miscellaneous nature might with ease be extracted from the dramas of our poet; but to give them any relative bearing or concatenation would be nearly impossible, and a totally insulated detail of minute circumstances, would prove tedious to the

* The costume of the Watchman is thus represented in the title-page to Decker's "O per se O," &c. 4to. 1612, and is copied in Reed's Shakspeare, vol. vi. p. 97. + Reed's Shakspeare, vol. xv. p. 205. Ibid. vol. xiii. p. 36. D'Ewes's Journals of Parliament, in Queen Elizabeth's Reign, p. 661.664.