Company, i.e. the Company's Saint's Day, all the
members assembled in the Hall, every man in a new livery, in the
morning. First they formed in procession and marched to church, headed
by priests and singing boys, in surplices: after these walked the
servants, clerks, assistants, the chaplain, the Mayor's sergeants, often
the Lord Mayor himself. Lastly came the Court with the Master and
Wardens followed by the Livery, i.e. the members.

After church they returned in like manner to the Hall, where a great
banquet awaited them, music played in the gallery: the banners of the
Company were hung over their heads: they burned scented wood: they sat
in order, Master and Wardens and illustrious guests at the high table:
and the freemen below, every man with his wife or some maiden if he were
unmarried. After dinner the loving cup went round: the minstrels led in
the players: and they had dramatic shows, songs, dances and 'mummeries'
for the rest of the day.

Do not think of mediaeval London as a dull place--it was full of life and
of brightness: the streets were narrow perhaps, but they were full of
colour from the bright dresses of all--the liveries of the
Companies--the liveries of the great nobles--the splendid costume of the
knights and richer class. The craftsman worked from daylight till curfew
in the winter: from five or six in the summer: he had a long day: but he
had three holidays: he had his evenings: and his Sundays. A dull time
was going to fall upon the Londoners, but not yet for two hundred years.

36. WESTMINSTER ABBEY.

Hitherto our attention has been confined to the City within the walls.
It is time to step outside the walls.

All this time, i.e. ever since peaceful occupation became possible, a
town had been growing up on the west side of London. You have seen that
formerly there spread a broad marsh over this part. Some rising ground
kept what is now the Strand above the river, but Westminster, except for
certain reed-grown islets, was nothing but a marsh covered over twice in
the day by the tide. The river thus spreading out over marshes on either
bank was quite shallow, and could in certain places be forded. The spot
where any ford existed afterwards became a ferry. Lambeth Bridge spans
the river at one such place, the memory of which is now maintained in
the name of the Horseferry Road. The largest of these islets was once
called Thorney, i.e. the Isle of Thorns. If you will take a map of
Wes