n August 15, 1661, and went
in the royal barge from Whitehall to the Temple to dine at the Reader's
feast.

Heneage Finch had been chosen Autumn Reader of that inn, and in
accordance with ancient usage he demonstrated his ability to instruct
young gentlemen in the principles of English law, by giving a series of
costly banquets. From the days of the Tudors to the rise of Oliver
Cromwell, the Reader's feasts had been amongst the most sumptuous and
ostentatious entertainments of the town--the Sergeant's feasts scarcely
surpassing them in splendor, the inaugural dinners of lord mayors often
lagging behind them in expense. But Heneage Finch's lavish hospitality
outstripped the doings of all previous Readers. His revel was protracted
throughout six days, and on each of these days he received at his table
the representative members of some high social order or learned body.
Beginning with a dinner to the nobility and Privy Councillors, he
finished with a banquet to the king; and on the intervening days he
entertained the civic authorities, the College of Physicians, the civil
lawyers, and the dignitaries of the Church.

The king's visit was attended with imposing ceremony, and wanted no
circumstance that could have rendered the occasion more honorable to the
host or to the society of which he was a member. All the highest
officers of the court accompanied the monarch, and when he stepped from
his barge at the Temple Stairs, he spoke with jovial urbanity to his
entertainer and the Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, who received
him with tokens of loyal deference and attachment. "On each side," says
Dugdale, "as His Majesty passed, stood the Reader's servants in scarlet
cloaks and white tabba doublets; there being a way made through the wall
into the Temple Gardens; and above them on each side the benchers,
barristers, and other gentlemen of the society, all in their gowns and
formalities, the loud music playing from the time of his landing till he
entered the hall; where he was received with xx violins, which continued
as long as his majesty stayed." Fifty chosen gentlemen of the inn,
wearing their academic gowns, placed dinner on the table, and waited on
the feasters--no other servants being permitted to enter the hall during
the progress of the banquet. On the dais at the top of the hall, under a
canopy of state, the king and his brother James sat apart from men of
lower degree, whilst the nobles of Whitehall occupied