the
entertainment committee, to receive the members of the royal family as
they arrived. The princes and princesses, as they successively came in,
waited in the body of the hall until their Majesties' entrance. On their
arrival being announced, the Lord Mayor and the Lady Mayoress, as the
chronicler puts it, advanced to the great door of the hall; and at their
Majesties' entrance, the Lord Mayor presented the City sword, which
being returned, he carried before the King, the Queen following, with
the Lady Mayoress behind her. "The music had struck up, but was drowned
in the acclamations of the company; in short, all was life and joy; even
the giants, Gog and Magog, seemed to be almost animated." The King, at
all events, was more than almost animated; he volubly praised the
splendour of the scene, and was very gracious to the Lord Mayor on the
way to the council chamber, followed by the royal family and the
reception committee. This room reached, the Recorder delivered the
inevitable addresses, and the wives and daughters of the aldermen were
presented. These ladies had the honour of being saluted by his Majesty,
and of kissing the Queen's hand, then the sheriffs were knighted, as
also was the brother of the Lord Mayor.

After half an hour's stay in the council chamber, the royal party
returned into the hall, and were conducted to the upper end of it,
called the hustings, where a table was provided for them, at which they
sat by themselves. There had been, it seems, a knotty little question of
etiquette. The ladies-in-waiting on the Queen had claimed the right of
custom to dine at the same table with her Majesty, but this was
disallowed; so they dined at the table of the Lady Mayoress in the
King's Bench. The royal table "was set off with a variety of emblematic
ornaments, beyond description elegant," and a superb canopy was placed
over their Majesties' heads at the upper end. For the Lord Mayor,
aldermen, and their ladies, there was a table on the lower hustings. The
privy councillors, ministers of state, and great nobles dined at a table
on the right of this; the foreign ministers at one on the left. For the
mazarines and the general company there were eight tables laid out in
the body of the hall, while the judges, serjeants, and other legal
celebrities, dined in the old council chamber, and the attendants of the
distinguished visitors were regaled in the Court of Common Pleas.

George and his consort must have got up