any public fast is ordered by the King, the Lord Mayor and
Corporation attend St. Paul's Cathedral in their black robes; and if a
thanksgiving, they appear in scarlet. If an address is to be presented
to the throne, the whole Corporation go in state, the Lord Mayor wearing
his gold gown. (Of these gowns only a certain number are allowed, by Act
of Parliament, to public officers as a costly badge of distinction; the
Lord Chancellor and the Master of the Rolls are among the privileged
persons.) On Easter Monday and Tuesday the Lord Mayor attends Christ
Church (of which he is a member), on which occasion the whole of the
blue-coat boys, nurses, and beadles, master, clerk, and other officers,
walk in procession. The President, freemen, and other officers of the
Royal Hospital attend the church to hear the sermon, and a statement of
the income and expenditure of each of the hospitals, over which the
Mayor has jurisdiction, is read from the pulpit. A public dinner is
given at Christ's Hospital on the Monday evening, and a similar one at
St. Bartholomew's on the Tuesday. On the Monday evening the Lord Mayor
gives the grandest dinner of the year in the Egyptian Hall, at the
Mansion House, to 400 persons, at which some of the Royal Family often
attend, a ball taking place in the evening. The next day, before going
to church, the Lord Mayor gives a purse of fifty guineas, in sixpences,
shillings, and half-crowns, to the boys of Christ's Hospital, who pass
before him through the Mansion House, each receiving a piece of silver
(fresh from the Mint), two plum buns, and a glass of wine. On the first
Sunday in term the Lord Mayor and Corporation receive the judges at St.
Paul's, and hear a sermon from the Lord Mayor's chaplain, after which
his lordship entertains the party at dinner, either on that day or any
other, according to his own feeling of the propriety of Sunday dinners.

"In the month of May, when the festival of the Sons of the Clergy is
generally held in St. Paul's, the Lord Mayor attends, after which the
party dine at Merchant Taylors' Hall. Some of the Royal Family generally
attend; always the archbishop and a great body of the clergy. In the
same month, the Lord Mayor attends St. Paul's in state, to hear a sermon
preached before the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, at which
all the bishops and archbishops attend, with others of the clergy; after
which the Lord Mayor gives them a grand dinner; and on another day