2008 has been a memorable year for me, a year that celebrated both the 700th Anniversary of The Worshipful Company of Barbers whose Livery I joined in 1965 and whose celebration banquet I attended in February at The Mansion House, and the Centenary of The Guild of Freemen of the City of London, whose celebration banquet at Guildhall I was able to attend through reciprocacy with our esteemed company, The Honourable Company of Freemen of the City of London in North America.
The banquet at the Mansion House had special meaning as it was the last city event that I was able to attend with my 93 year old father who was at that time ‘the father’ of the Worshipful Company of Barbers as its oldest member. It was also only the second time that I had dined in the Mansion House, the first being the Ladies’ Livery Dinner of the Worshipful Company of Barbers in 1965 when my father,
Charles William Hovenden Longley, was Master and I had just become a liveryman through patrimony.
Sir Lionel Denny, Past Master of the Worshipful Company of Barbers was then Lord Mayor and as such my father enjoyed considerable status during Sir Lionel Denny’s mayoralty, including a top table seat at the Lord Mayor’s Banquet in Guildhall as well as a State banquet in Guildhall. I had always wanted the opportunity to dine in Guildhall and through our reciprocity with The Guild of Freemen of the City of London that became possible on December 8, 2008.
HRH The Princess Royal, is the Centenary Master for The Guild of Freemen of the City of London, and graciously attended the banquet in Guildhall on December 8. Invitations, therefore, came in Princess Anne’s name. My guest,
Nicole Marie Glenn from Springfield, Missouri, and myself were bidden to arrive at Guildhall at 6:00 p.m. for a reception with the,
Deputy Master Pauline Halliday on the first floor of the Art Gallery. An honour guard of the The Company of Pikemen and Musketeers of the Honourable Artillery Company stood at ease with crossed muskets as we approached the reception. After being received by the Assistant Master, we entered the old part of the Gallery through a further guard of honour of Pikemen in resplendent seventeenth century attire. It was, of course, in 1666 that the Guildhall was so severely damaged in the Great Fire, but much around the banqueting hall was also severely damaged in World War II. This is still fairly obvious in the juxtaposition of old and new in the forecourt and Art Gallery of the current Guildhall. However, miraculously, as with St. Paul’s, little of the main Guildhall was destroyed by enemy action, only the roof sustaining serious damage. Nicole and I were by chance in a good position to see
HRH The Princess Royal escorted by The Right Honourable The Lord Mayor, Mr. Alderman
Ian Luder, the Lady Mayoress,
Mrs. Lin Luder, and
Mr. Peter Halliday and the Deputy Master Pauline Halliday arrive in the Art Gallery where HRH Princess Anne spoke to a few guests at random. She was dressed in silver and blue with a high collar that complimented her swept up hair giving her the regal presence somewhat in the manner of Queen Elizabeth 1. She wore the Centenary Master’s Jewel which had been commissioned by the Guild in celebration of The Princess Royal becoming the Centenary Master at the Installation Ceremony on March 19, 2008. The jewel is made of silver gilt with pearls capping the rays that emanate from the centre of the jewel. The centre of the jewel depicts the Coat of Arms of the Guild in enamel. The jewel is surmounted by a smaller reproduction of the City of London Corporation Shield, also in enamel, at its centre. Having never met HRH Princess Anne I was very agreeably surprised to see how beautiful the Queen’s daughter really is, photographs of her having never truly done her justice throughout her life. She had a radiant smile and looked completely relaxed so that none of us would have known until reading the Court Circular the following day that she had spent most of the day in Doncaster, fulfilling several royal duties in Yorkshire before returning to London to grace us with her presence at Guildhall.
Canapés and champagne were served in the Art Gallery before we filed into the Great Hall, so historic to the history of the City of London. Despite the destruction of the Great Fire of 1666, much of the 1411 medieval structure of the Great Hall has remained but there is only one small window that still holds glass pre-dating the fire. It was not far from our table in the vast hall, and Nicole reverently admired the ancient glazing. The huge gothic windows at either end of the hall, today depict the names of all London’s Lord Mayors and the sovereigns under whom they served their mayoralties.
The dinner seated some 700 freemen and guests on 17 tables covering the entire floorspace of this auspicious building. We were seated at Table P and had a good view of the Master’s Procession before and after dinner as it passed by to the traditional City slow clap. The entry procession was announced by trumpeters with an impressive fanfare from the gallery above Wellington’s Monument and opposite the Lord Mayor’s Canopy. From where we were seated we also had a good view of Churchill’s Monument and Nelson’s Monument. At our end of the Hall was the Orchestral Gallery where members of The Salon Orchestra of the Honourable Artillery Company performed appropriate selections of music throughout dinner under the direction of Director of Music
Major EH Keely ARCM A(Mus)LCM BBCM psm and by permission of
Lt. Col Alastair DC Caie
TD HAC Commanding Officer. My family also had a strong connection with the HAC during the First World War when my grandfather, Charles William Longley, served with them in the trenches and won the Military Cross. I do not remember him in retirement ever donning the quaint attire of the Company of Pikemen and Musketeers, however, to defend the Lord Mayor.
The banquet was set out with all the tradition and pomp of the city with fine silverware, a glistening array of glasses, candelabra in garlands of flowers and for the Centenary Master and the Lord Mayor, those two gilded chairs that can only be described as thrones although independent of the crown, for the City of London, although sworn in allegiance to the crown, is independent of Her Majesty’s Government. It is for this reason that the Lord Mayor invites the Prime Minister and Government in Westminster to dine at Guildhall every year, for the splendid banquet gives a platform for the Prime Minister to in essence make his ‘State of the Realm’ address to the Lord Mayor informing him, at least ceremonially, what is going on in the rest of the country.
But Guildhall is not all about dining. This vast hall was the center for the government of London’s trade. Beneath the gleaming banquet tables and plush carpets can be found the real purpose of the ancient hall. Here are the legal measurements set out in the stone floor to govern the sale of cloths for clothiers, ribbons for haberdashers, weights for goldsmiths and silversmiths, and measures for sacks of flour and tankards of mead.
At dinner, our companions were a past master of the Worshipful Company of Fanmakersand a couple, like ourselves, part American and part British, who were there as guests of her mother who had received freedom as a Commissioner with the City Police. Opposite might have remained blank as ‘no shows’ but the gap was filled with two delightful young girls who acted amongst other things as guides for the Guildhall and were able to fill us in on much of the history.
After the traditional sung grace from the Laudi Spirituali AD 1545, we were served Smoked Duck Rillettes with a glass of Esses Sauvignon Blanc, Riversleigh, 2006 followed by a beautiful piece of grilled halibut, one of my favorite fish and served with suitable accoutrements. Grilled Noisettes of Romney Marsh Lamb formed the main course, which was interesting as the following week it had been my intention to take Nicole to Winchelsea and Rye as she is an avid reader of Henry James, and I had already explained to her how in the late middle ages the sea had receded to create Romney Marsh and leave these two famous Cinq Ports two miles inland. The lamb was attractively matched with Clos Laggasa, Premier Cotes de Blsaye, 2005. A Bitter chocolate Delice was our dessert, all right for chocolate lovers of whom I am not one, but it was followed by a very good Churchill’s LVB port. Coffee, mint tea and hand made chocolates and Petit Fours followed with an opportunity for 12-year old single malt whisky or Duboigalant Cognac.
The traditional Post Horn Gallop ended the music program, and ‘The Queen’ was proposed by the Centenary Master, HRH The Princess Royal. The Assistant Master, Deputy Pauline Halliday then proposed the toast for The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, The Prince of Wales, The Duchess of Cornwall, The Princess Royal, Centenary Master and the other members of the Royal Family.
The ceremony of the Loving Cup then followed in all its tradition. Newly commissioned loving cups were used at this banquet for the first time along with many other of the Guild’s fine collection of Loving cups, including the Victory Cup, which was presented to the Guild of Freemen of the City of London and originally used at the Victory Banquet on December 12, 1919.
Deputy Pauline Halliday then spoke of the company’s charities, with special mention of Christ’s Hospital School, which was represented at the banquet by two senior boys in their picturesque seventeenth century clerical uniform. Many of Britain’s private schools are run, governed or aided by the guilds of the City, the Barbers’ Company being sponsors of scholarships at Epsom College. My own school, Tonbridge, was founded in 1553 by Sir Andrew Judde, Lord Mayor and Skinner, and the school is still governed by the The Worshipful Company of Skinners. (Peter Leach’s excellent history also appears in this edition of Company Comment.) Pauline Halliday then proposed the toast to The Lord Mayor, The City of London Corporation and Sheriffs.
The Lord Mayor’s response spoke of his office, engagements and plans in a predictable way with little illusion to the tough economic climate for which I am sure he has fears, but this was more than remedied by the Centenary Master, herself, when Princess Anne rallied the brains and good financial sense of The City to help get us ‘out of this mess.’ She spoke with great warmth about her year as Centenary Master and proposed the toast to The Guild of Freemen of the City of London.
At 10:30 p.m. just as our invitations had read, it was time for Carriages. Slowly, we filed from the great medieval Hall and with satisfied appetites faced an outside world of light rain. We might have wished for carriages, but instead stood for some time as 700 made their exit to try to flag down a cab. In white tie, tails, cloaks and capes and with Nicole’s hands working each cab that splashed along the wet street, we eventually found our way back to Rubens Hotel after an evening to remember.
Company Comment - February 2009
The Unique City
The City Livery Companies
Freedom of The City
The Constitution of Company