Page:Lancashire Legends, Traditions, Pageants, Sports, Etc., with an Appendix Containing a Rare Tract.djvu/143

 being brought up by the corporation and the gentry. But the great attraction of the Guild was the procession of the lady-mayoress on the following day, when about 160 ladies, headed by the representative of the lady-mayoress, supported by the mayor, and the mayor's chaplain; the Countess of Derby, supported by the Earl; the Countess of Wilton, by the Hon. Mr Stanley; Lady Lindsay, Lady Hoghton, the Misses Stanley, and numerous other ladies of distinction, all decorated with towering plumes, and dressed in the full costume of the ball-room, passed in procession from the Guildhall along the principal street to the parish church, where divine service was performed, and afterwards round the market-place to the Guildhall. These splendid processions were only the forerunners of other entertainments. For a whole fortnight the town remained full of company; banquets, plays, balls, and races, each, in their turn claimed the attention of the visitors. A fancy ball, at which from six to seven hundred of the gentry of the city were present, was given in the first week. The second week was ushered in by an ascent of Mr Livingston in his balloon, and a series of musical performances of the first order, consisting of oratorios and concerts, while a charity ball and a masquerade served to engage and delight the company during the remainder of the festival. It is erroneously supposed by some to be obligatory upon the corporation to celebrate a guild every twenty years; no such obligation exists. The guilds have, indeed, for upwards of two centuries and a half, been held at regular intervals, by virtue of a bye-law of the mayor, stewards, and aldermen of the Guild, and passed in the reign of Queen Elizabeth; but this is quite a matter of choice and arrangement; and should the entertainments and processions ever wholly cease, no privilege or franchise