“Wednesday, Nov. 5th.  This being the commemoration of the Gunpowder Plot, we, the sheriff’s, attended my Lord Mayor from Guildhall to St. Paul’s:  and as his lordship’s coach was, on this occasion, drawn as before by six horses, which he intended to do on every public occasion, it caused a more than ordinary concourse of people in the streets.”

On Sunday, the 11th of January, Mr. Hoare, in his scarlet gown, with the Lord Mayor, and several of the aldermen, received the holy communion, in St. Lawrence’s church, in pursuance of the statutes, to qualify themselves to act as magistrates; and on the following day, being Plough Monday, he attended the Lord Mayor at Guildhall, “to receive the several presentments of the respective wardmote inquests of each ward,—­and at the same time to swear in all new constables for the ensuing year.”  On Wednesday, the 14th the quarter sessions commenced, “when it is usual for the several common councilmen to take the oaths of allegiance;” which was done accordingly.

“Friday, February 20th.  Waited on my Lord Mayor to Bow church, in my scarlet, to hear a sermon upon the propagation of the gospel in foreign parts; to which the Archbishop of Canterbury also came in his state coach, and with grand solemnity, attended by seven or eight bishops, and great numbers of gentlemen of that society.”

The Lord Mayor (Humphry Parsons) died on the evening of March the 21st, 1741; on the 23rd, Daniel Lambert, Esq. was elected to succeed him, and the same evening he was presented to the Lord Chancellor, and approved of in the usual manner.

“Wednesday, March 15th.  This day the new Lord Mayor went in grand state and procession by land to the Tower-gate, on Tower-hill, to be there presented to and sworn in before the Constable of the Tower, according to the charter and ancient custom and usage when a Lord Mayor happened, as in this case, to be chosen out of term time; and, consequently, cannot be presented to the Barons of the Exchequer sitting at Westminster.  Just at the entrance of the Tower-gate, a large booth was built up, with seats and benches at the upper end, in the middle of which the right honourable Lord Cornwallis, Constable of the Tower, was seated, attended by the officers and servants belonging to him; to whom the Lord Mayor was conducted and presented, and sworn in the same manner as before the Barons of the Exchequer.”

On the 28th of March, being Easter Eve, the sheriff’s attended the Lord Mayor “through the streets, to collect charity for the prisoners in the city prisons, according to annual custom;” and on the Monday following, they accompanied his lordship, in procession, with the rest of the court of aldermen to St. Bride’s church to hear the ’Spital or Hospital Sermon preached before the governors of the several hospitals and charity schools of the city; and to which “all the charity children of the several schools, as also those of Christ’s hospital, go in procession, and are seated in the galleries.”  This sermon is “generally preached by a bishop,” and that on the following day, in the same church (which is likewise attended by the corporation,) by a dean.  On the third day in Easter week, the ’Spital sermon is preached by a doctor in divinity.