Aug. 30.]

PRESTON GUILD.

Lancashire.

Concerning this curious custom, Britton, in his Lancashire (1818, p. 109), gives the following account:—

It is a sort of public carnival or jubilee, and is held every twenty years, as appears by the records of the corporation. The last confirmation was by Charles II., in 1684, since which time it has been regularly held, in the first of Anne, ninth of George I., sixteenth of George II., and second, twenty-second, and again in the forty-second year of George III., the only monarch, except Queen Elizabeth, who has reigned during the time of three guilds. It begins about the latter end of August, and, by the Charter, which obliges the corporation to celebrate it at the end of every twenty years, on pain of forfeiting their elective franchises and their right as burgesses, twenty-eight days of grace are allowed to all who are disposed to renew their freedom. By public proclamation it is declared that, on failure of doing so, they are ever after to be debarred of the same on any future occasion. The last guild commenced on the 30th of August, 1802, when an immense concourse of people of all ranks were assembled, and processions of the gentlemen at the heads of the different classes of manufactories with symbolical representations of their respective branches of trade and commerce; and bands of music passed through the principal streets of the town. The mayor and corporation, with the wardens of the different companies at the head of their respective incorporated bodies, each in their official dresses, and with their usual insignia, fell into the ranks in due order, and the whole was preceded by an excellent band of music belonging to the 17th Regiment of Light Dragoons, in full dress, and their officers newly clothed. Besides the wool-combers’, spinners’, weavers’, cordwainers’, carpenters’, vintners’, tailors’, smiths’, plumbers’, painters’, glaziers’, watchmakers’, mercers’ and drapers’ companies, the whole was closed by the butchers, skinners, tanners, and glovers, habited in characteristic dresses, each company being attended by a band of music and a very elegant ensign. In this order they proceeded to church, and after service returned and paraded through the different streets in the same order. The mayor afterwards entertained the gentlemen at his house, and on the next day the mayoress repeated the treat to the ladies of the town and its vicinity, who formed a procession on this day, in a similar manner, preceded by the girls of the cotton manufactory.