Word: liverymen
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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...inevitably Sir Stephen's turn to be elected Lord Mayor of the City of London. "The City's" gloomy Guildhall was strewn with sweet herbs for the occasion. The Aldermen staggered under the tricornered hats and massive gold & black robes of their nominal office as Liverymen of the ancient London trade guilds. Each carried a nosegay. Trumpets blew. The Liverymen shouted their oft-rehearsed parts. Aldermen who had already been Lord Mayor were told to leave the Common Hall. Then the remaining members of the Grocers. Fishmongers, Butchers, Bakers, Waxchandlers, Armourers & Brasiers, Stationers, Bowyers, Coachmakers, and Glovers Guilds...
Nobody stirred. All the Aldermen are "Liverymen" - representatives of London's ancient Guilds. The top card, as always, was the Senior Alderman who has served as Sheriff of the City of London, this year Alderman Charles Henry Collett...
...cried all Liverymen present, but this shout did not stop the Common Sergeant. He read off the names of all eligible Aldermen...
...Later on! Later on!" cried the Liverymen at each name, sure that London's Mayoral pack will be dealt in proper order from now until Doom's crack. Knowing that her husband was bound to win, Mrs. Collett watched beaming from a balcony beside the outgoing Lord Mayor, Sir Percy Greenaway, Stationer. Sedately the Aldermen, who form a small key group in the great body of Liverymen, retired to vote in private for the inevitable top card...
Emerging at last through a great door, they introduced and presented to the Liverymen as though they had never seen him before Glovemaker Collett of the Worshipful Company of glovers, a tycoon of British haberdashery. After congratulations all round, Stationer Lord Mayor Sir Percy Greenaway invited Glover Collett into the ornate Lord Mayor's coach, carried him off to a reception at the Mansion House while four trumpeters split the air with deafening blasts...