The Every-day Book and Table Book. v. 3 (of 3) / Everlasting Calerdar of Popular Amusements, Sports, Pastimes, Ceremonies, Manners, Customs and Events, Incident to Each of the Three Hundred and Sixty-five Days, in past and Present Times; Forming a Complete History of the Year, Month, and Seasons, and a Perpetual Key to the Almanac

by William Hone

BUDGE BACHELORS.—BUDGE-ROW.

In the old lord mayors’ processions of London, there were, in the first division, the “budge bachelors marching in measured order.”[326] These budge-bachelors go in the “Lord Mayor’s Show” to the present day, dressed in blue gowns trimmed with budge coloured fur, white. Bishop Corbet, in his “Iter Boreale,” speaks of

————— a most officious drudge,
His face and gown drawn out with the same budge;

implying, that his beard and habit were of like colour. Budge-row, Cannon-street, according to Stow, was “so called of budge-fur, and of skinners dwelling there.”

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[326] See the “London Pageant” of 1680, in “Hone on Mysteries.”

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