"We your Committee, appointed by your order, of the third day of October last, to manage the entertainment for their Majesties at the Guildhall of this City, on the then ensuing Lord Mayor's Day, beg leave to report, that duly sensible of the great honour done us in this appointment, we cheerfully devoted our time and utmost endeavours to prepare and regulate the said
entertainment, so as best to answer the intention of this honourable Court.
"In the preparations for the intended feast, your Committee omitted no expence that might serve to improve its splendour, elegance, or accommodation: whilst on the other hand they retrenched every charge that was not calculated to that end, however warranted by former precedents. Their Majesties having expressed their Royal inclinations to see the Procession of the Lord Mayor to Guildhall, the Committee obtained Mr. Barclay's house in Cheapside for that purpose, where proper refreshments were provided, and every care taken to accommodate their Majesties with a full view of the whole cavalcade.
"The great hall and adjoining apartments were decorated and furnished with as much taste and magnificence as the shortness of the time for preparation and the nature of a temporary service would permit: the Hustings where their Majesties dined, and the new Council Chamber, to which they retired both before and after dinner, being spread with Turkey carpets, and the rest of the floors over which their Majesties were to pass with blue cloth, and the whole illuminated with near three thousand wax tapers in chandeliers, lustres, girandoles, and sconces.
"A select band of music, consisting of fifty of the best hands, placed in a superb gallery, erected on purpose at the lower end of the Hall,
entertained their Majesties with a concert during the time of dinner, under the direction of a gentleman justly celebrated for his great musical talents; whilst four other galleries (all covered with crimson, and ornamented with festoons) exhibited to their Majesties a most brilliant appearance of five hundred of the principal Citizens of both sexes.
"Their Majesties table was served with a new set of rich plate, purchased on this occasion, and covered with all the delicacies which the season could furnish, or expence procure, and prepared by the best hands.
"A proportionable care was taken of the several other tables provided for the Foreign Ambassadors and Ministers; the Lords and Gentlemen of his Majesty's most Honourable Privy-Council; the Lord Chancellor and Judges; the Lords and Ladies in waiting; the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, Sheriffs, and Common Council; and many others, both of the Nobility and Gentry: the whole number of guests within the Hall, including the galleries, being upwards of twelve hundred; and that of the Gentlemen Pensioners, Yeomen of the Guard, Horse and Horse-Grenadier Guards, and servants attendant upon their Majesties, and the Royal Family, and who were entertained at places provided in the neighbourhood, amounting to seven hundred and twenty-nine.
"And that this Court may form some judgment of the manner of the entertainment, your Committee have hereunto subjoined the bill of fare of their Majesty's table, and the totals of the several bills on this occasion, amounting to 6898l. 5s. 4d.; which, your Committee have the satisfaction to acquaint this Honourable Court, have been all ordered for payment.
"Your Committee, likewise, having provided a great variety of the choicest wines, took care that every guest should be supplied with plenty and dispatch; and yet the various services performed without hurry or confusion.