FIFTY YEARS OF A SHOWMAN'S LIFE 



Court of another ancient and loyal city, to under- 

 take on its behalf pretty much what 1 had already 

 promised to do for the other community. Yet so 

 it was when I was duly sworn in as Mayor of Bath. 

 It was a relief to me to feel and that accounted 

 for my ease of conscience when I took this second 

 responsibility upon myself that the relations 

 existing between the two Corporations were of a 

 most harmonious character, because, if either had 

 called upon me to take up arms against the other 

 I should have been in a most awkward predicament, 

 having sworn fealty to both. How r ever, nothing, 

 happily, occurred during my Mayoralty to mar 

 the perfect concord existing between the two 

 bodies. By a singularly fortuitous combination 

 of circumstances, the Oxford Municipality cele- 

 brated its Millenary during my term of office as 

 Chief Magistrate of Bath. This resulted in my 

 being honoured with an invitation from the 

 Corporation of my native city to attend the cele- 

 bration festivities, which I accordingly did in the 

 double capacity of the first citizen of Bath and a 

 Freeman of Oxford. Thus I revisited and in full 

 state the scene of my earliest experiences and 

 they were many and various, as I have confessed 

 in the volume of old memories just referred te- 

 as well as of my first efforts as a showman. 

 Further, I was there, " to my great content," as 

 Pepys would say, as an honoured guest of the 

 corporate body under whose aegis I was born and 

 bred. 



There were many interesting and distinguishing 

 features comprised in the ceremonial functions 

 of the day, July llth, 1912, on which the sun 



294 



