48 Notes on (he Corporation Plate and Insignia of Wiltshire. 



1607. Against the king's coming it was " agreed that James Everd, Mr. 

 Mayor's sergeant, shall have a doublet and pair of breeches or hose of some fit 

 stuff, and that the beadles shall have blue coats." 1 



1626. " It is agreed and ordered that Mr. Mayor may henceforth give gowns 

 or liveries, so as he exceed not the number of ten gowns, besides the officers, 

 minister and clerk, aud that the order touching Mrs. Mayoress and the aldermen's 

 wives of this city to wear their French hoods shall be continued, any former 

 orders to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding, and if any of them fail the 

 scarlet days then their husbands shall forfeit." 2 



1638. Ordered " that every one of the forty-eight at all meetings to attend 

 on the mayor as feast times and burials shall wear a citizen's gown faced with 

 black fur or badger's on penalty of ten shillings." 3 



1650. The wearing of scarlet or other gowns was forbidden 

 dining the Commonwealth, This prohibition was revoked at the 

 Bestoration. 



The Maces are three in number, made in 1749. They are 

 silver-gilt, and bear the maker's mark, G.S., probably of Gabriel 

 Sleath. They are all of the same design. 



No. 1. The Great Mace is of very large size — few in England 

 are larger. Amongst the hundred and fifty maces exhibited at the 

 Mansion House in 1893 only that of Oxford was larger than the 

 Salisbury specimen. The type, too, is abnormal and uncommon. 

 In all the collection above referred to, the two maces from Swansea 

 were the only ones of the same design. It is a fine piece, and the 

 detail of the work is good. It measures 4ft. Tin. in length. 



The head is of the usual shape, with open-arched crown, orb, and 

 cross. The cresting is of large fleur-de-lys and crosses, and the cap, 

 which rises as high as the cresting, is in the shape of a cushion with 

 tassels. Instead of the usual caryatides dividing the bowl into 

 compartments, oval panels are formed by wreaths of conventional 

 palm leaves and flower work in relief. In two of these are the 

 city arms and supporters, and the royal arms as borne by 

 George II., 1, England impaling Scotland ; 2, France ; 3, Ireland ; 



1 Hatcher and Benson, Old and New Sarwm, 313. 



2 Ibid, 355. 



3 Ibid, 384. 



