by three hundred men chosen of the trained bands of the city, walking three and three.
The above details are from a roll drawn by Thomas Lant, 1587. The roll is thirty-eight feet and some inches in length, the figures executed with much grace and accuracy. The roll is fully described by the antiquary John Thorpe, from whose account this extract is borrowed. Preceding the picture of the funeral procession is a view of the interior of St. Paul's with the hearse ready to receive the corpse. It is covered with black velvet and decorated with escutcheons.
Descriptions of pageants and progresses could be repeated ad infinitum; but lack of space curtails the quotations. A very different kind of pageant, one that pertained to the common people rather than to the court, was the usual Midsummer Watch in London. The following description is from the inimitable pages of Stow:
"Then had ye besides the standing watches all in bright harness, in every ward and street of the city and suburbs, a marching watch, that passed through the principal streets thereof, to wit, from the Little Conduit by Paul's Gate to West Cheap, by the Stocks through Cornhill, by Leadenhall to Aldgate, then back down Fenchurch Street, by Grass Church, about Grass Church Conduit, and up Grass Church Street into Cornhill, and through
