The change in the date of the King's Birthday owing to the new reign has brought about a coincidence even. more interesting than the tem-Porary accident on Tuesday which enabled people in Shanghai celebrate the King's Birthday and the Dragon Boat Festival at the same time, "In mediaeval England Midsummer Day was not a day of celebration, The festivities were fixed for Midsummer Eve, June 23, called the Vigil of St. John the Baptist, for the visit was the important feature of the celebrations, Tu Europe an old legend had it that it was not good to sleep the eve of Midsummer Day, other~ wise the souls of those who were to dle during the year left their earthly habitations and, separated from. the sleeping body, wandered sadly to the spot by land or sea where final dissolution was ordained, "If the vigil was Kept and sleep dispensed. with, this painful journey in the shades might be prevented. The superstition held good from Scotland to Spain, and in the Netherlands the custom. Became so well known that reference toa troubled or sleepless night would be made in the words "I have passed St, John the Baptist's night" The vigil "naturally led to midsummer revels, which In the cities often degenerated into rowdiness and disorder calling for careful discipline. Hence there came into existence the Midsummer Watch, which augmented the ordinary standing Watch, and in London eventually contributed to the Pageantry of the occasion by going through the streets in ion. This 1s a proclamation issued by the Mayor of London to his Aldermen for Midsummer Eve in 131
[We do command you for the honour of our lord the King, and of the city, that you order sufficient men of your Ward to be armed" with bazinet fand gaurtiets of plate, and with an axe in hand, arrayed In. red and white, for watch on the night of St. ohn "next to come, with the Mayor and Aldermen of the City. And. that you be at Snilthfeld, yourself arrayed Inthe said coleures, with the said men so arrayed, onthe Eve of St Sohn aforesaid, at nine of the clock, land three or four iron cressets burns in So in a sense the Trooping of the Colour on the King's Birthday on the Horse-Guard's Parade might be said {0 find a faint echo in the Midsummer Watch of nearly 600 years earlier.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.