3-077-943 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Maundy Thursday Royal Gifts at the Chapel Royal, Whitehall, 1890. 'The ancient Royal charities known as the "Royal Maundy" were distributed on Maundy Thursday, April 3. Seventy-one old men and seventy-one old women - the numbers representing the age of the Sovereign - were the recipients...a procession, consisting of clergy, choristers, and Yeomen of the Guard, passed down the church to the steps of the altar; one yeoman carrying a massive gold salver of the time of William and Mary, upon which were arranged the red and white purses of the Maundy gift. The service...was intoned by the Rev. S. Flood Jones...The distribution was made by the Right Rev. Lord Alwyne Compton, Lord Bishop of Ely, Lord High Almoner to the Queen...The distribution consisted of £1 15s. allowance in lieu of clothing to each woman, £2 5s. in lieu of clothing to each man...Throughout Christendom, from the very earliest times, Maundy Thursday, or the Day of the Poor, as it was once called, has been associated with almsgiving and the washing of feet...Nothing now remains suggestive of a picturesque ceremony but the towels worn by the Lord High Almoner and his assistants, and the bouquets of flowers which they carry as symbols of the herbs used in the washing of feet'. From "Illustrated London News", 1890.