REFORM FESTIVALS - HERTFORD (FROM THE ARCHIVES)

Hertfordshire  Mercury 7 July 1832

Universal as has been the feeling throughout the country in favour of Parliamentary Reform – magnificent as has been the celebration of its triumph throughout the empire – no town has evinced a more intense interest in the success of this great measure than the Borough of Hertford… Wednesday last was the day determined upon by the reformers to evince their gratitude and satisfaction at this great event. The means adopted for the expression of their sentiments was a public dinner, open to every inhabitant of the town, without regard to sex, condition, or political feeling, the expenses being defrayed by the subscriptions exclusively of the friends of reform, and of good and economical government. As early as two o’clock in the morning, the “busy din of preparation” was evinced by the workmen in the erection of tables. At six o’clock the bells of All Saints’ church commenced a merry peal, and by ten o’clock 40 tables, calculated to hold from 60 to 70 persons each, were judiciously arranged in Fore-street… Precisely at half past two o’clock the entire company, consisting of at least 2,500 persons, sat down to dinner. Every table was plentifully covered with the best joints of roasting and boiling beef, plum puddings, a profusion of vegetables and sallads, and from 20 to 30 barrels of beer were conveniently placed adjoining the various tables. But the most striking feature on the tables was a fine fat sheep, generously presented by the Mayor, and roasted whole in the best style by Mr. Robert Thomas, of the White Hart Inn, elegantly decorated with the colours of the reform members, and tastefully ornamented with a profusion of the choicest flowers and evergreens. Mr Hughes had the honour of bearing this choice morceau, which was carried to the table accompanied by the two bands of music, who, as well as the ringers, liberally volunteered their services on the occasion. The puddings, made by Mr. Peter Young, in number 470, and weighing 6lbs. each, were excellent, as, indeed, they could not fail of being, with the following ingredients of which they consisted:

3 sacks flour,        160 quarts milk,

5½ cwts plums,    9lbs of nutmegs

3 cwts currants,    and allspice,

2 pails brandy,      1 cwt sugar.

1,700 eggs,

The seats of the various chairmen and vice-chairmen, were also decorated with evergreens and flowers, and the coup d’oeil presented one of the most imposing spectacles ever exhibited in this or any other borough.

[After the dinner speeches were made from the window of the Queen’s Head Inn by Thomas Slingsby Duncombe and John Currie, the members for the Borough, and by Thomas Gripper, the Mayor. Afterwards two bands played in the streets and at night there was a ball at the several “Reform Inns” in the town. It was a most joyous and never-to-be-forgotten day.]