ABSTRACT
Rituals are so basic to individual, family and communal life that it may seem barely worth the trouble of discussing them. Because they are so commonplace they tend to be ignored, to be taken for granted as part of the fabric of everyday life. But in these years of transition, when the nature of daily labouring and social life was so transformed in the crucible of urban society, it is to be expected that contemporary rituals would similarly change. Any historian working in a new university ought to be readily aware of the role and significance of rituals. The elaborate ceremonies that punctuate the calendar of those institutions were, like their very physical form, called into being at a particular moment in time to provide legitimacy, sanction and pomp and to add to their modern proceedings the trappings and dress of more ancient academic traditions. These bizarre and colourful inventions would have been attractive to early nineteenth-century city politicians, who similarly surrounded themselves with rituals. Urban ritual had, of course, been an important feature of city life since time immemorial, its role not merely sanctioned by longevity and custom but also hallowed because it was so important a part of the nature and governance of urban life. Those rituals that provided sanction and authority for the transfer, acceptance and display of urban power were paralleled by a multitude of ceremonies associated with other public or private bodies and institutions from the law to humble trade guilds. Of course it is true that the rural world was similarly characterized by its own distinctive ceremonials, reflecting the seasons and patterns of agricultural life, village customs or church celebrations. But towns and cities became more strikingly committed to such rituals if only because their ceremonies were so numerous, better attended and more colourful. And the appeal of urban rituals was so powerful that they attracted thousands of people, spectators and by-standers, from throughout the rural hinterland. Indeed the trek to the town or city to witness the local periodic ceremonies, 161and to enjoy the mixture of fleshy delights which generally accompanied them, became ever more prominent with the improvement in transportation.
