There are still some tickets available for James Wisdom’s online talk about the remarkable mourning and funeral of Sir John Maynard in October 1690. Part of the autumn London Luminaries programme – the talk is free though donations are welcomed.

Book on Ticketsource

Maynard was effectively the Lord Chancellor and his much younger widow was determined to give him a high status send-off. For 6 days his coffin lay in state in the 1650s Gunnersbury mansion. There mourners paid their respects in darkened, black fabric-draped rooms, lit by masses of candles in silver stands. Then he was taken in a lavish procession of horse-drawn carriages with pennants, and a crowd of mourners on foot, lit by flaming torches, to Ealing Parish Church for burial. An amazing spectacle!