Precisely at twenty minutes past five the lord great chamberlain issued
his orders that the centre of the Hall should be cleared. This direction
occasioned much confusion, not only because many strangers had been
allowed to enter the lower doors for the purpose of surveying the
general arrangements, but because those who had tickets for the
galleries had descended in considerable numbers to the floor. Lord
Gwydyr was under the necessity of personally exerting his authority,
with considerable vehemence, in order to compel the attendants of the
earl-marshal to quit situations intended for persons more immediately
connected with the ceremony. A long interval now occurred, during which
the various officers, and especially the heralds, made the necessary
arrangements for the nobility expected to return with his Majesty.
During this pause silence was generally preserved, in expectation of the
return of his Majesty from his chamber.
The entrance of the King was announced by one of the principal heralds,
who was followed into the Hall by the lord great chamberlain and the
Dukes of York, Clarence, Cambridge, Sussex, and Gloucester. Prince
Leopold had for some time previously been engaged in conversation with
some of the foreign ambassadors.
His Majesty returned in the robes with which he had been invested in the
Abbey, wearing also the same crown. In his right hand he carried the
sceptre, and in his left the orb, which, on taking his seat on the
throne, he delivered to two peers stationed at his side for the purpose
of receiving them.
The first course was then served up. It consisted of 24 gold covers and
dishes, carried by as many gentlemen pensioners: they were preceded by
six attendants on the clerk comptroller, by two clerks of the kitchen,
who received the dishes from the gentlemen pensioners, by the clerk
comptroller, in a velvet gown trimmed with silver lace, by two clerks
and the secretary of the Board of Green Cloth, by the comptroller and
treasurer of the household, and serjeants at arms with their maces.
Before the dishes were placed upon the table by the two clerks of the
kitchen, the great doors at the bottom of the Hall were thrown open to
the sound of trumpets and clarionets, and the Duke of Wellington, as
lord high constable, the Marquis of Anglesey, as lord high steward, and
Lord Howard of Effingham, as deputy earl marshal, entered upon the floor
on horseback, remaining for some minutes under the archway. The Duke of
Wellington was on the left of the King, the earl marshal on the right,
and the Marquess of Anglesey in the centre. The two former were mounted
on beautiful white horses gorgeously trapped, and the latter on his
favourite dun-coloured Arabian.