THE QUEEN CROWNED.
Novel Features in the Coronation--Its Cost--Large Amount of Money
Circulated--Splendour of the Procession--Enormous Crowds--The Scene
within the Abbey--Arrival of the Queen--The Regalia and Sacred
Vessels--Costume of the Queen--Astonishment of the Turkish Ambassador
at the Scene--The Coronation Ceremony--The Queen's Oath--The
Anointing--The Crown placed on her Head--The Homage--An Aged Peer--The
Queen's Crown--The Illuminations and general Festivities--Fair in Hyde
Park--The Duke of Wellington and Marshal Soult at the Guildhall.
The great event of the year 1838 was the Coronation, which took place on
the 28th of June. It was conducted after the abridged model of that of the
Queen's immediate predecessor. The Coronation of George IV. had cost
L243,000; that of William IV., L50,000. The charges on the occasion of the
crowning of Queen Victoria amounted to about L70,000. This slight excess
over the cost of the last Sovereign's solemn investiture with regal power
was explained by the Chancellor of the Exchequer as having been in no
sense occasioned by any part of the ceremonial peculiarly connected with
the Sovereign, but it had been incurred with a view of enabling the great
mass of the people to participate in this national festivity. The great
novelty on the occasion was the omission of the walking procession of all
the estates of the realm, and the banquet in Westminster Hall, with the
feudal services attendant thereon. Many of the upper classes grumbled not
a little at these omissions; but the general public were more than
proportionately gratified. For in lieu of the disused ceremonies, a public
procession through the streets was substituted. This enabled all to
witness the splendid pageant, and induced a very large private expenditure
and circulation of money. It was estimated that no less than L200,000 were
paid for the use of windows and other positions of vantage in the line of
the procession. The price of single seats ranged from five shillings to
ten guineas; and the Duke of Buckingham, in his "Courts and Cabinets of
William IV. and Victoria," alleges that single windows in Pall Mall and
St. James's Street produced no less than L200. Persons of distinction
behaved with a becoming liberality and splendour. Marshal Soult, the old
opponent of Wellington, who specially represented on the occasion the
Court of the Tuileries, and who was received by the crowds with great
enthusiasm, appeared in a splendid state carriage that had been used by
the Prince of Conde. The Russian Ambassador purchased for L1,600 a similar
chariot, which had already done the same duty for the Duke of Devonshire,
at St. Petersburg, on a like occasion. Another diplomat gave L250 for the
loan for the day of a vehicle befitting his rank; while many more had to
content themselves with carriages whose normal function it was to minister
to the state of the civic magnates, and which were hastily repainted and
decorated for the auspicious occasion.
The day was one of the brightest on which the Queen, with her proverbial
good fortune in this respect, has ever appeared amongst her subjects. At
early morn, the first rays of the blazing Midsummer sun slanted down
through the windows of Westminster Abbey upon the jewels of whole rows of
peeresses, and the illuminations which turned night into day remained in
full magnificence until the dawn of the succeeding morning. At dawn, a
salvo of artillery from the Tower caused all the population to be astir,
and the population was on this day increased by the importation of four
hundred thousand visitors. The behaviour of the enormous multitude which
first lined the streets and then spread itself over the town, was beyond
all praise. Courtesy and mutual forbearance were conspicuous, and no
accident or offence occurred to mar the pleasing impressions of the
ceremonial.
[Sidenote: ORDER OF THE PROCESSION.]
The route of the procession was as follows:--From Buckingham Palace, up
Constitution Hill, along Piccadilly, St. James's Street, Pall Mall,
Cockspur Street, Charing Cross, Whitehall, and Parliament Street, to the
great west door of Westminster Abbey. The most novel feature of the
procession was the carriages of the Foreign Ambassadors, to which we have
already alluded, with their jaegers in gorgeous or grotesque uniforms.
These came in the order in which they had arrived on their special
missions to this country; the carriages of the regular resident
Ambassadors came in their ordinary order of precedence. Next followed the
members of the Royal Family, the Duchess of Kent preceding the carriages
of the surviving sons of George III. To the Queen's Barge Master, with
forty-eight watermen, succeeded twelve of the Royal carriages, containing
the Ladies and Gentlemen of the Household. Next came mounted, three and
three, the high functionaries of the Army. And after Royal huntsmen,
yeomen, prickers, marshalmen, foresters, and a host of other minor
functionaries--the whole of the mounted Household Troops being here and
there interspersed at intervals in the cavalcade--came the grand state
coach, containing Her Majesty the Queen, with the Duchess of Sutherland,
Mistress of the Robes. On either side of the carriage rode Lord
Combermere, Gold Stick in Waiting, and the Earl of Ilchester, Captain of
the Yeomen of the Guard. The Earl of Albemarle, as Master of the Horse,
and the Duke of Buccleuch, as Captain-General of the Royal Scottish
Archers, rode behind. A squadron of Life Guards brought up the rear.
Meanwhile, within the Abbey, a painful sleepiness had oppressed those who
had sat so many hours in cramped positions; many of them in galleries
perched up high under the roofs of the aisles. Suddenly, a burst of music,
rushing among the arches and ringing from the roof, aroused and entranced
all, who peered eagerly down upon the procession of small figures; the
central one looking the slightest and most fragile of all. At half-past
eleven, the Queen reached the door of the Abbey, where she was received by
the great officers of State, the noblemen bearing the Regalia, and the
bishops carrying Patina, Chalice, and Bible. Having retired to her
Robing-room, the procession formed and proceeded towards the altar, which
was laden with magnificent gold plate, and beside which stood St. Edward's
Chair. Besides the elements which are common to all great English regal
processions, and which it is, therefore, not requisite to recapitulate,
the Regalia, which only appear on such occasions, were thus
distributed:--St. Edward's Staff, the Golden Spurs, the Sceptre with the
Cross, the Curtana, and two Swords of Investiture, were borne respectively
by the Duke of Roxburgh, Lord Byron, Duke of Cleveland, Duke of
Devonshire, Marquis of Westminster, and Duke of Sutherland. The coronets
of the princes of the blood were borne by noblemen; their trains by
knights or peers' sons. Next came the Earl Marshal, Duke of Norfolk, with
his staff, Lord Melbourne with the Sword of State, and the Duke of
Wellington, with his staff, as Lord High Constable; the Dukes of Richmond,
Hamilton, and Somerset bore the Sceptre and Dove, St. Edward's Crown, and
the Orb; the Bishops of Bangor, Winchester, and London carried the Patina,
Chalice, and Bible. The Queen, who was supported on one side by the Bishop
of Bath and Wells, on the other by the Bishop of Durham, wore a royal robe
of crimson velvet, furred with ermine and broidered with gold lace. She
wore the collars of her orders, and on her head a circlet of gold. Eight
peers' daughters bore her train, most, if not all of them, old friends of
her happy childish tours to the mansions of the aristocracy, and
distinguished by their personal attractions. About fifty ladies of rank,
occupying various positions in the household, succeeded, and the
procession was concluded by Officers of State and Yeomen of the Guard.
[Sidenote: THE CORONATION.]
The chief and most picturesque incidents in the Coronation ceremony must
be briefly narrated. The Queen looked extremely well, and "had a very
animated countenance;" but perhaps the splendid attire of some of the
foreign ambassadors attracted more attention than even the Sovereign to
whose court they were accredited. The costume of the Prince Esterhazy was
by far the most gorgeous; his dress, even to his boot-heels, sparkled with
diamonds. The Turkish Ambassador seemed specially bewildered at the
general splendour of the scene: for some moments he stopped in
astonishment, and had to be courteously admonished to move to his allotted
place.
As the Queen advanced slowly to the centre of the choir, she was received
with hearty plaudits, and the musicians sang the anthem, "I was glad." At
its close, the boys of Westminster School, privileged of old to occupy a
special gallery, chanted "Vivat Victoria Regina." On this the Queen moved
to a chair, midway between the Chair of Homage and the altar; and there,
after a few moments' private devotion, kneeling on a fald-stool, she sat
down, and the ceremony proper began. First came the "recognition." The
Archbishop of Canterbury, accompanied by some half-dozen of the greatest
civil dignitaries, advanced and said, "Sirs, I here present unto you Queen
Victoria, the undoubted Queen of this realm; wherefore, all you who have
come this day to do your homage, are you willing to do the same?" On this,
all Her Majesty's subjects present shouted, "God Save Queen Victoria!" the
Archbishop turning in succession to the north, south, and west sides of
the Abbey, and the Queen doing the same. The bishops who bore them, then
placed the Patina, Chalice, and Bible on the altar; the Queen, kneeling,
made her first offering, a pall, or altar-cloth, of gold. The Archbishop
having offered a prayer, the Regalia were laid on the altar; the Litany
and Communion services were read, and a brief sermon preached, by various
prelates. The preacher was the Bishop of London, and his text was from the
Second Book of Chronicles, chapter xxxiv., verse 31--"And the king stood
in his place, and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord,
and to keep his commandments, and his testimonies, and his statutes, with
all his heart, and with all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant
which are written in this book."
After the sermon, the Queen swore--the Archbishop of Canterbury putting
the oath--that she would maintain the law and the established religion.
Then Her Majesty--the Sword of State being carried before her--went to the
altar, and laying her right hand upon the Gospel, said, kneeling, "The
things which I have here-before promised, I will perform and keep. So help
me, God!" Having kissed the book, and signed a transcript of the oath
presented to her by the Archbishop, she knelt upon her fald-stool, while
the choir sang, "Veni, Creator, Dominus."
[Sidenote: THE HOMAGE OF THE PEERS.]
Now, sitting in King Edward's Chair, four Knights of the Garter holding
the while over her head a canopy of cloth of gold, her head and hands were
anointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury; after which he said his prayer,
or blessing, over her. In quick succession followed the delivery of the
Spurs, Sword of State, &c. The Dean of Westminster, having taken the crown
from the altar, handed it to the Archbishop, who reverently placed it on
the Queen's head. This was no sooner done, than there arose from every
part of the edifice a tremendous shout--"God save the Queen!" accompanied
with lusty cheers and the waving of hats and handkerchiefs. At the same
moment, the Peers and Peeresses put on their coronets, the Bishops their
caps, and the Kings of Arms their crowns; the trumpets sounded, the drums
were beat, and volleys fired from the Tower and Park guns. After the
Benediction and Te Deum, the Queen was "enthroned," or "lifted," as the
formulary has it, from the chair in which she had first sat into the Chair
of Homage, where she delivered the sceptre, &c., to noblemen, while she
received fealty of her more distinguished subjects. The Archbishop first
knelt and did homage for himself and all the spiritual peers; next came
the Princes of the blood, who merely touched the crown, kissed her left
cheek, swore the oath of homage, and retired without kneeling; then the
Peers in succession came--seventeen dukes, twenty-two marquises,
ninety-four earls, twenty viscounts, and ninety-two barons. Each Peer
knelt bareheaded, and kissed Her Majesty's hand. Lord Rolle, who was
upwards of eighty, stumbled and fell in going up the steps; the Queen at
once stepped forward, and held out her hand to assist him. While the Peers
were doing homage, the Earl of Surrey, Treasurer of the Household, threw
silver coronation medals about the choir and lower galleries; and when the
homage was completed the Members of the House of Commons, who occupied a
special gallery, indicated their loyalty by giving nine lusty cheers. It
was almost a quarter to four when the procession came back along the nave.
The return cavalcade along the streets was even more attractive than that
of the morning, for the royal and noble personages now wore their
coronets, and the Queen her crown. The crown was especially admired. That
which had been made for George IV. weighed upwards of seven pounds, and as
it was considered too heavy for the Queen, a new one was constructed by
Messrs. Rundell and Bridge, of less than half the weight. It was formed of
hoops of silver, covered with precious stones, over a cap of rich blue
velvet, surmounted with a ball enriched by diamonds. Amongst its other
gems was a large heart-shaped ruby, which had been worn by the Black
Prince; this was set in front.
[Sidenote: CORONATION FESTIVITIES.]
In the evening the Queen entertained a hundred guests to dinner at
Buckingham Palace, and at a late hour witnessed from the roof the
fireworks in the Green Park. At Apsley House, the Duke of Wellington gave
a ball, to which two thousand guests were invited. All the Cabinet
Ministers gave state dinners. A fair was held in Hyde Park on the day of
the coronation--Thursday--and until the end of the week. The area allotted
comprised nearly one-third of the Park. On Friday, the Queen visited the
fair, which was studded with theatres, refreshment booths, and stalls for
the sale of fancy articles. The illuminations and fireworks gave great
satisfaction, as did the fact that the whole of the theatres were opened
gratuitously at the Queen's express desire. Among other festivities, at
home and abroad, which succeeded and were held in honour of the coronation
of Victoria, may be mentioned a grand review by Her Majesty in Hyde Park;
a magnificent banquet at the Guildhall, at which the old Waterloo
antagonists, Wellington and Soult, were toasted in combination; the
feasting of 13,000 persons on one spot at Cambridge; the laying of the
first stone of the St. George's Hall, at Liverpool, and at Leghorn of an
English Protestant Church; and a great public dinner, in Paris, presided
over by Sir Sidney Smith, the hero of St. Jean d'Acre.